Insight 2016 – Evening Service

Transcript (edited for readability).

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, we give You thanks for having brought us in safety to the close of this day. Enlighten our darkness by the light of Your countenance, that in it we may see light. Let the incense of our repentant prayer ascend before You, O Lord, and let Your loving-kindness descend on us, that with purified minds we may sing Your praises with the Church on earth and the whole heavenly host, and may glorify You forever. Amen.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. O give thanks unto the Lord, and call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing unto Him, sing praises unto Him. Talk of all His wondrous works. Glory in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.

Thanks and praise be unto You, God of all grace, because You have delivered our souls from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil, saving us through the Red Sea of the blood of Your Son. Cleanse us evermore with this blessed tide, so that, together with all Your saints, we may rejoice in Your salvation, declaring Your praises before all the world, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

A reading from First Peter, chapter one.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

O Lord, have mercy on us. Amen.

In many and various ways God spoke to the people of old by the prophets… This is the Word of the Lord.

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

Your text: "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory."

If there is one thing that this needy world needs more of, it is joy. More times than not, the news is depressing. Your money gets tight, and so you start obsessing. Our country is going down the drain, and so you start distressing. Joy is hard to come by these days, and it's easy to become disheartened and worried when we ask, "Where has all the joy gone?"

Come on — another presidential election season is upon us. Normally a time of optimism and hope, where we look forward to what might be with the election of a new president, but this time both parties have put forward candidates who are disliked more than they are liked. Yeah, it's easy to lose hope — not just for Republicans or Democrats, not just for American citizens, but for every last man, woman, and child on the face of this planet.

So many people are walking around with glum faces, seeing only the dark and lonely places of life. It's like the "Pout-Pout Fish" in one of my kids' children's books. It says, "Deep in the water, where the fish hang out, lives a glum, gloomy swimmer with an ever-present pout." Of course, all the fish can say is, "I'm a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face, so I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place."

That's what this world feels like these days. The dreary-wearies are all over the place. Unrest returns day after day. You're heartbroken by the harshness and unfairness of life, suffocating beneath the waves of your own sin and error, despairing over the direction of our country, not to mention the inevitable and impending death of your mortal body. It leaves you looking for some hope, longing for some joy.

And what you need is the good news. In fact, you need some pure, unadulterated, two-hundred-proof gospel good news. And wouldn't you know it — our reading tonight is full of good news. It speaks of a living hope, a hope that flows from the greatest story that's ever been told, a story about a Father who sends His Son into the depths of death and into the fury of hell, all so that He can unleash a tidal wave of joy upon your dreary hearts and your weary souls.

Listen again, verse three: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He caused us to be born again to a living hope, a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

The heart of Christian astonishment is the mind-boggling goodness of the good news. It's the understanding that joy in life comes from the resurrected Christ's presence in your life. And this means joy is far more than the fleeting and arbitrary moment of happiness. Happiness is nice, but happiness comes and goes. Joy, however, is lasting, and capable of being present when you are anything but happy — even in suffering. Even though, as Peter says, you have been grieved by various trials, as miserable as they can be — and believe you me, I know what it means to be in misery, and any of you do too — though grieved by trials, yet joy can still be found.

So then, all us dreary, weary ones — you and I — we want some joy. We want something that will endure. You can't help but respond, but exhibit what you're relishing. So let's test this thought. Let's see if this is true. You want joy? You want hope? You want the astonishment, the "hallelujah" of life? This is the reason: He is risen, hallelujah. Lutherans don't have a lot of public expressions that evoke such audible joy, but that is one of them. There is something utterly invigorating about the joy of the resurrected Christ.

Now, no, it doesn't promise you a rose garden. But there is something immensely powerful about a Savior who looks hell square in the face, who walks through death, comes back to life, then walks up to you and baptizes you, knows your name, wraps the arms of the Holy Spirit around you, and declares, "I know you. I know you inside and out. I know all the skeletons in your closet, and all the sins that you're ashamed of. I know you, and I love you."

