Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Hey, lovely to be here. Why don't we bow our heads and let's just pray and then we're going to jump into the word of God. And so, Lord, we thank you this morning for your goodness. We really do bless you, Lord Jesus. We recognize you are the alpha and the omega. You are the first and the last. And we just come and we worship you this morning. We thank you, Lord, for on Nation's Day, we get the great challenge to move a mile north up the road.
[00:00:29] And if we want to be interested in the nations, we've got to be okay to move a mile. And so, Lord, right now, we thank you. We thank you for vision. We thank you for purpose. We thank you for your hand. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you. You ordain every step. We thank you that you go before us. Where would we be, Lord, this morning if you had not gone before us? And so we just bless you. We put our lives in your hands. And, Lord, we just give us. We ask that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see where you are moving, Holy Spirit, and what you want to challenge us with in your mighty name. Amen. Amen. All right, let's turn to our Bible. I want to talk to us about in our nations. I want to talk to us about being commissioned because four times throughout Scripture, Jesus gives what many of us would think is a suggestion, but it's actually a commission.
[00:01:20] And most of us will know it as the Great Commission.
[00:01:23] Some of us in our walk want to think it as the great suggestion, but God really calls it the Great Commission. And it is that important for our lives that Jesus talks about it in every gospel. Now, if something is in every gospel, I reckon it's pretty important for us to understand. Amen.
[00:01:41] Come on, you talk to me. Amen. Amen. And so the concept of what Jesus is trying to drill into his church, because we are his church. Yes, we are his church, globally.
[00:01:54] This isn't his church. This is not a build. This is just a building. God doesn't dwell in buildings. God doesn't dwell in sanctuaries. God no longer dwells in objects. He dwells in us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We are the kingdom and we bring the kingdom. And wherever we go, light goes and darkness is dispelled. Amen.
[00:02:15] So we are the kingdom. We are the kingdom in Asda. We. We are the kingdom in Tesco, down south here. You're the kingdom in Waitrose.
[00:02:23] Come on, you know it. The kingdom in Waitrose. But but we are taking the kingdom. You are the kingdom in your school, you are the kingdom at your college. You're the kingdom in your workplace. You are bringing God's kingdom and dispelling darkness. Amen.
[00:02:38] Hopefully.
[00:02:41] Oh, hopefully. Because this is what Jesus said, and he says it throughout his forego.
[00:02:47] He says this in Luke 22. And Phil read a bit of it. He said, these are the words I spoke to you. Jesus said, whilst I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms would be fulfilled. Then Jesus opened their minds, oh Lord, that you would open our minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, this is written, the Christ would suffer on the third day and rise from the dead and. And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning here in Jerusalem and heading out. So right the way. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has a mission for his disciples, for his church, and that is this, that we preach repentance of our sins and we proclaim the name of Jesus Christ to the nations. Then in Matthew 28, Jesus says this again. He says, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain on which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted.
[00:03:55] And Jesus came and said to them, doesn't it give you hope when some of his disciples doubted? And Jesus said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[00:04:06] Go therefore and. And make disciples of nations.
[00:04:11] Watching Netflix, chilling out, building your property portfolio and just sitting on your backside until I return.
[00:04:20] No, he didn't say that, did he? Just checking. We know that doesn't say that in the scripture.
[00:04:24] Some of them are unsure. So. All right, we'll check that out. All right. He says, go, therefore make disciples. It's the cheeky Aussie in me, I'm afraid. Go, therefore make disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And watch this, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, Jesus said, anyone thankful for this? I am with you until the end of the age, oh Lord, that you are with me through my highest and lowest point. Your promise is that you are with me until the very end of the age. Then John, disciple Jesus loved, said this on the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders. Wasn't that so fascinating? To that Pakistan encounter and testimony there, Jesus came And stood among them and said, sorry, the one in Jordan. And Jesus came among them and said, not that the Pakistan wasn't. It wasn't dig in there, just going deeper and be in Australia next week.
[00:05:30] Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. And these disciples were overjoyed when they saw him. And again, Jesus said this in the Great Commission. He said, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. I am sending you. That is my mission. That is what I am calling you to do. And so Mark picks up on these wonderful words of Luke, Matthew and John, and Mark gets his own version. And he says this. He said, Jesus said to them, go into all of the world and preach to all of creation.
[00:06:10] Whoever believes and baptized will be saved. But whoever does not believe will be condemned.
[00:06:19] And these signs will accompany those who believe in my name. They will drive out demons and they will speak new tongues. You see, the kingdom of God is not just a kingdom of meeting together, it is a kingdom of action. In fact, James says in James 2:6, he says, for as much as the body is dead without spirit, so is faith without works.
[00:06:49] Faith without works is dead. And so of the what you said, 100. I'll go with your number of the hundred that are in this room. Now, I want us to think about what it would look like for every single person in here to understand that God has called us not only to the nations, but first of all to our local area.
[00:07:12] Because Jesus said and gave the commission to his disciples to go to Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth. In other words, there is a three missional step that Jesus gave to his early church. And he said this. I want you to focus locally, I want you to focus nationally to Samaria, and I want you to focus to the ends of the earth. Internationally, locally, nationally and globally. I want you to know this morning that all around the world, and I've had the great privilege of preaching in Paris, in Spain, in Thailand, in America, in Australia, not everywhere. Lots of people preach way more than me. But I've noticed this about the church. The church is the same in reality. We're all people.
[00:08:04] We're all very much people looking for a God who is real, who is looking to encounter with his people, and he's looking to do something miraculously with our lives in which we live. And so I've got four simple points this morning which I would love to bring to us all based around the concept of Paul's writings on the Great Commission. Because not only did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have the commission to the church about being on mission in Nation Sunday, but the apostle Paul also started to dip into this. And the apostle Paul said this in Romans 10:14.
[00:08:42] He said, and do you know what? This is a great verse to put on a doorpost of a house. He said, how can anybody call on the one they do not believe in?
[00:08:52] And how can they believe in one that they've not even ever heard of?
[00:08:57] And how can they hear without somebody telling them?
[00:09:02] Think about what the apostle Paul is saying. How can somebody believe in somebody they don't know?
[00:09:08] How can somebody know in which somebody hasn't told them? And how can somebody follow in which if there's nobody out there to tell them about? I want to ask you this this morning and challenge us with four very simple points. And do you know what? I don't think I've ever done this in my life. I'm going to preach from an acronym. I don't think have I ever preached from an acronym in my life. I don't think I ever have. But the acronym is fire, F, I, R, E. And there's four simple points in which I believe Jesus is talking to us on Nation Sunday and particularly focusing prophetically on what he's wanting to speak to. Rediscover Newton Abbott. Is it still going to be called rediscover Newton Abbott or rediscover it is. Okay, a rediscover. I didn't know if it was going to be called rediscover Stover. Is that a different place up there? Is it different 10? It's all under Newton habit. Great. All right. I'm not telling you anything you shouldn't know. I promise you. All right. Esther's like, all right, so what is God talking to us prophetically as a church about? Well, firstly, in the mission of fire is that we are called to fuel it.
[00:10:18] We are called to fuel the mission.
[00:10:21] God calls his church. And just take a look at the lovely person sat next to you right now, because they are the church.
[00:10:28] You don't go to church. You know that, right? We don't go to church. Oh, my goodness. He's walking down the center aisle. Oh, my goodness. He's going to make me feel uncomfortable. We don't go to church. You know that, right? And so I'm sat next to my brother here. I could be shaking my brother's hand here right now, which I met in the prayer meeting. Like, we don't go to church. We are the church. If you had said to the apostle Paul or any of the disciples, are you going to church today? They would have looked at you. Absolutely gone out. I thought, what sort of weird syntax in your Hebrew or Aramaic language are you talking about going to church? Because the clear description of the New Testament church is that we are the hands and feet of Jesus.
[00:11:10] And being the hands of feet and Jesus mean that we get to be Jesus to our community around us. Now that is a challenge because how are you demonstrating Jesus when that neighbour parks outside your house?
[00:11:26] We don't have this problem in Australia because we live in big roads, big houses behind big gates. So you don't bother if a neighbour parks outside your house. But what happens when the neighbour parks out your house and you say good morning to your neighbour? No, no problem. You park there. No problem at all. And then you go inside your house and what do you do?
[00:11:46] You vent out to whoever's in the house. How dare they park in that? We don't want to look at their van. How dare that person skip in front of me at asd? Like being the hands and feet of Jesus into our world around us, friends, is not like this microphone. Are you ready?
[00:12:11] I can't flick the kingdom of God off in my life. I can't decide to suddenly be a representation of Jesus on a Sunday in church. Isn't it great? I'm lifting holy hands to God and then as the person cuts me up in the motorway, I'm giving them victory V's. It don't work that way.
[00:12:26] Does salt and darkness can they both? Can salt and fresh water come from the same spout? Can praise and curse come from the same tongue? No, absolutely not. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus both here on a Sunday morning. And you know what? What is so biggest truth the enemy has robbed? If the enemy can take something away from us, he'll take this away from us. That you and I are the body, the hands and feet of Jesus Monday to Saturday, a lot more than we are on a Sunday.
[00:12:58] And if the nations need Jesus, they need a church that realizes that we are called to be children of God. I am a son or a daughter of the most High. I am ambassador of the kingdom. I am an heir of the kingdom of God. I will be a co heir with Jesus on a Monday, on a Tuesday, on a Wednesday, on Friday a. And when the BT man doesn't turn up on a Thursday when he promised that he would.
[00:13:22] And you want to chew them out over the phone.
[00:13:24] Right, I'm an ambassador I follow God's kingdom and I bring the kingdom of God in. I got off a plane on Wednesday and the first thing an Englishman does when he gets off a plane or hasn't been to England for a long time is heads to Asda to buy prawn cocktail what sits.
[00:13:41] True story, first thing I did, because over in Australia you can't get prawn cocktail what sits. And I love prawn cocktail what sits. You're gonna buy me prawn cocktail wattsits? Please do.
[00:13:52] And so I get it off and I'm there and I'm jet lagged as anything and I'm whistling and I'm whistling and I'm whistling the song Holy Forever by Bethel Worship, you know, and the angels cry ho ho, right? And so I'm whistling that and this lady says to me, she goes, she says, oh, you're cheerful doing your groceries. I say, yeah, my dad's really entering end of life and he's not very well.
[00:14:15] This lady goes, what?
[00:14:18] Yeah, I said, and you know what? He's probably weeks, weeks, days, whatever and what? And she goes oh, I'm really sorry to hear that. I said, ah, thank you, thank you so much. Really sorry to hear that. Trent said, why are you so whistling about it?
[00:14:31] Thank you Lord.
[00:14:33] Here we go, here's a great opportunity just by whistling in Asda as you do in your groceries. And so I shared to her, I said, well I said the reality is we're Christians and we believe in Jesus and we believe that we're only just passing through this earth because our eternal home is with him in a place where he called paradise. And the great thing is, once I was lost, but now I'm found and I can go and be with Jesus forever. And I asked her this very simple question. I said, do you know Jesus?
[00:15:06] And she said no. And right there in Asda I got to talk to her about receiving Jesus as her Lord and savior in Asda. Her husband, little did I know, was behind jaw dropped to the ground like, what is going on? And I heard her talking to her husband as I walked off about how she just received Jesus with a huge smile on her face in the Asda deli section as I'm whistling, trying to get all glory to him, right, all glory to him, trying to get reduced meat for cheap and prawn cocktail wattsits.
[00:15:39] And that's the kingdom of God operating, isn't it? In the most simplistic and most beautiful of ways when we realize that as Christians we are called to fuel the mission God has given us a clear description of a commission, of what he has called us to do. And. And for you, church, for you, your mission is this area driving in on your minibus that does smell like rugby players.
[00:16:03] And Phil picked us up.
[00:16:06] Sorry, mate. As we're driving in, Phil's telling me that There are nearly 100,000 people between the six towns of this area here. And I would hesitate to guess that what there might be 5% which would believe in Jesus.
