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Acts Series Part 11: Scattered with a Purpose · Growing Together in the Gospel

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: We have reached a significant turning point in the book of Acts, in the sermon.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Up until chapter 7, almost everything took place in Jerusalem.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: The church experienced remarkable growth, unity, and the power of the Holy Spirit, but it also faced increasing opposition.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: With the death of Stephen, that opposition reached a new level.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Persecution broke out.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Beliefs were forced to leave Jerusalem, and Saul began his violent campaign against the church.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: So at first glance, it looked like the mission had failed.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yet Acts 8 reveals exactly the opposite.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: What appeared to be defeat was actually God's strategy for advancing his kingdom.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Luke tells us that those who'd been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: The enemy intended to extinguish the church, but instead he scattered the gospel like sparks from a fire.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: The mission didn't stop, it expanded.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: And this fulfilled Jesus' words in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: The gospel was never meant to remain in Jerusalem.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: God always intended it to spread through Judea, Samaria, and ultimately to the ends of the earth.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Persecution became the means by which God's people carried his good news into new places.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: If Act 1 was Jesus' work, and Act Two was the church being established in Jerusalem, then the book of Acts now moves into Act 3 as the gospel spreads beyond its first boundaries.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: Let's listen to Dean.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So our series, Act 2, the Book of Acts, comes to an end today.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: We had to do it.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember last week, um we we ended with Stephen being the martyr, the first martyr in the book of Acts, the first martyr in church history from after the death of Jesus.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: His life is given.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a little phrase in there where it says that there was a man called Saul who oversaw this.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it comes to the end, and then you've got to imagine you're reading this for the first time.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not Christians who've been doing this for ages, and you know, oh, I know Saul and he becomes Paul and the spoiler that comes.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But you're reading it and you're going, hang on, have I met this guy before?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Who's he?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you're meant to go, oh, this is a bit odd.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then you come to chapter eight, and in chapter eight, sorry, the first bit it's all about the takeoff, remember.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's what we've been doing.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then chapter eight, it starts and it says this it says that there is a man called Paul who approved of their killing.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's a man called Saul who approved of their killing, and he stood there, and that's that's how chapter eight starts.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that we've ended chapter seven, and Saul approved of their killing him.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you go, hang on, have I met this guy before?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what here's the idea.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know where you sometimes watch a film, and you watch the film, and the film ends, and it's good, and the credits roll.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you sit there long enough, you get to the end of the credits.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's sometimes a little clip.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen that?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or the end of a show where the murder's solved and the mystery solved, and then suddenly there's something, it lingers on something, maybe an instrument that was used, or a person with a funny look on their face, and they just look at the camera holds on them for an extra second, and you think, What's going on?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's something else, and then it cuts, and then you get the news that there's gonna be a second series.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you go, Yes, because the first one was so good, and it's just that little teaser.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if you watch the Avengers film, which I'm sure you all have, the famous one at the very start, where it thought it was just Iron Man, it was just one film, and then there was Nick Fury, and at the end he said, There's an Avengers, there's a whole team of superheroes, and the whole world went crazy.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my word, there's gonna be a million films and all these superheroes coming together, and it was this moment after the film that captured them.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this is.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Luke is doing that.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: He drops in, and Saul approved of their killing him, and you go, Huh?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit odd.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we finished Acts chapter two, we finished the series.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're now moving on to Act three.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Same act, so it's the same series basically, don't worry.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: But we're I'm just trying to highlight that there is a movement in Acts from Acts 1, Jesus and his ministry, to Act Two, the takeoff and the planting and the growth of the church, now into Act Three.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Acts shifts in a different direction.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens is something different happens to the church.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Up till now, they've been in Jerusalem, they've expanded, many have been added, they've gathered, they've worshipped, they've met in the temple, they've built themselves up, they've shared food and homes, they've they've prayed and they sought God, and God has done amazing things and miraculous things, and they've overcome uh opposition and trial and difficulty.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: But now there is a shift.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Something is happening.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: We move into the next phase.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Continuing the the film illustration, this is this is Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: The first one, they're all done, they blow up the Death Star.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: You all know what I'm talking about, I know.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then they win, and then the second one, it ends kind of on a funny note.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's scattered all over the place.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: No one's in the right place.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like things have gone wrong, and that's how this starts.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Empire has struck back, Stephen has been killed, his life has been ended.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Saul, Darth Vader, has stood there over his body, approving of his killing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone, all the all the good guys, they don't know where they're going, they're all over the place.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But there's another film coming where it all gets made right, and that's what happens here.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because we read here, it says, Saul approved of their killing him.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's the very first verse of chapter 8.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it begins.