We are one church. We love God, love people, love
His mission, and love His church.
Welcome to the One Church podcast.
Well, today in the room are people who have joined One
Church from so many different situations and places.
Some of you have come to us from other countries, other cities,
other churches. For some of you this is the only
church you've ever been in and for some churches a new
experience you are beginning. So today, in the whole of what
we are across our five sites, soon to be 6 sites, we will
begin a series on our new welcome course.
Now this four week course is taking the place of our normal
newcomers evenings and our heart is to enable everyone together
to look at what it means to growing Jesus, find a place and
then thrive as part of church life.
And to start this journey. We're taking everybody through
the process and it's been very exciting.
Today in every site we're doing the same thing.
Today we're updating people's details.
Everyone's wearing a label, so we can kind of know who everyone
is and as well as long side that each week over these next few
weeks, we're sharing some core messages to help you grow in
your walk with Jesus. And we're also going to show a
short video about who we are as a church and our key values.
And today we're going to begin by looking at a little of our
story. And there's a video on the
screen. Let's watch this together.
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 Lovegrove.
But what is our story? Our history as the church began
in the 1950s when Trinity Life Church was pioneered in
Highfield's Leicester. Another part of our history
began when All Nations Church was pioneered in the 1970s.
One church. Began in 2022 when these two
local churches were brought together by Jesus to serve Him
as one church. We were blessed individually and
we are thriving as one. We believe in a strong biblical
structure of leadership that is accountable, humble, Jesus
centred and Christ like. Susan and I have served as the
senior leaders of one church since 2007.
Alongside us. Our senior leadership team
provide oversight, vision, strategy and management to our
ministries and to church life. Our eldership oversee prayer,
doctrine, pastoral care, and the prophetic heart of the church.
Our Board of Directors ensure integrity filled leadership,
financial management, policies and procedures and well-being
throughout church life. They also watch over those
employed by one church. Our site pastors bring
leadership and love to each of our local 1 church sites, with
each site having a varied and committed voluntary leadership
team. Our staff teams serve in
specific areas of ministry alongside voluntary leaders and
many hundreds of others who faithfully serve God and His
sons. We are on this journey of loving
Jesus and following him together, and we continue to
believe that the best is ahead. This is just part of our story.
I love our story, and we're gonna love sharing these four
different parts of our journey just with you.
Well, over the coming weeks, we're gonna be looking at the
importance of living free from restrictions.
The importance of playing our part in the house.
There's a part for every person. And then the importance of being
a light where He's placed us. And at the end of this course,
we're going to Commission everyone and send you out to be
a missionary where God has placed you to be his hands and
feet. And today we will talk about the
importance of walking with Jesus in devotion, in baptism, and
being filled with Holy Spirit. I love walking and talking with
people and it can be a lot of fun just just connecting with
people. But some people when you go for
a walk with them, they see it as their main form of exercise.
So you set off and you perhaps just start on a leisurely walk
and all of a sudden they begin to go.
And in the old days I would try and keep up with them, panting,
trying to keep up with them. But now I've decided as
approaching the age where I could be described as just
slightly over middle-aged, I can look at people and I just stop
and I let them go ahead and then they come back and I go.
I need you to know I am never going to walk at your speed.
If you want to walk with me, it's got to be slower.
But my walk with Jesus is the most important walk of my life.
Walking with Him changes every part of our lives and it
releases the potential that lies in each of us.
Why? Because He walks ahead to
prepare a place for us. He walks behind to help us deal
with our past. And He walks today with us
closely with the promise to never leave us.
And I love walking with Him. We are invited by the Creator of
the universe to walk with Him. So firstly walking with Jesus in
devotion. Jesus said this in John chapter
15. The verses are on the screens
says I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener.
Remain in me as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the
vine. Neither can you bear fruit
unless you remain in me. I am the vine, You are the
branches. If you remain in me and I in
you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do
nothing. This is to my Father's glory
that you bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my
disciples. I love that God wants me to be
fruitful and to live a fruitful life.
Some of you have believed a lie that it's God's plan for you to
have limited lack restriction. He wants you to be fruitful in
everything you put your hands to.
These are powerful words. Not only did Jesus speak these
words, but He lived them out daily.
Jesus walked constantly with the Father, talking with Him,
listening to Him, developing with Him.
And in the same way, He invites us to connect daily and deeply
with Him, to walk with Him. Blessed are those, the proverb
writer says, who listen to me, watching daily at my doors,
waiting at my doorway, you know, practically the basic building
blocks of our faith walk our regular Daily Times of
thankfulness, reading the Bible, listening and praying for
ourselves and others. They are the energy, the life,
the way we grow and let's let's just dig into Jesus words a
little bit more because devotions are our foundation.
If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me you can do nothing.
As Jesus followers, He wants our passion to be that.
We want to walk with him. We want to be daily filled with
the Holy Spirit and longing for encounters with the Father.
And if that is our longing, it all starts in our daily
devotions. Being thankful, reading the
Bible, listening to His voice, and praying for ourselves and
for others. We stop, we lean into Him and we
grow. I was praying with a couple on
Friday. Just been through a very
difficult situation and I was reminded of an old song we used
to sing. Living under the shadow of his
wing. We find security and that
picture with somebody to just say you can lean into him under
the shadow of his closeness, of his protection.
This is the relationship He wants with you and our devotions
help us remain in Him, connected in walking with Him.
On the screen is a picture of what I see when I sit in my
chair to pray in the morning and this is yesterday morning and
just the joy of it. I opened two patio doors.
I'm very privileged in that sense.
It's very quiet at the back of my house and I sit there with a
blanket because it's so cold some mornings.
But I love the fresh air and just sit there.
I have to tell you, probably this is my favourite place in
the whole world at the moment. I love it and just sit there and
I work my heart to be thankful, to read the Bible, to listen to
his voice and then to pray for both myself and others.
This space for me is a foundation of my faith.
Now, you may not have a space like this, but we can all find a
space. Even if it's in a room with
others, even if we're surrounded by children taking honours,
asking for something, we can find a space that becomes our
foundation. Devotions also bring us close.
Remain in me as I remain in you. A branch doesn't go on its own.
It has to be connected into the vinyl.
Here's a branch. A little branch that a friend of
mine cut off my lime tree in the garden and it's still, even at
this early scene, buds are booming out of it.
It's full of life. But in a few days time the life
in that will go because it's no longer connected in.
We grow by spending time with the one who loves us the most.
He's close to us and he invites us to be close to him when we
stop. And we find this regular time
and this regular place, and we press.
Things happen when we come with thankfulness and worship with
change, when we regularly read the scriptures, and when we pray
for ourselves and others. Honestly, things change because
devotions bring us close to our heavenly Father, our precious
Lord Jesus, to the Holy Spirit who wants to draw so close to
us. Thirdly, devotions are about
relationship. I am the vine, you are the
branches. There's a connection.
First and foremost. We connect with Jesus because we
want to be with Him. We love Him and the more time we
spend with Him, the more we know we are loved and the more we
love Him and we are changed into His image.
When I'm walking close to Jesus, I am a much nicer person.
I am a more patient person. I am a kinder person and the
reality is more than that, I am a more efficient person.
I am a more at peace person. I've been thinking recently in a
number of situations that could be quite stressful.
I found myself much more peaceful recently, and it comes
out of being closer to Him. And a relationship with God
builds through regular time and regular commitment.
It's not striving so that He loves us more, but rather
spending time on what matters the most.
Daily, regular times, with the source of life, with the living
water in US. And when we pull away, our
relationship is impacted. Fourthly, devotions bring
blessing. This is to my Father's glory
from our passage that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves
to be my disciples. It's in God's presence,
listening to His voice, that He adjusts how we think and speaks
to us when we're people of His presence, walking close to Him
daily. In our devotions, we always have
a word to share with others. We are led by a spirit and not
driven. Our confusion becomes a bit
clearer. We can live a life that works.
