Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Crema Chaj podcast.
[00:00:08] Great, thanks. Take a seat, take a seat. So if you're a returning student, it's good to have you back. If you're a first time student, it's good to see you as well. We trust you've had a good summer. We do miss you through the summer.
[00:00:26] It might surprise you, Church does carry on without you, but it's always good to have you coming back.
[00:00:34] I think we had freshers this week, Leicester and I think DMU next week. So it's good to have you. Welcome back.
[00:00:44] First, let me just give you a little bit of building news. If you've been here through the summer, you know, we've been on a journey trying to get a building and it's.
[00:00:54] I'm going to start off with the disappointing bit first and then we'll move on to some other things. You know, we've been running after College Court a new building for us to meet in over the summer and unfortunately a large donation that we have been, that had been pledged hasn't yet materialized into our bank account.
[00:01:14] So any of you, it's an old film now, seen the Jerry Maguire film, Show me the money.
[00:01:20] You know, and so that hasn't come into our account. Over the last three months we had conversations with two large donors. The first one was just after Presence and Promise, which is when, if some of you just come back, most of you were here for Presence and Promise and they really wanted to use the site and purchase the site with us if they were going to and run a business out of it. And that's not really us.
[00:01:48] We're a church, we want to worship Jesus. We're not really business people. The second one looked much more hopeful. So the trustees who look after all the finances of the church, receive legal and financial advice and we've been working with Stewardship Services, which is the second largest Christian bank in the uk, to process funds.
[00:02:13] Sadly this week they had still not received the appropriate paperwork in order to process funds.
[00:02:21] So I had to inform the university who we're buying off of that we're not in a position yet to exchange contracts and they've given us a little bit of leeway.
[00:02:34] So we can't exchange contracts this time because we don't have funds.
[00:02:39] We know there are two higher offers than ours on the table, so it is fully likely the university might pursue these.
[00:02:48] Just to be clear, no church money or funds have been lost or put at risk in any way through this.
[00:02:54] And because of the giving of the church here, we're now in a much stronger position.
[00:03:00] But we have not yet seen the miracle that we need this week. We're going to regroup, look at our options. And let me say, the story is not finished yet.
[00:03:13] We've been in this place before. All right? So that's just one of those things. But we're praying still for the same miracle, and we'll pray at the end. And I want to say I'm incredibly grateful for the team of people who've been working on this project really tirelessly over the last 14 weeks.
[00:03:33] And it's disappointing. And what we've been doing over the last six weeks or so is going through some of the teachings of Jesus. And what I'm trying to do is live through this process in front of you, okay? Because this is life.
[00:03:54] This is how we live life. And sometimes we face disappointments.
[00:04:00] Sometimes we hit those times where we go, oh, that's not what I had hoped would happen. And the reason I'm doing that is I've had the privilege of walking with Jesus now for nearly 50 years.
[00:04:13] And I've been through all of the ups and downs and seen the highs and the lows, but every point, he has remained faithful.
[00:04:23] He is always faithful. But sometimes it feels like there is a delay, and that can feel like disappointment. But what I have learned is even in the disappointment, life is not far away. He brings the miracle.
[00:04:40] Do you remember the two guys?
[00:04:43] Jesus has been crucified and the news of the resurrection is just getting out. And there's two guys that are walking along the Emmaus road after the crucifixion. Remember that story? It's Luke 24. Get your Bibles and open up to Luke 24. And if you've got it on a phone that counts, if you've got it in paper, you get a double blessing. And why don't you stand as we read the Bible? Okay. And let me just say, the reason we stand here when we read the Bible is this is the word of God.
[00:05:19] You know, I'll offer some of my words. My words are here.
[00:05:23] His Word is here.
[00:05:25] Okay?
[00:05:26] This is the word of God that we live our lives by.
[00:05:30] So Luke chapter 24. And we're going to read from verse 13.
[00:05:36] Now, behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
[00:05:53] Wow.
[00:05:54] There's a prayer when you're on A journey, isn't it?
