1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,680 Hi everyone, this is Emma from Encounter Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our 2 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:21,600 podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast you can have an encounter with Jesus that will 3 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:26,880 change your life and now get ready for an inspiring message from our preaching team. 4 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:32,800 The Book of James says that prayer is powerful and effective. The prayer of a righteous person 5 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:38,640 is powerful and effective but it's dependent on God. That prayer is foundational to revival 6 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:44,080 but even if you set up a beautiful 24 seven prayer room and what you are doing is spectacular. 7 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:49,440 It is storming heaven but unless you go in there totally dependent on God all you are doing is 8 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:56,480 setting up a nice room to show people. It's a showroom in a display house unless you are crying 9 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:03,600 out on your knees for the power of God to turn up in power. In the 1940s in the Hebrides Islands 10 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:11,200 in Scotland a revival started. This is a far out part of the Scottish Isles because two 80 plus 11 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:16,000 year old sisters prayed day and night for the Spirit of God to be poured out. One of them was 12 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:21,040 blind, the other one was getting there but all they had was faith and prayer and eventually the 13 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:25,200 Reverend Duncan Campbell was called over to the mainland and he came to their home and he explained 14 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:29,520 oh listen I've been called here to be the minister in the area. I understand you to a bit of prayer 15 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:33,760 worries and they said yep you need to go to a distant village and start to preach the gospel. 16 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:40,800 And he's like I'm kind of the minister here. I don't think you realise I'm going to question 17 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:46,480 the wisdom of your request. He said besides I've had no leading to go to that place and Betty the 18 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:51,440 blind woman turned and looked at him or looked in his direction and said Mr Campbell if you were 19 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:56,080 living as close to God as you ought to be you would be hearing from him what you ought to hear. 20 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:02,400 And he went to the village and the entire village came to Jesus. This is in the 1940s it's not that 21 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:09,840 long ago. In 1857 a businessman called Jeremiah Lanpheer, what a name just child name ideas for 22 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:15,360 those who are considering it, Jeremiah Lanpheer quit his job to pursue ministry in New York. He 23 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:19,360 had a deep burden for people to know God for themselves and so he started a prayer meeting 24 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:25,600 but he wanted one that was accessible for people who worked weekdays right because he was a businessman 25 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:30,720 and so he started on Wednesday 12 to 1 at lunch, printed off a bunch of flyers and started handing 26 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:36,560 them out around the city and then he turned up on Wednesday and prayed and 12 o'clock and nobody's 27 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:44,720 there and 10 past, 20 past, half past, a half past somebody turns up, 40 past, a couple more people 28 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:48,880 turn up by the end of the hour there are six people there finishing praying and he goes that's 29 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:53,840 great I'll take it. By the end of the second week 20 people turned up and prayed. By the end of the 30 00:02:53,840 --> 00:03:00,480 third week 40 and it just kept going exponentially. It's okay I guess something's happening here 31 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,800 better take it daily so we took it daily. The New York Times got involved they realized that 32 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,240 something was going on so they said okay we want to count how many people are going to this prayer 33 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:13,760 meeting because they're multiplying now all over the city every day across Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn 34 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,840 everywhere and so we're going to try and count them. They could not get to all the meetings in time to 35 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:23,600 do it all they could do is estimate that at least 10,000 men a day were praying every day in New York 36 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:29,600 City. That year 1 million people prayed to receive Jesus in the United States. The United States 37 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:36,000 population at that time was 30 million. One in every 30 people made a decision to follow Jesus 38 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:43,520 because one businessman set up a prayer meeting in his lunch break. Evan Roberts had a deep life of 39 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:48,800 intercession. He was a prayer he would he would be awoken by the Lord at 1 a.m. and be in a prayer 40 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:55,520 for four hours to the break of dawn. Carmen's like that too. Just I wakes up at one and three to five 41 00:03:55,520 --> 00:04:01,840 praying for four hours as he sought the Lord's face to revival to break out in Wales. That's what 42 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:07,280 he wanted. He was Welsh. He wanted revival to break out in his hometown. In 1904 he was in prayer at 43 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:13,680 a chapel meeting and he had an encounter with Jesus and he wept. And following that he said the 44 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:21,280 salvation of the human soul was impressed solemnly on me. He said, I felt a blaze to go the length 45 00:04:21,280 --> 00:04:26,320 and breadth of Wales to tell all of the Savior. And so Evan began praying more seriously and 46 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:31,120 eventually one night he asked his friend Sidney Evans, hey seriously tell me if I'm crazy. Do you 47 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:37,280 think God could give us a hundred thousand souls? And Sidney Evans went, yes I think he could. 