27th November 2022 - Teaching Service

It's wonderful to be with you all, and thank you Pastor Dave for having

me. As Dave mentioned, I'm a very good friend of Clem Ferris,

who is known to many of you for many years. Clem and I go

back almost thirty years and our connection is through our mentor in the prophetic Ministry,

which is Keith Hazel And of Lake. Clem and I have actually been

ministering quite a bit together. We were just in Asia. We did a

big conference there and it's wonderful to connect with Clem. And so when we

came to England, he said, yes, you have to look up Dave

and his fellowship there. So we are glad. My wife Mimi is here

as well, and for all of you that are logging online, we are

certainly glad that you're with us. So the theme, as has been shared

with me from Pastor Dave, is on missions, and I took some time

this past week to review the messages that were given by Simon and Yet and

Pastor Dave, just to make sure he's in the right tenor and flow of

what's been shared here. And I want to bring a word to you this

morning from First Corinthians fifteen fifty eight, and I pray that this will be

an encouragement to you as you were focused on being on mission. So this

verse from Paul says, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable,

always a boundy in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the

Lord your labor is not in vain. So we thank you God for your

word. We thank you that when it's quickened by the Holy Spirit, it

speaks to our hearts. Lord enlivens us and causes us even to be raised

up in a fresh and new way in our hearts. So Holy Spirit,

go forth, We thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen.

So I want to take this verse and break it down into three parts.

And the first part here is this phrase that Paul gives us. Therefore,

my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable. And I think that this is

a very timely exhortation from Paul, and exhortation that we should take to heart.

It's easy for us to feel weak and unsure in the times that we're

in, maybe discouraged or distant in your faith and in your mission. But

God is here to steady us and to help us be strong. Are we

not living in a time where it's easy to fall away, let go of

the rope and give up. In one Timothy four, Verse one, Paul

said to his son in the faith, now, the spirit explicitly says that

in later times some will depart from the faith. Paul is prophesying now,

twenty centuries earlier, to a time that we're living in now, he says,

the Spirit expressly says, so you can't get more clear than that that

some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teaching of

demons. This is serious stuff. Us said in Matthew twenty four. He

also said that many will fall away. You know, our societies are becoming

so secularized. Christians can easily be afraid to speak up for Jesus, for

fear of glaring looks, heckling, antagonism, and outright hostility. The fear

of being canceled and not being woke enough is very real. I was speaking

to a Christian professor recently. He was telling me how even talking with students

in the classroom is like a landmine, and he must be so careful for

what he says, for fear of being reported by the students that his speech

is not approved, and there's so much pressure to conform, to be popular,

to be with the in crowds, to be liked, that it can

erode our faith to the point that we give into it or we let it

mutate to minimize the pressure that's on us. Few years back, our church

sponsored a social action event in which Miss Canada was our featured speaker. Of

course, this drew a lot of attention, and she was notable not only

for the fact that she had won this beauty title, but that she was

also a dedicated Christian. Well, just this past week we heard that her

views have now shifted to something that is hybridized or syncretized, blending Christianity with

other religions and spiritual orientations. This is an hour in which drifting away and

leaving the faith, even apostasizing, is fashionable in the US. One of

the most influential youth leaders and authors who became a pastor of a megachurch.

He was one that was used by the Lord to ignite a purity in dating

movement. He wrote a book that was very popular and called young people to

keep themselves pure, to dedicate themselves to the purposes of God. Later became

a megachurch pastor, but unfortunately he made headlines because he then gave up his

faith. He gave up his megachurch and he moved to Canada to seek an

alternative lifestyle. It's not easy to be steadfast and immovable in this hour,

this every manner of belief, doctrine, orientation, lifestyle to suit our liking.

The spirit of the age is strong and its encroaching shadow is only spreading

out more and more. How do we stay true in this kind of environment?

How do we stay on fire for our daily witness? How do we

stay on task, on mission and not waiver? Well, it goes back

to our belief system, and this is the context of First Corinthians fifteen,

where Paul is talking about what is the bedrock of what we believe? Currently,

there's an unprecedented attack on our belief system, one that is mediated by

seducing spirits and seducing voices and false teaching. First John four one says,

I do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they

are from God. Because many prophets have gone out into the world, we

all know this to be true. There are many false voices that are out

there clamoring for our attention. But Paul says that we can be immovable and

steadfast because the Christian belief system, our belief system is the most rugged,

sound tested, and true system in the world. It's superior to all the

belief systems because it's rooted in reality. It's not just a metaphysical construct at

work. It's not just a philosophical argument at work or cool ideas that are

stitched together. It's actually rooted in history and a concrete, physical, breathtaking

event that can be pegged to place and time. That event is the death

and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the foundation stone, the anchor of

our belief system. If Jesus did not rise up from the grave, then

let's just close up shop. As Paul said in one Corinthians fifteen, we

have all men are to be pitied. But Jesus did rise up. So

because he's rose, risen up, and we should go for it. We

should be zealous, be on mission. Tell people about the love that's in

our hearts, reach out to people in kindness, give them hope, and

tell them about the salvation and eternal life that we can have through the Lord.

