Grace Community Church NI

For the people who are watching my life, what is the reputation of God? The Greek for ​“glory” is δόξα (doxa), which means ​“good opinion”. If we want to give the right opinion, in seeing the life of Jesus, we give him glory by laying our lives down.

Four stories where faith and expectations are rewarded. The paralysed man, as told in Luke 5, who was lowered from the roof. His friends hoped Jesus would be able to change his situation. The woman, who was described in Luke 8 as being subject to bleeding for twelve years. Having been through so much suffering, shame and low self-worth, she just wanted to get close to Jesus. In Mark 10, blind Bart...

In this advent season, we learn that Jesus is Light, but in Matthew 5, Jesus says to his people: you are light. Is this a different light? No. We are conduits of the same light.

Transformation means renewing and restoring. It also means giving away that renewal and restoration to other people. What does transformation look like? How does it happen?

We cannot be the ​“salt of the earth” if we separate ourselves from the decay. In warm climates, salt did much more than flavour the food. It was a natural preservative. This raises the question as Jesus uses it to describe his Kingdom: did Jesus come to preserve traditions or morals, or is it something else? Salt needs to be connected with the thing it’s preserving. Could it be that we are to get...

Sometimes we can claim we’re being persecuted, when I’m reality it’s not persecution at all. Following Jesus puts love at the centre of everything we do. When we love as Jesus does, and refuse to take a "side", we are risking being hated by both sides. The love of Jesus includes. There is no ​“them”.

The way of peacemaking is incredibly costly. The Hebrew word shalom (שָׁלוֹם) is so much more than what we understand it to be. We can reduce it to an internal state of wellbeing, or lack of conflict. Rather it’s a state of wholeness. Not just in an individual level. Humanity has consistently shown a strange obsession with violence. Jesus, however, shows us the way of ​“peace”. He’s constantly rev...

Purity is not about what we do. It’s not about the external. It’s also not without doing something about what you’re thinking and praying. We need to reconcile our inside with our outside. When our actions and our thinking are different we have a divided heart.

Are we too focused on judgement and being right, that we’ve forgotten how to be merciful? James 2:13 says people who judge without mercy, will be shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement. We are in no position to ever look down on someone else.

Things are not ok. Families are separated, the poor are continuing to be oppressed, and the earth is groaning. But Jesus says ​“blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”. This can also mean ​“justice”. The Kingdom is a mix between the ​“already” and the ​“not yet”. In this instance, the ​“not yet” is the fact that things are not as they should be. But, the promise is that those wh...

For us to understand this Beatitude, it's important to understand who Jesus is referring to. Meekness isn't something that should be pursued. It's meekness that happens to a person. The "meek" Matthew refers to are the Others. The oppressed, the marginalised, the people born into the "wrong" families. But, for these people, Jesus has good news. For those of us who are privileged, this is a confron...

In our fast-moving society, it’s possible we have lost the art of grief and lamenting. Maybe it’s even seen as a lack of faith. In Isaiah 61, the people mourn because they’ve been exiled from all that they’ve known and loved. Jesus echoes the words of Isaiah — that there is comfort for those who mourn.

In Luke 18, Jesus tells the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, which challenges the self-righteous. And as we look at the first of the Beatitudes, we are challenged that "our brokenness is not something to hide, it's the price of admission". If you're broken, you belong!

It's our first Sunday back together physically since lockdown began. We're beginning this season with a series on the famous passage from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5: the "Beatitudes".

Episode 5. Over the next few weeks we will be checking in with some of our church family, and asking what the Lord has taught them during the COVID-19 lockdown period: what habits they've gotten rid of, and what habits they've picked up. This week, it's technology wizard, Andrew.

Episode 4. Over the next few weeks we will be checking in with some of our church family, and asking what the Lord has taught them during the COVID-19 lockdown period: what habits they've gotten rid of, and what habits they've picked up. This week, it's singer and mum, Nicola McBride

Episode 3. Over the next few weeks we will be checking in with some of our church family, and asking what the Lord has taught them during the COVID-19 lockdown period: what habits they've gotten rid of, and what habits they've picked up. This week, it's the turn of the multi-talented Chaviels – Jenna and Puma.

Episode 2. Over the next few weeks we will be checking in with some of our church family, and asking what the Lord has taught them during the COVID-19 lockdown period: what habits they've gotten rid of, and what habits they've picked up. This week, it's "coffee scientist" Jesse Lampe

Over the next few weeks we will be checking in with some of our church family, and asking what the Lord has taught them during the COVID-19 lockdown period: what habits they've gotten rid of, and what habits they've picked up. This week, it's "international traveller" Nigel Burrows.

Over the last few weeks, we've been challenged by how we love people who are not like us. In this, we're exploring the risks it takes to head outside of what we're used to, but also the fruit that doing this produces.

We're continuing to be challenged by the Book of Acts. Paul was willing to risk his life to fight for the "other side". He, along with Barnabas argued passionately with the religious leaders that it was not necessary that their demands were met for people to enter the Kingdom of God.

What happens when we are willing to cross over to the ​‘other side’? We return to the Book of Acts this week. Following an encounter with an angel, Peter sets out to bring the gospel to the Gentiles – the ​“Others”.

Jesus through the story of the Good Samaritan shows how all can be part of the Kingdom. What does he teach us about loving our neighbour well?

Acts 8 recounts the story of the Ethiopian treasurer. God chased after him as he walked away from Jerusalem, and the Spirit sent Philip to meet him. What did God see in someone who was seen by many as a "lesser" man?

In this season it can be easy to become overwhelmed with what we have around us or are facing on a daily basis, but the kingdom of God is one of "opposites", less is more, lower is higher and simple is significant. In this talk we look at how God wants us to start where we are with what we have, it’s not about what it is now but what it becomes. It’s time to go on a journey with God.