2026 05 03 - Chosen and Precious - Popp

Grace, peace and mercy from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Chosen and precious.

You heard it in the first reading, the stoning of Stephen. You heard it a little bit in the epistle that Mrs. Timmerman read. We're going to talk about suffering a little bit. And it took me back to when I was junior high, high school. I don't remember exactly when, but I have a picture of Wrigley Field because my grandpa Donald told me I wasn't a true Cubs fan yet.

I hadn't suffered enough. You saw a winner in 84, you saw a winner in 89. Michael, you have not suffered enough. Forget the fact that we blew a 02 lead to go to the World Series in 84. That was suffering.

They finished in last place a lot. But to my grandpa, I hadn't suffered enough.

I think, to drive home his point. He died on April 10, 1997. The Cubs were.09. They had started the season without a win. It was their off day.

So he was kind enough to say, I'll pass. On this day, you don't miss anything, right, Michael? They went on to lose the next five. In fact, we're at the funeral reception and people are checking the score to see if Donald could have helped us.

Suffering. I joke about that as a Cubs fan. And yet when we won the World Series, I understood what he meant through that suffering, what it is we feel and do. Certainly that is what they were called to do here. Preparing to suffer or to persevere.

What a great lesson for our two compliments here today. Right? And for Jackson.

How do we persevere when things get tough? Luther said again that it's through faith alone that we truly see this office. We're going to get to that priestly office in a little bit. But chosen and precious, we're here to proclaim his name. I thought about it as I prepared through some of our confermans over the years.

I don't have all the pictures and I should probably start figuring out which ones I'm missing, so we can start checking these out. But I thought about the number of kids. I do have the mask one. There's one without the mask, but you know what year that was.

How many of them have suffered in the name of the Lord? How many have come up and proclaimed exactly what Olivia and Penelope are about to do? That was our one person. 1. Poor Johanna got caught in the middle of two churches.

Probably the special one. We continue to see how God helps us persevere. Terry, you didn't think you were Going to get away with that? You know, I had to put you in there over the years, all of our kids. And again, this isn't all of them.

But how many of them sat here, proclaimed it? They knew it. They knew what the small catechism said. But were they prepared to suffer? That's what we're going to get into today.

He is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. Easter is not going away anytime soon. We will continue to live this empty tomb life, knowing we received the greatest gift ever.

And today is confirmation day. But does the empty tomb, Peter's epistle and confirmation connect? Let's take a look at these things together. How can we see Christ through through these three things?

Peter first is writing a mission statement, not a memo. Yeah, I, I use Jerry Maguire as his whole thing. It's not a memo submission statement. But I, I thought a lot about this. When you look at First Peter, what was exactly he looking to, you know, what was the purpose?

According to the Concordia Study Bible, it says it was to instruct and encourage Lord's people as they were to endure suffering for the sake of righteousness.

Peter was saying, hey, let me tell you what Jesus did. Let me tell you who our God is. And now prepare to suffer. Not quite the Sunday school lesson we heard growing up. Right?

And I love it how Peter refers to them at the beginning, very first verse, very first chapter, as the elect exiles. Then you read what Luther had to say about First Peter. Right? Luther says it's to convert the heathen. Right.

It's to be steadfast in the faith and to increase all kinds of suffering and good works. I don't know if we did that very well in confirmation either. We certainly got into the catechism, what the Lord's Word of God says, when Lord gave us through his Bible. But are we preparing to suffer?

And again, before we get to today's chapter two two to ten, what about chapter one, Living hope through the resurrection. Peter was preparing them with this. Living hope through the resurrection.

This is the strengthening of our faith. This is what hopefully you all get or feel or strive for when you come on Sunday mornings. The strengthening of our faith, being in God's word. And certainly today's epistle was the proclaiming Christ through our words and actions. Right.

As we get into this, this is perfect for confirmation. I know a lot of you are like Pastor Bob. We've been to enough of your funerals. You love John 14. How did you not preach on John 14?

Well, Pastor Rick's bring that next week.

We know the way, the truth and the life. Right? We know there's one way to the Father. I'll let him talk about that next week. Let's jump in the very first two verses.

Like newborn infants long for pure spiritual mouth that by it they may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Now it even says this spiritual milk is the word of God. We need to know our Bible. We need to be in the Word.

And it took me right back. I know I'm old, it's faded and unfocused because so are we now. But milk does the body good, right? I found the advertisement and I thought about that. Of course, I went to my.

My AI and I said, I want spiritual mouth does the soul good. I said, I want the young lady to look older in the mirror with church and the Bible. But then I thought, this is AI. I've got pictures of Penelope and certainly Olivia. Let's see how they do.

Not perfect. They don't quite look like you guys. I love that you wore that outfit today. You're going to see families, Penelope, certainly in that outfit at potluck.

Olivia, I hope you're not wearing that dress today. That was from your fifth grade dance. But anyway, we will continue as we talk about how does this spiritual melt? How does it do our soul good? Why is this so important?

Right. Well, first off, everyone starts in the same place. We know nothing. When we are born, we know nothing. Everybody starts in the same place.

But. But we don't always start at the same time. Part of us were fortunate enough to grow up in a house where mom and dad, you know, you've heard the saying, they drug us to church. They drug us to drug us. We were drugged growing up.

Thank you. Mom and dad, right? They made sure we had a foundation in knowing our scripture, knowing our Bible. And I think that's important. I'll come back to that here in a little bit.

Regardless, though, of when you came to the waters of baptism, regardless of when you went through any kind of catechesis or training in the word of God, eventually, it's about us. Our knowledge, our faith, our love for the Lord cannot save anybody else.

You cannot send somebody else to take that test for you. Well, take that back. We can send Jesus to take care of everything for us. We can't save anybody else. It has to be Jesus.

