Lent 1

 

Lent 1 – Matthew 4 – February 21^st and 22^nd, 2026

In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

The Wilderness. We don't hear that word like people in the first Century did. We're Americans, and our myths and legends romanticize the Wilderness. Lewis and Clark are heroes – we have Westerns – go west young man, head on out there and tame a rugged land. That's what we tend to think of when we think of wilderness – just a place that we haven't tamed with civilization yet – give us a few years and there will be paved roads with a gas station on every corner.

That's not what folks in Jesus' day thought of when they thought of the wilderness. The wilderness was that desert area beyond the Jordan, and if you went there, you went there to die. You weren't going to be building, you weren't going to be enjoying things – you went there to die. There would be thirst and hunger and danger from wild animals. The wilderness was the place of dying. And the Jewish people of Jesus' day knew that all the more – the children of Israel had spent 40 years in the wilderness because of their disobedience, 40 years where all the adults who refused to enter the promised land died, 40 years where they were sustained only by miracles – manna from heaven, water from a rock, clothing that miraculously didn't wear out. The wilderness is death, the wilderness is punishment for sin.

Jesus goes to the wilderness to face down death, to take up the punishment for sin. That is what verse one of our text is driving at. “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Then – immediately after His baptism, immediately after Jesus is joined to us by being baptized in the Jordan – He goes out the wrong way. Instead of heading west back towards Judea, He heads east, across the Jordan, off to the Wilderness. Of course He does. Just as your baptism joined you to Christ, where you receive all of His righteousness, His life, His love – so too Christ's baptism joined Him to you – and He took up all your sin, all your wretchedness. The wages of sin is death. The disobedient were left to linger in the wilderness. And so, led by the Spirit, taking up your sin, Jesus heads to the wilderness. He takes your place, the place of all the Israelites, the place of all of humanity. And Jesus goes to that place of shame and suffering and danger and defeat – and He goes to be tempted by the devil.

Being tempted by the devil is the story of human history. Of course we can say that biblically – the Old Testament reading today is Genesis 3, the fall, the temptation by Satan. Indeed, throughout the scriptures, every sin plays off of temptation somehow. But more than that – on every page of every history book, in the events of our own lives, temptation is there, always there. The urge, the desire to serve the self rather than God or neighbor – the desire say no to God when He tells us to love God, love our neighbor. The temptation to do what we want, to listen to our flesh, to say “to hell with everyone else, I'm doing what I think is best for me” neither realizing nor caring that this attitude is in fact walking the road to hell yourself. That's temptation. And you will be tempted this week. This day. You probably have temptations kicking around your mind right now. This is what life after the fall has become for us – constantly hounded by sin, weakened and beaten down by a harsh world, by bodies that fail us.

And this is where Christ comes. When we confess in the Creed that Jesus “was made man” this is what we are talking about – not simply that He took on a human body – but that He was made man, made like we are, with a body that takes on our frailties, living not the life of some sort of superman, but stepping right into the middle of the same sort of mess that we are in. And so, for us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and stepped right into the wilderness of our sin and death and jumped smack dab into the middle of temptation. But wait, there's more. “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.” Jesus doesn't prepare for the temptation like an athlete getting ready for a marathon – He doesn't carefully balance carbs and proteins and check His electrolyte levels. No – He fasts. Fasting in the Scriptures is the demonstration of sorrow over sin and death. And as Jesus takes up our sin, He is sorrowful, He fasts, He prays. That's His reaction to sin, to our sin. And then, when He is weak, weaker than most of us can imagine – only then do the temptations start.

