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Jesus is the Lord of Life and Death

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Pastor Jeremy Husby delivers a sermon entitled “Jesus is the Lord of Life and Death” based on Mark 5:21-24, 34-43 at Peace Lutheran Church in Hartford, Wisconsin.

Delivered: Sunday, July 1, 2018

When the Pharisee Nicodemus, the member of the Jewish ruling council, came to meet Jesus in that famous section of John, chapter three, he did so under the cover of night.  It was a secret meeting.  Nicodemus didn’t want his coworkers to know that he was going to see, and to talk with, Jesus.  He was likely afraid of what they would have not only thought about him, but also what it might have meant for his career.  He couldn’t be seen or known to hang around with Jesus, the troublemaker.

Jairus, the man in the Gospel account today, came under no such pretense.  He didn’t care what people thought about him, what they might say to him, or what it might have meant for his career.  Yes, he was a synagogue ruler.  Yes, Jesus’ work was, in some ways, making his own job obsolete.  Yes, there would be consequences for being seen or known to hang around with Jesus, the troublemaker.  But, that didn’t matter to him in the least.  There was only one thing on Jairus’ mind; only one thing important to him.  His beloved daughter, his 12 year old girl, was dying and Jesus was the only one who had the power to help.

Have you ever had to get a second opinion?  The doctors say that they can’t do anything to help.  The disease has taken its hold and no amount of surgery, therapy, or medication will change that.  They say they could possibly slow it down, give you a couple more weeks, months maybe, but there is nothing else to do other than just make your loved one more comfortable in their last days.

Well, that may be what Hartford hospital has to say—but what about Froedtert?  The Mayo Clinic?  St. Jude?  That drive down to Milwaukee wouldn’t bother you a bit.  Plane tickets to Minnesota or Memphis?  Who cares how much they would cost, just get me a flight as soon as possible!

The bible doesn’t say exactly how Jairus knew that Jesus had the ability to help.  Mark’s Gospel, prior to this account, reads like pop star’s summer concert tour.  Jesus performed here and there, sometimes twice in one day.  He drove out a demon and healed a leprous man.  He went to a different town, there healing a paralyzed man and performing an exorcism.  He went out to sea, calmed the storm, came to land, sent demons into a herd of pigs, and crossed back over to the other side of the lake where Jairus was waiting for him.

It’s possible that Jairus heard about, or even saw, some of these miraculous signs.  Maybe members of his family, seeing him in distress, mentioned the man who worked wonders as a last ditch effort.

Whatever it was, Jairus believed that Jesus could do what he was asking.  My little daughter is dying.  Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.  So that.  Not, perchance, she might, if you would.  Not, I’m all out of options and I’m just hoping.  Put your hands on her so that she will be healed.  He believed.  So Jesus went with him.

Jairus got the second opinion he was looking for.  The healer was going to heal.  He must have been so excited as they traveled back to his home.  But then came the terrible news.  Some men came from the house…Your daughter is dead, they said.  Why bother the teacher any more?

He trusted.  He had faith.  He believed Jesus had the power to help and Jesus had agreed to help.  But now it didn’t matter.  His beloved daughter, his 12 year old girl, was now dead.

Jairus had seen her suffering.  He heard the local doctors tell him that death was just around the corner.  No matter how much hope he held out in his attempt to get Jesus to help, it didn’t change the fact that he knew that the death of his daughter was something he would almost certainly have to face in the near future.  However, no matter how much you prepare yourself for that which will eventually come, it still comes with shock and surprise and pain and overwhelming sadness.

It wasn’t some sort of failure of faith, it was simply facing the reality of the situation.  Even the most minor of medical procedures have a chance for complications.  And, the reality of life in this sinful world makes you face reality in more situations than the severity of life and death.

You can have the strongest faith in the world, but still have to face the truth that you might, at any time, lose your job.  Your wife could, one day, decide to leave you or, maybe worse, carry on with someone else while still staying with you.  The house could go up in a fire, the transmission in your Toyota might drop, or your friends and family could find out about that sin you committed in secret and you would have to live the rest of your life in boatloads of shame, day after day.

