Sermons from 2020
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Sermons from 2020

If you only knew

She had no idea who He was – but He knew all about her. When we encounter the living God in Jesus, do we run away from Him or towards Him?

Now *that’s* impressive!

Nicodemus was impressive – but there were shadows in his life that Jesus’ light would illuminate. You might look impressive; like you’ve got everything sorted. But we all have shadows that we are ashamed of. Things we like to hide so that we can present a good face. We can often fool each other, at least for a while. But it is harder (aka impossible) to fool God.

The Sign at the Wedding

If you were setting out to point someone to the fact that Jesus is God our Rescuer, where would you start? John starts his gospel with a quiet sign, that hardly anyone knew about. What’s that all about?

What John Knew

John the Baptist called Jesus the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He also said that Jesus would baptise people with the Spirit. What was it that convinced John that Jesus was the Messiah – and what will we do with his testimony about Jesus?

Knowing God

John discovered something about God – and it changed him. Will it change you?

The Joy of the Lord

Today’s Passage: Nehemiah 7:73 – 8:12 Last week, we saw how the exiles from Judah were allowed to return home to Jerusalem by King Cyrus to rebuild the temple. We saw them prioritising God in their lives, and celebrating His goodness to them as they laid the foundations for the temple. But there was a lot of opposition to rebuilding the temple – with it stopping and starting. But eventually, it was built. At some point after this, an influential…

A Fresh Start

Today’s Passage: Ezra 3 Over the course of the last few months, we’ve set out to get a birds-eye view of the Old Testament story. We saw the start of all things in Genesis 1 and 2 – and it was good. But the world we live in is not good any more. It is broken, as are we. Genesis 1 to 11 introduces us to the two biggest issues in our world. Firstly, there is sin and death, and the…

The Fallen Kingdom

Today’s Passage: 2 Chronicles 36:11ffYou might also want to read: 2 Peter 3, 2 Kings 24-25 This week, we’re continuing our journey through the Old Testament story of God and His people. Two weeks ago, we looked at 1 Samuel 8, where Israel went to the prophet Samuel demanding to have a king like all of the other nations around them. At first glance, it might have seemed sensible for them to want to have a king. But the problem…

The Kingdom Established

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 8 This week, we’re returning to our lighting journey through the story of the Old Testament. We spent a few weeks in the introduction to the Biblical story: Genesis 1-11. There we saw that the way the world now is is a result of human rebellion against God. We have a sin problem. We also saw that we have a knowledge problem: we don’t know who God is or what He is like. As a result,…

More than Conquerors

Over the last few weeks, life has changed. Across almost all the world, humanity is struggling to deal with a virus too small for the naked eye to see. How can Christians respond to this crisis?

Judges

Today’s Reading: Judges 2:6-3:6 Also helpful to read: Judges 1-21 Over the last few weeks, we’ve slowly been making our way through the Old Testament, trying to get a birds-eye view of it’s story. It’s the story of God’s good creation, and of humanity’s rebellion against God. It’s the story of God acting to set things right. The main emphasis in the Old Testament is on God’s showing us who He is, in preparation for His arrival in Jesus to…

Wrestling with God

Over the last few weeks, we’ve started journeying through the Old Testament, and exploring the story of God and His people. We’ve seen how God created everything to be good, and how people sinned by not trusting God. Last week, we looked at the story of Babel, and how humanity had come to a point of not knowing who God is and what He is like. So God acted to change that. He chose one man, Abram, and called him…

The Tower of Babel

Today’s passage: Genesis 11:1-9 Have you ever bribed someone to do something for you? Every now and again, stories will come up about people or companies or countries trying to gain a competitive advantage over others by greasing a few palms. Mid 2018, an Australian company was found to have been bribing public officials in Vietnam in order to win work on aid projects in that country. There have been allegations made that people were bribed to vote for Qatar…

The Fall

Today’s passage: Genesis 3 Have you ever had a sneaking suspicion that you were being hard done by? It hurts when when we are being slighted. But it can also be a problem when we act on an assumption of unfairness that turns out to not be true. In the British sitcom “The IT Crowd,” there’s an episode where one of the main characters becomes convinced that she is being slighted. As the manager of the IT department, she was…

Creation

This week, we’re starting a brand new series exploring the narrative books of the Old Testament. Our aim is to get a big picture overview of God’s story of redemption leading up to the coming of Jesus Christ. This week, we start at the very beginning of the Old Testament – Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Unfortunately, these beautiful chapters can be the cause of much confusion and hurt among Christians. Those who think that Genesis 1 teaches a young,…