GRLC Lifewords Podcast

After a huge week at Kids Games on a journey to outer space, this Sunday Scott is presenting a special message on a journey to inner space. Coinciding with National Mental Health Week, he will explore the realities and complexities of all our inner worlds and offer some simple steps to rekindling fresh hope and purpose in your life, or someone you love.

At 10am Mark Pfeiffer will facilitate a fireside chat with some friends around the theme of Bearing Much Fruit and Not Being Greedy

Join us this Sunday 23rd September our 10am service where we will continue to focus on living a standout life as Scott Morrison speak s with a number of our married couples about what makes a stand out marriage

Join us this Sunday 16th September our 5pm Shift where we will continue to focus on living a standout life as Scott Morrison asks the question "Why Would You Believe In Jesus"

Join us this Sunday 9th September at 10am where we will continue to focus on living a standout life as Glenn Power explores what discipleship in the second half of life looks like.

Join us this Sunday 2nd September at 10am and 6pm as we focus on living a standout life as Malcolm Campbell explores what discipleship on the inside looks like.

Join us this Sunday 26 August at 10am and 6pm as we focus on Daniel Chapter 6 and discover more about what it means to live a Stand Out Life. Bruce Stevenson will be preaching at 10am.

Join us this Sunday 12 August at 10am and 6pm as Ben Rusin will continue our series A Stand Out Life with a challenge from Daniel 3 - Discipleship in a World Going It's Own Way.

Join us this Sunday 5 August at 10am and 6pm as Scott Morrison will continue our new series with 8 Principles for a Stand Out Life. We will also celebrate Communion together.

Join us this Sunday 29 July as Scott Morrison will start our follow on series from Moving Out called A Stand Out Life. Over the next 5 weeks we will be looking at 5 key stories in the book of Daniel that teach us how we can live distinctively Jesus-centred lives that also sincerely embrace and advance the culture around us.

Join us this Sunday 22 July when Scott Morrison will share on Your Greatest Choice to wrap up our Moving Out series

Join us this Sunday 8 July as Scott Morrison continues with our Moving Out series with a focus on The Practicalities of Personal Witnessing and how to make the connection. Our services are at 10am and 6pm.

This Sunday 1 July join us at 10am and 6pm when Ben Rusin will encourage us around the theme of Becoming a Natural in the Supernatural from Acts 3:1-10

Scott Morrison will be preaching at both services on Communicating Christ Contextually.

Join us this Sunday 17 June as Scott Morrison will share with us from John 4:27-42 on the Power of Personal Testimony.

Join us this Sunday 10 June as award winning author Lisa Shanahan will be preaching from John 4:1-26 on Conversations That Transform. Our service times are 10am and 6pm.

John Robinson will be our guest this weekend, speaking at our Discipleship Conference on Saturday, and he will then bring a different and complimentary message at both Sunday services - 10am and 6pm. John is a leader in the area of spiritual formation and we are sure that he will bring fresh insight into living "A Life That Works".

Our Moving Out series continues this Sunday 27 May with Bruce Stevensonpreaching from Luke 10:1-24.

Our Moving Out series continues with Jasmine Philips preaching from Luke 9:1-11. Jesus wasted no time in moving his disciples out of the classroom. He sent them out with a specific mantle, message, method and mind-set. So how do we, as his commissioned ones, apply this today.

Our Moving Out series continues with Scott Morrison reflecting on Moving Out to the Poor. God is biased towards the poor and this week we will be challenged to not only partner with the poor through mission month giving but to understand the eternal significance of personal investment into people who are poor materially, socially and spiritually.

Scott Morrison continues with Week 2 of our new series Moving Out. In this message, Scott looks at the power and necessity of finding your life in Jesus, and moving out from that starting point.

During Term 2 we will focus on that third part of the discipleship triangle – moving OUT. We’ll be talking about our collective mission as ‘sent ones,’ our message and motivation, God's heart for the poor, and how we become confident, natural communicators of the Gospel. This is foundational for any church wanting to move beyond themselves into the wider community and mission of God. The series will challenge and prepare us to move out beyond the safety of a private relationship with Jesus, to make Him known, and be disciples who make disciples. In this first week in the Moving Out series, Scott Morrison will be returning to John 21 looking Jesus’ invitation to Peter to move out beyond his failure, insecurity and disappointment into his calling as a leader.

Scott Morrison teaching on three key principles that influence our financial lives, and the practical relationship between finance and following Jesus.