[00:16:21] And so your mission field is 95,000 people.
[00:16:26] 95,000 people which are on a pathway to hell. 95,000 people which have a destiny where there is no hope. And Jesus himself calls the gnashing of teeth a fire and torment and gnashing of teeth an eternity without him.
[00:16:46] And the commission goes upon us as his church, of his bride, of his hands and feet in. What are we going to do about that? Because James, who is the New Testament church, who was Jesus's sorry, New Testament pastor, he was Paul's pastor, and get this, he was Jesus half brother.
[00:17:04] So James, in scripture and historically, James was sawn in half. And so James is sawn in half for his brother half brother. Jesus convinced 100% that he's the Messiah and the Son of God. Now, Esther, I love you very much, but growing up, I know that you are not perfect.
[00:17:28] And so for me to claim that Esther is somehow a God would be an absolute contradiction into what I have seen.
[00:17:38] Because I have seen Esther have arguments and I better stop there. I have seen Esther not always be perfect, and she has seen me not always be perfect. That's the life of siblings, right? But James grew up with Jesus. As far as we can see, as far as theologians would tell us, we can see that he would have had some time. And James, in the scripture is so adamantly convinced that Jesus is who he is, he says this. He says, you have got to live your life with action, with purposeful action for Jesus. Because if you just believe in him and you attend church on a Sunday, that is not going to be enough. You cannot tithe your way into the kingdom of God. You cannot pray your way into the kingdom of God. It doesn't matter how many prayer meetings or life groups you go to. James says this, not me. Don't get angry at me. Get angry at James, the brother of Jesus, the pastor of the New Testament Church. He says this. If you have faith, but you do nothing with it, it's not just weak, it is what, dead. There is nothing active in your life. And last time I checked Jesus said this. Anything that is dead, he will spit out of his mouth. Lukewarm things, dead things. And so James commissions us. James jumps on the bandwagon of Paul. Paul jumps on the bandwagon of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And they are all pointing to this one point that the church is called to fuel the mission of God. And the mission of God is this, that all men, women, children.
[00:19:21] It was a context, time, statement.
[00:19:23] All people will lift up holy hands to God. Do you know God's plan? And God's purpose is for your neighbor to receive him, not by coming to this church. That may happen and that's great. And they may eventually attend here, but that's not the goal. The goal is not for you to bring somebody to church to meet Jesus. The goal is for your neighbor, your cashier in Asda, whoever it is that you are looking after, to meet Jesus because they have met you.
[00:19:54] Because you are an ambassador of God. You are carrying the kingdom and the kingdom is alive inside of you. Amen.
[00:20:03] God's kingdom mission starts with us.
[00:20:09] Can I say right now, and be careful how I say this, because these are good things to do.
[00:20:15] It's easy to write a check to compassion, it's easy to write a check to maf.
[00:20:21] It's easy to write a check to organizations which will support missions work. And that's good things to do. I'm not saying that they are bad things to do. Do you know it's a lot harder to get out of your car and inconvenience yourself and cross over the road and introduce yourself.
[00:20:36] It's a lot harder to spend that extra time seeking to go and be part and invest and put into somebody's world. Because we know the kingdom is built through relationships. You ever wonder why Jesus took three years to train his disciples? This is God training three years to train up his disciples. The first year he said, just come follow me. The second year he gave them some responsibility. The third year he allowed them to go out and sent them out and started to do other things. But three years it took for him to fully equip his disciples. And. And he did it because the kingdom of God works out of relationship, works out of relationship. And people in today's world are starved of relationship. All over the world, England is the same as Australia. It's the same as every European nation. Right now we're all looking at the news, we're all looking at all sorts of immigration areas which are going on and all looking at all sorts of economic issues which Are which? Every nation, I'll let you know, every nation is free fighting these areas right now. We're all looking at wars in the Middle East. It was two years ago, I was in Israel and I left Israel and the first missiles and the raids were left nearly a month later. And we just got out of Israel. And they're facing exactly the same issues that we are facing right now. Relationships. There is a lack of relationships in the world. Social media was meant to make us more relational. It has more isolated us, greater than ever. And so, number one, we're called to fuel the mission. Number two, we're called to invest in people.
