Church on Mission

Okay. Welcome, everyone, to Watermark. If it's your first time, if it's your hundredth time,

it's just such a privilege to be here together, to really come into God's presence and to experience

His Spirit at work amongst us this morning. My name's Chris, and we're going to be looking

at the book of Acts over the next little while. Before I start, I just want to pray.

Because I want to pray for God's Spirit to really speak to us. And I want you to pray with me.

Father, we need you. We want to hear from you this morning. I pray that my words would be your words,

that you would speak. Remove anything that is not from you. Let your word touch our hearts and let

us go and do what you call us to do in the power of your Spirit. Open our eyes in Jesus' name. Amen.

I don't know if any of you have ever seen the U.S. TV show Seinfeld. Has anyone seen Seinfeld?

There's a few people. For those of you who don't know, it was a very popular show in the U.S.

And a few years ago, some researchers wanted to find out why this show was so popular.

Because the show actually markets itself as a show with no plot. Okay? And so what basically

happens, it just kind of wanders from scene to scene, and it's described as a show about nothing.

That's the way they market it. And so researchers wanted to find out why is this so popular.

And so they went onto campuses, they did a whole load of research, and you know what they found?

They found the reason that this was so popular was because it mirrored the lives of the viewers who

watched it. They related totally to this life with no plot and no purpose in their lives. That's

what the research showed. And I think that's really interesting because isn't that so much of actually

what Hong Kong life really is like as well? You know, we're on this hamster wheel where, you know,

we go to school, and then we're dying to get through this exam. And then, and then we get

through the exam, and then we're dying to go to university. And then, then we graduate from

university, and we're dying to get a job. And then we, we, we get a job. But then we're dying

very soon, maybe six months afterwards, to get another job. And then we're dying to get married.

And then when we get married, then we're dying to have a family. And then we get family. And then

we're dying for the family to grow up and leave so we can retire. And then when we retire,

we're dying to do something meaningful, and then we're just dying.

right isn't that so much of life without a plot to it not part of a bigger story

and you know if you run a startup the way many of us in this city run our lives it would be

bankrupt within a couple of months because i i don't know if you just imagine you walk into

like an it startup and you say to an employee what are you doing and they'd say i'm typing

okay and you say okay why are you typing they say i i don't know why i'm typing i'm just doing what

everyone else was doing and you'd look at that and you'd think they're wasting something there

there's got to be more to life than that and the purpose of the book of acts and the purpose of what

we're going to look at is we need to know the why we need to know the purpose we need to know the story

that we're part of otherwise you'll end up just kind of doing stuff but maybe you'll end up wasting

your life and so the book of acts is um we're going to look over the next 10 weeks at the first six

chapters to help us refocus on what the story we're part of what is it that we're meant to be about as

church what is it that it means to be a christian in this city because my strong belief is god has

not got us here for some kind of plotless wandering existence we're part of something bigger

and so we've looked over this year we've looked at the book of deuteronomy which showed us

the god the call of god to love him and love other people we've seen how we failed at that the people

of israel failed we've seen how jesus comes along and sinners encounter jesus and when they meet with

jesus there's a transformation which takes place in their lives and we looked last week and last week

was easter and it's very fitting that we're starting the book of acts last week last week we had baptism

for those of you not here it's just a great time and and it's just such a fitting time because the book

of acts comes straight after easter straight after the resurrection of jesus and that's where we pick

it up and so what i'm going to look at today i just want to kind of introduce the book of acts to us and

then i want to look at power i want to look at purpose and i want to look at the ascended king

okay so i'm just going to introduce acts then we're going to look at power purpose and the ascended

king so if you've got your bulletin have it open i'm particularly going to going to focus on

verses six to eight but let me just introduce acts to you um acts is written by luke who colossians

four tells us is a doctor he's a convert to christianity he's well traveled he's well educated

and presumably very well off as well to get an education to be able to write his book he writes

some of the best greek in the whole of the new testament and you know he's also a sometime companion

