Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / Regional Conference 2025 - Jim Ritchie | Engaging the Next Generation
Transcript
- 0:07Welcome to the Eurasia Region Podcast channel.
- 0:10In this podcast episode, you can listen to the sermon from Global
- 0:13Missions Director Jim Ritchie. The sermon took place at the
- 0:17Eurasia Regional Conference 2025 in Albania.
- 0:23Jim spoke about the team engaging the next generation.
- 0:27Good evening, Eurasia. It is so wonderful to be back
- 0:33with you again. Thank you so much to Mark for
- 0:37the invitation to come and speak this evening.
- 0:41I kind of feel like I'm home with family.
- 0:43And as I've been going around the last couple of days, every
- 0:46time I'm speaking to somebody, I see somebody behind them that I
- 0:49also want to say hello to. So hello everybody, everyone of
- 0:53you. Hello.
- 0:54I've done it. I've said hello to all of you.
- 0:56It's a joy to be with you. A couple of years ago when we
- 1:00started to think about our regional conference, I was the
- 1:04regional director at the time and we had seven regional
- 1:07priorities which I had come up with, which all started with the
- 1:11word more or in Spanish Mass. You see that I can speak 2
- 1:17languages. We there's three and thank you,
- 1:24there's four. Anyway, I'm going to stop now.
- 1:28And I wanted to say that we have come up with these seven
- 1:31regional priorities because we really believe that in God there
- 1:35is more, There is more that God has for us than we are currently
- 1:40experiencing. So we said let's call the
- 1:43regional conference. There is more.
- 1:45And when Mark became regional director, he kindly kept the
- 1:48theme. And so we're here to think about
- 1:51the more that God has for us. And tonight my theme is engaging
- 1:56with the next generation. But in engaging with the next
- 2:00generation, we're also engaging with the current generation.
- 2:04And we're looking to the future generation and the generations
- 2:07to come, because I don't know if you know this, but in Scripture,
- 2:11God tells us people teach the generation and the generation
- 2:15beyond that. And it is our responsibility to
- 2:18continue to share the word from generation to generation.
- 2:24And the church will continue empowered by the Holy Spirit
- 2:28when we obey God in that task. It is our responsibility for
- 2:32what comes next. It is not our responsibility for
- 2:36what came behind us. That was other people's job.
- 2:40But thank God because they did their job.
- 2:41We're still here. And I'm here tonight because
- 2:44somebody told me about Jesus. And there are millions of people
- 2:48in Eurasia that somebody needs to tell them about Jesus.
- 2:53And you are part of that somebody.
- 2:57So today we're going to think about how we engage with the
- 2:59next generation. But it's, it's, it's a word for
- 3:02all of us. And I want us to be contemporary
- 3:05Nazarenes. That doesn't mean to be modern.
- 3:09It doesn't mean to be trendy. It means to be relevant to the
- 3:13time and place in which you live.
- 3:14That's all that contemporary means.
- 3:17So you can be a pensioner living in a retirement village, but you
- 3:21are with your contemporaries and you can be Jesus to them.
- 3:25You can be at school or at college.
- 3:27And you are the voice, the hands, the feet, the visible
- 3:30presence of Jesus in a contemporary way for the people
- 3:33around you. And that is what God has called
- 3:35us too. God has called us all to
- 3:38mission. Amen.
- 3:40So when I say Amen tonight, come on, let me hear you.
- 3:42Amen. That's it.
- 3:45Be enthusiastic. God has called us all to
- 3:47mission, everyone of us, mission where we are and mission where
- 3:51he sends us. So God has called you as a
- 3:54missionary. You may not work for global
- 3:57missions, but you are a missionary wherever God has
- 4:00called you. And he's called us all
- 4:01somewhere. Some of us, he's called to the
- 4:04end of our street, some of us, he's called to the ends of the
- 4:06earth. But we are all called.
- 4:08And there's our responsibility to say yes, Lord.
- 4:11And tonight we're going to think about what that looks like.
- 4:14So I want to give my love to all of you from my wife, Maggie.
- 4:19James is going to put a picture of Maggie.
- 4:21Isn't she lovely? Isn't she beautiful?
- 4:25I'm pretty handsome there as well, I've got to say.
- 4:29And the reason I put this up firstly to tell you that Maggie
- 4:32can't be with us because she's currently in England with our
- 4:36daughter who's just given birth to our 4th grandchild.
- 4:40Yeah, Maggie and I met in 1982. Is anybody alive in 1982?
- 4:50Some of you are lying right now. God can see you.
- 4:55We met on a mission trip and that is what what has fuelled my
- 5:00heart and my passion for missions.
- 5:02And that's why in some sense is God has placed me as the global
- 5:06mission director of the Church of the Nazarene because my heart
- 5:10has always been for missions, because I believe that God's
- 5:15call to us end missions as a divine call, a Kairos call for
- 5:21such a time as this. So in 1983, Mikey and I got
- 5:26married and this is as a couple of years later.
