1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:06,480 So Chris is going to speak now about our vision for 2026 at 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,600 Hope, which is really exciting. So I'm going to pray that we 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:17,760 hear God and are sensitised to our role or contribution within 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:21,760 that because it's our our shared vision. 5 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:27,080 Lord, I thank you so much that you, you work through the body. 6 00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:30,320 That's your plan A, and there isn't any other plan. 7 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:37,400 You work through the body of Christ and then in Christ us to 8 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:42,800 bring about your reign on earth as it is in heaven. 9 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:48,000 And we count it the greatest privilege to be a part of your 10 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:53,720 body and to take our place with each other, standing side by 11 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:56,680 side with each other, contributing to your vision 12 00:00:57,480 --> 00:00:59,760 coming on earth as it is in heaven. 13 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:04,760 And so I bless us today to hear your voice for us personally and 14 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:09,600 also corporately as as to what you're saying to us about your 15 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,200 plans and purposes for us as a community in 2026. 16 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:19,280 Amen. Thanks, Alice. 17 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:24,400 Good morning, everyone. Hi, I'm Chris and I'm a follower 18 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,600 of Jesus and Alice and I came to Bristol. 19 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,560 I'd never been here in my life before in 2000 and two, 2003, 20 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:35,800 because we've heard of this new church that had started called 21 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:38,960 Hope and it was doing quite radical things. 22 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:41,520 It was a building site at the time, which I loved building 23 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:46,440 sites and and it had these big dreams to, to reach out to 24 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,320 people on the edge of society, to be a prayer centre for the 25 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:51,600 city. And we just loved the engagement 26 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:53,360 within the church. And that was our that was our 27 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,880 reason to come to Bristol back in 2000 and two, 2003 and just 28 00:01:57,360 --> 00:01:59,440 love being part of this community ever since. 29 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:03,920 And different times of growing in God in different ways and 30 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,920 seeing God do different things. And yeah, I'm excited to see 31 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:13,600 what what the future holds. I wonder when, when was the last 32 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:15,960 time that you felt you were out of your depth? 33 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:21,520 When was the last time you felt like you needed God to come 34 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:26,120 through for you? Otherwise, I don't know what, 35 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:29,440 Yeah, I think, I think for some people it might be like 36 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:33,600 actually, actually being here right now and you know, or it 37 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:35,280 could be every, it's an everyday thing. 38 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:38,440 And for others it might be actually, I don't know. 39 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:40,120 I felt pretty comfortable for a long time. 40 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:42,840 And actually I don't know that I, I'm happy out of my depth for 41 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,880 a while. And I kind of want to, I think I 42 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:49,000 want to, I wasn't planning to say this now, but I think I'm 43 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,760 planning to come onto land where I actually think we're designed 44 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:54,760 to be out of our depth. I think that's actually the 45 00:02:54,760 --> 00:03:01,720 right place to be in life. And as Alice said, speaking a 46 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:03,560 little bit into some of our vision for this year. 47 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:08,840 And we shared a few weeks ago a prophetic word which relates to 48 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:10,520 this painting, which is behind us. 49 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:14,360 And a lady called Liz who's been encouraging us prophetically for 50 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:20,640 a while, shared this word with three elements for us for 2026 51 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:24,560 about going into deeper water, and I'll explain that in a 52 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,640 minute. So going and that was going 53 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:31,720 further from the kind of safe place or the place going further 54 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:33,880 from the church, actually sort of gathered and gathered church 55 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:38,640 place, experiencing God's power and substance in that place. 56 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:41,800 That's further from the church. And the third aspect was us 57 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:46,240 being more tightly knit together as a community so that there's 58 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:50,480 no gaps. People aren't left out and say 59 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,080 I'm going to speak into the first bit of that today. 60 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,200 And I think at other times in the next few months, I'll speak 61 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:57,280 into some of the other ones. But I wanted to speak about this 62 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,880 thing about going into deeper water, going further from, from 63 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,480 the sort of church. And we're going to do this by 64 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:06,280 I'm excited. Andy's going to share a story 65 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:10,040 with us from Philippines and I'm excited about that. 66 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:13,960 But we're going to also go through a passage in the Gospels 67 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:17,440 in, in, in Matthew chapter 8, where we see Jesus leading his 68 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,000 disciples into, into deeper water. 69 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:22,200 And that's we'll kind of track through that. 70 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,120 But first up, just, you mightn't be familiar with this picture 71 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:27,360 behind us. This is Hope Chapel. 72 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:29,160 As you can see, there's a river coming out of it. 73 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,640 And it's based on Ezekiel 47, which is a prophecy to the 74 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,080 people of Israel from the prophet Ezekiel. 75 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:39,920 And, and it was basically showing the temple and, and, and 76 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,480 out of the temple flowed this river of life. 77 00:04:42,840 --> 00:04:46,560 And the river had these plants and trees and fruits and the 78 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,400 further away it got from the temple and the sort of more life 79 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:54,480 there was coming to it. And so, and for a year or two, 80 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:57,040 we kept on having people say, I've got a sense of God speaking 81 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:00,560 as equal. 47 over over Hope. This is your corner to see Hope 82 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:02,840 Chapel with water flowing like this. 83 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,400 So hence we've painted it. Rebecca stands. 84 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,520 We started off and Becks has been painting this large version 85 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,840 wonderfully. And and so I think for me, it 86 00:05:13,840 --> 00:05:17,160 symbolises the people and the place of prayer and worship is 87 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,600 this is this is the source of our life, the source of our 88 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,400 energy, the source of our power, our hope and, and the 89 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:27,520 expectation that as we are live as the people of God worshipping 90 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:31,160 Jesus, lives oriented around Jesus and actually things within 91 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:33,080 us flourish. And there's an overflow of life 92 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:36,240 which, which which serves the city, the greater Bristol area, 93 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:38,680 wherever we are in our communities, our workplaces. 