Hope

Friendship and Hope

OPEN DOORS, CONNECTING CHRIST AND COMMUNITY

Matthew 7:7–8 NIV

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

· Connected and committed to Jesus Christ

partnership pledge

· Serving God and others with our lives, gifts and resources

results to action

· A community, guided by the Holy Spirit, known for faith, hope and friendship

FRIENDSHIP

· Showing Christ to others in words and deeds

We (the people) are the church (make that clear, not the building)

· Praying for people

Write down the names of friends you will pray for this week

· Building friendships and getting to know people through hospitality

Through the people that use the building, those that come to the building, those that live in Newstead (heartbeat), those that live near us (our homes)

· Sharing God’s love in how we care for people

John 13:35 NIV

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

this in john is before he commands us to love as he loves.

We can show this level of sacrificial love because of the hope we have

HOPE

a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen: a feeling of trust.

On the starting line - that feeling of hope

Going on holiday, Christmas

2 Corinthians 5:16–21 NIV

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God has opened a door of Reconciliation - the restoration of friendly relations and when we are friends with the king/creator we can feel invincible, and with the freedom we feel, we can feel the expectation and desire for that restoration to happen for others. So we

· Living the hope and peace we have in Christ

Peace - Voice of the martyr - nothing can hurt us because our bodies are Jesus

· Reaching out and offering to people the hope of God’s love and truth

we can feel the pressure, But need to remember our own stories of love and truth

I felt I had to put on a mask, and seem like everything was okay on the outside but on the inside, I felt lonely and filled my life with things that had no purpose, and didn’t go anywhere.

Yet isn’t it funny how we hold onto that life, we think it is comfortable or what we have known? Yet the more I come to know Jesus, the friendship that was there, I was hungry for more and the new creation came as I was restored to who God sees me to be. I could take off the mask and step into a real adventure with a purpose. To do something with my life for God’s kingdom because he had my back, he was with me in the fight. So our hope, expectation and desire for something to happen are not just heaven when we die, eternity starts the day you choose Jesus, life, purpose, and adventure all begin at the moment you fully understand Jesus' friendship, love and truth with you and the desire to have that with everyone. how could we not want that feeling, that freedom for everyone?

· Encouraging one another to trust in God

I have spent the last 11 months listening to the needs of the congregation and I feel God is highlighting the significate issue we all have on our hearts, it's our family members.

Our adult kids, teens or children, our parents our siblings. Intergenerational issue

have come through a significant global disrupter event of our generation if not our time, everyone is left fatigued, mental health is on the raise and we are still unsure of what normal looks like. But our hope - trust in God is that he is with you and he has put the people around you to be with you.

There is a lot each person here has to offer and it is okay to allow others to journey with you in your burdens.

· Believing and applying God’s Word the Bible

Matthew 11:27–30 NIV

“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

We need rhythms of rest - to abide, this is simply what we are called to do, know Jesus, love as he loved us, lay down our life for Jesus' cause

· Being equipped to share the hope of the Gospel with people near and far

When we do this we are equipped to share the Gospel the way we are passionate about.