Wow, what a video, eh? And just want to say thank you
to the the team at Trent Vineyard who made that and
shared it with us. I first saw that video six years
ago at the Vineyard Leaders gathering in 2019.
Guys, can I tell you what's happened since 2019?
OK February 2023, a tiny university campus in Asbury in
Kentucky. There's a worship service led by
Gen. Z students.
And within two weeks, a small town with a population of about
6000 people has hosted a revival in which 70,000 visitors have
come to be part of it. It's reach on social media hits
63 million views. Before the two weeks were out
and, and, and, and we saw that shift and that move of God
across the world. And there were whispers and
stories. And then earlier this year we
saw the publication of The Quiet Revival, a study looking at
church growth in the last six years.
And what it showed was that the tide is turning and a declining
church is now starting to grow once again in our time and in
our day and, and, and particularly amongst young men
where there's been a 5 fold increase in church attendance.
Another study revealed openness like never before in our
lifetime. Do you know the study showed
that three out of four uni age students would come to church if
only they were invited. Can I tell you what we're
seeing? We are seeing a cloud.
Amen. We are seeing a cloud.
God is moving and now is the time.
You know, I played that video at Versa Hemel in our last service
before summer. And little did I know that in in
pre service prayer, as our as our team meet before the service
to pray, the wonderful Steve Borland legend had a he had a
picture that he didn't quite understand.
So this is before the service. He sees a picture of a blue sky
and then all of a sudden it's filled with clouds.
He had no idea what it meant. And then he saw this video.
Let let me tell you this right? We're in a season of change and
God is being very clear. I believe it's time to get ready
for rain. Yeah.
And yeah. Amen.
And and Speaking of Speaking of
change, can I just honour Mark and Steph and family?
What a wonderful couple they are.
That's just wonderful in so many ways.
And Mark, I must say, I, I often joke just because we're going to
miss you so much, you know, and, and I, and I want to say, you
know, we shouldn't take for granted the quality of preaching
that, that, that we've been privileged to receive.
I've actually learned a lot from Mark.
You may hear some Mark phrases in my talk today.
I hope you all brought your bingo cards.
So what I really want to do for the next hour and a half?
Lock the doors. What I what I want to do is get
us ready for rain. So I hope you've all brought
your umbrellas or or at least your Bibles.
And if you have your Bible, can I invite you to turn to John
chapter 21. We're going to be in verse 19.
Sorry, 15 to 19, but but while you're turning there, let me
just give you the, the, the previously, previously on the
Bible. So it's the Last Supper and
Jesus has told his disciples, I'm going to be betrayed.
I'm going to be crucified and you're all going to fall away.
You're going to be scattered like sheep.
And good old Peter, we love Peter.
He pipes up and says, though they all fall away because of
you, I, I will never fall away. And Jesus is like, yeah, no, you
will. You're actually going to deny me
three times before morning. Peter's like never.
I'll die for you. Anyway, next scene, Peter denies
Jesus three times and then the rooster crows.
And so he flees in tears. Jesus is crucified.
And I hope you all know, by the way, Jesus didn't stay dead, but
he rose from the dead. He's alive today, Hallelujah.
And he appeared to the disciples.
He appears to them again. And then here we see this
beautiful conversation that he has with Peter.
So John chapter 21 from verse 15, it says when they'd finished
breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you
love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you
know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs.
He said to him a second time, Simon son of John, do you love
me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you
know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep.
He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love
me? Peter was grieved because he
said to him a third time, Do you love me?
And he said to him, Lord, you know everything, and you know
that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my
sheep. Truly, truly.
I say to you, when you were young you used to dress yourself
and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old you will
stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry
you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what
kind of death he was to glorify God.
And after saying this he said to him, follow me.
This is a beautiful moment. You know, Peter denied Jesus
three times. And here Jesus gives Peter the
opportunity to, to, to affirm and declare his love for Jesus
three times. And within this passage, I
believe there are three invitations that Jesus offers to
Peter, and I believe he's offering to us today in
readiness for the coming Rain Church.
