Tag Archives: Faith

Sermon – Faith That Works: Hearing with your Hands (James 1:19-27)

Faith That Works - The Letter of James

Imagine being the younger brother of Jesus Christ. Always following in the footsteps of the glory child!! James is refreshingly matter of fact and down to earth. As we read the letter by James, we read his concern that those following Jesus don’t only listen, but actually walk in his footsteps. For him righteousness matters, and it is the practical righteousness that you can hear in the words and see in the actions of the follower of Jesus that really counts. This talk challenges us to listen to, obey, and live out the Word.

Read the text – James 1:19-27

Talk outline – Faith That Works: Hearing with your HandsDownload

Sermon – Faith That Works: Crown of Suffering (James 1:1-18)

Imagine being the younger brother of Jesus Christ. Always following in the footsteps of the glory child!! James is refreshingly matter of fact and down to earth. As we read the letter by James, we read his concern that those following Jesus don’t only listen, but actually walk in his footsteps. For him righteousness matters, and it is the practical righteousness that you can hear in the words and see in the actions of the follower of Jesus that really counts. This talk explores perseverance in faith.

Read the text – James 1:1-18

Talk outline – Faith That Works: Crown of SufferingDownload

Sermon – JesusWORKS: What is a Christian?

JesusWORKS aims to introduce you to the Jesus of history by looking at his life, teaching and work. Primarily, it is for the person who wants to check out the claims of Jesus or the claims about Jesus – so that they can make up their own minds about him.

Yet, it is also for any Christian who wants to be prepared to give a reasoned answer for the hope that they have in the gospel of Jesus (1 Pet 3:15).

Jesus calls people to himself, yet he gives everyone the opportunity to examine him and his message before making that decision.

In this talk, the common reservation that a person could never be good enough for God is addressed. We look at what a person can do to respond rightly to what Jesus has done to save.

Read the Bible texts – Luke 18:9-14; Mark 8:34-9:1

Talk 7 – What is a Christian? (Outline)Download
Speaker: Ken Noakes
Speaker: Ken Noakes

For more information and resources that go with the JesusWORKS course – go here

Sermon – Home Goal: Rejecting the given gospel (Romans 9:1-10:13)

Romans 9-16 Slide

Can we recognize God’s sovereignty over all things with humanity’s responsibility in some things. In this talk, we look at what Paul taught the Roman church about God’s mercy in election – such that anyone who hears, believes and confirms Jesus as their Lord can be confident in their salvation.

Read the Bible text – Romans 9:1-10:13

Outline for this talk – Romans 9.1-10.13

Watch the Video – here

– Ken Noakes

Can Paul and James be friends?

What does scripture say?

 ‘Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness’ (Genesis 15:6)

When the apostle Paul cites this verse in Roman 4:3 he uses it to make the claim that a person is justified by faith alone.

James in his epistle also cites this verse in James 2:23 yet he used it to suggest that ‘a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

It appears the Paul and James are at odds.

Continue reading →

Sermon – Faith: Sure and Certain

It is one thing to say that you believe in what Jesus had done to save you – it is another step to act on that belief.

James 2:14 asks the question: ‘What good is it brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such a faith save them?’.

This third talk on the topic of ‘faith’ looks at faith in action.

Read the Bible Text – Hebrews 12:1-3 James 2:14-26

Talk Outline – Hebrews 12 and James 2

Talk - Hebrews 12 & James 2.gif

– Ken Noakes

Sermon – Faith: Fully Persuaded

‘Faith’ is the Christian calling. And one could ask: ‘How do I know my faith is real?’ or ‘Does doubt mean I have a shallow faith?’. Yet, you don’t need to be Christian to have questions about ‘faith’: ‘How do I get faith?’ or ‘What does faith achieve?’.

This talk, the second in a series on ‘Faith’, looks how faith comes to a person.

Read the Bible Text – Hebrews 11:1-39 Joshua 2:1-24

Talk Outline – Hebrews 11 and Acts 10

Talk - Hebrews 11 & Acts 10 PPT

 

– Ken Noakes

Sermon – Faith: Fully-Convinced

Faith=fully convinced 16.9 title slide

 

 

 

 

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)

Talk - Hebrews 11 & Joshua 2

– Ken Noakes

 

Sermon – By Faith Alone (Romans 3:27-4:25)

Romans 1-8 Slide

‘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