We are one church. We love God, love people, love
His mission, and love His church.
Welcome to the One Church podcast.
Today is a significant day for us as a house and we look back
at the last three years since we became One church and we see the
undeniable blessing of God in the house.
Hundreds of people saved, many baptised, hundreds added to the
One church. Family growth blessing
everywhere and all our needs met.
And what a joy to hear already, even before today, that we bring
our gifts that so much has already been given and we get to
be part of that. On Thursday, we gathered with
our senior leadership team, our elders, our trustees, our site
pastors, and our ministry heads, and we heard stories of what God
is doing through the ministries of one church.
And we say this morning all glory to him Our incredible
compassion charity open Hands reaches so many people with the
kindness of Jesus through different ministries.
The Oak Centre, A thriving community centre being a light
in Braunstone Way coffee here in our building a stepping stone
for so many into church life. Hand in hand preschool impacting
families and impact reaching out to young people in the
community. The Hub, a safe place for five
to elevens in the community are three different what little
reaching families and carers and what about one church ministries
here rise and reach for five through elevens.
OC youth for elevens to eighteens, young adults for 18
to 20 fives our 50 plus small groups loving later life for
over 70s. All this and more alongside our
five sites in Leicester and Luftburg reaching people of all
ages from over 75 nationalities. And we also heard on Thursday
evening from all our mission partners expressing how the
support from one church makes a difference to them.
Locally in our city through Sapphires and Raft and united
and blessing of the churches nationally through the
Evangelical Alliance, Mao's Israel, UKCSW and the Assemblies
of God and internationally in Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Tanzania,
India, Nigeria and Belong and beyond.
We believe in this next season there's more Jesus is Josh just
referred to that in during our worship time.
Jesus is the name above every name here in Leicestershire.
He has many people in this city and beyond, and he has measured
off even more blessing for us. We are seeing and we will see an
awakening of young people and adults coming to Jesus.
We are helping, and we'll continue to help 10s of
thousands of people through kindness and generosity and
love. And we as a house will give more
away, support, more churches, and be champions of hope in our
ministry. May we always be champions of
hope. Our best days are without doubt
ahead of us as a house and Jesus is with us and I love his words
in Revelation 3 where he says here I am, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in. Of course this is for people,
yes, who need to become Jesus followers, but it's also for us,
here I am. The Father is speaking to you
this morning. This afternoon, Are you
listening for us? There's a house here on Vision
Sunday. The father is speaking to us.
Are we listening? I stand at the door and knock.
He says the father is knocking today on your door.
Can you hear him for us? There's a house on Vision
Sunday. The father is knocking.
Can we hear him? If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door. The father is speaking and
knocking today. Are you ready to open the door
and for us? There's a house.
The Father is speaking and knocking.
Are we ready to open the door to the fullness of His presence,
His blessing, His purpose for us?
There's a cry from the heart of God in His bride today.
Can you hear it? He's saying this.
Who will go for me? Who can I send?
I pray that our hearts responses.
Here we are. Lord, send me, send me.
That's my heart response this morning.
Here I am, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.
It's not a hope or a wish. It's a promise and a certainty.
He, the King of all, will come in.
And today for us is a pivotal moment as a house because we're
hearing the knock and we're opening the door and the King of
the universe is coming in to speak to us and to meet with us.
And I'm so grateful for that. So grateful that my little baby
sister is on the front row as she is four years younger than
me and her husband Alex. We're just so thrilled they're
here. We love them dearly and
wonderful people come and talk to them at the end.
Come and just overwhelm them with with love and yeah, very
good. If you speak German, come and
speak to them in German. They'll love it.
They'll just be brilliant. Acts 2 is a foundational passage
for us as a house. Devotion is a foundational
pursuit for us as a house. Let's talk about it for a few
minutes. Here we are in Acts chapter 2.
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
And everyone was filled with all of the many wonders and signs
performed by the apostles. All the believers were together
and had everything in common. They sold property and
possessions to give to anyone who had need, and every day they
continued to meet together in the temple courts.
They broke bread in their homes, ate together with glad and
sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the
people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved.
I love this picture of the church as it's meant to be.
And the focus of the Acts 2 church says this.
The Father is devoted to you. He loves you with an everlasting
love. This week I heard of a child
who, as we worshipped our baptism service last Sunday
night, felt someone come very close and stand with them and
they had an encounter with God because the Father wants all
children to know they're loved. This week I shared about a young
person who suffered a lot with anxiety.
She was bought by a friend to OC Youth and got saved.
And recently she got up in front of many of those young people
and explained what God had done for her in her life.
The Father wants all young people to know how much he
believes in them. And this week I shared about a
young adult in our church who's recently come to Jesus.
And now three more members of their family have become Jesus
followers. And the Father wants all young
adults and whole families to know how deeply he cares for
them. The Father is devoted to you.
