To the church of God at Epiphany, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

O Almighty and Everlasting God, who through your Son, the chief Cornerstone, you have built up this Church into one body. Out of these living stones you build yourself a spiritual temple. We pray that you would continue to look with favor upon this house of worship and upon this congregation, both of which have been built for your glory, to be a memorial to your holy name, a dwelling place for your honor, and a house of prayer for your people. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and God appeared.  The Lord told the man He had work for him to do and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. So, this is what the man did, day after day. For many years he labored from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Since the man was showing discouragement, Satan, decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't moved." Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

Satan said, "Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort, and that will be good enough. That's what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"

The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. Is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock.  But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom.  That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock."

Have you ever felt like this man when it comes to this congregation? Epiphany Lutheran has a wonderful church, a great school, fantastic teachers, leaders, and volunteers. And yet, this past year you have lost a lot of good members, strong people. You have seen your worship and Sunday school attendance decline. You have needed time to heal.

That is when the devil steps in to try to tempt you. He tries to get you to become frustrated. To give up. To curl up and not work hard. To sit on the sidelines and let somebody else do all the hard work. To just come to church once a week for worship and that is the extent of your involvement at Epiphany.

Maybe the devil tempts you to complain. To gossip. To break the 8^th commandment by not speaking well of your Christian brothers or sisters.

Maybe the devil tempts you not to trust your pastor as much as you did before. Maybe the devil causes you to question people’s motives more than you did before. Maybe Satan makes you leery about becoming so involved in the ministries here at Epiphany. Maybe he caused you to wonder if this church is the right church for you.

Have you ever felt like that? Frustrated, discouraged, down, depressed, and even irritated? I know I have. I have felt like Elijah, moping and depressed, sitting under the broom tree. I’ve felt like the Israelites must have felt when they looked up at those huge walls surrounding Jericho. I’ve felt like Jonah must have felt when he saw the daunting task of reaching the whole city of wicked Ninevah with God’s law and gospel. I’ve felt like the disciples must have felt when they learned that their Master and Teacher would be arrested and crucified. But that is the devil working on me, and on you.

Elijah may have become depressed, but God caused him to kill the 450 false prophets of Baal and begin a spiritual reformation in Israel. The Israelites may have been scared when they saw these giant Canaanites behind huge stone walls, yet they still believed that God could knock down those walls with some trumpets, shouting, and marching. Jonah may have been intimidated to preach to the wicked Ninevites, but God caused a miraculous conversion of that entire city. The disciples were afraid knowing that Jesus was leaving them, but Jesus comforted them with the Holy Spirit, the Counselor who would bring them peace. The Counselor who emboldened these timid disciples so that they could preach on Pentecost and he converted 3000 souls that day.

We need to realize the blessings that we enjoy here at Epiphany. At my former congregation in Radcliff, Kentucky, it was a very transient congregation. We had a lot of people moving in and out because of Fort Knox military base which was right next to Radcliff. If we had people stay for 3 years, we counted ourselves fortunate. But here at Epiphany I have talked with a number of people who have grown up in this congregation, who have been here 5, 6, 7 decades.

I have also had a number of people tell me how Epiphany is a small congregation. I guess it is all a matter of perspective. If you want to compare yourself to other WELS churches in the area, maybe this congregation is smaller. But I came from a congregation of 70 in Radcliff. We have about that many children in our lower school. If you ever think that this congregation is small, I’ll always remind you that we have more WELS members in this congregation than we have WELS members in the whole state of Kentucky. I guess it is all a matter of perspective.

In the history of Faith Lutheran Church in Radcliff, Kentucky, we began as an exploratory mission congregation with about 25 members. For about 5 of the 7 years I was pastor there, we averaged about 50 members. Not too far below 50 and not too far above. Until … this past year. Just before I left, God caused that congregation to grow to 70 members from January to April. That’s 20 members in 4 months. 20 members may not sound like a lot, until you realize that was an increase of 40 percent. Wow!

Although it made me wonder why all those people decided to join after I had announced that I was leaving.

I believe that the reason God caused Faith in Radcliff to grow is the same reason why he will cause Epiphany in Racine to grow. That reason is faithful people doing his ministry work. I encourage all of you to read the June issue of Forward in Christ which features an article on Faith in Radcliff and all of its wonderful ministries. The same kind of wonderful ministries that we did there are the same kind of wonderful ministries that I want to do here. But we need people like you who will be faithful in doing the Lord’s work.

What are we going to do? We are going to have ministries for our children. We will start out by having 3 Vacation Bible Schools – in summer, Christmas, and Easter. And I have already had people ask me when are we going to have VBS and what are we going to do. That is exactly what we need. I have had people talk to me about a youth group, Pioneers, lock-ins, earlier evening worship services during Lent and Advent for parents with school age children.

We have a great blessing with our grade school. What great kids and awesome teachers. And such a unique situation of running the school with First Evan. And we are going to do whatever we can to foster that relationship with our school children, parents, and First Evan. as we grow together as brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are going to have midweek Bible studies taught by lay leaders. This means that we can double our Bible classes so that I can teach a class for people wanting to join the church, while another class is taking people deeper into the Bible. And I already have people volunteering to teach those classes. And I know there is a great women’s Bible study and possibly interest in a men’s study.

We are going to be knocking on people’s doors, putting flyers on their doors, calling them, going into people’s homes, all in an attempt to reach more and more people with the message of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And I have already had a new member tell me that he will do whatever he can to help at his new church home at Epiphany. I asked him what he did in his previous church, and he was the evangelism chairman. All right!

And what a wonderful blessing in having so many retired people in this congregation who are willing to spend countless hours helping, cleaning, counting, and doing whatever needs to be done.

And we are going to have a lot of fun with fellowship events, friendship circles, potlucks, game nights, lock-ins, chili cook-offs, Packer parties, and more. Basically anything that involves food.

I believe that just as Pentecost in Jerusalem was the beginning of new and wonderful ministry opportunities for the early Christian church, so today, Pentecost, 2004 is the beginning of new and wonderful ministry opportunities here at Epiphany!

I have only been here at Epiphany for a short time, but I already believe that this congregation has something special. It has dedicated Christians who are willing to get out on the front lines as soldiers in God’s army. Keep on fighting the good fight. Keep on sharing the message of your Savior and winning lost souls for Christ.

Friends, don’t become frustrated. Don’t give in to the devil. God just wants you to be faithful. He will do the rest. Leave the results up to him.

Listen to his wonderful promises: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20) Jesus wants more disciples, but he doesn’t expect you to make disciples. He expects you to go out with his Word and Sacraments, so that the Holy Spirit can make disciples.

Jesus said: "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (Mark 16:15) That’s it. Get up off your couch and tell somebody else about the good news of Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin.

Jesus says to us: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matthew 9:37-38) We don’t have to make the crops of faith grow in people’s hearts. We just get to enjoy the blessings of the harvest of souls. God has to do the hard work of converting hardened unbelievers. We receive the benefits when those people find their way into our church.

And why do we do all this hard work? Why do we remain faithful? Because Jesus promises us awesome glory in heaven: "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:10) Because we know that Jesus was faithful to us. He suffered, died and rose for us. Now, when we are faithful to him, we know that we will receive from him our heavenly glory. Not because we have earned or deserved it, but because Jesus gives us that glory and that heavenly home. And so for all eternity, we will be walking around heaven proudly wearing our crowns of life.

God says to be faithful. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. All God wants is a simple obedience and faith in him. By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains. But know that it is still God who moves the mountains. Amen.

"He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." Amen. (1 Corinthians 1:8-9)