Brian's Sermons

(We are going back to the basics at Wellston Hope UMC - this is part of that series) Last week, we looked at what is called the Great Commission – where Jesus told his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. Our mission statement comes from that commission: to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. But after I finished preaching last week, I realized something: we need to be on the same page when it comes to sharing the gospel. In Galatians 1:6-9, Paul writes to the church in Galatia, saying: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.   But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!...

Galatians 5:16-26 Last week we took a critical look at the prevailing religion among American teenagers, MTD – Moralistic Therapeutic Deism , which at its heart, tells its followers to be good: don’t do bad things. Last week we looked at Jesus’ words where he boiled it down to this: avoiding sin isn’t good enough. Instead of simply stopping doing bad things, we have been called to turn 180 degrees and to do good. On our own, we aren’t capable of it; we keep on doing bad things. But we’re not called to do it on our own. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 tells us Avoid every kind of evil . But Paul continues: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. Our calling is by a God who fills us with His Spirit. We cannot get to today’s scripture without understanding this. We are told to live by the Spirit – we can’t live by th...

Matthew 12:43-45 As the last message in our series “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” a series in which we have looked at characters through the Bible, I decided to go a little different route. Instead of looking at an actual character, today’s person is fictional. He is an illustration created by Jesus to demonstrate a point. In the passage I read to you, the immediate context is some Pharisees and teachers of the law demanding that Jesus do a miracle. He calls them a wicked and adulterous generation who asks for a sign – but to whom none would be given. Except for his death and resurrection. After all, the people of Ninevah repented at Jonah’s preaching. Understand that the Pharisees were the holiness movement of their time. If you’ve been in this church for long, or if you’ve been a part of what goes on at Camp Sychar, you have heard calls to repent. One of the things I remember about church camp was a call to repent from listening to evil music (sometimes, but not always, acc...