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David: David's Deliverer

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David: David's Deliverer

We’ve reached the end of 2 Samuel and in it’s epilogue we find David’s song. It captures the essence of his life. It is David’s memoir-ic poem and he say’s “God is my deliverer”; David gets into trouble and God delivers him. From lions, Sauls, and personal failures God demonstrates to us through David that he can deliver us. We all face things - spiritual and natural - that work against us and in those moments it can feel like we’re up to our necks in trouble. David models a practice of calling on God when we’re in trouble. But more than that, David and the prophets point us to Jesus, the ultimate deliver. Jesus is the Son of David but he doesn’t rule as David did. Jesus rejected the nationalistic and militaristic ideas placed on the expected son of David – Jesus instead leads a kingdom not by violence, one that isn’t characterized by oppressive rule but one that is self denying, one that is marked by love. As we call on Jesus, he delivers us into his loving presence.

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Jesus With Gentiles

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Jesus With Gentiles

New series alert! We always want to understand Jesus better, so what better way than a series on how he interacted with people in Luke’s gospel? Right from the start, Jesus spoke about how he came to bring a new day for jews and gentiles alike. We might not always relate to how offensive this message was. But we are all wired for groups!

We think this is one of the most important pastoral words we can share in our divided era (but be warned - it’s never been an easy one to hear.)

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The Way Into Life

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The week after Easter: Thomas doesn’t meet the risen Jesus until a week after the resurrection. He’s an intriguing character- alone, doubting, troubled- but he goes on to doing extraordinary things. As such he is the perfect example of how Jesus changes people. Following Thomas we’ve got to be honest, we’ve got to believe, but more than that- we’ve also got to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. This is simple, but not easy. But the consequences are huge- this is the way into life in all its fullness.

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Good News of Resurrection

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The most important moment in all of human history is the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In the resurrection Jesus provides all humankind with answers to our most fundamental questions - is there a God? What happens when we die? Is there more to life than just the material? - as well as our most longed for needs - do we matter? Can we change? will we be ok?

When Jesus rises from the death all pain and sickness, evil and death are defeated - and he welcomes us into a new world order of love and peace and joy with him.

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Discipline of Confession

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It’s not quite the most attractive of the disciplines but it is just as powerful. Confession is naming where we are and what we’ve done. It is unguarded truth-telling. Its unguarded because we know who we’re confessing to. When we know God to be eager and ready to forgive, we can approach him with anything we may be carrying. In confession, we’re released from the pressure to pose, to hide in shame, and we receive the forgiveness of Jesus. His forgiveness is immediate; he takes our sins, hides it, and forgets about it. The goal of all confession, whether it’s confession to God or to one another, is healing. This kind of healing-nourishment results in what Psalm 32 calls, true happiness. The more regular this practice becomes in our journey, the more confident we are in Jesus’ loving and transformative power.

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Discipline of Celebration

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Considered alongside other disciplines like prayer, worship or confession for example, celebration may seem incongruous. However celebration is integral to the christian life. After all the gospel begins with celebration, ends with celebration and has celebration at its heart: Jesus’ kingdom is one built on the foundations of the Old Testament concept of Jubilee. The gospel literally means good news, and good news must be celebrated. So how do we become more joyful people? Paul gives us three steps on the path to celebration - doing away with anxiety, presenting our requests to god, and fixing our hearts and minds on the beauty of our world. Despite all the trouble we may have in this world, joy is the hallmark of those who have placed their lives in the hands of good God who comes to bring good gifts to his children.

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Discipline of Prayer

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It’s hard to overestimate quite how foundational prayer is to our spiritual health and connection to god, yet in reality many find prayer very difficult. But when we see prayer as Jesus did - a means of partnering with, hearing from and experiencing the intimacy of our Father - prayer is transformed into a life-giving, exciting, joyful, essential pursuit. Prayer’s goal becomes not what Jesus can do for us, but Jesus himself.

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Introducing the Spiritual Disciplines

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Many have grown up with the Christian faith being represented as one long slog of discipline - Do this, Don’t do that, Try harder, Be better. This is not what the Spiritual Disciplines are about at all. Rather they are tools in the spiritual tool kit God gives us. Their job is to place us in a position to receive more of God’s grace directly from him. It is only ever grace that changes us. The two most common method for trying to overcome our old sinful nature are both equally flawed: either we rely solely on their will power, or we remain passive and hope for the best. By contrast the Spiritual Disciplines involve our wills - we have to choose to engage with them, but they rely entirely on God’s grace to change us. They are the keys to how we mature in our faith, becoming better people, and come closer to Jesus.

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Revelation: City of the Lamb

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The final chapters of Revelation depict a glorious vision of heaven. In our final talk on the series we look specifically at what the people of heaven are like. There’s a lot of them; they are you and me and everyone else who responds to Jesus; they are not just future, they are present; and most importantly they take a like God’s emissaries, his vice-regents, his high-priests. This means we, as heavenly people, have purpose and calling - to witness to and extend God’s heaven here on earth. It is what makes sense of life and brings us fulfillment. The vision we have at bread is that all of us play our unique part, with our unique gifts, and so get to enjoy all the glory of heaven, and bring it to a world in need.

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Revelation: Restoration of All Things

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What is likely to come to mind when we think of Revelation is the question, “what will the end of the world look like”. It is what most of cultural interest tends to be around the book. But it’s not quite what the book aims to answer. Instead, Revelation is about Jesus and what He is doing. The book unveils Jesus’ restoration of the earth by bringing heaven and thus transforming everything about our world. It also shows how God will be permanently present with his people - no temples, no sacred locations - God face-to-face with us all the time. It isn’t just for the future, it also is for today, in-part that is. So we can experience intimacy with Jesus and glimpses of his kingdom restoring relationships, bodies, and more. Looking ahead at what God is doing means we can have joy today.

