Making a difference - one step at a time

We thank you that you've given him a fresh word

for us. Help us not to commonize your word. Let

it be a rema word. Let it breakthrough at the

hardness of our hat season, and give us a perspective

that you are alive even now, and that you're able

even now, and that you're the closest friend will ever

have even now. In Jesus' name.

Amen, Amen, thank you, Juliette, Thank you Church. I was

promised that heating was going to be on this morning.

It's not. So if you need to get up and

keep yourself warm whilst I'm preaching and walk around, feel

free to do so. I'm not going to be offended

at all. But you know, when somebody promises you, you

believe them, don't you. So I'm sorry. We've done all

we can. It's remotely controlled from another place which is

shut today, so please bear with us. We're going to

pray that God warms us up as we as we

come around the word. Father God, I pray that Lord

d you'd fill us with the warmth of your presence

Right now. Father, I pray that Lord you'd draw close

to us. Lord, we need you, We need your Holy

Spirit at work in our lives, help us. We pray

in Jesus' name. Amen. We press into a new season

in November. Making a difference. Anybody feel they're making a difference?

Not enough hands up, guys and guys. That's not a

criticism because sometimes we feel that what we do no

one hears. Sometimes when we feel we say something, we

kind of go hello, did you hear me? Did you

catch what I'm saying? And I believe, and I honestly

want to encourage you. We are making a difference. You

are making a difference. We're doing it where we work,

where we live, where we reside, where we do church.

We are making a difference in this place in Strodes College.

I'll give you an example. We shout about what we

do here on a Sunday. Thank you for those people

who join us online from around the world. I seem

some unusual countries joining us this morning. I saw somebody

from Libya joining us this morning. So if you're still

with us, welcome. You know, sometimes with technology can only

get a glimpse of certain things, and we go only

get a glimpse sometimes of who's visiting from where we

can't necessarily guarantee their staying. But they're visiting and we're

touching nations. Anybody know how many roughly how many countries

there are in the world. About two hundred and thirty

two hundred and forty is my answer. It's quite a

lot of countries. You know. We've got some flags around

the room that represent some of the nations that we

touch and some of the people that we have in

our congregation. We are about thirty five nationalities right now.

As a church. Who you know that means we have

to say when is dias or bonjour or some of

the other things that the welcome sign says on the door. Now,

I know we are making a difference because I know

God makes a difference in us. So we're going to

start with the scripture you all know so well, John

three sixteen. John three sixteen says for this, for God

so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,

that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have

ever lasting life. Now, I want to start off with

a keyword in here. In this translation it says whoever,

But in other translation he says whosoever. Does that include you? Yes,

it includes you? Does it include your neighbors? Does it

include the people you work with. Whosoever God sent his

son for whosoever, Whether we acknowledge him or not, he

still sent his son, whether we declare his Jesus, and

whether we declare him as savior. He still sent his

son to pay the price for you and for me.

That's what we celebrated as we gather around communion his

only son. I'd like you to think right now about

the most precious thing that you have. I'd like you

to think about them. And hopefully it's not things. Maybe

it's a daughter or a son, or a brother or

a sister, or a husband or a wife, or but

someone who's precious to you. And I want to ask

you the question, are you willing to give them up?

Are you willing to hand them over? No? Our desire

would be to keep them safe and keep them well.

Yet God sent his only son to pay the price

for you and for me. In John fifteen thirteen, it

says this greater love hath no one than this, to

lay down one's life for one's friends. Are you a

friend of Jesus? Is he your friend because he laid

he life down for you? And I know there are

people this week in this congregation who've stepped out and

done something a bit different. I've heard of people who've

heard a conversation going on and said, do you mind

if I join in, and they brought the light of

Christ and the love of God into that conversation despite

the fact that they got a bit of ridicule or

a bit of hard time. I want to encourage you.

If you've shared your testimony, if you've spoken forth, if

you've done something this week which means you laid down

your reputation willing to be scorned, just like Jesus was scorned,

then well done. Well done, because sometimes we feel we're

not making a difference at all. One of my favorite

books is called The Heart of Success by Rob Parsons,

and there's a story in there that he recounts. I

don't know whether it's a true story or not, but

it's a beautiful story. He recounts how a man is

walking down a beach on a sunny evening in I

guess in the Indian Ocean, and as he's walking along

the beach, the tide is washing in and washing hundreds

of starfish onto the beach, but the tide is going out,

so these starfish are getting left on the beach. And

as this gentleman walks down the beach, he sees this

young man bending down and picking up a starfish and

throwing it into the sea, and bending down and picking

up another starfish and throwing it into the sea. And

he says to him, what on earth are you doing.

