Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] I want to talk to you this morning about pressing in to your divine purpose.
[00:00:09] Because I believe that there is a very clear purpose in your life.
[00:00:14] And so often people think that it's okay to attend a church, that the ministers, the preachers, the pastors, that they have a divine purpose, but that the rest of us, we just sort of support those people in fulfilling their divine purpose. That is not the way God's word presents it. God's word presents an understanding that there is a purpose for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of you. And I'm going to take you to a very short passage of Scripture where Paul, writing to the Church of Philippi, says these words. In Philippians 3:12, he said, I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Would you say that along with me? I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Let's say that again. I press on to take hold of that. Now, let's just stop. I want to say it again, but I want you to say the word that with great passion and distinction. Let's try again from the top. I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
[00:01:38] Have you ever felt like you're supposed to be somewhere doing something, but you're not quite sure what it is or where it's supposed to be? Do you wake up in the morning and think, I'm going to do something. And then you get to the kitchen, think, what was it I came for? Do you ever get those hazy mind moments, those foggy brain moments, where you sort of know that there's a reason, but you can't quite remember what it is like, as if there's a pull on your life for a reason or a purpose, but you just can't work out what it is like? There's something on earth that God has called you to accomplish before death promotes you to glory, but you're just not sure what it is?
[00:02:26] Well, Paul in this verse captures something very profound.
[00:02:32] He's not talking about earning salvation. Salvation is a gift, not something that we earn. He's already got salvation, but he is talking about a holy pursuit in his life, a divine restlessness, a sense that Jesus has grabbed a hold of him for a reason.
[00:02:55] And Paul is determined to understand and fulfill that reason on his life.
[00:03:05] Today we're going to explore the two revolutionary truths for those who follow Jesus. The first is that Christ has taken hold of you.
[00:03:19] The second is that you and I must press on to take hold of that for which he has taken hold of us.
[00:03:30] Let's look at the first part. Christ has taken hold of you.
[00:03:37] Your life is not random.
[00:03:41] Your circumstances are not accidental.
[00:03:45] The environment of your life is not an accidental mix of mistakes and luck.
[00:03:53] Your life has been grabbed ahold of by God.
[00:03:59] And it has been in his intention, in his plans, in his purposes.
[00:04:04] He knew thousands of years ago that on this day, October 12, 2025, that you would be sat in the former Range building on a Sunday morning worshiping Jesus. God knows every single detail of our lives.
[00:04:23] He knows that that circumstance that you're facing. He knows that argument you had with your wife or husband on the way in this morning. He knows the pressures in work. And by the way, there was some forgiving touches there. I mentioned that argument. Let it go and move on together.
[00:04:41] He knows everything. Our life is not random.
[00:04:45] But let's start with the most important truth of our lives.
[00:04:53] Christ took hold of you.
[00:04:59] It's not the other way around.
[00:05:03] You did not take hold of Christ.
[00:05:07] He has taken hold of you.
[00:05:12] Yes, you made a decision to follow Him.
[00:05:16] But before you ever chose him, before you ever reached out to him, before you ever repented of your sins, he grabbed a hold of your life.
[00:05:34] When you were knit together in your mother's womb, when your life was formed at conception, he grabbed a hold of your life and he said, I am going to grab their destiny and their purpose and there is a that which I am placing in their life.
[00:05:54] It wasn't accidental.
[00:05:57] Your salvation wasn't Plan B.
[00:06:01] You weren't a random soul who happened to wander into the kingdom. You may have thought that you were out of shopping one day and you bumped into some Christians by accident and they led you to Jesus. You may have thought that somehow you've ended up here because you were invited by a friend at work. But I want you to know there's a bigger invitation than the invitation of your friend at work. And that is that from the beginning of time, God has grabbed a hold of your life.
[00:06:32] He knows you. He loves you. He. He cares for you. He has a plan for your life. And he is prepared to stop you in your tracks to say, I am grabbing a hold of you.
[00:06:46] Jesus sees you, knows you, and he intentionally lays hold of your life.
[00:06:53] And Paul, as he is saying these words, he is thinking of the moment that Jesus arrested him, stopped him in his tracks.
[00:07:06] Paul wasn't on the way to a prayer meeting when it happened.
[00:07:12] Paul wasn't standing at the back of a worship gathering when it happened.
[00:07:17] Paul was walking on a road with papers in his hand to arrest the followers of Jesus that were causing problems for the religion of his day.
[00:07:31] He was working against Jesus.
[00:07:37] He wasn't soft hearted, he wasn't wondering about the meaning of life.
[00:07:44] He was persecuting Christians.
