Talks

Based on the first chapter of the letter to the Thessalonian Church, Bob encourages us to:
Set a reminder on our phones to pray for people and really be interested when we ask the question “How are you?”
Not to strive just about growth in church as in numbers, but to value growth in faith, love and hope
To be great examples to people in our surroundings so that if people imitated us, the world and the church would be a better place
To look at the life of Jesus and seek to model our lives on Him
In Spite of ______________ (fill in the blank for you) I can be unstoppable!
“Because of who God is, I am unstoppable!”

We always love Baptism Sunday!
Matt explains shortly what Baptism is all about, starting with the question: Are you thirsty or hungry this morning? A long time ago, God invited us through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 55 to be part of a banquet that feeds beyond our physical hunger. 2500 years later, Jesus follows this up by declaring to the women at the well that he is the water that will not leave you thirsty. We need to seek him, believe in him and repent, recognise that we need a saviour. He loves to forgive generously and to give us life in its fullness.
1) Baptism points backwards to the decision we’ve made to accept Jesus into our lives and to follow him.
2) Baptism points to Jesus, we identify with Jesus himself: Going into the water signifies the death to our old self and we rise as a new creation.
3) Baptism points forward to the family of God, the church.
Those being baptised have come to that conclusion and want to declare this before God and the world. Four wonderful testimonies are included in this talk.

Claire Bell reminds us that we are created for worship. Not to worship creation, however beautiful it may be, but to look at it in awe and worship the creator, God.  We look at idolatry and how that is worship of an unworthy object, and how easy it is to centre our attentions and adoration towards created things rather than our Creator God.
In Romans 1:21, Paul provided the root of idolatry; “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him”. Their lives and loves had got out of order.

Claire also gives us three practical points to keep our focus on worship:
1) Choose to worship what is worthy - Jesus!
2) Get hold of what God really thinks about you! (If you are not sure, sign up for the Freedom in Christ course)
3) Live in Kingdom priorities

Let’s actively put Worship into every part of our lives because as we sang on Sunday: “Lord, there is nothing better than you!”

We are a family, living in community!
Paul Bell reminds us of that beautifully in the next part of our Spiritual Practices Series.

He says whilst Sunday mornings are great, we need to adopt the life style of Jesus during the week if we want to become more like Him – which is our goal.

Here are Paul’s 7 points from Sunday:

1) Community is non-optional for discipleship to Jesus
You can’t do it on your own! When you are adopted into a family, siblings, aunties and cousins are part of the package!
2) Community is non-optional for a well lived life
We all need people around us.
3) Community is the context where we are transformed
We are both exposed and encouraged in community. The only way we can get healed from relational hurt is in relationship.
4) Community is not necessarily the same thing as a group of friends
In community we are challenged to share more of ourselves.
5) Community is the by-product of commitment
6) Community takes time and intentionality
Embrace interdependence
7) Community is attractive to others

Did you ever think about the difference between “stopping” and “resting”?
Zoe explains in her talk about Sabbath that stopping is just “not working”, whereas resting includes stopping to think about work! Taking that into account, some of us might not have properly rested for a long time!
The contents of a godly Sabbath are stopping, resting, delight and contemplation. Doing that gives us a foretaste of heaven and totally goes against our culture that tells us that our worth is in our work.

Zoe challenges us with a number of questions and quotes:
Stop: We should be empowered to do good work out of rest, not need the rest as a result of overworking.
Rest: What kind of rest refreshes you spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially like the Lord was refreshed on the seventh day after he created the heavens and the earth (Ex 31:17)?
Delight: “On the sabbath we are reminded that Christians are called to order desserts and laugh until it hurts.” Jon Tyson
Contemplate: “Sabbath is a time to experience God’s pleasure and approval, knowing it’s nothing to do with my work-related accomplishments.” Pete Scazzero

“God is always trying to give us good things but our hands are too full to receive them”. St Augustine

Zoe goes on to explain that there is a journey between being aware of something and owning it. The journey starts with pondering, then valuing it. Now comes the difficult bit: an action gap that many never cross before we get to prioritising it. Where are you in your journey?

