Lifeboat - The Crew

We are, as I said, we are in a series, our vision and value

series, looking at our vision values through the lens of a

lifeboat. And this is week 3 and we have

looked at this. We are called not to be a luxury

cruise liner, but we are called to be a lifeboat that is sent

into the chaotic waters of life to bring glory to Jesus by

rescuing lost and broken people. And we've looked at over the

last three weeks, we've looked at the fact that the way we do

that is first of all, we look at the navigational system.

We focus on God's scriptures, on his on his truth revealed.

And we call that biblical truth. We look to the fact that we can,

we can only do this and we are called that.

We can only go into this world and and be used by Christ to

save lost and broken people. If we are filled with the Holy

Spirit, we're empowered by him. We call that presence of gods.

And this week we're looking at our third value, which is humbly

serving. And we're going to, we're going

to knuckle down and look at the crew, the people on the boat

itself. You see, if you were to ever or

if you have ever been on a cruise ship, then you would know

that you would have certain expectations of when you're on

that cruise ship. You know that that if you were

to pay all that money to be on that ship that you expect there

to be a buffet that is fully stocked all the time with food

that meets your dietary conditions, that you expect to

be entertained. You expect it to be clean and if

anything is a below par, below what you expect, you complain to

the, you complain to the crew. You go to the captain, you tell

them what's wrong. But on a lifeboat, we operate by

different rules. On a lifeboat, we are no longer

passengers, but we become crew members.

But actually, it's not someone else's job to make sure the

mission stays on target. It's not someone else's job to

make sure the boat stays afloat and we don't hit any rocks.

It's our job, every single one of us.

And we've all been given gifts and talents and abilities to

contribute to making the sailing of this boat do what it's meant

to do. See every single person, every

single one of you here listening online, you know, we are called

to be part of, to join a crew, to join a local church, to be

part of a local church and serve.

And we're looking today how, how by serving.

We use, we use our time, we use our money, we use our gifts, we

use what we do, but we also use what we say for the glory of

gods and advancement of his Kingdom.

But one of the mine feels when the traps we get into,

especially in the Western world, is we so easily slip into, I'm

on a cruise ship. Other people are here to do this

stuff. Or sometimes we even get to a

stage where we believe the lie that, well, I'm not on a cruise

ship, but I don't have anything to offer.

I don't have any. I haven't given anything.

And we think, well, if I just stay back and I let others do

it, the ones who are really good at serving serve, then it'll be

all right. Actually, the Bible teaches us

that that's completely wrong, that that's completely against

Scripture. And actually, I want to

introduce you to two of the best captains using our metaphor in

the Old Testament. The first one is a guy named

Moses. And in Moses and in Exodus

Exodus 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18 we see Moses gather the people of Israel that he is

leading at the foot of the mountain of God, at the foot of

Mount Sinai. And whilst he is there with all

the people his his father-in-law, Jethro comes, his

father-in-law Jeffrey comes and he brings with with himself.

He brings his daughter Moses wife and his grandchildren,

Moses children and, and, and when he arrives, Moses tells him

all the amazing things that God has done.

Last time Moses saw Jethro, he was just a shepherd.

He was just a shepherd in the fields minding the flock.

And then all of a sudden he meets Moses again and, and, and

he Moses tells him of all the amazing things that God has done

through him. The signs and wonders to set the

people, set the Israelites free from bondage into their new life

as a nation. He hears of all the plagues.

He hears how Pharaoh let them go, but then changed his mind

and pursued them. How God used a a pillar of fire

to divide and Pharaoh's army and let the people go through the

sea of Reeds and then collapse it down on on Pharaoh's army,

completely destroying them. And they worship God and they

praise him and, and rather than just going straight back home

because, because Jethro, he has a busy life, He's got lots of

things going on. He decides, actually, I'm going

to take a few days out and I'm going to look around and see

what this new nation, how my son-in-law is doing as this

captain of this new nation. And it, it says in Exodus 18, it

says that he looks around and as he's looking around early in the

morning, Moses gets up and starts serving the people.

And it says from morning till night, Moses, they're serving

the people and the people are queuing up.

