Truth Is The Word

Money permeates much of our everyday lives and how we use it provides a strong indicator of our attitude towards giving and generosity. Jesus often used money as everyday illustrations in His teachings, but He didn’t address the topic itself that much. In this sermon I link together Luke 16:13 and Luke 6:38 to present The Master’s class on financial giving. For those disillusioned souls who have s...

Does our general lack of awareness of Ascension Day mean that the Ascension is relatively unimportant? Or does it indicate our lack of appreciation of just how important it actually is? The early creedal hymn of 1 Timothy 3:16 places the Ascension on the same level of importance as the Incarnation and the Resurrection: ‘Most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great: He was manifested in the fl...

This is the second part of the 2 part series of TruthTalks by Dr. Christopher Peppler. If you missed part 1 and would like to catch up, please click HERE. The “It’s Time” prayer gathering event is just around the corner and next week we are going to be writing, and talking about this and we would love to have YOUR thoughts on it which we can address in the question and answer session of the TruthT...

Talking about Revival! A million people are expected to attend the “It’s Time” prayer gathering event happening in South Africa soon. So, next week we are going to be writing, and talking about this and we would love to have YOUR thoughts on it which we can address in the question and answer session of the TruthTalks podcast. Please CLICK HERE  and answer some questions for us - it would be great...

Talking about what we hold dearest in our hearts... The full title of this post is "The importance of staying true to Core Values" and in this podcast Dr Christopher Peppler goes into more detail about that and then he and I get into an interesting discussion about this, both: In your own self, and how to judge whether you are drifting from your personal core values, and also In your church, how t...

"Able" = an expansion of the Greek word ‘dunamis’ = miraculous power. In this sermon Dr. Christopher Peppler, drawing from the book of Jude, talks about our everyday lives and the troubles we face, how we feel we fall short of being better disciples, etc. But he explains that God is ABLE. He is able to... Speak to us when He needs to Intervene in our lives when He chooses to Heal and even create s...

This sermon is all about how we interpret things demonstrated with music, and it's role in the bible and how the music in OUR lives sounds. In this sermon Dr. Christopher Peppler reads from Psalm 139, using this as an example of showing us the difference between how when we internalise this, or any other verse and how we can interpret verses in either a major or minor key. He also demonstrates, us...

  Ai-sh, can it be true? Yes, yes it can! Maybe even in our lifetime! Last week we posted a sobering article on Artificial Intelligence and how it could impact us on many different levels. If you missed that post don't worry, you will get a summary of sorts at the beginning of this audio file, otherwise,  you can find it HERE or simply navigate to http://truthistheword.com/ai-sh-can-it-be-true/. ...

But why did this have to happen? Where was God? Dr Christopher Peppler talks about the distressing events we face in everyday life and how to handle them. Chris looks at questions like "why do bad things happen to good people?" and "why didn't God intervene?" Listen to this sermon preached at the Village Church on the 26th of June 2016 to hear answers to these, and other important questions that w...

Lent is upon us… well, it’s upon those who observe lent. The word Lent originally meant ‘lengthen’, as in the daylight hours of Spring, but in the more traditional Christian world, it has come to signify the 40 days of preparation for Easter. The main idea is that Christians should examine their lives, repent of sin, and attempt to present themselves as pleasing to God. One of the main ways they t...

Do you know the origin of the expression ‘a red herring’? = ‘something that distracts from the main issue’ New England settlers who went hunting in the forests left pieces of smoked Herring on their tracks to confuse any wolves trying to track them. John chapter 7 contains some Red Herrings and we must not be distracted by them. Listen to this sermon by Christopher Peppler concerning reading the s...

Chaos reigned in parliament before the South African president’s latest state of the nation address. The Chief Whip of the opposition rose to state why his party could not remain to listen to the president, but the ruling party benches drowned him out with a loud and angry chorus of “racist”. Is this an acceptable expression or is it a form of hate speech? Just weeks ago a crowd of gay activists g...

