NCF Sunday Talks

Guy, the regional representative of the Leprosy Mission, came and spoke about the work of the Mission, with particular regard to a hospital in India, where 600 people queue up each day in humid conditions to get a diagnosis and then help. God cares for me. God is living and active in us and around us. We’re strengthened by the Living Water. Both Hagar and the Samaritan woman had encounters with Go...

God's manifesto for all of mankind was that we should know freedom from sin and death. He came to earth to accomplish this. He has stated that the manifesto that we should adhere to, is to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). As we do these things we'll be showing the same freedom to others, that God has shown to us. Let's regularly set out to intentionally d...

In our last Talk in this Series, we think about what Jesus said about the persistent widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). She didn't just want him to act on her behalf - she absolutely needed him to. God has intervened in humanity through Jesus's death on the cross. His intervention didn't just end there. As we pray, He will intervene in our lives and in national and internatio...

Jesus tells a Parable to His Disciples about an unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35. His debt, that was totally impossible to pay, was cleared by his master. However, he didn't show kindness to a fellow servant who owed him considerably less. Peter and the rest of the Disciples learned about forgiveness through this and so do we! God often gives unexpected answers in our conversations with...

We look at the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders (Matthew 7:24-27 and Luke 6:46-49) in this Talk. Will we choose to obey what God says as the foundation in our lives or will rebel, defy or disregard God and His commands? Just like practising to learn a piece of music on an instrument, so we need to practice our obedience towards God. Sometimes we'll get a setback as something unexpecte...

Considering what Jesus said in Mark 4:1-20, we are reminded that God plants seed in our lives. We need to personally cultivate the soil of our lives. God's Word won't return to Him void. Sit close to Jesus! You can read the script for the whole Service here .

We first hear a short statement about our good friend Margaret who had died on the Wednesday before this Service. This Talk is based on John 10:1-18. Jesus talked in ways that made people sit up and listen. He had authority, but His delivery was also different from the other teachers around Him. Sheep are clever and recognise many voices. A sheepfold is good for protection at night, but they need...

This Parable is told in all the Synoptic Gospels, at Matthew 9:16,16, Mark 2:21,22 and Luke 5:33-39. God has given us all an Invitation to come to Him. How do we make sure that our regular activities  and current ideas don't get in the way of what God wants to say to us and do with us? We can't pick and mix with a bit of God and a bit of us in our lives - it needs to be all of God! Once...

When Jesus spoke in Parables, He was helping us to remember what He was saying so that we could ultimately change as a result of what He was speaking about. The possibility of not understanding what Jesus was saying in His mini-stories in Luke 14:25-33 is small. He is telling us that we need to give everything we have and are to Him. How will we live sacrificially for Him? God might be calling you...

We have around fifty parables spoken by Jesus that are written in the Synoptic Gospels. He used familiar visible items in stories that told the truth of God's upside-down invisible world. The punchlines often necessitated change in the listeners. They still do! Are you ready for Jesus' Second Coming? Are you ready for the commands He gives you? Fixing our gaze on Jesus and wanting to be...

These two short Talks on Easter Day remind us of the immense actions that Jesus undertook on our behalf.  We needed a Saviour to make it possible to have a good relationship with God, as sin had tragically blocked that intimacy. Jesus is that Saviour! The cross is now empty. The tomb is now empty. However, how obedient are you being to God? Paul reminded the Church in Galatia that we also needed t...

On Palm Sunday we consider how Jesus wasn't the only person to enter Jerusalem that day. Thousands of pilgrims would have made the journey up to Jerusalem, as well as Pontius Pilate arriving with his large military entourage. Jesus had a choice as to whether to enter the city and continue His walk towards His death on the cross. It was a week of awful suffering for Him and yet because of us H...

At our biennial Partnership Sunday we think about the life of Joshua. He faced fresh challenges at different points in his life and through them actively sought to be obedient to God. Whether NCF is our long-term spiritual home or not, God is calling us to partner with Him in both our actions and our character. Let's make the decision to follow God, obey God and serve God and others. Let&apos...

We begin with ten people briefly describing why they chose a particular song for our special Songs of Praise Service. We then remember how God is our shelter and our strength (Psalm 46). Our lives reflect the truth that God has substance. He is not like a doting uncle who gives presents galore. God loves us, but wants all to grow and mature. We need to actively obey and follow Him! God's laws...

We need to read the Bible! It's good for us, as God inspired it to be written so that we might get to know Him. He encourages us, challenges us and leads us as we read it. The Bible straightens us and our lives out! The Script for the whole Service can be read here . (NB: After about seven minutes into the Talk John realised that he hadn't turned on his mic. Plenty of interaction had occ...

God calls us to live in unity with other people. What a blessing it is to do that! A brief summary of all the Psalms we have met in this Series is also given. You can read the script for the whole Service here .

We're all getting older! Physically, changes are going on in our bodies, but what about spiritually and emotionally? Are we maturing as Disciples of Jesus? Are we changing from being less childish to more childlike? Are we at rest with God? Often being content will lead on to being curious, but we need to be courageous in order to change. Is God causing you to be restless over something? That...

God doesn't measure things the same way that we do. For our sins we deserve eternal separation from God. Instead, He offers everyone reconcilation and restoration if we accept the fact that He paid the cost for our benefit. If God kept a record of our sins we would certainly not survive. We ought to be living our lives more riskier than others because of God's goodness to us. Let's...

The Psalmist praised God for the way that He had restored them. It was beyond belief what God had done for them! May we too dream big because of what God has done in our lives and in the livesof others. May the wowometer of our lives consistently put God at the top of our actions and thoughts. May the Lord transform and restore our cracked walls, our broken cisterns, our flaky ideas and our crumbl...

God calls us both to work and to rest in our pilgrimage with Him. Let's not measure things by what we can see or hear now. Let's work for God in the ways that He instructs us to, then leave the outcomes to Him. The script for this Service can be read here .

The Psalmist in Psalm 124 tells us several times that if it hadn't been for the Lord, then life would have been quite awful. God often goes well beyond the scale that we find to be normal in the way that He deals with us. We are on a Pilgrimage and Jesus is our Guide. Many of Jesus' stories are recounted in the four Gospels. Two of them (the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) and the Prodigal Son...

Whether our day is golden or it has immense problems, we truly need to call our Maydays out to God. "We need You and we are desperate for You!" That's how some of the worship in the Psalms of Ascent reads. God, we won't be overwhelmed when we're with You. We need God's help, and the help of others, in our lives regularly. Without the Lord, we are lost! The Script for...

Our lives are a pilgrimage. How is our journey going? What are we carrying? What is our final destination? Who is guiding us there? This series of Talks in January and February will help us think about these questions. Let us give more prominence to the actual journey we're on and ask God to help us travel well and lightly with Him. The script for the whole Service can be read here .

The last day of a year is a wonderful time to look both backwards to 2023 in thanks and ahead to 2024 in order to prioritise our ambitions and dreams and then to submit everything to God. It's a certainty that God will remain faithful in 2024 as He has done in previous years and decades. The Script for the whole Service can be read here . 

Our circumstances may not always make us feel joyful and peaceful.  We all face uneasy things from time to time. However, let's decide to put out trust in God no matter what! You can read the Script for the whole Service here .