There's hundreds of people queuing up to see Moses, to hear

what he has to say, to be served by him, to get advice from him,

to understand what God's will is for their life from Moses.

But it also says that there are loads of people just standing

around doing nothing. And and we might look at Moses

and go, what a man, what an amazing man.

But Jethro, he doesn't say what you who, what you're doing.

Moses is amazing. I couldn't do that.

I couldn't serve all these people.

No, no, he says, what you are doing is not good.

But I'm serving all these people.

I'm doing the best I can, Yet you're doing it on your own.

And therefore you're going to weary yourself out.

The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.

Jethro points out to us that we are not called to have solo

captains, just ones and twos serving, doing all the work.

And what he points out is that if there's just one or two

people serving, one or two people doing the pastoral care,

one or two people giving, one or two, two people welcoming people

and bringing them back to their homes, one of two things will

happen. Firstly, those few people who

are serving will get burnt out and then no one will get served.

And secondly, Moses is just one person.

The fewer people serving, the fewer people get served.

And what he says is, Moses, you can't do this on your own.

You're creating a bottleneck. You don't have the capacity to

serve everyone. And see what happens is, is we

are called, we are called to go into this world and help rescue

lost and broken people. And if only one or two of us are

doing that, if only one or two of us are serving, one or two of

us are giving, one or two of us are helping pastorally, then

what happens is is we leave a lot of people out there still

drowning. And the ones that we do bring

in, some of them sadly fall back overboard because there's not

enough people to care for them, to serve them.

So Jethro says as his he says, therefore he says, I want you to

select people, select capable people, trustworthy people who

hate dishonest gain and appoint them over depending on their

giftings. Some will be able to manage

thousands, some can manage hundreds, some 10s.

What he's saying is you've got a group of people around you,

Moses. They've got different gifts,

different abilities. Use them.

The more you use them, the more people will be able to be served

and the more lost and broken people will be saved.

A second captain that we see in the Bible, one of the greatest

captains is King David. And I know if you love you read

the stories. Maybe you loved reading them

when you were a kid or seeing them in Sunday school.

And we can we can sometimes get the false impression that David

was a a man who could do it all on his own.

The shepherd boy kills the giant, ascends to being king of

all Israel all on his own. He didn't need anyone's help.

He could rule a nation all on his own Not so in two Samuel 23,

we are told that that David was not alone.

And I love it. If you've seen the Amazon Prime

series, David House of David, kind of spoiler alert, but it

you know, it does actually happen.

So it's not. If you've read your Bible,

you'll know at the end of the second series.

The second series ends with David being being having to go

on the run from King Saul and he feels like he's all on his own.

And then all of a sudden, this army of men turn up on his

doorstep, and they bow down before him and say, you're our

king. These are who the Bible calls

his mighty men. These are his mighty.

But see, David was never on his own.

These are the guys who taught him how to fight.

You think he killed 200? Was it 200 Philistines in one go

on his own? No, no, no.

He did it with these mighty men. He was on the run for years with

these mighty men. He ascended to being king of

Judah and then Israel with these mighty men around.

And mighty men like Joshua Bed who fought off hundreds, Eliezer

who stood his ground in a field of Bali when everyone else fled,

Shamaya, who's offended a patch of lentils that they would they

were standing, not just cheering David on.

They were there with their swords drawn alongside him.

See, David was the anointed king.

He was the captain. But he had mighty men around

him, you see. And we, we're not called, you

and I, we're not called to, to kill Philistines.

We're not called to slay wild beasts like in the stories of,

of David's mighty men. But we are called to together

slay a real enemy, not a flesh and blood.

And the way we do that is by everyday decisions that we

choose to make for Christ and his Kingdom.

See, every single day we have the choice.

Do I serve, do I fight or do I withdraw?

Every single day we have the choice.

Do we, do we man the deck or do we disengage?

Every single day we have the choice of do I take ground for

Christ or do I stay behind? And for those of us who are

saved, for those of us who have been called by Jesus, you are

called to participate in saving others.

Christ has saved you to participate in saving others.

