Today we looked at something that you might be surprised to find on a list of spiritual disciplines, namely, Celebration. It’s a good reminder that none of the spiritual disciplines ought to feel like chores, rather they’re something that we joyfully look forward to as we draw ever closer to Jesus.
We see so much evil in the world around us, and even in our own hearts, but what can be done to counter it? We must turn away from sin and towards Jesus, and encourage society to do the same.
Of all the spiritual disciplines, fasting is probably the one we struggle with the most. Fasting has fallen out of mode with Christians in the West, but are we in danger of losing something important for our spiritual growth? When do we fast? Why do we fast? Do we have to fast? These are some of the important questions explored in this sermon.
15 Febuary 2026
Matthew 4:1-4, Matthew 6:16-18, Acts13:2=3
Rev Charlie Lacey
Jesus teaches that the most important thing we can do in life is to love God with all that we are. That single commitment shapes so much of our lives now and everything about the life to come. And without that love and devotion to God, the spiritual disciplines we’re exploring in this series lose their purpose entirely.
We started a new series today all about Spiritual Disciplines to help get us in the right mindset for the season of Lent. We started by looking at prayer, without which we do not have a relationship with God.
So far in our 'Glory' series, we’ve seen that God’s glory is best seen through His character – and God’s character is best seen in the person of Jesus. But we’ve also seen that God wants us to reflect his glory, in preparation for the day when Jesus returns and God’s people are perfected and fully glorified.
We can’t fail to notice that there’s a huge gulf between the best and worst of human behaviour. And, if we’re honest, we’d have to admit that there’s a huge gulf between the best and worst of our own behaviour. In many ways human beings can be glorious – but often we’re quite the opposite – we can be extremely inglorious. Today we found out why.
We’ve come to week two of our first series of the year, which is called ‘Glory’. Last week we saw that God’s glory is best expressed through his character – and this week we’re going to see that God’s character has been perfectly expressed in and through the person of Jesus.
Today was The Epiphany of Our Lord. Epiphany means ‘appearance,' and God has made himself known to us, not only through creation – but by making an appearance and revealing himself to us personally. We’re started a new series today called ‘Glory,’ and over the next 4 weeks we’re going to explore all the ways that God’s glory is manifested on earth.
On the last Sunday of the year, as we headed into 2026, we thought about ‘time’. What is it? Why does it exist? How do we use it? How should we use it? And what are we going to do with the 8760 hours that will make up 2026?
The birth of Jesus is the defining event of human history - God became man and entered into his creation. To discover why this happened, we don’t need to look beyond the two names that appear in today’s reading: Jesus and Immanuel.
As part of our ‘Songs of Advent’ series we looked at Simeon’s song, sometimes called the Nunc Dimittis (‘now dismiss’). It’s a song that reminds us that the whole of history has been moving ever closer to God’s final act of salvation.
Humanity longs for peace, whilst simultaneously making it an impossibility. There is only one who can bring true and lasting peace to the world and to our individual lives, and his name is Jesus.
14 December 2025
Isaiah 9: 2-7a & Luke 2: 1-21
Rev Charlie Lacey
God had been silent for 400 years, and then, all of a sudden, Jesus’ birth narrative begins - and various people are filled with the H/S, burst into song, and prophesy. Today we focussed on Zechariah (the father of John the Baptiser), who reminds us that Jesus saves us from something, but he also saves us for something.
On this first Sunday of Advent we began a new series called, ‘Songs of Advent’. Luke includes four songs in the first two chapters of his Gospel. Mary, Zechariah, the angels, and Simeon, all break into song. And over the next four weeks we’ll see that their song is also our song – as we celebrate what God has done, is doing, and will do to redeem and restore this broken world.
We’ve come to the second of our two-part mini-series called ‘Perplexing Passages’; and today we were looking at the time in Genesis when humanity had become so evil that the Lord decided to destroy everything with a flood. At this point, we’re told about some mysterious people, called the Nephilim - and it’s not at all clear who or what they are.
The book of Numbers does not begin with the words, “Once Upon a Time.” In fact, the genre of Numbers is historical narrative and law. So, what is a talking donkey doing in this book? Today, we explored this question as part of our 'Perplexing Passages' mini-series.
Over the past seven weeks, we've explored Paul’s letter to the Philippians. A letter that’s full of joy, even though Paul wrote it from prison. Paul’s relationship with the Philippians is one of mutual love, affection, concern and support. It is a partnership in the strongest sense of the word and there's a lot we can learn from it.
A lot of Christians don’t seem to realise that following Jesus is completely radical. The life he calls us to is very different from what our culture teaches or expects of us. And if we’re going to live in a way that goes against the grain of the world – we must first win the battle of the mind. Right thinking will inevitably lead to right living.
Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians from prison, yet it was full of joy and hope. How is that possible? Well, because he was ‘living up’ to what he had already attained in Christ. Resurrection life is an absolute certainty – but we don’t always live as if it is. We need to aspire now to the kind of life that we will have with Jesus forever.
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