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Weekly messages from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Para Vista Inc
Episodes
Sunday Mar 05, 2023
Sunday Mar 05, 2023
This is part 5 in the occasional series "A Surprising God".
Let me tell you the best news you’ll ever hear. It’s not about following all the rules and regulations that religion demands and being burdened with guilt, shame and regrets. Rather it’s all about Jesus: allowing him to take control of our lives be in the driver’s seat as He invites us along for the ride.
Sunday Mar 05, 2023
Sunday Mar 05, 2023
This is part 5 in the occasional series "A Surprising God".
Let me tell you the best news you’ll ever hear. It’s not about following all the rules and regulations that religion demands and being burdened with guilt, shame and regrets. Rather it’s all about Jesus: allowing him to take control of our lives be in the driver’s seat as He invites us along for the ride.
Sunday Feb 26, 2023
Sunday Feb 26, 2023
1st Sunday Lent –Telling Tales & Punchy Parables Finding the Lost
Are you a jigsaw puzzler? Are you easily drawn into an amusing tale or an absorbing parable? Do you enjoy music and singing?
Worship this coming Sunday will be a little different as Chris Jaensch refreshes us with a different angle on the Gospel. The focus will be on three of Jesus’ parables, his lost and found parables, familiar, but with a message that continues to speak to every single one of us in a powerful and personal way. You’ll also hear some different tales and parables that you’ve not heard and that will reveal a different slant on the Gospel. We’ll be celebrating our part in the Gospel story as we sing together and as Chris shares some of his own songs. (Songs (c) Chris Jaensch, used by permission)
Sunday Feb 26, 2023
Sunday Feb 26, 2023
1st Sunday Lent –Telling Tales & Punchy Parables Finding the Lost
Are you a jigsaw puzzler? Are you easily drawn into an amusing tale or an absorbing parable? Do you enjoy music and singing?
Worship this coming Sunday will be a little different as Chris Jaensch refreshes us with a different angle on the Gospel. The focus will be on three of Jesus’ parables, his lost and found parables, familiar, but with a message that continues to speak to every single one of us in a powerful and personal way. You’ll also hear some different tales and parables that you’ve not heard and that will reveal a different slant on the Gospel. We’ll be celebrating our part in the Gospel story as we sing together and as Chris shares some of his own songs. (Songs (c) Chris Jaensch, used by permission)
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
This week we continue our interview series with people from our community sharing their faith and prayer journey.
This week Perry Campbell shares how God has placed him in a place where he can use his Gifts to share his faith with young people and use his personal interests to witness to others.
Come and be challenged, and then look at how God has shaped you and how you can witness to others using who you are.
Bible Readings: Mark 3:33-34 (NLT) and Matthew 13:31-33 'Parable of a Mustard Seed' (NLT)
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
This week we continue our interview series with people from our community sharing their faith and prayer journey.
This week Perry Campbell shares how God has placed him in a place where he can use his Gifts to share his faith with young people and use his personal interests to witness to others.
Come and be challenged, and then look at how God has shaped you and how you can witness to others using who you are.
Bible Readings: Mark 3:33-34 (NLT) and Matthew 13:31-33 'Parable of a Mustard Seed' (NLT)
Sunday Feb 12, 2023
Sunday Feb 12, 2023
The Church makes many claims about God – about who God is and what God does and what God is like—and the biggest claim of all, the one that is at the core of all its claims is that God is love—above all else, God is love.
We sing songs and hymns about the God of love—we pray to the God of love—we are called to offer the gift of ourselves to the God of love—and then we dwell in Matthew’s Gospel reading (5:21-37) which speaks about God’s Law.
Are these really the words from the God of love, words from the very heart of God made flesh, Jesus? Well, yes, they are. We read a section of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus had gathered with his disciples near the Sea of Galilee and began to teach them how He came to fulfil all that He was telling them.
Now we all know the joys of listening to the sounds of the heart—we have perhaps felt, even heard the sound of our own hearts beating in excitement. Our heart is the centre of our personality—”Heart” means the core of ourselves in all our most vibrant aspects—we talk about the human heart as the centre of loving, of compassion, or tenderness, of courage.
But while God’s heart sings out a love song, begun in creation and is sung to us every day, our hearts so often fall far short of singing a love song back to God, or to others.
