Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Sermons for 10/21 & 10/22)

The Importance Of Today (10/21/2017)

1. Every Day is God’s Day.
   
2. In Christ, Every Day is a Good Day.
   
3. Every Day is an Opportunity that Comes Only Once.
   

SERMON TEXT:  2 Corinthians 6:1-13

As fellow workers we also urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says: At a favorable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. Look, now is the favorable time! See, now is the day of salvation! We are giving no one a reason to stumble in any way, so that our ministry will not be blamed. Rather, in every way we show ourselves to be God’s ministers: in great endurance, in troubles, in hardships, in difficulties, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in hard work, in sleepless nights, in times of hunger; in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left; through glory and dishonor, through bad report and good report; treated as deceivers yet being honest, treated as unknown and yet being well known; as dying, and yet look—we live; as punished yet not put to death; as grieving yet always rejoicing; as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing yet possessing everything. We have spoken to you openly, Corinthians. Our heart is standing wide open. We have plenty of room for you, but you do not have room for us in your affections. I am speaking as to my children: In exchange, open your hearts wide too.

My Best Is Never Good Enough (10/22/2017)

1. God set the bar too high for me.
2. I can’t just keep trying and failing.
3. Jesus is good enough. That’s enough for me.

SERMON TEXT:  Galatians 5:1-6

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again. Look, I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. I testify again to every man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obligated to do the whole law. You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law are completely separated from Christ. You have fallen from grace. Indeed, through the Spirit, we by faith are eagerly waiting for the sure hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, it is faith working through love that matters.

Note:The playlist below contains audio for both sermons. To listen to a specific sermon, click on its name to play. To easily play both sermons, just click and listen to sermon number 1. When it finishes, the player will automatically start sermon 2.

Bible Readings

FIRST LESSON:  2 Kings 21:1-15

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the disgusting practices of the nations which the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel. He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, just as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to the whole army of the heavens, and he served them. He built altars in the House of the Lord, about which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my name.” He built altars to all the army of the heavens in the two courtyards of the House of the Lord. He made his son pass through the fire. He practiced fortune telling and sought omens and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He greatly increased the evil he did in the eyes of the Lord and provoked him to anger. He put an image of Asherah, which he had made, into the house about which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. I will not make the feet of Israel wander again from the land which I gave to their fathers, if they will just be careful to do whatever I commanded them and to observe the whole law which my servant Moses commanded them.” But they did not listen. Manasseh led them astray so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord exterminated before the people of Israel. Then the Lord said through his prophets: Because Manasseh king of Judah has engaged in these disgusting practices and has done more evil than all that which the Amorites who had gone before him had done, and he has caused Judah to sin with his filthy idols, therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Pay attention! I am bringing such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all who hear of it will tingle. I will stretch out over Israel the plumb line that was stretched out over Samaria and the level used on the house of Ahab. I will wipe away Jerusalem just as someone wipes a bowl clean and turns it upside down. I will hand over the remnant of my possession and give them into the hand of their enemies, so that they become plunder and spoils for all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day when their fathers came out of Egypt until today.

SECOND LESSON:  2 Corinthians 6:1-13

See sermon text above

VERSE OF THE DAY:  Hebrews 2:12

I will proclaim your name to my people; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

GOSPEL: Matthew 21:33–43

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey. When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?” They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? “That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit.”