Transforming Burundi & Beyond

0:00 Great. Good morning, everyone. Wonderful to be here. So my name is Simon, Simon Gilbo. And I'm just going to show a few pictures to set the context for this incredible passage. If you've got your Bible, you're going to look at Deuteronomy chapter 30, if you want to turn to that. But in the meantime, to give context, because you've never seen me before, unless you were at New Horizon or Summer of Madness or New Wine. I've spoken a few things over the years over here.

0:22 But that's where I lived for 20 years. I don't live there now, because I've got teenage kids and we had to come back for educational reasons. But that is my home. So I became Burundian, white, one of the five of only about ten white Burundians in the world. Anyone get that? No. So that's the language out there. And it's it's it's a beautiful country, size of Wales, if you want a concept of size.

0:47 Our charity is called Great Lakes Outreach. That is the great North Africa, but Central Africa. It's the longest lake in the world there, Lake Tanganyika. And if you look at that very briefly, it's so according to the IMF, we are the poorest country in the world and also the hungriest. It's in a hell of a mess. I don't use those words lightly, but it's my home. I love it. And it's largely forgotten by the international community, not forgotten by God.

1:10 Known for that. So in terms of, you know, violence. So I lived expecting to die. So I would have said that in 2012 at New Horizon. I'm 51 now. I thought I'd die before the age of 30. People tried to kill me. People I care about were killed.

1:23 And you might think that's horrible. It's actually a brilliant way to live. You know, if you think you're going to die next week. How would you live today? You wouldn't live like you're living. It really sharpens you in terms of what matters, value system, priorities, that sort of stuff. But yeah, it's a place of huge suffering, but it's in the darkest places that the light shines brightest. And I went out there as a single young man, and then I found a lady.

1:44 I proposed to my wife. I said, are you ready to be a young widow? It's not your average proposal, is it? But she bought into it. Then we had three kids. Look at my daughter there. My daughter is named after this girl. So that's 1997.

1:54 I held this girl in my arms and I heard her story. Her story was that her mother gave birth to her and threw her down a toilet. And the next person at university, and did a runner, the next person at university hospital was about to go to the loo, saw this piece of flesh down there in the poo and reached down and fished her out. She was still alive. Her neck had got caught in the U-bend of the toilet. And so she was still alive. Great. She fed her, that lady cleaned her off, got poo on herself in the process, fed her through a straw like a little bird.

2:23 and she survived. And 18 years later, that's her. Isn't she beautiful? And as God wove the tapestry of our lives together, she ends up being our babysitter. So I love that because when I married Lizzie, I said, if ever we are blessed with a daughter, I want to name our daughter after that girl. So little white one is named after big black one. They share the same name. And that is because my friend who adopted her gave her my favorite girl's name.

2:45 They are both called grace. And I love that because do you get it? That story, that's a picture of the gospel, isn't it? In fact, to me, that's the clearest picture that I can use as an analogy of what, because that little rejected fetus, she was separated from life. She couldn't get out by herself. Help had to come from outside. And that's what we just celebrated at Easter, isn't it? That Jesus, he came from outside and on the cross, like that lady cleaned off baby grace and got poo on herself, on the cross, Jesus took up on him so that we can be clean and pure and acceptable.

3:15 and he can look at each one of us this morning. And you don't need to live under shame or guilt or condemnation, whatever you might be feeling. You can be free from that because that is amazing grace, isn't it? That's what Jesus did on the cross for us to be free and to live free and to share this message with people. It's a game changer, amazing grace. We got her scholarship to America. She got a distinction in her degree. I just love that from the pit of the toilet, getting that.

3:37 And then she came back and worked for me for a couple of years in Burundi. She's now back in the UK. recently just got her master's in counseling at the University of Newcastle. God is the God of the impossible, isn't he? And I love that amazing grace. If you don't know that grace yet today, you could experience it. I'd love you to. In terms of hungriest country in the world, you know, this story just helps flesh out a statistic of 56% malnourishment.

4:01 That little cute, little blonde haired girl there, she's my Canadian friend's daughter. She's called Alma. She's four years old in that picture. The girl in the middle, she's four years old. And that is wrong, isn't it? And that makes me angry. And sometimes it's right to be angry.

