Family Church Waterlooville

Thoughout this message are some amazing testimonies of what God has done in people's lives, at times in significant ways and at other times in seemingly-less spectacular yet just as important ways. Any move of God IS a move of God and we are grateful for His engagement in every area of our lives.

As followers of Jesus we are called to be salt and light to the world. Salt cannot lose it's saltiness but can be affected by dilution or contamination. We are to be selective of the company we keep, as well as eradicate any compromise in our lives. The way we live matters, along with the ability to share our testimonies well.

Throughout this message we are encouraged to take responsibility for our own Jerusalem by recognising our mission field as the people who we interact with on a daily basis. We need to be intentional about reaching our world by 1) accepting the Great Commission 2) identifying those in our Jerusalem and 3) to be praying persistently in line with God's Word and will.

As ambassadors of Christ our lives are to align with ambassadorial principles and values: appointed by the King, called to represent the King and His Kingdom, committed to the state (Kingdom of God) and speak the governmental (Kingdom) position on all matters. Our lives are to be aligned with what the Kingdom says especially to those closest to us.

As children of God, and members of His household, we have a responsibility (our response to an ability God has given to us) to daily live a lifestyle of evangelism, and point others to Jesus. We are called to partner with God and to co-labour with Him in the Great Co-Mission. Much like Peter, John, Philip and Nathanael who were invited to "Come and See", our ONE which is defined as "Outreach Never Ends" matters greatly!

The Power of the Cross is not to be held as a romantic notion or a religious icon, but rather as a reminder of what Jesus's death, burial and resurrection bought for us. The seed which fell to the ground, died and produced much grain in John 12 is an analogy of of Jesus producing after His own kind. We too are called to be disciples who make disciples by proclaiming the message and power of the cross in our world.

There is no more important time in the life of the Believer than Easter, when we look to the Cross of Jesus.Whilst filled with gratitude for the Cross, we are not to be fixated with it as an object, but rather to focus on the achievement of it, and the incredible statement God made through it.He loves you and demonstrates it in the most extreme fashion. Now we are to live in what it achieved for us, and in this Easter message we begin to open up some of the rights Jesus died to buy us, and that we – like the children of Israel who were to go into their Promised Land ‘and possess it', we too will have to possess our blood-bought rights.

God's original design for man is to be fruitful and multiply. In the Old Testament the focus was on one nation, Israel, whose mandate was to bring forth Messiah. They multiplied from one man, Abraham,into one family, into one nation and inherited a physical Promised Land. In the Great Commission we see Jesus extend that mandate to His disciples, to make disciples of all nations, and populate the Kingdom of God, our spiritual Promised Land.

Looking amongst all the commandments that God gave to Joshua in order to possess the Promised Land (the WHAT), is a sliver of instruction on the HOW - by meditating on the Word day and night. As we apply this truth in our lives, a lifestyle of meditating on the Word of God will cause us to be prosperous and have good success. As we intentionally hunger for the Word, and much like a lion who growls over his prey as he digests it, we too will growl with satisfaction as we feast on the Word. The Word becomes a part of our very being, it fashions us, causing us to flourish.

Ps Andy continues the series on Magnify & Multiply, this week with part 2 of "The Authority of God's Word". After summarizing the messages from previous weeks Ps Andy quotes Ecclesiastes 8:4 (AKJV) "Where the word of a king is, there is power". There is final authority in the word of King Jesus! When we speak the words of King Jesus, things begin to shift. We need to walk in the authority that Jesus has given us. Andy mentions three key things here:Our belief in who He says He is. Our faith in who He is will determine some of our experiences. Our faith doesn't change Him, it accesses Him!Our submission to His lordship in His word - it is possible to believe in him but not submit to himObedience to HimPs Andy quotes many examples from scripture where these three ingredients caused great things to happen (the Centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 is not a disciple, but his faith, his submission to the authority of Jesus and the spoken word of Jesus healed the servant)...Andy explains how often we need to lay aside our own natural experiences, our thinking, our rebellion to the worldly thinking and submit to God. When God speaks something into our situations and it doesn't make sense, let it be. Let it be according to your word, may it be so.This week, let's hear what God says to us, submit to it, walk in accordance to it and see the power contained within it released into our lives and of others.

The authority which the first Adam lost in the Garden, was taken back at the cross by the Last Adam, and given to us as disciples of Jesus Christ. We are to think and speak the words of the author of Life, words that contain authority, in our lives, prayers, and during times of temptation and accusation.

From the Parable of the Soil we learn that God's desire for us is to recognise the value of the seed of the Word of God, to hear it, accept it, receive it and allow it to produce a harvest of blessing in our lives.

Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, from the Father in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. God's character is founded in all truth and all of His ways are mercy and truth.

