What if the people we’ve been taught to avoid are the very people Jesus is asking us to see differently?

In The One and Only, we revisit the story of the Good Samaritan — not simply as a lesson in kindness, but as a challenge to the assumptions, fears and inherited narratives that shape how we see other people.

The tension between Jews and Samaritans ran deep. History, religion, culture and prejudice had created generations of distance between them. So when Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of the story, He is doing far more than teaching people to help someone in need. He is confronting the labels they had learned to trust.

The priest and Levite had reasons for passing by. Their concerns about ritual purity were rooted in real religious expectations. But Jesus exposes what can happen when our fear of getting something wrong becomes more important than the person lying in front of us.

And that challenge reaches far beyond one ancient road.

What assumptions have we inherited about people who are different from us? What stories have we been told about race, faith, sexuality, age, culture or background that prevent us from seeing someone as our neighbour? Jesus invites us to break those narratives rather than remain gridlocked by them.

But there is another layer to the story.

Jesus is not only telling us to become good Samaritans. He is our ultimate Good Samaritan — the One who came towards us, made Himself vulnerable, gave everything He had and paid the cost so that we could live.

The question is whether He will remain the one and only.

Or whether we will follow His example.

Who is my neighbour? Who have I learned to avoid? And what would it look like to love them like Jesus does?

What if the most important question isn’t “What should I do for God?” but “Am I staying connected to Him?”

In this episode of The Script Pod, with Laszlo Liebhardt, we return to Jesus’ words in John 15: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The Christian life doesn’t begin with activity, strategy or performance — it begins with abiding: staying close to Jesus, remaining in His presence and allowing His life to flow through ours.

A branch doesn’t have to strain to manufacture fruit. Its responsibility is to remain connected to the vine. In the same way, we can organise, plan, preach and serve — but lasting spiritual fruit is something only God can produce.

And abiding doesn’t mean doing nothing. Genuine connection with Christ eventually becomes action: prayer becomes service, compassion becomes involvement, conviction becomes obedience and love becomes mission.

It also reminds us that none of us is the whole vine. We are branches — different gifts, personalities, cultures and generations, all drawing life from the same Christ and therefore connected to one another.

So perhaps the prayer isn’t simply, “Lord, use me.”

It’s:

“Lord, before You work through me, work within me.”

Because when we remain in Him, fruit will come — perhaps not immediately, and perhaps not in the form we expected, but a life continually connected to Christ will never be fruitless.

What if the shame you’ve been carrying was never yours to keep?

In this episode of The Script Pod, Pastor Matthew Herel explores the story of the woman who enters Simon the Pharisee’s house carrying a reputation everyone seems to know — and encounters a Jesus who knows exactly who she is, yet refuses to push her away.

She comes asking for nothing. She simply wants to honour Him. But in His acceptance, she receives something she may not have expected: freedom from shame.

While Simon sees her past and thinks her shame should keep its distance, Jesus does the opposite. He allows it to come close. He takes it upon Himself. And in doing so, He reveals something at the heart of the gospel: Jesus did not come to make us better at hiding our shame. He came to take it from us.

From the fig leaves of Eden to the foot of the cross, Scripture tells the same story — our own coverings will never be enough. Only God can provide the covering we truly need, and that covering comes at a cost to Him, not to us.

Your past may still shape how people see you. Your reputation may still follow you into certain rooms.

But from heaven’s perspective, your shame has already been taken away.

Jesus took it.

Shame on you? No. Shame on Me.

Sometimes the rain has already come — the grass just hasn’t caught up yet.

In this special two-part episode of The Script Pod, we mark the beginning of a new season with Shift: Acts Church’s seasonal programme exploring what creation can teach us about transition.

First, Destiny Malcolm-Anti takes us into autumn: the changing colours, migrating birds, falling leaves and the rhythms of a season that invites us to notice, prepare and let go. Because transition is happening all around us and often within us too.

Then Pastor Matthew Herel shares The Grass Is Greener, reflecting on the tension between the “already” and the “not yet.” Christ has already won the victory, yet there are still moments when our circumstances don’t seem to reflect it. Like rain falling on dry ground, change can be happening beneath the surface long before we can see the evidence above it.

