"We are jars of clay, that's the good news! We don't have to try anymore, we can loosen our spiritual corsets, let go and say "Yup, that's who I am, but this is who God is........ That's the faith that Jacob had, his life was a mess! But God wasn't!"

There are things Isaac could have differently as a father that might have had an impact on his sons. He could have lay there on his death bed torturing himself by listing all the things he could have done differently but rather than focussing on his own failures he focussed on God’s promises. He lived by faith. He died in faith.

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This is the life we’re called to. This is what we see in the life of Jesus.

Hebrews 11 is all about real people who are not at all heroes of the faith, as I thought they were growing up. Did they have faith, yes. Did they do great things, yes. Did God show up in their lives, absolutely. And - they were a mess, they had long pauses, they made massive mistakes, they had to struggle and wrestle in the middle with themselves and with God. They had to let go and let God do His work.

This life of faith that we are called to live is about showing up in our mess, day after day, year after year and saying “I don’t have this, I need You.”

"...We see that Abraham was a man of faith but still had times of doubts. Abraham chose to put his faith in what was to come and in God. 

This is the essence of spiritual faith. Putting your faith in the unseen. It takes faith to put your trust in God."

After the flood, God promises Noah that he will never again destroy the earth in the same way......

This is called the Noahic Covenant and it is an unconditional covenant because it is based solely on God’s faithfulness.  It has nothing to do with anything that Noah did.   Whenever we see a rainbow we should be reminded of God’s faithfulness and His amazing grace.  We should be reminded of His unconditional love for us. 

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Just like Noah, we are Christ’s ambassadors today.  God’s judgement is coming and we are to urge others to be reconciled through Christ.  

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This is what I want to leave you with today.  Come back to God.  Put your trust and believe in Jesus Christ.  Remember God’s faithfulness and stand firm.

NB the audio quality on the video and podcast is not quite up to our usual standard this week. We apologize. it is still very much audible and a great sermon by one of our own young men. 

"....I shouldn’t get caught up in trying to understand the motivation and thoughts of God, for Grace goes against my understanding. Rather, the expectation is that I may seek the “Joy” that is promised upon receiving this gift of salvation. The Joy that is brought about through having a relationship with Jesus is a recurring promise as we continually enter into relationship with Him.

Upon hearing this, I have two choices in how I wish to respond to Jesus. I can either make decisions that lead me closer to Christ or farther away from him."    Jaden Welsh

"The only way we can judge other people is if we have lost our first love and we are no longer at the foot of the cross...."

".... the question for us this morning is how does God intend for us to relate to him? What does a healthy relationship with our heavenly Father look like?

That’s what I want us to look at this morning. We’ll touch on the two sons again, but mostly I want to look at the father. This parable is really about the heart of the father. What was he like? The main question this parable poses is how does God, the Father, view us, and how does he want us to relate to him?"

We have all been wounded along the way in our stories. These wounds keep us from being the persons God has called us to be if we don’t deal with them. They get in the way of us loving others in the way God has called us to love. We need to recover some of our lost child-like ways.

So, what are the qualities of little children that Jesus wants us to have? And just to be clear, the Greek word for children here is ‘little children,’ not teenagers, but infants or toddlers. There is something that happens to us as we grow out of childhood. We lose some qualities that we need to recover. What are they?

"There is nobody here this morning who is immune to pain. Nobody. And we should be thankful we aren’t immune, because just like the leper, if we are not able to experience pain we will keep on hurting ourselves and others, sometimes without even knowing it, and we will continue doing damage to our souls and to the souls of others.

Every obstacle, all the pain, each challenge or trial we face is an opportunity to grow our faith. If we lament the fact that we have pain in our lives, we forfeit the opportunity for God to use it for our good and his glory. Even the things in your past that you regret, even that one thing that causes you to feel the most shame, God can use for your good and his glory. I have seen this over and over again in my life and in the lives of others who are willing to face their pain."