Kingsland Colchester

#WisdomAndCourage

“I wanna pray for us this morning for for wisdom and bravery. Because many of us have got things that we're really not happy about. And we need wisdom to recognize when evil is triumphing, bravery to act, and wisdom to know how to, when to pick up a pen, when to pick up a placard, when to add your name to a petition, when to keep silent, when to march, When to protest and who to protest to? When to keep your head down? When to quietly disobey? When to try and influence? When to be publicly defiant, when to stay part of the system, and when to stand apart from the system.”

#PraiseThroughThePain

“Now, you know, even as we did that this morning, this this is something that I I struggled to do, but I I learned to say something as simple as, god, I trust you. I don't understand this, but I trust you. And putting that on my lips itself broke something, broke the power of suffering on me. So choosing to praise God shifts our perspective on what suffering is doing to us. Therefore, choosing to praise is necessary.”

#TrueRepentance

“Repentance is more than feeling bad about what you've done. It's allowing God to change the direction of our lives. It means saying to Jesus, I do not want to keep on living like this. Show me what needs to change in me. And, folks, sometimes the change begins with three simple words. I was wrong. was wrong. Can you imagine what could happen in our families, our workplace, even here in our church if we became people that are willing to say that? Imagine how much unnecessary mess could be addressed if we listened more carefully, apologized more quickly, forgave more freely, took responsibility for our own behavior.”

#ChooseBetter

“There's this image as we read this story of Adam and Eve reaching for that. And so many of us, I'm sure, can relate, can't we? When we're feeling a bit overwhelmed, when we're feeling that life's going the wrong way and we reach for the thing we shouldn't have reached for. My friends, if you find yourself this morning in a mess, God didn't lead you there, but God can lead you out of it. But, my friends, don't don't do the things that got you into the mess thinking they're gonna get you out.”

#ForgiveLikeJesus

“Maybe we can extend that to our enemies as we refuse to respond in hostility or hatred or revenge. Maybe we can reflect and be that fifth gospel as we choose to to forgive freely, demonstrating the forgiveness that God has given to us. Maybe we can witness something from Jesus and be the fifth gospel as we serve without seeking recognition. Maybe we can be the fifth gospel as we welcome the outsiders, those that are often overlooked or different from us or on the margins.”

#DiscipleshipInAction

“Discipleship is not about knowing more. Okay? It's about becoming more like Jesus. Yeah? We can know lots of bible verses and still struggle to love people. We can tend lots of beatings and still avoid serving. We can listen to every sermon on a Sunday and still not change. Discipleship isn't simply information going into our heads. It's Jesus changing our hearts.”

#DesperateFaith

“This is not a faith for people who've got it all together. This is a faith. This is a Jesus for people like these poor women who are at the end of themselves. They've got nothing else. They've got nowhere to turn. They've run out of good ideas and motivation and waking up at 05:30 in order to try. No. This is for the those of us who just feel we've got no answers. We've got nowhere else, and we're gonna bet it all on this rabbi. We're gonna bet it all on this man, Jesus. We're gonna push through the crowd no matter how difficult it is. We're gonna cling to his cloak because that's all we have got left.”

#LoveAnyway

“And hard, hard, hard though that is, we have to get ourselves in a place where we can love them anyway. We can bless them anyway. We can pray for them anyway. Because that is the commitment we've made. We have said we will protect the unity of our church. That means we cannot have a view about someone else that is different to the view that Jesus has of them.”

#WorshipIsAction

“So perhaps we need to broaden our understanding of worship. Worship, yes, is singing, but worship is also serving. Worship is that we lift our hands, but worship is also laying our hands to help somebody. Worship is giving financially, but worship is also giving our time. Worship is come to church, but also living for Jesus when we leave church. Worship doesn't happen on this platform. Worship happens when we walk out those doors and live for Jesus.”

