Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Sleeping in Church" for Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Sleeping in Church" for Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Love one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.[Romans 12:10-13]
One of my dearest friends in this world was a sainted man named Maynard Lueth. One time, when I was preaching a sermon on vicarage, I saw him settle in for the message. He wrapped his arm around the end of the pew, shut his eyes, rested his head on his shoulder, and didn't move until 20 minutes later, I said, "Amen."
Later that week I confronted him by saying, "I know not all my sermons are interesting, but you could at least give me a chance before you take a nap."
He informed me that shutting his eyes was how he listened.
When I laughed at that explanation, he proceeded to give me an outline of my message so perfect I could have used it to preach my sermon. I wish I could say the same for everyone who has ever shut their eyes when I started preaching.
In truth there are people who sleep in church. One such person is 42-year-old William Barker. When I say William Barker slept in church, I mean he slept in church. Let me explain.
Barker regularly attended Mass at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Arlington County, Virginia.
According to police, Barker "would wait until the evening hours when there was less staff around, pop a ceiling tile, use a ladder, crawl up to his own space in the attic, pull the ladder up there and occupy it until the next morning." In that attic Barker also had a guitar, food, water and extra clothing, which he hung from the rafters.
Now I found this story fascinating because Mr. Barker managed to pull this off for three years.
Three years when nobody noticed him. Three years when he was regularly one of the last people in the building. Three years when no one paid a visit to him in his home. Three years when nobody at church put him on a mailing list. Three years when no elder was made responsible for him. Three years when, well, you get the drift. I'm saying William Barker was not the only one who was sleeping at St. Ann's.
The truth is we are to love each other, help each other, encourage each other as the Lord has done for us.
That means we have to work hard at making sure people don't fall through the cracks.
The Lord has given us a wonderful message of salvation to share. That message of salvation through the Savior's blood does not begin with the pastor saying, "Grace, mercy and peace be unto you," and it does not end with his final "Amen." Most certainly, a sermon is incredibly important and is used by the Holy Spirit to touch people, but what everyone else says and does is also important.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, there are needy souls all around me. May I reach out to them with the Gospel message of salvation by faith in Christ. Let no one pass by my church -- and myself -- unnoticed or uncared for. This I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Jeremiah 47:1 This word of Adonai came to Yirmeyahu the prophet concerning the P’lishtim before Pharaoh attacked ‘Azah: 2 “Here is what Adonai says:

‘Water is rising out of the north;

it will become a flooding stream,

flooding the land and all that is in it,

the city and its inhabitants.

The people are crying out in alarm,

everyone in the land is weeping

3 at the thunderous pound of his stallions’ hoofs,

at his rattling chariots’ rumbling wheels.

Fathers fail to turn back for their children;

instead, their hands hang limp,

4 because the day has come

for destroying all the P’lishtim,

for cutting off from Tzor and Tzidon

the last of their allies;

for Adonai is destroying the P’lishtim,

the remnant from the island of Kaftor.

5 ‘Azah is shaved bald,

Ashkelon reduced to silence.

Those of you who remain in their valley,

how long will you go on gashing yourselves?’”

6 Oh, sword of Adonai,

how long till you can be quiet?

Put yourself back in your scabbard!

Stop! Be still!

7 But how can you be still?

For Adonai has given it orders

against Ashkelon, against the seacoast;

he has assigned it its task there.

48:1 Concerning Mo’av, this is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says:

“Woe to N’vo, for it is ravaged;

Kiryatayim disgraced and captured.

Misgav is put to shame, distressed.

2 “In Mo’av, nothing is left to praise.

At Heshbon they plotted her downfall:

‘Come, we’ll cut her off as a nation.’

You too, Madmein, will be silenced;

the sword pursues behind you.

3 An agonized cry from Horonayim,

ruin, terrible devastation!

4 Mo’av has been shattered;

the cries of her young ones are heard,

5 as they ascend the slopes of Luchit,

weeping bitterly as they climb.

