Belair Baptist Church Podcast

🗓️ 23 August 2026. 🎙️ Nic Cassar, Claire Landers, and Sarah McCutcheon.
In this re-released episode, we continue our Relate series. Nic & Claire sat down with Sarah McCutcheon, author of a book on singleness, for an honest and warm conversation about what it really means to be single in the church. Drawing on real, anonymous comments from our own community, they name the isolation, pressure, and unintended assumptions that single people so often carry, and gently push back on the idea that the opposite of married is alone.
Looking to the example of Jesus and Paul, both single, and to Jesus' teaching on eunuchs and Paul's words on undivided devotion, they explore how singleness is no less spiritual than marriage and can be a season of rich relationship, mission, and freedom. The conversation lands on three simple invitations: for the church to be a genuine spiritual family, for single people to guard their hearts and know they are already fully loved by God, and for all of us to look to Jesus, who shows us a fulfilled and deeply relational life. Whatever your relationship status, this is a hopeful, practical listen on belonging, identity and love.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro/Outro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
🎵 Interlude Music: 3AM Reflections, by Memories of the Forgotten
🎙️ Originally Recorded on 3 September 2024
 

🗓️ 23 August 2026. 🎙️ Speaker: Sam Delfs.
We are more connected than ever, yet so many people report having plenty of acquaintances and no real friends. Kicking off our Relate series, Sam turns to Scripture to show that we are hardwired by a relational God for deep, genuine friendship, and that a couple of true friends can shape who we become and the whole trajectory of our lives. Drawing on the covenant friendship of Jonathan and David, he unpacks three marks of real godly friendship: it grows from shared life and shared mission, it sharpens and forms us as iron sharpens iron, and it stays faithful and sacrificial when the road darkens. Yet the real invitation runs deeper than better relationship habits. In John 15, Jesus calls us friends rather than servants and lays down His life to bring us into friendship with God, and it is only as we walk closely with Him that we are formed into the kind of friends He calls us to be. Whether you long for connection, need to rekindle your friendship with God, or simply need to be more intentional with someone already in your orbit, this message is a warm nudge toward the beautiful, sometimes awkward work of building friendships that honour Him.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
 

🗓️ 16 August 2026. 🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar.
Sixty years ago a handful of families stepped out in faith, took a loan, and started a church, and today we live off the fruit of their vision. On this anniversary Sunday, Nic invites us to practise the ancient discipline of remembering, not simply recalling the past but letting it fuel fresh faith and action. Drawing on Peter's confession in Matthew 16 and the Great Commission in Matthew 28, he unpacks two questions every church must keep asking: who are we, and why are we here? Our identity is built on the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, the cornerstone who holds back death and gives His people the keys of the kingdom. Our purpose is to go and make disciples, not as passive consumers but as active partners in God's mission. As we give thanks for what God has done, we also look ahead to church planting, families ministry, and the call to keep stepping out in faith, holding one honest question before us: how will we join the story God is still writing?
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
 

🗓️ 9 August 2026. 🎙️ Speaker: Luke Reed.
After shipwreck, storms and years of hardship, Paul finally reaches Rome, and the apostle Luke sums it all up in one understated line: "and so we came to Rome." This closing chapter of Acts is a portrait of a faithful God who keeps His promises, working not only through the miraculous but through the ordinary, the difficult and the unexpected. Even under house arrest and chained to a guard, Paul proclaims the kingdom of God with boldness and without hindrance, showing that the gospel is never confined even when His people are. The message lingers on the strange, deliberately unfinished ending of Acts, where Luke leaves us not with news of Paul's trial but with an open invitation. The kingdom is still advancing, Jesus is still Lord, and the Spirit is still at work, which leaves one question hanging over the whole series: will we join in?
Wherever you are on the journey, this is a call to let go of distraction, keep God's kingdom as the first priority, and take your next step in following Him.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
 

