Talk 2 - Building Up (Core Value - Maturity)

0:00 · Speaker 1 A couple of, a few verses after the prayer that we looked at last week and that we began with this morning come these verses in Ephesians 4. Here's what it says, here's what Paul says. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service. so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the full measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. For him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love. As each part does its work.

1:10 · Speaker 1 Twice in this short passage, Paul gives us this picture. You've heard my emphasis of being built up. And that picture is where our focus is this morning. on continuing together as his church in the years ahead, our collective pursuit of the spiritual maturity of every member here and the church as a whole as his body. Like last week, I'm going to take a bit less time than normal in this part to allow me time to invite up a panel of five. Maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew there, but we're going to have a little conversation with a panel of five a little later on. and growing in spiritual maturity has always sat at the very heart of who we are as Glen Abbey it's possibly one of the core reasons why you came to be part of this family our mission is to help more people be changed into devoted and mature followers of Jesus Christ you all know that off by heart and one of our core values is maturity we believe it says we are to pursue maturity in our faith, growing in our devotion to and our likeness of Jesus Christ.

2:23 · Speaker 1 And as elders, I was talking about this last week, we want to do all that we can to in this world that we live in today as children of God, as exiles in this world, as resident aliens in, if you remember back a few years ago that we talked about digital Babylon and the impact of technology on each of us, to help each member from the youngest to the oldest to be growing in maturity and resilience as disciples of Jesus in the midst of all of the perennial challenges there always have been to be people of faith, but also in the challenges that are unique to this time. And we want to do all we can to equip each one of us as this passage is talked about. And we've recognized that we need to strive more to put in even more resource and work into this. And so we have been working together. We started our journey of this and amending roles and responsibilities within our team to allow more focus on this and specifically to allow me to let go of a few responsibilities to be able to really look at this and focus more of my time and attention and build the right people around me so that we can think about this. And that has begun. You might not see the fruit of it immediately, but hopefully you will as time progresses.

3:51 · Speaker 1 So that's from our side. But what about for all of us? A bit like I talked about with Jill on prayer last week when I asked her to imagine what might look different about us in two years, three years, four years time when it comes to prayer. What about for us when it comes to pursuing spiritual maturity? Well, as elders, our prayer, our desire is to see more and more, again, that phrase, across each generation here. A people passionate for and striving to grow in spiritual maturity themselves And eagerly and sacrificially supporting others in their same pursuit. We want to see that more and more. I came across an old photo this week.

4:49 · Speaker 1 And I have been given permission to use this. I always ask permission, I promise you that. And this is a photograph of my now 17-year-old, six-foot-one son. Had a sports day around 10 years. And for me, I saw this picture, and it captures something of the culture that we want to see continue and grow in its depth and its breadth here in Glen Abbey. An eager, determined, excited people striving for, pressing on towards the goal, passionate about growing in their Christ-likeness, surrounded and supported and cheered on by others. I know there's only one little girl standing there cheering on, but if you could see where I took the photo from, that would be a different perspective. You get the idea.

5:39 · Speaker 1 Other people striving in the same pursuits, just pushing each other on, supporting each other in that pursuit. And of course, this theme is so central to Paul's letter to the Ephesians. And so we're going to spend a lot of time unpacking this, especially in part two of our Tide series, after Christmas. So for this morning, again like last week, all I want to do is begin to point us in the right direction. I just want to point our minds and our hearts there and get us thinking and reflecting here at the beginning of September again on ourselves at the beginning of this new season. And all I want to do is look at a couple of things. This is far from a well-rounded biblical theology of spiritual maturity, okay? So I recognize that very clearly.

6:28 · Speaker 1 All I want to do is basically just give us a picture to look at and hold on to. Pictures and examples really help me because spiritual maturity is often hard to define, but it's easy to recognize. Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. He does the same. So I want to do that. And then I just want to talk about a couple of the ingredients that we need if we're going to actually grow in spiritual maturity. Because going back to the example thing, the picture thing, I think we often can fall into a certain type of thinking that spiritual maturity is all about head knowledge. Right?

