Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Chroma Church podcast.
[00:00:08] Hey, friends. Lovely to see you. If you're visiting us, welcome to Cromer.
[00:00:13] It's this weird time of year where you're like, do I say Merry Christmas or do I say Happy New Year? We're kind of in that in between moment. But Merry New Year, friends. Have a hope you had a great, great Christmas with family.
[00:00:26] We had a pile of presents this year. Oh, gosh. Listen, any parents know that you get, like, two presents and your kids get everything else, right? That's what happens. And we had this whole pile, and then we. We put up the trampoline yesterday.
[00:00:40] And that. That was our commitment to praying for our children for the next 15 years. They don't get injured by jumping off a trampoline, you know, so we had a fun, fun Christmas. Hope you guys had a good one as well. And one of the things I want to talk to you guys today about very, very briefly is one of the words that's been spoken over us as a church from our friends, actually, in Colombia, Steve's friends in Colombia, the church called Aviva Miento. And one of the things they said to us was that as we walk into 2025, it's going to be a year of unexpected growth. I just want to talk to you about that, about where we are believing the Lord is going to move in our congregation, in our church, in ways of unexpected growth. Is that all right? So we're going to talk about that.
[00:01:27] But before we do that, I want to just quickly just make one declaration of my own. Is that all right? 2025 is going to be a good year.
[00:01:38] Listen, sometimes we say these declarations and, you know, like, it becomes habit. It becomes like you say it because you know the words and you kind of repeat it. Declarations are these most amazing things that you can say over your life that actually come to pass, not because you place an order with the universe or because you convince yourself of it psychologically, but because actually, when you come into alignment with the Word of God, there is no choice but for that word to happen in your life. If the word of the Lord never returns, what void?
[00:02:05] So that means that when you declare the word of the Lord and He is speaking to you and there is this conversation, the word that he releases over your life never returns to him void, as long as we come into alignment with it. So as we make this declaration, this is the truth of this year. 2025 is going to be a good year.
[00:02:22] And part of what we want to talk about Is what does unexpected growth look like for us this year? What does it look like both for you in your individual lives as part of this church, as the Cromer Church that we are? And what does it look like for us as a corporate group of people moving forward with God's purposes over the course of 2025?
[00:02:45] But first, we're going to geek out just a little bit. Is that all right? Just a little bit. We're going to geek out because in the Bible, you have two main words that define or describe the word of God. One is Logos and the other one is rhema. We'll come on to that. One is Logos. And the Logos word of God is taken from the Greek Word, which has in it a concept or the concept of the eternal and divine truth, or the internal or divine constant that holds the whole universe together. So when you hear the word Logos, right, it's translated in English as Word. In our Bibles, NIV or ESV or whatever, it's translated as word. But actually, there is a whole bunch more behind the word Logos than we would originally understand from the Word itself. Because the concept that it brings with it is this, that there is an eternal and divine constant, an eternal and divine truth that holds everything together. And then we read in John 1 that in the beginning was the Word, the Word for Word. There is Logos.
[00:03:52] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. The Word was with God. He was with God in the beginning. In other words, John is saying that at the beginning of time, when God said, let there be light, the Word that he spoke was the Logos, Jesus Christ.
[00:04:16] Which means this, that John takes the Greek concept of the universal constant that holds everything together, and names that Jesus, which means that the universal constant, the constant in your life, the thing that holds all things together, the Logos word of God is Jesus Christ.
[00:04:39] And no other word or truth will ever lead you to truth or salvation except the Logos, Jesus Christ.
[00:04:49] Which means that if you're from a different religion this morning, just so you know, Christian values, Christian understanding is this. There is one way to heaven. His name is Jesus Christ. And John, the Apostle John says that he is the Logos. He's the one that holds all things together. Paul later reiterates this in Colossians where he says, in him, through him, and for him, do all things hold together. And what that means is the Word of God. Jesus is the very thing that directs every step of your path. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And he will not have that title rescinded. So that is the Logos word of God, the universal constant. But there's a second word in Greek that we find in the Bible, which is rhema. It's the rhema word of God. That's R H E M A in English. And the rhema word of God is the now word. So this book is full of the Logos. It's full of what God has already spoken preeminently from the beginning of time. But now we have the Spirit at work in us and his Word, the rhema word, the no now word of God is the word that comes when Holy Spirit speaks to an individual or a congregation in order to direct their steps in the moment. And what we want to talk about today is the rhema word of God, the word spoken over us as a congregation, over you as people who are members of this church and go through what that rhema word is, which is this, that we are to expect unexpected. Well, you can't expect unexpected stuff, I guess. But we are to be in a position of unexpected growth, exponential growth. And I want to talk to you guys about three things.
