Malachi 3:6-12: Robbing God
OUTLINE Turning Tithing Testing INTRODUCTION ‘The bible leaves no question about it. God’s people are supposed to be rich…. God’s people are to be rich—financially wealthy and prosperous in every possible way, with plenty of money.’1 That is a quote from Kenneth Copeland. The prosperity gospel is a modern error that abuses many parts of the Bible, the portion before us is one of the most abused portions of the Bible by the prosperity gospel. The teaching on God’s character and grace and our responsibility to repent and to honor Him is overshadowed by a greed that seeks to...
Read More
Malachi 1:6-14 The Worship God Hates
OUTLINE Dishonoring worship Minimalistic worship Lukewarm worship Compromised worship INTRODUCTION How much worship does God deserve? How much honor, reverence, fear, awe, love, obedience, and sacrifice? The truth is we can never worship, honor or revere God too much. If I as a finite creature gave every moment of time to give a constant flow of heartfelt praise, it would never be enough. If every person in all of creation worshipped God for all eternity, even this finite choir could not give God’s infinite majesty the glory it is due. Enter sin into that equation where we worship as...
Read More
Ephesians 5:19-21: The Church-shaped Spirit Filled Life
How do you know your life is controlled by the Spirit? It is not by having visions and dreams, prophecies and tongues, or casting out demons, Judas could do all these and was not Spirit filled. Paul outlines for us in verses 18-21 what a Spirit filled life looks like. The imperative of being filled with the Spirit if obeyed results in us ‘addressing one another in psalms’, in us making melody to the Lord with our hearts, a pervasive atmosphere of thanksgiving arises, mutual submission and reverence. Test yourself to see if you are Spirit filled or walking...
Read More
1 Chronicles 16:28-29: Corporate Worship
Thanks to Simon Bird for preaching this afternoon as part of our series in the Disciplines of Grace. Our apologies for the lack of a recording. 1 Chronicles 16:28-29 28 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! 29 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
Read More
Matthew 22:34-40: Personal Worship
Thanks to Simon Bird for preaching this afternoon as part of our series in the Disciplines of Grace. The Great Commandment – Matthew 22:34-40 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And...
Read More
1 Kings 3: Solomon the Righteous Judge
Thanks to Guy McKenzie for preaching this week. Please accept our apologies for the missing audio. Introduction: As you may remember, I am preaching through the book of kings, as it is written, as a thrilling piece of redemptive history. So lets remind ourselves just where in redemptive history this book and this chapter fits. The redemptive story so far tells us that Adam and Eve have been deceived by the serpent, sinned and been cast out of the Garden of Eden. God has promised the first humans that one day a saviour will rescue them and their descendant’s...
Read More
Jonah 1:17-2:9: The sign of Jonah
One of the major stumbling blocks to people accepting the book of Jonah is the issue of ‘the big fish.’ Modern man has spurned the story thinking that is it absolutely impossible that a man could be swallowed by a fish and live for three days. Gleason Archer reports the following account: “In February 1891, the whaling ship, Star of the East was in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands, and the lookout sighted a large sperm whale three miles away. Two boats were lowered and in a short time one of the harpooners was enabled to spear the...
Read More
Luke 1:39-55- The Magnificat
Worshippers—that is one of the most fundamental things that we are as human beings. We are made to worship, we will find our joy and satisfaction in worship, yet because of our sin we are bad at worship, in fact we invert it and seek worship for ourselves. We must look to the Scriptures and the aid of the Spirit to help us worship correctly. There is a whole book in the Bible, the psalms which help shape our worship. Luke is considered the first hymnologist of the Church. Right at the beginning of His gospel we find several songs...
Read More
Genesis 4:26: First Glimmers of Worship and the Essence of Gospel Witness
We’d like to thank Michael Beck for being our guest preacher today. Mike is the pastor at Gracenet Community Church in Wellington, a sister church from the FRBCNZ.
Read More
1 Kings 10:1-13: The Queen of Sheba
Introduction: How do we understand the visit of the queen of Sheba to King Solomon? Jesus Christ gives us the lens to see the relevance of this OT character, Luke 11:29-32, ‘When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgement with the men...
Read More
Romans 15:5-7: A Prayer for Unity
Introduction: One of Christ’s desires for His church is unity, John 17:20-21, ‘”I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’ The Spiritual unity that Christ is asking of the Father here was given on the day the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost. Every Christian receives in the gospel a uniting with Christ...
Read More
Romans 14:6: Freedom and Worship
Introduction: Whenever we are critical of others we tend to demonise those to the left or right of us. We are so assured of our own correctness that anyone who is different from us gets a severe verbal critique from us. Think of some of the classic divides between Christians. Calvinists have looked at their Arminian brethren and accused them of Pelagian idolatry; Arminians have looked at Reformed Christians and called them blasphemous fatalists. Cessationists have looked at Charismatics and critiqued them as irreverent experience chasers, and Charismatics have labelled Cessationists as quenchers and blasphemers of the Spirit. Something...
Read More
2 Samuel 22: The Deliverance and Exaltation of the King
INTRODUCTION: Imagine for a moment that you are in your old age, in the closing years of your life and you decide to write a song to summarise the Lord’s working in your life. What would that song look like? One could divide the verses into the different eras of your life, such as, childhood, teenage years, young adulthood, middle aged, elderly, etc. Or one could do a before and after song, before and after your conversion, from dark to light. Psalm 18 is special amongst the Psalms because it is not a situational psalm that reflects just one...
Read More
Romans 13:6-7: Fulfilling Our Obligations
INTRODUCTION: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17). These have been called the most important political words ever spoken, and rightly so. Jesus was being put to the test by the Pharisees and the Herodians. They thought they had Jesus cornered when they asked Him if they should pay taxes. They thought they had Him on the horns of a dilemma, if Jesus said yes the Jews should pay taxes then that would make Him unpopular with the general public. And if He answered No, then the Herodians...
Read More
2 Samuel 8: David’s administration
Outline David’s victories David’s worship David’s rule Introduction 2 Samuel 8 is one of those chapters that you would find unmemorable except that it might violate your modern sensibilities. Sandwiched in between the great chapters on the Davidic covenant and David’s mercy to Mephibosheth it gets very little air time. But this chapter plays an important role in that it is the final part of the long ascent of David to the throne. If you were to divide the life of David up into two parts, you would have David a servant after God’s heart from 1 Sam. 15-2...
Read More
The Spirit Filled Marriage 2: The Worship Filled Foundation for Marriage
Outline Worshipping Thanksgiving Introduction How do you know your life is controlled by the Spirit? It is not by having visions and dreams, prophecies and tongues, or casting out demons, Judas could do all these and was not Spirit filled. Paul outlines for us in verses 18-21 what a Spirit filled life looks like. The imperative of being filled with the Spirit if obeyed results in us ‘addressing one another in psalms’, in us making melody to the Lord with our hearts, a pervasive atmosphere of thanksgiving arises, mutual submission and reverence. Test yourself to see if you are...
Read More