PEOPLE OF POWER - Power Of Surrender // One Church Podcast, 1st September 2025

We are one church. We love God, love people, love

His mission, and love His church.

Welcome to the One Church podcast in August 2022.

In fact, can I say that today it is 18 years since Susan and I

came to Leicester? I just today and that first

Sunday turning the corner of Upper Titchbourne St, we parked

our car in the school car park. That spark and her got dented by

some guys playing football and we turned.

I was wearing a grey suit trying to look my absolute best.

We turned the the corner to be there and gosh, I was so

nervous. I was so nervous.

Will they like me? I don't think it's so much now.

Just one person likes me in the room.

That's good. But in August 2022 we became one

church when All Nations Church and Trinity Life Church felt

called by God to walk together. Three years later, look what the

Lord's done. We've walked in unity and

blessing and presence and without conflict together.

Many, many people have been saved and baptised and filled

with the Spirit and healed and impacted by Jesus.

Hundreds of people have been added to the house as we

together broke 1000 people and are now around 13150 people of

all ages from around 70 nationalities, with many more on

our database and hundreds more impacted every week through our

ministries. We thank God, don't we?

Nearly £3.8 million has been given through ties and

offerings, vision offerings and giving for mission and

compassion in the last three years.

And we have been privileged to give away in that period nearly

£580,000 to our compassion work to mission to people in need in

one church in our denomination. And thousands of people have

been helped and loved through Open Hands and the Oak Centre

and Way Coffee. We were able to invest over

£2,000,000 into the renovation of this building and the removal

of the ramp at #12 and we've been able to pay off 400,000 lbs

off our mortgage. New policies and procedures

alongside excellent financial audits have left us stronger and

ready for more. And our senior leadership team,

our eldership, our trustees, our staff, our leaders and the

church family are walking in unity, humility and blessing,

carrying great faith and expectation for the next part of

our history. And I want to say thank you and

as we pause and celebrate. None of this would have happened

without Jesus. He is the centre of it all and

in him everything holds together all the glory to him.

Why don't we just applaud Jesus in the room?

Come on man Jesus, Jesus. And as we look ahead, we're

carrying both a passion for being together and meeting

insights, and in time, planting others who feels called to go

again, who feels called to be trained to lead a site.

We're expecting to have an even deeper journey as a house to

smaller groups. May we see dozens and dozens

more planted in the next 12 months.

We're about to see, I believe, an expansion of our young adults

work. Around 50% of our church is

under 30. And we're about to see an army

of students and young adults arrive back in Leicester.

We know that there's an even stronger day ahead for our

children's ministry. And there's an excitement as we

join all of our youth together in the one centre every Friday

night with a real expectation of growth and great days ahead.

And, and allow me to take this opportunity to urge you as

parents to do everything you can to get your children and young

people into our Children and Youth midweek groups.

We had a prayer meeting here on Friday night.

There's a Leicester game in town.

It's incredibly difficult to get in.

It's very rarely like that, but it costs to come in.

But with respect to every other group, your children's do, if

it's helping them read a bit better or learning how to play

tennis, all of those, we celebrate those, but bringing

them to encounter Jesus with other young people so that they

learn a habit that they never forget.

Honestly, if you want that in your kids life, you will do

everything you can to bring your kids to reach on a Tuesday night

to OC youth on a Friday night. And it's incredibly important.

And as we start again this week, nothing should be more

important. Honestly, I just want to say

that to you. And and if you don't have

transport and it's difficult or talk to the team, we will help

you do all you can. And in this next season, we've

also been thinking about buildings and what next.

We're grateful for Beaumont Lee's school.

I'd read an article yesterday that Daljinder sent me just of

them celebrating what we did through the GO weekend in making

a difference in a garden at the school, celebrating, if I could

say one church and the difference it makes in the

school. I love that.

We're grateful for Charmwood Dance School and Manor High

School and the Oak Centre and people are meeting Jesus in

these buildings and they're part of our heart.

And alongside them, these amazing buildings on Frog Island

and this whole plot have been given to us as a house from the

Father and they are to be used and expanded and developed for

His glory. Even if you're based most weeks

in another One Church building, the developments of This site is

all of our privilege and responsibility to do together.

