Redlands Christian Church

Bible Text: James 2:1-13 Ps Phil Popping If you were to think about why God chooses some people to save and not others, what criteria do you think you'd come up with? What type of person does God choose to lavish his love on? Should this change how we interact with each other?

Bible Text: James 1:19-27 Ps Jono Deenick Last week we saw that God's great plan is to give His people new birth through the word of truth. This week James begins to answer the question of how God brings about that transformation in His people. In short, he tells us that we need to not just listen to God's word, but do it. This doesn't mean our transformation is really just self help o...

James 1:9 - 18 Ps Jono Deenick A few weeks ago we began our journey through the book of James and saw trials can be a source of joy. That seems a very strange concept, and James urges us to seek God's wisdom so that we might see the world from His perspective. As James continues he provides us with two examples of the kind of wisdom that will allow us to see God's love for us even in the m...

Bible Text: Matthew 6:25 -34 Ps Phil Popping As we celebrate a wedding this Sunday, Jesus reminds us that there is more to life than worrying about food, clothing, and housing. But, what could be more important than the basics of human existence? If we don’t worry about them, who will? If that’s not what we should be worrying about, what is?

Bible Text: James 1:1-8 Ps Phil Popping Some people have particularly hard lives, some not so much. At the start of James, we're told to expect 'trials' and to be tested by God. Some of us seem to have had more than our fair share of these. What kind of God puts his people through hardship? How can he call us to be joyful through it all?

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 16 Ps Phil Popping If you saw the Maroons play this week you might have wondered where the team went. Was it just a bunch of players on the field or a unified group with a common purpose? In our western culture, it's easy to think of our faith as an individual journey, but we should function more like a team than anything else - a team with a common goal and a higher...

Better than obedience... Ps Phil Popping Text: Philemon 1-25 Blurb: It seems that we're often asked or even commanded to obey. In fact, aren't we taught that a lack of obedience is what got humanity in trouble in the beginning? What could be better than obedience? In this very short and personal letter about a slave, we'll find out about an even better path.

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 15:35 -58 In our passage today, Paul wraps up his discussion of our future resurrection. At one level he is addressing the question, "with what kind of body will we be raised?" But his also masterfully laying out God's plan for the redemption of humanity and the renewal of His world. Here we see God's glorious victory over sin and death and our part as w...

Bible Text: 1 Corinthian 15:12 - 34 Ps Jono Deenick It may seem odd to most of us, but there were some in the Corinthian Church who didn't believe in a future bodily resurrection. It just didn't make sense to them in their culture. In this section Paul writes to tell them how important, central even, the resurrection is to the gospel. While that may not be a question we wrestle with, this...

Bible Text: 1 Corinthian 15:1-11 Preacher: Ben Ring Paul hasn't skimped on difficult issues in his letter to the Corinthians so far - divisions, sexual immorality, idolatry, lawsuits, tongues and head coverings to name a few! In chapter 15 Paul seeks to address another tricky issue - the resurrection of our bodies. Luckily for us, Paul doesn't lunge straight in to the nitty gritty. He open...

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 This is perhaps one of the most shocking passages in the whole Bible to modern ears. At first glance, Paul seems to command something like a zipper on the mouths of women in church. Can we really believe that in this modern world? Is this a practice we should take on board at Redlands?

Bible Text: 1 Corinthian 14:1-25 If you could speak in the tongues of angels, or some sort of heavenly language, wouldn't it be good for the church to hear you doing that? Wouldn't that be uplifting to everyone and encouraging for them? It sounds pretty spectacular. And yet, the answer Paul gives in our passage today is, 'no.' No, it is far better for the church to hear plain old o...

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 13 Ps Phil Popping If you've been to five weddings there's a fair chance you've heard this passage preached on five times. It's full of beautiful ideas about love that are well suited to a wedding, but has Paul just written this in his letter so that we've got a lovely little wedding text? Or is he saying something more?

