1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,760 Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning 2 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,000 into our podcast. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,680 Our prayer is that through this podcast you can have an encounter with Jesus that will 4 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:22,800 change your life. 5 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:27,000 And now get ready for an inspiring message from our preaching team. 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Fantastic. 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:34,320 Well, as Tex said earlier, I'm Mike, I'm married to Jen, we had the privilege of being the 8 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:36,480 senior pastors of Encounter. 9 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:42,520 We lead the congregation out at Prospect and it is, I can't tell you what a joy it is to 10 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:43,800 be here at Henley. 11 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:48,600 This has been a dream for a year, well more really when we planted Prospect. 12 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:54,280 Our dream was to be a church that plants churches and the reason we planted Henley was because 13 00:00:54,280 --> 00:01:00,120 it was a clear call of God on your leaders, a clear call of God on this place that we 14 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,120 are encounter Henley ingrained. 15 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:06,000 But don't worry, Encounter Prospect is Encounter Prospect meeting an Enfield Uniting Church, 16 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,740 which is technically at Sefton Park. 17 00:01:08,740 --> 00:01:11,520 So we've got one more confusing element to add there. 18 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,840 But I just want to affirm what an amazing group of people you are. 19 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:21,060 You are pioneers, you are apostolic, you are courageous, you are the people on the front 20 00:01:21,060 --> 00:01:26,240 line of the kingdom of God, seeing breakthrough happen for the name of Jesus, amen. 21 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:27,760 This is good stuff. 22 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:30,360 That is the main reason we planted Encounter Henley. 23 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:35,960 The second reason is I'm just sick of so many tall people in my congregation. 24 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:39,120 And so I said, Tex and Tim, get out of here and you know what, take Matt Harksmore with 25 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:40,120 you. 26 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:41,120 I'm done, I'm done. 27 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,480 Too many tall folk, too many tall folk. 28 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:46,280 So this series is called The Power of Encounter. 29 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:49,280 If you're new here and you've just started coming, I really want to encourage you to 30 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:53,360 stick around for all of the next three weeks because there's something about when you're 31 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:57,480 trying to find a sense of home, you know, it's very, okay, in today's rental market, 32 00:01:57,480 --> 00:01:59,880 you just have to go and immediately bid higher than you want to. 33 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:00,880 I get that. 34 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,680 Generally speaking though, it's good to walk in, have a look around, see if this is the 35 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,080 place to call home and then work it out. 36 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:08,640 So that would be my encouragement. 37 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:09,640 Stick around for this series. 38 00:02:09,640 --> 00:02:13,280 And The Power of Encounter, apart from being just kind of a snappy play on words with 39 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,840 our name, very clever, is it's all about encountering Jesus. 40 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:23,280 But more than that, having a powerful minister, a ministry to you through the Holy Spirit. 41 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,120 Now we want to be a church that is Bible-fed and Spirit-led. 42 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:29,520 That means we're all about the Word of God, but we're also all about His Spirit. 43 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:31,080 We want to have both together. 44 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:33,640 We don't want to neglect one for the sake of the other. 45 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:38,280 And during this series, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will minister powerfully to 46 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:39,280 each and every one of you. 47 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:43,320 So I'm just going to pray and then let me get into the message tonight. 48 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:46,680 God, you're the best. 49 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:48,160 We are so grateful to you. 50 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:50,520 We are grateful to be here in this place. 51 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,040 We're grateful for the weather today. 52 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:55,080 It is just a joy to be in your presence. 53 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:59,040 Lord, would your joy just permeate this place? 54 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:00,040 Live people are. 55 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:01,880 Father, we've sung great, are you Lord? 56 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:03,680 And truly, truly we mean it. 57 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:05,840 We honor you with all we have. 58 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:11,520 And we just pray that tonight we would have ears to hear, eyes to see what you are doing 59 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:12,520 among us. 60 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:17,040 May all my words be from you and not from myself in Jesus' name. 61 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:18,040 Amen. 62 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:19,040 Amen. 63 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:26,360 I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without 64 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:31,720 the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation 65 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:36,960 without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell. 66 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:42,080 Now the person who said this was William Booth in the stellar year of 1890. 67 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:44,320 Now Booth was a pawnbroker's assistant. 68 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:46,640 He became a Christian at the age of 15. 69 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,360 He began attending the local Wesleyan Chapel. 70 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:54,000 And what we are in right now is basically an evolution of the Wesleyan Chapel. 71 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000 And later began to work as a traveling evangelist where he was joined by his wife, Catherine. 72 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:01,960 After 10 years of traveling ministry, they found us something called the Christian Mission 73 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:03,720 in East London. 74 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:07,000 And that sought to not only save souls, but to feed bodies. 75 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,920 As it grew, they began to give their organization a bit of shape. 76 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:12,560 That's a thing you've got to do as it gets bigger. 77 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:17,840 They gave titles and a new name and these distinctive uniforms that they began to wear. 78 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:22,880 They made their services which they called meetings and they created a motto, blood and 79 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:23,880 fire. 80 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:29,440 That was the motto of this organization, which is straight off of Game of Thrones. 81 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,400 But the Salvation Army had it first. 82 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,720 The Salvos were founded by William Booth and he came up with this motto referring to the 83 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:41,840 sacrificial blood of Christ and the purifying fire of the spirit. 84 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:46,280 The Salvation Army has been one of the great Christian success stories of the 19th and 20th 85 00:04:46,280 --> 00:04:47,280 centuries. 