- 5:30Well, 40 years later, she still looks good at one of her
- 5:36children's weddings. Now, I am not going to wear a
- 5:40kilt tonight at the World Market.
- 5:41I am sorry. And the reason I'm not going to
- 5:45wear a kilt is because I was too heavy to put in my suitcase.
- 5:50It's a lot of stuff. Look at it.
- 5:53And the kilt is not a skirt. It's not a skirt.
- 5:57And if you notice there in my sock, in my right leg, there is
- 6:02a knife. And you know what the knife is
- 6:05for? It's for anybody who calls it a
- 6:08skirt. Scots are always very practical.
- 6:17We've been in ministry for 43 years, but the for the 1st 10
- 6:21years of my ministry, this is what I did for a living.
- 6:29I can see our. Children pleasure and I wonder
- 6:44where is it all gone? What give?
- 6:53Me hope. Wow, would would you believe
- 7:04that that was actually my ministry.
- 7:07We went all around the UK and Europe using contemporary
- 7:11Christian music to preach the gospel and to call people to
- 7:15life with Jesus and missions and I got away with any fashion I
- 7:20liked. And believe me, there were some
- 7:23fashions. But then God called me.
- 7:27I became a pastor. I was ordained but not in the
- 7:29Church of a Nazarene. I am not a Nazarene by birth.
- 7:34I'm a Nazarene by choice and it's the best choice I've ever
- 7:37made. And I have been in the following
- 7:41places. I was a pastor in Trinity Church
- 7:44of the Nazarene in Perth, some Perth people.
- 7:48I was a district Superintendent of British Isles N District.
- 7:54I was the regional director of Eurasia, and now I'm the global
- 7:59missions director of the Church of a Nazarene.
- 8:03This is the church James, next slide.
- 8:07This is the regions of the world and the Church of a Nazarene,
- 8:12165 world areas. And I believe that in the next
- 8:17few years, that number is going to rise.
- 8:20Over 30,000 churches in 192 languages on a Sunday morning
- 8:27praising Jesus. In the last few months, I've
- 8:31been in every one of our regions.
- 8:34I started in America and Canada with the M25 conference. 3 1/2
- 8:41thousand Nazarenes gathered in Kansas and then was in Asia
- 8:46Pacific for the regional conference there.
- 8:48And that, Mark, was unbelievable.
- 8:51You've left a wonderful legacy, you and Linda there, and God is
- 8:55doing amazing things here. Then I was in South America, in
- 8:59Colombia for the regional conference there, and that was
- 9:02unbelievable. Over the top worship and passion
- 9:06for Jesus. And Chuck and Carla were there
- 9:08with us and some others here tonight.
- 9:10And now we're here. And the best of the Lord
- 9:13Eurasia. I also said that in all the
- 9:18other places by in case you didn't expect that, but God is
- 9:24doing something through the Church of the Nazarene and our
- 9:26message is a message of transformation.
- 9:29We believe in Wesleyan holiness, theology of the individual
- 9:34transformation of a person through a personal relationship
- 9:37with Jesus Christ, who is transformed by the Holy Spirit
- 9:42and who then is a transformer to the communities around them,
- 9:47knowing that God Himself, by the sovereign prevenient grace of
- 9:52God, is with every single person in the world at every moment,
- 9:57calling them to Himself. I believe that God is not
- 10:01sending us to do mission to people.
- 10:03God is sending us to do mission with Him for the people that He
- 10:07longs to know, and we believe in a God who is completely
- 10:12exclusive in His salvation and inclusive in His offer.
- 10:17It is not a contemporary joy for the world to hear the message
- 10:23that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father, but it's the
- 10:28truth, and that is our message. There is no other name.
- 10:33There is no other name under heaven or on earth by which
- 10:36people are saved. Do you believe that it's the
- 10:39truth? And we cannot tell people a
- 10:42really lovely lie that everybody's finding.
- 10:45At the end of the day, everything will work out
- 10:47alright. Bible says that we give our
- 10:49lives to God through Jesus and there is no other way.
- 10:52And Jesus himself said I am the way and the truth and the life.
- 10:58No one comes to the Father except through me.
- 11:02That is our exclusive message. However, it is fully inclusive
- 11:09that everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved.
- 11:16And that is the message. And I see that all over the
- 11:19world that Nazarenes are going with that incredible message of
- 11:23salvation in Christ, with works of compassion, with education,
- 11:29with evangelism, with development, with love, sharing
- 11:35that Jesus is the way to the Father.
- 11:38And people are being saved, people are being filled by the
- 11:41Holy Spirit, and the church is growing and the church is
- 11:44expanding. Now I've got 6 pictures here,
- 11:47one from each region. And thank you for those on the
- 11:50sides helping us to see all of those as well.
