Sermon Texts

Oct. 1, 2023 – Friendship Sunday Text:  Luke 11:5-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

During World War I a soldier wanted to go into “No Man’s Land” where one of his buddies lay seriously wounded.  “You can go,” said his captain, “but it’s not worth it.  Your friend is probably dead, and you may throw your life away.”

But the man went.  He managed to get to his friend, hoist him on his shoulder and get him to the trenches.  They tumbled in together.  The captain looked at the would-be-rescuer, and said, “I told you it wouldn’t be worth it.  Your friend is dead, and you are mortally wounded.”  “It was worth it, sir,” he said.  “How could it be ‘worth it’?  Your friend is dead.”

“Yes sir,” the young man answered, “but it was worth it, because when I got to him he was alive and he said, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”

Wouldn’t it be nice if all friendships were that way?  Jesus came into our world to rescue us from our sin.  He provided what we needed most:  a right relationship with God the Father through the forgiveness of sins.  He reminds is in the Bible in John, chapter 6, “whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”  

This is Friendship Sunday, and we are once again privileged to hear the Word of God.

“JESUS – OUR FRIEND INDEED”

I looked back to a sermon I preached in the 1990’s on this text.  It was mentioned in there how loneliness was a problem.  We still have that situation today and probably even worse.  During the time of Covid, many people got isolated.  There were some very sad stories especially at it related to people’s death and having no one there for them.  Man and woman still have a need for friends and friendship.  Too many times, we go looking in the wrong places and there are consequences to our bad choices.  

There is good news today.  Jesus is here for you, even in your bad choices.  Our text and the words of Jesus, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him;’ and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.  I cannot get up and give you anything’?  I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.” (vs. 5-8)

Fascinating, isn’t it?  He wouldn’t get up because they were friends, but because of the man’s persistence he got up and gave him what he needed.  We read this wrong if we think that if we pray hard and long enough God will give us what we want.  

In the story a friend goes to a friend.  When we go to God we go to our perfect Father in heaven.  In the text, the friend goes at midnight, an inconvenient time.  With God there is no inconvenient time.  The need of bread is small.  Our needs before God are greater.  The friend offers a selfish excuse for refusing the request.  Our Father in heaven, who is perfect and kind, offers us the most wonderful promises.  

Sometimes we think God doesn’t hear us or listen to us.  That He is far away.  We think because of our hurt and sorrow that are almost unbearable at times that God doesn’t care.  But that couldn’t be further from the truth.  If we knock the door will be opened.  

We can be afraid to be persistent because our life of rebellion is too great or our sin too heavy.  That should never be a discouragement, because the Lord asks us to come.  He encourages us to knock, to search His Word in the Bible.  For any sinner, nothing is too great to bring before God.

Don’t let change frighten you.  It’s like the two caterpillars who were crawling across the grass when a butterfly flew over them.  They looked up, and one nudged the other and said, “You couldn’t get me up in one of those things for a million dollars.”

If you say “I can never change” then you don’t know Jesus.  In Christ, God opens closed doors, bring resurrection, reveals possibilities, reclaims the lost, liberates the cursed, and changes the unchangeable.

This friend Jesus offers more than a change of attitude.  He offers a transformation of life.  Jesus works His transforming power in the lives of all who hear the Good News of salvation.  Jesus – Our Friend Indeed.

Our earthly friendships sometimes let us down.  Jesus is always here.  Jesus suffered for you, Jesus died for you, and Jesus rose again from the grave for you.  He exchanged our self-centeredness for His selflessness.

Jesus is a Friend For life.  Jesus the Savior is our friend . . . indeed!

Amen.

September 17, 2023         Text:  Matthew 18:21-35

Dear Friends in Christ,

A young Nazi officer, dying in a Polish concentration camp hospital, asked a nurse to bring a Jew to him from the camp.  He wanted to confess his horrible misdeeds and receive forgiveness.  Then he thought he could die in peace.  The Jew she brought was Simon Wiesenthal, who survived the Holocaust and became well known for promoting knowledge about it.  At the bedside of the soldier, he listened to the confession.  The soldier told how several hundred Jews were herded into a house in a Russian village.  Cans of gasoline were put into the house, and then it was set afire with grenades.  The soldiers were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to escape.  The dying soldier confessed in great anguish how a father with his clothes on fire, holding a baby, jumped out of a second story window.  “We shoot” he says “I shall never forget it – it haunts me.  Please forgive me and let me die in peace.”