48 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:43,120 Nine months later the Welsh revival had seen 100,000 people come to Jesus. 49 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:51,600 Wales is not a big place. That's everything. Like what they noticed that people was that 50 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:59,600 the law courts were empty, the jails were empty, the mines were featuring prayer meetings underground, 51 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:05,680 the ponies underground in the mines that were trained to respond to the miners were not responding 52 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:10,400 to the miners because they were used to being sworn at and they didn't understand the changed 53 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:17,200 language. The mining industry dropped in productivity because the ponies couldn't understand the new 54 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:25,440 Christianized language the miners were using. That is the impact that happened because this man said, 55 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:33,360 God give me 100,000 souls for your kingdom. They gave out white gloves to all the judges that year 56 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:37,120 and the reason was to say this is a physical representation and when I say they, I mean the 57 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:41,520 government gave out white gloves to all the judges say this is a physical representation to 58 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:47,280 remember that God showed up in power this year. We don't want to forget this, take the gloves. 59 00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:54,000 There was no crime this year, white gloves for everybody. This is revival. That's what it looks 60 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,560 like. It's a consistent part of our Christian heritage. It's not something we're meant to drop. 61 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:03,280 It's not something we're meant to be bored by. It's not something abstract we're meant to read about 62 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:08,080 and consider. I want to tell stories about revival because revival ultimately is something that is 63 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:16,560 drawn from the heart and it's seeded by prayer. It's seeded by weeping tears of prayer for a broken 64 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:23,040 and lost generation. Now people cry all the time in the Bible think of David in the Psalms or like 65 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:28,560 anywhere really with David all the time he's crying. Think of Jesus weeping at the death of Lazarus, 66 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:33,360 right? Jesus' web, the shortest perfect sentence in the English language. Think of Job, tears of 67 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:39,520 grief and pain. They're very, very common but that's not what we're describing here. When we talk about 68 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:45,360 sowing the ground, watering it with tears of prayer for a generation, we are talking about 69 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:52,240 near Maya broken in Babylon weeping as he hears stories of his fellow Jews back in Jerusalem, 70 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:59,440 the broken city walls, the destroyed temples, the exiles foraging in a broken land. He's there in a 71 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:05,440 foreign land watching his people be enslaved. He's going, God what can we do? This is a broken prayer 72 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:13,040 for a generation. God do something. We're talking about Jeremiah and Lamentations which is an entire 73 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:20,400 book of grieving prayer and Jeremiah in Lamentations 2 11 says this, my eyes fail from weeping. 74 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:26,800 I'm in torment within. My heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed 75 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:34,480 because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. This is what the Psalmist means in 76 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:43,840 Psalm 126 when he talks about sowing in tears. God calls us to hold within us an urgency for the 77 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:51,040 lost, a desperation. People who want the spirit of God to pour out over a nation don't just cry 78 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:57,920 over a situation no matter how genuine. They put that situation to the side and pour themselves out 79 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:05,440 for the lost again and again and again. It's a broken hearted generation. Now what I want to 80 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:12,000 talk about a lost generation, this is what I mean. A generation who has turned away from God and has 81 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:18,320 attempted to fill that hole with everything else imaginable. A generation who is obsessed with 82 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:23,440 sex and sexuality, with distraction, with the environment and the brokenness of the environment, 83 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:28,160 with their earning potential, with politics, with increasing tech addiction. A generation that is 84 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:32,880 so broken that every one of them is constantly caught in mental health crises. You know the 85 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:38,960 generation I'm talking about? Everybody. Every generation. That is every generation. You thought 86 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:45,360 I was talking about Gen Z. No, no. Every generation deals with this. Every generation is a lost 87 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:51,520 generation. And so when I say a lost generation, I mean everyone who is far from God, everyone who 88 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:56,480 has not received the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ. Whether we like to hear it, 89 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,720 whether we like the language or not, whether it makes us feel uncomfortable or not, without Jesus, 90 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:10,720 we are lost. Lost. Now Jesus himself watered the ground with tears. This is what we read in Luke 19. 91 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:16,960 It's before he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he wept. This is a triumphant moment for Jesus 92 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:22,560 in Luke 19. This is what it says. But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began 93 00:09:22,560 --> 00:09:28,320 to weep. How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it's 94 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:34,000 too late and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long, your enemies will build ramparts 95 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:38,800 against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into 96 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:43,840 the ground and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place. Why? 97 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:51,840 Because you did not recognize it when God visited you. You just let it go by. Jesus is seeing them 98 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:57,840 and he's not condemning the city. He's brokenhearted for it. Now he's God. Everyone in the city 99 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:02,480 sinning against God, is sinning against him personally. And he knows what is to come. But 100 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:06,720 his brokenheartedness is not for himself. We see a little bit of that in the garden who gets 101 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:11,840 seminy as the weight of sin falls on him. But his brokenheartedness is for the city. Because 102 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:17,120 Jesus' primary focus of mission was to the Jewish people first and was never meant to stay that way, 103 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:22,320 of course. It was always going to open up to us. But Jesus was specifically sent to what he called 104 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:28,160 the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So he comes to Jerusalem entering like a triumphant king, 105 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:34,160 but he weeps for their rejection of him. Not because they rejected him, but because they 106 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:39,600 have rejected God and he knows what that rejection will cost them. He is the author of life. He is 107 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:44,160 the shepherd of the flock. He sees the physical and spiritual future of Jerusalem and he sees it's 108 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:52,160 totally destructive. Friends, this is why we sow the ground with seeds of tears. We sow the 109 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:59,120 ground with tears because the price not to is too high. I said earlier that every generation is a 110 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:06,480 lost generation. That's true. But we are a young church at Encounter. We aim young. 72% of Henley, 111 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:17,280 you're under 30 as adults. Sorry. Tax car. 47% of prospect adults are under 30. So not quite as 112 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:23,200 many. We're a young church. It's not an accident. We're deliberately focused on blessing and 113 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:27,200 strengthening the younger generations. Now, sometimes people get a bit uptight about that. 114 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:31,040 I mean, I don't know why. Like I'm not one of those generations. So I'm not focused on blessing 115 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:35,280 and strengthening myself here. The reason why we do that is because we're taught in the Scriptures 116 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:40,720 that we are to grow up into spiritual maturity. So my vision is that we are growing young people 117 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:45,520 up into spiritual maturity so they can pour out into the next generation. If you're a very young 118 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:48,880 person, it's hard to have spiritual maturity because you're not even physically mature yet. 119 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:53,680 How can you be spiritually mature? It takes time. But the responsibility of us as older, 120 00:11:53,680 --> 00:11:59,280 more mature Christians is then to pour ourselves out for the next generation. We pour more efforts 121 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:04,240 and energy because we are spiritual parents to them. You with me? Yeah, even if you don't like it, 122 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:09,680 you understand what I'm saying? Okay. So if you want to wait for a generation, wait for Gen Z and 123 00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:17,200 Gen Alpha. Gen Alpha is coming, man. The oldest Gen Zs are 