Brian's Sermons

I used to belong to the YMCA, and there was one thing that really bothered me. No, not the people who were obviously there to be seen, not to work out (“really, you’re going to walk on the treadmill in flip flops?” Or “you chose to wear that to work out in?” or “Not so much perfume next time, please!”). The one thing that really bothered me was the lack of attention to the rules. The track was the big place where some people constantly chose to disregard the rules, especially regarding the direction traffic was flowing. I don’t know how many times I had to dodge people who were going the wrong way! My mom would laugh at me for saying this, but I am a rule follower. I like to know exactly what the rules are, and honestly I can tend toward a Pharisaical attitude toward the rules. I can find myself thinking, “Well, I would never do that, ” when there are other rules I obviously would break. That reminds me of a parable Jesus told: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ...

A few years ago, I got the chance to visit my brother and his wife in England. While we were there, we went a few hours west of London for a few days. We rented a car; you might have guessed; I was a little wary of driving in England. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do; shifting gears with the wrong hand, driving on the wrong side. And that didn’t even take into account the fact that we were following unfamiliar maps on unfamiliar roads, going places we had never been before. I found a couple of things very helpful. First, the traffic moved very politely. Secondly, though I missed my turn about as many times as I made it, there were lots of handy traffic circles. So every time I missed my turn, I knew in a mile or so I’d be able to easily pull a legal U-turn and get back on track. One thing that is important to find out before getting on the road is what the rules of the road are. Are you legally allowed to make a U-turn? Who has the right-of-way in a traffic circle? The rules of th...

On the Journey: Sanctification As we continue in week 3 of “The Journey” I want to share with you something that happens every year at Annual Conference. In the course of Ordination in the United Methodist Church, every candidate must go before the assembled Annual Conference and answer what are known as “The Historical Questions.” There’s always a nervous laugh at one of the questions: “Are you in debt so as to embarrass you in your work?” But the first four questions we are asked are as follows: 1.       Have you faith in Christ? 2.       Are you going on to perfection? 3.       Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life? 4.       Are you honestly striving after perfection in love? The first one is an obvious but unfortunately necessary question; faith in Christ is necessary for new birth; as we discussed last week, it’s the one condition of justification, which is when Go...

You can’t go on a journey without stepping through the door. Last week we started our preparation for the Journey, recognizing the Holy Spirit’s voice calling us before we ever called to the Spirit. We wouldn’t even know that there’s a journey to go on were it not for the Spirit, who calls us to Himself.   We call this “Prevenient Grace” – the Holy Spirit calling us to Himself, awakening the image of God in us. One of our most important recognitions is that we are helpless on our own. In our sinful state, we cannot even think of going on a journey toward perfection. The best we could hope for would be “good enough” and, to be frank, “good enough” isn’t good enough. Without God’s direct intervention, we are doomed. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus makes a radical command: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect . Think about it: if the aim is perfection, unless you’ve already been perfect for all of your life, that goal is unattainable. Think of a baseball pitcher: supp...

In college, some students came up with a fundraising concept: the “suitcase party.” The idea was that everyone paid a cover charge to get into the party, and once you were there, they gave out some prizes, the biggest of which was a fantastic trip. The only rub was that you had to come to the party with a packed suitcase, ready to leave immediately if you won. Preparation for a journey is sometimes harder than the trip itself. What do you bring? What do you leave at home? But before you can pack, you have to know where you’re going and where you’re coming from. Today we are starting a new series on United Methodist Theology. We will be looking at the Way of Salvation, and we’re calling this series: The Journey . To know where we’re coming from, we have to look back to the beginning. In Genesis 1, we read: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. ” (Genesis 1:26a) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he create...