94 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,520 And that's kind of a vision really of of who we are as a 95 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:44,320 church and, and, and what, what, what we're about as, as, as 96 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:45,760 hope. We're expected and believing 97 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:49,960 that our contributions to society and life and everyday in 98 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:52,440 in in the little whether they're mundane things or whether 99 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:54,600 they're massive great global policy changes. 100 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,640 Whatever it is, we are the sort of light which is bringing the 101 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,400 life of Jesus. So Liz's word, the aspect was 102 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,880 about as you go further, and this is the same in Ezekiel 47 103 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:07,160 as you go further out from the temple as you get into deeper 104 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:10,240 water, so much so that your feet can't touch the bottom of the 105 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:13,400 river. And that's where there's a more 106 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:17,040 significant encounter of power. And actually that's part of Our 107 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:21,680 Calling on hope is to go, is to go to the edges and to go to go 108 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:25,600 to places that have maybe farther, further from God, 109 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:27,040 places people and to and to pursue. 110 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:28,840 And so I want to speak a bit into that this morning. 111 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:32,320 And so we're going to go through this passage. 112 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:35,480 And as we do, there's two questions I'd love you to have 113 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:37,560 in mind. What does it show us about the 114 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:41,600 heart of Jesus, his passion and his priorities, his responses to 115 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:43,920 situations? And secondly, what's the 116 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:46,720 experience of the disciples as they go with Jesus? 117 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:49,840 Because that could relate to us as we go with Jesus in this. 118 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:52,000 So we're going to go to, if you want to find on your tables, 119 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,520 there's a few Bibles in the same version, which is the NIV that 120 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:58,120 I'm reading from. It's Matthew chapter 8. 121 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:12,400 Liz, you can tell us a page number, Matthew 8, and we're 122 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:22,320 going to start at verse 14. Page 972, if you got one on the 123 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:29,000 table, Bibles. OK, And before we're going to 124 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:33,800 read from verse 14, Matthew chapter 8, verse 14 before. 125 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:35,800 So before we do, I just wanted to say a little bit about the 126 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,960 context. And so Peter and the other 12 127 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:43,600 disciples or other 11 disciples who are with Jesus, they lived 128 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:45,400 pretty sheltered. They lived pretty sheltered 129 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:46,680 lives. I, I, I reckon. 130 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,480 And if this is, this is Lake Galilee is my hand here. 131 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,040 And they lived over sort of over here in this sort of top left 132 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,040 hand corner, this Capernaum, the town old village. 133 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:59,280 And they kind of lived on the, on the east side, no West side, 134 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:02,440 sorry, over on this side here. And, and life of them would have 135 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:05,280 been pretty local, I reckoned in their village. 136 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:08,440 They'd probably have known everybody and they would 137 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:10,440 probably have all loaded. Loaded of them would have been 138 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:14,840 related cousins and you know, second cousins, 3rd cousins, you 139 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:16,800 know, they'd all have grown up together. 140 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,280 You know, nowadays we have a lot of movement that we people move 141 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,000 between towns and cities and villages. 142 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:25,040 They were much more, much more, stayed in the same place for 143 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,000 generations. They'd have had the occasional 144 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:28,560 trip down. Maybe some of them would have 145 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:30,520 gone once a year, maybe more than maybe two or three times a 146 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:35,360 year down to Jerusalem, which is what is that about 60 miles, 70 147 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:36,400 miles? I don't know. 148 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,000 So it's a bit of a journey, but I reckon other than that they 149 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:40,760 wouldn't have got out much. They'd have been pretty tight 150 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:45,360 and their lives would have been fishing, simple agriculture and 151 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:49,240 sort of subsistence living. They would have spoken Aramaic. 152 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:51,560 That was the language that they spoke and say. 153 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:54,280 And then they were also pretty religious people. 154 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:57,760 They were really immersed. There's a lot of time in the 155 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:03,160 scriptures and and keeping these really tight law code. 156 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,360 That was part of the Jewish faith. 157 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:07,800 So they wouldn't, you know, really care about what they ate, 158 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:10,120 about who they associated with. They wouldn't associate with 159 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:12,680 people who weren't Jewish. They wouldn't associate with 160 00:09:12,680 --> 00:09:14,840 people who were, they wouldn't eat with other people who 161 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:16,400 weren't Jewish. They were really quite a sort of 162 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:19,840 quite a sort of closed life. And that was, and that was the 163 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:23,760 way they lived. And and so we'll read from 164 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:27,480 Matthew 8, verse 14. And so you can picture this, 165 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:29,920 this is happening in the top left hand corner of Lake 166 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:33,600 Galilee, Capernaum, up there in this sort of religious space. 167 00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:36,720 When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's 168 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:38,960 mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 169 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:44,520 He touched her hand and the fever left her and she got up 170 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:47,320 and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were 171 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:50,480 demon possessed were brought to him and he drove out the Spirit 172 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:52,760 with a word and healed all who were sick. 173 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:55,840 This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet 174 00:09:55,840 --> 00:10:00,960 Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and 175 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:11,280 boride diseases. So I'm just seeing how much I'm 176 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:15,280 going to read. When Jesus saw the crowd around 177 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:17,880 him, he gave others to crossover to the other side of the lake. 178 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:20,680 Then the teacher of the law came and said to him, Teacher, I'll 179 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:24,240 follow you wherever you go. Jesus replied, Foxes have dens 180 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:26,600 and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay 181 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:28,440 his head. Another disciple said to him, 182 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:30,320 Lord, first let me go and bury my father. 