Pastor David P. Bostedt Zion Ev. Lutheran Church
Torrance, California January 31, 2010
Everybody...C'mon in. Good Morning, everybody.
Good Morning, Pastor.
How's everybody today? Good.
Today, we have a little bit of a mystery in The Purple Bag.
Who's good at solving mysteries?
Um ... people good at solving mysteries.
Caleb, let's let you solve
the mystery today. Caleb says:
(It's not what I expected.) It's not what you expected;
that's why it's a mystery.
Caleb asks a question ... Pastor Dave responds:
Well, that's the clue. What does it say about 1987?
Caleb says: September 6th. September 6th ...
1987.
Ring a bell for anybody?
Anybody's birthday?
Married?
No, nobody got married that day?
(Laughter) Were you even around in 1987?
You have a clue?
Something happen in your life, Caleb?
No!
So this isn't important to any of YOU,
but it's important to ME.
You thought
maybe it was my birthday? Nope.
Not me?
Oh, okay.
William? (Your anniversary?) My anniversary?
Well, that's close.
That would be 1988. So this is even
pre-Mrs. Bostedt.
what's so important about this date, September 6th, 1987?
This is the FIRST DAY
that Pastor preached a sermon
as an ordained minister. Children: Aww....
Yeah. You guys weren't even born yet.
That's how long ago that was.
You know what text Pastor preached on?
Um... Umm ...
Luke? Luke has some good texts.
Our Old Testament
lesson for today. OH! Well, he wasn't around when
I wrote it. I mean, it's not like you know, Jeremiah wrote
it and handed it to me even though it was a long time ago.
But I chose that text because it talks about someone who
was maybe a little concerned because he was young.
And what the other people were going to say about
him because he was so young.
Pastor's going to preach on that text this morning ...
22 years later, so I can't use the young-thing anymore.
But sometimes we think
because of our age we can't tell people
the wonderful news of Jesus.
But you guys are younger than I was, when I preached
my first sermon. What would you tell someone about Jesus?
Something that you know about Jesus that you can tell
someone. If someone said to you: Who is Jesus?
What would you answer?
(Background talking.) You don't know who Jesus is?
(More background talking.)
Oh, Pastor's got some work to do.
(Laughter). You guys know Jesus.
You guys don't want to talk this morning. Kayla,
who's Jesus? (He died on the cross to save us.)
He died on the cross to save us. Caleb, can you tell us
anything else about Jesus? (He heals people?)
He heals people. That's right!
Anybody got anything else now that we've "primed the pump".
(Laughter.)
What about God the Father? What did God the Father do for
you, Caleb? You can pick one of
all of ... lots of things.
He blesses you. Right?
That he gave us parents. He created us.
Jenna? (I was going to say He made us.) He made us.
That's very good. That's very good. The Holy Spirit
keeps us in the faith. Those are all things that you know
and those are all things that you can tell others about Jesus.
It doesn't matter how old we are, but sometimes we just
don't want to talk.
Sometimes we're afraid to talk. Sometimes we're just not
in the mood. But we remind ourselves that Jesus
has given us perfect knowledge about Himself and
that we have that knowledge. And that we're going to go and
tell others about what Jesus has done because
that way they will know how wonderful Jesus is and
that He's their Savior too. Anybody have any questions
here this morning? 'Course not.
Oh ... Brandon, what? (We live in the United States.)
We live in the United States.
Yes, and God blesses us because we're
American citizens with the freedom to
preach and teach freely. That's a good point.
Let's go back to our moms and dads and
we'll join together in our Hymn-of-the-Day.