Épisodes

  • So, What Exactly is Worship? // Worship as a Way of Life, Part 1

    So, What Exactly is Worship? // Worship as a Way of Life, Part 1
    Jan 25 2026
    Worship means different things to different people. It's a religious thing. It's singing songs. It's a concert with a light show. It's well, who knows what. But the question we need to ask ourselves, is what exactly does worship mean to God? We All Worship Something Well it's great to be with you again this week and we are starting a new series on the programme that I've called, "Worship as a Way of Life". When we hear the word "worship", well, what does it mean? And people who don't have any particular faith in God, it's something, well, those religious people over there in churches or in temples do. Maybe it's candles and incense or something that happens over there somewhere not something that I do. And for some Christians, well, that's what we do on Sunday morning at church before the sermon, we sing songs – that's our worship time. I guess both of those would be true in part, but the notion of worship, from where God sits, is so much bigger and broader than that – not some religious ritual, not just some musical event. When we worship someone or something, we put it above all other things – we pay homage to it. In fact, it directs our lives – we'll sacrifice other things, even though those things are very dear to us, for the sake of the person or the thing that we worship. We all worship something – I mean, I used to worship money and success and recognition. It was the thing that my whole life was centred on and ordered around. I sacrificed my health, my family, my rest, everything for these things that I worshipped and actually, when you look back on it, I was really worshipping myself. We can all look at our lives and ask, "what's at the centre of the life? I mean, what's right up there at the top? Who or what do I worship?" And we know the answer to that when we look at the sacrifices we make for that thing and ask ourselves, really and truly, who or what am I making these sacrifices for? What's at the centre of my life – is it career, is it my family? I mean, honestly ask ourselves, "what is at the centre of my life?" Look at the sacrifices and that's who or what we are actually worshipping. Now we all have different elements to our lives. Obviously, we need to make some sacrifices sometimes. The whole thing of being a parent is sacrificing for our children. And sure, some times at work we have to make sacrifices. But if we get those out of balance – I mean, you see parents who self-actualise through their children; through their children's dancing or through their children's academic achievement and all of a sudden it's completely out of balance. Some people sacrifice their whole lives to their jobs and lose their families – I know what that's like. And so there is a balance and there is a right way of sacrificing to different things but if we take just one thing and get it out of whack, day after day, month after month, we sacrifice and sacrifice and this one thing rises above all of those other things, then chances are that's what we are worshipping. The notion of sacrifice is an essential part of worship – it's not new. The very first time that worship is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis, chapter 22 and verse 5. Abraham was promised by God a son and ultimately, after many, many years he had that son, Isaac, but Abraham had to go through a lot of trials and a lot of uncertainty over a quarter of a century before finally, in his old age, this son, Isaac, was born to him. And so not surprisingly, when Isaac finally arrives, Abraham dotes on this kid – I mean, absolutely dotes on him – because here was the fulfilment of God's promise. He never thought it would happen – he never thought he would have an heir, but God was faithful and God gave him his son, Isaac, with his wife Sarah. But God saw that Abraham was starting to put Isaac before God, Himself and so He called on Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Can you imagine that - to take him and put him on an altar and put him to death? What an incredibly painful thing to do? And on that morning when they journeyed to where God had called them – out to that place – Abraham said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we'll come back." Can you imagine the tussle that was going on in Abraham's heart? Is God first in my life or is Isaac first in my life? Do I put Isaac before God? Is it God or my son? See we think we are worshipping God sometimes but when we look at our lives and ask some hard questions like 'How do I spend all my time? How do I spend my money? How do I spend my energies? How to I spend my passions? Where are my dreams? Like Abraham we can get a real shock. Let's read on, the rest of the story – pick it up at Genesis, chapter 22 and verse 6. "Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son, Isaac and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, ...
