Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Great. Well, my name's Esther Daniels, for those of you who don't know me. My husband and I, we planted Rediscover Church into Newton Abbot at the beginning of this year. And, yeah, it's going so well. In fact, we've got a little greeting for you. Do you want to see the greeting? Thanks, Suze.
Brilliant. Well, that was them saying, good morning, Exeter Church. And yet Newton Abbot's going really well. God's doing some great things. Can you believe we've planted the first church out of 100?
It's happening. And I think there are about four or five going on now, at least getting there. There's some more happening. So God seems to be doing things quick.
It might seem slow to us, but then when these sudden lists come, it's incredible, isn't it, when you see the breakthroughs and things happening? So we've also, for some of you who don't know, we actually were able last year to purchase a large facility in Newton Abbot. I think we've got a photo that's going to come up. And this is really Pastor Mark's heart for coffee shops to be established all across the Southwest in conjunction with church plants. So the coffee shops and church plants were dovetailed together so that the funding of the coffee shops could then fund church plants. What an amazing vision. And so next year, early, we're hoping, what can I say, Des? Early 2024, these doors will be opening to Newton Abbott, and we're so excited just what God's going to do. It's going to be great. Going to be excellent to the glory of God. And we're praying at the moment for people who will work there and serve there. So you can see the bottom section will be really large coffee shop area. And then the top there are some offices, church offices and Day of Gloria offices. So God is on the move in Newton Abbott. Yeah. We love Newton Abbott. Okay, are you ready for the word of God? You love the word of God here? Yeah. Well, we've got a big passage to read this morning, so will you turn to Hebrews chapter ten?
Hebrews chapter ten. Because you've all got your paper copies, right?
It's lovely to be here this morning. I haven't been here for about a year, I think. I think February we were last year. And it's great to have my son Ruben with me this morning. I love you. There we go. I do. I really love him, but he's come today with me, so he's brilliant. Okay, Hebrews chapter ten. We're going to start from verse 19.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence, everyone say confidence.
Even if you don't feel like it. Stay confidence. Yes. To enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened up for us through the curtain that is his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with full assurance that faith brings. Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.
For he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching, you notice day is in capital, the capital D. There the day, the amazing day that's going to happen if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth.
No sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished? Who has trampled the Son of God underfoot? Who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them? And who has insulted the spirit of grace? Sobering, isn't it?
For we know him who said, it is mine to avenge, I will repay. And again the Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering? Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution. At other times, you stood side by side with those who were so treated.
You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly it will be it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. And but my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. And are saved. Amen. Amen. You know, this is an incredible the pages of this book we go through, don't we? We read in our lives. But the story of salvation. The story of salvation written in the heart of God for the nations of the world.
We've mentioned already the nations this morning that are struggling, the nations that are at war.
But even in the midst of all that is going on in the world around us, the song of salvation is that there is good news in Jesus Christ and that is always our hope, right? When we turn on the news and it's dire, but our hope when we have that bad report, but our hope, because that's our hope in this story of salvation. And for those in Christ this morning, it requires something from our lives. Put your hands up if you have received the salvation of Jesus Christ this morning, you're in Christ. Wonderful. If you haven't, put your hand up. I'm coming for you after the meeting. All right? Come in.
For those who are in Christ, it demands something from us every day that we live.
And we get to sing the song of salvation every single day for the rest of our lives until we meet Jesus face to face. If you think about that, in every season, the good, the bad, in every opportunity, we can choose to sing that song of salvation. One of my children said to me a couple of weeks ago, they said, mom, when Jesus comes again, will every knee really, really bow when Jesus comes again?
Like, do they have to?
Oh, yeah.
Because when Jesus returns with all his angelic hosts and that loud loved it on the trumpet this morning, drew, when that trumpet blast comes, the weight of his glory and splendor is going to be so, so much that we will not be able to help but to bow and go low and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. But the thing is, church, we don't have to wait till we see Him physically, face to face, every single day of our lives. We can be, as two. Corinthians says, that living letter. And the living letter is us expressing with our lives all the goodness, all the glory, because he wants the glory to come through our lives. We can be that living letter, not written in ink on pages, but written in our hearts by the spirit of God.
