Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 <laugh> Well this morning I get the absolute privilege of finishing off the discipleship series. Anybody remember that? We started end of April and um, it's been recorded. So it's great because there, there are obviously no people are away and it's, we can catch up on it. So if you need to catch up and tell people to catch up, please do because I feel we're in for a significant morning. Praise <laugh>. We're in for a significant morning. I believe God wants to do something here this morning to seal things with us as a church. Um, and I'll explain about that later. But what I wanna do, I want us to pray. We just bow your heads this morning. We're gonna pray together.
Speaker 1 00:00:47 Yeah. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for you, for your presence, for your loving hand upon us, for thank you that you cherish us this morning. Yes, thank you that we are the apple of your eye this morning. Yes, thank you for the good things that you have in store for our lives. Jesus, thank you for your word that you wanna bring to our hearts today. Thanks God. And Father, we just thank you for this time. And Lord we welcome you by your Holy Spirit this morning. And we, we, we almost open up our hearts and our ears Lord, because we wanna hear what your spirit is saying today. So Lord, as we open up your word over the next couple of moments and minutes, come and speak to each life, each heart, those who are here in the room, those who will listen online later.
Speaker 1 00:01:50 And Lord, I pray my prayer is this morning that you will change us, continue to change us more and more into the lightness of Christ in our lives as we follow you and as we yield and as we surrender to you in our daily lives. So Father, come by your spirit this morning. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So if I sound a bit nasally this morning, I've been bit wiped out all week, haven't I? Phil? But we won't go into that. Um, but thank you for those who prayed this morning. So, so I get to finish up the discipleship series. As you know, over the last kind of three months, we started off the journey in Acts where Peter, he is empowered by the Holy Spirit. However, us know it's a good thing to be empowered by the Holy Spirit as we become witnesses in our workplaces, in our streets, in our schools, wherever we are found that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, um, to be be witnesses 'cause that is the change the Holy Spirit brings the change and the power and the boldness.
Speaker 1 00:03:06 And Peter is empowered by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And he tells the people all about Jesus, this wonderful Jesus, the Messiah and Savior of the world whom you crucified <laugh>, who you nailed to the cross. And he is telling the crowds this. And the crowds respond by saying, okay, we have now heard this message of the gospel. What must we do? And our prayer. And as we started this series, we said, okay Lord, we would love to present the gospel so well in Newton Abbott to our neighbors, in our streets, in our workplaces, that people turn round to us and they say, I've seen good news in you. What now must I do? Amen. What is the response? What can I do in my life? We were with a couple just on the weekend and this, this person was talking to us and she said, I prayed with this person just in a shop this week.
Speaker 1 00:04:16 And he said to me, the reason why it led to me praying for them is because he said to me, there is, I look at you and I can see something about your countenance. There is something about your eyes. There is something in you that's drawing me to you. And this man was completely, he is completely lost. He completely needs Jesus. But it was something on this woman, the Holy Spirit on this woman. And that's all it took. That's all it needed was this lady going out in the power of the Holy Spirit and this man going, will you pray? And there she's praying for this man pr well can I say it's a liquor store? In a liquor store, a museum, liquor store? We'll put it that way. Just incredible. And so the people said, what must we do to be saved? And Peter replies and he says, and let me tell you what, what he replies is the same for today.
Speaker 1 00:05:14 'cause the gospel doesn't change. He says, I need you to repent. The gospel says Repent, turn away from your old life and follow him. Repent of all you've done. Don't stay where you have been. Go into a new life. So repent. And then Peter says, put your faith in Jesus Christ. Don't put your faith in me. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. I'm just the signpost, we're just the witnesses. You know that don't you? We are like the John that we are witnesses, we are pointing to Jesus. And so Peter says, put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And then he says, be baptized into the name of Jesus. We've got more baptisms coming at the end of August and we're going to the beach this time. Isn't that amazing? And he said, and you'll receive the promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you, that has not changed. People today still need to repent, still need to put their faith in Jesus Christ. Still need to be baptized into the name of Jesus and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I want to finish the discipleship series today looking at spiritually advancing in our walk with the Lord. Come on.
