(SERMON) Matthew 13.24-30, 26-43 Deep Teaching in Simple Parables

Jesus' parables are always deceptively simple but once we sit down and reflect on them they teach a whole range of things.  The parable of the Wheat and the Tares is one such parable.  In this short sermon we consider six different teaching that can be drawn from Jesus' words:

1)  Stay vigilant for the enemy comes at night.
2)  Weeds cans look like wheat - evil can look like good and only God can tell them apart for certain.
3) Not everyone is a Child of God instead many are children of the Evil One.
4) The Devil is real and we must arm ourselves to fight him in the spiritual realms.
5) Evil is here to stay in our societies and in our churches - we cannot completely run from it and make perfect communities
6) Hell is real and so is the righteous living for eternity shining with the Glory of God.

(SERMON) Matthew 9.9-13 Makes friends, don't compromise, stay humble

Jesus' meeting with the tax collector Matthew and what happens later at the banquet Matthew holds challenges us in three ways. Firstly, do we befriend and love the outcast and those living sinful lifestyles? Secondly, do we remain uncompromising in calling sin sin and calling sinners to repentance.  Finally, don't become deluded like the Pharisees into think you are spiritually healthy or righteous - instead live each day humbly at the foot of the cross.

(SERMON) The Holy Trinity: Biblical, Binding, and Beautiful

The incomprehensible doctrine of the Trinity exists because that is how God revealed Himself to us in the Bible.  Because it is in the Bible then believing in the Trinity - 'believing in' not 'understanding enough to write a dissertation on!' - is necessary if we wish to be saved.  Finally, the Trinity is a wonderful and beautiful thing which we should rejoice in and love to proclaim rather than hide away.