Growing Together in the Gospel
Leominster Baptist Church
At Leominster Baptist Church, our deepest desire is for everyone, everywhere to experience the love, grace, and transforming power of Jesus in their everyday lives. We believe faith isn’t just for Sundays—it’s for every moment, every challenge, and every joy.Our vision is simple yet life-changing: to help people build an everyday relationship with Jesus— so they can live with him, like him and for him. This is a relationship that shapes their decisions, strengthens their hearts, and fills their lives with hope. Whether you’re new to faith, exploring what it means to follow Christ, or looking fo...
Episodes
Acts Series Part 18: How do we know when God is opening a door?
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 14: How do we know when God is opening a door? How do we recognise a God-given opportunity? We often assume an “open door” means everything falls into place—the timing is right, people are encouraging, and the path feels easy. But what happens when doing the right thing becomes difficult, or an exciting opportunity raises questions we can’t ignore?In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas encounter remarkable responses to the gospel alongside misunderstanding, opposition and suffering. Yet at the end of their journey, they celebrate how God has opened a door of faith. Their experience reminds us that difficulty doesn’t automatically mean “stop”, and approval doesn’t automatically mean “go”. Recognising God’s leading requires more than favourable circumstances.This message invites us to consider the opportunities and decisions we face through three practical questions: Does this fit what God has already made clear? What does love require in our circumstances? And what is the next wise step we can take with others? Through prayer, honest reflection and wise counsel, we can move forward with courage and humility.Whether you’re facing a new opportunity, a difficult conversation or a demanding responsibility, the encouragement is this: we don’t need to know the whole journey to take the next faithful step. We can receive God’s kindness gratefully, examine opportunities wisely, and trust him with what follows.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 17: The Holy Spirit in Action: Paul and Barnabas Commissioned in Antioch
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 13As Christians, we often ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us. But in asking for all that the Spirit gives, do we overlook asking for the Spirit himself?In this podcast, we explore Acts 13, where the church in Antioch sets apart Paul and Barnabas to take the good news to the Gentiles, sending them through Seleucia, Cyprus and Pamphylia. The Spirit is at work from start to finish, but he works differently in each situation. Picture a sailing boat, where each sail catches the wind in its own way. We can identify four:The mainsail: a church that expects God to speak. The mainsail drives the whole boat, and here it is a church gathered in worship, expecting God to speak through the Spirit. Everything else follows from that.The jib: obedience that the Spirit steers. Once the church acts on what God has said, the Spirit guides, adjusts and refines. Paul and Barnabas set out in obedience, and the Spirit directs them at each stage of the journey.The genoa: power added to our words. Our words and actions are only ours. Yet the Spirit adds power at the right moment, and Paul’s preaching has an effect that his words alone could not produce.The spinnaker: joy that carries us through opposition. When persecution drives Paul and Barnabas out of Pisidian Antioch, the Spirit does not remove the opposition. He fills the disciples with joy and carries them forward.So the question stands: when we pray, are we asking only for what the Spirit does, or for the Spirit himself, the wind that fills every one of these sails?You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 16: Knock, Knock! Who's there? It's Peter: The Importance of Prayer
Send Dean your question hereThe Posture of Prayer Acts 12:1–24 There are times when we pray and things still seem to go in the wrong direction. We bring someone we love to God, but their situation gets worse. We ask for help, but the answer we long for does not come. And we find ourselves wondering how any of this fits into the story God is writing. That is where we find the church in Acts 12. James has been put to death by the aithorities. Peter is in prison. Herod appears to hold all the power. But the church keeps praying. They cannot know how this will end. They are still living with the loss of James. Yet they bring Peter to God. And through their story, we see that prayer is not a transaction through which we control God; it is a posture through which we entrust ourselves to him. 1. A posture of trust: It is one thing to pray when we have just seen a wonderful answer. It is another thing to pray when we are disappointed, grieving or frightened to hope again. The church prays for Peter while still living with the loss of James. Their trust makes room for both grief and hope. Sometimes the most honest prayer we can offer is, “Lord, I do not understand. This hurts. But I am still bringing it to you.” We do not have to manufacture confidence or pretend to have answers. We can come as we are, trusting that God remains good, present and faithful, even when we cannot make sense of our circumstances. 2. A posture of restful dependence: While the church prays, Peter sleeps. The chains are real, the guards are real, and tomorrow is uncertain. Yet God is at work while Peter rests. Some of us know what it is to lie awake trying to solve tomorrow. We replay conversations and imagine every possible outcome, as though everything depends on our constant attention. Prayer gives us somewhere to bring that burden. We can say, “Father, I have done what I can. I cannot carry the outcome. I place it in your hands.” That does not mean anxiety disappears, or that struggling to sleep means we lack faith. It means we are invited, again and again, to let God carry what is beyond us. The one who watches over us neither slumbers nor sleeps. 3. A posture of faithfulness: to the next step God sends the angel, releases the chains and opens the gate. But Peter still has to get up, put on his sandals and follow. His part in this extraordinary rescue is wonderfully ordinary. We often want to see the whole route before we take the first step. Yet we may already know the next faithful thing: make the phone call, tell someone the truth, ask for help or serve the person in front of us. Prayer makes us available to God. We place the outcome in his hands and ask, “What would you have me do today?” We may only understand afterwards how he was leading us. For now, we can take the next step with Jesus. 4. A posture of openness to God’s answer: There is something wonderfully human about the prayer meeting at Mary’s house. Peter is knocking at the door, and the people praying for him cannot believe he is there! Their prayers are mixed with uncertainty, grief and doubt. Still, God answers. That is encouraging for those of us whose faith sometimes feels small. We can bring our questions as well as our confidence. And we need one another: there are days when we struggle to find the words, and someone else can pray alongside us. We also need to remain open to what God is doing. His provision may arrive through an unexpected person, an inconvenient opportunity or one small step forward. We can ask him for eyes to recognise his work, even when it looks different from what we imagined. 5. A posture of confidence in God’s larger story: At the beginning of the chapter, Herod seems untouchable. By the end, his power is gone, and the word of God continues to spread. The suffering has been real. James’s death is a genuine loss. Yet God’s purposes are still moving forward. Our hope rests in Jesus, who prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done,” and went faithfully to the cross. On Friday, it looked as though everything had been lost. But the tomb could not hold him. Jesus rose, and suffering and death will never have the final word. We do not know what every answer to prayer will look like. We do know whose hands we are in. So we keep bringing God our hope and our hurt, our confidence and our questions. We trust his character, release what we cannot carry, and take the next faithful step. Our God is faithful. Jesus is alive. So, church, let us keep praying.Reflection:What difference does it make to approach prayer as entrusting ourselves to God rather than trying to secure a particular result? James dies and Peter is rescued. How does holding these two events together challenge our expectations of prayer? What should we avoid saying to someone whose prayer has not been answered as they hoped?You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 15: The Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch
Send Dean your question hereWhen the Church Looks Like Jesus: Acts 11: 19-30The word Christian is one of the most recognised words in the world, yet it can mean very different things to different people. For some it describes a personal faith in Jesus; for others it simply reflects a cultural background, family tradition or belief in God. We often find ourselves adding qualifiers—practising Christian, committed Christian, born-again Christian or Bible-believing Christian—because the word on its own has become so broad. Yet in the New Testament, Christian appears only three times. The first is here in Acts 11, where Luke writes, "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." Before they were ever known as Christians, they were known as disciples—people who followed Jesus, learned from Him, became like Him and joined in His mission. Christian was not the title they chose for themselves; it was the description others gave them because their lives so clearly reflected Christ. Acts 11 gives us one of the clearest pictures of a healthy church. Ordinary believers, scattered by persecution, faithfully shared the good news wherever life took them. They didn't wait for the apostles or for organised events; they simply spoke about Jesus in their everyday lives, and God blessed their witness. When Barnabas arrived from Jerusalem, he didn't come looking for faults but rejoiced when he saw the grace of God at work. Rather than criticising, he encouraged the believers to remain faithful to the Lord. Recognising that the church needed to be strengthened, Barnabas sought out Saul, and together they spent a whole year teaching the growing church. Antioch reminds us that healthy churches don't simply make converts—they make disciples. Spiritual growth doesn't happen by accident; it comes as God's people are taught, encouraged and formed together in the life of Christ. The church was also sensitive to the Holy Spirit. When Agabus, prompted by the Spirit, warned of a coming famine, the believers didn't ignore the message or respond with fear. They listened, discerned what God was saying and acted in faith. Their response was immediate and practical as they collected a gift to support believers in Judea. The gospel had created a new family in which Jewish and Gentile believers cared for one another across cultural and geographical boundaries. Luke's emphasis throughout the chapter is not on the church's size, influence or programmes, but on its character. Antioch was a church that proclaimed Christ, celebrated God's grace, devoted itself to making disciples, listened to the Holy Spirit and loved generously. It reflected Jesus so clearly that the surrounding community gave the disciples a new nickname: Christians. Acts 11 invites us to ask not simply whether we wear the label Christian, but whether we are living as disciples of Jesus. Are we naturally speaking about Christ in our daily lives? Are we quick to celebrate God's grace in others? Are we growing to become more like Jesus? Are we listening and responding to the Holy Spirit? And would those around us recognise Christ in us? The goal of the church has never been merely to produce people who identify as Christians, but to form disciples whose lives point unmistakably to Jesus.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 14: There is Nowhere that the Gospel Will Not Reach: Peter's Vision and the Baptism of a Roman Centurion
