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, 03 April 2022
Duration: 33 mins 19 secs
Jesus has been saying that the Pharisees were guilty of exercising a false judgment about themselves, other people, and even Jesus. This He says is hypocrisy and is seen in many different ways to do with giving (6:1-4), prayer (6:5-15), fasting (6:16-18) and the use of our wealth (6:19-34). Their false righteousness helped to encourage a false judgment. Now as Jesus closes His sermon, He ends with a discussion about judgment. How are we meant to judge others in a way that honours God? How do we approach God as a loving Father?
Sunday, 20 March 2022
Duration: 32 mins 49 secs
In this passage, the focus is on fasting and money. If we elect to fast, it should be done for the right reason, where the time we would normally spending eating is the time we devote to God. Jesus also reminds us the importance of storing treasures in heaven and not on earth. Being wealthy is not evil, but when this takes us away from God, Jesus tells us we cannot serve both God and money. We can't take any of our earthly treasures to heaven. The only thing we can take to heaven is other people!
Sunday, 13 March 2022
Duration: 37 mins 16 secs
In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns to religious acts and examines the heart attitudes of those practising them. Today's message focussed on the first two of these, namely giving and prayer. Jesus instructs His disciples not to be like the hypocrites, whose pious acts were for earning favour with God and the praise of people. Instead He says, our giving should be secret and our prayer needs to start privately. Hypocrisy is not the same as falling short - that's sin. Rather hypocrisy creeps in when we use religion to mask our sin and pretend to be doing well spiritually when it doesn't match reality.
Sunday, 06 March 2022
Duration: 34 mins 36 secs
Jesus’ non-legalistic attitude towards righteousness has led some to regard him as a rebel and a lawbreaker. However, Jesus declares that he didn’t come to abolish or break God’s Law, but to completely uphold it and fulfil it. As with every seed of sin, we must constantly be uprooting any form of bitterness before it grows into something worse. Then we must go even further and replace this sin with the fruit of love, even for our enemies. In this passage, the challenge for us is where in Jesus’ sermon He commands us to, “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”.
Sunday, 27 February 2022
Duration: 34 mins 16 secs
Jesus took six important Old Testament laws and interpreted them for His people in the light of the new life He came to give. He made a fundamental change without altering God’s standards. Jesus dealt with the attitudes and intents of the heart and not simply with the external action. The Pharisees said that righteousness consisted of performing certain actions, but Jesus said it centred in the attitudes of the heart. Likewise, with sin, the Pharisees had a list of external actions that were sinful, but Jesus explained that sin came from the attitudes of the heart. Anger is murder in the heart, lust is adultery in the heart. It is these sinful attitudes of the heart that we must cut off now, not just let them fade away slowly.
Sunday, 13 February 2022
Duration: 27 mins 40 secs
The Sermon on the Mount describes what human life and human community look like when they come under the gracious rule of God. Jesus emphasises that his true followers, the citizens of God’s kingdom, were to be entirely different from others. They were not to take their cue from the people around them, but from Him, and so prove to be genuine children of their heavenly Father. They were to shine like lights in the prevailing darkness. Their righteousness was to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, both in ethical behaviour and religious devotion, while their love was to be greater and their ambition nobler than those of their pagan neighbours.
Sunday, 06 February 2022
From the high and holy experience of the blessing at the Jordan, Jesus was led into the wilderness for testing. Jesus was not tempted so that the Father could learn anything about His Son, for the Father had already given Jesus His divine approval. Jesus was tempted so that every creature in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might know that Jesus Christ is the Conqueror. He exposed Satan and his tactics, and He defeated Satan. Because of His victory, we can have victory over the tempter.
Sunday, 30 January 2022
Duration: 32 mins 57 secs
Some thirty years have passed between chapters 2 and 3 of Matthew, during which Jesus lived in Nazareth and worked as a carpenter (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3). But the time had come for Him to begin His public ministry, which would culminate at the cross. Was He still qualified to be King? Had anything taken place that would disqualify Him? In this passage we see how John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit and the Father attest to the person of Jesus Christ.
Sunday, 19 December 2021
Duration: 26 mins 53 secs
Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous, in the line of Aaron. Zechariah's doubt resulted in him being unable to speak for the length of Elizabeth's pregnancy, but the silence is not wasted. Zechariah grows in his relationship with God and God reveals to Zechariah a picture of salvation, what He is doing in this world. There is only one way to be right with God and that is to experience forgiveness in our lives through God's Son. Jesus was to shine a light on those living in darkness and show the path of peace. This is also our mission.
Sunday, 12 December 2021
Duration: 22 mins 47 secs
In verse 38, we see that Mary was obedient to God. Jesus himself was obedient to God, which is why we meet together today. The course of Mary's life was changed by God. She would have faced hard circumstances but she trusts the Word of God and is joyful that He is using her to bring the Saviour into the world. When we follow God, His plans will bring joy when we are obedient to Him.
