Brave Choices - LIFECENTRAL MIDWEEK

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello everybody happy new year to you it feels strange saying happy new year at the moment doesn't it it does it feels really weird and we've been kind of playing with this phrase that that we've been saying to each other which is more like brave new year because yeah that seems to kind of fit better somehow yeah so why don't you turn to the person next to you if you're with somebody in the house and say brave new year not a happy new year because it feels like we need a brave new year right now guys we are uh so you know just wanted to connect with you tonight and um thank you for joining us if you're here on youtube or on facebook as well there are moderators through this evening so if you want to chat then then do that as well if you need prayer at any stage just request prayer okay you can do that by going to our website uh on the say one for me card as well don't forget uh at the end of our time together we're gonna take communion so hopefully you've got some communion some juice and some bread there so please get a hold of some communion stuff as well later on and we've got stuart and amanda blant who are part of our church and we'll introduce them later they're going to be leading us through communion at the end and we've got some other guests joining us as well haven't we we do we've got a great evening it might be a strange start to the new year but actually you know we've got some really important information to share with you tonight some great stuff that we believe god's got for you absolutely and as we listened last night to the prime minister put us into another lockdown again and uh you know as the deflation came and um i i i guys we get it hopefully you get it this is a serious situation if you speak to anybody in health care at all they know how serious this situation is and if you are involved or your family are involved in health and social care we are with you we're supporting you we want to pray for you we want to encourage you in whatever way we can but we know as parents especially the news last night was traumatic or sunday was traumatic to say the least and with your families and kids as well and so we know that it's going to take a lot of bravery as we go through this this first few months of this year really as well and speaking about bravery we'd love you to engage with us just for a moment with a little bit of a fun thing okay we are going to get serious tonight but a little bit of a fun thing as well what's the strangest food you've ever eaten okay that it took complete bravery for you to eat that strange food so we'd love you to put in the chat right now we've got facebook and youtube here what is the strangest food you've ever eaten and while i look at that why don't you what what's the strangest food you've ever eaten well i think between us we've eaten some really strange foods really haven't we um what about you then what's the strange thing you've ever seen the strangest thing i've ever eaten which some of you who might be watching might have eaten them with me is on a mission trip to zambia and we were walking through the market every day as we were going about our business and we saw big piles of dried caterpillars and when we asked about them people said oh they're very nutritious and they're very tasty so we thought we'd give them a go it's not true they may be nutritious they're definitely not tasty but i might have got the cooking slightly wrong because i was told that you needed to put the dried caterpillars in boiling water to plump them up so they went squishy i think that might have been a mistake well that we've got here guinea pig and rabbit's head i'm really sorry if your children are watching this okay we've got snails we've got brains you've got a few more there horse somebody it wasn't it was dead yeah okay okay sorry laura hancock you might have just won i ate rhino poo no seriously did you do yeah that's gotta be laura that's just gotta be i don't know why i said that but it just got to be spaghetti bolognese with green bits on it in australia yes carol what i ate in tanzania now i had an african barbecue in tanzania which was brilliant and all different bits of the goat and they saved the last bit for me which they said was the best bit which was the goat's testicle yeah i have to tell you i've eaten squid i've eaten uh brains i've eaten eyes i've eaten scorpion the goat's testicle was by far the worst thing that i've ever eaten in my life i have to tell you and the reason that we're saying all that is because you know some of the things that we have to eat in life it does take a little bit of bravery see what i did there really dodgy little link there but you know we want to encourage you tonight um with the fact that actually we've got to be brave as we go into this year we've got to take on board some things that maybe we look at and we think you know what i don't want to eat that i don't want to take that i don't embrace that but actually it's going to be really good and strengthening for us as well so for us for me and allison when it comes to the vaccine we're going to take the vaccine we know that you might have different views and thoughts about that why are we going to take it your health care professional as well why are we going to take that backside i'm a bit passionate about this i think because i'm involved in healthcare because because actually the vaccine is not so important for us those of us that are likely to recover from the virus but it is absolutely vitally important for those who may struggle to overcome the virus and we don't know who they are so the only way to protect our community to protect each other to protect the society around us is if as many of us as possible accept the vaccine and go for it not just for our sakes but