86 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:52,400 And as I said, that quote was back in 1890 when he said, religion without the Holy Ghost, 87 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:57,480 Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, 88 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:01,160 politics without God, heaven without hell. 89 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:05,320 William Booth's fear was that he would live to see a world in which the new century and 90 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:12,360 by the new century, see, he meant the early 1900s would be the empty husk of where Christianity 91 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:14,360 once was. 92 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:19,960 He feared that he would see the outline of where God used to be like a chalk marking 93 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:24,680 of a body on the ground where the transforming presence of God was at one time but was no 94 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:25,680 longer. 95 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:31,280 That was Booth's fear from 1890, but it sounds a lot like the church of modern Australia. 96 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:32,800 Sounds a lot like it. 97 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:38,320 William Booth lived among a people of spiritual emptiness, but Booth himself lived a consecrated 98 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:39,320 life. 99 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:42,920 Now, let me just get technical for a second because the Bible doesn't often use the word 100 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:43,920 consecration. 101 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:48,520 More often, you might hear the word sanctification or more often from preachers like me, we try 102 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:51,920 and bring it down to one or two syllables in some way because we fear that we'll lose 103 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:54,400 you if we speak in more than two syllables. 104 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:59,200 But so word sanctification means to be set apart for holiness. 105 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,280 And really, that's something that God does. 106 00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:04,320 Sanctification is a work of God in us. 107 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:06,880 God is the one who makes us holy. 108 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:09,600 Consecration is more about what we do. 109 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:11,800 What's our part in that? 110 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,680 Consecration is the act of beginning a transition to holiness. 111 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:19,200 Consecration is beginning a transition of holiness. 112 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:22,480 One is by God, one is to God. 113 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:27,080 It's about living a life of holy ambition to God. 114 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:28,800 This is all throughout Scripture. 115 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:33,400 Verse 121 says, off your bodies is a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. 116 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:35,000 That's an act of consecration. 117 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,800 In Numbers, we hear of Phineas, who was zealous for God's honor, and he committed an act based 118 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:41,600 on his own consecration. 119 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:46,280 In Isaiah chapter six, he has an experience in the throne room where he eventually says, 120 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:50,120 send me, I will go, but he's overwhelmed by the very presence of God. 121 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:52,480 And he says, I need to be sanctified. 122 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:56,640 And that first act of asking to be sanctified is an act of consecration. 123 00:06:56,640 --> 00:07:01,920 In 1 Peter chapter two, verse nine, Peter says, you are a people of God's own possession. 124 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:05,240 And the implication is therefore, how will we live if we belong to God? 125 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:07,680 How will we consecrate ourselves to God? 126 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:13,480 And in Leviticus chapter 20, in fact, really all of Leviticus, we hear this, be holy as 127 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:14,760 I am holy. 128 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,520 If you've ever read Leviticus or frankly even heard of it and wondered, what is the point 129 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:19,800 of Leviticus? 130 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:21,680 That's the point of Leviticus. 131 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:25,320 Be holy as I am holy. 132 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:29,480 So much of the Bible leads us as a guide towards how to consecrate ourselves to God. 133 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:32,760 Now I know a group of people that deeply impressed me. 134 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:35,800 They're young people with their consecration. 135 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:40,160 They get up at around 4.30 in the morning twice a week to consecrate themselves. 136 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:41,800 They gather with fellow believers. 137 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:46,720 They hear a brief message and then they go out to do mission, to be a part of the mission. 138 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:48,080 And they do that for about an hour. 139 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,280 Then they gather together for fellowship at a local coffee shop and they do all of this 140 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:52,280 before work. 141 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:54,640 This is a group of young people in your midst. 142 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,560 The problem is they're not Christians. 143 00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:58,560 They're runners. 144 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:03,320 This is Prospect Run Club. 145 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:04,760 Prospect Run Club, like God bless me. 146 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:06,000 I like to call myself a runner. 147 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:10,680 I signed up for that a long time ago and have been exactly zero times because 4.30 is too 148 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:12,960 many earlys in the morning. 149 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:14,800 I can't do it. 150 00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:16,320 They do all of this. 151 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:21,880 All these functions of church, they do it before they go to work and they consecrate 152 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:23,040 themselves to that. 153 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:30,160 And there's something about this that both inspires and kills me because I see that the 154 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:36,720 average Run Club member is more focused and devoted and consecrated than the average Christian. 155 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,800 Now I happen to think this church is not full of average Christians. 156 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:43,000 I happen to think this is full of people who are longing for consecration. 157 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:44,000 Amen. 158 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:45,000 Pastor Tex? 159 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,000 Yeah, good. 160 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,240 You in particular should believe this. 161 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:53,000 Churches don't run prayer rooms if they're not hungry for consecration. 162 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:58,040 Churches don't say, we're going to pray for 24 hours straight if they're not hungry for 163 00:08:58,040 --> 00:08:59,120 the presence of God. 164 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:00,920 You are not an ordinary church. 165 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,680 And if you're here and visiting, you're in the right place. 166 00:09:03,680 --> 00:09:04,680 You are in the right place. 167 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:05,880 Don't even come up to Prospect. 168 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:06,880 It's too far. 169 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,120 This, we're nowhere near as holy. 170 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:10,120 This is where it's at. 171 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:11,120 That's why they left. 172 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:16,720 They were like, we can do better. 