Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Well, we're going to get into the Word this morning. If you've got a Bible, feel free to open it to Matthew chapter nine. I'm going to read verses one through to eight like we said last week. Paper version or the digital version? Both work. Make sure you're just reading one of them, or at least one of them. That's fantastic. Let's read together. Matthew 9:1 8. Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, be encouraged, my child. Your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, that's blasphemy. Does he think he's God? Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven or stand up and walk so I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, stand up, pick up your mat and go home. And the man jumped up and went home. Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen and they praised God for sending a man with such great authority. Let's pray as we open God's word together.
[00:01:18] Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it's a firm foundation that we can build our lives upon. Father, we thank you for the story of friends who would see a need and would use what they had to get that friend to Jesus. Father, I pray that you would convict us in our own lives, that we would live a life that would bring people to your feet. Lord Jesus, Lord, be with us as we look at this word together. Challenge us and may we walk together as a community to reach into this incredible city and beyond. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:01:55] You know, in this story we see some friends, acquaintances who saw a need in somebody's life, saw they were not able to meet that need on their own, and they got involved, they got active in bringing this person to Jesus. And as long as our friends, our neighbours, our work colleagues, the people that we do life with, as long as they are not in a relationship with God, we have a part to play. We can be active in bringing our friends to Jesus.
[00:02:28] Who's the best person to reach your friends?
[00:02:32] You are.
[00:02:33] I don't know your friends, but you do. You don't know my friends, but I do. And so I have an incredible opportunity to impact my friends if I would be Active in my faith. We're gonna do a little quiz. You don't have to reveal your answers. Okay? No one's getting a score that's gonna be recorded. But I just wanna see kind of where our hearts are at when it comes to reaching the lost. And you're not gonna have to reveal your score, I promise. So if you can answer with a score of 0, 1, 2 or 3 for these five questions and you just keep your own tally. First one, I have a relationship with those in my neighborhood, give yourself a zero. If you don't really, if you don't know one in your neighborhood, one if you know one neighbour. Two points if you know two neighbours. Or three if you know three plus neighbours, give yourself a score out of three. Number two, I talk about my relationship with God with non church people.
[00:03:33] One point is once a year. Zero for not at all. Two points for maybe every three months. And three points if you share your faith with somebody at least once a week. All right, how about this one? I've invited someone to church. If you have never, don't give yourself a point. Maybe once in the last 12 months you've given yourself, you've invited one person, give yourself a point. Once in the last three months, give yourself two points. Once every week, give yourself three points. And some people are going three, three, three, three, three. All right, what about number four? I pray for my non Christian friends and family. Maybe you prayed once a year. Maybe when you've been asked to in church, give yourself a one. If you have maybe once every three months you've prayed for your non Christian friends and family, give yourself two points. And every week if you pray for your non Christian friends to come to Christ, give yourself a three. All right, and last one, I tell my friends about what happens in church. So when people say what did you do for the weekend? Your first response is, I played sport or I went shopping or is it I went to church. So give yourself maybe once a year you've told somebody one point. Once every three months, give yourself two points. And most weeks when people ask what did you do? You say, I went to church and it was awesome, it was fun, it was great. Or it was boring, it was horrible, but at least you say it. All right, so give yourself a score. Hopefully out of 15, you can get yourself a number. Now in this place there will be some 15s, but I think that's going to be a small group of us and probably won't even be me.
[00:05:11] The reality is sometimes we think, oh, I'm not an evangelist.
[00:05:15] I don't know that I can be the evangelist that goes and tells everybody about Jesus. Now Paul told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. We all have a part to play. And over the next year or so we are going to be continuing to train so that we are better, so that we get better at bringing the gospel to someone, to be able to share the good news in a simple way that reveals truth, which allows people to find their way to Jesus. But one thing we can do, and this is what I want to talk about today, is we can bring people to Jesus. We can bring them to a place where he would meet with them and change their lives. But here's where I want to go this morning. Because in the fear that we might have of inviting someone to church or, or sharing the gospel with them, how many people, if you're really honest, you get a little bit nervous when you gotta talk about God with somebody else. Any honest people? All right, cool. A few, right?
