6th February 2022 - Communion Service - Peter Butt - The love of God expressed in His faithfulness

First in the series of love that changes everything. Let me pray, Father

God, thank you for today. Thank you Lord that we're going to gather

around your word. Now. Father, your word is so vital to us.

Father, let us not forget the Lord. You speak to us in

a rema word, but you also speak to us through your word. And

so, Father God, I pray that Lord, our hearts will be open,

Our hearts will be ready, our ears will be open. Father.

Thank you for Peter. Lord, we pray that you bless him, bless

Irene Lord too, and be with them Lord as they continue to minister and

Father, I pray that Lord, as he's heard from you, Lord,

he give it to us. Both barrels all in one go, Lord God

in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. So I can't remember how many years

we've known one another. Peter, It's decades. It's decades, Peter and

Lee. I've been to Uganda with both Peter and Lee. So we've got

fond memories of namire envy, Christian fellowship and sharing with Simeon. Simeon,

So Peter, come and share with us. Yeah, Well, it's good

to be with you again. Which camera am I on? By the way,

okay, yeah, really good to be with you live, both in

the meeting here and for those who are watching online. I've been here before.

You've seen my ugly mud before. So I heard somebody talk the other

day, a lady, and she said, what you need to do is

look in the mirror and say you're beautiful. You're beautiful. Well, I

have to confess to you. When I look in the mirror, I don't

usually say you're beautiful. Is that really how I look? But good to

be with you today, Yeah, Dave, and I go back a few

years now and visited the church from time to time over the years, and

it's great to be with you today. I've run a ministry called School of

Ministries, which is teaching and training in developing world nations, and we have

ministry in many, many nations. We've been in over thirty nations in the

last few years, and of course recently not being able to visit so we've

put all of our modules on film on video, and so now I can

be in more than one place at once. So in August last year,

for example, I was in five different places in one month without leaving my

lounge, which was really quite exciting and was able to minister to thousands of

leaders in different nations across Africa. But I'm getting old now and so I'm

settling down a bit and don't find the traveling so easy. But I've become

an author and I've written three books now and I'm just completing my fourth book,

and my third book really comes as an encouragement to every believer to find

their place in the body of Christ, to find what God has called them

to be, to discover their purpose. Several months ago, I was in

a meeting and I felt God give me a prophetic word that there were several

people in the meeting who were facing impossible situations and that God was going to

work for them and bring them out of these impossibles situations. And so I

brought that word, and then I prayed a general prayer over the congregation,

but I felt moved to go and pray for two particular people, one couple,

and I went and prayed for them, and as I prayed for them,

they began to weep, and so I thought, Wow, this is

clearly identifying where they're at and they're facing a difficult situation. And I prayed

with them that God would work for them as he promised. And then I

went to a guy, a guy named John, and I prayed for him

that whatever the impossible situation was that he was facing, that God would work

for him. And after the meeting, we had a little chat and he

said to me, you have no idea how relevant that is to where I'm

at. He said, I'm an engineer. And he said, I've did

a degree in engineering. For twenty years, I've been an engineer. I've

had a reasonable living, I've brought up my family. But he said,

I've never felt that that's what I ought to be doing. He said,

I've always had a heart for people. And so he said, in recent

months, I've been praying about that, and he said, I really believe

God has called me to get involved with helping people. So he said,

I have applied to be a paramedic. And he said, and they came

back and they've accepted me. He said, but there's a problem. He

said, I have a three month's notice on my job. And he said,

this course starts in two weeks. He said, I went to see

my manager and my manager said, there is no way we're going to let

you go. And if you leave and do this course, we will take

you to court and it will cost you a considerable amount of money. And

so he said, I'm in this situation and he said, I can't get

out of it. And he said, it feels like an impossible situation.

