κήρυξον τὸν λόγον

Brothers and sisters in Christ, you don’t deserve God’s grace. We never did deserve it, and we never will. In the wilderness ... left to ourselves ... we are lost ... and here ... left to ourselves, we deserve to die. But thanks be to God, by grace, his grace ... he has given his son to live for you, and die for you, and rise as the firstborn of the resurrection. And now He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah! Eternal life awaits us all by God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. This salvation by no other name than our Lord Jesus is a gift of God on account of the blood of Christ so that no one can boast (Acts 4:12, Eph 2:9).  But boast we will, and boast we do. We boast about our past. We boast about our future. God’s people did it in our Old Testament reading. And we are still doing it today. Though the moaning, groaning, grumbling, and complaining of God’s people indicates a lack of trust in God and his Word, God nevertheless promises to be with his people. He promises to delive...

And YHWH said to Moses, pass over in front of the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel. And in your hand (take) your staff which you used to strike the Nile, and go. Behold, I will be standing before you there upon the rock on Horeb. You will strike the rock and water will come out of it, and the people will drink. So Moses did this in the eyes of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah on account of the strife of the sons of Israel, and because they tested YHWH by saying, “Is YHWH in our midst or not?” (vv 5-7) That’s the question before us. Is the Lord in our midst or not? This is an all too familiar question for us. Today, we’ve entered a new period in the church year ... the season we could call Pre-Lent. New eras often bring with uncertainty to our lives. Over the past month or so, we had gained confidence in God’s word. We saw the light of the world so to speak. It gave us comfort. We heard a Word of God that was transforming...

1.     You should be ashamed of yourselves! The Lord God Almighty has led each of you out of the wilderness of sin by stages. He has passed each of you through the waters of baptism. He has nourished each of you with the bread of heaven. He has provided more food than you can possibly eat every day. You have called on him, and he has heard your voice. You have sought salvation, and he has set you free.  But no sooner than salvation came unto us by God’s free grace and favor (LSB 555:1) ... you began grumbling and complaining about it ... just like the people of Israel ... just like the people of Corinth.  You don’t have enough, you say. And what you have isn’t good enough.  We can take better care of ourselves, you say. And you aren’t interested in receiving the tangible forgiveness of sins every week.  You convince yourselves that if you just try a little harder ... fight a little stronger ... read a little deeper, I’ll all be OK. 2.   ...