The fruit and cost of mission (Acts 14:1-20) // On mission with the risen Jesus

OK, so the reading today is from Acts chapter 14, verses 1 to 20.

Acts 14:1–20

That's on page 1109. In the newish green Bibles at

Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish

synagogue. There they spoke so effectively

that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other

Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there,

speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His

grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

The people of the city were divided.

Some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles.

There was a plotter for among both Jews and Gentiles, together

with their leaders to I'll treat them and stone them.

But they found out about it and fled to the Lyconian cities of

Lystra and Derby and to the surrounding country, where they

continue to preach the gospel. In Lystra there sat a man who

was lame. He had been that way from birth

and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was

speaking. Paul looked directly at him so

that he had faith to be healed, and called out.

Stand up on your feet. At that the man jumped up and

began to walk. When the crowd saw what Paul had

done, they shouted in the Laconian language.

The gods have come down to us in human form.

Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because

he was the chief speaker. The priestess Use, whose temple

was just outside the city, brought balls and wreaths to the

city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices

to them. When the apostles Barnabas and

Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out

into the crowd, shouting, Friends, why are you doing this?

We too are only human like you. We are bringing you good news,

telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living

God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything

in them. In the past He let all nations

go their own way, and He has not left himself without testimony.

He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops

in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of

food and fills your hearts with joy.

Even with these words, their difficulty keeping the crowd

from sacrificing to them. Then some Jews came from Antioch

and Iconium and won the crowd over.

They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he

was dead, but after the disciples had gathered around

him, he got up and went back into the city.

The next day, he and Barnabas left for Derby.

Thank you so much. Fabulous.

We have a clicker. Do we have a clicker that works?

We'll find out in a minute. Hello.

It's so good to be here. Yeah, it works.

You've got question cheats as well.

So if you want a question sheet, sorry, put your hand up and I

will do it. He comes to say preach, and then

he interrupts me at the first opportunity.

Unbelievable. Yeah.

So please keep your Bibles open. We're going to, we're going to

particularly focus on the kind of middle portion of, of Acts

14. But as Richard said, I've been,

I've been meeting with Richard for about 5 years and praying

with him. And which means I pray for you

all of the time. I'm regularly praying for you.

And so it's really, it's a real privilege to be here.

But I, even though I've been praying for you, I've never,

I've been here 15 years and I've never come to Ave.

And so it's great to be here. And so that's kind of the first

thing I say. I, I, you're, I want to tell

you, you're weird. You're really, do you know how

weird you are? Do you know how strange this is?

You are on a Sunday morning in church.

Do you know what everyone else is doing right now?

They are maybe sleeping. They might be taking their kids

to football. They might be reading.

They might be doing the gardening, doing a tip run.

They might be going for run. They are not in church.

And that is weird. And, and in church, you are

singing in public with other people who can hear you.

And you might not even be very good at singing, but you're

singing anyway. Like, that is really, really

weird. And it's not just on a Sunday.

Is it midweek? Many of you give up.

You put the kids up, you wrestle them into bed and instead of

doing what everyone else does, I'm told, and you sit down with

a nice glass of wine and watch the next episode of The Night

Manager. You are going out to a small

group to study a 2000 year old book, talk about your feelings,

and pray for one another to an invisible God.

That is weird. OK, It's really, really strange.

Many of you or some of you will be involved in helping and

teaching nought to a teams the Bible.

That's weird. OK.

And when you get your pay cheques at the end of the month,

you take 10%, don't you? You take a chunk of your money,

let's say, and you give it away. That is weird.

Do you know how weird you are? Yes.

OK, good. We're all and it's not just you,

it's Christians. It's me.

Why are you weird? Because Acts 18 says that you

have been sent into a culture that is different from your own.

As Christians, this shapes our culture and we've been sent into

a world that does not have this culture and increasingly is

being removed from it. And, and you know this from the

book of Acts. It starts off in Jerusalem, it

starts off with the gospel in Jerusalem and then moves to

Judea and Samaria, the surrounding area, and then to

the ends of the earth. That is why we're here today,

because the gospel went out to the ends of the earth.

