Burwell Baptist Church Sermons

Holy Week begins for this year with the usual celebration of Palm Sunday, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of an up to then unridden donkey. There were many different responses amongst the people of Jerusalem: many in favour and others vehemently opposed to Jesus. But nobody was on the fence. We face a choice then, are we to surrender our all to Jesus and accept him as King? Or are we going to reject him just like the Pharisees and teachers of the Law?

This week Chris continues looking at his series in Starting with God, this week looking at the choices we make. There is a difference between fate and destiny. Fate (which is not real, by the way) gives you no choices in life, you're restricted to the train tracks laid out in front of you. Destiny is different, where God gives us the choice to follow His way which leads to life or the other ways which.... don't. But whichever path we choose God always gives us the opportunity to turn towards His way.

Chris continues his series in Starting With God by looking at all of those things that we contstruct for ourselves to replace God or to divert our attention away from Him. The Bible has a word for those things: idols. Idols can even be things that make us think that God approves of what we're doing when we know deep down that He doesn't. We are invited to cast away all of those things and to focus and trust in God alone for all of our needs and strength. It's very easy to say it. But can we actually do it?

Chris continues our journey in Starting with God by this week looking at having intimacy with God. At the foot of Mount Sinai God spoke to His people who he had guided out of slavery in Egypt. They were so afraid that none of them wanted to go up the mountain and seek true intimacy with Him, they rejected God's true purpose for them because of fear. We now, through Jesus, recieve that same invitation to experience the fulness of God. Will we accept or will we - like the Israelites - be content with holding God at arm's length?

This week we hosted Mervyn Thomas, co-founder of our mission of the month for February CSW, who spoke to us about persecuted peoples across the world. Merv has over 40 years of experience in advocating for persecuted people groups and shares with us how we can fulfil God's calling for us to speak up for and stand with those who are persecuted for their faith.