St. Paul Lutheran is a vibrant Church serving Westlake, OH with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our sermon podcast focuses on biblically sound, Scripturally centred teaching with relevant application.
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When we are traveling on a road trip, we need all sorts of help to reach our destination: GPS navigation, maps, signs on the road, maybe others in the car shouting out instructions, etc. And even with all of that sometimes we STILL make a wrong turn or arrive at the wrong place! How much more do we need guidance in reaching our eternal destination? Deuteronomy chapter 6 talks about the importance of being constantly surrounded and impacted by God’s Word. Unless we are meditating upon His Word throughout the day, every day of our lives, we are prone to make wrong turns, miss exits, and arrive a
In Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman comes boldly to Jesus asking for him to heal her demon possessed daughter. After Jesus remains silent, and even tells her no, she boldly continues to bring her request to him, acknowledging he owes her nothing. Pastor Josh explores this bold, yet humble faith this woman shows, and how it applies to our lives.
The Old Testament “Great Commission” is from Isaiah: “Make known among the nations what He has done and proclaim His name” Yes, we need to not only believe in our heart that Jesus rose from the dead, but we need to confess with our mouth that “Jesus is Lord”.
In this well-known miracle story about how Jesus feeds a crowd of over five thousand people, we see a powerful demonstration of the compassion of God. In this story, Jesus has compassion on the crowds because of all the sick people He sees, so He heals them. But throughout His ministry, multiple times Matthew tells us that Jesus had compassion on others. His compassion extends to the whole person–physically and spiritually. God is concerned about ALL the needs that people have. Sometimes we (just like the disciples in this story) do not look to Jesus for help with our needs, or we figure that
Have you ever felt lingering guilt or like you "can't forgive yourself"? Pastor Josh explores this as he explores the text from Romans 8 and how, "there is no one to bring condemnation against you."
Most of the parables Jesus tells contain some surprising element. Sometimes the surprising element is how the kingdom of heaven looks–specifically, that the kingdom looks unusual or wrong in some way. This is the case in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Jesus tells this parable to acknowledge that the kingdom doesn’t look quite the way many people might expect. Yet, Jesus also tells this to reassure His disciples that He will work things out according to His perfect will. Things do not look right now…but in His time, He will set all things right. We trust in God’s perfect patience, and
In one of Jesus’ most well-known parables, he compares spreading God’s word to a sower spreading seeds. Jesus says something crazy, though- to spread the seed even in places where it might not grow. Why? Because when we spread God’s word, we don’t know what kind of soil it will land on. Pastor Josh dives into this text from Matthew 13, and seeks to equip us to be ready to spread God’s word to all.
Are you caught in the spin cycle of life's endless demands? Drawing from Matthew 11:28, Chaplain (COL) Gary Hill shares how Jesus invites the weary and burdened to find lasting rest through His forgiveness, faithful promises, and victory over sin and death.
You’ve heard the phrase “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” It means you better make sure you have what you need, what is appropriate. Jesus declares that He has come not to bring peace, but rather a sword. This may be confusing because elsewhere the angels say that Jesus did come to bring peace on earth! What Jesus means is that there is a time to bring peace, and there is also a time to bring a sword. Jesus does not come to speak peace to a world ruled by sin. This would only serve to solidify their sinfulness and condemn all people! Jesus comes to bring a sword–His ministry will cause divi
In Romans, Paul sets up a scenario: serving an old master or a new one, sin or Jesus. While the choice might seem obvious to us all, we struggle to follow through on living that out. Join Pastor Josh as he dives into Romans 6 and discusses this problem, and what hope there is for us.
Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew chapter 9 to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. Jesus says this after seeing lost sheep, harassed and helpless, and having compassion on them. There are plenty of people who are lost and in need of a Savior. There are relatively few people actively laboring to bring them to Jesus. Just a couple of verses later, at the start of chapter 10, Jesus answers the disciples’ prayer…by sending THEM! Isn’t that just the way things are sometimes? We pray for something, and God uses US to answer the prayer! In this sermon we will take se
Is the church a hospital for the sick or a hotel for the holy? Are sinners welcomed into the doors of the church building, or do you need to be “this holy” to enter? How we show either judgement or love to those viewed as “sinners and tax collectors” today makes an impact on if someone ever comes into the building. Join Pastor Josh as he dives deep into the Matthew 9 text and how it applies to us today.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, Pastor Smith explores how we can know the Triune God. This does not necessarily mean understanding all the inner workings and the mysteries of the Trinity. The best way we can know God is seeing what He does, all the saving actions He takes for us throughout history. We know the various roles the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have, but there are many aspects that are beyond our comprehension of how the Trinity fits together and functions. If you ever feel like it’s hard to know God, just remember that everything we need to know about God has been revealed in Je
Don’t you wish you had a sign from God about if you’re making the right decision in big moments in your life? The Israelites wanted confirmation (a sign) that the 70 elders were rightful authorities under Moses and God, so God made them prophesy. The disciples were waiting for the Holy Spirit, and the tongues of fire (along with speaking in tongues) was a sign to them. What’s our sign that Jesus is alive in us? Join Pastor Josh as he discusses this in his sermon.
