WEBVTT

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 these days if we're trying to publicize an event we'll do it over social media and we'll send emails

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 out and we'll probably go into town and maybe put posters up and hand out flyers but not too long

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 ago when people couldn't read very well if you were running an event and you were maybe leading

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 the town and you wanted people to find out about things you would actually employ somebody like

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 this a town crier to announce any special event events he'd come into the center of town and he'd

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 stand there ringing a large bell and getting everybody's attention and he'd give the information

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 out to everybody so why am i telling you this well today we're continuing our series on the church

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 unleashed and the church unleashed as herald but what is a herald well just like that time crier

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 we've also got a message that we need to get out there not by going and shouting in people's faces

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 but we need to be clear so that people can hear and understand the good news of jesus we need to

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 tell them about god we need to tell them about god's salvation and we can celebrate the good news that he

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 loves us that he forgives us and that he accepts us into his family now i'm sure that most of us know

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 what's an important part we play as a church as being herald but knowing this is simple but sometimes

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 actually doing it can be difficult we can find it quite easy to talk about things like um getting a

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 job or a promotion or a new car with our unchurched friends and family but why do we find it so difficult

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 to celebrate with non-christians about who god is who jesus was and what he did for us and what he does

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 for us today some people find it really easy and if you're one of them that's fantastic please keep

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 going and share your stories with the rest of us because this is the church unleashed as herald

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 the church together we've all got our individual responsibilities but actually as a body we're called

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 to celebrate and support each other and if one of you one or two of you sorry have got struggles with

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 this then please share that with your close friends or with your small group leaders

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 we've all got our unique ways of sharing god's love not just the eloquent among us or the evangelists

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 among us but all of us but actually we all do have a few stumbling blocks as well they're different for

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 each of us but i had a look on google to see what the top points are the top reasons why people struggle

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 to share their faith and i'm going to talk about them this morning and maybe if you've got a pen and

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 paper handy you could write them down and maybe think about if some of those kind of resonate with

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 you and then just think about maybe talking to your small group about it or close friend and maybe

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 working through some of it and see whether actually we can help each other to be better heralds

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 so the first reason is a lot of people think that if they share what's going on in their innermost life

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 and the fact that they love jesus that actually that may ruin their relationships with their

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 non-christian friends and family and also we can worry that we might come across as being a bit

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 arrogant by sharing it we can feel it's pushy now i don't know about you but when i look at my really

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 close friends and friendships and relationships being vulnerable and honest and authentic are the

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 top priorities for my friendships so maybe sharing our faith actually would help our relationships and

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 not hinder them and we are taught in conversations that we should be good listeners and that we

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 shouldn't be kind of engineering the conversation to make it go where we want it to go but actually

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 being humble is about being vulnerable and honest about who we are and who we love with other people

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 and i think to put jesus at the center of our life and to share that is actually quite humble it shows

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 humility the second reason is the mistaken belief that the way we live our lives on its own is enough

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 to point people to jesus we don't need to tell them because they know that i go to church they know that

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 i'm quite a nice person and that i'm nice to people and i try not to swear that can be enough you know i

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 don't need to tell anybody now don't get me wrong walking the walk is as important as talking the talk

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 and we do want our lives to be a good example and we should always try to be more christ-like

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 but just like me you're not perfect i'm definitely not perfect and actually if i'm having a bad day

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 relying on someone like myself to be able to point the way to jesus just on its own it's not going to

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 really do the trick it's not going to work there needs to be words behind our lives there needs to be

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 opportunities to give the glory to god for the things that he's helped us battle through and

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 actually give thanks to him and celebrate the amazing things that he's done in our lives my

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 friends and families aren't mine readers and neither are yours the third reason is a common one i don't

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 know what to say we can often worry that we're going to trip over our words that we haven't got the

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 right words to say and that we're going to be sounding foolish if we look at the passage though that

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 we've just had read to us and we talk about paul you know one of the most eloquent christians of his

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 time when he was trying to stop the jews from worshipping foreign idols it says though that he

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 had to reason he reasoned in the synagogue with the jews and the greek the god-fearing greeks

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 and also a little bit earlier on in that passage it talks about paul going into the synagogue on over

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 three days reasoning and persuading them it says some of the jews were persuaded and joined paul and

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 silas as did a large number of god-fearing greeks and quite a few prominent women so from there it

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 sounds like paul yeah he did know what he was doing and he got the right words to say he reasoned and

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 persuaded but he did that over three days that wasn't just a one-off conversation he was talking to

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 strangers for three days and that takes a lot of courage but also for us it's the same sort of thing

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 we don't have just a one-off conversation about oh yeah i love god you know god's great guy we actually

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 reason and we persuade we're doing life with people we're on a journey with them we're not bible bashing

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 them but we're actually sharing our stories and we're reasoning and persuading them gently

