HTB Live Stream | Sunday Service 3rd April 2022

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to htb here in london we're so pleased that you have joined us if you've just joined us then my name is jess and my name is wale so good to be here i'm so pleased that you're here while i if you want to join us and you're thinking where's tom because um if you're a regular member of our community here tom clark normally hosts but he is with his family today and for the rest of the week not just today in greece living it up living it up oh i'm going to wait for myself yeah it's so good to be here i'm so pleased that you're here i've just heard sorry in the pre-stream we were talking about springtime and how on friday we had all of the different seasons and i just heard that the um revesh family um you that all of you kind of serve on production team here at htv apparently every time that there is three seasons of weather in one day they all get donuts oh i want to join that family anyway please wallace oh that's so good and if you are new to church if you are new to the stream would love to get connected with you so there's a qr code that you can scan right now so please scan it yes and um we've got a fantastic service in store we have the wonderful mark roper who is going to be preaching today mark i feel like i feel like he does everything mark he's a wonderful guy um he he hosts the alpha and he kind of helps oversee alpha and our connect groups and our rising generation so students youth and children and he's going to be speaking today the title is how to have character in confusion yes exciting it's a phenomenal talk so you guys are in for a treat spoiler come on um if you would love to if you would like to access this live stream in bsl british sign language then the wonderful naomi is here and you can do so by heading to hgb.org forward slash live stream yes and guys because it's spring guess what easter is soon we are both april babies and um hd has a great lineup for easter we have lots of different easter services so make sure you take a look at hgb.org forward slash easter i'm especially looking forward to the good friday workshop service we have a great band and it's just going to be such a phenomenal night so make sure you're there in person come in person even if you're tuning online yeah yeah and if you come in person you get a little flyer yeah should you get this i don't know what it is i love the house i don't know what it is but i love a flyer yes i also have you ever seen those youtube tutorials where they're like with that what gsm do you think this is at the density of paper person grab any supplier but right now before we head into the service let me pray heavenly father i thank you so much that you are here with us wherever we are watching today whether we're at home or in a cafe wherever it is and lord i pray that you come by your spirit and rest on each of us now in jesus name we pray amen [Music] because you are faithful because you are constant because the love that you have for us lasts and endures forever [Music] is [Music] forever forever god is faithful forever god is strong forever forever god is with [Music] forever let's lift our voices is don't hold back [Music] lift your voice is [Applause] is or forever [Applause] [Music] why don't we just praise god this morning and what that means is just to lift your voice and just tell him who he is say god you were great god you're faithful [Music] we worship you god you are faithful in trials and storms [Music] so we thank you this morning forever forever god is faithful forever god is strong forever god is with us forever thank you for your love jesus a savior when i feel hopeless spend my days [Music] you jesus [Music] you jesus only you can satisfy [Music] thank you [Music] and jesus my heart is free [Music] jesus jesus is we can't help but sing your praise jesus [Music] caught up caught up in jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus only [Music] it's always you jesus that we can run to jesus so is you that we can run to it's you yes it's you it's always been you jesus you're the way the truth the life that i run to yes it's no one else but you jesus only you can satisfy it's always only you [Music] hmm [Music] higher higher than the mountains that i face stronger than the power of the great you are constant through the trial you'll end the change one thing one thing remains your love your love never fails and never gives up never runs out on me your love never fails and never gives up never runs out on me your love never fails it never gives up oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] me is [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Applause] [Music] this is [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] is [Music] i just get a sense this morning that god really wants to pour out freedom here today the freedom that we know is already ours the freedom that he's already given to us but i feel like there's a truth in that reality that he wants to pour out this morning afresh on us [Music] there is freedom in this place [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus come on hilary is free down for me in this place [Music] [Applause] in jesus name that's [Applause] [Music] come on [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is oh [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] never fails [Music] never runs on me [Music] [Music] lord we thank you so much for your presence with us today that your love doesn't run out you pour your love upon us and we receive it thank you that it's here for us to to accept thank you that you love us you've poured your love out and we love you lord and we thank you we thank you for your great sacrifice on the cross that we can be forgiven set free and have this wonderful relationship with you in jesus name amen amen would you like to take a seat as we continue in prayer and let's pray for freedom freedom in ukraine freedom in afghanistan freedom is not free freedom is hard won and easily lost and we want to pray for the people of ukraine right now we pray that this will not escalate we pray for that nation that it will be freed be freed from violence and this terrible terrible war crimes against