The Power of Worship

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.

Fantastic.

Well, as Tex said earlier, I'm Mike, I'm married to Jen, we had the privilege of being the

senior pastors of Encounter.

We lead the congregation out at Prospect and it is, I can't tell you what a joy it is to

be here at Henley.

This has been a dream for a year, well more really when we planted Prospect.

Our dream was to be a church that plants churches and the reason we planted Henley was because

it was a clear call of God on your leaders, a clear call of God on this place that we

are encounter Henley ingrained.

But don't worry, Encounter Prospect is Encounter Prospect meeting an Enfield Uniting Church,

which is technically at Sefton Park.

So we've got one more confusing element to add there.

But I just want to affirm what an amazing group of people you are.

You are pioneers, you are apostolic, you are courageous, you are the people on the front

line of the kingdom of God, seeing breakthrough happen for the name of Jesus, amen.

This is good stuff.

That is the main reason we planted Encounter Henley.

The second reason is I'm just sick of so many tall people in my congregation.

And so I said, Tex and Tim, get out of here and you know what, take Matt Harksmore with

you.

I'm done, I'm done.

Too many tall folk, too many tall folk.

So this series is called The Power of Encounter.

If you're new here and you've just started coming, I really want to encourage you to

stick around for all of the next three weeks because there's something about when you're

trying to find a sense of home, you know, it's very, okay, in today's rental market,

you just have to go and immediately bid higher than you want to.

I get that.

Generally speaking though, it's good to walk in, have a look around, see if this is the

place to call home and then work it out.

So that would be my encouragement.

Stick around for this series.

And The Power of Encounter, apart from being just kind of a snappy play on words with

our name, very clever, is it's all about encountering Jesus.

But more than that, having a powerful minister, a ministry to you through the Holy Spirit.

Now we want to be a church that is Bible-fed and Spirit-led.

That means we're all about the Word of God, but we're also all about His Spirit.

We want to have both together.

We don't want to neglect one for the sake of the other.

And during this series, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will minister powerfully to

each and every one of you.

So I'm just going to pray and then let me get into the message tonight.

God, you're the best.

We are so grateful to you.

We are grateful to be here in this place.

We're grateful for the weather today.

It is just a joy to be in your presence.

Lord, would your joy just permeate this place?

Live people are.

Father, we've sung great, are you Lord?

And truly, truly we mean it.

We honor you with all we have.

And we just pray that tonight we would have ears to hear, eyes to see what you are doing

among us.

May all my words be from you and not from myself in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without

the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation

without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell.

Now the person who said this was William Booth in the stellar year of 1890.

Now Booth was a pawnbroker's assistant.

He became a Christian at the age of 15.

He began attending the local Wesleyan Chapel.

And what we are in right now is basically an evolution of the Wesleyan Chapel.

And later began to work as a traveling evangelist where he was joined by his wife, Catherine.

After 10 years of traveling ministry, they found us something called the Christian Mission

in East London.

And that sought to not only save souls, but to feed bodies.

As it grew, they began to give their organization a bit of shape.

That's a thing you've got to do as it gets bigger.

They gave titles and a new name and these distinctive uniforms that they began to wear.

They made their services which they called meetings and they created a motto, blood and

fire.

That was the motto of this organization, which is straight off of Game of Thrones.

But the Salvation Army had it first.

The Salvos were founded by William Booth and he came up with this motto referring to the

sacrificial blood of Christ and the purifying fire of the spirit.

The Salvation Army has been one of the great Christian success stories of the 19th and 20th

centuries.

And as I said, that quote was back in 1890 when he said, religion without the Holy Ghost,

Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration,

politics without God, heaven without hell.

William Booth's fear was that he would live to see a world in which the new century and

by the new century, see, he meant the early 1900s would be the empty husk of where Christianity

once was.

He feared that he would see the outline of where God used to be like a chalk marking

of a body on the ground where the transforming presence of God was at one time but was no

longer.

That was Booth's fear from 1890, but it sounds a lot like the church of modern Australia.

Sounds a lot like it.

