Faith Lutheran Church - Wylie, TX, 615 Parker Road, Wylie, TX (2026)

Here is hope for all who grieve:
Jesus sinners doth receive. 615 Parker Road,
Wylie, TX 75098
972-461-2777

We are a young, confessional Lutheran congregation that believes the Bible and preaches Christ crucified for sinners. Our congregation has recently memorized this little beautiful verse,

Salvation unto us has come
By God's free grace and favor;
Good works cannot avert our doom,
They help a

nd save us never. Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,
Who did for all the world atone,
He is our one Redeemer.

05/14/2023

Rogate
14 May, Anno Domini 2017 St. John 16:23-30
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Beloved of God,
The words of Jesus before us today continue His teaching to the apostles in the upper room the night of the Lord’s Supper, the night when Jesus’ crucifixion was only hours away. These last hours of catechesis deserve the special attention that we give them during Easter because they are spoken to the Church as we exist now, suffering under the constant hatred of the devil and the world that crucified our Savior. The Church is battered about. We are daily under assault. Our flesh threatens to betray us at every turn. When you know you’re about to die you don’t mince words. There isn’t any time for beating around the bush. You say what needs to be said. That’s exactly what Jesus did. He spoke to the apostles and to the Church exactly what we need in these gray and latter days as we wait for our Savior’s return.
For four chapters, Jesus has been teaching the disciples after having instituted the Lord’s Supper and washed their feet. This is now the fourth time in these final hours that Jesus has specifically made promises regarding prayer, asking the Father. Here they are together:
From 14:13-14 - “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
From 15:7 - “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

From 15:16 - “You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
And today, from several different verses of 16: “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in m name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full...In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
There are a couple very clear threads running through all these words. First, Jesus repeatedly commands us, the Church, to pray. Several times Jesus simply says “Ask”. That’s all prayer really is. It’s asking. It’s placing your needs before God and asking that He provide help. The command to pray is simply an incredible invitation to stand confidently before the God of heaven and earth and ask for His divine help, not just for yourself but for everyone, as St. Paul urges the Church to do in his letter to Timothy.
And what are we supposed to ask for? “Whatever”. Four different times Jesus says “whatever you ask.” There is essentially no limitation on prayer. You have need? Then ask your Father. In your prayers you should be praying for the government at all levels here and throughout the world. You should be praying for your brothers and sisters in Christ scattered throughout the world. You should be praying for the pure preaching of the Gospel that the kingdom of God may come and remain in your midst and spread throughout our community and the world. You should be praying for your family, your daily bread, and a blessed death in faith. And this is exactly what we do in the Prayer of the Church during the Divine Service.
The only limitation is this (and this is the third theme in Jesus’ words) - that it be asked in Jesus name. Now, clearly, just tacking on “in Jesus’ name” at the end of the prayer isn’t what Jesus is talking about. His name isn’t magical. It’s not the secret password to unlock heaven. To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray according to who He is, what He has taught, and what He has done and promises to do. If you pray for revenge on someone because they sinned against you, if you pray that God provide you a way to

be unfaithful to your spouse, you can be 100% certain that God will not hear that prayer or grant it. Sin is never in keeping with the name of Jesus. But daily bread, forgiveness, mercy, the Holy Spirit - all these things are and we would have none of them if they weren’t given to us by our Father.
The fourth theme is the constant promise that we will receive whatever we ask in Jesus’ name. YOU WILL RECEIVE all those things up to and including the Holy Spirit who gives every blessing of Christ. Where is there any room left for doubt with these words of Jesus? Why is there any hesitation on our part to cry out to our Father in our needs? He wants and commands us to and then promises to give what we ask in accord with Christ! Reason simply can’t make any sense of this. Who are we to ask God for even a morsel of bread, let alone forgiveness and salvation? We haven’t loved God. We haven’t obeyed. We haven’t feared, loved, and trusted in Him with our whole heart. We haven’t done anything that should make God want to even listen to us, let alone answer us with anything but a thundering “NO!” Our voices should sound to God like nails on a chalkboard.
This is why Jesus’ words today are so absolutely crucial and can’t be given too much of our attention. There is one reason, and one reason only that you should boldly and confidently ask God for anything. Every request should have as its source and its foundation the day in which Jesus spoke in the plainest possible about the Father saying “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That day, the day when all your sins met their bitter end as God turned His face away from His Son and abandoned Him to death, is the day that God turned His face toward you and opened His ears to hear your cries. If you think you can only pray after proving your value and worth to God, you will never be heard. That prayer will fall straight into the abyss of hell because it is prayer that is not covered in the Blood of God’s atoning Lamb. Jesus’ death is the plainest and purest preaching of the Father’s love for you. It IS His love for you. There, in no uncertain terms do you see His desire to spare you from eternal death, His desire to put your sins away from you, and have you call upon Him as His dearly beloved child.
You have needs and so do your neighbors. There isn’t a person in this room who doesn’t. They aren’t all the same, though we do have many