4:17 There's lots of stuff we should be angry. We are called to be God's redemptive agents of transformation where he's put us. And so anger is, you know, if Chris annoys me and I smack him in the face, well, it's a mistake because he's bigger than me anyway. But, you know, that's not a good outworking of anger. But the Bible doesn't say don't be angry, does it? It says be angry and don't sin. Or in your anger, don't and so there's things that we, God wants us to get, not live angry, there's a lot of anger around, but channel that in a righteous way to change, you know, challenge systems, systemic injustices, that sort of stuff. That picture makes me angry, also makes me weep.

4:50 Compassion, we're called to be people of compassion, compati Latin, to suffer with. And there's lots of pain in the world and God calls us to get involved. Over the years, we do lots of things, I haven't got time to talk about it. Hopefully these stories stir faith. So for the last 19 years, barring one from COVID, we sent out an average of 700 evangelists each summer for two weeks. That's 14 days times 700 people times 18 years times eight hours a day. We reckon we've seen over 200,000 people come to Jesus. It's been wild.

5:20 And what you read about in the Acts of the Apostles, that sort of stuff going on out there. In this case, this witch doctor, our guy showed up in the village and he started doing juju stuff, his witchcrafty stuff. And then our team said, in Jesus' name, he fell down under the power of God. And he came to a few moments later, and he's like, could you come back in two days? Two days later, he'd assembled the whole village. Now, you don't mess with the witch doctor. If you do, he'll curse you, and you're a two-year-old or die or whatever. So people live under fear of him as a senior spiritual force, authority.

5:51 But there, at the preaching of the gospel two days later, him having assembled that village, he burning his charms publicly submitting to the highest power, he and 50 people in that village gave their lives to Christ. I love that. That's our Jesus. Slightly different context, isn't it, from us here in Ballycrager, wherever we've come from. But it is the same Jesus. And I hope these stories stir faith. This is Louis. Again, stories, you can't deny stories.

6:11 Last month, I went past, I didn't see him this visit, but I went past his village. And Louis, two years ago, was blind. He was Bartimaeus. Remember Bartimaeus in the Bible called out, didn't he? Jesus! He didn't care what people thought. He's just desperate. And that was Louis.

6:25 He was Louis the loser, in a sense, because he was a widower. His kids had abandoned him. He's on the street as a beggar in the filth. And he came on our outreach and he was prayed for and he was healed. And last Christmas, we gave him a few pigs to start up a little microfinance to help lift him out of poverty. He's found some wrinkly old babe to get married to. He is a happy chap. The gospel changes everything.

6:48 The gospel, you meet Jesus, he's a game changer. This is, again, hopefully they just stir faith, these stories. This is Francine. You remember that lady in the Bible who was unclean? She was bleeding. She spent all her money, and she just had the courage to reach through the crowd, and she touched Jesus' cloak. Power came out. She was healed.

7:04 That was Francine, her husband. She was bleeding, so he'd run off and take another woman because he couldn't have sex with her, and she was desperate, and she came on an outreach. She was prayed for her. She was healed, and she ran home, and she tracked down her husband. You're coming back with me, baby, and they're back together. He's come to faith in the back of that miracle. That's our Jesus. That is our Jesus, and maybe just one more crazy story.

7:26 This is Innocence. So we just get behind the dream team of local leaders out there for the transformation of the nation. It's beautiful. We've seen such transformation. But this is Innocent. And he is so passionate for God, which is one of the reasons he's so skinny, because he fasts so much. And in the secret place, God has gifted him with a gift of healing. He's trusted him with that very powerful gift.

7:46 And so in this one instance, these two ladies showed up and went, can you pray for us? He took them around the side, the side room. And he said, Lord, I'm willing for us to stay here for three days and not leave this room if you only have mercy on these precious two ladies and set them free. He didn't have to wait three days. After 10 minutes, God released their tongues. And he brought them around. And it wasn't their worship team. It was their church choir practice.