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Saul approved of their killing him, but here's how it goes on it says, On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So all the people, all those thousands that have gathered and worshipped and gathered again and again and met in homes and built each other up.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're scattered, and only the apostles are left in Jerusalem.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: But Saul began to destroy the church.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says this: those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: The church has been scattered.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been going, where are they going?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Through Judea and Samaria.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're meant to read that and go, have I heard Judea and Samaria next to each other before?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you go right back to the start of Acts where it says, You'll be my witnesses where?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: In Jerusalem.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right there.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: In Judea, in Samaria, and then the ends of the earth.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's Act 4.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that at some point.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: But here we are, we see the movement.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: They've been in Jerusalem and now they're being scattered because the point was to go to Judea and Samaria.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't meant to stay in one place.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: You weren't meant to be contained here.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Although it's wonderful, they're sharing meals, they're praising God, they're worshiping, wonderful things are happening.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: God is blessing them.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the blessing of God is not meant to be contained in one place.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's meant to be spread, and God uses this persecution.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: As horrible as it is, it is used by God to spread this message, and everywhere they go, those who've been scattered preach the word wherever they went.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have this vision, this mission as a church to help everyone everywhere have an everyday relationship with Jesus.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And for everyone everywhere to have an everyday relationship with Jesus, it means that the church has to meet everyone everywhere.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens in Acts.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: For the message to get out, for the good news to spread to Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth, it cannot stay in one place.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: It has to move, and that's what happens.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: The church faces its greatest crisis.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: The believers are fleeing, everything looks like a failure, it's all falling apart, or so it seems.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd probably expect, if we were writing the story, to expect God to answer by making the church bigger, sending more miracles, removing the persecution, striking down Saul so he couldn't do any more damage, but he doesn't.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he allows his people to be scattered.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as they try, and it's like trying to stamp out a fire, but as they do, it sends up all the embers and they fly into the air and land in different places and spark up fires wherever they land.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what's happening here.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: God's strategy has never been bigger buildings, bigger meetings, bigger programs.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: God's purpose has always been a scattered people who preach, who share, who witness wherever it is that they are sent.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And notice it said, not it's not the apostles, the apostles stay where they are, it is ordinary Christians.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is that fulfillment.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth, the gathered church.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the gathering is good, but the gathered church now becomes the scattered church.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that Acts portrays this because these are the two aspects of church that we should hold in our head, and we often favor one over the other.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: There is a gathered church.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do not forsake the gathering, we're told in Hebrews.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Meet together, encourage one another, bear with one another, love one another, submit to one another, care for one another, all these one another's that we're told to do.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: There is something about being together, being invested in people's lives, of knowing who someone is and knowing who someone's children are and children's children and knowing what's going on and where they work.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's something beautiful about that.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: We love it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: As Sundays we gather.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: With one voice we praise God, and one voice we can encourage and meet with one another.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: That the gather thing is precious and wonderful, but it is not all there is to church.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because if it is, what tends to happen is we go to church.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Church is something we do, church is something that happens.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the scattered reminds us that church is something that we are.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: The church gathers and then the church scatters.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you are church when you are here together, but you are also church when you are spread out in all the different places where God has put you.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: There is a gathered mission where we invite people to and we run ministries and we serve our community and we have events and courses and children's work and Sunday worship and all these things, and that's all wonderful.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: But there is an everyday mission as well, where we live for Christ at work, where we speak naturally about the Jesus we love, where we serve neighbors, where we show kindness, where we are faithful in the ordinary places.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And a successful church is not just one that has successful gathered ministries.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: A church can have lots of wonderful ministries and be busy and active, and all the things that I've already said that happen here, and that's great, but that isn't a successful church.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: A successful church is one that gathers to honour God and then scatters to honor God, that gathers to worship and praise Him and then scatters to spread that worship and praise.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: That gathers to be blessed and then scatters to spread that blessing wherever they're put.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the apostles, they stay in Jerusalem.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is, well, who's doing the preaching?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Who's who's doing the communicating?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Who's doing what they've been doing?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is everyone.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: As they go, God sends them out.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Luke just quietly demolishes the idea that ministry belongs to one place or one person.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: They are scattered out, they are sent out into their different places.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we read two things that happen following after this.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Those who've been scattered preach the word wherever they went.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Philip, so Philip is one of the men chosen as a servant in one of the previous chapters we saw.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So Philip's doing what the apostles are doing, it isn't limited to them, ordinary people doing wonderful things for the name of Jesus.