Community Christian Church Sermons: Recent Episodes
Chris Brandow
Community Christian Church in McCoy, VA invites you to grow in your faith in Jesus Christ and your knowledge of God's Word with us! Our weekly podcast features sermons from our senior minister, Chris Brandow.
Psalm 42 was written to be a song thousands of years ago. The Psalmist expresses discouragement, however he also mixes in how he is still praising God. As we go through Psalm 42 we will explore some reasons for discouragement, as well as how to move from discouragement to hope.
Worshipping God isn't about a certain place or a certain style. You can worship God anywhere in all sorts of different styles. In John 4:24 Jesus tells us what we need to be concerned with is worshipping in spirit and in truth. This involves whole-hearted worship that focuses on the truth of God revealed to us. Worship involves reverence, glory and praise, and sacrifice.
What makes a great leader? Jesus gives perhaps the greatest leadership advice ever in Mark 10:45. "For the Son of Man came not to be served by to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Many people think greatness is found in a position or title, and they seek the glory that comes from that. However, Jesus teaches us that true greatness is found in service. Greatness is making decisions that serve others instead of ourselves. When we serve it helps unite the church, we are modeling Jesus, and it changes us for the better.
Hebrews 12:2 tells us to run with perseverance! We endure, we stand firm, we have grit! Grit doesn't quit. We persevere through trials, and troubles, because we know that God is using those things to help grow us! We gain grit not through comfort, but through tough times. Keep fighting the good fight, and persevere to the end!
Mentoring is not something only a select few should be a part of. Everyone can benefit from being in a mentor/mentee relationship. Those looking for mentors need to look for wise counselors or teachers who have been where they want to be and are willing to pour into them. You don't have to officially call it a mentor/mentee relationship for it to be so. Mentoring is seen in lots of relationships in the Bible. It is good to realize you can have different mentors in different areas of your life, and to know you can be a mentor to some people and at the same time be mentored by others. Being a mentor can even have an impact beyond the life of the person you are mentoring, as mentors create other mentors.
Over and over in Scripture we see God command his people to be humble. Humility is the dress code of the God's kingdom. Humility is about our focus: are we focusing on ourselves too much? To grow in humility we need to spend time focusing on God. The incarnation is the ultimate example of humility. Humility is as much about our actions as our attitude.
We all know Psalm 23. "The Lord is my Shepherd..." Did you know shepherd is the most used metaphor for God in the Bible? God wants us to see him as a good shepherd, leading us, protecting us, sacrificing for us. These are things a good shepherd does, and Jesus, the Good Shepherd, modeled all of these for us in his life. A good shepherd leads not to get, but to give.
The cross is a symbol of hope for us now, but for those in Jesus' time it was only a symbol of death. After Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "you are the Christ (the Messiah.) Jesus explained this is true, but that he would suffer and die, which was not what they were expecting the Messiah to do! He then said if we want to follow him, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him! If we call ourselves followers of Jesus, we must be willing to follow his call to die to self and live for Jesus.
Before Saul was ever king of Israel, God was king. The people rejected God as king when they cried out for a human king. Saul was made king, but he did not have a heart for God. His successor David, while not perfect, did have a heart for God. There are lessons we can learn from David about how to have a heart for God. However, to find a the perfect king, we have to look past David and every other king, to Jesus Christ. Jesus is King, now and forever!
The Golden Rule is do to others what you would want done to you. This is challenging because it requires us to look for ways to help, not just avoid doing harm. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan who modeled the golden rule for us. Following the golden rule is an act of love, and we do it not because we hope to be rewarded, but because we know God's love for us.
Communication is key in relationships, and that includes our relationship to God. In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus gives us an an example of prayer we can learn from to better communicate with God. This sermon doesn't just talk about prayer, it also gives you time to talk to God in prayer during it.
