Lord, Quiet Our Troubled Hearts.

on May 16, 2020 in

The 5th Sunday in Easter – Jubilate                                       May 10, 2020
Text: John 14:1-6                          ILCW-A                            20:2194
Theme: Lord, Quiet Our Troubled Hearts.

Sometimes I wish that God had told me more, especially when troubles and doubts surround me! Wouldn’t you like to know more about this virus and how to avoid it better? How about this one? Moms wouldn’t you like to know more about how to successfully raise a family so that all are blessed always? There is so much that I wish God had revealed to us more fully.
I don’t know about you but I’ve got lots of questions for which I have no answers…so many mysteries that I cannot explain…so many hurts and sorrows that I find difficult to fit into His plan for my life. If only He had told me more, it would be so much easier.
In such moments catch the echo of Jesus’ words in our text: “If it were not so, I would have told you.” If there were anything concerning my life about which I lacked information that is truly needful, He assures: “I would have told you.”
It’s true our knowledge is incomplete. Paul wrote, “Now we see through a glass darkly…now we know only in part” (1Co.13:12). Often it seems like God has left us in the dark. There are gaps for us. But those gaps have a divine purpose. They are the darkness in which He teaches us to hold His hand and walk by faith.
It’s impossible to walk this life without troubles. It’s impossible to understand clearly all that takes place. But if we really needed to know something, He would have told us. Furthermore, He does all that He can to quiet our troubled hearts.
So, on this day that is special #1 because it’s mother’s day and #2 because it is the first day in 6 weeks when more people can come together in worship – on this special day we ask: Lord, Quiet Our Troubled Hearts. Quiet them in You and Your care for us.

I. Quiet them, first, through a stronger trust in You.
A stronger trust, that’s what the disciples needed, a stronger trust because He had shocked them at the Passover table.
First, He reprimanded them for being unwilling to take on the humble act of washing each other’s feet before the meal. Then He announced that one of them would betray Him and that He was soon leaving where they couldn’t go. When Peter objected, He told Peter that he would deny Jesus three times that night and that all of them would run away from Him. They were dumbstruck, sick at heart with His words. So Jesus sought to calm their anxiety: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.”
What was He really telling them? Wasn’t He telling them to lift their thoughts above their troubles to God the Father and to Him, trusting them. That would be the way to keep trouble from their hearts. The disciples weren’t doing that. Are we?
The story is told of a young man who was wearied by life. Surrounded by difficulties which seemed insurmountable, he turned to his friend and said, “I have looked to the left, and I have looked to the right, but I can find no help.” To which his friend replied, “Why don’t you try the upward look?”
To us that seems like such a simple answer, the upward look to God and to Christ. But how often don’t we fail to do it, or do it only in part? How often don’t we find ourselves giving way to faithless worry, as though we had no Father above us? Frantically we scan the horizons around us for help and forget that the first, the middle, and the last pleading glance of the troubled Christian must always be the vertical look, towards heaven.
King David said, “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord” (Ps.121:1). “I will lift up my eyes.”
We have a Father in the Father’s house to whom we can go with every hurt, every fear, every sorrow. And we know that for Jesus’ sake, that Father loves us. So why don’t we put our faith, our full trust in them? This remedy for troubled hearts is tried and proven. So, Lord, When Our Hearts Are Troubled, Quiet Them through a stronger trust in You. And….

II. Quiet them by helping us remember there’s a house ahead. Jesus continued, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.”
Don’t forget, there’s something beyond this world. How could we forget that after celebrating Easter? There’s a place that is glorious, sure, and wonderful above, a house with many mansions. That’s no deceptive dream. Jesus doesn’t deceive people for whom He died. So keep your eye on it, and your heart will be quieted.
The story is told of a family who had a home just a little beyond the town’s cemetery. The daughter often took a short cut home by walking through the graveyard. When asked one day, if she were afraid to go through it, she replied, “Oh, no! I’m not afraid. My home is just beyond it.”
It’s in a much higher sense that we who believe in God and Jesus can say those words, for just beyond each of our graves lies a home, and what a home it is! As Jesus described it here, it is a house where God our Father receives His children and gives them a place where they can dwell forever. Shouldn’t that very thought drive all fear and trouble from our hearts and move us to rejoice with Paul, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Ro.8:18)?
“So, come,” the Savior invites each troubled heart; “remember, there’s a house ahead.” It’s only when we lose sight of that heavenly goal and become too attached to our earthly existence that our hearts become troubled and cheerless.