So we pray together about that. He saw me the next week and he

said, you won't believe it. The manager who said he wouldn't let me

leave and whatever he said, he came back and he said to me,

I feel I've been a little bit harsh. He said, you won't have

to work you notice, you can start this cause. And so he's now

a paramedic and he's finding a place of fulfillment doing what he was born to

do. And one of the things that concerns me about so many Christian believers

is that they're doing things that God hasn't called them to do. They've never

discovered what God really has for them, where their ministry really is. And

that goes for both the vacation, the job you're doing, and your ministry

in the church. And so many of us are doing things that actually aren't

what God really called us to do. And so this book, this third

book I've written called Pendicost released is for all of us to discover. It's

particularly for leaders, but it's for all of us to discover that area of

gift and ministry that God has put in our hearts. You know, you

were put on this earth for purpose, and one of the keys for all

of us to find true fulfillment is to discover why God put us here,

what God put us here for. And that there's some exercises as well as

a lot of teaching in this book that will help you discover the gift and

ministry that God has for you. And so if you're watching online you say

I'd like to get hold of that book, Well, get in touch with

the church here and they will pass on your details to me and I'll email

you the details. That's nothing to do with what I'm preaching about preaching now,

is that all right? And so we're preaching on the love of God.

We're talking about the love of God. And as I think about the

love of God, I find that the love of God is expressed in so

many ways. You know, when it talks about the fruit of the Spirit,

it says in Galations, by the fruit of the Spirit is love,

and then it gives a great list of those things that come out of that

love. It's love, joy, peace, long suffering, patience, faithfulness.

Love is expressed in all these different ways. And over this month,

I guess you're going to discover many of the different ways in which the love

of God is expressed. But I want to talk today about the love of

God as it's expressed in his extraordinary faithfulness. But God is faithful. I

was at a memorial service just a couple of months ago for an older man

who had been in ministry for over fifty years, where we celebrated his life.

I'd worked with this guy for ten years in a church in Essex and

God had blessed the church where we were. And this guy had been to

Africa for a number of years and ministered in many many different places. And

we met together to celebrate his life. And there were about three hundred people

present in this meeting, which was held in Norfolk. And during this service

we had a time of worship and we began to sing that song, that

song that comes out of Bethel. You know all my life you have been

faithful. Do you sing that? Do you know that? Yeah, it's

a great song. Look it up if you haven't heard it before. All

my life. You have been faithful all my life. You have been so

so good all my life. You have been faithful. And then he goes

on to talk about So I sing of the goodness of God, the goodness

of God. And as we were singing that song in that gathering with three

hundred people, I was overcome with this sense of the faithfulness of God.

How that God had been faithful this guy who's now in heaven, Mike,

Mike Godwood was his name. God had been so faithful to him. He'd

been in missions working you Gander. One time he and his wife were ambushed

by armed robbers in their home and a gun was held to his wife's head,

and he was threatened and said, if you don't show us where all

your money and your treasure is, your jewels and your jewelry is, I'm

going to shoot your wife. And so you know, he's been in really

desperate situations and God, in his faithfulness, rescued them from that situation.

They didn't have any money or any jewels either, But you know that there's

this sense that God has been with us, had been faithful to us.

And as I looked around that gathering of three hundred people, I saw some

young guys that I remember when they were fifteen and sixteen, and they're now

forty five and fifty with their own families and married and serving God. And

I saw older people. I saw some people even older than me. Can

you believe? In this gathering? I saw some the children of some of

these people that I knew that I'd been involved with, and I was overwhelmed

with this sense that there weren't just three hundred people in their gathering. There

were three hundred stories of the faithfulness of God, three hundred stories of God's

goodness being expressed, three hundred stories of people experiencing God's love. Three hundred

people who were singing at the top of their life of their voices. All

my life, you have been faithful. And there was this rising in my

heart of thanksgiving to God for his extraordinary love, for his unbelievable goodness.

Following the service, I chatted with a number of people that I haven't seen

for many, many years. As a guy there called David Sherman, and

I chatted with him and we talked together about the faithfulness of God, the

wonderful things that God has done for us, and stories of people whose lives

were transformed and changed as I encountered the love of God, and they have

experienced His faithfulness. You know. I'm seventy four. This year with my

wife and I celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary in the midst of COVID, So

we had a great celebration with our family. Under COVID restrictions, we were

allowed to meet in a park up to twenty five people and we had fish

and chips on our laps. Fortunately the sun shining. It was in August.

But we look back at the faithfulness of God, how God has been

with us, how God has provided, how God has been working for us.

You know, I've been involved in Christian ministry and leadership for over fifty

years and God has helped us in so many extraordinary ways. We've seen God

provide for us. We've seen God work for us. We've seen God do

so many miracles. When I was traveling up with Lee and Lynn today,

I was telling them about miracles that I saw when I was ten years old

in a tent crusade in Romford in Essex, where an old Welsh evangelist called

Hal Harris was moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. I saw a

young girl with wartz on her hands, about fourteen year old girl. She

had warts on her hands, covered her hands and she went out for prayer.