In the series The Good Life, we are looking at teachings of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Jesus raises the bar on what it means to be righteous, going beyond the standards set by the law. He raises the bar from don't commit adultery to if you even lust you've committed adultery in your heart, from love your neighbor to love your enemy, just to name a few. Jesus even said your righteousness had to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees to enter heaven, and they were the most righteousness looking groups of his day. Is this standard of righteousness even possible? Only through Jesus.
Does God want you to be happy? Yes! God designed us for happiness. Happiness and holiness do not have to be mutually exclusive. Psalm 1:1-3 provides guidance for choices we should make in the pursuit of happiness.
Is the Sabbath still relevant today? It was first instituted by God when he rested after six days of Creation as an example for us. God knew we need time to recharge and refocus so he instituted Sabbath to help us. However, by the time Jesus walked the earth the Sabbath had been changed from a blessing to a burden, due to extra manmade regulations. Jesus challenged these regulations, proclaimed himself lord of the Sabbath, and restored it as a blessing. The Sabbath is a gift, we don't have to keep the Sabbath, we get to keep the Sabbath.
One of the greatest declarations of freedom is Romans 8:1. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." This truth changes alters the eternity of billions. In Christ we are free from the penalty of our sin. We have received His Spirit, the a Spirit of Freedom. The Spirit helps us by pointing us to the Father and helping us remember our identity, by interceding for us with groans, and by working even our suffering into good.
We can all change. God has given each of us everything we need to change. We need to 1) believe in his promise to change us, 2) receive the power he gives us to change through His love, Christ's body the church, and the Holy Spirit in us, and 3) accept the challenge to change! We all have areas we can grow closer to God in. What is one area you could change for God?
The story of the boy Jesus in the Temple actually has a lot of similarities to the movie Home Alone. Both were left by their parents who were traveling, both had parents anxiously trying to find them when they realized their mistake, and both surprised the adults around them with what they could do when they were left alone. As we look at this familiar movie and Bible story, we look at how God, the good Shepherd goes out of his way to seek the lost. That is what the cross was all about, helping the lost be found.
This life is a journey. On our journey we need to appreciate those unsung heroes who help us along the way, and we need to be joyful despite our circumstances. We do that by finding our joy in Jesus. He is unchanging, his love for us is unchanging, and our eternal rewards through him are unchanging. Through Jesus we are able to have joy and say "Hallelujah anyways" no matter what happens.
Like Rudolph, we all know what it is like to feel like a misfit. But the good news for us is that God loves misfits! He uses people who are different all the time in the Bible. One group we recognize from our Christmas story is the shepherds. They were outsiders, but God used them to be a big part of the Christmas story, and he uses us today! It is important for us to not withdraw when we feel like outsiders, but to keep on loving and serving us around us. That's what Jesus did. He was different, he didn't fit in with the world, but he came as a shepherd for the world, to help guide us to God.
Being a grinch isn't just about the annoyances around you, it is primarily an issue with your heart. There are signs of being a grinch, and when we recognize them in ourselves we need to remember that God didn't make us to be a grinch, and that God changes hearts.
Heaven is more than just a state of mind, it is a real place. Though we can not see heaven, we can know about it because God's Word tells us about heaven. In this sermon we look at who goes to heaven, what heaven will be like, what people will be like, and how to get there.
Paul was a spiritual father to Timothy, and when he wrote 1 Timothy to him it was full of spiritual fatherly advice. In 1 Timothy 2:1-4 we see a lot of good advice on prayer. Paul urges Timothy to pray first, to pray different kinds of prayers, to pray for those in authority, and to pray for those who do not know Jesus as Lord. This is great advice for us too, but remember, is through applying this advice in actual prayer that we will grow in our relationship with God. There is a time of silence for prayer in this sermon, when you hear it, I encourage you to pray!
Why pray if God already knows what will happen? So many reasons! We should pray to God because it is a honor to be able to talk to the Creator of the universe and know He wants to hear from you. We should pray because it benefits us, physically and spiritually, calming us and helping us refocus on God. Even if we are confused about supplication (asking God for things), we need to understand there are many other aspects to prayer. Praise, confession, giving thanks. Does prayer change things? Yes! We have many illustrations of that in Scripture, and in the lives of believers around the world. God knows not just the ends, but the means that bring about those ends. He uses prayer as a means of change!