173 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:22,840 You are in the right place because this is a group of people who are hungry for the presence 174 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:25,160 of God. 175 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:30,360 We have to ask the question though, do we want the presence of God as much as the Prospect 176 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:33,000 Run Club wants to run? 177 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:39,400 Are we as hungry to encounter Jesus as they are to get up and hone their bodies? 178 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:40,720 Now this is a great thing they're doing. 179 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:42,000 I deeply admire them for it. 180 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:43,720 I'm not being sarcastic about that at all. 181 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:45,320 Like I said, I would like to join them. 182 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:48,000 I just haven't got there yet. 183 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:54,120 But we need to be at least as consecrated to the work of Jesus as they are towards running. 184 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:55,120 Let's pause that there. 185 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:58,120 Let's talk about Joshua as we heard Dee read today. 186 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:01,640 Joshua, if you haven't heard of him before, was Moses' right-hand man. 187 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:05,200 He was the young man that Moses was training to take over leadership of Israel. 188 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:06,800 They got to the Promised Land together. 189 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:12,520 Moses and the rest of the Israelites, Moses sent 12 spies into the Promised Land, one for 190 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:13,720 each of the 12 tribes. 191 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:14,720 They all come back. 192 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:16,840 Joshua and his friend Caleb are full of faith. 193 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:18,360 They say, we can do this. 194 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,600 There are giants in the land, but we've got it. 195 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:23,840 The other 10 come back and say, there are giants in the land. 196 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:25,720 They've got us. 197 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:29,440 The Israelites panic and they turn and leave the Promised Land. 198 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:34,640 God dooms them to wander in the desert for 40 years until that generation of faithlessness 199 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:36,440 passes away. 200 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:39,120 Then they come back to the Promised Land. 201 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,400 Moses passes and this time Joshua is in charge. 202 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:46,760 He gets right up to the Promised Land and he sends this time two spies into Scout the 203 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:49,640 Land probably because he realized what happened to the other 10 last time. 204 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:51,080 Maybe we just sent two. 205 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:52,840 It won't go so badly. 206 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:57,200 They go out, they scout the land and this time they come back and they say, hey, everyone 207 00:10:57,200 --> 00:10:59,720 is panicking because of us. 208 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:00,720 We've got this. 209 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:01,720 Let's go. 210 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:02,960 It wasn't about the number of people they had. 211 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:04,560 It wasn't about their skill at arms. 212 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:08,360 It was the panic that had been created because they knew that God was with them and they 213 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:11,760 were on a mission that only God had sent them on. 214 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:12,760 That's what happened there. 215 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:19,160 So we get to our teaching text now and within it we hear some key principles for consecration. 216 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:21,520 Joshua brings the Israelites right up to the River Jordan. 217 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:22,600 He camps there. 218 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:25,880 The Jordan's the boundary to the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. 219 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:31,680 To win the land, they need to cross the Jordan, but God's dealt with rivers before, amen. 220 00:11:31,680 --> 00:11:34,280 He tells the Israelites to follow the Ark of the Covenant. 221 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:38,680 That is the receptacle where God has chosen to let his presence dwell when the priests 222 00:11:38,680 --> 00:11:42,480 carried it into the river, but he also says to keep a distance from him and watch where 223 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:45,320 it goes because you have not been this way before. 224 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,840 And this is the first principle of consecration I want you to catch. 225 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:51,920 The presence goes before the people. 226 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:53,880 The presence goes before the people. 227 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,080 We've got to pay attention to what God is doing and where he is going. 228 00:11:57,080 --> 00:11:59,120 Now God is omnipresent, right? 229 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:00,800 He is everywhere at all times. 230 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:03,520 So if you've ever been somewhere weird and you're like, well, I hope God's not watching. 231 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:04,520 I've got bad news. 232 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:05,680 He's everywhere. 233 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:07,400 He is watching. 234 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:13,520 We also, out of his kindness and grace, chooses to let his manifest presence rest on places 235 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:14,520 at particular times. 236 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:18,560 Now that's a whole other sermon I'm not going to get into today, but it means that at some 237 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:24,240 stages and particularly in the Ark of the Covenant, God let his presence dwell. 238 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:26,800 In each of you now there is a living temple. 239 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:31,440 If you're a believer in Jesus, that God's Spirit dwells in you, calling you on, leading 240 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:33,840 you forwards. 241 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:38,960 The letter of the Hebrews reminds us to fix your eyes on Jesus, fix your eyes on God. 242 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:43,000 The Holy Spirit has plans and longings for this world. 243 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:48,000 Part of our job is to go, God, I don't want to do what I'm doing and then ask you to bless 244 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:49,080 me. 245 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:52,960 I want to see what you're doing and get in line with that and participate in that. 246 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:53,960 Amen? 247 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:56,320 This is the sort of way that we change the world. 248 00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:59,240 So we don't need, and this is a relief, right? 249 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:00,240 Listen to this. 250 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:02,160 You don't need to try so hard to be good. 251 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:03,160 You don't. 252 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:05,440 You just need to try hard to listen to God. 253 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:09,160 If you listen to God and then you want to do what he does, you'll end up doing good 254 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:10,160 things anyway. 255 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:12,680 Don't worry so much about that. 256 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:13,680 Listen to God. 257 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:16,640 We need to pay attention to what God is doing around you because he's the good one, not 258 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:17,640 us. 259 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:19,520 So you don't need to worry about that. 260 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:21,280 Joshua was trying to be clear with the Israelites. 