There are three stages in God's plan of salvation: justification (initial acceptance by God), sanctification (ongoing growth in holiness), and glorification (final perfection in Heaven). While all Christians are equal at the foot of the cross, not all progress equally in their spiritual journey. The story of Caleb in Numbers 13-14 illustrates the importance of fully surrendering to God, following Him throughout one's entire life, and living by the power of the Holy Spirit. These qualities set Caleb apart and enabled him to enter the Promised Land when others could not. As Christians, we are called to this same level of commitment and reliance on God's Spirit to fulfil His purpose for our lives.
In this Mother's Day sermon, we explore the unique challenges and blessings of motherhood through a biblical lens. By examining passages from 1 Timothy and Genesis, the sermon delves into the concept of the curse from the fall of humanity and its impact on women, particularly experienced through childbearing. It clarifies that salvation for mothers comes not through the act of childbearing itself but through faith in Christ who took the curse upon Himself. This message celebrates the sacrifice and resilience of mothers while pointing to the hope and redemption available in Jesus Christ. By Eve, the “mother of all living” beginning the journey of women across history in suffering bringing children into the world, Christ was born as the result. By His coming on the mission to be our Saviour and this including His death of the cross for our sins, the curse on humanity due to the all was lifted and salvation was available for all. Motherhood was a vital link in the answer of God to the curse of the Fall.
"We have been talking about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And we've been talking about in the New Covenant begins for us, the moment we come to Christ and we're justified. And then followed by our sanctification, a process that the Holy Spirit pushes us along in and calls on our cooperation to help. And then finally there is that glorification when we get to heaven or some people refer to it as going to glory. And in that middle step of sanctification, a part of the agenda of the Lord is that he wants us to grow more and more to be like him."
"The zeal of your house has burned me up. So this is not a case of the two opposites, one being right and one being wrong. It has been two approaches, which the Bible itself is the author of their existence and that sometimes we don't know how to utilize what we learn in the Old Covenant and what we learn in the New Covenant and what it's calling on us to do."
"People say to me coming into the church that this season it's great to see the idea of joy being expressed by the church and our singing people have done that for us today in leading us and it was excellent and we thank you. And that's a part of why Christmas carols are so loved and utilised around the world... Now I like the one that we just sang because it's capturing another point of the truth of why Jesus came. He came to bring an answer to a problem that we had and it's been a very honest worded song. Come all you unfaithful."
"For our Christian Bible is... is both in Old and New Testaments, both are a part of what it is to be into the Christian Bible, but there are many misunderstandings as to how the Old and the New go together. And so he'd asked a question with regard to that, and I'd had a previous service where the actual passage was from Galatians in Chapter 3, and we're going to start from that spot again, because I think I've said some things. I may have said something about this to the evening service, but I want for the morning service in particular to understand that there's something very important about how the Old Covenant and the New Covenant go together, and how the Old is an introduction to the New, but there is something to be learned."
"We've been talking in the morning services about the two covenants, that's to say the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. We don't mean to imply that there's two ways to God. There used to be some people who thought that salvation was by one of two covenants and the Jewish people came in by one covenant and the other people are us coming in by another, the New Covenant. And the idea of the Old Covenant moving to the New is not that there's two ways to get to God and the Jewish people have one and we have another, but it's because of the progress that the one God making one covenant at a time was bringing people to himself. And the progress between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is a part of what we've been learning. Knowing that we're talking on this topic, I've had some people ask me to comment on certain Bible verses so that this could be made clear, particularly about how do Jewish people get right with God and how do non-Jewish people."
"He said, 'not just because there are signs should you necessarily believe they're from God'. And he had a list of Bible verses which were actually telling of how some signs are not from God. And I thought gee that's something that we all should learn more about. And so that's where I've gotten this idea of a message tonight and we'll start a very obvious place in the book of Exodus."
"One of the things I like in watching a movie is where, whether it be the hero or the heroine or whoever, is put in a position to have to make a difficult decision, put on the spot, and it's always of interest to me about why human beings make the decisions that they do... And that's actually something in movies I like to see where someone comes to a circumstance they didn't expect and have to make either a rash decision or a very brave decision or one that gets them killed. And that's the part of movies that really grip me. And I think that's been a part of me even before I watched many movies at all. And I have a great interest in the human decision mechanism. Some of that also comes about because my involvement in Christian ministry has been, in my younger days, very much about calling people to come to Christ and wanting them to make a decision."