Graham Cooke – BRILLIANT THINKING: Leader’s evening at Ivy Manchester

GREAT start to our time this weekend, Graham spoke BRILLIANTLY about thinking BRILLIANT. Tomorrow at the Armitage Centre we’ll hear more. Excited to partner with our friends from Christ Church Harpurhey and Vinelife, It’s not too late to book in – here. Here’s my notes from tonight… Around 25 years ago had 3 dreams: 1) a grey man in an old car was showing him round the grey city pointing out all the sin and problems in people, with a grey attitude. Depressing! Dream 2 – grey man in slightly better grey car saying, ‘We are doing courses to help them’ – that was even more depressing. Dream 3 – Bright young guy in a bright car, shouting encouragement that told them who they really were and it CHANGED the people! ‘This is how I see you – you’re going to be doing this!’ The city changed! The church has an old vehicle being driven by an old man. The old man is the old man that was put on Jesus. We don’t need to do that. God isn’t focused […]

FRANK GREEN: The Awesome Power of God

As part of the Message 20 year celebrations, Frank did a mega-marathon preach at Ivy recently. I was privileged to hear some of the talks, and will put my notes from some of them on here, but the notes don’t do it justice! Get the full set of teaching on CD here  by making a donation to the Message charity  Mark 4:35-5:43</strong> There’s a lot of power at work in these stories collected by Mark. Power can be abused with terrible consequences. The whole creation has been hurt by the ABUSE of power but Jesus puts it right and reverses and renews it by the ABBA-use of power. By the end of Chapter 5 it’s 4-0 to Jesus. he beats the storm, the devils, sickness and even death. It’s breathtaking! Power over the Deep (4:35-41) The disciples were beginning to see many signs of who Jesus really was. The messiah? Yet different than what they expected. God was seen in the OT ruling over and subduing that place that was most scary for the Israelites – the sea. The boat […]

@Mike_Breen at @IvyManchester – the Prodigal SONS

These are my notes from the talk, with some questions for Grow Groups to consider and discuss together. PRAY: Thanks to God for IVY KINGSWAY! What a great way to start off our new service there at Cineworld Didsbury. Next Sunday we’ll have the lights in too that we’ve partnered with the cinema in buying, it’ll be even better! Father’s Day Mike said his talk is for those who have felt that your walk with God is drifting or has drifted. Because God wanted us CLOSE. Question – Do you feel close to God right now? How do you know when you are?  Read 1 John 3:1 – How great is the love of the Father that he has LAVISHED on us that we should be called the children of God! That’s what we are! Question – Discuss the word Lavish. What images does it bring to mind? The story of the Prodigal son is actually all about the Father and how he relates to 2 different types of people: Read the story together and look at the setting in Luke […]

: Excuses have their uses

Never thought I’d be quoting 80s crooners ABC in my blog, but just a quick thought from my morning reading. From my time in the police I heard sone people ‘caught bang to rights’ as we said come up with some fantastic excuses. One drunk I arrested protested ‘I’m just an innocent stybander!’ I love how real (and really lame) Aaron’s response is when he gets nailed for his part in getting the whole nation in trouble. Moses asks him, ‘what happened here?!!’ Uh oh… What do I say? ( I paraphrase) ‘Er….well it was everybody else, they wanted to be bad but not me…’ Exodus 32:24 ESV “So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”” See it at YouVersion.com: http://bible.us/Exod32.24.ESV This great big golden calf thing everyone’s bowing down to instead of the real God ‘just happened!’ Caught red handed With your pants down Your hand in the till The lie found out What do we […]

Gossip – talk at Ivy MCR by Sarah Small

Sometimes we think it’s quite a trivial thing, but it’s not. We are surrounded by Facebook opportunities to pry into other peoples reality. Cf Levenson enquiry – media stooped so low – why? Because we wanted to ‘read all about it.’ We think it’s ok to put it out there. What they said and did. And it’s in churches too. It can make you feel awful. To have a confidence broken. There are ‘prayer group gossipers.’ but you don’t need to know everything to pray about anything Or we say something negative about someone – but finish it off with ‘bless them.’ Or the one who says ‘I’m just putting it out there’ – as if delivering a helpful truth, when in fact we are assassinating a character. The more quantity – the less its likely to be helpful. Prov 11;13 16:28 26:20 18:8 These verses tell us of serious consequences! Are you a trustworthy friend or a perverse gossiper? Let the fire go out – don’t put petrol on it! Gossip is tasty! To be ‘in’ on something, to […]