- 11:53Top left. This is in North Africa in what
- 11:57is called a creative access area because it's so dangerous for
- 12:01the people who live there and work there that we can't see
- 12:03where they are. But right now there are young
- 12:06people working with their missionaries in this country,
- 12:09helping people to find Jesus in a completely Muslim, secular, a
- 12:14Muslim community where everybody there would be a follower of the
- 12:20Islamic religion. And yet they are there in Jesus
- 12:24name in the the middle in, in Mongolia.
- 12:28You know that at one point, not that long ago, there were four
- 12:32registered Christians in Mongolia.
- 12:35Today we have 7 Nazarene churches.
- 12:39Isn't that amazing? Isn't that wonderful?
- 12:41And the bottom left here, this is in Mesoamerica, and this is
- 12:46teams going into some of the poorest, most neediest areas in
- 12:50Mexico with medical teams, with compassion and with the gospel
- 12:55message in the middle at the bottom.
- 12:58This is in South America, and this is something called Aviva,
- 13:01and it's preparing the next generation of young people
- 13:04who've had a call to missions. And there were 300 young people
- 13:09in South America who responded to a missionary call last year,
- 13:13and we're helping develop and disciple them in their call.
- 13:17The bottom right is the USA in Canada and we're working now in
- 13:22churches with churches in the USA to send young missionaries,
- 13:27which I'm going to talk about in a few moments through the cause
- 13:31to reach communities in the USA. Hands up, who thinks USA needs
- 13:34missionaries? Alright, I live there.
- 13:37Believe me, we do. On top, right, we have this
- 13:43incredible project in Cyprus led by the Eastern Mediterranean
- 13:49field, where young people from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan,
- 13:57the Holy Land, Israel, Egypt meet in Cyprus to prepare
- 14:02themselves for a a mission and discipleship.
- 14:06I think that's incredible. So when I go around the world, I
- 14:09pick up these stories and I tell these stories and I always tell
- 14:13something of Eurasia. Right now we're talking about
- 14:15what God is doing in Cyprus and we give God thanks and praise
- 14:19for all of that. But we get this thing now called
- 14:22the cause. James, if you could put the next
- 14:24slide up. And the cause is something that
- 14:27I have brought to global missions because I believe that
- 14:30it's time for us to not only engage with a generation to, but
- 14:35to raise up a new generation in missions.
- 14:39And the reason I want to do that is because I believe that our
- 14:41young people today, they want to live for A cause.
- 14:45They want to do something that matters.
- 14:47They want to make a difference. They want to change things.
- 14:51They want to be involved in justice and compassion.
- 14:54They want to help people find Jesus as they know him.
- 14:58When I looked at what we were doing in missions, I saw a gap.
- 15:01I said we need more young people to be called to missions.
- 15:05So we got to give them a vehicle and an opportunity.
- 15:08So we came up with the cause. And the cause is simply for the
- 15:12cause of the King and the cause of the Kingdom.
- 15:15Can we say that together for the cause of the king and the cause
- 15:18of the Kingdom? Who wants to live for the cause
- 15:20of the king? Who wants to see the cause of
- 15:24the Kingdom come in your country and your community?
- 15:27We want that. So we say God, let's make it
- 15:29possible for our young people. So global emissions, partnering
- 15:33with all of our universities in the United States, with all of
- 15:36our regions around the world, with your regional directors and
- 15:40your field strategy coordinators.
- 15:42We are going to make mission opportunities for young people
- 15:46in a short term, in a mid term, or in a longer term opportunity,
- 15:51year out, three months, six months, three weeks, whatever.
- 15:54We're going to give opportunities for our young
- 15:56people to go on mission because mission changes things. 43 years
- 16:03ago, my wife and I, well, we weren't married at the time.
- 16:05In fact, we didn't even know each other at the time.
- 16:08So going on mission is good because you can find a wife or a
- 16:11husband. It's not a guarantee.
- 16:15You know, I don't don't hold me to that.
- 16:17I never said that 43 years ago. We went on mission and it
- 16:23changed our life so much. It turned our world upside down
- 16:27that we said, Jesus, we will give you all of our life.
- 16:32We left our jobs, we went to Bible college and we got married
- 16:38and we followed God in mission every day since.
- 16:42And I believe that there's young people out there who when they
- 16:45engage in mission, it will change their life.
- 16:48So when you hear about the 'cause when you see the
- 16:50opportunities for the cause, please make it possible for our
- 16:55young people to take part. Young adults up to the mid 30s
- 17:00who have time and who have a passion then through the 'cause
- 17:04we're going to give you an opportunity.
- 17:06And I know there's a lot of young people tonight.
- 17:09And I, I loved watching the, the West Med young people dancing
- 17:13with their, with their formerly young FSC Diego, who still
- 17:22thinks he's young and he wears trendy shirts.
- 17:25I mean, at his age, trying to wear flashy shirts.
- 17:27Come on, what's that all about? But Diego was leading them
- 17:34tonight and he's leading that field so well, as all the other
- 17:37FESFSCS are. But young people, if you're
- 17:40under the age of 35, will you stand up 35 or under?
- 17:53Amen. OK, you can.
- 17:56You can sit down because the cause is for you.
- 18:07The cause is for you. You're going to have
- 18:09opportunities to go to some places all around the world or
- 18:13in your own field or even in your own country to share the
- 18:16good news of Jesus. And here's what happens when you
- 18:19go on mission. The first thing that happens is
- 18:21that you are changed. You are changed by God as you go
- 18:25on His name. The second thing that happens is
- 18:28you are part of change wherever God sends you.
- 18:31And the third thing that happens is that your home church has
- 18:34changed. When people start to realise
- 18:36mission and the World Evangelism Fund and all concepts out there,
- 18:41they are part of your local family as you give, as you pray
- 18:44and as you send. When I became global emissions
- 18:47director, I said we have to let people know what's happening all
- 18:51around the world. Because if you don't know about
- 18:54something, you can't care about it.
- 18:56And if you don't care about it, you're not going to pray about
- 18:58it. And if you don't pray about it,
- 19:00you're certainly not going to give money to it.
- 19:02And if you don't give money to it, you're unlikely to send
- 19:04somebody to go on it. So we're going to give
- 19:07opportunities for the church to send our young people like an
- 19:10army of passion and compassion all over the world to bring
- 19:17people to Jesus. And if you think that's a good
- 19:20idea, say Amen. But we also have something that
- 19:25everybody can be involved in, and it's called prayer.
- 19:31When I was Eurasia Rd. we had an annual prayer event called From
- 19:35the Rising of the Sun, 24 hours of prayer.
- 19:38And I see my friend Sandra TB, who was helping me the very
- 19:42first one, and we had 24 hours praying all over the region.
- 19:47But now when I became global emissions director, I said,
- 19:49well, let's not reinvent the wheel.
- 19:51Let's just give it a different name.
- 19:53And we called it to the ends of the earth and all six regions
- 19:56for 24 hours. We're going to be praying
- 19:58together. We're going to be gathering on
- 20:00Zoom with one Zoom room that will be open for 24 hours, led
- 20:05by the six regions for four hours each.
- 20:08I'm going to pray in all the languages God has given us.
- 20:11I'm going to cry out to God for revival across the world, for a
- 20:16move of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus to be exalted as King and
- 20:20Lord and head of the church all over the world, and for the
- 20:23church to get passionate and desperate for God to come.
- 20:30And I want to invite all of you, FSCS pastors, DSCS leaders,
- 20:35NMINYINDI leaders, make sure your people get the number, the
- 20:40Zoom room to come and join us for 24 hours of prayer.
- 20:44Because brothers and sisters, this is our time.
- 20:49This is our day. When people write history, will
- 20:53they look back and say, this was the generation that got serious
- 20:56about God. This is the generation that got
- 20:59serious about prayer. This is the generation that got
- 21:02serious about mission and see the results of revival and
- 21:06renewal in the church all over the world that will last for
- 21:10generations. And I, I, I enjoy reading
- 21:13history. Anybody else enjoy reading
- 21:15history? But you know what I'll like even
- 21:18more than reading history, making history.
- 21:22This is how we can make history. And someday, someday might be
- 21:26writing about us and say God moved in that time in an unusual
- 21:31way when the church responded with an unusual power and
- 21:35passion. Amen.
- 21:38OK, I'm going to get to the word.
- 21:39That was my introduction. Let's turn to the word of God.
- 21:47I'm going to read from the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 6.
- 21:51If you can turn to Isaiah. I've been doing something
- 21:59revolutionary lately. I've been reading the Bible.
- 22:04No, I've been actually reading from a book called the Bible
- 22:09because for years I only read the Bible on my phone and I had
- 22:16Bibles in the house that I never picked up.
- 22:19And one day I was sitting in church and the pastor was
- 22:21reading the Bible and I got a text from my son and I thought,
- 22:25oh, that's more interesting than a Bible.
- 22:28And then I got a message on Signal from one of my RDS and I
- 22:31thought that's more interesting than reading the Bible.
- 22:34And I realised that I had relegated the Bible below social
- 22:37media. So can we start a movement?
- 22:41Can Eurasia be the first that we start taking Bibles to church
- 22:44again? You you think The thing is, you
- 22:47don't get WhatsApp in the Bible. It doesn't.
- 22:51It's not connected to Wi-Fi, so you don't need Wi-Fi.
- 22:54We've actually been in places where nobody could read the
- 22:56Bible because we didn't have the Internet.
- 22:59And I thought, let's get back to the Scripture and read the
- 23:01Bible. But there's one challenge with
- 23:04that. When you hit my age, you need
- 23:06your glasses. I've tried to resist wearing
- 23:10glasses because they don't go with my image.
- 23:14But hey, what does that matter? I'm going to read Isaiah chapter
- 23:186. I'm going to read from verse one
- 23:21onwards. Is everybody with me?
- 23:25I just want to say, if you've got your phone open to read the
- 23:27Bible, but you're actually looking at Wi-Fi, God will be
- 23:31really unhappy. So just look at the Bible.
- 23:38In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and
- 23:45Exalted, sitting on a throne, and the train of his robe filled
- 23:50the temple. Above him were seraphim, each
- 23:52with six wings. With two wings they covered
- 23:55their faces with two, they covered their feet with two.
- 23:57They were flying, and they were calling to one another.
- 24:00Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.
- 24:05The whole earth is full of His glory.
- 24:08And the sound of their voices, the torpoise and threshold
- 24:11shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
- 24:14What to me I cried. I'm ruined, for I'm a man of
- 24:19unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my
- 24:22eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.
- 24:25Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand,
- 24:29which he had taken with tongs from the altar, whither he
- 24:32touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips, your
- 24:37guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.
- 24:41Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, and here's our
- 24:44verse for tonight, Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
- 24:49And I said, here am I send me, Let's say that last verse
- 24:55together, Here am I send me. Next slide gives the seven
- 25:02things I want to say about this passage.
- 25:04It's all in one slide. If you want to write them down,
- 25:06you can keep them. If you're a preacher, this can
- 25:10be a sermon for you next week without you having to prepare
- 25:12anything. The first thing I want to say is
- 25:15that Isaiah was in the Spirit, in God's presence.
- 25:21In my life. All the most amazing things that
- 25:24have happened have happened when I've been in the Spirit, in
- 25:27God's presence. It is in the presence of God
- 25:30that we are changed and transformed.
- 25:33Things happen in the Spirit that do not happen in any other way
- 25:37and at any other time. What does it mean to be in the
- 25:41Spirit That means, I think it means to be focused completely
- 25:45on the Lord in His presence, blocking out everything and
- 25:50everybody else, just you and Jesus.
- 25:53And you can do that in a crowd and you can do it on your own.
- 25:57There is nothing like the Spirit of God's presence to change you
- 26:01and transform you. And I want to say something
- 26:06about the Spirit. When I became a Nazarene,
- 26:09somebody said we're kind of got to be careful with the Holy
- 26:12Spirit. Nazarenes are not all that kind
- 26:15of spirit people. I thought what a load of
- 26:18rubbish. And absolutely, do you not know
- 26:22our history? Do you not know where we came
- 26:25from? We are Holy Spirit people, we
- 26:28are Holy Spirit filled people. We are a holiness church.
- 26:33How on earth can you be a holiness church without the Holy
- 26:37Spirit? I don't think that's possible.
- 26:41If we are going to be the Church of the Nazarene and we're going
- 26:43to have dreams and visions, we're going to go in compassion.
- 26:47We're going to go and reach the lost.
- 26:48We cannot do that without the anointing and the power of the
- 26:51Holy Spirit. We are Holy Spirit people.
- 26:55So get into God's presence and allow the Holy Spirit to to
- 26:59touch you and transform you and then go in His name to reach a
- 27:04world that is desperate to be transformed.
- 27:09We live in America now and that's a very interesting
- 27:13experience for Maggie and I Philly and Samantha, you did
- 27:17this years before we did. But right now I'm an immigrant.
- 27:22And I think in some ways it's really unhelpful.
- 27:25In some ways it's really helpful.
- 27:27When people ask me about politics in America, I say I'm
- 27:30an immigrant, I can't vote, I don't have an opinion.
- 27:35But let me tell you about Jesus Kingdom.
- 27:40I also find difficulty ordering coffee in coffee shops because
- 27:44of my accent. I went to Starbucks her first
- 27:48week in Kansas and I said, Hey, can I have an Americana with
- 27:52some milk on the side? And the girl said to me, where
- 27:55do you come from? I said Scotland.
- 27:57She says, do you speak English there?
- 28:03I mean, right, Some of the most generous people in the world
- 28:09I've met in America, the the USA Canada church gives so much
- 28:14resources to the world of missions and I thank God for
- 28:17them. But I see a country that is so
- 28:20polarized and in many ways broken and is in need of a
- 28:25revival, and yet I see the young people on the campuses around
- 28:30the USA of all denominations flooding to Jesus because they
- 28:35are lost and they need to be found and they're finding
- 28:41salvation in Christ. And part of my job is to go and
- 28:45speak at all the Nazarene universities.
- 28:47And I've got around four of them so far and another few to go.
- 28:50And I speak at the chapels, and there are thousands upon
- 28:53thousands of young people in these Chapel services.
- 28:57And I'm telling you, there is a hunger for the presence of God.
- 29:01And one thing I notice about the the USA is they love Halloween.
- 29:06I don't know how you feel about Halloween.
- 29:09I've got a very unhelpful relationship with Halloween.
- 29:13And, and I saw somebody put recently, how I feel about it is
- 29:17that I don't celebrate Halloween for the same reason that witches
- 29:21don't celebrate the resurrection, because there's no
- 29:25relationship between darkness and light.
