Services and Sermons

Sermons Archive

Are you searching for worship services and sermons with substance? Are you wanting to hear God’s Truth from the Bible? Are you longing to find some Good News that brings hope?

Look through our Services and Sermons Archive, and discover preaching from our pastor, Rev. Chris Ramstad, as the Good News is boldly proclaimed from God’s Holy Word. Hear about God’s Law, that guides our lives and shows us how we all fall short. Listen to the Gospel, which shows us how our God has brought us forgiveness, life, and hope through His Son Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus?

We invite you to join us this Sunday too! Immanuel Lutheran Church has worship services weekly at 8:00 am and 10:30 am, as well as a live stream of each service. Learn more.

NOTE: If this page is not updated and current, do not fear! All of our services and sermons are easy to find on YouTube. Search for “immanuel joplin” then click and scroll through the archive there.

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost — a woodcut-style image of a ram's-horn shofar at dawn before a white country church and its sleepy cemetery

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost — November 8, 2026

Nov 8, 2026
Jason Glaskey, DCE

On the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, DCE Jason Glaskey shared Pastor Ramstad’s sermon on 1 Thessalonians 4: Christians grieve, but with hope, because Jesus is coming again.

All Saints' Day — a watercolor of a great crowd in white robes carrying palm branches across a hillside toward the sunrise and a distant city

All Saints’ Day — November 1, 2026

Nov 1, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

On All Saints’ Day, November 1, Pastor Chris Ramstad preached on Revelation 7 and the saints in white robes, and shared the plans for his own Christian funeral.

Reformation Sunday — a red and black woodcut of an angel flying across a red sky carrying an open scroll, above the curve of the earth and a crowd of people from many nations looking up

Reformation Sunday — October 25, 2026

Oct 25, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

On Reformation Sunday, October 25, Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached on Revelation 14 and the eternal gospel, good news that lasts because its name is Jesus.

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost — a navy linocut of bronze city gates swung open on a road leading to a walled city on a hill, with the sun rising behind it

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost — October 18, 2026

Oct 18, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

On the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, October 18, Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached on Isaiah 45, where God calls Cyrus, a foreign king, his anointed, and on honoring the leaders we did not vote for.

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost — a long wooden picnic table set with place cards, cups and a cruet of oil in an autumn meadow, with a shepherd's crook leaning against the end

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost — October 11, 2026

Oct 11, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

On the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, October 11, Immanuel worshiped outdoors at Landreth Park. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached on Psalm 23: David’s many callings, our own, and the Shepherd who gives peace.

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost — a squared cornerstone carved with a cross, set in a wall of rough fieldstones with a grapevine of dark grapes and autumn leaves climbing above it

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost — October 4, 2026

Oct 4, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

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. From September through May we…

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost — two neighboring houses on an autumn street, with a rake leaning on the wooden fence between them, work gloves resting on a fence post, and three full leaf bags at the curb in front of the house next door

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 27, 2026

Sep 27, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

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.” From September through May we worship twice on Sunday mornings, at 8:00 and 10:30. The Christian…

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost — Pastor Christopher Ramstad in a blue Hawaiian shirt, clerical collar and straw hat, standing at a painted crossroads signpost whose arrow boards read Parable Town, The Marketplace, Farmer Frank's Field, The Vineyard and Sower's Row beneath a board reading Workers Wanted, with a vineyard on the hill behind him

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 20, 2026

Sep 20, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

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. 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…

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost — a slate chalkboard covered edge to edge in chalk tally marks, wiped clean across the middle where the words FORGIVE SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN are written

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 13, 2026

Sep 13, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

On the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost the hymn boards were blank on purpose. We held a hymn sing, and the congregation picked every hymn from the pew. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached Matthew 18 and the servant who was forgiven ten thousand talents, a parable he retitled on the spot as the parable of the merciful master. The children’s message asked everyone to count how many times they heard the word forgive. The sermon alone had forty-four.

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost — two wooden chairs turned to face each other in an empty parish hall, a plain cross on the wall behind them, with the words Gained Your Brother

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 6, 2026

Sep 6, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost fell on September 6, our first Sunday back on the fall schedule of 8:00 and 10:30. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached twenty verses of Matthew 18 and pulled one thread through all of it: humility. Am I my brother’s keeper? Cain asked it first, and Jesus answers it with a small child, a millstone, a lost sheep, and a set of plain instructions.

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost — "You Went First" (Matthew 16): a pair of worn, mud-caked work boots too big for anyone to fill, sitting alone on a grey stone step.

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost — August 30, 2026

Aug 30, 2026
Rev. Ken Lampe

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri: the last 9:00 service of the summer, sung as Matins, with retired pastor Rev. Ken Lampe preaching Matthew 16 on our daily call from Christ — and a congregation thanking Susan Ideker for decades of leading its choir.

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost — "What Shall I Render to the Lord," time and talent (Romans 11): a hammer, tape measure, handsaw, screwdriver, level and paintbrush laid in a row on a weathered workbench.

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost — August 23, 2026

Aug 23, 2026
Rev. Christopher Ramstad

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri: breakfast at 8:00, Divine Service Setting Four, and our Martin Luther School teachers installed for the new year. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached Romans 12 on what you can possibly give a God who already gave you everything.