Why is it that Christians are often reluctant to be bold in witness? For me that is simple – it is often hard work, or I am too chicken, or I am too distracted, or I am…
I know the excuses, because I have used them all. I am the reluctant evangelist.
It is not uncommon for me to be standing on the sidelines of a soccer pitch watching my sons play football. Alongside, stand the other parents. A perfect opportunity to speak about Jesus?
What is faith? We use the term ‘faith’ all the time. Do we stop and think about what it means to have faith, especially when it comes to having faith in God.
This is the first of three talks exploring the biblical idea of faith – and hopefully they will help us to think about how great it is to be a person of faith in God.
Read the Bible Text – Hebrews 11:1-39 Joshua 2:1-24
Talk – Hebrews 11 & Josh 2 (Outline)
– Ken Noakes
The Apostle Paul in Romans argues that a Christian cannot rightly call themselves a disciple unless they both believe and confess that ‘Jesus is Lord’.
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:9-13)
‘Happy’. He said to me.
As I looked into the face of my friend, with the dark rings under his eyes, hair a little dishevelled, hands grasping the double shot expresso, which was his heart starter for the day, he said:
‘My goal in life is just to be happy’.
So much about what we relentlessly pursue in life aims to create an end result in which we will be happy. Burden now, achieve lots, sacrifice in the present – so that at some point it will all be worth it. We will be able to count up the coins, list off the achievements, bow to acknowledge the praise that is being directed our way – and then, we hope, we will be happy.
Some people call it the rat race.
There is nothing wrong with working hard, striving to reach goals, aiming to achieve much – that is the world we live in. In fact, it can be quite satisfying. Does it make us ‘happy’?
Yet, when it comes to faith, God works on a different spectrum – and for that reason Christians do well to recognise works, although they might be good, are not the measure used to determine godly happiness.
‘Happy is the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works’ (Rom 4:6). Let’s look at how…
Read the Bible Text – Romans 3:27-4:25
Bold in Witness
What does it mean to be bold in Witness?
Jesus asked his disciples to be his witnesses. And that is what Jesus’ first disciples did.
To be a witness, you have to be willing to make a stand, to testify, to speak on behalf of the person or the event that you are bearing witness too. The aim is to provide enough reason or evidence for someone who is not a witness to ascertain the truth behind what you say.
I love celebrity. I mean real celebrity.
A celebrity is someone who is publicly known for something distinctive – something that others can look at, write about, or admire. A celebrity is someone who others want to follow, or know, or be like. Maybe they can move faster, or jump further, or climb higher, or dive deeper, or hit harder. Maybe they can sing louder, or act more convincingly, or dance more expertly, or write more creatively, or speak more persuasively, or make people laugh more hysterically. Maybe they can make more money, or invent more things, or manage more people. There are many reasons why someone becomes famous and stands out in a culture.
When we follow celebrity, there is always a cost – it may be our time, money or energy.
We all love justice and hate injustice. From earliest childhood this has been the case. One of the first complaints we learn to utter is, “That’s not fair!”
But how do we go when the finger of justice is pointing at us? Are we still as passionate about it? Or is there something else we love even more?
And what about God’s justice? How do we feel about that? Is justice beneath God? Does his justice betray a cranky side of him? And how will we go when God’s finger of justice is pointed at us?
These are very important questions!
Read the Bible Text – Romans 3:21-26
– David Shead
Inspired by Acts 17:16-34…
What an incredible city. As I look around, Athens was imposingly magnificent. Over there, the massive harbour of Piraeus – helping make the city a centre for trade. Over there the Temple of Zeus with its imposing columns scaling up to the high ceilings and with statues everywhere, one to this god and another to that god – they like their religion! Over there at the entrance to the city stands the beautiful Hadrian’s Arch, on one side it dedicates the city to Emperor Hadrian and on the other side to Theseus! – there is politics behind everything and this city was no exception. Over there the huge two-tiered covered colonnade called the Stoa of Attalus, the largest marketplace around – making this city a centre of culture and fashion. The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers would sit day by day in the marketplaces and argue about ideas – there is so much idealism just pervading this culture. And all of this, sitting in the shadow of the Acropolis. Many Greek cities have some kind of citadel constructed on hills overlooking their cities, but none were as formidable or as famous as the Parthenon perched high above Athens – making this a city of power and a tourism gold mine.
But it was at the Areopagus on Mars Hill, just a few hundred feet down from the Acropolis where the governing body of the city met and it was there they brought me. You see, I had been preaching the good news about Jesus and his resurrection and the people of the city thought that I was advocating for a foreign god and so, interested, they asked me about this ‘new teaching’ – I guess I was presenting an idea which they wanted to postulate about!
Who in our world is perfect? Mother Teresa? Gandhi? Nobel Peace Prize Laureates? Is there anyone in your community or family who is without fault?
In this sermon, we will see that all people are broken. Paul, the author, paints a vivid picture of how all people fall short of God’s standards. Both the religious and unreligious people of the 1st Century fell short of God’s standards.
But how do we compare? Can we reach the standards God has set? And what happens if we fail…?
Have a look at God’s perfect solution for our imperfect world.
Read the Bible Text – Romans 1:16-3:20
– Josh Ord
By Des Smith
This Sunday is ‘Bring-a-friend-to-church Sunday’. You may think, ‘Why didn’t I hear about this before? This wasn’t advertised!’ That’s because every Sunday is bring-a-friend-to-church Sunday. Next week’s will be too and the week after that. The fact is, one of the best and easiest ways we can share the gospel with friends and family is simply to invite them to church.
This is not often how we think.
