We will look at Paul's teaching on and affirmation of singleness. Then we will look at how we build communities of faith that honour both singleness and marriage. And finally, we will reflect on how Paul’s teaching challenges the spirit of our age, both in Corinth in the first century and in our world in the 21st century.…

Paul has recalibrated the Corinthians understanding on the importance and the place of sex in a believer’s life. He has done this by reinforcing the biblical foundations of sex as a covenant act within the biblical covenant of marriage. He has reminded them that the covenant of sex is rooted in creation and points towards the greater covenant betwe…

Belong, believe, behave - how grace changes the rules.由Everyday Church

As we celebrate Easter, we’re going to look at the most important promise ever made, one that changed the course of history, and a promise that we celebrate coming to pass at Easter. It’s the promise of the resurrection – when Jesus, the Son of God, died on a cross, and then rose from the dead three days later. Just as he said.…

We can see the issue for the Corinthians, and we can work through Paul’s arguments. But what about us? We live in a sex obsessed world. We all have our own sexual history both in terms of how we think and how we behave. How do we process this teaching without simply being paralysed by guilt and or shame? How do we apply this truth personally and co…

The use of the past tense in this passage is hopeful as well as humbling. Paul is not setting them or us up for a fall. We do not have to give in to our flesh. We can move on from our petty intolerances. Because we have been washed, sanctified, and justified. God has done a work in us, is doing a work in us, and will finish the work he is doing in …

Your heart really matters to God. In a world full of distractions, we are called to guard our hearts and keep Jesus at the centre. Come with us as we discover the importance of God's grace, church community, and staying close to the Good Shepherd.由Everyday Church

If we’re going to take collective responsibility for the holiness of the church, then we need to be sincere about our own discipleship, which will mean regularly dying to self. And we need a high bar on what we mean by Christian community, sharing lives and discipling one another, which will mean having difficult conversations with one another from…

Be patient with everyone. You are going to meet people in church or in Life Group who are going to rub you the wrong way. It’s just going to happen. But when we remember we are all made in the image of God, and if we remember what Paul said at the beginning of the letter to the Corinthians that none of us can boast that we are better than anyone el…

Paul is sarcastic about the Corinthian’s boasting which is rooted in pride – regarding one person as better than another in race, class, roles in the church, wisdom/eloquence, factions re leaders, and gifts of the Spirit. Paul followed the lead of Jesus, the God who came in low, fully God, fully man, – a picture of the ‘suffering servant’ who came …

Paul starts of chapter 3, by DISCIPLING the Church to see with some clarity and conviction where they might be getting stuck. Where immature theology and worldly values ARE hindering them from a life of spiritual GROWTH. BUT… he ends the chapter by giving them a vision of how God sees them / of how God has positioned them / of what GOD has in store…

The why question for the Corinthians revealed the problem of pride.Paul addresses their pride by reminding them that the gospel is the great leveller. Christians have no reason to boast because our salvation is all down to God. There’s no basis for feeling either superior or inferior to other believers. The challenge with pride is that its presence…

Lots of people want Jesus without the cross. Limit him to being just a good moral teacher or a misunderstood martyr. But the cross is the whole point – the reason he came. His weakest moment – is his most powerful act! The cross is the deepest of mysteries – and the simplest of truths. What it achieves is within the grasp of a child or the most imp…

There is disunity in the church and Paul will have none of it. In a world that is increasingly divided, polarised, antagonistic, self righteous and self centred it is vital for Paul that the church is unified. The church is meant to speak a better story to the world around it. Not that there will always be agreement on all issues, but rather that d…

We want to get into Corinthians because it is a book about mission. It is written by a man on mission, the church is the fruit of that mission and they are a people on mission. They have been blown off course. The success of the gospel in drawing people from every area of life is potentially their downfall. In their desire to be accessible and rele…

Have you ever heard the saying it is better to give than receive? That sounds like the kind of sage advice you might see on an inspirational Instagram post, doesn’t it? Would it surprise you to know that it is actually from the Bible? The apostle Paul, in Acts chapter 20, said to his friends “remember the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is m…

These wise men bring gifts that would have made sense to them. These were valuable items, and they were bringing gifts for a King. But, as we are hinted at in Isaiah 60, these gifts were also part of God’s plan for revealing the true identity of this child. Offerings of thanksgiving and praise:o Gold – sovereignty and Kingshipo Frankincense – this …