Speaker 1 00:06:40 I wanna talk about this one thing, and I think I need to raise it today on backsliding. Somebody once said that backsliding is the cancer of Christianity. And I want to go into this this morning about how we keep our spiritual passion alive. How do we stay in these days? I think it's so important in these days with all the distractions, with all the voices, with everything we have. How do we stay passionate? There are people in this room today that 50 years on their prayer lives are still on fire. They are still out there witnessing. And we honor them today for being incredible examples in the faith of Jesus Christ before the Lord returns. Who would like the Lord to come in our lifetime before the Lord returns, scripture tells us, and I'm, I'm gonna take us off a little bit, but I wanna bring us back in a moment. Scripture tells us all right that the wicked and the righteous are side by side in the world. Okay? So you can go to Matthew 13, the parable. Jesus told the parable, I haven't got time this morning, but the parable of the wheat and the tears, okay, the wheat and the weeds,
Speaker 1 00:08:13 Scripture tells us that the wicked, those who are wicked and those who are righteous, we're going to be side by side in the world. Do you find it hard as a disciple of Jesus <laugh>? It's 'cause there's some weeds growing next to us. Some of those weeds we'd love to cross over and believe we're gonna see. But there are weeds and there is the righteous. In other words, the darkness is getting darker. But if you know the word of God, the light is getting lighter. And praise God this morning, because we know the end result, we know the end. We know the end result in revelation. Will you turn with me to Revelation 22, right at the end for some of you're new Christians, right at the end of scripture, the book of Revelation, and I think actually it's the last chapter. Yes it is Revelation 22 and verse 10, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll because the time is near. Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong. Let the vile person continue to be vile. Let the one who does right continue to do right. Let the holy person continue to be holy. In other words, there is this increasing amount of wickedness that is going to come upon the face of the earth. And we see it. We see it being played out.
Speaker 1 00:10:04 But it's as if scripture's saying, well, if you're going to be vile and if you are going to be wicked, continue get on and do it. If you are going to be righteous, if you are going to pursue holiness, you better do it also. Because right after that Jesus says, look, I'm coming soon. Look, I am coming soon. So get this picture of where the darkness is growing up in the world. The light is growing up in the world. There is an increasing amount of darkness. There is an increasing amount of lightness. Can you get the picture this morning of what is taking place on the earth? There is this movement. And this'll come back to what I wanna talk about, about being a discipleship in a mo, about being a disciple. In a moment there is this advancement of darkness and light. Turn to Proverbs four, flick over to Proverbs four in the Old Testament. 'cause there is a movement church, I want you to think about Mo there. There's a movement happening. I was talking to Lawson at the beginning of the service and there are incredible things. Movements of the spirits ha of the spirit happening all over the world in America. Just the other week, over 4,000 people got baptized.
Speaker 3 00:11:38 Amazing.
Speaker 1 00:11:39 Were just queuing up, getting baptized. Lady healed of cancer in Wales. Was it last night or something? Reports of things happening. There is movement. Proverbs four, verse 18. It says, the path of the righteous is like the morning sun shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. The path of the righteous is like the morning sun. You know when you get up in the morning and you go outside and the sun is there, but by the time you get to lunchtime or some point in the afternoon, the sun is shining bright, it's powerful. There is that advancement from the morning, that heat from the morning increasing, increasing, increasing. Or it should
Speaker 3 00:12:41 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:12:42 Naturally speaking. <laugh>, it's July. Lord, we need some sun. It is Devon, we need some sun. But there is this, there is this sense of the sun, the righteous, like the sun in the morning. It is heating up and up and up this morning. Are our lives shining? Come on. Brighter. Yeah. Brighter, brighter, brighter. Is that where we are going as disciples? Because in the in the next bit it says, but the way of the wicked is deep darkness. This must absolutely break the heart of God. Do we realize how deep the darkness is on the face of the earth? It says the wicked. They do not know what makes them stumble. Quick go over quickly to two Corinthians, two Corinthians three 18 and then I'll, I'll bring all this together. Two Corinthians three 18. In fact, we'll just go back a verse to 17. It says, now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now get this. And we all
Speaker 1 00:14:23 Who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord. Who is the spirit. What a beautiful picture of greater glory. Again, this increasing, advancing into something more that the Holy Spirit has unveiled for his church. Okay? And there is this sense I want to get this morning. There is a sense of movement, of increasing, of advancing, of making room. I'll talk about that in a moment in our daily lives for our light as Christians to shine ever brighter in these days. But the challenge is, and this is the challenge, so many of us in the church today, we are either asleep and we need to wake up.