183 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,640 But Jesus told them, Follow me and let the dead bury their own 184 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,400 dead. So life on the West side of the 185 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:39,960 lake, top left corner is going really well. 186 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:42,960 There's really big crowds. People want to join, want to 187 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:46,120 join Jesus. But we see something here about 188 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:48,920 his priorities that we see quite often and that he just leaves 189 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,280 the he's actually, no, yes, things are going really well 190 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:52,840 here. I'm having a really successful 191 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,360 impact on this community. But actually I'm going to go 192 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:57,400 somewhere else. And that's a familiar theme that 193 00:10:57,400 --> 00:10:58,680 we see as we read through the Gospels. 194 00:10:58,680 --> 00:11:01,040 Quite often Jesus will leave a crowd and say, actually, I'm 195 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:04,040 going somewhere else. And we get the idea as we follow 196 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:07,800 Jesus and as we see we, as we see in the book of John, John, 197 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:11,280 John 5, Jesus says this thing, I do only what he says. 198 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:14,120 I do only what I I see. I do only what I see my father 199 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:16,640 doing. My work is to do the will of my 200 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:18,360 father and to finish. And you get the sense that he's 201 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:20,360 always got to got his ear out and what's, what's God the 202 00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:23,400 Father saying to him to do now? So he's not looking at his 203 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:24,800 circumstances. They're not looking at the 204 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:28,320 impact where he is, but he's, and you get the impression that 205 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:30,160 he's probably the Father's saying to him, actually, I want 206 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,200 you to go across the lake. I've got something, I've got 207 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:35,280 someone for you on the on the other side of the lake. 208 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:42,520 So he and his disciples get into the boat and they're going to 209 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:44,080 and they're going to cross and they're going to cross the lake 210 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:45,280 here. And I just think this is a this 211 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:47,800 is a really big, I'm imagining this is a really big deal for 212 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:49,360 these disciples. I wonder if they've ever been 213 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:51,600 over to the other side of the lake before they were fishermen. 214 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:52,920 They'd spent a lot of time in the water. 215 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:55,960 But the area that they're going to is like a completely 216 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:57,640 different environment. I was trying to think of 217 00:11:57,640 --> 00:11:59,600 examples. Would it be like someone from a 218 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:02,040 Somerset village going to a night out in Las Vegas? 219 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:05,520 I'm trying to like sort of picture, you know, what would be 220 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:09,160 a sort of comparison type thing. Because on the other side, this 221 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:14,760 Decapolis area is this kind of Greek and big cities that would 222 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:18,640 have been marked by sort of temples and sacrifices to all 223 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:21,880 sorts of idols and all that sort of stuff going on at big 224 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:27,560 theatre. And Roman power, Greek kind of 225 00:12:27,560 --> 00:12:31,560 liberality of life, all the sorts of sexual ethics of the 226 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,320 morality of the Jewish world were completely different in 227 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:36,440 this space. So everything was everything was 228 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:38,440 completely different and would have been shocking to a Jewish 229 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:42,240 person. I wonder if they'd ever been 230 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:44,600 there. But they're going with Jesus. 231 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:47,680 They're doing their they're on this kind of Jesus mission. 232 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:50,680 So surely this is all going to go really, really well. 233 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:53,440 They get into the boat. Let's read let's read from verse 234 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:55,800 23. Then he got into the boat and 235 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:59,560 his discipled followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up 236 00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:03,120 on the lake. So this so that the waves swept 237 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:05,000 over the boat, but Jesus was sleeping. 238 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:08,000 The disciples went and woke him saying, Lord, save us, we're 239 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:10,720 going to drown. And I think there's an 240 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:12,560 encouragement here, isn't there? Like they're going on this 241 00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:13,680 special mission they're going into. 242 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:15,800 They're leaving the comfort of their family home where 243 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:19,240 everything's going really well. And actually it looks like 244 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:23,200 they're all about to die and it and it's and it's and actually 245 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:27,760 this as we'll see in a minute. And as you probably know, it all 246 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:30,400 ends pretty sweetly right here. But but actually there isn't a 247 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,320 promise. I don't think that that things 248 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,560 will always be easy for us and when we follow Jesus leading to 249 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:38,960 the edges. I was thinking of like Steven. 250 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:40,840 He was, he was killed for his faith. 251 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,120 Paul was put in prison. He was shipwrecked. 252 00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:47,120 People just stoned him to death. He was flogged. 253 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:52,040 He was beaten multiple times. Peter and John early miracle in 254 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,840 Acts chapter 3, they hear the crippled beggar at the temple 255 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:58,720 and they're arrested. And, you know, so, so, so 256 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:02,160 there's another pattern here, which I think should encourage 257 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:06,720 us is that as we go to the edge and and we face opposition, 258 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:07,480 right? There's a question here. 259 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:08,840 Was this this storm that kicks up? 260 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:12,120 Was this like a spiritual, a spiritual thing for a sort of 261 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,080 spiritual event confronting them for the breakthrough that 262 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:16,400 they're going to see on the other side of the lake? 263 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:17,960 Or was it just a bad weather day? 264 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:19,720 You know, I don't really, I don't really know. 265 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:23,640 But nonetheless, they're not, they're not living in this sort 266 00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:25,480 of bubble. If life is going to be sweet and 267 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:27,600 easy. We're we're with, with Jesus. 268 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:29,640 And yet at the same time there is this protection. 269 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:31,960 Jesus replied, you have little faith. 