Christ For You

Mark 6:14–29 | Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

Why did Herod keep listening to John the Baptist if John’s preaching troubled him so deeply? Why do we gladly hear sermons about other people’s sins, but become defensive when the Word turns toward us? And what should we do when a sermon makes us uncomfortable?

In this sermon for the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, Pastor Rojas reflects on Herod’s strange response to John: he feared him, protected him, was perplexed by him, and yet kept listening gladly.

The problem wasn’t that Herod hated preaching. He loved preaching, until the sermon confronted the sin he refused to give up. The same danger faces us. We can admire faithful preaching, listen to endless sermons and podcasts, and still avoid repentance by surrounding ourselves only with voices that tell us what we want to hear.

So what do you do when God’s Word exposes your sin? Repent. Not by punishing yourself or earning your way back to God, but by stopping your excuses, confessing the truth, and running to Christ.

John preached repentance because Christ had come. The same Word that exposes your sin points you to the Lamb of God who takes it away. Jesus carried every sin the sermon uncovers to the cross, died for it, and rose again to give you forgiveness, resurrection, and everlasting life.

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Looking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.

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What Does It Cost To Join The Church? | John 1:43–51 | St. Bartholomew

What 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.

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🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)
🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcast

Looking 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 11

Why 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.

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Looking for a faithful Confessional Lutheran church in the Winter Garden, Florida area? We’d love to welcome you to Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.

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Does God Actually Want Us To Rebuild The Temple? | Luke 19:41–48 | Trinity 10

In 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.

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Looking 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” Schmidt

In 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.

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🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)
🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcast

Looking 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 Sermon

In 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.

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🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)

🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcast

Looking 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 You

Matthew 5:20-26 | Trinity 6

How 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.

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🇧🇷 Portuguese Podcast (“Cristo Para Você”)

🌐 Website: https://www.zionwg.org/podcast

Looking 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