Grace Church Sunday Teaching

The Halal Psalms were sung by Jewish people at Passover and are likely to be what Jesus sang at the Last Supper, before his arrest and crucifixion. We look at what they teach us about God’s character and how Jesus acted in difficult times.

God is exclusively worthy of our worship in every moment and in every place. He is matchless in his might and his mercy. We want to be a people who worship God faithfully and passionately from our hearts.

What does God really want from us? As we look at God’s heart for the vulnerable, we ask who God is calling each of us to notice, love and serve in Havant, and why it starts with what Jesus has done for us, not what we do for him.

In Luke 4, we read that in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read Isaiah’s prophecy from chapter 61: “to bring good news to the poor”. We see why this is so and as Christ’s ambassadors we are to reach out to those in need in the same way as Christ did.

Every generation needs to hear what God has done. It is both the privilege and the responsibility of God’s people – Christian parents and the Church – to teach, demonstrate and encourage the next generation to know who God is and what he has done for us.

God’s word says there is immense and particular power when children praise his name. He calls his people to tell the next generation about him and all he has done. We want to stir our whole church to help the next generation to live gospel-centred lives.

The call to take the gospel to other nations is not a small part God’s plan. Jesus describes his church as ‘a house of prayer for all nations’. At Grace Church, we feel God has put on our heart to make taking the gospel over the seas one of our priorities.

Jesus tells us we are to pray, go, take up our authority in Him and take courage in the power of the Holy Spirit. However, Jesus needs to be our treasure to fulfil the call on our lives.

Jesus once told a story about a man who crossed the road to help someone. Taking the gospel and sharing the love of Jesus to the people right outside our door is one of the priorities God has put on our heart at Grace Church.

The call to take the gospel to other nations is not a small part God’s plan. Jesus describes his church as ‘a house of prayer for all nations’. At Grace Church, we feel God has put on our heart to make taking the gospel over the seas one of our priorities.

God is faithful and sovereign over our lives, both those outside of our control and those within it, even those mistakes that we all make. There is a bigger picture which is far better than we can imagine. All leads to Jesus, the perfect redeemer.

God is faithful and sovereign over our lives, both those outside of our control and those within it, even those mistakes that we all make. There is a bigger picture which is far better than we can imagine. All leads to Jesus, the Great Redeemer.

There are moments when doing the right thing looks like it will cost us the very thing we want most. Boaz had a shortcut in his hands and refused to take it knowing God’s way is always better, the same is true for us today.

When life empties us out, it can feel as though God himself is against us. Naomi came home to Bethlehem certain of it. But God was working in the silence through the circumstances in Naomi’s life to bring her (and us) future hope and redemption.

God is a redemptive God. He is able to redeem us back, no matter how far we may seem to have gone. God brought Naomi and Ruth back at the perfect time to redeem into His will, and ultimately align into the genealogy of His son, Jesus Christ.

The beginning of the book of Ruth reminds us not to rely on our own perceptions and lose sight of the goodness of God. We need to trust God’s promises and remind ourselves that God is always at work even when we can’t see it.

Jonah stubbornly holds on to his judgmental attitude towards the Ninevites even though God has shown them compassion. Is there a lesson in this for me?

When God shows grace to the Ninevites, Jonah is furious. But God uses a plant and a worm to teach Jonah that he is the God who loves to be gracious – to everyone.

In Jonah, many things are described as big or great. Great emotions, great cities, great wickedness, great fish, great storms. We find that despite these ‘great’ things, our God is far greater than them all and abounding in love, mercy and compassion.

Jonah was given a second chance to deliver God’s message, just as we are given many chances to change. God freely gives us the Holy Spirit who helps us. God requires us to be obedient and not take his mercy for granted. His mercies are new every day!

We all have moments when we feel far from God and Jonah discovered that running from God’s call on his life didn’t work. Facing death in a storm sent by God, God reminds him that grace is always there when we reach the bottom.

Jonah experiences the mercy of God from inside a fish but has he learnt anything or is there a good reason why he struggles? Discovering how mercy triumphs over judgement can change our story.

What kind of God do we meet in the opening chapter of Jonah? Discover a God whose mercy refuses to stay inside the borders we draw—a mercy that reaches His enemies, pursues the runaway, and ultimately reaches us through Jesus.

Ever feel like God’s commands are just one more burden to carry? We look at what it means when John says Jesus commands aren’t burdensome, and how faith enables obedience to bring us joy.

Paul encourages us to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices, our lives are to be an act of worship as servants of Christ. The passage amplifies what this means, explaining how God has given us all gifts that are to be used to serve God and one another.