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In this podcast, we share our sermons and teaching from our Sunday Celebrations + some other additional teaching content.
00:05
Thank you Mike. Follow that. I'm going to start with a commercial if I may.
00:15
We are a people who are wise enough to buck the trend of the human race that has a tendency of taking things for granted and only valuing things where we've lost them.
00:37
or maybe people when we've lost them.
00:41
That's sad, that is. We don't take any sense of privilege because we've got water to drink and houses to live in and food to eat and...
00:55
And one freedom we have which we need to value is freedom to worship God, which is denied in many parts of the world. Our brothers and sisters are suffering persecution in extreme ways just for naming the name of Jesus. And we meet here in freedom, no fear of somebody rushing in, the militia.
01:25
And I say that because my wife Julia has had a burden for our brothers and sisters across the world in suffering for many years. And these days, she leads a prayer meeting. It's called Call to Arms. It meets on the first Monday evening of the month, which is tomorrow, 7.30 p.m. at our house.
01:47
for those who find it easier the first Friday morning of the month at 10 a.m. in the building across the way. Now just a thought, if you've got a burden to pray for those who are suffering for Jesus' and you're available in one or two of those spots, just come and join us. We'll not spend a better, profitable hour than praying with God's people.
02:09
Now I've said before those who are privileged to speak on a Sunday morning, we come at invitation, we're told which dates, we're told which subjects. If we want to be invited again, first of all we have to keep to the subject which we've been given. Secondly, I'm told if we quote scripture we have to talk about the context in which we find that scripture. And I believe it helps to support Chelsea Football Club.
02:41
middle table mediocrity as they are. I hope he hears the tape. They came lower in the division than provincial towns like Bournemouth, Brightford, Brighton, Brentford, even Sunderland. So I've said my word about Chelsea Football Club. Now the subject I've been given, which I'm going to stick to,
03:10
is the Father Heart of God. The Father Heart of God.
03:18
And probably when somebody says that, the place we immediately think of looking is the story of the prodigal son. It's called the story of the prodigal son, but actually it's more about the father than the son. We learn more about the father than the son.
03:38
And I'm going to mention the context because it's important. Jesus told three stories, one concerned a lost sheep, then a lost coin, and then a lost son. To whom was he speaking? To the religious leaders of his day, to the Pharisees.
04:00
They had religion, they had no relationship.
04:05
They believed in God, they didn't know God.
04:10
They had duty and no devotion. They had legalism and no love. They knew the Bible, so what? They could tell Herod the town where the Messiah would be born. And when there was room of a birth, do think any of them went to see? It could be there, no way. The most religious people in the day of Jesus were those who hunted and hounded him to death.
04:40
and this is the ones that Jesus is talking to.
04:47
They gave him a mockery of a trial. They couldn't pass sentence of death, so they took him to pilot the Roman governor.
04:58
but they wouldn't go into the courtyard of the palace because they might, by doing so, become ceremonially unclean. God forbid. I'm not stepping there. I might displease God while at that moment and at that time I'm hunting and hounding and seeking to torture the Son of God to death. Isn't that a mockery? That's religion without life.
05:27
But God still loved those people. So we're going to read the story together. We'll find it in Luke chapter 15.
05:38
And it says, now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered. This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Then Jesus told them this parable, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does he not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
06:09
And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents and over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent, or rather do not think they need to repent. Or suppose the woman has 10 silver coins and loses one.
06:39
Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house, search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin. In the same way I tell you there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Jesus continued, there was a man who had two sons.
07:04
The younger one said to his father, father give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he'd spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in want. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country.
07:33
who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hard men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father. I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hard men. So he got up.
08:03
and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servant, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it.
08:31
Let's have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." And so they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the oldest son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. "'Your brother has come,' he replied. "'Your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' The older brother became angry and refused to go in.
09:00
So his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father, look, all these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat that I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who squandered your property with prostitutes come home, you kill the fattened calf for him, my son, the father said. You're always with me.
09:29
and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and he is found.
09:45
He was dead to me, but now he's alive again.
09:52
I read that chapter when I was given my subject and I had pen and paper and I jotted down observations as I was reading. I counted them up. were 15 observations.
10:10
I thought I'll share those on the Sunday I'm entitled to speak on them. Five minutes for each observation, that's 75 minutes, 15 minutes to sum up, that's an hour and a half and it'll seem like two and a half hours. I'm just telling you, okay. The first observation, I know it's obvious but it's worth thinking about. Our father is always our father.
