Christ For You

Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.org• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.orgWebsite: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Why Did Jesus Tell Them to Sit? | Christ For YouText: John 6:1–15 | Lent 4 Why would Jesus tell a starving crowd to sit down when there was no food in sight? Why command thousands of hungry people to recline as if a feast were about to begin when all they could see were five loaves and two fish? And why does God so often speak first and only later show His people why His Word was true all along?In this sermon on the feeding of the five thousand, Pastor Rojas explores the strange command at the center of the miracle and shows how the Lord repeatedly teaches His people to trust His Word before they can see the answer. From Noah building the ark before the rain, to Israel eating the Passover before the exodus, to singers praising God before Jehoshaphat’s battle, God calls His people to act on His promises before the victory is visible. And nowhere is that clearer than at the cross, where Jesus told His disciples not to let their hearts be troubled and that their sorrow would turn to joy—before they realized His death would save the world.This sermon shows how Christ trains His people to pray before they have a solution, to trust before they understand, and even to praise God while the problem is still there. Because when Jesus speaks, His Word comes first—and later we see that He was right all along.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word.

How Should We Remember Him? | Hebrews 13:7–8 | The Funeral of Pastor George E. Poulos, Jr. At the funeral of a faithful pastor, God tells His people exactly what to do: remember him. But how do Christians remember a pastor rightly? Not merely by recalling his personality, humor, or habits, but by remembering the Word of God he preached and by holding fast to the Christ he proclaimed.In this funeral sermon on Hebrews 13:7–8, Pastor Rojas reflects on the life, faith, and final confession of Pastor George Poulos, and calls mourners to the one thing George himself would want them to remember above all: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for sinners. This is a sermon about grief, death, faith, resurrection, and the comfort that does not change, because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Why Doesn’t God Do More? | Christ For YouText: Luke 11:14–28 | Oculi SundayWhy does it feel like God has not done enough? Has He not given enough proof? Enough help? Enough comfort? Enough answers? Jesus casts out a demon from a mute man, and still the crowd splits. Some believe. Some marvel. Some demand more. Some call the work of God the work of the devil. The problem was not a lack of evidence. The problem was unbelief.And that same problem still lives in us. We want God to prove Himself on our terms. We want “enough” to mean no pain, no waiting, no losses, and relief right now. But God’s definition of “enough” is far greater: Christ crucified for sinners, the blood that covers every sin, the Word that creates faith, the Baptism that claims you, the absolution that frees you, and the body and blood of Jesus given for you. In this sermon, Pastor Rojas preaches on unbelief, the bondage of the sinful heart, Christ as the Stronger Man who invades Satan’s kingdom, and why faith does not come by seeing more, but by hearing the Word of Christ.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word

Each class walks through what makes Lutheran doctrine distinct from other Christian denominations, following the chapters of the book The Lutheran Difference. Designed for youth in confirmation instruction, this series also welcomes anyone who wants a clear, biblical, and Confessional understanding of what Lutherans believe and why.Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.orgWebsite: ZionWG.orgIf this strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

The First Communion Class is a teaching series for children ages 7 and up, walking through the basics of the Christian faith using Luther’s Small Catechism. Each episode focuses on clear explanation, repetition, and memorization of God’s Word to help children understand and prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper with faith and reverence.Subscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.org• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.orgWebsite: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word

At What Point Should I Just Stop Praying? | Christ For YouText: Matthew 15:21–28 | Lent 2 (Historic One-Year Lectionary)What do you do when nothing changes, when your prayers go unanswered? When God feels silent, do you assume silence means “no”? Do you quit hoping and call it “being reasonable”?This Gospel puts you in the middle: a Canaanite woman cries for mercy, and Jesus does not answer her a word. The Law exposes us. We don’t just want answers, we want control. We want God on our timeline, and when He delays, we start translating delay into indifference.But faith refuses to turn silence into a verdict. She comes closer, kneels, and prays, “Lord, help me.” She confesses she deserves nothing and still clings to Christ: “Even the dogs eat the crumbs.” Even “unanswered” prayers are still heard by God. His silence is not His absence.Then the Gospel: look to Jesus in Gethsemane. The Father does not remove the cup. The answer is the cross, for you. Jesus bears the forsakenness you deserve so you can pray “Our Father” with confidence. All God’s promises find their “Yes” in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20). So stay at Jesus’ feet, and keep praying.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word