I believe now is the time to draw near to the Lord, to go
deeper with him and be a devoted people.
Now is the time to draw near to each other, to press in and
press on together as family. And now is the time to step out
in faith to really chase after the Lord with everything we
have. So that's our map for today.
So let's start draw near to the Lords.
That's the first invitation. You know, Jesus asks Peter, do
you love me? Jesus isn't needy or insecure,
by the way. That's not what he's asking.
It's an invitation. OK, All right.
I remember when, way back when T and I were teenagers and we were
texting. We were on the chirps, all
right? That's what we were.
That's what we were doing. And then and then on the chip,
we were, we were, we were in that stage.
You guys know what I'm talking about.
You guys know. You guys know.
And then we had and then the time came for us to have that
conversation. You know, the one that's like,
oh, I like you. Do you?
Do you like me? And by the way, there's some of
you today. You're here with a friend.
This is your cue. All right, after the service,
after that, you're welcome. But there's this excitement,
isn't there? Like maybe she does like me, You
know, like I, I really want her to like me because.
Because then we can have a relationship.
Oh, you know, it's, it's like, you know, when you're in the
playground, you can't really do this as an adult or it's not as
effective. You know, when you're in the
playground, you go, you go up to somebody, you say, hey, will you
be my friend? You can't be my best friend
because Richard's my best friend.
But you know, but you want them to say yes, right.
You want a friendship, You want a relationship.
And Jesus wants a relationship with Peter.
Do you know Jesus wants a relationship with you?
You know, he's inviting you to go deeper with him.
And look, look, in this moment, peace is carrying shame.
You know, he let Jesus down. Shame can so often be a barrier
to relationship. And do you notice Jesus says, do
you love me more than these? You know, Remember, Remember,
you know, peace and shame isn't just that he denied Jesus, but
it's that he broke a promise. He said those though, they all
fall away. I will never like, you know, the
disciples, the other disciples, they don't love you as much as I
do. I love you more than they do.
And hey, look, that's that in itself is not a bad thing to
say, right? That's a, you know, I love you.
Great. Here's the thing.
You know, you can say all the right things.
You can turn up to church week in, week out wearing this mask
so that everyone thinks you're brilliant.
Jesus sees through it. You know, he's not after your
words, He's after your heart. I love how Alexander McLaren,
who's the Scottish Baptist minister, puts this.
He says Jesus Christ asks each one of us, not for obedience,
primarily not for repentance, not for vows, not for conduct,
but for a heart and that being given, the rest will follow.
You know, Jesus doesn't say, hey, will you feed my lambs,
Peter? Oh, great.
Well then love me, you know, the prerequisite or it starts with
the prerequisite is do you love me?
You know it starts with the hearts, the rest follow.
Hey, who remembers this? You know, before we're called to
something, we're called to some and the call to do comes after
the call to yes. There you go.
Take that off you bingo card as well.
Look, our first and primary call is to be close to Jesus.
But we see just before Peter denies Jesus, we can find it in
Luke 22 and in verse 54 it says Peter was following at a
distance. Can I ask, are you following at
a distance this morning? You know, I get it looks
sometimes life is really tough. We can experience
disappointment, but our proximity to Jesus matters.
And Mark challenged us last week.
One of the things that hit me hard was he said, you know, when
did I stop praying? You know, like, like, like the
the being in his presence prayers, they're just sitting
with him. Maybe that's the question you
need to hear again. It woke me up when I heard it.
You know, we can get so busy and we can turn God into a cosmic
vending machine. Love it.
Thank you pastor. I think everyone who's preaching
our summer series has touched on something specific that can that
can so easily cause distance between US and Jesus.
So re watch all of them. But the one I want to talk about
that we see in Peter here is fear of man.
You know what happens if people find out I follow Jesus?
You know, here's the thing, when you truly, truly love someone,
it trounces fear of man. OK, I'm going to give you a
light hearted example, OK? My wife is beautiful.
She's very sparkly. One of the things she loves to
do is put glitter on her face. I'm a very manly man.
I like steak, football and Jason Statham movies.
