Oz from our sister church, Ballycullen Community Church, joins us again this week to open up Psalm 56 with us. 

The first in our Christmas Series - Emmanuel: God With Us. 

When is the last time you got into a panic? You might have forgotten a deadline or missed your bus, or ran late for an appointment. You might have been late to pick up the children from school – that happened to me this week. Yet, when panic strikes at a deeper level – at the level of what you could call spiritual panic – Christians have a decision to make. Trust God whose enduring promises we read and know and believe in and rally to – or simply, if quietly, refuse to trust God and set about, well, sorting myself out. Trust God or refuse to trust God. Again and again the Bible pleads with us to have faith not in our own plans, but in the sovereign Lord.

This week Oz Muwaniri, from our sister church - Ballycullen Community Church, joins us in asking the question How Do We Hear? as he digs into Luke 8 and the Parable of the Soils.  

The image this week was really shocking, if you saw it... the foreign minister from the Pacific island of Tuvalu was dressed in his best suit, but there he was, standing knee deep in seawater as he spoke a video message to the COP26 conference in Scotland. His point was that rising sea levels are threatening his people’s very existence. That’s the power of a negative example for you. And the writer to the Hebrews is, metaphorically speaking, rolling up his trouser legs and walking out into the rising seawater to record his stark warning to Christians. The confrontation about apostasy that he started in 5:11 continues now with perhaps the severest warning on the pages of the New Testament. Basically it’s a stark warning about the genuineness of those who say they follow Christ. And so the question for you and me: How genuine is your faith in Christ? The text here comes in two halves.

Richard Philips, in his book on Hebrews describes how people feel when a preacher starts to get a bit more personal than they would prefer. When he speaks in general terms, he is, of course preaching – and that’s fine... but when he starts tackling real sin and stuff going on in their lives – that is not preaching but meddling. The writer to the Hebrews here in chapters 5 and 6 is definitely not just preaching, he’s meddling. The text from 5:11-6:3 is the start of one of the most severe warnings in the Bible. And it deliberately breaks into a section of Hebrews that’s started to consider the theme of Jesus as the Great High priest from the end of chapter 4/start of chapter 5. What’s the reason for the meddling? The editor of the ESV puts it at the head of this section: Warning against Apostasy. Apostacy is when someone who once seemed to be a Christian believer later decides to totally reject Christ and move away from sound gospel truth and stops going to church.

This week Tom Campbell teaches from Matthew 25:1-13 and the need to be ready for Christ's return. 

This week, Matthew Campbell, Director of Baptist Youth, joins us and shares from Romans 8, unpacking how God has told us as his children the end of the story - Jesus wins and how that radically transforms our perspective. 

What do we do when we feel like giving up? Enduring as a Christian means we need to get to grips with who Christ is and as we've seen so far in Hebrews there is a read danger of giving up, we need to hold on to the Son of God. The writer to the Hebrews shows us that we need to understand Jesus' high priestly ministry. Hold on to Jesus - Your Great High Priest. 

The author to the Hebrews invites, the Christians in the 1st century and us to reinstate the true image of Jesus Christ in our understanding. For years grim or tarnish or a lack of biblical teaching, beyond surface level and even the pull of cultural profanity where Jesus is concerned, they have left us  with a botched image of who Jesus is and what he's done The author of Hebrews knows well that encouraging readers to reinstate Jesus, the Son of God, in their understanding will have a deep impact on whether they will endure as Christians.  

Today is decision day.

That might not be how you feel right now. But it’s the repeated message of the writer of Hebrews. The message to the Christians in the first century, and to us as we read the Bibles open in front of us. Hearing his voice, the Bible – God’s powerful word read out and taught, proclaimed… today is decision day. And if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.