civilians and we pray that justice will come to that nation peace and freedom and for the people of afghanistan the starvation that they're suffering right now we pray lord for a humanitarian response in both those countries and others that are suffering right now lord god almighty you reign you're the sovereign lord we cry out to you for your an intervention in jesus name amen and lord we want to pray to you today for people who are struggling here in this church in the uk and other places with the prices of food going up fuel prices going up that with people struggling with their finances in every way and thank you lord that you are god our provider that you are merciful and lord we pray for peace for everybody in this situation we pray for hope for everybody and lord we ask why there is a job needed you would provide a job where there is problems for money and resources lord that you would be that provider and lord we pray that you would bring this country out of these hard times and lord that everyone would be watched over the rich would provide for the poor and that you would bless this nation in jesus name amen amen well welcome again to everyone here at hdb brompton road and welcome to all of you joining us on live stream we're thrilled to have you where one church uh with 11 services every sunday on six different sites and at all of those sites we have amazing worship and the worship team here i think are just phenomenal but sometimes you may think you know who who are these people and i want to introduce you to one or two of them who are leading the worship so so be and beth come back up would you please i'm i'm sorry i didn't give you any warning at the 9 30 service i was going to do this but um please forgive me for that and uh you've had a little bit more warning because you weren't warned at the 9 30. so so uh b just say a little bit about i think you're a pharmacist aren't you yes uh yeah i am a pharmacist um i work part-time as pharmacist actually i'm on staff here at htb as well um yeah so you've done lots of things you've been on the judge on the bbc you have you've led all sorts of you've been about leading singing at bunkie and palace for the princess trust yeah that was really good fun yes so um i was part of this tv show called all together now we had a couple of seasons and a really cool celebrity show as well um where people come out and sing and then i was one of the judges and we press the buzzer and we stand up and sing along and it was really good fun you get this kind of choir at the end of it it was really good um and then uh i also um have sang at buckingham palace which is pretty cool and when prince charles came to visit here it's like greeting an old friend wasn't it yeah yeah literally yeah you know what we're uh chummy me and the old prince um no but it was it was the second time i was meeting prince charles which was quite cool but you're now so you're now you're now part of the team here as well as being a pharmacist yes yes i am um i also still do some well used to do some music stuff where i was running some shows in london and brighton and bristol supporting women in music but that was kind of pre-pandemic well we're very privileged to have you here thank you and beth yeah yeah yeah let's get and beth beth now you are a volunteer i am a volunteer yeah and what do you do full-time uh full-time well pretty much not quite full-time anymore i'm a pediatric nurse um whereabouts are you doing that at great ormond street hospital here in london yeah thank you and um uh during lockdown you were on britain's got talent i was i got to the semi-finals of britain's scott tower i did yeah um and i wish i could share you had to google it because we're not allowed to shirt because of copyright and legals and daddy daddy dolls but if you google it you can see it on youtube uh you can see simon carl in tears uh you can see um uh yeah just yeah uh yeah i was on britain's got talent um i got asked to go on the show after i had a viral video of me singing to my patients i was a cancer nurse at the time um often when it's a bit slow i like to just sing to my patients bring in my guitar and have a great great time feel like i'm not doing any work if i'm honest but the kids love it and um the the song actually went to number 25 in the charts yeah so um i am also now a singer-songwriter i always have been but professionally i now dedicate a bit of time to that um and on the show i sang one of my own original songs and it's called you taught me what love is just give us give us a bit of it give us a hug he did this to me earlier [Applause] you will never know how much i love you and all you had to go but i'm always thinking about you if i could take your place i'd do it a thousand times now there's a u-shaped hole in my life [Applause] you you definitely should have won but if you were robbed you were robbed you should have run with that song it's amazing amazing and so your volunteer with the with the um uh but also you have volunteered with lots of things haven't you i've done a few things i've been coming to hdb for nearly eight years now my sister had worked here um before i decided to move to london and this place has been my home the whole time i've lived here and i got kind of roped in quite early on to join the worship team when i was at the student group and then from there i got roped in to come on the worship team which is honestly like my just most favorite thing to do i it's you know the way i i serve you know we are cool to financially give to the church but also to give our precious time um so yeah if you feel like you have a calling to serve in any way we're looking for more musicians on the worship team we currently have about 80 and we ideally need about a hundred we have a lot of services that happen every sunday and we need more keys and guitarists and singers and everything so if you have a calling or have been blessed in in terms of music come along sign up but there are lots of other ways you can also uh serve how else can you serve nikki i'm just i'm just looking for isaac as isaac has isaac disappeared where's he going isaac just come come again come and talk about a little bit more about the the worship here and what how people can