actually for the sake of those around us absolutely because the more of us get vaccinated immunized then that's going to help them listen guys there are people shot in their homes who can't come out until the rest of us get vaccinated yeah absolutely so it's gonna take bravery it's gonna take bravery for us all to follow the guidelines when we're so frustrated and it's been so long it's gonna take bravery to do that it's gonna take bravery to support the most vulnerable in our society and as a church we want to do that and actually some of the people that are under the most pressure right now yes parents yes business leaders yes all of us but our health and social care workers and they're under pressure talk to us a little bit about that health and social care is under massive pressure at the moment guys if you know anybody who's a nurse or a doctor or somebody working in our acute care settings that's the big hospitals that are around and about please pray for them because they're under massive massive pressure and i speak to these guys every day and there is there's such difficult situations that they have to face so what we've done is we've developed the under pressure together group so we've got currently 51 people registered to that group who i'm in regular contact with we're subdivided into smaller prayer groups so we've got immediate prayer support should we need it we send out emails regularly with information we also meet online with monthly zoom calls and it's just proving to be really really helpful for people who are under the most pressure at the moment yeah so if you know somebody who could benefit from that please encourage them to sign up if you yourself are not part of that but you would like to something to anybody in any kind of health or social care setting at all you just go onto the church website you click on the under pressure together link and you'll be able to sign up there and then you'll receive all of the information that we send excellent and we'll be praying tonight for our health and social care workers as well um we want to just introduce a couple of people to you and to pray for them you know we're in a a in a season of change as a staff team as a church team as well and as you know uh just uh just before christmas we said goodbye to simon and d woodward they are beginning to start a church in wolverhampton it's incredibly hard to plan to church at any time but but in another lockdown it's really hard and we're still praying for them and supporting them but kind of stepping into those shoes a little bit although he's his own person he's adam whitley and bridget and so we're just gonna uh hopefully introduce them to you now they're gonna come on screen there they are hi adam and bridget how you doing hey guys you're right yeah great to see you guys you've been with us for about six months now you joined the church six months ago adam stepped into like a temporary role for six months and now you've stepped in january into this new role and we're excited about that just tell us what you're going to be doing in this new role mate what the areas that you're going to be looking at yeah so rowley is going to be one of my main points but also evangelism so we're looking at alpha how we outreach how we connect with our community and how we obviously train our people how to talk about jesus how to be passionate about jesus you know ma if you follow me on social media you'll see loads of videos of me constantly inviting people to church constantly inviting people to come and join me great adventure with jesus because he changed my life he's changed bridget's life and we we're in the business to see other people's lives be changed by him too fantastic that's amazing mate yeah that's brilliant and bridgette you are a healthcare worker yourself aren't you tell us a little bit about what you do i work in their children's mental health brilliant so are you at work at the moment or are you on leave for some particular reason no i'm i'm i'm i'm in work right now i will be uh soon abandoning ship to have a bit of maternity leave yes that's fantastic when's the baby actually due end of march oh fantastic good because you've got two other boys doug and huck um twin boys three they're three aren't they how do they feel about new baby on on the way and are they excited do they have a name well they weren't excited to start off with but they've got excited and huckleberry likes to use his imagination and thinks that the baby's gonna be called horsey horsey whitley that's got a ring to it thinks it's going to be called baby rainbow uh which i don't know where to get this one because we call it baby nando don't we because it likes hot sauce [Laughter] we've got to get used to not calling it nando when it arrives so i desperately want to go off script here and ask everyone to put what they think the name of the baby should be but i probably won't do that because if we're starting with like horsey whitley and baby nando hot sauce whitley we could get all kinds of names really guys it's so exciting and like for you guys as a family you know you've only been with us a few months but and i know it's been weird as well because we haven't been able to you know see each other um you know kind of properly in that sense but how do you feel about things at the moment what what do you in this next season for you guys as a family and and in leadership what what are you feeling about all that i think we're like on monday my first day i was like almost like first day of school feelings a little bit nervous a little bit excited anxiety all those sort of things really good though but we are super excited aren't we to get going we i'm so excited about alpha um i had a zoom meeting the other night with the team and bridget was sat on the other side of the room and she just turned to me after i came off