Speaker 1 00:15:30 And I think as cri, as disciples of Jesus, we are, we have, we've, we've got two options really. We either advance forward in our walk with the Lord and I don't actually think standing still is an option. I actually think the minute you start standing still and you don't start and you don't move forward, you are actually moving backwards. If we're not moving forward spiritually, we're moving backwards. Paul, constantly in his letters, in the epistles, he would talk about there's a goal. What's your goal this morning? What's your goal? Is it him? Paul would talk about, I'm running, I'm advancing, I want to pursue him. I want to know him more and more. I wanna grow and go. There was this constant theme with Paul with his eyes on the prize while he was on the earth, this advancing spiritually. And the Bible talks a lot about falling away.
Speaker 1 00:16:50 The Bible actually doesn't use the term back sliding as such. And I guess we have, when we think of the word backsliding, we maybe think of somebody who no longer comes to the church anymore, somebody who has maybe, you know, left the faith, gone away completely, doesn't talk about the things of God anymore, living their own way. But actually this morning I wanna talk about backslide. I what scripture I think is meaning when it talks about a falling away is people who do love God do believe that Jesus died on a cross to forgive them of their sins, but they are standing still or really not advancing spiritually.
Speaker 1 00:17:40 This is really for another day. But I wanna suggest if people give their lives to Christ in a meeting like this, and then two months later they're neither walking the Lord, I would really suggest whether that person accepted Jesus Christ in faith to begin with. But a fall in a way is a really sad state for a believer because it means that we are not growing or going anywhere. And I think it's one of the saddest states of all, how many of us have been in that state? I have too many times to, I wanna remember, you see, we should be growing in our love for Christ. Areas that were really difficult areas last year and they were struggles last year, should be victories this year. If we're advancing
Speaker 1 00:18:48 Things that we just couldn't, we were, we were trying to get over. If we are growing in the things of God, if we are spiritually moving forward, if we are hungry for the Lord, 12 months later is gonna look very different for us. We're gonna be helping others who experienced the same things as we did. Why? Because if we're advancing spiritually, we are able to take hold of the sword, of the spirit. We apply it, we actually take God at his word and we overcome. And that's part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Am I provoking a little bit this morning?
Speaker 1 00:19:43 Is there a new level of purity and holiness this year than there was last year? Is there a new level of generosity this year than there was last year? The early church sold their possessions. Some people were saying, I don't need this second house. I'm gonna give it away. I don't need this field. Sold it and just laid all the money at the apostle's feet. That's radical discipleship. Completely, completely generous. Every year, Phil and I, we get to, well, we ask ourselves often. We say, are we looking more like Christ this year than we did last year? At the end of the year, we always say, how have we grown this year? Are we growing?
Speaker 1 00:20:37 As I said before, I've been in too many too many times and too many seasons in my own life where I have been so stale in my Christian walk. Here were some of my symptoms, loss of enthusiasm for the church and for people. Oh, I was sat in the seats and I was nodding and agreeing with everything the preacher said. Yeah, Monday morning I was not praying, I was not seeking the Lord. There was no hunger, a loss of enthusiasm. There was no spiritual appetite to pray and seek God's face. I stopped listening and relying to God's word and relying on him and started listening to what others were saying. Dare I say it? Listen to some hot celebrity trying to give out some wisdom in a magazine or something.
Speaker 1 00:21:41 I was full of the world worldly full, I put it. But here's the point. I lost my joy. See, staleness stale. My, my staleness led to my joylessness. And I never wanna go back there. Never. I never wanna go back there. Was I still going to church? Yep. Did I still that still believe that Jesus Christ died for me on a cross for the forgiveness of my sins? Yeah. Did I do things for God and turn up? Yeah. With my boots blacked <laugh>, but I was not moving forward. You see, we can do things for others. We can do things for God.
Speaker 1 00:22:43 We can do things for our families and for our friends. We can do things for the comfort of our own lives. And those things are okay. Yeah, those things are okay. We need to look after ourselves and others, all that kinda stuff. Alright? But none of those things in themselves will satisfy us. The point is that lasting joy can only be found in him. Lasting joy is only found in Jesus and on the surface. And here's the, here's the point I really wanna make this morning. On the surface we can look like as Christians, that there is some kind of movement happening in our lives. Have you ever been there? You can almost deceive yourself into thinking that you are a really good Christian because you're turning up to serve. You're doing things for others. It is almost a, an illusion of movement in our spiritual lives, when really what we're doing is we're moving back. We're not really going anywhere. Our joy must be in Jesus every single time. Um, revelation three talks about the church there having this appearance of being alive, but they were dead as disciples and followers of Jesus this morning.
Speaker 1 00:24:18 I don't wanna be like that, do you? You have this appearance, this show of, of being alive when there's actually very, very little growth happening in our lives. I'm convinced the spiritual progress starts with having joy in Jesus daily. And you wake up in the morning, there's a whole lot of things to do. If you've got a whole lot of things in your head. If you're a woman, wow, there's 1,000,001 things going on that you need to do. But I believe being the best disciple and follower, and that's what this series is about, is about getting up every day and saying, Lord, there are all these things that need doing. It's the Mary Martha attention, isn't it? And not just for women, but men as well in business. Wherever I want today, first and foremost to find my joy in you. Let my Tim Keller says this, anyone find God useful, but growing Christians find God beautiful.
Speaker 3 00:25:33 Wow. Come on.
Speaker 1 00:25:36 Anyone can find God useful, but growing Christians find God beautiful. Come
Speaker 3 00:25:44 On.
Speaker 1 00:25:46 Growing Christians will beautify who Jesus is in their everyday life. That's good. I didn't wanna stand up here this morning. Just say, if you wanna be a good disciple, read your Bible every day. Go and pray every day. And and I will address that in a moment. But forgetting that at the moment our joy is in him. Come on. Is our joy in Jesus this morning?
Speaker 1 00:26:18 Psalm 51, David was in a really rough place in his life. King David and the rest of his. Now David was a man of war. He went to war all the time. But on one occasion, David didn't go to war. He wasn't really where he should have been. He stayed at home, I guess in the comfort of the palace. And while everybody was at war doing what they were doing, David stayed at home. And we know the story, if you know your Bibles, he saw Bathsheba, a married woman, and he took Bathsheba to be his own. He committed adultery. And then he went further and killed Bathsheba's husband, committed murder to cover his tracks.
Speaker 1 00:27:04 And David, in Psalm 51, I think it is 51, yeah, verse 12, he asked this of the Lord in his broken state, after he had almost taken what he thought would satisfy him, realizing it didn't satisfy, he comes before the Lord. And he says this, restore to me the joy of your salvation. I believe in the church today, what we need is a restoration of the joy of the Lord in our lives. I'm just gonna stop it for a moment. And if that's you this morning, I just really, I just really feel to pray right now, if you are here in this place, I've been praying over the last, I think two months since Easter. One of my, one of my big prayers for this season for me is Lord, restore to me the joy of your salvation. Because I've walked with the Lord for many, many years and I'm like, Lord, I don't want to be stale. I don't want to just turn up and do the motions and do the things that you know I have to do, and we have to do things we have to do. It's part of life.
Speaker 1 00:28:23 But I wanna pray this morning. If that's you this morning, you're gonna, you want to join with me in that prayer? Say, Lord, I need, will you restore? Will you put back in me the joy of your salvation? Maybe just stand this morning. Or if you don't wanna just raise your hand and I wanna pray with you. If that's you, just stand up quickly. I'm gonna pray over you. Whoever you are in this place this morning, it's a serious prayer. Doesn't mean you're stale, it doesn't mean you're there. It just means, Lord, here, I I need that again in my life.
Speaker 1 00:28:55 So we're just gonna pray a simple prayer this morning. Lord. We're gonna pray. What David prayed when he realized that nothing, nothing satisfies like the presence of Jesus, he said, restore to me the joy of your salvation. We're asking Lord this morning that you would restore the joy of your salvation in this place in our lives, Lord, today and for tomorrow and for the rest of our lives. Or come and restore that joy to us Lord, that joy, Lord, of knowing that you have delivered us, Lord, that joy, knowing that you have redeemed us, that you have bought us with the precious blood of Jesus Lord, that joy, Lord, that says, you have helped me, you have saved me, you have kept me all these years that joy over my life, Lord, that says, I am your son. I am your daughter. That joy that says, you have preserved me, that joy that says, Lord, it's your salvation.
Speaker 1 00:30:07 It's all in your salvation, Lord, that I'm free, that I have peace, that I'm able to get up tomorrow, Lord, with a song in my heart, with a skip in my step, with a lightness in my spirit, Lord, because my joy is found in nothing else. No one else but Jesus and Jesus alone. Amen. Amen. Take your seats, restore to me the joy of your salvation. You know, in the 16 hundreds in Westminster, Westminster, a paper papers of doctrine were written and they were debating about what is the chief end of man. And they came to this conclusion, conclusion that the chief end of man was to glorify him and to enjoy him forever. Incredible. Yeah. In the six, in 1640, something to enjoy him forever, to glorify him and enjoy him forever. And finally this morning, God wants a growing church, not a stale church.
Speaker 1 00:31:25 We are sensing in this new season, we've got summer now, but we are sensing in autumn, we're already thinking ahead as a team about autumn. We're thinking about what God wants to do amongst us. And we believe it is, it is a get ready call, a season of advancing in our spiritual lives. And we're gonna start September, we'll talk about it in a couple of weeks of a week of prayer together as a church. But we are sensing this stretch that's going to happen, not just a stretch into the community. And we, we love our community, but a stretch spiritually for our lives. Who would like to be stretched spiritually? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:32:16 Stretch us spiritually. And last week somebody spoke Isaiah 54 over us as a church over, over Phil and I for the church. And you know, we've, we've heard Isaiah 54, haven't we? A lot. And Isaiah 54 is enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not hold back. And when that person spoke that to us, it was almost like, I thought that is a word in season, but how is it a word in season? It so resonated with us, the timing of that. And all this week I've been saying, Lord, what does that mean for us as a church? And it was simply this, that the Lord is saying, there's a stretch coming for the church. There is a, there's a no holding back. There's, there's, there's gonna be a time where we're gonna climb, climb and stretch and move forward in the things of God, us as individuals, us as a church, and for our families and our children. It's going to cost us some time in our personal lives. It may challenge us to give up a few things that aren't really going anywhere in our lives. Some distractions, maybe, maybe some hobbies. Now, I'm not saying get rid of hobbies, but maybe there's some hobbies that are taking up too much time.
Speaker 1 00:33:43 And it's a season of making room for what God wants to do in our lives. And large, stretch wide. Do not hold back over the summer. We've, we've sent an email out this week, about 30 days. Everybody had the email about thir, sorry, not 30 minutes. And it's every day starting this Monday of getting the word of God and reading scripture for 30 minutes. Just put a timer on, get away from iPhones, get away from TV screens. Get away from every, if you have to do it at midnight when the kids, teenagers are asleep, <laugh> or however you wanna do it. But we're gonna read for 30 minutes and the invitation has gone out. You don't have to do it. There is absolutely no pressure. But there is something unifying and strengthening about doing the same thing as a church together.
Speaker 1 00:34:50 And so from Mon, this Monday to a Monday in August, if you didn't get the email, come and see me. But we are going to read scripture in our homes, in our private times for 30 minutes and start reading it together. And then we've set up a WhatsApp group. I don't like WhatsApp at all. You know, when somebody adds you to a group, it's like, oh no, another group who, who absolutely loves WhatsApp. Let's see who the social people are. Let on raise 'em high. Yeah. Yeah. My husband loves WhatsApp. I can't stand WhatsApp. Um, but we've set up this WhatsApp and on the Monday that it finishes, I will be deleting that WhatsApp group <laugh>. It will be gone. Alright? But it's, it's a place, it's a form, it's a platform for us to talk about the things of God. Let's talk about the things of God again.
Speaker 1 00:35:42 Let's talk about, you know, we can only talk about the things of God if we are engaged in the things of God. If we're not engaged in the things of God, we won't talk about the things of God on Wednesdays, our team, we fast, some of us fast, two meals or whatever. Maybe join us on a Wednesday. Come and fast with us at wherever you are. If we're not hungry for God, we won't fast. If we're hungry for him. That's why we do it. We're hungry for him. We put aside eating food. So we're gonna read about the Lord. We're gonna take in his word. We're gonna talk about him in our daily lives on WhatsApp. <laugh>, it's not gonna be easy, but what will our response be? Church, you know, we are six months into planting this church.
Speaker 1 00:36:33 I believe God wants us to be a growing church. A church that is ready for all that he wants to say and do in our time. This is not about us manufacturing things. This is not about us try to whip something up. This is saying, Lord, we want you to be the prize of our lives. Yeah. We want you to be the focus. Will we get up tomorrow and say, Lord, out of all the things I need to do and think about, I want you first and foremost to be the joy in my life. Be the joy, be my focus. We just bury your heads this morning. Father, we thank you that 2000 years ago you sent Jesus the living word to walk amongst us to become one of us. We thank you Father, for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 00:38:11 We thank you, God, that you so love the world, that you gifted us with Jesus, and you gifted us with your presence and your Holy Spirit. And Father, we thank you for the testimony of the early church. We thank you Lord for those early apostles. And we thank you Lord, for the, the treasure of, of the teachings that we have in the, in the scriptures. Lord of the faithfulness of your people through the years, those who who were persecuted for the faith, those who died as martyrs for the faith, those who really put their lives on the line every single day, not knowing if they would live or die because they completely and fully believed in who you were.
Speaker 1 00:39:09 Father, we thank you for those who, who led house churches. We thank you for those who, who went on Lord to do incredible exploits for you. And Father, I thank you that over 2000 years, Lord, your church is still growing. Strong people are still coming to a saving knowledge of who Jesus Christ is. I thank you, father, that while our discipleship series may have finished, Lord, we have not stopped being disciples of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we just, we thank you Father for this message, for the hope that we have in Christ this morning. And Lord, we thank you for what has been. But Lord we say in our lives this morning, Lord, there are pages to be written in our own lives. There is a story to be told, Lord, in this generation, there are things to be done for your kingdom, Lord, here and now.
Speaker 1 00:40:21 And I pray, Lord, that over us as a congregation here in Newton now, but the Lord, over these summer months, we would not find ourselves Lord, just, just relaxing spiritually. We might be relaxing physically, but Lord, we would not be relaxing or slowing down spiritually Lord. But Lord, we would be shining ever brighter the Lord. We would take that path of the righteous every single day, Lord, and focus on you, the Lord we would set before us Lord. Um, time to seek your face, to dig deep into your word, Lord, as, as those who are committing to do 30 minutes a day reading your word. Lord, I pray, father, that you would meet with us, that you would speak with us through your spirit, that you would pour Lord, you'd, you'd pour out your Holy Spirit afresh on us as we sit and as we dive into your word, your living word. Lord, father, I pray, Lord, that you'd make us bold in our witness over summer, that when we're here and we're going out and about, Lord, that we would, would come back together and, and just, uh, testify to all the things that you are doing in and through our lives.
Speaker 1 00:41:41 So, Lord, if you need to stretch us, stretch us. We wanna become more like Christ in these days. Start something in us today, Lord, restore the joy of your salvation. Come on and give us strength each day, Lord, to seek you. Because we need your strength. We need your strength. We need your mercy, and we need your grace. So keep us, Lord, over the summertime, we pray in your name. Let your word just come and challenge us, or let your word just come even in this week. Just keep speaking to us Lord, and lead us ever closer to you. In Jesus' name. Thanks Phil. Amen. Amen.
