CrossTalk: Pray without Ceasing

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” Thus, Jesus begins one of his best-known parables. It is known for his sharp criticism of the self-righteous Pharisee, and his justification of the sinner.

I want to talk about that. But, first, let’s talk about what they went to the temple to do. That’s a vital part of the story. They went to pray!

What does that mean? What is prayer?

The root meaning of prayer is “to make a request.” It is to ask for something. Whatever else we might say to God, we have not yet prayed until we have asked him to give us something,

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He answered by giving them seven things that they should ask for. Collectively, we call these seven petitions the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-15).

That’s hugely important. While God wants you to thank him for his gifts and to express your thoughts and concerns, what he wants above all is for you to pray. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).

God wants you to ask for godly things. So, that’s where the devil attacks.

Satan may tell you that God doesn’t exist. This is the lie that keeps most of the world from praying.

The devil may paint God as aloof and uncaring. This is another lie that discourages people from prayer.

But among those who already believe that God is good and gracious, Satan’s favorite deception is that you already have all that you need. He uses this lie to keep you from actually asking for anything.

That is the ruse that kept the Pharisee from praying for anything. “God, I thank you that I am not like other men.” Blah. Blah. Blah. But he never got around to asking for anything. And by that devilish omission, he proved his unbelief.

Suddenly, “thoughts and prayers” has become a hot topic. That’s great! Because like the pharisee and the publican, prayer separates the men from the boys—the sons of God from the sons of disobedience.

Of course you will want to defend the power of prayer. But once you have stood up to be counted with the sons of God, don’t just stand there, pray!

You should start like the publican started: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He will have mercy on you—not because you deserve mercy more than others or because you are any less of a sinner than others.

He will have mercy and forgive your sins because Jesus has earned mercy for you. By His suffering and death, he takes away the sin of the world.

And once God has had mercy on you by taking away your sins, he invites you to pray for many other impossibly difficult things.

- Pray that your friend or neighbor who is captivated by Satan’s lies might be set free and come to believe in the one true God. Pray for the one on the evening news who hates God, who blasphemes—who even kills those who believe in Jesus.

- Pray that people in positions of government power might make decisions that harmonize with God’s will and do not defy the Creator of heaven and earth. Pray that believers might be elected to public offices throughout our land. And pray that the Christians already elected might do their jobs guided by God’s holy Scripture.

- Pray that the unspeakably evil powers of hell might be held at bay. Jesus has always warned us how deep is the corruption and how deadly is the evil that seethes just below the surface. Now that you can see it on the evening news, don’t be surprised.

Rather, now that the serpent has come out of hiding, do what Jesus has always exhorted you to do. Pray without ceasing. God has put you here in the world to make a difference. And your greatest power is not to scream at the television, but to pray to God.

You are the salt that preserves this evil world from the rot that would overtake it. And your saltiness is most effective when you pray for those whom you meet. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

Pray at church with the body of Christ. Pray at home with your family. Pray in your closet and in your car. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).

Sermon Audio - September 7, 2025

 

Trinity 12 - Savior of All, from All

Romans 10:9-17; Mark 7:31-37

Sermon Audio - August 31, 2025

Trinity 11 Sermon

Ephesians 2:1-9

September Calendar

 

Kohl Wedding - August 30, 2025

 

The Rite of Holy Matrimony

CrossTalk: Christ Frees Us to Serve and Love

As we near the end of July, the month of freedom, we ought to consider freedom through the lens of the Bible. Otherwise, we will know neither what it is, nor how to keep it.

First, always remember that freedom is the freedom to do what is right. As Abraham Lincoln reminded us, people never have a right to do wrong. To be fully human is not to be enslaved to the sins and vices that feed your selfishness, but to be free from sin and ennobled to serve.

That’s why the Bible rarely talks about “rights.” Instead, it focuses our attention on our duties toward God and others. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and body and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).

The obligation to love God and others is so strong that no human commandment can remove it from you. So, when the rulers of Jerusalem tried to stop Peter and John from fulfilling their obligation to speak of Christ, they simply replied, “We must obey God, rather than man” (Acts 5:29).

This same principle applies when parents consider their obligation to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It applies to your duty to speak the truth in love. It applies to your calling to be a Good Samaritan toward whoever needs your loving hand.

God has called you to this. Let no man interfere with your freedom to serve. That—and nothing less—is true freedom.

Satan seeks always to enslave. Sometimes he enslaves by tempting you to fulfill the desires of the flesh. But other times, he enslaves by tempting you to knuckle under to the power of the world.

Satan will pervert otherwise legitimate powers to stifle your obligation to speak the truth, to hold you back from loving your neighbor, or from guarding your children from false teaching.

He does this by threatening your livelihood, your social standing, or even your life. He does this by promising promotions and praise if only you will abandon your God-given duty. Christians recognize these threats and promises as “temptations of the world.”

They can be powerful—partly because the threat of losing money or friends is scary—partly because they make it easy to convince yourself that you are not being selfish, you are “only following orders.”

Against these temptations, St. Paul warns us, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Don’t be deceived by lying philosophies that twist words to distract you from your duty. Don’t be bullied by human powers that claim a right to make you do wrong. Don’t even be deterred by the most elemental fears that you will lose your livelihood or your life if you do your duty.

