St Matts Weekly Message

Up next in our Upside Down teaching series is Pentecost Sunday! Mike takes us through the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the Spirit fell in power and people immediately began to ask what on earth was going on. He encourages us that because of the Spirit coming at Pentecost all those years ago, today, everyone can be filled to overflowing . Isn't that good news?!

On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit fell in power and people immediately began to ask what on earth was going on. In this Try Church message, Mike takes us through the first ‘Gospel preach’ as Peter began to explain to the gathering crowds who Jesus is, why he came and what we can each do about it. You’ll also hear some top tips on sharing this message with your friends and family!

This week we rewind back to the beginning of Acts as Teressa continues our preaching series ‘Upside Down.’ Teressa takes us through Acts 1:1-8 as Jesus spends time with his followers before the action of Acts really kicks off. We all go through ‘in-between’ times in our lives — the challenge from this passage is to use these times to let go of our own vision and grab hold of God's vision.

Mike kicks off our new series ‘Upside Down’ where we will be tracking through the book of Acts looking to be inspired by the story of the early church and how the Holy Spirit came upon the early followers of Jesus to build the church and to empower them for the mission that God had given to them. However you feel about mission and evangelism — excited, terrified or anywhere in-between — our prayer...

Phil spoke on Sunday on being ‘Servants of the King.’ In the parable of the talents servants are given great treasure to use, steward and multiply. What have we been given by God and how can we cooperate with the Spirit to grow in these character traits? Listen back to find out!

On this vision and gift Sunday Mike reminded us of our purpose as a church and a bit about the journey we’ve been on as we looked at the story of the journey to Emmaus - walking with Jesus, walking together and running to share the good news!

This week Graham spoke to us about the resurrection revelled - just as it was to the disciples 2000 years ago. Graham took us through the Proof of the resurrection, the Peace of the resurrection and finally the power of the resurrection.

Listen back to our Easter Sunday message where Sally shared the good news of Jesus's death and resurrection and the hope we find in him. This week remeber these three things: don't be afraid, come and see and go and tell!

Our curate Mike kicks off our Easter services with his message from Palm Sunday. Through the lens of the Palm Sunday story Mike looks at the call of Jesus to obideince, to lay down our lives as an act of worship and to see our communites stirred up by the name of Jesus. Join us for the rest of our easter services, check out the website for the details: stmplymouth.org.uk/easter

This week come and find out a little bit about what a Bishop does, what it means to be part of the CofE and how we might play our part in God's mission in Devon and beyond as we live our lives ‘all in’ for Jesus. We had the Bishop of Plymouth James Grier joining us at both the Ten and the Five for a short interview and a message from Luke 5 where Jesus calls his first followers to step out in...

Jeff took us through the story of Hannah in the Bible. Mother’s Day can be a blessing but also a painful time and Hannah’s story contains plenty of both. As we look at the pain and the blessing of Hannah’s story we discover her beautiful response of prayer, sacrifice and worship.

After finishing off our Teach Us To Pray series last week, this week as a one-off, our curate Mike looks at Money. Looking at a passage from 1 Timothy 6, Mike reflects on the following points: God owns it all, We already have enough (most of us), We love money and lastly on the invitation picked right out of our reading: Do Good, Be rich in good works, be generous and be ready to share. 

What a joy to have Sarah Yardley (Mission Lead at creation fest) finishing our ‘Teach us to Pray’ series! Sarah spoke on ‘Being with God’ - encouraging us really simply and practically to make space for God without agenda by Looking, Yielding and Resting.  This series is inspired by the discipleship tool ‘Practicing the Way.’ For more resources and information head to: https://www.practicingt...

This week, our Prayer Pastor Phil Burgess continued our series on 'Teach Us To Pray'. This time, Phil shared on Listening to God.  This series is inspired by the discipleship tool ‘Practicing the Way.’ For more resources and information head to: https://www.practicingtheway.org

This week Mike our curate continued our series ‘Teach us to pray.’ Most Christians say they find prayer difficult so let’s learn from how Jesus did it! Join us as Mike takes us through the 3 ways of talking with God - prayers of gratitude, prayers of lament and prayers of petition & intercession.  This series is inspired by the discipleship tool ‘Practicing the Way.’ For more resources an...

This week Adrian our Churchwarden began our series ‘Teach us to pray.’ Most Christians say they find prayer difficult so let’s learn from how Jesus did it! Join us  as Adrian takes us through the Lord’s Prayer- the way Jesus taught his disciples to talk to God- in private, with praise, needing his presence, asking for provision and seeking his providence and protection. This series is inspire...

This week was a ‘Preachtastic’ week - we had different people from across our church family, at all different stages of life, having a go at a mini-talk. This was the last in our ‘One Thing’ series, looking at Paul’s encouragement in Philippians 3: “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me...

What is the one thing you would ask God? As we go through life, with all its difficulties, we inevitably come across those ‘why God’ moments. David’s question of God in Psalm 27 is the only one that can help us to deal with all those other questions: ‘One thing I ask of the Lord, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.’ Join Mike as he goes through Psalm 27 looking at how we can...

Continuing our ‘One Thing’ series, Teressa spoke about 3 things that Jesus doesn’t do in a story about a man who was born blind but is healed by Jesus. No blame, no barriers, no bragging no expectation of deep theology of healing. Instead a simple recognition of what has happened — a beautiful ‘say what you see’ moment — ‘One thing I know, I was blind, but now I see.’

Sally Pearson carried on our ‘One Thing’ Series at the Five looking at the story of Martha and Mary. There are so many questions plaguing our lives — all of the answers are found in Jesus, in intimacy with him, in His face! Mary found her place of devotion with Jesus but how can we learn to gaze on the face of Jesus without the answer simply being to go and live life as a hermit? Listen on to find...

Jeff Stephenson carried on our ‘One Thing’ Series at The Ten looking at the story of Martha and Mary — Mary had chosen the better thing, relationship with Jesus! We are created for relationship and Jesus values our friendship with Him above our service to Him so let’s invest all we have into that ‘one thing’ we need.

Mike kicked off our new series ‘One Thing’ looking at the story of man who came to Jesus with a big question, but didn’t go away with the answer he wanted. Jesus knows us better than anyone and the challenge is not to take on more for Jesus but to look at what we need to lay down to pursue the one thing that really matters!

People all over the World celebrate Christmas in different ways. Just like the Wisemen gave gifts to Jesus, we give gifts to others. But the greatest gift of all is the gift that God gave us, Jesus. Our Kids Pastor Amy shared a brilliant talk for children and adults alike. She reminds us that the festivities are lovely but let’s remember the reason for the season – the gift of Jesus. 

Graham Smith, retired vicar and part of the St Matts family, shared an Advent message at the Ten as we wait for and celebrate the profound and supreme moment of ‘heaven invading earth.’ He encouraged us to tap into both the word and spirit as we seek God invading our lives today!

'To all our questions God offers us the story of his life with us.’  Our good friend Sarah Yardley who is the Mission and Ministry Lead at Creation Fest spoke at St Matts Evening Carols challenging us again to receive the impossible truth- ‘God is with us.'