Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let's welcome Marty Davison, our International Missions Director.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: It's great to be here. And I have brought a member of the team along with me. Linda, come on down. And Linda is a passionate servant of the Lord, serves Elim.
And Linda has been with me on mission in many a country.
And I've just invited Linda just to share a little bit, take you on a tour around the world, land somewhere, and then we'll go for a journey. How's that? Are you ready?
Over to you.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Okay. It's a great pleasure to be here today, and I'm going to do just that. I'm going to take you on a journey, but I want to take you on a little journey that I was on myself last week. Last week, at this very moment.
Last week at this very moment, I was in Barcelona. And the purpose of being there was to do a race that had a strap line that says anything's possible.
And the weather was so bad that it was cancelled. I trained for a whole year to swim a long distance, ride a long distance, run a long distance, and it got cancelled.
The floods were up to here outside my hotel.
But on the beach on the Friday morning, I did the last practice swim. You see, these guys that race with me are this big, They've got muscles this big, and then there's little o me. And I always feel a little bit less than adequate. So I went on the last swim and I swam like a dolphin. I went straight along that beach. I came straight back. 1 hour 45, job done. And I got out the beach with a great big smile. And my coach said, I've never seen you smile so much getting out of the water. And I was like, game on. I've got this. The race is on. And I hear God speak to me as clear as day. And he went, linda, I've called you, I've called the church to a much greater race than this. And my strap line isn't anything's possible. My strap line is, everything's possible. Because from the beginning of time, I called you for this moment. From the beginning of time, everything that I've done prepared you to do exactly what I need of you. And that applies to all of us. And so sometimes when I look at the world and its enormity and the job that's in front of us, I think, how on earth, how on earth can we do it? And God says we can do it because he's called us to do it and he equips us to do it. I want to take you on a Little journey. I want to take you to India. India is probably one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. I've been there 19 times, and there's 120 village pastors who give up everything to be pastors of the gospel in a Hindu nation. And they're not really respected, they're persecuted. It costs them a lot to do the job. I want to take you to a village school with 370 children who are poor, and they would not be educated if it wasn't for people like you across the Ilam movement who funds their education.
I want to introduce you to a lady who's a widow. I didn't really know she was a widow to begin with, but she took me to her church. My job was to do three little sessions in a day, and that was it. And when the sessions ended, this monsoon, we were up to our knees in mud, and we're far away from Rajahmundry. And the day was over. And she said, can you come again tomorrow and do another day? And I was thinking, oh, no, I'm going to be up all night trying to put something clever together. I said to Prasad, whatever you think, he said, let's do it. And so I go home, I'm up all night. I write my notes and we go and we do a second day there. And at the end of the day, she's in a little church. It's not as beautiful as this. It's just a little rectangle with pure gray concrete. Nothing fancy. And there's a little corner where she feeds us white rice and pomegranate seeds.
And she finds me a spoon because she knows I'm not very good at doing it their way.
And at the end of the day, she comes down a little alleyway and she hands me an envelope that's stuffed with little dirty rupee notes. And I panic and I say, prasad, I can't take any money from this woman because I am rich by comparison to her. And he said, linda, you can't refuse. You can take it and you can give it back.
So I decide that's a reasonable solution. So I take the money.
She's crying, I'm crying. I give the money back, and I'm hanging around her neck and I'm praying, God, would you meet this woman's needs? Would you bless her? Would you look after her two boys? Would you give her everything she needs?
A year later, I go back and the church is gone. Her husband has died. He was the pastor of three churches, and she's taken over The. The job. Her boys are probably this big, I guess, 12, 14, something like that.
And I watch her sit on a slab of concrete, pull her sari over her head to pray, and she cries. And my heart is crying to. If you're crying, I'm crying. I can't help myself. And I hear God. Before I went, Nigel James, who kind of helps with this project, said, linda, please don't bring back any projects. We've got enough. And I go, okay, I'll try not to. But I watch this woman, and I hear God saying, we need to reinstate this woman's status. What on earth does that mean? And I learn that her husband has died. I learned that her father paid a dowry. The dowry wasn't spent properly. The land wasn't purchased properly. And some people came and they took it all. And they knocked the church down. And right round the perimeter are Hindu temples that look very extravagant. And here we are in a Christian center that looks as poor as church mice. And I was like, God, what can we do? And then I learn that not only that she lives in her father's house, and as a married woman, when the dowry's been paid, she doesn't really have a right to be back there. It's a little bit of a shame. And I go, God, what can we do?