- 29:28But there is a spiritual hunger for supernatural.
- 29:32But there's only one super that can be natural, and that's the
- 29:36Holy Spirit, because the supernatural of God invades the
- 29:40natural of us and transforms us into the likeness of Christ.
- 29:44And if that's not supernatural, I don't know what is.
- 29:47The mere mortal bodies are filled with the eternal God and
- 29:50the power of creation to enable them to be something and do
- 29:54something that they could never do by themselves.
- 29:57So if you want to know something about God's power, get into
- 30:01God's presence. The second thing is, when you're
- 30:04in God's presence, you will experience God's glory.
- 30:10There's a word that's not so much in the Bible but in Hebrew
- 30:13culture called shekinah. Has anybody heard of that word?
- 30:18It is the, the active glory, presence of God amongst people,
- 30:22and it's a beautiful word. It's a Hebrew word and I think
- 30:25it's a cool word. Shekinah, say it together.
- 30:29Shekinah. It could be Scottish, it could
- 30:32be said by Sean Connery, Shekinah, the Shekinah, glory of
- 30:37God. And I love that concept of the
- 30:39glory of God that is manifest in the presence of His people.
- 30:44And I see that in you. When I look at your faces, I can
- 30:47see the Shekinah glory of God. I'm going to start moving about
- 30:50because I'm getting excited, but I can see over here the glory of
- 30:55God. You are the glory of God.
- 30:58God's glory is within you. You carry His glory.
- 31:01Young people, if you don't carry God's glory, your generation
- 31:04will never see it. They will never know what God's
- 31:07glory looks like if you don't carry it.
- 31:10All of us leaders, pastors, do you carry the glory of God to
- 31:13the pulpit? Worship leaders, do you just
- 31:16stand up there and sing and then sit on your phone when you're
- 31:19done? Do you carry the glory of God
- 31:21that makes you passionately desperate for God's presence?
- 31:25I'm coming across to the West Med group here and on the
- 31:28others. I don't know where you're all
- 31:31from, but I see some W Meadows here.
- 31:33Do you carry the glory of God? It's the glory of God amongst
- 31:36you. Is it in you?
- 31:37It's the glory of God in this house.
- 31:41Do we want the glory of God or do we just come for a conference
- 31:45and lots of food? The glory of God is the
- 31:50experience of the Almighty God presencing himself among his
- 31:58people, and there's nothing like it.
- 32:01Sometimes it's a show and a dance, other times as a divine
- 32:06silence and the glory of God. And I want to pray right now.
- 32:12And if you want to pray this with me, then join me.
- 32:15Lord God, reveal your glory in this place tonight.
- 32:24The third thing I see in that passage though, is that when you
- 32:27get into the glory of God and you see how holy he is, you
- 32:31realise how unworthy you are. You know, as preachers, we got a
- 32:37great opportunity to stand up in front of people and talk for a
- 32:40long time without immediate contradiction.
- 32:44It doesn't mean we don't get contradiction, but we don't get
- 32:46it at the time. And sometimes you can kind of
- 32:49feel, wow, isn't this great? Everybody's listening to me.
- 32:54The reality is that in the presence of God, and when you're
- 32:57given this opportunity to share about God, you feel nothing but
- 33:01unworthy. How can one person communicate
- 33:04all that God is, and yet God reveals this glory in you and to
- 33:10you, and he takes the unworthy vessel that you are and he
- 33:14transforms it and makes it usable.
- 33:18The next thing that we see is that God took the unworthiness
- 33:22of Isaiah, who said, woe is me, look at God, look at who he is.
- 33:31I'm undone. I'm going to die.
- 33:35I can't stand in His presence. I can't be in this holiness.
- 33:43Well, that's who salvation is. That is taking an unworthy
- 33:47person, a sinful person who has no right to stand before God,
- 33:51who has no right to be in God's presence, who has no right to be
- 33:55filled with His Spirit and cleanses them by his beautiful,
- 33:58awesome, forgiving power. And Isaiah's moment was a
- 34:05metaphor of salvation, that the holiness of God cleansed him and
- 34:12made him pure. And that was the work of Jesus,
- 34:15the great high priest who was here.
- 34:19Jesus was there when Isaiah was called by God.
- 34:23If you think about that, how could he not be there?
- 34:26Jesus was there at this moment, and the same Jesus who through
- 34:31the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is touching Isaiah.
- 34:35You know, it's a Trinitarian who's going to go for us?
- 34:38Who shall we send? Who will go for us?
- 34:40Jesus was there cleansing Isaiah.
- 34:43Well, Jesus became a man to come and cleanse us.
- 34:46He touched us from the altar with the holy fire of God to
- 34:52make us holy like him. And why did he do that?
- 34:55Because he had a job for us to do, and we can't do it unless
- 34:58he's transformed us. And he gave a call, and the call
- 35:05was this. Who will go for us?
