Called to Leave a Legacy - David

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning

into our podcast.

Our prayer is that through this podcast you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life.

And now get ready for an inspiring message from our preaching team.

So I want to take you all the way back for a second to September 2009.

Some of you are like that long ago and I say yes, what I call my heyday, but hey that's

okay.

So inarguably the greatest basketball player of all time is being inducted, inarguably

I'll just settle on that word for a second, inducted into the basketball hall of fame.

He is a six-time NBA champion.

He is a five-time MVP.

He has 10 scoring titles.

He is a 14-time All-Star.

And he at this point is giving an inauguration speech that gives him the opportunity to speak

to the world about his legacy.

And Michael Jordan proceeds to use that time to air petty grievances, complain, slight

his family, like every awful thing that you can really think of.

It's quite a feat really, it's endless.

Number 23 speech goes for a really indulgent 23 minutes and 23 seconds.

You wish that that's how long I was going for today.

And the self-indulgence from MJ in that moment is just bordering on absolute insufferable.

Now the real nail in the coffin of his speech for me is this line where he says, my kids,

Jeffrey, Marcus and Jasmine, I love you guys, start strong, right?

I love you guys.

I think you guys represent a lot of me, a lot of different personalities.

Your mum, you represent her as well.

You know, I think that you guys have a heavy burden.

I wouldn't want to be you guys if I had to because of all the expectations that you now

have to deal with.

Thanks dad.

Awesome stuff.

Now on that same night, same induction, another titan of the game gets the opportunity to

give his Hall of Fame induction speech.

He's a legend of the game, not quite the same race.

You may only a two-time champion, one-time MVP.

He is the San Antonio Spurs David Robinson, also happens to be one of my favourite players

of all time.

Now Robinson's speech differs pretty drastically from Jordan's in just about every way.

None more noticeably than when he talks about his own kids during his speech.

He singles out and prays as each of them.

And then in his summary, he says this.

He says, I hope that this gives you something that you want to live up to, that this makes

you want to be proud of the Robinson name because I'm proud of you all and I love you.

He honours the past and he blesses the future.

He doesn't mention personal achievement once.

Now at this point, his speech has gone for six minutes and he says, I'm going to give,

I want to take one more minute.

Again, you wish.

He says, I'm going to take one more minute.

And in this final minute, he says, I want to thank God.

He has strengthened, blessed and encouraged me.

Anyone who has journeyed with me has seen God's hand on my life.

And my prayer is that he will walk with you as he has walked with me through all my life.

And then he says, Amen.

And he walks off the stage.

Seven minutes.

Seven minutes is how long his speech goes for in total.

And that's all it takes to pour out love, grace and respect.

He praises and blesses his family.

He honours God and then he leaves the stage.

Now I'm a huge sports fan, though not a huge athlete despite my stature.

I always kind of laugh and go, God's cruel joke, like six, five and let's face it, 100

kilos.

And I move back to Australia and every coach was like, footy and I'm like, you don't want

that.

You don't want that.

You think you do.

You don't want that.

I certainly don't want that.

So I think anybody who's a big sports fan has probably or like, if you're into acting

saying you see the Oscars and I think you have that moment, you think like, what would

my speech be?

What would that entail?

What would people think of me?

What would they say?

What would it look like?

What do I want to say?

Like honestly, if you're a little bit morbid and you're not like someone who's into acting,

whatever, I think quite often this turns into like, what would people say at my funeral?

That's a little bit morbid for me.

So we're going to go with the Hall of Fame speech.

Okay.

So it's like, what would it look like?

What would I want to say?

What would I hope that people say about me?

Would those closest to me be left feeling like they've been given this like unattainable

mountain to climb, this burden that they have to now carry?

Or what they feel like potentially and hopefully they've got a name that's worth living up

to.

What would a name that is something to aspire to?

For me, I often think, like, it sounds really weird, but like, would my kids miss me?

Would they be proud of the man that I was?

Will I leave a legacy that honors God?

And I think of all these things.

And I wonder if you think of all these things because the reality is like, legacy just isn't

built in a single moment.

Okay.

It's not built in a speech.

The legacies are defined and built in a series of decisions that we make, a lifetime of them,

if you will.

And if we're reality, we kind of have a few different ways that we get to go.

