Brian's Sermons

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9 When I visit in the nursing home or hospital, I like to ask if there are any prayer requests – besides the obvious. I would visit Betty Hammond at Jenkins, and her prayer request was always the same. She would ask me to pray for peace. I knew she wasn’t being flippant or casual by asking – this wasn’t a Miss America contestant saying, “What I really want is world peace.” Betty truly wanted to see peace on earth. I think in our inner core, we all want peace. The difficulty is how we define peace. With everything going on in the news, you might have missed that last week marked the twelfth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. Would there be peace if we somehow “won” there? What about if we immediately withdrew our troops? Or, perhaps a more legitimate question – will there ever be peace in the middle east? Is peace simply the absence of fighting, or, as someone once said, is peace simply when both s...

Philippians 4:1-7 Last week we looked at the concept of already/not yet, that Jesus already did everything that is needed for our salvation, but that we are not yet in heaven. Jesus already paid the price for our sins, and we await heaven and the transformation of our lowly bodies so they will be like his glorious body. As we begin chapter four, it really belongs with last week’s message – a summary, starting with a “therefore” and reiterating the main point: that Paul dearly loves the people of the Philippian Church and dearly desires that they stand firm in the faith, knowing that Jesus has already paid their price and that their future is secure in Him. And so, with this in mind, Paul addresses an issue in this church. I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose n...