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    24 min
  • A Word in Time // Defining Moments, Part 4

    A Word in Time // Defining Moments, Part 4
    Jan 18 2026
    It's easy to drift along, day after day – not ever realising that we're on a gentle, downward slope, until it's too late. But the beauty of God's grace is that it's never, ever too late to change things. It's never, ever too late to turn your life around. Same Old Same Old The thing about life is that it, well, it seems to just crank along, day after day – get up, have a shower, have breakfast, hit the commute, go to work, come home, do the TV, go to bed, get up ... isn't that the routine? Ninety nine point nine percent of life seems to be everyday, mundane realities – punctuated, granted, with the odd high and low. And the more we live that same old same old, the more we become accustomed to that reality; we get used to it. For many people there is a dull ache in their hearts; for others there is this sense that, there has to be something more. You know I work in God's service, in full time ministry and every Sunday evening I talk with my mother on the phone – it's our little routine – and she asks me "Berni, what's been going on in your life?" And I'm your typical male, I say "Well, Mum, you know it was kind of the same as last week; nothing particularly new – same old same old." And it's true! The problem is for so many, many people, this same old same old routine is about drifting away from God. It's about living out a busy life and just struggling to get by and consuming mountains of drivel from the TV that ... well, we forget what life is all about. And before we know it, God seems like ... well, it seems like He is just a million miles away. Have you ever felt that in your life? You know, you can even be on holidays, having a great vacation somewhere, with time on your hands and yet, it still feels like God is a million miles away. There's a reason for that – there is! And today on the programme we are going to discover the reason and the remedy. This is the last in a series of four messages that I have called "Defining Moments". We are going to have a look at a King in Israel's history; a man named Josiah – to discover what is the reason and the remedy. But before we look at Josiah, we need to have a look at his grandfather and his father because his grandfather and father, Manasseh and Amon, those two guys are the reason. And through Josiah's life; through a defining moment in his life we discover the remedy. See, Manasseh and Amon – we can see through them how we can drift away from God – just through little compromises, it seems at first, until life itself is at stake. And through Josiah what we are going to see how easy it is to turn that around. I just want to position where that story comes in Israel's history. God first engaged with His chosen people through Abraham and Abraham and his son called Isaac and Isaac had a son called Jacob and Jacob had twelve sons, one of who was Joseph of "Technicoloured Dream Coat" fame. And these were the twelve tribes of Israel and they grew and they grew into this massive nation and for four hundred years they were keep in Egypt as slaves. Then eventually God calls Moses to go to Pharaoh and say, "Let My people go" and that happens through a series of miracles. And then around about 1280BC, the exodus begins – you know, forty years in the desert, they end up in the Promised Land and then there is a period of Judges until Saul becomes King in around 1050BC, followed by King David and then King Solomon. But after Solomon's reign, Israel splits in two – the ten Northern tribes are called 'Israel' and the two Southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin are referred to as 'Judah' – and that happens around 930BC. All along Judah struggles with God and remember…..remember the first two commandments that God gives to His people. You can read them in Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse 2: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt; out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the iniquity of their parents to the third and fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments. See, God's pretty clear – God is saying "I'm your God. I'm the one who took you out of slavery – I must be first in your life!' And that's what God's people struggled with! They had some good Kings and they had some really bad Kings - they had their ups and had their downs. Fortunately, God is slow to anger but they were testing His patience. We pick up this roller coaster ride of Israel with these two Kings, Manasseh and his son Amon. The name 'Manasseh' means 'to cause forgetfulness' and that was so apt because under his rule God's people ...
