Living Inside Out: Hope | Tim Dobson | 28 June 2020

28 June 2020 - 11am Service

Living Inside Out | Hope

Welcome to Woodlands Church Online - today is all about hope! Nigel is hosting this morning and this service will include worship led by Mark and April with our Woodlands worship team and some creative spoken word about hope. Tim will sharing a message with us as part of our series 'Living Inside Out' on being hopeful looking at Romans 8:23 and Allan Macleod shares about his role in the city office with Bristol being a City of Hope.

STUDY NOTES

Introduction 
Lock-down and Covid-19 has certainly made us think about cleanliness and hygiene. I've never washed my hands as much in my life! Jesus teaches in Mark 7 that holiness is an inner thing. What is our spiritual hygiene like in a time of Covid?

1. The Old Testament had lots of laws about cleanliness and hygiene, food laws etc. The people of God were learning to be Holy, which means to be 'set apart'. What is the difference between 'ritual' holiness and 'moral' holiness?

2. Do we get confused like the people of Jesus's day between outward appearances and behaviour, and inner purity? If so in what ways? How can we tell what's going on on the inside with people we may feel judgemental of?

3. How do we keep clean hearts? The Psalmist prays 'Create in me a clean heart O Lord'? How does God clean us up?

4. In physical hygiene terms we try to prevent dirt and 'foreign bodies' entering us through wounds or orifices by good hygiene. How can we stop spiritual pollution through anger, bitterness, lust, anxiety etc entering in?

5. How much is the practice of 'keeping short accounts' forgiving and seeking forgiveness part of our discipleship? How does Holy Communion help us activate forgiveness? Do we need to be forgiven or to forgive?

6. Has lock-down caused you to become angry or hurt by someone? Has isolation made you more vulnerable to allowing poor spiritual hygiene in your life?

Practice
In Matthew 6: 12-15 Jesus teaches us to forgive so we can be forgiven. Are you able to identify precisely where you might need forgiveness, or need to forgive someone? Could you this week make an inventory of such things and in secret practice asking forgiveness for anything God shows you and forgiving others.

Living Inside Out: Clean | David Mitchell | 21 June 2020

21 June 2020 - 11am Service

Living Inside Out | Clean

Rachel is hosting this service from the Foyer and it will include worship led by Nigel Savage with our Woodlands worship team, plus Dave will sharing a message with us as part of our series 'Living Inside Out' on being 'Clean' and leading us in communion (so do have bread and wine/juice ready). Tim catches up with Carmen Carrol, from the Keyboard Trust about unity in diversity. Plus it's Father's Day! So Clare got back in touch with Andy & Jo, who we heard from a few months back about becoming emergency foster carers, as they have just recently been able to welcome a young boy into their family.

STUDY NOTES

Introduction 
Lock-down and Covid-19 has certainly made us think about cleanliness and hygiene. I've never washed my hands as much in my life! Jesus teaches in Mark 7 that holiness is an inner thing. What is our spiritual hygiene like in a time of Covid?

1. The Old Testament had lots of laws about cleanliness and hygiene, food laws etc. The people of God were learning to be Holy, which means to be 'set apart'. What is the difference between 'ritual' holiness and 'moral' holiness?

2. Do we get confused like the people of Jesus's day between outward appearances and behaviour, and inner purity? If so in what ways? How can we tell what's going on on the inside with people we may feel judgemental of?

3. How do we keep clean hearts? The Psalmist prays 'Create in me a clean heart O Lord'? How does God clean us up?

4. In physical hygiene terms we try to prevent dirt and 'foreign bodies' entering us through wounds or orifices by good hygiene. How can we stop spiritual pollution through anger, bitterness, lust, anxiety etc entering in?

5. How much is the practice of 'keeping short accounts' forgiving and seeking forgiveness part of our discipleship? How does Holy Communion help us activate forgiveness? Do we need to be forgiven or to forgive?

6. Has lock-down caused you to become angry or hurt by someone? Has isolation made you more vulnerable to allowing poor spiritual hygiene in your life?

Practice
In Matthew 6: 12-15 Jesus teaches us to forgive so we can be forgiven. Are you able to identify precisely where you might need forgiveness, or need to forgive someone? Could you this week make an inventory of such things and in secret practice asking forgiveness for anything God shows you and forgiving others.

Living Inside Out: Becoming | Philip Jinadu | 14 June 2020

14 June 2020 - 11am Service

Living Inside Out | Becoming

Dave and Amy are hosting this morning from the Foyer. The service will include worship led by April Ballard with our Woodlands worship team, plus Philip will sharing a message with us as part of our series 'Living Inside Out' on 'Becoming'. Joe from Devo and Abi, one of our young people, will be praying about on racial injustice. It's also Global Partners Sunday and Johnny Walker caught up with Josh Rutere in Kenya to find out what's happening there.