In 2024, we looked extensively at the options for number 12

Frog Island. And we looked at whether to

leave it as it was, to demolish it, to refurbish it, to rebuild

it, or to sell it. And we concluded that Number 12

Frog Island is part of our One Church future.

And we concluded that it would need to be fully levelled to the

ground and rebuilt. And last year, he asked us to

take down the ramp. Now, some of you don't know what

the ramp was at the side, but you, you didn't miss a lot.

But we did it as a first fruits. And we're announcing today that

as early as we can in 2026, after our vision offering in

November, we will bring down #12 and prepare the way for a

miracle so we can rebuild. It's going to tidy the site.

It's going to help us because we're closing that building from

all use. It will provide around 50 new or

more accessible parking spaces and we're aiming to do it by

Easter 2026. In the weeks ahead, we're going

to talk about our next vision offering in November and our

November vision offering will bring down #12 it's going to

cost around £250,000. It will also bring down the

mortgage. We have a heart to be a debt

free house. It will bring up accessibility

by installing a lift at the side of the stage here so that no one

is ever excluded from coming onto the stage and being part of

productions and what we do. It'll build up one church

compassion by expanding the compassion and justice ministry

and voice of one church. It will build up new community

by running a second year of GO, taking the United vision

forward, expanding site community projects, preparing

for a new gap year in 2026, refreshing and equipping sites

with some small improvements in a small couple of small building

projects. And when we talk again about

bringing down and building up a second year, we're asking

everyone again to take time to pray and listen and have the

faith and courage to respond to what God says.

These last three years, £1.2 million given in the house

through our vision offerings and through gifts given on the 2nd

of November this year and pledges brought, we will be able

to do all that He's called us to do.

And I, I want to urge you in our vision offering this year to sit

in God's presence the same way that Susan and I have already

done. We're already ready.

God has spoken to us. I can't wait for that morning,

but let's do something extraordinary together.

Let's do something extraordinary together.

But what about the next steps when it's down?

We saw some pictures recently, which we're not going to show

you, of a development on this site.

A community centre at the front next door serving this area.

Some more office space above. Some space above for the deaf

centre and for one or two other charities to come and be based.

Some more space for us as a church on the 4th floor.

Some possible accommodation. The back here, a huge sports

hall for young people and our children to meet in potentially

for an affordable dance school, serving the school over the road

for the community, who knows? And there's also an extension on

this hall, both sides extended and a little balcony here taking

the capacity of this hall to 1200 people.

And then a car parking at the back of steel car park.

And we looked at it because the Lord, we felt Him speak to us to

get the plans ready. And the reality is it's going to

cost between 7 and 10,000,000 lbs.

And following the will of God does not always mean you have

the whole picture. We are simply invited to obey

and take the next step, which is why we must bring the building

down. Now, are we going to build all

that I have said, I want to be full of integrity with you this

morning to say we don't know. But what we do know is this that

he wants us to do the next part that he calls us to do and

prepare the ground for a miracle.

And, and our journey with buildings is a journey of

surrender. And at the end of today, we're

going to do something which is a very precious act of worship.

We'll bring a little table forward and we're going to bring

every area of the life of our ministry together and put

something that represents that ministry on the table and give

it back to him. And as part of that, we're going

to bring the drawings for this plot and lay them down and say,

Lord, we've done what you asked us to do.

Your move. Come and do something so

incredible that we all kneel down and say only God.

And it's so important in the journey of life to regularly

stop and place Jesus at the centre.

The older I get, the more I realise that I I'm nothing and I

can do nothing without him. I'm more aware of my

vulnerabilities than I've ever been and the fact that I need

Jesus for everything, that I need him every second to make

it. And I also deeply long with a

passion to finish well and hear him say well done.

You did what I wanted you to do with your life and I pray that's

the passion of your heart this morning.

Let's never seek prominence and position and wealth and fame and

success. You will never be defined by how

many followers you have on some social media app.

Let's seek Jesus 1st and simply live a life surrendered to Him.