We who have been saved, saved people, save people.

That's who what we're called to do.

And church, we need not one or two, but we need hundreds more.

They're in this room, but we'll start with this room of mighty

men and women who are not sitting in their armchair

watching others do the work, but are willing to take up their

sword and serve to see this boat and many other boats.

God's church bring glory to Jesus and save lost and broken

souls in the way that we serve. I've broken it down into into

four things. And the first way we serve is we

serve with our time. And this is profound.

We serve with our time, with our time, by showing up, by being

around, by making ourselves available.

You see, when we show up, whether it's to a Sunday

morning, whether it's to a Home group or a men's or women's

discipleship group, whether it's whether it's for a prayer walk

or maybe just just to go and visit someone.

When we show up, we allow God to do 2 things.

First, we allow Him to use us. See, if you're here today, God

can use you to bless everyone else.

If you're at home, well, how's He going to use you?

He wants to, but our choice is to turn up or not.

Secondly, when we turn up, we allow God to minister to us

through others. So you may have been feeling

really down this morning, but you, you, you gritted your teeth

and you showed up. And then the worship, maybe one

of those prophetic words just spoke to you.

You wouldn't have got that if you stayed in bed.

You gave God the opportunity to speak to you through others.

You see, we have an enemy, like I said, and I believe He

understands far greater than we do how important showing up is.

That's why it can be so difficult.

That's why every prayer meeting, no one wants to come.

Whether you come or not, it's different, but no one really

wants to come because there's an enemy.

He tells you why bother? You're tired, it doesn't matter.

No one cares if you're there or not.

Because he is terrified that when we show up, when we show up

on a Sunday, when we show up to Sir, when we show up on a

midweek, he is terrified of what good we might do to others

because we can't do it when we're on our own.

He is when he when we are feeling down, when the world has

got on top of us and we know how the roughness of the Seas around

us, he wants nothing more than to keep us on our own.

Because we can wallow in our own self pity.

But when we meet other people, he's terrified because they can

speak truth into us. The Spirit of God, life can be

spoken over us. We, we serve by giving our time.

Secondly, we serve with our money.

And I know we talk a lot about money.

I feel like I've talked about money quite a bit, but it's

because it's really important and it is.

It's great to have that news this week that we asked for, I

don't remember, but we said in January, we want one 1800 lbs.

And what was it 2000, 2200 plus getting the the Transit van,

which meant knocked a bit more off of that as well.

So that's brilliant. We are God is so generous and we

just want to thank you for those of you who generously give week

in week out. Thank you so much.

And the reason why giving is so important.

And I don't care how much you give, that's between you and

God. But when we give what, what it

that means is you've heard the saying where your money is,

that's where your heart is. It shows where your heart is.

And you may not be able to give hundreds of pounds this month,

but can you give something, use something, Maybe one day you'll

be able to give hundreds of pounds.

That's brilliant. But can you give something?

You see, the reason why is because we have such a big

vision for this town. There are many people who we

want to we want to tell the gospel to.

There are many people who we want to reach, who we want to

serve. And I don't want money to be the

reason why we can't. You see, we can pray, we can

turn up our prayer meetings and pray God give us money.

And do you know what he says? Most of the time I've given you

people with bank accounts. That's what he says.

I mean, I'd love him just to check to come through the door

for, for a load of money and say, just spend on what you

want. It happens sometimes.

But actually more often than not, God says, actually, I put

it on that person's heart and that person's heart to be

generous. And the church's needs are going

to be met through individual people, not millionaires, by

actually generally poor people who are just faithful to gods.

See, we have a big mission. We want to buy a building that's

not going to be cheap. And when we have it, it's going

to be more, even more expensive. We, we, but we want it because

we believe that we'll be able to serve more people.

We'll be half the over half the doors open a, a hub where people

can come every day of the week and encounter Jesus through

those of us who are volunteering there.

You see, we also, we don't just have a vision for right here.

We have a vision that we want to be able to not just resource

what we're doing here in Blackpool in the field, but we

want to be able to resource other boats across the world.