[00:07:47] Not long before he had gathered and held the coats of those who picked up stones to throw them at Stephen and the first Christian martyr.
[00:07:59] Paul wasn't very prepared for a moment where Jesus would arrest him and grab a hold of him. And he wasn't arrested in handcuffs. He was arrested by the spirit of God that stopped him in his tracks and says, whatever your plans, whatever your intentions, I am stopping you now because I have a plan and a purpose for your life that's beyond anything you've ever known.
[00:08:24] In this room this morning, some of you thinking you're meandering, some of you thinking that you're just drifting through life, some of you think you've blown it, you've made mistakes. God could never love you, God could never have a purpose for your life. God can never do anything with you. But I want you to know there's nothing you've done that's too far away from the purposes of God. There's nothing he can't forgive, there's nothing he can't transform. There's nothing that you can disqualify yourself with. You need to, to just allow the spirit of God to stop you right now and let him say, I'm grabbing you.
[00:08:56] And he grabs a hold of our life because he knows us.
[00:09:03] Paul on the road to Damascus finds God ambush him not with condemnation, but he ambushed him with grace.
[00:09:17] And the same is true for you.
[00:09:20] Whether your salvation story is a dramatic one and it doesn't need to be, does it? I've known over the years. I remember someone saying to me once that they've grown up in a lovely Christian home and they just, they haven't really got much of a testimony. So they're going to go and sin for a few years so they can have a better testimony. You know, they want to tell Nikki Cruz's story, not their own.
[00:09:41] I want you to know if you follow Jesus all the days of your life, you have a wonderful testimony about the sustaining power of God.
[00:09:48] You don't need to, if you're a footballer, you don't need to wander away from enjoying football in order to be a good footballer. You just, you know, actually the fact that it's kept you interested from very young to very old and it's been consistent in Your life. It's a testimony to how much you love it.
[00:10:07] Jesus, whether he's taken your life as a son and a daughter in a Christian home, or whether he has picked you up from a life of severe addiction and crime.
[00:10:16] And this week I had the privilege of spending half a day with one of our chaplains in the highest security female prison in Western Europe.
[00:10:26] And I had an opportunity to meet lots of the staff and lots of the inmates. And it's an enormous privilege to be with people that have messed up in life.
[00:10:38] In fact, I had an opportunity to pray with someone. If I mentioned their name, you would know it from the news stories.
[00:10:44] And they found Jesus in prison.
[00:10:47] And Jesus is transforming their hearts and their lives.
[00:10:50] And that's happening all over.
[00:10:53] God doesn't just hang out in Christian homes. He hangs out in ghettos. He hangs out in prisons. The spirit of God is, is working in the most likely and the most unlikely places on the planet.
[00:11:07] God is at work in the nations of the world.
[00:11:11] I was sharing on Friday that the international birth rate across the globe, the population of the world is growing by 1% every year.
[00:11:26] Now in the west, there's a reduction of birth rates. I think we need to work on this. And 2.2 children are needed to sustain population in the West.
[00:11:38] But across the world, the nation's populations are growing by 1%.
[00:11:45] But the international born again rate is 2%.
[00:11:55] Twice as many people are getting born again as are getting born.
[00:12:04] These are unprecedented days.
[00:12:08] If you look at the way that the Pentecostal part of the church is growing, the Pentecostal Church is growing by 4% every year.
[00:12:21] So Pentecost is impacting four times as many people in terms of growth rate as those that are being born.
[00:12:31] Something's stirring.
[00:12:33] The spirit of God is grabbing a hold of people. He's ambushing them by grace.
[00:12:37] And whatever your story, whatever your life, whatever your background, you need to know that God has grabbed a hold of your life.
[00:12:46] And it's not just to give you a belief system.
[00:12:50] It's not just so that you can turn up on a Sunday and sing some songs and, and go away and try to live a better life. This week he's taken a hold of your life because he has invited you into a divine destiny and a purpose that he has called you to.
[00:13:09] Jesus didn't just save you from something, he saved you for something.
[00:13:14] Salvation is just not fire insurance against our eternal destiny. That's part of it, but it's not the whole story.
[00:13:22] We don't just get saved to avoid hell, we get saved because the redeeming power of God is working in and through his people to bring transformation to the world around us.
[00:13:35] When Jesus took out of Paul, he didn't just forgive his sins, he gave him an assignment.
[00:13:42] He said, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and the people of Israel.
[00:13:52] There was a cause, a mission and a purpose woven into Paul's salvation.
[00:13:58] And the same is true for you.
[00:14:02] God has a specific reason that he has taken hold of your life.
