Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Hey, everyone. My name is Caleb. The first thing I'm going to do is get my phone out and set a timer just to make sure that I.
[00:00:19] I would say that I am someone who is late and likes to talk.
[00:00:25] So I better make sure that I don't go over by too much.
[00:00:31] It's awesome to see you all.
[00:00:34] Ellie gave a wonderful introduction. I feel very blessed by that and by her.
[00:00:40] The first thing I want to do, really, is talk to you a little bit about invitations.
[00:00:47] We've all had invitations, right? But what I want to know is what is the best invitation you've ever received?
[00:00:54] So we have the. Here's the question, right? Best invitation. Turn to your neighbour and discuss and ask them, what is the best invitation you've ever received? You've got one minute. Go.
[00:01:10] What's the best invitation you guys have received? Sam and Tilly's wedding. Oh, wow.
[00:01:15] Recent. That would be really cool.
[00:01:19] Have you thought of that? Yeah, I got invited to surf for Great Britain. Oh, wow. In May. Yeah. Yeah. That's a call. That's cool. That's a very cool invitation.
[00:01:31] Got some cool invitations. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Okay, nice.
[00:01:41] All right.
[00:01:43] I didn't give you the full minute. Okay. Draw those conversations to a close. Who'd like to tell me about the best invitation you've ever received?
[00:01:51] Phil? A stadium tour of Ellen Road. A stadium tour of Elland Road.
[00:01:57] None of us even know what that is. Okay, best invitation you've received? Paul?
[00:02:02] Getting invited to Australia by some people met in Nigeria.
[00:02:05] Wow. Were they Australian people? Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you. Yes, I'm coming over.
[00:02:12] Best invitation you've received to go to the Falkland islands on the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War. Wow. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Isaac, I'm coming over. I've seen that hand.
[00:02:25] What is the best invitation you've received? A wedding. Wow. And you know what? Let me tell you about that.
[00:02:31] These people, whose names I've forgotten, have also said that the best invitation they received is to your wedding. So to be honest, Sam and Tilly just need to get more invites out there because we're all going to think it's the best invite ever. Okay, awesome. So the best invitation I've ever received was from my two best friends. I was 17 a little while ago, but not too long to go and see England play at Wembley. Okay. We saw England against Russia in 2007. It was 3 nil to England. So that's. Good morning, Michael. Owen scored two goals.
[00:03:07] You might have to ask your friend. Who? Michael Owen is.
[00:03:11] And it was absolutely awesome. Now, I did try to find a photo of me and the boys at the game. Well, I couldn't. So instead I found another photo on Facebook of me from 2007. So here I am.
[00:03:24] Yep. So there I am, just with my brothers and my dad.
[00:03:28] So which one am I?
[00:03:31] Okay, yeah. Okay. I'm not. I'm not this one, or this one or this one. There I am in the middle.
[00:03:38] And, yeah, there's my dad. My dad, Tim. And Nathaniel is on the left.
[00:03:44] Then Eli and then Ruach. So those are my brothers. No, sisters. Everyone feels sorry for my mum, but honestly, my mum loved it.
[00:03:55] Awesome. So the reason we're talking about invitations is because in this passage, we're going to read today.
[00:04:01] Jesus has some invitations for us.
[00:04:05] So if you want to turn with me to Luke 22, I've not put it on the screen.
[00:04:10] So you can either listen or you can read along with me.
[00:04:15] Okay, so Luke 22, and we're going to start reading at verse one.
[00:04:20] Okay.
[00:04:24] Now, the festival of unleavened bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people.
[00:04:38] Then Satan entered. Judas called Iscariot, one of the twelve, and Judas went to the temple to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard, and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.
[00:04:52] They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
[00:05:02] Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
[00:05:08] Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.
[00:05:14] Where do you want us to prepare for it? They asked.
[00:05:17] He replied, as you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.
[00:05:23] Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of that house, the teacher asks, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished.
[00:05:38] Make preparations. There they left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared for the Passover.
[00:05:47] When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table, and he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
[00:06:00] For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.
[00:06:08] After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among you.
[00:06:14] For I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, this is my body given for you.
[00:06:28] Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.
