29th September 2024 - Celebration Service - Fix your eyes on Him

Morning, Church morning, everybody. Great to have you with us

this morning. Those people are watching online, fantastic to have

you with us from around the world. I'm always it's flabbergasted,

a word you get. If I use the word flabbergasted,

you understand what I mean. I'm sure there ought to

be somebody who goes what flabbergasted. It's a great English word.

It just means. It means completely wonderment. It means I

can't believe. It means something that doesn't fit into our

mindset and into our brain. And I'm often flabbergasted by

the way we're touching the world Church. You wouldn't see this,

but we get inboundary inquiry is saying somebody spoke about this,

please tell me what that means. Or I want to

become a Christian? How do I go about becoming a Christian?

Or what was the one this week? Oh, please pray

for my mum. I had a request from Pakistan saying

please pray for my mum. She's not very well at

the moment. So just this us as a group of people,

we're just telling people about it, and I'm flabbergasted by

how far God is taking what we're doing and touching

it in different ways. We had a company who reached

out to us who said we'd like to help you

with marketing. They're based in New York. We're reaching New

York case and that God's providing help with us in

different ways, in different skills. So let's get around the word.

Then we've talked about fixing your eyes on Jesus. There's

a massive search for truth at the moment I see you,

can you just pass me that. My latest book's all

about Ai Cherry in All about Ai, How AI Will

Change Your Life, And I've been reading this and one

of the chapters I've just got to is there's going

to be a massive search for truth. What does that mean?

A massive search for truth? How do you know anything

is true? Today? You've probably all seen a video that

looks like reality and it's not true. It's been created

by an algorithm to create say it might be an

algorithm of me saying that I think Chelsea is a

wonderful football team. Now I don't think Chelsea is a

wonderful football team because I support Spurs. But but you know,

somebody could create that. They could go and get some video,

they could go and capture my voice. They could change

the words and they could make it look like I

was saying that. So how do we know what truth is?

And then we have these things like algorithms that are

looking at what we're looking at and say, let's show

you some more of that. So if you're into football,

if you're into gardening, if you're into beauty products, if

you're into a particular band or musician, because you keep

on looking for that, it will keep on sending you

more like that, and we end up in a smaller

and smaller and smaller bubble. So our world, it seems

to be getting smaller, even though our world is getting bigger,

even though the population is growing. There is a real

search for truth today. And I want to ask with

the simple question, how do you know it's true? Whatever

you read, wherever you read it, whether it's in the newspaper,

whether it's on the television, whether it's in your mobile

phone or on the how do you know it's true?

Many of you know, I had the privilege of teaching

in Papua New Guineas, so this he's forty to fifty

years ago. And one of the things that people believed

out there was the newspaper was always true, and so

on the headline of the local newspaper one particular week

was baby born to human, baby born to go. So

the girls that I were teaching, they were all holding

this up and say, because they called me brother David,

then brother David, how can this be true? And I said,

it's not true. It's not true. It's just somebody making

up a story. And there was no substance behind it.

It was just somebody being a little naughty and said

something and it ended up as a rumor, and the

rumor had become real. If enough people say something, it

starts to become truth. Do you know we need to

go back to foundational things. We need to go back

to foundational things like the Bible. The Bible is foundational.

God is foundational. If you're not sure, this is a

fantastic book to check against. There's a piece of research

been done by the University of Southern California where they

got a group of people they said, every morning, we

want you to read the news. The news always full

of good things. And then they had another group of

people and said, we don't want you to read the news,

we want you to read the classic text the little prints,

the Bible, the Tora. We want you to read the

classic text. And do you know what they measured? They

measured happiness, they measured confidence, they measured quality of life,

a whole bunch of things. Which one do you think one?

The news or the classic text? Hands up? Who thinks news? Now?

We don't? Who thinks classic texts? Yeah? Absolutely, you're all right.

The research and this was not Christian research, was not

faith based research. This was practical research looking at Okay,

where do we spend our time and attention looking at things?

You spend all your time looking at the news. You're

on a roller coaster. Oh it's brilliant today. O it's terrible.

Oh it's brilliant. Oh it's terrible. You know. And do

you know what? We get more and more of the

lows and less and less of the highs because good

news doesn't sell newspapers, Good news doesn't make TV work,

good news doesn't make algorithms work. And so where are

you focusing your attention? Where are we looking as we

search for truth? What are we looking at? What are

we focusing our attention? I'd like to ask you when

was the last time your attention was captivated. What do

I mean by captivating? I mean that something has grabbed

you so much that maybe somebody says Dave, and you

don't hear them. You maybe even don't notice the world

around you as it's going on, because you are so

captivated on this moment. We have a passion flower in

our garden and one of the they're beautiful flowers, and

they open up incredibly. And a few weeks ago one

of the flowers fell off and I bought it inside.

