🎙️ NEW PODCAST EPISODE

Nec Tamen Consumebatur — Yet it was not consumed

Exodus 3:1–12

At the burning bush, Moses encountered the holiness of God—and yet the bush was not consumed.

In this message, we explore what that ancient scene reveals about God’s presence, God’s calling and the good news of Jesus Christ. Before a holy God, we are not spared because holiness no longer matters, but because Christ has made a way for us to draw near.

Listen now to the latest Forres Community Church Podcast.

🔥 In Christ, we are not consumed before a holy God.

🎙️ **The Community Podcast — Pentecost Sunday**

**Many Languages, One Gospel: From Babel to Pentecost**

In this Pentecost episode, we explore the great biblical story that stretches from **Genesis 11** to **Acts 2** — from the scattering of the nations at Babel to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Along the way, we reflect on God’s promise to Abraham, the Exodus story, Passover, Firstfruits, Sinai, the giving of the Law, and the life-giving work of the Spirit.

At Babel, humanity said, “Let us make a name for ourselves.”

At Pentecost, Peter stands and proclaims the name of Jesus.

This is the story of many languages, one gospel, and the Spirit-filled Church sent into the world with the good news of Christ.

📖 Readings: Genesis 11:1–9 and Acts 2:1–21

🔥 Theme: Pentecost, mission, Spirit, and the nations

Things Are Looking Up — Ascension Sunday

In this Ascension Sunday episode of The Community Podcast, we reflect on Luke 24:44–53 and the often-overlooked significance of Jesus’ ascension.

The ascension is not simply Jesus leaving His disciples behind. It is the culmination of His reconciling work. Jesus came from the Father to bring us back to the Father. Through His death, resurrection, and ascension, He deals with sin, defeats death, and opens the way for humanity to be reconciled to God.

This message explores why Ascension Sunday matters, especially in the face of grief, death, and uncertainty, and offers the simple hope of the gospel: reconciliation is the work of Jesus, and the invitation is to believe, trust, and receive what He has done.

Bible Reading: Luke 24:44–53

Sermon Title: Things Are Looking Up

Theme: Ascension, reconciliation, hope, and the completed work of Christ.

In this message from Luke 24:13–35, we walk with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and discover how the risen Jesus makes himself known. Though they had knowledge, experience, and even reports of the resurrection, they still did not truly recognise him until he opened the Scriptures to them. This sermon explores the vital truth that we come to know the real Jesus not through our assumptions, feelings, or partial understanding, but through God’s Word rightly opened. As Christ opens the Bible, hearts burn, eyes are opened, and lives are changed.

In this episode of the Forres Community Church Podcast, Stuart Finlayson continues our journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Paul moves from describing the growth and maturity of the church to something deeply practical: what it looks like to live the new life we have been given in Christ.

In Ephesians 4:17–32, Paul contrasts the old way of life, shaped by hardened hearts and futile thinking, with the new self that believers are called to put on—created to be like God in righteousness and holiness.

Together we explore what it means to put off the old self, be renewed in our minds, and put on the new self in Christ, learning how our words, attitudes, and relationships are transformed as the Holy Spirit works within us.

This passage reminds us that the Christian life is not simply about behaviour change, but about living into the new identity we have received in Christ.

In this episode of our “… in Christ” series, we step into the turning point of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

After three chapters describing everything God has done for us in Christ, Paul now says: “Walk.”

What does it mean to live a life worthy of the calling we’ve received? What are the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers actually for? And what does it really mean to “equip the saints for the work of ministry”?

This episode moves beyond personality labels and spiritual self-discovery, and instead explores maturity, participation, and shared responsibility in the body of Christ. Grace is the foundation — but grace also calls us to move. Not to earn God’s favour, but because we already have it.

Together we consider what it looks like for every part of the body to supply something, and how true growth in the church is measured not just in numbers, but in depth, unity, and Christlikeness.

As we continue shaping who we are at Forres Community Church, this passage invites us to step out of passivity and into participation — equipped in Christ.

This week at Forres Community Church, we reach a turning point in our journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. After three chapters describing all that God has done for us in Christ, Paul now begins to show us what that grace looks like in the life of the church.

In Ephesians 4:1–6, we are called to “live a life worthy of the calling” we have received. But what does that actually mean? And how do humility, gentleness, patience, and peace shape the way we relate to one another?

In this message, we explore the unity that God has already created in Christ—one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord—and what it means to live inside that unity day by day. Rather than something we have to create, unity is a gift we are called to protect, through lives shaped by the character of Jesus.

Part 6 of our series in Ephesians.

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1–6

Forres Community Church — Making Kingdom Disciples

What holds us steady when life feels uncertain? Where does real strength come from?

In this message preached at St Leonard's Parish Church of Scotland in Forres and using Ephesians 3:14–21, we hear Paul’s powerful prayer for the church—a prayer not for easier circumstances, but for deeper strength. Writing from prison, Paul asks God to strengthen believers in their inner being, so that Christ would dwell in their hearts and they would be rooted and grounded in his love.

Drawing connections with Jesus’ teaching in John 15, this sermon explores what it means to remain in Christ, to be filled with the fullness of God, and to live from the inside out in a world that constantly pressures us from the outside in.

This is a message of identity before instruction, belonging before behaving, and strength that comes not from our own efforts, but from the Spirit at work within us.

What if the church is doing far more than we can see?

In Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul pulls back the curtain on a breath-taking reality: through the church, God is making his wisdom known—not just to the world, but to the heavenly realms themselves.

In this episode, we explore:

Why Paul calls himself a prisoner of Christ rather than a victim of Rome

The “mystery” once hidden and now revealed in Jesus

How the church becomes a living display of God’s many-coloured wisdom

Why ordinary acts of faithfulness echo in heaven

This sermon invites us to re-imagine the local church—not as a social club or religious institution, but as a cosmic witness to God’s reconciling work in Christ.

Wherever you’re listening from, may this remind you that your faithfulness matters—far beyond what your eyes can see.

In a world shaped by division, conflict, and competing identities, is real unity actually possible?

In this episode, we explore Ephesians 2:11–22 and Paul’s vision of a new kind of belonging — one that doesn’t begin with agreement, effort, or shared background, but with grace.

This reflection looks at:

why the Bible speaks honestly about separation and hope,

how peace is understood not as an idea, but as a person,

and what it might mean to belong without having to earn your place.

Whether you’re someone who follows Jesus, someone curious about faith, or someone still asking questions, this episode invites you to slow down and consider where peace, identity, and true unity might really be found.