Amen. So it's it's a new year which means it's new year sermon time and some of
you are looking forward to it, maybe some of you are dreading it, I don't know, but
it's time to crunch the numbers, review what we achieved last year and then what
we're hoping to achieve this year, look at our plans for the year. So 1st
Corinthians 3 and verse 8 said this, 1st Corinthians 3.8 said, Now he that
planteth and he that waltereth the one, at every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God, ye are God's
husbandry, ye are God's building. And the title of my sermon this morning is
Labouring with God in 2025. Labouring with God in 2025. I'd like to pray before
we get going with the message. Father, thank you for your word Lord, thank you
for this church, thank you for the last year that we've had as a church Lord, we
pray that you bless us with this year to come Lord and just help us keep working
with you Lord, help us to just keep serving you, to put, you know, the things
of God, you know, at the sort of top of our priority list Lord, help us all with
this year to try and do that. Lord please bless me as I preach this message and
film with your spirit as I do that please Lord and help everyone to just
have attentive ears and to want to get on board with our goals as a church here.
In Jesus' name I pray all of this. Amen. Okay so we're in 1st Corinthians 3 because I
really want to impress upon everyone here how important our church goals are,
okay, our church goals. All over the world at this time people are thinking about
the personal year that they've had, the personal year that maybe they they have
ahead, okay, and it's not that personal goals and achievements are bad but we
have to put things into perspective in life and we regularly have to do that,
don't we, because we so often just get pulled into our own personal goals or
own personal sort of things and thoughts and feelings and our own life basically
but our church goals aren't just for me as a pastor, okay, they're not just for
maybe an elite few here. The church's goals and achievements should be up here
in importance, shouldn't they, for everyone that's a member of this church,
shouldn't they? So everyone who's a member of this church's body of Christ where we
come together as different body parts as a body of Christ, the goals of your
church should be up here in importance for you, okay. If you're saved
obviously, look, if you save the first thing anyone should do saved should be to
find a decent church to be a member of and help that church to achieve things
for God. Why? Because verse 9 said here, for we are labourers together with God,
ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. So the reason being because
we're working together with God and the real work is going on in the legitimate
New Testament Church, isn't it? That's what the church is about, it's about
doing real work for God. Yeah, as you're going to be reminded of as we look at
the year we've just had, this is his husbandry or maybe we would say his
farming business, okay. We hear of God's building, it's said here in verse 9 as
well, and he's got some pretty important work for us to do as well, okay. It's
important work, more important than your waistline over 2025 for those that have
decided that that's their goal for the year, whether it's, you know, maybe more
important than you being more assertive this year. You know some people make
these sort of goals, this year I'm gonna be a more assertive or maybe I'll be
less assertive or, I don't know, more important than your savings. Did you know
that? More important than your savings, more important than your financial
situation, more important than any of your personal goals is the work of God.
It's more important. God's work is more important than all of that stuff, okay.
We need to remember that and if you're sitting there and you've already started
making New Year's resolutions and stuff, I'm not saying that's bad stuff, but you've
got to remember that God's goals, God's work, is more important than any of that
because it has eternal consequences. But we as Christians need to regularly
quench that selfishness and focus on the bigger picture because it is
something, you know, that we do regularly do. We quench the spirit, don't we? And
then we allow the selfishness to take hold and it's just all about us and
what can we achieve and our personal things. And again, I'm not saying it's all
bad stuff, but God's goals have to be up here in comparison, okay. The work of God
should be up there. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul said this, we're gonna look from
verse 1. Paul said this in verse 1, and I brethren could not speak unto you as
unto spiritual but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with
milk and not with meat, for hitherto you are not able to bear it, neither yet now
are ye able. So he said that they're still not getting the spiritual things
because they're babes in Christ, okay. This church as a whole, he's talked to
them as a group, are babes in Christ. They're not able to step up to the meat,
okay, and they're not able to step up to any meat. So forget the prime sort of
ribeye steak. I don't think they could even digest a bit of mashed up old
chicken nugget or something, you know. They're not able to take it yet, they
still need the milk. Why? Because they're still too carnal. They're still too
focused on carnal things. Verse 3 says, for ye are yet carnal, for whereas there
is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as
men. So envying each other is a carnal thing, that's babing Christ stuff. You're
still looking around the church going, you know, if only I had what they had. You know, you're getting that envy for people. The
strife is all just this kind of, just petty strife. You're still carnal, you're
a babe, yeah, the divisions. If you're like, you've got little divisions for me, oh, I
don't talk to that, I'll deal with that one, alright. You know, that's just,
that's all carnal stuff, right. We need to get that stuff out of our lives, that's
babing Christ stuff, okay. Look at what they're divided over, these guys. It says,
for while one sayeth, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not
carnal. So they're divided over whether they're disciples of Paul or Apollos. And
you know what it makes me think of when I see this? It makes me think of these
online blowhards, okay. And there's a lot of online blowhards, if you ever watch a
video or watch a, watch a podcast or something, you know, the temptations to
look at comments, isn't it. And what you see, a load of online blowhards, these
carnal babes in Christ, that row about pastors whose churches they've probably
never been to in their life. Like, they might have visited there once, and it's
like, now they're qualified to row about, it's like, you're not even at the church,
it's got nothing to do with you. But, but it's carnal, isn't it, it's babing Christ
stuff. Elisa Corinthians actually attended a church planted by Paul, and
had been physically taught and knew personally Apollos too, yeah. But, but they
were still carnal babes because they were focusing on the men, they were
focusing on the man, they were focusing on the preacher, instead of on God. Verse
5 says, and this is Paul speaking, who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But
ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. It all comes
from God. Give, give him the glory, not men. And do you know who the worst haters
in the world are? And this is, like, throughout, you know, there's nothing new
under the sun, but obviously in the online world we see this a lot more. Do
you know who they are? It's usually the worst idolatrous man-worshippers, then
become the worst haters of whoever it is that they put on a pedestal in their
life. And, and so, half the time they're just unsaved, you know, devils anyway,
right? They've just got their latest idol in life for a while, and then they hate
them. But, point being that, that we just need to move away from that stuff.
Idolatry, idolizing men, whether they're preachers, whether there are other people
in life, in other areas, past, whatever, right? Get away from all that, give God
the glory, right? Give God the glory. He said, I have planted, Apollos watered, but
God gave the increase. Yeah, Paul did some great stuff, right? He's a great man of God.
