Just make sure you're awake.
All right, we'll praise the Lord.
Shall we pray?
Loving Father, Heavenly God, it is good.
I was glad when they said to me,
come let us go into the house of the Lord.
And now our feet are standing in your gates.
We are here in your presence.
And in your presence there is fullness of joy.
Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.
So Father, we're expecting today to be refreshed
and to find something new in you.
To hear your voice and to be touched and to be changed.
But Father, the entrance of your word brings light
and gives instruction to the simples.
Father, we give praise to you today.
You don't leave us to ourself, but you come by your spirit.
You speak to our hearts and your word produces life.
So we thank you.
We are expecting, we are excited and we are glad.
We give you praise and thanks in Jesus' name, amen?
Amen.
We're doing better, we're waking up a bit.
We could get a little bit kind of, you know,
try a little, just where you are, a little wiggle.
Yeah, that's good.
Not too much, you might break something, but.
Right, well it is a joy.
Right, well I'm gonna talk about babies.
That'll be a good introduction.
Because I'm gonna talk about a hope that makes us endure.
A woman goes through labor,
and I've been there, man be glad you are man.
My word.
Anyway, my doctor said to my wife once,
because she went to her baby, he said,
oh, you look nervous, is this your first?
She said, no.
I know what's coming.
So we endure because of our hope.
Too many Christians give up because they lose hope.
Jesus, for the joy set before him,
the hope set before him, endured the cross.
And sometimes we have to endure
because we know how the story ends.
Who knows how the story ends?
We endure marriage because some,
let me finish, after 50 odd years,
because we know that the word of God has promised us
a good marriage, a good family, a good,
and because of the hope, sometimes you have to go through.
And those of you who say me and my wife
have never had to go through a line,
and we pray for the sinners after it.
We all have to go through,
but the hope is the thing that makes us go through.
And if you stop, that's why it says,
without a vision, people perish.
You've got to have a hope.
Because I'm gonna talk about the resurrection.
We're still in the Easter mode.
I think, quickly then, Easter and Christmas,
you know, it's kind of like, if we're not careful,
right, we're done Easter, move on.
We're done the resurrection business.
Jesus got up, he's alive, let's move on to,
I'm gonna talk about the resurrection.
The glorious hope of the Christian.
This is not the end.
Turn to somebody and say, please,
and say with a smile on your face, this is not the end.
Listen, the Bible says this, what is man?
He's but a vapor.
You know, gone.
He's like a grass.
He grows up, he flourishes, he dies, he withers,
the wind blows, no man remembers his place anymore.
We are talking about something eternal.
This is just a thing in eternity.
If you do not see the end,
if you do not see that this is just a somimentary,
we can start getting,
we can start getting, listen,
old age should be something you embrace.
When I get there, I'll tell you,
should be something you embrace because it's not the end.
You are nearer than when you started this journey.
How many old people do I get who get miserable?
They should get happier.
They should be more excited.
Soon and very soon, I am gonna meet Jesus.
Face to face.
So let's talk about the resurrection.
My Lord, we'll get there.
1 Corinthians 15 and 19 says this,
if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men,
most pitied,
most miserable.
Most miserable,
if this life is it,
we will be pitied.
Oh, I've given up all this.
I've given up all that.
I've taken up a cross.
I'm following Jesus and then I'm gonna die.
If that's it, we are of all men, the most pitiable.
But we are not those.
1 Titus, chapter 2 and verse 13 says this,
we are those who are looking for the blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It is the blessed hope.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
We have an assurance.
We have a blessed hope.
Whatever you're going through is not the end.
If you're gonna die, guess what?
You're meeting Jesus.
See people, oh, poor old Fred died.
No, Fred is dead.
He's with Jesus if he's a believer.
If he ain't, then it's a blessed hope.
Now the Bible is not this, when we talk about Bible hope,
we ain't talking about, well, maybe perhaps.
When we talk about hope, Bible hope says this,
God said it, that's settled.
Oh, I hope it's gonna be sunny lunchtime.
I hope I win the lottery.
I'm looking for your own up.
Now, listen, Bible hope, as God said it,
it cannot fail.
It will happen.
This is an assurance.
This is a promise from a God who doesn't change,
doesn't fail, is faithful.
So when I talk about the resurrection,
the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Jesus put it like this.
We always read this text, it's from John 14, don't we?
