Brian's Sermons

Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races? Matthew 16:13-17  When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.   I love reading mystery books. I have some personal rules about mystery books. One is that the bad guy can’t be someone newly introduced at the end of the book; there have to be clues all along.   My biggest ru...

Matthew 21:1-11 Today is Palm Sunday, and with Palm Sunday, we begin Holy Week, when we recognize the immense sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But Holy Week doesn’t start with resurrection; neither does it start with crucifixion. Holy Week starts with coronation. I will get more into this on Friday at our Lenten service at noon. But as we look at this text, the first thing that stands out to me is that this is a story of obedience . Jesus told the disciples to do something, and instead of asking questions like, “Did you already clear this with the owner of the donkey?” they simply obeyed. I love the verse that says, “The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.” When I’m talking with church people, one thing I hear a lot is “I don’t really know the Bible all that well.” While I agree that our culture is almost entirely biblically illiterate, this is usually a cop-out. Here’s an example: Jesus commanded (not asked) his followers to “ go and make disciples of a...

Mark 8:27-38 Today is the fifth Sunday in Lent, and we are continuing our series: Convinced. My clergy cluster group (Tim Reeves, Blaine Keene, Becky Piatt, Wendy Lybarger, Rob Turner, and Ryan Bash) decided to look at spiritual warfare through the book of Mark with the reminder that God wins; we don’t have to get all worried about how strong the devil is, because as Christians, we have God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, living within us, and God gives us victory. And I am convinced that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus! Isn’t that a comforting thought? No matter what you’re going through, no matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, no matter what you’re up against, you can count on God’s love. Today we see, however, that sacrifice is required. The setting itself in today’s scripture is important. Caesarea Philippi was a city famous for its pagan god worship. A cave near the city is supposed to be where Greek god Pan ...

Do you write a Christmas letter?  I have one friend who always (only?) includes all of the year’s low points.  Death and illness and tragedy make for a really upbeat Christmas letter.  Another family friend used to have glowing overbearing praise for one of their children and a one-sentence update about the other child.  We have written a satirical letter, a real update, a one-sentence-per-family- member update, and just “Merry Christmas from the Vinsons.” The big question is: What do you include in the letter?  What makes the cut?  Jude set out, eager to write about their shared salvation.  That’s a really great subject – salvation.  Salvation is a huge topic for conversation, and we could spend all day today speaking on it, but let’s look at it quickly.  In the Roman Empire, the title “Savior” was given to the Emperor.  So when you see “Savior” spoken of, it’s often in direct response to Rome, making sure everyone knows that salva...