Past Preaching Programme

Preaching Programme

Here are the previous sermon series that we have run at Christ Church. You can follow the links to see details of the sermons from each series.

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With so many children in the congregation we get used to seeing lots of baptisms or christenings at Christ Church. Many of us, however, probably have lots of unanswered questions about this ceremony and its meaning. During this series, therefore, we will have the chance to think more about baptism and its crucial significance – both for our lives and that of our church.

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Much of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives can be understood in terms of what it means for God to make us part of his family. In these three sermons we will think about the Spirit’s role in initiating our membership of God’s family, deepening this relationship and producing the family likeness within us.

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In our busy lives we are surrounded by loads of things that can trouble and perplex us. Some of these concerns are very specific to our situations such as stress over exams and friendships whilst others relate to events occurring on a more national or global level. What we do ‘at church’ can often seem quite irrelevant to these areas and the things that ‘ordinary people’ are really concerned about or interested in. In this series we will therefore seek to explore some of these issues and look for where God can be found in them.

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Many of the Psalms combine great honesty about the difficulties that occur in life with a strong desire to seek God’s presence. In the first part of this series we will seek to reflect this balance as we use some of the psalms to reflect on finding God within depression, anxiety and sickness. Recognising that it is also very possible to lose sight of God in the good times of life, we will then use some of the other psalms to reflect on finding God within deliverance, surprise and praise.

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Partly due to the success of the musical (and our recent ‘sing-a-long’!) the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50 is fairly well known. However, as well as entertaining us, ‘Joseph’ is a story with a great deal to say about how God can work through events that occur in the world and our lives. In this series we will retrace the ups and downs within Joseph’s story, look for where God is present within them and hopefully be encouraged to look for a similar presence within our own lives.

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John's Gospel lays a particular emphasis on the personal nature of the encounters that Jesus had with individuals after his resurrection. Looking at three passages from John 20 we will seek to learn more about the nature of the resurrection of Jesus and how God would have us respond to it.

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Lent is traditionally a time of preparation for Easter and during this series we will think about what a commitment to this preparation this might mean in terms of engagement with ourselves, the church and the world.

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All of us face temptation and in the first of our two series in Lent we look at the three temptations of Jesus as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, consider their modern day equivalents and how we might respond to them.

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As we go through Lent and approach Easter at the 11.00 service we will follow the central section of Mark’s gospel as Jesus heads for Jerusalem and his death and resurrection. Stories and teaching often considered in isolation are grouped together in most of the sermons in this series and we will be asking what Mark intends us to learn about Jesus and discipleship by presenting this material in the way that he does.

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One of the most exciting aspects of the 9.30 service is the number of new people who are currently joining the congregation. In this series we will be thinking about the elements present in a great church with the hope that as we grow numerically we would also grow in the depth of our commitment to genuine community and the God revealed in Jesus Christ.

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All Christians face the temptation to construct a 'comfortable' Jesus who simply emphasises those things that we already consider to be important. Within this series, therefore, we will look at four strong but often neglected themes within Jesus' ministry and seek to grapple with their important implications for our life and mission at Christ Church.

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The first birthday of the new 6.30 service provides a very good moment to consider the marks of an authentic church. Using Luke's summary of the early church in Acts chapter 2 we will therefore consider the vital role that apostolic teaching, fellowship, Holy Communion and prayer must have if we are to be a properly radical church.

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The earliest chapters of Genesis are foundational to the Bible containing both positives and negatives that need to be appreciated if the rest of its story is to be properly understood. During this series, we will therefore work through the first eleven chapters of Genesis seeking to understand the truths that they present and apply these to our lives as we try to live as part of God's new creation.

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With so many negative associations surrounding Christianity, it's not surprising that many of us feel slightly insecure about admitting our faith amongst our friends, colleagues and even family. In this series we will therefore consider seven of the most negative associations that people have with Christianity, why these have come about and the positive response that can be made to them.

