Sovereign Grace Community Church

This message examines the matter of resurrection as a crucial biblical concept - not so much the historicity of Jesus' resurrection or how it relates to His atoning death, but the nature, basis, and purpose of His resurrection and its significance for human beings and the wider creation.

This message examines the episode of Isaac's sacrifice in the light of God's covenant with Abraham and Isaac's status as the chosen heir through whom the covenant and its promises would be perpetuated. In particular, it considers the relationship between Abraham's obedience and God's sworn affirmation of the covenant with Isaac as covenant heir.

This message examines the first part of the Abraham narrative in Genesis, spanning God's call and covenant with him, Abraham's movement through the land of Canaan, and his various triumphs and failures leading up to the birth of the covenant heir.

This message follows and builds on the content in week 7 of the God With Us -Sacred Space- series. Specifically, it considers the post-fall world from the time of Cain until God's calling of Abram as recorded in Genesis 5-11.

This message considers the significance of the two trees in Eden's garden-sanctuary, and the effect of eating from the forbidden tree on sacred space and man's relationship with God.

This message introduces a new study revisiting the God With Us series preached in 2007-2008. It addresses initial considerations regarding the concept of sacred space and its relation to the Genesis creation account.

This message examines the episode and general significance of the fall in the light of the creation account in Genesis 1-2. It draws from and builds on the content in the fourth and fifth sermons of the previous God With Us series.

This new series involves a fresh consideration of our previous God With Us sermon series from 2007-2008. This first message parallels the first three God With Us sermons and gives a brief overview of the Genesis creation account and what God intended to communicate about the creation's nature, form and purpose.

Israel's psalms celebrated the nation's sonship, and also addressed the challenges and failures associated with faithfully living it out. And because Israel's sonship served a crucial purpose in God's intent for His creation - a purpose that He was determined to see fulfilled, the psalms also speak to the consummation of Israel's sonship. The day was coming when Israel would fulfill its election and vocation as son of God on behalf of the world, but only as the world experienced a great and decisive act of divine judgment.

Psalm 50 emphasizes thankfulness as God's remedial answer to idolatry. This perspective is consistent throughout the Scriptures, and this message examines why and how thankfulness is both antithetical to idolatry and the antidote for it.

Imprecation is an important feature of the Psalms, indicating that it was a key aspect of Israel's life and worship as Yahweh's covenant -son.- But this raises the question of the Christian's relationship with imprecation. Should Christians pray prayers of imprecation as the psalmists did- If so, how should Christians understand and approach imprecation, especially in the light of Jesus' instruction in the Sermon on the Mount -Matthew 5-43-48-- This sermon considers imprecation as an aspect of sonship, and how it has been transformed in Jesus the Messiah.

Lamentation is central to the Christian life and Christian worship. This is because it gives voice to the suffering and longing that characterize sonship in its present form, and it reaches out to God according to the truth of who He is, what He is accomplishing, and our place in His purposes for His creation. For this reason, lament, faith, and hope are inseparable, and so fundamental to the life of God's children in the present age. Not surprisingly, then, faith and hope, like lamentation, are predominant themes in the Psalter as Israel's songs of sonship.

Lament is a predominant theme in the Psalms, and this alone shows that, rightly understood and practiced, it is a vital element of worship, and so also of true sonship in the present age. The Psalter contains numerous songs of individual lament, but also many others in which the psalmist speaks on behalf of the household of Israel. But in every instance, the nature, orientation and basic expression of lament remains the same.

The Psalter is grounded in Israel's sonship, and so celebrates that relationship with songs of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving. But Israel also faced profound challenges in fulfilling its sonship, and this is reflected in the theme of lament that is woven through the fabric of the Psalter. This sermon examines Psalm 13, which is a psalm of personal lament penned by David.

The Psalms, as songs of worship, are grounded in Israel's sonship. Thus many of them celebrate the privilege and delight of intimacy with God, as sons to a Father. But mutual sonship implies brotherhood, and this theme, too, is extolled in the Psalter, perhaps nowhere more pointedly than in Psalm 133.

Sonship in relation to God brings untold blessings of joy, peace, security, provision, etc. Thus God's children are a grateful and praising people. But above every blessing is the supreme gift of perfect intimacy - the intimacy of -I in you and you in Me.- This intimacy has been realized in the person and work of Jesus the Messiah, but was longed for by the faithful children of Israel who trusted their covenant God and His promises. Psalm 84 is one such expression of this hope and longing.