BCUC Sunday Sermons & More

Burnside City Uniting Church
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BCUC is a community of people of all ages and all stages of faith that God has called from all over the world to prayerfully listen to God, learn the love of Jesus, encourage each other as friends and spread the joy of the Holy Spirit. Celebrating worship together each Sunday at 10 am is important to us, like recharging your phone each night, but much better. We love welcoming new people. As we aim to follow the ways and words of Jesus, we strive to raise children of God because we believe there is nothing better than fully knowing the life-giving identity Jesus gifts us.

  1. 2d ago

    Blessed to be a blessing - 4 October 2026

    Greetings to all the children of God.I am blessed. I am blessed beyond my understanding. AND so are you! We are all blessed beyond our understanding. But what does it mean to ‘be blessed’? Does it mean an easy road without bumps nor potholes? Long, straight, flat road.Hmm …. Sounds boring to me. And life’s not like that.As we journey through life, we have ups and downs, curves and straights, hills and valleys, mountain vistas and dark tunnels, good times and hard times. There are times of refreshment and times of crisis. Days of sunshine and days of rain. And it is better for us if we have these changes in our lives.But through all this change there is a constant. Our Heavenly Father and His love for us. As His children, we are blessed because God has chosen us to be His light in a broken and fallen world. Through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can have a relationship with a holy and righteous God. And He gives us His Holy Spirit to live in and through us.As this series on Genesis is coming to a close, I hope to encourage you to ‘look up’. To remember the calling God has on your life and the blessings He has poured into your life. To stop and think about where you are in your faith journey and how God, through His Holy Spirit, might be calling you to something new.For if we have been blessed, we have been blessed to be a blessing. We are called, not to hold the blessing for ourselves alone, but to pass it on and bless others with the gifts that God has given us.And may the Lord bless you and keep you.Your brother in Christ,Craig

  2. Sep 20

    Giving is Worship - 20 September 2026

    What comes to mind when you hear the word giving at church? For some, it’s a joyful reminder of generosity and worship. For others, it can be an uncomfortable topic. Especially when money is tight or we’ve grown up believing that money isn’t something we talk about.Over the next couple of weeks, we’re exploring why we give and, more importantly, what our giving says about our relationship with God.Jesus spoke about money and possessions a lot. In fact, many of his parables and teachings challenge us to look beyond the act itself and examine what is happening in our hearts.In the story of the widow’s offering, Jesus notices a woman who gives just two small coins. Compared with the large amounts being given by others, it seemed like almost nothing. Yet Jesus saw something the disciples might have missed. Her offering was an act of trust and surrender.This reminds us that worship isn’t just what we sing on a Sunday, it’s what we surrender to God.Giving is not simply about how much we give. It’s about the heart behind our giving, our trust in God, our priorities, and our willingness to place what we have into his hands.Like the little boy who offered Jesus five loaves and two fish, what we have might sometimes feel small or inadequate. But when we place what we have in Jesus’ hands, he can do what only he can do.As we explore giving together, our hope is not simply that we become better at giving, but that we become people whose whole lives are increasingly shaped by generosity, trust, freedom and worship. Kaitlyn

  3. Sep 13

    Giving is Freedom - 13 September 2026

    Dear friends of BCUC, Quick, lock the doors—or run away! It is two weeks of a stewardship and giving series at church. Yes, that moment when we talk about money! So perhaps people’s engagement with the series may depend on what responsibilities we might have at church.In all seriousness, though, I want to personally say something to all those who have given sacrificially of their finances in worship to God, in ways that support the life and mission of BCUC. Thank you! Your giving has provided the space and resources for the Kingdom of God to have a real impact in the lives of many people through the work of BCUC.Over the next two weeks we will look at giving, particularly our financial offerings to the church, as both worship and freedom. This Sunday we will view this through the lens of Genesis and the story of the Tower of Babel. In the city of Babel, the people were more interested in building a tower to the heavens in order to ‘make a name for themselves’ rather than fulfilling God’s instruction to go and fill the earth. So the question is asked: Which kingdom are we wanting to build? Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).We may want to silo our lives into different compartments: finances, family, work, church, holidays, emotions, health, etc. Whether we like it or not, Jesus often wanted to bring everything together and make the point that every part of our lives has a spiritual link - that God is concerned with every part of us and wants to help us with it.About a third of Jesus’ parables, and a good proportion of Jesus’ sayings, use money as a way of engaging people with deeper spiritual questions. Money - and more particularly our relationship with it - can be like a window into our souls. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).So it seems that Jesus could read a person’s heart from their bank statement. That may be either comforting or troubling for some! Either way, let’s take these two weeks to stop, examine ourselves, our budgets and our priorities, and bring them before God in prayer. Let’s ask for God’s gentle, loving wisdom, praying: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”Your Brother in Christ,Benji

