7th January 2024 - Communion Service

Thank you, Juliet morning everybody. Happy New year to you. How are

you? Are you good twenty twenty four? Have you changed the We don't

write checks anymore, but you know that's the kind of commonplace where I often

make the mistake at the beginning of the year. You know, we don't

even handwrite letters anymore, do we? So I can't even adjust my handwriting.

But a happy New Year. Our series at the beginning of twenty twenty

four is my church is Do you know this is a bit of a loaded

title. We're going to explore this throughout the month, but it's a loaded

title because just those two words my church means so much. Firstly, who's

my Well, that's you and me. And I want to say welcome to

a few other people who are joining us online. We've been building relationships with

churches around the world, and I want to say good morning. She've been

a really good afternoon to Buster James and those Zumo and Kenya who are joined

the day. That's fact connecting with the stasis of the world. So welcome.

As part of our service today, have you joining us? For those

who are around the world are joining us for our service. When I say

my church relationship, the place that you call home, the place where you

look to for finn, the place that you look to for inspiration, the

place that you go to we need help now, because the first I mean

first place we go to weena need help should really be God, shouldn't it.

I mean at two o'clock in them annoying me up and say pass the

day if I need prayer? Yeah, because my first question you will be

have you prayed already? And if you haven't, I'll probably put the phone

down on you. But yeah, if you say, well, okay,

I'm going to God. First of all, there are adverts on the British

TV that used to take say something like the AA or the race, those

road assistance services they're your fourth emergency service. And we often talk about the

ambulance and the police and the fire service, because you know what, there's

an emergency service for me that's way above the police and the ambulance and the

fire service, and that's God. Let's start when we're in a desperate place.

Let's cry out to Him, when we're in a place where we need

help. Let's cry out to Him. Anybody already in twenty twenty four had

a place where you go, Oh, my goodness, what is this?

Anybody hands up? Anybody had something even this weekend? Maybe something is Yeah,

yeah, there's stuff that's happened. I'm aware of stuff that's happened.

And actually we can't sort it out and we go God help me, and

you know, there's nothing better than getting our eyes fixed on him. But

you know, church is something I hope that we're proud of. If it's

not, if it's not something we're proud of, then we need to change.

And please don't. I want to encourage everybody this morning. So when

I talk about my church, I'm not just talking about my church. I'm

talking about your church too. And church what is church? Church is a

family of people. You know, if you invited a friend to church and

you brought them to this building, they would go is this church? Where's

the tower? Where's the steeples? Where the views? Because lots of people

don't realize that church can be A is a gathering of people. It's a

gathering away of people who are looking to God. And in that midst we're

looking for healing, We're looking for our answers to prayer, We're looking for

God to move by his Holy Spirit. And so when I say my church,

I want you to translate it to your church too. So let's start

in Matthew chapter sixteen, and let me just read that from the New King

James version. When Jesus comes, he asked his disciples, saying, who

do men say that I the son of Man am? I bet you've already

been asked this week how was your holiday? How was your break? How

is your Christmas? And you choose how you answer it. Quite a good

time has in good food on Monday. Some people will say to you at

some point, how is your weekend? I wonder what you'll say, I

was a good weekend. Yeah, the sun shine shining now? Or are

we going to say something? Just give a little glimpse of church. Who

do we say he is? And so they said, say John the Baptist,

some say Elijah, and others Gemorah or one of the prophets. He

said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon

Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the Living

God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you Simon bar Jonah,

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, But my Father

who is in heaven. And also I say to you that you are Peter,

and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of

Hades shall not prevail against it. And I please of the Kingdom of Heaven.

And whatever you bind in earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever

you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. God's building. Now,

Please, don't don't just look at this and think this is scripture. This

is a person and God's building just upon you know, God's building his church

today. It's building his just you go back to that scripture. And actually

we could go back to that verse and Jesus said to him to you,

blessed, are you put your name in that place at the moment, For

flesh and blood are not revealed this to you, but my Father in Heaven

revealed that you're part of the living stones of what God is building. In

this place. You're part of the living stones of what God is building around

the nation, living churches drawing people. There are plenty of churches that are

closing. You know, I want to talk as we push in the twenty

twenty four of you know, we won't fit in this room on a Sunday.

