Bible Passage: 2 Corinthians 5 : 11-21Preacher: Phil PoppingBeing a diplomat or an ambassador sounds like it could be fun - it's certainly prestigious. Being able to represent your country's viewpoint and negotiate for it's good would be an incredible privilege. This week we're told that we're Christ's ambassadors. This is a glorious privilege, not a burden!
Bible Passage: Colossians 2:1-8Preacher: Ben RingWhat do you think are the signs of a worshiping community? I’m sure many things come to mind, but hopefully this Sunday we will see that a worshiping community is a community who dig deep into the knowledge of God. And as we follow Paul’s words through Colossians 2, we will come to understand that our worship ought to be rooted and built up in Christ – the one who holds all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Bible Text: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, 9:6-15Preacher: Phil PoppingWe're all excited at the idea of a gospel harvest - seeing many people come to faith and maturity in Jesus. The idea that we might be a healthy, outward looking church that sees people grow and change and come to faith is an exciting one. How can we be part of something like that?
Bible Text: Hebrews 10:19-25Preacher: Jono DeenickAs we continue our series considering what it means to be fully engaged in worshipping our God. This week we will look at what it means to be fully engaged in drawing together. How do our gatherings, whether our Sunday morning worship services or small groups or prayer group, honour and display God's worth? And how can they help us worship God in all of our lives?
Bible Text: Romans 12:1-2Preacher: Jono DeenickThis week we begin a new series called, 'Worship in every direction.' Over the coming weeks we'll be looking at what it means to live as a follower of Jesus. Today, we'll see that at the heart of the Christian life is worship. Our lives should be all about worshiping God. And yet that worship is expressed not just as we dwell on God, but as we love each other, gather with each other, serve one another and seek to enrich the lives of others. Our worship of God expresses itself, in every direction.
Bible Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14Preacher: Juhan KloosterThere are times in life where we experience great hardship and where the words of Psalm 23 resonate with our hearts as we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Here in Ezekiel 37 we find a different valley. A valley of dry bones. A valley of death and despair. And yet as Ezekiel walks with the Lord among these dead and dry bones here is a glimmer of hope as the Lord asks Ezekiel a shocking question; “Son of man, can these bones live?” Join us this Sunday as we behold the amazing power of our sovereign Lord who is able to renew, empower, and restore His people when all hope seems lost.
Bible Text: Genesis 49:29-50:26Preacher: Phil PoppingThe Joseph story and even Genesis as a whole is full of chaos. Through much of it we’re surprised at how badly behaved and even evil these people are. It might raise some questions in our minds: why does God let evil persist? Why did he let it all go wrong in the first place? Why did he create a world that he knew would go wrong?
Bible Text: Genesis 49:1-28Preacher: Jono DeenickGenesis is in many ways a book about blessing. It's about the blessing that was built into creation, but lost at the fall and it wrestles with the question, 'how can blessing be restored?' As we look this week at the each of the brothers receiving their blessing from their father Jacob, we learn that the restoration requires more than just God giving us nice things. First the problem of sin must be dealt with.
Bible Text: Genesis 48Preacher: Phil PoppingWith death knocking at his door, Joseph is filled with future hope and expectation. The closing of his eyes will not be the end of all things, but God will continue to work through his promises to build an exciting future. What future might we see in the years and decades to come?
Bible Text: 1 Timothy 4:7-10Preacher: Jono DeenickToday is Father's Day and so we continue to take a break from our series in Genesis so that we can consider together what it means for Father's to train. Not train for a sporting event or a career, which are fine things to do, but to train for the far more important task of having a gospel impact on their families and beyond.
Bible Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18Preacher: Phil PoppingThis week has been hard for us as a church. Filled with shock, pain, and confusion as we have lost someone close to us in the prime of his life. Lots of questions arise - maybe we've questioned God's goodness, timing, and wisdom. Maybe we're so full of sorrow that we haven't been able to process anything much at all. Maybe we're just despondent and empty.
Bible Text: Genesis 46:1-7, 46:26-47:31Preacher: Jono DeenickAs we continue in Genesis this week, we see the wonderful reunion of father and son. It is a time of much weeping and joy and also great blessing. Indeed God reiterate His promise to bless Jacob and make him into a great nation. We witness the beginning of that as God grants them blessing upon blessing from Pharaoh's hand. And yet, despite all of this good Jacob complains. As we consider this, we will look at our tendency to complain and why that is so at odds with the God who rescues us.
Bible Text: Genesis 45Preacher: Jono DeenickThis week we finally see the brothers reunited. Joseph reveals himself and offers his brothers unbelievable forgiveness. Then on top of that he blesses them and offers them and his whole family safety and prosperity. It's incredible given what was done to him and it reminds us of own forgiveness and the grace shown to us. It challenges us to consider our response to God's outrageous mercy and grace.
Bible Text: Genesis 44Preacher: Phil PoppingLast week we saw that the guilty fear of the brothers before Joseph was met with mercy, but if that’s the case, why does he turn on them again in the next chapter? Why does he now entrap them and set them up for a new crime so that they again say ‘God has uncovered your servant’s guilt’? If God truly meets our guilt with mercy, what part can it still play in our lives?
Bible Text: Genesis 43Preacher: Phil PoppingThere are lots of times when we’re fearful to go somewhere or do something. Some people are particularly intimidating and we avoid them or have to work up our courage to speak to them. This week we see the fear of Joseph’s brothers coming before a great and scary power – and we’re taught a lesson about how God deals with us – with mercy!
Bible Text: Genesis 42Preacher: Jono DeenickMany of us have experienced relationship breakdown especially after we have been wronged, or we have wronged others. Joseph had experienced that in a severe way having been sold into slavery by his brothers. How can reconciliation happen in that sort of situation? How can we find reconciliation ourselves? We will begin to explore these questions as we see God working through Joseph to bring about change in his brothers and reconciliation withing the family.
Bible Text: Genesis 40-41Preacher: Phil PoppingDreams are often crazy - we wake up confused in the middle of the night with crazy stories to tell each other that often aren’t as exciting to others as they were to us. We have three dreams in this story, but the significance is not on them, but on how God is moving to accomplish his purposes for his people.
Bible Text: Genesis 39Preacher: Jono DeenickThe Bible tells us multiple times, in various ways that God is 'with us'. This is a great comfort, and yet it's probably also been a point of doubt and uncertainty at times. What does it mean that God is with us? What does it mean particularly when things seem to be going wrong? In our passage today we see both things in Joseph's life. We are told God is with him, but we also see things go very badly for him and so it's a passage that helps us to come to grips with the truth that our God is indeed 'with us.'
Bible Text: Genesis 38Preacher: Phil PoppingThis chapter in Genesis feels like something you could write a TV drama about. Death threats, cunning plans, double crossings, extreme reactions, and sexual misbehaviour fill the story. It feels like a classic case of ‘you couldn’t make this up if you tried’. But sadly, this isn’t made up, this is real human behaviour. Why is this in the bible and what are we to learn from it?
Bible Text: Genesis 37Preacher: Jono DeenickThis week we begin a new series in the book of Genesis working our way through the events of Joseph and his families lives. It doesn't make for pretty reading. As with the rest of the Bible, these key figures in the history of Israel are presented realistically, without glossing over their failures. Humanly speaking the whole thing should be a disaster, but God is working in the background, despite the sin of people, and He is bringing good out of bad.