30. Oh, no. You want to feel old? There 124 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:23,600 you go. The oldest Gen Zs are 30. Now, if you ask the Gen Z about their fears for the world, 125 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:27,360 you would probably be able to guess them and you'd probably get in some order the ability to enter 126 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:33,120 the housing market and have a financial future. Some sort of problem with tech addiction of some 127 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:39,440 form or another. Politics, very politically engaged generation. The environment. And of course, the 128 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:46,400 big one, making a phone call to another human being. These are obviously the major fears of the 129 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:53,440 generation. The ones that really make your hands shake. There's climate change and then there's 130 00:12:53,440 --> 00:13:00,480 the telephone. But behind all these fears, there's the secondary fears, right? Under everyone's 131 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:05,600 fears are the true fears. The ones that you've got to scratch the surface to get to. Am I truly 132 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:14,000 loved? Does what I do matter? Do I have a purpose? What am I even doing here? Who am I really? 133 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:18,400 And in this generation, there's an extraordinary hunger for the spiritual, 134 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:24,960 which means we are in a moment in time where not only is there a need as there always is 135 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:29,840 for believers to pour themselves out in weeping prayer on behalf of the generation, 136 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,680 but there's actually a hunger for the first time I believe in three generations. 137 00:13:33,680 --> 00:13:38,960 A genuine hunger for the things of God or at least something spiritual. There's a recognition. 138 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:44,000 The Gen Zs, you're a much smarter, more spiritually aware generation than the ones like me that have 139 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:49,360 all come before you. Well done. And of course, what's the meaning of life and who's behind it? 140 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:55,840 That's the question, right? If they're asking the questions, are you ready? Are you ready to 141 00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:02,080 respond? Are you willing? So perhaps the obvious question then is this, how, how do we do it next? 142 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:07,920 How do we prepare ourselves to have a heart? How do we develop a desire to weep in prayer for our 143 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:14,880 generation? Well, we hear the answer in Revelation. As Jesus speaks to the church in Ephesus, now 144 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:20,160 Ephesus is in modern day Turkey. When we say the church of Ephesus, we mean like the book of Ephesians 145 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:25,520 in the Bible. Ephesians, Ephesus, same thing. It's one of the few churches in Revelation that's 146 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:31,440 commended for their hard work, their endurance, their discernment, their suffering. Jesus encourages 147 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:36,560 them. He's like, you guys are actually doing great. But then he says this, and it's on the screen. 148 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:42,720 I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far 149 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:49,200 you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. Now this church in Ephesus, you've got to 150 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:55,760 catch this. This church was planted by the apostle Paul, right? That's pretty good. That's a lot better 151 00:14:55,760 --> 00:15:02,160 than encounter. And then the apostle Paul handed it over to Timothy, his son in the faith who gets 152 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:07,040 two whole books written to him. That's a lot better. No disrespect. Then Pastor Tim and Pastor Tex 153 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:13,600 receiving it from Jenna myself. And then Timothy as he moves on, hands it over to the apostle John, 154 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:19,040 the beloved who writes the Gospel of John, the three letters of John and the book of Revelation. 155 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:24,160 That church has been pasted better than any church in history. And what does Jesus say? 156 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:32,160 You have forgotten your salvation love. Man, if they're going to forget it, anyone can forget it. 157 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:39,280 No church has had better pastoral leadership than those three. Yet here they are forgetting their 158 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:47,040 first love. We can forget what salvation has done for us in our day to day distractions of life. 159 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:51,600 We get caught up in everything else. We get caught up in the busyness we have to do. And we are all 160 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:57,920 busy. There's a million things we have to do. There are a hundred reasonable excuses we can make. 161 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:04,320 Friends, I believe so often for most Christians, it's not sin that gets in the way of sharing the 162 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:09,360 Gospel. It's distraction. That's not sins there. Like don't get me wrong. We can talk about that 163 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:15,920 another time. But distraction is the enemy of the soul. You know, C.S. Lewis is once quoted as saying, 164 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:20,400 he's in the screw-taped letters when he's pretending to be in the place of a senior 165 