Welcome to our Easter services

We have come to remember the loving sacrifice of the Saviour King, and to celebrate the triumph of the Risen King. The crown of thorns was placed on Jesus head to mock him. The crown of glory to honour him. He accepted both crowns for He alone was worthy and able to reign over sin and death. His love was pure enough, and his power strong enough to do what was impossible for any of us. 

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
ISAIAH 53:5

What a King Jesus is. He suffered and died in a way that relates to our experience. At times we feel crushed, our hearts pierced, our failures weigh us down with guilt, and our wounds are so painful. But God invites us to look at the cross, see his love and experience his life that removes our guilt, heals our shame and transforms our suffering into a living hope. 

No matter where you are from, or what’s happened in your life, may you see

Jesus, the Saviour King this Easter who died and rose for you.  

Have a blessed and happy Easter, Marty.

I have always found comfort in the wisdom of Proverbs 16:9, In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. It’s good to make plans and work towards goals, but as we have all experienced, things don’t always go to plan. This is where this proverb is most helpful. Sometimes it’s in the things we don’t plan that reveal God’s plans the clearest. 

An example of this is why Ryan Vallee is preaching today. Originally Stephen Meharg was planned as our preacher, however, due to circumstances beyond our control, Steve needed to postpone. Well, it just happened that the week before, Ryan had mentioned to me that he was available the same day. So I checked again, and he was good to go. 

Now here’s the ‘Lord establishing our steps’ part. We had already planned our Alpha dinner and an Alpha training event for after Easter. In fact Ryan is QB’s Alpha director and was helping me organise the training event. Last week I wrote in the newsletter about this idea of inviting people to ‘come and see’ Jesus, which came out of our staff devotions. When Ryan sent me his sermon title I could hardly believe my eyes. 

COME AND SEE. 

In my mind, this is revealing God’s plans, through an unplanned guest speaker, to work powerfully through the upcoming Alpha series. It sounds to me like Jesus has been preparing people to accept the invitation to come and see in the next Alpha. So let’s not leave that one in the ‘it doesn’t fit with my plans’ box, but grab hold of this opportunity from God to invite someone along. God has revealed his plan to fill us with faith. 

This also made me take a risk on something else that’s been in my heart for some time. Baptism is the outward symbol of someone who has become a Christian. It’s not for those who reach some higher level of Christianity, it accompanies salvation. It simply refers to confessing with our mouths what’s happened in our hearts. I can’t think of a better day to get baptized than Resurrection Sunday, but we don’t have any baptisms planned. We have added a space in the service program for baptisms anyway. If you have become a Christian but have never been baptized, why not Easter Sunday. Simply email me at martin@thegrove.org.au and I will get in touch. Can’t wait to celebrate new life!

Let's make plans, but never plan the movement of God out of the picture. 

May he do many unplanned things to establish our steps in life and faith. 

Marty

We are working through the gospel of John in our staff devotions, and in chapter one I was reminded of the cascading stories of invitation to come and see Jesus. First John says to Andrew, “look the Lamb of God”. Then Jesus invites Andrew to come and see. Andrew goes and brings his brother Simon to meet Jesus. Then Phillip invites Nathanael to come and see Jesus. I don’t think we are meant to miss the power of invitation in John 1. If you have seen The Chosen series, they have made t-shirts with this tag line from the gospel, come and see. 

There are a lot of people with questions about Jesus, and last year we heard the call to reach out to them one at a time. Coming up we have opportunities to invite people to come and see. To come to our Easter services and come to our Alpha dinner. 

The CEO of Crossover Australia, Andrew Turner, wrote in an article sent to me this week, that baptisms in 2023 were up 34% from 2022 in Australian Baptist churches. Andrew suggests that this could be a sign of the turning of the tide in our nation. He wrote: 

As Western culture increasingly becomes a spiritual desert…should we be surprised that spiritual thirst increases? Along with stories of baptisms, I’ve been inundated with stories of ‘gatecrashers’ – people (especially young adults) walking into churches that neither advertised nor invited them – and asking to be introduced to Jesus and Christianity.

Ten years ago the ‘New Atheist Movement’ held the floor among Western intellectuals, but it has died much faster than any church it mocked, and in its place we now see the ‘New Theist Movement’ – including such opinion-leaders as Jordan Peterson, Tom Holland and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (now openly a Christian). 

So are we seeing the turning of the tide?