The guy prayed for her and instantly those wartz fell off her hand onto

the platform. It was extraordinary. I saw it with my own eyes,

the goodness, the wonder the love, the splendor of the power of God,

and right through my life seeing God working, doing miracles, doing wonderful

things, God providing for us. I've never had a bill I couldn't play,

I've never been overdrawn. God has provided for us to travel and teach

around the world in his wonderful goodness, and his faithfulness is completely overwhelming.

We've been in some tight spots, some difficult situations, as I'm sure you

all have. But God has never failed us. God has never let us

down. We've never never, never seen him be unfaithful. And of course

others in the Bible agree with me. You know about the faithfulness of God.

You know, and I agree with them as well. I agree with

King David. In Psalm thirty seven, verse twenty five, King David says

this, I've been young and now I'm old. I agree with that.

I've been young, and now I'm old. But then he goes on to

say what he's observed through his life. I've been young, now I'm old.

Yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.

You know, I don't know where you are, those of you watching on

the video online and those of you here in this gathering. But David's testimony

was this, that if you're living righteous and walking with God, God will

take care of you. Never he said, have I seen the righteous begging

bread or seen the righteous forsaken? That's my testimony. I agree with that

God has been faithful. God has kept us, and God has looked after.

His incredible love has been extended towards us, and is expressed in his

glorious faithfulness. I agree with Paul the apostle. You probably do as well.

It's in the Bible. I agree with everything in the Bible. But

I particularly agree because of the message I'm speaking with David and with Paul.

Paul says this in one Corinthians one nine. He puts it. You know,

Paul was always very straight in his teaching. He says, this God

is faithful. God is faithful, He's not faithful sometimes and then not.

Other times God is totally completely faithful. Sometimes you know, you read Bible

commentaries and it's all a bit complicated, and you read it and you think,

I wish I'd read the scripture and not the commentary because it's just confused

me. But I looked up this phrase God is faithful in Barnes commentaries that

were written in the nineteenth century, and this is what Barnes says about that

verse when where the statement God is faithful, this is what he said.

That is in other words, God is faithful. That means God is true,

and He's constant, and he will adhere to his promises. He will

not deceive, he will not promise and then fail to perform. He will

not commence anything which he will not perfect and finish. That's what the faithfulness

of God means to you and me, that we can totally and completely trust

God, that he is completely and absolutely reliable, that he won't promise you

something and not come up with the goods. He's not going to deceive you.

He is completely and absolutely faithful. I agree with Jerreymiyah as well.

You might have read the Book of Lamentations at some time in your Christian life.

Or in your reading of the Bible. Well, it's kind of a

bit of a heavy book. Lamentations, it's it's it is a lament in

other words, it's it's Jeremiah having a good old mona and he's moaning and

groaning, and he's miserable because Jerusalem has been broken into and destroyed, the

temple has been broken down, people have been taken into captivity. And he's

he's wailing and groaning because you never liked this, are you? You're never

moaning and groaning about your life's circumstances or what's happening to you. Anybody like

that never moans, groans, complains, Oh that's good, you are normal,

then, yeah, yeah, And have been through this awful time and

it has been really difficult, and he's complaining and he's moaning and groaning what's

been happening all around him, and he describes these terrible times that he's been

through, and Lamentations three, there's just a few verses that I just want

to bring to your attention. The whole of the first part of the chapter

is full of Jeremiah moaning and groaning about the situation. Lamentations three, Verse

one, I am a man who has seen affliction because of the rod of

his wrath. That's not a very happy situation to be. In verse five,

he said he has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship. That's

a pretty difficult state of affairs. Verse six, in dark places, he

has made me dwell like those who have been long dead. Cool. That's

a bit, it's a bit heavy, and it's been going through this situation.

Verse seven very relevant to many of us know it says he has walled

me in so that I cannot go out. Does that ring any bells?

I know. I've talked to a lot of people who said I felt like

screaming because I've been in these four walls for so long, the lockdown.

Jeremiah had experienced lockdown. He'd been through this really difficult, heavy situation.

He's warned me in, he says, so that I cannot go out.

