Sermons from Pakenham Lakeside Church

Every story, so they say, has a beginning, a middle and an end...We find ourselves in the middle of the Great Story. This sermon explores the beginning of the Great Story - a garden, a tree, a choice...and the resolution of the crisis in paradise, with a garden, a choice, and a tree.This sermon was preached on the first Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2014, at Sunday Night at St John's.Enjoy!

Something nutritionists won't tell you: you need salt in your diet. People and animals cannot live without a minimal amount of salt. Unfortunately, when we get too much salt in one place (eg in our body, or in the soil, or a lake or river) it has a toxic effect.Jesus says to his disciples, 'you are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world.' It is his word that makes us what we are as his people. How could we fail to be what we are? Salt is meant to be spread, not concentrated. Light is meant to shine, not be hidden. This sermon explores Matthew 5:12-20.It was preached on February 9 at Sunday Night at St John's.It can be used in conjunction with the Prezi zooming visuals found at this link.Enjoy!

In December 2013, Sunday Night at St John's had a guest preacher from the Salvation Army, talking about his work with homeless and vulnerable people in the city of Melbourne.This is an audio recording of that event (the guest preacher has asked not to have his name published)Enjoy!

Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount with the apparently upside-down kingdom values of the Beatitudes: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...' These famous sayings called the Beatitudes may be well known to some of us but they still hold some surprises. The Beatitudes are not conditional blessings, 'If you do this, God will bless you,' but rather a state of already being blessed by God and living in the joy of his kingdom...This sermon explores the Beatitudes. It's the beginning of a sermon series on 'Life in the Kingdom of God' which will follow through the Sermon on the Mount.It was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on the 2nd of February 2014.It can be used with the Prezi zooming visuals found at this link.Enjoy!

In his book Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, the author says 'Jesus has his rank among the world's great thinkers, there is no doubt. But Son of God? Isn't that a bit farfetched?' Bono responds with a ringing endorsement that indeed, Jesus is not just a great thinker - if he is not the Son of God then he is a lunatic.Who is Jesus? This is a key question. In this passage from the gospel of John, there are no less than four titles given to Jesus: Rabbi, Son of God, Lamb of God, and Christ/Messiah.This sermon explores each of those titles and what Jesus' identity means for us.It was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on 19th January 2014.It can be used in conjunction with the Prezi zooming visuals found at this link. Enjoy!

God is sometimes - perhaps far too often - portrayed as a harsh judge, watching our every move and waiting to punish our mistakes. God IS holy - but he is also gracious and compassionate. God IS transcendent and mighty - but he is also immanent, with us, intimate. When we place too much emphasis on one of these paradoxical axes of God's character at the expense of its contrast, we get a distorted picture of God.The first servant song, found in Isaiah 42, gives us a picture of the 'Servant of God' who is tender, and gentle. 'A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.' Jesus is that servant - the one who looks beyond the damage to the infinite worth of a human being, the one who brings God's compassion and mercy, his holiness and judgment, his power and his intimacy, together in human flesh.We are all bruised. This world knocks us around. Jesus looks past the pain to the preciousness - and brings healing and forgiveness.This sermon was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on Sunday January 12, 2014.It can be used with the Prezi zooming visuals found at this link.Enjoy!

If you look very closely, with the eyes of your heart, you can see that this scarred and broken world was once a garden.But the Gardener cares for his garden, even when it looks wrecked and ruined, and he wants to restore and transform it once again...through a shoot growing from the roots of an old stump. The Shoot of Jesse will bring transformation and healing to ecology, relationships, and even bring an end to the power of death itself...This sermon is a meditation on the vision of Isaiah 11, a wondrous vision of the transformation brought about by the messianic King, whom we know as Jesus.It was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on Advent 2, December 8, 2014.Enjoy!