William Booth lived among a people of spiritual emptiness, but Booth himself lived a consecrated

life.

Now, let me just get technical for a second because the Bible doesn't often use the word

consecration.

More often, you might hear the word sanctification or more often from preachers like me, we try

and bring it down to one or two syllables in some way because we fear that we'll lose

you if we speak in more than two syllables.

But so word sanctification means to be set apart for holiness.

And really, that's something that God does.

Sanctification is a work of God in us.

God is the one who makes us holy.

Consecration is more about what we do.

What's our part in that?

Consecration is the act of beginning a transition to holiness.

Consecration is beginning a transition of holiness.

One is by God, one is to God.

It's about living a life of holy ambition to God.

This is all throughout Scripture.

Verse 121 says, off your bodies is a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

That's an act of consecration.

In Numbers, we hear of Phineas, who was zealous for God's honor, and he committed an act based

on his own consecration.

In Isaiah chapter six, he has an experience in the throne room where he eventually says,

send me, I will go, but he's overwhelmed by the very presence of God.

And he says, I need to be sanctified.

And that first act of asking to be sanctified is an act of consecration.

In 1 Peter chapter two, verse nine, Peter says, you are a people of God's own possession.

And the implication is therefore, how will we live if we belong to God?

How will we consecrate ourselves to God?

And in Leviticus chapter 20, in fact, really all of Leviticus, we hear this, be holy as

Leviticus 20 · chapter mention

I am holy.

If you've ever read Leviticus or frankly even heard of it and wondered, what is the point

of Leviticus?

That's the point of Leviticus.

Be holy as I am holy.

So much of the Bible leads us as a guide towards how to consecrate ourselves to God.

Now I know a group of people that deeply impressed me.

They're young people with their consecration.

They get up at around 4.30 in the morning twice a week to consecrate themselves.

They gather with fellow believers.

They hear a brief message and then they go out to do mission, to be a part of the mission.

And they do that for about an hour.

Then they gather together for fellowship at a local coffee shop and they do all of this

before work.

This is a group of young people in your midst.

The problem is they're not Christians.

They're runners.

This is Prospect Run Club.

Prospect Run Club, like God bless me.

I like to call myself a runner.

I signed up for that a long time ago and have been exactly zero times because 4.30 is too

many earlys in the morning.

I can't do it.

They do all of this.

All these functions of church, they do it before they go to work and they consecrate

themselves to that.

And there's something about this that both inspires and kills me because I see that the

average Run Club member is more focused and devoted and consecrated than the average Christian.

Now I happen to think this church is not full of average Christians.

I happen to think this is full of people who are longing for consecration.

Amen.

Pastor Tex?

Yeah, good.

You in particular should believe this.

Churches don't run prayer rooms if they're not hungry for consecration.

Churches don't say, we're going to pray for 24 hours straight if they're not hungry for

the presence of God.

You are not an ordinary church.

And if you're here and visiting, you're in the right place.

You are in the right place.

Don't even come up to Prospect.

It's too far.

This, we're nowhere near as holy.

This is where it's at.

That's why they left.

They were like, we can do better.

You are in the right place because this is a group of people who are hungry for the presence

of God.

We have to ask the question though, do we want the presence of God as much as the Prospect

Run Club wants to run?

Are we as hungry to encounter Jesus as they are to get up and hone their bodies?

Now this is a great thing they're doing.

I deeply admire them for it.

I'm not being sarcastic about that at all.

Like I said, I would like to join them.

I just haven't got there yet.

But we need to be at least as consecrated to the work of Jesus as they are towards running.

Let's pause that there.

Let's talk about Joshua as we heard Dee read today.

Joshua, if you haven't heard of him before, was Moses' right-hand man.

He was the young man that Moses was training to take over leadership of Israel.

They got to the Promised Land together.

Moses and the rest of the Israelites, Moses sent 12 spies into the Promised Land, one for

each of the 12 tribes.

They all come back.

Joshua and his friend Caleb are full of faith.

They say, we can do this.

There are giants in the land, but we've got it.

