Here is Tim’s message from Sunday on the refining fire of God.
In Matthew 3 John the Baptists says; “I baptize you with water to show that you have repented, but the one who will come after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
ps. how good to see our old friend Jess Bell back in Sydney for the weekend from America!
Too often twisted interpretations of scripture have led to violence and abuse in our relationships. In Tim’s sermon on Colossians 3:18-25, he looks at how the Christian message subverts patriarchy and control and calls us all to mutual love and service in our relationships!
Click play and wait for the message to begin…
We are always coming under pressure to conform… to the values of the world around us, to the huge array of spiritualities and philosophies, to add to the gospel.
In the letter to the Colossians, Paul wants us to know that the true gospel is bigger and more powerful than we could ever have imagined. There is no need to deviate from the truth found in the incomparable Jesus Christ.
To listen to the introduction to our series in Colossians, click play and wait for the audio to start.
Here is Dr Vince Repaci’s talk on the compatibility of science and faith. Vince has a Phd in biology and a living faith in Jesus. To listen to this brilliant talk, click play and wait for the audio to start.
Here is Tim’s sermon from Sunday as Manly Life celebrated 4 years as a church community. It comes from Philemon 1:4-7 in which Paul thanks God for Philemon. Are you the kind of person who when remembered in prayer causes thanksgiving?
(click play and wait for audio to start)
We have to hold on to the ideal, and be committed to Christian community! Yes life together can be frustrating, disappointing and testing… but it is also the hope of the world. It is where God forms character, grows us in love and sends us on mission into the world. We truly do life better when we do it together!
Click play and wait for the audio to start.
The Christian ethic around sex and relationships is so vastly more beautiful and life giving than anything our culture offers. In this talk, Pastor Tim talks about the struggles we all have around sex and relationships, and paints a picture of what we are called to. Everyone has value as created in the image of God, we are to love others as we love ourselves, and faithful marriage is blessed by Jesus as the best place for sex.
Click play and wait for the audio to start.
Here is last Sunday’s simply outstanding interview with Matty D about addiction and new life!
To listen click play and wait for the audio to start.
Pastor Joey Mawson takes on Galatians 5 and the amazing new life presented to us in Christ. We are unconditionally loved, but will we use that freedom to serve others in love or to follow our selfish desires? Click play and wait for the audio to start. The passage in the Message version is below.
Galatians 5:13-26 (the Message)
13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