He knew you before you were conceived.
He made you fearfully and wonderfully well.
He knows your name, the hair's on your head, and He's kept your
tears in a bottle. The one who hears the voices of
8 billion people at the same time, whilst holding every
planet in the universe in its rightful place.
This one is devoted to you and his hands of grace.
They stretch through our sin and our failings and our regrets and
our sadnesses. And He invites us to experience,
is embraced, to be embraced by the Father that you've always
been looking for. He invites us to come to him and
be changed by his kindness. And even if you've become
distracted or you've lost a little of your passion for him,
or perhaps you've been a bit wounded in church life and it's
drowned out his voice and the knock on the door is a little
bit fainter today. He comes in the room and he
says, I'm devoted to you more than you can ever comprehend.
Shall we start again? The Father is devoted to you,
and he also sends out an invitation to us.
Be devoted to Him. They devoted themselves in the
early chapters of Acts. They were talking with Jesus,
they were listening to Jesus. They were filled with the
Spirit. They were in wonder because he
had risen from the dead. They were emboldened.
They were captivated, passionate in prayer, passionate for him,
and their hearts were full of devotion.
They devoted themselves. I love that our church is filled
with people who are devoted to Jesus, and because of their love
for Jesus, they serve and they love and they pray and they
give. And yet for us, there is more
sometimes in the seasons of life.
I love the seasons. I know some of you prefer it
when it's lighter and a bit warmer.
I understand that. But you can ask the Spirit to
give you joy in every season. You really can.
You don't have to live with sadness like that.
Allow him to just impact you. But we look at the seasons and
we think it'll go on forever. But the days are short and the
return of Jesus is nearer than we think, and the world as we
know it will come to an end. And the only thing that will
ultimately matter is the degree to which we've loved him and
done what he wanted us to do with our lives.
It comes down to that. We've recently buried a number
of precious Christian people, and I've been struck more than
ever that all of our lives finish in a box with no
possessions, no certificates, no bank balances.
It's simply us and the life we've lived till the end.
And the Father is inviting you even this afternoon to be
devoted to him. You know he loves you with your
family. The the different expressions of
family in the room for those who do life with friends, those who
do life looking after their family, those who do life in
marriages, and many things in between.
He loves you in your family. He loves you in your career.
We are many of us to live out our faith in the career he's
given us and that as a ministry is as important as anything I
would ever do here. He loves you in your hobbies.
Some of the hobbies in this room are very different.
I was talking to a man this week who leads a church in Leicester
and he was telling me that he loves it and a number of men
from his church, they love going into a certain place and
exchanging Star Wars cards. I had to shut my mouth because
my mouth was hanging open at his excitement.
He was practically dribbling at the thought of exchanging these
Star Wars cards. Perhaps some of you love that.
You love that, dear. You love.
Well, I didn't talk about Star Wars, although I've never really
understood it. But God loves us in our
different hobbies and he loves us in how we invest the time
that we have the simplicity of life sometimes.
But the one who loves you more than anyone else says this.
Please be devoted to me, Jesus follower.
There's more. There's more grace, there's more
love, there's more Holy Spirit, there's more closeness, there's
more freedom. Let's be even more devoted to
Him. Let's forgive more quickly.
Let's love more deeply. Let's be fully in in our faith,
never wavering. Some of you, you waver in your
faith. You would call yourself a
Christian, but you know, it's kind of give or take.
Today you need to get serious. This is a little D-Day for you.
You've been brought here. Perhaps you've been dragged by
somebody who's with you, who now is nudging you going.
That's you. It's D-Day because there's
nothing better than to give your life fully to Jesus and the live
it full out, a life lived for Him.
And today you're going to get a little chance to make another
step. Be devoted.
Don't be lukewarm. Embrace passion again.
It's worth it giving everything for him and embrace a fresh call
on your life. He's devoted to us and he
invites us to be devoted to him, but he also urges us to be
devoted to one another. They devoted themselves to
fellowship and they broke bread in their homes and ate T-shirts.
Ate T-shirts. That's that's my next story.
But they they did not. I thought it's a new Bible
version. They ate T-shirts.
Come on, David, stay, stay, stay focused.
That's great. I was just checking you were
listening. They broke bread in their homes
and ate together. At least it's not on the live
stream. With glad and sincere hearts.
You know, someone told us this week, today they said I met a
man on the bus who recognised me in my 1 church kids T-shirt.
You see how I got there? And he told me on the bus he
often goes to Wake Coffee even though he's not a Christian.
And he praised one church in Wake Coffee for building
community. And when I got off the bus, he
was telling another man about Wake Coffee and was praising the
church for its dedication to community and mission.
I love that it's powerful. That's worth a little ripple of
applause. Someone else wrote to us on
Thursday and said this. I would like to say a heartfelt
thank you to you for your amazing kindness and support to
the celebration of Nelly, who passed away recently.
