Sentinels- Ezekiel 33:7-11. Sermon preached on September 6, 2026

            Last week I spoke about the presence of the Triune God who comes along beside us when we are having a very bad day. Regardless of the circumstances, God wants to be with; God is with us. 

            Now from that place of trust, we find the prophet Ezekiel sharing a beloved concept in book. The sentinel. 

Move 1- Context

            As I said last week when speaking about Jeremiah, the southern kingdom of Judah has fallen. In Jeremiah’s day the fall was imminent; in Ezekiel, The fall of Judah has happened. And as it happened several shocking conclusions and details come into focus—things which will challenge the Judean’s faith. 

“Contextually we know that “these Judean exiles persisted in their faith; this required that they make a theological shift [a shift they did not anticipate]. 

[As we also know], Judean religion differed from the practices of the surrounding cultures: They believed they should worship only one God [our God]. The Babylonians, like most of the surrounding cultures, believed there were many gods and goddesses, each of whom had a designated role. Some were in charge of rain or fertility; others represented and fought for individual nations. 

The Babylonians would have believed that their conquest of the Judeans meant that the Babylonian god had defeated the God of Judah because the former was more powerful. They would have expected [the] Judeans, like other conquered nations, to stop worshiping a conquered god who had failed them and begin worshiping the Babylonian pantheon [who won the fight]. Instead, the Judean exiles discerned that their one God had not been defeated but had allowed them to be defeated because they as a community had done something wrong.”[1] 

            And while this image of the Triune God seems off to our hearts and ears, it was how the people felt. For Jeremiah warned them about what would happen if they continued to choose sin over a right relationship with God—and it did anyway. Now Ezekiel is referring back to those moments as God speak to His people in today’s text. These people wrestle with this tension: did they do something wrong to earn this exile or was God defeated? 

            As we know both conclusions are only partially correct. 

            We know that they sinned. We know that God allowed them to ‘reap what they sowed.’ Yet God was also not powerless; God was not beaten in the contest of champions—Judah vs. Babylon. Even if the Babylonian Empire was an ancient superpower that was rapidly conquering the ancient world, God did not lose the fight. A tiny nation like Judah could never have prevented its own military defeat against such an adversary. 

            Against that backdrop, we have Ezekiel’s words to the people to live as sentinels, or perhaps your Bible say, live as watchmen. It is the same word.

Move 2- Sentinels defined

            In the Hebrew world a watchman is one who leans forward; they peer in from a distance. Observing. Watching. Wondering. The word also conveys the idea of watching from an elevated position; scanning the horizon. Anticipating movement and announcing what is seen and herein is the evangelistic moment… again, scanning the horizon to announce what is seen. And we know that God’s word calls us, to watch, to witness, and to testify to what we see with our eyes from that position, but also, we are watching something else. Scanning something else… 

            This idea of being a watchman or a sentinel occurs throughout the entirety of the Old Testament. In every section of the Bible, from the Torah and into the prophets, we read that God calls his people to watch. The people hearing Ezekiel would be familiar with this idea.

            But how is it applicable to our work now? 

            According to our text our watching is not passive. Our observations are also not strictly for us to hold in our hearts. 

            As we watch, and as we observe, we transition into the active work of ministry. We transition into the work of serious testimony. For we watch, and we are responsible for everyone, that we see. 

In verse 7 we read that while we sit as watchmen in this community, we are still actively to seek the Lord. We are still to listen to what God is saying in his word for as our text tells us, God does not want anyone to suffer. He yearns for us all to find and accept Jesus. And as we hear those words, as we study God’s Word together, we are to testify to the community about how God is calling the folks in the community to change their lives. 

For our study of scripture is not an academic proposition. Our study of God’s Word is how we build our relationship with our Triune God—but also how we lovingly build a relationship in the community. 

            We suspend the natural inclination to judge, like a normal watchman/sentinel might, and we suspect our desire to hold up the us/them distinction. Intsead, with God’s word in our hand, and in our hearts, we take the people we see and observe by their hands, and we speak about the Lord to them. We speak about how God wishes everyone find Him. 

            For Ezekiel also tells us that we have a responsibility in this work. How will the community hear and find Jesus, if we are not actively testifying to His place in our lives and in call that we live into? To echo an image Ezekiel will later show us: How are these bones, these places of death, to live if we do not speak God’s word of life to them? 

            The sentinels/watchman in the Hebrew tradition lives and grows in a posture of patience. They know, and have experienced, that in Christ, God is at work. They trust the Lord to do the work that only God can do. 

Move 3- Psalms

            This is the point where we add the psalms into our conversation. The Psalm takes this reflection, this watching, and Psalm 119 shows us the foundation upon which our observation, and eventually our testimony, is based. A continual reflection and study of God’s Word. 

For as Christians, we can only share what is in us We can only share what we have studied ourselves and not what someone else has studied around us. We can only teach, evangelize, instruct, what we have internalized into our own hearts and lives—the things that the Holy Spirit has helped us to learn that are indeed transformational. The things that helped us move from those places of death and into the place of life in Christ. 

This internalization, this study of God’s Word, it helps us to no longer seek to cast others away because of their sin, but as the sentinels of chapter 33, we care for our neighbors, our family members, even our church, because we, as individuals, have taken the time to observe. To pray. To reflect. To hold God’s Word in our hearts and let the Word of the Lord continually teach us. 

We care for others because this who we are and our relationship with the Lord calls us to live in this way. It is not out of duty that we testify to the lifegiving presence of God, it is out of faith. 

