West View Baptist Church, Hartlepool

A family friendly church in the town of Hartlepool

Sermons

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Salt and Light and the Bride of Christ

Amanda, Ian and Abbey led today’s service. Songs today were “We will go”, “We are marching in the light of God”, “Did you feel the mountains tremble?”, “Mighty to save”, “Revelation song”, “Purify my heart”, “Amazing grace” and “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord” Scriptures today included Titus 2 11-15, Revelations 19 1-10, and Isiah 25 1-12

Bride of Christ

Young Church today has as its theme Salt and Light, Matthew 5-13 to 16, and the children were encourage to make salt drawing and light sculptures whilst we explored the topics,

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Up against it. But boast only in Him.

It was a very interesting start to the service this week. Everybody seemed to have something going wrong prior to the service. Lost keys, forgotten phones and videos that refused to work were all the setbacks that were trying to stop the worship team putting together the songs and activities they had planned. Abbey and Yvette led events today. The songs for the first half of the service for Young Church and the young at heart were the kids version of the Blessing, Blessed be Your Name, God of Wonders, and Shalom My Friend. Songs for the second half were Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?, Knowing You Jesus and Thine be The Glory. The song that we did not manage to play was Lost In Wonder (You chose the Cross)

Yvette brought us the message from 1 Corinthians 18-31. She set the scene for us. Corinth is in Greece West of Athens between two seas. It was a major trading hub with two ports and a really bad reputation for corruption. It has a temple dedicated to Aphrodite where people end up in sex inside the temple with the temple servants and so called priests. Paul sent around 18 months in Corinth, he wrote his letters to the Thessalonians and 4 letters to the Corinthians although only two survived. Christians in Corinth faced many of the same dilemmas we face today, surrounded by corruption and sin and under pressure to fit in with the society around them.

Unlike us, they had no Bible to follow, no New Testament blueprint. Paul preached a plain and simple gospel to the early Christians of Corinth. This was a struggle for Jews. They were looking for a sign in the sky whereas Jesus gave them the sign of Jonah. They did not believe in resurrection, no person worth anything would let themselves be crucified. They had no answer for death.

When you look at the Bible from a worldly point of view it does seem a bit mad. Born in a stable, dismissed by religious leaders, killed by the people He created. Corinth was full of philosophers, people interested in broadcasting their own brilliance. Paul’s message was very different, he brought glory to God, not to himself.

People today struggle with being interested in a gospel that isn’t about them, focussed on them alone, broadcasting their brilliance. Yvette outlined the importance of things not being about the person but being about God. She listed all the unsuitable people that God chose to help with what he needed to be done, liars, murderers, cowards, tax collectors, adulterers…the list goes on. If he can use all of them he can use us. All we need to do is what we are asked. Check out what happened to Ezekiel, called to be a prophet, delivering a lot of bad news, losing his wife but still being faithful to what he was called to do.

We need only do what Jesus asks us to do and trust him to sort out the rest of of our mess. This is primarily so that we have nothing to boast about, nothing that involves us taking his glory for ourselves. Let God do what only God can do. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice and it looked like Jesus lost. His disciples went back to their day jobs .One man’s desire to obey His father saved us. The ordinary people who followed him changed the world often at great cost themselves. Boast only in Him.

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Sunday 8 January 2023

Happy New Year and welcome to our first service of the year

God’s covenant and promises and the criticism trap

Amanda, Ian and Abbey led worship today. Songs this week were “I speak Jesus”, “Holy Water”, “God’s Great Dancefloor”, “Spirit of God, Unseen as the wind”, “God of Wonders”, “Thankful”, “Graves to Gardens” and “Holy of Holies”

Matty brought us some thoughts and reflections from his week. He had found it particularly difficult to highlight what message he wanted to share. He eventually decided to speak around Numbers 12:11 “Please my Lord I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed”. In this passage we see the result of falling into criticising others, and Matty reflected on the times when he has been critical of others and outlined a situation in his life where he had heard the result of someone being criticised by others when simply attempting to do the best job that they were capable of.

Despite his own reflections on this topic, he still found himself in discussions with a fellow dog walker about recent actions of the council. It is all too easy to be drawn to the criticism trap.

Amanda brought us the word today and gave us a tour of the seven covenants made by God,

A covenant is an agreement between two parties to work towards a common goal and normally sets out roles, responsibilities and consequences when the agreement is broken.

She started with the Adamic covenant which was a general covenant instructing Adam and eve not to eat from the tree of good and evil. Not following the covenenant led to consequences, death and the pain of childbirth etc. If we are disobedient the vine will be pruned.

Another covenant promise was given to Noah, that God would not use floods to drown man again. The rainbow was left as a sign of that promise.

Covenants were also made to the twelve tribes of Israel and within our communion service Amanda used 12 pieces of unleavened bread to signify the tribes.

Finally Amanda also drew people’s attention to the covenant promises given to the people of West View Baptist Church. They pre date her time at West View yet we can all see how folks from West View have spread out across the world to share the good news of God’s work and promises.

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Are you part of God’s upside down kingdom?

In our 29 December 2019 service Esther thanked Ian for the Mary did you know?” song. It’s one of her favourites. She reflected on the fact that sometimes what we expect to happen and what actually happens may be different. January is a gloomy month and we need to know that we walk in the light. Esther asked for people to share what had been happening in their lives. Esther’s brother Malcolm is going to share what’s been happening in Walthamstow and Ben will share what is happening in Lancaster. Esther read from 1 John 4 7 21

As we’re leaving this year and this decade 2020 is good vision. The best focus and that is what we will need,

Malcolm said it was good to be back on home ground. Malcolm reckoned that he came here before he was even born. Malcolm recalls this church always encouraging people to share their gifts. He learnt the Bible here teaching it to others.
Malcolm shared that about 4 weeks ago a young lady from Iran came to live with them. She came here aged 17 studying and passing her exams but then she went off the rails. She applied for asylum, and the Home Office moved her to Liverpool. She found out about Christ and joined a church in Liverpool. Her asylum claim was rejected and she then became stuck in the system and ended up living with an Iranian family.

Malcolm found out about her in February through a fellow minister , and invited her to join the church to help with the Iranian members of their congregation. She flew through the scriptures and she came alive when talking to people about the gospel. Malcolm shared that two years ago they’d started work trying to get an intern. But it came to nothing. Malcolm invited her to volunteer with his church hence why she has come to live with them.

He read from 1 Corinthians, showing God chooses . Malcolm never expected that the person who was perfect for work in his church with young people would come from Iran , and study maths and science. Often what we need is sitting right in front of us.

When God leads you on a journey it’s exciting. God’s upside down kingdom often surprises!

Ben then talked about his internship in Lancaster . He’s been working with them for a year and a half. They get a lot of students. Watching them grapple with the great truth of the gospel. Sharing that God sent his son to save us. Ben finds it great to see people come to make decisions based around the bible and the church. They had one person Danni, who slowly over time decided to become a Christian. Another young person meets up for coffee to discuss the bible and ask hard questions!

He also reflected on the discouragement , they’re trying to move building and are having to learn to trust God’s word and timing. It’s tempting to think “If only we had” when all we need is God’s word.
Esther talked about how we are privileged to be able to connect to our communities through Filling Station through Sheraton Court through the Alpha course.

We need to find ways to touch peoples lives. Find a way to communicate Christ to them even if it is just a smile and hello.

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Don’t be scared to reach out and help a Zombie

3 November 2019

We were joined by Mattie Steel who preached on 2 Thessalonians chapter 1

He shared his experience of being at Stockton sixth form college he took chemistry but he struggled about pulling together ingredients to make the final product. Other things in life are not as difficult. Fish and chips, visiting the lakes and good weather, Middlesbrough and a win makes a happy Matty.

The opening of the letter shows Paul in a good mood . Persecution is on the increase but this church in Thessaloniki is increasing.

Matty can see a similar spirit here at West View Baptist Church. But Paul’s letter shifts to those who don’t accept god. It gives Paul no joy to say this. Jesus will return and there will be a judgement. Paul shows that he knows God’s heart is that none should perish.

Our Godmay make you worthy of his calling. Paul expands on this in chapter 8 of Romans. God has chosen called or invited people to come into a relationship with him. He also provides the way for us to be made right with God.

What Paul is not saying is that there is some sort of level that people need to achieve.

In Christ you get a new identity. You are different and this is described right through the New Testament. Different audiences are called to this change, from say a little Corsa to a powerful Ferrari for Christ. Whenever there is a command you will receive the power and grace of the Holy Spirit to live up to the call as a child of god set free from the bondage of sin. You are free. Paul wrestled with this in Romans 10. We live a new life as the old self was crucified with him. Alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul prayed that God may make you worthy of his calling. Theologian Don Carson says we are to grow up into Christian maturity.

If there is any struggle you feel in bondage to, Jesus will set you free. Matt offered to pray for any one who needs this freeing from struggle.

Paul prays for fruit from this group of believers in Christ. He recognised the deeds coming from faith, but there is a need for prayer as well. We will only see new kingdom fruit with prayer behind it. Falling to the extremes of either of these camps makes it easy for the external world to dismiss us. Holy huddles, or Christians doing nice things is what we will be dismissed as.

Always offer to pray when out on the streets. Matty gave example of an addict they prayed for who felt sober for the first time in a number of years.

Take the risk and see what happens. Nothing that you can do that can put people off God’s love.

Matty related the story of the time that he was down in Brighton and there was a Zombie festival that weekend. He found himself alone in a railway station at midnight being prompted by God to go and speak to someone. That someone was dressed as a Zombie… at midnight! Matty offered help. Found out the man in the costume had been suicidal previously and following chats then and later he came to Christ and was baptised.
He also shared that our hospitality does not have to be perfect. He once offered a meal to two people down on their luck. He only had beans and bread in to offer. The two young people wanted to cook the meal and sadly they burnt the toast and were that keen on stirring the beans so they wouldn’t stick, they reduced them to mush. It didn’t matter. God still used burnt bread and bean purée to enable someone to be led to Jesus.