Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, it's a joy to see you this morning. You know, as I travel around, I've been in Scotland this week with some ministers up there and I always talk so proudly of you guys wherever I travel around. We're so blessed by you. And I look around and I see the hand of God. And we're continuing this theme of Made for More. But when I reflect over the journey of the past few years, I've been amazed at how flexible we have been as a congregation with lots and lots of changes that have taken place. How many of you remember this time last year we were picking up carpet tiles from the floor in the pop up down at the range. Remember that 18 month crazy journey down there?
[00:00:47] And that was just a year ago. We were just removing that and preparing to come back to this building for a period of time. And then you remember earlier this year we began to talk to you about a building that we were looking to take on at Marsh Barton Signal House. And you gave so faithfully and so full of faith towards that and you prayed and you encouraged. Those hampers were being packed as Signal House last year in anticipation that we were going to buy that building.
[00:01:17] And those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, it's too much to catch up on really. But we agreed to buy the building you all gave and then we needed to get planning consent we to buy that building to change it from an industrial building to a church. And we failed to get that planning consent at the first attempt. But we were encouraged because we felt that God had pre warned us that might happen and that he wanted us to make friends on the journey.
[00:01:45] So we weren't discouraged. We put another application in to the council and we began the process of making more and more friends. And boy did we make some friends on that journey. But the problem was whether you can call it a problem if you want to, that the owners were convinced that we would never get planning consent and so they got nervous and they sold the building to someone else and now someone else owns that building.
[00:02:14] And last week we found out that the council gave us planning consent for that building that we've now not bought.
[00:02:22] But it's okay because I've often discovered in my life that when by the way, we told them we weren't getting the building any longer, but because we paid for the planning consent they decided they had to give it or they had to go through the process. But the great thing about that is that those friendships we've made have been evidenced.
[00:02:42] The learning the lessons we've learned along the way have been learned.
[00:02:46] And we are convinced that if we could get planning consent on that building, then whatever God's got for us in the future, we can go into that situation more encouraged and full of faith than we have this far.
[00:03:01] And so we were really encouraged by that journey. And, you know, what I've discovered over the years is, and I don't think we ever stood here and said that we believe that's the building God's got for us. We felt a piece about pursuing it.
[00:03:17] And in fact, one of the dilemmas I've had over the years is that I've often been in situations where I'm interviewing people for jobs.
[00:03:27] So in my other role of overseeing Elim, we've got about 100 staff around the country.
[00:03:34] And plus, obviously, in our 500, 450 churches, we've got thousands of staff in our various churches. And a dilemma that I've experienced multiple times is that when more than one person applies for a job in a Christian environment, that more than one people usually feel that God's told them they're going to get it.
[00:03:56] And it's a dilemma.
[00:03:58] And I've got good friends that have gone for jobs in those environments, and they felt that God has said to them that they're going to get the job and they don't get it, and then it becomes a major disappointment into their lives. Well, first of all, let me tell you what I now tell those people at the beginning of the process.
[00:04:17] I say you might sense that God's asked you to apply for it, but that doesn't mean to say you're going to get it, because there might be something in the application that you're going to learn.
[00:04:30] There might be something in the disappointment that God wants to teach you.
[00:04:34] There might be something in the people that you meet along the way that he wants to help you. But it doesn't mean to say you're going to get the job because you're not all going to get the job.
[00:04:47] So it's not evidence that God has said you're going to get it. It's an evidence that God has given you a piece to pursue it.
[00:04:56] And many years ago, I felt God challenged me, that I was approaching his will, like as if I was pulling up at a set of traffic lights. And I believe that the lights were on red unless God changed them to green. And there were many times I'd sit there and I'd say, God, I've got this idea. If you want me to do this, please give me a Green light. And I'd carry on sitting at the traffic lights. And I remember God saying to me, this is many years ago, Mark. What if you lived your life like the lights were on green unless I change them to red.
[00:05:25] And so now when I get an idea, when I get a thought, when I get an inspiration, I take the approach that unless God gives me a red, it's a green.
