Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Crema Chaj podcast.
[00:00:08] Thank you. Take a seat.
[00:00:12] I want to talk to you a little bit about this church family and a little bit of direction where I think the Lord is calling us over the next few years. But first, we've been talking about sowing and reaping, and I thought you'd like a nice reaping story.
[00:00:35] We were at.
[00:00:38] In Germany. Yes, Joel and I in Germany at future Conference at Awakening Church yesterday. And there was a couple who were giving their testimony.
[00:00:50] And basically they felt the Lord talk to them about starting a business.
[00:00:57] And they told of lots of business failures that they'd had. You know, it wasn't. They tried things and it hadn't worked. And anyway, in Covid, this lady's husband said, oh, you know, we should. We should sell your clothes because you always look nice.
[00:01:16] And he didn't mean, you know, we're going to sell your clothes. But he just said, and it's a good thing. Husbands say, say to your wife, you always look nice.
[00:01:24] But he said, you know, you know how to dress.
[00:01:28] We could sell. We could sell this.
[00:01:30] So she went onto the Internet and she wasn't a designer, and she started learning how to design clothes. And she, you know, with CAD and all that stuff, she starts drawing them. And God blessed them.
[00:01:47] In five years, their company has gone from nothing to one of the Forbes top 300 companies.
[00:01:56] And they're Christians and they love Jesus.
[00:02:01] And they said that when it all started going crazy, they were just working out of their garage.
[00:02:08] They couldn't even afford their own house, and they were living with parents. They'd got married.
[00:02:14] And he said that there were days when they were packing in a thousand orders a day. They got up and they just packed orders until they went. Until they went to bed. And then the Lord has blessed them and blessed them. And now they. Now they are leading lots of their employees to Jesus. They've got Christian employees, ones that aren't Christians.
[00:02:36] And God has opened up the floodgates of heaven.
[00:02:41] He wants to do it with you.
[00:02:45] He can do it.
[00:02:47] Just a simple idea.
[00:02:50] They had lots of failures, but they just kept going and they kept pushing through.
[00:02:56] And here is a wonderful story. So what I want to do first, we've been doing a series which I want to bring to a close today. But I want to summarize what I've been teaching about sowing and reaping.
[00:03:12] And it started right in January when we talked about God being the great sower. He sows liberally. The seed falls by the wayside stony places, among some thorns, but others fell on good ground and yielded a crop.
[00:03:31] A hundred, some sixty, some thirty. And Jesus says to him, who has ears to hear, let him hear.
[00:03:41] You see, God is looking for good soil.
[00:03:44] Receptive hearts to those who believe his words and want to accomplish his purposes.
[00:03:51] You see, obedience is always better than sacrifice.
[00:03:57] 2 Chronicles 16. I love this verse. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.
[00:04:10] That when we have good soil, when our heart is loyal to him, he shows Himself strong to us.
[00:04:19] And then we talked about the measures and generosity. And do you remember? We got a tape measure.
[00:04:25] I got a brand new tape measure. We got a big, big tape measure. Why? Because with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. So you need to have a big measure. You need big hearts. We need to show lots of grace and generosity.
[00:04:42] Because just as God has done that to each of us, he has completely cleared our debt of sin. That's the whole Easter story.
[00:04:52] We were sinners. We were enemies of God. And because of the cross of Jesus, our sin was plain placed on the Son of God.
[00:05:02] And when he cries out, my God, my God, where are you? For the first place, first time in the whole of creation that the Son didn't know the presence of the Father. Why? Because the sin of the world was on him. The Father hadn't gone anywhere. And Jesus pays the price for our sin. And he dies on the cross. And our sin is buried in the ground. And next Sunday night, we're going to baptize some of you. Okay?
[00:05:29] But it didn't stop there. Then Jesus rises from the dead. Why? So that we can have a new life. We don't stay in the ground.
[00:05:37] We're not in the ground with our sin. He rises us. He raises us up.
[00:05:43] So why must we have a good measure? Because he has done so much. He has forgiven us. Therefore, we must forgive others the same way he gave us our sins, the things we've done. We forgive, forgive others.
[00:05:58] You see, Jesus says it's the year of jubilee.
[00:06:01] What's he talking about? It's the year when debts are cancelled.
[00:06:05] And then we said, don't get discouraged.
[00:06:09] Especially when you see the wicked prosper. Have you ever noticed that sometimes it feels it's not fair?
[00:06:16] You know, it doesn't matter whether you're good or bad, they still prosper. And what we said was, well, how much more does God want to bless the righteous if the Wicked, prosper.