There are thousands, if not millions of starfish on this

beach today. You are not making a difference. And the

young man looked at him and then bent down again

and said, and I'm making a difference to this one.

And I'm making a difference to this one, and I'm

making a difference to this one. You know, sometimes what

we feel we're doing doesn't feel like it's making a difference.

But you are affecting someone. Your smile affects someone. Your

encouragement accepts someone help and help lift someone up and

encourages them. And we are called to be salt and

light in the world. Jesus didn't die for us just

so we could sit on our bums and do nothing.

He died for us so that we be men and

women of action, men and women who would do something,

men and women who would share something. In Philippians two,

verse eight says he humbled himself. He humbled himself, and

he found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death. He went to the ultimate place.

He paid the ultimate sacrifice, even death on a cross,

not even a nice death, not even a comfortable death.

He paid the price for you and me. Are we

willing to take up our cross? Are we willing to

take up our cross and die to self and die

to reputation? Mother Teresa was also asked about the similar

kind of situation of so much need and so little

And she was asked this question, and the description was,

how can you make a difference in this ocean of need?

And she looked at the interviewer and said to him, Sir,

an ocean is made up of many drops. We can

make a difference now, we can make a difference today,

we can make hopefully we made a difference yesterday. Because

God has a plan for us. It says that in

Jeremiah twenty nine, verse eleven, God has a plan for

you and for me, and actually he wants to encourage

us to walk in that plan. And he walks encourages

us to walk in that plans because he has a

plan for you and for me, and in pressing into

that he shares it with power and authority. So how

confidently do you walk today? I want to encourage you.

Have got? Have we got? Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,

Thank you for I know the plans I have for you,

declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to

harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I've sat down with probably hundreds, maybe even thousands possibly

of young students and said, where are you going? What

are you going to do after university? When you finished

your dissertation? What's next? I don't know whether some of

you in the room and some of you watching online

have thought that kind of question. For those third years,

you're probably thinking exactly about that kind of thing as

you're applying for jobs. Have you a little box this

big and saying, well, I want to do this, or

have you opened up the box and said, God, what

do you want me to do? I sense there are

people in this room who will not be in this

country this time next year. And that's not a negative thing.

That's a positive thing. Because God sends us into the world,

He doesn't just kind of go oh, just get on

with your life. He has a plan and a purpose

for us. We have gifts and talents. Anybody noticed some

new people on the worship team today. Great to see

Rabina up there sharing life and fashion. You know, you

can't once. Once Robina gets up and starts worshiping, you know,

it's like she's got a spring inside her. You know

that there's something you know, and I want to encourage

because it's catching. When you see somebody going for it

in praise, you kind of dance a little bit more,

don't you. Yeah, And I just I just think it's

great to have people around us who are going for

it in God and praise God. And I thought, I

think there was always a prophetic moment at the beginning

of the worship team there when one of your children

and Beena was sitting there on the kahan. That will happen.

That will happen. They will be part of playing that.

But what plans do you have? You know? Sometimes I'm

sure God looks at the plans I have. I've written

them out and I'm thinking about something I'm going to

be doing, and he just goes, ha ha, come on, Dave,

and he laughs at me because he thinks he realizes

how small I'm thinking. Let me ask you a question.

When you came to church this morning, what were you

believing God for this morning as you walked in here?

Were you believing God that somebody came to Christ for

the first time? Were you believing God for someone to

be healed? Are you come here with a christ saying Lord,

I need to hear you speak to me. You know,

lots of us come with different needs and different situations.

But I think we put God into a box that

he's far too small. Yes, God, can you work in

this way, in this particular moment right now? And he goes, yeah,

I can work in this moment right now. But actually

I'd like to paint a much bigger picture. I have

a plan for you for the next twenty years. And

that plan is a big plan, and it requires that

other people walking their prophetic destiny too. The fascinating thing

about Jeremiah twenty nine, verse eleven is that it means

that our lives are intertwined. These are not separate plans

running on separate tracks all independent. Our life are intertwined.

Some of the things you do here today will echo

in eternity any mathematicians in the room would say, the

odds on this particular group of people exactly, this group

of people ever meeting again in one place is millions

to one because it only takes one of you to

be somewhere else, and it's a different if it's a

different gathering. So the odds on being in this place

at this time are unique, and you are unique. I

was fascinated. This is probably a twenty year odd story.

I came. I came to church one Sunday and some

of our young people who've been away on holiday came said, Dave,

we saw you in Serbia. I was thinking, I think

I've never been to Serbia. So I said, no, you haven't.