[00:06:20] For many of us, it's a little bit nerve wracking when you feel that, oh, I've gotta say something, gotta say something, gotta say something. You feel God giving you that nudge, that little push, and you just know that, that God is asking you to say something, that little bit of fear rises in you.
[00:06:40] Well, would you believe me if I said that in the same way that fear rises in us, that there's also a fear that rises in people when we invite them into a journey or a conversation about God, about faith, about church, that actually this man was paralyzed.
[00:07:00] He couldn't get to Jesus. I wonder if it's possible that there are people who find themselves unable to move because of things that have happened in their own life regarding the conversation about God, about church.
[00:07:17] Now, I don't know about you, but standing on stage to speak terrifies a bunch of people, myself included. I've just learned to kind of live with the fear. But if I had the choice, I would rather not. Some people love it, I don't. But I do it obediently.
[00:07:34] But in the same way, when we start to talk about inviting somebody to church or inviting somebody to have a conversation about God, that fear and nervousness can definitely increase. But for others, they find it hard to think about stepping into a church building. Because I'm going to talk about three things this morning. I'm going to ask for a volunteer. Thank you, Connor. Come on, Connor. Thank you for volunteering. Look how quickly he volunteered. That's amazing, right?
[00:08:03] Connor, you can take a seat here for a Moment. All right, just here. Brilliant. All right, everyone say hi, Connor.
[00:08:12] How many people have met Connor before? Oh, look at that. We love Connor. Connor's fantastic.
[00:08:20] But I want to invite Connor somewhere, but he's a little bit. He's a little bit nervous. He's a little bit nervous. In fact, he's not really that able to move. So I'm going to get another friend. Dave. Dave, you can help me.
[00:08:35] So Connor's actually a little bit afraid of something new. The fear of something new. Can you just take maybe his left leg to that chair, please?
[00:08:51] Anyone like doing new things?
[00:08:54] There's only a few. If we're really honest, we don't like new things. I can tell because we all sit in about the same place every week. Feel free to use the tape. That's good, but just stay there because we've taped one part of Connor. But we may. Three points. You might see where I'm going with this. Okay, so follow along if you like.
[00:09:16] But you know, when people go into a new place, you don't know what to do or where to go. Right.
[00:09:22] I remember I've been into so many new places. I mean, everything over the last 16 weeks for us has been new and it's been horrible. If I'm really honest, you haven't been horrible, but the newness of it all has been horrible. Do you know we don't even exist here in the uk? We are like ghosts. It's like I'm trying to get bank accounts, trying to get phones, trying to prove that I exist and that my money's good. It's like, they don't want my New Zealand dollar. I know it's horrible on the exchange, but it's like, you don't want my money? No. So it's like. And everything's been new. Fitting into new schools and new systems and new understanding and new culture.
[00:10:01] When you say to somebody, hey, come to church, come to church. It's like, ah, it's new. Have you ever walked into a church building? First time I walked into this, this was my. Look.
[00:10:15] If you want to know if somebody's new to church, you just watch them walk through the building and go like that. That's not your cue, right?
[00:10:25] I've been here 16 weeks. It's practically normal for me.
[00:10:29] I said to Mark, I've got about six weeks before all of this is. It was just normal and it is now.
[00:10:36] But for some, the fear of something new can be paralyzing.
[00:10:41] The thought of having to do something new will just result in a no, I'm all good. I'm all good. I'll see you later. But don't ask me to do that.
[00:10:52] What about those dinners? Ever been out to those dinners where they've lined up all the forks on the left hand side of the plate?
[00:10:59] I'll be honest, I'm not rich enough to be able to dine in one of those places. But apparently there's different forks with different sizes. That depends on what you eat. So if you eat the salad with one of them, is it the small fork?
