Welcome to Peninsula Vineyard Community Church

Welcome to the church site for PVCC. Please have a look around and let us know what you think.. You can navigate to our 2 other sites - APM and BCR by following the links at the top.

If you are on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, pop in and say hello when we return on 11th January 2009- we'd love to meet you.

From Roy & Gae...

It is important for us to grasp fully the difference between godly and worldly sorrow. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 7 that “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

Godly sorrow is part of the process that leads us to repentance. It is a work of the Holy Spirit who brings illumination of the word and then conviction which can cause us to be deeply sorrowful about our sin.

Whereas both sorrows are caused by the illumination of our sinfulness by various means, one leads to life and the other causes no change in our understanding & actions and continues to death. Worldly sorrow only considers how it affects us, we may be embarrassed, humiliated even suffer pain or rejection from any disclosure, however our primary concern through all this remains of how it affects me. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, is the realization that our behaviour is sinful and our sin is an offence against a holy God. King David states when confronted by the prophet Nathan as to his adultery and murder in Ps 51:4 "Against you (God), you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”.

This does not negate the responsibility to the people we hurt by our sin and restitution may be required. However, our sin is primarily against God whose laws we have broken. If we recognize this and turn to God (1 John 1:9) it will lead us to true repentance which will lead through faith to life.

Let us be mindful that we demonstrate the right kind of sorrow when confronted with sin in
our lives.

We have seen in this gospel series the total involvement of the Trinity in the salvation of man. The Fathers’ love for us is demonstrated when He reaches out and draws us to himself via Jesus. We see Jesus come to earth in human form to show us the character of the Father and to live a life of perfect obedience culminating in his sacrificial death. His death and resurrection cleared the obstacle of sin, so that man could once more come to God. Finally, the work of the Holy Spirit, who reveals Jesus to a lost world. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.

How encouraging and comforting to know that God and all the resources of heaven have been at work and continue to be so in restoring us to our intended position as children of God. It gives new meaning to the verse “ if God is for us then who can be against us”.

This month we will be starting a series on the gospel. The simplicity of the gospel is seen in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 where Pauls states;

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, …” Of all the things that Paul would share with those that he met on his journeys this message was the one that was the most important and foundational to everything else that he shared.

Christ died for our sins – tells us why he had to die not for his sin because he was perfect but for our sin which had alienated us from God. It reveals God's love for us in sending Jesus and reveals our total inability to save ourselves.

According to the scriptures – this was an action that was not thought up on the spur of the moment or as a last resort but was prophesized long before and recorded. God knew the future and had already planned His response. He shares that with us in the bible so that we can be confident in Him.

That he was buried – you only bury people that are dead, this counters the many different theories, one being that Jesus merely was unconscious and was revived in the coolness of the tomb. No, Jesus actually laid his life down for you and me.

That he was raised on the third day – death, the price Jesus paid for the sin of the world could not hold Him down. After three days the Father regarded the debt of our sin to have been fully paid. He demonstrated this to us by raising Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. The empty tomb is our guarantee that as we repent and believe in Jesus we will be accepted by the Father.

We are looking closely at these truths so that we may be fully equipped to be like Paul and share this with those we meet.

A team of 17 has just returned from our annual short-term mission trip to the Philippines. The team, with the help of our partner churches, witnessed over 2,500 people come into the Kingdom of God through successful crusades and home visitation. I was great to distribute 4,000 bibles and establish countless home bible studies.

It was also encouraging to again meet people this year who were saved / healed during previous crusades and are now still following God and reaching out to others. We will post some photos on our APM site shortly.

I have been sharing recently on the need for involvement.
The old 80:20 world system adage where 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people should not be the case in the church.

Every person has a place and every person has a role, function or gift that is to be used for the common good. This common good is both internal (ie for the church members) and external for outreach to the unsaved community around us.

This will bring growth both numerically and in maturity. The challenge for us is to not follow the world's ways and to be always reliant on other people doing the job but to ask God for the role He would like us to play. We need to be a 100:100 church. That is, all the people being involved in doing all the work.

In Ephesians 1 Paul prays for the church. He would pray the same thing for us today.

He prays that God may give us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation. These would be 2 great things to have; Could you imagine how successful we would be in the world with these two insights?

However the purpose Paul says is that “we may know the Father better”
Paul realises that knowing God is the greatest purpose and the greatest benefit open to man. Of all mans endeavours; study, searching and exploring, there is nothing greater than knowing God more and more each day.

We need to pray this prayer for ourselves each day. "God give me insight into who you are and how I can know and serve you better". This is true wisdom.

Continuing in Paul's prayer for you and me is that we would be enlightened. That is, have understanding of three things. Firstly, the hope to which He has called you, then the riches of His inheritance in the saints and lastly, the incomparable great power for us who believe.

The hope to which He has called you includes everything that God has eventually for us. It has a future dimension. That is, to be like Jesus, to be with him ruling and reigning forever. It also encourages us that no matter what we come out of or how bad our past may be, God has nothing but a good plan for us who believe.

