How Jesus looks at Suffering

[@PastorBryanWolfmueller]

Here's the Luther sermon: wolfmueller.co/john15/

[@LXX-Mercedes]

Would there be a pdf version available?

[@shanemoore6793]

Pastor my name is Shane Moore I live in Springfield ohio. I haven't had a home Church in over a decade. I'm a Baptised Lutheran read the large small catichism & audiobooked most of the book of concord. I left the elca church I joined when I found out what they really supported. All the Lutheran churches in my area are elca accept 1 LCMS church about 20 miles from my house called Risen Christ I email & call them every few months & they never get back to me what should I do? Could you help God Bless!

[@FeedLips]

@@shanemoore6793 Hi, brother! If your experience is anything like mine, you probably won't get a whole lot of response from highly regarded KZbin pastors. That doesn't mean that they don't care, it's just a matter of volume. If you don't get the response you need, please keep trying. If nothing else come on I'm a lay person who knows nothing, and I'll try to help you!

[@rb5]

​@@shanemoore6793 go to church, dude. they're gunna give Word & Sacrament and thats what you need. they cant give you them in email or on phone, but they will in-person. because thats what theyre called to do. so they will. Godspeed

[@ChristianCombatives]

I had a similar focus on the sermon I gave today. I hadn't read the Luther sermon, but as a branch myself, I've definitely felt unhappy with the pruning from the Father. Something where I have to, in humility, understand that the vinedresser understands infinitely better than the branch how much pruning is good. The pruning indicates that God sees the branch is worth cultivating.

[@shellieperreault6262]

I didnt realize how much I miss having you as a pastor as I do today. God bless you!

[@Digitalsurfer265]

Thank you for the Sunday Drive Home, it’s always a pleasure!

[@texasboy2619]

Thank you Father Wolfmuller this video is perfectly time as what I am going truh. Ever since I became a confessional Lutheran my family has mocked me, slandered me, even gotten into fights for calling out their lies and insults. What I pray is that soon one day I can congregate with my brothers in the Lord supper to eat the true Eucharist. I want to go to a Lutheran church but my father won’t let me even step foot on a Lutheran church and this is what I am going truh. Thank you for the message and Glory be to The Holy Trinity. Alleluia

[@jonathanrocha2275]

I think this is a timely message. Yesterday I was reflecting on the Lord’s suffering and how we share in that. It reminded me of Luther’s reformation treatise, On the Freedom of a Christian. As I experience suffering, I recall the Lord saying to me on the cross, “I am Yours.” It gives me strength to repeat back, “I am Yours.”

[@patenmk2286]

Christ is risen indeed, hallelujah! Our Lord is the vine we are his branches. The Father is the Gardener weeding out the impurities and cultivating us in the image of Christ!

[@outnabout57]

I am with you. I will never leave you or deceive you. Bearing fruit and being pruned. All is given to us as a gift. We can only say thank yo is what doctor Hoag said at Christian doctrine school back in 1994. With a theology professor. Oh how we have all went full circle in the cycle of life. Abundant life. We all have so much to be thankful for in this suffering and pruning. Imagine a tree without pruning? Go try and rescue an old orchard someone planted and then left it neglected upon their death. We often are harvesting gardens we have received in an inheritance. As in unto the third and fourth generation. Love covering any curse. Love oen and other. Love God and your neighbor as yourself. :)

[@SueJo2287]

That was a very thought provoking Sunday Drive Home. Looking forward to reading Luther's sermon on the subject. Thank you pastor for doing what you do and may you, your family and your church be blessed! 😊

[@gregaguirre6213]

Was so happy to hear this PrBW I an at this moment in a veterans hospital in Los Angeles trusting in this clipping- somehow this KZbin showed up as i an convelescing from a heart Attack Keep up the Good fight dear Pastor and beloved brother

[@paulmadmanlee5065]

God Bless You Greg! Keep your eyes on Christ the Author and Finisher of Your Faith on earth and in heaven!

[@jedclampett7705]

Be pruned brother and then go and bear much fruit.

[@a_fisherofmen]

Excited to be joining your church now that I'm at UT Austin!