of paul because we know in the book of acts in chapter 16 the pronouns switch from he says they

did this to we did this so paul luke is traveling along at some point with with um with paul and he

sees firsthand how the gospel is spreading throughout the roman empire and so verse uh verses one to five

of this book of acts are really like the the introduction for us and he's writing to this

guy called theophilus which basically means lover of god and he's a wealthy greek guy presumably a young

christian like many of us he's going through moments of doubt he's like is jesus the real deal is his

kingdom really as powerful as you say it is because i look around me and i look at the roman empire and it

seems so much stronger and christianity is like this little speck on the map is it real and so this

is the second time luke is writing this is kind of um the first time was the book the gospel of luke you

know luke and acts go together okay they're like you know it's like star wars and the empire strikes back

you know it's kind of this is the sequel to the book of luke and and if you recollect what luke is about

and luke is really about um what he does he collects a whole load of eyewitness evidence to show you

theophilus that what i've taught you about jesus this is sure this is true you can have certainty

about this that's what book one was about book two is kind of starts off as kind of like the um

and previously on you know those tv shows which they they kind of start at the beginning and they're

like and previously on the amazing race you know john got attacked by a hamster and then uh you know

and he got eliminated you know that kind of thing um that's what acts starts off with the and

previously and he says basically jesus was the messiah the king who taught about the kingdom he died he

rose again and he headed to jerusalem and in jerusalem that's where he died that's where he brought

forgiveness salvation to people and then acts it's not about going to jerusalem acts is about going

from jerusalem this gospel message going out into the world okay it's about how jesus reigns how his

kingdom spreads you know it says you'll be my witnesses in judea and in jerusalem in all judea and

samaria and to the ends of the earth and so what you'll see is jesus is starting a gospel movement

which goes first of all and you'll see in the book of acts the first seven chapters it's jerusalem and

judea okay that's kind of like hong kong island okay and then then it goes to chapter eight is goes

to samaria that's like kowloon and new territories and then chapter 13 and onwards it's going out to

the ends of the earth that's kind of everywhere else right that's what's going and the implication

is when you get to chapter 28 paul is in rome and he's proclaiming the kingdom of god and the

implication is jesus hasn't finished yet the kingdom is still going there's a chapter 29

okay and you know we as watermarkers his church are in chapter 29 there's only 28 chapters in acts by

the way okay we're in chapter 29 of how jesus is continuing to spread his kingdom and we're part of it

that's the story we're part of and we're living out this extension of this gospel movement that's spreading

so that's that's where we are we're in that story that's what book of acts is about

so let's look verses six to eight and i want to show you something about power and then purpose and then

the ascended king verse um it says uh verse eight says you will receive power when the holy spirit has

come upon you you know power is pretty vital in the world things don't move without power you know

get in your car there's no power you're not going anywhere turn on the lights no power you're in the

dark

one guy called moses name said power is what we exercise over others that leads them to behave

in ways they otherwise would not have done okay leads you to behave in ways you otherwise would not

have done i find that really actually really helpful because um who who is jesus talking to when

he's when he's talking here who's he talking to it's not a trick question he's talking to the disciples

okay do you remember what's happened like six weeks earlier the disciples good friday like he's talking

to a load of guys who've just denied him who've run away in fear who locked themselves in a room

because they didn't want anyone to know that they were followers of him these are the people he's

talking to they're totally weak wimps and cowards okay and then jesus rises from the dead brings them

forgiveness restoration and jesus doesn't kind of say hey guys i've done all the hard work of rising again

now i'm leaving it over to you when i come back i expect you to see some results from you guys

jesus doesn't say that he says i'm going to give you power because i know that you're weak

because i know that you're weak because and this is what we saw with peter last week christianity

starts continues and finishes on your knees recognizing your weakness and your powerlessness

not your capability it starts you cannot live the christian life if you think you're capable of living

did you get that you can't live it if you think you can do it in your own power because actually

you're weak the disciples knew that you know paul the great apostle says i delight in my weaknesses