And I want to urge you today as I share, to let Holy Spirit

speak to you because today is a church.

We stand on the precipice of a new surge forward in this next

season. Between now and Christmas, we're

going to see many people find Jesus.

The church is going to grow and He's going to lead us.

And I believe today the Father is calling us as we prepare for

that, to pause and surrender. And today we begin our series.

I'm only going to preach for a few minutes, but the series is

called People of Power. And we're going to re establish

what we believe and what we are as a house.

And we're going to do some training throughout the next

seven weeks. We're going to talk about the

power of giving, the power of miracles, the power of prayer,

the power of family, the power of being together, the power of

vision, and today, for a few minutes, the power of surrender.

Surrender is to stop resisting, to submit, to give up control,

to lay down our lives. Give in.

You may have had a child at one time in your family that was

strong willed and sometimes you saw them and even if you told

them they had to sit down, in their heart they were looking at

you and saying I may be sitting down but inside I'm standing up.

And you may have been like that in your journey with Jesus when

there's been a moulding and a breaking and a changing and the

struggle to submit. And John the Baptist would shout

out in the room for our journey as a house.

We must become less and he must become more.

The Macedonians in Two Corinthians chapter 8 and the

verses will come up. What an inspirational people.

Now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the

grace. Let's say the word grace

together, the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches in

the midst of a very severe trial.

Their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in

rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as

much as they were able and even beyond their ability and

entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us

for the privilege of sharing in this service of the Lord's

people, and they exceeded our expectations.

They gave themselves first of all to the Lord and then by the

will of God, also to us. Paul had preached to the

Macedonians in response to a call from God to go and help,

and the people of this region were extremely poor due to Roman

oppression and civil war, and they had recently been subjected

to persecution. So their joy and their

generosity is even more remarkable and Paul is writing

to a people in a testing time who are going through a severe

trial and yet they rise up and live differently.

They surrendered and it was dramatic.

How did they surrender? Well, firstly they gave

themselves to Jesus. They made a choice that they

would follow Him whatever the cost.

Whenever I hear that phrase, a part of me wants to stand and

say I'm in Lord, whatever, whatever the cost.

They were continuing to walk with Him, whatever they were

facing, poverty, restriction, limitation, challenge,

persecution, and they went beyond all expectations.

And what did they do in response to that?

They surrendered their hearts to Him.

They also gave themselves to one another, having chosen to deeply

follow Jesus. This move their hearts towards

one another. They went beyond all

expectations in love and community and care.

Thirdly, they gave of what they had, their resources as much as

they were able. Having chosen to follow Jesus

and move their hearts towards one another, they went beyond

all expectations and impacted the giving of their resources.

For me, this is the picture of Christian discipleship.

I remember even now, in our last vision, offering a couple in our

church who were already lovers of Jesus and already committed

weeping as the Lord spoke to them about bringing what they

could. It was so moving.

It's an act of worship to Him that I bring myself.

For me, this is the picture of Christian discipleship,

surrender. We start with Jesus, it leads to

others and it impacts everything we have.

This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

And today the Father is inviting US1 church to respond in the

same way of surrender. Firstly to give ourselves to

Jesus. They gave themselves first to

the Lord. We all have to make a choice as

to how we firstly respond to the love of Jesus.

You're not a Christian because you were baptised as a baby, or

you were born in a Christian family or because you believe in

God. Lovely.

We become Jesus followers. It's very simple when we come to

the cross, confess our sins and receive the gift of forgiveness

and eternal life with Him. Inviting Jesus into my life was

without doubt the best decision of my whole life.

I would do it every second of every day again because it

changed everything. And if you're not yet a

believer, you have a choice to make.

But for many of us, having made a choice to follow Him,

surrender is the ongoing choice we're invited to make.

And it's here again this morning, shaking us out of our

apathy and indifference. Shaking us out of the challenge,

our complaints, our grumpiness. To continue every day to follow

Jesus. To continue every day, however

hard, to walk with him. To continue every day.

To surrender and place Him first.