7:11 · Speaker 1 If someone can recite large chunks of scripture, if they know an obscure verse from out of Amos chapter eight. Full disclosure, I had to look up to see whether Amos had eight chapters before I put that into my notes. If they can tell you where all the Old Testament allusions and revelation are from, then they must be spiritually mature. We can fall into that sort of thinking and absolutely a deepening knowledge and grasp of God's word is absolutely a key ingredient. But it's not in itself, spiritual maturity. and here's the picture that I want to give you like I say not a well-rounded biblical theology just a little snapshot for the last three weeks in my morning devotional time I've been working my way slowly very slowly stanza by stanza through Psalm 119 that longest chapter in scripture and as I've worked through it slowly it's had a profound impact on me and it struck me that that what we have here in this psalmist words it's the heart of a spiritual mature person on display somebody who's been on a lifelong journey of growth and let me you know this is really long it would take up more of my time to read that chapter that we would be here until about quarter to 12.

8:40 · Speaker 1 But let me just give you a sample of some of what has impacted me, a few of the verses. Verse 11, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Verse 14, I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. Verse 32, I run in the path of your commands for you have broadened my understanding. Here's somebody who's excited to obey God. your decrees, verse 54, are the theme of my song. I love that verse. Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge.

9:18 · Speaker 1 Verse 72, the law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold to hear what the Lord has to say. Verse 103, how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth. Verse 105, well known, your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. And verse 140, and many people in the room, I think, can testify to this. Your promises have been thoroughly tested and your servant loves them. Does a psalmist have a deepening and growing knowledge of God's word? Absolutely, he does. But it's so much deeper than that.

10:04 · Speaker 1 These verses capture something for me of the reality that spiritual maturity is about head, yes. But it's also about heart. It's about knowledge, yes. But it's also about meditation on that knowledge. It's about tasting the impact of that knowledge. Taking joy and longing for, panting for, loving and living in the freedom of God's word. And I find myself over these last three weeks praying these words aspirationally. Knowing that I am not here yet.

10:45 · Speaker 1 Praying more and more, Lord, might I hide your word in my heart. More and more, may I discover the freedom and obedience to your word. More and more may your decrees be the theme song of my life. More and more may I enjoy the sweet taste of your words. More and more may I come to love your promises as they are tested in my life and not found wanting. That's a little image, just a little snapshot of something of what it looks like to be growing in spiritual maturity. And as I've reflected on those verses this week in particular, it's been impossible not to connect them to the reflections about Jim Reed at his Thanksgiving service on Wednesday past, both from David and from his son Paul in his tribute. There are people, like I say, that we can say about, I find it hard to describe spiritual maturity, but I can show it yet.

11:58 · Speaker 1 Look at her. Look at him. Imitate her. Imitate him. Look at Jim Reed. Imitate him. A picture of someone who kept on growing. And I can almost hear him repeating some of these lines so genuinely.

12:21 · Speaker 1 how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth I can hear him saying that your decrees are the theme song of my life the theme of my song wherever I loathe your promises have been thoroughly tested and your servant loves them do you see how this psalm captures something of the trajectory we want each of our hearts to be on here in Glen Abbey so with that picture in mind as we as we look individually to the next few months the next year the next four years how are we ourselves how are you as I stand here and talk going to seek to grow personally you know I'm not going to leave you without a challenge here. This is an ongoing daily, weekly, monthly, yearly life process that will only be fully complete when Christ returns. We never make it, not until then. But it is a process we are called to. We're called to this ongoing active pursuit. We are all in different places.

13:36 · Speaker 1 But we're all called to take the next step forward. Consider just some of what the New Testament says about this. We've already heard those words from Ephesians 4, but think about Paul and Colossians 2. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him. This is about movement. It's about moving forward, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. Or Philippians 3, Paul talking about himself, not that I've already obtained all this, this is Paul talking, or I've arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

14:31 · Speaker 1 Imitate me as I imitate Christ. The writer to the Hebrews in chapter six, therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward into maturity. It's talking again like the Ephesians four, not remaining as infants. And then Peter in two Peter one, for this reason, make every effort to add to your faith. And you can look up all the different things that you're meant to add to your faith. Are we engaging in the process? Are we seeking, striving to take the next step forward? And as we then reflect for ourselves, it is important then to think about the necessary ingredients for our spiritual growth.

