We are one church. We love God, love people, love
His mission, and love His church.
Welcome to the One Church podcast.
I have the privilege of being part of this celebration with
you. I'm not going to talk about all
the nations that are gathered in this place.
I'm just going to talk about the dynamic of one particular, one
particular space, one particular nation if you like, one
particular Kingdom if you haven't.
The one and only Kingdom that actually surpasses any other
Kingdom you could ever think of, any other Kingdom you could ever
imagine. Now, the thing about kingdoms is
this. Kingdoms are very particular
about the appearance of those who reign.
They're very particular about everything that the way you
look, whether it's physically or even how you dress.
But the most important thing when it comes to any Kingdom is
the size, the visibility, the dynamism, the magnitude of the
crowns. And this morning I want to talk
to you about the kind of crowns that await each and every one of
us on this journey of walking with the Lord.
I want you to turn, just turn to the person next to you and say,
man, your head will look good with a crown on it.
Just just just just take your listen, I know some of your,
some of your national dress is incomplete.
If he doesn't have a head covering or a, some kind of a
crown on it, just look to the other person and tell him, I'm
not sure if your head is going to look good in the crown.
I dare you. Go on, do it.
Do it. But listen, it's a joy.
It's a joy to be here with you. This has been a long time
coming. We've been talking for quite a
while with Pastor David and Pastor Susan to try and make
this happen. And I'm so glad.
I am so glad we've been able to do so.
For some of you who don't know me, my name is Mishek and I, I'm
part of the Assemblies of God national leadership team with
the primary responsibility to look after church planting.
And, and I love being in this house because you guys don't
mess around when it comes to church planting.
You guys are moving at a rapid pace of seeing communities
reached, churches planted, lives transformed, and we praise God
for everything that he is doing in and through you.
You might be pleased to know that since we started really
driving forward with church planting as Assemblies of God in
this country in 2022, we've actually already seen 129
churches planted across our nation.
And I believe that deserves the highest praise being given to
the King of Kings and to the Lord of Lords.
And you as the House have made significant contribution to
that. You are part of a church
planting house. And what an honour and what a
privilege. So I'm not just me on my own.
I'm not a single guy, by the way, sorry.
I am married to an amazing woman called Charlene.
I listen, if you ever I know, I know.
If you ever doubted that I'm a man of faith, just look at the
bride that the Lord gave to me. I know I'm punching above my
weight, but hey, listen, that's what faith does.
Faith gives you the things that you know you don't deserve and
he's like, it makes it happen for you.
But I don't know about you, but when I got married to this
beautiful woman, we were unfortunately given the most
devastating news we could ever expect as a young couple.
We're married, we're excited about the adventure ahead, but
actually at that time we received the most devastating
news. We lived in a place called
Devon, which is beautiful, absolutely beautiful, part of
this nation. And whilst we were there, we
were told that we couldn't have any children.
So now we're in this place where you, you, you are expectant, you
are excited. There is all this adventure
ahead of you and you are hit with the most devastating news.
Have you ever had that? Just when you thought I am in a
good stretch of my life, there is everything seems to be going
well and and I'm really looking forward to what's ahead.
And in that moment you get hit with the most devastating news.
For us, it was the news that we couldn't have children and we
went to this little hospital called Torbay Hospital in Devon.
And as we were sat in this room, there was a panel of three
doctors, there was a consultant, our GP and then of course a
junior doctor on that panel. And they gave us this news and
said, look, you need to come back in seven days time for us
to do the surgery because your wife will be better off
medically without her womb in place.
We, we, this wasn't part of the plan.
What do you do when life deals you a card?
That was not part of the plan. Here's the tip, keep going
anyway. You got to keep going anyway.
Seven days came. That was the longest 7 days of
our life. And walking back into Torbay
Hospital with my pride in my hand.
And as we walked through to this little meeting room again and we
saw the same panel of doctors and they said, look, since you
are the next of kin, we need you to sign some waiver forms before
your bride, your wife goes into surgery.
And just as I was about to sign these forms with tears in my
eyes and with my wife broken, I felt the Holy Spirit clearly
said to me, stop, don't sign anything.
Put the pen down. And the moment I did that, the
room changed, the atmosphere in the room changed.
And what so happened was that most junior doctor on that panel
just jumped up and said, hey, I know seven days ago we did a
full scan on Charlene's womb and we've already marked out all the
areas we're going to cut to remove her womb.
