Immanuel Lutheran Loveland

For the past three weeks we’ve been following this significant discourse of Jesus in John 6 where He’s talking continuously about bread from heaven, being the bread of life, etc., and here, at the end of this discourse, Jesus speaks directly about needing to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Crazy sounding stuff, to be sure! What was He talking about? We’ll spend time trying to sort this all out....

St. Paul in Ephesians 4 and 5 hold out some pretty high ideals. How are we supposed to read those for our lives today? They sound unrealistic, even crazy! He’s taking us down a path of the sanctified life and to remind us that we still live by grace and are led by the Holy Spirit. At the heart of it all, however, is forgiveness – forgiveness we receive and forgiveness we’re called to show and to s...

Ephesians 4 provides so much guidance and encouragement for us when it comes to answering the question I pose as the sermon title for this Sunday. St. Paul speaks to our attitudes and approach to life; he speaks to the unity that we’re to strive for; he lays out the very real hope we have and why we have it; we have a “gift list” that expresses how the Lord chooses to use us for His work; and then...

We are continuing our crazy sermon series this week and how much CRAZIER can you get reading, studying, and seeing what God is going to say to us about a story where a little boy’s lunch feeds thousands?! Can you imagine what the disciples were thinking when Andrew came to Jesus with a lunch bag with a couple of loaves of bread and five small fish? “What good is that?” may have been the first thin...

The recording of the prophet Isaiah’s call from God to be His spokesman is pretty dramatic and worth spending some time just soaking in the awe and wonder of what that must have been like. In addition to the miraculous and awe-inspiring presence of angels/seraphim, God’s “train” from the throne, and other amazing things that Isaiah experienced, there are actually some very down-to-earth elements o...

We’re going to look at the beginning of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The opening of this letter is filled with some amazingly powerful promises and guarantees – we’ve been blessed, chosen before the creation of the world, predestined as His children, loving us freely, redeemed by the blood of Christ, forgiveness freely given, God’s grace lavished on us, and MORE! The section ends with the p...

Focusing on the 2 Corinthians reading once again this Sunday, we hear St. Paul talk about what sounds like some crazy stuff. My focus will be on how this section ends, particularly as Paul writes about grace, power, weakness, and ultimately where real strength is found. To read these things through the lens of the world, it’s all upside-down and doesn’t make much sense – it’s crazy stuff!! But at...

As we’re in the midst of a financial challenge, this is a great opportunity to hear what “crazy” stuff the Lord has to say to us when it comes to our offerings and our giving to Him. We’ll dig into 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 and some of the “crazy” notions that St. Paul holds up for us when it come to our attitude toward giving to the Lord. Both chapters 8 and 9 provide so many wonderful examples, words...

In Mark 4 we witness Jesus in a boat sleeping during a furious, terrifying storm. The disciples were confused and finally woke Jesus out of their fear. Jesus spoke a word and the wind and waves calmed. And the disciples were suddenly terrified of Jesus. With what God spoke to Job in the Old Testament reading, it seems that there is actually an appropriate fear we should have of God. But this sound...

We continue our new summer series this week, It’s Crazy! In 2 Corinthians 5, St. Paul talks about being “out of our mind” for God. He continues to spout crazy stuff while at the same time, clarifying why we believe it, live it, do it. That changes everything, including how we look at each other, how we approach our daily lives, even being clear on life and death. As always, if you can’t be here in...

We continue our new summer series this week, It’s Crazy! In the Gospel reading for this day from Mark 3, Jesus’ own family calls Him crazy, out of His mind! Is He? There are times when it may seem like it. But where does His “craziness” take us and what does it mean for us? (Hint, hint – it means some very good things…) We hope you can join us as we continue this crazy series! As always, if you ca...

We continue our new summer series this week, It’s Crazy!, by thinking about voices. Who or what are we listening to these days? In the Old Testament reading, Samuel didn’t know it was the Lord who was talking to him, preparing to call Samuel to be a great prophet and leader of His people. If we’re listening to God’s voice, that can seem a little crazy to some people, especially as counter-cultural...