The other 10 come back and say, there are giants in the land.

They've got us.

The Israelites panic and they turn and leave the Promised Land.

God dooms them to wander in the desert for 40 years until that generation of faithlessness

passes away.

Then they come back to the Promised Land.

Moses passes and this time Joshua is in charge.

He gets right up to the Promised Land and he sends this time two spies into Scout the

Land probably because he realized what happened to the other 10 last time.

Maybe we just sent two.

It won't go so badly.

They go out, they scout the land and this time they come back and they say, hey, everyone

is panicking because of us.

We've got this.

Let's go.

It wasn't about the number of people they had.

It wasn't about their skill at arms.

It was the panic that had been created because they knew that God was with them and they

were on a mission that only God had sent them on.

That's what happened there.

So we get to our teaching text now and within it we hear some key principles for consecration.

Joshua brings the Israelites right up to the River Jordan.

He camps there.

The Jordan's the boundary to the land of Canaan, the Promised Land.

To win the land, they need to cross the Jordan, but God's dealt with rivers before, amen.

He tells the Israelites to follow the Ark of the Covenant.

That is the receptacle where God has chosen to let his presence dwell when the priests

carried it into the river, but he also says to keep a distance from him and watch where

it goes because you have not been this way before.

And this is the first principle of consecration I want you to catch.

The presence goes before the people.

The presence goes before the people.

We've got to pay attention to what God is doing and where he is going.

Now God is omnipresent, right?

He is everywhere at all times.

So if you've ever been somewhere weird and you're like, well, I hope God's not watching.

I've got bad news.

He's everywhere.

He is watching.

We also, out of his kindness and grace, chooses to let his manifest presence rest on places

at particular times.

Now that's a whole other sermon I'm not going to get into today, but it means that at some

stages and particularly in the Ark of the Covenant, God let his presence dwell.

In each of you now there is a living temple.

If you're a believer in Jesus, that God's Spirit dwells in you, calling you on, leading

you forwards.

The letter of the Hebrews reminds us to fix your eyes on Jesus, fix your eyes on God.

The Holy Spirit has plans and longings for this world.

Part of our job is to go, God, I don't want to do what I'm doing and then ask you to bless

me.

I want to see what you're doing and get in line with that and participate in that.

Amen?

This is the sort of way that we change the world.

So we don't need, and this is a relief, right?

Listen to this.

You don't need to try so hard to be good.

You don't.

You just need to try hard to listen to God.

If you listen to God and then you want to do what he does, you'll end up doing good

things anyway.

Don't worry so much about that.

Listen to God.

We need to pay attention to what God is doing around you because he's the good one, not

us.

So you don't need to worry about that.

Joshua was trying to be clear with the Israelites.

You don't know where you're going, but if you pay attention to what God is doing, you

will go in the right direction.

If you've ever had that experience when you've been praying and you're like, God, I don't

know what I'm doing, but then you stop and instead of just yelling at God like that,

you listen.

Now I'm terrible at that.

I like the yelling part, not so much the listening part, but if you stop and listen, God will

often say strange things.

You're like, okay, and then you just do it and you realize that actually God is prompting

you in these directions because he has something for you to do or something for you to learn

or a way for you to grow.

That's why we need to go in the right direction with God.

In the New Testament, when Jesus is speaking, you'll often hear him tell stories and then

he says things like this.

If you have eyes to see, may you see, if you have ears to hear, may you hear.

He's challenging the people listening to say, are you catching what I'm trying to say?

Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

I've got something for you.

If you listen, there's almost always something at a deeper level when Jesus is speaking.

So attention, prayerful listening and obedience is the heart behind that first principle that

the presence goes before the people.

If you want to consecrate yourselves, work out where God's going.

When Joshua drops this incredible statement, consecrate yourselves because the Lord will

do wonders among you tomorrow.

Wonders.

Prepare yourselves in your spirit.

God, Joshua sends the priests on ahead of the people with the Ark of the Covenant.

They go to stand right near the Jordan, probably looking uncomfortable at this point.

They're like, the water is really close and nothing's happening.

