Full Message
Transcript
Thank you so much. It's been a huge pleasure to be here. I've loved being in these times of worship experiencing God's nearness and I pray the word has been a blessing to you. I'm going to stay with Moses in this final session and I'm in Numbers 10. We saw at the beginning the call of this man, the danger of his almost missing the destiny God had for him and how God pulled him out of all his reluctance and got him on the move and into his purposes.
This time I'm looking at a very key moment in the story of these people being shaped. You know, they came out as rabble, a slave rabble. They'd never had responsibility, all they knew was whips and building and no responsibility and they never knew what it was to make decisions. You just do what you're told and so on and they came out a rabble. They're often complaining, they're backsliding and there come turning points in their story. By the time Moses has passed over this company to Joshua. Joshua can say to them march around Jericho seven times don't speak until the seventh time and we're all shout and they do it. They're disciplined army and that there's this transition that happens from being a rabble into an army and all these things are written down, we're told in 1 Corinthians 10 as an example in other words, a type for us. It's solid history, it actually happened to these people, it's written down for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. I found that fascinating doing this book God's Treasured Possession, that it's not just history it's wonderful to see the history but every experience has got something to teach us, every stage in the journey and here in Numbers 10 you get a very key turning point.
It's the first time that they march out in any kind of formation, no longer a rabble but a formation and they must have been a formidable crowd. The glory of God overshadowing them and marching in tribal formation into the purposes of God together.
So I'm just going to read, I won't read the whole chapter because it's a bit long but I'll just choose out verses here and there, okay? So, Numbers 10:13 onwards:
“So, they moved out for the first time according to the command of the Lord through Moses. The standard of the camp of the sons of Judah according to their armies set out first with Nahshon the son of Amminadab over its army. v17, then the Tabernacle was taken down and the sons of Gershon, and the sons of Merari, who were carrying the Tabernacle set out. v21, then the Kohathites set out, carrying the holy objects; and the tabernacle set out before their arrival. v25, then the standard of the camp of the sons of Dan according to their armies which formed the rear guard for all the camps set out with Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai over its army. v29, then Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, “we are setting out to the place of the Lord said, ‘I'll give it to you’; come with us and we will do you good, for the Lord has promised good concerning Israel”. But he said to him, “I'll not come, but rather I'll go to my own land and relatives.” Then, he said, “Please don't leave us, inasmuch as you know where we should camp in the wilderness and you will be as eyes for us. So it will be, if you go with us, that whatever good the Lord does for us, we will do for you.”
Thus, they move out from the mount of the Lord three days journey, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord journeying in front of them for the three days to seek out a resting place for them. The cloud of the Lord was over them day by day when they set out from the camp.
Then it came about that the ark when it came about when the ark set out that Moses said “Rise up, O Lord and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.”
When it came to rest, he said, “Return, O Lord, to the myriad thousands of Israel.
Father, we thank you for your presence. We bless you for this time we've enjoyed together coming from our various settings. Those gathered with us, scattered across nations even. Lord, we're feeling ourselves to be shaping up as a people and we ask you Father that you will be our doctor now. Come Holy Spirit. Rest upon us, lead us Lord, lead us into truth, take the things of Christ, reveal them to us, Holy Spirit be engaged with us in this session we pray. We ask it Father. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
So here are a former rabble company beginning to find where they belong, an army with shape, a group that are beginning to look quite formidable on the move. Beginning to discover their identity more and more. Beginning to line up with what God has, not just escaping from Egypt but shaping up to God's great plan and then you get this encounter.
Moses, father-in-law, come with us, come with us, we'll do you good and that's what I want to look at in this final session. If you like, it's an invitation to you or even you who are online. Come with us, we'll do you good. That's the issue that's being of set out this afternoon. Come, come with us.
Notice it's not come to us, it's not come to us a we'll build a lovely church. Come with us because the commission of the church is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. It's not just build up a nice church in a cul-de-sac. You're on a journey. You're on a motorway. You're into God's great plan and purpose.
So, it's come with us and so we find that this invitation is very relevant to us today. It's one we can borrow as it were out of this Old Testament story and make very relevant to us. We can be saying this to those that we reach. We've just heard on the screen of people being added, a family being saved and then we heard “yeah we're trying to form community here and I thought yeah all that he's saying that's exactly what we're saying to people. “Yeah come on, come with us, come and join us. Come we're on a journey. We're into something but something's excited us.
We’ve got a feel of destiny about us. Come with us on this journey. That's the whole thing. We're not just trying to build a local church. We're trying to reach the nations for God!
So, if someone came to you and said come with us. I think you might have a few questions, I would! If someone said, come with us, we'll do you good. I think I might say, who are you?
Who are you?
That's a valid question, isn't it? Who, who are you? Well, I think Moses could have answered in a way that we also could answer. Moses could have said this. “Well, actually, we're the children of Abraham. God banished the human race from his presence, He made man, His image, His likeness, Adam the son of God, the perfect image of God. God said to him and Eve, multiply, fill the earth, be my representation right around the world, bring order and God's great plan for the human race wrecked and spoiled as Adam and Eve turned away and were pushed out from the presence of God. They're outside of Eden, death starts sweeping around and although they exist, they're really dead. They're not experiencing God.