Wiesenthal later wrote, “I stood up and looked in his direction, at his folded hands.  At last I made up my mind and without a word left the room.”  Later some rabbis confirmed his action when they wrote, “Whoever is merciful to the cruel will end up being indifferent to the innocent…Let the SS man die unforgiven.  Let him go to hell.”

Have you ever been hurt so bad that you wanted someone to go to hell?  Have you withheld forgiveness because of pettiness or hatred?  How far does the Lord want us to take forgiveness?  He is going to answer that in our text.  Let’s take a look at how we can . . . 

“FAST FORWARD TO FORGIVE”

We live in age of quick reaction.  With our remote control or mouse, we can fast forward to about anything.  We expect things to be quick.  In today’s parable Jesus asks us, as it were, to not fast forward to forgive but to rewind.  If we rewind it allows us to recall what Jesus has said and done for us.  We can slow down the fast pace of our emotions, helping us, instead of becoming enraged, to forgive others as God has forgiven us.

Peter poses the question to Jesus, and it gives Jesus a chance to tell a parable.  Note in these verses from Matthew all of the accounting language, which makes sense since Matthew was a tax collector.  On to the parable.

A king needs to settle debts and a servant is brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.  A talent was a monetary unit worth about 20 years wages to a laborer.  Times that by ten thousand . . . and well there is no way the servant can pay it back.  Then the master really hits him in the gut.  He gets his family involved.  They should be sold, and a payment should be made.  The servant is in an impossible situation.

What situation have you been in where you saw no way out?  Job loss, your investments tanked, a mortgage couldn’t be met.  When we discussed this text at our Pastor’s Conference this week one Pastor told the story of a farm wife in his congregation who lost the family farm because of online gambling.  It can happen that quick.

The only thing the servant could do was hit his knees and ask for patience.  Amazingly, the master had unbelievable compassion.  He released him and forgave the debt.  Now we are going to see if the servant lived by the adage, “do unto others as they have done unto you.”

He fails.  He finds a servant who owes him much less – a denarius – a day’s wage and he begins to choke him.  He has no compassion.  His master is shocked at his behavior and calls him a “wicked servant.”  He failed to have mercy as he had been given mercy.

What about you and I?  Do we ever fail to have mercy?  Do we fall short in our forgiveness?  Where do you see yourself in the parable?

If you have ever had a financial debt forgiven, it is a great relief, but it pales in comparison with what Jesus did for us.  His gift is completely beyond what we could hope or dream.  Paul writes, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Col. 3:13)

Keep the rewind button handy so that you may recall all that God has done for you.  In the perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has totally forgiven you.  We should then take the forgiveness given to us by the Lord and fast forward our forgiveness to others.  

When we are slow to forgive there can be more conflict and bitterness.  Unforgiven sin leaves a stained heart and soul.  Is there a grudge you still hang on to after many years?  Let it go and forgive as you have been forgiven.  Christ has had the utmost compassion on us.  His forgiveness is total and complete.  I like this saying, “Don’t bury the hatchet with the handle up for future use.”

When God reigns in our hearts and the Holy Spirit does His work, God’s people forgive just as they have been forgiven.

Amen.    

September 3, 2023         Text:  Various Scriptures

Dear Friends in Christ,

The days are long gone of the Walther League dates and many times marriage, bowling alleys in the basement of the church and life revolving around the parish.  We still like our coffee and doughnuts, parking right next to each other in a huge parking lot and sitting in the back pews.  Like the Israelites, we Lutherans are a peculiar people.

The ELCA is an example of a husk hiding the absence of the corn.  But the fast-growing Lutheran Church in Tanzania has its own customs as a conservative, liturgical church.

