Favour of God | Nicky Gumbel | 1 February 2015

this is the most amazing community to be part of it it's a family where people are accepted where people are loved where people are included where people can grow in their own relationship with God when you hear that you know 24 million people have done alcohol's and that started at the church that we go see and well if we don't give to that who is there's another 24 million people out there who are gonna do that we want people to come to know Jesus Christ be filled with the Holy Spirit be excited about Jesus and then to to have an impact on their world on their family on their community on their work colleagues on society one of the things that we have done like she's concentrated more about giving to HDB because you live and breathe the results of what they do day in day out and you see it in in the church services and the things we get around the church and people coming back with us from the willful stress or what we're seeing in Alpha etc this is the most hopeful time for the church there's a revolution going on and the future is full of the presence and power a life of Jesus Christ saving and loving and reaching in our nation in our world this is a really exciting fun vibrant dynamic life-changing place to do I want to talk to you today about the favor of God what does that mean the favor of God we had a prophecy in our staff meeting from someone on our staff who has a reputation as having very very accurate words from God and the prophecy was this that 2015 would be the year of the Lord's favor for HDB isn't that exciting what does that mean favor the favor of God you are living under the favor of God in your life what does it mean to live under the favor of God I remember a man I guess he was in his 80s saying to me do you realize God loves you unconditionally wholeheartedly continually God approves of you and I said to him you know I find that really hard to believe because I know what my life is like and I'm always messing up and he said we all feel like that but the truth is God loves you unconditionally wholeheartedly continually God approves of you that's what it means to live under the favor of God God is for you he is not against you he's on your side he loves you you're his child you have his favor on your life this is amazing God's favor we're told is like Jew on the grass it lasts for a lifetime the Lord bestows on his people favor and honor we don't earn it it's a gift through the grace of Jesus through the cross and resurrection of Jesus see in the Old Testament only a few people enjoyed the favor of God Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord Moses sought the Lord's favor nehemiah prayed Lord give me your favor but it was just particular people and then when we get to the New Testament Mary found favor in the eyes of God supremely Jesus grew in favor with God and human beings and then Jesus came and one day he went into the temple and he unfold a scroll and read from it Isaiah 61 verses one two three and he read these words the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor he sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to release the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and we are now living in the year of the Lord's favor see the passage he was reading had a historical context in Isaiah that was about the return from exile and the blessing of God's people but Jesus said it's got another context it's now it's what it's what I'm bringing in but then of course it's got a further context because on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out on all people on you and me and so Paul is Paul writes that now is the time of God's favor this is the moment when all of us are living under God's favor you are all under this blessing how can that be everyone I don't know that any of you ever watch Strictly Come Dancing but if you do you'll know that Bruce Forsyth you used to used to present it and one of the things that he always said to pretty well all the couples say is you're my favorite and you think how can they all be his favorites and it's like that with God not that God is like Bruce Forsyth oh he's from there police say the analogy soon breaks down but he's like it in this sense that God says to all of us you're my favorite you're living under my favor you have the Holy Spirit living within you it's not just that the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus in Christ he anoints all of us that's what the New Testament says that the Spirit of the Lord is in you he has anointed us he's put his spirit in our hearts 2 Corinthians 1:21 you have an anointing from the Holy Spirit 1 John 2 2 verse 20 you are all anointed by the Holy Spirit you all have God's favor on your life so Jesus goes into the temple and he says these words are now fulfilled this is my manifesto we're in the time now of political manifestos each of the parties are saying this is our agenda we don't know whether those will be fulfilled or not but we do know that this agenda this manifesto will be fulfilled because this is the manifesto of Jesus and it's from this manifesto that we get our vision this is the vision of htb coffee or gardens HCB Brompton Road HT beyond so Square all of us together as a church this is our vision and it's morphed a bit because in this manifesto of Jesus I think we see three things first of all we see this the evangelization of the nation Jesus says the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he's a nineteen to preach good news to the