Even though Jesus at this point, is a small child, and born into humble origins, the son of a carpenter, he is in fact a King. The one and only King. King over all the earth. He’s not sitting in the palace with Herod, but nevertheless, he is a King.But what kind of King is he? We’re going to look at a few Kings in this passage to learn more about w…

God has the power to establish us by his grace. Paul’s message in his letter to the Romans: the gospel is the power of God for salvation for anyone who has faith in Jesus. As JI Packer said: ‘God saves sinners’. This transforms the way we live through the Holy Spirit. He is able to establish us, to make firm. We cannot save ourselves. Tim Keller: ‘…

So, should women stay silent? When we read this passage in a modern western context this is the question that tends to leap out of the text. Some of you may well have grown up in, or been part of a church that has limited the role of women in the church based on passages like this. Some would argue that it is clear – women should remain silent – th…

These verses succinctly define the purpose of prophesy as edifying those it’s spoken to. A hallmark of Holy Spirit inspired prophecy is that it builds people up, by strengthening, encouraging, or comforting them. This is in contrast to tongues, which is for self-edification. There are two dangers regarding the prophetic gifts that we ignore at our …

Paul’s main point in these 25 verses is to stop the Corinthians from filling their church meetings with publicly given tongues that are not then interpreted, but rather to encourage them to eagerly desire the intelligible gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy, so that everyone can understand what’s being said. Therefore, he argues, a publicly given…

Love gifts from the Holy Spirit that we are to eagerly desire! To operate in an atmosphere of love… "follow the way of love and eagerly desire". They are Gifts for a purpose. To build up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12) and empower the church to fulfil its commission.由Everyday Church

we will unpack today, that if the love of God isn’t the underpinning of these gifts, then we are in danger of misusing or even abusing them, as appeared to be the case in the church in Corinth. As with all things that God entrusts to His people, if we are going to handle them well, the actual gift is not of primary importance, but the character of …

As we will keep reminding ourselves when talking about Spiritual Gifts – they are gifts to give away for the blessing of others. Is the giver also blessed in the giving – often yes. But gifts and ministries exist for the good of the community, not the aggrandisement of the one ministering. I am not a big fan of the word “ministries” but in scriptur…

I've been asked to share my story with you today. And I am happy to do that, not because it is my story and I want people to know me - no, but because it is God's story in my life, and I love talking about God. And my prayer is also that while you're listening to me telling God's story in my life, God will encourage you about His story in your life…

Are you eagerly desiring God to do something in your life? Embracing spiritual gifts, learning about them, asking God for them, and being active in the way you’re practising them - is where purpose and faith flourish. It’s how the Church is equipped and built up. And most importantly, it’s one of the key ways that the glory of Jesus shines through …

A healthy church is a church that experiences the full array of spiritual gifts. A church where everyone has something, and no one has everything. Where no gift is universal, and no gift is missing.When someone brings a spiritual gift, rather than thinking, “I wish I had that gift”, ask the Holy Spirit, “What complementary gift do you want me to gr…

We can say church is about many things: social action, community life, music, evangelistic outreach, emotional health, freedom. right living. They are all important, but we mustn’t make them idols. They are secondary, they are the consequence, not the cause. The focus and purpose of our gatherings above everything else is to encounter God to experi…

How do our vision and values and Jesus’ instruction to “seek first the Kingdom of God” work out in the busyness of life. One of the reasons that we get distracted from a Kingdom vision and onto the stuff of life, is because the stuff of life keeps coming at us. How do we hold on to the truth that Jesus reminded us of last week? We have to be intent…

Our vision shapes how we live. How we spend our: Time, Talent, and Treasure. We recognise that we can be so easily distracted and deterred from our identity and Kingdom calling by the stuff of life. We looked at Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount in which he seeks to recalibrate us around our eternal identity as children of the living God. It …

So we come to the final message in our tour of Colossians. We have:o Fixed our eyes on Jesus.o Unpacked biblical leadership.o Combatted the flesh.o Reminded ourselves that every area of life matters to God.Today we look at Prayer. We are going to look at prayer, because as we read through Colossians, there are multiple references to prayer. Using t…

Viewing these verses from our modern culture, it would be easy to miss the point. A modern reader can be distracted by concepts of submission in marriage based on gender and the concept of slavery. These are huge subjects and we do not have time to unpack them fully here. However, when approaching both subjects we must remember that biblical submis…

