Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Let's get into the Word. Anyone got a Bible here this morning?
[00:00:06] Why don't you get your Bible open? Whether it's the paper or digital, it doesn't matter. The Word of God is so important to our lives. We're going to go straight into Matthew, chapter 25. What an exciting season we find ourselves in. Right? How amazing the things that God is going to do in and through each of us. And I am so excited about the hundreds of miracles that are going to take place over these next few months as we walk into this new season. So Matthew, chapter 25, verses 14 through to 30. Let me read this for us. For it is just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one, he gave five talents, to another two and to another one, each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey. The one who had received the five talents immediately went and did business with them and earned five more talents. In the same way, the one who had received the two talents earned two more.
[00:01:03] But he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
[00:01:10] Now, after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
[00:01:15] The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, master, you entrusted five five talents to me. See, I have earned five more talents. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things.
[00:01:30] I will put you in charge of many things. Enter the joy of your master. Also, the one who had received the two talents came up and said, master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have earned two more talents. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things and into the joy of your master. Now the one who had received the one talent also came up and said, master, I knew you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter seed. And I was afraid, so I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you still have what is yours.
[00:02:11] But his master answered and said to him, you worthless, lazy slave, slave, did you not know that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not gather seed? Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.
[00:02:28] Therefore, take the talent away from him, give it to the one who has the 10 talents.
[00:02:33] For to everyone who has more shall be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who does not have even what he does will be taken away and throw the worthless slave into the outer darkness. And in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[00:02:49] Powerful words from Jesus as he spoke to his disciples. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, Lord. Let it guide and direct our hearts. Today.
[00:03:00] Would we be men and women and young people of your word that we would build our lives upon a foundation that is trustworthy in a world with shifting sand? Lord, let our trust be in you and your word. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:03:18] Amy and I had the privilege a number of years ago to come over here to the UK and over to Europe. It was the first time we actually met Mark and Nita, having no idea the journey that was ahead of us. But I remember in New Zealand, it's a nation that really has only kind of been fully established probably in the last couple of hundred years. Obviously the Mori people that were there for many, many centuries. But then the British came and brought the gospel and it was an amazing experience. But as a nation kind of formed in government and things like that, it was quite a young nation. And so to come over to Europe and to see cathedrals that were hundreds and hundreds of years old was amazing. I remember we went to Prague and we saw St. Vitus cathedral, which was 600 years old.
[00:04:09] Generation after generation laid stone upon stone in order to see that cathedral built.
[00:04:16] What's incredible is what was in the heart of an architect at one point was never seen by that person or his children or his children's children or his children's children. It was centuries later, but it was something that was formed in the heart of somebody and then built stone upon stone, each doing their thing for the glory of God and I believe, rediscover church. This is our story too.
[00:04:46] We are building upon what has been built year after year.
[00:04:51] And here we are in this season where we get to lay a stone ourselves, put our part down and say, this is a part of my story. We're building something bigger than us. Not just walls and rooms, but a house of hope, a home for generations.
[00:05:09] You know, Eugene Peterson once said, faithfulness is not doing something big once, but doing something small again and again for the glory of God.
[00:05:19] So today, on this momentous day where we are celebrating a new home, I want to speak about faithfulness and a continuation of God's faithfulness in our lives.
[00:05:33] Faithfulness may not make the headlines.
[00:05:36] In fact, you're probably not going to see on the news tomorrow.
[00:05:40] Today we celebrate somebody's faithfulness.
[00:05:44] We like spectacular, we like a moment, we like something tragic. We like the big headlines. Faithfulness is not something that grabs the media headlines, but faithfulness grabs heaven's attention.
[00:06:01] Heaven pays attention to faithfulness. Day after day, year after year, century after century.
[00:06:09] Faithfulness leaves a legacy beyond my lifetime, your lifetime, and into the lifetime of those that would follow after us. So I want to unpack the scripture just with a few moments we've got left this morning. My first thought this morning is that faith trusts God beyond the safe zone.
[00:06:27] In this story, Jesus tells the story of three servants entrusted with great responsibility.
[00:06:35] Five talents, two talents, one talent.
[00:06:39] Now, without knowing the number of what a talent is worth, it's kind of hard to measure. But when you understand that talent, talent was probably somewhere between 2 to 3 million pounds, you get a little bit of an indication that this wasn't a stingy master.
[00:06:57] This was a master who had wealth but also put great trust in the hands of the people that he says, I want you to do something with what I give you.
[00:07:07] It was also a significant weight, between 75 to 100 pounds, 35, 40 kilos worth of weight.
[00:07:16] And faith always involves risk.
