We are, as I said, we are in a series, our vision and value
series, looking at our vision values through the lens of a
lifeboat. And this is week 3 and we have
looked at this. We are called not to be a luxury
cruise liner, but we are called to be a lifeboat that is sent
into the chaotic waters of life to bring glory to Jesus by
rescuing lost and broken people. And we've looked at over the
last three weeks, we've looked at the fact that the way we do
that is first of all, we look at the navigational system.
We focus on God's scriptures, on his on his truth revealed.
And we call that biblical truth. We look to the fact that we can,
we can only do this and we are called that.
We can only go into this world and and be used by Christ to
save lost and broken people. If we are filled with the Holy
Spirit, we're empowered by him. We call that presence of gods.
And this week we're looking at our third value, which is humbly
serving. And we're going to, we're going
to knuckle down and look at the crew, the people on the boat
itself. You see, if you were to ever or
if you have ever been on a cruise ship, then you would know
that you would have certain expectations of when you're on
that cruise ship. You know that that if you were
to pay all that money to be on that ship that you expect there
to be a buffet that is fully stocked all the time with food
that meets your dietary conditions, that you expect to
be entertained. You expect it to be clean and if
anything is a below par, below what you expect, you complain to
the, you complain to the crew. You go to the captain, you tell
them what's wrong. But on a lifeboat, we operate by
different rules. On a lifeboat, we are no longer
passengers, but we become crew members.
But actually, it's not someone else's job to make sure the
mission stays on target. It's not someone else's job to
make sure the boat stays afloat and we don't hit any rocks.
It's our job, every single one of us.
And we've all been given gifts and talents and abilities to
contribute to making the sailing of this boat do what it's meant
to do. See every single person, every
single one of you here listening online, you know, we are called
to be part of, to join a crew, to join a local church, to be
part of a local church and serve.
And we're looking today how, how by serving.
We use, we use our time, we use our money, we use our gifts, we
use what we do, but we also use what we say for the glory of
gods and advancement of his Kingdom.
But one of the mine feels when the traps we get into,
especially in the Western world, is we so easily slip into, I'm
on a cruise ship. Other people are here to do this
stuff. Or sometimes we even get to a
stage where we believe the lie that, well, I'm not on a cruise
ship, but I don't have anything to offer.
I don't have any. I haven't given anything.
And we think, well, if I just stay back and I let others do
it, the ones who are really good at serving serve, then it'll be
all right. Actually, the Bible teaches us
that that's completely wrong, that that's completely against
Scripture. And actually, I want to
introduce you to two of the best captains using our metaphor in
the Old Testament. The first one is a guy named
Moses. And in Moses and in Exodus
chapter 18 we see Moses gather the people of Israel that he is
leading at the foot of the mountain of God, at the foot of
Mount Sinai. And whilst he is there with all
the people his his father-in-law, Jethro comes, his
father-in-law Jeffrey comes and he brings with with himself.
He brings his daughter Moses wife and his grandchildren,
Moses children and, and, and when he arrives, Moses tells him
all the amazing things that God has done.
Last time Moses saw Jethro, he was just a shepherd.
He was just a shepherd in the fields minding the flock.
And then all of a sudden he meets Moses again and, and, and
he Moses tells him of all the amazing things that God has done
through him. The signs and wonders to set the
people, set the Israelites free from bondage into their new life
as a nation. He hears of all the plagues.
He hears how Pharaoh let them go, but then changed his mind
and pursued them. How God used a a pillar of fire
to divide and Pharaoh's army and let the people go through the
sea of Reeds and then collapse it down on on Pharaoh's army,
completely destroying them. And they worship God and they
praise him and, and rather than just going straight back home
because, because Jethro, he has a busy life, He's got lots of
things going on. He decides, actually, I'm going
to take a few days out and I'm going to look around and see
what this new nation, how my son-in-law is doing as this
captain of this new nation. And it, it says in Exodus 18, it
says that he looks around and as he's looking around early in the
morning, Moses gets up and starts serving the people.
And it says from morning till night, Moses, they're serving
the people and the people are queuing up.
There's hundreds of people queuing up to see Moses, to hear
what he has to say, to be served by him, to get advice from him,
to understand what God's will is for their life from Moses.
But it also says that there are loads of people just standing
around doing nothing. And and we might look at Moses
and go, what a man, what an amazing man.
But Jethro, he doesn't say what you who, what you're doing.
Moses is amazing. I couldn't do that.
I couldn't serve all these people.
No, no, he says, what you are doing is not good.
But I'm serving all these people.
I'm doing the best I can, Yet you're doing it on your own.
And therefore you're going to weary yourself out.
The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.
Jethro points out to us that we are not called to have solo
captains, just ones and twos serving, doing all the work.
And what he points out is that if there's just one or two
people serving, one or two people doing the pastoral care,
one or two people giving, one or two, two people welcoming people
and bringing them back to their homes, one of two things will
happen. Firstly, those few people who
are serving will get burnt out and then no one will get served.
And secondly, Moses is just one person.
The fewer people serving, the fewer people get served.
And what he says is, Moses, you can't do this on your own.
You're creating a bottleneck. You don't have the capacity to
serve everyone. And see what happens is, is we
are called, we are called to go into this world and help rescue
lost and broken people. And if only one or two of us are
doing that, if only one or two of us are serving, one or two of
us are giving, one or two of us are helping pastorally, then
what happens is is we leave a lot of people out there still
drowning. And the ones that we do bring
in, some of them sadly fall back overboard because there's not
enough people to care for them, to serve them.
So Jethro says as his he says, therefore he says, I want you to
select people, select capable people, trustworthy people who
hate dishonest gain and appoint them over depending on their
giftings. Some will be able to manage
thousands, some can manage hundreds, some 10s.
What he's saying is you've got a group of people around you,
Moses. They've got different gifts,
different abilities. Use them.
The more you use them, the more people will be able to be served
and the more lost and broken people will be saved.
A second captain that we see in the Bible, one of the greatest
captains is King David. And I know if you love you read
the stories. Maybe you loved reading them
when you were a kid or seeing them in Sunday school.
And we can we can sometimes get the false impression that David
was a a man who could do it all on his own.
The shepherd boy kills the giant, ascends to being king of
all Israel all on his own. He didn't need anyone's help.
He could rule a nation all on his own Not so in two Samuel 23,
we are told that that David was not alone.
And I love it. If you've seen the Amazon Prime
series, David House of David, kind of spoiler alert, but it
you know, it does actually happen.
So it's not. If you've read your Bible,
you'll know at the end of the second series.
The second series ends with David being being having to go
on the run from King Saul and he feels like he's all on his own.
And then all of a sudden, this army of men turn up on his
doorstep, and they bow down before him and say, you're our
king. These are who the Bible calls
his mighty men. These are his mighty.
But see, David was never on his own.
These are the guys who taught him how to fight.
You think he killed 200? Was it 200 Philistines in one go
on his own? No, no, no.
He did it with these mighty men. He was on the run for years with
these mighty men. He ascended to being king of
Judah and then Israel with these mighty men around.
And mighty men like Joshua Bed who fought off hundreds, Eliezer
who stood his ground in a field of Bali when everyone else fled,
Shamaya, who's offended a patch of lentils that they would they
were standing, not just cheering David on.
They were there with their swords drawn alongside him.
See, David was the anointed king.
He was the captain. But he had mighty men around
him, you see. And we, we're not called, you
and I, we're not called to, to kill Philistines.
We're not called to slay wild beasts like in the stories of,
of David's mighty men. But we are called to together
slay a real enemy, not a flesh and blood.
And the way we do that is by everyday decisions that we
choose to make for Christ and his Kingdom.
See, every single day we have the choice.
Do I serve, do I fight or do I withdraw?
Every single day we have the choice.
Do we, do we man the deck or do we disengage?
Every single day we have the choice of do I take ground for
Christ or do I stay behind? And for those of us who are
saved, for those of us who have been called by Jesus, you are
called to participate in saving others.
Christ has saved you to participate in saving others.
We who have been saved, saved people, save people.
