Christ Insight

Based on:  Romans 10:18-11:6

Grace.  You will hear that word often in this sermon so let's first make it clear what grace is.  The definition we use in catechism class is God's undeserved love for sinners.  If we think about grace in human terms, we could call it grace when you make a mistake at work that costs the company thousands of dollars, but your boss still gives you a raise.  You didn't deserve it, did you?  Here is another example.  If there is one person you hate most in this world or someone you always treat like dirt, grace is when that person saves your life by donating a kidney or by pushing you out of the way of an oncoming car.  Grace is a love you don't deserve and the result of grace is getting something good when you deserve just the opposite.

We all agree that mission work is important.  After all, without mission work how would our church grow?  This is true for the Christian church in the world wherever it is found, as well as the Wisconsin Synod, and also for us at St. John’s in Sleepy Eye.  God has decided that he would grow his church through the spoken Word.  Paul makes that eloquently clear in Romans,

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15)