261 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:26,880 You don't know where you're going, but if you pay attention to what God is doing, you 262 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:29,000 will go in the right direction. 263 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,200 If you've ever had that experience when you've been praying and you're like, God, I don't 264 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:35,720 know what I'm doing, but then you stop and instead of just yelling at God like that, 265 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:36,720 you listen. 266 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:38,240 Now I'm terrible at that. 267 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:42,280 I like the yelling part, not so much the listening part, but if you stop and listen, God will 268 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:44,040 often say strange things. 269 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:48,240 You're like, okay, and then you just do it and you realize that actually God is prompting 270 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:52,040 you in these directions because he has something for you to do or something for you to learn 271 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:53,840 or a way for you to grow. 272 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,880 That's why we need to go in the right direction with God. 273 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,560 In the New Testament, when Jesus is speaking, you'll often hear him tell stories and then 274 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:01,680 he says things like this. 275 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:06,120 If you have eyes to see, may you see, if you have ears to hear, may you hear. 276 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:10,720 He's challenging the people listening to say, are you catching what I'm trying to say? 277 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:12,160 Are you picking up what I'm putting down? 278 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:13,680 I've got something for you. 279 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:19,360 If you listen, there's almost always something at a deeper level when Jesus is speaking. 280 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:23,920 So attention, prayerful listening and obedience is the heart behind that first principle that 281 00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:26,040 the presence goes before the people. 282 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:30,760 If you want to consecrate yourselves, work out where God's going. 283 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:35,600 When Joshua drops this incredible statement, consecrate yourselves because the Lord will 284 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,760 do wonders among you tomorrow. 285 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:39,760 Wonders. 286 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:41,480 Prepare yourselves in your spirit. 287 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,480 God, Joshua sends the priests on ahead of the people with the Ark of the Covenant. 288 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:48,760 They go to stand right near the Jordan, probably looking uncomfortable at this point. 289 00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:52,400 They're like, the water is really close and nothing's happening. 290 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,640 And he gathers them around and he tells them what he told them 40 years ago. 291 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:57,360 You'll know that the living God is among you. 292 00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:58,360 How? 293 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:01,800 How about the Canaanites, the Hethites, the Hivites, the Parasites, the Gegesites, the 294 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:02,800 Amorites, the Jebusites? 295 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:05,880 I could be saying anything right now, you believe me. 296 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,440 When the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord or the whole earth goes ahead of you into the 297 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:11,920 Jordan, that's how you know God is with you. 298 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:15,520 And this leads us to principle number two, to be consecrated to the Lord. 299 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:19,680 The culturally uncomfortable must become spiritually normal. 300 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,840 The culturally uncomfortable must become spiritually normal. 301 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:27,360 Listen, if you want God in your life, if you really want him, his power, his purposes, 302 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:32,080 his guidance, you're going to have to live the kind of life that looks a little bit crazy. 303 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:35,000 You're going to have to look at your life through the eyes of faith. 304 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,720 Bonhoeffer refused to leave Nazi Germany. 305 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,880 He stayed and allowed himself to be in prison and eventually died for his faith just a couple 306 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:43,360 of weeks before the war ended. 307 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:48,000 John Wesley preached in the fields so that he could be more like his Lord. 308 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:49,520 That was how he described him. 309 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:53,760 Mary poured expensive perfume on Jesus' feet, earning the wrath of Judas. 310 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:58,600 And as it turns out, Mary was on the right side of history. 311 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:01,640 Consecration requires a bit of crazy. 312 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:03,640 Consecration requires a bit of crazy. 313 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:09,840 You're not going to get anything done for Jesus if you just look like everybody else. 314 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:14,720 Now this is frustrating because we kind of want to look like other people. 315 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,840 Really I would say part of the big movement of the 21st century in Christianity has been 316 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:23,400 how can we make Christianity palatable to the world outside the church? 317 00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:24,400 I get that. 318 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:28,280 Deeply, I am as insecure, probably more than the average person. 319 00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:31,120 But that's never going to change the world. 320 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:33,640 And the purpose of Jesus was to come and transform the world. 321 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:36,200 See, here's what the early Christians were known for. 322 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:37,840 Five things, according to Tim Keller. 323 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:42,520 On one side, they were united across ethnic boundaries in a way that made people deeply 324 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:44,600 uncomfortable in the Roman Empire. 325 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:50,680 And they had this unbelievable, trust, not trust, unbelievable service to the poor and 326 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:51,760 the marginalized. 327 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,240 They poured themselves out for those people. 328 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,000 These are people who if you're on the political left, you would cheer on. 329 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,520 If you're on the political right, you might feel uncomfortable. 330 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:04,680 However, they were also known for having a super high value for human life. 331 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:09,880 They would not let anyone from baby to the end of life go and just be thrown onto the 332 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:14,480 dump, which was a literal thing that people in the Roman Empire would do with people who 333 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,680 were either at the end of their life or the beginning of their life or who they didn't 334 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:18,680 want. 335 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:24,240 They had a high value for human life and a high value for Orthodox marriage and sexuality. 336 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:27,680 These are things that people on the political right might cheer you for, but people on the 337 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:28,680 political left wouldn't. 338 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:33,400 And then the fifth thing is that they insisted on having this high standard of forgiveness 339 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:38,480 for everyone and nobody was comfortable with that. 340 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:43,760 No matter where you sit, if you're trying to live out of faith in Jesus, you will be 341 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:45,200 a bit uncomfortable. 342 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:48,760 You will make people around you a little bit uncomfortable. 343 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:53,720 However, what you've got to catch is that a consecrated life is not meant to look normal, 344 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:56,400 but it is meant to look compelling. 345 00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:59,000 It's not meant to look weird for the sake of being weird. 346 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:00,000 Okay. 347 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:01,000 We all know those people. 348 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:02,000 Don't point at them. 349 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:03,000 Don't look at them. 350 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:04,000 Jody, we don't. 351 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:09,800 We, we, it's just another friend I have. 352 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:14,000 Don't, Jacob, don't, don't. 353 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:15,240 Don't name them. 354 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:17,720 It's unnecessary. 355 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:20,800 But we are meant to stand out and be compelling. 356 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:23,880 You may know those people who are a little bit weird like that, but you may also know 357 00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:28,880 people who, when you gather around them, you, you just feel like your spirit's been lifted. 358 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:33,480 You feel like you have been in the presence of God because they're so beautiful and encouraging 359 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,560 and uplifting. 360 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:37,600 That's what it's meant to be like. 361 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,640 That's what it's meant to mean to stand out from the crowd. 362 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:41,680 We're not standing out because we're so strange. 363 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:42,680 We don't know how to fit in. 364 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:46,600 It's just, we're so busy fitting out for Jesus that we can't be conformed to the patterns 365 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:47,600 of this world. 366 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:48,600 Amen. 367 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:49,600 There's something in us. 368 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,640 The spirit of God is in us, calling us on. 369 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:56,000 There is something more than ordinary in the consecrated life. 370 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,720 Joshua and Caleb saw exactly what the other spies saw, except they saw it through the 371 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:02,480 eyes of faith. 372 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:04,400 That's the only difference. 373 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:07,840 Consecration requires a little bit of crazy and the culturally uncomfortable is going 374 00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:10,240 to have to become spiritually normal. 375 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:13,280 Now back to the text, third and final principle. 376 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:18,080 The priests march down to the river Jordan, getting their feet wet. 377 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:19,840 This is the point where they must be going, I'm insane. 378 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:21,720 I'm about to walk in and drown. 379 00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:27,960 As they start to walk in holding the presence of God, the water starts to split and it starts 380 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:31,480 to rise up and it's rising up far, far back. 381 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:33,080 Suddenly the ground begins to dry out. 382 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:34,080 It doesn't tell us in fact. 383 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:36,920 The Bible doesn't say the priests went through on muddy ground. 384 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:38,720 They said they went through on dry ground. 385 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:44,480 It's the same word used in the Hebrew to mean a deserted place where there is no water that 386 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:48,520 was dried completely for the Israelites to go through. 387 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:50,880 This is the third principle for consecration. 388 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:53,880 The impossible is God's job. 389 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:55,480 Obedience is yours. 390 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:57,360 The impossible is God's job. 391 00:19:57,360 --> 00:19:58,360 Obedience is yours. 392 00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:02,520 I sometimes pray with Christians who are beating themselves up with shame because they're like, 393 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:03,920 I haven't performed any miracles. 394 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:07,360 I was like, okay, you were never going to perform a miracle. 395 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:09,360 God performs miracles. 396 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:10,360 You just pray. 397 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:11,360 You just pray. 398 00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:12,520 That doesn't mean you shouldn't have faith for them. 399 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:15,960 That doesn't mean you shouldn't believe they're possible, but it's not you who ever does a 400 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:16,960 miracle. 401 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:17,960 It's God. 402 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:21,640 Your job is to have faith in the one who does the miracles, to cry out to him, to knock 403 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:24,240 and keep on knocking and say, God, I need something. 404 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:28,000 So I'm asking, I'm believing that I'm going to receive because that's what you tell me 405 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:29,600 in your word, Jesus. 406 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:33,960 You tell me to ask and receive, to seek and find, to knock and the door will be open, but 407 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:39,720 you never tell me I will be the one through my own power who casts out demons and sees 408 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:43,760 people healed, but through the spirit's power. 409 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:48,760 So consecration helps you realize that the impossible is not your job. 410 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:50,360 Just pray and put the burden on God. 411 00:20:50,360 --> 00:20:55,040 We're like, hey, God, you told me, you told us to go out into all the world to make disciples, 412 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:57,760 baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. 413 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:01,760 You told us to go out, that we'd cast demons out, that we'd see people free from illness, 414 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,840 that see that snakes would bite us and we wouldn't get poisoned. 415 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:06,200 All right, that sounds pretty difficult. 416 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:07,800 So you'd better do that. 417 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,600 So I'm going to keep praying and this is on you. 418 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:12,840 Okay, so I'm going to go out into the middle of the water now and you've got to pile it 419 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:13,840 up. 420 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:14,840 Good. 421 00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:16,360 Okay, next step, I'm still going to need you to keep piling. 422 00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:17,360 Great. 423 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:21,200 Step by step in faith with Jesus, trusting that because you've consecrated yourself towards 424 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:27,680 God, trusting that you keep asking for him, God will step in in power. 425 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:28,680 That's what he does. 426 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:31,440 The consecrated life is not a normal life. 427 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:32,440 It's with God. 428 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:34,800 It's for God. 429 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,560 You just need to obey, to show up with faith. 430 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:38,960 Now, it doesn't make it easy. 431 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:40,680 You've still got to do stuff. 432 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:42,440 You've still got to show up with faith. 433 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:43,440 Your friend asked for prayer. 434 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:44,440 You've got to pray. 435 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:46,440 You can't just go, oh, all right, God, you do it. 436 00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:47,440 No, no, no, no. 437 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:48,440 You pray. 438 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:49,440 God will do the convicting. 439 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:50,440 God will do the converting. 440 00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:52,360 God will do the healing. 441 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:55,880 You've got to turn up, but God's the one that brings the power. 442 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:57,720 God's the one that brings the miracle. 443 00:21:57,720 --> 00:21:59,840 So relax. 444 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:03,600 Being consecrated means being set apart friends. 445 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,440 Means taking your ordinary lives and devoting them to God. 446 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:09,160 You can't do it in your spare time. 447 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:10,920 It requires all of you. 448 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:12,320 Jesus is all or nothing. 449 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:14,400 The apostle Paul lived a consecrated life. 450 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:16,400 Jesus lived a consecrated life. 451 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:23,560 In the Garden of Gethsemane, he shows his consecration and concentration to God. 452 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,680 He pours himself out in prayer, sweating blood and weeping. 453 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:32,600 He's literally becoming a drink offering in that place. 454 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,120 So what will you do with your life? 455 00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:37,560 What will you do with your life? 456 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:40,160 As I come towards a close, let me just say this. 457 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:45,640 I feel like most of the time in my spiritual life, I've largely dropped the ball. 458 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:49,400 Like I spent most of my life thinking about where I've dropped the ball rather than when 459 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,400 I've been successful. 460 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:56,160 Pride is less my issue than just this raging sense of incompetence that I sometimes battle 461 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,120 with. 462 00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:01,640 But one thing I know I do well as this. 463 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:07,880 I come back to the principle happening in Revelation 2 verses 4-5, where Jesus speaks 464 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,760 to the church in Ephesus and he says, I have this against you. 465 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,080 You have abandoned the love you had at first. 466 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:16,560 Remember then how far you have fallen. 467 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:20,840 Repent and do the works you did at first. 468 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:25,800 So when I grow weary or disheartened, I come back to this, to the love I had at first for 469 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,760 Jesus of what he did for me. 470 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:34,840 Because the love I had at first doesn't come from me or my situation or my emotions. 471 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:36,440 It comes from God. 472 00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,880 That's where that love comes from, not from me. 473 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,640 Jesus didn't die to make you or I a good person. 474 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:44,560 He didn't die to make us successful. 475 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:46,520 He didn't die to make us happy. 476 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:51,880 He died and rose again so that I may be one with God the Father as he is. 477 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:57,080 He died and rose again so that you would know God for yourself. 478 00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:58,240 God loves you. 479 00:23:58,240 --> 00:23:59,760 He sees you. 480 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:00,760 He knows you by name. 481 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:01,760 He calls you home. 482 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:06,320 Church, I've got to be honest. 483 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:15,040 There's nothing more useless to the world than a church that is full of people who claim 484 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:20,440 to have found God but show no evidence in their lives. 485 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,360 This world is full of searching people. 486 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:24,360 Maybe you're one of them. 487 00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:26,920 Maybe you're here today and that's why you're here. 488 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:28,960 We're full of searching people. 489 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:35,440 If we are like William Booth feared, the husk of where Christianity used to be, we're doing 490 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:37,640 the world a great service. 491 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:39,440 The world needs Jesus. 492 00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:41,120 They don't need our religious patterns. 493 00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:42,120 They need Jesus. 494 00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:45,880 Let me go back to William Booth for a second. 495 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:47,920 Booth's father died when he was 14. 496 00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:50,520 He became the primary source of his family's income. 497 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:54,680 I tell you this because chances are very few people in this room have more of a reason 498 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,800 to be mad with God than William Booth was. 499 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,560 He became the primary source of income for his family at age 14. 500 00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:07,200 Think how easy it would have been for him to resent God but instead at the age of 15, 501 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:09,960 Booth comes to faith in Christ in a Wesleyan chapel. 502 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:14,680 He develops this passion that would be the driving force in his life to reach and bless 503 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:19,360 Britain's marginalized people through the gospel and he writes this in his diary. 504 00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:24,240 God shall have all there is of William Booth. 505 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:26,080 How good is that? 506 00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:30,280 God shall have all there is of William Booth. 507 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:34,920 Today more than 14 million people every year are helped by the Salvation Army. 508 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:39,040 It's the most obviously Christian organization hidden in plain sight. 509 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:43,120 Every time somebody watches one of the ads and says, thank God for the salvos I chuckle 510 00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:46,560 because they've just slipped it in there and people aren't even aware of what they're saying. 511 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,240 Thank God for the salvos. 512 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,560 We're praying for them and we don't even know it. 513 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:58,720 Between 1881 and 1885 alone, William and Catherine Booth saw 250,000 Brits brought to faith 514 00:25:58,720 --> 00:25:59,720 in Jesus. 515 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,080 A literal army of salvations. 