St Matts Weekly Message

Peter probably knew Jesus best of all but even he let Jesus down. Sophie takes us through the beautiful story of Peter's restoration to relationship with Jesus- and how that can be our story too, no matter how far we feel we have failed him- Jesus restores us to fullness in him.

On the road to Emmaus two of Jesus' disciples were leaving the city full of disappointment, low and let down. But in their encounter with Jesus everything is turned around!

Continuing our 'Graves into Gardens' series Sally speaks on the story of Thomas and how his doubt was transformed into faith as he encountered Jesus.

New series time! We'll be heading through some of the post resurrection stories of encounter with Jesus as we look at how he changes people lives and outlooks- Graves into Gardens!

Celebrate the Easter story with us!

Palm Sunday! We're taking a look through the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem - the King... but perhaps a different kind of king.

Sophie takes us through John 13:1-17 where Jesus washes his disciples feet.

Join us for the next in our series as Sally looks at Jesus- the way, the truth and the life.

It's Sophie's (our new Vicar) first week! Have a listen and hear her opening up these wonderful verses from John 15 and encouraging us to stay connected to Jesus!

How does Christian life play out in the tricky dynamics of family life? What does Paul mean when he speaks about the relationships between husbands and wives, children and parents, and even slaves? And how might we take the high call of discipleship on in our own close relationships- as we choose mutual flourishing (everyone getting involved), mutual submission (everyone giving themselves) and mutual service (everyone working for Jesus).

If the image of the invisible God lives in us, if nothing can be added to or taken away away from what Jesus has done for us, if nothing can separate us from the love of God... what's our part in all of this? What does it look like to live out life in the light of those beautiful truths? Have a listen to find out more...

As we continue the series in Colossians Claire helps us to think through how the freedom we have in Christ should lead us to full devotion to him- clinging to Jesus, keeping in the light and staying devoted to him.

Fullness in Jesus is meant to lead to Freedom in him- but that often seems like a long way off! Join Graham as he takes us on a journey towards how we can experience freedom rooted in Christ in our minds and from the enemies schemes.

Join Sally and Adrian as the take us through one of the most beautiful descriptions about Jesus in the New Testament. It really is ALL about Jesus!

Jeff carries on the series in Colossians. The hope of the world is a mystery revealed in Jesus. It comes at a cost - but the cost is SO worth it, it is Christ in you the hope of glory!

We're starting a new series for a new year! Over the next week join St Matts as we journey through the book of Colossians - a letter written to the freshling church at Colossae praising God for the seed of the Gospel that has been growing and bearing fruit and encouraging them to go deeper that as they understand the fullness of God in Jesus they might also be brought to fullness in Jesus. In todays passage Paul prays that they (and we!) would bear fruit, grow in knowing God, be strengthen by the spirit and give thanks — what a great way to start a new year!

Join Mike to find out how graffiti and cereal might help us to embrace all that God has for us as we head into 2024.

Join Graham as he helps us to understand the meaning of advent — Engaging with the gospel and then learning how to live that out in the same through embracing repentance, eating (belief), expecting (being immersed!), and being empowered (by Holy Spirit). 

How are you sleeping at the moment? How are your peace levels? We speak and sing about peace so much at Christmas and yet it is a notoriously unpeaceful time of year. So what is the Peace that is promised at Christmas when the angels visit some shepherds on a hill and promised "Peace to all on whom his favour rests." Join mike to find out more...

As we round off this "Back to Basics" series we take a slight change of tack as we explore the big topic of climate change. Join Dan who has a background in climate science as he goes through both the serious implications of climate change from a scientific point of view as well as the reason Christians should be leading the way in caring for the world that God has gifted us with.

Join Claire (chaplain at Plymouth Marjon and member our church) as she carries on our "Back to Basics" series, looking at the often missed discipline of Solitude - space we all need in this busy life to reconnect with Jesus.

Why do Christians get together on Sunday to sing together? And is that even what worship is? Join Mike and our panel - Noah, Naomi, Claire and Graham as they discuss all things worship - why we do it, who it's for and how we can grow together in this area of our life as a church. Enjoy!

Sally speaks about the beautiful and fundamental practice of forgiveness. Forgiveness starts with God's great mercy, it flows to us — sometimes we need to learn to forgive ourselves and it enables us to make those difficult costly choices to forgive those who have hurt us: "To forgive is to set a prisoner free... and to find that the prisoner is yourself."

What's your experience of communion? A key part of your discipleship, or something slightly weird that happens up the front of church which you're not quite sure about? Communion was given as a gift by Jesus to his disciples so that we might remember and enter into the story of his death and resurrection- it is a beautiful picture of the promises of God to us, promises which we step into simply by opening our hands and receiving. And through it we get to experience union with God and union with each other — what a gift!