“And the tempter came and said, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.'” You're the Son of God, you don't deserve this! Why, You've got power Jesus! Go on, feed Yourself. So my friends, what's the temptation here? What's so bad, so wrong about this? To understand, listen to Jesus's response. “It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.'” On one level this is a statement about trust in God – that we rely upon God to provide for us, we don't run around trusting in ourselves. Moreover, it reminds us that our hungers, our wants and desires don't determine what is right and wrong, but God and His Word do. But in reality, it's so much more wondrous than that. Jesus isn't in that wilderness for His own good. He was led there by the Spirit for your salvation – and the only way You will live isn't by filling your belly – you can do that all the days of your life and you'll still die. Lack of bread isn't the problem. No, the only way you will live, will have eternal and everlasting life is by the Word of God taking on Human flesh and defeating Satan for you and dying for you and rising for you. Jesus has not come to satisfy Himself – He has come to make satisfaction for sin and win you Salvation. And part of Jesus's victory is going through this Wilderness without grumbling, without complaint, without focusing on what His belly wants.

Satan attacks again. “Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him upon the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear your up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”'” Why be in the wilderness fighting against sin and death Jesus – You could just take the holy land, the holy city by storm. You're the Son of God – these folks should be going gaga over You – tell You what – here we are at the temple, all the religious types are here – toss Yourself off, the angels will come and catch You, there will be laud and praise and glory. That's the way a God should be treated, isn't it? Yet Jesus says, “Again, it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Yes, simply this means don't go about playing stupid games with God. “If you really loved me you'd catch me from falling, you'd buy me a pony, blah-blah-blah” - that doesn't fly with God. But more than that – don't put God to the test. The very first temptation in Eden was “you will be like God.” No Satan, you don't get to tell Me what it's like to be God, how God should act, how God should be treated. You don't understand God, anyway. I'm not overly interested in glory or praise right now – being God is this: winning for fallen man salvation – something you'd never understand. Now, get that weak-sauce glory temptation out of here.

And now Satan knows that Jesus is here, and that Jesus is here to fight. So Satan sues for peace, tries to reach a bargain. “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, 'All these I will give You, if You will fall down and worship me.'” They are mine, Jesus – they are fast bound in Satan's chains, captive to sin and death – that is the price of sin. But we don't need to fight – You can have them, do with them whatever You wish – You can love Your neighbor to Your heart's content – just leave some room for me. Do it my way – let me be your God – cause that's what Satan's always wanted. To be like God. Satan tempted us with what he himself wanted. But Jesus will have none of it. “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.'” And Jesus does it. Even weakened, He doesn't bend, He doesn't break, He doesn't give into sin. And He will go forth throughout the Gospel and fight and beat down Satan; He will go to win you your salvation.

Of course, if we treat the temptation of our Lord as just a past event, as just a prelude to Lent, we miss the point. Jesus was tempted immediately after He was baptized. That's not just a past reality, because Jesus joined Himself to you in your baptism. When you were baptized, Jesus chose to be with you, now, in the midst of your temptations. This is real right now – this is Hebrews: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus sympathizes, when you feel something He feels it too – because He is joined to you, you are part of His own Body. He is tempted as you are, for when you are tempted in reality Satan is tempting Christ again. And while you and I might give into temptation, Christ Jesus never does. When we fail, Christ immediately takes up that failure and says, “I've crucified it – fear not, you are still My own.” And when we stand – well, in reality it is Christ our Lord who stands in us and for us and through us. This is the truth, the reality of you who are as a Baptized child of God, this is what Paul is talking about when he says in Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

My friends, this Lent as we see Christ beat down sin and Satan, as we see Him tangle with death – this isn't just stuff in the past. This is the reality of your life, who you are – for you are with Christ and He is with you. You are baptized, washed in water and the Word – you are never merely a desert wilderness, for Christ is with you, and He has given you the living water, and wells of water spring up from within you. Satan will tempt you, he will distract you with wants and passions and pleasures, he will try to tell you what your life really ought to be like, he will try to make you think you ought to be God. But it is all rubbish – you have more already that anything Satan could peddle. You are bound to Christ, you are an heir already of the Kingdom of heaven and eternal life. So we will watch and wonder again this Lent as Jesus wins the Victory over sin and death and the devil – but this victory is already yours. You are baptized into Christ. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

Quinquagesima Sunday

 

