Sermons

Well, let me ask you a question: what is it that you are hoping for? What do you look forward to? What is the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps you going when life is tough?

Some people would say, perhaps, that they have no hope. They've lost all hope. It just feels that darkness is closing in. Some people—some of us—go through seasons of life when it feels like that. It's a tough place to be.

It’s time for my final words to you. What do I say? They say before they demand execution, “Do you have any final words?” It doesn’t quite feel like an execution, but I still have to kind of pick my final words. I’ve actually chosen to spend four Sundays working through with you part of Acts chapter 20, and to make my final words to you the unfolding of those words.

This last week I received a text message. Let me tell you what it says:

NHS: You are eligible to apply for a COVID pass, provided you've been vaccinated against COVID-19. You can apply for this here...

And then there's a web link.

I'm going to tell you this morning why this church is the best group to belong to anywhere. It's better than any football team, local or national. It's better than any dance or music group. It is even better than the WI or the Scouts.

I have four Sundays left with you before we head up north, so I have to decide what message I would like to leave you with as the time comes to move on. If you've been with us for any length of time, hopefully you have by now observed that as I prepare for a Sunday morning, I don't sit down and say, "What would I like to say on Sunday?" nor even, "Here's the Bible reading that will be read during the service—what would I like to say based on that reading?"

Perhaps like me you long for good times to return again: the opportunity to take a holiday whenever, wherever you wish; the opportunity to meet with friends, any number of people, indoors or outdoors; the opportunity to forget face masks, to sit closer than two meters to somebody from another household. Perhaps you long for good times to return.

If you do picture for a moment the Jews of Jesus' day. they longed for good times to return.

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Well, just imagine for a moment that you paid a great price for something, only for it all to fall through, and so the result is you paid an expensive price for nothing. Perhaps at work you work for many years, very long hours, in a junior role that is really quite tough, because you’ve been promised that there is a promotion for you after, say, five years, and as four and a half years is up the company becomes bankrupt and you are made redundant. All those long years seemingly for nothing. The thing that you gave up all of that effort for never materialised. What a waste.

One of the things that’s become clear during the pandemic is that people in England long for community. They long for human, loving contact. They long for family. They long for relationships that are real. And for all that social media and Zoom and other tools in technology can achieve, ultimately people want actual friends.

Would you say that you are in need more of reassurance from God's word, or in need of challenge from God's word? I don't ask which you want; I ask which you think you most need. Both can be necessary; either can be dangerous.