10th March 2024 All Age All Nation Service

I think I've included every lady in the room, then, haven't I Yeah,

because you know, we don't have to be a biological mum to feel

like a mum. I can never be a mum. I'm just being I

can never be a mom, so you know, but I can see mums,

you know. You see. I had the privilege yesterday of meeting one

of our young people and her and a husband have just had a baby last

week, tiny, and I just looked at the way they were handling this

baby and it was just like and you saw the dad and mum gave the

baby to the dad and he was just he had it, had the baby

for a week now he's still going And I was thinking, wow. And

so as we study the work today, as we come around the word today,

I hope you're going to be with me in this. So this is

an all age, all nation service. So what that means for anybody who's

never been with us this morning, and great you're with us this morning,

what that means is that number One, we celebrate the diversity of who we

are. I look across this room and I see so many different nationalities and

I love that the fact that we often sing songs with another chorus in another

language. Does anybody know what language were saying in this morning? Spanish?

Yes, for our Spanish community, and you know Espaniel see PoCA Espaniel when

is dis claudia adios. If Isabelle was here, she'd be going immen because

that's about the limit my Spanish. But it's also all age that means the

children stay in. This is the one Sunday in the month when the children

stay in. But I'm going to share something that whatever your age is,

it's for you. There's some activities in today's service. Does not matter how

old you are, there are some things for you. And Joel there may

even be some chocolates as part of the sermon today. You see its eyes

are the size of sources. Now. So the theme we're running with for

March is walk this way, walk this way, and that the subtitle for

walk this way for me today is walk this way because the walls come down.

The walls come down. How good at you or I at taking instructions?

Let's read the first scripture here, Psalm thirty two, verses eight and

nine says this I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should

go I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse,

or like the mule, which has no understanding, which must be harnessed

with a bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. I

love this scripture, and it says, you know, I will instruct you

and teach you in the way that you should go. That's comforting to me.

It means that I don't have to kind of wander around aimlessly. And

if I don't know what to do, I can ask. Now, I

don't know about the mum's in the room and the ladies in the room,

but I know the men in the room. We're not quite so good at

asking for help, are we. Let me just give you an example and

see whether I get some smiles and some nods. Here, you're a bit

lost. The sat Nav's not working and you're driving around in circles. You

can't find the place that you need to be. I imagine because I've done

this sometimes I say, it's all right, let's just try one more time.

Somebody else in the car sugges, thinking, why don't we just ask

somebody. Yeah, there's a few nods going on there, So okay,

I'm scratching where it's going to it. But the other thing is in this

verse, David says, I will guide you with my eye. How does

that work? How do we guide people with our eyes? Do you know

what? My mum had, the all knowing, all seeing eye. My

mom her name was Jeane, And sometimes when she looked, you knew that

something was wrong, or you knew you'd done something wrong, or you knew

and you can all think of somebody. Maybe it's an aunts, an uncle,

a mum, or a dad, someone who you look to. You

know, when you've done something wrong, you kind of look and you're looking

for the eye. You're looking for the eye, whether it's looking at you,

and then whether it's looking somewhere else, as to go over there,

over there, the answers over there, and then you start looking at you.

To be honest, if I look at the camera now and I then

go, you're all wondering what's over there. So let's just find out how

good we are at taking instructions. In Isaiah, chapter thirty, verse twenty

one, it says, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying this

is the way, walk in it. Whatever you whenever you turn to the

right or the left, whenever you turn to the left, walk this way,

stay on track, stay on path. So how good are we at

taking instructions? Some of you may remember a game when you were younger called

Simon says, yeah, okay, we're going to play that this morning.

Remember I said there might be chocolates, but we're not going to do.

Simon says, we're going to do. Jesus says, okay. So when

I give you an instruction, you do not you do not take any notice

of me. But when I say, Jesus says, we need to do

it. Okay, So let's have a little practice. Put your finger on

your nose. No, I didn't say Jesus said put your finger on So

for all those people who just put your finger on your nose, uh okay.

So if I go, Jesus, put your finger on your ear.

I didn't say which, heir, it's your choice, left or right,

your preference. Okay, hands down, Okay, if you put your hands

down. Jesus didn't tell you to put your hands down. So so have

I got all the children in the room. Is everybody involved now, no

matter how old you are, put okay, Jesus says, put your hands

down. Okay, okay, so do you get the game? Now?

