St Barnabas-Linslade
26th, July 2020
7th After Trinity
A sermon by Ian Woodward
Readings:- 1 Kings 3:5-12, Romans 8:26-29
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in your sight Oh Lord our strength and our redeemer.
I want to carry on from what Bernard was saying last week. You all remember what Bernard said last week? He was talking about love, God’s love for us. So great a love that God has for us is that He says to us, “If it goes wrong blame me”. (Copies are available but they are going fast. When the shredder cools down we will start again.)
He created this world, this galaxy, this ever expanding universe, and yet He says to sinful man, “Blame me!” This is love, and love is what I want to talk about today. A love so great it is beyond our understanding.
This book (The Bible) has been described as love story, God’s love for humankind. God’s love for a people who will quickly accept that love, then just as quick turn their backs on God. Right from Abraham who did not turn his back on God, but thought that God needed a hand in giving him an heir. He was getting on a bit and Sarah was in her nineties. Abraham did not realise the power of God.
He came to realise one thing about God was that He will not promise something and then not deliver. Jonah found that out when he went to Ninevah. Repent he told the people of Nivevah then God will forgive you. They repented, put on sack cloth and fasted, and God forgave them. Jonah was a bit miffed but God kept his word.
How did you feel when MP’s pledged to honour the Brexit vote, remember that way back, and then did everything to derail the process? How did you feel, more recently, when through the lockdown a senior Conservative figure was comings and going?
Getting his eyes tested at Barnyarn Castle.
In the first reading Solomon praises God for His love of David.
“You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David....”
Dip in anywhere in the Old Testament and you will find God’s love. Pick any random passage will show what God did for His people. Any random page, excuse me I seem to have lost my random passage. Here it is, Nehemiah!
There are many ordinary people in the Bible that God uses. Nehemiah is wine waiter to King Artaxerxes. Nehemiah prays to God because the walls of Jerusalem are in ruins. Anybody can walk in and out, take or leave, it is an open city. Those still living there are unprotected.
Nehemiah’s prayer is a good prayer praising God for all that he has done. Then confessing that his people have fallen short that he and his family have fallen short. He then asking for success in his venture to rebuild the walls. He is successful but at each turn he praises God for the small victories, the small steps taken along the road in the rebuilding.
As we go through the Old Testament there are so times when God
calls his people to Himself but they turn away. They get into trouble and turn to God and He saves them. If you like, in His love, He takes the blame.
The prophets remind the people time and again of God’s love for them and all that has done and can do.
Micah 7:18 says “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of you possession? He does not retain his anger for ever, because he delights in showing clemency.”
Joel 2:28 & 29 tells the people what God will do in the future. God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”
There are many prophecies that tell us God will commit His greatest act of love by sending his Son, Jesus Christ. He came as a human being, with all our faults and vulnerabilities, to live and work among us and to die for us. Not only does God say blame me but He also takes the punishment when Jesus is nailed to the cross for our sins.
So down the ages to this day it is so, God loves us. He wants us to prevail, to live the example that Jesus gave us, and when we fail we say sorry and try the harder to succeed. And what we are trying to do is to show Jesus’ love.
To help us move forward nine words from Bernard’s favourite chapter, if he is allowed to have a favourite chapter, Roman 8, nine words that says it all, part of Verse 31 “If God is for us, who is against us?” Put simply, “With God on our side we cannot lose!”
Try and remember those nine words through this week:-
“If God is for us, who is against us?”
26th, July 2020
7th After Trinity
A sermon by Ian Woodward
Readings:- 1 Kings 3:5-12, Romans 8:26-29
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in your sight Oh Lord our strength and our redeemer.
I want to carry on from what Bernard was saying last week. You all remember what Bernard said last week? He was talking about love, God’s love for us. So great a love that God has for us is that He says to us, “If it goes wrong blame me”. (Copies are available but they are going fast. When the shredder cools down we will start again.)
He created this world, this galaxy, this ever expanding universe, and yet He says to sinful man, “Blame me!” This is love, and love is what I want to talk about today. A love so great it is beyond our understanding.
This book (The Bible) has been described as love story, God’s love for humankind. God’s love for a people who will quickly accept that love, then just as quick turn their backs on God. Right from Abraham who did not turn his back on God, but thought that God needed a hand in giving him an heir. He was getting on a bit and Sarah was in her nineties. Abraham did not realise the power of God.
He came to realise one thing about God was that He will not promise something and then not deliver. Jonah found that out when he went to Ninevah. Repent he told the people of Nivevah then God will forgive you. They repented, put on sack cloth and fasted, and God forgave them. Jonah was a bit miffed but God kept his word.
How did you feel when MP’s pledged to honour the Brexit vote, remember that way back, and then did everything to derail the process? How did you feel, more recently, when through the lockdown a senior Conservative figure was comings and going?
Getting his eyes tested at Barnyarn Castle.
In the first reading Solomon praises God for His love of David.
“You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David....”
Dip in anywhere in the Old Testament and you will find God’s love. Pick any random passage will show what God did for His people. Any random page, excuse me I seem to have lost my random passage. Here it is, Nehemiah!
There are many ordinary people in the Bible that God uses. Nehemiah is wine waiter to King Artaxerxes. Nehemiah prays to God because the walls of Jerusalem are in ruins. Anybody can walk in and out, take or leave, it is an open city. Those still living there are unprotected.
Nehemiah’s prayer is a good prayer praising God for all that he has done. Then confessing that his people have fallen short that he and his family have fallen short. He then asking for success in his venture to rebuild the walls. He is successful but at each turn he praises God for the small victories, the small steps taken along the road in the rebuilding.
As we go through the Old Testament there are so times when God
calls his people to Himself but they turn away. They get into trouble and turn to God and He saves them. If you like, in His love, He takes the blame.
The prophets remind the people time and again of God’s love for them and all that has done and can do.
Micah 7:18 says “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of you possession? He does not retain his anger for ever, because he delights in showing clemency.”
Joel 2:28 & 29 tells the people what God will do in the future. God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”
There are many prophecies that tell us God will commit His greatest act of love by sending his Son, Jesus Christ. He came as a human being, with all our faults and vulnerabilities, to live and work among us and to die for us. Not only does God say blame me but He also takes the punishment when Jesus is nailed to the cross for our sins.
So down the ages to this day it is so, God loves us. He wants us to prevail, to live the example that Jesus gave us, and when we fail we say sorry and try the harder to succeed. And what we are trying to do is to show Jesus’ love.
To help us move forward nine words from Bernard’s favourite chapter, if he is allowed to have a favourite chapter, Roman 8, nine words that says it all, part of Verse 31 “If God is for us, who is against us?” Put simply, “With God on our side we cannot lose!”
Try and remember those nine words through this week:-
“If God is for us, who is against us?”