Sermon Tone Analysis

Armistice Sunday

11:00 - 2 minutes Silence.

Armistice prayer

Prayer

Ever-living God

we remember those whom you have

gathered

from the storm of war into the peace of

your presence;

may that same peace

calm our fears,

bring justice to all peoples

and establish harmony among the nations,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Things not to discuss in polite company.

Adherence to this has led to a society that struggles to discuss Religion, Money and politics without it becoming and argument or damaging relationships.

Proving the old BT advert it better advice than this maxim - as British telecom advises it is good to talk.

Adherence to th

Despite you being polite company I want to touch on all three of those things to day.

So lets start with religion -

Religion

In this world where there seem to be no hard truths, and everything appears to be based on feeling and option - We need to understand what we believe

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,

he suffered death and was buried,  

and rose again on the third day

in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead

and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins

and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

We sang the creed earlier.

The Apostles' Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

Amen.

We have to know what we believe, if we know what we believe we know how to act.

Do you know that the bible has a repeated pattern:

Know and do.

Know and do

Moses - Know me as God of your fathers - lead the Israelites out of slavery

Jonah - Know me as just and compassionate go to Nineveh and warn the people

Simon and Andrew - Know me as teacher and follow me follow me

Criminal on the cross - know me as king and join me today in paradise.

Know and do a repeated pattern.

James sums up the relationship as ....

It is not enough just to know we need to make our beliefs change the way we live, our priorities, our loves, our attitudes - we need the word, our beliefs and the holy spitit to transform us, every part of us - we need to know that all riches come from me and give me your first fruits...

And that brings us to the next thing the we don’t speak about...

Money

Some people try to get out of the Know and do cycle...

Some people try to live under the lie that

1. God cares more about my heart than what I do with my money.

God certainly cares about the condition of our hearts.

And yet there’s a “faith and works” connection with money that can’t be ignored.

A heart transformed by the gospel will result in changes not just to what we believe about money but also what we do with it.

God cares about our money because he cares about our heart.

Money is a big deal in the Bible.

We’re given more instruction in the Bible about money (more than 2,000 verses) than almost anything else.

Jesus told many parables about it, and the apostles had a lot to say about it.

We’re told to avoid the love of money

()

and to choose God over money (),

so we can be generous and ready to give (, , ) and put our trust in God, not riches ().

As well as giving to God we are we are also encouraged to plan and save ()