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Ephesians 2:1-10

Real Hope

Big thanks to Rev David Niven for taking the service and giving us the message today.

Hope allows us to face that which terrifies us. Without hope we can’t face getting out of bed let alone getting through the rest of the day. There are lots of places where you can find hope.

Need a little more hope?

Personally I think that when man stepped on the moon it gave the world a hope that we could do what was once thought to be impossible. Having a friend who cares for you can give you hope. Some people hope to win the lottery or find the right partner. All people think that being happy, experiencing pleasure gives hope. The way this works is that they think that as long as they can enjoy something, have fun, indulge themselves they can face hardship, so in effect they place their hope in being able to have fun.

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Galatians 5:16-26

How to love life

There are a lot of self help books that seek to give advice on how to improve your life, how perhaps even to come to ‘love life.’ Typically they will be something like 10 steps to happiness, or 7 steps to enrich your marriage.

Self help or Jesus help?

Unfortunately life is not reducible to a few simple steps. The sheer number of self help books proves that loving life is not as simple as they make it out to be. Nothing in this world will make you love life. And there is no secret technique either. Jesus is the life of this world. He promises to be the very source of your life both spiritually and physically

We often try and meet our spiritual needs with the physical. For example: We fear God’s judgement so we compensate by wanting people to love us, accept us and certainly not reject us. But when Christ reconciles us to God we no longer have to use people to replace the love and acceptance of God.

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John 6:22-71

Lasting Satisfaction

There is nothing like a deliciously hot dinner on a cold night. Full, warm and satisfied is the result. But in a few hours tummy starts thinking about supper or a snack.

Is Jesus the goose that lays the golden egg?

Life can be just like hunger. Satisfaction is never lasting so we need to keep eating. One holiday is not going to last you the rest of your life. One romantic night leads to a desire to another. Your dream car, job, hobby needs constant upgrading.

Isn’t God there to give us what we find satisfying, to make our marriage happy, kids obedient, job fulfilling, food tasty? I haven’t found that to be the case. God has rarely given me what my heart desires.

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Exodus 20:1-17

Full Colour

I love living in sunny Brisbane with blue sky above the lush green of the trees which cover my neighbour hood. I’ve met lots of people who have moved away from places which seem full of grey, bitter cold and rain. They come here to feel the warmth of the sun, to enjoy the vividness of our sunlight.

Let Jesus colour your life

There are times when the colour is drained from our world from within our own hearts. If we begin to lose hope our bright would turns to shades of grey, with sharp shadows of darkness filling much of what we see.

When we turn to that which once held light and warmth it seems that the greyness consumes the brightness. And the more we try to brighten our world the more we seem to darken it.

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Luke 7:1-10

Spinning Jesus out: Luke 7:1-10

It may be hard to imagine but it possible to spin Jesus out. Even though he made everything, sees everything, is everywhere there are occasions when even Jesus is amazed

There are two occasions in the Bible when this happened. They are both unlikely examples of extreme and daring faith. Today we will be sharing in the story of a centurion who blew Jesus away with his faith.

Add courage to your faith to Amaze Jesus

It is so unlikely that a hardened soldier who had killed men in battle with a sword would so simply and decisively put his complete trust in Christ. To the point where he didn’t even need Jesus to come and lay hands on his sick servant. He just asked Jesus to ‘say the word and my servant will be healed.’

Not even among Church people had Jesus encountered such faith. I must admit I find this story incredibly challenging.  I make stupid excuses like, I really hate that person, they have hurt me so many times therefore I don’t have to love them or forgive them. That isn’t very good faith is it? Jesus said forgive, love your enemies and watch what I can do.

This story challenges us to be really daring, to leap into situations with an attitude of; how do I serve rather than be served, how do I forgive, love and demonstrate Christ working in and through my life? There is no reason why we should hold back because Jesus has the authority to do amazing things when we amaze him with our daring faith.  the Rev

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Luke 7:18-35

Is God for real?: Luke 7:18-35

What I love and hate about Jesus is that he is surprisingly surprising. I love the way he spins people out, he touches the untouchables, he has dinner with hardened criminals. But I hate the way he sometimes surprises me by allowing me to suffer far too much, as far as I’m concerned.

Not what you expected?

John the Baptist was a full on Prophet of God. No one in all of history can compare to his dedication to God. But even John asked Jesus whether he was the one he hoped for. So if John can have doubts how much more should we expect to sometimes struggle.

What is surprising is that Jesus assures John of who he is by doing a bunch of miracles. After that Jesus praises John, even though he had just questioned Christ as to his true identity. So it is ok for us to struggle with doubt. Perhaps Jesus wasn’t ministering in the way John expected. After all he was in prison, and Jesus seemed to be gathering to himself a large crowd of no hopers instead of overthrowing their nations enemies or cleansing the Church of religious hypocrites.

