Merton Vineyard Church

Core to our vision at Merton Vineyard, is Loving God as Jesus explained in Mark 12. It is about loving with your Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength. In this talk, we look at what this practically means for us, and the challenge fo asking God, "Where do I not love?"

As we continue in January looking at vision, we look at the vision that Jesus offered to his disciples and others. A vision that casued normal people like us to drop everything and change the world. Note: The video refered to at the end of the talk can be found here: http://bit.ly/2FZNbzh

Our church vision involves lots of verbs. This week we looked at the focus of loving more - Jesus, Friends and other

The importance of the 3 Wise Men, or Magi, is often overlooked when considering the prophecies leading to the birth of Christ. This morning we looked at the build up from over 700BC to Christmas, and how the Magi knew this would happen.

As we enter into the season of expectations, we are looking if our expectations are meetings Gods reality, and to find the hope that we long for, as we look towards the Christmas Story (We do apologies for the sound quality this week)

This week we reflected on the recent leadership weekend that we had, looking at our vision, as well as how we feel God is calling us even deeper into this vision. We also excitedly announced that as of January, week 2 will be Cafe Church at Park Community School.

Acts chapter 1 looks at the gap between when Christ left and the Holy Spirit came. A time of potential hopelessness and despair, however, the process the disciples had gone through and the way Christ had developed them, they kept their hope and celebrated when Pentecost came.

After looking at how some people understand the Kingdom, this week we are looking at Matthew 14 and 15 and the elements of Gods Nature and our Experience (Nurture.) From mourning the loss of a close brother, to feeding thousands to healing even more, we start to get an idea of the person who Jeuss was, and the link to the kingdom

Going through Matthew 13 shows us how Jesus explained some parables, and looked at why parables were told. We look this week at the parables and how the Kingdom of God is not only central to Jesus teachings, but how there is a difference in Haring, Believing and KNOWING this Kingdom.

With all credit to an amazing pastor - Rich Nathan - we have been looking at things in our lives that are silent killers. Not obviously sins that we confess or feel bad about, but things that, if unchecked, can silently kill our souls and have detrimental relationships with those around us. This week Matt looked at Envy and we were challenged how even some of the simplest things can cause envy to thrive in our lives.

Sam takes us through Jonahs journey, up until he was thrown overboard, looking at how God spoke to him and how he reacted.

As we continue looking at silent killers to our soul, we look this week at the issue of Guilt – sometime we hold onto guilt that’s not ours, and sometime we shun guilt that is ours! But ultimately if we understand how to deal with guilt, how to look to the cross

We can look for others for worth, or be Disney-like and look inside for our worth, but both of these cause problems. As Christians, we look to God, we look at what Christ has done, and we see so much worth just in that.

Last week we looked at the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, we often get the two intermingled. This week we are looking how God has continually pursued to be reconciled with mankind, and serves as an example of how we can be reconciled with each other, and help others be reconciled with God

The word confession brings horrible feelings of guilt, shame and being caught out, but its one of the greatest gifts we have received and as Christians, confession should be as natural as breathing

Our relationship with Christ is about us being with him, which results in our doing stuff. However, we are brought up to believe that we are a result of what we do, as opposed to a result of what he did for us.

Sam takes us through looking at compassion in scripture and how vital it is for us as a church family

The Holy Spirit is most commonly described as Fire and Wind and we've lowered the bar when it comes to expectation of the Holy Spirits work in our lives, our families and our church. We suffer because of this, and God, who is so incredibly good, just wants to bless and grow us.

Matthew chpt 5 and 6 focus on the beatitudes, do-atitudes and the heart attitudes. The heart attitudes look at the clear marks of a mature Christian.

We were designed to grow in a team. A crucial part of growth, us the fellowship that we are involved with.