On December 9th our pastor was away and I filled in giving the message. Below is the transcript .
Enjoy and may our most Holy Father continue to watch over you.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I am going to ask you to do some thinking and calculating this morning. I have a lot of questions to ask you today. I know it’s Sunday morning, for some of us it’s our only “day off”. I am not going to ask you to speak or raise your hands or anything, BUT, I feel compelled to ask for your complete attention to the questions I am about to ask. I also feel compelled to remind you of what is written in Acts 5: 1-10, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a piece of property to give the money to the young church, but then lied about how much they sold it for. The key verse here is the second half of vs. 4 where Peter says; …You have not lied to men, but to God. I’m not implying that you will die, just that the Lord knows what is in your heart when you answer these questions to yourself.

We are awake about 16 hours per day.
How much time each day do you spend watching (listening to, background noise) TV?
How much time listening to commercial radio?
How much time in a non-Christian work environment?
How much time do you spend in God’s Word?

How many of you remember the old saying, “You are what you eat?”
I think it applies here as well. You are what you listen to, you are what you read, you are what you continually expose yourself to. As an example, I was never a professional painter. I was not even a very good painter. ( I don’t mean as in art, I’m not good at that either). Last year I was given the job as the “paint specialist” at work. I don’t know if I would call myself an expert now, but I am very knowledge able about paint. Why? That’s what I do all day long.

In today’s New Testament lesson, Romans 15:4; For whatever was written in the earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and encouragement of the scripture we might have hope.
I think what this is saying is that the more we know about what God has done in the past, the more confidence we will have about what he will do in the future, our future. So, we should read our Bibles diligently to increase our trust that God’s will is what is best for us.
Romans15:13 takes it a step further. Paul says to the Romans; Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look at that word power. In my concordance the Greek word is dynamis…another way of translating it is ability. …that you may abound in hope by the ability of the Holy Spirit. Where does the Holy Spirit apply His ability to work within us and direct us? Through God’s word!
What is the result of following the Holy Spirit’s direction? We will bear “good fruit”. In today’s Gospel Matthew 3:8, John the Baptist warns us to bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. That would be the “good fruit”. And, in vs. 10 he says to the Pharisees and Sadducees; And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Why did he say this to them? Because they were not following God’s Word, but man made laws that gave them more power and wealth.
Even in those “simpler” days Satan, the world, and the flesh (our sinful nature) were trying to convince the people that it was power and wealth that made them a “somebody”.

A day or two before I sat down to start the outline for this message, I received a magazine called Good News, a conservative Lutheran publication. The Power of Sin was the topic of this edition.
In Romans 5:12 Paul states; Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. In this article the writer creates the analogy of sin being a disease. Furthermore he says Holy living can not cure this disease. No one can control their sinful thoughts. As proof he offered up Romans 7:19-21 (one of my favorites) Paul says; For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
Since we can’t cure this disease, how do we control it?
With God’s living medicine! What is that?
Paul says in Romans 6:12; Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.
Satan tries to lead us into sin, and who has defeated Satan? Jesus! Because Jesus reigns in us then He will help us subdue sin. How do we get Him to reign in us? Through Baptism.
There’s more, Jesus himself tells us, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. (From John 41:23)
Through baptism, God comes to reign in us. Our hearts become His throne from which he rules our lives, and helps us to resist Satan and sin.
How do we abide in His word? How are we able to take God’s medicine regularly? Through our ears as we hear Christ-centered sermons each and every week, through our eyes as we read our Bible for devotion every day, and through our mouth as we take communion regularly.
Not to mention that the more familiar we are with His Word the faster we will recognize the sinful thoughts that we have. The faster we recognize them the faster we can call on our Lords help in quelling them.

Now we have talked about reading God’s Word so we can bear good fruits, we talked about His Word helping to control the sin in our lives. Now let’s talk about how we feel when we leave church on Sunday mornings. I don’t know about you, but I feel awesome. How would you like to keep that feeling of strength, peace, and comfort all week long? I know what helps me…Reading, meditating, and praying on our Lord’s Word everyday. God wants us to do this. He has put the time in our life.

Has this thought crossed anybody’s mind this morning? “Look, I’m really busy! It’s tough out here on the east end of Long Island. I come to church every week and I listen closely to the things the Pastor says. That’s the best I can do right now.”
How many of us have kids in school? Especially in high school. Or are taking classes or going to school ourselves? What kind of grades would we expect if they or we only studied one hour once a week?
We spend many, many hours immersed in “the world”. We spend very little time in hearing or studying God’s Word.
Which “subject” are we going to do best in?
Which subject is most important, the power and wealth that the world calls us to, or eternity with our Holy Father?

Satan knows the power of God’s Word in our life. He tries to lead us to the distractions that will take us away from The Word AND, it awesome power. Do you remember that word and what the Scripture said about it a moment ago? Romans 15:13; …that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some of us do our best to spend time in The Word. So Satan will try to convince us that having noise around us at all times is OK. We spend so much of our time bombarded by noise and distractions from the TV, radio, and even instant messaging on the computer. These things sometimes block out the quiet voice of our Lord. Yes, there are times when He yells at us to get our attention, but usually He talks to us in a quiet voice, that we will never hear with all the distractions that can encroach on our time. We need some quiet time to truly ask for our Savior’s guidance.
Again, that time is available.
We just shouldn’t be tricked into thinking that the time we spend in study and listening to God’s word isn’t important. It is important for our forgiveness. It is important for strength, the strength to resist sin, and that helps us in holy living.

While the things I have been led to say here are for everybody, men, women and kids, the Holy Spirit has been keeping men in the forefront of my mind while writing this. So, for the men and young men, this next point especially is for you. We are responsible in God’s eyes for the path our families are on!! We need the help of the Holy Spirit to guide us, and we need other Christian men to help us persevere. PLEASE, do not buy in to Satan's scheme that to be real men we must be independent. IT IS NOT TRUE!!!! First and foremost, we need to be dependant on Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, but also on other Christian men to help keep us accountable for our actions AND forgive and nurture us when we fall.

I know I have asked a lot of questions. I hope you noticed though that we found all the answers in the Bible, God’s Word. There are many questions that come to us each day. Some are easy, what will I eat for lunch? Should I go to work? The answers to these types of questions mostly come from our values and morals. The basis of which come from having God reigning in our hearts. Some of the questions are hard, dealing with worldly temptations: There’s no one home, should I check out that porn site on the computer the guys at work were talking about? It was a terrible day at work, should I just drop on the couch in front of the TV with a six pack of beer so I don’t have to think about it? From Gospel we know that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert for 40 days, how did He respond? He used God’s word and was strengthened. Other questions might deal with how we treat our others: I can’t believe that woman at work got the job I wanted. Should I find a way to get back at her? As the people of Israel were crucifying Him, and He was dying on the cross, Jesus said “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Through the Gospel Jesus shows us how to resist temptations and about forgiveness, among many other things. Our exposure to the Word of God enables the Holy Spirit to guide us through our tough questions.

And let’s remember that Jesus set aside time for us, so that we might live forever in Heaven with Him.
Shouldn’t we set aside some time to be with Him and learn from Him everyday? I’ll let you look up the answer to this one yourself.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds, through faith, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen