Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Chroma Church podcast.
[00:00:05] When we started on this journey as a church, the Lord started changing some of our thinking. And one of the biggest head changes, the biggest things we had to change in what would go through our thinking was that when the presence of God was amongst us, the manifest presence of Jesus, where two or three are gathered there. Am I right? In the midst when his presence is there, he is so good. And we have to start thinking on a good God, not an angry God, and an understanding that God wants to bless his people, God is in a good mood and that when we gather, his heart pours out over us. And you might think you had to change that kind of thinking. Yes, we did. Because somehow there was a thinking that was going around that somehow God was angry and we were worms and that we had to beg for his forgiveness.
[00:01:17] And you might say, well, show me in the Bible where it says that God is good. Well, probably the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. He says, for God did not send his Son in the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. That people would meet Jesus, have their lives totally transformed inside out because. Because God loves people.
[00:01:53] And you see, wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, people's lives change for the better. Yes.
[00:02:03] Four of you, that's good to know.
[00:02:07] So when we've been talking and we've been talking about getting some of our thinking right on resource and on our finances, okay, when we start talking about God blessing us, sometimes people or those around us can go, oh, you're on dangerous ground. You know, you're becoming a friend of the world.
[00:02:37] You know, if you start talking about money and riches, you're, oh, that's of the world, you're going to get into trouble. That somehow, somehow if God blesses us, we are hand in hand with the world. And I just don't. I don't believe him.
[00:02:57] There are lots. Look, there are lots of wealthy people in this world who don't know Jesus and they believe that their wealth has come to them because they deserve it and through their hard work. That's not what we believe.
[00:03:13] In fact, we believe that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow or turning. James says of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might Be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
[00:03:38] What is James saying? James is saying that everything that comes to us, all of the good things that come to us come from the Father of lights. And they come to us so that we can display to the world the goodness of God. And that when people look at our lives and look at what happens when sin is forgiven, when his goodness breaks in, that they will look and they'll go, that's what I want. That's what I've always wanted. And we are a testimony of to him.
[00:04:12] And that's why we worship as we do, because we run down the front to worship because of his goodness in our life. It's an overflow of what he's doing.
[00:04:24] And you know, I want you to see this, you know, because, you know, people will.
[00:04:37] They'll sometimes talk about are you a prosperity church? Or what they'll say is you a prosperity gospel church? And I've read on the Internet or I heard on the Internet. That's not good. Okay, firstly, let me just say don't get your information from the Internet, okay? Get your information from where you are. There is lots of good stuff on the Internet and there's lots of terrible stuff on the Internet. Okay? But what I want to say is that the very same people who are down on God blessing the misery guts section of the church is a denomination, the misery guts are the same people that are down on us getting excited in worship, okay? Because the reason we're excited in worship is because of the goodness of God in our life.
[00:05:34] And so it bubbles over us. And they'll say, yeah, but it's emotion. Well, of course it's emotion.
[00:05:42] I'm really grateful for everything Jesus has done in my life. And emotion wells up. Now, some of you have more emotions than I do. Okay, that's fine. That's good. But there must be an emotional response to the goodness of God, otherwise you don't care.
[00:06:02] Okay, so let me answer this question. Are we a prosperity gospel church?
[00:06:08] And by that I assume what they mean is come to Jesus and get rich. And the answer is no and yes.
[00:06:20] Do you come to Jesus to get rich? No. But do you get rich when you come to Jesus? Yes. I think I said it last week because you become an heir and you can become an heir of the King of kings. And all of the riches and goodness of heaven are ours because we're sons and daughters of God. He enabled us to become children of God.
[00:06:39] So we become rich. That's really good news.
[00:06:46] Now then, the question is well, do you believe we should be prosperous?
[00:06:54] Yes.
[00:06:55] Yes, I do believe we should be prosperous. The Bible is clear. If you walk in the ways of God, he will bless you.
[00:07:04] And this morning, if I don't do anything else, I want to root this in your hearts. And I haven't got long, right? So get your Bibles out and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28.
[00:07:19] Why don't you stand? This is the word of God and you really are going to want to believe these words. Okay? So the phone counts. Just dial it up. Just check that I'm not pulling one. Over on. This is Deuteronomy 28, verse 1. Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments which I command you today. That the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Okay, just pause a moment. So God wants to bless, but there is a proviso. Walk with him. Obey his voice. What is he talking about? Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love your neighbour as yourself. Don't kill, don't. Don't steal, do not covet, don't commit adultery. Okay? He's saying, walk with me and the resource of heaven. Now then he says this. Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country, okay? So whether you live in the city, if you live here, you're going to be blessed. And if you're in the. Even the county, people are going to get blessed, okay?
