Come out of your tent

It's great to see you, it's great to be back at 40 years ago

if you can mind standing, Lee if you don't mind standing and Mel,

you don't mind standing 40 years ago.

These two girls, who are now getting closer to their 60s,

were students in Durban 40 years ago and they lived in 15 and 16

Katembe Flats in Durban. There were students that lived

next to each other. Come and go from university,

come and go from university, come and go from university.

And now of you, 2 can stand, that's her daughter and that's

her son. And when Clint said, you don't

know who you're sitting next to today, You really don't know who

you're sitting next to today because you do not know the

miracle of the person that God has put you next to and what

that could look like in 40 years time.

And somehow God put them next to each other.

And through that putting next to each other, we constantly stayed

in touch, serving God in completely different parts of

the world. But it ended up in a marriage

that both families are deeply happy with.

I met this girl. I just walked in today.

I said hi, I'm Rory, said I'm Cindy.

I'm Nasia's neighbor. So that's how she is going to be

known for me for I may forget your name.

I say you Nasia's neighbor. Nasia is my daughter, husband

and her bought a house. And because they bought a house,

they happened to have you as a neighbor.

Because they have you as a neighbor.

We're going to serve God together for the rest of our

lives. You're not here by chance today.

And the person you're sitting next to was chosen by God.

And I was thinking of every one of those people who got baptized

and I thought, I want, I saw Kevin baptizing someone.

I thought, I wonder how their paths crossed with Kevin.

The guy on the drums said he came here and the next week he

went in to a Home group with Joel.

And then he met a best friend that also goes to that Home

group. And that best friend and him

share a flat now. And you think God is so

unbelievably involved in our lives and we are not here by any

form of accident or by any form of chance.

We are here by the design of God.

Yes, Amen. We spent this time in Portugal.

I mean, we spent some time in dodgy places, but we spent this

time in this magnificent place overlooking the Agaw Sea.

And that came about because I used to build the church with a

very prominent CEO of a very big company.

And when we built the church, he never participated.

And he said I'm not going to. He just said his wife's heart.

He said these church guys are clowns and they shouldn't be

building churches and actually I'm not going to participate in

him. And his mates decided they

weren't going to give Megabe a little bit of money, but they

never participated in the building of the church.

And when we opened that church bond free by the sacrifice of

God's people. When he walked in, he heard an

audible voice say to him, I will build my church with you or

without you. You must decide.

And he was the CEO Clintonized good friend of ours, you'll see

of a big company. And he came to me and he said,

Rory, I want to build the church together with my family.

I don't know how that happens. That what happened in that

baptism pool. I don't know how that happens.

But I don't know if it's a coffee, I don't know if it's a

follow up. I don't know if it's the next

door neighbor that got you here. But I do know this God doesn't

do anything by mistake. He's busy constantly building

the church. And that guy came to me and he

said, I want to say sorry and I want to build a church, and I'm

going to resign for my job as CEO and I'm going to ask God to

bless me so that I can build the church.

And when he listened to us online and heard we're going to

Portugal, he said, hey, by the way, raw, I've got a house in

Portugal overlooking the Argov. Would you like to use it for

five days? And I sat in that house looking

over the sea in the Argov, over the harbour.

And I thought this came because 25 years ago a man decided I'm

going to build the church. I'm going to build the church.

Crooked defaulted. One of my friends came to me the

other day and he said God spoke to me raw and he said this is

your life. This is just how God has taken a

crooked stick and somehow used it with your friends to build

the church. And he said this is the first

part of your life. This was Glenridge Church.

And he said then there was a transition and then you came up

to three CR Church. I thought it's my time finished.

He said, now I love genuine leather.

He said, I feel God is giving you a genuine leather handle so

you can take hold of the next season and lead the people into

what a preferred future looks like for all of us.

And I just, I've just been sitting with this thing for the

last while and you think God, how do you use crooked sticks to

lead people straight? You can't unless God comes in,

inhabits the sticker. I mean, you think of Moses

standing on the mountain with a staff in his hand, and when you

lift the staff, there's victory. And when he dropped the staff,

there was defeat. And you think, where was the

power? Was it in the staff?

Well, of course not. It is in God.

It's in God and it's in the, it's in the carrying of the

staff of three CI. Somehow we have to lift the

staff high so that God can have victory.

Is that not true? I think, Gloria, you're going to

get to the Bible. I hope so.

