Does your "stuff" define who you are?

You and STUFF...

As we go through our series on "you and..." tomorrow's sermon is all about stuff, that is- the material things that we own.

As I was preparing the sermon I thought to myself "why do we like stuff so much?"- I came up with a few reasons, one of which is that stuff provides us with our status.

An examples I heard of recently was to do with the apple iPhone. With the iPhone, you can purchase different applications to do different things- you can get games and helpful utilities, with most applications costing around $2.

But I heard of one application that someone created that doesn’t actually do anything. It’s called “I AM RICH”, and all it does is add a little crimson diamond to your phone’s screen (pictured left)... That’s all it is! A diamond logo- and it costs… $999 US

So, once you've payed your $999 US; all you get is this little “I AM RICH” diamond picture as proof to others that you are indeed rich.

Sounds pretty stupid right? Who would buy that? But- the crazy thing is that 8 people bought it before Apple removed it from the store! 8 people payed close to $1000 US, and it does nothing. And some guy just earned an easy $8,000. Talk about using stuff to define your status!

And we might not be that extreme, but I do think that we do it in other ways. The question is: is it a problem that we rely on stuff to define us? And what does God think about our stuff?

Come along to church this Sunday morning as we think about our "stuff", and see how Jesus has actually given us a better option than relying on stuff.

Legal but immoral

It is interesting that in public discourse about the Matthew Johns affair we haven't had the language to say that what he did was immoral even though it was legal. Somewhere along the line we equated the two thus giving the government the power to determine what is right and wrong. Scary for a 'free' nation.

Ashfield's Biggest Conversation

I can't go to Ashfield's Biggest Conversation. It's on tonight between 6 and 8pm at Ashfield Boys High. Let me know what happened at it if you are able to be part of it. 

Working bee

We have a church working bee on tomorrow. It would be great to come if you are able to. Starts at 9am.

When I'm older...

I just had a chat to one of the older members of our congregation and she was just so encouraging and concerned that people are truly converted and love Christ. I hope I'm like that when I'm older.

Help needed with Friendship Group

We are looking for people to be on the team that serves the Friendship Group (Saturday afternoons once or twice a term from 1-3.30pm). There are some opportunities on the 23nd May and 27th June. Be in contact with me if you are able to help out.

Threats to motherhood

On Sunday I preached mentioning threats to motherhood. The observations I made about our culture were:

• children - just hard work
  
• men - many find commitment hard
  
• wealth - kids a threat to this
  
• work - hard to juggle things
  

Just wondering if this was real or am I imagining things? Any thoughts from your experience? I wasn't trying to deal with situations where people wanted children and were unable to.

Communion on Good Friday?

I understand that Holy Communion over Easter is often shared on Easter Sunday and not Good Friday. Why not Good Friday?

you and ....

On Sunday we starting our new preaching series at Morning Church (9.30am) on 'You and ...'. The topics and dates are in the picture below. This week the topic is 'You and God'. Look forward to seeing you there! Chris.

Seating arrangement

I'm interested in ideas for different seating arrangements for church. At the moment it is hard to get in and out of the pews and people seem to prefer sitting further back and spaced out. Ideas?

Understanding Schizophrenia

Judy Roberts (Friendship Group Coordinator) is planning to go to a lecture on this topic of Schizophrenia. It on at WEA Sydney on Friday 22nd May from 6-8.30pm. The cost is $39. Ring me on 9798 5300 or email me if you want to be in contact with Judy about it.

Thanksgiving service for Sir Marcus Loane

On Wednesday at 10am there will be a Thanksgiving Service for Sir Marcus Loane (David's dad) at St Andrew's Cathedral in the city. Check out the interview below with Peter Jensen for more about the life of this amazing man.

Archbishop Jensen pays tribute to Sir Marcus Loane from Sydneyanglicans.net on Vimeo.

Living for him who died for you.... Billy Graham preaching

Fifty years ago in Melbourne...

One to one?

How important is one-to-one discipleship in the Christian life? Should churches make it an integral part of their 'program'.

No blond bimbo here

Check this out! Miss California answers a question at the Miss USA contest about gay 'marriage'. I understand that she was runner up in the competition. Makes you wonder....



NB. Marriage is a word that has a particular definition: lifelong commitment between a man and a woman. 'Gay marriage' actually equals 'committed gays'. If the gay community wants to use the word 'marriage' it might be an idea to come up with a whole new word for heterosexual or traditional marriage.

SMBC Preaching Conference - good stuff

I've been on the SMBC preaching conference for the last couple of days and we had a great talk from Bryan Chapell on Biblical Theology (Graham Goldsworthy style). He spoke about all Scripture having a FCF, that is a Fallen Condition Focus. It was a great reminder to see all of Scripture ultimately about dealing with our problem of sin in Christ Jesus.

Some of the best preaching training I have recieved has been from our Archbishop in throw away lines. One of them is something similar to Bryan's point. Peter has said to me: 'put people in the place the word of God puts them in and then let the word of God get them out of it.' It's been good stuff and I'm looking forward to tomorrow despite being pretty tired.

Stolen Furniture

During the week we had the outdoor furniture stolen from our front porch. We're not fussed too much about the furniture but it saddens us that someone will face judgment for this sin. May they repent from this and the other sins in their life. Chris.

Why is the gospel missing from your church?

It is so easy to fill the life of a church with so many things that the glorious gospel of Christ is missing. Why bother? Each morning I'm reminded of the fact that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's me.

Great night at SPLASH and FUEL

We had a great night tonight with our kids club, SPLASH and the new youth group, FUEL. Well done to all the leaders. Chris.