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READING:
Acts 2:1-21
THEME SET UP
“On Fire”----the phenomenon of combustion manifested in light, flame, and heat
a. being consumed by fire; aflame, eager, burning
b. fervent or passionate emotion or enthusiasm
c. to excite or stimulate
It may be a dictionary definition but it is also a description of what happened that first Pentecost, when God set the disciples and the Church on fire. So does that sound like you? Are you on fire? Is the Church on fire today? Or has the fire been tamed? Placed under control? Reduced to embers? This Pentecost, God wants to fan into flame and fill his Church again with his earth-shaking and earth-shaping fire. For when the fire of the Holy Spirit is unleashed on your combustible heart, it will consume you - igniting your life and infusing you with a power and enthusiasm which is impossible to contain. Come, Holy Spirit and set your ‘Church on Fire’.
THEME VERSE:
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…
Acts 2:3-4a
REMEMBER THIS WEEK
The fire and glory of God’s presence now resides in you, the Church, whose hearts are burning with fire and lives moving boldly with his power and love. So burn with fire and see what only God can do!
READING: Acts 8:2-8
Sorry - no recording this week as technology failed. A printed copy of the sermon is attached
THEME
“On the run”. That’s the situation for nearly 19 African athletes and officials who failed to return home after the recent Commonwealth Games in Qld. They are on the run and in hiding, living in fear of being caught and deported. How different from the early Church. They too were on the run, forced out by the persecution Jesus promised would happen and scattered to all parts of the globe. They were under fire…under threat…living in a world that was against them. But rather than go to ground and keep a low profile, the early church had another plan. They carried with them an urgency to live out what Jesus had commanded with their first breath of the day and the last breath of the night knowing that somewhere in between might be their last moment on earth. Today, Jesus wants the Church to have that same urgency; to be a Church on the run preaching the good news wherever we are scattered.
THEME VERSE:
Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Acts 8:4
REMEMBER THIS WEEK
The church on the run is at its absolute best not because it runs fast but because it moves faithful to Christ’s call to share with every living soul the good news he brings. In a hostile world, Jesus is still with us, scattering us throughout the marketplace of the world to be witnesses of his love, grace, compassion, mercy and the joy of new life in him that no threat on earth can ever take away.