Sermons
At Open Icon Baptist Church, we value preaching that engages deeply, humbly and honestly with Jesus, the Bible, and the pain and joy of living in the real world. And since going permanently online, we have been able to welcome great preachers from all over the world without having to wait for them to visit our shores.
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10 October, 2004
When we do not live lives of gratitude, which would actually expand our sense of the world in which we live, God still does not rescind his gifts.
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14 September, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Crucifixion, Death, Evil, Faith, Love
Scripture: Colossians, Genesis, Luke
The Cross is the tree at which we come to know the fullness of good and evil, and as we choose to bear the consequences of good and evil, it becomes for us the tree of life.
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12 September, 2004
Preacher: Marita Munro
Topic: Generosity, Jesus, Reconciliation, Salvation
Scripture: 1 & 2 Timothy, Jeremiah, Luke, Psalms
Jesus acted out the parables that he was telling in his encounters with people, expressing the nature of God who seeks after us and rejoices in our being found and restored. God invites us to be people like that.
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29 August, 2004
God is deeply hurt and offended by our rejection of God in favour of things that are worthless, but Jesus has made possible both our forgiveness and our reconciliation.
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1 August, 2004
Preacher: Garry Worete Deverell
Topic: Conversion, Formation, Spiritual Disciplines, Spirituality, Wisdom
Scripture: Colossians, Luke
When we detach from things, God comes to fill or possess us by God’s Spirit, and suddenly the world is full of life once more.
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11 July, 2004
God has given us a new identity and a new allegiance in his kingdom, and our loyalty is now to truth and compassion regardless of their consequences for the interests of any other communities or kingdoms.
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4 July, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Crucifixion, Culture, Jesus, Spiritual Warfare, Temptation
Scripture: Galatians
The world will try to domesticate the gospel and get it to reinforce the world’s status quo and moral codes, but as people identified with Christ on the cross, we live the radical (and offensive) life of the new creation.
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20 June, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Christian ascetic discipline is not about earning God’s acceptance, but about banishing the demons so that we can live life more fully in the here and now.
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30 May, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Holy Spirit, Liberation, Resurrection
The message of Pentecost is the message of Pascha – Christ is risen and, in him, we are liberated from our captivity to the spirits of death, fear, despair, and division, and freed to dance to the Holy Spirit’s tune.
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9 May, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Gifts, Hospitality, Love, Purity, Reconciliation
When God accepts and gifts those who are supposed to be excluded according to our theology, then its time to change our theology to a rule of love instead of a rule of purity.
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2 May, 2004
Preacher: Garry Worete Deverell
Topic: Identity, Jesus, Martyrdom, Resurrection
Scripture: John, Psalms, Revelation
Jesus’s resurrection was a sign which declared that Jesus’ cause was God’s cause, that Jesus’ values were God’s values, that Jesus’ people were God’s people.
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25 April, 2004
The risen Christ is extravagantly generous and excruciatingly unwilling to settle for pious platitudes in return.


