SIGNAL CHURCH CAPE TOWN
Terran Williams:- Build: I Will Build My Church Pt.7
[APPLAUSE] Hello. So good to be with you guys. My wife is preaching at a church in Edgeweet called The Edge. They used to invite me, and then one day they said, hey, do you know a woman who can preach well? I was like, my wife. And ever since they've got her, they just keep inviting her. So I've lost my slot in the church. But I'm so good to be with you guys. And I come back with tidings from the World Wide Church. Some of you may have heard that I've been in South Korea at a congress of historic importance. I feel so humbled and honored that I got invited. But I got thinking that I was there, wait up for Church of Jesus' start. And at least one starting point would be in Matthew chapter 16, where Jesus is in the region of Caesarea of Philippi, and he asks these disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. Aren't we just like that? We want to put Jesus in a list of names, the prophets, lists the teachers. Surely Jesus is one of the important people in the world. But Jesus will not be on a list. What about you, he asks, who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. It's the first time he said the words. Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. Peter has a revelation of who Jesus is, not just a teacher, not just a prophet, the son of God sent from heaven to rescue the world. And it's a pivotal revelation. And then Jesus says the words that have divided biblical scholars and theologians for 2000 years. And I'll tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. The word Peter means mean stone, and rock is like a big stone. So you are a rock, and on this rock I will build my church. So what is the rock that Jesus is building the church on? Is the rock Peter? You might know, Catholics believe Peter is the first pope, even though he was a married pope. He's the first pope. And Jesus is saying, hey, I'm building the church on the paper system. Protestants say, no, no, no. Jesus is saying, you are Peter, little rock, but on this big rock, pointing to himself. So is it Peter that the church gets built on? Or is it Jesus that the church gets built on? I think that I'm both all right. Where where Jesus is saying is Peter's just confessed with his mouth, the gospel. Jesus, the son of the living god, the Messiah. Jesus is saying, I'm going to build my rock on the revelation of who I am in the minds of my disciples. And the first person to proclaim the gospel, the first church is built on Peter as he declares the gospel. So it's a revelation of who Jesus is, and a promise to build his church on that revelation. And it's amazing because Jesus is building the church for the honest, ordinary, very ordinary people. By the way, Peter is extraordinarily ordinary. And maybe that's a bit weird, extraordinarily ordinary. Probably doesn't make sense. It's very ordinary. And then it's the first time Jesus used the word church. He only uses the word church twice in the gospel of Matthew. Here, and then in Matthew 18, in Matthew 18 he refers to a local church, which of course doesn't exist, he's speaking prophetically. But first mention the church. He refers to the worldwide church. I think there is something important about that. Jesus first wants us to get a sense of the worldwide church. And then in line of that, get a sense of our church. My church, your church. I think if we just think of the worldwide church as an accumulation of many churches like mine, we could maybe be slow-moving and rigid in our thinking about the church. There's something about this global move of Jesus, these people of God, that gives energy and perspective to our local church. And in the design conference is one extraordinary gathering in the history of the world. One famous evangelist, Billy Graham, and the leading scholar of the 20th century John Stott, in 1974, the year of Mount Burpeth, called the first ever Luzon Congress in Switzerland. They get a 2,700 leaders from 150 nations, they said. What is the state of the church and the state of the great commission? Jesus, go make disciples of all the nations of the world. What can we learn from each other? How can we help each other? And then 15 years later in Manila, Luzon 2 happened 4,000 participants. Then 14 years ago, it happened in Cape Town, 200 nations, 4,000 delegates. And on each time, the world had changed. The church changed in those 15 years. And the church in the central, the global church since was facing all new challenges. And the best minds came together to try, articulate, and discern in God the strategy of the church to adjust to the opportunities and the challenges of the day. Well, we've just had the 4th Luzon conference that happened in South Korea. And I got invited. I'll tell you, I got invited. I wrote a book called "How God Sees Women," the end of patriarchy. And they look for 150 theologians from around the world to write theological papers. And one of the papers was male, female partnership in the gospel. And I landed on that writing team. So I looked around the paper, and then off the back of that paper, I also got the email to come along to this conference. So it was pretty quick in my mind. Once I got the invitation, I wanted to go. But let me tell you about this conference, because I give feedback from the world, in a sense, from what Jesus is doing around the world. We just finished a series recently called "The Church Jesus is Building." And I want to go back to that series just for a