And we know the condition and everything else that's there.
But but just would, would it be OK if we just did one more
pregnancy tests before she goes into surgery?
This is the breaking of protocol at a catastrophic level.
In that moment, you've got the consultant visibly irritated,
looking at this junior doctor and saying to her, can you not
see the heartbreak that's already on this young man and
this young woman and you want to put them through it again?
But she persisted. And I knew in that moment,
something is happening here, this is not normal.
I am going to sit back and watch how this whole thing is going to
unfold. And they kept going back and
forth until the consultant said, OK, fine.
When you go, when you take her out to prepare for surgery, get
the pregnancy test done, get over and done.
At that point, he's visibly irritated.
Within moments that the junior doctor walks back into the room
and she pops her head back and then signals to the consultant
to come out of the room. Now listen, if you know anything
about medical hierarchy, you know, you know that if you're
the most junior doctor on a panel, you just don't speak
unless you've been spoken to. But she broke all protocol.
Listen, you serve a God who is going to break all protocol for
your sake. He, he listen, he, he will break
all protocol for your sake. And here's the problem, some of
us, you know, all these good Christians that we are, we are
probably one of the people who end up emphasising the protocol
even to the point where we say to God, God, you got to observe
the protocol. Just just stand to one side.
And God says, if only you could let me, I am ready to break all
protocol for your sake. Within moments, the consultant
came back in the room and looked at me in the eye and said, Sir,
I can't quite explain anything to you right now, but all I know
is you won't need this paperwork anymore because somehow your
wife is pregnant. Somehow your wife is pregnant.
So what we actually need to do now, Sir, instead of taking her
out into surgery, we have got to go back into the ultrasound room
and then we need to take another look again.
And when we went back into this ultrasound room and my wife is
laid on this bed and they put the ultrasound on my wife's
woman, within seconds we could see the baby.
Everybody's looking at each other in the room thinking what
is going on? Is this a faulty machine?
Let's get a different machine in.
And then they put another ultrasound on my wife's woman.
Yet again there is the baby. What do you do when seven days
prior there is nothing in the womb?
And then when you come back seven days later, there is a
baby in the womb. What do you do with the
circumstances that don't look anything like what you prepared
for? This is the God who breaks all
protocol for your sake. And they said we need to find
out. We need to measure and find out
how far gone she is now, 7 days prior there is nothing in the
womb. And as they measured her, she
was now measuring at 7 weeks pregnant.
Seven weeks pregnant. When the Bible talks about a God
who is outside of time, I want to prophecy to some people.
Because in this room there's some of you.
I don't know if you've noticed this, but every time you're
about to believe God for something, there is one
particular voice that tends to rise up the most.
It's the voice of time. Well, how dare you still expect
this? It's been five years already and
nothing has happened. How dare you still plan and
expect for this? It's been already 10 years.
Have you? Have you got any sense?
It's the voice of time trying to suppress the voice of the 1
outside of time. And I want to say this to you.
I want to say this to you as this news came and the medical
professionals are looking at each other.
You know how they have a way of having a full conversation
without moving their mouths and they're just looking at each
other and they're just literally having a conversation.
And that's exactly what was happening in the room until they
decided, OK, you know what, this is nothing but a miracle.
And here's the prophetic word. I want to live in this house.
And I thought the Lord had said to me, I need to deposit this
prophetic word into this house. This is now the era of breaking
all protocols for the sake of what is about to come through
one church, what others may think would take 10 years to
achieve. God says I'm going to break all
protocol for the sake of what He has deposited in your heart.
Even any amount of money cannot stand in the way of what God
wants to do in and through this house.
And he says I am breaking all protocol when it comes to
financial policies. When it comes to financial
raising, he says I will do things my way.
Oh Lord, help us. I'm going to behave.
I promise I'm going to. I'm going to stop behaving.
So not only do we have one miracle, not only do we have two
miracles, not only do we have 3 miracles, but by God's grace we
have 4 amazing miracles. Somebody give Jesus the highest
praise. I don't know why we we think our
lives have got to be neatly packaged.
The dynamism of being a follower of Jesus Christ is the idea that
you go through circumstances that are so dire and dreadful
and painful, but you will not look like what you've been
through. Why?
Because people will then ask the question, how?
How are you still the way you are?
We know what you have just been through.