- 35:09Who will we send? Have you heard the call of God?
- 35:15If you're a pastor, a leader, young person here tonight, have
- 35:18you heard the call of God? Are you hearing the call of God
- 35:23again? So what are you going to say?
- 35:30Isaiah heard the call and he said, here I am, send me.
- 35:39I think tonight God is calling not just a new generation, I
- 35:44think He's calling this generation.
- 35:47He's calling me, He's calling you.
- 35:51He's calling you. He's calling you.
- 35:53He's calling you, He's calling you this generation and the next
- 35:58generation. He is calling you to a world
- 36:02that is lost and broken without Him.
- 36:05And he's saying to you, who will go for us?
- 36:11Who will go for us? And he wants us to respond.
- 36:18And when we say yes, like Isaiah, he was made a prophetic
- 36:23voice to his generation. And whether you're a young
- 36:27person in that category of the cause, of whether you're
- 36:32currently serving as a pastor, a leader, ADS, an FSC, an RDAGMD,
- 36:37or a JGS, it doesn't really matter unless you're doing it in
- 36:41a call. And with a call, you're doing it
- 36:45on your own, but when you do it, renewing that call day by day by
- 36:52day and saying, God, I will go for you, then God will equip
- 36:57you. He'll touch you.
- 37:00And I love that he touches his lips because he was going to
- 37:04give him a holy message to share with the world.
- 37:12So tonight we were speaking about the cause, I've been
- 37:15speaking about the call, and we've been giving everybody an
- 37:21invitation, an invitation to respond to the call of God in
- 37:28this moment, for the days to come, this generation and the
- 37:35generation to come. So let's close our eyes for a
- 37:40moment. And I don't want to pray for
- 37:48you. So you pray right now, whatever
- 37:51you feel God's speaking on your heart.
- 38:10And I'm going to ask the band to come back.
- 38:11They're going to sing a song about this calling.
- 38:15And then I'm going to offer you an opportunity to respond to
- 38:19what God has said to us tonight. So band, they're saying, and
- 38:23I'll come back at some point Crystal and we'll we'll respond
- 38:27to what God is speaking to us about this evening.
- 38:32It's always easier to respond to God when we're on our feet.
- 38:35But if you really want to sit down or kneel down, you lie face
- 38:39down, whatever you want to do, but ban leaders in this prayer.
- 38:43And if you want to stand, stand. If you want to sit or kneel, do
- 38:46as you feel. Narrow as the road may seem,
- 39:36I'll follow where the Spirit leads, and broken as my life may
- 39:45be, I will give you every peace, 'cause I hear you call.
- 40:03I am available, I say. Say yes, Lord, I AM available.
- 40:24Lord, here I am with all this. I'm counting on your grace of
- 40:36them. Listen me and more love you.
- 40:42I just want to see you move. I hear your corn.
- 40:54Who I am available. I say yes or I am.
- 41:12I hear you. Call.
- 41:18I am away, I say. Yes, more.
- 41:30I am away. More.
- 41:39So we're going to respond to the call of God tonight.
- 41:43I'm going to start with the young people, the next
- 41:45generation. You're this generation, it's
- 41:48just words, but you're going to be the generation that leads
- 41:51when I'm retired, when we're retired.
- 41:54So if you feel, feel a call in your life as a young, let's all
- 41:58stand and make it easy for people to move around.
- 42:02Everybody stand together. I'm going to ask those who want
- 42:08to come forward. There's room in front of this
- 42:09screen here, there's room in front of this screen here, and
- 42:13there's the aisle. And because I want to pray over
- 42:16people who make a response tonight.
- 42:18So if you're a young person under 35 and you want to respond
- 42:21to the call of God in your life tonight to say God, I don't want
- 42:24to looks like, but I'm going to say yes to your call.
- 42:27I want you to come, and I want you to come right now.
- 42:36Go to the front at either side. Run.
- 42:40The screens just keep coming.
- 43:02You don't need to know what it looks like, you just need to be
- 43:05available. And if you're here and your
- 43:30pastors here are your leaders here, pastors, just see who's
- 43:33come out and and get beside them and help them find their way.
- 43:40Just stay there, my young friends.
- 43:43Can everybody in the room who's not at the front raise your
- 43:46hands right now towards all these young people?
- 43:51Father God, you're calling a generation, a generation that I
- 43:55believe is going to be a revival generation.
- 43:58They're going to be a generation God, who when they say yes to
- 44:01the to you, they're going to mean it.
- 44:03They're going to give their life to you and you're going to use
- 44:06them. Lord, I pray you will empower
- 44:08them by the Holy Spirit of God right now in this moment and
- 44:12that you will call them and they will say yes and you will use
- 44:17them for your glory. I pray your blessing and your
- 44:21anointing upon them in the name of Jesus.
- 44:24Father God, they have said yes to you tonight.
- 44:27They may not even know why, but God, they've said yes.