[00:05:57] But their eyes were restrained, so they did not know him.
[00:06:02] And he said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?
[00:06:09] Then one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have not known the things which have happened here in these days?
[00:06:20] And he said to them. What things?
[00:06:23] They said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.
[00:06:38] But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Let me read that.
[00:06:45] We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel.
[00:06:51] Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes. And certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find his body. They came saying they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.
[00:07:09] And certain of those who were with us and certain of those who were with us at start went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said.
[00:07:18] But him they did not see.
[00:07:20] Then he said to them, o foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe. And all the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
[00:07:41] Then they drew near to the village where they were going. And he indicated that he would have gone further.
[00:07:47] But they constrained him, saying, abide with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. And he went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them. He took bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. And he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the Scriptures to us?
[00:08:18] Amen.
[00:08:20] Take a seat.
[00:08:25] But we were hoping that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
[00:08:35] The hope that we have in our lives. And sometimes when that hope doesn't realize what we thought it might, immediately there is this disappointment that can come upon us. And that's why they were sad. And Jesus says, why are you sad?
[00:08:54] Proverbs 13 says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when the desire comes, it is the Tree of life or it is a tree of life. I should say the key word here is deferred. Proverbs doesn't say that hope makes the heart sick. It is the hope being delayed.
[00:09:15] You expected something, you prayed for something, you believed with all your heart for something.
[00:09:23] And the anticipated moment keeps moving further back.
[00:09:27] Ever experienced that you have, we all have.
[00:09:32] That's normal life, you know. King David prays this again and again. How long, Lord? How long, Lord? How long is this going to go on for in the Psalms and you see, when we're praying for something and it seems not to come, we can become weary.
[00:09:52] That's very different from unbelief.
[00:09:54] Just in the waiting we can get tired.
[00:09:59] And I want to say something to you all.
[00:10:02] Without faith, you will not get anything done in the kingdom of God. We must have faith. But you know, I don't know that you can have faith without disappointment.
[00:10:16] I don't think you can have faith without being disappointed sometimes. Because our hope is often delayed as we learn to walk in faith.
[00:10:26] That's how faith works. There's a delay in what we've asked for.
[00:10:31] And so there is this testing and we trust God.
[00:10:37] You see, it's a hope in Christ that overcomes unbelief, producing faith.
[00:10:45] But in the process, there is often times of disappointment.
[00:10:50] Let me give you some examples.
[00:10:55] Some of you, you will know the story we've been on as a church. Some of you, some of you won't.
[00:11:02] About four, five years ago, the Holy Spirit spoke to us and said, you're to do altar calls in every service.
[00:11:12] So we started at the end of every service and we'll do it again today. Inviting anybody that wanted to give their life to Jesus to, to walk forward.
[00:11:23] And guess what happened?
[00:11:26] Nothing.
[00:11:28] We started inviting people to come forward. No one came forward.
[00:11:33] That was alright. For the first service we did it, you know, we thought 9:30 service, it's okay, people are sleepy there. People will come forward. 11:30, no one. Well, surely 5:30, no one. For six months no one walked forward.
[00:11:53] I was disappointed.
[00:11:56] It was like, you know, on the stage, I'm like, oh, thank you Lord. Lord, it's okay. We're just going to do this at home. I'm like, lord, this is, I'm dying here.
[00:12:08] You made us do this. You told us we got to do this. Why are you not coming through on what you said you would do?
[00:12:17] And I can still remember the morning where some, you know, we had, I don't know, it may have been nine. I can't remember how long it was, at least six months when that one person walked forward to give their life to Jesus. And the whole room just exploded of six months of anticipation for what God would do. This poor guy, you know? But it was a glimpse into what's happening in heaven. Because when one person comes to Christ, all of heaven celebrates. Why? Because that's what Jesus came to do.
[00:12:50] That's why Jesus came to the earth. That's why he lived amongst us, gave his life on the cross so that men and women could know God and have a relationship with him. But what if we'd given up at five months?
