8th January 2023 All Age Service - Dave Food - Press in, press on

Chop my head off there hanging a second. I'm taller than Juliet obviously.

So as we press into twenty twenty three, let me say happy in the

year to you, as the first time we've met face to face this year,

and we're looking at a new start. We've got a series of looking

at a new start, and I want to encourage you to press on and

press in, don't give up, press on and press in. And I'm

going to take this as an opportunity to share some things that are starting up

in twenty twenty three. But I want to encourage us as well. In

Philippians chapter three, verses thirteen and fourteen, it says this, brethren,

I do not count myself a to have apprehended. But one thing I do.

One thing I do forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching towards

those things which are ahead. I press towards the goal for the prize of

the upward calling God in Christ Jesus. Notice what Paul says. He says

forgetting, forgetting, And if anybody had to go at something and it's not

worked out as you expected, you can put your hands up at home.

I can't see, but you know, just bear with me. I want

to encourage people to respond. As church online it's so easy just to sit

and watch, and I think it's really important that we participate, whether we're

at home or in the room. When a question gets asked, I'm not

going to ask you to share it publicly, but just respond. It tells

me you're alive, and it also tells me that I'm communicating so brether and

I count it to myself forgetting the form of things. There's a saying that

says, if we keep on doing the same things again and again and again

and expecting different results, that's the kind of definition of lunacy or craziness.

But again and again and again. Sometimes people take that say I'll never try

ever again, not even once you've been around to visit someone. You felt

you should go and visit them. You went and knocked on their door,

there was no answer, there was nobody in Would you try again? The

parable of the persistent widow said she tried again and again and again until she

persuaded her neighbor to bless her. And so there's a real delicate balance between

giving up because Okay, you've tried many times and maybe there isn't fruit there

and pressing in, And do you know I sent the best way to know

when to give up or not to give up is to ask the one who

knows. Don't just think about how you feel, because I'll tell you what.

We'll give up far quicker than he gives up. We will give up

far quicker than the Father will give up. And so Paul says, forgetting

the former things, the things that are no longer bearing fruits, forget them

and move forward. And so I want to say to us at the beginning

of twenty twenty three, there are some things that we did in twenty twenty

two that had no fruit. Okay, what we tried, and that might

be personal, that might be at work, that might be in the church,

that might be in community, but we tried and nothing happened. Well,

okay, it's experience. Let's move on. Let's not dwell upon things

that didn't work, but things that are working. Let's press on and press

into them, and let's see what God is saying. And one of the

things that I want to kind of really focus upon is just what does it

mean to be part of a body. If if we were a bit like

a skeleton with fingers and bones not joined together with tissue. You know,

a skeleton doesn't do anything. If you like those kind of CSI type programs

where they lay out a body on the table and you can see all the

bones. Sometimes you know, somebody has been buried for a long time and

there's just bones. Well, those bones can do nothing. And we read

in Ezekiel how God said, speak to prophesi to the bones. Prophecy first

to join the bones together, so the bones have function and purpose. But

unless they're joined together, they're not part of a body. They're just the

bone. And so you know, Ezekiel was encouraged to prophesy to the bones,

and sinews and tissues came to join them together. But then just being

joined together doesn't cause anything to happen unless there is movement. And so they

said, prophesy muscles and sinews, you know, because that means that we

can then move. So the bones are joined together the body and then there's

a movement, there's a momentum and then okay, it's a dead tissue,

but it's not doing anything because it needs life. And what's he finally say,

office ie breath, prophesied breath. Prophecied life because once breath comes.

You know, if you come across someone lying in the street that they've started

breathing time for CPR, you know, pushing light, pushing breath back into

the body. And so as a body, both online and face to face,

what does it mean to be part of our Yes, well, I've

been much challenged by this as we've journeyed through COVID, and we've got people

who join us regularly, who are partner, who we are online, but

are never physically here. There's a guy from Tanzania watching us this morning.

Bless you George. Great to have you with us this morning. He's in

Tanzania. You know, we're sitting here in Agamon. There is in Tanzania.

And he said a word of encouragement in the chat box and said,

bless you guys. You know, so what we think of church has changed.

Okay, we need in history probably thought, okay, somebody who was

committed to church would physically be there on a fairly regular basis, would pray

as part of connecting with God, would give as giving to God, and

then would find a place to find a way of doing things. Well,

now think about this. In the cyber world. We've got people who live

in Lincolnshire, people who live in Somerset, people who live in Mexico,

and I could keep on going. Who will unlikely to be here on a

regular basis, but they will still gather with us. That's what the website

are about. And so I want to encourage you. For all those people

listening at home, please don't watch worship. Please worship we can all.

