ST. STEPHEN’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
Striving to speak God’s saving truth in love. Ephesians 4:15
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12Apr
Easter Makes Us Bold
Easter morning feels different from every other morning. Children wake up, perhaps earlier than normal, ready to find Easter baskets filled with all kinds of candy and other goodies. The smell of ham fills the house causing mouths to water until dinner is served. Although this Easter is different from all others, much remains the…
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10Apr
Good Friday Meditation
A Devotion for Good Friday based on Isaiah 52:13-15. From rags to riches provides a wonderful backdrop to stories. Many fairy tales use this concept in their plot line. A character dreams of a better life for themselves and their family. They catch a break and suddenly everything changes. Despite a few hiccups along the…
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29Mar
We Confess Our Faith in Christ
A sermon on John 11:17-27, 38-45 for the 5th Sunday in Lent, March 29, 2020. Each week after the sermon we confess our faith with either the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed. This confession gives a brief overview of our Christian faith. We confess our faith in the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We…
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23Mar
Jesus Is the Lord of Light
Sermon on John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39 for Lent 4, March 22, 2020 After all matter was created, darkness still covered all. God said, “Let there be light.” It was the first step of bringing order out of disorder and making that creation “very good.”Genesis chapter one is one of the few places we read about physical light—the light…
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18Mar
The Son of God Goes Forth to War: The Hidden Warrior
A Sermon based on John 11:33-37 for Midweek Lent Worship, March 18, 2020. It started out as a normal day at the high end car dealership. People wandered in dressed in designer suits looking at all the vehicles. The sales people took care of those customers hoping to hit it big on the commission. All…
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08Mar
We Load Up on God’s Promises
A sermon based on Genesis 12:1-8 for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, March 8, 2020. I can remember when my kids were younger packing up for trips. We lived down in Texas with two kids and then another came as well. My family was in Oshkosh and Andrea’s family lived outside of Lansing, MI. When…
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01Mar
How Do I Recognize Temptation?
https://youtu.be/fApRVGtGMb8 Sermon on Genesis 3:1-15 and Matthew 4:1-11 for Lent 1,A, March 1, 2020 Temptation is something that is both complex and simple. It is complex because the devil keeps working at us, slithering his way in. He gets us to distrust someone around us. Distrust turns into suspicion. Suspicion turns into assumptions about evil…
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16Feb
Jesus Speaks to Our Heart
A sermon on Matthew 5:21-37 for the 6th Sunday after Epiphany, February 13/16, 2020. We need to have a heart to heart talk. Immediately, warning alarms ring in our mind. What did I do? Did I offend them in some way? Is some terrible news coming, which I need to brace myself for? A heart…
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09Feb
God’s Law Still Stands
https://youtu.be/e7LfK4uZTeI?t=1773 Sermon on Matthew 5:13-20 for Epiphany 5, A, February 6 & 9, 2020 I know Pastor Heyer has mentioned this in sermons… that phrase that was popular in the 1990s, “What would Jesus do?” It’s not a bad question. Jesus certainly is the best example to follow. But he is more than an example to…
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27Jan
The Lord is Our Light, Salvation and Stronghold
Sermon on Psalm 27 for Epiphany 3, A, January 26, 2020 We remember King David as a person who had many ups and downs—I would say extreme ups and downs compared with our lives. He was a shepherd boy, out in the field, tending his flock. Then he killed the giant Goliath, and everyone shouted…
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19Jan
We Will Not Fall!
A sermon based on Colossians 2:6-15, for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 16/19, 2020. Signs all around the perimeter give warnings. Everyone knows the inherent danger that exists from doing this activity. The intermittent whistle sounds causing all to look at the one who broke the rules. Every now and then we see…
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05Jan
Our Hearts Leap for Joy
A sermon on Isaiah 60:1-6 for Epiphany Sunday, January 2/5, 2020. In June 2018, there was a highly publicized rescue effort of a youth soccer team, who were trapped in a cave in Northern Thailand. One day after practice twelve players and one assistant coach explored this cave. While they were in the cave, floodwaters…
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31Dec
We Worship the God Who Does Not Change
A sermon on Luke 2:21 for New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2019. Eight days. A lot can change in eight days. Eight days from now we will be a week into the new year, a new decade even. Life will have gotten back to normal after the hectic holiday schedule. Christmas, even though it was…
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28Dec
The Dark Side of Christmas
Sermon on Matthew 2:13-23 for Christmas 1 (A), December 29, 2019 Christmas has a dark side. It is a part of the popular Christmas culture. Back in the 1840s Charles Dickens gave us Ebenezer Scrooge. While everyone around him was singing “God rest ye merry, gentlemen,” he was anything but merry or gentle. He was…
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24Dec
The Baby Wants to Hold You!
Sermon on Luke 2:1-20 for the Nativity of Our Lord—Christmas Eve, December 24, 2019 It seems that every time I visit a new mother in the hospital, after greetings and some small-talk, the mother often asks me, “Would you like to hold the baby?” Now, I have three children of my own, two grandchildren, so…