Family Church Waterlooville

Nehemiah 3 gives us clear understanding of the power of unity, of each person standing shoulder-to-shoulder to get the work done. Being God's fellow-workers there's a synergy which exists as we co-labour with Christ in establishing His kingdom on earth.

Looking at the end result of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and working our way back to when he heard about the condition of the Jews, we're able to draw out lessons learned from his repentant response. We are challenged in this message to humble ourselves, pray and seek the Lord for what we can do individually as a church, and then commit to doing it. The church is both visible and sp...

Being rooted and grounded in the love of God will establish us, strengthen us and sustain us through the seasons of life. Challenges which we experience can cause us to become entrenched, causing us to become stuck and unable to grow, whereas when we experience the great quality of love of God within our lives, our confidence and trust in God increases. 

Nehemiah sets the scene for what being a "yes" people looks like in terms of having a burden and passion for those around us. Jesus IS building His church and desires that each one of us co-labour with Him in meeting the needs of others. The need is our call to action - we are it! 

Every believer can and should experience both the Fruit and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with them developing and flowing in their lives to an increasing degree. As we walk in the Spirit, yield to the Spirit and pray in the Spirit, fruit is grown and manifests the nature of the Spirit. Gifts are given as the Spirit wills and manifest the power of God. We need both! 

At salvation the believer is sealed by the Person of the Holy Spirit becoming God's possession, and filled with the Holy Spirit becoming God's temple. Subsequent to salvation the baptism in the Holy Spirit empowers the Believer to benefit their own lives and the lives of others.  

The Holy Spirit's desire is to be mutually linked to us as Believers, and desires to be engaged in all areas of our lives as our Helper, our Guide, our Teacher and our Wisdom.

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead and as such, is both a person and God. Throughout Scripture we see Him present in Creation, throughout the Old Testament, in the life of Jesus in the Gospels and throughout the New Testament. His present day ministry continues as He lives inside believers, guiding them, helping them and influencing them for good.

Ps Andy speaks across all Family Church congregations about the next phase of our discipleship journey.  At the start of the year we concentrated on two sets of teachings. The first one was called Jesus is - Christology. We looked at the person of Jesus, who the Bible reveals Him to be in the Old and the New Testaments. Following this, we moved on to a second series called Soteriology, the do...

The love which God the Father has lavished on us, needs to overflow into the lives of the church as we love one another, serve one another and lay down our lives for one another. God has gifted each one of us individually, and as in the hands of Zerubbabel with a plumb line, there's something He's placed in our hands which we need to put to work in order to help establish God's kingdom amongst us.

Using different analogies and parables the principle of the seed is seen throughout the Bible. Rather than remaining as a seed, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is expected to grow and increase. As it is in the natural,  water and air are 2 ingredients necessary for germination of seeds, so it is in the spiritual. Water and Air are represented as the Word and the Holy Spirit, both necessa...

Biblical joy is a sense of inner delight which is dependent on who Jesus is, rather than who we are or the situation we might find ourselves in. Joy is a choice and it strengthens us, giving us victory and hope and as such we can experience it even in the midst of trials.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to conform to the image of Jesus and bear much fruit. John 15 is the analogy of the vineyard where we find the 3 key ingredients to bear fruit: Abide in Jesus, abide in His Word, and abide in His love.

Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's character, and, as followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit produces God's character in us. We can allow God's peace, which is neither temporary nor dependent on external circumstances, to be expressed 3 ways in our lives: through wholeness, security and completeness.

 The Fruit of the Holy Spirit is love displayed in our lives in different expressions, and is the visible expression of the invisible work that God does in our lives as we willingly yield to Him. 

Our personal testimonies are eternal, powerful, and bring glory to Jesus, and during Celebration Sunday we heard wonderful testimonies of what God has been doing in 3 people's lives over the last year.

Understanding as King David did, the relationship between the Shepherd and His sheep, we learn 3 important lessons from Psalm 23 about trusting God in all the seasons of our lives: trust is personal, trust is a process and trust is possible.

Looking at a number of examples throughout the Bible, we learn about the importance of reframing our hearts and our days by making daily declarations over our lives in line with God's Word

Drawing a comparison between Zerubbabel rebuilding the temple (Zech 4:6) and our lives, we are encouraged to not lose heart when we experience delays. We are to remember that God has not forgotten us and is always working behind the scenes of our lives. God has equipped us with the right tools and will empower us to take the next steps to get the job done. 

Having received God's great salvation, we enter into the start of a life-transforming journey with God as He begins the work of restoring our lives, building them up one brick at a time into the image and likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Through Adoption we are children of God, united with the family of God by the Spirit of God with the purpose of being conformed to the Son of God, as mature sons by abiding in Him and walking in His ways. 

Continuing along the theme of Adoption, we look at the journey of fellowship into the family of God which starts with being joined together, Jesus Himself being the Chief Cornerstone. We, the family of God are held together by the love of the Father, are established in the Word and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

In this final message on Soteriology, we learn about the first of 3 aspects of Sonship: being children of God. As new creatures in Christ we are adopted by Father God as His children, and, as those dearly loved children, we are to abide in Him and walk in His ways.

As new creatures in Christ we are discovering everything that Jesus has already done for us, through His death, burial and resurrection. We were in Christ at His death and burial, and we were also in Him when He was raised from the dead. Our old man is dead and our new man has been infused with the very nature of God.

At salvation we are instantly sanctified / set apart / made holy. We are set free from: the penalty of sin, which deals with our past, the presence of sin which is a promise for the future, and the power of sin for the present.