Your Creator has your back.

Jesus is the creator of this world. So, nothing in all of creation can harm those who hearken to their Creator. “For in him,” the Bible teaches, “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:8).

In Jesus you are free to serve, free to do your duty, free to love both God and neighbor. You need not be confused by philosophy or empty deceit. And you need not fear the powers of this world—even the most basic or the most powerful.

Your Creator remains in control. And those who trust in Him cannot be moved. “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1 Peter 3:12).

CrossTalk: May Jesus fill your time in 2025

 

Time is a precious commodity. It is always slipping away. And you never know how much more you will be given.

Incredible amounts of our energy go into planning for the future. But sudden death—accidents, strokes, heart attacks—bring all those plans to nothing. Now the passage of time means the inexorable march to death.

So, James teaches: "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15).

The more we meditate on our short time, the wiser we become. The Psalmist prays, “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90). So, let’s begin 2025 with a meditation on time.

Time was the very first creation of God. “In the beginning, God created...” Genesis 1:1). There was no beginning before THE beginning. And without a beginning, there is no ending. God is timeless, but His creation is not.

Time is a created thing. That means that time is not evil. Rather, God said, “It is very good!” Time is not our problem. Sin is our problem. Death is not the inevitable result of time. Death is the result of sin.

Before sin entered into the world, time was a march toward growth and maturity. Only now, has it become a march toward death and disintegration. And there is nothing--absolutely nothing that you can do to stop it.

But because of Jesus, time has been redeemed. It has been returned to a good and godly gift. “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

On the first Christmas, God entered fully into time while remaining fully God. The Creator of time subjected Himself to time-wrought change while remaining unchangeable.

When Jesus enters into time, time itself becomes a vehicle of salvation. Time, rather than being drained out like an hour-glass, is filled like a wine-glass. Rather than being a bringer of death, time itself has become a bringer of life.

That’s the importance of the New Testament word, “NOW.” Now, everything is changed. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).

Jesus is the “Fullness of Time.” Jesus is the reason time was created. And Jesus is the content of heavenly time.

For you, that means that when Christ fills your time, time is FULLY-filled. Every moment in Christ is a blessing. Every moment in Christ is a moment in the salvation He is for you--salvation from sin, from death, from the devil.

And Christ has come to you in time--in this moment. When you take up the Word of God, Christ is coming to you in time. It’s not just that He came to the world 2025 years ago. But that He still comes in time and place to save you. Right now, the Word of God is happening to you. Christ is filling this time.

May Jesus fill your days in 2025. For when Christ fills your days by His Word, your days are fulfilled in Him.

CrossTalk: We Praise You, O God

 

This week (December 7) Christians will commemorate Ambrose of Milan—as they have done for 16 centuries. This pious and gifted teacher of the church is one of those people whom God put into the world at a pivotal moment in history to preserve His Word and teaching for us.

Ambrose’s life and work are well worth studying. I want to commemorate him here by reflecting on one of the most widely used and enduring hymns of Western Christianity, traditionally ascribed to him. We call it by its Latin title, Te Deum. Translated, it sings out: “We praise you, O God, we acknowledge You to be the Lord. All the earth now worships you, the Father everlasting.”

With the little word, “now,” Ambrose underscores an astounding new reality that modern Christians often fail to see. Suddenly, after the sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension of the Jewish man, Jesus, the entire world began worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Until Jesus, only one small nation on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea had ever heard of Him.

As Christians of the first several centuries observed that the Old Testament was being read in every city of the inhabited world, they noted the fulfillment of prophecies like, Psalm 22:27 “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.” This became one of the most convincing proofs that the Messiah had, indeed, come into the world.

For the Jews, this meant that the eternal song of the angels, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth” (Isaiah 6:3), was now made plain. With the coming of Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was revealed by His Trinitarian Name: “The Father of an infinite majesty; Thine adorable, true, and only Son; also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.”

Ambrose next goes on briefly to outline the saving acts of Christ, “the King of glory,” who is “the everlasting Son of the Father.”

First, in the fullness of time, the eternal Son became a man—something that He never was before. “When You took upon Yourself to deliver man, You humbled Yourself to be born of a virgin.”

Next, as the God-man he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day, he rose again from the dead and appeared to the Apostles, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:22-23).

This Ambrose captured with the words, “When You had overcome the sharpness of death, You opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”

Third, Jesus, with His risen and glorified body, ascended into heaven to rule the universe not only as the God He always was, but now also as the only Perfect Man. We sing, “You sit at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.”

Jesus’ fourth and final act for your salvation has not yet happened. But we sing it out in full confidence through Ambrose’s poetry, “We believe that you will come to be our judge.”

After such a striking summary of Jesus’ work for your salvation, there is still one thing needed—faith. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16).

So, Ambrose ends with a supplication: “We, therefore, pray You to help Your servants whom You have redeemed with Your precious blood. Make them to be numbered with Your saints in glory everlasting.”

This beloved hymn has been sung since the early fifth century A.D. It is said that Ambrose wrote it for the baptism of Augustine on Easter Sunday of 387. Whatever occasioned its writing, the Te Deum remains one of the most beloved hymns in Christendom.