Brian's Sermons

Exodus 20:13: You shall not murder. Through the past weeks, we have been looking in depth into the Ten Commandments, God’s rules for living. We started with God’s introduction — the commandments come only in the context of who God is. After God’s people had disobeyed God and experienced the consequences of disobedience, we read God’s response as recorded in Isaiah 48:17-18: Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waters of the sea.   There are rewards for following God’s will, and there are consequences for not . God gave us the Ten Commandments, not to beat us into submission, but to teach us how to live in right relationship with Him and in harmony with one another.   Last week we shifted from the first commandme...

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.   “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare ...

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...

Luke 2:1-20 The Christmas story is a familiar one – so familiar that we can lose sight of how radical it is. Looking at the historical big picture should show us that Rome is in control. This is when the Roman Empire was on the rise, annexing or conquering everyone around. Augustus Caesar is the emperor of the most mighty nation/empire known to man. What Caesar says, goes. So Caesar decides to flex his muscles and count his subjects. Just an aside, it is never a good idea to count how awesome you are, whether it is counting your subjects, as Caesar is doing, or counting your fighting men, as King David did in 2 Samuel 24. Why is this a problem? Listen to Psalm 20:7. Some trust in chariots some in and horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. There is a reason why God chose this exact time for the birth of the Messiah – it was when Caesar was counting how powerful he had become. Before you nod your head in agreement, remember this when you start counting your money...

John 11:1-44 They say that the two things we can count on in this life are death and taxes.  And although it’s almost taboo to talk about death in our culture, I’m sure not touching taxes with a ten foot pole.  So we’re stuck talking about death. Think about how hard it is to talk about death; we have all sorts of phrases we use to avoid even saying the word.  “passed away” “passed on” “went to be with the LORD” or (Tara’s grandfather’s old favorite) “six feet under.”  We have our bodies embalmed and we say things at funerals like “oh, she looks so natural!” – and sometimes it’s true.  Our culture is obsessed with looking younger and staving off old age.  Just ask a woman how old she is… or maybe don’t!  But here’s the deal: we’re mortal.  We will all die.  The only thing we can be absolutely certain of is that this life always ends with death.  And I don’t think we like that much.  So we do everything we can to avoid even the t...