Coach House Talks and Beacons

Today we are starting a new series, which will run for the next 8 or so weeks. Over this time we are going to be looking at the Gospel of John and in particular the seven miracles that John writes about. With our Pastor Andy away it is going to fall to myself and Jamie to cover most of these. This week I am going to do an introduction with a broad overall picture of the Gospel so that over the nex...

When the pastor asks you to preach on your aspirations for the coming year, its a bit strange what you actually come up with. You see, what my aspirations are for this year , might not be what your aspirations are for this year. You see we all sit in a different space, we live different lives but hopefully we are all striving towards the same goal.

As we read Paul’s prayer of thanks to God for the grace He has poured out on the believers in Ephesus, the unity and faith of both Jew and Gentile - brought together in one entity - church - we can give thanks for the same grace and power at work here today

As we look at the letter to the Ephesian church together, we will see the impact that living as ‘saved people’ must have on our families, our work situations and our communities that we engage with. Armed with this knowledge and empowered by the Holy Spirit, I want us set our focus and attention on our transformed nature and be intentional about making a difference this year. Let us be fully commi...

We have encountered through our journey through scripture that there were many examples that looked like the promise, but were only pointers to the actual event. I think of Moses, Abraham, Joseph, Joshua, King David and Hezekiah - all ‘types’ of rescuers and saviours to Israel. Israel and the world still wait for the realisation of the promise when Jesus comes in power and majesty to bring us into...

What about us today? - well we still wait. We celebrate the birth of Jesus – born for all mankind and the fulfilment of the promise of Messiah and yet we wait for the return of Jesus in all His glory. We wait and our faith is proved as we do so.

Perfect and fully human but also fully divine! Jesus came with a specific and designated purpose. He gave up the privileges of His divinity as we are reminded in Philippians

Judgement. The final frontier. These are the last acts of our gracious creator His entire mission To restore and remake anew this worldto Give eternal life to all humankind To boldly bring us where (questionably!) only two have gone before! (for a short while at least)

Isn’t it strange how your memory can take you back to a time, place or experience which you had totally forgotten? I remember that at my parents house they had this small, unassuming bathroom cabinet. And one day when I opened it as a child, memories flooded back of our holidays in Cornwall, because it smelt exactly the same as the caravan!

Today, we’ll be continuing the theme of God’s judgement, specifically on the topic of justice, without Christ. Justice is a word that means a lot to human society. In your dayto-day life, the context of justice usually falls under phrases related to the government’s laws or the administration of your rights.

We wait in full confidence and hope of the realisation of the promise. And whilst we do, we remind ourselves of gods character, who He is and how He manifests His love towards us. Peter draws his readers to this point, that God is not constrained by our notion of time and He acts out of who He is...

The man knew what he had done and he knew what the consequences were. An unbridgeable gap had opened up, he now had a finite life, after which he would for ever be on the wrong side of that gap for ever. I think if I had been in that situation I would have been utterly without hope.

As we have looked at Judgement over the last few weeks, I think we can accept that the conclusion of our studies, is the reality that man cannot bridge the chasm that exists between the purity and holiness of God and the sinful state that mankind finds itself in.

I want us to be careful about how much we interpret through our own cultural lens and make sure that we are not making the Bible say things it was never meant to say. A good adage is, if it can’t be understood to apply to the culture of the people of the Bible, it probably can’t apply to us today … the leap is just too far and leads to a misplaced understanding of scripture and a misappropriation...

So, our passage has Jesus telling a story to demonstrate the chasm between the righteous and the unrighteous, which in this case Jesus illustrated by the following of the law pertaining to the treatment of the poor. So, what is a chasm? A deep rift. A massive difference of opinion.

When we consider the word Judgement, we naturally associate it with a punishment for a crime and if we consider the Biblical ideas we might have, it will naturally lead us to visions of being cast out of Gods presence, a punishment of gnashing teeth and the smell of pungent sulphur - which is pretty scary? right?

Sometimes our attitude as believers drives souls further away from Him. You can make the difference right now by how you treat / serve / love people….….. but on the glorious Jesus side of this….. we also definitely hold the key to others seeing Jesus. How we love them, speak to them, serve them is such a great opportunity to show Jesus to a world where they don’t even know who they are, don’t have...

It is the reason that we can rise above situations, battle all circumstances, endure pain and grief and yet still retain: Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control ........... and ah yes..... JOY. The fruit that the scripture tells us is produced by the Holy Spirit in us - not by us!

Gratitude deepens worship and opens the door to responding to trials in life with true joy. As we grow to understand more of God’s character and as we continue to examine ourselves, our human weaknesses become ever more apparent as we grow in our personal knowledge of Christ and what He has done.

We are here to live out God’s purposes, whatever they look like in our lives. We need to know God through the bible, through prayer and through talking with our Christian brothers and sisters to work out what God’s purposes look like in our lives and to be able to keep focusing our eyes on what is ahead. Our purpose is not our happiness and let’s not take the bible out of context to say so because...

"Thank God for Jesus, who embodies God’s love and determination to rescue us. We are a blessed people. It is precisely because God knows us intimately that He makes the move towards us in order for us to have our relationship made complete. Friends and no longer enemies."

"Don’t allow the culture of this day and age to cause you to misinterpret Scripture. Let Jesus speak to you directly from His word and let his breath change you to be more like Him as the day of His return approaches. Will you have the courage to be culturally changed?

A while ago I mentioned that there was a common phrase used by Jesus in almost all his supernatural encounters with people. Whether it be walking on the water, appearing after His resurrection, or simply to refocus attention Jesus often says ‘Do not fear’

If we’re honest, we don’t just want to know what God says to people, we want to know what he says to us. We don’t just want to know some generic god up in the sky, but God revealed in Jesus Christ. We don’t just want to know what God was saying to the Corinthians, but what God is saying to us, today, through his word.

Today of all days we rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection - but the results and consequences of this amazing act of grace and power are for ever and always to those who cry out for rescue and salvation. Happy Easter and God bless you all.