Stick With The Plan - LIFECENTRAL MIDWEEK

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to life central midweek it is so good to connect with you wherever you are and as you can see i am on my own on the seti tonight alison should have been here with me and she's not here i wonder whether you've got a a suggestion of why she's not here tonight maybe you want to put in the chat uh what your best suggestion is why she's not here maybe you think she's got her pre-locked down hair appointment all geared up for tonight maybe she's just fed up of sitting next to me on this settee every month or i don't know what reason maybe you want to put a suggestion in there i'm sure there'll be some of you with some ideas about why she's not here tonight actually as you're putting those suggestions in she's not here tonight because she's not very well ah anyway when i got back uh from church tea time uh she's just come down with a migraine so she's not here with us but she she wants to send her love to you so i'm here on my lonesome tonight but i'm not only on my own tonight because simon woodward our associate pastor he is going to be speaking a little bit later and we've also got an interview with a connect group over in hagley and we are interviewing chris bradley who is an elder or who was an elder who has just stepped off eldership during this season and we're gonna chat to chris and to thank god and to thank him uh for all of his service to us as a church over the last 17 years so guys i don't know how you're feeling right now on the 3rd of november yes it is u.s presidential election day and we will be praying into that in a moment as well it is also of course two days away from up another lockdown and i don't know about you but as we head into another lockdown how are you how are you going to come out of this lockdown you know we've been through one and we were emerging and now we're going through another one and i saw something on social media this week that says you basically got four options of how you're going to emerge from this lockdown you're going to come out either a monk a hunk a chunk or a drunk so i want you to suggest i want you to put in the chat no i don't because that's going to embarrass some of you okay but i just thought that was quite funny really you know and i thought about which of those four i'm definitely not going to be a monk no i'm joking i'm going to move on all right i don't know how you're going to come out of this lockdown i don't know how i'm going to be at this but i do know one thing we will come out of it stronger together we will come out of it stronger together and we're going to speak a little bit into that uh tonight and i don't know i know it's like we're in a pandemic situation we again on the news tonight uh terrorism alert u.s elections you know unrest political unrest and you know i know many of you have asked me this question about uh leadership and you say you some of you said to me you never speak out you know against some of our leadership you know and you never really challenge them can i just tell you i absolutely do but i do it privately and i do it respectfully and i don't know about you but i'm sensing right now that there is such a growing distrust around leaders across our world and that's beginning to permeate into how we're handling our emotions and how we're talking to and about one another and guys if you are a follower of jesus whatever happens in the white house whatever happens in number 10 downing street and we pray into that and we speak into that and we're interested in all of that but i tell you what whatever happens in those two houses won't affect who is in control of this world and that's god and so what i want to say to you guys we're going to pray tonight for leaders we're going to pray into some of the situations around in our world right now but we're going to begin we're going to begin by lifting up our eyes we're going to lift up our eyes and you know the start of lockdown the first lockdown back in march you know dan introduced a song to us and we're going to sing that song in a moment but before we do that speaking of dan on sunday just gone okay dan came and led us magnificently in worship again and yet for him and amber personally it was such a difficult weekend many of you know that they had a wedding plan for this coming saturday and because of the government announcement the saturday just gone it looked like the wedding wasn't happening and actually on sunday we didn't think it was happening but it is happening and it's happening tomorrow wednesday at 12 30 here in our building and i want to pay a massive tribute to dan anta amber these are young guy and girl here who love god who love this church and this has been an incredibly difficult journey for them as it has for many other couples but the way they've led uh through this situation and served has been absolutely brilliant so what i'd love you to do right now guys in the chat whether you're on youtube or facebook is just just write a message to dan and amber would you do that just just write a message right now just uh congratulations and we're with you we're praying for you and if you're around 12 30 tomorrow or or you can get a lunch break at 12 30 tomorrow you can watch it because we're gonna live stream the wedding from here on youtube so if you uh are on social media with dan or amber they will place that uh youtube link up there and you can click on that at 12 30 tomorrow and you can take part in their ceremony as well or be virtually okay but dan introduced this amazing song to us at the start of lockdown and it was it's called razor hallelujah and it