So we've got photographic evidence you were in Serbia. I

went really, and they brought a picture to me that

somebody that looked almost like me. It wasn't me, but

he said, David's you. I said, no, no, it's not me.

I am unique. You know, my fingerprints a different to

this person. Say, may look like me, but it's not me.

That you have been called you. God has a plan

and a purpose for you, and you need to walk

in your destiny. I need to walk in my destiny.

Because my destiny is intertwined with yours, and yours is

intertwined with mine. There will be people who come into

the Kingdom of God because of your walk. So walk well,

and walk on a path that's well lit. For those

people who have difficulties of walking in the dark, you

don't like driving in the dark, maybe then you'll like

some of these scriptures now. Palm one hundred and nineteen

one oh five says, bring a light to my path.

Have you ever tried walking around the dark? For those

parents where you leave lego on the floor in the dark,

and then you step on a piece of lego, It

hurts ow and so then you then suddenly walk differently.

Instead of confidently walking across the room thinking there's nothing here,

you now start to walk completely differently, as if and

you're trying to feel your way through the floor. You've

lost all confidence. And in losing all confidence, we say

light my path for it says in Summer hundred and

nineteen one oh five says, your word is a lamp

to my feet. There's nothing better. It's nothing better that

I can say to you this morning, and say, whenever

you're in doubt, dive into God's word. Just pray, ask

God and say help me I need. I sometimes describe

my Bible as my guide book for life. I had

the privilege of taking assemblies in a number of our

local schools, including Manorcroft, and I remember going in there

one particular Tuesday morning, and as I walked into the

school ready to do an assembly, a young gentleman came

up to me and said A young child came up

to me and said, Sir, is it a religious assembly today?

And I didn't really understand the question. If I want

to stay? I said, well, we're going to sing some

songs and yes, I'm going to tell you a Bible story.

He said, oh, okay, thank you. And so I went

and spoke to the head Mischian and said what's going

on there? She said, well, certain sects the Brethren are

not allowed to sit under somebody else's teaching. So actually,

if you're going to teach Bible, they have to sit out,

they have to opt out. So I made a decision

in my heart. I said I'm going to be salt

and light in these moments. So the next time I

came to do an assembly, I walked in and said

I'm not doing a religious assembly, and I talked about

the Bible. But it was my guidebook for life, my

handbook for the journey, and my map to find my way.

And that's the way I refer to it, I said,

and I quoted some scripture, but I said, okay, this

good book, this guidebook for life. Sometimes if we say

in a meeting or we say to somebody, the Bible says,

because people don't know what the Bible is, they do

not understand it's the living word of God. They rejected

immediately and go, that's an old, dusty book that I

wouldn't pay any attention to. Well, Church, I want to

encourage you. It's the most living, effective book that we

can ever dive into. And sales of the Bible are

going up right now, not down. They're going up. That's right,

isn't it, Yasmin? Yes, absolutely well. And if you want

to buy a Bible, let me recommend Canaan. You know,

if you want to buy a Bible, please please don't

go to Amazon. Go to Canaan. Let's encourage our local

Christian bookstore. Light my path, shine your light, Let your

lamp be a word to my feet. Let me not

walk in darkness. Darkness can often be ignorance. Often ignorance

can lead us to do things that are unintended. We say, oh,

I didn't mean that. Sorry. Psalm thirty seven, verses twenty

three and twenty four says this the Lord up holds us.

The Lord makes firm the steps to the one who

delights in him. Though he may stumble, he will not fall,

for the Lord upholds him with his hand. Anybody needs

a steadying arm. Yeah, you know, sometimes we need one another.

We need one another to help us. There's nothing better

that we can do. Say can I help you? Now?

If somebody says, I'm all right, thanks very much. And

I know I do this a bit sometimes Sometimes I'm

struggling with stuff and people come along say can I

help you? You know, I think it happened this morning.

Somebody said can I help you? I said, no, I'm

all right, thank you very much. You know the pride

in me. No, I'm doing okay. We don't like to

admit we need help, do we. We certainly don't like

to admit we need help from the one who created us.

I'm sure he's looking down sometimes saying Dave, can I

help you? No, I'm all right thanks very much, Dave,

can I help you? No, I'm all right, thanks very much.

And then when I've got into a real mess and

now I go help and he goes, see told you so.

Now he doesn't want to say that kind of thing.

He doesn't want to think those kind of things. But

I want to encourage you this morning to be bold

in your journey. Hebrew's four sixteen encourages us to be bold,

and boldness is not something that comes naturally to us.