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And with shrieks and impure spirits came out of many, and many who are paralyzed or lame were healed.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's extending, as Mary said, extending the blessing of God, the healing of God, the ministry of God.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's going out and he's doing it.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there was great joy in that city.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: He goes out, and as he spreads, there is a great joy.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just things happening, a whole culture has been transformed.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Joy comes to a city.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: You ever walked down the road or gone to the shops and just paid attention to people around?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is joy a predominant feature?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Are people skipping down the road and singing with delight?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do you only hear anyone whistling anymore?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: That relax that that brings joy that when he preached this gospel, it's like something he leaves something good behind.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is a continuation of something Jesus said.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said it very simply.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is it playing out.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, salt preserves something, that's that's part of its role, but salt also adds flavor to something.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: It makes something enjoyable, something that can be bland and tasteless, suddenly has flavor and life and fullness to it.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: When we go out, we bring salt, the grace of God, the goodness of God.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea of that is that we make something better.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: We leave behind something better.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: There is more flavor, there is more, there's more taste, there is more goodness.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Philip, in this place, he's ministering, he's healing, he's preaching, he's proclaiming, he's serving these people, and the result is they get a taste, and there's joy, there's this great celebration, there's goodness.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: People you haven't got to argue it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: People can see it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: We often think, I think, in our culture that we have to argue and convince people Christianity is true and it is true, and you can argue and you can try and convince, but Philip, he he he does it, and there's no argument, there's simply joy that overflows, it's undeniable.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the kingdom's breaking in and people being set free.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is God being witnessed to, this is God being proclaimed in his place.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: He is on the throne, and as they go out, they are salt in the places that God has put them.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: He arrives there and brings great joy.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: You are the salt of the earth.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so Philip goes out and he's been blessed, and so now he's extending that blessing.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine if, as Mary said, imagine if this this week we asked ourselves, how can I leave this place better than I found it?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the place where you're gonna go, and that will be different for different people.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: For some it's a field, a tractor cabs, for some it's an office, for some it's a classroom, for some it's it's working outside, for some it's working inside, for some it's at home, for some it's with your children or your family.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: But how are you bringing something that leaves it better?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Your hobbies, your friends, that people notice something is different because a little bit of salt has been sprinkled, a bit of grace has been introduced, a bit of the goodness of God has been brought into a situation that has made it better.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: We go out as salt, but then it goes on and it says the next thing that happens is Simon saw that there was a man called Simon, so they're in a different place, and a man called Simon, he's a great uh sort of magician, he's can he can perform mighty things, and he's called this instrument of God, he's done great things, but he encounters Jesus and his life is turned around, but there's still something in him, because this man called Simon, he saw that the spirit is given by the laying on of the apostles' hands.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: They pray for people and the spirit fills people, and he offers them money and says, Give me this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: So he sees this gift and he doesn't quite understand, and he assumes, oh, this is this looks good, and it's part of his old nature that that the magician and the magic that he was performing.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's still a bit of that in there.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, Can I buy this?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they respond, Peter answers and says, May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so he confronts him and says, Look, this is the wrong attitude, this is the wrong mindset, your heart is wrong.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: You think that God can be bought, you think that you have some ownership over God, you think you have some control, this isn't right.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Simon turns around and recognizes and says, Lord, please pray that nothing you have said may happen to me.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: May nothing happen to me that you've said because I recognize that I'm wrong.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because as well as being salt, when we scatter to the world, we're also meant to be light.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're also meant to talk about the truth, about things as the way they should be, things as God has designed them to be and planned them to be.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the light of the gospel, it does expose different things.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: It exposes false religion and false power and false motives.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter, I guess, lovingly but courageously tells Simon the truth.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Your heart isn't right.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is something wrong.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because the gospel isn't about simply making things nicer, as nice as that is.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel is also about proclaiming the truth of who Jesus is.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't just making life nicer, we're pointing people to what is true.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there are counterfeits out there that enslave people and rob people of the fullness of joy.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: There is there is the blessing of security, and there is the false security of money, of health.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we bring the truth and say, look, these are wonderful gifts, but they are awful gods.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Money is a wonderful gift, but an awful God.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Health is a wonderful gift, but an awful God.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Purpose.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Purpose is a wonderful thing.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: God gives us purpose, but we settle for reputation and the false image of social media and the things we put out.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Reputation is a what but purpose is a wonderful thing, but a false reputation, that's that's an awful God.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Intimacy.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have a culture that exchanges intimacy for the counterfeit of pornography, of cheap fixes and and and and shallow relationships.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we we come to speak the truth and say, look, that isn't what you're designed for.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: That isn't how we treat others, that isn't the image of God that we see and honour in others.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: We challenge and expose these things, not harshly, not overbearing, but we do stand for the truth and say there is a way that is right and we want to walk in it.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the light exists.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Here's why we do this because the light exists to guide people home.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we're sent to do.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: We go out into the world, the church is scattered, and wherever it goes, it brings salt, flavor, and blessing.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: People are glad that there is a Christian neighbor, not going, Oh my goodness, we've got a Christian neighbor.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And there is light.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is a challenge, but it's done graciously and at the right time and the right moments to stand up for what is right and say there are things that God has honored, God has given us that we are to protect.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Salt and light.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And both of those things, Jesus says, that they're not meant to stay where they're put.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Salt doesn't stay in the shaker, and light isn't meant to stay in the bulb.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Both of them are completely pointless if they stay where they are.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Salt only works when it comes out of the shaker, and light only works when it comes out of the bulb.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Both of those things are needed, but both of those things cannot be kept in one place.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Salt and light is one way of explaining it.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: I always like the idea of manure because we've got farmers in the church.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Manure piled up in one place stinks.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: But manure spread across a field, scattered all over the place, produces fruit and crops and harvest and abundance.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Christians are not meant to be a pile of manure.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're not meant to be gathered up in one place to sit here and start stinking.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are meant to be scattered.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when we are scattered, fruit and blessing and harvest is what results.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus never said, keep the salt safely in the shaker.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: He never said make sure no one else sees the light.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he said the opposite.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not salt, then you've got no use.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you put the light under a basket, what purpose does it have?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: But you are made to be salt and light that you might shine.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Salt brings the flavor of God's kingdom, light reveals the truth of God's kingdom, and both things are necessary.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my gift for you.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've printed off a few hundred of these cards with a little light bulb and a little salt shaker, and on the back it says be salt, be light.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: For you to put wherever you go this week, as a reminder, you can put it in your wallet or put it on your computer screen or put it somewhere where you can see it.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder that wherever you are, this is your job.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know what your job searcher says or your CV, but above you, wherever your job is, there's a higher job to be salt and light.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a whole bunch of these, please take one.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was not gonna have a whole lot of them, I'll be sticking them everywhere.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: But this is your role, a reminder that we gather here, but you take this to remind that wherever you are scattered, wherever you are put, you are put there to be salt and light, to shine, to bring flavour, to preserve, to speak truth, to show the light of Jesus, to bring people home and help them.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is not church that happens here.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Church is who we are, and it happens here, and it happens as we go.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the thing I want to end with.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you to be salt and light, and you would say, Well, why should we do that?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I could tell you, well, it'd be good for others.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you do this, other people will be blessed.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you do this, you could change someone's life.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: There are wonderful stories of one person, we're gonna come on to one next week.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: One person who meets the right person at the right time, and everything turns around and their whole life is made different, and they they leave behind the darkness and they step into the light and everything's transformed.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I could tell you that's a reason to do it, and it'd be a good reason, but I'm not gonna tell you that today.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I could tell you it would be good for you.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Studies show that when we serve and give out from ourselves, that it blesses us.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: That when we're all about us and only me, and my only concern is myself, actually, it weighs heavily on us.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are made to give out, to serve.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: There is blessing, there are endorphins that are released, there is something that happens, that you will be healthier, you will be more full, you will have purpose and flourish.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I could tell you that, that's a good reason, but it's not that one today.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: I could tell you, I'm your pastor, so just do it, will you?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not gonna say that.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus doesn't do any of those.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Here's why Jesus says you should do this.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Be salt, be light, because, because why?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because my pastor said so, because it'd be good for me, because it'd be good for them.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Be salt, be light, he says, because that is what you are.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're not trying to be something, you're not trying to be salt.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to be a good person, I'm trying to do good things.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to be light, I'm trying to be truthful and trying to speak right.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't say try to be, he says, you are, so be it.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is not something you have to pretend to do.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus has done for you so that you can go and be it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: The early church, they scattered and did this, not because they thought this is a great strategy, really good fruit gets from that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: We will be really productive, really effective at bringing people to faith.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be salt and light and it'll be really good at ministering to others.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: They do it because it's who they are.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has done something in their life.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: He has come into this world and he has lived his life, he's proclaimed the kingdom, and on the cross, he has taken away all the darkness of the world.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's taken away all the darkness, including the darkness in me.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: He has removed it.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's taken away.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: All the things that are dry and lifeless without any flavor, and he has brought life in its fullness.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And having done that, he has then put within me a bulb, a light bulb, which is his presence, him himself dwelling in my heart.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: He has filled me with his spirit, he has made me his child, he's put his life within me so that it flows through me, rivers of living water flowing out.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: He has done this in me.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: He has made me salt and light, and so my role then is to go and do it.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not to try and do it, but to do it.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Pauline, could I just ask you to?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna put that there.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Could you just try and pick that up for me?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, try and pick it up.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, you picked it up.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you got you got to try and pick it up.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not bad, not bad.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: But you didn't pick it up.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to try and pick it up.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: You sit down.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've been silly.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a famous prophet, a famous prophet straight stroke Jedi called Yoda.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: That said, do or do not.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is no try.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what he means is is this that you can't try, uh can I try and be light?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're either not being light or you are being light.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something you try and do, it's either you are or you aren't.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you're encroached, you are.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: If he's come and taken out the darkness and put his light in you, you are light.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: You are so you don't have to try, it's what you are.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might say, well, what about all the times when I'm not?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's a story that I've heard recently that I think illustrates it wonderfully.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine a princess who kisses a frog and it becomes a prince.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I know some of you can relate to that.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the frog turns into this handsome prince, and they go out for a meal together, and as they're sat at the meal, a fly starts buzzing around, and the prince sticks out his tongue and grabs the fly and eats it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, at that moment, does the prince stop being a prince?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, he's still a prince.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's just acting like a frog, isn't he?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Christians are sultan light.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean we can't act like sultan light, but we are sultan light.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: When we're not acting like it, it's because we're being contrary to our nature.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: But to be sultan light, we simply have to be what Christ has made us.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't have to try.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't have to go, yeah, I really need to do this and guilt trip ourselves and beat ourselves up and make ourselves that will get results.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Guilt and manipulation and coercion gets wonderful results for about half an hour and then it all drops off on me say no, thank you.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that keeps us going, the thing that means I can be sultan light even when they reject me.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Things that means I can be sultan light even when they persecute me as they do in Acts.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can be Sultan light even if they reject me or they don't respond or I do all that I can and they say no over and over again.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: I be Sultan light and actually they turn against me or they walk away.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: The reason I can keep being sultan light is not because of the fruit, not because it's getting results, not because it's effective, it's because it's who I am.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I do it regardless.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless of the results of others, regardless of what happens to me, regardless of all these things, it is who I am, and so I keep doing it.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: That is what the early church does.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: When they are scattered, they don't say, Well, let's keep quiet in this one, because we've already been kicked out of one city, let's keep quiet in this one because they don't want that to happen again.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: They go, Well, we're going to keep doing it because it's who we are.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: We are salt, we are light.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Whether that's in Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria, whether that's in a prison cell or on an island, wherever it might be, we are going to be salt and light because it's what we are.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's what Christ has made us.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we cannot deny that.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: You are the salt of the earth.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: You are the light of the world.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And here we find this is our foundation.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has done this.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: He has taken away the darkness.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: He has taken away life that is absent of fullness and flourishing.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he has done a work on the cross and through the resurrection.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: He has put his spirit in us that now we have new life.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have new hearts.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: We have lights.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have a spark in us.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: He makes my heart, your heart, his home.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: His presence is in my innermost being.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: The core of who I am is no longer an empty hole that I'm trying to fill up with meaning and purpose.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is a home in which God Himself dwells.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, it is a river that overflows.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: He has given me hope and joy and love and peace.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's given me light and purpose.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And because I have those things, I haven't got to go looking for them anymore.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have those things, I haven't got to fill my life trying to search for meaning and purpose.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I have them.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, I can spend my life sharing what I have.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not scrabbling around looking for the answers anymore because it's already there.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And because I have all I need, I can be salt and light.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can live scattered wherever God might put me, and there say, This is the place you have put me.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: May your kingdom come.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: May I be used by you to be salt and light, to be a blessing in this place.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see, that's why it's the movement in Acts.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: You go from chapter 7, the church gathered and things happening to suddenly scattered, scattered but not stopped.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we end the service, when we end the gathering, things don't stop, they just get started.