Gymea Baptist Church » Sermons

This week we conclude our series we've called "The Space Between" in which we are thinking about how we journey through change. In this message I reflect on the difference going though change with God can be, reflecting on Isaiah 49:8-21. When we travel with God through change we can do so with a peace that passes understanding, with an ability to enjoy the journey, and with a sense of anticipation. I hope that whatever change you are facing this year you will face it with your hand in the hand of God. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. If you'd like to join us online, we meet at gbconline.org.au at 9:30am AEST. We'd love for you to join us. If you're in the area and would like to visit us physically visit our website gymeabaptist.org.au for all our Onsite Service times. Also be sure to follow us on Facebook  or Instagram to keep up with all we are doing.

In this week's message, part of our series entitled The Space Between, wherewe explore The Space Between our desire for stability and our need for peace and the blueprint for peace that is found in Mark 4:35-41. Peace is rooted in the recognition of Jesus is unparalleled authority. It springs up as we place our faith in his compassion and care for us and bears fruit as our confidence in his mission deepens. This is the peace that passes all understanding. The peace that prevails in every situation we may face. Our world seeks stability,let us pursue peace. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. If you'd like to join us online, we meet at gbconline.org.au at 9:30am AEST. We'd love for you to join us. If you're in the area and would like to visit us physically we are about to return to face-to-face gatherings in early January. Visit our website gymeabaptist.org.au. for service times or follow us on Facebook  or Instagram.

Heading into 2021, today we want to reflect on a new perspective and an opportunity that we believe we have as a community of faith. So, who do you need to meet with and what do you need to do in order to continue to grow as a follower of Jesus? Because this ultimately is our end game as a community of faith and what do you think we need to do in order to more effectively create form and make disciples of all nations in the days and weeks in the months to come? Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. If you'd like to join us online, we meet at gbconline.org.au at 9:30am AEST. We'd love for you to join us. If you're in the area and would like to visit us physically we are about to return to face-to-face gatherings in early January. Visit our website gymeabaptist.org.au. for service times or follow us on Facebook  or Instagram.

Today we begin a short series entitled "The Space Between" in which we will explore the new normal that God is inviting us into as a community of faith. We always face changes and the journey from the old normal to the new normal can be really unsettling. It is, however, a critical journey and we need courage to press on and to resist the temptation to retreat to the old, comfortable, normal. In this message I want to reflect on one of the fundamental invitations I believe we have been given over the course of last year - the invitation to hope. I trust that the Holy Spirit will give you the courage to hope rather than retreat to control and certainty. May the example of Ahaz remind us of the need for hope and trust. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. If you'd like to join us online, we meet at gbconline.org.au at 9:30am AEST. We'd love for you to join us. If you're in the area and would like to visit us physically we are about to return to face-to-face gatherings in early January. Visit our website gymeabaptist.org.au. for service times or follow us on Facebook  or Instagram.

With Christmas in the rear vision mirror we wrap up our Songs of Hope series in Psalm 148 and its extraordinary call to praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! Praise him with songs; giving voice to the voiceless praise of the created order. Praise him with our lives; aligning our lives with the purpose that our great and loving God has given to us. And that's the final podcast for 2020. If you've only just found us or count yourself a regular part of our digital community of faith I trust that you've heard the invitation of God to join in his grand plan of restoration and have found the courage to join in. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. If you'd like to join us online, we meet at gbconline.org.au at 9:30am AEST. We'd love for you to join us. If you're in the area and would like to visit us physically we are about to return to face-to-face gatherings in early January. Visit our website gymeabaptist.org.au. for service times or follow us on Facebook  or Instagram.

