Okay, so I'd like to just look at just see a few verses in the middle of Colossians chapter
one there from verse nine.
So Colossians one and verse nine reads for this cause we also since the day we heard
it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God
strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long
suffering with joyfulness giving thanks unto the father which has made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light who have delivered us from the power of darkness
that has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.
Paul said that their prayer and desire is that in verse 11 that they might be strengthened
with all might and the title of my sermon this morning is strengthened with all might
in Wickford strengthened with all might in Wickford I'd like to pray before we continue
father thank you for well for this last year Lord in Wickford this building that you blessed
us with and you know everything we've learned in this last year please please help me now
to just preach this message that I believe you've laid on my heart and a message which
hopefully will be an encouragement and and just just just in a way that everyone will
just really understand it and really be able to apply it and really take something from
it Lord please swim with your spirit help me to just be clear help my throat to last
this hour as well everyone to understand what I'm saying in Jesus name pray all this amen
okay so this is our last Sunday in Wickford isn't it and funny enough it is actually exactly
the year since we moved here as well I don't know if anyone's aware of that our first service
was on Sunday July the 17th 2022 and next week we'll be back in Southend where we started
out at the beginning of 2021. Now in case you're thinking well make your mind up brother
Ian you know you know have you decided yet where you want this church to be I don't really
have a much of a say with any of this I know many are aware of this but in case you're
not we were given a free use of a building in Southend during Covid and it was you know
I I didn't understand at the time and I do know how hard it is to get somewhere to use
for a church especially a new church having not sort of just inherited a building you
know something else or being helped out by the old baptist union sort of mafia in that
in the meantime since we got given the use of this building I spent over a year searching
for something more permanent and when I say searching I really did at some point it went
on for a long time I had some protracted negotiations for one place which just went on for months
and months and months it just it was no real explanation why they just weren't getting
back and everything else we we eventually were then given the option to take the downstairs
and if you remember that that was a busy busy sort of spring summer because we we were told
oh you know we can take the downstairs we just got to move like I don't know what it
was about a thousand mirrors out of there so we kind of got all the church involved
kind of it was a lot of money or at least a lot of labour and money as well converting
the downstairs where we were with this verbal agreement that we'd be able to stay there
for at least a year so we thought okay looks like we're going to make it into our sort
of uh home now in in Southend and then suddenly we were given three weeks to get out and uh
that was a bit of a bit of an unfortunate one and and bearing in mind I'd be looking
for church for a long time so I was thinking how on earth am I going to find us a home
in three weeks having not found somewhere for sort of the best part of 18 months and
then suddenly this building was available and not only available but the the agent said
oh well you never believe it in fact um everything they have everything in house there the solicitors
everything in house they'll get you the key within a week or two if you if you want it
and that was unheard of let alone the fact the landlord was also happy for us to apply
for change of use for church use which again is pretty unheard of most of them aren't at
all interested in it for a few different reasons let alone trying to find somewhere that already
had it so so we we um we moved in here applied for planning and quite I mean right at the
beginning fairly early on I was told and you again this is one of those things like they
I mean the landlord and the agent they didn't they didn't know no one can know this that
once you applied it turned out no actually the council called this an employment zone
which means they don't want any businesses which isn't going to maximize employment in the area
you've got no chance of it becoming a church thought great and that was after a sort of
900 pound 30 minute zoom meeting with some planning shark from the council so um I thought
well I'll make the application anyway it's going to buy us some time and I'm in my mind was if I
could get a year out of here all the time and money and effort we put in to make it into a church
at least you know I won't feel quite so kind of disappointing well it got rejected and I could
have appealed but all it would have done was bought us sort of eight months I thought in the
meantime I'll have a look around and then suddenly we find this place in in south end and like I said
trying to find a place which has church use is really hard one of the things which has been
going on is there's these sort of um well a lot of it is like these pentecostal churches just to
just take you up anything which can be used for church and then rehiring it out on sort of the
amount we probably pay per month here to be able to share it with 10 other wicked churches and you
get like an hour on a sunday in between their services and you get one special a month I don't
even know what a special is and uh all of this stuff so I'm just kind of thinking you know how
on earth am I going to find someone then we just found this place which basically has been used for
music lessons historically for 20 years plus which even though it doesn't have the use class
change it legally it will be able to get what's called a certificate of lawfulness if anyone ever
challenges us because it's had exactly the same it's been used for the same as a church use for
d1 use which is kind of planning jargon for like religious use for 20 years but the pentecostals
didn't know that so we managed to get in there first and uh and we have a great building which
in a great location in front of a I mean there's going to be a lot of people around there it's
brilliant so for me god wants us in south then but aside from this building here being used as
a useful stop gap okay it's been a great stop gap for you I believe that this past year has been
