Called To Be Faithful | Dr. Rachel George

You're listening to a message to go from X church. We hope this message

will light up your team. As mentioned, I'm from Penang and I didn't

actually go to AX. So when I moved away to Edinburgh, I went

there for medical school. And when I first went there, one of my

leaders had said, you know, I heard that X is like starting a

plant, like you know, maybe you should visit them. And I had

been to X once or twice from Recess Revolution. Anyone remember Recess Revolution.

Yeah, I used to come for the conferences and things like that. I

had met Pastor Sandra and Pastor Kenneth. They are good friends with my church

pastors, Pastor Palence. Some of you might know Pastor Palence, and so

they had said to me, you know, they might start a plant if

you're free, if you want to, you can go. So two or

three weeks after I was in Edinburgh, I found out who was called started

the plant and just message saying, hey, I am here, I know

about X, and I'll be there. So basically I was kind of like

a complete stranger essentially, And then I turned up to X and continued staying

there, and after that I had taken over and coordinated the next six years

for them until I moved back to Malaysia to work here. And so,

you know, it's quite funny. I always say that I'm like literally came

out of nowhere. I was a bit of like a stranger, didn't really

know X. But you know, this leadership team was so sweet. They

still trusted me even though they didn't like really know me very well at that

time. And you know, so any of you know past a Dave past

the Day one of our youth yeah, past the Day if he's our lead

pastor of X UK, lead past of X London as well. And when

I first joined X Edinburgh, you know, I was like a fresh young

student, you know, going to medical school, like living my best life,

you know. And then I had heard him preach one time and he

had no idea. If you know anything about X Edinburgh, if you've been

there, if you've heard our stories, you know that the majority of our

people are medical students. And when we first started, we had about five

or six people, As you do when you start the church plant, you

know, numbers are initially always quite small. We had five or six people.

Five of them except for Florence and the coordinator, were medical students and

past the Dave right, he has no idea that this is the dynamics of

the room. Right, so he comes, you know past a day if

he's like full preacher, powerful preacher, and he comes and he says this,

and I quote him from his Instagram. Yeah he at Dave yea if

you don't follow him, his instagram said, well he said that day he

was like in my years of campus ministry, I don't see many revived med

students. They either grow too proud for church lead double lives or their backslide

by the time they graduate. I'm like, past the day, who have

you been meeting? And anyway, I prayed that God will raise a new

generation. And I don't even remember the context of the sermon or like why

he said that, but he clearly had no idea. The room was like

full of medical students and at that time, right in that moment, I

took out my phone and I actually have a screenshot of it. If we

can show the screen shot, I wrote, proved Pastor Dave wrong. And

I like, I know, right, like right at the bottom like six

of December twenty fifteen, proof Pastor Dave wrong. And also look at the

top like when I was looking at this right, I was like, what

was That's where I keep all my Serman notes And I don't know what was

who was preaching or what they were preaching about, Like I don't want to

be Satan's victim. I don't know what's that about. But anyway, proved

fast the day wrong. And a few months later, the person who had

started x Edinburgh was moving back to Malaysia, and so they came up to

me and said, you know, would you consider coordinating I've said many times,

like to be honest, I didn't really like pray about it or think

very long, which I don't recommend. You should definitely like pray about Dave

and seek the Lord. But you know I was very gangah. You know,

I had the proof Fast Day of Wrong attitude in my spirit. I

was like, yeah, of course, of course. And they were like

are you sure, Like you're in medical school, are you sure? And

I was like, yeah, yeah, hundred percent, no problem. And

in that moment I would like that anybody who knows me from before, don't

know why you remember Jamie, I would always just do everything and be like,

yeah, yeah, I'll deal with the consequences later and so when it

first started, so that was our first year. We had grown from about

five six people to about fifteen sixteen in that first year and that's when I

took over. And then in the second year when we came back, you

know, second year medical school, and when I took over, the church

really started to grow. That year. We came from like maybe fifteen to

like forty and you know, in my sinful nature, I was like,

yeah, I got this. You know I can do it. Clearly,

I'm so good at this. And you know, it was an amazing year.

And at the end of it, in the nature of student ministry,

people come and people go, as many of you know, if you've been

in X a long time. And at the end of that year, you

know, I was literally at the top. I was like, yeah,

I got this. This job is easy, and Lawrence was I humbled after

that. At the end of that year, we actually had a lot of

crazy turn of events. We had people lose their jobs unfortunately. We had

people physically get departed out of the country because of we sat issues. We

had our building got demolished, we had like moved to a new building because

we were growing, and then one day we got the text saying like,

by the way, the whole building is demolished. I was like, can

I just cancel the contractor well, you demolished the building has to been dramatic.

