Topic: Law
At Open Icon Baptist Church, we value great preaching — 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. Click here to meet the inspirational preachers depicted in the gallery above, none of whom have preached for us!
Each sermon below opens in a new tab. Close the tab when you're done to return to this page.
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8 February, 2026
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Compassion, Culture, Discipleship, Ethics, Jesus, Justice, Law, Suffering
Scripture: Matthew
Jesus calls us to be salt and light by living a public embodied faith that tells the truth, resists indifferent silence, and makes God’s justice and love visible in the world.
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3 November, 2024
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Scripture: Mark
Jesus’s primary aim was not saving us for heaven after we die, but establishing a culture of whole-hearted loved in the here and now.
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6 October, 2024
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Ethics, Fullness of Life, Grace, Law, Marriage, Relationships, War
Scripture: Mark
Jesus calls us to embrace God, life, and one another with joy, delight, hope, and grace, not with heartlessness cloaked in legalities.
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1 September, 2024
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Formation, Law, Purity, sex
Scripture: James, Mark, Psalms, Song of Songs
God’s love for us is so all-consuming that he accepts us as soon as we accept him and is happy for our behaviours to be sorted out in the transforming experience of love.
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3 March, 2024
We all learn our desires from others, but most of them are destructive, and law tries to control them. The pathway to freedom and life is to follow Jesus and learn to desire as he desires.
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10 September, 2023
When we approach everyone with meet with the conviction that the one thing we owe them is love, Christianity will again be experienced as good news.
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20 August, 2023
Looking for emerging patterns can help us (and Jesus?) recognise the ways that God is opening new pathways of grace and inclusion.
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20 November, 2022
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Conflict, Crucifixion, Culture, Jesus, Law, Leadership, Politics, Purity
Scripture: Colossians, Jeremiah, Luke
Jesus comes to break us free from oppressive understandings of God and of God’s expectations of us.
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3 October, 2021
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Children, Culture, Grace, Law, Reconciliation, Relationships
Scripture: Mark
The Kingdom of God can only be accepted the way a child welcomes a hug, not the way lawyers accept a divorce settlement.
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19 January, 2020
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Humility, Law, peace, Reconciliation
Scripture: 1 Corinthians, Matthew
Godly love and respect doesn’t prevent disagreements in the church community, but it should enable us to address them without having to call in the lawyers.
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27 October, 2019
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Forgiveness, Grace, Humility, Jesus, judgement, Law, Repentance
Scripture: Luke
God delights to welcome everyone, and is not interested in who is better or worse, but we imagine God to be an elitist who mirrors our tendency to pick and choose and only accept the best.
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20 October, 2019
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Authority, Bible, Discernment, Faithfulness, Law, Love
Scripture: 1 & 2 Timothy, Jeremiah
Reading scripture with God’s people keeps us honest as we seek to interpret and live by God’s law written on our hearts.