get involved because you're one of the leaders of the team here uh isaac otherwise known as governor b isaac come and just say how can people get involved supposing someone says here they think i'd like to volunteer what do they do um firstly don't surprise people by uh um but if you would like to join the worship team come and speak to myself or anyone that you see on stage today and tell us a bit about yourself that you love to sing or play an instrument and we can share more information um and yeah we love what's the vision what's the vision of worship here the vision is to represent what london looks like and provide a diverse sound that everyone can contribute to get involved with and just share and spread the message of jesus in our town and further afield and to everyone watching online um so yeah come and be part of it brilliant thank you guys very much indeed [Applause] so that's yeah so many areas like that if you think of a hundred volunteers involved with the worship just behind the scenes and if you think production let's give a hand for production [Applause] but people helping with children uh again hundreds of people helping with children with youth with like beth helping with students helping with love your neighbor so that uh both here and around the country so that 22 million meals have been delivered since lockdown with the homeless shelter debt advice prison leavers going into prisons just so many different areas marriage course volunteers alpha volunteers connect group leaders it's just all volunteers and join a team that's the best way to get involved here is to be part of one of those teams and such fun you can see what fun they all are and what a great people it is to be to be with so praying giving and and thank you all so much for your amazing generosity and as you can see there is so much going on and this this is what your giving goes to um love your neighbor as well as all the sort of alpha staff students youth children um everything else that we do here which is pretty much extraordinary what goes on in one week extraordinary what goes on um refugees helping with people all over the six sites so it is extraordinary but so just thank you so much your giving makes all this possible and we are so grateful to you and the best way you'll see the the co carry up on the website but the best way is regular monthly giving that's how people and i've given for the last i don't know how many years uh but there are literally well there are almost 2 000 individuals and families who give varying amounts averages are over around 200 pounds a month and that's what makes possible all that you see today all that you see all that you're seeing online and if you're watching online you can be involved in this as well you can be involved by praying by serving and by giving and everyone has a part to play easter is coming up how exciting is that and you'll either have one of these on your chairs or be handed this as you go out and it's just all the services that are coming up and there's monday thursday there's two on good friday there's the morning more sort of reflective one and then as an evening worship night um that's down at answer square and then of course easter days across the site lots of fun lots of celebration because jesus will celebrate jesus has risen from the dead so that jesus is alive he is alive bring your friends bring everybody it's going to be a party and it'll be on live stream on good friday service will be on live stream and easter sunday will be on live stream so we'd love you to join us but better still be in the room look this place is absolutely rampant uh and there are 11 services every sunday to which you are warmly invited to be in the room our speaker today is mark roper and um yeah thanks for the whoops mark is um well he was uh an anesthetist a registered anesthetist in birmingham before he felt called to ordination and actually he did his training at the same time he was still an anaesthetist so he would do theology on monday and back in the operating theater on tuesday um but in the morning yes and um actually he went back during covid to the nightingale hospital so he is our neighbor he lives absolutely next door to the vicarage it's very useful to have a doctor there and in fact it's two doctors because his wife joe is also a doctor she's um an obstetrician gynecologist so we're really well looked after in every way and um they have three children they've got twins sam and grace and a little girl of lucy who is about 18 months and he also looks after the alpha here the running the alpha courses with his team and the connect groups and he's also down at once square he's quite a busy man actually are down at once square doing the the 4 30 6 30 he's the pastor down there so you should feel in very safe hands you've got a registrar anesthetist you've had a pediatric nurse and you've got a pharmacist all looking after you today so would you give a very warm welcome to the reverend mark ropa [Applause] wow wow what an introduction um yeah don't come to me for medical advice joe roper's just there um she's really really keen um we're in len and so we're exploring um together some of the some of the narratives of jesus's um last few days last few hours um before the cross and this morning we are in the garden of gethsemane we're in matthew chapter 26 verse 36 to 46 and i'd love you if you have a bible with you you're on your phone get it out you'll be on the screen as well and i'm going to read it for us all so from verse 36 then jesus went with his disciples to a place called gethsemane and he said to them sit here while i go over there and pray he took peter and the sons of zebedee along with him and he began to be sorrowful and troubled then he said to them my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death stay here and keep watch for me going a little farther he fell with his face to the ground and prayed my father if it is possible may this cup be taken from me yet not as i will but as you will then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour he asked peter watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak he went away a second time and prayed my father if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless i drink it may your will be done when he came back he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy so he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time saying the same thing then he returned to the disciples and said to them are you still sleeping and resting look the hour has come and the son of man is delivered into the hands of sinners rise let's go here comes my betrayer i want to talk to you this morning about having confu about having character in confusion about having character in confusion and my wife joe's uncle when he was five years old on a family holiday up in northumberland lost one of his teeth and so he went to his father joe's grandpa and i said i've lost my tooth so he's like i'll pop it under your pillow and so he did that and grandpa goes in later in the evening and to what he thinks is joe's uncle's room but it turns out there's been a bit of moving around of rooms and he's in someone else's room and so he goes in and he slides his hand under the pillow expecting to meet a tooth and and instead he meets a gun and and so in this moment like he's just overwhelmed with this like confusion and uncertainty there's so many things going on in his mind like is he's my five-year-old son like the owner of a gun and or more likely i'm not in his room and this could end badly and and then sort of answers start to come because someone rolls over in bed it's clearly not a five-year-old in the bed and you know so in the darkness looks great at him and goes who are you and grandpa again confused uncertain um what do i say um i say thanks for a bit and then goes i'm the tooth fairy and it's a similar state of confusion and uncertainty that we meet all of the characters in this story this morning jesus and his disciples they're in this place of confusion and uncertainty and anxiety and trauma and mess and maybe this is something that you're feeling this morning this confusion this uncertainty there's some corporate confusion and uncertainty that's going on with us all at the moment with the war in ukraine which is you know open for many of us me included opened up our eyes to the reality of war across the globe there's a financial crisis which is impacting pretty much everybody there's an environment that's continuing to fail and there's just so many in so many different forms of injustice going on in the world but there are also more precise things you know maybe you've lost your job maybe you're struggling with ill health maybe you're worried about your family are you in a place of confusion and uncertainty this morning and i think this passage tells us what jesus's plan for us is in those seasons of confusion and uncertainty i think this passage tells us what jesus wants us to do it shows us how he wants us to do it and then it tells us later why we should so firstly the what he wants us to pay attention i and the other day and i don't know if you've ever done this but the other day i um was making a pasta dish um for dinner and too late on in the process i had this idea you know it will go great with this pasta dish that's nearly finished cooking and that frozen garlic bread that takes 25 minutes to cook so i you know get out the garlic bread pop it in the oven and and serve up the pasta dish sit down can anyone guess what happened next yes you've all worked it out and you just crack on and then slowly you start to smell like charred garlic bread and you're just like i've done it again and so like you run to the thing before the smoke alarm goes off and you get it out and it was like properly you know properly destroyed so i i then doubled down on my mistake so even though we're nearly finished the pasta i'm going to i'm going to get some adequately cooked garlic bread so i went and put it in again did the exact same thing again like halfway through pudding you know the smell starts wafting over you just like how it's happened again and after the 9 30 pips was like i wouldn't want you doing one of my anaesthetics and i did pay more attention when i was doing the anesthetizing promise um i'm really bad at paying attention in moments like that and what jesus is calling us to in this passage in fact he gives it as a direct command to his disciples is to pay attention he says watch and pray walk and pray and quite often the assumption when we read this passage he's asking them to watch and pray for him you know to watch out for stuff because bad people are coming or to pray for me because i've got a bad time coming up but actually if we read it verse 38 watch with me verse 40 watch with me but verse 41 he says why he wants us to do that watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation in this greek word for what gregorio it's really active it's not this passive sort of i watch the world go by while i'm sat at a cafe by the road or i you know i watch a series on netflix it's it's it's active you know it sort of translates as like being awake in the night being vigilant it it infers that there's something coming at you that you need to be expectant and aware is going to come and so this context of confusion and uncertainty which we can't deny the disciples are in jesus is saying this is the place where you're going to struggle this is the place where temptation is going to get you this is a place where those things that you find hard you're going to find them the most hard i know that this is true for my life i wonder if it is for you the command of jesus is to watch and pray to be alert to be awake to be vigilant and so where do we this morning where do we need to watch and pray what are the things that we need to be vigilant for and what does it look like for you to fall asleep like the disciples fell asleep what are the places that you go to or the things that you do maybe it's you know a netflix binge maybe it's eating too much food maybe it's not eating enough food maybe it's getting lost on social media maybe it's drinking too much alcohol maybe it's some of the more sinister things you can get lost in on the internet i asked joe um to describe what i do when i struggle with stuff and she said very helpfully she's like mark you this is so embarrassing um but you know it's a safe space mark you microwave chicken nuggets you eat