Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

Let Not Man Separate - The Wedding of Kyle Saville and Alyx Schmitz

Dearly beloved in Christ, and especially Kyle and Alyx, today is a day of great joy. God has gathered us together to witness and rejoice in the union that He Himself has instituted and blessed. Marriage is not merely a human arrangement, nor simply a legal contract or emotional partnership. Marriage is God’s design. It is His gift to mankind from the very beginning.
Our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 19: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” 
Notice that Jesus points back to the fabric of creation itself. Before sin entered the world, before suffering and death, before all the brokenness we now experience, God established marriage. It belongs to Him. He created it. He defines it. And because He designed it, He also knows its purpose.

Be Not Deceived - Cantate 2026

St. James give us a sharp and necessary warning: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.” James assumes something about our condition here in this world. That is to say, he not only assumes that we will have the possibility of deception, but that it is likely. You, dear Christian, can be misled. Deception comes from the father of lies, the devil and all his demons. It comes from the world, which seeks to lead astray. Worst of all, we deceive ourselves. 
This deception is not directed to any and all knowledge, ultimately speaking. No, focuses on misleading about Christ, how we live as Christians, and how we relate to the Word of God. These eternal things are so important that they go beyond the sum total of all this universe. So James speaks to us plainly: do not be deceived. He wants us to be able to identify deception and to correct it by the very Word of God.

3P1S Episode 27 - Faithful Through the Summer: Why the Third Commandment Still Matters When the Lake Calls

The temperature is rising, the grass is growing green, and the ice is melting - summer is coming. With the summer months, though, church attendance often drops as busy North Dakotans try to squeeze many activities into the summer months before they have to hibernate again next fall. With this said, does church still matter over the summer or does summer vacation apply to the church as well? Join us in this episode titled, "Faithful Through the Summer; Why the Third Commandment Still Matters When the Lake Calls."

Christians in a Pagan Land - Jubilate 2026

Beloved in the Lord, St. Peter addresses Christians who are, in his words, “sojourners and exiles.” You live here, in this world, but you do not ultimately belong to it. Your citizenship is elsewhere. Your being is not determined by the shifting standards of culture, reputation, or public approval, but by Christ and His saving work. No matter what comes in this life, your ultimate status, identity, and place are guaranteed by Christ, your Savior. Even though this is the case, it is precisely because you live among neighbors, employers, authorities, and even adversaries that we must ask a central question: how then shall you live?
St. Peter gives us an answer that is not vague. It is concrete, demanding, and at times uncomfortable. He gives a twofold charge that defines the shape of the Christian life in this world. Our lives here are both inwardly at war and outwardly honorable.

Because He Lives - The Funeral of Carol Mathias

Dear friends in Christ, it is with heavy hearts that we gather to lay to rest our dear sister Carol. There are many things that can be said about her. Indeed, God gave her many vocations, that is, Christian duties, in this life. There is much to recall fondly, especially her over sixty years of marriage to Ernie. This godly union led to an increase in family, and many warmly recall her love for her family, her devotion to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Besides all of this, there are those who are friends, other family, former colleagues, and those who shared interests with her. Indeed, there is much to give thanks to God about in a life like this.

The Sheep and the Shepherd - Misericordias Domini 2026

There is a deep and persistent longing in the human heart to be known, to be protected, and to be led. We feel it most clearly when life becomes unstable. That is, it becomes very apparent when plans unravel, when sickness comes, when guilt presses in, or when death draws near. In those moments, we are forced to reckon with something we often try to ignore: we are not as strong, as self-sufficient, or as secure as we would like to believe.
Scripture describes us in a way that cuts against our pride. It calls us sheep. Not lions. Not independent wanderers forging our own path. Sheep. Creatures that are prone to stray, easily frightened, and unable to defend themselves against real danger. Left alone, sheep do not thrive. They become lost and they perish.
But the Word of God does not stop there. In Ezekiel 34, the Lord speaks a powerful promise into that reality: “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out.” This is not the promise of a distant God. This is the promise of a God who sees the condition of His people and resolves to act. In the Gospel of John, Jesus stands before the people and declares, “I am the Good Shepherd.”
This is not a gentle metaphor meant to comfort sentimentally. It is a claim of divine identity. The Lord who promised in Ezekiel to shepherd His people is now standing among them in the flesh.
But what makes Him the Good Shepherd is not merely that He guides. It is that He lays down His life. And this brings us to the heart of the Gospel: the Shepherd becomes the Lamb. The One who seeks the sheep becomes the sacrifice for them.

Faith that Overcomes the World - Quasimodo Geniti 2026

St. John makes a bold and striking claim. Christians do not merely cope with the world; we do not tolerate or endure it. We do not simply survive it. He says that those who are born of God overcome the world. This seems rather bold. When we look around us at this world and look within ourselves, we sometimes do not find much to justify the idea that we overcome anything, let alone the world.
The world often seems very strong, more than us. Sin still works around us. Death still claims those we love. The sinful self, the flesh, drags us down into weakness, fear, compromise, distraction, and shame.
So what does St. John mean? How can he speak so confidently about this? The Holy Spirit would teach us today that the world is not overcome by human strength, but by faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Why Are You Weeping? - Easter Sunday 2026

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark. This is not only a description of the time of day, it is also an accurate assessment of the world as she knew it. The sun was not yet up, the night was still there, but more than that, it was dark in her mind and heart. Jesus was dead.
The One who had cast out her demons, the One who had spoken with authority unlike the scribes, the One who had healed the sick, forgiven sinners, and called the dead from their graves had been laid in one. She saw the Lord crucified. She had seen His suffering. She saw Him give up His spirit. She saw the spear pierce His side. She saw Him buried.

Behold the Man - Good Friday 2026

We do not gather today to admire a noble martyr. We are not here merely to remember an example of courage under suffering. We are not here simply to reflect upon injustice, cruelty, or the tragedy of human violence. No, we are here because our sin required this. This truth, as difficult as it is to confess, is the great offense behind Good Friday and, indeed, the Christian religion. But it is also the source of our greatest comfort.
The offense is this: your sin is so serious before God, so damnable, so deserving of wrath and judgment, that nothing less than the suffering and death of the Son of God could atone for it.
And the comfort is this: that suffering and death have now been offered for your salvation, forgiveness, and life. Good Friday is not sentimental nor is it mild. Good Friday is where God shows us what sin really is and what its cost is. Sinners do not like that. By nature, we always want to minimize our guilt. We want to call sin a weakness, a mistake, a lapse in judgment, a rough patch, a personal struggle. We want to excuse it, explain it, manage it, or compare it favorably to the sins of others.

Body Given, Blood Shed - Holy (Maundy) Thursday 2026

Tonight is a night of gifts. That may not be the first thing we think of when we think of Maundy Thursday. Usually our minds go to the Upper Room, to Judas slipping away into the darkness, to Peter’s coming denial, to the agony in Gethsemane. Everything is moving rapidly toward the cross.
But here, before Good Friday arrives in full, before the nails and the spear and the cry of dereliction, our Lord Jesus Christ gives gifts to His people. More to the point, He takes time to give them on the night when He was betrayed.
He gives them not to worthy men, not to disciples who had proven themselves especially courageous or faithful, but to weak men, sinful men, frightened men. He gives them to men who are about to fail Him. He even gives them to weak men such as us.
Tonight, we hear of the gift that is His incarnation and death, the gift that is His Supper, and the gift that is His Church. All of it comes from Christ. All of it is given in His gracious love. All of it is for sinners.