And he gathers them around and he tells them what he told them 40 years ago.

You'll know that the living God is among you.

How?

How about the Canaanites, the Hethites, the Hivites, the Parasites, the Gegesites, the

Amorites, the Jebusites?

I could be saying anything right now, you believe me.

When the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord or the whole earth goes ahead of you into the

Jordan, that's how you know God is with you.

And this leads us to principle number two, to be consecrated to the Lord.

The culturally uncomfortable must become spiritually normal.

The culturally uncomfortable must become spiritually normal.

Listen, if you want God in your life, if you really want him, his power, his purposes,

his guidance, you're going to have to live the kind of life that looks a little bit crazy.

You're going to have to look at your life through the eyes of faith.

Bonhoeffer refused to leave Nazi Germany.

He stayed and allowed himself to be in prison and eventually died for his faith just a couple

of weeks before the war ended.

John Wesley preached in the fields so that he could be more like his Lord.

That was how he described him.

Mary poured expensive perfume on Jesus' feet, earning the wrath of Judas.

And as it turns out, Mary was on the right side of history.

Consecration requires a bit of crazy.

Consecration requires a bit of crazy.

You're not going to get anything done for Jesus if you just look like everybody else.

Now this is frustrating because we kind of want to look like other people.

Really I would say part of the big movement of the 21st century in Christianity has been

how can we make Christianity palatable to the world outside the church?

I get that.

Deeply, I am as insecure, probably more than the average person.

But that's never going to change the world.

And the purpose of Jesus was to come and transform the world.

See, here's what the early Christians were known for.

Five things, according to Tim Keller.

On one side, they were united across ethnic boundaries in a way that made people deeply

uncomfortable in the Roman Empire.

And they had this unbelievable, trust, not trust, unbelievable service to the poor and

the marginalized.

They poured themselves out for those people.

These are people who if you're on the political left, you would cheer on.

If you're on the political right, you might feel uncomfortable.

However, they were also known for having a super high value for human life.

They would not let anyone from baby to the end of life go and just be thrown onto the

dump, which was a literal thing that people in the Roman Empire would do with people who

were either at the end of their life or the beginning of their life or who they didn't

want.

They had a high value for human life and a high value for Orthodox marriage and sexuality.

These are things that people on the political right might cheer you for, but people on the

political left wouldn't.

And then the fifth thing is that they insisted on having this high standard of forgiveness

for everyone and nobody was comfortable with that.

No matter where you sit, if you're trying to live out of faith in Jesus, you will be

a bit uncomfortable.

You will make people around you a little bit uncomfortable.

However, what you've got to catch is that a consecrated life is not meant to look normal,

but it is meant to look compelling.

It's not meant to look weird for the sake of being weird.

Okay.

We all know those people.

Don't point at them.

Don't look at them.

Jody, we don't.

We, we, it's just another friend I have.

Don't, Jacob, don't, don't.

Don't name them.

It's unnecessary.

But we are meant to stand out and be compelling.

You may know those people who are a little bit weird like that, but you may also know

people who, when you gather around them, you, you just feel like your spirit's been lifted.

You feel like you have been in the presence of God because they're so beautiful and encouraging

and uplifting.

That's what it's meant to be like.

That's what it's meant to mean to stand out from the crowd.

We're not standing out because we're so strange.

We don't know how to fit in.

It's just, we're so busy fitting out for Jesus that we can't be conformed to the patterns

of this world.

Amen.

There's something in us.

The spirit of God is in us, calling us on.

There is something more than ordinary in the consecrated life.

Joshua and Caleb saw exactly what the other spies saw, except they saw it through the

eyes of faith.

That's the only difference.

Consecration requires a little bit of crazy and the culturally uncomfortable is going

to have to become spiritually normal.

Now back to the text, third and final principle.

The priests march down to the river Jordan, getting their feet wet.

This is the point where they must be going, I'm insane.

I'm about to walk in and drown.

As they start to walk in holding the presence of God, the water starts to split and it starts

to rise up and it's rising up far, far back.