just talks about the fact that when you're in the middle of the storm when you're in the middle of the difficulty when you're in the middle of the situation we've got to look up that's the time to really worship god and i think you know we haven't sang that song for a bit maybe we thought we were coming out of the storm and maybe right now we think actually we're going back into it well if we are going back into it what was true in march is still true now god is with us and god is here in the middle of the storm and i want to encourage you guys right where you are don't let what's wrong with the world stop you from worshiping what's right with god let's lift up our voices you can do that wherever you are and let's worship together and let's raise a hallelujah let's worship [Music] [Music] [Music] hallelujah my weapon is wherever you are we sing together [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] louder we'll sing a little louder oh [Applause] yes [Applause] is [Music] i'm [Music] is [Music] [Music] is me [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] ashes [Music] the the king is alive the king is alive and you know on this night as we're preparing and i know the uh the us is still at the polls i guess and all of that and and we've got all the stuff that's going on preparing for lockdown and everything else is going on in europe and around the world let's just take a moment tonight guys just to lift up our eyes okay let's take a moment to pray for our world right now can we do that right wherever you are right wherever you are you just begin to pray just begin to pray and i know it might seem a bit strange for you maybe maybe you're on your own uh in the house there or maybe you you're together or you're with your family or whatever but but just pray and even feel through the technology that actually god listens to that you know jesus says where two or three come together in my name i'm there in the midst and i don't think that means that you have to be in a geographical space i think god's bigger than that so let's pray right now and i'll maybe just guide us through but but you pray wherever you are so let's pray and let's begin to pray right now maybe let's pray for the u.s right now let's pray i was speaking to american pastors today i was on a on a conference with lots of others and and one of them said to me you know what more than anything else i'm praying that that there will be some clarity around the decision because there's so much civil unrest in the u.s there's so much division that if it's a really tight election the big concern is that is that that division that is there in that nation will carry on and get even deeper so we want to pray for some healing in the united states and we want to pray that god would have his way so why don't we pray into that right now jesus we just come to you and lord it's so difficult to know how to pray for big issues like this politically but god we just pray for your presence we pray lord that whatever happens in the polling stations we pray that it would somehow bring greater unity in that nation we know how important that nation is on the world stage but god we also know that you are still in control so god we pray i pray for the church in america as well so much challenge right now feel so divided right or left democrat or republican and god we pray that there would be a coming together not a pulling apart and jesus we pray that for our own nation as well we pray that lord where there is so much distrust towards leaders right now there's so much uncertainty towards leaders right now god we pray that god that you would move through that we pray where there is unrest we pray where there is frustration where there is anger where there is fear god we pray into this whole terrorism alert that we've just gone into now we pray for what happened in vienna just last night or just today even and pray for what happened in france and and lord we pray for europe right now as well and we pray jesus that in this season of shaking we think of earthquakes and there's a typhoons and god it seems that we're almost in these kind of really turbulent days and lord we just pray that god your presence would be known and lord in the middle of all this god we look up we look up we look to you jesus thank you lord shikaraba cindy thank you lord amen guys you know as we head uh into uh this lockdown coming up again you know we've been here before and i have to say guys as a church you know we're thriving in so many ways you know i don't want to downplay the difficulty um that some of you are experiencing right now in fact i had a text just tea time from someone who's been made redundant just today and we recognize that there's some really difficult stuff going on for you right now and what's really important as we go into another lockdown now that it's the winter and it's coming up towards christmas is that we need to do two things we need to support people really really well and we want to support people especially those who are most vulnerable and many of you remember back in march april uh we gave out these cards hello uh it just says if you're self-isolating we can help we've got literally hundreds of these that we had printed in the first lockdown and these are available now if you guys want to take them distribute them around your streets in shops what have you just give them out to friends there's a phone number on there we're going to be manning that phone in office hours and it will go on to an answer machine and we'll respond and so again we can help by picking up shopping by posting mail by supporting people uh by phoning them so these