thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: November 2008
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html
Sunday, 16 November 2008. Christmas Presents: Doing Christmas in the midst of a Credit Crunch. On the three occasions that I preach at Alder Road before Christmas I am planning a short Christmas linked series: Christmas Clothes, Christmas Food, and today Christmas Presents. (Thanks to my dad. Who gave me the bones of this sermon.). Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment. Being in a recession will sharpen our focus: is Jesus the source and centre of our joy? Or is it money and possessions?
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: April 2009
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html
Sunday, 26 April 2009. Warrior Jesus, 3: Jesus Defeats Fear. In a nutshell: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” These are stirring words, but many people fear all kinds of things. And if all that we do fear is fear itself, that is still fearful! Jesus defeats all enemies. Jesus defeats fear. A Spirit of Fear. Anthropologists identify three major categories of culture with regard to human shortcomings (that is, sin! Guilt cultures, shame cultures and fear cultures. The charity described a "cu...
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: Get in the Game, Part 5, Body Life
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2009/10/get-in-game-part-5-body-life.html
Sunday, 11 October 2009. Get in the Game, Part 5, Body Life. The last part of this series pulls together all the other parts, because Body Life defines how we play football (Friendship, One-anothering, Outreach, Teaching, Body Life) together. 1 Body Life: responds to grace. Gifts are not earned – they are gifts! The answer to this is that we are to live as Paul instructs us in this passage, with humility and patience and love. If it feels like we are a little finger while someone else is a thumb, we ...
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: January 2010
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html
Sunday, 17 January 2010. Messy Church, Part 2: Messed Up Together. In a nutshell: The church in Corinth was a mess. It was made up of people who were acting far too much like citizens of the city of Corinth, and not enough like citizens of the city of God. But despite all the mess, Paul was confident that God’s grace was at work in these Corinthian Christians, and that his faithfulness would win the day. 1 What We Are (1 Cor 1:1-3). 8226; He works in team. 8226; They are sanctified in. If we can grasp ho...
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: Cry Freedom, Part 4. Free to Receive
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2009/11/cry-freedom-part-4-free-to-receive.html
Sunday, 22 November 2009. Cry Freedom, Part 4. Free to Receive. How do we find freedom? An important influence on the way Western culture thinks was the great philosopher Nietzsche. He claimed that Christianity was weak, and enslaved people, entrapping those who should be free, by imposing morality on them. Not many people read Nietzsche, but his thought has influenced us in creating a culture that is individualist, self-seeking, and hedonistic. It, not take. In the end, taking is what thieves do. For Is...
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: June 2009
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html
Sunday, 28 June 2009. NOT JUST FOR SUNDAYS: EXPERIENCING THE POWER and PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. PART 5. WHEN THE BAND ISN’T THERE. The power of music. The death of Michael Jackson this week has dominated our news, despite all the huge issues affecting the world, the death of a musician is what we are most interested in. Music has great power. It fills our lives, and many people are seemingly incapable of living without it – turning off the music is life taking a pacifier from a baby. This is the stor...
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: May 2009
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html
Sunday, 31 May 2009. NOT JUST FOR SUNDAYS: EXPERIENCING THE POWER and PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. PART 1, WORSHIPPING TRINITY. In a nutshell: God is full of joy and love. God delights in himself! We need to understand God as Trinity, although it is impossible to understand! What is True Worship? True worship is joining in with this activity of God’s. How can sinful people offer worship to a perfect God? God provides for us, in our High Priest Jesus, the very worship we could not offer. Sinners can n...
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: Cry Freedom, Part 1: Free to Curse
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2009/10/cry-freedom-part-1-free-to-curse.html
Sunday, 25 October 2009. Cry Freedom, Part 1: Free to Curse. I Want To Be Free! Galatians is Paul’s letter of freedom. Freedom is its theme, and freedom is the thing, which makes it an interesting letter to read in a culture like ours which places such high regard on personal freedom. We want to be free! We want to be free to do what we want to do! And that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna have a good time. We’re gonna have a party! This quote was sampled by Primal Scream for their 1991 track Loaded.
thesermonpoole.blogspot.com
The Sermon Poole: January 2009
http://thesermonpoole.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
Sunday, 25 January 2009. Tough Love 10: True Love. In a nutshell: What is love? There are many different definitions and experiences of love but John says that true love is seen in God sending Jesus to sacrifice himself on our behalf. The way for us to experience true love is to receive this love from God and to love others in the same way. In this letter John keeps circling back to the theme of love. In this chapter alone there are 21 references to love. Love is very important! But what is love? Some tr...