Suddenly the ground begins to dry out.

It doesn't tell us in fact.

The Bible doesn't say the priests went through on muddy ground.

They said they went through on dry ground.

It's the same word used in the Hebrew to mean a deserted place where there is no water that

was dried completely for the Israelites to go through.

This is the third principle for consecration.

The impossible is God's job.

Obedience is yours.

The impossible is God's job.

Obedience is yours.

I sometimes pray with Christians who are beating themselves up with shame because they're like,

I haven't performed any miracles.

I was like, okay, you were never going to perform a miracle.

God performs miracles.

You just pray.

You just pray.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't have faith for them.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't believe they're possible, but it's not you who ever does a

miracle.

It's God.

Your job is to have faith in the one who does the miracles, to cry out to him, to knock

and keep on knocking and say, God, I need something.

So I'm asking, I'm believing that I'm going to receive because that's what you tell me

in your word, Jesus.

You tell me to ask and receive, to seek and find, to knock and the door will be open, but

you never tell me I will be the one through my own power who casts out demons and sees

people healed, but through the spirit's power.

So consecration helps you realize that the impossible is not your job.

Just pray and put the burden on God.

We're like, hey, God, you told me, you told us to go out into all the world to make disciples,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

You told us to go out, that we'd cast demons out, that we'd see people free from illness,

that see that snakes would bite us and we wouldn't get poisoned.

All right, that sounds pretty difficult.

So you'd better do that.

So I'm going to keep praying and this is on you.

Okay, so I'm going to go out into the middle of the water now and you've got to pile it

up.

Good.

Okay, next step, I'm still going to need you to keep piling.

Great.

Step by step in faith with Jesus, trusting that because you've consecrated yourself towards

God, trusting that you keep asking for him, God will step in in power.

That's what he does.

The consecrated life is not a normal life.

It's with God.

It's for God.

You just need to obey, to show up with faith.

Now, it doesn't make it easy.

You've still got to do stuff.

You've still got to show up with faith.

Your friend asked for prayer.

You've got to pray.

You can't just go, oh, all right, God, you do it.

No, no, no, no.

You pray.

God will do the convicting.

God will do the converting.

God will do the healing.

You've got to turn up, but God's the one that brings the power.

God's the one that brings the miracle.

So relax.

Being consecrated means being set apart friends.

Means taking your ordinary lives and devoting them to God.

You can't do it in your spare time.

It requires all of you.

Jesus is all or nothing.

The apostle Paul lived a consecrated life.

Jesus lived a consecrated life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, he shows his consecration and concentration to God.

He pours himself out in prayer, sweating blood and weeping.

He's literally becoming a drink offering in that place.

So what will you do with your life?

What will you do with your life?

As I come towards a close, let me just say this.

I feel like most of the time in my spiritual life, I've largely dropped the ball.

Like I spent most of my life thinking about where I've dropped the ball rather than when

I've been successful.

Pride is less my issue than just this raging sense of incompetence that I sometimes battle

with.

But one thing I know I do well as this.

I come back to the principle happening in Revelation 2 verses 4-5, where Jesus speaks

Revelation 2:4–5

to the church in Ephesus and he says, I have this against you.

You have abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember then how far you have fallen.

Repent and do the works you did at first.

So when I grow weary or disheartened, I come back to this, to the love I had at first for

Jesus of what he did for me.

Because the love I had at first doesn't come from me or my situation or my emotions.

It comes from God.

That's where that love comes from, not from me.

Jesus didn't die to make you or I a good person.

He didn't die to make us successful.

He didn't die to make us happy.

He died and rose again so that I may be one with God the Father as he is.

He died and rose again so that you would know God for yourself.

God loves you.

He sees you.

He knows you by name.

He calls you home.

Church, I've got to be honest.

There's nothing more useless to the world than a church that is full of people who claim

to have found God but show no evidence in their lives.

This world is full of searching people.

Maybe you're one of them.

Maybe you're here today and that's why you're here.

We're full of searching people.

If we are like William Booth feared, the husk of where Christianity used to be, we're doing

the world a great service.