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 10 - Peter and CorneliusTwo weeks ago, as we looked at the Ethiopian official in Acts 8, we saw that nothing can stop someone becoming one of God's people. Last week, in Acts 9, we discovered that not only can nothing stop us receiving God's grace, but nobody is beyond it—not even Saul, the church's fiercest persecutor. This week, Acts 10 takes the story one step further again. We discover that there is nowhere the gospel won't go. No nation, no culture, no background and no people group lies beyond the reach of King Jesus. God is building one new people from every nation, and the Holy Spirit leaves no doubt about who belongs in God's family. Acts 10 marks one of the greatest turning points in the Bible. Until this point, the gospel has spread among Jews, Samaritans and a few individual outsiders. Now God makes it unmistakably clear that through Jesus the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been torn down. The good news is no longer seen as belonging to one nation or one ethnic group. The invitation is open to everyone who believes, fulfilling God's promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him. Before Peter ever arrives at Cornelius' house, however, we see that God is already at work. Cornelius has been praying, seeking God and responding to the light he has been given. At the very same time, God is preparing Peter through a remarkable vision. By the time they finally meet, God has already been orchestrating events from both sides. That is a great encouragement for us today. We often think we are taking God to people who have never encountered Him, but more often than not we are simply joining in with work He has already begun. The Holy Spirit is always ahead of us. God also has to change Peter before He changes Cornelius. Through the vision of the sheet filled with animals, Peter initially thinks God is speaking about food, but God is really addressing something much deeper—Peter's understanding of people. The food laws had once marked Israel out as God's covenant people, but with the coming of Christ those barriers had fulfilled their purpose. God's Kingdom is no longer tied to one nation or one place. Wherever King Jesus is acknowledged, there His Kingdom is present. The question is no longer, "Will they become like us?" but, "Will all of us submit to Christ?" When Peter finally enters Cornelius' home, he makes an astonishing confession: "I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism." Peter proclaims that everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name. God is not simply bringing Gentiles into a Jewish movement; He is creating one new humanity in Christ. As Paul later explains in Ephesians 2, Jesus has torn down the dividing wall of hostility and made one family from people who were once separated by race, culture and history. God leaves no room for debate by pouring out the Holy Spirit on Cornelius and his household before Peter has even finished preaching. There is no committee meeting or apostolic vote. God Himself settles the question of who belongs in His family. The same Spirit who came upon Jewish believers at Pentecost now fills Gentile believers as well. The Church's task is not to decide whom God may accept, but to recognise and respond to what the Holy Spirit is already doing. Luke also quietly tells us that Peter is in Joppa—the very place where Jonah once boarded a ship to flee from God's call to take His mercy to the nations. While we often think of Jonah running 1 because he was afraid, we find in the story itself that Jonah ran because he could not bear the thought of God's grace reaching Nineveh. Peter begins with similar assumptions, but by God's patient work he obeys instead. Acts 10 therefore asks each of us a searching question: where do we still draw boundaries around God's grace? Who have we quietly decided is unlikely to respond to the gospel? God has a habit of stepping over the lines we draw. Finally, Paul reminds believers that we are no longer foreigners and strangers but citizens of heaven. The sermon closed by contrasting tourists and citizens. Tourists simply enjoy what others have prepared before moving on. Citizens belong. They invest. They take responsibility. In the same way, God has not simply given us a ticket to heaven. He has made us citizens of His Kingdom, inviting us to participate in His mission. Citizens don't simply admire the Kingdom from a distance; they help build it, serve within it and represent its King. As the gospel continues to spread to every people and every place, Acts 10 calls us to live not as spectators, but as active participants in God's great mission to the nations.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 13: There is No-one that the Gospel Cannot Reach: The Curious Incident on the Road to Damascus
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 9In the last podcast in this series, we heard about the Ethiopian eunuch and saw that nothing can stop someone becoming one of God's people. In this podcast, Acts chapter 9 takes that truth one step further. Not only can nothing stop us receiving God's grace, but nobody is beyond it. In our reading we witness one of the most remarkable accounts in the book of Acts: Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–31). Luke deliberately reminds us who Saul was before introducing the change that takes place, because Saul is the man who approved of Stephen's death, who was "breathing out murderous threats" against Christians, and who travelled over 130 miles to arrest and imprison them. Hatred of the church had become the very air he breathed. Yet everything changed in an instant when Saul was confronted by Jesus himself. A brilliant light stopped him in his tracks, and Jesus asked, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" These words reveal not only that Jesus was alive, but that He so closely identifies with His people that to persecute the church is to persecute him. In an instant Saul discovered that everything he believed about Jesus was wrong. He was left blind by the encounter and had to be led by the hand into Damascus before being ministered to by the very people he had come to persecute.Christianity is fundamentally different from every other religion. Most worldviews begin with humanity trying to reach God through effort, morality or religious devotion. The gospel begins with God coming to humanity. Saul was not searching for Jesus or gradually working his way towards faith. He was actively opposing Christ when Jesus intervened. Christianity is not ultimately the story of people finding God, but of God coming to rescue people who could never rescue themselves. The account also reminds us that God's grace is never cheap. At first glance, Saul's conversion can seem almost unfair. How could someone responsible for such violence receive mercy? Yet God never simply overlooks sin. Every sin is paid for, either by the sinner or by Christ on the cross. Grace is free to us because it was unimaginably costly to Jesus. Nor did grace leave Saul unchanged. He exchanged influence for suffering, status for sacrifice, and comfort for hardship as he spent the rest of his life proclaiming the gospel. Forgiveness did not remove every earthly consequence, but it completely transformed his heart, his identity and his purpose. Luke also highlights the faith of ordinary believers such as Ananias and Barnabas. Ananias obeyed Jesus' command to visit the church's greatest enemy and greeted him with the remarkable words, "Brother Saul." Barnabas later stood alongside Saul when others remained suspicious. Their examples remind us that grace changes not only how God sees us, but also how we are called to see one another. Finally, Acts 9 confronts us with two searching questions. Firstly, have we quietly decided that some people are beyond God's reach? Saul's story—and the many modern testimonies of former persecutors who have come to faith—reminds us that nobody is beyond the saving power of Christ. Secondly, are we still allowing our past to define us? The gospel does not erase our history, but it 1 does give us a new identity. We are no longer defined by our failures, our shame or our achievements, but by the grace of Jesus Christ. Acts 9 is not ultimately a story about Saul. It is a story about the pursuing, saving and transforming Christ. The same Jesus who met Saul on the Damascus Road still seeks out sinners today, still changes lives by His grace, and still calls ordinary people to trust Him and join His mission.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 12: There is Nothing that Will Stop the Gospel: Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
Send Dean your question hereActs 8:26–40 This week we witness a remarkable change of pace in the book of Acts. After crowds in Samaria are responding to the gospel, God sends Philip away from a thriving ministry to meet one man travelling on a desert road. It reminds us that while God delights in saving crowds, He never loses sight of the individual. Every person matters to Him. The Ethiopian official represents someone who, in many ways, seemed to be an outsider. Although wealthy, influential and deeply interested in God, he carried barriers that would have made him feel he could never fully belong. He stood outside God's covenant people by birth because he wasn’t Jewish, and as a eunuch, he was restricted under the Old Testament law from full participation in the assembly of God's people. He had travelled hundreds of miles to worship, owned an expensive copy of Isaiah, and was sincerely seeking God, yet he still lived with the painful sense that he remained on the edge. That is why his question is so significant: "What can stand in the way of my being baptised?" Beneath the practical question lies a much deeper one: "Is there still something about me that keeps me from being fully accepted by God?" Philip's response is not simply to reassure him with words but to baptise him immediately. In doing so, he declares the answer: Nothing. Because of Jesus, every barrier has been removed. The outsider is welcomed, the excluded are brought near, and all who trust in Christ are received as beloved children of God. The same question echoes in our own hearts. We may not identify with the eunuch's circumstances, but many of us carry our own perceived barriers. My past prevents me. My failures prevent me. My shame, my doubts, my weaknesses, or the things that have been done to me prevent me. We quietly believe there is something that keeps us at a distance from God. The gospel answers every one of those fears with the cross. Jesus has borne our sin, removed our guilt and opened the way into the Father's family. Because of Him, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Until our answer to the question, "What prevents me?" becomes nothing, we have not yet fully grasped the wonder of God's grace. The passage also reminds us that God's love is not merely for humanity in general but for each of us personally. It is possible to believe that God loves the world while quietly wondering whether He truly loves me. Paul doesn't simply say that Christ loved the world; he writes, "The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). That is the invitation of this passage—to move from believing that God loves people to resting in the truth that He loves me. Receiving that love can feel a little like stepping into a cold ocean. At first, it feels uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Everything in us wants to get back out and carry on as before. But the longer we remain in the water, the more our bodies adjust. What first felt uncomfortable becomes the place where we are free to swim. In the same way, God doesn't simply want us to acknowledge His love as a doctrine; He invites us to remain in it until it becomes the place where we live. We never reach the end of His love, but as we continue to dwell in it, we become increasingly secure as His beloved children, free to enjoy Him and to love others.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 11: Scattered with a Purpose
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 8We have reached a significant turning point in the book of Acts in this sermon. Up until chapter 7, almost everything took place in Jerusalem. The church experienced remarkable growth, unity and the power of the Holy Spirit, but it also faced increasing opposition. With the death of Stephen, that opposition reached a new level. Persecution broke out, believers were forced to leave Jerusalem and Saul began his violent campaign against the church. At first glance, it looked like the mission has failed. Yet Acts 8 reveals exactly the opposite. What appeared to be defeat was actually God's strategy for advancing His kingdom. Luke tells us that "those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went" (Acts 8:4). The enemy intended to extinguish the church, but instead he scattered the gospel like sparks from a fire. The mission didn't stop; it expanded. This fulfilled Jesus' words in Acts 1:8. The gospel was never meant to remain in Jerusalem. God always intended it to spread through Judea, Samaria and ultimately to the ends of the earth. Persecution became the means by which God's people carried His good news into new places. If Act 1 was Jesus work and Act 2 was the church being established in Jerusalem then the book of Acts now moves into Act 3 as the gospel spreads beyond its first boundaries. Let us consider the importance of both the gathered and scattered church. We gather each week to worship, pray, hear God's Word and encourage one another, but we scatter into our homes, workplaces, schools, cafés, sports clubs and neighbourhoods as Christ's representatives. Sunday is not the whole of church life. Our life for God is for Mondays to Saturdays too. In the reading, the gospel spread primarily through ordinary believers rather than church leaders. While the apostles remained in Jerusalem, everyday Christians shared Jesus wherever they found themselves. Philip, one of the seven appointed to serve in Acts 6, became a powerful example of how God delights to use ordinary people who are willing to be available to Him. Philip's ministry in Samaria also showed that the gospel transforms communities. Luke tells us that "there was great joy in that city." As followers of Jesus we are called to be salt, bringing the flavour of God's kingdom through kindness, generosity, compassion and hope. We are also called to be light, pointing people towards the truth of Christ with both grace and courage. We see this in Peter’s challenge to Simon and his call to repentance. Salt without light may make people appreciate our kindness but they may never discover the Saviour, whilst light without salt can communicate truth without love. Jesus calls us to embody both. Perhaps the most important challenge comes right at the end of the message. Jesus does not simply tell His disciples to become salt and light; He declares that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Our mission flows from our identity, not from guilt or obligation. Because Christ has forgiven us, given us new life, and made His home within us, we have something worth sharing. We do not scatter because we are trying to earn God's approval; we scatter because His life is already at work within us. As we begin a new week, the invitation is to see our ordinary lives differently. Our homes, workplaces, schools, friendships and communities are not interruptions to ministry—they are the very places God has sent us. May we ask Him to open our eyes to the opportunities already around us, to help us bring the grace of His kingdom and the truth of His gospel wherever He has scattered us. You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 10: What are you looking at? Stephen, the First Martyr.