And one is that most of the decisions we quite often make, will they be born out of selfish

motivation?

Or will they reflect a desire to leave a longer lasting impact?

Because really there's kind of those two massive divergences in any choice that we make.

And if you're looking for one that makes a longer lasting impact and you're in this room,

you kind of get to ask yourself the question as well as, will I leave a legacy and an impact

in one that I put God at the centre?

Now as we return to today's teaching text, we find King David.

He is a mighty and holy king.

His legacy is actually already cemented.

It's 1322.

A man after God's own heart.

We all know that about King David.

If you hear it, you've probably heard that expression.

David is the goat of the Old Testament, if you will.

So David, he's not called a man after God's own heart because he possessed it.

He's called a man after God's own heart because he pursued it.

And then he continued to pursue it.

David was not a perfect man by any stretch, but he did continue to return to God time

and time again.

Now his faithfulness has brought him great victory, power, wealth beyond imagine.

One of his crowning achievements is he brought the Ark of the Covenant back to the holy city

of Jerusalem so that the people that live there would live under the blessings of God.

So he sees this as this real great momentous occasion.

And then he gets back and he brings it in and he realises that he lives in this ornate

palace which I guess if you're the king is kind of befitting of your position.

And then he kind of has this sense.

He's overtaken with this sense of the fact that I'm actually unworthy of this.

If I am a man after God's own heart, I've got the Ark of the Covenant that is out there

residing in a tent as it always has.

And I'm living in this life of luxury.

So he says, I know what I'm going to do.

I live ornate palace.

Here's where I'm going to build a fancy temple for the Ark of the Covenant, which feels like

a good way to go, right?

Like very nice and honouring and it seems super duper fancy.

I'm not just going to build a temple for the Ark.

I'm going to build the temple for the Ark.

And then he goes, I'm going to talk to the prophet Nathan about this, which he does.

He says, this is the plan.

Isn't it great?

And Nathan says, yeah, sounds great.

And then Nathan goes to bed that night and he has a dream.

He receives a vision from God.

And there's a couple of things that happen in this vision.

One is that God makes it pretty clear.

He's like, I don't actually want nor need this temple.

But I tell you what, I'm going to let it happen.

He's a gracious God.

I'm going to let this happen.

You can build this.

That's fine.

It's totally okay.

But here's the kick.

David's not going to do it.

Solomon's going to do it.

He goes so far as to give Nathan incredibly specific plans and layouts, like a bill of

materials.

Like he's like, this is what you'll need.

This is how you'll build it.

This is what it will look like.

Again, this is what it will look like when Solomon builds it, not when David has built

it.

He wakes up having this really clear vision.

And he probably goes like, great, cool.

I get to tell David that this temple that he really wants to build will be built and

he just doesn't get to do it.

I'm sure the king is going to absolutely love that.

Now, Nathan does this though, because he himself in that moment is honoring this call

from God.

He's honoring this really clear word from God.

And he's like, this is not going to be fun, but I'm going to have to do it anyway.

Now on receipt of this info, David has two choices in that moment.

One, he can ignore it and take the glory and the prestige and the credit for building this

impressive temple.

He can convince himself that he's still glorifying God despite this direct obedience, because

what could be better than personal glory, especially personal glory that we can actually

justify to ourselves is being faithful to God.

Or he has option two, which is very clear.

It's just listening and honoring the word of a God he intends to glorify.

And in the process of doing so, he gets to uplift and empower the next generation of

believers and followers of Christ, followers of God in this moment, his own son.

So David makes his choice.

He gathers everyone of note together.

Anyone of sway or influence in the kingdom is brought into his audience so that he can

make it really, really clear what's about to happen.

And he does so with three key and deliberate steps.

The first is he provides resources.

Okay.

David has been, he's been wanting to build this temple for a while.

I turned into a New Zealander there for a second.

So he's been wanting to build this temple for a while, right?

So he's already been acquiring the resources and the materials and the laborers and everything

he's going to need to construct it.

And what he does, he calls all these people together and he's like, Hey, just so you know,

all this, all this goes to Solomon.

He's going to have everything he needs to build this temple.

He's going to want for nothing.

It's all right there.

And then he takes a second step, which is he imparts knowledge.

The first is he literally provides Solomon with the plans that have been provided to

him from God through Nathan.

So he's like, here you go.