As Peter says, by God's power you are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Yes — the resurrected Jesus is on the loose, running wild, pouring out His unbelievable, exceeding riches of grace, baptizing babies and adults alike, standing on truth, bringing joy, and feeding the spiritually hungry with His presence under bread and wine. And He has come for you on this day. That's the gospel. It's the good news. Jesus loves you day in and day out, amid every failure, flop, and fall of your life. You live under a banner that says, "It is finished." Christ has conquered. He shed His blood. He saved you, Christ. He forgives your sins.

So if you want joy, look at Jesus. The Scriptures say, look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Where has all the joy gone? Jesus. And He gives it to you on this day. He invites you to revel in His love, to rest in His affection. That's the soul-astonishing goodness of the gospel. It renews your mind. It brings peace to your body. And it restores your soul. Amen.

Yes, occasionally Lutherans can be roused to other acclamations of joy. Amen is the word, the solemn assent given to words spoken in a congregation. It puts the exclamation point on our prayers. It's the closure to our praises. Amen closes the doxology. It frames the liturgy, beginning and end. It's often the joy bursting out of the mouth at the sound of God's goodness, and the rejoicing that flows from our lips at the peace of Christ's forgiveness. It's not that we're not in the mood for it — we usually just want to smile as loud as we can rather than let the joy of an "amen" fill the air. Nonetheless, we do say our amens.

The Small Catechism reminds us that when we say "Amen," we are saying, "Yes, yes, it shall be so." Let's be amen people. This is the full, concluding affirmation of God's promise that in Christ, it shall be so. Jesus Himself uses the word. He uses "amen" to attest a special authority: "Amen, amen, I say unto you" — "Truly, truly, I say unto you." And yet "amen" is also often said with great difficulty. "Amen" is often said through tremendously painful tears. "Amen" has also been said amid hardship. You know that. You've said it. You've felt it. But even so, it still carries the quickness, the recognition that no matter what darkness, danger, disorder, or death man may conceive, joy is still there in the middle of that mess, by the power and the presence of Almighty God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So when you hear the good news, and your soul stirs inside because the pure, unadulterated, two-hundred-proof goodness of Jesus Christ just washes over you, you can't help but say, "Amen." Most of the time you just say it internally, because saying "amen" out loud might distract the preacher or draw attention to yourself. But don't let anything stop you — because when you say "Amen," it's merely the affirmation that the good news is the good news, that the joy of the gospel is being expressed. No creature is going to stop that joy from being expressed.

Where has all the joy gone? To Jesus. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. If you are looking for joy, look to Jesus. Stop looking in mirrors, walking the mall, or counting money to find joy. If you want joy, look to Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus so that your joy will be full, that your cup overflows, so that your spirit takes flight.

In fact, there are those who have looked to Jesus and have known the attributes of Jesus just for the joy of it. African American preachers have a great tradition of this. And so when you're looking for joy, it's good for us to reflect on those attributes — even on what others have said about Jesus — and follow what their words say. It's good, right, and salutary, in other words, to meditate upon Jesus and His attributes and see Him in living color. But be warned — the joy from Jesus has a way of becoming outrageous, and outright contagious.

Don't believe me? Take a listen. Jesus is enduringly strong. He's entirely sincere. He's eternally steadfast. Jesus is immortally graceful, impartially powerful, and impossible to resist, and He gives His joy to you on this day. I mean it. Jesus is the Lord of all lords and the King of all kings. He will not back down. He won't give up. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He's the grandest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosophy. He's the supreme problem for skeptics. He's the fundamental doctrine of true theology. He is the light that no darkness can overcome. Are you missing it? You want joy? Jesus keeps it.