10:37
We cannot be born out of our natural family. We can have a close relationship with our dad or a distant one, but it'll always be our dad will always be his child. Jesus says we must be born again into God's family. When we find Jesus, we have spiritual life and God becomes our heavenly father. We cannot be born out of God's family.
11:00
Sadly, we might at the time try to live life without God. We call that backsliding. Instead being close to God, we'll be far from God, but he'll still be our heavenly dad.
11:16
We don't yo-yo in and out. Do you understand me? Well, I walk with God. My name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I walk away from God. It's crossed out. I walk back. No, he's always our Father and always will be. Pray God we're close to him, not distant. The second observation, in a measure, maybe you're not like me, but I see something of myself in that younger brother.
11:47
Before I found Jesus, I was almost 30 at the time. Only one person in this town knows anything about my BC days and she swore into secrecy, BC before Christ. But it wasn't clever. But I think it's true to say I live for myself.
12:08
And this young man just lived a life of self-pleasing.
12:14
So what does he say to his dad? Give, give, give, give. Give me. Me, I'm the centre of my universe and in essence give me now. I'm not going to wait till you die before I have that inheritance. You might live for ages. Give it now.
12:35
Self-gratification, take the waiting out of wanting, instant gratification. We see that in that young man. If you like, that sums him up. Third observation, he got on his bike metaphorically and he went a long way away, probably the further in miles from his father's house as he could manage.
13:03
But you know you can be in a far country without being a long way away from the house geographically. Do you know that?
13:12
There was another boy who lived in that house. He was the older brother, and he was in a far country too. Far, far distant from his father's heart, a long way away. The next observation was a question really. You can answer it for me. Why ever did the dad
13:36
work out what was going to be this boy's share and give it to him because he knew what he was going to do with it in all likelihood, he'd just squander it. Why did he give it to him?
13:48
because we cannot coerce love and we cannot coerce loyalty. And God who loves us has given us this precious gift of our own free will. We choose for ourselves.
14:02
And that's a big responsibility.
14:06
because the outcome of our lives is going to be settled in the realm of our desire.
14:14
If you're in this room and you want God and you want God's best and you want to fulfill God's plan for your life more than you want anything in the whole world, if you want it, enough, you'll have it.
14:29
But on the other hand, if you want lesser things, God will give them to us.
14:35
Do remember the time the Israelites came out of Egypt where they were slaves? God fed them on the manna, provided every day a kind of biscuit-like substance with all the nutrients tasting like honey, but they got tired of that. They wanted a change. Do you remember the story?
14:53
So they started mitering.
14:59
complaining, criticizing.
15:03
griping, grumbling. Give us meat, give us meat, we're fed up with this, give us meat, we want meat, we won't be sad to try without meat. What did God do? He gave the meat.
15:17
He caused a very strong wind to blow this huge flock of quails, wild birds, who landed all around the camp. Those birds didn't know what hit them. Grabbed, strangled, plucked, gutted in the cooking pot before they counted up to five. And what a lovely, delicious smell.
15:38
cooking meat, cooking meat, and they gorged and they stuffed themselves and they stuffed themselves until they were vomiting out of their nostrils and the very sight and the stench of those birds couldn't abhorrent to them. God gave them what they wanted. But the Psalmist, when he tells that story, he said, God also sent leanness to their souls.
16:05
He gives us what we want and we'll have spiritual impoverishment that goes with it. It's a very, very serious responsibility we have to want what God wants for us and not choose for ourselves. And then what happens to the young man, I'm on point five, he began to be in need.
16:34
Listen folks, if we walk away from God, we're going to be in need, okay? We're going to be in a place of want and shortage and famine. We know that.
16:45
Gobble a lourid.
16:48
Do you know most people come to God through the door of human need because they want something and God will still accept them. They want forgiveness, they want help, they want healing. And God allows the need to bring people to himself.
17:04
And he arranges no one gave this young man anything. Give that young man a handout in the pigsty, just stays longer in the pigsty. He needs to be Lord of our giving as well as Lord of our spending, otherwise we can short circuit his purposes. And in that place of need, he comes to repentance. Repentance not just I'm sorry for the mess I'm in, not even I'm sorry for what I've done.
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but I have a complete change of thinking, a complete change of direction in my life. I'm willing to get up and turn around, remember my father's house and set off walking in that direction.
17:48
That's repentance and that's why God allows us to be in need. The next question, how come dad saw him at a distance? Answer, he was watching for him. Why? Because he was expecting him. He was waiting for him. That loved one of yours away from God is not a question of when, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when.