Merry Christmas! 2020 has been a year filled with uncertainty and we face a strong temptation to seek control to re-establish our sense of certainty. The birth of Jesus, however, offers little in the way of certainty, but plenty in terms of hope. This is the focus of my reflection this Christmas. We pray that this Christmas you will choose to walk the path of hope rather than retreating to the fortress of certainty and that you find the courage and empathy to live in the flickering light of delicate hope in Jesus and his renewing and restoring work. Thanks so much for including us in your Christmas celebrations. Have a great Christmas and we hope you join us again in the new year. Merry Christmas! Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. If you'd like to join us online, we meet at gbconline.org.au at 9:30am AEST. We'd love for you to join us. If you're in the area and would like to visit us physically we are about to return to face-to-face gatherings in early January. Visit our website gymeabaptist.org.au. for service times or follow us on Facebook  or Instagram.

In this week's message, we will be diving into Psalm 89, which reflects on the eternal promises of God to David's house and the tension of faith. The psalmist experiences as he tries to hold together these forever promises and the demise of the monarchy. While the precise nature of our tension may be different from that described in Psalm 89, we too face the discrepancy where faith and hope meet contrary experience, even though we celebrate the birth of Jesus and all that means for us, we still cry how long and remember these cries of the faithful are cries of hope.Declaring that we will allow the promises of God to define our reality. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week associate Pastor Mark Coleman continues our Christmas Series Songs of Hope, and together we have a look at the invitation found in Psalm 126. God is in the business of restoration and each of us is invited to join him in that activity through active perspective altering remembrance of what he has already done. This is the basis of hope and joy at Christmas. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week we begin a new series that will take us up to Christmas, entitled Songs of Hope, for the next few weeks will be returning to the Psalms and listening to the messages of hope that they contain. Today, our student Pastor, Brett Robinson kicks us off looking at Psalm 80. Hope begins in acknowledging why we need it in the first place. A lament might seem like a strange place to look for help, but as we bring our whole life to the Lord, knowing that he can restore, we place ourselves in a posture of hope. So, let us courageously acknowledge the disconnect between the promises of God and the world in which we live. Bringing our confusion, our pain and uncertainty to him placing our faith in him and his promises. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

In this week’s message, Roxane Lawler concludes our Plan A sermon series looking at the fifth principle: Showing up. This principle states that we must rely on God’s activity in the lives of those around us. Using Paul’s metaphor of jar of clay in 2 Corinthians 4 Roxane reminds us about our role and God’s role the transformation. In the work of evangelism, we are called to allow the power of God in us to refresh those around us and to be the light that others see. Our responsibility is to pray, to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and press-in - or in Plan A language, Show up. And that’s Plan A: growing in our relationship with Jesus, knowing others and sowing seeds in conversation, rowing with others, and showing up. Five principles that make evangelism more holistic and simple. Let’s participate with God and see what he might do in the lives of those around us. Plan A is a simple set of principles developed by Belinda Lakelin, evangelism consultant for the Baptist Association of NSW & ACT. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

In this week’s message, Mark Coleman continues our Plan A sermon series looking at the fourth principle: Rowing. This principle states that we do not engage in God’s Plan A on our own but with others. Mark reflects on 1 Peter 4:7-11 and explores three aspects of Peter’s admonition to his readers and, through the Holy Spirit, to us: what we called to, why it’s important, and who we are to join with in our important call. Great partnerships are not just about two or more people doing things together, but about a group of people who are bound together by love and a common purpose that is urgent and important. As we continue to participate in God’s Plan A: growing in our relationship with Jesus, knowing others and sowing seeds in conversation, let us not forget those whom God has given us to row with; partners in the gospel. Plan A is a simple set of principles developed by Belinda Lakelin, evangelism consultant for the Baptist Association of NSW & ACT. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week we continue our series Plan A: The Great Commission for Every Christian, a series in which we're exploring five principles of evangelism developed by Balinda Lakelin. This week, Jodine Watling, our associate pastor, explores what it looks like to Sow, the third of the principles. Instead of focusing on the seed or the sower, she focuses instead on the soils of the parable of the soil as told by Jesus in Matthew's gospel and explores the state of our hearts and those around us as an important part of our consideration as we talk about Jesus to those we know. We trust that you've been encouraged to think a little bit more about where your friends are at, to consider more carefully the state of their hearts, and to take them the words that you've been given to talk about Jesus and use them appropriately to sow seeds wherever you are. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week we continue or start our series around Plan A, The Great Commission For Every Christian. This week we look at the first of five principles that make up God's "Plan A", his only plan for evangelism, and that principle is the principle of Growing. Disciples are those who make disciples and so this is where we must begin. The key questions around this principle are simple and yet quite profound. What is Jesus saying to you and what are you doing about it? And if you haven't heard from Jesus lately, how are you going to go about listening to him, so that you and I can continue to grow as his followers? Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

