Soul Revival Church Podcast

When Stu was learning to hunt with his friend Kyle, he had to do something hard — sit quietly and trust someone who knew what they were doing, even when he didn't understand what was happening or why.Stu unpacks Habakkuk 1:12–2:1, his next round of complaint to God. How can a holy God use an evil nation like Babylon to bring justice? God doesn't give Habakkuk a neat answer. He gives him something harder: faith. And Stu traces that same pattern all the way to the cross, where the worst evil in human history became the means of the world's salvation.Part of the Living by Faith series through the book of Habakkuk.

Would you rather have Jesus physically beside you or the Holy Spirit living inside you?At first, it seems like an obvious answer, of course we'd want Jesus right here with us! Jai tackles one of the most profound truths in Christianity: "Very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you" (v. 7).Wait, it's good that Jesus left? It's better to have the Spirit than Jesus Himself physically present?When Jesus was on earth, He was bound by physical limitations. If you wanted to be with Him, you had to be where He was. But when the Spirit comes, God is present with all of us. Always. Everywhere. The very Spirit of God dwells in every believer.If we trust in Jesus, we are never alone. God is with you. You have 24/7 access to Him. No priest, no pastor, direct access through prayer, anytime, anywhere.But the Spirit doesn't just give us constant access to God. He does three crucial things:1. The Spirit Convicts of Sin (v. 9) - Not just "doing bad stuff," but the ultimate sin: not trusting Jesus. He exposes both sides of self-reliance; thinking "I'm good enough for God" OR "I'm too messed up for God." Both are you trying to be in control. The Spirit says: You're not in control. God is.2. The Spirit Convicts of Righteousness (v. 10) - He doesn't just expose the problem; He shows us the solution. And it's not "try harder." It's this: Jesus lived the life you could never live, died the death you deserve, rose in victory, and gives you what He deserves, not what you deserve. Righteousness is received, not earned.3. The Spirit Convicts of Judgment (v. 11) - Evil has been defeated. The cross isn't loss—it's victory. Satan, sin, death—defeated once and for all.The question isn't whether Jesus is admirable. The question is: What will you do with this Jesus? You can't just take the golden rule and reject Jesus as Saviour. If He is who He says He is, you have to follow Him. Surrender all to Him.And here's the beautiful part: The Spirit doesn't bring random new ideas or teaching. He points us deeper into Jesus—what Jesus has already done and will do. He illuminates God's Word and applies it to our daily lives. Ever opened the Bible and thought, "Wow, that's exactly what I needed right now"? That's the Spirit at work.The Spirit's Primary Role: Make Jesus BiggerThe Holy Spirit doesn't point to Himself, to you, to experiences, or even to church. He points to Jesus. Everything the Spirit does is about making Jesus bigger, so we see Him clearly, know Him clearly, love Him more, rejoice in Him more, treasure Him above everything else.Here's the test for whether something is from the Spirit: Does it make Jesus bigger in your life? Does it deepen your love for Jesus? Is it centred on Jesus? If not, it's not from the Spirit.The question is simple: Will you listen? Will you respond? Will you follow Jesus?Series: Revealing Jesus (John 13-17) Speaker: Jai Scripture: John 16:4-15

The Greatest Love: Abide in Jesus or Abide in the World | John 15:1-17Stu opens with a video that made him cry: a children's hospital next to a football stadium where the entire crowd waves to the sick kids in the windows. One child has a sign: "Go Hawks." They made him feel like he belonged, like he was part of the team, even though he's fighting cancer.But as beautiful as that act of kindness is, Jesus offers something even greater.On the night before His death, Jesus uses the image of a vine to reveal the greatest love the world has ever known: the love with which the Father loves the Son. And shockingly, Jesus says He can share that relationship with us."I am the vine; you are the branches," Jesus declares. "Remain in me, as I also remain in you." This isn't just encouragement to get you through the day. It's the most powerful thing you have in your life—to belong to God through Jesus is to know what love is and how to love.The choice every Christian faces: Will you abide in Jesus and become like Jesus, or will you abide in the world and become worldly?From the temptation of concerts and digital screens to the subtle ways we fall in love with things that take our affections from Christ, Stu confronts our divided hearts. He shares his own story of walking into a pub to see his favourite guitarist, only to find a room full of motorcycle gangs, and realising he didn't belong there. Sometimes the Holy Spirit makes you uncomfortable for a reason.Jesus says something shocking in verse 5: "Apart from me you can do nothing." Abiding means ongoing dependent union with Jesus, letting His words live in us. It's practical: through God's Word, prayer, obedience, and gathering with God's people, you abide in Christ.Stu unpacks three powerful truths: the source of the greatest love (the Father's love flowing through Jesus to us), the measure of the greatest love (Jesus laying down His life for His friends), and the overflow of the greatest love (His command to love one another as He loved us).Because if you abide in the world, you'll become like the world. But if you abide in Jesus, you'll become like Jesus. And that changes everything—your friendships, your family, your church, your community.Series: Revealing Jesus (John 13-17) Speaker: Stu Crawshaw Scripture: John 15:1-17