That's who what we're called to do.
And church, we need not one or two, but we need hundreds more.
They're in this room, but we'll start with this room of mighty
men and women who are not sitting in their armchair
watching others do the work, but are willing to take up their
sword and serve to see this boat and many other boats.
God's church bring glory to Jesus and save lost and broken
souls in the way that we serve. I've broken it down into into
four things. And the first way we serve is we
serve with our time. And this is profound.
We serve with our time, with our time, by showing up, by being
around, by making ourselves available.
You see, when we show up, whether it's to a Sunday
morning, whether it's to a Home group or a men's or women's
discipleship group, whether it's whether it's for a prayer walk
or maybe just just to go and visit someone.
When we show up, we allow God to do 2 things.
First, we allow Him to use us. See, if you're here today, God
can use you to bless everyone else.
If you're at home, well, how's He going to use you?
He wants to, but our choice is to turn up or not.
Secondly, when we turn up, we allow God to minister to us
through others. So you may have been feeling
really down this morning, but you, you, you gritted your teeth
and you showed up. And then the worship, maybe one
of those prophetic words just spoke to you.
You wouldn't have got that if you stayed in bed.
You gave God the opportunity to speak to you through others.
You see, we have an enemy, like I said, and I believe He
understands far greater than we do how important showing up is.
That's why it can be so difficult.
That's why every prayer meeting, no one wants to come.
Whether you come or not, it's different, but no one really
wants to come because there's an enemy.
He tells you why bother? You're tired, it doesn't matter.
No one cares if you're there or not.
Because he is terrified that when we show up, when we show up
on a Sunday, when we show up to Sir, when we show up on a
midweek, he is terrified of what good we might do to others
because we can't do it when we're on our own.
He is when he when we are feeling down, when the world has
got on top of us and we know how the roughness of the Seas around
us, he wants nothing more than to keep us on our own.
Because we can wallow in our own self pity.
But when we meet other people, he's terrified because they can
speak truth into us. The Spirit of God, life can be
spoken over us. We, we serve by giving our time.
Secondly, we serve with our money.
And I know we talk a lot about money.
I feel like I've talked about money quite a bit, but it's
because it's really important and it is.
It's great to have that news this week that we asked for, I
don't remember, but we said in January, we want one 1800 lbs.
And what was it 2000, 2200 plus getting the the Transit van,
which meant knocked a bit more off of that as well.
So that's brilliant. We are God is so generous and we
just want to thank you for those of you who generously give week
in week out. Thank you so much.
And the reason why giving is so important.
And I don't care how much you give, that's between you and
God. But when we give what, what it
that means is you've heard the saying where your money is,
that's where your heart is. It shows where your heart is.
And you may not be able to give hundreds of pounds this month,
but can you give something, use something, Maybe one day you'll
be able to give hundreds of pounds.
That's brilliant. But can you give something?
You see, the reason why is because we have such a big
vision for this town. There are many people who we
want to we want to tell the gospel to.
There are many people who we want to reach, who we want to
serve. And I don't want money to be the
reason why we can't. You see, we can pray, we can
turn up our prayer meetings and pray God give us money.
And do you know what he says? Most of the time I've given you
people with bank accounts. That's what he says.
I mean, I'd love him just to check to come through the door
for, for a load of money and say, just spend on what you
want. It happens sometimes.
But actually more often than not, God says, actually, I put
it on that person's heart and that person's heart to be
generous. And the church's needs are going
to be met through individual people, not millionaires, by
actually generally poor people who are just faithful to gods.
See, we have a big mission. We want to buy a building that's
not going to be cheap. And when we have it, it's going
to be more, even more expensive. We, we, but we want it because
we believe that we'll be able to serve more people.
We'll be half the over half the doors open a, a hub where people
can come every day of the week and encounter Jesus through
those of us who are volunteering there.
You see, we also, we don't just have a vision for right here.
We have a vision that we want to be able to not just resource
what we're doing here in Blackpool in the field, but we
want to be able to resource other boats across the world.
