We are one church. We love God, love people, love
His mission, and love His church.
Welcome to the One Church podcast.
Continuing a series on our welcome course, and this is a
four week course that's going to take the place of our newcomers
evenings going forward. It's going to be run multiple
times each year, and our heart is that everyone who joins one
church in the future is going to go through this course to enable
them to be inspired to find their place and to be able to
thrive. But before we launched this for
all new people, we didn't want anybody to miss out.
So we're going to take the whole church through this process.
So each week we're going to look at some great teaching and we're
going to show a short video about who we are as a church and
our key values and speak about some important parts of what it
means to be a part of one church.
If you missed last week, which was week 1, we had an amazing
message on walking with Jesus about devotions, baptism,
baptism in the Holy Spirit. And as I said as well, each week
we will show a short video about who we are as a church and our
key values. So just take a look at the
screen because we're going to watch something about our heart
to start with today. We are one church.
We love God, love people, love His mission, and love His
church. We are a multi site Assemblies
of God church made-up of hundreds of people of all ages
and many nationalities. We are one church with one
vision, 1 mission, one leadership and one heart who
meet in a number of different sites around Leicester and
Lofthem. But what is our heart?
Firstly, everything is shaped by the Gospel.
We believe that to become a Christian and have eternal life
is because of the good news of Jesus.
We are loved by God, created wonderfully, with purpose for
relationship with Him. We have sinned and turned away
from God. We cannot save ourselves.
Jesus came, lived a perfect life, died in our place on the
cross, and now is risen and alive and.
Now we can return back to God and be saved.
The question is, how will we respond?
Our response to Jesus and his indescribable act of love is to
come to the cross, confess our sin and receive forgiveness,
accepting Him into our lives as Lord and Saviour.
Here is some of our heart as a church forming what we do, who
we are, and how we live. We are Jesus centred, keeping
Him at the heart of every part of one church.
We carry a passion for the Father heart of God.
We know we are dearly loved and that He is the Father we've all
been looking for. With Bible believing, we believe
the Bible to be the inspired word of God that shapes what we
believe and motivates all we do as a church.
We are spirit filled. As a Pentecostal church, we
believe in the power of the Holy Spirit at work today in and
through our lives. We believe in servant
leadership, which was modelled by Jesus.
We are passionate about both men and women being all God has
called them to be, both as believers and as leaders.
We love unity, partnering with other churches and celebrating
what Jesus is doing everywhere. Every person is welcome at one
church, from those looking at starting a walk with Jesus to
those strong in faith. Our heart is that all people of
all generations and all nations will be given the opportunity to
grow and thrive as disciples of Jesus.
As a church, we truly are passionate about loving God,
loving people, loving His mission, and loving His church.
This is just a part of our heart.
Amen. I wonder what images run through
your mind when you hear the word freedom.
Running through a field maybe, or someone breaking out of
prison. A moment when a great weight was
lifted from your shoulders. Maybe just a really happy day in
your life. It would be great for us to be
free all the time, for nothing to restrict us.
And this is the life that Jesus died for us to have.
But we need to face the facts. Each one of us may still have
chains, restrictions, things that hold us back.
We need freedom and there is good news today for every single
one of us. I can't change your
circumstances, but I can tell you the truth.
And Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth will set you
free. Do any of you have a bunch of
keys somewhere in your house and there's a few keys on there and
you don't really know which door they open?
I know I do, but you hang onto those keys just in case you
might find the the lock that they open.
Well, Jesus is here today and He holds in His hand keys, but keys
that really will unlock your freedom and any chains that you
might find yourself in. Why not open your ears to hear
His truth and position yourself for an encounter today?
At the end of this session, I will lead you through some
simple steps to freedom or greater freedom in Jesus.
And there will also be the opportunity for further prayer
at the end of today. And our team is available if you
need more in the weeks and months to come.
Let's pray as we begin. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you
are here and that your heart is for each one of us to walk in
freedom to live to the full the life that you died for us to
have today. Open all our ears to hear what
you were saying, open our eyes to see what you are showing us,
and open our hearts and our minds to be deeply and
powerfully changed. This is all for your glory.
