12th June 2022 All Age Service - Dave Food - Disciples make disciples

M hm. Which cameras that topped the top of my head hanging a second.

I don't really want to see my shirt, do you a nice pink

shirt? There you go. Oh, good morning everybody. Great to be

with you this morning. Thank you for those who prayed for me for the

last week. I've been in the States with work. Last Sunday, I

was in a stadium. I'm in the middle of Tampa Bay meeting a meeting

with a pastor who Clem knows. So Clem introduced me. I'd never met

him before. He picked me up at the hotel at seven o'clock in the

morning, and we were in a prayer meeting at eight o'clock, and then

the whole city he was gathering to pray and to worship. It was just

a privilege to be there on Pentecost Sunday. It was a privilege to stand

with thousands of other people in a baseball stadium worshiping God. Some of you

know I don't like the heat, so even today's a warm day for me.

So there I was standing at eight point thirty, thinking, Oh,

this isn't too bad. I went inside to the prayer meeting, and then

I came outside at nine point thirty and it had gone up by fifteen degrees

and I thought, ha, but I survived. I survived. I didn't

even get sunburn. No amazing. So we're doing we're doing a series in

June. We're looking at fundamentals matter or looking at the fundamentals. And I

really want to talk about discipleship. I don't know what you think about when

I talked, say a disciple, But for me, a disciple is someone

who follows, someone who follows a particular teaching. And as Christians, we

say we follow Jesus. We say we followed you, Jesus. But it

is there evidence. If there's evidence, then we can point back and say

I'm a disciple. And I'm going to start off with the story. Some

of you know I used to work for a baking company or a company who

made baking materials, company called Rackhovist McDougall. You might even remember RHM,

and I used to work there as a forecaster and I got to know we

started a Christian group at work, and we had the privilege. And here's

the thing. I really want to emphasize some things this morning. For all

those of who you work, take a place to take your faith to work.

Some of us think, well, what can I do with my faith?

Well, we used to gather as a group of Christians and under the

diversity banner. And I don't know whether some people say, like, run

away from the diversity banner. No, diversity gives us the privilege to pray

at work. It empowers us to do that, and so don't be afraid

of the diversity. I joined the diversity group at what the place I worked

at, and I joined it because I wanted to be able to have a

prayer meeting. I went to the board. I went to the head of

personnel and said, I'd like to start a prayer meeting. She said,

fine, no problem. Started a prayer meeting. And then, because we

were a food manufacturing site, we weren't allowed alcohol on the premises. Alcohol

was not allowed and we wanted to celebrate communion. So you might think,

okay, well let's just have non alcoholic wine. I just let the father

say to me, no, Dave, go and ask. So I went

and asked the head of personal She said, David, it's not my decision.

I'm going to have to ask the board. And then the board said,

can you come and give us a presentation about why you want to take

alcohol on campus. So I got to do a presentation to the whole board

about why I believe that my faith matters and why we as a group of

people wanted to take communion together. Now, if I hadn't pushed the alcohol

issue, you know, the wine issue, and it was only a little

glass, so why like we normally take communion. If I hadn't ha done

that, I wouldn't have this opportunity to present to the board. Now you

might think, well, so what what was the fruit of that? Well?

I turned to them. I said, you are welcome to come and

join any of our meetings at any point. And they said, sir,

Dave, I don't know want to say, sir. They said, Dave,

we'd like you to use the boardroom. We'd like you to have the

meeting in the boardroom. Because one or two of them recognized the power of

press so I think one of them was a Christian, but they recognized the

power of prayers. Said theyve, we'd like the Christian group to meet in

the boardroom, and if it's okay with you, we'd like to give you

things that we'd like you to pray about. I said, Okay, no

problem. I said, I'd like to say to you you are always welcome.

And I remember one particular prayer meeting. There we were and Chris who's

who's now a church minister in Spain. He was the marketing manager. I

was the head of forecasting, and we were passionate about this group. We

had people coming in from the factory and everything in their overalls with flower on

them and came into the boardroom. Anyway, we were praying one particular Tuesday

afternoon and Chris was going for it. He was praying for the manufacturing director

because his daughter was seriously ill in hospitals, praying for John and he was

praying passionately, and Chris had his back to the door, and the door

opened and John walked in. And as Chris, Chris didn't know Chris was

going for it, was really praying bringing down heaven. And I saw John

walk in. I saw John stand there and he realized that we were praying

for him, and I saw tears start to pour down his face. Eventually

Chris finished the prayers, somebody asked pray for something else that John left.

Chris had no idea that he just impacted John's life prayer is a powerful thing.

Whether people are there or not. Prayer is a powerful thing. And

I want to encourage you to take your faith to work. Don't take it

in a briefcase. Don't take it in your handbag. Wear it as a

badge. If you want to wear a badge, fine, but wear it

is a badge. Be proud that you are a follower of Jesus, because

as followers of Jesus, there should be evidence. Now, the reason I

told you about the Christian group was really just to introduce Chris, because Chris

and Helena, they were at my ordination when I was put in as the

leader of any me Christian fellowship. She sang in the school hall when I

was put in as leader many many many years ago. And they at one

point they kind of felt a calling to get into the ministry, but they

weren't quite sure where, and they reached out to a charity, to a

missionary organization and applied. And this missionary organization sent workers into the mission field,

but they went as workers, but then as missionaries. So Chris and

Helen are applied for this job to go to the to the Middle East.

I won't name the country, to the Middle East and she was going to

be a hotel he was going to be the hotel manager, and she was

going to be someone who sang in the bar at nights. And they went

on the training, they prepared to go, and then the end of the

training they said, no, we're not going. We're not going because we

don't believe our lives speak enough evidence. Because if you go to someone like

a Muslim country, you're not allowed to preach, you're not allowed to proselytize

unless you want to end up in prison. That's the kind of thing that

goes on. But you are allowed to answer questions. And so this particular

missionary organization encouraged people and said, look, if you want to go,

you're going to have a life that has very fruitful so that your fruit will

cause you to people to ask questions. And Chris de Helen, we're very

honest with themselves and said, we don't. We're not in that place.

Yet they're in a different place now, they've gone into the ministry. He's

been a prison chaplain. They were the vicar of my mother in law's church

church and they're now in a church in Spain. But it was a challenging

I remember having a conversation on Chris over the phone when he said, we're

thinking of doing this, but actually we've ended up not going down that room.

And he reminded me of my first journey. I was finished a university

and I applied to do voluntary service overseas, and I apply to do voluntary

service overseas as a teacher. Vountary service overseas. They send you to a

place. It's not a Christian organization, but they send you to a place

where there's a gap, and you stand in the gap until somebody else comes

along and then they move you on. And I was originally meant to be

going to Northern Nigeria to Carno to teach geography, and voluntary Service Overseas decided

they were not going to send me because I was too visibly a Christian.

I don't know whether that's true or not, but I ended up going to

Papua New Guinea instead. And you've heard me tell many stories about Papa in

New Guinea. So is there evidence in our lives? Are we just wearing

a badge? Do you have a badge on the back of your car that

says Jesus? Or actually, are you ashamed of your driving, so you

don't have a badge on the back of your car because you don't want to

give that kind of witness. Oh I'm just thinking, have you ever been

cut up by a car with an ichfus on the back and you thought you

should know better. It's happened. It's happened, and maybe you've done it.

Because here's the thing. Disciples make disciples. So let's get into some

scripture. Let's start with the calling, the calling that comes from Matthew twenty

eight, verses eighteen to twenty. And Jesus came and spoke to them,

saying, all authority has been given to me in Heaven had on earth.

