Anchor South West: Recent Episodes
Anchor South West
Listen to the 7th message in our series called 'For the Sake of the Church.'
This week Guest Speaker and Lead Pastor at Anchor Church City Matt Sparks takes us through “Food & Freedom” in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13.
Teaching us an invaluable principle in how we ought to live as a Christian community.
Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo continues our series in the book of 1 Corinthians. This week we will be looking at what it means to engage with sex and relationships as gospel people from 1 Corinthians 7.
We pray this teaching is helpful to you and hope to meet you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Listen to the 5th message in our series called “For The Sake Of The Church”,
as our Guest Speaker Seti takes us through 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
We live in a "pornified" society where as Christians we feel pressure from the culture but also internally from our own moral failures.
Sexual immorality is nothing new to the body of Christ; the very first churches struggled to move from their old realities into their new life in Christ. Join us today as our Pastor Arnaldo tackles one of the more difficult subjects: sexual sin and the church as we continue our teaching series through First Corinthians.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of Gatherings soon.
We are encouraged to use all sorts of metrics and tool to evaluate "how we're going." This puts us in a position to be constantly evaluating and judging ourselves and others. But Paul will say that he doesn't care what others think and doesn't even value his own assessment of himself as full or final.
Join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo unpacked 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 and teaches us what the beautiful art of self-forgetfulness is and how it can help us become more like Jesus.
We pray this teaching was helpful for you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings.
What does it mean to be spiritual?
Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo takes us through 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:23 and asks the question: what does it mean to be spiritual? Spirituality is less about our action and more about our location. We pray this teaching has been helpful and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo kicks off a brand new series through Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. In a world that looks to power and wisdom for their identity, Paul will encourage us today to look to Jesus who becomes our power and wisdom through the most unlikely ways.
We pray this teaching is helpful and encouraging and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Listen to 'The Rich Fool' message in our series The Storytelling God, as our guest speaker Mitch Everingham takes us through Luke 12:13-34.
Listen to the message in our series called "Formed", as Pastor James takes us through "Witness" in Acts 1:6-8
Listen to the message in our series called “Formed”, as our guest speaker Gavin takes us through “Service” in “Ephesians 4:7-16”.
Jesus' resurrection birthed a new world. A world where death does not have the last word; a world where despair turns to hope; a world where lack turns into abundance; a world where death finally gives way to life. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo walks us through a reflection on the reality and consequence of the resurrection of the Son of God.
We pray this teaching is a blessing and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
Palm Sunday is a reminder that Jesus came in humility and with grace. His kingdom is not a kingdom paid for by the blood of others, but by his own. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo walks us through the triumphant arrival of King Jesus in Mark 11:1-11.
We pray you have been blessed by our teaching ministry and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Generosity is about more than money; it's a posture of the heart. Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo walks through a scene from the early church as we explore the source, the fuel, and the goal of our generosity from Acts 2:38-47.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you.
Today, non-stop work has become a virtue. Busy is compulsory. Pausing is a missed opportunity. Now more than ever, we need to take up the practice of Sabbath and hear the invitation of Jesus to come to him and receive rest for our souls.
Join us as our newest church planting resident Mitch Everingham opens up the word for us.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you.
Listen to the sixth message in our series called FORMED, as our lead pastor Arnaldo takes us through Solitude and Community in Mark 1:32-39.
Listen to the fifth message in our series called FORMED, as our lead pastor Arnaldo takes us through forgiveness in Matthew 18:21-35.
Listen to the fourth message in our series called FORMED, as our lead pastor Arnaldo takes us through Psalm 119.
Fasting is the most neglected practice in the western church today. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo helps us explore this vital practice as we seek to partner with God to see Christ formed in us.
We pray this teaching has been a blessing and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
Listen to the second message in our new series called FORMED, as we explore the importance and goodness of prayer.
Anchor South West turns 3!!
And there's no better way to celebrate than to launch a new series called FORMED. We'll take 10 weeks exploring various aspects of what it means to be formed in the ways of Christ.
Pastor Arnaldo launches the series by helping us see how formation requires our participation with God's gracious initiative. We pray this teaching has been helpful and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
As humans, we love beautiful things! Whether it’s a a beautiful landscape, or a renaissance painting, or a piece of fine jewellery... But have you ever thought of the Gospel as beautiful?
Pastor James Ayre unpacks Matthew 13:44-46 to show us the beauty of the Gospel and how it’s worth giving up everything for.
Join us as lead pastor Arnaldo walks us through the parable "Prodigal Sons" in Luke 15:11-32.
Merry Christmas! Join us as Pastor Arnaldo explores the beauty and depth of the incarnation. God with us!
We pray you have a blessed Merry Christmas, and we hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo helps us understand and enter into the backdrop of the Christmas story. In order for us to understand the beauty and depth of the incarnation of Jesus we must first understand who we are, how we've fallen, and how Jesus intends to restore us.
We pray you have a blessed Merry Christmas, and we hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
The mission of God's church is to have a heart for the lost. We have been called to participate in the privilege of being part of God's rescue mission for sinners. Listen in as Seti Latu helps us understand that God's desire is that we share the good, greatest, and glorious news of Jesus with others.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Celebration Sunday! We are hard-wired to give thanks. In our secular age, in the absence of God, we find our culture often directing their thanksgiving to themselves, each other, or the universe. But we are made to send our thanksgiving to God for his loyal love; this is what we're made for!
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo walks through Psalm 136 and prepares our hearts and mind to live a life of thanksgiving.
We pray this teaching was helpful and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
This week we finish our journey through the book of 1 Peter. Pastor James opens up 1 Peter 5:1-11 to show us what a counter-culture leader looks like and what it means to be a people that live counter-culture lives as we follow Jesus in a post-Christian world.