That is why we are here. And so we're weird because we're

in a culture that is different to the culture that God has

called us to live in. And what we're seeing in this

bit of the book of Acts, as I know that, you know, is the kind

of first engagement with Gentile culture.

It started as a Jewish thing and it's moved into the Gentile

world. And today we get the first

sermon given to a Gentile people group.

And so the question is how, how are Paul and Barnabas going to

act among a people that are totally foreign to them?

And therefore, how should we act among a people that have a

different culture to us? And I want us to see two.

There we go. There's a map.

OK, cool. I want to see two dangers as we

take the message of Jesus out. Holy Spirit, you're here.

This is your words. These are your people.

And so, Spirit of God, would you just work in us this morning as

we come with humility and fear and trembling to your word in

Jesus name, Amen. Two dangers.

The first danger is this compromising with culture.

I'm going to come back to the first 7 verses a little bit

later, but just to kind of summarize where we've got to the

start off at Iconium. Wait, then the map is important.

OK, Iconium, it's in Galatia. We're in Sat next to Noah and

we're going, how do you pronounce the DERBE 1?

Is it Derby? Because then you've got kind of

Leicester and Derby there, haven't you?

We're not quite sure, but Lystra and Derby we're going with, I

don't know, but we start off in in Iconium in verse one and

well, it, it starts off really, really good.

There's salvation in the synagogue.

Things are going really well, but there's Jewish unbelief and

that causes them to stir up the people.

And there's a plot to kill Paul and Barnabas.

Verse 5. And then so they run away.

They run away from Iconium to Derby.

And, and that's where we're going to pick things in

Leicester, not Derby. We're going to pick things up in

Lystra in verse 8. I'm confusing myself, OK.

Verse 8IN Lystra, there's a man who was lame.

He'd been that way from birth. He'd never walked.

He listened to Paul as he was speaking.

Paul looked directly at him and he saw the faith he had to be

healed and called out. Stand up on your feet.

At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

If you're planting a church in a new area and it starts off like

this. And he got a pretty good start,

right? Like I know you guys have

planted off into Esmon. So like anyone who's planting a

church or doing a ministry in a new area, this is like the dream

start basically. They absolutely smashed it.

And what's fascinating, we don't have time, but if you go back to

Acts 3, when Peter goes to the temple gate, beautiful and sees

a man, that is a lot of the same language going on here.

Peter looks directly at the man and all there's there's you can

have a look at it in your own time.

But I think what's happening is Luke is pointing out to us what

God has done in Jerusalem, he's now doing among the Gentiles.

Like this is a really, really good start.

And then it turns sideways slightly.

Verse 11. When the crowd saw what Paul had

done, they shouted in the Likeeonian language.

The gods have come down to us in human form, which is how I think

they sound. Barnabas called Zeus and Paul

and they called her and Paul. They called Hermes because he

was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple

was just outside the city, bought balls and wreaths to the

city gates because he and the crowd wants to offer sacrifices

to them. Less than ideal.

Like that's not how they anticipated this going.

And this feels really weird. Why Zeus and Hermes, like, why

do they presume these guys? I was asking that question and

it turns out that there was like a, a cultural myth in this

particular specific city that a few 100 years before Zeus and

Hermes had visited them. There was this understanding

that's what happened. But nobody had recognised them

and nobody had shown them hospitality.

So Zeus and Hermes, disguised as humans, rocked up.

Nobody cared that they were there apart from one couple.

And this couple welcomed them into the home.

And then eventually, over the meal, I think, the cups kept

magically refilling. And they realised, oh, it's the

gods, they're here. But Zeus and Hermes were so

angry. They said, we are going to flood

the city, We're going to destroy it totally.

And so this couple, they go to high ground, the city is

destroyed. And the legend had it that this

couple's house became the temple.

And when they, instead of dying, they became trees outside the

temple. And so this is in the cultural

mindset of this city. That's fascinating, isn't it?

And so when we read Zeus and Hermes, this isn't just random

things written by a guy who's making up a story.