Sometimes Jesus doesn’t work the way we expect him to in our lives. He can allow some pretty hard stuff to happen. The trick then is to learn to recognise Christ in our lives, to see and hear Jesus working despite painful circumstances, people or experiences. Today I hope to encourage you to learn to see and hear Jesus within John’s story, your own story and our community’s story. the Rev     

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Luke 7:36-50

Immoral Woman Kisses Jesus: Luke 7:16-50

This happened when Jesus was having dinner with some religious leaders. They couldn’t believe their eyes. What they saw made them seriously doubt Jesus’ teaching and claims about himself. After all any prophet from God would have known what kind of woman she was, so why was Jesus allowing her to kiss him? (see the Gospel of Luke 7:36-50).

Go in peace

The woman who came to Jesus showed incredible courage and humility. She endured the condemning stares and murmurs of the dinner guests while she washed Christ’s feet with her tears, dried them with her hair and then continued to kiss them in gratitude. She believed Jesus was both human and divine, sent to earth to rescue her from the mess she had made of her relationship with God and her life. There was no way she could pretend or cover up what she had done and who she had become. She came as she was with all her shame and guilt. However, when she left she was forgiven, made whole, made clean, and set free. She left a new person with a new life, a new hope and a renewed faith in God.

As a Pastor I meet a lot of people who don’t realise who God is really like. A lot of people think of him as being like the religious leaders who looked down on the woman, who condemned her in their minds. But God isn’t like that, he sent Jesus to do exactly what we see him doing for the immoral woman, setting her free of judgement, of guilt and of shame. the Rev

This article was published in the Western Echo and is on our Church Website.            

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Luke 7:11-17

From funeral to celebration: Luke 7:11-17

Does your life feel like a funeral? Are you weeping on the inside not just because your hurting but because you are so afraid. I know that feeling. As a boy I hid under the blankets of my bed trying not to hear my mum and dad yelling at each other. I’ve sat on my father’s knee as he told me he was leaving and was never coming back. Up until then I had lived within the ever escalating tension of a couple who had come to hate each other. But on my Dad’s knee God shattered my world completely. I stopped living, I stopped hoping.

Christ's compassion

My most present emotions where incredible loneliness and white rage. I turned my back on God, I hated him for taking my dad out of my life. So I fled into the arms of whatever would destroy me, drugs, alcohol, violence. My only dream was to take my own life.

In the funeral that was my life Jesus was never far. He pursued me and kept me in his tight embrace, I know this now but I didn’t then. Jesus touched me as he did the widow’s son. He made me breath again, hope was kindled like the flame of a candle.

Christ surrounded me with people who had also been touched, whose funeral had been changed to celebration. And so I grew in hope, love, joy and peace. Loneliness was replaced by Christ himself.

Christ transformed the widow’s funeral into a celebration. I share her story. May Christ turn your funeral into celebration. the Rev

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Psalm 46

Safety, Care and Victory

Rev Roger Marsh filled in for me this Sunday so I could have a study week. Roger is a full time Army Chaplain so this sermon bristles with great military illustrations. There are many storms in our lives which can make us feel battered, God can be your refuge. In times of great need God can be your care and when you are being attacked God can be your victory. Thanks Roger

God is our refuge

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Deut 8:1-5, Jeremiah 17:5-10

Comfort in the wilderness

I’ve met many people who are depressed about happiness. It seems so elusive, so difficult to hold onto. Even worse are the times in your life when everything seems to be going wrong, all the good in your life has turned sour, when the colour and life has been drained from your life.

So how are we supposed to cope with circumstances which we don’t like and can’t change? God wants us to correctly diagnose what our problem is so that we can live the cure. Our problem is not so much bad circumstances but the problem of our heart. We desire the wrong thing.

Fruit not Thorns

Our heart’s desire is to be happy. Our heart tells us that to be happy it needs, wants and feels like certain things or people. When we don’t give our heart what it desires then it gets angry with us, we get sad, we get depressed, frustrated, angry etc.

God wants us to recognise that our heart is very sneaky and tricky. We really shouldn’t listen to it as much as we do. We can learn to change what we enjoy so that we can experience real joy despite bad circumstances.

When we listen and rely on God more than our own heart we will respond differently to our circumstances. Our desire will be to be like God, to grow in the following heart qualities which are the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23). the Rev

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Psalm 19

Prevent implosion

In many ways the human heart is like a black hole. It sucks everything into its ‘self.’ That which is drawn into the black hole is crushed. There is no escape from a black hole, even light is consumed.

What God made reminds us of his power and glory

Within the blackness of our heart it would seem that even God is lost, destroyed or at least made ineffective. In our dark moments, when fear, or anger, or depression overcomes our thoughts it seems as though God is gone.

