Flooding Creek (FCCC)

Let me tell you three stories. The Curse, the Seed & the Snake God created a good world where God & humanity dwelt together, and where humanity was given work to do. God placed good boundaries. A snake entered the garden, The snake deceived the woman to eat , and her husband was passive. God came to…

Intro Shalom Shalom! Peace Peace! If only such peace could be ours! Last century we suffered two global conflicts that brought much of the world to it’s knees. In the wake of the 2nd world war we thought we had learned our lesson, and that we would strive to make the world a peaceful place. We thought…

Intro Angels and Demons are part of pop-culture. They have fallen into well-worn tropes, with spiritual beings either coming up from hell, or down from heaven. The angels are white and winged, the demons are red and horned. As you trace this imagery back you will see that it flows out of Christian art…

Intro Where we were, in the midst of judgement. Like moses on the shore of the Red Sea, we must be ready to rejoice at God’s judgement and his deliverance Our passage today is in part that rejoicing. Exalting God in his Judgement v1-5 When things go well for us we generally start to take things for granted.…

Opening Prayer Mighty father, Please let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Intro Christmas day. It’s one of my favorite days of the year! Unfortunately it’s not for very spiritual reasons... You see Christmas is…

Humans are Pattern Recognition machines. It's a bit crude, but it's a fair assessment. A lot of our cognitive functions are for recognising patterns. When we learn to speak a language, we are learning to recognise certain patterns of sound and then create a responsive pattern of sounds with our own mouth…

Intro The Judgement v1-7 The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. Who was Tyre? Tyre was a port city on the coast of the Mediterranean - Jut down from modern day Beirut. Technically should have…

Intro In Isaiah Book of prophecy The First 39 Chapters have lots of Judgement. Recent chapters have said a lot about other nations, but now we have an Oracle About Jerusalem. The other nations have been been proud, they have been haughty, they have not humbled themselves before God, Surely is will be…

Intro “Let love be Genuine” Let me tell you a story of a young couple. They grew up in church. They became Christians in christian families who went to church come hell or high-water. Yet when they got married they stopped going to church. For no good reason they pulled away from the churches that they…

Intro A watchman, what does he do? Watches over the city. Always watching for threats. Raises the alarm Reports what they see. We appreciate our watchman, that's why we have news & journalists, that’s why “experts” are always being interviewed: “Will the market go up or down? Will interest rates remain…

Intro In Isaiah Book of prophecy about 700BC The First 39 Chapters have lots of Judgement. A lot of the Bible is like this, it’s good for us to sit in it, to understand it, to feel the weight of it. The darkness, the wrath and the judgment make the Salvation of Jesus all the sweeter! Oracles Against…

Intro Promised Joy helps us endure the hard times: A hard season is endured in expectation of a holiday Labour is endured is expectation of a baby Hours in the garden tilling and digging and pruning and watering, all endured in hope of a harvest. Prison is endured in hope of release. Even war, sad as…

Intro Everyone can’t be wrong, right? In the last passage: Judah teams up with Syria to attack Judah. Judah was scared God sends Isaiah with a message: Don’t be afraid! King Ahaz looks to Assyria for help. Assyria does defeat Israel & Syria Is 8 Is related to those events, and prophesies more details.…

Intro Kids Recap Paul’s letter to Timothy, a church leader. Mid first century. Instructions on how to Run Church So far we’ve covered the foundational message that the church is based on - Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the worst of sinners. Paul has also warned Timothy that it is his…

Intro A Hugely important passage Sometimes the prophet is just the medium of a message from God, but sometimes the prophet’s life and actions are part of the message. Although Isaiah ordinarily just gives oracles from God, there are a few times he “steps into” the message of the book with a story. This…

Intro We gotta eat our veggies! In Isaiah Book of prophecy 700BC From Judah Follows on from the Song of the Vineyard, where God compared his people Israel to a perfectly planted vineyard that produced rotten grapes. God promised to plow in the vineyard. Our passage is in some sense an investigation into…

Intro So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. How often have you heard this verse? It’s a popular one, tying up the end of the “Love Chapter” in 1 Corinthians. It’s a powerful verse, driving home the importance of that underlying attribute that God displays…

Intro Shame is a God-given response for when things are not right. It’s a like pain: no-one want to feel pain, but when your hand is on the stove, pain drives you to take it off again. Pain is a good thing to prevent further pain and suffering. No-one want to feel shame, but when you are in a bad situation,…

Intro Refresh Around 700 BC, during the reign of 4 kings of Judah Isaiah is mostly about Judah, the southern kingdom, but also cover other nations. It’s all about Jesus. The whole Bible finds it’s fulfillment in Christ. As we talk about this word, there are multiple layers of application, and so I will…

Intro How are you going in your faithfulness to the LORD? Perhaps you are early days as a Christian, and growing like crazy all the time, that’s great! But the reality for many of us is that we have been Christian for years and the early holiness gains we had seem like a distant memory. You may find…

Intro Do you think of yourself as wealthy? Often i reckon we think of our wealth in comparison to someone wealthier. “We’re comfortable, but we’re not loaded.” “I’m pretty well off but my boss makes way more than me, he’s really wealthy” We in our western mindset are often oriented to our next big purchase.…

Intro Nearing the end of letter This is Paul’s great charge to Timothy What does a man of God look like? Our passage will show us! While the text is obviously about a man, and a church leader at that, there is still broad principles of faithfulness that applies to both the man and woman of God. A godly…