Send Dean your question hereLooking Up – Acts 6:8–7:60 In this podcast we continue our series in Acts by looking at the powerful account of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Surrounded by false accusations, an angry crowd and the certainty of death, Stephen displayed an astonishing peace. Luke shows us that the source of his peace wasn't found in his circumstances, but in where he fixed his eyes. When he faced his accusers, Stephen first invited his hearers to look back. His long speech wasn't simply a history lesson but a reminder that God has always been faithful to His people. Again and again, despite Israel's failures and repeated rejection of God's servants, the Lord remained faithful to His promises. Remembering God's faithfulness strengthens our faith today— but Stephen also showed that looking back alone isn't enough if we miss the living Christ. The contrast then shifts to those around Stephen. While the religious leaders were consumed by anger, pride and hatred, Stephen refused to let his circumstances define his reality. So often we do the same. We look at the news, our finances, our health, our relationships or the uncertainty of the future, and our peace begins to disappear. Circumstances make a poor foundation for hope because they are always changing. The turning point comes in Acts 7:55: "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven." As the crowd saw defeat, Stephen saw glory. As others saw a condemned man, Stephen saw the risen and reigning King standing at the Father's right hand. His circumstances hadn't changed—but seeing the risen Christ transformed the way he understood everything that was happening. Christians do not have peace because life is easy; we have peace because Christ reigns. Finally, we saw that we become like what we behold. Stephen died praying for those who were killing him, echoing the words of Jesus on the cross. Having spent his life looking to Christ, he increasingly reflected the character of Christ. The challenge for each of us is simple but searching: What are we looking at? Are our eyes fixed only on our problems, or are they fixed on the Saviour who is with us, reigns over us, and one day will welcome us home? May we remember God's faithfulness, refuse to let our circumstances have the final word, and make it our daily habit to lift our eyes to Jesus. For beyond every trial is glory, beyond every cross is a crown, and above it all stands our unchanging King. You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 9: Every Gift Used: How the Early Church Grew
Send Dean your question hereThis podcast reflects on Acts Chapter 6 and the problem that arose when the early church began to grow. Widows were being overlooked, not because people didn't care, but because the church had grown beyond what a handful of leaders could carry on their own. The solution wasn't for the apostles to work harder. It was to release more people into the ministries God had entrusted to them.That has something to say to us as a church.Church life can easily become about trying to make sure every gap is filled. We need people to welcome, make tea and coffee, help with children and young people, play music, run sound and visuals, preach, visit those who are struggling, encourage others, organise events, pray, mentor younger believers, and even sand wooden boards for a building project. Those needs matter.But Acts 6 reminds us that it is not just about filling every gap;the ultimate goal is every gift within the body being used.When church becomes primarily about filling gaps, a few people can end up carrying more and more. We can even begin to hold tightly to "our" ministries, seeing new gifts as a threat rather than something to celebrate. But ministry doesn't belong to us. It belongs to God.As people discover and use the gifts God has given them, ministry is shared, needs are met, and the whole body grows stronger. That's when church stops revolving around a few people and becomes what God intended: a body where every member is connected to Christ, the Head, and every part does its work.As we grow, perhaps the question isn't, "Where are the gaps?" but, "What has God entrusted to me, and how might he want me to use it for the good of others?"There are plenty of opportunities to serve. We need people to help with welcoming, refreshments, children and youth work, music, sound and visuals, pastoral visiting, hospitality, prayer ministry, practical projects and much more. But more than that, we want to help people discover and use the gifts God has already placed within them.So if you've been wondering where you fit, or if God might be nudging you towards something new, why not take a look at the serving page on our website? There you'll find some of the ways you can get involved, and we'd love to help you discover where your gifts and God's mission meet. Visit the website here: https://www.leobc.co.uk/nextstepsYou can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 8: Responding to Persecution with Wisdom and Courage
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 5This podcast looks at Acts chapter 5 through the lens of three possible responses to challenge, opposition, and fear: we can quit, we can camp, or we can climb.The apostles stood before the most powerful religious leaders in Jerusalem, having been arrested for proclaiming Jesus. For many, this would have been a moment to retreat, compromise, or stay quiet. Instead, they boldly declared that Jesus—the one who was crucified—had been raised from the dead and is now King.A respected leader named Gamaliel reminded the council that many movements had come and gone. If this movement was merely human, it would fade away. But if it was from God, no one would be able to stop it. Two thousand years later, Christianity's survival and growth point to the truth of his words.The apostles refused to quit. But neither did they camp. Camping is often more tempting than quitting. We keep following Jesus, but stop taking risks. We settle into what is comfortable and avoid the things that might stretch us.After being released, the apostles gathered to pray -they didn't pray for an easier life or greater protection. They prayed for boldness … and boldness is what keeps disciples climbing.For most of us, boldness won't look dramatic. It looks like speaking up when fear says, "Keep quiet." Reaching out when fear says, "Hold back." Offering to pray for someone, inviting a neighbour for coffee, or speaking naturally about Jesus when the opportunity comes.The apostles weren't fearless superheroes. They knew weakness and uncertainty just like we do. Yet they kept going because they had been with Jesus. They weren't told to explain everything. They were told to "tell the people about this new life."That is still our calling today. We are not called to save people, fix every problem, or have an answer for everything. We are simply called to share the life we have found in Jesus—a life where, when we struggle, he holds us; when we fall, he lifts us; when we fail, he forgives us.So the challenge this week is simple: pray for boldness. Ask God for the courage to speak up when fear says stay quiet, to reach out when fear says hold back, and to keep going when fear says give up. Because if we never ask for boldness, we'll probably miss the opportunities God puts in front of us—and before long, we'll find ourselves camping when Jesus is inviting us to climb.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 7: God Sees the Heart
Send Dean your question hereIn this podcast we explore one of the most sobering and challenging passages in the book of Acts: the story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11). At first glance, it can seem like a story about money or judgment, but Luke's concern runs much deeper. By placing this account immediately after the joyful picture of generosity and unity at the end of Acts 4, he invites us to compare two very different hearts: Barnabas, who gave out of genuine surrender to God, and Ananias and Sapphira, who wanted the appearance of surrender without the reality of it.The early church had already faced opposition, threats, and persecution from outside, yet none of those things stopped the gospel from advancing. Instead, the enemy's attack came from within through deception and hypocrisy. The issue was never the amount of money Ananias and Sapphira gave; it was their desire to project an image that did not match reality. Their story is a reminder that while people see appearances, God sees the heart.It is possible to learn Christian language, participate in church life, and maintain a spiritual reputation while slowly drifting from intimacy with Jesus. The greatest danger is not simply failure or weakness, but the temptation to hide behind a carefully managed image. Yet the gospel offers something far better: the freedom to be honest.This passage ultimately points us towards abiding in Christ. Pretending focuses on appearances; abiding focuses on relationship. Pretending asks, "How do I look?" Abiding asks, "Am I remaining close to Jesus?" The invitation of the gospel is not to impress God, but to come into the light, bringing our real selves to Him. Because of Jesus, we no longer need to hide, perform, or pretend. The One who knows us completely is also the One who loves us completely.God's opposition to pretence is not because He is looking for flawless people. It is because pretence convinces us we are healthy when we are sick, free when we are captive, and close to God when our hearts have drifted. The tragedy of Ananias and Sapphira is not simply that they lied. It is that they chose appearance over reality, and in doing so cut themselves off from the very honesty through which God brings healing. The gospel begins when we stop hiding and step into the light.ReflectionWhere might appearances have become more important than intimacy in your life? Where is Jesus inviting you to lay down your fig leaf coverings and learn to bear fruit that flows from abiding in Him?You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 6: Knowing How to Stand: The Disciples Face the Authorities
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 4This podcast continues our series in Acts by looking at Chapter 4 and one of the simplest yet most striking descriptions of the early church.Peter and John found themselves standing before the very authorities who had orchestrated Jesus' crucifixion just weeks earlier. They were ordinary fishermen, not trained religious experts, yet they spoke with such courage and conviction that the religious leaders were astonished. Luke tells us the reason: "They took note that these men had been with Jesus."There is a danger in separating what God intended to keep together. Some of us settle for what we might call "bread Christianity"—structure, routine, attendance, and activity, but without much spiritual life. Others pursue "filling Christianity"—experiences, emotions, and spiritual highs, but without deep roots or lasting formation. Chapter 4 shows us a better way. The Holy Spirit was never meant to remain in the upper room. The life of God was meant to fill ordinary people and overflow into everyday faithfulness.Discipleship is not primarily about becoming more impressive, knowledgeable, or skilled. It is about being with Jesus and allowing His life to shape ours. Peter and John had first come and seen, then spent years with Jesus, and now they were becoming like Him—speaking with courage, living with faithfulness, and doing what He did.The challenge for all of us is simple: make room to be with Jesus. In a world full of podcasts, books, videos, and endless content, it is possible to know more about Jesus while spending less time with Him. Information alone does not transform us. Formation happens when we abide in Him, walk with Him, pray, listen, and learn to follow Him day by day.The good news from Acts Chapter 4 is that God delights in filling ordinary people. Whether you are taking your first steps of faith, returning after a season of drifting, or simply feeling weary, the invitation remains the same: come back to Jesus, abide in Him, and allow His life to fill the ordinary bread of your everyday life.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 5: Peter Heals the Man at the Temple Gate
Send Dean your question hereActs 3 v 1-10In this podcast we spend time in Acts 3, where Peter and John encounter the man who was unable to walk and who sat at the temple gate every day asking passers-by for money. He had been overlooked for years. In this passage, Peter stopped, paid attention to the man, and became expectant. He looked at the man not simply as a problem to avoid, but as someone God may want to meet. Even so, have you ever considered that if the man had been at the gate all his life had seen Peter passing before? Had even seen Jesus passing before? What does this mean? Why didn’t Jesus or Peter see him before? Or maybe they did, but there was a time for this man, who was deeply loved by God. And here we find his moment in Acts 3 – a moment to glorify God’s kingdom, to confront the leaders of Jerusalem because everyone knew this man was crippled and spent his life at the gates of the temple, whilst encouraging the infant Church and its leaders?Acts is really the continuation of Jesus' ministry through His Spirit-filled church. Jesus had ascended, but His Kingdom continued to break into ordinary life through ordinary people who made themselves available to Him. And that has not changed. As we move through everyday life — conversations, workplaces, streets, homes, church gatherings — we can begin asking: "Lord, how do You want to bless this person? What might Your Kingdom coming look like here?"Sometimes that may be very simple: encouragement, generosity, listening, prayer, practical help, noticing someone others overlook. Sometimes it may be something more dramatic. Acts encourages us to remain open to all of it. Not pressured to manufacture outcomes, but expectant that Jesus is still at work by His Spirit.The invitation is not to become impressive Christians, but attentive and available people — willing to pause, discern, and respond as God leads, trusting that His Kingdom still comes "on earth as it is in heaven."The podcast reflects honestly on healing and suffering. We believe Jesus still heals because Scripture presents the Kingdom continuing to break into the world through the risen Christ. Yet Acts and the wider New Testament are also honest about unanswered prayers, grief, delay, and mystery. We live in the tension between resurrection begun and restoration still coming. That means we pray boldly, but humbly. We trust deeply, but without pretending we have every answer. Delay is not the same as abandonment, and suffering does not have the final word because Jesus Himself entered suffering, carries us in it, and promises ultimate restoration.Peter's invitation in Acts 3 was not simply about miracles, but about repentance and "times of refreshing" from the presence of the Lord. The greater miracle is restored relationship with God — weary hearts renewed, burdens lifted, and lives turned back toward Jesus. The church is blessed to be a blessing. The Kingdom breaks in not only through dramatic moments, but through ordinary people who become attentive to others, available to the Spirit, and willing to carry the presence of Jesus into weary places.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 4: Peter's Sermon
