Ellsworth CRC: Recent Episodes
Ellsworth CRC
Whom He Chooses: Deborah A Sermon on Judges 4 Main Point: God’s sovereign power doesn’t require human perfection; He delights in using ordinary, imperfect people and everyday tools to accomplish His divine purposes. ME: Hesitation at times Each one of us has a set of tools that we work with. Maybe its…
A Sermon on Exodus 3:1-4:17 ME - calling to be a pastor When I felt that call to pastoral ministry, I felt inadequate and fear. I was looking at the examples of other pastors who I knew and had grown up under and did think I could ever do something like that. I felt genuinely unqualified for what I knew…
A Sermon on Philippians 4:4-9 Main Point: As citizens of Heaven, God's peace is with us, allowing us to rejoice and live in His peace through any life situation. ME: Anxiety that keeps me up at night. When life gets busy, when I look at the calendar and how much time I have in a day, I can start getting…
A Sermon on Philippians 3:15-4:3 Main idea: Because your citizenship is from heaven, your behavior on earth should look different. ME: focus on the wrong things I can get caught up in the little things that don’t really matter sometimes. Scratch on the car. A plan that didn’t quite work out like I thought.…
Relationships In Practice A Sermon on Philippians 2:19-30 Big Idea: To live out our faith like Christ means embracing a life of self-emptying sacrifice and obedience, making our faith actionable through the love we show to others. Central image: A vessel poured out — anchored in Paul's own words, "poured…
A Sermon on Philippians 2:12-18 ME — Looking Up at the Night Sky On a dark night here in Northern Michigan, if you look up and the sky, you will see the wonder of the stars above you. We are blessed to live in a place that is dark enough that when you step into your back yard, or take a short dive out…
Christ Hymn of Beauty A Sermon on Philippians 2:1-11 ME — Eye level with Phoebe I’ve learned quite a bit as I’ve been a father to Phoebe. For example, when she's worked up about something, like really worked up, the kind where her whole little body is in it. I’ve found what works best is when I kneel…
A Sermon on Philippians 1:27-30 ME — The family that moved to town When a family moves to town, some things pack into boxes and some things don't. Recipes, habits, the rhythms of a week, the way you talk to a neighbor, what you do on Sunday morning, none of that gets put in the moving truck. It just…
A Sermon on Philippians 1:1-11 ME: Partnerships in life Some of the best things in the world have come out of great partnerships. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met as kids in a seventh-grade gym class on Long Island.They were, by their own admission, the two slowest kids in the class, huffing and puffing…
A Sermon on 2 Timothy 2:2 ME - Learning from my Grandparents Almost everything I know how to do, I know because someone took the time to teach me. I learned how to grow a garden from my grandmother and my mother. Standing in their gardens as a kid. They didn't hand me a book. They handed me a trowel.…
A Sermon on Hebrews 10:19-25 ME - Different types of contracts and covenants to mediate relationships we have together. We have different kinds of relationships that are set up differently in life. – usually built around a common interest or period in life. Friendships – when you start a new job, you…
A Sermon on Luke 24:36-49 Theme: The Risen Savior has the power to open our hearts and minds to him. ME: Boy Scout ghost stories around the campfire. Boy Scout ghost stories around the campfire. The setup, the buildup, the raccoon outside the tent. Every sound becomes a ghost after a good story. Ghost…
An Easter Sermon on Luke 24:13-35 ME: Ever had a moment where you realized something important was happening — but only recognized it after the fact? Maybe it was a conversation you had with a friend over coffee and it didn’t seem very important at the time, but that conversation, the friend’s encouragement…
A Palm Sunday Sermon on Luke 19:28-44 ME — The holiday frustration Easter bunnies and Crosses. There is an odd blend of Spring time celebration and the death of Christ that we remember this week. There are easter egg hunts with laughter and somber services with tears. For our families, it means that…
