Brian's Sermons

Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this . Over the past four weeks, we have been preparing for Christmas by looking at the prophecy from Isaiah 9:6-7. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,  Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing an...

Isaiah 9:6-7  Over the past three weeks, we have been preparing for Christmas by looking at the prophecy from Isaiah 9:6-7. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,  Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this . We looked at Jesus’ role as the Wonderful Counselor who guides us to a good destination, just as a shepherd leads his flock beside still waters to green pastures. Last week we focused on Jesus’ role as Mighty God. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us!   This leads us to today’s focus: Jesus is Everlasting Father. Since we already established...

Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Last week we started our Advent journey in the passage from Isaiah, focusing on the prophecy in chapter 9, verse 6. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Our focus last week was the first Name ascribed to Jesus: Wonderful Counselor. Jesus is our wonderful counselor, transforming us by the...

He Shall Be Called… Wonderful Counselor Isaiah 9:1-7 9 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— 2  The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is...

Luke 7:17-23 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” What do you come expecting when you come to celebrate Christmas? What are your expectations? What are you celebrating? One of the themes as we p...

Throughout Advent, as we have been preparing for Christmas and for Christ’s return, we have been focusing on the four words of the Advent candles: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. Today, as we celebrate Christmas Eve, we lit the most important candle, the Christ candle. And as we light the Christ candle, it is only fitting that we would focus on Christ and his place within this wreath. Jesus Christ is not only the center candle for his obvious central role in the Christmas story, but his spot in the center of the wreath is because he is the fulfillment of all of the candles. We began Advent with hope. Fitting, that Hope Church would focus on hope. For a people caught in the “in between” times, Micah’s prophecy includes these words of hope: But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7) In the Old Testament, when you find the word “hope” it is almost always characterized not simply as “hope” b...

When we started lighting the Advent candles three weeks ago, we started with Hope. We then lit the candle of Love, and last week we lit the candle of Joy. The fourth candle of our Advent wreath is the candle of Peace. It might be a shock to some of you to be reminded that our country is a country at war. Operation Enduring Freedom, or the war in Afghanistan, has been going on for over twelve years (since October 7, 2001) with an American death toll of 1098 with an additional 2379 wounded. Yet we can be blissfully ignorant of this fact as we go about our lives. We can even pretend to live at peace, all the while having no peace in our lives. I don’t have the time to cover this topic completely this morning, but please understand that peace is not simply the absence of conflict. Just because you’re not at war doesn’t mean you have peace. And, in fact, Jesus comes, bringing peace in the face of war. The world says: peace is when we stop fighting. Jesus says, in John 14:27 “Pe...

What brings you joy? This time of year is often associated with joy – people experience joy in Christmas. Advertisers would like you to believe that only if you buy their products will your joy – or the joy of your loved ones – be complete. This is the third week in Advent. We started with hope: the hope of Christ’s birth and Christ’s return. Last week we focused on love: love came down at Christmas in the Person of Jesus Christ, and love lives within us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, allowing us to love other people, even the unlovely. Today our focus is joy. Joy is one of those Bible words that in some ways has lost its meaning, partially because there are many words that we translate to joy, and they vary in their intensity. Just like we can say we “love” all kinds of things, from our favorite sports team to our favorite food to our spouse, “joy” can also carry different weight. It’s one of those things where we know we want it, but we don’t necessarily know how to defi...

In our hymnal are many amazing songs. Some are deep in theology, some have catchy tunes, and some have complicated and beautiful harmonies. There are some songs that we only generally sing at one particular time of year, like the Christmas section. I love it when we sing Christmas songs – there is something about the familiarity of these favorite hymns. One year I had the church in New Knoxville sing “Joy to the World” on Easter, partly to confuse the people who only come to church twice a year, partly to be obnoxious, but mostly because if you want something to bring joy, Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate joy bringer! But there are plenty of songs that I have never heard (and some I don’t ever want to hear again – God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale, for one). One year, the musicians decided we would do a “Christmas carol hymn sing” during the Sundays of Advent. Congregation members would pick a song and we’d sing the first verse. Someone chose a song I’d never heard: In the Bleak...