As a human we will suffer; but as Christians we have a choice to not allow our suffering to turn us bitter. Listen in as guest preacher Gavin Mork walks us through 1 Peter 4:12-19. We may suffer, but our suffering is yet another context to glorify God.
We pray this teaching is helpful and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
What does it mean to live out of the victory of Christ? Last week's passage talks about Jesus ascending above angels, authorities, and principalities and therefore encouraging us to walk through suffering for his sake.
What does that look like in the world and in the church?
Join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo walks us through 1 Peter 4:1-11.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.
Peter calls Christians to always be prepared to give an account for the hope that is within us. While this has spawned many an apologetics ministry - Peter's call is far more defensive than offensive. His main concern is that we live such good lives amongst people of other or no religions that they would be compelled to ask us about the hope we have within us.
Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo dives into 1 Peter 3:8-22 and calls us to always be ready.
We pray this was a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Peter, in his letter to the church, calls followers of Jesus to live lives of gospel beauty, but what does this look like?
This week, Pastor James opens up 1 Peter 2:11-3:7 to show that lives of gospel beauty are lives living out bold submission.
One of the most profound shifts you can make in your Scripture reading is moving from reading every "You" in the Bible as singular to reading it as collective. It's often the case that Scripture is addressing a whole group of people at once and this can dramatically change the way we understand Scripture.
This week, our Pastor Arnaldo will take us through one of the most explosive verses in all of Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9 - we've been saved to be sent.
We pray this teaching was helpful to you and hope to see you at the Gathering soon.
"Be holy, as I am Holy" sounds daunting. Is it even possible? What is holiness and how can we pursue it for the sake of the world?
This week Pastor Arnaldo will walk us through what holiness is, why it's vitally important, and how we get it.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
08/10/23
The story of faith is one full of complexity. This week, Pastor Arnaldo will walk us through Asaph's journey with God in Psalm 73. Asaph moves from being safely orientated with God and faith into the liminal space of disorientation where his theology and experience don't seem to match up. As he continues to stay tethered to God and community he finds himself with a much truer and deeper faith on the other side of his deconstruction. We pray this teaching was helpful and hope to see you at one of our Sunday gatherings soon.
Join us this week as we hear from guest speaker Gavin Mork as he shares with us where true happiness can be found.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
What's love got to do with freedom, with justice? Apparently, everything!
Cornel West said that we must remember that justice is what love looks like in public.
The good news of Jesus propels us to give of our time, talent, and treasure to those that may find themselves in a less fortunate state. The gospel is not an enemy to justice but the place where justice and mercy meet. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo highlights our relationship with IJM this Freedom Sunday as we discover that the God of Justice seeks to form a people of justice for the good of the world and for his namesake.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
You hear the statistic that about 50% of marriages end in divorce everywhere; while the actual number in Australia rests at about 40% of first marriages, the state of marriage in our world and in the church is in trouble.
This week, our Lead Pastor Arnaldo will take a look at the topic of marriage - what it is, what it's for, and how to pursue and maintain a life-long union. He's take us on a journey to help us realise that if we want to pursue, build, and maintain healthy marriages we need to be aware of:
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The Goodness of Marriage
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The Danger of Marriage
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The Struggle of Marriage
We hope and pray that this teaching was helpful for you and hope to see you at one of our Sunday Gatherings.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo looks to 1 Corinthians to help us explore the realities of singleness. For many of us the topic can bring up disappointment, or even shame. We pray that as we look at God's design for singleness you will be encouraged and equipped to live out of the love of God in Christ.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and hope to see you at the Gathering soon.
How many times have you heard this? It's not necessarily a bad thing, and can actually be a really good and healthy thing to do. But growing up also comes with some dangers. In our growing up, we can be tempted to believe the lie that we must earn everything we get. But the Kingdom of God doesn't work this way.
This week we hit pause on our Relationship Series 2023 to explore the paradox of the kingdom; i.e., that in order to receive the kingdom of God, we must first become like little children. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo guides us through Mark 10:13-16.
We pray this teaching was a blessing and hope to see you at our Gathering at 10am Sundays in Panania.
What does it mean to be a true friend?
In this first instalment of our 'Relationship' series, Pastor James shares what the Bible says about friendship. Through the wisdom of Proverbs and the example of Jesus, we see what a true friend is and how Jesus' life, death, resurrection and future return shapes what it means to be a true friend to those around us.
What is the book of Job really about?
While suffering usually takes centre stage when we think about the book of Job - suffering sets the scene for the real question the book is seeking to answer: Do we worship God because he blesses us or do we love God for God's sake?
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo closes out our series through the book of Job. We pray this teaching is a blessing and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
In our pain and suffering, we've often cried out: "Why me?!" In some of our most honest moments we've doubted the goodness and wisdom of God.
"Why would God allow ... that to happen...?" And more often than not, unless we understand the reason by pain comes into our lives, we can't see how it could ever serve a purpose.
We protest and ask God to give an account for his ways.
This week, Job will be granted that wish - he will be granted an audience. While Job had a litany of questions ready to ask God, it was God that put Job back on his heels and helped him to realise the most important lesson: God is God - Job is not.
We pray this teaching has been a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
We don't really have the choice of whether or not we will suffer in this life; it's going to happen.
We do, however, choose how we walk through the furnace of affliction. What do we need to know, be, and do if we're going to walk with God through suffering? How can we make it to the other side?
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo walks through Job's defence and how we're called to walk through our own valley.
We pray this teaching was a blessing and hope to see you at our Sunday Gathering soon.
At one point or another we've either given or received platitudes or cliches in the midst of suffering. This serves no one well.