In your name, Amen. So here's a key scripture for
us. It is for freedom that Christ
has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
The early church leader, Paul is telling the Galatian church that
they are free from their past way of life and warning them not
to fall again into slavery. The truth is that if we've come
to the cross and been forgiven through what Jesus has done, we
are declared to be fully free. Free from guilt, free from
shame, free from fear, free from condemnation, and free to live
the life that He has for us to live.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
So how sad if we don't live in that freedom that He won for us,
if we still act like slaves. In the days when circuses kept
animals, baby elephants would be trained to be compliant by
keeping them chained to a post as they were growing, and then
the post would be removed when they became adults and in
effect, they were free to escape.
But they never did because they the chain was kept around their
leg. They would walk around thinking
they were still captive. And even when they grew so big
and were definitely strong enough to break out, they acted
as if they were still chained up.
And they never ran into freedom. You know, we can be like that.
And today we're going to look at 3 simple but powerful questions.
One, why might I not be fully free?
Two, what can put or keep me in chains?
And three, what are the keys to my freedom?
And at the end, as I said, we're going to position ourselves for
an encounter with Jesus. Now, once, when I was in a
prayer session myself with another person and I was
actually coming into deeper freedom, I asked Jesus to show
me what was happening to me. And I saw a rather strange
picture of a man gradually blowing up like a balloon,
getting bigger and bigger, and his belt snapping from around
his waist like restriction was being removed.
And I felt that Jesus was showing me that I was being
enlarged, free to live a bigger life.
And I declared in that moment, I'm exploding out of limitation.
I'm expanding into the destiny that God has for me.
And this is what we're about today.
This is not selfish. This is making sure we're all in
the place where we can be used by God to the full.
It involves restoration, like a table that's been scratched and
scuffed, that is lovingly stripped down, sanded and
polished for a new day. God's original intention when he
made people and put them in the garden at the start of the Bible
was perfect freedom. But this was broken and spoiled.
Sin broke that relationship. Sin brought guilt, shame, fear,
restriction, pain. So coming into freedom is a
restoration, a restoring of what was lost.
And Jesus has done everything needed.
He took all our sin, all our brokenness, all our guilt, all
our shame on the cross. And Jesus is the same yesterday,
today and forever, says the Bible.
We will never alone. And we're not alone now.
He can give us what we never had in the past.
He can give us what we need to move on into the future.
So if Jesus has done it all, here's our first question.
Why might I not be fully free? Why do we sometimes not live in
the freedom that Jesus has died for us to have?
Well, our experiences impact us very deeply.
We live in a broken world and bad things happen to us and we
need to be set free. We need to have our hearts
healed. Our enemy, the devil, wants us
not to be free. He'll often unsettle us.
So we don't actually receive prayer for healing or or prayer
for freedom, and we don't allow Jesus to meet with us.
When we think of coming into freedom, it can make us feel
uncomfortable. Maybe you try if you normally
cross your arms like this, maybe try crossing the other arm on
top of the one that you don't normally cross it over.
It can feel like that when we're coming into a new place in God
or like taking our feet off the bottom of a pool if we're going
swimming. So we have to be hungry.
We have to press through. You may be feeling uncomfortable
right now, but this is because this is important and I
encourage you to press in for freedom.
So let's consider for a moment what can put or keep me in
chains. If you think of your life as a
tree, the branches display the leaves, the fruit.
The fruit can be healthy, good fruit, like the fruit of the
Spirit from the Bible, Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, all those fruits. But what about other fruit,
unhealthy fruit? I wonder.
Do you see any of these fruits in your life?
For example, angry outbursts or sleep problems, insecurity,
envy, comparison, eating disorders, worry, self harm, the
list could go on and on and on. What's the source of the fruit
that our lives display? Well, for this we need to dig
down into the soil and look at the roots.
Every way we think and feel and behave has a root somewhere
beneath the surface of our life. The roots are the underlying
issues, maybe bitterness or unforgiveness or pride or
insecurity or worthlessness. And these roots grow in the soil
of our circumstances, in our experiences and what comes out
of those experiences. These roots form in our lives
and the effects of them travel, if you like, through, up through
the trunk of the tree of our life and produce the fruit.