[00:08:43] Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Okay? I mean, apart from the body bit, that's for the county, okay? Because we haven't got anywhere to put sheep, goats, all that kind of stuff in the city, okay? So the county people can have that one. Blessed shall be your bucket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses. It gets a bit more interesting for the city people. And in all to which you do set your hand. And he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he has sworn to you. If you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. There's the proviso again. Then all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you his good treasure the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head, not the tail. Aren't you fed up being a tail? Just wagging it in time to be the head. The blessings of God.
[00:10:45] And you shall be above only and not beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day to the right, to the left, to go after other gods, to serve them. Amen. Take a seat for a moment.
[00:11:13] Is that clear enough?
[00:11:15] Is there an inclination in the heart of God to bless us?
[00:11:19] You know, wouldn't that be a great declaration every morning for the next month for all of us to go through the blessings and declare them and then when we go to sleep to thank the Lord for the blessings that have come to give him praise. Now some of you, there might be some people going, ah, you see, there's always the. Not only is the misery guts in the kingdom, there's the, ah, you know, there's always a reason why, you know, and they go, ah, But Jesus says you have to give it all to the poor, okay? And absolutely he does. Luke 18:24 when the rich young rulers. I think we talked about it last week. When the rich young ruler comes to Jesus, he says, you still lack one thing. Sell all you have and distribute it to the poor. Okay? But then he says this and you will have treasure in heaven.
[00:12:17] Now come follow me.
[00:12:23] What's Jesus saying to the rich young ruler? He's saying, get rid of all the baggage of the world and you will have treasure in heaven. But now take my hand and walk with me.
[00:12:43] He's saying exactly the same as in Deuteronomy, walk with the Lord, obey his ways.
[00:12:54] You see, when you follow Jesus, you walk into the blessings and the people will go, where does it say that? All right. Verse 24. It just carries on. He carries on in this story. He says when Jesus saw that, he became very sorrowful, very sorrowful. He said how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God. What's he talking about?
[00:13:29] Probably theologians, commentators give all sorts of explanations that he's probably looking at a gate of an exit, that. That if a camel was going through it, that you would have to take all its load off in order for it to get through. And then you would load it up the other side. If you had a skinny camel, you're okay. Get straight through. Fat camels, no good. Okay. So you have to take the load off that they have to go through, because it was hard to get through that gate with all of the goods.
[00:14:04] And then those that heard it said, well, who can be saved then?
[00:14:09] And Jesus says this. The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. And then Pete, I love Pete because he's always got something to say at just the right time. He says, jesus, we've left everything to follow you. We've left it all behind. Look, the boats are all moored over there. You know, I don't even know who's keeping my dad's boats. Matthew's left the vault open. You know, we. Everything's gone and we're following you. What about us? This is what he says.
[00:14:41] Surely I say to you, when Jesus. When the Bible says that, you know, sometimes the RSV says, truly, truly. What Jesus is doing, taking a highlighter. He says, I want you to listen to this. There is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this, this present time and in the age to come, eternal life.
[00:15:07] Let me just read that again. Who shall receive many times more in this present time here and in the age to come, eternal life.
[00:15:18] You see, we're not a prosperity gospel church, but I believe the Lord loves to bless his kids so that we can be a blessing to the world.
[00:15:29] We're a city on a hill, shining and displaying the goodness of God.
[00:15:37] God wants to release his blessing amongst us. Now, really quick. The other thing that often upsets people when they come here is that we say the declarations. Because you're saying a declaration next to your offering.
[00:15:56] Why do you do that? And I Haven't talked about this for a long while. Why do we do this? Well, the main reason is the Lord told us to do it. I remember when we started this journey, we went out to Bethel Church in Reading, California. And Juliet forced me there because I didn't particularly want to go, but I loved it. But the one thing I hated was the declarations. There was something in me. I went bleh. I was in the ah camp.
[00:16:22] But the Lord wanted to change. And it was the one thing the Lord said, you're to do that. I want you to start doing that. So I bought it home. I have never upset so many people because our thinking had to change. I mean, you wouldn't believe how cross people got that we were making a declaration of the goodness of God. These are good godly Christians.
[00:16:46] And I remember one day a guy came up to me, he was a lovely man and he just said, these declarations, Steve, could we not water them down a bit?
[00:16:57] Could we not make them more English?
[00:17:00] This is a true story. So I printed one of them out because, you know, and I thought, well, how do we make them English jobs and better jobs? Lord, would you just give me an average job that's pretty miserable.
[00:17:21] Favor and friendships and Lord, I just pray that people would just tolerate me, speak about me behind my back and we could all be miserable.
[00:17:30] They liked the open door for the gospel as long as they didn't have to do it.
[00:17:37] Blessings at work, you know, I'm just very happy being miserable at work and being with everyone else.
[00:17:47] Raises and bonuses, you know, Lord, I don't need to take a rise. I'm very happy to work for nothing and a pittance. And my boss can take it all home, sales and commissions.
