Brian's Sermons

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory We have spent months studying the Lord’s Prayer. We begin by recognizing and acknowledging who God is. God is the Almighty in Heaven, but he has chosen us as his children, so we can address him as “our Father.” We worship him and lift up his name as holy. This must always be our context for prayer. We do not lift up our prayers to someone who is just one of us. God is love; he cares for us. But he is also all powerful; he can answer our prayers.  We begin our petitions of God by asking for his kingdom to come and for his will to be done; in asking this, we also humble ourselves and bend our will to his. We call upon Jehovah Jireh - God our Provider - to give us this day our daily bread. We entrust ourselves fully to his provision.  We continue our prayer by asking for forgiveness and for the power and grace to forgive others, and we ask for the power to resist temptation and deliverance from Satan and his tricks. As we com...

Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Matthew 6:10 Do you have any friends who always talk about the same thing, all the time? I had one friend who was always talking about girls. Another friend only talked about music. If you get me started talking about running, I’m sorry, but I will talk all day.  Jesus had one subject he talked about all the time. In the first three Gospels, He was always talking about the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist came, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people (Matthew 4:23). It was the center of Jesus’ ministry. The Kingdom of God. It was so central in his ministry, that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to ask for God’s Kingdom to come, his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. So what does this really mean? God’s kingdom is first and foremost the sovere...

For the past five weeks, we have been asking Jesus to teach us to pray, just as he taught his disciples to pray. This prayer, which we call the Lord’s Prayer, is a fantastic model of prayer. We begin by acknowledging who God is . Though God is above all else, He is also our Father who loves us. As His children, we accept the responsibility to “hallow” His name, to set it apart as holy. One way we do this is by reflecting His character in our actions and nature. We call God “King” and thus accept his unconditional rule over us . In light of His love for us, and because of our subsequent love for him, we actually obey what he says and we live out His Kingdom here on earth. He is our King, and we are His ambassadors. When we ask for our daily bread, we acknowledge our dependence on God for everything . and as we ask Him to provide for our needs, both physical and spiritual. At the same time, we recognize that He might be using us to provide daily bread for others. As we reflect on th...

When I was in middle school, I found a bumper sticker at a novelty store. It was white with red letters which boldly stated: I can resist anything but temptation. Isn’t that true? If it weren’t for temptation, we’d probably be doing pretty well in our quest to live sin-free lives. But sadly, we don’t always do such a good job resisting. Jesus knew the human condition. That’s why he instructs us to pray; Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. At first glance, this seems really straightforward. We all need help in overcoming temptation. If I asked you: “how many of you have been tempted already this morning?” the only ones who wouldn’t raise their hands would be the ones who were tempted to lie. Let’s first look at temptation itself. In biblical thought, to tempt meant to test something or someone in order to determine or demonstrate worth or faithfulness. Temptation also refers to an attempt, often by Satan, to incite a person to sin. Jesus knows all about tempt...

Message #3 in the series: The Lord's Prayer Matthew 6:5-13 ( look it up here ) What are you asking God for? What is on your prayer list? What feeds you physically? What feeds your soul? As we started the Lord’s Prayer, we were reminded that it is to God, our loving Father, to whom we pray. Our first responsibility is to lift up His name, not only as we pray, but in our obedience to Him. We appropriately “hallow” His name by behaving like Him. When we ask for His Kingdom to come, we voluntarily set ourselves under His rule – in every aspect of our lives. Finally, after we have properly situated ourselves in this context, we are ready to ask for something for ourselves. Remember that this is the context in which we begin to make requests for our needs. We ask for God to give us this day our daily bread . In the biblical context, bread is the staple food. It stands as a synonym for food itself as the symbol for everything needed to sustain physical life. Simply put, we ask Go...

Message #2 in the series: the Lord's Prayer Matthew 6:5-13 ( look it up here ) What do you do when you don’t understand something? What do you do when someone uses a word you don’t understand? Admit it; you either figure it out from context, you smile and nod and back away slowly, or you incorporate that word into your daily vocabulary. Nobody asks “what do you mean by that?” Thus we end up as an ignorant generation, all because we didn’t want to look stupid by asking a question. Ironic, isn’t it? I believe that when it comes to talking about the Kingdom of God, we have ranged from smiling and nodding to incorporating kingdom language into our conversation without having a really good handle on what it means. Last fall we studied Matthew 5:3-12, the Beatitudes. Jesus proclaimed that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, those who recognize their absolute need for God and their inability to succeed on their own . The Beatitudes are part of a larger sermon, the Ser...

