Tonight we hear from Brett Pierce, as he continues our Pray See Do Series. Brett discusses three stages of deepening our journey of faith and experience with God.

 

The PowerPoint presentation discussed during this talk can be downloaded here.

In this final sermon in the current series, Pray See Do, Wynand reflects on Acts 17:28. Paul tells the philosophers in Athens that God is different from their understanding. God is personal and enables us to live in him. In, not through or for him, it makes all the difference. Sometimes we think that we get things done through some God, and then we repay that God by doing something for him or her, this is a transactional view of God. The God of Scripture is one that lives in us and invites us to live in him, to live well.

What makes you happy? What is Happiness?

In this sermon, Wynand continues his reflection on what it means that "we are in Christ and that Christ is in us". If this is true, then we are, as Paul says in I Tim 1:11 the bearers of the Gospel of the glory of a God who is blessed or happy. If glory is the "tangible demonstration of God's presence, then those who are in Christ, are tangible, lived, manifestations of a blessed God in this world. Those who share in the life of Christ have happiness and fulfillment that goes beyond the enjoyment we have in money, things or status.

As CS Lewis said: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

On Sunday Andy Naylor continued our sermon series and lead worship and a reflection on Psalm 121. In our sermon series Pray-See-Do, we are reflecting on the biblical picture that Christ is in us and that we are in Christ. Andy used this truth to remind that “the way we think dictates the way we see…” as we live our daily lives, and as we face our mountains. But if we have the mind of Christ, we see in a new way. We include some of his music in this podcast. We hope this will be a great time of reflection for you.

The song contained in this podcast is used with the permission of the songwriter.

In the sermon series "Pray, See Do” we have been reminded that Christ is a living reality in us as believers. Over the last few weeks, we have seen how this truth is powerful to transform us. In this sermon, Wynand explores how we resist the force of entropy in our lives - a force at work in nature and in the human spirit to bring decay. He first turns to Isaiah 40 to understand what it means to be renewed as we wait on the Lord, and then he uses Caleb’s life as an example of a person how has successfully resisted the power of spiritual entropy.

Tonight Rohan Waters unpacks Jesus' final message to his disciples prior to the crucifixion, we discover a message of hope for an anxious world.

In this sermon, Wynand continues to explore what it means to have Christ in us and to live in Christ. Based on Ezekiel 47, our life in Christ is like walking into the river of God that brings renewal. This way of being does not happen overnight, we go deeper from the ankles to knees, to the waist, and finally, we are in over our heads. As we live this life, we turn arid parts of our lives into new areas of fruitfulness.

Tonight we finish our mini-series Pray See Do, and Lachie focuses on being the hands and feet of Jesus within the community or at work.

In this sermon, Wynand explores how we see the world. He uses the story of the prodigal son to show that we can look at the world through the eye of the older brother and the world seems hard. We can try to escape that world and see the world through the eyes of the younger brother and see the world with rose-tinted glasses. But there is another way; it is to learn to see the world as people who have Christ in us.

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at the compassion of God. Over the next three weeks, we will be exploring ways in which we can share in the compassion of God. Wynand proposes three steps: Pray, See and Do. It all starts with prayer. Prayer is a conversation with God. It is to do what we were designed to do in the first place. Through prayer, we can join God in his cosmic work and effort. This sermon concluded with a challenge to pray to hear what God wants to pray.