All right, The thoughts of glitter on my face is
horrifying, let alone any of the lads seeing glitter on my face.
And yeah, at our wedding with all the everyone, even work
colleagues gathered around knowing how much it would light
up her little face. Guys, I did it.
I did it. And I know what you're all
thinking. Oh, let's see a photo.
There are none. I've deleted all the photos.
There are none that great. Thank you, honey. 1 John 418
says perfect love casts out fear.
Look, when we truly love someone, it trounces fear.
Are there any areas in your life where you live in fear of man,
where you're terrified of talking to that person about
Jesus? I encourage you.
It's not about working hard to overcome fear, but it's about
deepening your relationship with Jesus.
You know Jesus knew Peter would deny him and he still chose
relationship with Him. You know, I think sometimes we
disqualify ourselves from being near Him because of our greatest
failures. But you know your your place in
his presence was never something you earned, never something you
qualified for. It was Jesus purchasing you on
the cross, paying the price for your sin, and giving you a
position of righteousness. He has done it all for you and
he wants a relationship with you.
He's inviting you to go deeper. Now is the time to draw near to
Jesus. Do you love me?
He says, Then tend my sheep. You know, we are his sheep.
And Jesus is telling Peter and I believe, telling us that, you
know, we need to tend to one another.
So now is the time to draw near to Jesus, but now is also the
time to draw near to each other. Hebrews 10/24 to 25 says and let
us consider how to stir one another up for to love and good
works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of
sun, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the days
you're in there. OK, this is a bit wrong, a
little bit controversial. So that you see about some, you
know, in recent years, there have been some wonderful,
wonderful books that have come out all about like our rhythms
of life and, and essentially how to like declutter, avoid
burnout, all that kind of great stuff.
And they're wonderful, wonderful books.
But here's what I think we've done with them at times.
All right, I think we've gone, oh man, my life is so cluttered
and busy. I need to make more room for me.
And so we we say, no, it's the stuff that maybe we perhaps said
yesterday before and hey, look, that's healthy most of the time.
But I think we've missed the point.
I think the point is, well, I think, and I think what those
books are saying is, hey, my life is so busy and cluttered.
I need to make more room for Jesus in my life.
Yeah. Is that OK?
You know, because I look at I look at this verse and I see,
look, I see the day drawing near and that the rights of Hebrews
doesn't say, you know, meet together if your diary's free as
long as it's not inconvenient as you see the day drawing near.
No, he says all the more as you see the day drawing near.
OK, I'm going, I'm going in now you ready?
Can I be honest? Sometimes I think it's a
question of priority. You know, we T and I have used
this phrase in Hemel. We say keep Sunday sacred.
And by the way, what I mean by that is, you know, set aside
this time like Sunday mornings to meet with other believers, to
meet with with family. You know, if you're scheduling
in life stuff, do it around Sunday mornings.
Like, like don't treat this as a calendar entry that can be
skipped or moved, you know, and, and by the way, let me just be
clear. I'm not saying we can't go on
holidays. We love holidays.
I'm not saying that. I'm not saying we can't on
occasion miss out, right? Let's not get in the cage of
religion with this. But what I am saying, you know,
is, is let's place a high priority on being together.
You know why? Because even in a place as big
as this, it matters if you're here or not.
Why? Why does it matter?
Well, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, you know, to stir each
other up and encourage one another, you know, you need to
be stirred up and encouraged and I need you to do the same to me.
You know, we are so privileged across all our sites, right?
We have a space at the end of the service where you can have,
you have the opportunity for a loving brother or sister to
stand with you, lay hand and pray.
Pete Hughes, lead pastor at KFC, he says this.
He says at least at least once a month.
You should be receiving prayer on a Sunday morning at least
once a month. You know, and another Mark
praise. He often says, you know, at the
end of the service, we'll share our words and knowledge and
he'll say it's not a lottery. If your number's not been
called, you can still receive prayer.
He's not just saying that to be funny, although he is a very
funny man. But he's saying that because we
need prayer, right? Like we need prayer.