What holds are identity together?  Scripture, The Lutheran Confessions, The Lutheran Study Bible, and our hymnal which we identify by color – we are now maroon, but before that blue, and before that red.  On this Christian Education Sunday let’s delve into the challenges and blessings of . . . 

“OUR LUTHERAN IDENTITY”

What challenges our Lutheran identity?  Paganism.  Look at just the change in marriage the last 10 years.  Myself and many other Pastors saw this train coming a long time ago.  Warnings went unheeded.  White flags were raised before shots were fired.  Our children and certainly grandchildren think gay marriage has always been around.  We now deny male and female.  Tolerance has turned to conformity.  The pagans have claimed victory.  Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law has said, “The culture wars are over.”  Referencing the defeat of Nazi Germany, he rejects accommodation and says boldly, “You lost, live with it.”

Why are the pagans so vindictive?  One argument is with no heaven, what’s the point of all this.  Rational secularists would be open to new ideas.  In a world of common sense, Christians would be odd, not evil.

On this earth where the universe is the new god, the high priests of this religion would like your soul.  Imperial Rome had many gods.  The peoples were required to only burn incense to Caesar.  If they didn’t, they might not find the goods they needed to live, because the markets were authorized by the leadership.  While pledging loyalty to Caesar’s earthly rule, the Christian had a higher allegiance, they would obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

Christians are a threat to the status quo.  If children have a God-given right to life, free love dies out.  Why are the pagans so against a Christ and a Bible they don’t believe in?  If you don’t think something is real, why put your energy into destroying it?  Why push back against bakers and florists and the tax-exempt status of churches?  When the time comes, will we be ready for an answer?  Will we keep our Lutheran identity – here I stand.

Our Lutheran identity is a Christian identity.  We pray for the Coptic Christians martyred in Libya, the Chinese Christians having their lives monitored, the evangelical baker or florist who won’t participate in a gay wedding, the Catholic nuns fighting federal mandates.  They inspire us.  Our lives are not yet on the line, but could it be our career or pension.  The Thessalonians were not dragged into court, but they did face social opposition.  Paul encourages them to “not be shaken by these distresses.” (1 Thess. 3:3) 

History is our first encouragement.  Times have been worse, and the church always comes out stronger on the other end.  The Lord can use these times to make the faith grow.  

Another encouragement is the family.  Mark writes, “Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, sister, and mother.” (Mark 3:35)  The earthly family is temporary, the heavenly family is eternal.  Genealogy must give way to our birth into the family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt. 29:19)  The earthly family does matter and this is where Christian Education comes in.  Boys and girls need mom and dad.  Divorce has divided parents, kids, in-laws, grandparents.  

When a child is at harmony with God-fearing parents, he or she may live long in the land that the Lord gives.  For the people of the exodus, that land was Israel, the temple, the place of God’s dwelling.  And for us it is the church, the new and everlasting place of promise.  The Lord Himself reaffirmed the sanctity of life by residing in Mary’s womb.  He reaffirms male and female and defines marriage as a lifelong union. (Mark 10:9)  He blessed a marriage at Cana.  Family does matter – faith and family together.  In Tanzania, the family prospers along with the church.

That is still another encouragement.  While our pews shrink, in other parts of the world the Christian Church is exploding in numbers.  These are the faithful who want to worship the Christ of the Bible.  They want to hear the message of forgiveness and reconciliation.  They want to know of the hope they have as they await eternal life in heaven.  They hold to the tenets of Scripture because of the love of Jesus that has been written on their hearts.

We look to these things because the cross of Jesus means something.  I am not distressed.  I have never seen more people, and especially young people wearing crosses than in the last 10 years.  Do you ever notice the cross in your daily life?  That shape is everywhere.  God did it for a reason.  It is in the wooden telephone pole, it is in the plus sign, it is in the markings of products and goods.  It hangs in homes and public places and with churches every few blocks in the United States we see it on most churches.  What a blessing and inspiration.  Is that how you look at the world? 

