As we start a new year, we start a new worship series, titled The Gospel of Matthew: The One You’ve Been Waiting For . As we begin Matthew’s Gospel, we’ll study a young Jesus’ flight from Bethlehem to Egypt and back to Nazareth. This story tells us something very interesting about the journey not only of Christ, but of our lives. We will face opposition at every stop, and glory will come from unexpected places. Our teaching will be based on Matthew 2:13-23....
Jan 08, 2019•32 min
The end of the year is a nice time not only to remember, but also to let go. The biblical concept of forgiveness is primarily letting go of holding things against others any longer. This doesn’t come naturally. And when it doesn’t come at all, this bitterness turns into what is called WRATH . It’s the same impulse that led to Esau desiring to kill his own brother. We need to learn how to forgive in order to find peace. And this week, we’ll learn how to do that by studying Hebrews 12:12-17....
Dec 30, 2018•30 min
Without question, perhaps especially this time of year, the world struggles with ENVY . And for many of us, it’s not nearly as simple as wanting more material things. Sometimes it’s the charm of a seemingly perfect family. Sometimes it’s the talents of someone who objectively just has more gifts than us. Or sometimes it’s simply the nostalgic longing for “the way things used to be.” But that yearning for MORE easily turns into a despising of what we currently have, and this eats away at our soul...
Dec 23, 2018•32 min
If the world has a definition of “sin” anymore, it’d probably be something like doing bad things . That’s partially true. In Catechism classes, we might call that “Sins of Commission.” But more subtle, and sometimes more offensive, are what we might call “Sins of Omission.” This is not so much doing the wrong thing, but failing to do the right thing. This hurts people just as much. And these are the sins that are the easiest to forget about. We’ll be discussing this concept of the deadly sin of ...
Dec 18, 2018•30 min
The concept of the Seven Deadly Sins is not so much that we love bad things, but that we hyper-love and over desire good things. It’s an excessiveness and misguided prioritization of the heart. The sin of LUST is primarily a sin of craving the excitement and pleasure of human sexuality in a way outside of God’s beautiful design. This week we’ll be looking at a case study on LUST in the story of Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife from Genesis 39:2-21.
Dec 10, 2018•37 min
The concept of the Seven Deadly Sins is not so much that we love bad things, but that we hyper-love and over desire good things. It’s an excessiveness and misguided prioritization of the heart. The sin of GLUTTONY is primarily a sin of the excessive craving of a good thing. This week we’ll be looking at a case study on GLUTTONY in the person of Achan from Joshua 7:19-25
Nov 25, 2018•30 min
Our WLS senior pastoral assistant, Sam Jeske, preaches under the theme “Life In the Face of Death” – the story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus back to life, from John 11:32-45.
Nov 20, 2018•21 min
The concept of the Seven Deadly Sins is not so much that we love bad things, but that we hyper-love and over desire good things. It’s an excessiveness and misguided prioritization of the heart. According to the Bible, the simplest thing to over love in the world is wealth. Why is giving ourselves (and our wealth) away an essential component to a Christian’s life? What does generosity accomplish? For that matter, why is the spread of the gospel an important thing to be generous about? This week w...
Nov 11, 2018•28 min
For the rest of 2018, we’ll be working through a worship series on The Seven Deadly Sins . SUMMARY: My first exposure to the Seven Deadly Sins came in 1996, when I sat mesmerized, watching a film based on the premise, starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. I came to find that even more fascinating than the movie itself was the concept of behavioural vices. Humans have a horrific capacity to excessively pursue their natural passions. We don’t just want what is bad – we hyperlove that which is goo...
Nov 05, 2018•30 min
2 Timothy 3:10-17 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of thingsv happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have ...
Nov 04, 2018•27 min
Psalm 150 1 Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. (NIV)...
Nov 04, 2018•25 min
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but o...
Nov 04, 2018•25 min
This is the final week in our St. Marcus CORE VALUES worship series. We’re looking at our 4th Core Value: Radical Expectations. And this week we’ll be noting how a lack of courage, a lack of expectation, is actually an offense to God as we study Joshua 1:6-11,16.
Oct 28, 2018•31 min
In our St. Marcus CORE VALUES worship series, we’re looking at our 4th Core Value: Radical Expectations. Many hard workers and organizations possess high expectations for themselves, but in what ways should a Christian Church’s expectation for itself differ from worldly expectations. This week we’ll take a look at Colossians 3:18-25 as we start the study of our final core value.
Oct 22, 2018•31 min
Jesus is probably the only religious leader you will ever find who actively and intentionally shrinks his congregation. Jesus is constantly pushing followers to calculate the cost of discipleship prior to entering the journey. We’ll take a look at what he says the qualifications are and how they apply to us when we study Luke 9:22-26.
Oct 21, 2018•26 min
In our St. Marcus CORE VALUES worship series, we’re looking at our 3rd Core Value: Biblical Discipleship. As we study Paul’s letter to a man he helped disciple, Titus, he offers to us 3 essential components to Biblical Discipleship. Find out what they are as we examine Titus 2:1-11.
