You can LISTEN for FREE to this here, or DOWNLOAD for FREE here

First of all let me tell you that Sex was God’s Idea. And Sex is Great! God designed it to be Great! To be pleasurable, fun, meaningful and fruitful. He designed it that it might produce oneness between a man and a woman. The bible tells us that “the two shall become one” and sex does that amazingly well. Sex is great! 

However, we have substituted the truth for a lie[1] and now in this day and age we worship sex. It has become the God of this age. Everywhere you look the god of sex, sexuality and sensuality is worshipped. We worship the beautiful people and desire what we should not have. We obsess over how we look in order that we will be more desirable to others and not our spouse. We promote sin in our schools thinly disguised as Sex Education where we teach our children how worship the god of this age.

Sex has been made a god. People worship it rather than the God who created it. We abuse it and use it for personal and selfish reasons rather than to create oneness as God intended. We have taken something amazing, something beautiful and exchanged it for a dry shrivelled up old rag!

Mat 5:27-30 ESV  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  ⁽²⁸⁾  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  ⁽²⁹⁾  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  ⁽³⁰⁾  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

The Pharisees and Scribes were constantly looking to reduce the commandments of the Law to a simply and single act. Do No Commit Adultery in this case. Limiting it to the physical act, but here again Jesus is emphasising the motive of the heart as being the issue. Later on in Matthew he speaks even more clearly and directly on it.

Mat 15:19-20 ESV For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  ⁽²⁰⁾  These are what defile a person. “

The Scribes & Pharisees show an amazing lack of understanding and learning in that the 10^th Commandment, Do not Covet – specifically addresses the issue of lusting after your neighbours wife. Clearly this needs to be taken in conjunction with Do Not Commit Adultery! This was either not understood by the Pharisees or conveniently overlooked for the sake of comfort!

Jesus is saying that for us to be RADICAL we are not looking to be those that simply CONFORM to a set of prescribed rules and regulations, but we are to be those who understand the motives that result in these prohibitions and that we radically deal with them. We seek the spirit of the law, not the letter!

This is an extract from my recent sermon on LUST where I tackle issues such as Pornography, Masturbation, Sexual Immorality, Fornication, Adultery from this passage in Matthew. You can LISTEN for FREE to this here, or DOWNLOAD for FREE here

Is Masturbation a Sin

FREE MP3: To listen to a talk on this issue then press here, or download here.

Clearly masturbation is not directly referenced in the bible. There is no “Thou Shalt Not …” for this. Equally the scripture “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might[1]” is not a scripture to support it either.

When this action takes place it is rarely, and I would use the word never, that lustful thoughts and imagination (commonly porn too) are not present too. That being the case, Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount clearly and directly apply – If you look lustfully, either with you natural eyes or your minds eye, then you are committing adultery with her in your heart. If you tell me that you don’t have lustful thoughts etc and simply think about cars or something then one might argue that you have bigger problems.

Let us remember that sex was created by God and it was good. He created it for us to enjoy, to allow us to reproduce and to produce ONENESS. In Genesis it says .

Genesis 2:24 ESV  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Let me be clear ONENESS is not ONE (being on ones own), but TWO becoming ONE. All sexual experiences that produce ONENESS within the context of marriage between one man and one woman are legitimate. Thus any sexual experience outside that context is not legitimate because it is outside of the context within which God designed and planned it to occur.

So is masturbation a sin? It is if you consider sin to be doing things that God has said not to (LUST), or doing them outside the context or environment that God intended and communicated to us (Self Gratification, not producing oneness between a husband and a wife) then yes, it should be considered a sin.

FREE MP3: To listen to a talk on this issue then press here, or download here. 

Confrontation, unity, conflict and resolution are ever present in any environment be it a marriage, a family, an office and even a church. The way we manage conflict, determine answers and how we implement resolutions can all have a massive impact on unity.

There is a great example of how a conflict and confrontation in the church at Antioch is resolved and implemented for both the good of the Gospel and the sake of unity within the churches. Acts 15 – the council of Jerusalem gives us great insight into reaching a Godly decision on something by looking at both an “Experiential Arguments” and a “Biblical/Doctrinal Arguments” as well as, for the sake of love not commanding but appealing to the churches to implement their findings in a way that maximised cross cultural and cross church unity.

I have just preached on this and you can listen for FREE online here, or download it as a free MP3 here.

Basic List of Books for a Pastor’s Library

Dr Wayne Grudem … An amazing bible scholar and theologian. His fantastic book “Systematic theology” is a must have reference book for any Christian who wants to understand more of the bible.

A few years ago I was at a conference where Dr Grudem was speaking and I had the pleasure of having dinner with him. As I had just come on staff at Kings Church Horsham we discussed the type of books I should have in my then, nonexistent, reference library. Dr Grudem suggested this list, although a little old now, as I think it was not new at that point either, I would recommend you take a look at it to see if there are any you could/should add to your library.

It really helped me as I wondered which commentary’s to Greek lexicon I should get and I trust It will help you to

Bethel School or Supernatural – Year 1 Reading List

I thought that as i came across the reading list for YEAR 1 at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry reading list I would make it available for those of us who can’t actually get out there. At least we can read the books!

Bethel School or Supernatural – Year 1 Reading List

Financial Crisis or Financial Plan?

