Brian's Sermons

What Do You Really Want? Back in August, we embarked on a study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We started with the section that is commonly known as the “Beatitudes” – the “blessed are” statements where Jesus pronounces blessings or abundant life, on those who would follow him wholeheartedly. He lets his followers in on a secret: God isn’t all about those who look the part; God is most interested in the heart and the motives of those who would be His people. So it is possible to look “religious” and completely miss the mark. We took a break from the Sermon on the Mount for Advent, where we focused on preparation for Christmas and for Christ’s return. We looked at the four words of Advent: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, and on Christmas Eve we celebrated Jesus who is the fulfillment of each of those words. He is our Hope. He is Love. He is Joy, and He is Peace. Today we dive back into the Sermon on the Mount with Matthew 7:7-12. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and y...

Throughout Advent, as we have been preparing for Christmas and for Christ’s return, we have been focusing on the four words of the Advent candles: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. Today, as we celebrate Christmas Eve, we lit the most important candle, the Christ candle. And as we light the Christ candle, it is only fitting that we would focus on Christ and his place within this wreath. Jesus Christ is not only the center candle for his obvious central role in the Christmas story, but his spot in the center of the wreath is because he is the fulfillment of all of the candles. We began Advent with hope. Fitting, that Hope Church would focus on hope. For a people caught in the “in between” times, Micah’s prophecy includes these words of hope: But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7) In the Old Testament, when you find the word “hope” it is almost always characterized not simply as “hope” b...

When we started lighting the Advent candles three weeks ago, we started with Hope. We then lit the candle of Love, and last week we lit the candle of Joy. The fourth candle of our Advent wreath is the candle of Peace. It might be a shock to some of you to be reminded that our country is a country at war. Operation Enduring Freedom, or the war in Afghanistan, has been going on for over twelve years (since October 7, 2001) with an American death toll of 1098 with an additional 2379 wounded. Yet we can be blissfully ignorant of this fact as we go about our lives. We can even pretend to live at peace, all the while having no peace in our lives. I don’t have the time to cover this topic completely this morning, but please understand that peace is not simply the absence of conflict. Just because you’re not at war doesn’t mean you have peace. And, in fact, Jesus comes, bringing peace in the face of war. The world says: peace is when we stop fighting. Jesus says, in John 14:27 “Pe...

What brings you joy? This time of year is often associated with joy – people experience joy in Christmas. Advertisers would like you to believe that only if you buy their products will your joy – or the joy of your loved ones – be complete. This is the third week in Advent. We started with hope: the hope of Christ’s birth and Christ’s return. Last week we focused on love: love came down at Christmas in the Person of Jesus Christ, and love lives within us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, allowing us to love other people, even the unlovely. Today our focus is joy. Joy is one of those Bible words that in some ways has lost its meaning, partially because there are many words that we translate to joy, and they vary in their intensity. Just like we can say we “love” all kinds of things, from our favorite sports team to our favorite food to our spouse, “joy” can also carry different weight. It’s one of those things where we know we want it, but we don’t necessarily know how to defi...

In our hymnal are many amazing songs. Some are deep in theology, some have catchy tunes, and some have complicated and beautiful harmonies. There are some songs that we only generally sing at one particular time of year, like the Christmas section. I love it when we sing Christmas songs – there is something about the familiarity of these favorite hymns. One year I had the church in New Knoxville sing “Joy to the World” on Easter, partly to confuse the people who only come to church twice a year, partly to be obnoxious, but mostly because if you want something to bring joy, Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate joy bringer! But there are plenty of songs that I have never heard (and some I don’t ever want to hear again – God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale, for one). One year, the musicians decided we would do a “Christmas carol hymn sing” during the Sundays of Advent. Congregation members would pick a song and we’d sing the first verse. Someone chose a song I’d never heard: In the Bleak...

What is it you hope for this Christmas? If I ask ten different people that question, I imagine I will get ten different answers. But I think I can boil it down into several categories. Our kids make Christmas lists of things they hope for – sometimes those are more like “demands,” like the ones someone holding hostages might make: I’ll let these innocent people go if you’ll get me the following top nine hot toys from Toys ‘r’ Us: Despicable Me Talking figure: $59.99-$69.99 (age 4-12) Sofia the First Royal Talking Vanity $79.99 (age 3-5) The Ugglys electronic pet $29.99 (age 5 and up) Doc McStuffins Deluxe Get Better Check Up Center $79.99 (age 3-5) Ever After High Dolls LeapFrog LeapPad Ultra $149.99 (ages 4-6) – comes in green or pink LEGO the Legends of Chima The Lion CHI Temple $98.99 (age 8-14) Razor Crazy Cart $399.99 (age 9 and up) Xbox One $499.99 (technically age 6 and up, though games have their own ratings) Girlfriends and boyfriends are hoping they ...