WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.980 Hiya. It's not often that you hear a vicar telling you that a story about witches reminded 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:16.240 him of the book of Acts and of Jesus. But I can tell you that in the middle of a musical 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:23.179 that I was watching in London, and it was called Wicked, there was a song that so impacted 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:33.780 me spiritually, it was a real moment for me. Because there are two witches, and they're 00:00:33.780 --> 00:00:41.260 called Elphaba and Glinda, that said to each other, whatever way our stories end, I know 00:00:41.260 --> 00:00:47.920 you have rewritten mine by being my friend. It's where there's a realisation that a life 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:54.219 has been dramatically changed and impacted by somebody else serving you and caring for 00:00:54.219 --> 00:01:00.179 you. The song is called For Good. I won't sing it to you, I won't put you through the pain 00:01:00.179 --> 00:01:05.680 of that, but some of the lyrics are, I do believe I've been changed for the better, and because 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:11.379 I knew you, I have been changed for good. It was part of my conversionary life experience, 00:01:11.379 --> 00:01:18.699 I guess, that coming to know Jesus in later life, in the power of the Holy Spirit, changed 00:01:18.699 --> 00:01:24.679 my life for good. And in amongst all that's happening, I guess we have to ask ourselves, 00:01:25.140 --> 00:01:33.120 who changed your life for good? Who at the moment is changing your life for good? And whose 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:40.159 lives are you changing for good through the way in which you are serving at the moment? 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:46.819 It's a big question. In amongst all that's been happening over the past few months, it 00:01:46.819 --> 00:01:51.719 sort of gave me an opportunity to think about how we're called to serve others, to change 00:01:51.719 --> 00:02:00.920 lives for the better in the name of Jesus. So how do we serve others? Service, it's an interesting 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:05.739 thing, isn't it? Wherever you go, there's these questionnaires that you fill in one to five, 00:02:05.739 --> 00:02:12.919 you know. What was your visitor experience like? How did you rate the accommodation? Was it value 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:21.299 for money? Would you recommend us to a friend or to others? Now I'm not suggesting in any ways 00:02:21.299 --> 00:02:25.379 the people that we serve you should drop a note through their door saying, oh, as a Christian, 00:02:25.519 --> 00:02:32.719 how do you rate me on a one to five? Hopefully they really are so grateful as to the way you serve. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:38.139 But do they know that you're doing it not just out of love, but you're doing it in the name of Jesus? 00:02:40.259 --> 00:02:46.680 In our reading from Acts today, we see the early church, you know, they're faced with an opportunity, 00:02:46.819 --> 00:02:52.659 a huge opportunity. It's right under their nose. And it's they see people's lives changed for good, 00:02:52.659 --> 00:03:00.099 especially women, because in those days, there was no social services, no social care. And so what 00:03:00.099 --> 00:03:09.259 happened is when a woman's husband died, everything, everything they owned, property, land, everything 00:03:09.259 --> 00:03:16.599 went to the next male relative. Now, if they were lucky, that was their son. And hopefully they'd have a 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:28.319 good son who looked after them in their age or old age. If you had three daughters, it went to the next 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:38.519 male relative, which may not have been a person who was so kind and loving and sympathetic. And clearly 00:03:38.519 --> 00:03:45.579 that was the case within the culture that the early church was serving. And in fact, we see that in the 00:03:45.580 --> 00:03:53.280 book of Ruth earlier on, Naomi had to return to her people in the hope that somebody would look after 00:03:53.280 --> 00:04:01.700 her. The early church saw this as a huge opportunity and were called to serve and respond. And in many 00:04:01.700 --> 00:04:07.820 ways, the disciples, like the new kids on the block, were really enthusiastic about this because they saw 00:04:07.820 --> 00:04:13.780 what then was the established religious order arguing between themselves saying, well, it's not my problem, 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:19.379 it's your problem. No, it's not. It's your problem. So nothing got done. And they actually got in there 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:26.879 and saw a way in which they could bring the love of God, the love of Jesus into people's lives and make 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:35.279 a huge difference and change lives for good. The early church decided that they would allocate some 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:40.720 resources to this. So what's our richest resource? Our richest resource is always in people. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:46.160 And they chose seven people headed up by Stephen. These people were keen and empowered, 00:04:46.520 --> 00:04:53.340 enthused and excited to go there. I don't see any resistance, any excuses. Oh, well, you know, 00:04:53.400 --> 00:04:58.940 sorry, it's I'm playing bridge on a Thursday night. I can't do this. Or, oh, sorry, it's my bowls day 00:04:58.940 --> 00:05:06.040 on a Saturday. I can't manage it. No, they just went and did this. And of course, the other resource 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:11.660 that there was in the early church is as today, you know, when people ask, oh, can we afford to do 00:05:11.660 --> 00:05:16.560 this? Well, that was no problem in the early church because people had sold their houses, 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:23.759 they'd sold their land. They totally got this thing, which it was to, to serve and to graciously 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:32.879 serve that there was no issue about money. So they got on and did this. And it always reminds me that 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:40.139 that people sat up and saw what they were doing because they were distinctive in the way in which 00:05:40.139 --> 00:05:48.600 they served in their Christian outreach. In AD 137, the Christians were still being persecuted by 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:53.759 Romans, but the Romans wrote to each other and they were saying, do you see the way the Christians 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:59.240 behave? You know, they're just giving stuff away. They're caring for people. They're bringing people 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:06.500 into their own homes, homeless people. You know, they're just living out the graciousness 00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:14.100 of love and care. They were distinctive in what they did. And they stood out even to the people 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:19.759 that were persecuting them. So if I asked, how do we serve the purposes of God in our lives? 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.259 How do we serve? How would you reply? What would that look like for you at the moment? 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:32.439 You see, I think sometimes we might have been tempted to draw up two columns, 00:06:33.060 --> 00:06:42.180 the things we do serving the church and serving outside of the church building. 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:48.899 If you'd asked me at the age of 12, you know, just a few years ago, well, probably a few decades, 00:06:48.899 --> 00:06:55.779 what my list would have looked like of serving in the church. That column would have been full, 00:06:56.519 --> 00:07:03.539 you know, in the choir three times on a Sunday, on a Saturday, singing for weddings that was paid for. 00:07:03.539 --> 00:07:09.060 So that was a good one. Also as well, there would have been choir practice on a Thursday. 00:07:09.479 --> 00:07:13.000 And then there would have been the church cleaning brass rotor. You were always put on the church 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:18.299 cleaning brass rotor. And there was a lot of brass, I can tell you. On a Wednesday night, 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:23.720 when people went and cleaned the brass, it stank of brass soap in there. Fortunately, 00:07:23.819 --> 00:07:30.560 on a Sunday that had gone because we flooded the place with incense and stunk the place out with that. 00:07:32.080 --> 00:07:38.300 If I'd come to the serving outside of the church, I would have been struggling to put anything in there at all. 00:07:38.300 --> 00:07:43.579 Certainly in my own Christian journey at that time. 00:07:47.500 --> 00:07:56.980 What's our list look like? Because don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with being in church. 00:07:56.980 --> 00:08:06.000 In fact, we should be in church. We should be joyfully, passionate, enthusiastically engaging in what we do, 00:08:06.280 --> 00:08:14.020 of sharing areas in which we are serving each other. We are powering ourselves to go out into the community 00:08:14.020 --> 00:08:17.980 to serve Jesus Christ in the everyday. That is what church is about. 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:23.040 Giving thanks for all that he is doing, for all that each of us are doing, 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:29.980 and praising and worshipping him. The problem is, is when there's nothing in the outside, 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:35.720 that I hear this holy fire alarm bell ringing in my head that says, 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:40.960 get out of the building, get out and see the opportunities that are there. 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:46.300 I think we're really getting a lot better at that as a church. 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:52.000 That we are out and we are scattering out into the community. 00:08:53.359 --> 00:08:57.579 What strikes me about the early church is they were visible and they were distinctive 00:08:57.579 --> 00:08:59.740 in what they were doing in the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:00.019 --> 00:09:01.579 They were worshipping in the community. 00:09:02.379 --> 00:09:07.279 They were serving, teaching, praying, baptising, living, giving sacrificially, 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:12.139 and encouraging others into a living and life-giving relationship with Jesus, 00:09:12.539 --> 00:09:14.859 out and about as part of their everyday lives. 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:18.600 People saw and experienced a model of serving and living. 00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:20.800 They transformed their lives for good. 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:25.960 They caught it, they engaged with it, and they joined in in their thousands. 00:09:28.300 --> 00:09:30.159 It's so important to be serving. 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:33.980 And over these past few months, I've had some interesting conversations, 00:09:34.419 --> 00:09:38.720 as well as you have, and opportunities to serve others. 00:09:39.340 --> 00:09:41.940 Some large, some small, some in our own way, 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:46.500 but equally important and valuable and distinctive in the way in which we have served Jesus, 00:09:47.060 --> 00:09:48.940 in the way in which we have served other people. 00:09:50.280 --> 00:09:54.340 We queued outside of Sainsbury's, Tesco's. 00:09:54.400 --> 00:09:55.640 We queued for prescriptions. 