516 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,720 God had all there was of William Booth. 517 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,200 So Henley, let me ask you. 518 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,960 Will God have all there is of you? 519 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,600 Is that the sort of person you are longing to become? 520 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:20,720 Is that the desire of your heart to be consecrated to God in a way where you can say, God shall 521 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:24,280 have all there is of me? 522 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:29,240 The same gospel that captured William Booth's life is the same gospel available to you today. 523 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:34,520 The only thing is you can't give all of yourself to God if you're leaving something back by 524 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:36,160 definition. 525 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:40,120 And that includes your fears, your insecurities, your brokenness, your deeper secrets, your 526 00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:43,960 sins, the stuff you don't want anyone to know. 527 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:49,480 It includes your gifts, your graces, your talents, your skills, everything. 528 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,760 Everything comes before God and you say, God, I am a total mess. 529 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:53,760 I have strengths. 530 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:54,760 I have weaknesses. 531 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,680 I am this human ball of something. 532 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:02,040 But God, you will use it because you promise you will. 533 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,240 You promise that in my weakness, you are strong. 534 00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:10,320 You promise that these fragile jars of clay will display the light of God. 535 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:11,320 That's you. 536 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:12,320 That's me. 537 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:18,720 We are a fragile jar of clay. 538 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,760 But God will display himself through us. 539 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:29,120 And if I've only got one more thing to say, I'm the senior pastor, so I have more if I 540 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:30,120 want to. 541 00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:35,080 But if I had just one more, it would be this, that too many Christians seem to think they're 542 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:40,760 just turning up to church is enough. 543 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:45,280 Or too many Christians seem to think that what it looks like to be set on fire for God 544 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:50,080 is some version of this. 545 00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:51,080 That's your cue, Charlie. 546 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:52,080 Yeah. 547 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:53,320 That's your cue, Chelsea. 548 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,320 There we go. 549 00:27:55,320 --> 00:28:02,360 Now, I've got to tell you, there's a version of Christianity that does have this, peace 550 00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:04,600 amongst the fire of life, right? 551 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:08,200 Because life is wild and you just need to be able to sit down with a cup of coffee and 552 00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:09,200 go, I'm all right. 553 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:10,520 The peace of God is with me. 554 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,520 But that's not the vision for followers of Jesus. 555 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:15,080 This is the vision for followers of Jesus. 556 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:23,520 Something a bit stronger, a bit bigger, a light on the hill, something shining to the 557 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:24,520 world. 558 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:26,800 We are not made for ourselves. 559 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,320 We are not made just to feel good about ourselves and gather in a holy huddle. 560 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:33,080 I'm so thankful for Henley. 561 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:35,800 I'm so thankful for what God is doing through you all. 562 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:37,520 But we are not made to stay here. 563 00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:43,040 We are made to consecrate ourselves to God and say, God, have all of me so that the entire 564 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:45,000 world may know all of you. 565 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:50,960 Have all of me so that the world may know that you are alive, that Jesus is risen, that 566 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,840 he didn't just die, but he rose again, ascended to heaven. 567 00:28:53,840 --> 00:29:00,680 And everyone on this earth has the opportunity to have faith in him and eternal life in him 568 00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:07,000 and abundant life right now in Christ. 569 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:12,160 Shall God have all there is of you? 570 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:13,720 Let's pray. 571 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:22,880 And then let's see what the Lord does. 572 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,560 Come Holy Spirit. 573 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:26,560 Come in this place. 574 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:27,560 Come in our lives. 575 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:31,360 Pour yourself out on us. 576 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:32,960 God we don't want a half-hearted life. 577 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,560 We want all of you. 578 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:45,680 Lord, I just see a picture like waves lapping out of shore. 579 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:51,760 And there's writing on the shore and the waves, it's just the grace of God lapping away, something 580 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:53,360 that's been written on your life. 581 00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:55,400 For somebody here, I believe that's for you. 582 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:59,440 It's something you've had written on your life, you've been holding onto it and believed 583 00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:03,120 in it, but it's actually not of God. 584 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:06,600 I don't know whether it's good or bad, but there's something on your life you've been 585 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,720 desperately holding onto, but it's written in sand. 586 00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:12,520 It's not written in stone. 587 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:14,760 God's washing it away. 588 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:19,440 He's washing you clean. 589 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,280 Thank you Jesus. 590 00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:27,560 God would you speak to us tonight through your spirit? 591 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,560 Hallelujah. 592 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:30,560 Hallelujah. 593 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:38,480 Church, we're going to come to a time of prayer and response and I want to just encourage 594 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:39,600 you to do something for me. 595 00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:42,360 I wonder if everyone could close their eyes and bow their heads if you're not already 596 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:43,360 doing it. 597 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:48,440 Even if you don't want to respond, this is out of respect to those that may want to. 598 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:54,960 And I'm going to invite two kinds of people to respond and the first, this is for you. 599 00:30:54,960 --> 00:31:00,400 If you're here and you've been exploring Jesus, you've been hesitant to make a commitment 600 00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,920 and say, I want to call Jesus my Lord and Savior. 601 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:07,280 I want to give my life to him. 602 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:10,600 I don't know exactly what that means, but I want to give it to him. 603 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,640 This is your moment. 