We operate in this world as He intended us to and we know more
clearly His purpose. Some of us strive over our
future. We don't always know what the
long term future of all of our lives is, but the promise we can
always know as we sit with Him is He walks with us day by day.
So devotions are our foundation. Let's just remember what we've
said already. Devotions bring us close.
Devotions are about relationship, and devotions
bring blessing. Think about the daily and the
weekly and the regular rhythms that form holy habits in your
life that help you to connect with Him.
Go on an adventure. Eliminate choice.
Now there are a few people in the room that don't particularly
like breakfast. I love breakfast.
I get excited about breakfast
every day. This morning I made some
porridge, had some frozen sour cherries in it, which was
slightly strange, and some frozen raspberries.
And I had it with peanut butter and strawberry jam.
I just have to tell you. But all the time I was eating my
breakfast this morning, I was thinking about some bread that
Susan bought it and I yielded and I cut myself two large
slices of toast with butter dribbling off the edge.
I think butter only works if you can see your teeth prints in it.
That's a picture of my mother when I'm a little boy.
Leer pack on bread, leaving her teeth marks in the leer pack.
I'm not sure it keeps you alive any longer in any way, but it is
a lot of fun on the journey. But it also had homemade
marmalade on it. Here we go.
And there it was, just absolute. Can you taste it?
Is it making some of you salivate?
I'm actually realise I'm really hungry again right now.
I'm feeling very hungry. The thing is, breakfast is a
regular daily moment for me and I don't wake up very often and
go, you know, I don't think I'll bother with breakfast for the
next 6 months. How much more important the
close walk with him? It's time to eliminate choice.
A regular time, a regular place, a change of pace.
Listen. A choice to be thankful, a plan
for your personal Bible reading, A pause to love Him and be
loved, A prayer plan to pray for yourself and others.
It'll change your life. This.
Remember that verse we read without Him?
We can do so why do we try? So let's pause for a minute.
Do you need to go to bed a little bit earlier so you can
get up a little bit earlier? Perhaps 10 minutes to sit in His
presence. We want Jesus to build a strong
church. That means a church made of
strong disciples. And the basic thing, Are you
joining the house? Get your devotions in line.
So let's pause for a minute. No condemnation, just close your
eyes if it helps you. Do you need to tweak this area
of your life? The second thing to consider
today is walking with Jesus in baptism.
My journey was this. I was born into a religious
family. I was baptised as a baby in the
font of Breast and Anglican Church between Nottingham and
I'll be a little sprinkle on my head.
I probably had one of those little frilly sort of strange
things that boy babies wear when they're baptised.
I was confirmed that Sutherminster when I was I think
12. I was a chorister at
Sutherminster just outside of Nottingham and I was confirmed
there by the Bishop of Suttle. I then became a Jesus follower
when I was 19. I had a heart for God until
then, but I became a Christian when I was 19.
I then a few months later was baptised in water by full
immersion at Stapleford Baptist Church and I'm so grateful for
that. When all the people listen to
this, when all the people were being baptised, Jesus said I
don't need to be. No, Jesus was baptised too.
That in itself is enough for every Jesus follower on the
planet. But let's go a little bit
deeper. And as he was praying, heaven
was open. What an amazing verses.
If you want a war with Jesus, he himself was baptised and so do
you need to be. If you've not been baptised in
water, this is a moment of challenge, but if you have
already been baptised as a believer, this is a reminder of
the power of what happened in your life in that moment.
Baptism is a sign, it's a symbol.
It shows outwardly what has already happened inwardly in a
person. They've come to the cross,
they've received forgiveness and now they live a new life in
Jesus. This is it.
And at one church we believe that the biblical way to be
baptised is by full immersion going into the water.
Now, I am sympathetic for those of you who had strong Christian
parents, who had you baptised when you were young and then you
wanted to affirm what they'd done.
I understand that and I'm sympathetic and my heart goes to
you. I still believe that the
biblical way to be baptised is by full immersion as a believer.