The vicar comes in with a morbid old face,
I am the resurrection and the life.
In my Father's house there are many mansions
and I go and prepare one for you.
And when I have prepared it, I will come for you and say,
no, I have word, that should, he should die.
No, I have word, that should, he should dance down the aisle.
Jesus is preparing a home for us.
And when he has prepared us, guess what?
He's coming to take us home.
Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.
Jesus put it like this, John 11, back there, 25, 26.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me and dies will live.
But he who believes, oh, he's up there.
And he who ever lives and believes in me shall never die.
Question is, do you believe this?
Notice there are two groups of people.
There are those who died and live
and there are those who are alive and will never die.
Stick with me because we're going to talk about the resurrection.
What is death then?
Well, firstly, it's not soul sleep.
You know, you pop your cogs, judgment day comes, poof, you're gone.
Wrong.
It is not purgatory.
Some state where you can get better through suffering and then God might accept you.
It's not reincarnation.
Well, you messed up on this one, didn't you?
But you know, you were an ant, you can come back.
Well, you were a spider, but you messed up, so you'll come back as an ant.
But if you did really good, you can come back as a frog.
No, it's not reincarnation.
Neither is annihilation.
I told you that one before, I used to love that.
Listen, I didn't believe in God.
But if I got it wrong, I'd go up there and look at me and go, poof, and that'd be it.
Done.
What have you got to lose?
That's just what I used to think.
That isn't the way it is.
Man is an eternal being.
When God created man, he breathed into him the spirit.
God is an eternal spirit and he breathed an eternal spirit into man
and man will spend eternity somewhere.
Get this, you are going to live forever.
Now you will either live with God or you will live separated from God,
but you will spend eternity somewhere.
What is death?
Death is the end of the world.
What is death then?
Death is the separation of the soul and the spirit from the body.
Is that fair enough?
Do you know the moment you stop breathing, corruption sets into your body.
From that moment, life is in the blood, oxygen and all that business,
when you stop breathing, the life stops pumping around the body
and the body goes to corruption.
This gets even better.
You should get excited now because we are talking about the resurrection.
There are two groups of people.
There are the believers, he who believes in me and dies,
the implication being some will not believe and die.
You don't have to figure that out, you just have to stick with me and we will get there.
Both of them will experience the same thing.
Death is inevitable.
But it will either come as a friend or it will come as an enemy.
For the believer, the cessation of life, the pumping of blood and all that,
it comes as a friend.
For the unbeliever, it comes as an enemy.
That's why you never speak about it.
And it's funny, it's inevitable that you never speak about death.
Christian people are afraid to speak about death.
Why?
It's the blessed hope.
It's the joy that's set before.
Why am I running a race?
Because I'm going to get a prize.
Why am I fighting a fight?
Because I'm going to win the victory.
Why, if you haven't got the end before you, why bother enduring?
Listen to this, Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 7.
The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if God won't have us, the devil must.
What about Psalm 104, verse 29?
You take away breath, they die, and return them to dust.
I'm sorry, some of you are very attractive bits of dust.
You paint the dust to make it look lovely.
Some of us are turning it into skinnier dust.
Some of you wear very expensive clothes on the bag of dust.
But guess what?
In the end of the day, you are dust.
Hi there, bag of dust.
Oh my word, that's an attractive bit of dust.
It's dust!
Why am I saying this?
Because at the moment of death, what happens, I said to you, is separation of body and spirit.
Let's talk about your spirit and soul.
For the believer, two groups of people, the believer and the unbeliever.
For the believer, two Corinthians 5 and 8, absent from the body, present with the Lord.
The moment you pop your cogs, you are in Jesus' presence.
In the presence of Jesus.
Go on, together.
Like that.
In the presence of Jesus.
Come on, do you sometimes in church?
Yeah, get my tongue caught up in words.
That's why I keep going, getting ready.
Absent from the body, present with the Lord.
Now you should be happy with that.
That's enough, that's enough, isn't it?
I know how the story ends.
I popped my cogs on with Jesus.
But for the unbeliever, it's a different one.
If you're an unbeliever today, I want to sound a warning to you.
You need to listen to me.
Jesus in Luke 16 tells a parable about a rich man in Lazarus.
And it says, there was a rich man who lived in opulence.
And there was a poor guy who lived by his gate, begging.
And he was that poor that he had saws all over him.
The dog would come and lick his saws.
It's very graphic.
And they'd die.
And the poor man, Lazarus, goes to the bosom of Abraham, the presence of God.
What does it say about the poor man?
The rich man, by the way.
What does it say about him?
It says, and being in Hades and in torment,
he looked up and saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham.
Where do you go?
I said, the moment you die, you instantly go to Jesus as a believer.
For the unbeliever, the moment you die, you go to torment.
Hades just means a place of departed spirits.
You go to torment.
Why don't you choose that?
That's what the Bible says.
But praise God, destinations are not fixed.
You can change from one to the other.
Resurrection Sunday, isn't that?
Well, Good Friday, Jesus on the cross.
The penitent faith.
What happened to the penitent faith?
He gets converted as a revelation of who Jesus is.
Let's put it like that.
He says, remember me when you come into your glory.
And Jesus says to him, what?
Today, today, you will be in paradise with me.
And those of you like that, it's a paradise, it's a Persian word.
It's a paradise, it's a Persian word.
When we come, when the church can think of a more blessed state,
what is the most beautiful thing they knew?
It was a Persian king's garden.
Paradise.
So they nick that word.
I'm going to paradise.
And I'm going to hang out with Jesus.
You don't mind if I preach for you today, do you?
Who knows the story?
Who's old enough to remember?
I am going to the city.
I'll just hold him.
My wife knows it because I sing it all the time.
Where the roses never fade.
I've got to get back up there, I'm told.
Here they bloom but for a season.
Then their beauty is decayed.
I am going to a city where the roses never fade.
Hallelujah.
I tell you, you should get excited.
One day soon.
See, Jesus is coming back.
Die or fly, we are the Lord.
Jesus is coming back and we're going to meet him face to face.
That is the hope.
We don't preach it very often now.
We've made this heaven.
This is just a blink of an eye in comparison to eternity.
And yet here we are willing to give up eternity for a bag of beans.
All right.
So we sorted out what's happened to your spirits.
And we are either down there or up there.
Like any good mystery, what happened to the body?
What happens to the bodies?
This is where we start talking about the resurrection.
This is where we start talking about the rapture.
This is where we start talking about lots of other things.
And we've got to do it very quickly.
Resurrection, the word, your wife, Anastasia.
Anna again, Stasia to stand.
To stand up again.
That's what the resurrection is.
We will stand again.
That's why the Bible uses that word about us sleeping.
Because what happens when you sleep?
You lay down.
What happens with the resurrection?
You stand up again.
Bless God.
There is a day coming when we will stand up again.
Daniel chapter 12, verse 2.
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life, some to everlasting contempt.
Look in your margin, the word there is abhorrence.
Not a nice word at all.
Some will rise to eternal life, some will rise to eternal contempt.
Oh, that's Old Testament.
Jesus put it like this.
This is a good one actually.
This is one we don't preach very often.
John 5, 28 and 29.
Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the grave
will hear the voice and come forth.
Those who have done good, to the resurrection of eternal life,
and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
If you had an authorized version, it says damnation.
The word there is crisis.
C-R-I-S-I-S.
And it means judgment.
They will come to judgment.
Whilst we're talking about judgment, do you know we'll all be judged?
Come on, smile now.
Smile's gone.
Hallelujah to God.
2 Corinthians 10, 5 and Romans 14, 5 says this.
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
to give an account for what we have done in the flesh.
That's what it says.
It's not a judgment, it's not a judicial judgment.
It's the one that comes from to judge a race.
The bench where all the judges sit and say, oh, you've done well.
Come and get your pride.
We must all appear before the prize-giving day.
Talking to believers, we're not going to be judged.
We've already been judged in Jesus Christ.
That's why he went to the club.
We can't be rewarded.
Those of you who lock yourself away and pray,
those of you who give sacrificially and no one knows anything about it,
you see what your Father sees in secret.
He will reward openly.
There is a reward day coming.
That's why it talks about crowns.
We ain't got time for that.
The reward day's coming.
Bless God.
Where are we? We're there, aren't we?
Jesus, I'm going to skip a bit for your sake.
All right, so now we've come, we've made sense now, haven't we?
We've got the spirit and the soul is there.
The body's in the ground.
Everybody's body's in the ground.
There's going to be an awakening, a resurrection,
some to reward, some to eternal judgment.
