Brian's Sermons

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked!  They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.  Psalm 1 Last week many of you wrote down what God was impressing on your hearts as where we as a church and as individuals need to go - where our Nineveh and Samaria might be, who our Levi might be.  I am still praying over the cards, but two things stick out to me.  One is that many of us have personal friends and family members who need Jesus. The second-most frequ...

Due to an unfortunate error, I erased my sermon this week.  (I saved it only on a thumb drive and, thinking I had saved it on my hard drive, I deleted it from the thumb drive).

There she was, obviously in pain.  Not physical pain, but emotional wounds that ran deep.  I didn’t know why she approached me; I was sitting in the corner of the laundromat, waiting for my clothes to dry, keeping to myself, reading an important book for a class I was in.  And she walked in.  I ignored her.  But she talked to me anyway, told me her troubles.  I knew I was supposed to pray with her, but I didn’t necessarily want to.  I didn’t even know how to breach that subject.  And she left.  I hadn’t done my job.  I hadn’t done what God told me to.  And I repented.  I told God, “If I get a second chance, I won’t blow it.”  I meant that the next time someone came to me sharing a burden, that I would pray for that person.  Out loud.  Right then and there.  I asked God – could you let me know when I’m supposed to approach someone?  When you want me to pray for them? I’ve often been skeptical when so...

While Jesus told his followers that they would be known by their fruit, Jude calls these troublemakers “fruitless.”   He says they are useless, even a burden on the church.  In the face of destructive false teaching, Jude warns the church to build their faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.  We looked at that briefly last week, but I want to reiterate it because there was so much in last week’s message that this part might have slipped by you.  Building yourself up in your most holy faith is extremely important.  Don’t just accept someone else’s faith – not my faith, not your parents’ faith, but build up your own faith.  Did any of you share your faith stories this past week?  How did it go?  Did any of you listen to anyone else’s story? If you were here for the Baccalaureate service, you got to hear some powerful stories of faith from our grads. Faith is rarely built when it isn’t tested.  One of my friends recently complained that his ru...