You get the idea? Yes, So we'll do it a little bit more

because we're not very good at it. Ah we So, Jesus says,

stand up in the air. Okay, you could. You can sit down

now, Jesus says, sit down, finger on your ear, Jesus says,

turn to your neighbor. Jesus says, smile. Jesus says, stand

up, sit down. Okay, okay, well done, well done,

everybody. Do you know what? And there was somebody back here who was

really brilliant at that, So you're going to get a chocolate there you go.

How good are we? Instructions? Proverbs chapter sixteen, verse twenty says

this, he who heats the word wisely will find good. And whoever trusts

in the Lord, happy is he? Do you know we've got to look

at the source of our instructions. You know, if you want to make

something work, you need to look at the handbook. How many things have

you bought over the internet or whatever you've bought it. You're taken it out

of the box, you plugged it in, you switched it on, and

then you think it's not working, and then you have to open the handbook.

Now, here's my handbook. Here's my handbook for life. And often

when life isn't going well, this is the place I would go to.

I'll go to the instruction manual and say, Lord, what does it you

want me to do today? Teach me your ways. He who heeds the

word wisely will find good. Whoever trust in the Lord happy is here.

Okay. In a moment, I'm going to put up on screen. So

I'm setting you up for this, so please be ready. There are seven

fun facts on the screen. Okay, I'd like you to read down the

facts and just follow the instructions. Is that clear. I'm not going to

say anything more. There's just going to be some instructions on the screen,

and you just need to follow the instructions on the screen. You are ready?

Yeah, Jonathan put it up there, seven fun facts. Everybody got

to the end nearly there. Now here's the point I could tell where some

of you were because of the laughter that went on in the room, because

when you got to hear and you stuck your tongue or some of you stuck.

I saw some of youse, now, so I knew you were here.

And then you laughed because I picked I picked up that you were probably

going to try it, and then you smiled yeah. And then then suddenly

I say, you missed them before? You think what was then? Before?

Then you went and looked. So you know, it's just a bit

of fun. But do you know what, I truly believe. I truly

believe that if we follow the Lord's instructions, if we follow his commands,

and stuff happens, stuff happens. We're going to read a little bit of

a story in Joshua. Our midweek Bible study is looking at the Book of

Joshua, and this story you'd know very well. I'm just picking up a

couple of verses Joshua, chapter six one to five. Now Jericho was securely

shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came

in. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given you

Jericho into your hand. It's king and the mighty men of valor. You

shall march around the city, all the men of war. And you shall

go around the city once. This you shall do six days, and the

seventh priests shall bear seven trumpets ramsorns before the arc. But the seventh day

you shall march around the s city seven times, and the priests shall blow

the trumpets. It shall come to pass that when they make a long blast

with the ramhorns, and when they hear the sound of the trumpet, that

all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the

city will fall down flat, and people shall go out, every man straight

before them. We know this story so well. We studied it in Sunday

school. And I was told that the walls of Jericho were wide enough to

ride ride along the top with horses. That's a pretty wide wall. And

a wall of a city is not the kind of six foot tall, not

eight foot tall. It's very tall, and big walls they get narrower towards

the top. So at the bottom the wall was very wide, not the

kind of wall you'd expect to be able to knock down with the sledgehammer or

anything else. So this was a big wall, and it stood in the

way of God's people stepping into destiny and purpose. What happened, well,

we know what happened. Joshua chapter six, verses fifteen and sixteen says this,

But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early ready

to do exactly what they were asked to do about the dawning of the day,

and they marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On

that day only they marched around the city seven times. The seventh time it

happened when the priest blew the trumpet that Joshua had said to the people,

shout to the Lord, for he has given you the city, and the

walls came down. What has God told you to do? What has God

encouraged you to do? Are there things that you feel are standing in the

way of your progress? Because whenever we come to a locked door, the

question has to be do I need to go through it first? Or not

I can't get through this door. The first question is do I need to

go through this door? And that's a question of wisdom. That's a question

where we just say, Lord, which direction do you want me to turn

around and go different? Maybe the door is locked, because that's not the

way the Lord wants you to go. We've got to check out with the

Father and just say, Okay, which direction Lord do you want me to

go through this door? In which case I'm praying that you'll give me the

wisdom the key, you'll bring somebody else along. Has anybody been somewhere?