far too many packs of crisps you drink diet coke and you just watch youtube forever so there we go that's that's me so that's the what that we're supposed to be doing we're supposed to watch and pray and then how are we supposed to do this how are we supposed to do this so in verse 37 and verse 38 it describes the state that jesus is in it says he began to be sorrowful jesus says my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death and just as an aside like isn't it that jesus loves you this much this is the creator of the universe in human form who was part of the process of creating humans themselves who is saying i am overcome to the point of death is announcing he's at capacity and they the language suggests that it's that it was this overwhelming surge it wasn't just it's been getting harder and harder it's like all at once i feel overwhelmed with sadness which is so fascinating because that's how so many people that i've met who've struggled with depression or grief or severe anxiety have said that that's how it feels there's this stuff welling up inside that suddenly becomes debilitating and that's the language that jesus uses to describe how he feels in the garden i i'm fairly good in a crisis and i like often quite enjoyed as an anesthetist going down um to a e and to help look after the really sick people when they came in as an emergency um but i remember once when there was it was when our twins and we're two years old i remember once when there was a two-year-old with breathing difficulties who came in and we but we worked on them for like you know two or three hours and and finally a sort of team from another hospital and came and picked them up and took them to a children's hospital and it had been really intense and i just remember stepping out of that for a moment and i completely experienced what this passage is talking about just this overwhelming grief that came from nowhere this overwhelming sadness that came from nowhere and felt completely debilitating and i wonder if if there's any of you that have ever felt like that or maybe even you've come in here this morning and that's how you feel today jesus gives us a model in how he reacts to show us how we can engage with these times so the first thing he does is to gather close friends verse 37 he took peter and the two sons of zebedee along with him so he's got these three guys he's particularly close to the last time they went on a prayer trip it was the exact opposite to what they're doing now they went up to a mountain and jesus was transfigured before him which just means he he shone as bright as light and the voice of the father came down and said this is my this is my son whom i love and now they're in the exact opposite place but it's the same four people they're his guys they're the people who he relies on for emotional support i can tell you five people in my life who i can go to and whether and even if i'm the most tired i've ever been i can sit with them in silence and i will feel better afterwards and i wonder who are your people i wonder who are your people who you go to when you really need them and if you're in this place of confusion or uncertainty or crisis at the moment are you using those people that god has given you and on the other hand are there people who you're a peter james and a john t are there people who god has put you in their lives and sometimes and i'm the worst at this sometimes when life gets busy or everything becomes a bit uncertain and confusing and messy i'm so bad at keeping in contact with the people who really need me is there someone who needs you at the moment that maybe you even need to send a text to before you leave church this morning you need to reach out to who are the people in your life and who are the people who you're there for but also there's a corporate thing as well like we need each other maybe you feel on the edges of church and maybe this morning you need to before you leave chat to one of the team and join a group join a team or maybe and this and this is just me personally like the single best thing you can do at htb to feel part of communities to come along to focus when we started htb three years ago and we knew about three people mainly because i was related to two of them and and we went to focus we had the most amazing four days and we literally came back with a hundred close friends like if you're feeling on the edge please please sign up to focus please come and join us we are all going and we love you to come so first thing that jesus does is he gathers close friends second thing that jesus does is he prays real prayers in verse 39 verse 14 verse 39 verse 42 verse 44 he prays the same prayer three times i'm finding this really really hard father but if you want me to do this i will do here so he's real he's authentic he's passionate we read in some of the parallel passages that he that he cried you know he's he's he's raw he's not trying to pray in a certain way he's not he's not religious about it he's not prescriptive about it he's honest he's real he could even be seen as you know being being angry or coming from a place of doubt and the fact that he the fact that he prays again and again and again just shows his humanity because he probably prayed maybe god gave him some peace or some hope and then he goes back maybe disappointed by how his disciples have behaved and then he needs to pray again so we get this model of praying prayers that are both real but also repeated pray persistent prayers what does it look like for you to pray passionate real articular authentic prayers to god maybe you feel that you need to pray in a in a certain way you need to say certain things that's actually all god wants is your authentic passionate self if you feel overcome with emotion and anger he wants that he doesn't want you to phrase it in a in a nice way he wants the real you one of one of my the things that's impacted me the most and my wife joe when she um when she prays she finds it helpful to slow her mind down to write prayers out in a prayer journal and there are some times in our life where it's been hard where we've been in seasons of confusion or uncertainty or crisis and she's been really angry and she's written down prayers that