Sermons

It’s easy to wonder if God will achieve his purposes.

In the second half of last year, we worked our way through 1 Corinthians. Chapter 15 was just magnificent! Amazing views of the future God has promised all who follow the Lord Jesus. A future when our bodies are renewed, transformed to be glorious like Jesus, perfect for enjoying the renewed world God will give us to live in.

Being a Christian changes so many things. It affects every area of your life.

What is the single most important thing we do? What’s at the heart of what it looks like to live as a Christian?

Is it our church services: the songs we sing, the prayers we say, the bread and wine we share?

Is it our charitable work, helping the needy as best we can?

Is it the community we build, the way we look out for one another, and take others under our wing?

These are all good and important things. Maybe one of them chimes with you in a particular way.

Do you ever read something and think, “I’ll pretend I didn’t see that”?

Some homework set by a teacher at the last minute that you’d rather your children didn’t have to do.

An email sent at 5.25pm inviting you to some drinks after work.

A new “no-right-turn” sign on a route you drive every day.

We all get tempted to put our fingers in our ears from time to time. Pretend we didn’t hear something that is somewhat inconvenient.

At times, the Bible can be like that. Sometimes, God says things to us that we’d love him to unsay.

Last time we began to think about the question: What happens to us after we die?

Many people are plain confused about what waits for us after death. And with confusion comes fear. The Bible doesn’t answer all our questions, but it does have a lot to say. It addresses the future of those who do not know the Lord Jesus. And it addresses the future of Christians who do know and love him. And 1 Corinthians 15 is one of the places where it does.

Most of us wonder at times, what happens to us when we die.

Often the answer is that we just don’t know.

So we make something up that would make us feel a bit better if it were true. Many a parent has told their children that granddad has just become one of the stars in the sky, and if you look up you can see him looking down on us. We know it isn’t true, but we just don’t know what else to say.

We all struggle to remember things at times. To remember, and not to forget.

It’s why we have Remembrance Day every year. In 1919, every community in Britain resolved that we would never forget what had just happened.

In fact, there are two ways to forget, to fail to remember.

A sermon given on Remembrance Sunday 2018

We’ve come together today to remember those who gave their lives during the two great wars of the last century. Every community in England lost huge numbers of people, and we resolved never to forget. We will remember them.

Does God still speak today? That’s the question asked by our Bible reading.

If he doesn’t, we’re in the dark.

We’ve just baptised Andrew. He’s got to chart a path through life, and his parents have just signed up God to be his guide.

Well, our boys love mazes, and maybe Andrew’s brother and sister do too. If you’re a bit lost at Crystal Palace or Leeds Castle, you’d love to have a birds eye view. Someone who can look down and see the whole maze and tell you which way to turn. They could then shout down directions: “Left. Left. Right. Not that one – it’s a dead-end”.

Introduction: Christian Worship

What are we doing here this morning?

What happens when Christians come together, for what we call “church”.

It’s always good to have visitors with us. Maybe you go regularly to another church elsewhere. But if you don’t, I wonder what you think gets Christians to come here. As opposed to stay in bed. Play football. Go shopping.

I take it we all agree that love is important. If I told you that I’m going to try to convince you that love is important, you’d probably switch off. We know that already.

What’s not so obvious is what we mean by this. What is love? How is it important?

Nearly every world religion teaches that love is supreme. Whether it’s one of the 5 Sikh virtues. Whether it’s required by Allah to enter paradise. Or whether it’s the ancient religions with many gods – including Aphrodite, Cupid, Eros and Venus.