essential I really do and I was thinking about this a lot and I believe there's been some a lot
that we've learned in this past year it's been essential before we march back in the south end
and we are much back in the south end now with a big sign written church because we couldn't do
that the previous building which by the way didn't have the use glass either and it was only ever
meant to be temporary even after we took the downstairs I was trying to persuade them to go
for a change of use so we could light it up and make a big point of us being there we're never
able to do that but we're about to march back with a big sign on the front of our big church building
in the middle of a very busy road with a lot of people going past there it's one of the the roads
into south end from you know from coming in from lee and and beyond in the middle of a busy street
surrounded by various enemies of god okay but also surrounded by reception people that want
to hear the gospel as well okay it's been essential because I believe we've been
strengthened with all might in wickford I do think that look down at colossians one way where
paul is right to this church in colossi and he said in verse three we give thanks to god and
the father of our lord jesus christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith
in christ jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints for the hope which is laid up for
you in heaven where of ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel which is come unto you
as it is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard it
in you the grace of god in truth as you also learned of epaphras our dear fellow servant who
is for you a faithful minister of christ paphras is one of the colossians who was with paul in rome
when he wrote this it says in verse eight who also declared unto us your love in the spirit
he then said for this cause we also so the cause being that they're known for being full of the
spirit and love verse four said of their love to all the saints they're known to be a church full
of love right he said for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you
and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding now that that cause that being full of love is something that we want to be known for
too don't we okay and for example as we receive visitors during our events in the summer we want
to be shown to be a welcoming hospitable loving church have love for those brethren that are going
to be coming to visit us have love for those that come into our church he said in verse nine for
this cause wheels for since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that
you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding
that you might walk worthy of the lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of god strengthened with all might according to his glorious power
unto patience so unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness so part of their
prayer and desire that is that the colossians would be strengthened with all might includes
verse nine's being filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding
so it all goes hand in hand the title is strengthened with almighty wickford
and i believe we've been strengthened with almighty wickford and number one
point number one here is by becoming more spiritually wise okay i believe that we have
become much wiser we've become more spiritually wise in this last year in wickford as a group as
a church when we moved into wickford okay aside from the nigh off devils that we'd kind of dealt
with back in south then we hadn't had to do much kicking out yet okay we hadn't really had to do
actual clear kick out we'd had some people just suddenly turn and rail and stuff and
and kind of leave whilst being officially kicked out at the same time yeah well it only took two
weeks for that to drastically change here so we moved in here and it was two weeks later that we
then kicked out what ended up being i mean about third of the church got kicked out and it was over
20 people if you include families as well which went obviously went with them and then we had
several more of their confederates leaving soon after as well okay so it was a big group okay it
was a big group that were kicked out and i think it's kind of funny to think now that at the time
many people were pretty shocked okay and i'm not this isn't to knock anyone here because
okay i think since then we've all kind of kind of you know got a bit wiser haven't we but at
the beginning many people were shocked having either been desensitized over time i think you
know just kind of getting used to these people being such a big part of our church weren't they
they were so kind of larger than life a lot of them as well in your face they were kind of
a core part of our church and and maybe others were were you know saw the best in them and maybe
just wanted to think well you know i don't want to think badly then you know there are many reasons
why people were maybe a bit shocked but and then after they were kicked out obviously after that
and i think that was a great thing that happened is when you know and i just think the lord kind
of put it on me to just go look if anyone's got any info please come forward and suddenly
i mean that people were coming forward with all sorts of stuff you know all sorts of one witness
account stuff which just it was it was like wow you know funny i had a lot of this earlier but
it was it was so clear what they were their divisive covetous dishonest bullying behavior
all this sort of stuff was brought to me and now what do we all do most of us here we just chuckle
when we think about the gang don't we now previously people were a bit shocked now it's
like how on earth was anyone ever duped by them but why is that because we've all grown haven't
we in that time so it's not to knock anyone because at the end of the day for most people
here this sort of church it's a new thing to them a real church a church where the devil's sending
in people masquerading as christians to try and deceive us i mean that's new isn't it and you know
obviously at the time you know it was frustrating sometimes but really since then so many people
have learned and now we all just have a laugh going to remember you know we have a laugh about
the sort of five five salvations you know this sort of stuff which should have just been a
like everyone should have just been like wow now someone walks in and starts doing that you're just
going to be like okay slowly drift away you know whereas at the time a lot of that stuff was new
wasn't it you know so we've we've obviously grown much wiser in the time and that's why