A living letter. You see, how we live matters. Exeter, the southwest. This nation needs a church that is singing the song of salvation every single day. And you know when it's better to sing the song of salvation? When life is tough, because it is a glorious testimony. It is a glorious testimony.
Glorious.
But you see so many of us, and I am one of the guilty ones. So I am not preaching at you.
I am one of the guilty ones.
Sometimes in life, I make the song of salvation about saving me and my needs, about saving my desires. And, oh, I want my dreams fulfilled.
We live in a culture, don't we, that's self sufficient, self confident, self assured, everything's about what we can see, what we can get.
Because persevering in the faith, doing the will and ways of God isn't easy. Can you just put your hand up if you think it's easy?
It is hard because it is that daily decision, and it is daily. You know, we're saved by the grace of God, by faith. It's a gift that we have. But salvation is something we have to work through every day.
And perseverance is hard. But when you see people and we've got a bunch of them in Newton, Abbott, people in their 80s who are just so inspiring because they're persevering through every season, through sicknesses that have got hold of their bodies and their bones are old, through family members who have yet to find Jesus as Lord and Savior, there is that perseverance in them.
And James, chapter four, says this. He says, when we ask and we all want our prayers answered jen, I believe God absolutely. It's his will to answer our prayers.
But when we ask in our lives, it says this we do not receive because we ask amiss. In other words, we ask with wrong motives that we may spend what we get on our own pleasures.
How many of us sometimes we're going out the door. We quickly need God to do something because it affects us in a fleshy way.
Paul says this, and I want to speak to the young people at the end of this. Paul says this to Timothy. I believe God wants some timothy's.
God is raising up Timothy's.
He says this. He says, I'm going to send I hope to send Timothy to you, but I have no one else like him.
And he's talking to the church in Philippi, and he says, I have no one else like Timothy.
He said, Everybody looks out for their own interests. And bear in mind he's talking about the Church.
Everybody looks out to their own interests and not those of Jesus Christ.
Wow. He says, I only have Timothy. Everybody else seems to be quitting. Quitting the race, quitting out. It's too much. I can't persevere.
I can't really stay the course because it's just too much. I'd rather go back to the comfortable, write the script of my own life without having to wait and be patient and persevere through these trials. I want to try and work my way out of these trials. I don't want to stand still that's hard.
It goes against all our human nature.
And the Hebrew writer said some in verse 25, some have given up meeting.
They just don't meet it anymore. Can I say, if you are not regularly attending the gathering of the saints, get back into regularly attending. Make it the priority of the week. And I'm not ashamed to say that I say to our children, I say to non negotiable, Sunday mornings we are in the house of God together as a family.
That is where you will find us.
That is where you will find us. And at times we've tried to access the promises of God. We've tried to get the promises of God, the rewards from Him without the obedience towards Him.
I'm guilty of that one, too.
I've tried to persevere in my own way, doing things as I think I should, but without the faith in Christ.
If God we say this in Newton Abbot, we say if God is going to get all the glory, it has to be done God's way. Do we want God to be given all the glory? Absolutely. But things have to be done God's way. You see, we want Newton Abbott to know of the glory and goodness of God. We want the whole of Newton Abbot saved. We want to see God do big things in Newton Abbott. Amen.
And so big that when people see it, and I believe they are going to see it, when people see what God is doing, we want people to say, wow, it could never have been their little lives, that little team.
It had to be God. It had to be God.
It had to be God.
When we place value on Him. And this is the key now because everything is pointing back to worship. It is right from the start in the garden, it was all about worship. Are you following him? You're following my boy? It is about worship when we place our value on Him. And don't forget that we worship what we value the most.
We worship what we value the most when we place all our value on Him.
Somehow in God's kindness, somehow in God's grace, he makes it all about us.
And that just absolutely blows my mind.
We're back to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. We're back to Jesus saying, if you lose your life for my sake, you're going to find it. If you try and keep your life, you're going to lose it.
You know, one of the most liberating things I've ever done in my life is to stop trying, is to allow God to father me to say, lord, I'm going to value you. Everything is going to be about you. When I was 17 I made the decision that Lord, I'm going to serve in the local church all the days of my life. I am going to give every bit of me to serve the local church. I absolutely love the local church and by God's grace, since the age of 17 he has allowed me to serve and minister and love people. I haven't always done that well and perfect, but in making it all about Him, he somehow makes it all about us.
