Topic: forgiveness
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December 25, 2024
Series: Christmas, Nativity of Our Lord, The Gift of God
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
Have you ever opened a Christmas present and had to ask, “What is it?” Perhaps it was some new type of technology or perhaps a unique toy. You were grateful for the gift, but also not 100% certain what you were looking at. “What is it?” Today, as we look into the manger, we ask that question. In this case, the question is not quickly or easily answered. It requires both deep thought and humble awe. We are looking at the same God who once told the prophet Moses, “No one may see me and live.” Yet, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds all saw their holy God and survived. How? God became human, hiding his glory within our flesh, so that he might come to us without instilling fear or dread.
“What is it?” This gift is God and man in one person, exactly what humanity needed to deliver us from our greatest enemies: sin, death, and Satan. On the Festival of Christmas, we thank God for this greatest of gifts.
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December 24, 2024
Welcome to worship today at Morrison Zion Lutheran Church. We exist to glorify God. We… read more
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December 15, 2024
Series: A Real Christmas..., Advent, Choir Concert, Christmas
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
Advent marks the start of a new Church Year and helps us prepare for the coming our Savior. With family gatherings and shopping for presents, delicious food and Christmas songs, we feel the Christmas season is knocking at the door. The time to celebrate and remember the birth of the Savior is right around the corner. Let us come together this Advent and remember what His coming is really all about. A real Christmas results in knowing the real Jesus.
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December 11, 2024
Series: Christmas Trees, Midweek Advent
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
In recent years there has been an explosion of companies that help you trace your family tree. You can go back a dozen generations, uncovering the history of your ancestors. Tracing your family tree allows you to learn more about where you came from. . . who you are. Interestingly, St. Matthew’s Gospel begins by tracing Jesus’ family tree. There are multiple reasons for this. First, providing the genealogy of Jesus proves that he is true man, exactly what we needed our Savior to be if He was going to take our place. Second, it demonstrates God’s grace, for in Jesus’ family tree you will find individuals whose heinous sins are recorded in Scripture: murder, prostitution, etc. The Christ is not the enemy of sinners. He is our brother. Finally, this family tree shows that God keeps all his promises. God had promised multiple believers—Eve, Abraham, David—that the Savior would be one of their descendants.
This week, we look at a very different type of Christmas tree—the Tree of Promise. Christmas proves that what God says will happen happens. God promised He would become one of us to save all of us. He did just that! The Tree of Promise proves God shall keep every single promise He makes to us.
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December 8, 2024
Series: A Real Christmas..., Advent
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
Topic: Away, Change, Christmas, Faith, forgiveness, John the Baptist, Matters, Preparation, Prepare, Preparing, Repent, Repentance, Rest, Result, Salvation, sin, Start, Stress, Trust, Turn, Turning, Wilderness, Worry
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.
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December 4, 2024
Series: Christmas Trees, Midweek Advent
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
Scripture says it was hard to miss, because God placed it “in the middle of the garden”—the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve were allowed to eat from every tree in Eden except that one. Why did God forbid them from eating the fruit of that one tree? Simply so that mankind would have one way to demonstrate they loved and trusted God. By disobeying God, Adam and Eve proved they didn’t fully trust Him. More, they proved that they loved the thought of being in control more than they loved God. It was rebellion. Still today, we rebel against our good and gracious God when we love or trust anything more than Him.
That Tree of Rebellion points to the need for Christ. We needed God to send a Savior who would succeed where we fail. The Christ would be the only man who ever loved and trusted God perfectly. More, while hanging on a tree, the Christ would shed his blood for our rebellion. It is the first tree in the Bible that serves as a Christmas tree. . . a tree that points us to Christ—the Tree of Rebellion.
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November 28, 2024
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
Topic: Contentment, Encouraged, Forever, forgiveness, Gifts, Giving, God, Grace, Investments, Jesus, Life, Live, Money, Peace, Phone, Selfish, sin, Stewardship, Supplies, Taught, Taxes, Thanks, Thanksgiving
Live Like You’ll Live Forever: Live a Life of Thanks The Good of Giving (Thanks)… read more
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November 17, 2024
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
This Sunday 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, without the fear of judgement.
Today the Church hears strains of the distant triumph song and affirms, “Blessed are they who are called to the marriage feast of the Lamb. So while we wait, the Church prays, “Keep us ever watchful for the coming of your Son that we may sit with Him and all your holy ones at the marriage feast in heaven.” We celebrate those who have died in faith and now realize the perfect joys of heaven. We, with our loved ones, live free from the fear of judgment.
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November 10, 2024
Speaker: Pastor James Enderle
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.
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Improbable Not Impossible
September 2, 2025 -
Is Faith All You Need?
August 29, 2025