[00:22:08] We are called to invest in time, resources and care into our communities. You know, I often say to the churches in Australia, I said, we can never compete with entertainment.
[00:22:21] The world will always have more money than us. You'll always have better LCD screens than us. And I have nothing wrong with that. Our churches in Australia have big LCD screens and. And that's fine. You know, I have no problem with that. But it cannot take over the concept that we are called to invest in people.
[00:22:38] We are called to invest in people. Every single one of us is called to invest in people. Because God's kingdom is a kingdom that is relationally focused. We are called. You say, well, James, I'm just not. I'm an introvert. I'm just not very good at that. Well, you better get on your knees and ask the Holy Spirit to make you good at that because he's the one who's going to empower you and he's the one who's going to make you bold. And he's the only one who wants you to going to empower you and make you bold. Because many of us will all naturally go to our introverted state. You ask my wife right now. You stick me in a room of 10 strangers. I am the quietest person in there. And I will not say boo to a goose, but put me in on the platform and suddenly the Holy Spirit comes and his work and his empowerment in my life means that suddenly I become quite bold and I get to say things and I can even do things in an Aussie accent if I want to. And so you can start to do things because the Holy Spirit is the person who is at work within our lives and he calls us to invest in people.
[00:23:43] Do you know there's a thing on your phone? Many of us don't check it and we don't check it on purpose. And it's called screen time.
[00:23:52] It's an app on your phone. Let's be honest, let's have a moment of honesty right now. Hands up if you know screen time exists on your phone. Fantastic. Hands up if you deliberately don't check it.
[00:24:06] That's about pretty much every single hand, bar one or two those who put it up. And the reality, why we don't check in and if you don't know what screen time is, maybe you're not sure what screen screen time is. A simple app that will tell you how many hours you've been on Facebook, how many hours you've been on Instagram, how many you've been on web browser, how many you've been on Netflix, all that sort of stuff. And the reality is, is most of us don't check it because we know what it's going to say to us and we know it's often going to challenge us, it's going to cause us some sort of thought process, some change. And as Phil said before about moving locations, we are not people who like change, are we?
[00:24:45] We don't like change, we naturally love change, love where we are. It's why we shop in the same shops, it's why we go to the same places, we eat at the same restaurants. We went to a Cafe Nero the other day in Conwyn Bay up in Wales. I know we've done a lot since we got here. On Wednesday we went to Wales, climbed Snowdon, did all sorts of stuff and all jet lagged. So we went for a coffee and we sat in Cafe Nero. And I quite like studying leadership and what, why people do things. And we sat in Cafe Nero and I said to my wife who was at this point heavily jet lagged and thinking, I'm just not listening to him, but I said it anyway. I said, why are we in Cafe Nero?
[00:25:23] Why?
[00:25:25] Over there there's a coffee shop, over there there's a coffee shop, then there's four of the coffee shops which are all local coffee shops. But why did we choose Cafe Nero?
[00:25:37] And the reality is we came to this leadership thought that we chose Cafe Nero because we don't like change because it's familiar to us, it's safe to us and the venue. We know, we know that when we walk in, we know what coffee we're going to order.
[00:25:54] You guys think, you know coffee, you need to come to Australia and Melbourne and have a coffee. Melbourne is the coffee capital of the world. It's incredible. But there we go, we try.
[00:26:02] And so like we went to Cafe Nero, we sat down, it, it was safe, it was comfortable. Is that not a metaphor? If we are not careful for the church, how many of us today are sat in the same seat you sat in last week?
[00:26:16] You're all looking around now. I'll tell you what, I give you permission.
[00:26:20] 10 seconds. Look around, everyone. See, are you sat in the same seat you were in last week? Are you sat in the same area you were sat now have a think about this. Sorry, Esther and Phil, I'm going there. A new person walks into church, right? And they walk in through these doors for the very first time. And they come in and they don't know what time it is. They have no idea what it is, and they don't even know what the inside looks like. And they go like this. Are you ready?