We know what you are currently going through.
How? How are you still the way that
you are right now? In one church gets the privilege
to say, I know a guy, I know a man, I know a king.
His name, he's Jesus. And so today they're beautiful
people. Listen, that little one with the
pink top, that's my boss. She's the one who signed my
permission slip to come here and say, yeah, daddy, you can go,
but you make sure you come back before bedtime because you need
to tuck me in and give me a kiss before I go to bed.
The Lord said to me today, I need to talk to you about what
is to come. We talk a lot about all the
situations we have in our time now, but we need to talk about
what is to come. And he says, I want you to go
and talk to them about the crowns that await them, crowns
that await us as believers, and we're going to get into some
Scripture. Are you ready?
Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 to verse 17, I'll read.
Therefore, we do not lose heart in spite of what we might be
faced with, though outwardly we are wasting away.
Life is happening. Things are going on in your
life. In my life.
We do not worry about it because inwardly we are being renewed
day by day. And then watch what he says in
verse 17 about all of the troubles of our lives.
Listen to the language it uses says this for our light and
momentary troubles. I want you to think about the
most devastating situation that is happening in your world right
now. The Bible says it's light and
momentary in the context of what is to come, in the context of
what's ahead of us. This is light and momentary.
Imagine what that does to you. To know that the situation that
you thought was going to destroy you, was going to take your
life, was going to completely ruin everything the Bible says.
If you look at it in the fullness of context, it is only
but light and momentary because for what's ahead of us, there is
more to come. Listen to what he says next.
He says this it is only about light and momentary trouble.
And they have a job to achieve for us, an eternal glory that
far outweighs them. All the troubles of this world
have a job description. The troubles of this world have
a job description to achieve for us, not for them, for they are
doing something for us. When God brings a message like
this, it's like he's now raising up the SAS of church where men
and women can be subjected to all kinds of stuff that will
happen, but they will still get up and keep going because they
recognise that every circumstance that may happen,
God is going to take that and use it because there is a crown.
I wish, I wish the way the crowns came was just me through
me sitting down and just relaxing and just turning up to
church and doing what I'm what I love to do.
But unfortunately that's not how it works.
The the, the, the forming of this crowns is through our
resilience and our persistence in spite of what we are going
through. I recently suddenly lost my
mother-in-law and the first thing that came into my mind was
what do we do? There's so much to get on with
this. We've literally my, my wife is
broken. And it made perfect sense to
phone your pastors and say, guys, I'm so sorry.
I can't come. I, I can't be with you.
So when I'm talking to you about the, the, the whole thing of
going through the pains of this life and you still keep an eye
on the crown, I am not talking about theory.
This is not theory because the forming of the crown comes
through pressure, it comes through heat, it comes through
circumstances. And when you and I recognise
that in the context of where we are going, this is light and
momentary, we will rise up again.
We get up again and we keep going.
And I post the post. He talks about this in Second
Timothy chapter 4. And he says, guys, speaking to
Timothy, he's like, hey, listen son, I am already being poured
out like a drink offering. Wow, what a description.
My life is being poured out like a drink offering and the time of
my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, he
says. I have confidently knows I've
been through some stuff, I've been through some stuff.
I have fought the good fight and he says I have finished the race
and not only just that I have kept, have kept the faith
because it's all thank you, Holy Spirit, He says this, it's not
just about finishing the race, but can you keep the faith when
you're under attack all the way through?
That's important. That is so important keeping.
The faith and then he goes on to say, but now that I've done all
these four non negotiable things for every believer and follower
of Jesus Christ, guess what is in store for me?
Says there is a crown of righteousness.
That's just the first crown. We're going to go to another
crown. Are you ready?
Oh, you thought there was just one crown.
No, no, no, there's more crowns. There is more crowns.
Second crown, Are you ready? The crown of life, James,
chapter one. This crown is for those of us
who endure trials and remain faithful unto death.
Wow, Pastor Meshech, no, it's not me, it's the Bible.
There is a crown for enduring. Nobody says enjoy trials.
That's a lie. You cannot enjoy the trials of
this world, he says. For those who ensure the Bible
is not trying to falsely encourage you and say, hey, it's
enjoyable, it's fun. It's not, he says.
But if you can endure the trials and tribulations of this world
unto death, there is a crown called the Crown of life.
And it's not just that one Scripture.
