The importance of 'Freedom'.

We have just started a new teaching series at The King's Church Mid-Sussex on 'Freedom'. Last week Steve Cornford kicked this off by looking at Freedom from our past.  You can hear the message here.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at 'Freedom from Unforgiveness', 'Freedom from Failure' and 'Freedom from Fear'. I believe this is going to be a really important series for many people.

The bottom line is this. Though we live in a nation that enables us to exercise our democratic vote with freedom. And though we live in a nation that enables us to express our faith with freedom. And though we have more options and choices than most other generations throughout history. And though the world is smaller and through social media our ability to communicate is much greater. And though there are more experiences and events to encounter. Though all of this is true.

Many people still live lives that are far from free.

And that's because true freedom is not the absence of restrictions nor is it the unending choices and options available to us (In fact many people suffer from a paralysis of having too much choice and the fear of making the wrong one). True freedom is not about my ability to experience all that life offers or my ability to travel wherever I want.

True freedom comes from within us not from outside of us.

True freedom comes from knowing who we are and being confident in that.
True freedom comes from knowing we don't have to compare ourselves to others.
True freedom comes from knowing that our mistakes don't need to dictate out future.
True freedom comes from knowing that other people's mistakes that have negatively impacted our lives don't need to dictate our future.
True freedom comes from knowing that worry does not add anything to us; it only robs us of something.

True freedom comes from knowing the one who is the freedom giver.

2 Corinthians 2 v 17 says this - "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there if freedom"

That's why I am so excited by this teaching series.

Join us this Sunday as Kieran Dunne unpacks 'Freedom for Unforgiveness"

Imprisoned Spirits, Noah and Baptism

BUILDING THE HOUSE

Over the last few months we have been studying the book of 1 Peter at The King's Church Mid-Sussex. It's an amazing letter written by someone who walked and talked with Jesus. 

Last Sunday (27 April) I preached from some verses in chapter 3 where Peter encourages us not to live in fear but to be prepared and ready when anyone asks us about the hope that we have in Jesus. 

If you missed that message you can listen to it here.

Those of you who have been following the series closely may have noticed that we skipped over a chunk of the third chapter that speaks about marriage. This isn't because we don't want to teach about marriage! Not at all. However, last year we spent six weeks looking at marriage, relationships and sexuality and so I would point you to those sermons for a Biblical view on marriage. Specifically, I recommend you listen to this message - 'A high view of marriage'

IMPRISONED SPIRITS, NOAH AND BAPTISM

At the end of 1 Peter 3, we read some verses that can appear slightly confusing. They say this:

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits – 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,21 and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Michael Eaton wrote that these verses "are famous for their difficulty and famous for the strange ideas that have been read into them!" (1)  

Mark Driscoll wrote "Considering there are nearly 180 different interpretations of 1 Peter 3:18–20, we can confidently say this passage is one of the most difficult in the entire Bible. Even Martin Luther was confounded by this passage, saying “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means." (2)

I am glad to be in such company as Martin Luther! There a few main question that come up when people read these verses. They tend to be the following.

1. Who are the imprisoned Spirits that Peter talks about in verse 19?

2. How did he proclaim anything to them if they were from 'long ago' (verse 20)?

3. And does baptism actually save us (verse 21)?

Now there are two things I could do at this moment. The first thing is try and answer these questions myself. The second is to point you to others who have already answered some of these questions and who have done so in a more eloquent way than I could achieve.  

So, if you want to find out about Imprisoned Spirits, Noah and Baptism based on 1 Peter 3 v 18-22 I recommend you look at the following.

1. A blog post by Mark Driscoll 'Tough text Thursday' - 

http://pastormark.tv/2012/02/02/tough-text-thursday-1-peter-3-19

2. An article by Wayne Grudem ' Christ preaching through Noah' - 

http://www.waynegrudem.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Christ-Preaching-Through-Noah-I-Peter-3-19-20-in-the-Light-of-Dominant-Themes-in-Jewish-Literature.pdf

3. A sermon by John Piper 'Strengthened to Suffer: Christ, Noah, and Baptism' -

http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/strengthened-to-suffer-christ-noah-and-baptism

Happy reading!!