Do you want to get excited about the practice of Fasting? If so, we recommend you listen to Matts talk!
Just after Jesus was baptised he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days. After this time the devil tempted him. Jesus could resist the temptation because he was STRONGER, not weaker after that long time of fasting. How can that be?
Fasting is linked to accessing power, it has a physical element but also a spiritual element.

Fasting is not just abstaining from food or other things or following a restricted diet. Fasting is simply not eating food in order to feed on the Holy Spirit. “Fasting is feasting on our Lord and doing His will!  (Dallas Willard) 
For the Jews and the early church fasting was a regular practice. Learning how to resist our “Flesh” and feed our “Spirit”.
Matt also quotes some very insightful and challenging thoughts on fasting from great men of God of the past and present. Well worth a listen to get inspired!

Practical Tips on Fasting:

If you’ve never tried fasting before, start with one meal or two meals and take it from there
When you’re fasting, drink plenty of fluid (the body can last a long time without food, but not water)
Don’t try and do too much physical exercise at the same time as fasting (especially when you are starting)
If you have any health issues – be careful and speak to someone first
If you know you have issues with food – speak to someone first to get help
Be kind to yourself! Jesus seemed to expect his followers to sometimes make mistakes while learning – so we can too!

In the next part in our series on Spiritual Practices, Dave speaks to us about Silence and Solitude.
In our busy, noisy, technology obsessed world, to be silent and quiet with God is a stark contrast! The noise of the world can often drown out the most important sound we need: The voice of God!
We look at examples in the bible: Daniel prayed 3 times a day, Jesus withdrew to quiet places on a regular basis and Elijah learned to hear God’s voice in the sound of sheer silence.
Sometimes just being silent helps us resist the draw of activity and sound.
Dave gives us some practical steps to help us to take some action:  What could you do?
1. Raise our expectation that God wants to speak to us in the silence
2. Start to establish new rhythms that are going to work for you
3. Re-style existing rhythms you are already doing, but bring God into them
4. Start off small and build it up

Our friend and special guest Joe Gisbey (Links CEO) talks about “Giving it all to the Giver of all!”
Joe uses the story of Abraham and Isaac to challenge us to think about giving everything to God. Joe says:
Sometimes we are tempted to make a detour (Ishmael) on our way to the fulfilment of the promise, but even then, God sees that we are working towards the fulfilment, His promise is still true.
Sometimes God asks us to do something without giving us all the details (e.g. “go into the region of Moriah”); He asks us just to go the next step and to trust him for the one after that.  
Sometimes it’s down to just us and God  (“the boy and I will go alone”) not to be distracted or discouraged from what God is asking us to do. 
It is when we totally surrender, come into a place of worship (not only singing but prioritising and putting God first in everything) and sacrifice that God provides. We are not waiting for the ram: the ram is waiting for us to arrive at that right place. Sometimes we don’t access the promise because we don’t get into the deep place of worship.  
 
He also prophesies some things to us as church.  Why not listen in? It’s time to fly, Ashwood!

Queen Elisabeth has served us, our country, the commonwealth and the world for 70 years!. Molly Bell does a fantastic job telling us about her own memories of the coronation and reminding us of so many aspects of the queens’ life.
One thing that stands out in the queen’s service is her faith in Jesus. Her majesty, just like us, has a desire for His Kingdom to come. So, it is very fitting for Ann Bramwell to tell us the Pentecost story, for Esther to help us understand what Pentecost means for us today and for Matt to encourage us to invite the Holy Spirit to come into our lives!

Zoe introduces us to our new Series: Spiritual Practices and give us advise how to implement them into our daily lives and encourages us to see the different spiritual practices as gifts from God rather than a to do list. But they are key to discipleship and require some discipline. 
Zoe compares this journey beautifully to climbing a mountain. For both we need a target, preparation, the right outfit, people to do it with and the awareness that we’re going to hit resistance. 
But don’t we all agree that reaching the summit is worth all the effort?