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

of the Father and of the Son and of 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. This is jesus commission

to go and make disciples, not to go and be disciples, not to

go and live like disciples, but to make disciples. I want to ask

us some really ouch questions this morning. Question number one would be this who's

following you? Who's following your lead? You might say, Dave, I'm

not a leader. You might not have a job title that says manager or

director or leader. But do you know what, there will be somebody following

you. There'll be somebody following you. Here's an example. My godson,

I'm just sorry. Yeah, my godson Mark, He's now what is he?

Twenty two? I still keep on sending him a message from time to

time, and one of the things that I would say to him is how

are you doing? What are you learning? How are you growing? I'm

trying to provoke him to be a bit different. And sometimes once in a

while I get an email from him and he asked me, how are you

doing, Dave? And when I shared that with him, I thought,

Okay, he's interested, and I'd share some thoughts. There are people who

are following you, paying attention to you, paying attention to what you do.

Little children might copy you. You see those lovely videos where you have

a child and a father, or a mother and a daughter, and the

children literally copying what their parents do. Who is following you? Why are

they following you? What is it that they see in you that's different.

In Matthew chapter four, verses eighteen to twenty two, it says this and

Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called

Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for

they were fishermen. Then he said to them, follow me, and I

will make you fishes of men. What did they do? They immediately followed,

left their nets and followed him, disciples of Jesus. I wonder why

they followed Jesus. Was there something in the way he spoke? Was there

something captivating in what he did? Was he just what they'd heard of?

What was going on around in his life, in his world? Going on

from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee,

and John, his brother in the in the boat with Zebedee, their

father, mending the nets. He called them immediately, and they left the

boat and the father and followed him. Then another of the disciples said to

him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. That's from

further on in Matthew. So there was a calling. There was a calling.

First of all. There was a calling first of all to the brother

saying come and follow me. Now, if I walked down Egham High Street,

just literally walked down Egham High Street with ordinary clothes on. I guess

he's ordinary clothes and just said, hey, follow me, follow me,

come on, follow me. I wonder how many people they all, because

they'd say, wow, there's this strange guy in a picture walking down Egham

High Street. On the other hand, if I put a if I started

singing a song, maybe some people might gather. If I started giving out

five pound notes? Are there still five pound notes? We do? We

use cash so little these days. I couldn't even remember that moment. You

know, if I walked down the high street giving out five pound notes,

I guess eventually there'd be a following. If I offered to pray for someone,

laid hands on somebody, and suddenly a lay man walked, or a

blind woman saw, or disabled child started to dance in the street, there'd

be a noise. There'd be a noise. People will be going, yes,

yes, we read about it in the Bible, you know, we

think about Jesus. And there was a crowd gathering around Jesus and his friends

wanted to get the disabled man, the paralyzed man to Jesus they couldn't get

him close, so they climbed on the roof. Imagine they ripped the roof

off and let their friend down in front of Jesus. Imagine that happening.

Now, we probably have to have cago hammers to cut through the roof.

These days, we've been pretty noisy. But just imagine that that desire to

get someone so close to Jesus. Do you know that's because there was a

reputation. There was a message going out Jesus, the Son of God,

Jesus the carpenter is seeing people healed and made whole. Now does this story

here say that the fishermen stopped fishing, They left their nets and they follow

Jesus. But do you know what, I still believe that they still fish

from time to time. They still went out in their boats. But they

were following Jesus too, And he said, come and I will make you

fishes of men, fishes of men. Now it's very easy for us to

make an excuse why we don't want to follow. It's inconvenience, as I

read from Matthew eight twenty one. Then another disciple said to him, Lord,

let me first go and bury my father. Now it's important to honor

the dead. I know that, but sometimes it's just an excuse. Sometimes

we can think of lots of reasons why not can't we? In fact,

I think they're probably better at thinking about why not than why? And I

want to challenge us to think, Okay, why don't we change our default

answer to being yes, Lord rather than maybe Lord? Now, if it's

really true that God speaks to us through his son, he speaks to us

through his Holy Spirit, and he brings us clarity, and he brings us

instruction, because that's what disciples need. Followers need instructions, you know,

disciple, If we just sat on our hands and did nothing, where's the

evidence we're disciples. But if instruction comes through God's word, if instruction comes

through prayer, if instruction comes through the prophetic, then shouldn't we do something?

