Well, it's a joy to to be here, a joy to be with you.
You all look great this morning. Can I say, even on the balcony,
we give the balcony a cheer. Why don't you give us a cheer?
There you go. And also a massive hello to our
sites in Hemel and Hatfield and also online.
It's a joy to have you with us as well.
Why don't you give us a cheer? Yeah, we can't hear you, but you
know, it's fun, isn't it? Anyway, so before we get going
with the scriptures this morning, I just wanted to make
you aware of an invitation that we want to make to you.
We were just speaking in the leadership team meeting a couple
of weeks ago about Easter and we, we said, oh, wouldn't it be
lovely if we all just went on a journey through the scriptures
together in the run up to Easter?
And so that's what we're going to do as a team.
We, we, we've found a Bible reading plan.
It's a seven day Bible reading plan.
So it'll start not tomorrow, Monday, but Monday after that.
And it'll just work for seven days all the way up to Easter,
just journeying with Jesus up to the cross and then the
resurrection. And, and we just thought,
wouldn't that be a sweet thing to do Now just to say if you've
already got a Bible reading plan and you're like, Oh my goodness,
that would make me, I'm seven days behind on that Bible
reading plan. And oh, it's like it's totally
fine if you want to just do that.
Like there's all grace, totally great.
Just do whatever you think. Or maybe you could do it as
well. But we would just love to invite
as many of you as would like to to join us.
So the way that you do that is you go onto our website, there's
a little thing that says Easter, click on Easter and then you'll
find it. OK, would you like to do that?
Some of you would. OK, good.
So that's what we're going to do.
Why don't we pray together? And Lord, some people live
according to the news or what it says on the like the BBC website
or in some other magazine, or it's like their their Bible is
something else. But but we're living.
We're living according to the scriptures.
We want to be people who base our lives on your truth.
And so it's just we, as we wrestle with the Scriptures
together as a community, we pray that your spirit would cause
your word to burn within us. Come and set your word on fire
in our hearts by your Spirit, Oh God and all God's people said
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. OK, so we've been going through
a teaching series called Impact, which is looking at the book of
Acts. Hang on, let me just move that.
I'm going to knock that over looking at the book of Acts and
what we've been doing and wow, this is going badly.
Anyway, so we've been working our way through the book of Acts
and every time the Holy Spirit is mentioned, we're kind of
pausing. And what we're trying to do is
try to understand like, what was the Holy Spirit doing with those
people in that place at that time?
And then we're kind of like praying Holy Spirit, please,
would you come and please, would you do exactly the same thing
with these people in our day and and in our place?
And so we've been doing that for a little while.
Taryn was the last person to do that.
She spoke about baptism, right? So, so amazing talk on baptism.
If you haven't heard that, you should definitely go back and
watch it on YouTube or whatever. But in that moment, it's the day
of Pentecost. Peter stands up, he says, repent
and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus, and you
will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, right?
So there's the Holy Spirit and baptism in the same sentence.
And what I want to do this morning is to follow on that
journey. So what happened next almost in
the same passage, what what happened next?
And what we're going to discover is that 3000 people receive
Peter's suggestion as a good idea, and they've submit their
lives to Jesus. And then as a result of doing
that, they're baptized. And then something crazy
happens. And that's what we're going to
look at today. And what happens is that they
become these 3120 people, the most extraordinarily generous
group of people who anyone's ever seen.
Something happens to their wallets when the Holy Spirit
comes into their life. And that's what we're going to
go and we're going to look at today.
And where we're going to do that is by reading our passage, Acts
chapter 2, starting at verse 41. It says this those who accepted
Peter's message were baptised and about 3000 were added to
their number that day. Please God, could we have that
like we would? We, we, we stand ready for that
again, Lord. They that's the 3000 people plus
the 120 who were already there. They devoted themselves to the
apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with ore.
The many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
All the believers were together and had everything in common.