8:10 They're having a choir practice, the choir. And he interrupted the choir practice. He said, I've got you two new choir members. And they're like, that is a sick joke. Because they knew those two girls. So he gave the microphone to the girl and said, is there anything you want to say? they sang and those guys fell on their knees weeping now some of you look at me like i don't not believe that i hope you do believe that if you don't believe that it's because we're we're victims of a western secular materialistic worldview that is jesus jesus christ is saying yesterday today and forever i don't know why it happens more in african well certainly because they've got more faith they're less cynical than us i mean that's just a reality um and they're so desperate and they're hungry there's a lot more prayer going on but i hope you know sometimes it's helpful, isn't it? Having someone coming from the outside and pricking our small insular bubble and saying, you know, there's a bigger world out there.

8:55 But it is the same Jesus. And I hope that fills you with faith to believe that he can do great things. If any of you are into podcasts, basically, well, first of all, on the news, I want to say that the 24-7 news cycle is incredibly destructive for our mental health. You're just being bombarded with negativity, which sows anxiety and fear and cynicism, all those things. Watch the news five minutes a day so you know what to pray for, and then get off the news and feed yourself on good things like the Word of God. And that is just, I mean, if you want to try one podcast, this week's podcast, mind-blowing. So if any of you into podcasts, I'd recommend that. That's just stories of what God's doing around the world, just beautiful stuff.

9:31 And then please, you can do me a favor, because I had to guesstimate how many books to bring over. So I've got two books out there if you wanted to buy those after. But that's a call to radical discipleship. So I suppose my thesis is how far is too far when Jesus went that far for us on the cross. And he didn't go that far for us just to be nice people. You know, the gospel is about a whole lot more than that. He wants to lay hold of you and use you for his glory. And then today, if you want a title for this morning's talk, it is Choose Life.

9:54 And it's totally inconsequential whether you had Cocoa Pops or Weetabix for breakfast this morning. It is much more consequential what we're going to look at, which is are you going to choose faith or fear as your bedrock of living? You can choose cynicism or action, urgency or apathy. We'll come to that in a second. And then maybe just one last story before you igniters go out. And I want you to stay in, guys, because I want you to believe that you can change the world. You are 11 right now. You're 12, 13, 14, whatever.

10:20 That's when you can make a decision to be all in for Jesus. And so this is a story about, funny enough, I met that guy on the other side of me there on a donkey in the Egyptian desert. And we were trotting along, and he was South African. There was something familiar about his blue eyes. And I said, did you do all your schooling in South Africa? He said, years apart from three years at a prep school in Buckinghamshire. He was my tennis partner when we were 11 years old. And that meeting was part of the journey of God's changing his life.

10:45 He came with us to church. He had an encounter with Jesus and he was rich and working in the city in London at Merchant Banker. He said, I've got to go back to my nation and be a part of the transformation there. He started a project called Starfish. And few of you will know the Starfish story. Many of you not. Let me just tell it. And then the kids go out.

11:02 So you've had a storm and all these crashing waves have come up and washed up loads of starfish onto the beach. And this little kid in his youthful zeal, he's wandering around, he's one at a time, he's wanging back in these starfish, chucking them back in because a starfish out of water is going to die. So he's like, he's on a little mission. And as he's doing that, a cynical old guy walks up to him and says, hey, little boy, stop. You're wasting your time. There's so many. Give up. What difference can you make?

11:36 And that little boy listened respectfully. Then he bent over and he picked another one up and he went, and he said, well, it made a difference to that one, didn't it? And that's so simple, but that is so powerful. And age 11, I want you to believe that you can make a difference. You can change the world. It's each one of us by name. I've had the privilege of seeing hundreds of thousands of starfish weighing back in in Burundi. It's not actually about the numbers, it's about being faithful to God's call on your life.

12:12 But Bongani, he was dying of AIDS, so he was a little starfish. Anthony, it was a project called Starfish. He's helped tens of thousands of AIDS orphans out in South Africa. And Bongani, he'd been born with the HIV virus from his mummy, he'd buried his own mummy and daddy. And he was dying when I met him, 10 years old. And I was preaching down there, We had a three-day window. Anthony said, I want us to give Bongani's dream to him before he dies, which is his dream was to see the sea. It's not a big dream, is it?

12:44 We've all seen the sea, even today maybe. And so we drove down six hours from Johannesburg down to Durban. That's the beach in Durban. And we had three days. He wasn't much fun to be with because he was dying and his system was imploding. But when he saw the sea, his eyes just lit up. And we put on his swimming togs and we paddled into the water. And then this great big crashing wave came and he's bricking himself.

13:07 So we got back out again. But we gave him his dream. And then we were driving back to Johannesburg. It was nighttime. It was dark. And I was in the back seat, Anthony Peter in front, and Bongani in the back. And Bongani came and he nestled up into the crook of my neck. Because it was cold to share some body.

13:25 He like cuddled me. And I listened to his labored breathing. and this boy, this precious boy, snotty nose, husky lung, who wasn't literally dying on me, but he was dying, and he's dead now. And Anthony had flummoxed me with the question, what's God's purpose in Bongani's life? And I was broken. But if you get it this morning, brothers and sisters, of whatever age, 11 to 90, what difference can we have? All of us. God wants to lay hold of you.

14:01 And I'm going to make a difference to that one. My neighbor, my colleague, the guy on my sports team, the guy in the playground, whoever. He wants to use you. Okay, so you ignite us. Listen, the prayer that took me to Burundi was this. So I went to the most dangerous country in the world. I know that because when I got there, my mommy sent me a newspaper cutting, and there we were, number one. I don't know if she was trying to encourage me or what.

14:21 But the prayer that took me to Burundi was this. And you could pray this prayer. You could go after your group and pray this prayer. The prayer that took me to Burundi was, But guys, God, I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere. That was the prayer, simple prayer. I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere.

14:31 This guy trapped me down in the city in London. I'd never met him before. And he said, I believe God sent me to you and he wants you to go to Burundi. I was like, what? Are you a nut job? Whatever. So I said to him, my heart was thumping in my chest because I'd said, I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere.

14:45 And so I said, all right, thanks, weirdo. I'll think about it. I'll be spiritual and I'll pray about it. And I went back to the job and I was in front of the computer. I said, God, right now in front of the computer, if that wasn't to justify a radical change of life. It'll mean leaving family, friends, security, money, everything, going to a place where I might get killed. So give me a radical sign right now if you want me to go to Burundi. The phone rang.

15:06 I picked it up. And the voice on the other end said, Do you know anyone who wants to work in Burundi? And I was off. And that was my call. And your call will look differently. But even this morning, that's why I wanted you guys to stay, you precious guys, because you are the future of this nation. You're the present and the future of this nation. And God believes that you've got what it takes.

15:31 I'm looking at you. He believes you've got what it takes to be who he's called you to be. So Igniters, off you go to your groups. And thanks for staying in. I appreciate that. Not that you're given the option, but that's great. And now let's look at our scriptures. Okay, so Garth's just going to, wherever I go, guys, can you just hold up so they can see it?

15:50 So Garth's about to put one of these in each aisle. And wherever I go, I say to people I'm talking to, I'm not after your money. You've got your own mission partners. Keep supporting your own mission partners. That's not why I'm here this morning. And I'm not on a recruiting drive for Burundi. If you want to go to Zambia, wherever you've got your mission partners, go there. But what I would love is I am still alive because people pray.

16:09 I once drove a long road, 40 people got killed and I got through. Was I better than those 40 people? No, but I was more prayed for. This guy came to my house with a grenade to blow me out. He'd written me a letter saying he was going to cut out my eyes. I've had some extreme experiences, God has answered many prayers. So if you want to, God's going to put one in each row. And if you've got too many emails, just pass it back.

16:27 But if you want to and hear these crazy stories, they will stir your faith and you can keep in touch that way. Okay, scripture. So Deuteronomy chapter 30, I'm going to start at verse 11. And as we look at this scripture, I want you to imagine you as the people of God. And it's Moses addressing the people of God, the Israelites, and so in a sense I'm Moses this morning as we look at that scriptures and it goes like this now what I'm commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach it's not up in heaven so you have to ask who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so that we may obey it nor is it beyond the sea so you have to ask who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so that we may obey it no the word is very near you it's in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it see I've set before you today life and prosperity death destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws. And then you'll live and increase, and the Lord will bless you in the land you're entering to possess.

