Category: Sermons

Timothy is given extensive guidance about what Christian maturity looks like, and how the mature folks can lead in church.

These are the people we are becoming, so how do we grow in those characteristics?

Gender, sex and identity. Knowing what to say and do can be a problem for all of us. Does Paul’s advice to Timothy help us in any way today?

Paul has left Timothy in Ephesus, a place where there are people who love controversy & arguments, to be a man who can make a difference…

Like most true stories, the book of Ezra has no happy ending – in fact, quite the opposite.

It also leaves us with questions, such as what lengths are we prepared to go to in order to stay faithful to God?

The people are gathering ready for their return to Jerusalem. However they can’t commence their journey until everything, or maybe more appropriately everyone, is in place.

There’s more to being a Christian than just some sort of personal religious experience. It’s about a way of life that is shaped in a certain way – a cross shaped way.

It’s why after the prophets have spoken we need the teachers.

The work of rebuilding the temple had stalled for 16 years and it seemed like the work that God might not get finished.

It’s into this situation that two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, come to share a message from God to the Jews.

What can we learn from this for our situations today?

Every new chapter that begins for a church is a chance to renew their connection with everything that has gone before so that we can step into an unknown future with confidence.

You start doing something significant. You know it will make a difference and then it begins. It might start with small bugging frustrations but they all pile up until it would be easy to walk away.

How do you keep going?

Ezra 4-6 is a long story of a community finding a way to manage the oppositions, hold ups and snags along the way.

In the wake of a political miracle, Israel arrived back in their land. There was so much to do: houses to build, a temple to rebuild, a city to renovate, food to be grown and borders to protect.

But first they worshipped.

They knew that regular worship would define them, shape them, remind them of their identity. It still does.

It might not be a perfect experience, but it is the most important thing that the returning church must do.