Does God Cause Disasters

Today I was speaking in church on Acts 11:19-21 and tackled the question is God surprised by things that happen? I particularly look at the story of the scattering church after the murder and subsequent persecution.

The bible tells us in Amos 3:6 that Disaster (Hebrew word is Evil) comes to a city because God caused it! Job 2:10 says “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil” and Isaiah 31:2 says “He is wise and brings disaster” This is a very strange concept for us to grapple with. Is God behind this evil (Not moral evil) that comes upon a city or indeed upon individuals?

If you are interested I have done a detailed exegesis of Amos 3:1-6 which you can download here.

You can Download my Powerpoint Slides from my talk here.

 

Spectacular Sins

I reference this book by John Piper which is a very interesting read and will assist you in some of the thoughts and questions this talk will raise.

It is inconceivable that in a modern democracy with a democratically elected government that those placed over a people to rule the people on behalf of the people would then persecute the very people that put them in power. We would consider a country’s elected government mistreating the electorate in this way as outrageous.

The country I refer to is our very own United Kingdom. In the last census (2001) 72% of our nation said they were Christian. Yet the practice of this majority belief is being systematically attacked,  eroded and outlawed.

In recent days and weeks we have seen a nurse suspended, not for trying to convert others to faith, but simply offering to pray (Caroline Petrie). Yesterday, Jennie Cain was suspended from being a receptionist because she sent an email to her friends asking them to pray for her daughter. Neither of these people was being “fundamental” in pressing their views on others but simply offering to pray. Personally I fail to see how praying to a god that presumably these people think is a figment of our imagination, is so offensive. Why are they getting so agitated? If these people were just talking to themselves we would consider them either eccentric or mentally ill. So, why so offended? Surly if there is no God then these people are simply offering to “talk to themselves” about whatever situation. Where is the harm in that? If however God is real and prayer is effective then I can see why prayer to that God would be such a concern!

I do believe that as Christians we must protest about this wherever possible. I believe that unless we stand up as Christians and make a stand as John Sentamu calls us to in today Daily Mail. I do not believe that as Christians we must take tolerance to the point of simply rolling over on every issue, even when we are asked to stop doing what the bible clearly asks us to do … such as pray!

I congratulate Caroline Petrie, Jennie Cain, the foster mum who was struck off, Nadia Eweida, Lydia Playfoot and many others who are taking a firm stand for their faith and refuse to be bullied.

I would call upon you to make a stand, however small, on issues like this. Complete the poll on today’s Daily Mail web site as a start and look for opportunities to speak up. Write to your MP, respond to the Web Documents on the News Papers web sites, whatever it is we must make a stand.

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

(Mat 10:32-33 ESV)

I was baptised as a baby is a common objection when being presented with Believers Baptism. What does the bible say? That is the only question we need to consider. If infant baptism is a bible principle then we should practice it. If it is not then we should consider what the bible does say and follow it.  

There is some argument that baptism of infants is akin to the babies in Israel being circumcised at 8 days old (More). Now there are some parallels here, I agree. Circumcision was a public declaration of belonging to the covenant community of God. Back then you belonged to the covenant community of God by virtue of your birth (your parents) and thus a public declaration was appropriate. However, today we belong to the covenant community of God not by virtue of our parents will, but by virtue of our confession of faith in Jesus, in his death and resurrection, by virtue of acceptance of the grace of God! Thus, baptism must be as a believer.

Now a discussion for another day is about sprinkling vs. immersion. If someone was to come to me and say as a believer I was “sprinkled” rather than immersed, I could accept that as a believer’s baptism although I would want to do a bible study with them based on the New Testament to see if the believer then felt that they would like to respond in the same way as the early church set as the standard example.

However, if someone was to say they were sprinkled as a baby then clearly this is not a believer’s baptism but an act of the will of their parents and not by virtue of them putting their faith in God. I would have to say they have not been baptised and should, as the New Testament shoes us, make a public declaration in that way. There may be, as for the original believers we have read about, some humiliation or even difficulty with family members but we are commanded to repent and be baptised, in that order and I believe that we need to be faithful and live a life worthy of Jesus name, suffering a little humiliation or family unrest for our saviour.

Sometimes the argument is that there is no premise for “re-Baptism” in the bible, and I would agree. There is no biblical president for a rebaptism of a believer. If you were baptised as a youngster and then came to me saying “I did not really fully understand, can I go again” I would say “no”. You were a Christian, you were saved, then you were baptised then that is sufficient “repent and be baptised”. If however you were baptised as an unbeliever because of pressure from parents etc then I would say you were not baptised as a believer and so you should now be. In the same way if you were baptised as a baby, you were not baptised as a believer and so you should now be. It is not “re-baptism” as you were not previously baptised as a believer which is the only New Testament basis for baptism.

If want to listen or download a talk where I discuss this more fully just click here to listen now, or hear to download it as an MP3

I will shortly be writing a paper which will discuss this, and other issues relating to baptism more fully, so check back oon.

As a leader in a church I often come across people who do not believe they need to get baptised. The come up with many reasons from “I don’t have to, my salvation is not Dependant on it, so i wont” to “I was baptised as a baby”.

Neither of those reasons are in any way valid based on what the bible tells us and whilst I will, in the next day or two, post a written paper on my thoughts on this I thought first I would give you the opportunity to hear me speak on this.

So just click here to listen now, or hear to download it as an MP3