'Welcome to Life!' - as found in the kingdom of heaven (or heavens or skies or air), the space where God's purposes reside and are carried out. This kingdom has come near in the person and way of Jesus, and is open to all, not just those who seem 'blessed' by our culture’s standards. In fact those who seem more 'blessed' according to our culture are less likely to experience life in the kingdom according to Jesus, and those in hard places often have special access to it. Living side by side with others in God's kingdom has some messy realities, just look at the twelve disciples and the early church. But community is part of God’s plan for us, to grow us towards the real, lasting "life to the full" Jesus' promises.

Tina Teope (Discipleship Pastor), Libby Hunt (Community Pastor) and Hannah Plews (Children and Families Pastor) share their heart and vision for MCC 2025.

Libby talks about the walls that come up in our journey and how God's word leads and guides us in our struggle - where we must 'let go and let God'.

Faye shares a recent journey of healing and growth that the Lord has taken her on; where scriptural truths on forgiveness were woven throughout.

*Please note: the beginning of Faye's pepeha unfortunately did not make it onto the recording.

Gratitude is a practice.

The sermon concludes with this Thankfulness Practice that you can try:

Write down or draw as many things as you can to be thankful for. Try to be as specific as possible. (e.g. Thank you Lord for your intervention in my mother’s life that in turn led me to you – vs – thank you God that I know you).

Ideas: Your coming-to-faith story, your journey with God, Jesus, the character of God, the beauty and detail in nature, the people in your life, the things you own, the dreams you have, the growth in your life, the challenges you have overcome, your functioning body…

Looking forward to embarking on a new year, Tony shares how the radical new covenant made through Jesus renews His follows from the inside out - to be saved for good works and not because of good works.

Through the story of Simeon and Anna, we learn that a life dependent on the Holy Spirit, is a life of worship - where hope and joy is found in spite of disappointments.

Zechariah's prayer of praise and thanks for what God has done, speaks to the Joy of a follower of Yahweh who, because of and in spite of circumstances, faithfully awaited the Messiah - the Saviour God.