Brian's Sermons

Philippians 4:4-9 I was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, reading a book that was required reading for class: The Christology of Jesus . It was very heady reading, and I was struggling with it. A woman asked me what I was reading and I showed her the cover of the book and muttered, “It’s a chore.” She, having obviously misheard me, responded brightly, “Honey, any time you’re reading about Jesus, it’s a joy.” I don’t know if she was an angel sent down from heaven or if she was just an angel stationed here on earth, but God had obviously sent her to give me a clear message. This is the same kind of message Paul is sending to the church in Philippi. There is always something to rejoice about! It doesn’t bother me that I read this first part of the passage in my last sermon, because, if Paul can repeat himself, so can I! Rejoice in the Lord always! Rejoice! One of the things that Paul was sure of was that Jesus would return soon. I’ve seen a T-shirt that says, “Jesus is co...

We’ve been spending a lot of time on the Holy Spirit. We started out looking at who the Holy Spirit is, concluding that the Spirit is personal and the Spirit is God.   We turned to look at what the Holy Spirit does, and we discussed that it is the Holy Spirit who calls us, turning us to God, giving us the freedom to serve God, and even helps us to pray. The Holy Spirit is the One who seals our adoption as God’s beloved children and heirs, transforming us and equipping us to do God’s will, giving us spiritual gifts and growing within us the Fruit of the Spirit. Last week was a powerful service in which we were given the “good news” that the only way to defeat death is to die… and to be resurrected, and to daily die to self, emptying ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I concluded by reading from Robert Boyd Munger’s pamphlet My Heart – Christ’s Home , where he concluded that it’s not enough for the Holy Spirit to be a “guest” in our heart, but that our job is to sign over...