This week we'll encounter Job's friends vigorously defending the retribution principle - the idea that what you put in is what you get out as a strict measure of running the world. Job will end up calling them "miserable comforters". So join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo walks us through the arguments of Job's friends and how we can become generous comforters to those in the furnace of affliction.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo starts a new series on the book of Job.Job is one of the most fascinating pieces of literature. Ancient, it speaks to the modern dilemma of suffering. We'll learn that ultimately, suffering is a deep mystery that the book of Job doesn't so much answer; but a guide to faithfully wrestling with the inevitable suffering that we'll all experience.
We hope you've enjoyed this teaching and look forward to having you at one of our Gatherings.
God's mission is unstoppable and unhurried.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo delves into a topic that sits close to the heart of who we are as a church. We believe that one day the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the face of the earth and God calls us to partner with him to bring about the renewal of all things. We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Gathering on Sunday.
If you want to understand your life and the world, Genesis 3 is absolutely essential. Our Lead Pastor Arnaldo will explore the way Adam & Eve's fall under the Power of Sin has affected and infected our bodies, our gender, and our spirituality. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out via our social media pages.
We pray you've found this teaching helpful and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
We come to the end of our series "Rise & Fall of Kings: 1 & 2 Samuel" as Pastor Arnaldo tackles David's return to the throne. Following his fall in the wake of the murder of Uriah, drama and dysfunction follows David for the rest of his life. We'll realise that the whole story points toward the necessity of the true and better King.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at the Gathering soon.
David & Bathsheba. One of the greatest stories of failure in all of human history. It has gripped our hearts and captured our imaginations through the centuries. This week Pastor Arnaldo will tackle the story of the man after God's own heart, who ends up going after his own. Sin, Repentance, Forgiveness - we'll unpack these major themes this week.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
Join us as we continue the wild journey through 1 & 2 Samuel. This week Pastor Arnaldo will walk us through one of the most important passages in the Old Testament (2 Samuel 7) where God promises David that he will build David an everlasting dynasty.
We pray this teaching was a blessing and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
This week Lead Pastor Matt Sparks of Anchor City joins us to continue our series through 1 & 2 Samuel. David is tested in the wilderness and while Saul's life hangs in the balance, David chooses the way of integrity. The wilderness, we learn, is the place where God forms us into beautiful souls.
We pray this teaching has been helpful and hope to see you at the Gathering soon.
We love a good underdog story. The little guy taking down the big bully.
This week Pastor Arnaldo is going to walk us through one of the most famous stories in all of Scripture; that of David and Goliath. While this story is an invitation to believe that God can use us, there is a deeper layer to the story.
We pray this teaching has been a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
As we continue in our series "The Rise & Fall of Kings," pastor Arnaldo will help us navigate 1 Samuel 15 - the story that culminates in the fall of Israel's first king, Saul. A tragic story of half-hearted obedience will lead to the removal of Saul as king as we'll learn that this text is an invitation to explore our own relationship with obedience as followers of Jesus.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and hope to see you at the Gathering on Sundays.
Join us as we continue our series through 1 & 2 Samuel.
Pastor Arnaldo will guide us through 1 Samuel 8 and show us how the non-coercive God will redeem even the things that break his heart. We'll be confronted with the reality that we, like Israel, are prone to go our own way even when it will hurt us.
We pray this teaching is helpful and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Join us as we continue the journey through 1 & 2 Samuel. This week our Pastor Arnaldo will helps us see how God's presence is not an enchantment spell we cast to get God to accomplish our purposes; rather God is free to accomplish his purposes in his way and in his timing.
We pray this teaching is an encouragement to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
1 & 2 Samuel have been called the greatest single piece of literature ever written. In this exciting series, Arnaldo kicks us off with an overview of the book and a dive into Hannah's Song in 1 Samuel 2:1-11. Join us as we learn about the themes in Hannah's Song that weave throughout the entire books of 1 & 2 Samuel.
We pray you're blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at our Gathering on Tower St. soon.
Following Jesus doesn’t fit neatly into our lives, but it reorients how we view our lifestyle, aspirations and purpose. Join us this week as we look at 2 Corinthian 5:14-21 and pastor James unpacks what it means to be ambassadors of grace and how our new identity changes everything.
We pray this teaching has been helpful and hope to see you at our Gathering soon
Join us this week as we celebrate Easter Sunday as Pastor Arnaldo shares a message of Deaths Funeral.
What is an abundant life? What does it look like and how is it shaped?
This week Pastor Arnaldo will continue our YHWH series as we explore Jesus' claim that he is the vine and we are the branches. In the end, we are called to abide in Jesus for the sake of our own joy and for the sake of our mission to the world.
We pray this teaching has been a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Sunday Gathering.
Jesus makes some outrageous claims.
"I am the Light of the world"
"I am the Bread of life"
"I am the Resurrection and the Life"
And this week we are exploring another one of Jesus' "I AM" statements in the gospel of John where Jesus will claim himself to be the only way to the Father.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo shares how Jesus' claim to exclusivity isn't fighting words, but words that bring comfort and hope to a hurting and confused world.
We pray this teaching has been helpful and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
Death is the great equaliser. No one escapes the grim reaper. Our western context has not done a good job helping us to die well. Even the mention of death is met with awkward silences. But death is inevitable. And death, for the disciple of Jesus, is not the end.
Join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo helps us navigate Jesus' statement: "I am the Resurrection and the Life"
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
We're all looking for someone to follow. While there are many guides in our culture, there is One that will never leave us, never fail us, and always guide us into the rich and abundant life in the Kingdom. Join us as Seti opens up John 10:11-18 and shared how Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We hope this teaching as been helpful and hope-filled for you and pray to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
This week pastor Arnaldo shares a message with us on the freedom we have in Jesus. We can have confidence that Jesus is the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
Lots of things claim to guide us to our destinations. Whether you use Google Maps or Apple ... or whatever else, we're accustomed to seeking help is getting us where we need to go; we're all looking for a guide.