[@alstroemeria227again4]

Thankful for this message. It’s important to remember that God prunes us. Don’t forget to link to that Luther sermon! Thanks and God Bless you!

[@outnabout57]

Good insights and, for me as you see, thought leading. I will lead in the paths of righteousness, even for thine own namesake. Amen. Trust in the Lord, He will provide. This humility can really hurt sometimes. Fear not. I could not imagine as so often fear presents itself and where we hide can be not nice places. Give it up to the Lord who knows everything. I knew you. I know You. I am with you. Believe. Yes and do it seems the work is all of what has been said. Discerning ones own falling short and understanding Gods perfection it all of it. I will turn all things to good for those who love me. Trusting and looking for the good. Giving up the less than things. So real winnowing can really shake us up and we tremble in the process. Tears of joy. Oh, how they flow with praise and thanksgiving. This seems to be the life. Washing and wiping of tears in suffering, as Christ did to bliss and back again. It seems we cannot stay to close to the fire. We need this make it rightness. Imagine if we as humans were all Gods in our own human form. Ouch. I think this is our process in the winnowing. Chaff thrown into the fire. Branches not producing into the fire. Good fruit. In abundance. Enough for all and leftovers. All the way up and down. Through all stages of authority. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Think about it. How often do you get to write to a Pastor, and he would actually read what you are sharing? We (He) in we, have gone from a small village church to an International Church. Catholic. Every ear to hear every knee to bend to Christ. Ears and bending knees. All what is written is what it means. A mustard seed. :)

[@Outrider74]

I’d just take a Whataburger up here in Michigan! But I suspect that I will like the excerpt from Luther’s sermon.

[@erikrose7041]

I think you missed the link in the description about the Luther commentary ☺️

[@currygirl7225]

I think of it this way God is the gardener and only He can graft us to the vine, with Christ's sacrifice of body and blood He binds us to the vine.

[@outnabout57]

The Lord sets limits. Indeed it seems so. We are always seeking this perfection. Perfection comes in the practice. it is in the mistakes. A musician is only as good as his performance. We may have recordings of perfect moments that go through all kinds of technological manipulation to be in the archive as our best work. Yet we get older or develop further and that was just a piece of music and I may not even feel I need to own it or like it any longer. That time has passed. I am in another place with differing need. The sun has moved in the sky and I am in another position under the sun due to my humanity and how we go through the seasons of life. Yet Jesus God in his mercy has given us perfection in himself for all the ages of this life and on into eternity. 11:13 I listen further.

[@LivingWaterEternal]

As a landscape architect to have a perfect vine you need a vine dresser. I see it as God is hand-crafting working with Christ to ensure the vine grows uninterrupted, and can spread beautifully to the four corners of the earth. How can we see all the hanging fruit if there is no vine dresser? The vine is still missing something. Nutrients + radiant energy - sunlight would be the Holy Spirit. Just a landscape architect's point of view.

[@jolieheberling3565]

I do wonder if, perhaps, God, as the vinesresser, is able to choose branches from other vines -dying vines - and graft them into the One True Vine of Jesus. Jesus, as the vine, has to be cut so that we can be grafted in. As new branches, we would need extra care, pruning, and fertilizing to help us bear the right fruit. Is that a possibility as well?

[@SojournerDidimus]

The I am the vine, My Father is the vine dresser seems to allure to the man who went on a travel and sent servants and His Son to collect from the renters. We are collected by Jesus the Son towards the Father. This makes Jesus appear twice in this statement, but that's not the only place where it happens.

[@dnzswithwombats]

This would have been a coherent sermon at the church I no longer attend.

[@stevedailey4943]

How do you send him a message.

[@shellieperreault6262]

He's posted it now.

[@lisajones7756]

I don't see the link to Luther's sermon.

[@bjrinshore]

Neither do I.

[@shellieperreault6262]

Take a look now.

[@FeedLips]

I do not see the link.

[@shellieperreault6262]

Check now.

[@FeedLips]

@@shellieperreault6262 Thank you!