That, brothers and sisters, is not doubt.  That is not an empty faith.  Recognizing the distinct possibility that any of those, including life and death situations, could happen at any time is not sinful.

However, when the fear of those circumstances, or fear during those circumstances, drives you to despair; the corner has been turned.  That is what Jesus warns against in this section of Scripture.  Listen again to Jesus’ response to the worst news Jairus ever heard:

Don’t be afraid; just believe.

Just a few chapters after this account, Jesus told his disciples that faith can move mountains.  Jairus didn’t need his faith to move mountains, he just needed his faith to move his feet forward, following Jesus to the house where his daughter lay dead.

The thought of moving mountains, simply by faith, might be intriguing, but don’t you have more pressing matters to attend to in faith?

Don’t be afraid; just believe that your job loss doesn’t mean the end of your livelihood.

Don’t be afraid; just believe that the difficulties in, or even the end of, your marriage doesn’t mean the end of your experience of love in your life.

Don’t be afraid; just believe that God will forgive even that sin that shames you.

Don’t be afraid; just believe that even though you are suffering right now so terribly, it will not last forever.

Don’t be afraid; just believe that the same Jesus who raised the daughter of Jairus back to life was raised to life again, himself, after the death he died for you and your sins.  Don’t be afraid; just believe that he shares the benefit of his death and the power of his resurrection with you and that he delivers and demonstrates it, just as he did for Jairus, through his Word.

Don’t be afraid; just believe his promises to you.  Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will wear he promises.  Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you is his pledge to you.  I know the plans I have for you he declares.  He invites all who are weary and burdened to come to him and he vows that he will give you rest.

Your daughter, dad, or friend might not rise to live here on this earth with you again, but that doesn’t change his lordship.  The suffering, pain, and even death that you see and experience is only temporary.  It is possible that those circumstances will be removed now, but, even if they aren’t, you can believe beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Lord of life and death will use his power and authority for you.  He will remove you from this world of sin and sickness, pain and sadness, when he wakes you from the sleep of death.  He will take you by the hand and allow you to feast at his banquet for all of eternity.  Amen.

God is Our Guide

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Pastor Aaron Steinbrenner delivers a sermon entitled “God is Our Guide” based on Job 38 at Peace Lutheran Church in Hartford, Wisconsin.

Delivered: Sunday, June 24, 2018

About a year after we were married, Shelly and I took a trip out west to Boise, Idaho. While there, we went white water rafting. Now, in high school I remember rafting the Wolf River here in Wisconsin and canoeing down the Crystal River, but this was the North Fork of the Payette River…a main tributary to the Snake River and a stretch of water experts have deemed one of the most challenging class of rapids in the country, maybe even the world.

Rapids are rated by class – 1,2,3,4 and 5. On the Payette River you can’t just hop on a raft and float. You need a guide. A good guide will help the rafters learn how to paddle through some of the lower class rapids. A good guide will know how to avoid the dangerous waters – the class 4 and class 5 rapids. A good guide will know when a group of rafters is ready for something more challenging and when they need to stick with more mild waters. A good guide has one job – get those rafters through the waters safely.

That trip to Boise was a blast. And that rafting experience is one I’ll never forget. White water rafting, while challenging, is fun. The river of life often brings us through some pretty choppy waters and it isn’t always fun. In our Lord we have a good guide…a perfect guide…a powerful and loving guide. He knows (better than we do) when we can handle or when our faith can benefit from class 2 or 3 rapids and he knows how to keep many rough waters away from us altogether. But he has one job – get us through the waters of life so we can arrive safely to heaven…with our soul and faith in tact.

The book of Job introduces us to a very devout and godly believer. The Bible tells us he was a believer who lived is faith, prayed for his children, and worshiped the Lord. His waters were smooth and serene. But then the Lord allows a series of class 5 rapids to come crashing down and around Job. His possessions were taken away, his children (all ten of them) were killed in a tornado-like accident, his good health was replaced with sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. His wife and his friends offer no words of support or comfort, only bad advice. Job’s faith was rocked. He still trusted the Lord, but he had questions:
• Why me, Lord? Why are you doing this?
• Surely I don’t deserve what you have given me, especially since so many wicked people out there seem to be prospering.
• Why, Lord? If you have the power, why not make my life better?
• Explain yourself, God!

