When that approval is missing or broken, it leaves a deep longing—but the Bible points to a different kind of Father, one who shows us what fatherhood was meant to be.

At the core of your being, let me ask you, what do you believe? Do you believe in the power of the Good News of Jesus to save you from your sin? Or is that a difficult, even impossible thing for you to believe? What … do you … believe?

If all that feels a tad "in your face", I get it. And yet, I make no apology for it. Because sometimes I feel the need to be direct in cutting through the clutter, in slicing through the opaque veil of worldly self-interest that casts itself so readily over the human heart. Sometimes we need to be jolted out of our complacency, shocked into action.

Life puddles along. The concerns of life fill our minds. And we forget, all too easily, that there's a powerful truth set before each one of us by God Himself - that He sent Jesus to save us from our sin; that by faith in Him and Him alone, we can be saved; that if we reject the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will spend eternity separated from God in that place we call hell.

For that reason, like the Apostle Paul back in the 1st Century AD …

Romans 1:16-17 … I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith." (NRSV)

Your faith in Christ alone is what can save you, what will save you. With all my heart, I urge you today to believe. Believe in Jesus.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

It's funny but when we finally come to the realisation that the way we're living our lives – well, it's not working that well – the first thing we do, is we invent a bunch of rules to make our lives better. And then we discover – they don't work either.

By large the law is a good thing. I mean, sometimes it's an ass, sometimes you read of a judgement handed down by a judge and you think, "Wow, that's not fair!" But mostly, the law acts as a deterrent. Not always of course but when it comes down to our personal lives, our relationships – how we treat people, what we say – you know more and more, it seems like there are no rules.

I was talking the other day with a young worker, a junior in the workplace where he works and the way that the boss treats people can be really appalling. And you know, it doesn't matter what industrial laws the government puts into place, the law can't stop that from happening. At the day-to-day relationship level, the law is pretty much useless in enforcing anything much except perhaps stopping violence and fraud, even then, it struggles.

Rules and regulations aren't going to change our behaviour, that's the point. What they do is they tell us what's wrong. But somehow, there's no power in those rules and regulations to change who we are or how we behave. If we treat people badly, it seems like we're powerless to change it. Well, you know something; this is not some new revelation that I've just had, this has been around for a long, long time.

See, it seems to me that we're powerless to change the dumb things we do so what we do is we invent religions and we add even more rules and regulations to our world as though that, somehow, is going to make a difference. You see how dumb that is!

This bloke Paul, an apostle, (he wrote almost half of the New Testament) he looked around at the people and what they were doing as a new Church, as that Church was forming in the 1st century, and it struck him right between the eyes. Now Paul, Paul was an expert in the law, he was a Pharisee. He was a religious separatist. He followed the law of God to the 'nth' degree. He went to extremes. Now have a listen to what Paul wrote when he finally came to his senses. It's so important, if we're going to break the power that sin has over our lives, it comes from a book called Colossians in the New Testament, chapter 2. He says:

And when you were dead in trespasses, God made you alive together with Him when He forgave us all our sins. Erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. Therefore, don't let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or observing festivals or new moons or Sabbaths. They're only shadows over what is to come. The substance belongs to Jesus.

Don't let anyone disqualify you in insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels or dwelling on visions or being puffed up without cause by human way of thinking and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body is nourished. If with Christ you died to these basic spirits of the world, why do you live as though you still belong to the world? Why do you submit to these silly regulations? Don't handle! Don't taste! Don't touch!

All these regulations refer to things that perish with use, they're simply human commands and teachings. They have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety and humility and severe treatment of the body but they're of no value in checking self-indulgence. (Colossians 2: 13-23)

See how we invent rules. Paul's saying, "Look, you know you think you believe in God and all of a sudden people are saying do this, don't do that, eat this, don't eat that, go to this new moo

Fear may come with you but it doesn’t have to lead.

We live in a world intent on rejecting Christ; rejecting the notion that there is a God of love and justice in heaven; rejecting this fanciful idea that He'd do anything so dramatic as to send His Son into this world, to die for us on a cross so that our sins might be forgiven, and to rise again to give us the gift of eternal life.