Quinquagesima – Luke 18 – February 14^th and 15^th, 2026

In the Name of the Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

The crowd had gathered. They had heard that Jesus was coming, and they wanted to see what was going on. Some even wanted to maybe be a part of this whole Jesus thing – lots of cool stuff with this Jesus fellow. They'd already heard all sorts of things. So Jesus is coming, and the crowd is gathering to see Him. But there's one guy who is there, but not because he was following Jesus or chasing after him. A blind guy is there. The gathering crowd has come upon his typical spot to beg – because that's what he does. He can't see, can't work, and so he gets to beg. He gets to spend his day hoping that passer-bys show him charity, hoping that they don't take advantage of him. It would be easy to fleece him – there's a reason why “steal him blind” is a phrase, even today.

But this blind fellow can hear, and he can tell by the sound that his street is far more busy than it ought to be, and he asks what's going on. Oh, Jesus is coming by. So the blind beggar does what a beggar does. He begs. Loudly. He calls out to Jesus – Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! And then we hear in our Gospel lesson one of the most chilling lines in all of the Scriptures. And those in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. And those in front, those leading this Jesus parade crowd... what do they do? They rebuke him. Do you hear the resentment at work? Listen bud, we're the ones up front, we're the ones leading this parade, this is our shindig to serve the Lord and you are ruining it. Don't you know who we are, how we've served Jesus, and you're just some beggar. And do you hear the control? Now, we're telling you to be silent, to be quiet. Just shut up. You don't get to call upon Jesus like that. We are not amused; we do not approve – in fact, we forbid.

Do you see why I say that this is chilling? These aren't the “bad guys” in a parable. These aren't even Pharisees or Scribes or the typical “villains” of the stories we get. No, these are the people right up front in the Jesus crowd. And yet, what they do here is just so blatantly wrong and cold and callous and cruel. The layers, the separations that we put up between us and the “bad guys” are thrown down. That crowd is us – I'd be up front in that crowd. And so we are driven to ponder – what are the casually cruel things that I just coldly go about doing with nary a thought – indeed, that I do while thinking that I'm a good little boy for doing them? And sometimes, when we see such things in our own lives, realize such things, the guilt, the shame, the shock of it all drives in hard upon us.

And here we should pause, and we should remember who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing. There is Jesus, True God and True Man, who has come down from heaven, and why? For us men and for our salvation. Jesus didn't come down from heaven to deal with piddly little things – angelic armies don't sing loudly because Jesus was dealing with a triffle of trouble. No, Jesus coming down from heaven was big, and it was to deal with big, heavy things. Big heavy sins, spurred on by Satan, with the crushing weight and burden of death. And just before He got to Jericho, did you hear what Jesus said to His disciples? “See, we are going up to Jerusalem....” See, understand. We are going up to Jerusalem. That's a fascinating phrase. It was the common way of describing going to worship in the Old Testament. In the book of Psalms there are several “Psalms of Ascent” - these were the Psalms you would sing as you went up to Jerusalem – you always went up to Jerusalem because it was up high on the hills, the temple built on Mount Zion. We're going to Zion, we're going to worship, to the sacrifice, to the Passover. But this time, it's not going to be like all those past worships and sacrifices – or it is, but more full, more profound, more permanent than those. Because this time “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” Will be finished – will be “it is finished”. Jesus is going to the Cross. He is going to be the true Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, His blood upon the Cross so that death may not only passed-over but be defeated and His people be delivered from sin unto the true and eternal promised land of life everlasting. And the accomplishment of this, the finishing off of Satan's kingdom and the destruction of death – it wouldn't be pretty. It will be hard to see. “For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him....” And all the weight of sin will come crashing down upon the Messiah – and He will die. “And on the third day He will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Even after all His teaching, even after seeing all His miracles and authority, the disciples still didn't understand. They couldn't compute it. It didn't make sense.