now i'll always i'll never stop preaching about these guys you're like man you've got to let it
let it go no these guys have just been such a great learning curve for us haven't they
and so many people now so much of that weird stuff so much of the covetous stuff the trading in
church stuff they're trying to pull people into their little you know new ideas of all that stuff
we've become much wiser too haven't we we've wised up it was pretty sobering to think that
people that have been members of our church since the beginning right since before we're even a
church would just stand up and lie through their teeth that was it was like what on earth you know
and i'm sure when it was going on people were thinking right there must be there must be some
truth to this and everything else and and praise god that had a recording because it's it was hard
to get your head around wasn't it and with it for me people will be less shocked as and when the
various other attacks come and the truth is they're not going to come like that they're not
going to come as bold and as just clear and heady and high-minded as most of those clowns
were okay that the reality of it is it won't be as obvious as that in the future however we've
definitely wisened up with that haven't we and we've understood that it does come it will come
it will come regularly they won't all be so obvious however we understand it a lot more now
don't we people here have got through that got through that without getting pulled out as well
some people got pulled out some people some people maybe not necessarily all bad people right
some people just kind of were a bit shaken up a bit confused a bit just but they were so nice you
know they used to have me sleep having a sleepover every week you know like how could these people be
bad and everything else so it was hard for them but for many they've just wisen up and gone okay
i understand it now we've become much more spiritually wise as a group here and then with
that as well it's just given us such real preaching then to be able to encourage those
that maybe weren't here at the time come in and just understand all of that with real life
examples of of those tactics right the way that that works so we've definitely for me become
more spiritually wise in our year here in wickford with them and sadly they'll be you
know we're going to have more to come verse nine said for this cause we also since the day we
heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of
the lord unto all pleasing and tidally strengthened with all might and wickford and number one by
becoming more spiritually wise number two by becoming more pleasing to god by becoming more
pleasing to god i believe that had we got this or a similar building with a big sign without amount
of foot traffic without ease of access okay to get to for people we would have probably put off many
new believers i do believe that i think as a church and i'm not just talking about not just
the jokers that we had here okay and yeah there was like ridiculous stuff when we were in south
then i remember we we often talk about it when these two kids have just got saved come to church
literally just after getting saved they're like 15 years old come into the church service and at
the end of the church service what do you think's a good idea to do they just be normal and nice
and suddenly we've got like while they're in the church service doreen leaning over them
turning their bible pages well it's like just let them listen you know they're not going to get
there with you turning each bible page long after the bible verse has been called out and then
afterwards he's like right now you need to go and preach the gospel to your family you need to
preach it to everyone you know and everything else this kid's just got to say what you're doing
you know and obviously that that was you know that that was ridiculous but plenty of other behavior
some of which was due to the negative influences but but some was was i believe just having many
people new to our sort of church many everyone here is new to this sort of church okay we've
i believe that this church we've worked on the holier than thou stuff haven't we
i think we've worked i think some people could probably look back go yeah i was probably a bit
guilty of some of that for like i said some of it might have been rubbed off by some of
these clowns before some of it just because you're getting used to church life right
the extra biblical standards you know and and there was that a lot of people have kind of
had issues with that before where they're kind of you know setting up this extra biblical standard
of something which isn't about you know isn't clearly from the bible just being welcoming
without being too intense stuff that we've we're hopefully been learning over the last year right
and to kind of welcome people without being in their face about everything and
learning which people need maybe a bit more friendliness which people need a bit more space
all comes isn't it from experience we've become more familiar with with hymns here i think as
well i mean when i look back to kind of you know not just the kids shouting for fun to ruin it
kids are people that weren't very nice people but but also just you know just just um just for
people just learning hymns because before it did sound sometimes a bit like strangled cats
you know people didn't really know what they were singing or it was like so quiet all you
could hear was a song leader singing and stuff whereas people are learning hymns more now the
singing for me sounds much better and that's in a place where the kind of sound dissipates here as
well wait till we're in our new new uh up up market acoustic room in south end oh yeah but
once all that glues off the walls anyway because i don't know if it's gonna stick to that
no it's gonna sound different but confident singing as well so it's not just that people
know the hymns now people are singing confidently they're getting used to because a lot of people
look singing in public isn't really that that kind of common for them unless they've been hanging
around down the old football terraces or something most people don't usually belt out music with other
people around whereas people are getting more confident more used to that etc and and then
we've also we've although not today being unwell but we've added the picked guitar to the piano
which has been a great great addition hasn't it to have that which sounds like a harp really doesn't
it you know and um you know and we've been adding to things so we're for me we're becoming more
pleasing to god i would say as a church as well it does feel like there's less ego now again once