🗓️ 2 August 2026. 🎙️ Speaker: Sam Delfs.
On his way back to Jerusalem, Paul calls the Ephesian elders together for a final conversation, knowing he will never see them again. What follows is part farewell and part handover, as he reflects on three years of ministry among them and urges them to carry the work forward. Sam draws out six marks of faithful leadership from Paul's words: being a doer of the word rather than just a talker, serving with humility, persevering when things get hard, speaking truth with genuine love, working hard so you can bless others, and being a real brother or sister to the people around you. It closes with one of the most moving scenes in Acts, where these men kneel, pray and weep together, a picture of what real depth of relationship actually costs and produces. Whether or not you hold a formal leadership role, every one of us influences someone, and this message asks what kind of legacy that influence is building.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired

🗓️ 26 July 2026 🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar.
When Paul spends two years in Ephesus, the gospel takes such deep root that it begins to reshape the whole city, and not everyone is pleased. A silversmith named Demetrius, watching his idol-making trade decline, stirs up a furious mob chanting to the goddess Artemis until the city is in uproar. Nic unpacks this dramatic scene to show how the good news of Jesus genuinely changes cities, even as it proves inconvenient and, at times, confronting. Artemis represented security, identity and provision for the Ephesians, and the same pull is alive in us today, where good things quietly become the 'god things' we build our lives around. This message invites you to consider where you might be swept along by the crowd rather than grounded in Christ, to name the idols that have taken God's place, and to follow the way of Jesus as a whole-of-life commitment worth every cost.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired
 

🗓️ 19 July 2026 🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar.
In Athens, Paul steps into a city full of idols, big ideas, and endless debate, and finds a way to speak about the living God that genuinely connects. Rather than tearing people down or watering down the truth, he affirms what he can, gently corrects what is distorted, and confronts what stands opposed to the gospel. Nic uses Paul's approach as a picture of how we relay the truths of God to people who may not yet know Him, with humility, understanding, and real love for the person in front of us.
The message also turns the mirror on us. Idols are rarely statues today, but they show up as disordered loves, good things we quietly place at the centre where God belongs. Whether you feel distant from God, need to confront something that has taken His place, or are wrestling with the harder truths of faith, this is an invitation to bring your whole life back to the One who is never far from any of us.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired

🗓️ 12 July 2026
🎙️ Speaker: Ryan Zweygartt
The early church was never conflict free, and Acts 15 proves it. As the gospel spreads to the Gentiles, a sharp dispute breaks out over circumcision and the law of Moses. Rather than avoiding the tension, the apostles and elders gather in Jerusalem and land on a shared conviction: salvation comes through the grace of Jesus, not religious performance. Ryan uses this account to explore how a Spirit-awakened community handles conflict in a way that builds unity instead of breaking it.
Most of us default to being a rhino that charges or a hedgehog that shuts down, often confusing keeping the peace with actually making it. Acts 15 shows a better way, where Paul listens more than he argues and everyone gives a little for the sake of love. There is an invitation here to bring a real conflict in your own life to God, submit the outcome to Him, and ask what faithful next step He is calling you to take.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au 
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
 

🗓️ 5 July 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Sam Delfs.
The church at Antioch marks a hinge moment in the story of Acts. Ordinary believers, scattered after Stephen's death, carry the message of Jesus across cultural lines and unknowingly plant the church that will launch the gospel into the wider world. Sam draws out three marks of a healthy church from Antioch, which are new life, intentional formation, and sending. He also challenges the quiet drift toward comfort that every church and every Christian is prone to. Wherever God has placed you, the invitation is the same. Stay awake to what He is doing, keep being formed, and be willing to go.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au 
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
 

🗓️ 28 June 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar.
Few moments in Acts are as dramatic as Saul's encounter on the road to Damascus. In Acts 9:1-31, a man set on destroying the church is suddenly confronted by Jesus and everything changes. Blinded, humbled, and redirected, Saul is drawn into a completely new story. One shaped not by his own ambition but by God's grace. Alongside him, an ordinary disciple named Ananias steps forward in obedience, playing a quiet but pivotal role in Saul's transformation and the future of the early church.
This passage doesn't just highlight a single conversion story. It reshapes how we see people and how we understand God at work. No one is written off. No past is too far gone. And often, the breakthrough happens through unexpected moments or simple acts of obedience. It leaves us with a question worth sitting with: where might God be asking us to trust Him more deeply, whether that's praying for someone, taking a step we've been avoiding, or letting Him change how we see a situation we thought was fixed.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
 

