# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S88
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever!
He’s “the same” — not only in that He’s eternal — but
that He’s the same in His unending LOVE and perfect
righteousness which He offered to the Father for you
when He “suffered outside the gate [of Jerusalem] in order
to sanctify [you] through His own blood.”
And that’s a good thing for us! Isn’t it? Because it
won’t be too many years from now, when it’ll be our
turn to be up on that screen having joined the faithful
cloud of witnesses that has gone before us … with all the
faults and sins that we confess to our God, and our
pastors, and our loved ones and neighbors.
So, look around you today, dear brothers and sisters,
dear co-workers. Look at your fellow “leaders” of the
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod who are blessed to
represent this great Synod of ours at her 67th Regular
Convention. Look around you and realize that it is you
and I who will be commemorated before too long —
with all our shared joys and accomplishments, as well
as our disagreements and sins, and everything that
goes along with a convention and with life together in
the LCMS.

And as you look around, and then look at your own
heart with humble repentance, don’t forget also to
look to Jesus, who is the same yesterday and today and
forever! The same, with forgiveness for you!
For all this, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to
God!
A sacrifice of praise — a θυσία(ν) αἰνέσεως — the
term used over and over again in the Greek Old
Testament for a sacrifice of thanksgiving whose
details are spelled out in Leviticus and whose
observance is mentioned repeatedly in the psalms.
“What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me? I
will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving [the θυσία(ν)
αἰνέσεως] and will call on the name of the Lord” (Psalm
116:12–13).
As we rejoice, pray, and especially GIVE THANKS
today, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving — for our leaders who spoke the
Word of God to us, but especially for our changeless
Jesus Christ who sustained them, even as He continues
to sustain this blood-bought Church that they served.
Jesus Christ, who is constant yesterday, today, and
forever … constant in His undying love for you, and
me, and all people!
Amen.

88 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION

Convention Sermons