The riches of His inheritance can mean several things but one would be all that we will inherit in Christ. In this present age we merely see glimpses of this but in the future we will experience it all. This understanding of these riches should dull our attraction to what this world may offer.

Lastly, how much power is available for us to draw upon in this present age we live in. Paul tells us it is the same power that enabled God to raise Jesus from the dead and place Him at God's right hand.

If we gained even a fraction of what Paul is praying we would certainly live different lives than we do at present. Is it difficult? - no it is available to all who ask.

Satan's greatest weapon is death. When Jesus died upon the cross He did not die for His own sin because He was sinless. Rather, He died for the sins of the whole world.

The sins of every person from Adam onwards. All these sins were placed upon Jesus; each individual sin earning the death penalty. Imagine the billons, trillions, zillions of death penalties that were holding Jesus in the grave. Death however could not hold Him down for the power of God is greater.

This same power is available for us who believe. If we imagine that some sin or addiction or abnormal behaviour has a hold on us and keeps us from moving forward in our Christian faith. We are deceived for the truth is that there is a power that is available that will break every one of those chains and set us free. That power is found in God and in the blood of Jesus Christ – his death has set you free. You need to appropriate that and walk in freedom today!

Philippians 2 tells us of Christ’s attitude in humbling himself and being obedient to the Father even to the cost of his life because of this sacrifice God elevated Jesus to a place of pre-eminence.

This position Ephesians 1 tells us is “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet….” Jesus is above everything, every angel, demon, authority and power.

Over every person place and thing. Both in the natural and spiritual world and covering the past, present and future. We cannot begin to imagine the position, authority and power that is in Christ. No one or thing compares to him. It rightly says in Philippians 2:10-11 “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

From this position, Jesus commands us to go and do what he has commanded. We can do this with the full knowledge that being “in Christ” gives us access to that same authority and power.

Ephesians 1:22-23 says “God placed all things under his feet, and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

For what purpose is everything under Jesus feet? It is because the Father has appointed him head over us the church which is his body. This analogy of the head and the body is fitting; Jesus is Lord and in control of all things and the body complements Christ. In other words both are needed.

We need Jesus and Jesus needs us to be his living expression to the world. The scripture says we are the fullness of Him, that word means completeness; two parts coming together to make one. We are the fullness of Christ, what Christ is we are to display that to the world. We display his love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness his power etc in all things.

We can be confident as we step out daily to be his body knowing the position that Jesus holds, having dominion over everything. Of course this does not mean that Jesus is deficient in any way and needs us to make him righteous, rather we look to him who “fills everything in everyway”. Even though we are his bodily expression it is he who enables us to do that, by filling and empowering us by his Spirit.

Over and over in the new testament we find the word, "Beloved." God calls you His beloved. There is radical amazement in these words. Are you able to define yourself radically as the one beloved by God? The bases of your personal worth is not your possessions, your talent, your reputation, or your achievement. Your worth is anchored in the reality that you are deeply loved by God. When I draw life and meaning from any other source other than my belovedness,
I have just swapped the pearl of great price for cheap glass.

Love originates from God. It is a love that causes the human spirit to marvel. When Paul meditated on the love of God, all he could do was to cry out, "how high, how deep, and how wide is this love!" Love is powerful. Love will
change you. Love will charge the atmosphere around you. Love is what you were created for. Confidence in this love will intimidate the enemy. The original purpose of our lives is to discover the truth of our belovedness. God intended for our identity to rest in the relentless tenderness, kindness, and compassion of the One who knows us best and loves us best. God created us for union with Himself. That is the original purpose of our lives. Being the beloved is our identity. It is the core of our existence. No wonder John could declare in 1 John 4:18, "In love, there can be no fear for fear is driven out by perfect love." He understood clearly, "I am the one Jesus loves," as he laid his head on Jesus' breast, touching the heartbeat of the greatest Lover in the universe. Jesus said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father (John 14:9)." Jesus understood fully the tenderness and compassion of the Father's heart because He fully knew He was the Father's Son. He did nothing on His own, but only what His Father told Him. Everywhere He went, He lavished the indiscriminate love of the Father to the moral failures, the irreligious, the politically suspect, the abandoned hopeless types, the cripples
the lepers, the possessed, and the sick. What kind of dangerous and naïve love is this? It is a love that loves without limits. It is the lavishing love of the Father whose heart aches for deep and intimate relationship with those called the children of God.

Beloved, you and I represent those same types. We are like those people whose hearts have been awakened to the truth of our belovedness. Like Paul, we can echo, "The love of Christ compels me (2 Cor. 5:14)." "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39)," our Lover!

Let's live with a fierce longing for more of God and with an unyielding resolve to live in and
out of the truth of our belovedness. Let's live today and give glory to God simply by being ourselves… the beloved.

