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July 19, 2026             

Texts:  Song of Solomon 3:1-5; Philippians 4:4-9; John 15:5-11, 16-17

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Tim Goeglein is an LCMS layman who worked in the Bush White House in the early 2000’s.  He now works for Focus on the Family.  I have heard him speak and he has a great knowledge of church and culture.  His most recent book ”What Really Matters” gets to the heart of our society’s challenges.  He understands the future of America is shaped less by politics and more by what happens in our homes.

            He reports we have the lowest marriage and fertility rates in the history of our country.  In 2025 women in their 30’s had more children than women in their 20’s.  We still have the challenge of out of wedlock births.  70% of black children, 50% of Hispanic children and 33% of white children are born this way.  God as Creator has made us for a reason and that revolves around marriage, faith, community, and family.

            Our Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has stepped into this topic wholeheartedly.  The Lutheran Witness just did a whole article on Lutheran singles and dating.  Sociologists report that we have a “dating recession” and “dating desert.”  The American male wants to be married, and they are coming back to the Christian Church, but there are also 15% of men who have no friends.  The result of digital distraction and Covid.  The American female also wants to marry, but they are finding a plethora of unmarriageable men – who have no college or desire to get a job.

            This is where we all come in.  They need mentors.  This generation needs those of us who are married to reteach them how to date.  It is a challenge the Lord is putting before us today.  Let’s take a look at His Holy Word and see that . . .

“THE LORD BLESSES WHEN TIME”

            What is the biggest demographic in our congregation?  I am guessing very few of you know and it is not even close.  Those ages 18-35.  On any given Sunday they make up 20-25% of our attendance and they are at least 25% of our communicant membership.  This topic is so relevant for who we are.  It is close to my heart and something I pray about all the time.  Now within that demographic some are married, but many are not.  Let’s see what the Lord has to say to all of us.

            Our Old Testament text is from King Solomon.  You’ve read his stuff and to be honest it is quite sensual.  His uses a lot of imagery of man and woman, love and passion.  In these verses he writes of a bride’s dream waiting for her bridegroom.  Verse 5, “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.”  What occupies our dreams and aspirations, our hopes and desires?  The Lord commends us to the excellent and praiseworthy.  His Word sets our hearts upon our Savior.  Lord, teach us a proper and timely desire for all good, earthly gifts.  The Lord will bless when time.

            Paul in his letter to the church in Philippi gives a nice word picture of our life in Christ, whether married or single.  We rejoice.  We are part of God’s family and church fellowship.  The Lord is at hand and reminds us to not be anxious.  We pray to God and make our requests known.  If looking for a spouse, let the Lord know.  He hears you.  He will answer in time.  Like I have done with calls in the past, it is not wrong to help the process along.  God grants us wisdom.  In our bulletin today I have listed in there an LCMS dating site and another site for young adult activities.  Seek these out if you so choose.   Paul encourages us to keep virtue and to live for Christ.  God grants us each liberty because we have been forgiven of the sin that binds us.

            John finishes our trifecta with his vine/branch/fruit analogy.  We are connected to Christ.  Apart from Him we can do nothing.  Attached to the vine, we glorify God with our lives.  We abide in joy because we are loved by God through Jesus Christ.  God chose us to go and bear fruit.  God is there in the choice of a spouse.  I could listen all day to how God has put people together.  Each story is unique.  In our congregation we have LCMS and LCMS that have married.  We have LCMS and another Lutheran who married.  We have LCMS and another Christian faith who have married.  We have those who joined our church and then married.  No two are the same.  What will your story be? 

            Jesus loves us and has sacrificed for us.  We are so blessed.  We can live in peace and look forward to eternity.  Hear the prayers of your faithful people Lord, who desire to do your will.  May it be done in our lives.

            Toni and I weren’t thinking about marriage when we were introduced to each other in a bar.  Neither one of us had a favorable impression.  Months later though things changed and here we are.  The Lord blessed when the time was right.  That is the prayer of your Pastor and your Church.  You have some great mentors sitting around you.  Talk to them.  Then let us all be in prayer.  This church has a wonderful future if our young people stay around.  I can see, if it be the Lord’s will another influx of families and children like we had after Toni, Karson, and I arrived.  The Lord will bless . . . when time.

                                                                                                                        Amen.         

July 12, 2026                                                                  Text:  Isaiah 55:10-13

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Many of you know by now that what is preached is picked a month in advance.  I choose a text, hymns that go along with the text the last week of a month.  This way both Mary Anne, our organist, and Karen, our secretary have a sheet of paper, so they know what is coming.  As I chose this text it was ready made.  Water.  I’ve dealt with it at church this year, I dealt with it at home this year and since choosing the text we have seen many downpours.  But God wanted me to laugh even more.  So, he sent even more water into the church to be cleaned up last week.  That is what I bellyached about last Sunday.

