Faith and Life Podcast

This sermon is lead by members of our congregation. Each St. Luke Preacher gives us a brief meditation based on the seven last words of Christ.

Brené Brown helps us understand that in order for forgiveness to happen something has to die. To forgive is a grief process where something has to die in order for new life to come forth. To truly forgive we have to grieve something. It may be a relationship as we have known it, the hope that something will be same as it once was, that a person you care about does not have the capacity to hurt you...

This sermon starts with a narrative reading of the passion story. The sermon starts at 15:48.    One of the most vivid pictures that the Bible gives us for understanding what happened to Jesus when he suffered and died is found in Philippians 2:7 where it says that Jesus “emptied” himself. Jesus emptied himself of his eternal perfection so that he could be filled with our broken rebellion and deat...

Jacob experienced the transcendent presence of God as few people had before or since, even getting a glorious name change from God. And yet, Jacob continued to struggle to walk obediently with God. He was often filled with fear and doubts. He too often tried to take matters into his own hands. Given all this, God continued to walk with Jacob just as he was. The great testimony to this is that gene...

What happened this night was no ordinary evening, for a variety of reasons… And what Jesus shows us is if any voice tells you to moderate our love for Jesus, do not listen. Let your affections for Jesus be lavish. If any voice tempts you to want to be rich in money, do not listen. Jesus is your riches, and all that money can buy cannot compare to him. If any voice tells you that his death is anyth...

Throughout his life, Jacob faced daily struggles that are recorded in the Bible with amazing detail. As his family, wealth, and responsibilities grew, so did his daily struggles. He did not always make wise or faithful decisions in coping with his daily struggles, but at a few poignant times he expressed his trust in God and was better able to wrestle with his daily struggles. This is not heaven a...

God loves all people and desires that all people be saved. We are answering questions that we submitted on the wrestling with God cards: How should we feel about Muslims? What about Christians vs. Muslims. Although we will not limit ourselves to the relationship between Christians and Muslims, current events give us this poignant experience to seek to understand how to understand Jesus’ Parable of...

This is not heaven. We will enter into the back-story of Jacob’s wrestling with God to wrestle with God over our own disappointments. This sermon will continue to turn the screw deeper into the understanding of the problem of evil that was introduced on Feb. 17. The deeper understanding is that we sometimes are fooled into thinking that life should be perfect and we should not experience disappoin...

The question seems simple enough, God says love your neighbor… so who is that, I sure would hate to mess that up! But the simplicity of the Greatest Commandment, makes that question completely unneeded. The better question, isn’t to ask “who should I love” but instead ask Jesus “Who am I?” You see the famous parable of the Good Samaritan is less about who represents our neighbor and more to do wit...

Why is this happening to me God? I think this is a question we all can relate to whether it is break up in a relationship, losing a job, health issues, death of a loved one and so many other things that cause us to ask this question. Tonight we are going to wrestle with why do bad things happen to us and what to do in the midst of those struggles.   Lessons: Matthew 7:24-28

The testimony of the Bible is that God’s heart is turned towards the poor. The Isaiah passage teaches that caring for those in need is even more important to God than our worship of him. Jesus plainly said to follow him, the rich young man had only one more step to take in order to have treasurers in heaven and begin following Jesus – “sell what you have and give to the poor.” If we desire to auth...

The Biblical, true, quick, but not very satisfying answer to this question is that evil and suffering are a result of our rebellion against God. The real question we have is this: Why does God allow evil and suffering? This is the classic problem of evil (the Stoic Dilemma). If God is all loving and all powerful, why do evil and suffering occur? On one hand, there is not find in the Bible a simple...

Isaiah 58:1-7 so clearly describes many American Christians and what is God’s response to our eager efforts to “for God to come near” us. Fasting (giving up something for Lent) as often been a part of the Lenten disciplines that we do to come nearer to God. According to Isaiah 58, true fasting is “to loose the chains of injustice, and untie the chords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and bre...

We all “wrestle” with God over particular issues or experiences in our lives and the lives of others. It could be our own suffering or the suffering of others. Our wrestling with God over these matters is a reflection of the brokenness we have because of our sin. The great truth about God is that he strives with us through our wrestling with him. God does not abandon us. The account of Jacob wrest...

David's special message to kids about how God uses the moments in our lives to grow our faith.

Everything that happens to us in a day shapes us, C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying something to the effect of, all our decisions move us closer to Heaven or closer to Hell. There are however, some moments in our life that stand out above the rest, moments that are pivotal on our faith. It is in these moments that God moves the needle of our faith lives in tremendous ways.   After hearing this sermon...

The Bible is filled with accounts of God calling people into ministry before they thought they were ready, e.g., Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Peter, Saul of Tarsus. When we step into a ministry for which we do not feel prepared, our faith grows. Some people have called this “stepping out of our comfort zones.” It is simply the case that when we bring all that we have to Jesus and he works through what w...

Chances are you didn’t randomly just walked into a church today to see what it was about. It is more likely that someone talked to you about God, shared their story with you or maybe just invited you to come to church. No matter how you decided to come to church today God planted a seed in your mind about faith though someone. These types of encounters are what we call providential relationships a...

The private disciplines of prayer and meditating on Holy Scripture usher us into the transcendent presence of God where He speaks personally to us. There we experience intimacy with God and accountability before God in our path of faith. Our hearts are tuned into God’s heart. “There is a direct correlation between a person’s private devotional life and his or her personal faith. When God peaks to...

Worship is a funny thing, most of us hear the word and immediately think of singing in church. While this is part of worship, it is so much deeper than this! Today we will look at how we are natural worshipers and how The Word, our songs, and mission of Christ drive us deeper into sweet and meaningful worship.    This topic hits all of the cornerstone points of St. Luke's by learning what true wor...

Although we have already attained eternal life through the work of Jesus, every living follower of Jesus is not done growing in faith. Until we are with God in heaven, God is continually working to grow our confidence in Him. Continuing to grow in faith brings incredible benefits in the life of a Christian. This sermon will introduce the series and make a case for why we should continue to seek gr...

God calls us to serve Him without fear. Often our pride keeps us from recognizing the privilege it is to serve God and blinds us to who it is we are serving. He has rescued us from great evil and loved us in our darkest of states. God has done this only out of His merciful compassion, it is nothing within us. If we live in light of this God, then we can go out into this world, though it is full of...

This is a retelling of the classic, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" re-written to include the Christmas Story. Enjoy!

We live in times that can terrify us. You can fill in the blank as to what is most terrifying to you in the news. In his birth, death, resurrection, and ascension Jesus took over the government of all creation. While there will always be people who terrorize others in a vain attempt to establish themselves as the ruler of the world, Christmas teaches us that that position has already been taken an...

We will mostly look at how much was asked of Joseph, how scary it must have been, and how decisive and trusting Joseph was. Often times having faith is difficult. Believing that God’s best is your best can be hard. We will pray that God will help us have faith in the face of all things, good, bad, and ugly.   Lessons: Isaiah 7:10-14 , Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 , Matthew 1:18-25