13th August 2023 All Age Service - Albert Sloman - Ditch Discipleship

M Father, thank you for this, mighty man of God. Lord.

We love him, Lord, and you love him. And so Lord,

you've given him something to share with us, and so our hearts are open,

our hearts are ready. Lord. Would you fill him up, Lord,

as you've equipped him to bring the word today? And Lord, would

you speak to us as we want to hear from you? Change us o?

Lord, we played this morning in Jesus name. Amen, Amen,

morning folks. Morning. Now can I go with the kids because there looks

more interesting m hum, let me get myself sorted out minutes m h h

yeah, m hmm. I'd like to walk about a bit, all right,

Okay, Now I would say one, welcome to you if you're joining

us online this morning. We just love I know the people here just love

to have you join with us. And as we come around Gold's word.

I'm going to turn things on its head this morning, turn things a bit

upside down. Normally you have the appeal for salvation at the end of a

meeting. Oh yeah, I mean that's the normal. Why not I'm going

to do something right at the very beginning. Jesus was always good at turning

things on their head. Yeah, he broke all the rules to me.

I mean, he was yeah, if you were a parisey or ascribe Jesus

was a total nightmare. Uh. And November this year, I think it

was the fourth or fifth of November, I lay on a hospital bed or

stretcher in a hospital A and E in Australia, having been told that I

had a heart attack. I didn't believe it because I had no kind of

classic heart attack symptoms and so was kind of struggling with this thing. But

anyway, everybody was assuring me that I had and I lay on this stretcher

and they said, we're preparing you to go down to the theater. And

I thought at that point that I was going to have open heart surgery.

That they were going to prepare me to be put out. And you know

the thing, you know where you came back from ten and you don't get

the six uh. And they brought you know, this letter around the disclaimer

you know that if we kill you, you can't blame us. And as

I was signing this letter, this form, I was signing it. In

my mind, I knew that I had lost two friends who had been who

had gone into hospital for normal surgery, you know, one was for a

hernia. I can't remember what the other one was for, but it was

routine really for hospital stuff. And neither one of them had come out of

the anesthetic. And I lost two friends with it, I mean, and

and so this was kind of rattling around in my head a little bit.

And as I signed that form, I said, God, if this is

it, I'll see you in a minute. If not, if there's something

left for me to do, well, then I will do it to the

best of my ability. And that was it. I had no life flashing

in front of me kind of thing. That it was that cool and collected

woman. And it's and I just want to share with you this morning,

when you hit that point, it's just you and God, and it's either

you and hope or it is you in despair. It's one of the two.

Well, am I prayer for you all this morning is that when you

hit that point, you will be able to say, like I did,

God, this is it. I'll see in a minute. And I just

want to kind of just challenge you this morning, right at the very beginning.

If you're sitting here this morning, if you are listening in this morning,

if you're watching us this morning. And you do not have that confidence

in God and you want it, then you ask Jesus into your life.

Because when you do that, you know John three sixteen for God's soul of

the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in

him will not perish, will not die, but will have everlasting life life.

And that's God's promise to you. That was God's promise to me.

And I have seen God fulfill so many things in his word and through his

spirit that I have total confidence that that is the case. And that's how

I could pray that prayer that that day. It was kind of after I

prayed that prayer that they then explained to me that I was going to be

awake the whole time, but don't know. It was good exercise. And

now do not pastor a church anymore. The Church Kill Company Christian Fellowship has

ceased to operate, and we now go to a church in but called Oceans

and they will be uh firing normal cylinders. Now we've joined them for the

past two years. And if any of you are down in Butte on holiday

or in the area and you want to come and join us on a Sunday

morning, be there at half past ten or a little bit before if you

want to come to your coffee and we the church meets above a bowling alley

and we have the space above a bowling alley and a part of it is

for the food bank. And you know, ah, and you're more than

welcome to join us. Last week we had people from Germany. There are

people from Holland I think the week before. So we get when people folks

are down on holiday, we get some lovely visitors come and join us,

and you would be more than welcome. Please pray for us. We're a

church like any other. We are not perfect. That's mainly because I go.

I cause the leadership team a lot of headaches. But we're church.