This week, guest preacher Gavin Mork from CCC Aust will open up John 8:12-20 and help us to see Jesus is the Light of the world who illuminates all truth. He is a good guide. He is our ultimate guide.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
C.S. Lewis once famously wrote that the existence of a desire signals the potential for that desire to be satisfied. If there is an itch, there must be such a thing as a scratch. The problem begins when we try to satisfy the right desires with the wrong things. Join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo kicks off our new series journeying through Jesus' seven "I Am" statements in the Gospel of John.
We pray this teaching as been a blessing to you and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
This week pastor Arnaldo shares with us a message of the joy and awe we have in Jesus and the Church.
In our culture, blessedness is located in having things, while in the kingdom of God being blessed is found in giving of our time, talents, and treasure.
This week our Pastor Arnaldo will lead us through John 13 where Jesus kneels down and washes the feet of his disciples and even of the man who will betray him just a few hours after the last supper in the upper room.
We pray you've been blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
The world needs deep people. People who remain alive to the love of God and who are deeply self-aware. That's why at Anchor South West we pursue emotional health because we believe that we cannot become spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo guides us through Psalm 139. David serves as a model for emotionally healthy spirituality as he remains open and aware to the presence of God in his life. He also shows us what it means to grow in self-awareness; all this for the sake of the world.
We pray this teaching is helpful for you and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
What do you feel when you think about prayer?
For many of us the idea of prayer conjures up feelings of guilt and shame. But Scripture tells another story.
Prayer is an invitation to lift heart and mind to God and the place where we are formed most intimately into the image of Jesus.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo takes us to Luke 18 and helps us find prayer again.
Thank you for joining us and we pray you have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. See you in 2023!!
How do we know whether we are "succeeding" or failing as a church? What will we look to measure our success?
When the Corinthian church was tempted to look at its own spirituality, its own justice, its own power, Paul reminded them that if we have all things, know all things, have faith to do all things, but have not love, we are nothing.
That means that at Anchor South West we don't look at our buildings, budgets, or bums on seats as the measure of success. Rather, the measure of our success will be how well we love.
We pray this teaching has been helpful to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
What is the church?
Is it a group of people who look and think alike? In many places that seems to be the case. But Pastor Arnaldo will delve into the true nature and purpose of the church as we explore our roots and distinctives as a church.
The Church is the embodied space where God displays what he can do in, with, and through a community of broken, loved, and repentant people.
We hope this teaching was helpful and pray to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
What is the gospel? That question has divided the church throughout the ages but it stands as the foundation upon which the church is built.
Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo helps to unpack the gospel background, gospel content, gospel benefits, and gospel fruit. We pray you're blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Our emotions are major prophets in our lives; they often tell us what we don't want to hear.
This week Pastor Arnaldo will lead us through Jonah 4 as we explore both anger and sadness in the emotional lives of Jonah and God and what they reveal.
We pray this teaching was helpful and hope to see you at our Gathering soon.
"REPENT OR BURN!"
When we hear the word "repentance" many of us hear and experience a negative word or idea. Maybe we've had an abusive past experience at church where repentance was used as a club rather than a sweet invitation into life.
This week Pastor Arnaldo will take us through Jonah 3 to help us understand repentance in a whole new light.
We pray this teaching has been helpful and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo open up the second sermon in our 4-part series through the book of Jonah. This week we'll be diving deep into Jonah chapter 2 and experience with Jonah his own rock bottom. We'll learn that the very vehicle of death is hijacked to be the place of new birth.
We pray this teaching was a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Jonah, the rebel prophet, demonstrates that you simply can't run from the presence and call of God! Are you running?
Join us as we close our 3-month journey through the Upper Room with Jesus and the Twelve! Today Pastor Arnaldo will guide us through John 17:20-26 and highlight Jesus' desire and prayer that the church all be one, even as Jesus and the Father are one.
We'll learn that our unity confirms two things: that Jesus said who he said he is, and that God loves the world. This is a high calling! One which by the Spirit the church is equipped for.
We pray this teaching is helpful and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
This week Pastor Arnaldo helps us explore John 17:6-19. He reminds us that being sanctified is not about separation; being sanctified is about distinction. Being set apart as the church is not about remaining separate from the world; being set apart as the church is about remaining distinct in the world for the sake of the world.
You are not of the world, for the sake of the world.
We pray this teaching was a blessing and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Where do you turn in the face of life's troubles? What do you look to? Who do you put your trust in?
James Wong walks us through the final verses of John 16 where Jesus speaks of the unavoidable reality of trouble; but also shows us where we can find courage and strength for this life.
We are far better off without Jesus.
That's not something you'd expect to hear, but that is exactly what Jesus will say this week as we explore the reality of his absence and the coming of the Spirit of God. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo walks through John 16.
We pray this teaching is a blessing for you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
God. Is. Love.
But what does this love look like in a world that is ravaged by both personal and systemic injustice and sin? As Cornel West reminds us, "Justice is what love looks like in public."
Join us this week as we hear from our Pastor Arnaldo and Liz Wells about our partnership with International Justice Mission whose vision is to rescue millions, protect half a billion, and make justice for people who are poor unstoppable.
We pray this is a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon.
In a culture that is obsessed with approval, one of the greatest costs to following Jesus is his warning that if the world hated him, it will hate us too.
Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo explores the reality that to associate ourselves with Jesus in this life incurs the possibility of hatred from the world.
We pray you're blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
We are created for communion, for companionship, for friendship.
One of deepest aches we can feel is that of loneliness, of being left on the outside. One of the most powerful experiences we can have is being befriended.