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 but sometimes just as for for paul and for us it doesn't go well so if you look at verse five

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 and through to verse eight it says other jews were jealous and they rounded up some bad characters from

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 the marketplace they formed a mob and started a riot in the city and when the crowd uh when the city

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 officials heard what was going on the crowd was thrown into turmoil so paul this wonderful christian guy

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 started a riot and threw the crowd into turmoil so it wasn't straightforward for him either

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 he had the right words to say definitely but for some of the people that were there they didn't want

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 to hear what he got to say and so they caused a riot so he could have just thought well i'm rubbish at

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 this but actually he knew that it wasn't his clever words it was the fact that god was using what he was

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 doing and we need to know that as well we can trip over our words but actually you god uses our

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 conversation and it's him that does the business number four church left lets us off the hook now this

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 can be sound a bit funny but actually we can let each other off the hook in church we can get really

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 comfortable in the roles that we've got in church we can think well i do the finance or i do the welcoming

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 or i do the coffee it's not my my job to be an evangelist but actually we've all been called to

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 share the good news of jesus and to go out and make disciples so it is for everyone to share that news

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 we can also let each other off the hook because we can keep our innermost lives secret we may not share

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 the bad stuff with people in our congregation and we may not share the good stuff about what god's doing

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 in our lives and actually current testimony is really important it encourages other people but

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 also it helps us to feel bolder in sharing our stories and sharing our life and sharing what god's

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 going on at the moment with us number five we don't understand what grace is now i think a lot of people

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 struggle with this we feel that deep down we're not good enough we're not good enough christians our

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 lives aren't good enough and actually why would god use somebody like me to share the good news

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 also we can miss opportunities we can bottle out sometimes of opportunities that we know that are

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 there but remember you're the most precious thing in his life and if you make mistakes if you stumble if

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 you trip up over your words and if you're sometimes guilty like myself of missing opportunities

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 that god's given you to talk about him then it's okay he loves you the way you are but it doesn't

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 mean that he wants you to stay like that and it doesn't mean that he's going to ask more of you

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 and number six we might mess up and we don't have enough experience this goes back to not having the

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 right words to say paul could have thought well i definitely didn't have the right words to say

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 because because i caused a riot but he knew that not everybody was actually going to like what he

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 got to say but he said it anyway now it can be hard when we mess up and it can be really painful and

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 uncomfortable but that's part of love and it's about putting god and others first and not worrying too

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 much about where if we look a bit stupid maybe we don't have lots of experience we might not have 25

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 stories of all the different people that we had a little conversation with and they all became christians

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 and we may not ever see the um the fruit of the seed that we've planted and that's okay just do it

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 anyway however we may not see the fruit that we that uh we meant something we may not see the fruit

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 because we haven't actually pushed the boat out and stepped out in faith and shared the good news

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 so again like i said personal testimony and sharing good news is really important and it's really great to do it

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 we want to be able to grow and develop and celebrate together and number seven we don't know what god's

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 will is for our lives now along with a few of these ones that i've said before i can be guilty of this and

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 especially as evangelicals we can we can spend so long looking for a sign for god to tell us you know

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 exactly what he wants us to do or what he wants for our for our future that we can actually miss what

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 he's pulling in front of our noses and we can just get stuck looking for signs and directions and not

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 actually do anything so it's really important sometimes to just actually ask god to show us

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 what he wants us to do and just actually push push the boat out push the door and have a go

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 and finally number eight god hasn't shown me specifically who to talk to now we can use this

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 as a bit of an excuse and it can be really awkward and not a great idea to sort of leave the house in

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 the morning and shoehorn god into every single conversation that we have but what it is good to do

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 is to maybe pray in the morning before we start our day god please give me opportunities today give me

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 your eyes show me some people i can be nice to and show me some people that i can actually share my life

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 with and talk to them about you this isn't unspiritual and it's not pushy for us to be

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 talking about something that matters so much to us and it's so important to us and as i was saying in

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 the beginning if we can celebrate you know the new car we've got or the new house we've got or the

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 you know the job promotion we should be able to celebrate even more about who god is what he's doing

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 in our lives at the moment what he's done in our lives before and put that into words now i really

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 hope this morning that something i've spoken to you about has resonated with you i really hope that

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 one of these eight points may be something that you can work on with somebody else and be open and

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 honest about it or actually some of these eight points might be some things that you did have a

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 problem with but actually god's helped you to to work on it and to be really good heralds and if

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 that's the case please share that you know with other people because it's through learning and

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 experience that we all grow and develop together so i'm going to really pray that over the next week

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 for all of us that we can take opportunities to share god and the good news with our friends and our

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 family and our neighbours and actually that if we are struggling that we can also share that too

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 and let's all go together and be unleashed as a church as a herald and we can move forward together

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 one step at a time

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 you