Starting with God

You Are My God

What does it truly mean to say, "The Lord is my Shepherd" or "You are my God"?

In this thought-provoking and deeply pastoral message, we explore the difference between simply knowing about God and knowing Him in relationship. Drawing from the Psalms, the teaching of Jesus, and the testimony of Scripture, this talk examines how worship is far more than songs, rituals, or religious practice. It is the posture of a heart that recognizes God's rightful place as Creator, Lord, Father, and Shepherd.

Through the life of David, we...

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory..." (John 1:14) How can finite people truly know an infinite God? In this message, we explore one of the most astonishing claims of Christianity: that God did not remain distant, hidden behind metaphors, symbols, or religious rituals. Instead, He revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ. From Eden to the Tabernacle, from the prophets to the promises of Scripture, the Bible tells a single story of God's desire to dwell with His people. Every covenant, sacrifice, and prophecy points forward to the moment when the Creator...

Can We Really Describe God? The greatest minds in history have wrestled with the same question Moses asked at the burning bush: "Who are You?" When God answered, "I AM WHO I AM," He revealed a truth that still challenges us today. God can be known, yet never fully contained by human language, logic, or imagination. In this talk, we explore: ✅ Why God must reveal Himself before we can know Him ✅ The difference between metaphor and definition in Scripture ✅ Why Jesus is God's ultimate self-revelation ✅ How biblical images like Shepherd, Father, Rock, Light, and Word help us understand God's characte...

Names are important. They can convey so much more meaning than simply what the word literally means. So what can we learn from God’s name revealed to Moses: I Am Who I Am? Chris speaks on how through speaking His name God reveals part of his nature to us.

#WhoamI

#godsname

What is truth? In a world of fake news, AI-generated content, competing opinions, and endless information, how can we know what is really true? In this message, we explore the question famously asked by Pontius Pilate: "What is truth?" Using the same principles employed by historians and scientists, we examine the evidence for Jesus Christ and the central claim of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Was the resurrection a real historical event? What do the eyewitness accounts tell us? Why did the earliest Christians stake everything on this claim? And what does it mean if Jesus...

In Psalm 119 the psalmist says that God’s word is a lamp to their feet and a light to their path. In the next in our Starting with God series Chris looks at how the word of God is essential to our journey, guiding our way through the darkness of life and illuminating the true path to Jesus.

We continue our series on Starting With God with Chris this week expanding on one of the topics from last week: that at the moment we can only see the glory of God like a reflection in a mirror. There is a danger that the mirror becomes so dirty and clouded that we only see our own reflection, that we take the atheist philosophy that God is simply a reflection of our own desires. Jesus turns that thought on its head, the God beyond knowing chose to make himself known and dwells among us. We only have to choose...

Throughout the New Testament it is stated that we should be born again in Christ. Continuing our Starting with God series, Chris speaks on how this is not a literal re-birth but a spiritual one. Putting to death our old sinful selves and instead living our lives moulded and guided by Jesus.

The book of Revelation can be an incredibly difficult book to understand, however in the concluding chapters of John’s vision it gives us a picture of God’s ultimate plan: a new heaven and a new earth, free from death and suffering. Until then we will endure trials, grief and hardship on this current earth. In an incredibly poignant sermon reflecting the season we are currently walking through as a church family Chris reminds us that we do this knowing that God does not abandon us to live life alone, he stands with us and experiences our all of o...

Chris continues his series in Starting With God by this week looking at God’s holiness. There are some passages in the Bible that can be very difficult to understand, some that we may even choose to ignore or turn a blind eye to. But we should not be turning away from the things that we “don’t like”. God defines holiness, even if we don’t understand why things happen, we need to trust that His plan is perfect and put our hope in Jesus who intimately reveals God’s character to us, so we can trust Him.

How much can we learn about God from Creation alone? Paul says in his letter to the Romans that by admiring God’s handiwork in nature His eternal power and divine nature are revealed to us, but only when we converse and meet with the God revealed in Jesus do we begin to understand His true nature. Chris speaks on how we should move from simply admiring the world that God has created to being in true relationship with Him, only then will He be fully revealed to us...

Watch the full video here...https://youtu.be/DQ...

In first century Judea a cross was not generally something talked about in polite conversation, let alone boasted about. Yet through Jesus' victory Paul says that he (and by extension we) can boast in the achievement of the cross. As we continue our starting with God series Chris examines Jesus' victory, the turning of a symbol of terror and oppression into a symbol of hope and how we can still see God's glory through the cross.

When we make a decision, conscious or unconscious, to not follow God wholeheartedly we can be sent into exile from Him. Not a physical exile like those experienced in the Old Testament but a spiritual exile where it feels like our connection with God is frayed or even totally broken. In the next in our series of Starting With God Chris looks at the symptoms of that spiritual exile and reminds us that the door to God is never closed: we are always given the opportunity to return.

The writer of Ecclesiastes examines the whole of existence in his book and comes to the conclusion that “everything is meaningless”. But with one proviso: “everything is meaningless” without God. Chris looks at the dead ends that can occur in our lives if we try to exist without God directing us and how He gently but firmly brings us back to the path to life if we allow Him to.

This week Chris continues looking at his series in Starting with God, this week looking at the choices we make. There is a difference between fate and destiny. Fate (which is not real, by the way) gives you no choices in life, you're restricted to the train tracks laid out in front of you. Destiny is different, where God gives us the choice to follow His way which leads to life or the other ways which.... don't. But whichever path we choose God always gives us the opportunity to turn towards His way.

Starting With God by looking at all of those things that we construct for ourselves to replace God or to divert our attention away from Him. The Bible has a word for those things: idols. Idols can even be things that make us think that God approves of what we’re doing when we know deep down that He doesn’t. We are invited to cast away all of those things and to focus and trust in God alone for all of our needs and strength. It’s very easy to say it. But can we actually do it?

This week we are looking at intimacy with God. At the foot of Mount Sinai God spoke to His people who he had guided out of slavery in Egypt. They were so afraid that none of them wanted to go up the mountain and seek true intimacy with Him, they rejected God’s true purpose for them because of fear. We now, through Jesus, receive that same invitation to experience the fullness of God. Will we accept or will we – like the Israelites – be content with holding God at arm’s length?

“Starting with God” Episode two, looking at the story from Genesis where Jacob wrestles with God. Until this point Jacob has tried to fit God into his own worldview, mold God into what he thinks God should be. It’s only when God reaches deep and humbles Jacob that he sees the error of his ways and learns to surrender. How often do we act the same?

We begin a new series focusing on re‑setting our relationship with God. In the introduction, Chris uses the image of a jigsaw puzzle—yet not one where Jesus is the final piece we simply drop into place. Instead, Jesus is the central piece around which the whole picture is re-formed. The ‘hole’ we sense in our lives isn’t a Jesus‑sized gap we can fit Him into; it’s a reminder that our entire lives need to be re‑shaped around Him.