We belong to an Apostolic ministry called Christ Central,
part of new frontiers, and we regularly as a church give to
that mission to give. And that's, that's not just for
the paying of salaries, people like Jeremy who apostolically
leads it, but actually for for church plants, it plants we
planted. You know, I, I'm currently
helping with a with a church plant in in Sheffield and, and
it is this brilliant. There are money that we give
gets to help with things like that, but also though we many of
you have met and if you haven't, you'll meet him next month.
Michael Cottier Michael and Mabel were over last year and
Michael apostolically overseas through cross Central churches
in West Africa. He is based in Ho in Ghana and
last year we took an offering and and raised several £100 to
go towards his truck. And you think why?
Why would we need to buy him a car?
We don't need to buy him a truck.
Well driving here this morning, I had to obey a few potholes.
OK, But I can promise you those potholes are nothing like the
potholes driving as you go northern into into Ghana.
I'm sure some of you who are from African nations can no
understand that there are towns, there are villages that need
churches planting in, but the only way there is if you have a
substantial vehicle and so and that money's not done yet
because he needs money to fuel it.
He'll need money to, to, to to keep it repaired, to service it.
He needs money to be able to as as he goes from town to town, he
needs money to be able to train up and send.
Pastors on on training to how to learn Scripture.
He he they need they, they're looking for, they need money to
translate. Now they've got loads material,
teaching material in in English. And Michael he, he says, you
know, I speak English and I can't remember what other
language he speaks in his local dialect, but you know, they need
it translating into many other different languages.
So those leaders across the nation, so the churches across
those nations are all able to access it.
We've also just over the past month, we have just partnered
with and partnered with Arthur and Nina and they, they lead a
church in Cherkasi in central Ukraine. 10 years ago, they were
living right on the Russian Ukrainian border leading,
leading a church there. And they were, they had to flee
their home. I moved to Cherkasey and they
planted a brand new church there.
And if you're interested in knowing more about these guys,
I'd love, love to share it with you.
But just on short, please pray. These guys need leaders, OK?
They need people to run ministries in their churches
because one of the biggest problems is they raise up a
leader and they get sent to the front line.
So what happens over and over again and they may never see
them again. It's very, very real.
We, we were talking 2 weeks, 2 weeks ago and then she said
whilst we were talking to them, there was a vigil going on.
You think what central Ukraine, it's quite far away from the
border, but there was a vigil going on for a young boy they
knew who'd been killed in a drone strike that last week.
It's very real. But there are hungry people.
There are people who have next to nothing all around them and
they have no money. So we want to be able to
resource them, serve what they are doing, and we want to be
able to resource many people across the globe.
We want this church to be so generous that we are able to
give. Give not just here, but give to
the ends of the world. See God's Kingdom impact the
ends of the earth. You see, we are called to give.
We are called to serve with our time, with our money, and we're
also called to serve with our gifts.
You see, David, he had many fighting men who all had
different fighting styles. And on a lifeboat, you need
people who were able to do different jobs.
Some who's able to, to read the, the radar, some who were able
to, to man the comms, some who's able just to bail water out the
boat. All are vital for the mission of
the lifeboat you see. And some of you, some of you are
incredibly organised. Some of you are great with
finances, great with money. Some of you are are incredibly
sensitive and and and and and and have a mercy gifting.
You notice when people aren't quite right, when people are
struggling. Some of you are great with kids.
Some of you are great with tech. Some of you are wonderful
opening your homes and inviting people back.
We all have specific gifts that Jesus has given us for the glory
of his Kingdom that he may be glorified and to grow the
church. And maybe you're you're there
sitting you think, well, I don't, I'm not sure I know what
I have. I don't know I have anything.
I don't have anything. Other people have stuff, but I
don't. Well, Paul says in Ephesians 4
when he that's Christ Jesus ascended on high, he took many
captives and he gave to his people.
He gave sorry and he gave gifts to his people.
I ask you, are you his people? If you're his people, he's
giving you gifts, not just one or two.
He's giving you a lot. He has given you gifts for his
glory and for the growing of his Kingdom.
In in Matthew 25, we read Jesus tells a parable of a of a, of a
man of a ruler of a rich guy who goes on a long trip.
