"church" Tagged Sermons (Page 2)
The Need for Gospel Church
Many Christians treat church like an option. Attendance and commitment is really dependent on how they feel on any given day. We know that we don’t need to attend church in order to be saved… but in Acts wherever the new believers have travelled and carried the gospel churches have sprung up. As we look at the first real expression of church in the Gentile world we will see some of the essential marks of gospel community and more importantly,…
The Gospel Won’t be Corrupted
Riding high on a wave of excitement, joy, and gospel zeal the Apostles and the community of Jesus were growing in both number and unity. But as things seem to be going better than ever a new threat would arise that had the potential to derail the whole movement. As Pastor Joe examines this confronting event we will see the heart of God for His community and how our hearts need to be brought in line with His.
The Essential Church
Last week we saw that God powerfully fulfilled His promise to pour out His Spirit on His people… and 3000 people received the reality of the gospel and repented of their sin and were baptised into Jesus. Last week we heard that this repentance and baptism was effectively the people rejecting their own pride-filled leadership of their lives and embracing the perfect reign of Christ… well this week Pastor Joe unpacks what kind of community this new people would form…
The Church in Waiting
The disciples of Jesus had ridden a roller-coaster ride of emotions over the last few weeks. Their hopes had seemingly been crushed with the death of Jesus and then suddenly birthed back into life through His resurrection. Now they had spent 40 days hanging with this resurrected Jesus. Everything inside them would have been wanting to burst out and tell the world everything that had happened… and yet Jesus tells them to wait. But it is in this waiting we…
Functional Antichrists
Hearing words like “end times” or Antichrist” can send us into a bit of a spin; we either have visions of apocalyptic horror movies or visions of confusing theological debates. Either way I think John would say that we are missing the point. When John speaks of “the last hour” and “antichrist”, he is not speaking about fearsome future events but a shocking present reality. So join us as we try to see past preconceived ideas that we might have…
Gentle Restoration
Paul has continually pleaded with the Galatians not to live under the slavery of the Law but to embrace the freedom of the gospel and this week we see another reason why he cares so much about this. If we live under the Law we are tempted to view other people who get caught in sin as inferior. Maybe we are even tempted to profit of their sinfulness by letting it justify our own sin, “at least I’m not that…
Dean Sandham: the future of the church
We are often challenged by the mission that God has sent us out on; the need to make disciples of all nations. We are likewise inspired by what we see happening in the church right now; conversions, testimonies and solid growth. But when we go through a season of dryness, and these sources of inspiration are less obvious, it might be that we need to remember the future of the church. Dean Sandham from Deception Bay Baptist is our guest today…
A community being made beautiful
The concept of marriage is common in our culture but often it is understood as merely a sentimental soppy love song style relationship or a cold legal commitment. The Bible’s vision of marriage however is stunningly high and cuts through both sentimentality and legalities. The reason it is so high is because He created it to mirror the thing He is most passionate about – His relationship with His people! As we finish our series on the church we are…