[00:14:09] There are people that only you can reach.
[00:14:13] There are prayers that only you can pray.
[00:14:16] There are problems that only you can solve with the gifts that God has bestowed upon you.
[00:14:21] There's a unique expression of his kingdom that can only manifest through your life.
[00:14:29] You're not just saved from your sins, you are saved into purpose.
[00:14:35] And this leads us on to point two, the call.
[00:14:42] Press on.
[00:14:45] Now, I like this term press on.
[00:14:48] It's got sort of two pictures that it paints in my mind.
[00:14:53] The first is like a button that you press some buttons on your keyboard and your computer will be pressed more than others and they might begin to fade. There's a regular pressing. When I was growing up, I had a, a Sinclair Spectrums or before that, a ZX81. Anybody remember ZX81s? They were probably.
[00:15:18] They had the processing power of your toothbrush today.
[00:15:22] But back in the day, they were like revolutionary. And there was a game called Daley Thompson's Decathlon.
[00:15:29] Daley Thompson was an Olympic decathlon, gold medal winning Brit, and he was a phenomenal athlete. And they made this game for the computer and to make him run. There were two buttons on the keyboard and one was the left leg and one was the right leg. And he went, I can't tell you how many keyboards I broke.
[00:15:58] There was a regularity of pressing the button. When I read Paul saying, I press on, I think of that moment, I think of pressing a repeat button, of engaging something. Do you want to do something? So you keep pressing.
[00:16:13] So that's the first thing that paints in my mind. The second, not unconnected, is like an athlete that strains, pushes themselves, goes beyond the pain barrier and keeps pressing on.
[00:16:29] When you're tempted to give up, when you're tempted to stop, when you're tempted to quit, when you're tempted to take a break, you keep pressing on. You push through the barrier and Paul says, I press on to take hold of that.
[00:16:47] Now, most of us in a Western context, we want our purpose to, to press onto Us, we want it to come and find us.
[00:16:58] We say, if God's in this, then it will come to us.
[00:17:03] But my understanding from Paul and from others throughout history and from my own experience is that when God grabs a hold of our life and gives us a purpose, we have to press on. To involves work, it involves straining, it involves breaking through in our life.
[00:17:29] And that breaks against all of our consumeristic tendencies.
[00:17:35] Because we like things to come to us, we don't have the resilience of some past generations.
[00:17:44] We are easily distracted in comparison to other generations.
[00:17:50] Our attention span is reputedly shorter than it has been because our minds have been cultured by such a sensory overload that we are unable to focus and press on. Because we begin to press on and we go, oh, what's that?
[00:18:11] I'm going to win the Olympics. I'm going to win the Olympics. I'm going to get up every morning, I'm going to train.
[00:18:16] What was that breakfast you mentioned?
[00:18:18] And we get distracted.
[00:18:21] And so there are believers in churches right across the nation that have a divine purpose on their life, that they have a suspicion it's there. It's like they walk into the room, like in the morning, you wake up and you say, what did I come in here for? They get that sense that there's something on their life, but because it's not come to them, because it's not made obvious to them, because it's not chasing them. God chases us for salvation, but he calls us to pursue destiny and he invites us.
[00:18:55] And so we have churches across the nation filled with people who have a that for which Christ Jesus taken hold of them.
[00:19:05] But they live in a compromised state because they haven't been able to press on to take hold of that when the church presses on to take hold of the that the nation will be on fire for Jesus and it will be dependent on you.
[00:19:37] I know you're assuming I'm talking to the person next to you.
[00:19:41] I'm not. I'm talking to you.
[00:19:45] A move of God in this nation and the nations of the world reaching the nations of the world is dependent upon you taking hold, pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of you.
[00:20:02] There's a that in your life.
[00:20:07] You know how it works with a button. You press it, something happens, it's decisive, it's repeated, it's intentional.
[00:20:16] Paul means both the button pressing and the straining.
[00:20:21] Making repeated intentional decisions, day after day, moment by moment, to keep pursuing what Christ has for his life.
[00:20:34] And when I think about the decisions of our life. I think there are two dynamics.
[00:20:38] There are the macro and the micro.
[00:20:42] The macro are the big arching decisions of our life, where we're going to live, the career that we have, who we're going to marry.
[00:20:51] And the Bible has some principles in place around these matters.
[00:20:59] It encourages us to make the big macro decisions of our life with the wisdoms of God.
[00:21:07] And there are wisdoms that are buried in the word of God that will have helpful principles to help you with the macro decisions.
[00:21:18] And every time you come to a big ticket item of your life, a big ticket matter, a macro matter, there's a button to press.