[00:05:35] So we sit, assuming that God is calling us with his peace and with his story. And I pray this prayer, I say, God, if you want this, if this is your will, then I pray you continue to give us green lights. If it isn't, then give us an amber or a red and we will stop.
[00:06:00] And so we approach Signal house on that basis that this was a green light and then God turned it to red.
[00:06:12] And that's okay, because I've discovered over the years that moments of disappointment can be moments of your greatest appointment.
[00:06:23] It can be moments when God does the most in you.
[00:06:27] And so I sense that having this planning consent and this beautiful, wonderful community of faith that you all are that have given yourselves to believe and to trust God, that God has got more for us and our words over us having a new facility go back many, many years over the church and that God has got it in hand and there will be somewhere that he will have a green light for us on.
[00:06:55] And the friends we're making along the way, the lessons we're learning, the finance that we're raising will be a key part of seeing those things commonly together. And I guarantee you this, we will look back and we will say, isn't it marvelous what the Lord has done?
[00:07:14] Now, we don't have somewhere to bring you at this point in time and to give you a big reveal and say, this is what we're looking at. But there is some places of interest in the city that we're exploring. We haven't finished that building journey, and we are intrigued and we are approaching these opportunities like as if it's a green light unless God gives a red. And so, without giving any further details, but encouraged by the journey so far, I'm going to invite us just to pray for a moment before we come to God's word and say, lord, thank you that you promised to lead us.
[00:07:47] Lord, we thank you because we believe that this region and this city needs a prevailing church that will be full of hope and life and will not be stretched to such capacity that we're able to welcome more people, we're able to reach more people, we're able to touch More generations.
[00:08:14] And so, Lord, we thank you for all the words you've spoken to us over the years toward this end. And we ask, O God, that as we trust in the Lord with all of our heart, as we lean not on our own understanding, as we acknowledge you in all our ways, we thank you that you've promised to make our pathway straight.
[00:08:34] In the name of Jesus, we pray.
[00:08:36] Amen.
[00:08:39] Amen.
[00:08:40] Don't live at a place of disappointment in your own life. There will be those moments when you've sat at a situation that you thought was going to work out differently.
[00:08:50] Allow it to be a moment that God teaches you that he's got something greater for you.
[00:08:57] He's got something deeper for you. He's got something more beautiful for you.
[00:09:04] Last week I started a series called Made for More. You might remember at the beginning of that I asked you a question.
[00:09:12] And the question is, what if the greatest tragedy of your life is not that you failed to achieve your dreams, but that you never discovered what God had created you for?
[00:09:28] I believe everyone in this room has a call of God upon your life and there's a purpose to which he has called you.
[00:09:39] There is a ministry, ministries upon your life and that we, and not the church, so that on Sunday mornings we can sing songs together and hear a word for a period of time. We're a church because God has need of us.
[00:09:58] He has designed his church to be his vessel of communicating his hope and his life to a lost and a dying world.
[00:10:09] And I'm going to speak from the heart today because some of what I'm going to carry in these next few moments I've been carrying around the country for the last two and a half years.
[00:10:28] And they've. What's in my heart has been in this church longer than that two and a half years.
[00:10:35] And I'm going to show you from the scripture that God has not only got need of you, but he has placed something upon your life that is an empowerment for what he wants to do through you.
[00:10:49] But I want to just step back a moment because the context that we're in is a very interesting one because there's a lot of fear around.
[00:11:00] I've had some of you come to me recently and you've said, have you seen these words circulating around about war?
[00:11:07] These prophetic words?
[00:11:10] Oh, yeah. Do you mean the ones that Jesus gave.
[00:11:14] Now I know there are a number of words that have been given out there in a widely circulated Christian world, and many of those have come from good friends of mine. So you Know, I listen, I lean forward and I hear, but listen that the words of. And there's something in us that, you know, always wants to try to know what tomorrow brings. And I get that.
[00:11:38] And the primary hope in our hearts around the prophetic is that God will show us what's going to happen tomorrow. But I want to. And you'll see more of this in the next few moments, the primary role of the prophetic is not to tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. It's to tell you who's there tomorrow.
[00:11:54] And so Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars.
