Christ For You

What Does It Cost To Join The Church? | John 1:43–51 | St. BartholomewWhat does it cost to become a Christian? Nothing. And what is the Gospel worth? Everything.In this sermon for the Feast of St. Bartholomew, Pastor Rojas reflects on Nathanael’s call to “come and see.” Jesus knew Nathanael before Nathanael knew Him, and He promised something greater: heaven opened through the Son of Man.The same is true for us. Christ sees our sin completely, yet loves us completely. He paid the infinite price for our salvation through His death and resurrection. The Gospel costs us nothing because Jesus paid everything.Bartholomew later gave his life for this confession, not to earn salvation, but because Christ was worth more than life itself. The world may take everything from us, but if we have Christ, we still have more than everything.Subscribe & Share if this sermon strengthened your faith.🎧 Spotify: Christ For You
🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)
🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcastLooking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.To support the preaching of God’s Word through this podcast and other outreach efforts, visit: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZCN9/home

What’s The Point Of Going To Church? | Psalm 50 | Trinity 11Why do you come to church—what do you expect happens when you walk through the doors? In this sermon for Trinity 11, Pastor Rojas reflects on Psalm 50 and presses a simple but searching question: is worship about what we give to God, or about what God gives to us?Psalm 50 first speaks a hard word of Law: God exposes the lie that He is served by human effort. He does not need our money, praise, sacrifice, or religious performance. Everything already belongs to Him, and no offering can put Him in His debt. The Law strips away every attempt to approach God on the basis of what we bring.But then the Psalm turns us from ourselves to God’s promise. The Gospel is this: God Himself provides what He demands. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.” In Christ, God is not the receiver of our worship but the giver of salvation. He delivers sinners who have nothing to offer, and He gives them everything in His Son—forgiveness, life, and rescue from death.That is the order of true worship in the Divine Service: God gives, and faith receives. Christ comes to sinners through His Word and Sacraments and freely bestows His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins. Worship is not our attempt to reach God, but God’s coming down to us in mercy.And when your final hour comes, the Law will not comfort you with your works, but the Gospel will. Your hope will not rest on whether you did enough, served enough, or gave enough to God. It will rest entirely on what God has given you in His Son. Christ’s obedience is enough. His blood is enough. His death and resurrection are enough.Subscribe & Share if this sermon strengthened your faith.🎧 Spotify: Christ For You🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcastLooking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.To support the preaching of God’s Word through this podcast and other outreach efforts, visit: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZCN9/home

Does God Actually Want Us To Rebuild The Temple? | Luke 19:41–48 | Trinity 10In this sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, Pastor Rojas asks a question at the heart of modern Christian Zionism: Does God actually want the Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt?Jesus’ answer is no. The Temple, sacrifices, priesthood, and altar all pointed to Christ. Jesus is the true Temple, the Lamb of God, and our great High Priest. The shadows have given way to the reality.Jerusalem’s deeper problem was that when God visited them, they didn’t recognize Him. They wanted political victory and earthly glory. God gave them a King on a donkey and a Savior on a cross. We make the same mistake whenever we decide what God must fix before we’ll believe He is with us.But you don’t have to wait for something to happen in Jerusalem. God has already come to you in Christ. He forgives you, dwells with you, and gives Himself to you. Even when your health, strength, and life are taken away, Christ is still yours.The Sacrifice has been made. The curtain is torn. Your sins are forgiven. God dwells with you. And because Christ lives, you will live also.Subscribe & Share if this sermon strengthened your faith.🎧 Spotify: Christ For You🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcastLooking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.To support the preaching of God’s Word through this podcast and other outreach efforts, visit: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZCN9/home

