Disciples Church Sermons

Division and in-fighting in a local church is a killer to fruitful Gospel ministry. When people form factions and cliques, and start politicking and plotting so to win arguments, it all gets very ugly and does nothing to honour the Lord or display a genuine witness of love to anyone. This is what was happening in Corinth. People were rallying around certain church leaders and being antagonistic to...

We begin our new primary sermon series from the first letter to the Corinthians. Wow, what a shambles the church had become, within years of the Apostle Paul leaving. His letter to them was a firm reprimand to get things back on track, and it's instructive for us too. If you do not view everything through a Gospel lens, it's so easy to become side-tracked with divisions and selfishness. May God bl...

Thanks to the internet, we are able to very quickly see a huge amount of tragedy, suffering and hurt in our world. Some people find it easy to grow apathetic towards the great need. Some find it easier to ignore what is going on all together by picking and choosing what they view. As Christians we should be showing compassion towards others. So where and how do we begin when the needs seem so many...

If Jesus visited Springfield, would you be offended if He spent more time at the pub with non-Christians than He spent hanging out with us at the DC Building? The ministry model He gave us for these "last days" screams loudly of His compassion for the lost. This sermon looks at what it means to be a friend of sinners.

Have you ever felt like an outsider? If you have, you'll know it is NOT a pleasant experience! The first passage we will look at in our new three part series focuses on a guy who knew that feeling well - a leper. This disease had ostracised him from his community in more ways than one. The man had an encounter with Jesus and walked away healed and restored. It showed us that Jesus' compassion reac...

When God finished making everything in the universe, He looked at it and declared that it was very good. But something has happened. While there are many things in creation that we would say are indeed good, we know that it is no longer very good. There are natural disasters, there is drought and famine, work is hard, there are wars, and evil is often perpetrated between human beings. Something ha...

The headline from the first chapter of the Bible is that GOD CREATED EVERYTHING! After thousands of years, we are still to quantify the extent of everything God made, so it is mind-blowing in it's enormity and it's intricacy. The chemistry is amazing; the physics is amazing; the design is amazing; the geography is amazing; the diversity is amazing; it's all amazing - and it was very good. And the...

We begin our new series which takes us to the first three chapters of the Bible. But before we get into what happened in the beginning, we're going to look at the authority of the Bible. Any study of the book of Genesis, particularly the first chapters, inevitably leads to a discussion about the authority of Scripture and how we are to understand and interpret what it says.

This Sunday we finish what the writer of Hebrews calls a brief exhortation, which is the book of Hebrews. We look at the closing comments and the call for all of us to pay attention to everything that is contained in this theologically rich letter of encouragement. Tough times are not an excuse to give up or stop trusting in Jesus. On the contrary. God is using all of our life circumstances to pro...

Lacking Gospel joy? Maybe the reason for this is that you have moved on from the Gospel and you're trying to find joy in other places? When we keep the Gospel our central focus, we become less self-centered. This allows us to worship God as we should, and love others as we should. This becomes our sacrifice of praise, and brings joy to our souls!

Selfishness should have no part in the Christian life. In fact, the call to follow Jesus is a call to put your selfishness to an end - to die to yourself - and worship God by serving others. Every time we give our heart to some worldly thing, we put selfishness on display not godliness. Our example is Jesus, who came 2,000 years ago, not to be served, but to serve.

If the Christian life can be likened to a running race - and it often is - then there's no wonder we need some "coaching input". There are times when we feel incapable of going on, so a pep talk can be the motivation that we need. That's essentially what the book of Hebrews is for us - that encouragement to push on to the finish line, to the glories of Heaven that await all followers of Jesus.

If we believe the Gospel our relationships change. Our relationship with God changes - we go from being enemies to being friends. Our relationships with people change - we are empowered to forgive and be forgiven. The writer to the Hebrews says this is characterised by holiness and peace. Because of Jesus we are made holy in God's sight. Because of Jesus we can have peace with others.

We continue looking at the topic of repentance and explore what it should look like in the everyday life of believers. In doing so, we will see the many benefits and blessings that come from a life that is continually turning to God and away from sin through faith in Jesus.

Repentance is one those ‘Christianese' terms that you've probably heard but maybe not spent a lot of time reflecting on. Being able to repent is a wonderful blessing and an essential part of the Christian walk, but often limited understanding means the fullness of that blessing is not realised. In this two part series Pastor Sly hopes to shed some more light on the subject and encourage us to be r...

The story of the resurrection of Jesus is not just the story of God doing a cool miracle. The story of the resurrection of Jesus is the story of our resurrection. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can have eternal life. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can have hope. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we also will rise from the dead, if we are trusting in Him for salvation.

We tend to look at the word discipline with negativity. This is because it usually represents something we probably won't enjoy. But God's Word encourages us to look upon discipline as something to appreciate and value.

The letter to the Hebrews is an encouragement to persist with faith in Jesus. Without faith, it is impossible to please God it says in chapter six. My righteous ones will live by faith it says in chapter ten. And to prove the point, chapter eleven looks at a long line of names from the Old Testament to show that their hope was beyond this world, in Heaven. This encourages us not to live by sight,...

Let's face it, we rarely get persecuted for our faith. Maybe a snide comment from someone at work or a family member, but nothing like a public flogging to see if we will renounce our faith. For us, the issues that challenge our faith the most are life's circumstances and our relationships with others. More often than not, these are the things that can make us move away from Jesus rather than towa...

As a result of Christ's atoning death on the cross, we may enter into the Most Holy Place of heaven, being reconciled to God for all eternity. But we don't go as individuals. We go as a community. We are not saved into isolation. We are saved into the community of the people of God - the bride of Christ. It is in this community that we love, serve and encourage one another as we live in this broke...

Our church services would be very messy affairs if we still had to offer animal sacrifices for our sins. Praise God that there is a new, superior covenant of grace! Now, we are free to offer a different kind of sacrifice, the living sacrifice of our very lives, lived for Jesus and His Kingdom as we seek to follow Him, obey Him and serve Him.

We often associate blood with death, but it is also a symbol of life. We do not live without blood. That's why, culturally, blood has often been used to seal a deal - to show that we are serious about keeping what we have promised. The two most famous covenants God has made with His people have been sealed with blood. For the old covenant, it was the blood of animals. For the new covenant, it is t...

Our culture is saturated with sex. It is clearly 'god' to many who live in the world around us. As followers of Jesus, we need to have a firm understanding of what the Bible says about sex, as well as how Jesus graciously redeems us when we have distorted it into something more than just good for us. This is the last message in our summer holiday sermon series.

We have a sovereign God! He is so awesome and so powerful that He is in control of all things at all times. There are places where God has delegated to us certain roles and responsibilities, but under His ultimate rule and reign. We really struggle with the concept of control. By nature, we want to be in control, and have everything go the way we want it to. We even get mad with God and others whe...

We live in a world filled with entertainment options - there are almost endless amounts of things we can do for fun. In fact, many in our culture are worshippers of fun; it is what they live for and work for. What about us? Are we in the church living only with desires for worldly fun or do we allow Jesus to be transforming us so much that even our 'fun' time is redeemed by His grace?