III. Quiet them by assuring that there is a place prepared for us.
Jesus had a third part for His remedy to quiet troubled hearts. He said, “I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me so that you may also be where I am.”
It is a place which we cannot prepare for ourselves. But Jesus can prepare it; Jesus can bring us to it. That’s what lay ahead for Him, the cross and the empty tomb. That’s how He prepared a place for us. He did it all. Nothing more remains to be done.
Oh, what troubles would be lifted from our hearts if we just rest every matter on this truth. It doesn’t matter if we don’t have something or it’s out of our grasp in this life. It doesn’t even matter if the pandemic should make us sick and take life from us. Rest assured, there’s a greater place; and it’s already prepared for you. Since it’s prepared, you can make all doubt flee from your heart.
A story is told about Martin Luther visiting a very sick student of his. As they spoke of death and the possibility of the student passing, Luther asked, “Are you afraid?” “No, not at all,” answered the student. “Then I suppose,” said Luther to test him, “it’s because you have been an exemplary person and outstanding Christian.” “Oh, no!” replied the student. “I’m at ease because I know what Christ has done for me. If I don’t recover, I shall be with Him; He has prepared a place for me; so where He is, I shall be also.”
What troubles are lifted from the heart when it rests on the work of Christ! It’s when we forget or doubt that hearts become troubled.

IV. Quiet troubled hearts, helping us walk the way of truth & life.
Thomas’ heart was troubled by Jesus’ news of His leaving. Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” Thomas was in a fog, a thick fog of doubt. It was more like unbelief.
Have you ever driven into a very thick fog where you can’t see where you are going? It’s frightening and can be disastrous. That’s what Thomas and many people do spiritually when they fail to follow Jesus, when they fail to see that He is the only way to God.
Every person is going in one of two directions. One direction goes to God, the other goes away from Him. Away from Him means a troubled heart and eternal condemnation. On the other hand “going to the Father through Jesus” spells an untroubled heart and the blessing of eternal life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” With those words He invites us to walk in His way of truth and life.
When you call a friend and tell him, “You know the way to my house,” you’re actually inviting him to come on over and stay with you awhile. So it is that when Jesus implies, “You know the way,” He’s inviting us to come over. To come to Him now for the rest that we need, to walk in His way of truth and life, where comfort and guidance will be given, and to continue walking in His way of truth and life until His Father’s house is reached. He invites us to stake our souls for time and eternity on Him, only on Him.
There are a lot of things I don’t know. Sometimes I wish that God had told me more, especially when troubles and doubts surround me. I wonder if many of you don’t feel the same way, especially you moms. We may not be able to escape our troubles completely; we may not have answers for everything. But you can live with a trouble-free heart for Christ will quiet it. God grant it to us in our lives of faith for Jesus’ sake.


Zion Lutheran Church of Springfield

(A member congregation of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod)

4717 S Farm Rd 135 (Golden Avenue)

Church phone: 417.887.0886               Pastor’s cell phone: 417.693.3244

www.zionluthchurch.com       You can also find us on Facebook

The Fifth Sunday of Easter – “Cantate” (“Sing”)   May 10, 2020

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions….I go to prepare a place for you.”   John14:1f

F o r   O u r     V i s i t o r s

The family of Zion welcomes you as we worship the Lord today. We encourage children to worship with us. However, if you need to leave with your child, there is a nursery room to the right as you exit the sanctuary. The rest rooms are located in the hallway between the sanctuary and the fellowship hall. Visitors, please sign our guest book to the right, just outside the sanctuary. We’re glad that you are here and pray that through our worship the Lord grants you peace.

U p o n   E n t e r i n g   G o d’ s   H o u s e

“Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things.   The LORD has made His salvation known.   His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him.” (Psalm 98:1-2)

W h a t   T h i s     S u n d a y   i s   A b o u t

The Way to the Father’s House. As he rests from his wanderings at the close of the day, the weary traveler thinks fondly of home – the familiar faces, the friendly voices, the remembrances of loved ones cross his mind. Homesick, he wishes to be back there. So, when evening comes, his thoughts whisk him away from the crowded and busy world to the quiet recollections of home. It’s where his heart lies.