My experience is that this involves A continued decision

through every season. When it's easy and when it's

tough, When you've got answers and when you're carrying

questions with no sign of change.

We choose to surrender to Him. We choose to include Him in

every decision. We choose to humble ourselves

and embrace His will and not our own.

We choose to regularly acknowledge our need of Him,

bring our focus towards Him. When you stop and look up,

everything changes. Set a reminder on your phone if

it helps you, every 10 minutes, look up.

I mean, obviously if you're crossing the road at that time,

just be careful. Look up because whatever you're

involved in, if you look up, you remember it's going to be all

right. We choose to walk close in his

embrace. Why not pause now and look up?

Will you choose today to give yourself to Jesus if you want

the life He's planned for you? I want to tell you this,

surrender is the Jesus way. Having come to Him by grace, we

continue to walk with Him through surrender.

And flowing from this surrender of giving our hearts leads to a

desire to give ourselves to one another.

They gave themselves to one another.

The Macedonians made a choice to follow Jesus and they move their

hearts towards one another. They went beyond all

expectations, and they served with generosity and great joy.

The result of surrendering to Him will always be a desire to

give yourself to others. Surrender never leads you to be

a hermit, separate. It brings you to others because

you long for them to live the same way.

When we are surrendered, we love people.

We are devoted to the Bible. We carry compassion for others.

We have a longing to build community.

We pray for others to grow and be blessed.

We are regularly in the House of God.

We're reliable and on time. We are rocks that others can

lean on, and we serve with joy. Welcome to the picture of being

a Christian. If you've believed anything

else, tear it up. It's everything you are.

It's everything, but it's worth it.

This is our journey, it's my journey.

This is our journey as a church and what God is doing among us.

And today we're invited to surrender to Him.

And it means we surrender to one another.

So what happens when we give ourselves to others?

Well, we continue to love and accept one another.

Our church, precious people from all over the world.

I love our church so much. We we celebrate one another.

We learn from our differences and from our cultures.

We learn by loving one another. Perhaps people who are different

to us, who who are challenging for us and and we don't allow

any division to come between us and we build community together

through small groups. As one church grows larger, we

must keep growing smaller in order to help people become

disciples, create places where everyone is known and finds

genuine community. The model in Acts looked like

this. They attended the temple in

Jerusalem for festivals and sacrifices, larger gatherings,

but they also had regular meetings in the temple courts in

smaller gatherings, and they regularly met in homes where

they ate and built community together.

Listen, if when the Lord moves, we need to gather in, in bigger

context together, we'll do that because from time to time we

want to be together. But the house is never going to

be just about the gathering of the big celebration because we

want you to become all that you're called to be.

And it needs more than just this.

Our small groups are all about discipleship, getting stronger.

Because a small group is where you build communities, where you

connect with God, with others. It's where you grow in the Bible

and develop your understanding. It's where you support each

other as we go out to be light in the world.

And it's time to belong to a small group to give yourself to

others. We're about to talk about them

again in the life of church. We would like everybody, but I'm

praying 80% of the adults in this house are connected to a

small group. Because when we give ourselves

to God and we give ourselves to one another, it leads to

breakthrough. Will you choose to go again, to

go beyond all expectations in your surrender to Him and to one

another? Make a new friend.

Invite someone to dinner. Listen, it's beans on toast.

It's done with love. It's enough Do like Heinz beans

more than others, but other varieties are available and

definitely much less expensive. Show kindness to a family and

church life. Learn about a different culture.

Chat with someone about what it was like growing up over a meal.

See someone who perhaps is new to 1 church and bless them and

surrender to him and to one another by being on time.

I serve him with joy by keeping your words.

It's so important as the Jesus follower, your yes is your yes.

I'll be there, be there and pray with expectation.

When a church lives like this, a city has changed.

We've had a wonderful 3 days of prayer and here's a a loving

comment to us in January. We're going to pray for five

days. I urge you, I urge you to come

and join us for one session because something happens when

you pray. We listen without without him,

we cannot sustain what is here without reaching everybody that

needs Jesus. We got to pray more and kneel

down and cry out and believe God together.