You've all had the television on in the background at home, haven't you.

You've been doing something, cooking, ironing, doing something else, and maybe

you had the television on. Okay, you're not watching the television. I

was ironing yesterday and the TV was on. I was doing the ironing and

the TV was on in the background, was watching the telem It's just some

background noise. You know. If you've got to watch it, you've got

to choose to be actively present. That means put other things aside. And

if you want to watch a film, don't do the ironing. How many

people have watched the TV program? You think, and you get about halfway

through and you think, I've seen this before. But for the first ten

minutes you had no clue it was because you weren't watching it. In the

first place. In the first place, you were probably doing something else,

the phone rang, something else happened, and you missed the big chunk and

suddenly you think, I've seen this before. Julia or I do this on

a regular basis. I said, have we seen this? I'm not sure,

but it happens. We're doing We're trying to multitask. So let me

encourage you when we get to a time to watch it. Go for it

at home, dance around the room, you know, raise your hands,

shout, annoy the neighbors, and then let's pray. As a church.

Part of our way of connecting from prayer, and one of the things I

do love about us here is there's an active dynamic around prayer. People share

prayer needs on the WhatsApp group, and there's people going prayer emojis, praying,

then people like the next day asking questions how's it going. So it's

not just we've had a little prayer and handed it over to God. We're

still praying. So, you know, prayer, and that's included people who

again are not physically in the move to give. You know, you can

press a button today and send money anywhere in the world instantaneously. Every week,

Juliet sends me a list of needs and requirements for Abba Father's house,

and I send the money from the Abba Father's House funds, you know,

electronically to arrive in Uganda for them to pick it up and collect the cash.

Every week, Juliet blesses me because she makes me feel like a millionaire

because nearly every week I have to send a million Ugandan shillings to Uganda.

So every week I'm typing these number six. Hey, I want to It's

not my money anyway, it's at Abba Father's house. But I'll tell you

what. When you press a button saying sends with a million next to it,

there's a little rush. I'll be honest, Did I get it right?

Because if I got the code wrong, it's going to go to the

wrong Okay, And millium shillings is about two hundred and fifty pounds something like

that, and Joe, but it's still money. It's still an important part

of God's purpose. So we give, and we give to God's purposes.

And in the next couple of weeks we'll be coming to the end of doing

our tax return as a church, and we'll be sharing with you where we

spent the money last year, just just to be accountable, and then finally

to serve those of the things. I want to explore some of these things,

and I want to start by reading from Hebrews chapter ten, verse twenty

five, because some people would say, well, I can do it online,

I won't meet face to face. In Hebrews ten twenty five porta to

the church that Paul said, this is not the time to pull away and

nick meeting together as some have formed the habit of doing, because we need

each other. In fact, we should come together even more frequently, eager

to encourage and urge each other onward as we anticipate that day dawning. This

scripture could have been written for such a time as now. You think about

how many hundreds of years ago this was written. This is not the time

to pull away. It's very easy to default and say I'll do it online.

Do you know what. We had a leader's meeting yesterday and it was

just great to see one another face to face, to pray together, and

to talk and just to do fellowship together. I'm not saying don't do online.

We've had a number of people who've turned up in twenty twenty two and

They walked up to him and said hello, Dave, and I said,

my memory is not that brilliant. But I look at that and thinking I've

got a clue who you are. And so I say, have we ever

met? And she said, I'm thinking of one particular person. She said

no. I said, okay, so how do you know I'm Dave.

Then she said I've been We've been watching online for weeks. You know,

that's part of the purpose of online. People can try church before they even

come along and connect. But there's something about being together. There's something about

doing together. And I want to make space more and more space in twenty

twenty three for ministry, for prayer, for laying on hands for people,

prophesying over people, gifts words of knowledge, why not let's make space and

room for that. But typically that happens face to face. Doesn't have to

happen face to face. If you go and watch the historical live streams,

you will find there are prophetic words in the chat box. And I was

just sharing with Nikki yesterday. I typed a prophetic word in the chat box,

not when I was speaking. It's a bit difficult to go type and

speak, but with somebody else being up. God just laid something on me

for a particular name. I typed it in the chat box. Six weeks

later, I get a message. I'd be saying that was for me,

not someone I know, someone who just randomly six weeks later watched the service.

So God is not bound by time. So the service happened six weeks

previously, they were watching it six weeks later, and that prophetic word was

in the chatbox for them. So I want to encourage you to keep on

meeting together, you know, and you will find if people come forward with

prayer. I might be reaching out to you and saying, come, come

and stand with me. Let's pray for this person. So it's not just

about coming with need, it's also coming with provision. You and I men

and women of God. We can pray and we can see God do amazing

things. So let's not give up meeting together. That's encourage and that's at

lots of different levels. I'll come back to that later. In Ephesians chapter

three, verses eighteen to twenty, it says this, then you will be

empowered to discover what every holy wun experiences, the magnitude of the astonishing love

of Christ. In all its dimensions. I love this is the passion translation.

If you're wondering why it's not familiar to you, How deeply intimate and

far reaching is his love, How enduring and inclusive. It is endless love

beyond measurement that transcends our understanding. This extravagant love paus into you until you

are filled to overflowing with the fullness of Christ. I just love this.

It just just allow it to watch over you. Never doubt God's mighty power

to work in you and to accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more

than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your widest imagination.

He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.

You probably don't recognize that translation, but you would recognize phrases like this,

God is able to do immeasurably or more than we ask or imagine. I

just found that just such. So let's come into his presence. Let's gather.

I don't mean that's a tender meeting. I mean let's gather. Let's

be intentional about what we do. Just like I said, choose to be

actively present. Don't just let's not just drift up to church. Let's not

just press the button and be online. Okay, I'm going to be in

church this morning. Whether you're physically ill because you live in Somerset or Tanzania

or Malawi, because some of the other places as China or somewhere else I

saw this morning, wherever you are in the world, choose to engage,

choose to gather. I say, okay, I'm going to spend the next

hour and hour and a half and gathering with these folk, and I'm going

to see what God will do. I also want to encourage us not to

give up. And in Philippians chapter three, verses thirteen and fourteen, which

I kind of started off with, but I want to kind of emphasis in

a different way, Brethren, I do not count myself to how apprehended.

But one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching towards those

things which are ahead. I press on towards the goal for the prize of

the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And it's not I don't want

to focus on the forgetting now. I want to focus on the looking forward.

How many people drive cars in the room, wave up me. Lots

of people drive cars yet, Okay, we have mirrors, don't we We

have mirrors on the side, and we have mirrors on the top. And

you can fail your test if you don't reference your mirrors because you're not looking

around. But we do not spend our time driving only looking in the rear

view mirrors. If you may have seen this as an illusionist who I quite

like, who puts a blindfold on in the car and then get some drives

this car with a blindfolder. I don't know how he does it. It's

an illusionist. But the passenger who's sitting in the car with him is going

completely mental, going aha as they come up to a junction, and it's

not on the public road, by the way. But we do not drive

by looking backwards. We look forwards. Now, how can we look forwards

when we don't know what tomorrow con tons? Well, we prepare based upon

habit, based upon experience, based upon our diary, based upon what we

planned, and based upon trusting God. Irene bless her Great's warrior of prayer,

who's now with the Lord. She regularly used to say to me when

I maybe be round our house and say I'll see you on Sunday, I'll

see you next week, and she say God willing. She was always just

referencing. Okay, I don't know what tomorrow contains, but if it's God,

if God's willing it, then I'll see you. So press on,

don't look back. Press on so intentionally think about the future. Some people

are past people. You know the history and say, love history. I'm

not a great history buff myself, but I'm I'm greatful looking forward. I'm

really comfortable talking about next year already, twenty twenty four. Why not let's

talk about twenty twenty four. You might say, well, that's because you're

a supply chain person, Dave, Okay, that's true. And where do

we invest? I talked about giving Matthew very clearly puts in chapter chapter six

of the Gospel. But you lay up yourselfs treasures in heaven. Where do

we invest where moth or rust, where moth or rust destroys, and where

thieves do not break in and steal for. Where your treasure is there your

heart will be. Also, if I gave you two investment funds, one

that was paying two percent and one that was paying five fifty percent, I

know where you put your money. But if I said the one if the

one percent was one hundred percent reliable and the fifty percent was one percent reliable,

suddenly it's a bit more difficult. That's why we need things like financial

advisors and those things. But sometimes we just need to take a punt.