Each class walks through what makes Lutheran doctrine distinct from other Christian denominations, following the chapters of the book The Lutheran Difference. Designed for youth in confirmation instruction, this series also welcomes anyone who wants a clear, biblical, and Confessional understanding of what Lutherans believe and why.Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.orgWebsite: ZionWG.orgIf this strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word

Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran ChurchSubscribe & Share:• Apple Podcasts: Christ For You• Spotify: Listen on Spotify• Website: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:• Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.org• Website: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.orgWebsite: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word

Subscribe & Share:Apple Podcasts: Christ For YouSpotify: Listen on SpotifyWebsite: ZionWG.org/podcastStay Connected:Email: PastorRojas@ZionWG.orgWebsite: ZionWG.orgIf this recording strengthened your faith, share it with others and leave a review. Your support helps more people hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you.Support Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Why Is This Happening To Me? | Christ For YouText: Genesis 3:19; 1 Corinthians 4:7 | Ash WednesdayWhen life hurts, do you put God on trial? When life goes well, do you take the credit? Have you prayed, “God, why is this happening to me?” like an accusation? Like you deserve better? Like God owes you answers?Ash Wednesday cuts you off. What do the ashes say about you? What do they silence? What do they expose? Are you dust? Mortal? A sinner? Then what is left to do but repent?Scripture presses harder: “What do you have that you did not receive?” Did you give yourself breath? Keep your heart beating? Hold your life together for one second? If you want “credit,” will you take it for what is truly yours: sin and the death it brought? And if suffering is not always tied to one specific sin, do you still see its root in the fall and the curse?Then the Gospel: Jesus takes what you earned, guilt, shame, curse, death, and bears it on the cross. Why was He forsaken? For you. What do you get instead? Forgiveness. Peace with God. Life. So where will you take your “why” now? Will you go looking for explanations, or will you go to Christ who gives Himself to sinners?Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you?Support the preaching of God’s Word

How Do You Know Your Faith Is Real? | Christ For YouText: Luke 18:31–43 | QuinquagesimaMost people say they believe. They know the words. They know the stories. They know the Lutheran slogans. But what if you can be close to Jesus and still miss Him, like the disciples did? What is true, saving faith? What makes faith faith? And how do you know you actually have it?Jesus answers on the road to Jerusalem. He tells the Twelve, with terrifying clarity, that He will suffer, be killed, and rise again, and they cannot “put it together.” They expect glory, not a cross. But a blind beggar sees what they don’t. He hears the promise, confesses Jesus as the Son of David, and cries out for mercy. That is saving faith: the heart’s confidence in God’s mercy for Christ’s sake, clinging to the crucified and risen Savior “for you.”And the comfort is stronger than the doubt: Jesus still stops. He still hears the cry for mercy. He still gives what He promises through His Word, forgiveness, and His gifts. If you want to know whether your faith is real, don’t stare inward. Look to Christ where He has promised to be for you.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you? Support the preaching of God's Word

Can We Lose Our Salvation? | Christ For YouText: Luke 8:4–15 | The Parable of the Sower (Sexagesima & The Baptism of Gloria Kerstein) Can a baptized Christian fall away?If faith can be lost, how does it happen?If Christ saves by His Word, what keeps you from drifting?And when you feel yourself slipping, where do you go?Jesus answers with the Parable of the Sower. The seed is the Word of God, and the soils are hearers. Some lose the Word because the devil snatches it. Some believe for a while, then testing scorches what never sank deep. Some slowly suffocate as life, comfort, and a crowded calendar choke the Word out without a fight. The warning is real: salvation isn’t something you keep in your pocket while you live as if Christ doesn’t matter.But the comfort is stronger: the Sower does not stop sowing. Christ keeps His people by giving what He promises, again and again, through preaching, forgiveness, and His gifts. This sermon was preached at the Baptism of Gloria Eve Kerstein, where God put His Name on her and gave her salvation. And the Church’s task is simple: keep bringing her, and you, back to the Word that saves and sustains.Subscribe & Share:Spotify: Christ For YouPortuguês: Cristo Para VocêWebsite: ZionWG.orgLooking for a Lutheran Church near you? Support the preaching of God's Word