18:19
So just be waiting and watching. But he woke up in the morning, said he could come back today. Could come back today. Where did he sit? On the verandah by window so he could see at the horizon. And one day.
18:36
Something on that horizon that wasn't there before. No binoculars, he peered, he gazed. Getting bigger, must be coming closer. Looked like a person, single person walking, little dust cloud behind. Hope is beginning to spring up in the father's heart. And there was something about the way that that person was walking and then he burst out of the house and he ran.
19:06
And he ran, he nearly knocked the boy over. Grabbed a hold of him, stinking filthy from the pigsty, didn't care about that. Strolling his own clothes, didn't care about that. Almost as if he's trying to wash the filthy away with his own tears.
19:26
boy's tears would have helped in the process.
19:31
Remember a young lady in our church who drifted from God and we had a Christian meeting and she came and God spoke to You know when God speaks to you, it goes right inside. You know it's God. And she'd realized she'd been foolish. What did she do? She just wept. The meeting finished. What was she doing? She was weeping. I went and stood alongside her. When she stopped, she cried it all out. I said, you don't need to say anything to God.
20:01
He's read your tears. So this is where we're seeing the Father's heart. No recriminations, no recriminations.
20:13
serves you right. God has never said that to you or me, never. It serves you right. And he doesn't want us to think or say that about other people. It serves you right. Just but there, but for the grace of God. Will I go or I could have been?
20:36
So we see the father's response. Instant hear me, instant reinstatement into the full privileges of sonship. Instantly. No probationary time. I worked as a kitchen porter once in Butlins, Clacton and Essex.
21:00
That young man would have been happy to take a job as a kitchen porter. He had his speech prepared to give. He never got it out.
21:11
Didn't have a chance, he started it. Those servants didn't know what had hit them. Dad came in the house, barked his orders, you, keep some water, fill a tub, let him have a bath, burn those stinking clothes, you, get the best robe, put it on him, that's right, the best one, get a ring, put it on his finger, show him he belongs, get shoes on his feet so he stands tall, get that fackered calf killed and cooking, go on, move, move, move.
21:40
How come there was a fattened calf there, separated from the others, in a pen of its own, having double rations, maybe for month after month, thinking he's living the life of Riley? How come? Because Father knew there was going to be a feast. And this was the day that he was waiting for. Do you understand me? You do your Bible quiz, it says this, it says question. Which member of the household was not happy to see the prodigal son come home?
22:10
You say the elder son, the elder brother, one mark. Bonus mark, the fatted calf. You get a bonus mark, don't forget to claim it.
22:24
So it was party time.
22:28
Party already planned in the fathers heart.
22:35
And now, just an observation to encourage you on number 9 out of 15, but the later ones are longer, okay?
22:47
If anybody
22:51
You miss what? I'll tell you after, it'll take me an hour to go through that, just pay attention.
23:00
If you're a mum or a dad in this place...
23:04
If you've had your own, you have your own children, or imagine you have your own children, you'll understand the heart of God better.
23:17
Ask yourself, what are your feelings to your own children? You long, you long for the best for them. You won't spare them difficulty, you'll take them for vaccination, take them to the dentist, make them go to the school, but that's for their best.
23:39
Whatever they experience, you will experience with them. I'm telling you, if your children are hurting, you're hurting with them. If they've been disappointed, if they're glad, whatever. God feels as we feel. He identifies with us as we identify with our children. Our pain is his pain.
24:02
We'll always love our children and neither can we stray beyond the boundary of God's love. However far we go, whatever we go, we're still loved of God. Now if you're a parent, you know a little bit about what I was saying. I'm asking you to do something. Multiply your feelings for your children one trillion times and you'll just touch the hem of the garment of God's love for you and me, all right? But a natural parent or somebody who could imagine it can better understand
24:32
the Father Heart of God. And then we come, sadly, to the older brother.
24:40
Do you notice he was obnoxious, but his father still loved him?
24:47
You always met me, my boy, you just had to ask.
24:53
But he was in a far country.
24:58
He was like that religious one I was talking about. All these years I've been slaving for you, slaving, that's what it felt like. Not serving with love.
25:14
And God arranges circumstances and once in the heart rises up and all these ugly bubbles rise to the surface. Resentment, anger, self-pity, jealousy, self-righteousness, pride, the whole lot comes to the surface.
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breaks his father's heart.
25:36
Self-righteousness. There was a party going on. Do think he ever joined it? No way. Shut out forever. I'm sad to say a self-righteous person will be shut out from God all the way through time and through eternity. To the grief of God.