We got an opportunity to buy something. Is it good? Is it not

good? It seems really cheap on this website. Somewhere else it seems a

bit more expensive. But I know them and I don't know them. Suddenly

we've got to make those kind of value based choices. Where do we invest,

what do we buy, how do we spend our money? And money's

not the only way of thinking about value. One of the most valuable things

we have is time and just think about it. Some people will do this

regular at the beginning of every year, they'll do a budget for the year.

They just say, Okay, how much money have I got? How

much money am I earning? And we've had to do this very recently as

a church because obviously fuel prices are going up, so are our fixed price

deal for the gas in electric in this building comes to an end this week,

So I've had to spend time and get help with trying to negotiate a

new deal. And it's gone up. But I'll tell you what, do

you know what? Just to give you some practical ideas. The first quotes

I got were eight thousand pounds a year. We were spending about fifteen hundred

last year. We spending about fifteen hundred, eighteen hundred quid a year.

Julie's nodding at me. So I'm not making it up now, and I

was getting quotes seven thousand, eight thousand pounds. Yeah, I've got it

down to three and a half. Well, it didn't just happen by going,

oh, can you make it a bit less? I go, well,

i've got a better quote here, and they go, we can match

that. I said, I've got a better quote here now, so and

it just came down and came down, and then the guy said, I

don't know how you've got that quote. Day we can match that, but

it's just because you're our existing customer, we can't go any further. When

okay, where your treasure is that your heart is also, so where are

you spending your time? I'll give you some simple things On my mobile phone.

Now, I've got a little app that tells me how much time I

spend on which app's on my mobile phone? And I just glanced at it.

I don't get religious about it. I'm not going on I shouldn't,

but I do from time to time. Spent twenty minutes on Facebook over breakfast

this morning. Really I thought it was just two minutes. But that's the

kind of thing, because those things are not saying they're evil at all,

but they are designed to draw you in and draw you in, and draw

you in, and suddenly the morning's gone. Where your treasure is there,

your heart will be also in Corinthians, another version, another way of putting

this. But this I say, he who so sparingly will also reap sparingly,

and he who so spantifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one

give according to the purposes in the art, not grudgingly on necessity or of

necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. We started tea and coffee after

church, and I remember having a conversation with somebody about this. Was Alice.

I need to make this up. I remember having a conversation with Alis

when she was serving tea and coffee, and she she'd loved to bless us.

She'd love to bring cakes and biscuits and extra stuff. And she said

about David, I don't want to throw it away at the end, I

said, Alice, I want to have a mentality of generosity. So please,

if you're willing to be generous, you know, buy what you think

you want to bring. And if we end up with surplus at the end,

let's give it away. Not put it in a tin and let it

go stay off for a few weeks, but give it away. And you

know, sometimes we'd have people who would say things like, oh, well

I don't need anything. Some people are trying to watch their waistlines, so

well I can't take some capers. Well okay, we've got a wrong mentality

there, because actually, if we as a church of being generous and be

able to give, then maybe you can be generous with your neighbors. So

instead of you thinking about you taking cake home and thinking, oh, it's

it's going to put some my waistlin one, why not think about a neighbor

that you could go home and say, do you know what we had?

We had some extra at church on Sunday, and I thought of you,

here's some ginger cake. I know you love ginger cake. What does that

do? Firstly, it continues to encourage us to be generous, but secondly,

it also gives us an excuse to have a conversation with somebody about church.

I have to say, hey, I go to church and I want

to tell you about Jesus. Just say I thought of you because I know

you liked ginger cake, and we had ginger cake and there was some leftover,

so here's some for you. Some people say, oh, you shouldn't

have done, but it's a transaction. It's an opportunity to connect, and

the Lord loves a cheerful giver, So let me encourage you. If Jill

as she serves tea and coffee, and if we can have other volunteers,

we'll do in tea and coffee more often, I would imagine. But if

there's biscuits and cakes at the end of any Sunday morning service and Jill says,

you know, would you like some? Don't just think yourself. Think

about your neighbors, Think about someone you're going to meet this afternoon. Maybe

you could give them something. It starts the model I believe Kingdom principles and

practicalities in Matthew twenty five thirty four to forty. Let me read a bit

of this story. Then then the King shall speak to those on his right,

and he shall say, my father has blessed you. Come and take

what is yours. It is the kingdom prepared for you since the world was

created. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was

thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you

invited me in. I needed clothes and you gave them to me. I

was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you

came to visit me. Then the people who have done what is right will

answer him and say Lord. They will ask, when did we see you

hungry and feed you. When did we see you thirsty and give you something

to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in.

