Melbourne Heights - Sermons

 In today’s podcast we’re continuing in our sermon series called In Transit. In this series we’re exploring Biblical stories about people in transitions and seeing what we can learn from their experiences to help us as we face transitions too. In today’s podcast, we’re taking a closer look at the story of Abraham. And we’ll see what the story of Abraham has to teach us about being in the righ...

Life is filled with transitions--from leaving home and going off to college to changing jobs or moving into new homes. But how do we follow God through these transitions? That's what we'll be exploring throughout this four part sermon series. In part 1 of our "In Transit" sermon series, we'll be exploring how Daniel committed himself to follow God no matter what happened while he was in transit.

It seems like whenever you hear someone talk about heaven they mention the streets of gold and the pearly gates. Now, you may not know, but this imagery comes from the book of Revelation...but it may not mean what you've been lead to believe. In this week's episode, we make it to the happy ending of the book of Revelation. And we see what God promises to everyone who remains faithful to him.

What do you do when your back is against the wall, when there doesn't seem to be a way out, when it looks like you're going to lose? Well, there are plenty of people who get angry and just quit. But, as a follower of Jesus, we need to remember that no matter how bad things may seem, God is always in control and God will always win...so we don't need to quit.

We're continuing our Revelation Simplified sermon series this week, and we're taking a look at three stories that involve a big, nasty, fiery, red dragon. But just because this dragon seems indestructible, that doesn't mean he is. The dragon will fall because God always wins.

The book of Revelation can feel overwhelming, confusing, and complicated but it doesn’t have to be that way. The heart of the book of Revelation is a timeless message that followers of Jesus have needed to hear throughout the centuries.  So in this week's sermon, we’re beginning a series of sermons that will help you hear and understand this message that Jesus has for you.

John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loves the world..." And since God loves the world, we should love the world too. But how do we actually do that? How do we love the world that God so loves? Well, in John 13:34-35 Jesus tells us. He tells us to love each other the same way that Jesus loves us. So in this week's sermon we'll explore how Jesus loves us and learn from Jesus how we can love each other.

There may be no words that are more important to our faith than the words, "For God so loved the world..." But how do those words shape the way that we feel about and the way we treat the other people in this world that God so loves? In this week's sermon, we explore Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman sitting beside a well. As we do, we'll see that this woman was on the lowest rung of the lad...

John 3:16 may be one of the most well-known verses in the Bible...but most of the time we forget how world-changing it is. The idea that "For God so loved the world" didn't exist before Jesus uttered those words. People believed that God loved individuals, or a nation, or a religious group...but not the entire world. In this sermon, we take the time to see just how world-changing these six words a...

The first Sunday after is the time when churches traditionally talk about "Doubting" Thomas...but Thomas gets a bad rap. If any of us were in his sandals, we would've had the same doubts. The truth is, 2,000 years later we still want to see the nail-scarred hands of Jesus at work in our world to take away our doubts. The good news for us is, that just like Jesus showed his hands to Thomas, if we'r...

The story of Easter begins early on a Sunday morning about 2,000 years ago. The world has changed a lot over the last 2,000 years...but the biggest change happened that morning when Jesus' tomb was found empty. Because the tomb was empty, we can be filled with hope.

While dying on the cross, Jesus experiences more pain than most of us could ever imagine. And that makes the first statement that Jesus makes on the cross so surprising. In the face of all of the pain and suffering he was experiencing, Jesus' initial reaction was to ask God to forgive everyone who put him there. How was that even possible? How could Jesus ask God to forgive the same people that we...

Everyone of us faces pain. From the pain of losing loved ones to the pain of stubbing a toe...we've all been there. And that means we all have to find ways to endure the pain we experience. In this week's sermon we talk about one important way to deal with our pain: being real with God about what we're feeling.

The church can have a language of its own...but we rarely stop to explain it. But in this week's throwback episode we take a closer look at what it looks like to be saved.

We've all experienced pain. From stubbing a toe or biting our tongues, to losing a family member or friend. But what if we hadn't ? What if we lived in a world without pain? Than may sound like paradise...but is it really? Because, believe it or not, there is a purpose to pain.

What do you say to someone who is suffering? Unfortunately we have a long history of blaming someone's suffering on them or on God...but God tells us in the book of Job that neither of those answers are right. So what do we say about pain and suffering in this world instead? Where do we find hope when it hurts? That's what this sermon is all about.

Some questions in life have easy answers. Like just about everyone knows 2+2=4, or if someone asks for your phone number you can rattle it off in no time flat. But other questions aren't so easy. But just because something isn't easy that doesn't mean it should be avoided. As people of faith, we should be wrestling with questions that have no easy answers because the struggle will help our faith g...

Do you remember the game "Guess Who?" It was a game where you asked "yes" or "no" questions to discover the identity of a mystery person. Sometimes we do the same thing when it comes to Jesus. We wonder if he had brown hair, or if he was tall. But we also wonder what it means for him to be "the Christ, the Son of the living God." In this week's sermon we'll see that there's no need for us to guess...

The kingdom of God is different than the ways of this world. This world can feel like it's filled with violence and hatred...but the kingdom of God is a kingdom of peace and love. So how do followers of Jesus change the world we live in to make it more like the kingdom of God? We do it by following the ways of Jesus.

We all have an idea of who Jesus is. We have an idea of what he looks like, what he dresses like, how he behaves. But most of the time, when we think about Jesus, we think he is just like us. But then we run into passages of scripture or stories that remind us that Jesus is not like us...but we are supposed to be becoming more like him. In this week's sermon we explore one of those passages of scr...

Who does God love? Depending on who you ask, you'll likely hear a lot of different answers. But in this week's sermon we are reminded by Jesus--who is God made human--that there is only one answer to this question. God loves everyone...we're the ones that make exceptions.

There is a lot to worry about in life - from our health, to our families, to our jobs, and more. And because there is so much we can worry about, it's a little strange to hear Jesus tell us, "Do not worry." In this week's sermon we'll see why Jesus tells us not to worry, and we'll be reminded that God is always in control.

Sometimes in life we find ourselves in situations beyond our control. But just because things are beyond our control that doesn't mean they are beyond God's control. In this week's sermon we talk about how God has led Melbourne Heights through an uncertain time, and how Go has prepared us for a brighter future.

Is the moral of the story of the tortoise and the hare really that slow and steady win the race? Or is it a lesson that pride comes before the fall? Just because you've heard a story a thousand times that doesn't mean you completely understand the story. That's definitely the case in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable has a lot to teach us about who our neighbors really are.

The story of Jesus' baptism can be one of the most confusing stories about Jesus life on earth. But, even though this story can leave us scratching our heads, it still has a lot to tell us about who God is and how we can better follow him.