because when i'm weak then i'm strong because god's power rests on me you know i think most people

are probably like me i delight in strength you know i hate it when i feel weak right you know

because i feel kind of vulnerable and exposed you know it's like you have those awkward moments of

silence where what well it's kind of silent for a while and you know you feel like when you're

talking to someone and you feel a little bit naked and exposed and you've got to say something to kind

of break the silence because we don't like that feeling of vulnerability we don't like those feelings

of weakness because we want to feel in control we want to feel competent all the time right don't we

and so what we do when we feel a little bit like out of control insecure we try and run as quickly

as possible to a place where we're feeling strong again but jesus says the normal christian life

get this the normal christian life comes and living at the intersection of your weakness and god's power

do you get that the normal christian life is living at the intersection of your weakness and his power

that's normal christian living and i don't know what i don't know what kind of week you've had

but i'm just kind of looking over my week and i'm just i'm i'm wishing that there were times that i've

been bolder i'm wishing that there were times that i hadn't given into temptation or eaten that extra

piece of cake that i did there i you know i don't like feeling like sometimes i'm not quite strong

enough i'm not quite good enough at things but jesus says to his disciples you guys need power

stop trying to rely on yourself i've brought you to your knees now i'm going to give you what you need

and he says power will come upon you when the holy spirit comes on you

so we need to talk a little bit about the holy spirit because um some people get weirded out by

the holy spirit you know we're um we're happy with father son and holy bible but um but father son and

the holy ghost you know it sounds a bit creepy it sounds a bit weird right um you know others of us are

kind of a little bit too obsessed with the spirit you know we judge every spirit about whether it's

spirit filled and and what that really means i'm not quite sure what that means but what i think it

means is there's a kind of special kind of atmosphere with a kind of happening by vibe and god's word often

is kind of secondary to some good feelings that i have that's often the way we define it but john 15

says this when the helper comes whom i will send to you from the father the spirit of truth he will bear

witness about me now we need to get this every christian if you're a christian you have the

spirit of god living in you but there's something we forget j.i packer who's a british theologian he

says said this about the holy spirit he said the holy spirit is like floodlights okay floodlights you

know if you go to the the rugby sevens you don't go like at night wow aren't the floodlights amazing

right you're not kind of focusing the whole time on the floodlights the floodlights are there to help

you focus on the game right and so he says actually the holy spirit is not there to get you obsessed by

the holy spirit the holy spirit is there to get you obsessed by jesus is to reveal jesus to you through

his word to convict you of your sin to empower you to live and obey him and to speak of him so that

you're so filled with jesus that it's just overflowing that he wants to equip you with what you cannot

do and fill you with what you cannot fill yourself with which is so much more of him

that's what the spirit is there to do and he does it in a number of ways and luke uses the terminology

here he says and he uses interchangeably he says spirit will come upon you you'll be baptized you'll be

filled with the spirit you'll be clothed with power those are all words that luke uses to describe the

spirit and and he's describing here not just something of conversion this filling with the

spirit because it happens this filling of the spirit this baptizing the spirit happens again

and again and again in the book of acts you know to the same disciples so in in ephesians 5 paul

tells the church keep on being filled with the spirit okay that's continuous tense so what is that

like what is that like well there's a there's a couple of different things which i think it means

um romans 8 it says the spirit bears witness there's that word witness again to your spirit that you are

children of god okay he bears witness your spirit that you are children of god the spirit reveals the

gospel god's word to you in a way that takes it out of your head and puts it down here into your heart

and sets you on fire martin lloyd jones um who's a welsh preacher he used to use this this analogy he

said the filling with the spirit is like a father walking down the road with his son holding his son hand

and the son feels safe and secure but then suddenly the father sweeps down picks up the son holds him

hugs him kisses him tells him how much he loves him and then he kind of goes to put him down then he

brings him again and holds him again and tells him he loves him then puts him down they carry on walking

again along the street and that son is as he's walking down he lloyd jones says this you can

