Get my house welcome Life Church hello how are you doing this morning doing good you can do better than that how are you doing this morning Life Church we got whoop excellent it’s so good that you’ve joined us we’ve already been in one service and God has been blessing us and
Speaking and I’m always of the opinion that God keeps giving more and doing more so why don’t we stand together and expect that God is going to speak to us that he’s going to bless us that he’s going to meet with us that he might challenge us because sometimes to get
More and go deeper we need challenging in our thinking but more than anything why don’t we make a decision right from the start that whatever God says we’re going to say yes to whatever he does we’re going to be open to and then actually we’re not going to
Hold back from God we’re going to be open we’re going to give him all of our hearts all of our time all of our Lives it’s all about him in this moment in this time let’s pray together Lord we thank you that you are
Here with us that this is not just a a group of people singing to you or or listening to your word in the Bible but you meet with us your power can touch us your life your love and so Lord we want to be open to
What you are going to do and say this morning speak to us and make all the difference in our lives in Jesus mighty name amen amen thank you Michelle be thou my vision oh Lord Of My Heart Lord be all else to be save the Lord come My All In by day or by Night waking all sleeping presence my be th my wisom be thou my true word I am with the and th with me Lord great
Father and my true son th in me dwelling and I will be th my shield and my S for the fire be th my be my sh and my high ra up Be Heaven with oh power my godes I in up your land empty pra th my inherit now your
Only the first in my heart my king of Heaven my treasure yes you are yes you are oh King Of Heaven Victory one may I reach heaven all right heav my All Forever before will be my vision oh ruler of all heart of my own forever before still be my V oh R
Of Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Lord we thank you you are our vision you are our wisdom are there any Discovery Kids in the house wave me a hand if you go to Discovery Kids do any of you know what Sunday today is today what do we call today
What Sunday is it do you know Y which one Palm Sunday it is it’s Palm Sunday today what happened on Palm Sunday any Discovery Kids do you know you know what happened yeah Ray at the back he came into Jerusalem on a donkey well done yeah and the crowd shouted
Hosana and we’re going to sing praise is rising hosana to the King of Kings Prise is rising High our turn to you turn to you all ising our are for you we long for you cuz when we see you we find strength to face the day and in your presence all our fears are washed away wash away hold you the God Is Us worthy of all our
Praises hosana hosana come on your way among us we welome you here Lord Jesus feel the sound of heart reaching to you oh yes we turn we turn to you oh we touch you in your kingom broken of make you you make us you make
Us new you make us new cuz when we see you we find strength to face the day in your presence all our fears are washed away washed away hosana hosana you are the God who saves us you’re worthy of all our praise hosana hosana way above us we welcome you here
Jesus you are the God who saves us worthy of all PR hosana H come your way among us we worship you here Lord Jesus come out your way among us we worship you here Jus come your way among us we worship you here oh Jesus worship you come everywh you
You you Lord keep worshiping God but in this moment we’re going to um send our Discovery Kids out they’re all going to go upstairs to start with but can be collected from the normal place they’re going to take their offering as they go and uh give money to clean
Water in this moment we might want to think about uh our adult offering as well maybe we could put the giving slide up on the screen just for a moment but let’s keep focusing on God and for many people here giving to him is part of the worship it’s how we honor
Him perfect so if you want you can take a moment just to begin to give to God and make it part of your honoring and love for him and then we’re going to continue to sing here I am humble by your Mesty covered by your grace so free here I Am knowing I’m a sinful man covered by the blood of the Lamb and now I found the greatest of all it is mine since you laid down your life greatest sacrifice singing Mesty Mesty your pra has F me just as I am I’m empty handed but Al in your Hands we are here for you Lord here I am humbled by the love that you give forgi so that I can forgive here I stand knowing that I’m your Des I’m Sanctified by glory and fire and now I found for The Greatest Love of All is fine since you laay down your life the greatest sacrifice sing
Mesty We Worship You mesty your gra has found me just as I am empty highy that alive in your hand singing mesty Mesty forever Changed by Your Love in the presence of your mesty singing mesty We Worship You Lord mesty your presence for me just as I am I’m empty happy better your Mesty forever I am changed change love in the presence of youry how it changed in your presence change his it’s all about you oh we love you Lord worship you give you praise all about just as we continue to sing be listening cuz God is speaking and he
Wants he wants you to hear what he’s saying this morning some of you he will speak to you and and the words will be to share with others but for some of you it will be words that you just need to hear this morning holy spirit is going to move
Through this building and he wants to speak to you personally he wants you to listen and hear what he’s saying you might need to shut your eyes and just focus in you might find it strange that we talk about God speaking to us personally you might wonder how is that
Going to happen what’s it going to look like but just take some time time pause and it might just be a feeling or a thought or a word that God impresses upon You just be open open your spiritual ears and listen just as we were singing that song Majesty I just had this whole sense of having my hands in the air a and just waving before the Lord and and I want you just to picture quickly a a concert
The biggest concert venue you can think of and in those moments where the the lead singer says everybody get your phones out and everybody and you can see all the thousands and hundreds and thousands of lights around the stadium there’s a moment there there’s a moment
There but what I want you to do is to think of 10,000 thousand stadiums with no walls with angels scattered in between us there are three billion Christians in this world singing Majesty Majesty or similar words this morning let Faith arise we are worshiping the king of all Kings in his
Majesty and we are one body throughout the whole world United to worship him it’s far more than lights at a concer it’s burning Hearts before our King thank you Lord that you are here we worship you amen Majesty Worship You Lord youy Worship You Jes we worship your majesty worship we worship your
Majesty Lord worship your Majesty oh mesty Lyyy you mesty re mesty mesty youy holy holy Gody Aesty oh Worship in the beauty of your majesty the beauty of your Holiness you are worthy Lord you’re worthy Lord Praise fory Lord Jesus Jesus It’s All About You Jesus and all this is for [Applause] you for your glory and your Fai it’s not about Me as if you could do things by way you alone are God and I Surrender sing it’s all about you it’s all about you Jesus and all this is for you we worship you for your glory and your Fame it’s not about me as if you should do things my
