Virtue 3 - Priests and Rulers
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- Written by: George Hemmings
Virtue 3 - Priests and Rulers audio (6MB)
1 Peter 2:1-10
This is the third in a series of sermons at St. Thomas' largely based upon Tom Wright's book 'Virtue Reborn.'
I wonder what you want to be when you grow up? To give you a few minutes to think about it, we asked a few people that question this week.
[At this point in the sermon a video of a vix-pop of members of the congregation, youth group and a local school was played, each person answering the question, 'When I Grow Up I want to be....]
I wonder what you wanted to be when you grew up? What you want to be when you grow up?
Virtue 2 -The Transformation of Character
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
The Transformation of Character audio (6MB)
Romans 6:1-14
This is part of a series based largely on 'Virtue Reborn' by Tom Wright.
At 1526 on January 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 took off from La Guardia airport in New York bound for North Carolina. All was normal until, 2 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft ran into a flock of Canada Geese. Geese don’t do much for Jet engines and in this case both engines were disabled. The plane was at that moment heading over the Bronx, one of the most heavily populated areas of New York. It looked like a disaster in the making. The nearest airstrip was too far away and probably too short for a loaded passenger jet and the freeway just below was crowded with cars. That left just one option: land in the Hudson River. Now that’s a lot easier said than done, especially with no power from the engines. One small mistake and the plane would most likely flip over, break up and quickly sink, with huge loss of life in the freezing water. The captain, Chesley Sullenberger and his co-pilot had just 2 or 3 minutes to do everything necessary to get the plane down safely – cut off the engines, turn off the autopilot and the flight management systems, get the speed right, adjust the flaps to enable them to glide in, keep the nose at just the right angle, activate the “ditch” system to seal off the vents so it wouldn’t sink once they’d landed, etc., all while they manoeuvred the plane into the direction the river was flowing. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. But they did it all. The plane landed safely and all the passengers got off.
So how did they manage it? They didn’t have time to think through an escape strategy. No time to look up the emergency procedures. No, all they could do was rely on what many years of practise and experience had taught them to do, almost without thinking.
Virtue 1 - How Do I Live?
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- Written by: George Hemmings
Virtue 1 - How Do I Live? audio (6MB)
Mark 10:17-27
This is the first in a series of sermons at St. Thomas' based upon Tom Wright's book 'Virtue Reborn.'
What must I do to inherit eternal life? That’s the question that’s at the heart of today’s passage. It’s the question the rich young man rushes up to ask Jesus. But it’s also the haunting question that’s in all our hearts’ isn’t it? What must I do? Or, what on earth am I here for? These aren’t easy questions to ask, even harder to answer. Where do we go to find those answers?
The Joy of Giving
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
audio (5MB)
Like everyone else I enjoy getting gifts from friends and family. But I’ve realised over the past few years that I actually enjoy giving gifts even more. Partly that’s because I have so much, I often don’t need the things I’m given. We’re downsizing at the moment in preparation for moving house, so I need even less things. But it’s actually more than that. It's that I enjoy seeing the looks of pleasure on the other person's face when I get it right and give them something they really like.
Is that something you experience? Do you enjoy giving gifts as much as you enjoy receiving them? I wonder, does it depend on the occasion or the recipient? It’s always fun to give gifts to our grandchildren and see the look of delight on their faces. When someone receives some honour you might give them a gift as part of your joining in their joy. Or sometimes it’s the other way around. When our son, Paul, was finally awarded his PhD he gave the framed certificate to Di as a gift because he knew it’d brought her joy to know he’d finally got there.
In our two passages today we read of people who give with great joy, one group to the Temple in Jerusalem and to those who look after it and the other to fellow Christians who are in financial difficulty because of their faith, again, in Jerusalem.
Principles for making an offering to God
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- Written by: John Altmann
audio (5MB)
1 Chronicles 29
Garrison Keilor, who used to have a radio program about life in small town America called Lake Woebegon days, wrote this lovely short story called, The Collection.
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Next week at church we are having a special offering towards our building fund. So do be careful if you start writing out a cheque during the sermon!
There are lots of things that God cares about. The church building fund is just one of many things God is passionate about us supporting. You have to balance up what you give to people who are suffering and need help in Australia, what you give to people in poverty and lacking in opportunity overseas, what you give towards the outreach of our church to people around here, and what you give towards supporting God’s missionary work all over the world. God calls us to be generous towards all the things he is passionate about. So there are lots of offerings to God that we make.
What we are asking you to give though is not a user pays fee. Its not like we’ve calculated what it costs to run the buildings which is about $220/day then divided that amongst 160 members of St. Thomas’ and said we’ll send you a bill for $1.37/day which is $41.10/month or $495/year but we’ll give you a 10% discount if you pay up front in advance ! No, what we are asking you to do is to make an offering to God.
