Never the Same
6 Weeks
When we meet Jesus face to face, life is never the same. This is the consistent message story after story of individuals who were forever changed because of meeting Jesus. Drawing from Dr. Tim Keller’s book, Encounters with Jesus, during this Easter season we will explore some of these individual’s stories and see how their encounters with Jesus were uniquely different-- but that they all held one thing in common: they were Never the Same.
Lent Series: Modern Day Idols
5 Weeks
Idols are more than wooden or stone objects placed on an altar to worship. They are usually much more subtle than that. They often begin as good things in our lives that over time, become an obsession or a distraction or a fixation that replaces God as our ultimate desire.
Epiphany Series: Abraham: The Man, The Myth, The Mistakes
7 Weeks
There are 2.6 billion Christians throughout the world, 1.5 billion Muslims and 16 million Jews. That is over half the population of the entire world. And while these three major religions have fought many times, what they all hold in common is a man named Abraham. Who is he, what did he do and how did he live? That is our focus as we welcome in 2025 – Abraham: The Man, The Myth and The Mistakes.
Advent Series: God With Us
7 Weeks
The overarching story throughout the Bible is that this God has come to dwell with us. Instead of living on a remote mountain that we must climb, instead of hiding in an abyss that we must descend, our God is one that seeks to know us intimately, to walk with us daily and to be with us.
Jonah: The Prickly Prophet
5 Weeks
Willing. Obedient. Prickly? That’s not normally a word we use to describe a prophet. Jonah is one of the most unusual prophets. Instead of willing, he is reluctant. Instead of obedient, he is rebellious. Instead of gracious, he is unsympathetic. Still, God carries out his divine deliverance for a wayward people and meanwhile teaches Jonah hard lessons about the expansiveness of his grace.
That’s None of Your Business: And Other Words of Grace
6 Weeks
That’s none of your business! Harsh words. Demeaning words. Dismissive words. And yet, in the context of the Gospel, these are words of hope and grace. This sermon series explores how the Gospel takes trite phrases of ours, turns them upside down, and reveals God’s abundant love and grace. Of course it is none of your business! Grace is all about the business of God.
Be the One
6 Weeks
We were never meant to go through life alone. From the beginning, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” God has designed us to be in community. In fact, over 100 times in the Bible we read, “one another.” Love one another. Forgive one another. Bear the burden with one another. Serve one another. And when we do life together with one another, we become the hands and feet and voice of Jesus for that one in need. How can you Be The One?
Praying in the Spirit
6 Weeks
With the resurrection of Jesus, we talk about everything changing. The new life that is ours, the forgiveness that we experience, the victory over death and the entrance into the Kingdom of God. Alleluia! He is Risen, Indeed. But how does that impact my day-to-day life? How can I experience that Easter Living today? The answer is to pray with the power of the Holy Spirit. Of all the miracles and teaching that Jesus ever did, the only one that His disciples asked Him to teach them was how to pray. From that time on, the Lord’s Prayer has become not only a prayer to recite but the form that our individual prayers should emulate. Luther’s Small Catechism gives us guidance on why this prayer is important and what it means. But more than reciting a prayer by heart, the power of prayer comes from the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit, perhaps the most neglected member of the Trinity. During this Resurrection Season, we will explore how prayer and the Holy Spirit come together to give us the power for Easter Living.
Lenten Series: Villians, Heroes & Nobodies
5 Weeks
God uses all kinds of people to reach His ends. God calls on those who are able and willing to build His kingdom. We may judge those people and regard them as Villains, Heroes or Nobodies, but we would do better to see them for who they are: His hands and feet in the world.
Fearless: Lessons from David
5 Weeks
There might be more written about David in the Bible than any other person outside of Jesus. We follow him from being anointed as a young shepherd boy, to being on the lam as a fugitive, to ruling as a beloved king all the way to his death. If there were a single word to describe his life, it might just be FEARLESS.
Made in My Image
4 Weeks
We are made in the image of God. With this likeness comes the freedom and temptation to assume the role of creator ourselves. Instead of looking for definition from God, we project our own image upon Him. We may think to ourselves, “If I were God…” As enticing as this may be, it leads to a limited view of who and how God really is. This sermon series will look at four different views humankind has imposed upon our understanding of God to discover that God cannot be put in a box.
Triggers
4 Weeks
Triggers. We all have them. Those triggers that set us off and illicit a response in us that is almost visceral. Could be that employee at work who is always late. Could be the socks that never make it to the hamper. Could be all those pop-up ads on my feeds. What are your triggers? In the church, there are triggers for people that are often unfounded, a misreading of the biblical texts. Let’s reduce the triggers!
Gratitude: The Heart of Giving
2 Weeks
Generosity is less about the amount and more about the heart. And we know that God is all about the heart. For two weeks, we are going to combine our stewardship with the songs of Tasha Layton. Tasha is a contemporary Christian artist who appeared on American Idol and has won several awards. She will perform a concert at Christ Lutheran on October 27th. Her words of gratitude for all God has done fit nicely into our theme of a generous heart.
Elijah: Highway to Heaven
5 Weeks
The heroes of the faith seem larger than life, so far removed from our ordinary lives that we might wonder if we share any similarities with them at all. But in studying this prophet from the Old Testament, we gain a deeper understanding of how God calls, empowers, encourages, and uses each one of us to do amazing things for the Kingdom.
Jesus Never Said That
8 Weeks
All that glitters isn’t "gold" is as true for jewelry and bobbles as it is for words of wisdom. We have heard many sayings, that seem full of wisdom, attributed to the Bible or Jesus. Regularly these sayings aren’t found in the Bible, and sometimes, they are contradictory to the teachings of Jesus. In this sermon series called Jesus Never Said That, we explore some popular sayings and find what Jesus would have really said.