because it wasn't just kicking them out it's then just slowly undoing all because there's so much
bad influence wasn't there so much of the weird parenting stuff so much of just the weird behavior
to just slowly start to create a new what basically a new uh what would you call it a
new culture in the church which there was just this dominant force wasn't there trying to
and not just just subtly trying to influence just out there trying to influence everyone
make everyone do what they did make everyone parent how they did make everyone act like they
did make everyone do and we've slowly started to create a normal culture in our church which has
made for me has made us more pleasing to god isn't it and there is less ego there's more unity i see
in the church more love in the church people look it's not that everyone has to be best buddies but
people just it's just a warm a much more warmness there without that kind of awkwardness without
that kind of where you just got you know kind of half the church's devils type of feeling you know
when you get that sort of feeling well the church is a devil it could be a bit rough can't it look
look down at verse nine again it says for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not
cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of the lord unto all pleasing
then said being fruitful in every good work the title is strengthened with almighty wickford
number one by becoming more spiritually wise number two by becoming more pleasing to god
number three by becoming more fruitful and in case you're thinking hold on brother didn't we
have near a thousand salvations in the first year in south end how have we become more fruitful
well once you factor in the kind of early holly who kind of then kind of changed halfway through
enduring's dodgy soul winning that number would have to be greatly reduced now i'd just like to
think well hopefully it's kind of been offset by salvations behind the scenes as well though
but you would have to reduce it but regardless of any of that since moving to wickford our
church has still had 653 salvations okay so in that year we've been here our church has had 653
salvations and of which many of those were in a less receptive area as well okay no one can doubt
that that wickford itself as a town is nowhere near as receptive as south end we've had 88
baptisms too in that time now there are other good works that we've added in the past year
i'm going to look at 63 of those 88 baptisms were actually in poland but right after moving here
i went out to poland and and we we basically had a big hand in preparing the the ground for a new
church there and that is a good work that our church has been and it will hopefully help them
in the future as well we want to be a support to them we know it's not easy to suddenly just
plant a church in in europe you know and and this is going to be mainland europe as well and it's
going to be probably a bit different here um but there's going to be a new church in poland and
that's still looking like the end of the year that's exciting stuff for me um and look we we
had we had a hand in getting them prepared they're getting them baptized still some of these guys are
coming here to get baptized and hopefully that's going to hit the ground running there we we now
have here which we didn't have before four soul winning times and we've continued with monthly
marathons in fact this uh Saturday with the first marathon month monthly marathon i think that we've
missed i think since since uh this church kind of started okay so we've been doing that all the way
through um four soul winning times as well tuesday wednesday thursdays and sundays we had a marathon
out in belfast with 15 salvations and four baptisms we've added a care home ministry as well
okay and i know look some people might think well you know you're just preaching to these elderly
each time look they're still going to be making a difference people are hearing the word of god
there those carers are hearing the word of god there hopefully some of those elderly are and
will get saved and look it's not only that it's funny because when when i tried to um when i tried
to find a care home that would actually have us come in and preach the only one that responded
was basically directly the same distance from here as it is from south end as well in railey
so when we go to south end we're going to have exactly the same drive to this care home as well
it's like about a 15 minute drive if that from south end so we found somewhere there
we've added this care home ministry we've added a new southwest soul winning group in exeter
which has been great for the guys down there they're regularly soul winning um and which
culminated with eventually i think that they're some wicked church they're out kind of exposing
its wickedness um so that's been great these guys are so many a lot adding a lot of salvations
already uh we we had a south africa trip with 83 salvations and a new soul winning group out there
okay so again and this is all been whilst we've been here this year and and i was thinking about
this as well and thinking would we maybe have done all of that because maybe in south end it
would have been a bit different we've things got obviously a bit quieter we don't have the foot
traffic the visitors maybe not as big as services here and and we've started adding all these other
things which we're not going to suddenly stop now are we going to continue these ministries
we're getting busier and busier and busier we're hoping that maybe we'll have a trip out to kind of
out to south africa or or a neighboring country at some point in the future try and work with those
guys hopefully that's going to work as well we're going back to south end much busier with more
ministries more good works and we're going back more fruitful aren't we we're going back more
fruitful and we will be going back with more productive soul winning as well so over this year
we've basically fortunately not only got rid of a load of wicked people who had some wicked soul
winning practices but hopefully without that being the kind of the the the again the culture here
people have kind of hopefully sharpened up their soul winning away from that sort of nonsense
so instead of it being a sort of hey look at me and look at my great analogies sort of show
you know people are just like right i want to preach the word of god and get these people
say instead of it being how many numbers can i come back with you know because or feeling
insecure because i'm not coming back with 10 salvations you know because i didn't get 10
kids in the park to agree with me or something else instead it's it's you know people here
