Sermon Notes (Page 2)

What word describes 2009 which has now gone into the banks of ‘memory past’? What word would you choose to describe 2010 now embarked upon? Of the various possibilities that ought to come to mind to the Christian, I want to draw your attention to one that is twice stated in our OT reading. We see that it is also central to Jesus’ purpose for our lives as highlighted in…

I don’t know who first said ‘Keep on keeping one’. It is certainly used again and again to convey the idea of perseverance, and as such it is a suitable title to this passage. When I watch a marathon race I am particularly struck by the reality that despite there being only one winner and only three ‘medallists’, yet everyone is keen to finish. I can understand this in…

Murray Campbell this week wrote a brief and provocative Facebook piece entitled “A Christmas Stir” in which he writes, ‘I have a proposal to make for Aussies: Instead of making a public holiday out of December 25 let’s go to work. After all, is it not somewhat hypocritical to celebrate ‘Christ’mas when the vast majority are not Christian? Do non-Muslims…

of the Psalms was magnificent. Unfortunately for poor Isaac, he was not a handsome figure. His one chance at love came and went with a young lady named Elizabeth Singer, who actually fell in love with Watts sight-unseen through his published poems. Being so taken with this man who could write so deeply and passionately she threw caution to the wind and…

Our society has bought a lie. It has been sold an experiment that has failed in successive cultures throughout human history. What is it? The axiom that ‘wealth begets well-being’. We have been told that if we raise the social and economic levels of society then morality and ethics…

“Come now” says James, clearly calling his readers to take some time to reason together, to take time to think through what they were saying. That is something we all need to do – to review our practices and habits. So many of the things we say are habitual, things we say with little apparent thought, said casually and maybe even thoughtlessly habitual. It may be…

Throughout this year our attention has been on another of the Reformers, the Genevan Reformer John Calvin, it being the 500th anniversary of his birth. And so it is appropriate we give some highlights to him today being reformation Sunday. Calvin has been described as ‘the reluctant but willing Reformer’. Though Calvin’s contributions to the Reformation are many, he…

What is the greatest privilege that you have as a Christian? Is it forgiveness? Help? Heaven?… As genuine and as great as all these are, what good are they without communion with God? This is the greatest gift that we have, and is the very essence of what it is to have eternal life as Jesus…

In v.19 we read that Elijah comes out from the cave and reengages in God’s work. What a contrast! From dejection, defeat and crippling even deadly despair he comes out with resolve and purpose. Is that a spring in his step that we can see as he comes down from Horeb? I believe that is how we are to…

Sometimes we have an idealised and romanticised view of life in the early church, with the result that it stands out against what we see in our day. We tend to think that church life was less complicated in that it was easy to see the difference between the church and the world. As Earl Kelly describes this view: ‘They were a new people who accepted Jesus Christ as…