[00:17:59] Don't bless my business or my work colleagues or any those around us. It's much better when we're all miserable together.
[00:18:07] Estates and inheritances. Lord, just give the government any inheritance that's coming to me and let them waste. Then I don't have to.
[00:18:16] Okay.
[00:18:20] Miraculous provision, Lord, don't worry, I'll just suffer.
[00:18:25] God, I don't need your help. I'm just going to get through and I'll crawl into heaven.
[00:18:34] I love bit English, you know, interest and income tax, rebates and returns, checks in the postcards, gifts and surprises, finding money, debts paid off, expenses decrease. Bless and increase. You know, when we don't like that, what we're saying is, God, stay out of my finances. It's my money and I don't want you to do anything in my life. This is my area. You get out. I can't tell you how many people tell me that you don't get checks in the post anymore. That's because you don't see this decoration. I do.
[00:19:11] I had one a few, a few months ago. It was for £14, 50. Now, it didn't change my life, okay, but it made me happy because it was an insurance company from 1990, something that owed me £14, 50. And it made me really happy that some poor person had been searching through the computer files and had written me out a check to send it to me. Because why? God is good.
[00:19:38] And that day I just felt the goodness of God. It didn't. I mean, you know, you say, would it have made a difference if it was for a million pounds? Of course it would, but, you know, let it flow, but. But it was just such a nice thing to receive. Why? Because God loves me. And he was going, steve, I love you. And all those people that don't say declaration don't get checks in the post, but you do.
[00:20:09] Thank you, Lord, for meeting all of my financial needs, that I may have more than enough to give into the kingdom of God and promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the truth is, you know, what we were really saying was, thank you that I'm broke. I can't afford to sow into your kingdom, Lord, and I just hope heaven is better than earth.
[00:20:31] And that was our thinking.
[00:20:34] And the Lord said, we're going to change this. We're going to change the way you think that you understand my goodness and then the way you worship.
[00:20:45] You see, all I want to do this morning and I'm out of time, I want to.
[00:20:51] My notes say, I want to ferment in your heart. I actually meant cement, but I think ferment is a good word. I want to ferment in your hearts that God loves you. I want it to bubble up in your heart that God really loves you. He's for you. He desires to bless you and that you would be a testimony of his saving power and his goodness to the world. I have a friend. I'm going to call her Doris.
[00:21:18] She came to our church. It was our first church in Southend. And I can tell this story because once she's told it, but also I know the end. She was a teenager and she got involved in the wrong gang and she wanted to be an Olympic gymnast. And she was training to be a gymnast. She came from a really nice family, but she got the wrong boyfriend.
[00:21:50] He injected her with heroin and she became an addict And a prostitute and he was pimping her. She had a few babies, the children were taken away from her by social services and her life was a mess. There was someone in our church who lived next door to her. So she banged on her door and said, would you like to come to church? Initially she didn't want to come, but this person didn't give up. They kept inviting her to church. So she came to church, gave her life to Jesus and then she vanished for a year to 18 months. We didn't know if she died or what had happened to her. But what she'd done is she'd given her life to Jesus and she booked herself into a Christian rehab.
[00:22:34] Eighteen months later she comes back to church a different person, her face shining.
[00:22:41] I'm really moving fast. The courts awarded her children back to her. The judge made a statement in court that never before had. Have I awarded children back to an addict. Which the Daily Mail picked up because they saw that statement and wrote her story of what had happened without the God bit.
[00:23:03] And then I think it was presence and promise. This last presence and promise. She was here worshipping and she now, I think she has a master's degree.
[00:23:15] This is the saving power of Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus does.
[00:23:23] God wants to bless us.
[00:23:26] He wants to heal our lives. We were at revival prayer two weeks ago. Okay, that's a 30 year old story. Here's a two week old story. Young girl, sweet, beautiful young girl just came up. She was the first one up to give testimony and she'd written it all down. And she said, I came to Jesus six months ago. I was an alcoholic and there was no hope for my life. Jesus has come into my life and now I've been dry for six months and everything has changed. Jesus Christ, he changes lives.
[00:24:03] He wants to bless us, you see, as we declare the goodness of God, the testimony is released in our lives and he gets the glory.
[00:24:15] The world thinks they can sort the problems out. We know there is only one answer. Jesus, and he calls us to himself. This manifest Jesus in our lives may sometimes cause emotion. That's because we're alive.
[00:24:34] And when life comes into the human body, we have to worship, we have to cry out, we have to display it. For some people that may be an irritation. It was when the woman broke perfume over the feet of Jesus. Who does this woman think she is?
[00:24:55] The thing is, those that have forgiven much, love much. We have been forgiven a lot and we love a lot because he is breaking out in our life.
[00:25:08] Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge 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 Cromer Church.