Apollos was a great man of God, a mighty Apollos, but it was God that gave the
increase. So then neither is he that planted the thing, neither he that
waltereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planted and he that
waltereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his
own labor. So whether you're preaching a gospel, getting people saved, training up
disciples, or the many things that go hand in hand with that, if you're
laboring for God, is what it's saying here, you will receive eternal rewards
according to your own labor, according to the labor that you put in. But that work
is still a team game though. So as much as, yeah, you'll receive the reward for
the labor you put in, you're still working as part of a team though. Verse 9
says, for we are laborers together with God, ye, plural to the church, are God's
husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is
given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another
builder thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth there upon. For
other foundation can no man lay than that, sorry, than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ. So the foundation is faith in Christ. Okay, without that your work is
vain. It's in vain. It's pointless. It's a waste of time. You can work for God all
you like if you're not saved, it's your works and rights are filthy rags. Okay,
useless, burn up, they're not doing anything. Without salvation, without faith
in Christ, you ain't working for God. But after Christ, that foundation of Christ,
God wants us all working, doesn't he? God has a lot of work for us to do. He said,
now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall
declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he had built
thereupon, he shall receive reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. So he's saying
basically that you can lay up eternal rewards, okay, depending on what sort of
work it is. And I'm going to tell you some some sorts of work that lay up
eternal rewards, okay. Work that affects people's eternity. So there's some
obvious stuff. Soul winning. Soul winning affects people's
eternities. That's an obvious work, isn't it, that God wants every one of his
children doing. Okay, the Great Commission is for all. Soul winning is an obvious
one, but so is discipling, isn't it? Discipling converts, putting effort,
putting time, putting work, putting effort into discipling someone that's
got saved, is a work that does affect people's eternities. If you can get
someone soul winning, you've suddenly maximized that person much more
than that one salvation. Now suddenly they're going to go on to multiply and
get salvations as well. But how about, aside from that stuff, how about
organizing soul winning? That's a big work, isn't it? That's an
important work, and the people around this church that have organized
different soul winning, soul winning events, soul winning times, stuff, that is
a work, and that's a work that, again, affects people's eternities. How about,
and here's another one, how about, and I'm not just talking about myself, how
about every person that's got behind this pulpit and provoked people through
preaching to want to go soul winning, for starters? How about that? That's a work
that's affected people's eternities, isn't it? If a message from behind this
pulpit has made someone decide, yeah, actually I'm not going to be lazy today,
I'm going to go out there and get soul winning. No, actually I'm going to make an
effort. No, actually I want to start to learn how to soul win. No, I'm going to go
along as a silent partner. No, I'm going to go do more soul winning, whatever it is,
it affects people's, it's going to affect people's eternities. But then
again, how about cleaning up lives due to preaching? Again, the men that get behind
this pulpit and preach, it's not just about, well, how am I going to look
on YouTube? You know, getting behind a pulpit, you might have a message that
someone needs to hear that cleans up their life a little bit. Maybe you preach
on a sin that they get out of their life and it means they go on to be more
productive as a child of God, knock on effect, more salvation, eternal
differences. Cleaning up lives, strengthening faith, building doctrine
through preaching, it all, eventually the knock-on effect is people's eternities.
How about all of the other jobs that go into those church
services? Because we don't just turn up here and preach and that's it. And there's
a lot that goes into just being able to do that. There's a lot that goes into it.
How about the music team? You know, we come here to praise the Lord, we're told
to praise the Lord, we need people playing music, we need people song
leading. Okay, that all goes into, and that all affects the church service,
which eventually the knock-on effect is people's eternities, because the product
of this church is salvation. How about ushering? That's a job that, again,
affects ultimately people's eternities through being a part of the church
service. Bible reading, live streaming, doing the collection, you know, having
people that are honest, you can rely on to collect, to go and count it
properly, to do all those things. Giving, people that just give, that come, and I'm
not talking about tithing, that's something that, you know, you shouldn't
be getting rewarded for, that's something you just won't get cursed for not doing.
But giving, you know, people give above and beyond, often, in various ways to
this church. Again, that ultimately will affect people's eternities. Cleaning, this
place needs cleaning. If this didn't get cleaned, and we have people every week
coming in and cleaning this church, and if this place didn't get cleaned, it
would soon start losing people from the church, wouldn't we? People wouldn't want to
come here. Again, what does it do? It affects people's eternities. How about
just turning up to church? Turning up, and someone else seeing you there, and
encouraging you to be there, encouraging you to be there next week, turning up,
smiling, saying the right thing to someone, saying hello, being there to have
a chat, being there, just being here in the service. It all affects people's
eternities. And then, that's aside from raising godly families. Again, you raise
kids that go on to be soul winners, you encourage your wives to want to
preach the gospel and get out as soul winners, etc. Again, it's all work that
affects people's eternities. Praying, Bible reading, all of these things, right?
So, all these spiritual things are much more important than any of our
personal goals. Now, I'll talk about personal goals later, but ultimately this
stuff is the gold, the silver, the precious stones, isn't it? That's what
this stuff is. He said, Know ye not, verse 16, that ye are the temple of God, and that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall
God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. And that
works two ways, okay? Our individual bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit,
okay, for starters. If you're saved, you're sealed by the Holy Spirit, I promise
you're a temple of the Holy Ghost. But when we come together as the house of
God, too, we are built up together as lively stones. So, we form that
house of God, that temple of God, and again with the Spirit amongst us, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. So,
we have the Lord amongst us there as well. Yeah, and this temple is here to do
some work, okay? And when we come together as a collective, we get a lot
more done, don't we? We just get a lot more done. And I suppose it shouldn't
work like that. You should look at it and go, well, if I didn't have to come to church,
if I didn't have to preach sermons, if I didn't have to, if the guys here
didn't have to do the ushering, and maybe the live stream, and didn't have to
do all these things, and get involved in the church service, and make their way
to church and everything else, they should have more time for soul-widdings,
shouldn't they? They should have more time for their Bible reading, for
preaching the gospel, but the reality of it is, do you know who the most productive
people are? The people who are in church. And do you know who usually the most
productive out of the church members are? Those that are three to five in church,
and who are in the most services, usually do the most outside of church as well.
That's just the way it works, isn't it, right? And we do, we come together, we do a
lot, right? And we're going to look at some of the things we as a church managed
to do last year. Verse 9 said where you are, for we are labourers together
with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. So I'm just going to just
remind you some of the stuff that I've remembered as I've kind of flicked
through some of the bulletins and stuff, and I'll probably miss a few things and
a few events and stuff, but just to give you an idea of what happened last year.
