Village Community Church. Podcast (Ajax, Ontario. Canada)

How do people come to know Jesus? How do we cut through the noise, the naysayers and the crowds? For many of us it is through the help of one or two people who play a pivotal role.

Listen in to Zacchaeus' story - a most unlikely follower of Jesus who seemingly had it all and yet had to rely on an unlikely source to be seen by Jesus.

We stop by for a meal with Jesus and his friends, two sisters, Mary and Martha. Mary attentively listens to Jesus. Martha, on the other hand, is overly busy playing host.

If you've heard this story before, it would be easy to conclude, "Be like Mary. Don't be like Martha." But is it that simple? Find out with Edwina and Mike.

Jesus' feeding of the five thousand might be one of his most famous meals. And why not? The crowd, who had sought out Jesus to receive his healing and his teaching, found themselves hungry after a long day and Jesus had compassion on them. They left with bodies healed, minds challenged and their stomachs full!

As it is told in the Gospel fo John, amongst the crowd (as many as 20,000!), we see a boy with his lunch and two disciples with their doubt. What will Jesus do with those?

With the launch of Alpha in just a few weeks, we're having a closer look at part of Jesus' very own strategy for his mission – meals! It may be hard to believe that Jesus wined and dined so much that his opposition called him a glutton and a drunk.

We begin with the Jesus' encounter and calling of Levi (and Matthew, as he would be known).

(See the video referenced at 2:48)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDuA9OPyp6I

We conclude our series On Prayer with some #prayerhacks. Paul the Apostle instructed the church in Thessalonica to "pray without ceasing." But how do we that? How do we keep our minds from roaming, how do we stay on track or not take a nap? Thankfully, the way forward is revealed in and made through the Bible.

Lean in and listen on to the end when Sonja testifies to the work God has been doing in the area of prayer!

Prayer is deeply personal. Jesus himself spoke of closet prayers i.e., shutting the doors and finding yourself before the Father. But the Lord's Prayer which we have been studying is full of plurals - our Father, give us daily bread, forgive us our sins. What is the difference between private prayer and public prayer, closet prayer and corporate prayer? Listen in as Vic teaches into this and announces dates for our monthly corporate prayer meeting date for the rest of 2019.

Supplication, or requesting things from God, seems to be primary way in which we pray. We generally come to God with a shopping list. But is praying "in Jesus name" a blank cheque? Will God give us everything we ask for? This is what Lawrence looks at in this week's topic on prayer.

Let's face it, thanksgiving is not our 'default setting'. Yet it should be a trademark of our conversations with God. There is much to be thankful for, but still we seem to run out of things to say when quite frankly the Bible is full of gratitude vocabulary for us to draw from! Find out how you could be better at thanking God through some of the insights in this sermon.

Hallowed. It's probably not a word you've used this week, or even this year, but we do this every single day. 

To hallow is to set aside, to make holy, to honour, to devote ourselves to someone or something – to adore.

Listen in as Vic continues On Prayer and the first of four sermons based on Jesus' prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication

"Our Father..." is how Jesus began teaching his disciples on prayer. You've heard it before right? Don't dismiss the importance. How Jesus addressed God as Father was nothing short of revolutionary. It will either revolutionize how you pray, or otherwise expose the transaction-based renter-landord relationship you may have with God.