Send Dean your question hereWe continue to explore Acts 2 and the truth that the gospel is far bigger than simply "going to heaven one day." The gospel is the announcement that Jesus is King, heaven has come near, and the Holy Spirit is forming a people who embody the life of God together now.We reflected on how Scripture tells the story not of humanity escaping earth, but of God continually coming near — from Eden, to the tabernacle, to Jesus, to Pentecost, and ultimately to the renewal of all things. Acts 2 shows heaven invading earth through a Spirit-filled community.Peter's sermon does not end with private spirituality. It creates a people. Strangers become family. Generosity explodes. Meals become sacred. Prayer becomes central. The church becomes an outpost of heaven — a living picture of the Kingdom of God in the world.We consider how easy it is to approach church like a hotel rather than a home: evaluating, consuming, and remaining disconnected. But the New Testament vision is of a family where people carry burdens, forgive one another, serve sacrificially, and remain planted even when things become difficult. Isolated Christianity simply does not work. We were never meant merely to attend services, but to participate in the life of God together.We explore Jesus' words at Caesarea Philippi: "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." This verse can be imagined as the church under attack, but Jesus does not speak of the swords of Hades, the armies of Hades, or the arrows of Hades. He speaks of gates and gates don’t attack! This is a picture not of a frightened church hiding from darkness, but of a Spirit-filled church advancing into places ruled by sin, despair, and death itself: the gates being unable to withstand the life of Christ. Death cannot prove stronger than resurrection. Darkness cannot overpower light. The risen Jesus is building a people that don't cower from the darkness but through whom heaven pushes back the darkness.We reflect on Jesus standing in the synagogue in Luke 4 and reading from Isaiah 61 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to…"Bring good news to the poor.Freedom for prisoners.Sight for the blind.Freedom for the oppressed.The year of the Lord's favour.Jesus announces that this mission is now being fulfilled in him. Then in Acts 2 that same Spirit is poured out upon the church. Meaning the mission of Jesus becomes the mission of his people.The Holy Spirit is not given merely for spiritual experiences, but so the life and ministry of Jesus continue through his body on earth. The church is meant to become:good news to the poor,hope for the lonely,family for the unwanted,light in darkness,truth in confusion,a channel for healing to the sick,compassion in suffering, and,freedom for those in bondage.Acts does not show a church hiding from the world. It shows ordinary people filled with the Spirit going out and "punching holes in the darkness" with the life of Jesus.The church must be marked not by pride or performance, but by humility, love, compassion, and service. The goal is not simply better church services. It is a different kind of humanity: a people shaped by the presence of Jesus, filled with the Spirit, living as a preview of the coming Kingdom.Until then:Be planted.Carry one another.Stop merely attending.Live the gospel.And let the world see what the reign of Jesus looks like in human form.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 3: Pentecost
Send Dean your question hereActs Chapter 2In this podcast we consider Pentecost and what it really means to live a life with God. Christianity does not simply offer a moment, an encounter, or even a powerful experience—it offers relationship. Not just, "I met Him," but "I walk with Him." Not just a spiritual high, but an ongoing, daily life with God.That matters, because many of us quietly build our understanding of the Holy Spirit around moments—times of emotion, power, or clarity. And while those moments can be real and significant, they are not the whole picture. A wedding may be unforgettable, but it is not the same as a marriage. In the same way, the Spirit is not just the giver of moments, but the One who brings us into ongoing fellowship—relationship, closeness, and familiarity with God. He is the giver of life.The Bible speaks of this as the great promise of the new covenant: that God would pour out His Spirit on all people. No longer limited to a few, but given to all who belong to Jesus. This is the age we are living in—the age of the Spirit. Not because the Father has stopped working or Jesus has stepped aside, but because the risen Christ has poured out His Spirit to dwell within His people.This also reshapes how we understand things like prophecy. In Scripture, prophecy is not mainly about predicting the future, but about speaking God's heart and will into the present. Some of it points forward, but much of it speaks into what is happening now. The Spirit means we can know God—not just know about Him, but know His heart. This is what was promised in Jeremiah: a day when people would truly know the Lord.And yet, like the disciples in Acts 19, many believers today live with a quiet gap. Faith is present, but awareness of the Spirit feels distant or unclear. The invitation is not to strive for something we don't have, but to recognise the One who is already near.So how do we know the Spirit is at work? Often not through the dramatic, but through the steady signs of life: a cry for God, a growing thirst for Him, a quiet transformation of character. Scripture tells us that no one can truly say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Spirit—and even that is evidence of His work within us.The Spirit also reshapes our practices. It's not just that we pray, but that we begin to want to commune with Him in prayer. It's not just that we read the Bible, but that we feel a pull to hear His voice in Scripture. It's not just outward holiness, but an inward desire to leave sin behind so that we might be set apart and draw closer to Him.These are not things we manufacture—they are signs of His presence at work in us.If you belong to Jesus, you are not empty, and you are not alone. You may feel like you are in the shallows—unsure, learning, or even dry—but you are still in the water.And so the invitation remains: don't settle there. Go deeper.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 2: Let the Silence Speak (In the Upper Room)
Send Dean your question hereActs 1: 9-14It's easy to forget that there was a significant period of time between Jesus' ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Probably 40 to 50 days. Have you ever had to wait for something? I don't know about you but many of us are really poor at waiting. We are impatient to get on with things, we have plans, we need to do something. Didn't the gospels say, "Go into all the world ..." They did. But the Bible also says, "Be still and know that I am God," and "Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly." (Psalm 37).It is during this time that God is preparing the disciples to go out and do things. But he is using the space, using the time, to form, to mould, to strip away so that when the disciples go out, so when they go to do the work that has been set for them, they do it relying on Him and not on themselves.Waiting on God often does three things in us:It refines us – exposing our fears, impatience, and self-reliance while shaping our character.It teaches us to listen – helping us become more attentive to God's voice through Scripture, conviction, peace, and prompting.It intertwines us with God – drawing us into deeper relationship with him, not merely giving us answers but renewing our strength through his presence.The challenge is simple: don't substitute activity for dependence. The early Church understood that preaching, planning, serving, and mission all required the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.ReflectionAs we continue through Acts, may we become a people who pursue God's presence, wait expectantly, and make room for all that the Spirit wants to do among us.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Acts Series Part 1: Jesus' Ascension
Send Dean your question hereActs 1: 1-12This podcast is the first in a new series of sermons on the Book of Acts – the second part of Luke’s investigation into the life of Jesus and his ministry.We give a lot of attention to Jesus' birth, death and resurrection, but the ascension is just as vital. Without it, everything Jesus had done would remain unfinished. The ascension is not an optional extra in the Christian faith; it is the moment that launches the next stage of God's mission in the world.The image of a rocket launch is helpful as we consider this passage. The first stage is essential, but it is not the final destination. It provides the thrust needed for lift-off, and then it is released so the mission can continue. In a similar way, Jesus' earthly ministry was not abandoned or made less important by his ascension. It was essential. But if Jesus had remained physically present in one place, the mission would have stayed local and limited. By ascending, he was not ending the mission but advancing it.At first, the disciples experienced the ascension as loss. Jesus was taken from their sight, and they stood looking into the sky. But the angels gently rebuked them. Why were they standing there? Why were they frozen? Because they had not yet realised that what looked like departure was actually release, and what felt like separation was actually the beginning of worldwide mission.The ascension means Jesus is not absent. He is exalted. He reigns at the right hand of the Father as our Prophet, Priest and King. As Prophet, he still speaks through his people as the gospel is proclaimed. As Priest, he represents us before the Father, securing our acceptance and giving us peace. As King, he rules over all things for the good of his people.The ascension changes how we live. It gives us joy instead of paralysis, confidence instead of fear, and purpose instead of passivity. Jesus leaving was not the end of the mission. It was the only way the mission could truly begin. Our Christ is not only crucified and risen, he is ascended, reigning, and at work still.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Elijah Part 7 - Let Go and Let God!
Send Dean your question hereElijah Part 7 - Let Go and Let God!1 Kings 19 v 9-21After Elijah's exhaustion and despair, God doesn't let him stay in his cave of self-pity. He gives him a clear, threefold mission: anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as his prophetic successor.It sort of sounds as if Elijah as just been, well sacked. And maybe he has been. But another way to reflect on this passage is that God takes us where we are. We are not forced to do things. Elijah was exhausted. God had met him, restored him and now, he recommissioned him. He has taken Elijah where he is and set him a new task and at the same time, allowed him to find an ending. Elijah finds Elisha in the middle of ordinary work — ploughing a field. Without fanfare, Elijah throws his cloak over him, a symbolic act of passing on his prophetic mantle. Elisha asks only to say goodbye to his parents, then makes a radical break — he slaughters his oxen, burns his farming equipment, and feeds the people. There is no going back. He follows Elijah completely.Elijah was a steward and like all good steward’s he held in trust, the precious commission that God had given him. At the right time, he didn’t hold on to that commission; he passed it on with humility.Reflection:Take some time to read the text (1 Kings 19 v 9-21) and think about what we can learn about:Renewed purpose: God meets Elijah’s despair with a new assignment – he takes him where he is and recommissions him. What does this say to us if we feel tired and that we may have disappointed God in our lives? Divine sovereignty: We are stewards. God's plan doesn't depend on just one person. When Jesus ascended, he said that he would send his spirit that we might do greater things than He. Think on this and ask yourself what that might mean in your life?The cost of discipleship — Elisha burns his bridges to follow his calling by sacrificing his oxen and destroying his plough. Then, having bid his family farewell, he followed Elijah. What does this say to us today?Succession — the prophetic mission will outlast any one prophet. Jesus said, "My yolk is easy and my burden is light." The great news is that God's purpose in His good world, does not depend on us. Even the most successful follower of Jesus is but a bit player in God's big picture. You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Elijah Part 6: The God Who Speaks
Send Dean your question hereElijah Part 6: The God Who Speaks.1 Kings 19: 9-18Elijah has run away from Jezebel and Ahab. He has been sustained by the angel of the Lord in the desert and he has arrived at Mount Horeb – the mountain of God. His instinct, when he has found himself in despair and dread, has been to run to his father, to God. And his father has loved him, and met him on the journey, and sustained him. And when Elijah is at Mount Horeb, God asks him a simple question: “What are you doing here?” And Elijah pours out his heart – how the Israelites have rejected His covenant, broken down his altars, killed His prophets – all true. I am the only one who is left, he says. Not true. In this little coaching session, God teases out the thing that is holding Elijah back and weakening him. It’s not true that Elijah is the only one left and nor is it true, therefore, that everything sits on his shoulders. There are others and most importantly, there is God himself – a God who has just demonstrated his power and existence to all who would listen and see, in a confrontation with the very people who Elijah is afraid of.It’s in this famous moment, God speaks to Elijah – but actually, God has always been speaking to Elijah. The question has not been the speaking but is perhaps more about the listening. What has Elijah been listening to? What are we listening to? Who are we listening to? This episode from the depths of the Old Testament, sign posts us to a truth: that is was Jesus who met Elijah in the wilderness, it was Jesus who spoke in that still small voice and it is Jesus who stills speaks to us now. The challenge of Elijah’s story is that even those who have seen the most amazing demonstrations of God’s power in their lives, can become discouraged, but finding God’s voice again is what puts Elijah back on track. Hearing His truth and not the enemy’s lies.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Elijah Part 5: Do Your Part.
