Sermon Notes (Page 3)

It must have really been something in the days of the old sailing ships to be circumnavigating the globe, despite all the dangers and storms of such a journey, in what today seem such small ships. And yet for all the exhilaration one can only imagine the relief and joy that greeted such intrepid seamen when they returned to the safe harbour of home. Upon returning from…

The Lord comes to Elijah who was not where he should be, was not doing what he should’ve been doing, but lay beneath the broom tree crippled by spiritual depression, seeking to be released from his burden by death. The Lord’s response to Elijah in the depth of his despair was not one of disgust,…

Like the rest of James, chapter 3 has proved to be a very challenging chapter. Who among us does not have trouble with the tongue? Who among us has not been affected by the wisdom of our age so that we find ourselves sometimes expressing a ‘wisdom’ that is not from above? It is a chapter that looks deeply at our motives, and one which calls us to respond to the…

We have already seen James in 1:5 put a high premium upon wisdom as that which is essential for all Christians, and for the absence of which no Christian has any valid excuse. Its source is in God who freely and ungrudgingly extends it to His children in response to their prayers. Here James reinforces this by stressing that wisdom is the necessary link between tongue…

What do you do when you see someone in the depth of their weakness? In our better moments we would have compassion, our hearts would be drawn out to them in kindness and acts of kindness. But what if that someone is one who you trusted even relied on for something, yet here they are before you…

In v.2 James calls us to a Biblical Realism. He is not saying that there is a ‘perfect man’ – in fact quite the opposite. A wise old Christian was speaking to one ‘believed in sinless perfectionism, and who indeed had been bragging about his sinlessness. He asked, “Can you point to a…

Last week we saw a side of Elijah which was unexpected, a complete contrast to everything we have seen till then. Here he is a man on the run, running for his life. There are several ways we can look at this journey from Jezreel to Beersheba in southern edge of Judah, and then another day’s…

The great preacher of last century, Charles Spurgeon, is reputed to have regularly told those who came to tell him of their calling to be a preacher that if they can do anything else, then they should. He understood that there is not always an exact equivalence between those wanting to come into a formal teaching position within the church and those so called and…

A survey in WWII of 4,000 air crew about their feelings before a flight showed that the top six symptoms experienced were: a pounding of the heart; muscular tension; easily irritated or angry; dryness of mouth; perspiration; and butterflies in the stomach. The brain was causing hormones to be…

Evening Service, 23 August 2009 Around ten years ago a University outreach event in Sydney was advertised as ‘Bad People Go To Heaven!’ This was met with great interest. Ever since then Christian groups have tried to use provocative titles as attention-getters. This is what James is doing here in…