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    24 min
  • The Gentle Heart of God // Defining Moments, Part 3

    The Gentle Heart of God // Defining Moments, Part 3
    Jan 11 2026
    Sometimes, we spend so much of our energy believing that God will give us a breakthrough in our time of need, that we miss the fact that he's already provided us with everything we need to get through those tough times. So Easy to Miss Sometimes we can be looking forward to something ... something that God will do; some defining moment in life, without realising what He has already done for us in the past. Let me give you an example: you are going through a tough time, perhaps some difficulty at work or in bringing up our children or in our marriages – we all go through those times. In fact it seems that there is never a time in life when there isn't some pressure or difficulty in some part of our lives. And so we start praying feverishly for God to deliver us from those tough times. We start believing Him for a miracle and a breakthrough. Now that's good; it's a good thing to do but so many people do that at the expense of realising that the changes God has already made in us – deep within our hearts. Those changes are meant to help us to travel through those difficult times. Those changes are meant to make us a blessing to others in those dark times. Those changes are meant to make His light; His glory to shine through us out into a lost and hurting world. There is a saying "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." It's absolutely right that we should pray about difficult situations but not at the expense of knowing and trusting in what God has already done; in what we already have in our hands. This is the third programme in a series that I have called "Defining Moments". It is so often the case that minor and even major miracles come through the smallest and seemingly, most insignificant event in our lives. It's a great thing about God – He gets involved in the smallest things in our lives. But sometimes ... sometimes He's not so much about wanting to do something fresh and new to deliver us out of a situation; sometimes He is calling us to rely on something that He has already done to get us through that situation. Today we are going to look at a man who is pretty well known – King David of Israel. He is on the Biblical "A" list if you like and he is probably the greatest King that Israel ever had. Now, David had quite a few defining moments in his life; he had trials, he had victories, he had failures, he had repentance – turning back to God after making a mistake. He was anointed as the King of Israel by God's prophet, Samuel when he was just a lad. He slew Goliath; he fled from Saul in the wilderness, running for his life, on and on. He won so many battles; he was so successful! David had so many defining moments that we could look at in his life but it was something ... something that God did way back before all of those things, that I think was the defining moment in David's life – the thing that carried him through all those trials; the very reason that God was able to use David so mightily in the history of Israel. Here's how it happened. Israel didn't have a King – their system of government was a theocracy – that meant that God was their King. He would send leaders like Moses and Joshua to lead them and then finally, when they made it out of Egypt through the exodus for forty years, into the Promised Land, He had a series of Judges to judge over Israel – that's all they needed – to judge whether the people had met God's law or not. So these Judges presided over Israel. When they needed specific revelation or guidance or instruction from God, God used men called prophets, to speak His specific will into the life of Israel. But eventually, people decided they wanted a King like all the other nations, so God gave them Saul. Saul was the first King of Israel and he was okay for a while, but pretty soon he turned out to be an abject failure. So God removed His anointing from Saul; that divine appointment and empowerment and God said, "No more, that's enough. Saul is no longer My anointed King, even though Saul continued on in the position of King." That's how it went – if you have got a Bible, grab it, open it at First Samuel chapter 13, verse 13: Samuel the prophet said to Saul, "You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom will not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over His people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. And therein lies, I think, the defining moment for David, even before David's name is mentioned – the moment when God took the ordinary and turned him into the extraordinary. Later on we discover that this new King is to be David; the shepherd boy, that not even his father thought enough of to bring him before Samuel, the prophet, with his other brothers, to be anointed as King. This was just an ordinary, everyday ...
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    24 min
  • It's Not Fair // Defining Moments, Part 2

    It's Not Fair // Defining Moments, Part 2
    Jan 4 2026
    If ever any one ever had an unfair life – it was Joseph back there in the old testament. One step forward, two steps back seems to be the story of so much of what he went through … sound familiar? Yet in the end, he came out in front. At the end of the day, what others meant for harm in his life, God meant for good in the lives of so many others. Hmm. It's Not Fair One of my favourite sayings when I was a young lad growing up, was "It's not fair!" I just hated things that weren't fair. When my parents made a decision between my sister and me – whether I had to clean up or she had to clean up and the lot fell to me, I'd say, "It's not fair!" I remember a soccer game in the park – with one of my teachers, Mr Moore, who I really liked and he made a bad decision against my team – "It's not fair!" Sometimes I was right, it wasn't fair and other times it was just the way I saw things – my perception, maybe from my selfish position but one of the things I really, really hate in life is when it's not fair. Although, well, I'd have to qualify that – I'm a human being after all – I hate "not fair" when I am on the losing end of an unfair transaction. You know, funny, but I don't mind so much when I am on the winning side. That's pretty natural. "Not fair" only really upsets us when we lose. We are continuing our series today called "Defining Moments" Things that we do or things that happen to us in life that seem to change the course