If you remember, January, we had a tough start with Hooping Cough, okay? That was a,
it was a tough start to the year. We had our lowest attendances at the
beginning of January, I think, than we'd ever had, right at the beginning, so we'd
had our New Year's Day service, and so many people were still sick, it was, it
was pretty bad. But we managed to finish the month strong in the end, and then we
had, if you remember, we had a local marathon in Shoebury Nest, and we'd done
some local area marathons and, and just, just hit a few areas around Shoebury Nest
being just up the road. We ended up with eight Salvations in Shoebury Nest, which
being just a local area, you know, wasn't bad, especially considering how much
sickness we'd had all month. In February, we did the next of our UK cities with a
Chelmsford marathon, and 15 Salvations in Chelmsford, and that was great, that was
just a city up the road, you know, 40 odd minutes away, and we end up with 15
Salvations up there. We had a, we had a good time up there, a meal up there. March
was a bit of a busy month, there was a ladies outing for Mother's Day. We had
the first of our homeschool trips as well, which is something that, that we're
doing now, which we want to do, you know, regular homeschool trips for the, for the
homeschool kids here. We had an Eerith marathon with 25 Salvations. That was a
nice spot, wasn't it? Eerith ended up being a good location for us. Our
Lord's Supper service we had, and then we also had Easter as well, all in March,
right, so that was a busy month. April had a soul winning marathon in Harold Hill
with 17 Salvations. May had a beginners men's preaching night, we had a couple
over the year. May we had, I think, the first one for a little while, and another
homeschool trip, and the Sheffield preaching and soul winning event with
8 Salvations. So although we only had 8 Salvations up in Sheffield, we had a
great turnout, we preached, I mean, there was, I mean, preached a sermon up in
Sheffield, I doubt they would have heard preaching like that for a while. Islam got smashed. But also, aside from that as
well, we had a local guy get involved and, and you know, and he's been soul winning
since, come and got baptized, stuff, so, so that's Ryan, if anyone's wondering, and
that was a great result for that. And on the back of that, there are people
meeting regularly in Sheffield going soul winning, which is great, you know, and
thank you for everyone that got involved with that, because it was a bit of a trip
for people. We had a nice time though, we had a, I don't know, if you guys remember, we
went to the zoo and ended up having a, or farm zoo thing, and people were holding
tarantulas and snakes and things like that, who maybe thought they would never have done that, but
then once everyone else is doing it, you feel like, oh, I better do this again, and that was pretty cool.
Okay, so we then had, we then had in, in June, we had a men's outing for Father's
Day, and there was something else in June, oh that was it, it was a massive trip to
Malawi, so we had our, we had our big Malawi trip, and, and that was, that was a
massive highlight of our year, okay. We're just five pairs of preachers, we managed
to preach the gospel to approximately 2,000 teenagers in Malawi, in, in different
schools there, and, and just to, just to make it clear, okay, for, for, like, in the
first year as an independent church, and to be able to do a missions trip was
amazing, right, and that was just thanks to just faithful people, faithful members,
you know, and there's a lot that goes into a missions trip, and, and that was
great, and the help with that, and the organization of it, and just everything
was amazing, we, we, we ended up with, we ended up going to four different schools,
and the class sizes varied from around 30 to 70 in each, in each group that we
preached to, and, look, I don't know, you know, I know the people, talking to the
people that preached those schools, in general, you know, I was confident that
well over 50% of the kids I preached to were getting saved. Everyone I spoke to
afterwards seemed to have received the message, called on the name of the Lord,
and, and believed it, and I would say well over that, so, so we, you couldn't
accurately give an amount, so all we, all we say is, well, we preached to 2,000 kids
in schools in Malawi to very receptive children. We also preached a time
constrained gospel to the teachers in one of the school classrooms, where we
had several minutes to preach to them, and then also to approximately 70
policemen in an early morning meeting at the nation's police headquarters, and it
had some of the top police, you know, representatives in the nation, in
Lilongwe Police Department there, and that was, that was great as well.
We had our Bible Way to Heaven played on the most popular national radio station
during three primetime slots as well, so we believe we really made a big
difference in Malawi, and it was, I mean, that was a, obviously we built up to that
over the year, that was a big part of our year. We also had 154 salvation from the
soul winning. We held three church services on the Wednesday evening, and on
the Sunday, where we had 24 on a Wednesday, 22 and 32 in the services, and
if you're thinking, well that was a bit small with the church services, bear in
mind we mainly focus on preaching to kids, and obviously kids from all these
different schools around can't just suddenly up and make their way on their
own to a service, but we still managed to get 24, 22, and 32 in the services,
six baptisms, and some of the converts also come and experience soul winning, so
it was a great, great result. We finished, we then finished that month nicely with
an Eerith marathon, 24 salvations. We wanted somewhere definitely receptive
after Malawi, so we didn't get too disappointed when we got back. July we
had another homeschool trip and a Dagna marathon with 27 salvations. August we
had our anniversary weekend, and that was a big weekend wasn't it, and we had, we
had a few visitors over for that, we had, you know, and what happens with these,
with these anniversaries, often you just have, you know, all the people that
come kind of from one, maybe one month to the next, come every few months, or
come once every fortnight or whatever, they all just come together, so we
usually have a good turnout for that. We did soul winning in Deptford, southeast
London, we had 34 salvations in August at that marathon. September we had a baby
shower, Amsterdam preached at a soul winning event as well, if, and I know not many
people were able to make it out there, but that was a great success, managed to
preach there, and soul winning, 11 salvations, get some people come and got,
came and got involved to, hadn't been, you know, involved soul winning there for a
long time, so that was nice as well, we were in contact with a few people from
there which is nice as well. October was another baby shower and an
Eerith marathon with 34 salvations, and then November was the next UK cities
with Colchester and 19 salvations. December we had our first kids Christmas
party and finished off with soul winning in Belvedere with 16 salvations, so added
to that we've had five babies born, new converts, new members, it's been a great
year hasn't it, right, for me this has been, this has surpassed any other year,
we've got so much done this year, had so many positives, but let's look at the
stats, okay, it's time to crunch the numbers. Right, did we reach our targets
from last year? Well target number one was 1,500 salvations, could we get 1,500
people to basically put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in front of a soul
winner from this church, and that included the soul winning times, obviously
outside of those times as well, there have been personal salvations in
people's day-to-day lives as well amongst that, and the 1,500 salvations
did include then our, obviously we have two groups abroad that are part of our
church as well, and we did, we managed to get 1,520
salvations total, which is great, right, and what a number, and like I said that's
not counting 2,000 kids preached to in Malawi, and the police and the
teachers there as well, so that number is made up of 1,019 from the UK Church,
which again exceeds anything we've ever got here as a church, 345 from Pretoria,
and 155 in Lausanne, Switzerland, and they're both relatively small groups, and
and by the way, I spoke to Pierre yesterday, he said to me, like, they're so
pleased, basically that's the best year by far they've ever had, having had a
year as part of our church in terms of the salvation, people coming, the
baptisms as well that I've gone and done out there as well. Like I said, it's not
counting the 2,000 preachers in Lausanne, and just put it in context, we just made
it a thousand last year total, with 243 of those coming from our overseas groups.