Oct 14, 2018•32 min
This week we continue our theme of St. Marcus CORE VALUES . Last week we began our study of our 2nd Core Value: Sacrificial Love. This week we’re going to study Romans 5:1-8 to see those to whom we are naturally inclined to show sacrificial love and to those to whom God is calling us to show sacrificial love.
Sep 30, 2018•29 min
This week, we recount the time in Jesus' ministry where he exorcised a man possessed by countless demons. We tackle a few difficult questions that come up within this portion of the Gospel and relate it to some of the demons that every sinner faces every day.
Sep 25, 2018•29 min
This week we continue our theme of St. Marcus CORE VALUES . We’re moving on now to our 2nd Core Value: Sacrificial Love. We’ll take a look at the world’s definition of love, how that impacts us, and how a biblical definition of love has and will change us. We’ll be studying 1 John 3:11-20.
Sep 23, 2018•32 min
This week we continue our theme of St. Marcus CORE VALUES . Core Values are the durable identity that you take with you wherever you go. The first of our 4 Core Values is Christ First . Last week, we saw that if “seek first His kingdom and righteousness”, we find the solution to our worldly fears. This week, we want to take a deeper look at what it means to embody of this trait, living by Jesus’ Spirit. We’ll examine Romans 8:1-6....
Sep 16, 2018•29 min
For the next 8 weeks we’re finally doing a series I’ve been hoping to do for almost 2 years now – St. Marcus Core Values . Core Values function somewhat like your organizational identity – the durable, fundamental center that you carry with you everywhere you go. The first of our 4 Core Values is Christ First . This week we’ll be studying what it means to “seek first His kingdom and righteousness” as we study Matt. 6:25-34.
Sep 09, 2018•30 min
As many of us prepare for a day off on Labor Day, we take a look at what the Bible says about what our attitudes towards our daily labors should look like. Slavery was abundant in human history and is mentioned in the Old and New Testament numerous times. In Colossians, Paul has a message for slaves and masters (if written today, it would be more akin to addressing employees and bosses), in which he urges workers to obey the masters in authority and to work with sincerity and reverence for our G...
Sep 02, 2018•22 min
Originally preached on March 17th, 2018 and part of the series: The Gospel of Mark, From Throne to Cross and Back. Based on Mark 12:35-44. We look at what it means to be a friend of Jesus, how one becomes an enemy of Jesus, and what Jesus has already done FOR his enemies.
Aug 31, 2018•20 min
Our series is called SATAN’S SLEIGHT OF HAND: The mostly untrue things we really need to stop believing. This week’s lie is “GOD JUST WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY.” Well…..yes, God certainly desires our long-term wellness. But the question remains as to what exactly that means for this life. This week we’ll learn lots from a remarkable description of Moses, from Hebrews 11:23-28, who voluntarily gave up everything Pharoah’s palace had to offer in order to suffer with his people in order to get them to t...
Aug 31, 2018•22 min
Membership in social clubs have declined over recent years. More and more people are stepping away from these types of membership clubs and clinging to their own personal networks, online or otherwise. Hebrews 10:19-35 teaches us perseverance in a different kind of membership - that of our own congregation in the Church of Christ. Our membership into God's "club" was paid for by the sacrifice of his Holy Son, Jesus Christ. We are able to witness and encourage one another through the Sacraments a...
Aug 26, 2018•29 min
Today, we dig into what it means to truly love our God. We turn to the end of the Paul's letter to the Ephesians, where we are taught how to live our lives as Christians to the fullest, and to base all our love in Him, and give our lives back to Him. Ephesians 6:23-24 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
Aug 19, 2018•22 min
The lie for this week is “A LOVING GOD WOULD NEVER SEND ANYONE TO HELL.” Modern America is what philosophers might call a “ soft closed religious society.” What that means is that it’s technically not illegal to discuss matters of faith in public, but it’s considered socially inappropriate. Particularly inappropriate would a discussion of Hell. But it’s actually impossible to be a Christian witness, without modifying the gospel of Jesus, if you never address Hell. So the end result is that most ...
Aug 19, 2018•26 min
Jesus is the Bread of Life and is the only "food" that can nourish the human soul. In John 6, we take a look at how Jesus is the Bread that came from heaven, and how he is the Bread that leads us to Heaven.
Aug 12, 2018•25 min
The lie for this week is “THAT SIN CAN’T BE FORGIVEN.” In a society that has almost tried to get the word “sin” out of circulation, it’s fascinating that self-loathing over unresolved guilt anger over unexpressed forgiveness is still one of the largest drivers of behavior. This week, we look at the most famous fail of processing guilt in history, the story of Judas Iscariot, to see the necessity of finding forgiveness, including self-forgiveness. We’ll look at Matthew 27:1-10.
Aug 12, 2018•23 min
The lie for this week is “RELIGION DOESN’T BELONG IN THE WORKPLACE.” Modern Americans are very familiar with the practice of the privatization of faith. But if good news is, in fact, good , then how private can you truly keep it before you insinuate it’s not all that life-changing? Daniel provides a courageous, humble example this week as we study Daniel 1:8-21.
Jul 29, 2018•30 min