So far so good?
Now, this is where you get your shouting shoes on.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 says this,
I do not want you ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep,
lest you mourn or lest you sorrow as others who have.
I've been to too many Christian funerals.
Don't hit ashamed he's dead.
Please don't say that to me.
He's a believer. What's shameful about that?
Oh, he was only 94 and he's died.
He's a believer.
Please don't walk around.
There's a sense in which we should be sorry for.
Please don't get me wrong.
But we don't mourn like those who've got no hope.
I know where he is and I know where I'm going to meet him again.
See, if for a season we may be parted,
there's only a very, very, very, very, very brief season.
We don't mourn like those who've got no hope.
We don't mourn that he's at the end.
We don't mourn like he ain't going to get up on resurrection and mourn.
We don't mourn that he ain't with Jesus.
We don't mourn...
Soon and very soon.
I've got loved ones on the other side I'm looking forward to meeting.
I've got saints I used to fellowship with who I'm looking for.
There's one old boy I think of now who just loved the Lord with a passion.
There's so much to me from Sheffield.
I think in heaven he will just be doing something absolutely crazy because he loves Jesus.
And I think I might even join him.
And those of you who've got a face like a wet weekend in Brighton,
then get saved because this is the joyous, glorious hope that you have got.
The end, Christ's appearing.
Here we go.
Christ is risen from the dead and has become what?
The first fruits of those who...
Pardon me, I didn't give you the scripture. Did you want that?
Yeah, you did. 1 Corinthians 15 and 20.
Now Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of those who fall asleep.
What has happened to me? If you've got the first fruits, what does that mean?
The harvest is going to follow.
Jesus is risen from the dead. Guess what?
The harvest is going to follow.
When we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, we are celebrating Jesus' resurrection,
but we're also celebrating Aaron.
Because the first fruits is risen, so we will rise with him.
1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 14.
We believe that Jesus died and rose again.
Even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.
Please, if you're underlining anything in your Bible, you need to underline that bit.
Those who sleep in Jesus.
Remember I told you two groups of people,
and they're talking about the ones that believe in Jesus.
I believe in two resurrections.
And I'll explain that to you.
1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 14.
We believe that Jesus died and rose again.
Ready?
1 Corinthians 15 verses 22 and 23 says this.
Those who are in Christ shall be made alive for each one in his own order.
Christ the first fruit.
And after that, those who are Christ's at his coming.
Are you Christ today?
Do you know when Jesus comes back, he's coming back for you?
If you don't, you need to get saved.
I think so.
I hope so.
What did I say to you?
Bible hope is a confidence, is an assurance.
I know so.
If for this life I have believed in Jesus, I am more pitiful than anybody else.
I'm looking to the future.
I'm looking to the skies.
I'm looking to a hope that cannot fail from a God who promised.
Listen to me this one.
At his coming.
Oh, I've got a good one.
Those who are Christ's first fruits.
Afterwards, those are his at his coming.
Two things very quickly.
One is Jesus will come like a feast in the night.
Remember he said that?
Surprisingly, surprisingly, suddenly, secretly and stealthily.
Is stealthily a word?
Anyway, surprisingly, secretly, suddenly, stealthily.
Oh, the signs ain't been fulfilled yet.
Be very, very careful.
You know, people have all these charts.
I remember years ago when we first went to this bloke, he had all these charts about how it's going to work out.
You know, God just might not do it that way.
That's why you live ready.
Because there's a danger to the one who lives slack.
I could not tell you if Jesus wouldn't spit the sky like now.
Oh, at his coming.
And that one is a bridegroom.
Have a picture.
You read it in the Gospels.
The bridegroom coming for his bride.
Don't you like that?
Song of Solomon chapter two, round about verse 10, is it?
What's he going to say?
Rise up, my beloved.
Rise up, my beloved, and come away with me.
Don't you get excited about that?
Oh, I don't know.
1 Thessalonians 4.16.
Ready?
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven
where the archangels shout and the trumpet of God.
That's right, that's right.
I always have to look over my shoulder.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Are you in Christ today?
And if you should die, you will rise.
Jesus, can you listen?
Walking down the road and all of a sudden.
Rise up, beloved, and come away.
And you're gone.
Have you heard these preachers before?
I'd love to be in the graveyard.
