Sunday 19th March 2023
You are welcome to worship in person this Sunday at 10.15am. Hand sanitizer and masks are available if you would like to use them.
We are also live streaming of our services. The service can be seen each Sunday morning commencing at 10.15am. Here is the link to our YouTube channel to access the live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHEm1fJeADpcP6gO1BsBKcg
Today is the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent and we will be looking at week 5 of the sermon series ‘Faith Runs Deep’ and my message is entitled ‘That Other religion’ and as the title suggests we will be examining how we might view sport in Australia today. As we are getting to the end of summer sports such as cricket, I propose to focus on the winter season of sport.
In past times sport was played on a part-time basis and players were employed in a variety of occupations during the day and generally trained about twice a week after work. In the two sports that I follow namely AFL and NRL players today are employed by clubs on a full-time basis. They generally train every day except game day and while their physical fitness can’t be questioned the pressure to win places enormous pressure on them mentally. The public treat them as role models, whether they deserve that title or not. The best players are paid enormous amounts of money, so there is massive pressure on them to perform at their peak every week. While the religious beliefs of a lot of players is unknown, sport certainly has its fair share of Christians who play, particularly from the Pacific Islands.
In our readings today, the Apostle Paul uses sporting examples to illustrate his point, but ultimately, he says ‘let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.’ We need to ponder an answer to two questions; ‘do we have any current idols in our lives’ and ‘is there anything more important to you than God?’
Finally, we will look at what is termed Biblical idolatry, particularly in relation to the lives of Abraham and Sarah in the Book of Genesis. Keith.