🗓️ 21 June 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar.
As pressure rises and the church is scattered, the mission doesn't slow down, it spreads. In Acts 8:4-24, Philip brings the gospel into Samaria, crossing cultural and spiritual boundaries as people encounter Jesus in new ways. What begins as disruption becomes momentum, with healing, freedom, and joy breaking out in an unexpected place. At the same time, the story of Simon the sorcerer exposes how easy it is to misunderstand the Holy Spirit, treating God's power as something to control rather than a person to receive.
There's something confronting about this moment in Acts. God is clearly at work, but not in the places or through the people you might expect. It challenges our instinct to stay comfortable or keep faith contained. It also pushes us to examine our motives. Are we open to following where God leads, even when it feels unfamiliar? And are we relating to Him with humility, or trying to shape things around our own agenda? This message invites a posture of surrender. Not striving for control, but making space for the Holy Spirit to move in and through our lives.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade - Lakey Inspired
 

AWAKE // God's Spirit Awakening People, Communities and Cities (Acts 3:1–4:31).
🗓️ 7 June 2026. 🎙️ Peter Schultz.
At the temple gate called Beautiful, Peter and John stop for a lame beggar they had likely walked past many times before. But Peter is no longer the aimless disciple who went back to fishing after the resurrection. He stops, sees, and speaks with bold clarity: "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you." The man is healed and fills the temple courts with praise. Guest speaker Peter Schultz draws a striking parallel with his own experience, where a pointed challenge from about the church's silence on the national drug crisis led to 110 church leaders from divided denominations gathering for an unprecedented two-day workshop.
Both stories carry the same invitation: What are you holding onto, and what do you need to let go of? Peter Schultz traces how the apostle Peter released past ambition, self-will, and the comfort of the familiar before he could respond to God in that moment. The beggar, too, had to let go of his identity and expectations to receive something entirely new. Whether it is hurt, unforgiveness, comfort, or ambition, this message calls us to open our hands so God can awaken our ears to hear, our eyes to see, and our hearts to act.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au 
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired.

🗓️ 31 May 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar.
What does a Spirit-awakened church actually look like? In Acts 2:42–47 and 4:32–37, we're given a compelling picture of the early church marked by shared life, deep devotion, radical generosity, and genuine joy. This isn't an abstract ideal or a one-off moment in history, but a real community formed and sustained by the Spirit of God. As Nic unpacks these passages, he traces how the believers gathered around Scripture, prayer, and one another, and how God's presence shaped a way of life that was both spiritually alive and practically grounded in care for others.
There's a tension here that’s hard to ignore. It's easy to admire this kind of community while feeling how far it seems from everyday life. Rather than dismissing it or trying to manufacture it, we're invited into something slower and more intentional. Paying attention to what shapes us. Letting go of the need to hold everything tightly. Choosing to move toward people instead of away from them. And as that takes root, even in small ways, we start to glimpse the kind of church God is building. Not perfect, but alive with His presence.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired

🗓️ 24 May 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar.
On the day of Pentecost, everything changes. In Acts 2:1-41, the Holy Spirit comes in power, filling ordinary people with boldness and enabling them to proclaim the wonders of God across language and culture. What looks chaotic at first is actually deeply intentional: God's presence breaking through, fulfilling ancient promises, and opening the door for all people to be drawn into His story. This moment marks the birth of the church, not as a human-led movement but as a Spirit-led one, grounded in dependence, shaped by waiting, and fuelled by God's power rather than human effort.
For some, the Holy Spirit can feel confusing, unpredictable, or even a bit confronting. This message helps make sense of that tension without over-simplifying it. Nic explores how the Spirit moves in powerful moments, in ways we can't fully explain, and in the quiet rhythms of everyday life. There's an invitation here to slow down, to wait, and to be open to how God might already be at work around you, and within you.
🔗 More info: www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired.

