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And it came to pass, [Jesus] entered into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees during the Sabbath to eat bread, and they were watching him closely. And behold, one man with edema was before him. In response to this, Jesus said to the Torah experts and Pharisees, Is it lawful during the Sabbath to give therapy or not? But they were silent. And having received [the man], [Jesus] healed and dismissed him. And to [the Pharisees and Torah experts], he said, Which of you, [when your] son or ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him up during the Sabbath day? And they did not have the strength to answer against these things (vv 1-6).  Please now turn to page 321 in your (Lutheran) Service Book, and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the Third Commandment.  As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household: What is the Third Commandment? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy . What does this mean? We should fear and love ...

I had never realized just how profoundly wonderful our hymn of the day was until I got to know Linda Lou Kennedy. Now I know we just got done singing it, but today, I want you to hear it one more time. Please join me one more time in singing that first stanza a capella. Jesus loves me, this I know / for the Bible tells me so. / Little ones to him belong / they are weak but he is strong. / Yes, Jesus loves me. / Yes, Jesus loves me. / Yes, Jesus loves me. / The Bible tells me so.  Dear Doug ... Mike and Tina ... Elsie ... dear friends and extended family of Linda Lou Kennedy ... Blessed be God the Father. Blessed be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Blessed be God in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. ... Grace to you and peace be multiplied . If you hear nothing else today, then hear that Jesus loves you.  It’s what Linda would want for you. We sometimes think of “Jesus Loves Me” as a trite or simple children’s song. It didn’t appear in our synodically approved service boo...

I had us sing Abide With Me (LSB 878) as the hymn of the day before the sermon today (instead of after it) because ... death ... coming into the midst of our lives ... is what we see today. And oh, how we need to see our Lord coming to us, to serve us, always in every way.  Luke writes: And it came to pass soon afterward, [Jesus] journeyed into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd were journeying with him. As he drew near to the gate of the city ... behold, the only son born to his mother had died and was being carried out. And she was a widow and a great crowd was with her (vv 11-12).  Please now turn to page 324 of your (Lutheran Service Book) and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the seventh petition of the Lord’s Prayer.  What is the seventh petition? But deliver us from evil. What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation...

Therefore, do not worry into the morrow, for the morrow will worry for itself. Sufficient for the day is the difficulty itself (v 34).  For the past 10 weeks we have been seeing just how faithful our doctrine outlined in  Luther’s Small Catechism really is ... particularly with respect to the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer, as well as the Sacraments of Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper, all in relation to our Gospel readings. We can never know our doctrine well enough. So we need to remind ourselves of it all the time.  CONFIDENT TRUST IN JESUS AND HIS GOSPEL DRIVES OUT WORRY FROM OUR HEARTS AND BECOMES THE SOURCE OF ENDLESS JOY. This is our theme at the root of our Gospel reading. I  Please now turn to Page 327 in your (Lutheran Service Book) and allow me to draw your attention to our faithful prayers. Like with the Lord’s Prayer, we should have confident trust that the prayers Luther gave us also will drive out worry from our ...