LCC Sunday Messages

Life is full of decisions. In today’s culture we are bombarded every waking hour with a myriad of choices. Some are innocuous enough; paper or plastic? Coke or Pepsi? Other choices, however are life changing. Eternity hangs in the balance. How we choose to respond to Jesus is the most critical decision we will ever make. This Easter we are reminded of all He did for us. Because of His great love,...

Buzzer beaters. Walk off homers. Hail Mary touchdowns. The last second goal. Few things are more exciting in sports. Fans leap to their feet and cheer wildly. 2,000 years ago another group of fans cheered for the entrance of their long awaited messiah. Yet, in short order some who had cheered him were calling for His death. Christ wasn't meeting their expectations. They loved the idea of a Savior,...

Charles Shultz’s Charlie Brown once said that he had developed a new philosophy: to only dread one day at a time. So, what’s bugging you? What have you been dreading or worrying about? According to Jesus, we should not be troubled about anything. Instead, He directs us to focus our attention in a different direction, on Him.

What matters most to God, what we are doing, or who we are becoming? Jesus had some pretty strong words for those more interested in performing acts that made them look good than what was happening in their hearts.

Valentine's Day, President's Day weekend, and Chilli Church. Wow! Chilli Church or Chilly Church? It's cold out there today! Well, we can warm up at lunch with some delicious chili. Speaking of chili, one of the unfortunate side effects of eating chili for some is the inevitable heartburn. But did you know there is a good kind of heartburn? Seriously. Today, we will look at the love and passion th...

Temptation, trials, and testing. Nobody likes to go through it. Yet, God has given us everything we need by His Son to live as an overcomer! Today as we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we will learn how to conquer temptation, and how to overcome in the midst of any trial or testing.

This morning, we are blessed to have Matt and Elizabeth Van Wart and their family with us. Matt, a registered nurse employed at Calvert Memorial Hospital, will be sharing with us about his and Elizabeth’s calling to serve as medical missionaries in the east African country of Uganda.

Forgiveness. We all need it. Yet, have you ever found it hard to forgive? Although retaliation may sometimes seem easier, Jesus teaches that our demonstrating forgiveness to others when they need it is essential if we hope to receive it from God when we need it. This morning, we’ll be taking a closer look at what it is, and what it’s not, and what it looks like in action. We’ll also be tackling so...

Did you know that you are created in the image of God? We were created to resemble God. Yet I think we’d have to say that there are plenty of times we don’t feel or act very godly--especially when we’ve spoken hatefully, acted selfishly, or have been the recipient of either. Thankfully, we can ask God to forgive us when we sin. However, Jesus also teaches us that what we freely receive from God is...

Ah! 2015 is upon us, and with the changing of they year comes the desire for many to see a fresh start in their own lives. Resolutions are made, hopes are high, and the sky seems to be the limit. However, for many, these hopes are quickly dashed when the pounds don't come rolling off, the money doesn't come rolling in, and the ruts of our lives become deeper. But, there is indeed a way to truly be...

No matter how difficult life has been, Christmas is the one time of year when we anticipate things being a little better, with a few less hassles, a little less pressure, and a little more joy. Yet the very first Christmas was with stressful situations. Have you ever wondered why God allowed such stressful situations to surround the first Christmas? Have you wondered why He allows them in your lif...

You're a mean one Mr. Grinch! We all know the story of the beloved Seuss character whose change of heart (three whole sizes exactly) caused him to celebrate a Christmas he sought to destroy. But, did you know that there was a "Grinch" more terrible in the past. That's right. A Grinch named Herod the Great who sought to destroy what Christmas was all about, the coming of the Savior, Jesus Christ. T...

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Or is it? With all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, it's so easy to become overwhelmed by all the business and busyness of the holidays. It's in moments like these we need to stop, and focus on the real reason for the season, the coming of Jesus. When was the last time you dwelled on the implications of the Incarnation of Christ? When was the...

We are Assemblies of God World Missionaries from the United States to the nation of Japan. We have been in Japan since 2006 fulfilling a life long dream of serving God specifically in Japan. We live in Tokyo and serve as site pastors at Tokyo City Church, an international and multicultural experience with a focus of ministering in Japanese to the Japanese and to internationals who have a desire to...

“…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” No doubt many of us have prayed these words, perhaps hundreds of times. Yet what do they mean? What does it mean to pray to the Creator God of heaven and earth and ask that His kingdom and His will be manifested on earth as it is in heaven? Perhaps the phrase “as it is in heaven” is a clue, the key to our understanding what it m...

Christ's disciples desired to pray like Jesus prayed. They saw firsthand the importance of prayer in His life. In Matthew 6, they asked the Lord to teach them to pray, and for the next several weeks as we continue the Sermon on the Mount series, we are going to examine the Lord's Prayer, and see in it the model by which we ought to pray. Today, we will focus on the fact that we have a holy, heaven...

In our text this morning, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns about the empty consequences of pride and the blessings that accompany a life of humility.

Harvest is a time to bring in the bounty with which God has blessed us. It is a celebration, the reaping of what was sown. Today, we will examine the concept of sowing and reaping that we might experience the harvest Christ desires.

This world constantly tells us that everything revolves around us. From social media, to our consumerism, we are a nation of narcissists. We want to project our image to the world, but Christ has called us to be REAL people who experience REAL life in HIM! Today, as we continue our journey through the Sermon on the Mount we will learn that life isn't about us. It is about finding who we really wer...

Today, like never before, people are questioning whether the Creator God of the Bible really exists and whether Jesus was truly God’s Son or simply an historical figure that lived in a small corner of the world 2,000 years ago. Those who follow Jesus are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth that others may see that Jesus is alive. So, how are we doing? Are we going the sec...

As we continue our journey though the Sermon on the Mount, we see that Jesus challenges us to walk in integrity. Today we will look at the importance of being people of our word, but more importantly, people of the WORD.

Last week, in part one of our teaching on marriage and divorce from the Sermon on the Mount, we learned three things that God wants us to understand about marriage. Today, we’ll tackle the emotionally charged subject of divorce, examine what Jesus teaches, and see why it is so important for us to listen to His words and practice what He says.

In the first book of the Bible, upon completing His creation, God saw only one thing that was not good: man was alone. “The LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'” (Genesis 2:18) God then took a part of Adam and created Eve. But then what? And now what? What does God want us to understand about marriage? What does he expect from those who ar...

Our journey through the Sermon on the Mount continues this week with Christ's powerful words on adultery, lust, and dealing radically with the issues of our hearts. Obeying the "letter of the law" is not enough to save someone. Christ calls all of us to repentance and a radical relationship with Him. In Him, can our hearts be healed and desires transformed? In Him, there is hope for the heartsick.

Anger. It’s a powerful emotion. Expressed in healthy ways, it can be productive and bring good and necessary changes. However, when uncontrolled, or misdirected, it has the power to hurt, crush, and demoralize. So what makes you angry? How do you handle it when you feel anger welling up within you? Scripture actually has quite a lot to say to us about anger and how to properly handle it as we’ll s...