Vision and Commitment 2020 - What is in your hands?
Notes
Transcript
Illustration
Illustration
My mum tells the story of when I was 5 and my sister was about 3 and a half. And that classic scene played out. My Sister would run up to my Mum screaming shouting ‘Danny did do, Danny did do’.
Mum would look at her terrerised daughter and scoop her up and say “what did Danny do?” and my sister would keep saying “Danny did do, Danny did do.” And then I’d come running at up saying “I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t do anything” with my hands behind my back
And Mum would say, “Danny, what’s in your hand”
And of course the incriminating evidence of whatever I had been doing to my sister was there clear as day
Have you ever been surprised by what’s in your hands?
When I’m walking the kids to school, we have a rule that they carry their book bags, they wear their coats and they are responsible for their belongings. And yet, some days I’ll be chatting away on my way home and say ‘hang on, why am I holding your book bag’ or ‘how did this coat get in my hand’.
I think one of the strangest ones was when I was running one of the kids birthday parties in Glossop and part way through the game, one of the younger siblings who was about 2 just ran up to me with his arms in the air. Out of habbit, I picked him up and gave him a hug.
What was funny was I got to the end of the game Captain’s coming, and only then became aware that there was a child in my arms, and as I looked at which child, it was our new friends son who I didn’t think we knew that well. I looked over and saw Claire and the Mum chuckling at my surprise.
What is in your hands?
Jesus on a mountain top preaches to thousands of people - it would cost half a years wages just to let everyone have a taste of bread. What is in their hands. A little boy has a pack lunch - and thousands of people are fed
Moses - having been let go by the Egyptians became aware that they were chasing them. He was faced with the red sea and a distant army of chariots. What was in his hand? He had a rod - God called him to lift it, the waters parted, and the sea moved?
Moses - having been let go by the Egyptians became aware that they were chasing them. He was faced with the red sea and a distant army on chariots. What was in his hand? He had a rod - God called him to lift it, the waters parted, and the sea moved?
I wonder what is in your hands?
Esther - was beautiful in human eyes, forced into a beauty pagent and chosen by the King to be his Queen. What was in her hands? Courage, status and a question. Aproaching the king humbly she asked a question... and the Jewish people were saved
A little shepherd boy faced a giant in front of an army. What were in his hands? He had a stone and a sling. He fired. And David killed Goliath - 1 Samuel
She had a question for the King, beauty, grace and obedience
What is in your hands?
A little shepherd boy faced a giant in front of an army. He had a stone and a sling. He fired. And David killed Goliath - 1 Samuel
1 Samuel
Elijah speaks to the widow of Zarephath - he asks her to make him bread. She says its the last food she has, and he asks her to make it anyway. She’s about to die of hunger, and the prophet’s asking for food. What does she have in her hands? A tiny bit of oil and flour. But she finds that the flour and oil keep on producing, they never run out. -
Paul & Silas In prison - - unjustly condemned and imprisoned. What was in their hands? A song and a prayer. And God sent an earthquake, they had dinner with the prison guard, brought him to faith and stood up to the unjust authorities
Paul & Silas In prison - - unjustly condemned and they had a song and a prayer. And God sent an earthquake, they had dinner with the prison guard, brought him to faith and stood up to the unjust authorities
Jesus - feeding the 5,000
The boy gave the disciples his lunch - thousands of people fed from what the boy had in his hand
Friends, thoughtout scripture we see a God of miracles who takes what’s in our hands and multiplies it
What is in your hand that God can use in a miraculous way?
They had a song and a prayer
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Vision
Vision
And what have we got in our hands as a family, as the community of St Mark’s?
As a leadership we’ve been exploring who we are and why God has called us together for this time.
And 6 areas sprung up which God laid on our hearts.
3 person focuses
Jesus
Each other (as in our church family)
and our community - not the community, but ours. Haydock specifically, but also the neighbourhood around Haydock.
And then we felt God give us three words of intentiality.
Knowing
Loving
Caring
These are interelated and encompass the previous statements which are so important to St Mark’s.
But it’s helpful to set a bench mark, a statement which is easy to remember and quickly shows why we exist. Something which works for those who are believers and those who aren’t.
And so the statement we’ve chosen is
Knowing Jesus, loving eachother, caring for our community
We believe that these things only come through livingwith Jesus
And let’s think about that phrase abiding in Jesus
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Friends we are called to bear fruit. Not just have pretty leaves.
That’s both for us individually, but also in our life together.
We’ve adopted the Bishop’s rule of life. It’s not a rule like laws we have to follow, these are daily disciplines and callings from God which have been part of this churches DNA for the past 110 years of our existence.