Imagine if the Creator of the universe calls you friend ...
Join us this week as Arnaldo walks us through John 15:12-17 where Jesus calls us 'friend'.
We pray you are blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon.
What does it mean to abide in Jesus?
This week, Pastor Arnaldo will walk us through some of the most famous words of Jesus in John 15. We'll explore what it means to abide, what practices we need to begin to abide, and what the fruit of abiding in Jesus is. We really hope you're blessed by this teaching and pray we get to meet you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Obedience. We all have different experiences and relationships with the idea of obedience. Many see obedience to a command as oppressive to our true selves. But Jesus paints a different picture. A picture that doesn't coerce obedience but one that sees obedience as a beautiful invitation to enjoy and express God's love, rather than earn it.
We pray this teaching has blessed you and we hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
You will always have troubles.
This is a given in life. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, or creed we can all agree, that in life, we will experience pain and disillusionment. The difference is in how we deal with it.
In our text (John 14:1-14) Arnaldo will guide us through the trouble that Jesus perceives in the heart of his disciples as he prepares them for his departure. And we'll learn that when troubles come Jesus does not offer his disciples pat answers; he offers them lasting presence.
We pray this teaching was helpful for you and we hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon.
What does it mean to be the people of God? What has to be true of the church for the church to be true?
This week we're continuing our series through John 13-17 "The Upper Room".
Our pastor Arnaldo will walk us through John 13:31-38 what it means to have love as the defining characteristic of being the church. We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon!
We're launching a brand new series through the Gospel of John 13-17 over the next couple of months called "The Upper Room," where we're going to have the opportunity to get up close and personal with Jesus during his last hours on earth.
This week, Arnaldo will look at the reality that true greatness comes through humility and service, rather than domination and being served.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and hope to meet you at one of our gatherings soon.
The mission of God, his desire to renew and reconcile all things to himself through Jesus Christ, is both unhurried and unstoppable. We can therefore get to work in a non-anxious way not seeking to coerce or manipulate the outcomes. We can plant, build, and water with the understanding that God will bring growth in his timing and in his way. Join us as pastor Arnaldo looks at what we can learn from the early church as we partner with God in his global mission.
We pray you were challenged and enjoyed this sermon and hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon.
Axioms are assumed truths; they are rarely questioned and often believed by most people within a culture or subculture.
One of today's axioms is self-autonomy.
We believe it is an inalienable right to belong to ourselves and none other; and any type of external authority, especially on our physical bodies, is seen as the utmost betrayal of basic human rights.
The question we need to ask is: does this belief ultimately lead to human flourishing? Or is there another way to think about our humanity?
This week, Pastor Arnaldo will help us discover where our true freedom and flourishing come from and it's not from the modern idea of "I am my own" rather, we'll learn that our truest and fullest freedom comes from realising we are not our own but belong to God. This is good news.
We pray teaching was helpful and we hope to see you at one of our public gatherings soon.
What is the church?
Who are we going to be as a church?
Join us this week as we dive back into our DNA, the nuts & bolts, who we are and who we are seeking to become. We believe God is always at work and raising up new life from old places and we want to be a part of what he is already doing.
Our call is to do whatever it takes to bring the wayward home. Will you join us?
We pray this teaching has been a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
We began this journey through the book of Ecclesiastes "Full of Weariness" but we are ending it "Full of Hope."
Join us as Pastor Arnaldo closes off our series VANITAS as we look at the conclusion of the matter and see how Jesus is the only and ultimate answer to the existential cry in our souls.
We pray you're blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Qohelet, or "The Preacher" has been going on about how finding our identity and purpose in things like sex, money, possessions, and work are a dead end. And for many Christians, that doesn't come as a surprise.
But this week, Ecclesiastes will also say that religion is equally worthless in helping us achieve "enoughness" - and so things that have been traditionally considered "bad" won't get us there and being "good" won't get us there either. Is there another way?
Join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo helps us to navigate the vanity of religion.
We hope to see you at one of our Sunday Gatherings soon.
We can conquer the known world like Alexander the Great, sell records like Kanye, own real estate like Trump, be crazy successful like Oprah and yet be left with an itch that nothing can scratch. An eternal itch can only be remedied by an eternal scratch.
Join us as we continue to explore the book of Ecclesiastes as we look at the vanity of searching.
We hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
"Grow up!" Something we've said, something we've heard said to us.
In many ways, that's great advice; we do need to grow up, take care of ourselves and others, and take on new responsibilities.
But in the kingdom of God, growing up looks different. We grow up as we grow down; the more childlike we are as we relate to Jesus, the more effective we actually become. This is the Paradox of the Kingdom.
Listen in as we take a break from "Vanitas" and Arnaldo opens up Mark 10:13-16 to teach us what it means that "the Kingdom belongs to such as these."
We hope to see you at our Gatherings on Sundays.
"Whatever makes you happy" has become gospel in our culture. We believe that it is our absolute 'right' to pursue happiness, and at just about any cost. We're often discipled to pursue happiness through pleasure and possessions but does it deliver on its' promises?
The desire, the belief, that we can discover or create a meaningful life through pleasure and possessions is one that each and every single of us has believed or is believing today to one degree or another; but is there another way?
Thanks for tuning in as Arnaldo helps us navigate Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 as Qohelet tries his hand at pursuing a meaningful life through wine, architecture, gardening, riches, and sex. Let's see where he lands.
We hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
We have amassed an incredible amount of data and knowledge over the past 50 years. We know more about more things than any period in human history. And the promise of our incredible advancements in technology and the sciences are that we would usher in a period of flourishing, we would create utopia, in a word, the promise is that we would find salvation.
But is this the case? Can it be the case?