So also for the Christian.   He has a home, a Father’s House above. In that distant place lies the fulfillment of his hopes and joys for there the Savior dwells. He has prepared a place and mapped out the way. Those who follow will one day rest from all their labors. Even now thoughts of it calm the troubled heart as it travels the road that takes it there.

To that end we pray: O God, You form the minds of Your faithful people into a single will. Make us love what You command and desire what You have promised, that among the many changes of this world, our hearts may yearn for the lasting joys of Your House above; for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

– T h e   W o r d   o f   G o d   f o r   T o d a y –

The First Lesson:   Acts 17:1-12          

After Jesus’ ascension the Word of the Lord grew, extending into the world as the apostles took the Gospel wherever they went. Paul traveled throughout Greece. Some rejected his message. Others, like the Bereans, listened for they saw the Scriptures as the way of salvation.

The Epistle Lesson:   1 Peter 2:4-10  

When a person is attached to Christ as the only way to God, he comes to a “living” Stone, not a dead one. Christ is the firm foundation on which the soul may safely build. United with others who believe, each soul rises to become a “temple” in which God’s praises are declared.

 The Gospel Lesson: John 14:1-12        

As Jesus speaks words of farewell to His disciples on Maundy Thursday evening, He comforts and assures them of His way for their lives. He is the way to the Father’s House above. Indeed, He and the Father are together. He is in the Father and the Father is in the Son.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We Serve the Lord with Gladness:

Today’s Organist: Jane Rips     Today’s Preacher: Pastor Edwin Lehmann

Point to Point to Ponder: “There is something about the life beyond the grave that fills our hearts with dreadful awe and solemn wonder. Even the thought of heaven – with its unspeakable glory and grandeur – sometimes frightens us, and we ask: “Will I feel at home, will I be at ease in the celestial mansions?” How wonderfully all of our fears and misgivings are silenced when, with the Savior, we can point to heaven and say: ‘My Father’s house!’…. Soon we shall be dwelling in our heavenly Father’s house.   There, in an infinitely higher and nobler sense we shall dwell secure and free….This Father’s house is ours through Christ. Through Him we became “children of the heavenly Father” and heirs of eternal glory….In days of sorrow, grief, or disappointment, may we find our deepest comfort and highest joy in the Savior’s promise of a loving Father’s house in heaven.”

— Herman Gockel on My Father’s House

Outline of  Our Worship

 Lord, Hear Us

Opening Thoughts on the Service

Entrance Hymn: #356

Order of Worship:  Hymnal page 38“Service of the Word”

Lord, Feed Us

Acts 17:1-12

Psalm of the Day: #33  Hymnal page 79

1 Peter 2:4-10

Duet: The Shelter of the Love of God is My Refuge
John 4:1-12

Sermon Hymn: #374

Sermon Text: John 14:1-6   Lord, Quiet Our Troubled Hearts

Lord, Accept Our Response

 Apostles’ Creed: pg.41

Prayers & The Lord’s Prayer. pg.43

Hymn: #152 st.1,5-8

Lord, Bless Us

Closing Prayer & Blessing:  Hymnal pages 43-44

Silent Prayer


The Fifth Sunday of Easter – Series A

 First Lesson: Acts 17:1-12 – Paul in Thessalonica & Berea: When Paul and Silas had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went to the Jews, and on three Sabbath days he led them in a discussion from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. He also said, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great number of God-fearing Greeks and more than a few of the prominent women. But the Jews became jealous and gathered from the marketplace some wicked men, who formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house and searched for Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the mob. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men, who have stirred up trouble all over the world, have come here too, and Jason has welcomed them as guests! They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, Jesus!” The crowd and the city officials were stirred up when they heard these things. They took a security bond from Jason and the others and then let them go. In Berea 10 That same night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians. They received the word very eagerly and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them believed, along with more than a few prominent Greek women and men.

 Epistle Lesson: 1 Peter 2:4-10 – Living Stones: As you come to him, the Living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious, you also, like living stones, are being built as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, in order to bring spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It says in Scripture: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will certainly not be put to shame. Therefore, for you who believe, this is an honor. For those who do not believe: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, a stone over which they stumble and a rock over which they fall. Because they continue to disobey the word, they stumble over it. That is the consequence appointed for them. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 At one time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. At one time you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.