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: When we say our final prayer and we go tea and coffee and we go our way, that's where the ministry starts.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so grab your cards, find your place, put them wherever you are, and be reminded this week you are put there because you are the soul to the earth.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: You are the light of the world.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so be it.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Be it.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you perhaps feel that God has been distant recently, this might be an invitation to come back.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do what God has given you to do.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Be who has made you to be.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: You haven't got a try.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do it or don't do it.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is no try though.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's an excuse we come up with.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's something we create.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I tried it and I wasn't regular.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I tried it.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's who you are.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you do it in your own way, you do it in your own style.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: You do it with your own character and your own personality.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: You do it in the way that God has designed and formed and made you to do.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I invite you to look at your ordinary life, your home, your marriage, your children, your workplace, your neighbors, your hobbies, your sports club, your coffee shop, your school gate.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: These places are not interruptions to your ministry.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: They are not distractions when you could be coming to one of our ministries that we run here.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: They are the place that God has put you.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: They are the place he is interested in.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they are perhaps the place where God has been showing you opportunities, but you've stopped noticing them.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so as you go to these places, I want you to be asking, who has God placed around me to love?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: What needs has he put in front of me to help meet?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: What darkness has he called me to to shine into?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: What conversation might he already be preparing for me to step into?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't just send missionaries across oceans, he sends teachers into schools, sends farmers into markets, parents into homes, builders into sites, nurses into hospitals, students into classrooms, retirees into communities.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: He sends people to these different places.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we gather around this table, we're reminded that Jesus met with his disciples on a couple of occasions at the end of John.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: One, he shares this meal, and then he goes to the cross and he dies and he's resurrected, and then he meets with his disciples again, and he comes to them and he breathes on them as a sign of God's breath, his life entering into their bodies, and says, As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: These are some of the last words that Jesus spoke as a reminder that this blessing, this meal that we're about to share in, it isn't meant to end with me.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not meant to stop with me.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: It is too big, it is too wonderful, it is too glorious to end with me.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: It cannot be contained in one person.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: It has to fill each one of us, fill a whole church to fill the entire world.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we gather around this table, I love that we have such a small bit.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us would like a bit more, get rumbly tummies at the end of a service, but I love that it's such a small because it's it becomes the idea is that that small bit is enough.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's enough to fill us, to overflow, to a drop of Jesus is enough to flood up the entire earth.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: A drop of his grace in each person is enough to cover the entire earth with his glory and grace.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so we come now to share in this, to remind ourselves he has done this, that we are these things because of him.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so we go to be these things.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Be soul, be light, live for Jesus, wherever he's put you.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray as we come to the table.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: This account of the early church, uh for the incredible nature that we see here, that despite the persecution, despite the opposition, despite all the temptation to settle down and to become smaller, the opposite happened.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: That because your spirit was in them, because they understood who they were, when this happened, the ministry spread.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere they went, they proclaimed.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever you put them, in different ways, in different um aspects and different dimensions, they would continue to serve you, to proclaim you are the Messiah, you are King.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And wherever they went, there was joy, there was truth proclaimed.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that this isn't something we have to do, it's something we do because of what you've done.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have made us something, you have made us light because you have forgiven us our sin.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: You have taken away the darkness and put a light within us.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: You've taken away the emptiness and filled us with the fullness of heaven.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we pray now that that would not end with us.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: That we would not be the stopping point or the blockage in your blessing flowing.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: But as we go, as we scatter now, that you would go with us, that you would flow through us.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this, Lord.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that this is your ministry, this is your church.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not one person, but many, gathered to proclaim and to declare your goodness, but scattered to share your kingdom and to minister for you wherever they are.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Jesus, that this is what you've called us to.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are the souls of the earth.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to believe it.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: We are the light of the world.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to hold on to it.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: That as we go, whatever may come, we will be what you have made us.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lead us now as we gather round this table.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Fill us afresh with your grace and your blessing.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Remind us of your promises.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Fill us with your presence.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's thoughts today.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: If anything that he has said has challenged you or raised questions that you'd like answers to, please don't hesitate to contact us and ask for a chat.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can find our details on our website, which is loc.co.uk, as well as on the information that we have posted for this podcast.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Alternatively, if you live in our area, you're very welcome to join us on Sunday morning at 10.30 to hear things first hand.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: We'd love to see you there.