God is good
30 June , 2011
God is good – all the time! In all his dealings with us there is an unqualified commitment to our well being. He is for us unreservedly. He freely gives us all things. He desires our success more than we can imagine. He has truly forgotten our sins, and unleashed all the blessings of heaven upon us. There can be no more foundational truth for us to believe than this. If God is not good, then there is no gospel, no good news. Just think about it: who would want to be reconciled to a God who is malicious, devious, vengeful or wilful?! But God is good, his mercies are never ending.
In practice we struggle to live in this belief. The daily run of disappointments, opposition and hardship which we experience cause us to qualify to the goodness of God. God is good, but… We submit stoically to the batterings and bruisings as in some sense the dealings of God in our life. “God has sent the suffering to teach me things.” In so doing we slander God and believe the lies of the devil. We attribute to God a brutality of discipline that we would be appalled to apply to our own children. If what we call the goodness of God doesn’t look good then maybe it isn’t the goodness of God!? Maybe God is concerned with enjoying us as a father enjoys his children, more than panel-beating our lives for us.
It is time for the confession that God is good to become our daily warfare. It is time for us to believe to experience the goodness of God as good. It is time to entrust ourselves fully to the father who delights to bless us and who honours us with the position of sons.
To hear more on this, why not listen or download the sermon below?
Blessings
Richard
God is good, All the time! by Richard Lawton, 26 June , 2011
Prodigal father!
13 April , 2011
The prodigal father let the prodigal son go! How amazing is that? With half the family’s cash stuffed in his back pocket the young guy can’t wait to be out of the house. I’m sure the father had serious misgivings. This was not going to end well! Was he an irresponsible father? Should he not have laid down the law? But he didn’t, and yes it did end badly for the young guy. At least the story had a very bad patch for him. In the end, though, it did all come right.
Our heavenly Father has a destiny prepared for us way beyond “what eye has seen or ear heard”, and yet strangely gives us the freedom to reject it. The second tree in the garden provides a way out if man should be foolish enough to want turn his back on the heavenly relationship. (That story ended badly as well, but also came right in the end.) Love desires only good things for the beloved. But true love also guards the freedom of the beloved.
In our desiring good things for those we love, it is hugely tempting at times to want to control them (“for their own good”), yet true love is able to release. Unconditional love is really the only kind of love there is. Conditional love is manipulation. I believe in non-coercive church. I want so much for people in Hillside. But I need you to want it! I believe in non-coercive family. I believe in non-coercive marriage. I believe in non-coercive business…
And all this is possible because Jesus loved us non-coercively and bought us a peace which passes understanding. My peace does not depend on whether the people I know and love do the things I think they ought to. My peace depends only on him.
Have an awesome week honouring the freedom of others.
Richard
PROJECT:destiny
17 January , 2011
New Series!
2011 Starts with a new preaching series focusing on the centrality of the gospel. We believe that the gospel is so much more than evangelism, so much more than the entrance into the kingdom – it is discovering a whole new world on the other side of the cross.
This series captures the heart of our third practice:
We will delight in the gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ as the source of our joy, the key to reading all scripture, the heart of our mission on earth, the substance of our preaching and the only enduring answer to every human need.
Please join us as we explore its implications for our life together.
Preached so far
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Jesus. He's awesome.
By Mike Bouwer on 20 February , 2011 (Sunday Evening).
Partnering With God
By Tyron Akal on 20 February , 2011 (Sunday Morning).
Living with a Gospel Purpose
By Richard Lawton on 13 February , 2011 (Sunday Evening).
The Answer To Everything
By Richard Lawton on 13 February , 2011 (Sunday Morning).
The Gospel as my life's mission Pt2
By Richard Lawton on 6 February , 2011 (Sunday Evening).
The Gospel as my life's mission Pt1
By Richard Lawton on 6 February , 2011 (Sunday Morning).
The gift of righteousness
By Richard Lawton on 30 January , 2011 (Sunday Evening).
Simplicity of sin
By Richard Lawton on 30 January , 2011 (Sunday Morning).
Destiny: Sonship
By Richard Lawton on 23 January , 2011 (Sunday Evening).
The Greatest Story Ever Told
By Richard Lawton on 23 January , 2011 (Sunday Morning).
SARS salvation
7 September , 2010
Following the Bethel School of Supernatural evangelism, I have prayed for a number of people and seen God heal them! Most of these people were already Christians and so I began asking God for salvations, as well as the healings, in my encounters with people. During a visit to the SARS office, I discovered that the elderly security guard at the entrance had pain in his ear that was so severe it kept him awake at night. I prayed for him and within a few seconds he reported that the pain was gone! This man was the first I prayed for who, subsequently, wanted to give his heart to Jesus! Some time later I met with the young night-time security guard at SARS and was able to minister to a long-standing emotional hurt in his life resulting in him wanting to meet Jesus and experience the Father's love. I prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon him so that he could feel the presence of God. The Lord touched him and after that he gave his life to Jesus!
Later I asked Jesus to give me a Word of Knowledge when leading me to pray for someone. The next day, as I was leaving the supermarket, I felt a sharp pain in my left leg. It took me a few minutes to register that this was actually a Word of Knowledge! A young woman with a child was pushing a trolley out of the shop infront of me and I asked her if she had such a pain in her leg. When she asked me why I was asking her that, I explained that Jesus had shown me these symptoms and that He wanted to heal the person with this problem. She then confirmed that it was her. I prayed for her and she was healed! She expressed her gratitude that I had been obedient to what the Lord had shown me.