We've already had to make room to move out the tables. We did

that last year and we now have to do that every Sunday, you know,

making room, and it's a thing that I will push into throughout the

year. Making room is not just about making some more space in terms of

physicality. I don't know what you would do if you came to church next

Sunday and there were so many guests in here that there wasn't a seat for

you. I wonder whether you looked at him. I wonder whether you want

to turn around and go home again, or whether you'd be standing at the

back going yes, this is fantastic. You know, one of my family

principles was family holds back. You know when often you'd invite people around for

dinner and you've cooked I don't know, so many pieces of chicken, and

you'd have to go with that chicken that day because you were serving chicken to

somebody else. To be honest, if I came into church and somebody keep

either floor because they're more important than I am, and guests are so important

the fact time they come. They want to feel welcome. So we will

press into a vandalism in twenty twenty. We want about in new ways.

But you know there's a content if you come to church, some people will

come on. Okay, And here's the first thing. It's quite difficult to

find our building. Something the postcodes getting better, but it's still not working

perfectly, and so that means there'll be people wandering around outside looking for the

building. So people who are welcome us on the door, we need to

stop standing inside the door keeping. We need outside the door looking up for

someone who's drive fine building, do you know what? And I've done that

sometimes somebody said I'm coming and I think, okay. So I've stood outside

in the time leaning up to church and I didn't know who this person was.

They just sent me a they are. So I saw somebody looking lost

the other this is last year. I saw somebody looking lost. I was

looking for somebody. So I walked up to this said can I help you?

Are you looking for Annie Christian Fellowship? And said no, no,

actually I'm looking for the station and we certain we had a conversation for three

or four minutes. I don't know whether I couldn't find a station because it's

right obvious and there, but but the point was I had a conversation with

him because I was looking for someone. Do you know what? A seed

was in their hearts? Was Oh, there's a church here, and do

you know what I am sure? Let me tell you a story, a

story about I may. You may have heard me told this once before,

but one of the Life Links church in Regina, Saskatchewan. It's a it's

a large church, it's a tea church. And this let me let me

play the story in two or three pieces. A lady was driving to church.

She'd become a Christian a few weeks beforehand, and as she was driving

to church, so this is the kind of syd or third time she'd gone

to church. She's driving to church and she sees somebody running down the road

in a track. I thought, okay, the lake for church. So

I offered to pick them up. So they pulled up next them. They

threw their door right to a lift and this person looked at me and said

okay, and I jumped in the car and he drove to church. And

she got to church and the person as they were as she was driving to

church, she got into this person, is this your first time becoming church?

And the person went yes, oh, great, fantastic and so she

said, and how did you find out about your boat? She said,

I don't know anything about this church. She said, well, why I

was coming to church. I was out jogging. But this person came to

me in church and he became the call of God. But he's the interesting

thing. The following Sunday, this person is now drigging by somebody else jogging

and they think that's what they stopped and they opened the door and they invite

this person to jump into their car bleat and say, you know, can

I left? This person had a different why do you want? Where are

going? Why do you want to give me a lift? I saw you

jogging. I thought you were maybe late for church. Left. Now that

person didn't jump into the car. But it's interesting. I think we can

learn from something from a moment week augh. I want to encourage you if

you walk to church and as you're coming to church, and if you you

see someone looking last, why not stop? I can help you. Why

not stop? I mean they might just be looking for the railway station,

they might look at lep with the cinema. But in the moment, you

can say what because they might say, well, why, why are you

asking, well, actually, I'm looking for people are trying to find church.

Who do you say that I am? You know, I want to

encourage us to be bold. I want us to encourage to be bold in

twenty twenty four. If you've got unity to be bold or not to be

bold, why not be bold and just see what happens. Just see what

happens. In if Esians, chapter verses eleven and twelve, it talks about

equipping us perch and we're going to bring some guests speakers in throughout the year.

