Central Community Church | Sermon Audio

John 6:35-6:51 | Jesus made a very bold statement. He said that He Himself is what we need to satisfy our deepest longings and be at peace. The problem is that we choose not to believe Jesus' words and attempt to fill the void with other things. Riches and comfort mask our true depravity. If we were to understand the Truth, we would see that we are starving to the point of death and require a mira...

Isaiah 58:1-58:14 | Compassion Sunday 2016. We focused on the biblical reality that pure worship (worship that honours God) includes caring for others, especially the vulnerable such as the foreigner, widow and orphan.

1 Peter 2:24-2:25 | Easter Sunday 2016. Because Jesus died on a cross and rose again our lives can be absolutely transformed. Our guilt lifted, liberated from the enslaving power of sin, the ability to live new lives, and cause for celebration in a God who has proven that He is trustworthy. The Good News of the cross and resurrection changes everything!

Matthew 21:1-21:11 | The Passion week begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey to wild fanfare. Why a donkey? And how did the crowd's cries of ?"Hosanna!" on Sunday turn to chants of ?"Crucify him!" by Friday?

John 6:22-6:34 | Jesus has been working miracles and teaching with power, and the crowds are loving it. He can heal people! He can make bread and fish come from nowhere! But is that all that Jesus is offering? Is Jesus only offering satisfaction for physical needs, or is he offering something much greater?

John 6:16-6:21 | Being a disciple (a follower, a student) of Jesus - often referred to as ?"the Christian walk" - is the most dangerous, yet safest thing one could ever do. The Gospel of John, chapter 6, recounts the time when Jesus came to His disciples walking on the water - yet we cannot miss the implications for our walk with Him. Walking with Jesus, as His first disciples discover...

John 6:1-6:15 | After the very first Passover, Moses was used by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, to freedom, and eventually into the Promised Land. When Jesus fed the 5000 as the Passover was approaching, He revealed Himself to be not only the supplier of bread for the hungry, but the all-satisfying Bread of Life to everyone who believes.

John 5:31-5:47 | The Bible is one big story where everything points to Jesus. It's primary purpose is to point people to Jesus. All of Scripture bears witness about Jesus. And the way that the Bible leads to eternal life is by leading people to encounter Jesus in it.

John 5:18-5:30 | Since he began his ministry Jesus faced one question more than any other; Who Do You Think You Are? The Gospel of John makes it clear that it was written to cause us to wrestle with this question. Our passage today lays out, in no uncertain terms, Jesus' response to this timeless question. How we respond to the proclamation of Jesus has implications for all humanity, both now and...

John 5:1-5:15 | Jesus is at work bringing healing for the purpose of holiness. But we can waste the miracle (His healing to our hearts) through both libertinism and legalism.

Matthew 28:18-28:20 | In the conclusion of this sermon series, we explore what it looks like not only to belong to a local church but what it looks like to belong to Central more specifically. By rooting ourselves in the Great Commission text (Matt 28:18-20), we see the objective of every faithful church and how we aim to work that out at Central. By unpacking Acts 2:42-47 we see how the early chu...

Hebrews 10:24-10:25 | From not seeing ministry partnership (membership) in the Bible, to past hurts, to the belief that being a member of the universal church is enough, to an overarching skepticism when it comes to something being required, people have all kinds of reasons not to belong to a local church. But what if there are great reasons, even better reasons, to belong to a local church? It is...

Matthew 16:13-16:20 | The church is God's vehicle, chosen and designed by Him to carry the message of the gospel to the world. What we understand and believe about the church is critically important because it is such a significant part of God's plan to demonstrate His love for the world. The church is God's Plan A ... and there is no Plan B! How do you fit into this plan?

Romans 6:1-6:4 | Why is it important for followers of Jesus to be baptized? Why is Baptism best understood as Belonging with Jesus in Baptism? What does the Bible say about baptizing believer's and their infants versus the believer's baptism? The implications of baptism are vital for the Christian life. In this sermon spend some time thinking through how this applies to us.

1 Corinthians 15:1-15:4 | As one theologian put it, the gospel is at the centre of our faith, and the cross and the empty tomb are at the centre of the gospel. As we begin a new year and a new sermon series, we focus on what matters most.

Luke 10:38-10:42 | The dawning of a new year symbolizes a fresh start and a new beginning for many. As one year closes and another begins, reflections turn into resolutions in the hope of a new year. As Christians, what should top our list of priorities in 2016, and how do we keep from being overly busy, stressed and distracted from pursuing God? The story of Jesus' visit with Mary and Martha remi...

Galatians 4:4-4:5 | At Christmas we celebrate that God sent His Son Jesus to become a child so that we could become children of God.

Luke 1:5-1:25 | For some of us, Christmas is a hard time of year. Instead of glad tidings of great joy coming to the forefront of our minds and hearts, our difficult circumstances do. The story of Zechariah speaks into that. Over and over again God presses the hard, frustrated, hurt places in our hearts so that we can come out the other side, like Zechariah, with far greater depth and rejoicing.

1 Samuel 8:1-8:22 | We live in a world where we constantly battle things and people that want to rule us. And they will - if we let them. It requires diligence to to keep Christ ?"on the throne" - as the Ruler and King of our lives. God's desire and plan has always been to rule and reign in love and justice over His people - to lead them as only He can. But His people rejected this, asking instead...

Genesis 17:1-17:7 | God, out of sheer grace, called Abram and named him Abraham. He renamed him 'father of a multitude' before he and Sarah even had one child together, promising him innumerable descendants. There would come through the line of Abraham one particular child of promise, Jesus the Messiah, God's own Son.

Genesis 3:14-3:15 | We typically think of Advent beginning in Bethlehem but it actually began in Eden. To tell the Christmas story most accurately, we need to begin at the first reference to Christ's coming, Genesis 3:15. From the first moment of judgement, the promise of redemption was there. A promise for a greater Adam, Jesus. A promise that what we gain in Jesus is far greater than what we los...

Galatians 6:1-6:2 | The Christian community has often been accused of ?"shooting its wounded". What do we do when someone is carrying a load that is beyond their ability to bear - specifically a burden caused by sin? How are we to deal with this scenario in the church? We are called to ?"carry each other's burdens" when someone is ?"caught in a sin". What does that mean? Ultimately Jesus is THE Bu...

Romans 14:1-15:1 | What should Christians do about our differences over non-essential issues? And how do we love one another despite our differences? How do we balance Christian Liberty with Christian Charity? Ultimately, we sacrifice our own desires for the sake of others because that is precisely what Jesus has done for us. The gospel beckons us to look beyond our own interests and to the intere...

Colossians 3:16-3:17 | To let the word of Christ dwell in us richly is to make the gospel the focus and centrepiece of our gatherings. Our teaching and admonishing happens as we disciple one another in the gospel in all of life.

Luke 22:24-22:27 | Service and submission are unpopular words these days. Community service is something judges force law breakers to do. Submission goes against our culture's quest for autonomy. Yet we follow Jesus, who washed feet and bore a criminal's cross. We follow Jesus, who submitted to His Father's will even though they are One and He is no less glorious. We explore what it means and look...