Here are some of the main things that form these bad roots and
that keep us from true freedom. Lies we believe, hurts we've
received, generational or family issues and demonic oppression.
So we're going to just look at those four a bit deeper.
So firstly, lies that we've believed.
Jesus called Satan the father of lies and he will find any way to
limit us by having us believe what is not true.
For example, a friend of mine had a younger brother who her
dad favoured above her and she resented this brother and she
would often in her childish heart wish he was not around and
dream of something bad happening to him.
When this brother was 12, he fell down the stairs in a
terrible accident and broke his neck and died.
And she never told anyone. But as a child she really
thought, and even actually through her life, she thought
that she'd made that happen. She lived with the feeling that
she should never have been born, that she was a mistake.
She lived with shame, and she carried this cloak of shame
through her teenage years and into her young adult life.
She had some healing when she was born again as a Christian
and she knew she was forgiven. But then later she had this
revelation in prayer of her Heavenly Father embracing her
and hugging her, his love for her in a very powerful way.
And she realised in that moment that her brother's death was
just an accident. It was not her fault, this was a
lie. She knew for sure she was deeply
loved and accepted by her Father in Heaven.
She'd believed lies that have kept her in chains all those
years, but she replaced them with the truth.
She began to live differently and she began to have a good
relationship as well with her parents and willingly cared for
them in her old age in a beautiful way.
What about you? Are there any lies that you're
believing? What are the roots of those
lies? The second thing that can keep
us from being free is soul or spirit hurts.
Pain that is felt at a very deep level.
That might be the deep pain of an absent or abusive parent, of
systematic bullying that we've experienced, or abandonment.
Some of you here have experienced family pain.
Some of you have experienced church pain.
And you may be sitting here and your mind immediately goes back
to a memory, a feeling, a relationship.
These things can keep us bound up, not living the life that
Jesus died for us to live. And sometimes when something
really deep shocks or wounds us, we can get broken at that point
and stuck. It's a bit like a bit of us gets
left behind in the trauma at that point and we need to be
made whole. So lies and hurt and wounds can
keep us in chains. And also, three issues rooted in
family history. Some things have passed down
through the family line that we may not even be aware of.
And they need cutting off and bringing to the cross of Jesus.
Often when we're coming into freedom, a family issue will
come to light. Maybe you know something of your
family past, even long ago. Maybe the Holy Spirit will
highlight this to you today. For example, Freemasonry or
witchcraft or impurity or idolatry.
Maybe in your family history, maybe not, but we need to know
that in Jesus we are a new generation.
In Jesus these things can be cut off, praise God, or it may be
that we need to be set free from a family pattern of behaviour.
For me, one of the family traits that I inherited was people
pleasing. Before I came to Leicester I had
a bit of counselling to prepare me for the to come to lead a
church for the first time alongside David and I had a
vision in a time of counselling of a little girl in a sticky out
blue dress aged about 5 years old.
And that person was me. I was such a good girl.
That was how I was always seen by others and that was how I saw
myself in this picture from Jesus.
I actually as an adult waved goodbye to this little girl, the
people pleasing girl, the good girl, because you can't be a
people pleaser if you want to be a good leader.
And over the years, I knew that Jesus also rescued me from other
family patterns, things like depression, indecision, and
other things that were in my family.
I wonder, is there a family trait or behaviour pattern that
you need to step away from? The Bible says if you're in
Christ, you're a new creation. So Can you believe this
scripture today? Whatever's in your family
history or traits, just say I'm a new creation, I'm a new
generation. I can be free to live the life
that He has for me to live. So here we go.
We can be kept in chains, by lies, by hurts, by family past,
and by demonic oppression. The spiritual realm is real, but
we shouldn't be scared. A Christian can have a demon but
not be possessed by a demon because Jesus is in control of
our life. However, we can be oppressed by
demonic demonic spirits, but there has to be permission given
for that. How does that happen?
