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Brad's Sermons |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:53 AM |  | | Archive of BCC Sermons by Brad |
| Sunday August 23, 2009 "Where God Lives" Psalm 84 | |
| By Brad Miller on8/24/2009 2:35 PM | |
| What is so important about church?
In particular, what is so important about the building we call the church? It is only bricks and mortar. As to the collection of people who call themselves “the church”, what makes them any different from a group of people that gather this morning at the YMCA, or at a social club?
On the surface, there might seem little difference between the people gathered here and at the Y. We have a purpose in mind when we come to this place, just as they do. We enjoy this particular church and if we didn’t, we might seek out another church, or we might just decide that we can just stay home and read our Bible instead of coming to church. The people at the Y also have choices: they could go to a health club, or even buy home workout equipment so they wouldn’t have to go anywhere.
But of course, for those of us sitting here, there is something different about coming to church.
Our Hebrew an ... |  | |
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| | Sunday August 16, 2009 "Wise Living" Ephesians 5:15-20 | |
| By Brad Miller on8/17/2009 9:03 AM | |
| Nobody wants to be a fool.
At various times, Jesus himself told the disciples to be careful about who they call a fool, because being called a fool is the mother of all insults.
When we label someone a fool, we diminish them. When we label someone a fool, we consent to ignore them. When we label someone a fool, we are operating at the height of arrogance.
Why? Because at times, we are all fools.
How’s that for an uplifting message? But you know what? It is a fact. And sometimes, our foolish behavior is the behavior that we think will shield us from the hurt and worry of the world around us.
No, none of us want to be a fool, but sometimes we are. None of us want to behave foolishly, but sometimes we do. As we own up to our foolishness, the important thing to ask is, how can I avoid acting foolishly in the future?
In today’s scripture lesson, taken from the lette ... | | |
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| | Sunday July 26, 2009 "This I Pray" Ephesians 3: 14-21 | |
| By Brad Miller on7/28/2009 1:08 PM | |
| Today’s scripture is sometimes called “the Apostles Prayer” and is nothing short of a great example of how we are to pray for one another. It is found in the letter to the church at Ephesus, generally attributed to the Apostle Paul.
There is much evidence that the writer of this letter did not personally know the people to which the letter is addressed. The form of greeting and the message is general and not pointed at specific issues and problems like so many other of Paul’s letters. We know that Paul had spent time in Ephesus; there is good reason to believe that he was actually imprisoned in Ephesus, but this letter does not indicate a familiarity with the people of the Ephesian church. But the people of the church in Ephesus knew of his missionary activity. Paul understood his mission to be aimed primarily at people like those who lived in Ephesus. He believed that the mission upon which he embarked was to make Christ known among the Gentiles and to encourage the Jewish beli ... | | |
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| | Sunday July 19, 2009 "Promise Made...Promise Kept" 2 Samuel 7:1-14 | |
| By Brad Miller on7/21/2009 1:11 PM | |
| David’s story fascinates me.
Embedded in his story are all the important elements of a great novel. There are heroic acts and selfless deeds. There are power struggles and divided loyalties. There are examples of true friendship and true villainry. There is sex and violence and great public pronouncements and gentle private crises. There is abject failure and total and complete redemption. It really is an amazing story.
We remember David as a boy, the shepherd boy who was tapped as the eventual King of Israel at a very young age. He was the heroic youngster who risked life and limb to defeat the Philistine Goliath, trusting always that God would be with him. Later, he became an enemy of the king and resorted to leading a ragtag band of guerrilla warriors until such time as he emerged as King of the united Israel.
He vanquished the reigning king and restored the people of Israel to their rightful place as God’s chosen. He brought the ... | | |
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| | Sunday July 5, 2009 "Prove It" 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 | |
| By Brad Miller on7/15/2009 11:56 AM | |
| Paul is certainly an interesting character.
Oh, the Bible is full of interesting characters, but none of them are quite so fascinating as Paul. Moses is interesting in his way: a man of quick temper and strong faith. Job perseveres like no one I have ever encountered. Jonah is about as stubborn as anyone could be. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the obedient servant who bears her burden with grace and dignity. Jesus is a fascinating study of what humanity is at its best. But Paul…well, the complexity of the man is almost overwhelming.
Remember Paul’s story: he was born Saul, a devout Jew who made a career out of putting down and shutting up those who would challenge the Jewish leaders, those whose blasphemy could not be tolerated. He had been especially effective at rooting out the followers of Jesus, those people who had the audacity to declare that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead, the messiah come to save Israel.