He says in verse seventeen, I've forgotten happiness. He'd forgotten how to laugh.

I've met so many people who've been just so brought down, brought low

by these last couple of years, with all that we've been through, and

are under the pressure and people's mental health struggling. Well, it feels like

Jeremiah was having a bit of a problem with his own mental health in those

verses there and he says, I've forgotten how to laugh. Life's really tough.

And then suddenly everything changes. And you know why it changes, because

he lifts his eyes from what he's going through and he sets his eyes and

his heart on God. And in Lamentations three, we have those remarkable verses,

and you know them, even if you don't know yet what they are.

The moment I tell you what they say, you'll go, oh,

yes, because this is how it reads Lamentations three, twenty one to twenty

six. He says, Then I recall this to mine. So suddenly his

mindset is changing. Sometimes somehow his whole attitude is changing. He says,

I recall this to mine. Therefore, I hope it is by the Lord's

kindness that we are not destroyed. Ah, he remembers the kindness of God.

He says, because his mercies never fail. They are new every morning.

Come on, next words, great is your faithfulness? Hey? And

into the difficult, dark situation in which he finds himself, this wonderful truth

brings light and hope the faithfulness of God. The God's not going to fail

me. God's not gonna let me down. God's going to fulfill the promises

He's given me. And then he goes on and the whole atmosphere changes from

saying they're you every morning, great is your faithfulness, the steadfast love of

the Lord never sees it. He says this. The Lord is my portion,

says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is

good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should hope for the salvation of the Lord. Wow,

what a change. God wants to reveal himself to us in his love.

He reveals himself as a faithful God. You see. That's why I'm

sharing that this morning. Because wherever you are, whatever you've been through,

however dark or difficult this season has been or may still be for you,

God is faithful. He wants to come to you every day. His mercies

are what new how many mornings just on Sunday morning when we go to church,

No new? Every morning? Great is your faithfulness. God wants to

come to you and I and lift our eyes and our hope and our focus

to him that he will work and move all my life. God, you

have been faithful. I look back to fifty years of God's provision, of

God's healing, of God's leading, of God working, of God moving.

He will not fail you or let you down. You know, we used

to sing a kid's song years ago. We sing song with the kids.

I've sung it a couple of places and nobody knows it. Let's see if

anybody knows it. Here here's the song. Jesus will never let you down.

He will cause you to smile a not to frown. He's the best

friend you can have around because Jesus will never let you down. Anybody know

that? Do you know it? On camera? Nobody seems to know that.

We used to sing that when we were kids. And the truth is

it's absolutely true. Jesus will never let you down. Some of you are

going through some difficult stuff and feel God speaking to me right now. Some

of you going through some really tough stuff. Some of you don't know how

you're going to get through. Some of you can't see a way through.

But God is faithful. He's not going to fail you. He's going to

bring you through this situation. Financial situation, family situation, employment situation,

whatever it is that you are faced with. God is faithful. Young lady

is sitting there. God is not going to fail you. God is not

going to let you down. You can trust him. I know you can't

see a way through, you can't see the way ahead. But God will

not fail you. Why because of his incredible love expressed in his faithfulness.

Wow, God is faithful, my friend. There, lady with the blue

mask on, not the dark blue, not the old lady, the younger

lady behind. Although God has been faithful to you, I can tell that.

Just have this sense that God is with you, you don't need to

fear. His promises are true. He is faithful. If he promised it,

It says in Hebrews, he is faithful that promise. He will fulfill

every promise that He has made to you, those of you watching online,

some of you struggling with situations. I feel like there's people with long illness

that you've had for so long, and you've said God. When God says

so you trust him. He is faithful. You will experience deliverance, You

will find healing. God is faithful. He will not let you down.

We sing a song there's lots of songs and lots of verses. Today we

sing a song faithful one, so unchanging, ageless one. You're my rock

of peace, Lord of all. I depend on you. I call out

to you again and again. You're my rock in times of trouble. You

lift me up when I fall down, all through the storm. Your love

is an anchor. My hope is in you alone. You know. A

couple of weeks ago, God, I'm going to finish now. I don't

know how long I've been going, but I try and keep to the time

I'm given. Am I doing all right? Good? Yeah? A couple

of weeks ago I was preaching up in Essex, in East London, and

on the Saturday I was getting my case ready, and as I was in

my study, I felt God, tell you to me, sit down.