actually learning how to solve improperly instead of saying a verse to someone and then preaching
the gospel before you take another breath and they get a chance to say yeah but i did so i
didn't want to hear and then they just get to the point you're like okay you ready to pray
people hopefully aren't doing that here right and instead of all that weird crazy stuff instead of
going around in circles for an hour about your catholic background and then telling them that
you know telling your soul winning part of the ephesians 2 8 and 9 are overused
instead of any of that people are like no actually you know i'm going there to preach the gospel right
not to try and be something new and something you know something everyone's gonna go wow about
i'm just gonna preach gospel like people have preached gospel for years right get get preached
some clear verses from the bible which show how clear it is salvation and get these people saved
yeah and and i think we're going to be going back with more of that having kind of spent the year
hopefully ridding ourselves of a lot of that rubbish look back down at colossians one and
verse nine he said for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you
and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding that you might walk worthy of the lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every
good work and increasing in the knowledge of god so the title is strengthened with all might in
wickford number one is by becoming more spiritually wise number two by becoming more pleasing to god
number three by becoming more fruitful and number four by becoming more knowledgeable
by becoming more knowledgeable he said and increasing in the knowledge of god we're going
back to south end over 150 live sermons later and when i say 150 live sermons later you go look we've
been listening to sermons for ages brother look i'll tell you what yeah it's a lot different being
in a room when you're getting preached isn't it it's a hell of a lot different being there with
the bible being in a room than having it on youtube where you may be scanning other things
you know in the background or when you're when you're pausing for this and that when half of it
you can just go i didn't even apply to me because i don't even go to that church it's a lot different
when you're in the room isn't it 150 live sermons in fact probably about 60 or so individual 10
minute sermons as well because we probably had about 10 men's preaching nights during that time
as well and maybe you take out maybe 10 of those hour sermons and change it for 60 or so 10 minute
sermons in that time as well and again there's a lot to have been there's a lot that has been
learned in that time isn't there there's a lot of knowledge that's come out of those men here and
those sermons in those men that have reached the hour sermons here there's a lot that's come out
from the bible from the word of god in that and with that in mind nearly 150 live bible chapters
later as later as well and for many of you here sadly that's probably the only bible reading you
ever do so you know at least at least three three times a week three sermons a week you've sat here
and read along while someone's read the bible to you and you know what the word of god makes
a difference so even if it wasn't preached just listening to that bible read three chapters a week
makes a difference doesn't it it makes a difference
three times a week for 52 weeks the holy spirit has taught everyone here from the word of god
okay don't ever look don't ever like like miss that right look there are some great preachers
out there there's some great stuff you can listen to online you could get all the knowledge you
wanted right without ever turning up to church but there's a big difference when you're in church
and the holy spirit is teaching what you need to hear it's teaching stuff that you can apply
to your life that you will apply hopefully to your life because the holy spirit is hopefully
filling that preacher and preaching and putting things on his heart and on his mind that's going
to make a difference to you i've lost count the amount of times people have said to me
man i need it did i tell you that i've just been thinking about it did i tell you i've just been
talking about that or people go you seem to be preaching at me every week i'm like really not
i'm really not i'm just preaching what i feel to preach that week you know i pray to god and go
you know what message you want me to preach i'm going to the bible i'm going through a bible study
and and that is hitting people in this room every time okay and look there's a big difference
between that and listening to online preaching there really is do you think that the holy spirit
is directing that online preacher ten thousand miles away for a sermon for some guy that can't
even get up get up off his lazy backside and get into church as opposed to the half of many
people they got in their church it's not now don't get me wrong you still learn some good stuff you
learn some good doctrine you can still get convicted many of us have been convicted by
things we've heard online however when you're turning up in church the holy spirit's got a
message for you he's got a message for you and and many of us here including myself have learned
a lot from that okay look those 52 weeks of preaching in the last year i myself i don't
know about you lot hopefully you'll learn something but i've learned loads i've learned
the whole studying out for so anyone here that's written sermons knows that when you study out for
sermons you're learning a lot right yes you're in there you're in it there's a purpose of you
of your study as well it's not just so i can get a bit more knowledgeable you're studying it out
to preach to the church you're going to learn from that as well when we moved we'd only just
started midweek services if you remember because it was always temporary there because we're always
traveling because we kind of think we're probably going to move the church and we didn't really have
full use of that building we never had a midweek service so we added wednesday services for about
two months just before we moved and in that time since then we've gone through the the rest of the
majority of matthew's gospel and i tell you what i've learned a hell of a lot of studying matthews
matthew's gospel out for myself to preach it we've learned a lot from that we've gone through
nearly a third of genesis so far as well i'll be learning a lot myself just studying out genesis
to preach to the church as well we've um we finished jonah in the evenings we we did a series
on sins that get you kicked out of church i hope everyone here has learned a lot more about that