Mankind is cut off from God but God hasn't forsaken the human race because suddenly in Genesis 12 we find God the God of Glory, we're told appeared to our father Abraham. Abraham is just a pagan like anybody else but God and his infinite mercy although he's cut off the human race and all the human race is dying and death is swept in and disorder and all kinds of messes, there God starts his great plan of salvation he comes to a man called Abraham and makes him phenomenal promises. He says to him, “can you count the stars so shall your children be”. Through your seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed and Abraham believed God and that came on the human race, one man who was now believing God. Not like Adam and Eve who didn't believe god. God's restoring faith.
Faith such a key restoring faith, by faith. Abraham believed God. God said, “you're going to have seed, you're going to have children. It seems so impossible. He's an elderly man with a barren wife. God gave him this promise and he took it and he became blessed man and he carried these promises and he passed them on to his children to Isaac and Jacob. Joseph went down into Egypt and God said to him there'll be 400 years of slavery and then you'll be released. It will happen. God had promised him that and Moses could say, “look, we are children of the one that God's given the promises to but world history is in our hands. We are the light of the world. We're the ultimate way. The seed is going to come through us, we as descendants but ultimately the ones see Jesus. The answer to world history, that's who we are. We're carrying history in our hands. We got that sense of destiny, that we really count we’re the people of God.
That's what they could have said. Who are you? Well, that's who we are!
Also, we were slaves for 400 years. We were in bondage in Egypt. We actually, we're just living like them, we kind of lost our identity, we were worshiping idols like they were and ultimately God said, “I'm going to judge Egypt. I'm going to judge the sinfulness there. The terrible things they were going to do, kill children, kill babies, the ugliness of Egypt. God said, I'm going to deal with it but he gave his people a wonderful way out. He said, in your households, every family must take a lamb, it has to be a perfect lamb, not one that you don't want because it's diseased, it has to be a lamb and you must kill that lamb, put the blood on the doorposts and when I see the blood, I'll pass over you on that night of judgement.
Who are you? Well, we're people who have been rescued by the blood of the lamb. That's who we are! We know that judgment is behind us. That was their testimony that God did sweep right through the nation with plague after plague and then there came this terrible plague when every home had a death in it. In every home, a firstborn died from Pharaoh down to the poorest person and that swept through the nation. Judgement came, except for the homes that had the blood of the lamb. It wasn't for them to kind of open the door and look at the blood and say, well, it doesn't mean much to me. It doesn't seem to help me. Only God knows the value of the blood of the lamb, when God says, “when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I'll be satisfied”. We have peace with God through the blood of the lamb. Not because we feel good, not because we have huge faith but because we applied the blood, and we believe it and John the Baptist said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He takes away our sin. We know our guilt has been removed.
So, who are we? We're people who know we've been forgiven. I hope you know you've been forgiven. It's not through our endeavour, it's through shed blood of a spotless, innocent lamb who took our place. That's our identity beloved. That's who we are. God has set us free. There's no condemnation because Jesus bore it all. He took all our guilt. We have been dealt with by this wonderful death on our behalf. By one offering, he's sanctified us for all time.
Hallelujah! When I wake up in the morning, I say, thank you Jesus, I'm righteous. Thank you, Jesus. I belong to you. Thank you, the blood has taken away my guilt. Thank you, that the blood has taken away every stain. Thank you, Lord, it doesn't depend on how I've done, it depends on your shed blood! No condemnation.
I hope we're living in the good of that. That's what they could say! We've been set free, judgement is behind us. We're not fearing judgement, it's happened but then they could say this, not only has judgement been taken but we were slaves in that land and there would have been the experience for them that: “hey, my judgement's been taken”. Thank you, Father for forgiving me. Thank you that no one died in our home because the blood of the lamb covered us but I'm on my journey and wow, there's a sea and we can't get through, we're locked in. I know for as a young Christian, this is almost exactly what I felt. Thank you for forgiveness but I'm still a slave and here comes the Egyptian army with their chariots, their horses, their spears, their swords and we're just slaves!
We don't have any chariots, we don't have any horses, we have no weaponry, we're shut in and we're forgiven but shut in. That's exactly how I felt. I think thank you for forgiving me but wow, I wish I wasn't a slave anymore. I guess some of them said, “oh no, here comes my master, the one who always had me under his thumb”. I felt like that. Well, there's all this stuff I can't get free from. There's all kinds of things that yeah, I know I'm forgiven but if only I was free!
Then you know the story, hallelujah! As they come to the Red Sea, it opens and they go down into that and they come up the other side. They're sort of into a death and a resurrection and Paul builds on this if you look at Romans 6, it talks about how we have been crucified with Christ. We've died with him and been raised with him to newness of life, we're not slaves anymore!
Who are you? Well, we used to be slaves, we're not slaves anymore! We used to be sinners. We're not sinners anymore. It’s so important beloved that we know our identity.
Who are you? Inviting us to come with you? Well, we used to be in slavery to sin but we're not anymore. It's ever so important we understand that. Some Christians want to say, no, of course, we're sinners really. No, I'm not a sinner nor are you if you believe in Jesus. See, the Bible writes to the saints at Philippi. Those of you who once said, well, I'm a sinner really, don't read Philippians because it's written to the saints. Lots of it's all written to the saints, so he said well I'm a sinner better not read that then now the Bible says we've been buried with him we've been raised with him and not one, not one of Egypt's army could get through so when you feel sometimes, when Satan says “you've got, you know, I've got you, you want to turn around to Satan and say how many Egyptians got through the Red Sea, not one!
