A vicar was too busy to help a desperate homeless lady needing help. He fobbed her off with a promise to pray for her. She wrote the following poem and gave it to a local Shelter officer: I was hungry,And you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.I was imprisoned,And you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.I was naked,And in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.I was sick,And you knelt and thanked God for your health.I was homeless,And you preached a sermon on the spiritual shelter of the love of God.I […]
Category: Sermons
Lockdown Talk for Schools…
A few years ago, Fenn Chapman, a 16-year-old from Rugby School, flogged some techy gear to raise some money, and then flew to the Bahamas during term-time. Reporters got wind of it and knew it would make a good story. One of them eventually tracked him down on the beach and asked Fenn why he did it. Fenn replied: “I started thinking about the rest of my life: university, a job, buying a car, getting married, a mortgage, and then dying. I thought there had to be something more to life than this. So I had to get away for […]
Top 10 Tips from 20 Years in Burundi…
One US lady was sharing her testimony in Francophone Africa. She wanted to say in French that her past was divided into two parts. Instead of ‘passé’ she said ‘derrière’ (behind, backside). She went on to say that one part of her butt was black, one part was white, and between the two there was a great chasm! Greetings to you all in lockdown (or not) wherever in the world. This is a talk I gave at a missions conference in North Carolina called New Wineskins (https://newwineskins.org) a few months ago. Grace and peace to you, Simon
Forget What’s Gone, Now Press On!
1st talk: One Thing I Ask2nd talk: One Thing You Lack3rd talk: One Thing I Know And finally the 4th talk: One Thing I Do, click on here to be encouraged to ‘forget what is behind, strain towards what is ahead, and to press on towards the goal to win the prize…’ Download audio (mp3) Below are some juicy quotes that I used which are worth cogitating over: “When God forgives, He forgets. He buries our sins in the sea and puts a sign on the shore saying, ‘No Fishing Allowed’.” (Corrie ten Boom) During the Truth and Reconciliation hearings in South Africa […]
What’s Your Story, Blind as a Bat?!
What’s your story? I was driving along one of the most dangerous roads in the world with my team. Many had been killed in ambushes on it. Yet we talked away cheerfully, having total assurance that our mission was worth the risk. Next to me in the front seat, Etienne looked across and said: “Simon, isn’t it exciting? We’re immortal until God calls us home!” This is the 3rd talk in the ‘One Thing’ series I gave recently at Lee Abbey. 1st talk: One Thing I Ask2nd talk: One Thing You LackAnd now 3rd talk: One Thing I Know Download […]
Living with No Regrets
In 1910, William Borden went to Yale University as an undergraduate and afterwards became a missionary candidate planning to work in China. When he made his decision to invest his life in this service, many of his friends thought him foolish. He had come from a good family. He had wealth and influence. “Why are you going to throw away your life in some foreign country,” they asked, “when you can have such an enjoyable and worthwhile life here?” But William Borden of Yale had heard the call of God. While in Egypt, on the way to China and even […]
Worrying about a lot of $£%@!
The Gospel according to Hollywood sometimes nails it. In the film City Slickers, starring Billy Crystal and the late Jack Palance, they are riding slowly across the range on horseback, discussing life and love. Palance plays a wily cowpoke, while Crystal is a tenderfoot from Los Angeles who has paid for a two-week dude ranch vacation. Of course, he gets more than he bargained for, and in the process, Crystal learns something important about himself. Listen carefully to their slightly edited conversation: PALANCE: You city folk. You worry about a lot of $£%@!, don’t you? CRYSTAL: $£%@!? My wife basically told […]
Confidence, Comfort, Challenge…
‘We believe…’ series, ‘in the resurrection of the dead’ – Revelation 21:1-8 Do click on the above link to listen to a recent talk I gave at Holycross on Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. Belief in the resurrection brings confidence, comfort and challenge. Below are a few of the juicy quotes I shared: Dallas Willard: “We should not think of ourselves as destined to be celestial bureaucrats, involved eternally in celestial ‘administrivia’. That would be only slightly better than being caught in an everlasting church service. No, we should think of our destiny as being absorbed in a tremendously creative […]
Blessed are the Peacemakers…
‘Shortly before racing in the 1993 World Championships in Toronto, his brother rings to tell him his parents have been murdered and their bodies dumped down a latrine. He still runs and gets a medal, the first Burundian ever to do so…’ Below is the link to Nkaza’s testimony that we put on film last year. It’s well worth a listen. He’s a national hero and using his influence for good. We support his organisation ‘Amani Africa Burundi’, and their latest strategy as peace-makers is to mobilise the youth nationwide to sign up to seven core values – integrity, honesty, […]
Summer Speaking Schedule!