On the road down to Horonayim

shrieks of destruction ring out.”

6 Flee! Save your lives!

Be strong, like a tamarisk in the desert.

7 Because you trust in your deeds and your wealth,

you too will be captured.

Together with his priests and princes,

K’mosh will go into exile.

8 A destroyer will descend on every city,

no city will escape.

The valley too will perish,

the plain will be laid waste,

as Adonai as said.

9 Give Mo’av wings,

so it can fly and get away.

Its cities will become ruins,

with no one to live in them.

10 A curse on him who does the work

of Adonai carelessly!

A curse on him who withholds his sword

from blood!

11 Mo’av has lived at ease from his youth;

he is [wine] settled on its dregs,

not decanted from jar to jar —

he has not gone into exile.

Therefore it retains its own [bad] taste,

its aroma remains unchanged.

12 “So the days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I will send people to tilt him; they will tilt his jars, emptying them and shattering the wine-flasks to pieces. 13 Mo’av will be disappointed by K’mosh then, just as the house of Isra’el was disappointed by Beit-El, a god in whom they had put their trust.

14 “How can you say, ‘We are heroes,

warriors valiant in battle’?

15 They are ravaging Mo’av, attacking its cities;

its best young men go down to be slaughtered,”

says the king, whose name is Adonai-Tzva’ot.

16 Mo’av’s ruin is coming soon,

its disaster speeds on swiftly.

17 Pity him, all of you who are near him,

all of you who know his name;

say, “How the mighty scepter is shattered,

that splendid staff!”

18 Descend from your glory, and sit in thirst,

daughter living in Divon;

for Mo’av’s destroyer advances on you;

he has destroyed your strongholds.

19 Stand by the road and watch,

inhabitant of ‘Aro‘er;

ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping,

“What is going on?”

20 Mo’av is disgraced, indeed, destroyed.

Wail aloud! Shriek!

Proclaim it by the Arnon

that Mo’av has been laid waste.

21 Judgment has come on the Plain — on Holon, Yachtzah, Mefa‘at, 22 Divon, N’vo, Beit-Diblatayim, 23 Kiryatayim, Beit-Gamul, Beit-M‘on, 24 K’riot, Botzrah and all the cities in the land of Mo’av, far and near.

25 “Mo’av’s strength is cut down,

his arm is broken,” says Adonai.

26 Because Mo’av boasted against Adonai, make him so drunk that he wallows in his own vomit and becomes a laughingstock. 27 After all, Isra’el was a laughingstock for you. He didn’t associate with thieves; nevertheless, whenever you spoke of him, you shook your head.

28 You who live in Mo’av,

leave the cities, and live on the rocks;

be like the dove who makes her nest

in a hole in the rock at the mouth of a cave.

29 We have heard of the pride of Mo’av:

so very proud he is! —

presumptuous, proud, conceited;

so haughty his heart!

30 “I know what meager ground he has

for his arrogance,” says Adonai.

“His boasting has nothing behind it,

and it hasn’t accomplished a thing.”

31 Therefore I wail for Mo’av;

for all Mo’av I cry;

for the people of Kir-Heres I lament.

32 I will weep for you, vineyard of Sivmah,

more than I wept for Ya‘zer.

Your branches spread to the sea,

reaching as far as the sea of Ya‘zer.

On your summer fruits and on your vintage

the destroyer has fallen.

33 Gladness and joy have been removed

from productive fields and the land of Mo’av.

“I have stopped the flow of wine from the vats

and the shouts of those who tread the grapes —

those shouts of joy are stilled.”

34 The cries from Heshbon to El‘aleh

are heard as far away as Yachatz;

those from Tzo‘ar to Horonayim

are heard in ‘Eglat-Shlishiyah;

for even the waters of Nimrim

have become a desolate waste.

35 “Moreover,” says Adonai,

“in Mo’av I will put an end

to anyone sacrificing on a high place

or offering incense to his gods.”