Way you alone are God and I Sur surender sing it’s all about you it’s all about you Jesus and all this is for you it’s all for you Jesus for your glory and your F it’s not about me it’s not about me as if you should do things my way you alone are
God and I surrender to your way we surrender to you Lord we give it all to you lord it’s It’s All About You Jesus surrender we surrender Lord to you it’s all about you Jesus we surrender to your ways we surrender to your ways Lord All Above you ways that are higher than
Us is it a perfect about perfect in all your way All About You Jesus Perfect all about Jesus good good father perfect your way I surrender all I surrender oh I surrender all to thee my preious savior I Surrend I surr Surrender I surrend oh all to the my blessed savior I surrender all oh to Jesus I surrender all to he I freely I will and Trust in his his presence da I Surrender surrend Sur all to the my bless savior I surrender All all about It’s All About You Lord It’s All About You just feel that the Lord would like to add a little bit to um what John just shared with us and I don’t know about you but as he was sharing that I just had a picture of thousands and thousands of his his church of his body of his children
Worshiping the Lord and As We Worship the Lord we put him in his rightful place King of Kings Lord of lords and I felt the Lord would say that within those body that are worshiping him this morning are the broken are the lame are the sad are The Grieving are the what
We’d almost call the dregs of humanity all within that body and the Lord would say within my body within those um that will worship me worship me in spirit and in truth I will pour out my spirit I will pour out my spirit and I don’t know if you’ve noticed this morning God’s
Spirit has already been being pouring out there is anointing on the drum playing this morning it amazing stop and listen to it God is anointing the drum playing and I feel that the Lord’s spirit is here it’s if we open to him he will pour His Spirit out and as we put
Him in his rightful place Lord of lords King of Kings in Life church this morning Wow so we need to respond to that we need to as we continue to worship and sing sorry we need to think how are we putting God in his rightful place how are we exalting him lifting him up making him Lord what does it mean it doesn’t mean just to sing at
Him it means we we offer our lives it means we hold nothing back it means tomorrow has to look different cuz he can’t be Lord today and not tomorrow and be thinking what does it mean to use my life to lift God High even as we just continue now in worship singing mesty
Mesty sing Majesty I am change empty handed alive in your hand we’re alive in your hand Sesty Majesty Majesty mesty Majesty Lord forever I am Changed by Your Love in the presence of your Mesty mesty your praise has found me just I am empty heav life in your singing mesty yesy forever I am Changed by a in the presence of your mesty forever I Chang forever I am Changed by love in the presence of your mesty stand in his Pres Worthy worthy your fire fall Let Your Fire Fall Lord of oh worthy worthy Lord There’s No One Like You Jesus no one like you there is like you like you Lord there’s no one like you no there no one like you Jesus No One Like You Lord J Jesus Lover of My Soul Jesus I will never let you go you’ve Lifted Me from the mar clay you set my feet upon set my feet upon a rock and now I know I love you I need you no my world will fall I’ll never let you go my savior my closest
Friend I will worship you until the very end Jesus Lover of My Soul Jesus I will never let you go Jesus I will never let you go oh me you taken me from the mar clet upon a rock set my feet upon a rock now I know now I know love
You need I love you I need you though my world will fall I’ll never let you go my S saor my closest friend I will worship you until the very end cuz you’re the Lover of My Soul oh and you never let us go let us go Lord you lifted me lifted me
And you place me on the Rock oh I love you I need you oh my world fall I’ll never let you go my savior my closest friend I will worship you till the very End Jesus Lord we just want to thank you for what you’ve done for us you have done so much for us you’ve died on a cross for us you’ve paid a price for us you Rose again to show the new life we can have in you but Lord there’s more every day you have
Blessings for us and just in this moment I’m going to I’m going to suggest we do two things one is I’m going to suggest the Limitless youth take this moment to just go to your Limitless group you guys can go as well if you want but I’m going to ask Joshua just to
Come and share a testimony and you can take your seats if you want now you can pause you can stand if you want but just listen uh to what God’s done for Joshua more blessing hello Church um something something happened early morning uh to me um usually I pray um
Early morning that’s my habit um just me and God we just praying for so many things and prayer request and and last four weeks um I wasn’t really well and uh my wife and my daughter knows me and was the very first time I normally have one week
And then it’s gone then I I I very heartly take Med medicine instead of I purely trusting God and even antibi I don’t like to take it but this something came on me and then about I started praying 3:00 in the morning just worshiping speaking in
Tongue and walking um in my living room claiming all promises and all praying in tongue completely just speaking tongue just walking around about 3:50 in the morning something Supernatural came on me and something awesome presentence I felt then there’s a word came to me Matthew 8
1415 keep on coming to me Holy Spirit revealing just Matthew keep on coming Matthew 81415 so I don’t I I’m not good in memorized words so I just stop everything and I open my bible and this is what I found Matthew 84 and 15 when Jesus went to Peter’s
House he saw that Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with the fever Jesus touched her hand and the fever left her the interesting part I crying to God because I have to serve God today to stand uh two service for the first time so I’m on duty today so I
Crying Lord I have to be there I wanted to serve you I wanted to want to be there and welcome people and serve I Cry crying Lord please help me then this strange word came on me the interesting part last last part is after Jesus touched her then she stood up and began
To serve Jesus so i j the same thing I did to and we we all are doing we are do doing each and everyone and Tes our worship or welcome or kitchen or coffee making or anything we do this morning we all are serving God and immediately you know I felt better
So thank God so God is we are serving a supernatural awesome God praise [Applause] God it’s great to hear of just praying and being healed and feeling better and I thought that would be a good way to live lead into us praying for some other
People who are sick or in need or uh things happening in the church um some of you will get updates via email of prayer requests and updates and we are praying for Phil and Heidi mariam’s unborn granddaughter we’ve been praying for the last uh two or three
