​The book of Haggai is made up of four messages that God spoke through the prophet to the returned exiles of Judah. After being discouraged by opposition to rebuilding the temple Haggai’s first message challenges the priorities of God’s people before encouraging them of God’s empowering presence with them. Haggai’s words bring the same challenge & encouragement to New Testament believers today!

Time To Build Again (1): Sermons on the Old Testament book of Haggai

“There’s the thing you plan to do, & then there’s the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off life with some Plan A which we abandon... switching to a Plan B, which becomes our lives.” Iain Duguid is his commentary on Haggai tells how these words once introduced a radio show tracking stories of people whose lives had turned out different than they anticipated. Maybe for you, life hasn’t turned out the way you envisioned it 10 or 20 years ago & now you find yourself settling for Plan B. If so Haggai might just have something to say to you. In this sermon Pastor John introduces a new sermon series on the Old Testament book of Haggai.

The Apostles' Creed (Part 5)
"He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, & buried."

The Apostle's Creed (Part 4)
"I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary."

The Apostles' Creed (Part 2)
"I believe in God"

This sermon aims to look at how the The Apostles' Creed distinguishes the Christian doctrine of God from other world-views. Christians believe in one God who exists as three distinct & yet equal persons consisting of Father, Son & Holy Spirit. The Apostles' Creed expresses & outlines this belief in the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. The trinitarian nature of God is something that shapes Christian theology, spirituality & missiology. It shapes how we understand & relate to God as well as how we obey the Great Commission!  

As we continue to move from story to story in the Gospel’s one thing we quickly notice is that Jesus has no 'one size fits all’ approach to people. He has an amazing ability to adapt & discern different people & situations while crafting the conversation perfectly for maximum impact. In this story Jesus could have simply healed the woman’s daughter & shared simple gospel truth, but he doesn’t. Instead he chooses to go a more complicated route. Why does Jesus do so? This sermon explores this question with the aim of helping us learn to engage others in the way Jesus did.

​When it comes to the glory of God all a sermon can do is show the equivalent of a landscape photo. With most landscape photos there was always more outside the photo than what was captured in it, yet that does not mean it’s not worth taking photos. For what a photographer captures in a photo is still real, beautiful & often stunning enough to encourage people to personally go out & explore the area photographed. In introducing any sermon series on God’s glory it must be acknowledged there is always more outside the sermons than inside them. That is the reality of preaching on the indescribable glory of God.  Yet because we live in a world distracted by many trivial & transient things sermons like photos have the potential to draw people’s attention to a glory they may otherwise miss.  

Worship is not only about hearing or playing the latest worship songs; it’s about our heart connection with God. True worship is a matter of the heart expressed in adoration and honour for God, which is reflected in the way we pursue holiness in our walk with Him. As Christians Jesus’ words in John 4:23 help inform our vision for worshipping God. Yet we can all struggle with lack of desire for God, which presents a real challenge to becoming true worshippers of God. By walking us through Psalm 64 & 85 this message seeks to help fuel our desire for God so we can be those who worship him in spirit and truth.

Reading: John 4:23, Psalm 64, Psalm 85

In Genesis 32:22-32 Jacob finds himself in an unexpected wrestling match in what can only be described as one of the more strange accounts of Scripture. Yet strange as it is, when we look a bit deeper we realise it is a story we all can identify with at some level. A story of wrestling with God! God waited until Jacob was alone, in the darkness, then he attacked him. At first Jacob has no idea what has hit him, for God does not speak a word during this dark, lonely, terrifying night. It is not until daybreak that he also breaks his silence & gives Jacob a new name. Jacob had been wrestled & wounded by God in the dark, yet he refused to let go of God & now a new day had dawned for the man who wrestled with God.

Even though Jacob saw God’s angels were with him here, as well as having God’s previous promise of his safe return home, he still became “greatly afraid and distressed” at the thought of meeting Esau again. This is encouraging because although Jacob had such tangible assurances of God’s protection he was still a man, who like us, wrestled with doubt & fear. In the previous section God orchestrated things so he had to confront Laban (the uncle who has wronged him) now in this part of the story he has to face Esau (the brother he had wronged). In this message we see how God helped Jacob confront his fear & we also find strategy for wrestling doubt & fear in the prayer Jacob prayed.