270 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:34,280 Why are you so afraid? Then he got up and he rebuked 271 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:37,320 the wind and the waves and the water was completely calm. 272 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,080 The men were amazed and asked, what kind of man is this? 273 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:44,720 Even the winds and the waves obey him. 274 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:49,280 Now we came onto the other side of the lake. 275 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:51,760 We're nearly there. We've already said that it's a 276 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:54,600 real move out of their their comfort zone. 277 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:59,640 And we're going to see even more now as these village kids go to 278 00:15:00,520 --> 00:15:06,080 Las Vegas. So verse 28, when they arrived 279 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:09,480 at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, also called 280 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:13,640 Garrison in some, some places, and this is this is about, so we 281 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:15,720 were up here. It's probably over here on the 282 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:19,680 sort of three o'clock 4:00 to the side of Lake Galilee. 283 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:21,920 It's about 8 miles. So it's quite a long journey. 284 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:24,400 That's probably like here to the far side of Portishead. 285 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,400 So it's a Big Lake. You wouldn't have seen the other 286 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:28,960 side when you set out. It's a long way. 287 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:32,520 It's a big storm. When they arrived at the other 288 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:35,440 side, in the region of the Gadarenes, 2 demon possessed men 289 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:38,840 coming from the tombs met him. So tombs were another thing that 290 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:41,440 Jewish people always avoided. You don't go near dead bodies. 291 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:43,920 You don't go near tombs. It makes you unclean, 292 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:45,600 ceremonially unclean. As a Jewish person. 293 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,720 You don't, you don't go there. They were so violent that no one 294 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:51,960 could pass that way. What do you want with us, son of 295 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:52,760 God? They shouted. 296 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:56,080 Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time? 297 00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:59,000 Some distance from them, a large herd of pigs. 298 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,520 Was feeding pigs really unclean for Jewish people? 299 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:05,160 Pigs are like the worst animal. You don't go near pigs at all. 300 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:09,520 You avoid them. So you've got these protected 301 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:13,880 village kids come from their safe, their safe enclave of 302 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:17,360 family life, living with their grandparents and their parents 303 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,160 and extended and they know everybody and they've got, 304 00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:22,080 they've come across this torturous journey across the 305 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:24,000 lake into really hostile territory. 306 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,920 People don't speak the language. Everything is just filthy and 307 00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:28,760 polluting and offensive and vile. 308 00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:31,880 And they're in a graveyard and there's mad people who are 309 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,320 really deluded or just like destructive and and there's 310 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:36,000 pigs. Everything is wrong. 311 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:42,800 And yes, that's the place that Jesus takes them. 312 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:45,520 And again, this is something that we see again and again and 313 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:49,320 again we see Jesus. Jesus heart of compassion is 314 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,480 actually I'm not going to. I don't need to be hiding. 315 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:53,080 He goes and touches lepers again. 316 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:55,840 We can't really probably comprehend that in our society. 317 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:01,520 Infectious fatal skin disease that scars you for life and 318 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,119 again makes you uncontactable with other people. 319 00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:06,960 He touches leopards, he goes and he touches a woman who's 320 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,920 bleeding and bleeding for many years, again, really richly 321 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:12,640 unclean. He goes and he goes and speaks 322 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:15,880 to a Samaritan woman at a, at a well, she's a Gentile again, 323 00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:17,319 she's considered the lowest of the lowest. 324 00:17:17,319 --> 00:17:21,359 She's, she's had a sort of loose lifestyle because of her trauma 325 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:23,079 that she's been through. But again, he shouldn't be 326 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:26,400 talking with her, but he goes right to the edges every time He 327 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,560 heals the, the Roman centurions. How can you heal the servant of 328 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,240 a Roman centurion? They're the brutal oppressor of 329 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:33,840 the Jewish people. How can you do that? 330 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:39,760 And yet Jesus, Jesus goes there and he takes his disciples with 331 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:44,080 him. And what's lovely is we come on 332 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:48,680 in a minute to see the impacts of this mission where it looks 333 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:50,560 like Jesus, Jesus went across the lake. 334 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:52,120 I mean, it's interesting. It says in here that there are 335 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:55,800 two men, 2 demon possessed men in Mark and Luke. 336 00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:58,640 There's only one. There's quite a few of these 337 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,240 confusing bits in the Bible where the where different people 338 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:05,960 are telling the story. And I wonder why they why I 339 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:07,520 don't know why. Why does one say there were two 340 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:09,840 one say there were one. Maybe maybe one of them was the 341 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:12,240 kind of main character he was the dramatic one that was doing 342 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:14,480 all the speaking and and the other guy was just sort of 343 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:16,240 hanging out with him. I don't know what the reason 344 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:20,240 was, but but in Matthew's Gospel there, there, there are two. 345 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,280 So distance from them. A large herd of pigs was feeding 346 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,160 the demons begged Jesus, if you drive us out, send us into the 347 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,320 herd of pigs. He said to them, go. 348 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:34,920 So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd 349 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,640 rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 350 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:40,720 Those tending the pigs ran off and went into the town and 351 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:43,400 reported all this, including what had happened to the demon 352 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,080 possessed men. Then the whole town went out to 353 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:49,480 meet Jesus, and when they saw him they pleaded with him to 354 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,040 leave their region. That's a crazy response, isn't 355 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:56,240 it? In Mark chapter 5? 356 00:18:57,120 --> 00:18:59,120 I'd like this bit in the Mark version. 357 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:04,160 That's a lovely description of the man afterwards. 358 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,880 So this is Mark 5/15. When they came to Jesus, they 359 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,800 saw the man who'd been possessed by the legion of demons sitting 360 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,160 there dressed and in his right mind. 361 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,280 I just think that's so lovely for that man. 362 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,400 You know, he'd been tortured for years and years and years, 363 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:31,200 outcast from society, physically battered and in pain and 364 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:35,800 presumably had this continue in a in a torment all the time. 365 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:41,200 And I'll just read it again. When they came to Jesus, they 366 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,600 saw the man who'd been possessed by the legion of demons sitting 367 00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:46,680 there dressed and in his right mind. 368 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:53,960 And they were so struck by it says that they were afraid fear 369 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,360 of God type moment. What's happened to this person? 