When did we see you needing clothes and gave them to you. When

did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you. The

King will reply, what I'm about to tell you is true. Anything you

did to the least important of my brothers, you did of me. And

we have plenty of opportunity to minister to strangers in lots of different ways.

And I'll unpack a few things there as I kind of share a few things

that we're going to press into into twenty twenty three. And Juliette and I

both had this scripture. Juliette started the service off with ps one hundred.

But yesterday as leaders, as we were praying and fasting, we both not

surprisingly but still surprisingly, we both said, oh, we both had Psalm

one hundred as a word of encouragement. And this was the verse that called

out to me. Served the Lord with sadness, No, you're wrong,

day, that's not what it says. Serve the Lord with gladness, come

into his presence with singing. And so here's a glimpse of a few things

that we're going to press into into twenty twenty three. We are not going

to stop being online church. You know, there are plenty of churches around

who said, okay, COVID's over now, were coming to an end,

We're going to stop church. And we've got people who are now reaching out

and saying, can I come and be part of your service on a Sunday?

Because the church I used to go to is stopping online church. And

this is from a gentleman from Shropshire a few weeks ago messaged me and said,

is it all right if I attend your online service. I don't know

whether you're online today, sir, but you're welcome if you are. And

he lives I think he described three or four miles from the church that he

used to go to, but he's not got any transport. He can't get

to church. Just said can I come and join you? He joined our

prayer meeting about eighteen months ago. Once he just turned up, he just

said, is it okay if I join your prayer meeting. So we're going

to continue to be doing online church and we're going to invest in that.

And remember I said already I'm going to encourage us to meet face to face.

So don't think, okay, I'm encouraging us to be online. But

I am saying our seed goes a long way. As I was as Judia

was introducing the service, Pastor George in Tanzania said, Hi, Dave,

great to be with you this morning. And we just do not know.

But for those people who are listening online, if you know someone at RCF,

send them a word of encouragement. Don't send it to me. Encourage

them, because that's why you're here. If you're here as a complete stranger,

welcome. But we're going to continue to do blended church. And that

means, for example, we're going to invest a bit more. We invested

in cameras in here a few years ago, investing in the website. We're

going to upgrade the website for things like, for example, new Christians.

A traditional way of welcoming new Christians into church, would you have a new

believer's course, and you have a course, you can invite people along to

it. Well, that's fine, but how do we do that in the

blended world. We can't say, oh, you have joined our church in

Lincolnshire, why don't you come to our new believer's course. They're not going

to drive down from Lincolnshire each week to come to the new believer's course.

So I've been thinking about, okay, let's have a new believer's course online.

Unlet's anybody who becomes a new believer, whether face to face or not,

let's give them a coach or a discipler, someone like you, someone

like you online because you don't have to physically in there. We just say

okay, watch the use and each week they'll do a coffee with you online

coffee and let's just talk about the things. And so that's just a different

way of doing things. We're going to invest in some of those things.

Sean encourage us to think about providing warm spaces, and so starting tomorrow we

will be providing a warm space, not a warm hub, because a warm

hub requires that we give advice on how you use your partent things, and

we're not doing that. But starting tomorrow we will have a warm space here

just for the So speak to Julia. She'll tell you more about if you're

interested in that. This is aimed at outreaching into the community. This is

not for the church. It's really aimed at outreach. It's going to be

made up. We're just going to say welcome. You know. Food is

going to be provided for those who are coming, and we'll just see what

happens. Karen, who works at Royal Holloway, she's going to be helping

us to connect with students this year. You know, she's on the on

the job on the ground, and not that we're exclusively focusing on international students,

but Karen's got a heart for international students. If you look back over

our history as a church, nearly all the students we've ever had have been

postgraduate overseas students. And so okay, let's build up on that, because

here's the thing. If you go around and look at the other churches.

And I spoke to the chairman of the Christian Union at Royal Holloway and said,

you know, how is how is this academic year going? Said,

well, okay, you know, numbers have changed in different churches. But

one of the things he said was debut or one of the churches that touches

overseas postgraduate students than how he picked that up. But you know, true,

has anybody noticed just up the road, about two hundred yards from where

we are right now is a new cinema. How many people have tried it

out? I know, Norman, you have, Jill, you've tried it

Outkay, a few people tried it out. It's just up the road from

us. And one of the things that God was challenging me about was saying,

okay, we need to give clear vision about growth as a church.