And then the whole building got demolished and we had nowhere to meet because

we closed one contract and started the next one and they like demolished the building.

So we were like okay. And one day I found myself being coordinated

at twenty twenty one of a church plan that went from like forty people to

like seven overnight, Like just overnightness exaggeration, but you know what I mean,

forty people to seven very quickly. We had no building and we were

living meeting in my living room. We had like five people serving, right.

The worship leader was also like espresso, the chair person was the preacher,

the horse was I don't know what else they would be doing, and

then there would be like one person in the congregation. We were like yeah,

And one day I just found myself sending them being like how did I

end up in this situation? And I mean, from the previous statement,

probably a bit of pride right now, I was really asking God, you

know you had called me to coordinate you know, I was sure that this

was the calling. I was sure I was the person to take this step,

but I didn't quite expect that the reality would change. At that time.

Things were growing, and you just expect things to I don't know,

just expect things to continue to grow, right, They went from like five

to fourteen, fourteen to fourteen. I'm like, yeah, let's go,

you know. And and then suddenly I found myself literally being twenty one with

leading like five people from a church that just numbers went quickly, not because

of any like you know, church drama, nothing like that. It was

like just life's happening. And then the new batch of students came in and

only maybe five or six people and came back. So maybe we averaged about

ten to eleven every year. And you know, I must be honest.

I've moved back to Malaysia for ten months now. I have preached about this

a few times about my experience there, and I always find it very hard

to admit that I don't know why, Like today is probably the first time

I were officially admitted. I always find it quite hard to admit that the

numbers really I really struggled with the number situation. You know, as a

church leader, you are the one who has to be like when two or

three again that God is there, you know, and it's true. I

believe it. I believe on hundred percent. We believe, yeah, one

hundred percent went two or three are gathered there, the Lord is there a

hundred percent believe that. You know, when we were meeting in my living

room, like my tiny living room with like five six people, you know,

I would always tell my team always, you know, the church is

not about the four walls. It's about the Lord's presents. One hundred percent

believe that. But when you don't actually have four walls to meet, it

becomes a bit more real, you see what I mean. Like it's easy

to say that when you have four walls La, right, you're like,

oh, the Lord is here, of Cosla, you are in the four

walls. But when you don't have the four walls, it's a bit like

we don't have the four walls, but the Lord is here. It becomes

quite difficult. If you guys got hard and I always I find it very

hard to admit that the numbers was what I struggle with. I really did.

And at the same time, we were together as Xulyk, we had

X London, we had X Bristol, and everyone else was you know,

really growing. And I started to ask myself. I started to ask God,

you know, is this because I didn't pray hard enough? It's am

I the right person for the job? Do I not have the skills so

I not have enough time? Like? What is going on? What mistake?

And I am I doing? And I know I was really putting and

asking God. I think at one point I was so stressed that like bast

Sandra flew to the UK. She's like, okay, I'll come and see

you. I'm like, you don't have to fly, you can call me.

But she was really sweet, you know, like you know, our

passes are really supportive of us, and they've really been there for me through

the ups and downs, and you know, I just thought it was such

a huge gesture of support and love for her to like fly over and be

with me. And she's like, I'll about you some tea. You'll be

flying, my dear, because we're in obviously in the UK, we just

have some tea. And so anyway, what was I saying? Okay,

so then we we were you know, I was really just asking God we

were coming to a place where I knew I was about to leave the UK,

and we were just didn't have enough manpower. Things were getting quite tight,

and but we still felt this strong call from God to continue meeting week

after week after week, even though that most of the time there was like

five people or six people or seven people to meet week after week after week.

And one day I was traveling and really seeking God in this season of

uton, you know, fasting and praying three weeks before Easter, a good

Friday in Easter, and God really really spoke to me in one of those

moments. I even have a picture of it because he was so significant.

I was sitting on this park bench in Vienna, which is like it's nothing,

It's just like literally a lake, nothing impressive about it. But I

was sitting on the park bench and I got really spoke to me through a

very good book called God Has a Name. If you're looking for a good

read, it is a very good book. And you know, this book

is not really anything, not supposed to be about faithfulness of calling or anything

like that. It's just supposed to be like theologically deep about God's name.

And one of the quote that God really spoke to me through was this.

I'll just read it to you. Faithfulness is a thing of the path.

