Sandhills Lutheran Ministry Podcast Series

Jeremiah: Overcoming Through God's Word (March 3): God's Word is the compass for our hazardous journey called what? Life! What two letters are in the middle of the word “life”? IF! Life is one big IF! Without God's Word we're doomed. We turn to Jeremiah 1:1-5 for direction.Jeremiah: Overcoming Life's SorrowsWhat do you do with your disappointments? Sorrow? Pain? Jeremiah becomes a God-given example of how to overcome. When you wonder where sorrow fits into your faith and belief that God is merciful, just, and kind, Jeremiah points you to Jesus. This sermon series is adapted from Dr. Reed Lessing's book called, “Overcoming Life's Sorrows.” Here is the preaching plan: March 3 – Overcoming Through God's Word (Jeremiah 1:1-5)March 10 – Overcoming Through Worship (Jeremiah 7:1-15March 17 – Overcoming Through Renouncing Idolatry (Jer 10:1-16)March 24 – Overcoming Through Laments (Jeremiah 11:18-12:4)March 31 – Overcoming Through Listening (Jeremiah 13:1-11)April 7 – Overcoming Through Humility (Jeremiah 18:1-6)

He Brings Glory– (February 27th) -- Luke 9:28-36 Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem – Jesus leaves the glory of this sort for the glory of the cross. Here we get the steely resolve of Jesus to see this mission through. In this sort of an approach, the transfiguration would be a last moment of heavenly bliss for Jesus before undertakes his bitter suffering and death. Is it almost a temptation for him to stay on the mountain? During this season of Epiphany, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us.

He Brings Love (February 20th, 2022) -- Luke 6:27-38  May the hearer, enabled by the Holy Spirit, to love his/her enemies and foes with the same Love which came down at Christmas, walked the shores of Galilee, died on a cross, and rose from the dead.During this season of Epiphany, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us.

He Brings Blessing – (February 13th) But how shall we preach this? Law and Gospel are the only way. The Law serves the Gospel. The woes are not final judgments, but the instrument by which God calls people to trust in Christ and in Christ alone. May the hearer be crushed by the reality of sin and restored by the reality of Christ. Other helpful readings: Jeremiah 17:5-8 and Psalm 1.During this season of Epiphany, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us.

He Brings Purpose (February 6, 2022)  Why am I here? What is your purpose? One of the gifts that Jesus brings is purpose. The miracle of the catch of fish and the call of Peter, first among the 12 disciples, is an occasion for the Holy Spirit to awaken or strengthen a sense of purpose in the hearer – God's church is His net cast into the sea (Matt. 13:47).During this season of Epiphany, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us.

Have we displaced Jesus from his lordly place of being our rescuer and deliverer from all afflictions, the world, our own sin, and the Devil's schemes? In our meditation on the Gospel reading, Luke 4:31-44, may the Spirit of God expose the vulnerability of the sinner and comfort that sinner with the protection of Christ! Jesus brings rescue from our foe.During this season of Epiphany, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us.

He Brings Life (January 23rd, 2022):  In Exodus 1-2, the unnamed Pharaoh creates his own version of Heartbreak Hotel in three stages:  State Slavery, Private Infanticide, and Open Genocide. It's against this backdrop that Moses is born.  Five courageous women align themselves with life instead of death. All for Moses. Someone who will bring Israel out of Pharaoh's Heartbreak Hotel! We're all stuck in sin—call it Heartbreak Hotel. Jesus doesn't recoil, run, or retreat at the sight of our ugly prison. Instead, Jesus sheds His blood for us and for our salvation. During this season of Epiphany, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us.

He Brings Joy -- Jesus cares about your joy. John wrote in another place that “your joy will be complete” (Jn 15:11). Jesus brings joy. How does God then make our lives places of joy as a result? How can we view the brokenness of God's creation? How do we become more Christ-like with this gift of joy?During this season of Epiphany, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us. 

Introduction to a new Sermon Series for the Season of Epiphany -- Unwrapping the Gift: Having just completed the Christmas season with its gift giving and receiving traditions, we are using the idea of unwrapping a gift. Jesus is of course the gift to us, given at Christmas and Epiphany is when we get to unwrap it slowly, marveling at each facet of this gem. But this series is also looking ahead – toward the fulfillment of God's promises in Holy Week and Easter. This series will ask what this gift means for us.He Brings Spirit and Fire – On this observance of the Baptism of Our Lord, may the Lord Jesus set aflame the hearer through baptism. The words and deeds of God's Baptized people are the way His kingdom comes and His will gets done. Do not undersell yourself as a vessel of the Spirit. Count on and trust in Him!

