Woodside Church

In this ancient prayer we are reminded that God’s agenda is universal in scope, and His primary strategy for reaching the nations is for His people to function as conduits of His blessing so that others will learn about His salvation. The question we need to ask ourselves is: “are we acting more like containers or conduits?”

Psalm 144 describes God as a Warrior, as a defender and protector. David hides himself in the LORD and prepares for battle. We have the same call on our lives today. Do we hide ourselves in Christ (through prayer and praise) and do we plead with Him to train our hands for war (using our gifting in our calling)?

Luke 2:52 says that Jesus grew in wisdom, and as his followers, so should we. Proverbs 1 calls us to respond to God’s offer of wisdom and reveals how the process of becoming wise really starts.

In his letter to Colossians summed up the essence of the Christian faith as “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Christ through his Holy Spirit working in us to change us into his own image. This is the heart of the matter. D.L. Moody the evangelist of the 19th Century summed it up well when he said, “The Bible was not given for our information, but for our transformation”.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  But who are the pure in heart? And how do you get a pure heart? And how does this bless you? And did he mean by “see God”? And why does it matter? If the answers to any of these questions seem important to you, then don’t miss this message that explores what Jesus thought about a pure heart.

In Psalm 131, we are pointed to a contrast between God’s kingdom and the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of the world values power, position, and fame in contrast to the kingdom of God that values humility, confidence, and contentment in God. As such, we need to put our hope in God to do his kingdom work among us.

We are told in Scripture that ‘whether we eat, drink or whatever we do,’ we are to do all for the glory of God. We can be glorifying God and enjoying Him as we enjoy the simple delights of life, even in our fun and play. We can lift our hands in worship to God as we enjoy Him as the Good Giver of every gift.

Fathers are called to be Disciple-Makers of their Children, and to do that they must be Disciples themselves first.  Fathers can’t do this on their own efforts and God never asks them to.  When becoming Disciples we can use the body analogy of 1) Head – Knowing Truth; 2) Heart – Being Transformed into Christ’s image, 3) Hands/Feet – Living on Mission for Christ.  In this sermon we dig into how fathers need to model out the Head, Heart and Hands/Feet for their children, if they are going to be effective Disciple-Makers.

As we conclude our series in the book of 1 Samuel, we dive into the years of Saul pursuing David. In David, we see a man who knows who the REAL Authority is and who the REAL enemy is. In Saul, we see a man who has a cloudy understanding of both. Would we be people who submit ourselves to the REAL Authority and who fight the REAL enemy.

It is recorded that Jonathan loved David “as his own soul.” What he did for David gives us real-life examples as to what ‘loving your neighbour as yourself’ actually looks like.