And here's the problem with that. The best things in life are the result

of faithfulness, usually years, if not decades of faithfulness. Faithfulness is long

obedience in an age of instant tification. And in that moment, right like,

I just knew that God was saying, stay faithful. You might not

have all the answers right now, but stay faithful with that. Let's turn

your bibles to Mark chapter six. So the Book of Mark, you know,

it's a really power packed book. It's a book that, you know,

one story after the Mark known waste time, one story after the other

after the other. It's superpower packed, okay. And at the portion at

chapter six, it starts with Jesus being rejected in his own hometown. Then

he sends out the twelve disciples two by two to preach, cast out demons

to heal. And then later you find out in that same chapter that John

the Baptists had been beheaded and so the news was coming back to them.

And then you find yourself in this portion of Scripture Worse thirty and this is

the only story that is found in all four Gospels, besides the death and

resurrection of Christ. It is the story that if you've been in the church

long enough, you will know it. Even if you haven't been in the

church long enough, you're one hundred percent know it. You've probably heard a

sermon from every angle, from the disciples angle, from Jesus's anger. You

know, you've probably heard this message so many times. When I pray that

you bear with me as we really really familiar story, Okay. Mark Chapter

six was thirty Jesus feed to the five thousand. The apostles returned to Jesus

and told him all that they had done and thought, And he said to

them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while,

for many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Now many saw them going and recognize them, and they ran there on foot

from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore,

he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they

were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said,

this is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them

away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

But he answered them, you give them something to eat. And they

said to him, shall we go and buy two hundred nari worth of bread

and give it to them to eat? And he said to them, how

many loaves do you have? Go and see, And when they had found

out, they said five and two fish. Then he commanded them all to

sit down in the groups on the green grass. So they sat down in

groups by hundreds and by fifties, and taking the five loaves and the two

fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing, and broke the

loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he

divided the two fish among them all, and they all ate and were satisfied.

And they took up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces, and off the fish.

And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men and men men.

Again a very familiar story. And this is not, at least for me,

not the first passage that comes to mind when you think about faithfulness,

right, you don't like think faithfulness and they're like, oh, five loaves

and two fish, you don't think about that. But bear with me.

Okay, When you think about faithfulness in the Bible, who do you think

about? Anyone? Who do you think about when you think about faithfulness?

Jesus? Yeah? Do you think about God? Do you think about Jesus?

You know, the whole Bible really is a story of God faithfully keeping

his covenant with Abraham's family to restore his people and Israel falling shot miserably throughout.

You know, when we read the Bible, especially the Old Testament,

we shouldn't read it as collections of short stories. It's a continuous story about

how God is remaining faithful to us as his people, despite us not remaining

very faithful to him. Okay, and it's it's it's. The whole Bible

is a brutally honest, raw, uncut story about God's faithfulness to Israel and

our struggle to remain faithful in return. When you think about faithfulness, you

also think about married many Bible heroes as we call them. You think about

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Nahimayah, Paul,

you name it. You know, there's some story about faithful faithfulness from

them, But personally I tend to forget that this disciples a little, you

know. I don't know why that is. Maybe that's because you see,

like their lives in such like microscopic views. There's literally like four Gospels telling

you about their lives, and sometimes they just forget that they are also such

examples of faithfulness. You know. You hear about the Disciples. You hear

about their doubts and their fears, their hardened hearts, their confusion, their

exhaustion, their sleepiness, even when Jesus was right there with them. It

does make me feel better about myself because you know, even the Disciples fell

asleep all Jesus was there, and it makes me feel better. But I

think their continued faithfulness to Jesus is remarkable. I think the fact that you

know, you see all the sides of them, which makes a story really

real. Sometimes you hear about the others and you're like, wow, they're

too good to be true, you know, But when you read about the

Disciples, it's real. Like they fall asleep, they get hungry, they

get angry, they get confused. Their hearts are hardened sometimes, but I

find their faithfulness remarkable, especially in the time that Jesus was completely shunned and

people Jesus wasn't generally accepted by the wider community, but the disciples remained faithful.

In this story, they had just come back from ministering, so they

were probably really tired. It says that they were hungry because they've not eaten

for a long time. They were also sad because they had just learned about

John the Baptist beheading, and they had come to Jesus and all they wanted

to do was rest. Sad, hungry and tired, they went. They

went to see Jesus and to rest in him. But of course naturally people

came running after Jesus, and Jesus, being the big man that he is,

you know, he said, right, let's go and minister to these

people instead of resting. And you know, it doesn't say specifically what the

disciples were doing in this time, but I always imagine them like kind of

sighing a bit, being like, oh, here we go again. That

might just be me, but you know, maybe they were like, yeah,

yeah, let's do it. Anyway. Jesus continues to teach, and

they were probably just what watching sitting at the side. And then, you

know, being like the disciples, they did their job, they right right

right, Jesus is about like, marcun time, let's go, let's go,

let's send these people away and a weekend, she'll you know, go,

always have their priorities, right, marcun time, let go. And

then and then Jesus suddenly says to them, you give them something to eat,

And that's not exactly the words that you want to hear when you're sad,

tired, hungry, your rest and your neaptime has been kind of delayed.

Now there's literally nothing in this place. And then your boss is like

you feed them, And when Jesus is your boss, you can't really like

say no thanks. So they were like instead, they were like with what

you know? And I don't know whether the expressions are like the same as

mine, but I kind of like imagine it that way, you know,

like with what how are you expecting me to feed them? Like I'd have

to use all my money and more to buy them enough food. And this

place is desolate. It's not like there's just a stole right here. I

can go and buy right. And you know, I really relate to these

disciples in this moment at that time when God had spoke to me and reminded

me about faithfulness and to be faithful to ex Edinburgh and leading it and leading

the team despite despite the struggles that we were facing. It really felt like

I really felt like the disciples in that moment was sad, was a bit

tired, was always perpetually exhausted and hungry. Um and you know, maybe

not hungry, but you know, and I just really related to the disciples

in that moment when and God saying no, please continue to feed your people,

continue to walk with your people, continue to lead them. And what

is faithfulness? At its core, faithfulness is the concept of unfailingly remaining loyal

to someone or something and putting that loyalty into consistent practice, regardless of extenuating

circumstances. That definition is from Wikipedia, as you do, right, just

google it. And when things are going well, faithfulness is very easy.

When things was going well in the first two years, when they ask me

you and be gone, and of course things are going well, why why

would I say no? But when things are getting difficult, faithfulness and walking

in faith becomes difficult. Correct. Yeah, another quote from the book that

I was telling you about God as a name when life gets hard, so

many of us just bail when it's no longer easy or fun or novel or

appear successful. When it gets difficult or uncomfortable or boring, we just leave.

We leave jobs, we leave cities, we leave churches, friendships,

we leave marriages, we live relationships, we just cut ties and move on.

We are a generation raised on text messaging, making flakiness easier than ever

before. But God is not like that. God is faithful. Yeah.

And in that moment, I just really in that park bench, looking at

that porn and the children running around, I just really felt so strongly that

God is saying, I know it is difficult. I know it is tempting

to just walk away and leave. When you have five people, it even

feels easier to leave. Just shut down the church blood? What are we

doing to shut down the judge blood and move somewhere else? But faithfulness is

long obedience. The point wasn't that the church wasn't you know, quote unquote

successful, church wasn't growing in numbers. That wasn't the point. God was

calling us to be obedient to the calling that he had. We didn't understand

why it seemed logistically easier to just go somewhere else. It seemed logistically easier

to just, you know, close shop, but let's go. But God

was calling us to be obedient. He hadn't directed us yet to close shop,

you know. And so from this, from this passage of scripture that

I read, there's a few things that God just reminded me in that moment,

you know, as he calls you to be faithful, or even for

some of us, as he calls you to respond faithfully to the call that

He has in your life. Maybe he's calling you to something, Maybe he's

prompting in your heart. Maybe you should say yes to this. Maybe you

should, you know, say yes to something in your job. I don't

know. It doesn't necessarily have to be a church thing. It could be

something that he's calling you in your workplace, because God's just not segregated to

our church life, isn't it. God is our whole life. And so

maybe it's something at work, maybe it's something at church. Maybe it's something

with your family, with your relationships, and God is saying, be faithful

to me and obey me even though it might not seem great, it might

not seem easy, maybe it's difficult, maybe it doesn't appear successful to the

eyes of the world. But he's saying, maybe he's prompting in your heart

to say yes and obey and respond faithfully. And there's a few things in

this chapter, in this portion of scripture. Sorry that God just reminded me

in that season. Yeah, have I given you the title yet? No?

Right? Classic? Oh you sorry there, Okay. I always do

this, like at the end, I'll be like, oh, sorry.

The title is called to be faithful. Point number one. You already have

all that you need. Amen. When when Jesus spoke to the disciples and

said go and see what you have, their first response was with one.

And Jesus said, well, jes didn't say, like, go and see

what the shops have. He said, go and see what you have,

what you already have in front of you. And you know, as we

know, they found the five loaves and the two fish. And for me,

in that season of time, you know, I focused a lot on

worrying about what I didn't have. I didn't have a building, I didn't

have I don't know a big number of people. We didn't have many musicians

at all. You know, most of the time it was me very not

like Abigail, Abigail his pianos like that of them, my pianos like I

can't play something God's Lam. And so, you know, we didn't really

have that many musicians, and that was the thing that I focused on.

I was like, oh, we don't have a guitarist. What do I

do? What do I do? And and you know, in that time,

God was like, go and see what you have, Like why is

your mindset on what you don't have? And so then I realized that,

you know, I had a team. Yes, there were five people,

but I had a team who loved the Lord, who had been faithfully with

me every week despite this whole number situation. They were always there a week

after week after week. We had it runs service every week for four years.

And like I didn't realize that. All all I could focus on was

what I didn't have. Didn't have a guitarist, didn't have a drummer,

didn't have a building, didn't have this, didn't have that. And God

was saying, just go and see what you have. He had shown me

experiences in my life in the past of leading teams, leading small teams and

watching it grow. And he was like, I've already equipped you. I've

already given you these experiences. You already have everything that you need. Point

number two, You're little is so much in God's hands. As they surrendered

the five loaves and the two fish, what happened. God managed to feed

five thousand plus plus plus and there were basketfuls left over. Our job is

not to worry about what God does with the five loaves and the two fish.

Our job is to just faithfully give, and as we faithfully give,

God uses it the way he uses it. How he uses it is completely

up to him. Our job and our part is just to obediently give the

little that we have. You know, I think there's a picture of my

team's We used to joke that we literally only had five loaves and two fish,

but we only had like five girls which are the loaves, and two

guys which are and we always like in their season. We were lave joke

all the time. We're like, yeah, yeah, God years the five

loads and two fish west the five thousand basketful life over. But we literally,

I mean I'm not joking, We literally only had like five loads and

two fish. I think we also have pictures. I think I did send

pictures. Let's pause for a while. Let me show you some pitches X

Edinburgh, So I brought some pictures. So this is twenty fifteen to twenty

sixteen. When I told you that, like you know, yeah, this

was before I became coordinator, and I was like, yeah, I look

at us. And then next year and this was in twenty sixteen, twenty

seventeen, our team was really really really growing. We had our first X

kids ever. There was only whoa Floren's excitement because she knows that there's the

only year we had X kids. The next night. Over the years,

you know, this were like when students would come in and come come out.

You can just go next yeah, and then the next year yeah.

And then this is when the pandemic started. Obviously all the zoom screenshots which

sudden meat in the pandemic. This was literally the last service before lockdown.

And then I think there are a few more pictures, and this is over

the pandemic, when men people weren't in the UK and back home in Malaysia.

And this was right before I left. This was my four walls at

the bottom. Yes, Josiah, Josiah, Yeah, Josiah is there.

He studied in Southampton, I think, yeah, Southampton. Yeah, so

he came to our ex UK getaway as well. And these are the teams

that we serve. One year, we had like the three of us at

the corner, Me, Florence and also a girl called Jamie. And then

the one at the bottom is like our og team that's been there for the

first year. And some of you might recognize how the pain who it rose.

Yeah, so they were there in the UK as well. Anyway,

back to the points. Sorry for the interjection. What was I saying?

You're little is so much in God's end At times we had three of us,

Florence, me and my best friend Jamie. We were the core team

during the whole year of the pandemic. We were the cour team. I

think most of the time series was also just us and then there was two

or three other people. But we met faithfully because that was what God had

called us to do. Again, give, we give faithfully. What He

does with it up to him. My job is just to give it,

give faithfully and obey him. Amen. And so you know we see from

this portion of scripture. God reminded me, you already have all that you

need. You might not understand. But when I call you to something,

and I ask you to respond to something, and I already give you everything

that you need, even though it might not seem like it in your eyes,

which is obviously what the disciples felt. You want to feed all these

people, but you gave me five loaves and two fish, are probably like,

uh, what am I going to do with this? But the little

that you give become so much in God's hands. Amen, let's read on

a little bit. If you go to the next portion of scripture, I

think I have it up as well. Mark Chapter six was forty five to

fifty two. Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go

on ahead of him to Basceda while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them,

he went up on a mountainside to pray. Later that night, the

boat was in the middle of the lake and he was alone on land.

He saw the disciples training at the oars because the wind was against them.

Shortly before dawn, he went out to them walking on the lake. He

was about to pass them by it, but when they saw him walking on

the lake. They thought he was a ghost. They cried out because they

all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said,

take courage, it is I don't be afraid. Then he climbed into the

boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed,

for they had not understood about the loaves. Their hearts were hardened, and

man, isn't that wild? Like they literally just saw Jesus. In one

of the versions, it says that the braid was preyed upon, given to

their hands and they broke it out. Now imagine these ya. You're the

disciple. You have this braid in your hand is suddenly miraculously not stopping to

break, and you fed five thousand people. And then it says here that

their hearts were hardened. They didn't understand at all about the loaves. They

didn't appreciate at all about their loaves. I don't know why. Were they

hungry, tired, confused, this exhausted, can be can't think about it

anymore. But their hearts were too hard to take it in and stays In

one of the versions as well, they literally saw Jesus feed five thousand people

and more with five loaves and two fish bread most likely in their hands,

and they didn't understand because their hearts were hardened. Isn't it so real?

Many times for me at least, I hope not for you. But I

think for a lot of us, we get so preoccupied with our own circumstances,

with our own situations, that we forget to see what God is doing

through and in and around our lives. You know, we forget to see

that God is literally using us to reach even this one life, we reach

this one person. But then we worry about, oh God did and give

me these? God and give me that? Didn't give me this? But

He's like actively, miraculously working in front of us. And in that season

that that that I was in, you know I really related to that.

I was so inward focused, you know, so worried about numbers, so

worried about what the world would think, so worried about what other people thought

about our church. Plant didn't realize what God was doing right in front of

me. A few stories to share about our times in ex Edinburgh. Yes,

we were always we were always small in number, but you know we

have seen God really moved so miraculously. I keep looking at Florence. I'm

like, right now, yeah, please agree her. And one of the

stories I always tell is that we had a partner from come from Germany.

Her name is Tina, and she came to visit. She had no intention

of coming to church. She is a Christian born in a Christian family,

but she had not been to church for years and years, and she had

no intention at all to come to church. I know her because my sister

lives there. We had some connections, met her for coffee, said hey,

you want to come to church, you can come. Don't come to

church, never mind. And so then I just we just continued meeting and

one day she just appeared at church. She had not even texted me about

it. She just appeared that day. She really encountered God and she gave

her life back to Jesus. In that room. There was like ten people,

right, It wasn't like some big fancy building. Were literally meeting in

like a basement, you remember, and literally meeting in a basement, not

fancy at all, really more room. And she came that day and she

gave her life to Christ again. And she continued to be so on fire

for God that when she moved back to Germany. She went back to her

local church and she started leading her youth team and brought many many people to

Christ and continue to lead them and serve so faithfully. Now many times I

think about this and I say, oh, could she could have encountered God

somewhere else, doesn't matter, she could have, but God used ex Edinburgh

in that time. She came to x Edinburgh in that time. Yes,

logistically a lot of other things could happen, but God met her in ex

Edinburgh. There was a purpose for us to meet and this life was given

back to Christ that day. She continues and remains on fire for Christ,

and she's reached so many people in her nations. Another story I tell,

which I think actually passed Stevenson. I thought this would be the first time

I'll share this story with him here. But basically, he was traveling to

in the UK a few years ago. She didn't really know why, maybe

for fun, I don't know, but he was traveling with some friends there

and obviously we knew each other, and so he came to Edinburgh to visit

me and brought a few friends along and it was really funny, Like this

time, it's doing summer, Right, you have to understand someone in the

UK is like nobody's there one like everybody is traveling, Like if you're there,

you're like why you were here, And we were all there because of

medical school. We were still in UNI at that time. And that was

the first time in many years that we were challenged to meet faithfully despite it

being summer's season, because normally we just take a break during that season because

everyone's away. And so we met faithfully and it was really funny. We

thought it was God was just teaching us a story about obedience. We thought

God was just teaching us like, you know character, you know, like

build your resilience. That's what we thought, and so we met. We

continued meeting in the hotel venue and literally, I kid you not that for

seven weeks that was literally like five hours every week and I would preach every

other week, and I kid you not, like it would literally be me

preaching to my FAU friends and we're like okay, And it was really funny.

I think they were like buy it or listening to me by then,

and so you know, we were just I don't even kind of remember what

I was preaching, but you can ask us US. Even next week,

he still members what I was preaching and I cannot remember at all. And

so one day Passes even walks in with his two friends, and I had

no idea. I think he did mention that one of the girls who wasn't

Christian, but I think I shared something about like giving, like offering giving,

no, not like giving your life. It was like offering giving,

and like at the end, I was like, oh, yeah, I

know she's not a Christian. Should I just do the salvation call? Because

a week after week I didn't do the Salvation call, right, I know,

these five people for what? And then I was like, okay,

maybe I'll do the Salvation call. And you know, maybe it's so bad

I shouldn't expect, not forgotten, not to move. But I really didn't

expect anything, like, you know, like not at all. And literally

I was like, yeah, you know, you can give you a life

and tree simple sac and then suddenly like she put up her head and she

gave her life to Christ. And I was like, oh my gosh,

like, oh my goodness, she's literally giving her life to Christ. And

I was like, oh what do I do with myself? And literally I

did not expect it at all, and in that season, our team didn't

expect it at all. We honestly thought God was just teaching us obedience,

teaching us to meet faithfully because He has called us to meet faithfully. And

she gave her life to Christ. I still until today like baffles me.

I'm like wow. And you know, it was so amazing that like God

had used that moment for And you know, God had spoke to us many

months ago to meet faithfully in this season, and we never understood why they

are the only people who visited us in that whole seven weeks. And she

gave her life to Christ. And I was just in awe of how God

can move and what he can do. Another more recent story is, as

you know, the pandemic, we couldn't meet for a very long time X

Edinburgh the year I left. Unfortunately, there was a lot of people who

were leaving in and out, and many of you might know Monsing, who

was from our ex teens here. She's now a coordinative of X Edinburgh and

she's doing such an amazing job. She took over after me, and Florence

took over after me, and Monthing after her, and she's doing an amazing,

amazing job, but unfortunately they don't have an in house speaker at the

moment, so all their speaking sessions are either their Sundays is are either MTGS

visitors coming from London or from Bristol, or we preach to them. Why

are zoom? And you know like zoom like after a wild night? Have

people tired of zoom anymore? Like I don't know what you guys die of

zoom. I'm super tired of zoom actually, And I always feel for them

because it's so hard to run a church plant that is already small. From

personal experience, I'm sure many of you on the starting team also understand that

it's quite difficult to run a church plant that is already small. But when

you don't have an in house speaker, you're like even more, you're like

your visit. And most of their weeks are actually just on the screen.

Most of the weeks is only zoom. And I kid you not, they

have grown so much in the past year. They've gone from five to faithful

fifteen. I don't even know where these people come from, Like God just

bring them in. And one time I spoke to them over Zoom again,

me and my classic nature, not really expecting anything. On top of that,

it's always zoom. You know, you don't get the same like wives,

you know, like you want to laugh. You don't get that,

And so I just just bray okay, And again didn't even know the people

in the room except the leadership team because they were all new. And after

preaching, I think you might have been left flow. Like after Appreachia,

I think Florence or someone gave the Dave the Salvation call, and like I

was still on the camera on zoom, and I was just like looking at

them again, didn't expect anything. And suddenly like two people gave their life

to Christ that day and have continued to like serve faithfully. I think I

should learn a lesson by now, you know, realize that it's not really

me, is God moving and I should start to expect more, I feel,

But in that moment, especially why I zoom, I was like,

didn't expect anything. And two people gave their life to Christ. A few

weeks after passers Sandra Spook and another two people gave their life to Christ.

And this is a small church plant that don't have an in house speaker.

I kid you not, they only have a pianist. Every week that they

don't have a guitarist, the same two people played the piano every week,

every single week. The same person chess no in house speaker, and at

least four people have given their life to Christ these past few months. How

amazing is God and how amazing is He when he moves a man. And

to think that many years ago I considered giving up close, quitting and closing

shot because it didn't look glamorous enough, it didn't look successful enough. The

portion of scripture that we just read. When you remain faithful in God and

you walk with Him faithfully week after week, month after month, sometimes you

will be caught up in your own emotions and your hearts will be too hardened

when He does the miracles in front of you. But as you continue to

faithfully walk with Him, as the disciples did, you start to see Him

doing amazing things. You walk on water, you see him walk on water.

You see these things, and as it says in the worst it says,

you will be completely amazed. If you see in the portion of scripture

that we just read, they were completely amazed, for they had not understood

about the loaves. Their hearts were hardened, and and that was something that

was so real for me. As I continued to walk in obedience despite not

understanding the situation, I was completely amazed at how God moved. Amen,

as we close, just read. The last part of scripture was fifty three.

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gannast and anchored there.

As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognize Jesus. They

ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard

he was, and wherever he went into villagious towns or countryside, they placed

the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the

edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. My favorite

part of this, and the point to end with, is that it's just

that portion of Scripture was fifty four. As soon as they got out the

boat, people recognize Jesus. You know the first few points I mentioned.