Bible Text: Romans 12:9-21 Preacher: Juhan Klooster Paul is writing these verses to the church in Rome. A Church with both Jews and Gentiles. Why did he write these verses? He wrote it to help the church grow in righteousness and Christ likeness. The church in Rome needed these verses because of potential tension in the church and persecution outside the church. The Roman church then and our churc...

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 Ps Jono Deenick Last week we began a section in 1 Corinthians that stretches from chapter 12 till the end of 14. In it Paul is helping the church understand the gifts God gives His church by His Spirit and to use those gifts for the good of the Church. This week he uses the metaphor of the body to show that, like our physical bodies, God has designed each part of...

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 Ps Phil Popping The topic of spiritual gifts can be a divisive one. People believe and understand different things about what we've been given or should be given. So, what should we expect when it comes to gifts? Should we be able to heal, or perform miracles? We'll start thinking about these and other questions this Sunday.

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Ps Phil Popping Wedding rings, giant keys at a 21st, or a war memorial are all used in our culture to symbolise a deeper reality of commitment and love, freedom and adulthood, or mourning and remembrance. What are we reminded of in the Lord’s Supper? How could we do this wrong, and how is it possible to ‘eat and drink judgment on ourselves’? As we continue throug...

Bible Text: I Corinthians 11:2-16 Ps Jono Deenick This week we return to the letter of 1 Corinthians after a long break. And we return to one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament. Difficult because on first reading it seems that to understand it, we need an intimate understanding of Corinthian culture. And difficult because it deals with a matter of controversy in the modern church,...

Bible Text: Matthew 27:62-28:18 Ps Phil Popping The resurrection is often scoffed at by our culture, and for good reason – how many people do you know who’ve risen from the dead? Matthew calls us to examine the truth of the resurrection deeply as it’s the lynch pin of our faith. If the resurrection falls, so does our faith, but if it’s true – we must worship.

Bible Text: Matthew 27:32-61 Ps Jono Deenick Matthew’s account of Jesus crucifixion is very brief, 5 words in fact. His focus is far more on what Jesus was doing that it is on His suffering. And strangely Matthew reveals much of what Jesus did, through the taunts of those who stood around and watched Him die. They thought they were victorious but Jesus, our glorious king was winning through stayin...

Bible Text: Matthew 26:57 - 27:10 Ps Phil Popping Have you ever been on the receiving end of injustice? As a child I remember my grandfather blaming me for breaking something I hadn't even touched - he just wouldn't listen to my protests! I think I'm still a little angry about it 35 years later. Is it possible that injustice is somehow beautiful? That we could treasure the benefits of...

Bible Text: Matthew 26:31 -46 Ps Jono Deenick This week as we continue in Matthews account of Jesus' life leading to the cross we come to the garden of Gethsemane. Here we Jesus like no other time in His life, distressed and sorrowful to the point of death. And yet, in the midst of His distress He continues to show love and patience to His disciples. This picture of Jesus helps us especially w...

Bible Text: Matthew 26:17 -30 Ps Jono Deenick Last week Phil showed us that Jesus deserves to be worshiped because He is almighty God who came to die for us. If you are like me, you left with renewed desire to live for Him and yet we so easily drift from this good desire. In today's passage as we continue our way towards Matthew's account of the cross, Jesus makes it clear how He will clea...

Bible Text: Matthew 26:1-16 Ps Phil Popping With Easter only a few weeks away many of us are thinking about getting away for an extra-long weekend to enjoy the Queensland lifestyle. Easter also encourages us to think ahead to enjoy the one who changed our life in far more fundamental ways. Our faith is a matter of the heart: what should be happening in the very seat of our being, and what should t...

Bible Reading: Romans 10:13-15 Most of us want people to be happy when we arrive – it’s lovely to see people’s faces light up when they see ours. Sometimes though, we know that people might react differently. There’s a lot we can’t change about that, but this week we’ll see that there is one thing we can do to make us beautiful to the people we meet.