We're a church family with you know, with all the benefits that go with

that and sometimes some of the problems that go with that. We've done a

whole series late over the past couple of months on discipleship, and we've looked

at various aspects of discipleship, and I know Peter and his preaching this morning

is looking at another aspect of discipleship. The heading for today, if you

if you want a heading, is ditch discipleship. Now, the first thing

we've got to do is we've got to deal with the stupid English language.

Okay, because if you're sitting there going he's off his No, you can't

pitch discipleship. You can't get rid of disciples. No, no, no,

no, It's not that ditch. Okay, it's the other ditch.

It's that ditch that is beside the road along which water flows. Okay,

it's that ditch. So I want to get you on the same page.

Okay, a couple of readings, and I want to share with you this

morning, Master twenty eight. I mean you will be able to recite this

one a is verse sixteen to twenty. Then they eleven disciples went into Galady

to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them, And when they saw him,

they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came and spoke to

them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on

earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them

to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo I am with

you always, even to the end of the age. We call that the

great Commission, and we can resplate it. But I'm going to tell you

there are a whole load of sermons in those verses Luke fifteen, verses one

to seven. Then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to him,

and the pharisees inscribes murmured, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with

them, How terrible is that? So he spoke this parable to them,

saying, what man of you, having one hundred sheep, if he loses

one of them, does not leave the ninety nine in the wilderness and go

after the one which was lost until he finds it. And when he has

found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes

home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, rejoice

with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. And I

say to you that likewise there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner

who repents than over ninety and nine just persons who have no need of repentance.

I mean, when we were farming back in the eighties, which seems

like a long time ago. Now, we kept a lot of sheep.

My wife was the good shepherd. She was a much better shepherd than thank

you. She was a much better shepherd than I was. I used to

turn up and away her orders. But sheep were stupid. It's why there

are so many references in scripture the sheep being like humans, because sometimes we

just do stupid things, don't we? Are you all perfect here? And

oh, thank goodness for that? I thought I was the only one.

See, we had the parable the lot of sheep. The sheep wandered off

on its own. It just disappeared off doing its thing, not taking into

account of where it was going, or who was leaving behind or whatever.

But wherever it hit at gone. The shepherd found it and brought it home.

Sheep do that, they wander off in the natural, they wander off.

But my sheep had a knack of wandering off and would head for the

nearest ditch, you know that thing that the water runs along. I want

you to give me a little bit of poetic license. Now. The scenario

would run, usually on a Sunday morning when we were trying to get everything

done so we could get to church on time. And so we would try

and get everything in the laman shed done, and then I would head off

around feeding various lots of sheep about the farm. It would be raining streams

the beginning of March. But that rain that has got that icy tinge to

it, you know that when it hits your face, your face wants to

and all that kind of rain. And I would get to the last field,

and no matter how I tried to count them, where there was twenty

sheep yesterday, I had only got nineteen. I count heads, I count

bums, I count legs, and I could only get nineteen. So with

my wet weather gear on, my waterproof hat, jacket and trousers, I

would set off looking for my sheep and lo and behold. On more than

one occasion, I would find my sheep in the ditch. Now, at

that point I could stand on the edge of the ditch and lose my temper.

Yeah, it's stupid, cheap. Why did you have to go there?

You've got a whole field you can walk in. Why go there?

I can stand there in the field and dance with temper and shout profanity at

the sheep. Where will the sheep be? Indeed, now like I say,

give me a little bit of poetic license here. The preacher could come

along and say, sheep, you need to hear this, and he would

preach to him his favorite three point sermon that all begin with P. How

do preachers do that? How did they get all these the three points all

with the same letter. I can never do that, And he would appreciate

his favorite hermon and say their, sheep, you listen to that. You'll

be out of that ditch in no time. When he walks off, where's

the sheep? M okay? So the pastor comes along and said, sheep,

it's a bit embarrassing for us at church to have you in this ditch.

We really need you to get out of it. Look, we have

the latest new ditch recovery program going on at the church on Friday night.

You pop along there and you'll get sorted out. You won't be an embarrassing

anymore. When the pastor's gone, where's sheep? In the days? Now

you can get the evangelists come along. I mean, I love evangelists.

