GBC | Sermons

In this weeks sermon Matt Willis, our Youth and Young Adults Coordinator, challenges us to concider the question "Why, if Jesus is so great are we tempted to drift away at all?" and remids us of the importance of doing the journey of faith together.

What do you need to pay more careful attention to as a follower of Jesus and is there someone you can begin to read the gospels with and ask that very question? Let's stay Anchored to Jesus, even as the rest of our lives feel so unmoored.

Easter Sunday | The Triumph of the Lamb | He Is Worthy | Revelation 5:6-14

Good Friday | The Triumph of the Lamb | It Is Finished | John 19:16b-24

This week has seen some extraordinary things happen in Australia as a result of the coronavirus and we launched our very first online church service yesterday. You can join in our worship together at gbconline.org.au at our regular service times of 8:30am, 10:30am, and 6:00pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time). We’d love for you to join us if you are part of our community of faith here or if your...

Due to Covid-19 we never had the chance to explore our fifth and final value of our church Trust-Worthy. In this episode Marc Rader explains and explores what it means for us right now to be Trust-Worthy.

This week we continue to explore our values as a community of faith and are up to Others-Focused. Associate Pastor Mark Coleman gets us thinking about how this value might show up in our behaviour as a community of faith. What small things can you do this week to be a bit more Others-Focused? When we do so we are living as Jesus did and as his followers - like Paul - have tried to do ever since.

What do you wish to learn or experience about God? Who are you going to approach to learn from? And what have you learned or experienced of God that you can share with others? These are critical questions that every follower of Jesus should be asking as we seek to be Whole-Life Learners.

Allan Demond is the Senior Pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Melbourne and is a good friend and mentor of mine. Allan reflects on 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen the hearts of those who are fully committed to him.”   Does your heart need a mentor? Is there chaos at the board table of your inner life? Jesus stands ready to strengthen your heart s...

The values of a group, organisation, team, family, or community are reflected in their actions. Even if the values are never explicitly stated, they are on display in the things that group does and how they do them. Let us practice being Big-Hearted by being consistently generous in the little things. And as we do this in the simple, little ways be on the lookout for the invitation of God to be a...

Creating and maintaining margin in our lives so that we are available to participate with what God is inviting us to do is a practice that is central to following Jesus no matter what community of faith you may be a part of it. When we offer what margin we have to God he can do miraculous things with it so let’s be sure to do just that.

We are launching our new series “The Crux of Community: The Values That Shape Us”. This is an introduction to a set of values that, as a leadership, we believe will give us a common language to use as we seek to take seriously the invitation to join in with what God is doing as we follow Jesus. Regardless of whether you consider yourself part of the GBC community of faith these questions are impor...

Our Father is always at his work to this very day - present and active and asking us if “we’ll give him a hand”. As a community of faith that is seeking to be spiritual first-responders we are called to be aware of his activity and familiar with the patterns that suggest God is at work. Be ready. Be present. You Are Here.

We’ve all felt anxious. Whether it’s a mild case of the butterflies or the chest-constricting, heart-pounding, on-the-verge-of-panic that keeps us awake at night, we’ve all experienced anxiety. I imagine that most of us would say that we would like less anxiety in our lives, but what if anxiety were an invitation from God?

In a society where long hours seem to be pretty normal and where too many people seem to be lost in some form of workaholism we need a better theology of work; one that allows us to work hard, enjoy our tasks when we can, but not get lost. For those of who follow Jesus this begins with living for Jesus and increasing our love for him.

In this message, the second this week, we continue “The Feels: A Heart Encounter With the Good News” looking at FOMO - the acronym for the Fear Of Missing Out and consider what difference Jesus makes to this very modern anxiety. The assumptions that drive FOMO are ultimately lacking in wisdom. The good news is that Jesus invites us into the full and wise life following him.

In this message, the first of two this week, we continue “The Feels: A Heart Enounter With the Good News” where we are exploring the difference Jesus makes to our emotional lives. This message, given by associate pastor Mark Coleman, focuses on shame; an emotion that we are all familiar with.  Shame thrives in secrecy. It seeks to convince us that if people found out they’d reject us. The good new...

One response to disappointment is to lower our expectations to such a degree that we stop hoping for anything. This isn’t a great response, but is especially devastating in a relationship with God. When we are disappointed with our reality, we are able to bring that to God and, through gratitude, hold on to the promises and character of God. This stance of faith in the face of disappointment is pr...

This week we begin a new series entitled “The Feels: A heart encounter with the good news” in which we will be exploring a series of emotions and the difference Jesus makes. Emotions are given to us by God and are part of our full humanity, but these precious gifts can sometimes overwhelm or cripple us. How does the renewing work of Jesus impact our emotional lives?   If envy can be defined as (pr...

Who you are when no one else is watching is as good a definition of character as I’ve heard. How we act when we are on our own, with no one around, is a pretty good guage of our character. What about God? Who is God when he is “alone"? On his own, God is all about salvation, all about kindness and compassion. Jesus’ birth in a backwater town, almost unacknowledged, points to this essential charact...

Merry Christmas! Welcome to the GBC Sermon Podcast and a special Christmas message.   The birth of Jesus really is good news of great joy; a declaration of hope that invites us to live our lives differently. This Christmas I pray you will find the courage to take God up on this extraordinary invitation.   May God bless you this Christmas season.

Have you ever felt like you are in free fall? When you are uncertain about everything except the certain disaster that is surely coming your way? And when things look grim, where do you find hope? Hope that goes beyond the hollow optimism of “she’ll be right”? Taking God’s perspective on the future isn’t easy; just ask Ahaz or Joseph or the first generation of Christians. But his perspective invit...

Life is full of examples of doing hard things for the good that doing that hard thing will achieve. Going to the gym, having a hard conversation, completing the degree, holding the line on a decision, and on and on it goes. When we are convinced that the outcome is good and worthwhile we are willing to do what might be difficult to achieve it. There are many “ways” that promise us the good. As at...