What Matters

Celebration Sunday

On Sunday we celebrated the end of our Time to Build season.  God has been incredibly gracious as he has performed a miracle of provision in our midst. Read my sermon manuscript here ( Celebration Sunday PDF)

Thanksgiving

Brennan Manning states that we are not joyful and then become grateful so much as we are grateful and then are in turn joyful.  A life marked by thanksgiving and gratitude is a rich life.  Listen in to find out more: Download Time to Build  Pledge Sunday - Week 8  Or you can read my message here: Download Thanksgiving

Pentecost 2011

On Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the coming of the Spirit like a rushing wind, tongues of fire and as a stream of living water poured out.  The Spirit refreshes and renews.  Listen in to find out more: Download Time to Build _ Pentecost - Week 7

Building a Life of Sacrifice

We don't make sacrifices to appease an angry god.  We offer sacrifices that please a gracious, generous God.  We sacrifice in part to the God who sacrificed all for us.  Listen in to find out more: Download Time to Build _ Sacrifice - Week 6  Or Read it here: Download Sacrifice Manuscript

John Wesley's Covenant Prayer

John Wesley is a hero of the faith to me.  His example makes him one of the great cloud of witnesses who cheer me on in my race of faith.  Like all of us, Wesly was a complex man full of contradictions and yet wholly and fully devoted to the cause of Christ.  No more is this refelcted in his Covenant Prayer.  The power of this prayer challenges and provokes me out of lazy complacency and towards Jesus:

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you,
Exalted for you or brought low by you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You are mine, and I am yours. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Building a Life of Commitment

We are the 'options' generation - a generation that is commitment phobic, afraid of being trapped by long term promises we make.  But a life of commitment is fundamental to a life lived with and for God.  God is indeed fully committed to us.  Listen in as we explore what a life of commitment looks like:Download 290511_TTB_Wk5_Stu_Cameron_Commitment

Nepalese Baptism Commitments

A couple of weeks ago Newlife hosted 45 Uniting Church ministers and pastors from around Australia for a conference.  Rod Denton (www.roddentoneng.com.au/), a Baptist pastor, spoke to us one morning.  Rod spends a lot of his time in Asia training pastors.  He shared of the incredible growth of the church in Nepal.  The church has grown from a handful of people just 20 years ago to more than one million believers today.  Christians in Nepal often encounter great persecution and hardship. Before a new Christian can be baptised in some churches in Nepal they have to answer a series of questions: 

1.  Are you willing to be expelled from your home and community because of your faith in Jesus Christ?

2.  Are you willing to give up your family inheritance because of your faith in Jesus Christ?

3.  Are you willing to give up your job because of your faith in Jesus Christ?

4.  Are you willing to be persecuted and sent to prison because of your faith in Jesus Christ?

5.  Are you willing to pay tithes and offerings to honour God regularly?

6.  Are you willing to go back to your village to preach the Gospel?

7.  Are you willing to die for Jesus Christ?

If a baptismal candidate agrees to these questions, then they are asked: 

8.  Do you willingly give consent to be baptized? 

Do you think the Nepalese Christians who answer these questions are fully committed?  While I know they would be far from perfect, I read that list and I weep at my lukewarm faith, my willingness to compromise, to cheat God in large and small ways and the many ways I give God the leftovers of my life rather than my first and my best. 

God wants people fully surrendered to him, committed to follow him no matter the cost and who will not compromise the grace that has been entrusted to them.

Building a Life of Purpose

 Viktor Frankl, who wrote Man’s search for meaning, observed that he who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear almost any ‘how’.  So what is the ‘why’ of life?  Listen is as I spend time reflecting on this most important of questions:  Download 150511_TTB_Wk4_Stu_Cameron_Purpose Or read the text here: Download Purpose

Building a Life of Service

Paul makes an extraordinary claim in his letter to the Ephesians: 'We are God's workmanship (handiwork, masterpiece...poetry, created in Chris Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.' (Ephesians 2:10)  We were created and re-created to serve.  Listen in as I explore phrase by phrase this verse: Download 150511_TTB_Wk3_Stu_Cameron_Service   Or you can read it here: Download Week Three mansucript

Building a Life of Faith

In Hebrews 11 the writer gives us the great 'Hall of Faith'.  The men and women listed, named and unnamed, are inspirational examples of faith that is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Their example in our challenge - to run the race of faith that God has marked out for us.  Listen in: Download 080511_TTB_Wk2_Stu_Cameron_Faith  Or you can read the message here: Download Week Two Manuscript