[00:11:15] I don't know. And you work your way through until you are using the right fork. Right?
[00:11:20] Now, I would get that wrong. I know I'd probably get that wrong.
[00:11:26] What about eating in that fine restaurant and you're scared of spilling it on your white shirt or whatever it is? You know, King Charles, he went to a function once in China and the finger bowls used to wash your fingers before you eat the food. He thought it was a drink.
[00:11:45] True, true story. And so he just went straight into it, drunk the delicious water that was on the table. And apparently all the dignitaries of the dinner, they were like, well, we don't want him to feel horrible about this. So they've already washed their fingers. So they just went, whoa.
[00:12:05] Now I reckon there's a really cool story in that because, you know, they put themselves out, they drank their own dirty finger water in order to make somebody feel at ease.
[00:12:17] That's a good story of hospitality. But sometimes we have a fear of something new. Second thing we have is a fear of condemnation. You know what's coming next. Dave, I need the right leg, please.
[00:12:29] The fear of condemnation. Do you know why a lot of people don't want to come to church? Because they have this perception that we as the church think they are a dirty, rotten sinner and they're going to hell, right? They think that we all judge them or judge them for what they've done. And make sure it's tight, right? I don't feel like that's enough. I feel like he could break out of that actually, Dave, maybe just another one round, mate. Just another. No, no, just down, just down on the leg. I feel like he could break out of that.
[00:13:05] Now we're talking. Yeah, yeah, there we go.
[00:13:09] That's proper, that's proper. That's good.
[00:13:13] You know, years ago, the most known verse by people outside of the church would have been John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life. Do you know what the most known verse now is? Judge not lest you be judged.
[00:13:32] There's a bit of a concern, isn't it, that the world thinks that we would just judge them, that. That that's the response that we will give them.
[00:13:42] That people will walk in and they're afraid of if they walk in, that the walls will fall down or the roof will fall down or they'll catch on fire.
[00:13:49] I had a good friend called Jamie. I played football with him and we just had conversations and great conversations about God. He went through this pretty horrific bankruptcy with his business through Covid and went into quite a state of depression. And we talked and I prayed for him and we had these great conversations in the club rooms after our football games. And I was always inviting him to church. Come along, come along. It won't be as bad as you think. Come on, just come, come, come, come. And he's like, oh, but if I come, you know, I'll just burn up. I'll walk in through the doors and I'll just burn up and the roof will fall down on me. He had this fear that people would look at him and go, ah, ah. You know, there'd be like big red light that would just, you know, a siren saying, he's gotta be a sinner. I said, there are sinners right throughout the church. I said, I'm one of them that has been so thankful to Jesus that his grace was made available for me. So when somebody walks in and they're working through stuff in their life, we do our best to welcome them. But that is a real fear that people have. The fear of condemnation, the fear of being sought out or caught out for being something else. But we've got to make a choice to love and to embrace people, not focus on their faults and their sins. And I do love that about this church. This is a great church to bring a friend. I can tell you that. This is what I've experienced over the last 16 weeks. This is a great place for someone to come if they don't know Jesus yet. Because I love the cared for. There's patience on the journey. There's an invitation to take a further step. So let's keep being that number three.
[00:15:27] Ready, Connor.
[00:15:32] I just think we'll just go right across around there. We've got another lot of tape too, if you need Dave, so just. There you go. Oh, he's putting his arms out. There we go. All right.
[00:15:45] I'll just let him wrap a couple around before I tell you what it is, because no one's listening. Are they? Oh, yeah. Get the arm. He's left the arm out. Get the arm, get the arm. Yeah, there we go. There we go. Yep.
[00:15:57] And just. Just go slow, Dave. We don't want you to fall over, mate.
[00:16:01] He's got a record pace. Look at that. Brilliant. Thank you, Dave. Thank you. You all right? Just. Oh, brilliant. Brilliant.
[00:16:13] Here's the third thing.
[00:16:15] You know, we have the fear of something new. We have the fear of condemnation, but sometimes we actually have the fear of rejection.