stuff which for many is just new to many people they're not used to a church which which actually
follows biblical standards which doesn't just kind of go well yeah i mean we kick people out
if like you know they don't agree with us on the pre-trib rapture or like you know those weird guys
with the curly sideburns being on special people but you know we don't care about fornicators
drunkards and stuff no well it's different here isn't it okay and we we did a full series on that
which i learned a lot for i hope everyone else did too biblical parenting as well
as much as you know probably most parents in here hate whoever preaches about parenting
the truth is there's a lot of good biblical stuff in there isn't there and people need to hear that
stuff that the whole armour of god for me it was you know i really enjoyed going through that for
just the series on on dealing with that spiritual warfare and how to how to defend against it
esra for building a new church you know i learned a lot going through the book of esra and what a
great kind of so many lessons for us here and and a ton of topical type sermons as well 50 on
topical type sermons like i said from some of the other men here as well so much stuff for
that every single person here i hope has learned over that last year to go back to
to south end with most of also aside from the preacher aside from the bible reading
most here have added another 50 weeks soul winning experience as well everyone hopefully here has
been soul winning for for you know at least most probably have for for those 50 odd weeks that
we've been here and you know what in in unreceptive wickford if you've done either
wednesday nights or we've kind of been in and out of wickford along with basildon on a on a
on a sunday as well you've probably learned quite a lot about just getting the conversation started
probably sharpened up your abilities to even just get someone to hear part of the gospel
or to hear some verses it is a constant learning curve soul winning isn't it so we're going back
after a year of learning more a year of being in a more unreceptive area we've learned from that
and that and then and then that's without just what you've learned hopefully everyone here just
another year living the christian life another year serving god the trials the tribulations
another year of bible reading i hope another year of a prayer life and watching prayers answered and
and and learning you know how and when and why on and you know you pray more and when you don't
pray as much as you should and everything else everyone hopefully has just been learning over
this past year another year of knowledge of your spouse how about that for the married people here
just another year of knowing knowing your spouse more knowing your kids more knowing your fellow
church members more we've we've had a year of just strengthening strengthening strengthening
and a year here in more knowledge in many many different ways and look we're going back there
stronger right we're going back to south there much stronger than when we left there when we
left there we look let's be honest when you look back and just think wow i mean even some of us
you know compared with hopefully how we are now you know not quite as bad as those other clowns
but you know we didn't have the might and the strength that we're going to be going back with
right we're a different kettle of fish now in south end verse 9 said for this cause we also
since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy
of the lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
of god strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and
long-suffering joyfulness the title is strength with all might and wit for number one by becoming
more spiritually wise number two by becoming more pleasing to god number three by becoming
more fruitful number four by becoming more knowledgeable at number five by becoming more
patient by becoming more patient perhaps some of you were coming to the industrial estate here
looking at the view opposite the church and hoping for better things maybe you know maybe i don't
know perhaps some have been struggling with those public transport trips especially in the winter
you know where it just doesn't seem to stop that close does it you know even the bus is still a bit
of a way and the train is a long way right and trying to time it with a mini bus run or if not
you know when it's chucking it down with rain etc or worse perhaps some have been longing for easier
lunch options here you know for those that don't drive it's a bit of a pain isn't it you're kind
of on like a half hour round trip to just go and get a sandwich from a dodgy tesco's or something
else yeah maybe some have been longing for more passers-by who would have potentially actually
visit the church because we were we remember those heady days of south end even when it wasn't
obviously we were a church and people were still just wandering in weren't they for more receptive
local area soul winning you know maybe some have just been thinking i don't mind that kind of local
area stuff but it's a bit grim isn't it i'm for one you know i've been finding some of that
wednesday evening stuff quite hard going maybe some have found the winter nights and early
mornings in this church building a little bit nippy you know unless you could get under that
heater there it could be a little bit grim in the church couldn't it but get you awake at least
sometimes the summer days a little bit sweaty unless you've stood up on this pulpit okay way
away from the fan the window path and you you got nothing on me all right okay maybe that but
hopefully you will have learned patience and long suffering in that time and and you know learn that
god provides for his children okay he does provide and the new home is going to be great okay the new
home is going to be a big step up it is a big improvement okay and you know praise god that
we've just got zealous people that have been coming here and and just say yeah so what really
you know at the end of the day we make the church don't we you know and if it's been a bit hot in the
summer with this kind of thin roof just getting you know heated up like like an oven it's been
a bit cold in the winter it doesn't matter because we've been coming here for the word of god haven't
we however we've also learned patience with that and god is providing us now a much better building
and and part of the strength that god gives us his patience along suffering so it does there is
a strength of character in that it does show strength being patient okay you got it like
patience is actually it's a big virtue isn't it it's something that we want and something that god