Why? Because as we go down into the
water, we are baptised into the death and burial of Jesus who
took all our sin. We're declaring as we go down
that our sin is covered, our old life is dead.
And then as we emerge from the water and as we rise up, we're
identifying with Jesus resurrection and declaring that
we're choosing to live a new life.
We go down. I have been buried with Christ
in baptism and I've been raised to life, a resurrection life in
my life. Baptism proclaims that we're
raised into a new life and to live in the way of Christ.
It's a sign, it's a symbol, it's about, secondly, obedience.
Jesus was baptised and he commanded his followers to
baptise others in his name. Therefore go and make disciples
of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, baptism is
linked to believing in Jesus. Repent and be baptised.
It's very simple, it's not complicated.
Anyone trusting in Jesus for salvation, repenting of their
sin, now needs to be baptised, and it's part of it.
We're therefore buried with Him in baptism, Paul says, in order
that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory
of the Father, we too may live a new life.
And I want to encourage you not to wait.
Sometimes we if you're waiting for perfection, you will never
be baptised because I've got some news for you.
As you trust Him, you're going to sin less, but you're not
going to become sinless. We are living a life of still
falling over, standing up, getting stronger but still
making mistakes, asking God to forgive us, confessing our sins,
moving on. This is the journey until we
come to be with Him and then we will be like him.
I can't wait for that. Can you imagine a 100% sin free
spirit filled you? My goodness, Incredible.
Baptism is a sign. It's a symbol.
It shows outwardly, outwardly what has happened in a person,
but it's also about obedience. It's declaring on your journey
that God is kind and he's doing a work in you and this is your
future. That's what happens.
And baptism leads to blessing. Jesus was baptised too as he was
praying. I love this.
As he and as he was praying, heaven was opened.
Heaven was opened. Something happens when you're
baptised. Last year just over 80 people
were baptised in one church, for which we thank God for that.
They were all blessed in the process.
Now, if you are already baptised, I'm going to get you
to confess something. Are you ready now?
I don't want any mumbling. We're going to declare something
with a bit of energy. We're going to say this.
My old life is at the bottom of the tank and I am raised with
Christ into a new life and I appropriate this resurrection
life in me again. OK, so let Are you ready to say
that my old life is at the bottom of the tank and I am
raised with Christ into a new life?
I appropriate this resurrection life in me again and can I just
say that if you've been baptised as a believer, you never need to
be baptised again. So sometimes when people they
get, they got baptised as a believer and they go away and
they have a bit of a tough time and they come back and say, can
I be baptised again? You just need to go God, I
repent of my sin and I appropriate what you've already
done. And if you want to testify about
you again, then do that. But you don't need to be
baptised more than once. I hope you hear that.
What about the rest of us? You've trusted in Jesus for
forgiveness and eternal life, but you've not yet been
baptised. It's time.
Why? Because it's a sign, it's
obedience and it leads to blessing.
And if you've been waiting a long time until all your family
can come and everyone could come from different lands and to be
just exactly on the 22nd of that particular month and in that
year get baptised, now come on. So walking with Jesus is about
devotions. It's about baptism.
And lastly, today we're going to look at this.
Walking with Jesus is being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus spoke and prayed about the gift of the Holy Spirit.
On one occasion while he was eating with them, Jesus gave
them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait
for the gift my father promised, which you've heard me speak
about for John baptised with water.
But in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you,
and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.
These are some of the last recorded words of Jesus after
his resurrection. And he spoke a lot about the
pouring out of the Holy Spirit in these last days.
He knows we need Him for our life.
On witnessing the world. Sometimes people have said the
only church needed the Holy Spirit because it was quite
difficult. But then after the church was
established, the Holy Spirit was no longer being poured out in
the gifts of the Spirit. I look at the desperate state of
Leicestershire and the hundreds of thousands of people living
without Jesus. A country going to hell, a world
lost. We need the power of the Spirit
now as much as any other time in our history.
We need him. So how can we be filled with
him? Or who is the Holy Spirit?
