Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Good morning.
[00:00:06] If you don't know me, my name's Des. I've been part of the team here for a lot of years.
[00:00:11] I'm a dad, I'm a husband.
[00:00:14] I'm a drummer. I'm a guitarist.
[00:00:17] Above all of those things, I am a follower of my Lord Jesus Christ more than anything else. That's what I am.
[00:00:27] And as a church, we talk a lot about it.
[00:00:31] Apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher.
[00:00:35] My two come out as kind of prophetic and shepherd.
[00:00:40] And this morning, the shepherd in me is going to come out. The shepherd in me is going to come out, but it's not the carrier on my shoulder, shepherd.
[00:00:51] It's a different side of the shepherd's character.
[00:00:55] And Father, I pray that this morning, as we look into your word, that your word would agitate us this morning to a place of real, holy consideration, and that we would leave this place more determined to honor you and more determined to glorify your name in our lives than ever before.
[00:01:25] Father, would you really help me this morning? Holy Spirit, help me as I bring your word in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:01:34] Amen.
[00:01:35] Okay, what time is it?
[00:01:40] Right.
[00:01:41] The shepherd, this cook is Rachel's grandfather. Rachel's grandfather's.
[00:01:49] He was a shepherd in Bo, Just passed Ezeel Monacorum.
[00:01:54] He was great grandfather to Oliver.
[00:01:58] His sons found Jesus.
[00:02:01] Next generation found Jesus. And Gerald's grandchildren found Jesus as well. That's a legacy, isn't it? This is his staff. This is his staff now. Phil, can you come and join me a second?
[00:02:15] Hey, I know I can pick on Phil because Phil and I trust each other. I love Phil like a brother. I really do. I love him like a brother. Now, the shepherd's crook had a lot of purposes in the Bible, right?
[00:02:31] Jesus himself called himself the good shepherd.
[00:02:35] The crook would lead, the shepherd would lead the sheep.
[00:02:42] I knew he would do that. That's why.
[00:02:44] Now, if somebody came for the sheep, David described.
[00:02:49] David describes how he would fight off. He would fight off the attackers who came for the sheep.
[00:02:55] I don't know how we're going to do this, Phil.
[00:02:57] Sometimes the cook supported the shepherd as the shepherd put the sheep on his shoulder.
[00:03:10] Now, Phil. Okay, so if Phil is trapped over there or if Phil's going in the wrong direction, this is the part of the shepherd's job and the shepherd's crook that sometimes we're not as comfortable with.
[00:03:33] Sometimes the shepherd has to use the crook or the rod to agitate.
[00:03:43] Oh, Rachel, I'm sorry. I've broken it.
[00:03:50] I know, but the agitation Even though.
[00:03:58] There we go. Even though the sheep finds it uncomfortable sometimes to be prodded, the shepherd needs to agitate the sheep back onto the place of safety.
[00:04:15] Thank you, Phil.
[00:04:17] Thank you.
[00:04:21] So, Rachel, I'm so sorry.
[00:04:25] I'm so sorry.
[00:04:27] We'll glue that back together. Right.
[00:04:31] This morning, if you've come to be entertained. I haven't come to entertain you. I've come to agitate you.
[00:04:39] This morning you will most probably be offended by something I would say from the Bible this morning.
[00:04:45] Just prepare yourself for that. You know I love you and I know a lot of you love me. So if you're offended by me this morning, please don't see me at the end. Give it a week.
[00:04:56] Because it might just be that the agitation this morning might be for your good.
[00:05:04] Trust me. Will you trust me this morning?
[00:05:06] Brilliant. Okay.
[00:05:11] Okay.
[00:05:13] This morning is called How Much?
[00:05:20] There's Martin Lewis. We're going to have to try and reverse our thinking a little bit because he's brilliant. He kind of helps us save stuff so that we don't have to pay quite as much. Really helpful. But sometimes, as a Christian, we kind of need to flip that. This morning we'll be asking this question, how much? Quite a lot.
