allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Are You Right with God?

How are you made right before God? Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector to answer that question. While human reason assumes the Pharisee’s outwardly righteous life makes him justified, Jesus reveals that it is the humble tax collector who is declared righteous. The Pharisee’s prayer is full of self-congratulation, whereas the tax collector’s simple plea—“God, be merciful to me, a sinner”—is grounded in faith and dependence on God’s forgiveness alone. True humility is not a human achievement but a gift from God, worked through his Word. Ultimately, God answers our plea for mercy through Christ, who in humility bore our sin on the cross and in turn gives us his own righteousness. Christians daily make the tax collector’s prayer their own, trusting not in ourselves but in God’s promise to forgive and grant us Christ’s righteousness through his merciful means of grace. Listen to the whole of Fr. Suelzle’s sermon for Trinity +11 below.

allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Christ, the Faithful Steward

Yesterday, we heard Christ’s teaching from Luke 16 about stewardship and how Jesus shows us what true stewardship looks like. The Father entrusted Him with everything—including fragile human flesh and blood—and He spent it all for you. Every step of His life, every word He spoke, every drop of His blood was given so that you might be forgiven and made a child of God.

That changes how we see our own lives. What we have—our time, our abilities, our possessions—isn’t really ours. They’re gifts from God, placed into our hands for the sake of others. Earthly things won’t last, but when they’re spent to share Christ’s love and His Gospel, God uses them for something eternal.

So take heart. Your salvation doesn’t rest on how well you manage what you’ve been given—it rests on Jesus, who has already secured it all for you. And now, with joy and freedom, you can use His gifts to point others to the one treasure that never fades: Christ Himself, who is your peace and your home forever.

Listen to the sermon:

allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Repentance is God’s Work

Repentance is God’s gracious work—His seeking, finding, and restoring of the lost—and yet it is a resistible work of God. Like the lost sheep or coin (Luke 15:1-10), we cannot find ourselves; God must bring us to repentance and faith through His appointed means: Word, Sacrament, and the ministry of the Church. Just as we cannot become Christians on our own, neither can we remain Christians apart from God’s continual work through the Means of Grace. This is important for us to remember, both for ourselves and for those we love. For those resisting God’s work to bring them home to the Church where He desires to feed them and care for them, we must not only pray, but also work to actively invite and encourage them to return to Christ, who still receives sinners and eats with them. Listen to Father Leigeber’s homily from yesterday to learn more.