And it says that on that trip before he goes, he calls
together his servants. Who does he call together?
Are you a servant of God? Well, he calls you and he gives
them. It says it gives them talents,
which is a unit of money. Somebody gives 5.
Somebody gives 2. Somebody gives 1 and you may be
thinking well that feels really unfair.
Why only one Why some five Well, let's put it in perspective
here. A talent.
Obviously it's where we get the word talent from this this very
verse a talent. It is a it was a weight of
money, a weight of gold actually equate equating to 34 grammes of
gold. So in today's money, one talent,
if you were so unfortunate to only get one talent, you would
be receiving £3.78 million. Poor you, poor you.
I mean, I don't know what you could do with that.
I mean it with with inflation and oil prices.
You know the crazy though we the point is that we have all been
given more than enough for the blessing of the Kingdom to
glorify Jesus. We have all been given more than
enough. And see the question isn't how
much have I been given? Where am I gifted?
The question is, will you use what you have for Jesus?
Will you use it for him? And if you're struggling again,
thinking what on earth and has God-given me?
Because I'm quite often when we think about gifts, you know,
gifts of spirit gifts that God has given, we kind of think of
the big ones, you know, tongues, prophecy, words of knowledge and
think, well, I've just, I try and I pray, but I've never got
that. Just just look, this is not an
exhaustive list, but look at this list.
This is some of the things that Paul lists that God gives as
gifts. I mean, he says, he says, Sir,
he says there's a special gift of serving, you know, oh, IE
have you got hands? You can you lift something?
You can use your hands to move boxes.
You can use hands to cook someone a meal.
You can use hands to build a block of Duplo with a, with a,
with a toddler. You can use your hands to bless
and serve others. It says that their works of help
is a spiritual gift. Now, I said before that the
first kind of sign of serving is showing up.
Now I am very aware that for some of you, showing up is
really hard. It's really hard.
So maybe you've got a gift of help.
And what I mean, I'm not that you've got a special calling to
help people, but you have a car. You have a car and you're able
to put fuel in it. And therefore you can go and
visit people who can't show up. You can go and give them lips
who can't get here on their own means.
And we can serve by so many ways.
Maybe you have you have knowledge, maybe you have
knowledge, maybe you're able to fix things.
Maybe you've got knowledge of how to how to how to serve.
You know, you know the, the social system, you know, the,
the health system and you know what forms or what to write in
different forms so that someone who needs help gets help that is
serving amazingly with your gifts.
He says mercy giving, administration, faith, all gifts
that Christ has given us so that the Kingdom will grow, so that
Jesus will be glorified. And the reality is when we say
no, and you are more than welcome to say no, it's it's the
beautiful thing about our faith. It's on grace.
It's not works. God gives us stuff and he asks
us to use it for his glory. But you don't have to.
But if you say no, if you don't use your gifts, you don't use
what Christ has given you for his glory and the building of
his church. Or firstly, the rest of us miss
out. You see, Paul, one of Paul's
pictures of the church is a body.
You know, some of us are fingers, some of us are toes,
some of us are eyes and noses, you know, all that kind of
stuff. And but what he's saying there
is if we choose, and we have every right to choose not to use
our gifts, we turn the body into a man with a limp because he's
got a leg that's not working. You know, if, if the majority of
us aren't serving, then we're like a stroke victim with the
whole right side of our body not responding.
I mean, the rest of us are going to do our best, but we're not
going to be able to reach as many people as if the whole body
was working together. Secondly, not only do we miss
out, but you miss out. If you refuse to give your
gifts, use your gifts and talents for Jesus and his
church, you miss out. You miss out because because God
is going. God is going to fill this earth
with many souls. Revelation has that image of,
of, of John hearing a mighty roar, a mighty crowd.
He turns around, He sees men and women from every tribe and
nation. God is going to do that.
Is he going to do it through you?
He wants to, He desires to. But if like showing up, we
choose not to show up. We choose not to use our gifts.
He's going to do it, but we're going to miss out on the
adventure of being used by him to grow his Kingdom and give him
glory. You see, we serve by what we do,
but we also serve by what we say.
