A Church in the heart of Wollongong
We all want to live a life that makes a difference and leave a legacy that lasts. Work is often a way we do this. There is only 1 type of work that is never in vain: the work of the Lord Jesus.
Are we meant to do our dream jobs? Or does God have particular jobs he calls us to do?
We heard last week that we don't use work as an idol to make our own identity, to amass $$ to consume, or to find our satisfaction and meaning. So why do we work? God gives us 2 radical new reasons to work - to love our new boss, and to love people as we work with them, and through the work we do we do for them. That means we can love God and love people in any work.
We do a lot of work and it's a mixed experience for each of us. God designed work for our good but because of our rebellion we work against God and work has also become painful toil. We experience both those realities and need God's help not to whinge about work or to worship work, but to thank God it's Monday and to go work with him.
We do a lot of work and it's a mixed experience for each of us. God designed work for our good but because of our rebellion we work against God and work has also become painful toil. We experience both those realities and need God's help not to whinge about work or to worship work, but to thank God it's Monday and to go work with him.
What if serving Jesus can be energising instead of draining? How to find joy and strength in reaping the harvest Jesus has sown.
We all want justice - our world is broken and it can seem hopeless. But Jesus is the King who suffers, justifies, and rises again - to bring us hope and a future!
God has written an ancient love song through his prophet Isaiah to help understand what Easter is all about.
Our culture is obsessed with romantic relationships. The message is loud and clear: singleness is a problem that needs fixing. To be single is to be waiting, incomplete, unfulfilled. But what if God sees it differently? What if singleness isn't second-best, or a season to just “get through,” but actually a good gift from God?
How do I decide whether to get married or remain single? The gospel radically changes our thinking on marriage and family.
Is it wrong to want a change of circumstances? Are some situations in life better than others?
It is estimated that the average marriage in Australia lasts 12 years with separation before divorce occurring around 8 years. Why is the divorce rate is so high in Australia? What does God have to say about Marriage, Separation and Divorce?
Our culture has much to say on singleness, sex and marriage. What does God say?
What you do with your body is more than just a personal choice - it's a reflection of who you belong to. In 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, Paul challenges us to think about our freedom in Christ, how we're called to honour God with every part of our lives and how true freedom is found when we live for Christ, not ourselves. Who really has control over your life - you or Jesus?
Grow up - is a key part of the message in this part of 1 Corinthians. They have before them situation where Christian brothers are taking each other to court, and for such a trivial matter that should have been very easy for the church to sort out - but they are so immature that they can't even judge the simplest of cases. They are struggling to make right judgements in their immaturity and they need to grow up. Those in Christ should grow to have a mature eternal view point enabling them to easily discern what is right in much smaller earthly matters. The Corinthians are so muddled that they even need reminding of basic things that will keep people out of the kingdom of God. As Paul reminds them, there is a great reminder for us of the grace and generosity of God in his salvation of us which ought to then give us clarity to make right judgements in this world as we wait for Christ to return.
What are we to make of Paul's instruction to remove someone from church when it appears so unloving?
God's vision for His church is maturity. What does that look like?
Of all the good causes we could be a part of, why the making of disciples of Jesus?
If God's vision is for a loving community why do I feel so lonely?
Spend 20 seconds scrolling online and you'll see that our world is full of wars, violence, corruption - and people are just mean! But are these issues caused by just a few bad people or are we all mostly bad? We're going to dig into the fundamentals of human nature and see what God, our creator, has to say about us.
Our origin story determines our purpose & value as humans. There's 2 competing accounts - we're either accidents resulting from the big bang and evolution who have no purpose or value (and so we create our own), or we're designed by a knowable creator who made us & gives us our purpose & value (to know Him & to be known by Him).
Paul has a grand view of heaven and is pushing on to get there. What are we to do while we wait for Jesus? We press on too, imitating those who are a little further ahead so we can attain to our glorious resurrection.
What is the best thing about Christmas? It's the gift Jesus came to bring - the lasting satisfaction of a relationship with God through the Cross.
The best gift is the unexpected one you didn't even know you needed. The best gift God gives us is coming in the person of his Son with flesh on to make us his adopted children.
Christmas can be a real mixed bag. How can we enjoy God's good gifts to us at Christmas?
What does it look like to have confidence you know the true and living God?