poor what does that word mean it's the word means the downtrodden the what actually means people weighed down by guilt and in a sense everyone is poor without Jesus and Jesus comes to deal with this stuff to set us free to set us free particularly from being weighed down by guilt I hate shopping and I very rarely go shopping but the Christmas sales my wife pip had persuaded me to go shopping she's because I only go about once every two years so this after that after Christmas in the sales we went just close to here and it was dreadful I mean there were there were I cannot tell you how many people there were on the pavements in the shops we went into this shop and we bought me we bought me a new sweater I know it doesn't look like a new sweater because it looks like all the others but this actually is a new sweater so brought me a new sweater then we went into the shop next door to buy something for pips a ghastly shop called Zara if you work for Zara I'm sure it's fantastic but and nothing against naruto's it's all shop so ghastly and particularly when they're crowded as that was I mean there was just so many people you couldn't see the clothes of just crowds and crowds of people in there I don't know how people do shopping it's just so awful anyway we couldn't get the closer we couldn't buy anything so so we left as we were leaving the security alarm went off and so they stopped are these security guys moved in and they've just stopped us from leaving and there were crowds of people trying to get in crowds of people trying to get out and everybody was stopped security moved in and they stopped us and they isolated six people who were leaving at the same time the security and people I were among those sick people who were leaving at that moment so the crowd there was watching the crowd there was watching the six of us were put in a ring like this isolated from all the others and then they asked us to go through one by one through the security so one I thought well there are one of those four is a shoplifter we're going to see them caught so one of them went through no alarm second one went through no along sir well went through no alarm fourth one went through no alarm that left pepper and me I thought I'm married to a shoplifter Phipps went through no alarm I thought I'm a shoplifter someone has planted clothes on me I am going to be arrested people are going to be coming to visit me in prison I'll be doing alpha in prisons I'll be doing caring for ex-offenders I thought oh my goodness so and the crowds were watching here cries away I felt so guilty they said okay take off your rucksack they're two of my relative are we gonna search it do you mind sir if we search your Roxette I said very nervously no no please have a look inside they had look inside and they found this sweater still with the tag from the shop next door they'd forgotten to take the tag off but I felt so guilty full skilled but there's also in my life real guilt and Jesus said I came to take I knew at that moment would have felt light read the untrodden by guilt and Jesus came to take away our guilt he came to preach good news for the poor to bind up the brokenhearted to set the captives free to bring good new release for the prisoners that's why we do the stuff we do in the prisons because you can be inside a prison and you can be free in your heart he came to bandage up those with broken hearts all of us are damaged by life no just that the the stuff in life has a has a damaging effect on us Nicky Lee and I shared roomed where we had rooms next door to each other at Cambridge and a few weeks ago I went with my son and daughter-in-law they wanted to go and see where we where we'd lived in Cambridge and we went back to to Cambridge and we visited the rooms where we've been air and as we were going down the high street I saw Sainsbury's there and it reminded me so much of Nicky lady and my time at Cambridge because we were students we were impoverished students and we didn't have very much much money and what what we used to do was we went to Sainsbury's to get our supper pretty much every night this is what we did in Sainsbury's in those days there were bins of damaged goods there were tins that had fallen off the shelves or lost their labels whatever and they were just in a big bin and you could get them like half-price so we would get one main course and one pudding out of the bin so we get like baked beans for main course tinned peaches for pudding half price it was brilliant now even better was the ones without labels they were not just 15 50 % off they were reduced to virtually nothing for about five peeled probably about one pea in those days you could buy as these damaged tins which had no label so you didn't know what they were so we had to guess what would be one main course and one pudding and you just had to hope you didn't get two puddings or two main courses and we would go off and we would we would take those damaged tins and we would eat them and you know what inside those damaged tins the content was perfect there was nothing wrong with it and what Jesus does is whatever however battered we may look on the outside however mutton we may bear the scars of life in were perfect the Spirit of God fills you restores him his anointing is in you God looks at you he loves you you have his favor his Spirit is in you your righteous in his sight you are you are perfect in his sight because of what Jesus has done for you on the inside you're not damaged goods you're pure you have the favor of God this is