Church in the Peak Podcast

28th February 2010 - Dave Harper - Preaching into the "Breaking Camp" vision

Dave preached into David Palmer’s vision about Breaking Camp (See 17th Feb 2010 – link below). Dave started looking at 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 and explained that we must not quench the Spirit.

Prophecy:
1. Will be consistent with Scripture;
2. Must ring true;
3. Must be weighed;
4. Is a character issue: good fruit comes from good trees; a bad tree cannot produce good fruit – We need to assess the tree as well as the fruit.

We need to have an active faith for the things that God is promising at this time. From the vision that David P had, it is clear that stragglers are in danger of being left behind.

David P’s vision talks about cans being “single use only” and bags that are only for “use while good”. Some things that have served us well in the past, will not be appropriate in the coming harvest.

The Prodigal Son lost his way but came back to his senses and journeyed back to his father. We can too but we need to acknowledge that we’ve done wrong.

“The past can teach us but must not bind us. The gaze must be ever forward for what God will do.”

We have been getting ready for God to act suddenly. We need to pick up what we’ve put down; move to the place God wants us; sort out marriages; sort out un-resolved hurts and baggage; finish work on houses etc; and be available to serve God in whatever way He asks us.

Listen now! (0:50min / 13MB)

21st February 2010 - No meeting today

Today’s meeting had to be cancelled due to the sudden snowfall.

Don’t forget the Church Family Meeting on Tuesday 23rd February 2010 at 7:30pm at the Riverside, Matlock.

17th February 2010 - Ian Clague & David Palmer - Travelling With God & Breaking Camp

During the prayer time following Dave Holden’s preach on revival (see previous Podcast item):

1] Ian shared a vision that he had about the need to pack in the same way as a marathon runner, knowing that the organisers would provide for their every need, not as a person undertaking a trek, where they have to carry everything.

2] Last week, David woke up early one morning with a vision from God relating to travelling with Him and how we need to break camp, leaving behind old things, even if they have been good/ useful previously.

To read the text of the vision that David had, please click on the link below.

Listen now! (0:07min / 2MB)

17th February 2010 - Dave Holden - Revival!

Dave Holden was due to speak on Spirit lead meetings but, following the prompting of the Spirit, he felt called to speak on revival instead!

Dave noted that while revival was not a biblical word, the theme of revival can be seen throughout the bible. Dave explained that revival was not when meetings were more lively than normal and not simply when Christians became awakened.

Based on biblical and historic accounts, revivals have three key characteristics:

1. An overwhelming experience of the presence of God – God’s presence is tangible, you can feel it. Others in the community, not just the Christians, can feel it too.

2. A conviction of sin – both (i) within the Christian community – who feel compelled to get things right with God and (ii) amongst unbelievers who are swept into the Kingdom of God. It is quite possible for huge sections of communities and nations to become Christians.

3. A massive impact on the social climate of the country. This is more than just new laws but whole strata of society being effected.

Our country needs a revival! God is the only answer to the problems this country faces. Alpha is a great way of reaching out and telling people about Jesus and has had a massive impact but that is nothing compared to what will happen during a revival.

Positive points about revival:

1. It’s already happening in almost all other parts of the world, apart from Europe.

2. The UK has already had a number of revivals, whereas some nations in Europe have not had any. We have “revival seeds” all around us.

Problems with past revivals:

1. People have wanted to keep hold of past things and not look to the future. The Spirit is creative and won’t necessarily do the same things in the same way as He did them before. We mustn’t be caught looking the wrong way for revival and find that it’s happened somewhere else in a different way to the way we were expecting.

2. The church has often had a lack of vision and hasn’t been ready or prepared to deal with the new Christians. God has been getting us ready over the past few decades.

Isaiah 66:7-9 speaks of God not dangling the carrot of revival and then pulling it away at the last minute. That’s not the way He does things.

Isaiah 60:22 speaks of God transforming the least of us into thousands and doing it swiftly.

Isaiah 48:3 speaks of God acting on what he has foretold and acting suddenly.

Whether we are ready for revival or not, it will be sudden. God can and does act suddenly. Biblical accounts and revival history demonstrate this. The word “suddenly” appears in Acts more than any other book of the bible. We are still living in the same age of the Spirit, so we should still expect the “suddenly”’s.

Obviously, we can’t make a “suddenly” from God happen ourselves. However, we can work to remove any hindrances such as passivity, prayerlessness and disobedience.
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For information and resouces on past revivals, please see the link below to the Revival Library website.

Listen now! (0:50min / 17MB)

14th February 2010 - Andy Sewell - The Role Of Serving In The Church

Andy talks about the role of serving in the church.

John 13:15 – Jesus came to serve as an example for us, so we should serve too. But we should be serving for the right reasons. We are not saved by serving, but saved to serve.

By serving, we impact our community. We all have a serving role to play in the life of the church, whatever our age, race, position within the church etc. If we feel that we are not able to serve for any reason, that’s the devil talking to us. God sees us as perfect in Jesus and he loves us.

Listen now! (0:30min / 10MB)

13th February 2010 - Dave Holden - Worship and the Presence of God (Keynote speech from the "School Of Worship" Conference)

This is Dave Holden’s keynote speech from the 2010 “School Of Worship”. Dave spoke on “Worship and the Presence of God.” This talk doesn’t just encourage and motivate it also imparts a fresh heart for worship.
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The “School of Worship” Conference took place on Saturday 13th February with David Holden as the keynote speaker. It was open to worship leaders and musicians, and also any leaders (including small group leaders). David also ran a leaders track through the day with the theme ‘Preparing for the presence of God’.

There were also tracks too for worship leaders and musicians run by the same guys as the last school, such as Andy Smith of Worship Central.

The school took place at Hyde Town Hall, Manchester and was hosted by Christ Church Manchester.
http://www.ccm.org.uk/ccm/

Listen now! (0:54min / 17MB)

7th February 2010 - Tim Davies - Let Us Love One Another

1 John 4:7-12
‘Dear friends let’s love one another’

Here is a very simple passage to understand but profound in it’s theological basis and implications. The story is told that John would preach only this message (let’s love one another) as an old man. Having been with Jesus (see 1 John 1:1) John realised that this was the greatest commandment Jesus had given.

John encourages us to love one another by giving us a profound theological truth (God is love v8), a deeply moving example (God sent his only son v 8) and a motivating outcome (the world sees something of God as we love one another v 12).

“Most people are bothered by those passages in the Bible that they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are the ones I do understand.” Mark Twain

Questions …

1 ‘God is Love’ – this is a very profound statement though it looks very simple! How is it different to saying ‘God is loving’ or ‘God is loveable’?

2 Does the fact that God is community (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) – always dwelling in perfect unity in himself – affect how we see the statement ‘God is Love’?

3 Why should the example of God’s love for us in giving Jesus motivate us to love one another? Does it? How can we make sure it does?

4 How does our loving one another help the world see God?

5 Are there ways that we as a group could love and support one another more? Is there anyone not here because of difficulties that we could help in some way or let them know of our love?

6 How do we stop our love becoming just words and not being in truth and action as John insists (1 John 3 v 18)?

Listen now! (0:38min / 10MB)