I leave you with this last bit of hope that God provides.  Many will say the homosexual community has hijacked the rainbow.  How do they know about the rainbow?  Because the first place a rainbow was ever mentioned was where – in the Bible!  Ironic, isn’t it?  

Maybe we can’t go back to fifteen bean salad at the church potluck and a hundred kids at VBS.  We keep pressing forward in our Lutheran identity, our Christian identity because the Lord is doing the lifting and directing the path.  Created in God’s image, redeemed in Christ’s blood.

Amen.     

August 20, 2023       Text:  Matthew 15:21-28

Dear Friends in Christ,

Prayerfully we all have fond memories of the church we grew up in.  I was blessed by Pilgrim Lutheran in Decatur.  One of the features of my home congregation was the wooden kneelers below our pews.  We knelt at prayer time, we knelt after Holy Communion, and we knelt with the lights down low at the end of the service.  Our Pastors had no kneelers.  I can still picture our Senior Pastor, Pastor Beiderweden, known as Pastor B, kneeling on the stone steps that led up to our altar, bringing the microphone from the altar down to that level and leading the congregation in the Prayer of the Church.  Impressive.  Impactful.  God Blessed.

Today in our text we have a woman with a demon-possessed child who comes to the Lord.  She needs help.  She takes a position of mercy on her knees.  What can we learn by observing . . . 

“KNEELING FOR HELP”

Our text begins, “Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.’” (vs. 21-22)

Tyre, Sidon, and a Canaanite woman all signal that Jesus is in pagan lands, and these places have the connotation of everything dangerous to those of Israel.  Jesus is definitely in foreign territory.  In v. 22, the woman’s call to Jesus as Lord and from the royal line of David borders on worship.  When she names the enemy as demonic possession, she pits Jesus against Satan in a preview of the cross and resurrection.

Look at what happens next . . . “But he did not answer her a word.  And his disciples came and begged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us.’  He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’  But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’  And he answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” (vs. 23-26)

You are a little disturbed by this, aren’t you?  Jesus is out of character.  Dare we say mean and uncaring.  The disciples are no better.  They just want to get rid of her.  At this point how many of you would walk away?  Not this lady.  She takes a position that makes a difference, she kneels before Jesus.  Then she says words that make an impression, “Lord, help me.”  

Ever been in this position before your Lord?  Have you ever intoned the words, “Lord, help me.”  When was that?  What caused your knees to hit the ground?  A sick child, a marriage going bad, a financial downfall you saw no way out of, the stress level of your job.  

Jesus’ answer has always been puzzling to us.  Taking children’s bread and throwing it to the dogs.  What does he mean here?  The dogs are house dogs.  Near enough to the table for scraps.  Dogs were lowly and contemptible, and thus the boundary between Jew and Gentile is maintained.  If we were standing there, we would be the dogs.  It’s a begging moment.   Don’t we cry to Jesus, “Do something.  Do anything.  Just don’t leave me in this dark moment.”

The close of our text, “She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’  Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith!  Be it done for you as you desire.’  And her daughter was healed instantly.” (vs. 27-28)

The Lord is testing her faith.  It brings about kneeling for help.  This test shows an unshakeable faith.  It is not “You have good faith.”  It’s “Great is your faith.”  She is an example for the disciples who had the privilege to travel with Jesus but often missed the point.  She becomes an example to us who travel with Jesus in His Word – but often miss the point.

William Thomas Kelvin, known as Lord Kelvin – the man who devised the absolute temperature scale – made this observation:  “When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery.”  A good point to reflect on, don’t you think?

It is true that the Lord does allow bad things to enter our lives.  He uses them to test, to chasten, to remind us of what this world is and to prepare us for eternal life.  Christ said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  If His kingdom is not of this world, then neither is yours nor mine nor anyone else who holds on to Christ.

The Christ whose blood covers our sin – the Christ who overcame death and hell for us – does not set out to torment us in life.  In these moments His Word draws us to real life – forgiveness and heaven.  Jesus isn’t loving us less when we struggle and suffer.  He always loves us.  The struggles and sufferings are the things He uses to give shape and substance to our faith and prepare us for eternity.