[00:05:43] I don't know how many of you believe you can hear from God, but everybody who's here this morning, I'm going to be challenging you at least three times this morning to listen to him.
[00:05:54] One of the things about a shepherd is that we can hear him, we understand his voice.
[00:06:01] I don't know if we can get the slide on about the listening.
[00:06:06] I love that those two whispering to each other.
[00:06:12] In John 10:27, it says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.
[00:06:20] We'll be stopping two or three times this morning, and I'm going to encourage you to listen to the voice of God.
[00:06:29] If that's alien to you, maybe some people here might not think God. What? God talks to me?
[00:06:36] Yeah.
[00:06:38] So we'll be doing that this morning as well.
[00:06:42] Okay.
[00:06:43] Offerings and sacrifices used to be really, really, really important. Okay. In the Old Testament, the guys would offer burnt offerings. They would offer sacrifices, you know, as a sign of declaration of God's authority as faith, as thanksgiving, most regularly for the atonement of sin. Before Jesus, these offerings were given as atonement offerings.
[00:07:09] Now in 2 Samuel, I'd love to read 2 Samuel 24 to you if you want a note taker.
[00:07:18] 2 Samuel 24 is a really interesting passage, like, go home and read it. It's really really interesting. But basically, David has been really disobedient.
[00:07:28] He's done some stuff in his own strength. He didn't do something that the census the way that God wanted him to.
[00:07:36] And there's consequences for David's actions and yeah, that's something else we're sometimes not comfortable with.
[00:07:44] There are consequences for our actions sometimes.
[00:07:47] And a plague as a result of David's disobedience, there'd been a plague that had fallen on God's people on Israel. And it says about 70,000 people had died in this plague.
[00:08:03] Wowza.
[00:08:04] We pick up the story in verse 18.
[00:08:08] God Prophet went to David and said to him, go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
[00:08:20] So David went up as the Lord had commanded through Gad.
[00:08:23] When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming towards him, he went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
[00:08:35] Arona said, why has the Lord, the king, come to this servant to buy your threshing floor?
[00:08:44] David answered, so I can build an altar to the Lord so the plague on my people may be stopped.
[00:08:54] Araunah said to David, let the Lord the king, take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.
[00:09:06] Your majesty, Arauna gives all this to the king.
[00:09:11] He also said, may the Lord your God accept you.
[00:09:19] But the king replied, this is. David replied, no, I insist on paying you for it.
[00:09:29] I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God.
[00:09:34] Burned offerings that cost me nothing.
[00:09:40] So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid 50 shekels of silver for them.
[00:09:46] David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.
[00:09:52] Then the Lord answered his prayer on behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.
[00:10:05] I put that in bold because for the next 15, 20 minutes, this is a sentence that we're going to keep coming back to.
[00:10:15] I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God that which costs me nothing.
[00:10:24] Keep that in your mind.
[00:10:26] Keep that in your mind.
[00:10:28] Okay, so, okay, Des, that's Old Testament.
[00:10:36] That's Old Testament.
[00:10:38] Jesus came.
[00:10:40] And Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice.
[00:10:45] Yes, he was. Of course he was. Jesus has paid for my sin.
[00:10:50] Yes, of course he has.
[00:10:53] And it is because of that that I stand.
[00:10:57] Absolutely.
[00:10:59] So that means that because Jesus was the sacrifice, I can't earn my way to heaven. I can't do that. Yeah, of course. We can't. We can't earn our way to heaven, so we don't need to bring a sacrifice anymore.
[00:11:22] Not really.
[00:11:23] That's not how it works.
[00:11:26] You see, rather than not having to bring a sacrifice anymore, the bar's been raised, hasn't it?
[00:11:37] Because we are thankful for everything that Jesus has done. But this is what we're encouraged to do in Scripture.
[00:11:46] Paul says this in Romans 12.
[00:11:51] Therefore, see if we can get that on the screen.
[00:11:55] Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
[00:12:04] This is your true and proper worship.
[00:12:07] Jesus himself.
[00:12:11] Story of the rich young ruler. Jesus agitates him into thought.
