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Written by: George Hemmings

Created: 01 June 2014

Surviving the Education System  audio (5MB)
Daniel 1

There’s lots to be excited by in the book of Daniel.  Daring stories of young men standing up to mad kings.  Fiery furnaces, strange dreams of statues and trees, men turning into beasts, hands appearing out of nowhere writing on walls, let alone Daniel being throne into the lions den, perhaps one of the most well known stories from the bible, thanks to Sunday school and kids clubs.  All that’s just in the first six chapters!  Then there’s all the dreams and visions in chapters 7-12.  We’ll get to those next year.  About all it’s missing is a damsel in distress and a dragon.  Although if you read the Apocrypha, both of those are associated with Daniel. 

But when you stop and think about it for a moment, Daniel and his friends are an unlikely bunch of heroes.  Sure we read in verse 3 that he was from the royal family or nobility.  Young, without physical defect, handsome, versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and insight and competent to serve.  Daniel’s the kind of boy you hope your son, or grandson, or great grandson might be.  What’s more he’s studying on exchange, might be a humanities degree, but he’s got good job prospects!

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Written by: Chris Appleby

Created: 01 June 2014

Daniel

Preached in two section - 1-6 & 7-12 (Note No 8 covers chs 8 & 10-12)

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Written by: Chris Appleby

Created: 18 May 2014

audio (5MB)

2 Chron 31:2-10

2 Cor 8:1-15

Like everyone else I enjoy getting gifts from friends and family. But I’ve realised over the past few years that I actually enjoy giving gifts even more. Partly that’s because I have so much, I often don’t need the things I’m given. We’re downsizing at the moment in preparation for moving house, so I need even less things. But it’s actually more than that. It's that I enjoy seeing the looks of pleasure on the other person's face when I get it right and give them something they really like. 

Is that something you experience? Do you enjoy giving gifts as much as you enjoy receiving them? I wonder, does it depend on the occasion or the recipient? It’s always fun to give gifts to our grandchildren and see the look of delight on their faces. When someone receives some honour you might give them a gift as part of your joining in their joy. Or sometimes it’s the other way around. When our son, Paul, was finally awarded his PhD he gave the framed certificate to Di as a gift because he knew it’d brought her joy to know he’d finally got there.

In our two passages today we read of people who give with great joy, one group to the Temple in Jerusalem and to those who look after it and the other to fellow Christians who are in financial difficulty because of their faith, again, in Jerusalem.

Read more: The Joy of Giving

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Written by: John Altmann

Created: 11 May 2014

audio (5MB)
1 Chronicles 29
Garrison Keilor, who used to have a radio program about life in small town America called Lake Woebegon days, wrote this lovely short story called, The Collection.
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Next week at church we are having a special offering towards our building fund. So do be careful if you start writing out a cheque during the sermon!
There are lots of things that God cares about. The church building fund is just one of many things God is passionate about us supporting. You have to balance up what you give to people who are suffering and need help in Australia, what you give to people in poverty and lacking in opportunity overseas, what you give towards the outreach of our church to people around here, and what you give towards supporting God’s missionary work all over the world. God calls us to be generous towards all the things he is passionate about. So there are lots of offerings to God that we make.
What we are asking you to give though is not a user pays fee. Its not like we’ve calculated what it costs to run the buildings which is about $220/day then divided that amongst 160 members of St. Thomas’ and said we’ll send you a bill for $1.37/day which is $41.10/month or $495/year but we’ll give you a 10% discount if you pay up front in advance ! No, what we are asking you to do is to make an offering to God.

Read more: Principles for making an offering to God

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Written by: John Altmann

Created: 04 May 2014

audio (5MB)
2 Cor 9:6-15

1 Tim 6:17-19

Yesterday on the front of the business section of The Age  was this article: “Ramsay billions willed to charity”

Paul Ramsay who founded a private hospital company died last Thursday of a heart attack at 78. And his entire fortune of $3.4 billion is to be transferred to a charitable foundation that he set up.

Are we as generous as that?
Are we rich in giving to others ?
Are we surrounded by people from our own culture who are joyful in giving money and time to other people?
Are you part of a generous family?
Finally after you soak up all these influences around us, are you generous as an individual?
Or do we tend to hoard things up for ourselves and our own security and status?
I ask this question because the NT commands us to be generous.

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Written by: Chris Appleby

Created: 04 May 2014

The Joy of Giving