But still Jesus heads to Jerusalem. The disciples' lack of understanding had never stopped Jesus before, and it won't stop Him now. And Jesus comes upon this commotion, where the crowd is shouting down this beggar angrily, and the beggar is shouting all the more. And Jesus pauses – He stands still. And what does Jesus see when He sees this scene? He sees His people trapped in sin. He sees the devastating impact of sin upon our bodies – those eyes are basically dead before the rest of that guy's body is dead. Jesus even sees this beggar being shamefully treated, condemned to silence, blindness, just crawl over there and die because this crowd is done with you... a little mini version of what's going to happen to Jesus come Good Friday – when the crowd will cry “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”

No. That will not be the story of this blind guy. Bring him to Me, because that's what the folks in the Jesus crowd are supposed to be doing, bring people to Jesus, bringing people into the vineyard, sowing the seed no matter what you think the soil looks like, because that's how the Kingdom of God works. And Jesus asks the blind man a vitally important question – What do you want Me to do for you? Lord, that I would see again, that my dead eyes would live again. And Jesus does it, the One whom this man had faith in saves his blind eyes, and the man follows Jesus.

Jesus comes across sin and its impacts, and He will not let them run the day. This is the hinge of the Christian faith – that Jesus will defeat sin, death, and the Devil – that He will not mollycoddle sin or blow it off – no, He will crucify it and kill it as He bares it upon the Cross. And He will establish His church wherein His death and resurrection for the forgiveness and remission of sin will be proclaimed. Sin and death and the Devil will be fought now in the Church – Jesus will fight the sin that still clings to you, He will drive it into remission and forgive it. And if you want to see this, to understand this, you've got to get the order right.

Jesus asked the Blind man a very important question. What do you want Me, Jesus, to do for you? There's the direction of the Church – Jesus for this blind man, Jesus for you. The Church is where Jesus does things for you, to save you, to forgive you, to redeem you. Too often we want things to be focused primarily on what we do for Jesus – cause that's what sin does to us. We can resent being in need; we can want to be in charge. Did you note something profound in the text? The crowd that shouted down this blind man – they were in front. They thought they were leading. They thought they were in charge – see how we are clearing this road for you Jesus? And they dropped the ball horridly. Contrast this with the healed blind man. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. Following. Behind. Letting Jesus lead. Christian piety, the faithful Christian life is one where we follow Jesus, where we echo Jesus and repeat His words of forgiveness and life to others, where we give to others precisely what He has given to us. Oh, we will talk so much in America about being leaders, and Church leadership will pop up again and again as a hot topic talking point... but we're called to follow Jesus. We follow, and we simply encourage others to follow, to hear, to receive God's gifts. Resentment and control give way to wonder that comes with being led by Jesus.

But that's hard. It is a call away from your own wants and desires, what you think would be best for you. Even Jesus will pray “Thy will be done, not Mine” in the Garden. And following Jesus will mean taking up a cross, it will mean confronting the crowds of resentment demanding control and domination, and it will mean forgiving and loving, and maybe even being rejected and crucified. Don't worry – Jesus knows – and that's why Jesus goes to Jerusalem, why Jesus goes to Good Friday. He does it so that come Easter He will stride forth from the tomb, He does it so that when He comes again in glory you will rise and stride forth from your tomb and every funeral I and every pastor have ever done will be undone.

Lent is coming. And Lent is the season where we focus on Jesus's journey to the Cross, where we will be a bit more quiet, a bit more reserved, and we will watch and follow along. And we will see Jesus tangle with Satan, with Temptation, with Sin and disdain in all its forms. And all of it, for you. Truly for you, not to get something out of you, not to make you pay Him back or anything like that. No, all of it, simply because Jesus made you to live, not to be trapped in sin and death – and He will have you brought to be with Him for eternity, to see Him forever, to delight in all that He does for you ever more and more. The Light of the World will make you to see more and more, even until the Last Day and we all see Him fully face to face. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

Sexagesima Sunday

 

Sexigesima – Luke 8 – February 7^th and 8^th, 2026

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World+

So, last week in our sermon we pondered the terrible and evil power of resentment, how it seeks to warp us – and yet how Christ Jesus is good to us, does right by us, and gives us salvation that is totally disconnected from our works so there is no need to even bother with resentment at all. And this week, we will end up pondering yet another thing that Jesus frees us from, but before we get that we need to get a little reminder. We're dealing with Parables, and something to remember is that from our point of view, the parables always are a little off. Okay, really, some of the parable are just flat out silly.