#PrayerForShalom

“Jesus never promised an easy life. He promised a fulfilling one. Jesus suffered many trials and tribulation, and if we desire to live like he did, we will also face the same. So Jesus prayed. He remained he prayed to remain close to his father so he could fulfill his father's will, so he could receive a help from heaven. He could receive strength, so he could pull the kingdom of Shalom, the kingdom of peace closer to earth.”

#PrayerAlwaysOn

“I've got it wrong because prayer is not an event. Prayer is the presence with you twenty four seven. Prayer is him with you in all of those bits that you struggle with in your workplace. Prayer is that relationship that is frustrating or difficult. Prayer is your home life when it's noisy and you just need some peace. You can so easily just say, Jesus, here I am, Lord.”

#BuildOnTheRock

“``And Jesus makes this amazing claim if you build your life on these words of mine, you'll stand in the storm. If you hear them and put them into practice, it you will stand in the storm. It would be ridiculous to say that and to think that if so many people hadn't tried it and found that it worked. People like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived by this stuff. It's crazy to think that if you wholeheartedly wholeheartedly follow one teacher, that your life won't fall apart when the storms come. But that's what Jesus claimed. And the foundation is hearing and putting into practice what Jesus said.”

#PraiseToTheThrone

“Praise awakens the spirit man within us that came alive in Christ. It helps us realize that there is a realm that sits above this physical realm that we see, this physical realm that is that is limited. It makes us understand that we belong to that eternal reality, that we belong to that throne that stands eternal. So when we praise, the Bible says that we enter into the courts of the king with praise. We enter into that before that eternal throne, the throne that stands everlasting to everlasting, that has existed before any kingdom, any power, anything. All that is of time, beginning and end, it stands before him. He sets things in place.”

#LeadByExample

“And Jesus knew exactly that. He knew that that actually just telling us to serve wasn't enough. And so he led by example. He took the disciples' feet and he washed it because he recognizes that actually words can only go so far. Sometimes what I say can only reach my children or my household to a certain extent, but what I do, they remember. Jesus didn't merely teach service. He modeled it. People in my household may not always remember my words, but they more often remember the example that I gave.”

#EmpoweredByGrace

“Thank you, Jesus. That we don't change ourselves. We change because you empower us. Thank you that we don't obey in our own strength. We obey because your love compels us. Thank you. That we're not transformed because we are determined. We are transformed because you are able. Help us to respond to you when you challenge us to change. As individuals and as a family of your chosen and greatly loved people. We worship you Lord. Have your way among us. In Jesus name. Amen.”

#KingdomNotBuildings

“``Downstairs is super important. The walls of Jerusalem are really important, but we mustn't get lost in the building work. We must remember, it's about the kingdom. It's about expanding his kingdom through us, in us, and around us. It's about transformation of hearts in this church, in our in and in the wider community about what God wants to do. The restoration of Jerusalem was not just about the rebuilding of a city. It wasn't just about rebuilding the walls. It's about restoring the people who belong to God. And for the church, the downstairs project is important, but God's ultimate concern is about the renewing and restoring of the people and the community in Colchester and beyond.”

#BuildWithHeart

“``Now I put it to you. Don't measure the size of the wall. Measure the size of the hearts of the people building it. Don't measure don't measure your results. Measure your resilience. Don't obsess over the gaps. Obsess obsess over a plan to fix the gaps. Don't measure the short term. Measure the strategy. Don't measure your failings, instead measure your faith. Because Nehemiah was a call to us to do two things, to throw ourselves into the arms of a God who is above it all, who has called us to do things and say, God, I cannot do this without you.”

#GodFirstAlways

“Notice that Nehemiah doesn't start with a problem, doesn't he? He starts with god. When our world or our our situation around us feels broken, our natural instinct is to scream out about the magnitude of the issue. Nehemiah reminds us to focus on the magnitude of who God is. He is an awesome God, he says.”