[00:21:31] And the button is, I am going to pursue this in a kingdom way.
[00:21:36] I'm going to make a kingdom decision.
[00:21:40] I can't tell you how disappointing it is, how much of a challenge it is as a pastor when you see people one year with their hands raised in the air, dancing, celebrating, giving testimony to the goodness of God, getting baptized in water, expressing an undying love for Jesus, and then someone who doesn't know Jesus or love him comes along, flickers their eyelashes at them and suddenly they are distracted with a big macro issue of their life.
[00:22:17] And then they think, well, I can manage this. I know they don't love Jesus, but I can manage this. And then you begin to see they're not as involved as they once were.
[00:22:26] You begin to see that the objective of their life is being compromised.
[00:22:33] There's a button to press on every big ticket issue of your life. The investments that you make, God has of you.
[00:22:41] The people that you marry, God has of you.
[00:22:46] The houses you move to, God has of you.
[00:22:50] And I want in all of my decisions to press, to keep pressing on, to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me on the big issues of my life. I want to keep pressing on.
[00:23:03] And there are big issues here in the church.
[00:23:06] How many of you remember when I first announced in our little building in Northern Hay that we have been breathing in for years in order so that we could sort of share the seats with people next to us?
[00:23:21] You remember that place that God has used so beautifully over many decades in our church, but that we felt had become too small for us.
[00:23:32] And you remember me mentioning about this crazy idea that we would take on the former rain store and convert it into a temporary pop up church. You remember that story? You remember the provision of God over that journey? You know, I remember there were, and I want to assure you the elders behind the scenes pray and seek God often about things that Even you may not know nothing about.
[00:23:58] And we began to see the opportunity of this place before we even brought it to the church.
[00:24:03] And when we were praying and planning, we put together a proposal for Elim's management board. Because every time we acquire a building, whether it's a lease or a purchase, we're acquiring it on behalf of Elim. So they have liability and responsibility. So they want to make sure that our plans locally are. Are good plans. So there's a group of people called the management board, and the management board receive the plans of the local church, and they want to identify whether they're good plans or bad plans. And when we presented the plans to take on this place, they got back to us and said, you can't afford it.
[00:24:45] Well, we agreed with them, you're right, we can't afford it. We. But we believe God's calling us.
[00:24:55] And they pointed to one of the smallest amounts that was listed on this shopping list of needs that we had to take on this place. And they pointed to one of them and it was an amount of 30,000 pounds. They said, you don't even have that one. And that's one of the smallest.
[00:25:17] You don't have that.
[00:25:18] We said, you're right, we don't have that.
[00:25:22] You as a congregation weren't aware of this story at that time.
[00:25:26] The elders, we prayed and we said, God, if you want us to take this step forward, you see the needs that we have, would you provide?
[00:25:38] A few days later, a finance officer contacted me and said, someone in the church has just given a donation.
[00:25:46] It's fantastic. I don't usually know what people give in the church, but that's amazing. How much is it?
[00:25:53] Have a guess how much it was.
[00:25:56] £30,000.
[00:25:58] Now, that did not come.
[00:26:02] That did not come because we put on the screen a list of needs and said, hey, would you just pray about this if you are able to meet this need? The person who gave it had no idea what we'd been praying, but God knew.
[00:26:17] God knows and he understands, and he made a way and opened the doors. And many of you gave and you invested and you sowed into what I believe has been a wonderful adventure for us here.
[00:26:31] And the amazing thing is we've acquired all this equipment that we just felt would be like a stepping stone for whatever's next. We called this pop up because we knew it would be temporary. We knew it wouldn't be something that would be our permanent residency.
[00:26:48] And so we bought quite. We were trying to be savvy with the money, the Chairs you're sat on now, some of them used to sit in political conservative clubs. Some of them were from other church halls. But that's why some of them have got cigarette stains on them.
[00:27:07] Because we thought we don't know how long we're going to be or we're not going to spend £200,000 on chairs. The carpet tiles, remember, you remember when we all came and laid these tiles?
[00:27:21] You have picked up a life skill that you never had before.
[00:27:26] And they were a bit awkward because the reason they're all different patterns is because we bought these all as seconds.
[00:27:33] 16,000 carpet tiles and they're all slightly different colors. And that's why, you know you've done a good job. We had no plan in terms of saying this is what the floor's gonna look like. We just said they're over there, pick one apple you want and lay it.
[00:27:50] And this is what was in your mind.
[00:27:56] But it sort of fit us as a church because we're a mix of people from all sorts of backgrounds and it just sort of works.
[00:28:04] Some of them were slightly different sizes to others, which was really awkward when you're laying them.