17:30 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to other gods, to bow down to them, worship them, I declare to you this day you'll certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses for you, that I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and they may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice and hold fast him for the Lord is your life and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Amen? Right, let's go for it. So I was listening to a gun battle once, and I was playing this very weird guesstimation game about a mile away, 20 minutes, lots of bullets being RPGs, shells, and I was playing this weird guesstimation game of how many people are dying right now as I'm listening, and I reckon 100 people have died. The following morning, I got a tweet, and it was a tweet of the dead body.

18:35 Only one person had died of all those thousands of bullets that I heard being sprayed, and it just struck me that, you know, most bullets miss the mark. And only one bullet achieved its intended destructive purpose of taking life. And just redeeming that analogy right now, and I am clock watching, I've got limited time. I'm not sure how many bullets I'm going to spray at you, but they are bullets, but they will give life. They might be painful to receive, but I pray that all of them, by the way, all of them apply to all of us. But my question for you as you're listening is, which bullet is really for me? What does the Lord want me to address? And what am I going to do about it?

19:13 So what bullets for me and what am I going to do about it? Okay, you ready? That's what I'm firing for. First one, clarity or trust. Clarity or trust. I think many followers of Jesus, Christians, we have a faith, but we're not living by faith. There is a difference. You can have a faith, but not live by faith.

19:30 We love to be in control. We want to have all our ducks in a row, and so we want clarity. And yet God is calling us to trust. When God called Abram in Genesis chapter 12, he said, leave your country, your people, your father's house, and go to the land I will show you. But he didn't show him up front. He said, just trust me. I've got big hands. I'm trustworthy.

19:52 Now, this is difficult, but not impossible. That's what verse 11 says. Now, what I'm commanding you today is not too difficult for you, but that would imply it's quite difficult, And it's not beyond your reach, but that would imply it's quite a stretch. Folks, this is challenging for you to hear this morning, because most of us, we are choosing clarity. We're not choosing trust. We have a faith. We're not living by faith. So there was a guy called John Kavanagh, and he went to Mother Teresa's house of the dying in Calcutta.

20:23 Maybe it's a curia break. I don't know the context, but he went there. And he was really excited on the first day because Mother Teresa came and sat next to him in the front row as a newbie volunteer. And she said, what can I pray for you? And he said, oh, wow, brilliant. Great Mother Teresa is going to speak, you know, prophesy, pray over me and I'll be blessed. And he said, well, could you pray, please, that God gives me clarity for the next chapter of my life? And her indignant response shocked him.

20:47 She said, no, I will not pray for clarity for you. Clarity is the last thing you are holding onto and you need to let go of. And he's like, what? I mean you the great mother Teresa it looks like you've got loads of clarity in your life she said I have never had clarity in my life what I have had is trust so I'll pray for you that you trust him that's the first one that nails me straight away so clarity trust next one obedience or disobedience if you look down verses 14 to 16 let me just paraphrase it but essentially if you obey, things will go a whole lot better than this if you disobey. And if you disobey, look at the consequences. You will not live long in the land you're entering to possess. In fact, because of disobedience, everyone over the age of 20, barring Caleb and Joshua, died. So the consequences of disobedience are huge.

21:40 And listen, again, obedience means submitting to someone else, allowing him to be Lord of our lives. And what does obedience look like for you this morning? I mean, if I look at the scriptures, there's a very clear correlation between love and obedience in the scripture. John chapter 14, three times, if you love me, you will obey my commands. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he or she is the one who loves me. 1 John 5, 3, this is love to obey his commands. Jesus is our model. Philippians 2, he learned obedience to death, even death on the cross in our place.

22:13 And what I want to say to you is that if you walk in obedience with God, he will guide your stops and he'll guide your steps and you'll learn more from five minutes of obedience than from 10 years of study. We need to obey. We need to walk in obedience. This great theologian Tozer, he said this, every time you hear God's word, God's truth, you'll either go in the direction you're called to go or you'll just wait. And if you wait, you'll find the next time you hear that word, that truth, it will not move you quite as much. The next time it will move you less and the time will come when that truth will not move you at all. Just think about that. because I've been in that place of God speaking to me through his word, through someone else, and I know that I'm in quarter bay, and I've hardened my heart, or not moved in obedience, and then slowly, slowly that voice has become more and more dim, and I've just shut myself off.