Pastor Smith’s sermon this week is based on Revelation 21:1-8; 22-27 and the concept of the new heavens and new earth. We have a wonderful eternity in store for us. This keeps us going as we work our way through life in this broken, sinful world. This sermon uses the concept of a “vision board”--people have pictures of dream houses, vacations, promotions at work, children/grandchildren, etc. that they post and it helps keep them moving toward their goals when things get difficult. Similarly, Jesus keeps going toward the cross for the joy that was set before him. Like Paul in Romans 8, we consi
Peter, in his first letter, is writing Christians who are being heavily persecuted for their faith. He tells them, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.” Pastor Josh dives into this and discusses how we, as Christians, should act and treat others when we are “squeezed” and mistreated.
Ephesians 2:8-9 is a critically-important passage for us to know that we have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. We have no credit when it comes to our salvation–all the glory goes to God! And we Christians love and cherish these verses…but sometimes we stop reading before we get to 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We can certainly do the good works God has prepared for us without mistakenly thinking we are saved by our good works! The rest of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is full
We all deal with suffering at different points in our lives. What do we do with it? Many people try to numb or ignore it, but Paul tells us to rejoice in it. Pastor Josh dives deeper into what that means and what that looks like.
In Thessalonica Paul and Silas begin to preach the Crucified and Risen Jesus as Lord and King, just as they do wherever they go on their missionary journeys. They usually receive mixed reviews when they do this–some hear and believe the news about Jesus, while others hear, get angry, and try to imprison or kill them. This particular time the opponents of Paul and Silas say something especially interesting: “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also…and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” In this sermon, Pastor
At Jesus’ ascension, the disciples stared into heaven, waiting for Jesus to return. They were brought back down to earth as they were reminded by the angels that yes, Jesus will come, but there’s work to do in the meantime. The same is still true for us today- that we have work to do while we are waiting for Jesus to return. Join Pastor Josh as he dives into this passage.
Throughout Lent we have looked at six of the seven “I Am” statements of Jesus. We’ve saved the best one for last here on Easter Sunday– “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.” We look at John 11 and the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. We see in this account three major differences in the way Jesus deals with death vs. how the world deals with death. How you deal with death says a lot about your belief system and what you think happens at death and after death. Death is terrible--do you try to minimize or ignore it, or do you treat it as the enemy, something worth crying about? Deat
There is one thing all people in the world have in common: one day, we will all die. This may seem like a grim outlook, but it’s a reality we all will face. But Jesus’ claim that he is the resurrection and the life is the hope that we have in the face of death. Join Pastor Josh as he dives into this claim from Jesus found in John 11.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus rides into Jerusalem and is praised by the crowds. It seems to be a good start to the week…although we know what ends up happening. In this passage from John 12, we see some interesting things going on. Greeks are seeking Jesus. His enemies are making plans to kill him. And Jesus declares that it’s time for Him to be glorified. However, the type of glory Jesus is talking about is not what anyone else expects. It involves dying and being buried. On this Palm Sunday we will reflect on what kind of Jesus we expect to see, and which Jesus we end
This week we read about that sharp shift in the story of Holy Week in which now Jesus’ suffering and death becomes inevitable. He’s been predicting that it will happen, we’ve seen His enemies making their plans, and now finally things that have been long foretold are set into motion. It is interesting to see how Jesus responds as these things unfold. In the past He has used His divine power to ward off physical danger and verbal traps. But now on this Thursday evening…Jesus changes course. He doesn’t take any action to protect Himself. Rather, each thing He says or does actually hurts His caus
In America today, a lot of people have the mentality that faith is just a matter of “me and Jesus.” In John 17, Jesus’ high priestly prayer, he prays for all Christians- that they would be one. Join Pastor Josh as he dives into what that actually looks like in our lives as followers of Jesus.
