It's hard for us to understand these days, but in Jesus' day they all knew exactly what He was talking about. Sheep listening to a shepherd's voice, and not to a stranger's. If we can put ourselves in the shoes of the people listening to Jesus, His story has a huge impact on our daily lives. The question is, are we listening to Him?

Go! One word, a lifetime of action. God's Story in us is nothing if it is not shared. Jesus tells all His followers to go and make disciples, so what does it mean? How do we do it? What does it look like? Is it hard? Such an important command for such an important reason - it's time to go!

Thomas and Peter were normal people. They got some things right, but they made plenty of mistakes. History may even remember them more for the mistakes than what they got right! Yet, through the amazing words of Jesus, they were comforted, forgiven, and set free from the mental anguish and condemnation, and went on to make amazing commitments for what they believed in. Jesus' words make all the difference in people's lives - what is He saying to you?

Mathew 24 is a chapter that has been debated for thousands of years. In this message, we look at a parable that is confronting, even scary. Yet at it's heart it is quite simple. What does can an ancient story about 10 young ladies teach us today? Plenty.

There are some parables in The Bible that sound plain unfair. Matthew 22 starts out with one of those parables. A lot of it doesn't seem to make sense, and it all revolves around a king inviting people to his son's wedding. If we dig into it though, we find that in many ways, it makes a lot of sense, and a lot of what this story talks about applies to us. Not all of Jesus' stories were easy to hear, but they were all important for us to understand God's kingdom and our place in it.

In Matthew, Jesus tells a story that would have shocked many who were listening to Him. In this parable, Jesus described workers getting paid the same amount of money regardless of whether they worked all day long, or for just an hour. It seems unfair, and the workers in the story said the same. Jesus is coming from a different angle though, and what He is talking about applies to every one of us. How does God's generosity impact us and those we love? Why is there always hope, no matter how late in the day it is?

Stories were always an important part of Jesus' ministry. Why did He use them? How did He use them to filter those who really wanted to know from those who were happy to listen, but didn't want to engage? Could the same technique help us to do the same? Can telling a story make it that much easier to have a converstaion about God and Jesus, and remove a lot of the guess work?

The third message in this series is by David Ellaby. David looks at our intentions, and where they get us. How do we get from a good intention to share our story, to the place where we take action and do what we intend? It's not always easy, and a little preparation can go a long way.

In this second message in the journey of discovering how our story and God's story fit together, James looks at another passage familiar to most Christians. This time He asks the question, 'what is your treasure?, and how does that compare with what Jesus describes as being treasure worth striving for?

This week we start a series that will cover the next 6 months. It's a journey of discovering how our story and God's story fit together and are, infact, part of eachother. In this message, James starts the series with a question from a passage familiar to most Christians. The question is, what kind of soil are we?