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As we go through Advent the sermons at our services will focus on preparing for Christmas. The 9.30 service will particularly look for the surprises in the familiar Christmas stories.

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As we go through Advent the sermons at our services will focus on preparing for Christmas. Whilst the 11.00 service looks at the way in which chapter 1 of Luke's gospel builds up to Jesus' birth and the 9.30 service looks for the surprises in the familiar Christmas stories, the 6.30 service will have a different approach: reflecting upon the biblical basis behind the traditional Advent candles of hope, peace, love and joy.

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As we go through Advent the sermons at our services will focus on preparing for Christmas. The 11.00 service will look at the way in which chapter 1 of Luke's gospel builds up to Jesus' birth.

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This series addresses some of the tricky questions surrounding prayer and includes some personal testimony on the difference that prayer has made.

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Paul's letters are full of prayer both for those he writes to and others and in this series we will examine these prayers and see what they can teach us about how we can pray more effectively.

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This series provides teaching on the basics of prayer and includes stories on the difference that prayer has made.

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The Christian claim is that God can speak to us through the Bible but what about other media? Taking four areas that often resonate with people - the News, Poetry, Art and Film - this series will consider the ways in which the God of the Bible might be seeking to speak to us through them.

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One of the reassuring things about the Bible is the way in which it so often shows God taking very ordinary people and using them to do extraordinary things. During this series we will look at four such characters in Esther, Timothy, Barnabas and Ruth and think about the ways that God might be seeking to make similar use of us today.

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Having recorded the explosive growth of the early Christian church in its first twenty chapters, the last eight chapters of Acts largely focus upon the trials faced by St Paul after his arrest in Jerusalem. Rarely preached upon, the detail contained in these chapters indicates the importance of this material and in this series we will therefore be looking to grasp the central themes within these accounts and their implications, both for our discipleship and the spread of the gospel today.

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Throughout July and August at the 9.30 service we used the examples given in Hebrews 11 to think about what it means to live by faith. The aim of this series is to build on this by thinking about the challenges that doing this will bring to our everyday lives. Taking a number of different areas of life, the talks will suggest distinctive ways in which we might approach them if we are seeking to live by faith.

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Over the last few years, we have used the month of August to have different members of Christ Church talk about ‘Why I am a Christian’. These have turned out to be some of the most popular and helpful talks that we have had during the year, with plenty of downloads recorded on the Christ Church website. Each year different members of our congregation tell us some of the story of their lives and the key factors that have led them to become and continue as Christians.

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Young people often raise the most searching questions about how the Christian faith relates to the daily realities of life and those at Christ Church are no exception. At the 6.30 service during July, therefore, we will look at a number of very practical questions that our young people have raised and seek to find part of God's answer to them.

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The Bible contains several books that are extremely small and whose message, therefore, is easy to neglect. Taking four of smallest books of prophecy from the Old Testament followed by four of the briefest epistles from the New Testament, this series will seek to address this issue by examining each of these 'pocket sized gems' and their relevance to our Christian discipleship.

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Having recently laid their emphasis upon God's grace, the talks at 9.30 will now turn to looking at the response of faith that God calls us to make to this grace. The letter to the Hebrews gives us a long list of Old Testament characters who lived by faith and during this series we will look at each of these people and see what they can teach us about our Christian calling to live by faith in a 21st century context.

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Recognising that another danger is 'worship' becoming too introspective, this short series will largely use Micah 6:8 to reflect on the outward direction that God requires of our faith and the areas of particular ministry or service that he is calling us to in response to this.

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After completing our series on the Book of Judges and celebrating Pentecost, we will be looking at the collection of parables grouped together in chapter 4 of Mark's gospel. Despite the Kingdom of God being the major theme of Jesus' teaching, it rarely receives the same profile today and in this series we will look at these parables and what they reveal about what should be looking for if we are to discern and participate in the growth of God's Kingdom today.