scarcely contain yourself and you want to cry out my father loves me my father loves me oh what a great

father i have what a father what a father that's what the spirit wants to do in our lives to excite us

about jesus about who what it is to be his children

there's a deep assurance a confidence of the truthfulness of what christ has done on the cross

and we we find that assurance and that confidence in his love so that we don't have to be so self-conscious

it drives out fear and it produces joy that we're loved we're loved and we don't rely on experiences

that we've got to be careful we don't rely on experiences uh to to kind of base our faith on

our faith is not based on feelings it's based on the word of god and the everyday experience of faith is

walking hand in hand with your father that's what faith is like hearing his voice through god's word

the bible but what he then wants us to do is as he calls us on a mission which we cannot do

to obey him in ways that we know we cannot he wants us to call out to him in our weakness and to cry

with expectation that he'll fill us with his spirit with his love which will embolden us to go out and

proclaim his word tim keller says the spirit enables you to say if someone as all-powerful as god loves

me like this delights in me has gone to infinite lengths to save me says he will never let me go

and he's going to glorify me and make me perfect and take everything bad out of my life if that is true

why am i worried about anything why am i worried about anything

you see in our weakness the spirit wants to give us a new confidence in christ and his word which sends

us out in new boldness do you know what happens peter you know what peter was like last week

he's just total coward he was a chicken no courage in front of a servant girl to stand up for jesus

after pentecost holy spirit comes upon him and he's out in the middle of his crowds he's out in

the middle of those who even killed jesus and he's testifying to the truthfulness of the gospel

and how amazing jesus is you know he's gone from being a chicken to a lion

and he gets arrested and when he's arrested you know he's taken before the authorities and they all

see he's not very educated he's not a great speaker he doesn't know how to how to do all the kind of

great eloquence but you know he's filled with the spirit and he just speaks with boldness

and you're like everyone's looking what happened to that guy what happened to him what happened to

peter he's speaking the word with boldness the spirit wants to fill us in our weakness

and you know i look at my life and i often wonder in my life and i wonder if you do in yours

are there things which are going on in your life which can only be explained supernaturally

by the power of the spirit working in you and i'm not just talking kind of big miracles although i

believe god does that i'm also talking the spouse who perseveres year after year with somebody in

praying for their unbelieving partner even though you want to give up i'm talking about the employee

who stands for christ even when it could cost them their job because they refuse to act unethically

because they want to honor christ it's what jordan said about sawyer last week who was so timid before

and is now standing up and talking about her faith and it's only the glory of god that can do that

you know one of the things i think that stops me stops us experiencing the power of god is that we want

to be safe we want to have everything so we feel in control we want to do things so we don't want to

step out because we don't want to feel uncomfortable we don't want to feel inadequate we don't want to

feel incapable of doing things so we just stick to what we know how to do anyone do that

but we won't see his power until we're weak until we get to seeing where he wants us to go and we're

on our knees saying jesus unless you do this in me i cannot and that's where his power is shown

that's why 955 on a sunday we're getting people together to pray

and if you want to see god's power in this church in your life i encourage you to come

955 every sunday to come and pray and seek god for that sense of his power which to do what we cannot

do we need jesus we need his spirit do you want to live an explainable life or do you want to live a

life which is only explained by the glory and power of king jesus through his spirit i do

that's the power now let's think about the purpose

because the power is not just for ourselves it says you will receive power when the holy spirit has come

upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and on all judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth

you see i'm i'm really encouraged when i look at the disciples

because there's so much like you and me i mean jesus died risen from the dead taught them everything

about the kingdom of god and after all that they're thinking jesus are you now going to restore israel

what that means is like are you now going to bring us back our national pride so we can make life

comfortable for ourselves and we can have a great time here together you know you're going to bring

down the property prices stabilize the markets provide abundant free school places and jesus says

guys you're thinking israel i'm thinking the world you're staying local i'm thinking global

you see he says the power is to come so that you can be witnesses my witnesses my witnesses

