SPEAKER_00: There's um there's a very famous uh theologian um called Roman Keating, and uh he once wrote a song called Life is a Roller Coaster.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it is, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Life is a roller coaster.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels like uh there are ups and downs, sometimes we're scared, sometimes we're excited, sometimes we're laughing, sometimes we're screaming.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of twists and turns.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels like it's all stopped and you're hanging over the edge, and other times it feels like the whole world is rushing past you, and there's times where it feels like you're completely upside down.
SPEAKER_00: And I've realized that as I get older, I've also noticed that the ride is coming to an end a lot quicker than I thought it was going to.
SPEAKER_00: But being on a roller coaster takes faith, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It takes faith in the person who designed it in the first place, it takes faith in the people that built it, it takes faith in the people that are operating it, that once you've gone through all those ups and downs and twists and tears, you're actually gonna come back safe and sound in the end.
SPEAKER_00: And life is a bit like that as well, you know.
SPEAKER_00: We need to have faith in the person who designed us, we need to have faith in the person who created us and knew our end from our beginning, even when we were before in our mother's room.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to know that he's gonna keep us secure right to the end.
SPEAKER_00: And that faith is based on who God is, it's based on our experience of him, of what he's done for us in the past.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on uh the sense of his presence that we have now, and it's the promise that we have eternity in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, over the last 20 years or so, it's felt probably a little bit like if you've been part of Deal Church for that time, it's felt like we've been on a bit of a roller coaster as well.
SPEAKER_00: There's been times of blessing, there's been times where we've seen people saved, where we've seen people baptized, we've seen people healed, we've had moments of breakthrough, uh, we've had the miraculous provision of land at Southwall Road.
SPEAKER_00: And we should remember and we should celebrate those things because God has been good and He's been faithful towards us.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also been times of loss, there's been times of difficulty, there's been times when maybe it's felt like we haven't been making much progress, and there have been times of tears as well.
SPEAKER_00: But life and church, they aren't always easy, are they?
SPEAKER_00: And actually, if everything was always easy, we probably wouldn't learn a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we know that sometimes when we go through difficult times, it builds faith and it builds character in us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some of the most challenging verses in the Bible, there's two verses at the beginning of James chapter one, and it says this consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
SPEAKER_00: Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds.
SPEAKER_00: It's quite easy to read.
SPEAKER_00: It's not so easy to accept, and it's not so easy to apply it to ourselves, is it?
SPEAKER_00: But whatever situation you're in, whether it's good or bad, hard or easy, we need to keep faith in that what God has promised us, even if we're not seeing the fulfillment of it right now.
SPEAKER_00: And over these last few weeks we've been looking at this Psalm 126, and uh, as Sean said last week, it's a it's a psalm that looks back, it's a psalm that looks at the present and it looks at the future.
SPEAKER_00: And uh let's take another look at it this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 126, and I've um I've got it in the New Living Translation, but I'm sure it will be similar to whatever you've got.
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.
SPEAKER_00: Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev.
SPEAKER_00: The Negev was a desert land.
SPEAKER_00: Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.
SPEAKER_00: This psalm in the title, it's called a psalm of ascent.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a psalm that the pilgrims would uh would sing uh as they were making their way up to Jerusalem to worship and on their way to the holy city and to the temple of God.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's a psalm for those who are on a journey to intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's about, and that's really relevant for us as well, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: As we seek to get closer to Jesus, as we seek to understand him more, to become more like him.
SPEAKER_00: This this psalm applies to us as well.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we want to see his kingdom come, we want to see his will done.
SPEAKER_00: And uh when we look at this psalm, it tells us we have to remember what the goodness of what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: We have to remember what he's doing now, and we also have to remember his promises to us.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews singing this psalm, uh, some of them would have been remembering the return from exile of the Jews, when particularly probably when they were in Babylon, um, and the time of Zerababel and Ezra and Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And as these pilgrims are heading to Jerusalem, they're singing this song and they're celebrating, remembering what God has done for them, how God's saved them from their enemies, doing things that only God could do.
SPEAKER_00: But also, as they're doing it, they're doing it as an encouragement to uh help them for the current hardships that they were going through as well, the things that they're enduring.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that looking at what God has done for us in the past does uh it blesses us, it builds up our faith for what where we find ourselves today, the situations we find ourselves in, but it also builds hope for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just temporary happiness, joy is not temporary happiness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a joy is what becomes a bedrock for our life, whatever may come, whatever the storms are, however happy or sad we are, joy is that bedrock that that's built by faith in God, knowing that he's saved us, knowing that he's never let us down in the past, knowing that that because of that we can have joy in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, when we um when we look at the place where we are now here, you know, we're maybe, I haven't counted, we're maybe 40, 50 people this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Um we could get discouraged by that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we want more, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We want to see God really moving.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it reminds me of when the exiles came back and they completed the foundation of the new temple.
