Opawa Baptist Church

To be a faithful Christian is by definition to be a fool by the standards that rule out there.  If we can embrace that reality then God can do great things with us and through us. 

The key question in any sermon is so what, how does this affect our lived reality at this time in this place?
The 'take homes' from this passage are these:
· Even the worst church has enormous spiritual resources
· We need to strive to be united in mind and purpose
· God is the primary actor in our church, not us
· Giving our allegiance to faith heroes is fraught

Jesus lived amongst us for 30 years. We have a high priest
(Jesus) who has been tested as we are but yet without sin. Let us therefore approach
the Throne of Grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.

Our
eldest son is sick, so obviously one of the gods is displeased.  But which one?  We go see the priest / shaman / witch doctor
to find out which and what they want to be appeased.  Turns out it’s the local weather god who was
unimpressed with last year’s harvest offering from our family, I knew that we
should have given more.  This is bad.  So we take a duck to the temple to be
sacrificed, I hope it works.  A fortnight
later the boy is worse, so we take a goat along, now that hurts because we
needed that goat – that will do it surely. 
No change.  What do we do
now?

1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
    he heard my cry for mercy.
2 Because he turned his ear to me,
    I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 116 v 1-2

1 Samuel 18:1-4  After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic,and even his sword, his bow and his belt.

When
people find out that I am Christian they often ask so you believe in life after
death, and I guess that many of us would say that we do believe in life after
death.  But is this the same thing as
resurrection?

Reflection from Rob Petrini. This is the last sermon from Rob where he reflects on his years at Opawa Baptist Church. Listen to the things he learned along the way and what he wants us to remember.

This was
quite a members meeting.  It’s not often
that you have a church meeting where the whole future of Christianity is at
stake, but I think that this was one such meeting.  No pressure anyone.