The Garden Church Auckland

What if you’re not as different from the people in John 8 as you think?
In the story of the woman caught in adultery, some people arrive holding stones, certain they know exactly how the story should end. One woman arrives exposed, ashamed, and waiting for a verdict she assumes has already been written.
But then Jesus speaks.
“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
One by one, the stones are dropped.
Tim reminds us in this message from our Jesus vs Sunday School series that this is more than a story about a woman caught in sin. It’s a mirror. Sometimes we’re the ones holding the stone, carrying judgment against someone else. Sometimes we’re the ones standing exposed, carrying the weight of our own failure and shame.
But Jesus offers something heavier.
Grace.
Not because the sin wasn’t real. Not because the stone was never justified. But because grace outweighs judgment, guilt, and condemnation.
Whatever hand you find yourself holding today, Jesus invites you to let it go.
Because grace is heavier. And it’s already here.

What if Jesus turning over the tables wasn’t a loss of control, but a fierce and deliberate act of love?
In Week 3 of Jesus I Know Now, Tim Cleary explores John 2:13–22 - the moment Jesus enters the temple and finds that the Court of the Gentiles, the one place set aside for outsiders to seek God, has been overtaken by a marketplace. People had travelled hungry for an encounter with God, only to find commerce, noise, and barriers where prayer was meant to happen.
Jesus doesn’t simply lose his temper. He takes the time to make a whip and deliberately clears the court. His anger is zeal: a consuming hunger for his Father’s house to become what it was always meant to be. And then the story takes an even greater turn. Jesus doesn’t just cleanse the temple - he declares that he is becoming the true temple, the place where God and humanity meet.
This message is for anyone who has gone looking for God and been handed something smaller instead: a performance, a transaction, a programme, or a religious system that left them hungrier than before. Your hunger isn’t the problem. Jesus takes it seriously enough to fight against whatever stands between you and the real thing.
He’s not too angry to love you - he’s too hungry not to.
“Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” - John 2:17

A religious expert asked Jesus where love ends. Jesus answered with a story in which the religious insiders walked past—and the hero was the last person anyone expected.
In this message from Luke 10:25–37, Tim Cleary revisits the parable of the Good Samaritan and its confronting invitation: mercy crosses the road, gets its hands dirty, and bears the cost.
We don’t show mercy to earn God’s love. We show mercy because Christ first crossed the road for us. The question isn’t simply, “Who is my neighbour?” but, “Am I willing to become one?”

Zacchaeus thought he was climbing a tree to see Jesus - but Jesus had come looking for him!In Week 1 of Jesus vs Sunday School, Tim revisits the familiar story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1–10 and uncovers what the childhood version often misses: a rejected man, a grumbling crowd, and the promised Shepherd of Ezekiel 34 seeking the sheep everyone else had given up on.This message is a reminder that grace moves first. Jesus doesn’t wait for us to clean up, settle our accounts, or find our own way home. He calls us by name - and transformation follows us home.You don’t have to come down clean. You just have to come down.

What makes a strong leader? David’s mighty men show us that true strength isn’t having all the answers - it’s remaining humble enough to learn from the people we lead. From a cave filled with broken men to extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice, David discovered that leadership is forged through relationship, conviction, and honour.But David’s story also carries a sobering warning. The king who once refused to consume what others had bled for later forgot that lesson - with devastating consequences for Uriah. What we forget, we repeat. Yet failure doesn’t have to be the final chapter: through repentance and grace, what has been forgotten can be learned again.In this Father’s Day message from 1 Samuel 22 and 2 Samuel 23, Tim Cleary explores what David learned from his mighty men -and what their story teaches us about fatherhood, brotherhood, and biblical leadership. The strongest leader isn’t the one with all the answers. It’s the one still willing to be taught.

