Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Have you ever wondered how God reacts to the chaos of this world? Does He retreat when bad things happen? Is He a God who has washed His hands of the world and so we can’t find Him when we need Him? In the midst of this worldwide pandemic where is God? Is He able to help us? These are similar questions facing a man we call Blind Bartimaeus. His story is found in Mark 10:46-52. Bartimaeus’ cry for help above the noise of the crowd gives us some insight on how we as Christians can approach Jesus in this time of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty.

Psalm 22 begins with the words, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It continues with a description of Jesus suffering and death. It ends with a celebration of his VICTORY! The Call to “Take up our Cross” in Mark 8:27-38 only makes sense if we believe that Jesus’ story ends well. The Apostle Paul tells us how to take up our cross in today’s world in Romans 12:1-2.

In the New Testament it seems like “some people” are always trying to take “someone” to Jesus. Why did they do that? Have you ever felt compelled to bring someone who was lost, hurting, broken, hopeless, to Jesus for forgiveness and healing? Have you ever needed “someone” to take you to Jesus? I invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to open your hearts and come with me to our story where Mark tells us that one day “some people” brought a deaf-mute to Jesus. After they brought the man to Jesus they begged Him to lay hands on the man so he could be healed. (Mark 7:32)

These people worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. What is it about our hearts that is so important to God? We will take a look at God's heart and see what God's heart and our hearts have in common. After looking at God's heart it will help us understand why God wants our hearts. Then we will look at what happens to us and the world around us when God has our hearts.

How has Jesus been inviting you to grow in your relationship with Him lately? Has Jesus deepened your faith by sending you out to profess Him to this world that doesn’t know Him? Has it been to ask you to provide service to someone who is hungry and in need of the touch of the Master’s healing hand? Has Jesus “made” you get into a boat to go ahead of Him on a journey while He intercedes for you while you wrestle with a storm in your life? These are just a few of the ways Jesus invited His disciples to grow in their faith in the story found in Mark 6:45-56. If you are searching for answers about what faith in Christ means for your life then we invite you to join us as we explore ways Jesus has proved Himself worthy by turning impossible situations into divine victories.

This sermon explores why we worship and what happens when we worship. We will specifically be looking at Psalm 9, Acts 16, and Mark 5.

Please listen as our Youth Minister talks about Mark 4:1-20, the Parable of the Sower as he discusses it and how it applies to our missions.

When Jesus heals the man with the withered hand he is answering His own question. Is it better, on the Sabbath, to do good or evil, to save life or to kill? His response to the question is to say, "Stretch Out Your Hand." Let's look at what it means to stretch out your hand on a basic level, a Biblical level, and in as an application of the love we can show to God who first loved us.

What was it like the first time you encountered Jesus? Do you remember the first time the words, “Your sins are forgiven” were spoken over you? What about the first time you realized those words spoken every Sunday were specifically for you? If you have questions about Jesus’ authority, ability, willingness and desire to forgive you and heal you then this story about a man who was paralyzed physically and spiritually is for you.

When we say Epiphany we mean that Jesus Christ is the light that came into the world that no darkness can overcome. He is our light. His presence in our lives does for us what light does for the world. We will look at God's wisdom in how Jesus is the light of our lives and how as we get closer to Him we can be light for others.

Christmas is about one thing. Actually, it is about one person. It is about Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. This sermon's focus is on the heavenly proclamation about Jesus and what He brings from Heaven to Earth.

Humans brought this world into catastrophe, and many people in our world are tormented and they long for peace in its thinnest sense as the absence of conflict. As our Prince of Peace, Jesus want us to have the fullness of life God planned for us in "shalom." When Jesus brings his peace, the world will be made new!

God's love is a gift. Like all gifts it must be received. What keeps us from experiencing God's love and how can we receive it?

This time of year we hear people telling us we should be joyful, but what is joy and why should we be joyful at Christmas? How can we be expected to be joyful when the world seems to be falling apart? What is the difference between God’s joy and the world’s joy? How can I find joy at Christmas? If you have asked these or other pressing questions about joy then please join us as we explore the Joy of Christmas the angels proclaimed would be great news for the world.

Since 2015, some psychologists and sociologists have been studying what they call an “Epidemic of Hopelessness.” Jeremiah prophesied that God will “make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land” (Jeremiah 33:14-18). This prophecy is given while Israel was in exile. We can have hope in the midst of gnarly trials and grievous depression because God is faithful to his Covenant and because we have a faithful high priest who understands our humanity.

God is a renewing God. He is the God of clean slates and second chances. In this sermon we will look at God's renewing love and our response to it.

What is one thing in this life that you can count on with absolute certainty? Is it the love of a child or spouse? What about death and taxes? Can you trust that the one thing in this life we can count on with absolute certainty is God’s unfailing love? Has that been your experience in life? If you have questions about God’s unfailing love and how you can count on it when everything else in life is uncertain then we invite you to join us this week as we explore God’s unfailing love.

Many people get the wrong idea about God as they read the Old Testament stories of judgment in response to Israel's disobedience. Hosea 11:1-11 help us understand what God wants. He is full of compassion for us, and want to bless us as a father blesses his little children.

God is good and God is powerful. This bothers us. We have a problem with it. But in this sermon we will explore why it scares us and why it is awesome for us and the world that God is powerful.

Have you ever wondered what it means when we say that God is “Just”? Is God’s justice different than our understanding of justice? Does God have a set of rules or standards He uses to carry out His justice? What happens when we decide to turn our hearts away from God’s heart and follow the gods of this world instead? Lastly, what does it mean to be a “Keeper of God’s story?” This week we will look at these and other pressing questions about our Just God as we examine the story of King Solomon’s son Rehoboam who inherited the throne of God’s kingdom after King Solomon died. Please follow link for Luther video starting at 1:49:55 and ends 1:52:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rJwCqhTyY8