POWERwalk Sermon

Rev. Greg Mech | January 20, 2018 | Saturday Night Service | 6:00 pm

“Hearing Voices” based on The Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 1-4

Song

“Creation Sings the Father’s Song”

Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

People: Amen.

Pastor: By God’s grace He has revealed to us through the inspired writings of a former tax collector that the Lord our God cares for His people and wants to be understood by them.

People: He has spoken to His people in dreams and visions, through angels and prophets, in a voice from heaven and by taking on flesh to walk with His people, teaching them His will and His ways.

Pastor: Speak to us in our age and time, O Lord.

People: Speak to us in Your Holy Word.

Pastor: Our Lord and Savior Jesus depended on the Word of God when He was tested by Satan. The temptation of Christ in the wilderness reminds us of Moses’ sermon to the Israelites from the 8^th chapter of Deuteronomy:

Reader: “This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him.” Deuteronomy 8:1-6, New Revised Standard Version

People: We have to confess that we have not diligently kept the commandments of the Lord. We haven’t always walked in His ways, either.

Pastor: Have you lived by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord? Have you tempted the Lord Your God? Have you worshiped and served Him alone?

People: No, yes, and no. We admit we have sinned, and come to God in repentance to receive His forgiveness.

Psalm 51:1-4, 10-15

Pastor: We pray with King David:

People: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Pastor: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

People: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Pastor: Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

People: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Pastor: Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

People: O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

Declaration of God’s Grace

Pastor: In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for His sake God forgives us all our sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ He gives power to become the children of God and bestows on them the Holy Spirit. May the Lord, who has begun this work in us, bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

People: Praise be to God, who saves us. Amen.

Song

“There Is a Hope”

Listening to the Voices:

Matthew 1:18–23 ¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Matthew 2:4–6 Assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, [Herod] inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: ⁶“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Matthew 2:11–23 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹²And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. ¹³Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

¹⁹But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, ²⁰saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” ²¹And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. ²³And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Matthew 3:1–3¹In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ²“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ³For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

Matthew 3:16–17¹⁶And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Song

“Speak, O Lord”

Sermon, Prayers and Blessing

Song

“Blessed Be Your Name”