Talks

Having spent last week speaking about Vision – this week Matt speaks about Culture.  If we want anything to grow the environment has to be right.  It’s true in nature and true in our lives.  How do we develop and maintain a healthy environment?
If you consider yourself part of our Church Family – Matt encourages us all to be Guardians of our Culture! 
Matt reminds us that every people group has a culture. Whether it’s a school, a business, a football club or even our family units – they all have their own culture based around the things people value most.  Culture can be formed by design or by default.  If the culture we operate in isn’t healthy, it might be time to get out – but if that’s not possible (or if we feel called to make a difference) with God’s help we can be a positive impact on the culture.  (Shining Bright!)

What do we value and therefore want to Guard in OUR Culture?  We have 6 building blocks: Welcome, Growing, Relational, Jesus-centred, Outward looking and Spirit and the Word. How can you help to Guard our Culture?

To understand in more detail what these values mean to us, you can read our “Vision and Values” booklet and listen to Matt’s talk.

Do you remember our vision “Stepping Out” for 2023? Can you say that you have stepped out in the first 8 months of the year? What stepping out is God calling you to do now?

Matt helps us to take a good look the Ashwood Church landscape from a birds eye:
What is our overall vision? To be a spiritually healthy and growing church for all ages!
How do we do that? What does this look like for us? Below are just a few examples:
- Apprentices to Jesus
- Healthy LifeGroups
- Healthy Sunday Gatherings
- Healthy Earthshakers
- Healthy Elevate Youth
- Transformed Worship
- Touching Heaven
- Freedom in Christ Course
- Marriage Course
- and so much more!
For 2023 we have a more specific vision that links in with the overall vision
“Stepping out in faith in the power of the spirit!!”
We do that in four ways:
- Stepping out in the Spirit: “Walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16) and “Keep in step with the Spirit” like a ballroom dancer (Gal 5:25).
- Stepping out together: All tuned to Jesus like an orchestra is tuned to a tuning fork.
- Stepping out in faith: “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7)
- Stepping out, shining bright: Don’t put your light under a basket, but on a stand! (Mtth5;15-16)
Matt challenges us to Step out, Stretch out and to Spread out!

Esther and Helen finish our series on Heroes of faith!
Esther talks about King David.
David gave himself fully to God.  How did he do that?  Two ways: In
Worship - He wasn’t bothered about looking undignified before the people and
Lament - He believed that God was the only one who could do something about his difficult situations and didn’t hold back sharing his heart with God.
Esther encourages us not to hold back either.
Helen speaks about Joseph.  She explainsthat he had very high highs and also very low lows to walk through, yet he came out at the end with his faith not only intact but grown and matured. How can we do that too following his example?
Remember that all things work for good because God has a plan
Keep your thankful heart and be full of gratitude for the good times
Step out in faith!

Today we have the great opportunity of meeting 3 current day “Heroes of Faith” from Malawi: Pastors Francis and Annie with their daughter Tama.

Annie and Tama talk to us about all the great projects Hope Mission is running in Malawi. It seems never ending! God surely is doing some marvellous things through them in a most wonderful holistic way.  It is particularly wonderful to hear about how our giving and investment has made such a difference over the last 10 years!  Praise God!
Francis put the heroes of faith we have been hearing about from Hebrews 11 into context: The writer intended to encourage the readers to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus in chapters 1-10. We are so easily distracted by our surroundings and it is important to centre our hearts, minds and spirits on Jesus again and again. Jesus is the ultimate hero of faith, but we are also encouraged by others who have walked through trials on this earth before us in Hebrews 11.
Chapter 12 centres our attention on running this race (our life on earth), being equipped with the encouragement given in the previous chapters.

Heroes of Faith Week 3 – This week Andy talks about Samuel and Michael about the Roman Centurion.

Samuel - A joung boy who is called at night by God to receive a difficult message to pass on to his master Eli. But the message wasn’t just for Eli, it was also for Samuel, to prepare him for other difficult messages he would have to relay in the future.
What can we learn from Samuel?
1) God gives us strength when weexercise faith
2) When we exercise faith, we grow
3) God speaks to us all and can askany of us to step out in faith

The Roman Centurion - Even though he is not listed amongst the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, Micheal chose to talk about him because he AMAZED Jesus with his faith. He fulfills the criteria from Hebrews 11.6: He pleased God because he had faith.
He also had some other characteristics:
not religious (he was not a jew, he was a gentile)
understood authority (he was in charge of a hundred men)
humble (he didn’t see himself worthy to have Jesus even come to his house)
love (he loved his servant that would have been replacable enough to bother Jesus)
thought outside the box (believed that Jesus could heal from a distance)
Michael particularly challenges us to think outside the box: Don’t limit God in any way shape or form! If the centurion who was simple human like you and me could amaze Jesus, so can we!