I just brought it inside because it was beautiful, and

I put it on the side. You know. I came

down the next morning and it had all closed up,

completely closed up. You couldn't see any of the beauty.

You know what, when the sun came out, it opened

up again. The thought wow, No, I was captivated by

this beautiful flower. On and off throughout the day. I

kept going back saying, what's happening, now, what's happening now? Captivated?

Now there are things that captivate us. Let's fix our

eyes on the things that are important. Hebrews chapter twelve,

verses one and two says this, Therefore, we also, since

we have surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight and the sin which

so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance

the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus,

the author and finisher of our faith, who for the

joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising shame,

and has sat down at the right hand at the

throne of God. Looking unto Jesus, where do you look?

When you run a race? You're looking at the finish

If its one hundred meters, you can see it. If

you're doing twenty six miles, when you're doing the marathon,

you cannot see the finish line, but you mentally are going, Okay,

one more mile, one more month, one more mile. And

then when you get into the final stadium, you think,

just one more lap and I'm there. It drives you forward,

it pulls you forward. You know what, Looking unto Jesus,

where is your attention in this day and age? Looking

unto Jesus, the author and completor of our faith, author

and finisher, alpha and omega, beginning and ends? You know

that's who Jesus is. He was there at the beginning,

He's going to be there at the end, and there's

going to be a whole bunch of stuff in the middle,

and he's going to be there all the way through it.

For he is the author, he spoke it into being.

But he's also the completer because God sent him. God

sent his one and only son, that whosoever believes in

him should not perish. Do you know our bodies are perishing.

I know my body's perishing because sometimes I'll get up

in a particular way and go, oh, it doesn't quite

work the way I expected it. Now I know my

body is in decay. But my eternal purpose, my eternal

perspective is for eternity. Just our opportunity to practice worship

here on earth is for a time, But practice here

on earth so that we can worship God in eternity forever.

I want to get my practice right so that I'm

singing well when it happens beginning and the end. Let's

look to Jesus. Let's continue to look for truth. Well,

let's go much further than that. In Proverbs chapter three,

versus five, and it says this, And I love Proverbs.

I think Proverbs. If you're a business person, you say,

where in the Bible should I read, I would go

go and read Proverbs. I think Proverbs is a fantastic

business book. Trust in the Lord with some of your heart. Oh, sorry,

all your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and lean not, lean not on your own understanding. You know,

I think I understand some things, and I think I

have an idea. I really don't. Sometimes, trust in the

Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he might direct

your path. He shall direct your path. So have confidence

in this truth. He shall direct your path in all

your ways. In all your ways, acknowledge him. Sometimes we

like to brownie points. Sometimes we'd like to get stars.

Sometimes we like to get praise. God sets us up

because he puts us in the right place. Letty was

in the right place to get skills in the job

she was doing. And to be honest, she was probably thinking,

I'm doing two jobs at the moment. Why am I

doing all this stuff? God was setting her upright in

an nasty way. God was preparing her so that when

the realignment came, they went, oh, we need your skills

over here. She was set up. God went before her.

God prepared that in the midst of all that trouble

and stuff, she might have said, do you know what,

I could do something else? There must be an easier life.

God was setting her up for something else. God's good,

God's great. And so now here's the thing. Letty didn't say, Hey,

I got to go another job because I was all

skilled in the right ways. He's not looking for praise.

She's giving glory back to him. In all your ways,

acknowledged him. Yeah, I want to step into the background

a bit like Arash. I want to step in the

background and say I was there, but it wasn't really me,

it was God. Because the more we say it, the

more people start to see God at work. The problem

is we get in the way, we get in the way,

we talk about what we're doing, and we forget to say,

but God did all this for me. God set this up.

God made this possible. In all your ways, acknowledge him,

and he shall direct your parts. Fix your eyes. If

you've got your eyes fixed on the guide, then he

will take you down the right path. There's been a

number of places when I've been taken on a guided took.

I was in I was in Milan, A couple of

years ago, and we got taken on a guided talk

and taken around various narrow streets around Milan. And I

was following the guide and I got captivated. I got

my attention focused on something else. I turned around the

guide in the group had God Suddenly I was lost.