They are brilliant? Are they people with an evangelistic gift? I haven't got

it all right, I'm you know, I'm not an evangelist, but I

see it in other people. I mean, they are brilliant. You stand

them in a queue for fish and chips, and they've got the person beside

them talking about Jesus in two minutes. Do you know what I mean?

How did they do that? I'm going but they do That's right. So

we get the pastor come along Haelujah, brother sheep. You need to get

sae. You get said, and you will be out of this ditch in

no time. You come along that go on a Friday night, because we're

having some really brilliant evangelistic meetings. You be there on Friday night. You'll

get sacked and you'll be out of this ditch. When the evangelist is gone.

Where's the sheep in the ditch? You see, there's only one way

I know of getting a sheep out of the ditch, and I will explain

it to you and show you how you do it. You have all your

wet weather gear on, okay, the whole kit cable. It is rain

streams. Okay. The first thing you have to do is you have to

get down into the ditch and you sile up beside your sheep and you get

you get to where you're about midway between his head and his tail. You

then reach down and push your hands underneath the sheep. At this point,

remember your sheep is standing in water. At this point you find out that

your wet weather gear not only keeps water out, but it keeps it in,

and water is running back to your elbow. Okay, but you've got

to keep going. You push your hands underneath the sheep, and then you

take a deep breath and you lean against the sheep. And then you discover

that the sheep has passed a thorn bush on the way to the ditch,

and you have to stop. Take one hand out, extract the thorn,

and push your hand back underneath, and then you heave with all your might.

You see the sheep and slide it up the other side. Now,

at this point you discover that all the water that was back by your elbow

has now run all the way back and it's going down in the side.

But you can't stop, but you slide the sheep up on top of the

edge of the dips the other side. Now, at this point you have

to be very careful because your sheep will make a strike out for its new

freedom, and if you are not very careful. You've got a very wet,

very soggy, but very hard leg that goes and it catches you right

across here, and it stings, and it uses your face as a leverage

point to slide up on to the other side and it tuddles off. Now

at this point too, you have to be very careful because your boots are

stuck in the mud. If you think, yes, I'm done and you've

got to move, you end up face down in the ditch. So you

have to grab your welly and regally out of the mud on both sides for

you to walk out. As you can guess, I got quite expert at

it. You see, when a human has got into a ditch, they

don't need anybody to shout abuse at them because they know they're in the ditch.

They don't need anybody to judge them, preach it them, or tell

them about programs. What they need is somebody to get in beside them.

You see, you can't experience the ditch from the moral high ground of the

field or the bank the other side. Now, there are all kinds of

ditches that we human sheep get ourselves into, and you can add to this

list there's a ditch of poverty, the ditch of addiction, the ditch of

abuse, bereavement, loneliness, depression, anxiety, illness. You're endless.

This is that we get ourselves into, aren't there now? At this point

in time, you may be saying, look, I'm not trained to get

into a ditch with anybody. I want to tell you you do not need

training to be somebody's friend. You don't need training to say to somebody that

you can see that is struggling. Fancy having a cup of coffee with me?

You fancy popping in for lunch. If you get to hear somebody's got

to go from one of those hospital appointments where what is going to be shared

may not be totally positive, you don't need to be trained to say to

them, would you like me to go with you? See, if we

want our churches to grow, we have to get into some people's ditches.

See this morning, you say, well, okay, okay, tell me

about that I'm in a ditch. I'm in it. Then there are two

things you need to do. Number one is you tell somebody. Number two,

let somebody get in the ditch with you and help you. Do you

know there's a statistic that makes me cringe every time I hear it, and

that Christian marriage just fail exactly the same amount of times as non Christian marriages.

That's nuts in it, you know what I mean? I you know,

I kind of take that as a kind of a you know, a

kick in the teeth from me as a Christian, because that should never ever

be. But having pastored for years, well, what I can tell you

is that the problem is with Christian marriages that the pastor never finds out about

it until it's too late. It's been hidden for goodness soults how long,

and that then there is either somebody else involved in the relationship or solicitors are

involved or I mean, and Christians, how people say this to me?