#GraceOverDisappointment

“What equips the dad to overcome? To overcome pain of his disappointment is love, acceptance, grace. Do you know that forgiveness isn't fair? Forgiveness is giving somebody a gift that they don't deserve. That forgiveness is choosing to let go of something that holds us and doesn't hold the other person. Forgiveness isn't fair, and that's exactly what the father has for us.”

#HumbleToReceive

“``Moses shows us that the power of the Holy Spirit can be at work when we're in the most vulnerable of positions because in that place, we have handed all of the stuff that we're concerned about over to the Lord. We have recognized that he is God and we are not. And so he has to move. When we've got to the place where we're at the end of ourselves, there is nothing more we can give. There is nothing more we can offer. We do not have the answers. We do not have the mental, physical, spiritual capacity to keep going. We get face down and the answer comes.”

#SpiritAsUltimateTeacher

“And I felt I felt I I still really feel this now. I felt very strongly at the time that he wasn't talking to me at all. He was talking to god. You know, god's spirit there in that moment in Watford General Hospital, still capable of shining light into a person's life at the very end, still capable of shining light onto the reality of who God is. And the holy spirit, if you think about it, we've talked about theologians, haven't we, in us being theologians, but really the ultimate theologian is the holy spirit himself shedding light on who god is, helping us understand him, and helping us understand who we are too. That's it. That's it. Amen.”

#GodWorksForGood

“What's dark and chaotic and formless and empty in your life? What do you need the holy spirit today to come and to to create and to separate and to fill and to make it beautiful? Paul says next slide, please. Paul says, says, as we know, we know in all things in Romans eight verse 28. We know that in all things, God works for the good for those who love him and those who've been called according to his purposes. God is working for your goods.”

#HolySpiritForYou

“My favorite bit of the whole passage. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them and came to rest on each of them. My friends, I don't know if you see how how absolutely transformative that sentence is. Because for thousands of years, God has moved. He's brought the fire on specific people at specific times to be specific jobs. And it's almost like God's thrown his hands up in the air and be like, fine. They can all have it. Because the holy spirit of fire is for you.”

#StrengthThroughSeasons

“And the thing is this this verse isn't about achieving dreams or avoiding difficulty. It's about having the strength through every season of your life because Jesus is with you. He is with you. Okay? There will be times, okay, when you are tired. Jesus will strengthen you. There will be times when you are discouraged. Jesus will lift you up. There will be times when you are unable to continue, but Jesus will give you the grace to find another day where we say yes to Jesus.”

#StartWithRest

“Find a practice that allows you to stop, to reclaim a little bit of Eden as an act of rebellion against the twenty four hour dopamine hit world that we live, to stop and to listen and sit at the feet of Jesus. My my experience is you do that first. Somehow, the rest of the day just goes so much better. If you're generous first, just find the rest of the month goes so much better. It's been by experience to stop, to rest, to be generous, carve out a habit. Because as you do that, you'll find it so much easier to play jazz.”

#UnderGodsAuthority

“Prayer is coming to realize that we are not in control. God is. Every time we pray, we're saying, God, we come under your authority. You alone have authority over our lives. You alone have the final say over us. God is the one we come under authority. Now as we come under his authority, he then makes us and allows us to flow in his authority. Isn't that powerful?”

#ConfrontingChurchComplicity

“Bonhoeffer took his friend in a boat, and they sailed across the Oder Sound to an airfield where Hitler was training his troops. Fighter planes were taking off and landing on the runways of a nearby squadron, and soldiers marched about following orders. And they walked up onto a hill nearby, and Bonhoeffer gave a speech to his friend about the complicity of Protestants and Catholics to the Third Reich, explaining how the church had been compromised by it. He talked about the discipline that the Third Reich used to form people, and pointing to the seminary, said that this must be stronger than that, pointing to the airfield.”

