Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Well, hello, everybody.
[00:00:08] So I thought I'd better introduce myself to you first because some of you will know me and some of you won't know me. And yes, I have been known as Mrs. B. I've taught lots of people. So Drew, who often is on keyboards, but not today. I taught him when he was this high.
[00:00:25] I now teach some of your.
[00:00:27] Your grandchildren and children because I'm a private tutor in my. In my job time. Normally I'm not up here. You're more likely to see me up there. You can wave, Dave. There you go. That's normally where I am. I'm on the camera team at church. I've been part of the church for a very long time. I'm married to Graham, who's in the front row.
[00:00:50] And I'm one of the elders of the church, which is a great honor and a great privilege. Privilege. So that's kind of who I am. We have two children, both boys. One is married and living in Exmouth, and they have two gorgeous little girls, our grandchildren, that we get to look after every Thursday. So that's really nice. And our other son, John, lives in Spain and he's engaged to get married to a Spanish girl who we absolutely adore. So. So that's kind of a bit the family background. Today I'm going to be talking about growth in our prayer life.
[00:01:31] So we're talking about connect, grow and reach.
[00:01:36] And so we need to connect with God. We need to grow in our prayer life because then we are prepared to reach out to the community around us as well.
[00:01:47] So today I want to talk about what position we adopt when we pray.
[00:01:53] So I'm not asking you what you pray. I don't want a long list of all the people you pray for and all the situations that you're praying for. I don't even want to know how you pray. Do you pray scripture for hours on end? Do you pray in tongues for hours on end?
[00:02:11] But what position do you adopt when. When you are praying?
[00:02:17] So some people will sit on a chair and pray. Some people kneel, some people stand. Some people go for prayer walks around their community area.
[00:02:30] When we're in church together at hour of power, sometimes we might be flat on the floor before God. We can pray with our hands raised. We can play with our hands lowered. We might even pray with our arms crossed. Her nose. Okay. I used to, when I was a little girl at primary school, in the days when you had Christian assemblies, I used to pray head down and hands like this. This was my position all the Other children used to pray with their hands down here. But me, I was always up like that. It was comfortable for me. At nighttime I used to pray lying down in my bed.
[00:03:08] That was how it was when I pray with Graham. In the morning, we sit on the sofa together and hold hands.
[00:03:15] So, you know, there's all sorts of different ways that we might be positioned in.
[00:03:22] But my favored position is kneeling. So what I tend to do in the morning is I read my Bible and I read my you Version bit and I listen to everything that I should listen to or think I should listen to. And then I will get down and I will kneel.
[00:03:38] If I show you, I hope you can be able to see this. Hold on a minute.
[00:03:47] So I'm right down. And quite often I will cover myself with a shawl as well because then I know that I am not going to be distracted by anything. That's my favourite position.
[00:04:00] Well, I was in this position once upon a time, not that long ago.
[00:04:08] And I really felt that God might be saying something to me.
[00:04:15] And I thought, well, I better listen to what he is saying. I've never heard the audible voice of God. So I don't know for definitely this was him. But I totally believe it was.
[00:04:28] I had an impression that he was saying to me, why are you kneeling face down?
[00:04:37] So I had a little think. I thought, well, how do you answer God?
[00:04:43] Because you're holy, you're mighty, you're awesome, and I need to kneel in your presence to honor you.
[00:04:53] Yeah, but why are you really kneeling face down or curled up?
[00:04:59] I didn't know quite how to answer him. And then I felt like he was saying, roll over.
[00:05:08] Hello, God, roll over.
[00:05:12] You saw the position. I just adapted.
[00:05:16] If I rolled over, I was going to look ridiculous.
[00:05:24] So I said, no, thank you, God.
[00:05:27] And there was absolute silence.
[00:05:30] And I'm thinking, okay, he's not talking to me now.
[00:05:36] Maybe I should roll over. I don't know.
[00:05:40] No, God, no. You can't really be asking me. That was an impression. Remember I said to you, I've never heard the audible voice of God. Perhaps it was just me being ridiculous.
[00:05:49] But then I really felt that he was saying, roll over.
[00:05:54] Now, I don't know if you've ever argued with God. Anyone here ever argued with God?
[00:05:59] Yes. Okay, great. There are some honest people here. Okay. We knew somebody who's now gone to glory, who argued with God in his university bedroom for 20 minutes.
[00:06:14] He was a young student at the time. He'd just become a Christian.
[00:06:19] In those days, they didn't have carpet on the floor. So when he knelt to pray, he got splinters in his knees and feet.
[00:06:28] But he argued with God. I'm going to read you a little bit about what he said.
[00:06:35] This is his testimony.
[00:06:38] He stood in front of me.
[00:06:41] I saw him.
[00:06:42] I spoke to him. He spoke to me. It was not a dream.
[00:06:49] What had he said to me?
[00:06:51] He told me to give up science, which is what I was studying.
[00:06:56] I said I was no good at anything else.
[00:07:00] He said I would speak for him.
[00:07:03] I said I had an impediment in my speech.
[00:07:07] In actual fact, he did. But the first time he stood up to preach, the impediment went and it never came back.
[00:07:15] Whatever else he talked about, I disagreed.
[00:07:19] I argued with him. I was good at it.
[00:07:23] He didn't seem to mind.
[00:07:25] He went on loving me.
[00:07:28] He said I would go to a hot country.
[00:07:30] I said, no, Jesus, you're wrong. I can't go to a hot country because I'm terrible in the heat.
[00:07:37] I felt I had to be honest.
[00:07:39] You have to when you are with him.
[00:07:42] His last words to me were, I love you.
[00:07:47] You are mine, but you are not yet fully mine until you do what I tell you.
[00:07:55] It took him two years to learn to be obedient. But after that, he served God. He was the most humble man I have ever met. And he loved Jesus. And he served Jesus. And he and all his family serve Jesus now.
[00:08:14] He eventually gave up science. He studied theology and totally submitted his life.
[00:08:20] Anyway, I remember to that account as I'm lying, as I'm kneeling, crawling on the floor, I remembered his account and how he had argued with God. And then I also remembered David in the Bible.
[00:08:33] And David danced before the Lord with all his might, and he didn't care whether he looked ridiculous or not.
[00:08:44] So there was still silence from God, who had asked me to roll over.
[00:08:49] And I was thinking, I mustn't argue with God because God's going to get his way eventually anyway.
[00:08:55] And does it really matter if I look ridiculous? It's only him and me here.
[00:09:00] So I rolled over. I am not going to show you. I'm not going to demonstrate.
[00:09:06] No.
[00:09:07] But I do have a picture which hopefully will come up on the screen of how ridiculous I looked. It's not me. It's a dog. I'm hoping it will come up.
[00:09:16] There we go.
[00:09:19] That's pretty much what. What I looked like. So I still felt foolish, but at least now I believe I was obeying God.
[00:09:29] And while I was in this position or in that position, it's already gone. While I was in that position, I felt that God was leading me to learn some lessons. And I thought I would share some of those lessons with you this morning. Because he wants us all to be 100% obedient. He wants us all not to care how ridiculous we may look. He wants us to consecrate our lives 100% to following him.
[00:09:58] And so this is what I believe that God was teaching me. And I'm going to share it with you. So, number one, we need to get in a position to receive from God.
[00:10:13] After I rolled over, God said to me, there, you're not hiding from me anymore.
[00:10:23] Because when I was scrunched up with my head down and protecting my body, I actually had my back to God. I don't know if you've ever had to try and have a conversation with someone when they've got their back to you.
[00:10:38] If you were all facing the other way, it would be very difficult to. To be standing up here talking to you all. I'd be going, hello, Is anyone listening?
[00:10:48] Even if we find it difficult to make eye contact, generally we are facing one another when we're speaking to somebody.
[00:10:58] And like everyone else, I ask God for things when I'm praying.
[00:11:04] And if he was trying to tell me this or give me the answer to my prayers, how was I going to receive it? I couldn't see. Even if he had his arms outstretched to me, I wouldn't have known it because my back was against Him.
[00:11:25] When I rolled over, I was in a position to receive whatever he wanted to give me.
[00:11:33] And it made me wonder, how many times have I missed something that he wanted to give me because I was positioned incorrectly?
[00:11:49] You know, the picture of the dog that was up just a little bit earlier, that dog.
[00:11:55] When dogs are in that position, what are they wanting?
[00:11:59] Attention.
[00:12:00] A bit of love? A bit of a tummy tickle.
[00:12:04] God's the same when we face Him.
[00:12:08] He knows, great, I can give them some attention. I can tickle their tummy, give them my joy, in other words, and he wants to rub his blessings all over us.
[00:12:23] But it isn't just a question of receiving from Him.
[00:12:28] It's also a question of being vulnerable before him. So this is point number two.
[00:12:36] Are we vulnerable? Before God scrunched over, I was protecting my heart.
[00:12:48] I could pray, Lord, search my heart, but I actually wasn't being very open to him. I was hiding myself from Him.
[00:13:01] Now I'd rolled over and suddenly I realized just how vulnerable I felt.
[00:13:07] I was in fact, positioned for open heart surgery, and God was the one holding the knife.
[00:13:19] That's a little bit frightening. I don't think anyone who has ever faced an operation has gone in going, yay, I'm going to have an operation today. Hey, I feel great about it.
[00:13:27] Normally, there's a little bit of fear attached to it. Even though we know the surgeon's going to do good for us, we are a little bit afraid.
[00:13:38] We want to ease our pain. We want to have our bones put back in place or whatever needs to be taken out of us to be taken out of us.
[00:13:47] But even though the surgeons are there to help us, it's a little bit scary. And it's the same when God is on our case. He is a God of love. He only cuts us to get rid of things in our life that we don't need anymore. He wants to leave the gold. He wants to inject a greater sense of his presence in our lives to heal us so that we can be taken deeper into himself and become more Christ. Like I've already said that. He wants to connect with us. And when he does open heart surgery on us, he is enabling us to grow because there are no longer things in the way that stop our growth.
[00:14:38] Last week, Mike talked about the grapevines.
[00:14:41] You know, what happens when the grapes are going down onto the soil and they're getting all dirty and mucky? The vine grower comes and he lifts up those grapes and he ties them up because then they can produce more fruit from them. We're the same. God lops off anything from us that stops us from bearing greater fruit, fruit for his kingdom.
[00:15:08] But we have to be vulnerable before Him. And I had to ask myself, am I willing to be vulnerable before God?
[00:15:18] Am I willing to allow him to look into the very depths of my being?
[00:15:24] Things that may be hidden and have been hidden for a long time?
[00:15:32] Or am I going to hide them away again because actually I feel unsafe?
[00:15:39] The thing is, he knows what's best for me.
[00:15:42] David prayed this Psalm 139, verses 23 to 24, which I think will come up on the screen.
[00:15:51] Search me, O God, and know my heart.
[00:15:57] Try me and know my thoughts.
[00:16:01] See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Can that stay on the screen? If it's up there. Thank you.
[00:16:12] This is a very humbling prayer to pray.
[00:16:16] It's quite difficult, actually, if you are honest, because none of us want to face all the issues that we know we should.
[00:16:26] What will God Actually show me what is there within me that I need to face up to, that I need to own, that I need to confess, that I need to deal with.
[00:16:38] What are my thoughts you might not know, but God sees.
[00:16:45] So was I going to be willing to face that surgery because I. Operations are painful and the recovery period isn't always very comfortable either. The whole process hurts.
[00:16:58] Search me, O God, know my heart, try me, know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me. Oh, but Lord, please just be gentle.
[00:17:19] Help me to allow you to work in my life to bring the wholeness that I need.
[00:17:26] Only you can bring that, Lord. Only you can set me free from all that has had me bound.
[00:17:35] Do any of you know any surgeons that if you've been facing an operation, have come to your bedside and gone, great, I'm so looking forward to causing you as much pain as possible and then you can suffer.
[00:17:49] Anyone know a surgeon like that?
[00:17:52] No. Why? Because what surgeons do is they come and they say, look, we're going to operate. We're going to make sure that you get the right anesthetic. We're going to make sure that you have the meds. Afterwards, we want you to feel better as fast as possible. We care for you.
[00:18:10] If natural surgeons, human surgeons can do that, how much more is God likely to go? I'm going to be gentle with you. I'm going to make sure that we do this as cleanly as we possibly can.
[00:18:25] I don't want to cause you harm. I want your best.
[00:18:30] He's the best surgeon there is. And yet sometimes we find it difficult to come to him and allow him to do what he wants to in our lives.
[00:18:41] Search me, O God, know my heart.
[00:18:47] See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
[00:18:56] It's a difficult prayer to pray.
[00:18:58] It's costly.
[00:19:00] But it is worth making yourself vulnerable.
[00:19:05] It's worth it to be set free and to walk a closer walk with God in communion with him. It's worth it because after the digging away, you'll experience a greater measure of joy.
[00:19:21] So the question is, and I had to ask this question, will you allow yourself to roll over and allow God to operate on you today?
[00:19:36] So I've given you point number one, get into a position to receive from God.
[00:19:44] Point number two, be vulnerable before God.
[00:19:50] Point number three, see things from a heavenly perspective.
[00:19:57] When my head is down on the carpet, if I open my eyes, I can see carpet, I can smell carpet.
[00:20:10] I put my hands out, I can touch carpet.
[00:20:15] When I roll over, I immediately have a totally different perspective because now I can see ceiling and I can see out of the window, and it changes my thinking and my attitude straight away.
[00:20:36] Heaven feels that little bit more close to me. And God, I recognize, is actually bigger than. Than my situation.
[00:20:49] I told you earlier that I'm married to Graham and that we have two beautiful sons and two beautiful granddaughters.
[00:20:57] We have been on a journey with our younger son. He's the one that lives in Spain. He's called John.
[00:21:05] Regarding his health. We've been on a journey.
[00:21:10] He was born with a heart condition. We didn't know until the day he was born that he had a heart condition.
[00:21:16] So he was born in Exeter Hospital, and we did a blue lights up to Bristol on the day he was born.
[00:21:25] And he has had to have several operations on his heart. He actually has three quarters of a heart, not a full heart like you do.
[00:21:35] And so he's always lived with this possibility that his heart could give out at any time. He. He has to see a consultant every year. He's on lifelong meds and so on and so forth.
[00:21:49] A couple of years ago, he went to see his cardiologist and the cardiologist told him that the operations that he had had done when he was a baby and a little child now affect his liver.
[00:22:09] That's very scary.
[00:22:13] So he had to have some tests done on his liver.
[00:22:16] And while he's having the tests done, he can see the screen and he can see all these numbers coming up. And like any good person, he goes on Google to find out what the numbers mean.
[00:22:28] And according to the numbers on Google, he potentially has severe cirrhosis of the liver.
[00:22:38] So now it may be not his heart that's going to kill him, it may be that it's liver that is going to kill him. Now, at this point, he hasn't seen the liver specialist. What are they called?
[00:22:51] What. What specialist anyway? The liver specialist. Whoever. Okay.
[00:22:57] He hasn't seen her at this point. Okay.
[00:23:01] So he says, I have an appointment. This was February last year. I have an appointment to see the consultant.
[00:23:08] Mummy, please will you come over? Because I'm scared.
[00:23:11] So I flew over to Spain and during the day, John was trying to work to try keep his mind off of what was going to be said. And so I took myself. They live in Barcelona and around Barcelona there are lots of hills. So I took myself up and I walked up one of these hills and I sat on at the top of a hill overlooking Barcelona and I was praying because, you know, if he's anxious, Mama's anxious, too, okay? And I was praying, and I remember there was this little green bird.
[00:23:45] There are lots of green birds, little green birds in Spain. Some of you probably know what they are. But I didn't know what it was. But this solitary green bird flew across, over and landed in the tree under which I was sitting.
[00:23:59] And it seemed to me that this little bird was crying out, look up, look up, look up.
[00:24:07] And so I looked up and I realized that what I had been doing was I had been worrying so much about what was going to happen in this consultation and what might the outcome be for our Son, that I hadn't given anything over to. To God. In reality, I was praying, but it was God, let my will be done.
[00:24:31] Okay?
[00:24:32] When I began to think about Jesus, I began to think, actually, there's a different perspective from this.
[00:24:43] What is God's perspective on this? And I started thinking of some of the scripture verses that are in the bible.
[00:24:53] John, chapter 11, verse 41.
[00:24:58] Jesus was at the tomb of Lazarus, and he looked up to heaven and he prayed.
[00:25:08] Luke, chapter 9, verse 16. At the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, and he looked up toward heaven and he blessed them.
[00:25:23] John, chapter 17, verse 1.
[00:25:27] Before his betrayal, when the disciples were still with him, Jesus prayed for them and for himself.
[00:25:35] And he looked up to heaven as he began to pray. And each time he looked up to heaven and he expected to receive.
[00:25:44] He expected God to answer. He expected Lazarus to walk out of the tomb. He expected the 5,000 to be fed. He expected his disciples to be blessed and to take the gospel throughout the world. He expected to be glorified and for His Father to be glorified.
[00:26:04] So I looked up and I allowed God to minister to me and to wash me with his peace and give me his perspective. And by the time I came back down from that hill, I was expecting a more positive outcome from the consultation.
[00:26:24] Which brings us to point number four.
[00:26:27] Cast your cares onto him.
[00:26:33] Psalm 55:22 says, Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you.
[00:26:41] And 1 Peter 5, verse 7 says, Cast all your anxiety onto him because he cares about you.
[00:26:48] And how does the song go?
[00:26:51] Roll your burdens onto Jesus, for He cares for you.
[00:26:58] Roll your burdens onto Jesus, for He cares for you. Okay, so when we roll over, rather than having our head in the dust and our hands on the floor, our hands are now free so we can roll our burdens onto Jesus. And I actually, you know, the one Peter. Sorry. The Psalm 55 says, Cast your burdens onto Jesus. Doesn't say just roll cast.
[00:27:26] I don't think God minds if we get a little bit dynamic in our casting.
[00:27:32] I mean, you know, some of us are facing some nasty stuff.
[00:27:36] Okay. We don't want to just go, here you are, God.
[00:27:40] Okay, thank you. Okay. We want to go. God, I can't cope with this. You have it.
[00:27:46] And I believe he doesn't mind us doing that. He doesn't want us to be burdened, and so he's happy for us to throw it away. Well, after both my children were born, I suffered from postnatal depression.
[00:28:01] So after Matthew was born, our older son was born. When Graham used to come home, he used to be working fairly locally at that point, and he used to come home odd days, and I would literally go, good, you're home. Here's the baby. I'm going out because it was my only way of coping with the situation. I didn't actually know with Matthew that it was postnatal depression. I wasn't actually diagnosed until after John was born, but the symptoms were exactly the same.
[00:28:33] And so I would be ready, and I would literally cast Matthew into Graham's hands and walk out the door. I'm not suggesting, actually, that that's the best way to deal with the situation, but at the time, that is what I did. Okay.
[00:28:49] And it gave me time to clear my head and get a better perspective, and I would come back and I would be much calmer.
[00:28:57] God wants to help us clear our headspace. He wants to give us his perspective on the challenges that we face.
[00:29:09] So what challenges are you facing today?
[00:29:12] What is it that you need to cast onto Jesus?
[00:29:17] Bring them to God, roll them over onto him, and he will guide you and sustain you during the difficulties. He might not take them away completely. He. He doesn't say in his word that he'll necessarily take those challenges away.
[00:29:30] John still has three quarters of a heart.
[00:29:34] John still has to have a checkup every year on his liver.
[00:29:40] But in John 16:33, it says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, because I have overcome the world. We sung it earlier, didn't we?
[00:29:56] And in Matthew 11, it says this.
[00:30:00] Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[00:30:07] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.
[00:30:11] For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[00:30:19] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
[00:30:24] We are yoked to Jesus. He wants to Take the strain. He wants to lead us. He wants to give us his rest. He wants to help us. That's great.
[00:30:37] You know, every day when I wake up, I go, God, please help me today. I can't do this without you. I need you.
[00:30:46] He wants to come along with the ride. He wants to be in the driving seat. And yes, there might be some bumps along the road, and yes, the journey might not be easy, but if he's in the driving seat, he is going to see us through to the end and it will be all right. We just have to learn to lean on him.
[00:31:06] And then our attitude towards our trials begins to change as well. The because we're seeing things from a heavenly perspective, and then we have much more of a thankful heart.
[00:31:20] And again, we see that illustrated in the life of Jesus.
[00:31:25] You know, every time he looked up to heaven and he thanked God. I thank you, Lord, that you hear me.
[00:31:35] So now we come to my fifth point.
[00:31:39] We win big on the lottery rollover.
[00:31:42] I don't know if anyone here has ever played the lottery.
[00:31:47] I actually never have. I wouldn't even know how to play the lottery.
[00:31:52] But I do understand that if somebody doesn't win one week, the money from that week is rolled over into the next week. So the person who wins that week wins an awful lot more than potentially they could have before.
[00:32:09] But when Jesus asked me to roll over, it wasn't so that I could win a huge jackpot of money.
[00:32:19] He doesn't want me to roll over so that I get rich quick, but he does want me to roll over so that I am reminded that my treasures are stored up in heaven with him. And this is what Mark, sorry, Matthew, chapter six says, don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them, where thieves break in and steal.
[00:32:46] Store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy. And thieves do not break in and steal.
[00:32:57] Because wherever your treasure is there the desires of your heart will also be.
[00:33:07] So when I'm looking up, I see more of Jesus.
[00:33:12] And I recognize that I have greater treasures than this world can ever give me.
[00:33:23] I want to store up my treasures where he is looking after them for me.
[00:33:29] I want to see him face to face.
[00:33:32] But meanwhile, I live with a hope and with an expectation of the great riches I will see when I am literally in his presence. And meanwhile he sent Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to protect us, to teach us, to help us.
[00:33:50] And he pours out so many blessings from heaven that really we can't contain them.
[00:33:58] And so that's a point for Thanksgiving right there.
[00:34:03] So will you join me in consecrating your lives afresh?
[00:34:08] Will you allow yourself to be vulnerable before God?
[00:34:14] Will you allow him to reach down and lift you up and mold you into the person that he sees that you can be? All your potential. Will you connect with God? Will you allow him to grow you? And will you therefore enable him to prepare you to reach out to the community around you?
[00:34:37] I have one more point, and for me, this was the hardest point. It still is the hardest point.
[00:34:45] It's actually the point that I think God was trying to teach me first. But I've left it till last today because I thought if I came in with this one, you might all walk out in disgust.
[00:34:59] So I've left it till last. It's a hard point.
[00:35:02] He shared it with me first. He obviously thought I really needed a bit of a shake up.
[00:35:06] And this is point number six.
[00:35:10] Get over yourself.
[00:35:19] That was his first point to me.
[00:35:22] No introduction, just straight in, hit the jugular.
[00:35:27] Oh, Lord.
[00:35:28] Okay.
[00:35:30] I mean, Christ didn't call me to follow me.
[00:35:33] Christ called me to follow him.
[00:35:38] I wonder how many times in the day you use the word I, me, my, mine.
[00:35:47] I don't want to get up this morning. It's warm in bed.
[00:35:52] I'm hungry, feed me. That's the cry of all little children.
[00:35:59] I don't want to do that today.
[00:36:04] Oh, that's not fair.
[00:36:06] I will miss out.
[00:36:09] It's all about me, myself.
[00:36:13] Yeah, but we're not meant to be all about ourselves.
[00:36:21] Mike a couple of weeks ago talked about how we're not meant to be independent. But I want to do things my way.
[00:36:28] I want to be alone so that I can do what I want. I want to see you when I want to see you, not when it's inconvenient.
[00:36:36] But we're not called to be independent.
[00:36:40] Jesus says in Mark, chapter eight, if any of you want to be my disciples, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me.
[00:36:52] Being a Christian means dying to self, laying aside what I want, what I desire, and choosing to go the way that God directs me to.
[00:37:05] Paul put it like this in Galatians, Chapter 2.
[00:37:10] I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.
[00:37:15] Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
[00:37:27] He also said in Galatians, chapter 6, May I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:37:35] Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified.
[00:37:42] I have nothing great to offer God, nothing special about me.
[00:37:49] There's nothing to look at here.
[00:37:52] Accept Jesus.
[00:37:56] The question is, are people seeing Jesus in me or are they seeing me? Am I actually doing things in my own strength or am I allowing myself to be used by God to further his kingdom?
[00:38:12] My I contrasts a lot with Jesus I When Jesus used it was always to bring a hope to the people he was ministering to.
[00:38:27] For instance, I am the bread of life.
[00:38:33] Jesus said, I'm pointing to myself because I have what you need. Feed on me.
[00:38:42] I am the living water.
[00:38:46] Jesus said, I'm pointing to myself because I can sustain you.
[00:38:53] I am the good shepherd.
[00:38:57] Jesus said, I'm pointing to myself because I can take care of all your needs.
[00:39:04] I am the way, the truth and the life.
[00:39:09] Jesus said, I'm pointing to myself because actually what I'm doing is I'm leading you into the presence of Father God.
[00:39:18] Jesus eye always points to salvation and to a great eternity in heaven.
[00:39:27] In contrast, when I start to examine my life, I need to acknowledge that I don't always live by faith in Christ.
[00:39:36] I miss the mark, but I thank God for his mercy and for his forgiveness.
[00:39:45] So it could be that you're here today and you've been living for your I and now you realize actually that your eye isn't actually as good as Jesus I that Jesus has a better future for you.
[00:40:02] Maybe now instead of living for your own glory and honour, you're thinking, maybe I can live for the glory and honour of Jesus.
[00:40:15] Maybe today you want to choose to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God so that he will be exalted, so that his kingdom, his power and his authority can be revealed. Maybe somebody would like to come up and play the keys.
[00:40:35] So there are lots of examples of people who looked just as ridiculous as I did. When you saw that picture of the dog and you imagined what I looked like, there are lots of examples in the Bible of people looking ridiculous for God.
[00:40:50] I've already mentioned David who danced before the Lord and he didn't care. He said, I'm going to be even more ridiculous than this.
[00:40:57] If it honors God, I want to be ridiculous.
[00:41:01] There's Isaiah. Let me tell you about Isaiah.
[00:41:05] Isaiah had to go around barefoot and naked for three years.
[00:41:10] Can you imagine if he turned up at church barefoot and naked and said, sorry, I know I haven't got any clothes on, but God's told me I can't Wear any for three years.
[00:41:23] I mean, that's ridiculous.
[00:41:26] There's Jeremiah, who had to lie on his side for I don't know how many days.
[00:41:30] And then after that many days, he had to lie on his side, the other side, for I don't know how many days. I mean, that's ridiculous.
[00:41:38] There's Naaman, a great Syrian commander, and he's told, go and bathe in a river in front of your servants if I want to be healed.
[00:41:52] He did. He looked ridiculous. He probably felt ridiculous. What am I doing this for?
[00:41:56] I'm sure you can think of some other examples as well.
[00:42:02] Maybe today you want to say to God, I don't mind looking ridiculous if it means that I actually am going to spend eternity with you.
[00:42:12] In actual fact, I've already made a fool of myself looking ridiculous without you.
[00:42:20] If you think what you're like, what your life is like or was like before you became a Christian, and some of the ridiculous things you got up to, some of the ridiculous things you said, I would rather be a fool for Christ and glorify his name and look ridiculous than I would to miss it and spend eternity without Him.
[00:42:50] If that applies to you, then we are now going to join together. I'm going to ask everybody to pray aloud.
[00:42:57] And we're just going to invite Jesus to come and lead the way, to turn from our own path and let him bring us into the presence of God.
[00:43:09] So you can pray this prayer and God will hear. So if you'll bow your heads and let me lead you.
[00:43:18] Lord Jesus, I am sorry. I have lived my own way.
[00:43:26] I realize I have done wrong, that I've thought wrong that. That I've spoken wrong words.
[00:43:38] But I've lived in selfishness.
[00:43:43] Lord, please forgive me.
[00:43:47] Please help me to follow you from now on.
[00:43:53] Set me free from sin that I may live with you for all eternity.
[00:44:04] I choose to roll over.
[00:44:08] May I look into your eyes of love every day from now on.
[00:44:18] Amen.