Pete Hughes. So, so once a month, receiving
prayer on a Sunday morning. Pete Hughes also says at least
once a week, at least once a week, you should have another
brother or sister in Christ lay a hand on you and pray that
prayer come Holy Spirit at least once a week.
And now that could be at the bus stop.
That could be at work or at home.
It could be in a Verso group. And hey, can I just say like, if
you're not in a Verso group, do it.
Find a group. There are so many in different
places in and they run in different ways on different
times and different days. That rhymes.
That's cool. It's so important.
Groups of stone balls. It's where we do life together.
You know, Why am I? Why am I banging on about all of
this? Look, Jesus instructs pizza to
tend to his sheep. And I believe that now is the
time to draw near to each other, to press in and press on
together as one body. Like we need to be actively
holding one another up, encouraging one another even
more as we see the day approaching.
And who sees the day approaching?
Yeah. OK, finally, now is the time to
step out in faith. Jesus asked Peter, do you love
me a third time? And Peter says, do you know I
love you? And now Jesus changes his
response slightly. And ultimately he says, follow
me. Yeah.
And to follow Jesus means to live a life in which we
regularly step out in faith. And how do we spell faith in the
vineyard? Anyone know RISK RASK is how we
spell faith in the vineyard. Look, I love the summer series
because, you know, all these speakers come up and we are free
range to speak about whatever and genuinely we do.
But have you noticed God always weaves like a single thread
through all the all the preachers and I think this year
is this. It's an invitation to lay down
comfort, you know, so he talks about getting comfortable with
being uncomfortable. And Jenna said this is
brilliant. Jenna said this in the first
week of summer when we seek after comfort as a priority,
we're going to seek that first, even above saying yes to God.
And that means we end up pursuing control over surrender.
It says, God, I'll follow you as long as it doesn't cost me too
much. Comfort can easily become an
idol. We should just watch Jenna's
preach again, shouldn't we? You know and.
In Luke 22, back to that passage where he's about to deny Jesus,
he's following at a distance. And then in verse 55, it says,
and when they kindled a fire in the middle of the court and sat
down together, Peter sat among them.
And in this moment, he chooses not only the the to be following
at a distance, but now he he moves towards comfort.
He chooses comfort over Jesus and you know, and then, you
know, in our in our John passage, we flip forward and
Jesus is is talking to him. And now he says, when you're
old, you will stretch out your hands.
Another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.
In other words, you're going to be crucified for me one day.
And that's about as far from comfort as it gets, right.
But I know which version of Peter I would rather be, you
know, there's a there's a cool and invitation for us to
surrender our comfort in this new season and brace the cool of
God in our lives and offer a reinvigorated yes to the Lord
again and again as we move into this new season.
So what might that look like? I'm going to be really
predictable now because I am a Hemel site pastor, right?
I'm going to talk about Hemel. Hey, look, we're moving into a
new venue on the 21st of September.
Hallelujah. You know, and, and there's three
reasons. I'm going to tell you why I'm
particularly excited, OK? Reason #1 the space is bigger.
Come on, there's more chairs. OK.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, and I, I, I don't think
it's an accident. I think the Lord is readying us
for a season of growth. Secondly, the building we're
we're in is right next to the football pitch.
And that football pitch on a Sunday morning is full of kids
and their parents. And I believe God is asking us
to love and engage with them, right?
So we're going to invite them in for coffee.
We're going to chat to them. We're going to pray with them.
All right? We're going to, we're going to
make them. We're, they're not going to,
they're not going to be able to run away from us.
We're going to make them know that they are welcome, wanted
and loved and that there is a, there is a heavenly Father who
wants their hearts. OK, reason #3 where I'm really
excited. Reason #3 there's two monthly
activities we're going to start investing in every month.
OK, activity number one, right? We've been captivated by our
missions framework. And, and thank you, Claire, for,
for, for leading us through that.
And, and so we're going to do on the second Sunday of the month,
we're going to do after the service what we're calling Love
Your Street Sunday in which we're going to go into town,
right? And we're going to, it might be,
we do a prayer walk. It might be that we're in town.