[00:12:01] So it doesn't take our defense secretary standing up in front of a TV camera and telling us to get our emergency packs together because a thousand days time there's going to be a war in the world. It doesn't take that to get our attention. Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars.
[00:12:21] But I want you to hear this because this is a really important context that we're in.
[00:12:28] When there are times of crisis and times of need in homes, in lives, in families, in churches, in nations and in the world, what happens is confidence goes down.
[00:12:51] So despite whatever your politics are and whatever you think of the budget that happened this week in the uk, despite what you think about that, despite what you make of it, the reality is in our country that there are people who are hesitant about investing financially in things because they feel like they're uncertain of tomorrow.
[00:13:20] And I want to link this context with this because you will be tempted at a time of uncertainty to say, I have other priorities now other than being who God made me to be.
[00:13:41] Because clearly there are bigger to use that saying, bigger fish to fry.
[00:13:50] There are bigger disappointments to navigate. There are bigger uncertainties around us. But I want to just show you that it is exactly at those moments that you and I need to know that we are made for more.
[00:14:01] It's exactly at that time.
[00:14:04] And if our confidence has come because of the stability of our world, if our confidence has come because of the environment that we're in, it feels healthy, then our confidence has been placed in the wrong locations.
[00:14:31] Because the word of God says that the things of this world are like sand.
[00:14:40] If we build on them, there will be a time when they will crumble.
[00:14:47] I was reminded you go back to the final book of the scriptures, Revelation.
[00:14:57] Revelation. I'm using a different Bible and it's just loads of notes at the end rather than revelation. Here we go.
[00:15:03] Revelation 1.
[00:15:11] Says this.
[00:15:17] Grace and peace to you from the one who is who always was and who is still to come.
[00:15:33] That's where our confidence comes from.
[00:15:38] It's not in our environment.
[00:15:42] It's not in our stability of the things of the world, but it's in him and the Church.
[00:15:56] We're called to know where our confidence lay.
[00:16:02] Goes on to say about Jesus on the throne.
[00:16:06] He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead and the ruler of all the kings of the world.
[00:16:17] All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us.
[00:16:28] He has made us a kingdom of priests for God His Father.
[00:16:37] All glory and power to him forever and ever.
[00:16:45] Amen.
[00:16:50] Goes on to talk about this wonderful, amazing Savior.
[00:16:57] Verse 8 says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord God.
[00:17:09] I am the One who is, who always was and who is still to come.
[00:17:16] The Almighty One.
[00:17:20] I'm seeing a lot of nervousness around.
[00:17:25] I'm seeing a lot of uncertainty around. I'm seeing a lot of panic around. I'm seeing a lot of rumors around. I'm seeing a lot of conspiracies around.
[00:17:35] And I don't know what any of those things necessarily mean, but I'm glad I've not built my confidence upon any of those things.
[00:17:49] The answer to the needs of this nation is not a new political party. The answer to the needs of this nation is a change of hearts in the millions of people who live in this nation.
[00:18:01] That's what this nation needs. This world needs to get on its knees before the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. That's when hope rises.
[00:18:11] It's not when there's some sort of gentle peace that's negotiated. It's when there's submission to the true authority, to the ruler of all kings.
[00:18:23] And you and I, we have a choice.
[00:18:29] We have a choice as to whether we live our life subject to the things of this world or whether we live our lives subject to to the true authority of heaven.
[00:18:46] And when we live surrendered to Christ, we have an anchor that holds us in the storm.
[00:18:57] We have a foundation that holds us in the storm.
[00:19:04] And the thing that should set a Christian apart, it's not what they do for two hours on a Sunday.
[00:19:12] It's confidence.
[00:19:15] It's hope.
[00:19:17] And you know, our hope doesn't just extend to God. Get me through today.
[00:19:24] Our hope is a hope that says we have a king who is coming for his bride.
[00:19:35] See, while the nations prepare for war, God has called the church to prepare for a bride we're preparing for a wedding, not a war.
[00:19:45] We're preparing to be united at the wedding. Supper of the Lamb, where are we looking?
[00:19:54] And I want to encourage you to look to the Alpha and Omega, to look to the one who has always been and will always be.
