Brian's Sermons

Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.   Recently in Lusaka, RTSA unveiled a new plan for raising revenues; they installed speed cameras in various places around Lusaka, and they sent out speeding tickets via SMS. They apparently have raised K13.5 million already. One of the problems is that often, where the speed cameras are, nobody knows the speed limit! People are being punished for offenses they do not know about.   As God’s people, we have been given the Ten Commandments. They are the rules that God expects his people to live by. But they are not just arbitrary or random rules. They are rules that help us live in right relationship with God and with one another.   The commandment we are looking at today deals with families. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Honor your parents. This s...

1 Samuel 3:1-10 3:1 The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. 2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. 6 Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been rev...

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 ...

Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Matthew 6:10 Do you have any friends who always talk about the same thing, all the time? I had one friend who was always talking about girls. Another friend only talked about music. If you get me started talking about running, I’m sorry, but I will talk all day.  Jesus had one subject he talked about all the time. In the first three Gospels, He was always talking about the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist came, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people (Matthew 4:23). It was the center of Jesus’ ministry. The Kingdom of God. It was so central in his ministry, that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to ask for God’s Kingdom to come, his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. So what does this really mean? God’s kingdom is first and foremost the sovere...

Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  3  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  4  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Ever since the Holy Spirit Encounter, we have been talking a lot about the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, he felt that the empowerment of the Holy Spirit was important enough that he told his disciples to wait there for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He never told them “go out and do your best. Take your best shot.” He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit. Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost was a celebrati...

Luke 1:39-45 Have you ever had an experience where something incredible happened to you, but you couldn’t share it with anyone because you knew nobody would ever believe it?   Not in the “he’s always crying wolf” scenario, where maybe you’ve got a reputation for always telling outlandish stories, but in the “this could never happen to anyone” category.   And you’ve just got to tell someone, but you know that nobody would believe it.   Last week we took a look at Mary, who had an amazing encounter with an angel, who told her that God was going to fulfill his promises to the patriarch Jacob… through her.   That she was going to be the mother of the Son of God. Really, who would believe that story?   From a nobody from Nazareth… and an unmarried young woman at that.   But Mary knew someone who would believe her, so she hurried to the home of her relative, Elizabeth.   And before she can utter a word, Elizabeth knows .   There is a reason why ...

I have to start out this morning by acknowledging that many of you made significant decisions last week as we decided together that “We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.” This is important as we enter into this time of our Christian calendar – if you’re not familiar with the Christian year, we started Lent this week, a 40 day period where we focus on holiness, repentance, fasting, prayer, and preparation for Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return. This year during Lent I will be leading a series called Vital Signs. we will be looking at the signs and miracles Jesus performed as recorded in the Gospel according to John.  Understand as we go into this that these aren’t Jesus’ only miracles.  John himself reported that Jesus did many other things as well.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25).  But the signs that John reported are important for us for t...

Today is the Day to Choose… Joshua 24:1-24 It was the Fall of 1985; I was 14 years old, it was halftime of the last soccer game of the season, and we were tied.  I can remember the scene vividly, how our coach gave us a rousing pep talk. I can still remember the words he said to us, but they’re not really appropriate for a Sunday morning talk!  We went on to preserve the tie, the only game that season that we didn’t lose.  The halftime speech did what it was intended to do. What makes a good halftime pep talk?  A reminder of who the team is – their history, maybe even their past failures as well as their successes.  A reminder of what has brought them there; what hardships they’ve overcome to get there and what has defined them as a team.  Do you think the New Orleans Saints mentioned Hurricane Katrina before or during the Super Bowl? During times of transition or difficulty, it is always important to be reminded of what’s most important and of who you ...