Send Dean your question here1 Kings 19:1-9 Following his great victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, Elijah received a death threat from Queen Jezebel, who was furious that her prophets had been killed. Despite his recent triumph, Elijah was seized by fear and fled for his life southward through Judah to Beersheba, leaving his servant there before venturing alone into the wilderness.Utterly exhausted and broken in spirit, he sat beneath a broom tree and prayed for death, telling God, "It is enough." He felt he had failed, that his ministry was worthless, and that he was no better than those who had come before him. He then fell into a deep sleep.Rather than rebuking him, God responded with remarkable gentleness. An angel appeared twice, touching Elijah and simply urging him to eat. Each time, Elijah found freshly baked bread and water beside him. There was no lecture, no disappointment — just quiet, practical care for a man at the end of his rope. The second visit came with added encouragement: "The journey is too great for you," acknowledging the weight of what lay ahead. Restored by this provision, Elijah rose and travelled for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God — a journey that mirrors the wilderness experiences of Moses and Israel. He took shelter in a cave, and the passage closes there, heavy with expectation, as God prepares to meet his weary but still-moving prophet.In this sermon, Dean relates Elijah's story to our own. He shows how we are encouraged to do the part that God has given us in our lives, and no more. He places us as stewards in this world, people who hold in trust that which has been put in our care, whether that is as parents, friends, or colleagues. Elijah thought that his job was to save Israel and when it was obvious that the nation had not turned back to God, was deflated and defeated. It took a gentle God to remind Elijah that he was a steward who had a part. It is God who acts as saviour.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Elijah Part 4: Keep Yourself From Idols
Send Dean your question hereElijah Part 4: Dear Children, Keep Yourself From IdolsToday we find ourselves in 1 Kings chapter 18 at perhaps one of the most famous confrontations that you’ll find anywhere in the Old Testament: Elijah’s showdown between him and the 450 prophets of Baal.You will recall that Elijah was commissioned by God to tell King Ahab that there would be no rain until Elijah said the word. That was three years ago. In the meantime, God has looked after Elijah, feeding him through ravens in a ravine, and then taking him to a widow who lived in the land of the Sidonians, outside of Israel. During that time, Ahab has organised an enormous but unsuccessful man-hunt to find, Elijah, because he needed Elijah to end the drought. And then, one day, Elijah just turned up and announced that he wanted to speak to Ahab because he wanted to confront Israel because it had abandoned the God of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob and followed Baal instead.The story is very dramatic; we hold our breath as we listen to the ebb and flow of the narrative that ultimately leads to the demise of the prophets of Baal as God demonstrates in the most spectacular of ways, that He is God. We sit back and we reflect on those foolish Israelites – how could they be so stupid as to abandon the God who brought them out of Egypt, who brought down the walls of Jericho and who descended in glory onto the temple that Solomon had built for Him, in full view of all the people of Jerusalem?And then we realise that this story speaks into our own lives too. Our idols may not be made of stone, but they are just as powerful and draw us away from God, our creator. Our idols, the things that we pursue above God, are maybe more subtle, but they have the same effect because they replace God and call us to serve them instead. This is a powerful message that speaks to the problem of humanity: we want something other than God to be our god. Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal give us the chance to reflect on the extent to which we honour the first commandment in our own lives: “You shall have no gods before me.”You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Elijah Part 3: Our God Hears, Acts and Gives Back Life
Send Dean your question here1 Kings 17:17–24 — The Widow's Son Raised from the DeadContext: This passage follows Elijah's stay with the widow of Zarephath whose flour and oil God had miraculously sustained. What’s interesting about this whole episode is that God has sent Elijah to the land of the Sidonians – this is Jezebel’s home turf, a place where people worship Baal. It’s as if God is sending Elijah to Zaraphath to show anyone who would take time to notice, that He is Lord and that Baal is not. It’s within this context that a second crisis erupts.What HappensThe widow's son falls gravely ill and stops breathing. In her anguish, she turns on Elijah — "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" Her grief becomes accusation. Elijah takes the boy, cries out to God with raw urgency ("Have you brought tragedy even on this widow?"), and stretches himself over the child three times, pleading for his life. God hears. The boy breathes again. Elijah carries him downstairs and the widow declares: "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth." This is not healing. This is resurrection – in the heart of enemy territory. “ I am the God who’ll bring life and fulness even to nothing.”The Message1. Grief can turn faith into accusation. The widow's outburst is deeply human. She had been faithfully hosting Elijah, yet suffering still came. Her reaction — blaming the prophet, implying hidden guilt — shows how tragedy can destabilise even a generous faith. The text doesn't rebuke her for it.2. Elijah brought the raw reality of human pain to God. Rather than offering theological explanations, Elijah argued with God. His prayer is almost a complaint. This is a portrait of intercession as honest struggle, not polished petition — he was troubled too.3. God's power over death is the deepest sign of his authority. Sustaining flour and oil was remarkable. Raising the dead was another order entirely. The miracle escalates to confirm that the God of Israel holds life itself.4. The resurrection of the son confirmed the word of God. The widow's confession at the end is the climax: she moves from hospitality to certainty. The miracle wasn't an end in itself — it authenticated the prophetic word. This pattern recurs throughout Scripture: signs serve the word, not the other way around.5. A foreshadowing of the Gospel. The structure — a beloved son dies, a man of God intercedes, life is restored and returned to the mother — anticipates the resurrection itself. Jesus actually cites this very episode (Luke 4:26), and raises another widow's son in Nain (Luke 7), consciously echoing it.The Underlying ThemeGod's faithfulness doesn't exempt his people from suffering — but it meets them inside it. The widow lost her son at the very moment she was serving God's prophet. Yet that same relationship became the avenue of restoration – of resurrection. The passage holds together the darkness of unanswered questions and the reality of a God who hears, acts, and gives life back – on the Cross. ReflectionHow does this story reflect into your own life? Are there things that have happened that you have never given to God? We serve a God who hears, acts and gives back life. Our contact details are at the bottom of these details. Please call us or leave us a message through the app if you would like to speak to anyone.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Elijah Part 2: A Little is Enough
Send Dean your question hereElijah Part 2: A Little is Enough1 King’s 17: verses 7-15. In the previous podcast, we saw that Elijah confronted King Ahab and was immediately called by God, to the wilderness where he was fed by ravens and drew water from a small brook. In time that brook dried up and Elijah was called away again – this time to the home of a widow. In this story, we learn about faith and provision and how we can trust God even when there is very little because, for God, ‘A little is enough.’ In sending Elijah to a widow who was at the point of despair due to the drought and famine that prevailed, we find God providing through very unlikely means. Within the context of her life, "First make me a little cake" is a huge ask, because she was being encouraged to give away her last meal by someone she barely knew. Elijah essentially asked the widow to prioritise God above her own and her son’s survival. It was in her willingness to trust Elijah that we see the story pivot.God was faithful to His word and honoured the widow’s faith. He provided for her and her family. The miracle we read about in the widow’s life is quiet and ongoing - the jar and jug simply never run out. God's provision is steady and sufficient, not showy. What the widow had, was enough. This episode in Elijah’s story points to a God who can be trusted even when circumstances say otherwise. Whilst we are not enough, with Him in us, we have enough. You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Elijah Part 1: Humble, Dependent, Obedient
Send Dean your question hereElijah Part 1: Humble, Dependent, ObedientElijah is quite simply one of those awesome characters in Scripture. He’s a man of faith, commitment and obedience and he does very many powerful things in the name of the Lord. The very first thing that he did was to speak to King Ahab and Jezebel and to close up the heavens to declare that there would be neither dew nor rain for the next few years except at his word: to challenge the very power base of the northern kingdom of Israel as it was ruled by this evil king. We think of Elijah as that amazing man. But just like us, he was someone who needed to be formed, he needed to be fashioned, and he needed to be moulded to become the person that God wanted him to be. So having made this great prophetic statement, Elijah was called to the wilderness - this may be true for us too. Overview1 Kings 17: 1-9 describes the beginning of Elijah’s prophetic ministry during the reign of King Ahab in northern Israel. Elijah, a Tishbite from Gilead, boldly declared to Ahab that there would be neither dew nor rain in Israel except at his word, signaling God’s judgment and asserting His sovereignty over nature. This drought challenged the worship of Baal, who was believed to control rain, highlighting the supremacy of Yahweh. Following this confrontation, God instructed Elijah to hide by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan, where he was miraculously sustained. Ravens brought him bread and meat morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. This provision demonstrated God’s care and the prophet’s obedience, even in isolation. Eventually, the brook dried up due to the ongoing drought, and God directed Elijah to Zarephath in the region of Sidon, where a widow has been chosen to provide for him. This move foreshadowed God’s continued provision through human agents and set the stage for further miracles, including the multiplication of the widow's flour and oil and the later resurrection of her son. Key Themes and InsightsFaith and Obedience: Elijah’s immediate compliance with God’s instructions illustrated trust in divine provision and underlined Elijah's dependence on God, in uncertain circumstances.Divine Sovereignty: The drought and miraculous feeding underscored God’s control over nature and human affairs, contrasting with Baal worship.God’s Provision: God provided in unexpected ways, through ravens (unclean birds) and a foreign widow showing that His care extends beyond conventional means.Prophetic Symbolism: Elijah’s name, meaning “My God is Yahweh,” reinforces the message that God alone is the source of life and sustenance. This passage sets the stage for Elijah’s later confrontations with Baal prophets and demonstrates the principle that God’s word and provision are reliable, even in times of scarcity. It emphasises the importance of humility, obedience, faith, and dependence on God’s guidance. You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Forgiven People - Forgiving People Part 3
Send Dean your question hereForgiven People - Forgiving People Part 3This sermon is about what it means not just to be forgiven, but to actually live as forgiven people.We believe that God forgives. But learning to live in the freedom, peace, and confidence of that forgiveness wherever we are in our spiritual journey can be a slower and deeper process. You may, for example, still be discovering the offer of the gospel for the first time. You may, on the other hand, know about the offer of forgiveness in your head but find it hard to translate that to your heart. You may have received forgiveness, yet still carry guilt, shame, or self-condemnation. The simple but life-giving truth is that the gospel is not God saying, "try harder." It is God saying, "come as you are, and be forgiven." Jesus does not merely soothe guilty people; he deals with our guilt before God. Through him, forgiveness is proclaimed and freedom is offered.It is possible to be around grace without fully receiving it. Forgiveness can be spoken about, understood, even admired, and yet still somehow be held at arm's length. Like an unopened gift, it can be real and near but not yet enjoyed. The invitation of the gospel is not to perform, but to receive what Christ has already paid for.A large part of this message focuses on what happens when we receive forgiveness but struggle to live in agreement with it. This is often where phrases like, "I can't forgive myself," come from. That phrase usually points to something very real, but if God has forgiven us in Christ, then we do not need to keep reopening the case, rehearsing the failure, or living as though the cross was not enough. As 1 John 3:20 reminds us, "If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." That is a steadying word. Our hearts are not the highest court. God is. And as we stand before the cross and see the love of Christ and the cost of our redemption, we are being shown again: this is enough. His grace is enough. His sacrifice is enough. We do not need to add to what Jesus has already finished.Forgiveness is meant to do more than cancel debt. It is meant to bring us home. In Christ, we are not only pardoned but welcomed and received as children of God. Grace does not simply clear our record; it begins to reshape our hearts. That does not mean there is no need for boundaries, that there are no consequences, and that there is no need for wisdom or evidence of change. But it does mean that forgiven people can begin, slowly, honestly, and sometimes painfully, to become forgiving people.Reflect on this message and locate where you are before you take your next step. Hear the offer. Receive the gift. Agree with God. Let grace go deeper because we are forgiven people—not because we got it right, but because Jesus carried what we got wrong. And now, by his grace, we learn to live in that forgiveness and extend it to others.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Forgiven People - Forgiving People Part 2
Send Dean your question hereForgiven People - Forgiving People Part 2"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12 v.18)The first talk in this series clarified what forgiveness actually is: that is causes debt (what will I do with a wrong that has happened?) and damage (what has the wrong done to me?)Forgiveness deals with the debt. It is the costly, Christ-shaped decision not to repay harm for harm—to refuse revenge, to lay down the right to weaponise the wrong, and to entrust justice to God.In this talk we go a little further and face the honest tension that we often feel: I've forgiven… but things still don't feel okay. There may still be awkwardness, caution, pain, or distance. This can make us wonder whether the forgiveness we have offered was real at all and this is because beyond debt and damage, sin creates distrust and distance.Forgiveness and trust are not the same thing. Forgiveness says, "I will not hold this against you." Trust says, "I am beginning to believe you are becoming safe again."Trust takes time. It grows through consistent, visible change—not just words. That means someone can be truly forgiven and yet still need boundaries, time, and space for trust to be rebuilt. This is not a failure of grace, but an honest recognition of reality.Damage takes time to heal. Forgiveness can happen in a moment, but healing is a process. It is not pretending nothing happened or forgetting the past but reaching a place where the wound no longer controls us. Even Jesus rose with scars—no longer signs of defeat, but of redeeming love.Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.Forgiveness is one-sided – someone has been injured and takes the decision to forgive. Reconciliation requires both the person who has been injured and the one who inflicted the harm. It involves honesty, repentance, and the slow rebuilding of something new—not simply returning to what was before. Scripture is realistic: "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12:18). Sometimes, it is not possible. Sometimes, it is not wise.Real change is not just recognition or apology, but repentance that bears fruit—a visible turning, lived out over time, and, where possible, restitution which is a willingness to take responsibility and seek to make things right, without demanding a particular outcome.Putting it all together, we arrived at a fuller picture:Forgiveness deals with the debtRepentance and trust address the distrustHealing and restitution address the damageReconciliation addresses the distanceThese things are connected—but not identical.So, if you've ever thought:"I forgave, so why am I still hurting?" "Why am I still cautious?" "Why are things not back to normal?"The answer is simple: forgiveness is not the whole process—it is the beginning of it.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Forgiven People - Forgiving People Part 1