Weeks um but they’ve had a scan this week and a decision has been made that the baby is going to be born by cesarian section on Thursday Thursday morning probably fairly early in the morning um but we just want to pray uh for that little baby that’s going to be born uh
For the mom and both parents as well but let’s pray uh for a healthy safe delivery of that little baby um we also want to be praying for Wilma who’s in London now having treatment she has a transfusion uh today so we want to be praying for her uh pray also for SEL
Who’s just had the fourth chemo out of six and I think this fourth one has been harder than the last three we just want to pray God’s grace upon him um Dennis pman some of you will know um broke his hip uh last week and had surgery yesterday so he’s still in hospital
Recovering but we just want to pray uh for a swift recovery and that all surgery’s gone well and uh just also been asked to pray for Pat Ragan senior um second week after chemo isn’t it doing better this week than last week but we need to pray
For you as well um and so there’s lots of other needs in the church this is not all of them keep praying into things you know about your own families your own circumstances your own workplaces but let’s just all pray together and uh believe that God changes things and can
Heal just as he’s done with Joshua this morning Lord I just want to thank you for Joshua’s testimony that he prayed this morning had that Bible verse about Peter’s mother being healed so she could immediately serve Jesus and he’s here this morning serving you because you
Have healed and restored him and Lord I Thank you that you still have the power to heal and change lives Lord not just heal us physically but spiritually make us alive and in relationship with you but Lord we do pray for some of these physical needs we pray especially for this unborn
Baby that will be born on Thursday morning by cesarian section Lord we pray for a safe healthy delivery we pray for both baby and mother Lord we just pray your grace and your love upon them both Lord help that baby to grow strong and healthy and there to be no
Complications we pray for Wilmer Lord we just pray that you will just really strengthen her this morning as she’s in London having U having the procedure and Lord we just pray that it will bring uh life and strength to her Lord I pray that she knows the support
And prayer of us even as she’s there now pray for sonel who’s had uh the fourth of his chemotherapy treatments uh just uh just before the weekend Lord and we just pray Lord that this brings healing and restoration Pour Your Grace upon Him peace and life and wholeness bring
Healing Lord we pray for Pat Regan senior as well Lord and just we pray for all his treatment Lord touch him Holy Spirit come every part of his body Lord we just pray that your miraculous power will reach beyond what they say is possible Lord you can do the impossible
With every single one of us and Lord we just pray for your healing to come in every way 100% healing Lord we pray for Dennis Perman and we just pray for his recovery from this hip operation Lord just help him to know you’re with him give him peace where there’s confusion where
There’s uh just a a sense of I don’t know where I am I don’t know what’s going on Lord I just pray that that you reassure him and help him in jesus’ name but Lord I pray for every single one of us Lord as we’ve heard we need your
Spirit we need to lift you high meet with us help us to be stewards of everything you give us and offer it to you in Jesus name amen amen why don’t we turn our attention to the screen and watch this week’s nice sport good morning and welcome to the
Part in the service where we share the notice of things that are coming up on today Sunday the 24th of March this Thursday will be the M dat Thursday service on the 28th of March here in the live church building from 6:30 till 7:30 p.m. this will be a short reflective
Communion service and will not be streamed so do join us that evening also the day after we’ll be joining Christians together in Chelmsford again this year for our Good Friday service in the Town Center on the 29th of March this year the service will be from 11:
Till 12: and Then followed by Outreach in the afternoon including our big Life Church Easter egg give out also don’t forget to join us next Sunday either at 9:30 or at 11: a.m. for our Easter Day Services come and join us as we celebrate Jesus resurrection it’s going
To be a great morning so don’t miss that one either calling all young people on Wednesday the 3rd of April in the Easter holidays we will be doing our first Limitless chelsford fundraising event and we will be cycling to Limitless join us here at live CC at 10:00 a.m. where
We will be using exercise bikes to cycle the mileage too Limitless to raise money for our summer trip this year the more young people the better come and see joshu or I to support and fill out our sponsor form the first Sunday after Easter will be our baptism service
That’s Sunday the 7th of April at 11:00 a.m. if you’re interested in being baptized have a chat to Pastor Phil or email him phil. Hanam life cc.org important date for your Diaries make sure to come along that’s all the notices that we have for this week make sure to check
Your inbox for all of these coming straight into there and if you’re not already on our mailing list you can sign up to that on our website have a great week from um the baptismal service on the 7th of April Please Don’t Leave It to the last minute if you would like to
Get baptized the sooner you could let me know the better we like to have a conversation with everyone just to make sure we’re all on the same page and all those slots are filling up fast we have people wanting to get baptized now which is good um morningly Thursday obviously
This Thursday 6:30 we’ll have communion together here you’re all welcome for that and just uh to be clear it’s not streamed it’s in person only so come here here 6:30 on Thursday and Good Friday on the High Street one of the things I would like to make clear which
I’m not sure it’s totally clear um this is a great opportunity to invite non-christians it’s on the High Street there’ll be hundreds of Christians from all different churches there uh Nigel bleo is going to be speaking he spoke at one of our Carol Services fantastic Communicator the gospel will be shared
People will be invited to respond to the gospel and follow Jesus and it’s such a great time and place and environment to do it so do think about inviting people on the High Street 11 till 1230 on Good Friday that’s this Friday for the high uh for
The service on the High Street um after that service from 1: till 4: there are things going on throughout the afternoon um at 1:00 we are going to be giving out 1,000 chocolate eggs we still need people to help with that I think we could do with
Maybe 20 people and it would take us about 45 minutes to hand out a, eggs it won’t take too long um if we can get 20 people to help us Martin Martin wait for us will you Martin uh is just waving there if you can help with that just go
Chat to Martin after and he’ll just take you details and we will meet um we’re going to be at the top of the High Street the whole thing top of the High Street by the shy Hall all morning and afternoon uh there are a couple of other ways you can help as
Well there is going to be a craft table from one to 4 that Community Church are going to be organizing if you could help with that they could do with people throughout the afternoon uh if we could get four or five people to help with
