Sunday 21st October - 8.30am

Service for this Sunday - 21st October - will begin at 8.30am and will be led by Pastor Graham Zweck due to pastor's attendance at the Victorian District Convention in Portland.

Here are the readings for your preparation:

Isaiah 53:4-12 The suffering servant

Hebrews 5:1-10 Jesus our great high priest

Mark 10:35-45 The request of James and John

Please remember that next week (28/10) is our celebration of the Longest Lutheran Lunch. Our service will be a celebration of the Reformation of the church with prayers for refugees and migrants and an African themed lunch to follow. Make sure you're there!

Blessings,

Pastor Matt

TIME CHANGE FOR THIS WEEK - 7th OCTOBER!

With daylight saving beginning this week, we made the decision that for 

this week only worship will begin at 5pm at St David's.

The readings for Sunday are:

Genesis 2:18-24 The creation of woman

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12 God has spoken through his Son

Mark 10:2-16 Jesus teaches about divorce, and blesses children

You might also be interested to view this story from WIN news last Friday, reporting on the Police Remembrance service I led in my role as Police Chaplain:

God's peace,

Pastor Matt

Sunday 30th September - 11am

Service this Sunday will begin at 11am.

Here are the readings (and my apologies for a very short post!) 
 

Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29 Moses chooses 70 leaders

James 5:13-20 Prayer offered in faith

Mark 9:38-50 Acting in Jesus' name; temptations to sin

If you're available, a reminder that on Friday 28th September at 11am I will be leading the annual National Police Remembrance Day service in my role as Police Chaplain. The service will be held at St Bredan's in Knight Street and will be followed by morning tea. All are welcome to come and support our local police members on this important day.

God's peace,

Pastor Matt

Sunday 23rd September - 11am

This Sunday worship will begin at 11am.

The gospel reading from Mark 9 records Jesus' second passion prediction in Mark's gospel and as usual, it is accompanied by teaching on discipleship. It's that uncomfortable passage that declares "Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all."

To emphasise his point, Jesus takes a little child and embraces him and declares the mystery that whoever welcomes a little one such as this, welcomes the Father and the Son.

How much trouble would we be in if our salvation depended on our ability to perfectly welcome and love and serve? Thanks be to God that our Lord Jesus - the first born Son of God - humbled Himself and became the very last to serve us and embrace us with his forgiving love poured out on the cross!

Service will be followed by our half yearly meeting - a great chance to catch up on all that is happening around our congregation. Please come along and see the plans for our new church, to hear about the proposed St Paul's African House and to be blown away by some other great news we've got to share!

God's peace,

Pastor Matt

Sunday 2nd September - 8.30am

Service this week begins at 8.30am - I know a cold start is promised but what joy we have in the Word that brings life to each one of us. Well worth putting on a few extra layers for!

I'm preaching on James 1:17-27 where we are called to be doers of the word - not falling into the trap of listening but not hearing. I like the way James uses the image of looking into a mirror and almost immediately forgetting what we look like to describe what it's like to listen to God's word, but not really hear it.

How often don't we Christians do that? Having glimpsed not only our sinful self in the mirror of God's word, we catch sight of our reflection in the Living Word as the forgiven, much loved and holy children of God and then we immediately forget and live as though we were no different than the godless souls who have no hope. In the vein of that old adage - actions speak louder than words - we are encouraged to shut up and simply be the people of God!

Have a read of the passage before coming along this week - there's so much packed into these few verses and I'm only going to be able to touch on a little of it - so being well prepared will help you to get so much more out of it.

I'm looking forward to being together in the Lord's presence.
Pastor Matt

Sunday 26th August - 11am

This Sunday service begins at 11am.

I'm going to preaching on that well known text from Ephesians 6 which speaks about the important topic of spiritual warfare. Contrary to popular thoughts on this topic, spiritual warfare is not about chasing down demons or demonstrating our abilities in overcoming Satan. The fact is Satan has been defeated by our Lord Jesus and we are now involved in a 'mop up excercise'. But far from going looking for the battle, St Paul encourages us to simply stand guard, clothed in the gifts of our baptism, engaging in spiritual battle through our prayers for those we are called to love and serve.

Our only offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. And this weapon is wielded most powerfully when it guides our praying and strengthens our confidences in Jesus' vicotry over sin and death and even the Devil himself.

If you would like to hear some excellent comments on spiritual warfare, I can recommend nothing more highly than the lectures of Dr John Kleinig which are available at JWK spiritual warfare 1 and JWK spiritual warfare 2

The readings for your preparation are:

Joshua 24:1,2a,14-18 Joshua affirms: We will serve the Lord

Ephesians 6:10-20 Put on God's armour

John 6:56-69 Jesus has the words of eternal life

God's peace,

Pastor Matt

Sunday 19th August - 8.30am

This Sunday - 19th August - service will begin at 8.30am.

We continue with our contemplation of the 6th chapter of John's gospel and hear Jesus' mysterious and yet wonderful invitation to eat His flesh and drink His blood and receive eternal life!

READINGS:

Proverbs 9:1-6 The invitation of Wisdom

Ephesians 5:15-20 Live as wise Spirit-filled people

John 6:51-58 Jesus' flesh and blood gives life

God's peace,

Pastor  Matt