Send Dean your question hereForgiven People - Forgiving People Part 1"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." They are familiar words, but they feel very different when they meet real life. Most of us do not struggle with forgiveness in theory. We struggle with it in strained relationships, old wounds, unresolved hurt, and pain that cannot now be put right.The Bible is deeply honest about this. From Cain and Abel onward, Scripture tells the truth about human relationships: we wound and we are wounded. Sin is not only rule-breaking, it is relationship-breaking. It damages trust, fractures love, and leaves wounds behind. When someone wrongs us, at least two things happen. There is a debt created and there is damage. Forgiveness answers the question, "What will I do with the wrong?" It is not pretending nothing happened. It is not instant trust, full reconciliation, or the removal of every consequence. Forgiveness is costly because someone really did take something and someone really was hurt. If the pain is not going to be passed back, then in some way it must be absorbed. That is why forgiveness takes us to the cross. Jesus does not pretend sin is small. He bears it. He absorbs its cost. He takes the hit without returning it. The cycle of pain meets someone who will not pass it on.Forgiveness is not weakness. It is cross-shaped love. It is saying, by grace, "The debt is cancelled, and the pain stops here. I will not make you pay, and I will not let this wound reproduce itself through me."That leaves us with both challenge and comfort.The challenge is that forgiveness is hard. Not in theory, but in real life, where wounds have names, histories, and consequences. But we also saw that forgiveness is not the same as instantly trusting again, feeling fine about what happened, or being fully reconciled. Often when we say, "I can't forgive," what we really mean is, "I can't trust." And that may be true. Trust, reconciliation, and restoration require something from the other person. Forgiveness is the first step we are called to take: releasing the debt and refusing revenge, while still telling the truth about the damage.And the comfort is this: we are not simply told to forgive and then left to do it on our own. We have a Saviour who has walked this path before us. Jesus does not merely command forgiveness, he embodies it. And he gives us his Spirit, so that when forgiveness feels beyond us, we are not left to cope alone. We are invited to walk in his way, with his help, even when it is hard.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Hope in Difficult Circumstances: the message of Easter
Send Dean your question hereHope in Difficult Circumstances: the message of EasterIn this talk we are encouraged to reflect on the wonder and majesty of the events of Easter. At the start, we consider the idea of Easter as God's great "Hail Mary", a phrase used to describe ‘hope in difficult circumstances.’ Easter is God's one great plan to save the world. No plan B. No backup arrangement. No second route waiting in the wings. When humanity first departed from God’s presence, God has single-mindedly set out to rescue and restore it through Jesus Christ. Easter is not God scrambling to recover a situation; it is the long-promised, decisive act of salvation at the centre of history. We are challenged to think of Easter not simply as a tradition to observe, but an announcement to hear as we stand outside His tomb: "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see." (Matthew 28:6)That is the heart of Christianity. It begins not with advice, but with news: something has happened.The women came to the tomb expecting to face a problem they could not solve. There was a huge stone in the way. But when they arrived, the stone had already been moved. The obstacle they thought would define the moment had already been dealt with. You know, we can often think that the stone was rolled away to let Jesus out of the tomb, but I wonder if it was rolled away to let Mary, Peter and John, look in? To let us look in and consider! Something has happened.We thought a little about the evidence for that announcement. Christian faith is not a call to shut down your mind. The women are invited to come and see. It is an invitation to look, to ask, to think, and to consider. Jesus existed. Jesus died. The tomb was empty. His followers became convinced they had seen him alive. Their lives were changed. The church was born in the very place where he had been killed. At some point the question changes from did it happen, to what best explains the evidence?If Jesus really went into death and came out the other side, then Easter is not a nice religious idea to brighten the spring, it is the turning point of history. It means death is not ultimate. It means sin is not final. It means despair does not get the last word. It means there is hope that is stronger than fear.One of my favourite details in the Easter story is what Jesus says when the women finally meet him. You might expect something dramatic. Something thunderous. But his first word is simply, "Hello." Or in the original, "Hail." The first Hail Mary.There is something so fitting about that. The risen Jesus is not distant, strange, or unreachable. He is alive, present, and near.That is why Easter is an invitation as much as it is a declaration. Come and see. Bring your questions. Bring your doubts. Bring your need. Bring the places in your life that feel stuck, tired, fearful, or beyond repair. The risen Jesus is not just a figure from history to be admired. He is alive, and he still changes lives.And that is where we ended: when the women heard the angel, hope flickered; when they saw the empty tomb, something woke up; but when they saw Jesus, faith became personal.That is still how it happens.And if Jesus is alive, then maybe he wants to do something in your life too.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Holy Week Special - Easter People Part 5: Simon of Cyrene
Send Dean your question hereHoly Week Special - Easter People Part 5: Simon of CyreneHoly Week is a time when we can reflect on the events that led to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. In this short series of sermons that were originally delivered in 2025, we are drawn into these events through the eyes and the experiences of five people. Some were very close to Jesus throughout his ministry whilst others appear momentarily. But all can say the same thing: that they met Jesus.This is the final talk in our series on Easter People. Today we are encouraged to reflect on the events of the first 'Good Friday', through the eyes of Simon of Cyrene. Simon has a very brief mention in the gospel narrative. He had travelled a very great distance to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. It so happens that as he and his son are in the city a noisy procession is underway: some men are experiencing the final humiliation as they are being taken to the place of execution under the supervision of the Roman authorities. One staggers and falls under the weight of the cross he is forced to carry, and Simon is ordered, by a soldier, to carry it for Him ...We hope that our Easter People reflections have been helpful during Holy Week and that you have managed to find time to stop and be still. Thank you for supporting our podcast - please feel free to feedback through our Ask Dean a Question link. We are keen to hear your thoughts.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Holy Week Special - Easter People Part 4: Thomas
Send Dean your question hereHoly Week Special - Easter People Part 4: Doubting ThomasHoly Week is a time when we can reflect on the events that led to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. In this short series of sermons that were originally delivered in 2025, we are drawn into these events through the eyes and the experiences of five people. Some were very close to Jesus throughout his ministry whilst others appear momentarily. But all can say the same thing: that they met Jesus.This is the fourth reflection on Easter people in our short series of five vignettes. Along with Peter, James and John, Thomas is perhaps one of the most well-known disciple - maybe because he is the one that gets the nickname. But Thomas is a really interesting individual and in many ways, he is you and he is me. The sceptic? Or the one who comes to faith with his thinking head on? And let's not forget his reaction when he did see Jesus. He fell to his knees saying, "My Lord, and my God." You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Holy Week Special - Easter People Part 3: Joseph of Arimathea
Send Dean your question hereHoly Week Special - Easter People Part 3: Joseph of ArimatheaHoly Week is a time when we can reflect on the events that led to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. In this short series of sermons that were originally delivered in 2025, we are drawn into these events through the eyes and the experiences of five people. Some were very close to Jesus throughout his ministry whilst others appear momentarily. But all can say the same thing: that they met Jesus.In this third talk, we have the opportunity to reflect on events through the eyes of Joseph of Arimathea. He has a small mention in the narrative, but a significant experience to share with us.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Holy Week Special - Easter People Part 2: Peter
Send Dean your question hereHoly Week Special - Easter People Part 2: PeterHoly Week is a time when we can reflect on the events that led to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. In this short series of sermons that were originally delivered in 2025, we are drawn into these events through the eyes and the experiences of five people. Some were very close to Jesus throughout his ministry whilst others appear momentarily. But all can say the same thing: that they met Jesus. In the second talk in this series, we consider Peter and in so doing, are invited to once again look at events through eyes that may feel familiar. Peter features regularly within the gospels and is known for his passion and for his loyalty to Jesus. He became one of the most important leaders of the 'Way' (the early Christian Church) after Jesus' resurrection. Even so, when it came to the moment when Jesus was arrested, Peter is also famous for denying he knew him. You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Holy Week Special - Easter People Part 1: Mary the Magdalene
Send Dean your question hereHoly Week Special - Easter People Part 1: Mary the MagdaleneHoly Week is a time when we can reflect on the events that led to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. In this short series of sermons that were originally delivered in 2025, we are drawn into these events through the eyes and the experiences of five people. Some were very close to Jesus throughout his ministry whilst others appear momentarily. But all can say the same thing: that they met Jesus. In the first of the series, we consider Mary the Magdalene and in so doing, are invited to look at events through familiar eyes, because we all know who Mary the Magdalene is ... don't we?You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Way of Exodus Part 8 - Redemption is just the Beginning
Send Dean your question hereThe Way of Exodus Part 8 - Redemption is just the BeginningIn this, the eighth podcast in this series, Exodus chapters 14–17 show us something that is easy to miss: the Red Sea was the miracle… but it wasn't the destination. It was just the beginning. God rescues His people in a dramatic moment, but now begins the process of formation, now begins the long journey and the patient ministering that will teach His people how to live as free people who trust Him day by day.Very quickly the questions within the narrative change from "Will God get us out?" to "Will God keep us?" And the answer, again and again, is yes. In the wilderness God gives daily bread — manna that trains them in dependence rather than panic. He shows daily protection — not by removing every threat, but by going before them and standing between them and what would destroy them. Rescue is real, but it's not the end; God sustains what He saves.But the deepest point of all was this: the goal was never just to be drawn "out of slavery." The goal was that the Hebrews would be drawn into relationship. God wants to have a relationship with humanity and, in this instance, with His people. journey isn't simply from bondage to survival — it's from bondage to communion, from fear to worship, from Pharaoh's rule that leads to slavery and death, to God’s which leads to life. This is amplified in chapter 25: "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8).And this is where we need to make the connection to the Gospel narrative. This is where the Exodus story is utterly relevant to our own lives. When we follow Jesus are released from the bondage of sin and death. He leads us out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. But just as that was just the beginning of a lifetime journey with God for the Hebrews, so it is for us: we are invited to journey through our lives with God before us and behind us. We are forgiven, filled with the spirit and we are invited to abide. We are brought into a relationship with God: as Moses brought the Hebrews, Jesus brings us.And underneath all of it is a truth that can take a lifetime to sink in: God loves you because He loves you. Not because you're impressive, useful, consistent, strong, or sorted. There isn't a deeper "why" to earn or uncover. His love comes from His own heart and that's what makes worship the fitting response from rescued people.If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Exodus Way Part 7 - Holding Your Peace
Send Dean your question hereThe Exodus Way Part 7 - Holding Your PeaceIn this podcast we sit in that Red Sea moment: deep water in front of us, pressure behind us, and no obvious way through. We look at Exodus 13–14 and Psalm 106 and are reminded of something many of us need to hear again: God does not bring us to impossible places to mock us. He brings us there to show us who He is and to lead us into freedom.A big part of what is unpacked here is what it means to hold our peace. When Scripture says, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still," it doesn't mean doing nothing forever. Instead, it means stopping the panic, the inner noise, and the reflex reactions that we have long enough to hear God clearly. Whilst fear may show up, holding your peace means that fear doesn't get to drive. Stillness is not passivity; it's a posture of trust enabling us to listen before we take the next step of obedience.As Exodus 14 leads into Exodus 15 we discover that rescue leads to worship. The Hebrews didn't just survive, they sang! Is this something we can transfer into our own lives? Do we let our hearts sing as we walk with God through our own lives?God is still teaching us the same rhythm: hold your peace, listen, move, and trust Him with the outcome.ReflectionWhere have you experienced a time where you thought you were ready but God said not yet?When fear starts talking, what kind of story does it usually tell you (about God, yourself, or the situation)?What does "reverse gear" look like for you when life feels hard (withdrawing, overthinking, anger, numbing, people-pleasing, etc.)?Where might God be asking you not to force an outcome, but to trust His direction one step at a time?What would worship-as-response look like for you this week. Not just expressing our feelings, but a way of saying, "God has done it" or "God is with me"?A simple practice for this week: HOLD YOUR PEACEIf you find yourself spiralling, reacting, or feeling overwhelmed, try this (even for 60 seconds):P — Pause Slow down and don't react straight away.E — Examine Notice what you're feeling, wanting, and assuming.A — Attend to God Pray and bring this moment under Jesus' lordship.C — Choose Take the next faithful, loving, truthful step.E — Entrust Leave the outcome with God.You don't have to do this perfectly. The point is simply to make space for God before fear takes over.If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Exodus Way Part 6 - Where is the Lamb?