I didn't find the group. I ended up going to

join them at the restaurant hour an hour later, but

I didn't find I'd lost them. Keep your eyes on

the guide. And I don't mean the guided tour. I

mean the guide. I mean the guide. Don't ever allow

him to get out of sight because he's saying, Okay,

ready for the next thing, Ready for the next thing.

In John chapter thirteen, verses thirty four and thirty five,

it says, this a new commandment I give to somebody else,

now to you. This is for us, that you love

one another as I have loved you, that you may

also love one another by this, by what, by the

love this you shall know that this all shall know

that you are might disciples if you love one another.

There is so much opportunity to do. There are many

times when we can do something and we go, oh,

look at what I did. But once in a while

God will say, I want you to do it in secret.

I want you to do it in private. I don't

want you to get the glory and those kind of things.

And what we do in secret, the God honors, God

blesses and I want to encourage you the time when

you do something in secret. Maybe you let me give

you an example. I don't want the glory here. But many,

many years ago, we used to have a senior Citizens

in lunch. Once a month. We'd gather senior citizens from

around the town. We'd feed them, we'd have a short service,

and then we take them home again. And one of

the ladies, missus McNair, is no longer here. I was

praying for it one day and I just felt that

the Lord's say, just drop this amount of money through

her door. It was a very particular amount. It wasn't

a large amount, but it was a very particular amount,

down to pennies. You know, I'll tell you thirty six

pounds nineteen pence thirty six pounds, so it's not a

lot of money. And I went, I must I must

have eaten too much cheese last night, and so I

just ignored it. If I'm honest, I'm just being honest

with it. I just ignored it and just rolled over

and went back to sleep again. And about a week

or ten days later, exactly the same dream came to me.

Thirty six pounds and nineteen pounds exactly the same number,

exactly the same person. I just thought, Okay, I didn't

have cheese today, so it can't be. It can't be.

It can't be the Lancashire. It can't be the cheese.

So I just popped the money through her door, didn't

say anything. And the next Senior Citizens lunch we gave

an opportunity for testimony. She said, do you mind if

I share a test with have said the love you

two them? She stood up. She said, do you know what?

God's so good? He knows all the detail. And she

went on to say she received a blue electric bill,

and when she got the blue electric bill, she didn't

she wasn't sure where she was going to get them.

It doesn't sound like a lot of money, but if

you're budgeting, I didn't know where it was going to

come from, you know what. She put it off and

put it off, and then she got the red bill, thought,

I don't know how I'm going to pay this she

was panicking and panicking and panicking, she said, and then

this money came through my door. She guess how much

bill was for thirty six pounds in nineteen pence. But

here's the thing. I want you to remember that I ignored it. Now.

I didn't tell her anything about this. I've never told

her anything about she's gone to be with the law.

But I just interestingly, as we were having line, I said,

just out of interest, when you got the red bill?

What day was that? Can you roughly remember? She said, Oh,

it was about two weeks before the money came through

the door. Do you know what? I thought about this

and thought, do you know what the time from when

she got the red bill? So he went through the door.

The stress and worry she had was my responsibility, not God's.

God had told me already just because I've taken some time, okay,

And so I just go okay. God, firstly, thank you,

thank you for your provision. Thank you. And often we

are we are the answers of our prayers. Sometimes we

pray and God says, yes, Dave, I want you to go, well, yes,

I want you to do I want you to change

your mind and look at this differently, How will people

know as we tell them and they'll know because we

are Christians by our love doesn't always mean we get

the glory, doesn't always mean we need to do what?

Because just her testimony told enough of the story, and

she she went around and told a whole bunch of people.

I remember Yvonne, who I used to come to church.

She told me the story. She'd heard it from Missus

McNair before she came to the lunch. In Colossians, it

says it's Colossians chapter two, verse six. It says, as

you therefore have received Christ Jesus, so walk in him now.

As Christ has impacted us, it should show on the outside.

Now if there's something going on on the inside, there

ought to be something going And Arash very clearly put it,

what fruit are you getting known for? If you're always

somebody who's getting angry? Where's that coming from? You know what?

As we get changed on the inside, it changes us

on the outside. We are known by our loving care.

And so as we have received Christ, so walk with him.

And so where should our attention be? Where should our

focus be? As we continue to search for truth? In

Matthew six, verse thirty three, It says this, but seek

first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all

these things will be added. Unto you, where is our attention?

Our attention is on Christ and his kingdom. There are principles,

there are ways of life, there are habits, there are

choices to be made, and we can choose to follow them.

We can also choose to ignore them. Do you know what,

the more our attention is drawn to Christ, the more

we will want to do what he wants us to do.