And I hear God say, let's build a house of, like, serious.
The man I was with was there to build a church. Ignite had a vision to build 50 little churches across India. And I was like, give me your £5,000. Let's build. This is what I can see. I can see a house. I can see a nice house. Not concrete, but tiles. Not sitting on the floor, but a sofa. I can see a toilet that flushes. I can see a little kitchen that you can cook in. And then up the side of the building, I can see stairs and. And a church right across the top. Trust me with your £5,000. And he said, okay, but here's the rub. You need to text Nigel and tell him what we're doing. I was like, it's okay. It's okay. We can do it. Let's wait till we go home. Anyway, so I'm thinking in my mind, I know the man who will help me to do this. And I work as a financial planner, and I have lots of contacts. And I knew this man had helped me with lots of projects before, and he would help me with this one.
And so. So I thought, anyway, I go home, and I know that I need £30,000, and I need it well, fast, because it's going to be a rainy season very soon and I don't want this situation to go on forever. And I'm sitting in my office thinking, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? And so I go to work and someone says, where have you been? I've been waiting for you for up for weeks. And I was like, oh, I went to India, this is what happened. And they went, let me help you. And so they wrote a check for a thousand pounds. I was like, good start. Then I went to the next. I'm waiting in London, Paddington Station. They all come to me because I can't get myself around London. And so the next man comes, goes, linda, where have you been? Been waiting for two weeks. And I tell him my story and he goes, let me help you. And he gives me £500. And so it goes, and so it goes, and so it goes. And then Jason, my son, come home, comes home from church with an envelope from the man that I thought would be the main game player. And inside the envelope was a very generous gift, but not enough. It's £1,500. I'm thinking, I need thousands of pounds.
And so I say, thank you very much. And I'm in my office one day, I've raised it all by £9,000, and I'm really stressed. I don't know where I'm getting this £9,000 from.
And the man who I thought was the main player rings me and he goes, dinda, you'll never guess what's happened to me and my family. I was like, I'm sure you're going to tell me. And he says, I've overpaid my telephone bill.
Who cares? I don't right now. He said, my father has overpaid his health insurance and I think, nothing to do with me. I don't sell it.
And do you know how stressed I am? And he goes, but here's what's happened. He said, bt, in their wisdom, repaid the overpayment, and my father's insurance refunded the difference. We had two checks this morning. One was for 5,000, one was for 4,000.
How much do you need for your build? I was like, £9,000.
And so?
And so this lady who was as poor as a church mouse, she actually taught me more than I've ever known about money. I've got a degree in financial planning. I think I'm quite clever when it comes to money. However, this woman taught me everything I know. She gave me from what she did not have. She stuffed little worthless rupees in an envelope and gave me everything she had. Now look at. Look what happened. She gave out of her lack. And God provided a house for her like she could never dream of. It is the most beautiful house in the whole place. And you just think God honors those that honor him. And so that's story number one. Let me take you to tell me when I've had enough. Just you tell me.
I take you to Cambodia. Cambodia is the Be Free Project.
The Be Free Project. It looks after women and children who have been rescued from trafficking. Women who have lifestyles that you cannot begin to imagine.
And they're in our centre. And at the bottom there's an early learning centre which looked after small children while their parents work.
They're safe, they won't be trafficked. On the middle floor there's the church. And to hear a bunch of Buddhists sing our songs is just the most exciting thing you can imagine. And on the top floor we have the Be Free Project. Girls rescued from trafficking. Being taught that Jesus loves them. Being taught that there's purpose to their life. Being taught that that's not all their fault. That is sin and evil and God's got a better plan. Each and every one of those girls love Jesus. Each and every one of those girls have been baptized and they are walking with God. Isn't that the most incredible thing?
I want to take you to probably the worst place I've ever stood in. Pakistan. I think there's some slides of Pakistan.
And I went with some Elim pastors. Three Elim pastors. We walked around this brick factory in total silence because the emotion was too much. These children make bricks all day long. Just keep flicking, you're all right.
These men take the sand from here. They make whatever they need to make those bricks. But these are slaves. Third generation slaves. And what's happened? Look at them, they're so beautiful. And it is such a bad, bad place. It feels densely wrong.
And they're third generation slaves. What's happened is their parents have borrowed money for medical care.