the good news this is the good news that Jesus came to bring this is the good news that we're taking to everyone that we we tell about Jesus that's why people coming on alpha is so amazing because they hear this good news your loved your guilt is taken away you're not damaged goods you have a purpose for your life and we had this amazing privilege of being custodians of this gift of Alpha that God has given not an individual but to a community and the numbers that have done it they do matter actually I think Rick Warren says we count people because people can't and it's not about numbers but the fact that 24 million people have done it means 24 million people have had the opportunity to hear about Jesus they have their lives changed this is this is what matters sometimes I think I can't believe this is happening we had a meeting of the Catholic board last week and we were hearing what's happening in the Roman Catholic Church with alpha all around the world and about 80 countries around the world just one example France Alpha is running in the Catholic Diocese throughout the whole of France in one diocese granola 70% of the people being baptized into the Catholic Church have come through alpha isn't that astonishing in Grenada I've never been to Grenoble I don't even know where Grenoble is you may have been that I don't know whether you've been there or not but maybe one day when you're in heaven someone will come up to you and say thank you so much I live in Grenoble I lived in Grenoble and I did I came to faith on an alfa corse and i want to thank you because you gave to make it possible for people like me to find jesus and have my life changed that's why we do what we're doing because we want as many people as possible to hear the good news of jesus the evangelization of the nation that's why we're reforming this term the last year we've been brief filming that's why we're doing the Alpha film series we've done one for the youth and now we're doing one for everyone it's a huge project but it will enable millions of people to hear the good news of Jesus second part of the manifesto of Jesus the revitalization of the church when people come to encounter Jesus that's the start of a journey they need the community of the church what happens when you join the church well Jesus was reading from Isaiah chapter 61 and this is what it goes on to say in Isaiah 61 to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty that's what Jesus wants for your life a crown of beauty instead of ashes the oil of gladness that's a way of describing the Holy Spirit the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise worship instead of a spirit of despair they will be called oaks of righteousness a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor that's what the community of the church is about sort connect groups about join a connect group because in there you find healing restoration community growth discipleship that's what the leadership college that we just started also in court field gardens thank you court for your gardens for all that you're doing amazing for the illogical College leadership College training up people the cycling people in order to change the world around and that's why we do stuff like the Bible in one year to help us grow in our relationship with Jesus that's why we do worship central that's amazing what's happening with worship 24/7 prayer that's what Tuesday night is all about and I really encourage you to come this is growing in our relationship with Jesus Bible in one year is to help people grow daily in their relationship which is I'm so encouraged by that you know pepper and I started doing this sending out these little notes and we started sending them out a few years ago and it started to grow by the end of last year 200,000 people were doing it on January the 1st it doubled 400,000 now there are 750,000 people around the world doing the Bible in one year this is God's blessing God's favor and amazing to see what he's doing how he how people it's a community this is coming out of a community he's blessing our relationship with Jesus this is what the church is about growing in a relationship with Jesus Christ growing in our faith in beauty instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of despair and it's not just about us it's not just about our little local church yes of course we need to be revitalized but God has given to this community of vision for other churches we started church planting in 1984 and we planted for the last whatever it is we've been planting churches all over London and they're growing and thousands of people are coming to faith in those churches and then in 2009 25 years after planted churches across London God called us to plant a church in Brighton in a church that was going to close down be boarded up have a sign over it saying dead we've given up and we didn't want that and we sent a team from here as you know back in 2009 team of about 30 people went from here right now every Sunday they have around a thousand people in that building praising Jesus planting churches they just planted in the white old Hawk estate they planted in - yeah it's amazing they've planted in to the University they just planted into Hastings into a church where there had been no children's work for twenty years six weeks ago a team went from Brighton to Hastings six weeks later they have a hundred people thirty children in children's church and it's growing and the churches that were planting are planting the last one we sent outside