All the Sermons

Listen link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab. Scripture: Luke 24:1-8, Before Christ comes, our hearts are like an empty tomb, all dead and dark inside. We look alive on the surface of things, but inside, killing sin rules all. Jesus taught that people are just empty inside, keeping up appearances to hide the deadness. It isn’t enough to behave well. Even the most religious Pharisees were called white washed sepulchers, which is to say they were the best looking graves in the cemetery, but still filled with deadness nonetheless. Then Jesus died and was laid in a tomb. The stone was rolled over the door and the deadness and darkness reigned supreme, but only for a couple of days. Then the victory of Jesus’ eternal life returned to his flesh. The tomb filled with light!   No more darkness, no more deadness in the tomb. Now it was filled with light and life!   All that Heavenly goodness burst forth! The stone rolled away for all to see the miracle!   And th...

Scripture: Luke 19:28-40 Listen link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab. This is an interesting overlap. It’s Palm Sunday! And yet I intend to speak of the 5th purpose for which we were created. How can that be done? Well, you were made for a mission. On Palm Sunday we see Jesus actively engaged in His mission and also giving his disciples a mission to go find a donkey, a donkey that will have its own mission, to carry the Messiah and serve to symbolically announce the kind of Messiah Jesus is, King of Peace! That what was symbolized by Jesus’ riding a donkey instead of a war horse. But first, let’s review all 5 of the purposes we have been discussing. First, you were planned to please God. He wanted you to exist for a loving relationship with Him. As the Westminster confession affirms, the chief end of human existence is to love God and enjoy him forever. That’s worship, first purpose. Second, you were formed for family. The loving relationships we are designed to e...

Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7-11 Listen link: www.lcepc.org then look for the sermons tab. (Also, last week was another of our spirit led worship services, so no sermon. The message came from members. If you would like to hear that, it is on the front page click on “spirit led worship.”) I start with a quote I found, “In nearly every time-travel story, show, or movie, a character travels to the past and everyone in the show worries obsessively about how even the smallest action in the past might radically change the present. Isn’t it interesting, in that light, how rarely those of us living in the present think about how radically we might change the future [that really is coming] by doing something small today?” In response to that quote I tell you, do something. But remember that whatever you do today, you are inevitably and irretrievably shaping the future. The future we live into will be caused by the things that are being done today. So, when you do something, do something goo...