             Let’s be honest, I may be the wrong Pastor to give this message, because I haven’t seen a lot of positives with water.  Well, God has.  Isaiah wrote it down.  That is good enough for me and it should be for you.  Holy Spirit, carry this message today . . .

“WATER:  BAD . . . AND GOOD”

            Our text is mostly positive about water.  The only negatives are in verse 13 where it talks about “thorn” and “brier.”  This is what you get when there is no water.  But boy what happens when you get water – wow.  The Lord has given us a word picture this last month.  On one of my routes on the way home, I pass by many corn and soybean fields.  At the beginning of June those plants were just breaking the surface.  Inches of rain later, some of the corn I saw this week is over three feet tall.  When Isaiah writes, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout.” (v. 10). We believe it here in surrounded by farmland central Illinois.

            We could continue our ag lesson, but let’s get a little more theological and spiritual.  Water is needed for life.  You don’t drink, you die.  We need the water of God’s saving Word to survive spiritually.  Without the Gospel we will die eternally.  God waters the earth for our living.  It also produces seed which then continues that growth.  The effects of water are ongoing.  “Seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” (v. 10b)

            Verse 11, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”  Just as surely as Jesus himself came down from heaven to water the earth with his own blood, so now does the preaching of Jesus serve to deliver the benefits of his blood to those who hear and believe.  Just as surely as rain and snow come down from heaven and serve to water the earth does the Word of the cross and the empty tomb now serve to give life to the world.  This is the promise given by the prophet Isaiah.  It is given for us to know and to trust, so that we might be certain that the Word of God will always work.

            No matter the setting or how bleak the situation, the death and resurrection of Jesus reveals that the Word will accomplish the Lord’s purposes and will succeed in bringing life to the world.

            When Isaiah writes in verse 13, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, and everlasting sign that shall not be cut off,” this takes us all the way back to Adam.  God had told him that “thorns and thistles” (Gen. 3:18) will inhabit the land.  This verse is a picture of paradise restored.  Because of the Lord’s work, his salvation, those plants of Eden will spring up again.  As the Lord’s people we are invited back to the lush garden.  Creation was corrupted in Adam’s fall, you know water problems you don’t foresee, in Christ that water is used to restore things to their pristine beauty, a sign of God’s redemption.

            Last Sunday I mentioned that the only thing water was good for at Good Shepherd was baptism.  It is the chief miracle.  We came to the fount in our original Adam corrupted sin but after a dash of water three times and the Word of God connected to it, we left in pristine beauty.  God’s redemption was our redemption.  We are now his child, and he will be with us all our days – the good water days and the bad water days.

            We will continue to pray for rain when needed.  Do you think He could provide it everywhere except on our building?  Maybe that’s asking a little too much.  Water as we have seen today has a lot more good than bad.  The power of God’s Word is evident in all circumstances and for all time.  Because of His love for us, God pours out His Word.  Blame it on the rain, yeh, yeh.

                                                Amen.         

July 5, 2026                                                                                    Text:  Proverbs 14:34

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Here are series of questions from a sermon I read recently.  You guess the year.  Why are 11 million American workers still without employment when there should be work for everyone with the broad sweep and natural resources of our country?  Why have we had masses of hungry people in this nation when the cornucopia of plenty has poured its blessings upon our fields and farmlands?  Why does destitution reign in many American families?  Why do we see ominous specters on our nation’s horizon, the shadow of national pyramiding debt, the dark forms of that anarchy under the guise of communism, the attempts to destroy lawful and representative government?  Got your answer?  That was a sermon by Lutheran Hour Speaker Dr. Walter A Maier in . . . 1937!

            Like I always say, “Come in from off the ledge.”  Our national blessing has nothing to do with political party.  It depends upon the Almighty.  We cannot build without God; we cannot build against God.  But we can build with God.  We don’t need a political platform or a social media blitz.  God’s plan for national blessing?  12 short, unadorned words.  These words of God say nothing of inflation or deflation; no insights on labor problems or unemployment; he doesn’t lay out a plan for banking or finance reform. 

            Let’s outline for you, with the Spirit’s help, God’s direction for . . .