[00:06:31] You know, you are sown of God.
[00:06:35] He is your Father in heaven. He has made you righteous by the blood of his son, so that you can shine like the sun in your Father's kingdom.
[00:06:47] So don't get discouraged, but rather seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you, Jesus says.
[00:06:58] And then we talked about it's important to get our giving right of what we sow in. And, oh, boy, did I get in trouble for that one. You know, they're online. You know, people don't like talking about money in the United Kingdom. And, you know, there was a little bit of backlash. It wasn't too bad from here. Only a few people threw things.
[00:07:21] But, you know, the whole idea of that we bring 10% of everything that the Lord gives us back to him, we bring it in thankfulness, Deuteronomy says, because it is he who gives us power, who gives you power to get wealth.
[00:07:43] Everything comes from Him. You know, one of the reasons we give an opportunity for people to come to Faith every week and we heal the sick every week is to remain dependent upon God.
[00:08:04] So, you know, how do we keep in his presence? How do we keep gathering around Him?
[00:08:12] Every time somebody walks forward and gives their life to Jesus, it kind of grounds. Any of you ever had babies?
[00:08:21] Oh, no. Come on, you had a baby. Yeah. I mean, it messes your life up completely, right?
[00:08:27] Everything has to change.
[00:08:29] Well, and there's a grounding when you have a baby. So when you're having babies every week, it keeps your feet on the ground.
[00:08:40] But then we pray for the sick every week, and we can't heal anyone.
[00:08:47] We can make nice music and we can do all sorts of things, but we cannot heal anyone. Only he can.
[00:08:53] So our feet are on the ground, but we have to look to heaven, because every time you walk up, we're going, God, if you don't show up and if you don't do something, we're in trouble.
[00:09:03] So the reason that everything we do as we gather around the presence and preaching the gospel in healing the sick, is to keep our dependence on him so that he remains the center of everything we do. And the tithe is part of that.
[00:09:22] Lord, everything you've given me, I'm giving you this back because my dependence is on you.
[00:09:27] Everything I have comes from you. And then we talked about the mustard seed that is the smallest of seeds, but grows into a tree, and that we shouldn't despise small beginnings because the kingdom of God started small, yet it permeates Every area of society, through worship, through justice, through leadership, through creativity, business, teaching, and even the evangelistic preaching of the Gospel and the news of Jesus Christ.
[00:09:58] But it starts small and it falls into the ground, and it starts to grow, and it starts to make a change wherever the rule and reign of Jesus is.
[00:10:10] And then Juliet spoke. She spoke about sowing for the tabernacle. Do you remember? She looked around and she said, have you seen the state of this carpet?
[00:10:19] I think I blame the youth, personally.
[00:10:22] But there's coffee stains. That's why we have the lights low, so you can't see. But this is the. The sanctuary of God.
[00:10:30] You know, every time we gather, we welcome the presence of God in. And it should look nice and it shouldn't have stains. And we need a. And one of the reasons we hadn't done some of the carpets was we didn't know where we were going to be. Are we going to be here? Are we going to be there? And she was saying, the Lord says, it doesn't matter.
[00:10:48] What matters is today, what matters is now. And you might say, well, that was a month ago. And you haven't done anything with the carpet. We've actually started. If you. If you're going to sort the house out, you start from the top and work down, okay? So you should have noticed there's painting happening all over the place.
[00:11:05] And then we'll do the carpet. But you don't do the carpet first and then paint. Really bad idea. It's going to be very expensive for you if you do that.
[00:11:14] And so there is a transformation happening here. And then she talked about the person who finds a treasure in a field, and the treasure is so precious to them that they sell all they have to buy the field. Jesus, that Jesus, everything I have is for you. I must possess you.
[00:11:37] We just sang it. You are the center.
[00:11:39] You are everything we need.
[00:11:42] And then. So then a few weeks ago, we talked about, well, supposing I'm going to need seed.
[00:11:47] What happens? You know, you want to do something, you want to give, you want to sow, you want to do something, but you haven't got any.
[00:11:54] And so Paul writes to the Corinthians. He says, now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.
[00:12:05] What he says, see, you haven't got any seed to sow. Well, ask the Lord. Ask the great Sower. Remember the one who sows liberally, seed goes everywhere. I mean, he's doing it on rocks and thorns and pathways. He's got plenty to spare, so ask him for some seed.
[00:12:20] And loads of you took seed home. Remember we took all the grass seed home. And you're going to sow it and you're going to get a crop. You didn't pay anything for that. I gave it to you.
[00:12:30] And the Father will give us our seed to sow.
[00:12:36] So you know how well, you say, well, how does that work? Well, we just made a declaration. You know, sometimes we say, you know, checks in the post, gifts and surprises, you know, so you ask him for seed to sow and the Lord provides for you. You're checking, the post comes. Now you've got a choice. Do I just spend it or do I sow it?
[00:12:56] Because what he's doing is he's giving you seed to sow. So you sow it and then you reap more. Every farmer will tell you that. It's a principle.
[00:13:06] And then last week we talked about the unfruitful things. Fig tree.
[00:13:13] Jesus finds a beautiful looking fig tree, but there's no fruit on it. So he curses it and it withers away.
[00:13:22] And we said that Jesus is talking about his church and he requires his church and his people to be fruitful, not just looking good.
[00:13:34] It's not about just having all our ducks in a row. It's that actually we produce fruit.
[00:13:40] And we said that real spiritual fruit comes from prayer.
[00:13:44] My house should be a house of prayer. It comes from healing. We just explained why healing the sick, the sick came to him. It comes from praise.
[00:13:52] Because when we start to praise, the mountains don't seem as big because we're looking at them from heaven's perspective, not up from earth's perspective. And that God inhabits the praises of his people.
[00:14:11] And then we said the last thing was, you know, Jesus is coming back.
[00:14:16] And it's interesting that Jesus says, you know, what will the Son of Man find when he returns? And you think, well, holiness, big churches, lots of people, safe. That's not what he says. He says, will he find faith on earth?
[00:14:30] Will he find a people that believe Him? A people that have faith in his name?
[00:14:36] And of course, our answer is, you bet.
[00:14:41] Why? Because his word has fallen on good soil of our lives, our hearts are ready to receive him and we're ready for a harvest of righteousness. Yes, that's actually better than normal.
[00:14:55] I'm going to, in a couple of weeks I'm going to do a talk on testimony and response.
[00:15:02] It's only for English people. Okay. That don't know how to respond. Okay, we're going to take that. I'm kidding. No, but I seriously, I'm going to talk about it. So next week is Easter Sunday, and at our Easter Sunday services, we're going to take up our Easter offering to sow for the future.
[00:15:24] And many of you have already started giving and sowing, and I thank you so much.
[00:15:29] But what we're asking you to do is to sow and look to towards the future of what God is doing.
[00:15:36] We need a permanent home for this church.
[00:15:40] It's not for me, it's not even for you. It's for our children.
[00:15:46] Over 10 years ago, when we moved in here, the church was about 300 people and they gave about £750,000 so that we could do this, what we did here.
[00:16:00] Now we need to raise about 4 million to buy a new home. And God is going to do a miracle.
[00:16:07] And you say, well, why do we need to do it now? Because we don't quite know where we're going.
[00:16:13] One of the things that has been a hurdle to us is that when we look at places we're not really considered because we don't have the money in the bank.
[00:16:25] We need to have some reserves in the bank to do this.
[00:16:30] But there are also a number of possibilities that are opening up. So we need to be ready, which is why we're doing this now.
[00:16:38] I'm told that as we've gone through this series, sometimes people feel uncomfortable, and especially whenever we talk about money and resources and buying things in England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland. I think Gibraltar's fine.
[00:16:56] Sun shines there all the time, but people get a bit. A bit panicky and a bit nervous. But do you know, when my children were younger, I had to have the difficult conversations with them.
[00:17:13] And as the church grows, sometimes I have to have the difficult conversations with you. And one of them is about money. I remember when my kids were young, I had to talk to them about getting a job.
[00:17:28] And they're like, why you pay for everything.
[00:17:34] Your credit card, we can go anywhere. And it works.
[00:17:41] Excuse me.
[00:17:42] I remember giving them as teenagers a credit card for emergencies. Anyone ever done that? What I failed to do was to explain what an emergency is, because what they think an emergency is, why I think an emergency is two totally different things.
[00:17:57] Anyway, I said, no, you need to get a job. And he goes, why do we need to get a job? Because you need to get a work ethic.
[00:18:03] You're going to have to earn money one day. And Live. And if you want to go out with your friends, you're going to have to do this.
[00:18:09] So Joel was the oldest. So I said, joel, go and get a job. You need to go and get a job. I don't want to get a job. You need to get a job.
[00:18:15] So he went away and he went away and thought about it. I said, get a job in his shop, Serve people. It'd be really good for you. Build up your Christian faith.
