Sermons | Living Hope and Christ the King ELCA Lutheran Churches

On this Reformation Sunday, Pastor Daniel Flucke's sermon explores the new mission statement recently adopted by Christ the King: “Rooted in Christ, Nurturing Faith, Loving and Serving All.” What does it mean to be rooted in Christ? How are we nurturing faith? What does loving and serving all look like?

Today's Scripture readings are Colossians 2:6-8, 12-14; Psalm 67; and Luke 4:16-21 as well as Luke 4:22-30 within the sermon.

Living Hope's service for this week was a lessons and hymns service shaped around the five solas of the Reformation and did not include a full sermon.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

If God is good and powerful, why do bad things happen? This Sunday in worship, we conclude our series Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith by looking at one more unavoidable, unanswerable question (and this one’s a big one): Why do the innocent suffer? 

This week's sermon explores the problem of suffering, challenges common assumptions about God, and shares a hope rooted in Christ’s promise that love and life have the final word.

Today's Scripture readings are Genesis 1:26-31, Psalm 139:7-18, Romans 5:1-8, and Luke 13:1-5.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

As we continue our series on Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, we’re looking this week at the question of prayer. “Does Prayer Work?” Jesus invites his followers to pray, yet often, we wonder if our prayers are heard. Is God even listening? Or are we just talking to ourselves? Why aren’t our well-intentioned prayers always answered?

There’s a lot to wrestle with this week, and this sermon doesn't have clear-cut, satisfying answers. Nevertheless, join us as we dig into the purpose of prayer, and wrestle with how we faithfully go to God in prayer. Today's Scripture readings are 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10; Psalm 22:1-5, 19; and Matthew 22:18-22.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

In John 14, Jesus promises he will prepare a place for us in his Father’s house. It’s a beautiful, comforting promise. Throughout the Bible, we’re given glimpses of what that eternal home God has prepared might look like, and yet believing in heaven still requires a lot of faith. After all, no one’s ever gone there and come back!

As we continue Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, this morning we're exploring the question, Is Heaven Real? What does the Bible tell us about life after death?

Today's Scripture readings are Revelation 21:1-6; Psalm 16:1, 7-11; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; and John 6:35-40.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

As we continue Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, we're spending two Sundays exploring one of the biggest parts of our faith: Life after death. Next week we’ll look at what the Bible says about heaven, but this week we start with the other potential destination.

As Christians, we don’t need to be afraid of hell, because we are saved by grace through faith, redeemed by Jesus Christ. Because of the cross, you are saved now and forever. That’s the powerful, comforting promise given to all Christians, all who call on the name of Jesus for salvation. 

But…what about people who don’t share our faith? Is heaven limited to just those who have consciously chosen to trust in Jesus? What about people who never had even an opportunity to believe, who never heard the good news of the Gospel? What about those who lived their whole lives before Jesus, or before Christianity spread to their part of the world?

Wrestling with the question of Who’s In and Who’s Out? may not be comfortable, but it has eternal significance!

Today's Scripture readings are Isaiah 25:6-9 , Psalm 22:25-31, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, and John 17:1-5. Read the text of the sermon here.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

This week's sermon from Pastor Daniel continues our series Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, exploring some of the big questions of faith. Today's topic is The Good Book? Wrestling with the Bible, and we're exploring what it means to claim the Bible as the “inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of our proclamation, faith, and life” (that’s from our church constitution!)? Can we just reject the parts we don’t like? If we want to hold on to the good news of Jesus, do we have to accept everything in the Bible as literally, factually accurate?

Today's Scripture readings are 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Psalm 119:103-108, and John 14:1-7.  The text of the sermon is available here.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

This week's sermon is the first in a six-week series exploring some of the big questions of faith, titled Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, based on Adam Hamilton's book of the same name. We may not like to admit our doubts, but the reality is we all have doubts and questions, aspects of faith we wonder about, and if there’s anywhere we ought to be open to wrestling with doubts and questions, it’s church. 

This initial sermon in the series engages with a foundational question: “Is There a God?” Although we generally take the answer for granted, it’s a question worth exploring, and a question with which many in our world wrestle, including church people!

The Scriptures for this week are Genesis 1:1-2:4a (read in parts from The Message), Psalm 19:1-4, and John 1:1-5, 9-13. The text of the sermon is available here.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

Welcome to September! It's a busy weekend at church, with new Bibles for some of our kids, blessing teachers and students for the new school year, service projects for God's Work, Our Hands" Sunday, and most importantly, a baptism at Christ the King.

In today's Scripture readings from 1 John 3:1-3, 16-24 and Luke 15:1-10, we're going back to some basics of our faith: We are God's beloved children, called to reflect God's love by serving our neighbors. And when we wander away, God comes to find us and bring us home. Thanks be to God!

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

Thank you to Pastor Brian Halverson for leading worship and sharing a message this Sunday while Pastor Daniel is away over Labor Day weekend. Today's Scripture readings are Proverbs 25:6-7, Psalm 112, and Luke 14:1, 7-14.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/. 

As we near the end of summer, this week’s Scripture readings from Isaiah 58:9-14 and Luke 13:10-17 invite us to consider the importance of Sabbath rest time. God gives us the gift of Sabbath because we need rest. In the midst of life’s busyness, it’s important to take time to pause and reflect, to spend time in worship giving thanks for what God’s done. The prophet Isaiah makes it clear how much God values Sabbath, calling on God’s people to “refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day.”

And yet, Sabbath rest cannot be allowed to become a legalistic excuse for us to avoid helping others. When Jesus sees a woman in need, he heals her, even though it’s a Sabbath. He’s willing to endure controversy and criticism for the sake of loving one of God’s children.

Learn more about Christ the King Lutheran Church in Port Washington and Living Hope Lutheran in Saukville, Wisconsin at https://www.livinghopesaukville.org/ or https://ctkport.org/.