All the Sermons

Philemon Don’t you just love all the Hallmark Christmas movies with their happy endings of peaceful reconciliation between estranged family embers? Scrooge gets redeemed. He goes to his nephew’s dinner party after all and apologizes so sweetly for years of venom. In other movies the estranged son comes home and hugs the dad he fought with all his life. Or, the angry dad comes to church and gives his heart to the Lord. We love those stories because that is the way life is supposed to be. We love reconciliation and restoration that brings peace to the tension filled family. All these stories are just illustrations of the biggest reconciliation of all, between God and humankind. And it’s beautiful!   The letter from Paul to Philemon exists in the Bible to paint that same kind picture for us. But before I actually read this letter, I want to set the scene. That way, instead of reading the letter first and then explaining each part, perhaps you will have the kind of experience that yo

Listen here:    https://www.lcepc.org/sermons Scripture: Colossians 1:11-22 How many of you are familiar with Disney’s movie about Aladdin? I just want you to remember one small part, and even if you haven’t seen the movie, I think you’ll get my point. The scene I am thinking of is where Aladdin meets the genie for the first time and learns about his captivity as a genie in the lamp. The genie describes it like this, “Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space.” That is a pretty good picture of the incarnation, the birth of Jesus as a human, or as it says in Philippians, “Jesus gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.” Now the genie was trapped in this situation and he didn’t like it. He wanted to be free! But we know that Jesus was not trapped. He chose to confine all his magnificent glory in the itty-bitty living space of a human body. And really that started out as the even ittier and bittier size of a human e

Scripture: Romans 5:1-9 Listen here:   https://www.lcepc.org/Sermons Have you noticed that the sanctuary is pretty bare of Christmas decorations? We’re going to fix that a week from Wednesday. I hope you come to help, and enjoy each other’s company. But, unlike many of our stores that are already celebrating Christmas with all kinds of decorations and sales, we are holding back. But I do have something to say that may be more jarring than seeing Christmas decorations right after Hallowe’en. Happy New Year! You might not have expected that. But it’s legit. Today is the first Sunday of the year according to the Church calendar. We call it the beginning of the Advent Season. Advent is from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming."   So, the advent season means the season of the coming of Christ. We begin the Christian year by taking time to celebrate the first coming and declare our faith and hope in his Second Coming. The Advent season is used by the church to build

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” A tribal king had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) as well as the lives of others and remarking, “This is good!” He based it on two scriptures: 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which we just read, and Romans 8:28 which assures us that God can turn every situation (good or bad) into ultimate good. The king loved his friend’s positive outlook and took him with him wherever he went. One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. As the king fired his gun, at a pheasant that flew up from the long grass, the rifle backfired and blew off his right thumb. Looking at the king’s bleeding hand; his friend remarked as usual, “This is good!” The king was angry and replied, “No, this is NOT good!” and proceeded to send his friend to jail for his inse

Scripture: Acts 3:1-16, Listen Link:   https://www.lcepc.org/sermons How many of you can testify to a real miracle? (We heard several good testimonies!) But nothing compares to the amazing miracles that were happening in the early church! It's easy to focus on the miracles and think, “Wow! Wouldn’t that be awesome if we could do that today? Why doesn’t that kind of thing still happen in God’s Church, just the way it did right after Pentecost? I mean, we still serve the same God, right? Still the same power, still the same Lord Jesus, still the same authority in that name. So why is ministry so different for us? The short answer is, we live in a different culture. I often wrestle with trying to understand the right reasons why we don’t see more miracles in our day. It seems that if I had faith like Peter, I could visit the hospital and lay my hands on every patient in there and send them home well! Wouldn’t that glorify God, as long as I kept telling everyone that it is by

John 15:18-16:4 The “they” that Jesus is talking about in this case is all the Jews, and especially the leaders, who don’t believe that Jesus is the Savior, and what they will do to anyone who continues to believe that Jesus is the Savior. Jesus is the persecuted Savior. So, his followers can expect to be persecuted too, not by everybody, but especially by people who are in power and who hate those they cannot subdue, or conquer, or force to obey. For those of you who have been following along in the Chronological readings, you know that last week we read of the suffering and death of Jesus, the passion of our Lord and Savior. He was persecuted and killed by his enemies, enemies he loved, enemies he forgave from the cross. In our text today, Jesus was explaining that because the world hates him, the world will also hate anyone who tries to live like him. Nevertheless, Jesus calls us all to live like him. The Bible history we have read this last week fits very well with the fact

Luke 19:45-46 What is a house of prayer, really? Do we too easily assume that it is any place where people worship God? Can it be a house of prayer if there is no prayer in it? Can it be a house of prayer if there is just a little prayer in it? The Pharisees thought they were doing a pretty good job of worshipping God in the Jewish Temple, but Jesus said, no. “You have made it a den of robbers.” The difficulty is their blindness. They didn’t see a problem with the money changers making it easier for the travelers to worship. They thought they were obeying! They were not just talking about faith. They were trying to live it out, religiously! They were diligent in attending to worship and sacrifices and religious commandments. But somehow, they weren’t praying, or, the prayers they did offer, weren’t prayerful! Religious people have a much harder time understanding the change of heart that has to happen inside to be right with God. Sinners have it easier. They never used to pray.

Scripture: Luke 16:1-13 When you hear a story like that. It almost makes me think that maybe the disciples invented the phrase that goes: “Wait! What?” Did Jesus just tell us to cheat on our taxes or something? No, wait, that can’t be what he meant! What is he talking about? And you have to remember, some of his disciples used to be tax collectors! Guys like Zacchaeus, tax collectors, who knew how to pad the bill and make sure they got a hefty commission. I’m sure sometimes those tax collectors cheated the Romans just as much as they cheated their own countrymen and got even richer for it. Then sometimes the Romans caught on and that was the end of their job!   Is that what Jesus was talking about? But when we get to the end of the passage we realize that Jesus is talking about the difference between life here and life hereafter, and how life here can help you prepare for life hereafter. We need to learn three things from this text. 1. We are all shrewd managers who waste our