1. GAIUS WHO HELPED GOD’S WORD (verses 1 to 8)
2. DIOTREPHES WHO HINDERED GOD’S WORK (verses 9 to 10)
3. DEMETRIUS WELL SPOKEN OF (verses 12 to 14)
Download a copy of this as a PDF from here: Three Christians – 3 John – Graham Errington – 5th & 6th January 2019.
Resolutions are shared time and time again in early January.
People want to be healthier and resolve to eat better and exercise more regularly. People see their need for other people and want to spend more time with those they love. People want to drink less and spend less. To slow down and appreciate. People want to be better.
Though the calendar ticks over, it is safe to say that not much changes. People go back to work after Christmas, settle into old routines and look forward to the season of celebration once again at the end of the year.
But why does this one night in the year where everyone stays up late and take in countdowns and fireworks inspire so much?
Because when you “take away the exploding fireworks, celebrations, roaring countdowns and resolutions what you are left with is human hope… the hope of better days, of new beginnings, and perhaps, if you are especially lucky, a kiss.” (Beautiful Taplin)
Hope is inspired at New Year’s. But in this time of renewal and the magnitude of human hope that comes with it, ask yourself, your family, your friends and neighbours where that hope is placed.
As magical as the Christmas and New Year season can be, if hope is not placed in the saviour Jesus Christ, it is empty.
This season is a great time to point people towards Jesus and offer them a true and lasting hope not just for the first few weeks of 2019, but forevermore.
“We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.” Psalm 33:20
– RAYNE ORANGE
This weekend Graham Errington will be speaking on the topic ‘Three Christians’, from 3 John.
It’s the right time for us to recognise many of the needs of our missionaries, so at both our services, we will have a special update about Anglicare which is our Mission of the Month.
At our Saturday 5pm service we will have our popular weekly question and answer time, and Graham will be answering this question:
Our 8am Sunday service will be a Morning Prayer AAPB service.
If you’re wanting to check out our church we’d really love you to visit us on Saturday at 5pm for a contemporary service with kids’ program and dinner afterwards. Our youth group ‘Alive’ is taking a break for the holidays. Or come along on Sunday at 8am for a Prayer Book service.
See you at 5pm this Saturday or 8am this Sunday, God willing!
We’re delighted that you could join us today during this time of holidays. If you’re taking some time off with family and friends then be sure to give thanks to God for the joy (and sometimes challenges) of relationships, as we hope for Heaven!
This weekend we welcome Graham Errington who will be speaking on “Three Things” from 2 John.
Next weekend Graham Errington will be speaking on “Three Kings” from 3 John.
Special Religious Education (SRE) is our mission of the month. Support this ministry through the ‘Mission Table’ in the Hall.
Jodie and his family are now on leave and will return on 12th January. Please contact Graham for pastoral care during this time.
On Tuesday 22nd January at 7pm we’ll be hosting a special service for our church and our community as we invite the Bishop to formally welcome Jodie as our full-time Rector for next year. Put the date in your diary, and pray that God will use it to help people know about the exciting new stage of our parish.
Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. In the last calendar month, our average weekly giving was $5509.00, leaving a gap of $791.00.
Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $273,000. Compared to that total we received $245,588, leaving a gap of $27,412.
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: Church of England Jamberoo. Account number: 10081274. BSB: 062562 .
As the New Year approaches what is it that we as Christians should be holding on to?
There are three characteristics that are highlighted in the New Testament as they occur together time and time again. What would you put in your top three?
The Apostle Paul says “and now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13.
Faith looks back to the past looking to what Jesus has done. Love has eyes on the present, our response everyday for what Jesus has done. Hope looks forward.
While love may be the greatest, I wonder if it is hope that we are most in need of being reminded of. It is easy to worn down by the world, discouraged in our faith. We may be worried about uncertainty in our lives.
Hope is the answer. But not the way our world uses it. Hope is often used today to mean something along the lines of wishful thinking, the kind of characteristic you would find among optimistic people.
But hope is a characteristic for all Christians. Our hope is not in some vague picture of the future, but in the solid truth of the resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruits of that day when he will return and raise us upto the new creation – our glorious inheritance.
So Paul prays: “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance“ Eph 1:18.
Why is it our hope grows dim?
Perhaps we are captivated simply by the present. Our love is misdirected to the things of this world instead of being captivated by the one to come.
Perhaps we have stopped looking to the past, where what Jesus has done assures our future.
Our world wants us to doubt and worry, but hope is the antidote. Don’t let it grow dim, for in Jesus the resurrection has already begun, and so your hope is secure.
– SIMON CHAPLIN
This weekend Graham Errington will be speaking on the topic ‘Three Things ‘, from 2 John.
We will also be hearing an update about the new churches that have been established thanks to the Archbishop of Sydney’s New Churches for New Communities (NCNC) initiative.