“BUILDING A BETTER NATION”

            “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14:34). When the text says, “sin is a reproach to any people,” this is not a theory – this history.  Where is the haughty Roman Empire?  The world dominion of Alexander the Great?  The kingdoms and nations of Cyrus?  I have been watching a lot of shows recently where at one time it looked like Hitler might take over the world.  You know how that ended.  We are not too big to fail.  Over the lost glory of every nation both the hand of God and the moving pen of history have written the verdict:  “The reproach of sin.”

            The counsel of God is always constructive.  It declares, “Righteousness exalteth a nation.”  This is not a fond dream – once again it is history.  Early Christianity exalted marriage, children parenthood, at a time when the lust of the flesh ran to ruin.  It exalted labor when people sought to escape work and pass it to slaves.  The love for one’s fellow man elevated the ancient business world.  The church, though despised and small, did what statesman of the ancient world could not do:  it bestowed, with God’s help, the righteousness that exalts a nation.

            What shower of blessing would reign upon this nation, if righteousness, and truth, and justice, and a brotherly regard of every man toward his fellowman would prevail.  What clash of conflict could be stifled.  How many of our broken homes could be spared.  If only this exalting righteousness would dominate the national and individual affairs of our country.

            How can we curb sin and selfishness and everything being political when even in our community we can’t celebrate America 250 with kids writing essays for the County History Museum?  How can we stop snapping at each other?  Maybe God will destroy social media.  That might be a start.  Did you see this week Ford rehired human engineers because AI wasn’t working.  Man, I love it when God does that. 

            Our nation building centers around this.  The words of Jesus, “without me you can do nothing.”  In our wide resourceful world, there is only one power that can “create a clean heart” and a “right spirit” within men, and that is faith in Jesus Christ, His cleansing blood, His atoning death, His victorious resurrection.

            The most vital message in human history is this:  God decreed that as punishment for our sin, Christ would die to bring us back to God, to everlasting forgiveness and the never-ending mercies of heaven.  Cherish it and trust it.  It is a gift.  You can’t earn it.  Repent of your unfaithfulness and putting trust in the wrong things.  Find forgiveness and peace in the arms ever outstretched to the contrite sinner.

            We pray the Spirit of God may rest upon our 345 million people and our 350,000 churches.  May we be equipped through daily study of God’s Word.  May Christ dwell in our churches and be servants of God and not servants of man.  May they know nothing else “save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  We pray for continued freedom of conscience and worship, which his Word grants.  We ask all of this, that we may have by God’s promise, that righteousness that will assuredly exalt this nation.

                                                                                                Amen.           

June 28, 2026                                                                                Text:  Jeremiah 28:5-9

Dear Friends in Christ,

            In my almost 35 years as a Pastor I have seen many so-called new movements pop in cultural Christianity.  These have ranged from Promise Keepers to the contemporary worship movement to The Purpose Driven Life and to “What Would Jesus Do?”  Everybody is out to save the world for Jesus – with conflicting theologies and goals.  In the book Dining With the Devil, a book now over 30 years old, but still relevant, Os Guinness wrote this, “The problem is not that Christians have disappeared, but that Christian faith has become so deformed.”

            What to believe.  More importantly, who to believe.  In our text, this is the quandary.  Is it Jeremiah or is it Hananiah?  Who has the message of God? 

“WILL THE REAL PROPHET PLEASE STAND UP”

            We need to understand the background.  The time of our text is prior to 586 B.C. and the fall and captivity of Jerusalem by the hands of the Babylonians.  God sent Jeremiah to warn the people of Jerusalem’s impending destruction and their captivity as a result of their Godlessness, refusal to listen to the Word of God and rebellion.  Into Jeremiah’s clear prophecies stepped false prophets who were telling the people they could have the “good life” here and now.  One of those charlatans was Hananiah.  Here is a portion of his lie from the beginning of chapter 28:

            “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:  ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.  Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took away…I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah…king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”  (Jer. 28:2-4)

            Nice sentiments.  But they were all lies.  Hananiah was a deceiver.  He wanted to win the approval and following of humans.  He fed them what they wanted to hear.  Our text is Jeremiah’s response to this delusional man.  He said:

            “May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true…Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and the hearing of all the people.  The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms.  As for the prophet who prophecies peace, when the word of that prophet came to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.” (v. 6-9).  Will the Real Prophet Please Stand Up.

            As you already know, nothing that Hananiah “prophesied” came to pass.  He was, as most of Israel was, ignorant of God’s Word. 

            Now, here are the questions:  Do you think anything has really changed?  Do you think that everyone who cries out the name ‘Jesus’, writes a book and prances around a stage in the name of Jesus is really from Jesus?  Do you think this world really has a chance to become better and attain peace by itself? 

