Brian's Sermons

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...

Acts 1:1-11 Last week we met up in Kabangwe for the Holy Spirit Encounter. Pastor Blake worked hard to help you understand that the Holy Spirit is calling Christians to lead in ministry, to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to this church, to your neighborhood, through Matero, throughout Lusaka, all over Zambia, and to the world. Some of you stood up and accepted the challenge and the mandate; you are going to be God’s witnesses. This is what is happening in the first part of the book of Acts. Just a little background before we get into the message today. I did not know this until I was in seminary, but the book of Acts isn’t its own book. It’s the second volume of a two-volume work. Does anyone know what the first volume is? We know it as the Gospel according to Luke. Each is the size of a standard scroll, but together they make up a whole. So when scholars talk about these two books of the Bible, they regularly call them together Luke-Acts. Anyway, in the second scroll, st...

Philadelphia: Revelation 3:7-13 It has been a while since I have been in the pulpit here. But before Easter Revival, when I last preached here, we were looking at the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia, as recorded in the Book of Revelation. Today we get the letter to the church in Philadelphia. Some of the churches were doing pretty well, but there were some problems. Mostly with churches trying to coexist with the culture by inviting un-Christian aspects of the culture to infiltrate the church. So many of the letters are punctuated by sharp warnings. But not the church in Philadelphia. If you want to think of it this way, think of going to charge conference and presenting your report, and instead of picking at the little details, the DS and those assembled have nothing negative to say. The name “Philadelphia” means “city of brotherly love.” But the Christians here were receiving a less than loving response from the Jewish community. In fact, the church was being p...

Matthew 5:13-16: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Who remembers the old Mission Impossible show? One recurring theme was the mission: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” Over the past couple of months, we’ve been studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, more specifically, the Beatitudes, where Jesus pronounces the blessings of his Kingdom. He has been teaching his disciples a radically different way to live. There is a paragraph break here, and Jesus goes on from his “blessed are” formula but this is real...

Psalm 51, part 2: Saved for Celebration Psalm 51:11-15 Last week we ended with the reminder that Christianity isn’t about what we do or how much we have done, because we are all sinners by nature and we can never do enough to somehow appease God or to outweigh our “naughty” list with our “nice.” Christianity is not a religion of “do” – it’s a relationship with Jesus, who has already “done” what we could not do. We are in Psalm 51, the song David wrote after the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. As we return to the text, let’s take a moment in prayer. In college, my indoor soccer team was playing for the league championship. Late in the game, the opponents were rushing toward the goal. I was the last defender back. As the guy with the ball passed the ball across the goal toward his wide-open teammate, I stuck my foot out… and the ball bounced off my foot, past our goalkeeper, and into the goal. We lost the champion...

Last week we began looking at Acts 1:8, where Jesus tells his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We spent our whole time last week on the concept of power, a concept that is sadly lacking in most of our American churches these days, where we are more known for our potlucks than our power. I just want to reiterate that this power is not our own power; it’s not that we are already good at something and then we just happen to use that skill in the church. This is Holy Spirit power, the power through which we know that in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37) Do you feel like more than a conqueror? If you are in Christ, that is who you are. That is how God defines you. God, who created the earth in a word, calls us more than conquerors, so this is who you are. Turn to someone next to you and t...

Matthew 28:18-20 Many famous last words have been spoken in history, whether they were inspirational words, unpleasant words, defiant words, or insightful words. There is no balm for the wounds incurred when the last conversation you have with a loved one is an angry one; I’ve heard too many times, “I wish I’d said ‘I love you’ instead of shouting.’” or “The last thing I said to him was…” (something unpleasant). Sometimes, someone’s last word is patriotic. Nathan Hale uttered the famous words, “My only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country.” A last word can be inspirational; Alben Barkley, former Vice President of the United States, who suffered a fatal heart attack, is said to have said, “I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty.” Of course, there is also the redneck’s last word: “Hey, come here – watch this!” I was walking through a cemetery in Kokomo, Indiana, when I saw the gravestone. “See, I told...