Raymond Terrace Community Church: Recent Episodes
Raymond Terrace Community Church
We believe in one God—eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one in nature, attributes, power and glory. Sermon Audio
This is week one of our 13 part series exploring our “We Believe” document.
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are directly inspired by God, are without error in the original manuscripts, and are of supreme and final authority in faith and life. Sermon Audio
Romans 8:1-27*Due to a technical error, our recording was not complete, however the first part of the sermon is presented below.
Sermon Audio
Genesis 41 Sermon Audio Addition ResourcesThe following clip was played prior to the sermon, and gives a visual retelling of the main events in the narrative.
This past Sunday we gathered to celebrate a momentous occasion—the 20th anniversary of our church building. It feels like just yesterday when we first gathered in this beautiful space to worship and serve together. This milestone provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the incredible journey we have embarked upon as a church family. Throughout the years, we have witnessed countless lives being transformed, hearts being united, and the power of faith in action. Watch our livestream as we give thanks for the past, embrace the present, and look forward to an exciting future of continued growth and impact in our community. Let us gather in joyful celebration, as we honour the faithfulness of God and the dedication of our congregation.
During this service we also had the joy of seeing four people respond in their walk as disciples of Jesus by being baptised.
Sermon Audio
This is week one, and an introduction to our new series based on a book by Justin Huffman, Behold, An Invitation To Wonder.
Sermon Audio
Today we pause and celebrate what God is doing in and through the children of Raymond Terrace Community Church. We also hear an update from or Hands & Feet team as we celebrate 12 months since this ministry launched.
Psalm 65
Unfortunately, due to a network issue, there was a short break in the recording of about 5 minutes.
Sermon Audio
We were honoured to have Mark Glenn, pastor from The Fields church in the Southern Highlands launch our new series through the Psalms of Praise.
Key Text: Psalm 145
Sermon Audio
Over the next three weeks we plan on moving through the book of Ruth, reflecting on what God was doing among his people, and how this story prepares us to see Jesus.
As a way of grasping the big story arc of this beautiful book, here is a helpful resource put out by the team from the Bible Project.
Key Text for today’s sermon is Ruth 1.
Sermon Audio
Part One of our Nativity: Why the birth of Jesus matters series.
Live Stream Sermon Audio
As our region enters its second ‘stay at home’ orders by our Sate authorities in response to the current COVID crisis, we moved back to a livestream only service. Our church gathered in their homes as we continue to remind ourselves of, and proclaim, the good news of grace found in Jesus Christ alone.
Key Text: Psalm 23
Video Audio
Key Text: Romans 12:12
Video During our sermon, Chris referenced a quote by John Piper; the extended quote can be found here.
Audio
Key Text: Hebrews 7:11-22
Livestream Recording We had a few technical problems during the streaming of this service, which means the sermon has a few ‘pauses’ in it. We apologise for the inconvenience and are grateful for your patience as we try to improve our technical capacity.
Sermon Audio
Pulled from a series of updates and interviews, we explore the principles and consideration we all need to grapple with as we go about making disciples.
Livestream Recording Interview Audio
Key Text: 1 John 1:1-10
Live Stream Recording Sermon Audio During the Sermon, Chris referenced a book by Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the church portrays the beauty of Christ. More information on this book can be found here, including how you can purchase it.
We tried to play a short video of Ray explaining Gospel Culture, but due to technical difficulties, we lost audio during the live service. Here it is:
We are grateful to have David North visiting with us and sharing the ministry of God’s Word.
Live Stream Recording Sermon Audio
Key Text: Hebrews 5:1-10
Live Stream Recording Sermon AudioSome technical problems with sound in the first 2 minutes. Our apologies.
Today is an exciting day in the life of our church community. Today we were able to gather 100 people together to worship, encourage each other in the gospel, preach the Word, and celebrate baptisms—all face-to-face!
Live Stream Recording Sermon Audio
November 15 marks a significant milestone for us as a church. Since March 22 we’ve been meeting online in a virtual sense as we scrambled to make the transition to online streaming. Today marks the day that we begin our transition back to worship together in the same building. A small team of those who have served us faithfully over the last 6 months, along with their families, met together to worship the King. It was sweet.
Live Stream Recording Sermon Audio
Live Stream Recording Sermon Audio We’re honoured to have Kris Sinclair join us this week as our guest speaker in our Gospel Perspectives series. Kris is the pastor of worship and discipleship at the First Baptist Church of New Lebanon, Ohio. Kris is a gifted writer and loves to make the gospel clear, he’s married with two precious daughters. You can read more about Kris and his ministry through writing at his blog (I highly recommend subscribing to his excellent newsletter!)
Live Stream Recording Sermon Audio It is an honour to have Benjamin Vrbicek join us from the USA as our second guest in a short series on Gospel Perspectives. You can read and hear more from Benjamin at his website Fan And Flame.