[00:06:38] Three ways that we believe that we are going to see exponential growth this year. Is that all right? I'm excited. You guys don't look that excited, but we'll get there, I promise.
[00:06:49] But first of all, let me start with a quote.
[00:06:52] There's a guy called Tom Holland. He's a secular historian.
[00:06:56] He wrote a book called Dominion, which is a phenomenal treatise on the history of the entirety of Christendom. It's powerful. But he, Tom Holland, by the way, not the Spider man actor, just to be absolutely clear. Tom Holland, the very clever historian, and I'm going to read a quote from him.
[00:07:14] The problem for Christianity in the west is that it's been too successful. Basically, everyone has accepted its essential principles, that everyone should be kind to the poor and so on. So what Tom Holland is saying is that Christianity is by far the most successful religion, not on the basis of the number of people who attend church or who claim to be Christians, which, by the way, are more than any other religion. So it is successful in that concept, but more that nearly every single, particularly in the Western world, governments have taken on the principles of Christianity in a way. Way that now they are actually doing what the church had done 200 years ago.
[00:07:51] So Christianity has been so successful that all the Christian principles have been absorbed into current culture. Now, our current culture also reflects those things poorly sometimes. But the. But the baseline for Christian, for Western culture is that it's Christian to a core. So this is a secular historian saying this. And he goes on to say, this keeps Christianity weird. If you're a Christian, you think that the entire fabric of the cosmos was ruptured by this strange singularity where someone who is God and a man set everything on its head. To say it supernatural is to downplay it. If you don't believe that, in other words, Jesus coming as God and man, it seems to me that you're not really a confessional Christian. In other words, the secular historian is saying, if you deny that Jesus was both God and. And man and the savior of the earth, of the world, who ruptures the cosmos as the Logos word of God. If you don't believe that, then you're not a Christian. That's what he's saying.
[00:08:51] Which means that we have many, many people in churches today who do not profess Christianity. Just so you know. Not us, praise God.
[00:09:02] You may be a cultural Christian, but you're not a confessional Christian if you don't believe that. So if you believe, it should also be possible to dwell on all the other weird stuff that traditionally comes as part of the Christian package. The whole story of angels and the story of the supernatural. Without that, the poetry, the strangeness, it's all lost. I don't want to know what bishops think about Brexit. I want to know the weird stuff.
[00:09:27] And this is a fascinating point of view from a secular historian who is basically going through history, evidencing the impact of Christianity across the entirety of the world and saying the thing that sets the church apart is not the foundational narrative of its political views. Did you hear me? Churches are not political.
[00:09:51] Any amens.
[00:09:54] Churches are supernatural.
[00:09:57] We have a whole plethora of political views in this room. And I'm right. But the thing is, is that we are not a political people. We are a supernatural people who enter into politics as supernatural people, if that's our call, or enter into education as supernatural people, or enter into our workplaces, our colleges, as supernatural people. We are the weird ones. We are the ones who are set apart. We are the holy ones who represent the supernatural of heaven to the earth.
[00:10:31] And that's what we're going to go after in 2025 as a church. I hope that's okay with you. If it isn't, peace.
[00:10:42] So where are these supernaturally unexpected growth areas that we want to see this year? And even in a supernatural church, you can only do a three point sermon. So I've got three points for you. Okay, that was a joke. Just a joke.
[00:10:57] So the first one is this.
[00:11:00] We want to see and believe that we're going to see unexpected growth in people coming to know Jesus as their Lord, Lord and Savior. We believe that we have had just under 500 people walk forward in 2024. 500 people walk forward and give their names to Jesus.
[00:11:17] Incredible.
[00:11:21] My dad's been with us over Christmas. He's helped me put the trampoline up, you know, and. Amazing, man. But also the thing he does is he's part of a church. And their church has seen 52 people come to know Jesus this year, which is more than they've seen in 20 years.
[00:11:37] Yeah. Come on. We could clap. We're charismatic Pentecostals. Yeah.
