Sermon series: Miscellaneous

Jesus has inaugurated a new exodus. God’s calling us to to enlarge the borders of our tent, and our children will go to the nations.

God commands us to rest, and Jesus frees us from four burdens - the pressure to prove ourselves, the pressure to meet other people’s expectations, the pressure to try and stay in control and the pressure to live life to the max.

Leaning on somebody is a sign of weakness, but when we lean on Jesus God’s power is seen in our weakness. People should be able to ask “Who is that, and who is it they’re leaning on?”

Just as David defeated Goliath by holding on to the word of God, we too can exercise reckless faith in the face of giants as we remember the promises that he has made to us.

Fasting can help us to draw close to God. God’s people fasted in the Bible when they were in trouble, when they needed a breakthrough, when they were on the brink of something new or when seeking direction from God.

God directs his people for a purpose, but we can easily become discouraged when things go wrong. Are we willing to step back and pray; obey him; step into the impossible; and worship even before we reach our destination?

We belong to God because he made us, bought us and won us. In what is an amazing exchange, God also gives himself to us.

Jesus equipped his disciples by giving them peace, opening their minds to understand the Scriptures and promising them power. He equips us in the same way.

Phinehas was jealous for God’s honour. We should have the same attitude towards God’s honour. Sin does not honour God and so it needs to be killed.

It was worth Satan’s while to discourage Elijah, and it is worth his while to discourage us as individuals and as a church. God overcomes Elijah’s discouragement by refreshing him, by restoring him with a still small voice, and by reinstating him.

God is a generous God who loves to give, and loves it when we give generously and cheerfully.

[A small section of the message at around 38 mins was not recorded due to technical difficulties]

We need to remember and understand the resurrection of Jesus in order to believe it.

Jesus teaches us to approach God with personal reverence, addressing him as our father, and also with shameless persistence and childlike confidence.

It’s time to seek the Lord because God wants to bless his people and make us more fruitful and so we need to break up our unploughed ground. It’s good to sing his praises, confess our sin, ask things of him, fast and meditate on him.

There is still room for more people in the Jubilee Centre and in God’s Kingdom. God has blessed us all with wonderful gifts, so let’s cast out the nets for a fresh catch.

Paul urges us all, no matter who we are, to keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is our calling to be people of the Spirit.

We don’t know what 2018 has in store for us, but as followers of Jesus, we follow Jesus wherever he leads. We may pay a cost, but we also get to be with Jesus.

There are four ways we can celebrate Christmas: We can walk in the darkness, or we can cope with it by partying once a year, or we can forget it, or we can acknowledge it but recognise that a great light has dawned.

God wants to stir in us a passion for Jesus. Our passion for him is a response to his love for us and will stir us to action.

David wanted the presence of God in Jerusalem, but he needed to take both the holiness and the word of God more seriously. Similarly, we need to take the teaching of Jesus seriously.