Following Jesus in all of life: Recent Episodes
Emmanuel Church Lurgan
This morning, Dave continues our theme by exploring John 7. Today we look at the Jewish feast of booths and look at how Jesus uses this to teach both his dependancy on the Spirit and the availability of the Spirit to all believers. John 7:37-38 “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’
Do you want to see signs and wonders? Don’t put Jesus in a box. In the latest part of our ‘Following Jesus in all of Life’ series, David Blevins takes us through John chapter 6.
As we continue in John’s gospel today we look at three things. 1. We are Chosen. 2. We have a responsibility to follow Jesus and 3. We need to use what we have. Jesus didn’t call us to keep this to ourselves, He called us so that we could pass it on. That is what legacy is all about. He was calling these men to follow Him so that He could give them responsibility to change the world like no one else ever had. These men would give their all, their very lives to make this kingdom message known to the uttermost parts of the earth. We don’t need more people working in church, we need more people working in engineering, working in the bank, serving coffee at Costa, teaching kids at school for the glory of God. What’s in your hand? What skills do you have? You like numbers and accounting? … take it and use it. You like organising? … use it.
As we introduce John’s gospel today, we see a gospel that stands alone to teach us much about unity and love. Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels (similar). John is a stand-alone personal account of a relationship with Jesus. In John 1 we see the unity of the church. A man sent from God whose name was John. What clarity!!! In John 17 we see the cry of Jesus for us all to be one, just like He and the Father are one. The enemy’s greatest tactic is to divide the church. He will divide us in politics, in religion, in race, in gender, in economic class. He knows if the people of God come together they can become a formidable foe that can change the world. Our oneness points us to the ONE and it sends a message to the world to the lost and broken that there is a God who loves them. “By this shall all men know”!!!!
Anyone ever get frustrated with God’s timing? Your watch and God’s watch just haven’t synchronized. Your prayer requests haven’t been sorted yet or maybe we should call them prayer commands. You’ve wrote them in your journal and dated them, but they’ve lay dormant. Some of you have all but given up hope that they will ever be responded to. What do you do when God doesn’t respond like we think He should? What do we do when God goes off script? What do we do when God doesn’t do what we tell Him to do? What do you do when God does His own thing?
Today is Pentecost Sunday, and Dave teaches on the purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the power of Christ was poured out on the church to fulfill the great commission. Today we focused around Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” As those who share Jesus, we firstly explored that it is out of a place of being still and knowing, that we then can make known what has been revealed to us. The other translation of this verse, is to “let go and know that I am God.” Whatever the Spirit is calling and leading us to do, it is our responsibility to release what He gives us.
This morning Dave continues our series on Following Jesus in all of life, by exploring how we can practically share the gospel through how we ‘bless’ others.
Today, Dave continues on our theme by looking at the purpose of evangelism, and what are some of the rhythms and habits we need to build into our lives as those who follow Christ.
This week I’d love to further a conversation by getting us to think about our SPHERES OF INFLUENCE. KEY VERSE… (2 Timothy 2:2) “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” Population in the world is currently 7.7 billion, growing at a rate of around 1.07% per year. The current average population increase is estimated at 82 million people per year. That’s just short of 7 million per month, just over 1.5 million per week, about a quarter of a million per day. With all these facts, we are faced with some questions… 1. Where do I begin? 2. What is the priority? 3. Who is the message for?
I hear people all the time say things like, “Would you help me find MY MINISTRY?”. Or, “I’m not just sure what MY MINISTRY is”. Ministry is from the Greek word diakoneo, meaning "to serve" or douleuo, meaning "to serve as a slave." Jesus provided the pattern for Christian ministry — He came, not to receive service but to serve. Today we look at THREE PRINCIPLES that I see in the life of Jesus in Scripture that we can simply apply to our daily lives.
Today we look at James 4; and the problem that James is writing about in the early church which is a bunch of people who are quarrelling among themselves because they are asking the wrong questions. This is the problem that stirs when we haven’t fully SURRENDERED to Jesus. This morning we address four basic but massive needs for the church today…
David speaks on the topic of Deliverance and focuses on the authority and power which we carry as believers.
