God, the head gardener, has called us to sow and plant seed to see His Kingdom fill the earth. In this message we look at 3 gardens in the Bible that tell us the greatest story ever, and provide us with the best seed ever! Now is a time to sow generously, and see God’s beautiful garden growing around us.
When Jesus healed ten men from leprosy one of them decided to go back and thank him. He had no idea what lay in store…
God’s church is wonderfully and beautifully diverse, and yet it is also united and expresses perfect one-ness! We look at how different the disciples were, and yet how they were brought together as they followed Jesus.
At the beginning of His ministry Jesus was invited to a wedding, where He performed His first miracle – turning ordinary water into extraordinary fine wine! This true story has meaning and purpose for today, giving us some vital keys to breakthrough wherever transformation is needed. But it was also “a sign”, pointing towards many bigger things. Join us as we consider the power of these principles, and take up Jesus’s invitation to “COME AND SEE” Him in action!
Jesus is the Great Shepherd. Matthew reveals what He was thinking one day when He looked across the crowds of people gathered around Him. He had come for them – those who found themselves feeling harassed and helpless – because He knew they lacked a shepherd to show them the true purpose of their lives and their true value to the Author of life.
Today we think about Mary Magdalene encountering the risen Jesus in the garden on Resurrection Day. We highlight how Jesus can find us in the crisis, is Himself the cure for mankind’s condition and calls people by name to follow Him.
Easter Sunday is a great day to think about who Jesus is and what He has done. Jesus came for everyone. We look at the story of His crucifixion to see that He truly is a cosmopolitan, all-inclusive redeemer.
In this message we’ll explore three things: What is hope? How do faith and hope work together and how can we have hope? When we encounter Jesus we encounter real and living hope. When we know what true biblical hope is we can offer it to a world that is desperate for it!
The story of Zacchaeus is often a story we think about as a children’s story we might have learned in Sunday School but it is a simple and significant story of a man whose encounter with Jesus changed his life forever. In coming to Jesus like a child, he discovered what it was to know repentance, restoration and a right relationship with Jesus, the man who knew him by name. Jesus knows our name and is looking for us and others who are lost today. Will we answer when He calls?
The opening chapter of Mark’s Gospel is a powerful, noisy and fast-paced introduction to the ministry and miracles of Jesus! We meet the Son of God moved with compassion, touching and transforming the lives of dozens of people from every kind of background. We see what it means in practical terms for the Kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven. We receive our own promise of power; the assurance that Jesus will baptise us with His Holy Spirit. And we also discover that much of the action happens in “the wilderness”. For it’s in the wilderness that Jesus is baptised; it’s to the wilderness He is led by the Spirit; it’s there in the wilderness that He beats temptation; it’s to the wilderness that He withdraws to pray; and it’s in the wilderness that the crowds flock to meet Him. These extraordinary times we’re facing are for many of us an enforced slow-down; working from home, avoiding gathering with others, or isolating ourselves for the sake of public health. Maybe this seems like being in a ‘wilderness’ for a few weeks? If so, be encouraged: God is active in these slower times and quieter places; He will meet you in the solitude. The “wilderness” is not a barren place so much as a place waiting to be cultivated. So, let’s present ourselves to Him in these days, draw close to Him, and ask Him to cultivate and enrich the land of our lives!…
One of the things we can expect to receive when we take the bread and the wine at the Lord’s table is healing. In this message Nick shares his own testimony of seeing healing power as he regularly took the bread and wine. Although his life group, friends, family and the elders of the church prayed, it was when Nick regularly took bread and wine that he started to see his breakthrough. Why? Here’s 10 declarations that Nick confessed at the time, and shared with us:
I was a sinner and have been redeemed by Jesus blood that was shed as he died for me on the cross. (Romans 3:23)
I have been bought with a price. I am not my own. (1 Peter 1:18-20)
I am looking to His return. Jesus will come back victorious. (1 Corinthians 11:26)
I am not fighting against flesh and blood. (Ephesians 6:12)
I am raising a banner
I am under Gods authority. (Matthew 28:18)
I am a child of the Heavenly Father, the almighty God. (John 1:12)
I had no part in my redemption, it is the work of Jesus. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
I am loved beyond measure. (John 3:16)
I am worshiping when I take the bread and wine.
What will help us continue the mission God has made us for? We talk about some of the key ways we can keep going and change the world with Good News of Jesus and His Kingdom!