[00:28:09] This place is massive. We went through I think 1500 pound of double sided tape just to stick this on the floor.
[00:28:18] It was quite an adventure.
[00:28:20] And we'd be meeting in here and the big one that the owners, when we were struggling to get the planning consent to get this place moved from a retail center to a church that when we were battling that journey with the planning department and by the way, the owners of this building paid for our planning journey.
[00:28:42] They brought a consultant that they paid to get us to get the planning consent over the line. We think that was about £16,000 worth of professional fees that the owners of this place covered.
[00:28:55] Thank God for the owners of this place.
[00:28:58] Amazing.
[00:29:02] But we had agreed to pay a rent on this building per year.
[00:29:09] That if someone was hiring this as a retail center, the lease for this probably would with the size of this been around 800,000 pound a year.
[00:29:20] That's what the lease would be for a building of this size in the city, in this location.
[00:29:26] We know that because we've inquired of other buildings around the city. When Toys R Us closed, we inquired and year one was 950,000 pound lease with a 10% increment every year. So it'd be over a million pound lease in year two. We know how much, how expensive these places are, but we had agreed a discounted price. Were the owners of this place because it was temporary because it needed work. Because we knew we weren't going to be here forever.
[00:29:52] We agreed to pay them 83,000 pound a year.
[00:29:58] That felt like a lot of money, but it felt like a bargain for the space that we have.
[00:30:03] And then in the process of us getting the planning consent, the owners contacted us.
[00:30:12] We had agreed to pay them £83,000. They contacted us and they said, we've been thinking about the rental agreement and we wonder if you would accept us dropping it to zero.
[00:30:27] And that's the arrangement we've had here over these past 18 months.
[00:30:31] We haven't paid any rent on this building in 18 months.
[00:30:37] We've paid a lot of other costs.
[00:30:40] The cost of this fairly inadequate heating system has cost a lot.
[00:30:45] The lights, just the electric cost of a building this size has cost us a lot. We've learned a lot about managing a big building.
[00:30:52] But God has been amazing.
[00:30:56] And many of you gave without any sort of like, compulsion by anybody other than the Spirit to be a part of this.
[00:31:06] Now we, at this moment in time, we don't know how long we're going to be here.
[00:31:14] It's been communicated previously and that's no different to other times that we've been here, except we have seen in the press that the owners have had planning consent to turn this into something else.
[00:31:27] So we think probably the timing of God is going to move us on from this place in the months ahead.
[00:31:36] Don't know when, we don't know where, but we know we'll meet again some sunny day.
[00:31:43] But do you know there's such a piece around this? Because I don't believe we'll be here one day less than God has ordained for us.
[00:31:53] And I want to talk about the that of rediscover because the that of rediscovery is not our building.
[00:31:59] This building is not our that.
[00:32:02] Northern Hay is not our that. And our next building is not our that.
[00:32:07] Our that is you.
[00:32:11] Our that is you rising up into the purposes of God. Our that is you discovering your that for which Christ Jesus taken hold of you.
[00:32:21] Our goal and our vision and our mission is to release the the people of God to the purposes of God.
[00:32:28] We believe that will have a major impact upon the Southwest.
[00:32:32] We believe it will impact all sectors of society.
[00:32:37] As you grab ahold of the that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of you. And as you live it in your life, whether that's in a business sector, educational sector, in your local community, in your family, whatever sector of life that God has placed you, we believe you can know you're that for which Christ Jesus has taken a hold of you. And celebrating what God is doing in and through your life is our dream and our desire as a church.
[00:33:05] This is just a place to house it.
[00:33:08] This is not a place that fulfills it. This is a place that facilitates the message like you're hearing this morning, to be a message that touches your hearts deeply.
[00:33:18] And so your that is important.
[00:33:22] The church plant and you know, our Newton Abbott church have had to move buildings on a Sunday morning because they outgrew the community center where they were meeting. They now got a hall that holds up to 400 people. They get around 150 people on a Sunday in Newton Abbott. Seeing God do wonderful things. Our church plants are doing great things. We have a great number of students, some of you are on this course this year because we want to plant churches across Cornwall, across Devon, across Somerset and across Dorset. And that's not me and Mike getting in a car and doing another service this afternoon. That's you rising up into the destiny of God in your life and saying, God, I'm going with this. I'm rising into my destiny in you. That's what the call of God is on our life.
[00:34:09] So the building is not anywhere near as important as you are, but the building is part of what we believe God needs us to have in order for us to be able to fulfill releasing more people into their purposes in God.
[00:34:24] And we think we found a building that could be that for us.