We belong to an Apostolic ministry called Christ Central,

part of new frontiers, and we regularly as a church give to

that mission to give. And that's, that's not just for

the paying of salaries, people like Jeremy who apostolically

leads it, but actually for for church plants, it plants we

planted. You know, I, I'm currently

helping with a with a church plant in in Sheffield and, and

it is this brilliant. There are money that we give

gets to help with things like that, but also though we many of

you have met and if you haven't, you'll meet him next month.

Michael Cottier Michael and Mabel were over last year and

Michael apostolically overseas through cross Central churches

in West Africa. He is based in Ho in Ghana and

last year we took an offering and and raised several £100 to

go towards his truck. And you think why?

Why would we need to buy him a car?

We don't need to buy him a truck.

Well driving here this morning, I had to obey a few potholes.

OK, But I can promise you those potholes are nothing like the

potholes driving as you go northern into into Ghana.

I'm sure some of you who are from African nations can no

understand that there are towns, there are villages that need

churches planting in, but the only way there is if you have a

substantial vehicle and so and that money's not done yet

because he needs money to fuel it.

He'll need money to, to, to to keep it repaired, to service it.

He needs money to be able to as as he goes from town to town, he

needs money to be able to train up and send.

Pastors on on training to how to learn Scripture.

He he they need they, they're looking for, they need money to

translate. Now they've got loads material,

teaching material in in English. And Michael he, he says, you

know, I speak English and I can't remember what other

language he speaks in his local dialect, but you know, they need

it translating into many other different languages.

So those leaders across the nation, so the churches across

those nations are all able to access it.

We've also just over the past month, we have just partnered

with and partnered with Arthur and Nina and they, they lead a

church in Cherkasi in central Ukraine. 10 years ago, they were

living right on the Russian Ukrainian border leading,

leading a church there. And they were, they had to flee

their home. I moved to Cherkasey and they

planted a brand new church there.

And if you're interested in knowing more about these guys,

I'd love, love to share it with you.

But just on short, please pray. These guys need leaders, OK?

They need people to run ministries in their churches

because one of the biggest problems is they raise up a

leader and they get sent to the front line.

So what happens over and over again and they may never see

them again. It's very, very real.

We, we were talking 2 weeks, 2 weeks ago and then she said

whilst we were talking to them, there was a vigil going on.

You think what central Ukraine, it's quite far away from the

border, but there was a vigil going on for a young boy they

knew who'd been killed in a drone strike that last week.

It's very real. But there are hungry people.

There are people who have next to nothing all around them and

they have no money. So we want to be able to

resource them, serve what they are doing, and we want to be

able to resource many people across the globe.

We want this church to be so generous that we are able to

give. Give not just here, but give to

the ends of the world. See God's Kingdom impact the

ends of the earth. You see, we are called to give.

We are called to serve with our time, with our money, and we're

also called to serve with our gifts.

You see, David, he had many fighting men who all had

different fighting styles. And on a lifeboat, you need

people who were able to do different jobs.

Some who's able to, to read the, the radar, some who were able

to, to man the comms, some who's able just to bail water out the

boat. All are vital for the mission of

the lifeboat you see. And some of you, some of you are

incredibly organised. Some of you are great with

finances, great with money. Some of you are are incredibly

sensitive and and and and and and have a mercy gifting.

You notice when people aren't quite right, when people are

struggling. Some of you are great with kids.

Some of you are great with tech. Some of you are wonderful

opening your homes and inviting people back.

We all have specific gifts that Jesus has given us for the glory

of his Kingdom that he may be glorified and to grow the

church. And maybe you're you're there

sitting you think, well, I don't, I'm not sure I know what

I have. I don't know I have anything.

I don't have anything. Other people have stuff, but I

don't. Well, Paul says in Ephesians 4

when he that's Christ Jesus ascended on high, he took many

captives and he gave to his people.

He gave sorry and he gave gifts to his people.

I ask you, are you his people? If you're his people, he's

giving you gifts, not just one or two.

He's giving you a lot. He has given you gifts for his

glory and for the growing of his Kingdom.

In in Matthew 25, we read Jesus tells a parable of a of a, of a

man of a ruler of a rich guy who goes on a long trip.

