Brian's Sermons

Matthew 6:5-8 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. I had a friend who was a name dropper. A name dropper is someone who tries to impress others by the fact that they know famous people. So when they are talking, they “drop names” into the conversation. “when I was talking to the bishop yesterday…” “So I was having coffee with President Lungu …” “Well, that’s not what Michael Jordan told me last week.” You get the picture. It’s someone who tries to make themselv...

Have you ever met your hero? When I was fourteen years old, one of my heroes was American football star, Jim McMahon. In January he had led his team, the Chicago Bears, to the championship, and in March, he came to my hometown to sign autographs. I stood in a long line with thousands of other fans, and bought an overpriced poster. Finally my brother and I were face-to-face with our hero. I had watched many of the Chicago Bears’ games that year, including the championship. I knew all about Jim McMahon and the disciplinary trouble he’d gotten in. I even knew what kind of treatment he had gotten for his injuries. So how do you expect he greeted me when I walked up the steps to the table where he sat autographing pictures? After all, I knew all about him. If you’re wondering, he didn’t greet me at all. He didn’t even look at me. He just scrawled his name on my poster. I could tell you that I met Jim McMahon that day, but I really didn’t. And there are a lot of people in our world ...

1 Kings 19:1-18 Have you ever heard of the phrase “mountaintop experience?” The idea is that there are some experiences that take us to the mountaintop. These are the best experiences of life, and when they are over, you just don’t want to go back to your everyday life. Church camp was often, for me, a mountaintop experience. I would go to camp every summer and by the end of camp, I was on fire! I was ready to win my entire school for Christ. There’s a problem with the mountaintop experience, however, and that is simply that we don’t live on the mountaintop. At some point, we have to come back down. In scripture, one notable mountaintop experience was when Jesus went up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and he was joined there by Elijah and Moses! Peter, maybe even recognizing the amazing experience, suggested that they build shelters, one each for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses. But Jesus rebuked him and Jesu...

1 Kings 18:`-39 James 5:17-18:   Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. As we catch up with our normal guy Elijah, he has had quite the adventure in trusting and obeying God and accepting God’s provision. When God told him to leave the king’s court and go hide in the ravine and be fed by ravens and drink from the brook, Elijah went. When the brook ran dry, God sent him to a widow in Zaraphath, where God miraculously multiplied her meager flour and oil supply, feeding him, her and her family until God once again brought rain. To finish up that passage (and I apologize for not being able to get everything in – time is short), her son died, but God, through Elijah, brought him back to life! So in the third year of the famine, God tells Elijah he’s going to send rain once more. So Elijah, led by God (a...

Before I get to today’s scripture, I want to read another one.  I want to start with James 5:17-18:  Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. As I was preparing for the last five weeks I will be preaching here, I wanted to have a theme; I didn’t want to just preach five stand-alone sermons that don’t really have anything to do with one another. I wanted to find something that speaks to us today, no matter what we are doing. But I also didn’t want to go to my favorite, “pet passages” if you will. So I ended up with one of my favorite heroes of the Bible. Sometimes we can get caught up in the “hero” thoughts, thinking that this person or that person is so spiritual or so powerful or so whateverful that I could never do anything like this. This is the reason that I chose to read the passage from James be...

The presents are all unwrapped, the tree is losing its needles, the house is a wreck, stockings are thrown in the corner, Christmas toys are broken, and the fruitcake has been passed on to another unwitting victim.  Decorations are coming down, and people are turning off their Christmas lights.  Parties are done.  Festive music has stopped again for another year.  We’re heading into the coldest, grayest time of the year.  It’s the day after Christmas.  Christmas is over.  It can be a seriously depressing time of year. Charities often do really well around Thanksgiving and Christmas, as many people are cognizant of the “true meaning” of Christmas, whether or not their idea of the “true meaning” has anything to do with Jesus. But the day after Christmas, after we’ve all satisfied our need to help someone, the hungry are still hungry.  The homeless are still homeless.  The lonely are even more lonely. A few weeks ago, I was visiting with someo...