When God declared “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26) He was expressing not only His own ’three-in-one’ togetherness, but also His great purpose in creating men and women who would join together in unity and reproduce His image in all the earth! The story of the miraculous catch and the calling of the first disciples (Luke 5) is a powerful example of what can happen when we prepare for a new day, make ourselves wholly available, go deeper, join together, and help each other handle the great increase He wants to give us! This is the power and potential of churches working in partnership with one another…
In Part 1 we looked at the Holy’s Spirit’s work of Sanctification in our lives. In Part 2, we consider how the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to show us who God has made us to be, and what aspects of our personalities are influenced by sin. We also look at what it means for us to be transformed from one degree of glory to another through a growing REVELATION of Jesus (2 Co 3:18), by REFLECTING His image, and REFRACTING His glory through our lives. The key to surrendering to the sanctifying work of the Spirit is VALIDATION and VULNERABILITY – drawing our value and worth from Him, and being willing to let the Holy Spirit strip away sin’s influence on our personalities. What remains is the true person, created and designed by God to individually refract His glorious light – a unique and precious Living Stone!
God’s House is built with Living Stones (1 Pe 2:5), each carefully selected and put in place by the Holy Spirit. In Part 1 we consider how the Holy Spirit shapes each stone – that great work of the Spirit in the Sanctification of believers, shaping us into the likeness of Christ (Ro 8:29). We’ll also discuss how our new birth into God’s kingdom, restores God’s original design for His tripartite humanity, by which our spirits are promoted to the driving seat of our lives (the proper seat for righteous decision making!). Through His work of Sanctification, the Spirit helps us to bring our souls and bodies into line with God’s restored special arrangement within us (Ro 12:1-2). In Part 2 we’ll consider what unique aspects of ourselves are preserved, in the process of the Spirit making us more like Jesus, and how they might diversely and richly display God’s glory.
In this interactive Sunday, we look at 3 things that are vital for us to own at Living Rock. This Is The Church (what the Bible says), This Is Us (our apostolic mission), This Is What God Has Said (our prophetic mandate)!
The Church is the Family of God, the Body of Christ and the House of the Spirit! We look at how, in the light of this, we should come expectant, early and ready to give and welcome others.
We talk about how, on Easter Sunday, we see how all of our hopes are restored and God’s promises are unshaking in Jesus Christ. That He has called us by name, and so we can trust Him and follow Him.
God makes it clear in His word how important it is for us to walk humbly with Him. Humility is a virtue that Jesus exemplified. He showed us how to live with a humble mindset and so we explore in this message how to “walk humbly with our God” and how this humility facilitates living full of the Spirit.
When we walk at God’s pace we walk in God’s grace. For such a time as this – when Kingdom advance is essential in us and through us – we need to know what it means to follow God’s lead and move it His pace, ensuring that we rest, stay close and keep going.
Being Spirit-filled is fundamental (who we are) and foundational (how we build and grow together) for us as God’s people. The House of the Spirit is being built by the Holy Spirit, using living stones, each of whom He wants to fill with the fulness of Christ. In this message we look at the practical implications of this for us all, and each of us personally, by considering the three main aspects of the ‘fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ (2 Co 13:14) – communion, community, and contribution.
The Bible is full of God’s wisdom, promises, truths and self revelation…it’s His Word! As believers, when we know the full (logos) word, we’ll have the specific (rhema) word of God. So in any and every situation, we will have a word.
Rob and Cindy share with us 4 important truths about breaking bread and the impact it has on us!
In the final part of this New Year message, we consider what it means to be a church that’s ‘kingdom advancing’. We discover that it is to be joined with Jesus in the eternal purpose of God, the reason for which mankind was made, and the focus of our great commission! We also discover that outworking our mission in the 21st century is no harder than it was in the first, and that if we’re Spirit-filled and Bible-believing we have all we need to succeed!…
In part 2 of our focus on vital hallmarks of the church at such a time as this, we consider what it means to be “Bible-believing”. What does this really mean? What do we believe about the Bible and – therefore – what do we believe because of the Bible? And how does this help us navigate the spirit of the age, the challenges to God’s Word and the compassion-filled mission we’ve been called to fulfil?…
At the start of this significant year, we take a look at three vital hallmarks of the church; characteristics that will be essential if we are to fulfil all the good things God has planned for us. The first of these is that we are “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). What does this really mean? What difference will it make? How does the Holy Spirit help the church? And how do we make these things our reality this year?!…
As part of our series ‘For Such a Time as This’, we consider the first generation of Christians. In Acts 1, Luke tells us that as the risen Jesus prepares to return to His Father, He shows them what the Kingdom of God means, He tells them to do nothing without the Holy Spirit, and it quickly becomes apparent that every single one of their small number was necessary for the Mission which lay ahead. As our world today finds itself in a state of ‘permacrisis’, God’s unshakeable Kingdom arises, and He is calling us to embrace the moment for which He has shaped us!
We’re delighted to have our good friend Arne Skagen with us sharing the Sunday message. Arne shares about how we can all live life in The Spirit and tells stories of people who have encountered Jesus and experienced the new life he brings.
We are called for such a time as this, and this is the time for obedience! Obedience isn’t a fashionable word, it’s not a word that many people would list as a good quality, but God is our shepherd, our master, our God. He deserves and expects an obedient heart that translates to obedient actions. In this message we’ll consider these things and how practically we obey God’s word and His Spirit.
Do gatherings of the church really matter? If so, why? We look at some of the things that happen when the family of God meet together.
Jesus promised He would build His Church (Matthew 16:18) and in Acts 2-3 we get the first wonderful glimpses of what it looks like! Here too we discover the kind of church that must arise in the nations “at such a time as this”. It’s secure, relational, generous, exciting, simple, powerful and miraculous! And it’s growing every day, because its members take the blessings they enjoy out into the world around them. The call to the church (our church, your church, His church!) at a time of gathering gloom for so many is to “arise and shine” (Isaiah 60:1) – and in this message we consider what that means for us in practice…
Today four families share their wisdom and experience about raising children with additional needs. They talk about how faith has impacted their families and how we can show the love of Jesus to those around us who have additional needs.