Service Recordings

A thanksgiving service for the year, and an opportunity to look forward with greater trust to the leading presence of Jesus.

As part of this morning’s baptism & confirmation service we will all make a promise to ‘live out our baptism’ – but what does this mean?

We’ll be briefly exploring this today through the lens of Jesus’ birth and the promise of new life that he brings to us all.

Isaiah prophesied that a Son of God would come and his government and peace would not end. At Christmas we remember that prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus; the babe in the manger who died on the cross, rose from the dead, was exalted to God’s glory and who now lives in the church through the Spirit. His life of joy is embedded in deep confidence in God’s goodness, humility in the Spirit and deep love for the world. How do we know that? We see it in those who walk by the Spirit and who boast in his cross. Through them the Spirit cries out, join in the dance, there is enough joy for everyone.

All of us from time to time question our faith. Some even take the step of exploring other ways of living thinking there is freedom outside the freedom of Christ. In a life where suffering and temptation is real how important it is for us to keep in step with the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Freedom is both a gift we have in Christ and a promise that we will receive. It’s what the gospel of Jesus promises the church. It is a promise and hope that we need to embrace by faith as well as a living reality in us. But this freedom is not a freedom to do whatever our selfish whims determine. No, true freedom is the freedom to love and the serve. In Christ we become an answer to the Lord’s own prayer "Your Kingdom come on earth”. So, are you free?

The whole history of the people of God is full of the miracle of God’s promise of a son to Abraham. It’s the miracle of the new covenant of God’s grace, in contrast to the old covenant based on human effort to fulfill the law. We need to interpret what Paul is saying to the Christians in Galatia in the first century AD, not only in the light of our personal lives as ‘children of promise’, as we heard last week, but also in the light of today’s cultural landscape. Because we are now free in Christ, we are free to think and speak with a clear gospel voice. We are free to speak out boldly against the often outrageous diktats of today’s cultural ‘Judaizers’, who insist that we align ourselves with their progressive ideological agendas.

Slavery or Freedom. Which would you choose?

The Galatians, like us, knew the freedom of being Children of God, however they were being pulled back into a slavery to the Law that would bind them. Paul’s charge to them, as it is to us, is not to be fooled. Through his death on the cross, Jesus has won for us not just freedom from sin, but adoption into his very own family.

We are Children of the Promise.

Dave speaks about the difference between a fan and a follower. He talks about boating mishaps and the gospel.

Listen here.

Absolutely something!

If Jesus has made us right with God, and our inner freedom and relationship with God is no longer based upon our own obedience to God’s commands, but faith in Jesus, then what is the purpose of God’s commands now?

What is obedience to God and what part does His law play in the life of people? The law is still important for us but maybe not the way we might normally think. Law, what is it good for? Absolutely something.