hello cards are really going to be important uh to try and help support people but the other thing we want to do is many of you out there you are working on the front line of health and social care and alice and my wife uh leads a thing called under pressure there's around 50 people who are connecting uh in that and working in health and social care and again if that's you and you haven't connected if you go to our website lifecentralchurch.org uk and look for the the portal uh mental health and well-being if you go in there and scroll down then you can sign up for under pressure and when you sign up what will happen is you'll just get the occasional email with some resources and some encouragement and then every four to six weeks there's a zoom link sent out and whoever's not on shift or whoever's available they just join together on that zoom core as a way of supporting one another and i know for those of you out there you know winter is always a pressurized time for you especially in hospitals um and in the healthcare system this year unlike any other it's even worse and so we really want to do all we can to stand with you and to support with you but you know the other thing as well as supporting people it's really important guys that we stay connected it's really important we stay connected through this season and you know physical distancing you know so we use this phrase social distancing but actually what we're doing is we are physically distancing but that doesn't mean we are socially isolating we have to be apart right now because of the infection rate but we don't have to be disconnected it's so important that we connect with each other and thank you for those of you that have signed up for the lifecentral online community which is on facebook all you do is to go onto facebook and um go on to where the group is on our page and request to join there's two simple questions that you'll need to ask okay answer and then we'll let you in now if you've been invited by somebody else we can't let you in until you actually invite yourself okay and that's you need to answer those questions and then we can let you in there's already nearly 350 people in that online community and over the next few weeks we're going to be dropping more content and conversation and discipleship and connection through that that that facebook group but one of the main ways that we stay connected is through our connect groups and so i am going to go out i'm not going to go out i'm going to go across to the screen right now and you are going to meet one of our connect groups who are in hagley and hopefully someone's going to talk into my ear right now and tell me we are good to go yes we are good to go so let's give us a wave and welcome the connect group if you can hear me guys just give us a wave brilliant fantastic so we've got um this is just some of the connect group over in hagley and i just want to ask linda if i could start with you could you how has the connect group helped you how has it helped you through this season do you want to just share that with us yeah it's it's been one of the the biggest helps i have to say um after the the novelty of the lockdown wore off and you weren't seeing people it was the contact although not physical it was the contact of seeing people and being able to talk to them and then that that developed it developed we we are a wonderful group leon honestly um and it's it's the inspiration the comfort the strength and the encouragement of these people in this connect group it kept me sane honestly i believe you i believe you're saying [Laughter] we we pray for each other we the prayer support is amazing we're all living through i think every single one of us in our connect group has had things outside of lockdown going on sure and being able the minute something happens to be able to connect with my group and just say i need prayer they are prayer warriors believe me that is so good you will you just ask any of them and i think the prayer support has been just incredible and apart from that we have fun we make each other laugh we lift each other's spirits and i i'm getting i'm filling up now because honestly i don't know where i would have been during this lockdown period without them they have been a wonderful support and i i just love every single one of them some of them i haven't even met wow i know them and i know their hearts and they show it's the christ-like behavior even through these awful times that they encourage me to be more christ-like brilliant and they show me what to do right linda that's amazing and you just said something really important there as well about that you you love these people and you haven't actually met some of them and again that's that thing physical distancing doesn't have to mean social distancing which is so good graham if i can come to you graeme you you've joined the church during this season and that's so brilliant how is the connect group what's the connect group been for you uh as a new person joining the church how's it been for you well i i was introduced to life central church when uh first online service i've watched all the online services wow and i thought i'd like to go deeper into following jesus so i i watched the alpha worked on the alpha course should i say wow and the other and the other courses and now i'm part of this which really is a loving connect group i've really been lucky to be able to join this group and i've also been able to go to five live services before they've locked me down again yeah and isolated me so at least i have got to go to some live services so great and that has really been a big help to me graham