"Do you think I'm ever going to see her again?"Standing in a hospital hallway after his wife's death, a grieving husband asked Paul the question that haunts us all. After decades together, suddenly she's gone. Suddenly he's alone. Will they ever be together again?In our latest message from the "Revealing Jesus" series, Paul tackles the anxiety we all feel about death: our own and those we love. Drawing from John 13:36-14:7, where Jesus speaks His final words to His friends the night before His crucifixion, we discover four promises that change everything about how we face death.Promise 1: Jesus will be our forerunner. He's gone ahead to prepare a place for usPromise 2: Jesus will lead us there. We won't have to navigate death alonePromise 3: Jesus is the destination. Heaven is about being with Him, not just a placePromise 4: Jesus is the only way. No one comes to the Father except through HimFrom Peter's bravado ("I'll lay down my life for you!") to Thomas's confusion ("We don't know where you're going!"), the disciples struggle to understand. But Jesus makes it crystal clear: "I am the way and the truth and the life."This message confronts our contemporary "all roads lead to heaven" culture with Jesus' exclusive claim. It challenges our view of heaven as just paradise without pain, reminding us that heaven is first about a person before it's about a place. And it asks where we're really placing our trust when life falls apart.Series: Revealing Jesus (John 13-17) Speaker: Paul Passage: John 13:36-14:7

We're kicking off our new series "Revealing Jesus" through John 13-17, and it starts with a scene that'll turn your understanding of power completely upside down.Jesus, knowing He's about to be betrayed and killed, gets down on His knees and washes His disciples' feet. Including the feet of the guy who's about to sell Him out. That's not weakness, that's the kind of power that actually changes everything.Stu unpacks four game-changing truths from John 13:How Jesus' love serves us before we can serve HimHow His love saves us even in our darkest betrayalsHow the cross reveals God's glory in the most unexpected wayHow this radical love is meant to shape how we actually live together as the churchThis isn't just about what happened 2,000 years ago. It's about how we respond when someone hurts us. How we love the people who frustrate us. How we stop trying to clean ourselves up and let Jesus do what only He can do.Series: Revealing Jesus (John 13-17) Speaker: Pastor Stu Scripture: John 13:1-35

Romans 5:6-11 doesn't start well. It calls us powerless, ungodly, sinners, enemies of God. We're spiritually bankrupt, down and out for the count. No amount of effort, morality, or religion can fix this problem.But here's the beauty: we're more sinful and flawed than we dare believe, yet more loved and accepted in Jesus than we dare hope for.Jesus doesn't die for His friends, He dies for His enemies. At just the right time, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This wasn't God reacting. From day one, God planned to send His Son to die on the cross to take our sin so we'd be forgiven and made right.Jai shows how everything in the Old Testament pointed to this moment, with hundreds of prophecies fulfilled. Jesus steps in as our substitute, absorbing the punishment we deserve. Our holy, just God can't shrug at sin. Justice demands payment. Sin creates a debt we can never pay. There's always a cost. Jesus took it on Himself.The essence of sin is substituting ourselves for God. The essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for us. At the cross, justice and love meet in perfect harmony.We've been justified by His blood, saved from God's wrath, reconciled. We're no longer enemies,we're children of the King. What do we do? Repent and believe. Receive what's been done for us.

"Welcome to 1994. Scripture, Kirrawee High School. I know none of us want to be here..."Stu Crawshaw starts this message by recreating his 90s Scripture classes where he used Jesus Beads and a skateboard with coloured tape to share the gospel. The white bead represents that God made us to be His friends: to walk in the light of His ways. But what does that actually mean?Stu unpacks three truths about humanity from Genesis 2. First, we were created by God in His image, intentionally formed from dirt yet dignified by God's breath. We're designed to know God personally, reflect His moral character, and represent His rule on earth as vicegerents.Second, we were created for relationship. God declared "it's not good for the man to be alone." We're made in the image of a God who exists in relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So God created Eve from Adam's rib. Adam's response is beautiful: "Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." Human flourishing is designed for community, not autonomy.Third, we were created as moral and accountable creatures. God gave Adam and Eve freedom to eat from any tree except one. Why put the tree there? Because true relationship is gifted, not demanded. Their freedom was real but bounded, joyful obedience under God's life-giving authority.Stu shares a story about getting kicked out of McDonald's for eating a KFC burger. The point? You can't eat KFC in Maccas, and you can't be truly human unless you obey God's commands. The same choice is before us: life or death, blessings or cursings. True humanity isn't found in self-rule but in joyful obedience to Jesus, where God's authority is life-giving rather than restrictive.