what's a witness well luke is actually picking up some language from the book of isaiah isaiah 43

where he says um says i i am the lord and beside me there is no savior i declared and saved and

proclaimed and you are my witnesses that's isaiah

and luke's picking that up and he's wanting to say what is a witness a witness is someone

who has seen and experienced something right someone who's seen and experienced something the

disciples were witnesses to the life the death and the resurrection of christ that there was no

savior besides him and they would have proclaimed that to all the nations around them

now lloyd jones again says there's a difference between an advocate a lawyer my wife's a lawyer so i've

got to be careful but an advocate and a witness you see a lawyer an advocate can prepare

a case dispassionately like not really fully emotionally involved their only invested interest

can be i put can just to get out of trouble okay can be money pride or their own reputation right

but a witness in the court is someone who's involved who says i saw it i experienced it i was

touched by that event it's different and if you're a christian you have the holy spirit living inside

of you who has caused you to see and experience something about jesus right you see if you haven't

if you say well i just come to church then you're probably not a christian because the definition of

christian is someone who's the spirit of god has shown the gospel in your life and has changed you

to see jesus

now the problem with the way we talk about the spirit often these days is we talk about it we

want the power it's all exciting and we all want to make it about making my own little world a bit

better that's what the disciples want but the spirit witnesses you remember that word keeps coming up

witnesses to your spirit so that you can then be a witness to the world do you get how that goes

so he's witnessing to you about jesus love for you so you can go witness to others about his love for them

he speaks god's word to you through the bible through sermons through others so that you can speak it to

others that's how god's kingdom spreads it spreads through his word by the power of his spirit

that's our mission as watermark do you get that that's our mission we're part of this story

to spread his word but you know whenever a community group becomes simply a place to be with friends

whenever it becomes whenever you come just to listen to a sermon for yourself and there's no overflow to

others that's no longer jesus kingdom that's my kingdom it's what i i call constipated church

food goes in nothing comes out don't take that too far that analogy but but it's dangerous

if you keep eating and nothing's coming out okay i'm putting images in your mind here but you get the

idea you're that can kill you that can kill you and the question is is that you are you receiving but not

telling are you gaining but not showing are you having the spirit witness to you but you're holding it in

are you a constipated christian

because i confess that often i am and we need to repent of that because we're missing the story we're part of

what's witnessing witnessing is simply experiencing jesus falling in love with jesus through his word

in our lives and being transparent about it with other people that's all it is experiencing god's

working in your life speaking to you and just being transparent about it with others

you know we do it all the time i was on on monday we went out with theo's family we're going hiking

and the kids they love football do you know what they spent a whole lot of time witnessing to me

about how every player that they like is great and amazing they witnessed about the greatness of

leonel leonel messi they witnessed about so many players you know we witness about tv shows

we witness about our kids like how many parents of you have a new baby and then you're like oh yeah

i'm just a bit embarrassed to talk about it

we're not because because when you've got something which really touches your heart

some way somehow it's going to come out it's going to come out and if you're not a christian and the

idea of sharing about jesus seems strange or seems like you're imposing your views on other people

just think if you have a friend who's got incurable cancer and you discovered a cure for it wouldn't you

want to tell them like wouldn't it actually be incredibly unloving not to tell them right

but so often what happens is life happens i get distracted i want to be comfortable and we become

inward and when we do as a church we become aimless and we miss the power of the spirit because we think

we can do it but we need him on our knees

and you know

let me ask you a question

if you're a christian when was the last time you actually

witnessed to somebody about your faith

when was the last time you shared i'm not saying gave a 15 minute sermon i'm not even saying gave

gave um gave a whole load of principles i'm just saying shared something about jesus with someone

who didn't know

that's not a question to lead you into guilt that's a question to challenge you

because you know when somebody says to me and i say this to people as well you know well i don't

have many opportunities i know i know i've experienced that but the first thing i ask is well have you

prayed about it have you prayed for opportunities and you know what my answer normally is well