You get that wonderful hymn in Exodus 15, the first worship song in the Bible it's wonderful it's a Worship song. Could be like Psalm 1, couldn't it? The first time, 2 million people start singing. Moses taught them a song and they all sang it. They said, the horse and the rider, that's gone down. They sank like lead. We're free. We're free. Who is there like it? Worship is a response to the majesty of God. It's not us making up a few songs. It's getting a glimpse of how wonderful he is! How glorious he is and Exodus 15 is a wonderful song of praise and worship and celebration. What they understood is, “hey, we're not slaves anymore.”
I hope you know that. You're not a slave anymore.
I remember when I first saw Romans 6, “he that has died is free from sin”.
Oh, wow. I'm free. I'm free and we went down into death, we came up into resurrection with Jesus. When he died on the cross, he broke the power of sin over us. He set us free! He made us saints, holy ones belonging to God. That’s who we are! That's where we've come from! We carry this promise in our company in our seed. We carry the with the light of the world. Paul says, “you were darkness, now, you're light”. We carry the message, whether it's in Northern Ireland, whether it's in Sweden, whether it's in Zambia or the various places we’ve spoken of. We carry God's message, we're carrying truth.
Who are you? Well, that's who we are! We're carrying the truth. We used be guilty but Jesus took away all our guilt. We're not guilty anymore, we're righteous in his sight! We used to be slavery, not slaves anymore. That's our identity. That's who we are!
Not only that. We were invited to encounter God. You know, Hollywood doesn't quite understand the story of the Exodus. They just think it's about slavery and deliverance from slavery. It's like just cross the Red Sea, end of the story. Run away, run away. No, that's not it! It says, Moses brought them to meet God. Mount Sinai, the Mount of Covenant relationship.
I love that chapter it says, Moses brought the people to meet God. It's quite a phrase, isn't it? “Come and meet God. I met Him. I met Him. You could there's a bush that burned. I mean, just glowed and glowed and glowed and I went up to it and it spoke to me”. Moses, wow, “I am that I am”. Wow. I met god. Would you like to come and meet God? He took them to meet God!
I remember when I had to first meet my future parents-in-law. I remember that. I fell in love with Wendy when we're at Bible College together and we got engaged and then came the day to meet the future in laws. You know, it's a bit scary. Never met them before. You know, what do you call them? What do you wear? How'd you address them? You know, I'm going to meet the parents in law. They're going to meet God. “Come and meet God!” And two million people come to a mountain and it explodes in glory.
For Moses, it's a bush. For 2 million people, it's a mountain, it kind of goes incandescent. There's lightning and thunder and a trumpet that grows louder and louder and two million people hear God speaking.
Imagine standing in the desert and you hear God speaking. They came to meet God and the people you go and talk to Him. For Moses the mediator climbs the mountain. And they stay down and we're told don't touch the mountain. Even if an animal touches it, it has to be slaughtered. This is God, this is holy ground. It was holy ground for Moses.
“Take your sandals off Moses”. Now it's holy ground for the whole people and God makes a covenant with them. God says you're going to be my special treasure. Only you have I known of all the people on the face of the earth. I make covenant with you. I'll give you my holy law because well I'm a I'm a holy God. I'm a jealous God and you're going to be mine especially mine. I don't know any of the other nations yet but you I know, I give you my holy laws that you might reflect my beauty and majesty.
You might be like me, you should be my bride. It's amazing! They come into a covenant relationship with God. They're a Kingdom of Priests. They're a Holy Nation, a unique people. That's who they were.
Who are you? Well, that's who they were. That's who we are, beloved. So many of these things we can just line up with and we find that Peter in the New Testament borrows these phrases. You are a Holy Nation. You are a Holy Priesthood. You are God's Own Possession. All these phrases that were first given to Israel, Peter brings them out and says, “now, that's the church, now, we are these people”. So, we can say this to people. Who are you? Well, this is who we are. We carry the message of eternal life to the world. We know our sins are forgiven. We know the power of sin has been broken in us and we belong to God, we’re God's delight. He delights in us! He's for us! He's with us! He's actually kind of married to us, we have this relationship with God. Would you like to come and be part of that with us? Would you like to come with us on a journey we're on? That's the that's the invitation that should be going out from ChristCentral all over the world. Come with us, come and join us on our journey! We're on a great journey.
So, who are you? These are biblical answers.
I think another question I might ask is this, if someone said, come with us. I think I might say, where are you going? That's a valid question, isn't it?
Where are you going?
Well, where were they going? It's wonderful in Exodus 15 when Moses sings this great prophetic song. I always think that this song is a bit like an interpretation. You know, the interpretations of God would worship but they include kind of revelation in them. It's more than just a prayer. It's something supernatural.
It starts by saying, oh, who is like you and it goes on and it's got revelation. You will bring us in. You're going to take us into the land. You're going to take us to the mountain. You're going to take us to the sanctuary, oh God. There's revelation in this song. It becomes kind of prophetic, it starts as worship, it becomes prophetic. It's not like, well, who knows what's going to happen? You know, we're out now. I guess people might go anywhere. We don't, we're not slaves anymore.
We could go where we, no, no, no, no, no, he's got this sense. No, no, we're on a journey, we’re into a land, we're going to a city, we're going to build a sanctuary. These are some of the things he talked about.
