The Joshua Victor Theory

              Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Isaiah 40 has many great verses and themes in it, but in our section today God turns the tables on us. Normally we bombard God with all our questions, “why this”? “How that?” “What for?” But here God returns the favor with a packed blast of questions for us. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Hasn’t it been told to you? Who created this? Who can you compare me to? Why do you say…? Don’t you understand? It all surrounds the people’s complaint against God: “ My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God” . Hear that for a moment. The Israelites (and plenty of us today) think or feel God has forgotten them. He seems to be ignoring justice and we’re oppressed. Or I’m at the end of my rope, and utterly exhausted. Where’s God when I need Him? These thoughts are summed up in this cry from the people, “ My...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. God sure loves sheep. All over the Bible He calls His people “sheep”, from “ the Lord is my Shepherd ” to the Good Shepherd searching and finding His lost sheep—God loves sheep. And Matthew 9:36 observes that when Jesus taught the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were “ harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Clearly the sheep were in danger. There is a lot going on in those words. Harassed and helpless means that the sheep are being abused, exploited, or otherwise harmed, and are unable to defend themselves or rescue themselves out of the situation. “Like sheep without a shepherd” indicates they are leaderless or that their leaders have failed them. These words echo back to God’s care for His people the sheep, described in Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34 describes another group of harassed and helpless sheep. God rails against the “ shepherds of Israel” , ...

Sermon Notes: • Today: lesson in prayer, persistence/determination, justice, suffering, and the character of God.  • V. 1 Don’t surrender to discouragement or impatience! Have confidence to continually bring your prayers before God, knowing that He desires and invites them and has compassion. Christ is engaging with what is likely our common experience of frustration with regard to prayer: giving up prematurely. We are promised that we will face difficulty and crosses that will test our faith and persistence. Christ wants to build up our hearts, our resiliency, determination.  • “do not lose heart” Ephesians 3:13 “over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” • “do not lose heart” 2 Cor. 4:1, 16 in the ministry, or while our “outer self is wasting away”.  • Jesus tells various people to “take heart” when they were ill, when they needed forgiveness, when they were afraid because they didn’t recognize who Jesus was, or when they were to face tribul...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today’s message is from Deuteronomy 10. You might be forgiven for wondering what Deuteronomy has to do with our lives today. It is Moses’s sermons to the Israelites, around 1406 BC. That’s over 3,400 years ago, if you’re keeping track. Moses was teaching the Israelites a final time before they entered the promised land, after 40 years of wandering in the desert, because of their unfaithfulness. A new generation of Israelites, were trying to learn from the mistakes of their parent’s generation, and recommit themselves to faithfulness to God. So how does that tie in with us? First a few more facts about Deuteronomy’s importance. In all the Old Testament, it talks the most about passing on the faith to the next generation. A duty for every generation. Also, it strongly promotes the truth that God had specially chosen Israel, of all other nations—as God’s elect people. They weren’t el...

Ephesians 3:18–19 By faith, “may [you] have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge .” Amen. Every Sunday, in almost any Lutheran Church Missouri Synod church (I can’t speak for others), prayers are offered for “the whole people of God in Christ Jesus, and for all people according to their needs.”   Those include prayers for the spread of the Gospel, and those who do it—pastors, teachers, missionaries, etc. Prayers for those suffering from famine, war, violence, or natural disasters, as our brothers and sisters in Puna on the Big Island, or the North Shore of Kauai. Prayers for the sick and the suffering, in our congregation or others—including friends, family, neighbors, and others. Prayers to bless those who do good and restrain those who do evil. And almost always prayers for our governmental leaders—our president, governor, legislators, public safety workers, judges...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today Peter addresses Jesus on the question of forgiveness, and seems to be testing the upper limits of what God expects or requires of our forgiveness. Shall I forgive my brother 7 times? From the perspective of our sinful flesh, 7 times seems pretty generous and patient. But Jesus replies, “ I do not say to you seven times, but seventy seven times ” or “ seventy times seven ”. There is disagreement about how it’s translated. But whether 77 or 490 times, Jesus’ point is clear—don’t keep score of the sins committed against you, and don’t seek for an upper limit of forgiveness. Do not keep track, but forgive generously and without limit, as God has done for you. Jesus then tells a parable of forgiveness that begins with the debt a person owes, amounting in what today would be hundreds of millions or billions of dollars—or perhaps the equivalent of a couple hundred thousand years of work, at a laborer’s wage. Jesu...