So we've, just as our church alone, without those those overseas groups,
we've added on another 260-odd salvations to that as well, and then
those groups have done great this year as well, and you know, the guys out
in Pretoria, they've just had a bit of trouble going out the last couple
of weeks, but yeah, 345 salvations for what is a small group they're going
out as well is amazing as well, okay. So all those groups have done great, as have
all of our soul-winning times here, so I just want to give just a shout
to everyone, because the thing with this is obviously that ultimately it's God
that giveth the increase, but we have worked with God, haven't we, and many
people in this church, soul winners and organizers as well. Alex in Mitcham on a
Monday, we've added that Mitcham time, which has been a great time, and it's
been great for those who are over that side of London that find it hard
to get to the midweek soul-winning and the other times to be able to meet up in
a place like Mitcham to go out on a Monday night, and they've had a lot of
salvations down in Mitcham. Dan over in Basildon, just every Tuesday, you know
that that's just been a consistent time, lots of salvations coming out of Basildon
still. Everyone that's been making the effort to make the
Wednesdays and be able to come and come early on a Wednesday evening before a
church service, to go out and preach the gospel in Southend, again that's been
great to have everyone that's been a part of that.
Hoonah in Tilbury, again just a great consistent time there. Tilbury,
we say it's probably the most righteous place in the whole of the UK, it's
got, we've been getting people saved in Tilbury for a few years now, we've
done marathons there, and they go every Thursday, they're
regularly now coming across people that have been reached in the past by our
church, talking to people that are saved there, and that's been a great place and
again, you know, everyone that's been making that and the organising for that
has been great as well. And then Neil down in Exeter, those guys are going out
regularly, Neil sometimes goes with one church because there's like
a three of them that regularly soul winning, sometimes you'll go with one and then
meet up with the other guy afterwards, so he does like a long period of soul
winning often there, they're regularly getting out there, they'll be getting some
good salvations there. And then Gazer up in Sheffield has been soul winning up
there regularly on Sundays, and again they've been adding quite a few
salvations now from up in Sheffield as well. So I like that, and that organising,
you know, you might think, well that's it, is it too hard, you just do a few maps,
you know what, it's not just doing the maps, it's just week in, week out.
It's not, well I don't fancy it today, it doesn't matter whether you fancy it or
not, you're running a soul winning time, so in general you're going to be there,
right? And that is hard, you know, and then on top of that, on top of
that, we've had what was down earlier in the year and junior after that on a
Sunday here as well, and you know, when other people are off down the
caff and kebab shops and chicken shops and cake shops, or sitting here eating
food and relaxing with their family and having a nice break in between services,
you know, there's Junior now and Andre often is, and sometimes
another Usher, but often Andre is helping as well, and to pair people up, to
sort out maps, to get it planned, to get the maps back, that's all work, right? And
without all that work, without all that planning, without all that organising from
all those different people, and that's not to mention obviously out in
Switzerland, Pierre is also preaching and basically running like a mini church
really there, but we're just, they're not quite at that stage yet, but they're a
soul winning group that are preaching there, where there's not really preaching
and French around, and then also, you know, Nick over in South Africa as well,
he's just week in, week out, just ploughing on, plodding away and
preaching the gospel, you know, we couldn't do it without, we couldn't get
anywhere near these numbers without those organisers, so thank you everyone
with that and obviously look, yeah, ultimately God gives the increase, but
you know what, God will be giving some increase to each of those people as well
because they're putting time and effort in that often goes unnoticed, all of those
people organising those soul winning times, but then also everyone that's just been a
part of it, everyone that's come and got involved in the soul winning, God
blessed you, God will bless you for that, okay, and God sees it all, God's
got the tally, okay, and it's one day when you're up there you see, yeah,
actually, you know, God saw all that work, right, all those times
when I didn't feel right, I didn't feel quite up for it, I could have done with
the sleep and rest, I could have done with not doing much and I turned up to
soul winning, and everyone that's done that turned up to the marathons that we,
you know what, I didn't think that we'd be able to keep going with a
marathon every month, I just thought eventually this is probably gonna peter
out and people will stop turning up to them and then we might have to reduce
them a bit, I was wrong, we're still running a marathon every month out of
this church, I know not everyone can make every single one, but you know what, we
have enough people making them to still make them, a marathon a month is
great, you know, and that's pretty rare to have a marathon a month for most
people to just be turned out every single month, last Saturday of the month they're
going on a marathon, or basically what is a marathon just condensed into four
hours on an afternoon event where we just preached the gospel, and again,
praise God for all just zealous soul winners at this church, putting the
time in, putting the effort in, and like I said earlier, everything that's gone
into the service is for everyone to then be sent out, so all the
different jobs, everything that goes into this place being a functioning
church, and everything that goes into that, which results in people being
encouraged and being sent out, thank you just to everyone, and praise God that we
have a load of people that have got involved in that, so we made our target,
1,500 salvation, we went above that, number two, no, our next target was a
hundred baptisms, so here we didn't quite make it, okay, now I went high on
baptisms as I was hoping for more in Malawi, however, like I said, we did end up
focusing really on salvation in the schools, which then made that target
harder, it was a bit hard to know what to expect there for those services and those
baptisms, but also where we really did just go very, very, we really focused on
schools, we focused on maximum salvation, and it meant that getting the baptisms
was a bit harder, but regardless, so okay, regardless of us not making that
hundred, aside from the baptism marathon that I did in Poland, okay, where
there was like 63 people waiting to be baptized, you know, for many years of
having the gospel preached over there and no churches really to do any
baptisms there, we've had our highest yet at 34 this year, that's our highest yet
for a year of baptisms that have just come just organically from this church,
and on top of that, our previous years we had people that were, I mean at the very
beginning, just people that weren't maybe part of churches and stuff, got
involved in our church, were ready to get baptized, now we're just reaching people
who are coming to get baptized, people that got saved, people that, you know,
people from your private soul and things like that, so for me it has been still a
massive success, it was 30 last year, we made 34 this year, so again that's been an
increase, so it's a success, we haven't made the hundred, but 34 I'm still very
pleased with, and then goal number three was more personal discipleship, and
we've, I don't have numbers for this, but we have added several this year to our
church that you could probably think of, especially, you know, people that have been
coming on Wednesday nights as well, and other times that are the result of