Kneeling for help.  We will take the position for Holy Communion.  We humbly ask for His blessings, though we do not deserve them.  A wafer in the mouth, wine touching the tongue, Jesus’ body and blood present.  These are not leftover scraps.  It is forgiveness unto life everlasting.  What a blessing.  For the Canaanite woman and her daughter and for us . . . when kneeling for help.

Amen.   

August 13, 2023     Text:  Job 38:4-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of our great weaknesses is our understanding of God.  When we misunderstand Him, we also confuse His Word.  As an example, the Christmas story.  We have heard it our whole life and figure we pretty much know everything.  Do you now?  How many wise men?  Wrong.  The Bible doesn’t say.  We assume three because they brought three gifts.  Where did the wise men greet Jesus and family?  Not in a manger.  In a house.  The shepherds went to the manger.  Which gospel writers wrote of this penultimate event in the life of the world?  Nope, incorrect.  Only Matthew and Luke were scribes of the Christmas story.  Go home today and read Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke chapter 2 and see if you don’t go, “Huh?”

Today God is going to talk directly to Job, and he still is not going to comprehend.  We are in the same place before God as we lack a clear understanding.  God talks to Job and to you and I and is asking . . .

“WHO ARE YOU?”

Years ago, Woody Allen made a movie called “Sleeper.”  In the movie he wakes up in the future saying, “Where are my friends?  They’re dead.  How could they be?  They ate organic rice.”  You know how it is.  Just when you think you can avoid all of life’s negatives, you can’t.  Even if you eat organic rice.  Or, as someone once noted, “Living is like licking honey off a thorn.”  We have the goodies of life and the pain.

Job went through life’s negatives.  Talk about licking honey off a thorn.  Job did have it all:  wealth, health, family, and most important, a strong faith.  Then the evil one took it all away.  His flocks were stolen, his children died in a freak storm, his body became covered in sores.  Job’s wife’s answer was to curse God for his suffering.  His friends came by not to console him, but they wanted him to admit God was punishing him for some hidden sin.

For a while, Job kept the strong faith, but then he began to waver.  He begins to challenge God.  Right before our text God says in verse 2 about Job, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge.”  Job is speaking about things he knows nothing about.  God is basically saying to Job, “Who are you, why are you telling me about my creation?”  Job had no understanding of what God had created.  The vast dimensions.  The intimate details for the seas.  Job thought he understood good and evil, but the poor guy was in the dark.

Job’s sin was that he was confusing his relationship with God.  He was basing his relationship with God on his own knowledge about who God is and what He has done.  Job was placing his intellect over his trust and faith in God.

You say, “Sometimes I feel like Job?”  Now, when was that?  We live more on our knowledge than our faith.  We place our trust in what we know or think rather than on the One who is the source of our knowledge.  We are skewed because we think of ourselves as better than we are.  As science discovers more about creation, we miss the questions that still come up.  I still love Isaiah’s words, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”  Knowledge is important.  The reason we go to Sunday School and Bible study and listen to the sermon.  We expand our knowledge of God and creation.  But our knowledge is far from complete and even at times faulty, like with our Christmas quiz.

God speaks to you and I:  “Who are you?”  Our Lord can be a little sarcastic, I love that, don’t you?  “You think you got it all figured out.  You think you can trust in your knowledge and be like me.  Who are you?”

Why, we are forgiven sinners, of faith no stronger than Job but forgiven no less than every other sinner.  This forgiveness does not come from our knowledge of God, but as a gift from the creator of the world.  He even commands the winds and the waves as we heard in our Gospel for today.

We cannot fully understand God’s plan to save mankind, which would lead God’s own Son to die on a cross.  We cannot comprehend how this Son of God, Jesus, would rise from the dead, conquering sin, death, and the evil one once for all time.  We cannot reason in our minds that water poured over a child “included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word” would create faith in the promises of our Savior, Jesus.

What God has done goes against all logical explanation, yet this is most certainly true!  We believe the promise that because Jesus’ death on the cross, our sins are forgiven.  We trust that because of Jesus’ resurrection, we have the promise of life forever with Him.  We simply have faith that in our Baptism, we are His.

