Welcoming Eric & Zuki Mtimkulu to the Common Ground Family

Welcome to Common Ground One book.

We are so glad you've joined us for today's message.

Whether you're tuning in from home or catching up on another

go, we pray that this word encourages you, strengthens your

faith, and draws you closer to God.

If you'd like to learn more about our church, connect with

us or get involved, you will find all the details in the

description. Now let's dive into today's

message. I want to say that I've had the

privilege of walking alongside this team and they have been

amazing in what was a sudden, it was a sudden announcement.

It was quick, it was, it was dramatic.

It was heart hurting to to to have loved ones going somewhere

else and lots of questions. Oh my goodness, what does this

mean for this and for that? But this team have kept their

eyes on Jesus. And I want to say it's been a

great privilege to walk alongside of you guys.

So well done and please tell your wives, those whose wives

are not in the room, so proud of you.

Well done. I want to also, we're going to

spend a lot of time on Eric and Zukiswa later on, but I also

want to honor Eric and Zukiswa right at the start.

I want to you remember the day I phoned you Eric, I phoned Eric

and I said, I don't know how your day's been going and I

don't want to ruin your life, but I'm about to ask you a big

question. And, and I just loved how right

from the start you guys said, well, we'll ask Jesus.

And I remember speaking to you a few days later and I know you

guys had been praying and this wasn't just an easy thing.

This was Oh my goodness, this was not what we were expecting,

but you sought the Lord and you gave your yes to him and then

you gave your yes to leave a very precious people fellowship

Bible church and they gave their yes to release this couple.

And I, I have big respect for fetish of Bible church.

I went through with Nadine a recent transition like this.

But I want to say well done guys for giving your yes to Jesus.

Keep giving your yes to Jesus for the rest of your lives and

inspire us all to keep doing the same.

That's why we're here today. Amazing.

Hey, I want to also just send my particular greetings from my

wife Nadine. She was desperately disappointed

that she couldn't be here today because she's serving Common

Ground Rondebosch on their women's retreat.

So that's why she's not here with me this morning.

If you got your Bible, I'm going to be preaching from Haggai

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, just 5 verses. Haggai chapter 2, verses one to

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

five. And I believe that in these

verses there is a message for this moment for us as a church.

And after preaching, we will then pivot into an ordination

moment where we'll add Eric to the eldership team and add them

as a leadership couple in this church.

So let's turn to Haggai Chapter 2.

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

But before we get to the passage that I want to read, I want to

tell you the story behind the story.

Can I tell you the back story to this moment?

Because if you don't know the back story, you won't know

what's going on. So the back story to Haggard

chapter 2 is that you need to go all the way back really, to the

period of the kings of Israel. It's a period in your Bible,

mostly in One and Two Kings and One and Two Chronicles, where

God's people have been in a repeated cycle of compromise,

sin and idolatry, a period of about 400 years.

And God in his patience, kindness, always speaks to his

people. And so when God sends a prophet,

it's actually his love as he reaches out to his people and he

calls them to come back to him again and again and again.

But if you know the Bible story, eventually God stopped sending

prophets to warn his people. And God eventually sends an

invading army, the Babylonian army, to overthrow Jerusalem, to

destroy the temple of God in Jerusalem, the place of worship

and forgiveness and sacrifice, the place of God's presence.

And he sent his people off into exile.

But even in sending them off, he spoke as a loving father through

the prophet Jeremiah. And he said, I will bring you

back to this place in 70 years time.

And God did what God always does.

If God has spoken, you can take that to the bank that that

promise is secure forever. And so if God says I'll bring

you back in 70 years, he did exactly what he said.

Just tell your neighbor. If God speaks, he will do what

he said. Just tell them like you believe

it. If God speaks, He will do what

He said. And So what God did was He moved

the heart of an unbelieving foreign king.

King Cyrus of Persia and King Cyrus of Persia allowed the

people of God to go back to Jerusalem to recover and restore

normal life in Jerusalem. They came to restore a city.

You can read that in Israel and Nehemiah, and they came to

restore the rhythms of worship around the temple.

However, 16 years after coming back, Haggai chapter 1 tells us

Haggai 1 · chapter mention

that there was already a problem.

Although God had brought these people back to Jerusalem to

restore life and to restore the Temple of God, the center of

worship, what they had given themselves to in those first 16

years was not God's temple, but making their lives comfortable

again and getting themselves sorted out.

They'd been so focused on rebuilding their lives that

they'd actually omitted or forgotten to rebuild God's

house. It was like they'd got their

priorities all in the wrong place.

They'd gotten focused on upgrading their lives, but

they'd forgotten the state of the Temple of God in the centre

of the city. And so God in his infinite

kindness sends a prophet again to them.

It's the prophet Haggai to God's people.

And he speaks a prophetic word that you can read in Haggai

Haggai 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 in your own time. And through it, God in his great

love, rebukes his people and says you've got your priorities

all in the wrong place. And then God actually tells them

that it's actually been me that's been causing your crops

to fail and your money to fall out your pockets.

It's actually been me because I'm trying to get your attention

that there's something you should have given yourself to.

And he calls his people to repent and to turn back to him

so that he they can get onto his plan for their lives.

And the amazing thing is, if you read the the story, after 16

years of being stuck and being on their own plan for their

lives, not on God's plan for their life, God's people in a

moment responds to this prophetic word and they get

unstuck. They get wonderfully restored to

a place where they want to obey God.

They obey with reverential fear. And just before I carry on, I

want to just say I don't know where you are right now.

I don't know what your life looks like right now.

I don't know whether God is the center of your life and your

priority or not. I don't even know whether you

don't even believe in God yet. And someone said come to church

and then you can come to Mars for lunch.

And you thought lunch sounded good, so you might as well come

to church. I don't know how you are this

morning, but I want to say that God loves you so much that He

will speak and maybe he's even speaking to you right now.

And when God speaks, if we will just open our ears and return to

him and listen to Him and repent, the grace of God

suddenly flows in our life. God loves us that much.

And maybe God will speak to you this morning.

So let's read our passage, Haggai chapter 2.

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

All of that was just an introduction, verses 123.

Let's read it in the seventh month.

On the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the

hand of Haggai the prophet. Speak now to Zerubbabel the son

of Shield Till, governor of Judah.

So speak to the leaders, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak the

high priest. So speak to the governor and

speak to the spiritual leader and to all the remnant of the

people and say, who is left among you that saw this house,

this temple in its former glory? How do you see it now?

Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

So he's basically saying, who's you guys saw the temple before

the Babylonians destroyed it? And look at it now.

Is it like nothing in your eyes? What's going on here?

Well, remember I said in Haggai chapter 1, God's people after 16

Haggai 1 · chapter mention

years of coming back, they'd gotten stuck and they hadn't

prioritized God's, God's house. Well, just one month after God

had spoken to them and they'd gotten unstuck and they'd

actually said, yes, let's rebuild the temple.

After just one month of building the temple, they got stuck

again. 16 years, didn't build the temple.

God speaks built for one month, got stuck again.

This time they didn't get sidetracked with wrong

priorities. This time they got stopped by

discouragement. They felt discouraged.

Maybe there were some really old people who saw them building the

temple and said, you guys, this is a joke.

I know what this looked like and what are you guys building?

Maybe there were some people who were discouraging in their

midst. Maybe there were those who were

putting 1 brick on another and thought how long is this going

to take? Or putting 1 brick on top of

another and thinking this feels so small and insignificant.

They'd fallen into comparing one thing to another thing.

Do you know that comparison is always bad because you either

get depressed or proud. So just tell your neighbor,

neighbor, this is what I've just come from Ghana.

This is what you do in Ghana. You say neighbor, tell your

neighbor, neighbor, don't compare.

There we go. I want to ask you a question.

Do you see yourselves as common ground, Weinberg in this

passage, we are so easily discouraged.

Are you easily discouraged? Don't put your hand up.

You see, just three weeks before this, in this book, there are

very specific dates. Just three weeks before this,

they had been energized because God had spoken and they said,

yes, we're going to do it. And the three weeks later

though, they feel like giving up already.

I want to ask you, what's your faith journey being like?

Can you identify with these guys?

I can. Sunday, Hallelujah, Jesus

reigns. Monday, Oh my goodness, are you

like me? Has common ground Weinberg

always been plain sailing and easy?