26:00
And so we see the sad story of the elder brother. I wonder whether it ever occurred to him. Can you just imagine this? Every day he sees his father sad. Every day his father's breaking his heart. He knows what's breaking his father's heart. Do you think one day he might say, Dad, do want me to go and see if I can find him and fetch him home? No way.
26:27
suited his smugness and his self-satisfaction and his superiority to know his younger brother was squandering his father's goods. But that reminded me, the next point was about the father of our faith, Abraham. And Abraham,
26:49
You know the story, most of you. He was dwelling with his nephew Lot. And God was prospering them, and they had a lot of sheep, but their flocks were really too numerous, do remember, to be contained in that particular area. So what did Abraham do? He said, you choose, my lad, where you want to live, and I'll go and live somewhere else.
27:17
If that young man had one ounce of sense, what would he have done? You choose for me, uncle. No, he didn't do that. I like that fertile land, that's the best land, I'll have the best land. Okay, it's near a city called Sodomus, so what?
27:34
wicked city and sure enough instead of living outside it he ended up living in it and then what happens? The raiders come, the foreigners come, the raiders come and capture him, capture his family, capture his belongings and off they go.
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And what does Abraham do when he hears that his nephew's been taken captive? Does he say serves him right? No, he musters his men and he launches a rescue mission and he goes and finds them and brings them back safely home. That's the father heart of God. Jesus came on a cosmic rescue mission to rescue fallen mankind and if we can see it,
28:21
We're part of that rescue mission today ourselves. I've got to number 12.
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quote me from hearing me in the past. Jeff will know the answer to this. Not many things he knows the answer, but you know the answer to this one. I say, if Jesus' favorite word is come, come unto me. I'll give you rest, don't look elsewhere, come. His second favorite word is cue, go. I thought you were gonna disappoint me, yes. Having come, he then says go.
29:00
Come unto me and we're hardly there and he said, go out into all the world and make disciples. We need to understand that. The heart of God, the yearning of God is to find and fetch back the lost. And he wants us to be part of that mission. So what happened to the shepherd we read about? How many sheep did he lose? One. How many did he still have?
29:30
99. So he said, well, I've got 99, so what? Did he? No. Because he loved everyone. And he thought of that lamb, that sheep, on its own, lonely, isolated, fearful, maybe caught up in brambles, terrified, very bleating, was likely to bring the predator to take its life. And he would not rest. Tired or not, he went out.
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He decided, I'm gonna go, and he went. And he searched and he searched and he found. He put that sheep on his shoulders and carried it home. Do you think he was tired walking home bearing the weight of that sheep? No, his tiredness had fled. And when he gets home, the party already going on in his heart, he wants to get his friends in and it's party time for them all. You want to know what the good shepherd Jesus is like? I've just told you.
30:28
He'll go after the one. He'll go miles to find the one. And he wants us to have the same heart. And then the lady who lost her coin. How easy is to find a little silver coin in a house full of dust? It's not easy. But she searched diligently until she found. And what did she do when she found the coin? Party time.
30:57
Did know you can hear a party going on? Did you know that?
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The youngest, the older brother had, hey, what's that noise? What's that dancing going on?
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When the Israelites, Bible knowledge question, when the Israelites returned from exile under Nehemiah, restored the temple and the walls and the city, what did they do? Party time. It said they celebrated so wildly that the noise of their celebration could be heard miles away. I like that.
31:39
Do you know there are people who live within the sound of this building? There are people who live in Ash Street and South Bank Road who every Sunday morning hear us celebrating, going wild. Music can be magnetic. Pray God at least it puts the question in their mind. If we lift Jesus up, he said he would draw all men to himself.
32:10
I pray for the people who live around this building. So near and yet so far. You can live 20 years, God's put them there, they're not there by chance, 20 years within hearing distance and never come in, never find. We better go and find them. What do they see on a Sunday morning? They see a car parked full and hear this raucous, sometimes midweek evening.
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Beach.
32:44
A little word of warning. There was a man I heard about once. lived in the road just opposite a church. And his friend said, are you attempting to join those people? No way, he says. He says, why not? He says, I see what they look like when they're going out. Grim face, looked as though they'd been sucking lemons, rushed for their car, can't wait to get out and drive off home due to dollar one debt.
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So just watch it. When you're going out today, okay, there might be someone looking out. You'll be so relieved to be let out. They'll probably think you've gone to having a ball. You'll be so happy, but make sure you look happy.
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So party time and that attracts other people. And I've come to the last point. God wants us to catch and to carry his heart.