personal discipleship, and many here have brought people along and brought people
that they've got saved in their personal lives and things as well, and from
both, from both church soul winning and personal soul winning, many of the
baptisms, I was thinking back to some of the baptisms, and not to name names from
behind it, but many have been from personal discipleship of people, and they
don't all hit the ground running as free to thrive, or maybe even regular
services, but they've come and got back ties, that's a great start isn't it,
they're people that hopefully we'll be seeing more of in the future, so we
definitely seem to be going in the right direction with that for sure. Next target
was number four, higher average attendance, okay this is, this is numbers
time okay, so our average in 2023, over 52 Sunday mornings was 51, and Sunday
evenings was 47, and Wednesdays 33. Now just bear in mind we did have, we did
have pastor Roger Jimenez come and preach here, which helped those
numbers a bit with like 120 in those services, and something 90 odd in the
Wednesdays as well. Well we started the year terribly okay, with illness, like I
said we had our lowest turnouts in January, and in the first six months of
2024, our average attendance was just 48 Sunday in the morning, 41 in the evening
and 33 Wednesday evening, however the last six months saw some better health
and the tendencies, and with that the last six months of 56 averaged in the
morning, 46 in the evening, 35 Wednesdays, so it gives us an average over the year
of 52 Sunday mornings, 52 sorry in the Sunday mornings, over 52, and we, over 52
Sunday mornings we had 52 in our Sunday mornings, so that was, it was 51 last
year, so we beat our Sundays. We didn't on the Sunday evenings, 43 in the Sunday
evenings as opposed to 47, but we did on the Wednesday evenings with 34 as
opposed to 33. So two of our services we've beaten our average right, and which
without like I said that 120 around the ordination the previous year is an
overall increase okay, so we've had an increase with our, especially with our
morning services, and like I say that a lot of, a lot of what we've been dealing
with has been illness, because I had a little tally up before, we have about a
hundred church members here that come sort of from, if you looked at a period
from sort of every three months say, you'll have about a hundred people that
will come and regularly and then we'll be coming the next time, the next time,
the next time, but what we don't have is everyone coming at once and there is a
lot of illness, and this isn't, in case you think is it just our church, well I
was talking to a family member the other day and they were just saying they've
never known anything like it, we're looking back when we were young, I'll get
through the school year and maybe have one illness in the whole year, I used to go
through, I remember barely, in fact not just a school year, I went through pretty
much my whole school life missing a couple of days of school for, as a
primary school student for seven years, and now there's just bizarre sicknesses
really regularly and it's, and it seems to be everywhere as well, so just bear
that in mind as well, that there is an issue with that, there is a problem
whatever that comes from, whether it's to do with COVID, whether there's other
reasons, antibiotic issues or whatever else, there is a lot of illness, a lot of
sickness around, but we, again we're still raising on our, on our averages
where we're adding new people to the church and we have done over the last
year, so for me that's been an increase at least on the Sunday mornings,
Wednesday evenings, and number five was our first missions trip to Malawi, that
was one of our goals, we got it organised, we got it done and it was, it ended up
being on, from the 17th, or we left on the 17th at least, the official dates
were Tuesday the 18th of June to Tuesday the 25th of June, and we, we achieved that,
the goal with that was just getting a Broadmoor, we managed to do Holland, we
continued our UK cities tour with Chelmsford, we did Sheffield, and then we
finished a year with Colchester as well in November, so yeah that was great, we
achieved those goals as well, and at number six our goal was schools or youth
groups in the UK and abroad, and however, look, Malawi, yeah we managed to get to
many schools, but there was obvious success there with that, but we had an
interesting result with that here, okay, so it's something we've been trying to
do and look at and, and, and it's hard to get into schools and stuff here, but on
Wednesday evenings the school teams came to us, okay, so anyone who, who has been
doing the high street, especially if we're getting out there a bit earlier,
they were coming to us, so we had that goal for the year, we didn't get into any
schools, but we've had a load of teens from, from a local school just coming
down the high street wanting to hear the gospel, and, and by all accounts here
Mitcham a bit too, if they get out earlier as well, they've been reaching
school kids there as well, when I say school kids, teens, and, and here's a good
thing about places like the high street, we're not really getting grief for
preaching to them, because you're in the middle of a busy high street, on camera,
people everywhere, and they're coming to you, and they're older teens as well, and
they want to hear the gospel, and it's not like when you're in a quiet little
street somewhere and you're trying to preach to some kids and then people
start trying to act like you're a weirdo or something, so it actually has worked
pretty well, we've, I don't know, if I, I can't give you a tally, but there's a lot
of our salvation on Wednesday night have been teenage school kids, and so they, in
a way, we have kind of achieved that goal, which is God showed us a way to do
that, right, and obviously point being that kids are receptive, aren't they, so turn to
Philippians chapter 3, 1st Corinthians 3, 9, Philippians 3, you're turning to, 1st
Corinthians 3, 9 said, for we are labourers together with God, ye are God's
husbandry, ye are God's building, so for me we've, we hit a lot of our targets for
last year, so what labour, what business has God got for this house of God this
year, okay, we're his husbandry, we're his building, Philippians 3 says this in
verse 13, Philippians 3, 13 says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, so Paul said he hasn't seized it all yet,
okay, he's going to reach forward, he's going to press on for the big results, so
goal number one for 2025 is 2,000 Salvations, okay, I'm going big this year,
okay, 2,000 Salvations is our goal for 2025, you say how are we going to add
another 500, well same as we did last time, okay, we're going to get out there
and win some souls, okay, we're going to get out, win some souls, we're going to,
we're going to keep obviously doing marathons, they are going to be
receptive spots and we are going to do some more high street soul winning, so
that's been a real great thing for this year and it started with
Southend and Southend High Street and just see, and again, not everyone has to
do this, okay, you're sitting there going, I can't think of anything worse, you don't have to,
we still want to knock doors, we still believe we should be knocking doors as
well, we're still going to be knocking our local area, but especially with
marathons, I want to find some, I want to, with each marathon, go somewhere we can
get some busy outdoor spots as well because it's been nothing but receptive
for us, just a sheer quantity of people and people are a bit less cagey when
you're preaching to them in the street rather than when you knock on their door
and they're already saying no before you get a chance to say much, so we are going
to be doing more high street soul winning, we've got more times than we did
when we started last year, we've added Mitchum as a soul winning time as well,
but we need everyone to step up, okay, for that, so it's not just, oh it will just
magically come, and like I said, these goals, these goals are more important
than your personal goals in life, okay, this is people's salvation we're talking