(1) Preaching through The Bible - 1 Peter (Michael Eaton) A Sovereign World International Book

(2) http://pastormark.tv/2012/02/02/tough-text-thursday-1-peter-3-19 (Mark Driscoll)

The Father Heart of God conference - 09-11 May 2014

To know that God is our Father and that we have been adopted into His family is one of the most amazing truths we can ever grasp. It impacts how we view ourselves, it impacts how we view others and it impacts how we live out our Christian faith. As you read the pages of the New Testament we can see that the primary language to describe our relationship with God is that of a family; the pages are full of words such as Father, sonship, adoption, children of God and inheritance.

I am praying that God will continue to reveal the depths of this amazing truth to us as at The King's Church Mid-Sussex and, with that in mind, we are planning for a weekend conference to explore this wonderful subject of 'The Father Heart of God'.

I am delighted that Julian and Katia Adams (pic) will be with us from Friday 09 - Sunday 11 May as well as a team from their church, The King's Arms in Bedford. 

Julian and Katia Adams are based at The Kings Arms, Bedford, UK. Julian is an experienced prophet who travels to many churches, equipping the church in hearing God’s voice. Katie has been involved in various ministries through both her medical and theological background and is now serving God alongside her husband Julian. 

Both Julian and Katia have a passion to see the Kingdom come in great power and demonstrations of God's love.

The conference will start at 7.45pm on Friday 09 May, we will then be together from 9.00am-4.30pm on Saturday 10 May and the weekend will finish with Julian and Katia being with us for our Sunday morning meeting on 12 May at 10.30am.

Publicity and further information, including details of ticket prices and how to book in, will be available very soon. However, it would be great if you could pencil these dates in your diary.

I really believe this is a going to be hugely significant weekend for many people.

Christmas Poem

Happy New Year!

A few people have asked me to post online the poem that I read as part of my preach at our Christmas Celebration on 22nd December. So here it is….

God came from on high, born down below
God came in order that we might know
His love and his peace and his care and his joy
God himself came as a small baby boy

A shocking idea to consider as true
But what if he came for me and for you?
What if this baby born years ago
Actually came in order to show
That God was real, that God is there
That God understands the burdens we bear
That God is not distant; removed from our pain
But that he stepped in and in love bore the same
That he came to forgive the mistakes of our past
To wipe the slate clean; a brand new start

What response would you make if this were all true?
If there were a God who came just for you
What room would you make in your life for the one?
Who came as a baby, God’s only son

God came from on high, born down below
God came in order that we might know
God himself came as a small baby boy
God came that we may know true, deep, lasting joy

January 2014 and why I am excited to pray!

I know that the Christmas season is almost upon us and there is alot taking place over the next few weeks. However, I want to take an opportunity to let you know some of what we have planned at The King's Church Mid-Sussex for the New Year.

In January 2014, rather than having a week of prayer, we are instead planning for a month of prayer. We are looking at various ideas to help us pray and I want to highlight three specific things that will take place.

1. Sunday Morning Teaching

Starting on Sunday 29th December, we are going to spend our Sunday mornings looking at different aspects of prayer. This is with one goal in mind; that we may know him better (Ephesians 1 v 17).

2. The Boiler Room

As I mentioned, we are not planning to have a Prayer Week in January. However we are doing something new. The Boiler Room will take place on Sunday 12th, 19th and 26th January from 7.00-9.00pm. Inspired by Spurgeon's description of prayer meetings being the 'Boiler Room' of church life, we are going to give these three evenings to 'knowing God' through worship and through prayer. We want to create more room and more time to enjoy his presence and, at the start of the year, hear from God for our church in 2014.

3. 31 days to Pray

Each day in January we plan to send, via email, and upload, on Facebook, ideas and resources to help us to pray.  We'll hear, via short videos, from a whole range of people who are members at The King's Church Mid-Sussex who will give us prayer pointers for that day. For those not online we will transcribe these videos and have printed versions for people to pick up at church.

To sign up to receive these daily prayer pointers send an email to prayer@tkc.org.uk with a message that says 'sign me up' and we will!

We are excited to start 2014, together, in prayer and I hope you are too. 

Philippines Response

The pictures that have been released showing the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines are hard to comprehend. I am sure, like me, you have watched the news with a sense of shock and huge sadness. Thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have been made homeless. Entire communities need to be rebuilt from scratch. How do we respond to such a crisis?

