Worship Service for June 9, 2024

St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Beatrice, NE

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Worship Service for June 9, 2024

June 9, 2024 • Rev. Daryn Bahn • 2 Corinthians 4:13–18, 2 Corinthians 5:1

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In the face of a world seeming to be falling apart, and maybe even your personal “world,” God’s Word has great and convincing comfort and hope for you this day. That hope, however, begins with knowing the real cause of our troubles. It is our sin and alienation from God that is at the root of all anger, frustration, bitterness, and death. We easily “lose heart” when all seems hopeless for us. The center and substance of hope in God is Jesus Christ whose resurrection from all that is darkness and death to us is the means and strength of faith to endure and stand firm through all that troubles us. For “if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). Far from being merely a blind hope for future deliverance, believing in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come far outweighs everything and anything that can happen to us now. Living in this hope, we do not lose heart.

Worship Service for July 14, 2024

July 14, 2024 • Rev. Daryn Bahn • Mark 16:14–20

We are reminded in Romans 13:1, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." The governing authorities placed over us are intended for order for us as citizens and for the establishment of laws. Yet what happens when governing authorities do evil, rather than the will of God? In today’s Gospel from Mark 6, we are reminded what evil governing can do, as Herod would behead John the Baptist. Though it was a time of sobering grief and shocking sorrow for the disciples and Christ Himself, Jesus would continue in His mission for the sins of the world. Herod's kingship would eventually come to an end. Christ's kingship would be established to rule eternally. May we obey the appropriate authorities placed over us, yet amid assured sinfulness in earthly governance, remain firm with our citizenship under the King and kingdom that has no end.

Funeral Sermon for Richard Weishahn

July 11, 2024 • Rev. Daryn Bahn • Luke 2:28–32

Worship Service for July 7, 2024

July 7, 2024 • Rev. Robert Bayer • Mark 6:1–13

Life is not always easy. Life in and of faith is often less easy. In our readings today we encounter a few people who faced difficulty and challenges amid their godly callings. Ezekiel would be sent to speak the Word of God to a rebellious people who wouldn’t happily receive the message. The apostle Paul would face his own personal struggles with his “thorn . . . in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7) as he brought the Gospel to many on his mission journeys. Jesus Himself would not be welcomed as Savior when He returned to His hometown of Nazareth. Though things were far from easy, God would bless the work that He called His people and His own Son to do. Even in our times of difficulty and challenges living as His people, we are reminded of the same truth from the Lord: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).