There is nothing that can move us off center. We of all people,

are to be the most grounded people on earth. We are steadfast and

immovable in our cause. Amen. We are not here by accident. We

have a destiny and a pouch full of good deeds to accomplish. Jesians two

twelve Ephesians two, verse ten says we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus

for good works that are appointed just for you, which God prepared beforehand that

we might walk in them. So we have an exciting life. There's nothing

more exciting than the Christian life. There is this common perception out there that

to become a Christian is to lead a boring, drab life. Nothing could

be farther from the truth. If anyone should be more enthusiastic in life,

it should be us as Christians, because we're animated by the Resurrection. We're

animated by the Holy Spirit. His life is working in us. So we

should be lights by natural just because God is within us. Now as an

aside, as we talk about the importance of our belief system, never has

the issue of Bible literacy been more crucial than now. Never has the need

for renewing our minds and getting our belief systems established been more crucial. Paul

says in Romans chapter twelve, do not be conformed to this world. Why

are people falling away? Why are they apostasizing, why are they hybridizing?

Because their mind is not being renewed by the scriptures. They're being conformed to

this world. And this goes back to the fact that people just don't know

their scriptures. The level of Bible illiteracy in the church is shocking. In

fact, it's at a crisis point, an epidemic that's far worse than COVID.

It allows the devil to jump up and down for joy because he gets

to derail and sidetrack Christians by the multitudes. It's a heyday for him,

and he's just running up the score, picking off Christians like low hanging fruit

because of their lack of Bible knowledge and wobbly convictions. As a result,

we have a generation of new believers that are anything but stable or immovable.

Now, this is a whole message in and of itself, but I won't

sidetrack more than that. Second thing that we see here in this verse is

that Paul says, abound in the work of the Lord. We don't want

to be paltry Christians. We don't want our spiritual bank accounts to be low.

We want them to be brimming and overflowing. We want to possess a

basketful of bountiful deeds in the Lord. Right, was Jesus abounding in the

work of the Lord? Well, of course he was, And there are

too many examples to count. But of late I've noticed a little secret to

his fruitfulness, even a technique, if you will. And I'm thinking of

his encounter with the Woman at the Well, of course, a very famous

story that most of us are acquainted with. In particular, in verse six,

it says that he had been walking from Judea to a city in Samaria

called Psychar, and he was tired. Back then, of course, there

was no tubes, no rails, and so they were walking by foot,

and he had spent the day walking, and he was tired. He wanted

to rest. Scripture says they're in verse six that he was sitting by the

will. He didn't want to do anything more for the day. But the

Holy Spirit quickens to him that a divine appointment is at hand. It's time

to chat it up with this lady. But the reason in that moment for

not getting up and entering into a bounding works were many. He was tired,

he was hungry. The disciples, in fact, were tasked to go

and get some food. The Bible says that it was in the sixth hour,

which is six pm, so this was nighttime. It's getting dark.

He's ready to have a meal and then probably just turn in for the night.

So he's tired, he's hungry. But as he's encountering this woman,

there is a racial issue. He's a Jew, she's a Samaritan, and

they did not mix well during that time. There is a gender issue.

He's male, she's female. Should there be this ongoing conversation. There was

also a possible professional issue, a potential appearance of evil scene where a rabbi

is conversing intimately with a female townswoman, And maybe there was an economic bias

at work. Didn't want to be bothered with someone that was poor and had

great need. In aggregate, these factors created a big disincentive to have a

conversation. Maybe another time, but not now. But because of the Holy

spirits quickening, Jesus makes a key decision I'm going to overcome my tiredness and

potential bias. I'm going to put forth the energy and exert myself to the

glory of God Beloved. That little push to get over the hump made history.

As revival hits the city of Psycar Again, we won't go through the

whole story. Jesus gets a word of knowledge, a piercing insight into this

woman's life. She feels completely known because she goes into the city and says,

come and meet this guy who told me everything about my life. Well,

of course that was an exaggeration because the Lord only gave her a little

piece of information, but that little piece of information made her feel so known

that it revolutionized her life as she goes and tells everyone. And then the

scripture tells us that that city comes into a revival all because Jesus was willing

to exert himself and get over the hump. So this scene teaches us to

abound in the work of the Lord. We have to embrace exertion, the

glory of exertion in those moments when the Holy Spirit quickens us to obey in

the moment, but when he tasks us with a particular assignment say no to

inertia, to our flesh, to rationalizations that might prevent us from following through.