I was talking to one or two people on this trip that I was

on as I was having lunch with them and a number of Christians. In

fact, one of the guys I worked with I've never met him before,

but he went off to a men's breakfast at six o'clock at the conference because

he was based in Orlando, and I got to pray I got to talk

and to pray with him. And so what evidence is there that we are

followers of Jesus? What fruit is there? What look behind and see what

we're leaving. Encourage to take your faith to work and see what happens.

Luke, Chapter ten, verses wine to nine. We know this story pretty

well, the calling of the seventy. After these things, the Lord appointed

seventy others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city

and place where he himself was about to go. Then he said to them,

the harvest is truly great, but the laborers a few. Therefore,

pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go

your way. Behold, I send you as lambs amongst wolves. Carry neither

money, bag, knapsack, nor sandals, and greet no one along the

road. But whatever house you enter, first, say peace to this house,

and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on

it. If not, it will return to you, and remain in the

same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the labour's

work is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house whatever

city you enter, and they receive you eat such things as a set before

you and heal the sick, and there heal the sick there and say to

them, the Kingdom of God has come near to you. That is what

disciples do. They bring the Kingdom of God near to people. They bring

the opportunity to pray. They bring the opportunity to be blessed and to bless

peace to this house. So why am I talking about these kind of basics.

Well, one of the things I think we need to do as a

church is to get rid of some terms, and one of them I start

to like to get rid of is volunteer. It We're not going to ask

people to volunteer anymore. I'm not going to ask people to volunteer anymore,

not because I don't want you to volunteer, but it kind of goes,

Okay, if I'm willing and imagine God says something to you, like serve

the tea and coffee and go, well, I'll think about it, Lord,

or I'll go away and pray about it and see whether it's the right

thing. Well, okay, we do have gifts and talents, but you

know, there's a place to serve, and it's part of discipleship. Part

of discipleship is to serve. We have a great team of people who greet

us every Sunday. We have a great team. I say that again because

I was hoping that people are going to go, yeah, we have a

great team of people who greet us every Sunday. Yeah, they smile,

they greet us. They're here early, and they open the door and they

say welcome. Now, we started it because of COVID, but we're not

going to stop it. We're not going to stop it as COVID moves into

a different transition phase. We're not going to stop because it's great to welcome

people. Just imagine as somebody comes on the door, you know, comes

through the door, first time they've ever been here, and somebody says welcome

and has a bit of a chat with you and then takes you to a

seat, or explains whether the loser or any of those kind of things.

Well, that's a that's an attitude of service, service, a willingness,

you know, setting up communion every month when whenever we do communion, it's

an act of service. It's hidden, No, you don't see somebody doing

it, but it happens. There's a whole lot of other things that happened

behind the scenes and the acts of service. We don't get badges like you

did in the cubs or the brown is saying coffee server or greeter or you

know, all the people who do all the technical stuff behind the scenes.

There's a lot of technical stuff that goes on for a small church. We

do amazing things. And so we're going to drop the word volunteer. We're

not going to use it anymore. We're going to talk about find a place

to serve and from me. And here's the really interesting thing. We had

to Julia and I are putting out some forms at the moment. Every year

we have to fill out forms for the assemblies who've got church that we're part

of, the network we're part of. And he said, how many people?

How many people are in the church? Well, I don't know how

to answer that question anymore. I'll be honest with you. I could count

the people in the room. And for some of you, you're probably looking

at this room and some of you at home are thinking, well, the

room's not big enough, so I won't go. Do you know what,

if we end up packing out this room, we'll transition into something else.

There's already ideas and plans in my heart, or we'll go to a second

service. You know, there are loads of things that we could do to

make room, so please don't ever think that this is how big church is.