[00:16:21] We have a real fear that if we do step in that we'll be rejected by people, we'll be rejected by God. That is some of the real fears that people have when they think about coming to God, when they think about coming to church. We've got a fear of inviting them, but they have a fear of what would happen if they actually made it here.
[00:16:43] So what can we do?
[00:16:46] What's our response to that? Because Connor, he's kind of stuck here.
[00:16:55] Now, a few observations about this man. The man was incapable of reaching Jesus on his own.
[00:17:03] Now, I like coffee. Anyone else like coffee? Yep. Anyone like coffee? Too much?
[00:17:10] Yeah. Now, Connor, I really love coffee. In fact, there's this really nice place that I go to every week. Like, really nice coffee. It's just up here. And we just meet here and we just have wonderful coffee and the atmosphere is good and it's good music. And I just love having my coffee every week at this cafe right here. And I'd love you to join me, Connor. Oh, Connor doesn't want to join me.
[00:17:38] Connor's not interested in coming and having a coffee. He's not interested. Well, that's the assumption I can make, right?
[00:17:45] But maybe he's bound up by some of these things that have stopped him from actually coming to have a coffee with me. Now, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to work out the association I was making there. We have something far better than coffee.
[00:18:02] We have Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the hope of the world. And we can talk all we like about how amazing Jesus is, but we either preach the gospel, which I would encourage us each to do as often as we can and as normal and as natural as we can, or we make a way to help people to find their way to Jesus. This man was incapable of reaching Jesus on his own. We need someone to scratch your forehead. Are you right, Connor? All right, we're getting close. We're getting close. Second thing, Jesus saw the men's faith.
[00:18:39] Second thing we see, Jesus saw the men's faith. Seeing their faith. Verse 2. Jesus said to the paralyzed man, be encouraged, my child. Your sins are forgiven. It does not say seeing his faith. It says seeing their faith. There was a faith within the men that said, connor needs some help.
[00:19:01] Some people don't have the faith to believe for their own miracle, but maybe we do.
[00:19:07] He was personally limited, but he was corporately connected somehow. There were enough people there that said, we will help you get to Jesus because we know if we can get you to Jesus, Jesus will do the miracle in your life. A lot of us are afraid to engage, even invite, because we feel like the healing or the salvation is our responsibility. Let me put us all at ease. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
[00:19:34] He is the one that does the work of salvation through the work of the cross, through Jesus.
[00:19:39] But we can proclaim the gospel. We can speak about the gospel. We can speak about God's love. We can speak about the sin that separates us from God. We can speak about the cross, which is what was required in order for the sin to be paid for. And then we can give that invitation. What would you do with that now that you have heard that? That's as simple as the gospel could be communicated. Obviously we would want to expand and have that conversation so there is an understanding. But Jesus saw the means. Faith. Hebrews 12:6. God is pleased when we have faith. In fact, it is impossible to please God without faith.
[00:20:17] But these men took it a step further, and this is the third thought this morning. His friend's faith and action saw him healed. Faith and action.
[00:20:30] I believe this man was healed simply because his friends picked him up.
[00:20:35] I wonder, Connor, would you like to come and have a coffee with me, mate? Love to connect with you.
[00:20:43] I love to have a coffee with you, man. If only I could have a coffee with Colin. I would love to have a coffee with him.
[00:21:23] Now, you guys can carry on. Connor and I are going to have a coffee. Can we get about, get about.
[00:21:28] Amazing, amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who saw, those who actually pushed through embarrassment. What if I go? What if Mike says that's not what I'm supposed to do? There are enough people there. I could hear a little whisper here. Dave was going, come on, Al, let's do it. Let's do it. I saw Daniel. Daniel was getting a little fidgety. I saw Justin moving. You guys were like, am I allowed to.
[00:21:56] Do you see the picture?