So, let's just think of that. First of all, the land.
Now, of course for the Jewish people, it was a little plot of land at the end of the Mediterranean, Canaan, not terribly significant. We're told in Romans 4, Aaron and that Abraham was ruler of the whole world. Abraham heir of the world, going into the land was just a stepping stone.
He's heir of the world, all the nations of the earth. That's why that's what was in Abraham's heart. Can you count the stars? Remember when they came to the land and they sent the twelve spies in and the twelve spies looked around and said, no, it's impossible. The giants in the land, it’s walled up to heaven. We can't possibly get in there and they turn back and it says, God said, “how long will these people despise me?”
It's interesting, isn't it? They said, wow, look at the giants. Look at the walls. We can't do it and God said, “how long will you despise me?”
I think they could easily have said, oh no, we're not despising you. It's the land, it's the giants, it's the mountain.
No, no, no. God said, how long will you despise me? Because they thought “we can't do it”.
God takes unbelief personally. How long will you despise me? God said, go in. They said, the cities are walled up to heaven. They said, there are giants in the land. We can't do it.
God said, “you're despising me”.
Beloved, as we go, plant churches, you're going to hit so many obstacles. So many setbacks, so many refusals. I've seen them on the journey. Buildings we thought we were going to buy and authorities would say, no, you can't have it. And then we pray and pray and pray and believe God and then it gets reversed.
People are saying that you can't possibly raise that kind of money. It's out of courage. Come on. We haven't got any rich people in our church. Now, so we can. We're going to believe for it. Beloved, we won battle after battle, after battle by faith by knowing God is for us. God said, I'll do it with you. We either say it’s so much we can't do that, it's impossible or we say, no, God has promised and we've got to cultivate faith. That's why we’ve got to have prayer in our churches. We've got to come together in corporate prayer.
One of the greatest callings of a leader is to teach the people to pray, to lead the into believing prayer. Corporate believing prayer. We say, no, we're going to get this. We're going to get this.
I know for ourselves when we, I remember Dave Fellingham, Henry Tyler, and I, three of us were praying for a building in Hove. We first started with 35 people in Brighton, which was Brighton and Hove, it’s one city now. We thought, wow, there’s a place I've seen, I think I'd love to have it. It's got like a 400-500 seater room. It's got loads of offices, other halls. I'd love to have it! And I felt God said, that's the place for you. I remember one, one morning, Henry, Dave, and I were praying, “Lord, give us that building, give us that building, we're praying for, please give us that building” It was one of those comparatively rare occasions, I wish it wasn't rare but it was! We sat back and we said, we've got it, haven't we? We knew it. The three of us knew it together. We've got it. I believe God's given it to us. We've got it and I'd never met a pastor of that building. It was a functioning church, but it had a tiny congregation. I had a phone call from this guy who I’d never met. He said, I'd like to meet you. I said, come to have lunch with us and he came. I thought, how am I going to get to talk about his building? You know, the preliminaries all happened and then he said, “I've heard about your growing congregation.” “Oh, have you?”, meeting in a school room. It had, I think, it had something like 37 adult chairs. If you're after that, you had to bring your deck chair or sit on plastic. That's how we started.
He said, “about your growing congregation. I wondered if you'd be interested in our building.”
I said, “yes, we'd be very interested in your building” but I said, “we'd have to build it the way God's taught us because there are certain principles about the way we are building. So, it would be wonderful to have your building but I'm not prepared to throw away the values.”
So, okay, okay, we do it your way. So, we got in.
Wonderful. We got in for nothing, for nothing. We got the Clarendon building. We became Clarendon Church because that’s what it was. When we got in, we thought, gosh, this place is so disgusting. Why do people leave old settees in the basement of churches? It was just full of junk and we had groups taking the junk up to the tip and then we found dry rot all down one side. “Oh boy!” So, we had to start raising money and we started praying.
“God, teach us, help us” and God spoke to us prophetically and said, raising the funds for this will be an anvil on which I will build your faith as a people and so we started praying; “Lord, give us, give us £20,000”.
We thought that would be a good start! I'm talking about many years ago but 20 thousand seemed a lot of money to us. We weren't many people and if there was a rich guy in the church, I haven't met him yet! So, give us £20,000.
I remember we started having prayer meetings. Saturday morning prayer meetings. I remember saying to the church because we started prayer meetings on a Sunday night. I wanted to pray before the event. I wanted, to win the battle before the battle. I thought we could win the battle in prayer. So, I didn't want to pray Sunday night. I want to pray Saturday before we go into the battle before we say, “come on saints, let's raise £20,000 today.”
So, we pray, we learn to pray together. I remember when I said that, we're going to start on Saturday morning and it's a groans, “Terry Saturday morning! It's the only day of the week we get to lie in” but the Sunday evening prayer meeting was getting some momentum. It was getting to be some Life and vitality.
So, I thought I wait waited for the time, the time. Yeah, now. It's going to be every Saturday morning, eight o'clock. What? But they came! They came and it grew and grew and grew and grew.
It became a place you want to be. I was chatting to Steve Whittington the other day. You may know him, he planted a church in Hull. Now, he's just moving in to Birmingham. He was just a young guy and then I didn't know but he said to me, “I used to get the bus from Patchham across right into Hove to make sure I'm there at eight o'clock. I wouldn't have missed that prayer meeting. Matt Hosier said, that's where I learned to pray. That prayer meeting, I learned to pray!
Beloved, it's the most wonderful calling on a church leader to teach your people to pray with faith and we prayed “Lord, give us £20,000, give us £20,000 and then they came around and hey, the £20,000”. We prayed on the Saturday. We took the offering on the Sunday. Whoop! We got £20,000. Yippee. That was very exciting and then we had to do it again because there's another room that has to be done and a bit more has to be done and, in the end, we're having three gift days a year, £20,000 every time.
£20,000, we do it again. We did it again, woohoo! Faith is growing. We did it again!
You can't come. Yes, we can. We can and then we see this other building down into Brighton. We need a bigger centre because we're filling this place. We look at this other centre and we think, wow, we’ve got to raise, maybe got to raise £100,000. I remember saying to the church, we're going to raise £100,000. £100,000, yeah, we’ve got to go for it.
One guy came to me and said, “Terry, you've lost the plot. You've always told us that people are more important than buildings and you don't, people are completely, you're not carrying the church with you and I'm leaving. That was not a pleasant conversation! So, we come up to the Sunday or the Saturday actually. We're praying on the Saturday. Lord, give us a hundred thousand and during the prayer meeting, felt God said to me, you've got the 100,000, ask me for two. Because corporate prayer, full of the spirit is a very exciting place to be! Corporate prayer together. I said to the people, I think we've got the hundred thousand. Let's pray for two hundred thousand. I said, “God, this sounds crazy. Let's do it. Let's do it. We’re going to believe God for it. £200,000. Let's believe God for it! We asked God, give us £200,000.
Remember, this was Saturday, I then preach the next morning. Sunday morning, we're going to believe god for £200,000 this morning. In those days, we did that on one day, one offering, £200,000. “Lord do it”.
I remember that evening I was going to bed that night, this was before mobile phones, before you know it's ancient history and I was going to bed. I was in my bedroom and I heard the letterbox flip go and I went down and the envelope and I recognized the writing. I came back upstairs to Wendy. I said this is going to tell me what happened this morning. I remember we opened the envelope. Terry this morning we raised £250,000. And I remember my knees gave way. I sat down. “Yes, lord. Yes, lord. We can do it. We can do it!”
Then we put in our formal application. Having been told informally, yes, you can buy that warehouse. That was kind of a casual conversation. We put in our formal application. It was rejected. They said you can't, we're not going to let a business become a church. You must be joking! They totally dismissed us! They ridiculed us. They mocked us! I said, “no”, I said, can we appeal? They said, well, if it was 60, 40 votes on the committee, it's worth appealing. 70/30, waste of time, 80/20. This was 100% refusal. 100%, it's not worth making an appeal. So, we made an appeal and we prayed a lot. We prayed. We prayed for Mr Mumford whom I never met but I just heard it was on his desk. We prayed. Lord, do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it and a few weeks later and the letter came back. Your appeal has won the day! We turned it around.
See, it's got to be said we can do this! We can do this but we can't say, well, we don't have time for prayer meetings anymore because you got small groups, it's busy world. Hey, how are we going to win the world? The early church prayed. They gave themselves to prayer! They gave themselves to prayer.
So, I want to encourage us as we go from this on this journey we're going on. If we don't give ourselves to prayer we look and say wow it's pretty big cities here. Walled up to heaven. There are giants can't go and they say we can't come in. They say you can't come in. The committee says you can't come in. The council says no you can't. It's the end of it isn't it? It's like in that in Acts 4. They said, you must no longer preach in this name and so they prayed. “Lord, all authority, Sovereign Lord”. Jesus said, “all authority is given to me”. Then, the Sanhedrin say, listen, we have authority here, you can't, so, who's got authority? Is it Jesus who's got all authority or is it Sanhedrin? So, they call people to prayer. They don't walk up and down with banners shouting “Open the way”, it's not fair, “the Sanhedrin are not fair”. No. They pray because they know another authority. All authority is given to me. All authority! So where does the authority lie? Jesus said “I've got all authority”. So, they pray! They pray “God grant us courage and boldness” and we know the story. Holy Spirit fell upon them, they were filled with boldness, on they went.
See beloved, if we abandon corporate prayer because we haven't got time for it, we'll have 10 minutes before the meeting. No, I'm talking about battling. I'm talking about learning to pray together. Learn to listen for one another in prayer. Find him. Where's faith coming in the meeting? People are gifted. That woman when she prays, she's got a gift of faith. It stirs us all. We learn how to pray together. We learn to listen. We learn to engage with the Holy Spirit. We become a powerful force. We won't win the world without it. It's by faith that we press through because you're going hit obstacles. You can't come in here. You can't come in here and if we're not learning to pray, you may have your five-year plan, you might learn all sorts of management techniques but that's not the church. The church is a praying force!
Let's go from here. We're praying force. Let's learn You might say, well, won't get anybody to come. You know, that famous saying, we're going to have a prayer meeting and two or three turn up and so, when you did say, there's two or three gathered. I love two or three. I can pray my heart out with two or three. Henry, Dave, and I got that building, three of us. You can pray with people who agree with you. I'm on the same page with you. You watch God bless and when people notice God’s blessing, then people want to be there. It begins to grow. You don't have to force people! You just have to see answers to prayer and the excitement of his presence and prayer accomplishes phenomenal things!