week. We'll come back to Jesus next week. And just by the way, we've also got a big announcement next week, so please don't miss it. But "The Church Jesus is Building." Now, there's so much that I wanted to say now that I can't say. But if you're on Facebook, I actually wrote a daily record of what I learned. And there's a lot more detail there, like two or three times more detail, I think. So 5,000 people gathered together. I asked my nightclub that I'm part of. Please pray for me. I feel stressed, because it's such a huge opportunity. I just don't want to miss anything. And Paul, he was on my keys today. She prophesied that God says, going with no agenda, just flow in the Holy Spirit in every moment. And God will orchestrate everything you need to learn. We've never cared, perfect where it has been spoken, because I just lived in that hour after hour. My flights, they are desperately big to the chicken person. Give me an aisle seat. I can't bear being not in the aisle. And I couldn't get it. And where I sat down and next to me is a sea point surfer on the one side. And Morick taught a Scottish woman just returning from seeking personal and spiritual solace in the career. I just realized, well, God was part of this way, exactly where I was meant to sit. My next flights, I sat next to Madonna. I think there's a picture of her there from Ghana. She's a children's worker at a big church in Ghana. What a wonderful person. Then I'm getting from Seoul. Getting from Seoul, airport to my hotel venue was a bit tricky. We arrived a little bit night. And I luckily managed to connect with somebody in the queue from Pakistan, Sajidah, and we shared it over together. I asked her what she does, and then I sort of realized the kind of things I was into, it's about to learn. She came from Pakistan. I said, what do you do? She says she educates Christian children. I'm like, Christian children in Pakistan need to be educated. She says Christians are so persecuted in Pakistan that they are pushed down economically. 80% of Christian children get no education at all. And I sort of realized that church of Jesus is much bigger than marginal section of it. And facing all kinds of challenges. The next day I wake up and I get, I'm standing in the mouth of people trying to get to the conference center. And we're trying to get her into the bus. And then a taxi pulls up next to me full guard of time. I'm going to say, he wants to come to your door from Gospel Church, and then look at me. And nobody seems to take the gap of climbing the taxi. Next thing, I am sitting in the biggest church in the world. 800,000 people once founded by Yongi Cha, by Yongi Cha, and listen to this, he's mother-in-law. Hey Joy, you're now, we can do things for Jesus. 66 years ago, Yongi Cha starts the church in war-torn Korea, and introduces the Korean church to the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Good old fashioned Pentecostalism has arrived. He's at the front of it, he introduces these people to the gift of tongues, something that was quite extraordinary and has a shockingly effective draw card factor. Thousands fled into this church, come to know Jesus, hunchbacks are suddenly straighted, lines that are ravaged or healed, blind people see in thousands and thousands and thousands of people are introduced to Jesus and a fairly dramatic encounter with his Holy Spirit's presence. I sat in an hour-long meeting in one of the services. I was amazed how much you can do. The inventors of Samsung have also like perfected the church service, and they just did everything in one hour, it was like, you're pushed out. To be honest, I did quite, in reflection, prefer our more spacious approach to church, less hurried, less precise, more opportunities for the Holy Spirit to surprise us in the meeting. The church in Spiny, one-third of all their income is spent on mission relief and development beyond the church. Come in thinking, one-third of our income spent on mission relief, development beyond our church. That sounds like a good goal to have. That night, the Congress starts, and I'm overwhelmed by 5,000 people in a room. And the theme is introduced, let the church declare and display Christ together. That night afterwards, I spoke to Julia on the phone, and I wanted trying to describe what had happened, but I felt like I beat in heaven, because everything was made so intense by the fact that 222 nations were present, and the presence of the one whom we were gathering to, Jesus was there. We sang songs how great their art and Christ alone, even in Spanish ones, and give me Jesus. We were led by Korean choir of 100 people, and then by an Irish music band with the Riverdance Five. All of us made more intense by a screen three stories high, and as wide as a ship is long. The leader of Luzon, Michael Her, a Japanese believer, challenged our tendency to go to alone as Christians and as churches, effectively saying to other parts of the body of Christ, I don't need you, but we desperately do need each other. He explained that with the rising evil of our days growing ever more vocal, ever more visible, Christ calls us as the church, and this is the theme of the conference, to declare and display Christ together. Ever more vocal and ever more visible, evil, matched by church declaring and displaying Christ together. Thanks a long day. You explain that displaying Christ involves the way that we live before a watching world. We are His, H-I-S, which means we're to be mocked by humility, integrity, simplicity. We need to apply the gospel to heal the winds in the world, He said, especially with how polarized the world has become in recent years. He urged us to be faithful to Jesus wherever we are, but then also highlighted that this is not enough, because there are such large gaps, because 67% of all Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in the world have more than even met a follower of Jesus. Never mind heard about Jesus. He says, "Collaboration is gonna be required, "not just our isolated faithfulness." Catching the bus back to the hotel some 45 minutes away, I said next to Sacheo. She looked about 25, a Japanese young adult. What do you do, Sacheo? She explains that she postures your own church. I asked her why she became a pastor. She said she was in Australia for a year of study. She opened her Bible, and Jesus told her that he is coming back soon, and that the people who are Japan are not ready, and she should not expect missionaries to come do there what Japanese believers should be doing. So she started her own church. Looking out of a venue of 5,000 believers, she was embarrassed to say that her church is only 10 people. I should have if there's no embarrassment, there was beautiful that she'd pour out her life for those 10 people, and who knows what other people. The next morning I wake up at breakfast, I meet Akran. He comes from a Muslim-dominated nation, Isaac Bajan. He tells me how he found Jesus as a Muslim when he was 15. I called him to plant the first church in an area how he now heads up a network that plants churches in the region. I struck him with the sky immediately, even though it's such a different culture. We had like a same wicked sense of humor. We giggled with the same stuff. We hung up quite a bit after that. And he also told me about neighboring Iran. He says where there are some 4 million followers of Jesus in Iran, of which a million have come to faith in the last 20 years. He speaks of 10,000 of stories of Muslims having the same dream of a heavenly man in white appearing to them, calling him to follow him, and they rock up in these underground churches. I asked him what it was like becoming a Christian. He says he was persecuted. I said what did you mean? He says when he made Jesus, he had a radical encounter of Jesus. His mother found out I was devastated and held a knife to his throat and said, I will kill you unless you come back to Islam. He couldn't do it. So she held a knife to her own throat and threatened the same. He just stared at her without words. Then she, the father, came in, got on his knees before the son begging him, please son, please son. But they were asking him to do them possible to deny the one who'd become so real to him. I went and put on Facebook his name and his country and mixed out, told him I'll put on Facebook your stories. It's sorry, did you mention my name? And my country on Facebook, I felt such a fool. Quickly deleted it, he was very gracious. Obviously, in persecuted countries, you need to stay under the radar. That next day after meeting Ocaron, where we introduce that they're going to teach the book of Acts of the whole conference, and they're starting off with a theme of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two. Something excited me, we just spent six weeks as a church in Acts chapter two. And they made the point that the Western churches become highly rationalized with little emphasis at all on vital experience and supernatural power. Similarly, this is called the doctrine of cessationism. In other words, what Jesus, what the Spirit did initially, you don't know, we need to because we've got the battle now. We've got good theology. Historically, church groups have tended to agree to disagree. But this was quite a major moment in the Luzon movement because this movement, they consist of tens of thousands of dog denominations that are right in the full front of mission around the world, challenged cessationism at right, calling it a greatly mistaken view. These people should know they regalve us with stories of supernatural opponents of the spirit in Europe, in the US, in Africa, and Asia, and Latin America each time, leading to the waking up of sleeping believers and the dramatic effect was in drawing new people to Jesus. They challenged the tendency in churches that rely on more on management techniques, abundant finances, sufficient human resources than on the Holy Spirit. They called the World Wide Church, for me, a delia from Africa. He called the World Wide Church, too. I'm going to quote him, "Repent and resubmit fully to absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit. Today we cannot and dare not replace fervent prayer with strategies and plans." I felt quite proud of signal as well if this was happening. Not proud in a bad way, but a church, really, with their hunger for the Holy Spirit's presence and their openness to these movements, in such a sense that we cannot make the impact we're going to make apart from the Spirit's presence and power. Then Sarah Brill stood up. The most inspiring person I've ever heard preach in my life, the founder and director of Revive Europe. Originally from Brazil, but now located in Rome, she said today that Europe is not post-Christian. It's pre-revival. She wrote much of the time, as she told us, of a spiritual awakening among students around the world. One of the big emphasis that came out in this conference was the move of God among students. I'm talking about 19 to 25-year-olds who come awake to Jesus Christ and his mission. I kept meeting these people. My roommate was Barnabas, who works in a ministry like this in Zambia. I met a lady in Canada whose job is to take the students arriving in Canada who come to know Jesus, they need to relocate back to their country. She goes back before they do to find a local church where they can fit in. That's a job, that's what she does with her life. But Sarah said, "Only God can send revival." That doesn't mean we should be passive, rather we should humble ourselves before God, we should pray earnestly, and we should remove any impediments by personal and collective repentance. Revival is awaking up. If you've been a Christian a long time, I have. Do you remember the times when you get sleepy? Sleepy. Revival is awaking up. We need the Holy Spirit to keep us awake. He is the shot of heavenly caffeine. That night, we're heard of some of the challenges the church is facing, the historical moment, and Katarina, chief sciences for the major conservancy in Texas taught us how crucial creation carries in an age of ecological crisis. Follows the Jesus, should not be apathetic about the ecological crisis that is happening in our world, especially when the first commission, the first mandate to us was to look after the planet. Following her in Ruth, the Latin American theologian riveted us with the biblical imperative to bring justice to an unjust world. She quoted Marcus 6 verse 8, "What humbly before God? Love, kindness, seek justice." These are not optional extras, but are central to Jesus following. Finally, all in the British pastor taught about holding fast to Christ's teaching on sex, even as the sexual revolution has reached its summit in the West, and it continues to damage lives. People whom we ought to compassionately receive as churches. He made the case from scripture that four things, number one, God is four sex. Sex is God's invention, but the devil's. Number two, sex is for marriage. Number three, marriage is for life. And number four, life is for Christ. On day three, at a meal time, I met Sumon, I recall his name, Kariki, from the pole. He was a very proud Hindu, he explained to me, he hated Christians, he so radically persecuted a new church that he managed to close it down. When some career missionaries arrived, he made false legal accusation against them. At the same time, his wife had a series of heart attacks, and the doctor said nothing could be done for him. But then the same Koreans, he was trying to drive back away from the pole offered to play for his wife. When they did, she was instantly healed, completely overwhelmed by the reality of God. He and his wife instantly surrendered to Jesus, who very soon gave them marching orders, help women and children in distress, Jesus said to them. Since then he has rescued 340 women, 1,400 children from human trafficking, he explained. I learned to listen and leading people to Jesus easily, if I could put it like that. Certainly, creative impression that it could be done easily, leader of one of the biggest Baptist churches in Australia. He said, what is the simplest and most reproducible way to be used by God to change the world for God? In a way that works in almost every culture, and that doesn't rely on specially gifted people, but that maybe gifts and equipping. Only a few of us have. He said this, everyone, open your eyes and see the people around you. Look at them, see them, ask God to show you some of them. He says there will be some people in your life that will take to you. It's like they literally come to you. Realize God has brought them into your life, then say these words to them. "I have been looking for someone to read the Bible with. "Would you be interested?" He told the story after story of the effectiveness of the simple question asked to the right person. They go, "Sure." So he meets with them. He himself is an expert. He says he teaches them nothing. He says just open up a chapter of the gospel, read the gospel together and then says, "So what stuck out to you?" And you each share. He said, "Don't explain anything. "A truth discovered is 10 times more valuable "than a truth explained." So at the end of the discussion ask, "Hey, what are you going to do differently "in your life this week?" In light of what we said. He said, "You can ask that question "before a person even believes in Jesus." He says, "Trust Jesus to introduce themselves to them "as they go on this journey with you. "Some points suggest to them, 'Hey, are they people "'you know who might want to read the Bible with you?' "'Why don't you ask them and do just as I've done with you?' "That's not just reproducible, it's exponential." Day four was an utterly devastating day. The entire day devoted to the idea of standing with the persecuted church. One Indian leader told us of over 50,000 homes burnt in the last year. 600 churches and Christian institutions, hospitals, schools destroyed as a more fundamentalistic, Hindu government comes into power in more of the states of India. People are raped, cut into pieces, dead bodies thrown to the dogs. The numbers leave one number, according to open doors, about 360 million followers of Jesus face, high levels of discrimination and violence because of their faith. In Nigeria alone, in 22 and 2, 5,000 Christians were killed by Islamist groups. As depressed and powerless as this makes me, the doc stories that I heard that they yield us some light, some sense of a path forward. I realize church leaders like me can prepare people for persecution. In the stories of suffering we heard, those who expected persecution feared much better. So I wanted to say to everyone who follows Jesus in this room, in this world you will have trouble, says Jesus, but take up, I've overcome the world. When unjust a tech comes, you can be prepared to respond in a Christlike way. Claim a victory and forgive your persecutors. One Iranian woman who was in prison told us how Jesus rebuked her self-pity. So she started to praise God in the prison for the victory over the intimidation that suffocated her spirit. An Indonesian woman who sat at the table with me weeping prayed as we were praying for suffering believers. She explained, Jesus just told me to forgive the Muslims who bullied me when I was younger. They need God's mercy, not my hatred. Follows of Jesus can pray for those who suffer. Where's the church, can pray for those who suffer? Someone at my table had been to 50 nations where Christians are persecuted. He said to me, these suffering believers never ask for money. They ask the global church, please tell our story and pray for us. One thing that I hope to do in the future is to play a video or two created by voice of the martyrs. When one part of the body bleeds, we should at least know about them. Advocacy groups are the way can confront unjust governments who neglect persecuted minority groups. Religious freedom and also anti-conversion bills need to be hemmed in by reality. You get countries in India and Pakistan where someone can just say, that man tried to induce me to conversion and he's trying to prison. You're guilty before, just accusation. Let's not forget the 21 Coptic Christians including six church leaders beheaded on a beach by ISIS in Libya in 2015. Let's not forget the words they came out of their mouth moments before they were beheaded. Jesus. And we're gonna be thinking again, living in the West where I live in the most comfortable city if you've got a little bit of money. You know, so you might be tempted to think that Jesus will basically need some of your emotional needs that the culture can't. We might enhance your life in some way. But we'll have to ask ourselves the question if somebody held them after your throat and said, recount or die, what would you do? I think we're gonna work backwards from that point because if Jesus isn't worth dying for, then he isn't worth living for. And as we think Jesus somehow enhances my already awesome life. We've got no sense of reality. Remember in the Gospels, Jesus first said to his disciples, come and see, come and hold up with me, but by the end he was saying, come and die. You're showing them the pathway of faithfulness. If need be being crucified, Peter was crucified upside down, for example, there were so many inspiring stories of courage. One of the people at my table said that he's an aid agency, tried to evacuate all the children workers from Afghanistan three years ago. Who, the Taliban said, get out by this date or we will target you, especially the woman. So the plane arrives back from Afghanistan and all of his workers come out in a hole of horrors. The team leader, small dynamic woman, has not climbed onto the plane. She told her colleague, sorry, I'm staying with the children. She was the only woman apparently for an aid worker to stay. The story's told that she walks back to her now empty compound followed by two Taliban with machine gun. And she comes out the next morning and they're standing there and they say, we're still here. And she said the words and so am I. She only got about six months ago. It plays God, she came out alive. Day five, we learned about workplace ministry. We were shown the futility of thinking that church leaders could significantly change the world. No, church leaders are like the 1% factor who need to be equipping them 99% of people who change the world. When do you change the world? Well, during your working hours, of course, that's what you do with most of your life. The German female theologian, his name on this, showed us how the Book of Acts integrates the workplace with the mission of God. And the church leaders like me should equip church members to not only serve on Sundays, but even more crucially to be a heaven meets earth person in the workplace. Few follow Jesus and you're involved in an industry or a workplace. Would you be a heaven meets earth person? We watch an interview of a doctor, a senior IBM expert in AI and a Cuban jewelry maker and social media influence. They shared the ways that their faith comes most alive and makes most impact when they apply to their 95. They simply know second class citizens in the kingdom of God. The church exists to love, send and serve the 99%. By the end of that, I felt determined to never create the impression that people's daily work is something simple from God's work. Go ahead, every follower of Jesus, love thy neighbor and thy neighbor. I hope you feel a little bit of commissioning. Who are the people you work with or work for or work to serve? What if you could integrate that with your sense of mission? Those are precisely the people God has sent you to. Day six, we learned about the importance of humble servant leadership. I think the conference organizes devoted so much attention to this because of the tragedy in so many parts of the church. Where leadership, Christian leadership becomes status driven rather than servant-hearted. I spoke to many people, particularly in traditional cultures, where young people, when they're leaders, are so uninspiring, one Pakistani couple, very trendy, come one, and Ashley, in their little boy called Aram. They told me of their leader who has adopted the name of doctor for himself, even though he's not a doctor. And recently, he was introduced in quite an honorific way to come up front. But the person failed to mention that he was a doctor. He stood up and he reprimanded. The person introduced him for forgetting that he's also a doctor. He reminded me, this guy's not a doctor. And I realized, again, just the temptation in any community where you're a leader, the entasment to status, and our thoughts are safe. They're all the leaders that I've met in the signal that are genuinely servant-oriented and not status-driven people, and so long to see this preserved in our community. And I think it'll be key to the way God wants to use us. At this conference of 5,000 people, they put us at a table with five other people, 1,000 tables, and we took an hour at this table, interspersed throughout the day. So I've got to make friends. The person who impacted me most at this table, I mean, I got impacted by Sam Bogisi, who leads a church in Kerala, in India, of 1,000 people, and an apostolic network of churches. But the person who impacted me most was this one, God. So, Dante, so fun, loving, so interested in all of us. He introduced himself. He does a bit of work for World Vision. Oh, he does a bit of work for World Vision. World Day 3, somehow, I think I heard him say, he was speaking to the UN. Do you know anybody who was speaking to the UN, he's that one person. So I looked at his name tag, you know, not just a giggle, right there and name. Pot turns out that this is the CR of World Vision at the table, with billions of dollars every year. And he's 10s of thousands of staff working in 100 countries. I don't know how I'll ever forget his example of humility. I wonder how many more of us would be safely promoted by God if we could learn humility before the promotion comes, not just in the church. I'm talking about the workplace, society. I'm going to jump over my section of the career, what an inspiring church career was running out of time. We also learned about the next generation. In the West, fewer young people are holding to the faith of their parents. What a way of hope that when we heard beautiful stories of Christian leaders catching a hardened vision for the next generation, telling us how they have come to devote so much of their energy to mentoring and handing over leadership to young people. And I got thinking, I kept hearing the Holy Spirit saying that signal's going to get younger, it's going to get younger. And I felt in my heart as one of its leaders and our soul keen to empower the next generation to see the potential and the callings and the gifts and young men and women that God is adding to our church where the kids, preteens, teens, students, 20-somethings. Dave was sitting here somewhere. Remember him prophesying. Remember him prophesying, he was driving down the road and we got a bunch of students were crossing over and the Holy Spirit said, the students are coming. The students are coming. And I'm waiting eagerly for more and more of these students to arrive in our church. I also met Marcus from Argentina, he shared his passion to equip parents to spiritually nourish their own children, not to outsource it to the church. We reminded that parents, publicly and statistically, are best seated to do the primary work of discipling their own children. It we often feel ill equipped, so grateful that we've got a henna and that we've got leaders who lead children who want to equip every parent in this church to disciple your own child, to introduce them to faith in Jesus Christ, to introduce them to the ways of Jesus, to pass on your passion for serving Jesus Christ. Interestingly, the world is getting older and older. Not Africa, Africa gets younger and younger, by 2067, 67% of the world's children will love in our continent. The African church must give primary focus to discipling its children. I don't know if your life can somehow connect with the great opportunity of the church in the next few decades. It's to disciple the children of Africa. Whoever gets hold of these children gets hold of the future. Would you introduce them to Jesus? Would you introduce them to wholeness? Would you? Would you show them the ways of Christ? Would you raise them up? Would you awaken them to the cause of Jesus Christ? Day seven, we learnt about peacemaking and conflict. So many stories which I've jumped over today of how the gospel of Jesus is the hope of the world. People are torn apart by war and strife. We heard stories of how the gospel can end conflict. Someone who works amongst Amazonian tribes told us of a recent first ever gathering of 1,200 indigenous pastors from 47 of these Amazonian tribes. But he is very nervous to bring two of these tribes together because of bad blood between them, the Zora and the Suri tribe. In fact, he planned on the seating quarters to put them on opposite ends. Maybe he could just keep them apart, the whole conference. There was a bit of an organizational mishap. He didn't know that for four days, these two tribes had climbed onto the same boat to come to the conference with nobody to super intend this gathering. By the time these two tribes arrived, they were best friends. They were saying, we sing and we dance together because of Jesus. For the first time, something or