Return To Glory Part 2

Series: The Jesus We Need to Know

Preacher: Kevin Smith, Senior Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 12th April 2026

Passage: John 17:1-5

The Triumph Over Death

Series: Seasonal

Preacher: Kevin Smith, Senior Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 5th April 2026

Passage: Acts 2:22-24

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In our criminal justice system, the strongest evidence comes from eyewitnesses who saw and heard what actually happened. The resurrection of Jesus Christ provides exactly that kind of evidence through compelling eyewitness accounts and circumstances that point to an undeniable truth. Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost addressed a crowd filled with people who had witnessed Jesus firsthand, performing miracles in broad daylight before skeptical, intelligent people during the height of Greco-Roman philosophy.

The same people who witnessed Jesus' mighty works were also responsible for His death. Despite Pilate finding no fault in Jesus and repeatedly trying to release Him, the religious leaders used political pressure to force the crucifixion. Yet this was all according to God's predetermined plan - Jesus' death was both divinely decreed and the result of human choices, demonstrating how God's sovereignty and human responsibility work together in ways we cannot fully comprehend.

Death simply could not keep its grip on Jesus of Nazareth for two crucial reasons: He never sinned, so death had no legal claim on Him, and He is life itself - the Creator and source of all life. Over 500 people witnessed the resurrected Jesus, providing overwhelming eyewitness testimony. These ordinary disciples, who had fled in fear during the crucifixion, were transformed into bold witnesses who proclaimed His resurrection in the very city where He was executed. Jesus came not as a victim but as a victor, living the perfect life we couldn't live and dying the death we deserved to die, satisfying God's justice while demonstrating His incredible love.

The Triumph of the Cross

Series: Seasonal

Preacher: Kevin Smith, Senior Pastor

Special Service

Date: 3rd April 2026

Passage: Colossians 2:13-15

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The cross represents far more than death and suffering - it was God's ultimate victory over sin and darkness. Before the cross, humanity was spiritually dead, trapped in trespasses, and separated from God's covenant. Through Christ's sacrifice, our spiritual debt was completely canceled and nailed to the cross alongside His body and the sign declaring Him King. The cross disarmed Satan's primary weapons of deception and the fear of death, making him a public spectacle of defeat. This victory means Christians today can live free from fear, no longer enslaved to sin, and boldly proclaim the gospel knowing the strong man has been bound.

Set Apart Before You Were Born

Series: Miscellaneous

Preacher: Billy McKillop, Executive Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 29th March 2026

Passage: Galatians 1:11-24

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Paul's conversion story in Galatians 1:11-24 reveals a powerful truth about finding our identity in the right source. Paul emphasizes that the gospel came directly from Jesus Christ, not from human wisdom or approval. Before his conversion, Paul was trapped in the cycle of religious performance and competitive advancement, using his achievements to define his worth. Jesus lived differently - in perfect union with the Father, never falling into the trap of finding identity through accomplishments. Through Christ's finished work on the cross, we can trade self-promotion for rest, knowing our worth comes from God's approval rather than our performance.

Day By Day With Jesus

Series: Miscellaneous

Preacher: Jimmy Davis

Sunday Morning

Date: 22nd March 2026

Passage: Psalm 66:19-20

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Life often presents us with overwhelming burdens that feel impossible to carry alone. Psalm 68:19 promises that God daily bears us up, providing strength one day at a time rather than expecting us to handle all future troubles at once. Jesus, who has all authority and power, is both able and willing to carry our burdens because He experienced human suffering firsthand and bore our greatest burden of sin on the cross. We can experience His daily strength by blessing Him for what He's done, asking Him to bear us up through prayer, and reaching out to our community of believers who help carry one another's burdens.

Return To Glory

Series: The Jesus We Need to Know

Preacher: Kevin Smith, Senior Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 15th March 2026

Passage: John 17:1-5

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In the final hours before His crucifixion, Jesus offered what many consider the greatest prayer ever recorded, revealing the true driving force behind His entire mission. While we understand that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, His High Priestly Prayer in John 17:1-5 unveils something deeper: His ultimate purpose was to glorify the Father. Five times in these verses, Jesus mentions glory, demonstrating that our salvation, while incredibly important, serves the greater goal of displaying God's magnificent character throughout creation.

Jesus fulfills the role of our eternal High Priest, but unlike the Old Testament priests who offered animal sacrifices annually, He entered heaven's sanctuary with His own perfect blood, securing eternal redemption. What makes Jesus uniquely qualified as our High Priest is that He truly understands our human experience. He lived in human flesh, felt physical pain, experienced temptation, and faced the frailty of human existence—yet remained without sin. This intimate knowledge of our struggles makes Him the perfect mediator between God and humanity.

When Jesus declared that His hour had come, He was acknowledging that the moment for His ultimate glorification through suffering had arrived. Through perfect obedience, accomplishing the work given to Him, revealing God's character, and providing the ultimate demonstration of divine love and justice, Jesus brought maximum glory to the Father. This understanding should transform how we view our own salvation and daily lives—we're not just saved from something, but saved to participate in God's eternal plan of displaying His glory to all creation.

