We’ll jump into Acts 2, and see the gift God has given us in sending us his Spirit - to speak to us about King Jesus! We’ll see how the spirit speaks to us and why.

What it means to meet Jesus after his resurrection and ascension.

Reflect on the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus.

Palm Sunday - we meet Jesus as the suffering king.

We meet Jesus through Peter’s eyes, as someone who knows us in our weakness, and offers a second chance.

Over the course of a meal, Jesus helps us see the significance of his death.

The most basic, vital, precious part of our life together as God’s people.

We take our next look at what it would mean to be a church that increasingly lets the light shine! We’ll be thinking about our goal to grow in humble-hearted service of others. We’ll consider what it would mean to prioritise serving each other and what it would look like to be a church to heed the call of the king to carry each other’s burdens (Gal 6.2).

‘We are being remade…that’s what his gospel is doing in our lives…transforming us into creatures he made us to be…everything is being changed…and we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never imagined: a real person, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched with joy…’ C. S. Lewis we are listening to Jesus (in Matthew’s gospel) as he tells us who we are and what our purpose is, as his church. We have heard that we are the light of the world. We have heard that our purpose is to let the light shine. This Sunday we will hear Jesus’ challenge to shine the light by growing in wholehearted love for God, above all else. It’s a call to joy. It’s a call to claim what’s yours. It’s a call to give it all away.

You are the light of the world! Let the light shine! Matt 5.14, 16 That’s the WHO and the WHY of our church family, and throughout February we’re spending our Sunday gatherings thinking about what it would look like to live out that purpose together in our community.

You are the light of the world…so, let the light shine! (Matthew 5.14, 16) This Sunday we begin a sermon series to set the course for our church for 2024 and beyond. Over the coming weeks we’ll dive into Matthew 5 together, to see the joy and the purpose of living life with Jesus as King. I am excited to explore Jesus’ words with you.

This Sunday we wrap up our summer series, Asking for a friend…. We’ll have evangelist John Lavender with us at all services - preaching from Mark’s gospel, answering the question, Does God care? It’s a vital question and many experiences in this world lead people to ask it. The answer the gospel provides is wonderful!

How good is good enough for heaven?

Do you know anyone who thinks that religion is silly, that God is imaginary? Perhaps you’ve even had a conversation with someone like that over this Christmas/New Year period. I doubt they would have put things as bluntly as Richard Dawkins, when he said: “God is a delusion – a ‘psychotic delinquent’ invented by mad deluded people.” How would you respond to that? That (or a less extreme version) is the view of many people around us, and may even be something that you’ve wondered about yourself at times.

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things… He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Psalm 98:1a, 3 The Lord has done many marvellous things, including in the last year amongst us here in Wahroonga. Take a look at some of the things our church family was thankful for in 2023, and spend a moment thanking God for the past year yourself.

Preparing the Perfect Christmas. This Sunday we see the promise given and then delivered to send a king who can actually carry the weight of the world! Have a read of Isaiah 9.1-7 and Matthew 4.12-17 to get ready.

‘I wish I had your faith…’ A phrase sometimes said to people of faith. Sometimes it’s a compliment - admiring a person’s capacity to trust God, despite difficult circumstances. Sometimes it’s a challenge - questioning whether faith despite difficult circumstances is perhaps a bit naive. Either way, the problem is actually being clear on what it means to have faith. What does it mean to be a person whose faith is in Jesus? Luke 7.1-1 shows us a man of faith. Ironically, he is not one of God’s people (Israel) and yet, Jesus will say of this man, ‘I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.’ Luke 7 will show us why great faith matters and what great faith actually is.

Jesus reveals his heart to be the Physician of the Soul. He is the new way, not the old. He is the King in the Kingdom of God, and he is the centerpiece of the New Covenant. He compassionately heals out of love. He has authority not only over creation and demons but even over the Law.

Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’ Luke’s gospel is written to dismantle the false view we have of ourselves and our God, and in its place to build into our hearts the glorious truth of the favour of God, for anyone who is seeing clearly enough to recognise their desperate need of Jesus. Today it will be a paralytic who shatters the delusion of our self-sufficiency, and in it’s place lead us to the God who neither slumbers not sleeps in his help of us. We will hear again the gospel of Jesus. The one who comes as the doctor we all need. A doctor who has not come for those who keep pretending they're healthy, but for those who know they're sick. A doctor who has not come to manage symptoms, but to make us whole again and forever.

‘Cancel culture is mercy’s antithesis’. Nick Cave ‘Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make a people holy through his own blood’ Hebrews 13.12 This Sunday we’ll meet an outcast who shows us our true status before God, who asks the question we must ask (if we’re seeing things clearly). This Sunday we’ll see Jesus - who has come for the outsiders, the cancelled, the broken, the unclean, the stuff ups, the sinners, the sick. He brings them good news, of favour, of a way back where none seemed possible. And only if we are willing to number ourselves among those who need such favour is Jesus’ ministry good news for us.