Sermon series: Miscellaneous

Jesus is the good shepherd. Biblical shepherds led their sheep from the front, and knew each one by name, and the sheep knew his voice. We are invited to come and feed. Good shepherds lead by example, protect the flock, encourage the whole church to be a shepherding community, anoint with oil, and lay down their lives for the sheep.

We are encouraged to exalt and elevate God, to humble ourselves by seeking his will not our own, and to pray for a renewed spirit within us.

We are called to be fishers of men, ambassadors of Christ who attract people to him by letting his light shine through us in their midst.

We need to learn how to lament. We can do this by using our own words or by using some of the lament psalms that have been given us to help us pray. We need to make a deliberate decision to turn to the Lord, bring our complaint to him, make definite clear requests, and choose to trust him.

Like Abraham, we must face the facts - the facts make us more aware of our need for God. Yet we should continue to believe God, so let’s look up and be strengthened in our faith.

We are told to love one another, bear with one another and accept one another because God has first loved, accepted and forgiven us. Do we know that we are loved, accepted and forgiven by God every moment?

Because God came as both Jesus (Saviour) and Immanuel (God with us) we can know him and be saved from our sins.

Join us as we look at why, despite all the restrictions and changes, Christmas can never really be cancelled.

To see the full Carol Service please go to: https://youtu.be/OwoV8BnRLRg.

We mustn’t have a domesticated view of Jesus. He is exalted in heaven, and our appropriate response is one of worship and repentance. He is also enthroned, and so we should live as a community of kingdom people. And he is also active, pouring out his Spirit. We may be in Lockdown, but Heaven is still open.

The year 2020 is a year of drought, but the righteous are not anxious in the year of drought because their delight in the Lord in whom they trust.

Jesus was the heavenly Son of Man of Daniel 7 and yet he came to serve. not to be served. He was glorified as he was lifted upon the cross, with a thief on either side of him. James and John didn’t know what they were asking for when they asked to sit on either side of him.

Like Joseph, the church is called to be a fruitful vine, bearing fruit within our culture and amongst the nations. We may feel forgotten in Lockdown, but God has no more forgotten us than he forgot Joseph in prison. Whilst in prison, Joseph showed God’s love when he noticed the sadness of his fellow prisoners, he continued to believe in the supernatural, and he continued to believe in the sovereignty of God.

On Easter Sunday, Mary, Peter and John found the stone rolled from Jesus’ tomb, not so that he could get out but so that they could see he was no longer there. We should stop, look and listen, to enable us to believe. If we have lost our focus, it’s time to focus again on Jesus.

We are inseparable from Jesus, and we devote ourselves to him by devoting ourselves to the Scriptures, sharing with one another, breaking bread to remember the death of Jesus, and prayer.

There was a real and serious problem in the church where vulnerable people were going hungry. The leaders recognise the problem, but they also recognise their own limitations, so they delegate responsibly to others.

The church is a community of worship and a people of praise. When we gather together as a church, praise bubbles up in us because of what God has done for us.

Jesus doesn’t come to us to help us fight our battles for so that we can join him in his battle. When we encounter Jesus, we should respond with new worship, a new submission, a new devotion, a new vision a new unity and a new exercise of faith.

God has called us to be a church for the nations: to be sent out to bless the nations; and to reach the nations and tribes at the end of our street, and the end of our comfort zone.

The foxes represent small things that might be overlooked, but in fact are destructive, distracting or discouraging. We should catch them by staying close to the King (Jesus) and his bride (the Church).

Jesus calls us to be friends and family, and people of faith. We are called for fruitfulness by the filling of the Spirit, and to proclaim freedom.