John S
Perfect Gospel, imperfect church
22 April , 2010
Our new morning preaching series “Perfect Gospel, Imperfect Church” starts in May. It is a study of the Gospel and the Church through 1Corinthians. It will run through to August.
Put your seat belts on!
Richards new Blog
20 March , 2010
I’m sitting on the verandah as the mist rolls in, having my first go at a blog! What an awesome tool to keep in touch not just with happenings, but thoughts and ideas too. I am quite an ideas person as you will have realized, so this blog is likely to be thin on news and fatter on thoughts!
I have just finished the first draft of a sermon for Easter Sunday, part of our series on Encountering Jesus (how did this series get to be called “Close Encounters” for heavens sake? You have to know that not everything that happens in Hillside comes from my desk!) Anyway I am increasingly gripped with our commitment to place the gospel at the centre of all we do, as we have tried to do in this series. But the only way we can in integrity be gospel-centred is if, as we have claimed, the gospel is the answer to every human need. (If there is a human need that is not addressed by the gospel, then we had better preach something else!) That key statement is so easy to say and such hard work to apply. In fact I think it is the greatest theological challenge to every preacher to explain just how Jesus is the answer to the needs of the hearer. In the face of hugely diverse relational, emotional, economic stresses we constrain ourselves not to give 10 tips on how to do it better, or a motivational pep talk, but a good solid reason why the work of Jesus on the cross makes all the difference, indeed is our salvation. (Especially since many hearers would probably prefer a pep talk, or some tips!) The gospel is good news, not good advice. A HUGE challenge, but what a privilege to engage in it.
Jesus attends the Mind Body Soul Fair
18 March , 2010
Recently a team from Hillside attended the Mind, Body Soul fair with Jesus.
John: We had an amazing time watching Jesus astound unbelievers by touching them with his love and healing them of many different conditions of sickness, disease, injuries and pain. On one occasion a youngish athletic man came in suffering in great pain from a knee injury he had sustained some time before and then aggravated by knocking it against something that very day. He felt that perhaps he would need to give up sport and just wanted the pain to go and the knee to be ok for ‘normal’ life. We told him that we believed Jesus wanted more than that and would heal his knee completely. After a short prayer the pain had reduced substantially and after further prayer the pain was virtually gone even though he was doing deep knee bends and moving about in ways he thought he wouldn’t have the freedom to do again. He was amazed, he was blessed (and so were we).
In another situation a woman came for prayer who was also in pain with back and shoulder problems. On questioning her we discovered that her husband had died last year and since then she had experienced serious back and shoulder pain and immobility in those areas. We ministered the Father’s love and comfort to her and asked God to lift the pain of grief from her and fill her with his peace. The presence of God was wonderful. We then prayed for her back and neck and all of us were blessed as Jesus made his presence felt again. When we asked her to move in ways that would normally bring pain she was amazed that there was no pain. When we asked her to touch her toes she said that was impossible. We told her nothing was impossible for God and as we watched she reached down and virtually touched the floor with no pain. How good is Jesus that we don’t have to do anything to earn his love and how readily he wants to show his love; even to those who don’t know Him.
ADAM: One of the things that impacted me the most was what happened when we prayed for a lady who had been born with Spina Bifida*. She said that her left leg had had no feeling and very little strength for the last 16 years. We first began to pray for feeling in her leg. As we prayed she said she could feel us touching around her knee. We began praying for the feeling to move down her entire leg all the way to her foot. We also prayed that she would be able to feel someone tickling her foot and begin to laugh. As we prayed this she said her whole leg started to tingle and she start to giggle a little. She said she could feel someone tickling her foot while we were praying. We started praying for strength to come back into the leg as well. When she stood up she had a big smile and said that her leg was definitely stronger.
[*Spina bifida (Latin: "split spine") is a developmental birth defect caused by the incomplete closure of the embryonic neural tube. Some vertebrae overlying the spinal cord are not fully formed and remain unfused and open. Spina bifida can be surgically closed after birth, but this does not restore normal function to the affected part of the spinal cord.]
Hospital healings
16 March , 2010
On Monday a group of us from Hillside joined some churches that have been working into Macords hospital for the past three and a half years now. One of our encounters was with a guy that had TB. He was looking very weak, but when we started praying life came back into his face. He began to flex his leg and said that the pain he had previously suffered was gone! Then, against his family’s advice, he stood up – he had not been able to do that before. He began to walk around the hospital by himself and gave us all hugs to show his gratitude. He had been healed! In the next bed was a Hindu man, with his entire family around him. Luke, who was part of our praying team, shouted to the whole ward ‘THIS IS FOR EVERYONE!’ The Hindu man responded by saying that he would like some prayer. So Luke and Warren prayed for his diabetes and before long he said that he could feel that the sickness had lifted off him. In front of his entire family, he gave his life to Jesus! WOW! Then we began to pray for the family who were standing around. Jesus duly healed the ingrown toenail of a woman that was meant to get an operation the next day, and reduced the swelling in the leg of another lady who had problems with varicose veins. In fact, we prayed for almost the entire family. It was awesome!