If the weather's not good enough to make bricks, then they have to borrow money to buy food. And so the debt becomes insurmountable. The interest rate makes our loan sharks look like angels themselves. They will never be out of debt. Let's flick.
In the middle of the brick factories, we've got a Sunday school movement. I stood here, I couldn't understand one word. But these children were singing our Sunday school songs. They were doing Their higher, higher, lower, lower and all of the actions and this is their respite. They're getting taken out, taught a little bit of English, given a little bit of snacks, given a little bit of hope out of a day that just looks horrendous.
Keep going. This woman, she's a widow.
Her and her two children borrowed money to pay for her husband's health care. He died and she remains a slave and indebted. But here's what happened. Anila Minister and I put together a little video and we sent it out and within two hours we raised £6,000. We had to find out what this woman's life was worth. A slave, you would think the debt must be hideous. It was £3,000. Within one hour, an Elam church in London put together £6,000 and this woman was released from slavery, totally redeemed. And the money that was left bought her a little. Didn't buy, but got a little place for her to live and set up a little cottage industry so that she never needs to be a slave again.
Isn't this what God has called us to do? Reach the poor, teach the truth, bring hope and light into serious dark places. Let's flip this family. So I'm on the beach in Barcelona. I'm devastated that I'm not racing. And I get a text from Hanuk and it says, once upon a little while ago, there was a lady in my church. She says, linda, I can't do much. I don't sing, I don't speak, speak. I don't do anything. I. But I've got £3,000 that I want to give you to do something in the world of mission. What can I do? And I was like, well, let me think about it. But are you sure? And she said, absolutely. It's all I can do. I can't go, I can pray and I can give. And so she gave £3,000. I didn't really know exactly what we'd do with it, but what happened was the partners we have on the ground sent me a little text last Sunday when I was out of the web. It cheered me up no end. And they said, this family, this picture is a family freed from slavery. £3,000 took them out of slavery. Look at their little bed. It's tat. It's nothing. This is their total belongings. And here they are moving out of slavery. They're being looked after in our center in Lahore and life for them is going to be very different. Let's just take a little flick.
Here they are. Look at their Smile. Isn't that the most incredible thing?
But what I want to say is, mission is all of our responsibility. And one day while I was driving, I had this little dream with my eyes open. What if everybody in Elam got involved? What if all of our churches stepped up to the mark? What if every member said, I can give £1 a week back? Then I did the calculation and it would mean that we'd have about £3 million a year. So when I need to rescue a woman from slavery, it's done. When I need to get someone else in the Bee free Centre, it's done. When I write the budget and go, oh my.
There is no oh my. It's fine. It's all there. You know, God is good and he provides every time. But there is an amazing joy in being part of the program. We are called to mission. And so my little thought was pound by pound. And when I came To Exeter last, 71 of you signed up to pound by pound. If we're talking leaderboards, it's up there. That's amazing. But my thoughts would be for everyone who isn't, thank you to those who do it. But for everyone who doesn't, would you consider joining us on our little program, pound by pound, so that we can have a little bit of reserve to do much more? Because for all of those great stories, there's a million more that we need to create and we need to step up and do mission. The race that God has called us to is incredible. And the world, when I look at these flags, I go, game on. We can do it because God's equipped us to do it. What we have to do is be obedient to the. Some of us will go, some of us will stay, some of us will pray, and we can all give. And so I'd ask you to join us. And if you join pond by pond, you get a little video from my boss every single month. That's the highlight.
So I would.
And for me, I'm old. I love paper. I hate technology, but I love paper. I've got loads and loads and loads you can sign up. And there's also a QR code that for you techies, you can use. Well done.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Absolutely amazing. Amen.
Just get myself all organized or I can nearly see.
There we go.
So I have been Elam's International Missions Director for two years and it has been an amazing learning curve. Josiah, can I have my first slide? Next slide. I'm married to Rebecca, love, you have to stand up, please.
Mi esposa Brasileira Mia hayena ella in crevo malviloz.
Amen. Qui falla Portuguese Gloria Deus.
And so I'm married to Rebecca. She's just amazing. I punch well above my weight. If you don't understand, Pastor Mark will explain that later to you.
And so we're married. We have two children, Daniel and Elizabeth, who are now sort of young adults. And for the last two years, I have been discovering what God is doing through Elim throughout the nations. And I've come up with this little quote. Next slide.
And it's this. Elam Missions is Elim's best kept secret. And I'm out to destroy that.
