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Being ready for Jesus' return means letting our faith work in our lives.

Being ready for Jesus' return means letting the gospel work in our lives rather than burying it away.

Jesus told us that after He left us for His heavenly throne, He would be returning. And in today’s gospel lesson, the main point is this: We must be prepared for Jesus’ return!

"Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine!We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.Alleluia! Alleluia!"LSB 677:4

When we stand before God for judgment, the question won’t be “Were you a Lutheran?” The question will be: Did Jesus Christ make you righteous by faith? Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life?

God is still in charge, even in a world that doesn't know him or love him. The light and the darkness, good times and bad times — they all come from your Redeemer and are ultimately used by Him for your eternal good.

"Peace that surpasses understanding" can be yours — but how do you get it if you can't understand it?

Nothing can stop the King of Glory from entering into our lives with his forgiveness, peace, and love. Jesus came to die and rise again for us 2,000 years ago; Jesus comes to us now through Scripture, Baptism, and Communion; Jesus will come again to bring us all into eternal glory. And until the King of Glory does return, our call is to share with others the forgiveness, peace, and love we ourselves have received.

Sermon by guest preacher, Rev. Peter Preus.

There’s no room for arrogance or self-righteousness because in the Kingdom, our personal merit counts for nothing, and God’s goodness counts for everything.

God's grace toward us is scandalously generous. God's grace proves its presence within us as we extend that grace to others.

In the Church, we don't have to follow God's law in order to stay in God's "good graces." Jesus Christ has fulfilled that requirement of God’s law perfectly. Our sins are forgiven, our consciences are cleansed. And yeah, we’ll always be learning how to be the Church, and we’ll always need God’s grace to cover our shortcomings and sins. But the call of the gospel does involve being the Church. And in order to facilitate that, God gives watchmen to advise, warn, and encourage us.

I. Mindful of the reason Jesus cameII. Mindful that our ways are not God's waysIII. Mindful of what being a follower of Jesus meansIV. Mindful that Jesus will come again in glory.Sermon by guest pastor Rev. John Grein

"Everything comes from God and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen." Romans could end there, but it doesn't. Instead, it goes on: You’re part of “everything.” You come from God. You exist by his power. The trajectory of your life is ultimately to bring him glory. And the way you do that is by offering yourself up as a living sacrifice.

God is not the kind that rejects or turns away. In fact, it's actually the opposite. God gathers and welcomes all who seek him, and he does so through Jesus Christ.

Somebody has to tell you the Good News. You can’t find it within yourself. You can’t make the situation between yourself and God better on your own by amending your lifestyle and changing your behaviors. God’s grace comes to us from outside of ourselves. And God has ordained that it comes to us through hearing the Good News about Christ.

This text from Isaiah 55 comes at the end of a 15 chapter section detailing God's plan to redeem his people according to his unending love for them. After explaining how this salvation would be accomplished, and what exactly the benefits would be for those who received it, the invitation rings out: "All who are thirsty, come to the waters! All who are hungry, come to the feast!"In Jesus Christ, your salvation is already accomplished. The question is this: Will you accept the offer?

In the end, it will be totally obvious that God worked everything together for our good. He called you according to His purpose; He’s not making this up as He goes along. He foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified you. What seems to you like a linear progression, one day at a time, is a completed whole for the Lord who loves you.‌So now we understand that everything that would typically signal defeat and loss — things like trouble, calamity, persecution, hunger, destitution, danger, or even death — these don’t actually touch our overwhelming victory in Christ. God is sovereign over even these crosses we bear; not that he delights in making you bear them, but rather the Crucified One is made nearer to you when you take up your cross. The things that would apparently separate you from the love of Jesus in fact draw you closer to it.

The beatings, imprisonments, confiscation of property, and cruel executions that the early Church faced didn’t erode their confidence in Christ but rather galvanized it—the more we share in Christ’s sufferings, the more we’ll share in his glory!We hear this very differently because we don’t face anything like what the early Church did. But Paul isn’t only talking about suffering for the sake of the gospel; any and every kind of suffering we face in this world riddled with sin and its effects is in view here. And though we do our best in 21st century America to block it out, creation tells us all the time that things are not right.But here's the gospel promise: because of Christ, future glory awaits all of creation. You know it—and creation knows it, too.