Well, that happens when the door is opened in our lives to the
enemy. For example, a deep fear or
trauma, or when we agree with lies so many times that they
form a demonic stronghold. May be curses, it may be
involvement with evil, may even be sometimes things we have said
over ourselves if we say enough times I am stupid, I hate
myself, I'll always be sick and tired, I'm an idiot.
If we regularly say these things, we've cursed ourselves
and sometimes that needs to be broken off us.
Often once we've confessed sin, we've brought lies to the cross,
we've received forgiveness, we've given forgiveness.
There's no longer any legal ground for a demon to stay and
they go. But the Bible says don't give
the devil a foothold. Just think of his foot stuck in
a door into our life. It needs to be shut and we can
shut it in Jesus name. However, you may need special
prayer and deliverance. If you've ever dabbled in the
occult, if you've lived according to horoscopes or
fortune telling, if you've played with a Ouija board, taken
part in any demonic activity or other religion or rituals, or
given yourself over to any other power, often we will know.
If something needs casting out, we don't have to look for it.
Don't go around looking for these things, but also don't be
afraid. Don't run away.
Freedom is here today, and freedom is here in the days to
come. So face the facts and respond
and come to Jesus. Take heart today, Jesus King,
Jesus is here. He's conquered all.
He holds in his hands the keys, and they will open any prison
door. So let's look at these keys more
closely now. These keys are keys we can use
ourselves. The enemy wants us to believe
that we have no power. But Jesus has given us powerful
weapons keys and we just need to use them.
So what are the keys for our freedom #1 the power of the Word
of God. For the Word of God is alive and
powerful. It's sharper than the sharpest 2
edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, joint and
marrow. The Word of God, the Bible, has
great authority. God's Word is above our feelings
and it replaces and gets rid of the lies that we believe.
To be free, we need to use this key.
Replace lies with the truth. For example, I used to believe
lies like I'm quiet, I don't have much to say.
I'll never speak to people. People don't want to listen to
me. Now I declare the Sovereign Lord
has given me an instructed tongue to know the Word that
sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning
to listen like one being taught. I used to believe the lie that
my identity lay in being a good student, a good mum, a good
daughter, a teacher, a pastor. But no, my identity is that I am
a daughter of the King, a child of God, and I will speak out
over myself even you're my beloved daughter with whom I'm
well pleased, which is what the Father says over me.
So here's a question for you. What lies are you believing?
I'm worthless, I'm not enough, I'm restricted, I'm confused,
I'm unloved. I could never do this, say this,
be this. I will never trust again.
Speak in public, be successful, be happy, find my place in a
church. But you answer for yourself.
And now think, what does your heavenly Father say?
What truth from His Word will you use to replace the lies?
This is renouncing ungodly beliefs, lies.
This can take some work. Collecting, declaring truth
until we believe it, reading it, writing it out, maybe putting it
on a screensaver of our phone, a daily declaration.
But believe it that God's Word in our mouth has creative and
incredible power. And if we speak it aloud, you
know, it breaks through what is in our mind.
So there's the key of the power of the word of God and secondly,
the power of the cross. The message of the cross is
foolish to those who are headed for destruction.
But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.
Jesus conquered death, released life.
He dealt with sin and shame. The Bible tells us he endured
the cross despising it's shame. He dealt with our guilt, guilt
that says I made mistakes. He dealt with our shame, that
shame that says I am a mistake. He dealt with these completely.
It is finished. He cried on the cross before he
gave up his life. And it really is finished.
The work of Christ is finished. The blood of Jesus is so
powerful, perfect God, perfect man sacrificed for us.
So picture yourself at the cross exchanging your guilt for his
forgiveness, your shame for his honour, your fear for his
confidence, your sadness for his joy, your death for his life.
The cross is the very centre of our message.
So the key of the power of the word of the cross.
And thirdly, the power of the name of Jesus.
The Bible says God exalted him, Jesus to the highest place and
gave him the name that is above every other name, that every
knee will bow, every tongue confess that he is Lord.
When we use the name of Jesus, it is above every other name.
His name carries great power and authority.
When we say in the name of Jesus, it's not just a formula.