Because what we do together is we've got to tell people the fruit that we hear in India, the fruit that we hear in all these countries is our fruit when we come together and work together. Would you agree with me?
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: As the missions director, I've had the privilege of visiting our missionaries in many nations. Our global partners have had the opportunity to actually see what they're doing, sweat with them, smell the smells with them, and just get a real taster for what life is like on the ground. Isn't that good?
I've seen their needs, I pray with them, I pray for them. And I want to share some of the blessings and encouragements that I've discovered. Is that okay?
And so when. Next slide, please.
In Northern Ireland, we say keeper lit. Oh, I've gone past that. I mean, as I've discovered. Did you know that Elam has 62 missionaries in 39 fields of operations? Raise your hand if you knew that.
I didn't.
Look at this. We're supporting ELAM throughout the world. We're sending missions teams, short term, long term, to many destinations. We're training, we're equipping potential missionaries supporting our local Elam churches. We're responding to crisis around the world. Next slide. Josiah. Good man.
Elam and our 86 global partners are working in 53 nations of the world. That's worth a round of applause. God is good.
Next slide. Josiah.
I love this photograph.
I was in Cambodia and I met this elderly pastor. And she was able to tell me when she was flee the bombings because of the Khmer Rouge. She had just given birth and her son died in her arms.
And as she was fleeing, the people said, leave your son down. He is dead. Wait. Leave him?
And she said no. She didn't want to part with her son. And she kept on going. They said, leave him, leave him, he's dead. Wait. She said no because she had heard of A man called Jesus who had resurrected the dead.
And in her heart there was a cry. It was, I need to meet Jesus.
She came into this village when they were fleeing, and a man came alongside her and said, follow me. And brought her to a door and knocked on the door. And when the door was opened, a pastor came to the door. She turned around to thank the man. The man had disappeared. How good is that?
They went in and the lady said to the pastor, I need to meet Jesus.
Because she thought that Jesus she was able to touch and able to feel. But is that not true? Are we not meant to be Jesus to the people around us?
Are we not meant to be his hands, his feet, his mouth? It says in my Bible that the loving kindness of God will bring people to repentance. Are we not meant to be so full of God that we bring his love wherever we go?
Even to the most ugly people.
Look at the person beside you and say, you were ugly once.
Come on, you know that song. He makes all things beautiful.
Some people need to come into his presence more.
And so this pastor brought her to Jesus. She gave her life to Jesus, and they prayed for her dead son. What I love about her testimony is, it's so true. It's so real. She says, and when life came back into him, all of a sudden, he peed. And there was a jet of pee.
It was called the overflow.
And this is that bab.
Often we do not give because we feel we can't make a difference. But a few ladies in Northern Ireland got together, gave a little bit of money, and it went to Pastor Peter in Kenya, and he bought a projector and a laptop, and he took the Jesus movie to the Turkana tribe. These ladies are from the Turkana tribe in Kenya. And he took the Jesus movie there. He preached to over 3000 people.
2000 gave their lives to Jesus.
These aren't just, oh, I'm giving my name, I'm ticking a box. No, these are people. He goes back, and disciples go back. And disciples go back and teach. And from there, 11 churches have been planted in the northern tribes there in Kenya. Come on, give it up for God. God is good.
There are so many stories I can tell you. Next slide, please. We need to go quick. How's the seatbelt? Is it chaffing? No, you're okay.
These guys, John and Rachel, are in Paraguay, and they serve into one of the indigenous tribes in Paraguay. That is hardcore. What I mean by that. I was a missionary in the Amazon jungle for 13 years. And when God sent Me into the Indian tribes. I sort of went, go, no, God, I don't really want to go.
And I only had to go for about two years.
And it was tough, it was tough.
You know, their culture, their mindset, it's really, you really have to use the weapons of our warfare that God has given to break through all that tribal stuff, all that spiritual stuff. John and Rachel were going into this indigenous tribe for more than five years and they saw no one give their life to Jesus. Somebody say amen?
Yeah, they went in, they were faithful. We are called to be faithful no matter what.
But after five years and the people were watching them, watching them, they want to see not just what people say they want to see, do they live the life.
And so after five years, ones and twos began to give their life to Jesus.
I was there the other year, 124 strong church meeting together in the indigenous reserve in Paraguay. Give it up for God. Come on.
Next slide, please. Josiah.
And Jesus came and spoke to him, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
You see, my heart is to encourage you, inspire you to fulfill the great commission of God.
