Brian's Sermons

When I was a little boy, I learned at church that the plan of salvation included recognizing our sin, confessing, repenting, being baptized, and living the Christian life. It was presented as something easy, and for the most part, it looked to me like the adult Christians around me never struggled. We even sang a song that went “I’m in-right, out-right, up-right, down-right happy all the time. Since Jesus Christ came in and cleansed my heard from sin, I’m in-right, out-right, up-right, down-right happy all the time.” I often wondered why living the Christian life was so much more difficult than I thought it would be.   Part of the problem, I found, was not a problem with the Christian life. The problem was within. We have been looking at the root causes of poverty. Poverty is not about not having enough money. Poverty is at its core, about broken relationship. Last week we looked at broken relationship with God. Today we are looking at another relationship, one that w...

The evangelist Billy Sunday is quoted as saying, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.” Last week I finished with the challenge that there is no such thing as a Sunday-only Christian. This week we continue looking at the vows of the United Methodist Church. Our final vow is this: As members of this congregation, will you faithfully participate in its ministries by your prayer, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness? This should serve as a reminder that the members of the congregation are, by definition, the church. The church isn’t a building or an institution. In today’s culture, we talk of “going to church” as if church is a destination or a place. But that isn’t accurate. The church is the people of God, called out by God for a purpose.   For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that...

According to the grace given to you, will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world? An older couple came to me for marriage counseling. She told me, “I want a divorce. He doesn’t love me.” I turned to him and asked, “Is this true?” He replied, “We have been married for fifty years. At our wedding, the pastor asked if I loved her. I   As continue to we look at the membership vows of the United Methodist Church, we now turn to our responsibilities. We recognize again that our salvation is a gift of God’s grace. Remember that Grace is God’s unmerited favor. We didn’t do anything to deserve it; it’s all about what God did for us. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. That proves God’s love for us. There has often been raised the issue about our good works. In fact, there are some who seem to think that our good works are what save us. Apart from God’s grace, Isaiah 64:6 reminds us, that “when we d...

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 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” We have come a long way through the Ten Commandments. We first recognize where they come from; the Ten Commandments are not just arbitrary rules; they are God’s handiwork to help us follow Him, not just outwardly, but in our hearts and attitudes as well. The last several commandments deal with how to get along with others, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not lie. These deal with our actions, but Jesus’ words show that they also deal with our hearts. One does not have to murder to be guilty; Jesus expands the concept of murder to include hatred. One does not have to commit adultery to be guilty, Jesus expands the concept to include lust. But the commandments themselves deal with specific actions.   Now we get to the la...

Exodus 20:14  “You shall not commit adultery.” Some of you have been here every week of the series on the Ten Commandments, and you know what I’m going to say. You know that it was God who created us, and the same God gave us rules to live by. There are some people who want to say, “It’s my life and nobody can tell me how to live it.” I want you to imagine something. Imagine you are coming home with a brand new TV. You spent all your money on it, and it’s a big one. You bring it home and take it out of the box. There is a book of instructions, but you decide you are going to ignore it. After all, it is your TV and nobody can tell you how to use it. So you carefully place the TV on the floor, screen up, and you call the neighborhood children to come in and play. They begin jumping up and down on the TV. What will happen to the TV? Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in adva...

Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.   Recently in Lusaka, RTSA unveiled a new plan for raising revenues; they installed speed cameras in various places around Lusaka, and they sent out speeding tickets via SMS. They apparently have raised K13.5 million already. One of the problems is that often, where the speed cameras are, nobody knows the speed limit! People are being punished for offenses they do not know about.   As God’s people, we have been given the Ten Commandments. They are the rules that God expects his people to live by. But they are not just arbitrary or random rules. They are rules that help us live in right relationship with God and with one another.   The commandment we are looking at today deals with families. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Honor your parents. This s...

Deuteronomy 31:1-6 When Moses had finished saying these things to all the people, he said, “I am now 120 years old and am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has told me that I will not cross the Jordan River. But the Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of the land. Joshua is your new leader and he will go with you, just as the Lord promised. The Lord will destroy the nations living in the land, just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites. The Lord will hand over to you the people who live there and you will deal with them as I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid of them! The Lord your God will go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you. (NLT) As Christians, we do not look for the living among the dead. We choose life, not death. Last week we were reminded that we choose life by loving God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His comma...

The Benefits of Discipleship Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is hard. Two weeks ago, we looked at how hard it is. Following Jesus doesn’t mean everything will now be easy. He said we have to prioritize him over everything else. Today we will look at the benefits of discipleship. Before we get to today’s topic, I have a question for you. Would you invite a false prophet to speak at church? Would you invite a false prophet to come and teach you individual lessons at home? Would you willingly look to a false prophet for guidance in your daily life, to disciple you? This is exactly what we are doing when we leave the television on. When we’re watching Bollywood, African Magic, Telemundo. They are discipling this nation, and they are offering a false gospel. They offer guidance that says: Money is the answer to your problems. Your spouse isn’t good enough; you need to have an affair. There is adventure in lying and cheating. You need this product or that product to fulfil...

Joshua 1:6-9    We face uncertain times. Our world is showing itself to be an unsafe place. Over the last weeks, during a holiday celebration in France, a terrorist killed 80 people by driving his truck through the crowds of innocent people. The military staged an attempted coup in Turkey. In my home country, police killings have made the news – unarmed people shot by police and police gunned down by snipers. Even here in peaceful Zambia, political cadres are being killed by police and by other cadres. But it’s not only violence that plagues us. We are being pressured by culture to accommodate to the world. To accept the world’s wisdom. To accept the world’s standards. To accept the world’s morality. Even the United Methodist Church herself is not exempt, as some of our American brothers and sisters have seemed bent on changing scripture to meet their desires. And add to that everything we face every day. School fees. No jobs. HIV/AIDS. Malaria. Cholera. Gender-bas...

What Does The Holy Spirit Do? Last week we had an intense time of worship, where many of us admitted that we weren’t where we want to be in relation to the Holy Spirit, that there are times when we don’t experience the Spirit’s presence. There was an outpouring of the Spirit as many came forward for prayer. I hope and pray that this isn’t simply a play on the emotion of the day but a time of listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking. One of our problems seems to be that we want control. A long time ago I received a small pamphlet by Robert Boyd Munger, called My Heart – Christ’s Home . He describes his heart as a home for Christ. Toward the end, he realizes that he has been trying to keep his heart clean and available for Christ, but when he gets one area clean, he discovers another area that is dirty. When he cleans it, he finds the first area is dirty again. Suddenly I asked, “Lord is there a possibility that you would be willing to manage the whole house and op...