Welcome Home Series, Sunday, November 10, 2019

You are perfectly safe:

• At Christ’s Last Judgement when Jesus will judge all people into one of two groups: those who are saved and those who are condemned.

• At the Present Moment because we have God’s righteous verdict. Thanks to Jesus, we are judged not guilty for all the wrongs we have done regardless of how much we have or haven’t earned it. We most certainly believe this.

May our God continually work in our hearts so that we may always look forward to returning to our church home and so ground ourselves in the safety which God alone gives.

Amen

Pastor Tim Patoka

Reformation Service, Sunday, November 3, 2019

Guest Preacher, Pastor Sam Clemons

It is a miracle of God’s providence and a tribute to His eternal Word that we are here today.

• Study the history of the Christian Church

• See how many people over the centuries have tried to destroy it

• Many poisonous false teachings have threatened to tear the Church apart

• 500 years ago, God used Martin Luther to restore the teaching of the true gospel message to the church.

• From the Scripture, God tells us that we are saved by his grace alone, through faith alone.

You can be a part of this continuing miracle:

• Pray for your church body

• Pray for it’s leaders

• Pray for the pastors and teachers.

• Pray for the parents and children

• Pray for the courage to witness the simple message to other, that we are saved by faith alone.

Amen

Pastor Sam Clemons

Welcome Home Series, Sunday, November 3, 2019

Jesus tells us that the one place to which we can always turn for the truth is his Word (the Bible) and he reminds us how important that truth is in our lives.

At home with Jesus is where you are free to be yourself. We don’t need to pretend that we are someone or something that we are not. We don’t need to hide our sins; we freely admit them, confess them, and repent of them. We receive and rejoice in God’s love and mercy as a member of his own family.

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

Welcome Home Sunday, October 27, 2019

Do you feel like you are at home when you are in church?

For many, the answer is yes, but for others, they may be surprised to hear that church could ever feel that way.

Ours won’t be a perfect church because it is made up of sinful people like each one of us.

• But it is and can be a place where we meet with our brother Jesus who has promised to be here.

• It is a place that we can meet with and encourage one another as brothers and sisters.

• And it is a place where we can learn about our permanent home in heaven

Until Jesus welcomes us home to heaven, let’s welcome each other home here at church. Welcome home..

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

Christian Character Series, Week 3, Sunday, October 20, 2019

The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods..

We all struggle to trust in God above all and fight to have a 1st Commandment faith.

It’s impossible for people to save themselves. But it’s possible for God.

If our hearts are set first on God, then we can more easily look at everything in our lives and consider how we might use them to serve God above all.

Prayer: Let us put our faith into action by using all to serve God above all. Amen.

Pastor Tim Patoka

Christian Character Series, Week 2, Sunday, October 13, 2019

Persistence in prayer:

God will answer His children’s prayers.

• Praying to God is not pointless because we know that God both hears our prayers and will answer them according to His will.

We persistently pray because of God’s love.

• We can be sure that as we pray, God will respond because of His love for us.

• Regardless of how God answers our prayers, we know that He does so out of love for us.

Prayer: Reassured of these promises, let us learn from the persistent widow by persisting in prayer when tempted to lose heart. Amen.

Pastor Tim Patoka

Christian Character Series, Week 1, Sunday, October 6, 2019

We need to acknowledge that sin lives in our own lives.

In his great mercy, God rescued us: He sent Jesus to die for us!

How do we put thankfulness to God into action?

• We give God thanks for the blessing he gives us in our prayers.

• We give God thanks as we gather in worship and as we sing and confess.

• We give God thanks when we give our offerings.

• We give God thanks when we listen to his Word and share it with others.

• We give God thanks when we serve the people he has placed into our lives.

• We even thank God when we thank others, the people through whom God blesses us.

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

10 for 10 Series: Open Minds: Sacrificial Giving, September 29, 2019

Over these last three weeks, we have discovered three reasons why we struggle to be good stewards of God’s wealth:

The reasons why we fail to give God our first fruits is beause he isn’t first in our hears

The reasons why we don’t practice the principle of proportionate giving is because we’ve forgotten that God is the ultimate owner of everything.

The reaon why we fail to practice sacrificial giving is bevcause we don’t believe that God, who gave us his only Son, will truly care for our physical needs.

May God continue to work on our hearts so that we see things the way Jesus does and so that our lives reflect our love for our Lord.

Amen

Pastor Tim Patoka

10 for 10 Series: Open Minds: Proportionate Giving, September 22, 2019

Our Lord of heaven and earth made all things beautiful, provided green forests, refreshing streams, mountains, prairies, the roaring sea, and the gentle breeze.

From His hand, we have received ALL we have and are and will be.

Help us always to use God’s gifts wisely and teach us to share them generously.

May our faithful stewardship bear witness to the love of Christ in our lives.

