Bible Study: Isaiah 55:1-5, July 30, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 30, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Isaiah 55:1-5. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Bible Study: Job 5:1-27, July 20, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 20, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Job 5:1-27.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Romans 8:18-27, July 20, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 20, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Romans 8:18-27. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Romans 8:18-27, July 20, 2014

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

Dear friends in Christ,

     We’re gonna change things up and I’m going to end this sermon before it begins and just tell the punch line: the resurrection is awesome, that’s the hoped for thing that is unseen, and because we have that, we’re all good with God.  Go in peace.

Bible Study: Romans 8:18-27, July 16, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 16, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Romans 8:18-27. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Bible Study: Job 4:1-21, July 13, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 13, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Job 4:1-21.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, July 13, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 13, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, July 13, 2014

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

The text this morning is from the Gospel of the Matthew, the thirteenth chapter:

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,

     Today’s text tends to lend itself towards one question that is in everybody’s mind: what kind of soil am I?  Am I good soil?  Well, certainly, we’d never think that much of ourselves.  Am I the soil on the path?  Do I get eaten by birds?  Do I get scorched by the sun?  Do I get choked out?  What kind of soil am I?  What’s going to happen to me?

     See, these are all the wrong questions.  The question shouldn’t be, should never be, what kind of soil am I.  That question has the wrong focus.  Rather, the question should be, why is the sower in this passage so lazy, so stupid, so wasteful?

     Now, before I answer that, I gotta say, I don’t know much about gardening. In fact, nothing really at all.  I know enough that you put the plants in the ground, water them, maybe put some fertilizer on them, maybe keep the bugs away.  That’s about it.  I know even less about farming management.  I’m always impressed when I drive down the road and I see those huge watering systems farmers have that pivot on their stand.  I’m always amazed by those huge machines that just tower over everything.

Bible Study: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, July 9, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 9, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on matthew 13:1-9, 18-23. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Bible Study: Introduction to Job 4, July 6, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 6, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on an Introduction into Job 4 and beyond.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Romans 7:14-25a, July 6, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 6, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Romans 7:14-25a. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Romans 7:14-25a, July 6, 2014

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

The text this morning is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the 7^th chapter:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good… Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 

Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,

     When I was younger, I used to call this the do-do passage, because Paul just keeps throwing out the dos.  I don’t do what I want, I do do what I don’t want to do.  There are so many dos in this passage, it’s hard to keep them all straight.  But Paul, all he’s really talking about is the New Adam versus the Old Adam.  He’s talking about our sinful flesh and our sinless life.

     Now, maybe that’s hard to pick out.  Maybe that’s even hard to make sense of.  I had a professor once tell me that it was nearly impossible to read anything of Paul unless you actually bring out the whiteboard and start diagramming each sentence, each paragraph, each thought.  But, instead of doing that with you this morning, I’m going to work to try to get you through this whole thing as easily as I can.

     First, let us understand the Old Adam.  Our old Adam is what we call our sinful flesh, that part inside of us that is rotten with sin and cannot be gotten rid of because he just keeps coming back.  Paul calls this the flesh.  Now, this doesn’t mean that all physical things, like our bodies are evil.  Rather, Paul is making clear that our flesh is corrupted by sin.

Sermon for the Wedding of Bailee Beiswenger and Mike Matzek, July 5, 2014

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

The text this afternoon is from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the fourth chapter, verses 9-12:

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Thus far the text.

Bailee and Mike and my dear friends in Christ,

     This day has finally arrived.  This day is finally here.  I know that you both have been looking forward to it for quite a while.  You have worked so hard to prepare everything for this day, to get it all right.  It’s never perfect, though.  Something always goes wrong.  Yet, there is still something about this day that makes even those imperfections, those snafus, just disappear.

     Perhaps that is because this day is a day in which love is front and center.  After all, everyone’s eyes here are focused right on you guys.  We are standing in the center of everyone and everyone is looking at you, and they are waiting to hear you profess your love for each other in your wedding vows.

But, I have to tell you, these are JUST your wedding vows.  They are vows that you will make to one another, to love and cherish one another at all times, but these are only WORDS that you will speak.  They are not the action promised in the words.  That’s a lot harder to do.

Bible Study: Romans 7:14-25a, July 2, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 2, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Romans 7:14-25a. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.