#BeTheLightNow

“I'm sending you. I I'm sending you to be the difference. You bring the light. Yes. It can be dark, but you are the light of the world. Yeah. Yes. It can be evil, but but you have a message that will transform it. It can be hateful, but you have a message of unconditional love from the father. Yes. Yes. It can be broken and dangerous and dysfunctional, but you can bring reconciliation. You are peacemakers. I'm sending you. Don't be afraid. I'm sending you I'm sending you in the same way that I came.”

#SayYesToJesus

“The tiny detail in this is that the only thing Jesus needs for you to receive mercy, for you to become a new creation, for you to be elevated and given your purpose, the only thing Jesus needs is your yes. That's it. It's a tiny word. Yes. But the minute we say it, Jesus can go to work. Jesus can go to work. I love this passage. I love what it says to us. I love the invitation at the end of it. Jesus, the risen savior, the one who could do it all on his own without our help, says to us, will you will you be my witnesses?”

#YouCanMakeItInChrist

“So I wanna bless you before we go home, church, by saying to you this morning, I like what Arion said about the thief on the cross. He made it. He made it, church. The reason why he made it was because the man in the middle cross said he could come. Church, you can make it this morning. If you don't know Jesus this morning, okay, he has made a way for you to come and see him and to meet him this morning. You can make it”

#ReverseSacrifice

“Somehow, on the cross, the sacrificial system is turned upside down. Somehow on the cross, the sacrificial system is flipped on the head. Because we've seen throughout scriptures that it's about humanity offering sacrifices to God in order to appease God, in order to please God. But somehow on the cross, we see that God becomes a sacrifice. It's flipped upside down. There's a reverse sacrifice happening.”

#InviteJesusToday

“I know I'm a Christian and I've I've raised with Jesus because what he did for me on the cross, his resurrection. I know because he poured out his love into my heart that has transformed me. And I know because the promises that he never leaves me, and his points are yes and amen. Do you have a relationship with Jesus? Are you sure? If not, open that door because he will come in and transform you and love you and guide you, and it will be the best decision that you've ever made.”

#HumansNotEnemies

“If it's got flesh and if it's got blood, it's not the enemy. I'll just play that again. If it has flesh, if it has blood, it's not the enemy. If it's human, it's not our enemy. The enemy, Paul says, against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms.”

#GuardTheFaith

“Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from the godless chatter and the opposing ideas what is falsely called knowledge. Church, folks, enemy will always use words to get you to listen to him, to rob you of your faith. He wants to use words to fight for your affections, put doubts in your mind of your purpose and our destiny. One of the questions, okay, that the devil said in the in the bible was, did God really say that?”

#JesusYesterdayTodayForever

“I'd like us to look today at a short story from the New Testament. So one of the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John stories about an encounter with Jesus that a man has. It's a really, really short story. It's just four verses long, but when we look at this story, we get a glimpse of who Jesus is, the way that he operates, and and the difference that he's made in our lives today. Because the bible says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So everything he did then is what he's doing now and what he's doing today.”

#QuickConfession

“But you know what he did do that's important? Was he held a really short account with God. And what I mean by that is if he had a wrong thought, he quickly acknowledged it to God. He asked for forgiveness and then that was it. It was done with. It was dealt with. He didn't need to brood on it because he knew and he understood the gospel which is that God already loved him and had forgiven him.”

#GetOutOfTheBoat

“And he says, come and follow me. Come and I'm I'm choosing you. I believe in you. I can see the potential. So come, my friends, and follow me. Because if even if no one else believes in you, then I I do. This is the message of Jesus. This is the message of our rabbi that finds you where you are. Says, come and follow me. And the only question to you is the same question to them. Are you gonna get out of the boat?”

#HeartForJustice

“``Pay attention to my heart for justice, and see how I'm inviting you to join me in establishing justice wherever you have influence.”