370 00:19:56,360 --> 00:19:59,280 He's completely changed and the impression is that Jesus, 371 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:01,240 because after this he goes back again, the impression was that 372 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:05,200 Jesus went across the lake just to do this, made this long 373 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:07,800 journey across the lake through the storm, all the trauma of 374 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,160 that, all the challenge of that just to heal this one guy. 375 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:19,640 And then it goes on again in the Mark version, gives a bit more 376 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:21,600 detail than we get in Matthew about what happens next. 377 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,160 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who'd been demon 378 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:29,080 possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said 379 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,960 go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has 380 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,240 done for you and how he's had mercy on you. 381 00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:38,880 So the man went away and he began to tell him the Decapolis, 382 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,560 how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. 383 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,720 This is the first example of a of a missionary being sent out 384 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,600 into Gentile territory into like a non Jewish area. 385 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:53,760 And it was this man who'd been so tortured and so tormented in 386 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:58,160 his experience. And he and he sent out and, you 387 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,680 know, people that have written about this say, you know, it's 388 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:03,480 unlikely that Jesus is a Jewish rabbi. 389 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,760 If he'd gone into this Decapolis area, these, these 10 cities of 390 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:10,680 Roman and Greek living, it's unlikely that a Jewish rabbi, 391 00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:12,520 Jesus would have been accepted there. 392 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,280 They would have like hated the Jewish people who looked down on 393 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:18,360 them as being unclean and inferior. 394 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,920 And so Jesus is unlikely to have been welcomed. 395 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:26,680 But initially at first, but Jesus sends this one man and he 396 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:28,560 basically says he doesn't tell them to go and plant a church. 397 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,000 Just go, just go and tell them, tell them what you've 398 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:32,520 experienced, tell them what you've seen. 399 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,680 And we, we get some glimpses of the potential impact of that 400 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:39,960 later on, later on in the Gospels, we see that. 401 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,640 So Jesus feeds 5000 people and another time he feeds 4000 402 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:46,440 people afterwards. And they reckon that was 403 00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:48,880 probably in the capitalist region that that happened in 404 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,640 this in the same area. And the people that were eat 405 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:55,400 those 4000 were probably people that had heard the testimony of 406 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:57,400 this, of this man, this man that had been healed. 407 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:01,040 And it says that they were waiting for Jesus when he came. 408 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:07,000 And it's another time a guy who's blind is healed by Jesus 409 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,480 and people are waiting for Jesus to come in the Decapolis region. 410 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:20,160 So that one man story may well have softened the area to be 411 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:25,360 ready to receive Jesus. So that's a that's a story. 412 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:27,840 It's an example of the Gospels and it's a sort of template. 413 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:31,440 It's an example of what we see so often Jesus leaving in many 414 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,160 going for the few going for probably one of the sort of 415 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,240 darkest places and experiences of life and and and he moves 416 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,040 there and he sees the power of God come. 417 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,480 And I think this is what we should have in mind when we're 418 00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:46,560 when we're hearing God say to us, he's calling us into deeper 419 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:51,160 water, take more risk, move further out from from the 420 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,000 comfort of church, from the comfort of the gathered people. 421 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:55,360 Yes, I'm not saying that we don't gather. 422 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:57,800 It's vital that we do. This is the place and the people 423 00:22:57,800 --> 00:22:59,600 where we are encouraged. We're built up. 424 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,760 We're resourced in prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, 425 00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:06,960 but the the energy and the, the leading of the Spirit is to go 426 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:08,840 out to the edges. And in a minute, I'm going to 427 00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:10,720 give some examples of how we can do that this year. 428 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:12,520 But first up, we're going to hear from Andy. 429 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:17,320 He's going to tell us the story of from his time in Hong Kong, 430 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,560 Philippines. Yes. 431 00:23:27,630 --> 00:23:32,110 I'll be brief firstly about going deeper, just a quick story 432 00:23:32,110 --> 00:23:34,110 from last week. I took my kids swimming last 433 00:23:34,110 --> 00:23:38,320 weekend and they can't swim but they're head cases so they run 434 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:40,560 into the deep end and they threw themselves in. 435 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:42,720 Sophie didn't know this yet but I'll tell her later. 436 00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:46,800 So I had to, I had to fish them back out and then take them back 437 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,880 to the shallow end. And then I realised I've been 438 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:53,920 spending the last 4-5 years enjoying the paddling pool but 439 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:55,440 too scared to actually go in the deep end. 440 00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:57,640 But actually it was quite easy just following my kids because 441 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:01,560 they're all in for the deep end. So I'm really excited for this 442 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:05,480 year doing it. Probably about nine years ago, 443 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:09,400 Sophie and I moved to Hong Kong and we thought that was us going 444 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,320 into the deep end. It was deep. 445 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:17,040 Like I got there, we're living with some like drug addicts or 446 00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:21,680 murderers or whatever it be. And we also can't speak the 447 00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:23,720 language and we're being mocked for it. 448 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:28,560 And so I felt like so out of my depth, It was about after week 449 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:32,760 one, I was like, can we go home? And then every day after that, 450 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:36,080 it was, can we go home? And then like 2 weeks in, they 451 00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,360 said, oh, we forgot to tell you. In four weeks, you're actually 452 00:24:39,360 --> 00:24:41,280 not staying in Hong Kong. You're going to the Philippines 453 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:44,480 for two weeks or two months and you'll be living in a slum. 454 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:47,800 And we're up. But we're already, we're already 455 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:49,880 doing the deep bit like what are you talking about? 