Restoration Church Toowoomba Sermon Podcast

No one is more powerful than the person who has a deepening revelation of Christ's love for them and has him dwelling in their hearts. That person will be increasingly fearless.

Almost everything about Christianity is unlikely. From an unlikely God (He is better than you think), to an unlikely message (He loves you and died for you), to the unlikely messengers (the church) - God's story is full of surprises.

God's thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours. Not only did Jesus take on human flesh, he also paved the way for God to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit. If you love Jesus and belong to Him then the presence of God dwells in you in the Holy Spirit - you take Him wherever you go. That changes everything.

The church is not primarily an institution, a club, an entertainment portal ... it is ultimately God's family; His household. The early church often met in houses because that reflected who they were. Do we automatically think family when we think church?

Peace is embodied in a person. The end to all conflict is found in the recreation of people in the person of Jesus.

The culture that we live in is performance driven - it is all about what you do. Humanity has always tended to drift towards gaining approval through what they do. Is it any wonder that we approach God that way too?

Those who are adopted by God into His family will forever be trophies that demonstrate the grace and mercy of God. This message is about how to be the shiniest trophy you can be!

But God, who is rich in mercy. When we consider the trouble that humanity is in as a result of their turning away from God, there may not be any sweeter words in the world. Savour them.

Sin is serious. It kills people spiritually and eventually physically. If God is life then to depart from Him is to embrace death.

God's grace is amazing yet we don't always live in the fullness of it. Paul gets busy praying that the Christians in Ephesus live in the fullness of God's goodness ... and we should too.

There are many aspects of God that are difficult to understand and are beyond our comprehension. But that is ok because relationships are not built upon knowing all the details - they are built upon trust in the other person's character. And God's character is immeasurably good. His character is trustworthy.

The gospel (that Jesus came and died for our sins) ushers us into a gospel reality where God expresses the riches of his kindness to us through ongoing forgiveness of sin and liberation from what enslaves us.

The debate surrounding predestination and election can be such a distraction from the wonder of what God has done - he has adopted his enemies into his family!! That is something to get excited about.

God the Father never does anything but bless his children. In Jesus he has given us the most expensive, life changing blessing ... He has provided the way for us to be brought into the relational community of the trinity.

If you love Jesus you are no longer an outsider but an insider - you are in! It's not what you know but who you belong to.

The first mention of restoration occurs right next to the first time that humanity turned away from God. God has been on a rescue mission since before time began and he calls you to join him.

Shame is the stain on our identity left by sin and God's family is the context in which He brings restoration to who we are.

The Bible is explicit about the true nature of those who have been redeemed by Jesus. In this message Peter shares about what is normal, truly human behaviour, and how God would have us live out of it.

Fallen Anthropology Peter Sondergeld Restoring Humanity - God's Work and Ours 2 Something tragic has happened. The pristine humanity that God created has been marred and stained. Though there are still remnants of who we were in the beginning, there is a side to us that defaces the humanity in us and the people around us. Peter talks about who we have become as a result of our turning our backs on...

In the first part of the Restoring Humanity series Peter looks at how humanity was originally created. If human flourishing is to be restored we will need to be clear about how humanity was originally made.

Have you ever lost God? What do you do when you can't sense His presence anymore? How do you fight back against despair? Psalm 42 teaches us how.

Everyone laments … the only question is who do you lament to? When God seems silent and life is painful it can be hard to talk to God. It can be hard to orient around Him and not our pain. Peter looks at Psalm 77 and explores how God inspired it to teach us how to walk through trouble.

Taming the Self-Will Nathan Gilmour Nathan works from Psalm 127 to see what work and rest look like apart from God and the bad fruit that they produce. However, when a person joins what God is already doing, this produces the most fruitful and most effortless work and rest. 

Marketing teaches us that all we need is one more thing. Just one more thing and you will be satisfied and happy. This temptation is not new. It is just a rework of the very first temptation that ensnared humanity. In contrast God calls us to manage our wealth in the light of eternity - to use it to build wealth there.

The writer of Ecclesiastes rightly observes three things about evil: it is random, it is a wrecker and it is personal. In contrast his observations we see God harnessing evil and making it go where he wants it to go throughout human history. This gives us great hope in the midst of evil.