[00:26:46] I'm here, baby. And they've come and walked into church and where do they sit?
[00:26:51] Who's the person saying hello to them? What's the thought process happening? What happens when they sit maybe in your seat? I'm sure we're all okay with that, right? I'm sure none of us would be the point where, oh, that's my seat. That's where I sit. But you can see where I'm going.
[00:27:07] If we are not careful, if we do not invest in people, friends, are we anything more than Caffe Nero?
[00:27:16] Are we anything more than for a nice place for people to sit, have a nice coffee, have some food afterwards, have a God bless you handshake? Isn't that nice? Just. Surely the church is called to be so much more than a nice social club.
[00:27:31] Surely the church is called to be a place where people are radically transformed and changed forever. Now, put that into the context of how Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and James talk all about the commission of God. Because the commission of God is not for people to come and meet Jesus on a chair in this building on a Sunday. The commission of God is for you and me to go out of these doors to reach Newton Abbott for Jesus, the 95,000 people, and then bring them back to see together and be encouraged together about what God is doing amongst us. Amen.
[00:28:13] How amazing is it when we see what God is doing, how amazing is it that we listen to testimony. No wonder the Word tells us that we overcome the enemy by the word of God and the power of our testimony. People in our city of Newton Abbott and the towns around us, do you call Newton Abbott a city?
[00:28:31] Well, you would in Australia. Newton Abbott would be a city. There's not many people, mate. And so Newton Abbott would be like a mega city. And so like how amazing would it for people to come into here to learn and to hear that God is alive, that God is good, that that he's changing lives, that he's healing the sick, that he's delivering those who are broken, that the demonic, that those who are oppressed, both mentally, anxiety, all that sort of thing is being lifted by neighbors, activating the kingdom of God on their streets.
[00:29:05] Jesus said this about investing people. Why is this so hard for us as the 21st century church, the New Testament church, he says this. And these words are so powerful. He said so often it's hard to invest because where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
[00:29:20] Anyone heard that in a giving talk?
[00:29:23] We rip that verse to shreds by giving it in a giving talk. And the reality is it's got very little to do with financial stuff.
[00:29:30] For where your treasure is, there your heart is.
[00:29:33] Is the treasure in your heart?
[00:29:37] Is it the kingdom of God is God. If you closed your eyes now and looked at your neighbors, do you really have a heart for your neighbor? Do you understand that God has called you for such a time as this to live in that house? He has given you that house. Everything that we have is his. We steward it and he releases it in certain seasons. Daniel in the scripture says that he's the Lord of the seasons. He controls our seasons, he moves us around, he shifts our seasons. Is that neighbour which we are looking at on the streets, do we really have a heart for them? Do we really want to invest in them? If we want to be a church of nations, we have to be and we must be a church that first of all fuels a mission, secondly, invests in people. And thirdly, we have to have a mandate of reaching the lost.
[00:30:22] Can I ask you right now, you'll probably never ask me to preach again? I might never be here. You may ask me to preach, I don't know. But when was the last time you shared the gospel?
[00:30:30] Just let that be a simple message. When was the last time that you woke up in the morning and you prayed a very simple prayer? Lord, use me today to change one person's life forever.
[00:30:41] What would that look like if God actually answered that prayer?
[00:30:46] Can you imagine, can you imagine what a church would look like? Can you imagine what an area would look like? I remember going to Pensacola Revival five times and three times. Sorry, Three times I went to the Pensacola Revival and I remember driving into the Pensacola Revival and the first night we got there, we were so looking forward to getting inside the building and hearing, hearing the speaker speak it was Steve Hill that night speaking and Lyndal Cooley leading worship. We heard this amazing move of God and we got there and we got out of the car and four hours later we got up because the power of God hit us so heavy in the car park that we missed the meeting.