1. Pray

Sometimes we do not know how to respond or what to do, but we can all pray. We can pray for the families who have lost members in the tragedy. Pray for the organisations bringing much needed relief. Pray for those making decisions about the use of resources. Pray for energy for those working on the ground to care for people. We can all pray.  

For news and updates to fuel your prayers why not check out the Tearfund webpage dedicated to the Philippines response: 

http://www.tearfund.org/en/news/philippines_typhoon/ 

2. Personal Response

I know many of you will have already given to the response fund but if you have not and want to make a financial donation there are great organisations you can give to who will ensure that your money is used in the best possible way. Here are a couple of recommendations:

Disaster Emergecy Committee - http://www.dec.org.uk/appeals/philippines-typhoon-appeal

Tearfund - http://www.tearfund.org/en/news/philippines_typhoon/

3. Christmas Appeal 

We have decided that at TKC we will take up a special offering at our Christmas celebrations that are taking place on the 15th and the 22nd December specifically for the Philippines. We are working out the best route through which to channel this money but everything given on those Sundays will go the Philippines.

4. Autumn Gift days

We also plan to put aside a portion of what has been given at our recent Autumn Gift Days. We have links with a Newfrontiers church in the Philippines. In fact the leaders, Eden and Fe, have visited our church and stayed with members of TKC. They are in a part of the Philippines that did not experience the devastation of some places, however, they are on the ground supporting people across the nation who are seeking to rebuild their lives. We want to be able to support this church in the efforts they are making to respond to the crisis so will be sending a gift their way.

If you were away over the last two weekend and still want to give to our Autumn Gift Days it is not too late. You can do a bank transfer, or send a cheque to the TKC office. For more info please visit 

http://www.tkc.org.uk/Groups/197785/The_Kings_Church/Get_Involved/Giving/Giving.aspx

Jim

I'm an Englishman in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

It was a huge privilege to spend a few days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia recently. I travelled there with Edward and Fridah Buria and stayed with a beautiful family who live in this vast capital city. We spent time with the leadership team of Eden Genet (Garden of Eden) church on the Saturday morning; I had met some of them before so it was excellent to see them again. They are a humble, faith filled and courageous team who are leading a great church in a hard place.

It was wonderful to preach in this church on the Sunday and speak about the values that connect our church in Mid-Sussex to their church in Addis; grace, apostolic ministry, welcoming the Spirit, making Jesus famous.

Dukem

On the Saturday afternoon we travelled for about an hour outside of the city to a town called Dukem. Dukem has a population of about 40,000 and is on the main road into Addis Ababa.

In this city, prostitution is rife and as a result there is an HIV/AIDS crisis. In this town there is also a church, planted by Eden Genet in Addis Ababa, that gathers about 30 people. As far as we know there are no other evangelical churches in this town.

They are a shining light in a dark place and it was a joy to visit them. Their building is simple; their vision is huge. When we were there a team came with us from Kenya to do some work on this basic structure to make it more robust.

Kenyans, Ethiopians, Brits all working together to see the Kingdom of God advance - I love it!

In the New Testament we see a precedent for churches in one city and nation serving and supporting other churches in different cities and nations. Paul wrote to the church in Rome about the generosity of the church in Macedonia who supported the church in Jerusalem.

I find this so inspiring as the local church was never meant to have a small vision, I believe God's intention was that local churches cared about and were committed to God's Kingdom advancing to the ends of the earth.

I shared some of my stories from my recent travels to Kenya and Ethiopia last Sunday at The King's Church Mid-Sussex and spoke about ways that we can get involved in serving these churches. To hear that message click on this link:

http://www.tkc.org.uk/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=116433&file_id=126879

This coming Sunday 10 November and the week after, Sunday 17 November, we have Gift Days at The King's Church Mid-Sussex. We have an amazing opportunity to serve and support this church in Dukem, Ethiopia. We also have an opportunity to serve and support the church in Kambakia, Kenya as well as invest into what God is doing here in Mid-Sussex.

We have so many resources in the west and have an amazing opportunity to bless others as we give. Every £1 makes a difference. Let me encourage you to pray and to plan for the gift days coming up. Paul says this about the church in Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8:

"And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ² In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ³ For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ⁴ they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people."

Let's follow this inspirational example and see what God might do over the next couple of weeks.