that is so amazing you know that you you've you know started following jesus through this season and and i know you you've never been to our service but but when we opened the doors on the the first sunday in october you were the first guy in the room and you've been every week since that's so amazing oh wow thank you so much for sharing that sarah if i come to you how is the connect group obviously you are obviously you know you have a lot of fun together and you support each other and you pray with each other which is so important how does the connect group help you as people stay outward focused as well and you know and impact the community around you well i think everybody in the group has started with their family by reaching out to their family so we've had um a lot of prayer for the individual needs from from death to birth to new life yeah we've had everything going on so we've families joining the alpha so that's wonderful new babies being born that need to be prayed for and it's the witness of what's been going on by the support that's been behind each person that's kind of reached into the community because people have seen that that people haven't been treated in the difficult circumstances that they found themselves that they've they've still been able to stand and they're still being able to thank god and that's been just amazing to see god's miracle working in each person's family to start with and then their neighbors and then the people the strangers they beat linda is a good one for meeting people and starting conversations and asking us to pray and we put prayer as the first thing we do so we pray we start talking about stuff so that we're bringing to god all the people that we're meeting and the needs that we see before we start chatting about other things that's so good wow thank you guys joe i know this is not just the the only connect group that's been strong through the season in hagley and what are you what have you been seeing through connect groups during this season yeah i mean the connect groups in hagley um have been and are consistently strong you know both in their kind of pastoral support but also consistently um looking outwards you know either praying for friends family we have a phrase in hagley where we call somebody a virtual in prayer so this person is not part of our physical connect groups but we count them as part of our kind of people that we're praying consistently for and that's something that we've done really to keep us outward focused and we've also created a little um card that we send from the connect groups uh when we know somebody's in need and we've got a personal connection we kind of write a little card from our connect groups just saying look we're here for you how can we help you we're thinking and praying for you um and some of the connect groups have even gone litter picking you know even really recently in hagley because that was considered to be a real issue by some of the people in hagley so we've gone out on a wednesday night and just been little picking around the park you know we so i i connect groups of very much people who want to love and support one another but also be those people who are looking outward and you know looking at how to support and and demonstrate the love of god in in the community great that's so good i love that the vips there you know the virtual in prayer and maybe other connect groups can pick that kind of idea up as well and guys thank you so much and i think i know as we go into another lockdown and then head to christmas uh there's gonna be loads of great opportunities for us to not just connect with each other but also to to express practically the love of god to our communities as well and we're excited about that guys thank you so much for joining us tonight and uh god bless you guys take care take care brilliant wow isn't that great you know just to be inspired by just those stories and you know just to graham you know meeting jesus and and come in you know just chilling locked down as well and guys this is so exciting and i know we want to at the start back in march we we showed a little video uh when we were in lockdown and we're going to show it again because we're heading into another lockdown now um so this is kind of going to take you back a little bit to march and april but it's also the same principle is the same just because church doesn't look like this doesn't mean it can't look like that the building might be closed for a season but the church has never been more open take a look at this unwelcome but expected the coronavirus has hit the uk the outbreak of coronavirus is now officially a pandemic you are all aware we are living in unprecedented times we as a leadership have made a decision that we're going to suspend all of our gatherings at all of our three locations a lot has changed recently and maybe there's some things about church that you started to miss [Music] but just because church doesn't look like this it doesn't mean it can't look like this yeah guys i really want to encourage you to stay connected online through this season i know we were there and then we were starting to re-gather and now we're back to online for this next season but you know the church is not closed we're open and and we're really digging into how we can stay more connected and how we can serve our communities in a deeper way i want to now introduce chris bradley to you who has been an elder in this church for 17 years and he always said that in 2020 it would be the year that he would step uh away and obviously you know we're in this lockdown season so we can't get him at the front of church and