Brian's Sermons

Malachi 3:8-10: “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it . Over the past two weeks, we have been looking at the biblical foundation for giving. We acknowledge first that Psalm 24:1: The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it . Remember that God has given us dominion over it all — the command in Genesis was for humanity to work the land and rule over it. Last week we looked at John Wesley’s rules On the Use of Money: gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. Today ...

The foundation of our discussion on stewardship can be found in Psalm 24:1-2. The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Remember that this means we are not the owners. God owns it — everything, and He has given it to us to have dominion over, to use for His Kingdom and for His glory.   Last week we looked at the parable of the talents, where a Master gave three servants his money. He gave them responsibility over the money, and when he returned, he made them accountable for what they had done with the money. So too, God has given us abilities, opportunities, and possessions, and because they are God’s, then we have responsibility for how we use them. How we steward everything. So, what can we do in order that we, too, may hear the words of the Master: Well done, my good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”   ...

Matthew 25:14-30 We are in the middle of Charge Conference season here in Lusaka. Sometimes it seems like the work we do in Charge Conference is pointless. We read reports and then we fight about them. We argue various points, sometimes completely off-topic. One thing we have seen in the first two Charge Conferences has been that the financial reports from all our churches have been poor, to say the least. We have voted to not accept them and to require a re-write. But that brings up a good point. Why do we spend so much time talking about money? Shouldn’t we spend our time and energy on evangelism?   Here in Zambia, we know that money is important. There’s a place near my home called Mountain of God, and I go there sometimes. I’ve found prayer requests, written and folded up. Most of the requests deal with money — God’s provision, getting a job, school fees, and so on. We all know that money is important. And, more appropriately, Jesus thinks it is important....

Pergamum: Revelation 2:12-17 12  “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. 14  Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.  15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.  16  Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is vic...

Matthew 6:19-34 When I was a little boy, I always loved going on a treasure hunt. One of my favorite moments was when I was hiking at my aunt and uncle’s house in Missouri along a dry creek bed, and I found a huge geode. But I loved poking around my grandma’s old barn where I would find other cool treasures (I loved finding feathers and coal – remember, I am from a generation that never used coal to heat the house). My grandma would give me a paper bag to keep my coal and feathers and I would take them home and put them in my trunk with my other treasures. Most of us have some treasures of some kind. In fact, people in our culture seem to really treasure material possessions. What are your treasures? If your house was on fire and you could only rescue the things you could carry in your hands, what would you save? Those things might be your top treasures. But most of us have more than just that. Some people treasure different things. Family heirlooms. Photo albums. Jewelry. Ele...

Philippians 4:10-23 It was July, and I was just getting situated in my new church assignment when the mission chair came up to me and told me she needed to step down. With that, she handed me the “mission chair folder.” When I looked at the folder, I realized one of the main reasons she had quit; the folder simply held envelopes of fund requests from various mission and ministry groups. This was all she had been given as the incoming mission chair, and it reflected the truth: that all we were doing missionally as a church was sending little bits of money to some of these groups. Now, I’m not saying that these groups didn’t need or appreciate the money. They all needed the money; otherwise they wouldn’t have sent out fundraising letters. But the problem was that we weren’t engaged in mission whatsoever. We felt like if we could send out some of our extra money, then our obligation to mission work was completed. Moreover, our attitude was that we had an obligation to “do somethi...

Luke 16:19-31 “What happens after you die?” has been a popular topic of discussion for quite a while, recently it has hit the forefront with a popular book from a Minor Christian celebrity, a book that denies the existence of Hell. The point of the book is that a loving God wouldn’t send people to Hell. It would be great if that was true, because Hell is a terrible place of punishment and separation from God, and nobody wants to go there or for their friends to end up there, and a modern interpretation of who God is might suggest that a God who loves us so much wouldn’t want anyone to end up there, and if he doesn’t want anyone there, and since he is God, after all, he could make it so that nobody ends up in Hell. The problem with this view, however, is that it doesn’t hold up under biblical scrutiny. Jesus Himself talks about Hell, and when he does, he is clear in its existence. The context for today’s parable is that Jesus was teaching his disciples and the Pharisees we...