The service for her was so carefully thought out to make
such a terribly sad occasion, such a wonderful tribute to an
amazing lady. The Christian love is apparent
in one church as soon as you walk through the door, and the
service was a great comfort to me.
I love that when we're devoted, we can't help helping others.
Here's three stories of what you have done in helping people in
Kenya. This is Alice C Amanda, she's
part of our Dorcas project and she was struggling to make ends
meet and she was determined to find a way to support her
children and saw tailoring as her opportunity.
And through the programme that we partner and set up, Alice not
only learnt how to sew but also gained the confidence to start
her own small businesses in January this year.
And with the skills she acquired, she now takes orders
from neighbours and friends, creating custom dresses, bags,
mending clothes. She's no longer just surviving,
she's thriving and serving as an inspiration to her fellow
students and the community. This is testament to this life
changing impact of this project. I love that this is Baraka
Kanye. He's a boy on the autistic
spectrum who lives with his grandmother.
Someone in our church has his photo on their fridge because
every month they give money to support him through Change One.
He joined All Nations school three years ago after having
lots of challenges in different schools, and through the
school's Change One programme, he receives assistance with fees
and learning materials, and he's thriving academically and
socially. Baraka's improvement has
inspired many other learners to believe in themselves.
This is Ian Mathui, he's #175 on our database of Change One
children and his photo is one of on one of your fridges.
He's a great team, inspiration to our team they run.
Ian was born with the condition of mild albinism and also has a
swollen back. He requires costly medications
to manage his health and his family faces significant
financial challenge as his father does not have stable
employment and his mother isn't unemployed.
Without the Change One programme it would be impossible for Ian
to access education. He's doing very well at school.
Thank you again for being such dedicated partners in this vital
work. If you go home today and there's
a picture on your fridge, just stop and say thank you.
And if and if there's not, we have a few more children who
need supporting. It's £12 a month and it's worth
it. The Acts 2 community were
devoted to one another. They they devoted themselves to
fellowship. They broke bread in their homes
and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.
And they needed one another and so do we.
We need one another and never forget, we're stronger together,
We are stronger together. We're called to be devoted to
one another, to build stronger communities together, to open
our hopes to one another, to break down any walls between us,
to love one another as we have been loved.
And just look at the next slide. And if you're not in a small
group, why not take your camera out and just pop it on that
little thing at the side and it'll come up the option to join
a small group. You can also join our newcomers
coming up next Sunday night for anyone new in the church.
But we want every person to be connected to a small group.
And why not join one now? Because there you can learn to
do community together in a small group.
Want to ask the person next to you?
Are you in a small group yet? Would you like me to help you go
on the QR code to get you connected in?
Do you exchange Star Wars cards? Ask them.
Whatever you want to ask the person next to you.
Come on, fill it in, get on it. Get on a small group.
Get connected into community devotion.
The Father's devoted to you, be devoted to Him.
Come on, be, be well behaved, come back in, be devoted to one
another. The Axis community were also
completely devoted to reaching people.
They devoted and the Lord what He added to their number daily
those who were being saved. One of our missions partners
wrote to me recently and said this.
A few weeks ago, a young cook in the farm guest house we stayed
in Chishamba, Zambia, gave her life to Christ and the following
day she LED her colleague to Christ and two days later she
LED another person to Christ and on the third day we baptised
her. A few days ago in a phone
conversation, she said I'm still pressing on in Christ and being
a witness. And recently she's LED three
other people to Christ. You know, there've been so many
stories of people finding Jesus in one church, whole family is
being impacted, people being rescued by grace, exploring
faith, people beginning to search.
If you've recently become a Christian, tomorrow night at
7:00 here you can join foundations, which is just
helping you get grounded and stronger in your faith in a
really brilliant community. Just I really recommend that to
you. We say more Lord, we say we must
stay devoted to reaching people. We are to we are to honour God's
creation, to care for what he has made in the planet.
We are to care for animals, we are to have concern about other
issues. But people are always God's
highest priority, and He is passionate about lost people
being found. When someone dies, we don't know
what happens to them in the last few breaths of their life.
We don't know, and the Lord will always do what is right.
But we must never forget when a person has died.
There are no more chances just because it sounds nice.
Just because we think it would be good, the truth is that
separation from God is not temporary or reversible outside
of this life. We must never sanitise it to
make it sound easier for us. Heaven and hell are real, and
the level of joy in heaven and terror in hell are truly beyond
our comprehension. And it's critical.
We must reach more people. We are to run into the world and
reach more young and old, rich and poor, from every tongue and
tribe. Let's reach more this Christmas.
Some of us, people in our businesses, our schools, where
we are, they know that we're nice.
Perhaps one or two of them know that we maybe have something
sort of to do with church. This Christmas is your moment of
what was the phrase I used in the first one of reveal.