You know, it's very easy for us to think, okay, well,

how do we grow as a church when we've only got half a dozen spare

chairs. Well, I don't know what your family mentality was, but when

extra people turned that up our dinner table, it was family holds back.

If we had extra people around the table, then the people who were regularly

there would just have less, so that the people who are guessing, now

what that might mean on a Sunday is it might mean you come to church

and there's more people than chess, so you might have to sit on the

floor. And I'm just being practical. You know, would you expect if

you were in your living room and a whole bunch of your family or friends

came around you didn't have enough chairs in your living room, You wouldn't expect

them to sit on the floor, would you? You probably say, no,

no, you sit there, are sit on this little cushion in the

corner. And I remember a picture Clem, who's going to be with us

next month. I remember Clem sharing how he'd been to a house group church

and he said there were so many people there were squatting on the floor,

not just sitting on the wall, squatting on the floor to listen to the

whole of the service. And they also then had a speaker and a microphone

and a speaker up into the bedrooms. There were people sitting in the bedrooms

listening to the service. But you know, we live in a world where

all could so we need to give a space for growth. And so one

of the things I want to believe for, and I'm sharing this as a

faith journey, is I'm believing that we'll do something in the cinema in twenty

twenty three, maybe as a one off, maybe as a series, don't

know, but and this is where you get involved. We cannot go and

do an event in the in the cinema and have recorded worship. I can't

do it. I don't think it's a you know, we're going to do

a big You know, there are four cinemascra If you haven't been there,

go and explore it. There's a thirty seater, a sixty seater, a

ninety seater, and one hundred seater cinema in that space. So there's four

different rooms. So we could start with a sixty sized room and if everybody

turned up, we might have to move to a bigger one. But I

just want to believe for live worship, and it's something we've struggled with philipp

has had long COVID, she's not been able to do it. Other people

have moved away, other people prefer to kind of do record it online.

That's all fine, but I want to believe that we could start having live

worship regularly on a Sunday. But then also we can take that into doing

something together. And then I've already mentioned about meeting face to face, and

I would love to encourage, for example, we start doing a prayer meeting

maybe once a month here on rather than online face to face. And I

know there are compromises there and we've got to work through those. So both

for the Ladies Ministry and the Men's Ministry, we have a month online and

we have a month offline. Now what that means is every month someone misses

out because there are some people who don't do online and so they only come

to the face to face once. And there's some people like Gordon who he

attends the Men's meeting only online. You can't come all the way down from

Lincolnshire just for breakfast. It'll be a bit of a crazy idea, wouldn't

it. So there are people who get excluded by doing that blended mix but

we've just got to go up a bit and start having a conversation and staying

connected with people. So I'm saying we want to do more online and want

to do sorry, we want to do more face to face where we can,

and that includes places where we're hosted and those kinds of things. So

I did say we are going to invent so places to serve and things to

do. You've heard a bunch of things that are going to do. That's

not the exclusive list. That's just getting us started for twenty twenty three.

Investing in twenty twenty three will be doing things like online, so we will

be upgrading our website. This is the first version of the new website that

we're working on. At the moment. You might say, how can I

get involved? Well, maybe it's not your thing. I want to encourage

everybody. You've all got a gift, use it for the glory of God.

Whether it's encouragement and serving tea and coffee like Jill does every week,

or whether it's like Gordon Gordon. Gordon's my spell checker on the website.

He messaged me on a very regular basis, said David, there's a spelling

mistake. I don't have to watch out for it. He does that.

It's part of his gift thing. He's a detailed person. So he tells

me when I've spelled something wrong, and sometimes it's a typos, sometimes it's

genuinely I've misspelled it. And so I want to say, as we press

into twenty twenty three, there's a whole bunch of things we can get involved

with. There's a whole bunch of things we can do, and God will

be glorified as we do them together. So hopefully that's excited you a bit

about twenty twenty three, press in and press on, And I just want

to say, for example, the warm place thing that came from Julia saying

I want to do something didn't come from the leaderships deciding and then looking for

someone. So if there's something you know, like Sean for example, and

Judy helps the board games, you do a board games thing every Tuesday after

an angle free of green, don't you egham, Sorry I did put an

angle figure anyway. Sorry, Okay, I'm out of date. That's right,

thanks Judy. So you know, and that came out of a need

that came out of a need and connecting with need so if there's something God's

stirring in your heart, let's have that conversation, and let's press into stuff.