At Bethesda we see this choice, this posture, every time we assemble our food distribution line and listen to people come to tables. We see it every time we gather to share our grief with them. We see it every time children from our community come to VBS and hear about how changed us. We observe where our neighbors are coming from spiritually, in any sense, and with God’s word in our hearts, we become the Church for them. 

Our care is an extension of our time in God’s Word; it is the product of consuming the Word of the Lord (as Jeremiah told us last week) which is the direct work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps take God’s Word off the pages of our Bibles and it becomes alone for us. 

To use an image, the Midrash, which is the primary Rabbinical reflections on God’s Word, the Midrash says that the letters of God’s Word are on fire. Living fire. According to this tradition, the word of the Lord has a crown on its head and stands before us as a living embodiment of God with us.[2] It is not static but alive as Christ is alive in us.

            Thinking of the living word of God, draw your mind back to the beginning of our worship where the author of the psalm invited us into worship with God’s word in our hands and hearts. 

As we began our worship time together, we used Psalm 119 as our call to worship… The author of this psalm prays to God to saying: “Teach me.” They ask God to “Give me understanding… and I will obey your law.” The emotion of the author continues to grow and build as the passage says, “Turn my heart towards your statues and not toward selfish gain.” “How I long for your precepts…”[3]

This does not sound like the author has a causal relationship with God’s word, but they regularly study and considers what God says to them before re-engaging the people. 

            If we think of God’s Word as alive, on fire, then this fire can spread to our lives, our faith, our acts of ministry and service. I know that it is easier to stand as a watchman and, as Jonah might agree with, sit there and wait for God to strike down the sinners. That is the easier choice, and we see that so often in this world. 

            But the Hebrews living in Babylon, trying to figure out how to be faithful when God feels far off, they need to hold God’s Word up to each other as a way of encouragement and testimony—much like we do today in this context and in our work here at Bethesda.

            We need to continually return to God’s Word as we watch from a different vantage point what is happening in this word. 

Conclusion

            As we watch, as we observe, I want to invite you to find someone in this community who you know is lost—regardless of how you define that term ‘lost.’ Find them. For they might just be living as the Hebrews did in a place that feels Babylonian. Separated. Outside of communion with God. 

            Then when you find them, remember how God’s Word changed your life. Remember how the fire of it spoke to you and helped you return to God. For God wants those people who you think are lost to find a way back to him. For He takes no joy in the death of others. He wants us all to find Him.

            But as I have said already, it is our responsibility to take what we see, hold up God’s word, and be who God calls us to be.  

---

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23/commentary-on-ezekiel-337-11-7. Accessed on September 1, 2026. Edits added for this message. 

 

[2] Elizabeth P. Randall. Feasting on the Word. Year A. Homiletical section. 

 

[3] All citations from Psalm 119:33-40 come from the NIV translation. 

 

A Very Bad Day--Romans 12:9-12. Sermon preached on Rally Day. August 31, 2026

            I wonder if this past week you could join young Alexander, the childhood story character, and confess that you too have had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day? 

            “Everybody has a ‘bad day’ from time to time: moments when things just do not turn out the way we would like them to turn out. It is natural to expect that when we try to do our best or, at least, when we have not intentionally or knowingly done anything wrong, ordinarily, things will work out all right in the end. Nevertheless, in spite of good intentions and best efforts, there are times when plans fail, friends disappoint, relatives do not understand, health falters, calamity strikes, or stress mounts. Not surprisingly, we often ask ourselves and God, why?”[1]

            Gospel music writer Walter Hawkins wrote a song that expresses these feelings, a song that I suspect Jeremiah might sing as well if he were with us in worship: 

Everywhere you go, there is trouble (there is trouble)

Everywhere you go, there is strife (there is strife)

Everywhere you go, there is something to worry about.[2]

 

            Jeremiah experienced these struggles himself. He likely joined you, when you have experienced one of these very bad days, by wondering “How do I survive this mess?”

And we both know that a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, easily can be a day when we are unable to confess or affirm God’s presence in our lives. Yet in the middle of that space, and during that bad time, the Triune God is present.

While our text today does not explicitly label or define the Triune presence, God is in this text—The Father, the Son and the Spirit. Creative. Working. Alive. Even if the daily evidence is harder to find than we might like, God is with, His people, the prophet, and us, in our time of need.  

Move 1- Triune Formula

            This is a passage first off of lament. Jeremiah is lamenting; offering up a prayer as he pours out his heart. 

Our text today is written during the last years of the southern kingdom of Judah and Babylon is coming… the very bad day is coming. 

As this chapter opens, God’s frustration with His people is palpable. In Jeremiah 15:1 the Lord says that even if Moses and Samuel, two heroes of faith, were to come before him, God would not return to His people. God would not hear their prayers. God wants his people out of his presence. Later in verse 1 God says these shocking words, “Send them away from my presence! Let them go!”

Or course, the prophet is wounded deeply by these words and by God’s apparent lack of action. As these final years of Judah take shape, and as Babylon comes closer and closer to its final invasion and conquest, what the people need most is the presence of the Lord—not the Lord pushing them away.

Now we know that God is not a genie in a bottle who instantly saves his people when they call. Not always can we confess to an immediate action on behalf of our prayers. Even if God once acted as a military savior of his people during the Exodus, God has not practiced this type of behavior recently. We hear God’s voice in the back of our heads saying “What you reap is what you sow,’ and the Israelites have not sowed a deeper relationship with God. 