He's God. He is there all the way through
the Bible from the beginning. I love you.
Read the first verses in Genesis.
It says the Spirit hovered over the waters.
He was part with the Father and the Son of all creation, the
beauty of the Trinity through the whole Scriptures.
He was there coming upon particular people for particular
purposes, and then in the life of Jesus.
And then, as Jesus promised, we read him infilling believers.
What does the Spirit do? The Holy Spirit creates, He
renews, he refreshes, He reminds, he empowers, he
releases, and so much more. He makes Jesus real and He
enables us to go out in His name with power.
Every Christian has the Holy Spirit living within them.
Every Christian, every Jesus follower.
Not every person, every Jesus follower has the Holy Spirit
living them. Let me just read this from
Romans 8. You are not controlled by your
sinful nature, you are controlled by the Spirit.
If you have the Spirit of God living in you, Remember that
those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not
belong to him at all. Every Christian has the Holy
Spirit, but not every Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit.
Everyone is equally loved, equally valued.
God has no favourites. He loves us all the same, which
is why He wants everyone to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
In the Bible we read the promised gift of the Spirit
filling the church as Jesus promised He would.
Let's read it. Acts 2.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one
place. Suddenly a sound like the
blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole
house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be
tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of
them. And look at this, all of them,
not a selected few, all of them were filled with the Holy
Spirit. And all of them, not a selected
few, began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled
them. After this, the first Christians
went out in power to share the good news of Jesus across the
world. Now we are one church.
We're a Pentecostal church, which means, along with
countless millions of others, we believe that the same Holy
Spirit who was poured out on the day of Pentecost fills and
empowers hungry believers in Jesus today.
Sometimes we can sing songs about we want a new Pentecost.
We don't need a new Pentecost because it's still Pentecost
today. We tap into the one who has been
poured out and he comes with a fresh wave into our lives.
How do I know if I've been filled with or baptised in the
Holy Spirit? Well, one sure sign as it was
for them, is speaking in tongues.
There was also a sign for them, tongues of fire above their
heads. I'd like a bit more of that.
Lord, what seemed like tongues of fire.
Let your fire fall on us. Let the power of your fire fall
on us even today. But is speaking in tongues it's
one sure sign of being filled with the Spirit.
Now we believe that everyone who is Spirit filled can speak in
tongues, but not all do. And we know this is a journey
for some. And we know perhaps this has
been a bit painful for you and you wonder if you're special
enough. I know it's a journey of faith,
but there's a step to take and we begin to speak out.
Well, what is the gift of tongues?
Speaking in tongues is speaking in a language we've never
learned. It can be human or it can be
heavenly. Look at this one Corinthians 13.
Tongues of men, tongues of angels.
I was once in a meeting and we were singing a song, and at the
end of it I sang a song in the language of the Spirit.
And as I sang, one of the pastors from this church came
and stood at the front and danced and danced to that song.
It was quite strange. And at the end, a lady came to
see us both and said this, that she was visiting the church and
that the words that I'd used were the the tribal words of her
people. And the dance that was done was
a spiritual dance that they do within their context.
And it had been a tremendous encouragement to her life as she
visited. See.
Because God knows he's able. He's able.
I know sometimes, you know, is it a tad different?
Yeah. But we're all right with that.
Speaking in tongues in a language you've never learned is
is both a heavenly language, tongues of men, arrangers.
It's a form of prayer. For when anyone who speaks in a
tongue does not speak to people, but to God, no one understands
them. They are to mysteries by the
Spirit. I don't know how how to live
without speaking in tongues as a Jesus follower, I don't know how
to do it. I run out of my English words.
I don't know how to pray into all situations.
Speaking in tongues helps you so much.
Now remember this, we the speaker is always in full
control. Do I believe sometimes the power
of the Spirit comes upon a person without pressure or ever
laying on of hands or pushing from anybody rest on the floor?
Yes, that happens occasionally. It doesn't mean they are more
blessed and it doesn't necessarily mean they feel more
of its presence, but that can happen.