STUDY NOTES

Becoming | Galatians 5:16 and 2 Corinthians 3:18

'We are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory'.

Introduction
Most of the things we place our value on are temporary (Marriage, job, location, health, etc). At best they are only for a lifetime. Our souls are made for eternity however, we are on a spiritual journey of soul care, spiritual growth which looks like transformation from the inside out. Who I'm becoming is more important than what I'm doing (though they affect one another).

Questions

1. How does what I'm doing in life right now affect who I'm becoming (and vice versa)?

2. Galatians talks about Spiritual fruit. What is the difference between the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit?

3. It's easy to invest in our 'outer' humanity, to pursue education or physical fitness (or a romance!). How do we pursue and invest in spiritual growth?

4. Imitating Jesus can be in his character (what he was like) and in conduct (the things he did. How are you pursuing imitating Christ?

5. One way we can imitate Jesus in character and action at the same time is by being generous and giving to those in need. A book about Mother Theresa was called 'Something beautiful for God'. What have you seen in others spirituality that you could describe as beautiful?                                                            

6. What place does 'dying to self' have in becoming more like Jesus? Do we have to 'die' to our selves or let our selves be full of Him? What's the difference?

Practice 
Matthew 6:2-4 talks about giving (almsgiving) to the poor in secret to be rewarded by your Father in secret. It's about doing the things the Father himself does. Review your giving. How much do you give to the poor? Do you know any poor people? What does it feel like to do a generous deed? What might you do with and for the Father this week that is secretly generous? Are you becoming more or less generous as you grow older?

Resources
Woodlands giving page: 
https://www.woodlandschurch.net/giving

Woodlands Global Partnerships Fund offering page:
https://www.woodlandschurch.net/offering

Living Inside Out: Identity | Clare Thompson | 7 June 2020

7 June 2020 - 11am Service

Living Inside Out | Identity

Tim and Laura are hosting this morning from Laura's garden in Clutton. The service will include worship led by Luke Wareham with our Woodlands worship team, plus Clare will be kicking off our new preaching series 'Living Inside Out' and sharing a message about our identity in Christ. Rob and Jen will be leading us as we pray for our world, particularly focusing on racial injustice.

STUDY NOTES

Introduction
The events of this Spring, the pandemic, a lock-down and the challenge presented to organisations, including churches and businesses, have all conspired to shake people's identity. We take our significance from our relationships and our activities, the things we do in work & recreation. We have often been separated from key relationships and communities. We have become unable to work as normal and may not able to enjoy some of our sport and leisure activities.

From an eternal perspective what counts is who we are becoming. It's an inside out life, knowing God is our Father and living out of a relationship with Him through what Jesus has done in giving us His Spirit.

This is a great time to develop a life in Christ that is for eternity, not just a pandemic. Over June we will be looking at 'life inside out'. We will reference different verses from the New Testament around our titles, but Matthew Chapter 6 (which can be described as a secret history with God) frames some practices linked with the principles we are teaching about.

Read the passage in Romans 8:15-17.

Questions
How do I get my identity without being over dependent on external voices and circumstances?

1. These verses speak of 'the spirit of sonship'. What qualifies us to be identified as children of God?

2. Jesus demonstrated a unique relationship with God, calling him 'Abba'. At His baptism (Luke 3:21-22) we see the Father's relationship with and the Father's pleasure in Jesus. What was the source of that pleasure? Can you identify times when you have felt that sort of intimacy and God's pleasure in you?

3. What had Jesus done to earn his identity as God's son? Do you feel you still need to earn the right to be called a child of God?

4. What place does baptism have in shaping our identity as followers of Jesus? Have you been baptised as a grown-up follower of Jesus? What is your story?

5. How does knowing you are God's child and loved by Him help you cope with external pressures from people, and the need to earn the affirmation and popularity of others?

6. A key dynamic in knowing our identity as children of God is that we pray with confidence to our Father. Jesus taught his disciples to use the simple Aramaic baby phrase for Father, abba, (like daddy) when he taught them to pray (Matthew 6:9). How confident are we to pray to God with that simplicity?

Practice
Romans 8 goes on to speak about prayer, and Jesus in Matthew 6 tells us to pray in secret to our Father. This week practice prayer in 'secret' places. Try and pray out loud. Try calling God 'daddy'. Does that feel Ok or disrespectful? Many Christians are self-conscious praying out loud because they feel their prayers are not theological enough. Try praying simple prayers believing God really loves you and it's ok to ask Him for what you want.