Pastor Steve Bauer

This is the sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Amos 7:10-17. The sermon theme is: What Sort of Shepherd Do You Want?. Here is the Written Sermon

What Sort of Shepherd Do You Want?

King Solomon was the smartest king the world has ever known. The bible plainly shows us this. But Solomon had a son named Rehoboam. And if Solomon was the wisest king the world has ever known, then Rehoboam probably was the most stupid king the world has ever known. We see this so very clearly in how he ruled as a king. Shortly after he became king, all leaders of the tribes in the north came to him. And they asked him one simple question: will you treat us as well as your father did? Rehoboam thought about the question for a little while. And his answer was simple and stupid. He told all the northern leaders: ‘if my father was able to tax you and get money from you, then I’m going to tax you twice as much.’

Needless to say, Rehoboam didn’t get his money. And what he got in return was a rebellion. The ten northern tribes of Israel broke away. A man named Jeroboam became their king. (I know, here is where it gets a little confusing. Jeroboam is in the north. Rehoboam is in the south. It’s a little confusing, so listen closely!) Rehoboam was a stupid king. Oh, but he had competition. Jeroboam, in the north, spent his life trying to out-stupid Rehoboam, in the south.

You see, Jeroboam didn’t like all the people in the north going south to the temple in Jerusalem. He thought they might just stay there. And indeed some did. So, he made up his own religion. He had his craftsmen make not just one, but two golden calves. He placed on way up north in Dan. The other he placed in Bethel. Now, what you have to understand, is that the Lord promised him that if he would be faithful to the Lord, then he would establish his kingdom and rule and he would give him power and peace. But, Jeroboam led his people in the north to worship these made up gods, these golden calves. He let anyone who wanted to become a priest in service to these golden calves. Jeroboam managed out out-stupid Rehoboam by doing everything he could to make the Lord angry. Not surprisingly, Jeroboam had a brutal and blunt end to his life.

With all this in mind, we enter God’s word this morning. For, the kings in the north never gave up the sin of Jeroboam, this golden-calf worship. And the Lord was always against the kings in the north because of this. And this morning we meet one of these priests. We meet one of these priests who worshipped and led others in worshipping the golden calf in Bethel. His name is Amaziah. The Lord did not choose Amaziah to be a priest and a shepherd over the Lord’s people in the north. Amaziah chose himself. And the king in the north let Amaziah be a priest for one reason. The priest told the king what he wanted to hear. Even more than that, he drove out all the prophets who tried to speak the truth. Listen to what Amaziah told his king: “Amos 7:10    Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying: “ ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’””

Amaziah told the king what he wanted to hear. And even worse, he drove away all those were trying to speak the truth. At this point, let me ask you a question: Would you like a shepherd like this? Would you like a pastor who told you what you wanted to hear, whether it was the truth or not? Think about that question for a little while: What sort of shepherd would you like? Would you like a pastor and shepherd who would tell you what you like to hear? And while you’re letting that question simmer in the back of your mind, let’s meet a different sort of prophet and pastor.

In these word we see that Amaziah is angry at the Lord’s prophet, Amos. He says: “Amos 7:12    Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.””

Amaziah hates Amos and he commands him to leave. And we learn so very much about Amos by what he says in response to Amaziah: “Amos 7:16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say, “ ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and stop preaching against the house of Isaac.’ 17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: “ ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will certainly go into exile, away from their native land.’”

He tells Amaziah: ‘you want me to never say anything bad against you. You want me to stop saying the truth. Too bad. This is what the Lord says: Your wife will cheat on you. Your children will die and all these ten northern tribes will be conquered and then carted away to Assyria.’

Now, which shepherd do you want? Do you want Amaziah? Or do you want Amos? Do you want the shepherd who tells you what you want to hear? Or do you want the shepherd who tells you what you need to hear. Think very carefully about the answer to that question.

You would like to think that you would like and would choose a shepherd who would tell you what you need to hear. After all, who wants a ‘yes’ man? Who wants a hired gun who tells people what their itching ears want to hear. If that’s true—if you want an Amos instead of an Amaziah, they why don’t you listen when he speaks the truth to you? For your pastor, just like Amos, tells you the truth that you need to hear. He tells you: do not gossip, do not lie, do not watch movies with filthy language and filthy views of God’s gift of sex. He tells you: pray more!, be in God’s word more! Don’t just say you are Christians, but act like Christians! You see, we might say that we want an Amos to tell us the truth. But there is a very powerful part of us who preaches like Amaziah. There is that part of us who says: ‘go away and preach that message somewhere else. Because I like TV, whether it’s good or bad for me, and I don’t like praying or being in God’s word more.’

