From time to time I put sermons I give up here. Not because I think they are particularly good, even less that they are model sermons. I can't even guarantee that I agree with everything I said then - I am (of course) learning all the time. But someone may be interested.
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If you’ve been with us on our journey through 1 John, you’ll know that John wrote to some insecure Christians. Am I really a Christian? They’d recently had a split in their church. A group had broken away and started their own thing. They looked down their noses at the ordinary Christians. Am I somehow second class? Where do I stand with God?
We all need reassuring that God loves us. Even the most confident person can start to wonder. Am I really in God’s family? What does God think of me?
Sometimes other people make these doubts bigger in our heads. If you meet Christians who are more mature than you. More knowledgeable than you. They don’t mean to make you doubt. But you somehow suspect they must be looking down their noses at you
One film I’ve enjoyed is Back to the Future. If only you could go back in time. Then you’d know when and where lightening would strike. You’d know who is going to get shot by terrorists in the future. You could warn them. If you came from the future, you’d know the future. And if you knew the future, you’d make the most of the present.
Today we’re going to be thinking about how to avoid falling down a hole.
Here’s what I mean. One of the things that puts many people off Christianity are the tragic splits in the history of the church. The East split from the West in the 11th Century. The Protestant reformation was in the 16th, the Episcopal Presbyterian split in the 17th century, and the Methodist-Anglican one in the 18th century. And there have been many more besides.
Our culture is all about enjoying the good things in life. And holding out before us things we don’t have so that we wish we had them. Showing us how beautiful that beach resort is, how shiny that car is, how snazzy that new phone is. Do you remember the queues at the Apple Store in London when they launched their first iPhone?
The world we live in can be a very dark place to be. One of the things that makes it so is when people are selfish. Think only of themselves. When someone scratches your car in a car park, but doesn’t bother to leave a phone number. When you’re queuing to buy 6 items at the checkout with twins in tow, and someone else races to get to the belt first with their £200 trolley-full. Selfishness. Lovelessness.
I don’t know about you, but I have one nagging doubt about God. Do the wrong things that I’ve done during the course of my life mean that God does not love me in the way he would otherwise? In short – are my past mistakes really forgiven? Does God really love me? Or have I blotted my copybook with an indelible splodge or fifty?
Of course we want the answer to be “no”, don’t we? Does God love me less because of my mistakes? No.
As a Christian, do you ever find yourself wondering if you’ve backed the right horse? I do.
We’re so aware these days of all the world’s religions. Are we Christians by an accident of our birth, brought up in a Christian country or in a Christian home? Is the Christian faith better than any of the alternatives? Does it actually put us into contact with the real God? Or is it a phoney – a bit like a dodgy spiritualist who makes us feel better by pressing the right buttons but it’s all one big con? Does following Jesus actually do us any good at all?
What ambitions do you have for your life?
Here are a couple of mine. I’ve never been to Australia, but I’d love to go. I’d particularly like to go to Sydney, to see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I have no aspirations to climb the Harbour Bridge.
One day, if I live long enough, I will retire. I’d love to have a comfortable house, and a good enough income for that to be an enjoyable phase of life.
What are your ambitions?
If you wanted a headline for the reading we had from Matthew chapter 6, it would be this: Don’t worry. Don’t worry.
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.