Chatswood Baptist Church

Tokyo Olympics How much of the Olympics did you watch? I’m not a big fan of watching sport on TV but with everyone shut in as we have been and with most of the family wanting to watch I couldn’t …

Sexual Immorality and the Church   ‘Not even a hint’ Last week, as part of our series ‘flirting with the world’, Philip spoke on one of the most common, enduring and powerful forms of temptation in all times and places …

1. Watch out Consumerism In many countries around the world people are accumulating more and more things. We have more and more stuff and our homes are increasingly filled with things that we don’t really need or that we will …

Introduction The world lies to us constantly. It whispers and yells that it is ok to be who you want to be. The world tells us that we should only worry about ourselves, that we are the most important thing …

1. Worldliness and the church Over 150 years ago Charles Spurgeon wrote… “The one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over …

Christian care? As many of you know, we recently sent out a survey to gain a sense of where people are at just over a year after COVID changed all our lives. Thanks to the 110 people who completed it …

COVID 19 may feel somewhat like an invisible enemy. A virus particle, so small yet dangerous, unseen by the human eye without the help of science, has caused so much disruption, frustration and desperation. Although there is no visible army …

A long list of names Today we have come to the final chapter in the Paul’s letter to the Romans. For many this last chapter can feel like the credits at the end of a movie, just a long list …

Romans 15:14-33   Learning from the details… When you’re reading the Bible, some parts just jump out to you as powerfully relevant to what’s going on in your life. You almost feel like it was written specifically for you – …

Disagreements and quarrels So often in life we find ourselves in disagreements. Sometimes these disagreements are over things that are significant and important and other times we find ourselves quarrelling about things that, when it comes down to it, don’t …

Romans 13   Are Christians good for society? When I was studying engineering at UNSW, quite a few years ago now!, I remember reading an article in the student magazine written by my nice, smiley maths tutor. It was all …

In view of God’s mercy The Lord Jesus told a story of a servant who owed the king an incredible amount of money, 10,000 talents which in today terms, at least by my calculation which are admitted pretty rough, would …

I wouldn’t make a good builder. My skills with wood are very limited and when it comes to looking at plans for designs of houses etc. Well let’s just say that Larissa has some skills in this department that I …

Blame When something goes wrong people often look for someone else to blame. The last person we want to blame is usually ourselves. We often blame others We want to be able to point our finger at someone and say …

Romans 9   Romans Chapter 9 raises some big questions for us. It provides some very important answers – although I suspect some of us won’t find the answers easy or particularly satisfying. It’s a very important passage for each …

1. Recapping the story When you are watching a TV series on Netflix and you go from one episode to the next or from one season to the next you sometimes get a recap of the story thus far. The …

Ephesians 1:15-23   What prompts prayer for you? This is the last week in a short series on prayer. We’ve spent two weeks learning to pray from Jesus – reflecting on his prayer for us in John 17, and then …

Luke 11:1-4 & Matthew 6:9-13   Pandemics & Prayer   “Teach us to pray…” (Luke 11:1 ff.)   The Orientation or Perspective of Prayer – “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6.9)   The Family Prayer of the children …

Neglecting the important People often neglect things that we know are important to be doing. We know we should be doing them, but we just don’t make the time to do them. Changing the batteries We know that we’re supposed …

Great announcements Today I want to look with you at what is arguably perhaps the greatest announcement that has ever been made in this world. It is found at the end of the reading that was read for us just …

Mark 15:16-41 Remembering ‘good’ Friday…? Recently I’ve been working through my digital library of photos, trying to reduce it down from 50,000+ photos to something a little more reasonable. I got into photography about 12 years ago, with my first …

Introduction – Miscarriage of Justice In 1975 at the age of 19 Ricky Jackson was convicted of a murder that he didn’t commit. He was accused and subsequently found guilty of killing a man named Harold Franks outside a neighbourhood …

Mark 14,27-52   Overconfident I’ve been skiing twice in my life. Two half days on the slopes. The first time, at Mt Hotham in Victoria, I was over-confident. I had assumed I’d be able to pop the skis on and …

Every husband knows those five fatal words “Love, have you remembered to…” We all know that when one’s spouse says “Love” your antennnae should be twitching and we all know that “have you remembered” isn’t an invitation to contemplate the …

Watchfulness Keeping watch isn’t always easy. Watching the time I’ve got a little timer in the bathroom to try and keep my showers short. It’ s an electronic timer that I usually set for 4 minutes to not only save …