They sold property and possessions to give to anyone
who had need. Every day they continued to meet
together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes
and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and
enjoying the favour of all the people.
And the Lord added to their number daily.
Those who are being saved again, Lord, please.
Every day we would we, in fact we would take every other day.
Lord, we're just anyway, yeah. So I'm not really what you would
describe as being an extremist, right?
What you need to know about me is I studied maths, physics and
chemistry at A level and I liked it.
Right. So, so you know, I own 3
cardigans. My idea of, you know, you know,
if you like you, you really want to treat yourself.
My idea of treat myself is I'll get myself a new pair of socks,
right? That's, that's the kind of
person I am. So in most areas of my life, you
wouldn't consider me to be an extreme person.
But if there's one area of my life where I'd be like, Lord, I
would love to be extreme in that area.
It's in the area of generosity. It's in the area of what I do
with my money. And there are really two reasons
for that. The first one is because I've
never, whenever I've met a person who is outrageously and
extremely generous, I think to myself, and perhaps you'd think
the same, I wish I was like that.
You know, I, I'd love to be like that when I grow up.
It's true, isn't it? You meet someone and, and
they're just so generous. It's like they would give you
the coat off off their back. They're oh, your car's broken
down here. Use mine.
Oh, you've got nowhere to stay tonight.
Please. Will you come and stay at my
house? You know, the kind of people who
when you go out to lunch, you're like wrestling over the bill and
they're like, no, I'm paying for that bill.
And you think to yourself, at least I think to myself, I want
to be more like that. I want to be like that.
It's so attractive. It's so inspiring.
And then other people you meet are just mean.
You know, they're the kind of people you go out to lunch with
them and they're like, they're sitting there with the bill and
a calculator and they're saying one of you had an extra poppadom
and it wasn't me. I'm not paying for your extra
poppadom. And you think I don't want to be
like that. And so I want to be radically
and outrageously generous because it's who I want to
become. But that's not actually the main
reason. The main reason is because
throughout the New Testament, when people have had a
significant encounter with God, right with when they've met
Jesus or they, they've experienced the power and the
presence of the Holy Spirit, something happens with regards
to their attitude in their heart towards their finances, their
resources, the things that they own.
I'm thinking about, for example, Zacchaeus, right?
Zacchaeus is, is, is someone who has lived his whole life to
accumulate more money and, and his job is the extraction of
money by any means possible, right?
He's a tax collector. And so he's often seeing people
and trying to figure out what is the way that I can extract the
most money out of you. And then he meets Jesus and
immediately he gives half of his possessions away.
The such was the encounter that he had with Jesus, something
changed in his own his own heart.
He's like, Oh my goodness, there are so many people who I have
wronged, so many people who I've taken money from under false
pretences. I'm going to pay back so much
of, in fact, four times the amount he took from people.
Do you see? You meet Jesus and everything
changes with regards to your possessions or this moment that
we just read in Acts chapter 23000, New believers, they don't
know anything about anything, but they're just in their very
first days of following Jesus. But immediately they're like,
you need something. I'm going to sell something.
I mean, you know, like there's a need here.
We could meet this together. Let's just see what we could do.
Let's give what we can. And so it just seems to me to be
a remarkable identifying marker of someone who truly follows
Jesus, that something shifts at the core of who they are with
regards to their generosity. And so yes, I want to be radical
in the area of generosity because it is like AI want to be
a grown up like that. But more than that, it's because
I believe it's the mark of a true disciple.
It's it's, it's the mark of someone who knows Jesus.
It's the mark of someone who's truly encountered the mercy and
the kindness and the grace of God.
And so the question that I want to answer this morning is why?
Why does something so dramatic happen?
What, what like, what is their motivation?
What is driving their decision making in this moment?
