Brian's Sermons

I love history. I find it fascinating to go down to Buckeye Furnace and imagining what life was like back when this was a burgeoning iron production hub. I enjoy museums and historical sites. I even worked at a living history museum for two summers while I was in college. So when I went to Russia on a mission trip, I was really interested in the history of the city where we lived. Everything seemed to be named after someone named Minin, so I asked my roommate who he was. I found out later that he was a merchant, but he became famous for mustering a volunteer militia who expelled the Poles from Moscow, but my roommate couldn’t come up with that. He finally suggested that maybe he had been a famous warrior who had won a battle against France. I knew that wasn’t true, but I didn’t know his story. Finally, Oleg said authoritatively, “Minin was a great man.”  It’s funny that many people can live somewhere for a long time but they don’t know all that much about where they live. This...

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 theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Matthew 5:1-12 I know some people who have complained that they don’t understand the Bible. I can sympathize with them; there’s a lot that is hard to understand. There are lists of names of places that are all hard to locate and even harder to pronounce. There are customs and situations that are foreign to us. There are confusing names. But I think it was Mark Twain who quipped, "Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand, but as for me, I have always noticed that the passages in Scripture that trouble me most are those I do understand." This is the heart of the matter. It’s easy to say that Jesus was a good teacher – that’s common parlance even for non-Christians. But Jesus said some seriously difficult things, and this is why we are starting a series asking the question, "What did Jesus really say?" Over the next eight weeks we will be looking at Matthew 5:1-12, a section of scripture...