Nice to see you, though. I was in Port Alfred and it's

the first time a guy asked me if I'd preach at his conference.

And I said yes, but I meant no. I don't know if you ever get

like that. When the guy's crying, I'll

preach and he's crying, will you preach at my conference?

And I said yes, but I've been, everything is like, no, no, no,

I don't want to preach at your conference.

And then I get these posters overseas with my face on them.

Rory Dyer, the apostle of Pretoria, is preaching in Port

Alfred. I think, oh, dear Jesus, what am

I going to do? And, and I think I said, I said,

what is the theme? He said it's Nehemiah 4.

Think, ah, I've written a book on that.

I get there. There's a lady who's speaking

before me the night before. She speaks for one and a half

hour and every point of Nehemiah 4 you've ever heard in your

whole life. So I've got nothing to preach

on. This little boy, Indian boy,

comes to me as I arrive and he says, hi, Rory, my name is Ziad.

I'm your armor bearer. And I said, Gee, thanks, Ziad.

What is what does an armor bearer do?

He said, I do everything for you.

You're the guest of honor, and I'm your servant.

And I thought, oh, OK, that's lacquer.

We should introduce that in our church.

I mean, I feel quite at night. I mean, I as anybody.

We're going to open applications tomorrow for armor bearers.

It's a remarkably badly paid job, high responsibility and all

those things. So Ziad, I said, what do you do,

Ziad? He said, I carry your bag, Sir,

and I look after you and I bring you coffee and tea and I'll

serve your food and say for the whole weekend, Ziad is working

with me. He's got no dad, never met his

father. And I think actually, is Ziad

going to serve me or am I going to serve Ziad?

And we've developed this. I go to the toilet and Ziad

follows me. He stands at the door.

I'm a boarding school. But I cannot we when anybody is

anywhere near me, I cannot we. So I'm standing and thinking

here. Please go away.

Somewhere, anywhere is yet. But I can't finish what I meant

to do as yet. I'm standing.

Bind us together, Lord. Bind us together, Lord.

And I get up to preach and we had this funny game.

Sorry, I've got tomorrow, not yet, but it doesn't matter.

I just want you to catch my heart today.

Our family, we're having dinner together the other night, and

I'm not the AI specialist or ChatGPT, but they started, I'm

not sure, mocking, loving something, whatever.

But we started this game called Let's ask ChatGPT.

Hey ChatGPT, what are Rory Dyer's faults?

Ha ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba baa ba ba ba ba ba?

What is Rory Dyer's most famous sermon?

Ah, thank you for asking question.

The most famous preach Rory Dyer has ever preached is called Go

Boki from Hillsong Conference. Go Boki.

So. They've taken Boiki and they've

made it a boki. So it's a it's goboki.

Let's put our bottoms into this thing and give it a go for

Jesus. Goboki.

Rory is famous for Goboki. He's had so many downloads from

this particular preach. Now that is my most famous

preach. If you haven't been here, if

you've joined in the last three months, I've actually been here

for a long time, but Goboiki is the foundation of my preaching.

So foundation. It's the father heart of God.

We we had coffee the other day and Clint said to me, he said

role make sure that everything that you've taught us about the

Father heart of God lives deep in our hearts.

Go boykie. But that story started with a

man who dropped me from a rugby team in 1985.

It's 40 years ago and I haven't seen him for 38 years and he

never knows the story. But in Port Alfred that man

walked up to me and said hello, Rory Dyer, do you Remember Me?

I said, yes, you Steve Ferguson, my rugby coach, he dropped me in

under 15 and he's serving God and I'm serving God.

And so every, and we just and I told the go boy key story and

then he came to me and he just hugged me and we held each other

together as the very darkest time of my life became the

formation of the ministry that God had called me to.

And I want to say to you today, if you're in the very darkest

time of your life, the person you're sitting next to or the

person that you'll meet at the coffee shop or the one you'll

meet next door can become the very foundation of the ministry

that God has called you to. And that's why we sit in the

same room together because if we had to put together the miracles

that put us into this room and the physical personal contact,

follow up phone call or supernatural encounter at a

shop, we would just get on our knees and weep at the goodness

of the intersections of God. Welcome to this church.

Welcome here this morning. So as I was preaching, I

realized Ziad. And so every time I looked

around to find my Bible, my Bible was gone.

And I'd say, Ziad, where's my Bible?

