Brian's Sermons

Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Galatians 5:22-23: But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law. As we’ve been looking at the Holy Spirit over these past three weeks, I wonder something: are you any more loving and any more filled with joy than you were before? Part of being filled with the Holy Spirit is when you are, He brings about the Fruit. He brings that love and joy that we talked about over the past couple of weeks. One of the side effects of speaking on the Holy Spirit is that the devil doesn’t like it. He would rather you serve a distant impersonal God. He would rather you not know that your very body is a temple of the Holy Spirit – that the Spirit of God resides within you with power! He hates...

Galatians 5:22-23 But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. What brings you joy? I asked that question on Facebook and got a lot of personal responses: friends and family, especially one’s children bring joy. One of my high school classmates responded that when her daughter comes to her and says, “Mommy, I love you” when she doesn’t want anything: that brings her joy. Others told me that life itself brings joy: when we consider how fortunate we are, it brings joy. Still others responded that serving others brings joy. And finally, there were two responses that struck me because I knew their situations. One friend, whose sewers had backed up and filled their house with raw sewage, forcing them out (with three children, including a newborn), said, “knowing that God will take care of me.” Another friend, whose mother just lost her battle with cancer, respond...

Matthew 22:34-40 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Galatians 5:22-23 The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Here is a link to the video I used to introduce the message. If we believe Jesus, love is the most important commandment of all. If we believe the Apostle Paul, love is the first aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit. If we believe our culture, love is confusing. Anyone here confused about love? Today...

Galatians 5:16-26 Last week we took a critical look at the prevailing religion among American teenagers, MTD – Moralistic Therapeutic Deism , which at its heart, tells its followers to be good: don’t do bad things. Last week we looked at Jesus’ words where he boiled it down to this: avoiding sin isn’t good enough. Instead of simply stopping doing bad things, we have been called to turn 180 degrees and to do good. On our own, we aren’t capable of it; we keep on doing bad things. But we’re not called to do it on our own. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 tells us Avoid every kind of evil . But Paul continues: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. Our calling is by a God who fills us with His Spirit. We cannot get to today’s scripture without understanding this. We are told to live by the Spirit – we can’t live by th...