Plan A | The Great Commission for Every Christian | Matthew 28:16-20

Creation invites us to discover that the World was made by God. God's laws help us to understand more about God. We can invite God to help us discover more about ourselves. And extraordinarily, we can actually know God Himself, through the person of Jesus. Perhaps you need to visit a physical or metaphorical dark sky national park this week, and make space to discover that God is nearer than you think. This might be something you've done before, or perhaps its for the very first time. Whatever stage you're at, in your journey following Jesus, This Psalm invites us to recognise that the Lord is our Rock and our Redeemer. Jesus is inviting us to know God, to walk in relationship with him, and to know that God can be trusted whatever we face. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week, as part of our series “Songs of the People” we are looking at Psalm 25. This acrostic psalm of lament challenges us to consider what we truly need from the Lord. When we face trouble in all its forms - and we will - we are encouraged to lift up our need to the Lord and to request rescue from him. Psalm 25, however, also encourages us to ask for guidance to know how to walk in the way of the Lord while we wait for rescue. This is our greatest need! Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week we continue our series, Songs of the People, in which we are exploring the invitation, encouragement, and challenge of the psalms. The psalms we will be looking at are determined by the lectionary; the three year cycle of readings that many churches around the world follow. This week, our youth coordinator Matt Willis dives into Psalm 145 and the question of what makes God so great. God’s greatness is not merely his power and strength, but his good and gracious character. God’s greatness is manifested in his actions on behalf of his people and for that reason we are called to a determined whole-life commitment to praise. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at www.gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week we continue our series, Songs of the People, in which we will explore the invitation, encouragement, and challenge of the psalms. The psalms we will be looking at are determined by the lectionary; the three year cycle of readings that many churches around the world follow. Mark Coleman shares some reflections on Psalm 114. This psalm considers the exodus, that definitive act of salvation in the Old Testament, but with a specific focus on God’s power and the invitation to God’s people. The Lord’s empowerment of his people must be more than knowledge, but must be applied in our lives. This week, take up the opportunity not only to reflect on God’s power in your life, but to consider what that power invites you to attempt as part of God’s work in the world. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week we begin a new series entitled, Songs of the People in which we are going to explore the invitation, encouragement, and challenge of the psalms. The psalms we will be looking at are determined by the lectionary; the three year cycle of readings that many churches around the world follow. Our first psalm is 149, a hymn with a few surprises along the way, but that encourages us as the community of faith to praise the Lord in response to the delight he shows us and the purpose he gives to us. This week, may you sleep, work, and play in the afterglow of the Lord’s delight in us. Let us continue to seek the Lord, to fear him, and to rejoice that, in our humility, we are his people! Praise the Lord! Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).

This week we conclude our series entitled “The Church Reimagined” and I return to a foundational text for us: John 20:19-23 where Jesus sends his followers, then and now, to continue the work he had begun. I don’t know how you’re feeling about the changes and uncertainty that are swirling around us, but I hope that you take comfort in the enduring plans and purposes of God and, more importantly, that these unchanging plans and purposes will provide you with a reason to be on-purpose in your involvement in them through the power of the Spirit. The more things change, the more the plans of God remain the same. Amen. Is there someone you know who really needs to hear this message? Why not share it with them and see what God does through it. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or visit our website at gymeabaptist.org.au. We’d love for you join us for church at gbconline.org.au at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00pm (AEST).