Is there any sin we can commit which is so bad it can’t be forgiven? Jesus says there is only one unforgivable sin — that is, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But, as we discover, it is a different kind of sin to any other. What does it mean for us and how we live?
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A lot of people have got the idea that being a Christian means supporting Israel. Many Christians support this by quoting what God says to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you.” But who are the inheritors of this promise today? Is it really the nation state of Israel? In this video we take a deep dive into the Bible to discover the truth behind God’s promises, and how ultimately all God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Media appearances, self-promotion, meetings with important people… these are all the things we associate with our political leaders today. Jesus is completely different to this. Jesus doesn’t promote himself, he doesn’t separate himself from ordinary people — he came with a heart of compassion towards us. This passage shows us that Jesus will not break a “bruised reed” — but what does that mean?
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Christians get lots of things wrong — you only have to have been a Christian for more than about 5 minutes to realise this! But I believe there are some ways that most Christians today are getting it wrong, without even realising. In this video we go through four different ways that Christians get it wrong:
Resources mentioned in the video:
A lot of Christians give the impression that obeying God is simply about ticking off a long list of rules every day. The Pharisees thought that obeying the rules — like the Sabbath — was the most important thing. However, Jesus says they’d forgotten what obeying God was supposed to be about. Jesus turned their concept of obedience on its head and showed us what it really means to obey God.
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If God chooses people, how do we know whether we are ‘chosen’ or not? And what does it mean to be chosen by God anyway? This passage helps us to understand what it means to be chosen by Jesus. In particular, we see that it means not trusting in our own wisdom and strength but God’s, and simply bringing our burdens to Jesus.
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Why do we ask God not to lead us into temptation, when we know God doesn’t want us to enter into temptation? In the final session of the Lord’s Prayer course, we examine the question of temptation and testing. We see why temptation is one of the hardest things in the world to deal with, and why we need to ask for God’s strength to stand.
We look at:
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In this short passage, Jesus denounces towns which have rejected him. He shows that rejecting Jesus is a spiritual or moral issue, and that this will have consequences. This shows us that we need to pay careful attention to how we respond to Jesus and make sure that we listen to him every day.
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In the episode of Learn to Pray with the Lord’s Prayer, we look at what it means to pray the line “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” What is forgiveness? How can we forgive those who hurt us? In these days of cancel culture and societal breakdown, forgiveness has never been more important. In this session we look at:
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What is the biggest barrier to knowing Jesus? One of the biggest barriers we have is our own expectations. We come to Jesus, expecting him to be a certain way, but if he does not meet our expectations it challenges us: will we let Jesus be Jesus in our lives, or will we ignore him because he didn’t meet our expectations?
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