Saul came b ... | | |
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| | Sunday July 5, 2009 "No Longer Strangers" Matthew 25: 34-40 | |
| By Brad Miller on7/6/2009 12:32 PM | |
| Preaching on Independence Day weekend is a challenge for me. It is a wonderful celebration that I am glad to be part of, but it can raise special concerns when our worship of God is mingled with our love of country. Don’t get me wrong, I am overjoyed to be an American, but as a preacher of the gospel, I need to be careful not to let patriotism guide my faith. In fact, it should be the other way around.
I do get a little concerned when people start talking as if our country is the promised land, ordained by God and protected by God’s special grace and will. What does that say about other lands, other people? Are they out of God’s favor? And so, in general, I have tried to keep the two separate. But today, I want to deviate from what I had planned to preach on (I’ll save that until next week) to tell you a story that is an example of what has made America great, and at the same time teaches us a great lesson in what it means to be Christians.
In the late ... | | |
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| | Sunday June 21, 2009 "Why Are You Afraid?" Mark 4: 35-41 | |
| By Brad Miller on6/23/2009 9:31 AM | |
| Several years ago Carol and I joined a group for whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River. I had been canoeing several times in my life, usually on some fairly sedate rivers, but I did have some experience with whitewater. But not a lot.
When we arrived at the drop off point, our guide got us all outfitted with life jackets, which I expected, and helmets, which I did not expect. Now, you have to understand to me, helmets mean that something bad can happen and it tends to heighten my fear response.
And that is what happened that day at the Ocoee River. The launch point emptied immediately into our first white water rapids, and as I looked at some of the friends with us, I could see the fear in their eyes that surely was in mine, too. The last thing the guide said to us was, “There is nothing to be afraid of.”
I remember thinking, “Really? Nothing to be afraid of? How about death or dismemberment?”
We arranged ourselve ... | | |
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| | Sunday June 7, 2009 "How Can These Things Be?" John 3:1-17 | |
| By Brad Miller on6/8/2009 10:26 AM | |
| I have questions.
Lots of questions.
It seems to me that if we are truly paying attention, each new revelation of God’s presence and power almost necessarily leads to new questions. It’s not that I don’t believe, I absolutely do, but in my humanness and our culture’s emphasis on knowing and controlling, I have questions. Over the course of the next three weeks, some of those questions will come up; attempts will be made to answer some of those questions and some will be left dangling.
I don’t know what all your questions are. I don’t even have words for all the questions I have. But the first question that I have is: what does God think of our questions? Is God exasperated that we continually ask them? Is God amused at our attempts to understand the magnitude of all that God created and oversees? Does God honor our questions? Do our questions sound like skepticism to God?
This story of Nicodemus helps me deal wi ... | | |
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| | Sunday May 24, 2009 "Sharing the Power of God" John 17:6-19 | |
| By Brad Miller on5/28/2009 8:56 AM | |
| I grew up in a house my grandfather built in the 1930’s. The original venting system in the house was accessed into each room by metal grates that swung open to allow heat to enter, or could be pulled shut to close off the flow of heat into a room. In the upstairs of the house, where the bedrooms were, the grates were two sided with an opening on each side of a wall. In other words, two bedrooms side by side shared the same grate. This meant that if the grate was opened into one room, it would have to be closed into the adjoining room. This was fine for most of the year, but in the dead of winter, we learned to very carefully work the grates from both sides so that they could both be partially opened, allowing heat to flow into each room. This also meant that you could pretty clearly hear what was being said from one room to the next.
My brother and I shared a room that shared a grate with my parents bedroom. So, occasionally we could hear them talking, and I’m sure they hear ... | | |
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| | Sunday May 17, 2009 "Celebrating the Power of God" Psalm 98 | |
| By Brad Miller on5/18/2009 3:49 PM | |
| As we continue to move toward the amazing events of Pentecost, we resume our look at “The Power of God”. Last week we talked about recognizing the power of God, in ways big and small. Next week we will finish the series by exploring the issue of sharing the power of God. Today, we turn our attention to “Celebrating the Power of God.”
I have seen some great celebrations in my time, and I bet you have, too.
What celebrations stick out in your mind? For folks of my parents generation, V-E day and V-J day, those days celebrating the allied forces victories in Europe and Japan, seem to stand out. There are famous pictures of crowds dancing in the street, embracing and kissing, all because of the end of the hostilities in World War II.
I was privileged to find myself in the midst of an amazing celebration the night Pope John Paul II ascended to the papacy. There is a large Polish population in Detroit and the center of that population is a n ... | | |
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