In our relationship to God, drifting away from where we want to be with Him is normal. It can happen without us even realizing it. What are some warning signs that we are starting to drift from God, and what are some things we can do to stop ourselves from drifting?
Who do you think of when you think of being rich? A superstar athlete, celebrity, or tech guru? Did you know some people in the world would think of you as rich? It is normal in America to not consider yourself to be rich. But we are far richer than we realize. This is not a sermon to guilt trip you, but to help you realize that you need to adapt a "new normal" in appreciating how blessed you are, instead of always wanting more. Greed is never satisfied, we always want more. Instead, we need to adapt a new normal where we live to give, not live to get.
As Christians, we don't want to follow ways of the world. They are what is normal, but Romans 12:2 tells us "do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world." Following Jesus should affect our values, our actions, and our outlook on life, causing us to adapt a "new normal" in different areas of our life. One of those areas is our time. Normal people think they don't have enough time, but God has given us enough time to do everything he wants us to do. It is not a question of time as much as priorities. Spending time with God should be our top priority, and we should be mindful of how many hours we are "killing" each each watching TV or online.
In Mark 13 Jesus gives prophecy concerning the fall of Jerusalem and the second coming of Christ. Over and over in the chapter he gives variations of the same message: Stay awake , stay alert, be on guard, keep watch! We need to be aware of false teachers, of the fact that not everything bad means it is the end of the world, of increased persecution and tribulation, and of the fact that Jesus Christ is going to return.
Sin is a pandemic. It effects humanity globally, causing separation from God, sowing seeds of destruction in life, and leading to spiritual death. We need to understand that everyone sins: through actions, attitudes, and even when we don't do the good things we know we should. Only God doesn't sin. That is the bad news about the pandemic, but you have to understand the bad news to appreciate the good news. That is what the gospel is, it literally means "good news." Jesus Christ has taken the penalty of our sin on himself, and so he is the cure to the sin pandemic. Through Jesus we are forgiven, are sins are washed away, and we receive eternal life.
How bad do you want wisdom? If you really want wisdom you will intentional in seeking it, and not just sit back ad hope it comes to you. Where do you seek it? It starts with God. He is the source of all wisdom, and he gives generously to all who ask. As for what to do about when we forget to be wise and act a fool? Trust in Jesus, the fullness of wisdom, and his sacrifice to cover over all your sins. That is the wisest decision you'll ever make.
Youth Director Chris Keene preaches on wisdom from Proverbs concerning the pride. Pride is something we all need to admit we struggle with, and Chris gives us some signs that you are struggling with pride, as well as some ways to help combat pride.
There is power in our words. Our words can be constructive or destructive. They can pierce us or bring healing. Words show us a person's heart. Christians need to understand the power of their words, commit to speaking truth with discernment, speaking righteous and decent words, and being slow to speak.
Is all anger bad? If not, why does the Bible warn against it? In this sermon we look at the difference between righteous and unrighteous anger. We examine the wisdom from Proverbs when it comes to the dangers of letting our anger take control, and we look at steps we can take to help control our anger.
The sluggard, or lazy person, is not some freak of nature. It can be any of us who give in too often to excuses, putting off work, and choosing comfort. Proverbs gives us many signs of a sluggard, and warns us what the future holds for sluggards. As Christians, we need to strive to be diligent workers. As Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."
Gossip is not harmless. The Bible warns that wrongdoers participate in gossip. It brings anger, and separates close friends. In this sermon we go over different types of gossip, and then look at steps we can take to shut down gossip when it is brought to us.
Many well meaning people have said "God won't give you more than you can handle." The idea comes from 1 Cor. 10:13, but that is talking about temptation, not all trials. Instead, we need to understand that we don't have to handle everything on our own. We need to look to God when life gets to be too much for us to handle. God will help you handle all that you've been given.