That send me an email let me know and I’ll put you in contact with the people organizing it and also there’s going to be free mini burgers given out all throughout the afternoon and I’m told they could do with people to help serve and Seward and just chat to all the
People that come and connect um especially if anyone’s been doing the discipleship training and can share the gospel with some of these people hang around chat to people share the gospel with them let’s believe Good Friday is going to be a good Friday but let me
Welcome John kesis to the stage now he’s going to do part two of morning everybody just ignore the bag I’ll need that for later so welcome everybody on the live stream um so stewardship part two who was here for part one brilliant okay great could I encourage you that if you didn’t listen
To part one please do go back on YouTube and have a watch of it um because there’s some important things to to learn I’m just going to help us to have a bit of a recap um on what was said last time but first of all I’m going to
Pray so Lord would you open our hearts would you open our eyes would you open our ears would we yield to you Holy Spirit in what you want to teach us in what you want to say to us specifically as individuals and specifically as a church your body here in chelsford Come
Holy Spirit and have your way amen okay so what we looked at first time round just as a recap some of the principles of stewardship is that God owns everything there were some fun things that we discovered that he owned like you your time everything that’s been
Given to you your talents your money it’s all God’s doesn’t belong to you he owns everything and we are stewards and what is a steward so a steward is somebody who takes responsibility for the things that has been entrusted to them and we take that responsibility seriously and use it
Wisely and then we’ve looked at the heart the heart is the primary thing in life because out of it flow the issues of life so actually giving our hearts to God has been a theme throughout probably the last couple of months hasn’t it um and it’s essential that we yield our
Hearts to God so if you don’t feel that you have fully yielded your heart you know this might be a journey but this also might be your decision day to fully yield and then when we’re looking at obeying God actually we don’t obey God because we have to obey God even though
He gives us commands that we should OB obey him we obey out of love that has to be the essence of obedience otherwise we become Pharisees and then we looked at first fruits and actually the first fruits is when we’re giving anything to God we
Give him the first we give him the best we don’t give him anything second rate we don’t wait until we’ve spent everything else and figure out how much we’ve got left over and then go that’ll do no first fruits the first fruits um and then we looked at what are our
Motives for being stewards well it’s it’s love God’s loved us he’s loved us and set us free and given us new life so it’s all about love it has to be done in love it’s about identity our identity on who God’s made us we are actually his
Children and we should be reflecting our father’s image and stewarding well and being generous is actually crucial to reflect his character then this fun word responsibility actually it might not be fun to some but you think about it God has given each one of you responsibility
In the kingdom of God to some degree you have gifts and talents and abilities you have a place you have a purpose to function in the body and pleasing God imagine imagine being able to put a smile on God’s face I mean how cool is that we know imagine getting to heaven
And hearing the words well done good and faithful servant big smile big hug yes but actually there’s something that we didn’t manage to cover last time and it’s judgment and rewards and this is an important foundation that we have to get to um this should not bring fear to any
Christian um and I want to look at the Judgment of works there is a judgment that will come to all Humanity because it’s appointed that for once for man to die and then to face judgment and there will be a judgment for life for those who follow Jesus and yield to him and
Obey him and there will be a judgment ending in death for those who don’t follow Jesus or choose him and that’s an important thing but the Judgment I am looking at right now is about the Judgment of our works and what we do and how we Steward so let’s look at that
Let’s get rid of any fear to do with this and let’s choose Faith Okay so um what does God say about Judgment of Works our goal is to please him for we must all stand before Christ to be judged we will each receive whatever we
Deserve for the good or the evil we have done in this Earthly body because we understand our fears full responsibility to the Lord we work hard to persuade others this is these are important principles to understand that Jesus will actually look at us and assess how we’ve done in this life and
What we have done with what he has given us now I still get this slide wrong with the T I don’t know why I might need to move that orange border slightly to the right um but return on investment so last time I talked about one kpi here’s another kpi who’s heard of
Roi return on investment let me tell you God expect a return on an investment he has invested in your life and he continues to invest but he expects a return and that’s part of the Judgment when someone has been given much much will be required in return but
We must not look at this with human eyes here it’s talking about whoever’s been given a lot of stuff but actually don’t forget the widows might because when the Pharisees came to give their huge offerings to God in the temple and actually they gave huge offerings because they had shedloads of
Money and yet this this Widow who had two small copper coins gave and Jesus called it out she gave far more than those Pharisees did so we cannot judge the way that God judges and that’s why we need to understand how he judges because God’s kingdom is about
Multiplication what he what he gives you he expects you to multiply it he doesn’t expect you parable of the talents he doesn’t expect you to just go oh I’ll bury it or I’ll just put it somewhere and not do anything with it no the kingdom is always moving always advancing and always
Multiplying so what is required of us in this life do you like my little signal this is the slide turning signal actually before we go into that let me just think about this God highlights a word at the very beginning what measure does God use when he judges
It’s the measure of faithfulness and when we look at faithfulness it’s about being trustworthy just think about this for yourself right now it’s trustworthy loyal reliable taking responsibility seriously no matter how small if God asks you to do something small obey as quick as you can with the best of your ability
Take it seriously but let’s look how God measures things if you are faithful in little things you will be faithful in large ones that’s a fact but if you are dishonest in little things you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities and if you’re untrustworthy with about worldly wealth who will trust you with
The true Riches of heaven and if you are not faithful with other people’s things why should you be trusted with things of your own no one can serve two masters for you will hate you will hate one and love the other you will be devoted to one and
