Family Church Portsmouth

Today, Family Church celebrates the diverse nations and cultures both at home and in our overseas missions and outreaches that through Jesus make us one big, global family. Ps Sean speaks about the Theme of being United.

He refers to Acts 2:1-12 (NIV) " When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”"

Ps Sean's message focuses on the fact that everyone was United in one place, the Holy Spirit filled every person who was then enabled to speak in languages they did not know, and this in turn brought the people from outside the room to wonder what was happening (as they recognized their own tongues).

For our city this is a prophetic message of how we can be a transforming force with the Spirit's intervention such that those outside our immediate circle can become convicted and saved.

This can all happen because we are a UNITED house of the Lord!

Pastor Andy finishes the current series on Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit) by this week looking at the Fruit and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Fruit is grown, the Gift of the Spirit are given as gifts for our use. Fruit is the result of a life being yielded to the nature and character of God in our lives.  The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit all come from one God, one Holy Spirit. God brings these gifts into the lives of his family, in order that we can live a power-field victorious life, blessing others. Ps Andy describes these in detail and how they work in our lives. He speaks about how the New Testament church operated in the gifts of the Spirit. He explains how spiritual gifts are given to a person as the Holy Spirit wills, for navigating our lives and also ministering to others. The anointing flows at its best when we are meeting the needs of others. He also speaks for a while about the gift of Tongues – for personal use and also when given in a church setting followed by interpretation.

This is a fascinating and challenging message!

Following the series on 'Jesus Empowers', this week Ps Andy speaks about the Empowerment of The Holy Spirit. Ps Andy speaks about the Holy Spirit coming into the life of a Believer to provide the power and ability to do a number of things. In this message, he looks at three areas

• The ability for us to walk in freedom and wholeness
• The ability to minister to the needs of others - not to be selfish on our Christian walk
• The provision of moral power, and excellence of soul - ability to say no to things

After describing these at length, he speaks about seven areas where the power of the Holy Spirit works in our lives

• Transforming us from inside out into the image and the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
• Providing the boldness to do things such as sharing our faith
• Providing supernatural ability (Mark 16: 17). Jesus tells His disciples to lay hands on the sick and they will recover, speak in tongues, raise them...this applies to us now 
• The Holy Spirit consecrates us, giving us the ability to live a life that doesn't sin 
• To live the life God's called us to. The Bible gives us no excuse not to forgive even when we are hurt
• He calls us to do the same things that Jesus did when he walked the Earth. Why? Because the Spirit of the Lord that lived upon Him is now the same Spirit upon us. He is anointing us to preach the gospel, set people free. This is not just a Pastors job! 
• Providing the ability to walk in obedience to the things He asks us to do

The Holy spirit in us gives us everything we need. This is why we are called to be Spirit-filled, Spirit-led and Spirit empowered. This brings glory to God each day, because of the way we choose to live....

This week Ps Sean continues our series 'Jesus Empowers', speaking on the ‘Fellowship of the Holy Spirit’. He begins by quoting 2 Corinthians 13:14 (NIV) "May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all". Note the use of the word all, not some! he explains how fellowship is really a lot more than just an acquaintance, its deeper than this. Often we are bad at doing fellowship with each other so understanding fellowship with the Holy Spirit is then nearly impossible for us.

PS Sean introduces two key words of importance here - Intimacy and Hosting.  Intimacy relates to a relaxed atmosphere but also privacy. For example between two people in a marriage, there's intimacy. Breakdown occurs without this as others things get in the way with two people walking in different directions. God wants to call us back to intimacy with the Holy Spirit today in a fresh way without distraction from the world. 

When we host someone we ensure our house is on order, we want to welcome them to feel at home in our house. This requires effort and heart commitment.

With countless scripture references, Ps Sean provides insight into how the Holy Spirit is resident within us, is in fact our teacher, our guide, our helper, our comforter. Above all, the Holy Spirit is there to provide the correct comfort we need in our lives, as opposed to worldly comforts and distractions which may satisfy earthly desires but move us away from intimacy with God.

John 15 refers (The Vine & The Branches).

This is a challenging message!

Following from the introduction last week, Ps Andy begins the new series on Pneumatology (the study of the person and works of the Holy Spirit) today. Ps Andy begins by looking at who the Holy Spirit is, with a scripture laden whistle stop tour of the bible illustrating how the Holy Spirit is ever present wherever God the Father spoke. From creation in Genesis, God spoke and His intentions were taken from concept and made actual by the Holy Spirit.

So it is today. Nowhere in the bible do we find the actions on the day of Pentecost being reversed. In this action packed message Ps Andy explains how in fact there can be no such thing as Christian who is not Spirit filled. Ps Andy fills this message with scripture references stating how the Holy Spirit has been poured out on us all.  

If we are saved and have received Christ into our hearts, we have received the Spirit of God. Amen!!

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 doctrine of salvation. We took a few weeks to study, how incredible our Salvation is, how wonderfully the Lord has saved us, what He achieved in the finished work of the Cross with Jesus.

Ps Andy then speaks about how we are to move to a third part of our discipleship series, which we are calling 'Jesus Empowers'. This is Pneumatology and it's the Doctrine or the study of the person and works of the Holy Spirit.

Ps Andy continues with an introduction to this series which again is fundamental to our understanding of our Christian walk.

Family Church in Portsmouth is expanding. Soon we shall have another congregation in Southsea as well. This is to make room, to 'enlarge our tent' in order that more people in our city can hear the word of God and be saved. To make this happen, everyone who calls Family Church Portsmouth their home needs to become not just an attendee or spectator but also a servant building the house of God in order that His plan be outworked in our city.

Ps Andy delivers a punchy message about everyone becoming involved in the journey of the church by being servant hearted and being prepared to give of our time, talents and finances.

Today, the Trailblazers took over the whole service in Family Church Portsmouth congregation. After a week at their summer camp, the church youth returned fully energized and filled with God's Holy Spirit. After the worship, Nathan introduces two of his peers to give their testimony and message to the congregation following their week away.

Listen and be amazed!!

After a somewhat different morning service, Ps Sean rounds off the morning with a heartfelt message about the importance of Unity in the church and how this will bring peace to our troubled land.  Our hearts should be bound together with the Holy Spirit. The church should be a picture to the world of what Unity should look like. Only then will the world look to us for answers....