Partakers Podcasts..‪.‬ Dave Roberts

Sermon - Understanding the Kingdom (John 3:1-21)
 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You[d] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.
10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
(John 3:1-21) New Living Translation

To discover what more Jesus says about God's Kingdom, particularly concerning this passage, please do come and listen! You can also right mouse click or tap here to download the audio.

Partakers Bible Thought
6 June 2021
G'day! The world is in love, with love! Love sells everything! But what, or rather, who, started love? God did! The Bible tells the story of this God of love and we are going to very briefly in our time together talk about this great subject! Perhaps more books are written about the love of God than anything else! How is God love?


"LORD, give me your unfailing love, the salvation that you promised me." (Psalm 119:41)
Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. (Jeremiah 31:3)
"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them." (John 14:21)

As Christians, we proclaim God is love! Today we briefly explore how God is love, what kind of love this is and how this love is seen! What does that mean for us as Christians today? Listen to the podcast to hear more about this amazing aspect of God and its impact on your life and the world around you.

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The WOW factor of Jesus


Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16v24-26)

The Jesus I hear about today from some people outside the church, as well as inside the Church, bears no resemblance to the Jesus who said those words. They are comfortable with a Jesus who is at their mercy and who doesn't ask too much of them! They like putting Jesus in a box and only opening the box to let Him out when required! That Jesus is an insipid, nodding head, Jesus - worthy only of being on the back shelf of a car and that's about all.

But that is exactly the opposite of the Jesus who said those words from Matthew - the Jesus who commands obedience and sacrifice! As I look through the Old Testament, I read about how the world fell out of a living, dynamic relationship with God! But I also read how a Messiah, a saviour or rescuer if you like, was to be sent by God, in order to restore the world back into an intimate, living relationship with God Himself! I read the Gospels in the New Testament and I see this Messiah as the God-man, Jesus Christ.

As I read the rest of the Bible's New Testament and the history of the followers of Jesus Christ and the spread of his followers, the church, through its birth and early life, I get a WOW factor about Him. But for a lot of people today, including those who would call themselves a Christian, their view or vision of Jesus is still too small. So I wonder, is your Jesus too small?

 As I regularly read the Bible, I see at least a six-sided portrait of Him! There are many more, but we don't have time for that today, you might be thankful to hear! So the Jesus we will learn together about today in this podcast is: Jesus -unique, majestic, tender, wise, strong and lovely. Is this your Jesus? Listen to the audio to find out more about this Jesus!

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A God of Wonder - Genesis 1:1-19 & John 1:1-14
We read Genesis 1:1 - “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”

This is that moment in time when God, who is outside of time and space, created the universe which is 90 billion light years across. Within this universe, He created galaxies, including our own, the Milky Way. Within the Milky Way, God created a Solar system which contains our Planet Earth. God created the planet Earth and placed it so that it would always be just the right distance away from the Sun in order to support life. Never too close and never too far away as the Earth orbits the Sun. Just right.

We see in this story from Genesis 1, that Almighty God created, hovered, separated, made, let be, gathered, called, saw, commanded, set, gave and blessed. He said let there be light, and there was! A great God of Wonder is He! Do you know this God?

For the remainder of this sermon, download and listen to the Podcast. Thank you...

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Daniel 8 - Worlds In Conflict
We are looking today at an intriguing piece of Scripture - Daniel 8! In Chapter 7, the prophet Daniel had a dream of 4 animals, which were a winged lion, a bear, a winged leopard and a beast.  So let us read together Daniel 8.

v1-4 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; and no animals could stand before him, neither was there any who could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and magnified himself.

v27 I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days; then I rose up, and did the king's business: and I wondered at the vision, but none understood it.

Here in Chapter 8, we look at the bear, which is described here as a ram, and a winged leopard that is described as a goat. Unlike his previous two visions which occurred at night, this one occurs during the day. Daniel was transported in the Spirit to Susa, a major city of the Babylon & Persian empires. He sat down beside the Ulai canal, nine hundred feet wide and connected two large rivers so that boats could easily pass from one to the other. Spiritually seated by the river, he lifted up his eyes. He saw a ram, a male sheep, that had two horns, and as he watched, one of its horns became larger than the other.

Grab your Bible, and listen to the podcast to find out more about this intriguing and wonderful piece of Scripture!

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Once again, we are praying a prayer together concerning the Corona Virus Pandemic. I am sure each of us knows somebody who has contracted this virus, and quite possibly succumbed to it and died because of it. Come! Let's pray together!



O great God, as you know,
we are in the midst of this wretched COVID-19 global pandemic.
O Great Comforter,
embrace those grieving the loss of loved ones and wipe their tears.
We don’t know the right way to combat this pandemic,
but we know and trust that you do.
Therefore, give wisdom and courage to all those involved
in its treatment, prevention, cure and vaccine,
including our government and leaders.
May the vaccines be distributed diligently, justly, quickly and efficiently.
We thank you O God that they were prepared by wise people.
We thank you for all those caring for others during this time –
carers, nurses, medics and others.
May you O God, give them courage and wisdom.
Amen


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