For some people, you walk on the stage, you walk

in front of people, and you've got amazing confidence that

comes almost out of nowhere. But do you know what

I want to encourage us in a particular area in

Hebrews four sixteen. Let us then approach God's throne of

grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and

find grace to help us in time of need. I

am sure tomorrow, at some point this week, you will

have a moment of need. I want to encourage you

ask for help in prayer. Lord help me. I've had

the privilege of being a primary school teacher for a

number of years, and sometimes I'd be sitting in my

classroom and I'd see a child playing with something, maybe

lego bricks, something, doing a jigsaw puzzle, and I can

see they're struggling. Now it would be very easy for

me to reach down and do it for them. Do

you know what it makes you feel different when somebody

turns down Nanny, grandpa, granddad, teacher? Can you help me?

Because now instead of you doing it for them, you're

doing it with them. God doesn't want to do it

for us. He wants to do it with us. You know.

God doesn't have a plan B. His Plan A is

the Church. God sent his one and only son, you know,

the bride and the bridegroom. It talks about that in scripture.

Christ will return for his the church. So we can

boldly approach the throne of grace with confidence. I don't

mean a false few. I don't mean a false confidence.

I mean a confidence that says, Daddy, I'm here, I'm

here in your presence. I need your help. And sometimes

we do create some pretty significant messes, don't we. Anybody

created a mess this year? I have, Yeah, not proud

of it, but you know, but God helps us. God

helps us in these moments of needs. So we need

his grace because if we don't receive his grace. Then

we're going to struggle to make a difference. In Joshua one,

chapter nine, it says this, and it was my post

for today. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Now? Firstly,

command as telling you to do something, not asking you.

Would you mind if it's telling you to A command

says you played the game, Simon says, you know what

I mean by Simon says, so let's just do it,

actually do it. So Simon said, actually, let's make it different.

Let's say. Jesus says, So if I say, Jesus says,

please do it. If I don't do it, if I

don't say, Jesus says, don't do it. Okay, Okay, put

your hands on your head. Okay, Jesus says, put your

right hand on your right shoulder. Okay, take it off again.

Jesus says, stand up. Okay, you can sit down now. Okay,

you've got the idea. I don't need to make I

don't need to make this a silly game. Please do

sit down. That The point is that firstly, it's it's

it comes with the command from the commander. Jesus says,

you know Jesus said, now have I not commanded you?

And then it says be strong and courageous. Well, okay,

we can go to the gym and we can build

up muscle, we can become stronger. But how do we

build up courage? How do you and I build up courage.

We build up courage by taking steps of faith, by

having a go I've done it before, I'll do it again,

And then we catch courage from other people. When we

do it together, we're more confident. We step into the

presence of God, for it says, do not be afraid.

Remember that story I told you mentioned earlier. On you

step on a piece of lego on the floor, Suddenly

you walk completely differently. If you've been somewhere before and

you've got hurt, something's happened, something's scared you, you walk

into that street differently. Some people say, oh, I don't

walk down that street anymore, it's dark and dangerous. Well, actually,

God encourage us to be bold, to be strong, to

be courageous. Do not be afraid, for the Lord will

be with you wherever you go. And I believe that

also includes places that we make bad choices around. I

don't think God leaves us behind because we make bad choices.

He tries to nudg us back on track. That's why

he lights our path. He wants us to walk his

way because that's the best way. But we do make

bad choices, don't we. And I don't think God jumps

off and goes, oh see, you've made the wrong choice.

I'm leaving you to yourself. Psalm one hundred and thirty

nine is not in my slides. Some one hundred nine

says where David wrote, where can I go from your presence?

Where can I flee? Even if I go to the

uttermost parts of the earth, even there, your hand will

guide me. Even when I've made a mess, You are

still there. And so I'm going to wrap this up.

As we've celebrated communion, as we press into this, I

want to encourage every one of us to be bold

this week, to take a slightly different step. Sometimes that

means that we need to take a different perspective, we

need to look differently. I was touched by a few

people who have taken some of the disposable cutlery that

were given and given it to homeless people in London.

I never thought about thinking about that kind of thing

that you'd have, something that you know you could eat

and be healthy. And I was thinking, we don't need

to hold onto stuff. If God gives us stuff, let's

give it away. What anybody remember a program called Crackerjack.

It was five o'clock on a Friday, and they played

a game called Cabbages and Kings. I don't know whether

I'm getting some blank looks now, so okay, let me

describe it. It was a game where a child had

to stand on a pedestal and they were asked a question.

If they got the question right, they were given a prize,

a game or something, and they had to hold it.