[00:21:59] Do you see that? Sometimes all it takes is just a couple of people to pick someone up and bring them to Jesus. This Isn't a really deep theological message, but I think it's probably as deep as we can get because it's real heart deep. This goes deep into our hearts in terms of our response, do we love people enough that we would go out of our way?
[00:22:25] We haven't got any broken backs. I hope there were enough people that lifted.
[00:22:30] I picked a small man for that role, so wanted to get a few men working. Now we don't know how many there were, but right there, that was enough.
[00:22:41] You know, for some, it might be one person as all that that person needs. For some, it might be more.
[00:22:49] You know, there were a few weeks, maybe six weeks ago, we shared on a Sunday morning about a young man that had come off his bike in Cranbrook outside Amy and Ken's house. And the diagnosis wasn't good. He was in a coma, wasn't looking good at all. And in that moment, I felt faith rise within me and I felt the faith in the room as we prayed and believed for his healing.
[00:23:19] It was miraculous in the turnaround at how quickly he came out of that coma and was responding. He's now back at school. He's still, you know, still working through the recovery, but he's back at school. He's progressing. What was amazing, I got the opportunity to preach at Cranbrook just over the weekend, and his mum came to church, gave a testimony and said, I'm not really a religious type.
[00:23:46] And I preached the gospel. It was the simple gospel message. I preach from my book, the choice is up to you, from the four Point Gospel, which is, God loves you, he's got a plan and a purpose for your life.
[00:24:03] But sin has stopped us.
[00:24:06] Sin has stopped us, has separated us from a relationship with God. And if that problem is not solved, we will be forever separated from God.
[00:24:16] He put Adam and Eve out of the garden because if they ate from the tree of life, distant from God, they would be forever separated.
[00:24:26] But the good news was that Jesus died on the cross. And when he died on the cross, he paid for the sin that should have been my debt, what I should have been paid for.
[00:24:37] And then at the end of the day, the choice is up to me. To you. Will you receive this gift of grace? Will you respond in faith to what God has done?
[00:24:47] So I preached that message.
[00:24:50] And right at the end, I just said from left to right, I'm just going to go and give me a wave if you want to respond to that message.
[00:24:58] And she prayed that prayer. She gave her life to Christ.
[00:25:03] Amazing.
[00:25:07] But you know, what was really, really special is after that, for the next hour she sat with four or five other women in the church who loved on her, connected with her, walked with her. And I know she is in very good hands because there's people that will keep bringing her to Jesus in all the different steps.
[00:25:29] So how can we practically be one that picks up others?
[00:25:35] Here's a few thoughts. Be the Jesus they can see.
[00:25:38] You know, there's a lot of Christians that people would say, I wouldn't want to be around them. And to be honest, we probably wouldn't represent Jesus if we.
[00:25:49] But come on, let's be the Jesus that people can see. Let's be the Jesus with skin on. Let's be the one that there's something different about the way you live your life. There's something different the way you treat people. Where your testimony can be, I'm just trying to be like Jesus, just trying to follow after him. Second thing we can do, we can be someone they can trust. Are you a trustworthy person in your friend's life? Would they come to you when they're having their worst day?
[00:26:17] You know, have you built a consistency and relationship with them that they know that they could come to you when things aren't going so well and the last one, be there when no one else is?
[00:26:29] You know, would we be that friend that would be there when no one else is?
[00:26:35] And the last one, just go pick them up.
[00:26:40] Sometimes it's like, connor, let's go for a coffee. It's like, I can't. For some people, transport is actually a challenge. And there's a practical part to my message that I want to share. Today we have dozens of people that would love to get to church but struggle to get to church.
[00:27:01] We have people who of no fault of their own, have found themselves as refugees in our country, staying in accommodation that is not conducive for good family living. They would love to get to church, but they're limited on transport because they don't have a vehicle. We've just purchased a church van which we're trying to get registered so that anyone on any license can drive.
[00:27:28] But I would love to see 12 drivers that would say once a month. Once a month I will come in, I'll grab the keys, I'll go collect somebody. Go and collect. We can get 17 seats. We can do a couple of loops. We could do a run past the students and make sure that we get students here every single Sunday morning.
