Flooding Creek (FCCC)

Intro What is your natural tendancy when it comes to the Chrristian life? Grace, grace grace, to the exclusion of truth and law? (Antinomian) Work, work, work your way into God’s good books? (legalist) Knowledge, understanding and theology? Jesus is my invisible boyfriend? As we go into the new year…

Intro Comforting sights? The proper response to the incarnation of the messiah is praise & celebration Mary’s Song, Elizabeth’s exaltation Zechariahs Prophesy Angel’s song Magi’s gifts & worship Today: Simeon’s Song and The coming of the messiah was long anticipated, and in God’s plan he had kept a couple…

Intro We looked at Mary’s song, and now we’re looking at the Angel’s song. The angels, Mary, Zechariiah the preist, simeon and anna, they all show us that the proper response to the incarnation of God the Son is to praise and celebration. That’s why Christimas is endorsed, whether or not Jesus was born…

Intro Today’s passage starts, not in Luke 1 as we read but rather much, much earlier. To understand the context, we must go back, back, past the Prophet Malachi, past Isaiah, past king David and even past the budding nation of Israel to two people hanging out in a garden with God. As you well know, these…

Intro Where do you find comfort when the going gets tough? Or more to the point, how do you find comfort when it’s clear that God is directly causing your suffering? We’re entering into a section of Isaiah that does just that, speaking to a people who are going to suffer the punishment of God for their…

Intro 2700ish years ago Narratives about events in Judah (southern kingdom) Ch 40 gets back into the classic prophetic literature. Ch 36-39 are this story block in the middle of Isaiah that sets the backdrop for the whole book. These two little stories Sickness, Prayer & Deliverance Around the same time…

Intro Let me tell you a story. A Story that was prophesied. A Story of war and battle, of death and victory. Of danger and deliverance. This is the story of King Hezekiah and Jerusalem facing the Assyrian horde. Harried and oppressed they faced an army of vast proportions, a military threat that had…

Intro Isaiah, ancient book of prophecy 2700 years ago, 700 years before Jesus lived. I’ll explain why that’s important soon. The Desert Rejoices ! A breath of fresh air! Compare with the end of 34 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; Recreation…

Exegetical Purpose: Jesus writes to encourage, chastise and warn his churches as representatives of the Church universal. Homiletic Purpose: To encourage, chastise and warn the church at Flooding Creek. Introduction Have you ever had an employee review? You know, maybe when your probation ends or some…

Intro Laura and I have quite distinct tastes in movies. We fit the stereotype - where she is much more likely to pick a “chick-flick” and I’m going to pick a war movie or other action flick. It so happened that Laura & I were talking about the Trojan war this week, and I convinced Laura to try and watch…

Intro Last “woe” aka “ah!” Zion’s Treasure (v1-6) These 6 woes have all been in the context of a coming Assyrian force. Assyria had taken the 10 tribes of Israel in the north, and then when a new king took the throne, he decided to come back for more. Sennacherib wanted to come down and take Judah by…

Intro How do you think about the future? How do you approach it? Do you have a fundamentally negative view about what may happen? Or do you have high hopes for a better future? Our passage today was to ancient Judah and it gave them a balanced view of what was ahead of them - that there would be judgement…

Intro The spiritual world is real. The best explanation is that it’s probably like another dimension - a higher plane or manner of existing that is hard for our minds to comprehend. But it does exist, and it is real, and there are persons who live there. We are body & spirit, but in our present state…

Intro Alot of Is 30 would be familiar ground if you have been with us through the last couple chapters. You can go listen to them if you want to catch up later. But to give you the brief overview: We’re in the middle of 6 woes Alot of this is judgment announced on God’s people for their rebellion, for…

Intro Australia is vulnerable. I dunno if you know anything about our country’s ability to defend ourselves. I might scare you a bit, but I promise this is relevant. Australia can’t defend ourselves. We don’t have the equipment or the numbers to defend our nation properly. If a large force from the north…

Story: Polycarp Ploycarp of Smyrna was a Disciple of the Apostle John. He was a very holy man, and he lived a long life. He would pray continually and for all people. He was a leader of the Church, and even as an old man, he was considered a threat to Rome. Christians would not sacrtifice to the gods,…

Intro This is your life! This is about you. I’m not going to sit here and moralise you, speaking about the importance of living a good life and being kind to people. That is important, but it’s not the most important thing i could tell you. In a world where there seems to be ever shifting boundaries,…

Intro Isaiah Name means Yahweh is Salvation Prophesied “740 b.c., and he lived long enough to record the death of Sennacherib (37:38), datable to 681”, so he was prophesying while the northern 10 tribes were defeated and dispersed by Assyria. He pronounced the judgement of God against all Israel, warning…

Intro Reminder about Isaiah Yahweh is Salvation Prophesied “740 b.c., and he lived long enough to record the death of Sennacherib (37:38), datable to 681”, so he was prophesying while the northern 10 tribes were defeated and dispersed by Assyria. He pronounced the judgement of God against all Israel,…

Intro Do you know the story of “A Christmas Carol”? Written by Charles Dickens. Its been made into a move and other adaptations. One of the key plot devices is that the main character, sour and miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge, is visited throughout a Christmas Eve and given visions of the past present and…

( Matt 6:7-15 ) Have you ever seen these religious? prayer systems Tibetan Prayer Flags & Prayer wheels –for karma’s sake Introduction “By hanging flags in high places the Lung ta will carry the blessings depicted on the flags to all beings. As wind passes over the surface of the flags, which are sensitive…

Intro The context of new Christians trying to understand how the Old Testament connects with the New. How does the coming of Jesus affect how a faithful Jew was to obey God? Does it mean keeping the food laws? No. Circumsicion? No. What about temple sacrifices? Well our passage today is part of a longer…