David in Psalm 37 says, said, I was young and now I'm old and I've never seen the righteous forsaken I've never seen their children begging bread.
What a promise to stand on. See, all we have to do is trust Him, persevere in his ways and we will see things come to pass in our lives.
The story of salvation is so incredible because through it all it is simply down to God having a desire for you and I. That's what it's about. God so loves us right from the beginning of time. His promises to Abraham he wants a holy nation, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. And all God wanted to do was father his people. That's all he wants to do. He wants to father you. He wants to carry you, he wants to hide you in those hard times under the shelter of his wings.
He wants you to soar with Him. That's all he wants to do. And what does he request of us?
That we come in faith, we trust Him.
And for the Israelites, I think of the Israelites, they got so far, didn't they, with God?
But they kept shrinking back. They would then value golden calves and they would value wooden images, a bit like us today, how we place value on the material things or the amount in our bank accounts or the things we see on social media. And we go, I've got to have that. I've got to have another pair of shoes.
It's men now that love the shoes, not women.
Years ago it used to be the women, now it's the men.
My kids would go, do you know how much they cost, Mum? I said no. 2000 pounds. What, really? Yeah, 2000 pounds. No, it's the men that love the shoes.
But you see, for the Israelites, they valued they placed their value on other things other than God and they kept shrinking back. And you know what? They wouldn't persevere because their eyes were in the wrong place. If your eyes are in the wrong place, your heart's going to be in the wrong place.
And they kept shrinking back.
You know what I find so amazing? I love the old Testament characters.
Joseph. When we think of Joseph, we think of that lovely color coat, don't we? We think of the brothers that really did him in. We think of over the decade of being in prison. All right? But I bet you don't think of this his bones, anybody? When you think of Joseph, think of his no, no. What can I tell you about his bones? Is that okay? All right. So at the end of Genesis, Joseph is really old.
And just before he dies, he says to the Israelites, he says, in fact, they're about to go into slavery. This is the part where another wicked Pharaoh takes over who had no idea about Joseph. And he then takes the Israelites into just over 400 years of slavery.
And Joseph says to the Israelites, he said, right, when God comes to your rescue, and let me tell you, he surely will bear in mind he's saying this hundreds of years before God rescues them. He says, When God comes to rescue you, this is what I want you to do. You get my bones out of Egypt and you take them to the Promised Land.
And that's what he says.
Now, if I was told that if I'm standing there and Joseph's right in front of me and he's an old man, he goes, Take my bones, get my bones. And I'm like, you're not even going to know about it. It's just your bones. Why do you want us to carry and you can you imagine, can't you? The bones being in a box and being carried through the generations, and kids are going, what's in that box? Oh, you don't want to know. Go on. What's in that box? Oh, it's Joseph's Bones. Who's Joseph? Well, let me tell you a story about Joseph.
And for Joseph, it wasn't necessarily about his bones. Joseph was testifying to a generation to come to persevere in the faith and in the promises of God in life. He was saying, even in death, my life is going to speak, my life is going to tell the story of the goodness of God and the glory of God to the next generation, because he's surely going to come. He's surely going to do it. I don't know when, but he's going to do it. My bones will testify.
He persevered even in death.
Two things I want to quickly say this morning, verse 19 says this. He said, therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, let me explain what the most holy place? Because sometimes we can assume, everybody knows in the Old Testament, the most holy place, it was where God's presence appeared.
It was portable under Moses, and then became a permanent place of worship under the temple, under Solomon. But it was a man made tabernacle sanctuary, and it had the ark. The ark was kept there under the veil. The veil hid it. And the ark was a wooden box with the cherubims, the angels above it, and in the box was the Ten Commandments, aaron's staff and some manna. Okay? But through that place was the most inner place, the most holy place. And if we lived in Old Testament times, you and I would not be allowed anywhere near it.
Do you tell you why? Because we would stink.
Our sin, our rottenness would be too much of a stench. Thank God. Today, through Jesus, we don't stink. I don't know, your neighbor might have a little whiff. They smell. We don't stink. Today we are a pleasing aroma because of Jesus Christ. But to go into the most holy place, people were not allowed. And once a year, on the day of atonement, the priest, the high priest, would go into the most holy place on behalf of the people. That's what the law required, that you bring an animal and the animal was sacrificed. And of course, this didn't cleanse people's consciences.