i promise you you can see the imprint of those prayers like 10 15 pages through the book and i love that i love that that she's been able to do that with god not just hidden away until things get better tim keller says this prayer there is his often draining even in agony is in the long term the greatest source of power that is possible is there anything if we're being really honest is there anything that you need to be really real with god about at the moment do you need to get passionate in your prayers so he gathers friends he prays real prayers and then he's quick to forgive he's quick to forgive we get these three moments interspersed with his three repeated prayers where he asks the disciples to watch and pray or he asked his three to watch and pray and then he comes back and they're asleep and it's amazing what happens because he gives very clear feedback he says i am disappointed i am upset this hasn't been great but then he moves on he asks him to do the same thing again he doesn't give up he just oh just give up then just move on you know and then the third time he says well you've mucked up twice and i'm you know off but we're going to go on to the next thing together i'm not going to go off by myself and i just love that model of jesus who who is who is not afraid to speak authentically and honestly to those around him but is also super quick to forgive and to restore i know for me that i'm so good at burning those who have chosen and desired to be proximate to me when i'm struggling with stuff i'm so quick to tell them that they could have done something better or could have you know done something in a different way so the model we get from jesus is feedback and then forgiveness he's quick to forgive so you've got close friends real prayer quick to forgive is the model that jesus gives us in these seasons of confusion and then the ten verses that we haven't read what comes next when jesus gets arrested we then get given an egg we get given an explanation an example of why we should behave in this way of why we should behave in this way and what i think it shows us is that when we have character in the confusion it grows composure in the crisis character and confusion results in composure in the crisis and at the end of medical school i was lucky enough to go and work in uganda for for a short amount of time and i met the most remarkable and british and gp out there who 20 years earlier had worked as the medical director of this hospital and it was on the um uganda rwanda border and there were these huge big mountains and every few months and some rebels from the neighboring country would come over the mountain and they would loot the town and they would often leave the hospital compound alone because there were quite a few westerners there and they didn't you know they knew that would just sort of raise tensions and so they they always left that but they went around the village do not do not very nice things and every time this would happen the community in the medical compound like where they all lived they would gather together and they would do what jesus says to do they would watch and pray they would hear you know the occasional gunshot the occasional scream but they would watch and they would pray they would pray for the people that they knew in the village and then one time this fellow and he got a phone call and he said you need to come to the hospital right now and so he's there with his you know the whole community but particularly his family and his three kids and he says bye and walks the sort of 200 meters across the road and to the hospital and he goes into the operating system there's this guy lying on the theater table and and he's very clearly been stabbed in the back right through his spine um and um there are ten armed rebels pointing their guns at him and they go the sort of head one says you make him walk right now or we're going to shoot you and medically he knew that that was not something that was going to happen at least in that moment and so he was just like okay this is a this is a crisis this is this is not great um and because he had sown character in the confusion because in that season beforehand they've been watching and praying he had this huge surge of peace that just overwhelmed him even though there were 10 people in this tiny operating theater pointing guns at him asking him to do a medically ridiculous and impossible thing and he remembered in the back of his mind he had this picture of this sign at the front of the hospital which said don't bring any guns into the hospital which i always remember because i thought we don't have those in england um and he said i'm not going to do anything for your friend until you get your guns out of my hospital and when he told me this he remembered there were like three of his staff behind him like why have you said that no and they stared at him for about 30 seconds and then they just walked out firing their guns in the air his wife thought he'd been shot because they were they were just firing their guns in the air as they walked out and just left this guy and they did everything that they could for him in that in that moment but because he had shown character in the confusion because he had sewn with watching and praying in his own garden when it came to crisis he was composed when he came to the crisis he was composed and this is what we see in the next 10 verses and we haven't read them but i'm going to summarize them for you so this gang comes to arrest jesus they're headed up by judas and some of the high priests and jesus is calm and composed he's loving towards cudas who betrays him with a kiss the disciples are the exact opposite they escalate they pull out their swords one of them chops off the air of one of the soldiers and jesus immediately condemns this violence and we read in the parallel passage in luke that he actually supernaturally heals the ear and so we've got this group who didn't so with watching and praying in the garden who react in a certain way and we've got a jesus who showed character during the season of confusion and uncertainty with watching and praying who behave in a completely different way so whereas jesus showed de-escalation and anti-violence the