On Sunday David opened our service talking about Celebrating and later Joe shared about the Holy Spirit being our honoured guest.

They shared the following:

Psalm 111:1 says this: " Hallelujah! I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation." (NKJV)
Psalm 122:1 says this: “I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the House of the Lord” (ESVUK)
Psalm 27 says this: “One thing I ask of the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple… My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, LORD, I will seek. (NIVUK)

As I read these passages this morning, they reminded me that one of the reasons we gather on a Sunday is that we get a taste of Heaven, it’s like a foretaste of Heaven. That’s not to say that heavens’ going to be like a worship service, but actually, what it means is that we will be in God’s presence, that His presence will be with us. It’s meant to be a reminder to our weary souls that the Holy Spirit is here, amongst us, that we’re meant to be meet Him! We’re meant to be tangibly aware of His presence.

God is here, God’s here by His Spirit, He wants to meet with us. So if you are here and you need God to meet with you, we’d love to pray with you at the end. We’d love you to go away knowing that you’ve met with God, that you’ve tasted something of what heaven is going to be like.

Hebrews reminds us this morning that: “We come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angles celebrating, and to the assembly of the firstborn in Heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the throng of those who have gone before us, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel”.

Jesus’ sacrifice reminds us, that we have been given grace, that we have forgiveness, that there’s mercy and reconciliation for us.

Kid’s what does that all mean? It means, what I’m saying is that it’s a bit like when we go to our best friend’s birthday party. We’re ready, we’re excited, we’ve maybe got a gift to bring with us – if we’re prepared. You’re ready to dance and celebrate, that’s why we’re here, because we’re here with our best mate, for His party and that’s what we get to do this morning!

Later Joe went onto share:
As we were setting up yesterday, the various teams involved, I got a real sense of that excitement, that joy like before a wedding or a big party, when you’re getting all the preparations ready there was a real excitement / anticipation.

I really tried to pray into that and I felt like we were saying to God, “be our honoured guest” in this party, come here and meet us in this place, meet us in our home and be our honoured guest. As I was praying about this, meditating on it as I was out walking in the hills of Derbyshire, I felt God put a sense of me saying “When you party, when you are joyful, when you sing out in worship, I will flood through that place with my Holy Spirit, and it was so powerful. Then this morning, coming in here and David Ash welcomed us in with that prayer about singing and dancing. Then Sarah shares that story today about throwing that party. I just want to pray everybody, let’s have that house party here in our home, let’s welcome the Lord in with singing, with dancing, with joyful noises. Lord please come here today, Lord, thank you amen.

Celebrate:

Welcoming The Honoured Guest