[00:07:19] The two faithful servants, they took a risk. Three people are given five talents. Two talents, one talent.
[00:07:26] Let's just picture it here. Today, to Mark, God gives five talents. Now, Mark is kind of a five talent man. There's something he carries. I heard somebody say, in fact, my father in law said he's kind of like a statesman in the, in the movement. I said, that's a really good way of describing him.
[00:07:42] And he does it with such humility. And I think that's why God allows him to be where he is. He's standing in the position he stands today because of faithfulness, where God says, we'll take the five you faithfully serve. With that, I'm going to give you another five. In fact, I'll give you maybe 500 churches. And I want you to oversee them and look after them. So just imagine God gives Mark 10 million. Now that would be the building sorted. That'd be great.
[00:08:08] But Mark's got bigger vision in his heart as well. So he begins to go and plant another 10 churches. Of the hundred, he's going to leave 90 for us to do as well. But there's 10 on his heart.
[00:08:19] But then he gives someone else the 4 million.
[00:08:23] So Isaan, Isaan gets 4 million. There you Go look at that. And so she goes out and she builds this amazing center, Health and well being center. Maybe live courageously or something like that. Like that. Or outrageously or something like that. I don't know. We'll come up with something like that.
[00:08:42] With psychiatrists and counselors and a gym and probably a cafe. Amazing. And she invests her money into that, does incredible things. And then Al. Where's Al? Is Al around? He's up the back. Now, Al's. Look, he's a little bit risk averse, this man. He doesn't like to take a risk in business.
[00:09:00] Now, anyone who knows Al knows this is.
[00:09:03] He gave me permission to say this, but Al grabs a shovel and he goes into his backyard, he puts the 2 million in the backyard, covers it up, because he doesn't want to take a risk. Right.
[00:09:15] In this story, two people stepped out in faith, one person responded in fear.
[00:09:22] And there's plenty of uncertainty.
[00:09:24] We have no idea what will happen in the financial climate. We, we were talking yesterday as a leadership team.
[00:09:31] I remember as a church in 2020, our vision was perfect. Vision 2020. You know, looking with foresight into the future. Yeah, we didn't predict 2020.
[00:09:45] And I think our slogan as a church back in New Zealand was, can you see it? It's like, nope, we did not see that covered. We did not see. No one saw Covid coming.
[00:09:56] No one saw that we were going to find ourselves in this global pandemic where church would shut down. We didn't see that coming.
[00:10:03] We don't know what will happen financially in the housing market and business. We don't know what happens in the future, but we can guarantee that we won't make an increase if we bury something in the ground. And God is asking us to take what we have, the little, the much, and to invest that into things that will build his kingdom.
[00:10:25] I love the opportunity that's in front of us. And as we were walking through this journey, we had lots of conversations as an eldership and session. And we looked at the numbers and you got to understand, this is not something we're leaping in with blind faith or blind ignorance.
[00:10:42] There are decisions that are being made based on what we believe financially is affordable for us while also leaving room and space, space for God to stretch us in faith.
[00:10:54] And we got close to the number in the negotiations and we said, right, this is our number. This is where we're sticking.
[00:11:04] And then they came back and they said, can you just come up a little bit more now? I'll be honest Myself and a couple of others probably on the team, went, yeah, we can do that. Yep, we can get a few more.
[00:11:16] But Mark, our elder statesman. Elder statesman, just by a few years, he says no.
[00:11:23] And I remember he said something in our elders meeting.
[00:11:26] He said, if this is God's hand upon this building, this will be proof that everything else will flow through.
[00:11:35] And that faith, we went, all right, we trust you. And we held our ground.
[00:11:40] And bang, bang, bang, the number came right down to the same number that we stood when Mark stood on the stage and prayed. And we all prayed. It's that same number.
[00:11:51] Come on.
[00:11:54] That's faith. That's stepping out, stepping into a space that's not comfortable.
[00:12:04] So we committed to that. And I know a number of people have already kind of committed some finance to it. Amy and I, we made a decision.
[00:12:13] We want to commit financially to this as well.
[00:12:16] And we believe that there will be hundreds and hundreds of miracles as God just provides. I think there's a desire in most of our hearts to contribute something to it. And in reality, for some people, you say, I don't know what I can give.
[00:12:31] Don't feel any pressure. But if that heart and that desire is there, you watch what God does in your life.
[00:12:37] Because even as we prayed that prayer, we had somebody give us a gift for the exact amount that we wanted to give.
[00:12:44] How cool is that?
[00:12:47] We had the ability to give, so we can give that as well.
