Toowoomba Vineyard Church

This talk is the final hurrah in a 3 week blitz through the theme of work and rest in Genesis 1-3. Weeks 1 and 2 focused on work, so... here's our take on sabbath rest. If you've ever wondered whether Christians need to observe sabbath, this one's for you. Also, if you've ever wondered what Abba's Super Trouper can teach us about the state of modern society, listen on!

Last week we talked about 'the blessing' in Genesis 1 — humanity's role in helping God continue the creative work of seeing the creation flourish. We ended with a fairly significant caveat... that often our work (or vocation) is awful. What's with that? This week's podcast has the answer.

This November we're spending some time in the opening chapters in the bible, looking at the biblical theme of work and rest. Our first message in this short series is all about the reason why humanity was created. Curious? We thought so.

In our third and final instalment of 'Demonstrating the Kingdom', Chris talks about the 'natural' ways we can show people what the Kingdom is like. To wrap up the series, he shares a simple object lesson that could help us understand why it's so hard to share our faith...

We're in a brief 3-week series called 'Demonstrating the Kingdom', which is all about the ways we can show people what the kingdom is like (for when they get sick of us just talking about it). This week, we're talking about the so-called 'supernatural' ways to demonstrate the kingdom, in particular the infamous 'spiritual gifts'. Chris explains how we can follow in the way of love, operate in the gifts, and how to do it in a way that doesn't accidentaly traumatise people or ruin their faith.

Fresh after a week off, we kick into a new mini-series called 'Demonstrating the Kingdom'. The idea is that if we want to be followers of Christ, we need to emulate him in his ministry. His ministry can be summed up by the phrase 'the proclamation and demonstration of the Kingdom of God.' As a church (in the West) that loves talk, we get 'proclamation'. But what does 'demonstrating the kingdom' mean? We're glad you asked.

This week our good friend Grant Armstrong (from Toowoomba Wesleyan Methodist Church) brings the word, continuing our series from Colossians. It's so good to get his perspective, coming from a different tradition, reminding us that deep, soul connection is supposed to be at the heart of the Christian tradition. We hope you don't mind the American accent 🤭

We continue on through Colossians, and this week we have the privilege of the venerable Laura Hoek (who you may know from our podcast intro/outro) bringing the word. The passage is a slightly uncomfortable one at the start of Colossians 3, which walks a delicate balance between a list of things not to do, and the fact that we can’t earn our salvation. How do we walk that tightrope? We’re glad you asked.

In this week's podcast, we really get into the meat of Colossians. In 2:5-16, Paul is writing to this fledgling church about how to experience true fullness — and how to avoid making it more complicated than it needs to be.

No actual cows were harmed in the making of this podcast.

This week, we begin in Colossians proper! After some opening banter, the apostle Paul kicks off with a poem (or possibly a hymn) which sums up the gospel, at least as it serves the purpose of the letter. There are two little words towards the end of this passage that totally blow up our narrow minded view of the good news, and help us realise that God's plan for reconciliation is way bigger than we could ever have imagined.

This week is the beginning of a new series (which the community is apparently VERY excited about) looking at the book of Colossians... so naturally, we start in the book of Philemon. It turns out this curious little book has a lot to teach us about living as a reconciled community, putting aside our differences and placing Jesus at the centre of it all. It gives us an important piece of context for Colossians too!

This week we turn to vision... who is God calling us to be, and why on earth does Toowoomba need another church? Chris shares about the why, how, and what of our little church, and a story about his dubious criminal past...

Probably one of the most famous biblical passages to churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike comes from Matthew 7, where Jesus says 'do not judge'. But what exactly is Jesus prohibiting here? Judging can mean anything from choosing which flavour of pie you want, to deciding on someone's future. Chris unpacks Matthew 7:1-5, and an unexpected passage from the Old Testament shines light on this urgent topic for today's church.

This week, guest speaker Helen Gould (Vineyard Brisbane West) shares everyone's favourite passage from Matthew — the 'do not worry' bit. In particular, we dig into some of the Jewish context to this passage, and why these words are so important for our day. Finally, yes, there's a Bob Marley impression. We thought it was pretty good.

This week's podcast started on a clean note with Chris telling us about the benefits of deodorant, and only improved slightly with a game of Jenga. All of this was in the pursuit of unpacking this week's portion of the sermon on the mount, in Matthew 6, when Jesus talks about 'treasures in heaven'.

The slides for this week would be helpful, so here they are:

https://tvc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2023-06-09-Slides.pdf

This week we dive deep into a section of last week's passage (that we conveniently skipped) — a collection of verses sometimes known as the Lord's Prayer. Chris leads us through it nearly word for word (it's better than it sounds), with some disconnected thoughts at the end (have we convinced you to listen yet?).

The Sermon on the Mount takes a crucial turn this week, as Jesus tells us why our motivation for living out Christianity matters a lot. Chris takes us through (most of) Matthew 6:1-16 (apparently the Lord's prayer isn't important), and three ways we can live it out in church culture.

Apologies about the slightly dodgy audio this week, it seems our fandangled mic didn't actually engage, so the audio you're hearing is Chris' phone. We did our best to make it nice for you!

Oh, and slides for this week were helpful, so we uploaded them here for your viewing pleasure.

https://tvc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/June-25-2023-Church-Slides.pdf

We've been so privileged to have Phil and Kath Henry (founding pastors of Northridge Vineyard, and long time friends) in town with us for the last few weeks. This was their last Sunday with us (for a while anyway) and Kath shared our next Sermon on the Mount message — on the topic of looooooove. It was beautiful. Give it a listen.

This Sunday we're privileged to have the venerable Phil 'Lasagne' (had to be there) Henry, continuing our Sermon on the Mount series. Since he's a guest speaker and won't be around as much, he got the joy of speaking about some of Jesus' most challenging teaching. Thankfully, it's good news...

After a week off church (no, we didn’t forget the podcast!) Mandy returns with week two of our Sermon one the Mount series. One of the key themes in this scripture is Jesus’ treatment of the ‘law and prophets’, and this weeks passage sets that up for us.

We've done it — we've made it all the way through Surprise The World! This week's letter is... well, in the interests of being exegetical, you'll find out after the passage. Chris wraps up the series with a look at the Great Commission in Matthew 28, and what it means to be 'sent' (oops) people.

It's week 4 of BELLS and this time, the subject is 'learning' Jesus. Mandy shares about how we can regain our passion for Jesus, and why studying him helps us represent him well.

This week, the BELLS series takes a slightly awkward turn... it switches gears from 'doing' to 'being'. If we want to transform the world around us, and not be transformed by the world around us, we need at least as much input as we give output. Today's habit, 'Listen', invites us to spend at least one period of time listening to the Spirit's voice.

We live in a world that's becoming increasingly polarised — opinions are black and white, and shades of gray just don't seem to exist anymore. What's more, there's this idea that beliefs come in sets... if you believe A, you must also believe B, and C, and D as well.

As it turns out, the Vineyard movement was born into just such a world, and gives us frameworks to navigate these tensions. In this week's podcast (a 'bonus episode' for our values series), Chris talks through the quest for the radical middle, and explores language that might just fit a bit better in the 21st century.

We talked a lot last week about kingdoms without really explaining what one is. It turns out they’re pretty important in the bible and they help us understand what this Christianity business is all about. In this message, Chris explains how he first discovered Jesus, and how his understanding of the ‘good news’ shifted through a discovery of the Kingdom of God.