In this very moment what the people need is God. They need God’s presence to comfort and sustain them when their struggles become too much—a word that is also applicable to us, I believe. For we need that as well. 

            Back in Jeremiah 15, the prophet and God go back and forth with Jeremiah begging God to come save his people; to examine their hearts, and even though they are sinful now, and even if God wanted to push them away, Jeremiah believes that God will remember the covenant that He made with their forefathers. Jeremiah hopes that God will look past the sins of his people one more time and be with them. 

            Knowing that Babylon is coming, Jeremiah begins to travel down that most dangerous road… the WHY road. It comes to a crescendo in verse 18 as Jeremiah says, ‘why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable.’ He is having that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad… season. Not a day. 

            Yet in the midst of that challenge, in the midst of his cries for the Israelites, in the midst of unfaithful living, Jeremiah calls out for the presence of God. The Triune presence. Jeremiah reaches back out to God. 

            We first see this in verse 16. “O Lord, God of hosts,” Jeremiah says. This is the proper name of Yahweh written by the prophet; perhaps spoken by him as this letter is dictated to his scribe. God’s name is echoed previously in our text in verse 15, “O Lord.” The Fatherhood of God; the one who is in control of everything that takes place in this world. And Jeremiah continues to lift up the triune formulation. 

            In verse 16, Jeremiah clearly illustrates the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He says, ‘Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy.’ Is this not what the Holy Spirit does in our lives as we interact with God’s word through prayer and meditation? Doesn’t the Holy Spirit illuminate the word of God for us we can be fed with it often?  The Holy Spirit helps us see things from God that we normally might have missed.

            Finally in the midst of his pain and his questioning, Jeremiah once again turns to God towards the end of our text. In verse 19 the prophet reaches out to God with language that echoes the ministry of Jesus the Savior. Here God is speaking and says, ‘if you turn back, I will take you back, and you shall stand before me.’ This is the act of redemption. Sin is confessed. It is forgiven. And the person stands before God redeemed once again. 

            In a few verses, with the WHY question coming out of his heart, Jeremiah offers the church some wisdom: the Triune God is with him. The Triune God is present. 

Move 2- manageable

            Confessing that God is with us and understanding how fundamental this confession is to our faith, act of affirming God’s presence helps. It helps us to find language and a location where God is with us when the WHY question buzzes around our lives and in our hearts. When we can be distracted and led astray by what we witness occurring around our homes, and as we want to only ask God WHY, the confession that the Triune God is present, is essential. It is grounding; it is foundational to our faith.

            In those places of deep tension that we encounter so often, at home, at work, in the community, locating the presence, fully, of the Triune God crucially reorients us. We are reoriented from places of doubt and hesitation and towards the affirmations of our faith that confess that even if we see calamity on the horizon, and even if deliverance might not come, God is there for us. 

            Knowing that God is with us creates a sense of manageability. Because no matter what we face, we do not, and we will not, face it alone. As neither the Israelites watching the southern kingdom end, or Jeremiah as he stood their begging the people to return to God, and as this tension become real, God was still there. 

            God takes what we define and label as unmanageable, as unsurvivable, as faith breaking, and in His presence, we find something that heals and restores us. 

Move 3- the wall

            The Triune God says that even when these calamities come, and they will, and even as we suffer, and we will, God is working to build us so that we will not lose the battle—verse 20. 

            God says, “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares [not the prophet] but the Lord.”

            I know that each of you, and myself included, as experienced recently a very bad day. You know that ones are coming over the horizon that you cannot avoid, and while it is tempting to lead with WHY and offer questions and considerations that only shake your faith, the Triune God is present. 

            He says that He will build His people into something that cannot be smashed down or broken apart. In this case, that is the image of a bronze wall. And that wall symbolizes three things: divine protection (the Father), unbreakable strength (the Son), and resilience against our enemy (the Spirit). 

            As we are in union with God in this way, God will take care of us even when very bad days happen.  

Conclusion 

            Yes, Jeremiah’s message, and his cries out to the Triune God, did not stop the Babylonians from coming and destroying the city of Jerusalem. And yes, with Jeremiah by their side, the leaders of Judah were carried away into exile and there was great sadness in that place. And it was easy to ask God WHY. 

            Perhaps when we find ourselves in these moments is to true acknowledgement that God is indeed with us—he is fully with us. What we must affirm together is that God will help us in our times of need by being present. He will act in ways we do not realize to draw us and to His very side. 

And in that act of drawing, we do find the ultimate victory over whatever we think makes this a very bad day. 

 

 

 

DM

---

[1] Ronald E. Peters. Emphasis added.

 

[2] George L Parks Jr., 21^st Century Ministry Beyond the Norm: Emerging Models for Preaching. Article found in Preaching: The Professional Journal for Ministry Leaders, Summer 2026, 18.

 

Evangelism--Romans 10:l5-15. Sermon preached on August 9, 2026

            One of the most challenging concepts that God presents to the church is the call to evangelism. Now we know that some people are effective at this work, and some are not as effective as they might hope to be. 

If we had a six-week class on evangelism here, most people who attended would do so by taking a deep breath as they walked into the room. There would be some unspoken tension that they might confess—if they were honest with themselves. For we can love the Lord deeply, we can confess our faith clearly but going out to share our faith in public… that can be a different type of challenge for many Christians.