and she said i am so excited for this i'm so pumped for what we're going to be doing and yeah i think like we've been to rowley a few times we've walked around we've driven around and we're praying for it we are we're excited to meet people you know we're really excited to meet people aren't we yeah we are yeah and um yeah just like i said is that we love jesus and we want to bring jesus to so many things that we do to everything we do to everybody we meet so when you meet us you'll see jesus hopefully brilliant brilliant that's not the new name for the baby i take it so tell us guys what what can we pray for you specifically how can we pray um i think that it prayer for the safe arrival of baby yeah and just given the current circumstance like we feel we feel really really blessed we can see god's favor in it all but that that's something that we would really appreciate prayer for just as i'm going into the final hurdle now so that would be lovely yeah i think i think the safe rival of baby and like the work life balance like if you've ever worked for a church or it's really difficult sometimes to get that work life balance right and i think i'm the worst for it and so i just just pray that god just gives me that wisdom to get that balance right and that pace right we we're coming into a new season we're really excited but often when you're really excited you go at things a thousand miles an hour and that's the sort of person i am and i just pray that god gives us the right pain it's because we've got so much to give but we need to give it in the right time you know and um yeah we just hold on to jesus because this for everyone we've talked about it's a difficult difficult time but you know jesus he brings us so much hope doesn't he and uh he brings his comfort in those difficult times so we're just praying for a safe arrival and good pace to life really with i don't know how that's going to happen a good place to life with three three kids twins the [Laughter] we love what you put out on social media as well and the fun that you guys have had as a family over over this christmas time with the snow and all that and that's it's very entertaining what you guys keep putting out there as well so you're having a good time in there but we know as well behind that it is challenging as everybody knows at the moment in the current circumstances and for you guys you know with a new job in a new church new people to get to me and a baby on the way so hey guys we we love you guys already um it's so just great just to have you as part of our family and we want to pray for you and guys if you're just watching now with us please don't go passive please just you know we would be commissioning adam into this ministerial role right now if we were here in the room we'd be laying hands on him and on bridget we'd be praying for them as a family so i want to just pray for these guys as well and maybe if you're watching at home if you could just maybe you know just join with me as we pray for these guys and almost like picture yourself just laying your hands on them and commissioning them into this role for this time it's so exciting we've already got i think nearly 30 people signed up for alpha next monday which is so exciting and there's lots of other great things going to be happening even during this time so let me pray guys and we'll just want to just commission you uh into this role for this season let's pray let's pray father we want to thank you so much for adam and for bridget and for the boys and for this baby uh on the way and lord from them as a family and god we just ask right now that your hand of grace would be upon them lord we just say god we believe that they've come here for such a time as this in this season none of this has caught you by surprise or unawares you knew exactly what was happening and god just as you've um called simon and d out to plant a church in wolverhampton you've called adam and bridget to come and join us here as well and god we just pray for your grace over them as a family as husband and wife as mom and dad and lord in the roles that they'll step into at work for bridget and all of the challenges there and for adam as he steps into all of the roles that he's got for us as a church god we just pray i pray god for that pace that they've talked about that god that we would all run in such a way that we would achieve our goals without losing our souls but god that we would run in such a way god that you would we would be healthy as we pursue all you have for us as well so father we just pray for them right now would you bless them anoint them fill them with your spirit god and just use them in incredible ways lord jesus in jesus name we pray for the safe arrival of this baby and we pray that that will bring much a joy into their family and lord that they will feel supported and blessed and encouraged in jesus name amen amen bless you guys great to see you we'll see you soon take care take care bye bye and guys just as we continue now i want to really encourage and invite you to worship right now we're going to sing this incredible song called good grace and just as i was praying for adam and bridget about for grace for them i want to pray that for all of us lord all of us tonight that god would give us his grace as well in this really really difficult season and maybe maybe you know right now that actually you need grace in fact i've been really impacted by some of the messages that some of you sent today uh to me uh over different things that we've been communicating and and i know that life is so tough for so many of us but you know god's grace is good and god is good even when life isn't so let's sing this amazing song it encourages us to come together as one people to be strong together and to declare who jesus is so let's worship him as we sing good grace [Music] people