[00:34:29] And there was a members meeting that took place a few weeks ago, partners meeting. And if you, by the way, consider this to be your church, your home church, your spiritual home, and you're not a partner of the church yet. I want to encourage you to go on our website and apply for partnership because partnership is us committing that we're going to be together to build this. Now you might say, well, I'm that anyway. Well, tell us, just come to one of our place to Thrive courses and fit in a partnership application form and tell us that you're with us in that way because we need to know who we have.
[00:35:05] You know, we have a church of 5, 6, 700 people here and we have around partners, we have partnerships of just over 200.
[00:35:14] There's a big gap there. There's a lot of people who are here in the church that feel part of the church that feel part of the purposes of the church that just haven't told us.
[00:35:24] Tell us we're not going to get you to sign your house contracts over to us.
[00:35:31] Unless you want to.
[00:35:35] It's just a determination of what's in your heart that says, we believe God's called us here, but we think we found a building that could be a great building for us. It's in Exeter. I know if I tell you where it is, I'll lose you for the rest of the talk because you'll be googling it.
[00:35:51] But it's not too far away from here. And it's a facility that would give us so many options for the future about engaging in community and about training people up, but resourcing and releasing people, it'd be a great option.
[00:36:05] It's valued, more expensive than we feel we should make an offer.
[00:36:10] So this week we made an offer that we have prayed as a team, as elders and operations team. We prayed for a level of bid that felt good with us and with the spirit.
[00:36:29] And we have prayed, God, if you want us to have this building, then we pray this bid will be accepted by the owners and that will be your sign to us.
[00:36:41] And we've offered an amount that I think is less than what the owners wanted, but we've done that intentionally, partly because we believe the affordability of this building is, is really important to us.
[00:36:57] I don't want to hand tie our ministries moving forward by paying a massive mortgage in the years ahead. That means that we can't do other things.
[00:37:06] It's really important to us we get that measure right. So we've made a bid that we think is at a level that's not disrespectful to the owners, but it is a cheeky bid.
[00:37:17] But it's a cheeky bid in the spirit.
[00:37:19] How many of you know you can have cheeky bids in the spirit?
[00:37:22] It's a cheeky bit in the spirit. And we have said, God, we know that if we push this up a little bit more, and we do know that if we push up a little bit more, they'll say yes, but we don't feel that we should push up a bit more. We feel we should offer it this level. If you want to open the door, please open the door. And if you have a better facility for us that we're not aware of yet, then close the door really firmly.
[00:37:47] So that's where we're at.
[00:37:49] And this will be a critical week. I believe the next few weeks will be a critical week. And I'm going to ask us just for a moment, we haven't finished yet, but I'm going to ask us just to stand and I'm going to Ask us to pray, God, if you want us to have this building, that you will cause the owner's heart to be struck with immeasurable favor toward us, and that they will say yes, and we will go into that building confident, knowing that God has opened the door. Would you just pray that with me? Come on, all, lift your voices.
[00:38:20] There are miracles that God wants to release in his people and through his people. Lord, we ask that you, the one who opens doors and closes doors, the one who directs pathways, the one who tells us that you make crooked paths straight. Lord, we ask that as a church, that you will open or close the door according to your best purposes. Lord, we've done our research. We think this is a great building. We've done our research, we think it's valuable. We think it's going to have great kingdom value in the future. We thank you for the favor that you've given with us, with various agents. But we ask, oh God, that if this is your best for us, that the owners will accept this bid in the next few weeks and that you will miraculously open the door.
[00:39:06] And then, just like this place, God made the miracle happen here because he made the miracle happen in hearts right across the room.
[00:39:16] And we have a pledge fund. People are giving pledges right now for a membership, and we want to open that up to everybody. People are saying, I'm going to give a bit more every month because when we get in a building, the costs are going to be increased. If you want to do that, then please do. Contact the office, go on our website, information will be there. Speak to our finance officer, Helen, and they will give you all the best advice on this.
[00:39:38] But maybe God is putting something in your heart.
[00:39:43] And my prayer is that we will all respond to whatever God puts in our hearts.
[00:39:47] So, Father, I pray that you'll give us wisdom, insight, revelation, and courage.
[00:39:52] And I thank you that when you do miracles, somehow and for some reason you invite us to participate in them as well.
[00:40:01] So I pray for hundreds of participants in the miracle of God.
[00:40:09] So, Lord, as these next few weeks play out, we pray if this is your purpose, you'll open the door. If it's not, you'll close it and then you'll reveal to us what is your door.
[00:40:17] And you'll also speak to our own hearts as to how we can participate in that. I pray in Jesus name and all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Please take your seats for a few more moments.
