Visit the site here: newcommunitychurch.org.uk

At last the wait is finally over and we are very pleased to be relaunching our website this weekend. Many hours over the last six months have gone into the design, production and implementation of this site which we believe really does start to take church websites to a whole new platform.

As a church, one of our key values is that we are a 'resource church.' We want to echo this quality throughout every aspect of church life, including our online materials, as much as possible. This site takes this value to an even greater capacity.

We wanted to move away from the trap of creating purely an 'information site' which is just used as a 'front window' for the church and wanted to create an interactive online resource that is both 'church member' and 'visitor' friendly. A site that is attractive and at the cutting edge of modern web design, aswell as being functional and user friendly.

As a result we have integrated a number of new features to the site which we hope you will use regularly. The first of which are a number of church blogs. These enable fresh, real time content to be added daily from different ministry areas within the church. You can subscribe to blog content via the RSS feeds and receive updates quickly and easily direct to your inbox.

Another key feature is our 'what's on' calendar. We wanted to take our events calendar to a whole new level with this highly interactive monthly display with detailed event descriptions. In the past we are well aware that the website hasn't been kept as 'up-to-date' with the key events as it should have been. This new system allows us to upload at least three months in advance and is a fantastic resource for both church members and church visitors.

The third key development and a large focus of the new design for us is the 'resource' section. At NCC we are blessed with a number of very gifted bible teachers and preachers and we wanted to really utilise this valuable resource God has given us. The 'resource' section works similarly to any modern music software such as iTunes or Spotify, with series and sermons being graphically broken down and streaming audio with the option to download or subscribe to regular podcast feeds via iTunes. We wanted to create a site that was also forward thinking and have the ability to include video as a key part of our resource section. So watch this space…

I hope this has given you a brief overview of the new site, but please keep clicking around for yourself. This space will be used to inform you of implement changes and developments to the site. We aim to be continually working and improving this site as the months continue. This new redesign is a truly fantastic resource for the whole church and the wider community.

Chris Smyth (Designer) Dan Bradley (Developer)

It was only possible for the disciples to live lives as Jesus was directing when they were abiding in his love. After Christ had revealed his glory. And the reality that most of us sitting here this morning have been sitting in the same shoes of these men. We may not have seen quite the quantity of healings or numbers of demonic strongholds broken but He has revealed who he is to us and has poured out his love upon us.

Just as Dave was speaking about abiding in the vine as such a central point of everything. Everything comes from that place of abiding. Focusing on the root. We need to focus on the love of Christ and how we live our lives will be a natural response to this love. We need to soak ourselves in this love and our lives will be changed. It won't be a question of how do I take up my cross, you will without thinking be taking up your cross. This will shape every decision you make.

You may be in a place this morning where you would say to me, "but the disciples saw a lot of stuff, they had no doubt they had seen countless things happen as they personally laid hands of people. Surly its different for them? Surely they were just more convinced? Or surely they were just more excited? I can understand that response in their case." They were men who stepped out in faith. And as they stepped out they saw revelation after revelation of Christ's love and power. Why aren't we seeing that kind of break-through, or that same intensity of revelation of power in our lives today? I'd say its because we don't step out. Or if we do step out we don't step out enough. The disciples went out with one mission. To reveal the power and love of Christ by healing and casting out the demonic. What is our mission? To make money or be popular? You try and enjoy ourselves as much as possible? Just to be a good friend? Do we ever go out for a day with one mission, to reveal the power of Christ? Have we ever gone out for an hour with only that mission in mind? Well we are going to, and we are going to do it often and we will see the miraculous happen in our campuses and on our high streets. It may not happen the first time, it may not happen the second. But it will happen. You know why? Because we have that same commission as the disciples had. We have that same power and authority given to us.

If we are not careful Christianity becomes nothing more than caring about our own ‘spiritual growth’ and it becomes more and more about how we are feeling or how we are doing. This is radically different from what we see in these passages. We read nothing about the disciple’s thoughts or feelings about going, they simply went and walked straight into revelation.

Effects of Love

2 Corinthians 5 v14-15 says this:
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
You won't realize the true value and magnitude of the cross without realizing the implications and penalty of our sin. The penalty of this sin has been paid for all those who trust in him. What Jesus did on the cross frees you from the outcome of hell that we all deserve. He died that 'those might live no longer live for themselves but for him'. Not out of sorting out their lives to in a way that we may be worthy or considered holy but our life response comes as a direct response to what has already been done for us. This is the ultimate act of love. As we focus on this love, the love that Christ showed us on cross our natural response to take up our cross and deny ourselves. As a response, not a request.

Our attitude of Response
We need to people who constantly are reminding ourselves of this love. To constantly be reminding ourselves of the love shown at the cross. Constantly reminding ourselves that the price has already been paid. Jesus is not just requesting that we may live a certain way but he wants us to enjoy his love and his grace and he wants to enjoy our natural response to this love with our lives. When we come to situations at uni and at work where it just feels to difficult to make the right choice, or do the right thing. Where it is just so easy to live how others around us are living, We need to be a people to soak ourselves in the love and his power. The revelation of love power is the thing that will equip us, not our own strength. When we focus on that love, on that power then the outcome is a natural response. One that effects every part of us. 26: 41 says 'the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' Sometimes is know we want to do the right thing and the spirit is willing but our body is weak and just doesn’t want to. We want to give in to our selfish desires. The flesh is weak, it is harder to do the right thing. In these moments our actions need to be a direct response to his love for us. Not because of a request but because of a response.

It’s interesting the way these two events occurred. Almost in our minds it makes more sense for the weight of this word to come before the sending out. Isn't that how we work in today’s culture. You prove yourself in this area and then you get the responsibly to go out and act. But Jesus doesn't present these two passages in that order. He sends and commissioned first. The disciples see great things; things they couldn't have even imagined were possible. There then was a confession of faith when Peter called Jesus the Christ. And only then does Jesus present this radical lifestyle into the equation. Why? Because when they saw there natural response was to do that anyway. They didn’t have to be told a way of life as they had started to live this life naturally already.

But even as I’m saying this you are sitting there thinking, "how on earth am I going to do that?" You may really want to, you may have all good intentions and maybe even a fixed plan in how to live a 'holy' lifestyle. How to run from temptation. How to force your self to do what is right.

Ask yourself this morning what is your motivation for your actions? Is it because you think that is the way you think you should live? Or is it because it’s just written in this book. Or is it because you want to appear better than most. You know guys on the basis of these things alone, and most of them are good intentions, you are never going to live the life Jesus is speaking about in these verses, you are never going to be able to totally deny yourself because you think that you should. You are never going to take up your cross daily because it tells you to in this book.

The natural response

Our issues with this verse is that so often we look at it the wrong way round. We look at it as a correction of life style or as a rulebook that we are falling radically short of, rather than a natural response to the revelation of Christ’s love he has already displayed to us. You start reading the passage in the right order suddenly you see the response and not the rulebook.

The disciples didn’t have to be told they were naturally already starting to respond to what they had seen. They were completely submerged in the revelation of Christ’s love and power. There is only one way we will be able to even get close to doing these things. And that is to completely submerge our-selves in that same love and revelation of his power. To completely submerge yourself in the Glory of Christ, in the power of Christ. To be stepping out boldly in your faith. After Jesus told the disciples to go can you imagine their first response? Can you imagine the first people they came up to in the street? Can you imagine the awkwardness of those first encounters? You can imagine the surprise on their faces when it actually worked. The first time they laid hands on someone and they were healed. The first time they spoke to a demon and it left. Can you imagine the excitement upon realizing that that encounter wasn't just a one off? That wherever they went people were being healed. And as the disciples stepped out their faith increased. And as they stepped out more and more and sheer reality of that what was continually happening around them become clearer and clearer. Jesus Christ the one they had been following around and hanging off every word he spoke, really was the Son of God and He really did have the power to cast out demons and heal the sick. It is no surprise that in later verses Peter publicly confessed that Christ is the Lord. Because he had stepped out in faith, and the glory of God was revealed through the miraculous.