#GodOwnsItAll

“``And depending on how you read it, it's easy to kind of think that we just kind of chop off that little bit from whatever we earn, and we give that away, and that's it. The rest is ours to do what we want with. But if all we have belongs to God, then a 100% of it is his, and we're to steward it well. So it's not all about giving. It's about how like, it's kind of the wrong question. It's about how much do I keep? How much do I give? How much do I save? How much do I spend? How do I even do that? How do I make those decisions?”

#DeceitOfWealth

“``The word that came to me in this passage here was the deceitfulness of wealth. You see, wealth promises things that it simply can't deliver on. Money is good, but wealth promises things that it simply cannot hold onto. It promises love and identity and security and peace and joy and happiness and value and self worth. But it's deceitful as Jesus said because we know that these things can only be found in god.”

#GodOfAbundance

“``This is a God who overflows with creativity. This is a God who gives, and gives, and gives again. This is a God who does not lack, but he loves you with an everlasting love. This is a God who lavishes upon you mercy and hope and goodness and righteousness. This is a generous God who leads you, who calls you to live an abundant life. Because when we have a generous God, when we have an abundant God, we can have an abundance mindset. We can have confidence that there is enough. And when we believe that, our hands and our wallets can follow suit.”

#PrayToTheThrone

“``it just made me think where I go in my prayer. I often ring Lorraine up and say, darling, we need to pray about this. And bless her, she'll always go and pray. But I just felt the Lord say to me, Ian, come straight to me. Don't go to the phone. Go to the throne. Yeah? So I now I go straight to the throne and say, Jesus, here I am. You know, I know you're the truth and the way. This is what I wanna speak to you about. Yeah?”

#SeeGodInTheUnexpected

“``I find God easy to see in nature I find God easy to experience in the beautiful music that weve experienced this morning or last night I find it easy to find But when God turns up in our lives as an unmarried pregnant girl do I see God in that How often do I say theres no room here They missed it Too full Maybe Im too full Maybe Im too comfortable Maybe my diarys too full”

#WalkWithTheHurting

“This is about some of us who are walking with someone who is hurt having a view about that and deciding under God that we're going to help them move forward”

#GodGetsOurAttention

“You know, getting our attention is more important to God than us feeling good, than us being happy, than us being well. Sometimes God uses difficulties and bad news. God allows illness and trouble just to get our attention. For Moses, God just gave a firework display, which is much better, isn't it? I mean, that's the way to do it. Just pay attention. Next time God tries to... Anyway, God speaks to Moses from the bush and he says, first words to Moses, Moses, Moses. That's great, isn't it? God knows who you are. God knows your name.”

#PartneringWithGodInGrowth

“And we are there in the garden planted with God, and we partner with him in moving the world forward by getting to the edge of the garden, just like Adam and Eve digging up all the weeds, tilling the ground, nurturing it until we bring some sense of order to the chaos, bring some sense of life where it looks like there's death, and bring some grace where it seems like there is none.”

#ChoosePositiveFocus

“When you come across something that’s pure, when you come across something that’s right or true or noble, stay there. Stay there a while. Look at it. Consider it. Dwell on it for a bit. Spend a bit of time there. Taking it in. Thinking it through. Revelling in it. Do you get what I mean? So read it again. Look at it again. Marvel at it. Give thanks to God for it. Celebrate it. Tell someone about it. If it’s good, think about it. If it’s true, tell someone. If it’s pure, dwell on it. Do you get what I’m saying? Try not to rush away from it too quickly.”

#OwnYourTruth

“By articulating something, there's no going back. You have changed the relationship permanently, for good or for ill, and Jesus says, who do you say I am? Because he's inviting them to articulate a truth, to nail their colours to their mast and say, this is who I say you are. It forms a new reality. Maybe you need to do that. Maybe you need to speak some new truths. Maybe you need to form a new culture. Maybe you need to heal some old wounds. Maybe you need to forge a new identity. Maybe you need to start speaking some stuff into your life and into the lives of peoples around you.”