[00:13:05] What if calling people forward and no one coming forward and the letters I used to get, you're doing it all wrong. And what if we just stopped then at five months?
[00:13:16] If we'd have stopped then at the five months, the over 1,000 people that have walked forward in the last few years wouldn't have been able to give their lives to Jesus.
[00:13:25] You see, sometimes there is a waiting and there is a disappointment in the waiting because we haven't seen what God said yet, but we have to push through it.
[00:13:40] And then he spoke to us about praying for the sick. Well, he never said pray for the sick. He said, heal the sick.
[00:13:49] And so we. And I remember I have some friends in Colombia. I spend a little bit of time out in the church there. They've been so encouraging to me. And we were in the car one day and we're driving, and one of the pastors there said to me, you know, I watch your live stream. And that's the problem, isn't it? You know, don't you? We used to be able to go to church and just go to church. Now it's everywhere.
[00:14:14] Everyone's putting their comments on what they think about it all.
[00:14:18] Anyway, he says, I've been watching your live stream and I love your times of adoration. He meant the worship thing. And then he said, you not so good.
[00:14:31] I'm like, I've come here to get encouraged.
[00:14:35] What do you mean? Maybe I missed it in translation because he was speaking Spanish.
[00:14:40] But no, no, no, he meant it. He meant it. And I said, what do you mean? What do you mean? What have I done?
[00:14:47] And he said, we have laid our hands on you and anointed you to heal the sick, and you're not doing it.
[00:14:53] I said, I am.
[00:14:55] He says, no, you're not. I watched and I said, but it's hard.
[00:15:00] We're leading people to Jesus now.
[00:15:03] And he says, yes, but we have laid it. You have the anointing to heal the sick and you're wasting it.
[00:15:09] God has said.
[00:15:12] So we came back here and we started trying to pray for the sick. And guess what happened?
[00:15:18] No one got healed.
[00:15:20] Same people coming forward. I mean, now the sick are coming forward, but they're not getting healed. That's worse than no one coming forward. You know that, right? At least when you weren't giving your lives to Jesus, you were standing in your seat. Now I've got a lot of sick people and they're going, okay, heal me.
[00:15:35] And I'm like, my pocket's empty. I can't do this.
[00:15:40] Do you know one of the things of healing the sick in the church is we can't do it. Which means we keep our eyes on Jesus.
[00:15:50] If he's not here, we can't do it.
[00:15:54] So we need his presence. That's why we sing those present songs. If you're not here, Lord. Anyway, so again, I'm out walking and I'm praying, I'm going, lord, it's not working. Why is no one getting healed? And I remember him saying really clearly to me, there's too much unbelief in the room.
[00:16:12] I went, what? In our church, you know, I can understand, you know, one over there somewhere. But our church, he says, he says, what I want you to do is I want you to write a Holy Spirit song and I want you to sing it when you pray for the sick. And I will come and they will associate that song with healing and faith will rise in the room. And I went, really?
[00:16:36] So I said to the guys, write a song. And they wrote Beautiful Face, the song we just did. And guess what? Slowly the sick started to get healed. I remember one morning, it was so cool. It was 9:30 service. I mean, who'd think God would be up to heal the sick at 9:30? But he was. And this lady. And it wasn't, it was right at the early days, there weren't lots of people there. And she brought him. He'd had a stroke and he couldn't speak.
[00:17:02] And she brought him up for the healing bit. And he starts to speak. She's crying, she's so excited. And we tested it because then when we gave the call for salvation, he walked up and he said to sinners, proud, that's what God does.
[00:17:18] What if we'd have given up? Do you understand? What if we'd have given up and said, this is just too hard. You see in the waiting there's sometimes this sick feeling of, lord, why are you not doing what you're saying you're going to do, that's what Proverbs is talking about.
[00:17:40] This hope deferred makes the heart sick.
[00:17:43] It's this feeling inside, and we've all felt it.