[00:06:40] But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with me, is with mine on the table.
[00:06:46] The Son of man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him.
[00:06:53] They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.
[00:06:59] A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest.
[00:07:04] Jesus said to them, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them. And those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors.
[00:07:16] But you are not to be like that.
[00:07:21] Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest and the one who rules like the one who serves.
[00:07:29] For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?
[00:07:34] Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
[00:07:42] You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom just as my father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
[00:07:58] Simon.
[00:08:00] Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.
[00:08:05] But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.
[00:08:16] But he replied, lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.
[00:08:21] Jesus answered, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.
[00:08:30] Then Jesus asked them, when I sent you without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?
[00:08:37] Nothing, they answered. He said to them, but now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag. And if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
[00:08:47] It is written, and he was numbered with the transgressors.
[00:08:52] And I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me.
[00:08:56] Yes. That is, yes. What is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.
[00:09:03] The disciple said, see, Lord, here are two swords. That's enough. He replied.
[00:09:11] So at this gathering, Jesus arrives at the heart of why he has come to give us new life. Can we have the next slide, please? Oh, yeah. Wow, he's so efficient.
[00:09:28] You're invited to adventure. Actually, we'll have the next slide after that. So the invitation Jesus has for us is, you are invited to adventure.
[00:09:37] But the first part I want to talk about is this.
[00:09:39] You are invited to the adventure of new life.
[00:09:44] Jesus says in the same way, after supper, he took the cup and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
[00:09:53] Now, covenant is another word for agreement. So this is the new agreement he's saying. I'm bringing you this new agreement, and it will bring you life.
[00:10:04] Now, what is he talking about there?
[00:10:08] Why do we need a new agreement? What was the old agreement all about?
[00:10:12] And why do I need new life?
[00:10:15] So I'm going to tell you a little story that starts with Adam and Eve.
[00:10:20] God created the heavens and the earth.
[00:10:23] He made the land and the sea.
[00:10:26] He made light and dark. He created all the creatures on the earth, all the fish in the sea, all the plants, all the trees. And then he made Adam and Eve. And he said they were very good.
[00:10:38] And he made an agreement with them.
[00:10:40] He said, you can.
[00:10:43] I want you to fill the earth, subdue it, look after it.
[00:10:47] And you could do whatever you want. You can eat any from any tree you like, apart from one.
[00:10:53] Don't eat from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat it, you will die.
[00:11:02] Now, they broke the agreement.
[00:11:04] They ate the fruit.
[00:11:06] They chose their way, not God's way, so they had to leave the Garden of Eden.
[00:11:16] But God didn't want to banish them or us forever.
[00:11:21] He wanted to make a way so that we could know him and we could be made right with Him.
[00:11:28] Now, a lot of other things happen. We skip on several hundred years, and we get to the Israelites.
[00:11:36] They are slaves in Egypt. They've been there for 400 years.
[00:11:41] And God has sent Moses and Aaron to go free his people.
[00:11:49] And God says, there's one more plague. I'm going to kill the firstborn of every family in Egypt.
[00:11:55] I'm going to spare you. What you need to do is you need to sacrifice a lamb and. And this will be the Passover lamb.
[00:12:02] You're going to smear the blood of this lamb on your door frame. And then the angel of death, when it comes, it will pass over your house.
[00:12:11] And as you're doing it, celebrate the Passover, the first ever Passover festival.
[00:12:16] Eat the lamb, the Passover lamb that has been sacrificed.
[00:12:21] Eat it completely and you will be saved.
[00:12:27] And then after they leave, so they're freed. They leave Egypt, and God gives them the law.
[00:12:34] Now you may know the Ten Commandments. He gave them those, but he also gave them a lot of other laws.
[00:12:41] And essentially this was a new agreement. We're going to call it the old agreement. So they may get confused, but the agreement was, these are some things you must do if you're going to be right with me.
[00:12:53] Every time you do things wrong, you need to sacrifice an animal. It might be a dove or a lamb or a goat.
[00:13:03] I will bless you, you are my people.
[00:13:07] But I will punish you and discipline you if you turn away from me.