Evangelism, even though we understand what it means, it feels challenging to many people. This challenge is not related to weak faith. It is not related to any lack of understanding about who God is and what Jesus did for us on the cross. 

Instead, I think the challenge is expectational; the challenge, if we can get words to it is: ‘How will I share the gospel as Jesus taught, when I am going through… whatever I am going through in this moment.’ 

            We are not the first, and we won’t be the last, who feel this challenge creeping into our hearts as we work to share God’s message of salvation. 

            Looking at the context of Romans, I wonder how would those people, the first audience who heard Paul’s words, how would they handle the call from the Apostle Paul to evangelize? What does the call to share God’s message and word look like given all that these people confronted each day? 

            For last week I told you that ministry often happens when we are not ready. It happened in Jesus’ life in Matthew 14 as they crowds followed and pursued him as he sought to withdraw, and it happens in our lives when those same feelings of unpreparedness and experiences define us. And if any group of people felt that they were not ready to effectively share the gospel as it was revealed by God, it was the Christians living in Rome. 

Yet in Chapter 10, Paul makes a deliberate point to speak about the necessity of proclamation for these people—hard as it might be for them and today for us. Proclamation, evangelism is necessary if the church is to fulfill its calling. 

Today I want to spend a little time with you thinking about evangelism and how it relates to the places where we go each day. 

Move 1- not understanding it all.

            Our text begins with Paul trying to focus the Church on where their attention should rest—and not where it does rest. Often, we get hung up as these people did in the superficial details or facts that we cannot affect or solve. Verse 5-7 illustrate how easy it can be to get distracted by details that only belong in God’s hand alone… not in ours. 

            Who goes to heaven? Who ascends? Who descends? The law. Righteousness based on faith… these are big concepts that, while important for us to think about as the Body of Christ, those decisions, these ideas, they rest alone with God. 

We do not have to understand everything in the Christian faith to share the gospel. Too often I meet people who think that if they are going to evangelize effectively and deeply, as Paul teaches here, then these same people must be ready with, and they must be clear on, all the theological details of God’s Word. 

            Sadly, this is a first trap that we fall into when we begin to consider evangelism. 

            We can spend our lives thinking and reflecting and discussing the deep theological truths of God’s Word, and I do enjoy those conversations as much as the next person, but those discussions should not stop us from reaching out to the people of our community and telling them about the Lord. Paul says it this way:

“The Word is near you…” verse 8.

            You and I do not have to understand the whole Bible; we are not called to. That is the reason that Paul begins our text this week in the manner in which he does and it is the first lesson of this text. We do not have to have every answer right at our fingertips. We simply must take the steps that we can today and speak to the people of this neighborhood about who God is and how God is revealed to you. The word is indeed near to you and me. 

            “In an age of uncertainty and shaky foundations, resurrection life brings meaning, Hope, and purpose. Our confession and our belief begin and end with Jesus. From this foundation, a life of faith and discipleship flows.”[1]

            Evangelism is about the proclamation of the resurrection life it is not always full of complete understanding. But that is where discipleship begins. This is task, a responsibility, for the entire church and not just those who think that they are ‘evangelical.’ We all are called to share the story of how the Lord is with us and help others learn, and build, that foundation. 

            Paul begins by reminding the people that they do not have to understand it all and neither do you.

Move 2- we are necessary.

            Without the work of the church, sharing who God is and how God has been with us, how will the people of this community learn His story? This is the basic question that evangelism attempts to help others solve and it is the second step in Paul’s message today.

            Sure, anyone can pick up a Bible. Sure, they can spend time reading it and working to understanding it, but that can feel daunting. How many times have you met a person who said that they would like to read the Bible but don’t know where to start? 

It can, and I have heard others say, that just picking up God’s Word at trying to ‘get it’ is overwhelming. But hear again Paul’s words, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And who are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?”

            These words tell me that we cannot hold back the message of God because we would prefer someone else to share it for us. And we cannot solely hope that the people in question will find that message on their own. Paul knows that the church has an important role to play in the evangelistic work of God. 

            The church, we here at Bethesda, we are a necessary part sharing of God’s word with the people of this community. For what is evangelism but the sharing of how God’s story has become our story.[2]Evangelism is the reflection that we have on how God’s story has changed our stories. Remade those stories. Reoriented them towards a practice of discipleship and faith. And in this way, we, the Body of Christ, the particular Christian in question, we are necessary. 

            “Despite poor efforts of evangelism [that we can remember], we are called to go out into the world and proclaim Jesus. [That is our job; it is our call] Because if we do not, how will those who are lost hear and have the opportunity to call on his name? . . . Our job is to share the one who we know is trustworthy, the one who welcomes our questions and doubts. We are sent out to share Jesus, who offer certainty, and Hope, regardless of circumstances.”[3]

            Of course, history is replete with the stories of how God stepped into the lives of His people and transformed His children because of that revelation. But burning bushes are not a common story. The overall story of God would stop at some moments if we do not share how we are changed because the story of the Lord changed us. Evangelism is the practice of faithful witness that we participate in. 

Move 3- confusion

            Because let’s face it, there is so much confusion that we are confronted with each day. So many people lock evangelism into a small box. They tell us how it should look and how any evangelistic work should sound. But then things get worse, and they take it a step further and talk about what the proper results should be. “If we are going to evangelize then it must be done like this,” they say. 