36 This is why my heart is moaning

for Mo’av like funeral flutes,

why my heart moans for the men

of Kir-Heres like funeral flutes;

for the wealth they produced has vanished.

37 Every head has been shaved bald,

every beard has been clipped short,

gashes are on every hand,

sackcloth around every waist.

38 On all the housetops of Mo’av

and in its open places —

lamentation everywhere!

“For I have broken Mo’av like a pot

that nobody wants,” says Adonai.

39 Wail, “How shattered is Mo’av!

How shamefully in retreat!”

Thus will Mo’av become an object

of ridicule and distress to all its neighbors.

40 For here is what Adonai says:

“Look! Down he swoops like a vulture,

spreading his wings against Mo’av —

41 the cities are captured, the strongholds are seized.

On that day the hearts of Mo’av’s warriors

will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

42 Mo’av will be destroyed as a people,

because he boasted against Adonai.

43 Terror, pit and trap are upon you,

people of Mo’av,” says Adonai.

44 “Whoever flees from the terror

will fall into the pit;

and he who climbs up out of the pit

will be caught in the trap.

For I will bring on her, on Mo’av,

the year for her punishment,” says Adonai.

45 “In the shadow of Heshbon

the fugitives stop, exhausted.

For fire breaks out from Heshbon,

a flame from inside Sichon,

consuming the sides and tops of the heads

of Mo’av’s noisy boasters.

46 Woe to you, Mo’av!

K’mosh’s people are doomed!

For your sons have been taken captive,

and your daughters led into captivity.

47 Yet I will end Mo’av’s exile

in the acharit-hayamim,” says Adonai.

This is the judgment on Mo’av.

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore, we must pay much more careful heed to the things we have heard, so that we will not drift away. 2 For if the word God spoke through angels became binding, so that every violation and act of disobedience received its just deserts in full measure, 3 then how will we escape if we ignore such a great deliverance? This deliverance, which was first declared by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him; 4 while God also bore witness to it with various signs, wonders and miracles, and with gifts of the Ruach HaKodesh which he distributed as he chose.

5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the ‘olam haba — which is what we are talking about. 6 And there is a place where someone has given this solemn testimony:

“What is mere man, that you concern yourself with him?

or the son of man, that you watch over him with such care?

7 You made him a little lower than the angels,

you crowned him with glory and honor,

8 you put everything in subjection under his feet.”[Hebrews 2:8 Psalm 8:5–7(4–6)]

In subjecting everything to him, he left nothing unsubjected to him. However, at present, we don’t see everything subjected to him — at least, not yet. 9 But we do see Yeshua — who indeed was made for a little while lower than the angels — now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for all humanity. 10 For in bringing many sons to glory, it was only fitting that God, the Creator and Preserver of everything, should bring the Initiator of their deliverance to the goal through sufferings. 11 For both Yeshua, who sets people apart for God, and the ones being set apart have a common origin — this is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers 12 when he says,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers;

in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”[Hebrews 2:12 Psalm 22:23(22)]

13 Also,

“I will put my trust in him, . . .”[Hebrews 2:13 Isaiah 8:17]

and then it goes on,

“Here I am, along with the children God has given me.”[Hebrews 2:13 Isaiah 8:18 (Septuagint)]

14 Therefore, since the children share a common physical nature as human beings, he became like them and shared that same human nature; so that by his death he might render ineffective the one who had power over death (that is, the Adversary) 15 and thus set free those who had been in bondage all their lives because of their fear of death.

16 Indeed, it is obvious that he does not take hold of angels to help them; on the contrary,

“He takes hold of the seed of Avraham.”[Hebrews 2:16 Isaiah 41:8–9]

17 This is why he had to become like his brothers in every respect — so that he might become a merciful and faithful cohen gadol in the service of God, making a kapparah for the sins of the people. 18 For since he himself suffered death when he was put to the test, he is able to help those who are being tested now.___________________________

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