He supplies strength for the weak. He's available for the tempted. He's sympathetic to the tried. Jesus forgives sinners, and He blesses the earth. He sympathizes, and He saves. He strengthens, and He sustains. He guards, and He guides. Jesus gives joy. I'm listening. Jesus defends the poor. He blesses the young. He heals the sick. He serves the unfortunate. He regards the aged. He beautifies the meek.

You want joy? In Jesus, you find it. Believe in His name, and there is joy receiving you, along with the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. He's incomprehensible. He's invincible. He's irresistible. You can't get Him out of your mind. You can't stop His love. You can't outlive Him, and you can't live without Him. There is joy in Jesus, and He gives it to you, I will say, because — you see — the very ones who couldn't stand Him found out they couldn't stop Him. Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him. The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree about Him. Herod couldn't kill Him. Death couldn't handle Him, and the grave couldn't hold Him.

You want joy? Believe in Christ, and reason will follow. He is all. Where has all the joy gone? It's in Jesus Christ, and He gives it in abundance. And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Yeah? This joy is powerful, and it shall remain forever and ever in His kingdom, in His glory, forever and ever and ever.

And when you're done with it all, forever, just as Jesus teaches in the Lord's Prayer, when you come to the end of the words, "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever" — then, Amen.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you strong in that faith, and in that joy of our faith, to life everlasting. Amen.

My soul rejoices, for He has risen. He has come to bring us peace. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

In our prayers, we remember a child who is recuperating from transplant surgery today. We also remember Rocco and Susan, hospitalized.

For salvation and a safe way home, for the peace of the Church, for the unity of all, for mercy, for this holy house, and for all who enter with faith and reverence and the fear of God, let us pray to the Lord, have mercy.

For all who dwell in this place, for our bishops, pastors, and deacons, and for all the clergy and people, let us pray to the Lord.

For this city, for every city and countryside, and for the faithful who live in them, let us pray to the Lord.

For favorable weather, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord.

For travelers by land, by sea, and by air, for the sick, the suffering, the captive, and for their salvation, let us pray to the Lord.

For our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, and need, let us pray to the Lord.

For the sick and infirm, that they may enjoy healing from the Lord, let us pray to the Lord, have mercy.

For our persecuted brothers and sisters, that they may be strengthened in the faith, let us pray to the Lord, have mercy.

For the faithful who have gone before us and are at rest, let us give thanks to the Lord.

Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord, rejoicing in the fellowship of all the saints. Let us commend ourselves, and one another, and our whole life to Christ our God.

O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works, give to us Your servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey Your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may pass our time in rest and quietness, through the merits of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Taught by our Lord, and trusting in His promises, we are bold to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

The Almighty and merciful Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, bless and preserve you.

We'll sing the hymn that's printed on the insert. You may stand.

The soloist will sing stanzas one and three; we will sing all the other stanzas.

Rise, my soul, to watch and pray. From your sleep awaken. Be not by the evil day unawares o'ertaken. For the foe, well we know, oft his harvest reapeth while the Christian sleepeth.

Watch against the devil's snares, lest asleep he find you; for the roaring lion dares to assault and blind you. Satan's prey oft are they who secure are sleeping and no watch are keeping.

Watch! Let not the wicked world with its pomp and glory so allure you, and ensnare your soul with vain false story. Only those who watchful rose Satan's crafty catching and Christ's coming watching.

Watch against yourself, my soul, lest with grace you trifle; let not self your thoughts control nor God's mercy stifle. Pride and sin lurk within all your hopes to shatter; heed not when they flatter.

But while watching, also pray to the Lord unceasing. He will free you from the sway of temptation pressing. Weakness great is our state; but let prayer be given, and all's well with heaven.

Watch against your own worst foe, your corrupted nature. Pray that God may overthrow all your evil nature. Watch and pray, for the day soon may come to grieve you; helpless it will leave you.

Let us always watchful be, keeping heart and spirit, till our Lord we finally see, heaven's joys inherit. Then we shall from earth's dull thrall evermore be free, blessing eternally.