Why, why do they suddenly decide like these are self respecting
people who've earned this money in, you know, like they've tried
hard, they've earned this money. Why are they suddenly giving in
a way that seems unusual? And so to give you a summary of
what I'm going to spend the next hour and 20 minutes or so just a
little joke explaining, I want to suggest that the answer is
that the Holy Spirit forms them into a family, and they're a
family on a mission. And so that changes their
perspective. There's one Greek word that just
appears over and over again, and that's what I'm going to prove
to you this morning. There's one Greek word.
It appears over and over again whenever this whole subject of
generosity and stewardship appears.
And there it is every single time.
And it's the Greek word Koinonia.
It was originally a secular word and it, and originally in, you
know, the ancient world, in the, in the Greek speaking world,
they used that word to describe a partnership, a business
partnership, right? So if I'm in business
partnership with somebody else, it's a Koinonia.
And you see that actually in in Luke chapter 5, Jesus calls his
first disciples, he gets into the boat belonging to Simon.
They have this enormous catch of fish.
The Nets are beginning to break. And then in Luke chapter 5,
verse 9, it says Peter and all his companions were astonished
at the catch of fish they'd taken.
And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's
partners. And that's the word Koinonia,
right? So, so, so they're in business
partnership. They're both, they're all
invested, Peter, James and John, they're invested in this
enterprise together or fishing and they own a boat and they,
you know, like all the effort that they put into it is all
working together. It's a business partnership.
Taryn and I used to live just down the road from the same Rd.
from one of the guys who started BrewDog, the, the Brewing
Company in, in Scotland. And, and you know these two
guys, Martin and James, they started a little business
together in their mum's garage and they started brewing beer.
And then they bought a little van and they used to take the
beer out to different farmers markets and stuff like that.
And then eventually the business grew a bit more and they got
some proper premises. And so it goes on until finally
this business was valued at £2 billion.
And and so it's like a partnership.
The two of them, they're invested, they're working
really, really hard in the good times.
And then more recently, you may have seen in the news, the not
so good times, the business was recently sold for 33 million or
something like that. But you know, in good times and
bad, these guys are business partners together.
That's the word, that's Koinonia.
But in the New Testament, the word Koinonia means so much more
than that. And what we see is that this
word takes on a whole new meaning that is about family,
It's about mutuality, it's about care and compassion and hope.
It's about being on a an adventure together.
It's about having a shared mission together and all these
kinds of things. It's way it's not a
transactional business word anymore.
It's something way, way more. And so that's how it shows up in
our passage here. Acts 242.
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to
fellowship. And actually it's the word
Koinonia, it's partnership, it's family.
They devoted themselves to family, to the family business,
to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
And it goes on, doesn't it, to talk about how they were
breaking bread together in their homes and they were praying
together and they were reading the scriptures together and they
were sharing their possessions. They were holding things in
common. And when people had a need, they
were like, we're going to try and meet that together.
So it's way more than just business partnership.
This is like a family, a fellowship, people who are
holding things in common. Do you hear like the sweetness
and the tenderness of that word now?
And and it continues in Acts chapter 4, two chapters later,
Acts 432. All the believers were one in
heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their
possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had
that word shared is the Greek word Coinonia, right?
So they partnered together. They they, they, there was a
mutuality, they, they, they, they were on this share together
and there were no needy people among them.
For, for from time to time, those who owned land or houses
sold them. They bought the money from the
sales and they put it at the apostles fee and it was
distributed to anyone as they had need.
You see, they're all in. They've encountered God.
Something shifted. They're like, we're going to
meet these needs together. If someone's got a need, we're
going to we're going to fix it. And like I said, that word's
everywhere. Romans 15 verse 25.
Now, however, says Paul, I'm on my way to Jerusalem in the
service of the Lord's people there.
For Macedonia and IKEA, we're pleased to make a contribution
for the poor among the Lord's people in Jerusalem.
The word contribution is the word koinona.
It's like we're they were pleased to partner together.
There's a famine about to happen.
