Jesus’ disciples, who have been shown God’s grace and know God’s grace, have an immediate impact on the world around them. They are persecuted, but still salt and light; through them, God’s grace has an impact on the world around them, and people come to see their Father’s glory.

Jesus disciples’ are conscious of their need, their need for his undeserved kindness, his grace. That grace, and their awareness of their need, works to change them into people who live out lives of grace - merciful, honest, peacmaking lives that reflect his life.

NOTE THAT THERE WERE MINOR PROBLEMS DURING RECORDING. The message should still be audible, however.

The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount - perhaps Jesus’ most famous teaching - tell us how the good life is found by leaning in to our need and hunger for God and his kingdom.

Jesus’s final words to his disciples gave them a mission - and that mission is our mission, the church’s mission, the mission to make disciples from all nations. It is a mission that comes with a promise, a promise of Jesus’ accompanying authority and presence to the very end of time.

The second half of the letter to Philemon is a powerful message to a man - and a world - that treated so many people as slaves. Even though we may not live in a world where slavery exists, it is still a life-changing message that teaches us to see people the way God sees them, to value them as people, and our fellow Christians as God’s children. And most of all, it calls us to follow Christ in being willing to put ourselves on the line in order to love, forgive, and heal divisions among others, in the way that Paul does for Onesimus, and Jesus did for us all.

The little letter of Philemon gives us a powerful insight into what it means to grow as a Christian by becoming part of the partnership of the church, sharing, serving and loving, in lives focused on others, that nonetheless are the best way for us ourselves to grow.

Note that the recording quality of this sermon is lower, due to technical problems during recording.

God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light - his light of hope and peace.

Costly redemption leads to hope - that’s the story of Ruth; it’s the origin story, too of the great king David, and ultimately of Jesus. Finally, it is our story, as Jesus buys us back for a future of hope and joy at the cost of his own life.

Ruth gives us a wonderful picture of what it means to trust a redeemer - like Boaz, or much more deeply, like Jesus. That trust, that faith, is an active, a choice to depend on them; all the same, it’s a choice that depends on their proven character and reliable promises; and it’s a confident trust that can look to a certain future.

Even as his enemies tried to arrest him, Jesus put his life on the line to call them and everyone else to find true satisfaction and joy in him.