Welcome to the City North Baptist sermon archive! We offer most sermons online within a week of the message being given.
Will the real man please stand up?
Is there any such thing as a ‘stereotypical man’ these days? Where do you look for decent role models of manhood? No wonder many boys are growing up with identity confusion. One man whose life is worth a closer look is Daniel. Though now in his eighties, the most important facets of his life are put under the microscope when he defied the king’s order by continuing to worship God. Here we see a real man whose life was founded on a deeply personal relationship with his God, and the evidence is absolutely unmistakable. God was at the very centre of his life and everything else flowed from there. That’s a real man! A godly man! Does God make that sort of difference in our lives?
An ordinary servant
Under King Ahab, Israel had reached a spiritual low point, having turned their backs on the living God to worship the pagan god, Baal. Into this context comes an ordinary man, Elijah. What God does through Elijah over the following years is extraordinary. However, before God uses him, he needs to prepare Elijah for what lies before him. Listen as we are introduced to Elijah, God’s ordinary servant. Let us consider how God might prepare us to serve him in a world that has turned its back on the living God.
Worship that offends God
“Worship” is a word that conjures up different ideas to modern Christians, but to Israelites in 400BC worship always involved the temple, priests and sacrifices. This was how they met personally with God. But God was deeply offended by the quality of the sacrificial animals these people were bringing – the leftovers rather than the best. It was obvious that their hearts were not in their worship. Their worship was mechanical, burdensome and offensive to God. Today our worship doesn’t involve animals and sacrifices. Jesus has offered Himself as that sacrifice for us. But our worship involves the sacrifice of ourselves to God as our only proper response. Are our lives expressing this sacrifice? Are we giving Him our best or the leftovers?
Greg Beaumont: Walk in Truth and Love
It shouldn’t surprise Christians that there are so many false teachers around. Jesus predicted it and many of the NT letters confirm his prediction. But what is the church to do in the face of false teachers? 2 John gives instructions to a church facing the imminent arrival of false teachers. John tells the church that they are to walk in truth and love! This means, firstly, that they are to lovingly watch themselves and each other to ensure that no one is deceived by false teaching and loses their reward. And secondly, that they are to be careful who they welcome into the church so that the precious truths of who Jesus is and what he has done can be preserved and treasured.
The wonder of God’s love
In Malachi’s day the Israelites were very apathetic towards God. Their religion had become a chore instead of a joy, a duty rather than a privilege. And they were doubting whether God even loved them. This would have been very painful for God to hear, especially considering all He had done for them as His chosen and redeemed people. In today’s message Pastor Murray challenges our self-centred attitudes and expectations of entitlement, and urges us to recognise all that God – in His great love – has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t deserve His love at all, yet He has chosen to love us …. and He continues to love us. If only we realised how truly blessed we are!
Who do we sing for?
The church sings for God. We are expressing our “vertical” relationship with God when we declare His praise and our love for Him. We do all of this for His glory. But our public singing also has a public effect, that is, there are “horizontal” relationships being expressed during our gathered worship. Listen as we consider the public effects our public worship can have.
Radical Love
Jesus calls his followers to a radical kind of love. A love that extends even to their enemies. Listen as Pastor Dave unpacks what it means to follow Jesus as we seek to love our enemies.
Head, hands and… heart?
Listen as we consider the role that music and singing play in engaging our minds, our hearts and our bodies as we worship God together.
The Christian life – it’s all about Jesus!
The book of Hebrews links the Old and New Testaments, and shows how Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of all that God has been doing in biblical history. In a world that has relegated Jesus to just another figure of history, we need to recognise who Jesus really is… the divine Son of God… fully equal with God. In a world that wants to believe there are many different ways to God, Hebrews emphasizes that Jesus alone can save people from their sin through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. And when we come to know Jesus personally as our Saviour, then we begin to “live by faith”, as we learn to trust Him through the daily ups and downs of life. That’s the message of Hebrews, and what the Christian life is all about!
Forgiven much
Baptism Service: Public displays of affection are not all that common in Australia. We tend to keep our affections for others relatively private. But in baptism, the Christian stands up in public to declare their love for Jesus and their desire to live their life for him.
What would lead someone to declare their love for Jesus in such a public way? The Bible answers that question for us. Listen to a story about a woman who came to Jesus and unashamedly displayed her love for Him.
Sound advice for serious believers
There is a real place for meaty doctrinal teaching (and there’s plenty of that in the book of Hebrews). But sometimes we need to hear what God says about things like: how to relate to church leaders, and being willing to suffer disgrace and humiliation for the sake of Christ, and what “worship” 24/7 looks like. When it comes to the crunch, you have to live the faith you profess. Join us as Pastor Murray unpicks these verses and challenges us to put them into practice personally.
Singing with Christ
One of the great truths of the Christian faith is that we have been united with Christ. Listen as we consider how this truth shapes the way that we sing as the church.