And so we're going to work together to resolve that problem
so that hungry people get fed. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 3.
For I testify, says Paul, that the Macedonian churches gave as
much as they were able and even beyond their ability entirely on
their own. They plead, they urgently
pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this
service to the Lord's people. Again, they partnered together
in service of the Lord's people. And so friends, what I want to
suggest to you this morning is that the Lord is casting a
vision for us of the kind of community He would have us be.
This is way more than just like the tithes and offerings, or
it's way more than just like some kind of legalistic
expectation that we might want to place on people.
It's it's way beyond that. This is at a heart level,
something that we share together.
I think he's, he's trying to shape us into this community
that is deeply motivated, motivated by our love for one
another and also to be honest, our, our personal commitment to
the mission of God across the nations.
Let's dive into another passage where this word partnership
appears, which is in Philippians chapter 1.
So if you've got your Bible, you might just want to flick over to
Philippians chapter 1. Philippians as a, as a letter is
really Paul writing a thank you letter, right?
He's in prison, perhaps in Rome, NT writes, says Ephesus.
So I'll leave that up to you. But he's in prison and the, the
Philippian church, he is a church he planted and since he
went there and planted the church, they've been supporting
him financially, right? So he's been planting churches
all over, all around the Mediterranean.
And as he's been doing that, they've been the ones to
personally provide for his needs.
And so they've been financed sending gifts over and over
again. And now here he is in prison and
they've sent another gift so that he's able to eat whilst
he's in prison with this guy Epaphroditus.
And he's so overwhelmed with gratitude for this amazing
community that he writes the book of Philippians and
Philippians Chapter 1 says this. Paul and Timothy, servants of
Christ Jesus to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at
Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, Grace and
peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers
for all of you. I always pray with joy because
of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until
now. Do you see like this isn't just
like, oh, thank you for being friendly.
He's thanking them for the cash because of your partnership in
the gospel from the first day until now.
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you
will carry on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It's right for me to feel this way about all of you since I
have you in my heart, and whether I'm in chains or
defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share same
word in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for
all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in
knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to
discern what's best and may be pure and blameless for the day
of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes
through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
OK, so here we go, verse 4. In all my prayers for all of
you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership from
this day until now. How is it that Paul's been able
to just go from city to city to city planting churches, leading
people to Jesus, potentially 10s of thousands of people over the
course of those journeys, coming to faith being built into
churches that he's planted? How is that even possible?
Because they've partnered with him, they've given their what
they could to enable him to do that.
How is it that there are loads and loads of widows and orphans
all over the region of Jerusalem and Judea who've been able to
eat well because they've partnered with him as he's taken
those gifts to the church in Jerusalem?
The the Philippian Christians have covered all the costs.
And he goes on to say in chapter 4 of Philippians Actually,
you're actually the only ones who have given consistently and
repeatedly and kept the show on the road.
And So what do we learn from this passage about their
partnership? The first thing we learn is this
partnership is for everyone. It's for everyone.
I think it's actually supposed to be the 1st century equivalent
of a joke. And you know, Paul, the Apostle
Paul isn't terribly funny, but I think this is his his attempt at
a joke. In verse 1, he says to all God's
holy people in the church at Philippi and the leaders, you
know, it's his best. Do you see?
It's like all the holy people and also the overseers and
deacons. That's quite funny.
But the point is he's written to everyone.
This is a a letter that's written to everyone in the
church and in fact, look at all the alls verse one to all God's
holy people. Verse 4 in all my prayers for
all of you. Verse 7.
It's right that I feel this way about all of you.
Verse 8 God can testify how I long for all of you.
And in fact, in the Greek, I'm told I'm not massive on New
Testament Greek, but I'm told that it's even more obvious.
This is a letter that's written to everyone.
Everyone in the church in Philippi is given something.
And so he's writing to thank everyone in the church for being
so remarkably generous. It's actually one of the saddest
lies that we can believe in this whole area of generosity, that
somehow my contribution doesn't matter, right?