The projector always works. Has your last year been the

easiest year of church life? Has it always been easy going

all forward, all momentum, all growth?

We need the school to make a mezzanine because we need more

space. Has it always been like that?

Isn't the story of any church and isn't the story of any

individual believer's life One of some mountain top moments

followed by some valleys and some very deep dark valleys.

Brothers and sisters, this Old Testament book is very, very

true to our human experience as we keep trying to follow God and

walk after him. It's very true to our human

experience, but it's also very true to, I believe, many

churches experience, but particularly this churches

experience, Friends, we have got wayward hearts and eyes that are

prone to get off our eternal Father and onto the troubles of

the present life. We are prone to get discouraged

even after God's done something wonderful.

We get discouraged very easily just after.

But my Third Point is that the good news is that our God is

patient and kind. Can I hear it?

Hallelujah. You see, our Father knows that

our hearts are prone to wonder. Our Father knows that we are

easily discouraged. And so he speaks again.

Every time when God speaks, it's the love of God.

He comes to them again and he urges them to get back onto his

plan for their lives, for their city at this time, in the

purposes of God. Maybe for you, the much love and

tumbways leaving was a big blow. We're going to hear from Andre

and Sabrina later. They've written to you.

I'm sure it had a huge effect on many.

I'm sure for some of you it really discouraged you if you

are honest. For some of you, there might be

empty chairs here and people got so discouraged they left.

Maybe you need to invite them back.

For some people you lost hope. For some people you might have

had questions that you didn't get answers to.

Maybe you felt disappointed and dejected.

I want to say to you, God loves you.

God loves this church and God is wanting to stir fresh faith.

And I believe that's why I honoured your elders and wives

because they they have stood in a difficult season.

God wants to serve fresh faith for his plan for your lives and

for this church and for this city.

You guys have got a contribution to make in this city and in our

family of churches. And so in Haggai's day, because

of the kindness of God, God speaks to his people through

Haggai for the third time in one month.

Brothers and sisters, God is so patient with us and kind to us

that he'll speaks again and again and again to us to bring

us to the place that we serve his purposes.

We give our yes to Jesus, just like God spoke to them and

wanted their yes. And So what was God's

encouragement to them? And how can that be an

encouragement to you? Common ground, Weinberg today

together and as individuals. It's in verse four and five, and

it's the big thing that I feel God wants to say to you this

morning. Let's read verses four and five.

This is what God said then, but I believe he's saying it now to

you. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel.

They remember they had just been discouraged from comparison.

And he says, Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord,

Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, Be

strong. All you people of the land,

declares the Lord. And here's the phrase Work for I

am with you, declares the Lord of hosts.

Work for I am with you, declares the Lord of Hosts, according to

the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt.

My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not, friends.

God wanted the work on His house on the temple, to start again.

He wanted it to be complete. God's plans and His purposes.

If He decided that the temple would be rebuilt, then even your

discouragement can't stop it being built.

He will get it built because it's His plan and purpose.

God will glorify himself through His people.

As we sang today. He will be glorified in His

house. That's hangout chapter one,

verse 8. But God did not want to carry on

without them. He wanted to do it with them.

And it's the same for you today as common Ground Weinberg.

God could glorify himself all by himself, but he's decided he

wants you to live for his glory, so he'll be glorified.

He wants you to be a church that's put put on display the

goodness of Jesus to the town that you live in and the

communities that you live in. He's decided that he wants to do

it with you. And so God moves to encourage

his people. And firstly, God says be strong.

And sometimes you, you know, have you ever been upset and

someone says, you know, just don't be upset.

Has that ever helped? You know, these people are

feeling discouraged. And God says, and he says be

strong. He says it to the leader, he

says it to the priest, he says it to all the people.

And then he says, work for I am with you.

And I love this because God is so gracious.

He knew that they felt discouraged and powerless and

insignificant because of their comparison.

He knows you and me. He knows the questions that you

had last year and the questions you've had this year.

And he says, guys, work, build this church because I am with

you. And so God encourages these

people who had stopped working. And he says, I want you to work.

I want you to give yourself to this.

I want you to build, but you're not doing it alone.

The Lord of Heaven's armies is with you.

He actually covenanted himself. He said, I'm the God of covenant

and I am still sticking to my covenant promises.

So work because the covenant keeping God is with you.

For the people in Haggai's time, when he told them to work, it

was clear what they needed to do.

They needed to build a physical building, a temple.

But what does it mean for you to take this exhortation from God

to work? For I am with you.

What does that look like in your life and in my life?

Well, I'm so glad you asked that question because then I can

answer it. I believe that God wants

everyone who calls common ground Weinberg.

And if you hear today and you don't call it your home, I want

to say, you nuts, do not call it your home.

I believe God. Wants to call everyone in Common

Ground Weinberg to ask this question of themself.

How am I working to strengthen and to build God's church here?

Not. Am I coming to church on Sunday?

Yes, you coming to? Church, you don't have to ask

that question. You need to ask the question,

what am I doing? How am I giving myself to build

the community that is this local church for the glory of God?

And so today is the. Start of a new chapter in the

life of your precious church, and I believe that God wants you

in this moment. As the chapter opens, the new

chapter, God is calling all of you to hear His exhortation.

Brothers and sisters, work. Build this church, for I am with

you. I want to encourage you, Give

yourself, invest your time, your energy, and your effort.

Give your finances, activate your gifts, your passions, and

your talents. Give your time, give your

houses, give your cause for the purpose of building the Church

of Jesus Christ here in this church.

I want to encourage you do it together.

I love how God spoke to the leader, how God spoke to the

priest, and God spoke to the whole people.

He addressed each one of them. I want to encourage you to put

all your effort in. You should know the.

Sentence to know Christ and to make him known.

Give all your. Effort work.

To know. Christ and to make Him known.

To be missional disciples who are word and gospel filled, Who

are prayerful and spiritually dependent, spirit dependent.

Who serve in the body of Christ. Who give to the cause of Christ.

Who are determined to integrate their faith and their work.

Who will respond to the vulnerable of society and who

will reach out in friendship, conversation and invitation to

lead others to Christ. Who will go to the fiver side

soccer so that people can come to know Jesus.

Amen. And so today as.

We ordain Eric as an elder to lead this team of elders.

I believe that what God is saying to all of us from this

passage is clear. Brothers and sisters, the strong

encouragement is give yourselves.

Decide today again I am going to respond to God's Word and I will

build this church in all the ways I can build it.

May you do this? Together, may you commit to

working at all these things, because you know who has

promised. To be with you who?

Has covenanted himself to you. Now if you're.

Theologically astute, and I know you all are, you might be a bit

uncomfortable with this idea of work because I thought good

works were bad. Just not just say yes.

I was wondering about that. I want to tell you that in the

New Testament. We work.

Not for our salvation, but we work from it.

We. Don't work.

For our salvation we work from it.

If you know your Bible, Jesus was once asked what is the work

that the Father wants us to do? And Jesus reply was this

believe, believe in me, that's the work, believe in me and I

will do it all. And he said on the cross it is

finished and we trust in his finished work.

So we know that. Salvation is by grace alone,

through faith alone in Christ alone.

But I love Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

That then exhorts us, those who've been saved by grace.

Philippians chapter 2 says work out your salvation.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

You work it. Out you are to work out your

salvation for this God, who is working inside of you to both

will and to act according to his good purpose.

So let me just close the loop there.

You are saved by Grace alone, not by good works, but by his

finished work. Can I hear an Amen?

But having been. Saved by his good works.

You 2 work out what it means to be saved.

There was a day 30 years ago that Nadine put this ring on my

finger. I'm ahead of me.

It's only in December that it's 30 years, but I'll claim it.

There was a moment. In 1995, wasn't married.

Wasn't married married? It happened like this.

Bah. And I walked out.

That actually just down the road, Christchurch, Kenilworth,

I walked out those doors and I was a married guy.

Everything had changed and it's taken 30 years to work it out,

but I'm not trying to be married.

I'm working out. What it means to be married.

You see the difference? There was a day God put his ring

on your finger, you put your faith in Jesus and you were

changed forever. And you spend the rest of your

life working it out. Can you see that?

And one of the things that we have to work out.

Is that? We've been saved not by our good

works, but Ephesians 2, eight to 10 says we are saved 4 good

works. God saved 4 good works that he

planned in advance for us to do. So me saying to you, work for

God's with you is not against the gospel of grace.