604 00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:16,960 So if you're here and that's you, I'm going to count to three and I want to slip you to 605 00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:20,560 slip up your hand so I can pray for you. 606 00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:24,880 One, two, three, just slip up your hand if that's you. 607 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,280 You want to make a decision to follow Jesus tonight. 608 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:28,280 That's so good. 609 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:29,280 Praise God. 610 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:30,280 So good. 611 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:31,920 Is there anyone else here? 612 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,960 You want to join our friend today? 613 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:36,800 No, that's okay. 614 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:39,240 You can put your hand down. 615 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:40,240 So good. 616 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:45,360 Lord Jesus, we just thank you for what you're doing. 617 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:52,280 We celebrate in a moment, but for that person today, God, as you have reached them in their 618 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:56,320 heart, would you restore them? 619 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:57,560 Would you resurrect them? 620 00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,160 Would you help them to know that actually they have new life in you? 621 00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:03,800 The old life has gone and the new life has come. 622 00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:05,240 You call them your own. 623 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:06,600 You call them your beloved. 624 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:13,640 You call them not just somebody facing the crowd, but your child. 625 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:20,520 So for that person today, would you help them to repent to their sins, turn away from them 626 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,040 and look to you, Jesus, as their Lord? 627 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:26,720 Amen. 628 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,120 And for the second kind of people is this. 629 00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:35,040 These are people who you're in the room and you just sense God is calling you to consecrate 630 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,040 yourselves afresh to him. 631 00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:38,920 Now, you could be a leader. 632 00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:40,360 You could be a pastor. 633 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:41,360 It doesn't matter. 634 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,800 You're just sensing something from God where he's saying, right now, my heart's beating 635 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:45,800 a little faster. 636 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,320 I know he's calling me to something more. 637 00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:52,720 And if that's you, I'm going to ask you to stand up because you're already a believer. 638 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:58,560 So I don't feel as patient with you guys to make you slip up your hand quietly. 639 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,160 It's actually time to make a stand for Jesus. 640 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,360 And you'll know, you'll know if he's calling you to consecrate yourself. 641 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:06,480 So if that's you, why don't you just stand up now? 642 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:11,920 If God's calling you to consecrate yourself in a fresh way to Jesus tonight. 643 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:13,920 So good. 644 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:20,120 I'll give people a few seconds longer. 645 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,560 If it's not you, that's fine. 646 00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,360 It's no stress. 647 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:28,520 God's grace is good. 648 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:31,600 But as you're praying and discerning, whether that's you, let me just tell you, if you're 649 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,280 under 30, the challenge is to do the ridiculous for God. 650 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:37,280 People will tell you to be sensible. 651 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:39,280 Don't be sensible for Jesus. 652 00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:40,280 Be ridiculous. 653 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:43,320 Be outrageous for Jesus. 654 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:48,240 If you're in the 31 to 60 demo, don't get too busy for Jesus. 655 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:51,080 Don't get too distracted for Jesus. 656 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:53,520 There's a lot of good things in your life. 657 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:58,080 Don't let them get above Jesus. 658 00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:00,200 Maybe that's what you needed to hear. 659 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:06,760 If you want to join our friends and consecrate yourselves tonight. 660 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:08,240 Well Lord, we praise God for you. 661 00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:09,240 We praise God. 662 00:34:09,240 --> 00:34:10,240 These are great days. 663 00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:16,480 And for those that are consecrating themselves to you tonight, afresh, pour out your spirit 664 00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:17,480 on them. 665 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:19,920 I wonder, church, you can open your eyes if you like. 666 00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:22,720 I wonder if you could see someone who's near you, if you're at the praying type, would 667 00:34:22,720 --> 00:34:26,800 you just stretch your hand towards them and pray for them? 668 00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:31,000 You notice I didn't do this with the new person who's come into Jesus, but these are for people 669 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:32,400 who they know and love Jesus already. 670 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,960 But there's something more that God's calling them to. 671 00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:37,800 We just stretch your hand towards them to bless them. 672 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,960 Lord, we just thank you. 673 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,480 Thank you for these people who are asking for more of you today. 674 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,080 We pour out the spirit on them. 675 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:48,720 Lord, would you pour it out? 676 00:34:48,720 --> 00:34:50,220 Pour it out. 677 00:34:50,220 --> 00:34:51,440 We lift them up in prayer. 678 00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,920 Father, we ask that you would show them things they haven't seen before. 679 00:34:54,920 --> 00:35:00,520 Lord, more of your presence, more of you, Lord, less of them. 680 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:06,600 Lord, where there was brokenness, would you bring healing and restoration? 681 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,600 Total fresh start in Jesus' name. 682 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:15,160 May this consecration, may it be like another layer of sediment in the foundation that is 683 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:17,520 Christ that they are building on there. 684 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:22,520 There's a new strengthening going on, a new building going on here. 685 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,200 Hallelujah. 686 00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:25,440 You praise your name. 687 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:27,400 We lift these people up to you. 688 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:29,080 Thank you, Lord. 689 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:30,080 Hallelujah. 690 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:32,880 Hey, we're going to have a time of worship and response. 691 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:35,400 If you want prayer in that time, I'd love to pray for you. 692 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:37,920 I'll be down in the front, whatever you need prayer for. 693 00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:38,920 Let me know. 694 00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:40,420 Cara will be down in the front too. 695 00:35:40,420 --> 00:35:43,960 Either of us, one on each side, come and we'll be loved to pray for you. 696 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,320 But otherwise, why don't you stand and we'll respond in worship. 697 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:55,100 This is our Vernal