Home Group Sermon Series - 2023

Amazing Grace September - November

John Newton’s well loved hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. It’s a hymn which has shaped the faith of many Christians during it’s lifetime and one that will continue to bless us for many years to come. During this, what we believe, will be an encouraging and uplifting Home Group series, we will ‘dig deep’ into each verse that Newton wrote (Newton’s sixth verse is different to the ‘popular’ version).

John Newton, was a coarse, cruel, slave trader, who was the captain of a ship involved in the infamous African slave trade in the 19th Century. Newton, like many seamen at that time, worked hard, drank hard and had a woman in every port! On one of these voyages, Newton carried a Christian passenger who took the time to share his faith with him. As a result of this, Newton began to study the Bible and to pray. One day, Newton came to the story of ‘The Prodigal Son’ (Luke 15:11-32) and, after reading it, repented of the terrible things he had done and committed his life to the service of God. Newton never lost sight of the depths from which he had been lifted. When he wrote the line: “... that saved a wretch like me ...” he really meant what he wrote.

Sharing Our Faith The Jesus Way May - July

The clarity of Jesus’ teaching never ceases to amaze us. When Jesus spoke, people listened and their lives were never the same again. This summer Home Group series looks at what we can learn from Jesus in the way he engaged with those who were seeking answers to the questions of life. This series is, intentionally, based on some well known passages from the Gospels which should help us to ’dig’ a little deeper in our discus- sions as well as the application of sharing our faith with others. As we follow this series, be sure to pray for opportunities to come your way. As we will see, some of these opportunities can come in the most unlikely of places.

Each of us have much to learn about how to share our faith with others. The series ‘BLESS’ gave us some helpful strategies that we can put in place - do make an effort to put BLESS into practise when and where you can. 2023 is the year of BLESS as shown in our text for this year from Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”