GSLCVA Podcast

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Herndon, Virginia, is a congregation that builds up God’s people through His Word for His world. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, come join us on our YouTube and Vimeo channels, our Facebook page, our Instagram, and our website (www.gslcva.org) as we love, grow, and serve together. Connect with us on these platforms by searching for @GSLCVA or clicking the buttons below. Be blessed!

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 19MAY2024 05/19/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 19MAY2024 The voice is a powerful thing, admired by untold millions purchasing music or sitting breathlessly awaiting the winners of “American Idol” or “The Voice.” Join Pastor James as he challenges us to hear the Spirit’s voice – the source and means of our hope for this life and the next. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/31369497

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 12MAY2024 05/12/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 12MAY2024 Join us this Ascension Sunday as Pastor Johann provides us a refresher on what our mission should be…right here, right now. Often, it is easy to get lost in the details of day-to-day activities and forget our purpose. We ask the wrong questions, emphasize the wrong things, and don’t move on with the mission He has assigned us. Christ is everywhere he is here and now, calling us to be witnesses. Are you ready to tend His flock? If not now, when? /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/31249302

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 5MAY2024 05/05/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 5MAY2024 When God chose to love us, it was His choice. Join Pastor James as he discusses how because of God’s choosing us we are empowered and filled with His love and must then resolve to live out that same love each and every day of our lives. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/31128733

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 27APR2024 04/28/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 27APR2024 The linkage between our love for each other and God’s love for us is a distinctly Christian message from today’s epistle reading. Join us today as Pastor Johann discusses how God is love, love is an action of God, and love is an example through Jesus’s atoning sacrifice for our sins. When we abide in God by loving each other, God’s purpose in loving us in completed. We are saved by Christ and are assured of this by loving as He did. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/31014673

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 21APR2024 04/21/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 21APR2024 Anyone can say, “I love you.” Words are cheap and the meaning can be lost. Even today as Christians, we use the same phrase. What is the Christian meaning of love? Join Pastor James as he delves into our response to God’s great love as we seek to define Christian love through the lives we live. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30917163

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 14APR2024 04/14/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 14APR2024 Have you ever wondered, “What is the point of the Resurrection?” Is it simply about Jesus’ offering of peace? Join Pastor Johann as he discusses the Resurrection. It happened because the Messiah was meant to suffer and to rise from the dead; it provides a basis for us to wake up and ask for repentance and forgiveness of sins; and finally it allows us to proclaim this message and bear witness of the good news of the Resurrection. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30812083

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 7APR2024 04/07/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 7APR2024 “Peace be with you,” Jesus said to His disciples locked behind doors. Join Pastor James as he discusses today’s Gospel. Assuring us that with Jesus’ peace-bearing presence, we have a secure foundation in a Savior who accepts us as and where we are. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30714738

GSLCVA Easter Sunday Sermon 31MAR2024 03/31/2024

GSLCVA Easter Sunday Sermon 31MAR2024 Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Throughout Lent, we have heard a drumbeat call from God to return to Him, and today we rejoice that this call was issued so that we might have life in abundance through the One who lived, died, and rose again to secure our salvation. Join Pastor Johann as he discusses how we are called to come and see the Christ; to see the salvation won for us; to see the life that He has secured; and to see the Word that we are to share with others. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30609163

GSLCVA Good Friday Sermon 29MAR2024 03/30/2024

GSLCVA Good Friday Sermon 29MAR2024 The author of creation hangs on the cross, wracked with pain and writhing in agony. It is almost unbearable to look on this scene, and yet without it we would be lost forever, still trapped in our sins. As we gather tonight to remember the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for each of us, may we focus on the One who is the way and the truth and the life, even Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30601668

GSLCVA Maundy Thursday Sermon 28MAR2024 03/29/2024

GSLCVA Maundy Thursday Sermon 28MAR2024 Join us this Maundy Thursday as Pastor Johann discusses how Jesus invites us to join Him at the Table. He repeats this invitation repeatedly, because He feeds us in order to build us up and strengthen our faith. His invitation draws us into a place where we have fellowship with all believers. Yet, our fellowship is stained by sin. To remedy our sin Jesus gives us His own body and blood with a promise, to make all things new and share the fruit of the vine with Christ Himself. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30592293