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:1-12 I have a good friend who really seems to believe that...

...for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9 When I was a little boy, I had a definite role in my family. I was the peacemaker, being able to get along well with both my brother and my sister. Unfortunately my methodology was often suspect. My preschool teacher reported that I needed to learn to solve my problems verbally instead of physically! It’s kind of like the fraternity brother and college roommate I had who proclaimed, “I’m a pacifist. If you don’t believe me, I’ll fight you to prove it to you.” You may laugh at those images, but that’s the kind of Messiah that Israel was awaiting. They were looking for someone in the line and character of King David, one who would destroy Israel’s enemies in order to bring peace to Jerusalem. Remember that in Jesus’ time, Israel was an occupied state. They didn’t even have their own sovereignty; they were ruled by Rome. Jesus had something else in mind when he talked about peace. In John 14, Jesus told his disciples that when he lef...

…for they will see God. Matthew 5:8 What do you want from this life? Have you ever felt like you’re running on a treadmill trying to attain what you’ll never reach? Do you want more? Back in the book of Genesis, we find that God created humanity to walk with him and look at him, face-t0-face. But unfortunately, when Adam and Eve sinned, they were no longer able to look at God. In Exodus 33, Moses, the God-chosen leader of God’s people, asked God to show him His glory. God responded this way: (Exodus 33:19-20) “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, YHWH, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live .” Our sin renders us unworthy and thus unable to see God and live. Yet here is Jesus saying that you can indeed see God. The heart of the matter is this: to see God, we must have pure hearts. Think a...

... for they will receive mercy. Matthew 5:8 One of my favorite movies is the Lord of the Rings – well, as a trilogy, it’s technically three of my favorite movies, but that’s beside the point. In this movie, two Hobbits, Frodo and Sam, have a dangerous task – to take an evil, magical ring of power deep into enemy territory to destroy it. While they are on their way, Gollum, the creature who formerly owned the Ring, attacks them and tries to kill them. When they finally overpower him, Sam wants to kill him. Frodo won’t let him. Instead, Frodo shows mercy. As it turned out, Gollum led Frodo and Sam to their destination. He did not show them mercy – this was his way to later try to steal the Ring for himself. But his actions eventually helped destroy the Ring and seal victory for good over evil. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Showing mercy is counter-cultural. Instead of going for the jugular, mercy gives second chances. This beatitude walks hand-in-hand w...

...for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 What do you think of when you hear the word "meek?" A mouse? I’ve found that it’s not an extremely positive word – people generally don’t want to be described as meek. It seems to carry the connotation of being weak or being a push-over. The Greek word pra-os that has been translated "meek" or "humble" or "gentle" is also used to describe a soothing medicine, is used by sailors to describe a gentle breeze, and is used by farmers to describe a broken colt. What do these have in common? They all describe something with great power, held under control. So can we work with a definition of meek as strength under control? Think about this: superheroes always had their alter-egos: Superman had Clark Kent, Spiderman was Peter Parker. Both Clark Kent and Peter Parker were known for being nerdy. They held their super strength under control. These are good examples of meekness. Why would anyone want to hold th...

...for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:1-12 Mourn = to feel or express sorrow; lament; grieve; to grieve for someone who has died Last week we heard that God blesses the poor in spirit – those who are at the end of their rope and realize their need for God. While it doesn’t feel much like a blessing while you’re at the end of your rope, being in complete trust in God is the best place you can be in. Today we hear that God blesses those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Any of us who has lost a loved one knows what it feels like to mourn. How is that a blessing? And though most of us have been comforted from that loss, is the benefit we get from the comfort actually worth the loss? Let’s look at it from a cost/benefit point of view: when we buy something, whether we think about it consciously or not, we’re always making a judgment about something’s worth. Is it worth what I’m paying? Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances; we all complain about gas prices, but they haven...