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:58.220 We served others by doing their shopping for them. 00:09:58.900 --> 00:10:00.300 We delivered meals. 00:10:00.299 --> 00:10:05.299 We delivered meals through Make Lunch, the Make Lunch team, 00:10:05.459 --> 00:10:08.699 for serving young people in food poverty as well. 00:10:09.299 --> 00:10:12.579 People came and cooked meals from Christchurch and took out to people. 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:14.719 We engaged in distance conversations. 00:10:15.299 --> 00:10:16.719 We spoke to our neighbours. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:19.059 We phoned them up, said, how can we help you? 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:22.839 And in return, we expressed our thanks for people that had served us. 00:10:23.199 --> 00:10:25.399 You know, on a Thursday, we'd go out and clap the community, 00:10:25.599 --> 00:10:28.179 clap the NHS, and say thank you. 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:29.979 And thank you to all those who had served us, 00:10:30.099 --> 00:10:32.779 the person who brought my post, brought my parcels. 00:10:33.419 --> 00:10:35.159 You know, we expressed gratitude. 00:10:35.359 --> 00:10:36.620 We encouraged one another. 00:10:36.859 --> 00:10:41.379 James and Emmy, week by week, on the blog, on our website, 00:10:41.899 --> 00:10:46.379 encouraged us with bringing us a service that encouraged us 00:10:46.379 --> 00:10:48.500 to go out and do what we were doing in the everyday. 00:10:49.620 --> 00:10:52.539 So important as scattered servants. 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:55.219 Scattered isn't bad. 00:10:55.220 --> 00:11:00.200 The early church scattered in order to reach the world. 00:11:00.800 --> 00:11:02.899 And in the book that we're reading, Unleashed, 00:11:03.060 --> 00:11:07.740 there is a great comment that is made here. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:12.379 And it's by Alan Scott, who wrote a book called Scattered Servants. 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:13.420 And he said, 00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:30.379 I love that quote. 00:11:30.379 --> 00:11:31.379 Scattered Servants. 00:11:31.379 --> 00:11:35.500 Because scattered servants reflect what the early church did. 00:11:36.740 --> 00:11:41.519 And as we transition and slowly return to our building on the 4th of October, 00:11:42.439 --> 00:11:47.320 which just happens to be a fact day where we gather young families, 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:51.600 I want to ask you, have we been changed for the better? 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:56.360 As we return, or if we're able to return to the church building, 00:11:57.019 --> 00:12:05.420 how have we and our community been changed for the better through us Christians in our service? 00:12:06.420 --> 00:12:11.180 Will we come to a service with a fresh fire and enthusiasm to go out and serve? 00:12:11.179 --> 00:12:17.879 Will we move and be stirred by the Spirit of God to give sacrificially, financially of our time, 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.919 in order to see the things that's under our noses, 00:12:21.239 --> 00:12:26.359 as scattered servants to go and make a difference and change lives for good in our community? 00:12:26.859 --> 00:12:29.479 And please forgive me, please, please forgive me, 00:12:29.579 --> 00:12:32.199 if I don't welcome you back to church. 00:12:32.339 --> 00:12:35.199 Because as a church, we have never been away. 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.020 We have happened to be scattered. 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:41.600 And maybe over these past few months, 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:48.240 we've caught a glimpse of what it means afresh to be a scattered church, 00:12:49.040 --> 00:12:52.960 serving Jesus as he called his early church to do the same. 00:12:54.900 --> 00:12:57.140 I think there's a lot to ponder on this morning, 00:12:57.540 --> 00:12:58.900 and I'm going to leave you with that. 00:12:59.740 --> 00:13:03.600 Be encouraged about the way we serve, 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:07.399 the way you are being called to serve, 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:13.580 the way we as a church are being called to gather our resources together, 00:13:14.019 --> 00:13:15.460 people and financially, 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:21.420 to make Jesus distinctive through his local church, 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:23.180 you and I. 00:13:24.259 --> 00:13:25.060 Let's pray. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.080 Father God, sharpen us, give us fresh energy and courage for this day. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:38.920 May we see and acknowledge your calling on each of our lives and respond. 00:13:40.520 --> 00:13:43.240 May we can give whatever we can afford, 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:47.500 whatever it is in time, resources, finances, 00:13:49.400 --> 00:13:50.700 sacrificially we pray, 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:53.500 in order to see your purposes fulfilled 00:13:53.500 --> 00:13:55.780 in the people you've called us to serve. 00:13:55.779 --> 00:13:58.620 and for ourselves, 00:13:58.839 --> 00:13:59.379 Holy Spirit, 00:13:59.459 --> 00:14:01.959 would you come and make yourself known 00:14:01.959 --> 00:14:03.439 to us, 00:14:03.699 --> 00:14:05.100 in us and through us. 00:14:06.459 --> 00:14:08.539 And may you use us, Lord, 00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:11.379 to change lives for good. 00:14:13.379 --> 00:14:14.259 And Father, 00:14:14.459 --> 00:14:15.799 thank you 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:18.459 for changing my life 00:14:18.459 --> 00:14:19.259 for good. 00:14:19.259 --> 00:14:22.860 in Jesus' name. 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:23.740 Amen.