There are some definitive parts to this verse I want to take apart in a little detail just so we can break down to the true meat of these words.
1. Let him deny himself.
What is our self?
A few years ago I used to work as a ‘artificial stone dresser’, which basically is a clever way of saying that I used to make stone in a freezing cold warehouse. My boss was a guy called Johny and to this day I still think he is probably the nicest guys I have ever met. But Johny used to have this little motto and although it sounds a little silly it really did apply to many aspects of his life: "WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT IT, AND AS MUCH OF IT AS I WANT." All he lived for was a good time, and if I’m honest he had had a good time! He was the kind of guy who a story for every occasion, and most of them involving the police in some nature. This life style choice is often called 'hedonism' and put plainly is the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole good in life. And this is what drives most people. And we are honest we probably all have touched on this in our lives. It may not be as obvious in some but for many this is the case.
Paul speaks a lot in his letters to churches in the New Testament about our nature as humans. We have this certain set nature because of the sin of Adam. That 'original sin' is in our very nature as humans. That it something that just plain and simply ‘in’ us. Paul says in Romans, 'Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.' (Romans 7:20) Paul’s point is that even if we have all good intentions, even if we do not what we want to do, it is the sin our very nature that does it. Sin is deep down within us.
Jesus is challenging how content we are with that this nature. And further still he is not only talking about denying certain lifestyle choices or certain habits we know that are wrong but he is talking about denying the control of our lives. To give control over to him. What is implied in this short four words is actually pretty massive when we try to apply this to our lives.
2. To take up your cross daily
I've heard many people speak on this passage before, using words like "we all have our burdens to bare", it may be a tough situation or a family member with an illness and you will hear people say "that's my cross I have to carry." Ever heard that? And people actually teach that! I don't believe that is at all what Jesus was talking about when he said take up cross.
There was no doubt or lack of impact in his words, he just said it bold and simply how it was. Jesus was talking about making a commitment to follow him that will lead to rejection and possibly even death. He wasn’t talking about taking any decision lightly or a decision that may affect some small part of your life at some point in the future. He was talking about a decision that would affect everything. One that would ultimately change every part of your life.
I think the sheer impact of this verse gets so washed around because of how the majority of Christians today live their lives. Without any real conviction of sin. Without any real heart for the lost or want to share their faith because the fear of rejection is far too important to them.
The very kick of this verse is that you will, without doubt be rejected. You will without doubt be an outsider to the world. And you know guys if we are not offending anyone with the gospel, if we are not having people mock us and despise us because of the message we bring we are not even getting close to taking up our cross. In fact our cross our cross is still firmly a tree the woods. Some of us can look back at times when we were taken the mic out of at school or someone called us a bible basher. And you know the reality is sometimes I think that that is the closest we have come to taking up our cross.
And if that wasn’t hard enough already Jesus says to do this daily. I don't believe we do this monthly let alone daily. You may look back to a time where were fearless. Maybe at school or sixth form you made a firm stand for what you believed and maybe you long for those times again but they feel so far away. And you what, they are so far away. In fact they may feel pretty much impossible. These things seem totally impossible for us to do. Their is no way we can find it in us to deny ourselves, and take up my cross even for one day, let alone daily. And even if we can find the want to, it just doesn't last.
The key part to this is passage it that it doesn't sit here on its own. I hasn't just randomly been thrown down on paper as a passing thought. No, it is intentionally sandwiched between the power and the revelation of God.

This morning I want to build on what God has been speaking to us about by sharing with you one of the simple realities why I believe we struggle to go into a deeper level of intimacy in our relationship with him. Some of us have got used to a way of life. Some have got used to a system that works for us. Some have got into to a routine, which seems to work for us. Many of us really do have the best intensions with healthy motives but underneath it all is a mindset of rules, routines and if we are honest legalistic obedience. Outwardly we do things that make us appear how we want to appear, as we would like to appear. Maybe not even as an attempt to impress or please watching others but in an effort to please God. I want to talk this morning about what I want to call “the natural response,” and the concept of ‘doing because you have to, not because you need to.

Jesus has something meaty to say in these short verses we are going to look at in Luke 9 but to understanding the true implications of these verses we really need to take a quick step back and glance briefly at the whole of the chapter. The mistake of taking this short pocket of scripture out of context changes completely how Jesus was communicating these words. All will become clear as we get into the passage.

1.Twice Jesus reveals his power and his love through the miraculous.
• Jesus sends out the 12, healing many and casting out demons everywhere they went.
• The feeding of the 5,000.

2. Peter confesses his faith.

Just as Jesus commissioned these guys into action, there is as well a commissioning for us. That same sending out as we see in Luke 9 v 1 is for us. This alone is revolutionary for some. The second we gave our lives to Christ we took a share in this same call and commissioning. We walk in the same authority and power that these guys had to cast out demons and heal the sick. We heard yesterday, those of you who were in the ‘Treasure Hunting’ seminar about sharing this authority and praying for people in the name of Jesus.

Interestingly though this piece of scripture doesn’t come all by its self-but is paired with these next few verses. And what follows is probably one easiest to ‘read over’ verse in the bible. Jesus paints a pretty hard-hitting picture of what our lives are look like.

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Sidcup is packed full of London commuters, waiting patiently very morning with a coffee for their train. We wanted to give them something to look at! This is the next poster in our planned station adverts. Good design and advertising is such a powerful tool in todays society, especially in the U.K where we are surrounded by a culture that has been "trained" to respond to advertising, a world that responds so vividly to anything and everything visual.

The concept of 'Treasure Hunting' seems to have been thrown around a lot at the moment not only in California but in a number of UK churches in Newfrontiers. And although I have had very little experience in 'going' treasure hunting I really wanted to check out what all the fuss was about. This book by Kevin Dedmon had been on my 'to read' list for sometime and over the last few days I had the chance to finally get into it.

Prior to reading this book I had only been on two 'treasure hunts' but with a strong desire to do more, particularly encouraging the student and 20s at New Community Church to be thinking about getting involved with 'hunting' on their campuses and in their workplaces I hoped this book would be helpful. My first time out our team had some very odd things on our map. We had, a bus stop, the colour pink, drink problems, the name steve and chest pain. And as we left the church building where we had received our clues we took to the streets of Wimbledon a little apprehensive about what was about to happen. But then only 20 yards away from the building someone on our team pointed out the first 'bus stop' we came to, and looking a little closer noticed a big 'pink', 'stevie' wonder poster on the side with a guy sitting there with a can of 'drink'. So as you can imagine we were all a little shocked that God had led us to our first clue in only 20 yards! After plucking up enough courage to go over and speak to him he told us he was suffering with 'chest pain!' And after explaining a little about what we were doing and that we believed that God had led us to him that evening he let us pray that God would reveal himself to him and heal him of his chest pain.

It was that simple encounter which sparked something inside of us of the truth that God was really in this and clearly using these 'treasure hunts' to guide his people to someone he wanted to reveal himself to. This book then for me was a must read and one I would defiantly recommend to anyone who may be a little apprehensive about this. The book is packed with stories of hunts and incredible miracles happening as God has led teams to people on the side of roads, in petrol stations, to peoples front doors and a number of crazy divine situations in random place to 'treasure' that he wanted to reveal himself to. These stories really do stir faith to want to see these things happen in your town and on your high-streets and in your local campuses.

Dedmon grounds all this biblically throughout the book. Pointing out time and time again where God clearly speaks into a situation, leading to an opportunity to pray for someone. Ananias being told to go to see Paul and heal him of this blindness is one he comes back to time and time again.

Pre-reading this book my only concern for that this 'supernatural evangelism' would become a set event and not something we do more as a lifestyle but Dedmon addresses this great depth at the end of this book suggesting that beginning to step out in this way when God speaks to us will become more of a lifestyle the more we are obedient to God and 'go' when he tells us to 'go'.

I have no doubt that Jesus wants to break into these times together and pour his presence upon us by his Spirit. Lets be expectant of his presence in these times together.

From the very beginning of your Christian life, the Holy Spirit has been working in you. You are ‘born again’ by the Holy Spirit. However, Jesus promised the disciples that they would receive a dynamic power to witness for Him when the Holy Spirit came upon them. (Read Acts 1 v 4-8)

Read Acts 2 38-39

Was the promise of the Holy Spirit only for the New Testament church or is it for us today?

Why do we read incredible moves of the spirit in the book of Acts but rarely see anything like that in our lives today? Shouldn’t this be our daily experience? What is the difference between the New Testament early church and us? Has the Spirit changed? Are we just different? Are we missing out of what God wants to use us for?

Read Acts 19v 1-17.

When Paul met with ‘disciples’ at Ephesus he felt something lacking and asked a very basic question to them:

‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

He knew that there was a receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which every believer was entitled to, but not every believer had automatically. He also expected them to know whether they had been filled with the Holy Spirit or not.

Scripture to think about:

Acts 2 v 1-4
Acts 10 v 44-48
Acts 8 v 12-17
Acts 19 v 1-7

According to these accounts, is the baptism in the Spirit a definite experience? i.e. would you know if you’d had it?

These next few verses talk about things that Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would do for us:

John 14 v 26 “Helper- teach you things and bring things to your remembrance”
John 15 v 26 “Bear witness about the Father”
John 16 v 13 “Guide”
John 16 v 14 “Glorify the Father”

How to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit:
Read John 1 v 29 and v33
Who is the one who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit?

Jesus tells us how to receive: John 7 v 37-39

Focus on this verse: particularly the thirst. If you’re not thirsty ask God why, and to make you thirsty!

These notes were largely based on 'Foundations' by John Groves.