Sometimes I've seen some chairs that I've been to.
I'd love to be in the graveyard.
And in the midst of it, a shout, a trumpet.
And all those who are the Lord's pop out the ground.
Now, they've been in their years and they've rotted.
I can hear your cogs going now.
Listen, the God who made the first one on that morning
will just call it all back together.
Nothing goes to nothing.
You're going to be a molecule, or you're going to be an atom,
or you're going to be something floating around.
And God will speak it.
And if he created the first one out of nothing,
he'll create you, recreate you.
Different.
1 Corinthians 15 and 51, and now you're getting on
shouting on the ground,
Behold, I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in the moment,
in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
Read it.
Keep going.
We shall be changed.
And the mortal shall put on the immortal,
and the perishable shall put on the imperishable.
And then should come to pass the saying,
when the mortal is put on the immortal,
and when the perishable is put on the imperishable,
and then to come to pass the saying,
Oh, Dachshund, where?
Hark!
Where is your fig tree?
Oh, great, where is your sting?
Christ has defeated you.
Ready?
I read a quote this morning.
It said this.
When God brought Israel out of Egypt,
Egypt, if you read your Bible, House of Bondage,
He did not leave a single thing in there.
When God brings us out of the grave,
out of the House of Bondage,
He will not leave a single thing in there.
Not one thing of you will remain.
If one hair on my head falls to the ground down here,
on resurrection morn, I will come back together.
The skinny version.
I am closing.
Well, almost.
Ready?
Then we who remain, 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, Verse 17.
So we talked about the dead popping out of the ground.
Then we who remain will be changed in a moment.
And we shall be caught up together.
We will not precede those who have fallen asleep,
but we will be caught up together with them.
Can you be there?
Resurrection morn.
My wife said, no, get back on the stage.
Can you imagine it now?
You're there.
Suddenly they all pop out of the box,
all pop out of the grave, all start going up.
And guess what?
Suddenly your feet start lifting off the ground.
Well, we who remain will not precede those who have fallen asleep,
but we will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord,
comfort one another with these words.
Are you comfortable this morning?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
There is a resurrection for the living.
And now I've got a warning for those of you who are not Christ.
That's not the end of the story, is it?
Very quickly, what happens here, I believe,
people want to argue with you on this, different views, but this is my one.
The moment the church is gone,
there will be seven years of unprecedented tribulation on the earth.
And I can prove why I believe we've gone.
We've not been ordained for wrath and so on and so forth.
Why? Because in Revelation chapter six, it talks about who likes the idea of the Lamb of God.
Lovely, isn't it? The Lamb of God.
Soft and fluffy.
If you went to Revelation chapter six, is it around verse 16?
Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb,
for the Lamb is also the lion of the tribe of Judah, and judgment will come.
Fall on us.
Hide us from the face of him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
And then, as I say, this seven years of unprecedented trouble goes on.
Terrible, terrible, terrible. Unimaginable.
Why people want to stay.
Now, turn to Revelation chapter 20, verse 11.
This is my last script.
Verse through to about 16.
Then I saw the great right throne and he who sat on it from whose face the earth and the heavens fed away.
And there was found no place for them. Keep going.
And then I saw the dead. Hang on.
These are those who are not Christ.
Small and great, King and pauper.
Standing before God.
And the books were open.
And another book was open, which is the book of life.
And those whose name, and the dead were judged according to their works by the things that were written.
Keep going.
In the books, keep going.
And the seed gave up their dead and those who were in it.
And death and Hades, the powers of the spirit, delivered them up.
And the dead in them.
And they were what?
Judged.
Each one according to his works.
Keep going.
Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
Oh, verse 15.
You need me to stay up here for those who are listening from home.
Anyone not found in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire.
My friend, there's a joyful hope for those who are the Lords.
There's a terrible expectation for those who are not.
Heaven and hell is real.
If there's a real heaven, there must be a real hell.
Simple question.
When I open that book, is your name written in there?
When it talks about works, it's not talking about works.
The best work you can do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You can't be saved by doing good.
Not by good works.
The one work that will save you is believing that Jesus Christ died for you.
And the thing that will condemn you is refusal to believe.
Simple as that.
I'll get a shatting ground for the saints.
My word.
We should get so excited.
Let's get excited with a tear in their eye.
If heaven's real for us, my friend, hell is real for us.