Yes, God has redeemed and forgiven us, lavished grace and wisdom upon us, but all this is because God has a purpose, a goal which in fact is not about making me happy or meeting my perceived needs. He is uniting his whole creation, heaven and earth, once more. My forgiveness, my resurrection, all of it, belongs to that purpose.

Merry Christmas! With a better understanding of the redemptive nature of the Incarnation, it is our prayer that the Spirit of God would push the hearer out of the pew/their chair and into life as a new person, bought back from sin, death, and devil to be a witness to Christ's love. A sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas based on Exodus 13:1-3a, 11-15, Colossians 3:12-17 and Luke 2:22-40.

Luke lets us see this through the eyes of a Jewish peasant girl from a nowhere village called Nazareth. How does God's kingdom see this world? We see through the eyes of power, money, etc., but is that accurate or the best lens? Mary, visited by an angel, pregnant with a child by the Holy Spirit, greeted by a yet-unborn John the Baptist might just give us a better lens by which to view this world as God sees it. What is more, as Luke notices for us, she was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The previous two Sundays have given us an opportunity to reflect on watchfulness for the (final) coming of the Son of Man and on the appearance and mission of John the Baptist. This Gospel of the Third Sunday of Advent brings these two figures together and addresses the matter of expectations from a variety of perspectives: John's expectations of the Messiah, the crowds' expectations of John, and this generation's expectations of Jesus.

Sermon Outline: To Faith, the Voice That Urges Us to New Life in Christ Is a Glad Sound . . .    I. . . . Even when it calls us “You brood of vipers!”   II. . . . Surely as it commands us to “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”  III. . . . So that we gladly reply, “What shall we do?”

The sermon theme for the First Sunday of Advent is God is making me blameless. The Epistle reading invites the hearer to abound in love for one another and for all people. This sermon would connect this life we lead right now with the second coming of Christ.

The text for Christ the King Sunday is Revelation 1:4b-8. Reading and hearing this text gives us the hopeful expectation that the Lord of time and life, Jesus the Christ, comes to save, restore, and reveal the eternal life which belongs to the hearer by baptism. The other readings for this day include Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 and John 18:33-37.

This text from Hebrews 10:11-25 invites and inspires us to draw near to Him with a holy confidence as we love one another and this world, all of which Christ has rendered holy with his life's blood. 

All Saints Day has this great prayer: “Almighty and everlasting God, You knit together Your faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion, the mystical body of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant us so to follow Your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that, together with them, we may come to the unspeakable joys You have prepared for those who love You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” The text starts with this prayer, the assertion that God has knit us together into a great communion of all who live in Christ. Pastor Jon also unpacks Revelation 7:2-17 for us. The apostle John sees the people of God twice in this section of Revelation. First we have the people described as Israel enumerated. John's picture of the people in verses 2-8 seem to be a picture of the Church militant. That is contrasted with the next picture where the people are not numbered, but they are simply called innumerable. This is not a picture of the church militant but the church at rest, the church in heaven. Pastor Jon concludes the sermon by focusing on a picture of a painting by the famous artist of the Reformation, Lucas Cranach: https://www.wikiart.org/en/lucas-cranach-the-elder/the-last-supper-1547. Reflecting on the prayer, Revelation text and the painting, we, who are grieving in the face of this world's burdens, are invited to be comforted by being united with all God's people in this Holy Supper.

In thanksgiving we gathered on Reformation Day to celebrate the 10 anniversary of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church worshipping in Hyannis, NE. This church previously worshipped as Swede Valley Lutheran Church located south of Ashby, NE. We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Sandhills Lutheran Ministry now comprised of three congregations: Shepherd of the Hills, Bingham and Faith Lutheran Churches. All three congregations have at least two things in common. First, they are located in the beautiful, rolling Sandhills of Nebraska. Secondly, they are Lutheran Christian congregations. This year marks the 504th anniversary of the Reformation. Reformation Sunday is an occasion for the Church to celebrate with the reformer Martin Luther her possession of the one, true, never-changing Gospel message. Luther's “Discovery” is shared by us all and not confined to only a specific region or a group of people. Today, we are celebrating not only Church anniversaries but more importantly we are celebrating the complete freedom that is ours through Jesus. The freedom we have is the release from the slavery of our own sin and to be transformed to a new life in Christ.