And he's not a dictator. He's not saying, well, Dave,

if you don't do what I told you to do,

then you're not going to get any sweets. He's not

like that at all. He says, this is the way,

walk in in and we then get to choose. I

want to encourage us. Let's get to know Jesus better.

Let's get to know what's on his heart, because if

it's on his heart, then he wants to share it

with us. Do you know the more time you spend

with someone, the more like them you become husband's wives.

Let me ask you this question. Do you complete your

other halves sentences? Sometimes? Can you complete the stories? Julia

and I? When we first started courting and going out.

I'd been in Papa U Guinea and she had the privilege,

maybe not privilege, of attending a number of talks about

Papa and New Guinea because I told lots of stories,

because I was a guide commissioner out there. Long story,

I won't do that now, but there were lots of

stories I told in lots of different places. Julia could

finish my stories by the time we got married because

she'd heard it so many times. Maybe you can finish

your other half jokes. Do you know if we linger

with somebody we love for long enough, we start to

pick up their habits, We start to pick up their

ways of doing things. Let's do that with Jesus. Let's

linger with him a little more. Doesn't have to be

on a Sunday. It would be any time of the

day or night. If you're someone who wakes up in

the middle of the night, let me encourage you linger

with Jesus in those moments. Don't linger with your thoughts,

don't linger with the news. And that's one of the

reasons why I encourage every one of you to learn scripture.

It was in the dark times, in the middle of

the night maybe if you're lying next to your beloved,

you know you can't turn the light on and read

a book. You're going to disturb them. You get up,

you might disturb them. But what you can do is

remember Terry Wake who was known as two meter Man,

who was in prison for many, many years in the

Middle East. He came to speak at Oath University and

I remember him saying he was asked the question how

did you survive in prison? And he said, I survived

on the scriptures that I remember. I'd just like to

challenge you, if you try to remember a new scripture

every day, starting today, how far into the rest of

the year would you get before you'd run out? Just

how far? I'm not you know, it might be a week,

it might be ten days, it might be you get

all the way to the end of the year. Fantastic.

But you know, if we don't put it in there,

it can't come out by miracles. Of course God can.

God can give a scriptures miraculously. Do you know what

if we feed ourselves well, we will be well. Fix

your eyes on Jesus, let me pray, Let me pray

by the God. We studied, and we journeyed together Lord

about getting our eyes fixed on Jesus. Knowing Jesus. I

really don't feel I know you well enough, lady. If

I'm honest, I want to know you more. And maybe

that's a cry of other people in the room. And

I'm going to ask you a question in a moment,

if you want to know Jesus more, would you stand

in a moment I'm going to ask that question. But

I want to start with I was in Uganda many

many year ago and somebody said, hey, where do you live?

And I said, oh, I live near London. He said, oh,

do you know Prince Charles? He lives near London, doesn't he?

And I went, well, I know of him. I can't

say I know him. And I want to say the

same about Jesus today, not do you know about him?

But do you know him? You know what's on his

heart for you? You know what's in his purposes for you?

Do you know what is it that he would want

to share with you today, if you're going to sit

down and talk to you today, what would it be

that he'd tell you about? Some people listening to the

recording later, maybe listening online, you're thinking, I don't know

this Jesus. I know about him. I've heard about him,

but he was a teacher and a good guy. I

don't know anything about him. I'd encourage you go and

find a bible, read the Gospel of John. Once you've

read it, message us and let us know what you think.

Because knowing Jesus changes everything. Knowing Jesus changes are we

knowing Jesus changes our year. Knowing Jesus changes our career. So, Father,

go we step into that. And so I'm going to

ask you if you want to make a choice today

to know Jesus better. Would you stand? I'm not going

to follow up on this. This is just sometimes I

think it's great to put some skin in the game

and say, make a choice. So listening at home, listening later,

you want to know Jesus. This is not a criticism

at all. It's just a different choice. You know, you

spend a bit of time if you want to know.

Some books that I'd recommend about how to get to

know Jesus better. I've got something I can recommend to you. So, Father,

I thank you for those that are standing. Father, I

pray Lord God right now, Lord, that you'd speak to

them through your son or do you whisper in their

ear about the steps ahead, about the steps to be taken,

about the things they need to focus their attention? Father,

I pray that they be fixed on you. They'd be

captivated by you. Father. Would you give them a new language? Lord?

Would you cause them to take bold steps? Father? Would

you open doors where doors have been shut? Lord? Would

you speak in your still small voice of calm, even

in the midst of the chaos. Lord, would you bring

glory to your name? You pray in Jesus name. Amen.

I think I'm done. I'm going to hand back to

you letter. Thank you, s