Sermon preached by Pastor Julius Buelow at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE on September 7, 2025 for Trinity 12. More info at mtolivelincoln.org

Theme: How Do We Tell Our Kids?

Text: Psalm 78

Psalm 78:1–11, 57–61, 65–72

1Give ear, O my people,to my instruction.
Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth to share a lesson.
I will speak about puzzling problems from long ago,
3things we have heard and known,
things our fathers have told us.

4We will not hide themfrom their descendants.
We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders that he has done.
5He set up testimony for Jacob.
In Israel he established the law.
He commanded our fathers to make it known to their children.
6Then the next generation would know it,
even the children not yet born.
They would rise up and tell their children.
7Then they would put their confidence in God,
and they would not forget the deeds of God,
but they would keep his commands.
8Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation that did not keep their hearts steadfast,
whose spirits were not faithful to God.

9The tribe of Ephraim,equipped and armed with bows,
deserted on the day of battle.
10They did not keep God's covenant,
and they refused to walk in his law.
11They forgot his deeds, the wonders he had shown to them.

57Yes, they turnedaside and were treacherous like their fathers.
They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
58Then they angered him with their high places,
and they made him jealous with their idols.

59God heard, and heshowed his anger.
He completely rejected Israel.
60So he abandoned his dwelling in Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelled among people.
61So he sent the symbol of his strength away into captivity.
He gave his splendor into the hand of the foe.

65Then the Lord awokelike someone who has been sleeping,
like a warrior overcome by wine.
66Then he drove back his foes.
He gave them everlasting shame.

67Then he rejected thetent of Joseph,
and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68But he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69Then he built up his sanctuary like the heights,
like the world that he established for all time.

70Then he chose Davidhis servant
and took him from the sheep pens.
71He brought him from following the mother sheep
to shepherd his people Jacob
and his possession Israel.
72So he shepherded them with a sincere heart,
and with skillful hands he led them.

Sermon preached by Pastor Julius Buelow at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE on August 31, 2025 for Trinity 11. More info at mtolivelincoln.org

Theme: Not I, But God's Grace (For Me, and With Me)

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-10

Brothers, I am going to call your attention to the gospel that I preached to you. You received it, and you took your stand on it. 2You are also being saved by that gospel that was expressed in the words I preached to you, if you keep your hold on it—unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

6After that he appeared to over five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, he appeared also to me, the stillborn child, so to speak. 9For I am the least of the apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God’s church. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not ineffective. On the contrary, I worked more than all of them (and yet it wasn’t my doing, but it was the grace of God, which was with me, that did it).

Holy Bible: Evangelical Heritage Version (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House, 2019), 1 Co 15:1–10.

Sermon preached by Pastor Julius Buelow at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE on August 17, 2025 for Trinity 9. More info at mtolivelincoln.org

Theme: How to Get Ahead in Life

1. Be Like "That Guy" 2. Be Better than "That Guy"

Text: Luke 16:1-9

Jesus also said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager who was accused of wasting his possessions. 2The rich man called him in and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be manager.’ 3“The manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, since my master is taking away the management position from me? I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. 4I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position as manager, people will receive me into their houses.’ 5“He called each one of his master’s debtors to him. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6He said, ‘Six hundred gallons of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write three hundred.’ 7Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘Six hundred bushels of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and write four hundred and eighty.’ 8“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of the light are. 9I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings.
Holy Bible: Evangelical Heritage Version (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House, 2019), Lk 16:1–9.