2 Timothy 4:7–8 | Funeral Sermon for William “Bill” SchmidtIn this funeral sermon for William “Bill” Schmidt, Pastor Rojas reflects on St. Paul’s words: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Bill’s family knew him as a fighter. He endured hardship, sacrificed for his family, and through it all held fast to Christ.But Bill’s fight wasn’t what saved him. Jesus fought the greater fight. He faced sin, death, and the devil, went all the way to the cross, and shed His blood for our forgiveness. We hold onto Christ only because Christ first laid hold of us.That truth became especially visible in Bill’s final days. Even as dementia took away memories and words, he could still pray the Lord’s Prayer. And when his family came to him, they found him clutching a crucifix so tightly that it had left an imprint in his hand. His hand held the crucifix because his heart held the Crucified One. More importantly, Christ was holding him.Now Bill’s fight is finished. Faith has become sight. Hope has become fulfillment. He rests with Christ, awaiting the resurrection of the body and the crown of righteousness promised to all who love Christ’s appearing.Subscribe & Share if this sermon strengthened your faith.🎧 Spotify: Christ For You
🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)
🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcastLooking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.To support the preaching of God’s Word through this podcast and other outreach efforts, visit: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZCN9/home

Making Friends | Luke 16:1-13 | Trinity 9 (Pastor Kress)

Proverbs 31:10-31 | Wedding SermonIn this wedding sermon for Kaibo and Sarah, Pastor Rojas walks through Proverbs 31 as what it actually is: the final word of a book that has spent thirty chapters training a son’s eyes toward true wisdom—not a scorecard for wives, but an oracle taught to a king by his own mother, an acrostic poem, A to Z, pointing to a woman whose strength, generosity, and fearlessness all flow from one root: the fear of the Lord.But the question “who can find her” doesn’t stop with marriage. It reaches all the way to the cross. Because none of us can earn our way into being found — not by a spouse, and not by God. We are found. Christ himself spent his life seeking a bride who could never make herself worthy, and he paid for her with his own blood. Every ounce of value you have was set not by what you’ve done, but by what he was willing to pay.This sermon is for anyone getting married, anyone already married, and anyone who has ever wondered whether they’re loved because they’re good enough — or because Someone decided they were worth everything, long before they had anything to offer.Subscribe & Share if this sermon strengthened your faith.🎧 Spotify: Christ For You🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcastLooking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.To support the preaching of God’s Word through this podcast and other outreach efforts, visit: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZCN9/home

Beware of False Prophets | Matthew 7:15-23 | Trinity 8 (Pastor Frye)

Mary Magdalene stands at the empty tomb, staring directly at the risen Jesus — and doesn’t recognize him. She mistakes her own Savior for a gardener. If the woman who watched him die can miss the resurrection standing three feet away, what hope do the rest of us have of recognizing what God is doing in our own lives?In this sermon, preached for the baptism of Mary Madeline, Pastor Rojas walks through Jesus’ resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene and shows that an empty tomb — even proof itself — is not enough to create faith. Left to ourselves, we stand in the wreckage of grace and call it an ordinary morning.But He doesn’t leave her there.Jesus doesn’t argue Mary into belief. He speaks one word — her name — and grief becomes worship. That is the same voice that spoke over Mary Madeline in her Baptism: the Good Shepherd calling his own sheep by name before they have done anything to earn the hearing of it. Faith isn’t your achievement. It’s his voice landing on you and making you his own.

How Good Is Good Enough? | Christ For YouMatthew 5:20-26 | Trinity 6How good is good enough to get into heaven? Is it enough to be a good person? To keep the Ten Commandments? To be better than average? That’s what millions of people believe. But what if Jesus says even the most outwardly righteous people who ever lived weren’t good enough?In this Trinity 6 sermon, Pastor Rojas walks through Jesus’ shocking words from the Sermon on the Mount and shows that the Fifth Commandment was never merely about murder, but about the heart. Jesus exposes the impossible standard of God’s Law, leaving every sinner without excuse and every self-righteous hope shattered.But He doesn’t leave us there.Jesus did not come merely to teach the Law. He came to fulfill it. Every commandment He kept, He kept in your place. Every act of perfect obedience was rendered on your behalf. His death forgives your sins, and His perfect righteousness is given to you as a free gift through faith. If your death should come tomorrow, your eternal life does not depend on the life you lived, but on the life Christ lived for you.If you have ever wondered, “How good do I actually have to be to get into heaven?” this sermon has the answer. And that answer is not found in you. It is found in Jesus Christ, your righteousness.Subscribe & Share if this sermon strengthened your faith.🎧 Spotify: Christ For You🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcastLooking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.To support the preaching of God’s Word through this podcast and other outreach efforts, visit: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZCN9/home