15:15 · Speaker 1 Again, we'll talk far more in far more depth about this as we make our way through Ephesians. But for now, let me just pick out a couple of things that Paul mentions in that passage from Ephesians 4 that I read at the start. The first and most crucial one is this. what we have been talking about last week and in the beginning of the next, this one. It's the Holy Spirit. Like I say, this passage directly follows the prayer we looked at last week at the end of chapter three, where Paul prays for the Spirit's power to work in the church. We've got to realize that it is only by walking by the indwelling Spirit of Christ within us that we have any power to take the next step forward in maturity. Our growth is empowered first and foremost by truthfully, by humbly coming and praying that prayer that we looked at last week.

16:13 · Speaker 1 But then the second that you see here is very clear. It's being engaged in and involved in loving community. That emphasis is clear here. We will grow, he says, to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. From him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love. Spiritual growth, spiritual maturity is not an individual pursuit. It is a team pursuit. We grow in community with others as they support and strengthen us.

16:56 · Speaker 1 and we support and strengthen them. And then the third one, I wonder, did you notice this? It's work. Look at the last phrase, as each part of the body does its work. You're not working, you're not growing. Growth happens as we serve one another in love, as we work for one another and one another's growth. If you are trying to build up a muscle on a physical body, fitness trainers talk a lot about a thing called time under tension. So the longer that you keep the muscle working for in an exercise, the greater the growth that you will see.

17:44 · Speaker 1 Now, I'm not trying to liken service with the pain of lifting weights, because that will put you off completely. It's not a perfect analogy, but you get the idea. How much tension in the sense of serving others are we putting our faith under? Because as the group I'm about to invite up, I'm sure we'll testify as we seek to serve others and help others grow. That is often the place and the time and the avenue that God uses to increase our own growth exponentially. So I'm going to invite those guys up. I don't even know whether they're here. I haven't spoken to them yet this morning, so I hope they are.

18:27 · Speaker 1 And I'm going to ask them. I'm going to move myself over here a wee bit so they can start to line their chairs up here while I ask you questions. So they're going to come up, grab a chair, and sit down so that we can keep on moving. They're all here. Good, good, good. And if maybe somebody, I think you wouldn't mind lifting me a chair as well. That'd be quite nice. Thank you.

18:46 · Speaker 1 So as I invite them up and they take their time to come up, let me leave you, like I did, with a few questions to take away and reflect on. Ignore them. Look at me. All right. The first couple of questions that I want you to think about will be best answered if you do a personal time audit. And I would actually ask you to sit down and do that. Maybe even stick it into Excel, or if you don't know technology, get a bit of graph paper and do a little bar chart.

19:16 · Speaker 1 Would be good. I do genuinely mean that in a non-jokey way. We all spend different proportions of our time striving in certain areas of our life. I spend a certain amount of time, you can decide how much, trying to keep my body healthy. I spend a certain proportion striving like Keith to improve my golf handicap. That's a story of regress rather than progress. I spend a certain proportion striving to be a good husband and a good dad. Carol Ann was talking about this.

19:53 · Speaker 1 I spend a certain proportion trying to be a faithful shepherd leader here. And in comparison to those other strivings, I'm not talking about our work and our sleep and all those other things, but those things that capture us. What proportion of my time am I currently spending seeking to grow in my own spiritual maturity? And then the second question, the same sort of thing. What proportion am I currently spending in genuinely having skin in the game when it comes to the spiritual maturity of others in this body? Do a little time audit and reflect and pray through the results of the picture that you see in front of you. Because we have something different to strive for and to fit in.

20:45 · Speaker 1 And I'm not talking about filling our lives even more. Caroline was talking about how busy lives are. This is about priorities. And this is about making sacrifices. And this is about working out what is the most important thing and starting there. I'm not saying let's fill this in on top of everything else. So following on from those two questions then and that little audit, same sort of question as last week.

21:13 · Speaker 1 How might I take one step forward between now and Christmas Day in my own spiritual growth? And how might I take one step to have that genuine skin in the game in the spiritual growth of others? And I want you to think as you do that, especially, and maybe our conversation will bring some of this out, across generations. Older people in the faith, how are you investing in younger men and women? Younger people in the faith, how are you spending time with and investing in older people of the faith? Because trust me, when I hear stories of people, the older ones investing in the younger ones, it's generally the older ones, as we might find out in this conversation, that are getting just as much out of that and just as much growth. So let's have a little bit of a conversation then about that. I'll get this out of the way.

