Brian's Sermons

John 4:46-54 Today we’re continuing our series Vital Signs, where we are looking at Jesus’ miracles as recorded in the Gospel according to John.  As the Scripture stated, this is the second miraculous sign Jesus performed.  But before we start, let’s pray. I was a junior in high school, I was at church camp, and I was in love (for those reading this and not just hearing it, you’ve got to read that in the most sarcastic, sappy voice you can muster) . There was this young lady there at camp who I thought was fantastic looking.  She was just my type.  I was determined to make my move on her.  Through the week I tried to get to know her, not really successfully.  But then my sister, who shared a cabin with this young lady, told me about one morning, when the young lady in question had gotten dressed.  She was apparently admiring herself in the mirror, saying, “My shoes are brown, my pants are brown, my shirt is brown, my socks are brown, my hair is brown...

John 20:24-29 What is your reputation? When did you get that reputation? How long have you had it? One day I found out what mine was. In a college German class, I had an assignment to interview a randomly selected classmate and give a speech about them. One of my soccer teammates drew my name, and the day of the presentation, he finally called me. I told him, “Mike, you know me well enough. We’ve played soccer together for three years. I trust you to tell the class about me.” He told the class that I was loud, arrogant, brash, and hot-tempered, and that I was someone you didn’t want to mess with. The class wondered who this guy was that Mike was talking about. I didn’t usually exhibit those attributes in German class – but he assured them that these were good traits for a college goalkeeper! Today we are looking at a Bible character who brings the reputation with him. " Doubting Thomas. " We first meet Thomas in Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, and Luke 6:15, where he is ...

It’s easy to rush through Communion without giving much of a thought to what we are doing. For many of us, this has been a regular part of our church life for years, and because of that, it can be easy to forget how radical it really is. Today I want to try to remind us what we are doing when we take Communion. We often look at when Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples, which is logical, because it is when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Instead, today, we are going to look at John 6:25-69 . This chapter starts with the remarkable account of Jesus feeding five thousand people with five small barley loaves and two small fish. Then the disciples left and went across the lake, and Jesus met them halfway, walking on the water. If that’s not enough to freak you out, I don’t know what is. You see, Jesus is always blowing away preconceived notions and doing things that we would think are impossible. The next day, the crowd has realized that only the boat full of disciples had left...