of our lives and last week we looked at Abraham – the defining moment for him was when he responded to God's love and just believed the unbelievable promises of God. He just stepped out into the impossible promises of God and because of his simple child-like faith, imperfect as it was. I mean God overlooked, indeed, God compensated for all of Abraham's blunders. Today we are going to take a look at the life of a man called Joseph because if anyone ever lived a life where he was unfairly treated, it was definitely Joseph. So many things that happened to him were just so incredibly unfair. Really – we will look at that in a moment – and yet there was some real defining moments along the way for Joseph. It's really important to look at this story! We are going to discover something about ourselves and about God. It is so easy to look at defining moments from a human perspective but we need to look at them "top down"; from God's perspective as well. I know we are going to be blessed as we go in search of some of the defining moments in Joseph's life. Now who was Joseph? Last week we talked about Abraham who was the father of the whole nation of Israel and he had this son he called Isaac. Isaac had a son called Jacob and Jacob was actually renamed by God and called Israel. And Jacob or Israel had twelve sons, one of whom was Joseph. Now he was the youngest at the time this story begins and he was pretty much dad's favourite. If you have got a Bible, grab it – open it up with me at Genesis chapter 37, verse 2: Joseph being seventeen years old was shepherding the flock with his brothers. He was a helper to the son's of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives and Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel who was Jacob, loved Joseph more than any of his other children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than all of the other brothers, they hated him and they couldn't speak peaceably to him. Once, Joseph had this dream and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said, "Listen to this dream that I just dreamed: there we were binding sheaves in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves, they gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf." His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed going to reign over us? Are you indeed going to have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words. And he had another dream and he told this to his brothers as well saying, "Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me." Well, you can question Joseph's maturity at sharing those dreams with his brothers. As we can imagine, they were none too impressed – I wouldn't be, you wouldn't be. "Little brat – dad's favourite – this kid needs to be taught a lesson." So the brothers plotted against him – first they wanted to kill him – "Well", they thought, "that's a bit over the top", so instead they threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery. Have a look – Genesis chapter 37, beginning at verse 23: So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe; the long robe with the sleeves that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it, then they sat down to eat and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels, carrying gum, balm...
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    24 min
  • Turning Mistakes Into Miracles // Defining Moments, Part 1

    Turning Mistakes Into Miracles // Defining Moments, Part 1
    Dec 28 2025
    Have you ever made one too many mistakes? You know, you get to a point where you think, That's it! God must be done with me? Well, Abraham was a man of faith who made plenty of mistakes along the way. Yet God seemed to overlook, even o compensate for them. Why was that? Life Changing Moments As we travel through life we all kind of experience these moments and often they are seemingly insignificant events that in fact, turn out to change the whole course of our lives. It's amazing when you think about it! We all have a plan for our lives but there are things just around the next corner or just over the next rise that can change everything – good things and bad things, happy things and sad things. Some people think, "Well, it's all a matter of chance." Well, I don't believe in chance. I remember a brochure that changed my life. I was attending a little church – I had not long become a Christian and it was a Sunday service like every other Sunday. At the end of the service I walked to the back of the little church and I saw a brochure for a particular Bible College, Tabor College in Sydney. It wasn't a particularly attractive brochure or a well designed brochure – I picked it up and that was a defining moment – I took it home, I read about this ministry degree, I prayed and I felt this incredibly strong tug in my heart. Now in my mind I am thinking, "There's no way. You know Berni, you have been a Christian for five minutes" but in my heart I knew. So I rang them, I applied, I went to see the Principal, I felt like such a fraud. "They are never going to accept me." They did! And there I learned so much but also, by chance again, I came into contact with my predecessor in this ministry; the former CEO of Christianityworks and one thing led to another. And today I'm doing what I am doing because I picked up that little brochure at the back of the church. Now I had no idea that morning that something would happen that would change the course of my life. This week we are starting a new series on Christianityworks, it's called "Defining Moments". It's really exciting! I want to look at this from a different perspective; from God's perspective. See when we look back on our lives most of us can pick three or four, maybe half a dozen defining moments – those little things that seemed to change the whole course of our lives. Now, sure we can see them from our natural human perspective – after all, we are people; we're human, but if we do that I think we miss the point. I want to look at some defining moments in the lives of four people in the Bible – Abraham, Joseph, David and Josiah over the next four weeks and we are starting today with Abraham. I want to see if we can discover how God reaches into our lives with miracles - great and small to define the very course of our lives because God does have a plan. Psalm 139, verse 16, says: Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In Your book were written all the days that were formed for me when none of them as yet existed. And when we at least expect it, and even despite what you and I do or