[00:13:14] Now the problem is the Israelites, like a lot of us, they kept turning away from God. They kept choosing their way and not God's way.
[00:13:28] And so they flip flop between these two things for hundreds of years.
[00:13:38] But the problem is that this agreement could never make them fully right with God.
[00:13:47] They needed a savior, a sacrifice that could be made once and for all to bring them into God's presence. They needed a savior.
[00:13:59] It says in Romans 3, therefore no one will be declared righteous. This is Paul talking about the old agreement. He said, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law.
[00:14:14] Rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
[00:14:18] So the law was given so that we could come to God to a certain degree, but it could never deal with the problem in our hearts.
[00:14:28] But the good news is, and it is amazing news, that God had a plan.
[00:14:34] Jeremiah, who was sent as a prophet, he says, the days are coming.
[00:14:40] This is God speaking. When I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.
[00:14:54] I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins, no more.
[00:14:59] So he said, jesus, so now we get to this moment and Jesus is saying, I am going to be the Passover lamb once and for all. For you here and for all people, I'm making a new agreement.
[00:15:17] He takes the bread and says, this is my body given to you. He takes the wine and says, this is the cup of the new covenant, a new agreement in my blood which is poured out for you.
[00:15:29] He's saying, repent of living because the old way for yourself and follow me, and I will give you eternal life.
[00:15:40] Hebrews 9 puts it like this.
[00:15:42] Please do look these passages up. This is Hebrews 9, 14, 15. Just to check that I'm not misquoting.
[00:15:49] It says, how much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself up, unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.
[00:16:07] For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, a new agreement that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance now that he has died, as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
[00:16:28] So if we accept this covenant, if we accept this agreement, we are free from living for ourselves, from living in a way which ultimately leads to fights and arguments and destruction and war and death. Our death, because it says in Romans 6:26, for the wages of sin is death.
[00:16:55] So that's what you're getting. If you live in sin, it will be your death.
[00:17:01] But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[00:17:06] What gift new life means? Life in all its fullness.
[00:17:13] Eternal life.
[00:17:14] Now we know that in the many trials of life, we are not alone, but God is with us.
[00:17:21] And our lives now carry eternal significance. They don't just mean nothing.
[00:17:28] There's a verse I love in 2 Corinthians 5 which says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. Now, if you look at that word, new.
[00:17:41] Kainos.
[00:17:43] I don't speak Greek. It's not my first language, so apologies if you're Greek, that carries the sense of something completely new. It's not just, you know, you've got an iPhone, you get a new iPhone. It's exactly the same. No, no, no. This is. You've got an iPhone, you get a completely different phone. Better than an iPhone. Android. No, but this is the sense that we are not just the same version of ourselves, but we are something completely new.
[00:18:16] When. So my. My mum, as I said, four boys. Wow. I mean, what a hero.
[00:18:27] She. She was diagnosed with cancer in 20 2014, ovarian cancer.
[00:18:35] And she had surgery, she had chemotherapy, she had more surgery, she had more chemotherapy, and sadly, she died at the start of 2020.
[00:18:52] And those moments, everything you believe about life, whether you are a Christian, whether you're not, whether you have another worldview or another faith, everything you wonder is suddenly challenged. All those verses I read about, you know, I'll be with you to the very end of the age that I, you know, God heals all our diseases, they're suddenly challenged because he's not healed. My mum.
[00:19:26] But there's a few really interesting things happened. The first thing is that just as she was in the last minutes of her life, my dad was with her and he said that her expression changed and she looked Up.
[00:19:45] And at this point, she couldn't speak, she could barely breathe.
[00:19:52] But she looked up. And my dad describes this wonderful that filled her eyes and she just stared. And my dad looked and he was like, what is she looking at?
[00:20:05] And he said, she just stared for 20 minutes.
[00:20:08] And he said there was something of God that she was seeing that I couldn't see. And then she turned around and she breathed the last and she died.
[00:20:19] And we believe that in that moment she was seeing heaven open and she was being welcomed home.
[00:20:27] And the really interesting thing is that after that, I had a dream.
[00:20:34] And in my dream, I saw my mum.
[00:20:37] And she was in one of our old houses and she was happy.