There's real cultural accuracy in this.

It makes sense that Zeus and Hermes are the ones they think

it is. And so when Paul and Barnabas

rock up and go and start healing fools like they go, what on

earth is it must be Zeus and Barnabas return.

They don't want to be wiped out again.

They don't want another flood to come.

So they go. We're going to worship them and

welcome them properly. And so that's what they do.

But I don't know about you, but if this was me, I've got a

slight temptation here. It's just to let them get on

with it. Do you know what I mean?

Like they've just been almost stoned, like they've been almost

executed for preaching. And now Can you imagine that

there's a slight bit of fear for them?

If we correct them, if we tell them what they're doing is

wrong, what are they going to do to us?

And they might stay silent. But probably more likely for me

is they've had a hard journey. Like it's been, it's been a

tough Rd. It's been a they've been away

from home for a while and now there's some people and they are

showing them some real hospitality.

Like these guys are amazing. Let's worship them as God.

Is there not a slight part of you that would go, ah, we'll let

it slide. We'll just, we'll just let them

get on with it. This is quite nice, really.

It's been a long time. You know, they're massaging my

feet. They're putting crowds on my

hair. Like, let's just go with it.

Is it not a small? Is that just me?

I don't know. It's OK.

Sorry. Just me.

My bad. I won't be invited back.

But what do they do? They're not motivated by fear.

They're not motivated by comfort.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they

tore their clothes, rushed out of the crowd, shouting, Friends,

why are you doing this? We too are only human like you.

We're bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these

worthless idols to the the living God who made the heavens

and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

In the past. He let all the nations go their

own way. Yet He has not left himself

without testimony. He has shown kindness by giving

you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons.

He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with

joy. They don't stay quiet.

What do they do? They do three things.

Firstly, they correct their error.

We're not gods. Sorry.

This is lovely, but we're not gods.

They challenge false thinking. Your idols are worthless.

They're not Zeus and Hermes. Wonderful.

They're not real gods and they point to the truth.

Zeus, go to the air, lightning, all that kind of stuff.

We saw Percy Jackson at the Curve last night.

Wonderful. Brilliant.

Your your God is the God of the air.

Our God is the God of the land and the sea and the earth and

the air and everything in it. The challenge?

False thinking. Basically, they're saying

something that our culture hates.

Not all religions are equal. There is the truth that is found

in Jesus and there are false religions and they don't know

what's going to happen to them when they say this, but they say

it anyway. And I think about my own life

and I think about the opportunities I have had to

share my faith that I've just totally missed.

I was speaking to someone earlier this week and he was

telling me his experience of how when he hangs out with

Christians or he sees Christians, that they will say

one thing and live another way. And yet his experience was that

when he spends time with Muslims, there's a real

integrity to them. And inside I'm dying.

And what do I say? Nothing.

Which means the impression he gets as he leaves that

conversation is that I'm in agreement with him and the glory

which should go to God goes to Allah.

Because of my silence as a church, because I was afraid.

I was afraid. Let's just be honest, I was

afraid that if I challenged if I go actually that's not my

perception at all that that I see totally differently to that

that I would lose some relational capital with him.

He might get crossed him. It might I might look weird to

him. As a church, we we do loads of

stuff in our community. I've already said that and that

means people in the community think quite highly of us, which

is wonderful. It's lovely.

And people say things like, you know, when I come in the church

building, I just feel the sense of peace and it's wonderful.

And everyone I meet from your church is, is so kind and lovely

and generous with their time and and wonderful and, and the

temptation and, and what I have done many times is just go.

That's so nice to hear. Where does the glory go there?

To us? Because we're great, aren't we?

We're great, lovely people. But what?

What do? What do we do in that situation?

Because the reality is, anything good in US, it doesn't come from

us, does it? It comes from God who is at work

in US. What an opportunity to go.

I'm so pleased you've noticed. Can I tell you?

Can I tell you that actually we're not any better than anyone

else, or any worse, actually, God has worked in US and he's

making us more like Jesus. That's what I could say.

But so often by my silence I deny God glory.

