Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Romans 8.28-39 There can be many reasons why we might doubt whether God loves us. We struggle with sin. Paul speaks about that in Romans 8.1-8. How could God possibly love somebody who messes it up so often? We suffer. Paul speaks about ‘the sufferings of this present age’ in vv18-25. How can God love us when dreadful things happen? Our prayer life is pathetic. In vv26-27 Paul writes of how weak we are in our prayer. We don’t know how to pray or what to pray for. And our love for God is so feeble. We may have moments when we declare our love for him, and our desire to serve him, but most of the time we live as if God does not exist. It is in the face of this, that Paul writes these amazing verses. If Romans 8 is the Himalayas of the Bible, verses 28-39 are its Everest And Paul declares 1.       The certainty of our call He writes, ‘For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son’. ...

Exodus 14.5-31 (To listen to an audio version of this talk, click the arrow above) The story of the crossing of the Red Sea is one of great stories of the Bible It is in most of the children’s bibles! But it is more than a great story It is one of the key stories in Israel’s memory Genesis 12.1-11, which you looked at last week, was critical to how the people of God understood their call to be the people of God. But the event we read about today shaped their understanding of what it means to live as the people of God. So let’s look at the story. Abrahams’ descendants have been living in Egypt as a slave people. But God has rescued them and now they are leaving Egypt. The ruler of Egypt, Pharaoh, has let them go. But he has changed his mind – a sort of post-Brexit panic when he realises that if he lets the migrants go, nobody will be left to do the dirty work. So he sends his army after them. And now we come to the odd bit. Because God, in 14.2 co...

Psalm 25 We are looking today at  Psalm 25.  It is says that it is a Psalm of David and I’m going to take it that it is a Psalm of David. It was either written by him, authorised by him, commissioned by him or approved of by him.  David is in anguish.  There are the enemies. They are mentioned in v2 and v19 (the beginning and end of this psalm). They hate him, and they have, it seems, betrayed him (v3).  To be hated is to have other people wish that you did not exist.  I know people sometimes say, ‘I wish you were dead’, but to hate another person is more than that. It is to really wish them dead, to see them crushed into the dust. It is to live as if they do not exist, and if they do have the temerity to continue to exist, to mock them, ridicule them, treat them as if they are a joke and do not matter.  That is why Jesus says that we will not be judged simply on whether we have murdered someone, but on whether we have hated ...

JOB The book of Proverbs teaches us: live well and life will go well. But while we know that may happen say 80% of the time, we also know that life doesn’t always work like that. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. That is probably one of the biggest reasons why many people fall away from faith. They say, ‘God I've served you faithfully – and look what has happened to me. How can I trust you when so much muck happens to me?’ So let’s look at a brief outline of the story of Job: because in Job, bad things happen to a good person. In ch 1 we are introduced to Job. He is upright, wealthy and he took God very seriously. And God is proud of Job (1.8): ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.’ But we are also introduced to Satan. Satan is like a teenager. God says to Satan, ‘Where have you been?’ Satan says, ‘From going ...

ROMANS 8:28-38 listen to ‘The assurance of the love of God in the face of suffering’ on Audioboo For the last three weeks we have been looking at Romans 8. It is a magnificent chapter. If Romans are the Himalayas of the Pauline letters, chapter 8 is the Everest of Romans. And today we come to the summit, particularly looking at verses 28-39. They speak of 1. The inevitability of troubles V28: ‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good’. Those ‘ all things ’ are listed later, in verses 35-37: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors ..’ These are the sufferings that come from living in a fallen world: the sufferings that come to all people that are caused bec...

Romans 8:12-25 We continue to look at Romans 8. And today I particularly wish to focus on verses 14-17. We are told that a person who has received the Spirit of God will be led by the Spirit of God. And if we are led by the Spirit of God, three things will follow. We will be children of God We will suffer with Christ We will share in the glory of Christ 1. If we are led by the Spirit then we will be children of God 'For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God' (v14) We can call God 'Father' When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to say, ‘Our Father’. When he appeared to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection he said to her, 'I am going to my Father and to your Father' And Paul writes here, 'For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15-16) This is the most amazing privilege. We can call the ...