SPEAKER_00: And in Ezra 3, it says this when the builders completed the foundation of the Lord's temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow their trumpets, and the Levites, descendants of Asaph, clashed their cymbals to praise the Lord, just as King David had prescribed, with thanks and praise, they sang this song to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He is so good, his faithful love for Israel endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord, because the foundation of the Lord's temple had been laid.
SPEAKER_00: But many of the older priests and the Levites and the other leaders who'd seen the first temple wept aloud when they saw the new temple's foundation.
SPEAKER_00: The others, however, were shouting for joy.
SPEAKER_00: The joy of shouting and the weeping mingled together into a loud noise that could be heard for a distance.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we can look at the numbers here today, and uh we can look at the numbers.
SPEAKER_00: If you were one of those people back in this building 20 years ago, you can look at the numbers then, and I don't know, we were, I think it was up to over 100 at one point, wasn't it, Chrissy?
SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
SPEAKER_00: Um and we can look and say, well, you know, mate, we're sad that we've arrived where we are here.
SPEAKER_00: And it might look like the plans that we've currently got for South World Road maybe aren't as glorious as the ones that we maybe at once thought we would have.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's okay to weep for things that we feel like we've lost.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay, God, you know, the Psalms are full of David pouring out his heart to the Lord for things that had lost or things that he felt that he wanted God to do for him.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you this afternoon because the Lord has promised a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And look what he said through Haggai the prophet to Zerababel, the guy who built the foundations of the new temple.
SPEAKER_00: He said, For this is what the Lord of heaven armies says.
SPEAKER_00: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land.
SPEAKER_00: I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all nations will be brought to this temple.
SPEAKER_00: I will fill this place with glory, says the Lord of heaven armies.
SPEAKER_00: The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven's armies.
SPEAKER_00: The future glory of this temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord of Heaven's armies.
SPEAKER_00: And in this place I will bring peace.
SPEAKER_00: I, the Lord of Heaven's armies, have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: That was a word to Zerebabel to encourage him.
SPEAKER_00: It was a word to the Jews, then to encourage them about what God was going to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe it's a word for us now.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it isn't the size or the beauty of the building that brings the harvest in, it's the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the glory he's speaking about here, the glory was that 400 years after this was written, Jesus, fully God and fully man, was stood in that very temple, and he was the means by which we were reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever our new building's going to be like, the glory of it won't be in the bricks, it won't be in how big it is, it won't be in how lovely it looks, it will be Jesus' presence in it, and Jesus' presence in us, and him bringing in the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Please keep praying for Southwall Road.
SPEAKER_00: We think we're getting there, and then like every month there's something else that crops up.
SPEAKER_00: And at the moment we're we're looking like it's gonna be September before we get the decision.
SPEAKER_00: We've still got a few hurdles to jump over.
SPEAKER_00: Please keep praying.
SPEAKER_00: I love that bit there where it says the gold is his and the silver is his.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the money, the resources, the way forward is all his, and the glory will also be all his.
SPEAKER_00: We can do what we can to be good stewards, and God calls us to be good stewards.
SPEAKER_00: But he's the one that opens doors, he's the one that turns seas into highways, he's the one that makes a way where there seems to be no way.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: These exiles were freed from Babylon and they returned home, and there was great rejoicing because they'd returned home.
SPEAKER_00: It was a great moment of celebration.
SPEAKER_00: But when they got back, they found that Jerusalem was, the walls were knocked down, the city was in ruins, and that the land was overgrown and it was hard.
SPEAKER_00: And they took what little seed they had, seed that they could have ground up and eaten for bread there and then, and sort of saved their hunger for there and then.
SPEAKER_00: But they didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: With hard work, with blood, with sweat, and with tears, in faith, they sowed that seed.
SPEAKER_00: And they did it knowing that they would sow it, but it would be God that would water it, and it would be God that would bring the fruit in due season.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm not completely sure why, but deal feels like it's hard ground.
SPEAKER_00: It really does.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want to tell you is every prayer, every word that's been spoken, every step of a prayer walk, every spiritual seed that's been sown into this place isn't in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Our job is to sow.
SPEAKER_00: It's God that brings the rain, it's God that brings the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Back in um back in 2019, uh the Lord gave me a word which I shared in Dover, and it was about that then that living well and the ark would come together as one church.
SPEAKER_00: But at the time I knew that wasn't just restricted to Dover.
SPEAKER_00: I knew in my spirit that it wasn't just that.
SPEAKER_00: It was for the wider area and for the southeast.
SPEAKER_00: And subsequently, we have become part of one church as well.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, over the hundred years or so from when the first exiles left Babylon to the point that Jerusalem was rebuilt, it took three waves of people and three loads of resources from Babylon in order to complete what God had planned.