He says don't worry Pastor Rory, I've got your Bible.

So I said, well, I need to go and preach.

He says don't worry pastor. So I'd get up and preach and

Ziad would bring my Bible, open it to the Scripture, open my

notes, which are really poor as you can see, open my notes.

And then he'd go and sit down. And as I was preaching, I

thought I've got to bless Ziad. I have to bless Ziad.

I've got mainly I got 3000 and in my wallet and as I'm

preaching, I'm thinking I've got to bless, I've got to give Ziad

something he's never had a dad. I'm preaching about go boycott.

I've got to give him something that's valuable to me.

And as I'm preaching, I'm trying to think about Ziad.

And you've seen my Bible. I've taken it all over the

world. It's crossed everywhere.

It's got references. I can't live without my Bible.

And as I'm preaching, I feel God say you must give your Bible to

Ziad. I thought that's the Bible I

wanted to give to my first born son, that when I retire from

ministry one day I'll give it to my first born son and say, son,

this has been the run that I've had with God.

You must take it further Now just put it in your drawer and

remember your old man, how he's crossed this all out.

And I felt God's sake, give this Bible to Ziad.

He doesn't need money. He needs something that's

important. And I gave this Bible to this

little Indian boy. At 12:00 that night he SMS Mr.

Pastor Rory, did you organize for somebody to give me money?

I said no Zia, I didn't. What happened?

He said when we left the building, a man walked after me,

said God spoke to him and said he must put money in an envelope

for me, must give it to me for my future.

He said Pastor Roy was $3150, 54,000 Rand.

God didn't ask me to give Ziad my money.

He asked me to give him my Bible.

He had somebody else in the church that would give him the

money. Somebody else would give him the

money. And sometimes we end up stepping

in where we're not meant to step in because we can only build the

church together. Some will give their Bible, some

will give their time, some will give their songs, some will give

their money. But that's how we build the

church. And I want to tell you that my

Bible's gone out of print. And so I had, I bought a second

hand one and my daughter and son-in-law bought me a new one.

They unbelievably expect they're out of print now.

You can't get them anymore. So I decided that I would read

the Bible from cover to cover. And I won't tell you how far

I've got with that. And my friend Anthea bought me a

book and I wrote down all the promises of God.

But my book is called this Bible is completely untouched.

Completely and utterly untouched.

But I want to tell you the gift of Zeed was not me giving the

Bible. The gift of Zeed was that I

could have a Bible that had no markings.

And I've read it, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Genesis, Exodus,

Isaiah. And I just asked God for one

verse. I said I'll read the whole Bible

if I have to, Lord God, but I just want one verse.

And this is the verse that God gave me, Isaiah 41, verse 8.

Isaiah 41:8

But here, Israel, my servant Jacob, who I have chosen you,

descendants of Abraham, my friend, and I just stopped dead

in my tracks. And I thought I had 15 years

years there. I've had 13 years here and I

don't know how long I've got left here, but there's

definitely a season. I want to journey with you on

how to be called the friend of God, Abraham.

Keep it up there, you descendants of Abraham, my

friend. It's the other way around.

God's my friend, one says. God says you are my friend, you

are my friend. And I thought so how does it go

on my on my tombstone? Rory Dyer, friend of God?

Or does it go Rory Dyer, my friend in brackets?

God, do you understand the difference?

Yeah, sure. Beautiful.

And I thought, I want to spend the rest of my life being known

as God's friend from the mouth of God, not from the mouth of

human beings, not then somebody says he's God's friend.

I want to know deep in my honor, a sonship.

I know obedience. I know the King, I know the

Lord, I know the Savior. I know all of those things.

And Abraham is the father of our faith.

And as I read Genesis, I realized he's also the father of

our doubt. But friendship comes over a long

period of time, dealing with very deep things inside of our

heart and. So.

I think I've come back for this season to teach us.

How to be friends? With God and God to be friends

with us, I turned to Genesis 15 in the scripture that I want to

preach on. Got Genesis?

15 You got it, Ricks. Just keep the word.

Up there, say after this and you can, you can read the text

beforehand and, and all of those things.

But you know what happens when you get to the end of the year,

everybody gets tired. And so you just keep the

scripture. I want to say after this,

whatever this is, because I was talking to Damian the other day,

the staff were meant to go away together for a, for an evening

for, for a conference. And because there's so many

funerals, the staff had to actually cancel it because we

are doing so many memorial services after this.