Perrianne encourages us to discover our very own gifts, to be ourselves, not to copy others. If all of us do that, we can be a very colourful and multi-skilled church, which is exactly what God had in mind when he created us.

Paul continues explaining why we as Ashwood need to be intense (focussed), authentic (being real) and optimistic (spreading hope). 
We live in a world that is in conflict and chaos, we need to be people who walk by faith (part of our theme for the year) and then we can see God’s victory in our lives. “Victory can only be gained if there is a battle! A testimony can only be told after a test!”

Paul finishes his message with some poems:

“Today we can’t afford to be afraid of what we fear” (Bono, “Red Flag Day”)

“May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer,
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.”
(John O’Donahue “A Morning Offering”)

“Fear is not my future / You are
Sickness is not my story / You are
Heartbreak’s not my home / You are
Death is not the end / You are
Hello, peace; Hello, joy; Hello, love;
Hello, strength; Hello, hope,
It’s a new horizon”
(Brandon Lake/Maverick City)

Trauma, fragmentations and conflicts are all around us. Peace is much desired in many lives. How and where do you find peace? The bible says that the Lord is Peace, a holistic sort of peace: wellness, holeness, reconsiliation, safety, completeness. When Jesus gives himself, he gives peace, a peace that passes all understanding. We do have His peace and the closer we come to Jesus, the more this peace can grow. We don’t shine in our own peace, it is His peace that shines through us and can be a light that pierces the darkness around us. Therefore, don’t hide your light under a basket. It is Jesus you’re hiding if you do that. Let HIM shine!

Heroes of Faith Week 2 – This week Joshua talks about Noah and Gareth talks about Moses – both Heroes of faith according to Hebrews Chapter 11.  Why were they on the list?

Noah - A man who undertook a crazy project: building a massive ship on dry ground 60miles away from the ocean! It must have been a very costly undertaking, both financially and timewise and people mocked him – understandably! How did he feel himself? Did he sometimes doubt if he had heard God right? We don’t know but what we do know is that he kept acting on what he believed God had asked him to do. That’s what we call “FAITH”.

What can we learn from Moses?
1) Even when Moses was a tiny baby and wasn’t aware of it, God was at work in his life.
2) Killing the slave overseer wasn’t the right thing to do, but it showed that Moses had a heart for justice.
3) In the dialogue with God at the burning bush, Moses was very honest with God about his doubts and weaknesses.
4) Moses was 80 years old when he faced Pharaoh and started a 40 year adventure leading thousands of people through the wilderness towards the land God had promised.  => We are never too old to follow God’s calling!
5) “Moses” means “pulled out of the water” - Moses needed to trust that his name was God’s promise that he and the whole people of Israel would stay on dry ground when he stepped into the riverbed God had cleared of water.
Which of these points challenge you most in your walk of faith?

Matt introduces us to the new summer series: Heroes of Faith, based on Hebrews 11.
Have you ever been surprised to see Sarah, Abraham’s wife, listed under the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11? When the three visitors prophecied that she would have a son in a year’s time at 90 years of age, she laughed and then denied that she had laughed. That doesn’t really sound like a hero of faith, does it?
Mandy Walker explains beautifully how she can identify with that story/person in the bible and encourages us to hold on to God’s promises whatever need we are facing. Seeing how Sarah doubted, yet God still fulfilled His promise, we can rest in the assurance that we are in good company when we struggle with our faith.
God’s faithfulness is a thread that runs through all stories in the bible.

Jono Wright and Martin Walker remind us of the beauty of the world our God has created and talk to us about the severe consequences of climate change.
What can we do to leave our children a future rather than an apology? They encourage us to be proactive in our stewardship, to use our talents well: to keep learning, to reduce, reuse, repair and to recycle. They also mention possible changes in diet (e.g. eat less meat, buy local) and transport methods.You don’t know where to start? It doesn’t matter if you start only small and/or imperfectly. What matters is that you DO START.