This Sunday we continue our series looking at Hebrews with Sam speaking on the topic ‘Holy Discipline‘, from Hebrews 12:1-17.

Dinner after our 5pm service resumes this week – make sure you stay for a delicious meal and great fellowship.

If you’ve never come along before, then this Sunday is a great time to drop in. You can also watch us live (or look at some past church services) at www.oakflats.tv.

See you at 9.30am or 5pm this Sunday, God willing!

In recent years Australia day has increasingly contentious, particularly in regard to the past treatment of Aboriginal people.

For many Australia is a place of hope and joy. Millions have grown up here and are thankful for peaceful and prosperous lives. Others have come to Australia for refuge, leaving wars and conflicts in other countries. For these, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate Australia.

Yet for many Aboriginal Australians, January 26 is not a day of joy. Stan Grant writes that it is ‘for so many of the First Peoples of this continent…a day of pain, a reminder of the history of segregation, exclusion and brutality.’ (Australia Day, p.231). From arrival of the First Fleet white man spread out, not in friendship but with plans to take the land. This led to the horrendous treatment of many Aboriginal men, women and children – including family separation, rape and massacre. This history is a national tragedy. 

So then, what are we to do with Australia Day? Grant writes, “One of my students asked me what I thought of Australia Day. It is a question I have wrestled with, torn between pride in my country and my family’s legacy of suffering…I know now, we are asking the wrong question. Australia is more than a day, it is more than a date – whatever that date may be. Moving the date or abolishing Australia day does not answer the question who are we? (p.233)

Who are we to be, and how will we get there? It is at this point it is well worth us listening to many Aboriginals as to their experiences and thoughts. And the gospel provides help too – remembering 54% of Aboriginals are Christian, to Australia’s 55%. For us to think and pray about:

1. In Christ’s death on the cross God brings peace between hostile groups (Ephesians 2:14-28). This means that with everyone else in Christ, we are fellow citizens of God’s household, and even to the unbelievers we can offer forgiveness and peace.
2. We are commanded, as Christ first showed to us, to humbly value others above ourselves, not looking to our own interests but to the interests of others (Philippians 2:1-4). What preferences and interests are Christians prepared to lose for the sake of healing between groups in our land?

SAM PURSELL

This Sunday we continue our series looking at Hebrews with Sam speaking on the topic ‘Examples of faithful endurance‘, from Hebrews 11:1-40.

And a reminder that until February 2020, there will be no dinner after the 5pm Sunday service.

As always, come along and visit us at 9.30am 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.

The second promise of my ministry duties is to faithfully serve using the instruments God has given to disciple the church. 

Will you always faithfully minister the doctrine and sacraments, and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord has commanded, and as this Church has received them, according to the commandments of God? Will you teach the people committed to your charge to keep and observe them diligently? (AAPB) 

In each church, the elders have the task of teaching from the scriptures, and thereby establishing the doctrine of that church. Of course, the Bible contains all the doctrine that God has communicated, but ‘on the ground’ if only some portions of the Bible are preached and taught or if it is mistaught, that teaching becomes the de facto doctrine for that church. My responsibility is that the breadth of the scriptures and its doctrines are taught faithfully so that what we believe is truly from the Lord. 

The sacraments as established by Christ for the church are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are outward signs of an inward reality. Or you could say, a physical pointer to a spiritual reality. They are signs of what God has done for Christians. Baptism points to (1) the spiritual reality of dying to a worldly sinful life and instead living new holy life in Christ (Romans 6:3-4); and (2) the washing away of sins (1 Peter 3:21). It is therefore a once-off and the sign of entry into the church; the beginning of discipleship in Christ (Matthew 28:19). The Lord’s Supper is a regular reminder (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) and participation (1 Corinthians 10:14-16) in Christ’s death on the cross for our sins (Matthew 26:28). When we are reminded of what Christ did for us by the words spoken, and think ‘yes’ in our hearts in faith to God, our physical eating and drinking strengthens us spiritually in Christ.

The purpose of discipline is to call a Christian in significant unrepentant public sin to reflect, repent and return (Matthew 18:15-17).  We all make mistakes and fail Jesus, and ongoing forgiveness is open to the repentant. But in love and in proportionality, discipline shows sin’s seriousness, and yet also always offers salvation and deep forgiveness if that person turns back (Matthew 18:21-35, James 5:19-20).

SAM PURSELL

This Sunday we continue our series looking at Hebrews with Sam speaking on the topic ‘Avoid abandoning Christ’, from Hebrews 10:26-39.

And a reminder that until February 2020, there will be no dinner after the 5pm Sunday service.

If you’ve never come along before, then this Sunday is a great time to drop in. You can also watch us live (or look at some past church services) at www.oakflats.tv.

See you at 9.30am or 5pm this Sunday, God willing!