My heart is the great commission of God isn't optional.
Give someone a nudge besides, say it's not optional.
We're all called to go.
And so my heart is to come alongside the church, help equip, facilitate. And that's what we're doing through ELA Missions. Next slide, please.
We've got new initiatives to help the young, the children, the youth, the young adults. Everybody turn to your person beside you. Say, everybody, we're all called to go.
Okay, we'll try that again.
We. Right, Say to the person. No, don't say to the person beside you, just, just say, we are all called to go.
And so, Global God, we did a conference last year, we're doing two this year for youth and young adults to equip them, inspire them, train them so that they are able to pray, so that they are willing to go to the nations. Isn't that good?
See, when you go, God does something in your heart. When you go, you learn more about God than staying at home.
When you go, you think you're going to be a blessing, but you are even greaterly blessed. I can nearly speak English. I'm working on it.
Next slide.
We've teamed up with Limitless so that I know some people like Limitless so that the youth can go on mission at Global God. This time the youth and young adults are going to be able to team up with missionaries to do some mentorship. They're able to go on what's called a deep dive. So if they've got a month or two months or three months free in a gap year, they can go to the mission field. How good is that?
Next slide. We've got more. We're trying to get the whole church involved in standing with and for our missionaries who are in persecuted nations.
Watch out for that first of November. Tune in either here or in your living room and pray together with us.
Next slide, please.
Missions Academy equipping those who feel called to go. Not just those who want to be missionaries, but those who have a heart and desire to know more about missions. How good is that?
God is doing so much that I have found myself to be the bottleneck and I'm trying to remedy that.
One of the ways I'm doing that is. Next slide, please. Next slide again. Good man, Josiah.
I do articles in direction you're Elim Facebook for those over 40, 50, Instagram for the younger ones and we're even on TikTok. So look us up, find out what Elim Missions is doing. Keep an eye on it, share with you people.
Amen.
Next slide, please. Often I'll say that we are Elim together.
We can.
I have to say I had a look at your vision statement and your vision statement, if you don't know it is revealing the glory of God to the southwest and beyond.
Revealing the glory of God to the southwest and beyond. We are called to be a people filled to overflowing with his spirit, doing extraordinary things to reflect his glory.
Ordinary people in powered by an extraordinary holy Spirit.
You see, when we say yes to God and keep on saying yes to God, that's an important bit. Don't miss that. When we say yes to God and keep on saying yes to God, we are transformed from glory to glory
[00:29:31] Speaker A: to
[00:29:31] Speaker B: reflect him more and more. Look what it says. 2 Corinthians 3, 8. It says are being transformed into the same image. That's the same image as God, the same image as Jesus. From glory to glory. Just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
It's wonderful to come into his presence this morning. But you know what? You're to come into his presence every day. You're to walk in his presence. You're to reflect his glory. Wherever you go, you bring his glory. And that can be radical. And it can be so simple.
I'm speaking Portuguese. So simple.
What do I mean by that? Sometimes all you have to do is smile at someone. Sometimes all you have to do is help someone with their shopping. You be God into the situation, into every situation. In school life, in work life. What would God have you do?
I was a dentist by trade.
Generally gets a bit of a reaction. But anyway, I loved my job.
And often I'll say that God hijacked my life. But the truth is, God gave me a choice.
You see, God gives us a choice to obey him or disobey him. To follow him or not to follow him or not to take his heed. And I was confronted by a situation. When I was in Brazil. A young man stood up and said, I want to tell you about the joy of the Lord in my heart.
And I could see that he had what I had lost.
Above all things, guard your heart. I had not guarded my heart.
I had allowed offense to come in. I had allowed a bit of writ to come in. And the glory of God that I carried was no longer. And I knew it.
Maybe some of you are sitting here like I was then.
And when I was confronted by the truth, I said, God, whatever you want me to do, I will do. But don't take your presence from me.
God hears a contrite heart.
And instantaneously, God began to infill me, refresh me, restore me again with His Holy Spirit.
You heard that? Once bitten, twice shy.
When you have lost his presence and God is so good that he restores you, there's an element where you say, never again. Never again. Lord, let me walk dependent on you. Let me not become independent.
Let me not do it in my own strength for the risk of falling once again. Are you with me, Church?
Hallelujah.
See?
What are you aiming for?
What's your goal?
Josiah, can I have a next slide?
Look at this. Most assuredly. I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will also do. And greater works than these he will do. Because I go to the Father who believes in Jesus.