When Christ died on the cross here entered the biggest and darkest black hole ever; the black hole of death itself and he overcame the blackness with his light and life. When we put our trust in Christ he changes our hearts from being a black hole which consumes, to being a living spring which bubbles over with life.

But there are still times when we feel more like a black hole than a spring, when God seems lost to us rather than near. So Psalm 19 encourages us by showing us three places where we can find God so that we do not implode in on ourselves in selfishness.

1) All around us, in the very world we live in we are reminded of God by all that he has made. That God is powerful, wise, good and involved in the world.

2) God has specifically revealed himself in the Bible to cast out our dark thoughts and replace them with hope, peace, joy and love.

3) God can be found within our own heart when we ask him to help us live for him so we can prevent our own implosion. the Rev

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Matthew 5:1-12 and Matthew 7:21-29

Certainty in an uncertain world

With the freedom of Post Modernism comes tremendous uncertainty. Values, principles and absolutes have been exchanged for subjective reality. Yes, we can do whatever we want but at what cost? Here is what is certain. God. And God loves to bless people who live according to his values. The sermon on the mount is something you can certainly live your life by and on. If you do then your life will be a blessing. If you would like to know how this works then listen to Dr Bruce Winter’s sermon. He graciously stepped in for me as I’ve had minor surgery on my knee again and my brain is still mush, so thank you Bruce. the Rev

Build your life on something solid

Click on 'read more' to explore how you can build your life on that which God has declared is certain.

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2 Peter 3

Encouragement for 2009

A fresh start

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Psalm 20

The right response to tragedy, crises and challenge Part 4

Trust the Lord

Tonight months of preparation will culminate in our Carol service which we will being having in the Gap High School Auditorium. Our desire is to go out of our comfort zone so that we can share with people the light of the gospel. God knew he was going wreck our Church building and arranged before hand for us to have our Carols in the High School. Psalm 20 is a prayer for God's help and favour before going into battle. We have prayed this prayer and look forward to seeing what God will do through us. the Rev

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Psalm 80

The right response to tragedy, crises and challenge Part III

God rescue us

As a nation Israel really went out of their way to upset God by disobeying him in every way they could. God disciplines his children so that they come to their senses and seek help from him. Psalm 80 seems to have been written just before the North of Israel was going to be taken captive to another nation. This Psalm pleads with God to restore and save them. As a little Church here in the Gap we are going through tough times and so we have sought comfort from this Psalm by asking God to restore and save us. the Rev

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Psalm 139

The right response to tragedy, crises and challenge Part II

Comfort from someone who cares and is close

David was an accomplished warrior. He had killed men in hand to hand combat. And yet in Psalm 139 David opens up his heart and relationship with God in the most personal, intimate and encouraging way. In this Psalm we find a man with anxious thoughts who sought comfort from God’s care and closeness. If you’re going through a tough time then this Psalm will encourage you to desire God’s comfort and closeness. the Rev

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Psalm 148

The right response to tragedy, crises and challenge

Even cows are to praise the Lord

Sometimes not knowing how to respond is as bad as going through a crises. When a loved one dies, when a storm tears your home or Church apart or when you are afflicted emotionally, how can you respond? Psalm 148 calls us to praise the Lord. Let me explain what this involves, who should praise, the Lord, how this is to be done and why we should praise the Lord. This Psalm gives direction where there is hesitation, confusion and uncertainty. the Rev

Check out the photos which I refer to during the sermon

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Is God needed anymore?

Science has a very respected and privileged place in our society because of the countless amazing things it has done for us. In many ways, science is the voice of truth in our culture. But what are we to make of the many religious (or anti-religious) claims that science is beginning to make? Has science put God out of a job? How do we even know that God exists? How should Christians approach science, if at all? Ming

Nanobot working on a red blood cell

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James 4:1-3

Brisbanenites learn to master their feelings

It was my privelage to give the message for 96Five's family worship service on Sunday 03/08/08.

If you would like to reduce the amount of conflict in your life then this message will give you practical advice to help you become more at peace within yourself, with God and with the world. the Rev

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1 Samuel 17

Will your rope hold?

My name is Ming and on Sunday I had the opportunity to give my first sermon, in our church’s evening service called Renew. It was on the story of David and Goliath (1 Sam 17), which we all discovered was much more than an exciting kid’s story.

Will your rope hold?

If you plan to go mountain climbing, you’d want to be sure that your harnessing rope is strong. You can have 100% faith in an old frayed rope, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s old and frayed. David had courage because he put his trust in the rope that will never break – God. Because of that, God used David to defeat a giant. There’s a great lesson to be learnt for both little kids and big kids alike.