Pastor: Pastor Mike

Sermon Date: October 25, 2026
Reformation Sunday

Romans 5:1-9

“¹ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: ² by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: Knowing that tribulation worketh patience; ⁴ and patience, experience; and experience, hope: ⁵ And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

⁶ For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. ⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

John 8:31-36

“³¹ Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; ³² and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ³³ They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? ³⁴ Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. ³⁵ And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. ³⁶ If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Sermon Date: October 18, 2026

Isaiah 45:2-7

“² ‘I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. ³ I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. ⁴ For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. ⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, ⁶ That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; ⁷ I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’”

Psalm 81:8-13

“⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! ⁹ There shall be no foreign god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god. ¹⁰ I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

“¹¹ But My people would not heed My voice, And Israel would have none of Me. ¹² So I gave them over to [a]their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels.”

“¹³ Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!”

Sermon Date: October 11, 2026

Matthew 22:1-14, Parable of the Wedding Feast

“¹ As was his custom, Jesus continued to teach the people by using allegories. ² He illustrated the reality of heaven’s kingdom realm by saying, “There once was a king who arranged an extravagant wedding feast for his son. ³ On the day the festivities were set to begin, he sent his servants to summon all the invited guests, but they chose not to come. ⁴ So the king sent even more servants to inform the invited guests, saying, ‘Come, for the sumptuous feast is now ready! The oxen and fattened cattle have been killed and everything is prepared, so come! Come to the wedding feast for my son and his bride!’”

“⁵ But the invited guests were not impressed. One was preoccupied with his business; another went off to his farming enterprise. ⁶ And the rest seized the king’s messengers and shamefully mistreated them, and even killed them. ⁷ This infuriated the king! So he sent his soldiers to execute those murderers and had their city burned to the ground. ⁸ “Then the king said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, yet those who had been invited to attend didn’t deserve the honor. ⁹ Now I want you to go into the streets and alleyways and invite anyone and everyone you find to come and enjoy the wedding feast in honor of my son.’”

“¹⁰ So the servants went out into the city streets and invited everyone to come to the wedding feast, good and bad alike, until the banquet hall was crammed with people! ¹¹ Now, when the king entered the banquet hall, he looked with glee over all his guests. But then he noticed a guest who was not wearing the wedding robe provided for him. ¹² So he said, ‘My friend, how is it that you’re here and you’re not wearing your wedding garment?’ But the man was speechless.”

“¹³ Then the king turned to his servants and said, ‘Tie him up and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be great sorrow, with weeping and grinding of teeth.’ ¹⁴ For everyone is invited to enter in, but few respond in excellence.”

Sermon Date: October 4, 2026
Lutheran Women in Mission Sunday

Matthew 21:33-43, (New Century Version)

“³³ Listen to this story: There was a man who owned a vineyard. He put a wall around it and dug a hole for a winepress and built a tower. Then he leased the land to some farmers and left for a trip. ³⁴ When it was time for the grapes to be picked, he sent his servants to the farmers to get his share of the grapes. ³⁵ But the farmers grabbed the servants, beat one, killed another, and then killed a third servant with stones. ³⁶ So the man sent some other servants to the farmers, even more than he sent the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to the servants that they had done before. ³⁷ So the man decided to send his son to the farmers. He said, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This son will inherit the vineyard. If we kill him, it will be ours!’ ³⁹ Then the farmers grabbed the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ So what will the owner of the vineyard do to these farmers when he comes?” ⁴¹ The priests and leaders said, “He will surely kill those evil men. Then he will lease the vineyard to some other farmers who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Surely you have read this in the Scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone.
The Lord did this, and it is wonderful to us.’ (Psalm 118:22–23)

⁴³ So I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who do the things God wants in his kingdom.”

Sermon Date: September 27, 2026

Ephesians 5:19-20

“¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Colossians 3:12-17

“¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Zephaniah 3:14-17

“¹⁴ Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! ¹⁵ The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. ¹⁶ On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. ¹⁷ The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

1 Peter 2:1-10

“¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. ⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him — ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” ⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” ⁸ and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message — which is also what they were destined for. ⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Revelation 5:9-10

“⁹ And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. ¹⁰ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Sermon Date: September 20, 2026

Matthew 20:1-16 (Message)

“^1-2 God’s kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work.”

“^3-5 Later, about nine o’clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around the town square unemployed. He told them to go to work in his vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. They went.”

“^5-6 He did the same thing at noon, and again at three o’clock. At five o’clock he went back and found still others standing around. He said, ‘Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?’”

“⁷ They said, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He told them to go to work in his vineyard.”

“⁸ When the day’s work was over, the owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, ‘Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.’”

“^9-12 Those hired at five o’clock came up and were each given a dollar. When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, ‘These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.’”

“^13-15 He replied to the one speaking for the rest, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?’”

“¹⁶ Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”

Sermon Date: September 13, 2026

Ecclesiastes 4:1, 9-12

“¹ Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed — and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors — and they have no comforter.”

“⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: ¹⁰ If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. ¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? ¹² Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Matthew 18:20

“²⁰ For where two or three gather in My name, there am I with them.”

Jesus is and remains the “I AM” for us too.

The primary Greek word for comfort that carries a deep sense of strength and encouragement is παράκλησις (paraklesis), derived from the verb παρακαλέω (parakaleo), meaning to come alongside to help, strengthen, and console.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

“³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”

Sermon Date: September 6, 2026

Ezekiel 22:26-31, (The Message)

“^26-29 ‘Your priests violated my law and desecrated my holy things. They can’t tell the difference between sacred and secular. They tell people there’s no difference between right and wrong. They’re contemptuous of my holy Sabbaths, profaning me by trying to pull me down to their level. Your politicians are like wolves prowling and killing and rapaciously taking whatever they want. Your preachers cover up for the politicians by pretending to have received visions and special revelations. They say, “This is what God, the Master, says …” when God hasn’t said so much as one word. Extortion is rife, robbery is epidemic, the poor and needy are abused, outsiders are kicked around at will, with no access to justice.'”

“^30-31 I looked for someone to stand up for me against all this, to repair the defenses of the city, to take a stand for me and stand in the gap to protect this land so I wouldn’t have to destroy it. I couldn’t find anyone. Not one. So I’ll empty out my wrath on them, burn them to a crisp with my hot anger, serve them with the consequences of all they’ve done. Decree of God, the Master.”

Ezekiel 33:7-9, (The Message)

“^7-9 You, son of man, are the watchman. I’ve made you a watchman for Israel. The minute you hear a message from me, warn them. If I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked man, wicked woman, you’re on the fast track to death!’ and you don’t speak up and warn the wicked to change their ways, the wicked will die unwarned in their sins and I’ll hold you responsible for their bloodshed. But if you warn the wicked to change their ways and they don’t do it, they’ll die in their sins well-warned and at least you will have saved your own life.”

Sermon Date: August 30, 2026

Genesis 3; Psalm 34:8; Jeremiah 15:16; Matthew 5:3-15; Acts 2:42, 4:13; 1 Corinthians 1:18-28