disciples escalated the situation where jesus showed healing the disciples showed violence where jesus showed love the disciples showed fear when jesus showed calm patient controlled endurance the disciples as it says in the last verse deserted and fled and how do you if you're really honest how do you react in a crisis at the moment when stuff gets real whether it's at work or at home or family and an argument breaks out or tensions rise up or maybe it's something even bigger and more significant than that when stuff happens how do you react because this is actually so diagnostic to what we you know to how we're actually feeling to how we're doing in our walk with god if we if we trend towards escalation and violence and fear and desertion and abandonment then perhaps we need to put in some more work in the garden perhaps we need to do those things of gathering our friends and praying real prayers and showing grace to those people around us but the calling this morning is clear it's to de-escalation it's to healing it's to love and it's to endurance are those thing are those not things that our world needs at the moment what would it look like if our world leaders and those in charge chose de-escalation instead of violence shows healing and love and endurance but this isn't just a passive thing that we hope other people do this is a calling this is an example by jesus which is a calling to us for us all to do right now in any season that we're in whether we're in a season of confusion or uncertainty whether we're in a profound crisis right now the calling is for us to behave like this and church what would it look like if we did that what would it look like if we held out this example of jesus in the in the places and the spaces where we live and work and do family but what would it look like to a world which is so often choosing violence and escalation and fear and i just know for certain that there's no way that we can achieve that calling by ourselves we need to follow the example of jesus but in the power of the holy spirit so i would love us to stand and we're just going to we're just going to lean into god and listen ask him to fill us full of his holy spirit and i'd love you just to maybe physically do whatever it is that you need to do to to say to god i'm i'm up for responding to this this morning i'm up for meeting with you this morning and if you're at home watching this online then i encourage you to do the same it's so easy to just to just sit and do the passive watching do the active vigilant watching why don't you stand up and why don't you put your hands out as well we're going to pray that prayer that we do across all of our 11 services every week at htb we're going to pray come holy spirit so holy spirit would you would you come and fall on your church right now come holy spirit i think there are some specific people that god particularly wants to meet within the room and on and online but but before we do this if if you're in a season of confusion or uncertainty or or a season of crisis we don't want to beat around the bush we want to pray to and i believe the holy spirit wants to meet you and today before you do anything else guys do you just want to come and stand at the front because i believe god god wants to meet with you this morning god we want to pray for you you want to pray for hope in those situations and this just involves you being being really brave if you can just ideally down the middle just just come and stand stand here thank you once a few come more will guys on the balconies you might have to push past a few people if you've got that feeling in your in your stomach that this is for you that's the holy spirit please do come and guys if you can just filter around into here so there's space for everyone come right to the front be brave on the balconies guys if you need to if you need to walk just do i think there are a couple of people who've maybe got some um some news that's either pushed them into a place of like crisis or confusion in the last in the last week maybe it's something to do and with a member of your your family i think god really wants to meet with you this morning i think there's a couple of people who um they can only describe it as like their head is just full of a dense thick fog you maybe can't even process you're finding normal things just normal everyday things just really difficult we'd love to pray with you if that's you i think there are one or two who you've been in you've been in the garden crying out to god for one particular thing for a really long time and god wants to give you hope this morning if you if you feel that you've lost hope that you've lost hope we would love to pray for you because i think god wants to release hope afresh over you this morning i'd love to encourage you just uh that i think that the middle is getting blocked if you could either come around the sides or make space for people who are coming forward and we're going to need more people if you are an alpha host or helper or a connect group leader or if you're part of the acc or on the staff and you're willing to come and pray for lots of people here here at the front if you come out come round across to the side here please there's plenty of space on my left and on my right and if you're at home uh watching this or watching this on live stream don't miss this opportunity the holy spirit can reach you right where you are in your home and lord i pray for each person right now who's receiving here at the front or around this church you don't have to be at the front some people have come to the front but other people you're feeling in your heart lord i need to encounter you today and you can encounter jesus is alive we don't have to wait easter we celebrate the resurrection but we don't have to wait to easter to know that jesus is alive and he's with you right now wherever you are up in the balcony on another site or watching this on live stream and he's wanting to meet with you to encounter you just as he was with those disciples in the garden he's with you right now he loves you for some of you he's bringing healing some of you is just bringing peace in the middle of a middle of a storm that you're in right now you're confused you're you're