We serve with our mouths or as the Bible say, we serve with our
tongues. And and on that list of gifts,
just some of those gifts were were very strong gifts that we
use our tongue for encouragement, correction,
speaking words of love over one another.
But James, the half brother of Jesus, he, he is very and very
clear that he says whilst our tongues were used for God's
glory, their natural inclination is to do evil.
He says the tongue is like a little rudder on the back of the
boat. We're on our lifeboats, we're
heading into lost, we're lost, we're heading into the seas,
we're looking for lost and broken people.
Then all of a sudden we just start turning around in circles.
It's because the rudder is doing wrong things, because the rudder
isn't working. You see, we, we have a natural
inclination to, to pull others down, to gossip, to to divide,
divide people, to complain. And the reality is that, yeah,
on a lifeboat in a church, things get cramped sometimes.
Sometimes someone steps on your toe, you go to grab your bag,
and someone else has taken it. They didn't mean to.
They just thought it was theirs. You know, they we we, we met.
We, we annoy people. We were sad against that same
person who just, you know, the way that they sing or the way
that they, they clap their hands.
It just really grates us. And that that happens.
Don't look to the person next to you, please.
That happens, doesn't it? We rub each other up the wrong
way, but with the power of the Spirit.
Actually, James says. Actually, who contained the
tongue? But by the power of the Holy
Spirit, our tongues go from objects of evil to objects of
wonder that they are used to encourage, to build up, to
strengthen. And the challenge is that we
speak out truth, we speak out life, we look for opportunities
rather than to pull down to, to build up.
See, every single one of us has been given gifts.
And as a church, we have a big vision, a vision far too big for
to be carried by just one or two people, that we need everyone
manning the deck using what God has given you for his glory and
the rescuing of lost souls. So my question to you is, are
you a passenger or are you a crew member?
Are you a passenger or are you a crew member?
And now you may not be from this church, maybe just visiting.
My challenge to you is exactly the same in where you find
yourself. Are you a passenger or are you a
crew member? See, one of the reasons I think,
why we often don't jump in with two feet and say, I'm a crew
member. I'll do whatever it takes to
grow God's Kingdom, to bring Jesus glory, is because we don't
fully grasp the wonder of the church.
So Jesus asks us to serve. He's asked us to serve him by
serving his church. You see the church, the local
church, not just the the whole church universities, but the
local church, Jesus says is the most beautiful thing in the
world to him. He describes each local church
in Revelation as a lampstand, A lampstand made of pure gold,
priceless. That is displaying the light of
Christ, the world, you, the church is priceless.
It's priceless. It's precious to Christ because
where is He? You read the first few lines of
Genesis, He's right there amongst it.
He's right there amongst his church.
He loves her. She is wonderful to him.
You see Jesus, he showed up for her.
That's how amazing he thinks she is.
He showed up for her when no one else would.
He showed up for you when you were at your worst.
And Scripture tells us that right now He is seated in the
heavenly places speaking to the Father.
He says that He is always with us.
Always with us. A Christian is never truly on
their own. So therefore will you show up
for one another? Will you be there for one
another? Will you be there for this
church? Jesus gave everything for his
bride. He didn't hold anything back.
But on the cross, every last bit of him was drained for the glory
of seeing, for the joy of having his church.
So therefore, will you give, will you give your money?
Will you give your talents? They had the the church for this
church for Jesus. He spoke life to everyone he
met. He is speaking life now as he
prays for. Do you know Jesus is praying for
you right now? Oh, I want to pray for some of
you afterwards. I hope you pray for each other,
but Jesus is praying for us before we even started.
Will you therefore choose to speak a life, not death over
each other? I see it in Matthew 25.
These servants, us who the master gives the talons to.
We have two outcomes. 1 Servant wastes the gift, he buries it.
He doesn't use it, he squanders it.
The other two, they use it. They invest it in the Kingdom.
They use what they have for God's glory.
They use what they have to serve others, and they yield a massive
reward. You see, it says, it says to
those who invested what Christ had given them.