            But Paul ends our text today with a very basic statement that cuts through all the confusion, doubt, hesitation. Paul’s words cut through any unmet expectation and he provides a clear through line for us as we continue to seek the Lord and share His message. He says: “If you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be safe.”[4] It does not get any simpler than that. 

            The world can tell us how things should look, they can tell us how we ought to believe, they can say there is confusion in the evangelistic work, but the clarity of this text is that the message of evangelism is clear… Jesus is Lord, and we seek to believe only in Him. This is why Paul ends our text today in this manner. 

            For the life of those same Christians living in Rome, suffering as they did, they needed something solid on which to preach, and on which to live. Much the same as we do in this context today.

Conclusion

            So, we are called to evangelize. Not a few times; not when it feels easy. But we are called to take our story as a church in total, and people specifically, and talk about how Jesus is Lord. He is the one we confess. 

            I wonder if that is a practice that we can do? For we will find people who are lost, who are suffering, and that might just be the perfect opportunity to share with him how God has changed us. 

 

 

 

DM

---

[1] Mary Beth Anton. Feasting on the Word. Year A, Volume 3. 

 

[2] Bryan Stone.

[3] Mary Beth Anton. Feasting on the Word. Year A, Volume 3. 

 

[4] Romans 10:9 ESV. 

 

Our Weakness--Romans 8:26-39. Sermon preached on July 26, 2026

            Perhaps you have heard me say the following words before: “Pray as you can, not as you can’t.”[1] I have referred to that statement in many situations at the church: Sunday School, Bible Study. I have shared them in grief support, and in any other situation where the person that I am speaking with feels a need of the Lord.

            To me those words, “Pray as you can, not as you can’t,” comfort me. When I come before the Lord, and do not have the words, I can remember that just opening my heart to God, in a practice like prayer, is enough. God comes to each of us—words are not often required.   

            On its own, these statements about prayer are not terribly Pauline. They might also seem out of place when we read today’s text. For everyone here, and everyone who watches this service in their home, knows something about the moment where words do not come as we need them. 

Each of us has experienced moments of uncertainty when we might not feel as bad as Job, but we do feel weak. We feel lost in a sea of uncertainty, and as your hand reaches out to God, it can feel like grasping at the air rather than grasping hold of the sure foundation of God. 

            Thankfully in today’s text, Paul offers the church a way to proceed. 

Move 1- Weak

            When I think about how I feel, or how fragile I feel in these moments, the best descriptor that I can come up with is: I feel weak. I know that God is with me, and I know that God is with you, but there is a strong sense of weakness that feels unescapable in these moments. 

            Our faith is not any less grounded in the person of Jesus, but a growing, foreboding, sense of weakness is present right alongside of the testimony of faith. They seem to almost walk hand in hand. 

            Do you think Paul ever felt weak?  

            While some of his background is unclear to us, we do know that one of Paul’s primary Biblical heroes was Elijah. From his earliest years as a boy, Paul spent time in synagogue with his family in their hometown of Tarsus.[2] There in the synagogue Paul’s family regularly heard and shared the stories of their Jewish faith. Of course, in the synagogue the leaders spoke about the patriarch: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Just as we tell our children the stories of our faith, Paul’s upbringing was filled with these stories as well that grounded him in the Lord. 

And so, as more and more of the stories of God’s presence in the life of the Hebrew people were shared, they built upon the previous ones—until we come to Elijah. 

He is a foundational character in Paul’s theological life. A man who witnessed great victories in the life of the Jewish people. As much as Isaac was the promised child of Abraham, the boy who was delivered at the last second before the knife took his life, Elijah on Mount Carmel, and Elijah standing before the sound of silence in the cave, were known and shared as well. 

And as we know, Elijah was not always the strongest figure in the Hebrew people’s history. Like you and me, Elijah had the stories of the faith and the revelation of God to fall back on, and yet he ran from the queen and hide. 

As we all experience, times present themselves when weakness is not the way we want to live. 

Standing before the Lord in the mouth of the cave was not an act of faith, but one of retreat. Of running away. Alongside of the testimony of God’s victory and provision was a sure and certain sense of human weakness. 

So as Paul thinks through the history of the Israelites and remembers the lessons that he heard and studied as a young man, he begins with this single concept that could feel out of place. Weakness in verse 26.

As he uses this idea, Paul infers that any kind of lack of strength that we are confronted with, physical, spiritual, communal, theological, they all fit under the umbrella of weakness. Like Elijah we might feel strong in our faith in one moment, but then something happens, and we run to a cave hoping no one will find us. And by casting such a large net and referring back through the history of the Israelite people, Paul casts a wide net that grabs in each of us because no matter how strong your faith, we all feel like ‘less than’ at times. We know we should not, but we feel that way. 

For when we feel weak in any way, Paul says the Spirit is active. 

Weakness is closely tied to our word, “feebleness.” Christians in the church do not like to think of themselves as weak or feeble, but Paul wants to make sure we hear this idea first—not out of condemnation but something more important. Hope. For the implication of this is that any type of suffering that we endure that causes us to feel that God is out of reach is simply not true.

Move 2- Helped

            Look at verse 28. In that verse we find another treasure for us to hold onto: the idea that we receive help from the Spirit in these moments and places of weakness. Help that we did not anticipate initially. A lot of people when they think they are weak can fall into the trap of thinking that they are weak because their faith is fragile and shallow. But this is wrong.  

The help that Paul writes about in verse 28 is but another example of how our English translators do not fully encapsulate what Paul is talking about. When I think of help, I often think of someone, like God, bailing me out. But that is not what Paul is thinking when he considers the help that the church receives in these moments. The literal meaning of “the Spirit helps” should sound more like this: “The Spirit jointly helps.”

            Taking Paul’s word and breaking it down it means that the aid, the help, that we receive is a coming together of two parties from opposite sides to hold a task so that the burden is jointly carried. Shoulder to shoulder. This is yoke language that Paul is writing for us that should remind us of Matthew’s gospel where we just heard a couple weeks ago that they yoke is easy and the burden is light. 

            On one side of this moment, we have the perfect God we love and serve in the embodiment of the Spirit. Perfect. Sinless. Able to carry and endure everything. In the Spirit, God takes up His side of the task willingly. 

            The other side of this work is us. Those who suffer any form of weakness—a weakness that we all feel and all struggle under. A weakness that we think makes us unworthy, unable, to bring anything to the Lord. We pick up our side of this work as God picks up His.

            We come together with the Lord and what takes place next is nothing short of transformational. This is the help that Paul tells us that God has promised for everything who thinks they are weak and feeble. Together in the Lord, we are made strong again.

Move 3- through prayer.

            This act of coming together is accomplished through the work of prayer with, and in, the Spirit. It is accomplished through the communication that takes place in prayer—even if the prayer is unable to audibly spoken, and especially if we feel that we do not have any words to speak to God. The Spirit is there to help us in a way that, frankly, I have struggled all week to put into words. But the Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. 

Together we come to the Lord, and God and we jointly work together. The theme of prayer runs throughout the remainder of our text today. Prayers of help. Prayers that remind us that nothing can separate us from God and His love. 

Like Elijah, left to our own devices and our own interpretation of God’s Word, we will fall short on our own. But, when we come together, in the Lord, and even in wordless-prayer, we find a way forward with God’s help. 

This takes me back to my first statement, ‘pray as you can, not as you can’t.’

For as Romans tells us, God is with us when we pray so how can we fall short any longer? 

Romans tells me that because I pray and spend time that form of communication with the Lord, who will be able to bring a charge against me? For we are in union with God in a way that life altering. 

Because you and I pray, even wordlessly when we feel the weakest, nothing can separate any of us from the love of God. We may feel weak, feeble, like this work that God calls us to will never actually come to fruition, but the Spirit is there to help me. To help you. To help us. 

Conclusion 

            When we feel our weakest, we often think that God is no longer close to us. Many people do look around, and their first confession is one of isolation and being forgotten. But as Paul’s words teach us this is not true at all.

            I wonder this week when you feel yourselves in those weak places, weak moments, moments that make you feel feeble, can you reach back out to God—even wordlessly. I wonder what would your testimony and your faith will look like when notice that God is right there the whole time helping you pray and hold you up? 

 

 

DM      

---

[1] Dom John Chapman. Cited in Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (Harper SanFrancisco: San Francisco, 1992), 7. 

 

[2] N.T. Wright. Paul: A Biography.

Indebted to Christ--Romans 8:12-25. Sermon preach don July 19, 2026

            I wonder, is God still at work both here and in His Creation? That is a question that I often hear… people look out into this world, into our culture, and they wonder, ‘is God working still or has God turned His back on us fully?’

Now most people in the church would affirm that God does not leave or forsake His children. 

To me this is the core Biblical promise that everything else we read us built upon; a promise of union in Christ. We would affirm that even if we choose to sin, or if we are blinded by sin to such a degree that we do not realize that we are sinning, God is still at work around us. God’s call is still active in our lives. There is no place that we can go where God is not active and present. 

            And we can see the Lord working. At times this truth could be, and it needs to be, testified to it. 

But to know a thing, and to live into that truth, is quite a different matter, isn’t it? It is not always as easy as it sounds. Distractions rise, they invite, they coax us from our faithful foundation and ask us to justify all sorts of poor choices, poor behavior, and ultimately, a poor sense of trust in the work that God is doing in our lives—and in the work that Jesus did on the cross. 

This is challenging. But knowing this, Paul sits down, and he writes to us call us to remain faithful. 

These are also challenging ideas and concepts. But as we seek to recall that God is at work in our lives, each of these must be thought through and considered fully.

Move 1- live in the flesh

            Among the challenging phrases or concepts in chapter 8, “living in the flesh,” is first place where we need to reflect for it presents an interesting challenge for us to consider.

            Normally when someone says that they are ‘living in the flesh’ we associate that idea with blatant sin, sins of choice, and sins of omission. While these are part of the equation or definition of ‘living in the flesh,’ Paul, as he has been known to do, builds a richer meaning for us. 

            When commenting on this chapter, Karl Barth explains the Pauline definition in a way that we can understand. In his mind, ‘to live in the flesh’ is to live distracted, to be drawn away from this present moment—a moment where God is present and with us. I wonder if as I say that you can find places in your day, in your past week, where you were drawn away from God? Places where the draw was so strong and alluring that you no longer noticed that God was in the room at all? In that space, you might just be ‘living in the flesh.’ Living outside. 

In that very moment God’s call is still active, and God is still at work in you—yet it was a bit harder to notice wasn’t it. . . it was unclear how God was there. And so, we need to be attentive to God and not distracted by what is around us. The opposite of living in the flesh relates to a sense of focus back on the things of God, the Word of God itself that can guide you. 

            We must be focused in on God today, focused on today and what it means for our faith journey, where and how we might serve the Lord faithfully. 

