Sermons
Listen, watch or read sermons from Manchester Lutheran Church, and explore them through the Christian year.
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Do YOU need to fix what you’re worried about?
Do YOU need to fix what you’re worried about? All of you have problems you are worried about. It could be that diagnosis, or potential sickness; your job, career, finances, future; or your reputation, standing, relationship, or friendships. The things you’re worrying about are real. And they matter. In his first letter, Peter has spent…
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What do you deserve from other people?
What do you deserve from other people? You know what it’s like to be wronged by other people. John’s letter is written to a church who feel wronged. That’s how our reading starts today: Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. And by “the world” he doesn’t just mean people “out there.”…
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Can a Christian fear and hate?
Can a Christian fear and hate? All of us here have things about the future that are uncertain. And when you think about uncertainty, or what might happen, you feel anxious, fearful, scared. That’s a natural response. But why is that a natural response? All of us here have been hurt and wronged by other…
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How can you trust a God you can’t understand?
How can you trust a God you can’t understand? My atheist friends insist that they couldn’t have faith unless God first answered all their questions. My Muslim friends say they can’t have faith in Jesus because there’s questions they don’t have the answer to. Many of my Christian friends insist that to exercise faith you…
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How is the church actually united?
How is the church actually united? All of us naturally want to be important. We want to be noticed, want to be thought well of. And that desire, that need, is what splits and divides us. The church in Corinth was horribly divided. They were marked by factions, pride, comparison, moral failures, lawsuits, abuses of…
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How Do Bad People Keep Praying Together?
How do bad people keep praying together? You and I are bad people who have been forgiven. That’s been our message throughout Lent and Easter. And it’s the message of the apostle Peter, in his first letter. Because, naturally, we are all self-righteous people. And in this life, we all suffer, and that creates pressure…
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Why listen to God accuse you?
Why listen to God accuse you? Every week, I stand here and preach God’s accusation against you. The headline for our church is “God is in a good mood with you!” And some hostile people who want to misrepresent us, ignore everything else we say, and claim that we’re denying God’s Law. But every Sunday,…
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Why has God set me up to fail?
Why has God set me up to fail? In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been hearing how all Christians have a vocation to suffer unjustly in this life. The letter of James was written to scattered Christians in tiny churches, facing all sorts of different trials. And all of you here have trials. You’ve…
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Why not justify yourself when you’re falsely accused?
Why not justify yourself when you’re falsely accused? Last week we heard Peter tell us that all Christians have the vocation to suffer unfairly in this life. But here, in the verses immediately before, he’s more specific. He tells us we will face false accusations. Why that? Why so specific? Because of what he’s just…
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Is God against me when I suffer unfairly?
Is God against me when I suffer unfairly? Every single person here suffers unfairly. In your workplace. In your marriage. In your singleness.With your parents. With your kids. With your friends. All of you, at some point, have done the right thing, only to seemingly be punished for it. In this part of Peter’s letter,…
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Is My Faith Real?
Is my faith real? After his resurrection, Jesus gave us his Spirit, and so the power to give forgiveness through God’s Word. This is how faith spreads: As we tell people that in Jesus all sins are forgiven, the Spirit creates faith in people as they hear it—that faith is assurance that their sins are…