Who Am I?
3 Weeks
When you are asked who you are, how do you respond? Do you respond with a job? “I’m a doctor or a banker or a salesman.” Perhaps your identity is found in a relationship. “I’m a parent or a spouse or a grandparent.” Or maybe you identify with a group with whom you belong. “I’m a Tar Heel or a Minnesotan or a gamer.” Who are you? It can be a complex answer when the world asks that question. What about when God asks you that question, “Who are you?”
Meeting Jesus Again
6 Weeks
As we live out our lives of faith, we meet Jesus along the way. Sometimes this is a strong sense of His presence, while other times we are left unsure. During this post-Easter sermon series, we will hear stories of faith where people meet Jesus in ways that challenge their faith, redirect their paths and surprise their hearts. Jesus does the same for you in the most unlikely ways; living in the season of Easter, let’s Meet Jesus Again.
Answering the Call
6 Weeks
Throughout Epiphany we dove into the ways we step up and respond to God’s call as disciples of Christ saying “Hineni! Here I am.” As we look toward the cross in the season of Lent, we will explore the many ways God calls us and what that means for our journey of faith. Each of us has a calling; big and small. God is calling us in many different ways and all throughout our lives. God calls us to things, away from situations, as we are in the moment, in miraculous and mysterious ways, and in ways that are not always easy. This Lent explore how God is calling you and how we are called together to respond faithfully, resting in the promises of eternal life with Christ.
Hineni: Here I Am!
7 Weeks
Hineni. It is a Hebrew word often spoken by prophets and leaders of God’s people of old in response to God’s call. Literally, it means, “Here I am.” Symbolically, it means, “I am ready to step up, fill the gap and raise the bar of what it means to be a believer.” As we look at this new year, with Covid behind us, we are no longer satisfied with excuses and lackluster performances. As believers, it is time for us to say to this God who has made us, claimed us, forgiven us and called us, “Hineni. Here I am.”
What Difference Does Christmas Make?
4 Weeks
With the hectic pace of Christmas, we can often overlook what difference Christmas makes other than jamming up our calendars, overspending on gifts and wondering what it is all about. This Advent, as we prepare once again for Christmas, we will explore the very practical impact Christmas has on our relationships, in our world and deep within our hearts.
What is Heaven Like?
3 Weeks
When you get beyond the flowery, metaphorical language of streets paved with gold, harp music and a buffet with no calories, what is heaven really like? While no one has made that journey and returned to describe it, we can point to passages in scripture where the metaphors and images point to a reality that we as believers call our sure and certain hope.
In God We Trust
4 Weeks
Stagflation. That made up word was first used in 1965 in the British Parliament to talk about the double whammy of rising inflation costs coupled with stagnant wages. As many today use that same term to describe the conundrum we experience in our own economy, as Christians, we put our trust not on economic forecasts or change in the GDP, but rather in that simple phrase that can be found on all of our currency, “In God We Trust.”
The Rest of the Story
4 Weeks
Sunday School taught us the Bible stories we all grew up with, but not always the whole story. In this sermon series, we’ll reexamine familiar stories from the Bible; those Bible stories that you know so well. Or do you?
Turtles, Fenceposts & Community
4 Weeks
Alex Haley, author of Roots, once said, “If you ever see a turtle on a fence post, you know it had some help along the way.” The same is true about us. None of us are what we are today by going it alone. Family, friends, teachers, coaches, pastors, neighbors, coworkers have all accompanied us along this journey called life. The Christian faith was never meant to be something that we go it alone. That’s not a rule, that’s the gift of our God giving us one another to do life together.
Pastor I Have a Question
4 Weeks
We asked people to submit questions they had regarding faith or the Bible or theology that they’ve struggled with or about which they have wrestled. The pastors then sifted through these questions to put together a four-part sermon series - and were astounded with the depth of questions! Some will be turned into complete sermon series: “Who is the Holy Spirit?” Some were more political and more appropriately tackled at an adult forum: “Because of our division, will God punish the USA like he did ancient Israel?” And some, quite frankly, stumped the pastors: “Where does our soul go immediately after we die?” (I have no idea!) But of the remaining questions, we lumped them into four categories, each one aptly suited for a sermon. Below is that list of questions you have for your pastors.
Our Father
3 Weeks
Our God is unimaginable. At the same time both other-worldly and completely familiar. He knows us intimately and regards us a nothing more than passing wildflower, here today gone tomorrow. The paradox that is our Father in Heaven is not that He is unknowable but that there is always more to understand.
James: Pulling no punches
5 Weeks
One cannot read the book of James without walking away with a couple of bruises. He cuts through the flowery words, skips past the niceties, omits the pleasantries, and hits us between the eyes. “Faith without works is dead.” “Tame that tongue of yours.” “Don’t just be hearers of the word, but doers.” Speaking to Easter People who have heard the Gospel, James comes not with a warm embrace but packing a punch.
Lenten Study: Subversive Hope
6 Weeks
Taken from Tim Keller’s book, Hope in Times of Fear, our Sundays throughout Lent will show the upside-down nature of the Gospel, in which God uses the foolish things to shame the wise, the weak things to shame the strong, the lowly things to shame the proud. And in doing so, ushers into the world through our believing hearts a hope that cannot fail.
Hebrews: Don't Give Up
7 Weeks
The series is about God entering into our lives and being present in the difficult times. We, as Christians, aren't called away from the difficult times in the world; but rather, Christ/God/His Church is present with us.