fail to do, His plan is worked out through His grace for His glory. God brings those defining moments. Let's start with Abraham - the man with whom God's engagement of His chosen people began. He was living comfortably in a place called Ur, east of Israel – of course Israel didn't exist back then. Ur was the land of the Chaldeans, later it was called Babylon – it's just south of modern day Baghdad. And he travelled with his father up to Haran and then God called him to leave his comfort and follow this really crazy, absolutely incredulous promise. Let's pick it up – if you have got a Bible, grab it; open it up at Genesis chapter 12. We are going to look at the story of Abraham – it's too much to look at it all in one programme but we are going to have a look at part of his story. Genesis chapter 12, beginning at verse 1: Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram when as the Lord had told him and Lot when with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he departed form Haran." Seventy five years old! "He and Sarai his wife and they were childless." You see, you have to remember, in the Old Testament, blessing; God's blessing, you knew you had it when you had lots of land and lots of children. They had neither, so they didn't have God's blessing on their lives. Now the word "Abram" means "exalted father". So even his name was a joke, but still he went, off into the never never, based on what – some intangible, crazy call from God? Remember Abram had no Bible; he had no Scriptures to reveal who God was. He had no church ...
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    24 min
  • Let it Make a Difference // Message in a Bottle, Part 4

    Let it Make a Difference // Message in a Bottle, Part 4
    Dec 21 2025
    When Christmas is done and dusted – what do you do with it? Put it back in the cupboard with the decorations for next year – or let the message of Christian burn on in your heart? CHRISTMAS IN REVIEW So how have you gone, in those busy weeks leading up to Christmas? Did you enjoy yourself or was the stress just too much? Was it a kind of rich experience or did the cares of this world; all that stuff, you know, that we do leading up to Christmas, did it rob you of the Christmas you think that you should have had? Over these last few weeks on the programme we have been working our way through a series of messages that I've called 'Message in a Bottle'. The whole Christmas story was born out of the shepherd heart of God; the heart of God to draw us into His arms. Have a listen to the Scripture that we used in the first programme, three weeks ago, Ezekiel, chapter 34, verse 11. And by the way, if you have a Bible, grab it; open it up because we are going to spend some time in God's Word today. This is what Ezekiel wrote; this is what God said: I, Myself will search for My sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so I will look after My sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on the day of clouds and darkness. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. God has this heart like a shepherd does for his flock of sheep, to look after us and to care for us and to love us. And out of that is born this incredible story of Christmas. You know how it all came about: Joseph and Mary, these two young people, ordinary people; nobodies like you and me, called to bring Jesus into the world. Not a king and queen; a teenaged girl and a young carpenter. Now all the stories of Christmas, I guess, are as familiar to all of us as breathing in and out everyday. I mean, we go through Christmas each year, but when you scratch underneath them, which is what we have been doing the last few weeks on the programme, I don't know, there's a gritty reality of life in the story of Christmas. It's a kind of a surprise, I mean, Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit; it's a virgin birth. And there was a prophesy centuries before, that Jesus would be born to a virgin. The prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 7, verse 14 of Isaiah: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign – the virgin will be with a child and she will give birth to a son. Great! You look at it from two thousand years on as we do and you think, "well, there's a virgin birth and that's what happened and that it was God's story." But back then, imagine the shame she went through when she had this pregnancy out of wedlock, at a time when that wasn't an acceptable lifestyle choice as it might be in society today? Even though God prophesied about that centuries before, who would of thought Mary, and who would have believed Mary going, "well, you know it was the Holy Spirit that did it?" Give me a break! So Mary went around with this shame and Joseph was going to dismiss her quietly until God spoke to him in a dream. And then Jesus was born in a stable and not a palace, in this place, Bethlehem. Even that was prophesied about centuries before. In Micah, chapter 5, verse 2, it says: But you Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me, one who will be ruler of Israel, whose origins are of old, from ancient times. See, that's a prophesy pointing forward to the birth of Jesus Christ, in Bethlehem. And of course, Herod tried to kill Jesus – they had to flee to Egypt. Again that was prophesied about centuries before in Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 15: This is what the Lord says, "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning with great weeping; Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because her children are no more." There's a prophesy about the way that Herod slew all the young children under two years of age. And so I guess we have been looking at all things the last few weeks on the programme and I remember the first time I began to take a cold, hard look at the Christmas story – you know, the realities, the history. I was a bit disappointed. I mean, somehow I wanted to keep that idealised pantomime view of Christmas; the cutesy Mary, Joseph, donkey, baby in a manger thing. I mean, we like to idealise things. You know when Hollywood makes a movie out of a true story, they embellish things. You know, we like to do that. But Christmas isn't a pantomime. The true story of Christmas – of Jesus' birth – is about hardship, about pressure, about discomfort, about danger. I mean, Mary was on a donkey for a week or two, heading for Bethlehem for the census, in the last weeks of her pregnancy. That would have been fun! And then she gave birth to Jesus in a smelly, grotty stable, surrounded by ...