Ever been there? What rough waters have you been through?….are you going through now?…how would you classify the severity of those rapids?
• Raising a family isn’t easy. Raising teenagers…raising toddlers…raising teenagers and toddlers.
• Being a teenager isn’t easy. Extra responsibilities…Extra peer pressures…Extra temptations.
• Relationships aren’t easy….picking up the pieces after a family has been broken apart – not easy.
• It’s hard to paddle through when finances are tight, when my body hurts, when old age is taking its toll, when memories of my loved one
still bring daily tears to my eyes.

Like Job, these rough waters don’t make us lose our faith, but we have our moments. We have our quiet, behind-the-scenes moments where we look up to heaven and ask, Why me, Lord? Surely, Lord, you could just reach out your hand and make my life a little better, a little easier. Why don’t you? Don’t you care about me?
I have a question for the children and teenagers. Have you ever heard one of your parents say something like this….particularly after you might have been arguing about something or complaining that some decision they made was unfair: “Maybe you’d like to try running this household. If you think you could do a better job of being a parent, then you can start paying all the bills and doing all the maintenance on the house and the vehicles and setting up all the doctor and dentist appointments and buying all the school clothes and school supplies for your siblings…if you think you can be such a better parent.”

That’s kind of how the Lord responds to Job. Job is starting to question the Lord and some of his actions or lack of actions. The Lord speaks. The Lord doesn’t feel the need to justify his decisions or to give answer to Job’s complaints. But he simply reminds him that he is certainly capable of his job – getting Job to heaven not making his life easy. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

Do you think you could do better? When we consider how God created the world and now cares for the world….when we consider how he keeps the lakes and the streams and the oceans in place…when we consider how he set the stars and galaxies in place…how he made the animal kingdom – some creatures so powerful, yet they answer to their creator (he spends a couple more chapters talking about this), are we really going to call God into our office, sit him down in a chair across from our executive desk, and lecture him on how he should do this or do that in our life? O Lord, in our weak moments, we speak about things we do not know. Forgive us.

Just a word about Job. He lived during the time of Abraham. That means he didn’t have a Bible on his bookshelf or coffee table. So many of the Gospel promises we have known since our youth, Job simply didn’t have.
• Can you imagine going through choppy waters without having God speaking to you and guiding you in his Scriptures?
• Can you imagine being tired and weary but not knowing about Jesus invitation: Come to me, and I will give you rest?
• Can you imagine a guilty conscience and the weight of sin pressing so heavy upon you without also hearing Isaiah shout out – Yes,
we’ve gone astray, just like sheep…and the LORD has lifted our iniquity off our backs and laid it on Jesus?
• Can you imagine feeling alone and not knowing how Jesus has said: Surely I am with you…always?
• Can you imagine going through a class 4 or 5 rapid without having the assurance that this too will be a blessing to your faith and
that adversity will cause you to cling to the life raft of God’s promises all the more.
• Can you imagine losing a loved one, without the words of Jesus – because I live you will live – echoing from the mouth of the empty
tomb?

All the angels shouted for joy when the Lord displayed his power after his creation was complete. The angels shouted for joy when the Lord sent his one and only Son into this world. The angels shout for joy when sinners repent and turn to the Lord. And won’t they shout when the Lord our guide accomplishes his goal…as he guides us through the rough waters…and brings us safely to the other side of the shore.

Certainly a God who has the power to control all creation…a God who has the compassion to give us his Son…if THE God who serves as our capable guide. Amen.

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Jesus is Lord of the Kingdom

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Pastor Paul Waldschmidt delivers a sermon entitled “Jesus Is Lord of the Kingdom” based on Mark 4:26-34 at Peace Lutheran Church in Hartford, Wisconsin.