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He wants us to see people as he sees them and feel for people as he feels them. I've said before General Booth who founded the Salvation Army invited to speak at a big conference of delegates. He wasn't available. He said, would you like to write a message? We'll read it. He wrote one word. He said, read that word and let them think about it. The word was others, others.
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We are not here for ourselves, we are here for others. We've got to think others, we've got to prefer others, we've got to be our own looking. Yes, it's evangelised or fossilised, but that's not to be the motive. Because there are people out there lost, and we were lost once. I asked Julia, how did the people win us to Jesus when we found ourselves in North West Zambia? Had they had two weapons, one we didn't know anything about, it was called prayer.
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As soon as we arrived, they started to pray for us. They got their friends to pray for us. We didn't know that. The other was care. They cared for us. They loved us.
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their generosity towards us. Do you know love and generosity melts a stonious heart? And they just loved us and cared for us. There's some people in this room and you're grieving over a member of your family who's a long way from God in a far country. Do know what the Bible tells us? It's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. Don't need to go and scold them, preach at them.
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It's love which is going to win the world. It's irresistible. Jesus was the kindest man who ever lived. He wants us to be the kindest people on the planet. You've heard me say an ounce of help in a time of need. It's like a ton of help at any other time. People will remember an act of kindness years after you have forgotten it because it meant so much.
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You've heard me say, I shall pass this way but once. Any good thing therefore I can do, any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, let me not neglect it. For I shall not pass this way again. Brothers and sisters, God wants us to see, to capture, and to carry his heart.
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and to go out and find those people who, like ourselves, just need to find Jesus for themselves. That's the propulsion that we need to go. Have I got some musicians who are willing to come up and play? Just be quiet, please, while we're waiting for them.
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If you speak in tongues, just speak quietly in the language God gives.
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yā kārāma kōpama sataka cakā tato kōrama kāsati cakā tato kōrama satakā.
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Thakara ma sotakara, kaste teke lana kshokara, sathakara.
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Shickadatta Kodama.
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I forgive her because you were forsaken I accept it, you were content I'm alive in the world, your spirit is within me Because you died and broke again
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I'm forgiven because you were forsaken I'm accepted, you were condemned I'm liable, your spirit is within me Because you died in the cross
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Amazing Amazing love, how can it be That you my king would die for me Amazing love, I know it's true
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It's my joy to honor you in all I do.
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sing those words we might have been far off this morning from God and I'll walk with him not being as close as we could have been just in this moment with these words that we just don't sing a song but we make a prayer to God we can say you are my
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It's my joy to honor you.
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deeds and actions. We can recognize he's worth everything. His arms are wide open and he's raised to us just like father ran to his son right here.
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is to know this fresh embrace and find faith in life. And if you just take in your moment as we sing this song again, as we draw to a close, if as you stand on it, you lift your hands to Him, just in an act of surrender and devotion, we come with open hearts for Him to come and fill us with His Spirit. Hallelujah.
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Amazing Grace, how can it be? That you my King would die for me Amazing Grace, now know it's true It is my joy to honor you
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Amazing love, I need thee.
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And it's my joy to are with you in all my...
50:27
Jesus
50:43
Jesus
50:53
you
51:00
Jesus you are my King
51:09
You are my...
51:17
Jesus you are my King
51:25
You
51:41
But you might gain what you've got for me
51:53
You
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My joy to honor you is all I do
52:12
I'm forgiven because you were forsaken I accepted you were good then
52:27
Uh
52:30
The Spirit is with me, because you died for me again Amazing love, oh can it be That you my King would die for me
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Amazing love, I know it's true. It's my joy to honor you. In all I do, I honor you.
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Jesus.
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Your kingdom come and your will be done.
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I choose you God, above anything and everything. I choose you.
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know in the room today there might be some who maybe you feel as though you're still a spectator, maybe looking in on what's taking place and what's been said. And we wouldn't want anybody to do that. And if you'd like to know more, you'd like to just sit and have a little chat. We've got folks who are delighted to be able to just spend time with you. You need prayer.
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or something specifically, please would you just come and just come down to the front into this area down here and somebody will come along. One of the leaders will have their eyes open and they'll come and pray. But for the remainder of the day, John, thank you for your word to stir and encourage and sharpen us. Thank you so much. Hallelujah.
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And we know this, that we go out into a world to be the change, to be salt, to be light, to make a difference to each person that we come in. For those of us who know Jesus, we're here to be world changers. That's who we are. And go and sow seed, sow love, show mercy and grace to those around you, okay? Amen. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you. Please, there's drinks and refreshments. Take time if you don't know someone. Say hello.