We learn from Psalm 84, why the Sons of Korah had a profound appreciation of and desire for the presence of God and what this can mean for us today.
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When John the Baptist heard that crowds were flocking to Jesus, he declared “He must increase, but I must decrease”. As Christians, we have followed a Person, not a cause or a creed. And Jesus must totally eclipse all things in our lives if we’re to find our proper place and play our proper part. His offer and provision for each of us is: “all of Me, for all of you” – He is all we need! But that is also his demand: if we want all of Him we have to surrender all of ourselves to Him. It cannot work any other way, but it is the most blessed exchange imaginable!…
There are many physical and natural activities that the Bible instructs us to do, e.g. fasting, sharing the Lord’s Supper, anointing with oil, caring for the sick. They key is that when we do these things, we apply our faith and obedience to the Spirit of Christ. They become a means of grace; physical acts that carry real spiritual power and significance and set us apart as God’s people!
The story of the Israelites is the story of ‘our forefathers’ says the Apostle Paul (1 Co 10), laden with warnings and promise. From God’s first promise to Abraham, the Apostle traces the history of his own people, including the ups and the downs, to show us God’s intended fulfilment through Abraham’s Seed, Christ Jesus. It is the story of a loving and faithful God whose GRACE to Jew and Gentile alike is displayed, and of RESTORATION, as Paul shows us God’s great plan to bring a future remnant from Israel back to Him, through Jesus.
We start this new year encouraged by the apostle Peter’s assurance that “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3) so that we now “share in the divine nature” (1:4) – these are incredible statements and in this message we explore how we can live in the good of these truths! We discover that what God did for us at our conversion – through our repentance, baptism, being filled with the Spirit and being added to His Church (Ac 2:38-41) – are the reasons we now lack nothing. Here and now, we already have all we need to succeed in our mission, as we cultivate all the fruit of the Spirit and activate all the gifts of the Spirit!…
In Luke 2 we read how two faithful servants of God hold onto His amazing promises. We consider how being people of promise keeps us alive, alert and active!
Revelation 19 shows us a picture of the Bride of Christ, which is His church. We see that a day is coming where we will have made ourselves ready for His return, but what does that mean for us today? How do we make ourselves ready to be the Bride that Christ deserves?
What kind of people ought we to be in the light of His return? In this podcast, we explore the essential framework needed to be in place in order for us to be productive in playing our part in God’s purposes for our lives. Viewing the world through the lens of mission means very little unless we have the frame in place to support the lenses. We explore several themes which will help us focus our time and priorities better and be more productive in our time here on earth between His ascent up to heaven and our wait for His return!
Jesus will return at the time of “the restoration of all things” (Acs 3:21), which, crucially, will include the restoration of the Church. In this message we consider what this means and explore some of the big pictures and magnificent images the apostles use to describe the mature, restored church. Jesus is not returning to rescue a weak and powerless remnant of people, but rather to be joined with His glorious Bride! The restored church is the City of God, the Temple of the Spirit and an expression of all the Fulness of Christ…
Jesus is coming back! We look at the nature of Christ’s return and why we should anticipate and prepare for this awesome event with great eagerness and excitement.
Christ’s return is the ultimate unfulfilled prophecy, and when it happens it will mark the end of the Present Age and the start of the Age to Come. The ‘Second Coming’ will transcend and eclipse everything else in human history! However, the NT writers want us to be filled with faith not with fear and to focus on WHY Jesus will return rather than WHEN – and on what the Church should be doing in the meantime…
Jesus Christ did a magnificent thing on the cross. Although He could have been overwhelmed by the influences of the fleshly human nature He had taken on, Christ, in loving submission and obedience to His father, overcame the flesh and defeated it completely. It was as He did this that the veil was torn in two and access into God’s most holy place was granted. In His presence we are made more like Christ and can expect to receive gladness, refreshing and forgiveness!
The Cross has changed everything, including how we are to perceive every aspect of life! We consider how this can rightly impact our view of God, ourselves, our future and purpose, the mission, the situations we face, other people, and the world around us. We must learn to look at all things through the lens of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Recently the Lord has been speaking to us about seeing all things through the Cross, but also moving out of ‘maintenance mode’ into ‘mission mode’. At the heart of the Mission, is the Cross. And the purpose of the Cross is the Mission. We have been co-Missioned by Jesus, to continue His great work of restoring all things to God. In this message we look at Paul’s words, to the Philippians (2:6-11), describing how Jesus embraced His own co-Mission from the Father, by embracing the Cross – inviting us to do the same. We consider how we should therefore view the Mission through the ‘lens’ of the Cross, and approach the Cross in light of the Mission.
Luke 24 tells of two ordinary disciples who met the risen Lord Jesus on their way to an obscure village near Jerusalem. Along the way He addresses their sadness and disappointment, before revealing His identity to them in the breaking of bread.
The Cross of Jesus Christ changes everything. When we look through the lens of the Cross it changes how we see God, ourselves, one another and the world!
The feeding of the 5000 was a miracle of unprecedented scale and impact, and tells us vital things about the mission of the Church in these critical days. We’re here to FEED THE WORLD and In this message we’re challenged to do so with as much compassion, bravery and generosity as Jesus Himself.
In 2 Chronicles 5 and 6 we see the impact of a completed Temple and the provision of God that was there, but also can be found at the Table as we break bread together today.
In 2 Chronicles 5 and 6 we see the impact of a completed Temple and the provision of God that was there, but also can be found at the Table as we break bread together today.
The story of Joseph (Genesis 37-50) is an amazing account of God working in a man’s life to fulfil his dreams and his destiny! In this message we explore some of the key moments in Joseph’s journey from the pit to the palace and discover three powerful principles that worked for Joseph and can work for you too!…
The Bible’s first mention of “worship” occurs in the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22), and provides us with a rich understanding of what worship involves and what it produces. Just as God put Abraham to the test, so He asks whether we will put Him first, offer everything to Him, and learn what AW Tozer called “the blessedness of possessing nothing.”
The Covenant Meal is about Remembrance of what He has done, our Royal identity in Him and Rejoicing in all he accomplished. In Jesus, we are made alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ, raised up together with Him and are seated together in the heavenly realms by virtue of our being in Christ Jesus.
The Cross of Christ must be understood within the wider perspective of God’s eternal plan, and in this message Roger shows us how God stripped His enemies bare, displayed His power in the supernatural realm, and dealt with human sin – in order to use us in His purpose. The Father sowed His Son, in order to reap a family of sons.