What makes love last when feelings change, relationships get difficult, and old hurts begin to pile up? In the final message of our Relationship Revolution series, Tim and Amy bring the journey together around the one thing every friendship, romance, marriage, and family needs: a love that lasts. We often talk about “falling in love” as though love is something accidental - a feeling we fall into and can just as easily fall out of.
But in Colossians 3, Paul gives us a different picture: “Above all these things, put on love.” Love is something we choose to wear, day after day.
Feelings are the weather; love is the coat we put on to walk through it. Drawing from Colossians 3 and 1 Corinthians 13, Tim and Amy explore what this kind of love looks like in real life. It chooses patience and kindness before the feeling arrives. It takes down the scoreboard and refuses to keep a record of wrongs. It bears, believes, hopes, endures, forgives - and keeps showing up.
But this message isn’t simply a list of things we need to do better. At its heart, 1 Corinthians 13 is a portrait of Jesus: Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus keeps no record of our wrongs. Jesus bears all things. Jesus never fails. We don’t love from empty, desperately trying to get another person to meet every need. We love from full - receiving the grace and forgiveness of Christ, then learning to pour that love into the people around us.
Whether you’re married, single, navigating friendship or family, rebuilding trust, or carrying the grief of a love that failed, this message offers practical challenge and enduring hope. Human love may struggle, but the love of Jesus has never walked away, never given up, and never come off. Love lasts because you put it on - and because His never came off.

In a world with more ways to meet someone than ever, why are so many people still disappointed in love? In this message, Tim Cleary explores Song of Songs, Matthew 6, and 2 Corinthians 6 to show that the issue often isn’t our searching - it’s where we’re searching. God isn’t embarrassed by romance; He created love, desire, and covenant. But real love has a right time, a right place, and the right people. From the repeated warning in Song of Songs - “do not awaken love until it pleases” - to Jesus’ call to “seek first the kingdom,” this message reframes dating around wisdom, patience, community, and Christ at the centre. It’s not about chasing the ring, forcing the timeline, or trying to complete yourself through another person. It’s about seeking the King first, becoming rooted in the right place, and trusting God with what He adds. Whether you’re single, dating, content, waiting, or recovering from disappointment, this message is a reminder: you won’t find the right one in the wrong place - so seek the right One first.

We are more connected than ever - and yet many of us are lonelier than ever. We have followers, group chats, notifications, and endless online contact, but still feel the ache of having no one close enough to call when life falls apart.In this opening message of Relationship Revolution, Tim explores friendship in the age of screens and shows how Jesus offers a better way.Drawing from Ecclesiastes 4:9–12, this message names the problem: contact is not communion. A feed is not a table. A notification is not a friendship. A YouTuber may fill your evening, but cannot lift you up when you fall.Then, in John 15:12–17, Jesus reveals the gospel shape of true friendship. On the night before the cross, He tells His disciples, “No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends,” and grounds it in this astonishing truth: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”Real friendship requires initiative. Someone has to send the text, book the table, make the call, and risk being known. But Christians can go first because Christ has already gone first for us. Before we reached for Him, He crossed every gap to reach us. Before we proved ourselves worthy, He laid down His life and called us friends.

Have you ever been waiting on God… but if you’re honest, the waiting has started to look more like fear, delay, or spiritualised avoidance?In Genesis 24, Abraham sends his servant on an crazy assignment: travel hundreds of kilometres, find a wife for Isaac, and trust that God will guide the process. But the servant doesn’t receive the whole plan before he leaves. He doesn’t get a map, a name, or a guarantee. He simply arises and goes.And it’s on the way - at the well, after the journey has already begun - that God meets him with provision, confirmation, and an answer before he has even finished praying.Tim’s message explores the difference between holy waiting and passivity, and reminds us that God often gives clarity in motion, not before it. Like Peter stepping out of the boat toward Jesus, faith is not movement for movement’s sake - it is obedient movement toward the One who called.If you’ve been waiting for the whole road to appear before taking the next step, this message is an invitation to trust God with the step you can already see.

What if the people of Nazareth were right to call Jesus “the carpenter” — but completely missed what that meant?In this message from Colossians 1:15–20, Tim traces the connection between Jesus the craftsman and Jesus the Creator: the One through whom all things were made entered His own creation, worked with human hands, and was ultimately nailed to the very material He made.From the workshop in Nazareth to the wood of the cross, this message explores how Christ made peace through His blood, bore the curse on our behalf, and restores us as God’s handiwork. This is the final message in our Seeds series.