Deeper

Does God choose what prayers he does and does not listen to? If I'm still in sin, does God ignore me? Why preach a sermon focussed on sin and judgement to an audience of Christians who are already saved? Tune in to hear Pastor Mark's responses.

Tune in to hear Pastor Rod Bayley unpack more from this week's sermon on Isaiah 55.  Why is it important for Christians to live a life of repentance, and not only repent the once upon conversion?  What if I'm a Christian who no longer thirsts for the Lord?  How can we help others see their need for Jesus when it seems they are completely satisfied with this life?  Tune in to hear the answers to these questions, as well as some discussion on the biblical concept of 'covenant' and living in a way that longs for heaven. 

Tune in to hear the wisdom of Ken Davies as he unpacks his talk further.  Why is it that our sense of justice seems so different to God's? If Jesus fulfils the role of the suffering servant, why should Christians also see themselves as being suffering servants? How does knowing that one day every knee will bow before the Lord affect how we live and think as Christians today? Tune in for Ken's helpful insights!

Tune in as Pastor Mark Roberts shares more about God’s ambition and our own. Does God really understand the disappointment of unfulfilled dreams? What if our godly ambitions just don’t seem to be bearing the fruit we long for? Does all godly ambition need to focus solely on seeing others converted? How can we help people understand their own lostness? Tune in to find the answers to these (and other!) questions that have arisen from this week’s talk!

Tune in as Pastor Rod Bayley speaks about the significant issue of idolatry. Why is God so concerned with idolatry? Can all sin be considered a form of idolatry? How can I tell the difference between a good desire and an idol? What if my idol is hard to give up? We’ll also consider how an understanding of our own idols and the idols of non-believers can help us to be more effective in sharing the good news of Jesus. 

Tune in this week as Pastor Ken Davies help us navigate what it looks like to listen to the voice of God. How can we discern God’s voice? Is it ok to doubt God? How can we discern when we have slipped into trusting someone or something other than God? These and other questions like them are discussed this episode. 

How are you going? Feeling weary and weighed down? Overwhelmed by the state of our world and by the struggles of no longer meeting in person as a church? Then do we have a message for you! Tune in as Pastor Mark Roberts shares a little of his own worries and weariness, before pointing us back to the hope and comfort offered to us in Isaiah 42. Our God is with the weary and is already at work to restore all things through Christ. Be encouraged as you tune in this week!

Tune in as we kick off our new series in the book of Isaiah! Pastor Rod Bayley will recap for us the history of Israel up until this point, before speaking more about the character of God, as we find it here in Chapter 40. Other questions answered in this episode include: - Should we be interpreting all these current events as God’s judgement? - Is the God of the Old Testament different to the God of the New Testament? - What does God’s presence and comfort really look like for us now? Tune in to hear these (and other) questions answered!

Join us for the final episode in our worship series. Pastor Mark Roberts unpacks some of the practicalities of what it looks like to be a confessor, and what it looks like to be someone who is confessed to. Some of the questions discussed include: “What should we do if we don’t feel close enough to confess with anyone at church?” “What should we do if we’ve experienced confessional relationships that have gone wrong?” “What is the job of the person being confessed to?” “How can we develop a confessional culture in our church, or homegroup or family” Tune in to hear the answers to these and a number of other related questions!

Tune in as Pastor Rod Bayley discusses more on how our generosity can exalt God. We consider how to safe guard against the love of money, how we can go about creating a culture of accountability regarding generosity, and how we can remind ourselves of the true source of our material possessions. We also consider what it looks like to be generous at different stages and life, why a misplaced sense of security is a barrier to giving, and whether or not our giving needs to be costly in order for it to be a true act of generosity.

Tune in to hear Pastor Ken Davies, together with Pastor Mark Roberts, discuss the observance of communion. Why has Jesus given us this practice? What is its relationship to the Passover? Can Christians practice communion from the context of their homes during the global pandemic we continue to face? How can we participate in communion in a truly worshipful manner? Tune in to hear our pastors discuss this discipline of grace.

Tune in as we explore more about the biblical practice of fasting. We’ll consider what the Bible has to say about food more broadly, as well as how we can engage in this practice while maintaining a healthy attitude towards food. We’ll consider whether or not it is a sin to neglect fasting and why this discipline has been included in our series on worship.

Join us as Ken Davies unpacks more on the topic of prayer, based on his sermon from Matthew 6:5-15 (The Lord’s Prayer). How do I know if my prayers are being heard by God? Do my prayers actually impact change? What if I’m praying for godly things but still seeing no results? Given the emphasis on forgiveness in Jesus’ prayer the conversation then shifts to the necessity for forgiven people to be forgiving people. The difference between forgiving something and endorsing something is discussed, as well as whether or not Christians are called to ‘forgive and forget’.

In this episode Pastor Mark Roberts shares more about Sunday’s sermon on singing. Discussion includes the necessity of biblically sound lyrics and how our church goes about managing song choices for corporate worship. We are also encouraged to avoid the pursuit of emotion for emotion’s sake, but to sing passionately because we are singing about the Lord. The reality of the significant gap between God’s worth and our feeble voices is considered, as well as some of the difficulties we may experience at church as we try to sing together in a way that is both God glorifying and helpful to others.

Following his sermon that discussed exalting God through reading the Bible, Pastor Rod Bayley shares about both the reliability and the authority of scripture. If the Bible really is the infallible word of God, then we should certainly read it! But what if we are feeling unsure of the best way to go about that, or what if we are reading the Bible purely out of a sense of duty rather than delighting in God’s word? Tune in to hear Rod’s encouragement as we seek to know God through his word.

In this episode, Ken continues to lay the foundation for our series on worship. We speak more about the reality of humans as being worshipers. We discuss God’s demand to worship him alone, and why that is a GOOD thing. We consider what this looks like in the practical day-to-day realities of our lives. We also consider the role of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to worship, and why spectacular examples of the Spirit’s work (such as miraculous healings and speaking in tongues) are not more valuable than other ways that the Spirit works or is evidenced in our lives.

Join us for the first episode in our new series "EXALT: Living a Life of Worship". Tune in to hear more from Pastor Rod Bayley as we discuss what worship is and looks like. We consider other uses of the term 'worship' throughout scripture, what worship looks like as an individual and as a church gathering, why corporate worship is so important but also why worship is so much more than time at church on a Sunday. 

Tune in for our last instalment of this series as Pastor Rod Bayley discusses the final section of Chapter 16. Does Christianity adhere to some form of karma? Should we be living in fear of judgement? Is it wrong to have wealth? Also in this podcast we zoom out and reflect on our RADICAL series as a whole. Discussion includes reflection on the key lessons learnt and the major things we should walk away with as a result of studying this section of Luke’s gospel.

In this episode, Pastor Rod Bayley discusses the (uncomfortable) topic of money. Why is Jesus so explicit and direct in his condemnation of the love of wealth? How can we accurately assess our own attitudes to wealth and what is the antidote to a heart enslaved by money? Finally, what does it look like to use our resources to win people to Christ? These and other related questions will be discussed this episode.

Tune in for our very first podcast recorded remotely! Pastor Ken Davies unpacks further the parable of the lost in Luke 15. We will consider how to correctly interpret parts of scripture that use parables, and then think more deeply about how the story of the lost sheep, coin and son applies to us. Do our hearts truly reflect the heart of God who is concerned for the salvation of the lost? Or are we more like the older brother or the Pharisees, judging others, sceptical of their salvation, all whilst taking for granted the gift of grace extended to us also?