Well, then that is for you. That is your goal. What is your goal? To do the same works as Jesus and greater.
What are you aiming for? I'm always looking for dead people so I can resurrect them. Any volunteers?
What is the standard that you're living to do? Not live looking and judging the people around you.
Live in his presence and allow His Holy Spirit to take you on a journey so that you can be fully restored to the glory that God would want you to carry.
How yous doing? Youse doing okay?
Anybody guess where I'm from?
[00:33:34] Speaker C: Earth.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Earth.
Hallelujah.
I've got some homework for you to do. Is that okay?
I want you to read Luke chapter three and Luke chapter four. And before you read it, say, holy Spirit, speak to me.
The greatest revelation is a revelation that God gives you, not the revelation that I give you. Okay? When you get the revelation through the Holy Spirit, it becomes yours. And when you read Luke chapter three, you'll see that Jesus comes up out of the water and the Holy Spirit comes upon him. And John says that the Holy Spirit remains upon him. And then you'll see in Luke chapter 4 that Jesus was led full of the Holy Spirit into the desert.
I love that word led. I like the Greek. It sort of means propelled. He was pushed by the Holy Spirit. He was guided by the Holy Spirit. He submitted to the impulse of the Holy Spirit. How good is that?
And then he returns after 40 days, trials, temptations, time in the presence of His Father. And he returns. It says he returns full of the power.
Who needs the power of God in their lives?
The power of God is when you are led by the Holy Spirit, surrendered to the Holy Spirit, and you obey the voice of God.
There is no substitute.
Next slide. Josiah. We're doing well.
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We have been called to be witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth. We have been called to be full of the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can do the same work as Jesus in Exeter. Someone say Exeter to the region. The southwest. Someone say the southwest.
To Samaria. Someone say even the English.
And to the ends of the earth. To the ends of the earth.
To Brazil. Amen.
Hallelujah.
When I said yes to God and God filled me with his spirit, I thought I was the answer.
It was like I thought I was Superman.
All of a sudden, I pulled on the little red Speedos and put a big S.
And I had my cape.
And you said, well, really? I went, yeah, really. Because I was young. I was full of pride. I was arrogant. I was full of His Holy Spirit, but still full a lot of myself.
But the joy is God takes us where we're at, but he refuses to leave us the way we're at.
And as I went.
God began to teach me. You see, when we say yes to following Jesus, we're saying yes to an invitation to become like him, to learn from him. Often learning from him means we need to unlearn that which we have learned.
Are you willing to unlearn?
Do you have a teachable spirit?
I had to unlearn so much. Oh, my word. I thought I was holy.
Then I realized I was from Northern Ireland.
I love where I was born. But often we hold our culture as truth above the truth of the kingdom of God.
Please hear me.
God placed me born in Northern Ireland. I am proud of that fact. God decided. But I've learned that many of the things that I held as right.
And I was full of righteousness. But that's my own righteousness. We call that self righteousness was not God's righteousness. And I had to unlearn so that I could carry his glory and bring his kingdom, his culture, to where he sent me.
Look what Jesus says. Next slide. Thanks. Follow me. Next slide.
Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, who wants to follow Jesus?
Come on.
Let that be the cry of your heart every day. Daily let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. You see, we're called to surrender our lives. Amen.
We're called to live for Jesus, but we're called to obey. But even greater, we are called to die. Turn to the person beside you and say, you've got to die.
See, the cross is not a place of suffering. It's a place of death, where we die to the flesh, where we put our flesh, our carnality on the cross. That means that the resurrection power can resurrect us in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Luke says it better. He says we need to carry our cross daily. We get to choose daily to obey God above our own desires. What does that look like? I got a phone call from Northern Ireland when I was on the field.
And the phone call went something like this. Marty, we've been praying. We feel that you're to come back to Northern Ireland for three weeks. We'll put up an itinerary. You can preach every day, inspire, encourage. And just leave your family in Brazil.
I said, yeah, no problem.
Send the divorce papers with that request.
You see, God knows all the details. And my wife, when she was younger, was kidnapped. And she did not want to be separated from me. And neither did I want to be separated from her. God called us as a team. Together are you with me?
And I said, yeah, send the divorce papers. In other words, no.
And they said, marty, will you pray about it? And to get off the phone? I said, yeah, I'll pray about it. To get off the phone.
