Role: Pastor |
Hi my name is Phil Irvine and I’m the Pastor at Emu Plains Community Baptist Church. My family and I moved all the way from the Blue Mountains and to live in the community here in Emu Plains. Jesus said “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.” Sometimes we find that our lives are so full with things to do, but we don’t seem to be fulfilled. I enjoy running, spending time with my family, playing Xbox and a good coffee. But what fills my life is Jesus. If you are wanting your life full, the best it can be, why not check out Jesus and take him up on this promise?
Sunday, 30 November 2014
Duration: 38 mins 46 secs
The first 3 chapters of Ephesians are about doctrine - the truth of what God has done and what Christ Jesus has done in our lives. The last 3 chapters are about duty - how we live out the truth of what God has given us. In this passage, Paul reminds us that we are to walk in unity. Belief determines how we behave and how we behave will be determined by what we believe. We have a wonderful calling in Jesus and now it is our responsibility to live up to that calling, and in doing so, do it in unity with other believers. What do you need God to work on in your life to maintain the unity of the Spirit?
Sunday, 23 November 2014
Duration: 19 mins 39 secs
Jesus had an amazing ministry in His teachings, with many miracles performed, and yet some people did not believe and turned away from Him. The people found Jesus' teaching hard to understand but some found it even harder to accept because they misunderstood His words and therefore rejected Him. We need to keep coming to Jesus every day by spending time in His word. Are you going to accept or reject Jesus?
Sunday, 16 November 2014
The Assyrians were looking to attack Jerusalem, in the reign of Hezekiah, after conquering all the fortified cities of Judah. Through Hezekiah's prayer, Isaiah is able to pass on God's message that He would protect the people of Jesrualam and detroy the Assyrians, 185,000 in all, without lifting a sword. The focus in this passage is about God being our strength and refuge. When we put our trust in God, we have nothing to fear, for when trouble or difficulties come upon us, we can have the confidence that God is there with us. We need to remember that the things we do in our own strength may fail, but if we put our strength and hope in God, then the things we do will never fail.
Sunday, 09 November 2014
Duration: 27 mins 34 secs
Divisions in the church at Corinth had prompted Paul to write to the Christians worshipping there. In this passage Paul reminds the people about the foolishness of following worldly wisdom. This wordly wisdom proves to be worthless when compared to God's wisdom. As Christians, we know that the only way to an eternal life with God is through the salvation of Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection of the cross. Unbelievers using wordly wisdom see all of this as foolishness. Do you know God but do not have a relationship with Him? To have complete fullness in God, we need to submit our life over to Him and allow Him to work in our life.
Sunday, 02 November 2014
Duration: 37 mins 32 secs
What is it that gets you to fret? In this passage David give us some alternatives we need to do to overcome things that concern us and cause us to fret. We need to: (1) trust in the Lord when we go through difficult times; (2) live out our life for Him; (3) recognise and delight in what God has done for us; (4) commit our ways to God and (5) be still before the Lord, wait patiently for Him and listen to what He has to say. Whilst it is a good plan to follow these 5 steps, it is recognised that sometimes we can be totally overwhelmed with the pressures of life and that God can provide for us professional help and/or counselling that can be of great assistance in getting our life 'back on track'.
Sunday, 19 October 2014
Duration: 31 mins 53 secs
We often find getting ready and set is normally the easy part of any task we face in our lives. It can be more difficult to take the next step and go! God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous and this would come not from his own strength but from relying on what was written in God's law. Victory through submission was true for the Israelites, it was true for Joshua and it is true for us today. We need to submit our time to spend in God's word. The bible has been inspired by God. We need to saturate our life in reading it then apply and put into practice what we have read. If we seek to find true success in our life, then this will only come from spending time with God in His word.
Sunday, 28 September 2014
We want to know what the future holds for us. As a Christian, there is a certainty in life because of what what God has does through His Son, Jesus Christ. John highlights that Jesus was God through His baptism and death, symbolised by the water and blood. As Christians, we can have the confidence that we will have eternal life with God and that He will hear and answer our prayers. We are reminded that all wrongdoing is sin, but it is Jesus Christ that keeps us safe from the evil one - we need to hand over our sinful life to Him. The Christian life is the real life we can have that focuses on Jesus Christ and not on the things that are temporary and do not offer eternal hope. Are you fully committed to Jesus Christ or to the things of this world?
Sunday, 21 September 2014
Duration: 41 mins 17 secs
We cannot truly love our neighbours if we do not have complete love for God. Growing in maturity as a Christian means we grow in confidence in Jesus. We need to live our life as we say we will and be honest in our walk with Jesus. If we want God's love to be in our life, we need to obey His commands. Our victory in this world is to love and have faith in Jesus - we don't have to wait to the end of our life for that - we can be victorious now because of what Jesus has done for us. Are we growing in our life as Christians by being confident, being honest, showing obedience and having victory in Jesus?
Sunday, 14 September 2014
When we show God's love to others, it is proof that we are walking with Jesus and that we have fellowship with God. Love is the very being of the nature of God and if we are united to God through Jesus Christ, then we will share in His nature. God's ultimate love for us was the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross so that we could be saved and have eternal life with Him. Is your focus towards God in showing His love in words and actions to others?
Sunday, 07 September 2014
Duration: 16 mins 27 secs
The amazing reality, as Christians, is that we have Jesus living in us. We can't pretend to be a child of God, because how we live is a indication of whether God is truly in us. We need to acknowledge that God is greater than anything this world has to offer and when things are going well in our lives we need to recognise that this is from God and not from anything we have done. We need to learn to trust Jesus in all that we do and not rely on ourselves.