[00:20:04] And you know, when I look at the early church, you know, we often talk about the signs and the wonders and the miracles and we talk about the amazing things that happened. We talk about thousands of people giving their lives to Jesus in a day. We see all of these beautiful things in the New Testament in the early church. But what we don't always remember is that they were in the most challenging of situations often, and they had hope in their hearts.
[00:20:30] And the hope wasn't about their environment. The hope was about their Savior who was within them.
[00:20:36] They knew that the spirit of God was empowering them to be victorious.
[00:20:41] They knew that despite the threat of prison, despite the threats around them, despite the stoning that took place, despite the people who were losing their lives for the faith, despite the thousands who were displaced from their homes, that they knew that they could put their confidence in the King of Kings.
[00:21:04] And not only was there confidence for each day, but it was confidence that he's returning.
[00:21:10] I believe every morning they would wake up and they would say, I wonder if today is the day that Jesus is returning.
[00:21:18] I wonder if this is the moment.
[00:21:21] We have sort of forgotten that.
[00:21:24] And I get it. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. There's been 2,000 years of believers at various times saying, I wonder if it's this week.
[00:21:34] Well, Jesus told us, no one knows.
[00:21:39] I don't care how many beautiful commentaries you've got of the prophetic books of the Bible. I don't care what conference or special revelation you've had, the Bible says you do not know when he will return.
[00:21:53] I grew up going to seminars and reading books around people who had professed revelation of the return date of Jesus.
[00:22:03] And Jesus said, you won't know, you won't know. We wasted time.
[00:22:09] We would have been better getting on our faces and saying, we want to yield and be ready for when you return.
[00:22:19] Over the years, I remember, you know, grew up in quite a traditional village in Wales. A lot of religion as the legacy of the Welsh revivals and so on. And you know, I remember we were pulled into the office on one occasion because the young people had been to a bowling alley to play ten pin bowling. You know how sinful that was.
[00:22:44] And I was brought up with that expression of like, be careful where you are when Jesus returns.
[00:22:52] Can you imagine him returning? And you were in the cinema at the time.
[00:23:00] Can you imagine if you returned before you watched part eight of that Netflix series that you've been engrossed into? I don't think you'd be like, oh, Jesus, wait till the end of the day.
[00:23:11] It won't matter. You won't care. You will realize how silly and how unnecessary all that stuff was. All you will do is look at him face to face and say, he's my king, he's my savior, he's my Lord.
[00:23:29] And they early church looked up, we stopped looking up.
[00:23:39] We look around, we try to work out what's going on.
[00:23:46] And you might think that you have some special insight into what's happening in the world. Let me tell you, it's probably your algorithms on your social media.
[00:23:57] You watch something on one occasion slightly longer than you intended. And now it is determined that all of the stuff you're getting is around that way of thinking. Be careful.
[00:24:11] Like, deception is everywhere.
[00:24:15] Deception is all around us.
[00:24:18] It is easy to be deceived. Do not be deceived. Jesus is the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and he is coming back for a glorious victorious bride.
[00:24:33] You are made for more.
[00:24:38] And irrespective of what takes place in the world around us, we cannot take our foot off the accelerator in yielding ourselves to our made for more purpose.
[00:24:53] This is a time for you and I to fulfill the call upon our lives.
[00:25:01] Stop putting it off.
[00:25:05] Stop waiting for a better season.
[00:25:11] Sometimes the circumstances do not look ideal.
[00:25:16] Nita and I flew to Scotland earlier this week. On Monday, just after they'd had their storm and the winds hadn't really died down.
[00:25:27] And the airplane landing was an experience.
[00:25:32] We were swaying from side to side as we were coming into land.
[00:25:38] I have never heard such a relieved airplane full of passengers who cheered the pilot when we finally hit the Runway.
[00:25:53] But he had confidence that he could do it.
[00:25:56] I worked out that day that I would never want to be an airline pilot. It's another one of those jobs I'll never want to do.
[00:26:04] Like, we were so glad that he knew what he was doing.
[00:26:09] Jesus knows what he's doing, irrespective of what's taking place around us. And we can trust him. And it may feel wavy, it may feel unsettled, but you can trust in the Lord with all of your heart.