That's it. It's your Christmas of reveal to
your school and your office and on the bus and to the lady or
gentleman at the checkout to your neighbours.
I'm a Jesus follower. Would you like to come to the
Joy Christmas production? You'll love it.
For those listening earlier would know when it was if you
were listening. 14th I think the 14th I can't remember.
Come on, let's be active in sharing Jesus.
Your whole workplace might find him this Christmas.
Give you all sorts of things to do with your lunch, Bible
studies, prayer with people, helping people.
Amazement as the whole office comes to see somebody baptised
and you think, God what are you doing?
You got confident in sharing Jesus.
Let's never Tyre of reaching our worlds.
Sometimes churches can get so inward looking at things that
are so unimportant it does not matter, but people matter and we
must keep the focus on reaching more and stretching more and
believing more for lost people to be found.
As we go into 2026, the word of the Lord to us today, the
fathers devoted to you, be devoted to him, be voted to one
another and be devoted to sacrifice.
This new army of believers, as I finish in Acts, had been
transformed by Jesus and they were passionate in their faith
and together they were devoted to sacrifice, they devoted
themselves. All the believers were together
and had everything in common and they sold property and
possessions to give to anyone who had need.
This year, from our normal tithes and offerings giving as a
house, we will send nearly 200,000 lbs away from ourselves
to the poor, to our mission partners, to our denomination
and to those in need among us. And this year around 60,000 of
that will go towards our partner church in the Makuru slum in
Kenya. It'll help care for the over 240
children through the Change One programme on the projects that
we run there into the slum. And earlier this year you as a
church went further to help the school that was there.
And this is their letter to you today on Vision Sunday.
Dear friends at One Church Leicester and the One Church
family, you've truly gone above and beyond through your
generosity. The entire school has been
professionally painted, creating a bright, welcoming and child
friendly atmosphere. The successful installation of
electricity in the new building has meant pupils can now attend
class and extend their revisions both in the early morning and
late evening without fear of darkness.
We acquired new desks and tables which provide a comfortable
seating arrangement for all our pupils during lessons.
Classes were fitted with new modern blackboards, creating
more effective and comfortable teaching environments for our
staff. The installation of new cabinets
allows teachers to securely store and efficiently manage
their teaching materials. The computer lab has been
furnished with new laptops, providing our children with the
crucial opportunity to gain knowledge and practical skills
in information technology and we were able to acquire the
required number of new curriculum textbooks, ensuring
our full compliance with Ministry of Education standards
and providing high quality learning materials for our
students. Your ongoing assistance enables
us to sustain our teaching team, ensure lottery, we can pay their
salaries every month. But most importantly, your
partnership ensures that children from impoverished
family backgrounds can access a high quality education that
their parents would otherwise be unable to afford.
Praise the Lord. Amen.
They devoted themselves. All the believers were together,
had everything in common. They sold property and
possessions to give to everyone who had needs.
They were devoted. They gave till it hurt.
Some were able to give a little, some were able to give huge
amounts. Together they play their part
and because of this they were able to fulfil the Father's will
and there were no needy persons among them.
I think this devotion really matters to God, Lets us a church
be devoted even more to sacrifice.
Be a giver when it hurts to give.
Play your part today, whether this is the bringing of a small
offering or the selling of land or property to give it all in
the offering. Every gift is precious, and if
we live like this, every need we have will be provided for and
there'll be no needy people among us today.
Everyone is invited simply to do their part.
I wonder if I could if I could have a musician.
Please. Let's be devoted to sacrifice.
Father, thank you so much for the invitation to be devoted.
Thank you that you are with us and that you're watching over us
and we are so grateful. In Jesus name, can I encourage
you to stand, please. Now in a moment, Susan's going
to come and talk to us and just give us some, some directions.
But before she does, I want to give you a chance to get right
with God, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps there's a
recommitment of your faith, or perhaps early you will just stir
that it's time to get serious about Jesus and this is a
morning that will change your life.
A moment here in the room online right now.
And I'm going to pray a prayer in a moment.
I'm just going to pray a prayer, give you some time to reflect on
the words, and we'll pray those words together out loud.
And then if you've prayed that prayer for the first time or as
a recommitment, I'm going to encourage you where you are
boldly to lift a hand in the room.
And then I'm going to ask you to go to the back of the room where
somebody's going to meet you. And in our little prayer tent at
the back, pray with you, give you something, and then allow
you to come back into the service here.
This is a serious moment for us all, and I'm going to pray this
prayer. Please say it out loud.
What? Christians, why don't we say it
out loud together right now? Let's say this.
Thank you, God, that you love me.
Thank you that you made me to know you.
Thank you that the cross of Jesus was for me.
He died so that I can be free. Today I come to the cross and I
invite Jesus into my life. Forgive me for my sin.
I give you me. The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.