lay hands on him and and do all that kind of stuff but here he is chris welcome to our zoom and welcome to life central midweek how are you doing my friend good evening all yeah i'm good thank you lil how are you i'm doing all right yeah how's sue good yes she's keeping well thank you you've just you moved house recently mate haven't you yeah we have after 34 years we've uh we've got rid of the family home which had only got two of us in now yeah because everybody's married and moved on so we've downsized we've got a two-bedroom bungalow okay brilliant excellent oh chris you've been an elder for 17 years which is a long time has there been a highlight for you over the past 17 years is it is it possible to pick out something as a highlight for you or not there have been many in that time but i think as i've thought about it and prayed about it i think i've i've got to say that being on a late on the leadership journey with an amazing group of faith-filled people wow who have traveled through many seasons prayed together dealt with the challenges yeah um come through them and um yeah we've seen answers to prayer we've seen god's hand on the church and it's been a real privilege to be an elder and serve on that team uh and be with you know the staff team and the congregation um who have a heart for god a heart for the church and to see it move forward that's so good and and chris how do you feel stepping off uh after all these many years how how emotionally you know especially during this season as well how are you feeling mate yeah the the you feel the emptiness you miss you miss the emails your emails texts a little bit quiet in that respect yeah it's not quite at the moment trust me there's a lot going on i can really imagine yeah i said i miss praying for people i mean obviously still pray yeah but you miss having that detail you know the same one for me stuff that yeah who came through to us and really lifting people up in prayer which i still do but sort of remotely um but but you missed that um and been you know seeing the you know the stories firsthand yeah that's good and speaking about prayer chris because i know this is a massive heart for you and actually for us as a church as well we're about to launch a new prayer initiative called prayer space where we want to try and say to everybody out there hey while you are in lockdown while you are in homes hey we can all pray so we want to launch that initiative in this next week as well but what for you what's your prayer for the church chris going forwards you you've been you've been carrying the weight of that eldership for 17 years praying for the church praying for people what is your prayer for us going forwards as a church um it's been a difficult year for the church you've shared that with the congregation you know the challenges that you know leading the church at this time and you know we we debated opening the church up and that's gone really well and people have enjoyed being back in the room and now they've got to le we've got to shut that down again so i guess my prayer is that we get through this next shutdown and we get through covid um and you know the follow i should say five locations with the online community that we stay connected to god and we stay connected to each other and we come through it stronger and in a better place to move forward so good and guys if you're watching you know i know many of you know chris and sue and if you don't you know you can hear that the heart of this man and the passion and 17 years as an elder you know is no mean feat it's just incredible faithfulness i'd love you to write a message in the chat uh for chris you know bless him and his family as we do that chris on bar myself alison the rest of the elders you know we've already said lots of things to you privately given gifts and all of that but i want to say publicly you're an incredible man of god and i count it an incredible privilege to have served with you over this last 17 years i know many many churches and their leadership teams are struggling now and often there's there's difficulty and but i have had the absolute honor and privilege of serving with an incredible bunch of men and women and your faithfulness and consistency over 17 years has been absolutely outstanding and we are so grateful to god for you and i would i would love to pray for you right now is that okay i'd love to pray for you and so and guys if you're out there please join with me in praying for chris uh and for sue as well jesus we want to thank you so much for this great man of god and for him and sue and as a family and lord that their kids and their grandkids are in this church and are loving you and serving you and it's just a testimony god to your faithfulness but also to their faithfulness as well bless them in this season of their life they may be he may be stepping off eldership he may have retired but there isn't any retirement in the kingdom of god you have so much more for them and god we just pray a blessing upon them and upon their lives and their ministry for now and for the future in jesus name amen amen amen thanks mate bless you chris it's been great to see you i just feel like i want to just sit and chat with you now but i i've got to remember that there's loads of other people watching as well you spend enough time on zoom all right god bless you mate take care bless you yeah faithful people guys really faithful people carrying the weight of leadership in this church and i want to say to you you know i'm getting emotional now again if you're new and you've just joined us you know this is this isn't a perfect church we're not perfect but i tell