Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church
Crestview, Florida
Sermons
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
September 27, 2026
"Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king" (Proverbs 25:6-14). Rather, take the lowest position at the table. Humble yourself before Him. For your place in not for you to take but for Him to give. Conduct yourself with all lowliness and gentleness, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:1-6), that the King may give you glory in the presence of those at the table with you. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (St. Luke 14:1-11). Is this not the way of Christ? He is the one who took the lowest place, who humbled Himself even to the point of death for us. He is now exalted to the highest place at the right hand of the Father that penitent believers may be exalted together with Him in the resurrection. To the humble at His Supper He says, "Friend, go up higher," giving you His very Body and Blood for your forgiveness that you may ascend to take part in the great Wedding Feast which has no end.
Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity
September 20, 2026
A large funeral procession carrying the only son of a widow is confronted by another large procession, Jesus and His followers. Death and Life meet face to face at the gate of the city (St. Luke 7:11-17). Filled with compassion, Jesus comes into direct contact with our mortality in order to overcome it. He touches the coffin and speaks His creative words of life, "Young man, I say to you, arise." Jesus does what is neither expected nor requested. For through Christ, God the Father "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:13-21). Jesus bore our death in His Body that we may share in His resurrection. Even as Elijah stretched himself out three times over the Zarephath woman's son (2 Kings 17:17-24), God stretched Himself out over us in the threefold application of His Name in the baptismal water, breathing new and everlasting life into us. "To Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever."
Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity
September 13, 2026
"You cannot serve God and mammon" (St. Matthew 6:24-34), for they require two contrary forms of service. Worry is the worship given to the false god of mammon, an unbelieving anxiousness and focus on the things of this world. Faith is the worship of the true God, a confident trust that He is a loving Father who will care for all of our needs in both body and soul. The widow of Zarephath served God, that is, she believed the Word of the Lord spoken by Elijah that the bin of flour would not be used up, nor would the jar of oil run dry (1 Kings 17:8-16). He who feeds the birds and clothes the flowers will certainly provide for our daily needs. For He has already provided for our eternal needs, clothing us with Christ's righteousness in Baptism and feeding us His Body and Blood for our forgiveness. With such confidence we are liberated from worry and freed to do good with our material resources, especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 5:25-6:10).
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
September 6, 2026
The ten lepers cried out from a distance, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" (Luke 17:11-19). Their condition cut them off from God and others. So also do the works of the flesh cut us off from God and others, "Those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God" (Gal 5:16-24). Thus, we cry out with the lepers, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy," eagerly seeking His good gifts. Jesus said to the lepers, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. So too, we walk by faith and not by sight, being confident of Jesus' help before we see any evidence of it, trusting that Jesus' cleansing words of forgiveness will restore us to wholeness in the resurrection.
The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
August 30, 2026
The Law cannot help us or give us life. Rather, it confines everyone under sin as wounded and naked before God (Gal 3:15-22). So it is that two figures of the Law, the priest and the Levite, passed by the injured man on the side of the road (Luke 10:23-37). Only the promised Seed on Abraham can rescue us and make us righteous before God. Only the Samaritan, our Lord Jesus, had compassion. He came down to us in our lost and dying condition, pouring on the oil and wine of the Sacraments.
The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
August 23, 2026
A man was brought to Jesus who was deaf and therefore also had an impediment in his speech (St. Mark 7:31-37). In the same way, all are by nature deaf toward God and therefore also unable to confess the faith rightly. For "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:9-17). Jesus put His fingers into the man's ears, and He spat and touched His tongue. Even so in Holy Baptism water sanctified by the words of Jesus' mouth is applied to us; and the finger of God, that is, the life-giving Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:4-11) is put into our ears in the hearing of the baptismal Gospel.
The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
August 16, 2026
The lowly tax collector who prayed, "God be merciful to me, sinner!" was the one who went down to his house justified before God, not the respectable, outwardly righteous Pharisee who trusted in himself and his own good living (St. Luke 18:9-14). "For by grace you have been saved through faith and then not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph 2:1-10). The one who penitently despairs of his own righteousness and relies completely on the atoning mercy of God in Christ is the one who is declared righteous. For Christ died for our sins and rose again the third day (1 Cor 15:1-10). Therefore, "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church is a congregation of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod