All the Sermons

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