King's Church Hastings

Our new identity of being in the Spirit rather than being in the flesh empowers us to live God’s way. Paul makes clear that having the Spirit living inside of us is the hallmark of the Christian. It is this indwelling of the Holy Spirit which leads to the discussion of adoption because he is the Spirit of adoption.

We live turbulent times as a nation. Politically things seem very unstable with growing division and mistrust. As Christians how do we navigate our way in this election season? What should shape our attitudes and actions at this time?

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But those in Christ Jesus, now have the empowering of the spirit to fulfil the law in a way that was once not possible in the flesh. Although we may not be ‘sinless’, we will certainly ‘sin less’ as we grow in the likeness of Christ and wage war on the flesh.

The Law (Old Testament Ten Commandments etc) was never meant to save us. It does reveal something of God’s holiness, it also shows us that we can never earn our way to God. We can never be good enough! Sin has polluted us and we just cannot do it on our own. As we understand the Law it reveals our desperate need of someone to save us, it gets us looking away from ourselves and towards God.

As Christians we live under grace which means that because of Jesus we are totally loved and accepted by God. We no longer need to be bound up by religious rule keeping but are empowered by the Spirit to live lives that bear fruit and glorify God.

Slavery to sin leads to death, but obedience leads to righteousness and eternal life. Sam reminds us that as Christians we have been set free from sin and are now slaves of righteousness to God. How does this shape how we live?

Our identity and value can be taken from many places – society tells us that our value is found in what we do, not on who we are. Yet with Christ, everything changes. We are no longer a product of what we do, but on what He did on the cross. We are no longer slaves of sin, but righteous before God because of the cross. This enables us to reign in life and wage war on sin.

Jesus was obedient to His father by coming to earth and dying for our sins. What does it mean for us to be obedient to God, have faith in all that he's calling us into and live fully for Him?

It’s really important that Christians know where they’ve come from and who they are now. It has a huge impact on our expectations and how we live life. This passage compares the characteristics of the life we had before we followed Christ (In Adam) with the characteristics of the life we have now (In Christ). The differences are incredible and lead to peace, joy and confidence in our lives.

In Romans 5:1-11, Paul begins to talk about the outworkings of being justified by faith which guarantee our future salvation. As he does so he talks about two foundations which are vital for Christian living: The first foundation is knowing that we are fully accepted by God. As those who have been justified there is peace between us and God and we stand in the sphere of God’s grace, meaning we always experience his favour and goodness, even though we are undeserving (5:1-2a) The second foundation is hope in the glory of God, i.e. certain hope in the coming new creation where we will spend eternity with God in perfection (5:2b) and which is strengthened by facing suffering (5:3-4). How can we be confident in this hope? Because of God’s love which is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit as we reflect on the death of Christ (5:5-8). Because of God’s actions for us. If he has already done the huge things of justifying us and reconciling us while we were enemies, he will certainly do the comparably small t

What does it mean to be justified by faith? Andrew outlined two key foundations that are vital for Christian living. We apologise for problems that have been experienced with this recording. We hope to have a better version available soon.

God takes ordinary people and with them he does extraordinary things. God has chosen you - with all your idiosyncrasies and your weaknesses - to be an arrow that brings his salvation to others.

Connect Groups by King's Church Hastings

In September 2016 we shared how we wanted to reach beyond Hastings and grow healthy church right across 1066 country. This preach recaps on how things have been going and all that God is calling us into.

Jesus makes promises, but these promises have conditions - we must first ask in his name, then believe and then we must be open to receive.

God: God longs to dwell with his people. Through Haggai, God calls the people to build his house and not just focus on their own houses. Why does God care so much? Because he longs to dwell with his people (1:1-11). The rebuilt temple is disappointing, but God promises a great future temple (2:1-9). The Gospel: God makes promises to Zerubabbel, part of the royal line of David. This reaffirms the promises made to David (2 Sam. 7:4-17). Is Zerubabbel the promised king and temple builder? No. The true king and greater temple builder doesn’t arrive for another 500 years – Jesus.

Obadiah is a message of judgement for Esau’s descendants (Edom) and of hope to Jacob’s descendants (Judah/ Israel). For centuries Edom has oppressed its brother nation Judah in different ways and now God is bringing judgement by taking everything away from Edom. It also shows that the judgement shown to Edom will be shown to the nations. In contrast to this, God’s people Judah/ Israel will be delivered and God will stay true to His promised towards his people and also restore all that’s been lost.

The book of Habakkuk records a conversation between the prophet and God. As we overhear this conversation we get to learn about the gospel and about God. Habakkuk shows us that salvation has always been through faith and that true life is found through relationship with God.

Zephaniah tells us that as the people of Judah turned back to God their relationship with him was restored. Being restored to God resulted in praise and worship and an absence of fear. As they turn back to God he rejoices enthusiastically over them. For us, we have the opportunity to come into right relationship with God through Jesus. As we come to him as his beloved children we know that he delights in us. We need to choose to live in this relationship as loved, chosen children of God, saved by him for purpose.

The radical call on Hosea’s life is a humbling and sobering reminder of the affects of our sin and it’s impact on God. Through Hosea’s obedience, we experience a foretaste of God’s intention to rescue those who have run far from Him and how his mercy triumphs over judgement.