Oh, in part, Jesus may still be tolerated, but not obeyed. For many, cultural Christianity has emerged as a safe alternative to biblical discipleship. Truth has been redefined, even by the church. Faith has been sidelined for comfort. The gospel has been rebranded while, all the while, persecution intensifies.

And so, in response, some (many?) have perfected the art of nodding politely to Jesus while nailing the door shut in His face; wanting His comfort, not His cross; His blessings, not His Lordship. We've traded the narrow road for the wide one, repackaging Him into a benign mascot for our worldly ambitions.

With all that going on … many have become ashamed of the real Jesus, of the power He offers us for our lives to be transformed, of the truth that our eternity lies in His hands. They've become timid in telling others of Him, in light of their own, watered-down faith.

And yet, amidst not dissimilar circumstances back in the 1st Century AD, the Apostle Paul writes this:

Romans 1:16  I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (NRSV)

Friend, that's God's clarion call to you and to me to live out a fearless faith amidst a world intent on dismissing Jesus as irrelevant or foolish. Don't be ashamed of Jesus.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

So many people on this planet are living so deeply in the debt of their – well, their sin – that they've forgotten that all along, God has a plan 'A' for their lives. A glorious, wonderful, Plan 'A.'

Most of us would be familiar with the term "downward spiral". The sense that things are heading inexorably downwards. And whilst we have quite a few "up" times in our lives, one of the things you get a sense of when you talk to people is that many, many are experiencing this downward spiral. A sense almost that their quality of life, whatever that may mean for each of them, is slipping away. That whilst things maybe going fine on the outside, inside life seems to be draining down the plug hole.

This week on the program we're talking about "Breaking Free from the Power of Sin" and for many that will be a phrase that doesn't seem to relate to what they're experiencing on the inside. But, in fact, it has everything, everything to do with it. Because, as we've seen over the last few days, the way that we live our lives has consequences.

And so many people are heading so far down that spiral. It's hard for them to imagine there's another way. It's hard to imagine that there was, in fact, some time in the dim distant past, a time when they were on top of that spiral. It's hard to begin to imagine as we're living out this terrible plan B, that God had a plan A all along.

And as we head down that spiral, the longer we spend further down the spiral the more we want to hang on to that rubbish that we're living down there, for dear life. I want to introduce you to a passage of Scripture today, Colossians chapter 3, that we're going to have a bit of a look at today but a more detailed look over the next few days. It's about how to break the power of sin.

"Okay, okay, I've sinned in my life and yes I'm addicted. Yes I admit it, yes it has power over me. Yes there are consequences that are robbing me of life itself but what do I do about it? How do I get out of this mess? If I accept my life is a mess and a lot of that mess is my own doing, what can I do about it now?"

Have a listen to this fabulous wisdom. It comes from Gods word, it's written by the apostle Paul a couple of thousand years ago, if you have your own copy, Colossians chapter 3 in the New Testament, beginning at verse 1. He says this:

If you've been raised with Christ (in other words, if you believe in Jesus) then start looking for the things that are above. Seek those where Jesus is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on this earth. You're dead to those and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Jesus, who is your life, is revealed then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed. On account of those, God's wrath is coming on those who are disobedient. (Colossians 3: 1-6)

See, it's not enough for us to know what the problem is; we have to know how to deal with it. What we're going to see, over the next few weeks, is that Gods plan is that we don't have to do it on our own. In fact, we can't. It's His power that sets things right. But where do we step off? How do you and I take our step into a partnership with God that changes things?

See, we're so locked in the here and now, we're so locked in our current patterns of thinking and behaviour and addictions. Now Jesus died to set us free from that. Jesus died so that you and I could be forgiven. And we can believe that and yet, still not know where to begin in seeing the power of sin broken over our lives.