What sort of shepherd do you want? Do you want a shepherd who hides your hypocrisy? Or do you want a shepherd who shows our hypocrisy? But really, as we look at these words, this really isn’t the question we should be asking. If we travel too far down this road we end up trying to out-stupid Jeroboam and Rehoboam together.

What then is the question we need to ask? Amos tells us the truth: “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Amos didn’t choose to be a shepherd of people. He was doing just fine as a shepherd of cattle. But the Lord chose him and sent him to proclaim the truth. You see the question is not: What sort of shepherd would you choose? The question is: What sort of shepherd did the Lord choose? The Lord chose for you a pastor who is like you. He loves his Savior, Jesus. But inside of him is a hypocrite who speaks like Amaziah, telling God to stop preaching the truth. He chose for you a shepherd who has the privilege of pointing you to the real shepherd. This shepherd has the joy of telling you of Jesus who doesn’t just show you your hypocrisy, but also forgives your hypocrisy. I have the privilege of pointing you to a shepherd who leads you into the truth and gives you peace and provides for you day by day. I have the privilege of pointing you to a shepherd who is not afraid to show you the death that your sins lead to. And I have the privilege of pointing you to the shepherd who died to take away death. And now you will live with him forever, whether on this earth now, or forever in heaven.

So then, my brothers and sisters, let us do everything in our lives and in our power to thank our faithful Shepherd, Jesus. For he has forgiven our hypocrisy and buried our fear and sorrow at hearing the truth. Now the truth in the eyes of our Father is that we are his saints. Let us thank him by struggling against the voice of Amaziah inside of us. Let us gladly hear God’s word. Let us gladly strive to obey God’s word. Let us never make room in our hearts to gossip, lie. Let us never make room in our hearts to watch filthy things and hear evil words. Let us pray alone and together. Let us grow in God’s word by ourselves and together. For our Father has chosen Jesus to be our Good Shepherd. Amen.

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 Pentecost 8: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Ezekiel 2-3:4. The sermon theme is How Do You Preach The Impossible?. Here is the Written Sermon.

How Do You Preach The Impossible?

God’s people were a rebellious house. The Lord brought them out of Egypt. But they complained about the food and made up gods to worship. He brought them into a land with pre-built cities and vineyards. And instead of praising and worshipping the God who gave this land to them they ran after the unbelieving women and worthless gods of the lands they were conquering. They were a rebellious house. Elijah went to them and told them to repent. And they didn’t. Elisha went to them. They remained rebellious. The ten northern tribes were dragged away because of their rebellion. For over a hundred years the Lord sent prophets to warn the two remaining tribes to repent. But they were rebellious. So, the Babylonians came and dragged them away to Babylon. And, you would think with all that pain and punishment they would see how stupid they had been. You would think that they would realize the the path of rebellion against the Lord is not the road to peace. Finally then, the Lord sends Ezekiel to preach to the exiles in Babylon.

In the words we read this morning from Ezekiel, chapter two, we hear what sort of people these Israelites were. The Lord told Ezekiel that he would be dealing with two types of people. In verse four he says: “Ezek. 2:4 The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn.” They had hard faces and hard hearts. They were the sort of people that whether you demanded or pleaded, you begged or asked, it didn’t matter. Nothing you would say would break that cold, unbending exterior.

That was one group. We find the other in verse 6: “Ezek. 2:6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.” The first group was apathetic. The second group was violent. They were thorns and thistles and scorpions. They hated what Ezekiel so much that they made life miserable for him.

Six times in these verses we read the word “rebellious.” Their hearts were cold and unbending. Their hearts were violent and stinging. How could Ezekiel go to a people like that? How could he preach the impossible? How could he preach that simple message of peace and repentance to a people who were so rebellious?

It’s easy for us to put ourselves in Ezekiel’s shoes. About a year ago Priscilla and I were alone. It was lunch time. I made her some food. She wouldn’t eat her food. Minutes, hours went by. I got angry and put her in her room. She still wouldn’t eat. I took away her toys and put them in the attic. She still wouldn’t eat. I tried everything I could. But, how do you preach the impossible to a rebellious child?

Our Lord has called on all of us to carry out the sort of call Ezekiel had. We know that person in our life. Our child, our parent, our friend our family member, our co-worker. And that person is rebelling against God. That person is putting something in his or her life above God. And no matter what you do, that person’s heart is hard and every word that comes out of his or her mouth stings. How do you preach the impossible to a rebellious people?

