Brian's Sermons

1 Corinthians 11:23-29 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. As a child, I remember playing outside with my friends in the evening, having so much fun, and then we’d hear a familiar sound. One by one...

As a coach, there is one thing I’ve found that seems true over all age groups and in pretty much any sport. That truth is this: if you focus on the basics, you will be more likely to succeed. Not just focusing on the basics, but practicing them over and over. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a football player try to “thud up” a ball carrier or an outfielder get ready to make the big throw before the ball is in his mitt or a basketball player blow a slam dunk when an easy lay-up would have done just fine. I even remember a soccer teammate who tried to do a fancy backwards overhead kick to clear out the ball and ended up scoring on our own goal. As a Christian, and as a pastor, I’ve found that sometimes we can focus a whole lot of attention on the little things, and some of them seem really important, but if we don’t spend time focusing on the main thing, we can forget the whole point. A prime example would be a famous pastor and public speaker who has always focused on lost an...

Last week we asked the big question “Why?” and came to the conclusion that the reason for everything is to bring God glory.   Remember that glory means weight, weightiness, or gravity.   We revolve around God, not the other way around. When the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he tells them whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31).   So when we look at the church, we have to realize that the reason for our existence as an institution is to bring God glory.   The church is never about us. Our ultimate goal isn’t fellowship or even growth or learning or worship – these are all means to the same end; to bring God glory.   It reminds me of a business where I saw a sign that says “Safety is our top priority.” Or another that claimed something similar about customer service.   Those aren’t really true. Making money is their top priority, and they realize that if they keep safe and serve their customers, they will make ...

John 6:1-15, 25-40 One of the great things about college ministry was that it was relatively easy to attract college students.  All you had to do was put up a sign that said, “Free pizza.” Everyone loves free food. I remember a really cool promotion held by Carmen’s pizza, the best Chicago deep-dish pizza place in Evanston (where I went to college) – during the first week of school, if you showed your student ID, proving you were a freshman, you got as much free pizza as you could eat.  The line was a block long. But college students aren’t the only ones who love free food.  Somewhat routinely, Chipotle offers free burritos (if you showed up on Halloween dressed like a burrito, you’d get a free one).  The first time I experienced this, we were driving by and saw a sign proclaiming “free burritos today” and of course we stopped! People were waiting for 45 minutes in a thunderstorm to get free food! Free food is always a draw.  But as this crowd gathered, th...

It’s easy to rush through Communion without giving much of a thought to what we are doing. For many of us, this has been a regular part of our church life for years, and because of that, it can be easy to forget how radical it really is. Today I want to try to remind us what we are doing when we take Communion. We often look at when Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples, which is logical, because it is when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Instead, today, we are going to look at John 6:25-69 . This chapter starts with the remarkable account of Jesus feeding five thousand people with five small barley loaves and two small fish. Then the disciples left and went across the lake, and Jesus met them halfway, walking on the water. If that’s not enough to freak you out, I don’t know what is. You see, Jesus is always blowing away preconceived notions and doing things that we would think are impossible. The next day, the crowd has realized that only the boat full of disciples had left...

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. Colossians 3:1-3 (Message) Church camp was always a great time for me. I loved the setting in rural Indiana where I would spend a week every summer learning, playing games, memorizing scripture, worshiping God, eating camp food (honestly, I thought it was pretty good), and hanging out with Christian kids from all over north central Indiana. One of the highlights of camp was the real way I would experience God. In fact, it seems like every summer, I was led to conviction about something, and on Friday night...