Brian's Sermons

The Ten Commandments: Exodus 20:1-17 20  And God spoke all these words, saying,   2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.   3 “You shall have no other gods before me.   Last week we started a new series on the Ten Commandments. We recognize the Ten Commandments as the basis for Jewish and Christian laws, but also as the baseline for Christian behavior. The first five tell how to interact with God, while the last five tell how to interact with one another. The introduction reminded us who gives us the Ten Commandments — that they come from Yahweh, our God, the all-powerful God who relates to His creation as Father to son.   And it because of who God is that the first commandment can be: You shall have no other gods before me . It is important to know who this God is — Yahweh, I am who I am, or “I will be who I will be.” God is the God who is .   Our God is Elohim...

Ruth 1:1-17 Who is a hero? We can think of many people who have been heroes in our lives. Usually athletes, freedom fighters, politicians, musicians, talented evangelists… But today’s hero was none of these. She wasn’t rich or famous. She wasn’t politically connected. She wasn’t even a leader. Our hero is a poor widow from an enemy nation. We read the beginning of the Book of Ruth, but here is a summary of what happens next. At the beginning of the book Ruth is living in her home nation, Moab. These were traditionally Israel’s enemies. Ruth’s husband died without giving her a child, and so she lives with her widowed mother-in-law. She could have simply given up. But she did not. There are probably some among us who have gone through significant struggles, much as Ruth did. She suffered loss. She moved far away from her people. She could have defined herself by her failures and her struggles. But she did not allow her past to dictate her future .   God crea...

Matthew 6:9-13 When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we first focus on God. Our Father in Heaven, whose name is lifted up and obeyed, on earth as it is in heaven. Now, in this part of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus shifts the focus. Having praised God for who He is, we now begin to ask of God. As in Philippians 4:6-7, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Now it is the time to make our requests to God.  We begin by requesting our daily bread. This is a prayer for God to meet our physical needs. It is a recognition that God is the giver and sustainer of life itself. Sometimes we need reminding that Every good and perfect gift is from above. (James 1:17a) but this prayer keeps us rooted in this truth. Even our food itself is a gift from God.  Did you notic...

Before I get to today’s scripture, I want to read another one.  I want to start with James 5:17-18:  Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. As I was preparing for the last five weeks I will be preaching here, I wanted to have a theme; I didn’t want to just preach five stand-alone sermons that don’t really have anything to do with one another. I wanted to find something that speaks to us today, no matter what we are doing. But I also didn’t want to go to my favorite, “pet passages” if you will. So I ended up with one of my favorite heroes of the Bible. Sometimes we can get caught up in the “hero” thoughts, thinking that this person or that person is so spiritual or so powerful or so whateverful that I could never do anything like this. This is the reason that I chose to read the passage from James be...