All the Sermons

Scripture: Eph. 2:4-10 Listen Link: https://www.lcepc.org/blogger I chose that text in Ephesians as a way of framing the story of Samson. God is the hero in the Samson story. Samson was not. He was not even a very good man. But God used him anyway, because there was work to be done in Israel to save his people from the Philistines. God doesn’t have to use a good man to accomplish his purposes, although, he’d rather. We will always do better when we get behind him and volunteer to do his good will, the works he has prepared in advance for us to do.   So today, we’re going back into our Chronological Bible readings and talk about Samson out of the book called, Judges. I hope you’ve been keeping up with the readings and following along with the morning prayers and devotions too that I send out via email. I’d even love to meet with any of you, or a small group of you, for face to face conversation about this Bible. This is the word of God! that is supposed to transform us as w...

Listen Link:  https://www.lcepc.org/blogger    Scripture: John 20:1-18 Well, it is April Fool’s day today, and I guess I just want to say that the biggest fool ever was the satan who thought that he could end Jesus’ ministry in failure by having him crucified. April Fool devil! Christ is risen! But, on that first Easter, none of Jesus’ disciples were jumping for joy that morning. That came later. What came first, for them, a deep befuddlement. Have you ever been perplexed? Have you ever encountered a set of circumstances that just couldn’t be explained by common sense ways of looking at it? Maybe you can remember a show in which a particularly good magician shows you his tricks and you can’t see how he does them. You know there’s an explanation. You know he’s just pulling a fast one on your eyes. But you just can’t figure it out. That might be an occasion in which you walk away wondering what just happened. But you’d have to amplify that feeling about a thousand tim...