[00:11:45] What was I saying?
[00:11:47] And there are three other churches in Essex. And if God can move in Essex, how many of you guys know he can move anywhere in the world?
[00:11:54] Who have seen exponential growth in the numbers of people getting saved in their congregations.
[00:12:01] We've seen this as we do our leaders gathering, which is on the 11th of January this year. As we do a leaders gathering, we see church leaders come and they say to us, we've never seen this many people get saved. And we're like, neither have we. But there are these flames of revival, friends, that are popping up all over the country, all over the world, actually. It's more mature in places like South America. But we are seeing the beginnings of the flames of revival, and it takes the flames to come together to create the fire.
[00:12:31] And we believe that this year, in our midst and the church, capital C, the whole church, but in Cromer, we believe that we are going to see an exponential increase in the number of people saved this year who come forward and give their lives to Jesus. But not only that, we believe that we're going to see the Lord move in the places where we've never thought that he could do. You know, this year, we've seen Hindus give their life to Christ. Muslims give their life to Christ. Buddhists give their lives to Christ. Military men and women give their lives to Christ. Professional athletes give their lives to Christ.
[00:13:06] Hey, friends, I got to tell you something. Every knee is going to bow to Jesus Christ. Every one.
[00:13:16] And it doesn't matter what. What background you're from. The Hindus are realizing that their plethora of gods hold no power. But when they turn to Jesus, he changes their lives. Our Muslim friends are finding that Isa meets them in their dreams. The prophet in white who brings healing meets them and reveals himself as Jesus Christ. Our Buddhist friends, they've realized they can't keep going round and round and round in their own strength to get to nirvana, they must have a divine exchange. Their sin for God's glory. Every religion will bow the knee to Jesus Christ, and we will see that in increasing measure this year.
[00:13:53] Acts 4:11 13 says this Jesus is the stone you builders rejected which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
[00:14:08] When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled ordinary men, they were astonished. And they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Hey, I've got to tell you something. If you're an ordinary, normal, unschooled person, if you spend time with Jesus, you'll have the revelation of heaven to bring change to your environment wherever you are. Listen to me. In a world that celebrates education. Hey, friends, get your degrees. Love that. I've got some. Get it. But in a world that celebrates that over faith, carnal knowledge over faith. Remember that the more time you spend with Jesus, the more time you spend in this book, the more supernatural power will flow through you to change the world around you. Education brings you knowledge that deconstructs ideas, but faith brings you wisdom that constructs heaven wherever you go.
[00:14:56] This year, join us as we move into a year of exponential growth in salvation and the locations of salvation that we never thought we'd reach. This is the year of salvation, and 2025 is going to be a good year.
[00:15:15] So that's number one. Number two is this.
[00:15:19] We believe that we're going to see unexpected growth in health and healing. Hey, guys, we've seen some crazy things this year. We've seen deaf ears opened. We have seen blind eyes opened. I don't know if you guys know this, but, like a girl fell over, smashed her glasses, was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe my glasses are smashed. And then she realized she didn't need anymore. I'm like, hey, that is a powerful testimony. The glasses smashed as she was hit by the spirit. And the spirit healed her. And there was no for the glasses. It's insane. Her eyes completely healed by Jesus Christ. We've seen cancer healed. We've seen people with chronic pain for 20 years completely healed. But how many of you guys know there's more?
[00:16:01] A trickle of heaven has begun to be released in our midst. But there is a that makes glad the city of our God. And we know from Revelation that the trees of the leaves. That's not true. The leaves of the tree by the river brings what to the nations? Healing to the nations. And as the river flows from the east, as the trees rise up with the leaves, we are an oak of righteousness with leaves that will release healing to our nation.
[00:16:36] 2025 is going to be a year of healing, but it's also going to be a year of health. Not, but. And it's also going to be a year of health. Do you know that? Which means this. Your lives are going to transform. You're going to get healed and stay healthy.
[00:16:56] We're going to see the Lord move in a way that brings physical healing. But I need to tell you something. Pornography addiction is going to die this year.
[00:17:06] Men and women who are addicted to something of a substance that is more addictive than heroin is going to die this year. Because as the Lord comes, he brings transformational release to your life.
[00:17:19] Anxiety will be cast off. Depression will be cast away. There will be mental health conditions that have been for 20 years being completely healed in a moment, not through counseling. We love it. But through the divine touch of the king of kings. 2025 is going to be a good year.
