Welcome to the York Street Church of Christ. We trust you have a great time with us as we worship our Awesome God.

Today we continue with the WARRIOR series as we look at our final piece of the Spiritual Armour THE SHIELD OF FAITH. The soldiers shield was large and protected you from the enemies’ spears and arrows. The Shield of Faith is our defence from the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV)
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
This weekend we also say farewell to Sarah Barlow in the role of Worship Director. Sarah has served in this role here at York Street for over four years and has done an awesome job. Sarah has built a great team around her and has often done much more than the role required. Today we acknowledge her work with us and congratulate her in her new role as secondary music teacher at Ballarat Clarendon College. Sarah will continue to be involved here at York Street, in particular with the Eureka Carols. Please be praying for Sarah, Andy, Luke and Emma.

Thanks once again for worshipping with us today.

Blessings —Tim

Welcome to the York St. Church of Christ. We trust you have a great time with us as we worship our Awesome God.

Today we continue with the WARRIOR series as we look at the next piece of the Spiritual Armour. Today at all three services we put on The HELMET OF SALVATION. May we all continue to put on the Armour of God and being alert, standing firm in our faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV)
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints

For those who were with us last weekend, you would have been blessed to hear Tim Hawkins. Tim spoke three different messages throughout our services, and a message at the Leadership Life. To listen to these messages just log on to www.yorkst.com.au and click sermons.

Thanks once again for worshipping with us. Blessings — Tim

Tim Hawkins

Today we are blessed to have Tim Hawkins speak to us throughout all of our three services. Tim is one of Australia’s longest serving Youth Pastors and is the Youth Pastor Emeritus of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Castle Hill, NSW. Tim is also an author of numerous leadership and discipleship books that have impacted leaders all over the world.



Leadership Life – Today at 12:30pm - BYO Lunch
Also today Tim will speak at our Leadership Life. Leadership Life is an opportunity for leaders within the church to gather together and receive training, encouragement and skills to help equip them in their leadership roles. Even if you are not in any leadership roles you are welcome to join us for lunch and to stay for Tim’s input.

Thanks once again for worshipping with us,

Blessings —Tim

Yorkie Kids and State Youth Games

What an exciting day to be worshipping at York St Church of Christ. Whether you are a regular or a visitor we trust that you have a great time as you worship with us.

This morning Yorkie Kids will bring the message at the 8:45am service and lead the entire 10:30am service. All throughout this term they have been working through the story of Jonah and today they will be sharing the things they have learnt with us. I thank God for all our children involved in Yorkie Kids and for Trace Valentine and her leadership team. It is refreshing to learn from our children, and may we continue to pray for them as they grow in wisdom and knowledge of God.

Tonight we are also blessed to hear from our SYG (State Youth Games) Team. We will hear stories and how SYG has impacted our young people’s lives. We congratulate our team for coming 19 out of 72 and for doing their best. Go York St….

One last reminder regarding tomorrows nights 2010 Make it Count live Webcast. I encourage you to be here at 7pm to listen to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition leader Tony Abbott talk to us the Christians of Australia.

Blessings,

Tim

GRACE...

Hello There!

We have finally finished our “Walk Across the Room” series and have heard great stories of how God is moving through our congregation – into our work places, communities and neighbourhoods. People are craving to hear about Jesus and often it is our own fear that stands in the way of sharing Him with others. Please continue to pray for the relationships that have been started through this challenge!

This past Sunday, Tim shared about our core value: GRACE. He read from Ephesians 2:1-10 in Eugene Petereson’s “The Message” version to bring life and freshness to the scripture. It is beautifully worded and instead of paraphrasing it, I’ll post it here so you can read it too…

Ephesians 2
He Tore Down the Wall

1-6It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

7-10Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

How amazing His grace is… There is NOTHING you can do to receive His grace - it is a free gift. May you find peace and rest in this truth!

Blessings

CRAVE & The Power of Story

The weeks are simply flying by and once again there have been a lot of exciting things happening in the life of York St. One of the highlights for me has been the Crave young adult events that have taken place in the past week.


Last Tuesday we had a Crave worship night and it was a great time of encouragement. Thanks to Tim Drough for sharing with us a little about his life and reminding us how important it is to abide with God and encourage one another through life’s ups and downs.

On Sunday afternoon Crave had a change of pace and we exchanged our bibles for balls as we took on teams from One2One, Wendouree Baptist and Ballarat City AOG in an afternoon of sport. There competition was fierce but we had a lot of fun. It was great to join together with the wider Ballarat Christian community. Thank you to Matt Johnson for pulling it all together.

During our Sunday services we continued with the Just Walk Across the Room series. This week we were challenged to think about the power of stories. In particular we were encouraged to consider two of the most important stories in our lives as Christians, God’s story and our own story of the way God has made a difference in our lives. If we were given an opportunity would we be able to clearly articulate God’s story? Our own stories are also an important tool for personal evangelism. Tim challenged us to start thinking about our own ‘before and after’ stories. People want to know why we have chosen to follow God and what difference he has made in our lives. Can you write your story in 100 words or less?

If you’d like to attempt writing your story and sharing it with the Church send or email it in. You might even like to post it here on the blog.

Just Walk Across the Room...

Hello there!


It has been awhile since I’ve written. I’m sorry we have not kept it up - As you may or may not know, I have been out of the office for awhile grieving the loss of my two precious babies – Isaiah and Tori Jane. We know that they are with Jesus but our hearts are still hurting. However, in it, God has been so faithful. We have seen Him use this experience to draw others closer to Himself. We are grateful for all that He is doing through it all. Thank you to those who extended their well wishes. We are so blessed and encouraged by our church family and community.

This week we excitedly begin a new series called “Just Walk Across the Room” by Bill Hybel. We are selling books and study guides - $25 for both or $17/book and $13/guides. Contact the office if you wish to purchase them.

The focus is to get outside of our comfort zone to connect with others around us in the hopes that we might be able to share the love of Jesus with them. It begins by extending yourself by “just walking across the room” or neighbourhood, or front yard…it’s as easy as that. We don’t have to pretend to have all the answers. People are craving connection and you will find how easy it is to show the love of Jesus to others by just spending time with them.

Here’s a prime example. This Sunday we were celebrating the launch of this new series so we decided to order pizza for after our 6pm service. During Tim’s service, the pizza guy – SAM – arrived and dropped them off. As he stood in the foyer with Blake, his attention was caught by the words that Tim was saying through the foyer speaker, and he asked if we could pray for him. We stopped the sermon to spend time praying for him. It was a great example of how easy it is to connect with someone. It is our hope that he will be able to connect with Blake again, this week.

Another example: A group of youth girls from the church decided to walk down the street and offer to rake leaves for the neighbours of the church. They met a man named Charlie who felt so blessed by the girls. Though he lost his wife recently, he exclaimed with tears in his eyes, “This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a really long time.” The girls look forward to connecting with Charlie again. It is not hard to “walk across the room”. You just need the courage and commitment to do it.

Maybe there is someone in your sphere (work place, community, etc) that you could connect with this week? Tim asked us to consider doing 3 things this week:
1. Look for opportunities this week to “just walk across the room”
2. Connect with the person who brought you to Christ and write them a note about how it impacted you.
3. Pray for Sam – the pizza guy

I hope you are able to find great opportunities to connect and love people in your community. I look forward to hearing great stories of what God is doing in and through you!