come together strange's our names is one children of generations of every nation of kingdom come just don't let your heart be troubled hold your head off i don't fear [Music] even fake your eyes on this one truth god is madly in love with you so take care and hold on be strong remember help comes from [Music] oh come on you are you see jesus [Music] come on [Music] face your eyes on this one truth god is madly in love [Music] wow [Music] wow [Music] oh [Music] [Music] his name is [Music] oh his name is [Music] all these children [Music] his name is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is oh [Music] our salvation is in his blood oh sing his name in jesus lights of heaven [Music] such great truth in that song isn't there and you know on sunday uh the message that i gave out on sunday i've had loads of great feedback from you thank you for that and i think many of you found that helpful just thinking about at the start of a new year which is so uncertain um what can we actually do about it and this phrase that i kind of used on sunday to take control of what you should but surrender control of what you can't and these are some of the brave choices that we're going to need to make in 2021 so let me just say that again take control of what you should and surrender control of what you can't and we looked at the story of mary on sunday and i want to just unpack it a little bit and alison and myself are going to just unpack that a little bit with with us tonight and kind of lead us through really and we looked at this thing how do you strengthen that ability um to to to surrender control and yet to take control in the right ways and we and i talked about this little acrostic that i thought i called the ark you know which stands for attitude response and choice this attitude response and choice those are the things that we always have control over and even as i listened to our prime minister last night give all that news and i know allison and myself we we were really deflated last night when we both struggled to sleep um and you know just just oh here again and again you almost feel like you're losing control and you're you're having to but actually our attitude our response and our choice are still in our control and we have to take control of what we should and surrender control of what we can't so we want to just do a little bit of a few thoughts and some interactive stuff with us tonight uh prayerful stuff around those three words attitude response and choice so i'll hand over to my wife with attitude attitude [Laughter] you're not thinking i've got a bad attitude no not at all i i think this this point about attitude is such an important point and and the story that leon shared on sunday is such a great story i love looking at the life of mary because she was such an incredible woman and uh mary's response to the angel's news when she was told she was going to have a baby was quite something wasn't it because in the natural she was thinking how's this possible i mean she knew how babies were made and she knew that in the natural that it was absolutely impossible and you know we really struggle don't we when in the natural we know something can't happen and yet somebody tells us that we must do that or when we're asked to do things that feel utterly counter-intuitive in fact one of our favorite sayings sometimes is is we'll say in response to something oh no way and it's it's a kind of response that that speaks of an attitude of disbelief you know how how could that possibly be and suspending our ingrained ways of thinking to embrace the potential for something new is an incredibly difficult difficult thing to be able to do because it goes against all of our natural instincts and perhaps that's the same for some of us right now you know we we're told not to be close to people that we love not to hug people to keep our distance to cover our faces and it it goes against everything within us which speaks of connection of being able to uh be in touch with those that we care about and those around us but as we heard on sunday mary had a great attitude she had absolutely the right attitude despite not understanding how it would happen how she would have a baby or how she would overcome the consequences of having a baby when she wasn't married she accepted god's plan and she trusted that he would provide everything that she needed so she kind of surrendered her disbelief to accept the certainty that if god said he would do it then he would do it and uh later in the chapter that we looked at on sunday in luke she went to visit elizabeth her cousin who was also in the middle of a really unexpected miraculous pregnancy and she could have been really proud she could have been a bit smug really couldn't she she could have gone to elizabeth and said hey you know you might be having a baby but i am having the savior of the world but but she didn't there wasn't any bad attitude in mary in fact when she went to see elizabeth what she actually said was why should i be so blessed in other words what's so special about me why am i blessed and elizabeth responds with this great phrase and you find it in luke 1 verse 45 and it says this you are blessed because you believed that the lord would do what he said what a great verse you are blessed because you believed that the lord would do what he said you know nothing has changed about god since then he still does what he says he still keeps the promises he's made and even if we're struggling to believe that it's still true none of us have been in a global pandemic before none of us have been exposed to the kind of environment or the choices or the lack of choice um that we're facing at the moment and there are so many thoughts and contradictory feelings that are going on for all of us aren't they and you know that's the thing that as human beings creates