And yet these guys, they can't stay silent, can they?

They tear their clothes, they rush into the crowd.

Do you, do you see their zeal for the glory of the Lord?

There are other gods getting glory.

They're getting glory, and they're having none of it.

And I just go, where's my zeal for the Lords?

Where's my desire for his name and his renown that overrides my

comfort or my fear of, of telling people about my faith?

Where's my brokenness at the lostness in the world around me?

So often we just go through just plod through life and the zeal

just runs dim and we we stop seeing how lost people really

are. The danger is that we compromise

with culture. That's all the same.

Doesn't really matter what I believe you believe.

We might not say that, but we sometimes act like it.

The second danger is that we ignore culture.

There are loads of sermons in the book of Acts.

You'll know this if you've read it.

And they're all different, but they all got similarities up

until this point. So this is the sermon in Acts 2

on the day of Pentecost that Peter gives.

And I've highlighted all of the times that Peter refers to the

Old Testament. So this is Acts 2.

Those are all the Old Testament references.

This is Acts 3. These are all the Old Testament

references. So it's maybe slightly less, but

there we go. This is, you know, when Stephen

was martyred. This is his speech and all the

it's basically all Old Testament like this dude know knew his

stuff. This is actually Paul last

chapter when he's preaching in the synagogue again, loads of

Old Testament. Let me show you the Old

Testament references in Acts 14, this little sermon.

There we go. Nothing.

He doesn't quote the Bible once. Is it even a sermon?

Like what's what's going on here?

Well, he's not speaking to Jews anymore.

He's speaking to Gentiles, isn't he?

And so he does look slightly different.

He speaks about what they know, idols.

Verse 15 a He speaks about what they have seen in the world, the

earth, the natural order of things.

Verse 17 he speaks about what they have experienced, what they

know, what they see, and what they experience.

In other words, he starts with where they're at.

He starts by stepping into their culture before he brings them

into his culture. He brings the timeless truths of

the gospel in a language the culture can understand.

Timeless truths of the gospel and a language the culture can

understand. Imagine we're going on a journey

to, well, Derby, let's say Derby.

And that's what you look like. If you're in a car with me, they

are stairs of terror. And if I'm going to take you on

this journey, what's the first thing I do is I go to your house

and I pick you up, right? I pick you up and then we go to

Derby. If I just go straight to Derby,

I've missed you, right? I've totally missed you.

But so often in our mission, in our evangelism, we do that.

We we don't go to where people are.

We just go straight to where we want to take them and we miss

them. But that's not what Paul and

Barnabas do. They step into their culture.

They go to their house before they take them to the gospel.

They use their culture and see where does it intersect with the

good news of Jesus. And there is a danger for the

evangelical church. As culture, it feels like

culture removes further and further away from where the

Bible is. You saw the votes this last week

in the House of Lords and I know complicated, all that kind of

stuff. It feels like culture is

constantly moving further away from where the Bible causes us

to live. The danger from that is we we

stop. Well, the, the danger is that

actually the, the biblical understanding, the biblical

framework that culture has had in previous generations, it no

longer does. Many of the people we're working

with and many of the people who have come to faith in the last

few years have never been to church before.

They don't know any of the Bible stories.

It's like it's brand new to them.

And so if we start with how we might have articulated the

gospel or what we might have expected of people in terms of

biblical literacy, we're going to miss the mark totally.

It'd be like Paul going into into Lystra and going and

talking about the Messiah and talking about the prophets and

talking about the old. They wouldn't have a clue.

They've got no framework for it. And so there is a danger that we

ghettoize as culture moves away, that we just form this Christian

culture and we just look inward because it's safe here.

When they call the gospel is always look out.

But the the problem is in order to understand the culture, in

order to understand how the gospel intersects with culture,

we need to be in culture. We work with Christian vision

for men quite a lot and they have a four point evangelistic

strategy. And the first point is get some

mates. And if you don't have mates,

borrow someone else's. And it's really hard, actually,

the older you get to maintain relationships with people who

aren't followers of Jesus. Do you have people that you're

doing life with who aren't followers of Jesus, who aren't

in this church or other churches?