🗓️ 17 May 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Nick Varady-Szabo.
Before the church moves outward, it must awaken. In Acts 1:1-11, the risen Jesus commissions his followers and promises the Holy Spirit, shifting their focus from building their own kingdom to participating in God’s. The story of Acts begins with a call to wait, receive power, and step into a mission far bigger than themselves.
This message is for anyone who feels stuck, distracted, or unsure where faith fits into everyday life. Discover how God’s Spirit awakens ordinary people into purpose, why the Spirit comes for mission not magic, and how the greatest adventures begin when we join in what God is already doing.
🔗 More info: http://www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired

The Gospel of Luke – Walking With a Living God in Disappointment (Luke 24:13–35)
🗓️ 10 May 2026
🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar
Two followers leave Jerusalem with their hopes shattered, walking away from everything they believed about Jesus. A stranger joins them on the road, opens the scriptures, and then disappears the moment their eyes are finally opened. In Luke 24:13–35, the risen Jesus shows up not in a blaze of glory but over a quiet meal, revealing that God is closer than we think, especially in our disappointment.
This message is for anyone whose life hasn't turned out the way they expected, whose view of God feels too small for the mess in front of them, or who quietly wonders whether the battle has already been won. Hear how the risen Christ walks alongside the disillusioned and opens eyes in his own timing and way.
🔗 More info: http://www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired
 

The Gospel of Luke // Following Jesus in Fragile Times.
🗓️ 03 May 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Luke Reed.
Two men walk into the temple to pray. One lists his achievements; the other can barely lift his eyes. In Luke 18:9–17, Jesus delivers a shocking verdict: it's the broken one who goes home right with God, and it's the children with nothing to offer who show us what the kingdom actually looks like. 
This message is for anyone caught in the cycle of striving, comparing, or trying to earn their way to God. Hear why God's Kingdom isn't for the impressive or the self-sufficient, but for those who know they need it.
🔗 More info: http://www.belairbaptist.org.au 
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired
 

The Gospel of Luke // Following Jesus in Fragile Times.
🗓️ 26 April 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Sam Delfs.
Following Jesus was never meant to be a solo journey. In this message from Luke 17:1–10, Sam Delfs unpacks what life in the community of Jesus actually looks like, and it's more honest, more demanding, and more beautiful than most of us expect.
From dealing seriously with sin, to extending radical forgiveness, to praying with genuine faith in a God who is bigger than our problems, this passage is a practical and searching call to stop being passive passengers and start doing the hard, rewarding work of life together.
🔗 More info: http://www.belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired
 

The Gospel of Luke – Following Jesus in Fragile Times (Luke 15)
🗓️ 19 April 2026 🎙️ Speaker: Nic Cassar 📖 Jesus & the Lost Things
A lost sheep. A lost coin. A lost son. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories that together paint one of the most breathtaking pictures of God in the entire Bible. In this message, Nic unpacks what it means to be lost, what it looks like when God comes searching, and why the father's response to his returning son breaks every cultural expectation in the best possible way.
Whether you've wandered off, been quietly absent on the inside, or are still figuring out what faith even means, this chapter has something for you. Scandalous grace, extravagant love, and an open invitation to come home.
🔗 More info: belairbaptist.org.au
🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired
 

The Gospel of Luke – Following Jesus in Fragile Times (Luke 13:18–30).
🗓️ 12 April 2026.
🎙️ Speaker: Luke Reed.
What if God’s kingdom is already at work, but not in the way we expect? In this week’s message, we explore Jesus’ pictures of the mustard seed, the yeast, and the narrow door in Luke 13:18–30. What seems small and easy to overlook carries surprising power to grow, spread, and transform. 
This sermon is both hopeful and searching. It reminds us not to underestimate what God is doing, while also taking seriously Jesus’ invitation to enter through the narrow door. More than knowing about Jesus, this passage calls us to trust Him, follow Him, and let His kingdom take root in our lives. 
🔗 More info: belairbaptist.org.au🎵 Intro Music: Arcade – Lakey Inspired