most uncertainty for us um you know when when we're faced with an inability to hold together conflicting thoughts and beliefs that creates incredible anxiety and it could have been the same for mary but actually it wasn't because she had the right attitude she couldn't figure out how it was going to happen but she knew that god would do what he said he would do and i wonder if if we can learn from mary in this as well as we check our own attitude over the coming weeks and as we look forward uh to what the things that progress in our own lives and later on in luke 1 37 it says this and i love it the way it's worded in the passion translation it says not one promise from god is empty of power for nothing is impossible with god and um that's just such a powerful statement isn't it nothing is impossible with god you despite how you're feeling despite the challenges or the contradictions that appear in real life nothing is impossible with god you know one of the verses that i've shared actually with the under pressure group recently which has been so on my mind um for the last few months really comes from genesis 1. and it's it's this verse it says the earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the deep waters i don't know how you feel at the moment does it feel like there's darkness that covers deep waters you know just oceans of uncertainty but then the verse goes on to say and the spirit of god was hovering over the surface of the water god was just there yeah he was hovering he wasn't absent he was hovering he almost got this this sense of god kind of thinking about what he was going to create about what was going to come next and then all of a sudden the word of god comes and it says god said let there be light so out of that space where there was nothing god created light the earth the creatures that were in it everything was created out of nothing and in the same way as he created jesus really from mary's empty womb you know that creative power of god is still at work and i wonder whether perhaps god is actually wanting to create something new in each one of us yeah whether perhaps this time where it feels like stuff is empty and formless and we're struggling with our attitudes and with uncertainty whether this is the time that god actually wants to step into your experience and say now let there be light let me create something new i don't know why or how lockdown is affecting you in the way that it is perhaps your emotional reserves feel like they're just coming to an end maybe this feels like uh your worst nightmare in terms of your work situation um i know that's true for lots of people working in health and social care we've said but maybe homeschooling feels like the last straw perhaps you're just facing it thinking i i honestly don't know how to do this perhaps your health needs have become more unbearable or you despair at the thought of more isolation but there's some truth in the in the knowledge that there is more in you than you imagine yeah because you are created in the image of god and just as god's spirit hovered over the water and brought light he can hover over your life and bring unexpected gifts abilities strengths capacities things that you had no idea you could do until you're faced with the need to actually do those things and and i know this is true in our own parenting experience so often with simeon you know with facetimes where we just thought i really can't do this and yet somehow god has done something miraculous that has enabled us to cope with things that we never imagined possible and actually sometimes there's things of great beauty that come out of that so i just want to encourage you that there is more in you but also god has promised that he will be with you that he would empower you that he would equip you he's provided the holy spirit to counsel you to guide you to support you to comfort you and even though things might feel impossible remember nothing is impossible with god but you have to have the right attitude and and the best attitude that we can possibly have is one where we just surrender yeah where we surrender all that uncertainty all of that unknowing just to say god i don't understand it i don't think i can manage it but with you i'm gonna give it a go i'm going to trust you and surrender and maybe this is a time for you to go back and to remember the promises that god has given you in your life to remember the things that god has told you he would do and our god hasn't changed he will still do them i just wanted to take a pause for a minute here if that's okay with you um i've had so many conversations with people who are so desperately worried about the state of their children's education about their kids mental health about the impact that it's having there's lots of literature around that quite frankly is just scary you turn the news on and we're really worried for the next generation of our kids would you would you join with us right now as we just pray for our children and young people and for their parents as they parent them um so that we can just surrender that back into god's care yeah let's pray let's pray guys that's so helpful and maybe just where you are maybe maybe for you personally you want to just respond to jesus right where you are and say god give me a good attitude give me the attitude that mary had as well and maybe surrender some of your concerns and anxiety and fear to him as well and then we'll pray for our families and for our parents and for our kids as well so just join with me as we pray right where you are guys jesus i want to just pray and we pray lord for every single person watching this whenever wherever they are lord may they know your presence may they know that your holy spirit hovers over their life hovers over the uncertainty hovers over the anxiety hovers over the concern hovers over the