I know it's difficult to life is busy, right?

Do you have about ability to understand what makes people

tick? Because the reality is our

culture, I think, is driven by three things.

Justice. That's what cancel culture is

all about. It's about justice and identity.

Who am I and hope or lack of? We live in a hopeless world.

And friends, the gospel intersects with those three in

beautiful places. But are we with people who don't

know Jesus to listen to what their hopes and dreams are, to

listen to how they shape and form their identity, to be able

to speak into these things and go actually, as a Christian,

this is what I believe. And we're we're frightened

because because we don't want to come across as weird.

But I think we've already established, haven't we?

You're weird. OK.

So it's OK. Let's get over that together.

We can have these conversations. It's OK to communicate the

timeless truth of the gospel and the language culture can

understand. To do that, we need to be in

culture. And when we do this, I think we

can expect to see two things from our passage.

Firstly, we can expect to see fruit.

Verse one, they spoke so effectively that a great number

of Jews and Greeks believed. Verse three, they were speaking

boldly and the Lord confirmed His message of grace by enabling

them to perform signs and wonders.

Lord, do it again in our day. Verse 10 stand up on your feet.

And the man jumped up and was healed and began to walk.

When we go out with the gospel of Jesus, the good news of

Jesus, when we engage with culture, we can expect to see

fruit. And you know what, we are living

in a time where the fruit is ripe.

So long in the evangelical church, it's been, come on, give

it a go and it's going to be really hard and you might see

odds and ends. But we are moving into a

different season. We are starting to see a greater

openness to the gospel of Jesus. And what I think is happening is

as cultures moved away from the Bible, there is now a curiosity

about it. Do you know the Bible sales went

up by record amounts last year. People are just buying the Bible

and reading it. We've just, we're going to next

term, we're going to do Alpha, not alpha.

We're going to do the Bible course.

We run alpha regularly for non believers.

We're going to run the Bible course for non believers.

Well, I'll let you know how it goes.

But we're going to have, if you started reading the Bible in the

last year, do you want to come and let us explain it to you?

I don't know. We'll see what happens, but

we'll, we'll give it a go. I think there's an increased

curiosity. We've you've probably heard

about the quiet revival more than you'd like to.

I don't know this and people are starting to go.

Is it really happening? What about the major

denominations? But the reality is whenever I

speak to church leaders, they are all saying there is

something different going on at the moment.

There are people coming into church who've never come to

church before. There's an increased openness,

an increased curiosity. We're seeing it all over the

place and we're seeing it at Hope.

This week. I spoke to a guy who works for a

shop in Wigston, so I know him in that.

I go into his shop that he works in and he sent an e-mail to the

church and he said, can I please speak to Matt?

I need to speak to Matt. And so we met him on Monday and

I'd no idea. I'd no idea what's coming in,

what I was kind of stepping into.

And, and he, he, we did the pre, you know, the weather, we did

the weather chat and that and did the preamble.

And he said, Matt, I have as much money as I want.

I have a great job. I have a family who I love and

who love me. I have a great hobby.

He does battle reenactments. So I I love my life and yet

there is a hole and there is something missing and I'm not

happy. What am I missing?

What, what? And I just got to share the

gospel with him. Let me tell you about the hole

that you're missing. You know, the scary thing I said

to him isn't that you feel this way.

The scary thing is that more people don't because you were

made for more than just family and work and money.

You were made for G And of course, I had this sermon in my

mind as I was doing it. Like I've got to intersect with

culture somehow here, haven't I? Wow.

He took away a gospel. He's going to come to church.

We're going to meet up again. Wonderful.

I I run an Instagram channel, which Richard has been on,

haven't you? And a few months ago, walk with

the word if you want to. It's just daily summaries of

Bible passages. It's, it's simple.

And I had a message from someone a little while ago saying I'm a,

I'm brand new to this faith thing.