no not normally that's normally the response

you know even this week just even preparing this i've had to repent of the times where i've actually

i know this but i've stopped praying for the opportunities

and so every day like i'm now praying before i go out of the out of the house with fiona we pray

god give us opportunities today to share you give us the boldness to be able to take them give us the

wisdom to know how to do it and if i don't give those opportunities then let me just honor you

anyway and you know what i'm getting so many more opportunities and you're so much more aware of them

when you start taking them

i'm not saying run straight into your office

tomorrow morning handing out tracts and everything all the desks

you know i'm not saying that i'm saying we witness to people in a context of getting to know

them intentionally building relationships loving people listening to them but just being transparent

in the context of relationship that's what it is that's what it is and when we have no idea where

to start we begin with prayer we begin with prayer we say god spirit you need to lead me because i have

no idea what to do and he'll show you he'll give you ideas he'll show you but we're a church for those

who are not in church that's what we're here for

there's power there's a purpose purpose is the mission to proclaim jesus the power is the the fuel to

be able to do that final thing there's an ascended king ascended king

i don't have time really to go into depth in this um but i don't know if you realize how

significant the ascension is in christian life

um it says at the end of the passage jesus was lifted up in a cloud took him out of their sight

and two men come down and they say this jesus who was taken from you into heaven will come

in the same way as you saw him go into heaven

he's ascended and jesus says the ascent so tim keller says the ascension is a bit like the

detonator which sets off the bomb of the the resurrection the death of jesus and the resurrection

everything that he accomplished on the cross forgiving sins defeating death rising again all of that is

detonated when he rises again and he ascends to the place of the father's right hand that's what

acts 2 says he's exalted at the right hand of the father

you see because where he's exalted he's directing his mission

through his spirit he's ascended to the throne

where he reigns now if i ascend to the throne of england there's two ways i could do it

i could go up into buckingham palace and i can just walk up the steps

and i could go down and sit on elizabeth's throne

now what would change if i did that

i'd probably get thrown out and put in jail that's probably all that would change in the uk

i might make news but nothing much would change if you if you physically just go up some steps

it doesn't doesn't actually change a lot

but if prince william or prince harry or any other princes ascend to the throne what happens

what happens there's a regime change

something significant has happened which could although they're pretty insignificant now but in

the past would have shaped the whole of the country

you see ascension is not just kind of some spatial idea of kind of going up

it's actually an idea that he goes up to reign

on the throne

and when the last things that he says are all authority jesus says all authority in heaven and earth

