The tales that Jesus told are brilliant, but did you know they point to something bigger? Jesus told many of his parables to help his audience understand about the kingdom that he was establishing, the kingdom of heaven. This week, Dave zoomed out and looked why and how we can live in allegiance to King Jesus, even starting today.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories to blows the minds of the Pharisees who don't believe that God would care about Gentile sinners. The stories reveal the gracious heart of God, to indiscrimately offer grace to all people, so that they may repent and be saved. These stories not only are designed to recalibrate the hearts of the Pharisees, but all who fall into the trap of projecting their own prejudices onto God.

Jesus tells this tale in middle of two quite arrogant and ambitious interactions in Matthew 20. He wants to make sure everyone knows that the attributes of value in the kingdom of heaven are justice and grace, not popularity, riches, or even hard work. How do we feel about that?

The kingdom of heaven is like... a generous master who involves his servants in the building of his kingdom, only requiring faithful stewardship in return. What has God given you to faithfully and responsibly care for? These are the questions Lee Weissel asked as he brought us this week's sermon from Matthew 25:14-30.

This parable from Jesus gives us some more insight into how his new kingdom will operate. The kingdom is a place where brothers and sisters in Christ confess their sin, apologise for any pain caused, and pursue peace through the sometimes awkward conversations of forgiveness. Jesus isn't just telling us this is what it will be like in heaven, but what it can already begin to be like now.

In two of the shortest stories Jesus told, he is somehow able to convey the value of the kingdom of heaven with perfect clarity. What is it worth? Everything. Yet despite the simplicity of the story and the clarity of the message, is that how we value it?

This week we began our series looking at some of the parables of Jesus, starting with The Sower. Jesus tells this parable to invite people to cultivate hearts that are prepared to participate in the kingdom of God. He sees their hearts, he knows them better than they know themselves, and from that place of insight and knowledge he draws them toward something wonderful: the kingdom of God. And he still does the same for each of us today.

Bishop Richard preached from Luke 8 about how for 2000 years Jesus has been the hope of humankind. Whether it was a Jewish woman with an incurable disease, a desperate father whose daughter was on death's door, or people today who have no hope after death. Jesus offers salvation, and in salvation - hope. He took our hopelessness to the cross, and exchanged it for hope.

Curveballs are unexpected, but not rare. So when they come, how do you handle them? Dave shares some theological responses for curveballs, and then shares one of our own that our church now has to navigate through.

Jonny from the Moore College Mission Team preached from Luke 12:13-21, about the parable of the rich fool, who stored up his wealth and was not 'rich toward God'. A timely warning for all of us to use all of our resources to prepare well for Christ's return.