Feed, Pray, Walk, and Don’t Forget to Take LASSIE With You - Sermon for October 19, 2025

Lutheran Women in Mission Sunday, 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Feed, Pray, Walk, and Don’t Forget to Take LASSIE With You
Isaiah 62:1-7, Romans 10:11-17, and Luke 24:44-53.  

Audio of the Sermon available HERE.

   God has ascended with a shout, Christ Jesus, your Savior, is seated at God the Father’s right hand, and He rules over all things, for you. 

   Today we celebrate the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League.  The League has chosen the Ascension from Luke as the Gospel text.  This gives us a wonderful opportunity to consider the Mission of God, how God grows His Church, and what part each of us plays in His Mission.  We rejoice in God’s Mission, and we participate in God’s Mission, because we are winners.  In Christ, we have the victory over sin, death and the devil, we know our future, we have won. 

   This is great opportunity, as we recognize and celebrate the work of those Ladies in Purple, to be reminded of this Life in Christ, of God’s ongoing mission, and our roles within in it. 

   And, we have acronyms!  FPW and LASSIE.  Feed, Pray, and Walk, and don’t forget to take LASSIE with you on your Walk. 

   It was time for the Mission to go out.  Christ, just before  at His Ascension, opened the Apostles’ minds to understand the Scriptures, which, He reminds us, is all about Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation. 

   Jesus then said to the Eleven, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 

   Next, Jesus says:  ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things…(they have been with Jesus since His Baptism, they have seen His miracles, heard His teaching. They saw Him suffer, and die, and rise again.  They are eyewitnesses to it all.)  ⁴⁹ And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. (that is, the Holy Spirit)   But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (In ten days, at the feast of Pentecost).

  We are part of the Apostolic Church that grew from those 11 Apostles and about 120 believers.  This Apostolic Church has spread to very corner of the world, converting billions of sinners.  This Mission has even reached us here in South Dakota.   

    From the whole Bible, and especially from our Romans 10 reading this morning, we know that Christ has instituted a Public Ministry, and made it central to His plan, men chosen from among the believers to public spokesman of God’s Word, to distribute His gifts.  The Public Ministry is like the hub of the wheel of God’s Mission.  Many more work in God’s Mission, but it is especially through public proclamation that God saves the hearers, and also prepares them to tell the reason for the hope that they have, to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called them out of darkness and into His marvelous light. 

   But of course, it is not just the pastors who work in Mission, it’s not just the LWML.  Every Christian has a role to play in this ongoing work.   

   Now, God’s Mission will be done, with or without us, He will save every soul He has elected.  Faith,  the trust of the heart of the new creature created by God through the Water and the Word, faith sees playing our part in God’s Mission as pure joy, as a great privilege.  But, we have to beware, because of the sinner who remains in each of us.  For the sinner is always looking to avoid doing what God calls us to, always looking for excuses to avoid God’s will.   

   We are not saved by playing our part in God’s Mission, no we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus and His sacrifice to win our forgiveness.  Christ is our salvation.  But, to refuse to do the good works God sets in front of us is sin.  And sin is corrosive to our faith.  Unchecked, if our sins are not washed away, they can weaken and eventually kill our faith.   

   Outreach or Evangelism is great, but it is also hard, it comes with its own challenges.  Anyone who comes to you with a big smile and tells you evangelism is easy is either ignorant, or simply not telling the truth.  Eventually, telling others about Jesus will lead to rejection.  If you are active in outreach, you will draw Satan’s attacks, for he hates for Christ’s Word to go out, and wants to stop it.  And, just as repentance and forgiveness are the message of Christ’s Mission, evangelism also requires daily repentance, for our failures, for our errors, and it needs daily forgiveness, God’s daily rescue.  Repentance and Forgiveness are the beating heart of our salvation, and they are also the beating heart of outreach, mission, evangelism. 

   This LWML Sunday has great timing for me, because it falls between two weekends of me teaching an Evangelism Workshop in Deadwood, with members from Grace Lutheran and Blessed Emmanuel Lutheran in Sturgis.  And as I mentioned, we have some acronyms to help the teaching:  FPW and LASSIE.  Feed, Pray, and Walk, and don’t forget to take LASSIE with you on your walk.  

 

The F in FPW is for Feed.  Every Christian needs to feed their faith, for their own salvation.  This is why Paul said, “let the Word of Christ dwell in your richly.”  Our faith lives from God’s Word, we need to feed it to endure.   

   Also, every Christian has a role to play in mission.  Not everyone is an Apostle, or a pastor or missionary.  But all of us, within our vocations, in our various relationships with people, have a role to play.  And feeding prepares us for this work.   

   You see, witnessing takes some preparation; consider the Eleven.  They had spent three years living and traveling with God’s Son.  They heard Him teach, they saw His miracles, they saw His suffering, death and resurrection.  Just before He ascended, Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scripture.  So they were finished, they had graduated from having to grow in the Word, right?  No, not at all.  The Apostles spent the rest of the their lives studying, so they could proclaim, and then studying and meditating more, to proclaim some more.  Paul, in one of his letters, late in his missionary career, asks for some scrolls to be brought to him.  What was on those scrolls?  I’m pretty sure it was God’s Word.  To the very end of his work, Paul continued to feed and grow his faith.   