And so, in God’s mercy, God gives us the law—the teachings of Jesus—and this law will not let our hearts fall short of loving as God would have us love—it’s a law that would have us love in a way that respects the dignity of every human being—as reflected elsewhere in the Scriptures—and it’s a law that ultimately convicts us, because what it demands of us, we cannot achieve.
And here again the law shows us God’s love—for when He shows us our failings it is meant to drive us into His merciful arms. Discovering our failure to love as God loves is not a cause for despair—rather, it’s a call back to God, into the arms of Jesus, who loves and strengthens us, and sends Holy Spirit to us to lead us to love again.
The sound of our hearts and the sound of God’s heart are different—but they’re meant to sing the same song—so we are given the law that we might know more completely how to love—and when we fail—because we do fail—we are given the key to God’s heart—Jesus our Saviour and Holy Spirit our Sanctifier.
God’s heart is the key to the vast treasure of God’s mercy that stands ready for us to receive and use—the key to a heart that offers us true joy—true love—true grace—true mercy—true forgiveness—all because our God is a God of love—and in that we can be sure—for it comes to us in and through Jesus and Holy Spirit, for us to give to others.
Pr. Wayne Kerber
Sunday Feb 12, 2023
Sunday Feb 12, 2023
The Church makes many claims about God – about who God is and what God does and what God is like—and the biggest claim of all, the one that is at the core of all its claims is that God is love—above all else, God is love.
We sing songs and hymns about the God of love—we pray to the God of love—we are called to offer the gift of ourselves to the God of love—and then we dwell in Matthew’s Gospel reading (5:21-37) which speaks about God’s Law.
Are these really the words from the God of love, words from the very heart of God made flesh, Jesus? Well, yes, they are. We read a section of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus had gathered with his disciples near the Sea of Galilee and began to teach them how He came to fulfil all that He was telling them.
Now we all know the joys of listening to the sounds of the heart—we have perhaps felt, even heard the sound of our own hearts beating in excitement. Our heart is the centre of our personality—”Heart” means the core of ourselves in all our most vibrant aspects—we talk about the human heart as the centre of loving, of compassion, or tenderness, of courage.
But while God’s heart sings out a love song, begun in creation and is sung to us every day, our hearts so often fall far short of singing a love song back to God, or to others.
And so, in God’s mercy, God gives us the law—the teachings of Jesus—and this law will not let our hearts fall short of loving as God would have us love—it’s a law that would have us love in a way that respects the dignity of every human being—as reflected elsewhere in the Scriptures—and it’s a law that ultimately convicts us, because what it demands of us, we cannot achieve.
And here again the law shows us God’s love—for when He shows us our failings it is meant to drive us into His merciful arms. Discovering our failure to love as God loves is not a cause for despair—rather, it’s a call back to God, into the arms of Jesus, who loves and strengthens us, and sends Holy Spirit to us to lead us to love again.
The sound of our hearts and the sound of God’s heart are different—but they’re meant to sing the same song—so we are given the law that we might know more completely how to love—and when we fail—because we do fail—we are given the key to God’s heart—Jesus our Saviour and Holy Spirit our Sanctifier.
God’s heart is the key to the vast treasure of God’s mercy that stands ready for us to receive and use—the key to a heart that offers us true joy—true love—true grace—true mercy—true forgiveness—all because our God is a God of love—and in that we can be sure—for it comes to us in and through Jesus and Holy Spirit, for us to give to others.
Pr. Wayne Kerber
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
We live in an increasingly polarised and cynical society. There is deep division, mistrust and hurt. Sometimes we find ourselves caught up in this fragmentation and we find it seeping into our lives, our homes, our schools, and our churches.
When Saint Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he was writing to a church that was thriving in the midst of some big challenges and sorrows. Instead of fragmenting and falling apart – they were “falling together”. This Sunday Pastor Stephen Abraham unpacks 3 lessons from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church, titled “Choose Kindness”.
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
We live in an increasingly polarised and cynical society. There is deep division, mistrust and hurt. Sometimes we find ourselves caught up in this fragmentation and we find it seeping into our lives, our homes, our schools, and our churches.
When Saint Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he was writing to a church that was thriving in the midst of some big challenges and sorrows. Instead of fragmenting and falling apart – they were “falling together”. This Sunday Pastor Stephen Abraham unpacks 3 lessons from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church, titled “Choose Kindness”.