Brian's Sermons

Luke 1:26-55 I once met a guy who talked to angels.   He was also homeless.   When we hear people talking about spiritual encounters, our western modern response is frequently skepticism; we understand that there are spiritual forces out there somewhere, but they just don’t manifest themselves in a visible, tangible way.   This was also true during the period about which Luke narrates.   We are following the “Intertestimental Period,” the time between the Old and New Testaments, in which God had been silent.   For 400 years, the prophets weren’t speaking, because God was silent.   And then an angel appeared, not to prophets, not to kings, not to a warrior or to the powerful, but to a young, unmarried woman.    You have to understand that in those times, a woman derived her worth by the man she was attached to.   A young woman’s worth came from her father, and the Bible doesn’t tell us who he was.   We know that she was related to E...

Let’s be honest: life is too short to live unintentionally.  We don’t know what is going to happen next, and none of us is guaranteed tomorrow.  Wouldn’t it be good to know that you are living a life that matters?   There have been times in my life when I have wondered if I am making a difference.  When I was leading the evening service at my first church, we struggled with poor attendance.”  There were days when the band outnumbered the congregation.  I wondered if we were making a difference at all.  Meanwhile, the youth group wasn’t growing, and the senior pastor and I struggled with philosophical differences in youth ministry.  Then in New Knoxville, the District Superintendent told me that our church could grow and become an “anchor” in the southern part of Auglaize County.  I really, really wanted that to happen, yet the growth I saw while I was there was less than one person per year.  Somehow the devil began to use what ...

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will...