GSLCVA Palm Sunday Sermon 24MAR2024 03/24/2024

GSLCVA Palm Sunday Sermon 24MAR2024 Today is Palm|Passion Sunday, it is one of the more cluttered and confusing liturgical days of the church year. In celebration of Palm|Passion Sunday, today we remember a parade deliberately staged by Jesus. Join Pastor James as he focuses on the cheers of Hosanna during that parade, shortly followed by the jeers of the crucifixion on Good Friday. The parade and crucifixion both unwittingly show humankind’s part in highlighting God’s great love for each of us as sinners. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30515243

GSLCVA Lent Week 5 Sermon 20MAR2024 03/20/2024

GSLCVA Lent Week 5 Sermon 20MAR2024 What does Jesus mean when he refers to “the kingdom of God?” Pontius Pilate wrestled with this exact question asking, “What is truth?” How do we navigate the waters of worldly authority and stay true to the eternal authority of God? Join us today as Pastor James discusses how Jesus is our King in a way that no earthly authority could ever comprehend. He loves and provides for His subjects, leads by example, and offers Himself to ensure the salvation of His people. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30459543

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 17MAR2024 03/17/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 17MAR2024 In today’s Gospel reading, some Greeks come to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” They wanted to see Jesus, which in John's gospel, is closely connected with believing. Join Pastor James as we, on our journey to the cross, come to understand that in the end, you don't have to see Jesus in a physical sense to come to know Jesus through faith. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30405408

GSLCVA Lent Week 4 Sermon 13MAR2024 03/13/2024

GSLCVA Lent Week 4 Sermon 13MAR2024 Join us this Lenten Wednesday as Pastor Johann discusses Peter’s denials of Jesus. Like Peter, we too may shrink from our faith. The pressures of living in a culture that does not recognize Jesus as Lord and God can be significant and may lead us to soft-pedal our beliefs or even to outright deny Jesus. However, Jesus will have the last word. He will forgive us, restore us, and send us out with a task to complete. He calls us to return to Him, to return from denial. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30360863

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 10MAR2024 03/10/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 10MAR2024 In today’s gospel, John 3:16, Jesus articulates, as Luther says, “the Gospel in a nutshell.” God is fundamentally a God of love, love is the logic by which the kingdom of God runs, and God’s love trumps everything else; even justice, in the end. Join Pastor James as he speaks to how frightening it can be to be so utterly dependent on God, and understanding that it is about God’s boundless love in the gift and exaltation of Jesus Christ. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30305183

GSLCVA Lent Week 3 Sermon 6MAR2024 03/06/2024

GSLCVA Lent Week 3 Sermon 6MAR2024 Join us this Lenten Wednesday when Pastor James discusses Judas’s betrayal and where the sin of false witness prevails. The false witness of Jesus’ sham trial is evident, however ours is seldom so. In what ways do we bear false witness? How do our failures lead us away from God? God calls us to turn from our sin, to look to Him, and to find our rest and identity in Him. When we do, Jesus takes our sins—even our false witness against Him—and offers us forgiveness. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30258003

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 3MARCH2024 03/03/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 3MARCH2024 The true power of the cross can be hard to see. In religious culture, it is an icon, yet in the first century, it was a gruesome capital punishment device. Join us as Pastor Johann discusses the message of the cross. To those perishing it is foolish; to those being saved, it is the power of God. The cross shows us the broad love of God, reminds us that God’s ways are not worldly ways, and points to grace and unto salvation. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30205188

GSLCVA Lent Week 2 Sermon 28FEB2024 02/28/2024

GSLCVA Lent Week 2 Sermon 28FEB2024 Join us as Pastor Johann explores betrayal, specifically the ways that we betray one another and Jesus through our denials and rejection of faith. We live in a culture that prides itself on rejecting the morality that Jesus taught. Whether it is failing to acknowledge our faith or embracing our own sinful urges, it is too easy to turn away from God and betray Jesus. Yet Jesus did not avoid betrayal and accepted the consequences to ensure that all who believe in Him are free. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30154398

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 25FEB2024 02/25/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 25FEB2024 In the Gospel for this week, Jesus tells his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Join Pastor James as he discusses the expectations and impact of the cross upon each of us as we face just what the “how” of that is on our journey of cross carrying and denying ourselves. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30095148

GSLCVA Lent Week 1 Sermon 21FEB2024 02/21/2024

GSLCVA Lent Week 1 Sermon 21FEB2024 Today’s sermon focuses our attention on Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane and explores the topic of prayer. God commands us to pray, but we seldom do a very good job of it. Join us today as Pastor James discusses prayer. When God calls us to pray, He provides us the means to pray, and even fulfills what we ourselves are unable to do. Jesus takes our sins upon Himself and dies on the cross, satisfying the wrath of God and fulfilling what we ourselves are unable to do. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/30050858