This week's message on 'The Heart in Generosity' shares the story of the widow who gave out of her poverty in Luke 21

This Sunday 8 April Scott Morrison will be teaching on the intimate connection between grace and generosity in life as seen through the eyes of an unlikely disciple in Luke 19

Glenn Power will be taking us through John 17, looking at Serving from Imperfection

Yes No Maybe - James 5.12 James lived out a sold out life knowing that his brother was the son of God. No doubt as he looked around the early church, he saw people who had a belief but not one that translated into a sold out life. He wanted their actions to express their beliefs. He wanted their words of commitment to be honourable and reliable not a maybe. There are often too many loopholes in our commitment. James would want that our lives should be a yes to Jesus.

Exploring our Illusions - James 4:13 – 5:6 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus The book of James is like the New Testament's version of wisdom literature in which James lays out how we do life in the kingdom. Our problem is not the theory, or the theology, it's the execution, the follow-through. This week we look at 4 illusions that can stop us in our follow-through as effective disciples who wholeheartedly love, live and reveal Jesus. We must break through these illusions if we are to fully flourish.

Living Wisely in the Light of Christ’s Return - James 4.13 – 5.9 Sometimes our life seems like an endless cycle where we go through the same activities day after day. In this passage James says that when we live with the expectation of Christ’s return, we will live wisely. Rather than living as though this life is all there is, we will live with hope, we will not put our security in earthly things and we will fulfil our earthly purpose by resting in Christ.

Kingdom Wisdom - James 3: 13-18 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus Life is a series of decisions for which we need wisdom, but ‘wisdom’ is not a word we use in everyday contexts very much any more. This week’s passage from James explores the difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. James addresses the members of the church, particularly those who think they are wise and challenges them to demonstrate by their actions that this is true. In verses 14-16 he talks about rivalry and factionalism which he not only calls unspiritual, but even demonic. And he’s talking to the church!!! James contrasts this earthly wisdom that is fuelled by ego to the wisdom from the kingdom. Kingdom wisdom is not ambitious, proud or self-seeking but is peace-loving and yields good fruit. He exhorts people to kingdom wisdom, which is an orientation of your thoughts from heaven to earth (not earth to heaven). It comes from a place of connection to Jesus and knowing the mind of Christ for our circumstances. Wisdom Is the flavour of heaven.

Favouritism - James 3.1-12 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus Sometimes our words are spoken to help, comfort, console and encourage. At other times, often without thinking of the impact on others, our words can hurt, show little understanding or compassion, and destroy relationships. Our words have the power to turn things around or to consume and destroy. In this passage, James want his readers to know the importance of what we speak. He illustrates the truth rather than stating the obvious. He makes 3 observations. vs 3-5 The tongue is small but powerful like a bit controlling a large horse or a small rudder turning a huge ship vs 6-8 The tongue is small but dangerous like a spark that creates a destroying fire. Just a few words can ruin a relationship for years through humiliation and thoughtlessness. vs 9-12 The tongue is small but revealing and often a contradiction. Fresh or bitter water doesn't come from the same spring and neither does bad fruit grow on a good tree. It is easy to feel guilty, ashamed and powerless because of the things we have said, but the good news is that Christ has given us grace and power to control what comes out of our mouths.

Favouritism James 2.1-13 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus Favouritism is the practice of giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of others. For the church to favour some and discriminate against others is to disobey the teaching of Jesus and the early church. In this passage, James gets right to the point with a stark command not to show favouritism vs 1. He gives an example of what was happening, of favouring a rich person in fine clothes over a poor person in old clothes by providing seating for one and not the other vs 2-4. In vs 5-7 he condemns their behavior which is in contrast to God’s heart for us. He concludes by reminding them, that we are to live by the royal law of love not by the laws that we have wrongly used to judge and discriminate against others. In James’ eyes, to show favouritism is no better than murder because … well you work it out!

Faith and Works - James 2.14-26 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus Works are an important part of our salvation but our salvation is neither attained, retained nor sustained by our works. Our salvation is by grace through faith, and not by works, but we need to be clear how faith and works go together. What James wants us to understand is that if you say you have faith, but there is nothing produced from your faith, then it is a dead faith. Faith must flow into life transformation. James provides 2 examples to illustrate his point that faith and works go together. Rahab saw and believed God was the force behind the Israelites. She not only believed but did something about it by hiding the spies. Abraham, aged 75, believed God’s promises that he would have an heir and descendants as innumerable as the stars and it was credited to him as righteousness. At age 100, he held his son Isaac, the promise, in his hands, having meditated on this promise for 25 years as he looked at the stars each night. 15 years later his faith was tested (40 years after the promise first given). He didn’t understand why God asked him to do this but he knew he could trust God to provide the lamb. His faith was demonstrated by his action of offering his son. In both examples, their belief prompted them into action knowing that they could rely on and depend upon the goodness and support of God.