   Think about it this way:  Should the Church send out poorly informed witnesses? Should we send a pastor to be a missionary in Africa who really doesn’t know the Bible well?  Should we send out Christian who hasn’t learned much about the faith to try to tell others about Jesus and His Gospel? 

   Our knowledge of Christ’s teaching is never perfect, not for any of us.  But we can be growing by feeding our faith, and this is what’s important for our contribution to God’s Mission.   

   So, step one in playing your part in God’s Mission is feed.  Be fed.  On Sundays, through Scripture, Preaching, the Lord’s Supper, and as you read your Bible through the week. 

   Hearing or reading more of God’s Word strengthens your faith, it increases love and hope, it makes you a better person, it is good for you, good for your family. 

    Also, feeding your faith will give you true and useful things to say, should someone ask you about your faith, or about God and His salvation.  And don’t forget, feeding your faith is not just an academic thing, we are not merely gaining more information.  God’s Word is a sharp, two-edged sword, it is living and active.  God’s Word changes you, transforms your mind, creates a new heart in you.  God grant us Wisdom to feed richly on His Word.   

The P in FPW is for Pray:  We have an amazing verse in our Isaiah 62 reading.  After many tremendous promises, describing the final victory of God’s people, the LORD through Isaiah says this: On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent.

   Not silent about what?  Proclaiming God’s truth and praise?  Sure.  But also prayer.  For Isaiah continues: you who put the Lord in remembrance, (that is, you who pray, which is all God’s people) take no rest, and give Him no rest, until He establishes Jerusalem, and makes her a praise in the earth.

   Put the Lord in remembrance!  What, is God forgetful?  No.  But He wants us to remind Him of His promises.  Can we dare be so bold, say such things? Well, yes! He just told us to:  Give Him no rest, wear Him out, hold God to His promises. 

   It’s Like the Widow and the Unjust Judge in Jesus’ parable (Luke 18) 

Then [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, ² saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. ³ Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ ⁴ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, ⁵ yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” ⁶ Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. ⁷ And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 

   Our ultimate adversary is Satan, and He has been defeated, completely, by Jesus, our Judge.  The timing of the Lord’s deliverance is unknown, but God has promised, and He will deliver.  So yes, pray to the Lord, pester Him, hold Him to His promises, give Him no rest, until He fulfills His promises, until He establishes Jerusalem, the Church, as a praise in the earth.  God, as the perfect loving Father, wants His children to pray to Him this way. 

The W is for Walk, as in our Christian walk, walking in the good works that God has prepared in advance for us.  Walking in love toward God and toward our neighbor.   

  Part of our walk is not being hypocrites.  Hypocrisy hurts the mission and witness of the Church.  When Christians claim to believe and act one way, but then are seen to be doing the opposite, the credibility of the Church is damaged, and some may even mock Christ and His Church.  Sadly, to some extent, hypocrisy is an unavoidable reality, because we sinners will never perfectly fulfill our Christian calling in this life.  But, the damage of hypocrisy can be turned around, with repentance, confession, and forgiveness.  When the world sees Christians who sin also confess their sins, and seek forgiveness, even with people outside the Church, this is a powerful witness to the Gospel.   

   One of the good works God prepares for us is to witness, to confess the faith, to speak of Christ in our daily lives, simply telling the truth we know about God and His salvation.  No one has to do it all, nor be witnessing all the time.  No one knows everything about God’s truth.  And remember, success is not a burden we are responsible for.  We get to plant and water and encourage, but God must give the growth.  

Take LASSIE with you on your witnessing walk.  LASSIE is an acronym for an approach, a way of thinking about witnessing in our lives.  It is not a program or a script, nor is LASSIE a series of sequential steps.  In our daily lives, we will bounce around the acronym in various orders.  

   LASSIE is tool to use within our vocations, our daily lives, with the people God has put you into relationship with, like your family, your friends, co-workers, and neighbors.  LASSIE is not about randomly accosting people we don’t know and peppering them with questions about God and eternity.  This is simply not often helpful.  Think about it, did Jesus work like this?  Or was He much more conversational, and relational?   

   Remember, evangelism wants to get to the Good News, but to do so necessarily includes speaking God’s Law:  God’s Law not popular with sinners.  Don’t presume the right to preach law to someone, rather earn the opportunity through humility and friendship.  And LASSIE a great tool in this regard. 

The L and A stand for Listen, and then Ask questions, so you can listen some more. 

   I must confess, I have plenty of work to do in the area of being a good listener.  Maybe we all do.  But

How much better a place would the world be, our congregation, our families, if we all listened more, and talked less?  If we really listened, and didn’t just hear the other person while thinking of how we are going to answer, how we are going to give a witty reply, that would be great. 

   And then, after listening well, what if we asked good questions, so we can listen some more? 

