Amplifying Christ
A community being made beautiful
The concept of marriage is common in our culture but often it is understood as merely a sentimental soppy love song style relationship or a cold legal commitment. The Bible’s vision of marriage however is stunningly high and cuts through both sentimentality and legalities. The reason it is so high is because He created it to mirror the thing He is most passionate about – His relationship with His people! As we finish our series on the church we are…
Community that participates in the gospel
Over the last two weeks we have seen what the role of leaders in the church is but this week we move on to look at what the role of every Christian is in the church. What motivates you to come to church services? Is a sense that you are the gatekeeper of how you like things to be? Is it because you want to get something out of the church? Are you just floating about trying to find something…
Gospel saturated leadership
Last week we saw that God’s plan for the church was for elders to be the leading group. This was because they were the ones who pointed the sheep to their great shepherd Jesus. This week we see what the life of one of these elders needs to look like and how a church should treat them. As we seek to be a church that amplifies the gospel it is vital that our leadership is saturated with the gospel and…
Community led by the Gospel
Thoughts on church leadership are many and varied. In our heart of hearts we feel that we should be looking at the New Testament to discover who should lead the church but when we do we can easily get confused. There we see the unique group of men, the Apostles, leading the church and having Christ-given authority; but with no Apostles in the church today who should lead? This morning we are going to look at who it was that…
Community that makes disciples
The Great Commission is one of the most famous commands of Jesus Christ and yet if we are to be honest we have to acknowledge that for some reason the church has struggled to keep it. But we have to see that this command was given by Jesus off the back of the most amazing event in history – the resurrection! It was with resurrection authority that Jesus gave the church this commission and we should be moved by this…
Community that preaches the gospel to one another
The call to love one another is as old as Christianity itself. Jesus said that it is how the world will know that we are His disciples. What what does it really mean for the church to love one another? As we examine Romans 12 we will see that the kind of community Jesus is calling us to is one of radical love… one where we treat one another as brothers and call one another holy.
Community that worships through the gospel
Worship… one of those easily spoken but hard to explain terms that gets thrown about all the time in church. And yet worship is probably the definitive call of God on our lives… He longs for our worship… our devotion… our love… heart, soul and strength! When we think of “an awesome worship time” we normally think of an experience where we feel we connected with God… but the worship that God demands is not about a felt experience of…
Community that makes the gospel visible
Church… It is a concept that can evoke many varied ideas and emotions. From those who loathe church maybe because of the way they were treated in the past… to those who find joy, life and purpose in the church… to those who just see it as a monument to a bygone era in the centre of town. As we begin our series on the church I want us to envisage church in perhaps what is a new and refreshing…