I don't really know what I believe, but can you help me

find a church roundabout? I used to be in the army, so not

like your typical bloke who would normally expect to rock up

to a church. He, he lives in Chichester, so

miles away. And I found a couple of churches

that might be interesting to him.

I got a message this week and he said thank you so much for

recommending this church. My kids love it.

And I'm getting baptized on Easter Sunday.

How cool is that? That's wonderful.

And this is just two things from this week.

God is doing stuff. As we go out, we can expect to

see fruit. We're so used to having the red

light in evangelism. We have moved, I think even

beyond the amber light into the green light.

I think people are ready to hear your friends may not be as

closed off to the gospel as you think.

The people on your streets may not be as closed off to the

gospel as you think. The people in your college, in

your school, may not be as closed off to the gospel as you

think. Your colleagues may not be.

You know, the stats of the quiet revival gave out.

About one in three people would come to church if they're

invited. We put that to test over

Christmas and we gave people 3 invitations to our Christmas

Carol service and one couple took it to heart and they've

been praying that year for 35 friends in their in,

particularly in their neighborhood and praying by name

for them. They invited every single one of

them to the Carol service. 18 of them came to the Carol service

and they had so many conversations with them

afterwards. I think you're running alpha in

their road for their neighbors because they, they, they see

their life and they're intrigued by what they see because there's

something different. Your friends may not be as close

off as you think. You see fruit, but you'll also

see opposition. Verse 2, the Jews who refuse to

believe. That's interesting, isn't it?

Refuse to believe. Stirred up the minds, stirred up

the other Gentiles, and poisoned their minds against the

brothers. Verse 5A Plot among both Jews

and Gentiles to I'll treat them and stone them.

Verse 19. They stoned Paul and dragged him

outside the city, thinking he was dead.

There will be fruit if you go out with confidence and courage,

but there will be opposition. And there'll be opposition not

because people don't like it, but because Satan doesn't like

it. And when the God's people step

out, the enemy will step up. If you want to live this kind of

life, if you want to be bold for the Kingdom of God, it is going

to cost you. It may cost you relationally,

may cost you financially in that cost you promotions at work, but

the reality is we often want the fruit of mission without the

cost. How many of us would love to see

this church rammed full on a Sunday morning of new believers

having to run discipleship courses for people who who are

coming to faith and you're having dozens of baptisms

multiple times a year. We would love that, wouldn't we?

Yeah, we'd love that, wouldn't we?

I think we want the fruit. I don't know if we're willing to

pay the cost. I don't know if I'm willing to

pay the cost of stepping out of feeling uncomfortable where I

am, but look what we see here. Verse 5.

Again, there's a plot afoot among both Jews, Gentiles and

Jews together with their leaders to I'll treat them and stone

them. But they found out about it and

fled to the Likeeonian cities of Lystra and Derby into the

surrounding areas where they continue to preach the gospel.

They've just almost been killed and they go, OK, we'll just go

to the next place and do the same thing.

Verse 19 And Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the

crowd over. They stone.

Paul dragged him out the city thinking he was dead.

But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got back

up and went into the city that they just taken him from to try

and kill him. And then the next day he travels

60 miles. What state is he in having just

been stoned to the point where they think he's dead and he goes

60 miles to the next place to do the same thing.

He's relentless, these guys and I don't know if a healing

miracle or a resurrection miracle.

I don't know what has gone on there, but he is single minded.

How can he do this? How can and, and, and let's take

even just evangelism out. When you do ministry in any

length of time in any form, you will get knocks and you'll get

pushed back and you'll get hard at times.

You go, do I want to do this anymore?

How does he just get up and go again?

Well, Acts 18, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

on you. They're not doing it by

themselves. The Spirit of the living God is

in them and pushing them into greater and further ministry.

And it might be where they are and it might be somewhere else,

but the point is they are sent Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and

the ends of the earth. They are the filled and scent

people of God. And so they are going to filled

with the Holy Spirit. Go.

And I believe and the challenge for me this week and the

challenge for my church in this season is that in this season of

renewed fruit in this nation, I believe the church is being

called to recover its sentness by Jesus in the power of the

Holy Spirit into the world that God loves for the Kingdom of the

Sun Avenue. You are the sent people of gods.

