Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Have you ever faced events in your life that brought you great fear? Did you face these trials with paralyzing fear or with supernatural courage? The women who were with Jesus' mother when Christ died on the cross faced just such a situation in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday when they went to the tomb. Their experience teaches us that courage isn't the absence of fear, rather encountering the risen Christ brings a "resurrection courage" in the midst of our fears.

Jesus used a small child to humble his disciples when they argued about "who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." We need to become like little children to even enter the kingdom of heaven. All who receive a child in Jesus' name welcome Jesus as well.

Whether we admit it or not, everyone has been trapped in a darkness from which we can see no way out. This is where we find Mary Magdalene and the other Mary on the first Easter morning, hopelessly walking to the tomb expecting to tend to a corpse and grieve. Jesus ends the darkness delusion and sets them free for new life in Him.

How many years have you attended a Palm Sunday service? Have you ever wondered why we come to worship every year on Palm Sunday when most of us know the familiar story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the donkey? What could we possibly learn new about this event in Jesus’ life that we don’t already know?

One can hear the parable of the last judgment and think it is about getting saved by our works. Nothing could be more wrong! Those who are saved don't know why--they were just doing what felt right to them. As disciples, they saw God's goodness even in the poor and ministered to them. Those who are condemned would have acted differently if they knew their king was served as they served the poor. But they didn't see the image of God in the poor and so they ignored them. Jesus is still inviting the Jewish leaders to repent!

Jesus promises that He is coming again and He tells us to be prepared. The parable of the ten virgins is all about how we are to wait for Jesus to come again. How can we show the groom that everyone who represents the bride is glad for Him to receive us?

The Parable of the Wedding Feast is both comforting and puzzling to many hearers. We are glad to be invited, glad to attend, and scared by the sudden expulsion of the man in the last several verses. What can it all mean?

This sermon shows how the plan of Jesus and His life, death, and resurrection sets us free from sin and death, for new life in Him. We will look at Galatians 5:1, and Joel 2 to see how the God's plan for Christ and the cross that we wear on Ash Wednesday should inspire us to live in freedom and walk in the Spirit.

Today we look at why forgiveness is of utmost importance to Jesus, the life of the church, and the hope for this world. In Matthew 18:15-35 Jesus teaches us what God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit think about forgiveness, ways we can achieve it gently and carefully, and how we can forgive when it is too much for us.

Matthew 16:24-17:8 pose three powerful questions for us: Do we understand who Jesus is? Do we understand what he has done for us? How do we find courage to obey our king?

We'll be looking at the connection between trust in Jesus and the Kingdom life. We will see that the Kingdom life is the present and future that Christ intends for us. We will see what happens when we put Jesus to the test. And we will see that Jesus Christ is not only loving and compassionate, but that He is almighty God.

We are called to trust God in the midst of His Story. How does God deal with evil? Our Lord Jesus Christ—God’s anointed King—came as our savior from evil (selves, sin, death, and devil). In this time of Community, there are Weeds among the Wheat. We must repent of our own evil. We need to be willing to pay the price for evil in our society and act redemptively.

Today’s No-Brainer: The stories we tell say something about us. When we trust in our Abba God and our Lord Jesus Christ, we are not the heroes. God is always the hero who works through people. When we tell God's Story with our six Cee words, we are lifting God up as our hero!

As we concluded our month of sermon on giving with an emphasis on missions, we had the privilege of having Jeff and Mim Nellermoe with China Service Ventures with us for our Missions Fair and they brought us the message. Listen here for the entire sermon from Good Shepherd.

This month we have been focusing on how Jesus has used our stewardship gifts to spread the goodness and kindness of God in the world. This week we will be gathering to seek the answers to the following questions: 1) Why do we give our money, time, talents, and creative energies to God? 2) What is God calling you to do in 2019? 3) What excites you the most about the future of Good Shepherd? 4) What is the dream Jesus has placed in your heart for His church here at Good Shepherd? And 5) What are you willing to contribute to see these dreams become a reality?

In 2 Corinthians 9 Paul talks about giving in three ways. We will look at each and see why God loves a cheerful giver, what love has to do with it, and how we can do it.

God is celebrated throughout the Bible for his goodness and generosity. We are created in the image of God, and so we are meant to show his goodness and generosity to this world. We can do this when we give ourselves first to God, and then to the world.

Hidden in the story of Christmas are the 6 C's - Creation, Catastrophe, Covenant, Christ, Community, and Consummation.

Sermon from Good Shepherd on Sunday, December 23, 2018 by Pastor Susan Westland

Would you believe that Christmas is a day of judgment? Judgment is an absolute decision that God makes about us. Fortunately, God is love and God is good. His judgment means something great for us because of Jesus.