Church news for the week beginning 28th January 2024

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OUR SERMON

This Sunday we’re going to hear Andrew McPhail speak to us on the topic‘We Weren’t Expecting That!’ from Luke 9:28-36.’

NEW PREACHING SERIES

Starting next week, Jodie will be preaching a new series for Term One called ‘The Promise of the Holy Spirit’ as we look at what Jesus said on the night before he died about the Holy Spirit from John 14-16.

YOUTH AND CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS IN HOLIDAYS

Our normal midweek weekly groups for children and youth starting again this Friday 3rd February with Spark (years 4 to 6) at 4:30pm and Youth (years 7 to 12) at 7pm in the hall.

WELCOME RACHEL!

Our brand-new Children’s Minister, Rachel Bemmer, started with us on Monday. Praise God! Her email is rach.bemmer@jamberooanglican.com and her mobile is 0466 611 838

MORNING PRAYER

Join us at 7am every day (except Sunday) at zoom.jamberooanglican.com as we gather to read the Bible, pray, and encourage each other as the new day dawns.

JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH

Our book of the month for January is ‘Do More Better’ by Tim Challies. Physical copies are available at our bookstall or buy online at: wanderingbookseller.com.au

SUPPORT MOUSSA

To subscribe to Moussa’s supporters’ email and to find out more about other ways to support him and his ministry, email him at moussa277@gmail.com To contribute financially visit gradsfund.org/support/give and select “Moussa Ghazal” where it asks “Please select for whom you are giving”

GIVING UPDATE

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. For last month, our average weekly giving was $5402.00, leaving a gap of $898.00. Up to the end of last month, we needed to have received $81,900. Compared to that total we received $71,624, leaving a gap of $10,276.

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Jamberoo Anglican Church. Account number: 356831. BSB: 032605.

Integrating Enquirers

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If you’ve ever visited our church you’ll know that we love to include and integrate enquirers into every aspect of our church.

So, if someone wants to come and check out Jesus, then our everyday church is the perfect place to drop in and see what we’re on about.

This is also true of our home groups, as we love to have people along who might prefer the relaxed nature of meeting with a few others to talk about what Jesus has said and the real difference he makes in our lives.

Some people think that it’s too tricky to run a group that helps mature Christians grow stronger, whilst also being a place that helps visitors learn about the basics of what Christians believe.

But, the thing about the Bible is that as it helps us understand more about who God is and who we are, it ends up being a message that is for everyone, no matter what their place on their journey of faith.

This is what we see in the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his colleague Timothy, where he says:

“But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

The same things that enquirers are taught as they come to know Jesus for the first time are the same things that long-term followers of Jesus need to keep hearing and believing.

Which is why it makes so much sense to be integrating new believers into the everyday life of our church… so you’re very welcome, no matter where you are on your journey to know Jesus!

JODIE McNEILL

Coming up this weekend 28th January 2024

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This Sunday Andy McPhail will be speaking to us on the topic, ‘We weren’t expecting that!’ from Luke 9:28-36.

If you can’t join us in person, then connect with us by livestream by going to watch.jamberooanglican.com or follow us on Facebook.

Our weekly Question Time has only one question so far:

1 What did the image on last week’s sermon page represent?

That’s only one question… which means there’s lots of room for your question… so hit ‘reply’ and send in your questions, and Jodie will add it to the list and answer it during church this Sunday.

After church we’ll have brunch in the morning and dinner in the evening, so there’s plenty of time to chat and chew, together!

See you on Sunday, God willing!

Church news for the week beginning 21st January 2024

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OUR SERMON

This Sunday we’re going to hear Trevor Lucas speak to us on the topic ‘God of Mercy, God of Judgement, God of Justice’

YOUTH AND CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS IN HOLIDAYS

Our normal midweek weekly groups for children and youth are taking a break over Christmas and will resume late January. But remember, every Sunday’s perfect for people of all ages and stages!

JANUARY PREACHERS

In January we welcome to our pulpit Trevor Lucas (21st January) and Andy McPhail (28th January).

WELCOME RACHEL!