You are sent into Clarendon Park.

It's not just because there's a school here that you're hits

because God has planned for you to be here.

You are sent into your neighborhoods.

You are sent into your workplaces as ambassadors for

Christ with the good news of Jesus.

Let's get our going shoes on so very quickly.

How do we live out identity as a sent people of God just from

this passage? Three things.

There you go. Go where the need is.

So often they go where there is brokenness and hurt and struggle

and that's where they see the fruit.

Initially. Here it's a man who couldn't

walk. In Wigston, it's often isolated

and vulnerable people, people with mental health challenges,

people with financial poverty. They're the people that we see

most fruit among Go with Anitas. Secondly, go with the

opennesses. They go to one place, they have

some fruit, door closes and move on.

Same happens here and then again and again.

Wherever there's welcome, whether there's openness, that's

where they go. They're asking the question,

God, where are you already at work?

So we can jump in. And I would encourage you as a

church to ask that same question, where, where do you

see God at work already? And how do we go there?

But then as an individual, as families, where do we see God at

work in our neighborhoods, in our communities?

Where are the people of peace? Where are the people who are

open to these conversations already?

Maybe, maybe you've never even thought of that question, but

why don't you prayer walk your Rd. with your family once a

week, take 10 minutes to do it and just say, God, this is your

place. Would you show us?

Would you give us eyes to see where you're at work already?

You'd be really surprised about the conversations that come out

of that and the dreams that he puts in your heart.

Thirdly, go together. Paul and Barnabas, they go

together. Now you can't necessarily take

your mate from church into work with you.

They might ask questions, bring your mate to bring a Christian

to work day. Although if you're a boss, maybe

that's a great day to have. But you know what you can do?

I love community groups. I have small groups, home

groups, whatever you call them here.

What do you call them here? Home groups love home groups.

And they're, they're so good and it's so good to pray together.

And it's really important to pray for your financial

situation and it's really important to pray for the

diagnosis that you've just received.

And it's really important to pray for Aunt Muriel's cat.

And it is, these are, these are valuable things to pray for.

But why don't we make time to pray for one another, for Person

X who you work with? Because I'd love to share the

gospel with them this week and the next time you can go, How

did that go? Can you pray?

Can we back one another in prayer, missionly as well as

pastorally in these groups as we do life together?

The problem with preaching the Bible is the Lord convicts you

first. And then the Lord's been

breaking me this week for my lack of zeal for his name and

His glory and for my lack of care for the lostness and I,

when it comes down to it, but also just kind of a point where

you're tired and the call to go again.

And I just wonder if there's folk here and any of that sticks

for you, that call to go again. Maybe you got out of the habit

of sharing your faith. Maybe you've been disappointed

or you've faced opposition and the call is to go again and to

ask the Holy Spirit to fill us afresh with his power and with

his courage. It is conviction to go.

And so I'd just love to take a moment of quiet.

There's often so much noise and so much talking in our services.

We're just a moment of quiet. And I'd love for us to pray the

ancient prayer of the church, which is come Holy Spirit, He's

here, but it's just an invitation to come and apply to

our hearts what He said to us generally today through His

word. So you might want to close your

eyes. I find it helpful just to put my

hands out in front of me. It's like, it's just like a

physical posture of receiving, just like an outward expression

of what's going on in your heart.

You may want to do that. No pressure too at all.

Just close our eyes and let's just invite the Holy Spirit to

come. Holy Spirit, please, would you

just come, and would you minister among us now?

Where there's hurt, would you bring healing, Where there's

fear, would you bring courage? Lord, like a rod up a spine,

help us stand straight for you. Where there's disappointment,

would we bring renewed hope? And spirit of the living Gods, I

pray that you would even now just drop names of people into

our minds that you're already at work in and you're calling us to

go to. And if you, if you just have a

name or since he's just impressing something on your

heart, just I'd encourage you in your heart just to say yes, I'll

go like Isaiah, here I am. Send me yes, I'll do it.

But I need your help, Lord.