Maybe at work you've got to cut car keep key card that lets you through

the door at work. You know the kind of thing I'm talking about.

And for some you know, maybe you left it in your car, maybe

you're left it at home and now you can't get through the door. There's

some proper terms for this. I think it's called surfing. Where you try

and wait for somebody to come along, and you stand there looking hope for

and then somebody that you know recognizes you. They go, I forgot my

card today, and they open the door and you go through with them.

Okay, well, that can be an answer to prayer. It doesn't always

have to be that you open the door. God might open the door for

you, says come on in, walk this way. That's exactly our theme.

Sometimes God says to us walk this way. You say, but the

door's locked. Well, okay, if God said walk walk, that's exactly

the story we heard when we heard about crossing the Red Sea. As they

stepped in the water parted. They didn't part first, and then they stepped

in as they stepped in the water parted. Now that takes faith that takes

faith. And now I don't know what you'd do. I don't know whether

you'd be going to but I'm going to get my feet wet. It looks

a bit muddy, but he says, put your step of faith, walk

in and the water's parted. And what is it that God's encouraging you to

do? First thing is should I go through this door? Okay? Should

if you sense the Father saying go through the door, then absolutely. Let's

pray for the wisdom, pray for the keys, pray for the password,

pray for the opportunity to go through the gates the door. This is the

way, walk in it another activity for you to do. Now, Okay,

this isn't so much instructions. There's a little bit of a test.

Okay, there's six questions on the screen. They're going to come up now,

and I'd like you to read everything very carefully. You ready, Jonathan,

okay. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I was

Jesus, Jesus Jesus. I'm assuming the people are now shy. Okay,

does anybody know who's the first person to complete the task? I think it

was yesmin I think it was yesmin yeah, and I know because it was

the first person to say Jesus, Jesus. Yeah. It's a simple set

of instructions. But what happened. Let's just explore what happened because we had

I heard some people. Now, I don't know what you did. I

don't know, to be honest, I don't know how you got to number

three because I can't multiply thirty seven by forty six in my head. So

I don't know how you got to number three unless you've got yes. So

some people say, okay, two is too difficult, let me move on

to number three. And so I then knew people got to point number three

because they shouted Jesus. And then somebody else shouted that I am first,

you know, and people were wondering one of the things that went on.

You were wondering what was going on as people started shouting, as you suddenly

felt there was a bit of a competition. But yes, when you were

you get a chocolate. And I think the first child was Joel am I

right, would you agree with me? Because we were listening, Well,

okay, well done, Joe, okay, But what do we learn from

a sympa like this, What did you learn from that? Yeah, follow

the instructions. Follow the instructions. I wrote it at the top, I

said it at least one. I said, please read everything there very carefully

before you do anything. Before you do anything, read the instructions. And

what we did artist now that I often start some of my classes at the

university and saying what kind of are you? Some people like pictures and udios,

some people like doing, some people like words. You know, and

now the thing is for the justly want to do so stuff, and you

don't you rush through this. For the wordy type people, you probably read

walls first, Jasmin, and I know you're your word person, So so

okay, first thing, follow the instruction. Second thing, do them don't

just Actually that's the thing. Read the instructions, Read the instructions, and

then do then follow because there were some choices in here, but actually the

only real choice is the one at the end. If you only got if

you lots to point number six, said repeat number three twice. So what

can we learn from this? I think it's pretty simple as if an instruction

manual here, let's follow it. Now. There are some instruction manuals that

are there for reference, Hayes Manual for the for the men in the room,

for other people who like doing cars. The Hayes Manual is how you

maintain your car. When you want to do something, you turn to the

right page. You open it up, and it tells you how to change

a break disc or change a light bulb or whatever. You don't need to

read the whole book. You just need to go to the reference. Turn

to the reference, find the right page, do the thing that you need

to do. So is this book a reference book? No, it's not

a reference book. Okay. Now, when you go on holiday, one

of the things that you do on holiday is you'll get a guidebook to suggest

where you might go. Is the Bible a guidebook? I'd like to suggest

there are parts of the Bible that might be a guidebook, not to say

where you might But now, okay, is it an instruction manual? Yes,

because there are instructions. Is it a book of poetry? There are

books in here that are poetry. Psalms would be true song with Solomon probably

too. If you want to find wisdom, is there wisdom in the book.