Despise the other you cannot serve God and be be enslaved to money which is Mammon now the question that this begs is are we trying to serve two masters or one it’s a really important question now I don’t think that God let me get away with the first preach we talked about
The spirituality of money um but I just wanted to unmask Mammon a little bit more for you because I think that there are there are people here who need to hear this in order to deal with strongholds in their life which is stopping them from changing so let’s have a look at
Mammon Mammon is a Chalan word and it means confidence what do you get Confidence from outside of yourself well you can get confidence by how much stuff you’ve got how much money you’ve got how many things you’ve got that can be comforting and confidence bring confidence um it’s also wealth
Personified it’s really interesting actually that that act dictionaries non-Christian dictionaries say that it’s wealth personified personified is a person wealth being a person interesting okay well let’s look at the next one avarice deified I had to look up avarice I’ve heard of it before but who knows
What avarice means who’s yeah right let me check out this this dictionary version avarice deified you’re making a God out of this excessive or inable desire for wealth and gain okay let me just do this again avarice is deified it is the excessive or insatiable desire for wealth and gain
Now I kind of wondered why why don’t I hear much of this word avarus in our language these days um and I thought it’s probably because it’s quite offensive because it’s really close to what our culture is all about it’s really close to what our culture is all
About Mammon is in direct opposition to God and Mammon is a demon the Bible reveals that and there’s no point in pulling any punches it is a spirit a person without a body now what is important to understand is that Mammon as a spirit demands your worship this spirit will do
Anything in order to get you to worship it rather than God he will tempt you into longing for money longing for pleasure Desiring more stuff and more things and actually it’s not just money it’s whatever you put your trust in Mammon is whatever you put your trust in other than
God but it says you can’t serve two masters so it’s in direct competition to God and God’s calling it out saying this is an issue people you must Worship the Lord your God Alone deal with this it’s a heart issue because we know that whatever we worship we will serve and if we’re
Serving Mammon that’s a demon I mean this is hard that’s not going to end well so we’ve got to take this seriously so actually let’s worship god let’s cut these things that are wrong outside of our heart the things that we’re tempted to do let’s change we
Have to make the right decision because if God word is true he’s right yes he is that means I’m wrong and I need to line up with what the word of God says and change my life my behaviors my attitudes my actions so we repent if this is a a
Problem in our lives if we can’t break free from some of our behaviors or our thinking and change what we want to do in line with God’s will then actually we need to repent turn around 180 degrees and go God’s way that’s what repentance is it’s a clean break from it
So that’s just a quick exposure to Mammon but I want you to maybe just take this away seriously then reflect on your heart so next slide is where I want to sit with for a little while this is the parable of the rich fool and it’s a really interesting story
That Jesus tells I’ll just read it out and then we’ll just bring some things out of it and he told them a parable saying the land of a rich man was very productive and he began reading reasoning to himself saying what shall I do since I have no place to store my
Crops and then he said this is what I’ll do I will tear down my bonds and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and goods and I will say to my soul soul you have many things you have many Goods laid up for many years to
Come take it easy eat drink and be merry and God said to him you fool this very night your so soul will be required of you and now who will own what you have prepared so is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich towards
God it’s really important to learn from this story because there are some amazing principles which do impact us so think about this the farmer he he had a a land which was Bountiful and plentiful and it was really fruitful he didn’t give glor glory to God he didn’t thank God for
That that was God as provider giving it to him he did a little bit of work for it but actually the Bounty and the fruitfulness and the multiplication all came from God you look at the second bit he said to himself what shall I do he’s taking counsel with himself now if you’re
Making big life decisions you get counsel from other people who know more about you friends families experts advisers and you make decisions well he’s just going nah I’ll figure this out myself my crops he says got a problem with ownership here God owns the crops they’re not his so that’s another
Problem of ownership and then he wastes loads of time and money planning to tear down bonds which are probably completely suitable but because he’s got no outflow of generosity in his life he’s just going to get bigger store more and get fatter he’s going to waste time and
Money be tearing down and building up then he wastes time I’m going to relax I’m going to kick back I’m going to have my cocktails I’m going to enjoy life I’m going to just chill out he’s wasting his time and you can see clearly from what he says his
Confidence is in his stuff is in his Goods this is about Mammon again what happens though tonight your very Soul God takes away his time well then what happens well he dies and nobody else he can’t use the goods anymore so the goods are given to other
People so he the goods and the money are taken away then judgment will happen his soul is required of him so our priorities need to be ordered by God if we are to be faithful stewards it’s really important I had a little fun with a picture here so for those who don’t like
Words but prefer pictures this is my effort to help you know there’s a fruitful field the farmer does a job and he SWS SE his seed but then the crops grow and they multiply which is great and then the farmer does a little bit more work with the tractor and he reaps
The reward and gets stored in the barn but the problem is he’s planning to just have more and more stuff and build more and more barns there is no hint of him thinking about anybody else what about his family what about his friends what about his community what about those in
Need what about what about there’s no beautiful orange hand of generosity there’s no outflow so he’s completely selfish and self-absorbed and we need to think about this we have to Steward what God’s given to us because in all of our working whether we’re sewing or whether we’re reaping or whether we’re storing or
Whether we’re giving God will judge all of those actions how hard are we working how well are we reaping how well are we and Faithfully are we restoring it we’re not losing anything are we we’re we’re maximizing everything but then how much are we giving away and releasing to