We believe that if God asked, “Who are you?” we could honestly answer, “We are sinners, forgiven and set free by Jesus’ death on the cross.”  Trust in Him and lean not on your own understanding.

Amen.        

August 6, 2023               Text:  Romans 9:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our society we celebrate upward mobility.  Something we call the “American Way”.  You can be a success even coming from modest means.  But there are also stories of downward mobility.  The rich kid given everything who wastes it all.  In the days of the Depression, former millionaires were selling apples off the street or jumping off of buildings to end it all.  

Today’s Epistle is a downward mobility story.  St. Paul is grieving over his own people, Israel.  Look at everything they had been given.  Adoption as sons, heirs of the covenants, the glory of the Lord, worship life in the temple in Jerusalem, the heritage of the patriarchs, and then the promise given to them came in the flesh, Christ Jesus, the Lord and Savior.

How many advantages could one nation have?  But Paul as a member of this family is hurting because his kinsmen are rejecting their Messiah.  Some of you know this hurt.  Family members turning their back on their Lord and their faith.  Given many of the same advantages as the Israelites they wander off in the wrong direction.  Let’s get some encouragement here today . . . 

“DOWNWARD MOBILITY HELP”

It has been a trend for a while now to trace your ancestry.  A detailed genetic analysis of your connection to the past.  What part of your background is German, or Norwegian, or Spanish, or Indian?  Anybody ever find out a part of you is an Israelite?  The Israelites of Paul’s day took pride in being blood descendants of Abraham.  Abraham though had two sons – Ishmael and Isaac.  Only one was an Israelite.  Isaac had twin sons – Jacob and Esau – but only one was the forerunner of Jesus and the son of the promise.

In God’s eyes, a true Israelite, a true child of Abraham, is not one by natural birth but by faith in the promise of Christ.  You can’t prove that with a genetic test.  You can only trust your Baptism, which tells you who your spiritual Daddy is.

This is why Paul was grieved for his people.  They had broken God’s covenant, torn down His altars, and murdered his prophets.  Jesus wasn’t even welcome among his own relatives or in his hometown.  They had thrown away all of their advantages.

Being human we should expect more downward mobility than upward.  Sinners will throw away their blessings more than they will treasure them.  Christians can be tempted by a theology of glory.  This preaching tells you that Christ is a winner, and you can be a winner too.  Accept Jesus they say, and you can overcome all your bad habits, have a great romantic marriage, and have children who are respectful and won’t dye their hair or pierce something you don’t think should be pierced.  Winning with Jesus gets you promoted at work and your softball team never loses.  This win with Jesus religion is always a letdown.  You struggle with bills and have to work at your marriage and your kids might be a little strange or leave the faith of their youth.  How can I accept Christ and still be a loser?  

Then a well-meaning friend steps in and tells you, “You just need more faith!”  Right.  So, you dig down deep inside yourself and try to whomp up some more faith – and it just won’t whomp.

In our Gospel today, the crowds are experiencing a little downward mobility, a food shortage.  It wasn’t the faith of the people that changed the outcome, it was the Savior of all mankind.  Faith doesn’t save.  Jesus saves.  The crowd experienced upward mobility as they were fed in abundance.

Ours is the Gospel of salvation in Christ, for on the cross, He earned it for us.  Ours is the washing of Holy Baptism, where we were buried into that death of Christ, all our sins were washed away, and we were brought to faith in Him.  Ours is the Holy Communion, where Christ comes to live within us.  In Baptism we are made one with Christ.  In the Lord’s Supper Christ becomes one with us.  Ours is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

All of this is our downward mobility help.  Paul was distressed and literally wanted to die for his people.  Noble, but not practical.  What he could do was to share God’s Word with them.  He could encourage them.  He could pray for them.  He could leave it in God’s hands.  Be reminded again – Jesus saves.  Those in a downward mobility spiral have to be lifted up by Him.  Live the faith.  Partake of the Sacraments.  Strengthen your walk with Jesus.  Where does my help come from?  It comes from the Lord.

Amen.