Our brand-new Children’s Minister, Rachel Bemmer, officially starts with us on Monday. Praise God! Her email is rach.bemmer@jamberooanglican.com and her mobile is 0466 611 838

MORNING PRAYER

Join us at 7am every day (except Sunday) at zoom.jamberooanglican.com as we gather to read the Bible, pray, and encourage each other as the new day dawns.

JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH

Our book of the month for January is ‘Do More Better’ by Tim Challies. Physical copies are available at our bookstall or buy online at: wanderingbookseller.com.au

SUPPORT MOUSSA

To subscribe to Moussa’s supporters’ email and to find out more about other ways to support him and his ministry, email him at moussa277@gmail.com

GIVING UPDATE

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. For last month, our average weekly giving was $5402.00, leaving a gap of $898.00. Up to the end of last month, we needed to have received $81,900. Compared to that total we received $71,624, leaving a gap of $10,276.

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Jamberoo Anglican Church. Account number: 356831. BSB: 032605.

No place like home

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When you ask someone to share a coffee or a meal, then the next question is often, “which cafe should we go to?”

These days we tend to ‘eat out’ much more than we invite people to our homes, which is a sign of our increased wealth and our changing lifestyle.

Yet, there is something very special about enjoying food and fellowship with someone in your home, as you get to share an intimacy and vulnerability that comes from letting others see what your life is really like, and vice versa.

The Old Testament people of God knew about the intensity of the fellowship of a meal, and that’s why they were forbidden from sharing a meal with a non-Jew; it was such a powerful moment of fellowship that dining with an unclean person could make someone unholy.

This is what made Jesus’ behaviour so controversial, for he invited, “disreputable sinners,” to eat with him in homes, which lead the teachers of religious law to ask his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” (Matthew 9:11) 

This is why that contemporary experts in evangelism encourage Christians to use meals as a platform to help people know how good it is to follow Jesus, especially now that we live in such a ‘post Christian’ world.

That’s why our small group leaders are now discussing whether it’s possible to turn our ‘growth groups’ into ‘home groups,’ so that we might start our times of Bible study and prayer with a meal around someone’s dining table each time.

What better way to help people in our village, valley, and region to know how to follow Jesus and why it matters, than to use our home groups as a hub for relational evangelism?

What do you think: could your growth group work better with a meal in a home?

JODIE McNEILL

Coming up this weekend 21st January 2024

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This Sunday Trevor Lucas will be speaking to us on the topic, ‘God of Mercy, God of Judgement, God of Justice’ and will be bringing us a survey of these themes from the Old Testament books of 2 Kings, Isaiah and Nahum.

If you can’t join us in person, then connect with us by livestream by going to watch.jamberooanglican.com or follow us on Facebook.

Our weekly Question Time has the following questions that Jodie will be answering:

1 Did God create demons?
2 Did God the father suffer on the cross?

There’s still time to add a few to this list, so email us with your questions and Jodie will start preparing answers!

After church we’ll have brunch in the morning and dinner in the evening, so there’s plenty of time to chat and chew, together!

See you on Sunday, God willing!

Church News for the week beginning Sunday 14th January 2024

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OUR SERMON

This Sunday we’re going to hear Moussa Ghazal speak to us on the topic ‘The Servant King’ from Matthew 20:17-28. He’ll also be sharing with us about his ministry on the campus of Sydney University.

YOUTH AND CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS IN HOLIDAYS

Our normal midweek weekly groups for children and youth are taking a break over Christmas and will resume late January. But remember, every Sunday’s perfect for people of all ages and stages!

JANUARY PREACHERS

In January we welcome to our pulpit Moussa Ghazal (14th January), Trevor Lucas (21st January) and Andy McPhail (28th January).

SUMMER CAMPING AT BURRILL PINES

Join your church friends for a relaxed camping trip at Burrill Pines (near Ulladulla) next weekend, 20-21st January and the days before and after as you’re able. Speak to Adrian Nette 0414 193 945 for more details.

MORNING PRAYER

Join us at 7am every day (except Sunday) at zoom.jamberooanglican.com as we gather to read the Bible, pray, and encourage each other as the new day dawns.

JANUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH

Our book of the month for January is ‘Do More Better’ by Tim Challies. Physical copies are available at our bookstall or buy online at: wanderingbookseller.com.au

SUPPORT MOUSSA

To subscribe to Moussa’s supporters’ email and to find out more about other ways to support him and his ministry, email him at moussa277@gmail.com

GIVING UPDATE

Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. For last month, our average weekly giving was $5402.00, leaving a gap of $898.00. Up to the end of last month, we needed to have received $81,900. Compared to that total we received $71,624, leaving a gap of $10,276.

Electronic giving is a great way to give! It helps us prayerfully plan our giving, and then the bank will help us keep that commitment, even when we may be unable to attend. To give by direct transfer then these are the details. Account name: Jamberoo Anglican Church. Account number: 356831. BSB: 032605.

How To Be Free

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One of the most amazing things about being a Christian is that we are saved by God’s free gift of grace, and not by what we’ve done.

But the problem is that this clashes with our performance-based world, in which we love to reward achievement and success.

We love to be able to point to our wins and, ultimately, to justify ourselves by all the good things we’ve done.

Yet, if it was possible for us to achieve enough to save ourselves from God’s righteous anger, then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to die for us.

But Jesus had to die because we were helpless: and so that’s why we can only, ever, be saved by free grace—God’s rich mercy.

However it was only a short time after Jesus died that some of his redeemed people felt the need to reintroduce some of the Old Testament laws into the New Testament life.

The most obvious of these were related to the infamous Jewish customs of food laws (not eating with non-Jews) and circumcision (a physical ‘badge’ for men.)

But the Apostle Paul, who was converted to Christ after a life as a zealous Jew, saw that a return to this legalistic past was to deny the riches of the mercy of Jesus, and to instead return to the failed religion of the past.

Some did this because they wanted a clear way to show their own contribution to their faith, as some sort of visible guarantee or tangible achievement.

Yet, to do that was only to return to slavery, even though they had been freed by Jesus.

This is the message at the heart of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, and it’s a timely reminder to embrace the rich mercy of Christ and celebrate true freedom.

JODIE McNEILL 

Coming up this weekend 14th January 2024

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This Sunday Moussa Ghazal will be speaking to us from Matthew 20:17-28 on the topic, ‘The Servant King.’ he will also be sharing with us about his student ministry and helping us know how to best pray for him and support him.

If you can’t join us in person, then connect with us by livestream by going to watch.jamberooanglican.com or follow us on Facebook.

Our weekly Question Time resumes this Sunday, and Jodie’s already preparing answers to these questions:

1 Why did we sing “Hail the Son of Righteousness” not “Sun?”
2 Why do some Bible translations leave out Matthew 17:21?
3 Are angels and demons eternal?
4 Do seraphim and cherubim ever come down to earth?
5 Can we please have Bibles available in church?

There’s still time to add a few to the list, so email us with your questions.

After church we’ll have brunch in the morning and dinner in the evening, so there’s plenty of time to chat and chew, together!

See you on Sunday, God willing!

Why Reach Globally?

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If we are so eager to grow our church in Jamberoo, then why would we bother focusing on reaching people globally?

Well, in one sense, the answer is simple: Jesus tells us to, “go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19), and so we’re simply doing what he tells us to do.

That’s why we partner with the Church Missionary Society (best known as ‘CMS’) and it’s why several of our church members attend the week-long ‘CMS Summer School’ conference in Katoomba this week.

It’s also why we love to financially support people who have gone out from our local churches to tell people around the world how to follow Jesus and why it matters.

But another thing Jesus told us was that, “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” (Acts 20:35) and it often turns out that churches with a focus on world mission get revved up for sharing the good news of Jesus with their local area.

This is something I personally experience each year when I head up to the Blue Mountains for this conference, for as we pray that the people of the world would know Jesus, it enthuses me to pray the same for the people in our own village, valley and region.

As our heart for world evangelism beats a bit faster, it helps us see the deep need for people to share our certainty for eternity that can be found only in Jesus Christ—no matter where they live on the globe.

Then as we look locally, we see opportunities for relational evangelism, as we seek to be Christ’s ambassadors to the precious people God has placed before us, as he makes his appeal through us..

JODIE McNEILL