Take last week – the Workers in the Vineyard. That's no way to run a successful vineyard. Now, what I would have done isn't that just keep hiring people thing – that's just throwing money at a problem and hoping something sticks. No, you hire a bunch of guys for a day, and you watch them closely, and you see who the good, hard workers are, and then you rehire them. You assemble a team, a solid core, and perhaps you even put them in lower management roles, foremen, and you keep them on, and that's a better, cheaper, more efficient way to run the vineyard. In fact, my management of that vineyard would be so good, I'm sure, because I mean, I just know so much about running a vineyard, that I would expand and diversify. I'd get into the wheat business too.

Picture it – I'd be able to have a vineyard and a wheat field – I could make both bread and wine for communion, and I'd certainly make a better product than CPH and Mogen David. So when I'd buy my field, the first thing I'd do is go and do a thorough survey of it – it doesn't matter that I miss that wedding feast I was invited to go to, this survey is important. And I'd do an extensive soil analysis, and then I'd properly work the field first. That hardpan in the west quadrant, either that needs to be broken up, or if that's too hard, eh, put some solar panels on it – they aren't as ugly as the windmills and are easier to replace – because I know all about renewable energy to boot. And as for that rocky soil, well, you've got to prep that ground really well, drag the stones out – hey, I could use them to give a rustic look to my boutique hotel/winetasting room I'm adding on to the vineyard. And of course, that east field with the weeds needs a heavy duty dose of Monsanto's finest. And then, with proper hiring practices and finding solid equipment on the used market, in no time we'd have a massive wheat operation going as well – and it would be so fantastic that I'd have to build bigger barns, and I'd be so satisfied and say to myself, “Man, Brown, you've got it all together, you should just retire and enjoy life,” because I was just that smart, large and in charge, But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

The parables are often problematic for us because we human beings love control. We love to focus on our choices and our decisions. And in a certain realm, in parts of our lives that is fine and appropriate. God gives us vocations, and in those vocations we are called upon to plan and make decisions, to try to exercise some modicum of control – our Farmers ought to be giving some thought to how they will handle and tend their fields, teachers have planning sessions, stores are organized, even I as a Pastor, believe it or not, need to plan and organize things to have service run smoothly. Control, in and of itself, isn't a bad thing – if we are controlling something that God has given us control over. But since the fall, instead of being content to simply control what God has given us to control, our sinful flesh wants to control everything. We want to be in charge of everything (or if not everything at least plenty of things that aren't our business). And as such, we might often stick our nose in where it doesn't belong. We will get told to mind our own business, stay in our lane, mind our place. Even in the Catechism, when Luther wants us to ponder our sins, he says “Consider your station in life”. Are we controlling the things we're supposed to control, and are we, more importantly for today's lesson, not trying to control things we were not given to control?

Because there are things that you are not to try to control, that you are never to attempt to control. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God....” The Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Heaven. The thing with all these parables that Jesus gives, these stories that seem strange and confusing, is that they all deal with the Kingdom of God. God's Kingdom. And in the Kingdom of heaven, guess who is in charge? Not you, not me, God. God is in charge, and these parables are telling how how and what God does in running His own business. The problem is that the original sin, the base and root of every temptation you face and every sin you dive into is this: Don't just listen to God – no, eat the fruit and then YOU will be like God, knowing good and evil. You will get to say what is right and wrong, you will get to make the decisions, you will get to run things. That's the root of every temptation – I want things my way right away. But that's not how the kingdom of God works. He's God, and I'm not. I don't get to be in charge.

