Worship Services

The Lord is Near!

December 15, 2024

This past week I heard about something I had never heard of before. I learned what a “blue Christmas” is. I am not referring to the famous Elvis Presley song. I have heard that before! I am referring to what some churches call a “blue Christmas service.” This is a special Christmas worship service for people who are especially struggling with sadness at this time of year, maybe the sadness of loss of a loved one, or sickness, or loneliness. The service is often held on December 21, the longest night of the year.

In the Fifteenth Year of the Reign of Tiberius Caesar…

December 8, 2024

St. Luke is an excellent historian. He even begins the gospel that bears his name by writing: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4) He was a meticulous researcher, wanting to be sure he got everything right.

Finding Advent in an Unlikely Place

December 1, 2024

I will confess at the outset, this feels a bit strange to me. Preaching on this text today. Did it strike you as odd? This reading is historically read on Palm Sunday. This is the account of Jesus entering Jerusalem for the final time. This is a Holy Week text! And yet, here we are. It is the appointed reading for today, the first Sunday of Advent. We are beginning a new church year today! We have decorated for Christmas! We are thinking about Jesus’ birth and his coming into this world to be our Savior!

“Fall-on-Your-Face” Gratitude

November 27, 2024

As we celebrate Thanksgiving once again this year, how grateful are you? If I asked you to rank your level of thankfulness on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, what number would you pick? Are you on the lower end? A 3 or 4? You’re grateful, but you’ve had a rough year financially or physically or personally? Are you on the upper end? A 7 or an 8? The investments did better than expected and your cholesterol is down?

The King and the Kingdom where “Happily-Ever-After” is Reality

November 24, 2024

A close look at many beloved children’s stories reveals something quite interesting. Certain common elements seem to occur and reoccur. Very often the stories will involve a kingdom; a villain who rises and brings suffering and oppression; a hero, many times a king’s son, a prince; the defeat of the villain; a wedding at the end; and the final refrain so often is, “...and they lived happily ever after.”

One and Done!

November 17, 2024

In order for us to understand our text this morning, we have to spend a moment reviewing something that was a huge part of the religious life of God’s Old Testament saints. And that thing is Yom Kippur, also known as The Day of Atonement. In particular, we need to review what the High Priest did on that day. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) was the one day of the year when the high priest, and ONLY the high priest, entered into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple.

The Widow…Prey and Praised

November 10, 2024

The Lord has a soft spot in his heart for widows. Time and again in the Bible, the widow is specifically mentioned as an object of God’s attention and concern. Already at the time of Moses, the Lord said to his people, You shall not take advantage of any widow. (Exodus 22:22). Later, through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord would repeat the thought, Do not oppress the alien who lives in your land, the fatherless, or the widow. (Jeremiah 7:6) God’s concern for the widow is not just an Old Testament thing.

“Loose Him and Let Him Go!”

November 3, 2024

I want you to imagine that you are looking into your closet at all your clothes hanging there. Can you picture it? Okay, find me something you would wear to work. Find something? Now pick out something you would wear for dinner out with friends at a nice restaurant. Got it? All right. Now, grab what you would wear to a wedding. Find something nice? All right. Last one. Pick out what you want to be buried in.

The Gospel Must be Preached!

October 27, 2024

It is said there are two things that are absolutely certain: death and taxes. While this is generally quite true, on the basis of our text today, this Reformation festival, we might want to add a third thing to that list. And that is the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus says in our text, The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. (v. 10)

Everything for the Gospel

October 20, 2024

What is the biggest sacrifice you have ever made for someone? Have you given up your seat so someone else can sit down? Have you given up sleep to tend to a sick child? Have you given money to help someone in need? Have you given up a bite of your dessert to your spouse? Have you given one of your kidneys so someone else can live?

The God who Can Get a Camel through a Needle’s Eye

October 13, 2024

On of the techniques used by Jewish rabbis when teaching was the use of hyperbole, or exaggeration. We often do the same. It is not uncommon for us to engage in hyperbole in our own conversations. When we say someone has “tons” of money, we do not literally mean if we weighed all their money it would weigh thousands of pounds. But we would all understand the point being made: that person has a lot of money.

The World is a Better Place…because of Marriage

October 6, 2024

There is something jolting about the opening words of our text, “It is not good for the man to be alone. (v. 18) It is jolting because it is the first time we have heard that something wasn’t good. Up to this point in Genesis, we have only heard the word “good.”. Six times in Genesis 1 we are told that God saw what he had made and it was good (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). And once we are told things were very good (1:31). That word “good” is like a drumbeat in the story of creation, beating out a steady cadence.

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