The world needs Jesus.

They don't need our religious patterns.

They need Jesus.

Let me go back to William Booth for a second.

Booth's father died when he was 14.

He became the primary source of his family's income.

I tell you this because chances are very few people in this room have more of a reason

to be mad with God than William Booth was.

He became the primary source of income for his family at age 14.

Think how easy it would have been for him to resent God but instead at the age of 15,

Booth comes to faith in Christ in a Wesleyan chapel.

He develops this passion that would be the driving force in his life to reach and bless

Britain's marginalized people through the gospel and he writes this in his diary.

God shall have all there is of William Booth.

How good is that?

God shall have all there is of William Booth.

Today more than 14 million people every year are helped by the Salvation Army.

It's the most obviously Christian organization hidden in plain sight.

Every time somebody watches one of the ads and says, thank God for the salvos I chuckle

because they've just slipped it in there and people aren't even aware of what they're saying.

Thank God for the salvos.

We're praying for them and we don't even know it.

Between 1881 and 1885 alone, William and Catherine Booth saw 250,000 Brits brought to faith

in Jesus.

A literal army of salvations.

God had all there was of William Booth.

So Henley, let me ask you.

Will God have all there is of you?

Is that the sort of person you are longing to become?

Is that the desire of your heart to be consecrated to God in a way where you can say, God shall

have all there is of me?

The same gospel that captured William Booth's life is the same gospel available to you today.

The only thing is you can't give all of yourself to God if you're leaving something back by

definition.

And that includes your fears, your insecurities, your brokenness, your deeper secrets, your

sins, the stuff you don't want anyone to know.

It includes your gifts, your graces, your talents, your skills, everything.

Everything comes before God and you say, God, I am a total mess.

I have strengths.

I have weaknesses.

I am this human ball of something.

But God, you will use it because you promise you will.

You promise that in my weakness, you are strong.

You promise that these fragile jars of clay will display the light of God.

That's you.

That's me.

We are a fragile jar of clay.

But God will display himself through us.

And if I've only got one more thing to say, I'm the senior pastor, so I have more if I

want to.

But if I had just one more, it would be this, that too many Christians seem to think they're

just turning up to church is enough.

Or too many Christians seem to think that what it looks like to be set on fire for God

is some version of this.

That's your cue, Charlie.

Yeah.

That's your cue, Chelsea.

There we go.

Now, I've got to tell you, there's a version of Christianity that does have this, peace

amongst the fire of life, right?

Because life is wild and you just need to be able to sit down with a cup of coffee and

go, I'm all right.

The peace of God is with me.

But that's not the vision for followers of Jesus.

This is the vision for followers of Jesus.

Something a bit stronger, a bit bigger, a light on the hill, something shining to the

world.

We are not made for ourselves.

We are not made just to feel good about ourselves and gather in a holy huddle.

I'm so thankful for Henley.

I'm so thankful for what God is doing through you all.

But we are not made to stay here.

We are made to consecrate ourselves to God and say, God, have all of me so that the entire

world may know all of you.

Have all of me so that the world may know that you are alive, that Jesus is risen, that

he didn't just die, but he rose again, ascended to heaven.

And everyone on this earth has the opportunity to have faith in him and eternal life in him

and abundant life right now in Christ.

Shall God have all there is of you?

Let's pray.

And then let's see what the Lord does.

Come Holy Spirit.

Come in this place.

Come in our lives.

Pour yourself out on us.

God we don't want a half-hearted life.

We want all of you.

Lord, I just see a picture like waves lapping out of shore.

And there's writing on the shore and the waves, it's just the grace of God lapping away, something

that's been written on your life.

For somebody here, I believe that's for you.

It's something you've had written on your life, you've been holding onto it and believed

in it, but it's actually not of God.

I don't know whether it's good or bad, but there's something on your life you've been

desperately holding onto, but it's written in sand.

It's not written in stone.

God's washing it away.

He's washing you clean.

Thank you Jesus.

God would you speak to us tonight through your spirit?