[00:26:25] Now listen, time has run out and I haven't started.
[00:26:41] Because in Ephesians 4, I'm going to tell you what I'm not going to preach on now. Okay, I'm going to tell you what I haven't got time to tell you. In Ephesians 4, there are five graces that are referenced apostolic. We looked at them last week briefly. Apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherd and teaching.
[00:27:06] Call them apest A P E S T Apostolic, prophetic, evangelist, shepherd, teacher.
[00:27:12] And within this room, I believe all of you have had a measure of that grace put upon your life.
[00:27:23] One of the things that has been a problem in the Church over the years is that there have been two wrong assumptions. Assumption number one, that the people on the platform are the people who do the ministry. We talked on that last week. If you missed last week, get a hold of the teaching, that we assume they're the ones that God has gifted to do the work of ministry.
[00:27:46] That's wrong and it's not in the Bible.
[00:27:51] We do not have a priestly function as ministers of the Gospel.
[00:27:57] You have a high priest. Why would you think that I am an essential mediator between you and God when you have a high priest that you can go to? I'm a lower priest than him.
[00:28:11] I am a priest, but so are you.
[00:28:16] We just read it in Revelation.
[00:28:19] A kingdom of priests.
[00:28:22] You are a priest of God, able to mediate between the powers of heaven and the things of this world, to mediate between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.
[00:28:38] You're a priest and you pull the victory of the kingdom of God and you release it into this world.
[00:28:44] You pull the hope of heaven and you release it into the hopelessness of this world. You pull the love of God and you release it into the hate of this world.
[00:28:54] You're priests.
[00:28:56] So one assumption that's been wrong in the church, Western church, for years is that the stage, the pulpit, is the place where the priests are. And let me just kick that out.
[00:29:10] You're the priests.
[00:29:13] We all are.
[00:29:15] There's a second assumption, and I spent the last three years in Elim trying to debunk this one.
[00:29:26] Because not only is it believed that the priests are the ones on the stage, and it's also believed that the one on the stage has to be the one that manifests the apostolic, the prophetic, the evangelist, the shepherd and the teacher. They have to be everything.
[00:29:39] They have to be the epitome of an example of all of these things.
[00:29:44] Now, we're all called to operate in some measure of these things, but there will be a primary grace upon your life.
[00:29:54] It's like a bias, and bias is a good way of understanding it. Let me Just briefly touch on this Apostolic.
[00:30:03] The Apostolic are the pioneers, the innovators, the ideation.
[00:30:09] They're the people who say, come on, we can do this.
[00:30:14] So in any project, whether it's hampers, whether it's running things like our Light party last night with 120 kids in the room, whether it's running some new initiative, the pioneers the Apostolic people will be, come on, let's strategize, let's put this together and let's make it happen.
[00:30:35] Every church, every project needs apostolic people. And in this room there are many of those people who've got that primary bias and grace on their life.
[00:30:46] You use it in your daily work.
[00:30:49] Those who have that primary grace, some of you in business world, you are in business not because you are clever, sorry to say, that you're in it because God has graced you.
[00:31:05] So make sure that you're using it for his glory.
[00:31:09] Give to God what's God, and give to Caesar what Caesar's. Caesar's dead, so just give to God what's God's. Now.
[00:31:20] Everyone needs the Apostolic, then the prophetic. The prophetic. We've had various models of the prophetic here in the church. And I thank God that the prophetic is wide and it's complex and it has all sorts of expressions. And it could be someone having a gentle word with you and saying, I believe the Lord might be saying this to you.
[00:31:40] And I believe that prophetic words should always be shared with that humility.
[00:31:45] If somebody comes up to you and says, the Lord has told me you're going to marry me, Run.
[00:32:06] There are.
[00:32:09] There's too much self in some prophetic, there's too much assumption.
[00:32:20] And the prophetic has come under scrutiny in the last few years internationally, because there have been some spurious things that have happened in the name of prophetic.
[00:32:29] And those people will give an answer to God one day when they stand before Him.
[00:32:35] Make sure you share prophetically with humility.