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:25,200 devil talking to a junior devil. It's a brilliant book. Very, very clever. C.S. Lewis is quite 166 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:29,440 just saying this. The older devil says to the younger devil, if you can't keep them sinning, 167 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:36,880 keep them busy because the distraction takes us away from focusing on Jesus. Now, 168 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:44,160 when we remember and we turn and we focus on Jesus, we remember the staggering audacity of 169 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:51,120 what Christ has done for us. This is a Jesus who has emptied himself of all power. Philippians says, 170 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:57,840 coming down to earth, not as one of us, but to serve us. It actually doesn't say in Philippians 171 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:02,160 that he came down to be just like you and me. No, it says he came down to be a servant of all 172 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:07,840 emptying himself of power. This is a Jesus, although he was fully God who washes his disciples' 173 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:14,240 feet in an act of extreme servanthood. This is a Jesus who took on the insults and cruelty of 174 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:18,960 his own hometown in Nazareth, who took on the misunderstanding of his mother and brothers, 175 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:25,040 who took on the sins of the world and allowed himself willingly to be led to the cross to see 176 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:32,240 two centimetre thick nails punched through his wrists and his legs as he hung up on a cross to 177 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:39,680 die with the weight of sin and grief on his body, on his shoulders, all of humankind. When we remember 178 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:48,640 that, when we focus on the pain, the grief, the beauty of Jesus, and salvation comes back into 179 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:58,880 focus a little more. It's the pure unadulterated love of Jesus for us. Church, we weep when we love. 180 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:08,320 We weep when we love. I wept over a generation of lost kids because I love them. It was my greatest 181 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:13,840 gift as a youth pastor, maybe my only gift as a youth pastor, that I loved them more than anybody 182 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:20,960 else. I poured myself out with love for those kids. What about you? Do you weep for the lost? 183 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:28,480 Do you recognise the urgency of salvation? What is your hunger level for the salvation of the 184 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:34,080 lost? And you guys can get back up. I'm going to come towards a close now. 185 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:40,560 We have four core values as a church. They're pretty good. If you're new, they're, well, 186 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:46,320 they're on the walls. Jesus, people, generous, real. They're great. Every single one of them 187 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:51,520 is about helping people have an encounter with Jesus. But to live them out requires a focus on 188 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:56,960 salvation. Now, hear this, I know people are walking around. I know it's getting warm on a 189 00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:04,480 Sunday afternoon. Hear this. Give a man to give a man a fish and he'll what? Eat for a day? You 190 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:10,080 heard this before? I would say give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man a fish to 191 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:15,840 fish and he'll fish for a lifetime. Let me try that one more time so it makes sense. Give a man a 192 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:24,000 fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime. And then he dies. 193 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:32,640 But teach him to feed on the living word and that all his hope is in the salvation of Jesus Christ 194 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:41,200 and he feeds for eternity. It's an old thing the mother Teresa used to lean on. Where's she go? 195 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:45,920 Oh, you've got to feed people so they know they're loved. But ultimately what you're feeding them with 196 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:50,560 is the living word. You come with a sandwich in one hand and a gospel in the other. 197 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:58,480 People need to be fed. They need to know they're loved. I was reading about Exodus this morning. 198 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:03,680 I was just reflecting on Moses. He's in the desert and what happens? Manne comes down from heaven and 199 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:08,080 the Israelites are sort of complaining about it and then Quail comes in and they feed on the meat 200 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:14,240 and they feed on the bread and I thought that is just like Jesus to break the bread and to bring 201 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:22,560 the meat, the lamb of God, the bread of life to feed his people. It's just like Jesus to take 202 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:29,360 a couple of loaves of bread and a few fish and split them among 5,000 and feed everybody. If you're 203 00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:34,640 not catching what I'm putting down here, this is what it is. Jesus can take a little seed of faith 204 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:42,960 and that's like that's all you have. Or at least it's all I have. A little seed of faith. 