What good materials without a plan?

There you go.

You got it.

Everything you need and the designs on how to do it.

It's all there.

So Solomon now has that as well.

And then he provides him with a bit of fatherly advice in the moment as well.

He says, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately.

Keep and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind for the Lord sees every heart

and knows every plan and thought.

If you seek him, you will find him.

Now what David is doing in this moment is saying to Solomon, Hey, here's what I'm giving

you right now.

Do not forget the why.

David is foregoing personal glory in this decision making process.

And he's saying to Solomon, a kind of don't forget that I've done that.

That's why we're here and be now you can't forget why we want to build this to begin

with.

The next step is he transfer transfers power decisively.

Okay.

Keeping in mind, David has gathered everyone of note.

They go through the laundry list earlier in the teaching test.

You can go back to that of your own accord.

He gathers everyone of power, these captains of industry, if you will, the CEOs and business

leaders and the owners of property and the owners of all the resources, all the people

that are provided with these resources.

He brings them all into a room and then makes this declaration.

He brings everyone together and says, Hey, here's what's going to happen.

Resources, plans, knowledge, everything.

Solomon's your guy.

I love this because it's like this ultimate and like, did I stutter?

Did you hear me?

Let there be no room for argument here.

This isn't mine.

This is Solomon's.

Okay.

You go to him.

God has made himself incredibly clear in this.

And now I am going to do exactly the same.

I'm the great King David, if you will.

But in this instance, Solomon is your guy.

Now this is incredibly explosive and powerful moment of empowerment.

Because with this act, not only does he empower Solomon, but David actually removes his own

out clause.

If he's having a one-to-one conversation, if I sit Jacob down and go, Hey man, I'm

going to do this, this and this for you.

And Jacob goes, That sounds really great, Tex.

Thank you.

And then Jacob starts doing that.

And it's all Jacob's looking pretty good.

And he's, you know, maybe he's acquiring some finance and maybe things are going pretty

well for Jacob.

And then I'm like, Actually, you know what?

I might just, I might just grab that back off you there, buddy.

Good job so far.

I might finish this one off and see it at home.

Right?

Like it's too easy to do that.

It's too easy to let ourselves backtrack when we give ourselves an hour.

And what David does in this moment is go, Hey, if I now do the exact same thing, if

I now hand something to Jacob right now in front of all of you, and then two weeks later

I'm doing the thing that I said I was going to hand to Jacob, there's a few of you are

probably going to have some questions and rightfully so.

So not only is David responding to God in this moment, but he actually builds in an

earthly accountability.

Now I actually think this is the bit that really stuck with me a little bit last night

because I think that this is something that most of us probably struggled with a little

bit.

I know that I do is there's an ideal, right?

We hear this thing of like denying self and denying glory and it sounds really easy to

enforce when we're directing it at somebody else.

And then all of a sudden, you know, these these sentences that we say to ourselves,

man, they really should have fill in the blank.

Why don't they just fill in that blank?

And if it were me, if it were me.

So what if it was you when it was faced with a decision of this nature, when the options

are to glorify self or glorify God, how well do you handle that situation?

How do you handle that tension?

Especially if you can't even take credit for the glorification of God, because it's not

coming from you.

In this example, that glorifications, I'm empowering Jacob and then I'm sending him

off.

Everybody's going, like, Jacob's this great man of God, look at all these great things

that are happening.

And I just have to sit there and go, yeah, you're great.

Because the end result here is not me and it's not Jacob, it's God.

Would you build in your own accountability or would you build in your own wiggle room?

So how do we, like David, wisely ensure that our focus and our plans are pointed at leaving

this this solid legacy?

The first steps an easy one.

No, it's not.

They're never easy.

You just ask, is it of God?

When you when you're thinking about the decision you're going to make and the plan that you're

going to put forth and maybe you're going to hand something over to somebody before you

do that, ask yourself, is it of God?

Because if yes, that's great.

You can pursue that.

Go nuts.

Excellent.

Good starting point.

How do you know?

Some simple steps.

Is it biblical?

Cool.

Have you discerned well with wise counsel?

Have you talked to people about it?

Have you talked to people that you trust and respect and sought their instruction?

And if they have given you instruction, they have given you advice and it's completely

counter to where you thought you were, did you actually listen to it or did you ignore

it, which is what many of us guilty of myself included?

