Kemsing with Woodlands

Matthew 5:13-16 - A better world?

Sun, 16/01/2011 - 09:30 -- James Oakley

Do you ever wonder what it would take to make the world a better place. Less rotten? Less foolish? Less stupid? Less tasteless? Less dark? Less base?

I do. People at large would come up with a range of suggestions. Some people put their confidence in the political system. The government is there to improve things, and once a decade we change who is in power because we’re not convinced the current lot are fixing things well enough, so we try somebody else.

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Matthew 5:1-12 - God's congratulations

Sun, 09/01/2011 - 09:30 -- James Oakley

Well, congratulations!

What am I congratulating you for, you are wondering? Well that’s how I start most sermons that I preach at a wedding. It’s what someone will say to you when you’ve passed your driving test. It’s what you say to someone who has just got a new job. It’s what you say to someone when they’ve just had a new grandchild.

We say: Congratulations! You’ve just achieved something that was well-worth doing. You’ve done something to be proud of. Well done!

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Exodus 13:17-15:21

Sun, 28/02/2010 - 09:30 -- James Oakley

About a month ago, we looked together at the account of the plagues on Egypt. If you were here then, you’ll remember that we said God is in charge of the whole world, even those bits of it where he is not acknowledged. But how he uses that depends a lot on whether you are one of God’s people. God is a God who makes a distinction between his people and other people; when it comes to his people, he makes all things work for good.

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Exodus 11:1-13:16

Sun, 14/02/2010 - 09:30 -- James Oakley

Introduction

I’m sure there is not a child anywhere in the English-speaking world who has not had a phase of asking “why” to everything. Children are naturally curious. They want to know how the world fits together. So as they observe things happening, they ask why? They want to understand.

Much that we do here in church makes people ask “why” as well? Why do we eat a meal each week comprising a small amount of bread and wine? Why do we have readings from the Bible in church? Why do we have a sermon? And so on.

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Philippians 1:1-11 - Prayer

Sun, 31/01/2010 - 10:00 -- James Oakley

Priorities are hard things aren’t they.

Like choosing a pudding. Do you like cheesecake? Yes. Do you like sticky toffee pudding? Yes. Do you like rhubarb crumble? Yes. Do you like chocolate mousse? Yes. You can’t eat 4 puddings. You wouldn’t manage to eat them all without being sick. You would get high cholesterol if you ate four puddings every day. You have to choose. Which one do you want? Cheesecake. Sticky Toffee. Rhubarb Crumble. Chocolate Mousse. You may have only one. Ah. Much harder.

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Exodus 7:8-10:29

Sun, 24/01/2010 - 11:30 -- James Oakley

We don’t like plagues. We shudder to think what it must have been like to live through the various runs of Bubonic Plague in the middle ages. We fear illnesses like swine flu because of what they might do to our community. We get very anxious when we hear that Iraq might have biological or chemical weapons, that could make life very painful and uncomfortable for us.

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