Karl Barth's Prayer for the New Year (a repost)

O Lord, our Father!
We have gathered here at the turn of the year
because we do not want to be alone but want to be with each other,
and together be united with you.

Our hearts are filled with somber thoughts
as we reflect on our misdeeds of the past year.
And our ears are deafened by the voices of the radio and in the newspapers,
with their numerous predictions for the coming year.
Instead we want to hear your word, your voice, your assurance, your guidance.
We know that you are in our midst,
and are eager to give us all that we need, whether we ask or not.

On this night we ask for one thing only:
that you collect our scattered thoughts,
getting rid of the confused and defiant thoughts that may distract us,
and thus enable us to concentrate on your limitless generosity to us.
You were abundantly generous to us last year,
and will be no less generous to us next year, and in every year to come.
Fill us with gratitude to you.
Karl Barth

HT: Trevin Wax

So who needs Santa Claus?

Charles Schultz gets it right ...

Sunday's Sermon: Following Jesus

In this, our last look at John's Gospel for a while, we conclude our series by seeing what it means to listen to Jesus voice and follow Him - as all His true disciples (or 'sheep') will do. We learn that the problem with "Christs", those who will save the world, is that they mess around with your life. We far prefer to have Christs who will turn the world rightside up, but who in doing so will leave us alone. Jesus, is not that type of Christ. And those who listen to him must expect to have their lives and agenda and theology rearranged as they follow Him. This was a price too much for the religious leaders to pay. But, as this passage shows, there are glorious promises to hold onto along the way...
Outline slides below, you can listen or download the sermon from here.

I gratefully acknowledge the seed-thought from Ray Ortlund who got me up and thinking along these lines.

Sunday's sermon: HMV Pastoral Theology

One of the marks of true believers is that they listen to their Master's voice, the Good Shepherd who leads them out to experience the fullness of the blessing of life with Him. Listening to other voices that clamour for attention will always end with graceless loss and merciless destruction. You can listen or download last Sunday's sermon from here.
Outline slides below.  

Sunday's Sermon: A study in repentance

In our evening service on Sunday past we surveyed Psalm 51, David's penitential psalm following his liaison with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, and noted some of the marks of a true and deep repentance. More could have been said, but I trust what was said will help you understand the lengths God has gone to grant forgiveness - and so help you in your repentance. Link to listen or download here.  Outline slides below.

Sunday's Sermon: A Beggar's Belief

Back into John's Gospel, we see how the curious, the cautious and the caustic reveal their blinding unbelief in Jesus, while the blind man comes to see in Jesus what life is all about. Outline slides below, you can or download the sermon from here.

Sunday's Sermon: Some Thoughts on the Lord's Supper

As we approach Communion Sunday this weekend, we gave our attention last time to Paul's directions to the Corinthian Church - a fellowship that were not living in line with the Gospel truths they were meant to be holding onto and who were failing to demonstrate Gospel realities in their relationships one with the other. Talk outline below, while you can listen or download the sermon from here.

Too close to the truth to be really funny...

Sunday's Sermon: Seeing God at work (2)

The disciples asked Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2).
It's a provocative question. But Jesus is concerned that the disciples should not so much grasp the reason for the blind man's suffering, but rather understand its purpose - in the sovereign and gracious purpose of God. No tear is overlooked or wasted when we live - and suffer - for the glory of God. But, will they see it? 
This sermon on John 9:1-12 continues on from last time and concludes with some more characteristics of unbelieving spiritual blindness. You can listen or download the talk from here. Outline slides shown below.

Sunday Sermon: Seeing God at work (1) - John 9

In Amazing Grace, John Newton famously described his conversion in words taken from John 9:
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

In this introduction to this story of Jesus giving sight to a man blind from birth, we begin to explore the marks of spiritual blindness, an unbelieving attitude of the human heart that recoils from Jesus, the Light of the World. You may listen to the sermon or download it from here.