[00:17:47] In fact, when we went after this building, in fact, we didn't go after this building. We went after a building on Houston Road, which is the next road along from here. When we went after that, and we were a whole year's process of trying to buy it and get it. And then we were just at Contracts and our solicitors, there were some things on the land, or so they said, you can't sign this.
[00:18:08] You can't go. You can't do this. And we were like, no. And I remember just the disappointments.
[00:18:15] And then within a month, this building came up.
[00:18:19] It had the right planning and everything. And we've been here for 12 years.
[00:18:26] You see stepping stones of faith to life.
[00:18:32] But there are times of disappointment that lead to faith.
[00:18:38] And it's that journey of pushing through the disappointments into the life.
[00:18:45] Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But the tree of life, and it takes us back to the Garden of Eden. It speaks of life, renewal, fruitfulness and restoration.
[00:18:58] You see, fulfilled longing can breathe life back into places that prolonged waiting has exhausted.
[00:19:08] Let me say that again.
[00:19:10] Fulfilled longing can breathe life back into places that prolonged waiting has exhausted. You see, when you're waiting for God to do what God is going to do, what he said he's going to do, we can become weary.
[00:19:26] And it's okay.
[00:19:28] The Bible understands that. Remember the Garden of Gethsemane? The disciples were weary.
[00:19:33] They kept falling asleep.
[00:19:35] The Bible understands that. But there's a beautiful tension in this verse. You see, the delay in God moving can sometimes really hurt. But it doesn't mean a hope will not be realized.
[00:19:50] Just because we've got that sick feeling doesn't mean God isn't going to do what he's going to do.
[00:19:57] And this is really significant because the Bible gives us permission to.
[00:20:04] To feel sick in waiting.
[00:20:06] It's okay.
[00:20:07] It's okay. It's not unbelief. You just get this, Lord, are you really going to do this, Lord?
[00:20:13] And that sick feeling causes us to cry out to God all the more without concluding that the waiting is the end of the story.
[00:20:23] Because it's not.
[00:20:25] The waiting is often the beginning of the story.
[00:20:30] And one of the things I do is when I'm in these places where there's a disappointment and we've all been there, right? You know, it's not worked out how you think. And I was in one of those places this week, and I'm like, oh, God. And I look for little gifts that God gives along the way because the Lord is always encouraging us. And it just turned out that this week we had a little team, and we were in Greece, and we were doing. On Tuesday nights, we do a thing called revival prayer. And every now and again, we'll go and do it somewhere. And someone. We were some. We had some Greek people studying here, and they. Five years ago, they said, would you come to Greece and do this? And it was at Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki, yes.
[00:21:17] And you know, that's the place that threw Paul out when he preached. This could be cool.
[00:21:25] And then they took me to Berea, where Paul, when he gets thrown out of Thessaloniki, he goes and preaches in Berea and stays there for a few years, and then he goes, and then he's in Philippi.
[00:21:39] And anyway, so we were in Philippi on the last day, and we were walking around the ruins of Philippi, the place where Paul casts the demon out of the slave girl and gets put into prison.
[00:21:53] And do you remember that story? We went through acts, I don't know, recently.
[00:21:58] And I remember the Holy Spirit speaking through. I was in Philippi. I was in the. And I was looking at what they say was the prisoner. Look, who knows if it was? But it would have been that area. Okay, it would have been that area that he was in. And I remember. And the Holy Spirit literally spoke to me this week, and he said, paul had a worse day than you and I.
[00:22:23] That's true.
[00:22:25] Paul had a worse day than me. And what did Paul do? He was with Silas.
[00:22:29] They're in prison. They're locked, and at midnight, they're like this, singing songs and worshiping and thanking the Lord. I think Paul was disappointed.
[00:22:39] I don't think Paul, when he cast the demon out of the slave girl and set her free in the name of Jesus Christ, expected to be in prison that night. But that's where he ended up. But Paul isn't like, oh, I think he. I bet he felt that sick feeling when they shut the doors. But him and Silas just worshiped and worshiped. And as they worshiped, the doors open.
[00:23:01] And as I say, I don't know if I stood outside the actual place where the doors opened, but it was in that area.
[00:23:08] What an incredible privilege.
[00:23:11] My day wasn't as bad as Paul's, and I follow the same Jesus that Paul followed. So I look for these. And that was the little gift of God. Here I am, I'm in Philippi. I'm walking where Paul walked. And I might be disappointed at the moment because we haven't seen the miracle we needed yet, but God is still God.
[00:23:36] See, there's always a tension in the kingdom. The delay really can hurt, but it doesn't mean the hope will never come.
[00:23:44] See, it's okay to feel a sickness in waiting without concluding the waiting is the end of the story.
[00:23:52] The men on the road were sick with disappointment thinking this is the end for us.
[00:24:01] But actually it was the beginning of the story because Jesus had been raised from the dead.
[00:24:07] Jesus was walking alongside of them.
[00:24:10] Do you know? Look, lots of people have heard a gospel that Jesus will sort all your problems out.
[00:24:19] It is my understanding that Jesus isn't going to sort any of your problems out except one.
[00:24:26] Your sin.
[00:24:28] Jesus will sort your sin out by forgiving you of your sin and giving you a brand new life.
[00:24:35] He's not going to sort your problems out. He's going to walk with you through your problems and teach you how to overcome.
[00:24:45] The gospel is that Jesus comes into our life and walks with us.
[00:24:52] And it's not that he makes life easy.
[00:24:55] He is now our strength within. And he teaches us how to overcome the difficulties of life. He doesn't remove them.
[00:25:05] Yeah, the front three rows, they're good with it. The rest are going. Really?
[00:25:12] That's not what you told me when I had when I walked down. No, it is. It is what I told you.
[00:25:18] So how should we keep walking in faith? Let me go back. You cannot get anything of heaven done on earth without faith.
[00:25:26] Yet learning to walk in faith will require waiting.
[00:25:32] And this waitin is often accompanied with a sick feeling. God, are you gonna come through? But when the hope is realized, it brings life. That's what that proverb is about.
[00:25:45] So if we're not willing to obey the Holy Spirit and sometimes apparently fail, nothing can be accomplished. Whenever you hear the voice and try to obey the Holy Spirit, there is a chance of failure.
[00:26:01] When we started this church 18 years ago in our front room, we said this. We want this to be a safe place, but also a dangerous place.
[00:26:11] Safe so that you can encounter Jesus and receive his healing into your life, but dangerous so that you will learn to trust him and get to do the things you never thought you could.
[00:26:24] It's safe for healing, it's safe for salvation, but it's dangerous in that he's going to take you places you never thought you you could go.
[00:26:34] So what do I do in the Waiting. I'm going to go really quick.
[00:26:37] When I hear the Holy Spirit speak to me, I trust his voice. I know his voice. I've walked with him now for 50 years.
[00:26:45] I do what he says in faith.
[00:26:48] So the altar calls. You know, people would send me emails and notes and go, steve, you're doing it all wrong. You're doing it all wrong. Don't. Haven't you watched how evangelists do it and how this person does it? How this person, you know, they get everyone, you know, they preach the gospel, get everyone to close their eyes, bow their heads, and then anyone who wants to give their life to Jesus, they get to put their hands up, and then you trick them forward. What you do is you then say, right, anyone put their hands up, come forward, and then they have to come.
[00:27:14] And I go. The problem is, that's not what he told me to do.
[00:27:18] He was really clear because I'm in a local church, I'm not in a stadium.
[00:27:22] He said, just simply ask them to come forward and they'll start walking, they'll walk forward.
[00:27:27] So I. I listen to his voice and I do what he says.
[00:27:36] Number two, when it doesn't look like it's going how I hoped, I check my dials.
[00:27:44] So, you know, in your car, you're driving along, you've got loads of lights and dials. Depending on how flash your car is, it might even talk to you now and tell you what's wrong. So when I look at my dash and I check there's no red lights on my dash when I'm driving, you know, I pray, lord, is this really you?