someone had overcome their tribal differences. We heard stories of followers of Jesus working in far larger conflicts. We were finding them enormously challenging. Palestine, Israel, believers, DRC, Burundi, Ukraine. People tried to bring peace in the midst of war. None of them claimed any quick fixes, but all of them hold that applying Jesus' teaching is the best way on play with the bring peace and reconciliation. How to move from a divided past to a shared future. Palestinian women explained through forgiveness, through truth seeking, through justice, through healing, all of these kingdom values. One of their inspiring things at this conference was to see male female partnership on such a global scale. I also moved to see the World Wide Church really promoting the co-contribution of women at this conference. I mean, I wrote a paper, I hope I had a paper which I described, it's seeing the practices even better. So I didn't know, but at the previous conference in Cape Town, there was only one woman who did an experimental scripture and a very, very famous church leader from America's Steppe and walked out and protest. Well, this did not deter the organizers of this last conference where they seem to achieve a 50/50 co-contribution of men and women. Nobody walked out as far as I'm known because whoever was sharing was just too good. And Zaki from Egypt, probably the best teacher that we heard at the conference expanded scripture in a way that shows how the Church of Jesus can unite even though we might disagree on secondary issues. The final day, reminding us again of the task of world evangelization, such a scary sound term, but not starting to sound more and more plausible as you realize it's as simple as everyone open your eyes to the people around you. Rick Warren, something of a personal hero to me, explained that Islam grows through reproduction, Christianity through evangelism. Though in America and Europe there's a decline of Christianity in the last few decades, it's broken the hearts of many. Rick Warren says not to worry. The Church has moved from the north and the west but by some missionaries for hundreds of years to the south and the east. Now the south and the east can return the favor. I said in the mill with David from Nigeria who works to help Nigerian people who are going abroad. Don't live for money, he tells them. Keep the higher mandate in the past, the worse the missionaries to us. Now we return the favor explained. And I just kept thinking I wonder what global impact signal the Church will have. And one of my most exciting meals and I'm coming right to the end here was with the sky, I basically was peopled out at a certain point now, when I said at the back of the conference hall where we were eating and I hope you're seeing no one, and I awkwardly sat diagonally across from another guy who clearly was looking for the same solace and then we awkwardly got into a conversation. Realized God was even in my flight from people. And he told me in detail of his journey, David from Cologne, he looked less than 40, asked him about his journey. He says for 11 years I'm in a programmed full church but I was burnt out by the busyness. I was disappointed that we'd introduced nearly no non-believers to Christ. Then I found out that in Germany each local church, they've been such hard work and so costly to run, introduces on average, less than one person to Jesus per year. And I wondered, he said, if there was a better way of doing church. He said, so I studied the Gospel of Luke for three years. It was then that I noticed that Jesus's minister in Luke happens mostly around tables and he's in time, the relational. So he started six years ago meeting point church. He says, it's not on the internet, that internet use social media, it's all relational. He told the very few people who started with him. Only, there's only four things I'm asking you to do. Number one, bring your literal neighbor into your heart. Start to pray for them. See how you can connect with or serve them. Secondly, invite them into your home. Open up your meals and your life to them. Thirdly, now you had such good friends with them. Invite them to your small group. Explain that all that will happen is friendship time and the reading of the Gospel passage, which we will discuss. Fourth, and only after they have been to your small group for some time, invite them to a Sunday meeting, which happens every second weekend. He then told me that in six years he's church in Cologne at going to 19 small groups. Over half of all these people were previously someone's non-Christian neighbor. He said, the key to the Great Commission, which is that go make disciples, baptizing and teaching them, is the Great Commandment, where Jesus loves your neighbor. In Cologne, people will say, no to a direct invitation to your church service, for they are post-Christian, but they will never say no to an invitation to a mill. There are now many streets in Cologne that have the Gospel spreading through them from neighbor to neighbor at the slow but steady pace of genuine relationship. He says, I used to spend evenings, at many evenings a week running programs. He says, now I feel a bit guilty because I spend many evenings a week eating or playing cards or having a table with my friends. I was just inspired again, who are the people in your life? Who are the neighbors that live next to you? If you could just see the people God has put in your life? Of course, Peter once made a person that God