Sermon on the Mount

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Matthew 6:19-24 - Money, money, money

If you pick up any of the Sunday papers today, you’ll find supplements and sections devoted to travel, to cars and motoring, to money, to business and to fashion. These are the things that our society lives for and treasures.

The problem with our love affair with money, clothing, possessions and travel is that we end up serving them. Like alcohol, like drugs, like so many things – we start off using them for our ends, but our money is always trying to turn the tables on us, so that it becomes the master, and we do its wishes. … Read more about Matthew 6:19-24 - Money, money, money

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Matthew 6:7-15 - How to pray

Many people today think that the Christian faith is first and foremost about a set of rules. Do this. Thou shalt not do that.

The Bible contains many rules, but at its heart the Christian faith is not about the rules we obey. It’s not about what we do and don’t do. It’s about a relationship. It’s about a relationship with the God who made you.

It’s not about what you know; it’s not about what you do; it’s about who you know. … Read more about Matthew 6:7-15 - How to pray

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Matthew 6:1-18 - Secret Sincerity

We all hate hypocrites. We don’t like the insincerity. When people only do the things they do because they know we’re watching. When people want to manipulate how we see them. We’re never sure if we’ve met the real them.

But of all the hypocrites, our society has the strongest dislike of religious hypocrites. People who claim to be devout followers of a particular religious system, but it’s all a show. Indeed, many people today dismiss the Christian faith precisely because there are so many Christian hypocrites. … Read more about Matthew 6:1-18 - Secret Sincerity

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Matthew 5:1-48 - Following Jesus: The View from Space

Last Sunday, Felix Baumgartner broke a number of world records. He jumped out of a helium balloon from 24 miles up in the sky. There is hardly any air, the sky is black, and the earth looks like a ball. Ten minutes later, he’d broken the speed of sound, and achieved the record for the world’s highest skydive and the world’s longest free-fall.

From up there, he could see the whole earth. Take it in at a glance. … Read more about Matthew 5:1-48 - Following Jesus: The View from Space

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Matthew 5:38-48 - Revenge

It seems to me that our society today is driven by the 3 Rs. Rights Revenge and Relations. That’s to say, we’re driven by a concern to hold onto our Rights, we want to hold onto what is ours. We’re driven by a need for Revenge, we want to take back what should be ours. And we’re driven by loyalty to our Relations, we all have an inner circle of family and a few friends and our main task is to be loyal to them. Rights. Revenge and Relations. … Read more about Matthew 5:38-48 - Revenge

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Matthew 5:33-37 - Honesty

I don’t know about you, but I find it depressing that honesty is so hard to come by today.

Let me give a few examples.

We’ve just come to the end of the annual party conference season, when it often seems that the leaders in all the political parties just say what they think we want to hear, and a large part of the conference is them justifying why they haven’t done something they said they would do just one year earlier. … Read more about Matthew 5:33-37 - Honesty

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Matthew 5:21-26 - Anger

The world we live in can be a very angry place.

This is part of what lies behind the riots of recent months. People were angry. Angry at the government. Angry at large businesses. Angry at who knows what. But when given the opportunity to form a crowd and take that anger out on something, they do so.

Sure, I know there’s more to be said than that. The looting was caused by greed, which is a different subject entirely. And we have to ask what has caused the anger. But one of the things behind the rioting was anger. … Read more about Matthew 5:21-26 - Anger

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Matthew 5:27-32 - Adultery, Lust and Divorce

Those words of Jesus we just heard are hard words to hear. They are hard to think about. They are hard to preach on.

They are hard because Jesus is talking about two subjects that cause us more pain emotionally than just about anything else. You don’t need me to tell you how much pain there is because of adultery and divorce. The divorce rate in this country is going down. But each year, the proportion of married people who divorce is still over 1%. And each time it happens, it hurts, and the ripples of people who are hurt spread very widely. … Read more about Matthew 5:27-32 - Adultery, Lust and Divorce

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Matthew 5:17-20 - What is a Christian to do with the Old Testament?

Many of you will know that I try to talk to people who don’t come to church. I love to try and find out: What do they think? What do they believe? What questions are they asking?

One issue I encounter fairly regularly, as a barrier to the Christian faith, is the Old Testament. It seems a number of people find the Old Testament difficult. Perhaps the Old Testament half of the Bible is one of the things that puzzles you. If we’re honest, most of us who are Christians find it hard from time to time as well. … Read more about Matthew 5:17-20 - What is a Christian to do with the Old Testament?

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