Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

1. Everyone, Even Elijah, Could Become Discouraged
2. The LORD is Always Present to Sustain You
3. Doing the Work He Gives You Will Bless You

SERMON TEXT:  1 Kings 19:3-8

Elijah was afraid, and he ran for his life. He went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. There he sat down under a broom tree, where he prayed that he would die. He said, “I’ve had enough, LORD. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Then he lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” Then he looked around, and near his head there was a loaf of bread baking on coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank, and then he lay down again. Then the angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, because the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Then, with the strength gained from that food he walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Bible Readings

FIRST LESSON:  1 Kings 19:3-8

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SECOND LESSON:  Hebrews 5:11-6:3

We have much to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, because you have become too lazy to listen. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the beginning principles of God’s word all over again. You have become people who need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is not acquainted with the word of righteousness, because he is still an infant. But solid food is for mature people, who have their senses trained by practice to distinguish between good and evil. :Therefore, leaving the beginning discussion of Christ, let us press on toward matters that require greater maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith in God, of the teaching about baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God permits

VERSE OF THE DAY:  Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

GOSPEL: John 6:41-51

So the Jews started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me has eternal life. “I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

SERMON TEXT:  John 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” So they said to him, “What should we do to carry out the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.” Then they asked him, “So what miraculous sign are you going to do, that we may see it and believe you? What miraculous sign are you going to perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the real bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said to him, “give us this bread all the time!” “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Bible Readings

FIRST LESSON:  Exodus 16:2-20

The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat around pots of meat and ate as much food as we wanted, but now you have brought us out into this wilderness to have this whole community die of hunger.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Watch what I will do. I will rain down bread from heaven for you, and the people will go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether they will follow my instructions or not. On the sixth day they will prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “At evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the Glory of the LORD, because he has heard your constant grumbling against the LORD. Who are we that you should grumble against us?” Moses said, “Now the LORD will give you meat to eat in the evening and as much bread as you want in the morning, because the LORD has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling.’” As Aaron spoke to the entire Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and suddenly the Glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. The LORD spoke to Moses: “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Say to them, ‘At evening you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat bread until you are full. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’” So in the evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning a layer of dew surrounded the camp. When the layer of dew was gone, there were thin flakes on the surface of the wilderness, thin as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” because they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given to you as food to eat. This is what the LORD has commanded: All of them are to gather as much of it as they need to eat. You are to take an omer per person based on the number of people each of you has in your tents.” The Israelites did this, and some gathered more, some less. When they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered more did not have too much, and the one who gathered less did not have too little. All of them gathered as much as they needed to eat. Moses said to them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning.” However, they did not listen to Moses. Some of them left part of it until morning, and it became full of worms and stank. So Moses was angry with them.

SECOND LESSON:  1 Corinthians 10:1-5, 11-13

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them—and that rock was Christ! Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. He had them die in the wilderness. All these things that were happening to them had meaning as examples, and they were written down to warn us, to whom the end of the ages has come. So let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall. No testing has overtaken you except ordinary testing. But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability, but when he tests you, he will also bring about the outcome that you are able to bear it.

VERSE OF THE DAY:  John 14:23

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

GOSPEL: John 6:24-35

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Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

1. To recognize our need
2. To provide the solution

SERMON TEXT:  John 6:1-15

After this, Jesus crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A large crowd followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he was performing on those who were sick. Jesus went up on the hillside and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” But Jesus was saying this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to have just a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what is that for so many people?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, so they sat down. There were about five thousand men. Then Jesus took the loaves and, after giving thanks, he distributed pieces to those who were seated. He also did the same with the fish—as much as they wanted. When the people were full, he told his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. When the people saw the miraculous sign Jesus did, they said, “This really is the Prophet who is coming into the world.” When Jesus realized that they intended to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Bible Readings

FIRST LESSON:  2 Kings 4:42-44

A man came from Baal Shalishah and brought the man of God some bread from the first ripe grain, twenty loaves of barley bread, and some new grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Set it before the people so that they can eat.” His attendant said, “How can I set this before one hundred men?” But he said, “Set it before the people so that they may eat, for this is what the LORD says: They will eat and have some left over.” So he set it before them. They ate, and they had some left over, just as the LORD had said.

SECOND LESSON:  2 Corinthians 9:8-11

God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will overflow in every good work. As it is written: He scattered; he gave to the poor. His righteousness remains forever. And he who provides seed to the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing, and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous in every way, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.

VERSE OF THE DAY:  John 6:68

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

GOSPEL: John 6:1-15

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