We read that when they raise their voices together, together,

the room shock situations were changed.

The power of God came. Oh, I urge you, Church, I urge

you this joy of surrender. I give myself to the Lord and I

give myself to others and it impacts everything.

I have just three minutes on this.

We give again from what we have. The Macedonians facing poverty

chose to surrender to Him and it led to them loving one another,

but also out of their poverty, being generous and it moved

their hearts. And this message is the message

I'm sharing is really simple, but it's so powerful.

Give your life to him, include him in every part.

Give yourself to others, love them, value them, and give back

to God from what he's blessed you with in the 1st place.

It's, it's very simple. And I would like to ask you

today, I would like to ask you in the presence of God, to

please be a financial giver in the house.

Please. Hundreds of people giving this

house. Thank you.

Be one of them. Start today.

Believe God to be a tiver in the house, to give regularly with

real joy. Set up a standing order because

as each of us lives like this and does their part, we continue

to be able to do everything He's called us to do.

Faced with the love of Jesus, the Macedonians chose to

surrender and it had a huge impact.

So what about us and our response as we come to the

table? Will you surrender your hearts

to Jesus again? Who's in this morning saying

I've decided I'm going to follow Jesus?

Anyone joining me? Anybody up for it?

Anybody realise there's nothing else that's worth it?

Here I am, Lord, oh God, here I am, wholly available to you.

Will you surrender your heart to him again?

And will you surrender your heart to others again?

I understand that it's not easy for some people to have people

in their homes. Come into wake coffee, invite a

friend to have a coffee, and here we go.

If you can't afford that coffee, we'll bless you.

Community, small groups, serving, carrying the load,

playing your part, never being on the periphery.

I can't think there's anything more frustrating in life than

being a lukewarm periphery seat filling Christian.

I really can't. But when you're a dynamically

hot seat, filling fully in, willing to give your seat up to

someone else Christian, And will you surrender your heart again

by letting it be the centre of everything you have?

And of course, when we think of surrender, let's think about

Jesus, the perfect example of everything we've talked about

today. Look at this.

Who being in very nature God did not consider put the scripture

up equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage.

It's just Jesus. Rather, He made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human

likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled

himself by becoming obedient to the death, even death on the

cross. Therefore God the Father exalted

him to the highest place, Come on, and gave him the name that

is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee

should bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every

tongue acknowledged that He is the Lord.

To the glory of God the Father. He was and is holy God.

He surrendered his position in heaven and came to earth fully

God, fully man, awesome, beautiful, powerful, loving, and

the answer for every person on the planet.

He surrendered his life. And this is the way Jesus loves

us. On one occasion Jesus asked a

question. He was facing the challenge of a

lack of surrender in people and he said this.

How long must I put up with you? See, surrender's not easy.

It's a high call for some of us today.

We've been living less than He's planned.

Perhaps selfishness, greed, apathy, a lukewarm faith have

gripped you. The discomfort you feel is not

my words. It's the Holy Spirit loving you,

pulling you, saying come on, start today.

And Jesus says to you, How long must I put up with you?

And when we look at how Jesus answered this question, it

changes us forever. How long will I put up with you?

And I love what Max Liccardo writes.

How long did Jesus put up with us?

Long enough to be called crazy by his brothers and a liar by

his neighbours. Long enough to be run out of his

town and out of his temple. Long enough to be laughed at,

cursed and slapped and hit and blindfolded and mocked.

Long enough to feel warm spit and sharp whips and to see his

own blood puddle at his feet. How long did he love us?

Until the rooster sings and the sweat stings on the mallet rings

and a hillside of demons smirk at a dying God.

How long did he love us? Did he surrender?

Long enough for every sin to so soak his sinless soul that

heaven will turn in horror. Until his swollen lips pronounce

the final transaction. It is finished.

How long did he love us? Until it killed Him, He

surrendered all. And our response must be

surrendering worship. We get one life and here's the

answer for your life. Surrender and give yourself to

Him. Surrender and give yourself to

others. Surrender and give back to Him

your time, your talents and your treasures.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine

upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards

you and give you peace.