If they dropped anything, they were out, and they anything

that they had still they want. So they get asked

a question, they'd be given a game. When they got

the question wrong, then they were given a cabbage, a

big cabbage. And so now they're holding a game and

a cabbage, and then they will get another question. Right

now they've got a game and a cabbage and a game.

It all becomes very awkward and difficult to hold. I

think often our lives can be full of things that

God does not want us to carry. The cabbage is

of life. If you'll excuse the phrase the things that

he doesn't want us to carry, But there are things

he does want us to carry because He wants us

to use them. And sometimes we need to give stuff away.

We need to share the power of God. We need

to show the love of God. We need to live

and walk the love of God because He wants us

to be bold and courageous. It's reading week this week

on campus. I think, is that right? Yes? Yeah, I

have got it right, Okay, yep. So some of you

will be doing some reading this week, some of you

might be going home, some of you might be doing

something out. But here's a week where you can step

out and be bold and courageous. Why not sit down

and have a coffee. I used to work for a

big American software company many many years ago, and whenever

I came to the canteen, they had a big canteen.

When it came for lunchtime, I'd get my tray of

my food and I'd walk around the canteen and I

was looking for someone who was sitting on their own

who I did not know, and I would just say,

do you mind if I join you? Most of the

time they went no, that's fine, thank you, and I

would just sit and start and then eventually conversation would start.

When I left the company after two and a half years,

as I was walking around, the people said, Dave, how

do you know so many people? I said, well, I've

sat down and had the lunch with many of them,

and it's not a British thing to do. It's not

you know. And I know that we've got a whole

range of nationalities in the room here, so maybe it'd

be normal for your culture to do that. But I

just want to encourage you step out of your boat

sometime this week. Step out with courage and with confidence,

and just see what God will do. See what will happen.

For I believe you and I are making a difference,

and more importantly, God is making a difference through us.

So be bold, be courageous, make a difference, one step

at a time. Let me pray, Father, God, we thank

you for your presence today, We thank you for your

holy spirit. Father. I pray that we'd carry something of

you into our week. Lord, we know that you're there

with us every day, every moment. But Father, sometimes we

ignore you. Sometimes we step aside and do it our

own way. Father, forgive us when we do that, Father,

help us to listen to the heartbeat of the Father.

Help us to listen to your instructions into your words

and as we read, as I have commanded you, be

bold and courageous. Father, I pray that you'd help us

to step into new situations, into new circumstances with confidence

and boldness. Father, I pray that where there is dark,

you'd help us to bring light where there is no hope.

I'd pray that you'd help us to bring hope where

hopelessness abounds. Father, we pray above all that we'd share

the most important message of all that Jesus Christ sent

his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him

should not perish but have everlasting life. And I do

want to put this into place in prayer. And so

I'm going to ask you to think about the weak

ahead that you've got, whatever that contains. For some of us,

that will be something that you've never done before, something

that actually maybe quite concerned about. I'm going to ask

you to And if that's you, I'm not going to

ask you what it is that's between you and God.

But if there's something that you're going to be doing

for the first time. There's something you need courage and

boldness for this week. I'm going to pray that God

gives you that. So if that's you, would you stand.

If you're doing it at home, please also stand at home.

I think it's good time. Just as the Father looks

on us, he just acknowledges and says, so I can

help you. But I just want you to ask, son, daughter,

just look yourhead into that week and maybe it's not

something that's definitely happening. Maybe it's something you want to happen,

something that is going to be completely in your hands. Again,

if you need boldness and courage, stand up right now.

Let's step into purpose. Let's step into destiny. In Jesus' name.

And so, Father God, I thank you for everyone standing,

those in the room, those listening now online, and those

listening later. Father, I pray that you'd release to us

the power of your presence. Father, I pray that you'd

pour us and fill us with your holy spirit. Lord.

If we're full of you, then there's less of ourselves

to get in the way. Fill us up, we pray

in Jesus's name, Fill us, Lord, enable us. Father, I

pray that you'd help us put on glasses that allow

us to see something of what you see. So instead

of it being a season of fearfulness, Father, I pray

it will be a season of sightfulness. Father, instead of

it being a season or a moment of overwhelming, Father,

I pray it will be underwhelming, Lord God, because you

will lift us to a different perspective. You will give

us a different perspective on things, a different view. And

when we see it the way you see it, Lord,

we realize that the mountains have become mole hills. The

situations are different, and you've lifted us up. And so, Father,

I pray right now you'd impart courage and boldness, confidence

and faith to my brothers and sisters who are standing

with me. Lord God, help us in these days ahead.

And Father, give us a word, Give us a word,

Lord God that would carry us through. Lord command us,

Lord if we need that direction in Jesus's mighty name. Amen. Amen,