[00:32:39] It's not a lack of faith because faith is in God, not in you.
[00:32:46] It's a recognition that God is amazing, but you actually may get it wrong.
[00:32:51] So be humble.
[00:32:54] But the prophetic's primary role is not to tell you what's going to happen tomorrow.
[00:33:00] The prophetic's primary role is to help you see the alpha and omega, the one who is over all things and to bring you back to covenant relationship with him. And then the evangelistic. The evangelistic is to stop the church doing what the church has done really well over thousands of years, that it looks inward after all, we're still works in progress.
[00:33:30] We're not finished works of art.
[00:33:33] How can we go in the gallery and put it on display when we're not finished yet?
[00:33:39] And so the church looks inward.
[00:33:42] If only we tweak a few things. If only we get a few ministries operate. If only we buy a new building. If only, if only, if only. If only. If only we were finished, then we can think outward.
[00:33:51] And God has given to his church people with an evangelistic grace to stop us from doing that, to look outwards.
[00:34:05] Evangelists are not just those people on the street.
[00:34:07] I love that we've had people over the years running alpha courses in their workplaces.
[00:34:12] We've got some people in the church that they have, and we'll interview them in the months ahead. They have found some wonderful ways of engaging in their locality with the hope of the gospel.
[00:34:24] I love just. I won't point them out, but talking to someone just before the service, and they were in a cafe yesterday and someone came up to him and said, hey, you've gone to church.
[00:34:35] Just eating his croissant and drinking his coffee and this loud conversation, you've gone to church. What's all that about?
[00:34:44] We just pray together for him just before the service that he might find Jesus.
[00:34:49] But we need the evangelist to remind us that we are made for more, to tell the world about him.
[00:34:58] And the evangelists are like that, antagonists of that message.
[00:35:03] And then the shepherds.
[00:35:05] The shepherds. If the shepherds weren't instinctively gifted and graced by God, and if the church was just led by apostolic people, we'd be doing new projects all the time. If it was just led by prophetic people, we'll be in worship all the time. If it was just led by evangelists, we'll be out on the streets every time. But the shepherds make sure that we do care for each other as well.
[00:35:28] And then we have compassion.
[00:35:31] We're not motivated by projects, we're motivated by compassion.
[00:35:36] It's all about people.
[00:35:39] And then teachers.
[00:35:41] Teachers, they often have a good way of creating formula and structure and programs and in a way that can distill and communicate and help other people grasp something that someone else has not known before.
[00:35:57] And we need those.
[00:35:59] And so, just in conclusion for the sermon I'm not going to be able to give you today, you have at least one of those graces on your life and you're made for more to steward that.
[00:36:16] Don't bury it.
[00:36:17] And let me tell you what we're going to do in the New Year, we're going to bring you some problems as a church.
[00:36:26] Problems that we believe God wants us to fix.
[00:36:31] Let me give you an example.
[00:36:33] Loneliness in society.
[00:36:37] And we would like the apostolic, the prophetic, the evangelist, the shepherds and the teachers to get together and to bring their graces to find some ways that we can help attend to that need in our society.
[00:36:52] Let me give you another one. How are we going to reach this region for Jesus? Let's break it down. How are we going to ensure that everyone in this city knows the Gospel?
[00:37:06] How are we going to do that?
[00:37:08] Think well, let the evangelist get on with that. No, no. It can't just be the evangelist because they'll say, close the services and get on the street every Sunday. It's got to be more than that. It's got to be all of us together. We need the apostolic people to think of the projects. We need the prophetic people to hear the voice of God and know the empowerment of the Spirit. We need the evangelists to keep us looking out. We need the shepherds to make sure it's people centric. We need the teachers to put the process together. We need each other.
[00:37:34] And so in the new year, we're not going to bring you some nice neat projects. We're going to give you some big problems and we're going to say, church, you're a kingdom of priests.
[00:37:50] Sort it out. Come on.
[00:37:52] You are a kingdom of the most high God.
[00:37:57] You have been graced by him. You have been empowered by the Spirit. Let's fix some things together. Because, church, we are made for more. Let's stand together.
[00:38:09] Hallelujah.
