Pentecost Foreshadowings

The Day of Pentecost changed everything! Acts 2 records the moment when suddenly those fearful disciples hiding in that upper room in Jerusalem were transformed into unstoppable and anointed mouthpieces for God. Some unusual things took place that first Pentecost: a mighty sound from heaven, the appearance of what seemed like tongues of fire and the ability to speak in unlearned foreign languages. This Pentecost Sunday sermon explores the meaning of these occurrences by unpacking the Old Testament background. You will be reminded that the Spirit breathes life into us, empowers each of us and gives us a language to speak out God's truth to others.

The Great Restorer

As Christians we are not called to live in regret, we are called to a life of restoration. God's promise is that He will restore and the amazing thing is that God’s restoration is not to how we were before, it’s better. God restores more, God restores in abundance! God's heart is that we are restored to His original plan for all areas of our lives. When you’ve been knocked down to your knees, God doesn’t just get you up on your feet, He sets your feet dancing!

Intensify

God calls us to leave behind the familiar and launch out into deep waters. This message, delivered by guest speaker Dr Randlee Reddy from Veritas Christian Ministries in South Africa, is a call to accelerate our pursuit of the plans and purposes of God.

But Also Tongues

The gift of tongues is an entrance point into our supernatural inheritance. When you pray in tongues your spirit is praying the hidden wisdom of God into your situation. Unpacking the teaching of 1 Corinthians 14, this sermon draws on the distinction between the private prayer language of tongues and the public ministry of tongues. Your eyes will be opened afresh to the purpose and power of tongues and its importance for building yourself up in the faith.

Especially Prophecy

The gift of prophecy is often restricted or overlooked and yet the Bible tells us to eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. Listen to this fresh teaching: what prophecy is, how to weigh it and how to nurture it. We can be a people moving so powerfully in the prophetic that we can communicate God's foresight and insight to others around us.

Equipped

If you’re a believer you’re also a minister - and the Holy Spirit wants to enable, empower, energise and equip you to perform your ministry. This sermon lays down foundational teaching about the gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an optional extra; we are a dead church without the life and anointing of the Holy Spirit flowing through us. The Holy Spirit enhances our natural talents and gifts us special abilities that are to be used to minister to the needs of people - to build up the church and to reach our world.  The gifts of the Spirit are our toolbox for ministry - everything we need to get the job done! 

Soaked

Far too many Christians are living powerless lives. But there is an experience subsequent to salvation, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, that God desires for you to receive and enjoy. God doesn’t want to give you just enough anointing so you can experience only personal breakthrough; He wants you to be so full of the Holy Spirit that His presence and power is overflowing out of you so that you can effect atmospheric change wherever you go. This sermon speaks about the indispensability of the Holy Spirit and kicks off our new series, ‘The Saturation Point’. 

One Way

The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead is the ultimate authentication of Jesus’ claim to be God. If Jesus was raised from the dead the implications are immense and a response is required of each one of us.

Drawing on the evidence for the resurrection, this message explores Jesus’ claim to be the Way, the Truth and the Life and also deals with the false logic behind the prevailing view in our culture that all religious paths are equally true.

The Christian hope is not built on the empty promises of a dead religious teacher but on the glorious fact of the resurrection of the Son of God. For those of us who have trusted in Christ, that means we have access to life and freedom on this earth and also a future in heaven that is immeasurably good.

Cheers, Jeers and Triumph

At Easter we celebrate the most momentous event in the history of the world. On Good Friday we remember the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us, giving His life so that we might live. In this Good Friday message, we look at the events around the crucifixion through the words that were spoken - the cheers, the jeers and the triumph. What will your response to Jesus be this Easter? 

Name Changes Can Be Game Changers

In the Bible, names were seen as descriptive of not only who people are but also who they are meant to become. On the occasion of Palm Sunday and the launch of our new name 'One Church', John Glass – the General Superintendent of Elim and the Chair of Council for the Evangelical Alliance – brings a timely and inspiring word encouraging us to step into our identity and destiny, releasing what we have to Jesus’ mission and being a people who take the glory of God from where it is to where it isn’t.

Great Expectations

Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. This means that as Christians we should be living in so much more than we often do. Jesus meant that we should be praying God’s will and His kingdom into our lost and broken world. As Christians, miracles should be our norm. The supernatural should come naturally to us. We should expect miracles that reveal and glorify God. A life with God is one where we can have great expectations – expectations of the miracles He can work in our lives and through us in the lives of others.