situation whatever it is and lord nothing is impossible with you and when you speak there is light so god i want to pray lord for light to come in situations and god we pray god that you would give us a good attitude as we enter this next season this era this new era that's in front of us right now and lord we are praised specially tonight for families we pray for parents homeschooling kids and we pray for our kids our young people our children those that are struggling um those that aren't those that are confused those that aren't god we just pray for all of them we pray for your blessing and your grace and your peace to be in their lives lord we surrender what we can't control but god we take control of what we can and that's our attitude god give us an attitude that says we might not understand how but we know you will because you said it and so lord we want to receive that tonight in jesus name amen amen you know the second word is the word response and i just love the fact that mary says god i don't get it but i want it to be to me according to your word in other words i'm available and i i want to just share that with you tonight guys as we go forward into this new year let's have an attitude uh and a response of i don't get it but god you've said it and i want to be available to you and just to kind of help us um with this as well we want to just uh go to a vt now um we are you know one of the things that i think strengthens a really healthy attitude uh uh is when we know that we're not in this on our own when we're together you know as connect groups so important relationships so important and actually for us through as a church you know we're in quite a few networks now our primary network is the elim network we're an elim church and and it's so great that stuart and amanda are with us uh and stuart is a director of ministry and on the national leadership team and they're members of our church and on our teaching team and they're going to be sharing communion with us later but but chris cartwright is the general superintendent of elim as well and he's going to be bringing us a little message which he's given to all england churches this is just three minutes but i think this this is such a great message because at the end of this it really talks about that that response responsiveness this year to say jesus whatever's happening around us and to us we want to be available to you that's our attitude that's our posture that's our response that's our choice that's the arc of our life that we want to be available and responsive to you so listen to the message that chris brings and then we're going to worship together [Music] hi i want to bring you greetings on behalf of elim's national leadership team as we step into this new year over this past christmas time we've been i think more aware than ever of the need to ground our daily lives in the truth that christ is king of kings and lord of lords that emmanuel god with us is not just for the christmas story that promise is for today and for this year ahead the church through the ages in times of great challenge and trial has rooted itself deliberately and deeply in the revelation of who jesus is and in a relationship with him that's not just a private thing but to be lived out in the reality of our lives in every family in every community and every culture real people in real places going through real trials and triumphs challenge and change so as one year ends we have a new beginning i'm not suggesting that we just try to wipe away what's gone before but that we do move forward in simple and renewed faith in jesus who leads us with the holy spirit who walks with us and with one another fellow disciples together family we're sensing it is still a time to walk slowly and tenderly into this year there is still great suffering and need in our communities and the impact of the pandemic is far from over we need to be moved by jesus's compassion and may be more aware than ever of the needs of others around us but we're also sensing that it is time to be filled with fresh hope hope that new life will spring forth hope that fresh strength will come and that through it all we are never alone he is with us i pray that this new year as you walk forward you will receive fresh confidence fresh courage and that fresh compassion of jesus that you will know daily in each season and every situation god's promises for your life his glorious presence his amazing provision for your every need and his life-changing peace and that together as england churches and healing people we will simply be available willing ready for jesus to fill us and use us wherever he can for his kingdom to come god bless you and our blessed new year that's so helpful as chris was saying there that that response that posture that attitude of being available guys let's let's sing this amazing song that our young people are bringing to us called available and as you sing this don't just watch it on the screen or hum along but but actually kind of use it as a as a response tonight as a response to say hey the start of this year whatever this year's got and who knows what it's got i want to be available to you jesus i might not understand it all i might not get it but god i want to be available to and i want to encourage you even as you sing and worship right where you are even just put your hands out just your palms out a little bit just to say this is my posture this is my attitude this is my response that's the heart that mary had this is an incredible song and and i say don't just go passive on it but but worship jesus with it and let's make ourselves available to him at the start of this year let's sing available [Music] may brokenness my life may be i will give you every piece i am available i say yes lord [Music] here i am with open hands counting on your grace again less of me and