Delivered: Sunday, June 17, 2018

Last week, we celebrated a fun anniversary in my family, one that’s unique to families with adopted children. Last Friday was the anniversary of the day in 2010 when we got the phone call that told us that a baby in China had been matched up with our family, and that we should check our email for a picture. Last Friday was the anniversary of the first time that we saw our daughter’s Nora’s face.

It doesn’t seem like 8 years ago. It seems like just yesterday that we received that picture.  It seems like just yesterday that we were playing “this little piggy” with her toes and popping a seemingly endless stream of cheerios into her mouth. It feels like I blinked and eight years have passed. She’s not a grown up yet, but boy has she grown and it makes me ask myself….how exactly did that happen?

We didn’t tell her to learn how to walk or to talk or to lose her baby teeth. Those things just happened. We didn’t consciously will her to get taller, or to develop her unique set of character traits and personality quirks. They just happened and are continuing to happen. In short, she’s doing what all the rest of did or are currently doing. She’s growing up.  We didn’t make it happen but it sure is cool to be a part of it.

Jesus makes the same point in our Gospel lesson. The kingdom of God grows subtly, mysteriously, wonderfully. We don’t make it happen, but it sure is cool to be a part of it. He doesn’t use the illustration of a child growing up. Instead he talks about a seed planted in the ground.

You probably know that Jesus had this habit of describing intangible things in tangible ways. So he wouldn’t talk about love, he’d talk about a father running out to meet his prodigal son, first throwing his arms around him, then throwing a party around him. Jesus wouldn’t talk about persistence, he’d talk about a little old lady who badgered a magistrate so often and so intensely that eventually he gave in. The “kingdom of God” is definitely an intangible thing. It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around such an abstract concept. So Jesus described it in various places in various ways that people could understand—it’s like a precious pearl hidden in a field, it’s like a net with all kinds of different fish, it’s like a banquet that people are invited to. Or in this section from Mark 4, This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

The first thing He wants us to notice is how “out of our hands” the kingdom of God is. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. So you might be thinking, “If the growth of God’s kingdom is out of our hands—if it just “happens” like a baby growing into an 8 year old, or a seed pushing up through the ground…well then why do bother doing anything? Cuz life in this kingdom can be exhausting, even brutal some times! Why do we give our offerings? Why do we unlock our school doors and welcome students year after year, when it is so costly, so time consuming, and judging by the post-confirmation church attendance numbers, so often ineffective? Why do we haul our kids and grandkids up on our laps and teach them to sing, “I am Jesus’ little lamb.”? Why do we put hours and hours of preparation into a worship service? Why do we study the Word with earnest and inquisitive hearts? Why do we crucify our sinful natures and submit our will and wants to God’s will? If the seed grows all by itself, why do we invest so much of ourselves into the effort?

The answer’s quite simple, really. Because He lets us! He lets us be a part of and play a part in His kingdom. And that is a privilege that is both generous and entirely undeserved. I had a professor back in college who marveled at the fact that God can save anyone….even pastors. (He got it. He was a pastor himself!) And the longer that I live in my own skin, the more I realize the wisdom of that statement.  Love that is big enough to take such an undisciplined disciple, such a consistent backslider, such a chronic complainer and not only have mercy on him, but then also set him in a pulpit and make him an instrument, that is love worth sharing, a gospel worth dying for, a seed worth scattering.

Think about it another way. You’re here today because somebody at some time scattered a little seed towards you. Somebody taught you the demands and commands of holy God. Somebody cared enough about you to tell you that were wrong, to cut you down to size, to not allow you to get away with doing stuff that God hates. And most likely, it was that same somebody who showed the blood stained cross and explained what happened there. Somebody told you that you had an identity not given by a world that lies, but by a God who always tells the truth. Somebody told you that about what it means to be forgiven and forgive, what it means to serve without expectation of recognition and give without expectation of repayment. Somebody told you that you don’t have to be afraid of death. You’re here today because somebody scattered a little seed your way. And because the Lord of the Kingdom saw fit to make it grow. Who was that person for you? Who might be the person who will some day look back at you and smile…because you were the one who scattered a little seed into their hearts?

