Brian's Sermons

Joshua 1:6-9    We face uncertain times. Our world is showing itself to be an unsafe place. Over the last weeks, during a holiday celebration in France, a terrorist killed 80 people by driving his truck through the crowds of innocent people. The military staged an attempted coup in Turkey. In my home country, police killings have made the news – unarmed people shot by police and police gunned down by snipers. Even here in peaceful Zambia, political cadres are being killed by police and by other cadres. But it’s not only violence that plagues us. We are being pressured by culture to accommodate to the world. To accept the world’s wisdom. To accept the world’s standards. To accept the world’s morality. Even the United Methodist Church herself is not exempt, as some of our American brothers and sisters have seemed bent on changing scripture to meet their desires. And add to that everything we face every day. School fees. No jobs. HIV/AIDS. Malaria. Cholera. Gender-based violen

2 Peter 1:3-4 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. We have been talking about the Holy Spirit for months here. Ever since the Holy Spirit encounter, we at St. Marks have been focused on the Holy Spirit. Who He is, what He does. In John 14:12, Jesus tells his followers: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these [new things!] , because I am going to the Father.  Jesus is promising us that we will do even greater things than he did because he is going to the Father and sending us the Holy Spirit.  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who c

One of two "tamed" cheetahs at Chaminuka Game Park This week I got to see an amazing sight. I got to see two full grown cheetahs. They were big, majestic, and muscular. There was only one unfortunate thing. They were shut into a fenced-in enclosure. Now, that was probably a good thing for me and my family, but the reality is, a cheetah was not created to be fenced in. A cheetah was created to run free, to use its speed to take down prey in the open grassland. God also created us to be free. But when we live to please our flesh, our sinful nature, we make ourselves slaves to sin. Romans 6:16 poses the question: Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?  Jesus says in John 8:34 Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Everyone. Jesus didn’t offer qualifications. He demonstrates