- 44:30And I pray that you will honour this call in their life and you
- 44:33will use them for your glory. And we as the leaders of the
- 44:37church tonight, we agree with them and say yes, we are with
- 44:41you. We are for you.
- 44:43And may you run faster and go further than we have and may you
- 44:47bring a generation to Jesus. Thank you.
- 44:53I'm going to ask all those who are either currently serving as
- 44:57a leader or a pastor or in any capacity of the church, at any
- 45:01level of the church, if tonight you want to say I want to
- 45:05confirm my call, take a step out into the aisle or walk forward.
- 45:11Because I want to see people saying my call is not ten years
- 45:15ago or 50 years ago. My call is tonight.
- 45:18And I say yes to my call. I say yes to my call.
- 45:22Will you move and come and stand in some place just saying, yes,
- 45:28Lord, I'm renewing this call. So leaders, pastors, lay
- 45:32leaders, ordained pastors, licensed leader, whatever you
- 45:37are, say yes to your call tonight and move and move right
- 45:41now. And you might not get to the
- 45:43front, but you can get out. And God sees that you're saying,
- 45:46yeah, I'm, I'm going to do this. I'm going to keep doing this.
- 46:12So here's what we're going to do.
- 46:16If you're anywhere near anybody who's moved out or you are
- 46:21standing next to somebody's move out with you, can you all lay
- 46:23hands on each other? Just put somebody on.
- 46:26Young people, you do this as well.
- 46:27Somebody put their hand on somebody's shoulder.
- 46:30There is something in the church called the laying on of hands.
- 46:34And it's not just for important people, it's for the whole
- 46:36church. So lay hands on somebody tonight
- 46:39who is close by you who's stepped forward or stepped out
- 46:45and church who's still standing there.
- 46:47God bless you, we love you. We're not, you're not excluded.
- 46:51Reach your hand out to somebody towards people who are who are
- 46:55in the the aisles or at the front and just start praying.
- 47:04I kind of think it should be a 2 fold prayer.
- 47:07You're praying and saying, Lord, here am I, I'm saying yes to
- 47:09this call and then say, Lord, this person, I might not even
- 47:13know them as they say yes to their call.
- 47:16God, will you confirm the call in their life?
- 47:18And tonight will you give them a sense of spirit empowered
- 47:23holiness for the call of their life?
- 47:30Lord, show your glory in this moment.
- 47:34Show your glory in the church and through the church, Jesus.
- 47:46Thank you, Lord. The band are going to keep that
- 48:13song going. Now they're going to sing I hear
- 48:16you call and then we're going to close with one sing of some of
- 48:19worship together. Chris is going to lead us.
- 48:26You can stay where you are. That would be good.
- 48:29Just stay where you are. James, could you get the words
- 49:01up for Holy Forever? The band are going to lead us.
- 49:04I felt when we were singing that earlier, there was something
- 49:07broke in the Spirit and we've been talking tonight about God's
- 49:10holiness and God's glory. We're going to close with that
- 49:14song Holy Forever, and let's sing it as a holy people who are
- 49:19saying the forever to God that He's holy and we're forever
- 49:22going to give them our hearts and our lives.
- 51:16The. The.
- 52:18You will always be the only one ever.
- 52:41Stay on me, hail my own, stay on.
- 53:20Go to get to me hope ours and positions your name says
- 53:25tomorrow the morning the angels. Lie.
- 53:36Holy but relations rise Holy you and me did I blow me?
- 53:52Blow me forever. You're holy forever.
- 53:56Jesus, can you be worsy holy to the king of me?
- 54:35Let's pray to holy, Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
- 54:44We lift up our hands and our voices to you, O God, and we
- 54:48praise you and worship you in your holiness.
- 54:52We thank you that you have come and that you will touch us at
- 54:56the place of our deepest need and make us your holy servants.
- 55:02I thank you for those who have said yes to you tonight, Lord,
- 55:06bless them. Empower them with everything
- 55:09that they need to be your servants in this world.
- 55:13Lord, thank you for a new generation that says yes to
- 55:17following you. And Lord, I pray that those of
- 55:21us that are getting older, that we will pass the baton, that we
- 55:24will pray and lift up those that you are raising up in these days
- 55:29to be your servants. Help us to go from this place
- 55:32tonight, Lord, worshipping in your holy presence.
- 55:37Thank you for coming and ministering to us tonight
- 55:40through your servant Jim. Lord, I pray that we would be
- 55:44faithful to the cause of the King and the Kingdom in all that
- 55:48we do Thank you. Send us now tonight the name of
- 55:54the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- 55:57Amen. Thank you for listening to the
- 56:01Euratia Region Podcast. Keep in touch with Everyday
- 56:05Stories to follow our socials, subscribe on this podcast
- 56:08channel or our weekly newsletter, Snapshots.
- 56:12For more information about the Euratia Region, go to our
- 56:15website, euratiaregion.org.