But we are always in control. People said I, I, I couldn't
help it. The Spirit made me do it.
It's not true. It's not real.
You are in control. We allow him, amazingly to speak
through US. And even this think about this
guard within us, speaks through US to guard outsiders.
I mean, it's just an incredible miracle of what happens.
It's a form of prayer. You're always in control.
Doesn't mean you don't want him to take over, and public
messages of tongues require an interpretation.
But why is the gift of tongues helpful?
It builds up the individual. Listen to this.
Anyone who speaks in the tongue edifies themselves.
They build themselves up. When you speak in tongues, you
build yourself up in God's presence.
But it also inspires our worship.
What will I do? I'll pray with my Spirit, Paul
says. I'll also pray with my
understanding. I will sing with my Spirit, but
I will also sing with my understanding.
I love singing in the language of the Spirit.
I'd like us to do it more as a house, because a sustained
period of just singing in the language of the Spirit releases
something of faith in the atmosphere.
It's a wonderful gateway gift. It leads into the other gifts of
the Spirit. We'd need to desire to speak in
talks and to use this regularly. So how can we be filled?
The Holy Spirit is often described as being like water in
a bowl. The sponge is in the bowl, The
water is in the sponge. He fills us like a thirsty land
and we're immersed in Him like baptism in water.
We are baptised, filled, immerse in the Holy Spirit.
Whatever terminology we use, we need the Holy Spirit to fill us.
We believe in an experience that we call baptism in the Holy
Spirit. When Jesus was baptised, the
Spirit came down on him. John has said this.
It's on the screen. I baptise you with water, but
one more powerful than I will come.
He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and we listen.
Fire, fire, Jesus himself said just before he died.
I'm going to ask the Father, I love her.
I'm going to ask the Father. I ask you Father again, and he
will give you another advocate, a comforter, A counsellor, the
spirit of truth. Beautiful.
The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him or
knows him. But you know him, for he lives
with you and will be in you. Holy Spirit makes Jesus real to
us. He helps us form fruit.
There's always more. You will never reach the end of
the fullness of what He wants to pour into your life.
When I became a Jesus follower, the day after I gave my life to
Jesus, standing in a room, about 60 people in this room, a man
with a guitar standing at the front.
I was on the front row and a man was playing a song called Worthy
or Worthy Are You Lord worthy to be thanked and praised and
worshipped under the Lord. I still love that song.
And as I stood, the power of the Spirit came upon me from the top
of my head to the bottom of my feet.
And as a 19 year old guy, I wept in the presence of God for
around 2 hours that day. But nobody said to me what had
happened to me. And I didn't at that time speak
in tongues. It was not till a few weeks
later when I was reading about a group of people who were filled
with the Spirit and spoke in tongues.
I said, Lord, I'd like to do that.
And I just began to speak where I was.
It was, it was wonderful. Jesus promises that if we ask,
we'll receive. And if you want to, you can
receive a first, a fresh, a more touch of the Holy Spirit here
today. Ask, seek and knock.
This is what Jesus encourages us to welcome him to ask and then
to receive. So I'm going to just take us
through a little journey of popper, a little bit of music
on. So if you're able, can you stand
to your feet, please? Now ask him, say, I'd like to be
baptised in the Holy Spirit or I'd like to be filled again, or
I'd like you to draw close to me.
Whatever your longing is. Now listen.
The promise is the Father only gives good gifts to us.
So ask Him now just where you are.
Ask Him. He'll hear you as an individual.
He's not overwhelmed by hundreds of people asking Him things at
the same time. Ask Him now.
Just breathe in His presence. It helps you to put your hands
out in front of you, waiting for receiving a gift.
Breathe in His presence right now.
Breathe. Breathe in the presence of God,
ministering to you right now in the name of Jesus, in the name
of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. Hear our prayers, this beautiful
journey that we're all on, walking with him, devotions,
baptism, remembering what we've already done, filled with this
spirit. There's more this week.
Press in for more of him. More of him.
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.