And so I went to God so that God could give me the verses where he agreed with me, because surely God would agree with me. Because I'm doing my best to walk with God. So obviously I agree with God, and God agrees with me. You with me?
And as I went to God with an open heart. Nearly.
Next slide.
Next slide. Josiah, God gave me these words.
He says, whether it's pleasing or displeasing to you, Marty, you'll obey my voice.
I went, oh, no, are they your voice?
Because I was binding them in the name of Jesus, because it wasn't really something I wanted to do. But we're called to carry our cross.
You heard earlier. God has been speaking so much.
Don't lean on your own understanding.
Lean on him.
And as I leant on him, he said, go.
And I thought, oh, no, you know, that was going to be. That was a nightmare. Because I was going to have to tell Rebekah we would talk about all things. But now I'm not talking. I'm saying God has told me. I know he's told me, so I must go. Can you imagine that?
Husbands, tell your wife what you're going to do.
But Rebekah got over it after six months.
If you didn't hear, neither said, was it that soon?
But what's lovely is, please hear me. Please hear me. You see, I love the vision statement that you have, that we're called to carry his glory, and we're called to grow, be transformed from glory to glory. But that means we must go on a journey where we're willing to trust and obey God over what we desire to do.
And I couldn't see it, nor could my wife, Rebekah. But from going and being obedient, God released so much into and over our lives and ministry.
Hold onto your seatbelts. We're coming into land. It could be bumpy, but here we'll go. Okay.
So I chose to obey God, trust God died in my thoughts, my desires, my ways. To be a follower of Jesus, to walk in all that God had for me meant to choose to die so that the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit could flow through me.
It isn't comfortable. Getting out of a perfectly good boat is not comfortable.
But we are all called to go to our neighbors, to our colleagues, to those that we work with. We are all called to go on mission, no matter what that might look like.
Can I get an amen, Josiah? Can I have one of my last slides, please?
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
Someone shout out good works.
Those good works are the same good works that Jesus did and greater. Hallelujah.
But it gets better. We don't have to orchestrate those good works.
Sigh of relief which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In other words, all we have to do is get up in the morning and say, thank you, God, here I am. Send me. Thank you, God. I find that we're meant to be full of the Holy Spirit like Jesus, but I'm a bit leaky.
In other words, I start full and end empty.
People do that to you.
It's true.
Get around people and all of a sudden, you know.
And so we need to be continually filled with his spirit. We need to be continually filled by God's love, which is unconditional and overflowing, so that we can continually be full of him to do the good works that he has called us to do. I want to encourage you this week not just to read Luke chapter three and Luke chapter four, but I want to encourage you to say, God, what good works do you have lined up for me to do this week? And if you miss them, don't worry. God has so many lined up. Forgive yourself and get back onto it. Are you with me? Can we all stand? Is that okay?
Praise you, God. Just pop your hands forward if you want. I'm going to pray over you if that's okay. Just receive, Father God, I thank you what you have poured into this church family.
But God, in the name of Jesus, I break off every lie of the enemy, every word that has been set spoken over them in the past that would say in their mind, I cannot because you have said in Christ all things are possible.
Father God, I thank you that you do not expect us to leap mountains as a first step, but you call us to put our hand in your hand and be guided by you. And so, Father God, I pray that as we put our hand in your hand and are dependent on your Holy Spirit, that we would not harden our heart, but we would obey you. And God, that we would enjoy, not endure, but enjoy the journey of discovery in you. And everybody said amen. God bless you. Thank you, guys.
Amen.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: Great stuff.
Thank you so much. Marty and Linda and I want to encourage you, at the back of the hall there is a table that has got information on the Pound by pound.
It's great that there was 71 new sign ups last time but that is a scheme that I think most people could give up a third of a cup of coffee a week to be a part of that and it makes a massive difference. Wouldn't it be amazing if all of us were signed up to that pound by pound? So do go to the back, speak to them about that. Also I really believe there are people here in this church that you will be not just involved in short term missions, although there are many who are going to be in that. And I believe in the years ahead we're going to be doing a lot more overseas missions but also there are some that are going to be called to go to nations, even return to nations homelands with the gospel of Jesus. And so do go and check out the missions academy which Marty and the team run. It's a great program to help set people up to prepare and train for the future. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your presence and the power of your spirit which has stirred our souls today to follow after you.
Thank you for your presence in the world and we pray that we will carry you into the Jerusalem, the Judea and Samaria that you call us to this week. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