[00:12:53] But how amazing that God is going to work in and through us.
[00:12:58] You know, Hebrews 11:6, it says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
[00:13:03] If you kind of reverse that statement, if we have faith, we please God.
[00:13:11] If my heart and my desire is to please God, which it is, and I hope that's your heart and your desire, ask God what faith looks like for you, because it can be as small as a mustard seed, but it will be individual as well. There'll be something on your life and in your life that God says, this is the thing I want you to trust me with.
[00:13:32] Don't look to the left or the right. Don't look at to somebody else. And what they're doing or what they're saying.
[00:13:38] Say, God, what is it that you want me to bring for this family and for what God wants to do?
[00:13:44] James 2:17. Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
[00:13:50] So we got to step.
[00:13:52] Faith is not standing, waiting for something to happen. Sometimes we have to stand, and that is an active standing, but we don't stand inactive. When God says, I now Want you to step.
[00:14:04] Peter didn't get his miracle standing on the boat going, look at me, I'm walking on the water. I'm like, no, you're still in the boat, Peter.
[00:14:10] It was when he stepped and he had to fully commit to the step.
[00:14:14] His whole body committed to the step. Over the edge at that point. It's like, wow, we're really committed to this.
[00:14:21] God's asking that of each of us to walk faithfully with him.
[00:14:26] Matthew Henry comments.
[00:14:28] God's gifts are not to be buried, but. But traded, not to be hoarded, but used. Faithfulness is fruitful.
[00:14:36] John Wesley once said, earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can. And we can never go wrong with that work ethic and God. I'm praying that there would be an alignment of our individual faith with the collective vision of this church to reveal the glory of God to the southwest and beyond.
[00:14:58] This place is going to be a hub where people are going to come in and we're going to send them out. I kind of like the thought that the auditorium is not going to be huge because we might just need to plant a whole lot more churches as we go. We fill the building and we plant another church. We fill the building again, we plant another church. We fill the building, we plant. I believe that's God's heart. How are we going to get to 100 churches?
[00:15:21] We are going to have to go out and plant.
[00:15:25] I believe God is in that.
[00:15:27] But if you actually do want to hear a story of faith and risk taking, can I suggest you do go and talk to Al, because he's not the guy who buries it deep in a hole.
[00:15:38] They are just walking through this incredible God miracle. It's not my story to tell, but if you want to hear a story of faith and stepping out and God's provision, make sure you go and have a coffee with Heather and Al after the service and you listen to what God has been doing in their life and their world as they step out, setting an example for all of us to follow.
[00:15:58] The second thought this morning is that faithfulness requires total commitment.
[00:16:04] Faithfulness requires total commitment. There's a difference between a contribution and commitment.
[00:16:10] As the old story goes, the chicken and the pig were talking about the men's breakfast coming up and talking about their contribution to the breakfast. And the chicken says, I'm. I'm committed, fully committed to the breakfast. I'm going to bring my half a dozen eggs.
[00:16:25] And the pig says, well, they're looking for bacon.
[00:16:28] It's going to Cost me a whole lot more.
[00:16:32] We want to be fully committed to God, and I'm not calling any of you pigs.
[00:16:39] But faithfulness is wholehearted devotion.
[00:16:42] No backup plan, no halfway Christianity.
[00:16:47] Jesus lived that way. He said in John 10:10, I have come that you might have life and life to the full.
[00:16:55] Not an average, a boring life, a life that you just get by, but one that is full of passion and excitement, dreaming big dreams and going and seeing those become a reality.
[00:17:08] I love that John the Baptist lived the same way, faithfully preparing the way for Jesus.
[00:17:15] His life consisted of one mission, to make a way for people to receive Jesus.
[00:17:22] Year after year, persecuted, pushed away, misunderstood. And yet, John the Baptist, Jesus said of him, truly, I tell you, among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Why?
[00:17:38] Because he was faithful. Faithful to the call.
[00:17:42] Now, in the story, we don't know how long the Master was away for, but the text does say now, after a long time, 5, 10, 20, 30 years, he returned.
[00:17:55] How many people know it's pretty easy to start something.
[00:18:00] Wives, could you just turn to your husband and talk about that DIY project?
[00:18:06] You know, we start something with good intention.
[00:18:11] I know I've got a painting sitting on an easel that I haven't touched for five months. It's like I started it. Every time I look at it and go, ah, I gotta touch it again, I gotta go again. I started it, started with great passion, but I haven't followed through.
[00:18:24] Faithfulness says, I'm gonna turn up again today, tomorrow, the next day, and I'm gonna be faithful.