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 18FEB2024 02/18/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 18FEB2024 Sometimes in our faith walk, we give up something intentionally, as a homage to the Lord’s suffering. We try to create a desert-like experience, highlighting our mortality and the fragility of life. This desert wilderness is a place of loss and grief, where we face our lack of power. Join us today as Pastor Johann discusses how the wilderness is where we discover who we are, whose we are, and what matters…being filled with gratitude and appreciation for today, and being fully alive in Christ. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29999968

GSLCVA Ash Wednesday Sermon 14FEB2024 02/15/2024

GSLCVA Ash Wednesday Sermon 14FEB2024 God calls us into relationships with Him and with other Christians, people who walk the path with us and share their blessings. Join us as Pastor Johann sets the stage for Lent, a path where we learn from our brothers and sisters in the faith, and where their stories illuminate and direct our own stories. God’s call is a call to join Jesus on a path of pain and suffering. But, it is a call that leads to everything but destruction; it leads to blessings from God and eternal life in Christ. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29956203

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 11FEB2024 02/11/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 11FEB2024 The Transfiguration describes a mountaintop experience, where the disciples wanted to worship and stay with Christ. Today we often want a similar experience, striving for highpoints, shunning the low points. Join us today as Pastor James discusses how life is about coming down from the mountaintop into the sinful world, with low points and not just highpoints. The Transfiguration reminds us who gives us true glory, forgiveness, and eternal life, which has little to do with our highs and lows. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29889033

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 4FEB2024 02/04/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 4FEB2024 Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal, inseparable, interpenetrating, and causing no division. Join us today as Pastor Johann discusses how we need healing, as we are beset by many problems. Jesus represents more than physical healing, He represents eternal healing, as He is the truth and the way to true peace. Jesus is intent on bringing us around to the life we are intended to live, where the greatest are the servants of all. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29786143

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 28JAN2024 01/28/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 28JAN2024 When we hear the words “because I said so,” we recognize that that person speaks with authority. Join Pastor James as he walks through today’s gospel text seeking an understanding that because Jesus said so, His authority came not from rank or position. Instead, His wisdom came from His competence in interpreting God’s Word, so that we will understand His desire that all His children enjoy health and life. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29677363

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 21JAN2024 01/21/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 21JAN2024 Jesus says to the disciples and to you “follow me.” This is not just an invitation to go; it’s also an invitation to leave behind earthly pursuits. Join us today as Pastor Johann discusses how we accept Jesus’ invitation to follow, not by packing up, but by letting go. By letting go, where we hear the call to a new life, where we are changed and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. “Follow me” is Jesus’ call to participate with God in God’s own saving work by discovering God’s divinity within us. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29577478

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 14JAN2024 01/14/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 14JAN2024 There is a lot of “finding” in John’s quirky account on the calling of Jesus’ disciples. Join Pastor James as he shares our calling as Christians, to share the gospel with others. It is through our inviting, going, and showing that those “found” may also take part in finding and sharing in God’s grace-given promise through faith to be with him in eternity. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29475223

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 7JAN2024 01/07/2024

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 7JAN2024 Join us today as Pastor Johann discusses how we are recreated in baptism just like the image of creation in Genesis, where the Spirit of God moved over the waters. Mark’s gospel makes it clear that it is the Spirit’s movement that distinguishes Jesus’ baptism from John’s. The Spirit has come upon us like Jesus and the Ephesians, calling us God’s beloved children. Through baptism, we are set on Jesus’ mission to recreate the world in the image of God’s vision of justice and peace. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29369923

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 31DEC2023 12/31/2023

GSLCVA Sunday Sermon 31DEC2023 Christmas has come and gone and the New Year lays directly ahead. Join Pastor James as he shares carrying Christmas beyond December 25 and into everyday of our lives, shining the light and living the God-given promises seen through the manger and on the cross. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29283443

GSLCVA Christmas Eve Sermon 24DEC2023 12/25/2023

GSLCVA Christmas Eve Sermon 24DEC2023 During this season of giving, we often look for examples of goodwill through Saint Nicholas giving his presents, Luke’s Christmas account, and the message of world peace. Humanity achieves peace with God through Jesus Christ filling our hearts with generosity and compassion, so that others may experience the same. When peace is present, goodwill abounds. Join us today as Pastor Johann discusses the meaning of peace and goodwill, how it is God’s will, and a message of God’s undying love for all. /episode/index/show/gslcva/id/29219933

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