And it says that on that trip before he goes, he calls

together his servants. Who does he call together?

Are you a servant of God? Well, he calls you and he gives

them. It says it gives them talents,

which is a unit of money. Somebody gives 5.

Somebody gives 2. Somebody gives 1 and you may be

thinking well that feels really unfair.

Why only one Why some five Well, let's put it in perspective

here. A talent.

Obviously it's where we get the word talent from this this very

verse a talent. It is a it was a weight of

money, a weight of gold actually equate equating to 34 grammes of

gold. So in today's money, one talent,

if you were so unfortunate to only get one talent, you would

be receiving £3.78 million. Poor you, poor you.

I mean, I don't know what you could do with that.

I mean it with with inflation and oil prices.

You know the crazy though we the point is that we have all been

given more than enough for the blessing of the Kingdom to

glorify Jesus. We have all been given more than

enough. And see the question isn't how

much have I been given? Where am I gifted?

The question is, will you use what you have for Jesus?

Will you use it for him? And if you're struggling again,

thinking what on earth and has God-given me?

Because I'm quite often when we think about gifts, you know,

gifts of spirit gifts that God has given, we kind of think of

the big ones, you know, tongues, prophecy, words of knowledge and

think, well, I've just, I try and I pray, but I've never got

that. Just just look, this is not an

exhaustive list, but look at this list.

This is some of the things that Paul lists that God gives as

gifts. I mean, he says, he says, Sir,

he says there's a special gift of serving, you know, oh, IE

have you got hands? You can you lift something?

You can use your hands to move boxes.

You can use hands to cook someone a meal.

You can use hands to build a block of Duplo with a, with a,

with a toddler. You can use your hands to bless

and serve others. It says that their works of help

is a spiritual gift. Now, I said before that the

first kind of sign of serving is showing up.

Now I am very aware that for some of you, showing up is

really hard. It's really hard.

So maybe you've got a gift of help.

And what I mean, I'm not that you've got a special calling to

help people, but you have a car. You have a car and you're able

to put fuel in it. And therefore you can go and

visit people who can't show up. You can go and give them lips

who can't get here on their own means.

And we can serve by so many ways.

Maybe you have you have knowledge, maybe you have

knowledge, maybe you're able to fix things.

Maybe you've got knowledge of how to how to how to serve.

You know, you know the, the social system, you know, the,

the health system and you know what forms or what to write in

different forms so that someone who needs help gets help that is

serving amazingly with your gifts.

He says mercy giving, administration, faith, all gifts

that Christ has given us so that the Kingdom will grow, so that

Jesus will be glorified. And the reality is when we say

no, and you are more than welcome to say no, it's it's the

beautiful thing about our faith. It's on grace.

It's not works. God gives us stuff and he asks

us to use it for his glory. But you don't have to.

But if you say no, if you don't use your gifts, you don't use

what Christ has given you for his glory and the building of

his church. Or firstly, the rest of us miss

out. You see, Paul, one of Paul's

pictures of the church is a body.

You know, some of us are fingers, some of us are toes,

some of us are eyes and noses, you know, all that kind of

stuff. And but what he's saying there

is if we choose, and we have every right to choose not to use

our gifts, we turn the body into a man with a limp because he's

got a leg that's not working. You know, if, if the majority of

us aren't serving, then we're like a stroke victim with the

whole right side of our body not responding.

I mean, the rest of us are going to do our best, but we're not

going to be able to reach as many people as if the whole body

was working together. Secondly, not only do we miss

out, but you miss out. If you refuse to give your

gifts, use your gifts and talents for Jesus and his

church, you miss out. You miss out because because God

is going. God is going to fill this earth

with many souls. Revelation has that image of,

of, of John hearing a mighty roar, a mighty crowd.

He turns around, He sees men and women from every tribe and

nation. God is going to do that.

Is he going to do it through you?

He wants to, He desires to. But if like showing up, we

choose not to show up. We choose not to use our gifts.

