The final of five sessions at Lee Abbey 2026 How would I score my life so far, out of ten? That’s the question I found myself asking as I prepared the last sermon in our Lee Abbey series, and it isn’t a fair one. Most of us didn’t get the version of our lives we planned as eighteen-year-olds. Illness, broken relationships, kids making spectacularly poor decisions, financial setbacks, that’s just what it means to live in the real world, and none of it is a verdict on your worth. I found the redemption of that question in a story I […]
Tag: Sermons
Make The Most – 1 Peter 4
This is session 4 in 1 Peter from the Lee Abbey talks 2026 Every evening my phone tells me exactly how long I spent on it that day, and most days I don’t love the answer. An hour and forty-two minutes on Facebook. That’s the world we live in – brilliant minds in Silicon Valley working out how to keep us scrolling, while the things that actually matter wait for the leftovers of our attention. That’s roughly where I started when I gave this session on 1 Peter 4, a passage I find more prickly than most. Peter isn’t gentle: […]
Submission and the Triumph of Christ – 1 Peter 3
This is the third talk of five in 1 Peter from Lee Abbey 2026 Listen here: A New Zealander called Ivan Segedin hated seat belts. The police ticketed him thirty-two times in five years, and still he refused to buckle up. So he got creative and made a fake belt that hung over his shoulder to fool them. It worked brilliantly, right up until his head-on collision. He was thrown onto the steering wheel and killed. Sorry, Ivan, but you were a fool. Submission can be very good for you! 1 Peter 3 gets a bad press, I know. And […]
Building Blocks for Christ – 1 Peter 2
This is the second talk of five in 1 Peter at Lee Abbey 2026 Listen here: Peter hands us three building blocks in this chapter: a precious Saviour, a privileged position, and a practical commission. Get the first one wrong and the rest collapses. A precious Saviour. Jesus is the cornerstone, the one everything else in the house lines up against. In the ancient world the cornerstone had to be cut with total precision, because if it was even slightly off, the whole building went off with it. Sometimes it cost as much as the rest of the house put […]
Keep Your L-Plates On – 1 Peter 1
This is the first talk of five in 1 Peter at Lee Abbey 2026 Listen here: I’ve recently stuck L plates on our car for (hopefully) the last time as I’m teaching our third child to drive. We’ve had a few close shaves, but no prangs yet, and long may that continue. This milestone got me thinking about five phrases Peter uses in his first letter to describe what exiles like us are actually holding onto — a living hope, a locked-in inheritance, lasting joy, long-term perspective, and a living word. Simple enough to write but tough to live out. […]
Total Access
Last week I was preaching at Trinity Cheltenham in their sermon series on Mark’s gospel. My passage was Mark 15:33-41, and the focus was on the torn curtain (v38), and the centurion’s declaration (v39). Take a look here: or listen to the audio version here: The temple had so many barriers to entry: the Court of the Gentiles was as far as most of us could go; ritually purified Jewish woman could go a little further, but had to stop in the Court of Women; Jewish men could go into the Court of Israel; priests entered the Court of Priests; […]
From Slaves to Sons
Last week I was invited to preach at All Saints in Worcester on Galatians 3:23-4:7 as part of their series on Galatians, with the title ‘From Slaves to Sons’. You can watch it here: And listen to the audio version here: Here is a transcript if you prefer to read: From Slaves to Sons Slave, or son? That’s the choice sitting inside this passage. Galatians 4:4–7: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are […]
The Cost Of Non-Discipleship
I was asked to preach last weekend at St George’s, Stamford, on ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ from Matthew 8:18-22. You can watch here: And listen to the audio version here: I often talk about the cost of discipleship, but it is interesting to consider the cost of non-discipleship. Dallas Willard once noted, “a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, nondiscipleship costs you exactly that […]
Guard your First Love!
I was recently preaching at All Saints Peckham, as part of their series on Revelation. My text was Rev 2:1-7 The Letter to the Church at Ephesus. Listen/watch here Verse 7 says: “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” You can also listen to the Audio version here:
Connecting to God’s Presence and Power
This is the sermon I gave last Sunday at St Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, looking at Exodus 40:34-38 and closing out their series on the book of Exodus. Their strapline is ‘connecting people to the presence and power of Jesus’, so the passage fitted well, and hence the title. Or you can listen to the Audio version here:
The Mission’s Church
Last Sunday I preached in Cardiff at Highfields Church, and asked the question: Does the church have a mission, or does the mission have a church? Listen here:
Jesus Has Got This! John 6:1-15
Last Sunday, I gave this sermon at my old church, St Andrews Mt Pleasant, just outside Charleston, SC. They were in a sermon series on ‘Encounters with Jesus’, and we were considering the feeding of the 5000 in John 6:1-15. Watch the Video here: Or you can listen to it here: The takeaway: Bring all you’ve got;Leave it all to Him;Jesus has got this! Questions for discussion: