Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, friends, we are all in for a wonderful treat today because we've got friends to you guests joining us here at Rediscover Church. Mark is ministering on the road today. I don't know where he is, but he's, he's somewhere preaching the gospel. Mike and Amy are having a wonderful little break which is lovely as well. And I hope if they're watching online, you're enjoying the sunshine, Mike and Amy, but we have the great, great, great privilege of having Carl and Danny Johnson, the family with us today. Carl and Danny Johnson, they lead a wonderful Elam church. They're Elam ministers. They've served within Eland for many, many years. Long term friends of Mark and Mike and the family as well. And they serve a church leader church called Letchworth Garden City Church, which is a wonderful church and I don't know whether Carl will give a bit of an intro to that very shortly, but Carl's gonna be bringing the word to us today and we are going to receive it. I wonder whether you would welcome not just by giving him a Rediscover welcome, but a warm Devonshire. Devonshire welcome. Carl Johnson this morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Good morning.
Morning. Great to see you and thank you for that welcome. It really is wonderful to be here today with you. In fact, it's not our first time as a family here with you. Just about a year ago we were in the area celebrate, we had a big birthday in our family and we were staying locally and we just had the privilege of coming and being with you and fellowshipping with you on a Sunday. It was wonderful just to see you in this environment. As Elim family, we've kind of watched your journey. We've seen how God has just been doing some great things, wonderful things amongst you as a church, as a family and we've just been watching that and so it's been wonderful to, to see that and to be here with you again today. As Sean said, we are here from Letchworth here, my wife Danny and our two girls Evie May and Rosie Grace and just such a privilege just to bring the word of God to you. And today, do you know that we're living in exciting times, aren't we? I really, really just sense that I know wherever we are, just the privilege of connecting with different leaders around the UK and there really just seems to be a growing sense that the Lord is moving in power through his church right now. And I know that you're seeing that here in Exeter in this wonderful city and what the Lord is doing. I believe the Lord is preparing his church. It's almost like we see the cloud the size of a man's hand and there's heavy rain on the horizon of a heavy rain of just the sense of the Lord pouring out his spirit. Anybody sense that? And people coming to know the Lord and just fresh stories of what the Lord's doing around us. And very much in Letchworth, Garden City. It is a garden city. It sounds posher than it is, but we really just sense the Lord doing that as well. People who maybe even. That's your story here today, that you woke up one day and just sensed that I need to be in a. In church. I need to be in an environment that's unusual to me. And the Lord is drawing his people. And we're just hearing stories and stories right now. People who are watching online. Maybe you're online today and just sensing the Lord is drawing them and moving by his spirit in people's lives. And come on. Anybody sense that right now? And just the Lord doing something amongst us in our nation. I believe he's preparing his church for something. It's very much that. What I want to speak to you about today. If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew, chapter 22. I want to ask you a question today. It's a rhetorical question, but one that I want you to consider. And it's this question, are you ready? Are you ready? And I want us just to read this parable that Jesus speaks. He's speaking about the kingdom of God and what it's like in this parable that he speaks to us here. And it says in Matthew 22, says, Jesus spoke to them again in parables. And he said, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come. But they refused to come.
Then he sent some more servants and he said, tell those who have been invited that I've prepared my dinner. The oxen, the fattened cattle, they've been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet. But they paid no attention and they went off. One to his field and another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and he destroyed those murderers and he burned their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding banquet is ready, but those I have invited did not deserve to come.
So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find so the servants went out into the streets and they gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes, friend? The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, tie him hand and foot, throw him outside into the darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are invited, but few are chosen. Another translation says, for many are called, but few are chosen. Jesus here is talking about the kingdom of God. He's talking about what the kingdom of God is. Is like. I wonder, in your world, do you have friends or maybe somebody you're sat next to this morning? But they have excuses for everything. Anybody know those people? Doesn't matter what you're inviting them to. They have excuses for everything. The people in this parable, they have their excuses ready. They're busy. They've got a farm, they've got a family. Their reasons. Their excuses are ready. There is a reason why I can't come to church this week. There's a reason that I go to God. They're full of excuses. They're full of reasons as to why they cannot come to the wedding banquet. People have all sorts of excuses. Many are called, but few are chosen. Is a. It's a direct statement that you can. You can be in the room, but not ready for the room.
That you can be at the right address, but you're not dressed for. For the address. You're not dressed for the occasion. You're not ready for what it is that you are stepping into. And this weighted statement that Jesus speaks is a indication to you and me, it's an indication to us of just how important God looks at this. That God treats us, his followers, his children, those who are his disciples, that we need to be ready. Church. I want to ask you today, are you ready? Are you ready? Are you dressed appropriately? Now? Whenever the Bible talks about dress, when it talks about garments, when it talks about clothes, it's not talking about the physical clothes that you chose to put on today. He's not talking about those physical things. In fact, the word that dress, to dress or to clothe yourselves is a biblical metaphor. It's a metaphor for spiritual readiness.
It's a metaphor for authority. It's an understanding that there are new spiritual realities, if you like, that the Lord wants to lead us into. There are new experiences. There are new ways of mission. There are new stories, there are new people to reach. There are new realities for us to experience.
But we have to be ready. We have to be dressed accordingly. We have to be at the right address and dress ready for the occasion that the Lord has sent before us. And so we're not talking here about outer garments, we're not talking about external outfits. The Lord is talking to us about readiness, spiritual readiness. I love what it says Paul says in the book of Romans, Romans, chapter 13. And I'm going to read it from the new living translation because it says it rather direct and I quite like that. It says, the night is almost gone, the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, put on the shining armor of right living. Paul then goes on to say, he says, clothe yourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't let yourself think about ways to indulge evil desires.
Clothe yourselves, Paul says, with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The parable that we read is the Lord's way of telling us, hey, church, this, this really matters. Wake up. This really matters. This is important stuff. This is weighty stuff that he is talking to us about. And we need to be ready. We need to be a church, we need to be a bride, we need to be a body followers of Jesus who are ready for what it is that he wants to do. And so this morning, if I can, I want to just spend some time with you, talking about the deeper application of what it means to be ready. Anybody want to be ready? Anybody want to be ready for the purposes of God and what it is that he wants to do? Come on. The Lord wants to ready our hearts and he wants to speak into that. I believe today, in the time that we have. And I want to just talk to you about three things I believe that we need to be ready in. The first one is we need to be identity ready. We need to be identity ready. We need to know who we are, knowing who we are, need to know our identity and who we are in Christ Jesus. It feels like in the backdrop of our society today, and I don't want to get drawn too much into it, but everything around identity is up for grabs. There's a narrative that the world is creating around identity and what it is to. To walk in maleness or femaleness. But church, I want to say to you today that as followers of Jesus Christ, we need to know our identity. Amen. We need to know who we are, that we are. That we are sons and daughters of the living God. Anybody believe that today, that that's who we are? That's my identity in Christ Jesus. I am a child of the living God, that he has created me, that he formed me, that he knows me, he breathed life into me. And that I, according to Genesis chapter one, I carry the image of Christ within me, that that's who I am. And I'm clear, rock solid foundation in my identity of who I am in Christ Jesus. Because church, I don't know if you've noticed, and maybe this is your story or maybe you know someone that you're praying for right now in the season of their life, but here is the thing. If we don't know who we are, we will think and behave in a way that is not in alignment with how God and who God creates created us to be. That we will think and behave in a way that is contrary to the kingdom of God. Maybe that's a story in a season of your life that we lost our identity. We lost that firm foundation of knowing who we are. And we went astray. We wondered, we began to walk in a way that if we're honest, it was contrary to God's best for our lives.
Maybe you got a son or a daughter, a grandchild, somebody you're praying for, a neighbor, a friend, and you're praying for them right now, season of their life. And they're living a way that's contrary to the kingdom of God. See, the king, he walked into the room.
Parable the king, he walked into the room and said, you're not ready for the wedding, you're not ready for the banquet, you're not wearing the clothes for who you're supposed to be. Church. Again, we're not talking about physical attire.
You're not ready.
You're a child of the living God. We need to know who we are, clothe ourselves in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we need to dress appropriately. Throughout Scripture, there are many different kind of references to what kind of attire that we need to wear.
For example, in Ephesians 6, it talks about the armor of God. You know, Ephesians 6 and it says, put on the armor of God. There's an attire that we're supposed to wear. It talks about the feet of peace, that we carry a gospel of peace. And every day we need to put on the sandals of peace. Why? Because we carry a gospel of peace. And as people who carry the gospel of peace, we need to walk in that peace. There are many other references that we can see throughout scripture, but I love and I particularly want to focus on Isaiah 61. In Isaiah 61, the prophet here, he gives us some attire, some clothes that are appropriately that help you and I as followers of Jesus, to dress appropriately to be ready for the banquet and to be ready for the things that the Lord wants to lead us into. In Isaiah 60:1. Let me just read some verses here to you. It says, the Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me. He's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. It goes on in verse three. And he says to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, oil of joy instead of mourning. Listen to this. A garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness. A planting of the Lord for the display of whose splendor. His splendor. Look at verse 10. He goes on. He says, I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul, it rejoices in him, for he has clothed me. There we go, garments of salvation. And he's arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, as a bride adorns herself with jewels.
Here the prophet Isaiah, he gives us some clothing, some attire, some things that we need to wear in order to ready ourselves for the purposes of God. He says that we need to put on the robe of righteousness.
We need to put on the robe of righteousness. You know, as I look out to you here today, as wonderful as the people that you're sat next to today, I want to tell you today that they didn't wake up looking the way they do right now.
You look wonderful, but you didn't wake up looking that way. I hope your story of this morning along the way was that sometime when you woke up, some water hit your face, that you readied yourself, you had a shower, you got washed, and then you got dressed. And then, depending on how much time you perhaps needed, you applied stuff to your hair and your makeup, and you took your time.
There was a degree of intentionality about our getting ready. Can we agree on that? Today there was intentionality. We got ready with intention. Church, I want to say to you today that the robe of righteousness will not just fall on you. We have to be intentional. Come on. The robe of righteousness. It won't just accidentally fall upon you.
Won't just wake up one day and think, oh, there it is. No, we have to be intentional. We have to put on the robe of Righteousness. We have to appropriately dress ourselves. You see, I believe that the Lord has given us access to a wardrobe. He's given us access to a wardrobe. And we need to go and we need to look for the robe of righteousness. But you see, here's what we do. We go to the wardrobe, but we pull out the robes that we wore yesterday. Anybody have that kind of pattern? You know, you wake up in the morning and you pick up yesterday's clothes that are perhaps on the floor and you think, they'll do. I'll wear them. Nudge the person next to you, if that's appropriate to them. We do that, don't we? We put on yesterday's clothes. But you see, the problem is, when we go to the wardrobe, we put on yesterday's clothes. We put on a robe of rejection. We put on a robe of abandonment. We put on a robe of shame. We put on a robe of negativity. Come on. How often and how easy do those old robes slip on us? Come on, anybody in the room? It's too easy, isn't it? We go to the wardrobe and we pull out the robes that we think we have to walk in. We pull out the old robes, yesterday's robes, and those robes that so easily fit as the robe of fear, the robe of shame, the robe of rejection, the robe of abandonment. So easily they slip on us.
But you see church every morning.
Every morning. I believe that we have to go to that same wardrobe and we have to, intentionally, with intentionality, we have to pull out the robe of righteousness. Amen. We have to pull out the robe of righteousness. Why? Because my identity is in Christ Jesus. That I know who I am. 2 Corinthians tells me that the old is gone, yesterday's clothes have gone, and I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus. Come on. Anybody believe that today? That I can walk in that newness, that new creation that he has created me to be as a son, as a daughter of the living God, no matter what your age, no matter what your Christian experience, no matter what your journey has been, that when we step into that relationship in Christ Jesus, not by anything that we've achieved, but only because of what he achieved on that cross for you and I, that we can walk with a robe of righteousness confidently, we can put it on. Not that we deserve it. Come on. You know the story of the prodigal son, don't you? What does the story tell us? It says that the father saw the son returning from afar. He picked up his dress if you like. It was a man dress, and he picked it up and he ran towards him. And what does it say? It says the first thing he did is he put a robe and a ring upon him.
He didn't deserve it. Squandered the inheritance.
He didn't deserve it.
The Father chose because he had the right, he had the authority to put that robe upon him. Church today. The Father in Heaven, he loves you. And no matter what your story, no matter your background here today, whether you're watching online, whether you're in the room for the very first time, I want you to know that the Father in Heaven that we sing about, the one that we speak about, he loves you. He loves you with all of his heart. In two weeks, we're going to celebrate the Easter story, the greatest story of Father in Heaven who sent the prized possession of heaven to die on a cross for our sins. I love what Sean said earlier on in Communion. It's not about the sin. The only sin that Jesus put on was our sin. And the only righteousness that we can put on is his righteousness.
That's all it is. We don't deserve it. It's not by our works, but we put on the robe of righteousness.
We put on that robe today. The Father says, come here. Let me put that robe on you. Let me put my love on you. Let me put my grace on you. Let me put my mercy on you. Come on. Anybody thankful for his grace and his mercy today in Exeter? Anybody thankful that we don't have to put on the robe of rejection? We don't have to put on the robe of condemnation, but there's a robe of righteousness for you today that you can put on. The robe is his divine covering. It covers all blemishes, all sins, and it presents us as holy before a holy God. Isaiah says, it's not the only robe. It's not the only garment. There's a garment of praise, garment of salvation, garment of salvation, but specifically of praise. But notice what he says here in verse three. He says, put on a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. If you were to read another translation of that, it would talk about a spirit of heaviness. When he's talking about heaviness, what he's talking about is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness or negativity. That's what he's talking about. Despair, heaviness, hopelessness, negativity that we can so often feel.
That's what he's talking about here in this moment. And when we get up. We need to put on a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. But here's the thing.
Before we can put on a garment of praise, we have to throw something off.
We have to throw off heaviness. We have to throw off negativity. We have to throw off despair. Because what often happens is we just want to put praise on top of despair.
Let me explain, if I can explain it this way. Those of you who have children in the room, you may understand this. But when you ask your children to get ready, they go and get ready for the place that we're going to. They get ready for where they're going to, where's the place we're going to, and they get ready. But often they bypass the step where they have to have a shower first.
And what happens is they put clothes on, clean clothes on a dirty body. And then we kind of think, well, it's okay, because I can fix that. And we get some deodorant and we spray the deodorant. Come on, don't deny it. You've all done it. We spray the deodorant on and we think, I can fix that. And we put a temporary fix over ourselves.
You see, so often, that's what I believe he's saying here. He said, put on a garment. Praise instead of a spirit of despair, instead of a spirit of heaviness church, we need to throw off the garments of heaviness before we put on the garment of praise that we need to get rid in order to put on. There are things that we need to throw off, and often we try and wear both at the same time. Let me explain that a little bit more. We come into church today and great team, worship team, they lead us, and they've been here early, I'm sure praying for you, maybe even just rehearsing a few days ago. And they come and they preparing themselves to lead you into the presence of God. And they come and they give their best, they bring their energy, and they're encouraging you to stand and to sing, and they're encouraging you to clap your hands, and if it's Jason on the stage, he wants you to jump. And they kind of getting you to do all sorts of things, trying to lead you into the presence of God. And you're like, okay, I can go with this. I'm going to do this. I can lift my hands in praise. I can lift my hands and give praise to God. But if we're honest, we've actually. What we've done is we've Come in with a spirit of heaviness.
Maybe it's the heaviness of a week.
Maybe it's the heaviness of a relationship difficulty. Maybe it's the despair of finance. Maybe it's the despair of unemployment. Maybe it's the despair of health, your mental health. Challenges that we all go through, things that we struggle with and we come in and we carry the spirit of heaviness and we try and put on and we try and put on a garment of praise. But church, I believe what we need to do is we need to come in and we need to know who we are in Christ Jesus. And today I'm going to throw off the spirit of despair. I'm going to throw off the spirit of heaviness. And I'm going to put on a garment of praise and I'm going to begin to stand and I'm going to begin to declare who I am in Christ Jesus. And I'm going to walk in faith and I'm going to begin to praise God, knowing who I am. You see, when we put on that garment of praise, it has nothing to do with how we look, but everything to do with that deep sense of joy that God has placed on the inside of us. Amen. Everything to do with what he has placed on the inside of us.
We have to make a choice to put it on. We have to make a choice to throw off despair. We have to make a choice to put on praise.
Church, I believe that we need to get identity ready. Maybe even in this room right now.
Maybe even in this room right now, online, wherever you're watching some of us today, we've come in and we've got some heaviness maybe here today, and you've got that overwhelming sense of hopelessness, some stuff going on.
We need to throw off despair, put on a garment of praise.
Do you know a garment of praise? Actually, it's not a garment at all. It's an outlook. It's a mindset. It's an attitude that we need to begin to adopt. That praise is an outlook of gratitude and thankfulness.
That my God is bigger than any despair I carry. Anybody believe that today? That my God is bigger than any hopelessness? That my God, come on, can we just thank God right now for his robe of righteousness? Can we honor God right now?
And I pray right now as you honor God even in this room. I know it's conventional to wait till the end of a sermon before we respond, but I even believe right now that some of you need to say hopelessness be gone in the name of Jesus, that you need to begin to align your language with your faith that says, I am no longer going to walk in hopelessness. But even right now, Spirit of God, would you come and would you lift negativity away from me in Jesus name?
And I adopt and I begin to adorn a robe of righteousness and a garment of praise.
I'm going to walk in my identity church. I believe that we need to be ready in this season and we need to be identity ready.
The second thing I think we need to be ready for is we need to be purpose ready, identity ready and purpose ready, purpose ready not just for who you are now, but where it is the Lord wants to lead you, ready for where you're going.
You see in many jobs, and maybe you have a job like this, although it seems to be decreasingly familiar or usual. But there is often a dress code for the job. If you're a police officer, there's a dress code. If you're a lawyer going into a courtroom, there's a dress code. There is a dress code that we have to wear. Do you know there is a discipleship dress code, as disciples of Jesus, there is a dress code that we need to begin to wear and put on for our lives in order to be dressed and ready for the occasion and for the purposes of God. And can I let you into a little secret? You won't discover this dress code on your social media.
You will not discover this dress code on TikTok. You will not discover it on Temu or Shein or whatever it is that you happen to look at. You will only discover this dress code when you open the word of God, when you spend time in his presence, when you clothe yourselves in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, you take those moments with him and you dig deep into his word and you allow him to begin to speak to you. Esther is one of my. One of my favorite characters in the Bible, one of my favorite people. In Esther chapter two, the king is looking for a queen and it talks about how she becomes queen. Fred, let me just read a few verses to you here. In Esther, chapter two, it says in verse nine, it says that she pleased him. Esther pleased the king and won his favor immediately. He provided her with beauty treatments and special food. It sounds good so far, doesn't it?
He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king's palace. He moved her and the attendants into the best place in the harem. Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. And every day he, the king, he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.
Before a young woman's turn came to go into King Xerxes, she had to complete 12 months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfume and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king. Anything she wanted was given to her to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. It's an amazing story. I haven't got time to go into all of it. If you have the time, take some time to read through the story of Esther, but it's a story of a. A beautiful young girl who becomes even more beautiful. The story of her preparing to become a queen, but just before she can become queen. To be queen was her purpose.
To become queen was her purpose, the assignment that she was being prepared for. But she had to get ready, quite literally, she had to get ready for her purpose. If you read around the story, and you read some scholars around it, in fact, it even tells us in the text that she had one year of preparation. She had one year of a spa.
I mean, come on, how many of us have done 90 minute spas or an overpriced half day spa? This is one year of spa. Come on, how good does that sound? We should move on, shouldn't we? We shouldn't linger here too long.
One year, not 90 minutes, not half a day, one year where she is preparing. Her purpose was to be queen, but she had a year of preparation. Now, down the line in the story of Esther, she had to risk her life. Her purpose, her assignment, if you like, was literally life and death to her.
And the amount of preparation required for her purpose was huge.
We know this because preparation matters. If you want to be a lawyer, there is a season of preparation. If you want to be a dentist, there's a season of preparation. A doctor, you name it, there is a season of preparation. Preparation matters in those seasons. And often the degree of preparation is often proportionate to the degree of the purpose.
Whatever your purpose is, whatever your assignment is, whatever that may look like, there is a degree of preparation to ready yourself for that purpose.
And no matter what your purpose is. You see, here's the thing. Assignments can change, assignments can shift. Danny and I, we've had the pleasure and the privilege of pastoring in three different locations together. We were in Glasgow, in Bewdley, and now we're serving the Lord in Letchworth. As a kid growing up, my dad was a kneeling pastor. My granddad was a kneeling pastor. My granddad, he. He pastored 22 Elim churches in his life. They moved every two years. I'm glad I wasn't around then. I can tell you, assignments change. Your assignment may shift, it may change. But church, can I tell you today, your identity in Christ never changes.
Your identity and who you are, you are a daughter. You're a son of the living God. And while purpose and assignments and things that we give our tales to may shift and may change, our identity never changes. But our purpose flows from our identity.
What we do flows from our identity in Christ Jesus. It flows from who God has made us to be. And we need to be ready in those moments. And we need to know that while assignments may come and go, our identity is foundation, no matter what. And there are too many people that I come across, too many people who are desperate to get their purpose right, but don't have yet their identity right.
Fighting for purpose, fighting for that moment, but they don't know their identity.
Church, I want to encourage you that we need to know our identity. We need to know who we are in Christ Jesus and allow purpose to flow out of our identity confidently, knowing who we are in Christ and dressed and clothed in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we need to be identity ready. We need to be purpose ready. And the third thing I want to say to you today is we need to be appointment ready. We need to be appointment ready. The guy at the wedding in this parable, he had an appointment at the wedding.
Esther had an appointment with the king. Your appointment and your purpose are different.
Your purpose is what you are called to do, but your appointment is a. Is a specific moment in time that you need to be ready for. Let me explain it this way, if I can. If you are an athlete, that is your purpose. Your appointment is the race.
If you're a doctor, that's your purpose. It's your assignment. But your appointment is the operation. If you're a preacher, that may be your purpose, but your appointment is the delivery of the sermon. If you are a small group leader, that might be your purpose, but your appointment is the small group night. Come on. Are you all with me? There is a difference between our purpose and our assignment and our appointment.
And here is the thing. There are many who want to get themselves up and ready for the appointment, where there are many who want to get up for the appointment, where they are seen, but they are not ready in their identity and their purpose.
The appointment is that moment that we all want to get ready for, but we are not clear and ready in our identity and our purpose. And I want to let you know, it will be an exhausting life always trying to continually get yourself up for the appointment. When we're not clear about who we are in Christ and what it is that he's called us to do. We need to be identity ready, purpose ready in order to step into the appointment that God has for us.
Let me pick up on the story of Esther in Esther chapter five.
I love this because this is when she's about to meet the king. And in verse one here it says, on the third day.
So simple. On the third day, Esther put on the royal robes.
So simple.
And she stood in the inner court of the palace in front of the king's hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall facing the entrance. When he saw her standing in the court, he was pleased with her and he held out the gold scepter that was in his hand.
So Esther approached and she touched the tip of the scepter.
He was pleased with her and she found favor. Why?
Because she had just spent a year getting ready for her appointment.
She had just spent a year knowing that her purpose was always to become queen, clear about the preparation season and what the Lord was doing in her. So when it came to the appointment moment, it was easy to put on the robe. It was simple. It was putting on a robe. But it was in that moment. And the reason it was so simple was because she was ready. She understood her purpose. She understood what it was that the Lord was wanting to do in those moments. She put on a robe. It was easy. She had just spent a year of her life preparing for this moment. Church I believe that there are appointments that the Lord has for you. I believe right now in your life. Specifically, I believe even for rediscover Church There are appointments the Lord has for you, but are we ready? Are we ready? Are we dressed appropriately? Are we dressed as disciples? Are we ready for what it is that the Lord wants to do? Just think for a moment about appointments that the Lord has for us. Every time you come to church, there is an appointment with God. Amen. Every time we open Scripture together, we're setting ourselves up for an appointment with the Lord. If you're in a small group every time you gather, there's an opportunity to have an appointment with the Lord. Every time you put on a team T shirt and you come ready to serve. Church these are appointments that the Lord has for us.
Church I believe that the Lord has appointments for you. There are appointments that he wants you to step into. Maybe even right now you're just believing. Maybe even here today, you're like, Carl, I, I don't even know what my future holds. Has God got a purpose for me? I don't know what I'm called to. I don't know what it is that he wants me to do. I don't know what the call on my life is.
And if that's you here today, I want to encourage you, set aside some time to get an appointment with God. Because you see, the moment that we the moment that we open scripture, the moment that we begin to let God's Word begin to speak into our hearts, the moment that we begin to absorb His Word. I believe that when we do, futures are clarified. I believe that purposes are revealed when we begin to open God's Word together. Amen. And if right now you're in a season of your life and you're not sure what is my purpose, your assignment might be changing. You're not sure of what it may look like. Make an appointment with the Lord, get some time in his presence and allow him to come and to speak with you. Because purposes can be realized, futures can be clarified. Church Many, many are called, but few are chosen.
Many are called, but few are chosen. Not everyone is ready. So let me ask you again. Church Are you ready? Are you ready?
I was thinking about this and I don't know if this is true for you, but maybe if you spend every day of the year speaking negatively about your family, maybe you grew up in an environment like that 365 days a year and every day you just spoke negatively about your family. And then there's the three day holiday and there's a three day holiday and you've got to go on this holiday and you start to make a commitment to yourself. I'm going to be on my best behavior. Come on, anybody ever done this? I'm going to be on my best behavior. And you hype yourself up, you give yourself a good talking to and I'm not going to react to the thing I normally react to and I'm not going to bite at the thing I normally bite at and I'm going to be on my best behavior for this three day holiday. I'm not going to be that person that disrupts it. Come on, anybody? Anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm not going to Be that person.
And you do that and you go on the three day holiday. Do you know, do you know what a strain that's going to be on your internal being to bite your lip to not say the thing that needs to be said?
Man, what a strain that's going to be on your internal being to be that well behaved when for the other 362 days of the year all you do is speak negatively.
Church, I believe that there is something.
I believe there is something about asking the Lord to reset our hearts so that they're pure and they're right.
Because you see, when the appointment comes, we're not faking it.
When the appointment comes, we're not just putting on a face.
Because I think too many of us, too many disciples get to the moment and we fake it, put on a face, we put our hands in the right places and we say the right things. And maybe you've been around church a long time. I grew up in church all my life. As I said earlier, my dad was a pastor, my grand. Hey, I was even born on a Sunday. I've been around church all my life.
I know how to fake it. I know how to put my hands in the right place. I know when to say the right words. I believe the Lord is challenging the heart of his church in this season.
I believe he's asking, hey, will we be disciples of the Lord that allows him to maybe even just reset some of the internals of our hearts, that we would just invite the Lord Jesus, maybe even want to do that right now. Lord Jesus, we just invite you. Would you just come, Lord, right now? And would you just reset my heart where my motives are not pure, where my heart is not right?
Holy Spirit, I just invite you to come right now. Lord, I'm that person 362 days of the year. I'm negative and I'm get to the appointment and put on the face.
See, when the appointment comes, we don't want to be those that are faking in and putting on a face.
I believe that as we clothe ourselves in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we ready ourselves through his word, that when the appointment comes, it will be easy, like just putting on a robe like Esther. Why? Because we're ready. We're ready. Ready in our identity, ready in our purpose.
And so when we're asked that question, hey church, we need some people that will serve on this team.
You're like, hey, I'm ready. The Lord's been preparing me for this. Hey church, we need some People that will be willing to take on a young believer in the faith and disciple them and ready them. Hey, I'm ready. The Lord's been preparing me for this.
When the appointment comes, we're ready. You see that moment? Has anybody been watching on Prime? I am David. We've been watching that as a family. Encourage you. Brilliant story. Just love the way it's portraying some things. And it says in there, you know David. You know David's appointment with Goliath. David's appointment with Goliath didn't make him a warrior or a king. It just revealed who he already was.
It just revealed who he already was in that story. And there's a story of David and Saul. And David's called to play the harp. And as he plays the harp, demons begin to lift from King Saul. But you see, what we need to realize is, for years, David had been worshiping in the fields. He was in a season of preparation. He was getting ready. And then the appointment came. And when the appointment came, David. David was able to step into his appointment. He was able to step into and fully realize the purpose of God for his life. His appointment didn't make him. It just revealed him.
And we often recognize someone's calling at their appointment. Come on. We all know what that's like. You ever had those moments when someone maybe stands on a stage and they lead worship for the first time, and you're like, wow, aren't they amazing? Where have they been?
They've been getting ready. They've been in a preparation season. But the first time that we often see them is in the appointment. It's in the moment when it's fully realized.
Church. I believe there are appointments that the Lord has for you, but there's a preparation season that he wants to do in as many are called, few are chosen.
True readiness happens in the unseen. Preparation.
Many are called, but few are chosen.
Not because God rejects you, but because we're unprepared.
He loves you. He welcomes you.
But the reason that we often don't step into it is because we're unprepared.
We're not dressed.
We're like the man who turned up to the wedding. We're at the right address, but we're not dressed for the address.
Spiritual readiness is a daily decision that we have to make.
It's a daily decision to take off the old garments. I wonder if the worship team would come back and join me, please.
Spiritual readiness is a daily decision.
It's a decision where we choose to throw off the old Garments that we throw off shame. We daily make a decision that when we go to that wardrobe, I'm not going to pull out yesterday's robes, but today I'm going to pull out the robe of righteousness today, and I'm going to walk with a garment of praise today, that I'm going to adopt an attitude of thankfulness. I'm going to adopt an attitude of gratitude today, that I'm choosing to walk in the identity of who Christ has called me to be. Every day. I'm going to make that decision, and I'm going to walk in the identity of who he has called me to be. It's a daily decision to put on righteousness. It's a daily decision to put on praise. A daily decision. I'm going to embrace the Lord's purposes for my life. I'm going to embrace his purposes, and I'm going to walk in it and choose every day to grow with him.
You see, Church, every day there is an opportunity for an appointment with God. Every day, I believe, is a preparation for the divine appointment that God wants to do that he wants to fulfill his purposes through you.
So I wonder around this room right now. I want to invite you. Would you stand with me? I just believe right now there's just an opportunity. There's an invitation for you and I just to respond together to the Lord. If you're comfortable, if you're able, would you just lift your hands before the Lord with me?
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Come on, let's just lift our hands before the Lord.
Hand on heart. If you're honest with yourself today, maybe there's some of you, you need to just throw off a spirit of despair. Right now you've walked in, you're carrying shame, you're carrying fear.
You've never maybe even told anybody this before, but you're carrying hopelessness, negativity.
I believe the Lord wants to lift those garments from you today.
So if that's you, would you just put your hand on your heart for me? I don't want to embarrass you in any way, but just a moment between you and the Lord, would you just put your hand on your heart, Father, right now? I just pray by your Holy Spirit. Come on, Church. Would you pray with me by faith? Come on, let's just press into the Lord together and let's pray for our brothers and sisters, Lord, right now. Come on, church. I can't hear you. I know you're a church of faith. I know who you are. Come on. Would you lift your Voice with me. Let's shift the atmosphere in the room right now. Lord, would you lift the spirit of spare in Jesus name? Come on, let's declare this by faith. Lord, right now. Would you lift hopelessness in Jesus name? Would you lift negativity? Would you lift rejection? That whatever garments you have been wearing, whatever garments you've put on today, whatever garments maybe someone else has put upon you, we take them off in the name of Jesus right now and we choose to put on a garment of praise. We choose to put on a robe of rock righteousness that I am today. I am going to walk in the identity that Christ Jesus has given me, that I am no longer rejected, I am no longer shamed. Lord, I know I don't deserve it, but out of your love and your grace and your mercy, that's what you give me.
So I'm going to receive it. I receive right now a robe of righteousness. Maybe even right now you just want to put that robe on. I receive the robe of righteousness. I'm going to put on a garment of praise in Jesus name, Lord, right now I just pray for those that need that sense of purpose, struggling to know what the calling of the Lord is on their life.
I ask, Lord, right now, would you clarify futures?
Would you reveal futures and purposes in Jesus name Church? I want to say to you today that I believe. I know I don't know you, but I just sense in the spirit right now that there are some of you very specifically that the Lord has got some appointments for you in the coming days and you felt yourself in a preparation season. I want to encourage you, stay faithful, Stay faithful in his word. Stay faithful in clothing yourself in the presence of the Lord. And he is preparing you for an appointment. And when that appointment comes, it's almost going to be like the most natural thing in the world, like Esther putting on a robe because you're ready. I believe that next Sunday in Princess. Hey, there is an appointment that the Lord has for you and for this church. I'm going to prophetically speak that right now that as you step into that school square and as you begin to lift the name of Jesus, that there is fruitfulness that's going to come. There's an appointment that's waiting for you as a church.
Lord, would you ready as church? Are we ready? Maybe you want to ask yourself that question. Am I ready? Am I ready?
[00:49:37] Speaker C: You know, this word is very much a personal word, but this word is also much bigger than for you and for I as individual because you know what we are in a season right now where God is on the move. God is on the move in incredible ways. We are seeing people being healed. We are seeing people be free from financial difficulties. We are seeing people come to faith through watching church online in a way they've never come to faith. We are seeing people come in through the church doors and they don't even know why they're coming to church because they are hungry. But whenever there is a move of God and we are in a season where there's a move of God, we can also feel like there is a spiritual battle and there are seasons and moments. And I believe that we are in one like this. We're seeing it right across our nation. We're seeing it definitely in Hertfordshire, and we see it right across the churches, right across this nation, across Elim churches. We are seeing there is a spiritual battle because God is on the move and Satan doesn't like it. And so you know what? While we are getting ready ourselves, we can have the assumption and the belief that it's only for God to use me on my own in the places he is calling us to. But God is calling us to be an army. I love what the word of God says. An army of ordinary people.
We're ordinary people, but we have the power of Christ in us, the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. And when we walk with the robes of righteousness, when we are battle ready, when we are purpose ready, when we are appointment and assignment ready, but when we stand together like an army, we can do incredible things through the power of Christ for those around us. We are called to a life more than just thought, our own. And in this season, in this season, I can't tell you, but God is saying he is needing the army more than ever.
So whilst we prepare ourselves as individuals, it isn't just for me and you on our own, it is for us together, the church. Not only the church in Letchworth, but the church in Exeter, the church in the rest of Cornwall in the uk, as we stand together shoulder to shoulder, you know, when armies come together, they stand close together, don't they? They proceed together. And when they need, when the fiery darts of the enemy come, they put the shields up together because they're standing together in faith.
We need to do that as the church. And I want to encourage you that as you take away and you reflect and you ask God and you say, God, okay, what have I heard today? What do you want me, what do you want me to get ready for? It is way bigger than you on your own. We need to be together because God is on the move and there is a battle. But you know what? When the army comes together, when we are dressed ready, when we are appointment ready, there is no stopping what God can do. And God wants to continue to move in you and through you as an individual, but us as the church.
[00:52:56] Speaker B: Amen. Amen. Church, would you lift your hands with me?
We want to pray for you.
Father, I thank you for this church, I thank you for what you're doing in this season.
Father, I thank you that you are preparing your body and Lord right now. We want to be ready. We want to be ready for all that you want to do in us and through us. Would you come and would you reset our hearts when they need to be reset? Would you clarify futures and purposes where they need to be clarified? And may we step into the appointments that you have for us. In Jesus name and all God's people said amen.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: Amen. Well, church, we're going to do two things. Just as we land, we've got a prophetic word. We're going to close the service and give response for the prophetic word. But before we do that, I wonder, rediscover church, can we show our appreciation to this beautiful family that have ministered into our hearts today? Thank you so much, Carl. Danny, we so appreciate you.
There is a prophetic word that has actually been linked and threaded through the whole service. Janice has got something that she just shared with me. Before we do that.
There's a couple of people that have been praying before the service this morning and they gave some prophetic words which I didn't feel like I needed to release during the service. But your word has just allowed me to do so. And it threads in so beautifully as well. So the words we got before the service were this. There are layers and walls that are being built up around individuals lives. And what God wants to do is he wants to dismantle those walls, especially the walls that are keeping God out. And he wants to release you into a new season. That was the word that was given in a few different ways. And then you just shared a word with me that you just felt. Janice didn't know this.
[00:54:44] Speaker D: Okay, so before I came here this morning, God gave me this word and it's from Deuteronomy, chapter 1. And the Israelites were on Mount Sinai and God said to them, and this is what he said, you have stayed at this mountain long enough. It's time to break camp and move on.
And Just a little bit further on, it says, look, he's placed ahead of you, in front of you, a great land. Go and occupy it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Ancestors has promised you. Don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged. I believe that. That breaking camp, they've stayed on that mountain too long. Breaking camp may be for some people today that have had real hard mountains, real tough things that you've tried to address and deal with. But I also think that what God has said to me this morning is, is that there are some people, you've been on a very successful mountain, but you've been there too long. God wants to move you on to new things, and that brings with it its own fears because you're comfortable.
And then the last little part of this that God led me to was Deuteronomy chapter 2. Again, I've never seen it before, but he says to the Israelites, there are no walls that are too strong for you. There's no city wall that can contain what you have. So be encouraged this morning, break camp, get off the mountain that you've stayed on too long. God is with you, and he will equip you.
[00:56:38] Speaker A: Wonderful. Thank you.
