Restoration Church Toowoomba Sermon Podcast

God wants his people to be loyal – loyal to him, loyal to each other, and loyal to their spouses. To be faithful and loyal is to be like God, to be truly human. To be unfaithful and treacherous, is to be less than human.

What you offer to God says something about what you think of him. It isn’t just a task you perform or something you do, it is personal. Listen in as Peter explains the connection between these two and the way forward which Jesus has made for us by his sacrifice on the cross.

In this short message, Peter gets us ready for a short series on the Old Testament prophet Malachi - a book which calls God’s people to be relationally vigilant in their walk with Him.

How does God feel about us? The words of the Father about the Son at his baptism make it clear.

Jesus visited the temple when he was 12 years old and astonished his parents. He claimed unique sonship but it wasn't to Mary and Joseph. It was something deeper and greater than that. He claimed to be the Son of God.

He’s perfect from birth to death. Luke 2:21-35 shows that Jesus is the only true righteous human to live who could be a suitable substitute for us.

In Luke 2:1-20, the saviour of the world is born. There are 5 aspects of Jesus’ birth that tell us about the significance of the very first Christmas.

Christmas and Joy are two words that go together so often. However, for many, this time isn't so joyous. Be it through trials, loneliness or even the loss of a loved one, Christmas can be a hard time of year. Through the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, we can see that Joy is always available. Not one as the world offers, rather a Joy in the knowledge of Salvation to come.

Step into the first century as Mary magnifies God for his timeless character revealed in the coming birth of the Messiah.

God's ways are not our ways. In His grace He is pleased to come to, and bless people, regardless of their status in the world. The greatest miracle is not the virgin birth but that God has come to us to restore us to Himself.

After 400 long years, an angel breaks God’s silence with the announcement of the birth of John who will be the forerunner of the Messiah.

For those who want to know what it looks like to live well in a fallen world, you have no better example to fix your eyes on than Jesus. He is the true human and the one you would do well to imitate.

Peace seems to be in short supply at the moment. But this is nothing new. Since the fall of humanity peace has ebbed and flowed. Sometimes we have it and sometimes we don’t. The good news is, Jesus’ plan is not just about giving us peace, he wants to make us peaceful people. The kind of people our world desperately needs.

Home. It is meant to be a safe place, a place where you can be yourself, an anchor point, a place where you dwell. If you love God, he makes your heart his home. He is at home with you. A simply stunning reality.

We all have times where we live our lives outside of the personal presence of God. When we do, we become like orphans. God’s heart is not to leave people as orphans but to come to them, to be with them. This is our great hope.

God never intended for us to do life with him. On the night before his crucifixion Jesus told the disciples he would ask the Father to give them the Holy Spirit to be with them forever. We have all the help we need.

Love and obedience always go together. Always. Obedience problems are at their core love problems. We need heart surgery if we are to love well.

Jesus regularly works to reshape our expectations. In this section of John he shapes the way we think about he and the Father, the works we will do after he goes back to the Father, and the nature and power of prayer.

Jesus isn’t mainly interested in rescuing people from their sins, he is mainly interested in ushering people into the presence of the Father. His death on the cross for us wasn’t about avoiding something negative but was about giving something to us which is unspeakably precious – access to the Father.

While behaviour can be loud and obvious, good parents look through what they can see to the unseen motivations driving it. The word the bible uses to describe these unseen motivations as the heart. Biblical parenting is about shaping the heart of a child not merely behaviour modification.

While Jesus intends for the church to be a powerful force in the world, it’s power has tended to ebb and flow with the unity or disunity within it. Listen in as Peter explains some of the key principles of unity within a church and how God plans on us being a powerful people.

Humans are not reservoirs of power and strength. If we don’t stay connected to Jesus, they will seep out of us. In this message, Peter talks about how power goes wrong, how we can get it back, and how we can keep it.

God used his power to bring about order and goodness in the story of creation. On the sixth day he created humanity and gave them power so they could bring about order and goodness, under his rule. He made us to be a miniature version of who he is.

God intends for humanity to be strong and powerful. The problem is, most of the time human strength is either left unused or is used to abuse. God has a plan to get you strong. Growing in strength is about becoming truly human again.

Jesus taught that our earthly decisions have eternal consequences. In the parable of Lazarus and the Rich man, Jesus says that what we decided about him will decide where we spend eternity.