Brian's Sermons

Matthew 22:35-40 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”   One of Zambia’s biggest problems is poverty. Any NGO or service operation will tell you this. We all know this. Nobody can say any differently, because we can all look around and see poverty. And we can see poverty in our own lives. The West would like you to think that poverty is all about money, or the lack of money. They say that all you need is money, which will solve your poverty problems.   The problem with this approach is that it never addresses the root cause of poverty. Nor d...

Exodus 20:13: You shall not murder. Through the past weeks, we have been looking in depth into the Ten Commandments, God’s rules for living. We started with God’s introduction — the commandments come only in the context of who God is. After God’s people had disobeyed God and experienced the consequences of disobedience, we read God’s response as recorded in Isaiah 48:17-18: Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waters of the sea.   There are rewards for following God’s will, and there are consequences for not . God gave us the Ten Commandments, not to beat us into submission, but to teach us how to live in right relationship with Him and in harmony with one another.   Last week we shifted from the first commandme...

Last week we looked at God’s forgiveness. How it is God’s character from which forgiveness flows. Because of who God is, and because of what Jesus did for us, God grants us forgiveness. God’s grace is not cheap. He has consistently blessed his people to be a blessing to others. And when God forgives us, he links his forgiveness to how we forgive others.  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15) So God requires us to forgive. In Matthew 18:21, when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him, He generously suggested seven times. The rabbis said three times was enough. If someone wronged you, you were expected to forgive them three times. But Peter was more generous. He suggested up to seven times, the perfect number of completion. But Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven tim...

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. After we give God the proper respect, Jesus instructs us to pray for our daily bread, remembering that we rely on God for everything. This is a prayer for our physical needs as well as spiritual, remembering that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never go thirsty.” (John 6:35)  We continue today, asking for God’s intervention. Today we will begin looking at forgiveness. Forgiveness means freeing someone from guilt and its consequences, including punishment, usually as a act of compassion or love, with the aim of restoring a broken relationship. Forgiveness can involve the cancellation of both punishment and debt. Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser. We ask God to forgive our trespasses. Now, I don’t know how it works going from ...

“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...

Psalm 51, part 2: Saved for Celebration Psalm 51:11-15 Last week we ended with the reminder that Christianity isn’t about what we do or how much we have done, because we are all sinners by nature and we can never do enough to somehow appease God or to outweigh our “naughty” list with our “nice.” Christianity is not a religion of “do” – it’s a relationship with Jesus, who has already “done” what we could not do. We are in Psalm 51, the song David wrote after the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. As we return to the text, let’s take a moment in prayer. In college, my indoor soccer team was playing for the league championship. Late in the game, the opponents were rushing toward the goal. I was the last defender back. As the guy with the ball passed the ball across the goal toward his wide-open teammate, I stuck my foot out… and the ball bounced off my foot, past our goalkeeper, and into the goal. We lost the champion...

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 ...

John 21:15-19 Last week we looked at Nehemiah 1, and admitted that we are largely a people with broken walls and ruined gates. That Satan has attacked and attacked, and at times it feels overwhelming. In Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah has gone to Jerusalem to inspect the walls and comes to a conclusion: Then I said to them [the officials of Jerusalem], “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” Nehemiah 2:17 We just need to exchange “Jerusalem” for “Millersport UMC” and remember that the walls we are rebuilding are spiritual. Come, let us rebuild the wall. Would you take a moment and pray Psalm 139:23-24 with me? Let’s pray this prayer aloud together: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Now take a moment and if God has re...

Colossians 3:12-17 Last week we looked at the first ten verses of Colossians 3; Jesus took upon himself every one of our sins and nailed them to the cross and we were raised with Christ, and because of this, we are commanded to set our hearts on things above. This isn’t just a suggestion; it’s a command. We can’t just expect our minds to go where they aren’t trained to go. I don’t ever remember being told how important it is to train my mind. Our culture lies to us and tells us how we are is how we are going to be, that there is no changing. Of course, every parent and teacher works on the assumption that we can change our kids, and society expects us to be able to, but why should we even want to change ourselves? Or to allow God to do so? As we set our hearts and minds on things above, it is going to change who we are. Paul continues by telling us: Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, This is the context of God’s commands. God isn’t some cosmic meanie, ...