[00:12:16] The rich young ruler. Could we get that up?
[00:12:21] The rich young ruler asks Jesus. He says, all the things I have kept, what do I still lack?
[00:12:31] Jesus encourages them, sell your possessions, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
[00:12:40] Then come follow me.
[00:12:45] When a young man heard this, he went away sad because he had great wealth and he didn't want to give it up.
[00:12:53] In about five minutes, we're going to explore that further. When Jesus says, anyone who wants to be my disciple denies himself, takes up his cross and follows him.
[00:13:07] So we've got this tension, right? We've got this tension because Jesus has paid the sacrifice and I'm being urged to give everything and, oh, I want to give everything. I really do. I want to give everything to my God.
[00:13:22] But I came here in my car this morning. I've got a house, I've got food in the fridge.
[00:13:28] I haven't given him physically everything yet.
[00:13:32] Do you ever still live in this tension? I'm like, am I really giving them everything?
[00:13:41] So for me, our journey this morning starts with what David said.
[00:13:48] And I'm going to challenge us all that as a baseline. As a baseline, while we work out what giving everything really means.
[00:13:58] Can we all agree that a good starting point would be, I will not give that which costs me nothing?
[00:14:11] Okay, so what does that look like? What does that look like in our gatherings this morning?
[00:14:19] Where's jc? Are you here, jc?
[00:14:23] He's here. Jc, could you stand up?
[00:14:26] What are you wearing this morning? Oh, you've got traditional dress on this morning. There's JC at the back. That's cool. Looking sharp, man. Looking sharp.
[00:14:35] I saw JC a few weeks ago and he was wearing a suit, a suit and tie.
[00:14:42] And so obviously trying to make a cheap joke. I said, jc, are you in court today?
[00:14:51] To which he didn't laugh at all. He Just looked at me and kind of went.
[00:14:56] And Jesse said, I'm wearing this suit today because I wanted to come to church in my best.
[00:15:03] I wanted to wear. Just this morning, I wanted to wear my best clothes. I wanted to make an effort for some people to come here into our gatherings.
[00:15:14] That might be a way that you can give something that costs you nothing.
[00:15:20] I don't know if Joy's here today, my friend Joy. Not Joy. Done. There's the other one. You are my friend.
[00:15:29] My other friend, Joy. Are you here? She normally sits there. I don't think she's here this morning.
[00:15:35] We, like.
[00:15:38] We don't know each other from anything, and we've just started praying for each other's children and stuff. It's lovely.
[00:15:46] And my bond with Joy and Rachel's is when she starts to sing. In our worship times, you can just. As she raises a hand and as she raises a voice and she starts to give something that costs her, it inspires me and that inspires me to want to give something to my king. And for some of us, that may be what we give that costs us nothing. This morning. I've got another couple of things here. Men, dudes, lifting our hands in front of our wives.
[00:16:26] That's a bit embarrassing, isn't it? Sometimes.
[00:16:30] Why?
[00:16:31] That might cost us. Mating it in our gatherings.
[00:16:37] I tell you what, it'll really inspire our wives when we do. And our children.
[00:16:43] For some people, simply coming here this morning might have cost them everything.
[00:16:49] You might be disappointed with God.
[00:16:53] The healing mightn't have happened yet.
[00:16:57] You might be struggling.
[00:17:00] It's different for all of us, isn't it?
[00:17:03] But moving forward as a church, I would love for us to consider, for all of us individually when we meet this morning, have we given him that which costs us nothing?
[00:17:17] Sorry? You know, the opposite of that. Have we given him that which costs us something?
[00:17:26] Earlier on, we had Amelia and Archie. You led us so beautifully. Thank you.
[00:17:32] Thank you.
[00:17:35] Yeah, thank you.
[00:17:40] And then we have these moments, don't we, where.
[00:17:44] Where the song finishes and the words on the screen end.
[00:17:48] And the guys say, and I've done this before. I know I've encouraged you to do this. And we say, sing your own song.
[00:17:55] And some of us go, yes. And we sing.