In this podcast, we ask the question, “Who is shepherding the lost?”. We look specifically at how we have the mandate and commission to be those shepherds in our villages and towns and use some practical examples and tools to demonstrate to the world: love, liberty, direction and self-worth. We explore that demonstrating our faith is important but still not enough. It only becomes enough when we share the Good News of Jesus and see people enter into His Kingdom through salvation.
Jesus’ compassion is for everyone. And every one of us is qualified to show and extend His compassion to every person that Jesus gave his life for. With this in mind our prayer is “Lord, move us as You are moved. Break our hearts from what breaks Yours. Drive us forwards and outwards because of Your compassion toward us, in us and through us.” Freely we have received. Let’s freely give.
We take three examples where Jesus shows the importance of how the Holy Spirit helps us to be discerning, and not to judge on the outward appearance.
Jesus ministered to multitudes but connected with people ONE AT A TIME. He followed the leading of the Holy Spirit to individual people and asked them a powerful question, which cut to the heart and opened up their lives, so that He could give them what they really needed.
In this first message from our Gospel Encounters series, we start by looking at three such encounters: a woman who felt tainted by her past (Lk 8:40-48), a man who was dissatisfied with the present (Mt 19:16-22), and a man who was despondent about his future (Jn 5:1-9). They’re like people we meet every day, to whom Jesus is now sending us. Are we willing to go into the ‘Mission Field’ to ask the questions He gives us, to meet needs and change lives?
God has made mankind with a clear identity and purpose; to be blessed, fruitful and to bring His rule to bear on earth. With Jesus as our example; we can learn how our physical bodies, when dedicated to God and full of the Holy Spirit, are made for mission!
In a time when there is no more urgent task for the Church than to be fulfilling our great co-mission, this message urges us to believe that in every way we really are ‘made for mission’ – it’s the way God has created us, designed us and saved us! Reaching-out with compassion to the people and worlds around us is not too hard, or unnatural, or beyond our comfort zones – it’s exactly what we were made for and the most natural and fulfilling thing we can do. So, as we start a new decade, let’s break out of every mindset that hold us back and embrace the fact that we are made for mission!…
Prayer is an essential and life giving part of being a Christian. In this message we will look at some practical tools that we can use to help us in our prayer life and engage with our Heavenly Father.
As we reach the end of the year it’s vital we do all we can to ‘finish well’ – so that we can start the new year in the best possible way. Hebrews chapter 11 describes some ‘heroes of faith’ – men and women who pressed-on and finished well, and whose lives still speak to us. And the writer to the Hebrews follows these tails of faith and heroism by urging us also to “fix our eyes on Jesus…lay aside every weight…and run with endurance the race that lies before us.” (Heb 12:1). In this message we consider how these faithful men and women might be cheering us, and how we can run into the new year!…
There is immense power in the precious name of Jesus! We look at Acts 4 and see how the name of Jesus changes everything. That by His name we know acceptance with God, association with other Christians and authority to see His power released through us; for His glory.
In the second of two messages from John’s letters looking at ‘The World’ (how we relate to it and how we should live in it), we turn to John’s amazing statement that we are, AS HE IS, in this world (1 John 4:17). John instructs us not to love the world (1 John 2:15), but he also shows us that ‘AS HE IS’ means that by our very nature we are, SENT into it, and LOVED. Once again, starting in Genesis and exploring the meaning of the Tree of Life, we can see how this has always been God’s plan, to have a people who are maturing into the full stature of His beloved Son, Jesus.
From the opening chapters of Genesis onwards, the practice of tithing – giving God the first tenth – has been a distinguishing hallmark of God’s covenant people. But is tithing still relevant? Is it outdated now we’re part of a new covenant? Or is it a timeless, eternal principle to be taken-up by the church today? This message provides biblical answers to these questions, together with practical experience and a testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness over many years. We discover that tithing is God’s way of releasing us from self-effort, materialism and the anxieties that grip so many people, and releasing into peace, security, blessing, revelation and growth!….
In the first of two messages from John’s letters, looking at the world – how we relate to it and how we should live in it – we start with John’s instruction not to love the world. Firstly looking at what John and the other NT writers meant by ‘the world’, and then considering the 3 fundamental elements John describes as being ‘in the world’. We trace them back to their roots in Genesis, so that we can see how they came between God and humanity, and how as God’s children we can now live differently, showing others the way back to Him.
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