Brian's Sermons

Philippians 3:12-21 On June 6, 1944, on the eve of D-Day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave this speech: Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely. But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in t...

Philippians 2:19-30, 3:1-11 I don’t think we can adequately understand how hard it was on Paul, waiting to receive news about his loved ones, when we are bombarded with news. If my mom hasn’t gotten a Facebook update from me in a couple of days, she gets frantic ( sorry for picking on you mom, and please know that this is hyperbole ). We have Facebook and cellphones and Skype and stuff I don’t even know about. Instead of all of that, Paul has Timothy. We already discussed Timothy very briefly when we looked at the introduction and back in January I had a sermon series about Paul which included a sermon about Timothy, Paul’s  “beloved son in the Lord” (2 Corinthians 4:17), his “true son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2). As we’ve gotten this far in Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, we have seen that Paul is calling the Philippians to have a Christ-like attitude, one that values others over self, but did you notice Paul’s attitude? Paul is in prison, where Timothy and Ep...

Philippians 2:5-18 Last week, we got a full-on attitude check. Not an “at least my attitude is OK” kind of attitude check, but the kind where we ask, “Is my attitude the same as Jesus’ attitude?” I fully believe that Jesus had every opportunity and ability to quit. At any time, Jesus could have called the whole thing off. But instead, Jesus chose to serve humanity, going so far as to offer himself as a sacrifice on the cross. And so God gave Jesus his reward – he exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. Jesus’ obedience even to death on a cross reveals Jesus’ equality with God.  There is a reason Paul says all of this, and I’ve often been guilty of taking what commentaries call the “Christ Hymn” out of Paul’s context and using it solely to look at Jesus and his actions and his character, but Paul has a specific reason for saying all this. One of the reasons Paul is writing to the Philippian Church is to encourage them in thei...

Philippians 1:27-2:11 I had a lot of misconceptions as a child, but one of the most insidious was the thought that living a Christian life was going to be easy. I’m not sure exactly how I came to think this, and it sounds really nice – but there is only one little problem with it: it doesn’t fit with scripture. Paul is writing to the church in Philippi to thank them for their gift, which is sustaining him while he is in prison for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, and to encourage them during their own struggles. He just told them that he wants above anything to die and be with Jesus Christ face-to-face, because this is better than the best things on earth, but that because he still has a job to do for the church, he is still alive. He really wants to come and visit them again so their joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of him (Philippians 1:26). In the meantime, Paul exhorts the Philippian church to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Chri...