London was to Bournemouth it went 20 Sundays ago 20 Sundays ago 11 people went in 11 people including the leader Tim was one of those 11 Tim Matthews and his wife Debbie there - out of that the eleven plus four children 15 people in all 20 Sundays later last Sunday and the Sunday before they had 530 people in their congregation they had they had they have 17 couples on their marriage course they've run our foot they've started baptizing people who were converted on their last alpha course they have 57 children tested means of healing the church is Pat all in the morning and in the evening so much so the BBC radio did a programme about what was happening there and I just wanna play it was quite a long clip but I want to pay you a little bit of the clip they interviewed people who were started going back to church as a result of this they interviewed other local churches to say what do they think of them and they interviewed the bishop to say what did the bishop think about it here it is the fantastic thing is about some of these HPV plants is that people actually make a personal commitment themselves so quite a significant small community have moved from London sold up as it where their house is their businesses and have moved down to Bournemouth to make this commitment that they really expressed themselves as sort of missionaries within their own culture and said we want to be totally committed to this new situation and we're going to put our resources in so that that group of people have committed their resources we've supported it from the diocese and Holy Trinity Brompton have also helped us to do something with the building as well so it's a it's a sort of treatment nearly all around and I'm sure we're going to see as the community it since we're those growers that that community itself will begin to make a contribution to the whole resource streams of the diocese as well in terms of people and money how we know if it succeeded I think we'll know by the impact of this one initiative we'll see growth development so that's the Bishop of Winchester talking about since Wiggins in Bournemouth Sarah do you think this is the shape of things to come I think this is a start of a new movement I think like he mentioned and reforming a reshaping of particularly the Anglican and Church of England Church across the UK I think it is the start of something new and I think we should really watch this space and watch what happens over the years with these new plants around towns like Bournemouth isn't that amazing it's like she's speaking with a prophetic voice isn't it this is the shape of things to come this is a start of something new we're going to see this around the country last Sunday they announced in Birmingham that they're gonna have a new church plant in right in the heart of Berman the Birmingham diocese have just invested around a million pounds on buying a great big warehouse to be linked to a church and they have asked HCB to plant a church in Birmingham and Tim and Rachel Hughes are going to be leading a plan to Birmingham that's why we need all those 163 organ hands at simple itis basted cocktail Gardens because we're hoping praying that every single one of them will plant a church no longer Bournemouth berming we've done those two but what about another hundred and sixty three cities towns villages places around this nation where church plant revitalization is required that's why what you're doing in Caulfield Gardens is so amazing that's why this is so exciting that it's actually happening this vision is actually happening we're seeing it in our lifetime this is just so amazing one day one of those people from Bournemouth will come to you in heaven and say thank you I was baptized last Sunday they were baptizing people in Bournemouth thank you that I was baptized into the church because you gave you made this possible through your generosity the favor of God evangelization of the nation revitalization of the church and the third thing follows the transformation of our society that's how the passage in Isaiah goes on this is what it goes on to say this is what Jesus read from this was his manifesto they will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated they will renew the ruined cities think of the cities around this nation that are spiritually ruined they will rebuild the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations that's the vision and you are all involved you know what your primary ministry is your job the workplace your family your community every day you go to work you're transforming society because you have the favor of God on you you're a child of God you're salt and light in your workplace you're transforming your workplace even if you're not conscious of it you have the favor of God in your family you're changing your family you have your favor of God in your community your neighborhood you're transforming your neighborhood and then they're all the other things family life thought the LEAs are doing that's transforming our society strengthening family life strengthening families strengthening parenting and then there's all the stuff that Paul Crowley and William Wilberforce Trust is doing homelessness debt diction depression money course offer in the prisons caring for ex-offenders transforming our society and transformation of society always follows revival in the church look back to Wesley and Whitfield 250 years ago look what happened to the nation after that the abolition of the slave trade the changing conditions in the factories