more of you [Music] i just wanna see lord i [Music] am i am [Music] yes [Music] here i am here i am you can have it all you can have it all here i am here i am you can have it all [Music] i am here i am here i am here i am here i am here i am oh you can't oh [Music] for the one who gave me life nothing is a sacrifice oh use me how you want to god have you thrown within my heart [Music] i hear you i say yes lord i [Music] [Music] am [Music] what an amazing song that is and there's a line in there that says you're the one that gave us life that's absolutely true but you know what we have some choices that are available to us we can choose the right attitude we can choose to respond correctly and actually we've got a whole load of other choices available to us as well we can choose to follow government guidelines we can choose to have the vaccine we can choose kindness we can choose to support others we can choose our attitude and responses but most of all we can choose to follow jesus to remember all those things that he's taught us the things he's spoken to us to pray to share with with others of faith to connect in to god we do have more choices than we imagine yeah yeah we do absolutely we choose to connect in with your connect group we choose whether we start the day with jesus or we start the day with the news as we said right back in lockdown number one you know we can choose all of this and in fact what's going to happen tonight guys at the end of our time together in about half an hour we're going to send an email out to you and in that email is going to be this pdf that our team have worked on today and yesterday so done such a great job for the next three days we're gonna we want to encourage you to three days of prayer and fasting and so if you've never done fasting before there's a whole load of information on that about that tomorrow uh there's some encouragement there some things to pray so pray for yourself pray for the church pray for specific initiatives pray for particular people groups then on thursday we want to join with elim nationally there's a couple of prayer things going on on youtube again the links are there for us and then on friday we want to pray for hope for our communities for our business community for our health and social care for families for education etc and then on saturday morning we have the personal mot and we would love you to sign up for that there's already over 135 people that have signed up for the personal mot and so basically you just go onto the website and you uh sign up for that it's two hours on zoom but honestly it will fly by it's facilitated by some of our team and they'll help you to look back on 2020 you'll do a little bit of an inventory uh on on your year on how you were physically relationally emotionally spiritually and then begin to pray and think uh about the future and again your attitude as you go into 21 your response and your choices we would love you to take advantage of that whenever people have done that in the past they've always said it's one of the best things they've ever done now we've never done it virtually before but honestly it's the same material it's going to be so good so we would love you now the deadline for this is thursday nine o'clock in the morning after that we need to close it off because we need to send you out a whole load of information and we need to do some technical work to put you into kind of facilitating groups and all of that there's quite a lot of stuff and our team are working really hard on that but this is always these are choices that you and i have about how we can strengthen our attitude and our response and then our choices that we make and we're going to hand over now to stuart and amanda and they're going to kind of cl finish it and we'll it'll come back to us after we've taken communion but it's great to have stuart and amanda with us and they're going to join us on zoom in a minute and then they're going to lead us guys in communion so i'd really encourage you wherever you are whether you're on your own in your house or whether you're with your partner or whether you're with family or whoever you're with let's enter in and let's take him in let's remember who we are and who we're grounded in so i'm going to hand over now to stuart and amanda and they're going to lead us in communion hi there folks it's great to be able to share from our home to your home and to leon and allison in church there this opportunity together tonight and amanda's going to start by reading us some really really special verses that set the scene that link with what leon allison have shared with us and set the scene for us coming and connecting with the holy spirit in remembrance of what christ has done for us and this is from philippians 2 starting at verse 5. you must attitude chat though he was god he'd not think of equality with god as something to cling to instead he gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to god and died a criminal's death on the cross you know when i was thinking about how amanda and i could lead you this evening i was remembering what leon said in the early part of his message on sunday that quote he used it earlier this evening take control of what you should and surrender control of what you can't and the analysts have been leading us through those three points under ark you know attitudes responses and choices and really when we read these words about jesus they start by talking about the attitude of jesus your attitude should be the same as that of christ jesus and this whole picture of the surrender of jesus at the cross is so powerful here is the son of god the eternal son of god god the son completely unified with father and spirit in the trinity who lays aside the majesty of heaven makes this brave choice of surrendering to the father's will so that you and i