23:06 What might the Lord be saying to you this morning? It could be in terms of a destructive relationship. It could be financial reprioritizing. It could be an initiative he's calling to take with your colleagues or down your street or something. It could be, what could it be? What is he calling on you to move in obedience with? Don't disobey. The consequences are huge.

23:29 And again, think you are the Israelites. I'm Moses in the sense. And all these choices, these bullets, what they are facing. Next one, urgency or apathy. And the Israelites, we had sporadic bursts of urgency, didn't we? when Pharaoh's cracked chariotiers were up our backsides and we legged it through the desert. But actually, the default was pretty apathetic in the Israelites. And I think the default in most followers of Jesus is quite apathetic and just self-evaluate.

23:56 The advantage I had of living in a war zone was hearing literal bombs go off. And you guys have experienced that going back decades. I suspect that in the troubles, those of you that are old enough that experienced that, there was a greater sense of being alive and the imminence of, well, the awareness of one's mortality wasn't there. And that's what I lived with in Burundi the whole time. I was like, every weekend, I was like, is this my last weekend, driving along the most dangerous roads in the world? I lived with a sense of urgency. I'm like, today's the day. I'm not going to waste my time watching six hours on a box, binge watching a box set.

24:28 What a waste of time. I once preached on the Congolese border, a message that essentially was the parable of the ten virgins. Remember that, Matthew 25? And those five girls, they weren't ready. I mean, my points were, Jesus is coming. Nobody knows when. Are you ready? So that was the message.

24:44 Jesus is coming. Nobody knows when. Are you ready? That was on Sunday. People chose to respond. Some didn't or chose not to respond. But on Tuesday, I was on my motorbike heading towards that village. And the military stopped me.

24:56 And they said, you cannot proceed. All those people have been killed by a rebel incursion. And it hit me as never before, the urgency of our message. So I sat there Sunday morning listening. Jesus is coming. Nobody knows when. are you ready? And he came for them on Tuesday.

25:11 Now praise God for the peace in this nation now. But the problem with peace is that invariably peace brings apathy. And if there was, I wonder where you'd self-diagnose this morning if we had a continuum of passionate urgency for Jesus, living out your faith, sharing grace with people, your neighbors, colleagues, etc., this end, and then this end sort of languid apathy. I'm not saying we're this end, but the point of this bullet is to move us along that continuum, a greater sense of urgency. Because I thought I'd die, I was like, I want to have my house in order. I want to tell everyone that I love them. I want to share my faith. I want to receive and offer forgiveness.

25:52 I don't want any broken relationship. Do you see what I mean? Urgency or apathy, who needs that one? Next one, faith or fear. Again, the Israelites were a fearful bunch. They saw the power of God repeatedly in terms of deliverance and provision, protection, and yet they just lived out of a paradigm, ultimately, of fear. And guys, I think that's us. I mean, I don't know more than that well.

26:17 I mean, I've been a number of times, but I look at us in general in the UK and, well, across the world, particularly out of COVID, where we are just bombarded with daily, nightly curated statistics to infuse fear to make a certain behavioral adjustment. And in saying that, I'm not saying COVID wasn't serious, but the fact is that we like fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. And that's why I said, get off the 24-7 news cycle, because it's not helpful to your spirit. And that wires our brains into a fear paradigm. I just want to say to you, and I've got time to go into loads of stories I've had of protection and deliverance, but our birthright as followers of Jesus is to live by faith, free from fear. And some of us, we're shackled by fear. We fear you parents, you're helicopter parenting because you're desperate to protect your kids. And actually, they belong to the Lord.

27:06 They don't belong to you. And he says, hold on to them. Your job is to nurture and take care of them, but you don't overhold on to them. Model, love, and release them into the Lord's hands. And we're fearful about the future, and we've got financial fears. All those fears just change to concern. It's legitimate to be concerned, But guys, we don't need to be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, we can present our requests to God.