456 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,800 And in that Jackie Pullinger style, she said, you're not 457 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,720 doing anything here. You're not helping anyone yet. 458 00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,880 You need to actually understand what it is to really see the 459 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:05,280 poor. And so I was just even angrier 460 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:07,400 and desperate to come home because that's so offensive. 461 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,760 But we got on this flight, which actually felt really nice to be 462 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,440 getting out of Hong Kong because it's like living in central 463 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:18,080 London, but times 10. So we're on a flight and then we 464 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,560 land at the Philippines and I'm picturing beaches, lovely 465 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,960 weather. The weather was actually, no, 466 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,600 it's oppressively hot. But then we went over a bridge 467 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:31,880 and immediately could just see like slums. 468 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,800 I'd never seen anything like this. 469 00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,680 They drove us into the centre of a slum and said at you get get 470 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,680 your bags out. We had forgotten you guys were 471 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:43,280 coming. So we haven't got accommodation 472 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,800 view yet but we'll see what we can do in the next couple of 473 00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:49,280 hours. So I was immediately like I just 474 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:52,120 want to go home like and then it's the first time in my life I 475 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,400 went to the toilet, said so if I need the lid I just cried. 476 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:56,400 I was like I just want to go home. 477 00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:02,360 And we did this for like 3 weeks, just cried, just wanted 478 00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:05,840 to come home because everything was so intense. 479 00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:07,080 Michael, can you put the picture up? 480 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:16,800 It's very small, but basically we'd gone into a slum area where 481 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:20,880 the group that they were really going after was families that 482 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:26,120 lived in tombs. So these guys had no houses. 483 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:31,840 So that's a baby hanging up in their cot in a graveyard. 484 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:38,320 And the families would, like, tunnel under the tombs to live, 485 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:40,840 to live in them. That was like, that was it. 486 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:46,320 That was all they had. And yeah, we had to look at this 487 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,880 for three weeks in a row. We'd go and meet these people 488 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:51,920 and all I wanted to do was come home. 489 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,680 I was absolutely terrified and still offended that being told 490 00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,080 that you don't know what poor is until you really see it. 491 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,000 But I think what the the excitement for us was like going 492 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:09,440 deep was, yeah, for three weeks we just kind of pleaded with 493 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,720 each other, can we go home? But then the following five 494 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,080 weeks, it was like, I can't believe we're going to have to 495 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,560 go home. And when we actually left, we 496 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,000 got in the back of the car to go to the airport and we wept for 497 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:24,240 the opposite reason. If I don't want to leave these 498 00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,880 people, I don't want to go home. I don't want to go to Hong Kong. 499 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:29,760 I don't want to do anything. We just want to stay here. 500 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:35,400 And it was because of the people, like, they had a really 501 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,160 simple way of explaining it of like, when you go into the deep 502 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,520 water, everything is overwhelming. 503 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,760 But it's not when you just go after the one, like just go 504 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:50,000 after the one person, the one thing you go into this community 505 00:27:50,360 --> 00:27:53,120 with your eyes open. There's 100 people sleeping in 506 00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:56,080 tombs. Like the baby caught my eye. 507 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:59,160 So it was like, right, we're going to go and see how we can 508 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,880 help the parents or do they need us to hold the baby so they get 509 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,320 food or do they have any food? And then when you live that 510 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:10,080 really simple life with Jesus, it was actually really easy to 511 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:12,960 do because it didn't feel overwhelming. 512 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:17,120 It didn't actually feel deep. And I think I've realised that 513 00:28:17,120 --> 00:28:21,240 we just over complicate deep. But actually it was really 514 00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,080 simple. Like we got to meet the people 515 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,200 we, we were working with, the people that lived in the slums, 516 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:32,960 like they had nothing. And I, I mean nothing, but these 517 00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:34,920 were like the nicest people we've ever met. 518 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,040 And like, yes, we sing happy birthday here. 519 00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:42,160 They, they celebrate birthdays like on their own steroids. 520 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,600 It's like crazy. The whole party goes out, but 521 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:47,760 they give away everything. So like, the best birthday party 522 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,160 ever, ever had was in the Philippines, where they do like 523 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:54,080 karaoke in a slum and they buy a chicken and cook it for you. 524 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:56,600 They can't afford a chicken for like their whole year's salary, 525 00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:01,320 but they give everything away. And that felt doable because we 526 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:07,640 were just going after the 1. And I think Sophie and I have 527 00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,160 been talking and it sounds offensive, but we're really 528 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,560 hungry to go deep again. It's hard when you've got kids. 529 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,240 It's hard when life and work is stressful and everything is 530 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,960 stressful and it's impossible to do it on your own. 531 00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:23,200 But it's super exciting that as a church, we can do it this year 532 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:27,000 and in really simple ways of just going after the one. 533 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,280 And it also doesn't have to be you that goes after the one. 534 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,800 You can just have the eyes and someone else can have the heart. 535 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,720 So that we used to go into these areas and be like, I don't know 536 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,680 why that's caught my eye or if it was me, it was like, that's 537 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,240 caught my eye. But actually I can't deal with 538 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:43,680 that because that's a group of 10 women. 539 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,080 Has someone got a heart for it or there's a baby? 540 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:49,920 Could someone go to it? So just it doesn't have to be 541 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,160 you're the doer. We don't have to do anything 542 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:54,120 extreme. We don't have to be taking our 543 00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:57,840 whole families into the prison. But you can just have the eye 544 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:00,680 and then share that. And then someone else will be 545 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,080 the one that gets stirred up and excited and then gets to go and 546 00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:14,090 do it. Thanks, Andy. 547 00:30:14,090 --> 00:30:17,650 Just have to say a little bit more about about being out of 548 00:30:17,650 --> 00:30:21,650 our depth before I then mention some ways that we can engage 549 00:30:21,650 --> 00:30:24,040 with this practically and then we'll finish by praying. 