I, I heard today that there's some people that have got some

proper illnesses in the life of the church and, and families are

journeying this. And so if I'm a friend of God,

then I've got to go and try and find out how that friendship

developed. And one of the.

Things happens that we all have circumstances in life, but after

this, after all this stuff, God is still intimately involved in

our lives, intimately involved in our lives.

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision.

Do not be afraid. At the end of this year, I just,

I just had this, this is the first time in the Bible that God

says do not be afraid. And he goes on and says it 180

times. And most.

Of us, probably 90% of the people in this room are actually

called to to live out the rest of our lives in South Africa.

And so if. We're going to do that.

We've got to understand that friendship with God does not

involve fear, so we have to settle the fact.

That we can. Actually live in this country

without being scared after this, after this retrenchment.

I married a. Couple in in I think just before

I went to a September he had just been retrenched.

Now you imagine, Can you imagine the in laws thinking we're about

to give our daughter to a son-in-law who doesn't have a

job? They've got both beautiful,

beautiful families. I met them at both beautiful

families. It's been retrained and it's

remarkably tender. And we're having time counseling

together and we're just weeping and praying and trusting God.

And you know what that young man did?

He said they've got a conference AT3CI and I'm going to come and

serve. And he came to serve at the

conference here, the GLS conference, and he met me in the

past. I said, you know, Rory, I came

to serve at that GLS conference and I met a man there.

I met a man there that told me about his company and he

interviewed me and he said now I've got a job.

From what? Just from carrying coffee in the

House of the Lord, you don't have to be afraid.

And when you go? Through times like this.

One of my friends, this story goes on, one of my friends

called Anton Sonipouli sitting up on the side there the time

when my dad was was sick and there was transitions and I was

afraid. And he found me.

One night, things quite late, nine, 10:00 at night, about 10

years ago, he found me, said, hey, Rhodes Antonia, he was the

first Afrikaans guy who came up to me, said I'll be your friend.

So he said, he said to me, I'll be your friend while you're in

Pretoria. And it's been true.

He's been my friend and he came to my house.

He said, I want to pray with you as you go through this fear.

I said thank you, Anthony. He arrived at my house.

I thought he was praying my office.

I said, where would you like to pray, Anthony?

He said I'd like to pray outside, Rory.

I thought outside. Why Anthony?

He said because there. Was a time that I was scared and

he said I just went outside and I got on my knees and I looked

into the stars. So 2. 50 year old.

Men went outside, got on our knees at 10:00 at the night and

we looked into the stars and he took my hand and he just prayed

for me and he said this. Do not be afraid, Rory.

Remember that. Anton.

Why don't you stand? Thank you, Anton.

Thank you, Anton. Thank you for that.

Day you walked into my garden, you see what God says to

Abraham. And the reason why I couldn't

put the tents up is God said to Abraham, you must come outside

the tent. No, you must come out of the

tent. You must look up and you must

count the stars after this, whatever you're going through in

your life now. Whatever the.

Situation of your life is. This is the.

Title of my priest, Come out of your tent, your circumstance.

Look. Up and count the stars.

God never answered Abraham's question.

He just showed him His magnificence.

He never answered the question. He's answered asking questions.

We've asked many questions over these last three months.

Many. Is our time up?

Do we go forward? What must we do?

What has God called us to? How do we work?

What is the emphasis? All of these questions, You know

what God hasn't answered 1 He just said.

Will you come outside? Lift up your head.

And look at the. Stars.

And I thought. And the answer?

God, he says it's there. The answer is there.

It's in the stars. The answers and the.

Stars. Did you give me a?

Picture Ricks. Just turn all the.

Lights off if you can. After this?

After what? Rory, after retrenchment after

your divorce. After the loss.

Of your partner. Or your dad.

Will you come outside? Of your tent.

Will you just come? Outside of your tent.

Because you can't see. The stars in the daytime, when

everything goes right, it has to be dark to understand the

magnificence of God. Will you just come?

Outside when you've pleaded with God.

And you don't. Have the answers you're crying

out. We'll just come.

Outside, lift up your head and look at the stars.

That's how we develop friendship with God when he's magnificent,

overwhelms our circumstances, and we can settle on unanswered

questions, knowing that God is good even when we don't

understand. And turn the lights.

On please. I'll tell you about.

Two stars that I met. One was in India.

