Here is a short video from one of our pastors, Stew, as he talks about life at SCPC this week.
Below is the text from the video.
Welcome to The Pastors’ Post, an update on life at Southern Cross.
This weekend, we begin a new series called ‘Visionaries’. It’s a Church History Series on how Christian leaders across the centuries responded to the glorious vision of that glorious God that we’ve seen in Ezekiel. How they sought to live out that vision in their lives, in their generation, and even for us today.
In preparing for the series, I have hugely benefited from Crossway Books. They have a series called ‘The Christian Life’ series so this weekend we’ll be beginning our journey with Augustine, and then next weekend on 13th September, we’ll have a look at the life of Charles Spurgeon from 1 Corinthians 2, and then finally on Sunday 20th September, the start of our Celebration Week, we’ll look at the life of Jim Packer who recently passed away and we’ll spend some time in Matthew 6.
Having prepared for the talk for this Sunday with Augustine from 1 John 4, it is not an easy feat!! It’s one we have been preparing for, for over three months and so I wish to publicly thank Andrew Bain, the Acting Principal of Queensland Theological College, for his willingness to meet with Matt C and I in a ZOOM room to explore Augustine the man and the message. Andrew’s insights and depth of learning were hugely beneficial to both Matt and I. So I am looking forward to this series to help us to understand that as we seek to move forward with the gospel, growing followers of Jesus at Southern Cross, we actually stand on the ‘shoulders’ of Christian men and women of the past who faithfully and courageously proclaimed Christ to their generation.
So, do be prepared though for a ‘chain of gears’. It is very hard to capture a life in 20 minutes and their engagement with God’s Word and how we can delve into God’s Word. I suspect we might begin to work out a helpful balance of a life explored and God’s word engaged by the time we finish the series! But our hope and prayer is that we will join the vision that they saw of the glorious God of Ezekiel and we would seek to live out that vision both in our life, in our generation and in generations for the future.
Let me finish by reading a portion of Hebrews 11 and the heroes of the faith that beautifully captures Ezekiel’s vision. From Hebrews 11:13:
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died.
They did not receive the things promised;
they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,
admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
14 People who say such things
show that they are looking for a country of their own.
15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left,
they would have had opportunity to return.
16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—
a heavenly one.
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared a city for them.
Thanks for tuning into The Pastors’ Post.