  4. Sep 6

    God Remembered Noah - 6 September 2026

    Dear friends of BCUC, The Noah's Ark story is a well-known story. I wonder how many Noah's Ark kid's play sets have been made and played with around the world? Our imagination can delight in dreaming of every different animal going up the ramp into the Ark two by two and even the two giraffe sticking their heads out of the window looking over a great ocean.  There’s the joyous return of the dove with an olive branch in it's beak. Finishing with tableau of a new world with all the animals saved plus Noah and his family, all framed with a bright rainbow in the sky. It’s a story about God and a human family working together to save every living creature for a fresh start on a re-created earth. It’s an easy story to tell. Yet the origins of the story and the reasons behind it can be uncomfortable and challenging to think about. It’s a story that confronts the depth of humanity both good and evil, the holy nature of God, how they can live together and how creation becomes the meat in sandwich so to speak. It sets in motion God's great rescue plan of sending Jesus.  This Sunday let the message of the rainbow after the rain and the key moment when “God remembered Noah” be both an encouragement and a challenge for us today. Your Brother in Christ,Benji

  5. Aug 30

    Listening to God's Voice - 30 August 2026

    Dear friends of BCUC,   This Sunday at Sunday Funday YAV (first concert choir) will be singing a beautiful piece called “I am the gentle light” by Paul Mealor. Paul is a modern day Welsh composer who writes music and lyrics that express Christian theology and his strong Christian faith. The lyrical poetry of the song express a rich and biblical characteristic of God and is a call to faith “if you follow me, I’ll be with you for all eternity”. I invite you to sit with the lyrics and try to work out which references to scripture can be found. Let the lyrics rest on you like a message from our LORD, an answer to prayer, for whatever you might be going through today.   I look forward to seeing you this Sunday as we explore listening to the voice of God and enjoy blowing away the winter blues with some sunshine and lots of fun activities at Sunday Funday. Make sure you stay for the BBQ put on by our Netball teams as well as play a round of Mini-golf with someone new! Your brother in Christ Benji

  6. Aug 23

    Before the flood - 23 August 2026

    Noah was only 10 generations from Adam, but God saw how wicked humans had become, not only occasionally but with every thought, all the time. Also, divine beings were said to be breaching the boundary between heaven and earth and so it appeared that the whole cosmos was unwinding. People were treating “fallen ones” as mighty leaders, a situation with which we are familiar today.   How did God respond to this? Well, some have interpreted the Hebrew word ‘nacham’ as regret, but it would seem better translated as sorrow. God was grieving over his creation, and God’s heart was filled with pain. The flood is God’s response to a broken heart, not a result of anger. God’s nature as described in Exodus 34:6 remains constant: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. God was patient, between planning the flood and initiating it. It would have taken decades to build the ark and even when it was loaded, there was another 7 days before the rain began. God also wanted to preserve his creation by taking Noah and his wife and his 3 sons and their wives in addition to a breeding pair of every bird and animal so that God’s judgement and punishment and the rebuilding commenced on the same day.   Noah was given a name meaning comfort or rest in the hope that he could counter the corruption of humanity and he was righteous compared to his generation and did good works because he trusted God. God made a covenant with Noah that all would be destroyed, but those in the ark would be spared.   The ark itself was a big wooden floating box with no ablity for Noah to steer it. In the Hebrew it translates as a sacred container for preserving life; a sarcophagus. It was a mini-Eden in the middle of the chaos that would destroy the rest of the world. However, God would never cause such a flood again.   In the New Testament Jesus came into the world which had degenerated into the evil excesses of the Roman Empire, to save humanity again. In the New Testament in Matthew and Peter we are advised to watch for the return of the Lord if the world is in the midst of corruption, rebellion and violence. The story of Noah and the flood is meant to communicate many spiritual truths about God and God’s faithfulness to creation. Even if the details are a parable, this does not change these truths.   Today the church is the ark of salvation in the world. The faith of Christians makes us righteous and able to do good work. We in the church have a tremendous responsibility to bring the world around to God, but what a privilege.   Ian Olver