There are books in this Bible that are books of wisdom. So I'd

encourage you turn to it, read it, try and follow the instructions.

Now, are the instructions easy? No, That's why we need an instructor.

It's not just an instruction manual. We need an instructor. And that's

where God gives us the Holy Spirit to help us to be able to do

the things that we need to do. It starts off very simply with just

ten commandments, and then there's ten commandments become a whole bunch of rules as

we read through the Tora, and I see Man trying to help us to

keep those ten rules. And then God comes very simply along and says,

it's okay, I've got another way. I've sent you Jesus. I've sent

you Jesus so that actually he redeems you. He pays the price for us,

and there is a price that needs to be paid for the sin that

we do. But that price has been paid on the cross. And as

that price is paid upon the cross, we can walk in the fullness of

that final scripture right at the end, John of that. I've not got

this in my print outside. It's in Luke chapter ten, Verses thirty six

and thirty seven. You know the story of the Good Samaritan. Know the

story of the Good Samaritan. Man walking down the road gets jumped on by

thieves, gets beaten up, and in part of the story, this question

comes as others walked by on the other side. So which of these three

do you think was the neighbor to him who fell amongst thieves? What's the

answer? Verse thirty seven to them? Okay, And he said he who

showed mercy on him, And Jesus said to him, go and do Likewise,

there are many examples in scripture, many examples in scripture where Jesus God

says, go, go and do, go and follow follow the instruction,

follow the instructor's path. And so it's for me, it's pretty simple this

morning. If you're facing a wall, if there's a if there's a fortified

situation that right now is in your way, and I'm going to believe that

the walls are going to come down. I'm going to believe that the walls

are going to come down. Now, I don't know what your situation is.

I'm going to let you choose. I'm gonna but if you are facing

a situation right now where there's a wall in your way, and you sense

the Father's either going I want you to go through or want you to go

over it. I want you to get through it. I want you to

get to the other side. Might be a ladder, it might be steps,

it might be going through a door, it might be going around,

but getting to the other side. I want you to stand right now because

we're just going to pray together. We're going to pray for breakthrough today.

We're going to pray for breakthrough today. And that might be a simple little

thing like a test that you're facing. A sense there's one or two people

in the room who've taken a few tests a number of times, and that

test again and again has been a challenge. Well, we just need the

wisdom applied in the right moment, in the right time. But I'm going

to be believes as we bring the worship team back, because we're going to

just kind of get lost in God as we worship him again, we're going

to get lost in Him. But let me pray as we do, Father,

we look forward. Lord, we don't look back. Lord. We

choose to look forward. Lord. We're not going to be distracted by the

past. Lord, We're choosing to look forward. Right now into the destiny

and purpose you have for our lives. Father, for job situations, for

family breakthrough, Lord, for financial situations, for paperwork that needs to be

approved. Lord, I could keep on going. For health prognosis. Lord

God, I pray the Lord God, you would bring the walls down.

We're going to worship you now. And Lord, as we worship you,

I pray that you will bring the walls down. Lord. We're going to

get our eyes on you, not on the wall. We're going to get

our eyes. We're going to lift our eyes up. And it says in

one hundred and twenty one we're going to lift our eyes up because Lord,

there is little that we can do. And Lord, we don't want to

do it in our strengths. We don't want to do it our way.

We don't want to do it with our limited capabilities. Lord, we want

to do it with the resources of Heaven. So Father, help us to

align ourselves to your way, to your worsh to your work, and Father,

help us to do it. Lord God. So Lord, we lift

our eyes up, and Lord, we will shout words of praise, we

will declare breakthrough, we will proclaim truth, and we will walk that in

Jesus name. And when the enemy wants to fire darts up and distract us,

we're going to put up the shield of faith. And when there's a

battle, Lord, we're going to lift up the sword of the Spirit.

And Lord, do we recognize there is a fight that needs to go on.

For salvation in our family, for healing in our homes, for breakthrough

in our schools and universities, for salvation to come to our street, Lord

guard, and for our town, and for your church to arise again,

Lord god Father, cause light and life and hope in Jesus his name.

And so Lord, as we worship you now, we're believing for breakthrough,

that walls will come down in Jesus' name. Amen, Worship Team