We've already booked in in the notices. You will often I want to

encourage you actually in the not we bring people in because we want to equip

us. We want to equip ourselves as a churche. We bring people in

who we trust, we're in relationship with, who have gifts and talents that

we don't have. So we'll be bringing Clem will be with us, ian

Ian Bird will be with us, Josh Heslot will be with us. And

you will notice in the notices sometimes he says to be confirmed. That's because

I'm still talking to them about finalizing the dates. But as soon as it's

got a date up there that's final, it's sorted, it's in the calendar.

And so i'd encourage you if you if you don't want to miss these

pole put them in your calendar, just so that we can take ticking off

with people. And He will give to be apostles, some evangelists and some

pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of

the ministry, for the eddie fody of Christ, equipping of the saints.

Who's the saints? Anybody's seen the saint recently. I'm a saint not because

of what I've done, not because I'm good, but because of Jesus.

And you're a saint too, because if you put your trust in Him.

And so we're going to be ready for twenty twenty four in lots of different

ways. We're going to be ready because we're going to equip the saints.

We're going to make time. We're going to make space to equip church to

be who God's called us to be, to stir up the gift that is

in you, to press into all of that and to release mission. I

really want to press into a place where some people will want to go on

mission. You know, a number of years ago. Jill, you'll remember

this. A number of years ago, one of our ship, one of

you, got a tenor mission trip. So why don't I take some people

with me. Jill came to Spain, didn't you. You came to Tenorief

with us, didn't you? And do you speak any Spanish? Jill?

No, didn't speak any Spanish at all. And one of my fondest memories

of the whole trip was after church, between two services, I saw Jill

sitting there chatting away to one of the local church members is together by,

and I think, I'm okay. I didn't know Jill spoke Spanish, and

then I thought, I don't think she does, And so I went to

one of the people from the local church and said, is that lady that's

sitting with Jill? Does she speaking? Went no. So I don't know

whether you were just speaking, that you were just being polite to one another,

or whether you were speaking in tons. But do you know what Jill

encouraged that person? Jill carries a gift of any of us can be encouraged.

And in twenty twenty four, let me encourage you be an encourager.

If you want to default between silence and saying a word of encouragement, please

do not shoot silence. So let's equit that we're going to quit the saense,

we're going to relist pe people into mission and that MIDDI may not be

it may not start with me, probably won't start with me. And somebody

say, hey, do you know what. I've got a friend of mine

who's who's leading a small church in this part of the world, and I'd

love to go for the weekend. Does anybody want to come with me?

Simple things? We can just take a car or just two or three people.

We can go somewhere because it stretches us. Do you know what?

One of the things being prophetic at home is a challenge if I'm honest with

you, because I know you guys pretty well. So God whispers in my

ear sometimes and this might happen to you too. You know people, well,

God whispers in your ear. You don't say anything because you think it's

the marmalade or the cheese that you at, you know, and you think,

I'm really not sure whether that's just my brain running over time or whether

that's actually from God. When we go somewhere completely different, we don't even

question it. We just go, Okay, well, I don't know this

person that's standing in front of me, I don't know them from Adam.

But I will share what I will share, and you share it with a

faith, and when God then confirms it's something, somebody confirms something, you

go, yes, God. So I want to release the prophetic at home

by going away a bit more, by encouraging people when you're at work,

when you're with a friend, whether you're a small group, when you're on

a WhatsApp group, when you're on a WhatsApp call with a friend, why

not release the prophetic? Why not share what God said? If you sense

God whispering in your ear, why not just say do you know what?