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Revelation: Empire State of Everything

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Alright so we know it’s not a roadmap of end times by now, but what on earth WAS John of Patmos saying when he wrote this epic and crazy story? We’ve got to the scene with the dragon and beasts now (yep - coming at you with 666 chat this morning) and as a side-note it still blows our MIND how many people were raised with terrifying, entirely wrong teaching on this stuff. This story is about same thing the rest of the bible is about: God is good, evil is real and coming for you, but Jesus is on the throne. The beast was the Roman Empire - no serious scholars disagree on that. Empire, and all it’s lying, deceiving, masquerading about who we should worship and how we should live. Conquer, dominate, and tell ourselves God is on OUR side. Those of us whose politics demand we’re already 100% anti-empire should make no mistake: the imperial cult is still whispering to us all.

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Revelation: Overcoming Evil

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Part of what Jesus says to the church throughout the book of Revelation is this: "Evil is real. It is both inside and outside of God’s church. But let us overcome it together.” In fact Jesus has already defeated all the forces of evil once and for all. And he calls his people to join in his victory. This talk is both about us taking seriously the ways in which we collude with evil in our own lives, and how we are able to overcome it - specifically through joining in the worship of heaven and putting out faith in the victory of the lamb.

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Revelation: The End of Fear

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One of the most misunderstood and misapplied books in the Bible, Revelation has tended to either scared people off or unhealthily preoccupied them. In this introduction to the series we explore what this curious book actually is, and importantly what it isn’t. Ultimately this is a book a much about our present as it is our future - and it’s one which expands our vision to the extremes of how big and awe-inspiring Jesus is. His first words spoken in the book are ‘do not be afraid’ - he is good, he loves us, and he has been and will continue to be victorious over all evil.

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2022 – Leave Behind Your Box - talk + Q&A

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We are happy to have had Mark Chase with us (virtually that is, as you’ll notice by the not so great audio quality). We observed how each of us clings to a box, that thing we take comfort in, where we feel safe, where it’s predictable and it’s often what we can put God in. But God isn’t meant to be put in a box, he comes to shatter our boxes and offer us something much more valuable: life with him. When we let him get a hold of us, we can partner with God to create a better world that looks after the marginalized, seeks justice, and is meaningful. God comes to release life and flourishing for all and you can join him. This is what his kingdom is about and he does this by his Spirit. All of this is followed by a Q&A where Ed and Mark chat about what this looks like in our church. Take a listen.

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Christmas Service – We’re in Uncertain Times

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And as a species we don’t tend to do very well with uncertainty - it makes us anxious. When world-views are shaken and things we thought were solid no longer appear to be, our brains will do everything they can to stop us from experiencing uncertainty. We can be tempted either to double down on certainty (despite all evidence to the contrary) or demolish the whole edifice of our beliefs entirely. Many people feel caught between these two extremes when it comes to their Christian faith. But the story of Christmas invites us on a different path. Jesus did not take flesh in order simply to be believed in - but to be met. He became one of us to be with us. Putting our faith in Jesus (as opposed to a belief system) is a lifelong journey of him forming and challenging all our beliefs and actions. And it means that we neither need to hold onto certainty dogmatically, nor throw everything away as soon as doubt creeps in. Rather we allow God’s spirit to change us from glory to glory. And we can meet an uncertain world in confidence, not our own, but his. Because Christmas means that once and for all: God is with us - so we never need to be afraid again.

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Advent – Hope in the Messy

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The timing of Jesus' arrival is worth noting, he comes at a height of imperial power, social unrest, and religious clashes all under a false peace. In the messiness of it all, Jesus is born in manger and of him it is declared 'Prince of Peace' and 'King'. This is something the writers of Matthew and Luke want to highlight because it shows that in our own lives, Jesus doesn't mind clashing with the things we've made kings, he isn't intimated by the mess in our personal lives, in our relationships, or in the world around us. He arrives in the midst of it all and we can know him to be the bringer of peace, and the King. This is the hope of Christmas.

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End of Year Giving Campaign (2) - Give To Something Of Lasting Value

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The currency of the kingdom of God will always be people. Jesus began his ministry by finding 12 disciples in whom he could invest - not projects, or buildings, or courses, or initiatives, but people. Bread church exists to carry on this mission and to invest in people - both those who are near and far off. When we give our financial resources to the church we are investing in this currency. We're looking to see people from all backgrounds, experiences, and understanding of faith grow to become more and more Jesus-like. In so doing we’re acting in faith and helping build God’s kingdom of peace and justice and mercy and freedom here and now.

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Where Help Comes From – Peace in the Wait

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Waiting doesn't come naturally to humans. It's inconvenient, it's annoying, but most of all it's painful. We're are all familiar with waiting and so was the community behind Psalm 85. Like us, they're waiting to bounce back from a less than ideal situation. In it all, they hear from the One who promises peace or 'shalom'. God is the one who offers shalom. Its completeness and wholeness to our fractured situations, relationships, and souls. And in him is where we find our enoughness. So in the wait, we can know and experience the living God who brings shalom.

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Where Help Comes From – Honestly Confronting & Waiting on the Lord

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In Psalm 130 we’re shown one way to approach our Righteous God: crying out honestly, demanding God’s attention, but also remembering his compassion and mercy. Even more, as a “Psalm of Ascent,” the poet of Psalm 130 insists that waiting is a legitimate and embodied prayer. Waiting is an under-rated theme in the whole of the scriptures, and the second half of this Psalm gives us some encouragement in how to embrace waiting as a spiritual practice in our own lives. Ultimately, we wait for Jesus’ return to set all things right, and as he is even now “making all things new,” we wait in the now-and-not-yet of his Kingdom, in hope.