We're representing Jesus rule, Jesus reign and his Kingdom and
we agree with him. The name of Jesus has great
power, but we have to bow our hearts, bow our knees.
It's not just the words. His Kingdom needs to be coming
in us. So we come in humility and we
say, I need you. I speak your name over this fear
that's coming against me over this issue, this trait, I
believe for change. So some of our keys to freedom,
power of the word of God, the power of the cross, the blood of
Jesus, the power of the name of Jesus, and fourthly, the power
of forgiveness. Bear with each other and forgive
one another, says the Bible. If any of you has a grievance
against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you.
We've been freely forgiven. And someone once called
forgiveness a golden key because it unlocks our chains.
Forgiveness has power. On November the 12th, 2004, six
teenagers in a small town in New York State bought a 20 LB frozen
Turkey with a stolen credit card.
While driving on Sunrise Highway, 18 year old Ryan
Cushing threw the frozen bird out of the back window just for
a thrill. The Turkey hit Victoria Revolo's
car, shattering the windscreen and smashed into her face.
She was taken to the hospital with life threatening injuries.
She awoke several weeks later with no memory of what had
happened. Her whole face had to be
reconstructed. Overwhelming evidence and his
friend's testimony was enough to put Ryan in gaol for 25 years
and Victoria said. It was at this point that I
started asking questions about Ryan.
I wanted to know what lay behind him getting to this point.
I felt strongly that I didn't want to be responsible for
taking this young man's life. I didn't want Ryan to rot in
gaol. And that's when I asked to meet
with Ryan's lawyer to be able to tell him I wanted an amnesty for
Ryan, or at least a lesser sentence.
When the case went to court, Ryan received a six month prison
sentence with five years probation, community service and
psychiatric help. Ryan approached Victoria at the
end and said how sorry he was and hugged her.
Victoria said some people couldn't understand why I'd done
this, but I felt God had given me a second chance and I wanted
to pass it on. Releasing a gift someone doesn't
deserve opens our prison door. You know, it's not saying that
what they did was OK, it wasn't OK, but it's an act of the will
we choose. It's an act of trust in God who
is just. But it frees us today.
Why not choose to forgive your mum, your dad, the leader who
hurt you, the person that you think of when you think, well, I
don't know if I've forgiven that person.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you, even if that person is not alive
anymore. It's a choice.
We're doing it in a way to release ourselves from a prison
that we might be in. Forgiveness is also an ongoing
process. And the final key to freedom is
the power of encountering the father's love, the father's love
for ourselves. So he got up.
This is the prodigal son, and he went to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and
was filled with compassion for him.
He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.
To encounter God's Father heart of love for me has been life
changing. It can be life changing for all
of us. Healing happens here in the
embrace of the Father, in the Father's love.
I know so many stories, and there are stories all around our
Church of people whose lives would change deeply as they
encountered His love. In a moment, we'll open
ourselves up for such an encounter.
Can I urge and encourage you? Your Heavenly Father loves you
more than you know, and He's here to speak to you, to embrace
you, to heal you, to set you free.
He has gifts for you and a whole new way of life.
So why not run to Him? Because He is safe.
So is there a formula to being set free, to continuing to live
in freedom? No, but it is for freedom that
Christ has set us free. So we just need to position
ourselves. We're all on a journey of
increased freedom. But let's not hold back from
everything on offer to us. Let's press in for more.
Let's press in for those keys and use those keys.
Remember the power of His Word, the power of the cross, the
power of the name of Jesus, the power of forgiveness, and the
power of encountering the Father's love.
So we're going to just come move into a time of encountering Him
for ourselves. Remember as we come to this
part, that God's intention was for every one of us to be free.
Free from guilt, free from shame, free from fear, and free
to live. And he's given us his word, His
blood, His cross, His name, and the power to forgive and to
encounter His love. So let's just position ourselves
right now for an encounter to experience the freedom that
Jesus has won for us in greater measure.
First, all together where you are, I just ask you to get
comfortable to connect to God. If it helps you to close your
eyes, then close your eyes, but just invite Him.
Say, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, open my ears, open my eyes.