27:35 Don't be afraid. I think some of us this morning, we are riddled by fear. People always come up to me afterwards and say, that was me, I am shackled by fear. And I want to say to you, in grace, your birthright, come to Jesus. Perfect love, he is perfect love. Perfect love casts out fear. And we are more than conquerors. That's what this book is here.

27:56 We are more than conquerors. And the one who is in you, 1 John 4, 4, the one who is in you is greater than the one who's in the world. We stand on the word of God. We stand on his promises. Do not be afraid. It's 300 plus promises in the Bible. Do not be afraid.

28:11 Fear not. The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? That's one of our memory verses for the kids. And get those memory verses down for your kids to store out God's word in their heart. Minus 18, 16, and 14. They refuse now to learn verses.

28:26 but when they're younger they're sponges you parents of young kids get the word of god in their heart the lord is with me i will not be afraid what can man do to me faith or fear next one gratitude or grumbling war the israelites were they were a grumpy bunch weren't they but you know well let me just speak as an englishman because i don't know if you're rude about you northern irish but you know our national pastime is moaning we are so good at complaining we're amongst the most blessed people the history of humanity and we moan the whole time any grumblers in the house you don't have to put your hands up but but gratitude or grumbling the Israelites I mean I would have loved to taste manna or quail but within a few days of that they're like oh god come on give us a big mac or something they wanted variety the the biggest gift Burundi gave me was the gift of gratitude so this guy I told I said didn't I this guy came to my house with a grenade to blow me up he wrote me a letter saying he's going to cut out my eyes and that was so powerful to me because for the first time in my life I said thank you Lord that see for the gift of eyesight, not the right, the gift. Ask a blind person whether it's a gift or right. And then that just made me go through all the things I took for granted in life that I assumed were rights because of living in an entitlement culture and redefining them as gifts. And then that became a game changer for me because if you see everything as a gift, then you become grateful. And some of you, you really need to hear that. Again, I'm the visiting speaker, I'm out of here, so I don't know which are the grumpy ones, but some people that you walk into the room, you suck the energy out of the room with complaining and stuff like that.

29:57 It's like, no, we went to be the joy bringers because we've got such good news. And so when I'm tempted to self-pity or moaning, I just go through the gifts of God in my life. I can see. And I've got a body that mostly works a bit of a dodgy back. But in general, I'm so grateful and I can read and write and I've got enough food to eat and I've got freedom in this nation to say Jesus is Lord what an incredible gift. And I just go through all that. So grateful. Gratitude or grumbling, looking at maybe just two more.

30:26 And these last two, I think they underpin all the others. And this is rules or relationship. So if you look down to verse 14 to 16, again, it could seem very transactional. Do this and that'll happen. Don't do it and this'll happen. And we could end up having a transactional religious view of God. And that's very dangerous. Jesus reserved his fiercest words for the religious that just missed it.

30:51 he said was it Matthew 15 verse 8 these people the Pharisees they honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me and we don't do anyone want to be that person that honours God with their lips but their hearts I don't think so so rules or relationship now across the body of Christ in its beautiful diversity this morning or this 24 hour window there are two and a half billion people approximately under broad umbrella of Christendom Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, Orthodox, whatever and hundreds of millions of people around the world, they would articulate their faith as go to a church building and tick a box and hopefully I get accepted. That's not a great reason to come. Hundreds more millions across the world would say what sounds more plausible, which is the Old Testament was about law, the New Testament's about grace, the Old Testament was rules, the New Testament is relationship. That sounds better, guys, it's still wrong. It was always about relationship. Back in Deuteronomy chapter nine, a few chapters earlier, God says to the Israelites, don't think I've chosen you because you're any better than anyone else. I just love you.

31:53 In Burundi, there's loads of domestic violence. You have to preach it from the front. You cannot beat your wife. It sounds crazy, but anyway, actually, there's a lot of hidden domestic violence here as well, I'm pretty sure. There is in England. Anyway, this one lady was in a horrible marriage where every night, pretty much of their married life, her husband beat her. Because what he did before going to work is he wrote a long list of household chores that she had to accomplish to his level of satisfaction before he returned in the evening. And no matter how hard she worked, dawn to dusk, each time he would come back in and he would do that.

