{"id":5650,"date":"2024-02-08T21:30:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=5650"},"modified":"2024-02-08T21:30:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:30:35","slug":"the-seed-that-bears-fruit-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2024\/02\/08\/the-seed-that-bears-fruit-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seed that Bears Fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2024-TRINITY-LUTHERAN-CHRIST-FOR-US-02112024-15081-1.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> Sexagesima Sunda<span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial;\">y| Luke 8:4-15 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);\">Pastor James Preus<\/span><span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial;\"> |<\/span><span style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); font-size: revert; color: initial;\">Trinity Lutheran Church<\/span><span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial;\">|February 4, 2024 <\/span><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p>The first thing we learn from this parable of Jesus is that saving faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ. We are saved by faith, because Christ Jesus has offered Himself up as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. There is no work left for us to do to earn our salvation. By dying for our sins, Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven to all who believe. We receive this salvation won by Jesus as a gift through faith. And how is this salvation given, so that we may believe it? Through Christ\u2019s Word. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">St. Paul aptly explains it, \u201cFor \u2018everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.\u2019 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? \u2026 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.\u201d (Romans 10:13-15a, 17) This is why Jesus sent His disciples out into the world, saying, \u201cGo into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation.\u00a0 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.\u201d (Mark 16:15-16) <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">The Word is the instrument by which the Holy Spirit creates faith in the human heart. Jesus said to His disciples, \u201cTo you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.\u201d How is it given? Through His Word. And there is no other way for a person to be brought to faith in Christ Jesus than through His Word. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">I\u2019ve heard it many times from those who used to go to church, but no longer go, \u201cMy parents made me go to church when I was younger. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t go anymore.\u201d And tragically, some parents even believe this foolishness, and will try to moderate how often they bring their children to church or will let their child decide whether he wants to go or not. But it isn\u2019t a good idea to ask an apostate why he became an apostate. He doesn\u2019t know. He thinks he knows, but he doesn\u2019t. He\u2019ll blame his parents. He\u2019ll blame the Word of God. But he won\u2019t blame himself. You don\u2019t need to ask those who fell away why they fell away. Jesus tells us why they fall away. Satan comes and devours the Word from their heart, so that they do not believe and are not saved. Or they had no root, and at a time of testing they fell away. Or the cares, riches, and pleasures of life choked out the word from their hearts, so that their fruit did not mature into eternal life. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">But people do not fall away, because their parents made them go to church. It is possible that their parents behaved hypocritically, made them go to church as a rule, but did not cultivate the faith at home with further teaching and setting a good example. But being made to go to church never damaged anyone\u2019s faith. That is like saying that your parents made you brush your teeth, so you don\u2019t brush your teeth anymore. It\u2019s a silly and lame excuse. In fact, there is no other way to make sure that your children remain in the saving faith, (which should be the greatest desire for every Christian parent) than to bring them to church. Scripture says, \u201cTrain up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.\u201d (Proverbs 22:6) and \u201cAnd these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.\u201d (Deuteronomy 6:6-7) <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">Children do not know what they should do. That is why they have parents. Parents should make their children eat healthy food, go to bed at a reasonable time, go to school, do their school work, do chores, speak respectfully, and yes, go to church and hear the Word of God. Obviously, parents can\u2019t force a child to believe, but neither can they force their children to learn, love, and respect. Yet, parents are still obligated to instill these virtues in their children, so they set in place the structure, which best makes this possible. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. If you do not hear the Gospel, then how can you believe it? Yet, God does not only tell us the obvious, that you can\u2019t believe the good news of Jesus unless you\u2019ve heard of him. God also promises that His Word has impressive power, that it accomplishes that for which He purposes (Isaiah 55:10-13). When you bring your children to church to hear God\u2019s Word, when you speak God\u2019s Word at home, you are employing God\u2019s most powerful tool to create and sustain saving faith. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">Yet, as Jesus\u2019 parable tells us and as our own experience can attest, not all those who hear the preaching of the Gospel continue in the faith. They listen for a while, but then they stop. For some, they hear the lies of Satan, who snatches the Word from their hearts. They hear Satan\u2019s lies much more than they hear the truth of God\u2019s Word. They hear Satan\u2019s lies on TV, the internet, in books and magazines, the radio, in school; lies that God did not create the world, that Jesus isn\u2019t God or that all religions are the same, lies that they should worship themselves and indulge in their base desires. Those who listen to Satan\u2019s lies do not know that they are listening to lies. They think they have become more enlightened and freed from the shackles of Christian dogma. But in fact, Satan has closed their minds to the truth of God\u2019s love for them in Christ Jesus, and he has bound them to selfish and sinful desires, which will ultimately lead to death and hell. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">Others fall away, because of testing. They find that they are not willing to suffer for the sake of Christ, so they avoid Christ to avoid the suffering. This is the most natural thing in the world. Avoid suffering. Yet, sometimes suffering is good for you. But they don\u2019t think of that as their faith dries out and dies. They don\u2019t recognize their fleeing from suffering as fleeing from the saving faith. Others fall away, because the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life choke out the word. Jesus says that you cannot serve God and mammon. He calls mammon and its ilk thorns, which choke out saving faith. But those who fall away don\u2019t look at them as thorns. They look at them as blessings. They are so glad to have these thorns, that they don\u2019t even notice that Christ\u2019s Word has been choked out. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">This is why you shouldn\u2019t listen to those who fell away for the reason for why they fell away. They don\u2019t know. They didn\u2019t recognize the devil when he came to snatch the Word from their heart. They fled from testing, instead of enduring it to become stronger. They loved the pleasures and riches of this life more than the treasure of eternal life in heaven, so that they didn\u2019t recognize the thorns choking out their love for Christ. You can\u2019t blame Christ\u2019s Word or Christ\u2019s Church or Christian parents, who taught Christ\u2019s Word and brought their children to church, for those who fell away. Those who fall away can only blame themselves. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">In our Epistle lesson from 2 Corinthians 11 and 12, we hear part of a long speech from St. Paul. He is exasperated, to say the least, because those to whom he preached the Gospel have now rejected him and His teaching for the teachings of some so-called \u201cSuper Apostles.\u201d Paul is driven to speak as a madman, boasting about his labor, Israelite lineage, and sufferings. Paul admits that he sounds like a madman and a fool with his boasts, but he does this to prove a point. Those, so called super apostles, who boasted to the Corinthians that they were greater apostles, greater Hebrews, and greater-laborers than St. Paul were the true fools, by boasting in things that did not matter. Rather, Paul proves that the things that they boast about, he has more reason to boast, yet, Paul would not even boast in those things. He would rather boast in Christ. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">The point in bringing this up is that the Word of Christ succeeds when it bears fruit with patience. The reason these Corinthians followed these false super apostles, is because they did not recognize the fruit of a true apostle. The false super apostles convinced them that Paul was weak. So, they despised Paul\u2019s weakness and longed for the strength of these super apostles. So, just as the apostate doesn\u2019t recognize the devil when he comes to snatch the word from his heart like a bird plucking up grain, nor does he recognize testing as an opportunity to strengthen one\u2019s faith with patience, nor does he recognize the cares, riches, and pleasures of life as dangerous thorns, so neither does the apostate recognize what true good fruit looks like nor how it grows. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">Jesus says that the seed that produces fruit is that which fell on good soil. But your worldly eyes do not recognize what good soil looks like nor how it is prepared. Good soil is prepared through the preaching of the Law and various trials. Your pride must be slain in order for good soil to be plowed. You must be convinced that you are a sinner unworthy of eternal life. And, according to God\u2019s discretion, you must bear trials, which will expose your weakness, so that you do not trust in yourself nor any false god, but Christ alone. That is good soil. The worldly mind sees the preparation of good soil as bad. And it sees the devouring done by Satan, and the untouched rocky soil, and the thorny pleasures of life as good soil. But God must do much work to make the soil good. And this work will be painful to your pride and it will bring suffering in this life. Yet, this is for your own good. Because this is how God prepares your heart to receive Christ, his forgiveness, and salvation, as a free gift. And it is this faith, which produces all good fruit. Without this preparation, your heart will not desire Christ. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">The fruit is borne through patience, that is, through long suffering. The world thinks that those who are patient in this life are weak. Yet, it is the patient who have the strongest faith. And the way to have patience is to recognize your own weakness and rely on God\u2019s strength through Christ, for when you are weak, Christ is your strength. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">The devil, the world, and our sinful nature strive to convince us that good soil is bad and that good fruit is rotten. But you do not learn what good soil and good fruit is by listening to the devil, or following the world and your sinful desires. You learn what good soil and good fruit is by listening to God\u2019s Word. God\u2019s Word calls you to repent of your sins every day and to live in humility. God\u2019s Word tells you not to despair at trials, because your loving God, who sent His own Son to die to save you sends them, and He knows how best to end them. God\u2019s Word tells you that God forgives all your sins for Christ\u2019s sake, and that you can rely on the promises given to you in Baptism, in the Absolution, and in the Sacrament of the Altar, which promise forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe. And God\u2019s Word teaches you that the fruit you will produce in this life all flow from faith in Christ Jesus, who grants salvation to all who trust in Him. These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, and self-control, not boasting, pride, and self-indulgence. <\/p> <p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%\">Saving faith comes from hearing the message of Christ. We need saving faith until the end. So, may we listen to the message of Christ until our salvation is complete. Amen. <\/p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sexagesima Sunday| Luke 8:4-15 Pastor James Preus |Trinity Lutheran Church|February 4, 2024 \u00a0The first thing we learn from this parable of Jesus is that saving faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ. We are saved by faith, because Christ Jesus has offered Himself up as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. There is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2024\/02\/08\/the-seed-that-bears-fruit-2\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,7,33],"tags":[250,269,179],"class_list":["post-5650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermonsbyrevjamespreus","category-sexagesima","tag-james-preus","tag-luke-8","tag-sexagesima"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5653,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5650\/revisions\/5653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}