[00:40:29] Because I mentioned the macro decisions, the macro buttons that we press in our Life. But there's also the micro. The micro decisions about our life, the micro issues, the micro buttons that we press in our life, that they will look various expressions in all of our life, the small choices that we make every day.
[00:40:51] Will you respond to that person with patience or irritation?
[00:40:55] Button press moment. I'm going to press after that which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. Will you forgive or hold a grudge? I'm going to press the button for the kingdom choice. Will you speak life or will you participate in gossip? I'm going to press the button to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me.
[00:41:13] Every single day you're pressing buttons.
[00:41:17] I don't mean pressing someone else's buttons.
[00:41:21] We live in a world where there's lots of people triggered by lots of things and we need to be sensitive and careful. I think there's something in the scripture about that, about being careful about leading other people into sin, making every effort to live at peace with people around us. So if you feel that it's a credit to you that you're an antagonistic person who loves pressing people's buttons, then repent.
[00:41:47] Can't put it any plainer than that.
[00:41:49] Stop it.
[00:41:51] Ask for God's help, but just stop it.
[00:41:55] Stop finding out those places of other people's weaknesses and pressing the button.
[00:42:00] That's not God, that's you pressing a button that goes away from the that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you every single day. I pray that these micro decisions will either move us towards Christ rather than away from him.
[00:42:18] Paul understood this when he said, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead. I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
[00:42:29] See, there's a power of repeated pressing.
[00:42:34] Every great achievement you've had in your life has come from repeatedly pressing.
[00:42:41] You didn't learn to walk by trying once.
[00:42:44] You didn't learn to read by looking at a book once. You didn't get as buff as I am by going to the gym. Once we press on, you don't get slim by lowering your calories. Once we press on, we fall down, we get up, we try again, we improve, and eventually we master it.
[00:43:09] The same is true of our spiritual life.
[00:43:11] You're not going to discover the fullness of God's purpose for your life in one mystical moment.
[00:43:19] You're going to discover it by pressing on the macro and the micro. The macro and the micro. Making decisions, taking steps, learning from failures, adjusting and pressing again and again and again. I press on to. To take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. I'm faithful with my words. I'm faithful with what God has stewarded in my life. I'm faithful with the big decisions of my life. And I press on, and I press on, and I press on and I press on to take hold of that.
[00:43:51] Every time we choose obedience over comfort, we're pressing that button.
[00:43:56] Every time we choose faith over fear, we're pressing that button. Every. Every time you choose to serve rather than be served, you're pressing that button.
[00:44:05] With each press, you're moving closer to that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of you.
[00:44:12] And to close, let me say this. It's the promise that keeps us pressing.
[00:44:18] When God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, he didn't just say, leave Egypt.
[00:44:24] He said, I'm bringing you to a land flowing with milk and honey.
[00:44:28] There was a promise, a specific destination, a purpose, and a promised land.
[00:44:34] But getting there, that required pressing on through impossible situations.
[00:44:41] Pharaoh's resistance, the Red Sea, the Egyptian army, the complaining people, the desert wanderings, the lack of food, the lack of water, the surrounding nations, limited resources, faithless spies, person and person and incident and an incident and time and time and struggle and struggle after one another. It would be so much easier to stop, to settle, to give up, and to say, okay, forget this land flowing with milk and honey. It's okay. Here. We now have tents. We now have some provisions. Let's just live here in the place of wandering. But they didn't. They kept pressing on, pressing on, pressing on. And I want to encourage you, if you settled, pack the tent away and press on to the promise.
[00:45:32] Joshua was the same. God told him, moses, my servant is dead Now. Then you and all these people get ready to cross the River Jordan into the land I'm about to give them.
[00:45:43] There's a promise, a purpose, and a destiny.
[00:45:46] But Joshua had to keep pressing on, to take a hold of it. He had to make micro decisions, macro decisions.
[00:45:54] He had to work out how to cross a flooded river, how to conquer fortified cities.
[00:45:59] He had to make the micro decisions, the daily choices. To trust God, to encourage people when he didn't feel like it, to follow God's unusual strategies in battle.
[00:46:10] And there were battles, but there were decisions. There were moments of fear and doubt, but the promise kept them pressing.
[00:46:20] And here's the good news.
[00:46:22] You have a promise, too.
[00:46:25] This church has a promise.
[00:46:28] God has called this church to be a resource to the southwest and beyond.
[00:46:35] God has called you to be A part of that that's glorious.
[00:46:43] God has taken hold of our lives for a purpose.
[00:46:47] And you're not pressing on alone.