about, this is people's eternities, so we need people to step up, now again,
get this right obviously and, you know, we don't try and hammer people and
pressure people and everything else, it's got to be your choice and do what you're
able to do, but we do need people to step up, okay, to soul winning, more silent
partners, okay, we need people to, and again, I'm not talking about people that,
you know, they're people that have had babies or people that are
heavily pregnant, stuff like that, but aside from that, we want to lead by
example to encourage others in this church, don't we, so when you come to a
church like this and it gets to sort of 1.30 and just everyone who's able is
going out soul winning, that encourages other people, doesn't it, and that
encourages people to think, yeah, I want to get involved, this is
what people do, right, when you're hearing of just those numbers turning up
in the midweek and you're hearing, yeah, I go on this day, I go on that day, it
encourages people to want to try and find a way to make a midweek soul winning
time, when the marathons, when there's just lots of people turning up, it
encourages people to not want to be the person, the people that didn't make that
marathon because everyone else is making it, and I'm not saying necessarily just for
carnal reasons, just it encourages you, doesn't it, it inspires you, it provokes
you to do that, so we need to encourage others with that, turn to Acts
chapter 2 by the way, Acts chapter 2, Paul said that I pressed toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we want, we, I just want to
just keep upping, keep upping every year, just keep getting more and more
salvation, and with that it's going to be, it's going to mean that people,
our groups as well, just to keep plugging away, keep going, and with more
salvation should come goal number two, which is more baptisms, okay, more
baptisms, so goal number two for 2025 is 50 baptisms, so I'm looking to get to 50
baptisms, we hit 34 last year, Acts 2 says, then they, verse 41, Acts 2, 41,
then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day they were
added unto them about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in
the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship, and in breaking bread and in prayers, so
we need to encourage those that gladly received the word, and there are people
that you get saved, you know they're just not interested in anything after
salvation, but there are people that really gladly received the word, don't
they, there are people that you get saved and you know, look, they, look, they love,
they, they loved receiving the word, they got lots to talk about, they got lots of
questions and stuff, those people, like, get the number, okay, people like that,
they're not funny about giving you, and again, I'm not talking about like teens
and stuff like that, but the adults and things, get their numbers, get them, try
and get them, try and encourage them, something I need to remember to do often,
you know, it's like, salvation, let's get on for another one, but it's like, spend
that little bit of extra time trying to encourage, trying to get them to come
along and get baptized, and encourage them, you know, try and get the
balance and level right between, you know, obviously don't harass people, but you
know what, it says that those that gladly received the word, then in verse 42,
they're more likely to go on to continue steadfastly, aren't they? If they gladly
receive the word, if we can get them baptized, they're more likely to then be
steadfast in the things of God, and obviously, look, we're just looking for,
to see the right direction with people, so, you know, you've got to be careful
with that, don't be like impatient with new converts or people in your personal
lives and stuff, you get them saved and you just see them doing that bit more
for God, maybe they're starting to turn up to a church service here and there,
they've got baptized, that's, that's showing a good direction, isn't it? And
that's what we're looking for, and that's how they're added to our church,
really, because really, ultimately, they're a member of our church by
baptism, aren't they? So it's baptism that makes someone a member of our church,
so we need to encourage, we need to get those souls baptized, don't we? Okay, and
then they're more likely to go on to continue steadfastly, and in a
doctrine and fellowship and break your bread and in prayers, and to do that, we
need to achieve number three this year, they're all kind of linked to each other,
so turn to 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter chapter 3, goal number three for our
church for 2025 is more welcoming to visitors, okay? I want us to be more
welcoming to visitors. 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter 3 and verse 8 says this,
1 Peter 3 says, finally be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of
another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, and that should go without
saying whether you know that someone is one of us or not, okay? If someone comes
into our church, if they come into the building, the ushers are let them in, so
that means that they, you know, there's no reason for us not to be courteous to
them, okay? Then they should be, we should be courteous to them, we should be
pitiful, we should be courteous to people that come into our church, and this for
me, look, I'm not saying it's bad for that, look, however, I still see it as
sometimes a bit of a problem in our church. I still see people come in and
sometimes I'm looking around, I've seen people hanging around with a tea or coffee,
you have stayed behind after a service, they've got a tea or coffee and they're
just standing there on their own, completely ignored. And, you know, I still
have a whole church to pastor, and often it's me that's having a go and make
small talk and stuff, and that should be the, that's the job for everyone in our
church, okay? And just to get it right with that, okay, of course, look, it's not
welcoming to do the opposite, it's not welcoming to be in someone's face, and
there are people that, and you've got to gauge this, right, because there are people that
don't really want to chat, and some people, they come to a church for the
first time and they would prefer not to, and we don't want to force them either,
right? I kind of don't let, I try and intercept them at the door at least, but
again, I'm not going to force them to stand and have like a 10-minute
conversation with me if they clearly want to go, right? So read that, read the
signals with people, and we don't want to harass people, don't interrogate people,
you don't have to start getting all spiritual, we used to have weirdos here,
it'd be like, you know, asking the first time visitor when they're gonna go
soul-winning and stuff like that, please don't do that, don't ask people if
they're soul-winning, if they're new to our churches, they'll get that in
their own time, okay? And then also just things like simple manners, a smile,
just simple small talk, you know, look around maybe just instead of, and I get
it, you know, and I'm not trying to pick on anyone, but sometimes we can get
absorbed in our own conversations, and just, especially when there's new people,
we notice new people coming into the church, just have a glance around and see
if they're on their own or not, right? And if they are, and if no one's talking to them,
but they seem to want it, because some people come to church because they want
fellowship, some people come to a church, they want to talk to people, they want to
be around other believers, and then if they're just ignored, are they really
gonna want to come back to that church? And then they're gonna end up at the
false church up the road, where the fake smiles are there, and they're just, you
know, they're like, get our claws into this one, you know? So again, we want to
get the balance right with it, but, and just a reminder, unless you're asked to,
okay, please don't preach the gospel to people that are new here, okay?
Unless you're asked to, okay? There's reasons, we sort that out between
myself and the ushers at the back, and there's a few reasons for it, right?