Jesus Wins Pt 2

Series: The Jesus We Need to Know

Preacher: Kevin Smith, Senior Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 8th March 2026

Passage: John 16:25-33

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In a world filled with conflict and struggle, we often seek victory through earthly means, but there's a greater spiritual battle that affects every human heart. The greatest war humanity has ever faced isn't fought with tanks or bombs, but is the spiritual conflict between the world, the flesh, and the devil. This underlying battle produces all earthly conflicts and has consequences that extend beyond physical death to eternal death. Jesus came to fight this ultimate war and has already won it for all who trust in Him.

The disciples' overconfidence in their faith mirrors our own tendency to think more highly of ourselves spiritually than we ought. When they declared their strong belief and understanding, Jesus responded by predicting their abandonment of Him during His arrest. This reveals an important truth: our victory doesn't depend on having perfect faith, complete understanding, or unwavering commitment. Instead, our victory is assured because Jesus won it, not because we have it all together. This stands in stark contrast to prosperity theology that places confidence in our own faith rather than in Jesus' victory.

Jesus makes two crucial promises about life's realities. First, He offers peace that is found in being spiritually joined to Him—a tranquil state of soul assured of salvation and content regardless of earthly circumstances. Second, He honestly warns that we will face tribulation, including trouble, pressure, suffering, and persecution. However, He encourages us to take heart because He has overcome the world through His perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We walk in this victory daily through faith in Jesus, by not loving worldly things above the Father, and by trusting Him through struggles that develop our spiritual strength. Our battles are won not through our own strength but through His completed victory on our behalf.

Jesus Wins

Series: The Jesus We Need to Know

Preacher: Kevin Smith, Senior Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 1st March 2026

Passage: John 16:25-33

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Many American Christians today are walking away from their faith, often falling into three destructive patterns: trying to convert culture by compromising values, condemning culture by retreating from the world, or consuming culture by watering down truth. None of these approaches work because they miss the fundamental reality that Jesus has already secured the victory.

In John 16:25-33, Jesus speaks to his disciples on the night before his crucifixion, preparing them for a time when they would understand clearly who he is and his relationship to the Father. He promises that after his resurrection, they would be able to pray directly to the Father in his name, revealing for the first time that God is truly his Father. The revolutionary truth Jesus shares is that the Father himself loves his disciples - not just through Jesus as a mediator, but the Father directly and personally loves them.

This corrects a dangerous misunderstanding many Christians have about God's love. Rather than believing that God loves us because Jesus died for us, the truth is that Jesus died for us because the Father already loved us. God chose to set his love upon us before the foundation of the world, not because we were lovable, but according to his own will and purpose. When we live from this security - knowing that we have a heavenly Father who loves us unconditionally - it transforms our relationships, our worship, and our ability to love others. Even in tribulation, we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world, and nothing can separate us from the Father's love.

No Other Gospel

Series: Miscellaneous

Preacher: Billy McKillop, Executive Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 22nd February 2026

Passage: Galatians 1:1-10

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The question of whether we can add anything to God's grace while maintaining the true gospel has challenged the church since its beginning. Paul addressed this issue when false teachers in Galatia began requiring circumcision in addition to faith in Christ for salvation. These Judaizers created a deadly formula: Christ's sacrifice plus circumcision equals right standing with God.

This same pattern appears in modern distortions of the gospel. The prosperity gospel adds material blessings to grace, suggesting that health and wealth indicate God's favor. Approval-based Christianity seeks to modify biblical teaching to avoid offense and gain human acceptance. Cultural Christianity makes political or cultural alignment as important as faith in Christ. Each distortion stems from our sinful nature finding God's free grace insufficient - we want to be in control and earn approval through our efforts.

Paul's solution remains unchanged: Jesus gave Himself as a complete and sufficient sacrifice that cannot be supplemented. His perfect life, substitutionary death, and resurrection secured our justification by faith alone. Good works follow salvation as expressions of gratitude, not as requirements for earning God's favor. The gospel produces freedom, humility, and love while protecting against legalism and self-righteousness.

The Path To Joy Pt 2

Series: The Jesus We Need to Know

Preacher: Kevin Smith, Senior Pastor

Sunday Morning

Date: 15th February 2026

Passage: John 16:16-24

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Jesus taught His disciples that true joy comes through a different path than worldly happiness. Using the illustration of childbirth, He showed how pain can become the source of our greatest joy when we see God's purposes fulfilled. The resurrection changes everything, making Christian joy indestructible because it depends on Christ's victory, not our circumstances. Through faith in Jesus, we receive adoption as God's children with direct access to our Heavenly Father. This spiritual adoption gives us a new identity, privileges, and nature as partakers of the divine life. Joy becomes our flag of victory, raised because our King is present even in our darkest moments.