the whole thing followed revival in the church and that's always been true the Welsh revival I was reading about the world survival as a result of the Welsh revival what happened was that drunkenness this is so interesting to me in four years convictions for drunkenness in Wales went down from eleven thousand two hundred and eighty two to five thousand four hundred and ninety oh he said well drunkenness not that important oh yes it is because so much crime is related to alcohol still true today as a result of drunkenness going down there was a huge reduction in child abuse domestic violence theft suicide and debts started to be repaid and the denominational walls fell like the walls of Jericho this is the transformation of society this is what we're praying for this is what you are giving towards this is what God's favor means and it will not happen except by the Spirit of God Jesus says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me if we ever think we can do it by clever organization strategy we are we will never achieve it that way this is a work of the Holy Spirit we need the Holy Spirit to fill us to anoint as all of us need that you have the Holy Spirit living within you and that's what you need we all need to be listening for the Holy Spirit Lord how do you want me to pray Lord how do you want me to serve and today I love you to be praying Lord what do you want me to give don't give because you feel any anything other than the Holy Spirit encouraging you to give we need the Spirit of God Sarah Jackson is a member of our staff amazing amazing person must be one of the busiest people on the face of this planet she is doing so much stuff she was became a Christian herself almost thirty years ago on alpha here long before I was involved she came to faith in Jesus Christ I suspect Nicky Lee was probably running alpha at that time but she came to faith I think she was either 12 or 13 her father had just left the home disappeared and she came on alpha and she came to faith in Jesus Christ she then led her sister to faith she then led another sister to faith she then led the fourth sister to faith she then led her mother to faith in Jesus Christ the whole family had been part of this community and had a huge impact she's now on our staff here and she gave the staff thought on Tuesday she was talking about she chose us her passage I was so encouraged she chose Isaiah 61 verses 1 to 3 and it was confirmation that this is the passage I should be speaking it on today and she said we need the Holy Spirit she gave an example she said she said she said she said I'm right we all know how busy she is she's got three children she's got school runs she's good - thinking food in the fridge her job had a very busy job that she had some staff here and she's thinking about all these things and she's out the school gates and she suddenly the name of this mother comes into her mind and she thinks Oh Lord you want me to pray for her and then she senses the Lord's spirit of the lord speaking turn say no I want you to go and buy her flowers come back for us I've got absolutely no time I've got this I've got this would go bad and she said okay well if this I'll get past the flash of and if there's a space outside I know there's never a space outside but if there is a space outside I'll go in and she went past and there was just a space outside she parked there she ran in she got the flag and then she felt the spirit prompt her I want you to get a card as well so I can't get it cut as well absolutely no time so yeah you've got to go and get a card so she went and she got a card and then she said flick I said Lord what do you want me to write on it and the Holy Spirit said to her this is what I want you to say I want you to say to this mum this woman she hardly knew that I am her father that I see her and she's not alone so that I can't do that someone I hardly know anyway she wrote it she went round to the person's house hoping that they would be out rang the doorbell and she was in so she didn't want to say anything she just said here's the flowers and the card bye and she quickly as possible she got in the car but oh god it went back and told her husband about the flower fiasco and they had a good laugh about it as she was going to bed that night she got a text from the mother who's who said this she said and this is what Sarah didn't know that both of her parents had died the month before she'd hit rock bottom she'd started crying out to God saying if you exist why am i orphaned why am I alone and when she got the card that said I'm your father I see you you're not alone she knew God existed and she became a Christian and a husband became a Christian and our husband her and the children against church that's the Spirit of God being led by the Holy Spirit and this vision will only ever happen this evangelization of the nation reimagine ization revitalization of the church transformation of society will only happen because the Spirit of the Lord is on you you have the favor of God and therefore this vision will happen in Jesus name Amen amen

Channel: HTB Church

Views: 22,385

Rating: 4.7534246 out of 5

Keywords: God (Deity), Religion (TV Genre), Nicky Gumbel (Author), Christianity (Religion), lord, Lord's Favour, vision, give, sunday, htb, htb church, htb london, htb church london, Holy Trinity Brompton (Place Of Worship), Church (Project Focus), February, Jesus Christ (Deity), Love

Id: txg64jqqiCo

Length: 35min 58sec (2158 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 02 2015