10) Giving with Joy Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 4:10-20    Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone else’s generosity? Maybe you were in a bit of financial hardship and out of the blue someone gives you a hundred dollars. Maybe someone bought something for your birthday that you never thought you’d be able to afford, or they took you on a holiday that was way out of your budget. Or maybe you really wanted to visit your family interstate but you couldn’t afford it, and someone paid for your plane tickets.  In the first year of Bible...

9) Rejoice in the Lord – Part 2 Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 4:1-9     If you haven’t been here for the last few weeks, we’re in the middle of a series on Paul’s letter to the Philippians about Living a Life of Joy. A few weeks back we looked at chapter 3 verse 1 where Paul writes, ‘1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! (Phil 3:1a)’ Well he says it again in our text today, not once, but twice. Verse 4, ‘4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil 4:4)’  This is Rejoice in the Lord...

8) Running with Joy Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 3:12-4:1     Have you ever run in a marathon? I would like to come across all knowledgeable but the last time I did a marathon was 24 years ago, and I say ‘did a marathon,’ rather than ‘run a marathon,’ because I don’t recall doing all that much running.  Actually, last year I went along to my kids’ cross-country and I ran in the dad’s race. It was only 500 metres, but it felt like 5000. But despite my lack of experience in running marathons I’m going to be talking a lot...

7) Rejoice in the Lord – Part 1  Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 3:1-11     Over the last 6 weeks we’ve been looking at what it means to ‘Live a Life of Joy.’ We learnt that the secret to living a life of joy was in serving Jesus Christ, praying for others, and proclaiming the gospel. We learnt that what makes our joy complete is living in unity. And we really shine with joy when we stand out for Christ even in the midst of suffering.  And last week we looked at joyfully following the example of others. But the heart...

6) Receiving Others with Joy Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 2:19-30     Paul has said some pretty full-on things in this letter to the Philippians. Earlier in this chapter he said that our ‘5 …attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. (Phil 2:5)’ Really? Our attitude should be the same as Jesus’! All the time, even when people annoy us? But Jesus was perfect, how are we meant to live up to that?  And then last week we looked at how we are meant to shine like stars in the universe, how we are meant to be ‘blameless and...

5) Shining with Joy Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 2:12-18     This morning we’re going to take two words in our passage and stick them together. The first is the word ‘shine’ in verse 15, where Paul talks about how we are to ‘shine like stars in the universe.’ The idea there is that we are to stand out, we are to be noticeably different.  The second word is ‘rejoice’ in verse 18, where Paul talks about how even in our suffering we ‘should be glad and rejoice.’ This morning I want to combine those two ideas and talk about shining...

4) Making Your Joy Complete Josh Hartog Text: Phil 2:1-11     I’m actually going to focus on just verse 1-4 this morning, and our text is the first few words of verse 2, where Paul says, ‘2 …make my joy complete… (Phil 2:2a)’ This is the fourth sermon in our series on Living a Life of Joy.  We’ve looked at how Christian joy is not found in our circumstances but how it is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ, in fact in serving Jesus Christ, in praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and in proclaiming Christ. This morning we’re going...

3) Proclaiming Christ with Joy Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 1:12-30    Often what matters the most in life is what brings us the greatest joy. If your work really matters to you, you will find great joy in your work. If your family is your highest priority then you find great joy in spending time with your family. We find joy in what we find significant.  So far in this series we’ve looked at how Paul finds joy in Jesus Christ, in serving Christ, that in Christ he is a saint, that through Christ he has received grace and peace....

2) Praying with Joy  Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 1:3-11    Last week we started a new series on Paul’s letter to the Philippians called Living a Life of Joy. Last week we looked at the secret to living a life of joy, and the secret is Jesus Christ. If you weren’t here last week we looked at how the secret to living a life of joy is found in giving your life in service to Jesus, remembering that in Christ we are saints, and that through our Lord Jesus Christ we can experience grace and peace.  Last week wasn’t just...

1) The Secret to Living a Life of Joy Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Phil 1:1-2    This morning we’re starting a new series on Paul’s letter to the Philippians, called ‘Living a Life of Joy!’ The dictionary describes joy as ‘a feeling of great happiness.’ Isn’t that what we all want, to feel happy, to be happy? But the problem is that often we don’t feel happy. In fact, happiness is often hard to find, life is filled with struggles, and hurts, and grief, and pain. We want to be happy but what we often experience is a lack of joy. ...