Send Dean your question hereThe Exodus Way Part 6 - Where is the Lamb? As we have already seen, the plagues aren't God losing His temper. They are God exposing false gods, handing people over to what they insist on trusting, and repeatedly inviting repentance. The story isn't just about one stubborn man. It's about an entire death-shaped system. An empire built on fear, power, and the lie that some lives matter less than others. Pharaoh embodies it, but the machine is bigger than him.When we get to Exodus 12, we find God finishing His work to bring "judgment on all the gods of Egypt." The plagues pull the mask off a whole way of life. The Nile, the sun, livestock, even Pharaoh himself. Each one is exposed as impotent, empty, and ‘unable to save’. And then we arrive at Passover.Modern ears find it stark. The death of the firstborn is grievous. It's meant to be. It forces us to face a sobering truth: evil, when welcomed in, does not stay small. Egypt had already ordered Hebrew sons to be killed and had chosen a world where that kind of violence was permitted. The night of Passover is a terrible moral symmetry in a world where death has been normalised because it is now Egypt’s firstborn who are the target and the Hebrew’s who are shielded.But even here, something deeper is happening. We often picture "Passover" as God skipping certain houses. But the language hints at something richer. God does not merely avoid the marked homes. He stands over them. He shields. He covers. The blood is not a sign to keep God away. It is a sign of refuge. This house belongs to Yahweh. Outside that protection, people are handed over to the destroyer whose way of life they have chosen. Inside, they are covered over by mercy.And Jesus uses this event as the key to explain what He came to do.The Gospels spend extraordinary space on Jesus' final week because the cross is the centre of the story. At the Last Supper, Jesus doesn't give a lecture explaining His death. He gives a meal. Herbs for bitterness, because evil and suffering are real and God does not ask us to pretend otherwise. Bread for urgency, because salvation calls for a response. A step. A decision to seek shelter. Wine for promise, because God binds Himself to His people.And the Lamb? In Matthew's account we hear about the dipping bowl for the herbs, the bread, and the cup, but the lamb is conspicuously absent. Not because there is no lamb, but because Jesus is the Lamb. In Exodus, God judges a death-world and makes a doorway through judgment by a lamb handed over in the people's place. In the Gospels, Jesus is handed over by Judas, by leaders, by Pilate, and ultimately He walks into the "hour of darkness" so that darkness can spend itself on Him. And because He is handed over, we can be covered.Under Him there is protection. Safety. Deliverance. We don't talk as much about the blood of Jesus as Christians once did. But Scripture does. The blood of Jesus is not superstition. It is shorthand for the finished work of Christ. It means guilt is removed. It means accusation loses its voice. It means you belong to God. And it means the destroyer does not get the final word. Passover isn't a religious tradition to admire. It's a shelter to step into. A God who stands between His people and destroying power. A God who says, "You will not have them."Take time to read Romans 5:9; Hebrews 9:12–14; Hebrews 9:14; Ephesians 2:13; Colossians 1:20; and Revelation 12:11. You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Exodus Way Part 5: Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him?
Send Dean your question hereThe Exodus Way Part 5: Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him?In this podcast we spend time in the Exodus story asking a question that still sits behind much of everyday life, whether or not we notice it: "Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him?"Pharaoh doesn't doubt God's existence. He questions God's right to rule. And everything that follows in Exodus 5–12 is God's response. These are not random acts of power, but a revelation of reality itself.We see that the plagues are not just about showing Pharaoh God's power; they are also about defeating Egypt's gods and exposing the deeper assumptions Egypt lived by - assumptions that didn't feel like "religion" at all but felt instead just how the world worked: Life comes from the Nile. Security comes from power. Stability comes from control. Worth comes from success.God doesn't debate those assumptions. He shows that they cannot be trusted and that He alone is Lord.That's what brings the Exodus story uncomfortably close to home. Most of us don't bow down to false gods. We simply assume them. We assume money will keep us safe. That control will keep us steady. That comfort will make life good. That success proves our worth. And most of the time, those assumptions work… until pressure comes.Exodus shows us that when false gods are asked to save us, they don't just fail, they enslave. Anxiety rises. Rest disappears. Fear takes over. And when those "realities" start to collapse, people either harden like Pharaoh or begin, slowly and imperfectly, to trust God again.The gospel doesn't just expose what can't save us, it replaces it. Where false gods collapse under pressure, Jesus carries the weight. And He carries us with Him.Reflection:In the plagues, God exposes the things Egypt trusted to give life and stability. As you look at your own life, what things have you tended to rely on to keep everything "working"?When something you rely on feels shaken, what usually happens next for you? Do you find yourself anxious, defensive, or more open to trusting God? What might that reveal about where your security has been coming from?Can you think of a time when something that felt solid in your life failed, but God proved more faithful than you expected? How did that experience shape your view of Him?The plagues expose what can't give life, but they also point toward the freedom God is offering. As you reflect on your own life, you might be aware of something that isn't quite right — perhaps there's fear, control, or the need to keep everything together. Instead of stopping there, can you imagine what freedom might look like in that area if God were at work?What might it look like this week to respond like Israel rather than Pharaoh: not hardening your heart, but loosening your grip and choosing trust, even in a small way?If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Exodus Way Part 4: Faith Under Pressure
Send Dean your question hereThe Exodus Way Part 4: Faith Under PressureIn this episode we look at a hard but deeply real theme: faith when life gets worse, not better.We begin with the story of a man called Peter, whose life seemed to unravel layer by layer. Just as he found faith and hope, and even stood ready to be baptised, he was arrested and sent to prison. What looked like everything falling apart was, in his words, the place "God finished setting me free."That story leads us into Exodus. When God first spoke freedom over Israel, their lives didn't immediately improve. Pharaoh tightened the pressure. Work increased. Hope rose, but so did resistance.We see a pattern that runs through Scripture and, often, through our own lives: right when freedom draws near, resistance intensifies. But hard times do not automatically mean abandonment. Pressure might not mean God has withdrawn. Sometimes it means the battle has shifted.When the people cried out, "If God is bringing freedom, why is this getting worse?" God didn't give an explanation. He gave Himself."I AM." "I HAVE." "I WILL."Faith, we saw, is not built on what is loudest (pain, pressure, fear) but on what is truest: who God is, what He has already done, and what He has promised to do.We also connected this to Psalm 22 and to Jesus. Jesus cried out in real anguish, yet the psalm goes on to declare who God is (I AM) and what he has done (I HAVE) which enables him to commit himself to God (I WILL). His faith did not remove the cross, but it carried Him through it, trusting in resurrection beyond what He could see. Because He entered suffering, we are never alone in ours.Communion then made sense in a fresh way. We live between redemption accomplished and fulfilment still coming. Between "It is finished" and "Your kingdom come."So this week, the question is not simply, "Are things getting easier?" but, "Where am I learning to trust the I AM in the middle of what is?"As you reflectHave you ever experienced a season where following God seemed to make life harder before it got better? What did that do to your faith?When pressure hits, what tends to take the lead in your response? Emotion (e.g. anxiety, frustration, sadness); Willpower (e.g. "I've got to fix this"); Overthinking (e.g. trying to solve every angle in your head); Something else?How do you see your response play out, and how does it affect what you do next?Which part of God's response speaks most to you right now: I AM, I HAVE, or I WILL? Why?If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Exodus Way Part 3: What's in a Name?
Send Dean your question hereThe Exodus Way Part 3: What's in a Name?In this talk we explore Exodus Ch. 3 which records the moment Moses encounters God at the burning bush. A strange sight gets his attention… but what really changes him is not the fire, it's a name.At first, God introduces Himself as Elohim which means the Mighty One. But then something shifts. God says: "I am Yahweh… I have seen their misery… I have heard them crying out… I am concerned." It's the first time this personal name is spoken in Exodus expressing not just power, but presence.But Moses keeps things formal. He responds to Yahweh like He's still just Elohim. Maybe you recognise that: when God feels distant. When it's safer to keep Him at arm's length. Because if He really knows you, your story, your shame, maybe He'll back away. But Yahweh doesn't. Instead, in his response, he reaches past his guilt, past his hiding, past his shame - and in answer to Moses' question, "Who Am I?", calls him by name and simply says, "I will be with you." God isn't scared off by Moses' past. Moses' shame doesn't disqualify him - because there is no sin in us that exceeds the grace that is in God.Then Moses asks, "Who shall I say sent me?" This is no longer about Moses, it's about God and in response, God reveals His personal name: you can say Yahweh sent you, not Elohim, but Yahweh. It's a name that invites Moses from distant awareness into deep relationship. A name that connects a wandering man to a faithful God. A name that says, "You are no longer alone. I am with you. I am for you. I know your name... and now you know mine."Whilst it may not be your usual listen, here is a song called 'Who Am I?' by Casting Crowns, that might help you reflect on some of the truths we looked at: https://youtu.be/3rT8Re1EIQc.As you reflect:When life is hard, how do you relate to God? Do you find yourself speaking to Him like He's distant (Elohim) — or personal (Yahweh)? What does that reveal about how close you feel to Him?Have you ever kept God at arm's length? What was going on at the time? What helped you move from formal faith to a more personal connection?Is there a part of your life you're keeping hidden — out of shame, fear, or self-protection? What might it look like to let God meet you there — not to condemn, but to call?Think about the "fire" in your life — a difficult experience, a trial, a loss. How might God have been present in that fire? Did it shape you in ways you couldn't see at the time?Moses asked, "Who am I?" — and God answered, "I will be with you." If you asked God that question today, what fear or insecurity would be behind it? And what might it mean to trust His answer — not "You're enough," but "I am with you"?God's name is not just a fact — it's an invitation. What would it look like this week to walk in deeper relationship with Him — not as a distant figure, but as Yahweh: the God who sees, hears, and stays?If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Exodus Way Part 2: Fear and Faithfulness
Send Dean your question hereThe Exodus Way Part 2: Fear and FaithfulnessIn this podcast we continue in the book of Exodus, looking at chapter 1 & 2 and the world it describes - a world shaped by fear. Pharaoh isn't threatened by rebellion or violence, but by fruitfulness. Israel is multiplying and flourishing, and he panics. That alone says a lot. Fear doesn't always wait for danger. Sometimes it shows up when things are going well.We saw that fear often begins with distorted vision. It sees blessing as threat, difference as danger, and growth as loss. And once fear takes hold, it reaches for control, even if others have to pay the price.Scripture helps us name what's happening beneath the surface by using two images that run all the way through the Bible.The first is the serpent which represents deception. It whispers lies about God, about scarcity, and about self‑protection. It tells us there isn't enough, that God can't be trusted, and that we must secure ourselves before someone else takes what's ours.The second is the city which represents fear organised into systems. It's what happens when those lies get embedded into cultures, policies, and ways of life that operate without reference to God. Fear stops being just a feeling and becomes a structure that shapes how people live.Pharaoh embodies both. He believes the serpent's lie, and then builds a city shaped by fear and control.But Exodus doesn't just expose fear. It also shows how fear begins to unravel, not through loud defiance or heroic power, but through quiet faithfulness:Midwives who choose to fear God rather than obey a fearful systemA mother who entrusts her child to God when control runs outA sister who stays present when it would be easier to look awayA daughter of Pharaoh who chooses compassion instead of complianceNone of them overthrow the city. None of them silence the serpent by force. But each one refuses fear's story, and in choosing love, they begin to loosen its grip.And in Jesus, we see that same pattern brought to fullness. Where fear says, "Take," love says, "Give." Where fear says, "Save yourself," Jesus lays His life down. His is the love that casts out fear, not by force, but by faithful presence.ReflectionHere are some simple questions to reflect on this week, either on your own or with others:Where might fear be shaping the way I think or act?Do I ever see others' blessing as a threat to my own?Which of the women's responses in Exodus 2 resonates with your own story right now? Like the midwives, are you being called to quietly stand your ground against the serpents lies and choose what's right, even when it's costly?Like the mother, are you learning to release something precious and trust God with what you can't control?Like the sister, are you staying close and watching carefully, ready to step in when the moment comes?Like Pharaoh's daughter, are you in a position to use your influence to show compassion and protect the vulnerable?What would choosing love over fear look like in this season of life?You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
