Brian's Sermons

Matthew 7:15-23 Last week we finished 2013 with Jesus’ words: ask, seek, and knock, for whoever asks, receives, whoever seeks, finds, and whoever knocks will have the door opened. This should be our top priority for 2014: communicate with God. God is never bothered when we communicate our desires to him. Sometimes we’ll end up wrestling with God, but that is a good thing. Spoiler alert: God always wins those wrestling matches! If you are reading along at home, the next passage is the one in which Jesus differentiates between the narrow road and the broad road and the wide and small gates  – the weird and the culturally normal. We went into great depth on that concept and into that passage in the series “Weird” based on Craig Groeschel’s book. Because we spent seven weeks on this passage and what it means in our lives, I’m skipping it this time, and we’re going straight into Matthew 7:15-23. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inward...

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...