Join us as we continue our series in the book of Ecclesiastes as we look at the Vanity of Wisdom.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
"Smoke, nothing but smoke. There's nothing to anything -- it's all smoke. What's there to show for a lifetime of work, lifetime of working your finders to the bone?"
This is the ancient question that opens up the perplexing book of Ecclesiastes. Even though this book is around 2500 years old, it speaks to modern fears of meaninglessness, modern hopes of leading a decent life, and the deepest of all modern questions: What is the good life?
Join us as Pastor at Anchor South West, Arnaldo opens up our new series "VANITAS: Life Under the Sun".
Thank you for tuning in and we hope you were blessed by this teaching. We hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
Resurrection Sunday!
Thank you for tuning in as Pastor Arnaldo explores the shocking story of the first Easter Sunday morning as the women discover the empty tomb.
The resurrection of Jesus is the most explosive event in the history of all of creation. It signals the reality that doubt is not necessarily the enemy of faith; it signals that our physical existence matters; it signals that we are called to partner with God in the renewal of all things.
We pray you enjoy and are challenged by this message and hope to see you at one of our public gatherings soon.
The Cross of Christ is both a tragedy and a triumph in and of itself. It's a mystery we get to enter into.
Melito of Sardis said this in the 2nd century:
And so he was raised on a cross, and a title was fixed indicating who it was who was being executed. Painful it is to say, but more terrible not to say … He who suspended the earth is suspended, he who fixed the heavens is fixed, he who fastened all things is fastened to the wood; the Master is outraged; God is murdered.
Join us as Arnaldo explore what happened when there was three hours of darkness at midday.
Thanks for joining us as Arnaldo, pastor at Anchor South West, launches a short series "Tragedy & Triumph" exploring the last week of the life of Jesus.
As Jesus approached his last week in the city of Jerusalem, he knew exactly what he was walking into; his disciples and the crowds on the other hand were expecting Jesus to lead a military coup that would overthrow the oppressive reign of the Roman occupying government.
They were expecting war horses, Jesus came riding on a donkey's colt; they were looking for a violent revolution but the revolution that Jesus was to bring was one that would be accomplished through is own death, not that of his enemy.
Join us as Arnaldo walks through Luke 19:28-48 and shows us that God often shows up in the midst of our disappointments. We pray you are blessed and hope to see you at one of our Sunday Gatherings soon.
This week Pastor Arnaldo will close our 8-week series The Way: Lives Ordered Around the Way of Jesus. It's been a phenomenal series where we've sought to help us understand that Christianity is so much more than a set of ideas or a system of philosophy. In fact, Christians were first known as "followers of the Way" - a way of life, the way of Jesus.
And as we close out the series, we'll be looking at the invitation of Jesus to follow him into rest; to learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Join us as we look at Sabbath Resistance.
We pray you're blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at one of our public gatherings soon.
Join us as we continue learning about what it means to follow in the way of Jesus. This week our pastor, Arnaldo, will take us on a journey through Matthew 25, around the theme of Generous Justice. This is a picture of the final judgement and you may be surprised at what Jesus uses at the litmus test of faith here.
We pray you’re blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at our of our public gatherings soon!
We're continuing our series The Way this week as we explore what it means to be sent as Jesus was sent. One of the greatest mysteries in the universe is the incarnation of God in Christ; but this is exactly the paradigm we are to use as we join God in his mission to redeem and reclaim the world through his love.
Join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo opens up for us John 1 and we hope to see you at one of our public gatherings soon.
Jesus came from Community, He lived in Community, and Returned to Community. Living in the way of Jesus is an invitation into community. In this sermon, Sebastian breaks down how Jesus embodied community and why it’s so important to Christian walk.
Jesus lived in attentive obedience to the Father. What motivated Jesus to a life of attentive obedience was his unique, intimate, personal and loving relationship with the Father. We too have been invited into this special relationship with the Father through the Son. Only then we can partner with him in living the life he has called us to live, a life of attentive obedience for the sake of his glory.
Prayer isn't a shopping trolley of requests that we ram into the gates of heaven? Prayer forms us! More than just 'asking', prayer is about communion with our Father, partnering with Him in what He's doing in the world, while he shapes us into the image of Jesus.
The only way to flourish in your faith and endure hardships is to meditate deeply on God's word! Scripture meditation is our 2nd practice in the way of Jesus.
What does it mean to "walk by the Spirit"?
What does it take to actually cultivate a life in the Spirit?
This week, Arnaldo will kick off our new series "The Way: Lives Ordered Around the Way of Jesus" by looking at these questions. And we'll learn that the very same Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis 1 was the same Spirit that empowered the mission and ministry of Jesus. And more than that, he's the same Spirit that enables us to live out of the love of Christ and into the mission of God.
We pray this teaching is a blessing and we see you at our gathering soon!
Last week Arnaldo kicked off our 2-week Vision series as we look ahead to 2022.
This week we'll be looking at the call to "grow up" in Christ. Dallas Willard called discipleship the "Great Omission" from the Great Commission. There is a depth problem in our churches and by God's grace we want to not only go out with the gospel, but grow up in it.
We pray this teaching blesses you and hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon.
What a year it's been! We've experienced so many highs and so many lows as a new church but by God's grace we've made it to see our very first birthday!
Pastor Arnaldo will take the time to share his heart and vision for Anchor South West over two weeks and we'd love to have you as we explore what it means for us to grow up in Christ and go out in Christ. We pray this teaching is a blessing to you.
Would love to have you visit one of our gatherings!
Moving into 2022 is no small thing. We've just experienced some of the most traumatic years in recent collective history. What kind of people are we going to be in this coming year?