 Faith sits in the center of our readings today (Jeremiah 31:7-9 And Mark 10:46-52). I suppose faith sits in the center of all the readings every Sunday, but it is far more central and prominent this Sunday than many other Sundays. It is our prayer that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of faith for the hearer to see God's great love for his fallen creation.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. You can picture today's sermon by looking at the logo for LWML, “Our Hearts are in His Hand.” You can view the logo at http://www.lwml.org/lwml-sunday. Think about a heart in a hand. The cross comes through Baptism into your heart, into my heart, into each of our hearts. And each new, purified heart is surrounded by a much bigger heart. That's the church, a big-hearted place, where all our hearts are together in His hand, coming together in worship, God makes us a big hearted Church that extends His hand of love to everyone.

What happens when the Church “Seizes the Day?” What does that look like? This sermon based on Psalm 90 and Hebrews 3:12-19 is about the Church. Sermons about the Church sometimes can be a difficult topic. But when understood as a sermon about an act of Jesus, a creation of God, and the Holy Spirit, it fits better into our usual ideas about the Church. May the hearer in the Body of Christ take advantage of the time given to them to delight in the fellowship of the Church and be moved to its healthy mutual love.

Today's Sermon, “For the Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Such as These” invites us to believe that you are such a person as Jesus takes into his arms today. Not because of some imagined innocence but because God loves his whole creation and every part of it, including you. He hates to see it hurt, broken, dying, or in any way marred.

The title of this sermon based on Mark 9:38-50 is “A Cup of Cool Water.” The text is inviting us to be drawn into the very life of Christ — both as the redeemed child whom Christ has raised from death and as the agent of Christ's love into this world.

Where is true hope revealed? Is true hope revealed in goodness? Is it revealed in success? Society esteems the morally pure and “good people” (as it's currently and popularly defined in the new morality observed) or the powerful and wealthy and capable people and puts them on the top. However, Jesus reveals the true hope that lies hidden in his suffering, death, and resurrection and in the suffering service of all who follow in his way. A sermon on Mark 9:30-37.

The father in our text prayed, “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief.” Jesus didn't wait until the father's faith got stronger, immediately he saved his child. Jesus has conquered all our foes, even our own foolish and wavering hearts, and delivered us into the hands of his and our loving Father. Are you ready to take the “Only by Prayer” adventure with Jesus?

Jesus has all the power of God at his disposal. Why does he not get what he wants in today's text?   We have heard these stories so often that we might have forgotten to be shocked at this.  Is my Lord unable to get what he wants?  Have I just misunderstood this?  Do I need to be more cynical or be more realistic?  This is a sermon about the inexorable progress and presence of God's Kingdom in this world and in our lives.

The local police department puts out the dire warning about a fugitive from justice: “Armed and Dangerous.” Paul speaks of arming oneself against the evil one. Members of Christ's body are best described as “Armed and Safe.” Paul ends his letter to the Ephesians strong, with a powerful martial image of a Christian wearing the armor of a Roman legionary. 

What shall we do with the opening line of this text?  Let's acknowledge that there's a bit of a misinterpretation minefield about submission in the marriage sphere that we need to deal with first, and then we can turn to what holy submission looks like and what it doesn't look like.

Lurking in every human heart is a problematic lover who loves the darkness.  Our culture has defined the best life as the life which always gets to do what it wants-a life lived without limits.

In today's sermon, Paul continues with the metaphor of life as a walk, but contrasts the Christian walk with another walk- the world exerts a strong pull on us, but the path of worldly success is a cruel and demanding idol.

Paul makes use of a favorite image here- our life as a walk; a journey from here to there, one step at a time.  

How are you doing?  Although we might answer this question with "I'm fine", in our "inner being" we feel beaten down, beaten down by our own sin and by the world.  

How will I discern the truth from a lie?  I'm not able to navigate the simplest aspect of my life without getting made into a fool.  How will I navigate heaven itself?