Restoration Church Toowoomba Sermon Podcast

Matthew teaches the meaning of the parable of the lamp and in doing so encourages us to take God's light to the dark places in the world.

Jesus is a talker and self-revealer who loves to reveal secrets to those who trust him and love him. One of the ways that he does this is by telling parables or riddles. Peter looks at the parable of the sower and what it teaches us about God and ourselves.

Jesus has another confrontation with the Scribes in Mark 3 where they accuse him of being in cahoots with the Devil. With characteristic directness Jesus shows how they are wrong and how their maligning of the Holy Spirit prevents them from being saved by Him.

Everyone has an agenda almost all of the time. When people's agendas clash it makes for some pretty interesting relational moments. Yet it is when we are in relationship with Jesus and others that our agendas are exposed and reshaped into God's agenda.

The Pharisees have another run in with Jesus over the Sabbath in Mark 3. This time they are cheesed off because he heals a man's hand on the Sabbath - something their rules said he wasn't allowed to do. It was this type of legalism that threatened and still continues to threaten the sweet work that God is up to in our lives.

All humans hunger and thirst, and all humans work toward the satisfaction of this hunger and thirst. The tragedy of humanity is that we seek the satisfaction of our hunger and thirst in places that only exacerbate it. True satisfaction can only be found in Jesus and fasting is an effective way of breaking ties with false hopes.