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Pastor Adam Lehman—missionary in Puerto Rico—preaches for on Luke 5. https://www.lcms.org/lehman

What He Told Me | Philippians 1:21 | The Funeral of +Steve Masters+ When death comes suddenly, grief is sharpened by the questions that linger: What would I have said? How would I have thanked him? What conversations will never happen now? But Scripture promises that even in the shock of loss, God's people are not left without comfort—or without a word. For the faithful who have gone before us speak louder in their lives than they could in any final goodbye.In this funeral sermon, Pastor Rojas reflects on the life, faith, and final confession of Steve Masters, a man whose active devotion to Christ and His Word revealed a faith that was not merely known but *lived*. Steve's battle with cancer, his unwavering presence in worship, his daily prayers, his deep knowledge of Scripture—all of it pointed to a single conviction: that his real life, his real identity, his real worth was hidden with Christ. When asked how he endured, Steve spoke words that became his sermon to everyone who loved him: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." This is a message about sudden death, unfinished conversations, the Gospel at work in a human life, and the privilege of witnessing a Christian who truly understood what it meant to belong entirely to Jesus. It is a sermon about grief, faith, and the comfort that does not change—because the Christ Steve confessed is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When's the Best Time To Praise God? | Christ For YouPsalm 138When is it okay to pray out loud at work? When should you speak up about what's true? When can you confess Christ without being ashamed?We've learned the answer: later. In church. In private. When it's safe. When everyone agrees. But what if you're waiting for a moment that never comes?David didn't wait. Surrounded by false gods, he praised the true God anyway. In the midst of trouble, he gave thanks. Not because circumstances improved. Because he knew something about God's character.So here's the question that haunts every Christian: Can you really praise God in every place and at every time? When you're surrounded by people who don't believe? When you're still suffering? When nothing has changed? When you're afraid?And more deeply: Does God still regard you if you've been silent? If you've compromised? If you've hidden your faith? What does the cross of Christ actually make possible for sinners like us?This sermon answers these questions. It shows why David's boldness wasn't arrogance—it was humility. Why Christ sang before His death. And why the right time to praise God is now. The right place is everywhere. Because in Christ, you belong to the Father. And He regards you.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouWebsite: ZionWG.orgSupport the preaching of God's Word.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

What Does He Think of Me Now? | Christ For YouLuke 15:1–32 | Trinity 3The Pharisees are offended because Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.Not respectable sinners. Not cleaned-up sinners. Tax collectors, public sinners, unclean sinners, the kind of people religious men thought God should keep at a distance.But Jesus does not apologize. He tells a story.A son runs from his father, wastes everything, destroys himself, and comes home with nothing. What will the father do? Will he shame him? Reject him? Make him earn his way back? Or will he receive him?What does this parable teach us about guilt, repentance, shame, and the heart of God? Why do we secretly imagine God keeping score? What happens when we treat forgiveness like a point system? And what does it mean that the father runs to embrace his lost son?This Trinity 3 sermon proclaims the comfort of Christ for sinners who wonder whether they have gone too far, failed too often, or come home too late. In Christ, the Father receives sinners, forgives sinners, feeds sinners, raises sinners, and brings His children home.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

What Do Our Excuses Say About Us? | Christ For YouLuke 14:15–24 | Trinity 2A man prepares a great banquet. The invitations go out. Everything is ready.And then everyone starts making excuses.Why do people stay away from God? Are they really too busy, too tired, and too overwhelmed? Or is something deeper going on? Why does Jesus say the master becomes angry? What makes an excuse so dangerous? And if we’ve all made excuses, what’s the difference between those outside the banquet and those sitting inside?Who are the poor, crippled, blind, and lame? Why does Jesus want you to see yourself among them? What does it mean that Christ not only invites sinners to His feast, but prepares the feast Himself through His death and resurrection?This Trinity 2 sermon examines what really keeps people away from God and why there is no better place to be than at Christ’s banquet.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word.