[00:46:50] You're not pressing on in your own strength.
[00:46:53] You're pressing on because the same Jesus who took a hold of you is walking with you, empowering you, guaranteeing that you will reach what he's called you to. That same Jesus is walking with the person next to you.
[00:47:09] So when you face your Red Sea moments, when the obstacles look impossible, the promises keep you pressing.
[00:47:17] When you face your wilderness season, when you feel like you're going in circles and making no progress, the promise keeps you pressing. When you face your Jericho walls, when the challenges are fortified and intimidating, the promise keeps you pressing.
[00:47:36] Are you pressing on or have you settled?
[00:47:40] Have you stopped at salvation and just holding out now for the second coming?
[00:47:46] Maybe you've made some macro decisions years ago, but you stopped making the micro decisions. You stopped pressing the button daily. The fire is dimmed, the passion has cooled, and you're coasting instead of pursuing.
[00:48:01] Or maybe you've made the micro decisions faithfully, but you're afraid to make the macro decisions because you fear getting it wrong. You know there's a bigger step, but it's a scarier step, a more radical obedience.
[00:48:14] But fear is keeping you from pressing that button.
[00:48:18] Church micro, macro.
[00:48:24] Just hold your fingers, would you, in front of you.
[00:48:27] This is not daily Thompson's Decathlon, but the micro and the macro. I'm going to keep pressing.
[00:48:33] Are you going to keep pressing this week or are you just going to stop?
[00:48:38] Are you going to press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of you? Let's pray together.
[00:48:54] I don't believe in retirement. In the kingdom, if you have breath in your lungs, if you're able to articulate words, if you're able to get alongside others, there's still a vat in your life.
[00:49:12] I don't believe you have to graduate beyond a certain age before there's a vat in your life either.
[00:49:20] I believe from the youngest to the oldest and everybody in between, God has a that for you.
[00:49:29] And fear will try to keep you away from it.
[00:49:35] Have no fear.
[00:49:39] The spirit of the Lord is in you, not just to make you feel good, but to empower you for that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of you.
[00:49:55] The promise is real. The purpose is sure.
[00:49:58] The power is available.
[00:50:01] Lord Jesus, I pray that every single life in this place, even those who have come maybe to sit anonymously, hopefully hidden behind a pillar and thinking, I hope no one really sees I'm here this morning.
[00:50:20] Even you will know the purposes of God.
[00:50:25] He's grabbed you for a reason.
[00:50:30] So in the name of Jesus Church, I commission you.
[00:50:35] I commission you to pursue your that with all your hearts in the name of Jesus.
[00:50:50] Just before we finish, I'm going to ask you to pray one more prayer. But I'm not going to lead you in this.
[00:50:57] I'm going to ask you to bring God the reasons why you say you can't do it.
[00:51:03] Maybe hold those reasons in your hand, Almost the symbolism that you've got, these reasons that have stopped you. And I'm going to ask you to just hand them up to God and say, God, I need your help. Would you just do that? Where you sat? It's a private moment, not going to ask for a public response.
[00:51:22] It's a private moment.
[00:51:35] And just while those who love and follow Jesus are praying those private moments, I want to speak now to anybody that's in the room or watching online that doesn't know Jesus.
[00:51:46] You've not stopped and invited Jesus to come and grab your life with his grace and love.
[00:51:55] This is a moment for you to respond today.
[00:51:59] If you would like Jesus to come and fill you with his love, to forgive you of your shame, to take away the mistakes of your past and to give you a new hope and a new future and to reveal a destiny and a purpose that he's called you for.
[00:52:16] I'm going to ask you to just lift your hand where you are. When I've seen it, I'll be able to lead you in a prayer. Would you just lift your hand if that's you? Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else around this room? Thank you, sir.
[00:52:30] Anyone else, just raise your eyes and high if I've not seen it already.
[00:52:35] Thank you.
[00:52:39] I'm going to ask. I think there were two or three people who raised their hand. I'm going to ask you now to join us in a prayer that I'm going to invite all of us to pray out loud.
[00:52:49] And it's a prayer of invitation to God. And those of you raised your hand, I pray that you will know God coming and captivating you with his love, stopping you in your tracks and giving you his love.
[00:53:01] So all of us, can we pray this prayer along with me? It goes like this. Jesus, I thank you that you love me, that you're for me and you have a purpose for my life.
[00:53:16] I'm sorry for the mistakes, for my failure and for the shame of my past.
[00:53:25] Please forgive me, cleanse me and fill me with your spirit that I might follow you all the days of my life.
[00:53:36] In Jesus name, amen.