[@villarrealmarta6103]

One thought I have after listening to this content, is that we don’t agree with God in how He chooses, (once we are in Christ), to help us to grow in our faith. In Genesis 3 after the fall God placed chastisement upon us (thorns and thistles) so that we would never find hope apart from the promise which we know is fulfilled in Christ. As believers we are always in danger of falling away and becoming complacent. We need the troubles to keep us clinging to the cross of our Lord Jesus the vine! Does anyone even come to faith in Christ apart from suffering? He is merciful to being us trouble because our thinking is so far from His, that we think without suffering we’d be alright. The truth is we’d only come to Christ in dead form and not true repentance without suffering. Lastly I recommend a book “The Theology of the Cross” -Daniel Deutschlander

[@br.m]

Who knows how people come to Christ... Nobody comes to the Father except through Christ and nobody comes to Jesus unless the Father draws them. I'm not sure it is the same for everyone... You can't come be Jesus' disciple without hate though... So maybe hate is more important than suffering

[@villarrealmarta6103]

@@br.m I don’t grasp what you’re saying to be honest. It doesn’t meet what I had said. The only thing I can comment on is “who knows how people come to Christ” Well we all do because we share our stories of how we came to faith. Most of those stories I’ve heard after 20 years of being a Christian are stories of trouble that happened in peoples lives that caused them to turn to Christ.

[@br.m]

@@villarrealmarta6103 Sorry I was confusing. I just meant to refer to Luke 14:26 So I wasn't sure if suffering or hard times are enough.. Unless the suffering and hardship breaks them and makes them hate everything, then they are ready to be Jesus' disciple. Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters-yes, even their own life-such a person cannot be my disciple.

[@villarrealmarta6103]

@@br.m First of all, the love of Christ must precede all other love, even that of the nearest friends and relatives, Matt. 10, 37. Absolute devotion to< Him and to His cause requires that natural love to one's relatives be relegated to the background, that life itself be denied, that the heart be torn away from temporal possessions, that the cross of Christ be willingly shouldered, though it sink in deeply and bruise unmercifully. All rival masters and interests must be put away that the love of the great Master may be supreme. If this devotion and work should demand the final sacrifice of life, according to His example, even that must be willingly given for the sake of the love He bore us.-P. Kretzmann This is what the Luke text is referring to. Not actually hating your father or mother or anything else since hate comes not from the Father but from the evil one. Also the suffering is to aid us in emptying us of ourselves so that we see our need more magnified. That’s what suffering is useful for. At least one purpose.

[@br.m]

@@villarrealmarta6103 That is just not true. Why would all these English translations use the word "hate"? Friend I promise I don't care who P. Ketzmann is. Jesus said what he did in Luke 14 do his words offend you? It's an important verse. I have hated all the things Jesus listed. People who haven't just aren't his disciple yet. So we end up with people like P. Ketzmann who will utter soothing words. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. will you also go away?

[@kengineexpress]

He didn’t experience the wrath of God. We must submit that if the wrath of the Father, Son, and Spirit, are the same, because they are same in essence, then we can’t have a picture where Jesus withholds His wrath, while the Father pours it out. Because then it goes against Jesus being the “perfect imprint” of God by nature.

[@outnabout57]