That we are:
Called to pray, read and learn
Sent to tell, serve and give
This is nothing new, but I want you to think of it as a trelis.
This is nothing new, but I want you to think of it as a trelis.
In our daily personal lives, the call to hang out with Jesus in prayer, to hear what he say, and to study his written word through reading the Bible. And as his apprentices, we’re looking to learn more about following his way through studying together but also through taking leaps of faith.
And we feel Jesus closer when we naturally start sharing about him. That’s what our lent course is all about. Being equipped to share about Jesus and introduce people to him in compeltely natural ways. And of course we each take our roles in serving Jesus both inside and outside of the church. God is calling each of us to serve him and we need to obediently follow his call. And then the one we don’t like talking about. We are sent to give. Give of our time, our money, our energies and efforts.
I wonder, what is in your hands?
Last year I shared with you a vision. A vision of wave.
A year ago at the New Wine North Leadership Conference, I heard God whisper to me ‘are you ready’ and when I asked what for I felt him clearly say
“for a new wave of my spirit bringing new believers. People who need much love, people who need me in their lives. People who are hurting, who are lost, who need much love and much grace”
I felt him saying that he would restore the years lost by the church, but that he had no place for pride, the pride of an organisation. That we are called to be his children, and follow where he was leading.”
I shared with you how that had been confirmed, and then over the year we had a number of prophesies among different groups also confirming the need to prepare.
So we’ve been in a phase as a church of preparing. Within the church we have set up welcome and hospitaltiy teams who are awesome. We’ve put a number of other structures in place to support more people on Sundays. More importantly we’ve allowed God space to preapre us. Exploring his kingdom plan for the world, that he seeks to bring us all into that intimate relationship with him. The relationship we were created for above all others. Walking through his birth in Advent, through to the cross at Lent and his resurrection at Easter.
We’ve heard of his amazing plans for all who turn to follow Jesus, that
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
We’ve accepted his forgiveness and our identity as free children, released in his love to be his children, and his body on earth. That we are to be united.
And we’ve been challenged about the way we live our lives. From unforgiveness, malicious talk, how we order our relationships, our attitude to those in authority over us, and our work ethic.
Finally, we’ve enjoyed the equipping of the Spirit of God, through his armour and through his prescence with us, and through the power of praying to a loving God who engages and changes our world for good.
And that’s just us on a Sunday morning and in our small groups. We’ve also trained 16 leaders, equipped all our small group leaders, and are active in preparing for the next phase.
TANGO, our furniture project, shop and cafe
In this next phase, we’re looking at our outreach groups. Those who provide spaces of meeting, of listening, of encounter across the week. Among a number of ministries are Smarties, our popular toddler group, Golden Oldies, our seniors meal, the source, the cafe which meets here, Cool club, which is our after school ministry and of course TANGO, our furniture project, shop and cafe. I believe we’re being called to be more intentional. Not just to serve great coffee and food, or provide affordable furniture, but to be even more effective in our caring for this local community.
Perhaps we’ve been too happy with letting TANGO get on and ‘do the local mission’ of the church. With quite a lot of non Christian staff and volunteers in TANGO, we can’t just expect people to encounter Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing Christian’s at work there too, but what I’m saying is that we can’t just assume that Christian mission is happening just because TANGO is our mission project. Decline is part of TANGO’s current reality, but I believe that’s about to change.
This year at the new wine leadership conference I was given more pirctures of St Mark’s and TANGO.
I felt the Lord saying that this wave that we’ve been preparing for is about to break, and that need to be ready to ride it, welcome it and to step out. I felt him sharing that St Mark’s was to be a foretaste of heaven, like the starters to a posh banquet.
I felt him lay on my heart that Jesus is calling us to action, to love Haydock like we never have before. To give more of our time and money, to lay ourselves before him and get out of our buildings. That working together, St Mark’s and TANGO can reach out to so many. But we need people to come alongside these ministries. People in Smarties not just to help out but to connect with the parents and grandparents. People who are willing to give up time to ‘be present’ in our cafes. Listening and meeting all who come through the doors. But also getting out into the community and finding out what they want from us. Truly knowing our community, and I think that’s one of the first steps.
We currently don’t have any youth provision at St Mark’s which is something I am looking to change. But I have a vision for a new outreach youth group which I’d love to explore with anyone who is interested.
