St Matts Weekly Message

Continuing with our Upside Down series, we were so blessed to have Claire McIlroy speak to us on Passion, Purpose & Perseverance through the lens of Acts 9:1-22.

This week was our Preachtastic service! Across the day we had 6 brilliant speakers give a message as part of our current series 'Upside Down'. Each speaker based their messages on the same passage from Acts 8:26-40. We've put all the speakers together in one podcast ready for you to catch up on!

The speakers this Sunday were: Natasha Gilbert, Martin Haworth, Naomi Manuel, Beth Horton, John Bakare & Debs Marks-Lenton!

We often think of the church in Acts as an idyllic community, and with the beautiful vision of community life in Acts 2 & 4 it's true — the miracle of Pentecost wasn't just visible in signs, wonders, and healings but in the creation of a new united family who shared and cared for those in need! But as with any community things quickly go wrong. Mike takes us through a story of crisis in the early church as we think about how we can respond to being an imperfect community, as we learn to live community life in both organised and organic ways and share the good news of Jesus together in both word and deed.

Jeff takes us through our next exciting Acts story in the Upside Down series looking at the first miracle which happened after the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. Miracles are defined as extraordinary events - but they weren’t extraordinary for Jesus and they were an expectation of the early church. They saw the overwhelming need around them, responded with obedience to the call of Jesus and took faith risks. What risks is God calling us to take? Praying for healing will always be risky but perhaps not doing it is just as risky?

Rob Fowler, previous curate at St Matts takes us on a journey through the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17, powerfully drawing out our reliance on God's unforeseen provision, the unexpected partnerships we get to embrace and and the need for instinctive love for the one. He also reminds us of our link with compassion and how each of us can get involved! If you’d like to sponsor a child why not find out more here: www.compassionuk.org/sponsorship

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 is that as you listen toda y and as we go through this series we would all learn increasingly to step out where we are, to join in with God in his mission in the world, and to believe that it makes a difference!

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!