Brian's Sermons

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...

...for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. We’ve come to the last of the beatitudes. We’ve found that we’re blessed when we realize our need for God, that we can’t do it on our own. We’re blessed when we mourn our sinfulness and turn away from it. We’re blessed when we willingly accept God’s rule in our lives, obeying in meekness. We’re blessed when we want a right relationship with God more than we desire food and drink. We’re blessed when we have mercy. We’re blessed when we have pure hearts. We’re blessed when we make peace. The result of all this? We’re blessed when we’re persecuted. 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. Wow. What a blessing. Doesn’t everyone want that? Isn’t that w...