SPEAKER_00: Those already in Jerusalem couldn't do it on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, Greg and those of you who know Greg and Mel, and the first couples that came across, um, they were the first wave.
SPEAKER_00: And then Fiona and I and Louis came, we were the second wave.
SPEAKER_00: But we need others to help us.
SPEAKER_00: We needed the guys from Dover to come and help us.
SPEAKER_00: We needed to work with our brothers and sisters, and we will need to work with our brothers and sisters in deal in the towns, in the churches that are like-minded to us.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, as I said before, we have to remember what God has promised.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a part of that prophecy from 2019.
SPEAKER_00: It says, when these churches come together, I just don't want it to be a stream, because as the two streams flow as one river, I will pour out the floodgates of heaven, and it will be a torrent.
SPEAKER_00: It will be like streams in the Negev, if you like.
SPEAKER_00: And the dry seeds which have been planted years ago will be watered, and there will be a great harvest if you're obedient to my word.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're already seeing dry seeds in Dover.
SPEAKER_00: Week after week, we're seeing people coming in and being part of us, giving their hearts to the Lord, being baptized.
SPEAKER_00: We're seeing it.
SPEAKER_00: And I was so encouraged last week when I heard about the word that Pat had brought, that the harvest is has reached the edge of war mouth.
SPEAKER_00: It's that close, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And it reminded me of a prophetic word that um Elliot Powell shared with me uh just a couple of months back.
SPEAKER_00: And he said he'd had this dream and he'd had this picture of a field, and there were loads of people out in the field harvesting and bringing all the shoes in.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, and I just walked a bit further along, and I fell through the hedge into another field.
SPEAKER_00: And that field, if anything, looked even more ripe than the one that was being harvested, but there was no one in it because there was like this cloud hanging over the field.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and something stopping the harvest from going through.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that was a prophetic word about deal.
SPEAKER_00: I really do.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that's talking about us, and that the great harvest that God taught us is literally imminent, it's is on the edge of warmer.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it might feel like we've been sowing in tears for years, but the day is coming when we will harvest rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: Things may seem tough, might feel like we're sowing in tears, but let's keep sowing with whatever little grain we've got, whether we've got a lot or whether we've just got a little, because God brings joy out of sorrow, he brings laughter out of tears, he brings good out of evil, and he brings new life out of what looks like dead seeds.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as I come to the end of what I'm gonna uh talking about today, I just want to recognize, like in that passage in Ezra, on a personal level, it's quite common for some people to be rejoicing and at the same other time other people are weeping.
SPEAKER_00: We can be on a roller coaster, and if it's a long roller coaster, some people can be heading down the hill one side while others are still either at the top, stationary, or they're at the back, still climbing up a hill.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we aren't always in the same place, but but we are always family together.
SPEAKER_00: And we are encouraged in the in scripture to mourn with each other, we're encouraged to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and to carry each other's burdens, to love one another, because that's how the world sees that we are his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to leave you with these this question that what are you sowing in tears for now?
SPEAKER_00: What's God placed on your heart?
SPEAKER_00: What feels like really hard ground that you're trying to break up or to plant seeds in?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it might be a might be a loved one or a friend who doesn't know the Lord yet, and and you just want, you just you're in tears for them, wanting to break through.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a relationship that needs restoration, maybe it's a community or a workplace that God needs to soften by his spirit so that seeds can be planted.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's sickness in someone that's suffering and they need a real breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's for bringing in the harvest of souls in deal.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to say to you is just keep sowing, keep praying, keep seeking God's will, keep seeking what he wants to do in this season and in the right time, he will bring the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, today if you want others to join in with you in that sewing, then there will be people at the back over here afterwards who will be love to pray with you and join you in that sewing in tears if that's what's required.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe um maybe it's something that you want our intercessors, our prayer intercessor, to come alongside you and to pray with you into as well.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're if there's this prayer requests that we need, let's let's have them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get them on the prayer intercessors list.
SPEAKER_00: They love to go through the list and tick off the things that God has answered.
SPEAKER_00: I know Edith's Healthbrook, do the same.
SPEAKER_00: They've got a list of things that they prayed for and they tick them off when God answers prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, don't don't sew in tears on your own.
SPEAKER_00: Sew together.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask the worship team to come back up and uh just gonna pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you that, Lord, that you know every season in our lives, you know every situation that we're in, you know the good times, you know the bad times.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and Lord, we thank you that we can look back and recognize your hand at work in our lives and in our church.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we thank you that we recognize what you're doing right now as well.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, I pray that that we will just catch a Lord, just catch a glimpse, a grasp by your spirit what you're just about to do.
SPEAKER_00: That Lord, by your spirit, that you will bring about a great harvest in this place and that we will come with joy bringing in the sheaves.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.