Getting beyond belief: James 1 : 19-27 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus In this third week of our study of James, Scott reminded us that James is not about a works-based theology. James big idea is: Don’t just talk about it … show the love of God in your life. It's not an anti-grace message but a life lived out of the empowering messageof grace. This letter emphasises our need to have an unambiguously earthed spirituality. James is concerned with how grace enables us to make the word of God tangible in our lives and how we demonstrate, through our actions, what our faith is all about. This is the kind of faith the world needs to see from believers if they are going to take our message of the love of Jesus seriously. Scott suggested that we often aspire to this kind of lived-out faith but there is often a massive disconnect between faith and practice, belief and action. He suggested three reasons this might be so: 1) we have a skewed understanding of our salvation, 2) we are consumers of information and 3) we lack focus. James reminds us that if we can study and read the word of God all our lives and then walk away and do nothing about it we really have missed the point. How do we get beyond belief?

What kind of disciple are you? This week we begin a new series on the book of James. James was a very early letter, written around 45-47 AD by James, the brother of Jesus. James was an amazing character who was thought of in the early church as a holy and righteous man. It is likely that he took a Nazirite vow (like Samson) and he was also referred to as “James the Just”. During Jesus’ life on earth he didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God (I guess it's hard to believe that your older brother is the son of God), but something happened to radically turn James around. He saw the resurrected Jesus (1 Cor 15:7) and after this his life was radically altered, so that the followed Jesus as his Lord. He became the first bishop of the church of Jerusalem. Paul calls him a pillar of the church in Gal 2:9 and James is the one who approved Paul as being a servant of God after his conversion from Judaism. James was martyred in 62AD; he was stoned for saying that his older brother was the son of God. The book of James is about how Jesus’ teaching works out in the lives of Christians. It assumes you know the Gospel and instead asks what effect it is having in your life. The book of James could be boiled down into one simple question: What type of disciple are you?

Hunger for God Andrei talked about the difference between desire and hunger. Desire is something we want, but hunger is something we pursue. Hunger focuses us on a cause. Our energy and actions become devoted to achieving the cause. What we hunger for is what we feed on. An unhealthy hunger can lead to an obsession or addiction. Even good things can end up becoming unhealthy addictions if they take our heart from God. King Saul enjoyed the power of his role more than his responsibility to his people and his obedience to God. His hunger for power led to jealousy and the desire to kill David. The apostle Paul had a deep desire for God’s Law but his unhealthy obsession drove him to want to destroy Christians because he saw them as a threat to his zealousness for the law. Our desire can lead to an encounter with God, but when our hunger is healthy, it leads to a transforming encounter with God. The rich young ruler when he came to Jesus had desire to be righteous but not hunger to follow Jesus instruction. Consequently, his life was not transformed by his encounter whereas Paul’s life was transformed when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Celebrating Singleness - 1 Corinthians 7.25-38 While our Churches can often be nuclear family oriented there is a large number of Church goers who are single for a variety of reasons. For some this is welcome, for others it a phase of life, for others there can be pain, grief, disappointment or disillusionment associated with past relationships that have ended for one reason or another. Two important thoughts are: 1. The Bible supports singleness 1 Cor 7.25-38 and places high significance on the call of singleness. It shows that our identity, equality or completeness are not linked to marital or sexual status. Matt 19.10-12. Jesus was single but complete and those who are dedicated or deliberate singles are better placed to live a higher calling for the Kingdom of God. 2. We need to be mindful how we speak and act towards those who are single. We should not pity, disparage or cast doubts over those who make this life choice or find themselves single. Rather there is great reason to encourage, esteem and build relationships with them to help them thrive in their singleness.

Spiritual Fatherhood - Matthew 28 :19-20, Deuteronomy 6:1-9 This week, in the light of Fathers’ Day, Scott talked to us about Spiritual Fatherhood. The Bible has a strong focus on personal commitment but ALWAYS links discipleship to community. In Matthew 28, Jesus doesn't say 'go and make converts', he says 'go and make disciples'. Discipleship is not JUST you and Jesus and what he is doing in you, it is also what he is doing THROUGH you to impact others and disciple them in kingdom living. Do we think so much about making converts that we forget about the discipleship bit? In the context of making and growing disciples, spiritual parenting is critical. We need both biological and spiritual fathers and mothers who can greatly influence how we grow as disciples. We are to be a family through community. There are many simple ways to disciple others: welcoming people, inspiring and challenging them without judgement, providing healthy feedback, championing them, valuing them, cheering them on, speaking truth in love, being an example and role model, showing up, and praying for them.