[00:20:40] And I felt such peace. And one of my other brothers, Ruach, he had a dream and in the dream he saw mum. And he said, mum, what are you doing here? She said, I just want you to know I'm in heaven with God and I love it here.
[00:20:58] You know, when we receive new life, we receive it for here now.
[00:21:04] It changes everything now, but we receive eternal life with him.
[00:21:10] I want to just focus for a moment on the life, on how life changes here when we accept that new life. Now, my friend Jordan has an amazing testimony and he said I could use it.
[00:21:22] So he's going to appear on the screen.
[00:21:28] Oh, I did not prep this, did I? There is a video. Have you got a video, Gordon? A video of Jordan? He's wearing an orange top.
[00:21:39] No.
[00:21:40] Okay, there's no video right now. But let me tell you about Jordan. He lived a life.
[00:21:46] So his mum died when he was young and he turned to drink to women.
[00:21:56] He ended up homeless.
[00:21:58] And he was.
[00:22:02] He was at such a low place. And he met a lady who worked for Christian charity. And he was home. He was re homed with them.
[00:22:15] And as he was there, he met all these people who were Christians. And he said there was something about them. He couldn't understand what it was. He thought they were a bit weird to start with, right?
[00:22:28] But he said they.
[00:22:30] They had a peace in their hearts. And he was like, I want to know what that is.
[00:22:35] And he said one day he had a dream. And in the dream, he was standing. He was in a court.
[00:22:44] And as he was in this court, this white light shone out of this door.
[00:22:51] And he saw Jesus standing there.
[00:22:55] And he knew in that moment that for all the stuff that he'd done wrong, Jesus was paying the price.
[00:23:02] And then he saw his mum and they walked through that door together.
[00:23:07] And he said, when I gave my life to Jesus, everything Changed.
[00:23:12] He said, the big thing is that I could lay my head down on my pillow. He said I had absolutely nothing, like nothing to my name, but with the love of God, I had peace while I slept at night.
[00:23:29] So this invitation to the adventure of new life is for anyone who doesn't know Jesus yet.
[00:23:39] But it's for now.
[00:23:41] Don't wait.
[00:23:42] I have a friend. I've told him the gospel so many times. We've had endless conversations about who Jesus is, about what Jesus has done for him, about why he needs him.
[00:23:53] He said, ah, Caleb, yeah, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that more.
[00:23:58] I still pray for him. But one day there won't be any longer to decide, and his life will be over.
[00:24:07] And then it's too late.
[00:24:10] So if you're thinking, oh, I'm not sure, not sure about this, the time is short, so accept this new life now and taste and see that the Lord is good.
[00:24:25] Do you know what? I was just checking all the time, and my stopwatch has stopped. So how long have we got left?
[00:24:34] 10 minutes. Excellent. Right, okay, so the next invitation is.
[00:24:41] Can we have the next slide? Yes. You are invited to the adventure of radical obedience.
[00:24:48] Now, in this story, there are a few interesting characters I just want to mention briefly. So at the start, you'll notice that Jesus says to his disciples, go and make preparations. And he says, you will meet someone carrying a jar of water. Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of the house, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
[00:25:12] He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished, and make preparations there.
[00:25:18] I think there are some people here that are mentioned in passing, but they show such incredible obedience. The first thing is that that man carrying the jar of water may be sent by his master or his mistress.
[00:25:35] In those days, women generally carried the water, and men, if they were going to carry liquids, they carried them in animal skin kind of containers.
[00:25:49] So for our man to be carrying the jar of water would have been really unusual.
[00:25:55] So this man is sent out and he is obedient.
[00:25:59] He's been sent for a reason.
[00:26:03] The disciples, they're told, go, and you'll see this. How often are we told in our walk with Jesus, I want you to do this. You think, well, that's.
[00:26:13] I feel like I might be a bit weird or I might.
[00:26:18] People might think that I'm doing something odd that seems unusual. I feel uncomfortable doing that. But they trusted God. And then there's the family who decide to prepare not only their own Passover, but their guest room. Because there are some guests coming now, they don't know who they are, but they trust, they listen, and they are obedient.