[00:27:47] It's a really simple, practical thing that if you got A driver's licence, you say, well, I can't tell them about Jesus, but that's okay. Just go pick them up, bring them here, get them in this environment.
[00:27:59] So I'm not going to ask people to stand and say, I'll drive a vehicle, but can I get Andrew? Can you stand?
[00:28:07] I'd like you to go and see Drew. All right, if you can do that, I want you to go see Drew or go see Jason and say, I would love to find out what that looks like, and we would love to see people picked up on a Sunday morning. Maybe you're saying, well, I don't want to drive that van, but I've got an extra seat in my car, do the same. Because I think there's people that would love to get here but struggle on a morning like this. Some people can walk in good weather and they can find their way a mile, two, three miles even. But in this kind of weather, a lot of people will probably be online. And we're so glad you're online and we're happy you're with us, but we would love you to be here in person as well.
[00:28:48] And so maybe there's room for us to make a little detour, go down a couple of streets, pick somebody up to bring them here. What about Christmas? Christmas can be a lonely time for some people. It can be a tough time.
[00:29:03] A lot of people change has taken place and they find themselves not with their loved ones anymore. And so Christmas is a really tough time.
[00:29:12] Would there be room at our table? Would there be room for one at our table to say, come have Christmas with us. Don't be alone this Christmas.
[00:29:24] The gospel is so practical.
[00:29:27] The outworking of the gospel is so practical when we love people enough.
[00:29:34] So here's what I love us to do. Maybe, Drew, you can join me.
[00:29:41] It's hard to take the next step from here, isn't it, when we haven't? To then take that step takes incredible courage.
[00:29:51] And I would say it takes a move of God's spirit in our hearts towards people.
[00:30:00] And I'd like to invite all of us over these next few weeks to go to prayer and say, God, who's the one friend, who's the one colleague, who's the one workmate that you have your heart for?
[00:30:18] Can I get your heart for them and begin to pray for a burden for that person?
[00:30:24] Pray, pray, pray, pray. Once you get that burden and you can't think of anything else but them, because God's laid that on your heart, then make a plan. Say, hey, on this particular Sunday, we got Christmas around the world. We've got our production on the 15th of December.
[00:30:43] We've got new Year's party coming up.
[00:30:46] There's so many wonderful Sundays to bring friends to in the next few weeks.
[00:30:52] Make a plan and say, hey, would you come to church with me? I'll pick you up or I'll meet you there and we'll go do lunch afterwards. You'll make a day of it, make it fun, make it enjoyable.
[00:31:04] My football mate Jamie, who came to church, finally, I said to the boys in the football, I said, if I score a hat trick, you've all got to come to church on Sunday. So they all agreed. It's like, all right, score a hat trick, we'll be there.
[00:31:21] So I scored two in the game and I was open for our post and all Jamie had to do was pass me the ball.
[00:31:30] He didn't. He took a shot and he missed. It's like, ah.
[00:31:34] But you know what? A few weeks later, he actually passed the ball. I scored my hat trick. And as we were running back to the halfway line, you're giving it the celebration. He goes, take me to church, brother.
[00:31:50] And he came and he said, this is unbelievable. This is not what I expected.
[00:31:56] My perception of church was so different.
[00:31:59] In fact, he said, hey, Mike, let's take a selfie. So we're standing in front of the welcome Lounge, just back here, back in New Zealand. So he takes a selfie of me and him. Welcome to church. No mai haremai and te reo and mori. Welcome to church. Takes a photo, chucks it on the group page, says, just being at church with Mike, it was awesome.