Here in this passage, Paul tells us where to begin:

If you believe in Jesus, seek the things that are above! Set your mind on those things, not on the things that are here

A few seconds can change everything. Discover how a simple pause before you speak can prevent regret and lead to wiser, more life-giving words.

We each, inevitably, arrive at a point where all hope appears lost; where we can't see how we'll survive; where any faith we may have had in God seems so fragile in light of the terrible circumstances that confront us. Perhaps you've been there, perhaps it's yet to come.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was an Arctic explorer of Icelandic descent. In 1913, his ship was trapped and destroyed by pack ice, leaving him and his men stranded in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. Facing starvation, polar storms, and total isolation, Stefansson leaned on his deep faith and unshakable belief in God's providence.

He adapted by learning from the Inuit, surviving entirely on local resources, and leading his team to safety after years in the Arctic. He later testified that it was the certainty of God's presence and strength that sustained him when all human hope was gone.

Said God to His people Israel, close to the end of seventy years in exile as slaves in Babylon, when all hope appeared lost, when they couldn't see how they'd ever be saved, when their faith in Him seemed so fragile against the might of the Babylonian Empire …

Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand. (HCSB).

When every human resource fails, God's presence doesn't just comfort you—He gives you the strength, the wisdom, the resilience to walk out of the terror back into life once more.

That's His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

We live in a world of cause and effect. You spend more than you earn, you end up in debt. Cause and effect. So how come, well why is it that you and I are such masters of self-deception when it comes to the consequences of our…sin.

We live in a world of cause and effect. We know that; you work, you earn, your bank balance goes up. You buy, you spend, your bank balance goes down. Cause and effect. You spend more than you earn, you go broke. You earn more than you spend, you have savings. Simple. Cause and effect. You break the law, you go to jail, at least that's the theory. You obey the law, you stay free. Cause and effect.

But when it comes to how we live our lives, how we behave and think and speak and act, we're pretty good at denying the effect from the cause, at least I am. "Oh look, I know I was rude to him but, but he deserved it!" Never mind it ruined a relationship. Never mind it injured the person. Never mind that it undermined his self-esteem and that had an impact on the way he brought up his kids. Cause and effect; oh never mind.

It's true, isn't it? Cause and effect is alive and well but when it comes to us violating the laws of cause and effect, we are only too ready to make excuses for ourselves. Well no matter how many excuses we make, cause and effect rolls inexorably on. You can't avoid it, it just does.

None of us likes to talk too much about consequences but it's the consequences of the dumb things we get up to that gives sin it's power. I'm going to come back to the title of this series that we're going through this week and next week, it's called "Breaking Free from the Power of Sin".

See sin is not some old-fashioned concept of moralising, it simple means this; to miss the mark, to miss the point of life. And see, when we talk about breaking free from the power of sin, I'm assuming that sin has some power, that this whole kind of lemming-type desire we have to miss the whole point of life is powerful and addictive.

You know I believe that each one of us is addicted to something. There's some form of sin that's just our sin, our weakness that robs us of life. The heroin addict knows that it's bad for them, knows that it's ruining their lives but the addiction is so powerful. They want to do something about it but they can't because they're addicted.

You may have heard of the seven deadly sins; lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, envy and pride. And my hunch is, each one of us relates to at least one of those in our lives. And like the heroin addict, we kind of know they have consequences. We know they're ruining our lives, we just can't do anything about them.

If your particular weakness is laziness, you know you never achieve anything. You know that you don't invest in relationships. You know you don't get a sense of fulfilment out of life. If it's anger you know anger ruins relationships. If its pride you realise that you can't work closely with other people. If it's gluttony, well that's obvious. There are consequences. We can't deny them.

Have a listen to the consequences of sin the apostle Paul writes about. Romans chapter 6, beginning at verse 13, he says:

Don't present your members, your body, to sin as instruments of wickedness but instead, present yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life and present your body to God as an instrument of goodness and righteousness. Sin will have no dominion over you since you are no longer under the law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as an obedient slave, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? Either of sin, which leads to death or of obedience which leads to Gods goodness and righteousness. But thanks be to God that you, once having been slaves of