You can put that little video on the one in the slums.

The two videos, the shorter one. So they're just dropped?

Off at the Super slumber area let's.

See. This is one of.

The deep slum areas of India. And.

I went in there and a little boy like this went up the offering

and I saw he put some coins in. I wish there were two, but that

fits the Bible story. But he just put some coins in

the box and I had the Indian 500 grand in my pocket.

I don't know, they call it lack or something.

And I said, can you get an interpreter and bring that

little boy to me? OK, When I gave him the 500

grand and I said tell this boy if he serves God with his money.

God will bless. Him and open doors for the rest

of his life. And that little boy took that

money to put it into the offering basket.

And his grandpa said no, no boy, this is God speaking to you

about your future. And you?

Can see it's a very tight space and all of a sudden you start to

really love this air conditioned, unbelievable space.

But know that there are Indian people serving God in slum areas

and basements that are hot. And I couldn't wait for the

meeting to end so I could get out and get some air.

So I raced out and Mel came out and that little boy.

He came and he stood next to me. With his body.

Touching my body didn't say a word.

We can't speak the same language, but I just felt like I

was outside and looking at the stars, thanking God.

He took a 57 year old preacher from Praetorian and air

conditioned building into a slum basement to show me that they're

little stars. They're just little stars that

make it all worth it, that make my questions disappear as I sit

with these stars. Jeff and Jane have done the most

remarkable job in Portugal. Could not be more proud of them,

but as Clint said, these tents have been given because of your

finances and that church exists because of your faithfulness.

And your. Generosity, it exists.

I mean their bravery, their obedience, they all those, those

things and they could not be better.

And I have little knowledge of what happens financially in

terms of who gives what. But I got a message from our

accountant that says, from this church, it says 2000 Rand

obedience test. So there's somebody in this

auditorium this morning that is going through a massive wrestle

with God around obedience financially, and they put 2000

Rand into our account. And I'm sitting in Portugal.

There's two meetings. It's in a basement that's

packed, 400 people in this tiny little building.

It's just packed. It's absolutely exploding.

And. Jeff, instead of introducing me

to the church, he said, he says, well, I could get up and tell

the church about you, he said. But what I'm going to do is I'm

going to tell you about the church.

So I'm. Standing.

I have the full. Knowledge that your

faithfulness. Has led.

And helped to lead to the establishment of that church.

Many partners, but one of them is your faithfulness.

And he goes and he says this man Igor is from Russia and he left

Russia when the war started. And then he went to the man next

to him. He said, and this man and

tonight is from the Ukraine. And I thought that partnership

was birthed in the generosity of three CR people, friends of God,

friends of God, sowing into the purposes of God so that the

stars of God can start to shine. And he went around the building

introducing people, weeping, weeping at the knowledge of how

some of those people came to be. But again, sitting in this

basement, I felt completely confined.

So I ran upstairs to get some air between meetings.

And the lady came to me weep. He said, hi, Rory.

Lady Borders said this is Tammy, she's 53 years old, she's from

America. She's never set foot in church

in her life. She has never set foot in church

in her life and she's just listened to me preaching about

God, He said I've never heard of the God you spoke of today.

So Mel comes out, the meeting goes and spends time with Tammy,

leads her to Jesus, and Tammy is now going to church.

And I sat and I thought, there's a man.

Or a woman. Or a student who's wrestling

with the obedience of 2000 Rand and there's Tammy in Portugal

and they linked somebody here is paying for the salvation of

somebody there. And I have to.

Just look at the stars if we can do that again and turn the

lights off. And you're 1 of.

Those stars, Cindy, who stays next to my daughter.

You are one of. Those stars, those seven people

who got baptized because you met Kevin, who runs a Home group and

a gym and got trained by Chad, who got You're also one of those

stars. And when we have.

Questions. We don't know what to do with

them. God.

Comes he doesn't say. Do not be afraid you.

He says do not. Be afraid, Abraham.

He calls him by. Name because he was his friend.

This is my. Pray over the next season of our

lives. Is that we would.

Understand the relationship of Abraham, our father.

Not. Just so they were going to obey

God and we need to so that we can friends of God and link our

stories. Come out of the building, come

out of your house, come out of your little office.

You don't. Have to go to India to do it or

to Portugal. Anton did it in my backyard.

Tonight. Just come out of your house, get

on your knees. Look.

Up and count the stars. And then?