Coming up this Sunday 3rd June 2018
This Sunday we continue our series ‘The Heart of Truth’ as Simon preaches on the topic ‘By faith alone’ from Romans chapter 3 verse 27 to chapter 4 verse 25.
During our services we will have an opportunity to meet one of our church members, which is always a great encouragement to us all.
Our youth group, Refuge, meets at 4pm in the Neighbourhood Centre, and then head over to join us for church. Kids’ Club and Andy’s Club meets at our 5pm evening service for their program, followed by a great dinner together for the whole family.
As always, come along and visit us at 10am or 5pm at 35 Fisher Street Oak Flats, or if you can’t make it in person, jump online at www.oakflats.tv to watch a livestream of our services.
See you at 10am or 5pm this Sunday, God willing!
Better news for the royal couple
It’s rare for a church sermon to make the front page of a newspaper, but the message from Bishop Curry made world news, as his royal wedding message got people talking.
Unlike the typecast, pompous wedding preacher, he enthusiastically addressed the billions of people who tuned in for the occasion.
It was refreshing to hear a royal wedding sermon speak about Jesus and his death on the cross with such gusto.
Sadly, many wedding sermons seem to forget they’re in a church, and they end up rolling out the kind of worldly wisdom you’d expect to hear from Oprah or Dr. Phil.
But Bishop Curry brought the focus of the event to the love of God shown at the cross of Christ.
I’m delighted that people are talking about Jesus and his death, but, sadly, Bishop Curry missed the most important point about the cross of Christ.
Whilst it is true that Jesus showed his love for dying for us on the cross, it was not so that he could solely be an example of true love.
If all we’ve got from the cross of Christ is an example we can try to follow, then Jesus has done nothing to help us with our sin and guilt for disobeying God’s rule.
No, the most important thing about the cross is that Jesus died as a sacrifice, taking the punishment we deserve for our sins, in our place, so that we might be forgiven by God.
As we read in 1 John chapter 4: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
It was good for the royal couple to hear that Jesus died on the cross: but it’s much better news for them to know that Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice for sin.
JODIE MCNEILL
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