22:08 · Speaker 1 I will have a seat, and I will keep an eye on time the best I can. I haven't thought this through a lot in terms of the geography of everything, but let's see how we go. So very briefly, let's go along. We'll start at the end. Simon, if you want to introduce yourself briefly and tell us where you're involved in Glen Abbey life here.

22:26 · Speaker 2 Yeah, my name's Simon. I'm 23 and I'm involved in young adults and in home group and young adults and I serve in Ignite and yeah.

22:37 · Speaker 1 Brilliant, thank you. Ali.

22:39 · Speaker 3 I'm Andrew, I'm on staff here at Glen Abbey, working primarily with Glen Abbey Youth. I'm part of Clockland Home Group and yeah, I do a few other bits and pieces as well.

22:47 · Speaker 1 Brilliant.

22:48 · Speaker 4 I'm Jamie Yohannes, I am married to Judith and we help out the young adults. We are attending the Six Mile Water Home Group, and I play in worship music sometimes. Thank you. Oh, yeah, we have kids.

23:05 · Speaker 5 I'm Judith Johanis, married to Jamie. We serve with the young adults, and we do have kids. We have three kids.

23:13 · Speaker 1 Tell us your names. Toby is 15.

23:15 · Speaker 5 Two wonderful kids. I have three. Two beautiful and one small sleeper.

23:20 · Speaker 1 Thankfully, the mic wasn't on for Jamie in that part.

23:23 · Speaker 5 Toby's 15, Zara is 11, going on 18, and Jacob is three and doesn't like to sleep too much.

23:32 · Speaker 1 Debbie.

23:33 · Speaker 6 I'm Debbie. I am a speech and language therapist and I help out youth and kids and some different things. Awesome.

23:39 · Speaker 1 Thank you very much. Okay, listen, we're going to have a little bit of a conversation. Actually, Andrew, I'm going to start with you because you were up on a video a couple of weeks ago. And in that video, you mentioned about the investment of others in you at an early age. So we've heard that side of things. And you can talk about that if you want to. We have not rehearsed this in this latest. But also maybe talk about in recent years, within your role within youth and so on, how has the investment of others had an impact on your own spiritual growth, your own growth and maturity?

24:12 · Speaker 3 Well, first of all, I also do have a family. I'm not going to insult them like Jamie, but I have a wife, Robin, and two kids, Eve and Sophia. But yeah, so I've been involved in Glen Abbey Youth now for about six years. And yeah, recent times, all that comes from the reason why I serve in Glen Abbey Youth is because people invested in me as I shared a few weeks ago. And that really drives me. And the more and more I get older, the more and more I begin to appreciate the time, the effort that people put in to sharing the gospel with me and seeking to build up my maturity. And so myself and the rest of the team leaders, we are all motivated to pass that on to others. What I get out of it, is a heck of a lot because whenever you're presented with a challenge to teach young people and to bring up, it's a big, big responsibility.

25:02 · Speaker 3 And so as we come to serve our young people and to share with them the truths of the gospel and hopefully bring them into relationship with Jesus and help them to mature, it forces you to step up. You can't just come to them willy-nilly and kind of just say, oh yeah, we'll just wing it this week. We have a big, big responsibility. And so as we come to serve our young people, it is very much on us to take that responsibility properly and to do all that we can in our own time to build up our own faith, to understand the Bible more and more, to see our hearts change more and more so that we can be those willing vessels that God can use to reach out to young people. So yeah, as we serve our young people, there's a lot of joy, there's a lot of frustration, But throughout all, there's that challenge that as we seek to be those who can be imitated by our young people, that we are worthy of that and that people can see that in us.

25:56 · Speaker 1 Thank you. Can you pass the mic to Simon for me, if that's okay? Simon, you were one of the people that Andrew once invested in. So maybe talk about the same sort of thing. The impact of others investing in you and your spiritual growth.