could have the opportunity to make brave choices for our lives his surrender calls forth a surrender from us and i was thinking about the first couple of lines of that classic hymn all to jesus i surrender all to him i freely give i will ever love and serve him in his presence david i surrender all in the beginning of this year we get the opportunity to lay ourselves a fresh and amanda and i join with you today right across our church family and those who are watching from wherever you're watching to say we want to surrender refresh to the purposes of god in our lives and recognize that initial surrender that brought us into a living relationship with jesus is just the beginning of a life of surrender so that our attitude can be aligned with jesus our responses can be aligned with peace and our choices aligned with his too and so we're going to take bread today and the bread is the reminder of the body of jesus given so freely for us and we're going to take juice probably for for most of us that reminds of the blood of jesus that was shed the bible tells us without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness of sin and we lean into god's goodness and grace this evening as we do that so amanda's going to pray then we're going to pause for a moment take the bread take the cup and remember all he's done for us yes thank you father god for what you've done for us and thank you that you came as a babe over 2000 years ago to be the savior of the world and to become emmanuel god with us and thank you lord that you are with us in this season in our lives lord in the beginning of 2021 and or we just surrender our lives afresh to you and i just pray and i just want to thank you lord for dying on the cross for each of us and forgiving us for our sins father and we just pray now that we would all know your presence with us going before us and beside us lord in the ups and downs of life father in our attitudes in our responses and our choices this year lord we surrender ourselves fresh to you just lead us and guide us father in the name of jesus amen so we take some bread simple bread jesus who said i am the bread of life and we take it and we eat it as instructed in the scriptures then we remember him she take that bread on your paws and reflect on how god feeds your life with the goodness of jesus every day fills you and satisfies you with his life and his presence and we take a cup that reminds us of the blood of jesus that was shed for us and we drink it and we remember him again we read in the bible that if we walk in the light of season the light we are fellowshipped with one another and the blood of jesus christ god's son cleanses us from all sin so let's pray before we come back to leon and alison and so father today we say thank you the dawn of this new year that you can fill us with a sense of hope and courage as we've already heard tonight as we walk into this year whatever it holds whatever's in front of us whatever challenges we face we do so holding onto you and faith and trust in you to lean forward to have our attitude constantly assessed and empowered by the spirit to seek to respond according to how you've asked us to live for you and to then be making choices that would touch and affect the lives of others bring others into a living knowledge and relationship with jesus so we give you thanks tonight for who you are all you've done for us and all that is ahead in jesus name amen [Music] and thanks guys thank you so much thanks so much so helpful isn't it just to pause on an evening like tonight at the start of a new year and to take communion and just to remind ourselves of who we are and whose we are as well as we enter this new year guys god bless you thank you stu and amanda so much and guys thank you for tuning in with us again tonight as well and we want to just just finish really just to wrap up in a moment by just saying that this sunday we are going to start a brand new teaching series which i'm going to be doing i'm really excited about it um if you want to read just to get a little bit ahead of yourself read the first letter of peter juan peter we're gonna look at that letter that book over the next four weeks and you know i believe that um we're not entering just a new season right now we're entering a new era you know with whenever we come out of kovit and we will come out of it at some point we've obviously left the eu as well it's a new era who knows what the new normal is going to look like it's going to be different in loads of ways but you know in the book of peter god calls the early church to be different in a different world and that's what we're going to look at so what does it look like to be different in a different world here's a little trailer just to whet your appetite and then we'll come back and say good night so here it is here's different if you can hear this message listen closely to the exiled misunderstood or upside down this is your message of hope when problems come use them when enemies persecute you love them these struggles are a fire refining you into gold look around you are not forgotten you are not alone challenge what is expected of you this world is not your home you are different so that looks really exciting in the meantime guys uh have a great week stay safe look after yourselves and look after each other remember there's more in you than you imagine you can do this absolutely and we don't want to wish you a happy new year we want to actually wish you a brave new year god bless you guys we love you and we will see you soon take care [Music] you

Channel: LifecentralChurchUK

Views: 1,004

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: church, meaning, purpose, life, calling, motivation, happiness, lifestyle, Jesus, God

Id: NomV2n4RaTs

Length: 76min 50sec (4610 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 05 2021