Title: Comfortably Numb: Waking Up from Lukewarm Christianity
Speaker: Pastor Ben Smith
Date: 14th January 2026
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Summary

“We don’t want to be a people who are comfortably numb.” A Pink Floyd lyric turns up in an unlikely place here, and it lands. The subject is lukewarm Christianity, approached through two passages: Jesus warning that love would grow cold as lawlessness increased, and his blunt verdict on the church at Laodicea, a fellowship so comfortable it had decided it was doing just fine.

The name Laodicea means power of the people, and that is offered as the clue to what went wrong. A group can end up led by the mood of the room rather than by God’s word and still feel entirely settled about it. The answer sits in the next verse: the one who endures to the end will be saved. Endurance does not earn salvation, but it is what faithfulness looks like stretched over years, and it is thin on the ground in a throwaway culture where marriages and commitments get dropped faster than they get repaired.

Hebrews adds the practical edge: give earnest heed, so that what you have heard does not quietly slip away. That turns into a question worth asking often. Am I more zealous than I used to be, or less? Zeal and repentance are where revival has always started, ground also covered in Enduring to the end.

Key Points

• Jesus listed increasing lawlessness and love growing cold among the signs that would mark the time before his return.
• The church at Laodicea was judged lukewarm, and comfort was the likely cause. A settled socioeconomic climate led them to conclude they were fine when they were not.
• Laodicea means power of the people, a fellowship steered by the general mood rather than by God’s word.
• Endurance does not earn salvation. If it did, salvation could be worked for. Endurance is what faithfulness looks like over the long haul.
• Commitment is getting harder in a throwaway culture, and people walk away from marriages and fellowships rather than resolve what needs resolving.
• The warnings against slackening off were written into the early letters, which suggests the concern was live even then.
• Letting things slip is discouraging well beyond the person it happens to, and holding steady has the opposite effect.
• Repentance and zeal are the conditions revival has always come out of, and comfort is what dulls both.

Reference Scriptures

• Matthew 24:12-13
• Revelation 3:14-22
• John 14:15
• John 13:34-35
• Hebrews 2:1-3
• Hebrews 10:25-26
• 1 Corinthians 10:12
• Hebrews 12:1

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Title: No Relationship Beyond Repair
Speaker: Pastor Bill Allen
Date: 26th January 2026
Location: Gold Coast, Australia

Summary:

“There’s no such thing as an irrevocably damaged relationship for those that look to the Lord and love the Lord.” Episode 836 opens with a question most of us have asked at some point. Have you ever wrecked something so badly, a marriage, a friendship, a working relationship, that you assumed there was no way back?

The episode works through John chapter twenty one, the last chapter of John’s Gospel. The disciples are unsettled after the resurrection, so Peter does the one thing he knows how to do and goes fishing. Jesus meets them on the shore with a fire already burning and breakfast already cooking. Then comes the conversation Peter has probably been dreading, three questions that mirror the three denials by the fire only weeks before.

The reading offered here is that Jesus is not reopening a wound. He is doing the opposite. By pointing Peter forward to a job that needs doing, feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, feed my sheep, Jesus lifts him out of guilt and back into purpose. There is also a look at the friendship between Peter and John, why John is the one who recognises Jesus first and who he chooses to tell, and why the net breaking in Luke chapter five but holding here might be the whole point.

Key Points:

• Peter carried weeks of guilt after the denials, and the shoreline meeting is most likely the first one to one conversation between him and Jesus since that night.
• The three questions match the three denials, but the purpose is restoration rather than punishment. The cure for condemnation is being given something to do.
• In Luke chapter five the net broke when the disciples worked in their own strength. Here the catch is bigger, the work is harder, and the net holds.
• John recognises Jesus first and tells Peter, not the others, which shows a friendship untouched by what Peter had done. John had already moved past it.
• When Peter asks what will happen to John, the answer is direct. That is not your concern, follow me.
• The first two questions use agape, the love of God. The third uses phileo, the love of a brother, an invitation into a personal, walking alongside relationship.
• Her sins were forgiven because she loved much. The questions that matter are whether we love the Lord, and whether we love the people around us.
• A person cannot be truly strong until they confront their own weakness. Peter was brittle before Pentecost and a tower of strength afterwards.

Reference Scriptures:

• John 21:1-25
• John 21:15-17
• John 21:25
• Luke 5:1-11
• John 14:13
• John 17
• John 19:26-27
• Luke 22:61-62
• Isaiah 42:3
• 1 Corinthians 12:12-21
• Matthew 4:19
• Jeremiah 31:34
• Luke 7:36-50
• John 12:1-8
• Romans 3:23

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Title: Trusting God’s Goodness
Speaker: David Rocchi
Date: 5th April 2026
Location: Dunedin, New Zealand

Summary:
“God is not looking for excuses to be bad to us. He is looking for excuses to be good to us.”

This episode works through Psalm 34:8 and its invitation to taste and see that the Lord is good. The idea is simple but easy to lose hold of: God is good, and he wants to be good to you personally. Most of us can agree that God has been good to others while quietly assuming we are the exception. This teaching sets out to remove that doubt for good.

Building from Romans 5 and Ephesians 2, the case is made that the clearest evidence of God’s goodness is already settled. Christ died for us while we were still opposed to God, which means the goodness was never earned and never can be. It is given freely. From there the episode moves through Psalm 139, Jeremiah 29 and Isaiah 46 to show how constantly God thinks about us and how he intends to carry us from beginning to end, through every stage and every kind of trouble.