[00:31:23] And we were just on the floor to just in the presence of God. So in awe of the presence of God and his presence touching earth. The visitation of God. Moving church. Do we have a dream? Not for that, because that was for them. That was the blueprint for God for them. But God has a blueprint for this church. He has a blueprint for this area. Right at the center of God's heart is these towns. And he wants to see his kingdom come and, and he doesn't do it through investing in leaders and just having, hey, we're doing this. Come follow us. He does it by a church. A people built up and connected. Living rocks. Spiritual people building up the kingdom connected. Recognizing that every single one of us, Whether you are 9 years of age or whether you are 98 years of age, are all part of his wonderful bride and knitted together for such a time as this to reach a world that desperately needs Jesus. Hey, can I say stop complaining?
[00:32:26] Let's do something about it.
[00:32:29] Let's bring Jesus onto our streets.
[00:32:31] Let's be Jesus to our neighbors.
[00:32:34] Let's be Jesus to those people in our lives who are often the hardest people in our lives. If God controls our lives, he brings through the seasons. Maybe God, what a thought this is. Maybe God has put you into that difficult season with your boss to be his hands and feet, to see their lives transformed forever.
[00:32:54] Maybe if 90 people in this room got together and simply said, hey, we're going to pray a prayer that simply says, God, would you use my life to bring one person for Jesus? How would that radically change us from forever? And lastly, reach the last third, fourth, one, number E. God calls us in the nations to equip the saints. Ephesians 4:12 says this. The church equips believers to serve.
[00:33:25] To serve.
[00:33:26] I really, truly believe that serving is not on the doors and giving out coffees. I think that's a good thing to do. I think they're good works.
[00:33:35] But when God calls us to serve, I truly believe he has a mission and a mandate for every single one of our lives, which go way beyond what we could think of. His plans and purposes are so much bigger. It was 12 years of age when I was at a youth camp in North Wales and the Lord said, To me, I was going to go to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel. It took nearly 18 years for that to come to pass. But since I said yes to God, I met a wife. I remember us both talking about, why on earth are we here in Australia? We. We got nothing to offer this nation in Australia. We're just very ordinary people. And I remember us coming back to a point, didn't grow up together, didn't know each other. Nick was in the Anglican church. I was in the pentecostal church. But she came to a point where she realizes a moment in a youth meeting, she said, yes, Lord, wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, I will do. I remember being 12 years of age in a youth meeting saying, lord, I truly mean it. Wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, here I am. Use me. Because the part of the great thing about the church is we equip the saints for service. Wonder if you bow your heads with me as we close. And I don't know if you get a key team back up the worship team. Whatever. Whatever you usually do. Do whatever you usually do. But, Lord, right now we just very simply give you our lives because we reckon your kingdom is a big kingdom, and it's a growing kingdom, and we want to be right at the very center of it.
[00:34:56] And so, Lord, as we have looked at the concept of the church's role in the nations, we recognize our role together is to fuel the mission. It's to invest in people. It's to reach the lost, and it's to equip us for works and for service. And Lord, right now, maybe as we have just been watching our sisters dancing and singing, maybe we've been watching testimonies of people on missions, maybe we've been thinking about what does that new moving to Stover look like? God, I pray right now that you would give us a mindset that is so much bigger, Lord, that you would give us something. And birthing in our hearts, Lord, for this area of the 95, maybe even plus thousand people that don't know you. We recognize that you have called us for such a time as this to be your hands and feet in this area. And Lord, we recognize that. That incredibly tough words, that faith without works isn't just sleepy. It's dead. And God, we don't want to be dead people. We don't want to be people who are ineffective for your kingdom. We want to be people who for such a time, for this time that you have left us and put us on planet Earth, Lord, whether we have got two weeks left or whether we've got 50 years plus left, Lord, right now, God, we don't know, but recognize, you know. And so we pray, Lord, and we give youe our lives one more time right now, Lord, we recognize our lives are so much better in youn hands than they are in our hands. And so, Lord, we simply say whatever you want to do. In those wonderful words of the prophet Isaiah, here I am. Oh, Lord, send me, Lord. Send me to the supermarket this afternoon. Send me to the restaurant. Send me overseas on missions, whatever it is. Oh, Lord. God, we pray that you would help us to bring your kingdom into this area and these towns around. In your mighty name, amen. And amen.