We know God loves us because 1) he displayed his love in sending his Son for us, 2) we love like him so we must have first been loved by him, and 3) our love for each other proves he lives in us.
What's a sure sign that someone has become a disciple of Jesus? Self sacrificial love for their brothers and sisters.
Babies always look like their parents, so what do you look like when you're born of God? And how can you tell if you're one of God's children? We become children of God by God's great love in sending his Son to make his enemies into his family. And we know we're God's children because we're not rebels against God anymore, and we do what's right like our Father who does what's right.
What are some of the dangers of living as a disciple of Jesus and how to stay Christian to the very end.
Like a medical test that comes back with inconclusive results, what do you do when the evidence you know God is inconclusive? Look for 3 signs: 1) we keep God's commands, 2) we love each other, 3) we have God's blessings. This is not a looking in to rely on ourselves - as that would leave us overly-worried (with such a shaky foundation) or overly-confident (when we have no reason to be). Instead the signs point upwards - we keep God's commands because God's at work in us; we love God's people because we're in the light; and we have God's blessings because we have Jesus who brings them.
It's so important to be certain, especially about a relationship with God. The great news of 1 John is that through Jesus we can certainly know God & even though we're certainly not pure light like God, we are certainly safe with God.
How much money should I give away? The Bible's answer is both comforting and confronting.
There are so many needs, how do I decide who to give my time, money and energy to?
Why be generous to the work of making lifelong disciples of Jesus? Why should this work be a priority for the disciple's generosity?
Often when churches talk about money it stinks! Let's start with our view of God - abundantly generous or stingy?
Naomi's redemption is full of blessing and hope but there's much more to come for those who are redeemed by Jesus!
Ruth's daring move toward Boaz and his response speaks volumes of their noble character. Character is so critical to all our relationships and not least our relationship to God who is perfect in character.
Why is Boaz showing such abundant loving kindness to Ruth? Above all, we're meant to see something extraordinary about God.
The book of Ruth is an incredible love story but bigger than that it's about God. On display is His loving kindness in ordinary lives.
The rescue of the Jews here points us to the bigger rescue we have in Jesus, but it's even better because his came not from self defence but self sacrifice and rescue not from death but from eternal punishment. So we can be eternally thankful and live for God while we wait in the in-between period between the salvation we now have and the not yet arrived final day of salvation and judgement when Jesus returns.
There's only 2 ways to live - either crime doesn't pay or crime does pay. The way to answer that question is to see who's in control of the world. Crime makes sense if this world is controlled by criminals, by luck or by predetermined fate. You could mis-read this part of Esther to think those things are in control. But as the humble and righteous Mordecai (and then Jesus) is raised to the place of power, it shows us that the world is controlled by the righteous God's providence. So crime doesn't pay and living God's right ways is the only way to live that makes sense.
Why is it dangerous to be a Christian? By nature humans hate God so also hate God's people. How does God help us to face persecution? He gives His sure promises & someone to bring them about.
Most of the time for most of us God is hidden and it's not clear what He is doing in the world. What is the hidden God doing? The hidden God is at work to defeat the kingdom of this world - a kingdom which looks powerful & appealing but is desperately weak & viciously cruel.
Christians are often unsure what to do with the topic ambition. Self ambition is condemned in the Bible - but is there a godly alternative? Often in this confusion Christian people can remain highly ambitious in their private lives but remain happy to settle for mediocrity in the church. This is not good. In this sermon ambition will be scrutinised through the passage in Genesis 11 (The tower of Babel) and people will be challenged to put aside petty ambition and pursue first the kingdom of God and be ambitious for that
Another one of the Corinthian church errors is lovingly being exposed in this passage. Their thinking about leadership (christian leadership) is back to front. They are taking pride in one leader over another. Paul warns them that such thinking is dangerous, and he uses the a number of images to show how foolish this thinking is. One image is that their leaders are not kings at the front of a victory parade but the down trodden condemned men at the end of the procession. The second image is that leaders are not the prized possession people treasure but rather the scum of the earth. Both images display the foolishness of taking pride in one piece of rubbish over another. The great one is the God they serve and it is important to remain humble before Him. The problem with taking pride in one leader over another is that it flows into your own assessment of yourself and that you are now far more able to take pride in yourself over others - this is a grave danger. We need leaders and people who follow them as humble servants of God, not going beyond what is written
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
