Titus 1:1–4 Paul wants the essentials, the foundations, to sink in and be firmed up, which means not departing from his teaching, but instead clinging to the true Gospel, and for this to produce changed lives.
1 Kings 21:1-29 ‘Naboth’s Vineyard’ is not a great chapter heading. But this chapter is not actually about vineyards. It’s about injustice. It’s as up-to-date and relevant as George Floyd and Jeffrey Epstein and Asia Bibi, and the lives of millions in our world today.
1 Kings 20:1-43 What comes to mind when we hear the word ‘God’ really matters. If the God in my mind does not correspond to the God who is actually there, I’m worshipping a false god. It’s worthless idolatry. In this chapter something of what God is like is revealed to us, so that we might know him better.
So far it’s been a pretty crazy year, with so much bad stuff happening – and we’re only just in July! Why does God allow it? If he’s loving and all-powerful, why doesn’t he do something to stop all the suffering? Where is God in a messed-up world?
1 Kings 19:8-21 If you just had 1 Kings 18 you might think the life of faith is to be spent camped out on Mt Carmel waiting for fire to come down from heaven. But these chapters about Elijah are a tale of two mountains. What happens on Mt Horeb, the mount of God, is very different – and very important for us to understand.
1 Kings 19:1-8 Normal Christian life and service can be a rollercoaster. It can go from great highs to sudden lows. If we think it’s going to be one unending mountain-top experience, sooner or later we’re going to have a shock. And the danger then is that we become disillusioned and give up. Elijah’s experience helps us to have right expectations.
1 Kings 18:41-46 ‘I have a question to offer you. It is contained in three words: do you pray?’ So begins J.C.Ryle’s book ‘A call to prayer’. Our answer to that question is very revealing of where we stand spiritually. The point of this talk is to encourage us in prayer, with Elijah as our teacher.
1 Kings 18:1-40 There is something very inspiring about Christians who are wholehearted in their commitment – and something very unappealing about Christians who are half-hearted and flaky. How can we make sure we are the former?
2 Samuel 7:12 When we hear that Jesus is King, think Elizabeth I rather than II. In the ancient world the king was no figurehead. He had real power. That Jesus is that sort of king is great news for those who receive him, but it also means that our lives can never be the same again.
1 Samuel 2:35 We don’t draw near to God through the cross – an object. We draw near to God through a person – Jesus our Priest, who gave himself as a sacrifice for us on the cross. If we lose sight of this then salvation becomes mechanical, when in fact it’s personal. But the theologian, John Owen, wrote, ‘There is no office of Christ that Satan labours so hard to obscure and overthrow as His priestly one.’ So this talk is designed to combat that.