The closing section is practical. Mistakes and failures do not cancel God’s goodness, and the way back is repentance, not self punishment. The response God asks for is thanks and praise, poured out in prayer and shared openly with others. Confidence in God’s goodness makes the whole walk lighter, calmer and far more free from worry.

Key Points:

• God’s goodness is not a general idea about the world. It is his settled intention toward you personally, and you are not the exception.
• The death of Christ is the proof. It happened while we were still sinners, so God’s favour was never earned and cannot be lost through failure.
• Assurance of God’s goodness changes how we face trouble. Trials can be met with confidence rather than dread when we trust the outcome is in good hands.
• The Holy Spirit is what makes this real to us. We do not reason our way into it. It is revealed in prayer and settled in the heart.
• Mistakes are not the end of the matter. Confess, turn around, come back, and stop punishing yourself where God has already forgiven.
• The right response is thanks and praise, offered daily in private prayer and spoken openly to others.

Reference Scriptures:

• Psalm 34:8
• Romans 5:1-5
• Romans 5:8
• Ephesians 2:4-7
• Exodus 33-34
• 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
• Psalm 139:17-18
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Isaiah 46:3-4
• Isaiah 44:21-22
• 1 John 1:9
• Psalm 107:1, 8, 15, 21, 31
• Psalm 31:19
• Psalm 27:13-14

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Title: Well Pleasing in His Sight
Speaker: Pastor Phil Haddad
Date: 15th March 2026
Location: Adelaide, Australia

Summary:
“The Lord is not asking us to bring a perfect work. What he’s asked us to do was already perfect.”

This episode looks at a question that sits underneath almost every decision we make: who are we actually trying to please? It opens with Caleb and Joshua, the two men who came back from the promised land with a good report and then waited forty years in the wilderness before they ever set foot in it again. They held onto God’s promise while everyone around them let fear win, and God said of Caleb that he had another spirit in him and followed fully.

From there the teaching turns to three moments in the life of Jesus that show us what pleases the Father: his obedience in baptism, his answers to temptation in the wilderness, and his willingness to lay down his rights at the cross. Each one is simple rather than impressive. The picture is drawn using a child running up the aisle with a coloured-in page, scribbled well outside the lines, desperate to hear a parent say they’re proud. God is not grading the artwork. He is looking at the attitude behind it.

There’s a practical edge here too. Pleasing God often costs us popularity, and there are moments when the right thing and the easy thing part company. The episode closes with a list of eighteen things that please God, and a reminder that what we bring him each day is no longer a piece of paper but our decisions, our conversations and our attitudes.

Key Points:

• God responds to attitude and obedience, not to polish, performance or impressive results.
• Caleb and Joshua held faith through a forty year delay, showing that waiting well is part of believing God’s promise.
• At his baptism Jesus had performed no miracle and taught no crowd, yet the Father said he was well pleased, because obedience alone was enough.
• The three temptations in the wilderness each offered a shortcut to satisfaction, authority or attention, and each was answered with Scripture rather than argument.
• Seeking to please people and seeking to please God will sometimes pull in opposite directions, and popularity is the cost we may have to pay.
• Being falsely accused and taking it patiently, rather than defending ourselves, is described as acceptable to God.
• Simple daily practices please God: faith, obedience, humility, repentance, love, mercy, prayer, thanksgiving, serving others, endurance, truth telling, forgiveness, generosity, faithfulness and walking in the Spirit.

Reference Scriptures:

• Numbers 14:24
• Galatians 1:10
• Matthew 3:13-17
• Isaiah 9:6
• Matthew 4:1-11
• Philippians 2:6-8
• Isaiah 53:7
• Isaiah 53:10
• 1 Peter 2:19-25
• John 4:34
• John 5:19
• John 5:30
• John 8:29
• John 8:50
• John 18:11
• Ecclesiastes 7:20
• Ecclesiastes 12:13
• Matthew 25:21

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Title: The Long Straight Road
Speaker: Pastor Peter Lord
Date: 27th April 2025
Location: Perth, Australia

Summary:
“This road that is there is a road that is straight, it doesn’t vary in any direction, and we know where we’re going.” That single image, a long, dead-straight stretch of highway crossing the Nullarbor, becomes the thread for this episode’s message about walking steadily with God through every season of life.

Using the picture of driving a long, flat road without deviation, this episode looks at how easy it is to drift, whether by glancing sideways at a distraction, chasing what looks like an easier path, or slowly losing focus without noticing. Scripture is used to show that while our footing can wobble, God himself never changes. His word, his promises and his presence stay exactly the same, and that unchanging nature becomes the firm base we can keep coming back to.

The episode also unpacks what it looks like to stay the course over the long haul rather than in short bursts of enthusiasm. Regularly checking in with yourself, staying alert to what is around you, and leaning on the Holy Spirit for direction are all offered as practical ways to keep travelling in the right direction, even when the road ahead cannot be fully seen.

Key Points:

• Walking with God is compared to driving a long, straight road: you cannot see the end, but markers along the way confirm you are heading the right direction.
• God does not change. His word, promises and character stay constant, which gives a stable foundation to return to no matter what happens.
• Small, gradual drifts, whether in focus, attention or belief, are often what cause people to end up off track rather than one big wrong turn.
• The Holy Spirit acts like a steering wheel or GPS, offering ongoing direction rather than a one-off decision.
• Faith is a long-term journey rather than a sprint, and regularly checking in on your own walk helps you notice small issues before they grow.

Reference Scriptures:

• Hebrews 13:5-9
• Matthew 7:13-21
• 1 Corinthians 1:17-25
• Galatians 1:6-12
• Psalm 102:24-28
• Luke 6:46-49
• Hebrews 12:1-3
• 2 Corinthians 13:4-6

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