Let me break this down a little more. Integrity is something we share as Christians. We are united in Christ’s integrity and share in this. If you preach something which has no reflection on your own lifestyle you have spoken a huge statement about the whole of Christianity. This is why, in my opinion the church in this country has an incredibly bad reputation. It is because we say one thing and do another. When we do this the bridge falls in over us and wait of anything we say or do is radically destroyed.

There is nothing worse than a lukewarm Christian. In my opinion, half preaching a gospel of hope, peace and joy and half preaching another gospel with his lifestyle, a selfish gospel of instant fun and self gratification. I know this because I have been there, for a long period in my life I was a lukewarm Christian and although God did bless me with some fruit and God did use me in a handful of situations I believe that whole heartedly I would have seen ten times of fruit if what I said was said with integrity.

But you might say to me, “Chris, what about the gifts that God has given me? My gift is evangelism surely this is what is important.”

My response to this would be, yes gifts are important, but character is more so. Gifting without strong character is dangerous and leads to trouble in the end. Character is the foundation in which these gifts, partially evangelism, are based on. We need to see integrity as being key to a solid foundation. Without that in place our gifts and often-good motives are blown around in the wind and they often crash in around us.

So how can we apply this as we go off or back to university? How do we build integrity?
Just a couple of helpful pointers I think we need to keep referring to:
1. Set limits, set boundaries in advance. Driscoll takes about not putting your self in any situation that there is even a chance of sin and you an extent this is what I’m talking about. Practically how does work: setting limits on how much you are drinking and set a realistic limit you can reach and you aren’t going to break straight away. It may be setting boundaries with girl friend or boyfriend; it may be setting gossip boundaries. It is these potentially small things that begin to built up are integrity.
2. Ask and know that you are not doing this on your own. Nothing about Christianity is about us trying to follow a rule book, its about Christ by his holy spirit working in and through us.
3. Be accountable and honest about you are doing with someone. Find someone who will regally speak into your life and let you know how you are doing.


We have to be a people of integrity if we want our words if we want to see change on our campuses and in our workplaces. And just in closing your character growth and the wait of your integrity of also key to your spiritual growth and development.

God has spoken so clearly to us over the summer about not limiting Him and we want to respond to that by getting out onto our campuses and in our workplaces and asking Him to move. As the year goes on we will be doing a number of what has been called ‘treasure hunts’ which are basically asking God to guide us to people he wants to heal or speak to. You know guys I’m so fed up of boring static Christianity, so many churches are made up of people who believe that the gifts of the spirit are limited to the early church and there is so much more for the church in Britain to grab hold of and break out in but on a whole its not happening because, I think of the level of what they expect. New Testament Christianity, which is what we are called to be living, is more radical, more courageous and more exciting than anything else in this world. And this is what we are all about.

So many Christians read the book of acts in light of what they look to as ‘special times’, that was for them and not for us. We are living in privileged times guys, the fact is that Jesus has won the victory at the cross, paid the price for our sin and has sent his holy spirit to empower and equip his church to bring hope, joy and power to this world. We are in those ‘special times’ right now! Anyone who knows God and is filled with his spirit is in those ‘special times’ and what we read in the bible is happening all over the globe today and I think it’s time that we got some balls and stepped out asked God to move in miraculous ways.

God loves to reveal himself, he loves to heal the sick, he loves to break in to the hurting and painful times with joy. And he does not just for the sake of the miraculous, he does so because His glory to reflected, his glory and his power is revealed. And when his glory is revealed, you can’t turn your back, you can’t not respond to him.

So many Christians have taken the supernatural out of their relationship with God, and you know what if you take the supernatural out of the bible you take God out of the bible and you get nothing but a moralistic guidebook. And that is not what I signed up for, that is not what I gave my life for, that is not what I’m living for.

My question to us as a group today is, what are we expecting this year? Who are we abiding in? Are we limiting what God wants to do because we are more caught up in a book of morals than of a supernatural God of power.

So how are we as a group going to respond to this? Well we are going to respond like this. We are going to pray. And we are going to pray. And we are going to pray. We are going to pray until we start to see things happen on our campuses and in our workplaces. And when we do start seeing things happen and we will. We are going to pray some more. Everything we do this year I want us to be soaking in prayer. In James it says:

“16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

And with this I want to close, we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus. Scripture says that our prayer is powerful and effective. So we are going to pray and we are going to see God move. I don’t have to try and convince you of the power of prayer, its right here in scripture. Our prayer is powerful and effective. Let’s put it to good use.