You know, there's some criteria that goes in, okay? Sometimes, you know,
sometimes you don't know if they've already been preached to, for example, you
don't know if they're someone's supposed convert, whether they're saved or not,
you know, who then it's between them to try and check up on them, if they come
to church, great, yeah, that's a good start, they could check the salvation a
bit further down the line, what the situation is, you know, things like,
you know, there are criteria, maybe it might be someone that we think they
might respond well to, that we think, okay, I might ask that person to talk to them,
maybe, maybe it won't be someone who's got families to look after and jobs to
do after the service, you know, that can then be affected by that, so just let us
organize it, yeah, at the back, and please don't just be like, right, new person, so
do you know for sure you're going to heaven one day, it's like, they've just
been asked that, or they've just, they've literally just been preached to outside,
or whatever, you know, just, just let us organize that, we, the ushers generally
find out how they know, you know, how they've come here and everything else, so
we could work out whether, and who's going to preach the gospel to them, okay,
just instead be welcoming, small talk, offer a drink, food, etc, but like I said,
be sensitive to the person who just wants to be on their own, okay, and then
if we're successful with that, if we're friendly, we're, you know, we're
welcoming to people that come to this church, it should help number four, turn
to Psalm 27, Psalm 27, goal number four for 2025 is higher average attendance, I
want to obviously increase our average attendance, so like I said, we averaged
out higher on the Sunday mornings and Wednesday mornings, but I want to get all
of it higher this year, I want the Sunday evenings as well, and of course, look, part
of that is, is subject to what seems to be more and more weird illnesses around,
but what encourages others is the example set, okay, it's a not forsaking but
exhorting, okay, that's what encourages others to be in church, is seeing the
example set by the other people here, so we need our members to be like David in
Psalm 27 and verse 4, in Psalm 27 and 4, David said, one thing have I desired of
the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his
temple, okay, and David's just saying that I want to be there as much as I can, I
want to dwell in the house of God, I want to behold the beauty of the
Lord, I want to inquire in his temple, okay, and you know, look, that's where
it's going on, it's in the house of God, and it benefits us too, it says in verse
5, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of
his tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall set me upon a rock, and now shall mine
head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me, therefore will I offer
in his tabernacle sacrifice of joy, excuse me, I will sing, yea, I will sing
praises unto the Lord, so we come to church for multiple reasons, okay, obeying
God, we receive protection from him though, we get victories, we come to
sacrifice ourselves to him and sing praise, but just being here encourages
others, and that's, you know, I'm not gonna go there, but that's what Hebrews 10
because we've been there many times, Hebrews 10, 24, and 25, that's what it's
really talking about, it's talking about not, it's your, you're discouraging other
people when you're not there, you're discouraging other members of the church
by not being in church, so ultimately it has a negative effect when we're not
there, but it's not just it encourages others, it encourages me as well, you know,
when you, when you look at it, it's like a busy church, and sometimes, you know, when
we're hitting like, you know, when we've been getting like close to 70s and stuff,
and we're like 68, and it's nice and encouraging, like yeah, you know, lots of
people in the house of God, these are people that are gonna hear the word of
God all together, get out there, the spirits amongst us, you know, it's great
hearing the singing when there's lots of people there, it's, it encourages me, and I
need encouragement, you know, and so does everyone else here, you know, we need
the encouragement because it's a hard job that we're doing for the Lord,
because we're not, we're not fun club church, we're not, we're not a social club
church, we're a proper church, and that means that we've got a lot of people
against us, a lot of people that want to discourage us, a lot of ways we're
discouraged, and we need to encourage each other, so, so to get those averages
up, it depends on everyone in our church, doesn't it, to find a way to make a way
to be there, and the end result is more work done and more soul saved, so it's
got to be worth it, right, if there's a way of being in church, God wants you
here, and if, and it's here that you're then sent out, isn't it, and turn to Acts
1 for number 5, Acts chapter 1, goal number 5 for 2025 is another mission
strip, so at least another mission strip, so in Acts 1, okay, before Jesus goes up
into heaven, we see that Great Commission, so Acts 1 and verse 7, Acts 1 verse 7, it
says, and he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons
which the Father has put in his power, look, we don't know when, what's going on, we
don't know when the end is coming, okay, we might have some inkling, some ideas, we
might be like, oh, the pestilence is increasing, okay, but we don't really know
when the end is coming, okay, so what do we do, we get out there and we preach the
gospel, don't we, we just keep going and we keep grafting, we keep working, he said,
but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, okay, and
you know what, if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit, okay, and that, the
Holy Ghost will help you to go into all the world and preach the gospel, because
that is ultimately our goal, isn't it, right, and ye shall be witnesses unto me
both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part
of the earth, and when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was
taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight, God wants the gospel to go
to the uttermost part of the earth, and for me the obvious starting point isn't
North Korea, the obvious starting point to go and preach the gospel
isn't a missions trip to China or, you know, it's not a missions trip to Saudi
Arabia, the obvious place is receptive places, isn't it, that's where we can just
have the greatest effect, now don't get me wrong, it's not to say that the gospel
shouldn't go out to all of the world, but for me where we prioritize, we're going
to prioritize receptive places, right, and I did say last year that we're hoping
to do many more trips to surrounding nations too, we've been to Malawi and of
course we're still a growing church, okay, and one missions trip last year,
within a year of being independent was a great accomplishment, okay, that was a
great thing that I, you know, I didn't expect, right, when I was, you know, when
this was a satellite church and we're looking to become independent, I didn't
think, right, we're going to be suddenly on missions trips, but then, you know, God
opened some doors with that, but this year I definitely 100% want to go to
South Africa, we've got a group there, they're faithfully soul-winning, I feel
like I should have gone really last year, I definitely want to go this year,
and as many people who want to come to that will make it into, like I said, I put
something on a group chat just to get some interest, see how much interest
there is, that I'm going to go anyway, whether I go on my own or not, just
because they, those guys, I want to go out, I want to encourage, I want to try, the
thing with there as well, there are others there too, there are other people
in that area, even in in that sort of northern region of South Africa, who I'm
hoping we can inspire to get involved with the work there as well, so I want to
get like a bigger work going there, and it's a great spot there as well, and it
is close to then other adjoining nations as well, so if we could one day have a
church there, that would be a great logistical spot for a church, for it to
be able to then reach adjoining nations as well, in that northern area of South
Africa, Africa being at least, at least not just southern, but especially many
southern nations of Africa being so receptive to the gospel, being that
obviously when there's less Islam and more Christianity and inverted commas,
it's receptive, and it's very receptive there, but aside from that, if there is
enough interest, then there's enough people that want to go, then returning to
Malawi is also an option this year as well, and again, you know, both really
receptive places, Malawi, you know, we're just going into schools and preaching,
like we said, to anywhere from 30 to 70 teens at once, who were cheering
when I said, you know, we're gonna tell you how you can be sure you're going to
heaven one day, and when we had the whole group together before we split them up
into smaller groups, we had like, whatever, 300, 500 kids just cheering when they're
being told they're gonna hear the gospel, I mean, I remember making a joke before
you went into a school and said that here, you might have tomatoes thrown at
you instead, but they want to hear the gospel, right, and if we can get a
if we can get, if there's enough interest, we'll do another trip there, definitely