A Sermon on Luke 14:25-35 ME — Those unfinished building you see around There was this unfinished house by where we used to live that I would drive past every once and a while. It was a bigger house by the river. It had nice gates in the front, a good size driveway, but it was unfinished. There was the…
ME - Worry, what good is it? Woke up at 2 a.m. after looking at a retirement calculator before bed Lying in the dark doing mental math: adjusting savings, cutting expenses, projecting market returns Running the numbers over and over as if thinking harder could change the outcome That gnawing feeling…
A Sermon on Luke 9:57-62 Me - Olympic Athlete focus The Winter Olympics are happening right now, and if you've been watching, you've seen what total commitment looks like. Think about a downhill skier. They're flying down a mountain at 80 miles per hour, and everything depends on looking ahead. You read…
The Transfiguration A Sermon on Luke 9:28-36 Theme: Jesus shows us his glory so we can trust his voice as he leads us through the valley. ME: Mountain-tops and valleys Hiking in the mountains is never flat. Every trail involves some combination of climbing and descending—mountain-tops and valleys. You…
A Sermon on Luke 8:26-39 ME: The Demoniac's Desperate Condition (vv. 26-29) Picture Jesus in a boat after calming a deadly storm. He could turn back to safety. Instead, he crosses into a pagan land, for one tormented man everyone else has abandoned. Jesus arrives in Gerasene territory (Gentile land,…
A Sermon on Luke 7:1-17 ME - Being in hopeless situations Those phone calls that come in the middle of the night. Sitting with a family in the last hours of someone’s life. Name that feeling: you've done everything you can, and it's not enough WE - we all have been in those “hopeless” situations We all…
ME - Self-centeredness Noticing how often we catch our reflection (mirrors, windows, phone screens, storefronts) The hook: We are more self-focused than we realize, and it shapes everything WE - we all struggle with being self-centered Broaden to shared human experience: "We live in the 'selfie generation'…
Luke 5:27-32 ME - Death and Taxes Only two certainties in life: death and taxes Tax collectors are universally disliked (IRS has 2.5 star Google rating) First-century tax collectors were worse: worked for occupying Rome, could overcharge and pocket the difference, had soldiers enforce payments They were…
ME - Daily Temptations Temptations we give into when no one is watching are the most dangerous It's when we're alone that temptation is greatest and our defenses weakest WE - Temptations When No One Is Looking We face temptations daily—small and large We have conversations with ourselves (or the devil)…
A Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12 ME Story of the good disruption that having Phoebe was for our family. You move from self-centeredness to other-centeredness You experience love that's costlier than you imagined You learn dependence (on God, on your spouse, on community) in new ways You worship God's design…
ME: Moving Moving around a lot when I was younger. Not Really being able to get to know a place very well. WE: Being vs. Living Somewhere There's a difference between being in a place and living in a place. GOD: Jesus Moves Into the Neighborhood Read John 1:10-14 The movement John shows us: vs. 10-11:…
An Advent Sermon on Isaiah 37:26-32 ME - The Walls are Crashing In Picture King Hezekiah standing on the walls of Jerusalem. Hezekiah standing on those walls, surrounded, questioning, desperate—that was 2,700 years ago. But you've been there too, haven't you? WE - Identify the shared tension Maybe not…
An Advent Sermon on Isaiah 41:17-20 Me: Seasons of life that are barren Droughts in the West and the need for rain. Seasons when faith feels dry, empty, and exhausting • Doing the right things but sensing no life or growth • Wondering if God is present or silent We: Trying to work our way out of those…
From Repentance to Growth An Advent Sermon on Isaiah 27:1-6 ME: A world overrun with thorns Look around at our world. The news cycle is one long parade of violence, corruption, addiction, and people tearing each other apart. We see political chaos, wars, families unraveling, and anxiety eating away at…
An Advent Sermon on Isaiah 11:1-9 Theme: God has a King who will set all things right and bring justice to our world. Live and walk in this truth. Image: A shoot growing out of a dead stump. Need: Trust that the King is coming. Mission: Live knowing that the King is coming to bring justice and restore…