[00:17:38] And as we see these things change in our lives, as we see the Lord move in our lives, we get to expect the unexpected. We get to see the supernatural become the norm. We get to see the weird stuff in Tom Holland's words break out among us.
[00:18:03] The Pope just declared a year of jubilee for the Catholic Church.
[00:18:11] There's going to be year of jubilee for us, too.
[00:18:16] God is going to move in unexpected supernatural growth in the areas of salvation and the areas of health healing. I've got to tell you something. Poverty is going to die this year.
[00:18:33] We have lifted. Maddie does such an amazing job in our compassion ministry. We've lifted people out. Yeah, you can clap. Mads. Mad. Stand up. This is about you. This bit.
[00:18:44] Amazing.
[00:18:46] We've lifted people out of poverty this year. We've lifted people out of reliance on our food bank this year into health and wholeness, not just physically, but also not as mentally, but also in their circumstances, in their finances.
[00:19:01] Listen.
[00:19:03] God did not call us to live impoverished lives. He called us to live life and life in abundance.
[00:19:14] When we're set apart, we are holy and set apart. We're the weird ones, but we are also the ones that show people how to live a prosperous life.
[00:19:23] That is another way that we are set apart.
[00:19:31] And the third way is this.
[00:19:33] We're going to see unexpected growth in the knowledge of truth and the bold proclamation of it.
[00:19:40] We're going to see unexpected exponential growth in the knowledge of truth, in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, in the knowledge of the story of Abraham and how we're grafted into the story of Judaism and become Christians through Christ. And what we're going to see is we're going to see people find their place in the narrative of heaven, not just simply find their place in the narratives of earth. We will see a growth in the knowledge of truth around gender and sexuality. We will see the knowledge of truth around the appropriate application of sexuality in marriage between men and women. We are going to see a growth in truth around what true understanding of gender is, of what the sex is about, biological differences. We are going to see truth come through in our conversations. And we will also be people who are boldly standing on the truth and declare it with our lips.
[00:20:38] Because do you know that the Holy Spirit leads you into all truth?
[00:20:46] And we are people of the Spirit and a people of the Word, which means that we understand this book full of truth, and we also understand the Spirit who guides us into the truth of this Word in its application in our lives. Despite what our culture might tell us, this is a year where we will see the truth of God made manifest in our midst and outside.
[00:21:18] Shameless plug. This is a school of transformation. It starts in February. Come learn about truth. Amen.
[00:21:25] You can find those leaflets on your, on your chairs, and you can scan the QR code.
[00:21:33] This year we are going to see an exponential growth, an unexpected growth in the areas of salvation, in the area of health and healing, and the area of knowledge of truth and its proclamation to the world.
[00:21:48] 2025 is going to be a good year. I'm done. Will you stand a bit of a pep talk for 2025? Come on.
[00:22:13] One of the things about the word of God, about the rhema word of God, is that it takes us to respond to that word and live it out. You guys know that. You guys know that God is sovereign, but he called us into partnership so God can click his fingers and do whatever he wants. But actually, he says, I would like you to partner with me and do this with me. It's a powerful narrative of Christianity. No other God does that. Every other God either has a God who looks like a human being or who looks so transcendent that he doesn't want anything to do with human beings. But our God, Yahweh, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, they want to partner with us. He wants to partner with us to see these words outworked in our lives.
[00:22:54] So as we think about the word of God spoken over us in this congregation, the challenge is this. Will you come and do it? Will you bring friends? Will you take the gospel out and bring them towards the light? Will you walk in health and healing? Will you allow the Lord to meet you in your addiction and bring you to a place of transformation? How many of you guys know there's no condemnation in Christ?
[00:23:22] So when you come for healing, you don't come condemned. You come for healing.
[00:23:29] But you must come before the Father, repent and be changed, and then walk a different direction.
[00:23:37] It takes us to respond to this, this word of the Lord over 2025 this year, and the last thing I'm going to say is this. Will you come on this journey with us? Will you come?
[00:23:51] You're so welcome.
[00:23:56] But will you lay down what it is that's holding you back from stepping into the fullness that God has to you in 2025?
[00:24:04] It's time. Cromer this changed the world.
[00:24:08] Thanks for listening to the Coma 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.
