Sermon Podcasts at St Thomas' Moonee Ponds

We pay our taxes on time. We show up to work, meet our deadlines, and keep up with the news cycle. We give Caesar our forty-hour weeks, our anxiety about the economy, and our loyalty to political tribes. But when it comes to God? We give Him an hour on Sunday, a hurried prayer before meals, and whatever energy we have left at the end of the day.

In this episode, we dive to where Jesus faces a carefully constructed trap about paying taxes to the emperor. His answer is famous: "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." But what does that actually mean for us today. We look at an AI generated plan that Satan would use to break a Christian community.

We explore the uncomfortable truth that most of us are remarkably diligent about rendering to Caesar and remarkably negligent about rendering to God. We ask what it would look like to give God the firstfruits of our lives instead of the leftovers. And we consider how both evangelical devotion and catholic worship can unite to form in us an undivided heart—a heart that gives to God what is truly God's.

Whether you are a lifelong churchgoer, a curious skeptic, or someone who has been sensing that your faith has become a Sunday obligation rather than a daily reality, this episode is for you. Join us as we examine the coin and the soul, the God of the living, and what it means to live with an undivided heart in a world of divided loyalties.

In this episode, you will discover:

• What AI says about Satan's plan for us.
• The uncomfortable imbalance in how we give our time, energy, and attention
• A rule of life for entering the church.
• A rule of life for leaving the church.
• What it means to serve the God of the living, not the dead
• Practical steps to begin rendering to God the things that are truly God's

Listen in and discover what happens when we stop giving God our leftovers and start giving Him our firstfruits.

What does it mean to be personally invited to the King's table? In this special Confirmation Sunday episode, we welcome Bishop Nigel as he opens up Matthew 22 to explore the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. Stripping away the noise of modern life, Bishop Nigel delivers a timeless message on the heart of the Gospel: God’s enduring desire for a relationship with us.

He unpacks how God's invitation isn't just an ancient story, but a present-day call to connect, respond, and take ownership of our faith. Whether you are taking your first steps of faith, celebrating a recent confirmation, or have been sitting at the table for decades, this message is a beautiful reminder that God is always pursuing a relationship with you—and there is always room at the feast.

What happens when we start treating God's gifts as if they belong to us?

In this episode, we dive into Matthew 21:33-46 — Jesus' challenging parable of the vineyard, the landowner, and the tenants who forgot their place. It's a story about stewardship, ownership, and the subtle temptation to seize what was never ours to begin with.

But this isn't just a warning. It's an invitation.

We explore what baptism really means: not a ceremony that makes us owners of the field, but a commissioning that empowers us to work in it. We talk about identity, the Holy Spirit, and the daily call to serve the Landowner rather than ourselves.

Whether you're preparing for baptism, wrestling with your calling, or simply trying to hold your gifts loosely, this episode is for you.

In this episode:

• The parable of the wicked tenants (Matthew 21:33-46)
• Why stewardship and ownership are not the same thing
• Baptism as identity + empowerment + commission
• Three marks of faithful stewards: gratitude, faithfulness, release
• A prayer for those learning to work in His field

Listen in. The field is not yours to own — it is His to harvest.

Your mission action plan promised fruit. Instead, you got a spreadsheet.

Your vision statement promised transformation. Instead, you got a to-do list.

Your church promised to be a vineyard. Instead, it started feeling like a factory.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: The tension between what we expected and what we're experiencing might not be a problem to fix. It might be the very place where Jesus wants to meet us.

In Matthew 21, Jesus confronts religious leaders who had the right words, the right structures, and the right plans—but were missing what God was actually doing right in front of them. His response? A parable about two sons that cuts to the heart of what it means to be faithful.

One said "I won't" but later obeyed.
The other said "I will" but never went.

Jesus' shocking conclusion: The outsiders were entering the kingdom ahead of the experts.

In this episode:

• Why your mission action plan isn't a contract with God
• What kingdom fruit actually looks like (and why it can't be curated)
• The difference between a tidy church and a fruitful one
• How to hold your plans loosely while holding fast to the One who sends you

The question isn't "Did we complete the plan?" It's "Did we produce the fruit?"

Let's dig in.

What if grace isn't fair? What if it never was?

In this episode, we sit with one of Jesus' most scandalous parables—the landowner who pays the eleventh-hour workers the same as those who labored all day. It's a story that offends our sense of fairness and upends our ideas about who belongs in the vineyard.

But this parable isn't just about grace. It's about mission.

Because once we've been welcomed, we've been sent. Once we've been fed at the Table, we're called into the field.

We unpack how communion and the post-communion prayer equip us for the work—how the bread and cup become fuel for a mission that proclaims Christ, makes disciples, and serves the world through worship, teaching, and acts of love.

The question is simple: Where do you fit?

Press play and find your place in the field.

🎙️ One wrong post. One stupid comment. One mistake. Is that all it takes to be written off forever?

We live in a world that cancels. But Jesus tells a story about a King who absorbs a billion-dollar debt and then asks us to do the same for each other.

Sounds impossible, right? That's the point.

In this episode, we tackle the hardest question our culture is asking right now: How do we hold people accountable WITHOUT becoming judge, jury and executioner?

We're talking about:
✅ The absurd math of God's mercy (10,000 talents vs. 100 denarii)
✅ Why "forgive and forget" is NOT the same as "forgive and trust"
✅ How to set firm boundaries without letting bitterness poison your soul
✅ What the younger generation gets right about justice—and what the older generation gets right about grace

This isn't a lecture. It's a raw, intergenerational conversation about the scandalous, uncomfortable, liberating power of forgiveness.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

What if the disagreements apart are actually the raw materials God wants to use to build it up?

Most leaders avoid conflict, but conflict is an inevitable part of church growth. Scripture gives us a radical alternative way to view this situation..

In this episode, we dissect Proverbs 6:16-19—where God lists the seven things He detests, culminating in the sin of sowing discord—and contrast it with Jesus' step-by-step reconciliation process in Matthew 18:10-20.

We move beyond just "being nice" to a practical, confrontational, redemptive strategy that:

• Turns passive consumers into mature, reproducing disciples.
• Creates a magnetic witness in a "cancel-culture" world that is starving for authentic love.
• Unlocks the power of unified corporate prayer.
• Stops the "leaky bucket" by pursuing offended members before they walk out the door.
• Builds a leadership pipeline that replicates health, not toxicity.

If you are ready to be part of a church that actually thrives under pressure and can work through things without cancelling eash other—this conversation is for you and an introduction to our church.

Key Scriptures: Proverbs 6:16-19, Matthew 18:10-20

Share this if you know someone who wants to rise from their situation.

This song is my real life. Every word is true, and I make myself vulnerable to make sure that one person knows they are not destined to be the circumstances they came from.

I wrote it from the scars of a childhood filled with beatings, fear, and silence. But that broken boy grew up. By God's grace, I broke the cycle. I became a husband, a father, and a man who chose love over pain.

This is my original composition. My testimony.

I'm not sharing for pity—I'm sharing because someone out there needs to know: you are not what was done to you. Healing is real. Christ met me in my rubble, and He can meet you too.

Now, as Vicar of St Thomas Moonee Ponds, I'm reminded daily of the power we have to bring healing to the most unexpected places—sometimes in a conversation, sometimes in a song, sometimes in simply showing up and saying, "I see you, I was you and you matter."

Please share this with someone carrying invisible scars. A text, a story, a link—you might be the hand that helps them rise.

In the love of Christ, we can all stand.

🙏 Share. Heal. Rise.

What if the greatest threat to the church isn't opposition from the world—but our own desire to stay comfortable?

In this episode, we explore Matthew 16:21–28 and the paradox at the heart of the Christian life: if you try to save your life, you'll lose it. But if you lose it for Jesus, you'll find it.

We unpack what it really means to "take up your cross," why the church has drifted from the cross in its pursuit of comfort and relevance, and how we can return to a gospel-driven, cross-shaped mission.

The gospel is distinctive. It cannot be woven together with the ways of the world. And each way of living excludes the other.

Key Scripture: Matthew 16:21–28

Blessings, 

Rev. Rob.

We love having God neatly labeled, safely categorized, and comfortably predictable. But Jesus refuses to stay in our boxes.

In this episode, we step into Matthew 16:13–20—where Jesus asks the question that shatters our spiritual comfort zones. The crowd had Him figured out (Elijah, Jeremiah, a prophet—safe, static, past-tense). Peter risked a divine revelation: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

But even that glorious confession isn't the finish line. The "rock" isn't a monument to sit on—it's a movement to join. The "keys" aren't a security blanket; they require daily, uncomfortable listening to heaven. And sometimes, the deepest trust is found in the silence He commands.

Press play if you're ready to stop worshipping your blueprints and start growing in the wild, risky trust of the living Son of God.