Taken in part from newsletter of Singing Waters Ministry, Canada by Donna Parachin

Prayer is by its simplest definition “man communicating with God”. There are many different types of prayer and ways that we can communicate with God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenged those listening with many different principles of the Kingdom one of those concerned prayer.
He presented to the disciples a model in which we could pattern
our prayer life.

Broadly speaking this prayer in Matthew 6 shows us 3 priorities which
help us in the way we pray.The first speaks of relationship. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” we address God as our Father.

God is the one who wants us to see and relate to him as a father. This therefore is the
primary reason why we pray , to develop a relationship with God, everything else will flow
out of this.

Secondly, Jesus commands us to pray about the things of the Kingdom 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We need to be seeking the advancement of Gods causes not our own.

Thirdly, we look to our heavenly father for natural provision, forgiveness and protection .
11 Give us today our daily bread.12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’.
These then are the priorities for our prayer life. Unfortunately as believers we tend to reverse these priorities. We continually seek out God for what we need and want, rather than building  relationship. As someone aptly said “we seek the gift and not the giver”.
This month we will be examining our prayer life to reverse those tendencies and help us develop a right relationship with our heavenly Father.

Can you remember any time in your life where an experience caused a radical change of thinking in your life?

I know when teenagers finally discover the opposite sex that it can turn their whole world upside down. A brilliant student can suddenly lose interest in study and onto the cutest girl in the class. These changes that we experience in the natural are supposed to be reflected in the spiritual. In the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price we have this scenario. A man discovers a hidden treasure which causes him to re-prioritize his whole life.

So much so that he is willing to sell everything he possess in order to gain the treasure or pearl. This highlights two things, firstly the kingdom is the greatest treasure in the world. Secondly, discovering this treasure should radically change a person’s life. The life we live in this world should now be viewed only from the perspective of eternity.

In your life, has this discovery of the kingdom, (whether by accident as in the hidden treasure or by deliberate searching as in the pearl of great price) caused a radical transformation of your life? Do not be ineffective as a Christian by having one foot in the world and the other in the kingdom. It is time to be fully radically and sold out for the life that God has for us, a life of effectiveness in the kingdom.

As we continue with Jesus' teaching on the kingdom we see the parable of the mustard seed and the leaven. It is somewhat easier for us to look back in hindsight at the words of Jesus spoken in these two parables. They would have been so amazing to the original hearers.

This one itinerant rabbi with a handful of disciples was predicting an abnormal growth of this kingdom and that it would each beyond the Jewish nation to attract peoples from all over the world.

How quickly this prophetic parable came to fruition and continues to grow. The parable of the leaven looks at the internal growth in contrast to the external of the mustard seed. As leaven permeates to every area of the mixture, so the influences of the rule of God spread to every area of society. It touched the rich and poor, the slave and free, it crossed all social and cultural barriers reaching even into the palaces of kings and caesars.

On a more personal level, Jesus wants his rule to touch, and bring change to every area of our lives. I encourage you to let the leaven of Jesus presence into every area of hurt, pain, fear, unbelief or what ever is a hindrance in your life. Ask Him today; it’s your choice.

In our series on the kingdom of God we have been looking at Matthew 13 and the parables Jesus spoke as he described the kingdom. The parable of the sower is seen as a key to understanding all the parables Jesus spoke (Mk.4:13). I believe the key revolves around our receptivity to the Word of God. The seed is God's words spoken by Jesus and continued on by the apostles and by us today. There is nothing wrong with God's ways or his Word in relation to us. It says in:

2Sa 22:31 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. 31 “As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

The problem is with mans heart, and its preparedness and how he chooses to respond. The options are the hard path , the rocky soil, the weedy ground and the good soil. I have summed up our responses as follows:

Path – hear but choose to reject
Rocky – hear but are easily dissuaded
Weeds – hear but are overwhelmed by distractions
Good soil – hears, understands and chooses to apply it.

These four responses will govern our maturity in the kingdom.

This month, both in church and our house churches, we are looking at the subject of fruitfulness. God wants us to be fruitful. He says in John 15: 16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear much fruit – fruit that will last". This Scripture along with the early verses describes our relationship with God and His purpose for us, to bear much fruit. What is the fruit that God wants to produce through us? Fruit in the bible can be seen both as an internal quality and as an external manifestation. Internally it is the fruit of the Spirit that Paul speaks of in Galatians 5. This fruit "Love, joy, peace, patience etc" develops as we abide in and obey the Lord. There are also 3 other areas that Paul describes as fruit:

- Our involvements in sharing the gospel and seeing people come into the Kingdom.
- Our involvement in giving to those in need.
- The fruit of our lips that confess His name as we obey Him in all situations.

Of course God the Father as the gardener wants to develop all of us to produce the maximum fruit in our lives. He does this by discipline and pruning. As His children we need to understand the difference and to know which one is being applied to us at any time. Let us remember that in all of His workings His attitude towards us is always one of love and nurturing.