King's Church Hastings

The bible isn’t silent on the subject of parenting. How we use our words is important. We have a responsibility to teach our children, if we don’t - someone else will. Our children shall imitate us so we therefore need to imitate Christ. We correct out of love and through prayer, we can keep on going and trust him with our children’s futures.

throughout the bible we see how Gods people are defined by their ‘calling out on the name of the Lord. Without prayer we have nothing. It is the channel of Gods blessing, it’s the means for repentance and reconciliation, it’s the invitation of the spirit to be poured out on all flesh. As a venue, we want to be characterised by our dependency on God and our willingness to give up our pride and self-sufficiency to see him move in greater power. In our weakness he is strong.

Life is full of decisions, some big and some small. To make good decisions that glorify God we need spiritual wisdom. The Bible tells us that God is eager to give us spiritual wisdom as we ask him and as we walk with him through our lives.

Throughout the bible we see how Gods people are defined by their ‘calling out on the name of the Lord. Without prayer we have nothing. It is the channel of Gods blessing, it’s the means for repentance and reconciliation, it’s the invitation of the spirit to be poured out on all flesh.  As a venue, we want to be characterised by our dependency on God and our willingness to give up our pride and self-sufficiency to see him move in greater power. In our weakness he is strong.

Jon Wales talks on celebrating the role of Dads in society and family but also showing that, that role comes with great responsibility. He also acknowledges that some people haven't experienced what it is to have a Father, but paints an amazing picture of what our Father in heaven is like.

Paul speaks on how as Christians, even through the hardships life throws at us we can still experience inexpressible joy.

Sam Akrasi really dives into the grace of God and what that means. Apologies for the quality of sound.

In Matthew 16 we reach a significant milestone in Matthew’s Gospel. The disciples correctly identify Jesus as the Christ, but they quickly show that they don’t really understand what this means. They have their own ideas of what it means, not God’s ideas. Once Jesus has taught them what his role as the Christ is (to suffer and die) he can then teach the disciples what it is to follow him (to follow him on the path of suffering).

Church leader Paul Mann looks back at some of the things we have to thank God for over the last 12-18 months and outlines plans for a future community action space at the Hastings Centre. You can also check out a short video about the plans at http://kings1066.org/video

Jesus has just faced opposition and rejection from the Jewish authorities and in response to this he tells the crowd the parable of the sower. Within this passage we see the seed of Gods kingdom being planted into peoples hearts, but its not always fruitful. It’s not bad seed, but the soil that can be the problem. Jesus uses this parable to explain how the condition of our hearts affect the fruitfulness of the seed. It comes as a warning and encouragement to us all. We need to cultivate the soil of our hearts in order to be fruitful for God.

Every other faith system is based on the “do” plan (pay alms, go on pilgrimages, work off karma, undergo reincarnations, etc.) to try to somehow earn their way back to God. Christianity is unique. It’s based on the “done” plan – Jesus has done for us on the cross what we cannot do for ourselves: he has paid the death penalty that we deserve for our rebellion and wrongdoing, so we can become reconciled with God. Have we been, and are we living as those who are plugged into the life source of Jesus?

Being a disciple of Jesus meant they got to see and experience first hand the reactions peope had towards him as he proclaimed the message of the kingdom. Now it was their turn! Jesus has given them authority to do so and in Matthew 10:16-42 He gives them advice. In a nutshell, Jesus lets them know that allegiance to Him can mean persecution because when you align yourself to Him, you have to handle the things that aren’t aligned to him and this can make you stand out in the crowd.

Jesus is moved with compassion when he sees the crowds who he describes as “harassed and helpless”. He declares that God has prepared a plentiful harvest to be brought in so asks his disciples to pray for workers to be sent out into the fields. He then commissions the disciples to go and be those who will proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and to demonstrate this with healings and through deliverance.

The crowds had been astonished that Jesus taught with such  authority and now they witnessed his authority in what he did. In this passage we see three different people healed and in each case we see Jesus compassion for those involved. It cumulates in verse 17 where Matthew quotes Isa53v4, ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’  All this points to who Jesus is and what he came to do. The other thing to mention is that  Jesus marvels at the ‘faith’ of the roman centurion.

Mercy is not a word commonly used in our society, but God revealed Himself to Moses as “a God merciful and gracious” and Jesus demonstrated the radical, outrageous mercy of God by the people He called to follow Him, such as Matthew the tax collector, and the ‘sinners’ He mixed with. We are called to be merciful too – we have an opportunity to show the incredible mercy of God to those society doesn’t care about.

Hope is vital to living, but so often we place our hope in things that are only temporary and could be lost at any moment. The only solid hope is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus. Matthew's account of the resurrection is designed to stress the solid historical basis of this hope and to challenge us to respond rightly to the fact of the resurrection in order to enjoy this eternal hope.

This is one the most moving, powerful and important passages we will ever read. Following Jesus’ sham trial and Roman flogging, we see Jesus mocked, crucified and die. For large parts of this passage it seems as though Jesus is passive, just helpless in each step of the process. But as we read on, we start to pick up clues and echoes of the past prophecies that show who Jesus is and that he isn’t helpless. He’s fulfilling the fathers plan of salvation. We find that Jesus is both the Son of God and King of Kings and that his death (and what followed) wasn’t just some horrific miscarriage of justice, but achieved complete forgiveness, free access and resurrection life for those who turn to him.

The church comprises imperfect redeemed sinners. As a result it doesn’t always get things right and we can be hurt by it. Through the preach, Steve showed us a higher view of the church as a place: Where God dwells That shows God to the world and Where disciples are built up. This is God’s work although we work with Him to bring it about. One day though, when Jesus returns again, we will see the church in all its glorious fullness. Our calling is to build the church here in 1066 country to show the manifold wisdom of God to the world.

As we read Hannah’s story we can learn many things. Her circumstances were extremely challenging, but the way she responded provides us with a helpful provocation for our own lives. But this is only part of what’s going on. We also learn about God from this account. We see a God who is in control, who cares for the broken-hearted and who weaves his purposes into our lives over the long term.

Guest speaker called James Woolley from IJM (International Justice Mission) spoke about how we as a Church can get rid of slavery, poverty and injustice.