Barriers to Intimacy - Mark 10 : 17-23 The Bible is full of people approaching God. Typically when they approach God, they go away happy or at least hopeful, but the ones that go away unhappy are often the ones that came with stuff - an ego, (e.g. the Pharisees) or in the case of the story from this week’s passage, a man who came with his life all together. From an external view the rich young ruler had a life that was perfect, however he leaves after his encounter with Jesus with an existential crisis. The rich young ruler seems to have all the externals of his life in order (power, influence and wealth). This could explain many of us today. We live in a generation where the externals have never been more important and where we can manage our own PR. But Jesus is interested in the internals not the externals, and the kingdom is incompatible with a heart that is self-sufficient, self-assured, prideful and self-made. What can his encounter teach us about our own relationship with Jesus?

Movement of the heart - 2 Samuel 6 : 12-22 This week’s sermon encouraged us to think about another aspect of our embodied response to Jesus. Our heart response to him is reflected in movement of many types. While dance is perhaps a very obvious example, we might also think of raising our hands, kneeling, bowing our heads and other physical movements we make in response to God. We were reminded that God is not interested in our performance but he is interested in our heart. In 2 Samuel 6 we read about King David’s passionate personal act of worship before the Ark of God, which technically could have been ‘illegal’ for someone other than a priest. His dancing is all about his expression of joy and worship at the return of the presence of God after the ark had been captured by the Philistines and absent from Israel for a generation. David unabashedly dances ‘half-naked’ in the streets and is unconcerned with his image, freely expressing his joy to God. This leads us to ask what stops us from freely expressing how we feel in the presence of God? Is it because we worry about awkwardness, about what people will think? Or because we think those that do worship in demonstrably physical ways look odd? Amy suggested that there are 4 principles that can guide us in working through this topic: 1. Worship with all our might; 2. Ignore the critic; 3. Be vulnerable; 4. Reclaim movement.

Expressions of Intimacy: Worship and SongRead Psalm 98 Music and singing are gifts from God. Songs enable us to express our thanks to God and to find intimacy with Him. Songs lift our hearts, stir our emotions, stimulate our minds and evoke a physical response. Songs help lift our eyes from ourselves and our circumstances onto God. Our songs have had a greater impact on our society than laws ever have. When John Newton escaped death in a storm on his slave trading ship he was inspired to write Amazing Grace. This song, still sung today, helped abolish slave trading and brought revival. Songs bring God’s people together in community, providing an opportunity for teaching, celebration, thanksgiving, lament, remembrance and the prophetic. They also act as a major weapon in Kingdom warfare against Satan by proclaiming truth, hearing from God, shifting what is happening in the Heavenlies, and releasing power. Each generation is inspired by new songs that speak to their generation, enabling them to rise up and be the people of God, worshipping Him wholeheartedly.

Where you stand determines your perspective Psalm 73 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus Psalm 73 is a Psalm of Asaph, who was an important man in the building of the tabernacle. He was a colleague of King David and fellow psalmist, a musician and composer, a Levite and a prophet, and an important man in the worship life of Israel. This Psalm reflects on a time when Asaph was losing his footing towards God and was wracked with doubts about the rewards of life and the nature of suffering. He raises two questions as to why the wicked prosper, and why the righteous suffer. In this Psalm, we can see how Asaph’s wrong footing led to an inability to have a right perspective. Verses 4 and 5 indicate that he even thought that the wicked have no struggles, that their bodies are healthy and strong and that they are free from common human burdens! Because his feet were slipping, Asaph couldn't see the whole picture. He saw their lives as better than they really were. However, this psalm also offers us hope because it was written after Asaph had regained a proper posture towards God and can be a source of help for us in maintaining or regaining a proper perspective despite the challenges of life.

Where you stand determines your perspective Psalm 73 Disciples wholeheartedly loving, living and revealing Jesus Psalm 73 is a Psalm of Asaph, who was an important man in the building of the tabernacle. He was a colleague of King David and fellow psalmist, a musician and composer, a Levite and a prophet, and an important man in the worship life of Israel. This Psalm reflects on a time when Asaph was losing his footing towards God and was wracked with doubts about the rewards of life and the nature of suffering. He raises two questions as to why the wicked prosper, and why the righteous suffer. In this Psalm, we can see how Asaph’s wrong footing led to an inability to have a right perspective. Verses 4 and 5 indicate that he even thought that the wicked have no struggles, that their bodies are healthy and strong and that they are free from common human burdens! Because his feet were slipping, Asaph couldn't see the whole picture. He saw their lives as better than they really were. However, this psalm also offers us hope because it was written after Asaph had regained a proper posture towards God and can be a source of help for us in maintaining or regaining a proper perspective despite the challenges of life.