Pastor Arnaldo encourages us to keep the end in mind. As we explore Revelation 21:1-5, we'll be reminded that living out of the future will help us navigate these trying times by forming in us resilience, expectancy, and a non-anxious presence.
We pray you are blessed by this teaching and we'd love to have you at one of our gatherings in the future.
Christmas is an amazing time of the year. Charged with beauty, and lights, and family, and gift-giving.
But was the first Christmas experienced that way?
Join us as we explore some of the often overlooked realities of Christmas. We pray you're blessed by this teaching and hope to see you at one of our gatherings in 2022.
And don't forget our first time back together is January 9, 2022! Blessings!
Christmas can mean a million different things to a million different people. But what is it really all about?
Tune in as Arnaldo takes us through John 1:10-13 and explores the invitation that is hidden in Christmas.
We pray you're blessed by this and would love to meet you soon at our in-person Gatherings.
Christmas is one of the best times of the year. And if we need anything after a shocking couple of years ... it's a holiday season full of cheer.
But is this what Christmas is all about? What do we miss when we bypass what makes Christmas not only beautiful, but necessary.
Join us, this 3rd Sunday of Advent to explore what Christmas reveals is true about us and the world. We pray you're blessed and hope to see you at one of our Gatherings soon.
In a culture of tearing down, we're called to stand out as Christians.
In this message, we learn the central kingdom value of honouring other people and building them up, rather than tearing them down.
This sermon is brought to you by James Dawson, pastor of the Anchor Northern Beaches church plant.
We pray you are blessed by this sermon & we look forward to sharing the upcoming advent season with you!
We wrap up our 3-week Generous sermon series. We’ve looked at the generosity of God and the way that transforms a community.
Today Arnaldo will help us walk through Matthew 25 as we explore what it means to steward God’s blessings.
We pray this is a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon!
This week Arnaldo will continue exploring what it looks like to live in response to the abundant goodness and generosity of God. Because the Holy Spirit is divine generosity it makes sense that a community full of the Spirit will be a generous community. We seek to follow in the way of Jesus and form disciples that are radically generous.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and we would love to meet you one day at one of our gatherings!
We live in a world created out of abundance and for abundance. But that's often not our experience.
Listen in today as Arnaldo explores and wrestles with one of God's central attributes: His generosity.
We pray this teaching is a blessing to you and hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon.
English missionary to India Leslie Newbigin once wrote this: "Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy."
If the measure of our success is love, then the engine of mission is joy. We're made to not only enjoy God and his people but complete that joy as we share the good news of Jesus with the world. Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo walks us through John 4 and finishes our series RESET.
We pray you're blessed and hope to see you in person soon.
As we continue to hit reset as a church after Sydney lockdowns, we're asking this question: What will be the measure of our success?
We have a firm conviction that while full buildings and balanced budgets are great blessings, they cannot bear the weight of our existence; we need something more. And that more is love.
Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that we can accomplish a great many deal of things, but if we don't have love, we are nothing.
So join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo takes us on a journey as we explore situating love as the measure of our success.
We pray you're blessed by this message!
We're one week away from meeting back together in person! But as we look at the past 18 months we've all been through, we need to ask the question: What do we need from God in order to move forward in this season?
Pastor Arnaldo will help prepare us for this next season by reminding us that the thing we need most is the peace of Christ.
We hope you're blessed and hope to see you next week!
God is committed to being near and with his people despite their rebellion. God has always wanted to dwell amongst his people, from the first page to the last of scripture.
Throughout the book of Exodus, we've been asking the question: how will God dwell with his wayward people?
Today, Arnaldo, pastor at Anchor South West, will walk us through the answer to that question as he unpacked Exodus 34:6-7. In the final analysis, the only thing more intractable, more stubborn, more tenacious, than the power of Sin, is the goodness, the mercy, the grace of Yahweh.
We hope you're blessed by this word.
The "Golden Calf" ... even if you don't consider yourself religious, you may have heard of it. It's one of the most iconic scenes in the Old Testament and Pastor Arnaldo from Anchor South West will be unpacking this scene today. It's a story of betrayal, heartbreak, idolatry and the long-suffering patience of a God who won't quit on his people; you don't want to miss it. We pray it's a blessing to you.
We hope to see you at one of our gatherings soon!
In Exodus 24, we witness a covenant ceremony where Israel "ties the knot" with Yahweh—a relationship established by grace, enjoyed in obedience—expressing her commitment to live in God's ways of love.
Our late-modern age is indelibly shaped by the Ten Words given to a group of freshly-emancipated slaves 3,000 years ago. We know them as the Ten Commandments, but they are so much more. Join us as Pastor Arnaldo shows us how the Ten Words are an act of grace that leads to mission.
We pray you're blessed by this message!
God.is.Love. Throughout the Scriptures God is said to be full of abundant loyal love. But what does love look like in public? A world where injustice seems to be taking the day? Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo unpacks the reality that God is a God of justice and calls his people to a life of justice. We pray you're blessed.
The Israelites gain their freedom! Rather, they're gifted their freedom as Yahweh leads them through the Red Sea and there is a celebration like no other. But what happens when praise becomes bitterness? And trust becomes doubt? What happens when you enter the wilderness of your life? Is God still good? Is he still with us?
Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo unpacks our next instalment in our series Exodus: A New Humanity.
Many of us may be finding it hard to praise God in this current moment of history. Coronavirus, global conflict, loss of loved ones and much more. By studying the Song of Moses, which the Israelites sang to God after crossing the Red Sea, James Wong reminds us of the reasons we have to praise God and encourages us to find our praise again in this season.
Sometimes God's way just doesn't seem to make sense. In Exodus 14 we explore 3 puzzling commands from God that all work our for Israel's deliverance and God's glory.
Our faith is an embodied faith. As Israel reenacted the passover, so we reenact and experience God's grace, remembering Jesus in the Lord's Supper.