[00:17:59] Some of us are like, oh, no.
[00:18:04] It's the most hideous moment in the morning for some of us.
[00:18:09] And for me, that's an example.
[00:18:14] Like when I'm talking to my father, I don't just want to tell him things that someone else has written.
[00:18:22] I think he's pretty interested in how I feel and what I want to say to him this morning.
[00:18:31] So that's why we do it.
[00:18:34] We kind of do it and we have those moments so that we can agitate each other and say, have you got something you could sing to the Lord now? Have you got something you could say?
[00:18:46] It might cost you though.
[00:18:49] Someone next to you might hear it.
[00:18:53] Imagine that.
[00:18:55] Imagine how encouraging it might be.
[00:19:03] I've just got one or two more examples.
[00:19:07] There's a picture of a dear friend of mine I'd love to put on screen.
[00:19:19] This is my friend Luke.
[00:19:21] This was my friend. Students, you won't have seen him.
[00:19:26] Luke was part of our church for many years. And Luke went to be.
[00:19:31] He went to glory. Luke went to glory about seven, eight weeks ago.
[00:19:39] Is there anyone here can remember the sacrifice of praise and worship that Luke used to bring? Just give me a little wave if you can remember him. Faugh.
[00:19:50] Mark and Diana. I hope you see that.
[00:19:53] I hope you see that.
[00:19:55] Luke. Faw.
[00:19:59] Luke. He used to just. It was amazing, man.
[00:20:03] He came to our services to give that which cost him something.
[00:20:08] He would not come here and give that which cost him nothing. I remember, you know, sometimes as worship team, we plan and we've got all these fancy songs and we do try to lead you as best we can to express ourselves that God. One week Luke came and he had great results from a previous battle that Luke had had in his health. And he had some great results. God had been so kind.
[00:20:32] And some of you might remember this from the old church, Luke.
[00:20:36] I was looking at him and he was sat to that side in the orchard and he was looking at me and I went, come on in.
[00:20:45] Some of you might remember this. And he came on stage and he was like so thankful to God.
[00:20:50] He led worship for about 15 minutes and he just did star jumps.
[00:20:56] Can anybody remember that? It was just. It was wonderful. And I just kind of stood there. One thing. And he just.
[00:21:04] And it was just the most spontaneous offering.
[00:21:11] You know the woman in scripture who poured all that expensive perfume all over Jesus feet, that's her offering.
[00:21:20] And people thought that's too expensive.
[00:21:24] Maybe that's my heart when I think it's too expensive to extend my car park and buy 250 if I need to go and pray with someone afterwards.
[00:21:33] I will not give that which cost me nothing.
[00:21:37] Church.
[00:21:38] This is our first moment to pause.
[00:21:42] Just to pause and to listen.
[00:21:50] And the question is just between you and God. Just between you and him.
[00:21:55] In our gatherings when we meet together, what does it look like for you to give that to him which cost you something?
[00:22:09] Just pause on that a moment and listen.
[00:22:13] Listen to the Holy Spirit.
[00:22:42] Father, as the weeks go on, as the months go on, in our gatherings together, Lord, I know this may change week on week, it may change week on week, but, Lord, would you remind us of this moment and as a baseline in what we bring you each week?
[00:23:07] Father, would you remind us that, Lord, we just want to bring you something that costs us something.
[00:23:16] I will not bring that which cost me nothing.
[00:23:22] Amen.
[00:23:24] Amen.
[00:23:27] Brilliant.
[00:23:28] Two of three coming up. And by the way, when I'm agitating you, please don't feel like I'm condemning you, because I'm not.
[00:23:40] Because I often, when I reflect on some things that I've brought, if I'm honest, if I'm driving home, have I given God something that costs me something every week?
[00:23:52] Probably not.
[00:23:54] So please don't feel bad. Please be agitated into exciting next steps. I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad.
[00:24:02] You got to hear that right. Church life.
[00:24:08] What does it look like for us in the wider life of the church to give something to the Lord which costs us nothing?
[00:24:16] A couple of obvious options. Connect groups. Have you joined one?
[00:24:20] No, but EastEnders is on on a Tuesday night.
[00:24:25] That's up to you. Which one's more important.
[00:24:29] What if no one likes me in connect group?
[00:24:33] Try a different one.
[00:24:37] Could you start one? I love that Mike is talking about the seasonal thing. Rich and I led connect groups for years and let's be honest, sometimes it feels like if you sign up to lead a connect group, you're signing a life sentence. It's like you come into 25 years of your life every single week. It doesn't have to be like that.
[00:24:55] We're doing it seasonally.
[00:24:58] Try it.
[00:24:59] Try it. Go see Russ. Go see Russ and try it. Let's. If you've got an idea of something, you could lead.
[00:25:09] Is Ruth here this morning?
[00:25:12] Ruth? I don't think she is.
[00:25:16] We've got so many shapes and sizes and varieties and backgrounds in our church. We've got a wealth of backgrounds. And Ruth and the girls, I heard them praying one day.
[00:25:30] In fact, I thought something was going on. I thought somebody was having a. I thought somebody wasn't well, because I could hear these screaming through the wall one day in the prayer room when we were all in the old building and I went in to see if everything was all right and it was Ruth and her friends praying.
[00:25:47] It was great. Not the way I usually pray. They were.
[00:25:52] They were going for it.
[00:25:54] And then I can. Okay, okay. And then I walked out and then I came back and I said, girls, is it okay if I join you?
[00:26:05] Could I kind of learn from you a little bit? And I joined them and I was so uncomfortable. I didn't know what to do. They were like singing as part of their prayers. And are there people in our church that you can just learn from and step out of your comfort zone a little bit with, even if they're a bit different to you?
[00:26:27] Oh, what else? What other options have we got?
[00:26:32] I quite enjoy doing the men's work, but when we consider what costs us nothing, we also need to be wise and make sure we don't over commit.
[00:26:45] Norman tells me off quite a bit because I'm not a great delegator. I'm a norm.
[00:26:53] It's true. I am rubbish at that. I'm a rubbish delegator and we need each other.
[00:27:00] And while I'm running around desperate to give the Lord everything.
[00:27:04] And the last men's weekend, if I'm honest, I'd taken so much on that at one point I was kind of nervy and shaky and I went upstairs and I cried for about 45 minutes in my room by myself because I'd taken too much on.
[00:27:21] So let's not be silly and let's not try to be the hero. And we need each other, don't we?
[00:27:29] We do need each other.
[00:27:32] I need your norm.
[00:27:42] Thank you.
[00:27:44] Sometimes I cry, but I'm going to try hard not to this morning.
[00:27:48] So this is our second pause, and it's just a gentle pause and a gentle nudge in our wider church community.
[00:28:01] What does it look like to give that which cost you Nothing.
[00:28:12] We'll just pause on that for a moment.
[00:28:22] Just you and God just listening.
[00:28:38] Lord, what would you be nudging us into?
[00:28:45] Your body made up of many parts.
[00:28:50] What's our role? What's my role, Father?
[00:29:13] Okay, now, actually, before we get on to the third point, my final point, I'd love to do another men's weekend if you would help me.
[00:29:27] If there are any men that would help me and come and get alongside me and help me to delegate, better, come and see me at the end because I really need some help.
[00:29:39] And. Yeah, there we go. Okay, number three.
[00:29:43] Number three.
[00:29:44] And this is tough.
[00:29:46] This is tough.
[00:29:48] I'm speaking to myself here because we're all works in progress.
[00:29:57] I wasn't sure whether I was going to go here, and I am, because Jesus said it right.
[00:30:08] Jesus said some Tough stuff.
[00:30:11] And I was reminded about a time when I went into Haiti years ago. I went on mission to Haiti in 2009 and it was like something I'd never experienced before, with compassion. And we were. I was in a band and we were trying to get children sponsored. It was amazing. But we went into the heart of Port au Prince and I've never experienced poverty like it. I've never experienced witchcraft before. Really. You could feel it in the air. It was. It was tangible.
[00:30:42] And we were visiting these projects of orphanages and Christians who could potentially lose their life for what they were doing. We had an armed guard taking us round and one of our group, we were a group of 10, had complained about the standard of accommodation we were in.
[00:31:07] And it was a bit rough, I've got to be honest, compared to Mahawi, it was rough. Right, but.
[00:31:12] And the leader, the guy from Haiti, turned around and he looked. He looked at us and he said, tell me, are you missionaries or are you tourists?
[00:31:27] I'll never forget it.
[00:31:29] I hadn't been the one that complained, by the way. That wasn't me.
[00:31:34] But there's something different when you're in a position where you are considering your walk with Jesus and your faith in connection with your life.
[00:31:50] I know my son Sam, who's here today, who I'm very, very proud of and love dearly, and got engaged two weeks ago.
[00:32:00] Yeah.
[00:32:04] When he went to Brazil. Some of the stories he told, he told us, and some of the stories he told his mum when he got back.
[00:32:11] Sam's life wasn't always in the safest place on earth.
[00:32:17] And the stories of the cartels and different things that had happened there, his faith.
[00:32:23] I've seen a difference in him since he got home. And he considered his faith in the context of. Is this something I would give me life for?
[00:32:33] It changes things because Jesus said this in three of the four gospels. Jesus said this.
[00:32:44] If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.
[00:32:58] Rephrased into something we can understand, what they would see, the symbol of the cross. If you want to be my disciple, you deny yourself.
[00:33:06] What?
[00:33:07] Deny myself.
[00:33:10] It's all about me, isn't it? No, it's about him.
[00:33:13] It's no longer I, but Christ who lives in me.
[00:33:19] I take up my cross, which means I'm prepared to die a horrendous death and follow him.
[00:33:38] I know I'm being naughty. I'm just about. I'm going to be naughty and sing a couple of songs, right? Because it's important we remember what Jesus said.
[00:33:49] Impromptu plectrum. Because I haven't got one. Can I use your guitar, Al? Is that all right?
[00:33:54] It's important that we remember what Jesus actually said. Is red is red on red. Red, red. Hey.
[00:34:03] Okay.
[00:34:14] Oh, Al's got a plaque as well.
[00:34:21] I'm being naughty.
[00:34:23] This is one of those moments where you might get offended, right? So just stay with me. If you know some of these songs, would you sing along?
[00:34:33] Sing along and help me?
[00:34:35] Jesus said some of these things.
[00:34:46] You could have tuned it out. Come on.
[00:34:50] Okay.
[00:34:54] Don't worry about a thing.
[00:34:58] Come on, sing along.
[00:35:00] Cause don't worry about a thing.
[00:35:15] Gonna be all right.
[00:35:18] Great song.
[00:35:20] Jesus said that, didn't he?
[00:35:23] Did he?
[00:35:27] Oh, Bob Marley said that, was it.
[00:35:33] Okay, well, keep thinking about that. I'm telling you, I'm being naughty. I know I'm being naughty.
[00:35:39] Here's another one. This is a little bit naughtier. Just stay with me.
[00:35:47] My lighthouse, My lighthouse Shining in the darkness.
[00:35:54] You will carry me safe to shore.
[00:36:00] Safe to.
[00:36:10] Jesus said that, didn't he?
[00:36:17] Well, this is a controversial one, isn't it?
[00:36:20] See, it kind of depends.
[00:36:24] I know what the songwriter says, you know, he promised me his light was a guide to my path. He promised me, when I trust in him and not in all understanding, that he would guide my paths.
[00:36:37] He promised me that even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, that I would find a peace that is like lying in a pasture.
[00:36:46] But he will carry me safe to shore.
[00:36:51] I'm not sure he did.
[00:36:53] I'm not sure he said that the way that we take it sometimes. Because when things don't go the way in life that we expect them to.
[00:37:05] Where are you, Lord?
[00:37:08] You haven't carried me safe to shore. If shore's heaven I'm in. I agree. He will carry me.
[00:37:14] His stripes have healed me. They've reconciled me with my father.
[00:37:18] I'm going to heaven.
[00:37:21] But every little thing is not gonna be all right.
[00:37:27] It's not.
[00:37:30] What he actually said was, this is. If I'd written a song, the song would have gone like this.
[00:37:40] My lighthouse, my lighthouse Standing in the darkness.
[00:37:46] I will follow you.
[00:37:51] That's it.
[00:37:53] I will follow you. Do you know that?
[00:37:57] I know a lot of the birthing of Elam. The Elam movement was birthed here in Exeter, and missionaries who were going overseas took their coffins with them.
[00:38:09] That's true. That. That's a documented thing.
[00:38:12] Everything isn't always going to be all right.
[00:38:16] The promise of heaven back on yeah, I'm back on.
[00:38:43] It's a little bit of a sobering preach this morning, isn't it?
[00:38:46] I'm not cracking too many jokes this morning, but it's important. Sometimes we've got to wrestle with this stuff.
[00:38:54] I had a really good chat with one of my Nigerian friends this morning in church.
[00:39:02] Would you be able to get the picture of the news you see in the UK the question of, Lord, I will deny myself. I will follow you, even if it costs me everything, including my life?
[00:39:21] It's kind of an abstract question because although some of us may be called to die for him, most of us probably aren't.
[00:39:30] Okay. It's a question inside ourselves that we need to answer when we delve in the news below. The price of petrol going up 2 pence, we might find stuff like this where I'm speaking to some of my dear Nigerian friends. It's like this has been going on for decades.
[00:39:57] There are people meeting in that country this morning who do not know whether a gunman will come into that building and kill a lot of them.
[00:40:10] I will follow you safe to shore.
[00:40:15] I will follow you whatever it costs because you are King Jesus and you are worth a absolutely everything that's inside me. And I will follow you whatever it costs.
[00:40:26] That's what he said.
[00:40:30] That's what he said.
[00:40:33] And then it asks the question here. I know all of us on stage, but we all represent Jesus where we live.
[00:40:43] I believe that Jesus Christ is what he said he was. That he is the way, the truth and the life.
[00:40:51] Nobody comes to the Father God but through him, you don't get there through Allah, you don't get there through Buddha. Hindu relationship will not take you to God. Jesus Christ is the only way. He is it. That's it.
[00:41:07] There is no other way.
[00:41:14] Would I still stand there and say that if the context in the UK is that I could potentially get shot for it?
[00:41:26] I hope so, Yes. I hope so.
[00:41:33] Peter said he would, didn't he? And then he denied Jesus straight out. So I only say that I hope so. That's where my heart is.
[00:41:41] Could we get just one more story? I know I've got time. I know I've got time where Jesus talks about hating the father and the mother, your children, your wives, all that.
[00:42:00] Okay?
[00:42:01] Jesus, he agitated us.
[00:42:05] And this is a real controversial scripture because he said large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to him. He said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his mother and father, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life.
[00:42:20] Such a Person cannot be my disciple.
[00:42:23] And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
[00:42:34] Jesus obviously wasn't saying hate your wife.
[00:42:36] He wasn't saying that. He was talking about our commitment to him being above all of those things.
[00:42:45] I love my family like I love the air that I breathe. If there was a bullet coming for any of them, if a train was coming for any of them, without thinking I would put my myself in front of it.
[00:43:00] I would. Without thinking, I know you would do the same that Scripture is talking about. Would we do the same higher and above for Christ?
[00:43:25] What if standing up for truth in the future meant your house got vandalized and your windows were put out?
[00:43:33] Would you still stand for it?
[00:43:38] We don't know what's coming next, but I'd love to suggest one thing to you. Would you be able to get my friend Luke back on the stage? Back on the. On screen, please, at the back of the stage.
[00:43:54] One of the things my friend Luke had that he really taught me is that Luke lived with an eternal mindset.
[00:44:05] Because when we live as citizens of heaven, like the Bible says, our lives are important because they're a gift from God. But I'm living an eternal life. I'm living in that now. I'm living an eternal life now. My life belongs to Jesus. I belong to Jesus. Jesus.