you what this is a real church and uh people like chris and sue who've been through incredible personal difficulties and challenges in the last few years but have remained faithful have remained true and consistent and i tell you what as they step out of spaces this space is emerging now for others to step into and and i want to say you be one of those people that step into that space i'm going to shut up now and i'm going to hand over to simon and simon and dee and their family we love them so much and as you know they're going to begin a brand new adventure in their story the story that they'll tell in the future they're leaving us at the end of this year to plan to church in wolverhampton but simon is going to speak uh to us right now and so i'm going to hand over to the other part of the studio and here is mr simon woodward great thanks uh leon it's some it's great to be able to share something uh with you for uh a moment here and and actually i'm really emotional um listening to chris he's an incredible guy but i'm emotional here too because this will be the last time that i get to share a life central midweek as i leave this incredible team in in just a couple of weeks now and you heard chris say it uh moments ago this is an amazing church i got saved here baptized here married here my children have come to faith here you know the last 15 years here have been an incredible blast i've learned so much and have grown so much and i want to thank you all for your love and support that you've shown us uh as a family i particularly want to thank leon and alison and the elders for believing in me for investing in me and for giving me an opportunity i've said it before you know it was a tough decision to leave but but as a family we really felt it was right to do so and that that it was part of god's plan for us and above everything else we have to stick with the plan we feel that god has for our lives and that's what i want to speak to you uh about for a few moments you know this certainly has been a crazy year we've had to adapt and keep on adapting some of the plans we've made have had to be postponed or cancelled but here's the thing when it comes to god's plan for your life i want you to know that coved 19 the government restrictions the difficulties and storms of life cannot stop the plan he has for your life and we may be heading into another lockdown but as we do i want to encourage you to look up you see difficulty disappointment frustration and fear can often overwhelm us can drain us and leave us feeling weary which causes our heads to drop which then can cause if we're not careful we can we can forget our calling we can forget our purpose and we even question god's plan for our lives but psalm 121 verses one to two say this i look up to the mountains does my help come from there my help comes from the lord who made heaven and earth you know that's a telescope perspective right there and to understand what that means you need to watch leon's talk from sunday just gone it was incredible and you can find it on our youtube channel at life central church uk i want to encourage you here to set your height hope on the one who is higher to trust in the one who made heaven and her earth and know this he made heaven and earth with you in mind he has a plan for your life and nothing can stop it and i don't know where you are in discovery discovering or following god's plan for your life but i want to encourage you with this god's plan for your life doesn't change when you don't feel worthy stick with the plan god's plan for your life doesn't change when things don't make sense stick with his plan god's plan for your life doesn't change when things are difficult and stick with his plan and there's a guy in the bible moses who struggled with all of these and so much more you can find his story in the first part of the bible in the old testament in the book of exodus and chapters 2 to 14. let me give you a quick and really simple synopsis see god chose moses as a baby when moses was born the hebrews were slaves in egypt pharaoh was afraid of them because he thought they might take over his country he ordered that all the hebrew baby boys be killed at birth so they wouldn't grow up and fight against him to save moses his mother hid him in a basket at the side of the nile pharaoh's daughter while out washing one day found him and took him back to live with her as though he were her son moses grew up as an egyptian prince but he never forgot he was a hebrew one day moses lost his temper and he killed an egyptian who had beaten a hebrew slave to death he had to run away to another land god spoke to him from a burning bush and told him he must go back and free the hebrews from slavery moses went to pharaoh to ask him to set the hebrews free pharaoh didn't want to lose his slaves he would not let them go and things got awful in egypt there were ten plagues be and before each one moses had warned pharaoh what would happen the last plague was the worst the eldest son in every egyptian family including pharaohs died god warned moses to mark the doorposts of all the hebrew houses so that he the hebrew boys would be safe pharaoh was so upset by losing his son that he said the hebrews could leave egypt and they left immediately pharaoh changed his mind again and sent his army after them to to bring them back the army chased the hebrews to the banks of the red sea they would have been trapped but a miracle happened god told moses to lift his staff and when he did the waters parted to make a dry path they were able to make their escape when all the hebrews were safely at the other shore moses lifted his staff