The daily pastoral battle: "...we work with you for your joy"

What's our motivation in pastoral ministry? 
The Apostle Paul's relationship with the Corinthian church was often emotionally strained. In (what we now have as) 2 Corinthians, we learn that his last visit with them had been a painful experience for both parties, requiring confrontation over sin and leading to open bitterness. Paul suffered personal humiliation. Any lesser missionary might easily have committed this church to the Lord in prayer, washed his hands off them and walked away – and few would have been surprised.  

But Paul hung in there. Gently pushing back against their false accusations of not caring for them and only pleasing himself, Paul affirms his persevering love for the Corinthians and of his driving motivation for these difficult believers: “…but we work with you for your joy” 2 Cor 1:24. 
In all that he did, even at times when heartbreak and sorrow resulted, Paul wanted these Christians to experience more fully their ‘joy in Jesus’. Whether they recognised that themselves or not, Paul knew it was what they needed. Today, now, it’s what we need as well.

Pastor and author Sam Storms explains what Paul meant when he wrote about this ‘joy’.

“The joy for which Paul laboured and prayed and preached should never be thought of in terms of ‘feeling good about yourself’ or living in luxury… The joy Paul has in mind is a deep, durable delight in the splendour of God that utterly ruins you for anything else. It is a whole-souled savouring of the spiritual sweetness of Jesus that drives out all competing pleasures and leads the soul to rest content with the knowledge of God and the blessings of intimacy with him. This is the kind of joy that, rather than being dependent on material and physical comfort, actually frees you from bondage to it and liberates you from sinful reliance on worldly conveniences and gadgets and gold.
"Paul [knew] that Satan was no less committed to their joy in the passing pleasures of sin. He knew all too well that the diabolical strategy of the enemy is to seduce us into believing that the world and the flesh and sinful self-indulgence can do for our weary and broken hearts what God can’t (or won’t).
"This is the battle we face each day. We awaken to a world at war for the allegiance of our minds and the affections of our souls. The winner will be whoever can persuade us that he will bring the greatest and most satisfying joy. That is why Paul laboured and prayed so passionately and sacrificially for joy in Jesus in the hearts of that first-century church.” 

Sam Storms: A Pure and Sincere Devotion to Christ, Vol.1. (Crossway), p.57-8. 

Sunday's Sermon: True Discipleship (John 8: 31-47)

John 8 reveals that 'faith' that can be something of a slippery thing. John tells us that those who 'believed' in Jesus (v30-1) very quickly afterwards were ready to kill him (v37)! And their reason is just as astounding - 'because they had no room for his word'! Clearly, there was something wrong with their 'believing'. So it's possible there may be something wrong with ours.
In this passage, Jesus helps us see what characterises genuine faith or true discipleship so that we are not deceived by own profession of supposed belief. Outline slides are below. You can listen to yesterday's sermon, or download it, from here.

Sunday's Sermon: Jesus - Light of the World

After some months, we're returning to John's Gospel on Sunday mornings to pick up where we left off. In John 8, Jesus invites us to open our eyes of faith to see the darkness of our hearts and lives and then to behold the beauty of his grace and glory. You can listen to the sermon or down load it from here.
Outline below...

[As ever, time was squeezed. So the outline of the (true) final point about what it means to follow Jesus is as follows. May pick it up next time as the passages focuses on 'true discipleship'.]

Sunday Sermon: 'Keeping the Gospel central'

At the end of August we revisited our church's core values: 'Gospel, Community and Mission'. You can listen to all three sermons from here.

Sunday's Sermon: Darkest before the dawn

As we conclude our series of sermons on the book of Daniel, we learn from chapters 11-12 that God's people can expect a time of intense opposition before Jesus' return and the final resurrection. You can listen to it here.

Sunday Sermon: Becoming certain of what we do not see (parts 1+2)

Last couple of sermons on Daniel 10 are available here. Outline below (adapted from a idea from Dale Ralph Davis) 

Sunday Sermons: Seeing those things not seen

Past few sermons on the second half of Daniel (chapters 7 - 10) are available here.

Sunday's Sermon: When the writing's on the wall

Continuing our series on 'Daniel', this dark episode reminds us that our own understanding of what's important in life may not be as certain as we thought. But on whom will the judgement fall?

You can listen below, or download from here: