Weekly Talks

By Charlie Lacey | Luke 1:39-56 Mary Visits Elizabeth At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will...

By Charlie Lacey | Luke 1:26-38 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind...

By Charlie Lacey | James 5: 13-20 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. T...

By Charlie Lacey | James 5:1-6 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are cr...

By Charlie Lacey| James 4:13-17 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is,...

By bp John Roundhill | James 4:11-12 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on yo...

By Charlie Lacey | James 3:13-18 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition...

By Charlie Lacey | James 3:1-12 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an...

By Charlie Lacey | James 2:14-26 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompan...

James 2:1-13 | Bev Bell & Fiona My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand ther...

James 1:19-25 | by Erika Williams  My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word...

James 1: 13-18 | by Trevor Adams When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters....

By Charlie Lacey | James 1:1-12 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything....

By Charlie Lacey | Micah 6: 1-8 and Matthew 25: 31-40 The Lord’s Case Against Israel Listen to what the Lord says: “Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;     let the hills hear what you have to say. “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;     listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people;     he is lodging a charge against Israel. “My peo...

By Charlie Lacey | Jonah 1:1-3, 3:1-5, 3:10–4:3 Jonah Flees From the Lord The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed...

By Charlie Lacey | Obadiah 1:1-4 ; 10-15 Obadiah’s Vision The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom— We have heard a message from the Lord:     An envoy was sent to the nations to say, “Rise, let us go against her for battle”— “See, I will make you small among the nations;     you will be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you,     you who live in t...

By Charlie Lacey | Amos 5:18-27 The Day of the Lord Woe to you who long     for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord?     That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion     only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house     and rested his hand on the wall     only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not...

By Charlie Lacey | Joel 2:11b-18 Rend Your Heart “Even now,” declares the Lord,     “return to me with all your heart,     with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart     and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God,     for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,     and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent     and le...

By Charlie Lacey | Hosea 3: 1-5 Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her,...

By Charlie Lacey | Deuteronomy 18:14-22 The Prophet The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of...

By Charlie Lacey | Acts 9:1-19a Saul’s Conversion Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light...

By Charlie Lacey | Acts 8:26-40 Philip and the Ethiopian Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his...

By Charlie Lacey | Acts 8: 9-24 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when th...

Acts 6:7-15; Acts 7:51-60 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue The post Persecution and the Mission of God appeared first on St Andrew&...

Acts 5:1-11 [audio mp3="https://archive.org/download/20200628_standrewssp/20200628_standrewsspringfield_falsehoodruinsfellowship.mp3"] The post Falsehood Ruins Fellowship appeared first on St Andrew's Springfield .