            Be focused on God and how only God can save, only God can restore, correct, reprove, and reunify. When we attempt to re-create the wheel (which is an element of control that Paul saw at work in the church), we are trying to live without God and His influence upon us by reaching out trusting in ourselves, our cleverness, our intellect, our own two hands to do the work that only God can do. Our scriptures are filled with examples of people who lived in this way as well and it did not often work out for them. 

            Ultimately as we hope to move away from this mindset and choice, this brings forth a sense of peace because we remember that alone we are unable to live without God—even when we sin and move away from God personally or corporately—God is still accessible to us and is still reaching back to us. Even as we attempt to live in the flesh in this way, God is still working to bring us back into a right position, a right relationship with Himself. 

            God does this by another unique Pauline concept. 

Move 2- Adoption

            God accomplishes this through adoption. Only Paul uses this word in the New Testament. In Philippians and here in Romans, Paul combines two other words that together literally means ‘placing as sons.’ 

            In a Roman world this idea would initially relate to inheritance rights and to preserving the family name—both concepts that we are familiar with in our lives and in the context of God’s Word. But as we look at it through Paul’s theological mind and writing, we see a responsibility place upon us that once again deepens what we thought we know about an idea.

Adoption. 

            This is not a forensic transaction though, but an intimate relationship grounded in the Father’s love, accomplished through the redemptive work of the Son, and applied by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.[1]

It is Trinitarian in its nature and so as God is in perfect relationship with His Son and with the Spirit, the Lord seeks to adopt us. God word, His calls, draws us as His children, into a place of similar closeness where we can see that He is at work.

            And is that not what the Roman Christians needed? 

As Rome pressed down aggressively upon the early church and as the list of martyrs grew and grew by the day, the church needed to hear and to remember that God sought to bring them into this relational place. God located his children and brought them to a place where no level of suffering, no amount of persecution, could truly harm them. 

When Paul writes, ‘the suffering of this present time,’ these people knew what this meant; they could put meat on those bones—and it was most certainly not limited to physical stress and pain. There was emotional pain in that place. There was a strong sense, or temptation, to feel isolated away from God and from the Church Body corporately. 

Knowing this, God ‘adopted’ us; He brought us into a place where we are safe—even as the struggles of the day pressed so aggressively down upon God’s beloved children. 

            And is that also not what we need in our lives as the Church in the context where God calls us to live and to work? 

            Do we not need to know that there is a strong sense of intimacy in being adopted by the Lord because as we come into the comforting, safe embrace of the Lord, this replaces the dread of ‘living in the flesh.’

Move 3- we wait.

            And so, Paul tells us that we wait. . . and so they waited. Verse 19 tells us that there is a sense here of eager waiting, of longing, and as much as the Christians living in Rome could feel and experience that, so too can we.

            We do not have to imagine the conclusion that none of the early church who heard these words, or studied them in the subsequent years, were excited about what they were facing. But they waited for God to come to them because they had a sense of hope in what was to come. 

            We too wait… expectantly for what we know is coming even as the evidence around us builds and attempts to tell us that no one is listening, no one cares. We know that our God does. Since we are adopted into Christ, and part of a relationship with God, we find peace and safety in that place, and we wait—without knowing exactly what that means for us in this very moment. 

            And our waiting is based on hope. Not blind hope. Not hope that ‘every little thing is gonna be alight,’ but hope that we no longer need to live flesh for as we are adopted by God into a relationship with God, we are saved. 

            We find comfort even as the days grow dark, as they did in the Roman world, that God has not abandoned us—and never will. 

Conclusion

            This creates in me a sense of indebtedness to God, to Christ, for what God has done in my life and will do in my life moving forward. Jesus did this work for us, and we are indebted to him because of the willing sacrifice that He made on our behalf.

And so, we do not place our head in the sand and blindly hope that ‘the sun will come out tomorrow.’ But instead, we know, we believe that as God has brought us into relationship with Him, our loving Lord will continue to watch over us no matter what happens next.

No matter how much momentary suffering we endure, it is just that, momentary. For God is eternal and His relationship with us is also eternal. 

And so, I ask again, can you see God at work? I hope that you can say, ‘yes.’ For so much has been done on our behalf by the Lord that we cannot possibly believe anything to the contrary. 

 

 

DM

---

[1] Definition here take from www.biblehub.com

 

Made and Kept--Isaiah 55:10-13. Sermon preached on July 12, 2026

            I wonder if you have given any thought to what makes our relationship with the Lord strong? What makes it durable when other relationships around us crumble stale bread? 

            These are questions that I believe the Israelites agonized, and wrestled with, over generations. 

For while they cannot open their scriptures as we do today, we know that the Israelites gathered together in families to share God’s message. We know that they gathered as worshipping bodies and listened intently. We know that their ancestors told the stories of how God made a covenant with Father Abraham, how He was faithful to that covenant in the life of Joseph while he dwelt in Egypt even as the journey started off on a frightening path. 

            These same Hebrews shared their stories of walking on the dry ground of the Red Sea and how at the sound of the trumpets the walls of Jericho fell. The anointing of King David and promise of the Messiah to come… these are their stories of how the relationship with God was made and kept.  

            Time and again, God stepped in and acted as only God can in the lives of His people. 

And I know that each of you know these stories—and many more just like them that bring color and passion to the relationship that you have with God. For like the Hebrews of old, you learned these stories of God’s faithfulness in Sunday School. They were taught to you as we taught them to the children at Bible School—passed on from generation to generation.  

