Strength Through Weakness : Testing Times for Troubled People

Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:1-11

Strength Through Weakness : Testing Times for Troubled People

Alan Cameron

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Paul had an ambivalent relationship with the church at Corinth.  Having established the church on his second missionary journey in the early 50’s AD, he had written both 1st Corinthians as well as a ‘painful’ letter prior to writing what is known as 2 Corinthians.  The church had all but turned its back on Paul.  False teachers, so-called ‘super-apostles’, had infiltrated the church.  Carrying letters of authority from dubious sources they had won the allegiance of most of the house churches in and around Corinth.  Trained orators, they dismissed Paul as ineffective and ‘wishy washy’ who failed to deliver on his promises.  He said one thing and did another.  His travel plans were suspect and his authority questionable.  So Paul responds.  His motive is not so much to vindicate himself rather to defend the gospel which had been compromised through false teaching which promoted legalism that led ironically to license, loose living and sexual immorality.

Gounded in the Gospel: Have salt among yourselves

Preacher: Gordon Hay

Verses: Joshua 14:14-24; Mark 9:49-50

Grounded in the Gospel: Have salt among yourselves

Gordon Hay

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“But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!”

This passage in Joshua 24 has always been one that has struck me.

Joshua has led the Israelites into the Promised Land. He has done all that he was called to do. Undertaking much of this at an advanced age.[1] As he is nearing the end of his life he gathers the tribes at Shechem and he addresses them. He does two things: he first recounts what God has done for them, and then challenges them.

And the challenge is one that I go back to time and again, and that I want us to examine.

Joshua describes the history of what God has done, and this is detailed from the time of the flood, escaping from Egypt right up to where they are at that point in time.

They have crossed into the Promised Land, have conquered many nations and taken cities.

Joshua 24:13 : “So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.”

[1] See Joshua 13:1

Grounded in the Gospel: Faith Challenged - The Transfiguration of Christ

Preacher: Jones Liwewe

Verses: Mark 9:2-13

Grounded in the Gospel: Faith Challenged - The Transfiguration of Christ

Jones Liwewe

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The transfiguration of Christ marks a major turning point in the gospel narrative, for Jesus was now getting closer and closer to His suffering and death on the cross. Already, there was rising opposition against Him, but despite all this, he had set His mind on Jerusalem, where shame, humiliation and death was waiting.  Jesus was ready and willing to face His death head on because He knew the impact His suffering and death would have on the nation of Israel and the entire world.

The disciple’s faith was challenged by Christ’s suffering and death

Unlike Jesus, the disciples were struggling to grapple with the idea of a suffering Messiah. They did not yet understand why Jesus had to suffer and die. The message of Jesus’s suffering and death caused unsettling, confusion and discouragement to them, to a point where Peter even tried to talk Jesus out of it, but was rebuked by Him.

Grounded in the Gospel: The Heart of the Matter

Preacher: Alan Cameron

Verses: Mark 7:1-23

Grounded in the Gospel: The Heart of the Matter

Alan Cameron

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Jesus was known as the Prince of Peace, full of grace and truth.  Why then did controversy pursue him and conflict dog his steps.  From the moment of his birth King Herod tried to eliminate him.  Throughout his public ministry the religious leaders pursued him relentlessly, culminating in his death by crucifixion.

The conflict wasn’t political.  Last week we noted that Jesus resisted the call of the crowd, after he fed the five thousand, to become a populist liberator from Rome.  Nor did Jesus directly confront the social structures of the day.  “My kingdom is not of this world”, he said and “those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword”.