Amen

Pastor Ron Koehler

10 for 10 Series: Open Hearts, September 15, 2019

We wish life would make sense, but plenty of times it doesn’t. We don’t always give him priority with our time, talents and treasures.

God, however, gave us his first—-Jesus, the Firstborn over all creation;

God gave us his best—-his Son, in whom he is well pleased.

In Christ, God graciously gives us all things.

Our God is faithful. Trust in him. Bank on his promises.

And then get busy, to spread the Gospel to fill this house of his up!

Pastor Tim Patoka

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” September 8, 2019

During this summer sermon series, “Joy for Our Journeys,” both the journey of our lives to this point and our journey through the pages of Scripture lead us to this same final journey: our journey from earth to heaven.

The final destination of this journey is so great, so amazing, that it makes any journey, no matter how challenging or difficult or sad or hard absolutely worth it.

We want to keep our focus not on earthly things, but on Jesus the Way, and our heavenly home that he has prepared.

Let us continue to journey regularly through God’s Word until we conclude our earthly journey and finnaly make our journey from earth to heaven.

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” September 1, 2019

Paul’s missionary journeys mentioned in the Acts account centered on the message that he had to proclaim:

To the Jews, he referenced the Bible passages that described Jesus and spoke about Jesus as the Messiah

We have the same mission and the same message to proclaim. We will want to share the message whenever someone offers us the opportunity.

May God bless our missionary journeys wherever they take us.

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” August 25, 2019

Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven

Jesus’ journey from earth to heaven is much more than a ride off into the sunset.
It ushered in a different stage in God’s plan, a different time for his Church.

Jesus rides off into the distance with the promise to return—-visibly—-once again.

And until he comes back, he has left us with work to do, with responsibilities to let our lights shine, to honor him, to tell others the same good news that we have come to know and to love.

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” August 18, 2019

We all have to decide who we are going to trust—-how can we trust that Christianity is the real deal?

Even though it sounds impossible, Jesus truly rose from the dead just as God’s Word says.

But even more, Jesus’ resurrection is our guarantee that we can trust what God says is ours.

We are saved because of what Jesus did for us as prophesied and promised hundreds of years before he walked on earth.

We are thus forgiven and have the guarantee of eternal life.

And I pray that we keep our focus on Jesus and his journey from death to life so that we may never doubt what God says is ours. Amen

Pastor Tim Patoka

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” August 11, 2019

On so many occasions, our words and our actions say that we don’t think Jesus has a right to claim to be our king, but he loves us anyway, and that love led him on his journey to live alongside of us in a sin filled world, and to suffer, and to die on that cross for us.

That love led him to go through everything that was predicted, everything that was prophesied concerning the Savior of the world.

That love led our king to die on behalf of his people.

We leave church with sorrow in our hearts over our sins, but we also leave with hope. We leave knowing that the tomb will not be the last place where we see our Savior and we leave thankful that Jesus Christ made the journey to the cross for us.

Amen

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” August 4, 2019

This week, let us consider a journey we cannot relate to at all—-it is unlike any trip we could ever take.

It is the journey from Heaven to earth taken by God’s one and only Son, Jesus.

The great love God has for us is why Jesus set out on this journey. He conquered death and provided a promise: because I live, you also will live (John 14:19).

May the joy and wonder remain with you today and every day until you stand before the One who made a one-of-a kind journey from heaven to earth because he loved you.

Amen

Pastor Ron Koehler

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” July 28, 2019

How many times has someone promised you somthing only to fall through on it?

How many times have you promised to do something and failed to deliver on it?

Well, God keeps His promises. If God has promised it, we can depend on it.

We can say “amen” at the end of all prayers, “yes, it shall be so,” knowing that God will keep all his promises.

May the Lord help us to always have this confidence.

Amen

Pastor Tim Patoka

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys,” July 21, 2019

God promised Jacob to provide so that he could journey from the Promised Land worry free.

We journey worry free to our heavenly home, too. Our God has taken our sins away. He has promised to provide us with life’s necessities.

May we remember this and take it to heart so that, as we journey to our heavenly home, we may journey worry free.

Amen

Pastor Tim Patoka

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys, July 14, 2019

When Abram began his journey to the Promised Land,he didn’t know where he was going. Instead, God instructed him to set out and God promised that he would show Abram where to go. And Abram listened.

Where are we going? Thanks to God’s great promises and God’s great power, we confidently continue our journey to our heavenly Promised Land. Amen.

Pastor Nathan Kassulke

2019 Summer Sermon Series, “Joy for our Journeys, July 7, 2019

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a perfect world?

It is impossible for us to truly understand or even imagine what that was like in the Garden of Eden or what it will be like when we enjoy a perfect relationship with our God as we live with him forever in Heaven.

But the journey of our lives is on a path that leads to our eternal heavenly home. It is God’s guarantee and God’s promise to us.

And it will be better than anything we could imagine. Amen.

Pastor Nathan Kassulke