Make Room: A New Season of Welcoming Jesus and Others

On Wednesday night, something special happened during our worship and prayer gathering. A lady, her face partly hidden under a hat, caught my attention. She was there in disguise on purpose. Her name: Emily Argote! Emily, a Brazilian woman baptized at The Grove two years ago, came back to surprise us! Since her baptism, her faith has influenced her family deeply: her son and daughter-in-law came to follow Jesus and were also baptized. Now, they are sharing the gospel with their children.

Though Emily moved to Melbourne, she still calls The Grove her family, joining us online each week. Her visit was a powerful reminder of how God connects people across places and backgrounds. In a beautiful moment that night, Emily led us in prayer in her native language, filling the room with a deeply personal expression of worship.

Today, as we begin our new series "Make Room" in Luke 1-2, Emily’s story reminds us of God’s heart for all people. Luke’s account shows how Jesus always made room for others to come to God. Unlike the innkeeper who had no space for Mary and Joseph, God always has room for those who seek Him. Just as Emily and her family found a place in God’s family, the invitation extends to all. 

The past 30 days have been a sacred season for us, strengthening and comforting our faith. Now, we sense God’s call to make room for more people, to move forward in faith, and to share His love with those around us.

How Can We Make Room for Jesus and Others This Season?

As we approach Christmas, here are some ways to live out this call:

• Make Room for Jesus Personally: Set aside time in His Word, reading through the Gospel of Luke. Use this season to deepen your relationship with Him.

• Make Room for More at The Grove: Help create a welcoming space by parking next door on busy Sundays or greeting someone new. Small actions make room for others to feel at home.

• Make Room for the Next Generation: Pray regularly for our youth and consider supporting our church’s ministry as we invest in their future.

• Make Room for Those Seeking Jesus: Invite someone to Alpha this Wednesday, where they can explore faith in a welcoming environment.

• Make Room in Our Schedules to Share Jesus’ Love: Look for daily opportunities to share Jesus with those around you—in your workplace, neighborhood, and community.

• Make Room for the Holy Spirit’s Work: Join us in prayer weekly and come together to worship, respond to God’s Word, and connect with each other.

Jesus made room for us—He came humbly, welcoming all to experience His love. 

As we respond in worship, let’s also open our hearts and lives to others in these final 

months of 2024. Let’s make room for more to come.

Marty

What a blessing it was to gather again on Wednesday evening for our fourth Prayer and Worship Night. We are so blessed to have five Wednesdays in October, so be sure to join us next Wednesday, the 30th, as we conclude this powerful season of prayer and worship. 

On Wednesday night, I shared from Ezekiel 47:1-12, The River from the Temple, where Ezekiel was shown a small trickle of water which started from the Temple, and gradually increased in depths as it flowed, until it became so deep that no one could cross. The river brought life everywhere it flowed! At the end of the night, I handed out a Memory Verse card, John 7:37-38 in which the scripture says, ‘Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,  “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”’ What a powerful and comforting promise! Jesus invites us to come to Him, not just to receive a small drink, but to be filled so completely that we become vessels of His living water, with streams flowing out of us to refresh and nourish others. This image is one of abundant life, where God’s Spirit moves in and through His people, blessing them and the world around them.

As a church, we see this living water at work every day. God is using each of us to bring hope, love, and renewal to our neighbourhood. Whether through our ministries, our gatherings for worship and prayer, or our acts of service, the Spirit is moving in profound ways.

I have witnessed God's tangible presence through all our ministries, particularly over the past few weeks, with each of these ministries a testament to how God works through His people, transforming us into conduits of His grace and love. When we step out in faith, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can be sure that living waters will flow through us and touch lives. It is not by our strength, but by His Spirit that these ministries flourish.

As we continue to serve, let me encourage you to keep coming to Jesus, the source of living water. In your personal walk with Him, draw near, for He will always fill you up, and allow Him to flow through you in whatever way He calls. Whether it is through prayer, volunteering, giving, or simply sharing a kind word, God can use your acts of faith to make a lasting impact.

I give thanks for each of you and for the work that God is doing through you and through our church. He is faithful, and I believe that He will continue to use us to bring living water to our neighbourhood and beyond.

May God bless you and fill you with His living water this week!

Mel

I’ve always remembered a line from a Sherlock Holmes movie. Holmes and Watson arrived at a crime scene to discover the police officers who arrived before them had played soccer at the scene, wiping out any evidence of footprints. Sherlock Holmes then said, “they never miss an opportunity, to miss an opportunity”. Such a great line!

I don’t think that’s what any of us would like to be written about our lives in the end. To look back on a graveyard of missed opportunities God gave us. Jesus constantly presents us with opportunities to respond to him. It might be about some change to make, direction to take, or calling to step out in faith and share his love. Have you noticed, whenever we are presented with an opportunity there are suddenly many other options to take instead, and reasons to put it off for another day…week…year?  

They say the difference between optimists and pessimists is how optimists find the opportunity in the problem, and pessimists find the problem in the opportunity. But rather than respond purely from personality, it’s better to respond to problems with faith and wisdom. When problems come, to seek God for the opportunities in the problem, and his wisdom to explore their potential and pitfalls. 