He's going to do it, but we're going to miss out on the

adventure of being used by him to grow his Kingdom and give him

glory. You see, we serve by what we do,

but we also serve by what we say.

We serve with our mouths or as the Bible say, we serve with our

tongues. And and on that list of gifts,

just some of those gifts were were very strong gifts that we

use our tongue for encouragement, correction,

speaking words of love over one another.

But James, the half brother of Jesus, he, he is very and very

clear that he says whilst our tongues were used for God's

glory, their natural inclination is to do evil.

He says the tongue is like a little rudder on the back of the

boat. We're on our lifeboats, we're

heading into lost, we're lost, we're heading into the seas,

we're looking for lost and broken people.

Then all of a sudden we just start turning around in circles.

It's because the rudder is doing wrong things, because the rudder

isn't working. You see, we, we have a natural

inclination to, to pull others down, to gossip, to to divide,

divide people, to complain. And the reality is that, yeah,

on a lifeboat in a church, things get cramped sometimes.

Sometimes someone steps on your toe, you go to grab your bag,

and someone else has taken it. They didn't mean to.

They just thought it was theirs. You know, they we we, we met.

We, we annoy people. We were sad against that same

person who just, you know, the way that they sing or the way

that they, they clap their hands.

It just really grates us. And that that happens.

Don't look to the person next to you, please.

That happens, doesn't it? We rub each other up the wrong

way, but with the power of the Spirit.

Actually, James says. Actually, who contained the

tongue? But by the power of the Holy

Spirit, our tongues go from objects of evil to objects of

wonder that they are used to encourage, to build up, to

strengthen. And the challenge is that we

speak out truth, we speak out life, we look for opportunities

rather than to pull down to, to build up.

See, every single one of us has been given gifts.

And as a church, we have a big vision, a vision far too big for

to be carried by just one or two people, that we need everyone

manning the deck using what God has given you for his glory and

the rescuing of lost souls. So my question to you is, are

you a passenger or are you a crew member?

Are you a passenger or are you a crew member?

And now you may not be from this church, maybe just visiting.

My challenge to you is exactly the same in where you find

yourself. Are you a passenger or are you a

crew member? See, one of the reasons I think,

why we often don't jump in with two feet and say, I'm a crew

member. I'll do whatever it takes to

grow God's Kingdom, to bring Jesus glory, is because we don't

fully grasp the wonder of the church.

So Jesus asks us to serve. He's asked us to serve him by

serving his church. You see the church, the local

church, not just the the whole church universities, but the

local church, Jesus says is the most beautiful thing in the

world to him. He describes each local church

in Revelation as a lampstand, A lampstand made of pure gold,

priceless. That is displaying the light of

Christ, the world, you, the church is priceless.

It's priceless. It's precious to Christ because

where is He? You read the first few lines of

Genesis, He's right there amongst it.

He's right there amongst his church.

He loves her. She is wonderful to him.

You see Jesus, he showed up for her.

That's how amazing he thinks she is.

He showed up for her when no one else would.

He showed up for you when you were at your worst.

And Scripture tells us that right now He is seated in the

heavenly places speaking to the Father.

He says that He is always with us.

Always with us. A Christian is never truly on

their own. So therefore will you show up

for one another? Will you be there for one

another? Will you be there for this

church? Jesus gave everything for his

bride. He didn't hold anything back.

But on the cross, every last bit of him was drained for the glory

of seeing, for the joy of having his church.

So therefore, will you give, will you give your money?

Will you give your talents? They had the the church for this

church for Jesus. He spoke life to everyone he

met. He is speaking life now as he

prays for. Do you know Jesus is praying for

you right now? Oh, I want to pray for some of

you afterwards. I hope you pray for each other,

but Jesus is praying for us before we even started.

Will you therefore choose to speak a life, not death over

each other? I see it in Matthew 25.

These servants, us who the master gives the talons to.

We have two outcomes. 1 Servant wastes the gift, he buries it.

He doesn't use it, he squanders it.

The other two, they use it. They invest it in the Kingdom.

They use what they have for God's glory.

They use what they have to serve others, and they yield a massive

reward. You see, it says, it says to

those who invested what Christ had given them.