This is how we make our lives fruitful. A few years back,

I had my own woman at the well situation. I was on a plane.

I was in the States at that time, and I was in Arizona,

Phoenix, which is a very warm part of the state. Super super

Sunny. Got onto the plane and it was filling up, and I had

a seat in the back, and if you travel a lot, you know

you'd like to have elbow room. You like to stretch out a little bit.

And it turned out that the seat next to me was empty, and

I thought, this is great. I'll be able to just close my eyes,

take a nap and not have to worry about people around me. And

as the door was about to close, all of a sudden, this lady

got on and she was running down the aisle, beautiful blonde lady with a

very dark tand and I'm thinking, there's no other seat in this area except

the one next to me, And sure enough she comes down the aisle.

She pops down next to me, and you could not help but just notice

the way she was carrying herself, very fashionable blonde. She had this designer

purse, and to be honest, I felt a little intimidated. And so

she sits down next to me, and within seconds, the Lord gives me

a word of knowledge about her, and I'm thinking, oh, no,

Lord, I don't want to have to say it for what you're telling me.

And so I'm wrestling with the Lord about this because I was thinking I

would just have a quiet name on the way to my next destination. But

it was just so clear, and the pressure was so clear. So I

said, okay, Lord, when they serve the drinks and the peanuts,

I'll talk to her, because that's kind of an unnatural time to do it.

So the flight attendants starts serving the stuff and as they're coming down,

she gets up and puts a purse in the upper compartment, sits down,

and she was sort of just flustered, and I thought, no, this

is not a good time. So they serve all the beverages and all the

snacks, and it didn't seem like this is a good opportunity to talk to

her. So I said, okay, Lord, just give me an opportunity,

and after I pray that, she turns over to her side and just

starts napping. Oh no, Lord, I lost my opportunity. I'm supposed

to say something to her. And so we go through the whole flight.

It was about a two hour flight, and she gets waken up by the

captain saying we're arriving into Minneapolis, and so she wakes up. So I'm

just praying. I said, Lord, I'm scared, but I know you've

spoken to me. Help me. And at that point we're starting to come

in into the landing area. So I just blurted it out. I said,

you don't know me, but sometimes God speaks to me some things,

and I have a little message for you. And she looks at me,

and I was so nervous. I was speaking very loudly, and everyone around

me started turning their heads to say what I was going to say. So

I said, when you got on the plane, the Holy Spirit just spoke

to me that you really want to get married, but the person you want

to marry is really hesitanting. And she looked at me and she said,

are you a fortune teller? I said, no, I'm not a fortune

teller. She said. I was laid to the plane. I was sitting

in the waiting area. I was talking to my boyfriend and we're talking about

getting married, and he did not want to get married. And I said,

do you know why God would tell this to me? She goes,

no, I have no idea. I said, it's because he loves you.

He knows all the details of your life, and he just wanted to

drop that little thought to you to know that He is for you. And

so by then we had already landed on the tarmac. We got off and

I never talked to her again. But God was using me to plant that

little seed, and I'm sure that's something that she never forgot. But I

had to get over the hump. I had to exert myself. I had

to step out to make sure that I could do what the Holy Spirit was

quickening to me. When we think about in Luke chapter ten, was a

good Samaritan abounding in the work of the Lord? Well, of course,

But did he have dissuading factors that it could have prevented him from helping the

man that got robbed and beaten? You bet he did. It was inconvenient,

It messed up his schedule, it was costly. Besides the hospital bills

that could have been counseling bills from the trauma that the person experienced, and

maybe later on it turned into legal bills because because he might want to sue

the robbers if they were arrested. So there's all these things that could multiply

on one's mind say I don't want to get involved in this messy situation.

And in fact, the priest and the levites who saw the situation first did

not reach out to help because of those things. But the good Samaritan didn't

let these things stop him. He was willing to put himself out there,

and as a result, he entered into abounding works. This is how we

become witnesses for the Lord. Matthew five point sixteen. Jesus said, in

the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see

your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heabit.

We have to embrace the joy of exertion and abound in his work. Third

thing that we see here from this verse, the apostle Paul says, knowing

that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain, Knowing that in

the Lord your labor is in vain, don't you love divine accounting? God

doesn't miss a thing that we do unto him, whether it's small or bay

or in between. Remember those in Matthew twenty five when Jesus talks about separating

the sheep from the goats at the end of the age. Now, if

you were tasked with the assignment to judge the nations and to separate them the

goats from the sheeps, how would you do that? Well, Jesus does

something very interesting, and he tells us what his measuring stick is. In

that passage, he says to the people, when I was hungry and you

gave me something to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me something

to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed

clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me.