Live Feed Recording Sermon Audio We were honoured to have our friend, Ira Hall, senior pastor at Beans Corner Baptist Church, share the ministry of God’s Word with us today. Ira is a dear friend and companion in the gospel. Please pray for him and the church he serves.
Key Text: Jude 24-25
Theology should always leads to doxology. Or said differently, doctrine should always lead to devotion. In other words, the truth of God should always lead us to worship, this is the point of the Bible—God deserves to be praised.
Sermon Audio Live Stream Recording
Key Text: Jude 17-23
It has been rightly said that the Christian race isn’t a sprint, but a marathon. We persevere in following Christ as we pursue truth, grasp God’s love, and resolve to never leave family behind.
Sermon Audio Live Stream Recording
Key Text: Jude 5-16
Sin is serious, false teaching is dangerous, and God’s judgement is certain. Therefore, we seek godliness, truth, and grace.
Sermon Audio Live Stream Recording
Key Text: Jude 3-4
Followers of Christ should first and foremost be known as peacemakers, but there is a time to fight! When we do, we must fight out of necessity, earnestly, and spiritually.
Sermon Audio Live Stream Recording
Key Text: Jude 1-2
Who we are in Christ, and what we have received in him, far exceed all other privileges we may experience in this life.
Sermon Audio Live Stream Recording
In place of our usual sermon, this Father’s Day we tried something a little different. We asked five men, all father’s from different walks of life, to meet for dinner and talk about what it means to be a Dad who follows Jesus. We asked them what it was like to Father in view of the gospel. This is a recording of that discussion.
Key Text: Ecclesiastes 1:1-18, 12:8-14
Summary: Everything is meaningless because all of our activity is pointless and nothing satisfies. But everything is also meaningless because our frustration is meant to drive us to Jesus.
Sermon Audio Full Service The outline used for this series is taken from Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Ecclesiastes by Daniel L. Akin and Jonathan Akin
Key Text: Hebrews 4:1-13
Following my message last Sunday on Hebrews 4:1-13, Jesus: A Home To Rest In, I've had a number of conversations, and a few questions, on the topic of Christian rest. I've written a short overview of the subject to help guide your thinking on it, I hope it helps a little.
Christian RestRest, for the Christian isn’t as simple as a single idea. Like much within the Christian life and faith, the Bible gives us a few ways to think of it.
I would categorise the idea of rest as being part of the now-but-not-yet tension of Christian living. What I mean by this is, in a similar way as we are experiencing many of the benefits of salvation now, in other ways, we haven’t yet seen the final fulfilment of our sanctification. The Bible says we are glorified (Rom 8:30), but it also says we will be glorified (Rom 8:17, 5:2; 1 Pet 5:1). For more on this, a great article by Daniel Dunlap can be found here: https://www.ligonier.org/le…/articles/living-in-the-tension/
The most common way Christians think of rest is usually connected with our final rest—a state that exists beyond the shroud of death when we meet Jesus face-to-face, the work of sanctification will be complete, Jesus will have kept us to the end, and we will enter into his rest.
But there is also a way of entering his rest now—not speaking of death. This is a rest where we cease from our labours of self-justification, self-righteousness, and even self-sanctification. It is resting in the sufficiency of the gospel that allows us to enjoy the presences of God, to boldly enter the throne of grace, and boldly cry out, ”Abba Father”. In the following short quote, Gavin Ortlund speaks about this rest in the context of taking a regular rhythm of rest that many Christians would call a Sabbath principle—I think it’s helpful (the whole article can be found here: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/…/7-ways-to-work-hard-a…/
"If you struggle to take Sabbath rest, it may be a gospel issue—finding your identity in your work, or being a people-pleaser, or using busyness to distract you from unhappiness. So much overwork is driven by self-justification efforts: we need to accomplish more and more because we’re failing to apply to our hearts what Christ has already accomplished for us. So the most important thing to do during Sabbath rest is to refresh your heart with fellowship with God, and to enjoy your status as his beloved child because of what Jesus has done.
A great irony is that if my day off is going poorly and is not fun or restful, I can start to get a little agitated or stressed at how poorly I am “doing” Sabbath. In those moments I need to remember that Jesus himself is my truest Sabbath rest. Ultimately, my rest is not in a Sabbath day but in the One who has promised: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)." — Gavin Ortlund
I hope these few thoughts help.
Chris Thomas
This is the first week of a new series working our way through the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews: Seeing Jesus Through The Shadows, follows an outline suggested by Al Mohler in his Excellent book, Exalting Jesus in Hebrews (Christ-Centered Exposition Series).
In the week before Easter, as we continue to meet from our lounge rooms, we tune our hearts to hear Jesus speak through the Word, “Arise, let’s go.”
Key Text: Genesis 37-50
On March 22, 2020, we met for the last time as a church gathering. Following the national health advice, we met in two small gatherings; this recording was made in our second service during the afternoon.
All further recordings, until we are advised otherwise, are being made without the church gathering in one place.