Talks by Kirk Mackenzie (Page 3)
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Talks by Kirk Mackenzie (Page 3)

Strangers || Humility || 1 Peter 5:1-7

Finishing off this first-century letter to early Christians, Peter addresses the’elders’ of the communities he is writing to; that is, the senior leaders of the church. He gives them three tips for good leadership within the Church, which can be easily translated to any leadership positions. Peter then addresses people in positions of ‘followers’, under someone else’s leadership. Essentially, Peter says to lead and be led with humility. Kirk explores humility for leaders, and humility for followers in the final talk in our Strangers: Far From Home series.

Strangers || Be Holy || 1 Peter 1:13-25

A 2000-year-old letter written by one of Jesus’ friends, 1 Peter presents the Christian life as a journey that we all go on – beginning when we decide to start our relationship with Jesus, and ending when we see him face-to-face. Peter gives us directions for this journey, and this week Kirk explores Peter telling Christians to “be holy”, by being obedient. Obedience has a pretty lame reputation in most contexts, but Kirk shows us how being obedient can be a very good thing.

Joy In Your Life || It’s All Rubbish || Philippians 3:1-11

If you’ve done enough “good things” in your life, you get to go to the Good Place, right? And if you haven’t done enough “good things”, then you’ll go to the Bad Place, right? God says no! The only right way to be right with God is through a relationship with Jesus. It’s not about the things that you do in your life, it’s all about Jesus. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians even says it’s not about Jesus PLUS anything. It isn’t about Jesus plus these few key things, or traditions; it’s just about putting your faith in Jesus. If you think you’ve done too many bad things, so many that God can’t love you, to put it plainly: you are wrong. Anyone who puts their faith in Jesus can receive God’s love and forgiveness.

Freedom

If you don’t have much experience of church, or Jesus, this talk is for you. Kirk shares some stories about how he came to be standing up talking about Jesus to people, his experiences around Christianity and how he came to follow Jesus. This episode features a clip from The I.T. Crowd. The I.T. Crowd is ©Channel 4 2006-2013

The Servant – Obedient

Kirk wraps up our series on the prophecies of Isaiah, and the character of The Servant. Isaiah 50:4-11 speaks of the Servant being obedient, even to death, and that they are to be obeyed, in the same way that God is to be obeyed. The Servant, who we living so far in the future from these prophecies know to be Jesus, is said to bring a light into dark places. God doesn’t promise to make life easy for Christians, and the Christian faith isn’t one of earning God’s love, but accepting God’s freely given gift. God does promise to love us, though, and be with us in those dark places, and tough life circumstances we might find ourselves in.

An Intergenerational Community

Kirk continues unpacking our new church vision, Vision 2022, looking at our desire to be an intergenerational community. Jesus asks his followers, “Who is my mother, and who is my brother?”. As Christians, we are all a part of God’s family, and should treat each other as such. Doing life together, with people from generations outside of your own, can be one of the best examples of Christian life. The bible reading for this talk is Matthew 12:46-50.

Lamb of God

Our Look at Jesus series continues with Kirk exploring why John the Baptist would call Jesus the “Lamb of God”. What the heck does that mean? Kirk refers to the bible, John 1:29:34.

The Full Story of Christmas

At our 11pm Candlelit Christmas Eve service, Kirk shares a reflection of zooming out from the Christmas story, to remember to look at the full life of Jesus, and to remember that the baby in a manger lived, died and was brought back to life, all for us…

Jesus and the Spirit #1

As Christians, we believe in one God, with three distinct identities: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The first two of these, are pretty easy to understand, at a basic level. God the Father is the big guy in the sky, God the Son is Jesus, God in human form, but the Holy Spirit? That’s tougher to wrap our tiny human brains around. This series looks at what Jesus said about the one who would come after him, the holy spirit. 

Ruth Chapter 3

The third chapter in Ruth’s story; we’ve met the main characters, and now the drama really begins. Ruth and Boaz find themselves in a potentially volatile situation, but Boaz’s character is revealed as he holds true to the law, and continues to protect and uphold Ruth.   Caution: This episode is rated PG, and deals with issues around sexuality.

Getting Right with God

Continuing our Luke mini-series, we see Jesus tell a story about two men, praying to God. One prays loudly, basically saying “Thanks God, that I’m so great. Also, that other guy is the worst.” The second man, a tax collector, someone usually corrupt and generally not liked, prays humbly, and earnestly. Jesus says, be like him. How do we get right with God? Be humble. Kirk explains what that looks like.

Gently Restoring Others

Rather than sweeping conflict under the carpet and avoiding it we need to honestly and gently approach with other people when they have hurt or wronged us. Jesus tells us to go directly to the other person and deal with it one-on-one. This is perhaps t…

Do Not Worry

The final week of White (space) July addresses the lack of faith we often have when it comes to trusting God about the future. Younger generations, in particular, are put under a lot of Aussie pressure to set themselves up well for the future. Own a house, settle down, have savings, have investments, protect yourself! The Christian life brings an alternate mindset that acknowledges we are in a lot less control than we’d like to be and that that’s okay.…

Jesus: Lord of the Sabath

Keen listeners will remember our White (space) Christmas series from late 2016. In God’s word, we have a powerful and repeated command to embrace Sabbath rest. Most of us at St John’s are, by our own admission, ignoring or badly failing this command. This preaching series aims to help us do rest better and, when we do, everyone in our lives (family and friends) will benefit. Most importantly, our relationship with Jesus will benefit. This week, we look at how…

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Possibly the most well known I AM statement from Jesus. Our series continues this week to explore who Jesus says he is. We live in a “post-truth” world, but what is truth? Jesus claims to be the truth, above all.

Weeping over the Lost

Our ‘Lost’ series continues on Palm Sunday as Jesus enters Jerusalem, from Luke 19:28-44. While this was a joyful celebration of his kingship, it ends on a sad note as Jesus mourns that the city will reject him very soon. This story gives us a helpful way to understand what our response should be to those we love who have said ‘no’ to Jesus.

Finding My Religion

This is the first in our new series called ‘The Heart of Life’, where we think about how we can put God at the centre of our lives in practical ways. We will be looking at the book of Leviticus, a strange and difficult book of the Old Testament, which is probably the least favourite book of the Bible for many Christians. But it contains many images and concepts that make sense of the coming of Jesus. Kirk Mackenzie starts off the series by looking at Hebrews 8, where the ’shadow’ of Jesus in the Old Testament is discussed.

The Early Years of Jesus – Jesus’ Baptism

For our final sermon in the ‘Early Years of Jesus’ series, Kirk Mackenzie looks at Luke 3:21-22, the short but significant story of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. This story shows us more about who Jesus was, and how we can understand our own relationship to God the Father.

White (space) Christmas – Spend Less

This week in the lead up to Christmas we consider the greatest threat to ‘white space’ at this time of year – the demands of spending and keeping up with the obligations of the festive season. This can reveal to us our ’slavery’ to money and its place in our lives.