You see, it’s not like the farmer is incidental in the whole story. He has an important job after all. He scatters the seed. It’s just that he’s not the one who makes it grow. He can’t make it grow faster or slower. He can’t make it grow by shouting at it, sweet talking it and compromising with it. He just scatters the seed. The Lord of the Kingdom makes it grow.

So as we look this text, a bunch of important applications come to mind. Don’t be fooled by appearances. Seeds don’t look like much. That’s why they put pictures of the plant on the seed package and not pictures of the seeds themselves. The seeds don’t look like much. But boy do they grow. So also God’s Word might not always look like much. And we live in a world that loves to point out that how outdated it is, how irrelevant it is, how overly simplistic it is, how unduly complicated it is. They only see the seed. They have no idea how big the plant grows, or how long the plant lasts—for decades, for generations, even for eternity.

Secondly, don’t be discouraged. Some times the seed seems to be doing nothing for a really long time. We get discouraged when we don’t see the growth in our lives or in the people around us that we’d hoped. When the temptations don’t immediately go away, in fact they get more intense. When the attitudes don’t immediately change 100 percent, but instead we see no change at all, we tend to get restless and expect results right away. Be patient. Remember that there may be growth that only God can see. Keep scattering the seed for yourself and those around you. Then watch and see how the Lord of the Kingdom might make the plant grow.

Finally, don’t forget there’s a harvest coming. Jesus said as much. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” No farmer plants grain just for kicks, just because he’s bored. He has the harvest in his sights. The Lord of the Kingdom causes his gospel to grow in homes, and hearts and churches with a goal in mind. He plants with a purpose—that one day he will gather his grain into the storehouses of eternity. Until that day, may the one who caused the seed to take root in you, continue to make it grow—for he is the Lord of the Kingdom. Amen.

https://vimeo.com/274500481

Jesus is Lord Even Over Evil

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Pastor Jeremy Husby delivers a sermon entitled “Jesus Is Lord Even Over Evil” based on Mark 3:20-35 at Peace Lutheran Church in Hartford, Wisconsin.

Delivered: Sunday, June 10, 2018

What can the power of Christ strengthen you to accomplish?

Perhaps you are having difficulty in your marriage. The power of Christ is strong enough to overcome selfishness on your part or even the sins of your spouse. Strengthened and motivated by his love, and in thanksgiving for his love, there is no rift that cannot be reconciled.

Maybe, for you, it is an habitual sin or addiction that, try as you might, you have not been able to quit. 12 steps and a slew of self-help books haven’t been able to scratch the surface of your struggles. However, the power of Christ, through his Word and Sacrament, is stronger than your own willpower. He can, and will be, the fix your heart, body, and mind are so desperately seeking to find.

You may have your doubts about the power of Christ in those situations. And, truth be told, overcoming those obstacles, with something as simple sounding as Word and Sacrament, is certainly easier said than done. And, in the Gospel for today, from Mark, chapter 3, there is a strong case study for why that power of Christ can be so difficult to trust.

It started with a little bit of betrayal. Long before Judas and his infamous kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane or Peter’s repeated denials before the rooster’s crows, others who were supposed to be loyal to Jesus showed themselves to be quite the opposite.

It was those closest to him who threw the first stone. Here, his family; his mother, brothers, and sisters—they were the ones who went to take charge of him, to seize him, to grab him and shake him by the shoulders. They are the ones who were saying, over and again, He is out of his mind.

But his family wasn’t alone in placing stumbling blocks along his path. The teachers of the Law, who came down from Jerusalem, too, tried to get Jesus to stop what he was doing—to stop preaching, to stop teaching, to stop healing, and, as odd as it sounds, to stop driving out demons from those who had been possessed.

Of these two groups standing in the way of Jesus’ mission, it might be easier to understand where his family was coming from. They may have thought, like some silly Snickers commercial, that Jesus simply wasn’t acting himself because he was a little hungry. He got so wrapped up in his work that he didn’t have a chance to eat and, therefore, he was doing things that made him appear beside himself—a little out of his mind.