If we're excited about going, so excited about going,
we want to tell others, come with us.
There's room for you.
Should we stand in the presence of God?
You know, when the roll is called up yonder,
when the angel opens the book, will your name be there?
And you know today your name can be there.
Think of the penitent faith.
He had lived a life.
He weren't there because he was a nice guy.
In fact, he says, we are receiving our just reward.
And if God was to send each one of us to hell, he would be right.
None of us could shake our fist at him and say, you have not been just.
But God in his sovereign mercy, wherein he loved us, sent Jesus.
And we celebrate Easter because Jesus died for us in our place.
When God judged him, he judged you.
He judged sin.
But what happens is this.
We need to enter into that, those who are in Christ.
How do we do that?
Lord, you're right, I am a sinner.
But I choose today your remedy for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know I have got nothing that should make you love me.
I've got no right to claim your forgiveness, but you sent Jesus.
And today I reach out to you in whatever faith I've got and lay hold of him.
I take hold of your provision and I ask you to forgive me.
And do you know what the Bible says the moment you do that, God in his sovereign mercy will forgive you.
And the angel takes up that pen and what is your name?
I'll just write it in a book and on that morning you will be sucked out of here with the rest of us.
That's your choice.
That is your choice.
But I would be amiss today if I did not give you the opportunity to respond to that.
So while every head's bowed and every eye's closed and everyone's praying for you, my friend,
why not today? Oh, when I get home I'll do it. You won't.
The devil will come and steal it away.
Oh, when I'm better, well if you could be good enough, why did Jesus die?
The Bible says today is the day of salvation.
Today if you hear my voice, harden not your heart.
And I'm not going to play around with you. I'm not going to mess around with you.
This is between you and God.
If today someone would say to me, Pastor, but I can, I need you just to agree with me.
I want to indicate now before God that I am willing. I want, I need, I am responding.
If that's you, would you raise a hand? Would you say to me, Ken, that's me?
I'm looking for you. Heaven's looking for you.
I don't labor these things. I don't play games.
If you hear God's voice to you today, well, that's great.
On Resurrection Day we're all going together.
You're sure now?
When he comes to call away his church, will he come and call for you?
I just want to share a scripture with you this morning from the first letter of John.
And it's pretty much in the introduction and it says, this is the message we have heard from him to proclaim to you.
And this is like the summary of the message.
And it says, God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
God is light, no darkness at all.
You know, this scripture, we can apply this to so many areas of your life.
There is so much you can take out of this.
But I believe one of the main things that the scripture means is to do with the fact that our holy God cannot coexist with sin.
Right? You know, if you would qualify age-wise to come to kids' church this morning, the topic is sin.
We're going to look at what is sin.
And you know, sometimes in our mind we make up this thing that some sin is a bit more tolerable than other sin.
You know, I don't know if you ever thought about, you know, as long as I maybe, as long as I don't murder, God surely is going to tolerate this sin.
You know, how we kind of think there is a certain tolerance.
You know, when you get a speeding ticket, you know, when you drive up the road and there is this device that measures the speed and it's got like a certain percentage of tolerance, doesn't it?
And you know, if the zone is 30 but you're driving 32 or 31, it's like this percentage of tolerance.
But the truth is God does not tolerate sin at all.
Right? God is a holy God.
And you know, if we're not careful, we start to allow sin in our lives.
Right? And once sin is allowed, the next step is to kind of, is to tolerate sin.
Right? So instead of just letting sin in and out, sometimes we then start to say, oh, okay, you know, this sin is okay.
If we, you know, if we sin by doing that, you know, if we, with children, I guess we're going to speak about disobedience.
But it could be anything, you know, look at the Ten Commandments, could be lying, it could be stealing, it could be envying, it could be jealousy, it could be so many things,
worshiping other gods, worshiping money, worshiping other things, and then that tolerance, if we tolerate sin long enough in our life, the next step is then the cultivation of sin.
Right? We start cultivating, actively cultivating sin in our lives.
You know, what does cultivating mean?
You know, I don't know if you ever cultivated any vegetables, you know, in your garden, we've tried courgettes for a period of time.
You know, when you cultivate something, when you cultivate a plan, you significantly, actively do something towards encouraging and growing it.
Right? And this is when, if we're not careful there, this is when sin takes over.
So I just had this, you know, read the scripture this morning and I just felt like God speaking to me.