have been given to me

do you get that he says all authority has been given to me

then he says therefore

go

go because i'm reigning

i'm on the throne

therefore go with confidence

confidence

and

what that means right now whatever is happening in your life right now

whatever is happening in this church right now

whatever is happening in this city right now

jesus is on the throne and he's reigning

do you get that

he's reigning

it's under his control

and there's

as he reigns his kingdom is unstoppable

because he's on the throne

and nothing's going to stop him

at the ascension 100 people were following jesus

bit by bit that spread

throughout the entire world

till now there is christians in every single country of this world

when his word is proclaimed

when people are his witnesses

the spirit empowers and leads and guides

he's going to do his work

here's the final two things

that is an encouragement and a challenge

because i don't know about you

sometimes things happen a lot slower than i wish they did

anyone get that feeling

there are people i want to become christians

who i've been praying for a long time for them to become christians

and they haven't yet

there are things in myself that i want to change

and it just doesn't seem to happen as quickly as i want them to

there are things in the church that i want to change

and they don't seem to happen as quickly as i want them to

and you can get discouraged and feel like

is it worth it

but the doctrine of ascension is liberating

because it means if jesus is truly reigning

then things are going absolutely according to his plan

and it's not out of control

and he's going to do what we cannot do

he's going to accomplish his kingdom purposes

you know

just go back to the story of sire and jordan last week

when we have given up praying

jesus is still reigning

and working

i know there are people in this congregation

who you have been praying for decades

for family members

to come to christ

and i know last year

two or three of your fathers came to christ

in their 70s and 80s

just when we give up hope

the kingdom still works

because god is reigning

that's the encouragement

doesn't matter how slow it feels

he is working it out

you can trust him

but there's a challenge

here's the final thing

if jesus is reigning

one day he'll return

and he'll look at all that has been doing

and he'll look at how much we've turned to him

on our knees

saying we need you

and he'll look at whether as a church

whether as individuals

we lived life

wandering around

or in part of his story

not perfectly

but with him

i went to a bowling alley

this week

it's amazing

if you go to these bowling alleys

because

sometimes

have you seen

there's these guys

they're just dressed in all the gear

you know

they look really cool

they look just so professional

they've got all this gear

they've got the glove

and everything

they've got their own ball

as they come in

and they're all looking

kind of really cool

and you know

i'm seeing them coming along

and they do even the little foot thing

you know

they kind of

you know

they look so professional

and i saw them

as coming up to do this

and doing all the stuff

and then i saw them

and i was thinking

wow they're just going to

swerve the ball around

and do all these kind of crazy things

and it's going to hit their strike

every time

and one of them comes up

he does this

and it's just like a three year old bowling

it's like kind of plops on the ground

and just kind of trickles along

and then goes into the gutter

and i'm like

what's going on there

and

and

and it wasn't just one

there was a few of them

and i thought about it

at the end of the

their

their

their time bowling

if they looked up at the scoreboard

it doesn't matter how great

the clothing looked like

doesn't matter how great

the kind of technique looked like

doesn't matter about actually

any of the things

the key purpose was

did they hit the pins

and it doesn't matter as a church

how beautiful we look

it doesn't matter how

how

how wonderful our bible studies are

it doesn't matter about those things

but are we doing what Christ has called us to do

are we doing what he's called us to do

not in our own power

because you know the ball which you hold

is actually too heavy for you to bowl

we can't be witnesses by ourselves

i don't have the power for that

i know

i mess up every week

but he says

i want the spirit to come alongside you

because you know what the spirit is

it's like he comes alongside you

holds your arm

and he says okay

and he holds it

and he's the one with his power

that bowls the ball

towards the pins

to do what we cannot do

and when we fail

and when we actually fail to trust the spirit

and we just

we do it and we drop the ball in the gutter

he just says come back to me

turn back on your knees

realize your weakness

repent

and let's go again

because i'm the one who's going to do it

i'm the one who's going to build my kingdom

there's a power

you're part of a story

which i'm working out

will you trust me

will you get on

and do what i've called you to do

i want us to pray

because in a second

what i want

i have up here

you may not be able to see it

i'll see if i can move these

i have a banner

it's actually a stretcher

i've taken the other part out

we did this

a few years ago

as part of watermark

and what i want you to do is

this is a stretcher

because stretchers are meant to carry people

and save them

to bring them to christ

like the man

who brought his

his paralytic guy

on a stretcher

to bring him to christ

what i want us to do

is i want us to pray for a second

i want us to spend a minute

maybe we need to repent

maybe we need to

just run back to him

and father and say

i've been distracted

i'm not doing what you've called me to do

maybe you're not a christian

and you need to actually think

does my life have a real purpose

am i part of a story

because jesus wants you to be part of his story

and if you're not

he calls you to come to him today

but i want you to come up in a minute

when you've

when you've

when you spend a minute just praying

i want you to come up

and i want you to write the names

of one

two

or three people

that you

have on your heart

that you would want to be able to witness to

that you would want to come to know christ

and i want you as you do that

just to be praying

praying

praying for opportunities

praying that god

might work in their lives

his kingdom word would come

and he would save them

so let's just shut our eyes for a minute

if the band wants to come up

just want you to think

am i struggling to trust him

where am i

do i just need to ask for him

to fill me with his love again

and experience him through his word again

just spend a minute just with christ now

and then when you're ready

i just want you to think

one

two

three people

i want you to come up

and to write their names on here

and we'll pray for that

Thank you.