Acts 1:8 – “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses.”
What are all reasons you can think of why a person might not do an errand like that?
Can’t hear it
Don’t understand it
Think that it’s someone else’s job
Got something better to do
Think it’s too difficult
Don’t have the means
Don’t know how to do it
Don’t want to
In our Bible passage, Jesus’ followers had been given a task to do. …
Matthew 7:24-29
Two men each built themselves a house. One built his house on solid bed-rock, the other the shifting sand. Each house seemed fine for a while. But when the rained rained, and the floods rose, and the wind howled, the first house stood firm, but the other collapsed. It all depended on the foundation.
Jesus says that the house built on the bed-rock is like a life built on the foundation of hearing his words and doing them. …
Micah 6:1-8
Courtroom dramas:- Accused, The Brief, The Courtroom, Criminal Justice, Crown Court, Judge John Deed, Kavanagh QC, Rumpole of the Bailey, The Verdict.
Silent witnesses, v1f (Skiddaw watching over Keswick, Matterhorn over Zermatt, Mount of Olives over Jerusalem)
‘Listen to what the Lord says…hear…the Lord’s accusation…listen…for the Lord has a case against his people.’
Jerusalem’s magistrates are crooks, her prophets men-pleasers, her priests money-grabbers, her rich people lovers of violence and her merchants liars and cheats.…
Text: Micah 3
Text: Micah 2
Text: Luke 1:57-80
Exodus 5
‘Things are going from bad to worse’
…mutterered the teenager as he reflected first on the coffee stain he had just made on his parent’s new carpet, and then on the results of pouring bleach over it.
…moaned the England football fans as they contemplated first their team’s embarrassing display in the European Cup and then on the manager’s equally embarrassing departure from his role.
…sighed the young woman struggling single-handedly to raise her two young children, who then was told that she must undergo prolonged and painful medical treatment.…
Ephesians 2:1-10
Transformations. DIY SOS, Restorations, Homes Under The Hammer, House Doctors, Grand Designs, Tattoo Fixers, Embarrassing Bodies.
But none of them attempts: the transformation from death to life.
V5 ‘God made us alive even when we were dead.’
A threefold tyranny: –
The tyranny of the world: v2 ‘You followed the ways of this world’. ‘Those places, persons, pleasures and pursuits where God is left out.’ Those without Christ are slaves to secularism, materialism, peer pressure, religious fads, and the dubious role models of celebrities.…
Exodus 2:11-25
“Why do I bother to keep forgiving him?” shrugs the woman, after her husband has abused her yet again.
“Why do I bother being honest?” complains the employee, who has been hauled over the coals once again for refusing his bosses’ orders to fiddle the books.
“Why do we bother to keep bailing him out of trouble?” mutter mum and dad, after their wayward son let’s them down yet again.
Do you known that feeling?…
