Liberty Church, Auckland, New Zealand, is committed to celebrating the goodness of God and seeing the extension of God's Kingdom through His manifest presence.
Here we are encouraged to understand that the language of Christianity is that something has already been done; Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. Our salvation is not based on us being good. Our salvation is based on God being good.
By calling His followers salt and light Jesus is saying that we are vital to the world as a preserving agent in society, restraining corruption and shining as a visible witness. We are challenged to consider that salt loosing its saltiness is equivalent to Christians loosing their Christlikeness.
The 8th Day is part of the Passion Week around Easter. Here where learn that the the 8th Day is where new creation breaks into the old with promises of forgiveness and life.
Following Jesus and living the Beatitudes leads to divine life but it also leads to persecution. The final Beatitude is not limited to those who suffer violent persecution; to be rejected and ridiculed and misunderstood is part of living the Jesus way. This final beatitude comes with the same blessing as the first.
To follow Jesus means that we are invited to live in the peace that He gives us - peace with God, peace with Jesus, peace within ourselves, offering and making peace in the world around usIn this message Ps Trent looks at the difference between peacemakers and peacekeepers, as well as challenging our thinking process around managing conflict. Learn how to live with inner peace.
The message by one of Liberty's Elders looks at what is important to God, what it means to see God and what we can do to develop a heart that is pure.
The Beatitudes reveal the personality and the heart of Jesus. This 5th Beatitude “Blessed are the Merciful” tells us that blessed are the ones who show loyal love and grace”Unique to this Beatitude is the fact that it is the only Beatitude where the blessing and the promise match. When we extend mercy to others this positions our being to be in a place of receiving God's mercy and healing in our lives.
Here we are reminded that Blessed means "How fortunate". We learn that God is mighty to save and that our righteousness does not depend on what we do but on what God has done. Will we hunger and thirst to know Him?
Here Trent looks at "What does meekness look like?" and "What does it mean to inherit the earth?" We learn that meekness means full of power, but restraining that power for the sake of love. When Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth He is directly quoting Ps 37 which is all about God's plan to elevate the poor and oppressed and the unimportant,
Why the Kingdom matters so much is because our salvation is not just about 'me'. In this message Kim talks compares the two different kingdoms (satan's and God's) and calls us to be part of the advance of God's Kingdom. It's when we love others that we get to live our best life.
In this message Trent looks at the author of suffering (satan), the Redeemer of our suffering (Jesus) and the Redemption of our suffering.The Biblical story does not dignify our suffering in the present but promises to bring about its decisive defeat in the end.
The way of Jesus is more than a philosophy of life, a moral system or a list of do's and don'ts. It is a way of life where we apprentice to Jesus, where we live The Way. The Sermon on the Mount will lead us to a life long journey that sees us transformed into a people of love.
Here Trent highlights that the Christian life is not about keeping a set of rules but about being transformed. As we work out our salvation (a command from scripture) its about the recovery of the divine nature we have lost. In this message we see that following Jesus looks like growing in faith, hope and especially love.
In this introduction to our upcoming Sermon on the Mount series, Trent expounds on what it means to live the Jesus Way. We are not just believers but called to live a lifestyle. The gospel cannot be reduced to just receiving Jesus as personal Saviour, as important as that is. We are called to proclaim the new birth and demonstrate the new Kingdom. Salvation is becoming the kind of person God intended human beings to be.
In the western world it can be hard to depend on God as we have so many things propping us up. Here Kim looks like what it means to be poor in spirit, that we might depend on God for all our needs.
In this message Kevin highlights 4 things every disciple should know as it relates to vocation, adoption, location and invitation.
The new way of knowing God through the glory of the incarnation
The Word joined us in humanity that we might have power to become the sons and daughters of God. What Jesus Christ is by nature, we are called to become by grace.
John tells us that the true light which enlightens everyone has come into the world. The light shines in the darkness will not overcome it. In Isaiah's day the days were coming. With the coming of Christ the days have now arrived.
We don't have to win a war or win an election for the Kingdom of God to come among us. The Kingdom of God does not come by bullets or ballots; it comes by the Cross of Christ. Our task is to be a community formed around the Crucified One - a community of grace and love where each of us takes up our cross to follow the Lamb
When we bring our wounds to Jesus it initiates our healing. With joy we can draw water from the springs of salvation
There is one continual plan of salvation that began long ago and culminated in Jesus. Jesus came to fulfill what the law and the prophets had tried and failed to do. He brought a new law - the law of love.
Between the house of bondage and the land of milk and honey there is a wilderness. The wilderness is a necessary part of the journey of faith. Just as Christ was the rock in the dessert that brought forth water, Jesus will be with us and give us water for our souls.
Salvation looks like being led out through the sea, freed from bondage. God sees, hears, cares.
No one looms larger in the story of the first Testament than Moses. Moses the deliverer, Moses the lawgiver, Moses the man who talked face to face with God, Moses the man who went toe-to-toe with Pharaoh. But at midlife Moses was none of these things. He was only a forgotten figure with a scandalous past; a former prince in Pharaoh's court who was now a fugitive working for his father-in-law in the outback. But all of that changed in the mysterious encounter with the burning bush.
The book of Revelation is all about making fully known the person and plan of Jesus for the redemption of mankind. In it we see the establishment of the new covenant and the kingdom of God. The entire book of Revelation reminds us that Jesus is on the throne. This second week focusses on chapter 13-22 and a victorious church, the Bride of Christ, who following the death of her first husband (the old covenant) becomes married anew to Jesus, carrying the message of the gospel and the coming of the kingdom of God into the world.
The book of Revelation is all about making fully known the person and plan of Jesus for the redemption of mankind. In it we see the establishment of the new covenant and the kingdom of God. This first week focusses on chapter 1-12 and a victorious Jesus who has already defeated and disempowered the enemy, satan.
Joseph was used by God to bring salvation to the house of Israel, with obvious parallels to Jesus.
Jesus is the ladder upon which the agents of grace ascend and descend. He's the one who reconciled Heaven and Earth.
Just as Isaac is the son of promise, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of God. Just as Isaac is the son of laughter, Jesus is the bringer of joy. Just as Isaac was the son of sacrifice (where is the lamb, Isaac asks), Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Abrahamic blessing is realised in Jesus. Jesus is the seed of Abraham. Abraham was searching. He was looking for Jesus, for the Kingdom of God. The church is that City.
Noah means "He will comfort us in sorrow. We see Jesus as the One who brings comfort. We see Jesus in the flood with our guilty consciences washed away in Baptism. And we see Jesus in the ark - Jesus is the ark that carries us from the old world to the new.
Jesus is the second Adam who comes in search of the lost Adam. In Christ all will be made alive.
All scripture finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ so we should look to Jesus to interpret the Old Testament. Here in Genesis we see the Trinity in the first three verses of Genesis. All creation is the handiwork of Christ. Not only is Christ the creator of creation, He is the redeemer of creation.