So I could count the people in the room, well, then I

could also count the regular people online, or I could count all the people

who are registered to receive stuff from us. So, as you know from

the Generosity gift that we talked about last month, fifty people are what I

would call Sunday people, not children, fifty people. So that's what I

put in the form. And then there's a community of people reaching out to

and there's one hundred and fifty people who get our newsletter every month. Some

of them are in other countries. But here's the challenging question to us as

church today is how do you fuck do you define being part of church?

Because we've got people who come every Sunday, they watch the service online every

Sunday, they're part of the prayer groups in WhatsApp, they give and they

serve in some way. And we've got people who live hundreds of miles away.

On all those four boxes are ticks, yes, So I don't know,

it's difficult to define what you know being a disciple of URDF might be

because yes, yes, yes, all of those things, they're just not

physically in the room. And so even for those who are remote friends and

members of running me Christian Fellowship, please let me ask you find a place

to serve. There are plenty of places where we can serve Jesus, we

can serve the church, we can serve one another. So we're going to

drop the word volunteer. But you might find somebody tapping you on the shoulder

saying, hey, I think this would be really good at this. Do

you know what? As we grow, we will grow in gifts and talents.

And as we grow in gifts and talents, will grow as a church.

And as we grow as a church, we'll grow in gifts and talents,

and more people will come. And it won't be a job for life

because somebody else disciples will make other disciples. And over of the day when

we haven't got a room big enough for Sunday school, over the day when

we have a youth group and a Friday night of raving young people who are

really going for it. I was reflecting as I was sitting on the plane

traveling to the US. I was just thinking about the youth groups that we've

had because somebody had asked me. On the plane we were talking, I

was sitting next but one I was, here's an interesting thing. Both on

the way out on the way back, the plane was very very very full.

But both on the way out on the way back, I had empty

space next to me. It meant I didn't have somebody to talk to.

But I talked to some other people, but it meant I have room to

stretch out as well. And I looked around the plane and there was only

three other places in the whole plane where there were empty spaces. Okay,

thank you God. But I was talking to someone on the plane and we've

got it. Said what do you do? And how do you answer that

question? You know, I could have talked about why I was going to

the States, and he said well. He then said to me, where

are you going to be tomorrow? I said, oh, okay, I'm

going to be in a stadium tomorrow in the middle of Tampa. Bay said

why are you going to a stadium. You're going to watch a sports match.

I said, no, I'm going to a church. And we got

talking about church and these said, well, how did you get involved in

church? I said, well, I got involved in leading a youth group

we started, and he was you know, remember I said, evidence answer.

You know if you answer, if you answer a question right, it

will lead to another question. So please don't feel you have to put yourself

in a box and describe everything and say, you know, what is a

Christian? Well, I like to leave an enigma in the end of every

question because they'll come back for another question, and they'll come back for another

question. I don't have to work at the conversation at all. I just

answer questions. And so he asked me about young people and youth, and

I just reflected upon the last time I led youth, the last when I

had wanted to give it up, you know, many years later, and

we'd had various youth leaders through and then I ended up with a group and

I thought, okay, do we carry on? And I carried on for

one more year. And I reflect upon that group of fifteen eighteen kids,

and every one of them is grown up now, many of them are leaders

in church or worship leaders, people like Josh who came through here. That

they're young people who are passionate for Jesus. Thank you for the privilege of

leading those eighteen young people, and almost feel like a granddaddy because they're now

having kids themselves, and you know, it's like wow, and they're leading

other people to Christ. So Josh and Caitlin, for example, who were

here a couple of months ago, they have a church in their home.

They're leading people to Christ. I'm thinking, Okay, every one of those

is my spiritual grandchild in that sense, and I want to encourage each of

you have your own grandchildren. Be an aunt, spiritual auntie, and uncle

speak into people's lives, because that's what making disciples is like. There's nothing

greater than getting a letter and email, a phone call from somebody who's just

talks about how good life is, how well things are going, opportunities to

pray. Let's look in the Book of Acts now as we read about disciples,

and the Book of Acts say is at Joppa there was a certain disciple

named Tabitha, which is translated dorcas. This woman was full of good works

and charitable deeds, which he did. But it happened in those days that

she became sick and died. When they had washed her. They laid her

in an upper room, and since Lydia was near Joppa and the disciples had

heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him

not to delay in coming to them. Then Peter arose and went with them.