having you're you're in in a bit of a crisis because of a job or a health issue or a family member and the spirit of god wants to come and bring his peace to you his peace his calm his compassion his love the holy spirit is filling you right now believe right now ask and you will receive we need the holy spirit to give us that peace the wisdom the love the way to handle each situation like that doctor did in the hospital like jesus did in the garden of gethsemane receive now the spirit of god spirit of wisdom and love and peace we're going to continue to pray for he people here at the front and uh we're gonna worship and i encourage you in your homes uh wherever you're meeting let's allow the spirit of god to minister to you as we worship together [Music] so [Music] how great the castle that lay between us how high the mountain i could not collide in desperation i turned to heaven [Music] your loving kindness tore [Applause] the work is finished the end is written jesus christ [Music] who could imagine so great a mercy the god of ages stepped down from glory [Music] [Applause] the cross is [Music] [Applause] jesus forever [Applause] [Music] your [Music] declare the [Music] begin to breathe is hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] lord we [Music] lord we thank you so much for what you're doing right now right across this church and at home as people are watching this some people live and some people maybe days later or a week later but the holy spirit is at work in your life and he wants to bless you the just before the 9th the 9 30 service um two of our grand we won't weren't expecting but two of our grandchildren were here at the front and when they saw us they ran and jumped into our arms and we came up to the front leading the service with uh i had a four-year-old pips had a one and a half year old in her arms and they nestled their head between our shoulders and i'd read a verse this morning in deuteronomy says which says that the one the lord loves rests secure between his shoulders and i want all of you to experience that blessing today the blessing of resting secure between god's shoulders that he picks you up wherever you are however confused you are however uncertain the times are and he holds you in his arms so that you can rest secure between his shoulders and the blessing the words of the blessing are not a formula they are power power in your life anointing in your life and i pray god's blessing on you now god's blessing on your home god's blessing on your family on your friends on your relationships god's blessing on your workplace god's blessing on your health and your finances [Music] god's blessing on your prayer life god's blessing on everything you turn your hand to the blessing of god the almighty god the father the son the holy spirit be upon you and remain with you always amen oh man what an encouraging um service and such an amazing time of worship as well together um if anything throughout the service you're thinking i'd love someone to pray with me for that then we have a fantastic team that would love to pray with you and you can access that prayer by heading to http.org forward slash live stream prayer and the team would love to pray with you um alternatively if throughout the week you're thinking something happens and you're like oh just i just want someone to pray with me then we have an inbox an email um prayer hdb.org and there's always people checking that and um yeah people can be praying with you there too yeah and also if you are here for the first time would love to get connected with you if you go to um the qr code if you scan it right now or take you up to a sign up page where someone on t will message you and also if you weren't here earlier my name is wale hi i'm jess i'm so pleased that you've joined us yeah you joined throughout the service and you're like what is going on hello we're so pleased that you're here and we've got some fun stuff coming up in the life of htb it's almost easter i'm personally slightly selfishly excited for easter because it means that lent is over and i can have coffee again wow what's your favorite coffee just a black americano or like a double espresso something like one straw about white yeah um but easter we've got so many services coming up we have these um little flies as well on the back if you've ever come to one of our services you might see one of these if you head to hdb.org forward easter you can find out all of the services we've got on over this easter period and why didn't you come along in person to some of those as well yes and we also have focus coming up soon which is the 28th to the 31st of july and it's going to be my first time out focus i've heard you know remus i've heard good stories and so i'm really excited to go i'm happy to celebrate we're on a new site new work show ground it's going to be phenomenal so make sure you sign up we're going to be there are you going to be there i'm absolutely going to be there i'm going to be there saying i'm really biased because i'm one of the youth pastors there hdb so i think the youth venue is going to be the best place to be i'm going to sneak in there yes yeah focus is for everyone yeah exciting um we've had a fantastic week i've enjoyed this week um why don't you subscribe to our channel as well and hit the bell and you can be notified every time we go live um but we will be back same time same place next week walla it's been so fantastic having you oh thank you my first time i hope i did well have an amazing week and we will see you all next week [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: HTB Church

Views: 15,278

Keywords: Nicky Gumbel, Nicky Gumble, Alpha, Sunday Service, Worship, prayer, Christian Music, Online Church, Church, Church Online, London, UK, Love Christmas, Love Your Neighbour, Church Planting, church live stream, church live, brompton, 2022 Sermon, Preaching, Archie Coates, HTB Church, Church Revitalisation, Knightsbridge, Live Band, Church of England, C of E Church, Anglican, Episcopal, faith, hope, love, peace, joy, Jesus, is there more to life, God, Spirituality, meaning of life, htb

Id: 1JGeFJuS3vo

Length: 85min 59sec (5159 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 03 2022