We start our new summer series this week, It’s Crazy! There’s more about this series in the lead article in today’s update. This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and we’ll explore this “crazy” idea of our belief in a Triune God, or the Trinity. Where do we get this idea? What difference does it make? How crazy is it? I hope you can join me as we begin this crazy series together! As always, if you can’t be...

We’ll wrap up our Our Journey With Jesus series as we think about the importance of intentionality when it comes to walking with Him. This will also be so very applicable and appropriate for Confirmation Sunday as we celebrate with eight 8th graders who will be publicly confirming and professing their faith in Jesus. As always, if you can’t be here in-person, take advantage of our live stream opti...

This Sunday we hear a portion of what is referred to as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17. There is so much that we learn about prayer from Jesus, just in this chapter alone. We’ll delve into this amazing gift of prayer and how important it is when it comes to walking with Jesus. As always, if you can’t be here in-person, take advantage of our live stream option. We live stream our worship se...

Our Easter series, Our Journey With Jesus, continues this week with our next Mark of Discipleship which is, “A commitment to ministry through healthy relationships – be a team player. Mark 6:7” This is a Mark of Discipleship that talks about the importance of the ministry within the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is probably the Bible’s most powerful image of what it means for us to be in rela...

Jesus uses the imagery of a vine and branches to make the point of how important it is that we stay connected to Him. But where does that connection lead? All three readings for this Sunday point us in a similar direction, answering that very question. We’ll be thinking more about the Mark of Discipleship that is discipling or walking alongside another person. As always, if you can’t be here in-pe...

Worship is an amazing gift God has given to us. As you look at the Scripture readings for this coming Sunday, you’ll notice that worship is not specifically talked about in any of them. What do we hear? I invite you to give some thought and consideration to that question as you absorb some of what we’ll be hearing on Sunday from God and His amazing Word!  As always, if you can’t be here in-person,...

In Luke 24, Jesus speaks about how everything needed to be fulfilled that was written about Him throughout the Old Testament – which speaks to how important it is for us to read and know God’s Word, both Old and New Testaments, and to see how all Scripture points us to Jesus. He then opened their minds to be able to understand the Scriptures. He continues to do that for us yet today and through fa...

Continuing our celebration of Easter and Christ’s victory, we read in Acts 4 how the resurrection empowered the disciples to live selfless and giving lives. Gratitude, generosity, and love shown through their lives as they gave of themselves, their finances, and their resources to share Christ’s love and the power of the resurrection with others. It’s not about coercion but how the resurrection tr...

Focusing on the Gospel account from John regarding the resurrection, we are going to look more closely at the wide range of emotions that we see from the disciples, from His other followers, and even from Jesus Himself as we recognize that the Easter story isn’t just a “story,” but rather it is God conveying to us ever so clearly that He knows everything that’s going on in our lives, that He deepl...

This is Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week! As we continue with our Lent focus on the psalms, we’ll be looking more closely at Psalm 118, a psalm that is filled with prophecy and very direct connections to Palm Sunday. We hope you can join us as we begin the amazing journey once again through the last week of Jesus’ life on earth and celebrate the love He showed to us through Holy Week. As alw...

Psalm 119 is essentially a devotional on the Word of God. The psalm gives us a powerful directive that speaks to both how we’re called to live our lives as God’s people as well as what God’s Word truly provides for us. Over and over the psalm writer points us straight back to God in His Word. I hope you can join me as we take a look at this small part of Psalm 119 together. As always, if you can’t...

Psalm 107 was likely used in a liturgical sense with one of Israel’s annual religious festivals. It’s a psalm of praise to God for His unfailing love – a response for His hearing and answering the prayers of His people in need and of His saving actions. This psalm gets very real with regard to the troubles, the challenges, and the hardships we face, including being up against death itself. And the...

Psalm 19 is a beautiful psalm extolling the wonders of creation and the glory of God. God’s glory is reflected in creation and also in God’s Word. We are reminded through this psalm to not take for granted the beauty we see all around us. We’re also encouraged to take to heart the beauty and power of God and His Word. We hope you can join us as we take in Psalm 19 together! As always, if you can’t...