These were the people God, we're on a journey. We're going to take land and they did it by faith. That's how they did it. That's who they are. God said, when they didn't go in, God said, as truly as I live, it's interesting what happens next. Somebody said this, whatever comes next is going to happen. When God says, “as truly as I live”, think “wow, what's he going to say?” It doesn't say you will get into the land. He says, as truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the lord. Getting into Canaan was just the next step in the process of “all the earth”. Getting into Canaan was not terribly significant of itself. I've been there, it's not very significant, Israel's not particularly that land, it's not ever so relevant. It's just the next step! When they didn't go in, God said, as sure as I live, all the earth will be filled. All the earth, Zimbabwe, Zambia. God's going to have a people. That's where his eye is. That's his purpose. So, we need to understand that. Jesus said, in Psalm two, the father says to the son, you're my son. Today, I've begotten you, ask me, I'll give you the nations for your inheritance. That's the conversation between the Father and the Son. You are my son, today, I've begotten you.
Now, if you look at the book of Acts, you'll find that's a resurrection Psalm. It's not in his head when Jesus is raised from the dead, you're my son, today, I've begotten you, Ask me, I'll give you the nations, Jesus said, all authority Pharisee was given to me. Go. Make disciples of all the nations.
So, where are we going? We're going to all the earth to preach the gospel. That’s it beloved, that's one of the precious things God's taught us within the Newfrontiers world. We're not just trying to build a good church. We're trying to reach nations. That's reflected in your DNA here throughout our 3 days together.
So keep on seeing more people being interviewed, more people from other nations. That's since we're in this together. Finding friends across the world. Winning people for Jesus. It was lovely to hear even from Sweden just now, a lady praying for a husband. He gets saved. Oh, another one and then it was said, what did they say? Come into the community. That was said, I thought “that's right”. That's the next step.
We're going to a land and then we're going to build community. Come to the City of God. That's what Moses said. It prophetically in that Exodus 15 song. He's taking us to the mountain, to the city. See, God wants a community, God wants an alternative society. There's the world and there's God's alternative society, God's culture, our citizenship is in heaven, we have a different citizenship. When people were saved in the Book of Acts, it says 3,000 were saved. No, it doesn't. It says 3,000 were added.
Added to what? To this body of disciples, that Jesus had poured His life into for three years. This body of disciples, 120 in the upper room, full of the Holy Spirit. They go out full of the Holy Spirit. Peter preaches in a common tongue, 3,000 are saved and they are added. Oh, the community is growing. God's city is growing. God's city is growing.
In the Old Testament, Zion is a word that gets introduced, it's Jerusalem. See, these Old Testament stories, all these things happen to them. Solid history as an example as a type it’s written down for our instruction. So, for them, slave community, becomes an effective army. Under David, they take Jerusalem. Now, they've got a king. They've got a king, they've got a city, and they're going to have a temple. It's the next stage and for us, what we just heard from Sweden, this dear man, I've come to Jesus coming to the community. Come and join the people of God. It's not just you and Jesus on your own and that's why we've got to be so careful in our modern world. We’re a people, you see in the early churches, they were together. Acts 2,3,4; they were together, they were together, they were together, they were together at the temple, they were together from house to house, they were together. That's where they found their identity. They were together. They were knit together. Doing together things. Praying for one another, building one another up, confessing their faults together, together, together, and then they go out into the world and come back together.
Whereas we tend to live in the world and its culture and we may be popping to church occasionally. Well, now we don't have to. You can just turn on and watch it on the screen. I can just do it in my time. It's like the way I can choose my food. It can come through Amazon. I can do church on Amazon. I can just, no, that's missing the point. God wants us to be together. We can't know what God wants without our lives being integrated together. You cannot grow into maturity as a Christian alone.
I touched on this in my little seminar the other day but it's absolutely crucially important we build a community! The Bible doesn't say be kind, the nice thought, be kind. It doesn't say that it says be kind to one another, forgiving one another, just as Christ forgave you! It's a community of people who've been forgiven by Christ, so be kind to one another, forgiving one another. So, God is building another community on planet earth that's lost its way, living in selfishness and arrogance and unbelief and God's got his city, his people and they're learning to be kind to one another. Forgiving one another and so they build another community and of course, as we learn to live like that, it spills over into the place where you work. You're forgiving there as well actually and this lifestyle that we're living out together, not this church we occasionally visit. You know, pop in this Sunday. I might go maybe in three week’s time, I might pop in. Didn't like the music this week. Huh? And we're meant to be integrated. Knitted together, drawn together. This is so important.
When I first got saved, I went to a terrific Baptist church. I loved the pastor, he was a wonderful preacher and he would say, do not forsake the gathering of yourself together. In other words, “come next week”. But he didn't complete the verse. That verse says, but encourage one another but we weren't anything for one another. I didn't know anybody else there, there were about 700 members. I was anonymous, I shook his hand at the door and said see you next week.
We thought “No that won't do”. We're trying to build a different kind of church. Where we can do some of these forty plus “one anothers”. Forgive one another. Love one another. Build one another up. Speak the truth to one another. So, we’ve got to be integrated, you can't be New Testament church without something very different to “I just go in there occasionally”. That's not New Testament church! That's not the city of God.
Lex wrote a terrific song some time ago: “I have seen the city of God; I cannot turn away.” We used to sing about “city, oh city, oh city of God. All my joys are in you”.
