All the Sermons

Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-11 Listen here:  https://www.lcepc.org/blogger  It is the season of Thanksgiving. We give thanks for family, and health and all kinds of blessings. We can try to count our blessing as the song says, but we know there’s always way more than we can really count. We give thanks for good and loving relationships among family and friends, gainful employment, economic security and political and religious freedom. We give thanks for our national security and all our armed forces that protect our liberties and prosperity. It is good to give thanks! And we give thanks to God for making it all possible.  That’s good too, even commanded of us. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” That’s command language! It’s kind of a funny thought for parents, thinking about how much they do for their children and wanting to tell them, “You ought to thank me!” But we tend to refrain ...

Scriptures:  John 1:35-37, John 1:40-42, John 1:43-46, John 4:25-26, 28-30, John 12:20-22, Matthew 19:13-15, Matthew 9:1-7. Listen here:  https://www.lcepc.org/blogger    What do all of these passages have in common?  Bringing! In each one, somebody brings a new person to meet Jesus! All of them “walked with” the people they brought. And among them we see a variety of reasons that they were motivated to do so, all good reasons. In summary: 1.    They brought because of being pointed in the right direction. 2.    They brought because of enthusiasm. 3.    They brought because age, physical and spiritual condition were no obstacle to the friend or neighbor of faith who cared about the friend or neighbor in need. To look at the ones who brought others after having been pointed in the right direction, first of all we see John, the Baptist himself, the last great prophet of the Old Testament style. He knew his important role as ...

Scripture: 2 Cor. 5:14-21 you can listen here: https://www.lcepc.org/blogger Once while I was working in a furniture factory in Grand Rapids, I was busy with a stack of wooden frame members for office cubicle partitions. All I was doing was filling holes with glue and then pushing a short little dowel in each hole to get them ready for the next step in the assembly process. So, while I was standing there with another guy, him on the other end of the stack doing the same mindless task, the foreman comes over and says, “I don’t know guys, sometimes I wonder, what’s the point? I work hard all day and all week to get a paycheck that I spend on food, housing and bills just so I can stay alive and go to work again to earn more money that keeps me alive and healthy to keep on working.” I said to him, “Carl, the way you describe it, if that is really all there is to life, you are right, there is no point. It is pointless. You’re on the hamster wheel, running all day and going nowhere.” ...

Listen here:  https://www.lcepc.org/blogger   A PowerPoint for the pics I used Scripture: Romans 10:11-17 Life Line skit “The Faithful Witness,” Policeman:  Okay, I understand you were a witness to the accident. Witness:  Well I’m not good at describing things, but I was standing here looking in the general direction when it happened, but that’s about all. Policeman:  Well, for the police record, you wanna tell me what happened? Witness:  I don’t really think I should. Policeman:  I’m sorry, why not. Witness:  It’s that there’s just a lot I don’t know. Policeman:  What do you mean? Witness:  Like their names.  I don’t have any idea of the names of anyone driving. I don’t know where they came from or where they were going or what they were thinking, or what they were looking at?  Don’t ask me, I don’t know? Narrator:  Often we forget that a witness only needs to say what he knows. Policeman:  C...

Exodus 3:7-10 Listen here:  https://www.lcepc.org/blogger Last week I made one big blunder, by forgetting something. As I was talking about the importance of caring, I should have reminded you about the person whose name you wrote down on the one, one, one prayer card. I should have pointed out that we should pray for God to help us see ways of caring for the person for whom we are praying. But you’re all so smart, maybe you made that application on your own. Still, I wish I had mentioned it then. Anyway, it’s important to mention it again today because today we are talking about listening, and listening is one of the best ways we have of finding out how to care for people. We are in the middle of a series about sharing our faith, in other words evangelism. “Sharing our faith” is a good description of evangelism because sharing is something we can do, both with and without words. If you’re caring for people, listening to them to find out what they need and then sharing wh...

James 2:14- 26 Listen here: https://www.lcepc.org/blogger I want to start by telling you a story about my granddaughter. She was talking to her mom about heaven and mom was answering a lot of questions! Then at one point, my little five-year old granddaughter said something significant. “Mom, I don’t think I’m ready to go to heaven. I would miss my friends.” What I am really proud of is that my daughter said back, “Well, if you tell your friends about Jesus and heaven, then they can all be there with you one day.” That’s really a great reason to do evangelism. If your concerned that being a Christian might mean losing some friends who might think Christianity isn’t cool, you really should be all the more motivated to try to actually lead them to Christ so they will get to be in heaven with you one day! Don’t let your fears stop you, because if they do become Christians, they will be for your friends forever, literally forever, not just for this brief life. And one more thought...