I am not sure if my response is fuelled by the powerful week of prayer we are in, or from the increasing signs of awakening we are seeing in more and more people, but I believe the tide is turning. There is a thirst for something real, authentic and fulfilling in a time of artificial reality and empty promises. The gospel of Jesus, the love of his imperfect people in the local church shines so stunningly beautiful against this backdrop. 

Our part is simple. Come and see. Jesus work is finished. The cross is empty. 

The Holy Spirit’s work is constant. Lives are turning around. 

God bless, Marty.
 

I have experienced this so many times now that I am convinced it makes all the difference. I have arrived feeling weighed down by many concerns, but have left feeling uplifted with my faith strengthened and hope renewed. What happened in between arriving and leaving, was a prayer meeting.  

Praying with others has been a game changer in my life, family and leadership, as many others will share a similar testimony. Frank shared in an interview last Sunday, that being prayed for in person by others, caused his apprehension about his upcoming major surgery to evaporate. It’s one of the great blessings of corporate prayer, that somehow a deposit of the peace and power of God is made into the deepest parts of our souls. 

I feel very expectant about our Awaken week of prayer, that awakenings will happen in our lives and church, but also how this week is significant in how the Lord will awaken more people to himself among our families, friends, and neighbourhoods. 

Here are a few encouragements as we come to pray this week. 

Tonight, at our 5.30pm service we have a baptism of a young man whose life has been awakened to Jesus. It’s hard to kick-off the week of prayer in a better way than this! Also read Ps Henry’s report of the youth camp on page 9, as God worked so powerfully last weekend. PTL!

Coming up are opportunities to share Jesus with others through our guest artist Peter Shurley next Sunday, and then at our Easter services. These opportunities follow a powerful season and week of prayer, which means the ground has been prepared for harvest. 

I can’t think of many times in The Grove’s history when I have heard as many stories of hearts opening to Jesus, and people being awakened to him in new ways. It’s nothing of us, but purely an increase of the grace of God being poured out despite our weaknesses. 

We have loved studying the Prayer Course this term, and on Wednesday night another large group joined in the auditorium. It was a powerful night, and a few people said to me the same comment. “Each week it seems to be getting better and better”. On one hand that is the quality of the teaching, but on the other, it’s the increase of faith in the room as the result of prayer. 

God is at work, and perhaps we are on the verge of something we have longed for and prayed for many years. We can’t manufacture an awakening, but we can pray, and God loves to work through the prayer’s of his church.  

Praying with you, 

Marty.

I am about to embarrass myself. My running playlist includes Extreme Ways, the Jason Bourne theme song! When the song comes on however, it does remind me of something important… that I am not Jason Bourne! Even though for those few minutes I pretend I am. I run a faster split, but when the song finishes I seem to slow down significantly, and realise my humanity. For a while the slowdown was too much, because the song that followed was Easy by Faith no More. As that song played I just wanted to sip on a latte at the local café!

It's amazing how music can affect our moods. I can do the superhuman, or relax without a care in world in response to a song. Yet we know that it’s a momentary mood not necessarily based on dependable truths. However, there are songs that are emotive, motivating but also based on a foundation of truth. They are called Psalms. Lyrics and tunes written to real life travels. Perhaps among my favourites is Psalm 121. It’s for the seasons in life when everything seems like an uphill climb. So we play this track and are reminded of where our help comes from. 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I pray this song would lift your spirits if you are reading this because it's true. The Creator is our Helper. He is able to keep us from slipping. He watches over us. He keeps us from harm when the pressures on, and when our mind plays tricks on us. He watches over our coming and going now and forever. Now that’s a song worth adding to our playlist for life. 

As a church we have heard stories of God’s help come this week. 

• Frank is sharing in the service about God’s help through surgery and the power of prayer.

• Henry shared how the youth camp grew to the exact number they prayed for. 

• God provided the church with a $36,946 offering last week significantly decreasing our budget deficit. 

• God is calling more people to pray, volunteer and serve on teams, which is helping us strengthen our ministries to people. 

If you are like me, you need God’s help right now in something. I am praying God would help our pastoral team and ministries to people by calling another pastor. Maybe you need God’s provision, or to breakthrough a wall in the way of his promises. Well put on Psalm 121 this week, and I am confident you will find the words to be true in your experience. 

I find it so encouraging that while we study prayer, and more people are joining in prayer than we have seen in a long time, the help of heaven is coming in greater waves. God is

our Helper, but he loves to bring that help through a praying church. Praise God.

Marty.