That, that, that I'm, I'm disqualified from this whole
concept of partnership because what I can bring is relatively
small, you know, so, so there'll be many people watching online
or, or in the room or in one of the sites who have just believed
actually, you know, my, this is a massive church.
You know, there are hundreds of thousands of pounds coming in
every year. My relatively small amount, it's
not going to make any difference.
And so therefore I won't bother. But actually it's not true.
You know, just imagine for a moment, and perhaps you're the
kind of person who loves a Starbucks or Acosta.
And so every every week you might stop at the drive through
on the way to work or whatever several times in the week.
And then you start thinking about it and you think, do you
know what? I could actually go without 1.
And so maybe once a week on your way, you drive past the
Starbucks, drive through and you put that £3.50 into a little pot
and then you give that to the church, right?
So £3.50 a week, that soon adds up.
In fact, 52 weeks of that will be 182 lbs.
And then if you fill in your Gift Aid form, if you're a
taxpayer, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer writes a little to
check too. And so you're £3.50 a week
missing your Starbucks is 227 lbs.
That's going to pay for the alpha course in one of the sites
for a whole year. Now imagine just for a moment
that you don't give that. What are we going to do?
We either have to not do something else or we have to not
do that. Do you see?
Every single one of us could give something and Paul wants us
to know that, that that. And actually to go beyond that
to say, well, that's just like knocking out a few luxuries out
of our lives. What have we really tried?
You know, what if we were really deliberate and intentional and
we sought to stretch ourselves and grow in the area of
generosity, Where could we be then?
What could we achieve together for the Kingdom of God if we all
really went for it? Partnership is for everyone.
The second thing is partnership is forward thinking.
I know that it might not appear like this, but I am the king of
procrastination. I am what you call energised by
the thrill of the last minute, right?
So, so I, I can put off literally anything till
tomorrow. You know, it's just a gift I
have. And, but the good thing is that
I married Tarin, who has never delayed anything in her life.
She, she is the least likely person I know to procrastinate
about anything. She never does something like
put something off till tomorrow if she could do it today.
And so I thank God for her. It's one of the amazing ways in
which she behaves like Yoda in my life.
But when, when I was at school, I, I, I was so bad at putting
things off. I was the kind of person you,
you know, like you're coming up to exams and, you know, I'd, I'd
rearranged all the books on my bookshelf, I'd put all of my
compact discs, do you remember those, into alphabetical order?
I'd design my colour coded revision timetable.
You know, I was like just so bad.
And I remember my parents just pulling their hair out and just
so stressed out for me about how, you know, how close the
exams were becoming and how little work I'd done.
They actually wrote to the head teacher and I didn't know, but I
just got a call into the headmaster's office.
I was like, Oh my goodness, what on earth is happening?
He was like, dude, oh, it might not have said dude, but it was
like, you've got to do something.
You've got to pull it. You've got like, you've got to
pull your finger out this. And I was like, he said, all
you're doing is just putting it off till tomorrow.
Every day you're putting it off till tomorrow.
And quick as a flash, I said, you always told us to think
ahead. He said the problem is you're
not thinking far enough ahead. You know, you're not thinking
until the day when you're sat in the exam and your head is
completely empty and you know nothing about anything.
And then that's going to be a problem.
And my point is, that's exactly what so many of us do in this
whole area of giving. We say I'll just get it sorted
out tomorrow. As a pastor, I've seen this for
years. The way it plays out, you, you
know that there's so many young people say, well, to be honest,
like I'm not earning very much at the moment so it doesn't
really matter. But when I get my first proper
job, then I'll really start to give.
And then they get their first proper job and they're like,
well, to be honest, now I'm saving up for a deposit for a
house. And so I can't really afford to
at the moment. And then it's like, well, we're
just having kids at the moment. It's really expensive season of
life. And so we'll, we'll start really
giving after our kids are kind of, and it's like, do you have
any idea how much children cost for like the whole of your life?