[00:28:02] You know, would you just give me the peace? Lord, if this is you, I will keep going. But if I've misheard and I've gone a bit wonky somewhere, but please, just, Lord, show me it's you.
[00:28:12] I use my Bible to check my dials. One of the things, if I'm in a situation that's not working, I often try and find one of the Bible guys and I'll try and find their story so I can see my story in their story.
[00:28:25] Okay? So I'm looking and checking that, because this is God's word. And you will find every story of your life is in here.
[00:28:34] He's put it all. This is a manual for life. Proverbs actually calls this.
[00:28:39] This is your operation manual for life.
[00:28:42] You know, so. And then what I'm looking is, how did the Bible guys do it?
[00:28:47] And then the third thing is I take counsel, people I trust, you know, and I'll ask them, am I off beam or, you know, or am I just feeling uncomfortable? You know, in a few weeks, you're going to meet a friend of ours who's going to come speak. Hugh Osgood. He was the moderator for the free church. He's, you know, he's. All of his life, he served the church, a wonderful Bible teacher, and he's been so helpful on our journey that when, you know, things are getting weird here and all the prayer and all the shouting, I go, is this okay, Hugh? And he says, oh, yeah, this happened for centuries, you know, since the time of the Holy Spirit's come.
[00:29:28] Don't worry. So I take counsel thought number four. I keep my eyes on Jesus, giving thanks and praise because it's your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and we bring heaven to earth. So just as Paul and Silas were praising, that's what I do. I did it this morning. I'm walking around, you know, in the city we've got, living in the old village bit and just saying, God, you're amazing. You're amazing. I just lift my praises up to him. It's not looking like I'd hoped, but, lord, you're amazing. And then the last thing is keep going until he says, stop.
[00:30:05] And what I do is I, you know, when it doesn't look down, I just brush myself down and it feels like it's. It's not working. I just brush myself down, Lord, I trust you.
[00:30:16] I'm going to follow you. And because I've learned when the desire comes, it's a tree of life. When God breaks through, it's, this is what I was made to do.
[00:30:29] This is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. But I have to go through the waiting times where I'm crying out to God. Does this make sense?
[00:30:41] So here we are with the disappointment on our building at the moment.
[00:30:45] Am I going to let the sickness overcome my hope? No way. It's just a setback.
[00:30:53] Remember the storm we talked about a few weeks? Is Jesus in the boat or outside the boat? As long as you know where Jesus is. If Jesus is asleep in the boat, you're okay. If he's out on the boat calling you out, get out and walk on water.
[00:31:04] It's fine.
[00:31:06] Just need to know where he is.
[00:31:08] So we said. So one of the things we said in all our vision stuff, I'm nearly done. We would plant churches and start a worship school. That's what we were going to do with that area immediately. Okay, well, last weekend we had our leaders gathering here and we had 67 people in a room interested in church planting. How cool is that?
[00:31:29] Yes.
[00:31:30] And then the last glory night, we had over 700 young people in this room worshiping. And the next one is like booking up.
[00:31:40] You see, we don't need college court to do what the Holy Spirit has said.
[00:31:47] We do what he said and Jesus will provide the building.
[00:31:51] That's how it works.
[00:31:54] I'm more determined to do it now than I was before because the Lord has said, you see, faith refuses to let disappointment stop us obeying Jesus.
[00:32:09] I feel the pain of it, but my trust in the Lord outweighs the sick feeling, enabling me to push into the life of God. And that's what I'm trying to model week in, week out, so that you just starting out, some of you just starting out, your Christian lives will know that's the process we all go through. We are not scared to fail. And if we do, we simply brush ourselves down. We check our dials, we keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus and we run after him by giving him all the praise.
[00:32:45] And I'm really grateful to you lot who are always willing to take this journey with us, because this is the walk of the Christian life.
[00:32:56] I'm done. Why don't you stand up?
[00:33:00] Thanks for listening to the Cromer Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship, and how to donate, visit our website at Chroma Church.