You may still feel the dryness. You may still be waiting for something to shift. But that doesn’t mean nothing is happening.

The rain has already come. The roots already know. The grass is catching up.

A storm doesn’t create weakness. It reveals the foundation that was already there.

In this episode of The Script Pod, Chris Gungaloo takes us on an unexpected journey from the 2008 financial crash to Jesus’ warning about building on rock or sand — and the story of Judas, a disciple whose life looked spiritually secure on the surface while something very different was happening underneath.

Judas walked with Jesus. He preached. He witnessed miracles. He was even given authority alongside the other disciples — yet proximity to Jesus did not automatically produce transformation. Eventually, what had been hidden in his heart was exposed.

So what are your spiritual fundamentals?

This message challenges us to audit the foundations we're building our lives on through four things: fearing the Lord, repentance, obedience and learning to enjoy God. Not simply looking like we're following Jesus, but allowing Him to examine what's underneath, remove the sand we've mistaken for rock, and rebuild us from the inside out.

Because Jesus doesn't just want to be part of the portfolio.

He wants to be the rock everything else is built on.

The Script Pod is the message podcast from Acts Church, exploring the Word and how we can live richer, fuller lives and become the people God wants us to be.

What if God's greatest work in your life comes through the very thing you're asking Him to remove?

In this episode of The Script Pod, we wrestle with one of the hardest realities of faith: trusting God's methods when we don't understand them.

Drawing from the story of Lazarus, alongside some of Scripture's most extraordinary accounts, we explore the tension between what God wants and how He chooses to accomplish it. Because while God's will for humanity is clear—salvation, restoration, and eternal life—the path He takes to get us there is often anything but predictable.

Why did Jesus heal some instantly but allow Lazarus to die? Why did God part the Red Sea instead of providing boats? Why did Daniel have to enter the lions' den before experiencing deliverance?

Again and again, Scripture reveals a God who is willing to accomplish His purposes in ways we would never choose for ourselves.

This message is a reminder that God's delays are not always denials, His silence is not abandonment, and His methods are not measured by our comfort. Sometimes He permits what we hate for a season in order to accomplish what He loves for eternity.

The question is not whether we want God's promises.

The question is whether we trust Him with the process.

Because faith is not only praising God when the miracle arrives—it's holding on to Him while the tomb is still closed.

Friend of Acts Jonathan Holder joins us in this episode of The Script Pod, as we step into one of Jesus’ most challenging parables: the story of a servant forgiven an impossible debt who then refuses to show mercy to someone who owes him far less.

Told from the servant’s perspective, this message forces us to wrestle with an uncomfortable question:

What do we do with the mercy we've received?

It's easy to celebrate grace when it's extended to us. It's much harder to pass that same grace on to people who have hurt us, disappointed us, or genuinely owe us something.

But Jesus' point is clear: forgiveness isn't meant to stop with us.

The servant's downfall wasn't that he wanted justice. It was that he forgot the mercy he had just received. Having been forgiven an unpayable debt, he couldn't find it in himself to forgive a much smaller one.

This episode explores mercy, entitlement, forgiveness, and the danger of receiving God's grace without reflecting it to others.

Because in the Kingdom of God, the standard is simple:

The same energy you want from God is the energy you must be willing to give to others.

You can’t leverage God. But you can offer Him a sacrifice.

In this episode of The Script Pod, we explore the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 — a woman carrying deep pain, enduring relentless provocation, and desperately needing something that only God could provide.

When Hannah comes before God, she doesn't bargain, negotiate, or try to put Him in her debt. Instead, she offers something far more powerful: a sacrifice.

This message explores the difference between leverage and sacrifice. Leverage tries to keep control in our hands. Sacrifice places something valuable into God's hands and trusts Him with the outcome.

Through Hannah's story, we're reminded that the things that move the Father's heart aren't the things He already owns — but the things we willingly surrender. Whether it's our time, our strength, our resources, our comfort, or our plans, sacrifice is choosing to have less of something meaningful to us in order to honour God.

And that's exactly what God Himself did through Jesus.

Because when we move the Father's heart, He is willing to move His hand.

You may want a son. God may be preparing a kingmaker.