put in his life, and there was a revelation that gave way to a mission. Peter met Jesus, the son of the living God, and Peter himself became a building block in the church and a builder in the church, and every follower of Jesus becomes a building block and the church Jesus is building, but also the privilege of being a builder. Back to the Korean church. What an inspiring community. I mean, 139 years ago, the first missionaries arrived. The most famous people in Korea, these three missionaries that arrived and bring them to the Gospel. I couldn't give higher honor to these missionaries. Now Korea sends out 23 missionaries around the world, and some 15 to 20% of Korea have come to faith in a highly Buddhist country. But during the story of the Korean church, I've always known about K-pop and K-drama, and I appreciate the K-church. Basically, these people, they take this path of radical sacrifice. It's like, they've heard Jesus say, come and die, and they're like, here we are. Where here we go? How do we die for Jesus? And of course, they find life in Jesus, but some of them pay an enormous price. For example, in 1948, one pastor called Son Young One watched his two sons be metered by a communist writer. Despite their men's pain of losing his sons, he forgave the young man who killed them, and in an extraordinary act of grace, adopted him as his own son. This story spread far and wide, and Son's action became known across Korea as the atomic bomb of love. And a perfect picture of the god who sent his own son to us and self-sacrifice, so that he could adopt us as his sons and daughters. That's all that story, 'cause I think of those of you, then here, maybe the first time in the church, we'll back in church after a long time, and I'll bring to you the amazing news, that God has sent his son, and through the death of his son, has found a way to adopt you as his son and daughter. And you are in for the greatest discovery of your life, the person Jesus Christ. Along with Peter, you could say these words, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God," and you could feel his presence. And how do you swear to give you this revelation? And all the wildest dreams in the thick of your heart, you admit, if you find the person you've been looking for your whole life and the purpose that you could feel is there, but you just couldn't latch upon Jesus Christ. And then the joy of your life come mingling with his, as you bring his good news to the world. You can ask him to stand up, go to the bed on the stage. First of all, I want to pray for those of you that are new to church or back in church after a long time, if you can just ask him to close their eyes. There's anyone like that today, maybe if today was just what you needed to hear, to get past your defenses, or if I could put a lack of love in them, you can sense Jesus in the rain, and you can sense Jesus is calling you. And if not, I'd love to pray for you. And now during your attention to you, I'd just like to know who you are, everyone's eyes are closed. Would you just put up your hand as your life saying, "Tane, Jesus is calling me today." Wonderful, anyone else. Just lift up your hand. Wonderful, Jesus is calling me. Jesus is calling me. Not just God, you in a simple prayer. Jesus, I trust in you. Could you say those words under your breath? Jesus, I trust in you. Thank you that you died on the cross for my sins. Thank you that you rose again, you're alive. Can you say those words? You rose again, you're alive. Come and live in me by your Holy Spirit. Teach me to trust you. Teach me to follow you. And then I want to give you an opportunity to respond by lifting up your hands, if in this message you've sensed Jesus saying to you, come and die, come and give you a whole life for the fame of Jesus' name, for the mission of Jesus as he builds his church. I'm not saying you have a clue where it's going, only Jesus knows, I can guarantee you that there is an adventure before you, that you could not imagine or engineer. But it starts with you saying here on Jesus, take my one and only life and do with it whatever you please. First you could use lift up both hands into the air, you can open up your eyes. If you're stuck in both hands and there you're saying, Jesus, I'll give you everything. Take me where it is you want to take me. Send me where it is you want to send me. I don't want to live for me, I want to live for you. (gentle guitar music) - It's a feeling of point of moment in a journey I think, is moments of commitment, consecration. Lord, just I'm going to pray your spirit upon every person surrendering to your call today. Come upon them. Waking them up, waking them fully. You quilt them for what it is you want them to do. Thank you for me stories we learn that it doesn't mean something dramatic always, often it means something as simple as noticing your neighbor. Say to someone, hey, I think you're looking for someone to read the Bible with, would you be interested? Inviting someone to appeal. Might be. Relocating to another country one day to plant a church. Might be. Not in a church in Cape Town. Might be involvement in a NGO. Might be, yeah, starting to get involved and more involved in signal church itself and serving young people and be leading a nightclub, that kind of thing, but starts with this commitment to Jesus Christ. Come only spirit. Every person in their place is surrender. (guitar strumming) (guitar strumming) [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat music)