Give me the ability to sense what you are doing right now.
Why not just let your breath slow down?
Just give Him your heart. And in this moment, ask Jesus an
important question. Ask him.
And this is between you and him. Ask him, What do you want to set
me free from today? And listen for what he says.
Remember, he often speaks very quickly.
Just hear the first thing that you think of and take that as
what he's saying to you. What do you want to set me free
from Jesus? Imagine the cross in front of
you and bring this chain. Bring this thing to the cross
and we're going to pray to break its power over you.
But first, if someone has hurt you, pray to forgive them.
Remember, this is a golden key that releases your freedom.
You may want to say, Father, I forgive and I release that
person. Just name them before him
quietly for what happened. And if you have a lie that
you've been believing, just ask Jesus to show you, say, Lord,
what lies am I believing? Or highlight one lie, at least,
that I'm believing right now, and you want me to change it for
your truth and bring that lie to the cross right now.
And I'm going to pray a prayer. You might want to pray after me.
I'll leave a little space after each sentence for you to pray
your own prayer and to pray along with me.
Father, I now choose to nail this lie.
You might want to name that lie. I now choose to nail this lie to
the cross. It'll be good for you to declare
this yourself. I break the power this lie has
had over me and I declare myself free in Jesus name.
Some of you here have a fear in your life.
Let's bring that to the cross right now.
Be good to name it before him again.
I'm going to pray. You pray after me.
Father, I now choose to nail the fear of and you insert what you
want to say. I choose to nail the fear of
whatever it is to the cross. I break the power this fear has
had over me and I declare myself free in Jesus name.
And if you have something that has come to mind while I've been
talking that you think needs breaking over, over you from
your family or your family past, we're just going to bring that
to the cross right now as well. I'm just going to pray.
You receive this prayer, you receive this prayer and you
agree with it in your heart. And then we're going to make a
declaration. Father, I bring you this issue
from my family past. I put your cross and your blood
between myself, my mum, my dad, and all my ancestors.
I nail all evil practises to the cross, all lies that have been
believed, all generational curses, all idolatry, and now
we're going to make a declaration.
So you declare after me. I declare that I am a new
generation, I am a new creation. I break agreement with these
things and the power they have had over me.
I declare myself totally free in Jesus name.
Amen. And now we're just going to pray
to encounter the Father's love because He wants to show you
what's just happened in that moment.
Because for some of you, that was a very powerful moment.
Whatever you felt, something has happened.
So he's now going to show you what that was.
So let's just pray. Father, please show me the
result of what just happened. So you pray that out loud.
Father, please show me the result of what has just happened
and listen to His voice. Know that you have His DNA.
You can hear what he's saying. So ask him, what do you want to
show me now? You might see a picture, you
might see an image that helps you.
You may hear words, you might hear a Bible verse and be
reminded of a truth to replace a lie.
Allow Him to say what He wants to say to you right now.
Just going to leave a moment of space for you to encounter
now. The Father loves to give you
good gifts, so why not ask Him why?
What do you want to give me? Maybe He wants to show you
something. He's giving you a gift.
It may be like a crown or a cloak or a a sense of direction.
What do you want to tell me, Lord?
He may tell you you're loved, you have purpose, you're free,
you have all you need, or something else.
Just to open your heart for him to give you something, to tell
you something. And I'm just going to pray a
prayer over everyone. And just to remember right now,
if you want someone to stand with you and believe for more
breakthrough, more freedom, then I'd encourage you in a moment to
move from where you are at the end of this prayer.
Get out your seat, come forward because someone is here.
We have team here to pray for you.
And also if you need further help and prayer, then just ask.
Let's pray. I'm going to pray over everybody
now. Lord Jesus, today we declare
your freedom over every single one of us and we say together it
is for freedom that Christ has set me free.
Why not say that together it is for freedom that Christ has set
me free. Help us all to keep recognising
areas where we need freedom and using the keys that you've given
us. Your word, the cross, your name,
forgiveness and the power of encountering you.
This is just the beginning. We want to walk in your freedom
in the name of Jesus, Amen. 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.