We often pray 'Come Holy Spirit' - but what (or who) is the Holy Spirit? How do we understand the Holy Spirits work in the world and in our lives and how can we each invite Holy Spirit to come and make a home in us? Join Jeff as we explore some of these questions!

Are you feeling refreshed, rested and full of life? Probably not. God has built into the fabric of creation a rhythm of rest - it's called the Sabbath. Come join Mike as we explore what the Sabbath is and why the idea is so important for us... so we can Get Grace, Learn to Stop and Practice Delight.

Why has the Bible been the number 1 selling book ever since it was first published? Why should we bother reading it? Graham unpacks the message and purpose of scripture for us — it is the way that God has chosen to reveal himself, to impart life and to empower his people!

Mike begins our new series 'Back to Basics' asking the question Why Church? Have you ever found yourself asking why you turn up to church or why you are part of one? We look through 1 Peter 2:4-10 where we see the church as the People of God defined by grace, The Temple of God built on christ, and a Priesthood of believers whose purpose is to declare his praises. What a gift to us as believers to be part of this beautiful thing that God has created called The Church!

As part of our 7th Birthday celebrations, Mike our curate reminds us how we can make faith simple, following in Jesus' way: Know God, Love each other and Make a Difference!

The last of our Summer series — Enoch was a man who walked with God for a really really long time. Jeff takes us through the brief mentions of Enoch in the scriptures and shows us how we can learn the kind of discipleship which is "a long obedience in the same direction."

This week we were joined by Becky Murray. Becky is the founder and CEO of One By One, a charity aiming to end the exploitation of the vulnerable across the world. As well as sharing about the story, mission and work of One by One, Becky also shared a message from the book of Exodus with the title 'I AM'. Becky encourages us to think about where God could send us to build his kingdom - whether on a mission trip to another country or volunteering at the Soup Run next week. All we need to do is respond just like Isaiah did: "Here I am, send me."

Back to School Sunday! It’s a time of year when lots of people are getting ready for new things or getting back into old things. Mike continues our Summer Heroes series taking us through three episodes in the life of Joshua in the Old Testament and what they might teach us as we head into this next term, like Joshua, knowing God has big plans, living faithfully in the waiting rather than getting stuck, and keeping up our hunger for God.

Phil shared from the story of Daniel in the Bible. Daniel (of lions den fame!) was an amazing man of faith in the Old Testament who chose to live faithfully to God in a very hostile environment of exile. He was also gifted in interpreting dreams and had insight from God into the unseen spiritual world around us. We need to recognise evil in the world around us and these things can seem a little weird and even frightening. However we rest in the fact that God has won the victory in Jesus, and are called to continue to live faithfully like Daniel — keeping on doing good, focussing on Godly things and holding on to the truths of the Word of God which the Bible calls the Sword of the Spirit.

This week we were blessed to hear Adrian share with us on 3 of his heroes from the book of Daniel: Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. These three men are praised for their unwavering faith in God, even when faced with the threat of a fiery furnace. Adrian challenges us if we would remain as strong in a similar situation. At the end of the message, we look a Peter and his denial of Jesus three times out of fear for his own life. Despite his denial, Peter was restored by Jesus and went on to preach the gospel, write two books of the New Testament, and inspire millions. Adrian encourages us that even if we have faltered in their faith - unlike Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego, we can be restored and make a significant impact- just like Peter.

This week Teressa kicked off our new message series: 'Summer Heros.' In this new series, we will be looking at our speaker's favourite figures from the Old Testament and what learning we can take from their stories to help us in our own walk with Jesus. Teressa kicks us off this week in a somewhat unlikely place - the story of Abraham, Sarai and Hagar...

We had an issue in recording this week so we are missing the first few moments of the message. This is the entirety of the reading Teressa is speaking from when the podcast begins:

Genesis 15:18 to 16:6

So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River… 1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children. So Sarai took her servant, an Egyptian woman named Hagar,  and gave her to Abram so she could bear his children. "The Lord has kept me from having children," Sarai said to Abram. "Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed.  So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)  So Abram slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with contempt.  Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! Now this servant of mine is pregnant, and she despises me, though I myself gave her privilege of sleeping with you. The LORD will make you pay for doing this to me! Abram replied, “Since she is your servant, you may deal with her as you see fit.” So Sarai treated her harshly and Hagar ran away. 

Apologies for the delay in uploading Sunday's message- the whole team have been away at Creation Fest!

In this, the final instalment in our Upside Down series through the book of Acts, Mike looks at our whole life mission as Christians. The passage for this weeks message is Acts 20:17-38.