[00:18:32] You know, they say that it takes 10,000 hours to master something, a skill or a talent.
[00:18:40] I'm just thinking of the young people.
[00:18:42] If you're 11, 12, 13 years old right now, what could you be doing at 30 years old, 31, 32.
[00:18:52] What could it look like? If you devoted 20 years of your life to mastering a talent, escape, or an ability, what would that look like?
[00:19:02] I worked out. It's just over one hour a day, committing to one thing.
[00:19:09] Now, when I think about the hours that I can spend in a day watching sport, watching a movie.
[00:19:18] What if I devoted faithfully to the word of God, to prayer, to worship? What if I gave one hour, even a week, to disciple somebody, to walk the journey with someone who made a decision today, Those that have come here today and have said, yes, I want to follow Jesus, we need people who would be able to say, I will walk with you.
[00:19:43] And you say, well, I don't know if I Can disciple anyone? Do you love Jesus? Are you filled with the Spirit? You're walking with him, then you qualify to walk alongside somebody, open the word with them, pray with them, encourage them, bless them.
[00:19:59] What would that look like? What kind of multiplication would we see if each of us committed to that in our lives?
[00:20:08] So this morning, I want to celebrate. I want to celebrate faithfulness.
[00:20:12] I want to celebrate the young person that this week, instead of scrolling on social media and getting caught up in the things of the world, made a decision today to live pure and live right before God.
[00:20:26] I want to celebrate the person who, when they woke up in the morning, instead of going straight to all of their apps, they went straight to the word of God and says, you know what? I'm going to read God's Word before I consume anything else in my world. I want to celebrate the faithfulness of a husband and wife that have walked through a difficult week and said, we're still in it together. We're still walking this journey. I want to celebrate the faithfulness of the person who maybe has lost a loved one or longs to be with somebody and you are still faithfully serving God and passionately walking after him, chasing after him.
[00:21:01] I want to celebrate the faithfulness of those people who keep turning up week after week in this place, faithfully giving to God, faithfully walking through this building, loving and serving people.
[00:21:13] Do you know the most common feedback we get from people who come to church for the first time is this church is so welcoming. I feel so welcome when I walk in through these doors. And it's not because one of the six or seven people who are wearing a purple T shirt have said welcome. It's because there are hundreds of people say that this is my home, this is my place. And because of that, I want to make sure that anybody who walks in through these doors receives that welcome.
[00:21:43] And I love that. And we celebrate the faithfulness each of you today, even if the world doesn't celebrate it. I can promise you heaven celebrates faithfulness. Well done, good and faithful servants.
[00:21:58] Oswald Chambers once wrote, it is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God.
[00:22:03] But God asks us to be exceptional in the ordinary things.
[00:22:08] I love that God takes our ordinary, makes it exceptional, super extraordinary.
[00:22:17] Only God can do that in our lives.
[00:22:20] And when you consider where you are now and where you believe God wants you to be, it's important you understand and hear from God.
[00:22:28] Well done, good and faithful servant.
[00:22:33] And as I was praying about that this week, I felt like there were some People unsettled in their role at work, just sensing as I don't know if I'm supposed to be here, feeling like, you want to quit, you want to move on, you want to kind of test the waters and try something else.
[00:22:50] And maybe for some, that is God moving and shifting. But I do believe that there's at least a half a dozen people here today where God is saying, you're being faithful.
[00:23:01] Stay the course.
[00:23:03] In fact, where maybe your excitement has waned in your job and actually you're doing just what needs to be done to get by God's saying, will you invest a little more?
[00:23:16] Will you actually turn up a little bit earlier? Will you stay a little later?
[00:23:20] Will you bless somebody rather than just gossiping about, come on, would you press into the space of I will add value to my workplace.
[00:23:31] And you watch what God will do. And you say, well, I haven't seen it yet.
[00:23:36] Commit to a faithfulness over a lifetime, and you watch what God does. You watch as your faithfulness works its way through a business, through an organization.
[00:23:47] People go, that's a man, that's a woman. I can trust.
[00:23:51] God wants to do that in you.
[00:23:53] And lastly, as the team come this morning, faithfulness builds a legacy.
[00:23:59] Faithfulness builds a legacy.
[00:24:02] What's incredible about the cathedrals, many of those cathedrals, is that people who were in the early stages of designing and building the foundations and laying the foundations, many of them even planted trees, little saplings, little seeds planted, trees that would grow over the next 50 to 100 years, that would then be milled in order to be a roof or an altar or part of a wall.
[00:24:31] They never got to see the outworking of it, but they invested something into the future.
[00:24:40] Psalm 145, 4. One generation commends your works to another. They tell of your mighty acts.