We have to stop tolerating sin.
God is a God who has a zero percent tolerance to sin.
Zero percent. There is no allowance.
If we allow it to creep in, we're going to allow it and then we're going to tolerate it and then we're going to cultivate it.
And cultivating means we're actually teaching our children sin.
Right? Because children learn by role modeling, whatever I do, that's the right thing for them.
And they start to learn and cultivate it themselves.
So I don't know how you feel about entering the presence of God this morning.
You know, sometimes we come into church and we just feel like we can't really approach.
We're not really feeling the presence. We're not really feeling it.
And it's sometimes to do with the fact that there is sin.
And I want to encourage you this morning to to to lay the sin down and to ask for forgiveness, to repent.
The Bible says, repent, make that active step of cutting the source of your sin off.
Because remember, there is a zero tolerance of sin.
Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Yes. Yes. Hallelujah.
God, you deserve the glory, Lord. Hallelujah.
Let give a round of applause to our Lord Jesus, our Savior, our King.
Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. You are wonderful, God.
You are precious, Lord. We thank you, Lord God, for today.
We thank you for your presence here among us.
We thank you for your word.
How you reminded us of the eternal and blessed hope that we have in you, Lord.
We thank you because one day we will see you face to face.
We will rejoice with you for eternity, Lord.
We thank you, Lord God.
And in the meantime, as we serve you, Lord, we just want to pray for strength, Lord,
as we witness your word to those around us who, you know, who are still who are perishing,
who are dying without you, Lord.
Help us, Holy Spirit, never to be shy in sharing your word, in sharing the message of your gospel, Lord God.
We thank you, Lord Jesus. In Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen.
Can we just sit for a minute before we go?
Well, first of all, I just wanted to remind you that in July we're going to have our baptism service.
I already have some people who asked to be baptized.
If you are an adult, if you have given your life to the Lord and you want to be baptized,
feel free to approach me at the end of the service and to talk to me.
If you are new to the church and wondering, you know, I've been baptized as a baby.
What do you mean? You know, if you're an adult here, we baptize adults because we like to follow the model
that we find in the Bible and a person needs to be understand what, you know, what they do, you know,
they need to be adults, really to understand what's going on in our life.
That's why we believe that only an adult person can take the decision to follow Christ and therefore to be baptized in water.
This is the model that is in the New Testament. We see Jesus baptizing his disciples.
Jesus himself got baptized the Son of God, you know, just before when he was 30 years old.
And so as well, you know, the church in Acts, you know, you always see people believing and then being baptized.
So baptized. So we're going to have our baptism service.
If you are, as I said, an adult, if you're giving your life to the Lord and you want to seal this choice that you made to follow Christ,
you know, come and talk to me and we'll see to get you baptized.
Can you go something else? Yeah, very quickly.
You know, we have an annual trip to Uganda and part of that annual trip is a medical day.
And historically, we've raised an offering for it.
Basically, there is no medication unless we buy it and take it.
Well, we buy it, we buy it in country and employ local medical people there.
So between now and we go in the 19th of June, we will raise an offering to help toward that.
I know the church usually gives and various individuals give, but we'll have an offering for that.
Secondly, in the light of that, we say with me, Nickers, Nickers, it's not bad.
We will probably try to take 200 pairs of children's underwear.
My wife's not going this time in. Jason and Steve are going.
So we'll be traveling like that. No, we need Nickers.
You're laughing your head off.
I'm interested in when the customs search a bag.
But, you know, I thought, why not?
Why not just, you know, we do take toothbrushes, spectacles.
We can take them. Various sizes.
My wife will... I think Joanna's got a big plan of having a little chart of how many Nickers we have accumulated.
Little girls.
Yeah, the only way to say it is this.
Then you.
Wonderful. Yes, thank you very much.
If you would like to give towards the mission trip to Uganda, just go and talk to Ken.
He's going to head up the group from the church.
He can give you all the information and how you can help and give.
Well, you know, we come to an end. Why don't we just stand and just we close very quickly.
Doing something again important. We're going to pray for the week ahead.
Lord God, we thank you because you love us and you prepare good things for us ahead.
And we pray for this week that is ahead of us, Lord.
We pray that you may walk in your way, Lord, that you may be with us, Lord.
In all what we do, follow us with your blessing in Jesus precious name. Amen.