Have you prayed?

Have you fasted?

Does it align with your core beliefs?

Because if yes to all of the above, then you're probably on the right track.

If no, get no to one, many or all of those, then we probably find ourselves in number

two, which is do you just need to kill your own preference?

Start here.

Let me tell you, this is a prayer that I pray every single morning.

I'd love to say that my prayer life, like I'm one of those people, you listen to people

like John Mark Comer and they're like, I get up before I am.

I sit in my chair and I spend an hour with God and then I have coffee.

I'm like, wait, you do that before you have coffee?

Amazing stuff, man.

I'd love to say I'm that guy.

I'm not.

I'm not.

It's something I'm working on.

I guess if we're doing it right, we're always working on it right.

But here's what I do pray every single day before I start making decisions, before I

start thinking about church stuff.

I pray, God, please remind me whose kingdom it is that I'm building.

I can honestly say that I pray that prayer every single day.

Okay?

Why?

Because if the answer to that question isn't God's, stop what you're doing.

Refer back to point one.

Because church, if you are a follower of Jesus, the reason we kill our preferences is because

this isn't about you.

None of this is about you.

None of this is about me.

Not really.

Not in that direct personal level that we want it to be where we think it's about our

control and our kingdom and what we're building and what we're doing.

It's not about us.

David wanted to make it about David.

Really?

When we get to the heart of it, David wanted to make it about David and God said, absolutely.

Absolutely not.

Right?

Solomon.

That's what's going to happen here.

You want it cool.

You want, if you really, your intent is pure, it doesn't matter if you build the temple

or not.

It matters that the temple gets built.

So Solomon's going to do it.

Right?

Why?

Because for followers of Jesus, it's always been about who was, who is and who is to come.

Okay?

God is the fulfillment of all three.

For us, we can only ever be in the is or the was.

In a current moment, right now, we can only be the is or the was.

Those are the only states we can ever be in.

You can never ever though, let those two override the desire for what is to come.

Because that is where legacy has lived out.

That is where the kingdom of God will be found.

Number two, I've been for a while, I've been in number three.

If all else fails, be the person that you needed.

Now, some of you in this room, probably like that's easier said than done, you feel like

you've not come from the best examples.

You've been hurt, you feel like you've been stepped on, you've been downtrodden, you've

been stepped over.

The example that came before you is a healthy one.

Full transparency.

It sucks.

I'm really sorry.

Like, really, it's horrible.

I'm not here to downplay that.

I'm not here to override that.

I'm not here to do the whole, well, maybe just like pray more about it.

Like, you should.

But I'm not going to pretend that's going to fix all your problems, man.

That's a great starting point.

Take it all to God.

But some people just don't get the same opportunity that other people get when they start.

Here's the one, the one thing I can say that you can take away from that is that you know

what you didn't need because that's what you got.

Okay, so you have an opportunity in that moment to go, not that.

Okay, so if not that, then what?

And be that.

Okay.

And once we've done all these other things, once we've kind of taken it to God and we

made sure it's their own preference and we've got the idea of who we want to be and how

we want to be, once we've done all that, our job is to get out of the way.

That's actually the last step of empowerment, get out of the way.

Why?

Because next door, we've got a great group of kids and their leaders and those kids are

your legacy.

Tex, I didn't choose that.

I didn't ask for that.

I don't want that.

Sorry.

It's not the way legacy works.

You're here.

You're here.

You're in this building.

You're in those kids' lives.

They are part of your legacy.

That's just not how this works.

You don't get to choose.

And we have to get out of the way because otherwise that sense of empowerment never comes.

As I was thinking about this, I was like, get out of the way.

I'm going to loop it all around in a sec.

And I was thinking, what if Jesus was still alive now?

Like, what if it had been the 2,000 years and he was still here?

The churches would struggle in a way.

Can you imagine being the intern or the person who does bookings for like every megachurch's

conference, being like, who have we got as our guest speaker?

Did you get Jesus?

And it's like, I got John Tyson.

And I'm like, I mean, he's pretty good.

Couldn't get Jesus.

Like honestly, like people would just stop because it would be constantly like, no, no,

I need this one person to make the call.

I need this to happen.

And Jesus knew and recognized that.

I went, you know what?

It'll be better when I go.