  7. Aug 16

    When comparison takes over - 16 August 2026

    Dear friends of BCUC, If you are looking for examples of the perfect family in the bible you need to search pretty hard. Genesis 4 is all about Adam and Eve’s grown up kids. The consequences of bad decisions quickly escalate. The oldest son kills his younger brother out of jealousy because it seemed to Cain that God looked more favourably upon Abel’s offering. Having been warned by God to “watch out because sin is crouching at your door, eager to control you”. Cain ignores God's advice and the result is murder. This is not a happy story. However, if you examine it carefully, you will find that God’s response is justice, judgment and grace, not anger.  How well do we deal with temptation? Cain lets his anger control him; anger caused by jealousy, jealousy caused by comparing himself to someone else, and comparison that leads him to desire what someone else has. Instead of seeking God’s favour for himself, he would rather see the other person lose it. Have things changed that much for humanity? How many times do we compare ourselves to others and think, “I wish I was as blessed as they are”? We forget the first line of Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” It is trust in God that brings contentment with life. Contentment with God does not mean abandoning holy ambition or zeal in prayer and action: “your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” But that holy ambition needs to be checked with the question: Am I comparing myself to others? In 1441 Thomas Kempis, and Augustinian monk wrote “temptations are more easily overcome if they are never allowed to enter our minds. Meet them at the door as soon as they knock”. He emphasised “the key to victory is true humility and patience” alongside prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit.  This Sunday we will take a deep dive into the pattern of temptation and sin that was first set up in Eden. The result for this first family is that they move further and further away from Eden, and from a trusting relationship with each other and with God. Thanks to Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit, God draws us back into that relationship that sin disrupts. I look forward to seeing you Sunday, Benji

  8. Aug 9

    The Test - 9 August 2026

    I wish the story of Genesis finished at the end of chapter 2. But it doesn’t. It ultimately sets the foundations for Jesus saving work on the cross. So that’s good. But if only Adam and Eve didn’t take the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, if only they trusted the Lord God and kept His instructions, if only they hadn’t listened to the snake, if only they stayed satisfied with every other fruit in that perfect picture of the garden of Eden. Then maybe we would still be there now… no more pain, death, disease, violence, blame, brokenness. Instead paradise! How do we get back to paradise? That perfect place where God created a world full of beautiful creation, relationship and joyful work to be done. When the Lord himself would come in the cool of the evening to hang out together. Where the fruit of the tree of life was delicious and plentiful. How do we get back to that home? The answer finally comes after many more stories and generations. Verse and chapters and books of the Bible roll by until Jesus. He was given a similar task of trust and he passed it, bringing humanity back home to paradise through the redeeming work of the cross. Thanks be to God. This Sunday let the wonder, the shame, the blame and the salvation of Genesis 3 speak deeply to you. We look forward to seeing you this week.  Your brother in Christ Benji

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About

BCUC is a community of people of all ages and all stages of faith that God has called from all over the world to prayerfully listen to God, learn the love of Jesus, encourage each other as friends and spread the joy of the Holy Spirit. Celebrating worship together each Sunday at 10 am is important to us, like recharging your phone each night, but much better. We love welcoming new people. As we aim to follow the ways and words of Jesus, we strive to raise children of God because we believe there is nothing better than fully knowing the life-giving identity Jesus gifts us.

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  • Creator
    Burnside City Uniting Church
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    82
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Burnside City Uniting Church
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    BCUC Sunday Sermons & More