Sermons@Kingsley podcast

31:21

The celebration of the Lent is an ancient Christian tradition, but not a personal tradition for many of us. In this message we look at the way Jesus set himself to travel to Jerusalem as a place He must go through on His journey back to Heaven. In a similar way at the beginning of Lent we set ourselves to travel through a season of self-sacrifice as we move toward Resurrection Sunday. The sacrifice does not have any merit except if it is part of what we must go through for the sake of God’s eternal purpose for us. Exploring what Luke 9 describes next about our call to follow Jesus sets the tone for how we embrace this journey. When it comes to the things that matter most, easier is not often better. Lent challenges us to count the cost of following Jesus so we may truly receive the blessings of life in Him.…

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By Your Love 26:08

8 weeks ago26:08

26:08

As Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples He challenged them to love one another in the same way that He loved them. That’s a big call, especially given what He was about to do! In this message Mike explores the priority of love and the way that it’s put into practice in a local church. We are challenged to think about what that will look like for us this year and how we’ll stay on track pursuing the Greatest Commandment.…

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Choosing Good vs Evil 26:00

12 weeks ago26:00

26:00

Why do people sometimes do amazing & wonderful things but at other times do terrible things? Why do we look back over 2024 & celebrate great contributions to human flourishing while also seeing wars drag on and other tragedies? The opening stories of the Bible describe both the origins and outcomes of good and evil; and describe for us what it means to choose between them. We learn 5 simple principles that can help us have a fantastic 2025 as we make the better choice to embrace the goodness of God.…

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Come Home to Your Wonderful Counselor 30:31

16 weeks ago30:31

30:31

Isaiah 7 contains the incredible promise that God would send a child who would be “God With Us”. Matthew’s gospel confirms that this is the heart of the Christmas story: God made His home with us, so that we could find our home in Him. God gave more information to Isaiah about what this “God with us” would be like. In Isaiah 9:6 we’re told He would be: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. This December we are unpacking each of these names to see how Jesus fulfils God’s promises in every way. In this message we tune into what it means to not just recognise Jesus as a wonderful counsellor, but to come home to Him as our Wonderful Counsellor. Our response doesn’t change who He is, but it does change the impact He makes on our lives and in the lives of others through us!…

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Galatians 6:11-18 – What really counts also really costs. 30:21

18 weeks ago30:21

30:21

As we finish our study in Galatians we once again marvel at the free gift of God’s grace that we receive through faith in Jesus. As he closes the letter Paul tells us that what really counts – our salvation in Jesus – also really costs. The gift is not free. Jesus gave His life so we might have life. Paul himself bore the marks on his body that proclaimed the price he paid to be a messenger of the good news to others. The gift which is free to us came at a cost to others! That leaves us with two vital questions: 1) will we receive the new life that has been purchased for us; and 2) will we count the cost so that others might receive this gift too?…

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Galatians 6:6-10 – Reaping the Blessing 33:21

19 weeks ago33:21

33:21

The letter to the Galatians was written to guard the salvation that had come to the people of Galatia through the gospel. The message of Jesus was under attack by false teachers and many Christians in Galatia hadn’t even realised! Some of them were being fooled into following Old Testament laws that were only ever intended to prepare the people of Israel to receive their Messiah – laws which had no power to save them, only to frustrate them. The same is true of every other ‘law’ that we are used to operating by. Most churches in our culture haven’t been fooled into operating by Old Testament laws, but we are operating under the rules of 21st century western capitalism! Our temptation is to become fixated with growing churches instead of making disciples, which means churches are competing for market share and Christians move from church to church based on the quality of experience being offered. Galatians 6 brings us back to the reality that we reap what we sow. In our case, giving in to the law of the market economy means training Christians to be consumers instead of disciples, robbing them of the salvation that Jesus brings in our everyday experience of life and stealing the witness of the Church. God calls us to repent just as strongly as He called the Christians and the false teachers in Galatia to!…

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Galatians 5:16 – 6:5 – Keep in Step with the Spirit 29:29

21 weeks ago29:29

29:29

After arguing powerfully for the gospel of Grace against a religion of works, Paul now applies his message very practically in the lives of his readers. He contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit and calls us to the better path of keeping in step with the Spirit. Mike reminds us of what we’ve seen in the letter – that the works of our flesh can sometimes look like lawless self-indulgence and it can also look like legalistic self-righteousness. But the way of the Spirit is to trust in the finished work of Jesus and all that He has accomplished for us; and to express that faith in obedience that is not possible in our own strength but is possible through the Spirit’s power. The Holy Spirit moves Paul to explain this very practically as his letter draws to a close, showing what this looks like not only in our individual lives, but in the way that we need each other’s help to keep in step with the Spirit.…

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Galatians 4:21-5:26 – Fighting for Fruitfulness 28:57

22 weeks ago28:57

28:57

The Apostle Paul finishes his defence of the good news that we don’t have a list of laws to live up to, we have a new identity to live out of. This new identity is ours by God’s grace alone and is received through faith in Jesus Christ, not by any effort of our own. Having argued for the gospel from their personal experience, Scripture, history, reason and their relationship with Paul; the closing argument is an analogy from the life of Abraham and his two wives. It’s a powerful illustration of what it means to be children of Promise. Placing our faith in God to fulfil all His promises is the only way for us to have true fellowship with God and each other, for us to live in freedom from sin and law and finally, for our lives to bear good fruit – fruit that we cannot produce by our own efforts.…

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Galatians 3 – Fighting for Fellowship 38:41

25 weeks ago38:41

38:41

In his letter to the Galatians Paul is fighting a threat to the fellowship that Galatian Christians have with God and with each other; the freedom they have to live the life that Christ has given them; and the fruitfulness that comes as a result of God’s life welling up in us and overflowing through us. In chapter 3 Paul argues from the personal experience of the Galatians, the testimony of the Scriptures and the voice of reason to prove that we are made right with God and each other by grace alone which is received by faith alone in Christ alone. Our fellowship with God and each other could never be accomplished by following the Old Testament law or through anything else that depends on human merit. This challenges the way we so often see and treat God, ourselves and other people. What would it mean to live this truth out in community today?…

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Galatians 2:15-21 – The Purpose of the Law 26:33

28 weeks ago26:33