Are You Robbing God?

Are You Robbing God? - audio
Malachi 3:6-18
Matthew 6:19-34

"Will a man rob God?" 

That's the question God Himself asks the people of Israel through the prophet Malachi. We allow God to ask us the same question centuries later as we read it in His Word. We discover that just like the Israelites of Malachi's day, we can have a low view of God which causes us to neglect to worship Him as He deserves. 

We can lose sight of the fact that everything belongs to Him, we can forget our own dependence upon Him and we can doubt our accountability to Him. However as Malachi identifies their disobedience in terms of the bringing of tithes and offerings to the Temple, we discover that the expectations God has of believers today are different. The Church does not operate by the same systems as the nation of Israel prior to Christ's arrival.

We explore Jesus' own teaching recorded in Matthew 6 as a guide for making appropriate decisions in how we worship God through giving. We discover that we must allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into making decisions about giving that reflect: 1)our reverence for God; 2)our gratitude for His provision; 3)our trust in Him to meet our needs; and 4)the priority of His eternal kingdom over temporary things.

Prayer pt 2 - What Should We Pray?

Prayer Pt 2 - What Should We Pray? - click for audio
Matthew 6:9-15
James 5:13-18

In this message we explore the Lord's Prayer as a guide for the content of our own prayer. Jesus' example of prayer for His disciples is rich in meaning and helps us to develop our own prayer life in a healthy and effective way. We also take time to explore James 5:13-18 - a passage that speaks beautifully of the power of prayer, but is often sadly misused and misunderstood to reinforce an attitude and expectation in prayer which only fosters self-centredness and ultimately leads to disillusionment. We take a closer look at the text itself as well as the wider counsel of Scripture to better understand how prayer for healing is taught in God's Word and was practiced in both Old and New Testaments.

Prayer pt 1 - How Should We Pray?

Prayer pt 1:

How Should We Pray? - Audio

Using Jesus' teaching on prayer from Matthew 6, we look at some fundamental issues concerning prayer - what is prayer and how should we pray? We discover that prayer is a much bigger concept than many people realise. It goes beyond the literal meaning of simply asking God for what we want or need, to become a lifestyle of intimate and appropriate communication with God.