And but you know, it's like we put it off, we put it off, we
put it off. But the problem is we're not
putting it far enough ahead. We're not thinking about the day
when we stand in front of Jesus and he says, so just give an
account for what you did with what I put into your hands.
And we're like, Oh yeah, the apostle Paul is he always has
his eye on, I'm going to meet Jesus one day.
You see it there in verse 6, the day of Christ Jesus, verse 9.
I'm praying that you'll be able to discern what's best for the
day of Christ Jesus. He's like, I know that I'm going
to meet Jesus one day and I'm going to have to give an account
for everything. Consumers are people who allow
thousands of pounds over the course of their lifetimes to go
through their fingers, and then in eternity they have nothing to
show for it. Partners are people who invest
their money in things that have an eternal impact.
Did you see the difference? So we've got to think ahead.
I'm going to meet Jesus and I want to show what I've done with
what he's entrusted to me. I want to be able to say Jesus,
look at all the impact around around me right now in eternity.
Third one, partnership is a source of amazing joy.
Do you know, it's really ironic, isn't it, that this epistle
that's written from prison is known as the Epistle of Joy?
Did you know that 16 times in the letter to the Philippians,
Paul talks about the joy that he's experiencing whilst he's in
prison? And do you know what the source
of his joy is? He actually says in verse 4, I
always pray with joy because of your partnership.
So the reason why he's filled with joy in that prison cell is
because he's experienced their radical, extreme, remarkable
generosity. Now you might think, well, of
course he's experiencing joy like he's on the receiving end
of other people's generosity. Those poor Philippians, you
know, they've given actually it says in Two Corinthians, it says
that they gave even beyond their ability to give, right?
So, so they've like emptied their piggy banks.
They're not experiencing joy. They're experiencing doom.
You know, like, Oh my goodness, how are we going to pay for the
bills or whatever they're experiencing?
Like, what were we thinking? But actually, that's not true
either. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 2, Paul describes their hearts
as being people of overflowing joy.
And so it's really like a fountain of joy.
The Philippians give, they're experiencing real joy.
And actually many people in this room would have experienced
that, right? You've given something and
you're like, I love doing this. This has brought me so much.
This has been so fun. And then the people on the
receiving end are like, wow, I'm so filled with joy.
Thank you so much. In our culture today, people
believe that the way that they're experienced, they're
going to experience joy is by going to the shopping center and
hammering their credit card, right?
I'm going to get give myself a dopamine hit by going to the
Harlequin and I'm just going to treat myself to a few things and
I'm going to feel slightly better about my life.
That's a that's a folly. It's stupid because these
Philippians are experiencing something different and, and
actually what what we know is if you just think for a moment
about the most generous person that you can think of that you
know right now, I would place a bet if I was a betting person
that they're also the most joyful, the most joyful person
you know, or flip it round, just think about the most joyful
person you know. Aren't they very nearly the most
generous person you know too? Generosity is a source of
amazing joy is what Paul's telling us.
And then the last thing is partnership is for massive
global impact. In verse 7, there's just this
amazing kind of little hint at all of the crazy things Paul's
done to communicate the gospel to as many people as possible
and plant as many churches as possible, where he says whether
I'm in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of
you sharing God's grace with me. So it's like I've, I'm just
doing whatever I can. And it must have been absolutely
mind blowing for those Philippians right there.
There they are. Many of them would never leave
Macedonia, the Roman province of Macedonia in their lives.
But somehow their money is travelling all over the known
world and wherever it goes, it's bearing fruit, You know, all
these. So they, they, they must have
just thought, Oh my goodness, this is a total no brainer.
We just give all of our money to Paul and then he goes off and he
does all these amazing things. Thank goodness we went without
that extra latte with an extra shot or whatever it is.
