Restoration Church Toowoomba Sermon Podcast

Every follower of Jesus has a “God gap” in their life — a space where they have some of His fullness but not all of it. What often interrupts our desire to draw closer to Jesus is our tendency to fill that gap with other things. Fasting helps correct this imbalance by depriving us of what has taken His place, so we can experience more of Him.

God has a habit of sending us to do things we can’t accomplish without Him. Rather than ignoring or avoiding these moments, as Moses tried to do, we should embrace them as opportunities to walk with God and witness Him do what only He can.

Light beats darkness every… single… time. It can be no other way. The only way darkness can win is if the light is hidden. But that’s not what God has called His people to. He has made them the light of the world, and they are to place themselves in the midst of the darkness and bring His light. Listen in as Peter unpacks Matthew 5:14–16.

God cares deeply for the foreigners, orphans and widows – those most vulnerable in our society. God called the Israelites to live into their new identity as His people by including the marginalised in the abundance of His provision. Today, as God’s redeemed, we too need to abandon the hording mindset of a slave and live joyfully and generously with the vulnerable in our communities.

We have a disposition to forget God and soak up the values of the culture around us. In this message we see that living wisely involves loving God above all else, and teaching the knowledge of God to our children or those around us. Note: Due to technical difficulties there is no video for this week.

Our lives are short, fragile, and fleeting. Psalm 90 calls us to live with wisdom, asking God to “teach us to number our days” so we may use them well. Looking at Jesus, we can see what is of most importance and so seek to live our lives in a way that reflects that. 

Worry and anxiety are things we'll all face at some point in our lives. Some people struggle with it more intensely, but it’s something we all experience to some degree. With that in mind, Jesus doesn’t leave us without hope in this area. Instead, He gives us a lot of wisdom to help us understand there's a better, less anxious way to live. 

The church has a much bigger problem with friendship than it does with evangelism. If we addressed our problem with friendship, we would resolve almost all of our problem with evangelism. Listen in as Peter explains more about his book Friend of a Friend and the church’s missions philosophy.

Friendship may seem simple, but living it out is harder than it looks. We all know what friendship is, yet so often we struggle to carry it through. In this message, Peter unpacks Jesus’ interaction with the man at the pool of Bethesda, helping us learn how to be a friend from the greatest friend of all—Jesus Himself.

We all have a lens for judging good and evil—but it’s not as clear as we think. Our indwelling sin twists our desires, clouds how we see God, and skews how we hear His words.

God made humanity to be ongoingly growing in wisdom. It is part of who we are. And a key element of growth in wisdom is the need to grow in discerning what is good from what isn’t.

Forgiveness brings freedom for all involved. Joseph’s brothers are fearful that he has been storing up his revenge, only to find that Joseph’s forgiveness is not only genuine but life giving to all. 

As Jacob makes his way to Egypt to see Joseph, we realise this is more than just a family reunion, this is the end of a long journey of Jacob learning to trust God. 

This is it! After more than two decades of separation, Joseph tests his brothers one more time to see if they can be reconciled. Up steps the most unlikely of candidates to make it possible.

In one of the most unsavoury stories of the Bible Judah withholds a husband from Tamar, forcing Tamar to go to extreme lengths to bring forth a child. Yet, this objectionable interaction results in Tamar being called righteous. How can she be righteous? The only way any of us can … by faith in Christ.

God continues to fulfil his promise to the line of Abraham, showing that he can take someone’s sin, convict them of it, empower repentance and ultimately bring salvation.

Joseph descends into the depths of the dungeon for 13 years before ascending to the highest rank in the land behind Pharaoh. Out of the fire comes refined gold and everyone is blessed. Divine Demand and Human Obedience - For those interested here is some further reading on balancing suffering and blessing.

In the process of Joseph being blessed and God blessing those who bless him there is a test. Joseph is going to show us how to respond to sexual temptations that entice you with human wisdom and as result we’ll see the beauty of God’s design for intimacy. 

Through the story of Joseph, we learn that God has a plan for the redemption of his people who have been broken by sin. Joseph is the culmination of God’s plan in Genesis, however, Jesus is a greater fulfilment of God’s plan for all of human history. 

When it comes to Jesus, the more you learn about him, the more you like him. He is that kind of person. Peter closes out the John series by reflecting on what we have learnt about Jesus from John’s gospel.

We live in an era where meaning and purpose have been reduced to self-fulfilment. On the surface, that sounds appealing. But the sad reality, which we see played out all around us, is that self-fulfilment simply isn't a strong enough foundation on which to build a life. In this message, we see how Jesus calls the disciple Peter into a story rich with meaning and purpose—a story strong enough to bu...

There may be no greater threat to identity than failure—especially public failure. And perhaps no failure has been more public in the last 2,000 years than Peter’s denial of Jesus. In this section of John’s Gospel, we are given the profound privilege of witnessing Jesus lift Peter from the rubble of his failure.

As we walk with Jesus, we begin to understand how He operates, allowing us to recognise His work in the events around us. When Jesus shows up, things change—and they change in ways that are unmistakably His. Tune in as Peter unpacks this powerful dynamic from John 21.

Neither John nor Jesus want you to be in the dark when it comes to finding life. Life, full and abundant life, is embodied in the person of Jesus. You get it when you get him.

There is nothing in the world more important than seeing Jesus for who he truly is. Nothing more significant, life altering, comforting, reorienting, lifegiving and hope giving than this. Listen in as Peter takes us through the story of Jesus’ appearance to Thomas.