Chatswood Baptist Church

I like cooking. However, I don’t like bland food. Food for me needs layers, it needs to be rich in flavour. When I make bolognaise sauce for pasta, my general sauce has 19 ingredients in it. When my kids say …

1. It was over before it had it even begun It was over before it had even begun. The marriage The long-awaited day had arrived. They were finally getting married. Everything that morning had gone off like clockwork. The bride …

Exodus 28-30

Camping with God Some of us love camping, and some of us don’t. Our last camping trip, in January last year, just for 2 nights on the central coast, was a bit of a nightmare. Firstly, we felt like we …

Reinforcing who Jesus is Today as we come to the end of this 5 talk series from the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel we see that the one message that Matthew has been telling us from verse 1 of Chapter 1 …

1. Australia’s national warning system In Australia over the last year we have had our fair share of natural disasters. We have had floods and storms here on the East coast and on the west coast earlier this year there …

Introduction Good morning Church and Merry Christmas to you all whether you are in Church or watching from home. Well here we are on Christmas morning. We made it, there is no more waiting, no more buying presents (well not …

Why all the fuss? In our family Bible reading time before bed this month, we’ve been doing something different for Advent readings. We’re still reading passages from the bible that all relate one way or another to the Christmas story …

Introduction One of the most iconic film franchises of all time is Star Wars. And this morning when I speak of Star Wars, I am speaking of the original trilogy (movies IV, V & VI) the first three movies made …

1. Vows and promises We all at times make promises to others and some of those are very significant and are not to be entered lightly. When you marry When you marry you enter a covenant with another person by …

Reacting to the (strange!) detail When we read a passage like this from the Old Testament, it’s quite natural to have a negative reaction. I have to say I wasn’t relishing the thought of preaching on these chapters! Firstly, it …

1. The Shape of our lives Today I want you to think about what is shaping your life for whatever it is that shapes who you are and what you do and say, effectively functions as your god, your king …

Be careful when you come near Before I trained for pastoral ministry I was a field service engineer for Philips Medical. I ended up working in the Ultrasound service team, but for the first year I spent time learning how …

The year was 1999 in Malaysia, when I was on a holiday with my family in a beach resort. I had woken up at 2.30am to watch a big soccer/football final, the Champions League final, between the team I support, …

Introduction One of the hit songs when as I was just becoming a teenager in the 1980’s was by a band called moving pictures, entitled “what about me”. You may indeed know the song as Shannon Noll brought it back …

1. The nearness of the end When time is short you should get on with what you are meant to be doing. Shopping for work boots A couple of days after the lockdown ended for the vaccinated, one of the …

Priorities (v7-11) Peter’s first words are ones that ring urgency. He says the v7 The end of all things is near. We are in the time of the now and not yet…Peter writes to the believers who had received mercy, …

1.The Count of Monte Cristo Over my weeklong break, while I was working in the yard, building a shed, I listened to the audio version of the Count of Monte Christo. It’s a long book, the audio version went for …

Relationships are Central Lockdown has reinforced for all of us how central relationships are to life. We’ve sorely missed some relationships – family and close friends interstate and oversees, or even just more than 5kms away! And for those of …

1. The Armenian people If you have even been to Beauchamp Park you would have seen an Armenian Khachkar which is Armenian cross-stone. It was installed in the park in 2015 to remember those who died in Armenian Genocide carried …

Introduction There are many things in this world that people set their hope on. We have recently had the Olympic Games in Japan to keep us partly occupied while we remain in lockdown. Now Olympians train incredibly hard. Take swimmers …

1. Hope matters Hope is part of our lives and having hope matters. It’s important. We all need hope for it is what sustains us and keeps us going through the hard times that inevitably come our way. Hope enables …

Introduction Maybe this is a familiar story to you, I pray that God will speak to you through it today in a new way We are going to go through it verse by verse – it’s one story in five …

Loving the World and not loving the world As God’s people, we are called to love God by not loving the world. That’s what we’ve been reflecting on over the past five weeks. As 1 John tells us, ‘If anyone …