#GodsCharacterRevealed

“The character of God is revealed in our celebrations. It was his provision. It was his favor that surrounded me as a shield that enabled me to do that. It was his help that helped me to do that. We can join the psalmist when the psalmist says, I look to the mountains and where does my help come from? My help comes from him because of his character and his love to help us in our time of need. We can join David as he says, surely it was his goodness and his mercy that was following me all the days of my life. Our celebrations reflect something of the nature and the character of the God that we serve that's revealed in Christ Jesus.”

#UnityInDiversity

“Paul doesn't say learn to agree on everything. We're not going to. There's loads of you. And loads of you are probably wrong about loads of stuff. I'm joking, we're just disagreeing. I'm not saying you're actually wrong. I know. A student said to me, I'm a teacher by the way, a student came to me and was like, so is that a fact or is that opinion? And I was like, I tell you the facts if they tell you it's an opinion. But anyway, we're not going to agree on everything. We're not called to agree on everything. But Paul says, fix your eyes and our hearts on what binds us together rather than what separates us. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.”

#NoNeedToImpressGod

“You are a child of the living God. So you don't need to impress God. You don't need to impress him. So sometimes we feel we have to impress our parents, don't we? Sometimes we feel we have to impress other people, but we never need to impress our heavenly father.”

#NearToTheAltar

“``You don't have to look at anybody else and think that they are better than you. You don't have to want to be anyone else. You are you, purposefully made to be you. There are things that only you can bring to the kingdom, things that only you can bring to the world. No one else can do it the way you do it.”

#DirectAccessInChrist

“You have got the fullest access to enter into his presence and you can ask for what you need and he will supply that grace that you need every single time. You don't need no man of God to take you into the presence. In Christ Jesus, you have full access into his presence and that's good news.”

#KingdomNotOfThisWorld

“Jesus said in John 18, verse 36, chapter 18, verse 36, that his kingdom, okay, is not of this world. What he's saying is because his kingdom is not of this world, it doesn't originate from human systems, power or structure, earthly ambition. It's a heavenly authority run with righteousness, peace, and joy. That's the kingdom of Jesus.”

#RedeemableFatherRelationship

“When you pray, you can approach the Creator God as Daddy, as Abba, as Father. Some of us have had horrible experiences of Father, and that very word is difficult for us. And if that's true for you, you've been hurt twice. Once, by the person who should have been there for you, protected you, looked after you, cared for you, and loved you unconditionally. And once, because that Father was meant to show you a little bit about what the Father's love was like for you. If your Father failed in the first, he would have failed in the second. But it's not irredeemable. It's not irredeemable. It's not irredeemable. Everything is redeemable. And you can have a relationship with your heavenly father because you're not created in the likeness of your parents. You are created in the image of God. And you can call him father.”

#BlessingsThroughFaith

“So many of you, this is your story. That faith has been a good investment. It felt like it cost you a lot, but you got the field and you got the treasure. That following Jesus has bought you blessing upon blessing. It has been a good investment. Why? Because you got the field and you got the treasure.”

#CalmInTheStorm

“If you've ever experienced a furious squall in your life, maybe you're going through that now. But a furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. And Jesus was on the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Come on, Jesus. Jesus. The disciples woken up and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, be quiet, be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”

#SufferingRemainsWithoutGod

“``If, because of pain and suffering, you decide to write God out of your story, the thing that you don't write out of the story is the suffering that caused you to write God out of the story. The suffering stays. The pain stays, but grows into its role, becomes the main character, starts stealing all the scenes. You don't get rid of the suffering by writing out God because of your suffering.”

#IdentityShapesService

“So we start off successful and we continue to be successful because God says that his word will accomplish the reason that he sent it. Whether it's done in secret or not, you will accomplish it. It is about seeking first the kingdom of God, not actually about the reward, but knowing our identity in Jesus, that we are children of God and allowing that identity to shape our service.”