In response to our current situation, our midweek services have been moved online. This video was our first attempt at this new way of bringing God's Word to you so if there are some hard to hear spots, or mistakes here and there, we apologize and hope to improve our delivery method over time! With that being said, the Word we are able to share this way remains unchanged as does the providence and love of our Almighty God. Let us rely on him throughout this situation and trust that He remains the only one who we can rely on... for only our Savior Jesus has the words of eternal life.
Are You Blind? - Isaiah 42:14-20
Lent 3 - March 15, 2020.
The light of the world brings sight to the blind and judgment to the blinded. Faith means seeing Jesus as Savior: like the bronze serpent, we look on him and live (Verse of the Day). We were born in the blindness of sin, and without the light of Christ we could not find a way to safety. Christ comes to shine his light into our darkened eyes that we might see him and live. Yet for those who refuse to see their Savior in Christ, the blindness of unbelief remains.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War: The Promised Warrior - Isaiah 42:13
The Son of God Goes Forth to War: The Promise Warrior
Pastor Phil Geiger, St. Paul, Zachow, WI
The Lord will march out like a champion, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.
Children of Abraham - Romans 4:1-5,13-17
Lent 2 - March 8, 2020.
The gift of God comes by faith to all nations. Not a holy life, not acts of obedience, but simple trust in the promise of God brings the gift of living water for thirsty souls. Abraham believed God's promise and so became not only the father of a nation, but the forefather of the Promised Seed who would bless all peoples. He had faith in God who justifies the wicked, and so God credited it to him as righteousness. By this same faith, Christ gives righteousness to all who believe and enfolds sinful Samaritans and modern Gentiles like us into the family of God.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War - Reconnaissance Report: Know Your Enemy - Ephesians 6:12
Midweek Lenten Service: Pastor Virgil Hanson
But for Us Fights the Valiant One - Matthew 4:1-11
Lent 1 - March 1, 2020.
The Son of God goes forth to war and defeats the evil for us. The ancient foe warred on mankind in the garden, but God promised to send a champion to battle on our behalf. the Second Adam came to do what the first could not, and in the desert the battle was joined But for us fights the valiant one whom God himself elected. . .he holds the field forever.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War: Hidden Warrior - John 11:33-37
Midweek Lenten Sermon - February 26, 2020.
Return to the Lord, for he is gracious. Let us admit our sin, turn to the Lord, and there see our Savior. Let us begin our journey to the cross again this year with our eyes always on Jesus, the author of our faith and the source of its power to renew and refresh us again as baptized children of God.
God-Mode - Matthew 17:1-9
Jesus appears in glory as the Son of God. the Epiphany season is bookended by the voice of God the Father proclaiming Jesus his Son. Before he suffered as man's substitute, Jesus gave his Church a glimpse of the glory that he set aside to be our Savior. see how much he loves us! The God of Mt. Sinai, the Majestic Glory, became a man to suffer and die for us, just as Moses and the Prophets had foretold. It's good that we are here.
Delivered on Transfiguration Sunday, February 23, 2020.
There IS Something You Can Do - 2 Kings 20:1-7
Guest Pastor: Rev. Tom Mielke
Delivered February 9, 2020.
A Righteous Heart Is Worry-Free - Matthew 6:24-34
Your heavenly father's steadfast love is constant, and he wants to give you peace based not on an abundance of possessions but on he contentment that comes from living out of his hand. The Church prays for God's peace that teaches Christians that we don't need to worry about anything, but can learn to trust and be content with our Father's care.
Delivered on February 16, 2020.
A Righteous Heart Is Perfect - Matthew 5:21-37
Jesus came to free us from sin. He did not come to free us to sin. The commands in the lessons today remind us just how holy our God is, and their dire warnings remind us just how holy he wants us to be. After examining our lives, we must despair, but the Verse of the Day reminds us to flee to Christ who has the words of life. Then the Prayer of the Day asks that we might be given the grace to both know and do what pleases him.
Delivered on February 2, 2020.
A Righteous Heart Cannot Be Contained - Matthew 5:13-20
Jesus tells us: You are…so be. You are the light of the world, so be light for the earth. You are the salt of the earth, so be salt for it. Our calling as sons of God means our lives will reflect our new status, and the world around us will be blessed by us. The Church prays that God would help us believe and then do the things that are pleasing in his sight (Prayer of the Day). A righteous heart cannot be contained.
