Brian's Sermons

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 [ Before we get started, I want to acknowledge several things. First of all, it is an honor to be invited to come and preach as a guest preacher. It is a distinct honor to be trusted with the Word of God, even though we have had little or no interaction before. This week as we worship together, I hope to get to know you better and for you to get to know me as well. The second thing I’d like to acknowledge is that it is hard to preach to people I don’t know. I don’t know your names, I don’t know what you’ve struggled with, and I don’t even know your language. I apologize for needing to use a translator, but I thank you for the chance to bring God’s Word to you. ] I also admit that I am not fluent in your culture. There are things that are perfectly normal here in Lusaka that are completely foreign to me as an American. There are things that I do that you would find completely crazy, but they happen...

How many of you have ever given something up for Lent? I never gave something up for Lent until I was in seminary, and when I did, I gave up pop. Now, you have to realize that I was dirt poor at the time, and my pop consumption was pretty low. I would buy a Pepsi from the machine at the Laundromat for $.35 when I did the laundry, probably about once a week. But the second day of Lent that year, I went to a seminar, and in the intermission, they had a table set out with all kinds of free snacks and free Coke and Cherry Coke… and of course, I had given it up the day before. I still remember and kind of groan about it, and, upon some reflection, I think I know why. My focus was off. I was focused on myself and what I was giving up. The whole reason I gave it up was because I felt like I was supposed to give something up for Lent. While I have fasted and have seen that discipline help me, I admit that there are times when I have done it for the sake of fasting. Or even because everyo...

It’s not my fault. Someone else is to blame. I would never have done that. I’m the victim here. These are not new claims; in fact, they are the oldest excuses in the book – the Bible, that is. They go all the way back to Genesis, when Satan tempted Adam and Eve and Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the snake… It seems like the same thing gets repeated again and again and again and as we repeat it, we get better at it. We even start to believe it ourselves! The more we tell a story, the truer we think it is. And one story we tell a lot is “it isn’t my fault.” If you don’t know the back story behind Psalm 51, in 2 Samuel 11, King David was at the height of his power, but in the Spring, when kings go to war, David was lollygagging around the palace, spying on a neighbor woman bathing. He acted upon his urges, got her pregnant, tried to cover it up by bringing her husband home from war, but when he wouldn’t sleep with her, David had the husband killed in the war. He felt pretty ...