I'd just like to share something with you. You don't even have to make

it complicated and say that's says the Lord. Just say do you know I

had this thought and I just want to share it with you. I want

to encourage you. And many times we'll come back to you when they say,

wow, that's exactly my situation, that's exactly my circumstance. Thank you

so much, Thank you for sharing that. And then on the foundation of

those words, you can then say, my last question, where did that

come from. Then you can tell them you don't have to lead with God

spoke to me and how I'm sharing it with You can just share the word

because the word will carry God presents, the word will carry his his spirit,

his nature. And then sometimes these people will say where did that's from?

And we can share it with faith and body because they're asking us,

very did it? You can share you like, actually, and this is

what I believe. I got this thought from them? And then then might

I ask you more so, how do you hear from God? Well?

Off you go time for discipleship training. Discipleship training does not start the declasions,

starts long before that because actually God lines people's up and he has to

ask questions. That's us through the reveal things to them. And then they

get to a point and they say, do you know what I want to

put in this God that you're talking about? I want to put my trust

in this Jesus though, who I read about in the Gorse. So quit

the saints released for a mission. I want to grow. I want us

to encourage us to grow our leadership. I don't just mean means you know,

if we if we're going to grab people coming that means more small groups.

That means more teaching, That means a youth group. I haven't had

a youth group for a long time. I used to be the youth group

leader. That's where I started. Julia and I started as youth group leaders

in the church many May years ago, you know. And I just I'm

just blessed by the fact we've got extra children in Sunday School this morning,

and praying that that will be a sign first Sunday in twenty twenty four to

double the number of children in Sunday School. Well, I wonder if Julie's

ready for double next week, and maybe we need to stand with her and

say, Julie, do you know what, sometimes you might need some support

because there's a whole bunch of things we need to do. You can't just

do Sunday School. Yeah, you know, for example, we need to

get cleared so that we're doing things right, so that you know, we

can say that we know that our staff are good quality staff, those who

are helping in Sunday School. And one of the things I also want to

encourage us to upgrade is the quality of the way we reach out digitally.

We're doing so much we're doing, you know, and from twenty twenty three

into twenty twenty four. Now, I don't know whether you've noticed, but

there's videos every day on the internet. Now something is a little encouraging going

out there. And if you look at the number of people who are watching

it, it's going up and up and up. And that's in different nations.

And so let's not just think about churches the people who sit in this

room. Let's think about churches the wider gathering of who we're equipping. And

why couldn't we have a church plant in twenty twenty four? Is that too

dangerous a suggestion? Now? One of the things that Life Links encouraging us

to do is to think about church planting. We do it together with somebody

else. So not only flowership members, but grow leaderships are capable. I

think we all could do. Why personal This is a personal thing, but

one of my personal goals was set off to at at least one hour's training

a week last year. Set my goal one hour training all week. I've

asked you something on Facebook at the end of the year and said I've done

one hundred and sixty eight hours of training last year. It's not too hour

week and some weeks I got so in it I put a second hour and

some weeks I did three hours. Take that four wisworth of training in a

year. Now I'm saying do this. There are tons of results we've invested

in as a church. That's available to everybody in church right now. Media

that we use for supporting our small groups is available for all of you.

You've all got to log on and you've probably got it to send your spam

folder, but there for you to log on, and there are millions of

hours of your teaching. I don't play you. And if you want to

do it with a friend, I'm made able to a staff member at or

Holloway. When Halloway so they asked what would you recommend A simple is a

teaching and said, well, how do I access and made it free to

them for a year and they went through t teaching with some non Christian friends

on campus. I'm really happy to do that and the stuff and faith like

now we've got millions of films and stuff that you can as well, and

if you need help with us some it's access along TV these days. All

these kinds of good things. So what a grow leadership and you know all

that is. So we grow the on the on these zones, on you

and I. God will build his search and you will invite different people in

different ways, some of our friendship with andersm other ones will do it through

through through, through through online. Others will do it but onto the streets.

None of them are right as wrong. They're all need to be done.