Gospel Lesson: John 14:1-12 – The Way, Truth, and Life: 1 “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. You know where I am going, and you know the way.” “Lord, we don’t know where you are going,” Thomas replied, “so how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you know me, you would also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that is enough for us.” “Have I been with you so long,” Jesus answered, “and you still do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I am telling you I am not speaking on my own, but the Father who remains in me is doing his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Or else believe because of the works themselves. 12 “Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me will do the works that I am doing. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.                             The Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV), New Testament & Psalms ©2017


        C a l e n d a r     &     A n n o u n c e m e n t s     f o r     Z i o n     L u t h e r a n     C h u r c h

 

 

Today

May 10

 

Mon

May 11

 

Tues.

May 12

 

Wed.

May 13

 

Thurs.

May 14

 

Fri.

May 15

 

Sat.

May 16

 

Next Sun.

May 17

 

 

9:00 am

Divine Worship Service on line – Facebook

 

10:15 am

Bible study?

 

 

Easter 5

 

 

Some weekly activities will still be curtailed because of the restrictions

 

 

No Gardens

Bible Study

 

 

7 pm

Church Council

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midweek Bible Class? Are you ready to resume yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9:00 am

Divine Worship Service on line – Facebook

 

10:15 am

Bible study?

 

 

Easter 6

 

A Brief Bible Study on God’s Word for Today

The creative, sustaining Word of Christ brings people into fellowship with the one, true God. Christ, the “Living Stone,” builds up his people like living stones into a spiritual house. Such people of “noble character” now search the truth of God’s Word receiving from it every spiritual blessing.

 The Gospel Lesson (John 14:1-12)

  1. Why was Jesus’ departure not a source of sorrow but a reason for rejoicing?
  2. Must we wait for eternal life to be united with Jesus?
  3. What is the comfort of knowing that a place in heaven exists with our name on it?
  4. Jesus calls himself “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” What is the significance of the three definite articles?

Prayer/Sick List Those We Remember In Our Prayers         Dea Windsor; Barbara Long; Clyde & Sharon Johnson; Angela Meek; Roger & Liz Lisenby’s brother & sister-in-law and granddaughter Jackie; Karen Seutter’s step-son, Michael; the family of Mag Carter, for son John’s passing; Dave Ballou, recovering at home; Laurie Moon’s father.

 New Gathering Guidelines were passed this week in Greene County allowing gatherings of 25. That allows more members to attend our Sunday service, as long as distancing is observed.   We know that some will not be coming because of relevant health concerns. For those attending, please watch your distancing. Probably one family to a pew and utilizing the ends of each pew would be best. Also please watch your distancing from those in front of you. That is probably more critical. We will continue live-streaming for awhile yet.

Forward in Christ’s issue for May has arrived. Also Meditations next series of devotions, beginning the end of May is here. Copies for both may be found in the narthex. Northwestern Publishing House is also offering free things at this time to help with the teaching of children and with devotional materials. You can reach them at: www.nph.net

 The Week in Review

 Last Sunday’s Worship Attendance: 6; Adult Bible Class & Sunday School: no classes at this time; The Gardens Bible Class: no class; Midweek Bible Class: no class; Offering: $1315.

Upcoming Dates

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

There are no church related activities, other than Sunday’s online Facebook services, scheduled now, but perhaps soon.

            

                                                                        Next Sunday’s Lessons:        

The 6th Sunday of Easter: Acts 17:22-31; 1 Peter 3:15-22; John 14:15-21

 Answers to Today’s Gospel Brief Study:

  1. He was leaving in order to prepare for them a place in his Father’s house. And, he added, he would return and take them to the place he had prepared. There they would all be together again!
  2. In John 14:23 Jesus stated that he and the Father will come to us and make their home with us. Thus the mystic union is a reality already in this life.
  3. Things in this life come and go, they change, they see decay. But our God is our one constant in our lives. What comfort to know that beyond this ever-changing world we have a place prepared for us by Christ in heaven.
  4. It clearly points out that Jesus is the only way to heaven. He is the world’s one and only Savior (Luke 2:32). Only through Christ our Savior do we ever come to the Father.

               

                              This week I am praying for……