I want to talk to you. And so I sat down on the chair.

It was an unusual thing to do at my desk. And my desk

is against the wall next of the chimney breast, and it fills the space

of the recess. And I looked ahead of me and said, okay,

Lord, And ahead of me is a Bible verse on a banner, and

there's a picture of a soaring eagle, and the verse underneath is from Isaiah

forty and it says they that wait upon the Lord, showeringnew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not be

weary, they will walk and not faint. And I looked at this picture

of the soaring eagle and I understood, Yeah, that's what God's plan is

for us. There is strength for us to receive so that we can rise

up, we can rise out of we can rise above our situation. And

then I just sat there and just said, so Lord, why are you

showing me that? And I felt God just prompt me to look to my

left left, and to my left is the chimney breast. Now these both

these pictures have been there for five years. And on the chimney breast is

a picture of a dove, and it's a well known picture. You may

have seen it. It's a blue background and a dove. I'm just acting

out the dove now, but the dove isn't soaring into the heavens. The

dove is coming to land. And it's a picture of a dove landing.

And as I looked at that picture, I felt God speak to me about

his people. So many of us we've been through these tough times, and

we do want to soar like eagles. We do want to rise up.

You know, we are waiting on the Lord and we want to be renewed.

But I felt like God just showed me how we can soar like eagles,

because the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And the picture

mature of the dove coming to land reminded me of the baptism of Jesus.

You remember when Jesus is baptized, and it says the Holy Spirit came upon

him as a dove. And I felt the Lord just bring me a simple

message. If you want to soar like an eagle, you've got to receive

from the dove. If you want to sow, if you want to rise

up, you need to receive the Holy Spirit. You need to be touched

by the Holy Spirit. And I guess many of us are going through these

times of coming out of this difficulty like Jerrymiah, and we start we need

to start lifting our eyes and understand that we're still here. We may be

struggling, we may feel like Jerremiah, we may have forgotten how to laugh

the wars may feel like yeah crushing in upon us. But we need to

lift our eyes like Jeremiah did, and begin to see that God is coming,

that He is our portion, that we can trust him. We begin,

we need to begin to receive afresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in order

that we might soar again like eagles and experience the touch of God. So,

Father, I pray for my friends who are here in this room and

my friends who are watching on the video across the world. I pray for

that person in China particularly right now, that the wonderful presence of the Holy

Spirit will come upon us all that we might be renewed and refreshed by the

presence of the Holy Spirit, in order that we might soar like eagles.

And so we receive from the Spirit. Mukulshi babah Suri a Chabad decade.

Just receive from the Holy Spirit. Where you are, let the dove come

upon you, that you might rise up and be strengthened, that we might

break out of this season into a new place of blessing from God. Yeah,

walking with God and knowing His touch upon our lives. Yes, Yes,

After the service, if anyone would like prayer. My friends Lee and

Lynn who are with me. Ah, I very used to praying for people.

They have prophetic gift and anointing as well. Please go and and receive

prayer. They're ready and willing to pray for you with you for a fresh

anointing of the Holy Spirit, that the dove might come upon you. And

I just feel free to go to them and allow them to minister to you

because I believe here God wants to refresh every one of us so that we

might rise up and become what He's called us to be in Jesus' name.

Amen, thank you, Thank you, Peter. I always like to go

with the flow, so we haven't planned this, but there was a song

that came to your minds there and we're going to sing at a cappella.

I'm just going to go just to set a seal upon what God has been

saying to us this morning, so if I can make this all work,

faithful one, so unchanging ages one, you are my rocket piece, and

just allow all the words that Peter has been sharing, the stories, but

he's opened up to us. Let's just allow the Holy Spirit to settle upon

us, to strengthen us, to fill us even as we sing this song

together. Face for one song, change engine and less one. You're my

ron Cory Love. I pad on you, I call out to and again,

and I call out to you again and again. You are my rock.

It's aftra hugle you me when I ator. You're my besy. You

you are my r. You need times of trifable you give me when I

fall. Oh story, You're the mysy, you Lord, you are my

rock. My hope is in you. Your love never fils. Thank you

Father, Thank you Father, Jesu. Thank you. Shap Car she Mac

Car Car, she Mac, She carry my sis