We saw something beloved that captured our hearts. It's worth dying for, worth living for! Moses said this prophetically, it's going to bring us into the land, he's going to bring us to Zion, the city of God. So, Zion takes on a kind of strange symbolic form as Zion is Jerusalem but you read the Psalms and Zion is the joy of the whole earth. My feet are in Zion. Why are other mountains jealous that God has chosen this mountain? It's kind of, it's the people of God gathering into together and we do that again and again and again. We do it in Sweden, we do, you just build a city, you build a community and you become a Christian, it's not an isolated thing, not me and Jesus. It's something we do together, we become a community. That's what God wants. That's the way we do it. That's the way Moses here saw it. This great city, there's a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
You look at Zechariah 8 all about this city, a wonderful reputation, God's city. It's his dwelling place, where he wants to be but that's what we're doing. We were slaves, we're forgiven, we've been set free! We're on a journey, we're going into land, we're going to this town, that nation.
We're going to build a committed people, going to build a city and then what are we going to do in the city? Well, we're going to build a temple. That's the other thing he's singing about, the temple in the in the city. The presence of God in the city. You know, one person said, the Bible is fundamentally the tale of two cities. You know, Charles Dickens wrote the famous story, The Tale of Two Cities. What two cities? Well, that great city, Babylon, which you mean in Genesis and you meet again in Revelation, that great city, it's also called the Harlot. A city that's indifferent to God, self-sufficient. We will build our empire. Babylon, that great city and then you read also about Jerusalem, the Holy City. The Holy City. At the end of Revelation, it says this, in one day, Babylon is fallen. In one day! All its strength, all that speaks of the world's city. A world that doesn't need God. The world that says we don't believe God. We don't accept God, the world's city, it's a city without God, its values are without God! There's no truth in it.
Then there's the Holy City, that's coming down out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband. And that's the city that's going to last forever. When God wraps up the whole planet, he's going to start what? A new heaven and a new earth and this bride coming down out of heaven, the city of God. I want to be in that city, don't you? I want to build that city recognizably! I want to see it from town after town after town. Hey, there's the people of God. There's the people of God. That community, that know how to live with one another, who forgive one another. We're patient with one another and kind to one another because they've learned to live a different kind of way because they've been forgiven by Christ. Different values captivate them. If we're not building that, we're not playing religion, God wants communities, cities. He wants a city.
Then he wants a sanctuary. Just remember that last, before I leave that, Psalm 1:32, my feet are within your gates, this is commitment. Are your feet inside the gates? Do you know where you're committed?
When people join us, that should be something we talk about. “Are your feet in our gates or you're just popping in occasionally?” My feet are in your gates, oh Jerusalem. The elders sit at the gates, elders caring for this flock. Are you in this flock? We're building a people here! God help us to build a people that know who their shepherds are! We live in a consumer age where people pick and choose and we've got to help them understand, God wants something different to that. He's looking for a community.
Then this house this temple, so Moses sang of the temple, the presence. Actually, I've not been to a conference like this before I say to Jeremy over lunch. There is a wonderful preoccupation with worship, giving God the time. Entering his presence. Anticipating his presence. That's what we want the, the city. This is the house of God. This is the gateway to heaven. That's what Jacob said. This is the house of God. It's the gateway to heaven. That's what the church is meant to be, the gateway to heaven.
When we start worshiping. It's not just the latest song we picked up on something. It's all about me! I love the song choice we've had here all about God. Holy, holy, holy you are lord. Before the Throne of God. Yes. Yes. Yes. Songs about God. Think, remember that this is the gateway to heaven. Yes. Worship where the presence of God is. Well, we don't rush it beloved.
We just oh well, I've got time 20 minutes to do. Come on. Let's get before God. Yes! That's something that was what we did, that's how Newfrontiers grew. They said, if you go there, you just meet with God. These people meet with God.
We don't want to let that slip dear ones. Don't let that slip! Oh, we've only got 20 minutes. Come on let's meet with God. Uh and sometimes some of you pastors need to you need to chat to your worship people. Say to them why do you want to sing that song? I don't think we should sing that song. What is it about, is it about God? I travel around churches quite a bit. I can sometimes be in like three or four songs and we haven't mentioned Jesus or the cross yet. I think, come on, what are we here for? Let's be taken up with God. It's absolutely vital and I think sometimes we're just listening and oh that song is quite popular at the moment. No, let's sing about God. Let's draw near to God. Let's step into his presence. See, they were going to build a city. They were going to build a temple and the glory of God fell in it and it's all symbolic, beloved. It's all symbolic. It's all a model. It's all an example, a type. These things happen to them, it happened but it's all written down for our instruction! It's what God wants. We're going to build a people together, we’re going to build a worshiping community, God's presence, a dwelling place for God in the Spirit.
Paul says in Ephesians 2, the church is a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. I hate going to church when I don't feel that. I want to feel this is the presence of God. We don't have to be skilful. I mean we're blessed by very skilful musicians as well as worshiping people, praise God. It's a wonderful privilege but you don't have to be brilliant but you can be focused! On Jesus and express love towards him.
Alright, sorry I'm taking time. Third thing is this. First one was, who are you? Come with us. Who are you? Where are you going?
Last question, what happens to me if I join you?
Fair question, isn't it? Come with us. Well, what will happen to me? Well, it's wonderful. The answer that Moses gave? He said, you can be as eyes for us.