It says, the master draws into himself and says, well done,

well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful

with a few things. I will put you in charge of

many. Come and share in the master's

happiness. That's what it's all about.

It's all about and we feel it now.

I'm short of money, I'm short on time, I'm short on gifting.

I don't want to speak nice about them.

We feel it now, but in eternity, every single time that we have

chosen to use our money, use our gifts, use our time, use our

tongues for Christ's glory and the growth of His Kingdom.

He, the Master looks at you and he says well done, well done.

I've got some more stuff for you to do.

I've got some stuff. You have been faithful.

Come and enjoy my happiness. I mean, who doesn't want to hear

that? So are you a passenger or are

you a crew member? Is the church an optional extra

for you? I mean, you're here this week is

next week. Just as important is every week

showing up? The enemy tells us it doesn't

matter whether you're there or not.

They don't want you there. You're not needed.

Christ says I want you, I want you, I want to bless you, I want

to use you. Are you a passenger or a crew

member? Do you see the church as I might

show up or I might not. I might give, I might not, I

might serve, I might not, I might speak life, I might not.

Well however you were coming in today.

My challenge is to everyone hearing my voice right now is

where you go all in. Will you go all in?

Will you stop being a passenger? Stop just putting your foot

every now and then on the crew side, jump fully across and join

us. Join us be a committed crew

member. Join us in rescuing lost in

broken people in saying. I don't know what I've got, but

anything I do have, you can have it.

What what you want to eat doing. I'm just here to serve.

I want to use what I've got my time, money, my, my, my doing

and my my voice for you. Join us for the most amazing

mission that Christ has for any of us to serve his church.

Like I said, I want to pray now, but if you're sat, then you're

generally like I do. I want to get in, but I feel

like I'm a passenger. I feel like I'm a bit, sometimes

bit of both, but I want to be fully on board, but I don't

really know what that means. Come and speak to me.

And I'd love to point you in the right direction.

So let's pray. Lord Jesus, I, I thank you for

your church. God, I thank you that you love

your church more than anything that we could possibly

comprehend. Jesus, you don't see us as

plastic, but gold. You don't see us as something to

throw away, but somebody that is precious beyond words.

God, and you're not far off, but you are right here in our midst.

You are. You have called us to be a

golden lampstand, A lampstand that is shining a light to this

world. Lord Jesus, I pray right now

that you would challenge every single one of us.

Challenge us, God, show us, show us what gifts and show us what

talents that you have given us that we are currently

withholding from the body. Look on.

I pray that we would be a church not made-up of not not made-up

of a Moses who's trying to do it all or even, or even with, with

a few helpers, but actually a church where every single one of

us comes in, jumps on boards and says, here I am.

Send me. Oh, jeez, we thank you for your

goodness. Thank you for your grace.

Amen. I just wanted to share something

fantastic word, Ben. Thank you.

Have you ever felt two things at the same time that you think you

can't feel at the same time? Because last week I did.

I felt incredible joy and sadness.

Now, Ben wouldn't tell you this, but last week there wasn't

somebody. This makes me emotional.

There wasn't someone to serve our children.

And Ben served our children. He missed the word because he

was looking after our kids. And that fills me with joy

because that's what all of the leaders in this church are like.

They're not about pedestal to look good, but they're about

serving. So I'm joyful that we have that,

but I'm sad that Ben needed to do that because there were a lot

of bodies and hands and feet and voices here.

And any one of you can offer to go on a rota to play with the

kids. It's not just about serving the

kids, It's about releasing their parents.

It's about less pressure on some of the people on the kids team

who don't only do kids. They do teas and coffees and

they do worship. We've got wonderful people

serving. But hear the word that Ben

brought. And if you've got.

If you've. Got if you've got hands and feet

and a voice you can offer. So yeah, just please do that.

And I just want to say thank you, Ben.

I want to say thank you to Skip and to Julian and to Shagen,

because we have leaders who aren't just about the shiny

jobs. We have leaders who give, and

we've so much to be grateful for.

So yeah, I pray that that God knobbles you and that we have

more people coming forward to serve.