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Church, we're going to come to a time of prayer and response and I want to just encourage

you to do something for me.

I wonder if everyone could close their eyes and bow their heads if you're not already

doing it.

Even if you don't want to respond, this is out of respect to those that may want to.

And I'm going to invite two kinds of people to respond and the first, this is for you.

If you're here and you've been exploring Jesus, you've been hesitant to make a commitment

and say, I want to call Jesus my Lord and Savior.

I want to give my life to him.

I don't know exactly what that means, but I want to give it to him.

This is your moment.

So if you're here and that's you, I'm going to count to three and I want to slip you to

slip up your hand so I can pray for you.

One, two, three, just slip up your hand if that's you.

You want to make a decision to follow Jesus tonight.

That's so good.

Praise God.

So good.

Is there anyone else here?

You want to join our friend today?

No, that's okay.

You can put your hand down.

So good.

Lord Jesus, we just thank you for what you're doing.

We celebrate in a moment, but for that person today, God, as you have reached them in their

heart, would you restore them?

Would you resurrect them?

Would you help them to know that actually they have new life in you?

The old life has gone and the new life has come.

You call them your own.

You call them your beloved.

You call them not just somebody facing the crowd, but your child.

So for that person today, would you help them to repent to their sins, turn away from them

and look to you, Jesus, as their Lord?

Amen.

And for the second kind of people is this.

These are people who you're in the room and you just sense God is calling you to consecrate

yourselves afresh to him.

Now, you could be a leader.

You could be a pastor.

It doesn't matter.

You're just sensing something from God where he's saying, right now, my heart's beating

a little faster.

I know he's calling me to something more.

And if that's you, I'm going to ask you to stand up because you're already a believer.

So I don't feel as patient with you guys to make you slip up your hand quietly.

It's actually time to make a stand for Jesus.

And you'll know, you'll know if he's calling you to consecrate yourself.

So if that's you, why don't you just stand up now?

If God's calling you to consecrate yourself in a fresh way to Jesus tonight.

So good.

I'll give people a few seconds longer.

If it's not you, that's fine.

It's no stress.

God's grace is good.

But as you're praying and discerning, whether that's you, let me just tell you, if you're

under 30, the challenge is to do the ridiculous for God.

People will tell you to be sensible.

Don't be sensible for Jesus.

Be ridiculous.

Be outrageous for Jesus.

If you're in the 31 to 60 demo, don't get too busy for Jesus.

Don't get too distracted for Jesus.

There's a lot of good things in your life.

Don't let them get above Jesus.

Maybe that's what you needed to hear.

If you want to join our friends and consecrate yourselves tonight.

Well Lord, we praise God for you.

We praise God.

These are great days.

And for those that are consecrating themselves to you tonight, afresh, pour out your spirit

on them.

I wonder, church, you can open your eyes if you like.

I wonder if you could see someone who's near you, if you're at the praying type, would

you just stretch your hand towards them and pray for them?

You notice I didn't do this with the new person who's come into Jesus, but these are for people

who they know and love Jesus already.

But there's something more that God's calling them to.

We just stretch your hand towards them to bless them.

Lord, we just thank you.

Thank you for these people who are asking for more of you today.

We pour out the spirit on them.

Lord, would you pour it out?

Pour it out.

We lift them up in prayer.

Father, we ask that you would show them things they haven't seen before.

Lord, more of your presence, more of you, Lord, less of them.

Lord, where there was brokenness, would you bring healing and restoration?

Total fresh start in Jesus' name.

May this consecration, may it be like another layer of sediment in the foundation that is

Christ that they are building on there.

There's a new strengthening going on, a new building going on here.

Hallelujah.

You praise your name.

We lift these people up to you.

Thank you, Lord.

Hallelujah.

Hey, we're going to have a time of worship and response.

If you want prayer in that time, I'd love to pray for you.

I'll be down in the front, whatever you need prayer for.

Let me know.

Cara will be down in the front too.

Either of us, one on each side, come and we'll be loved to pray for you.

But otherwise, why don't you stand and we'll respond in worship.

This is our Vernal