There is a Redeemer   Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Ruth 4:1-22     It’s probably one of the most asked questions in life, ‘Why?’ Why did God allow 22 people to die in the floods last week? Why did God allow thousands of homes to be destroyed? Why does God allow cyclones like the one hovering off the Queensland coast at the moment? Why does God allow a good bloke like James Polland, who used to be the youth worker at Launceston Reformed Church, plummet to his death in New Zealand earlier this week? Why don’t things turn out the way we...

Acts of Faith   Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Ruth 3:1-18    One of the most profound statements in all of Scripture is James 2:17, ‘17 …faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (Jam 2:17b)’ James implies that faith is more than just what you believe, rather faith is how your beliefs work themselves out in your behaviour.  For example, if you believe God is faithful then even when life gets messy you don’t despair. Faith in that situation means you trust God, which is seen in your behaviour, your confidence in God’s promises. Or let’s use James...

Pictures of Grace   Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Ruth 2:1-23    Seeing grace in action is something beautiful. I remember taking a toy off Zac because he kept throwing it his sisters. Of course he became really upset when to my surprise Bethany gave him her toy. She saw his pain, and even though he didn’t deserve it, in fact even though she was the target of his bad behaviour, she took something precious to her and gave it to him. That’s a picture of grace. Actually, it wasn’t all that intelligent, he threw it at her.   Last week we looked...

Finding Hope in the Mess of Life   Rev. Josh Hartog Text: Ruth 1:1-22    I don’t know about you, but sometimes, in fact quite regularly I’m struck by just how messed up our world is. You only have to watch the evening news and see the murders and the hatred and the anger and bitterness to see just how messed up our own country is, let alone what’s happening overseas.  And I used to think that it’s only out there in the secular world where people are so messed up, that is until I became a pastor. Now I know...

I was listening to a Geneva Push podcast earlier this week from their recent Multiply conference. It was a brief interview with Andrew Reid and his wife about their experiences in church planting. Andrew and his wife moved from WA to Melbourne to plant a church many years ago. He shared two challenges he and his wife have experienced in church planting. Firstly, while Melbourne is the fastest growing city in Australia, particular through Chinese immigration, the church is ‘thoroughly unprepared.’ He says, ‘[the church] has not touched the sub-cultures of Melbourne very well for the gospel at all. The challenge is...

Scripture: Colossians 4:3-4, ‘At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.’ Observations: Paul commands the Christians in Colossae to continue steadfastly in prayer (v2), and he adds, ‘at the same time, pray also for us.’ If they’re going to be praying regularly, he asks that they also pray for Paul and his team (who he lists in v7-17). And he asks them to...

Our vision as a denomination is to be a Church reforming to reach the lost for Christ. This was adopted as our vision by Synod 2006. It’s underneath our name on our official website, and it even has it’s own page on our website: https://crca.org.au/about-the-crca/vision But what does it mean to be a church reforming to reach the lost for Christ? The basic meaning of the word ‘reform’ is to make changes to something in order to improve it. When we use the word ‘reform’ in relation to the church, we aren’t just talking about making our churches run better, but...

I thought this week I'd share with you my devotion from this morning. I've been going through the New Testament and reflecting on every mention of prayer, as well as the prayers of Jesus and his disciples. I'm currently in the letter to the Hebrews, where it talks about the prayer life of Jesus. I hope you find it encouraging as you bring the lost before God in prayer. Scripture: Hebrews 5:7, ‘In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he...

In my personal devotion this morning I reflected on Jude’s beautiful doxology in Jude 24-25, and I spent some time reflecting on the final word of his letter, ‘Amen.’ We say it at the end of every prayer we ever pray. We say it when we agree with what has been said by others, we give a hearty ‘Amen!’ I say it at the end of my sermons. But amen is a declaration that what is said is true and reliable, that it is sure and certain. It’s saying that we actually believe what has been said. I love Reformed Theology,...

Every year we throw a Christmas Party for our local community. We invite our friends, family and neighbours to come along to an evening of fun, food, and fellowship. The big finale is our carols service. Every musician in our church is on board, we have a guitar, bass, drums, keys, saxophone violin, and flute and three singers. We decorate the hall with tinsel and coloured lights. We have amazing visuals on our screen. We sing all the classic carols and rock them up to the max. We have a kids’ section where we hand our glow sticks. And finally we...