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    24 min
  • Jesus - the "Illegitimate God" // Message in a Bottle, Part 3

    Jesus - the "Illegitimate God" // Message in a Bottle, Part 3
    Dec 14 2025
    These days, having a child out of wedlock is pretty much a valid lifestyle choice in many cultures. I'm not saying that it's right, just that that's how it's perceived. But back in Jesus' day … man it was a huge scandal. Seriously. A MISCONCEPTION Well, here we are hurtling towards Christmas. You know, it's interesting when you look at the candy cane – you know that simple little cane with the white and then the three small stripes and then the big stripe – and we think of it as a candy cane, but the confectioner who first created it, didn't create it as a candy cane. He created it as a "J" for Jesus and the white was there to symbolise the holiness of God and the three small stripes were there to symbolise the stripes on His back when He was beaten and the one thick stripe, the red stripe was there to symbolise the blood of Jesus. Isn't it funny how we take symbols to do with Christmas and a whole bunch of other things and we change their meaning – we re-interpret them – and I think it's really true of this thing that we call Christmas. You know, as I look at my four years studying at Bible College, the most profound thing that I learned was this – that theologians, and I can class myself as one of those – we love to take the stories of God in the Bible and snip them up and put them in little piles which we call doctrines. You know, the doctrine of the Trinity; the doctrine of original sin; the doctrine of the incarnation and so we think, "WOW, you know, I've sorted out God; I've got Him is little piles; I have a systematic theology and now I understand God." Well, in a sense that's good, because it's good to know what we believe and why we believe it and look at the whole council of God in His Word. But you know something, if that's all we do, I think maybe, we missed the point because God's chosen way of revealing Himself to us is mostly through stories. Stories throughout history of His engagement with His chosen people, Israel, and then in the New Testament, stories of His new promise; stories of His grace as the church grew out of a revelation of God through Jesus Christ. God speaks to us through His story in history and to me that's the most profound insight that I got after four years of Bible College. And no where is that more true than in Jesus. John in his Gospel calls Jesus the Word, "In the beginning was the Word." Jesus is God talking to us saying, "This is what I'm like." Jesus is a message in a bottle. And Jesus is unique – He is the only person in history, as the Son of God, who could have chosen the place, the time and the circumstances of His birth. Let's just think about that for a minute. It's true isn't it? If Jesus is who He says He is – the Son of God – He is the only person in history that could have chosen the circumstances of His birth. Well, if that's true; if it was a deliberate choice, what is God saying to us about Himself through the manner in which Jesus came into the world, through this story that we now call Christmas. See, it's not some neat doctrine; it's not some neat theology of the incarnation. We learn about Christmas through the stories in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and I guess, in a sense, many of us know them backwards. But Matthew begins, after the great, long genealogy that we looked at the other week – Matthew now begins with this story – if you've got a Bible, grab it, open it – we are going to Matthew, chapter 1, beginning at verse 18. It says this: "Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way." So in other words, here's the story. "When His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he decided to do that, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child conceived in her is from God the Holy Spirit. She will bear you a son and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "look the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and they shall name Him Emmanuel, which means "God is with us". When Joseph awoke from the sleep he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a Son and he named Him Jesus." So here's Mary, pregnant from the Holy Spirit. How? Well, Luke tells us the angel appeared to her and said, "Fear not!" Have you ever seen a Christmas card with "Fear not!" plastered across the front? Not really! So how to you think Mary felt? She gets spoken to by an angel; she gets told not to be afraid, "you're going to be pregnant because God the Holy Spirit is going to make you pregnant." Now how do you think it went ...