needs in common. You have been spared from judgement and death by the Body and Blood given to you in Holy Communion from the altar of Jesus’ cross. Dear children of God, pray. Your Father takes the greatest pleasure in hearing your voice and in meeting your needs. He is so serious about it that He made it the second commandment: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord, your God...pray, praise, and give thanks.” Don’t let your sin, sin that Christ has already paid for, silence you. Boldly make your requests known to God the Father because the Father Himself loves you. You don’t need someone more merciful than Jesus. That person doesn’t exist. All the mercy and all the reason you need to pray has been given to you in the waters of Baptism where you were covered and cleansed by Christ’s Blood.
Pray. Pray for heavenly things and for earthly things. Pray with your family. Pray for your family. Pray for the glory of God’s Holy name. Pray for your neighbors. Pray for the Church. Pray for your pastors. Pray. Your Father loves you.
In the Name of +Jesus. Amen.
Pastor Ulmer
(We stand.) The peace of God which passes all understanding keeps your hearts and your minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

05/07/2023

Cantate
7 May, Anno Domini 2023 St. John 16:5-15
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Saints of God,
Perhaps you’ve found it odd that here in the Easter season, a time of great rejoicing, readings are appointed that speak so much about sorrow. Shouldn’t we just be talking about happy things and things that make us feel good? Jesus is alive!
Yes! And that is somewhat the point. Jesus is alive and that glorious reality should change our entire outlook on suffering and how we bear up under our suffering. On Maundy Thursday, the hearts of Jesus’ disciples were filled with sorrow. They were fixated on their sorrow as though there was nothing else. Jesus was going away and there is nothing about that that could be good. They blinded themselves to the fact that Jesus going to the Father meant His death for our sins and His ascension to the Father and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Their sorrow was not good. Their sorrow was despair. It was hopelessness. That is what we know as depression. That is the sorrow that comes when we are only thinking of ourselves and how hard it is for us and turning a blind eye to the goodness and promises of God our Father. This is exactly what we are praying against in the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer. There we pray “And lead us not into temptation.” And as Dr. Luther explains it, we are praying that “God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.” We pray specifically against despairing of the good that our heavenly Father has promised. Whether you want to call it despair or depression, such denial of what God has promised is sin of which we need to repent and receive His absolution.
That is certainly not to say that all sorrow is bad. The prophet Isaiah tells us that our Lord Himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus wept over the death of His dear friend Lazarus and over the unbelief
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of Jerusalem. But His was a godly sorrow, a sorrow over all that isn’t as it should be. Nevertheless it was a sorrow that did not doubt God’s faithfulness to His promises. Jesus’ sorrow was a sorrow over sin and death and the horrible things it has done to you. Jesus’ sorrow was a sorrow over those who did not want God’s mercy and the gift of forgiveness. Jesus’ sorrow was not sorrow for Himself or His own suffering. Jesus told the women who wept over Him as He made His way to Golgotha not to weep for Him but to weep over the wickedness of the world and God’s judgment against sin. Godly sorrow isn’t about feeling sorry for yourself. It is a lament over sin and fallen man’s rebellion against God.
Such was not the sorrow of the disciples and very rarely is it ours. They were feeling sorry for themselves. They had stopped up their ears to what Jesus was promising them. They believed they knew what was good and that certainly wasn’t suffering, that certainly wasn’t Jesus going away. We always think we know best and in our infinite wisdom nothing good can come from our afflictions. We bristle at the smallest annoyances and injustices and we desperately seek to escape our crosses. We imagine that the highest good we can know is a life on earth without affliction or trial. This is how people fall into depression - consciously or unconsciously they curve in on themselves and imagine that their suffering is eternal and that there is no good left for them. This is why there is su***de and assisted su***de - suffering and sorrow become all-powerful idols.
This is precisely why hearing God’s Word on a daily basis is so vital for all of us, and why Jesus gently rebukes His disciples to call their attention away from themselves and their little while of sorrow to His promises and the immeasurable good that will result for them and for us all from His going to the Father. Disordered sorrow and depression come from believing nothing more than what you see and feel and are experiencing in the moment - pain, sickness, injustice, corruption, loss. Similarly, anxiety is born of the fear of suffering that might happen in the future.
But our current or even imagined future suffering are not the whole picture of reality. Jesus IS reality. Jesus is what was, what is, and what is to come. Reality can only be found in God’s Word. There God holds before us the truth that reaches infinitely higher than the moment. He reminds you that Christ is seated in the heavens, victor over all your suffering. He reminds you again and again that your suffering is only temporary, even if endures
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the remainder of your earthly life. Your suffering has an end, an eternal end when, one day, you will know nothing but eternal peace and joy. And in that day you will fully understand what Christ promises you now, that through your suffering now, God brings you good far better than you can imagine for yourself. Flooding your heart and mind with these promises is the only antidote for such sorrow because God’s promises are the truth, not your suffering. God’s Word tells you the way things actually are.
That is why Jesus says very specifically “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away.” The disciples’ sorrow was not the truth. Jesus cuts through the wrong thinking of the disciples and tells them what reality is. It is not better if Jesus stays because without His death there is no forgiveness and the Holy Spirit is not sent to be their Helper and Advocate. Truly, there could be no good for the disciples or for us if Jesus didn’t go away, if He indulged their misplaced sorrow, if He fled His own suffering and placated theirs. This is the truth that we need to hear day after day as we are brought into suffering, as our crosses weigh us down, as anxiety and depression and hopelessness threaten to overwhelm us. The suffering of God’s children is not punishment sent by God’s anger neither is it permanent, neither is it evil. The death and resurrection of Jesus is God’s iron-clad guarantee of that truth. Rather, it is permitted to you to bring about good. You can truly and confidently say with the Psalmist “It is good that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” and “I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.” (Psalm 119:71, 75)
This is what the Holy Spirit teaches you and confirms in you as He bestows upon you again and again everything that belongs to Jesus: righteousness, life, salvation, peace, hope, and, yes, joy. The Holy Spirit teaches you that everything the world believes and hopes in is exactly wrong because it does not believe in Jesus who rose in triumph from the grave and now sits exalted at the right hand of God Almighty. This is the blessing of weekly hearing the preaching of God’s Word and receiving Jesus’ Body and Blood frequently. The peace and promises of God are given and sealed to you again and again. You are strengthened and encouraged. You are given fresh eyes to see and faith to bear up. The world and its devil would have you seek to escape your suffering and that the life of pleasure is the good God wants for you. But these are poisonous lies that billow up from the lowest pits of hell. They only lead you to despair and destruction because they rob you of all that Christ has
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done for you. And that is, likewise the danger of not gathering regularly around God’s Word and the Holy Supper. The promises of God grow quieter and quieter in your heart until they are no longer heard, and are no longer a help to you and you are left only with despair because faith dies.
Dear Christian, Christ would not have your heart filled with sorrow. He would have you take comfort in the promises of Holy Baptism which He has sealed by His Blood. He would have you bear your afflictions and troubles with the confidence that your faith is not in vain, your afflictions will not endure, and that even in the midst of things that look and feel bad, He is working for your good. Return to His Word. Receive there the comfort and help of the Holy Spirit whom He has sent to you from the Father. And expect from your Father good things. Your suffering is not forever. Be assured that though weeping may tarry for the night, joy WILL come because Christ is risen from the dead.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! In the Name of +Jesus.
Pastor Ulmer
(We stand.) The peace of God which passes all understanding keeps your hearts and your minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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04/30/2023

Jubilate
30 April, Anno Domini 2023 St. John 16:12-22
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just live every day in the brightness and the joy and hope of Easter? The trumpets and the lilies, families together in the pews and around the tables. And more than all that, the burst of hope upon hearing again that the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God who bore our sins upon the cross, is no longer dead! He is alive...forever.
That will always be the reality in which we live, as we are seeing in our study of the revelation granted to St. John. Our Savior and brother sits now and forever at the right hand of God, ruling over all things for us. And when He says all things He truly means ALL things. There is nothing in all of creation that is able to thwart His good and gracious will for you - not poverty, not debilitating diseases, not corrupt government and societies, not even death itself. All of these things are subject to the will of your God and Savior. Your sin and your condemnation have been taken away from you. The head of the ancient serpent, our great and terrible enemy, who is forever prowling around us, has been crushed under the pierced heel of Jesus. Satan, not Jesus, has been destroyed. Death, not Jesus, is dead. Sin, not you, has been condemned. All of these things are eternally true. Nothing in heaven or on earth can undo them any more than you can be unbaptized.
Yet there is still weeping and lamenting. The once bright white trumpeting lilies shrivel up and turn brown. We still have to drive in slow processions to the cemetery. We still have to watch as our children chase after foolishness and lies to their destruction. We still suffer under depression and anxiety. We still have sins to confess and sins to forgive. We still have to listen to unbelieving politicians, coworkers, friends, even family curse us and accuse us in their tolerance of being the evildoers because we dare to confess Christ and refuse to bow down to their gods. We still must fight against our own bodies as they suffer under the myriad of illnesses that plague man and threaten us with death. We must still fight and wrestle every day against selfishness, laziness, anger, lust, and despair that all try to take hold of us and consume us.

“A little while and you will no longer see me,” Jesus said. Dear brothers and sisters, this is our little while. Yes, all the things about Easter are true. But the final resurrection is not yet here. It is coming but we do not yet live in the eschaton when all of God’s children are relieved of all temptations and all evil. There, in the Upper Room, in the very same hour in which our Lord instituted the Holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood, Jesus warns His apostles and warns us all that times of darkness and sorrow lay ahead. He lovingly prepares us because He knew there would be weeping and suffering and dying.
And, what’s more, the very things that cause us heartache and sorrow, bring the devil’s world great pleasure and joy. Just as they cried out for Jesus’ death, they cry out for ours because we bear His Name. We are now the face of Christ. The Church and the Christian must suffer as our Lord suffered. We must be made weak and foolish in the eyes of the world, laughed at, spit upon, and falsely accused. We must be prepared to lose jobs and relationships and, yes, perhaps even our lives. The world knows no restraint in its hatred of God and the Word He speaks. It will stop at nothing to silence God’s Word so that it no longer has to hear that it is wrong and that its works and its wisdom have been condemned.
“And again a little while, and you will see me,” Jesus said. Your sorrows will not endure forever. That is Jesus’ promise to you. One day your sadness, your pain, your temptations, your persecutions - all of them will end and never return. Then there will be no more little whiles. There will only be forever - forever peace, forever joy, forever life, forever Christ. That is what is promised to the faithful who persevere.
But until then, God’s people must all have this little while of sorrow. None of us can escape it. No Christian is exempt, whatever the false preachers say. Suffering is most certainly not a sign that you are not a Christian. Rather, “The Lord discipline those whom He loves.” If the Lord doesn’t discipline you, if He doesn’t test you in the fire as silver is tested, if He doesn’t lay the holy cross upon you then you are not His child. If the world doesn’t hate you, if you’re not appalled by the wickedness and unbelief that surround you, if your own conscience is never pricked by God’s Holy Law, then you have departed the Christian family and the Holy Spirit has departed from you. Christians must suffer and struggle because the world, the devil, and even our own sinful flesh hate the Christ and His

Word. You are not an exception. You will not get a pass. There are only two ways out of this little while - falling asleep in Christ or Christ Himself returning on the clouds. Otherwise, you must bear your cross.
We all must. You are not alone in bearing crosses. All your brothers and sisters in Christ must bear theirs. They are not the same. Rather, they are tailor-made for the Christian. They will find you as you seek to live according to your various vocations. You will be tempted and tested. You will see failure and suffer pain. But you don’t need to bear them alone. The cross of Jesus, the cross of salvation, is the only one that couldn’t be shared. But we may and truly must share one another’s crosses. We are to help each other through this little while. Rather than hiding our crosses and trying to pretend nothing is wrong, let us share them and lighten them. What joy to bear the burdens of our brothers and sisters and to have our own burdens shared. And you have the certain help your heavenly Father who promises that those who wait for Him will renew their strength as they return to the fount and source of our life and our hope - the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is true Christian love - love that freely and willingly bears the weaknesses and crosses of others without thought of cost or gain. Love that isn’t ashamed of others’ weaknesses and doesn’t despise them but gladly supports and embraces them. This is what your Lord has gladly and willingly done for you - dying your death, bearing the cross of your sin. And whatever cross you bear now, He continues to bear with you. Your crosses will not overcome you. They are not punishment or retribution. They are the gentle chastening of your loving heavenly Father who would rather keep you safe by suffering in the flesh, then watch you comfortably skip down the broad path that leads to eternal destruction.
Only a little while. That is all you will suffer. And then you will enter into glory. This is the shape your life must take because your life is patterned after that of your Lord. Before He could enter into His bright eternal glory as the Son of Man, He first had to suffer the little while of the cross. It was indeed true suffering. Real, excruciating pain. Real darkness. Real, deep sorrow. But it did end. He knew and trusted the promise of the Father even when His Father turned away His face. You too know the promise of your Heavenly Father and because of Christ He will never turn His face away from you. In the waters of Holy Baptism God has sealed His promises of forgiveness, life, and eternal salvation. As surely as He

delivered His Son and raised Him from the dead, He will deliver you and raise you from the dead to seat you in His kingdom.
You do not need to despise or run from your crosses like the unbelieving world. You don’t need to be afraid of suffering or pain or sorrow. These are holy gifts of God laid upon those whom He loves that He may draw you ever closer to Himself. He wants you desire what is needed and what He alone can give - salvation, forgiveness, life, and peace. He holds before you His Body and Blood in the midst of your sadness that you may have peace, that you may know your suffering is not in vain. Your little while will end according to God’s gracious will and you will see Jesus again forever. And in that day of joy, the suffering that you now endure and that often perplexes you, will find its perfect fulfillment. It will be overshadowed by the joy of Christ and you will be perfectly content. In that day the lilies will forever bloom, death will be but a faint memory, the victorious trumpet blasts will never be silenced, and tears will never again fill your eyes.
May the Holy Spirit grant you peace and contentment now in the communion fellowship of Christ with His Baptized as together we make our way through this little while of sorrow to the eternity of joy.
In the Name of +Jesus.
Pastor Ulmer
(We stand.) The peace of God which passes all human understanding keeps your hearts and your minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

04/23/2023

Misericordias Domini
23 April, Anno Domini 2023 St. John 10:11-16
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Sheep need a shepherd. They cannot fend for themselves. They don’t know on their own where the right pasture and the good water are. They wander into danger. They find themselves surrounded by wolves who would drag them off and consume them. You need the Good Shepherd and He has appointed undershepherds to lead you into His pasture and feed you the good food of His grace.
The problem is that there are lots of shepherds out there all trying to lead you somewhere and feed you something. They all claim to know the way to the best, most delicious, most satisfying pasture. Some of them claim to know about new pasture that no one has ever found before. Some of them believe that today’s sheep are somehow different and need a different kind of shepherding.
But they are not good shepherds. They are just hirelings. They shepherd for themselves and their own benefit. They don’t actually care about the welfare of the sheep and certainly not any particular sheep. They are more concerned about having huge flocks than healthy sheep. They aren’t concerned if a sheep leaves because there are plenty to replace them. They let the sheep decide where they want eat, whatever tastes good to the sheep is fine with such hirelings. After all, letting the sheep have what they want and believe whatever they want to believe makes for happier sheep who will keep you as their shepherd.
The problem with these shepherds, these pastors, is that they aren’t from the Good Shepherd. They are imposters and deceivers. They are from Satan, the great wolf, who wants only one thing, to lead all the sheep away from Jesus. They fill your ears with all kinds of smooth talk, do all sorts of good things for other people, offer fun programs, and generally make you feel good about yourself. They indulge your pride. They praise you. And that is why the world loves them. They speak of gods, but not the true one. They are inclusive of everything except the truth.
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They will perish along with their false teaching and everyone who joins themselves to it. You cannot be of the Good Shepherd’s flock and the flock of false gods. You cannot feed on both the rich pastures of Christ and His Word and the false doctrines of these hirelings, whether or not they claim to speak for Christ or not. When the Good Shepherd speaks His flock listens to Him and gathers around Him and receives the gifts He gives. Christ’s sheep flee from the hirelings. They will not listen to the hirelings or participate with them in their lies because lies are deadly not only to the sheep but to everyone who listens to them. And if we will not separate ourselves from the lies, then we agree with the lie and invite others to believe it as well to eternal damnation.
And while these hirelings may try to be sneaky to deceive you, they are really quite easy to spot. If they aren’t leading you to Christ who has accomplished your salvation freely and to the Means of Grace where Christ gives you that salvation, you know they are deceivers. Anyone who says anything other than what the Good Shepherd says, is not from the Good Shepherd and is not speaking on behalf of the Good Shepherd. And worse, such hirelings are knowingly or unknowingly leading people away from the Good Shepherd. Hirelings have one thing in common - because they don’t preach the pure Gospel for salvation, because they mingle in the Law with the Gospel - they will always lead you to look at yourself and your obedience for assurance of your salvation.
That is not the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. What other shepherd has done that? What other shepherd has died for sheep that love to wander? What other shepherd has born the hatred, the idolatry, and the unbelief of the sheep so that those cantankerous, fickly, selfish sheep might live and be spared the death that their own sin deserves? And what other shepherd wants such sheep in their flock? Hirelings want good, healthy, strong, obedient sheep; sheep that can bring a good profit. Not so the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd seeks after the sinful, sick, weak, wandering sheep because He wants to save them, whatever it costs Him. He shepherds for the benefit of sheep not His own. He wants His sheep to rest in Him, to feast on the rich food of Holy Communion, to drink deeply of the comfort that is poured out in Holy Baptism. Christ Jesus, the true and only Good Shepherd, knows His sheep by name. And the true sheep of the Good Shepherd know Him and will listen only to His voice and follow where it leads them, even into suffering and death because the Good Shepherd, even in death, will give life. And true sheep flee all false shepherds, all those who do not speak the truth of the Good Shepherd. They reject and condemn all false teachers and their teachings and confessions because those teachers and teachings lead only to eternal death. The true sheep of Christ do not tolerate or participate in false worship, they do not abide those who would mix the saving teaching of
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their Shepherd with the damning teaching of the wolf. They would suffer rejection, persecution, loss of worldly comfort and friendship, even death, as did their Good Shepherd, rather than be joined by word or deed to those who hold to a false god or a false Christ.
It is sinful for the baptized child of God, who has rejected all of Satan’s works and all of Satan’s ways to then join churches and organizations who confess other ways of salvation, who deny the Gospel by teaching that our works either motivate God to save us or ensure our salvation after faith has begun. It is sinful for the baptized to join with those who empty and denigrate the Means of Grace as mere outward acts of obedience which we render to God. It is sinful for the baptized to tolerate any preaching which robs Christ of His glory as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and gives even an ounce of that glory to man. It is sinful for the baptized not to follow Christ to the pastures and waters which He Himself has prepared, the precious Means of Grace which He prepared through His suffering and death and which He offers for our salvation and comfort. Satan is a master at his craft and he will say and do whatever is necessary to lead any and all away from Jesus. You cannot follow after two shepherds and you cannot be in more than one fold. On the Last Day, all who try will hear those terrible words from the one, true shepherd - “Depart from me. I never knew you.”
Beloved, give heed to the Good Shepherd’s voice. It is the only one calling you to salvation. It is the only one that invites you to rest in the full and free forgiveness of all your sins. Forsake the hirelings. They only deceive on behalf of the devil and their bellies and don’t care about your destruction. Listen to Christ and to His Holy Scriptures. Let them lead you in the way to salvation, to the Lord Jesus who has laid down His life and taken it back up for you. He alone loves you. He would have you remain only in His fold, together with all who hear His voice, that He may save you and care for you. Do not be deceived and led astray by the strange voices of the hirelings. Reject them for what they are - liars and murderers of souls. Your Good Shepherd loves you and will not deceive you. He will not lead you astray nor will He withhold from you any good thing. Listen to His voice and know the peace and the comfort that He alone can give.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! In the Name of +Jesus.
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Pastor Ulmer

(We stand.) The peace of God which passes all understanding keeps your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Address

615 Parker Road
Wylie, TX
75098

Website

http://www.faithlutheranwylie.org/

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