And what’s worse, is that as we do this, week after week and month after month, we become exhausted. We become demoralized. And finally we become terrified to speak the truth to such hard hearts and stinging voices. And when that happens, then we begin to understand what life was like for Ezekiel. To endure such opposition and rebellion can only lead to one result: fear.

And yet, listen to what the Lord tells Ezekiel: “6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.”

Four times in this one verse the Lord tells Ezekiel ‘do not be afraid.’ But, what’s important is to know how he says this. He is not saying: ‘Ezekiel, do not ever, ever be afraid!’ No, instead, it’s a soft imperative. He is saying: ‘Ezekiel, there’s no reason to be afraid.’ And that makes us ask the question: How could the Lord tell him this? How could Ezekiel preach the impossible to such a rebellious house and with such a fearful heart?

We find the answer to that in chapter 11, where the Lord says: “Ezek. 11:19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. “

My Priscilla was a rebellious child. I put her in her room. I took away her toys. I did even more than that. Finally, I picked her up and cradled her tightly in my arms. I looked into her big, blue eyes, as I asked her ‘why won’t you eat your food?’ I tried to find some reason some answer. And instead, I saw myself. I saw all the times I rebelled against my parents. I saw all the times they told me to do what was good and right. I saw all the times they asked me to stop doing what was so rebellious and evil.

You see, the only way we can preach such impossible words to such rebellious people is when we see that we are just as rebellious as they are. Look at what the Lord has done to you. He has taken your hearts which are just as hard and made them soft. He has taken your voices that sting like thistles and scorpions and made them sing of his forgiveness. Jesus has taken away your rebellions by never being rebellious. He has taken away your rebellions by being punished in your place for all of your rebellions. He has taken away your stinging hearts of stone and given you loving hearts of flesh.

You see, that’s how Ezekiel could preach the impossible to such a rebellious house. First, the Lord showed him his own rebellious heart. First, the Lord took away his heart of stone and gave him a heart of flesh. First, Ezekiel saw the Lord’s unyielding, unmoving, undeserved love for him. Then he was able to go out and serve. Then he was able to go out and speak that impossible message which achieves impossible results.

My brothers and sisters, continue to remain in God’s word. Continue to come to worship and bible study. Continue to read God’s word at home. Then you will how hard and rebellious your sinful heart is. Then you will see with such joy in your heart what our Lord Jesus has done with your heart. He had given you a heart of flesh where before there was nothing but cold rebellion.

Then you can continue to preach the impossible. Then you can continue to reach out to those around you and tell them to follow the Lord and turn from the evil. Then you can endure their violence and outlast their cold hearts. Then you can overcome their rebellion with the love Jesus has shown to you instead of your own weak strength.

So then, preach the impossible. Though the people may be rebellious, your Lord is forgiving. Though your heart may be fearful, your Lord is strong. Preach that impossible message of repentance because your Lord Jesus has forgiven you. Amen.

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 Pentecost 7: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: 2 Samuel 12:11-26. The sermon theme is: What Have You Done?. Here is the Written Sermon

What Have You Done?

At the end of the book of Judges, we read this verse: “Judg. 21:25    In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” That time in Israel’s history was a dark and chaotic time. There was no king to enforce the law, because there was no king. And we turn the page from Judges to 1 Samuel, looking, waiting for a king who would set things straight. Our hearts rise when we meet Saul. He starts out so well. But so very quickly he turns from the Lord and ends up committing suicide on Mount Gilboa. Then we meet David. David crushes lions. He crushes Goliath. Then he crushes all the Israelites enemies on every side. Would David then be a king we could trust? Would he be the king we could put our hope and trust in? And then we reach the part of David’s life which we read about this morning.

David was in his palace overlooking his city. He saw a beautiful woman bathing in her courtyard. And, even though he has a number of wives, he wants this woman. And so, he has his servants get her. And he sleeps with her. Here is where our hearts drop. We were looking for a king who was not like Saul. We were looking for a king who would fear, love and trust in his Lord above all things. Instead, we find a man who lusts after another man’s wife and then takes her. Our hearts cry out: David, what have you done?

We want to go to David and show him his sin. But David isn’t done yet. David kills Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. And then he brings Bathsheba into his home. David had thought he had done an efficient job of covering up his sin his way. But, after all of this, the Lord tells us that what he did did not please the Lord. And our voices cry out once again: David, what have you done?