Maybe I’ll get to catch you over the summer, here are my movements: Saturday 23rd June – Gitega International Academy Graduation Sunday 24th June – Last preach and farewell at our church in Bujumbura, fly out in the evening Monday 25th June – arrive back in the UK Tuesday 26th June – Buckingham Palace to receive our MBE’s Wednesday 27th June – Long Crendon Baptist Church Friday 29th June – Sports day commentator at King’s school Saturday 30th June – Chez Whites GLO supporters 10-3pm, Tring Sunday1st July – Ivy Sharston in the morning, and then 7pm Saint Philips, Salford […]
Radical Grace
Today was a day feared by many, as Burundians went to the polls in a referendum on changing the constitution. We were told to lie low and stay indoors. As the day draws to a close, it looks like it has all gone peacefully, with the results to follow shortly – although we all know the result already. I had an important meeting upcountry, so went ahead with that, with the wonderful result that Gitega International Academy has qualified for international accreditation with ACSI, which is a massive feat, achieved in record time. Well done Freddy, Opondo, and GIA and […]
Finishing Strong
Below is a talk I gave a few weeks ago in the UK. Am just returning from a superb weekend of speaking in Rwanda, with the highlight being a powerful time in a 7,200-men prison. http://www.simonguillebaud.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/4-8-April-11am-reading-talk.mp3 “We are at war, and the bloody battle is over our hearts. I am astounded how few Christians see this, how little they protect their hearts. We act as though we live in a sleepy little town during peacetime. We don’t. We live in the spiritual equivalent of Bosnia or Beirut. Act like it. Watch over your heart. Don’t let just anything in; don’t […]
Pressing in for Revival…
How much do you want of God? Because no-one has less of God than they want. Below is a sermon on revival I gave in the UK a few weeks ago. Amazing stories! http://www.simonguillebaud.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Revival-–-Simon-Guillebaud-1.mp3
Great Cloud of Witnesses – Moses
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” (Francis Chan) This is last Sunday’s sermon in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on Moses. And below are some more juicy quotes to stir and challenge your soul: C.S.Lewis talked of how sometimes people experience extraordinary times of intimacy and closeness to God. “But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on […]
The Gospel Call – Urgent, Costly, Precious
“The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.” (Carl Henry) Above is last Sunday’s sermon at James Island Christian Church, South Carolina. I feel like it’s a classical ‘old school’ sermon on mission and the gospel, one that simply doesn’t fit into our post-modern relativist age – except that it’s THE TRUTH! Below, if you’re like me and enjoy juicy quotes and great stories, are some of what I shared: When the ship ‘Empress of Ireland’ sank… the few survivors told of how the [Salvation Army] officers, upon discovery that there were more passengers than life […]
Love!
“If you have to calculate what you are willing to give up for Jesus Christ, never say that you love Him. Jesus Christ asks us to give up the best we have got to Him, our right to ourselves.” (Oswald Chambers) A sermon from the summer at Lee Abbey on Love. A few more quotes: “Breezy, self-confident Christians tell us how wonderful it is to accept Christ and then have a good time all the rest of your life; the Lord won’t demand anything of you. Yes, He will, my friend! The Lord will demand everything of you. And when […]
Hope!
A recent talk I gave at Lee Abbey on Hope
Faith!
Click HERE for a talk I gave in the summer on faith. And below are some cool quotes, good material for reflexion or your own talks. Enjoy! “Faith is not logical. But it isn’t illogical either. Faith is theological. It does not ignore reality; it just adds God into the equation. Think of it this way. Logic questions God. Faith questions assumptions. And at the end of the day, faith is trusting God more than you trust your own assumptions.” (Mark Batterson) Limited by our senses – ‘We walk by Faith, not by sight’ Think of the African impala; it’s […]
Prayerful and Alert…
Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for… Here’s a sermon you can listen to here from a few Sundays ago in St Mary’s Maidenhead’s series on Spiritual Warfare. My text was Ephesians 6:18-20. Some meaty quotes from the talk include: “Probably the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for… But what have millions of Christians done? We have stopped believing that we are in a […]
Yesterday’s Sermon, Fully Committed…
This is a raw message on total surrender from 2 Chronicles 16:9 – “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” How committed are you? Partially? Selectively? God so longs to strengthen you, but the deal is you need to be fully committed to Him…