again and the waters of the sea closed on pharaoh's army who had been chasing them god saved the hebrews amen and that there is courtesy of my youngest daughter's bible leon's favorite translation is the passion my mind's a kid's bible right there i love it see moses was chosen by god he he didn't feel worthy of the call of god though moses had a past and this is something that affects and stops many people stepping into the plan god has for them but i want you to know how god sees you is completely different to how you see you so you may only see your past but god always sees your potential god never consults your failures to create your future never forget that you have been chosen by god to fulfill the plans of god see knowing that you're chosen by the creator of heaven and and earth on purpose for a purpose should stop you feeling unworthy and should then accelerate you into the plan that god has for you you know i had a friend in school he was picked on because he was adopted and his reply was always this my parents chose me yours got stuck with you man that is powerful my heavenly father chose me an alcoholic an ex-offender a divorcee that the list could go on and on but what blows me away is that the is that in the extreme and the chaos of chaos of my addiction god called me righteous he said i want simon i'm going to call him my own and i'm going to use him to call others to me i want you to know your heavenly father chose chooses you he calls you by name he loves you he believes in you and he equips you to accomplish everything he has for you you know in those moments when you don't feel worthy i want to encourage you to stick with the plan moses stuck with god's plan even when it made no sense to him sometimes god's plan for your life is gonna feel like it makes no sense at all like it's going nowhere and it's falling on deaf ears you know that certainly was the case for moses many times moses complained to god that pharaoh wasn't listening to him and neither were his own people come to that but god said stick with the plan go back and tell pharaoh this even though it made no sense to moses exodus 6 verses 10 to 12 say this then the lord said to moses go back to pharaoh the king of egypt and tell him to let the people of israel leave his country but lord moses objected my own people won't listen to me anymore how can i expect pharaoh to listen i'm such a clumsy speaker you know there are gonna be times in your life when you don't understand what god is doing and it will make no sense at all but that's often a time when our faith grows the most see faith is trusting god even when you don't understand his plan i know the plans i have for you declares the lord jeremiah 29 11 many of you know that verse but check this god knows our plans we don't remember that but there is something we do know and that's romans 8 28 and we know that all things work together for good to those who love god so next time life makes no sense and you feel on turbulent waters you might have to steady the ship instead of jump ship you have to stick with the plan god's plan is always the best you know sometimes it makes no sense and the process may even be painful it may be difficult or it feels like it's taking forever but guys stick with his plan and it's often not a straight road we've got it's there's no direct route it's often more like long windy country lanes you know for my self and d the the opportunity we have planting a new church in wolverhampton is an amazing one but if i'm honest the timing of it makes no sense at all we were approached just before the the first lockdown and the excitement of it suddenly turned into lots of questions how when and if it would still happen but then as we spent time seeking god it was clear that he was asking us to step out and this was his plan for us even without us having some of the answers we wanted and man that was scary but as we made a decision we've seen some great answers to prayer and what i've learned about following god's plan is that your yes in your heart has to be bigger than the no in your head the the yes and the core of your being has to be bigger than the no in your head see let me explain you're always gonna get opposition when you follow god's plan and that usually comes by the way of the no in your own head no you can't do that no you're not good enough for that no you haven't got the right experience no that's a stupid idea no no no no and then the enemy will always use this moment to bring up your past to get you to focus on why you're not qualified to do what god has asked you to see for moses it was because he was such a clumsy speaker but when you give your yes to god from the core of your being and you commit to being all in trust in him until a door closes or you get a red light man you have supernatural peace the nose in your head don't seem as big anymore you know i'm not saying that they're not still there but i am saying they're no longer the focus you see to keep following god's plan for your life you let your yes be in your heart be bigger than the no in your head and lastly god's plan for your life doesn't change when things are difficult you know finally god's plan for moses and the hebrew people seem to be coming to pass pharaoh let the hebrews go and the mass exodus began it saw that nearly two million people were involved but then pharaoh changed his mind and he sent his army to bring them back a massive chase ensued and pharaoh's army caught up with the hebrews as they camped you know panic fear and anger erupted and the hebrew people turned on moses you know when you go through a difficult season there are people that will help you and support you and then there will be people that turn on you offering their advice as to why you're in the position you're in you know i'm sure every one of you i've heard the words i told you so at some point in your life but how moses responds to this is huge insight in how we should respond when we face difficult situations he said don't be afraid and we trust that god will rescue us man if those were words for a season right now that is for this one is he going through difficulty in life doesn't mean that god is punishing you or that he's distant from you see it could actually mean that he's preparing you he's growing you he's stretching you so stick with the plan trust in his plan and never in your pain you know it's cert it's a certainty that storm that you will face storms in life but you need to know that they don't alter god's plans for your life they can come to distract you to to disrupt you but they cannot knock you off course you know i remember myself and dee and cara got caught in the middle of a horrendous storm when cara was just two years of age we were driving to scotland to to see these parents and the rain was coming down so hard and faster i could hardly see in front of me you know i was driving and i was holding on to the steven right wheel for dear life i was petrified and it was so bad that i had to stop and pull over it was then that that i looked back in the car and i saw cara playing with a toys uh oblivious to the storm and the fear that i had why well i like to think of it like this it was because she had shelter from the storm and also that she had total trust in her dad who was driving the car you know the storms of life can be scary but i pray that now and in the future that you know jesus as your shelter i pray that that you let jesus your dad have the driving seat i pray that you trust him with the plan that he has for your life and that you stick with it and remember this storms come to pass not to stay and there is peace always available and the plan for your life is not blown off course by them i am right here as we come to a close as as i shut up we're gonna sing an incredible song called tremble reminding us of just that and the words are powerful declare them wherever you are [Music] bring it off [Music] jesus [Music] to live call these lungs [Music] jesus love jesus jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] thank you jesus jesus [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus that's so powerful isn't it and you know as we finish our time together i want to really encourage you guys to you know in two days time we'll be in lockdown but hey the church isn't closed god isn't in lockdown the spirit of jesus isn't in lockdown but you know it is difficult it is a tough time and we know that and we want to stand with you and support you and you know if you'd like prayer tonight we would love to pray for you and there's going to be a link that's going to come in the chat right now and it's hopefully going to come up on the screen as well and you can just click on this link and fill in that say one for me card and you know whenever you do that and you feel that that that goes out to a bunch of us and we pray for you and it's just been incredibly humbling and a privilege uh to hear some of your stories and to stand with you and to pray with you and for you and also to hear some of the answers to prayer as well so guys as we go into this next season as a church i want to encourage you let's stay open and ask for prayer and ask for help but let's stay connected as well stay connected with your connect group if you're not in a connect group go to our website fill in the next steps card we'd love you to put you in a connect group that would be so good and i also want to say hey you know stay connected online as well on us on sunday you know we start a brand new series this sunday it's going to be a very different series we've got a very different way that we're going to do the service a different set and we're calling it the lost arts what are some of those things that um that we've lost as a culture that we've lost as a society some of those ancient things that maybe are buried a little bit that we need to rediscover and maybe god wants us to rediscover some of these things so we're going to dive into the old testament a bit but we're going to bring out some lost arts and i'm going to kick that off on sunday and then laura myself and stuart blount we're going to be involved in teaching over the next four weeks and then of course we get into december and christmas and there's going to be so many amazing opportunities for us to be the church even if we can't be in the building we can still be the church because we are the church so listen out for all those opportunities christmas cards delivering in our streets helping people with practical expressions of of love and care and then some great opportunities to invite people to listen to and to experience the real message of christmas under the title hope is here if ever we needed hope guys it's right now god bless you guys thank you so much for connecting with us please follow us on social media if you're not part of life central online community on facebook we'd love you to do that so go and kind of invite yourself answer those two simple questions and then we'll let you in to that group and away we go guys god bless you and we will see you soon take care [Music] you

Channel: LifecentralChurchUK

Views: 579

Rating: 5 out of 5

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

Id: XQ50ZhgtpH0

Length: 75min 10sec (4510 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020