Two of the Greek words used throughout the New Testament for the Word, are Logos and Rhema. Logos is the logic of God revealed to mankind both through His Son, Jesus Christ, and also through the written Word of God. Rhema is the spoken Word of God which the Holy Spirit quickens to us, mostly for specific seasons. Both are equally important and we are encouraged to meditate on the Word and allow it to become flesh in our own lives.

The account of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, is an Old Testament example of how to worship the Lord in the midst of a trial. Jehoshaphat first positioned himself individually before seeking the Lord through prayer and worship nationally. Chenee' then shared from her own personal walk with the Lord of how a lifestyle of worship has transformed and impacted her through many seasons of her life.

We are designed for worship and all have a pearl of great price. We are to worship God in His entirety and in the message we see Jesus being worshipped on earth: as a child, throughout His earthly ministry and at His resurrection and His ascension. Seeing Jesus being worshipped in Heaven as well as in the coming age inspires us to magnify Him in all seasons of our lives.

One of the key ways we magnify the Lord is through our worship, both corporately and individually. God is the One who initiates us into worship, and requires us to surrender to Him. We can only worship God in direct proportion to our knowledge of Him, and having a vision of Him, and as we do, we can worship Him in spirit and truth.

Ps Chris shared the vision for FC Waterlooville and how it fits within the Global vision and mission of Family Church. We were encouraged to get vision for our personal lives and looked at some of the benefits of living with a God-centred vision.

Ps Andy delivers a keynote message today regarding vision for the whole of Family Church during 2025. He explains how important it is for us to have a vision (Proverbs 29:18, Where there is no vision, the people perish) and thanks all those who have contributed in any way to the outworking of the church vision the previous year. Ps Andy then concentrates his message around two words the Lord gave him, namely Magnify and Multiply. With reference to a myriad of scriptures he explains the vision for all of the Family Church congregations tying this in with God's Word.

Today is the Tomorrow that I worried about Yesterday! And yet when we see what God says to us in His Word about our tomorrow, there is much to be looking forward to. God loves us perfectly and as His children, we are being transformed into His image. He alone is God, we are His creation, nevertheless, when we see Him, we shall be like Him.

We looked at walking in harmony with God, the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, yielding to His promptings according to His purpose. It's a journey of faith and our foundation text is 2 Corinthians 3:18 which provides us with a key to following His leading which is yield first, then receive the understanding.

We have history with God which goes back from before our conception and since the foundation of the world. God knows us, has called us, has a plan and a purpose for our lives, and has good works prepared in advance for us to live in.

In this final message of this series, we learn about God's love which is steadfast and sacrificial and a love so committed that nothing can ever separate us from it.

Looking at the life of Hannah, we follow her journey as she keeps hope alive while she's praying and crying out to God for a baby. Her hope was firmly established in WHO God was, and once she had a Word from God through the priest, Eli, her "natural" hope changed into Bible hope, which positioned her to receive the promised son.

Faith, hope and love are to always be deeply embedded and remain threaded throughout our lives, both corporately and personally. In this message we unpack how faith starts in our lives, by Jesus the Author, and how Jesus, the Finisher of our faith, matures our faith as we are saved by faith, walk by faith and live by faith.

The Christian life is a journey, from a life of separation and isolation from God to one of adoption and relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. We are not spiritual orphans or servants motivated by duty or obligation but sons and heirs who are motivated by God's love and acceptance.

Nehemiah overcame his own personal fear by stepping out in faith, which fuelled his vision to repair the walls of Jerusalem. As we step outside of our comfort zones for a cause which is greater than ourselves, our faith is what fuels us, empowering us to overcome our own fears.

Nehemiah 3 gives us clear understanding of the power of unity, of each person standing shoulder-to-shoulder to get the work done. Being God's fellow-workers there's a synergy which exists as we co-labour with Christ in establishing His kingdom on earth.

Looking at the end result of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and working our way back to when he heard about the condition of the Jews, we're able to draw out lessons learned from his repentant response. We are challenged in this message to humble ourselves, pray and seek the Lord for what we can do individually as a church, and then commit to doing it. The church is both visible and spiritual, formed of two components - human and Divine!

Being rooted and grounded in the love of God will establish us, strengthen us and sustain us through the seasons of life. Challenges which we experience can cause us to become entrenched, causing us to become stuck and unable to grow, whereas when we experience the great quality of love of God within our lives, our confidence and trust in God increases.

Nehemiah sets the scene for what being a "yes" people looks like in terms of having a burden and passion for those around us. Jesus IS building His church and desires that each one of us co-labour with Him in meeting the needs of others. The need is our call to action - we are it!