Matthew 5 A Righteous Heart Beats Forever
The Beatitudes are hard for us to swallow. Jesus seems to be espousing a Christianity imbued with fatalism at best or defeatism at worst. Look closer, however, and see what he says. The weaker you are, the stronger God is in your life. The weaker you are now, the more ready you are to trust in a future reward. Look at the past acts of God’s grace and you will find many reasons to trust his strength in the face of adversity, persecution or sorrow. Jesus’ point: A righteous heart can trust that God is good even when life hurts.
January 19, 2020 -- Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Pastor Titus Buelow
Matthew 5:1-12
Acts 10 Beginning to Understand
Jesus appears as the Christ, the Anointed One. The titles “Christ” and “Messiah” both mean “The Anointed One,” and they describe how God prepared Jesus for his mission. Since the days of Othniel (Judges 3:10), the Spirit of the Lord empowered God’s heroes to do his saving work. At his baptism, God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power and declared this son of Mary to be the Son of God—the one anointed to be the Savior of all mankind.
January 12, 2020 -- First Sunday after the Epiphany
Pastor Titus Buelow
Acts 10:34-38
Matthew 2 Which King Do You Serve
Jesus appears as Savior of the Nations. The Church remembers January 6th as the Twelfth Day which closes the Christmas season. The Festival of the Epiphany of our Lord is the second oldest festival celebrated by the Church, dating to the second century. The Eastern Church commemorates the birth of Christ on this day, but the Western Church remembers it as the “Gentile Christmas” and celebrates Jesus who appeared (ἐπεφάνη) as the Word for the world.
January 5, 2020 -- The Festival of the Epiphany
Pastor Titus Buelow
Matthew 2:1-12
Isaiah 43 “You are not your past, You are the LORD’s”
On this Eve of a New Year we are gathered together to meditate on the goodness of our God during the past year and to pray for his grace for the future. As most years of our lives, this past one has likely been a year of joys and a year of sadness. There have been days when all has worked out well and days when it seems nothing could go right. We have laughed at times, cried at times, contemplated at times, and sometimes just sat back in wonder at life. Such is life in this imperfect world. Yet in the midst of uncertainty we have turned again and again to the Lord our God who does not change. His Word has been our fortress and our Rock of refuge in all times. So as we approach the New Year tonight we turn again to that Word – to its revelation and its promises. It helps us to know God better. It will direct our prayers. It will fill us with hope. It will remind us of the forgiveness which we have in Jesus for our failures in the past and it will empower us to live a new life throughout the coming year. May the Lord bless our meditation and grant us a blessed New Year – connected with Jesus Christ, our Savior!
December 31, 2019 -- New Year's Eve
Pastor Titus Buelow
Isaiah 43:16—44:5
Genesis 16 Have I Really Seen Him Who Sees Me
The Incarnation reveals the unseen God to the eyes of the faithful. The light of Christ illuminates hearts and eyes once darkened by sin, and the whole world sees the salvation of our unseen God made visible in our flesh-and-blood Savior.
December 29, 2019 -- The First Sunday after Christmas
Pastor Titus Buelow
Genesis 16:1-16
Isaiah 52 Beautiful News
Our focus is “God so loved the world.” We all desire a Christmas that is full of love. While the ways that we show love to each other, especially in families, are certainly important, God’s love is so much more than a sentimental, warm, or fickle kind of love. That’s why the heart of Christmas is God’s redeeming love—God’s rescue plan for a humanity alienated from him despite all claims of reform, goodness, or morality. The human condition of sin separates us from God, and only his action could have solved that problem. The life, death, and resurrection of his Son has solved the problem. By trusting what Jesus has done for us, heaven awaits us and we live life this side of heaven in loyal thanks for rescue.
December 25, 2019 -- The Festival of the Nativity
Pastor Titus Buelow
Isaiah 52:7-10
Matthew 1 A Welcome Nightmare
God will come to save his people, just as he promised. He saves them through the virgin born Son of David who is also the Son of God, Immanuel. The Church prays for God to come in power to take away the burden of our sins. Since the Garden, there has been only one promised plan to do that: God would take on flesh and blood. Immanuel comes—God in the flesh—exactly as promised to save his people. The use of the Great O Antiphons on this Sunday highlights God’s promises kept by invoking an Old Testament title for Christ and anticipating the promise kept by the Christ-child. December 22, 2019 -- The Fourth Sunday of Advent Pastor Titus Buelow Matthew 1:18-25
Isaiah 6 Who Will Go?
Who will go and tell the world about the Savior who has come and will come again? May we in faith answer, “I will go!” Today we are reminded that the peace of Christmas is a joy that many do not know but desperately need to hear. May we be among those who proclaim HIM whose birth the angels sing!
December 15, 2019 -- The Third Sunday of Advent
Pastor Evan Chartrand
Isaiah 6:1-8