            A faithful God who made and kept His promises to be with us always even if God’s very people chose unfaithfulness. 

So as Isaiah 55 is read before these same people, people who lived in exile and wondered, “Where is God now?” or “When will God hear my prayers,” we can imagine that they wondered about the faithfulness of their God. They might even wonder, ‘Hasn’t this gone on long enough, Lord?’ 

            For if you are so faithful, if you answer our prayers and preserve us, then why are we living in this moment? A question that I think we have also asked God a time or two in the life that each of us live. Perhaps Isaiah 55 offers us an answer to this relational question and struggle.  

Move 1- relationships take time.

            A first lesson that we can learn from Isaiah 55 as we seek to understand our relationship with God, and the promises that God makes and keeps, is that a relationship with the Lord takes time. 

Humanity is not good at a patient, deliberate, practices. As we often witness, we want things to work out right now… in our way. But building a relationship with God, and nurturing it, takes time. 

            This time element that Isaiah references in his imagery is not the length of a past or a momentary inciting incident. But as God is ever-present, ever-faithful, the Lord is not burdened by our intense need to fix or to have everything right now. 

Perhaps you are like me in this… for I like right now. If I am thirsty today, at any point in our service, I can reach under this pulpit and pick up my cup and get something to drink. This is an instantaneous response to my desire. Google works the same way, as does much of our shopping industry. 

            But when described a relationship with the Lord, it often feels as natural as a hand in a glove. It just fits. Our relationship with God can feel equally natural, relaxed, like it has always been in this moment—and always will be. Using Isaiah’s imagery consider the ever-present snow or rain that waters the earth and brings forth new life. We might get two or three inches of rain in a few minutes this summer, but for that water to sink in, do we need a soaker of a rain. A slow, methodical, consistent rain that pours down upon us for a long period of time. 

            In this way, the image reminds us that rain/snow is not an immediate response to a need.

            Much like any fad or resolution that we see in our day. They come and they go. But I wonder how many of those ‘ice bucket challenges’ endure year after year? But God’s word endures always. God’s promises do. Our relationship with God will. The Lord made these promises, and God intends to honor and keep them. The scriptures testify to this fact. 

            The word Isaiah uses to support this idea is found in verse 11 where the prophet says, ‘so shall my word be that goes out.’ Isaiah attributes these words to God and not to himself or to another person. 

            “My Word.” This speaks directly to the idea of divine proclamation. Not human words that claims to speak for God or about God or reference God in the past. No, this is God speaking for Himself alone in a way that only can do. God’s word and voice are ever-present, and this very word that Isaiah writes was recorded all the way back in Genesis 11. 

            Elements of time invested in the relationship with the Lord and elements of God’s Word being spoken by God since the very beginning as a demonstration that God is doing His part to offer the relationship, we must reciprocate and patiently comes to the Lord. 

Move 2- Relationships do not come back empty.

            A second idea relates in verse 11 to the next thing that God says, “It [my word] shall not return to me empty.”

            The idea of emptiness that God says here is in direct opposition to the very faithfulness of God—how God is and how God always will be. If I asked you to quantify the faithfulness of God, to tell me or someone else how big it is, now take the idea and completely reverse it. Flip it around. This is the meaning of empty here. 

            This then defines how deep God’s faith in us, and His commitment to a relationship with us is. Even if, and as, we wax and wane in our faithfulness to the Lord and to His Word, and even when we think how clever we are in the moments of our day as if by some miracle we have re-invented the relational wheel, God is so much more than we can conceive of. He will never be empty and always offer us more than we realize. Always and forever. 

            God Word shall not, will not, cannot be emptied by us. 

Move 3- relationship bring out joy.

            Finally, our relationship with God, and our acknowledgment of the faithful promises of God in His word, brings only one response: Joy. 

            This concept is written for us in verse 12 and following. Just are relationships take time to grow and reach what God intends for them. Joy can take time; joy take perspective. The perspective to look around and see that, even if we live in exile as the Israelites did, God made promises to be with us and the Lord is faithful and will not leave us behind. 

            Our relationship with the Lord will grow if we hold fast to His Word and to the promises that He made in it for us. the growth and maturity in that relationship takes place because it is founded in God’s faithfulness to us and not on what we bring to the table with God or how hard we work in an attempt to demonstrate a level of faithfulness that God is not looking for from us. 

The Word of the Lord states this clearly. His promises, which have been written down and shared for so many generations stand as proof, reliable proof, and therefore the Lord’s will is accomplished as we, to use the image from last week, just accept the Yoke of the Lord and walk with Jesus consistently. Daily. 

            And because we make this choice we, to use the words of Romans 8, are no longer condemned. We are no longer outside of God. This is just another way to conceive of a broken relationship with God that is not durable and shows no evidence of the promises of God at work in our lives. We are welcomed into fellowship with the Lord. We are held secure by God and in His Word for we have invested the time, we have made the space, for God. 

            This then leads to the appropriate response which is the joyful sharing of promises of God into the lives of other people. 

            Even if we find ourselves in an exiled moment. Can we take the Word in our hands and bring to mind the place where, even if life seems to hard or difficult in the moment, God’s faithful presence shows through? 

Conclusion

            Our relationship with the Lord is durable, it is long lasting, because God won’t leave us behind. Instead, he made promises and kept them for us. I wonder, how you might take God’s word in your hand and help others build and sustain their own relationship with the Lord? 

 

 

DM