It's possible to 'have it all' and still be empty and lost.Zacchaeus, one of the richest men in Jericho, knew this.He was trying to fill three deep human needs - the quest for intimacy, the quest for adequacy, the quest for identity - in ways that just got him more and more lost.Then Jesus came along, and Zacchaeus got a glimmer of hope - for Jesus came to seek and save what was lost.This sermon was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on November 3, 2013.It's designed to be used withThe Prezi zooming visuals found at this linkThe PDF bible study found at this link (coming soon)Enjoy!

No one is worthy but everyone is welcome...In Luke 19, Jesus tells a story that proclaims the mercy of God. No-one is worthy to stand in God's presence, no matter how 'good' they are, but bby God's mercy everyone is welcomeNone of us can make ourselves right with God - but God does not leave us in our sin and death. He comes to us through Jesus to make us right with himself.This sermon was preached on October 27, 2013, at Sunday Night at St John's Southgate.It's designed to be used with the Prezi zooming visuals found at this link.Enjoy!

We might feel uncomfortable comparing the work of God with a diligent woman. But this is exactly what Jesus does in Luke 15. A woman who has lost a precious coin is used as an exemplar of God's mission of finding the lost.This sermon was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on 15th September 2013.Enjoy!

St Paul's letter to Philemon is one of the most personal pieces of literature to make it into the canon of the New Testament. How did it come about that Paul met Onesimus, the runaway slave? What was it like for Onesimus to return to his former master, now as a Christian? What is it like to be part of the 'fellowship of the forgiven'? This sermon is an imaginative exploration of Onesimus's homecoming.It was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on September 8, 2013.It can be used withthe Prezi zooming visuals found at this linkThe PDF Bible study found at this linkEnjoy!

Hebrews 13 may at first glance appear as an unconnected bunch of instructions grouped together at the end of the letter because they didn't seem to belong anywhere else.But what holds this chapter together is the presence of the unchanging Jesus, who 'is the same yesterday and today and forever.' Every part of life is integrated in worship to God, worship that is acceptable to God because of Jesus.We can know for sure that what we do in faith is pleasing to God and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.This sermon was preached on 1st September 2013 at Sunday Night at St John's.It's designed to be used with the Prezi zooming visuals found at this link.Enjoy!

Not only in politics, but also in religion, it's highly prevalent to think 'It's all about me.'Isaiah 58 challenges self-centred understandings of faith and religion and calls people to seek justice - to think of and seek the welfare of others, not just ourselves.A true Christian life has been characterised as 'Faith, active in love, seeking justice.' It calls us to get involved with God's mission of liberation to the world, as Jesus himself liberates people from what binds them and twists them up.This sermon was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on 25th August, 2013.It is designed to be used with The Prezi zooming visuals found at this linkThe PDF Bible study found at this link (coming soon)Enjoy!

Is faith 'blind trust despite the evidence,' as Richard Dawkins provocatively describes it?Is it historical knowledge or an intellectual assent to a set of doctrines?Or is it something more profound and fundamental than that? This sermon is based on Hebrews 11 and the story of Abraham's faith in God. It explores faith as a narrative, connecting us as part of a community of faith through both time and space. It was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on August 11th, 2013.It is designed to be used with:the Prezi zooming visuals found at this linkEnjoy!Note: a Bible study on Luke 12 and Hebrews 11-12 can be found at this link. It is not the bible study connected to this sermon but the following week's sermon (which was unfortunately not recorded) but it relates to the stories of faith of the persecuted people found in Hebrews 11 and 12.

MORE. Most of our economic system is based on the drive for more. ENOUGH. Do we even know what 'enough' is in this age of excess?Jesus tells a parable to warn people to 'be on their guard against any kind of greed' - to be on their guard against wanting, and striving for, 'more.' God's plan of shalom and wholeness is that everyone will have enough, no one will have too much, no one will have too little. Is it really possible to live in this way? Is it possible to live towards shalom in our society? This sermon explores the themes of 'more' and 'enough' and suggests ways of beginning to live towards 'shalom' where everyone has enough. It was preached at Sunday Night at St John's on August 4th, 2013.It is designed to be used with:the Prezi zooming visuals found at this linkthe PDF bible study found at this link (coming soon)