Brian's Sermons

Again and again he tries.  Each time, he knows he will succeed.  Though he’s failed every time in the past, this time will be different.  He approaches the ball… and it’s yanked out from under him.  Have you ever felt like Charlie Brown?  You’ve tried so hard, but things aren’t going like you expected them to go.  You didn’t plan them out this way? When I was entering the final quarter of my senior year of college, I had my life all planned out.  I was going to graduate college and get married.  Then I was going to continue my education at Indiana University, where I would get my master’s degree in Education, after which I would get a job, where I would teach high school German and coach soccer.  I had everything planned out. To make a long story short, things didn’t work out like I had planned. My fiancé and I broke up, and the last place I wanted to be was where she was, so I didn’t go to grad school.  Life didn’t turn out at all like I had planned. I’m not the only one who ha

Let’s be honest: life is too short to live unintentionally.  We don’t know what is going to happen next, and none of us is guaranteed tomorrow.  Wouldn’t it be good to know that you are living a life that matters?   There have been times in my life when I have wondered if I am making a difference.  When I was leading the evening service at my first church, we struggled with poor attendance.”  There were days when the band outnumbered the congregation.  I wondered if we were making a difference at all.  Meanwhile, the youth group wasn’t growing, and the senior pastor and I struggled with philosophical differences in youth ministry.  Then in New Knoxville, the District Superintendent told me that our church could grow and become an “anchor” in the southern part of Auglaize County.  I really, really wanted that to happen, yet the growth I saw while I was there was less than one person per year.  Somehow the devil began to use what started out as a good thing. The devil got hold o

Luke 3:1-20 What are you looking forward to? Christmas?  The New Year?  Heaven?  Most of us are looking forward to something.  When I think of Christmas time as a child, the one word that I would use to describe it would be anticipation.  I would generally just ask for just one thing for Christmas, and then I’d have to wait and wait.  Christmas Eve was the hardest night to fall asleep, because the anticipation was so great. So what are you looking forward to?  What are you anticipating? And what are you doing to prepare for it?  As a child, we were told that Santa would know if we’d been naughty or nice, and that our Christmas haul depended upon our behavior.  So we would ostensibly prepare for Christmas by being “nice.” When we look at scriptures, the Bible works to prepare us for Christmas, for the coming of Jesus Christ.  The entire Old Testament works together to let us know why it was necessary for God to take on flesh and to come to earth.  For me, Christmas isn’t Christma

If you want to read this sermon, please contact me. I have taken it down out of respect for the community.

I will be posting my December 6th sermon shortly, but I first have some editing to do. 

I don’t like shopping.  When it comes to clothes, I’m generally hard to fit, which, coupled with the fact that I usually balk at paying full price on anything, means it takes a long time.  The kids don’t enjoy it either, even when they get to go to the toy section, because they don’t like waiting while we try to find the exact right thing.  And babysitters cost enough that we don’t like to “waste” our date nights on shopping. Sometimes we still shop, but mostly we shop online.  Anyone else caught this bug?  My mom loves Christmas shopping online – she said it’s like she gets two Christmases. One is when the packages come in the mail, and the other is when she gets to give them out. Unfortunately, sometimes when you receive your package, you open it up, just to find that the product doesn’t fit, or worse, is broken.  Once I received a CD that was shattered into about 1000 pieces.  When that happened, I immediately e-mailed and asked for a replacement.  Why?  Because a broken CD wouldn

Do you want to live a life that matters?  Of course you do.  That is one of our greatest needs.  To live a life that matters.  Over the next several weeks leading into Christmas, we are going to look at some things we can do that will matter, not just for today, but for eternity. We live in an anxious, uneasy world.  We wonder how long our good health will hold out. H1N1 is still out there, there seems to be more and more cases of cancer, and of course, none of us is getting any younger.  And what about health care? Insurance prices?  Government run? We worry about our money – will we have enough to retire?  And will our jobs survive? Is our country going to hell in a hand basket? And that doesn’t even take into account the things that keep each of us awake at night, those so personal details that we don’t dare share out loud. In the midst of all of this turmoil, we’re asking, “Do you want to live a life that matters?”  Of course we want to live a life that matters.  When you com

Galatians 5:22-23 A few years ago I was visiting my parents for Thanksgiving.  Their church was going through a sermon series on the seven deadly sins, and one of the associate pastors was given the task of preaching, on Thanksgiving weekend, on the topic of gluttony.  That was no easy task, talking to a crowd, many of whom were still wearing elastic waistbands three days after their gluttonous meal on Thanksgiving.  That was a really awkward 45 minutes.  Why?  Because most of the crowd was guilty of the infraction.  Most of us had overeaten on Thanksgiving.  As well as other days.  Think about it: can you imagine someone in Darfur saying, “I ate way too much today” or “I’d better just sit here for a while; I am too stuffed to move”?   One of the issues is that we as a culture have no self-control.  Today we are on the final aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit: Self-control.  This is a concept absolutely foreign to most of our culture.  I have generally begun by defining the aspec