Immanuel-Joplin SERMONS

About Immanuel-Joplin SERMONS

Every Sunday at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri, Pastor Christopher Ramstad preaches from the historic lectionary — sermons grounded in Scripture, centered on Christ, and shaped by the Lutheran confessional tradition. This podcast delivers each week's sermon on its own: no full service recording, just the Word preached. If you're looking for faithful Law and Gospel preaching in the tradition of the Lutheran Service Book and the LCMS, you've found it. Immanuel Lutheran has served Joplin and southwest Missouri since 1897. We are a member congregation of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Whether you worship with us on Sunday mornings or listen from across the country, we're glad you're here. Learn more and connect at immanueljoplin.com.

Publisher

Immanuel Lutheran Church — Pastor Christopher Ramstad

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Apr 2020

Latest episode

4 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

25 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Oct 2026

   Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost — October 4, 2026

   Immanuel Lutheran Church Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost — October 4, 2026 On the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 4, two vineyards were in the readings. Both asked the same question. What does God do when the people he planted and cared for give him nothing back? It was also LWML Sunday, so there was a lot of purple in the pews. LWML is short for the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. Each year we set aside the first Sunday in October to thank God for its work. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone — Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. From September through May we worship at 8:00 and 10:30 on Sunday mornings. Sunday school and Bible classes meet between them at 9:15. In the summer there is one service, at 9:00. We receive the Lord’s Supper on the first and third Sundays, so this was a Communion Sunday. The order was Divine Service, Setting One. It is in the red hymnal in the pew rack, and every word is also on the screens and the livestream. No one has to hunt for a page. The readings: a love song, a ledger, and a parable The opening hymn was Christ Is Our Cornerstone (LSB 912). The Introit, the psalm verses that open the service, came from Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” That stone kept coming back all morning. Isaiah 5A vineyard that gave only wild grapes Philippians 3Everything counted as loss to gain Christ Matthew 21The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone Isaiah 5 is a love song that turns into a lament. A man plants a vineyard on a fertile hill. He clears out the stones, plants choice vines, builds a watchtower and cuts a wine vat. Then he waits for the harvest, and the vineyard gives him only wild grapes. At the end Isaiah names the vineyard. It is Israel, and the owner is the Lord. In Philippians 3, Paul lists everything he once trusted. There was his family line, his training as a Pharisee, his zeal and his spotless record under the law. Then he writes this: Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. Philippians 3:8–9 (ESV) In Matthew 21, Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants. A landowner leases his vineyard to tenants and sends servants to collect his share of the fruit. The tenants beat one, kill another and stone a third. Last of all he sends his son, and they kill him too. Jesus closes by quoting the same psalm about the rejected stone. We sang the Hymn of the Day, The Church’s One Foundation (LSB 644), and confessed the Nicene Creed. The sermon on the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost Pastor Christopher Ramstad called it a tale of two vineyards. Both stories, he said, point to one truth: God is going to get his fruit from his vineyard. This was the third Sunday in a row with a vineyard parable, after the workers hired at different hours and the two sons. All of them reach back to Isaiah, where God himself is the one who planted. In Isaiah’s song the owner does everything right and still gets wild grapes, which Pastor described as sour and bitter, on vines that choke out whatever grows nearby. The wild grapes are God’s own people. He made them, made promises to Abraham, brought them out of Egypt and gave them a land. They turned to other gods anyway. Luther’s explanation of the First Commandment says we should “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” This year’s confirmation class had just memorized it. Whatever holds your fear, love and trust, Luther taught, is your god. Jesus told his parable in the temple during Holy Week. Palm Sunday had come and gone, and the cross was perhaps three days off. The chi

2. 

   27 Sept 2026

   Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 27, 2026

   Immanuel Lutheran Church Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 27, 2026 On the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 27, the readings asked an ordinary question. Does the work I do actually matter? Paul asks it in a letter to the church at Philippi. Jesus asks it in a short story about two sons and a vineyard. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached on how Paul answers it. “I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does — Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. From September through May we worship twice on Sunday mornings, at 8:00 and 10:30. The Christian Education Hour meets between them at 9:15. In June, July and August there is one service, at 9:00. We receive the Lord’s Supper on the first and third Sundays. This was the fourth Sunday. There was no Communion. The order was Divine Service, Setting Four. It is one of five settings in the red hymnal in the pew rack. In Setting Four, some of the old parts of the service are sung as hymns. The Gloria, for example, is a hymn that starts “To God on high be glory.” Everything is also on the screens, so no one has to hunt for a page. The readings: an old excuse, a servant, and two sons The opening hymn, Lord, Help Us Walk Your Servant Way (LSB 857), is about Christ setting his power aside to serve others. Then came the three readings. In Ezekiel 18 the people of Israel were repeating an old saying: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” In other words, our troubles are our parents’ fault. God retired the saying. Each person answers to him, he said, and he takes no pleasure in anyone’s death. “So turn, and live.” Philippians is Paul’s letter to a church he had founded in the Greek city of Philippi. Chapter 2 holds a passage many churches read every Palm Sunday. Christ, who was God, “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,” and was obedient all the way to the cross. A few verses later Paul writes this: Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Philippians 2:14–16 (ESV) In the Gospel, Matthew 21, the chief priests ask Jesus who gave him his authority. He answers with a question about John the Baptist, and then with a story. A man asks his two sons to work in his vineyard. One says no, then changes his mind and goes. The other says yes and never shows up. Jesus asks which one did what his father wanted. We confessed the Apostles’ Creed and sang the Hymn of the Day, What Wondrous Love Is This (LSB 543). The sermon on the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Everyone knows what it is to work hard for nothing, Pastor Ramstad said. You spend hours on a puzzle (his sweet spot is 500 pieces, while Mrs. Ramstad likes a thousand), and just before it’s done someone bumps the table and the whole thing hits the floor. Or you get to the end and a piece is missing. Or you rake the whole yard on Saturday, and on Sunday morning the neighbor’s leaves have blown in. The week before, the Gospel had been Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard. A landowner hires workers at dawn, at midday and an hour before quitting time, then pays every one of them the same day’s wage. The ones who worked since dawn grumble. Pastor asked whether their long day had been in vain, and admitted that Christians grumble the same way. What about my work? Paul points away from the self, toward the people around us. “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love.” Then Pastor gave the line he repeated all morning. “God doesn’t need your good works. But your neighbor does.” He named two ways a church goes wrong here. T

3. 

   20 Sept 2026

   Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 20, 2026

   Immanuel Lutheran Church Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 20, 2026 The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost fell on September 20. Out in the narthex (the lobby) before the 8:00 service, Pastor Christopher Ramstad asked a group of people whether anyone was looking for work. He said he needed laborers for the vineyard. Nobody volunteered. That question ran through the whole morning. Pastor Christopher Ramstad as Izzy of Parable Town — Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. From September through May we worship twice on Sunday mornings, at 8:00 and 10:30. The Christian Education Hour meets between them at 9:15. In June, July and August there is one service, at 9:00. This particular Sunday was arranged differently. Classes were paused for the Better Together Breakfast in the gym. The families of Martin Luther School came for the 10:30 service, and Holy Communion was offered at 8:00 only. The order was Divine Service, Setting Three. It is the setting most of our people learned first, and it is sung almost start to finish. Everything is printed in the red hymnal in the pew rack, and put up on the screens as well. No one has to hunt for a page number. The readings, and a hymn that came back The service opened with Great Is Thy Faithfulness, LSB 809 — the same hymn the 10:30 congregation had called out from the floor a week earlier at our hymn sing. Nobody planned the repeat. Isaiah came first, with an invitation and then a warning. God does not think the way we think. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV) Paul wrote the Epistle from prison and sounded almost cheerful about it, because his chains had made the gospel known through the whole imperial guard. Then came Matthew 20, the laborers in the vineyard: men hired at dawn, at nine, at noon, at three and at five, every one of them paid the same single coin. We confessed the Nicene Creed, and before the sermon we sang Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings, LSB 782. The sermon on the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost During the hymn Pastor Ramstad stepped into the vestry, the small robing room at the front of the church on the right, and came back out as somebody else. Blue Hawaiian print shirt, straw hat hanging down his back on its cord, work gloves, a pair of lopper shears for cutting grape stalks, and a wooden stool he sat on when the story slowed down. He preached the whole thing in character, walking the front of the nave, as a man named Izzy who has lived his whole life in a place called Parable Town. Parable Town is where the stories live. Izzy’s friend Farmer Frank once left ninety-nine sheep to go find the one that got out. Sally Sower had been out scattering seed carelessly, and some of it landed on good soil anyway. “Not everything is what it seems here,” Izzy warned the visitors. His neighbors were Lazy Lucy, Danny Do-Nothing and Sleepy Stan, who was usually asleep on his cot. They called him Idle Izzy, because he was always just sitting around in the marketplace. Then the owner of the big vineyard on the hill came down to the marketplace. DCE Jason Glaskey played him, in a short speaking part, carrying the bag of coins. The owner looked right at Izzy and offered him a denarius for the day. A day’s wage for a day’s work sounded like a square deal, so they shook on it, and the owner said two words: follow me. Then, every time Izzy picked up his tools, a bell rang. Breakfast. Lunch. The ice cream truck at three. Dinner. He never actually worked. Between the bells he watched the owner bring in Lucy, then Danny, then Stan, and he had something to say about each of them on the way past. At quitting time the workers were paid last to first. Stan went first and came back down the line hoppin

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