Luther on Psalm 117: The Shortest Psalm and the Whole GospelWhat can two verses possibly say? What could the shortest chapter in the entire Bible — shorter than a tweet, shorter than a paragraph — contain that the rest of Scripture doesn't already cover more thoroughly? And why would Martin Luther, the great Reformer, spend pages and pages unpacking it?Because, Luther argues, it contains everything. The whole Gospel. The entire reason the heathen — all of us — have a God at all.What does it mean that God calls all nations to praise Him? What kind of kingdom doesn't require you to move to Jerusalem, change your laws, or earn your place? What is grace, really — and if it's truly free, what does that leave us to do? And why does the man who ignited the Reformation confess that he still recites the Lord's Prayer and the Catechism every morning, like a child?Luther works through Psalm 117 in four movements — prophecy, revelation, instruction, and admonition — and at every turn the answer is the same: grace prevails. The heaven of grace is more vast than any cloud of sin or death beneath it. The ship doesn't sink just because you fall overboard. Baptism doesn't stop being Baptism just because you walked away from it.Two verses. The whole Gospel. This one's for you."The Word of the Lord abides forever."

"Preface To The Psalter" | Luther's Works, Vol. 35 | Dr. Martin LutherIn 1545, Martin Luther sat down to explain why the Psalms had meant more to him than anything else he'd ever read. His answer is not what you'd expect. It's not that they're poetic. It's not that they're ancient. It's not even that they're inspired.It's that they show you what a saint looks like on the inside.You can read a thousand biographies of holy men and women. You'll see what they did. You'll see the miracles. You'll see the sacrifice. But you won't see the fear. You won't see the doubt. You won't see what they actually said to God at 3 in the morning when everything was falling apart.The Psalms give you that.Luther says a human heart is like a ship on a wild sea. And what comes out of a person when the storm hits — that's what's real. The Psalms are what the saints said when the storm was hitting. Which means they're also what you can say.But here's the question Luther ends with — and it's uncomfortable: What happens to a people who are handed this treasure and treat it like worthless food?He watched it happen in his own day. He wondered if it would happen again.Is it happening now?

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Are You In a Spirit-Filled Church? | Christ For YouJohn 16:8–14 | PentecostA man walked into Zion, sat through the service, and left with a verdict: the Holy Spirit isn’t here. No raised hands. No tears. No electricity in the room. Just a Bible being read, doctrine being preached, and sinners sitting quietly in pews.But was he right?Is the Holy Spirit a force, an energy, a feeling — or something else entirely? Why did Pentecostalism begin only 120 years ago, and how did it become the default Christianity for millions? What happens to your faith when the feeling fades? And who controls your access to God if that access runs through your emotions?What does Jesus actually say the Holy Spirit does? Why does the Spirit refuse to point to Himself? What does it mean that He doesn’t just inform you — He declares something to you? How do you know if the Holy Spirit is working in you? And what do children receiving their first communion prove about whether the Spirit is here?Why does the Spirit come first with the Law? And how does the cross change everything?For those who are sick, aging, and dying — when the feelings are gone and you have no strength left — is the Holy Spirit still there? Who is speaking for you when you no longer have words?In this Pentecost sermon, Pastor Rojas answers every one of those questions from Scripture.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word.

Why Is This Church Still Here? | Christ For YouIsaiah 55:10–11 | 104th AnniversaryRedeemer Lutheran Church 2626 Liberty Blvd. South Gate, CA90280A congregation that once overflowed is now down to twenty people. The school is gone. The founding generation is dead. The neighborhood has changed. And the question nobody is saying out loud — but everybody is carrying — is this: Has God’s Word failed here? Has He moved on? Is this place just a monument to a better time?In this church anniversary sermon, Pastor Rojas walks into that question without flinching — and answers it from Isaiah 55. God doesn’t respond to His people’s despair with a recovery plan or a timeline. He responds the same way He always has: He gives them His Word again.What does Isaiah 55 tell a struggling, shrinking congregation about whether God’s Word is still working? Why does God hide His success in what looks like failure? What does the incarnation of Christ — a homeless preacher, abandoned by His disciples, dead in a tomb — have to do with empty pews in South Gate? What does “it shall not return to me empty” actually mean when the numbers say otherwise? And how does the cross prove, once and for all, that God defines what His Word accomplishes — and no statistic, no chart, no empty pew ever has?Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word.

