ST. STEPHEN’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
Striving to speak God’s saving truth in love. Ephesians 4:15
11Aug
Do Not Worry! Do Not Strive for ‘Stuff!’ Do Not Be Afraid!
Sermon on Luke 12:22–34 for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, Pr. 14, August 8 & 11, 2019 First of all, I’m going to say something about biblical interpretation. God inspired and gave his Scriptures to be clear and sufficient. Just as you and I have one single meaning when we write or speak, so does God. Just…
28Jul
Jesus Gives Instructions for Prayer
Everyone has been there before. A family goes shopping for a new shelving or storage unit. They bring home a brand new grill or outdoor furniture. The instructions are included. The very first thing a person does, or at least should do, is look over the instructions. At times those instructions cause nothing but confusion….
21Jul
What Is the “One Thing that Is Needed” ?
Sermon on Luke 10:38-42 for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, (Pr 11) July 18 & 21, 2019 We don’t realize what a task preparing food was in ancient times. We saw that in both the First Reading and the Gospel. Abraham and Sarah did not have a breadbox with loaves of Wonder Bread. If you wanted bread,…
17Jul
Sermon on Ruth 1:1-19 and Luke 10:25-37 for 5th Sunday after Pentecost, July 14, 2019
Dear friends in Christ, Our meditation this morning is based primarily on our Old Testament lesson from Ruth chapter 1, but also picks up on Jesus’ parable of the “Good Samaritan” and the discussion that led to his telling the parable. To get into it, let me ask perhaps an odd question – Who thinks…
07Jul
Church Work is Our Work
A sermon on I Peter 5:1-4, for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost, July 4/7, 2019. Sometimes there are times when a pastor looks at a text on which to preach and wonders, “How am I going to handle this?” Often it comes because of a difficult section of Scripture presents itself. How will this be…
23Jun
What Does It Mean that Jesus Is Savior?
Sermon on Luke 8:26-39 for the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Pr 7), June 20 & 23, 2019 Today’s Gospel was kind of wild, wasn’t it? A demon possessed man, living in the tombs, naked and shouting. It also made for a wild bulletin cover picture! In Madagascar, there is a Lutheran church body that does exorcism as part…
16Jun
The Triune God Goes With Us
A sermon based on Numbers 6:22-27 for Trinity Sunday, June 13/16, 2019. It is everyone’s favorite part of the service. Everything has been building up to this climax. From the moment they first sit in the pew, every Christian cannot wait to hear those words. It finally comes: the benediction. All of a sudden our…
09Jun
Jesus Gives Us His Peace
Sermon on John 14:23-27 for Pentecost, June 6 & 9, 2019 Everybody wants peace. Everybody has their own idea of peace. And in our world, it seems that nothing is harder to find than peace. I think most of us would define peace as “The absence of conflict.” Maybe some would define peace as “a sense of…
06Jun
Come, Lord Jesus!
Sermon for 7th Sunday of Easter, June 2, 2019, on Revelation 22:12-17, 20 Dear friends in Jesus, It’s somewhat ironic, sinful even, that just about every day we ask Jesus to come be with us to bless us as we receive our food at meal times. Yet there are times during that same day…
26May
Hold to the Hope We Have
A sermon on John 16:16-24 for the 6th Sunday after Easter, May 23/26, 2019. The hearts of all the people watching the movie pound in anticipation of what will happen next. The hero hangs off a cliff, bridge, a tall building, or whatever else it might be. As time ticks by the hero’s grip slowly…
20May
God’s Love is Glorious
Sermon on John 13:31–35 for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 16 & 19, 2019 Many times in the Bible God is connected with love. The most famous verse in the Bible begins “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). The apostle John writes in his first letter “God is love” (1 John 4:16). There…
15May
The Lamb of God Shepherds God’s Flock
Sermon for 4th Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday), May 12, 2019 on Revelation 7:9-17 Dear fellow sheep in the Good Shepherd’s flock, Many of us enjoy “rags to riches” stories, don’t we? We like the Cinderella story, from peasant to princess. We enjoy a good movie story line in which the guy working…
05May
We Join in Singing Praises to Our God
A sermon based on Revelation 5:11-14 for the 3rd Sunday after Easter, May 2/5, 2019. Have you ever seen a celebration so amazing and spectacular that you wish you could just be there? Many times we watch these events on television. You receive an overall view of what things look like. You can still hear…
21Apr
Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?
Sermon on 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 for the Easter Day, April 21, 2019 Do you know what a rhetorical question is? It’s a question you ask without really expecting an answer. Public speakers ask them to try to get people thinking about the implied answer. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul has two rhetorical questions as the conclusion to…
19Apr
A Curse for Us
Sermon on Galatians 3:10-13 for Good Friday, April 19, 2019 I’m afraid the word “curse” is a foreign word to us. Yes, we know what people say when they accidentally hit their thumb with a hammer or shut their fingers in a door. That’s cursing. Our Catechism class definition of cursing is “Using God’s name to wish…