So I want to just jump in those next verses. I saw six things where it says, you are. I want to just really quickly talk about these you are statements. You are chosen and precious, right? That's the eternal plan.

That's the empty tomb life. That's what we were talking about, what Jesus has already done. The Father sent his son to die for us. If that doesn't make you feel chosen and precious, I don't know what will. It's the greatest gift.

We are the holy priesthood, right? It says all Christians are priests. In that we have a direct access to God now through Christ. We have a direct ability to offer sacrifices through our prayer, through our praise, through our thanksgiving as we sing hymns to the Lord. That's a priestly act.

As we pray, we give him the glory.

We're a chosen race. What started as the people of Israel, we know it became now for all people. Every single person on this earth chosen by God. God desires to spend eternity with them. I saw that video the other day again where the guy who says, well, I don't believe in God, I don't believe in the Bible, but I'm a good person, you know, where do you think I'm going to be?

Heaven or hell? And I'm thinking you just said you don't believe in the Bible. Why do you believe in heaven or hell? Obviously if you have a fear, you know more than you're willing to admit, and that's a good thing. But he did say, God is not going to force you to go anywhere you don't want to go.

May we all help people find the way. Right? That's next week's We Are a Royal Priesthood. Back to this idea of priesthood, right? The priests belong to the King as we do.

We are his.

Luther said, it is again that faith alone, that true priestly office, that we are all priests belonging to him, worshiping him, praising him. We are a holy nation. We're set apart to do his will. If you don't feel led to serve him, if you don't feel you have any way to serve him, if you feel like you are missing out on being a part of that, please come see me. That would be awful to come and worship him and not feel like you're doing what God has called you to do.

You're God's people and receive mercy. It is such a great reminder in that verse 10, everything we have is from God.

I thought about this the other day. My father and I were discussing how much to tip based on where you're at. Like we went into Billy Jack's where you order at the counter. They'll bring you the food, but you're getting your own drinks. How do you Decide how much to tip.

Are we tipping that they made the food, are we tipping the service? And then to go orders, do we tip? How much time we spend debating how much of a tip to leave made me think of how much my wife and I struggle sometimes with our tithe, with our service, how much to give? Do we have the same ridiculous argument when everything we have is from God? How can we treat giving to the Lord like leaving a tip?

Not if it's ours. And it really takes us down to that final one. Christ is the cornerstone, one we are as living stones. You know, once again, Mrs. Lymer chose that wonderful hymn right before the sermon that talks exactly about this idea, right? Verses 6 to 8.

For it stands in Scripture. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumbled because they disobeyed the word as they were destined to do. It's a hard one sometimes. We don't like to think about it that way. Living out a life of unconditional love and mercy only comes from knowing our Lord and Savior.

I warned our 8th graders next year when they go to high school. You know, talk about suffering if somebody pushes back on them, makes fun of them for their faith or being a Christian, mocks it is a crutch or a fairy tale. I ask them to stop and be very careful in their response. Because if they grew up in that house and that person grew up in their house, how different would that conversation look for most 13 year olds, 14 year olds? They are the result of who their parents have raised them to be.

You ask about their politics. I know their parents politics. Ask about their favorite shows. I know what their parents watch.

Before we become defensive or get upset, maybe we should stop, stop talk with them. Find a way to love them. They didn't get necessarily opportunities we got. That brings us to the rite of confirmation. As soon as I'm done with this Roman numeral.

Penelope, you're up. All right, so start getting ready. All right. Make you nervous. Here we go.

I want to make very clear today. Oh, I didn't change that. I want to make very clear today the right confirmation. It is a custom, not a sacrament. Luther makes that very clear.

It's certainly important to emphasize on what God's work through our baptisms, the gift of faith, the benefits of The Lord's Supper for all who believe. It's important that sacraments are still baptism and the Lord's Supper. Even as we have separated Lord's Supper earlier and instructed our kids, I just didn't want it looking like a reward for passing the book because it is so much more than that. And really, it's a starting. I gotta remember they're all on that page.

It's a starting line, not a finish line. One of the things that Mr. Tim and I have been talking a lot about is how do we stop making confirmation look like they're done?

They're hearing it. They know what's in the book. They know the question, the answers, Scripture that backs it up. They have the head knowledge. But we've always talked about how does it help them in high school, how does it help them in college?

One of the ways this year we push it is what are they going to do over the next four years and eight years? What are they going to do to further their knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and their service? How they are going to continue being a servant for Him? That's what they're working on. We talked about how to be able to answer the hard questions in the years to come, how to be able to answer why we believe what we believe, why we trust what the Bible says, why we have faith even when bad things happen.

That's what we continue. And certainly confessing what was given to us in our baptism, you know, for our confirmation, our compliments, it is a start for them in front of everybody. But all of you out there who've gone through that, I want you to think about, where do we continue to grow and learn? I have told the kids many times, I don't know if I've ever sat in church, but I know in high school I was a Sunday warrior. I love going to church, loved going to youth group.

I was president of the youth group for two years, but I did not live out my faith in high school. I'm not sure people would have known if it wasn't for me inviting them to a youth group activity once in a while, if I even was a Christian. How do we continue to grow and love and serve the Lord?

Whether you're about to be confirmed, you are confirmed in the past, or you hope to be in the future, the empty tomb of the Bible and even your identity as a child of God born in his image do not change. But our knowledge of our Creator and our relationship with him does. We can either learn and grow in it. Or slowly fade away from him. May we continue to walk together and grow the body of Christ until he comes back or brings us home.

Let's not wait for a funeral to recognize what a blessing we have. Even as I started to read John 14, it took me right back to last Saturday, to Troy's funeral. It took me a second. Every day when we get up and we take that breath, it is a day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

To God be the glory. Amen.