You know you already have all that you need. Your little is so much

in God hands. You know you will be completely The amaze a lot of

dead was encouragement to me. You know I will I have all that I

need. I you know all these things. You know, I will be

completely amazed. Good, good, good. It carried me through, but

even as it came back, even as I reflected more. It's one part

of the scripture that the whole thing. When God calls you to something,

When God calls you to step in obedience, even when it doesn't look super

successful on the outside, even when it's hard, even when it's difficult.

You know, at the end of the day, the story is not about

you, unfortunately, but for the story is about Jesus. It is to

make Jesus known. As you see in this portion of scripture, all that

the disciples did when they didn't understand when they saw him working on water,

you know, it all pointed back to Jesus when they got out of the

boat. The people recognize Jesus when God calls you to something to God calls

you to walk obediently. At the end of the day, the story really

isn't about you or me. It is about making Jesus known, making Jesus

recognize by the people around you. Your life, the work of your hands

should always always point to Jesus. We are merely the vessels. It is

our privilege to be given the bread to break to the people. It was

our privilege to be on that boat, to to watch Jesus walk on water.

He doesn't need us, but it is our privilege to encounter him and

experiencing the story is about him and making Jesus known, making people recognize Jesus.

Amen. You know I knew that God had called me to be faithful

to lead Accitinburg. Do I now have some story to say that, like,

yeah, you know, I listen to God and stay faithful, and

then here I am with a church plan of like accitinbur now has a thousand

people. Know. Instead, I had have coffees with people who have met

me, you know, people who've been curious about what we're doing in Edinburgh,

and people have told me directly, you guys would be more successful if

you joined some other church. You know, I'm like, wow, no,

thanks friend, And some people tell me you would be more directly,

I'm kid, you know that, I quote world forward, you would be

more influential if you were in a bigger church. I'm like wow. And

honestly, honestly, human nature, that can be very hard to hear something

that you're right, being real, that can be very hard to hear.

You spend a lot of your time and your energy in a small church plant,

for example, or anything that God has called you to that doesn't look

successful to the eyes of the world, doesn't look you know, amazing or

glamorous to the eyes of the world. But God calls you there and you

faithfully do it, and then someone comes up to you and be like you

would be more successful, would be more influential if you were somewhere else.

That's very difficult to hear. And even as I made my move back to

Malaysia, many of you know that the healthcare system here has issues. That's

all I can say. It's the government seven please don't fire me. Many

many people, more than the church situation. Many many, many, many

many people told me I was making a huge mistake. Did I feel like

I was making a huge mesa? All the them all the time? When

I started working here, I was like, I have made a huge mistake.

Why am I doing in my life? But God had spoken so clearly,

God had so much shown so much favor to open the door here.

But when I came back, when I took the pay cart, when I

took the difficult, difficult path, you can ask me later recad path of

working here, the struggles and the trials of insecurity, about my future.

But God had said I want you to come home. I was like,

God, why are you doing this to me again? Why don't you give

me something that I can say, Yeah, this is successful, Yeah,

this is influential. Church. Can I leave you with one last thing.

There's a quote from Ausfold Chambers that when you know it's Ausfold Chambers, you're

like, it's gotta be good. Always measure your life solely by the standards

of Jesus. Amen. And when you measure your life solely by Jesus's standards,

you realize that it is not about the glamorous. Don't get me wrong,

success, it is not. It doesn't mean you're Christian going to be

successful. Okay, of course you can. But but the most important thing,

you should measure your life solely by Jesus's standards. If Jesus calls us

to obey in something that appears unglamorous, something that appears difficult, something that

appears to the world is unsuccessful, then obey solely measure your life by his

standards. Even as I led X Edinburgh, there were many times that I

really worried about what people would think. Who really worried about the numbers being

small by has shown time and time again numbers not my problem. For my

problem is to serve God faithfully and watch lives change. In X Edinburgh,

we have seen disciples made, life saved. You know, I have had

the privilege of baptizing to my best friends, one of them. Here.

I've had at least seven people give their life to Christ in moments that I

don't expect at all. But more importantly, I've seen disciples been made.

I've seen people go back to the nations and serve their community, reach out

to the people and around them. Maybe next time that will add up to

five thousand plus plus plaus basketfuls left over. But at the moment, I'm

happy that we just walk obediently with Christ. We hope you've been blessed by

this message. For more information on our church, please visit X Church RG.

We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week. I hit for you, God, bless