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    24 min
  • Where Did the Baby Come From? // Message in a Bottle, Part 2

    Where Did the Baby Come From? // Message in a Bottle, Part 2
    Dec 7 2025
    Christmas – they talk about baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph – but this Jesus … is He who He says He is? Can Christmas really make a difference – I mean in your life and mine? WILL THE REAL MESSIAH PLEASE STAND UP? Well, welcome to the second message in a series that I have called, "Message in a Bottle" – in these weeks leading up to Christmas. We are going to take a look at this most amazing night – this Christmas story. You know that wonderful Christmas carol, O Holy Night, the stars, the stars are shining – the shepherds and the angels and Mary and Joseph and that baby Jesus; God in the flesh. And for me, you know, when you strip away all the noise and the rubbish and the commercialism around Christmas, it is the most wonderful celebration. But it struck me how the very beginning of the story of Christmas in the New Testament – if you have a Bible, go and grab it – we are going to Matthew, chapter 1 – it struck me how often we skim over the first dozen or so paragraphs of what God writes about Christmas. If you open up the very first page of the first Book of the New Testament – it's the Book of Matthew and it begins, of all things, with a genealogy; a boring list of names. Now I love doing things that surprise people and a few years ago I was sharing a message leading up to Christmas on this passage in the beginning of Matthew and I asked a lady, a friend of mine, Pamela, to do the Bible reading and I ask her to read through this genealogy. Now fortunately, I gave her a week's notice, because some of the names are just a little bit difficult to get the old tongue around. And when she sat down everybody gave her a standing applause for managing to make it through the genealogy. And I guess most of us haven't heard a message on this genealogy in a long, long time, if ever. I know what you are thinking – genealogy? Berni, are you going to be talking about a genealogy? But listen, listen to what the Apostle Paul writes in Second Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16. He says: Every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness, so that – what? – so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work. In other words when I read through this genealogy, and I probably like you, skip through genealogies in the Bible, you know, I kind of don't like to read every word. But as I began to read through this particular genealogy I thought, hang on a minute, God decided to begin the New Testament with a genealogy. Why did He do that? What was going on? This Book of Matthew – "Matthew" literally means, "a gift from God" and it starts with an account of Jesus blood line; His birth line. Jesus Christ – "Jesus" means "Yahweh saves"; God saves. "Christ" means "Messiah" – so you put all that together and this book is a gift from God about God's anointed Saviour. So I'm thinking, I've actually got to get into this genealogy and say: why did God put it here? What does it mean that the Christmas story begins with a genealogy? What is God trying to say to you and me, here and now? Now it's probably not the way that you or I would start a biography of some great leader but genealogies were significant to the Jews. They were about purity of lineage – firstly remember that land was given to Israel by tribes. So your right to own land was affected by your genealogy. If you were a priest, your priestly authority came from your genealogy. And your legal standing – if you were in line for the throne, royal succession came through your genealogy. And the genealogies of people were kept on the public record. In the Sanhedrin and in the temple, you could go and verify that somebody was who they said they were. So to the Jews it wasn't just a boring list of names – it was fascinating. And have a look to see how Matthew, chapter 1 actually starts out. The first verse, "An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham" – three main characters, Abraham, David and Jesus. And Abraham and David being referred to here, point back to some promises. We are going to look at those promises today because they have everything to do with Christmas. People were expecting a Messiah – we are going to look at why a little bit later in the programme. But at this point in Israel's history in the first century, they were definitely looking for a Messiah. So God is the keeper of promises and let's just have a quick look to see what the promise is. If you want to flick back to the promise that God made to Abraham, you go to Genesis, chapter 12, verses 1 to 3. Lets have a look at that – Genesis 12:1-3 says this: The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing." And if you flick over to Genesis, ...
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    24 min