[00:18:24] A couple of weeks later, he comes back with one of his friends. He says, we're going out to work.
[00:18:29] Oh, thank you, Lord. You are so good. I just love having children that just hear what I say and do everything I say.
[00:18:37] You've blessed me with such good children. I said, what are you going to do? He said, we're going busking.
[00:18:44] I said, what?
[00:18:46] He says, we're going to just go in and go busking.
[00:18:49] God's going to bless us.
[00:18:51] And I said, I meant you get a real job.
[00:18:54] But anyway, off they went. They went out busking in an hour. They made £200.
[00:19:02] And I'm like, lord, you're not helping me raise my children.
[00:19:08] They were so well known that they would go into the bank. The people in the bank knew, and they had this machine because people would just give them money in the town.
[00:19:17] I said, work, not beg.
[00:19:21] But they did learn about the supply of God.
[00:19:26] And they would tip their guitar case into this machine and it would gobble up on the money and tell them how much they'd made every week. And some of the staff would watch and they would go, we've never seen it do that much money. Because people normally bring a few bags in the blessing of God.
[00:19:44] But I had to have the hard conversation so that they could be blessed.
[00:19:49] And every parent knows that.
[00:19:51] And one of the reasons I'm talking to you about sowing and reaping and the giving of our resource is because I want you to be blessed.
[00:20:03] We, our family, have walked with Jesus now 40.
[00:20:08] Well, been in ministry 40 something years, I think. I don't know how long I've been a Christian.
[00:20:14] And God has blessed us and never failed us.
[00:20:22] And I want this church to walk into that blessing as well, because I want you to understand what God can do in your life.
[00:20:34] So next week, ask the Lord what you can bring someone. Someone last week asked me, do I have to just bring money?
[00:20:42] I said, what do you mean? Are you gonna bring a goat?
[00:20:46] And he said, he said, no, no. He said, can I bring flowers?
[00:20:52] And I went, oh, yes, bring Some money as well. No, I didn't say that. I didn't say that.
[00:21:01] I did it. I went, yeah. Yes. I love this church.
[00:21:04] It's bringing your offering.
[00:21:08] It's before the Lord in February.
[00:21:16] I was just out walking. We were in the middle of this series, and the Lord spoke to me as I was out walking, and he said, write a check, put it in your Bible. I'll tell you when you need it.
[00:21:30] Okay, so.
[00:21:33] Because I'd been asking him, how do we raise enough money?
[00:21:37] How do we do this, Lord, this is just a crazy task. And he said, all you need is 400 people to give £10,000. And he said, you write the first check. So I did, and I'll put it in next week because. And some of you kind of Pharisees are going, ah, but you just lost your reward.
[00:22:02] That's not what Jesus is talking about.
[00:22:06] You see, I've already got the reward.
[00:22:12] That's why I'm grateful and want to give.
[00:22:17] It's not because I want a reward. It's because he's already done it in my life.
[00:22:23] He has saved myself, my wife, my children. And his blessing is upon our family. And his blessing is upon you. The reward has already come in.
[00:22:35] I'm just like, okay, Lord.
[00:22:38] And he provides the money to cash the check.
[00:22:45] But let me say this.
[00:22:49] If you can't give with a cheerful heart, don't do it.
[00:22:54] God's not broke. He doesn't need your money. He's not asking you for a favor. Paul says, not grudgingly or out of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver.
[00:23:05] So we give out of our thankfulness, just as we stand that the people come to the front and worship, we give out of that resource. What are we giving to? Let me just quickly.
[00:23:16] I know where we're running, but let me just quickly say a few things. On Easter Sunday 2017, I stood here and set the vision. We became Cromer Church.
[00:23:29] Some people liked it, some people didn't.
[00:23:33] Covid hit, which was a very difficult time.
[00:23:37] But through it all, God has prevailed.
[00:23:42] And I looked at what I said, and you can look at it online, what we said. Actually, everything that God told us to say he has accomplished in the last 10 years.
[00:23:56] He said, if you gather around my presence, if you call people forward to get saved. Do you know, just in the last couple of years, over a thousand people have walked forward in this church?
[00:24:08] Many have been healed week in, week out. Just. Yeah, I know.
[00:24:15] Just Last year, over 8 million streams of our music and new worshiping went round the world.
[00:24:25] God is incredible. We didn't set out to do this.
[00:24:29] All we set out to do was to gather around a loving God and enjoy his presence. But we said he's called us to be a city on the hill, a secret not kept.