It goes even further Revelation chapter 2, verse 10 and it says
this do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.
Whoa, what again, not what you're about to enjoy.
There is there are challenges. He says, no, this is real.
I'm not going to lie to you. It's going to be there.
I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test
you and you will suffer persecution for 10 days.
But be it's like, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you we're
going to find a way to negotiate the stuff away, he says.
No, no, in other it actually feels like it's sidelining the
trials and the pain and the focus and emphasis is on
faithfulness. I wish, I wish, I wish it
emphasised the the weightiness of what I'm going through, the
weightiness of what you're going through.
But the Bible doesn't even emphasise that he says this.
I, I want you to to focus on your faithfulness.
This is heavy. This is challenging, but
actually when the Lord begins to speak to His people in this way,
it must give you an indication that maybe the rules of
engagement have changed. The nation we're living in, even
the nations of the world, the rules of engagement have
changed, especially for those who follow Jesus Christ.
This is why we got to talk about this.
But watch what he says. Then he goes on to say, even
with that, be faithful even to the point of death, and I will
give you life as your victor's crown.
You're not doing this for nothing since there is a crown,
a victus crown. Why?
Why are crowns important? Pastor me say you keep talking
about these crowns. Who cares why?
Why is this important? OK, I'll explain to you why
that's important for where we're going.
Crowns are crucial. They play an integral part in
doing one of the most important things that we will get to do
when it comes to giving the greatest act of worship before
the Lord. The first thing we will be hit
with is the magnificence of who God is.
And when that hits you, you will not be able to remain standing
on your feet. You will crumble down to your
knees in adoration. And as you fall on your knees,
the only thing you can do is to cast your crown.
This is why it's so important. There will be no band.
Tom will not be on keys. News flash, I'm so sorry to
break that to you. Tom will be broken down on his
knees in adoration of his lover, the lover of his soul.
And Tom's response will not be to find the right key, but his
response will be to cussed his crown.
And not only that, the next thing that we get to do, why
this is so important is this. When Jesus says I am coming to
reign, to rule and reign, he says he's not doing that on his
own. He says I'm going to do it with
you. But in order to reign with him,
you will also need a crown. If crowns were not important
even in our nation, we know we have to do a big thing about
coronation because the the coronation reveals to us the
truth. We already know that, hey,
that's the king. But that moment, that moment,
the difference in that moment is just this one thing, the crown.
And it's the same for us. Somebody said there's a crown,
We're going to keep going. We're going to keep going.
Oh, this is my favourite one. Are you ready?
Crown #3 for pastors, leaders, life group leaders, small group
leaders, car park team lead, kids leaders, Anyone who takes
the, the, the responsibility of leading God's people, there is a
crown. Crown of Glory, One Peter
chapter 5, verse 2 to verse 4. Be shepherds of God's flock that
is under your care, watching over them, not because you must,
but because you are willing as God wants you to be, not
pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve.
You're not lording it over those entrusted to you, but you are
being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd
appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never
fade away. So in those dark moments where
you feel like men, can somebody else do this?
See, I know what it's like to be in a growing church.
It just means more and more people need to put their hands
to the plough. That's what it simply means.
There is no growth without more people saying, I mean, I mean, I
mean, but also the more you have people doing that, there's
always going to be a dark moment where you think men, can
somebody else be in? It's in those moments where I'm
now speaking to you about this crown.
In the moment where it's easier for you to walk away and say
somebody else needs to do that. You keep your hand on that
plough because you recognise there is a, there is a crown.
That's why we're still doing what we're doing.
Let's keep going. The next one, this is my
favourite again, crown #4 don't panic.
There's only 5 crowns like men. How many crowns?
Some of you are looking at the size of your head.
You're like, how many crowns can I fit on one?
Don't worry about it. This body will be left here, but
you will have a completely different body.
Huh. Oh man.
Listen, we I thought, but this is Nations Day.
Yes, it is Nations Day. But all of those things don't
matter if we don't focus on where we're going.
Next week, you'll be back in your campuses.
Do you know? I want you to have a renewed
sense of focus and determination as to why you are doing what you
are doing, where you are doing it.
This is why we're talking about it.
But here's this particular ground crown #4 the crown of
rejoicing. It also known as the kind of
crown that is given for bringing people to Christ.
Did you know there was a crown for that?
Incredible since for the every person you will lead to Christ,
there is a crowd. Think about that.