gonna do a South Africa trip, so what I put on our group chat is just a complete
ballpark, just so you can just have an idea, but if you want more details, come
and talk to us, talk to, obviously, you know, Huna planned a lot of the Malawi
trip, talk to myself, talk to anyone that went to Malawi, if you want to hear some
experiences, and then same with South Africa, I've been there, Adam's been there,
Huna's been to South Africa, he was in the West, and Kate went before, and we've
obviously been soul winning, Jack was out there, we've done some soul
winning in South Africa already, and we can tell you about that as well, so
if you want to hear, because, like, people have their own ideas, don't they, like,
South Africa, isn't everyone just getting held up at gunpoint, because I saw some
YouTube videos, you know, Malawi, you know, it's like, are you gonna be forced to eat
mice on the side of the road or something, you won't be forced, okay, there is an option there,
when in Rome, yeah, but look, we, you know, they're the doors that we're, you know,
we see open right now, so just let me know if you want to go, let me know
if it's realistic, okay, and if it's like, not really, just go, well, I don't know how
realistic it is, I'd like to, but I don't know if I can afford it, just be honest, and if I
have enough interest, I think, okay, there's enough people to make this trip
worthwhile, doing planning and organising, putting the money into it, it's on, yeah,
okay, so definitely we want to get aboard again this year, and what we need then, we
need people who are willing and able to get aboard to the uttermost part of the
earth, don't we, people that are willing and able and will make it happen, right,
like I said, if the Holy Ghost wants to go there, it's like, he's craving to go there,
he's in you, just going, just, just get there, and there are ways, there are ways
you can do it, I know it's not for everyone, I know there's family reasons, other things
that might make it difficult, but hopefully we have enough people to make
it worthwhile, and then with going places like South Africa and Malawi, it helps us
fulfil our sixth goal, turn to Luke 18, Luke 18 for goal number six, which is for
2025 to reach more youth, okay, I want to reach the youth more, and that's not just
abroad here as well, verse 15 said, and they brought unto him, verse 15 of Luke
18, Luke 18, 15 says, and they brought unto him also infants that he would
touch them, but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them, but Jesus called them
unto him and said, suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive
the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein. Let me
tell you who the most likely to receive the kingdom of God as a little child is,
is children, okay, children, and, and they're more likely to receive it as
children, and we've seen ways of reaching at least a teenage kids here by being in
public places at earlier times, so there is that option, there's that option to be
out preaching the gospel, being out in public places where it seems to just be
a lot easier to do that, doesn't it? You're lit up in a high street, you don't
have the people that want to find something to attack you for preaching the
gospel, they don't really have that excuse now because you're just standing
in a high street, especially, and here's another thing that also it needs for
that, it needs for that, it needs people to make the soul winning times, they also
need some of the kids to get involved as well, you know, and when kids are out it
just makes you more confident, you know, sometimes it when I'm out and I've got
my kids and we're in the high street and someone's preaching to maybe a couple of
teens, especially like they're preaching to a couple of teen girls or something,
I just send one of my kids over to go and stand with them as well, just
because it just, it just looks better and you're less likely to get grief, we
haven't really got grief for it. Apparently the school claiming that
we're teaching something else is because there's like a Catholic school that
occur, you know, obviously not happy that we're getting their kids saved there, but
we're gonna keep preaching to kids, trying to get them saved and, you know, if
we can't get into the schools, well they'll come to us but we need to make
those soul winning times, and it needs people to make them with that as well, a
missions trip, okay, because the missions trips, the more the merrier, there's a
lot, the schools are easy to get into in Malawi, they're easy to get into in
South Africa, people come, we'll get into school, we'll just go to more schools, go
to more classes, so again it's down to individuals, right, so these are our
church goals, just to remind you, number one, two thousand salvation's this year,
number two, fifty baptisms this year, number three, more welcoming to visitors
this year, number four, higher average attendance, number five, another missions
trip at least, and number six, to reach more youth, so those goals, like I said,
they've got to come above our personal goals this year, don't they? They're
important than your personal, they're important, more important than any of my
personal goals, and anyone else's personal goals this year, is the church's
goals, why? Well first Corinthians 3 9 said, for we're laborers together with
God, you're God's husbandry, you're God's building, but maybe some of you have some
personal goals that will help you along the way, okay, and there's nothing wrong
with personal goals, but do you know what the best personal goals are? Ones that will help
those goals, those things for God, the obvious ones are Bible reading, aren't
they? Bible reading, and maybe you've never read the Bible through, read
it through this year, maybe you read it through once a year, why don't you try
reading it through twice a year and make it half hour a day you read it? Maybe, you
know, maybe it's Bible memory, maybe it's prayer time, maybe you need
to set some goals, some New Year's targets for prayer time and
actually setting aside time for prayer and getting more regular prayer in,
maybe it's church attendance, maybe it's soul winning, maybe it's tithes and
offerings, all these things, all of it will help towards our
goals as a church, won't it? Every single one of those things will, but so will
maybe less obvious things, so maybe being healthier, you know, do you know that
maybe being healthier will help towards our goals as a church? Maybe you're less
likely to get as ill, maybe you're less likely to miss services, less likely to
miss soul winning, maybe you're more likely to be able to do more, more likely
to be able to make a mission strip, things like that, maybe more likely to
serve in the long run as well if you're healthier, cutting out some bad habits
that pull you out of the things of God, that make you do less for God, getting up
earlier in the morning to get more done in the day, to be able to get more done,
to be able to get your Bible reading in, undistracted, your prayer time, everything
else, maybe you've got some parenting goals, some parenting goals which means
that we're more likely to end up with kids in the church, you know, doing things
and serving God in the future, maybe you've got some goals as a spouse for a
happier marriage, for a happier home life, and again which the knock-on effect is
you're able to do more for God together. Whatever it is, whatever your goals are,
just don't forget that your most important goals have to be therefore to
labour with God in 2025 because that's our job, isn't it? You're saved, you've got a
job to do, you're given a job the second you got saved. The first night said,
we are labourers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
I hope that you think about that for this year to come and on that we're
going to finish in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for this
church, thank you for the great labourers we have here Lord, thank you for all
those people that are maybe, you know, growing into labourers here as well Lord,
thank you for all the new people you've blessed us with over the last year Lord,
thank you for the blessings, thank you for working with us, thank you for helping
us to achieve what we have Lord, we know that we couldn't do anything without you.
We thank you for that Lord, we thank you for all the achievements we got this
last year, it's an honour to get those achievements, to get those, get that work
done for you, but help us to do more now this year Lord, help us to reach forward
to those goals that are in front of us Lord, help us to have a great 2025, help
everyone here to really prioritise the work that you have for us here, to not
just think of church as, you know, a sort of tick box thing that you just go to
and that's it, but to think of church as the place where we come to serve you,
we come to work with you Lord, to ultimately get more people saved as the
end result, help us to understand that many things go into that Lord, to
appreciate all the other jobs and tasks and roles and things that go into that
end result Lord, help us to all work hard at that this year and help us Lord to
have a great year, help everyone here to have a great year as well Lord, and to
just have a year where they feel fulfilled and feel like they're
you know, doing what they're meant to do in life Lord, and that's with you at
the centre of their year and help us all get home safe for some today and just
stay in front of this, Amen.