I mean, if I had things my way, I'd never preach a sermon that fell flat. We'd never have a service that people didn't bother to attend. Everyone we ever invited to church would faithfully attend and give generously into the offerings to boot. And everyone would participate in all the things I'd want them to. But that's not how the Kingdom of God works. It doesn't hinge upon my wants – and it doesn't hinge upon your wants, and it didn't hinge upon the Disciples' wants either.

So there you have the disciples, and after Jesus' death and resurrection, they are going to be overseeing the Church. And they have a clear problem – they are all about power and control, they want to be able to call down thunder upon people. They are typical people, just like us. And so Jesus tells them this parable, He reveals the mystery of the kingdom of God to them.

A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. It's a strange story – not how we'd go about planting. Of course, we've all seen grain that bounces out of the trucks on the highway before, so maybe it's not as strange as we think. And what's the mystery that's revealed?

Well, the disciples, the church, you and I – we are given the Word of God. The message of Christ Jesus and His forgiveness – that Jesus has died and risen for you. The seed is the Word of God. And you know what – this Word of God goes forth all over the place. Week in and week out, the Word of God is proclaimed here – this is the Word of the Lord/ Thanks be to God. And you leave this place armed with the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit, and you are given by God opportunities to proclaim the Gospel and forgiveness to people. This is the reality of the Church – that the Word of God goes forth!

And sometimes, as you tell others of Jesus, they just won't care. The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the Devil comes and takes away the Word from them so that they may not believe and be saved. It's not that you did something wrong, that you didn't use the right method or phrase – no, the Word of God was proclaimed... and sometimes, for reasons far beyond your control, beyond your ability to change or plan or manage, they just don't care. It will happen. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while and in time of testing fall away. And sometimes things go gangbusters, and then they slow down, and life gets a bit rough, and people fade away from the Church. We've all seen it. I'm willing to wager that most of us have been there in fact. It happens – and when you see someone's zeal go kaput, it doesn't necessarily mean that you did anything wrong or that we need to change everything. No, it's just going to happen.

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. And sometimes people just won't grow the way you want. And again, that's normal, that's just what is going to happen. And then there's the good soil, people hear the Word and bear fruit with patience. That happens too. And here is the hard, hard message – we don't get to control how things play out. It's not the Kingdom of Eric, it's the Kingdom of God. And with this parable, Jesus calls us way from our sinful desire to control everything, to order and arraign everything the precise way we'd want it to be. Nope – just preach the Word, share the Gospel, forgive people, and let the chips fall, well, the seed fall where it may.

But there is another great and wondrous mystery that we should consider with this parable. We hear the tale and account of these different soils, and we are so quick to write them off. Ope, it failed. Write them off, nothing doing, right now they are lousy and thus it is. And when we do that, we undersell the Kingdom of God and the Word of God. Consider – where are all these soils? They are all in the Kingdom of God. Jesus doesn't add a sentence at the end where He says, “And finding the good soil the Sower then ignored all the other soils because they were dumb.” No, the Sower sows. Jesus is the Light of the world, the whole world. And you know what, the Holy Spirit works when and where He wills, and His Word does not return to Him empty or void but it will accomplish what He purposes. Jesus has died for all, He has taken away the sin of the World, and the truth of His Gospel goes forth again and again. Even to the hard cases, and sometimes the Lord breaks and shatters the hard heart - And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And even when we're a bit rocky or a bit thorny, because that happens – we still remain in God's kingdom. For does not the rocky and thorny soil still not belong to the Lord – just isn't as productive as it ought to be – well, what else is new in a sinful world? The Word of God still remains; Jesus has still died for your sin, even on your bad days. Jesus still wins.

So you don't need to control and run everything, because you know what? That's Jesus' job, and He does a much better job of it than you would, and He bears fruit with abounding patience, for He is the Good soil, and this day, right now, once again He forgives you all your sin and gives you life in His own Name. This is the Word of the Lord – thanks be to God. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +