Grace and peace to you in the name of our heavenly Father, the Creator and Controller of our weather. Amen.

Luke 12:54 He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. ⁵⁵ And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. ⁵⁶ Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?

Gracious heavenly Father, we know that you control everything, including the wind and the rain. You hold all the weather in the palm of your hand. You know when every raindrop falls, and where each snowflake lands. Thank you for also knowing and caring about each one of us. Thank you for watching over us this past week in Vacation Bible School and blessing us with the refreshing rain of your forgiveness and the warming sunshine of your Son. Amen.

A young girl walked daily to and from her Racine school. Though the weather one morning was questionable and clouds were forming, this child made the daily trek to her elementary school. As the day progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightening. The mother was worried that her daughter would be frightened walking back home from school during all the thunder, and as a mom she was afraid that lightening the might harm her child. Driven by her concern, the mother got into her car and drove along the route to her child’s school. Soon she saw her daughter walking along, but at each flash of lightening, the child would stop, look up and smile.

The mother kept following her daughter, and each time there was a streak of lightening, the little girl would stop, look up and smile. Finally, the mother called and asked, "What are you doing?" Her daughter answered, "God keeps taking pictures of me."

This little girl was having fun with the weather. This past week in Vacation Bible School, we had a lot of fun with weather, too. We learned stories of God’s power over the weather demonstrated in a worldwide flood, the sun standing still, and a storm being calmed. The children made umbrellas, boats, and clouds in their craft. They listened to guest speakers like Jay Bailey speak about clouds, Taylor Pechacek from WLIP in Kenosha and our most famous speaker, Sally Severson from Channel 12.

I think the most fun and memorable presenter, though, was Dan Schulz, our "mad scientist" from Shoreland Lutheran High School. The kids watched him blow up an egg, launch a lego astronaut into our ceiling, electrocute a pickle, and even set a table on fire. But that was okay, because it was First Evan’s table, not ours.

In our sermon text for our Vacation Bible School closing service Jesus became a weather forecaster. Today we listen to Jesus’ words as we tune in to the spiritual weather channel. As we tune in we need to contemplate his warnings. We also celebrate his forecast.

Let’s see what Jesus had to say about the weather: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?"

Already at an early age, I learned how to tell the weather from my dad. He taught me to predict the weather by walking outside, licking your finger and holding it up. If your finger is hot, it’s hot outside. If it gets wet, it’s raining. If one side dries quicker than the other, the wind is blowing from that direction. The people in Jesus’ day could also go outside, lick their finger and hold it up to predict the weather – if there was a west wind coming off the Mediterranean Sea, it would bring rain; if there was a south wind from the desert of the Sinai Peninsula, you could expect hot weather. The people in Jesus’ day knew how to predict the weather by observing the conditions, yet they were clueless about understanding God’s spiritual climate. They were meteorologically sensitive but religiously stupid.

For hundreds of years, God used prophets to predict the coming of the Messiah. But they missed the signs. God showed them how they could identify their Savior. He would be born in Bethlehem. He would be born of a virgin, of the tribe of Judah. He would have wise men from the east looking for the birth of the King of the Jews. These wise men were looking for the signs, but the Jews weren’t.

A Christian mathematician says that according to the laws of chance, it would require two hundred billion earths, populated with four billion people each, to come up with one person whose life could fulfill one hundred accurate prophecies without any errors in sequence. Yet the Scriptures record not one hundred, but over three hundred prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ’s first coming alone. And sadly, these Jews were missing it. God was bringing about the greatest event in history – mankind’s salvation through his Son – and his chosen people were missing it!

Before we are too harsh on the Jews of two thousand years ago, let me ask you if you are missing God’s signs now? Are you tuned in to the spiritual weather channel? Are you contemplating the warnings? Are we, also, meteorologically sensitive, but religiously stupid? Many of you show a great wisdom in earthly matters like business and the weather, but you are blind and stubborn to spiritual things.

We know how much damage severe weather like tornados, hurricanes, hail, and flooding can do to our homes. So we listen to the weather warnings and we prepare. We put our vehicle in the garage to avoid the hail. If we lived near the ocean we would board up our windows for a coming hurricane. We get in the basement or the bathtub for a tornado. We buy a generator for our sump pump when there is flooding.

We prepare our homes. We listen to the weather reports. We watch the skies. Do you have that same intensity when it comes to your spiritual lives? Do you tune in daily to God’s weather channel in his holy Word? Do you board up the entryways to your heart when the devil and his temptations come blowing trying to knock down the home that Christ has built in your heart? Are you watching the skies for Christ’s return, knowing he could come at any time?

Do you realize how much damage sin does to your life? Sin has ruined you. Divorce has torn apart your family. Bitterness has driven your children from you. Gossip has damaged relationships with your coworkers. Pride keeps you from repenting to your spouse. Guilt has separated you from your God. Death has taken someone close to you. Doubt, anger and resentment have poisoned your relationship with God.

Did you notice what Jesus called the people listening to him? He called them "hypocrites." Jesus never called people hypocrites without a reason. He used such strong language to get their attention. When Jesus called them hypocrites it wasn’t because they were confused about who Christ was or because they had never heard. His anger was directed against those who knew the truth but deliberately rejected him.

Jesus could use such strong language against us, too. Every one of us here today is a hypocrite of some kind. We aren’t the kind of Christians God wants us to be. We don’t always act like God’s chosen children. We let curses come out of our mouths more than praises. We react to others with suspicion more than love. We are quick to cast the first stone, quick to pass judgment, quick to hate and envy and lust and covet. We act more like sinners than saints.

Even though we know better, we ignore God’s warnings of sin, Satan, and eternal punishment in hell. And we keep on living as hypocrites. Jesus tells you today, contemplate his warnings. Tune in to his spiritual weather channel of his Bible and you will find the warnings expressly written out for you. When you have contemplated the warnings, then you can celebrate the forecast.

God warns us about sin and its damaging effects. But he also gives us the wonderful forecast of good news and our Savior. Don’t you love listening to a good forecast? If your grass or crops need rain, you are looking for rain in the forecast. If you are going to try out Great America’s new water park, you want 90 degrees and sunny in the forecast. If you are a child and want a day off of school, you want a foot of snow in the forecast (although you only needed an inch to close schools in Kentucky.) We love the good forecasts. Here is a sampling of some of God’s great forecasts.

God sends us each kind of weather in the forecast for a purpose. Even though we may not always like God’s selection, we understand that he knows what weather is best for us each moment of the day. God gave us a promise about the weather: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." (Genesis 8:22) God’s promises never fail. That’s important to know, because God made some pretty important promises, like promising to send Jesus our Savior to forgive our sins, and promising that everyone who believes in him will go to heaven.

God also promises that he will use his weather selections to take care of both the believer and the unbeliever. "[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45)

We need the rain to water the crops and clean the dust out of the air. We need it to provide fresh water and refreshment for the animals. Rain is important and we need it! But sometimes it rains too much or too little. The town of Baghdad, California, is on record for going 767 days without a drop of rain. That’s almost two whole years, while the town of Alvin, Texas, got drenched with 43 inches in one day – nearly four feet of water. But regardless of how much or how little rain we get, we should never forget that it is God who still opens the heavens to let down the rain.

When we get severe weather like thunderstorms, do you kids jump into your parents’ bed? My dog crawls under our bed. Sometimes storms may frighten us, yet that shows us that God is a truly powerful and mighty God. It’s easy for him to make a cloud or a tornado. Yet through all of the frightening storms, we should be reminded that God is always in control. Everything that happens here on earth happens under God’s watchful eye. Not one drop of rain falls, and not one tornado whips across the land without God knowing exactly what is happening. We are thankful for this knowledge, because the same God who controls the weather is the same God who loves us. That’s why the Bible tells us, "Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm?" (Job 38:25) We know the answer, don’t we? It is God.

We all enjoy the sunshine. The sun always seems to brighten people’s mood. Did you know that before Jesus was born someone gave him the very special name of "The Rising Sun" because he would "shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death?" That’s why we ask Jesus to shine on us in our closing hymn today.

The Bible also says that those who believe in Jesus will also "shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matthew 13:43) That means when we die and go to heaven to be with Jesus, we will appear to be bright with pure holiness and sinlessness, shining like the sun.

God even uses weather to explain how his Word will always work on people: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish … so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:10-11)

God even uses weather to picture the beauty of the forgiveness we receive in Christ Jesus: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." (Isaiah 1:18)

My favorite Bible forecast though is one of perfect weather in heaven. For those faithful weather watchers who have contemplated God’s weather warnings, they will celebrate this eternal forecast: "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:16-17)

Tune into the spiritual weather channel and celebrate God’s forecast for your earthly and eternal future. Amen.

May our God, the Creator and Controller of the weather, be and abide with you all. Amen.