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

What Does It Actually Mean to Be a Christian? | Christ For YouJames 1:22–27 | Easter 6What does it actually mean to be a Christian? Is it going to church? Holding the right doctrine? Being a good person? Everyone has an answer. And almost every answer, on its own, is completely wrong.Because James doesn’t start with what you do. He starts with whether you’re actually listening. What does it look like to hear the Word of God and walk away completely unchanged? How is it possible to sit through a sermon, say Amen, drive home — and have nothing change? And what does it mean to truly lay hold of a promise — to hear the Word and say, this is mine now?Why does James say that favoring the rich man over the poor man isn’t just rude — it’s worthless religion? Why does he hold up the widow and the orphan as the measuring stick for true Christianity — the two people who can do absolutely nothing for you? What does a mother’s love reveal about the love of God? And what does it mean that you were the orphan, the widow, the one with nothing to offer — who was given everything anyway?And what happens on your last day, when the doing is finally over, and the only thing left is what has been done for you?Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

What does Christianity actually teach?In this Adult Instruction Class, we walk through the basic teachings of the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective. We cover Scripture, God, sin, Christ, salvation, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer, worship, and the Christian life.This class is especially for those new to Christianity, those exploring Lutheranism, and those desiring to become members of the Lutheran Church. It is clear, biblical, and practical, with room for honest questions along the way.

Each class walks through what makes Lutheran doctrine distinct from other Christian denominations, following the chapters of the book The Lutheran Difference. Designed for youth in confirmation instruction, this series also welcomes anyone who wants a clear, biblical, and Confessional understanding of what Lutherans believe and why.Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

The First Communion Class is a teaching series for children ages 7 and up, walking through the basics of the Christian faith using Luther’s Small Catechism. Each episode focuses on clear explanation, repetition, and memorization of God’s Word to help children understand and prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper with faith and reverence.Subscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Each class walks through what makes Lutheran doctrine distinct from other Christian denominations, following the chapters of the book The Lutheran Difference. Designed for youth in confirmation instruction, this series also welcomes anyone who wants a clear, biblical, and Confessional understanding of what Lutherans believe and why.Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

The First Communion Class is a teaching series for children ages 7 and up, walking through the basics of the Christian faith using Luther’s Small Catechism. Each episode focuses on clear explanation, repetition, and memorization of God’s Word to help children understand and prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper with faith and reverence.Subscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Can God Sin? | Christ For YouJames 1:16–21 | Easter 5Can God sin? Can He lie? Can He change? Can He turn against you? Serious philosophers and theologians have argued yes — that omnipotence means God must have the capacity for evil, even if He never exercises it.But what if that were true? What if every promise came with an asterisk? What if His love for you was just a preference He currently holds — and preferences change? What if the goodness runs out?In this sermon, Pastor Rojas shows why that argument gets omnipotence exactly backwards. A God who could sin would be a God that evil has power over. The fact that God cannot sin means evil has zero claim on Him, zero foothold in Him, zero power over Him. That is not weakness. That is total dominion.What does James 1:17 tell persecuted, suffering Christians about the God they are tempted to doubt? What does it mean that He is the Father of lights with no variation or shadow? Why does Hebrews 6 say it is not merely that God won’t lie — but that it is impossible? What does that impossibility mean for your darkest night? What does it mean that your soul has an anchor inside the very presence of God? And how does the cross prove, once and for all, that the Father of lights has never cast a shadow in your direction — and never could?Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word.

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: [email protected]• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: [email protected]: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church