You know, like that is why we get out of the way.

Of course we know.

Like not being funny.

I'm pretty sure.

Praise God.

I mean, hopefully I know better than what an eight year old might want to do on a Sunday.

Right?

Maybe.

I don't know.

But at some point you have to empower.

You have to go.

You have to push forward.

You can't lead and push forward.

And these kids can't lead at some point and push forward if they are forever turning and

looking behind them to see that sense of approval, forever looking to see if we're trying to catch

them up and put, overtake them again.

If that is what they think is going to happen, they are never going to lead.

They are never going to feel a sense of entitlement.

They are never going to feel a sense of empowerment.

They're going to be forever just going, I'm waiting for that shoulder to pull me back

a step.

That's why you got to get out of the way.

David's example and these steps are designed to be a safeguard against us trying to lean

over and put our hand on the steering wheel.

Anybody's ever had their parent teach them to drive?

And that's what we're trying to stop doing.

That we got to remove it, man.

Because again, the truth is we are all going to leave a legacy.

For most of us, the truth is the most immediate response is that legacy is lived out through

children.

That doesn't have to be your children.

It's just lived out through children because that's that next logical step, right?

Now, that's some of them will be of blood and some of them will be by choice and some

of them will just be by proximity.

So I ask you, what example are you setting and what does it tell them?

If David had chosen glory over a solid legacy, what would that have said to Solomon?

He could have justified it because we can always justify it.

Right?

It's pretty easy.

Every single selfish decision we make, we can justify.

How do I know?

Because I've done it and you've done it.

We've all done it.

Let me give you the top one.

This is a super specific example, but I think this is one of those things that in today's

culture, everybody just loves to justify away.

And that is just the idolization of like the 60 hour work week.

Okay?

Because if you ask somebody who's doing the big hours, right, the 50, 60, I'm just so

busy, I'm just so busy, I'm doing work, just need me a work.

It's always the justification.

It's like, I'm providing for my family.

That's all I'm doing.

Providing for my family.

Let me tell you, you can provide for your family working 30 hours a week at Woolies.

You have to change the definition of what provide looks like.

You can do it.

Right?

The 60 hours at work are not for your children.

The 60 hours you do at work are for you.

Okay?

It makes you feel important and it makes you feel needed, right?

And that's great.

But the problem is that quite often comes at the expense of the people you're meant

to be making feel important and the people that need you.

That one example ends up too many people being the greatest defining characteristic of their

legacy.

And if you let it, it will.

Because if you get to like posthumously define your own legacy, that's awesome.

Guess what?

It's not the way it works.

You don't get to do that.

Our legacies are born and defined in our choices and our actions that we make every single

day.

Our legacy is lived out by us, but it will be written by others.

For most people, it ends up being written by their children.

Again, children of birth, children of my blood, children by proximity, children that you choose

to have in your life.

What will they say about your life?

What will they say your legacy is?

Because what do you think?

What do you think about your own parents, about your grandparents?

Did they leave a legacy that made you want to honor and live up to that name?

What do they leave one of those legacies where you go, not that?

Anything but that.

The reason we talk about legacy and the reason we talk about generations is the next time

you're reading the Bible and you get to one of those lists of lineage, you know the ones

that we all really, really love and we just really hammer down into the details of.

And what I mean is we skim it so we can get to the good stuff.

Stop, go back and read it.

And then when you get to the end, stop and go back and read it again.

That is not a list of names.

That is a list of generations.

That is a legacy in name form.

That is the ceremonial passing of the torch over and over and over again.

Now that ceremonial passing of the torch either happens by choice or it happens by force,

but it's coming for each and every single one of us.

Each generational change has its own story to tell.

That's what that list is.

Now we've always got to have our eye on the future.

We have to honor our past as part of that.

That's how it works.

We've got our future, right?

We've got our present.

We've got our look at the future.

We're honoring the past.

And why do we do that?

Because we worship right now in a space and in a building that we didn't build, in a building

that we don't own, using songs we didn't write.

I mean sometimes there are songs we write, but that just didn't help in my point if I'm

being honest.

Even that, we received a grant to help fund those songs.

So there you go.

We didn't pay for them.

Now that happens due to the equipping and the empowerment of other churches.

And one of those churches is an aging church.

Let's call it Spada Spade, who meet in this very building.