So if godn't, you can do it. If you find yourself on

stage home hoolding microphone and suddenly God drops a word, indwe as you're standing

there in a microphone, go for it. Just share a couple of minutes,

two happens. God is quypting us. And one of the things that

you may have noticed already in the noticeing Dead service, we changed. I

changed the format and I'll ready to put in there some of the events that

are coming. So on the anightuch, there's a predic conference in Canada organized

by Life Links. You might say, but I can't afford to go to

Canada to day, Well, you could go if you wanted to. I'd

louraed you to go. Something you wanted to do to go to. I

think it's in Regina, but it's also available online. So we could gather

as a group. You know, why put it on our gender. That's

that's how James in Kenya reached out to me. He reached out me and

to me said, Dave, you've got this prophetic conference. Can you organize

me to go? And I'm not knowing I'm going to be there because I'm

doing it online. You could do that as well, and Green Church will

be so exciting. Wen't need a new course, a new joiner's course.

Let's go back to that WASCONDI in Matthew chapter sixteen, verse eighteen. And

also I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock you've jumped

around. Jonathan. Sorry, there we go. Jesus said to him,

blessed to you, Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this

to you, but my father, who is in heaven. The revelation from

heaven is something we need to get our hearts on. I am so blessed

that we've got live worship. In twenty twenty three, we said we can't

do anything untill we've got live worship oozing out of our ears. Now we've

got different people who want to lead us. You know, Terris will come

back ready for term number two. You know she'll be part of the band.

Ye, And I'm believing God will bring more musicians and we'll have to

manage and control that in some way, you know, in a good way.

I believe God will give us songwriters. And maybe there's a songwriter already

in the room, and God's given you a few songs, and just take

this as a prompt. If God's given you a few to recently share it

with a worship team. Let's see what happens in Ephesians chapter four versus eleven.

So when we make room, we make room for visitors. And making

room is exciting because visitors some will become new believers. Some of those new

believers will want to present to new ministries. Do you know every Monday bank

meets it. Food Bank blesses people. You meet people even in the midst

of church who want to help, to be part of food Come and speak

to me, Speak to Julie, speak to Sham. You know, food

bank is something that is so necessary in our day, in our lives today.

So press in and let's see what God will do. Small groups I

believe will grow small groups and as groups that will mean that we'll need new

hosts and places where people and people will gather. So not only will we

make room for visitors, but we'll need to make room for new believers.

In making new room for new believers, we'll need to make room for new

ministries. And in making room for new ministries, who knows what God will

do. My final scripture just to bring this all to a close. As

we press into twenty twenty four, I've lost control of Jonathan. So thank

you, last script and so as we press into twenty twenty four, let

me encourage you. There's a promise card that's buy the offering bowl. Sama

and others have helped us to bring something of encouragement. So if you didn't

take one on New Year's Eve, you haven't got one already, please do

take one a promise card. They're there for you. Have you got the

fan scription? Okay? So let me pray, Father God, I thank

you for a new calendar year. Lord. We give you our year.

Lord, we press into all that it contains. Lord, we don't know

what means for many of us. We don't know what we'll be doing later

on this year. Where in moments of change, in seasons of adaptation,

in. Father, I pray that Lord, you'd help us to step into

the day, step us into the month, step us into the year with

boldness. Rather, you'd let faith arise in us. Let faith arise in

us for the days ahead. Lord, let us look at a mountain and

realize that in your eyes it's a mole hill. Father, help us to

look at circumstances where the door is shut and you've given us the keys.

As we read from scripture, you given us the keys to the kingdom.

And so, Father God, when we've got the keys, won't you know

if you if you know the code to the front door of this building and

the door's unlocked, you press the code, the door is open. Somebody

can't stop the door being unlocked. Because if you've got the and if God

gives us a custod if God gives us something, a clue to an idea

about how something, I encourage you to take hold of that with boldness and

with freshness, as it says in Philippians chapter four, verse nineteen. And

my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ

Jesus. Father, thank you that you will meet all our needs. Father,

thank you that you will meet needs to those that meet meet the needs

of those we come across. And so Father, open our eyes to all

that you will do, as we embrace with you. Twenty twenty four in

Jesus' Name, Amen, Jerry and Debbie