Brian's Sermons

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...

2 Peter 1:3-4 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. We have been talking about the Holy Spirit for months here. Ever since the Holy Spirit encounter, we at St. Marks have been focused on the Holy Spirit. Who He is, what He does. In John 14:12, Jesus tells his followers: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these [new things!] , because I am going to the Father.  Jesus is promising us that we will do even greater things than he did because he is going to the Father and sending us the Holy Spirit.  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of ...

Six years ago at a conference clergy meeting, I was invited to participate in a “young clergy” group designed for pastors under 35 years old. A friend and I joked about being “grandfathered” in, as we were both 35. Though for years young people have been told not to trust anyone over 35, in clergy years, 35 is considered “barely out of diapers.” But, as I read to the children earlier, Paul writes to Timothy, telling him, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.”   1 Timothy 4:12 Timothy was disregarded because he was too young. Now, there are some here who would consider themselves “young” but most of us aren’t, and none of us is getting any younger. But most of us have reasons why someone would look down on us. Maybe it’s not about youth, but instead we’re too old. Maybe we just don’t know the Bible well enough. Maybe we’ve got the wrong family name. Maybe we’re no...

Haggai 2:6-19 Last week, we were given to be strong in God and work, do not fear, because God is with us. As we continue in Haggai 2, Haggai brings the word of the Lord. As we read, notice how Haggai refers to God. Five times in four verses, he refers to the Lord Almighty. There are tons of names for God and descriptors of God throughout the Bible, so it’s not by accident that Haggai calls Him the Lord Almighty, especially that he uses the same phrase five times. Haggai wants to reassure a discouraged people of God’s power. I think this is appropriate to remember now – that our God is all powerful. There are times when it’s easy to get discouraged – if you’re not already discouraged, then just check out the political and economic landscape of our nation. And it’s only getting worse. But God is still God! Haggai needs to remind the people of who God is, because of what God is going to do. He prophesies: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once m...

Mark 9:14-29 It was shortly after midnight, New Year’s morning, 1994, and we were broken down on the shoulder of I74 between Champaign and Danville, IL. We were on our way home from Urbana 1993, an amazing missions conference, where we had been for the past several days. The songs from the amazing New Year’s Communion service we had just celebrated were still dancing in our ears, the amazement of God’s tangible presence in the midst of 17,000 college students, all celebrating Communion together. Cars, vans, and buses rumbled by endlessly, all of them coming from the same incredible missions conference we had attended, and nobody stopped. As I walked to the next exit, the wind gave way to a rainy snow, and still nobody stopped. We spent the rest of a sleepless night at a truck stop, waiting for my dad to pick us up. In a few short hours, I went from an incredible mountaintop experience to the valley. The same happened in today’s scripture. Immediately before what I read today, Jesus ...

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Last week I talked about being stuck – how the man by the Pool called Bethesda was stuck there – 38 years as an invalid with no way to get healed.  Sometimes when we feel stuck, it’s easy to also feel all alone. A few years ago at a Youth Workers’ Convention, the speaker asked us to stand if we were going through a tough time.  I hesitantly stood, and then looked around and saw nearly half of my fellow youth workers standing, including my friend I was rooming with.  ...

While Jesus told his followers that they would be known by their fruit, Jude calls these troublemakers “fruitless.”   He says they are useless, even a burden on the church.  In the face of destructive false teaching, Jude warns the church to build their faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.  We looked at that briefly last week, but I want to reiterate it because there was so much in last week’s message that this part might have slipped by you.  Building yourself up in your most holy faith is extremely important.  Don’t just accept someone else’s faith – not my faith, not your parents’ faith, but build up your own faith.  Did any of you share your faith stories this past week?  How did it go?  Did any of you listen to anyone else’s story? If you were here for the Baccalaureate service, you got to hear some powerful stories of faith from our grads. Faith is rarely built when it isn’t tested.  One of my friends recently complained that his ru...