Others so if you’re hoarding resources you know yourself um that’s not necessarily wrong but is it what God’s asked you to do and is it for a purpose because we have to do things out of obedience and love and in faith otherwise we are gaining our confidence
And relying on oursel and our stuff and there’s a risk about Mammon again that’s just creeping here and so you can also think this isn’t just about money okay but you can think about your time how are you using your time how are you storing your time
How are you giving your time and also your talents you know what about your abilities what are you doing with them are they active are you giving are you giving of yourself or are you just keeping them to yourself now let’s get into the time talents and money business okay because
What’s really really helpful is that you belong to a church you belong to a body and here this church is is your training ground for eternity it’s a really important place to learn and train in the same way that your family your work your hobbies are all Eternal environments to practice your
Stewardship this is where you can learn spiritual principles to outwork in your life so invest in the church we are changing things are really changing and and we’re going on a mission with God here and I’ll explain a little bit more later Phil’s already told stuff in the
Past about the vision where we’re headed but what you measure is what you value I’ve got some numbers for you okay little participation here 24 is the number of in a okay cool 168 is the number of in a okay you can see what’s coming 8 8
8,736 is the number of hours in a in a year okay so the question is how do you spend your time now why have I got a boat on a sea it’s a little bit strange but imagine this I want you to just go along with me on a little journey your
Life has been really stressful okay it’s been so busy and work’s been difficult and you just book a holiday and you get on the beach the sun’s baking down on you you’ve got a Lilo there you’re ready to relax but this as you getting the sun
Baking down on you you can see the sea it’s really inviting the water just lapping up on your toes it’s cool and refreshing and so you get in the sea and you lie down on your lilow and you relax and the Seas just rock you picture in it
Okay okay se’s just rocking you gently and within minutes you’re asleep my wife could do this anywhere it’s like sleep even when I’m talking to her which is brilliant but you run you run a SE okay and it’s you’re asleep you’re gone but then you wake up and you wake up a few
Hours later and there is no sign of the shore no sign of the shore where am I 80 % of rnli Royal National Lifeboat Institute 80% of their rescues are in calm Waters I’m telling you this for a reason 707 77% of rescues occur within five miles of shore my question
Is is the tide taking you places Without You realizing are you realizing where you are going in life because it’s quite easy for decades to pass when we’re talking about your time and then suddenly you know three four five decades go by and then you wake up
And go hold on how did I get here where am I and there can be a required moment of rescue some people never even realize that they need a bit of a rescue because they’re just drifting with the tide so my question is are you intentionally understanding what you’re
Doing with your time or or is it just drifting by who’s in control of your time please don’t forget that your time is on loan from God it’s not yours it’s not yours but who is in charge is your husband or your wife in charge of your
Time is your secretary or your PA depending on what job you’ve got are you actually in charge of your time or is the holy spirit is he telling you what to do Moment by moment or does your daily routine just drift let’s have a bit of fun okay
Before we get into some serious stuff here’s a little it was going to be a quiz but it all popped up at the same time and I couldn’t figure it out so the quiz has gone but here’s the answers um so this is from the national statistics
Okay so the average of all people in the UK from the Census all right 63 hours a week we spend on sleep that’s the average person now compare it with yourself because some people might be like 75 or not um 35 hours is average work okay 26 hours a week is on
Entertainment and then 15.75 hours is on housework now I have to say that this is the number allocated for women men were a lot less in this area so BLS you need to step it up man okay but that’s 140 hours per week and if we’ve got 168 hours a
Week There’s 28 hours left what are we doing with that sort of time let’s go for the next one little bit more fun if the average lifespan is 79 and a half years which it is that’s 954 months 29,000 days 696,000 hours we spend 5 years waiting in Q’s
You British people how good are you at queuing three years traveling in a car we spent 6 months with traffic lights I mean you clutch six years eating 26 years sleeping s years trying to sleep apparently 13 years at work 12 years doing not a flipping
Lot we got two years in the cinema and four years I keep on missing that one four years doing housework there’s a little time o clock there so I missed that but there’s a little fun fact okay but actually there’s a deeper question
To go how are we using our time so I had a bit of fun I took the on statistics and the categories and I applied them to my life and I’m doing an expose of John ky’s time right now and somebody from the last service said I don’t see hous
Work on your chart [Applause] John it’s in the note category I think it’s note. n99 okay so so I spend 31% of my time sleeping don’t take a photograph of it that can’t go on social media no oh no it’s being streamed ah um I spend 23% of
My time at work uh 15% personal home housework uh thank you um 18% is entertainment socializing free time and 133% is what I’ve categorized spirituality because the on doesn’t have time things for church and volunteering and preaching and devotions and praying um but when you wrap that up it’s about
133% of my time um but you could do the same if you’re intentional to understand where am I using my time what is my focus and it was really quite liberating and helpful but it really was um so let’s look at the next one oh actually before I go into that I
Just felt like I should say this as well so actually when um I I had a change in my job uh about just over a year ago um and when I changed my role God spoke to me quite clearly and he said give me your fifth day and so you know this
Isn’t going to be relevant for everybody but it might be for somebody um so I actually went uh okay and so I started talking to HR and figuring out can I condense my hours to work a full working week in four days and then have a Friday
For God and I was able to do that fortunately so I’m really blessed to be able to do that but my step of Faith was giving God that fifth day and he gets to choose what I do on that day more often than not now um so we can do things in
Obedience to God but we have natural abilities and talents we have skills and experience we all have these things in in life and and it’s how do you discover what your natural abilities are or what your spiritual gifts are well there’s lot of different ways that we can do this
Um if you if you want to pop to the next one actually here’s a list of spiritual gifts which ones have you got how do you know which ones you’ve got well there’s ways of doing assessments to understand that and and as a church we want to help