Our 8am Sunday service will be the Lord’s Supper Sunday Service.
If you’re wanting to check out our church we’d really love you to visit us on Saturday at 5pm for a contemporary service with kids’ program and dinner afterwards. Our youth group ‘Alive’ is taking a break for the holidays. Or come along on Sunday at 8am for a Prayer Book service.
If you can’t make it in person, you’re welcome to jump online to watch the service (with the same sermon and many other items) at www.oakflats.tv.
See you at 5pm this Saturday or 8am this Sunday, God willing!
Summer is a wonderful thing. Golden days and warm evenings.
But our summers also reckon with those two great forces of nature – fire and water.
Both are able to turn against us in a moment – and we need saving.
Sometimes, as we have seen tragically in fires in California and in Australia, we can miss the signs and don’t see the need of a saviour till it’s too late.
How welcome are the faces of the surf lifesavers or the bushfire fighters who spend their summers risking their own lives to save us when we are in trouble.
At Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of a saviour for all time. Luke, the historian, records this in the Bible – ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’
When God, who created us – says we need a saviour and sends one – we should listen.
Make this Christmas a time to reach out to Jesus – the saviour we all need.
May you all have not just a stocking filled Christmas, but a Christ-filled Christmas.
– DR GLENN N DAVIES
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
This weekend we welcome Graham Errington who will be speaking on “The genealogy of Jesus” from Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 to 17.
Join us at the special time of 9.30am on Christmas Day for an all-age, community celebration of the birth of Jesus! Jodie McNeill will be speaking on the topic “Follow the star” from Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12.
Special Religious Education (SRE) is our mission of the month. Support this ministry through the ‘Mission Table’ in the Hall.Toys ‘n Tucker
Jodie and his family are on leave from the 6th December, and will return on 12th January, but will be popping in on Christmas Day when Jodie will preach. Please contact Graham for pastoral care during this time.
For the next two weekend’s we welcome Graham Errington as our preacher, before we welcome Trevor Lucas for one week.
On Tuesday 22nd January at 7pm we’ll be hosting a special service for our church and our community as we invite the Bishop to formally welcome Jodie as our full-time Rector for next year. Put the date in your diary, and pray that God will use it to help people know about the exciting new stage of our parish.
Each week we need to receive $6300.00 in order to meet our commitments. In the last calendar month, our average weekly giving was $5509.00, leaving a gap of $791.00.Up to the end of the last calendar month we needed to have received $273,000. Compared to that total we received $245,588, leaving a gap of $27,412.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: Church of England Jamberoo. Account number: 10081274. BSB: 062562 .
Angels, stables, donkeys, Mary and Joseph, the star, the shepherds, the wisemen, and of course the baby in a manger.
People are familiar with this Christmas card scene, but we long for people to look deeper and see not just a baby in a manger but the Immanuel – God with us.
There is much to surprise people when do – the absence from the accounts of a donkey for a start. The wisemen, who never made it to the birth, but arrived sometime before Jesus was 2. And there’s no mention of how many wisemen there were, whose actual name were the magi, and who may not have been men or wise at all!
The stable may have been a cave, or the lower story of a guest room – however the manger was there and presumably the animals were too, perhaps even a donkey. But while people in their familiarity may miss these details, it is true that at least they have a picture of Jesus’ birth that night and a chance to find that deeper meaning.
What is more concerning is a generation for which each of these elements is gone altogether.
Jesus is replaced by Santa, the angels by elves, the animals by reindeer, the wisemen and the gifts by a Kmart catalogue. It’s not just that these things have become more important, but that there is no knowledge at all of the nativity events, and no real interest to discover them.
There are kids today who simply don’t know about the shepherds who watched their flocks, or the star that appeared in the sky, or about the humble birth of our Lord and Saviour.
Without the nativity we lose more than just Christmas, we lose God with us.
The nativity is not just fun and cute – it’s true and it’s crucial for us and our society that this account is remembered as the heart of Christmas.
– SIMON CHAPLIN
This weekend we’re getting together to hear God speak to us as we welcome Graham Errington who will be speaking on “The genealogy of Jesus” from Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 to 17.
Our 5pm Saturday service will include a special Christmas presentation and our 8am Sunday service will be a Holy Communion Second Order AAPB service.
And then on Tuesday at 9.00am we’re joining together for Christmas Day! We will be hearing from Jodie McNeill as he speaks on the topic “Follow the star” from Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12.
It’s pretty normal for us to have visitors join us on Christmas Day, so if you’re thinking of popping in for the first time, you’ll fit in nicely. Come and join us for a tasty espresso coffee, and some morning tea!
There are many things to distract us from the true meaning of Christmas. Why not make the time to spend an hour or so on Christmas Day reflecting on the miracle of Jesus coming into the world? You won’t be disappointed…
PS – remember, it’s 9.00am on Tuesday morning for our Christmas Day service.