[00:26:40] So my question is this. What is God asking you to do? How is he asking you to be obedient?
[00:26:45] Is it something big? Is it something small?
[00:26:50] When we. We used to live in Woking, we lived there for a couple of years.
[00:26:57] We loved Woku, we loved our church there, and.
[00:27:01] But we felt it was time to move and we could kind of live anywhere because Holly's work said, you know, you could work from home.
[00:27:09] So we started praying and we didn't know where to go.
[00:27:17] And we came down to Exeter. We looked at Exeter, we looked at Exmouth and Tynemouth and various places, and we came to Newton Abbott. And we just felt a peace about moving there.
[00:27:30] And people ask us, we didn't know anyone in New Sabbath.
[00:27:34] We didn't have any friends there, but we just felt a call to be obedient.
[00:27:41] Now, God may not be asking you to move house, but he is asking you to be obedient.
[00:27:48] And the reason I think this is so interesting is that obedience can sometimes look like a moment, but sometimes it can be the obedience of doing something. Every day, Every day, every day I'll be faithful to my husband or wife.
[00:28:08] Every day I will be. I will honor my leaders.
[00:28:12] Every day I will treat others with kindness.
[00:28:16] That continual, everyday obedience with brings glory to God, and it helps achieve his purposes.
[00:28:23] So you are invited to the adventure of radical obedience. I've called it radical because I think radical is a cool word. But also in this world, obedience to God is always radical because the wisdom of the world says, live for yourself.
[00:28:38] Think of yourself first.
[00:28:40] Why are you doing that? Why are you giving away money when you might need it for yourself?
[00:28:48] Okay, yeah, we've got time. That's good. Okay, so part three. You are invited to the adventure of becoming great in the eyes of God. Now, here in the passage, the disciples, interestingly start talking about who of them is considered to be the greatest. And Jesus says, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them. And those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. But you are not to be like that.
[00:29:19] Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest. And the one who rules like the one who serves for who is greater. The one who is at the table or the one who serves, Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
[00:29:35] What makes a person Great.
[00:29:38] Just think about that for a moment. What makes a person great?
[00:29:45] My brothers, we always wanted to be better than each other. It didn't matter what it was, whether it was football, whether it was that board game, whether it was who could throw a piece of paper the furthest out the window.
[00:29:59] We always wanted to be the best.
[00:30:04] But now I know what it looks like to win and be the best in God's eyes.
[00:30:11] The disciples desired that greatness, but Jesus tells them if they want to be great, they should take the lowest place and become a servant of all.
[00:30:20] Now, I had a boss once who said, I want you to take accountability for your mistakes.
[00:30:29] Own those mistakes.
[00:30:31] And I was like, yeah, okay, okay, I can do that.
[00:30:36] But then what I noticed was that he didn't take accountability for his mistakes.
[00:30:44] And so I looked around at myself and others and I thought, well, why should we do what you're saying when you don't do it?
[00:30:54] But Jesus says, I have come and I am at the table, but I come as one who serves.
[00:31:04] And he teaches us that the lowly place is the great place. It's not just a means to get to the great place. It's not like we go to the bottom so we can work our way up. He says, the bottom is the great place.
[00:31:17] And he says, we don't just serve for a reward, but for God's glory. For God's glory, we serve.
[00:31:26] I'm going to mention my mum again.
[00:31:30] So my dad's a vicar in the Church of England, so we were doing all sorts of the church. You know, loads going on. Can you fold this sheet, Caleb? Can you do this? Can you do that? My mum was amazing and she poured her life into the church, into supporting my dad, into supporting me and my brothers.
[00:31:50] But most people didn't see that.
[00:31:55] And as I became an adult and I realized what wonderful parents I had. And, you know, that transition happens if you've got children who are teenagers and stuff.
[00:32:04] They kind of realize that you're all right when you get to about 22, 23.
[00:32:09] And I remember saying to my mum, thank you.
[00:32:14] Thank you for.
[00:32:15] For being there for us.
[00:32:17] You know, we are the fruit of your labors. And me and my brothers, we all love Jesus and we're serving him in our lives.
[00:32:27] And, you know, I think when you're.
[00:32:33] If you. If your parents are in ministry in some way, either they lead a church or they are in leadership in some way, it can be really hard.
[00:32:45] Yeah, there's a lot more to say about that, but I guess my Prayer is that you would see God at work in your parents lives and that they would also pour into your lives as well.
[00:32:59] So my question is, are you ready to become great in the eyes of God? Now, briefly, I want to just mention that Peter desired that greatness.
[00:33:07] But Jesus says he's going to falter. He says, he says, simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.
[00:33:17] But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have returned back, strengthen your brothers.
[00:33:26] That sifting, that word as that connotation of he's being shaken, Satan wants to shake you. And when you sift wheat, you keep the grain and the chaff falls to the ground and is blown away. Now Judas, he'd been sifted and he was blown away.
[00:33:49] But Peter, he sifted and he denies, even knows Jesus three times, even though he says here, I'm willing to die for you.
[00:33:57] We're all going to be sifted if we want to be great in the eyes of God. The sifting is coming.
[00:34:02] The sifting may already have come.
[00:34:05] Those challenges and trials, those things which challenge your faith.
[00:34:10] And you think, will I turn away or will I return to God? And there's a difference. So if you look at the life of David and Saul in the Bible, two great kings, they both made big mistakes.
[00:34:23] But the difference is that David returned to God and repented.
[00:34:28] And so he is called a man after God's own heart. And I want to be called a man after God's own heart. And I want you to be called a man or woman after God's own heart.
[00:34:38] So though we falter, the story is not over. God waits for you with open arms to welcome us back. But he still has important things to you. Don't miss that bit where he says, when you return, strengthen your brothers. Imagine I know that when I have fallen short of God's glory, when I've done stuff wrong, the last thing I want to do is strengthen my brothers and sisters. Because I think, who am I?
[00:35:03] Who am I? Look what I've just done.
[00:35:07] But by the grace of God, he says, I want you to come back because I have important things for you to do.
[00:35:19] We're going to share communion.
[00:35:24] I'm aware that hopefully the youth and children will be coming back in a few minutes.
[00:35:31] We're going to do it slightly differently today.
[00:35:34] Could I have these three questions?
[00:35:37] Yeah, great, thank you.
[00:35:38] Okay, so what we're going to do, firstly, we're going to eat bread, because I prefer bread to wafers.
[00:35:46] So we're going to eat bread.
[00:35:50] What I'd like you to do in a few minutes is just form little groups. Three or four groups of three or four or five, six, something like that.
[00:35:59] Hands up if you're one of my designated leaders and you're still in the room. Awesome.
[00:36:05] So these guys are going to come round and join a group.
[00:36:08] They're going to bring the bread. You've got a cup with the. The wine, it's not alcoholic.
[00:36:17] And we're going to share communion. And those who are leading are going to read the passage that's up here, Luke 22:14, 20, and they're going to lead you in communion. And then I want you to just take a moment, reflect. Are you saying yes to new life? Are you saying yes to following Jesus now?
[00:36:40] I want to just take a moment. When I became a Christian, when I was seven years old, I remember it, I still remember it vividly. I was in Cromer in Norfolk. That's a long way away.
[00:36:50] I was there with my family.
[00:36:52] There was a beach mission, a Scripture Union beach mission.
[00:36:56] And we were meeting in my little group, you know, the five to eight year olds, whatever it was. And a leader said, who wants to know Jesus? Who wants to be a friend of God?
[00:37:07] And I thought, yes, I want to do that.
[00:37:12] And I gave my life to Jesus in that moment.
[00:37:15] So I want to just take a moment now.
[00:37:18] Close your eyes.
[00:37:20] If you want to say yes to new life, I want to give you that opportunity.
[00:37:25] So pray this prayer with me.
[00:37:29] Father God, thank you that you made me and you love me.
[00:37:33] Thank you that you have offered me new life.
[00:37:38] I'm sorry for going my own way.
[00:37:42] And I want to give my life to you, Jesus.
[00:37:47] Thank you for dying for me, for all the stuff that I've done wrong.
[00:37:53] Strengthen me and fill me with your Holy Spirit.
[00:37:57] Amen.
