Chichester Baptist Church Sermons

On the back of a profound revelation to his disciples about why he has come, Jesus overhears them talking about who is the greatest. It's an opportunity for another lesson - or maybe four! - on humility.

In this message Lisa Pearce from Open Doors shares lessons from her travels visiting Christians and churches facing persecution. She shares recent information and findings about where the worst persecution is happening and stories of faith in the midst of difficulty.

This message was a part of the Churches together Unity Service in Chichester marking the week of Christian unity. Lisa Pearce from Open Doors talks about God's heart for justice as we stand with our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

As current President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Dave Gregory encourages us to see, in a variety of places, 'Divine Windows'. Things that point to the creator God of the Universe. These windows have the potential cause us to wonder, to learn and to worship.

This message looks at the second of the ten commandments and what we can learn about what it means to not make an image of God and avoiding idolatry.

This passage contains a story where not everything goes right. The disciples try, and fail, to heal a boy with an impure spirit. As we unpack how Jesus deals with this failure, we can learn some helpful lessons about what went wrong. As well as this, we are also reminded that we can keep asking for more faith, and keep asking for things in prayer.

We could be excused for thinking that the Ten Commandments are predictable, negative and irrelevant for today, but we would be badly mistaken. Having delivered the Israelites from slavery, God now makes them a generous offer to become his treasured possession. It's to a rescued, willing and prepared people that the Ten Commandments are given, and they are timely expressions of love for God and for one another. In the first of the Ten Commandments, God requires exclusive loyalty for us, because our relationship to him is as precious as the closest of human relationships.

As we resume our series in Mark's gospel, we establish the link between the events of chapter 8 that commenced with Peter's declaration of Jesus being Messiah, and the appearance of Elijah and Moses. God makes it clear that Jesus is the Son and we need to listen to Him.

There are both historic and current reasons why the Christmas story and message was and is subversive. We explore some here particularly looking at Matthew's gospel and the story of Magi and Herod. We play this clip as as part of the sermon https://vimeo.com/246097111

Jesus was born humbly and into poverty. But his birth was also extravagant - a precious gift given by his Father to us. There is something about there being generosity at the heart of God that is important at Christmas time. We can receive it and then re-gift it to the world.

This message is part of our advent series re.thinking Christmas and is also after some baptisms. The message given by the angels to the Shepherds, and Jesus' baptism by John both point to the personal nature of the Christian faith. The Christmas story is a personal story and as we embrace it with faith it becomes our story.

That the Christmas message is for everyone is clear from the gospel accounts - both from the many hints in the Christmas story and the plain message of the angel to the shepherds, "I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people." But even though we would love to have a sense of being part of the Christmas story, we can exclude ourselves. How we do that, and how we can be included in it again, are the subject of this message.

This message explores why both the timings and the timing of Christmas are so timely.

There is always a danger that we can become over familiar with the experience of Christmas. Yet the message of the Christmas story is startling; the Creator of the World came to earth as a small child so that all people might be saved. Tonight's sermon helps us to consider how God can work through our thinking, to give us a fresh experience of his love, so that we might be able to pause and re.think Christmas.

The commissioning service for Calvin Hollingworth our new Worship Ministry Leader - looking at the parallels that exist between the Transfiguration and our times of worship. We consider the significance of mountains or looking up, gaining insight about God, making mistakes and going back down the mountain to serve. At the end of the message we show this clip from LICC https://vimeo.com/209753157

"Greed is good!" Gordon Gekko famously said in the film Wall Street. But is it? The Bible has some strong words to say about it, and it tells a tale of greed's destruction of ourselves and others. The answer to our problem lies in Jesus' example to us.

We were delighted to welcome Patrick Regan and a team from Kintsugi Hope - a ministry which exists to create safe and supportive spaces for those experiencing mental and emotional health challenges. Patrick spoke about 'Honesty Over Silence' encouraging us to see treasure in life's scars and to own our weaknesses with vulnerability.

God is hugely creative; he has created places not just for practical purposes, but to be enjoyed and admired. This message takes a look at how abundance can be seen in the natural world, and also how we can experience joy when we practice gratitude for the abundance of good gifts that God gives us. Psalm 19 is used to help guide us through the process of being actively thankful for what’s around us.