Brian's Sermons

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”   2 Chronicles 7:13-14 I’ll admit that I get a little queasy whenever I hear the phrase “act of God” when related to natural disasters.  I know that insurance companies like to be able to protect themselves against unforeseen circumstances, but “acts of God”? Really?  When was the last time you heard good weather referred to as an “act of God?”   “Due to an act of God, crops are great this season.” But whenever there’s a flood, hurricane, earthquake, tornado, you’ve got someone calling it an act of God, and often blaming the victims.  I remember immediately after Hurricane Katrina, most of our country was disappointed and upset a...

Do you want to live a life that matters?  Of course you do.  That is one of our greatest needs.  To live a life that matters.  Over the next several weeks leading into Christmas, we are going to look at some things we can do that will matter, not just for today, but for eternity. We live in an anxious, uneasy world.  We wonder how long our good health will hold out. H1N1 is still out there, there seems to be more and more cases of cancer, and of course, none of us is getting any younger.  And what about health care? Insurance prices?  Government run? We worry about our money – will we have enough to retire?  And will our jobs survive? Is our country going to hell in a hand basket? And that doesn’t even take into account the things that keep each of us awake at night, those so personal details that we don’t dare share out loud. In the midst of all of this turmoil, we’re asking, “Do you want to live a life that matters?”  Of course we wan...

( 2 Chronicles 25:1-16 ) One thing I’ve heard pretty frequently from people who don’t fully understand what it means to be a Christian is that they are trying to live a life in balance: they just want to make sure that their good deeds outweigh their bad. I know many people think this way, but there is a term coined specifically for this way of thinking: ridiculous. Seriously. All this mentality does is determine what is the minimum effort one can give in order to be “OK.” Many of us find ourselves doing this. I can remember working a 9-5 salaried job right after college; our boss joked cynically about nailing things down so they didn’t get swept away by the great gust of wind at exactly 5:00 every afternoon (as all of us rushed to get out). We didn’t have any vested interest in staying beyond 5. I know many of us have given less than our all, but have you ever been given the bare minimum? Maybe you’re a boss, and you’ve seen your employees just barely do enough to merit a paychec...