It says, the master draws into himself and says, well done,
well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful
with a few things. I will put you in charge of
many. Come and share in the master's
happiness. That's what it's all about.
It's all about and we feel it now.
I'm short of money, I'm short on time, I'm short on gifting.
I don't want to speak nice about them.
We feel it now, but in eternity, every single time that we have
chosen to use our money, use our gifts, use our time, use our
tongues for Christ's glory and the growth of His Kingdom.
He, the Master looks at you and he says well done, well done.
I've got some more stuff for you to do.
I've got some stuff. You have been faithful.
Come and enjoy my happiness. I mean, who doesn't want to hear
that? So are you a passenger or are
you a crew member? Is the church an optional extra
for you? I mean, you're here this week is
next week. Just as important is every week
showing up? The enemy tells us it doesn't
matter whether you're there or not.
They don't want you there. You're not needed.
Christ says I want you, I want you, I want to bless you, I want
to use you. Are you a passenger or a crew
member? Do you see the church as I might
show up or I might not. I might give, I might not, I
might serve, I might not, I might speak life, I might not.
Well however you were coming in today.
My challenge is to everyone hearing my voice right now is
where you go all in. Will you go all in?
Will you stop being a passenger? Stop just putting your foot
every now and then on the crew side, jump fully across and join
us. Join us be a committed crew
member. Join us in rescuing lost in
broken people in saying. I don't know what I've got, but
anything I do have, you can have it.
What what you want to eat doing. I'm just here to serve.
I want to use what I've got my time, money, my, my, my doing
and my my voice for you. Join us for the most amazing
mission that Christ has for any of us to serve his church.
Like I said, I want to pray now, but if you're sat, then you're
generally like I do. I want to get in, but I feel
like I'm a passenger. I feel like I'm a bit, sometimes
bit of both, but I want to be fully on board, but I don't
really know what that means. Come and speak to me.
And I'd love to point you in the right direction.
So let's pray. Lord Jesus, I, I thank you for
your church. God, I thank you that you love
your church more than anything that we could possibly
comprehend. Jesus, you don't see us as
plastic, but gold. You don't see us as something to
throw away, but somebody that is precious beyond words.
God, and you're not far off, but you are right here in our midst.
You are. You have called us to be a
golden lampstand, A lampstand that is shining a light to this
world. Lord Jesus, I pray right now
that you would challenge every single one of us.
Challenge us, God, show us, show us what gifts and show us what
talents that you have given us that we are currently
withholding from the body. Look on.
I pray that we would be a church not made-up of not not made-up
of a Moses who's trying to do it all or even, or even with, with
a few helpers, but actually a church where every single one of
us comes in, jumps on boards and says, here I am.
Send me. Oh, jeez, we thank you for your
goodness. Thank you for your grace.
Amen. I just wanted to share something
fantastic word, Ben. Thank you.
Have you ever felt two things at the same time that you think you
can't feel at the same time? Because last week I did.
I felt incredible joy and sadness.
Now, Ben wouldn't tell you this, but last week there wasn't
somebody. This makes me emotional.
There wasn't someone to serve our children.
And Ben served our children. He missed the word because he
was looking after our kids. And that fills me with joy
because that's what all of the leaders in this church are like.
They're not about pedestal to look good, but they're about
serving. So I'm joyful that we have that,
but I'm sad that Ben needed to do that because there were a lot
of bodies and hands and feet and voices here.
And any one of you can offer to go on a rota to play with the
kids. It's not just about serving the
kids, It's about releasing their parents.
It's about less pressure on some of the people on the kids team
who don't only do kids. They do teas and coffees and
they do worship. We've got wonderful people
serving. But hear the word that Ben
brought. And if you've got.
If you've. Got if you've got hands and feet
and a voice you can offer. So yeah, just please do that.
And I just want to say thank you, Ben.
I want to say thank you to Skip and to Julian and to Shagen,
because we have leaders who aren't just about the shiny
jobs. We have leaders who give, and
we've so much to be grateful for.
So yeah, I pray that that God knobbles you and that we have
more people coming forward to serve.