Brian's Sermons

The evangelist Billy Sunday is quoted as saying, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.” Last week I finished with the challenge that there is no such thing as a Sunday-only Christian. This week we continue looking at the vows of the United Methodist Church. Our final vow is this: As members of this congregation, will you faithfully participate in its ministries by your prayer, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness? This should serve as a reminder that the members of the congregation are, by definition, the church. The church isn’t a building or an institution. In today’s culture, we talk of “going to church” as if church is a destination or a place. But that isn’t accurate. The church is the people of God, called out by God for a purpose.   For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that...

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory We have spent months studying the Lord’s Prayer. We begin by recognizing and acknowledging who God is. God is the Almighty in Heaven, but he has chosen us as his children, so we can address him as “our Father.” We worship him and lift up his name as holy. This must always be our context for prayer. We do not lift up our prayers to someone who is just one of us. God is love; he cares for us. But he is also all powerful; he can answer our prayers.  We begin our petitions of God by asking for his kingdom to come and for his will to be done; in asking this, we also humble ourselves and bend our will to his. We call upon Jehovah Jireh - God our Provider - to give us this day our daily bread. We entrust ourselves fully to his provision.  We continue our prayer by asking for forgiveness and for the power and grace to forgive others, and we ask for the power to resist temptation and deliverance from Satan and his tricks. As we com...

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one . Matthew 6:13 Over the last two weeks, we looked at forgiveness. To get to forgiveness, we must recognize that we have sinned. We ask for forgiveness from our past sin. Now that we have done so, we ask for protection from future sin. The reality is, temptation will always be with us. The closer we draw to Jesus Christ, the more the devil will tempt us. Our goal as Christians is Christ-likeness, and so we should expect the same things that Jesus experienced. Right as he was to begin his ministry, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Hebrews 4:15, in describing Jesus as our high priest says this: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus has been tempted in every way, but he did not give in to temptation. Sometimes Christians believe that temptation itself is...

Thyatira: Revelation 2:18-29 It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but when I was here last, I had started going through the seven letters written to the seven churches in Asia, as recorded in Revelation 2-3. As we started through them, it’s amazing how relevant these words are today, even though they were written nearly two thousand years ago to a people far from us physically and culturally. Thyatira was founded as a military outpost by the Greeks, but fell to the Romans and enjoyed stability and prosperity. It was known as a center of manufacturing and marketing. In Acts 16, we meet “a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira.” It’s often good to live in a prosperous city, but there was a problem. The manufacturing sector was dominated by trade guilds whose membership was intertwined with religious observances. Think of trying to serve pork in a closed Muslim nation. It’s not going to happen. You can try, but you’re going to have trouble. At b...

Pergamum: Revelation 2:12-17 12  “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. 14  Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.  15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.  16  Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is vic...

When I was a little boy, we learned that the way of salvation involved confession, repentance, baptism, and a final step, live-the-Christian-life. I don’t think this was intentional, but the way I heard it, it seemed like adults never had any trouble with this last step. It sounded like living out the Christian life was easy. Last week, as we looked at the Methodist way of salvation, we specifically looked at the end goal of Christianity, which is holiness, Christ-likeness, or Christian perfection. The last two weeks I have made the comparison of living the Christian life with riding the GoBus from Athens to Cincinnati. We have the choice to get off the bus at any time. But how do we stay on the bus? How do we live the Christian life? John Wesley was very methodical; this is where the term “Methodist” came from. He and his Holy Club figured out what helped keep them “on the Go Bus” and regularly, even religiously did it. From studying the Bible to fasting to caring for the hu...

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:10-12. Jesus’ ministry started out all the right ways. He was baptized in the Jordan and was tempted in the wilderness. From there, he went, healing the sick and preaching good news. Then Jesus gathered his disciples to instruct them about the kingdom. Through these instructions, which we have come to know as the beatitudes, Jesus pronounced various blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, and the peacemakers. As we wrap up this section of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims a blessing on those who are persecuted for their faith. As w...