Brian's Sermons

Isaiah 12:2-6 My boys and I are big Star Wars fans. One character who made a big impression on me was Darth Vader. I remember the first time I saw the menacing mask on the big screen – that guy was scary. I even dressed as Darth Vader for Trick-or-Treat. But recently I saw a picture entitled “the many emotions of Darth Vader” in which there were multiple pictures, all the same expressionless mask, and underneath each picture was listed an emotion. Hopefully most of us are a little more open with our emotions. But how do you show that you are really excited? One thing that has bothered me for over twenty-five years is how I can see church people behave so differently depending on the setting. I can understand decorum and respect and reverence, but the same people can stand for an entire basketball game and shout when their team scores and scream at the referee, but two hymns is too long to stand, and don’t expect to see any emotion. For some reason, we have divorced emotio...

Last week we began looking at Acts 1:8, where Jesus tells his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We spent our whole time last week on the concept of power, a concept that is sadly lacking in most of our American churches these days, where we are more known for our potlucks than our power. I just want to reiterate that this power is not our own power; it’s not that we are already good at something and then we just happen to use that skill in the church. This is Holy Spirit power, the power through which we know that in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37) Do you feel like more than a conqueror? If you are in Christ, that is who you are. That is how God defines you. God, who created the earth in a word, calls us more than conquerors, so this is who you are. Turn to someone next to you and t...

Haggai 1:12-15 Last week we looked at the first chapter of Haggai, where God spoke through the prophet to a poor and defeated people who had limped back to Jerusalem, still under foreign rule. The accusation was that they were focused on their own houses while the house of the Lord lay in ruins. God called them to obedience, and in the last few verses in chapter 1, we see the response: Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. The response of the people is immediate and unanimous. The people feared the Lord. Don’t let that phrase slip past you just because you’ve heard it a million times. Do you really know the fear of the Lord? Jesus isn’t just your “homeboy” – he is God Almighty, and putting ourselves before him is a terrifying thing. God isn’t just a kindl...

When I was a little boy growing up in church, we learned the steps to becoming a Christian. We learned that we first had to realize that we were sinners, confess our sin, repent of our sin, get baptized, and live-the-Christian-life. The last step was always said as almost an afterthought; the focus was to get us in the door. I left children’s church thinking that it would be easy to live the Christian life. If you’ve been here for long, especially if you attend our 11 service, you have doubtlessly heard Jesus’ words repeated: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ” (Matthew 11:28). These are words from Jesus himself, and they are true, and they go hand in hand with my early understanding that it was easy for adults to live the Christian life. Some of you are new along this journey and you might still be under the illusion that it’s easy for the rest of us. After all, you might only know us all from Sunday mornings, when we all look our best and wh...