Dr. Christopher Peppler talks about the fruit of the vine using the scripture John 15 as reference and covers things like the fact that Jesus likens himself to a grape vine and His disciples to the branches of the vine, He explains the meaning of the analogy. Branches need to be attached to vine (him); Father the vine-dresser; purpose of vine and dresser is to produce abundant and good fruit, oppo...

Part 2 in the 2 part series by Dr. Christopher Peppler focusing sing on Revival in the church, how it has occurred in the past, what exactly this involves, and what to expect when we experience revival in the church. http://truthistheword.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06-November-PM-2016-Final-Small.lite_.mp3

Another year has started! A time of considering and praying about what lies ahead – plans, priorities, budgets. But as Christians we don’t just think and plan, we seek God’s counsel and approval (don’t we)… but how do we expect Him to respond? Psalm 25 gives some importance guidance in ‘hearing God’’. It’s a big subject and I will limit myself to what the first 15 verses of this Psalm teach. Based...

Ever since I have known him Len Sweet has boldly declared that the church is suffering from a ‘Jesus deficit disorder' I met up with him again a few weeks ago and asked him if this was still the case. His response was, “It’s even worse now than it was two decades ago”. Is his view correct? Well, those of you who regularly read my posts know that I agree with Len 100%,  that the church appears to h...

What do Mohammad and Jesus have in common? Absolutely nothing. In the religion of Islam, Jesus is honoured as a messenger of Allah but Muhammad is revered as his last and greatest messenger. Biblical Christianity, on the other hand, gives no credence to either the god of Islam or Muhammad. Islam only emerged onto the world scene late in the sixth century and has no roots in biblical history. Some...

If you missed Christopher's sermon on John 15 (Fruit of the Vine) then you can listen by clicking the play button below. It may be a well known verse, but there are new insights if you allow the Holy Spirit to let you hear with new ears. http://truthistheword.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/20161016-10h00-Chris-John-15-2.mp3   If you would prefer, you can download his sermon notes HERE, where you w...

When it comes to local churches, is big always best, or is small better, or does size just not matter at all? Three decades ago I had the privilege of being called to pastor a tiny but rapidly growing local church. The shack in which we were meeting was scheduled to be demolished to make way for a town house complex and so we had to find other accommodation. The property developer who was demolish...

Congregation size versus ‘church’ size I define a local church as any local expression of the Body of Christ. It may meet in one building or several buildings, and it may maintain several Sunday services and any number of other gatherings or ministries. What makes it one cohesive local church is (a) one constitution, purpose, and set of values, and (b) one united eldership team. However, when it c...

Over one million people worldwide commit suicide every year, and for every one of those, there are another 25 people who attempted suicide but failed. But surely, you say, this problem does not exist in the Christian community to anything like the same extent. Well, according to an article in Christianity Today ‘suicide occurs among Christians at essentially the same rate as non-Christians’. As a...

We should all be interested in homiletics because what is preached to us is of great importance, and how it is preached affects how we comprehend what we hear. Incidentally, if you would like to hear this post as spoken word, please scroll down to listen. In a previous article,  I gave a very brief evaluation of the three main styles of preaching currently popular – narrative, expository, and topi...

The two worst diagnosticians in the world are Dr. Google and Dr. Hearsay. Dr. Google gives so much information that it is easy to believe that you only have days left to live from whatever ailment you manifest. Dr. Hearsay, on the other hand, gives no information at all and consists entirely of recommendations such as “It worked like a charm for me”. Towards the end of my fourth run-in with the vi...

 The South African social media is currently buzzing with comments about the planned visit by an American homophobic ‘pastor’. By the time you read this article he might already have been banned from entering the nation because of his reported hate speech, but whether he comes or not, the issues he is stirring up still need to be addressed. I do not have the stomach to spend hours listening to the...

NEW SITE CONTENT If you have been enjoying the narrative sermon style that The Village Church has been using to go through the book of John then CLICK HERE to listen to Christopher's sermon on John 9. You can also find lots of his other sermons to listen to HERE. Of course if you prefer reading short articles, there are a wealth of them HERE for you to enjoy. Do visit www.truthistheword.com and le...