Welcome to the City North Baptist sermon archive! We offer most sermons online within a week of the message being given.
The Medium and the warnings…
Where we turn to in a crisis can tell us a lot about the default state of our hearts. In 1 Samuel 28 we see the sad state of Saul’s heart towards God. His heart had become hard towards the things of God. Listen as Pastor Dave shares some warnings we must heed from Saul’s encounter with the medium in Endor so that our hearts do not become hard towards the things of God.
The God who saves
Listen as we meet Asher, one of Joseph’s brothers. We’ll hear him explain what happened to him and his brothers in Egypt, and how he felt when he realised that God had been at work in everything to save His people.
A leader worth following
Leadership is rather topical these days. Prime Ministers, corporate bosses, football coaches …. they seem to come and go with monotonous regularity! But what should we be looking for in a good leader? Our passage today probes this question as we put David’s leadership under the microscope. Certainly he had many admirable qualities and these shine through. But he wasn’t a perfect leader (as we will find out in a few chapters)! Only Jesus, the humble servant-leader, is truly worth following. So don’t be disillusioned when another human leader let’s you down. Just make sure you’re following Jesus.
King my heart
David was God’s chosen king in waiting. Everyone knew this. You’d expect that everyone would have treated him with honour and respect. Well today we meet two people who treat David in very different ways. One of them is Nabal, a fool who treats David with contempt, and pays the price. The other is Nabal’s wise wife, Abigail, who honours David as a king. The question for us is this: when it comes to responding to God’s chosen King, who will I be like, Nabal or Abigail?
God’s Man – Trained & Promoted
Life is never as straight forward as we would like it to be. For some people it can be really tough. This was certainly the case for Joseph as a young man – sold as a slave by his brothers, falsely accused by his master’s wife, then thrown into prison. For 13 long years life was a battle and seemed so unfair. But “the Lord was with him” throughout this phase of his life, and though he didn’t realize it at the time, God was training Joseph for what lay ahead. One day, literally, his life was totally turned around as God used him to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. At 30 years of age he became the second most important man in all of Egypt, the man who not only saved the nation from starvation, but many other nations, including his very own family in Israel. Joseph trusted God, and His ways, and His timing, and God was able to use him in a wonderful way. Will we trust God and stand for Him in our day?
A truth for the journey
Life is journey full of ups and downs. Our circumstances are always changing. Joseph knew this all too well. As we read Genesis 39, we can’t help but note that in all the circumstances he faced, one thing never changed. God was always with him, both in his times of success and in his times of difficulty. How important it it that we understand this truth for our own lives!
Living Under Gods Authority
The story of David’s life is full of drama – real, believable and sometimes jaw-dropping! What we sometimes don’t realise is that behind the events of his life God is actually shaping a man, preparing him for the day when he would lead his nation politically, militarily and also spiritually. David was not just a good man. He was God’s man! And in today’s message Pastor Murray looks at some specific ways in which David submitted to God’s authority, and how God enabled David to grow personally through these experiences. Issues like knowing what to do in tricky situations, relying on God for protection, waiting patiently for God’s timing, and being prepared to accept God’s justice are common to us all. Jesus perfectly lived under the authority of His Father. Now he invites us to submit to His authority. Let’s be straight: Is Jesus really LORD of your life?
Joseph
Tune in as Pastor Dave shares from the extraordinary story of Joseph and God’s Master Plan for him.
Growing Through Adversity
1 Samuel is a story about three men – Samuel, Saul and David – and how God used them in shaping a nation that had lost its way politically, socially and spiritually. It desperately needed godly leadership. In many respects we see parallels in Australia today. In this message the young future king, David, is on the run from an irrational, jealous King Saul. This is the beginning of years of life as a fugitive for David. Life was hard. He made mistakes. He also learned many important lessons along the way. But through it all God was shaping him and preparing him for his future role as the godly king his nation needed. Like David, we also learn to trust God as we face opposition, difficulties and even enemies. And God intentionally uses these times as part of His greater plan for our lives. He also provides the perfect leader for us to follow in David’s descendant, Jesus Christ, who offers to save us from our greatest enemies, sin and death!
Greg Beaumont: The Day of the Lord Will Come
Tune in as City North Intern, Greg shares from this passage from 2 Peter.
Childlike Faith
How do we enter the kingdom of God? Jesus says that to answer this question, we need to look at a little child. Listen as we consider what it means for us to have a childlike faith.
What’s wrong with the world
If you are a Christian today, you soon realise how different your morals and values are from many of those around you. The Bible even tells us that we should expect to feel like “strangers” and “foreigners” in the secular culture in which we live. But why does this gap exist, and why does it seem to be getting wider? Romans 1 is devastating expose of what goes wrong when people reject God and live without any reference to Him. Supposedly intelligent people become fools, they worship idols, and God lets them experience fully the consequences of their deliberate choice to live in sin. Rebellion towards God and freedom to live without restraint are a lethal cocktail, as this message explains. People who live this way face the terrible prospect of the wrath of God. But there is hope! The “good news” is that those who sincerely turn from their sinful ways and trust in Jesus Christ can be saved. This “gospel” is God’s power, and it’s available today!