Sometimes we hear people say "heaven gained an angel today" when someone dies. However, angels are totally different from humans. They were ministering spirits that serve God in different ways. When we die, the reality for those in Christ Jesus is even better! We are transformed into immortal bodies that never feel pain, and we will experience a peace, love, and understanding like never before as we are in the presence of God.
God helps those who help themselves isn't in the Bible, but is the principle in the Bible? In Scripture, time and time again, we see the exact opposite: God helps those who CANNOT help themselves! This is especially true for each of us when it comes to our salvation.
The Bible never says God just wants us to be happy. That doesn't mean God wants us to be unhappy, God wants us to be full of joy. However, God wants us to be happy like a good father wants his children to be happy. He wants them to be happy, but it is not his highest priority. God doesn't want us to look for happiness in sin or in the things of this world. Instead, he wants us to focus on pursuing him and living a blessed life.
Racism is a sin issue. How do we combat this spiritual darkness? We pray: for comfort, justice, repentance, forgiveness, compassion, protection, peace, and for hearts to be changed by Jesus Christ. We all share the same Father, the same ancestor, the same enemy, but we do not share the same experiences. To help us better understand those of another race we need to listen, we need to learn, and we need to lead the way for change. While we may not all experience racism, we can stand beside those that have in love and unity. Galatians 6:2 tells us "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
What evidence do we have for the Bible being trustworthy and reliable? In this sermon we examine bibliographical, internal, and external evidence for the reliability of the Bible. We also highlight some of the 100's of fulfilled prophesies in Scripture, all of which help show us why we can trust the Bible.
The Bible is a book unlike any other. It is unique for a variety of reasons, but most of all because it is the inspired Word of God. But how did we get the Bible we have today? In this sermon we examine the process step by step: inspiration, transmission, compilation, and translation.
There are lots of important things for a healthy church to be known for, but above all else, a healthy church should be known for love. Jesus said, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). As followers of Jesus we want our church to have a reputation for love. To do this we need to follow Christ's example of loving first and loving unconditionally.
As Christians our goal is to be imitators of Christ and to grow to be more and more like Him every day. In this sermon, we examine how God causes growth, habits we can develop to grow, and ways that we can tell if we are growing in our faith.
Jesus modeled service for us, and told us if we are going to follow Him we are going to serve. We are saved to serve, and we need to serve with love, humility, and faithfulness.
God cares what we do with our money. There are different types of biblical giving: tithes, free-will offerings, and sacrificial giving. When we give generously we represent our generous God well, we understand that we are stewards of what He has given us, and we understand that giving generously helps us to fight against greed and selfishness in our lives.
Worship is about so much more than singing! Worship is about showing God what He is worth to you. We were all made to worship, and only God is worthy of our worship. Jesus says in John 4:23 that true worshipers worship in the Spirit and in truth.
We have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus! As we examine the Easter story we will look at evidence that we can be confident of the resurrection, and we will look at promises of God that we can have hope in because Christ is risen.
As we continue our sermon series looking at the life of Jesus we examine what happened to him on the cross. We go in detail about what happened to him physically, and then we look at the cross spiritually, examining why Jesus had to die, and what his death means for us.
What is the Old Testament about? Believe it or not, it is about Jesus! He even points out multiple times the Old Testament writers were writing about Him! In this sermon we examine how different events, characters, and prophecies in the Old Testament all point to Jesus Christ.
"Who is Jesus?" This is the most important question we could ever ask, and when we look in Scripture, we can see Jesus has already given us the answer! In this sermon we explore the seven "I AM" statements in the gospel of John that help us know Jesus as Lord.
What is the trinity? The doctrine that God is one in being and three in person. Join us as we unpack that statement, and look at illustrations that have been used to help explain it. We will also examine evidence for the doctrine of the trinity in Scripture, and address a few questions people have about the trinity.
We don't realize how dependent we are on the Holy Spirit, but without His power we cannot be a healthy church. The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts, boldness, and convicts us.