Brian's Sermons

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one . Matthew 6:13 Over the last two weeks, we looked at forgiveness. To get to forgiveness, we must recognize that we have sinned. We ask for forgiveness from our past sin. Now that we have done so, we ask for protection from future sin. The reality is, temptation will always be with us. The closer we draw to Jesus Christ, the more the devil will tempt us. Our goal as Christians is Christ-likeness, and so we should expect the same things that Jesus experienced. Right as he was to begin his ministry, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Hebrews 4:15, in describing Jesus as our high priest says this: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus has been tempted in every way, but he did not give in to temptation. Sometimes Christians believe that temptation itself is...

Last Sunday we looked at Saul’s conversion – how he was persecuting Christians – the Bible puts it this way: he was breathing out murderous threats against the church. But Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and transformed him. We met Ananias, a regular guy who was instrumental in Saul’s conversion, even though the man God sent him to minister to was the worst of the worst. We also recognized that there were a bunch of regular men and women who were instrumental in our own conversions. Whether they were our family members or Sunday School teachers or friends, there were regular people who took an interest in our lives and our salvation. If that person who made a difference in your life is still alive, why don’t you take a little time this afternoon to write them a little handwritten note and send it to them? I can’t think of any reason anyone would not want to receive a letter like that. Anyway, today we will continue to look at some of the players in Paul’s life, people w...

These days there is a growing trend of “spiritual but not religious.” Another way of saying it is: “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” While I agree that I hear from God in different (sometimes unusual) ways, and often while I’m running alone, that is only one small segment of my spiritual life.  The truth is those who think they can live the Christian life apart from others are simply deluded.  I’ve heard an illustration that fits; a pastor went to the home of a church member who hadn’t been to worship in a while, one of the “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian” crowd.  The man invited the pastor in, and they went and sat in front of the fireplace. Silently, the pastor took the fireplace poker and pulled a hot coal out of the fire and onto the hearth.  As they watched, it slowly changed from red hot to white to black as it cooled off.  Without saying a word, the pastor again took the poker and slid the coal back into the fire.  Im...

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a rough couple of weeks. Your encouragement has been very refreshing. Today we’re going to continue to look at some character studies in the Bible, some of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly people from within the pages of scripture. Do any of you have a nickname? Rudy is always teasing me because whenever I talk about college, I start telling a story about a friend in the fraternity, and they always have some wacky nickname. My pledge class had such nicknames as Homey Dog, Scud, Shack, and Goat. One of the fun things we would assign to pledges was to find out (or make up) how certain brothers got their nicknames. Honestly, most of them came because guys were messing around and decided “that would be a good nickname for so and so...” and it stuck. Most of the nicknames weren't all that flattering, though. Today we are focusing on someone whose nickname was a little more flattering than the fraternity names I mentioned. Early in the book of Acts, th...