When he had come, they brought him to the upper room, and

all the widows stood by him, weeping, showing the tunics and garments which

Dorcas had made while she was with them, evidence of her witness, evidence

of her servanthood, evidence of who she was as a disciple of Christ.

What evidence will there be you? I did a course must be fifteen sixteen

years ago, now called Habits of the Heart, and it was based upon

the wisdom of Solomon. And one of the activities in this course was to

write your eightieth birthday speech, to write your eightieth birthday And this was a

task that was giving me fifteen years ago. I've tried to do it many,

many, many times, and I've never finished it. I've just been

honest with you. Phil who was the guy who led the course, he

was my coach for the course. He kept on nagging me, saying,

David, have you finished it yet? And once in a while it's still

get an email from him saying, Dave, have you finished it yet?

And here's the thing. If you get to eighty and I'm not there yet,

and I might look like it sometimes, but I'm not there yet.

But after flying on a plane, your eyes are all dried out. And

I looked at myself in the mirror when I got home and thought, oh,

you've got bags under your eyes, Dave. But my wife's laughing.

By the way. So I had to write this speech, and why was

it so hard? You might think, why is it so hard? Well,

the actual purpose of the whole thing is if you think about writing a

speech that is twenty thirty forty years in advance, you're thinking about where you'd

like to be, your destination. You know you're not the finished journey,

but your destination, and then you know you're here. And the whole purpose

in the course was to reflect upon where you'd like to be and where you

are, and then what fruit is there it's going to take you from here

to there? And I just think of a simple example, something that we'd

all understand. I was sitting there thinking, I wonder if I could write

in my speech Dave led thousands to Christ. And if I'm honest with you,

I hadn't. I hadn't led thousands to Christ. But I'd love for

that to be true. So what does that then make me think? Well,

then thinks okay, I need to change some things now so that I

could say that in the future. Not that I want a badge saying thousands,

but do you know, I want some evidence. They've bore lots of

you know, Dave was a really peaceful guy. Dave was a passion I

don't know what the fruit is, the evidence is. But if I'm going

to say that, then I need to be building in that direction. Otherwise

I'm never going to get there. And that's the reason I've never written it.

I've never written it because I'm still working on changing where so I'm going

to be heading in the right direction. And it's a great exercise. If

you'd like to take it away, and if you'd like to talk about it

later, I'd love to do that with you. If you want to go

away and write your if you're twenty, write your fiftieth birthday speeches, probably

too far away. If you're fifty, right your eightieth birthday speech. If

you're sixty or seventy eighty. Then write your eulogy if you want to,

because we're all going to die at some point. It's true, it's true,

and I want you to know where you're going. I really do want

you to. I want you to be absolutely sure you're DestinE. Therefore,

death has no dominion over you. We pass from death to life, from

life to death, we pass on into eternal life. We're in internal life

now, but we're transformed to be with him. And so what evidence is

there of the journey that you're on? What fruit has there been? Let's

look now as I wrap things up at Romans Romans chapter ten, Verses fourteen

and fifteen. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not

believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach

unless they are sent? As it is written? How beautiful are the feet

of those who preach the Gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good

things. You did not choose me, so let me read on. Let

me read on right, joentor John as well. You did not choose me,

but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit,

and that your fruits should remain. That whatever you ask the Father in

my name, he may give it to you. So in those two scriptures

there, what have I given us? I've given us? Firstly, okay,

how will they know if someone doesn't tell them? And if someone doesn't

tell them, who's going to tell them? Well, it should be me

and you. It should be me and you. I heard this story and

I can't say it's it's somebody I know. I don't even know if it's

a real story. But two good friends, and they have good friends from

primary school. They were good friends through work, they were good thrown through

university, they were good friends in retirement. One was a Christian, the

other one wasn't. The non Christian ended up in the hospital bed dying and

his friend went to him and said, I must come and see you.