The Problem (ME/WE) Image of light in the darkness We think we see more than we do. Walking in the dark feels familiar, but it is still darkness. We claim to walk in the light while living with hidden darkness. Christ’s Pattern of Love (vs. 1–2) “Walk in love, as Christ loved us.” • Christ’s sacrificial…
- ME – Introduce with the Orchestra Image Describe the experience of hearing an orchestra tune before the concert—chaotic, individualistic, everyone focused on their own sound. If you’ve ever sat in a concert hall before a symphony begins, you know the peculiar sound of an orchestra tuning up. It’s…
ME – When the Pieces Don’t Fit Have you ever tried to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without seeing the box lid. I never had, I find it hard enough to do even when I have the picture on the box right in front of me. Before Phoebe came into our family, Emma would normally have a puzzle going on our dinning…
ME — Remodel Projects HGTV - all of the different remodeling shows. Everyone like the “before” and “after” photos. No one loves the dust, the noise, the mess. During seminary, I was part of a summer work crew that fixed up student housing. When we started a remodeling project it always looked easy ……
Alive in Christ Story of seeing “The Thinker” statue in Paris. Have you ever walked through a museum and stood before a finely carved statue — maybe the thinker or another masterpiece — and wondered, “How could someone shape something so lifelike out of a block of stone or metal?” Yet imagine if that…
Blessings in Christ Ephesians 1:3-14 — “He chose us in Him before the creation of the world” (v. 4–6). — “In Him we have redemption through His blood” (v. 7). — “You were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (v. 13–14). All of it points back to God and his glorious grace. Let worship…
We see God bless a trickster, Jacob. He's on the run from home when God meets him, head against a rock, in a dream. He marvels, "Surely the LORD was in this place and I was not aware of it."
In Genesis 22:1-14, we hear the horrifying story of Abraham binding his son Isaac on an altar to sacrifice him to God. Why would God ask this of Abraham? How do they respond? We'll see that God provides the sacrifice, both then and now: Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Today, we hear God's word from Galatians 6:1-10. Paul reminds the Galatians that some fo them have not been living the way of the Spirit by loving one another. They should work toward restoration, realizing that everyone falls short sometimes. The Spirit empowers us to love one another by doing good to all people, especially those in God's household.
Paul has some harsh words for those people who led the Galatians astray. Even they can't keep the whole law! The only thing that counts, says Paul, is faith expressing itself through love. That Spirit-filled reality means that our daily lives must show this kind of love.
Guest preacher David Kroon, chaplain at Good Samaritan Family Ministries, speaks on God's view of eternity
Paul explains how God's people are children of the promise, not of the law. he uses the story of Hagar and Sarah from Genesis 16 and 21 to show how the law is a covenant of slavery and Jesus' grace is a covenant of freedom. We'll hear the joyful declaration of that freedom in Galatians 5:1: "For freedom Christ has set us free."
Paul takes one use of the law, as our teacher, and shows how it applies to God's children in the Spirit. The law can function like a guardian or governess, preparing children for adult life. The Spirit works in the same way at baptism. The Spirit makes us "in Christ." The Spirit adopts us as God's children. The Spirit makes us full-grown heirs of God's covenant blessings
Jesus heals a demon-possessed man and restores him to his community.
This is a hard story for many of us to hear. We'd rather not think about demons or impure spirits. We don't know what to do with people who are excluded by their family or society because of mental illness. We'd rather not come face-to-face with the powers that control us.
But Jesus' name is powerful. Jesus crosses the sea of Galilee and confronts the powers of evil on their territory. And Jesus wins. Because he is powerful. That is scary for the people who witness Jesus' power. They'd rather send him away than see his power change everything about their lives.
What about you? Come and listen! Be transformed by word and worship of Jesus Christ.