32:23 And as soon as there was a cross, he would beat her. So she was in a horrific situation. I think we can say, praise God, he died. And so she was released from that oppressive situation. Now, a few months later, she actually, by God's grace, met a lovely man who never laid a finger on her inappropriately, who nurtured her and encouraged her and built her up. And she flourished and they yeah they got married and a few months into their new married lives second chance for her really um she's like i'm gonna blitz the house it's filthy i'm gonna really go for it and so she was tiding it she was going for it all day and then just at the end of the day just before her husband came home from work last little chores she was cleaning behind the sofa satire and she pulled out this piece crumpled piece of paper can you guess what it was it's one of the old lists from the horrible first husband. With trembling hands, she opened up this piece of paper and she started going through it. Can you guess what?

33:26 She'd done it all. What she had never been able to do, shackled by the fear of impending judgment and condemnation in the context of a healthy, loving relationship, she'd done it all. Brothers and sisters, I don't think anyone here, hopefully, has quite got the caricature of God as that first husband. But let me assure you, he's not like that. And he's very much and even better than that second husband. And he wants relationship with you. And that picture of grace, I love telling that story of grace, because it's just such a clear articulation of the Father's love for us. And the fact that we can be clean and acceptable to him.

34:08 And there's no more shame, no more condemnation. And that's what's available for this morning. Choose relationship over rules. It's very foundational. That's why I said the last two are the big one. And the last one is verse 19. Choose life, life or death. This day, today, right now, God is saying, I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you.

34:29 That I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life. Choose life. Last story. and then we'll pray. And this is, it was in an African village in the bush and there was a fire that broke out in someone's house and the villagers all rushed to the river with their buckets and they're trying to put out. They heard the screams of the family inside and they tried to rescue them but they couldn't and the whole family was burnt alive in the house apart from at the last minute someone plucked out the baby boy. and so the next morning the whole village gathered around the smoldering embers and remains of that house and a heating a heated discussion and debate ensued about who would have the right to adopt the surviving baby boy because according to their worldview wow the ancestral spirits protected that boy so there's serious baraka blessing to be had in taking that boy for themselves so the witch doctor is like, this kid's got serious psychic power, let me have him.

35:36 But the chief said, well, no, hang on, I'm the chief, I'm going to have him. And the richest man in the village said, well, hang on, I've got the most money to pay for him, invest in him to get a good education. The neighbor said, well, no, no, no, his father had an unpaid debt towards me and I will take the baby boy in lieu of that payment. And then this nobody that everyone knew, wasn't a big but from the lowest rung of the social hierarchy and ladder of that village, this nobody stepped forward but quite authoritatively said, no, the boy is mine. And after a few moments of stunned silence and incredulity, they were all like, what? I mean, we know who you are. What could possibly be your claim on that little boy? And he didn't have to say much.

36:32 he just opened his hands and his hands were blistered and burnt and charred and he said the boy is mine because I saved him and that's what he says to you this morning what did Jesus choose this day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death blessings and curses now choose life so he became a curse blessings and curses he became a curse that we could walk in blessing and he chose death so that we might choose life and what's his claim? No one else got the same claim because I saved you. You are mine, precious, precious daughter, precious son because I saved you. Do you guys want to come up and time to respond? Listen, I invite you just for a change of posture.

37:47 Do you want to stand up with me? You've been sat a decent amount of time. Please don't check out in your mind, This is the most important time. It's a chance to respond. And I had a few other bullets, but that's for another time. These are pretty foundational bullets. Are you going to choose clarity or trust? Are you going to choose obedience or disobedience?

38:13 Are you going to choose urgency or apathy? Are you going to choose faith or fear? Are you going to choose grumbling or gratitude? You can choose rules or relationship. You can choose death or choose life. Oh Lord, why don't you just shut your eyes and be open to the spirit of God right now. Bring conviction and encouragement and challenge and stir in your heart. It's Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24.

38:35 It says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. so speak Lord your servants are listening what bullet is for me and what am I going to do about it