            The peace the world offers is peace of mind through possessions and a secure financial future.  The peace the world offers is through tolerance and political correctness.  If we buy into these, we are following the wrong prophet.

            God’s Word shows the falseness of this peace.  Possessions can become insecure.  Glossing over hatreds and jealousies can never bring peace as long as sin remains. 

            God gives a peace we can believe in through his Word.  His final word through Jeremiah announced hope for the future.  God promised a new covenant.  Jesus is the Messiah who established the new covenant and has given us true peace.  Born of the line of David, Jesus’ death and resurrection has defeated sin, death, and the devil and given us true peace.  We can be at peace with God and others.  We don’t want the false peace being spouted by others. 

            Let’s tell the false prophets to please sit down.  We don’t want your prosperous life falsehoods.  We don’t want your false separation of church and state, and secular teachings.  We don’t want the tearing down of God’s Word.  Isaiah wrote this, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes.” (Is. 5:20-21)

            Os Guinness was right.  The Christian faith is deformed.  Little flock, let’s hear the Word of God and inwardly digest.  For in it is truly comfort and hope and peace.  All of it directs us to the true prophet Jesus the Christ.

                                                                                    Amen.      

June 14, 2026                                                               Text:  Romans 5:6-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

            Are you a demonstrator?  I have been alive for 7 decades – 1960’s to the 2020’s.  what have people demonstrated for?  In the 1960’s some of you might have been burning your draft cards and bras or marching for civil rights and against Vietnam.  In the 1970’s it was Vietnam still, also inflation and Watergate.  The 1980’s brought Apartheid, aids, Iran-Contra and in Europe the great demonstrations against Communism.  The Million Man March and WTO protests were in the 1990’s.  In the 2000’s people took to the streets against the Iraq War and the never-ending problems of the Middle East.  2010’s was social change and climate change.  And now so far in the 2020’s people get off their couch to demonstrate against police overreach, racial injustice, the 2020 election and all things Trump.  And the one I have been a part of…Pro-Life demonstrations.  So, yes I will answer in the affirmative to being a demonstrator.  How about you?

            Let’s be honest.  The greatest demonstration occurred on Golgotha and at the open tomb.  God knew that the only way humankind could be rescued from sin and death was the death of His beloved Son.  He demonstrated this by sending Jesus into the world to live the perfect life and lay down his life for us.  What a demonstration. 

“GRACE IS DEMONSTRATED”

            We do not deserve God’s grace.  Maybe we question if we should even be saying grace.  In our text we are called “weak” and “ungodly.”  We have ingrained in our hearts and minds a moral weakness.  Haven’t you ever said something like this, “I was so weak there.  I have to do better.”  Because of our inherited sin and the daily consequences of our thoughts and actions, we are incapable of getting God to love us or earn forgiveness and salvation.

            This demonstration of grace is highlighted in verse 7.  “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare to even die.”  We understand the concept.  We find it easier to help people that we like or who share our values and faith.  This is wonderful proof of God’s love.  Look at the world He was willing to die for.  It is filled and always has been with not so good human beings.

            Then we get to my favorite verse.  Law and Gospel.  It is the verse on our church website and notecards.  Again, we translate it accordingly, “But God demonstrates his love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  (v. 8).  Not only words of grace, but deeds of grace.  People like to hear “I love you” from us, but they also want us to demonstrate that love.  We help out, we take time, we show our loved ones the love that we possess because of Christ.  Our demonstration of love can be powerful, but it in no way compares to what God has demonstrated.

            God’s demonstration of grace was like no other demonstration.  When God demonstrated His grace, it cost Him His only Son.  Christ demonstrated His grace through his humiliation.  “Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.”  We are now reconciled to God.  The barrier of sin has been removed.  We have been “justified by his blood.”  We are no longer in our sin because of God’s work for us.

His rising from the dead has secured our salvation, now and forever. 

            So forgiven Christian believer that is going to heaven, you are free to demonstrate.  Be a demonstrator in your daily life.  March onward as a Christian soldier.  Pick up your cross and demonstrate what Christ has done in your lives.  Don’t be afraid to be a branch because you are connected to the vine.  Take the grace initiative and show love to others.  Demonstrate sacrificial action in a God-pleasing way.

            As seen by the beginning of this sermon, we are a nation of demonstrators.  I gave you just a few.  I could have listed many more.  Have your words and deeds been demonstrating your gratitude?  What kind of demonstrating have you been doing?  The Holy Spirit empowers and energizes us through Word and Sacrament to demonstrate daily God’s grace to us and for us.  Let the demonstrations begin!

                                                                                                            Amen.