[00:24:41] And we became a city on the hill. God has done this and all the glory goes to Him.
[00:24:47] But now the Holy Spirit is speaking about a larger vision. It's not a new vision, it's bigger.
[00:24:54] It's bigger than us, it's bigger than Lester. It's a vision of revived people go into the nation and to the world.
[00:25:03] We will continue to gather around the manifest presence of His Spirit.
[00:25:08] We will continue to call the lost home to Jesus every week and heal the sick, keeping our absolute dependence upon Him.
[00:25:19] We will break the spirit of poverty in this nation, having our minds transformed by the riches of heaven and the goodness of God.
[00:25:29] There is a storm coming, but I tell you God is good and his protection is on his people.
[00:25:37] But now we need to buy land and build a house of prayer and worship to his glory where our children can grow and thrive in safety. That's important. He said that we are going to equip the saints, you and all who will join us for the works of service.
[00:25:58] And people are going to come from all over Europe to be trained here. It's already starting to happen.
[00:26:05] But the Lord said to me, it's about to increase. Get ready. We're sowing into that.
[00:26:14] We actually haven't planted a church in over 10 years.
[00:26:18] And that's nothing bad. The Lord just never spoke. He didn't say to do it.
[00:26:24] I think church planting is back on our agenda. In fact, I believe he told me that we're going to plant 100 churches in 10 years.
[00:26:34] Okay, we're going to use the Moravian model. Any of you know about the Moravians? They will not all be called Chroma Church.
[00:26:46] We're not starting a denomination.
[00:26:49] I hope some will be.
[00:26:51] But we're going to gather and bless the whole body of Christ.
[00:26:56] The Moravians started praying. It was the 110 year prayer meeting. It was the prayer meeting that launched John Wesley. It was the prayer meeting that launched the Great Awakening. It was the prayer meeting that launched every revival and every move of God that we've seen in the Western world since.
[00:27:15] And you know what? They gave everything away.
[00:27:19] Missiologists believe that if the Moravians had kept all the churches they trained and planted, they would be the largest denomination in the world.
[00:27:28] But they're not.
[00:27:30] Because they gave it all away to bless the body of Christ.
[00:27:35] And the Lord is going to call us to do that. It's not about denominations, it's not about movements. It's about about the kingdom of God.
[00:27:44] And there's going to be another great awakening.
[00:27:47] Get ready. We're going to write songs that the Holy Spirit loves and we're going to raise Levites to go to the nations.
[00:27:55] Just last week we had 70 worship leaders from all over the country show up to catch something.
[00:28:04] God is doing something.
[00:28:06] We are preparing for the Jacob generation. Psalm 24:6. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face.
[00:28:18] Maybe even the generation that ushers in the second coming of Jesus.
[00:28:23] Do you know in 2033 it'll be 2000 years since the resurrection of Jesus or thereabouts?
[00:28:31] Okay, God, you know, God is very timely when he starts to move.
[00:28:39] I'm not saying he's going to be back in 2023. I know better than that. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that it will have been 2,000 years since the resurrection of Jesus or thereabouts. God is on the move around this world. It's starting now.
[00:28:57] A generation who longs for the blessing of God.
[00:29:01] Jacob wrestled with God who will not let God go. They will wrestle with him physically and spiritually until he gives them the blessing. They will refuse to leave his presence until God blesses them and revives this land.
[00:29:19] And he will give us a new name.
[00:29:22] Jacob became Israel. We're not changing our name as a church, but he gives us the name the redeemed of the Lord.
[00:29:32] Find. Get your Bibles. I know we haven't stood and read for the scripture. Don't worry. I'm not just getting started. I'm finishing. Find Isaiah, say, oh my goodness, we've got to read now. And why don't you stand? Find Isaiah 62, Verse12. I think this is a word for us.
[00:30:02] And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. And you shall be sought out.
[00:30:11] A city not forsaken.
[00:30:13] I think that's a word for us.
[00:30:16] I think the Lord's speaking to us, a holy people.
[00:30:20] We are redeemed of the Lord. He has purchased us with a price. And we are going to be sought out.
[00:30:27] People are going to come from all over. And this isn't a pride thing, just incredibly humbled at what God has done over the last 10 years. But he's asking us to sow into the next 10 years because we're a city that hasn't been forsaken.
[00:30:45] He has not forgotten about Leicester.
[00:30:48] He loves this city and he's going to move here.
[00:30:51] There is a heritage here.
[00:30:55] 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 Cromer Church.
