As we celebrate Hospitality Sunday, Sarah shares a timely and powerful message about the difference between community and fellowship – and why fellowship in Christ is so much deeper, more lasting and more satisfying!
In Genesis 11 we see the way God disrupts humanity's plans for power at Babel. There is division and frustration. In Revelation 21 we get a glimpse of a future where people, cultures and cities are redeemed and once again united under Christ. And at Pentecost, in Acts 2, we see how the coming of the Holy Spirit undoes the curse of Babel and shapes God's people for unity and true worship, pointing to the future outlined in Revelation.
The Holy Spirit comes to give us blazing intimacy with Jesus, disciples who know the full and passionate love of God towards us.
Continuing in our series Follow Me: the Way of the Spirit, Mark looks at how the ministry of the Holy Spirit throughout the Old Testament points to the ways that the Spirit is at work among God's people today.
Romans 8 outlines one of the biggest challenges in following the way of the Spirit: the battle between Spirit and flesh. While the mind governed by the flesh is death, the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. Sarah shares personally her experience of this battle, and how the Spirit is overcoming perfectionism and control (fruits of the flesh) in her own life.
One of the biggest challenges we face is discerning between the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the age. Mark introduces the next part of our Follow Me series looking at the way of the Spirit, and this week opens 1 Corinthians 2 to explore how we can recognise the way of the Spirit and actively follow it.
Discipleship is about following Jesus, but it's also about being with Jesus. How do we answer Jesus' question, 'who do you say I am?' Knowing Jesus is foundational to following him as disciples.
As disciples, the difference between a solid foundation and one of sand is putting into practice what you have heard. Sharing your faith is a powerful way of activating what God has been building internally, and is central to the life of the disciple, since God has 'committed to us the message of reconciliation... as though making His appeal through us' (1 Cor 5:19-20).
As we celebrate the risen Jesus on Easter Sunday, Mark preaches from Luke 24 to look how we as disciples encounter and follow the living, present Jesus.
On Palm Sunday we look at Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As followers of Jesus we declare him King, and his Kingdom's reign - what does it look like to give up other 'kingdoms' for Christ's?
