Sermons on Simon Cowell:

Finishing The Story

Contributed by Simon Fullylove on Jun 26, 2006

A look at the big picture in terms of the role of the bible in preparing us for mission in today’s world

Introduction I came across this illustration of the role of the bible and our role as the followers of Jesus (by N T Wright): Suppose someone discovered a play by say, Shakespeare – there were 4 acts but the 5th had been lost. The first four acts provide such a wealth of characterization and ...read more

Scripture: John 20:21

Denomination: Pentecostal

6. The First Preacher And The First Sermon

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Feb 6, 2020

The message Jesus drew from the story of Noah is that his coming will be as unexpected as the flood was for the people of Noah’s day. But most people don't believe his coming will be like the flood.

6. The first preacher and the first sermon Sermon on 29 Sept 2019 PM, at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK. According to the Bible, who was the world’s first preacher? And what was his sermon? The answer is Noah! We know Noah was a preacher from this verse in 2 Peter: ‘…if he did ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 24:36-39

Denomination: Baptist

Daniel's Prayer Of Confession, Part 1

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 1, 2020

Daniel is about to say sorry to God on behalf of his people, the Jews. In 'Part 1' I look at WHY he prayed (he understood scripture), HOW he prayed (intensely) and WHO he prayed to (his God, a covenant-keeping God, a great and awesome God). Part 2 will be WHAT he prayed.

Daniel’s prayer of confession Part 1 1. Introduction Today we are continuing our mini-series on prayer, and looking at an amazing prayer which teaches us about saying sorry. It’s a prayer which the prophet Daniel said; we find it in Daniel 9. I’m going to start to look at it this week and ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 9:1-5

Denomination: Baptist

The Lord's Prayer, Part 2

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 1, 2020

How to use The Lord's Prayer in our own prayer time.

The Lord’s Prayer (2) We’re continuing our little series on prayer. I planned to do two talks on the Lord’s Prayer and today we have the second. Jesus doesn’t just dive straight into the Lord’s Prayer. He first gave some teaching about how we should not pray, and last week, we looked at what ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15

Denomination: Baptist

Daniel's Prayer Of Confession, Part 2

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 6, 2020

All of us have to say sorry to God. Daniel's prayer has much to teach about saying sorry. In particular, Daniel accepts that he shares responsibilty for the sin of his people.

Last week I did a first talk on Daniel’s prayer of confession. I’m going to assume that you can roughly remember what I talked about last week. That might be a mistake, but even if you can’t, I don’t think it should be too much of a problem for following my talk today. At the end of last week’s ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 9:4-10

Denomination: Baptist

Praying For Our Church

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 12, 2020

Paul's second prayer for the church in Ephesus is a great model of how we can pray for our church and for other churches today, for God to strengthen his people with power.

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH INTRODUCTION We’ve now come to the sixth and last in our mini-series on prayer. We first looked at Gideon’s prayer for guidance. Then we spent two weeks on the Lord’s Prayer. Then we had two weeks on Daniel’s prayer of confession on behalf of his people. Today we’re ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

Denomination: Baptist

Joshua And The Walls Of Jericho

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 22, 2020

This is a great children's story. But as adults, it prompts some difficult questions. Is it even true? How could God destroy an entire city? It's also a wonderful example of God's people overcoming a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle through faith and obedience.

JOSHUA AND THE WALLS OF JERICHO INTRODUCTION We’re moving from our series on prayer to a new series called ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ There are some famous stories in the Old Testament which we may have heard as children, perhaps at home or at Sunday School. In this series the idea is to ...read more

Scripture: Joshua 6:1-21

Denomination: Baptist

God Restores Elijah / Preparation

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 3, 2020

In this first-of-two talks we look at some of the initial things that helped Elijah recover from depression. They are things we can also do. They paved the way for God to address the root cause of the problem: Elijah's sense of failure.

INTRODUCTION We’re now onto the second talk in our series called ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ In these talks we’re going back to some of the famous stories in the Old Testament which we may have heard as children, perhaps at home or at Sunday School. The idea is to take a fresh look at them as ...read more

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

God Restores Elijah / The Heart Of The Problem

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 15, 2020

To help Elijah out of his depression God needs to reach a point where Elijah is willing to listen to him. He then needs to resolve Elijah's sense of failure and hopelessness. We see how God did that.

1 KINGS 19, GOD RESTORES ELIJAH INTRODUCTION Today we’re returning to the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 18 tells us about Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. In 1 Kings 19, we find that Elijah has become very depressed. He thinks he’s a failure, but God ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

God Heals Naaman

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 23, 2020

The story of God healing Naaman is full of lessons, for example, about opportunity, courtesy, humility, and greed. But the key message must be the one Jesus drew from it. That is, that if we wish to see God's miracles, we must accept his word.

NAAMAN’S HEALING We’re continuing in our series ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ Today we’re looking at one of the most famous stories in the Book of Kings. It’s the story of the healing of the Syrian general, Naaman. It’s a great story for Sunday School, because one of the key characters is a ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

God Saves Jonah, Nineveh, And Us.

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 29, 2020

The story of Jonah tells the story of God rescuing Jonah, not FROM a whale, but BY a whale. It tells of God reaching out to one of the cruellest people in history, the Assyrians. And it prefigures the story of God reaching out to us, through Christ.

GOD SAVES JONAH, NINEVEH, AND US We’re in a series ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ Today, we’re looking at the story of Jonah. I’m going to assume most of us are fairly familiar with the story of Jonah and not spend time revisiting it. I’m going to look at the story under three headings: the ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

The Supreme Fact

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Apr 5, 2021

Jesus' resurrection is the supreme fact in history and the supreme fact for every believer.

INTRODUCTION I’d like to start by telling you a bit about the time in my life after I became a Christian. I became a Christian when I was about ten. For a few years life went on much as before. Then I went on to secondary school. It was a private boarding school. When I started it was an ...read more

Scripture: Luke 24:1-12, 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

Denomination: Baptist

The Gospel. Part 2: The Solution

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Oct 25, 2020

Jesus deals with our debt and with God's anger. He makes it possible for our relationship with God to be restored. But there is something we have to do. We have to repent.

Two weeks ago, I gave the first of four talks titled ‘the gospel.’ I said that the word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news.’ What is this good news? We looked at a passage in John 6 in which Jesus said, absolutely clearly, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes HAS ETERNAL LIFE.’ Jesus then ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 53:1-6

Denomination: Baptist

Overcoming Fear

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Nov 6, 2020

Before his crucifixion Jesus gave his disciples some instruction on how to overcome fear. His instruction to them is applicable to us too.

[Note, this series started to follow the SermonCentral ‘Fear Not’ series, but this week I went in a different direction.] Today we have the second talk in our series ‘Fear Not.’ Last week we started by thinking about healthy and unhealthy fears. [This talk was given by someone else.] A healthy ...read more

Scripture: John 14:1-4

Denomination: Baptist

The Gospel. Part 3: What Happens If We Accept Jesus?

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Nov 15, 2020

When we accept Jesus we ARE a new creation and the old passes away. There is new birth and death. But we shouldn't imagine for a moment that the job is done. Just as a new baby needs nurturing, our new spiritual selves need nurturing. And our old selves need to be shown the door.

The Gospel, Part 3 We have now reached the third of our four talks in our series ‘the gospel.’ Part 1: The problem Part 2: The solution Part 3: What changes if we accept Jesus? Part 4: What happens if we reject Jesus? [Slide of Adam and Eve] In part 1 of this series on ‘the gospel’ we first ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17

Denomination: Baptist