   Listening to others builds trust.  Good listeners are very attractive people; perhaps they are fairly rare.  But if we can learn to listen and ask good questions and listen more, this will help us get to know each other deeply, and trust each other. 

The S and S stand for Seek and Share:  Here’s where the Bible knowledge comes in.  As your friend shares story, problems, or questions about God and religion, you can seek to find Biblical accounts or teachings that fit with their questions.  Then you can simply share that Word with them to the best of your ability.  We see that seeking and sharing depend on feeding and praying. 

   As you seek and share, remember, it is not on you to have perfect knowledge, no one does.  It is your privilege to play a part, however small, in bringing someone into contact with Christ through His Word.  We all know the Apostles’ Creed, we can even just simply tell people who God is and what He has done using the Creed.  The more Biblical stories to support these fact the better.   

   Also remember, witnessing takes time.  If your friend has hurts, maybe from a previous Christian Church, or maybe from another religion, working through this will take time.  If they are simply Biblically ignorant, then witnessing will take more time.  If your friend is hardcore secular materialist, who claims to be an atheist, well even more time might be needed.    

   So, you take your time, it’s not a race.  Think about the New Testament: even though the stakes were eternal, were Jesus or the Apostles ever depicted as running around witnessing in a panicked rush? 

 

Practice Sharing with other Christians.  We all need more grace.  We could all use more of God’s good Word in our lives.  The more we bless each other with God’s Word, the more attractive our congregation will be, and more joyous.  And as we get practiced in speaking God’s truth to each other, where it is safe, we will also be preparing for doing the same outside the Body, out in the world, to people outside the Church.   

   How do we do this?  We season our speech with salt.  We can do it in our greetings.  Instead of “hello” or “have a nice day” you could say “the Peace of the Lord be with you.”  Who knows what questions and conversations might flow from such a habit.  When something good happens, instead of simply saying, “that’s great, how nice,” we could say “Praise be to God for this wonderful gift!”  Perhaps you are struck by a catchy phrase from a hymn, or one line from a reading.  Memorize it, and look for opportunities to use it in conversation during the week.   

 

The I and E stand for Invite and Encourage:  Again, LASSIE not sequential.  An open invitation to your friends, neighbors, family, is a good thing.  And Christians should be continually encouraging others, as the Holy Spirit encourages us. 

   To what might we invite?  Sunday Service?  Maybe.  For some people, it’s perfect.  For many others, the Sunday Service is too intimidating.  But we have Wednesday evening prayer services, much smaller and simpler.  And midday prayers.  And we have Bible Study and other activities?   We can think of these as side doors into the Church, and today, when the world has many doubts or prejudices against the Church, we need to develop our side doors.         

   And here is a novel idea.  Invite you friend to meet your pastor, with you.  Don’t overpromise about your pastor, about how great or smart he is, but you could say you think your pastor might have some helpful thoughts for whatever question or problem he or she is facing.  Invite them to meet your pastor, and go with them to meet with him.  This will be helpful for everyone. 

   The same applies to inviting to services, Bible Study or other activities.  Invite, and accompany them, help them through the first few visits.  That’s very encouraging for someone checking out this Christianity thing.

 

   Witnessing requires patience:  Don’t press too hard.  You can go ahead and pester the Lord in your prayers, He loves that.  But your neighbor does not want to be pestered.  Invite, encourage, but don’t badger.  Also, don’t abandon the effort or the person at the first “no thanks” you receive. Or at the 10^th.    Jesus has never abandoned you even though you have often declined His invitations.  Extend the same grace to others. 

   This is all about Seed Planting: Never forget, Apollos planted, Paul watered, but God gave the growth.  As we speak God’s truth to others, we are planting seeds.  Maybe you will never get to see the fruit, or maybe you will.  But the fruit will come, because you have seen it in your life, and you know the Lord’s Word always achieves His purposes. 

   Jesus Christ, God’s Crucified and Resurrected Son, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, is ruling over all things, for His Church, for His Mission, and for you.  In God’s mysterious and perfect wisdom, God does not directly do His mission.  Rather He does it through us, through His Church, through you and me, and all His Christians.  This is a remarkable, and frightful, also wonderful thing, that  God would choose to work through forgiven sinners like us, as He reaches out to yet more sinners, seeking to draw them to Jesus.   

   God does this.  He is doing it.  His Mission to you continues, as He continues to deliver forgiveness, life and salvation to you.  And His Mission through you leads to pure joy, for you, and for all who come to know Christ as Savior.   

Let us pray:  Holy Spirit of the risen Christ, sent from the Father to lead us into all truth.  Enlighten our hearts and minds to your wisdom and your good and gracious will.  Help us to grow in our knowledge of Christ and His Salvation.  Help us to speak of Christ to each other within His Body, the Church, so that we will be ready to speak of Christ to others, sinners like us, but who do not know and trust in the Savior.  Embolden your pastors, missionaries, and all your people, to walk in your ways, and to do the good work of confessing Christ to the world, in the opportunities that the Father has prepared for us, through Jesus Christ, our Savior, who lives and reigns with You and Father, one God, now and forever, Amen.