In Jeremiah 33: 3 God says to us, “call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you do not know”. Salvation belongs to the Lord. God is still God and He is still building His church.

Jeremiah was in prison, but God cannot be shut up. Jeremiah brought a word, but no-one was listening. Judah was going to fall just has Israel had done, but God whispered Jeremiah to call to Him. God promised healing. No matter how bleak our circumstances are we have confidence that God can bring peace and joy to our lives. Whatever our need is we need to ask God for it. He can bring joy. He can heal. He can rebuild. We need to call Him. We need to have a clear perspective of God’s plans for our lives (Romans 8).

John, on Patmos, was called to, “come up here and I will show you things which must take place” and he saw these things take place (Revelation 4:1; 7:9-10; 21:1-4).

Genesis begins with brokenness, but our future is bright in Revelation 21. We are on the winning side. We know the end, God did not give up on us.

The voice of joy shall be heard even in desolation (Jeremiah 33:10-11).

God is a personal God and He is interested in us. He wants a relationship with us.

God’s promises in Jeremiah 33 are fulfilled in the New Covenant. Our hope is a living hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our final destination is assured.

Jesus return is certain. Here He emphasised the need for preparedness for His return. The question is not, “When will Jesus return?”, but, “Are you ready for His return?”

Here we see David facing a real disaster in real time. We know the outcome, but David didn’t know how God would work in and through him in this situation. It was the same for many other biblical characters. The situation at Ziklag looked dark and hopeless to David. Many Christians are facing disasters and dark situations in the world today. Jesus says we will have trouble in this world  (John 16:33). The question is what will we do when we face trouble, trial, illness, etc? Will we be able to encourage ourselves in the Lord as David did?

This story poses questions of:

Does the church still have a purpose in the world today?

The mission of any organisation is defined by it’s members.  The church is the “called out ones” who belong to Jesus. The mission of the church is eternal. The church is the bride of Christ that comes out of Jesus Himself. Jesus prayed for us not to be taken out of the world because we have a mission here. The Christian’s job is to bring God to light. We are a part of the manifold wisdom of God and are sent into the world to display His wisdom.

The church does not exist ‘primarily’ to protest injustice in the world. When we see these things we are broken by them because we serve a holy God. When we preach the full gospel of God we address eliminate these things. We should not bury our head in the sand. The problem is sin itself. The Gospel is the solution to sin (Romans 1:16-17). The Christian’s mission is to declare the Gospel. We need to reconcile the world to God through declaring the Gospel.

The mission of the church is:

How many of us still write letters? Imagine you have received a letter that was written before you were born from someone who knows all about you and loves you. The Bible is this letter. It is a love letter from God to us.

Click here to see the video of the Father’s love letter to us.

The foundation of Rock Christian Centre is based on God’s word. Partnership is for all Christians who would like to commit themselves to partner with Rock Christian Centre in the vision and growth of the church. Partnership is a biblical concept (Philippians 1:3). God calls us to partnership with Him and with one another in the work of the Gospel.

Jon preached on what it means to be a partner of Rock Christian Centre and went through the church’s Partnership Declaration. This declaration can be found here.

Will you finish well? Will you here God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? It is more important to finish well that to start well.

Samuel started well, kept faithful and finished well. Jesus started well, continued well, finished well and died well. We are called to follow Jesus.

At the end of Samuel’s ministry we see:

Culture is a way of life and reflects the beliefs and practices of a group of people at a given time. The Kingdom represents the role of Jesus and His rule over all the earth.

Kingdom culture is defined by:

The Kingdom culture shows itself in how we live our daily lives and how we love others.

Pentecost means “50th”, it is the Festival of Weeks, 50 days after Passover. By this time Jesus had appeared to hundreds of people. Jesus had ascended and had promised His disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit.

Eight extraordinary things that happened at Pentecost and can happen today:

“I will not be a jagged rock for the raven to rest on, but an olive tree for the dove to rest upon”

Does the dove adjust to us or do we adjust to the dove? The Holy Spirit has His ways, we may not like them, but He will not adjust to us, we must adjust to His ways. What does it mean to be people of the Spirit?

Genesis 8:1-12 – God remembered Noah. Noah sent out a raven and then a dove. The dove could find nowhere to rest. After seven days he sent out another dove and it returned with an olive branch in its mouth. An olive branch is a symbol of peace. The raven has a bad reputation, but God has his plan and the raven had his part to play. A raven is a scavenger, they eat anything. In Jewish law they are seen as unclean. The raven did not return because it could survive. The dove returned because it needed vegetation and a stable place to rest. It returned the first time because not enough had changed. Both birds had their part to play and Noah waited patiently for the Lord. We must wait patiently on the Lord for Him to do what He needs to do. It takes just as much courage to wait in the boat as to go out. We need to learn to wait. If God says no we need to stay and grow. It is sometimes harder to stay and wait rather than to step out. Be bold and courageous and wait on God.

Galatians 5:16-26 – What does it mean to be people of the Spirit? Do we have love, joy, peace, patience, etc, or are we people of the flesh? Are we a safe place for the dove to rest? We are a dangerous place to rest upon when we do not cloth ourselves with God. We become a place even the raven would not rest upon. The Spirit is self control. Anger is of the flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot rest upon us if we allow the things of the flesh to entangled and enslaved us. We are called to not be like everyone else. We need the Holy Spirit. We cannot do things in on own strength. We need to align ourselves with the Spirit. We can only do all things when He is strengthening us. We need to pray that God will make us an olive tree and mot a jagged rock. We need to cultivate a lifestyle that produces the fruit of the Spirit. We need to stay and surrender all to the Spirit.

Matthew 3:13-17 – Jesus saw the Spirit decending like a dove. Jesus did no major works or miracles until He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said it was better for Him to go away so that He could give us His Spirit. The Spirit is not confined. He can be everywhere and in all of us. We can grieve and hurt the Spirit when we strive to do things in our own strength. God wants to fill us with His Spirit. He longs to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us.

We need to:

Are we living a life more suitable for a raven to rest on or are we striving for more of God?