Sermons by Rev. Phillip K. Lepak (Page 22)
Spiritual apathy, doubt and unbelief are a like spiritual drowsiness. The Lord reminds and empowers us to be vigilant, spiritually awake and ready for His return and ready to share the good news of His saving work with the people around us.
On this evening, our nation has set aside a time to think on the theme of thankfulness. All year, every day, we Christians give thanks for God saving us by sending Jesus. We dwell on this theme in our church services, and yet we are also so very thankful for the physical blessings that the Lord abundantly provides through His Creation to sustain us on our heavenward journey. Tonight, we dwell especially on the theme of thanksgiving for those earthly blessings.
The Last Day quickly approaches, and, though no one knows when that day will come, we are to be mindful that many live without Christ. As redeemed children of God, we look at the world through Christ’s love, desiring urgently to share His precious grace through the Word and Sacraments.
In difficult times it is easy to lose heart and think prayer is useless, because it is not in our nature to believe in the true God. We would rather not think about the true God because of our sinfulness, but when we believe in gods of our own making, such inventions disappoint. The true God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and He loves us so fervently that He gave His own Son to be the sacrifice for sin. Because He loves us and has promised to hear and answer our prayer in the best possible way, we do not lose heart.