The winnowing. :) Looking at the harvest. The hope for a harvest, Good Fruit. All the stuff of the world. Our ability to understand. All our sins in envy, malice, hatred and enmity. Not separating the weeds in the field. They are winnowed out in the harvesting of the grain. The husk of the shell. What is God after? Our wants, as you said in another video. Asking for what you want. How it will be given. What does a vine want. It wants to seek the sun (son). Too iften we can't see. Unless we focus our eyes on Jesus. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. Your words are not my words. His words in our lives. As said before. Like new wine with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Are we asking to understand. For me in the desire to understand. Where I cannot. Everything is done in another language. It is a striving to hear the word in something I can understand. I look inward and want to hear from outside. Gods word is in me, through a lifetime of hearing it. The desire to hear it again. Looking for the sun ( son). I want to know and feel God is with me. I do not want ths shade of many other branches clouding the light for me. The release of all to God and theirs to arrive and Thee God in Thine Will in me and all who worship about me. Indeed. A translation of the word then? Not possible. Use technology. Look it up in the study bible and read the text from a service for this Sunday. Read it when the Pastor preaches and let it speak to you. Copy the hymns in English Verses for church in English and read them. Let the words speak. Think of a stressful week of what seemed like madness. Understand, you are not angry. No. You feel conviceted because you want to hear the word in language you can understand. You want light and the warmth og the Gospel. The words of Jesus to shine through and declare you whole and cleansed of judging others. To stand with the sun in you reyes and to feel the warmth of Christs love in your heart. You want to sing with Gusto and be among others who too want to feel the healing light of the word of God. You want to praise Jesus and his holy name in thought word and deed. Knowing life is bit a practice. Each day another go at it. Each day with new blessings and the hope we find in perfection as we practice. The music in our heads is perfect. Can we reproduce it? We attempt all the days of our lives. In the practice, we need a rest. A time to bask in Gods glory to appreciate that which he has created in all we see, smell, feel, touch, hope for and enjoy. Pain is real. The perfect no pain of God's reality and our suffering in life. It is so close like the double edged quick. Of clipping our nails. Too close and ouch for days. Now try and play a musical instrument. It is like we are called to sing and resonate beautiful songs of praise and yes we are attempting Mozart op 40 without being able to understand the bow work. The concentration and the giving the self up in the pricess to reach the pinnacle of our musical development. The pruning then becomes apparent in our daily lives. Will I prune the news. Or the routine I do each day? Will I refine my routine to practice better. Yes, by the grace of God. Where else do I hear such things? Theology. Sports psychology. Musical coaching. To hear the voice within and to take it out of ones own way. Get out of the way. Letting go and letting God. This detachment then from the self to understand the greater things of all. All who are called. Each to their vocation. Called to write. It is not understood to save. I asked to be a writer. What we ask for. To really know what to pray for and to define clearly what we want takes this rest time. This Sabbath. A time to be still and know that God is God. To listen outside of the self for the Love of God in appreciation of things greater than we into the world we live in and all the authority of Heaven and Earth to us tired people looking for peace and rest. Isn't it why we go to church? Tried and true in the practice of our author. Of our perfecter. In the tried and true of the faithful who have established churches and provided for schools in their practice for us to learn. What of those who did not know of practice or rest or peace. Do they rest? What of washing and cleansing and giving up anger envy, malice, hatred and enmity. What of this garden and how we practice of we have a green thumb? This gardening and whose garden is it this life we live. It is for praise and thankfulness. To God our creator. Yes for all the seasons of life. Ecclesiastical. Ok now to listen further. Assurance comes through the word. We only get a short time in church. Or with the Pastor and he has many to take care of. His own and the flock in his care. With the internet technology. Being able to speak with a Pastor is not easy. We have to have the word to show us and a Pastor to explain. Yet can he without our questions. We have to somehow come to as we speak Gods word it speaks back to us in what it wants us to hear in spite of the speaker. In this aksing. We receive. On no account of our own. It is all God. Rendering comes to mind. Interesting. Made worthy. Accepted. Saved. Trimmed and expectation of bearing fruit. Each blossom nurtured and fertilized and grown to perfection. Even bruised fruit and the completeness of the cycle of life about us. All for purpose in this creation we live in. Trusting for good. No matter how difficult our emotions and senses our sins make life. In our ability to communicate with one and other. To gleen what it is we desire and to ask for it. It takes this humble heart and the practice. A thought of being a musician. How being in a leadership roll for God means the attention is not directed at me. No matter how great I play the glory goes to God as I lead or participate. Yes accolades and trophies are good, Yet so is a smile. To win a smile or a moment of peace for another and for oneself in receiving this accolade of praise and worship as one in the orchestra of life. Like the bee's buzzing around a blossom doing their work and producing honey in the process and look how they labor for purpose. Amazing. Thanks for your drive home Pastor Bryan. Drive safe. Tom

[@estebancojones7882]

Confounding I smell masonry

[@bobtaylor170]

You probably need a bath.

[@adampetersen4795]

How is pointing out that the devil is God's monkey Masonary? They worship him. Lutherans see and mock him as the monkey.

[@br.m]

Care to elaborate? After you take a bath...