Richard Owen's Sermons

Perhaps we are meant to be experiencing the things we are experiencing. We might ask of this is the right time, but Joseph was faithful in the here and now - as a slave, as a prisoner and as a leader in Egypt. God is with us in all our circumstances.

God can use us whoever we are. Whatever the problems around us, the real problem is our sin, and God wants us to deal with this and to walk faithfully with him.

Jesus doesn’t ensure that bad things don’t happen but that they don’t separate us from the love of God. God’s plan for us is not that we don’t face danger but that we depend on his grace.

There are some things we have to wait for, but there are other we don’t have to wait for. We can celebrate what God has already done. We already have total forgiveness, ongoing transformation and a new identity and relationship with God.

We are called to love one another, by which everyone will know we are Jesus’ disciples. God has given gifts to each one of us, and we should use these gifts to serve one another, to the glory of God.

Grace teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness, but it does more than this, it works in us to help us to be more like Jesus.

The problem is that we are not basically good people who sometimes do wrong things but that we are utterly rebellious against God and deserve to die. The price paid was Jesus, who took upon himself all our sin and died on the cross. Our response is to praise God.

Leaders are not VIPs or celebrities, but servants. We are God’s field, and it is God who works in us.

The church is a community of worship and a people of praise. When we gather together as a church, praise bubbles up in us because of what God has done for us.

Paul desired to see the church holy and united, but there was a problem of division in the church at Corinth. Paul’s response is to appeal to them in the name of Christ, to encourage them to fix their eyes on Jesus, and to draw their attention to the Cross and to the one who died for us.

Matthew begins with Jesus’ genealogy to show that Jesus is the promised king for whom the generations were waiting. Matthew shows God’s grace by including evil men in the ancestry, and he shows that God welcomes everybody by including Gentile women.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and he is the Gate through which his sheep must come. David fought for his sheep because they were his, but Jesus lays down his life for his sheep.

We are encouraged to focus on Jesus, not just in his incarnation but as the eternal word. He didn’t come to fill a “God-shaped hole” in our lives, but to make us children of God.

Jacob believes God and his promise, he relies on the faithfulness of God, and trusts in God’s sovereign choice. We are called to walk in his footsteps believing God for tomorrow as well as for the rest of our lives.

Jacob is paralysed with fear, which prevents him from walking in faith and leads to him blaming others. If we don’t recognise Jesus then we too will be trapped in fear - it is Jesus who drives out fear.

God speaks through dreams. Joseph had two dreams at the age of 17 and waited over 11 years for them to be fulfilled. In his difficulties he trusted God, who was working things out according to his own timing.

We must deal with our anger, pain and jealousy, repenting if necessary. We must bring our guilt and regret to Jesus. And we must trust in God’s sovereign plan to work out everything for good.

As Jesus entered the Jerusalem, the crowds were looking for a king and the Pharisees were looking for a way to get rid of him, but Jesus entered on a donkey, a king who had to die.

Jesus is the cornerstone and we are the living stones that make up the building, and members of his body. We should therefore be a holy family, a people of light, a people who look like Jesus.

Worship is based on a foundation of grace, and is fuelled by the Word and the Spirit. It includes praising God with our lips but is much more than this.