Now watch this in the moments where, you know, you should have
spoken to somebody about Christ and about your faith and you,
like me, have decided to walk away.
We can't afford to walk away because we have this privilege
of revealing the good news that has transformed our lives.
And as we speak to people about it, the Bible then tells us
there is a crown. Tom, could you come back with
me, please? If we can all stand to our feet
as I come into the land, the crown of rejoicing in the
moments where you find yourself, and I've done it before where I
thought, man, God, it'll be easier for me to speak to
somebody about you if you just brought them to church.
Can they just stagger into church?
And I promise you, God, I'll tell them about you.
And he says, no Sir, I can't. We can't do it that way.
I'm going to prompt you wherever you are going.
It could be in the supermarket, it could be at the petrol
station, it could be at work, but your and yours and my job is
that we hear the prompting of God and begin to follow that
particular prompting. This is why it's so important.
See, I asked Tom to come up because when Tom comes up, faith
and hope comes back into the room.
It's like, oh Lord Jesus, we're coming into land.
Thank you, Jesus, but it's a trip.
I just tricked you. We still have another 45 minutes
to go. Don't worry about it.
So thank you, Tom, for doing this incredible job and bringing
that hope back in the room with the Crown of Rejoicing.
The Lord says in every area of your life, I am deliberately
placing promptings in your heart.
And when I place that prompting in your heart to share your
faith, it is an opportunity for you to add to the Crown of
rejoicing. I know you're going to have
sweaty palms. I know your heart is going to be
racing. I know you'd rather have
somebody else do it. And the Lord says, I know all of
your anxieties, but I still choose you.
So I still choose you, but God let somebody else do it.
I know I could have chosen somebody else, but there is a
reason why I have come to you, because I need you to also have
the crown of rejoice. But Lord, you know I can't speak
properly. English is my 15th language,
whatever it is got says I know, but I still choose you.
Can I set a challenge? What would it look like over the
next 12 months? You made a commitment to just
add 1 jewel to your crown of rejoicing One, one person.
No, not a revival across Leicester.
God will do all that in his time.
But just an intentional decision that says over the next 12
months, Lord, I want to add 1 jewel to my crown of rejoicing
because I'm going to commit to leading just one person, just
one person, whether you're at college or university or at
school. And you're saying, God, I, I, I
don't know how this is going to work, but let's do it.
If I can just get one person. But Lord, but how, how am I
going to look like? What am I going to look like?
When, when, when, when people start talking about me?
That doesn't even matter. When you now stand before the
King of Kings and you cast your crown in worship and you keep
your crown as you reign with him.
All of the things that you thought mattered, you quickly
remember they are only light and momentary.
I've had people ask me this thing and say, oh, you know, I
can't wait to get to heaven. I'm like, OK, why is that?
Because when I get to heaven, I've got questions for David,
I've got questions for Moses, questions for Abraham and all of
those things. And I'm like, OK, all right, OK.
Like, oh man, the stories that we've read are incredible and I
can't wait to ask them about them.
And I then I felt the Lord said to me, tell them, tell him, tell
him that those people are actually waiting for you.
I said, what? Yeah, yeah, they are actually
waiting for you. And they don't have a lot of
questions. They have just one question, one
question only. And the question is, could you
please tell us what was it like to live on earth with the
fullness of God in the person of the Holy Spirit active and alive
in you? What was that like?
And then you go to Moses and you're like Moses.
I heard about the Red Sea, bro. Could you talk to me about the
Red Sea? What was that like?
And you'll be like, man, it was cool.
It was really cool. But I need you to tell me, what
was it like knowing their crowns to be had, yet you had the
fullness of God in you. And Aaron, the high priest will
come up and he says, listen, you're not even high priest.
You are just sons and daughters, and you had unlimited access to
the fullness of God. What?
And he'll say to you, do you know that as a high priest, I
could only enter into the presence of God once a year?
Once a year? So please tell me what, what was
it like to have the fullness of God in you?
What are you? This is why we're talking about
this. This is why this is important.
We have everything we need. Jesus has already done it.
He has given us the fullness of God in the person of the Holy
Spirit and he says every crown is available for you because
it's no longer in your strength. It's no longer in your strength.
You have everything you need. So come on one church, every
single one of those crowns is yours in the power of the Holy
Spirit, in Jesus name. The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.