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This blog is a collection of sermons preached by Rev. John Koopman. Rev. Koopman is a pastor in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, serving a dual parish in Emmetsburg and West Bend, Iowa. The sermons were written to be preached from a pulpit, and as such may contain typos or other grammatical errors, since the focus in these manuscripts is preaching from them, not reading them verbatim. All of these sermons, and any other writings that you may find by Rev. Koopman, are licensed under the Creative Commons license as seen below. SDG.

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A Defense of Headcoverings

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A Defense of Headcoverings in the Lutheran Church by Rev. John Henry Koopman “ Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, ...
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Sermon - Trinity IV 2024 - Genesis 50:15-21

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The Recognition of Joseph by his Brothers , Peter von Cornelius, 1816 Being Merciful Joseph’s backstory and him showing mercy to his brothers after receiving evil from them Jesus shows mercy to us after receiving evil from us We are to be humbly merciful towards those who do us evil “ Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. ” That’s really hard to do. It is very difficult to get along with other people. To be fair, it’s really tough for others to get along with us. We can all be quite insensitive, rude, obnoxious, prideful, foolish, malicious, vengeful, antagonistic, and sometimes downright wicked to each other. Yet, in spite of the fact that sometimes we want to strangle somebody or slug them in the face, Jesus tells us to be merciful, even if they deserve a punch in the gut.  Old Testament Joseph is a good example of showing mercy to those who deserved no mercy. His brothers said to themselves: “ It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we di...
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Sermon - Trinity XII 2024 -2 Cor. 3:4-11

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Martin Luther Preaching , from the altarpiece of the Church of Torslunde, 1561 The bold, confident ministry of a pastor The insufficiency of a pastor A pastor’s confidence in Christ Since I recently accepted the call to Our Savior’s, and my ministry among you is very swiftly drawing to a close, this sets me in mostly an awkward position of being a lame duck for the time being. On the other hand, however, since I have four final sermons to preach to you, this also sets me in a unique position to prepare you for your next resident pastor. In a way I can now preach to you in such a way that was more complicated previously. For example, it’s awkward for a pastor to preach about the office of the holy ministry, and what a pastor is, while he is the local pastor, because it requires him to talk about himself in a way that is uncomfortable. But since I’m departing soon, lot’s of things are already a bit awkward, so let’s lean into the awkwardness and address this very important subject. Parti...
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