You do that and understand what gifts and talents and abilities you have got so that you can activate them in the body of Christ for God’s glory on his mission and so um if you pop to the next one for me there’s lots of different
Ways you can assess this and we will be intentionally sending out an email a resource email for you to have a play with some assessments okay for you to discover for yourself what is in you what God’s actually invested in you um and then together we can help to
Activate this in church through church in ways that are going to make a difference in eternity um so there’s just a list of a few to work through some are Christians specifically and some are non-christians like strength finder but really cool play to your strengths find your gifts ask God ask
The church ask yourself what have I been given how am I using it how can I get active in this the first thing I’d like to ask actually it’s not the first thing at all I’ve nearly finished that slide um we have sent out a data request email as a
Church you may have received it I would love to encourage you and ask you please do reply to that because that’s the start of this is where where’s your passion at where are you able to serve where do you really like to serve and then we’ll go deeper together as a church to
Understand what God’s put in this amazing body and get it active for the kingdom of God then we have the fun part treasure money do own we’ve gone through quite a lot of issues we’ve gone through ownership heart issues mamm we’ve taken decisions to actually you know repent or at least
We’ve got to the stage where we’re going to need to deal with with repenting if we need to but let’s look at budgeting and giving know your resources it’s really important um I hope this doesn’t offend you but if you don’t have a financial budget you’re not being wise and you’re not stewarding
Your money as well as you could so I’d love to encourage you to do a budget and there are things like the money course which will help you do that really specifically so that you can understand what level of resources you’ve got and don’t forget first fruits God the first
And the best because it’s the Hol holy to the Lord holy to the Lord um so getting active around understanding money is really important my wife and I we went on a cap money course cap money courses are not just for people getting out of poverty they’ll really help you to understand
Where you are at and what you’ve got and how to do things with your money um and we had a moment didn’t we love um where it exposes transparency um and we had a transparent conversation where I was working away in in a previous job traveling the country visiting clients
And really busy job and so I would probably spend on average about5 pounds a day getting a pasty getting a sandwich getting a Coke next meeting and just so5 p a day and then came the moment of reality where um over N9 years that was £27,000 I know that’s what I
Did I did it even more when my wife was sitting in front of me she’s like 27 Grand on food on lunches and actually when you when you think of it that’s just me being lazy that was the price 27 Grand so there are things that you can
Probably look at which can make a real difference so I’d advise advise you to go on some courses if you haven’t already got a grip on your finances it’s things like helping you on understand being faithful and intentional what are your basic needs and Essentials get them
Covered make sure you got them covered and then what are your wants and nice to haves and what are your luxuries categorize them and prioritize them and ask God is is this really necessary do I really need to spend in this way next one is where to give give to
The local church this is important and primary because the church is God’s vehicle for his mission on Earth we are part of his body we’re engaging in his work and we’re going to be doing more and more um so my question is again how much is God challenging you to give
If you want a little perspective this church has a budget an annual budget of £350,000 that’s how much it costs to currently run this church in its current format and that’s that’s a stripped back version because of all kinds of circumstances but we need to scale up
And change and grow and transform in order to do what God’s doing because if our vision is to have 10% of chelmford following Jesus’s disciples we’ve got a lot of work to do there’s a lot of things to do and so investment is required and and I have to say
Investment is required of all of us as stewards that we can’t shy away from that where does the money come from it comes from us we need to seek God give through the church if you want to give to World Mission well we can help
You do that if you want to give to missionaries around the world we’ve committed as a church to giving 10% of our income to World Mission and to missionaries because the church is both local and Global and so you can give through the church and we can help you
Do that and if you still got loads of money left over after God said we want to give you give loads and loads and loads or give What God Says then actually we can what’s in your heart we can help you to discern what wants to do
What you to do with that you don’t need bigger bonds so let’s get practical okay just calling it out regular monthly giving by standing order is the best way to give to this church because we need to budget we’re a charity we have regulators and we need
To budget and we need to plan yes God is leading but we need to also plan so that we can employ and do specific projects and and and scale up to what God is requiring of us so if you haven’t got a regular monthly direct debit direct standing order please ask
God how much and get it set up would love that to happen because it’s important for you and for the church and the weird thing is it’s important for you to give to the church so the church can give to you so that you can give to
Others okay but do it tax effectively if you’ve paid enough tax claim your gift aid um there’s a thing called restricted fun and unrestricted funding little bit complicated but if you basically say I want £1,000 to go to youth work in Melbourne doing Outreach using baseball on a Tuesday
Afternoon we have to spend it for that particular purpose because that’s the purpose that you’ve given it for so giving it to General funds is really helpful okay unless we have a particular appeal like the Limitless appeal which is £5,000 to get our young people to a Limitless conference where they can meet
God um so these things are important cash is good but it’s not as good as standing order but I understand that different people give in different ways it’s important for you to to just to know so that you can discern what to do go for it here’s a little warning for
You though who’s heard of that saying keeping up with the Joneses the Joneses will ruin your life they’re a nightmare I think they’re from whales but seriously bigger house better holidays bigger car more cars do you really need them check your motives check your heart it’s really important
Because God says this take Delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart’s desires he doesn’t say he will give you your heart’s desires he says take Delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart’s desires and so another scripture wherever your treasure is there the
Desires of your heart will be also so what do you treasure and where is your treasure that’s the better question where is your treasure is it in heaven in Eternal things or is it in Barns have you got Headroom if God said to you I want you to do this have you
