faith – Page 5 – St. Luke's Church Ramsgate

Rich Regret (Luke 16:19-31)

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Jesus tells a parable to challenge the Pharisees of his day, who were themselves lovers of money. In the story, there are two characters, a rich man and a homeless man who sleeps at this gate, called, Lazarus. The rich man has clearly lived a life that is all about gaining all you can and spending all you can. He did nothing to help Lazarus, he did not take seriously the teaching of the Bible to be generous, he was nothing like Christ. Jesus is blunt. The rich man ends up in hell. Let’s not make the same mistake. Rather than, ‘Gain all you can to spend all you can,’ let’s be those who, ‘Gain all we can, to give all we can.’

Shrewd Investment (Luke 16:1-13)

“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Luke 16:13

Money is a part of life, but it does not need to be master of our life. Christians, of course, want to serve God. We are called to follow his good commandments. But do we allow Money to be another master in our life?

Ultimately, we need to choose who we serve. Will we serve the hard taskmaster of Money, or the loving and gracious God, who made us and gives to us freely? The choice is yours.

You are invited (Luke 14:15-24)

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 14:15)

This week we begin a series looking at the stories Jesus told. This week’s story is about invitations and excuses.

Rejoice Always, Pray Continually! (1 Thessalonians 5:12-28)

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Today is the last in our series of talks on 1 Thessalonians.

Ready for the Day (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)

“He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” (1 Thessalonians 5:10)

They Think It’s All Over (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

“For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:14)

The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21)

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Faith and Love (1 Thessalonians 3:6-13)

“For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 3:8)

We continue the series learning from 1 Thessalonians.

Our Hope, our Joy, our Crown (1 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5)

“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

Dare to Share (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)

“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” (1 Thessalonians 2:8)

We will be considering how Paul and his team went about sharing the good news of Jesus in the early days of the church and what lessons we can learn today.