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‘LORD You are good and your mercy endures for ever!’ Psalm 136 sets the scene for beautiful worship this morning leading us into the throne room of God, followed by a very powerful talk by Pastor Dave Ward from Acts 12 v 1 - 10. Looking at the perplexing circumstances of Acts 12 and asking ‘Why was the apostle James killed and the apostle Peter freed?’ And ‘How are we going to live our lives between now and death?’

‘When Jesus is on the scene we see the extraordinary!’ Following a wonderful time of worship, a fantastic report from our 11-17’s who attended NewDay and the dedication of Levi Ikpe, Pastor Dave Ward spoke from Mark 10 v 13 - 16. Do we see our neediness of God as a baby needs his parents?

‘What is the Gospel?’ Pastor Dave Ward asks this question and looks at Romans 1 v 1 - 6 & 16 - 17 and Galatians 1 v 6 - 10. ‘You cannot receive the gospel if you don’t receive the Lordship of Jesus Christ!’

‘Stay true to the Lord with devoted hearts.’ ‘If you are born again you are not an ordinary person - you are a person of the Spirit!’. Pastor Dave Ward speaks from Acts 11 v 19 - 30 and says ‘You cannot excuse yourself from the call the Lord has put on your lives!’ Looking at Barnabas and the early church in Antioch, we see that this is here for our instruction; a biblical example of how the church uses teaching and the prophetic to function well.

‘……but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.’ Jumping back to Acts 3 v 1 - 10, Pete Gray looks at how the disciples knew who they were and what they had and asks ‘Do we know who we are and what we have?’. ‘We can’t stay the same because Jesus transforms our lives. Jesus picks up beggars and turns them into the children of God!’.

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ Looking at Matthew 5 v 31 v 11 and specifically v3 - 6, Angela Ward calls us to look deeply at our own hearts and ask do we bow to God’s will, do we empty ourselves completely? ‘Poor in spirit is about being empty of all our own self reliance to be totally reliant on the God of heaven.’

‘Sharing the gospel is the most important thing we will ever do!’ Continuing Acts Chapter 10, Pastor Dave Ward speaks from v 34 - 48 and reminds us that the first 10 chapters of Acts shows that the Holy Spirit should make us visibly different!’ And to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. ‘We cannot exhaust spiritual gifts, why would we not want one that helps us to worship Jesus?’

‘If God tells you to do something, you should be putting everything else aside and do what God has said to do!’ Pastor Dave Ward continues our look at Acts 10 v 1 - 33. ‘Being filled with the Holy Spirit IS the Gospel itself, the Holy Spirit is NOT an add on!’ We see in Acts so many significant conversions only made possible by the Holy Spirit and how in Chapter 10 unity can only be by the Holy Spirit as shown through Peter and Cornelius’ meeting.

Acts 10 ‘Paints a beautiful picture of unity in the Church’. AJ Durling continues our series in Acts looking at how unity in the church can be lived out and asking the question, ‘What can we do to stop ourselves falling into division and dispute?’.

‘If we take His (God’s) name lightly we are taking the most important name in the universe lightly!’ Declan Rogers speaks from specific verses in Exodus 20 and encourages us to read Deuteronomy 5 along side Exodus 20. Focusing on identity and authority Declan asks ‘Do we take the authority, we should be living in, lightly?’.