And, as if the adultery and murder weren’t enough, we see a flood of pain cover every one around David. His servants were terrified of him. And, how many nights did Nathan spend agonizing and praying for David? How much pain did he bring to those who loved him! Oh David, what have you done? Can’t you see what you are doing to yourself and everyone who loves you? But David was running away from the Lord. And he was running over anyone in his way.

Our hearts cry out: “what have you done, David?” But my heart could just as easily cry out: “what have you done, Steve?” There have been times, when like David, I thought about things which were not mine. And I wanted them. And when my stupid, sinful yearnings were brought into the light, I lied. I played the cover-up game, just not as ruthlessly and efficiently as David did. And when I was caught, I made a huge mess, just like David did.

That is a question which pierces our soul when we preach it to ourself: What have you done? Haven’t we all thought, sinned, lied and then made an even greater mess by trying to cover it up. That is a question that corners us and crushes us. But, there is another question we ask in these words. We don’t just ask: “David, what have you done?”, we also ask: “O Lord, what have you done?”

Just picture David’s life. He is so busy dealing with sin his way that he loses sight of what the Lord has done for him. He is so busy dealing with sin his way that he finds nothing in his life but sleepless nights and painful days. Then the prophet Nathan comes. And Nathan tricks David. He tells him a story about a ruthless rich man who steals a poor man’s only sheep. David is jealous and angry. He says that that wicked man who stole the lamb must pay for it five times over. And Nathan says those simple, yet cutting words: “you are the man.”

David is so weary of the sleepless nights and so weary of the painful days without peace. And he spoke words that made the angels in heaven sing in joy. What were those words? David simply said: “I have sinned against the Lord.”

And in return, what did Nathan say? Did he say: “Well that’s nice David, but you’re not sorry enough, and you definitely haven’t done enough to earn the Lord’s forgiveness.” No, the faithful prophet says those beautiful words: “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. “ There were no hoops or hurdles for David because there is an answer to the question: “Lord, what have you done?” Nathan clearly said with all confidence: “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die “. He did this because he knew that there would be one who would come who would crush death. He said this because the one who would crush death would come from David’s own family line.

We ask that question: “O Lord, what did you do?” And we find the answer to that question in Jesus. Jesus is David’s greater son. Jesus is the one who gave Nathan’s words their joy and life. Nathan said: “The Lord has taken away your sin.” What makes those word true is the fact that Jesus never lusted, never hated and never lied. He took away David’s sin by being the only one who was tempted and never sinned.

And then, after that, Nathan said: “You are not going to die.” And Nathan had every right to say that. Nathan had every right to assure David and let him know that when he died he would live with the Lord forever. Nathan could say this with every confidence because Jesus died for him.

“O Lord, what did you do?” Jesus never lusted or lied. Jesus died so that we could say those words of forgiveness to each other: “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. “

And so, we have the answer to the question: “Lord, what have you done with my sin.” But immediately after that we need to answer another question: “Lord what have you done with the consequences of my sin?” David sinned against the Lord. And his sins were forgiven. But there were earthly consequences of that sin which still endured. And so, David’s son died. His kingdom was torn from him for a time. His wives were stolen from him, just as he stole Bathsheba from Uriah.

These were the earthly consequences of his sin. He was definitely forgiven. But the consequences of his sin endured. We find the same pattern in our lives. The man who pulls the trigger on the gun is forgiven by God above and maybe even by the family. But, the person he kills remains dead. The woman who chain-smokes until she gets emphysema, is forgiven in the sight of the Lord through Jesus. But, it doesn’t take away the damage she has done to her body. And it doesn’t take away the pain her loved ones have at seeing her pain.

And so, what does the Lord do about that? What does he do with the reminder of the sin that remains decades after the sin is done? What does he do with the painful consequences of that sin? In Psalm 51, David answers that question: “Psa. 51:13    Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. 14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.”

Although these consequences of his sin were painful, what did the Lord do with them in David’s life? David says these words: “I will teach transgressors your ways.” David was able to speak about the dangers of sin and the treasure of forgiveness in a new way. He was able to say: ‘Look how stupid and rebellious I was. Do not be like that!.” He was able to say: ‘Look at how good and gracious our Lord is—that he could forgive a sinner like me!’

So, you too my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the answers to these questions. We say “O Lord, what have you done.” We rejoice that he has never lusted or lied or lived against his Father’s will. We rejoice that he died so that when we die we will live forever with him in heaven. We rejoice that the Lord turns even the painful consequences of our sins into good. In them we can see God’s grace—his undeserved love. With them we can teach transgressors the ways of the Lord. Amen.

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 Pentecost 6: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download