[00:44:22] A couple of weeks before Luke died, and I was in the hospice with him, I'd got together with him, you know, maybe thinking, you know, I'm going to pray, healing, and we're going to do all that.
[00:44:33] Luke wanted to talk about heaven, and we sat and we talked for ages about whether we would hug Jesus first or whether we would be on our knees before him first, or whether we'd be lying down before Jesus first.
[00:44:52] It was incredible.
[00:44:59] Margaret.
[00:45:02] Some of you won't remember Margaret. Margaret was wonderful. Lucy Lockett, she called herself on Facebook.
[00:45:09] I spoke to Margaret a day or so before Margaret died two years ago. And she was the same. She was a citizen of heaven. And she talked about how she loved to dance when she was younger, and would she dance before Jesus?
[00:45:26] And then she said, des, could we dance together before Jesus when we get there, when we're citizens of heaven, we don't hold our own lives like this.
[00:45:40] We let him go, just like we let forgiveness go last week, because we know he's in control and he's worth dying for.
[00:45:52] So this is a tough reflection, and it's a hard one to answer, but here's our third reflection of this morning.
[00:46:12] Would you be Prepared to deny yourself, taking up your own cross, which means being prepared to die for him.
[00:46:26] Just reflect on that for a moment.
[00:46:30] It.
[00:46:57] Father, that's a question for so many of us.
[00:47:02] Maybe an abstract one, but, Father, we want to put you number one. We really do.
[00:47:17] Even if it came to our very lives.
[00:47:22] You are so worth it, Lord. You are so worth it.
[00:47:35] Okay, right. We're nearly done.
[00:47:42] We're nearly done.
[00:47:46] I know. I can feel the room's different. Normally, I get up and I tell as many jokes as I possibly can.
[00:47:53] It's okay to have sobering moments sometimes. It's fine.
[00:47:58] Church, would you grace me? Would you stand together? There's a scripture that I would love to end with, and I'm going to say it first. But if you've reflected this morning and you feel quite stirred and you feel that you can repeat the scripture, I'd encourage you to do so, and we'll do that together.
[00:48:23] This scripture really, really well represents that whole I've died to myself.
[00:48:29] I'm not king of myself anymore. He's king.
[00:48:34] It says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.
[00:48:38] But Christ lives in me.
[00:48:41] 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.
[00:48:52] If that is something that you resonate with and you would love to say, can we say that together now, from the bottom of your heart?
[00:49:04] I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me.
[00:49:13] 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.
[00:49:33] What impact would we have in this city if our baseline was, I will not give that which costs me nothing.
[00:49:45] I will not give that which costs me nothing.
[00:49:50] As we work towards Father, I will give you everything.
[00:49:57] Everything.
[00:49:59] Maybe the cost. The question could be, how much could it cost me?
[00:50:04] I want to give you everything.
[00:50:09] So here's our response this morning.
[00:50:12] Our time is up.
[00:50:14] Much like when we had our what's your story Week and I encouraged us to speak to each other.
[00:50:22] We can either just go and have a cup of coffee and talk about the footy or talk about our shopping or talk about where we're going for lunch. That's fine.
[00:50:33] Or if you're brave enough, I would love it that you may be hung around for five or 10 minutes, maybe speak to the person next to you and say, what does that look like for you?
[00:50:49] I would love it if some of you would do that. Like what does it look like for you to give something that costs you nothing?
[00:50:58] How did you feel when the strange Geordie guy was saying, would you die for Jesus? How did you feel when he said that?
[00:51:12] No big song to end.
[00:51:16] I would love it if you were brave enough to do that.
[00:51:20] Lord Jesus, we love you, we glorify you.
[00:51:27] And would we leave this place like we prayed earlier, with our eyes wider open than ever, with our hearts stirred more than ever with the excitement of what it could look like to give you that not just that which cost us nothing, but that which costs us everything.
[00:51:53] In Jesus, mighty name, amen.
