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On this Mothers’ Day, we look in Luke 11 at the account of Jesus when given the opportunity to praise and honour His own mother, considered it vital to redirect his listeners to where true blessing is to be found. In hearing the word of God and putting it into practice.

For many Christians, ‘stewardship’ is associated with finances and budgets, but in this message Stephen helps us to see that stewardship is so much more than this. Stewardship includes our time, our gifting, our families and our own walk with God… stewardship is about our whole lives; it is about faithfully developing and using our gifts, talents and resources within the amount of time God has allotted to us.

God wants our homes to be places of order, goodness and power, where His Kingdom is gloriously, beautifully and uniquely expressed. Your home is where God’s heart is!

As citizens of The Strong City, our vantage point has changed. And this new vantage point brings a change of mindset as we look out into 2018 and beyond.

We look at the account of Simeon, a man who believed and eagerly awaited God’s promise, and who recognised and embraced the new thing God was doing.

When God sent a great flood to the earth, He had a plan. Noah couldn’t see it physically, but he could “see” it with the eye of the spirit. We are building something wonderful and it’s important that we ‘see’ it. The good news is it is by His strength and not our own. God doesn’t want you to miss the boat, in fact He doesn’t want anyone to miss the boat! We all need to be “on board” with Him; His presence, His people, His power! Are you on board?

The prayer of King Jehoshaphat and the example given by him and his people to worship God in the face of adversity is a timely reminder for us in our day to gather ‘heavily-armed’ and ready to find our voices.

When we read the account of Jesus going to raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead, we see how, on the way, a woman with internal bleeding pushed through the crowd to receive healing. Jesus met her where she was at, but remained a ‘man on a mission’ as he continued to raise the girl from the dead. Stephen picks up this story and asks us “what is our testimony – are we in mission mode?”. Our testimony is more powerful than our beliefs. Sometimes seeing is more powerful than hearing! We are Jesus to all those around us, because we are filed with His spirit. Let’s all be men and women on a mission.

As we start a new season together we are putting a focus on all that it means to serve the Lord and one another as part of the body of Christ, His Church. We want to excel in all we do together to glorify God and to win people to Christ. Today we set a biblical context for our serving, that we may consider our serving to be part of the normal Christian life.

When we look at the great commission in Matthew 28, we read how Jesus told his disciples to “GO”.  The church today also shares this commission.  We take a look at three steps we can take to get to the ‘go’;  we first get ready, by being filled with the Holy Spirit daily.  Next we get set, by being filled with love, faith, zeal and boldness.  Lastly, we go!  We choose to respond to the Holy Spirit by saying yes and being men and women of action.