Luke 4:16-22 is the mandate of the Saviour. On this resurrection morning we are going to unpack this passage looking at keys and chains and how to appropriate both. If Jesus came to release, then that means something was bound. We will never appreciate the freedom until we consider the magnitude and reality of the bondage. He didn’t come to set free people free. He came to set bound people free. The enemy’s greatest strategy is to make bound people think they’re free people, so they never need a Saviour.
This morning Chris continues our series by looking at the outward focus of the mission of the Kingdom.
This morning Phil teaches on the importance of Prayer walking and challenges us to Prayer Walk our streets this week.
A helpful guide for prayer walking:
W – WORSHIP : as you set off walking begin getting your eyes on Jesus: say the name of Jesus; recite a Psalm; hum a worship song; speak quietly in tongues; anything that basically helps declare the Lordship of Jesus over the streets you walk on.
A - ASK: flowing from your worship begin petitioning God for His Spirit to fall on the streets you walk on, the homes, businesses, schools and other churches you walk past. Begin to get specific and pray for people and situations.
L - LISTEN: as you worship and pray, leave space to listen to what God might want to say to you and then pray that back to Him.
K - KNOW your land: get (and keep) yourself informed around the area you are prayer-walking; research some of it’s history, some of it’s ongoing problems so you can pray for breakthrough.
This morning Alan continues on with the series “Following Jesus” where he challenges us to live our life for God, reflecting Jesus in the workplace and marketplace, or wherever we find ourselves in our day to day lives. Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters”
In Exodus 17 the children of Israel had just come out of Egypt, a place of bondage. Now they are free. They came out with gold, with riches, that are celebrating freedom. HEAVEN HAS HEARD THEIR CRY. BUT it wasn’t just heaven who heard them! The Amalekite’s heard about this and thought, we need to get our hands on their spoil. We will strip these people’s freedom away. Satan has no new tricks in his book. He is still using his same old stuff. As soon as you feel the victory, he will rise up against you. He will keep you fighting the wrong fight, keeping you inactive from the fulness of God, living a life full of the Holy Spirit. This morning we will look at some of the regular old Amalekites.
This morning I want us to look at HEALING. The power of prayer in the midst of impossible situations. Sickness is the Great Interrupter of life. It enters without knocking, thwarting all plans, mocking the idea of certainty, and diminishing hope for the future. It intrudes like a burglar in our home, touching every part of life. Such an interruption occurred to a woman in Jesus' time. Her encounter with Jesus is told in (Mark 5:24-34)
We continue looking at intercessory prayer and today we will focus on who can do this! Reading from Psalm 23, we will look at the importance of the first three words, THE LORD IS! When it comes to intercessory prayer these three words LEAP into importance. He is everything we need Him to be so we can trust Him. When it comes to interceding, you need to know you can trust the person you are interceding to.
This week we begin looking at Intercession. God has given us the authority through Jesus to change circumstances and the works of the devil through intercession. This type of prayer can be defined as love on it’s knees in prayers for others. It is pleading to the Father on behalf of the needs of someone else. Paul’s amazing prayers to Ephesus and Colossae are a powerful example of this. (Ephesians 3:14-20; Colossians 1:9-17.
I’ve entitled this the Platform for Prayer. The reason is this… all of our prayer lives are born out of need and imperfection! This week we begin a journey on prayer. The scripture reminds us... to pray in everything [in every difficulty of every kind!] You pray in everything because you have a promise for everything. God will give you everything you need. Under, in and over all our answers to prayer, Jesus gives us what we need most — Himself. This is the ultimate secret of contentment in every situation — the all-surpassing treasure is Christ Himself.
This morning Dave continued to explore what it means to “follow” Jesus in all of life. Together we explored that the Christian life is not a one-off moment or prayer, but a journey in which Jesus is inviting us to become more and more like Him in each area of life.
On our second week in our new series “Following Jesus in ALL of life”, we highlight the little word ALL. We will unpack five responses to being a true disciple of Jesus by a fresh understanding of the verse in Proverbs which says, “The fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of wisdom”. It is just the beginning… now you must work it out.
This morning Phil introduces our new theme, focussed around our definition of discipleship “following Jesus in all of life”. Let’s look at two things today, the Person and the Path. Being a disciple of Jesus, is more than learning about Him; it includes following Him where He goes. I think one of the massive issues of the 21st century church is they talk more than they do! Today we will study three would-be followers, who meet Jesus in Luke chapter 9. And Jesus says to each of them something very hard and very powerful.