"Sunday Morning" Tagged Sermons (Page 23)

"Sunday Morning" Tagged Sermons (Page 23)

Sunday Morning

A Church with Purpose

Like us, the readers of Peter’s letter were living in a society that was unbelieving and antagonistic to the gospel. These Christians needed encouraging to persevere. As God’s church, they exist together not just to survive until Jesus’ return, but God has given them a specific identity and purpose. We share this purpose as God’s church today – to grow, to worship and to witness. 1 Peter 2:1-10

Hope and holiness in difficult times

Learning how to live under pressure, especially when it involves the testing of our faith, is essential to our progress in the Christian life. In today’s passage we take a closer look at how suffering is related to the gospel, and how God wants to use it to help us grow in holiness. Jesus is the Messiah, the ’Suffering Servant’, who shed His precious blood to redeem us and make us children of God. Understanding the greatness of this salvation gives us the confidence and hope that whatever we may face in this life, the best is still yet to come …. and it’s worth waiting for.

Longing for home

The book of 1 Peter is making a comeback today. It’s original readers felt like ‘exiles’ or ‘foreigners’ in the world of the early church. And that’s the way more and more Christians are starting to feel these days. Somehow we don’t really fit as the world around us becomes more secular. But the reality is that we are different and we don’t fit. This world is not our true home and we aren’t meant to belong here. So how do we cope with this tension, especially when trials come and our faith is tested? In this message, Pastor Murray urges us to see how God wants to use these times to prepare us for the glorious ‘inheritance’ that awaits all who truly belong to Christ. (1 Peter 1:1-9)

Pleasure and Greed – The Ultimate Lifestyle

The society we live in loves money and exalts greed. We seem to be getting richer and richer and yet are not satisfied. We each seem to love money differently – some for the pleasure we can get from spending it, some for the freedom it offers, some for the security it brings and some for the power and success it grants us. It seems that many Christians are not too different to the society we live in. Greed tells us many lies. Come to the Bible to find out what God really says about things like thankfulness, contentment, generosity and serving God when it comes to our money.

The Sexual Revolution – relationships without boundaries?

For the past 50 years a sexual revolution has been taking place. We can blame the “pill” or many other factors, but the result has been the virtually complete disconnection of sex from marriage in modern western society. Today anything is OK. What started with some cheeky pushing of moral boundaries in movies and magazines has been turbocharged with the arrival of internet porn over the past 20 years. This “normalising” of sexual freedom presents a huge challenge to Christians,…

Cracks in the foundation: Does the family have a future?

Family is wonderful, but even at its best, family life is challenging.  The family is spoken of as the foundation of our society, but now it seems to be under threat from our western culture.  There seem to be cracks in the foundation.  Come to the Bible to find the nature, purpose and value of family.  We discover that the family does have a future as we delight in doing family well, for the glory of God.

Religious intolerance – are Christians still relevant?

With secular humanism steadily gaining ascendancy in Australia today, Christians are being told to keep their faith private. And if they don’t, they are accused of “imposing” their outdated views on modern society. How did this happen? What does this mean for the place of Christians and the church in an increasingly pagan society? And how should we respond in the face of this opposition? In this message Pastor Murray reminds us firstly, that we should not be surprised by…

Euthanasia – the next big ethical battle?

With the same-sex marriage debate settled, ideological and political forces in Australia are now being focused on the issue of euthanasia. Euthanasia has been legalised in countries like Holland and Belgium for many years, and is legal in a number of states in the USA. But it moved much closer to home in November 2017 when it became legal in Victoria. Obviously there is great emotion around this issue, but what are the key factors in the discussion and how…

Strong words from a loving pastor

No parent likes having to confront a misbehaving child. It tests and puts at risk the whole relationship, and especially so when the child is an adult. But real love is “tough love”! And that’s what Paul has been showing towards the Corinthian believers throughout this letter. In today’s passage Paul brings it all to a close as he issues a stern warning and a passionate appeal for them to check their hearts and prepare themselves for his upcoming visit. He desperately wanted to avoid a showdown, but he was ready for one if the situation required it. The troubles in the Corinthian church could be similar in your church or mine. But thank God for courageous, godly leaders like Paul. The nominal church urgently needs them today.

Everything for your Strengthening

Too many Christians today start their journey of faith well – full of passion, enthusiasm and energy, but then somewhere along the journey they slowly drift away from faith.  This is also a fairly accurate description of many within the Corinthian church at the time Paul is writing the letter of 2 Corinthians.  In this passage he writes to them of the priority of continually strengthening their faith.  This has been the primary purpose of Paul’s ministry to them.   The…