26:09 · Speaker 2 Yeah, I was involved with mentoring with Andy for a lot of years and still am. So I think kind of the main thing for me, main kind of struggle for me in my faith has been consistency and kind of keeping up maybe that fire from like a summer camp or something like that. You know, a real spiritual high and kind of keeping that throughout the year. and things like mentoring and, yeah, having something to read or having someone to pray with every week and kind of keeping on top of that has been really important for me. So that was through mentoring and then similarly through home group and young adults kind of coming every week prepared and ready to discuss and open the Bible together. I think that's something that Jamie and Judith have been very kind of keen to get across to us this year, but coming to young adults prepared, coming to home group, ready to open the Bible with other believers, having answers to questions, having thoughts through the passage maybe from a talk on Sunday and kind of being ready to open and share with other people. So I think, yeah, that's kind of how it's impacted me, kind of in my consistency throughout the weeks of the year.

27:30 · Speaker 1 Brilliant. You passed the mic. I've seen you mentioned Jamie and Judith there, So you've been invested in by all these guys, pretty much in different ways, which is great. Jamie, maybe before we talk about your investment in young adults and so on, what about people, the impact of others on you, I suppose? Would that be something you could speak into a little bit?

27:48 · Speaker 4 Yeah, I've been very fortunate over, you know, 20, 21, 22 years to have different individuals invest, you know, time in me, in most cases weekly, sometimes multiple times a week where you're sitting down to study or you're sitting in a home group or after home group, you know, working through different things. And there's lots that I've gained as a result of that. But one of the things that you mentioned when you were talking about having a picture of what it is that you're meant to do. So, you know, we can, and teaching is brilliant. I think it's excellent. I thoroughly recommend Bible teaching, as if anybody needed my endorsement. But there are some things that you will not be able to understand unless you see it. and having people who are following God right in front of you.

28:34 · Speaker 4 And for you to get to see them, you know, in real terms, you know, as they genuinely work out what it looks like to live a life of repentance. That's a picture of you. You can say, well, I'm not maybe the smartest person in the world. I'm not maybe the most, you know, spiritually minded person in the world. But I can do repentance because the person in front of me is doing that. And that's, I guess, the heart of spiritual maturity. And you just imitate that. And so that's, I guess, a broad principle worked out week on week, the development of really deep convictions about what your life is meant to look like, what a man or woman or a person of God actually looks like.

29:13 · Speaker 4 You form that in your mind and it coalesces around your own deep convictions. And then that sets you off in the trajectory for the rest of your life.

29:21 · Speaker 1 Brilliant. Judith, you maybe add in to that, anything that's... Yeah,

29:26 · Speaker 5 I think similarly, I've been so fortunate to have people feed in over the years to my life. And probably the biggest impact that has been had has been those individuals, the willingness that they have to serve me sacrificially. Like whenever I think of people in particular who gave up their one free day in the week, you know, because they were working every other day, to spend time showing me and being a role model of what it was to serve someone who is younger than you, to have difficult conversations, to have encouraging conversations, to walk through life, the ups and downs of life with me, and actually bring in not only our common interests and our ability to relate in certain things, but actually their strengths, you know, their strength in the word or their strength in prayer, and really be a role model of that for me so that I want to imitate that. I want to be like that. And therefore my faith is hugely built up by that.

30:33 · Speaker 1 Brilliant. Thank you. Debbie, I'll ask you as well. So there's themes coming out of consistency, of week on week, of that engagement with people on a regular ongoing basis of sacrifice involved in this, like I said as well. Maybe you want to mention just about the impact of others investing in your faith.

30:53 · Speaker 6 Yeah, I think probably through my early 20s, I didn't necessarily have older people feeding into my life, apart from my family. And so realizing that and recognizing that has been really massive. So the past couple of years, getting involved in Home Group has been so important. And with myself, a lot of them are here today, and I learned so much from them. The verse of the day yesterday in the Bible app was Proverbs 13, verse 20, which is walk with the wise and become wise. And I think it's okay just to have people from different life experiences and different backgrounds to be able to feed into that as well.

31:29 · Speaker 1 Brilliant. Thank you. Okay, let me ask you then the sort of the question off the back of that then, which is, as you have made the decision to invest in others' lives in this way, What's that been like? And also what impact then has that had on you and again on your growth as you've made that decision? Judith, I'll start with you in that one, if that's okay.

31:54 · Speaker 5 That has been a real privilege. I think whenever people ask what we do with young adults or why we go along and get stuck in with them, I think it's so important that people know it's such a privilege to be able to sit down with a big group that want to study the Bible and want to ask difficult questions, want to grow in their faith, want to take the word seriously. It is such a privilege. And I think we never want to go out on a Monday night. We never want to go out on a Monday night. Like, let's face it. And a wiser Christian talked about this with us in the past who wants to go out on a Monday night?