205 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:50,880 A seed of faith and he can multiply it, magnify it. Henley, I need to talk directly to you guys. 206 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:57,360 This is specifically Henley centric. This is a church with quite a high percentage of introverts. 207 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:00,560 Introverts in the room. Jump up and wave your hands up and down. 208 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:09,360 You knew that you were never going to do that. That's the joke. 209 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:14,480 I get it. I'm an introvert. I'm already dreaming of being by myself. 210 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:21,680 Here's the thing. You don't get to play I'm an introvert when salvation is on the line. 211 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:27,200 It's not an option. Your personality type is irrelevant when it comes to the salvation of 212 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:32,400 souls. It's too important. It's not that your personality type doesn't matter. Of course it 213 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:36,960 does. You need to work out of who you are, out of your giftings, out of how God has formed you. 214 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:41,360 However, you don't get to wave the I'm an introvert flag, however small and quietly 215 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:50,240 when it's salvation is on the line. A broken world is desperate, desperate. Let me just tell 216 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:57,280 you this. There's a message of Christ and is the only message that is true and works. Jesus is not 217 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:02,480 just good like as in it makes you feel good. It works when you bring the gospel to people. 218 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:08,880 It doesn't just hype them up. It feeds them for a lifetime. Our world is crippled by a mental 219 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:13,520 health crisis and the only answer the world has is to create an opioid epidemic. 220 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:21,600 God's people are being eaten inside by loneliness and a lack of genuine connection. Our response 221 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:30,640 is more apps in a subscription mentality. We got a broken sense of identity and a broken creation 222 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:39,280 of God and the world has no answers except to yell furiously that something's wrong and they're right. 223 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:46,480 But nothing's going to fill it except Jesus. This world is going to hell, literally, figuratively. 224 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:54,800 All this and we dare, and I'm just talking to Christians in the room, we dare to act as 225 00:22:54,800 --> 00:23:02,640 if sharing the gospel is optional. Jesus is not an option. He is life. He is home. 226 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:10,720 He's hope. We didn't plan encounter Henley as a cool alternative to an older church. 227 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:18,320 We planted it to bring people to Jesus. Pure and simple. That's it. That's the goal. That's what 228 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:25,440 church plants do better than anything else. That's why you have a 24-7 prayer room because good coffee 229 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:32,240 doesn't bring salvation. So what are you going to do about it? Listen, come to a finish. This is the 230 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:38,400 same Jesus who wept over Jerusalem, weeps over your friends and your family. So do you. Do you? 231 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:46,480 When Jesus came and Lazarus, a Bethany, his dear friend had died, he came and he witnessed this 232 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:52,720 and he weeps. We talked about that before. Jesus wept. Do you know what the people said about him 233 00:23:52,720 --> 00:24:03,040 in response? See how he loved him. See how he loved him. The love of Jesus was so visible. It wasn't 234 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:08,160 just something that they were like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesus has power. No, he has loves because 235 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:14,320 sowing seeds of tears comes from a place of love. And I believe we're in, in the Bible, what they call 236 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:21,440 a chai-ros moment. A moment where God has begun to do amazing works and he invites us to join with him. 237 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:27,520 Not every moment in history is like this. I'm not sure at any other time during my life, I felt this 238 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:32,000 sense that God is on the verge of doing something powerful. He's going to do it with or without us, 239 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:38,400 but we have a choice. We have a choice of whether we participate. Do we repent and join with him, 240 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:44,000 or do we continue to numb ourselves with the distractions of modern life? This is what Duncan 241 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:49,520 Campbell said back in the 1940s about that similar moment in the Hebrides. He said this, 242 00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:55,680 now it seems to me that the all-important question for us to face at this hour is what we have as a 243 00:24:55,680 --> 00:25:04,880 church to offer a generation that is awake, but a generation that is failing to find the true way of life. 244 00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:15,440 Thanks so much for tuning into this week's message. If you felt challenged or need prayer, 245 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:21,280 we'd love to hear from you on Instagram at Encounter Henley. Or if you're interested in how 246 00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:26,720 you can support this ministry, please go to our website, EncounterAdelaide.com.au. 247 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:37,280 Thanks again for listening. God bless you.