It's the response to the gospel of grace.

Paul actually said to the Corinthians, he actually said

that he died for two Corinthians 514 and 15.

Jesus died for all that those who live might no longer live

for themselves, but live for him who died for them.

So having believed in Jesus who died for you, you die and you

live for him with the rest of your life.

You work for he is with you. So brothers and sisters, if

you've truly seen who Jesus, what was, is and what he's done

for you, you'll live the rest of your life working for God,

serving his purposes, building his church.

Amen. And so in this exciting moment

as we woke up, Eric onto eldership, I hope you don't

think, oh, great, he's going to do it.

Aren't you so relieved, Eric? We've got a new guy to do it.

No, no, no, you don't have a new guy to do it.

How's it, Alistair? Great to see you.

We are going to. Work to serve the purposes of

God. Can I hear an Amen?

We will work to serve the purposes of God.

And so lastly, I want us to note this morning that in both Haggai

Haggai 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and two, God spoke courage and he poured out his

spirit not just on the leaders, but on the people as well.

In fact, in this passage, there is a very clear positive view of

leadership. Our world hates leadership, but

God loves it. It's his idea in a moment like

this this morning, to consider the interdependence that God has

designed into his people, an interdependence between leaders

and the congregation that God has called them to serve and the

congregation and the leaders that God has called them to

follow as we appoint an elder, Eric.

Today. Together we recognize God's hand

on you, even though most of the people here don't yet know you

well. We recognize.

That God has moved you here, and not just alone, but with Zukiswa

and your whole family, we see the evidence that God has LED

you here. God's church is.

Not just like a family, it is a family and Jesus gifts his

church men who are elders, who will father and who will

shepherd his people. Jesus is the.

Head of his church, but he gives the responsibility of leadership

to men he has chosen. And today, Eric, we add you to a

team that have been called to serve, to care, to God, to guide

and to govern God's church. And so today, we're recognizing

what God's already done in your life in moving you here, and we

recognize the gifts and the role that God's entrusted to you so

that you can serve along with the team of elders here in

leading this church. And so, Eric, we.

Recognize that God brought you to lead with these fellow

elders. And so it's appropriate for you

and Zukiswa for us to make some serious promises to you, and

it's appropriate for them to make promises to you as a

congregation. And so we're going to switch

into a bit of like a marriage mode.

I'm going to ask. Eric and Zukiswa to make some

promises to you as a congregation, and then I'm going

to ask you to make some promises back to them as well.

I'm very aware that. On a Sunday like this,

especially on a day where they're visitors, you might not

all be members of Common Ground Weinberg.

But I want to encourage you that when we stand up, when I ask you

to make vows to Eric and Tsukiswa, if you can agree with

this moment or you came to support this moment, then please

join us and stand as well. But before we get to.

Those vows, I want you to just look at verse 9 because common

ground, Weinberg, I believe the best is yet to come.

Look at the. Promise God made then, because I

believe God also wants to say it to this church today.

Verse 9 says. This.

Remember these were these. Discouraged people who said this

is such a rubbish thing we're doing and I got all discouraged

and God spoke again and said work for I'm with you and then

he says the. Latter.

Glory of this House shall be greater than the former in.

Other words what I'm about. To do through you is going to be

greater than what those guys remembered.

And who said it? The Lord of hosts, and in this

place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts, we

were praying for you. We were actually at Ryan and

Shelley's place the other day with other common ground leaders

and wives, and the whole room was praying for common ground

Weinberg. And suddenly prophetic words

started coming and Ryan wrote a couple of them down.

You can ask him about the other ones, but one really caught my

attention and it was it was a picture of a lawn, a grass lawn.

And I'll just read what it said, but I want you to connect it

with the promise in verse 9, Common ground.

Weinberg is experiencing A replanting, but not in the sense

of a totally new instant lawn or an Astroturf being laid.

So sometimes in Stellenbosch, actually, we've been so bad at

looking after the verges in our roads that I saw they just

ripped it all up the other day and just put artificial grass

everywhere because we'll never have to cut it and we'll never

have to weed it. And so the picture is that God's

not doing a replanting where he's just ripping up and he's

just bought a whole lot of grass and just laying it like a nice

lawn. He's not making a a new thing

like that. This is what it said, but rather

it is a regrowing from whatever is already there.

