I find it strange that at a time of year when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, our lives become busier and busier and, dare I say it, a little more stressed.
This message which I shared with the brilliant people of New Life Church on Sunday 13th December will help you find a place of peace no matter the circumstances you find yourself in.
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What a great time we had at The House on Sunday morning as New Life did church together. It was somewhat emotive too. Fathers were honoured and it was exciting to see a young student speak very highly of his exceptionally humble dad and then pray for him in front of the whole congregation. Later one of our more senior members read the Rudyard Kipling poem “If” and I for one was moved to tears as he neared the climax of that most wonderful of verse.
The message, “A Father’s Advice” centred on the Godly advice spoken through a wise man in Proverbs 3:5-6. I suppose if the Holy Spirit inspires the wisest King who ever lived to pen words to his son, we should at least take careful note; and perhaps more so on Father’s Day.
This podcast then drops in on the message after I’ve finished the preamble which included reminiscences of my own father and his words of wisdom.
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I recently spent time away with some of the leaders of the church I pastor and as well as having lots of fun and enjoying each other’s company, we chewed over many of the various statements, mottos and axioms that we’ve used to describe our church. It was a helpful exercise and in the doing of it we arrived at an overarching phrase which we believe will express the whole scope of our flavour as New Life Church.
“Big God.. big people .. big church” is already becoming part of the language of New Life’s leadership. We believe in a Big God .. we build Big People .. who belong to a Big Church.
We believe in a God who is who He says He is and does what He says He does. The God who is revealed in every page of scripture. A Big God! Only by believing in a big God can we begin to successfully raise strong disciples; big people. The followers that Jesus wants are ones who pursue wholeness, learn to live life sold out to him and therefore learn to live life large, to the full. Only then can we build and belong to a big Church. A church that Jesus celebrates not tolerates. A church that is valuable to God and invaluable to the community.
In a series of three talks, I unpack aspects of this phrase to the church for the first time. “Big God .. big people .. big church”.
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In this first talk you drop in on me talking about our need to believe in a Big God. I use visual examples of us straightjacketing God to make him more palatable to society and later I literally tear the bible apart to make the point of how subtly we learn to compromise the God of the bible. Enjoy as you join worshippers gathered at The House, the home of New Life in Scunthorpe, England.
What a privilege it was for me on Sunday, though heavy with a cold and losing my voice, to preach the final sermon in a very important series at New Life, Scunthorpe. The series, “Service with a Smile” was designed to help the church launch a volunteer revolution and to encourage newlifers understand more about themselves and feel confident in offering their service to God.
The end of the series brought the start of a new season – a season where newlifers recognise how God has knitted them together and where leaders engage with people on this journey and create opportunities for meaningful service.
You can hear this final message in the series by clicking above. The message is highly New Life specific but I hope the heart of it is clear – for the Church of Jesus to embrace this journey from servitude into servanthood releasing resource into local churches everywhere.
God bless.
therevster
Have you ever wondered why when you seem to be doing everything right and praying with all the faith you can muster, God just doesn’t seem to come through the way you want Him too. Of course you have. And you’re in good company because whether they admit it or not the vast majority of Christians, even the world famous ones, are in the same boat.
Recently, I preached a sermon rather catchily named “In the Nick of Time”. I know it’s not original and that a Movie and T.V series got there before me but it sort of did the job.
The point of the sermon was to help good people like you and I realise something we ought to know but often don’t.
God knows what He’s doing, and in the main, we don’t know what He’s doing.
The phrase “The Nick of Time” is used by people to describe something that happened at the last possible moment. James Bond was rescued from being split in half by the laser of Goldfinger in “the nick of time” – the last possible moment. The damsel in distress in silent movies was always rescued from being struck by a train at the last possible moment. We sometimes hear testimonies in our churches from people who were in financially desperate times when God came through “in the nick of time” and provided money at the last possible moment.
Yet there is something really wrong here, because “The Nick of Time” never really meant the “last possible moment”. It was a phrase first used when time was measured by expertly made wooden timepieces, perhaps sundials or sandglasses. To mark a specific time the creator of the timepiece would make a “V” shaped cut, a “nick” in the the wood. Once the shadow of the sundial or the sand in the sandglass reached that “nick” it was said to be “in the nick of time”. In other words the correct meaning of the phrase “in the nick of time” is “the critical or precise moment”.
I believe it is here, in critical and precise moments that God operates.
The fact that sometimes these moments seem “late” to us is not the point. God is never late. Nor is He ever early. He is always right on time bringing things to be in the critical and precise moments of your life.
In my message I help you discover how to find real peace in God’s timing and finally get rid of that frustration that gnaws away at you when you don’t get what you want when you want it. You can listen to the message by clicking here and selecting “The Nick of Time”
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God bless and make someone happy today.