[00:32:21] People will find a different experience than they think in their mind because of the fear of the condemnation and all these things. But I believe that each one of us, if we could get past ourselves and just go pick someone up and bring them to Jesus, what a difference that could make. Now, for some of you, you have a gift of evangelism and you are bold and you're courageous and you just need to step out. You just need to preach the gospel one more time. And then for all of those who say, I'm not evangelist, sorry, we don't get let off the hook because we're all to do the work of the evangelist, which is simply to preach the gospel. Just talk about, if you're not sure, just talk about how much God loves them, that he wants to have a relationship with them, and that if they would simply surrender their life to him, that God would welcome that relationship with them, that's a good start.
[00:33:19] And if you get stuck on some of the details, pick them up, bring them here, and we'll carry on the conversation. There are so many people here in this place that would love to go that next step in that conversation with leading someone to Christ.
[00:33:32] But here's what I want to do. I want to get a little bit practical today. Connor's got real practical today. Thank you, guys. Those that responded, how many others, just out of interest thought, oh, someone should go pick them up. They have a lot of hands. Yeah.
[00:33:48] All right, well, here's our opportunity for the next few minutes and I'm going to give you an out. Okay. If this is church is new and you go, I'm not sure about all of this, you can pick up your phone and clear your emails. Go for it if you like. All right, that's fine.
[00:34:04] But it'll be a real honor if we could have a conversation, gather in threes or fours and just talk about the one person you feel like God's laying on your heart to reach with the gospel message.
[00:34:18] Could we do that?
[00:34:20] And then take a moment to pray for each other that you'd have the courage to take the next step, to invite to pick up to bring them to Christ.
[00:34:29] And then we're going to finish with a song and that'll be the close of our service. But could we take maybe five minutes now, get a little bit courageous, gather in groups of four or five, have a conversation. Like I said, if you want to opt out, no problem. But come on, let's make this a holy moment where we are believing and praying for the salvation of our friends. Can we do that?
[00:34:53] Come on then, let's go. Let's go. Get up out of your seats. If you want to move to go and connect with somebody, invite somebody over to your group, please do that.
[00:35:04] You don't have to stay where you are. You can go find somebody.
[00:35:08] Just name them and pray for them. Name them and pray for them.
[00:38:27] Sa Sa, if we can take maybe just another minute to continue that prayer. Finish that prayer and hey, if you're not quite done yet, why don't you take a coffee and a tea afterwards and continue on that conversation?
[00:40:03] I'd love to share just one last story before we stand and we worship together.
[00:40:11] It's a bit hard for me coming into a brand new culture and meeting non Christians because my world is a very big church bubble at the moment. And so I've got to go meet people, I've got to go share My faith with people. So I was down in Princess Hay this week and I needed a particular something.
[00:40:36] So there was a salesman there and he was doing his very best to sell me something. And he was doing a good job. He was honest. There was an integrity. I really liked him. He wasn't trying to upsell me. In fact, he downselled me. He said, you don't need that. You're probably better with this. And I'm going, I like you already.
[00:40:54] We talked about where we're living and we're going to live, and we managed to buy a house. And he said, I live in the same area. That's amazing. So good.
[00:41:02] And I said, well, actually we had an amazing thing take place. And I told them the story.
[00:41:09] I said, and we prayed as a church that this boy would be healed. And it turned around and it was like he stopped in the middle of our conversation. He says, like, really turned around, like came out of the coma. I said, yeah.
[00:41:24] He says, what do you put that down to?
[00:41:27] I said, a miraculous God who loves this kid so much that he would come in on his behalf.
[00:41:34] And so he'd taken down my email, rediscover church, you know. So we talked about what I do, and he'd taken it down like half a dozen times. And we had to refill in some other forms and stuff like that. I said, well, you've seen my email address enough times. You know, where I work and where I hang out. Might need you to come and have a visit and see what I do at some stage. So I've got his card, gonna pop back up there sometime in the next week or two and invite him to church, have a conversation with him. It's not as hard as we think. We just gotta take a little step of faith and just enter into a conversation. And if you have a testimony of what God has done in your life, you throw that in the conversation. It's undeniable.
[00:42:17] Because they can say everybody else is crazy, but when you say this is what God has done in my life, they'll pay attention to that, I promise.