Did you notice that? He didn't say, well, there's a big crowd. Get on at the back, don't fall behind too much! You'll get the drift. Stand at the back. No, no, no, come and be eyes for us. “You mean that I've got a role?” Oh yeah! Now, in the story, it's like “you know where we can camp”; In other words, he had local knowledge. Now, he didn't take over. Is that right? Follow me. I will now lead this church. It wasn't that they're following the cloud that God's leading them but when the cloud stops, Moses says, you know the territory. You can show us where to camp. In other words, you have a contribution to make.
Beloved, that's what the church is. It's very New Testament, isn't it? You can be eyes for us. You think in one Corinthians where it talks about the eyes and the ears and the hands and the feet because we're a functioning body. You come in and be eyes. Who knows somebody gets saved, she's a prophet; we just thought she was a new convert, wow, she sees stuff. He hears God. He's got an evangelistic gift; he's only just got saved but he's already bringing people with him because God wants us to have all kinds of giftings in the body. It's not just one gift and lots of listeners but loads and loads of gifts but and Ephesians 4 says, we come to maturity as everyone's being equipped in their gift. So, God gifts and we help to equip those gifts. Every one of the us the Bible says has received a special gift and we’re to employ it for one another. So that the church isn't just assembling members, it's discovering gifts and giving people identity. There are works for ordained of God for you to walk in. Things that give you identity, meaning, purpose, it's your part, the thing you do. It's the important part you play.
I used to visit a lady in hospital when I became her pastor, my first pastorate. She had a stroke and she was in Eastbourne Hospital. I used to travel over and see her from time to time. She sat in a wheelchair and she, she was a radiant Christian, laughed and joked and worshiped Jesus but she used to throw this on. It's a useless thing and it fell and she'd pick it up again. This useless thing she'd try, she had a member that didn't work. Useless thing, she said and the Bible talks about every member working properly. That's what we want to work towards. This is the ideal. Where will members find, where do I fit? What do I do? What's my part? We find an identity; we find that this is the most important part of my life. Yeah, I do this job as well. I live in the world but I'm supposed to live as though I was not a member of it. Of course, I put bread on the table. I look after my family. I have responsibilities. Everybody should do that but the real place of my identity and purpose is going to last forever and ever, is in the church. I want to find my place there. My gift. My gift. I'm going to have a gift! I'm going to have parts to play and so this guy's immediately, you can be eyes for us. As we invite people to join us, we should be encouraging to find where's the gift? What is their task?
I was once chatting to Tope Koleoso, many of you know that name, a wonderful pastor. He said when people join, he says “which team do you want to join” that's as they join, “what team do you want to join” what and then we have teams and children's teams and PA teams and you know and you're coming in which team do you want to join? You join a team and we find help you find which team you should be part of and the team's a good place, I mean oh you didn't turn up oh, so character formation. I hope we have a team we miss you; you learn character in team. You know, we want to count on you. Where were you? This is wonderful. We're raising disciples, training people, how to be responsible, how to be good team players, how to find what they're best gifted at. Learn their place in the body. So, we're building, we're building.
I remember when Nicky Gumbel spoke at the Brighton Centre, for us at our Newfrontiers conference, he said, he said, “Newfrontiers is like an army”. I remember him saying it from our Brighton platform and I thought, well, I don't think any self-respecting Sergeant Major would say that. But praise God that he said that. We're beginning to find how to do it, what to do. Find people that could, actually, I can lead a small group. Actually, it could be an elder. You might be a church planter. Wow. We're raising an army. I mean, you've seen it in your ranks. People who came in and now they're doing this.
They came in, wow, God had got all kinds of plans and investment. Natalie spoke of it this morning. I just came in but hey, God's got plans, got plans. He's got a destiny. He's got a purpose. He's built. Some, you can be eyes for us. You can be a voice for us. You can inspire us. We don't come in just to be passengers. We come in to find our place. What will happen to me if I join you? Well, you find your place! You Bring your gift.
I guess you could ask one more question. How come you're so confident? I mean, it sounds cheeky, doesn't it? Come with us, we'll do you good. Well, who do you think you are?
Well, the god's promised us good. It's what Moses said. God has promised us good and the good he'll do to us; you can be part of. The lord has promised us good. Do you believe it? Coming out of Covid, beloved; the Lord has promised us good. Covid didn't take God by surprise. God said when they didn't go into the land, He didn't say oh wow that's I mean we thought they wouldn't go in, boy that's a setback! God said as surely as I live the whole earth will be filled. He didn't abandon his plan. Covid God didn't abandon his plan. We're going to press on. We're going to see it happen. Amen. We're going to see it happen.
God will do this. Jesus said, this gospel will reach the whole world. Every nation and then the end will come, that is the story of the planet. That is the fundamental story of world history. When this gospel has reached that ultimate person, then the whole thing gets wrapped up. The thing God is doing on the planet is the most important thing that's happening and we have the privilege of being that people, carrying that vision. Inviting people, come and join us, come and join us! We have a history. We have a victory through Jesus. We invite you. Come and join us. Come and find your destiny for the glory of god. As we go from this place today, let's carry that in our hearts. We carry vision that's going to reach to the ends of the earth. If we will walk with him with faith, keeping our eye on him, praying, honouring him, nothing can stop what God has committed himself to doing. Amen?