Embrace Church Sermons

Series: What Are We Here For? Speaker: Lachlan Zammit Sermon: Saved & SeatedTeaching Text: Ephesians 2:1-10

Series: What Are We Here For? Speaker: Lachlan Zammit Sermon: Thank God You're Here Teaching Text: Ephesians 1:3-23

In this sermon pastor Lachlan introduces us Paul's letter to the Ephesians and why we should read it. We also look closely at the first two verses in the letter and ask what it might mean to receive grace and peace in 2020 as a church.

In this sermon pastor Lachlan helps us understand the four parts of Psalm 2 and how it compels us to pray for public, political, real world realities.

In this sermon pastor Lachlan helps us think through the purpose and the content of the Psalms as we begin our sporadic series which we will do through the year learning to pray through the Psalms.

In this sermon pastor Lachlan reads through the Christmas story from Matthew & Luke's gospel accounts and offers some reflections on how God comes to us.

Everyday Christian: BonusFollowing Jesus & Our Neighbours in NeedMatt Di LorenzoMark 1:40-45

Everyday Christian: BonusFollowing Jesus in our Dating, Sexuality, Romance & Relationships.Lachlan ZammitRomans 12:1-2; Matthew 19:1-6

Fish & Ships: Part FourLachlan ZammitGod Loves All People (And Animals?)Jonah 4:1-11

Fish & Ships: Part ThreeLachlan ZammitJonah 3:1-10

Fish & Ships: Part TwoLachlan ZammitJonah 1:17-2:10

Fish & Ships: Part OneLachlan ZammitJonah 1:1-16

Jesus has a lot to say about little children. So focused on growing up and what’s next, we can forget something that’s familiar to all of us, what it means to be a little child. In this sermon Pastor Lachlan shares a word about being like children before God, depending, hungering and being full of wonder before Him.

Intentional rest, or Sabbath is central to the Bible’s storyline, who God is and how he designed us to live. But in the midst of busyness, workaholism and restlessness it seems to be something we’ve forgotten is essential to the rhythms of our everyday lives and weeks. Guest preacher Mike Riddell joins us to explore the life-giving practice of Sabbath and how intentional rest can realign our calendars more in line with the life God planned for us.

What is the purpose of our work? Is it primarily so that we can earn a living and feed our families, or is there something more significant? Guest preacher Rob Martin joins us from City Bible Forum to explain the biblical significance and purpose to our work.

If our primary call in life is to love God and love neighbour then is there room for pursuing our own hobbies and interests? Yes. We are all made in the image of God, to delight, be creative and rest. Hobbies and entertainment are great ways of pursuing these gifts to enjoy God and his creation. These great gifts are terrible masters though and we must seek wisdom to put our hobbies in their proper place so that they are life giving gifts which spur on creativity, celebration and community. When these gifts become addictions and distractions our desires have been disordered and we love them too much. Listen in as Pastor Lachlan helps us to enjoy and engage wisely with our hobbies and entertainment.

Our friendships and social life play such a significant role in our everyday lives, so what is Jesus’ vision for this? We survey the life of Jesus in the gospel of John to see how he engaged in friendship and social life. Jesus was the truest friend there ever was. He models and empowers us to be a friend who delights in joy and generosity as well as feasting and celebration. He was also full of honesty and authenticity, service and sacrifice, initiative and intentionality. What would it look like to pursue this vision in our social lives?

How does our faith impact how we approach school, uni and learning. As Paul teaches the people of Athens, the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. This has tremendous implications for the value of school. In this sermon Pastor Lachlan casts a vision for learning as a Christian, one where we learn to live well, contribute and collaborate in God’s good world.

How do I live as a Christian on a Monday? In particular, what does it look like to live out my faith at home and with my family? In this sermon we look at Jesus’ command to love your neighbour, and ask who our closest neighbour is and how we can love them well.

We are beginning a new series on what it means to be a Christian in all of the ordinary parts of our life and day. We want to break down divides between Sunday and Monday, the secular and the sacred and see how our faith touches all of our life.

Jesus’ story begins to influence and infiltrate the world through a rag tag bunch of disciples. The future of the Jesus movement will be shaped by followers of Jesus who have all sorts of different approaches to life, ways of learning, personalities and purposes. The way Jesus commissions Peter is very different to how he calls John, but the temptation to look sideways and compare is strong. How can we embrace the value of difference and resist a spirit of comparison as we walk the path that Jesus calls us to for the sake of the world?

The reality of resurrection means death is not the end. The risen Jesus meets Mary, the disciples and Thomas, breathing on them and giving them His Spirit and commissioning them to continue the mission that the Father sent him to do. Pastor Lachlan encourages us to embrace the risen Jesus who knows our pain, knows our name, knows our doubts and sends us out.

As Jesus dies on the cross, he reigns as king. His exaltation is his humiliation, his victory is his death, his coronation is the cross. Jesus is a radically different kind of king. He offers up his life for his people. Far from being an oppressive king or irrelevant royal, Jesus kingship brings life, salvation and redemption to a world that’s desperately in need of freedom and love.

Habakkuk was a Hebrew prophet who spoke with God and spoke to the people. He was a prophet and intercessor in a time of evil and injustice. Ronald Lieu invites us to consider what trusting God looks like in a messy world full of injustice and unrighteousness.

As Jesus goes to the cross, he leads the way. Unlike most captives, he seems to be carrying the most authority and composure while those around him stumble and crumble. As author Joshua Ryan Butler says, “the cross isn’t happening to Jesus, Jesus is happening to the cross.” Pastor Lachlan invites us to let our entire beings be led by this leader, the GOAT, who loves us so much that he paved his own way to death, so we might be rescued. He’s the boss of the cross.

John concludes the discipleship discourse with a whole chapter of Jesus praying. Jesus prays to be glorified, for his disciples and for us, the future church and followers of Christ. His prayer is for his people to be united with one another, the Father and himself. Pastor Lachlan invites us to consider what our union with Christ means for our communion with God and community with each other, as we live in the reality of what the Lord prayed.

The third pillar of our vision as a church is mission. We want to be a community of disciples following the way of Jesus… for the sake of the world. God calls, sends, empowers and equips his people to be ambassadors of His Kingdom. To be on mission is to be the people of God, sold out for Jesus and His Way, living a different life as salt and light in the world. We share His love and show His kindness and compassion proclaiming good news in both word and deed.

Jesus has two interesting promises for those who follow him. That there will be trouble in this world and that he has overcome the world. The promises seem to be in tension but Jesus stands in between and says “take heart”. He give love, hope, victory and peace. In this sermon Pastor Lachlan invites us into the Christ empowered posture of hopeful realism, engaging in our ‘Easter Saturday’ world between death and resurrection, with Jesus promises and presence anchoring our lives and perspective of everything.

Jesus has some promises for his followers which are hard to hear. If the world hates you he says, it’s because the world hated me first. In fact if you’re persecuted this might not be such bad news, even though it will be painful, because it demonstrates that you are Jesus people. It’s not you, it’s me, Jesus says. And though living in and loving our post-Christian city as a follower of Jesus will be difficult at times, Jesus says that He will send help and give us everything we need, namely the Holy Spirit. Listen in as Pastor Lachlan shares Jesus’ advice for how to live as dual citizens, children of the Kingdom of God and inhabitants and contributors to the world.

We all like the idea of love, but putting it into practice is the hard part. Jesus commands us to love each other. He says to love each other like He loves us and his kind of love is a love where you lay down your life for your friends. It's the kind of love which can only flow out of the resources of Jesus himself, the fruit of abiding in the vine. And just like a cherry tomato plant bears cherry tomatoes, it’s a Jesus person who bears Jesus love. Pastor Lachlan talks about practicing the difficult art of loving people well.

Central to discipleship to Jesus is his invitation to abide in him, the true the vine. To abide means to make our home there, to dwell in Jesus and live with him. The second metaphor of the vine means he’s also our root system and we are fruit bearing branches bringing life to the world through our nourishment in Him. Pastor Lachlan explains what this looks like in his life and how we can live into this reality.

We are seeking to be a community of disciples following the way of Jesus for the sake of the world. In this sermon Pastor Lachlan looks at Jesus call to "follow me" and what that means for how we live and do church. A disciple is an apprentice of Jesus who follows him by being with Jesus, learning from Jesus and becoming like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit can be a confusing subject for many Christians. He is a friend whom we know but could get to know a whole lot more. Jesus introduces his disciples to the promised Holy Spirit, another like Him who will come to be their advocate, helper, ally, counsellor, encourager, strengthener and true friend.

Jesus is the only way to God, but he’s also the Way to be, the embodiment of Truth and the source of Life in all its fullness. This is a central and essential teaching of Jesus for both followers of Jesus and those who don’t call him Lord. As Jesus prepares the disciples for his departure he teaches that there is hope, there is one way to God and there is work to be done.

On one of the darkest nights in history, Jesus' friends respond in different ways. Peter, Judas and John respectively demonstrate postures of self-reliance, God-defiance and God-dependence. The beloved the disciple is one who rests on Jesus, leans back on his chest and has a posture of reclining faith.

Community has always been the way God works. The trinity, the story of creation, Israel, the disciples and the Church demonstrate that community is at the heart of God. In a society plagued by loneliness and isolation, God is calling his family to be a like a family, for the sake of one another and the people around us.