Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song And Praise

This is a special musical performance of Guide My Feet by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with a solo performance by Chris Lewis.

This is a special musical performance of I Will Call Upon His Name by the Joyful Noise children's choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical performance by the Joyful Noise children's choir of There's Just Something About That Name.

For those of you familiar with William Shakespeare’s work you will remember that one of the lines from his play The Tempest is “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”  Over time, that line has morphed into the phrase, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.”  Now, while this might be applicable to our time, it has been true of time immemorial.  In fact, we find that is exactly what is happening in today’s gospel reading as the Pharisees and Herodians team up to trick and trap Jesus. For the past few weeks, we have been journeying with Jesus through the last week of his life, a week that has been intense to say the least.  Just a few days before today’s confrontation, Jesus had entered Jerusalem where he was greeted by throngs of people shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  Then there was that incident where he overthrew the tables of the Temple money-changers.  Jesus has spent the week challenging both the political and religious powers that be.  He has been doggedly confronted by the religious lead

This is a special musical performance of Lord of the Dance by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir.

Today we had a special sermon about the Tanzania Water Project that Faith Lutheran Church has been supporting over the last year. 

This is a special musical performance from the Faith Lutheran Church Chancel Choir of All My Days with a solo performance from Tammy Heilman.

As we begin to delve into today’s readings, I invite you to look at the beginning words in your bulletin.  There we read: Open a newspaper, turn on the TV, read online – everywhere we look, the world is crumbling about us.  War, violence, natural disasters, hateful words, anger, and hostility litter our cultural landscape like so much garbage along a highway.  Even within our own homes, sin, death, and the devil seem to have the upper hand.  Anger, betrayal, mistrust, and manipulation hang rotting on the vine, rather than the lush, sweet grapes of love, care and forgiveness we expect and desire.  And if we take but a moment for self-reflection, we notice that it is our own selfishness and hard-heartedness that contribute to this state of affairs.  We are indeed “captive to sin and cannot free ourselves” as we confess in worship.            These words were not written this past week.  They were written almost two years ago for this Sunday by a handful of leaders in our denomination as they formed and created

This is a special musical performance by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir of Jesus, Clear The Temple.

Charles Campbell, professor of homiletics at Duke University, offers this great commentary about having a conversation with Jesus.  He writes: A few years ago, while channel surfing, I paused and watched part of an interview with television psychologist and celebrity Dr. Phil.  At one point the interviewer asked Dr. Phil, “If you could interview anyone in the world, past or present, who would it be?”  Dr. Phil replied, without hesitation, “Jesus Christ.  I would really like to interview Jesus Christ.  I would like to have a conversation with him about the meaning of life.”  As soon as Dr. Phil spoke, I remember thinking, “Oh no, you wouldn’t!  You would not want to sit down with Jesus, treat him like an interviewee, and ask him about the meaning of life.  You would be crazy to do that.  He would turn you upside down and inside out.  He would confound all your questions and probably end up telling you to sell everything you own, give the money to the poor, and come, follow him.  No, Dr. Phil, you do not really

This is a special musical performance of One Step He Leads by the Faith Lutheran Church of Okemos, Michigan's Chancel Choir.

Come and learn from the Gospel of Matthew and what Jesus tells us about living life even when life does not seem fair. 

This is a special Sermon on Matthew 18: 21-22 by Visiting Minister, Erick Johnson.

This is a special performance by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir of When We Are Living!

A special musical performance of Chorale St Antoni by the Faith Bells Handbell Choir!

This is a special musical performance by the Faith Lutheran Church Chancel Choir of There's a Church Within Us by Schneider-Hustad.

There is an old story about two men who lived in a small village.  These two men got into a terrible dispute which they could not resolve.  So, they decided to talk to the town sage. The first man went to the sage's home and told his version of what happened. When he finished, the sage said, "You're absolutely right." The next night, the second man called on the sage and told his side of the story. The sage responded, "You're absolutely right." Afterward, the sage's wife scolded her husband saying, "Those men told you two different stories and you told them they were absolutely right. That's impossible -- they can't both be absolutely right." The sage turned to his wife and said, "You're absolutely right." While that story is rather humorous, it is descriptive of life within community when people don’t want to face conflict.  Too often, disagreements and differences just simmer below the surface and people are never honest with each other.  And, as we think about life within the church, many people tend to th

I am sure many of you have played that popular children’s game, Follow the Leader.  It is a game that can provide so much fun and laughter.  However, the "game" gets quite complicated if the leader goes where followers don't want to go.  For example, if the leader begins crossing a narrow beam over a high crevice, or runs across a busy street, or squeezes through the entrance to a dark cave, these actions present challenges that are not fun, but daunting and dangerous.  That is when most of us would probably opt out of playing the game. Today, Jesus is telling the disciples what it really means to follow him as their leader.  He is alarmingly blunt about what it means to follow him, and Peter does not want to go there.  So, Peter and the other disciples are given a lesson that is all about Following the Leader, Jesus style!  Peter has just experienced a monumental come to Jesus moment where he responded to Jesus saying, “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”  Jesus had just called Peter

This is a special musical performance by Lully from Faith Lutheran member Drew Williams!

I suspect some of you have experienced “come to Jesus moments” in your life.  Such moments are epiphanies in which one realizes the truth of a matter.  A come to Jesus moment can be described as a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something.  Maybe your come to Jesus moment involved coming clean and admitting failures.  Or, maybe it was realizing the true weight or impact of some situation.  A come to Jesus moment can be a time of realization, a moment of decision, a moment of truth, a critical moment, or a moment in which one reassesses priorities.  Quite often such moments in our lives mark a turning point and they are life-changing. Today, when we meet up with Jesus and his band of twelve bumbling misfits, we hear about Peter experiencing a come to Jesus moment.  Jesus has been traveling with his disciples, teaching, listening, and reaching out to people.  There was a divine energy being released into the world through him and it included a passion for just