Brian's Sermons

Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races? Matthew 16:13-17  When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.   I love reading mystery books. I have some personal rules about mystery books. One is that the bad guy can’t be someone newly introduced at the end of the book; there have to be clues all along.   My biggest ru...

Exodus 20:15  You shall not steal. When I first came to Zambia for a visit, we were driven through Central Market on a Saturday. It was crowded and packed with people, cars, shoppers, vendors. Suddenly as we were stuck in traffic, a man came running through the crowds. He was being pursued by several other men, one of whom had a large club. When they reached our car, they caught the first man and began beating him. Blood was everywhere. In fact, when we reached New Hope Church, our DS remained behind to wash the blood off the car. Rev. Kilembo later explained to us that this man was a thief. He had stolen in the market, and the punishment was a terrible beating. We recognize that stealing is wrong. But here is the fact: stealing is normal in Zambia. If you take your car to a mechanic, you must watch the mechanic like a hawk or he will steal good parts from your car and replace them with poor quality parts. Our DS had most of the parts from his car stolen by a mech...

Scripture: Acts 2:17-21 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. A prominent mzungu went to Builders Warehouse and asked for a chainsaw. The salesman took a chain saw from the shelf and commented that it was their “newest model, with the latest in technology, guaranteed to cut ten cords of firewood a day.” The customer thought that sounded pretty good, so he bought it right away.          The next day the customer returned, lo...

Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  3  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  4  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Ever since the Holy Spirit Encounter, we have been talking a lot about the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, he felt that the empowerment of the Holy Spirit was important enough that he told his disciples to wait there for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He never told them “go out and do your best. Take your best shot.” He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit. Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost was a celebrati...

Acts 1:1-11 Last week we met up in Kabangwe for the Holy Spirit Encounter. Pastor Blake worked hard to help you understand that the Holy Spirit is calling Christians to lead in ministry, to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to this church, to your neighborhood, through Matero, throughout Lusaka, all over Zambia, and to the world. Some of you stood up and accepted the challenge and the mandate; you are going to be God’s witnesses. This is what is happening in the first part of the book of Acts. Just a little background before we get into the message today. I did not know this until I was in seminary, but the book of Acts isn’t its own book. It’s the second volume of a two-volume work. Does anyone know what the first volume is? We know it as the Gospel according to Luke. Each is the size of a standard scroll, but together they make up a whole. So when scholars talk about these two books of the Bible, they regularly call them together Luke-Acts. Anyway, in the second scroll, st...

Thyatira: Revelation 2:18-29 It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but when I was here last, I had started going through the seven letters written to the seven churches in Asia, as recorded in Revelation 2-3. As we started through them, it’s amazing how relevant these words are today, even though they were written nearly two thousand years ago to a people far from us physically and culturally. Thyatira was founded as a military outpost by the Greeks, but fell to the Romans and enjoyed stability and prosperity. It was known as a center of manufacturing and marketing. In Acts 16, we meet “a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira.” It’s often good to live in a prosperous city, but there was a problem. The manufacturing sector was dominated by trade guilds whose membership was intertwined with religious observances. Think of trying to serve pork in a closed Muslim nation. It’s not going to happen. You can try, but you’re going to have trouble. At b...

As a coach, there is one thing I’ve found that seems true over all age groups and in pretty much any sport. That truth is this: if you focus on the basics, you will be more likely to succeed. Not just focusing on the basics, but practicing them over and over. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a football player try to “thud up” a ball carrier or an outfielder get ready to make the big throw before the ball is in his mitt or a basketball player blow a slam dunk when an easy lay-up would have done just fine. I even remember a soccer teammate who tried to do a fancy backwards overhead kick to clear out the ball and ended up scoring on our own goal. As a Christian, and as a pastor, I’ve found that sometimes we can focus a whole lot of attention on the little things, and some of them seem really important, but if we don’t spend time focusing on the main thing, we can forget the whole point. A prime example would be a famous pastor and public speaker who has always focused on lost an...

We live in a church-saturated culture. There are all kinds of churches in all kinds of denominations. In fact, we have three churches on our block, all of different denominations! Many people have good reasons why they are in a certain denomination, but for many, it is more circumstantial than anything else. For example, Roy Gilliland (a well-known member of our local church) tells the story of becoming Methodist – when he was a boy, the Methodist church had heat. Others became Methodist because their parents or grandparents were Methodist or because they started dating a Methodist or married a Methodist. So a good question to ask is “Why United Methodist?” The sermon series we are starting today will explore some of the distinctive features of United Methodism, a denomination so varied that it includes 4George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton! I became a United Methodist after seminary, and it was all John Wesley’s fault. Truly to know what a United Methodist is, you have to s...