Complacency and creature comforts are on the table for our examination this morning. Amos chides the people of the north for their hearts made heavy by luxury, by food and drink and hedonistic idleness. Jesus tells a parable about a man who had everything who went to hell, and a poor man who had nothing who went to heaven.

You cannot serve God and Money. (Luke 16:13)

We try though, don’t we? Serve two masters. God on Sunday, Money on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, maybe even Saturday. And you know what it’s like to have two masters, two bosses with opposite agendas. You’re like one of those rubber Gumby dolls, stretched to the point of snapping like an overextended rubber band.

“Jesus sinners doth receive; oh may all this saying ponder.” Here is a trustworthy saying worthy of all acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am chief.” Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? Really? Is that how it works? Leave ninety-nine out in the open country to fend for themselves while you look for the wandering one? Is that any way to run a business? Turn your back on 99 good customers to find the lone deadbeat?

The Christian is perfectly free, lord of all, subject to none; the Christian is perfectly bound, servant of all, subject to all. So said Luther in his writing On the Liberty of the Christian in 1521. Perfectly free before God through faith in Christ; perfectly bound before the neighbor through love.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Some things never change. The way we think may change, our social conventions may change, our technologies change, the iPod may be changing as rumors have it (now we’ll have to buy new ones), even the way we see the world may change. But our sin, our Adamic rebellion against God, our self-centeredness does not change. The way we express it may change, as we go from youth to adulthood, from ancient to modern, but the core of our sin does not change. The core of salvation does not change. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world, one time for all times, one Death for all. That doesn’t change.