You know, it's like, it was worth it, wasn't it?
And if, if truth be told, this is like, there are lots of
reasons, but this is really the main reason why Taron and I have
been on a journey personally of trying to grow in this area of
generosity and stewardship. And it, and it's why we've
chosen to be people who give as much as we possibly can to the
ministry of our local church, you know, and, and you know, in
Scotland, that was in Scotland. And now it's here.
It's here often stretching ourselves, often choosing to go
without because we are deeply committed to this whole concept
of generosity and because it's amazing what our money has
achieved for the Kingdom of God. You know, we've only been in
this church for like just short of three months, but I'll tell
you, it's a great church and it's amazing what our money does
together. You know, on a Friday night,
this place is pumping full of teenagers.
Many of them don't know Jesus. They're pursuing God.
They're kind of seeking God. Many of them not from Christian
homes or whatever, but our money is making this space possible.
Every Monday, this building is full of people who are like in
various kinds of need or, or struggling to put food on the
table or whatever. And our money makes it possible
for those people to go away with food.
And also through the bridge programme, they're able to kind
of figure out, OK, what are my next steps?
How do I start to grow in what I have And, and, you know, maybe
find a job and these kinds of things.
How, how am I going to fix this solution for myself?
Enormous kindness, compassion, dignity.
And our money is making that possible.
You know, again, for lots of families, they're like, OK, this
is really cool. I send my kids to school and
they get fed at school. But what happens in the school
holidays? Well, good news everyone.
Our money does the refuel thing, which means that during the
school holidays they can come here and be fed.
Your money provides kids clothes and equipment for families who
really need it through the KIT programme, Kit Ministry and also
through storehouse in Hemel Hempstead.
Even in the last few weeks they've been a number of people
in our church family who've lost loved ones, they've been
bereaved. What a beautiful thing that we
can pull our resources to enable the the kind of compassion and
and support for those families so beautifully.
Your money takes the Gospel to thousands of schoolchildren
every year through STEP, our partnership with STEP, it
ministers to people who have been trafficked for sex through
Azalea. It's translating the Bible in
the Himalayas emotional, it's helping train pastors and church
planters in Sri Lanka is supporting the persecuted church
through open doors. It's working to end modern day
slavery through our partnership with IJM.
And I could go on and on and on. Do you see like it's a, it's a
good decision to give money to Verso Vineyard because it's
literally changing people's lives all over the world.
That's why Taryn and I have chosen to give our money here.
And so I just want to encourage you like if this is your place
and if these are your people or your people through the camera,
the guys in the Hemel Hatfield are online and you've kind of
counted yourself in and you said this actually is going to be my
church. Can I just encourage you to
really pray about this whole thing and to decide to what
level is God calling you to partner with us?
You know, there may well be people in this room right now
who are not currently giving to versa Vineyard and, and maybe
you feel challenged to do so. I'd, I'd just love to encourage
you to, to go away and pray about it.
You know, actually what I realised during the worship was
that this is for many of us, like the week we get paid.
So, so can I just encourage you like don't wait until then,
decide before the money hits the bank account what you're going
to do, maybe even today, just go home, ask the Lord if you're not
currently giving or our accountant told me this week
that loads and loads of people in this church have not reviewed
their giving or kind of changed their giving for years.
Again, if that's you and this is your church, can I just
encourage you? That would be a great thing to
pray about this week. Or maybe the Lord's blessed you
with a bonus or an inheritance or whatever it is.
You're like, Lord, I'm just going to bring that before you.
I feel challenged in this area and I want to grow in my in my
discipleship in this area. And so I'm going to going to ask
you and then I, as I said a number of weeks ago, all we're
asking is whatever the Lord tells you to do, do it.
Just walk in obedience to whatever God is asking you to
do. Honestly, I believe that that
there are many more things that we could do together if we
partnered with one another to a whole fresh degree.
OK, why don't we stand?