32:41 · Speaker 5 I want to get into my fleecy jammies. I want to put something on the TV when the kids get to bed. But whenever Jamie and I get into the car to drive to young adults, we've left behind chaos and nothing's ready for the next morning. And yet, when we get into the car, we probably haven't spoken to each other that day, and we pray.

33:00 · Speaker 4 Really selling it.

33:02 · Speaker 5 I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Leave it. When we get to pray together for the young adults, We settle, we settle, and we throw off all those things that fill our minds and we walk in ready to serve. And actually what we get is so much more than what we could ever give. The joy we experience, you can talk a wee bit about that, is more than we ever give.

33:29 · Speaker 1 Jimmy, do you wanna add any perspective to that?

33:31 · Speaker 4 Yeah, better perspective. I think that, well, those, like the comments or the points that you made about Holy Spirit, loving community and work, they're kind of cool. Like that's our car journey to young adults. And I think, you know, for different reasons, we're different people. You're confronted with the limitations of your own flesh to say that if I have to go and serve here because I'm a spiritually mature person who's got all their stuff together and has a great attitude all the time, then I'll never be able to go. But what actually happens is you're confronted by the service opportunity to engage with really cool people here, interested in following God. And I am seeing in the reflection of that opportunity my own sin, which is, you know, I don't want to go here. I don't like these people.

34:25 · Speaker 4 Life isn't worth living. You know, it's all very dark. But then you pray in faith. You're saying, well, God, well, my attitude stinks. But if I'm going to be able to go here and do anything, God is going to have to, by his Holy Spirit, empower me to do that. And the generosity of the way the Lord works in those situations, and we find this again and again, is whenever we say, right, well, this is where I'm at in the flesh, but I'm asking God to fill me with the Spirit, you go in and you have a service opportunity, whether it's hanging out with people or chatting or encouraging or following up or whatever it is. And invariably, we will both leave full of the Holy Spirit. So you talk about the joy and the privilege.

35:05 · Speaker 4 That's an opportunity for me. He's pretty self-focused, self-absorbed person to walk away being filled with the Holy Spirit. And, you know, you couldn't pay me enough to take that opportunity away from me.

35:17 · Speaker 1 Brilliant. Thank you. You too. And I'm just going to mention at this stage because I'll forget otherwise. If you are a young adult, we are having an open night, an opening a sort of house evening tomorrow night and Jamie and Judith's. At what time? I'm not on the WhatsApp groups. I have no idea.

35:32 · Speaker 1 Okay, brilliant. And we'll be talking about the year ahead and plans and so on as well, so please do remember that. There's advocates up here, of course, for young adults and youth and home groups, and we're basically telling you, whatever, get involved in all of those if you can in some shape or another. Anything you want to follow up on there in terms of that same sort of question? I know you maybe answered a wee bit of it first time around.

35:56 · Speaker 3 Yeah, serving is hard, and I read a book once called Do Hard Things. and the kind of premise of it was if we just do the easy thing all the time we'll never grow if we never push ourselves beyond what we're capable of we'll never ever grow

36:11 · Speaker 1 time under tension

36:12 · Speaker 3 time under tension, yeah, there we go and so it's all about pushing past that initial, oh it's too hard as you guys were talking about and it is worth it you know, as I said in my video a couple weeks ago youth can be so frustrating but the joy of seeing young people start to get it start to move from head to heart and start to serve themselves and the likes of spark and that is just it does make it all worth it and here we'll never know what god has done with what we've given in this life but as i tell our youth leaders sometimes like i'm looking forward to 10 20 30 years from now i'm looking forward to eternity to seeing what the little we've given what god has taken with that and the much that he's done with it. And so yeah, do hard things. It's worth it.

36:58 · Speaker 1 Brilliant. Debbie, I'll come to you and then I'll finish off with Simon. Anything you want to add to that, you know, in terms of as you've served in youth especially, what impact that's had on you?