And they prayed and discerned and then ended up desperate to be part, make sure that part

of their legacy is a church that is for future generations.

Okay?

Now that's beautiful and that is humbling and that's something we just absolutely cannot

nor should we ever ignore.

Okay?

We will never take our friends at Grand G-dining Church for granted because their prayers and

their faithfulness are the reason that you are sitting in this building today.

We didn't create that.

Now the church exists.

This church, this church exists because we got equipped, empowered and released by Encounter

Prospect.

Huh?

Now that happened because Brant Jones planted a church that equipped, empowered and released

Stephanie Hogaeth, who in turn equipped, empowered and released Mike and Jenny Wardrop, who in

turn equipped, empowered and released me and okay, yes, the little foots too, but again,

for the sake of today, me, right?

Now let me tell you, if that lineage now ends with me, I've failed completely.

Like if that stops here with me, I'm done.

I failed.

It's that simple.

Now I intend to dedicate my life to equipping, empowering and releasing all of you and all

the people in there and all the kids in there.

That's actually my role in this.

That's my job.

I'm not going to do that in the church.

Yeah, absolutely.

Sure.

But my job is to make sure that each and every person in this room is equipped, empowered

and released.

Okay?

It's simple.

Why?

So that the kids in there can do that and then their kids can do that and the next generation

and so on and so on and so on.

They will have their own lineage one day.

So how about you?

Does your legacy include the same promises?

If not for the church, how about for your own family, for your own kids?

And the band can probably come back up in a sec because let us never forget that Jesus

was the provider of the greatest act of empowerment of all.

He gifted us a plan, a pathway, proximity and then God actually gifted it as his own

bride.

He gifted us the church.

He left that in our hands, in our stead.

Now in Hebrew culture, Jesus' method of teaching produced what became a well-known saying.

And I know this is the point where normally the person up here gets you to try and butcher

some Hebrew.

I'm not going to do that to you.

I'm going to do it on your behalf.

Okay?

So there was an expression which I'm definitely going to get wrong but is there any Hebrew

scholars in the room?

Fingers crossed, not.

Right?

Havel mitabek baffa raglehem.

This literally means cover yourself with the dust off their feet.

Now the idea of this is that the disciples should follow so closely behind Jesus that

their clothes became covered in the dust that kicked off his feet and his sandals.

Church, what would our legacy look like as church and as individuals if we allowed ourselves

to be covered in the dust from the feet of the people that journeyed before us?

What would happen if the kids in that room got covered in the dust from your feet because

you allowed them and invited them in to be in such close proximity to you that they became

covered in the dust from your feet?

But they had the opportunity to see the example of what we want to set in such minute detail

and transparency with no outlaws, with no outplan, no turning back.

What happened if they got to see that?

What if the young people who walked through these doors weren't seen as children but they

were seen as the future leaders that will one day form the next step of our legacy?

The only way they can do that is if you and I empower them to do so.

What if each of you decided to choose one kid and you go, you know what, I'll be the

David, they'll be the Solomon?

It doesn't matter.

I don't need the glory.

I don't need that.

What I need is to empower them and I need to see the kingdom of God on it.

Jesus entrusted us with his legacy.

He trusted us with his church.

The very same process that King David used Jesus himself used, funnily enough, because

we are resourced.

We have been provided with knowledge and then we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28, 18 to 20 says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven

and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and

the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

You have been filled with the Holy Spirit for this very purpose so that we can take

Jesus' teaching.

We can walk with, lead and empower others.

And then we transfer that power to them so that the platform that's been built for you

can be used for them to build a platform on and then for others to build on and so on

until kingdom come.

So now you have a choice.

And what'll it be?

Will the legacy you leave be one in which it is marked by selfish pursuit of glory or

one in which you continually humble yourself before God?

The future generation are watching our every move.

What legacy are you leaving them to follow?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are just so thankful for a God that just wants to journey with us.

That wants to empower us.

That wants to do nothing but enrich our lives, to lift us up.

You can do this on your own and you just don't want to.

Father, may we never take for granted what has come before us and what it is that will

leave in our wake.

May we always turn our attention towards you.

May our eyes always be upwards, not forwards.

May this church, congregation, relationships with each other and these children that we

have, Father.

May they just always honour you.

May you have your hand over us all.

Amen.

Amen.