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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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19 December, 2004
The coming Christ will continually confound our expectations, no matter how well informed or righteous they may be.
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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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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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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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25 April, 2004
The risen Christ is extravagantly generous and excruciatingly unwilling to settle for pious platitudes in return.
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18 April, 2004
The experience of the resurrected Christ may not be as instantly transformative as we’ve often thought, but those who seek Christ’s self-revelation will grow into his mission.
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14 March, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Fullness of Life, Repentance, Suffering
Scripture: 1 Corinthians, Isaiah, Luke
Repenting of our past ways and following Jesus does not guarantee us safety from disaster, but it certainly opens the way to an abundance of life that is beyond what any disaster can destroy.
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8 February, 2004
Extravagant grace can be terrifying because it asks nothing of us but a complete change of life!