I've got something important to tell you. And he started to talk to his

friend in the hospital bed. He said, I don't want to hear.

He said, if it was important, wouldn't you told me by now?

And that's a real wake up call for all of us. Let's not wait

till deathbed experience. Deathbed experiences are important, but let's not wait. Let's

not wait till a place of desperation. Let's not wait until we get to

a ouch. I need God so enough seeds that when people actually get to

that place, they reach out to God themselves, because the seed of who

you are, the seed of what you've sown, is in their lives and

it will bear through final kind of comment and story. I don't want to

model this on anybody else. I don't want to say, you know,

let's make people dependent on us, Let's make people dependent on God. I

once remember getting a phone call fairly late in the evening. We've been after

eleven o'clock saying, Dave, you've got to come around and pray for us.

We're in a mess. There's a couple who were struggling, and I

said, I'm not coming. I said, firstly, have you prayed?

And they went no. I said, well, okay, pray. Secondly,

if it was really that desperate, we'd have been talking about it.

If you're long before now, Dave, you don't understand, it's over.

If you don't come tonight, it's over. I said, well, I'll

be honest with you, it's probably over already then, but God can redeem

it, God can resurrect it. But you have to want to be together.

You have to want to choose to be together. I said, well,

you pray, and they prayed and they're still together. But it's really

easy for us as Christians to become the emergency service, and we rush in

and we do things badly. Sometimes even as church churches do things badly.

I'm not pointing any particular church. As humans, we do think we get

things wrong. You know, God gets things right. And so the place

we need to go to is prayer. And so when I ask you the

question have you made a disciple today? You imagine a children, a child

who's been to primary school. They come home from school with something in their

bag. So what have you made today? Dear? What is it you've

made today? And maybe they've made a clay sculpture or they've made a clay

any of you got those play bowls from when you were a child. You

know, they don't look very good, they're not very functional, but there's

something you created and you're still proud of them even now. You're still proud

of them even now. Wouldn't it be great to look at the fruit of

who we are and think, thank you, Lord for helping me to be

part of making other disciples. It's a bit of an ouch question because I

think if like me, if I'm honest and I'm not going to reflect upon

you, it's your choice. I'm not where I want to be. I'm

not where i want to be in the way i'm sharing my faith. I'm

not where I want to be in how I'm doing that, and I need

God's helping them. And so that's the way I'm going to pray as I

close, because in John fifteen, verse sixteen, let me read it again,

you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that

you should go and bear fruits. Your fruit should remain that whatever you ask

in the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Let

me pray, Father, when we reflect upon who we are and where we

are, or maybe we're not where we want to be. Maybe we know

we're not where you want us to be. And so Father, help us

to be real today. Help us to be honest today with ourselves and with

you, say Lord, help us, Lord, help us to put aside

the things that distract us. Help us to lay hold of the things set

before us, and Lord, when we run out of ourselves, help us

to ask you to help us. That's a place of faith. That's a

journey of faith. And Father, I pray that everyone listening today, those

in the room, those listening online, those listening later, for every one

of us, there'd be time and opportunity this week, this month to share

faith, to pray, to give, to love, to serve others.

And so, Father, help us to get our eyes attuned to what it

is you want us to see. Help us to get our ears tuned in

to what you want us to hear. And Father, help us then to

have feet and hands that are willing and ready to do what you call us

to do. You are an amazing God, and not enough of you is

seen because we're not where we need to be. So help us to reflect

your glory. Help us to serve your kingdom. Help us to serve others.

Help us to say of strangers. Help us to serve those who we

find a bit weird, But help us to do it with love and compassion.

That the Kingdom of God will be established and enlarged, That your purposes

will be outworked, and many will come into a Kingdom whom Jesus is king.

Let it be we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Do you want

me to do the notices? Juliet Okay? Bring you backward screen