Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

Multiple studies have proven that the holiday season exacerbates mental health issues. For some, the pressure to have “a perfect Christmas” can be overwhelming. For others, their loneliness is amplified. Such people need a real Christmas, one that results in great joy. But joy is not the same thing as happiness. It is infinitely better. Happiness is an emotion. Joyfulness is a condition. Happiness comes from your circumstances. Joyfulness comes from Christ assuring you of his abiding love and your glorious future. Therefore, happiness—“holiday cheer”—is fleeting. Joyfulness is enduring. The historic Christian Church gave Latin titles to each Sunday. They titled the Third Sunday in Advent “Gaudete,” which means “Rejoice!” As we reach the midway point of Advent, we ask Christ to empower us to do just that.

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

The closer we get to Christmas, the greater the pressure. There is so much work to be done! We want our houses to look good for out-of-town guests. We want to impress people with the thoughtfulness of our gifts. What a welcome relief, therefore, to hear what is required to really be ready for Christmas: only repentance. You see, repentance is the opposite of work. It is the candid and honest admission of our sin combined with the joyful trust that everything needed to bring us close to God has already been done by Christ. At this frenetic time of year, the call to repent is not another demand to do something more. It is gracious invitation to set down our work to make way for Christ’s work. Rooted in that repentant rest, we can fully enjoy a real Christmas.

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

It is easy to get so caught up in the imagery—a tiny newborn baby, lying in the straw filled manger under a star-filled sky—that we forget the why. Why did the Son of God come into our world and take on human flesh? So that he might die as the sacrifice for our sins. One Christmas carol puts it this way. “Neither crib nor cross refuses, all he suffers for your good to redeem you by his blood.” Advent marks the start of a new Church Year. We begin at the end, watching Jesus ride into Jerusalem on a donkey colt, knowing full well that he would be killed before the end of the week. The events of Palm Sunday serve as a microcosm for all Jesus’ work, proving the Son of God was willing to humble himself and endure anything for our salvation. That is precisely why Christ came. And a real Christmas requires remembering why Christ came.

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

“Eyes on the prize.” That axiom stresses that when pursuing some good goal, focus is important. You don’t want distractions or a lack of self-discipline to keep you from obtaining whatever that prize might be. “Eyes on the prize.” You summon the willpower to fixate on that good thing. You let nothing divert your attention from obtaining the prize. The prize that we want most is spending eternity with Jesus. As the Church Year comes to a close, Jesus promises that he will come again “in clouds with great power and glory” to give us that prize. That prize will be so unbelievably good, it is worth fixating on. It merits our striving to set aside all that would distract us from Christ. Let us be ready. Let us keep watch. Let us live with our eyes on the skies.

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) affects many millions of adults. It is more than shyness. SAD includes an acute fear of being judged. An individual with SAD struggles with everyday tasks like talking to people at work or school because he is terrified that he is constantly being evaluated. Even if you don’t have that disorder, perhaps you have experienced that uncomfortable feeling that others are watching you, trying to find something to criticize. We don’t want others judging us. It is bad enough listening to the voice inside our own head, whispering that we aren’t worthy. How do we overcome the fear of judgment? It begins by realizing that there is only one person whose opinion ultimately matters—the Judge. Everyone is going to live forever in one of two very different places. Where you spend eternity depends on a judgment that Jesus will render. This week we see why his judgment need not trigger any sort of anxiety. Judgment day is something we can joyfully anticipate. We can live free from the fear of judgment.
 

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

Perhaps you have heard the axiom, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” In other words, while you still can, use what you have in order to enjoy life to the fullest. If this life is all there is, St. Paul agrees that would be a good philosophy. Paul wrote, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Corinthians 15:32). However, note the “if.” Paul was saying that the epicurean approach to life makes sense only if this life is all we have. But it isn’t. Jesus will raise us from the dead and take us to live in his home, a place of perfect comfort and beauty. Knowing that, we are set free from the need to live a self-indulgent life now. Instead, we can be generous people, using the wealth that God has given us to serve both him and others. We can live a life of startling generosity.

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

“It will get better.” We say that to try to comfort someone who is having a bad day (or maybe a whole string of bad days). Perhaps tomorrow will be better. But perhaps it’s worse. In this life, there really are no guarantees that things will get better. That isn’t the case with the life that is to come. That life isn’t just going to be better. It will be perfect.

Since the seventh century, Christians have marked a day to celebrate those who have died in faith and now realize the perfect joys of heaven. It is called “All Saints’ Day.” We thank God for bringing our Christian loved ones out of the troubles and turmoil of this world and into eternal bliss and glory. And we ask God to preserve us in our faith so that we might one day join the saints in that place where life is far more than better.

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!

Since we know we are going to live forever in the perfection of heaven, we don’t worry if being a witness for Christ brings hardship or even death. Martin Luther wanted to reform the false teaching of the church. He stood firm in the truth of the gospel, knowing it might cost him his life. But Luther knew that, thanks to Christ, he would live forever. So will we. Therefore, like Luther, let us live a life of courageous witness.

The Reformation’s main emphasis was on restoring the gospel to its rightful place in the teaching of the church.  There were many other blessings that came to us through the work of the reformers.  This year marks the 500th anniversary of the first Lutheran hymnal, often referred to as the “Achtliederbuch” which is translated the “Eight song book.”  In our service today we will consider how the reformers emphasis on gospel centered worship still impacts our lives of faith today.  This morning we will sing three of the eight hymns that were first printed in the “Achtliederbuch” which show us how music can serve to teach us the truth that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone and by Scripture alone. 

Support the show

Messages from the King is produced by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Maitland, FL.

To find out more about King of Kings...

• Please visit VisitKoK.com
• Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/visitkok)
• Email us @ [email protected]

Remember your Savior Jesus loves you! May he bless you with his grace!