37:09 · Speaker 6 Yeah, I mean, I could talk about this for an hour, which would be awful for everybody. So I want to talk about mentoring because mentoring has had a massive impact on me and also hopefully the person that I've mentored as well. So I have had the opportunity to mentor a girl before she became a Christian, which is very odd. The fact that she even wanted to be mentored before she was a Christian was amazing. And so I journeyed through that with her. And obviously answering questions and doing Bible studies and we did Youth Alpha together. Obviously, I learned a lot myself, you know, with the head knowledge. But more than that, I learned the power of prayer, the importance of perseverance, patience.

37:52 · Speaker 6 and all of those kind of side of things, which was way more. And I also got a friend through it as well, which I did not expect. And I think so often we limit God and I would never have put me with her. I would not have expected us to be a little partnership, a little Jew. But God works in amazing ways and the journey that she has been on has impacted her a lot, obviously. She's become a Christian now, which is amazing. But it's impacted me a lot too.

38:17 · Speaker 1 Super. That's a great, great, great story to hear. Simon, we'll finish with you. We're running out of tech, but your youngest one here, you've been invested in, but you're now turning that into investment in others as well. Again, as you've done that, what's been the impact there?

38:32 · Speaker 2 Yeah, as I was thinking about this, I was kind of thinking, you know, I have kind of looking up towards, you know, like mentoring older people and young adults, you know, looking across as people my own age and young adults kind of building them up as they build me up. And then looking down as, you know, the next generation coming through and building them up. And in each of those situations, there is like an emphasis on being willing to learn and also being able to speak and to lead and just to, yeah, taking the time yourself to make sure that you believe what you're saying and what you're teaching people, what you're saying in Homegroup. but make sure that you believe it. And that then kind of means that throughout the week, when you're on your own, you need to be reading and praying and kind of developing yourself to help other people. So I think that's something that's really been evident to me. I think Andy was talking about that with his commitments with youth. You know, if you're leading other people, if you're speaking to other people, you yourself need to almost be in a position where you feel comfortable to do that and you believe what you're saying to those people.

39:45 · Speaker 2 So I think that's for me.

39:47 · Speaker 1 Brilliant. Thank you. Can we give these guys just an appreciation? Yep, you can go. That's fine. I'll give a microphone to Mr Johnson there, the first one that comes along. A couple of things just to mention. Ian, one of our other elders, is going to come and pray for our youth and young adults and our home groups.

40:08 · Speaker 1 Just to mention, all of this makes it clear, if you're not involved in a home group, It's probably really important that you are. There's guys out there this morning, different leaders, different people to give you different information. There are leaflets on the seats. And do just think through and pray through how those questions that I asked there at the end. And think, these guys have talked about formal avenues, places that you can serve formally, and that's so important and so vital for the life of the church. But don't just let your imaginations be sort of limited by that. It goes way beyond that. It goes to how we use our time, our homes, how we're hospitable, how we just reach out, try and develop friendships.

40:54 · Speaker 1 You know, that's when we did the Being Human series here early morning. That was the whole purpose of that. It was to connect older and younger people here to then hopefully then follow up and build relationships and friendships and so on where this can all be going on. So think formally. Yes, absolutely. Look for the places you can serve, but think about the informal as well. Ian, I'll hand it over to you, and you can pray. Do you get a mic?

41:18 · Speaker 1 Yeah. Here, I'll move that for you. Sorry, making you walk around.

41:29 · Speaker 7 Let's just take some time to pray. Father God, thank you for the love and mercy that you pour out on us, for blessing us in so many ways here in your church. inspire us this week to love you more with all of our hearts and minds. We're thankful for the opportunities here for your people of all ages, especially today those in youth, young adults, and all involved in home groups and the wider church family. In each of these areas, our desire is for growth and maturity to build up your church and each other as we seek to serve you well from this place. We need your help, Heavenly Father, in growing and maturing in faith, love, and action. And we ask, Holy Spirit, that you continue this work within us, refining and developing us in these areas. And that like you, Lord Jesus, we could be light bringers into dark places.

42:27 · Speaker 7 We pray for those moving from new groups, both within here and outside of here, be it from school to the workplace or on to further study, and all the challenges that these changes bring. And we ask for your protection of hearts and minds for us all. We give thanks for those who have taught, encouraged, and led by example, investing time and energy for the benefit of others to enable us. And we thank you, Lord, for the faithful prayer warriors out of sight, but still transforming situations and lives. Lord, may we never take this for granted. And we ask all of these things in and through the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.