Sermons by “Rev. John R. Larson”

“Chosen Children”

2020 has been a crummy year for lots of people. But I know one young girl – my granddaughter – who thinks 2020 was a pretty good one. In the middle of the summer – on Monday, June 22, a 10- year-old who had lived in a number of different foster homes through her young life, found a permanent home with my son and his wife and their two boys. On June 22 she was adopted and became a Larson. On that day she decided not only to get a new last name but she also changed her first and middle ones as well. Her given name was Aubree, but on June 22, 2020, she chose the name of Allie Marie. This chosen child was able to choose her own name. This was a new beginning for my granddaughter. No more foster homes. This was a forever home. This was permanent.

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A Man Named John

Jesus fights for you. He fights for your health and your family. He fights for your salvation and restoration. When everything seems to be against you, Jesus actually takes your side. You with your broken past. You with the absentee dad. You with the bad credit score, the bad break, the bad decisions. You with the sadness and struggles.

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The Grand Finale

But, tell me, why hasn’t He come? Why haven’t we had that day when He will judge the world with justice and throw the devil into the lake of fire and give to us believers our resurrected bodies? Why? Because He wants more people to know the fullness of His salvation. God has paused the return of Christ because of His heart of love for all people – especially for those whose heart is not right with God. Our reading says this, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9)

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You Have My Word

A word can do powerful things. They can harm others or they can do things that will empower and make them strong and alive. I, too often, have hurt people with my words. I regret when I say something that can just take the breath away from someone. But I’ve done it. Maybe, you too? But, at times, I’ve spoken words that make a person alive and thriving. God, also, can kill with His words and He can make us alive with them. Jesus came to bring words of life and hope to all of us. Later in this chapter, the contrast between Moses and his words, and Jesus with His, is given, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) When Jesus says “You have my word” we can believe it because He is the Word of God, in the flesh.

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A Lament or a Hymn?

Either life can be a lament or it can be a hymn. Which one is it for you? There can be no escaping that life, at times, sometimes for long periods, can be a lament. But I know a God who allows our laments to be transformed into hymns. And these hymns are the greatest ones that have ever been sung and lived. You may remember that in the middle of the book of sorrow, the book of Lamentations, this hymn of hope is recorded, “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:19-23)

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Taken for Granted?

Taken for granted!! God is taken for granted. God’s great miracles become common. We don’t give a second thought to the air we breathe, that water we drink or the sun that shines. Yet God had to think long and hard as to how they would all work. We take for granted the places He gives us to live and the abilities He gives us to make a living and the ordinary things that make up life.

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Royal Shepherding

Do you know why a shepherd would take the choice sheep of his flock and destroy them? It is so they could come back alive. Look at what God is doing in us, right now. In so many ways we were sleek, fat, capable, and had life in a right order. But for many of us now, right now, that is not the case. These last 9 months have been brutal on many, in many ways.

Now is the time to lose our control and let God take over. Now it is the time to be broken so that God can put us together. This is the time to repent of pride and self so that Jesus can be the King who will shepherd us.

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How Well Do You Know Jesus?

If God is not part of your life, if the choices you are making are making a mess of everything, if your faith is inadequate and you don’t know the joy of the master, today is the day to know something better, to know Someone better – it is the day to know Jesus.

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Is God Angry?

God’s anger over sin came on a day that was filled with darkness, not light. It happened just about 2,000 years ago. The day of darkness was on Good Friday. For three hours the sky went dark, though it should have had light. That was the day of the Lord. The day of judgment. Jesus became judged for sin. He received God’s anger. Jesus spoke, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Then, after death, came brilliant light on that Sunday morning. The appearance of the angels who made the proclamation that God’s new day had come, were as bright as lightning. God’s anger over a fallen world was answered by Jesus. Good Friday was completed by Easter.

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Flawed

Do you know where flawed people must go? They must seek God. They have a broken heart. They ask God to give them a new beginning. Flawed people repent of sin and believe in God’s reception of them and their brokenness.

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