They come out, you know, we come out with churchy language when we

want it don't And they say, well, it's like this pastor, our

relationship is just going through a valley experience at the moment. We've got to

unravel that. Okay, What they really mean is they're not talking to each

other, they're not sleeping with each other, and usually by then each of

them are beginning to look outside of their relationship. Jesus has the answer for

today's society. Jesus has the answer for struggling marriages. Jesus has the answer

for addiction. Jesus has the answer for abuse, for bereavement, lonely.

Jesus has the answer. And we need to show Jesus as much as we

talk about him. I want to encourage your churches that are doing it,

are growing today, not closing. Go into all the world and make disciples,

goes an action word, isn't it. You know somebody say that's your

go. I mean you can just about understand that in any language. I

mean, go is action. It means. I mean, it's saying to

me, go, I have to move this leg. I have to put

it out and go. Because that's what going. It's action. Go.

Jesus said, put into action. Somebody once said to me, go into

all the world and make disciples, and only open your mouth if you have

to. We are called to make disciples. If you want a job description

from scripture, that's it. The Great, the Great Commission is our job

description. It's what we're called to do. It's why you live in the

house that you live in. It is not an accident that you live in

that house. It is not an accident that you have the name neighbors that

you have. It is not an accident that you have the community that you

have, because if you've said to God, God, I'm I'm your disciple,

then God has moved you and placed you. Even if you don't like

the neighbors, God has placed you beside of them, because where else are

they going to see Jesus in action? They will only see Him through you.

See, if I asked you the question do you want this church to

grow? Your answer would be yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It would be without question, wouldn't it. We want our church to

grow. If you want to see this church grow, then I challenge you

to wake up tomorrow morning and say to God, God, I'm up for

it. Just decideles. We have to be up for it, don't we,

God, I'm up for it. Use me today to be part of

growing your kingdom right here, right here, right here, where your house

is. God. I want to be part of your growing your kingdom right

here. You see. I can tell you that if you dare to pray

that prayer tomorrow morning, I can guarantee before the day's out that God will

ask you to do something that you don't want to do. You will have

an opportunity that you won't want to take, but I encourage you. Don't

argue with it. Go with it all right. However, deep a breath

that you have to take. I think, oh my gosh, I've never

done this before, and you know, and maybe I've never I've never spoken

to this person before. It's something likes with these situations that come along.

We have to take a deep breath, don't we, because it steps this

outside of our comfort zone. Where As you step outside of that comfort zone,

say God, I'm not for it. I'm going to take a deep

breath, but I'm not for it. I'm going to talk to this person

that you've given me opportunity to talk to. See. It just may be

that you go to your favorite coffee shop tomorrow morning and you sit at a

table and somebody will come and sit opposite you. If you say that they

have sat opposite you because that was the only chair left available in the coffee

shop, no no, no, no no no, they've sat opposite you

because God wants you to show Jesus to them in some way. Yes,

Lord, I don't know what that way will be, but those opportunities will

be there. The stumbling block with it is whether we take it or not.

And sometimes it may not be convenience. You may be going, oh

my gosh, I'm supposed to be it may not be convenient, But I

tell you, if God says to you to take those two minutes, take

them. M don't worry about the God will deal with that. He's really

good at it. He is really go into all the world and make disciples,

teaching them all the things that Jesus has taught you. And I encourage

you. That's one of the reasons why we go to church, why we

learn biblical principles, because if we've learned them, we can pass them on

to somebody else. Blessure, this church is going to grow men. Okay,

it's not if it's when, it's going to grow. Now, I

just want to finish this morning. Let's just say it to you. Look,

if you've come to church this morning saying, oh gosh, I just

really hope there's an opportunity for somebody to pray with me, I mean,

then that opportunity is here. Okay, the service may wind down or whatever,

you know, but if you need prayer this morning, then seek out,

Dave or Julia or somebody here that you know that prayer is readily available,

because Scripture says, pray for the sick and they will recover. And

there's a verse two that kind of precedes that often Christians neglect, and it

says, call for the elders of the church. When we're ill. We

don't wait for somebody to say, oh gosh, you look terrible. We

don't wait. We go and say this morning, I need somebody to pray

for me. Okay, it's your responsibility, that's scriptural. God bless you

and keep you in the center of his will. Amen. Amen, Thank you,