We're praying for people. You know, it could be it, you
know what, whatever that looks, it could be a little pick,
right? Whatever that looks like, we're
going to do local mission at least once a month, OK.
And then on 4th Sundays, we're going to do a bring and share
lunch. All right, we're going to eat
together. We're going to have relational
time together. We're going to draw near to each
other. I'm excited.
And look, I could our, our our team could just stay at home on
a Sunday morning, put their feet up, you know, do literally
anything else. But they choose faithfulness
over comfort week in, week out. So I just want to say to Allah,
and there's some in the room. So I just want to say to Allah,
Hemel team, we so appreciate you guys.
You know, thank you so, so much. Yeah, yeah.
And, and I know it's not just guys in Hemel.
Like there are so many in this room that serve faithfully and
sacrificially. And you are so, so appreciated.
And here's the most predictable twist.
OK, you're invited too. All right, You know, T and I
have run the numbers and look, if we're going to extend our
reach, we need, we need to grow. We need, we need more help.
And listen, I'm so excited by what God is going to do in this
chapter. Whether you live in Hemel or
not, you are invited to join us. So there's some specific areas
and, and, and you'll see refreshments, right?
Like just just making coffees and chatting to people is the is
the area of need. But here's the ask, right?
Could you spare 2 hours a month, like 2 hours a month?
That equates so, so the 720 hours in a month and we're
asking for two and two hours a month equates to 24 hours or one
day in a year. All right?
It's not in that context, it doesn't sound like much, right?
But I believe God will multiply whatever it is you give him.
And, and, and let me just say, right, like I'm talking about
Hemel because I'm Hemel site pastor.
But we have so many places to serve in this church across all
of our sites, you know, and we have places to serve in, in
Verso care or, or, or, you know, or, or, or on Sunday mornings.
And the reason why we have places to serve, Jesus says to
Peter, follow me. And that means engaging with
what the Lord is doing in our time and in our land, you know.
So follow him here on Sundays through the week.
Follow him in your workplace, follow him in your town, in your
in your neighborhood. You know, I've been so inspired
by all the stories from Love Your Street.
Wasn't it amazing just to hear those stories?
Guys, let's be a Church of stories.
Can I say that? Can I say that loud enough?
Let's be a Church of stories. Let's not let those stories dry
up. Like come on, like like, like
just in the week. Don't stop, don't stop.
You know, in hell. Actually, each week before I
preach, which we're trying to get into the habit of sharing a
story from the week not and by the way, we're not celebrating
the outcome necessarily, though the outcome might be worthy of
celebration. But what we're celebrating is a
brother or sister stepping out in faith, taking a risk for
Jesus Church. Now is the time to step out in
faith to really chase after the Lord with everything we have.
All right, let's bring this plane into land.
Guys, we're in a season of change.
This is a significant moment, both for this house, but also
for what God is doing in our lands and in our time.
And don't miss the significance of this moment, guys.
Don't miss the invitation. Now is the time to draw near to
each other and to draw near to the Lord, to go deeper with Him
and be a devoted people. Now is the time to draw near to
each other, to press in and press on together as family.
Now is the time to step out in faith to really chase after the
Lord with everything we have. You know, maybe for you it's
time to take this discipleship thing seriously and make it the
highest priority in your life. You know, in the Book of
Revelation, Jesus tells the Church of Laodicea, you, you're
lukewarm. I'll spit you out of my mouth,
you're lukewarm. And let me just be clear, I'm
not saying we're lukewarm, far from it.
But you know, it's so, so easy for that fire to grow cold if
we're not intentional about stocking it.
And look, maybe you feel you're so far from this.
I don't want you to feel, you know, this isn't about shame or
guilt. You know, that's just a barrier.
Because in the same passage in Revelation 320, Jesus says,
behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will
come into him and eat with him and he with me.
Guys, Jesus wants your heart. He wants relationship with you.
He wants to do this with you. And if you feel Jesus knocking
on the door of your heart this morning, open it, make a
decision, open it. Don't wait.
Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of redemption.
Jesus wants your heart. Don't miss the moment, don't
miss the invitation. Guys, why don't we stand?