[00:24:49] You know, we've got something. We've got a message in our hearts.
[00:24:53] We've got the good news of Jesus.
[00:24:56] We got to keep telling it. We can't stop, we can't quit.
[00:25:01] And I can't quit. I can't expect my children to just know it or get it. I have to instruct them.
[00:25:11] And maybe for some of us, we don't have children of our own. We need a generation. There is a generation crying out for leadership.
[00:25:19] Show me how to be like Jesus. Let me follow you. Let me follow after your example, would we be faithful walking with Jesus and bringing others on the journey I love?
[00:25:32] Charles Spurgeon once said, by perseverance the snail reached the ark. Now we don't know whether snails on the ark, but they probably were.
[00:25:40] But it took a while.
[00:25:42] Some people, it looks like, just feels like they just get there real quick.
[00:25:48] You get there when you get there and don't rate your journey based on somebody else's journey.
[00:25:56] It's really important we hear this on this journey of stepping into this building.
[00:26:05] What you won't hear from us is that you've got to give more.
[00:26:10] You won't hear that from us.
[00:26:12] As Mark said, we are praying for the joy to hear the whisper of heaven for some people. You're saying, I've got nothing to give. There is no guilt and shame in that.
[00:26:28] We don't want a single person to go into debt trying to give to something.
[00:26:35] We want people to be able to just say, God, what are you asking me to do?
[00:26:40] And for some, actually, it's just when you pray.
[00:26:43] In fact, for all of us, we need to pray.
[00:26:45] But maybe your next step in the season is God. I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray that consent comes through really quickly. I'm going to pray that everything moves through. There's no delays, no complications. I'm going to pray into that.
[00:27:00] Galatians 6, 9. It says, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
[00:27:10] Can I say, well done, good, faithful servants.
[00:27:15] Amy and I, we join this journey quite late on in the piece.
[00:27:21] Been labouring. You've been toiling for years, believing for a place that we're going to be able to call home, big enough to receive more.
[00:27:31] Well done, well done, good and faithful servants.
[00:27:36] Well done for persevering.
[00:27:39] Well done for giving. Faithfully giving to God, for bringing friends, inviting friends to church.
[00:27:48] Thank you for faithfully raising up the generations. I love hearing the voices of kids in church, don't you?
[00:27:55] I love hearing the preachers warming up their vocal cords. Is that getting ready to proclaim the good news to the generations that will follow?
[00:28:07] In a moment, I'm going to ask us to stand and we are going to sing.
[00:28:12] And as we sung with such passion earlier on in the service, would our praise in this next moment be a praise that says God?
[00:28:25] Whatever it takes, however hard it might be.
[00:28:29] I'm not going to waver.
[00:28:32] I'm not looking for success or achievement.
[00:28:35] I'm looking to be faithful in everything that you've called me to church. Would you stand with me?
[00:28:45] We gave the opportunity for anybody that wanted to give their life to Christ and many responded. We're so thankful for that, and we celebrate that with you.
[00:28:56] If, as we've gone through the service, you've also felt that you didn't get that opportunity to respond, but you would like to, I know the team would still love to meet with you even down the front at the close of the service. Please come make yourself known to our team. Our first steps team.
[00:29:12] We want to get a Bible in your hands. We want to help you take your next step as a disciple of Christ.
[00:29:19] It's not just about a single decision made today.
[00:29:22] It's about a lifetime of following after Jesus. We want to make sure that you're baptized and make sure that you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, that you know the power that is available to you in and through Jesus.
[00:29:34] We want to make sure that you've got an opportunity to have somebody walk alongside you on the journey of discipleship.
[00:29:42] But let me pray and then we are going to sing and give God praise for all that he has done, the faithfulness of our past and the exciting adventure that lies ahead of us where we don't know what's coming next.
[00:29:56] But we get a little sense that God. We get a big sense that God is right in this journey. So, Father, we thank you that you celebrate faithfulness and God. I pray for those that have questioned, wondered whether they have done enough or whether their life holds significance.
[00:30:22] I pray that right now, in this moment, they would recognize the faithfulness of their work, their family, their relationships of opening your word every day, Lord, even on the days where it feels tough.
[00:30:41] God, I pray that your faithfulness would be evident in their life, Lord. They would see and sense and hear the words of the Master. Well done, good and faithful servant.
[00:30:58] Lord, we bring you right now praise.
[00:31:02] Praise. That might even cost us a little bit because you are so worthy of praise. Praise. We give you glory and honor in Jesus name.
[00:31:13] Amen. Come on, let's praise him.