As we said in the first message of this series, Paul’s primary tactic in leading people out of, or away from the edge, of heresy is to fix their eyes on to the person and the work of Christ. This is exactly what he is doing here. When Paul says, “Therefore, do not let anyone judge you…” the inference is clear. They are being judged, and they are al…

We continue our series on Colossians. Last time we looked at the fact that Paul writes his letter to the Colossians because he wants to draw them back to the centrality of Christ. In the midst of a complicated world, Paul reminds them of the uniqueness of Christ and the fullness of the gospel. If we try and add anything to the gospel, we have depar…

Although Paul is writing because his wider ministry is limited by imprisonment, he is not writing aimlessly. He writes with purpose. He has heard good reports about the faith of the believers in Colossae and he is broadly encouraged, but he also has some concerns about teaching they might be receiving and the impact it is having on the outworking o…

The Exodus story points to the bigger story. It reveals patterns of redemption. A redemption pattern perfectly fulfilled in Jesus. But, the Exodus story and the metanarrative it points towards is not finished. This story is our story. The work of Christ is finished, but we are not yet finished.由Everyday Church

God is giving Moses a blueprint for handling the Holy. You see, the presence of a holy God cannot be handled by sinful people and God is giving a pattern of how to handle the holy and how to be able to come into his presence as simple people. He is making a way, and this is the plan that is being unfolded to Moses. He writes it down in Exodus and w…

Around the Tabernacle at the centre of the camps were arrayed the 12 tribes of Israel. The Tabernacle was always set up right at the centre of the camp. It would have been the focal point of their communal life. The centre of their worship.To come and worship at the Tabernacle would have been a deliberate gathering together of God’s people near to …

Today we pick up the Exodus story in chapter 35, where Moses calls for a Special Offering to enable them to build the Tabernacle; a big, posh tent that God had instructed them to make. This turns out to be the most remarkable outpouring of generosity recorded in the Bible. You know it’s been a successful Special Offering when you’re told to stop gi…

It is hard to trust God. It is hard to relate to a God who is invisible. Idolatry is not the answer – worship is the answer. Those of you who have been following the Exodus reading plan we put together for this walk through Exodus will know why Moses was taking so much time up the mountain. God knows us – God knows that we need tangible ways to con…

Moses knew that the presence of God was the vital thing that set the Israelites apart. He says to God ‘What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth.’ The presence of God is vital in our lives, it is what defines who we are and sets us apart. We often use the language at Everyday Church that we are…

The why we do things is very important, they create a foundation to build on. God is calling us to be part of his family/part of his story. You are loved and cherished, he describes you as a treasured possession. He is calling you to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Priests are set apart by God to do his work and lead by example (no matte…

When our days are filled with His presence, our hearts see transformation; our homes and families see transformation; and our communities see transformation. What could possibly be more exciting and purpose-giving in this life? That’s why Jesus was absolutely right when He said to the disciples in John 16: I tell you the truth: it is to your advant…

The Sabbath is not about rule keeping, or point scoring. It's about a gift. Life in all its fullness. Observing the Sabbath forces us into a rhythm where being is more important than doing. Everyone is in a hurry; If it needs doing – do it now. If you want it – have it now! But God is never in a hurry! He is relentless – all his purposes come to pa…

Exodus 20:1-7 - Commandments 1-3 - Elisabeth Radtke by Everyday Church由Everyday Church

God hasn’t changed. If he will provide what his people need then he will provide for his people now. God looks on at your situation and he will provide exactly what you need. Life at the moment is particularly hard, what are you lacking? Does it feel impossible? Do you trust God? It can be hard to trust that God is providing and will provide. Does …

God leads the Israelites into the Desert. They begin to grumble. They complain about Moses and Aaron. Their complaint is astonishing. They wished that they would have died by God’s hand in Egypt. They’ve endured slavery, oppression and infanticide and been set free. But they wished they were still in Egypt sitting around pots of meat? Are we like t…

The story of the Israelites is the story of many people going on tour together. Of a group being formed into a people, and eventually a nation, with a clear sense of identity and purpose. Their journey was filled with ups and downs, and would take a little longer than most group tours take! The Old Testament reveals to us that their journey would u…

In January and February this year, we spent 6 weeks looking at our Vision and Values. We spent 6 weeks looking at 7 words: Son – Father – Spirit – Grace – Community – Kingdom – Love.Of course, the Vision and Values of a church, indeed of any community, cannot be limited to 7 words and take far more than 6 weeks to discuss, digest and develop. Cultu…