And a phrase that’s been resonating with me throughout our study of Ephesians is
14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Eph
It’s nice to think that we’re part of a friendly welcoming church. But there is more to St Mark’s than that. We have the potential to make a massive difference. It’s so easy to get caught up in the business of life and miss what God is doing, and I feel him saying ‘Wake up O sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you”
It’s not just in helping people with their practical needs, but in introducing them to the one who created them, the one who loves them and the one who want’s to free them. Sometimes we hold back because we don’t want to offend people. But brothers and sisters, the reality is that those who don’t knwo Jesus won’t live a life of freedom, or abundence, or have an eternity with him. It’s something we don’t like to talk about, but that’s what the Bible clearly says.
In another ministry time, I saw the fire of God pour down upon TANGO like he did on the disciples at pentecost and the fire of God lapped around the TANGO, not consuming it but filling it with his prescence and his love. I saw the leaders and prayers of the church standing around worshipping and felt God saying he was doing something new through his Spirit.
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Commitment
Commitment
Friends if you want to be part of this amazing work and journey then we need to move our conversation to our time and our wallets.
Here at St Mark’s we’ve been running a deficit budget for a number of years and the reserves are running low. Without a change in our spending and income we have between 2 and 3 years left before we need to start selling our assests.
I know Andy wrote to members of the church family before I arrived, and as a new vicar with little financial understanding I haven’t mentioned it until now because I’ve been getting my head around it all. But I’m mentioning it now.
I set up a stewarship team who are supporting Verna our wonderful treasurer and helping me get to grips with our finances. So let me show you what our projections are this year.
Show pie chart
Reveal deficit -41,860
I share this with you because this is your church family as it is mine. And as part of being a member of St Mark’s we do ask that you follow God’s calling and give to your church community. I always find that where my money is, that’s where my interests are.
The Bible gives us a helpful guide of 10% of our income as a good level to giving, and it’s the figure I’d like to ask you to pray about giving to St Mark’s. We’re rearranging our own finances to meet that target as a family.
So would you humour me for a minute or two as I’ve played with a few figures and come up with some comparison figures.
If every member of the church was able to increase their giving by £5 per week, the price of a magazine, we would break even by the end of the year.
Imagine if every member were able to give an extra £15 per week, the cost of a meal out, we’d be able to employ a missional youth leader, enhance our existing ministries and develop new ones. We’d also be able to invest more in our buildings, securing them for the future.
And…now just stretch the imagination here, if every member were able to give an extra £25 per week, say the price of 2 cinema tickets and some pop corn, we’d be able to fund even more schools work, pay for an assistant minister, a caretaker for our buildings and a community development worker.
And I’ll put up the monthly increases that would be associated with those figures.
Thanks for going with me there. It’s fightfully unbirtish to talk about money, but do you know Jesus mentions money 22 times across the gospels which is almost as much as he talks about justice in the world. Interesting that.
This isn’t like getting an expensive subscription to a super holy netflix package, or a perfect golf club. No, it’s giving what’s in our hands to God and letting him do the multiplication.
You may be sat here today thinking, I’m not sure I can increase my giving much. Maybe a few pounds. Then friends, offer that to the Lord. But I invite you to ask the Lord today to whether he’s happy with how much you give. Hear me, this is between you and him and I’m just wanting to open us up to the fact that God may be asking us to give more. And I’m sure for many of you that’s in time as well. Maybe it’s a refocusing of your current volunteering here in St Mark’s. Just about every team is low on volunteers, and we believe God is calling us to so much more.
Just before we leave the money side, the digital giving raised £500 last year and is an amazing way to give if you don’t have any cash on you. But I was chatting with a friend the other day and we both agreed that we’re not sure how we’d give faithfully if we didn’t have a standing order set up to take it out of our spending accounts early in the month. It would easily get spent on something else. Standing orders also allow us as a Church to budget more effectively.
And giving isn’t only about money. Stan has put his skills to work creating garden furniture to raise funds for the church. Maybe God has gifted you a skill to put to work.
I’d love you to prayerfully consider these forms, and we would like one back from every person. Even if it is a tick to say you can’t give more. We’re family and everyone is welcome, and always will be. The forms will only be seen by Verna our treasurer and Carole our gift aid secretary, and will be treated highly confidentially.
So whether it’s a walking stick like Moses, some flour and oil like the widow, a question and some courage like Esther, a prayer and a song like Paul and Silas or a packed lunch let’s spend some time with the Lord asking him what is in our hands and what he wants to do with it
We have
So let’s spend some time with the Lord asking him what is in our hands and what he wants to do with it
1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias),
2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.
3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.
4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”
6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,
9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).
11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”
13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
John 6.1-
David had a stone and a slingHe killed a giant
Elijah speaks to the widow - what does she have?She has some oil and flour, she faith enough to give Elijah her last bread cake