There are lots of bare patches. There's like patches where there

hasn't been grass. But it's more like.

Kuku grass runners that are in place with deep roots and

they're going to receive sunlight and rain and the bare

patches and the gaps are going to start to fill.

And so there's this lawn, a beautiful new picture.

And I want to encourage you, I want to say well done for being

here today. Well done for going through

what's been a difficult season. God is doing a new thing today

and I want to say be in faith and be encouraged that the best

is yet to come according to, I think, this prophetic picture,

but also verse 9. Before I call you guys up, I

wanted to read you something that Andre and Sabrina wrote

yesterday and sent to me last night.

Can I read it? I'll send it to your elders so

that you can get it if you want to keep it.

I'll try and read it in. Andres voice.

I don't. Think I've got a deep enough

voice? Dear.

Eric and Zuki, this is from Andra and Sabrina, beloved

brothers and sisters of Common Ground Weinberg, grace and peace

to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sabrina and I are profoundly grateful to God for you, Eric

and Zuki. You're a gift from His gracious

hand to Common ground. Wineburg.

What we witnessed today is no accident, but is the very plan

of God established before the foundations of the earth.

The Lord in His wisdom called us to lay a foundation, but now He

has appointed you to build on it.

And I would add with the whole team of elders, as the apostle

declared, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the

increase. So neither he who plants is

anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

I would connect the prophetic word of the grass.

There it is God who gives growth, God who raises up

leaders. And God deserves all the glory.

Amen. As.

Mentioned to you in our Zoom conversation.

And I say it again with holy jealousy.

Common ground. Weinberg is a treasure, a family

of men and women who are resilient, sacrificial, and full

of faith. They are godly people, always

ready to serve the purposes of the Kingdom.

They sound proud of you guys, Eric and Zuki.

We rejoice that God has entrusted you to shepherd them.

Truly, you are among the Lord's faithful servants, and this

church is blessed to receive you.

To the beloved Weinberg family, receive Eric and Zukiswa with

joy. Yours is the calling to follow.

Theirs is the calling to lead you.

As Scripture says, when leaders lead in Israel and when people

willingly offer themselves to the Lord, bless the Lord.

Judges 5/2 Just as you honored and follow us, so now honour and

follow them, for they watch over your souls as those who must

give an account, and in doing so you'll bring joy to them and

blessing to yourselves. All glory to the Lord.

They had a lot to say. Erek and Zukiswa, our prayer for

you is that you'd find strength daily in Jesus the Chief

Shepherd. May your marriage and ministry

be a testimony of His grace. May you lead with humility and

courage and wisdom from above, knowing that God who calls you

is faithful, and He will do it. Though the distance separates us

today, our hearts are bound to you.

We are cheering you on before the throne of our Lord Jesus,

who is seated above every power and authority.

And As for common ground, Weinberg, you will forever

remain our friends in this life and in eternity.

Our love for you will never cease.

We believe with confidence that God has many good surprises in

store for you through the leadership of Eric and Zuki.

May His name be glorified in all things, and may His Kingdom come

in power among you. Our children send their love to

you with sincere, loving Christ, Andre and Sabrina.

Amen. I'll send that to you guys.

So we are going to recognize Eric and Zukiswa as gifts from

God right now, and we're going to lay hands on Eric to ordain

him as an elder in this church. And so I want to create an

opportunity where you can receive him and you can give him

your heart as one of your elders in this community.

And then we also going to acknowledge the vital role that

Zukiswa plays in helping lead alongside Eric and bringing her

own gifts and talents to this church and spiritual house as a

mother in this house. Common ground, Weinberg, this is

a big deal. This isn't something that we

take lightly. And so we're going to go into a

time where we going to actually ask them to make some vows to

you and then you reply as well. So Eric and Zukiso, won't you

come up? I gave them these promises so

that they can be happy to say them.

The response to most of them is I do just like a marriage.

OK, Are you ready? Feels like we should have some

like, wedding music or something, eh?