I was in prison and you came to visit me. This is how Jesus

will judge the nation, how he will separate the sheeps from the goats.

And then the righteous said to him, Lord, when did we see you

hungry and feed you, or thirsty or give you something to drink? When

did we see you as a stranger invites you in needing clothing? When did

we see you sick or imprison and go to visit you. The King will

reply, Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of these,

least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.

Now, the takeaway here is that the righteous in this story did not

even know that their deeds were being put on a ledger. Yet there it

was on the record. And so whether it's smiling at a stranger to brighten

their day, baking a pan of brownies for someone that's shut in, accompanying

someone to the hospital, sending an email to tell them how much you appreciated

them, or preaching out a crusade, or laying hands on people so they

get healed. God sees it all when it's done in Jesus' name. None

of it is in vain. You know, sometimes we get discouraged that our

efforts are not bearing fruit Yasmin spoke to them, we keep persisting, but

nothing happens. Was talking to her brother recently that started an online Bible study

in his neighborhood and used an app to advertise it. In the first couple

of weeks, there were only two sign ups, and with only a few

more that trickled in. In the ensuing weeks. All the while this brother

was preparing Bible studies for just a few He began sharing with his wife whether

it was worth the effort. She encouraged him to keep going, and soon

more and more people began to join the group, and after one year,

one hundred and eighty four people had signed up. He now has more people

in this Bible study than there are members in his church. What a joy.

But whether he was prepping us a study for a few or for many,

God saw that his labor was not in vain. You know, Beloved,

Constancy and consistency and faithfulness, continuing to so seed, staying on track

with our calling and mission is vital to the Lord. It's how we worship

the Lord as a lifestyle. We come on Sundays, we enjoy being together,

we sing some songs, but our worship continues when we leave the service.

And that worship is expressed in that consistency, in being steady, in

being immovable, and God cares and he sees and nothing is wasted. When

I was praying last night, I just felt like God wanted to challenge us

to double down then not to just sort of contemplate it and sort of yeah,

that's a good thought. But actually to really double down on this egg

dis that Paul is giving us. The enemy comes to discourage and steal our

vision, rob us of our joy and make light of our calling. What

you're doing doesn't make a difference. Why do you keep going on? Don't

let him do that. Tell him to get behind you. Walk in the

authority that the Lord has given to you. Carry on and be strong,

Be confident in your faith and in who God is. He is for you,

and He is with you. You may have slacked in recent days in

regard to your work in the Lord, or maybe you've been in a slumping

season. It's never too late to get back in the game or to up

your game again. Embrace exertion, throw off inertia, because there's great impact

that God wants to realize through you. In Colossians four, there was a

person by the name of Arcupas. You probably maybe have not even remembered his

name, and Colossians four Paul was speaking to a man by the name of

Arcupus. Now, Arcupus actually was a church planter. He was part of

a group that was starting up a church, but over time his faith began

to ebb he began to let go of the rope. And so Paul was

writing and at the end there in Colossians four, he's told them remind Arcupus

to continue to walk in the ministry that God has given to him. And

we can feel like Arcupas is like we started out strong, but somehow we've

just started to lose that enthusiasm. But the Holy Spirit comes to quicken us.

He comes to help us get re engaged and to get back on track

for those that have already been walking in this verse. You are needed more

than ever by those in this church to be an inspiration and the strength of

them, and to keep the momentum of the gospel going in this city.

Amen, we need all hands on deck. Lord. We just look to

you right now, for those who are online, for those that are in

person. Right now, Holy Spirit, I asked that you would quicken them,

touch them, put a determination in their spirit right now that they haven't

had before, not just a purpose to do something, but God a determination

that would turn things around. I believe that you're quickening to some people right

now, just practical steps that they need to do to reach out to a

coworker, to a family member, something that you have been tapping them on

the shoulder to do, and they've been slow to walk it out, but

you're giving them the opportunity to walk in it afresh. So, dear one,

as you're hearing, as you're listening, and as the Holy Spirit has

been speaking to about that, lay hold of it and say I'm going to

do it. I'm going to walk in it. It's the good works that

God God is appointed for me. Father, we thank you that you see

all that we do in you, that our labor is not in vain,

and that this is an hour for us to be strong, to be steady,

to be immovable. We bless you in the precious name of Jesus.

Amen. Amen. Pastor d