can train us and teach us to have it's a strength of character and it's also a strength of faith
isn't it so when you're patient it shows strength in your faith patient that god will come through
patient that god's going to provide patient that god's going to do something i'm kind of half
joking with the little minor gripes about this you know about the building we've been given it
was a blessing anyway it's a blessing to have this building it's a blessing to be somewhere where we
could straight like i said i do i honestly believe that we would be better off to be off the beaten
track and to strengthen up and become basically more normal to become more like how a church
should be a church which is then going to go back to south end having trained up and become what i
think more pleasing to god and be able to go back there and we're gonna we it's going to get busy
i've got no doubt about that okay where we are there's going to be a lot of people coming in
and out and there's going to be there's going to be weirdos coming out but there's going to be
some good people coming in and out as well at the end of the day we're moving back to a city it is a
city by the way and and a city and in a busy part of a city a busy part of a city where there's
still parking and a place where we're going to have a lot of people coming in and out and we've
i believe god's prepared us for that in that last year and i bet it's probably been better that we
haven't had a lot of people in and out here in that time while we work on just becoming more
like a church should be right and less like how we were some of that was the negative influences
some of it was just because no one really had that much experience of a proper church right
and but we have learned patience and when you experience god come through it should then
increase your ability to be patient and long-suffering shouldn't it and i don't just mean
with the church move but that's taught me a lot as well because i've been lucky i've been kind of
you know going through this for a long time and in the end it's okay well you know praise god he's
provided this but if that's where he wants us that's where he wants us but then with things
that work out with this eventually he had for us somewhere you know somewhere much better than i
could have really hoped for you know and where we're moving is going to be great once we finish
the work there um and hopefully everyone here as well is just will just has grown in patience grown
um in this in this year as well look at verse 9 again we're nearly done it says for this cause
we also since the day we heard it not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be
filled with the knowledge of his will and wisdom and spiritual understanding you might walk worthy
of the lord unto all pleasing and being fruitful in every good work and increasing the knowledge of
god strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience along suffering
with joyfulness the title is strength with almighty witford number one by becoming more
spiritually wise number two by by becoming more pleasing to god number three by becoming more
fruitful number four by becoming more knowledgeable number five by becoming more patient and number
six by becoming more joyful by becoming more joyful god's given us a temporary home against
the odds okay that's what he gave us he gave us a temporary home at two weeks notice he strengthened
us in all of these ways and has now provided us with a great building in a great location
let's go there with some joyfulness yeah i know for some they might be like oh yeah but it's a
bit extra it's another like 10 15 minutes in the car whatever else or you know it's it's it's
another two stops on the train or something else but let's go there with some joy yeah
he's he's look well with a joy that makes people ask why we're so happy how about that you know
let's go in there with a smile on our face and a happiness and a joy knowing that god provides
and gives us what we need and what we want and that's where god wants us we know that
all this has worked out everything from the beginning for us to eventually have this home
in south end where god wants his church god knows why and we know that and we're going
there hopefully with the joy about that a joy that does make people question i remember when
we uh when we had our anniversary soul winning and everyone met up at the station um before
remember we went to the farm afterwards we did a couple of hours soul winning and and the lady just
came up to my wife and just asked why are you all so happy why like it's like just this bizarre just
because really if you looked at all of us together like everyone just kind of not you know just looks
a bit different right different backgrounds different ways we all kind of hold ourselves
dressed tall everything's kind of a bit different it's not like we've got like a church trend or
it's not like we've got like a church look it just everyone from all different walks of life
who all just with big smiles on their face chatting away happy pleased loving to each
other and it makes people take no because it is different to the world isn't it the world would
have been probably the majority at that time on a saturday morning 9 a.m on a saturday probably
had a sore head or something you know and not really wanting to talk to each other or something
else at least in this nation you know let alone just so yeah it does it does make a difference
isn't it and people take note and we've we've you know we we have a joy we should have a joy that
comes from knowing that god's got a mission for us to achieve in south end s6 he really does he has
a mission for us he he strengthened us for this year we're about to go back into south end we're
going to west cliff on the sea there and we've got we've got a job ahead of us we know that god's
behind us we know that god god has been had his hand on all of this believe me the whole way
and it's i mean at the point where it's like right what do we do next you know we we don't even have
planning permission we're kind of we could have had enforcement round in that time but i thought
well i'm not going to go if i'd appealed it would have bought us a bit of extra time but instead
god just suddenly provides us this building and it's just all just worked out great god's had his
hand on all of this and i can really see how that's worked out and we can be joyful with that
knowing that we're in god's will it's not that you know we're just kind of going against what
he wants we are if you're here now and or if you're not and you're unwell or not here for some
reason but you're coming with us south end we're part of the elite here believe me you're part of