God has led us as a church to respond to problems with faith on many occasions. When the pandemic broke, we joined most churches in live streaming services. This opportunity has been a great blessing to many, and we have seen people come to Jesus through our online service. I can also think of many times we have been faced with a problem and responded with a time of prayer. Again and again in those seasons, God gave us direction and opened new doors for the gospel. In fact, The Grove’s story is a prayer story. The most significant things that have happened have come out of a season of prayer. 

Once again, we are in a prayer season which came out of a significant trial for our church. God clearly led us to set aside 30 days to pray and worship, and already we have seen God working and speaking. Jeremiah 33:3 is one of the many verses God impressed on my heart. Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

At last Wednesday’s prayer and worship night, the vision of the valley of dry bones gave us our theme (Ezekiel 37). God showed Ezekiel how dead the nation of Israel had become through a vision of widespread hopelessness and lifeless ruins. But then the Lord gave Ezekiel an opportunity to pray for the Spirit to breathe life into the dry bones, and God would revive them into a mighty army. This is the God we trust in and believe can bring beauty out of ashes, and life out of death. 

The Lord has given us an opportunity to pray and worship for 30 days. Let’s not miss this opportunity as we come to our final ten days. Join us at a prayer meeting, on Wednesday night, and take the opportunity to come and sit quietly in the prayer chapel open from Tuesday to Thursday. In the face of 

many problems, we take the opportunity to seek the Lord our God knowing he will 

meet us, revive our hearts and reveal his wisdom and glory.   

Marty

Around 50 people attended last Wednesday’s prayer and worship night. It’s hard to describe the experience, but it was like being both surrounded and immersed in God’s presence. Psalm 46, which Pastor Mel shared to focus our prayer, gives us the language we are searching for in two powerful metaphors – a refuge and a river.

REFUGE.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Ps 46:1

A refuge is a strong and secure place to run to in a storm. God is surrounding and strengthening his church in a special way in this season. I also sense that what God is doing has future implications. The Grove is called to increasingly be a place of refuge in our neighbourhood for people suffering in the storms of life. 

RIVER.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Ps 46:4-5

Wherever a river flows, there is abundant life and fruitfulness. The Holy Spirit was called a stream of living water by Jesus (Jn 7:38), flowing from within those who have put their trust in Christ. The volume and current of this river are growing in this season, and if we look downstream with the eyes of faith, we can imagine what the Lord will do. The thirsty will find fulfillment in Jesus. The fearful will find joy as the Holy Spirit renews and fills them. The spiritually dead will come to life as they confess Jesus as King and Saviour. 

A refuge and a river. These are powerful metaphors and signs of God dwelling among his people. Therefore, our call is to represent the Lord of Psalm 46 as a church in our neighbourhood. Here are some practical ways we can be like a refuge and a river:

• With more people coming, consider talking to those you haven’t met before on a Sunday, and introduce them to others as well. Connections bring security and strength for all of us. 

• Our car park is filling up, so if you are able to park next door some Sundays to make room for new people, that expresses our welcome and prepares for Jesus to bring more people home.

• Join in the prayer life of the church so we can lift people in our church and neighbourhood up to Jesus. There is no better way to bring help and peace for people in storms than a praying church.

• We are baptising people on the 27th of October at both our services. For some this is the time to be baptised. For others it’s to invite friends to come along. May the river flow deep and wide.  

• Alpha starts in November, so be praying about who you could invite. Has there ever been a better moment for this after so much prayer, and God’s Spirit powerfully at work. 

• Help strengthen The Grove by investing your life and resources in Jesus’ church

             here. May we strengthen others and be channels of blessing and love to many. 

We are surrounded by and immersed in the Lord our God. 

Marty

I am so thankful God led us to set aside thirty days to pray and worship. Our first prayer and worship night on Wednesday was like a taste of heaven as Levi, Beth and Chloe led us in worship, and Henry through prayer. Of the many things the Lord is doing in this deep season, the clearest experience is an outpouring of God’s love into our hearts and church. 

The Lord is very near to us in a special way at the moment. Especially as we gather in his place of worship. I sometimes use the term, a thin place, as though heaven and earth are in extra close proximity. It feels so safe, peaceful and comforting to be in God’s house. His love is always present of course, but it's like an immersion in love. Maybe this is like what Paul prayed for in Ephesians 3:17-19, part of the  prayer we’ve been praying for The Grove this year.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.'

It seems this prayer is being answered, as God reveals his love and fills us up. There is actually story after story of people encountering this divine love, and opening their hearts to Jesus in new ways. Perhaps we need to make the connection to the next part of Paul’s prayer. 

God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us (v20). 

The powerful work within our lives and church, is God seeing our deep need of him and filling us with his immeasurable love, so that it pours out of us in immeasurable quantity. He placed us in a neighbourhood where love is often lost, hearts are broken and people are lonely. We are being filled up now in our loss, to love our neighbour with a love than never runs dry, that heals the broken hearted and brings the lonely and left out into God’s family. 

There are some ways to express God’s love in this season. Next Sunday we bring our shoeboxes for operation Christmas Child to share love beyond borders. During prayer last Wednesday, we sensed God leading us to schedule an Alpha course for November. We want to create a space where all who are opening their hearts to Jesus can explore the greatest love story ever told. Finally, on the last Sunday of our 30 days a baptism is being planned. With the 

pool filled up maybe there are more who are ready to testify to how God’s 

love saved them, and their love for him. Talk to a pastor if that is you. 

Love in Christ, Marty