The teachers of the law, though, were a different story. They, themselves, were so caught up in trying to discredit Jesus that they abandoned logic in their accusations.

How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.

While some were saying that Jesus was out of his mind, it was actually the charges of those teachers of the law that were bordering on insanity.

Why would Satan control Jesus to drive out Satan? That doesn’t make any sense. Satan would be fighting against himself and against the demons that he sent if he had possessed Jesus and gave him the power to expel and exorcise them.

No, Jesus was not possessed by Satan or any demons. In his address of the accusations that stood against him, Jesus revealed the work that he came here on earth to accomplish and who, instead, was actually in Satan’s possession. And, as he often did, he taught this truth with a parable. Listen again:

No one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.

You know the rules for interpreting parables, right? You find out who or what is meant to represent you in the parable and who or what else is being illustrated as well. Finally, then, you search for the heavenly truth that is being taught.

Are you the strong man? Are you the robber? No, brothers and sisters, you are the possessions. And, unfortunately, the strong man who had possession of you is not Jesus or God, but, rather, someone who you needed to be stolen away from. That strong man is Satan, himself.

Ever since the fall into sin, all of mankind has, by nature, been under the possession of the Devil. And, as Jesus intimated in his parable, Satan was able to keep human beings in his possession because he is strong. He is so strong that he convinces those in his possession to do things they ought not, and sometimes even know they shouldn’t, do.

The strong man had convinced Jesus’ own family to call him insane. The strong man had convinced the teachers of the law to abandon logic. What has the strong man, through his powerful lies, strengthened you to accomplish?

To distrust or doubt the power of Christ?
To be selfish in your relationships?
To depend on bottles of booze or pills to get you through the day?
To worry about and fear the challenges you face on a daily basis in your health, in your bank account, or in your career?
To covet that car, that house, that wife, or those children because, with even more lies, you believe that you deserve them?

In the opening hymn today, you sang, “This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will, he can harm us none. He’s judged, the deed is done! One little word can fell him.”

In order to get you, the possessions of the strong man, Jesus had to tie him up. He had to take away his power, to remove the venom from the ancient serpent’s bite.

In writing this hymn, Martin Luther identified the way that Jesus was able to take away Satan’s power, the one word that he, and we, can say to overcome his temptations and accusations. Jesus identified Satan for what he really is. That one word is “liar.”

Satan works against you in the same way that he did against Adam and Eve in the beginning. He lies. Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from this tree? Did God really say that he will strengthen you and support you and provide for you all that you need? Did God really say that you shouldn’t desire things that aren’t yours? Did God really say that you should love your husband unconditionally? Did God really say that you are forgiven?

Satan is a liar! Jesus tells the truth. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.

Do you doubt the power of Christ? You are forgiven.
Have you gone back to the same habitual sin or addiction over and again? You are forgiven.
Have you been selfish, greedy, impatient, or discontent? Forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.

Jesus is able to pronounce that forgiveness upon you because of what he did for you. He lived perfectly in your place and, sacrificing his perfect life on the cross, he received the punishment that your sins deserved so that you wouldn’t. He gives you forgiveness because God’s wrath for sin has already been doled out on him. He gives you forgiveness because his work declares you innocent in the eyes of your God. He gives you forgiveness because the debt your sins incurred has already been paid.

Yes, you deserve hell. It is true that God shouldn’t provide for you or preserve you. But, because of Jesus’ perfect life and innocent death, done for you, when Satan says that you are going to hell or that God doesn’t love you and that he will not provide for you, he is lying.

Satan is the strong man who tried to keep you as his possession in his house. But, thankfully, for us fights the valiant One, whom God himself elected. You ask, who is this? Jesus Christ it is. The almighty Lord. And there’s no other God; he holds the field forever.

The Devil is strong, but Jesus is the Lord even over evil. By the power of Christ, your sins are forgiven. By the power of Christ, the Devil is undone. By the power of Christ, given to you in Word and Sacrament, call the Devil a liar and be strengthened by the truth. Amen.