550 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:31,080 So that I said at the beginning, I wonder if it's good design for 551 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:33,400 us to be out of our depth. And I just want to expand on 552 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,840 that a little bit. And so last week Charlie did a 553 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,640 brilliant talk here about the Beatitudes, which I've never 554 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:42,080 really, to be honest, I've never really understood. 555 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:44,280 I've always found them a bit annoying because I didn't really 556 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,680 sort of get them. And for me last week, he made 557 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:49,080 them more clear than I've ever seen them. 558 00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:55,520 And he was essentially saying we are sort of raised and live in a 559 00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:58,080 way to kind of avoid pain and avoid suffering and avoid 560 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:01,840 discomfort. And, you know, the Beatitudes 561 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,880 say things like blessed are blessed are blessed are those 562 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,960 who mourn, blessed are those who are persecuted. 563 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:12,160 And it's sounds slightly strange, but but but the point 564 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:15,960 that Charlie was making was that actually it's right that we feel 565 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,680 sad in the face of death and suffering. 566 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:23,080 It's inhuman for us not to it's, it's, it's, it's wrong, it's 567 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:24,560 denial. It's, it's, it's, it's 568 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,360 avoidance. And, and he was talking about 569 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:33,080 actually to be human, to be alive, to be real is, is to 570 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,000 recognise brokenness and suffering and, and to, and to 571 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,760 feel the, the pain of it. And, and yet we spend so much of 572 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,680 our time trying to get into a place of comfort, trying to get 573 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,000 into, trying to get out of difficulty, trying to get into a 574 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,040 place of self-sufficiency. You see that right at the 575 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,240 beginning in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, you know, in that 576 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,040 story, which was written to show the human condition and they had 577 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:56,640 everything, you know, that they were right next to God, but yet 578 00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,640 there was something in them that just wanted to be able to, 579 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:02,120 wanted to better sort of look after themselves without really 580 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,440 needing God. And I think that's the, that's 581 00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:07,400 the story that you see, that's the, the, the pattern that you 582 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:09,880 see throughout humanity, throughout the Bible and 583 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:12,280 throughout our lives and throughout, we just want to be 584 00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:14,640 able to be, if I just have enough money or just enough 585 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,560 comfort or just, if this just changes, then I'll be OK. 586 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,800 And it's, and you can see that again through the Bible, the 587 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:26,000 leading of God is taking people out of their comfort zones into 588 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,400 places of needing. We always need God, but we don't 589 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:31,840 always realise we do. And the problem is that we 590 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:35,960 forget that we need God and we sort of make life work in 591 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,480 whatever sort of way, in a way that we can get by without 592 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:40,800 really needing to connect with God. 593 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:43,360 And, and so Abraham leaves his family. 594 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,560 He leaves his home for a, for a different place. 595 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,280 You know, Moses has to take his people out of out of Egypt into 596 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,600 a different place. The disciples are called out of 597 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,360 their little village life, their comfortable village life in the 598 00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:56,760 top left of Galilee. And they have, and they go into, 599 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,240 and then they go around the world. 600 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:01,720 Jesus sends the, the disciples and us as the church around the 601 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:03,080 world. That's that's our that's Our 602 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,680 Calling is to is to go to the edge, go to the most broken and, 603 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:09,680 and and lovely hearing from Andy's story, wasn't it that the 604 00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:15,280 that the the when when out of one's depth and when in that in 605 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:18,240 that space, it actually I just I just need God here. 606 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,120 We find that actually, actually, I can swim. 607 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:24,960 You know, it's OK that my feet don't touch the bottom of the 608 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,400 ground. Actually, I'm I'm not going to 609 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:29,280 it's not all I'm not suddenly going to get washed away. 610 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,320 It's safe. It's like in the, in the Narnia 611 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,800 stories where Aslan is described, he's not a safe line. 612 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,720 He's not a tame lion, but he's good and he's kind. 613 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:45,440 And, and I think that all speaks into this, this, this thing of 614 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,200 being out of our depth in, in a right way, being out of our 615 00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,480 comfort zone, which actually is how we're, we're designed to be. 616 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,640 We're designed to need God. We're designed to live in, in, 617 00:33:54,640 --> 00:34:00,120 in, in relationship with God. So just a few things that we 618 00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:04,480 could a few ways that we can connect with this as a church 619 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,280 and as individuals. And I know that people are 620 00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,040 already, so I'm not saying we're not doing any of this. 621 00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:12,000 If you're, you know, in that zone already be encouraged for 622 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,600 what you're doing. But we're looking at starting a 623 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,040 prison Sunday once a month. So we work closely as a church 624 00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,639 with God's house and Pastor Ossian goes into HMP Bristol, 625 00:34:21,639 --> 00:34:26,679 the the prison behind Lost a Road in Hawfield. 626 00:34:26,679 --> 00:34:30,880 He goes in there every day actually and runs services most 627 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,040 Sundays. And we've been talking with him 628 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:36,960 about us going in as a church once a month and running a 629 00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:42,199 service in Bristol prison. And he's really excited about 630 00:34:42,199 --> 00:34:44,520 that. And it's, it's a yes, I've got 631 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:47,600 my security clearance. So we can go in as like teams of 632 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:50,560 of, I don't know, maybe it's like 6 or 6 or 8. 633 00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:54,480 Typical format is, is they have a, a short one hour service, 10 634 00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,120 to 11. Austin's seen over the last 635 00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:00,360 couple of years, numbers go up from 8 or 9 people coming to 636 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,480 these services to now more like 4045. 