The Exodus Way Part 1: A God Who Rescues
Send Dean your question hereThe Exodus Way Part 1: A God Who RescuesIn this podcast we begin a new series of teaching around the book of Exodus. Exodus is not just the story of Israel escaping Egypt. It's the pattern the Bible keeps returning to as it explains who God is and who we are through the story of a people in bondage, held by a power that refuses to let go. In the darkness of that captivity, we are introduced to a God who hears the cries of His people and rescues them. God makes a way where no way seems possible.This is not just the story of a people held in captivity in Egypt, it's Jesus' story … and it's our story too.Whether you're feeling stuck, tested, or tired, Exodus shows us that God isn't just rescuing people from something. He's rescuing them for something. To form a people who know Him, walk with Him, and are changed by His presence.If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in! Prayer and Reflection: The Journey AheadAs we enter this Exodus series, let's ask God not just to show us the destination but to help us trust Him in the wilderness. Pray for hearts that are soft, lives that are teachable, and a church that longs not only for rescue, but for deeper formation. "Teach us your ways, O Lord, that we may walk in your truth." — Psalm 86:11You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Inhabiting the Gospel Part 4: Who the Bible Says We Are
Send Dean your question hereInhabiting the Gospel Part 4: Who the Bible Says We Are The Bible says we are God’s handiwork and thus a most wonderful creation. Sadly, too often, as we journey through our lives, we forget this and allow the world to define us – our friends, our family, our selves. The enemy delights in distracting us from becoming the person God wants us to be. This sermon seeks to make us think about this truth and how we should define ourselves in Christ.If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Inhabiting the Gospel Part 3: Guarding Your Heart
Send Dean your question hereInhabiting the Gospel Part 3 – Guarding Our HeartsIn this sermon, Dean looks at our hearts. Jesus said that it is not what goes into our mouth that defiles us, but what comes out. What we say, and what we do, all come from our hearts. If we truly want to inhabit the gospel and transform our walk with Jesus, we need to pay attention to our hearts.If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Inhabiting the Gospel Part 2: Making and Inhabiting Space
Send Dean your question hereInhabiting the Gospel Part 2: Making and Inhabiting SpaceWe continue to work through this series on how to not only live but inhabit the Gospel story. We know what Jesus did during His life, and we know the promise of what is to come but, in between, there is now. This is the space that we occupy.In this sermon, using the story of Elisha and the widow of Shunem (2 Kings 4 v. 8-37) Dean explores what happens when we make a space for God in our lives.If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Inhabiting the Gospel Part 1: Hearing the Gospel Afresh
Send Dean your question hereInhabiting the Gospel Part 1 – Hearing the Gospel AfreshIn this new series of sermons, we are challenged to look afresh at our relationship to the God who fashioned every detail of our lives and the world around us and who, recognising our inability to live in the way He intended us to, sent His Son to walk among us. He did all of this out of the abundance of his love for His creation.We know the story of the Gospel: that Jesus died for our sins and three days later, rose from the grave. His death and resurrection was witnessed by many and neither the Jewish or Roman authorities could, despite their deep interest in doing so, could refute this truth. Jesus said that all who believe in Him will be adopted into his kingdom and become coheirs. In John 14 v. 1-6 Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so I would not have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”And when his disciples expressed doubts that they knew the way, Jesus added, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.”ReflectionWe are not so unlike the Twelve disciples. We can sit in the presence of the Lord every minute of every day just as they sat in his presence. But how well do we know our Master’s voice? As we reflect on this fresh re-telling of the Gospel can we say that we have embraced its message in every aspect of our lives? The challenge Dean lays down to us today is not to just know the Gospel, but to step into the Gospel.This sermon was preached in January 2025.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Episode 8: Daniel's Epiphany!
Send Dean your question hereDaniel Part 8 – Daniel’s Epiphany!What, you might ask, has Daniel got to do with the Christmas story?In this epilogue to the Daniel series, Dean bridges the four-hundred-year void between Daniel, as he lived and followed God faithfully in Babylon, and the events of that night when Mary and Joseph trusted God in Bethlehem.Most people are familiar with the scene: Mary gives birth to Jesus in a stable because there was nowhere else she could stay in Bethlehem. We can probably name all of the key characters in that scene: we have Mary, Joseph and of course Jesus; there are normally a few animals; and then there are the visitors – the shepherds and the wise men.But who were the Wise Men – sometimes called ‘the Magi’? Why were they there? Where did they come from? The most exciting part of studying the Bible, is when connections across time and space are made and we are able to see how joined up God’s plans really are. This is one of those lovely moments.If you have any questions about the series and the teaching that we have received, please use the link to send it to Dean.The Daniel series was preached in the weeks up to Christmas in 2024.ReflectionAs we come to end of this series consider reading through the whole book again. It won’t take very long. Consider how Daniel lived as a captive in Babylon? He did not isolate himself from it, but there were things that he would not do too. Consider how he and his friends dealt with the difficulties that they faced. Reflect on the level of trust that they had in God. Do we really live in such a different situation? We live in a world that is filled with all sorts of gods and that has no time for God. Is Daniel speaking to you today?You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Daniel Part 7: Not Just Forgiven …
Send Dean your question hereDaniel Part 7 – Not Just Forgiven …In this teaching on the last two chapters of Daniel we are taken on a journey through History and shown how what was relevant to Daniel, was relevant to the people who lived around the time of Christ, and remains relevant to us as we live our lives today.Daniel had lived his life in Babylon. He had faced the challenge of living in a land that did not share his love for God and that often did all it could to destroy him for his faithfulness. Indeed, the whole book of Daniel shows us that the world we live in, is not so different to that which Daniel inhabited. He served a God that the world around him did not. Does that sound familiar? Have you ever considered that we too, live as captives within Babylon?In an impressive sweep through History Dean shows how the final chapters of Daniel apply again and again to the experience of humanity. Empires, regimes and tyrants continually rise but inevitably, no matter how strong they appear, fall too. The message that we are given through this teaching is that God has everything covered. He will restore His good world in every detail. Drawing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dean shows us that no matter how dark the times can appear, we are to remain strong and faithful, like Daniel, and keep going. In these times of darkness, we are to draw on ‘the light’ and remember that we are not just forgiven but, through Christ, are victorious. The final words of Daniel are there for all of us: “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.” (Daniel 12 v.13) God asks no more than we stand and remain faithful, because He has done everything already, when He died and rose again.ReflectionIt is easy to feel overwhelmed as we live our lives. Whether it is through being consumed by the daily drama of the doom-mongering within the news cycle or suffering within our personal lives. It is perhaps easy too, to live from day to day as one who is forgiven but not really very happy.In Psalm 23 we are encouraged to see God as our shepherd, and one who attends to our every need. He leads us to rich pastures and quiet waters to nourish us. And when it is time, he takes us to new places. As we journey, times can become dark and scary, yet, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and staff.” Imagine you are walking though a valley. One side is sunny with warmth and buzzing insects, and the other, colder because it is in the shadow of a peak. You hear a noise. It worries you, so you hide behind a boulder – and in so doing become detached from your guide and find yourself alone and cold. But the encouragement of this psalm is to stay close to Jesus even when there is darkness and cold, for He is with us, His rod and staff, all that is necessary for a shepherd to deal with the dangers of the wilderness, they comfort us. The psalm goes on to show how Jesus anoints us in the presence of our enemies and lays out a banquet for us. Read this powerful psalm slowly, pray that God will enable you to inhabit it and speak to you in your situation through it. May it warm your day and your life.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Daniel Part 6: You Are Precious to Me.
Send Dean your question hereDaniel Part 6: You are Precious to MeAs we move through the Book of Daniel, we find ourselves in Chapters 8-12. Daniel is an old man. We know he has been faithful to God throughout his life because we have listened to his story. And for this faithfulness, he is told that he is greatly esteemed by God. He has been exiled into a foreign land; his name has been changed to reflect the gods of Babylon; he has been forced to grow up and serve the rulers of Babylon throughout his long life, but he has never once forsaken his God.In these chapters, Daniel has a series of very ‘Revelation’ style dreams and visions. He sees strange beasts doing extraordinary things and he is overwhelmed. But within the complexity and dread that defines his meeting with God through this experience, Daniel is greatly affirmed and reassured as he meets the Jesus we see in the transfiguration and in the annals of the Book of Revelation. At the core of this message today, is God’s expression of deep love for Daniel: you are precious to me. God is working in our lives as He was in Daniel’s. And He is doing so much more that we can see. Ultimately, our job is to be like Daniel: stay faithful and, in Christ, stay strong … oh, and in answer to the big question of these chapters regarding how long it will be before God restores his good world … “In a little while.”ReflectionAs you reflect on this message, consider Daniel’s faithfulness. Consider how challenging it would have been to live in Babylon, a civilization that embodied practices and values that were so opposed to the God of Israel. Is that so different to your own life as a Christian in a world that embodies those same values? If you have any questions as you think about this sermon, why not put it to Dean through the link available? You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.
Daniel Part 5 - Faith in a Den of Lions
Send Dean your question hereDaniel Part 5 – Faith in a Den of Lions.Today we look at one of the best-known stories in the Bible. Darius is the new emperor, and he is encouraged by his advisors to issue a decree that no-one could pray to any god other than to the king, for a month. The decree demands a response from everyone in the empire; it demands a response from Daniel.The manoeuvres behind the decree demand greater scrutiny before Daniel’s response is understood because it was brought about by those who wanted to bring Daniel down. They had tried to find ways to discredit and destroy him, but he was just good. He was honest, diligent and trustworthy, and for these reasons had been elevated, within Darius’ empire, to a position of great responsibility. The only thing that Daniel’s enemies could attack him with was his faith and commitment to his God. Daniel had a choice:He could comply with the decreeHe could carry on praying to God in secretHe could carry on praying to God morning, noon and night, as was his customEvery day, wherever we are and whatever we do, we face the same challenges. The Bible says that if we are faithful then we will be persecuted for our commitment. We will be denounced and accused, just like Daniel, and our instinct may be to panic or to try and justify ourselves. That’s not what Daniel did. He found himself in a deeply unjust situation, but what he did was what he always did. He trusted God. The secret to Daniel’s faith and steadfastness was not prayer at a time of crisis, it was a commitment to prayer and a devotion to developing an intimacy with the God he trusted, every day of his life. In the moment of crisis, he could stand, because he could trust that God would vindicate him.You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at Leominster Baptist Church - YouTube and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Contact Us link at the top of the episode description text.Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.