Alexandra Baptist Church

We need to prepare our hearts to receive the seed of God's word. Not only will we bear fruit but our harvest will include seeds that we have the responsibility to scatter. Not all of the seeds we sow will immediately bear fruit but we should persevere.

Despite being depicted as a "nice guy" throughout the last few centuries, the gospels reveal that Jesus was not afraid to challenge people to repent in order to enter the Kingdom of God and enjoy times of refreshing.

As more and more people turn to AI for friendship and support we need to remember that God has designed us to be part of a human community and the best community is the church, despite its imperfections.

In chapter 4 of the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar recounts how God humbled him. It reminds us that that we should not become arrogant about our accomplishments and realise that our aim should be to humbly serve God with the gifts he has given us.

God calls us to partner with Him in building the kingdom of God here on Earth. One way to do that is to support mission and aid agencies including Arotahi Build, which is a national Baptist initiative to build social housing in Christchurch. Some of the rental income from it will then be used to refurbish hostel accommodation in Bangladesh.

Mary said "Yes" when an angel announced that she was to bear Jesus. As a result of saying "Yes" she witnessed  Jesus first miracle at Cana as well as the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. If we say "Yes" to what God asks us to do  we too, can partner with God in building His kingdom

Jacob's life mirrors ours. We too, try to control our lives and are tempted to lie, manipulate and deceive but we need to be honest as we wrestle with God. And if we are tempted to fall back into sinful patterns of behaviour we need to stop wrestling and cling to God.

Will we stand up to peer pressure and refuse to bend the knee to the idols in our culture?

Tune in to hear Craig and James, two of the Teaching Team at ABC, unpack the final main chapter in the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.  They'll outline how the future promise of eternal life for all who follow Jesus is shaped by the everyday decisions we make to live a life of love.

True  freedom can only be accomplished in love, the love of God and the love of others.

No matter how we have been treated in the past by other people, God sees us as persons of worth, deserving dignity.

Authenticity is being true to your Christian self. You are created by God who desires that you follow His truth.

Often things in our life break down and we need to turn to God admitting that we can't fix things ourselves.

We need to surrender the keys of our live to God, the divine mechanic, who is able to fix us and get us up and running again.

When the church acts as it is supposed to act it is the best expression of a loving, caring community you could ever find. The challenge to us is to work together to be that kind of church.

True love is much more than romantic love.

It is the kind of love which puts others first.

Daniel interprets king Nebuchadnezzar's dream and we are living in the time represented by the feet made of iron and clay.

Athaliah followed the evil example of her parents and even tried to wipe out all the descendants of David's line.

But since God had promised David that descendants would rule He protected  Athaliah's grandson Joash, until he was able to ascend to the throne. And under the guidance of Jehoiada he restored the worship of Yahweh.

Amaziah started well but was not wholehearted in his worship of God.

He stopped listening to God and became obsessed with his own selfish ambition which led to his downfall.

We too, are at risk losing our relationship with God if we think that we know better than He does.

We need a deep cleansing of hearts so that we can serve Him wholeheartedly and to know the joy of the salvation that God offers us through the Holy Spirit.

When Hezekiah was faced with a huge, bloodthirsty Assyrian army on his doorstep he turned to God for help.

And God supernaturally destroyed the invading army. We too, can receive God's help when we humbly turn to Him in a crisis.

The word 'Nazi' is still being used to describe someone who is cruel, evil, dominating and murderous.

Yet, even some of them will be in heaven because they genuinely repented before they were executed at Nuremberg.

And their last words were to admit their status as sinners and call on God's mercy.

Daniel was taken captive from Jerusalem to Babylon but early one chose to obey God rather than man. 

As a result God blessed him and Daniel was able to positively influence several rulers during the next 70 years.

If we put our faith in God, we too can positively influence those around us, despite the tough times we might find ourselves in.