In our penultimate message in our Upside Down series, Graham Smith takes us through the story of Paul and Silas in Prison in Acts 16:13-34. He draws on his experience as a missionary in China for 7 years to help shed some life on the experience of persecution millions have faced over the centuries up until the present day - including Paul and Silas in our passage. 

Graham finishes by asking us the following questions:

• Are you looking for God’s opportunity for you?
• Are you open to God’s unlikely plan?
• Are you ready to embrace the unexpected, overcome fear, and choose joy?
• Have you tasted the joy of breakthrough?

Join us next week as our Curate Mike takes us through our final instalment in our Upside Down series 🙌

As the early church grew it also faced lots of difficulties. This week Sally, one of our Church Wardens, takes us through the story of Peter’s miraculous escape in Acts 12. It’s a story that starts with the church in crisis - James has been put to death, Peter has been put in prison and the church is being persecuted. In the face of all this the church pray - both earnestly and honestly, and Peter joins in with Gods amazing rescue plan. Many Christians around the world face persecution for their faith - we get to join in praying earnestly and honestly for christians around the world, as well as asking God to help us to find freedom from the things which hold us back in our own lives.

As humans, we all have underlying prejudices. The thing about prejudice is that it's not easy to spot it ourselves- sometimes we need some help. That's exactly what we see the Holy Spirit doing in today's passage as the boundaries of the early church continue to be pushed outward. Join Mike as we find out about an unexpected character seeking God, about a follower of Jesus making space to listen to and be challenged by God, and about the widening circle of the Kingdom of God where everyone is welcome but everyone is also transformed.

Continuing with our Upside Down series, we were so blessed to have Claire McIlroy speak to us on Passion, Purpose & Perseverance through the lens of Acts 9:1-22.

This week was our Preachtastic service! Across the day we had 6 brilliant speakers give a message as part of our current series 'Upside Down'. Each speaker based their messages on the same passage from Acts 8:26-40. We've put all the speakers together in one podcast ready for you to catch up on!

The speakers this Sunday were: Natasha Gilbert, Martin Haworth, Naomi Manuel, Beth Horton, John Bakare & Debs Marks-Lenton!

We often think of the church in Acts as an idyllic community, and with the beautiful vision of community life in Acts 2 & 4 it's true — the miracle of Pentecost wasn't just visible in signs, wonders, and healings but in the creation of a new united family who shared and cared for those in need! But as with any community things quickly go wrong. Mike takes us through a story of crisis in the early church as we think about how we can respond to being an imperfect community, as we learn to live community life in both organised and organic ways and share the good news of Jesus together in both word and deed.

Jeff takes us through our next exciting Acts story in the Upside Down series looking at the first miracle which happened after the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. Miracles are defined as extraordinary events - but they weren’t extraordinary for Jesus and they were an expectation of the early church. They saw the overwhelming need around them, responded with obedience to the call of Jesus and took faith risks. What risks is God calling us to take? Praying for healing will always be risky but perhaps not doing it is just as risky?

Up next in our Upside Down teaching series is Pentecost Sunday! Mike takes us through the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the Spirit fell in power and people immediately began to ask what on earth was going on. He encourages us that because of the Spirit coming at Pentecost all those years ago, today, everyone can be filled to overflowing. Isn't that good news?!

On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit fell in power and people immediately began to ask what on earth was going on. In this Try Church message, Mike takes us through the first ‘Gospel preach’ as Peter began to explain to the gathering crowds who Jesus is, why he came and what we can each do about it. You’ll also hear some top tips on sharing this message with your friends and family!

This week we rewind back to the beginning of Acts as Teressa continues our preaching series ‘Upside Down.’ Teressa takes us through Acts 1:1-8 as Jesus spends time with his followers before the action of Acts really kicks off. We all go through ‘in-between’ times in our lives — the challenge from this passage is to use these times to let go of our own vision and grab hold of God's vision.

Mike kicks off our new series ‘Upside Down’ where we will be tracking through the book of Acts looking to be inspired by the story of the early church and how the Holy Spirit came upon the early followers of Jesus to build the church and to empower them for the mission that God had given to them. However you feel about mission and evangelism — excited, terrified or anywhere in-between — our prayer is that as you listen toda y and as we go through this series we would all learn increasingly to step out where we are, to join in with God in his mission in the world, and to believe that it makes a difference!

Phil spoke on Sunday on being ‘Servants of the King.’ In the parable of the talents servants are given great treasure to use, steward and multiply. What have we been given by God and how can we cooperate with the Spirit to grow in these character traits? Listen back to find out!