What Jesus Says to a Complacent Church

Sunday 17th July 2016: Dare Series: Dare To Have Faith - Peter Godwin

Faith is multifaceted: it is seeing everything in the world from God’s perspective. Faith is not desire; it’s not feelings (which often get in the way of faith); it’s not bargaining with God; and it’s not pretending something untrue is really true. There is always more than one way of looking at things.

Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts and discusses how seeing things from God’s point of view produces a faith that dispels fears and unlocks miracles and dreams.

Sunday 3rd July 2016: Prayer Can Change Our Lives - Peter Godwin

If you had the opportunity to talk with Jesus, for fifteen minutes this morning, and you could make one request of Him, what would your request be …security, money, healing, restoring a relationship?

The disciples got that opportunity at one point. They came to Jesus one day, and they had a request - "Lord, teach us to pray."

It's interesting, that the disciples watched Jesus preach and they watched Him do miracles, but never once did they say - "Lord, teach us to preach", or "Lord, teach us to do miracles". Instead they said - "Teach us how to pray."

In Jesus last words to His disciples, He tells them He’s going to give them His Spirit, and that they will be able to talk with Him through prayer.

Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.

Sunday 26th June 2016: Practical Prayer - Richard Wills

Since when is prayer practical?

You struggle to make time for prayer, be it early in the morning when you struggle out of bed, especially in the middle of winter, or at any other time during the day or night.

You speak to someone you can’t see, feel or touch. You’re not even sure there is anyone there.

Your mind wanders everywhere other than the things for which you want to pray. You consider it an achievement if your prayers last five minutes. You never see any answer to your prayers or, if you do, it is the opposite of that for which you prayed.

You say to yourself “I can do just as well with my own intellect & the work of my hands. What’s the point of prayer?”

This morning we are going to look at some of these blockages and suggest some ways that prayer, rather than being a chore to be endured, can become something which energizes and stimulates our faith to become more alive.

Good praying!

Sunday 19th June 2016: Fulfilling Our Mission: Baptism and Bubbles - Peter Godwin

We baptise those people who confess their faith in Jesus Christ and those children who are brought for baptism and for whose teaching and nourishment in faith their parents and the church takes responsibility.

The Bible is clear about our mission - it’s to help connect people to God, to bring others into God’s family, and to participate in God’s work of “reconciling” people. If Jesus lived at our place he’d want to be doing just that!

Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.

Sunday 12th June 2016: Fulfilling Our Mission - Peter Godwin

How do we make a difference with our lives?

We find the answer to that question when we understand that our lives have a purpose and the way that purpose is directed makes a difference.

A former president of the United States once said that having a mission matters and that we should - "choose as your mission in life to choose a mission that makes a difference"

The Bible is clear about our mission - it’s to help connect people to God, to bring others into God’s family, to participate in God’s work of “reconciling” people. For that mission, our motive is love, our message is good news and our method is to live it and share it. There are some practical tools to help us in the task. We can pray for opportunities; we can build bridges to people by listening and caring and we can intentionally invite people to join us in the ministries and mission of Church in the Marketplace.

Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.

Sunday 5th June 2016: Overboard with Jesus - Berni Dymet

Following Jesus has never been an easy thing to do. These days, believing in what God says over and above the new normal that society is pushing, well, it’s not an easy thing. Christians these days are derided as bigots and conservatives, when, for example, they stand up for “traditional marriage” (as though there is any other sort of marriage!).

And on top of the pressures of an increasingly secularized society, there are the pressures that we each face in our own lives.

Work, family, finances, health …there is not a one of us who doesn’t have some things going on in our lives that we would rather be rid of. And in the middle of this walks Jesus. Calling us to follow Him.

Hang on a minute Lord. Just hang on a cottin’ pickin’ minute!! Do you have any idea of all the stuff I have going on in my life?! Follow You?

How am I supposed to do that?

Listen now as Berni unpacks his thoughts.

Sunday 29th May 2016: Life's Big Questions - Who Determine's Right and Wrong? - Peter Godwin

Originality, Identity, Destiny, Authority - they’re big life questions. And they’re not just for philosophers, artists and the deep thinkers among us. We all need to wrestle with these big questions. They’re important to us because they’re unavoidable, and they’re connected, and they shape how we live.

Our families, friends and communities are asking the same questions.

So how we answer is important. We can begin to answer the “authority” question, by following the four summary ideas

of Scripture - Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration.

So how will we live now? Listen as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.

Sunday 8th May 2016: Life's Big Questions - Where Did I Come From? - Peter Godwin

Where did I come from is a question of “origin”.  When we know where we’re from, we’ll be better able to live lives that fit with our design and purpose.

So - where did we come from?  Are we simply the accidental byproducts, of the random forces of nature?  Are we a cosmic accident?  Or are we, the pinnacle of creation, intended by a personal and a loving God?

The answer has significant implications for our lives. If people are truly made in the image of God, then as Christians, we must treat everyone with dignity. And, if we’ve been made by God, we have a purpose. We were designed to be in a relationship with God, and with other people.  

Listen now to this exciting message as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.

Sunday 1st May 2016: The Best News Ever - The Benefits of a Christian Life - Peter Godwin

Do you know the difference between features and benefits? A feature is a characteristic that makes something unique and sets it apart from everything else. A benefit is how that feature can help you.

One of the greatest features in the world is called the power of God.  

When the apostle Peter described the benefits of that power, he said Jesus “anointed by the Holy Spirit and power” (Acts 10:38) went about doing good and healing people under evil’s influence. That’s what the power of God does. It binds up the broken hearted, saves the lost and it gives hope to the hopeless. 

The four benefits we’ll explore this morning are -Salvation for our spirit, Peace for our mind, Healing for our body and soul, and Deliverance from destructive habits in our lives.

Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.

Sunday 24th April 2016: The Best News Ever - The Power to Ovecome - Peter Godwin

Unfortunately, not only the quantity, but the very nature of the news helps to increase our sense of hopelessness, our feelings of fear, and our dread of despair. Truth be told we’re surrounded, and we’re inundated, by bad, horrific, mind numbing news. 

So … today, in the face of all the bad news, we’re going to hear the best news we’ve ever heard; courtesy, not of the news media but from Scripture.  From the God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired, word of God.  

What’s the great news?  No matter what comes our way, when we live in Christ, and Christ lives in us - we overcome.  

Really?  Yes!  For every single bit of darkness, there will be light. And when light stands next to darkness, light always wins. A risen Jesus, means that we have power in our lives, to help us overcome the things in life that confront us.

Listen now as Pastor Peter unpacks his thoughts.