New Creation Church Loughborough

Everyone who wants to live for Christ's kingdom will, from time to time, experience setbacks, discouragement and disappointment, sometimes quite deep. But there are tools you can use which will enable you to bounce back every time, pushing you deeper into intimate fellowship with God. The Spirit of Jesus - who made the ultimate come-back, from death itself - is in you, and he will use every challenge to bring glory to God, both in you and through you.

Unlike earthly kings and rulers, who want to keep royalty for themselves, Jesus, the King of kings, gave his life as a ransom to bestow royalty on all those who come to him. Through Jesus, God has paid the ransom for your life, ransoming you out of futility. Therefore, live a life of faith! Don't settle for the status quo, but remain fervent in your outworking of love for other people.

“I am coming soon” – some of the most comforting words in the Bible. Whatever you are facing, it will not last. Jesus is coming, and he will put everything right in the end. But there is also urgency - we must not "seal up the message" but testify to the truth, that the blood of Jesus is the only way in to the presence of God. We are to invite and urge people to come in, whilst rejoicing in our union with God. Finally, we pray, "Come, Lord Jesus!" - looking to the day when he will make everything new, whilst receiving grace to endure in the meantime.(This is the last episode in the series on the Book of Revelation, and also features a summary of what we have learned during the series.)

Rather than simply meeting our needs, God wants us to experience and thrive in his abundant grace! The story of the people of Israel camping at Elim, where there were 12 springs and 70 palm trees, shows us that God's abundant grace is available to all. It inspires us to worship and to then become a channel of God's grace to other people.

Judges 9:1-21 tells the dark story of Abimelek, with a curious parable about trees right in the middle of it. Listen as guest speaker, Andrew Scotland, brings out the multi-layered richness of this story, tying it in with the rest of Scripture, and challenges us that we are not to be like trees that bear thorns but trees that bear fruit. God has called you to be a faithful steward of God's kingdom. not your own.

The theme of "return from exile" is huge in Scripture, and it was still a big issue at the time of Jesus, even though the exile of Israel had supposedly ended after 70 years. Through Jesus, God wants to bring people from every nation "home" to be with him. He is in the business of bringing back the exiles who have been alienated from him because of their disobedience. If you trust in Jesus, your exile is over! Will you then help create a place for other exiles to return to and belong, and will you proclaim freedom for the captives, that they too can experience a great homecoming?

The description of the 'garden city' in Revelation 22:1-5 shows that God's original perfect plan for his creation, pictured in the garden of Eden, will be gloriously fulfilled at last, as God's purposes reach their climax. If you are trusting in Jesus, you are included in that great restoration project! Listen and discover how wonderful that will be, and allow the vision to transform and embolden you to be a source of life for others, as the great 'river of living water', God's very presence, flows both to you and through you, to bring healing and eternal life to many.

If you want to move in the gift of prophecy, there are ways to do so that will bring life, encouragement and transformative change. Equally, there are ways to mishandle or misuse the gift which will be unhelpful to others and hinder what God wants to do. The famous passage about love in 1 Corinthians 13 is actually given in the context of the use of spiritual gifts such as prophecy, and the description there of the characteristics of love also describe how such gifts should operate in the mouths of God's people.

You are not the centre of your story! Rather, God is the hero, the main character. Your life-story fits within a much larger whole, and is given meaning and richness from that wider story - the grand narrative of God's kingdom and salvation plan, the restoring of all creation! Starting from Joshua 5:13-15, see how God challenges our thinking, so that we can find joy, purpose and meaning from being part of something so much bigger than our lives alone.