There's Something About Mary

In our anxiousness to separate ourselves from undue veneration of Mary, at times Protestant Christians have been guilty of relegating Mary to a place of virtual insignificance. But there was something about Mary which caught God’s attention. What was it about Mary that, of all the women in the world at that time, God chose her to be the mother of Jesus? This message explores what we can learn from Mary’s attitude, faith and devotion to God as we seek to be the kind of people whom God will entrust to birth His plans and purposes in our generation.

Totally Forgiving Ourselves

Many people carry guilt for failures that God has already forgiven them for. Instead of looking down in shame, we can look up to the God who is the lifter of our heads, standing in our identity as forgiven people. Instead of looking inwards at our past mistakes, we can look outwards and walk in our calling to bring God’s kingdom in. Instead of looking back at our past, we can look forward knowing that with God our past doesn’t define our future.

The Hallmarks of Forgiveness

Extending forgiveness may be one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do – but there is a breakthrough on the other side of that decision. Forgiveness cannot re-write the past but it does make it possible to pen a new and better future. Hurt people hurt people; forgiven people forgive people. This message will help you to understand the characteristics and consequences of true forgiveness.

Choosing to Forgive Unjust Treatment

We can’t choose the treatment we receive but we can choose our response: we can choose forgiveness. We can choose forgiveness that isn’t based on the other person’s repentance, that doesn’t excuse the behaviour and that recognises forgiveness may be something we have to repeatedly choose. We can choose to cancel the debt that is owed us, knowing all this is possible with God.

No matter how big our hurt is, our God is bigger. No matter how deep our pain is, God’s love is deeper. No matter how strong the hold that unforgiveness has on us, our God is stronger. Today we can choose to forgive unjust treatment and experience true freedom.

The Prison of Unforgiveness

People may have attacked us, abused us, betrayed us, cheated us, mistreated us, ridiculed us and violated us; they may have done it deliberately, maliciously, viciously and even repeatedly – and without remorse. This can cause us deep pain – a pain we don’t make light of and a pain that God understands. But God commands us to forgive them. This is not easy – but we can do it with the Spirit’s help. In commanding us to forgive, God actually has our best interests at heart; the failure to forgive is a devastating and torturous form of self-destruction. When you forgive, you are the true beneficiary. This message brings home the point that to forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that, all along, that prisoner was in fact you.

Spring Up, O Well

The wells of our spiritual fathers and mothers need to be reopened in this generation; the fact is that many have never drunk of the wells of which they drank. This sermon reminds us that the destiny of the church is not wrapped up only in the new but also in the ancient paths – in retrieving ancient ways such as prayer, evangelism, Spirit baptism and consecration. But as well as re-digging old wells, we are reminded that we need to dig new wells and lay claim to new spiritual territory in our generation – so that we will leave a legacy from which future generations can drink.

Daring Faith, Unswerving Hope, Radical Love

Daring faith, unswerving hope and radical love describe what we as Church are called to live out. These words outline what we need to demonstrate to see God’s kingdom come – what it’s going to take to see our communities, our cities and our nations impacted and transformed in Jesus’ name.  This sermon will inspire you to have a faith in God that dares to grasp hold of His promises for our lives and for the lives of others; to persevere and remain steadfast in hope, being firmly anchored regardless of any storm; and to be filled, motivated and driven by radical love.

This sermon, from our Vision Sunday (Part One) on 24th January 2016, marked the announcement of our new name. The statement 'daring faith, unswerving hope, radical love' is the strapline for One Church.

Re:load - Facing Your Giants

Many of us tend to retreat when faced with a giant – a big challenge. But David – because he first faced God – rushed towards the giant Goliath. Like David we all face giants that taunt or threaten us; they may not be called Goliath but they are called unemployment, debt, rejection, discouragement, failure, addiction, disease and such like. This sermon will inspire you to reload and, with God’s help, to take a fresh swing at the problems, obstacles and burdens that stand before us.

Re:model - Quit Beating Yourself Up

Often we can end up beaten and bruised not from other people’s punches but from our own. When we spend more time looking at what is wrong with us than who we are in Christ we fail to live in God’s best. This message will help you to live free of condemnation and will open your eyes to the beautiful things that God can create even out of our mess.