It could never do that. But what it did do, it reminded people that sin needed atoning for, our sin needs atoning for.
And it was that reminder every year until the fulfillment of Jesus came. And once and for all, Jesus gave his own life. He was the sacrifice. He shed his blood to cover all our many sins.
Incredible. And today, by faith, Church, you can be walking to uni and enter the most holy place.
You can be going along in your car, doing the school run. Enter the most holy place. That's the confidence you have. Some of you are looking at me going, oh, can I really? Absolutely, you can.
You draw near through the blood of Jesus. Some of us can be flying on an aeroplane to the other side of the world and enter the most holy place.
Some of us can be sick in hospital, on our hospital beds and still enter the most holy place.
You might suffer with crippling, anxiety and panic attacks that was my story.
And still enter the most holy place. In fact, I recommend it if you do get there quick. God's glorious presence.
And can you imagine what life would be like, church, if we daily kept remembering that we have this access? I think we're quick to forget anybody quick to forget.
But by his mercy and grace, every time we draw near, he draws near to us. Every single time. That is how good he is.
That is how good he is. And I believe the most holy place can become that resting place for us every single day. The second thing persevering to do with our hearts. We're back to the worship thing, what we worship, what we value the most in our everyday life. Verse 22 says, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with full assurance. Now, our inward attitude towards God has to be sincere.
It's very easy in a setting like this to get caught up with emotion, something Phil and I have been doing over the last couple of years. Every time we come into a bigger gathering, we just quieten our hearts inwardly and we say, lord, help us to draw near with a sincere heart. Today I don't want to just go through the motions. I want my heart to be sincere towards you. In fact, you can go on and say, lord, I've been so cold, I haven't really realized or I've been a bit ignorant this week that I've had access to the most holy place. Lord, forgive me, I'm coming back. I'm coming back into the most holy place. And I'll tell you, his presence comes so quickly, he draws so near.
You know, in the Old Testament, to enter God's presence, you'd have to bring some gifts. Under the Old Testament law, it'd be like a cow. Any cows this morning?
Anyone brought any cows and no. No, I can't see any. Doesn't smell like any. You'd have to bring some animals or some produce of the land. And we remind ourselves that Cain and Abel, they brought everyone remember Cain and Abel, they brought gifts to God again, worship. But Abel's gift was far superior than Cain's. And Cain ended up murdering his brother out of sheer jealousy for what Abel brought. You see, it says, by faith, abel was made righteous because of his faith. He valued God way above his own life, his own circumstances. He so valued God that God had to have the best. He says, I'm bringing my life, my life, everything to God because he deserves it. And even in death, just like Joseph, even in death, abel's life speaks. It speaks to us now. His blood still speaks, but there is a greater blood that speaks that's Jesus Christ.
We don't need to bring anything here today other than sincere hearts.
We just draw near into the most holy place with sincere hearts. That's all we have to do, because he's done it all.
He's done it all.
You don't have to write the script of your life this morning. You don't have to plan it all out. It's good to make plans, but if you do, you say, Lord, but you determine them. Go ahead and determine if you need to change these plans. If these desires are not in line with your will, then change them.
Don't need to bring anything, just our hearts.
But are we prepared to persevere?
Are we truly? Because the Southwest, this nation, needs a church that's going to persevere over these days, over these months, over these years.
Are we prepared?
And we're living in this tension of, do I so value Him?
Do I value him. Am I worshipping Him every day with my life? So ultimately, what happens here?
Because I can't tell you whether things are going to work out well or not. I know in the end they will.
But sometimes we don't always get prayers answered the way we want to. We've got to be prepared for that. We've got to say, well, this is the perseverance of the faith.
I might not see the end result, but I am living as though I have received the end result by faith in Jesus Christ. My bones are going home.
My bones will go home.
The last bit that I have, I will persevere. He will have the offering of my life. In other words, I'm staying the course. I'm not quitting.
Or the alternative is we shrink back.
We shrink back from the calling of God on our lives.
Can I say in times when you're tired and I think we shrink back sometimes because we're tired.
We're tired of the race. Can I be really honest?
At 17, I gave my life to Christ. Like, radically gave my life. I knew of Him as a young girl, but it was like, Yep, that is it, Lord. I'm all in.
And I think it's okay to get tired sometimes.
Do you ever get tired of doing good things?
Do you want to go and be a rebel now and again? You're all nodding like you get tired, don't you? Because we want these instant results and sometimes, persevering, you're not going to get those instant results, but there's going to be something far greater, far greater have the possessions have that because there is something far greater that is coming to me.
Can I just say it's okay to take time out, okay to have that holiday, okay to have that sabbatical, but it's not okay to have that time out on obedience towards Christ. It's not okay to shrink back from you the calling that God has placed upon it's not okay because this world needs you, this generation needs you to persevere in the faith.
James Five says, we count as blessed those who have persevered. Says, you have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
In closing this morning, we're going to listen to a song in a moment and it's just a bit of response time in your heart towards the message this morning. And I am really passionate.
I know there are many people quitting the ministry. And what I mean by the ministry, we all are ministers, we all have the calling of God upon our lives. I don't mean ministry, the platform, ministry, we all have the calling of God upon our lives.
But there are people who have felt the call of God to be shepherds over God's flock, to be leaders in the church of Jesus Christ and they are quitting because the job role isn't glamorous, the pay probably isn't great and people are quitting. And I felt to say this morning, especially with a lot of young people in this room, that I believe God is wanting Timothy's here.
Timothy's who will sincerely love the Church of Jesus Christ at this time.
And by Timothy's, I mean male and female, who will sincerely live and work for the interests of Christ and the culture and day of this age would say, I'm not doing that because something looks greater over there.
The greatest life you can live is when you are smack banging the will of God, doing the will and ways of God persevering in your faith.
We're going to play this song now and it talks about different seasons, in fact. Should we stand? Come on, let's stand. We're going to be closing up in a minute.
Just in your heart, just start to respond to what has been said this morning. Maybe for some time you've been shrinking back from the call of God upon your life and it's time just to be sincere this morning, just before the Lord say, lord, I come and I just want to rededicate my life to you. Come and kneel at the front. There's space at the front this morning. No one's looking.
This is between you and the Lord. Say, I'm rededicating my life, I'm coming back.
So as we play this song, if you know it, you can sing along to it and then I'm going to pray a prayer as well. Ask people if they want to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This morning. Thanks, Suze.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: May your struggles keep you near the cross and may your trouble show that you need God and may your battles in the way they should and may your bad days prove that God is good and may your whole life prove that God is good see may your struggles keep you near the cross and may your trouble show that you need God and may your battle in the way they show and may your God is good see may your whole life prove that God is good. See may your struggles keep you near the cross and may your struggles show that you need God and may your battles in the way they should may your bed it proves that God is he lets your whole life.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: Just let it continue to play to just put the volume down a little bit.
May my whole life is that the prayer of your heart this morning, church? May my whole life be a witness every single day. Lord, I want to sing the song of salvation even when it's so difficult, even when days are dark.
Let our lives, Lord, in our response to that, lord, let our lives show let our lives prove that we trust you, that our lives hold on to Your word, Lord, like Joseph.
Lord, let us persevere and run our race right till the end, lord, let us go from strength to strength in these days.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: And Lord, I pray, lord, I pray that you will raise up leaders, you will raise up, Lord, people who will serve and lead your church in these days.
Help us, Lord, to not be quitters, to not quit out, Lord, on the calling that You've placed in our hearts, but to keep going, to keep going, Lord. And I just want to pray this morning for some of you who've been here. You've heard the message, you've been in the environment of worship, but you don't yet know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Can I say, I want to invite you to accept Him this morning. You raise your hand. I'm not going to call you out or embarrass you or anything like that, just raise your hand so I know if that's you shoot it right up.
Shoot it right up.
Yes. I thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us. Thank you for your faithfulness.
Thank you for the faithfulness over generations that we see through Your word and the proof is in Your word that you get people through you, take them through you're with us every step of the way.
We celebrate you this morning, Lord. We're not ashamed to make it about Jesus Christ and we love you. And we thank you for this precious church. We thank you for what you're doing around the Southwest.
Thank you for every family represented here, Lord, every young person, every tiny baby that's been born, we thank you.
Thank you for carrying us lord, you and may this week, Lord, we find that most holy place such a place of rest our go to our everything this week, Lord.
Amen.
