A Different World

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

July 12th, 2026

Imagine a world in which everyone kept the Ten Commandments. How different would things be if the Ten Commandments were the foundational principles on which everyone ordered their lives and raised their families. The foundation on which we structured our societies. The building blocks on which all cultures were founded throughout the world. How vastly different our lives and the world would be.

In that world everyone would fear, love, and trust in God above all things. The one true God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The hope and comfort in the love of that one true God would be found in the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, both true man and true God.

Everyone would seek to know this true God only through His Word. This Word would be preached and taught throughout the world, both Law and Gospel. Everyone would be grounded in the sure and certain hope of salvation through faith in Christ alone. Only men rightly called to preach and teach would serve as pastors. Not women. Scripture is clear, Christ did not give women the authority to serve as pastors.

In this world where everyone loved God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind we would structure and order our lives around the gathering together in church every Sunday morning. The pews would be full. No sports, no work, no play, no sleeping in, no excuses would stand in the way of Sunday morning Divine Service.

With no other gods in our life and with all things ordered according to God’s Word and the gathering together on Sunday morning as the centerpiece of our life, we would love our neighbors as ourselves.

Loving as we’ve been loved we would respect and honor God’s rightly instituted authorities in our lives, starting with our parents. Through the lifelong love and honoring of our parents we would see all authority instituted by God as good and right for a peaceful world.

In this world that functions according to God’s order established in creation, men would be the leaders in all areas of life. They would lead with love and compassion Their leadership would begin in the home, extend to the church and out into the world. They would teach their children the Ten Commandments and the love of God in Christ Jesus crucified and risen. Their families would be in church every Sunday.

The reason our pews are not full in our churches throughout the country is because our men have failed to be the spiritual leaders in their homes as God desires. It’s that simple and it’s that devastating. The women are not to blame for our children not being in church. The men are to blame.

When men lead as God has given them to lead, the women do not feel the need to step up and be the strong voices and leaders in the church and their families. They let men be men and lead and they gladly follow and serve as the helpmate which God created them to be. Not as inferior but in the right and proper order from creation.

In this world where God’s Ten Commandments are the foundation of a good and virtuous life we would not murder with our hands or thoughts. We would love as we’ve been loved. 73 million babies would not be murdered every single year throughout the world. The satanic “My body my choice” lie would not be the thriving religion that slaughters the innocent like it is today. We would choose life, not death. No exceptions.

Men would be men. Women would be women. Marriage would be a lifelong commitment between one man and one women. Men would leave their father and mother and be joined to their wives for life. Husband and wife would be fruitful and multiply as God gave them opportunity. We would lead chaste and decent lives in word and deed. Husbands and wives would love and honor each other.

Men would not be consumed with passion for other men and commit shameless acts against nature. Women would not lust after other women and commit shameless acts against nature. True love would not be based on feelings and emotions but on God’s design for men and women from creation. In this world the image of a rainbow would never be something to question.

We would not steal from each other. We would not be lazy in our occupations. The paycheck received would be the paycheck rightly earned. We would work hard in every vocation, using our God given gifts and abilities to the fullest. Hard work would be a joy. Our neighbors would be blessed by the work of our hands.

We would use our words to love and build each other up and speak about Jesus. We would not use our words to tear down. Our tongues would not be used to destroy names and reputations. We would put the best construction on everything.

We would be content with everything God has given us. We would not seek more than we need. We would help protect our neighbors possessions and income. We would willingly and joyfully give above and beyond our means to the neighbor in need and to the church where we gather.

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Imagine that world. It’s a world we will never live in on this side of glory. But that world is God’s desire for His creation. And we should strive to live and obey God’s Laws not out of compulsion or with any expectation of eternal reward, but because God’s will is our delight and desire as those created in His image to fear love and trust in Him above all things. And life is good when we live according to God’s Ten Commandants.

Our failure and inability to live and obey God’s Law perfectly should not lead us to minimize or become complacent in our attempts to obey God’s Laws and fight against the sin and imperfection we find in the world and in ourselves. We can’t save ourselves. We live by faith in Christ alone. Jesus is our salvation. But as Paul wrote: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

We do not live under the Law as a means to salvation. We live under grace. Jesus Christ crucified and risen forgives our sins and gives us eternal life. But God’s Law is good, right, and beautiful. It is the standard which we shape and form our lives according to. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill the Law. By fulfilling and upholding the Law Jesus confirmed that the Law is God’s good and perfect will for His creation. And in living that perfect life under the Law, He also gave us an example in which we are to follow, not for salvation but as a new creation that loves and desires to please God. Not only in outward deeds but also in the new heart and mind which is ours through faith in Christ.

The world is broken. We are broken. We have fallen and failed to live up to God’s standard of perfection as He demands. But we are redeemed failures. Purchased and covered in the blood of Jesus. We now live covered under the perfect righteousness of Jesus that carries us into eternity. With new desires and impulses we will strive to live as Christ taught and showed in His own life. Jesus is God’s Ten Commandments embodied and lived out to perfection for us.

We will trip and fall often. But by the grace of God we have been baptized into Jesus. He is our righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. He is the righteousness that has taken us into the Kingdom God. The sinful flesh that continues to fail will be put to death again and again and we will be raised up to newness of life and forgiven again and again. We will die in peace and rise to eternal glory not because we managed to live perfectly, but because Jesus did and He died and He rose from the dead. And He Jesus eternally and so will we. Thanks be to Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen.