Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 This morning I was reading as part of a Bible a year, a beautiful song, and it's a psalm that Nina and I were singing as we were driving along in the car yesterday, Psalm 63. And I'm gonna invite you, if you've got a Bible, you might want to turn to Psalm 63 with me. But the words will also appear on the screen. I read it from the CSB version, and it's the first, I think it's the eight verses that I'm gonna read. And it says this, God, you are my God. I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. Water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life. So I will bless you as long as I live at your name, I will lift up my hands. Amen. You satisfy me. As with rich food, my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. When I think of you as I lie on my bed, I meditate on you during the night watches because you are my helper. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.
Speaker 1 00:01:49 I've never experienced the first in my life that is so significant that I feel absolutely parched. I've had moments where I think, oh, I could really do with a drink. Anybody have those moments? You know, living in Britain, um, the fix for everything is a cup of tea, isn't it? You know, I'm not a cup of tea for half an hour now. I'm thirsted. A few last year, Niro and I and a group of people went to Israel. And when we were there, the climate is obviously a little different to what it is in the uk. And our le one of the guys that was um, traveling accompanied us. He was encouraging us to say that you probably won't feel thirsty, but your body will dehydrate unless you drink regularly. So I'm going to be telling you on regular occasions, okay, everybody drink. And so we all had our bottles of water with us.
Speaker 1 00:02:48 And regularly he would say, okay, everybody drink. And everybody would reach into their bags and they'd pull out their water and they'd have a glug of water and they'd put their, put it back. That came because he knew, I don't know if it's from experience where he's had people pass out before on his tours, but he knew that the body doesn't always tell us what we need. And so he was fulfilling that job. And it was just like lemons really almost reaching our bags. We drink the water and we would just carry on regularly. In fact, when we got back home, we said, who's gonna tell us to drink now? <laugh>, how are we gonna remember to drink water?
Speaker 1 00:03:33 But here in this story, David is in the wilderness. Walter was not just something he forgot to drink. It was something that was very difficult to get hold of. Amen. And yet, in the picture of that desperation, he begins to say, there's something even more desperate that, that I need than water. I've always believed, I don't know if it's my wesh ringing, but I've always believed that there are times in history when God turns up among his people and among communities in a way where he begins to bring his good things for people to experience in a way that's beyond anything they've ever known before. That's fairly consistent with our lives. If he turned up on our front door and he said, I'm really hungry, and say, come in, I'll make you some beans on Toast <laugh>. But if we knew you were coming, we'd prepare something maybe a little bit more fancy.
Speaker 1 00:04:41 And there are times in our life when we seem to have food to sustain this, but there are times in the history of the church when God has shown off exactly what he can do in the wilderness here. When you read about rich food, there's rich food. It doesn't need to be rich, it just needs to give me enough to give me some calories to survive and give me energy. But God goes above and beyond that and he brings rich food, great food, pja food that's beyond anything you've ever experienced. I've been in a few environments where I've experienced rich food. I remember being invited. I used to pastor in a church in Birmingham and we had the Astons Villa captain come to our church and he invited me and to go and sing at his wedding over in Italy. He used to play for Alan.
Speaker 1 00:05:33 And so there were players from Alan there and Italian players and Dutch players. He was the, he was not Dutch, he was the Danish captain. And um, we are at his wedding. And boy, I've never seen food like him. It was an amazing, they hired an island in the middle of Lake Garda for their reception, an entire island. It was an amazing experience. I thought, wow, I didn't know you could get food like this. Actually, I shouldn't have said that cause my wife is the most amazing cook. And I did know that we could get food like that. <laugh>. That's the right answer. That's the wife. But knowing that God has not just wanted to give you calories, he's wanted to give you rich Yes food. Amen. He doesn't just want to sustain you. He wants to bless you. He doesn't just want to help us survive.
Speaker 1 00:06:26 He wants us to thrive. Yes. And I've always believed the thrive history. There are times when in spite of the spiritual landscape that we're living in, and this landscape was a desert. It was dry, it was barren. And there are many people who talk about this nation, the West being a spiritually dry and barren place. There are so many challenges and needs and difficulties. There's so much darkness around in our society. And I believe that God cares and understands, and he doesn't just want to help us survive. He wants us to thrive in the mix of that desert. And I believe that there are times in history when God shows up with his fineness of foods. We have often called back revival.
Speaker 1 00:07:32 Few years ago, Nito and I were away for a few days on a few days break in West Wales. I grew up in South Wales. I'm not very familiar with West Wales, but I said to Nito, Hey, on the way back, we're gonna travel very near to the chapel where the Welsh revival started in 1904. It started not with a big gathering, it started with a little group of people praying fer to Jesus. God, give us your choice. Food. God, we need you. Lord, we're so thirsty, God bender shaper, yes, let's pop in and see this chapel on the way home. So we put it into the satin avenue. We arrived there, but we, of course, it was the middle of the week and we made no arrangements to get in there. And the chapel doesn't have many people there these days. It's a bit more of a museum, if I'm honest.
Speaker 1 00:08:34 And it was closed. We tried the doors. We knocked on the doors. There was no one around. It was all locked up. But we managed to get through a gateway into the courtyard. And then on the front courtyard, there's a bit of a monument that remembered the special things that had happened there. And at the back there was some, it was a graveyard that had some of those that we used powerfully in the Welshire revival. And so neither and I just in the courtyard, the doors were locked. They were closed. But we are outside in the courtyard and we're praying. We say, God, we would love you to do that again, to visit our dry Barron again, to visit us, dry people again, to help us to drink of your spirit. We would love that. Oh God. And then we go to the front courtyard and we praying similar prayers and our eyes are closed. And as we turn around, this big double door on the entrance of the church was now open.
Speaker 1 00:09:41 And we thought while we were praying, somebody must have walked past us. So we walked towards the door, we open it fully, we go in, say hello, hello. No one. That's strange. This was locked a few moments ago. So we walk around this empty chapel, and then Nita goes onto the platform, which has got a raise platform with a curtain around it. And she lays on the floor behind this curtain and she's praying, God, may your spirit pour out on us again with thirsty. We need you. We need a drink of a spirit in our lives. I said, at the piano, and I begin to play that song, spirit breakout, breakout walls down. I had a little wooy hat on and a leather jacket. And I've been there about 20 minutes and he was still laying on the platform. And then the back door, this old lady walked into the church.
Speaker 1 00:10:49 I don't know how old she was, but I think she'd been walking into that church for many years. And she looked at me with my beanie hat on my leather jacket, and she looked scared. And I said, it's ok. Ok, I'm a minister. And she goes, how did you get in? I said, the door was open. She said, it wasn't, it was locked. I locked it three days ago. I've not been here for three days. It, it wasn't open. I said, it was obviously, and I showed her my credential, my minister credential. And she said, okay, okay. And she just calmed down. And then Nita popped up from my, oh, this is my wife, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:11:30 You don't mind if we pray in you? And she goes, well, you know, you're supposed to make an appointment. I said, well, do you know, we think an Angelo in the door for us that day. Come on. And we just went there and we prayed and we cried. God, God, do it again in our day. Come on. Amen. Amen. Because the most wonderful thing in our life is knowing our salvation. Amen. Yeah. We read the disciples return from being sent out by Jesus and they'd seen demons cast up, they'd seen people heal and they were really exciting. Wow, Jesus, we've seen you do it, but now we can do it. This is really exciting. But Jesus said, rejoice not that the demons listen to you, rejoice. Not that people, they healed, but rejoice that your names are secured through the blood of Jesus Christ in the Lamb book of life.
Speaker 1 00:12:19 Just rejoice in your salvation is the miracle today, if you came into this building in a wheelchair and were praying with, and you left walking and leaping and praising God, it wouldn't be as great a miracle as the miracle of knowing your sins forgiven and your life transformed. There's no great miracle in this world. And the Bible doesn't say that becoming a Christian is like having some sort of reformation or some enhancement to our life or some behavior modification in our life that it's absolutely transformational. The Bible says the old goes on the new cons. We're like transplanted from a kingdom of darkness to a kingdom of life. We're absolutely transformed by God. And I know we're still a work in progress. Anyone else here? A work in progress. But that's the dichotomy of this. Because on one level we know that we're still got things that God's working on. But the reality is on the inside of us, we are looked at by God as being wholly and blameless and spotless. Because when he looks at us, he sees that Jesus swap our messy clothes and he placed robes of righteousness on us. And when God looks at us, he sees the robes of righteousness that we did not deserve, that we could not.
Speaker 1 00:13:43 And that's who you are. That's who I am if we're in Christ Jesus. But can I take you forward to Acts? Acts chapter 19, I'm immersing myself in acts right now. I'm reading through the book of Acts at least once a week, got a Bible reading plan I'm doing with other people who reading chapter a day as well as on top of that. And I'm just freshly seeing the themes and the work of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit through the Book of Acts. You see, we see Jesus came and revealed the kingdom. And then Jesus said that his disciples don't get on with the mission that I've given you until you've received the one that I promised you. That's the Holy Spirit. They've spent years with Jesus. Three years some of these disciples see in him listening to him, understanding in his heart, they've spent days with him following his resurrection.
Speaker 1 00:14:43 They had plenty to say. They had plenty to get on with. They had plenty they knew how to do. And Jesus said, don't do any of it until you receive the Holy Spirit. Amen. And we see right throughout the book of Acts is the work of the spirit. You see Paul about the going to Beth and the spirit says, no. We see Peter who had always understood that this message of salvation was for the Jews. And we see him having a dream by the Spirit and the spirit of God is teaching him, no, I've come to make all things new, to bring all people into the kingdom of God. We see angels unlocking prison doors.
Speaker 1 00:15:30 I love that scene where Peter is so convinced that when he's in prison and an angel nudges him and says, come on, follow me quickly. And he thinks he's dreaming. It's not until he's out and about feeling the fresh air in his face that he realizes, well, I just escaped prison. There were miracles after miracles. Some of them were really challenging. Paul was stoned. I don't mean smoking splits. I mean he was stoned by angry mob that were throwing bricks in him and they thought he was dead. His disciples, his friends fought. He was dead and they went to him. And Paul just gets up and recovers and it goes and carries on. That is the sort of church that Jesus is looking for. A church will be, don't gather together and sing nice songs about what has good in the past. But we live in a present reality. We haven't come to Newton Abbott to start a church. That is a nice expression. That's gonna be a nice gentle presence in the community. We've come because the Holy Spirit wants this town and its surrounding areas to experience the life of God, the transformation of God. And that you and I can only do that when we're filmed with the Spirit. Amen. I don't care what you'll see be how long you've been part of church, how many degrees you've got in theology. I'm not interested.
Speaker 1 00:17:12 It only happens when you and I are filled with a spirit of God. Acts 19 verse one. It says, when Apollos was encouraged, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to eus. He found some disciples and he asked them what was the first question he asked them? He could have asked, how's the church going? How's the discipleship? What's, what's interested in this community? How receptive are people to the gospel? Have you been stolen for your faith? He doesn't ask any of those things. He says these words, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Why was that his first question?
Speaker 1 00:17:56 Why outta everything You could have asked them. Have you been to Alpha? Have you, have you participated in our team at church? His first question, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? I think the fact that that was the first question means that it's a massive question. Can I ask you, have you received the Holy Spirit? Yes, Lord. Amen. Amen. Because if you haven't, there's some business to happen. There's some things that God wants to do. No, they said, we haven't even heard that there's a Holy Spirit into what? Ben, you baptiz the the obstacle into John's baptism. They applied. Paul said, John baptized with a baptism of repentance. That's I Walton. Yes. Repentance. Yes. I remember hiring a seven and a half ton truck on one occasion to move homes. I am old enough that on my driving license I'm allowed to drive a seven and a half pump truck. <laugh>, they don't give you that permission when you pass your test any longer. In my day, I think the government lost their brains and allowed anyone drive a seven and half truck. So I and I pull out of a higher place after almost crashes the wall. Cause the brakes were very different on those things. <laugh> and I pulled out in the middle of Birmingham the wrong way up. A dual carriageway.
Speaker 1 00:19:38 It's okay. Was the biggest thing on the wrong. So not only I almost crashed this thing, but I'm pulling out the wrong direction. <laugh>, if I carried on there would've been disaster. I need to turn around. Yes. That's what repentance is. Yes. And you may have had some crashes and you may have messed up and you may have hurt others and others may have hurt you. But you need to turn around, give your life to Jesus. Amen. Turn around is not just reforming your ways. It's like it's saying, I've lived my life going away from Christ and now I'm gonna walk towards Christ and follow him. It doesn't mean say you get everything perfect, but now he's my pursuit, he's my direction. That's all repentance is. And so these people have been baptized into John's baptism, a baptism of repentance, a repentance of their sin.
Speaker 1 00:20:42 And if you think, well I'm not that bad. Oh, where don't we start? Because every time someone said that to Jesus, he said, you're worse than you think you are. Well that's not a very nice lesson. I thought you said you're gonna encourage us. Mark, wait there. The encouragement gets better because until you know how big your debt is, you don't know how big the gift is that releases you from that debt. Amen. If you think you are only like 20 quitting debt, then when someone says, okay, I'm gonna pay your debts off, you think, okay. Oh lovely. Thank you. When you know you are 10 billion in debt and someone says, I'm gonna pay off the debts for you, you think, whoa. That's what salvation is. Your debt is bigger than you thinking is every time people try to present who they thought were sins to Jesus, he would say, whoa. You know they are sinners. But you guys, a woman caught on the act of adultery, he said, if any of you has ever looked at a woman last for you've committed adultery at your heart.
Speaker 1 00:21:44 Jesus wasn't just interested in the outward actions he's interested in, in the inner world. You and I, we were all in debt. And Jesus said, I'm gonna pay it all. All. And so when I'm reminded of just how deep my debt before God is, I have an opportunity to be reminded of just how wonderful his salvation is. Repentance turned from your sin. Paul said, John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people they should believe in the one who would come after him. That is in Jesus. There's no other thing by which we may be saying you might have complaints, I don't know, against the local council and you don't have it. The local mps, some of the services that get provided in the community. You might think, why don't people invest to change this area?
Speaker 1 00:22:54 I want to let you know the single greatest thing that will change this community is not a political ideology or a plan. It's a transformation of hearts. Yes. And Jesus is the only one who could. Yes. You know, we see every institution in our society, including the church shaking Jesus isn't shaking, come on. It's church that's gone away from Jesus' plan. Or leaders that have done it their way or maybe from their own selfish ambition and desires. Those are the ones that are shaking. Jesus is not shaking his church that bears his name, that bears his thumbprint. His DNA is not shady because when everything else passes away, Jesus is saying yesterday, today and forever, Jesus is the greatest hope of his town. This area, we've got a vision upon a hundred churches across the southwest. And our vision upon a hundred churches across the southwest is not because we think, Hey, that would be nice to do.
Speaker 1 00:24:16 Or what a nice thing that would be to have a few more cuddly churches around the southwest. You know, with a bit of a younger demographic. And you know where the songs are not on pipe organs. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, God doesn't care about the style of music. God's looking at a heart. Amen. And you can be lifting your hands as high as you want. And even dancing and singing the latest song. And if your heart is not in love with Jesus, it means nothing. There are many faithful believers around this town that love Jesus with all our hearts and their hearts breaking into this community. It's not about style of church. So we are not doing this cause we think, oh, there's a need, there's a gap. We're doing this because I believe that God is bringing choices food into the southwest. Yes. And he needs people who will wait on tables to serve it. But you gotta fulfill with the spirit.
Speaker 1 00:25:24 He said verse five, when they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them. And then they began to speak in other tongue and to prophesy. That's a strange thing, isn't it? Well it's strange. If you live in a world that is the world we live in, where everything is about what we touch, feel, see here the natural senses of our body. But the Bible says that we made up three parts. There's the body, there's the soul is soul is your mind, your real, your emotions. Sometimes when the Bible talks about your heart or your mind, that's referring to some of those things. And then there's the spirit. Before we came to Christ, the Bible says like our spirit is dead. So there are people walking around in Ute A the surrounding area.
Speaker 1 00:26:27 They've got a body and they might be pumping weight to the gym and they're looking after that body and they're doing great. Others are having a little bit too much Kesh. And it's, you know, it's not doing so well, but it's okay. We've got our, we've got our aches and our pains and the body's in different, different people. And then there's the soul. And we hear what this mental health crisis has taken place in our community where it's not what you can see, but it's what's inside. People are fighting difficult to navigate the wellbeing of their minds. And that's an awful thing. And we as the church have in the, the hands and the feet of Jesus that love people through their physical pain, through their emotional struggles and their mental wellbeing. But there are people who have got bodies that are well minds that are well, but their spirits are dead. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and Jesus comes to make their spirit a lie. Amen. You see, when I turn that truck around and I followed the proper direction, when we turn our lives towards Christ, a miracle happens. Amen. Once when we were dead in our trespassing sin and yet we are made alive in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:27:53 And if you know Jesus here, someone's got it. If you know Jesus, a miracle has happened or your spirits come alive. But the majority of people in the southwest, they're walking around wondering what life is all about. And they're investing in the things of this world. They're buying inmates at homes and their cars and they're investing in their jobs and their security and they're investing in all sorts of things for this world to try to make them feel better. But when the door closes, there still feels like an emptiness inside. Do you know why? It's because in their life, their spirit that's designed to be alive needs to come alive. And you can't pay for that to happen. It's not available on the nhs, it's available on Jesus salvation. Amen. Because of his finished work on the cross where he takes our deadness, where he takes the mess and he makes us alive.
Speaker 1 00:29:10 The same spirit which raised Jesus from the dead will quicken us and Jesus makes us alive. And here it said, when the Holy Spirit came on them, they began to speak in other tongues. See, because he'd be really quite cute for us to think, okay, I gave it off. We're a body, we got a soul. And in there somewhere as a spirit. Okay, I get that. So I can feed my spirit, I can feed my soul, I can feed my body. Yeah. We understand that put rubbish in the body. It doesn't give you sort of, you know, the results that you want. So we have to be careful what we are putting energy expend and all that stuff. Again, there's quite a lot of stuff around the wellbeing, creating space, having an ability to look after your soul, your mind. But okay, you're saying we gotta feed our spirit.
Speaker 1 00:30:10 But to understand that as a little section of our life would be a misrepresentation. Cuz the Bible doesn't teach that you're a body with a soul that has a spirit. It teaches that you are a spirit that has a soul that lives in a body. And the emphasis is on us being spiritual people. Yes. That's the emphasis. So the things that we touch and feel and see in this world, they are not the pri, the primary things. That's why when Phil's encouraging us to pray by faith, this is not like us putting a message in a, in a bottle and throwing it into the sea and hoping that it will land the God someday. Right. That's right. That's not, that's not faith. That's faith. Listen, that's, that's not what faith is. Faith is, I choose to walk by faith and not by sight because I have fed my spirit so much with an understanding of who God is and what God's doing and what God's saying. That I'm now stepping outta the natural and I'm stepping into the supernatural. And we can only do that when we filled with the Spirit. God wants rediscovered and you can ab it to be a place that's buzzing with the Holy Spirit, to be alive with the spirit. That's not about what happens here on a Sunday. It's about what happens in our daily lives. Are we living according to the things of our cycle or we live in according the things of God. You and what you feed yourself will determine that.
Speaker 1 00:31:42 We had a new friend I've made from Nigeria a few weeks ago, apostle Rome, some of you may have come along to that special event we had on a Saturday and this man because he has discovered that actually every time we think we've had the richest of food from God, that the god's got another level for us. That he began to teach us that we can spend more time with God if we want to. If we want to know more from him, we spend more time with him, we go deeper with him and there is something in us that needs to die for that to happen. Yeah. Because I don't have any spare time in my life, do you? So every time I choose to give God more time, I have to stop giving something else as much time. That's right. And there's some prime candidates for that in our lives. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I want to take a round every week, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:32:48 There are, there are, um, in our lives there are some prime candidates for us to spend less time with social media, tv. I don't know, I'm not operating that this is raw. I'm just saying we say we're busy. Yeah. There's a whole bunch of stuff we invest our time into that benefits nothing, it doesn't benefit our soul. It, it eats away at our anxiety levels. It doesn't, it doesn't. Bless our bodies. We just sit on the couch and it doesn't bless our spirit. It's a lotted time in our life. And I wanna make this really, really clear encouraging to you that Newton Abbot rediscover is not about a handful of people stepping out in God and everyone else coming and going. Yeah, well done. If you're in, you are in the team, you're in the team. And there's a need to be filled with the spirit to be in the team because God wants to do what he wants to do cannot happen unless we are growing in our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:34:24 Like if you're not sure what I'm saying, read through the book of Acts. You see very early in the book of Acts that there was a bit of a racial discrimination issue taking place. It happened even in the Bible times and the apostles said this is not right cuz there are some people being treated unfairly because of this racial issue. Okay. What we need to do now is to appoint some people who are going to ensure that the distribution of food is done unfairly. Okay. What qualifications are you looking for? We're looking at the K qualifications. Are we looking for ability to serve tables? What are we looking for? Filled the spirit. They must be filled with the spirit of God or to wait on tables, to wait on tables. So there's no unspiritual roles in this church. There's no age limit to this. There's not like a junior Holy Spirit for the kids in Discovery land and a senior one for you guys. The Holy Spirit's a person, he's God except he doesn't live in steeples and buildings or in Israel. He lives in youth temples of the Holy Spirit
Speaker 1 00:35:43 And the disciples, the apostles realized, and I'm gonna wrap up in a moment, I realize as time was gone that they realized that just like they had walked with Jesus and seen him do amazing things, they understood because of the teachings of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit was gonna be the new Jesus woman, the third member of the tri in Trinity. Father, son and Spirit. Three in one, one God, father, son and spirit. And they thought if the sun has done all of this and if the Holy Spirit is God as well and he lives in Minnie, then when that man, the lay man is begging at the gay beautiful and he's asking for money and the disciples in their pocket. So we haven't got any but what we have, we give you in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. That wasn't because they had something special in their life. It was because they knew who was in them. Amen. The Holy Spirit and he's in His people. My prayer, it's not that we'll have a hundred church plants around the southwest go, yay, isn't this great? We've done it. My prayer is that communities will be transformed ed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray together.
Speaker 1 00:37:35 Allowing the Holy Spirit to have his way is costly. It involves sacrifice. It involved dying. The things that have been important to us or have been investments of our time. Just the other Sunday and exit there after our service, which was a a, an ordinary service. Nothing spectacular within the service itself. But then when we would normally finish, we started a worship. That worship went on for an hour and 40 minutes after the service would normally end and virtually stayed. Everybody forgot their car parking restriction. They forgot their food because when the Holy Spirit reminds us who he is, everything else takes second place.
Speaker 1 00:38:37 There are some this week you're gonna feel stirred to fast to die to some of those cravings in you in order to say no, my priority is to feed my spirit. If you've never been filled with the Holy Spirit, I don't have time to lay hands on everyone this morning, but I'm gonna ask you where you are. Would you just reach out your hands in front of you? If you wanna be filled fresh with the Holy Spirit, join in as well. Reach out your hands, hold them out like you're about to receive. The Bible says ask and it will be given to you seeking. You will find. Bible says You have not because you ask not.
Speaker 1 00:39:29 Oh Holy Spirit, come and fill. Come and fill. Its precious women and men, young people fill us. Be baptized this Denali spirit, that image of baptism have gone under the water being saturated in water. Be saturated inal, holy Spirit. Now may he be in you all over you, all around you. Be baptized in the name of Jesus and church. I'm gonna ask that now. You just continue just to hold out your hands and say, will you fill me in fresh? Why you're doing that? I'm gonna just give an invitation to anyone in the room today that doesn't know Jesus. You know that that spirit part I talked about is dead within you and there's been like an intrigue and interest and you know there's more to life than what you've discovered. You also feel like there's been lots of crashes as you've driven the wrong way in life. Well, if you were caught upon the name of the Lord, you shall be saved.
Speaker 1 00:40:50 And you may feel you don't have the power to even turn around that glory to turn around your life. And that's okay. That's a good place to come to, to recognize that you can't do it without a savior, a savior. His name is Jesus. And I'm gonna pray a simple prayer. And if you would like to invite Jesus to be your savior, would you pray a simple prayer after me? And it goes like this, Jesus, I recognize I've been traveling the wrong way with my life. I've left you out and I want to know you. Would you help me? Would you save me? Would you turn my life around?
Speaker 1 00:41:35 Which you can't bring my spirit alive to you. I thank you. This is all possible because you gave your life on the cross to pay the price for my failure and my mistakes and my shame. Please forgive me and fill me. I want to follow you and I thank you. Don't call me to follow you as a stranger but you love me and you invite me to come close to you in Jesus' name. Just while everybody remains praying, if you pray about prayer, either for the first time would've come back to God this morning, I'd love to know who you are so I can include you in prayer. Would you just raise your hand where you are? When I've seen it, I the point, well I embarrass you, but I'll just see your hand and I always just note to include you in a prayer. Just a moment. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. As I've seen your hand, you can put it down again. Anyone else wanna join these three people this morning? Thank you Jesus. Thank you. Thank you for your love and your kindness. This is good news.
Speaker 1 00:42:55 The gospel is good news. Thank you. It's not a message of condemnation, it's a message of good news, of hope of life. Thank you Lord. I pray to these precious people will know the presence of the Lord. Hug it really close and showing them your love and anyone else is weighing things up and evaluating your be, pray and speak with them In the name of Jesus. Just look up one moment before I hand back to the film with you. <unk> I'd love to look, unpack how we can posture our lives for revival. Except do believe there needs to be preparation. Someone once said that it's only God that brings the rain, but we can get the buckets ready to catch it. And I know that in meter of my life there have been some changes and decisions we've made in order to better prepare ourselves to be able to contain that which God wanted to do. Um, in Exeter over the last few weeks, our prayer meetings have quadrupled in size, tripled and left.
Speaker 1 00:44:18 We used to get 20 gathering for an hour on Monday. Just the other week we had a hundred for three hours was pregnant. Thirdly, there's no other shortcut, guys. Come on. Mm. You, Craig, Adam on Thursdays. Every Thursdays, every other Thursday. You might think, oh, it's not really for me. Well, it should be. Get along. I know you've got all that stuff. Please don't hear me. You could condemn if you can't make it, but if you, if you could make it, but you choose not to cause he said this his own, then I encourage you, build up the things that are important in your life. God bless you. Proud of all you do in church. What are great blessing you are. We pray for you regularly. An Exeter, you're every week. I pray for you as a church, as a team. And I pray God blessing upon you.
