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baptist church
baptist church
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
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!
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Pastor
Nathan Nettleton
Nathan Nettleton has served as pastor of this congregation since 1994. He was ordained as a Baptist pastor that same year and completed an honours degree in theology at Whitley College in 1995, followed by a Master of Theology in Liturgical Studies from the University of Divinity in 2001. In our church, he carries particular responsibilities for the preaching, teaching, and ordering of worship and prayer, and for pastoral care. He also writes liturgical resources for a global audience through LaughingBird.net, and serves as a board member of Open Baptists. Nathan is married to Margie, and they have an adult daughter, Acacia, and two dogs.
Sermons by Nathan Nettleton
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26 November, 2017
God has created a world that becomes healthy, free and full of life when its nations honour and care for the most vulnerable. Nations that fail to build cultures of compassion and care are doomed to destroy themselves.
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12 November, 2017
While we are called to be a sharing community and thus to have no need of worry for tomorrow, you can’t look to others to provide you with the fruits of a life lived in generosity and prayerfulness.
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5 November, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Humility, Jesus, judgement, Reconciliation, Temptation, Virtues
Scripture: Matthew
Jesus’s quest for reconciliation is far wider and more discomfortingly radical than our tendency to jump on the bandwagon of popular justice causes.
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29 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Grace, Incarnation, Jesus, judgement, Law, Love
Scripture: Matthew
Today, as in Jesus’s day, two fundamentally different visions of God and God’s expectations compete. Jesus calls us to side with the one that centres on love rather than the one that centres on concerns for holiness.
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22 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Faithfulness, Jesus
Scripture: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Exodus, Matthew
Modelling ourselves on those who model themselves on Jesus is a healthy pathway to fulfilling the image of God within us.
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15 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Authority, Faith, Fear, Forgiveness, Grace, judgement, Law, Temptation
Scripture: Exodus
God invites us to live joyously, boldly and freely in the midst of mystery, but we are frequently tempted to grasp for something more tangible and certain.
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8 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Grace, Jesus, judgement, Law, Reconciliation
Scripture: Exodus, Matthew, Philippians
When we use the biblical law to reinforce a worldview of sin and punishment, we doom ourselves to live in a judgemental world, a world from which Jesus offers to break us free.
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1 October, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Authority, Discernment, Faithfulness, Jesus, Law, Love
Scripture: Matthew
The marriage equality debate raises questions about authority, but prophetic authority is not proved by fidelity to past rules, but by its power to produce a harvest of new life and love among the people.
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24 September, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Scripture: Matthew
When Jesus exposes our aversion to having others recognised as our equals, he calls us to repent and celebrate God’s generosity to all. The marriage equality debate exposes another frontier of his challenge to us.
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17 September, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Scripture: Romans
Jesus calls us to welcome and honour each other at his table regardless of the disagreements we may have over how to apply biblical teachings.
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10 September, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Jesus, Law, Love, Reconciliation
Law typically serves to contain the expression of human desire within safe bounds, but Jesus calls us to follow him in fulfilling the law through radical love and mercy that always seeks reconciliation.
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3 September, 2017
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Conversion, Discipleship, Hope, Hospitality, Humility, Jesus, Love, Virtues
Christians are to be known for what they celebrate and affirm and encourage rather than what they are against.