When life is hard, it can be hard to trust God. But in every hardship, there is an invitation to experience God’s formation. God uses suffering to develop our resilience and deepen our trust in him as we re-centre on his character.
God calls each and every one of us to partner with him in the renewal of all things. St. Augustine said: “Without God, we can’t … but without us, He won’t.” This liberating truth draws us into the mission of God. This week we’re exploring Moses’ five objections to partnering with God to bring renewal and freedom to his enslaved brothers and sisters in Egypt. Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo explores Exodus 3-4 today. We pray you’re blessed!
Join us this week as we kick off our new 14-week series through the book of Exodus.
This week we're exploring the reality that the God of the Exodus is a God who is never far from his suffering people. While we may think God is absent, he is working to rescue. We look forward to having you join us on this journey.
We are in between major series on the way to 14 weeks in Exodus but this week we're going back to something shared on August 2, 2020 -- our first in-person pre-launch meeting. It's called "Who is Anchor South West?" Listen in to get a glimpse of the things that are central to our heart, realities we want to wrestle with and be shaped by as we continue to journey together.
Paul's letter to the Ephesians ends with a call to warfare (Eph. 6:10-24). But Paul reminds us that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the Powers & Principalities who seek to deform any benign, and even good, thing into a defining and ultimate reality; thereby dividing, dehumanising, and disordering our humanity.
We hope you're encouraged!
This week Pastor Arnaldo will be walking us through Ephesians 6:1-9. As Paul unpacks a new household code, he will use the form but subvert it to serve the purposes of the kingdom of God. Rather than call on husbands, fathers, and masters to use their position of social power for themselves, they are commanded to a mutual love that seeks to serve rather than be served.
Anchor City pastor Matt Sparks leads us through Ephesians 5:21-30, where we explore the concept of a Spirit-filled marriage being one of mutual submission and wholly giving of yourself to the other, as a picture of the grand narrative of Jesus and his bride (the church).
We pray you are blessed by this resource and hope to see you at South West soon!
As we approach the finish line in the letter of Ephesians, Pastor Arnaldo walks us through Ephesians 5:1-14 as we explore the cruciform life that we are called to live in light of the gospel.
We pray you are blessed by this resource and hope to see you at South West soon!
Fashion is a trillion dollar business annually - it matters. It matters more than we think and what we wears can actually change us. The fashion industry understands the dynamic that what we do, really ends up doing something to us!
This week our lead pastor, Arnaldo, will walk us through Ephesians 4:17-32 where Paul will call the Ephesians to put off the old humanity and put on the new. We are called to partner with God in the very renovation of our souls.
We hope you're encouraged and would love to see you at our gatherings!
Last week Arnaldo closed off the first half of the book of Ephesians!
This week we make the turn to Ephesians 4:1-16 as Paul begins to outline what it means to live in response to the apocalypse of the Messiah.
If we ever hope to grow up into everything the Lord has for us, we need to maintain the unity gifted to us in the gospel.
We pray you're encouraged!
We live in a hyper-individualised world. This is no surprise; but the way in which this posture in the world has affected the church has been nothing short of disastrous.
This week's message is about Paul's prayer for power to comprehend the love of Christ toward his people. But this needs to be understood in its communal context.
Listen in as Pastor Arnaldo walks us through Ephesians 3:14-21 teaching us that there are dimensions of God's love that we cannot experience apart from deep communion with others.
Since the gospel has as much to say to our horizontal relationships as it does to our vertical relationship with the Trinity, Paul explores how because the wall of hostility was brought down in the body of Jesus, different ethnicities stand on equal footing in relation to the promises of God.
And now the things that the fallen powers and principalities would use to separate us are used to display God's manifold wisdom.
Join us!
The cross of Christ does not just deal with the vertical but the horizontal. It obliterates, not just the alienation between us and God, but the alienation between us and us. The cross of Christ creates a new reality in which we are invited to participate, a new humanity, a new 'us'.
Join us this week as Pastor Arnaldo explores the ways the cross overcomes the deep hostility of both the ancient and the modern world.
This week we're taking a deep dive into Ephesians 2:1-10 as we explore what it means to live apocalyptically as the people of God. We'll look at how Paul guided the Ephesian church to not only understanding what they were saved from, but understanding what they were saved for; primarily to be God's masterpiece for the sake of the world.
Paul prays an apocalyptic prayer that God's people will know him and live according to that knowledge.
Listen in as Seti walks us through this explosive passage.
We kick off a 12 week series in the book of Ephesians today!
Today, Pastor Arnaldo will give us an overview of Paul's letter to the Ephesians churches as well as look at Ephesians 1:1-14 and how our salvation does not terminate on us but sends us out into the world.
We pray you are blessed by this teaching.
Our culture disciples us to view greatness through a particular lens; the lens that demands that others serve us. But in the Kingdom of God, greatness is realised through weakness and service. Listen in as we explore this encounter this week!
What happens when Jesus collides with a rich young man? He’s going to remind us all that the cost to following Jesus is steep. But the cost to not following Jesus is steeper still.
Listen in, be blessed and come visit us some time!
This week we've diving into one of the most well known sections of Scripture: John 3:1-21.
Today we'll learn that nothing short of the supernatural new birth from up above will be enough to see the kingdom of God, that is, to have eternal life. Listen in!
What happens when you get a tired Jesus, a hungry crowd, some half-hearted disciples, and a little boy's lunch? Join us this week as Arnaldo explores what happens when a hungry crowd encounters the King.
This week we explore the story of a paralysed man and his faith-filled friends desperate to find healing in Mark 2:1-12. They do whatever it takes to come to Jesus but leave with so much more than what they've bargained for.