Sermons

So: How do you find praying?

Not a question many of us like to be asked. Prayer is a subject that makes us feel guilty. We don’t pray as much as we know we ought to. Or helpless. We don’t know where to start. Or both.

Jesus talks about prayer in the passage we’re looking at this morning.

But he doesn’t do it to make us feel guilty. He wants us to enjoy praying. He wants prayer to be something we all do. And to make that happen, Jesus focuses our attention on God. If we can start to grasp what God is like, that will transform the way we talk to him.

I’ve got some good news for you this morning.

In our lives we make lots of mistakes. The good news of Jesus is that God does not always treat us according to our mistakes. He does not always judge us. He does not always condemn us. He provides a way we can be forgiven, and a way we can be helped to become better people

I’ve got some bad news for you as well this morning. When other people make mistakes, we aren’t always as kind, as lenient, as merciful as helpful as God is. If only we were.

One thing many people today hate – is hypocrisy. When someone doesn’t live out their faith.

A few years back, I parked the car badly. I found a note on my windscreen that simply read: Do you call yourself a Christian? Well, I do. But it’s why a fish sticker is a bad idea – unless you’re a very courteous and careful driver. It gives other road users two reasons to dislike you. Not only are you a bad driver, you’re also a Christian and that makes you a hypocrite.

There’s nothing more wonderful than a Christian who lives what they believe.

Can you be sure where you stand with God? Can you know what will happen to you when you die? Can you be certain whether God will love and accept you, or not?

Many people today would say that this kind of certainty is the height of arrogance.

It’s presumptuous to be certain that God will accept you on the last day.

How dare the Christian claim that they can know that God approves of them.

Jesus said: What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and forfeit their life?

That’s Mark chapter 8, verse 36.

It’s a good question. Our society is very good at helping us to add things to our life. Much less clear what life itself is all about.

Which makes Jesus’ question frighteningly relevant. What if someone did manage to gain everything there is to have? But what if they also missed out on life itself?

1 John chapter 5 is about how we can avoid making exactly that mistake.

I don’t know if you ever hanker for the 1^st Century. Christianity today seems so confusing. There are so many versions out there. So many people claim to represent Jesus. But they say such different things. Why’s it got so complicated? Surely in the 1^st century things we much simpler!

It’s confusing enough for those of us inside the church. What’s the Christian faith really all about? How different can you be from us, and still be Christian?

One character trait it’s easy to be frustrated by is laziness.

People can be lazy for all kinds of reasons. Not just those who are poor. Not just those who are rich. We can all be lazy. Those who have a lot can be lazy. They don’t need to work hard. Their life is already just the way they want it. Those who don’t have much can be lazy. They could improve their lot in life. But they can’t be bothered.

1 John chapter 4 is one of the classic passages in the Bible on God’s love.

Verse 8: Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. Verse 16: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

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