Eric, do you believe that you meet the biblical qualifications

to be an elder? And do you sense the call of God

to be an elder in this church? And do you believe that you're

fit to be recognized for the office of eldership in this

church? I do.

Hallelujah, right? On Sir and the Scriptures, The

scriptures speak that an elder should actually want to desire

to be an elder. Do you desire to shepherd these

sheep? Do you desire to be a father of

this family of faith, a guardian of doctrine, direction,

discipleship and discipline, and all things about this local

church? Do you desire to feed, lead,

protect and care for this spiritual family?

I do. Wholeheartedly Hallelujah.

One Peter. Chapter 5 says that elders

should give their best efforts to the local church from a right

heart, being an example of what it looks like to serve God.

Will you give your best efforts to love and serve these people

and fulfilling the role of elder in this local church in this

manner with God's help? I will.

Amen. This might sound.

Like overkill, but I'm recording this if I have to phone him and

say you said OK. Paul into Timothy 4 charges

Timothy, a fellow elder, to preach the word, to be ready in

season and out of season, to reprove, rebuke and exhort with

complete patience and teaching, to always be sober minded, to

endure suffering and to do the work of an evangelist so that

you fulfil your ministry. Eric, will you call these people

to do the same? And will you work hard to fulfil

the courageous role of leadership in these people's

lives? With God's help, I will.

Hallelujah. And lastly, Eric, do you vow to

join Jesus, the head of this local church, in laying down

your life for the service of these people to represent the

truth of who He is and the life He has called us to live and the

mission he's called us to participate in?

With God's help, I. Will Hallelujah you.

Can stay there. It's such a.

Privilege to have people making huge promises like this to us,

isn't it? Zukiswa, I believe you already

are. You have been in Fellowship

Bible Church and you will continue to be a forceful good

in this church. I believe that.

Zukiswa. I believe God's given you many

gifts. And I believe that.

You will be a spiritual mother in this house to many.

And I can see that. Your life and your leadership is

going to be a blessing to this church.

Today Eric is stepping into the office of Elder, but what an

incredible benefit to have you teeming alongside of him in

marriage, in family, and in leading and loving and serving

God's church. So, zu Kiswa, will you willingly

serve these people? Just look at them alongside your

husband to enable him to fulfill the role God has entrusted him

in this local church. I will.

Hallelujah. And SU Kiswa, will you

courageously exercise the gifts God's given you and add your

voice and wisdom as a mother to the flourishing of this family

of faith? With God's help, I will.

And lastly, will you pray for these people?

Will you love them, care for them?

Will you be for them to the best of your ability and strength?

With God's help, I will. Yes.

Just give it a round of applause.

Common ground. Weinberg, this is your moment.

Would you mind standing if you want to participate?

Hebrews 13, verse 7. Andre and I didn't swap notes,

Hebrews 13:7

but he quoted this already. It says remember your leaders,

those who spoke the word of God to you, consider the outcome of

their way of life and imitate their faith.

And then verse 17 says obey your leaders and submit to them, for

they are keeping a watch over your souls.

As those who will give an account, let it.

Let them do this with joy and not groaning because that would

not be an advantage to you. Pray for us for we are sure we

have a clear conscience desiring to be act honorably in all

things. And so church, I want to ask you

the question, do you receive Eric as a shepherd in this

community and in your lives? I wasn't sure.

Should we try again? Do you receive Eric as a

shepherd in this community and in your lives?

Oh, there we go there. We go Do you receive Him as a

gift given by God for your maturity, well-being,

strengthening and protection? Will you lovingly submit to His

leadership and will you aim to make His service as an elder a

joy? Because the.

Scriptures instruct you to pray for your leaders.

Will you commit to praying regularly for Him and for them

as a couple and a family so that they will receive the grace

needed to serve you? Hallelujah.

Give yourselves a round of applause.

We can stay. Standing because we're going to

pray for them now. This is such a.

Countercultural moment what we've just done and yet it's

such a healthy 1 because God says he blesses his people when

leaders lead and when followers follow willingly and so I want

to ask the existing the present team elders and wives, won't you

come around. We want to pray for these guys

coming to. Today's message We hope you are

encouraged and challenged in your faith.

If you're in the southern suburbs, we'd love to welcome

you in person at one of ourselves.

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keep shining your light.