Every believer can and should experience both the Fruit and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with them developing and flowing in their lives to an increasing degree. As we walk in the Spirit, yield to the Spirit and pray in the Spirit, fruit is grown and manifests the nature of the Spirit. Gifts are given as the Spirit wills and manifest the power of God. We need both!

At salvation the believer is sealed by the Person of the Holy Spirit becoming God's possession, and filled with the Holy Spirit becoming God's temple. Subsequent to salvation the baptism in the Holy Spirit empowers the Believer to benefit their own lives and the lives of others.

The Holy Spirit's desire is to be mutually linked to us as Believers, and desires to be engaged in all areas of our lives as our Helper, our Guide, our Teacher and our Wisdom.

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead and as such, is both a person and God. Throughout Scripture we see Him present in Creation, throughout the Old Testament, in the life of Jesus in the Gospels and throughout the New Testament. His present day ministry continues as He lives inside believers, guiding them, helping them and influencing them for good.

Ps Andy speaks across all Family Church congregations about the next phase of our discipleship journey. At the start of the year we concentrated on two sets of teachings. The first one was called Jesus is - Christology. We looked at the person of Jesus, who the Bible reveals Him to be in the Old and the New Testaments. Following this, we moved on to a second series called Soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. We took a few weeks to study, how incredible our Salvation is, how wonderfully the Lord has saved us, what He achieved in the finished work of the Cross with Jesus. Ps Andy then speaks about how we are to move to a third part of our discipleship series, which we are calling 'Jesus Empowers'. This is Pneumatology and it's the Doctrine or the study of the person and works of the Holy Spirit.Ps Andy continues with an introduction to this series which again is fundamental to our understanding of our Christian walk.

The love which God the Father has lavished on us, needs to overflow into the lives of the church as we love one another, serve one another and lay down our lives for one another. God has gifted each one of us individually, and as in the hands of Zerubbabel with a plumb line, there's something He's placed in our hands which we need to put to work in order to help establish God's kingdom amongst us.

Using different analogies and parables the principle of the seed is seen throughout the Bible. Rather than remaining as a seed, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is expected to grow and increase. As it is in the natural, water and air are 2 ingredients necessary for germination of seeds, so it is in the spiritual. Water and Air are represented as the Word and the Holy Spirit, both necessary for germination of seed to grow into full maturity.

Biblical joy is a sense of inner delight which is dependent on who Jesus is, rather than who we are or the situation we might find ourselves in. Joy is a choice and it strengthens us, giving us victory and hope and as such we can experience it even in the midst of trials.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to conform to the image of Jesus and bear much fruit. John 15 is the analogy of the vineyard where we find the 3 key ingredients to bear fruit: Abide in Jesus, abide in His Word, and abide in His love.

Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's character, and, as followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit produces God's character in us. We can allow God's peace, which is neither temporary nor dependent on external circumstances, to be expressed 3 ways in our lives: through wholeness, security and completeness.

The Fruit of the Holy Spirit is love displayed in our lives in different expressions, and is the visible expression of the invisible work that God does in our lives as we willingly yield to Him.

Our personal testimonies are eternal, powerful, and bring glory to Jesus, and during Celebration Sunday we heard wonderful testimonies of what God has been doing in 3 people's lives over the last year.

Understanding as King David did, the relationship between the Shepherd and His sheep, we learn 3 important lessons from Psalm 23 about trusting God in all the seasons of our lives: trust is personal, trust is a process and trust is possible.

Looking at a number of examples throughout the Bible, we learn about the importance of reframing our hearts and our days by making daily declarations over our lives in line with God's Word

Drawing a comparison between Zerubbabel rebuilding the temple (Zech 4:6) and our lives, we are encouraged to not lose heart when we experience delays. We are to remember that God has not forgotten us and is always working behind the scenes of our lives. God has equipped us with the right tools and will empower us to take the next steps to get the job done.

Having received God's great salvation, we enter into the start of a life-transforming journey with God as He begins the work of restoring our lives, building them up one brick at a time into the image and likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Through Adoption we are children of God, united with the family of God by the Spirit of God with the purpose of being conformed to the Son of God, as mature sons by abiding in Him and walking in His ways.

Continuing along the theme of Adoption, we look at the journey of fellowship into the family of God which starts with being joined together, Jesus Himself being the Chief Cornerstone. We, the family of God are held together by the love of the Father, are established in the Word and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

In this final message on Soteriology, we learn about the first of 3 aspects of Sonship: being children of God. As new creatures in Christ we are adopted by Father God as His children, and, as those dearly loved children, we are to abide in Him and walk in His ways.

As new creatures in Christ we are discovering everything that Jesus has already done for us, through His death, burial and resurrection. We were in Christ at His death and burial, and we were also in Him when He was raised from the dead. Our old man is dead and our new man has been infused with the very nature of God.