637 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,360 They love it. They, they, they love to sing, 638 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:08,960 They love to hear story, a message about Jesus. 639 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:11,520 And then there's an opportunity to pray with people afterwards. 640 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:16,240 So would you like to come? Let's form a team. 641 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,440 You know, we, we, we considered a church, we'd considered like 642 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:22,680 an evening service and we've been scouting around that idea. 643 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,680 And one of the conclusions on that was actually let's, let's, 644 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:28,400 let's, let's plant a service in the prison. 645 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:29,960 Let's, let's do that. That would be a healthy thing 646 00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:32,520 for us in line with Our Calling. It's going into deeper water. 647 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:34,640 So speak to me if you're interested. 648 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:41,920 Another opportunity is prophetic ministry to students, Bristol 649 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,560 students. So I mentioned Liz earlier and 650 00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:46,640 like Sam's here, isn't it? I saw Sam Whitlock somewhere, 651 00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:49,240 there he is. He, Sam's involved with this 652 00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:52,080 ministry to students, prophetic ministry to students in the 653 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,160 universities. And again, that's an opportunity 654 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,880 to be out of your depth in terms of needing God to speak. 655 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:01,480 And Sam can tell stories about that. 656 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:02,880 But that's another opportunity for us. 657 00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:07,280 Liz is keen that we grow in that area as well. 658 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:12,200 And that's, that's another one, as I said already, perhaps 659 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,720 you're already like in perhaps you're already in deep water 660 00:36:15,720 --> 00:36:17,040 looking at Rose. I think it's some of the 661 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:22,160 situations that Rose is in and, and, or in your personal life or 662 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,120 in other hope boats, in which case, you know, be encouraged. 663 00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:28,200 This is the heart of what you're doing is the heart of Jesus. 664 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:32,760 And then the 4th, my 4th suggestion was was prayer 665 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:35,160 support as well. So once a month on the Tuesday, 666 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:37,760 the first Tuesday of each month we have is our sort of prayer 667 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,840 focus day. I, I, I, I join in with a slot 668 00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:43,160 that Simon and Becca host, which is praying for young people. 669 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:46,920 And we do that from like 6:45 to 7:30 in the morning. 670 00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,400 And I think having some other prayer slots that particularly 671 00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:54,440 accompany our our boats and our ministries, I think would be a 672 00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:56,200 really useful and important feature. 673 00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:59,360 So if we're going into the prison once a month, let's have 674 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:02,480 a corresponding prayer session for half an hour, 45 minutes 675 00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:03,640 before that. We're praying for that. 676 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:05,520 And I was thinking that Christie's not here today. 677 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:08,080 He's been unwell. But Celebrate Recovery is a 678 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,280 brilliant boat within hope, brilliant ministry within hope. 679 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:13,720 And I was saying to Christie, it'd be great if we could form a 680 00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,720 form, a press not within our Tuesdays where we pray for 681 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:18,640 Celebrate Recovery. You know, names of people are 682 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,240 confidential, but we can still pray for certain situations and 683 00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:23,560 we can pray for that. So if you'd like to be part of 684 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,440 maybe like 1/2 an hour or 45 minutes prayer for Celebrate 685 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:28,920 Recovery each week, each each month. 686 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,840 Then again, maybe it's not best. Maybe don't, don't come and talk 687 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,880 to me about all these things because I'll forget, write it 688 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:39,680 down on a bit of paper or e-mail the office or or whatever like 689 00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:41,000 that. You know, I'll let you take the 690 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,840 initiative and the best way to, to make it happen, but do but do 691 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,120 make it happen. And there'll be a myriad of 692 00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:49,520 probably other things as well. So my main takeaway I think for 693 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:55,800 today is I think that we're called as humans actually, not 694 00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,240 just Christians, it's humanity. I think we're designed to be out 695 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:00,520 of our depth. I think we're designed to be in 696 00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,000 a place where we need God and we rely upon God. 697 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:07,080 That's actually that's actually solid ground to be tackling on. 698 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:09,080 Ironically, that's the that's the safest place. 699 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:13,920 And there is this cool we see in in the in the Bible and upon us 700 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:17,480 as a hope, as hope to go to the edge, to go to the go to the 701 00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:21,200 vulnerable, go to the broken, moving away from the comfort and 702 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:24,600 safety of our of our right community. 703 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,080 That is important for us not, not not diminishing or 704 00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:30,520 dismissing that at all. We need this safe and secure 705 00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,880 home base but from which we we move out. 706 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,480 Yeah the full were prison Sunday university students prophetic 707 00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:45,200 prayer the boat or life that you're in already your work or 708 00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:47,760 personal life. And then the 4th 1 was prayer 709 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:52,640 support prayer. Mike is going to lead us in a 710 00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:59,440 song with a nice watery theme. We sung this, we this is this 711 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:01,960 song, Oceans is the song. And then Alice is going to lead 712 00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,400 us in some praying before we finish at 12:10. 713 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:10,320 I remember we went for a really difficult time maybe about 15 714 00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:13,760 years ago and I just sat in this song for months. 715 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:15,920 It really spoke to me because it's the, it's the kind of you 716 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:19,400 call me out upon the waters. It's that call to. 717 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:24,080 He uses the metaphor of Jesus inviting Peter out of out to the 718 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:26,680 boat to walk on the water. And it's a slightly different 719 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,680 watery situation to the to this one, but you get the concepts 720 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,440 the same. It's about it's about needing 721 00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:35,760 God. So Mike is in leads. 722 00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:39,680 If you'd like to stand or if you'd like to sit, use this 723 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:43,040 opportunity to respond to what God's been stirring in you as 724 00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:45,600 we've been in the scriptures, as I've been speaking, as Andy's 725 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,840 been speaking to us. And then Alice will close us in 726 00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:49,160 prayer.