Got enough time to do it or if God saysi want you to do this have you got enough money to do it have you got Headroom and space to be agile in obeying God just seek him for what to do with the resources he’s given to you and the
Last slide is vacancy Master seeking stewards um I didn’t actually know what to do with this because it’s not a vacancy you are all stewards already if you are a Christian and following God you are are a steward and the master is actually seeking your availability the master is seeking your loving
Obedience the master is seeking your faithfulness with everything he has entrusted with you and Faith so that you’re doing it in Eternal in the Eternal realm rather than just trying to do stuff obeying him specifically from faith and it’s about the kingdom whatever God has given you how can you
Multiply it time talents treasure in all of this remember this world is not where you belong this world is not your home it really isn’t so don’t get comfortable with stuff don’t get comfortable with things how are you going to activate your stewardship more than you are
Now we are really going to send out a resource email to help you because part of our role as church is to help you understand what you’ve got what God’s given you and how you can mobilize it but I want to do something a little bit unusual just um yeah would you mind
Doing the plinky plinky bits for us thank you so I want to do I want to have a time of ministry but this is not Prayer Ministry okay God’s been speaking to people here all right and I want you to get active and what
God said to me was that I want you to get every single book that you own John on generosity and on money and I want you to bring it to church and I want you to invest in the people and what I’m going to do is I’m
Going to not give these books to you okay I’m going to loan them to you okay now there’s a limited number here and there’s going to be no rush but what I’m going to do is I’m going to loan these books to whoever feels like they
Want to respond to God’s call to be a faithful Steward and to live generous lives now when you take these books you are going to be responsible for these books okay you are responsible for what happens to them hey you are responsible for how it impacts your life you are
Responsible for if you give it to somebody else getting it back to you so you can give it to somebody else and I want you to activate yourself this is a prophetic call to stewarding resources this is your heart’s response to God yes it’s just a book but these
Are good books and you can learn how to activate stewardship and generosity in your lives now not only that so don’t rush because I’ve put a note in my calendar for the 23rd of March 2025 and I’m going to ask you to actually write down your name of which
Book you’ve taken and in one year’s time I’m going to ask how it’s impacted your life I’m going to ask what have you done with it who have you given it to what’s been the impact in their life how is it multiplied and we’re going to get real
But this is a symbolic prophetic act so if anybody wants to come and take one I want you to write your name down and sign and then we can have a chat in a year’s time and see what God’s done so I’m going to pray and then I’m going to invite you to
Come yeah yeah so Jesus we pray for we we thank you for what you’ve been saying to us we want to get real in our faith God and we want to get active with everything that you’ve given us this is not a time to mess around this is a time
To get real with the Living God who’s on a mission and he’s working in our lives thank you that you are working in our lives and so now Lord as we come before you we ask you that you would change people’s hearts stir people’s hearts to get active in faith in stewarding the
Resources that you’ve given and I ask you that you would speak to individuals now and that you would help us as your body to get real in multiplying everything that you have given us so thank you Lord if you want to come I have a oh we have two pens come
God if you want to respond to what the Lord said for you personally come and take a book and start your journey and if there’s not enough books don’t worry I’m sure they’ll lend it to you over to you thank you God we’re going to sing one fin song together and do take an opportunity to come and look at the books you can take pictures of books as well I’m sure we can buy multiple copies of them but also just uh for those parents in the room
Maybe time to go collect your kids from De Discovery Kids while we stand and sing a final song together oh if anyone online would like to respond put something in the chat John’s going to get back to here um yeah all right thank You Everyone needs compassion the love that’s never failing let Mercy fall of me everyone needs forgiveness kind of Savior the hope of Nations savior he can move the mountain my God is mighty to save he is mighty to stay forever offer us Sal he R and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the Grave so take me as you find me all my fears and failures I fill my life again I give my life to follow everything I believe in now I Sur I Sur I Sur the savior he can move the mountain my God is mighty to save he is mighty to save
Forever Au through our Salvation hero and conquered the pise Jesus conquered the gra sh Shine Your Light let the World Sing For the Glory of the Risen King Jesus Shine Your Light and let the whole world sing for the glory of the r King saor he can move the
Mountain my God is mighty to he is mighty to save forever author of Salvation heo and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the gra you us let the whole world in for the glory of the r King Jesus Shine Your Light the whole world we sing for the glory of the res
Savior he can move the mountain my God is mighty to save he is mighty to save forever author of Salvation Heroes and conquer the Jesus conquered the gra hallah Hallah thank you John thank you to the team here you know I I just want to honor and acknowledge these people because today we’ve had for the first time in in almost exactly four years two morning services and to do that the first week has been a big challenge for
Them but they’ve done amazing and we had 74 people in our first service and we’re pretty full here so God is just helping us to grow through their stewardship of time and more giving more time to God let me just hold these up we’ve got about four books left maybe there’s
Someone watching on the stream that would like them or there’s more people come and look at the end but sign up and uh a lot on generosity and simply generous look after those books nicely um let me wish you all an amazing week be blessed maybe we’ll see you mday
Thursday here or Good Friday on the High Street but have just time with God Steward every moment with him wisely be blessed thank you goodbye Is my Foundation The Rock on which I stand when everything around me is shaking I’m never been more glad if I put my faith in Jesus J CU he’s never let me die faithful through CH races so why would he fa now come on [Applause] he he w we Cate he won’t fail he
Won’t come on [Applause] he he won he [Applause] Won’t he won’t there one more time oh you got shut up he W he he won’t [Applause] F he won’t Fail he won’t he Won’t he won’t fail he won’t fail one more time declare he won’t he won’t he won’t fail he won’t fail no no he