"hope" Tagged Sermons (Page 4)
Where the grass is greener
No matter how many good things that we have in life just about all of us suffer from a deep feeling that we could do with just a little bit more. Sometimes our dissatisfaction in life can flow over to our understanding of faith… we feel we want just a little bit more than Jesus can offer. Pastor Joe looks at the most famous Psalm and highlights two stunning images of God that heal our “grass is always greener” hearts…
Future Perfection
Last week we saw that while we often fail to reach our resolutions due to our own weakness and failures, there is hope in the gospel. Because the gospel provides full and perfect forgiveness. But what if our failures were not due to our weaknesses or sins… what if our failures were due to the brokenness of the world and the brokenness of people around us? Pastor Joe walks us through John’s vision of the coming Kingdom to show us…
Power for Change
Every year we get past Christmas and suddenly our attention turns to the New Year and everything that we hope it will bring for us. Just about all of us view the 1st of January as a new start… an opportunity to make good. Whether we call them “New Year’s resolutions” or not we all have ambitions for the year to come. But each year we know all too well the crushing feeling of failure. So where in this cycle…
Christmas isn’t Merry for Everyone
It is supposed to be a happy time of year for food, family and fun, but you only have to look around our country and the world to realise that a simply holiday doesn’t change the brokenness and hurt we can face – in fact Christmas can often magnify this pain! As we start our series on the scandal of Christmas we look at the reality that Christmas isn’t merry for everyone; not now and not at the time of…
Longing for Justice
Unfortunately we had some difficulties with the sermon audio for this message. You can find a comprehensive set of notes below.
Hope in Suffering
Many of us, when confronted with suffering in our own lives or the lives of those close to us have struggled with the question of why? Why do we suffer? Why does God allow it? Now while this is a vital and very personal wrestle I want to suggest that it is not the most important suffering question we can ask. Because even if we can find an answer to why it won’t take the pain away… we are still…
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…
God of the Outsiders
In each social circle in which we move we can very quickly determine who are the in-crowd and who are the not-so-in-crowd. The reality is that some people find themselves on the outside fringes of society never really fitting in with the cultural elites of their day. Maybe you feel like this? Well if you do then there is some wonderful news for you in the message of Christmas. At Christmas we can’t hide from the fact that God sent…
God is at Work
In the story of Christmas one man is often forgotten about. We know the shepherd, the wise men, Mary and even the donkey but how often do we think about Joseph? Joseph is often viewed as Mary’s “plus one” just an added extra to look good in nativity scenes… but this morning we are going to try and put ourselves in his shoes and imagine how the news of Mary’s pregnancy would have impacted his life and what God does…
God of the Impossible
Some people will say that God is pretty irrelevant to their lives. He might mean something to the guys with white collars and robes sitting in stained-glass churches… but what does God have to do with an average punter like me? Well as we continue to follow the story of Christmas, trying to look below the surface to discover something new, we see that God starts His Christmas stories not with the high and mighty but with the lowly and…