the elite we've lost some people along that year as well haven't we but you're here and you're
going back you're marching back with the elite god does great things with with the few that's
how it works okay it always does in the bible and you're about to march back having gone through
a year of of temptations i'm sure i'm sure many people if they really look back thought yeah i've
had times where someone's trying to pull me out well i've maybe the flesh has tried to pull me out
where there's been other issues other problems other kind of reasons not to come not to attend
etc you know reasons that people have tried like that some of these wicked people have just tried
to turn my head try to just demoralize and all these many ways they try to work on you
but you're still here and you're about to march next week into south end into into somewhere
where god's planting us to really make a difference it's kind of look we've gone we've
gone through it and now we're about to go back there much stronger than before much stronger
than before to make a real change to that city we're going to make a change to south end believe
me and instead of it being a change where it's like a load of clowns pretending they've got
double figure salvations it's going to be legitimate real bona fide a workout in south
end getting people saying make your difference preaching trying to build up families change
lives change the people that come into the church improve them for the better and get them as part
of the army as well we want to make sure we do it with joy right let's go in there with joy and
make that difference he said in verse 12 you're thinking man is he going to read from verse 9
again no hopefully you remembered those verses now look at verse 12 he said giving thanks unto
the father yeah we should be giving thanks for what he's done for us here which has made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who have delivered us from the
power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son and what a pleasure it is
to be on the front lines fighting for that kingdom right if you're if you're coming to
south end with us i hope everyone is you're on the front lines right you're you're you're fighting
for that kingdom you're the spearhead of god's work being done let's be honest in the uk and
i'm not exaggerating there because i don't see any other churches there most of them don't even
have the gospel let alone the ones that do actually going out and doing something preach
the gospel and going out and serving god turn to first peter five and tithe has been strengthened
with all might and wickford by becoming more spiritually wise by becoming more pleasing to god
by becoming more fruitful by becoming more knowledgeable by becoming more patient and
by becoming more joyful and first peter five of verse eight first peter five verse eight says
be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom
he may devour and look the last year here you know like we said at the beginning there was
that and some of those clowns from the background were trying to do the same you know they and they
did they got their their teeth and claws into some people trying to pull them out from straight after
they left and they were suddenly on the messages and everything else that's what these people do
you know that's that's the way it works we have to be sober vigilant to that and there are many
other ways the devil tries to do that he said in verse nine whom resist steadfast in the faith
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world
but the god of all grace who have called us unto his eternal glory by christ jesus after that you
have suffered a while make you perfect establish strengthen settle you and look i believe that's
what's happened over this last year he's he's made us complete as a church or at least more
complete than we were he established he strengthened he settled us to him it's it's
down to him isn't it to him be glory dominion forever and ever amen okay praise praise god
praise god that we've had this building i've made some jokes i'm not moaning about it i've loved
being here i've loved everything he's done for us as a church in that time to him be glory and
dominion forever and ever he he's he's given us this building he's now given us a great new
building we're about to march back into in south hen we're going to be busy there we're going to
be doing a lot there we're going to have a lot lot of exciting stuff that's going to happen we're
going to have some challenges we have some great victories along the way to him be glory and
dominion forever and ever amen and um that was strengthened with almighty wickford i hope everyone
here agrees that we're going back there a much stronger unit and uh and a unit with some changes
a unit's going to go back there and hopefully achieve some amazing things over in our west
cliff on the sea there in south hen on that we're going to finish up in a word of prayer
father thank you for uh for your word thank you for this church lord thank you for everyone that's
just you know got through the struggles and the tribulations and the trials of the last year here
uh lord and and in the same way it's just been just just been strengthened in all those many
ways lord um and strength and to to what you you know to to be what you want us to be now ready to
get back there and really do a work in what should be a permanent home for us to be a shining light
there lord to give a good account of ourselves as as believers lord to be um you know to to not be
a shame unto the name of christ lord to not be be a place which would turn away people that put off
believers for any reason other than the fact that we're just preaching the whole council of god and
we're standing on the word of god lord and and you know we know that that was that will divide
the wheat from the chaff as well lord we we thank you for everything you've done for us this past
year now we thank you for this new building we uh pray that you just help the the final plans
and the final move to all go well and smoothly for us to just start start there in just a great way
in a successful way uh with many salvations and just just the great times ahead of us in south
end lord thank you for everything you do for us please help us to just get some salvation
this afternoon to encourage and inspire people that we do get saved to make what is a very short
trip compared with what many of us here have been doing for many years now to get to the house of
god lord just help us to encourage others to want to make that trip to south end so we want to get
involved for you lord and just don't throw this amen