WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.720 Hey guys, welcome back to the WAKA podcast. This week we are rolling it back to an incredible 2 00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:10.400 time at Wildfires Festival last summer where we got to chat with some incredible leaders. 3 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:16.400 In today's episode, Jesse and Zenia chat to Pete Greg, founder of Mayors Road Church and 24-7 4 00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:18.480 Prime Movement, so let's get into it. 5 00:00:22.720 --> 00:00:28.080 I could give a pretty good introduction of who you are, what you do. I've been inspired 6 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:34.800 by things that you're involved in, like T.O., all sorts. But I just wonder, would you be able 7 00:00:34.800 --> 00:00:39.040 to introduce yourself? Would you be able to give a little understanding? Who are you? What do you do? 8 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:48.800 What are you involved in in your life? I've always loved that thing. It says of Abraham is a friend 9 00:00:48.800 --> 00:00:55.440 of God and I like that. I'd love that on my gravestone friend of God. What else is there? 10 00:00:55.440 --> 00:01:01.280 But yes, I'm married to Sammy, who's just down there, gives us a wave to Sammy. We have conspired 11 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:07.760 together to become the parents of two adult sons. Everyone around the world thinks they're 12 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:14.640 perpetually little because I did a deal with them. I said, look, before you hit your teenage years, 13 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:20.720 it's open season. I'll tell stories about you and I do it everywhere. But once you get to be 14 00:01:20.720 --> 00:01:25.360 teenagers, your space is your space. So I don't tell stories about them when they're in their teens. 15 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:33.360 So everyone thinks that Miraculous, yeah, kids are like seven forever, which isn't possible. 16 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:38.800 So yeah, that's how little family. Both our boys are, I just got engaged. 17 00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:44.720 One's getting married next month, so we're pretty focused. In fact, Sammy is focused on almost 18 00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:54.880 nothing else at the moment. And they call me the bewildered founder of the 24-7-prayer movement. 19 00:01:54.880 --> 00:02:01.760 So we've been praying non-stop longer than you've been alive. I'm so old. 25 years. We've been 20 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:07.760 praying we're in over a hundred countries. And then the prayer movement has given birth to a 21 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:13.040 network of churches and monasteries and a lot of social justice work around the world and 22 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:19.200 resources like Lectio 365. They have a religious order called Order of the Mustard Seas and so on. 23 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:25.760 And then we are still just for another couple of months, the senior pastors of Amers Road Church 24 00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:33.280 and Guildford. We stepped down a senior pastor's of 18 after 18 years there on September 14. So it's 25 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:39.120 a bit of a time of change for us. And then really involved with Think of Waverly Appi. It's really 26 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:44.400 exciting. We've been given a place at Waverly Appi. It's been a place of Christian prayer since 27 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:51.200 685 AD. And we're basically doing it all again. We've got a praying community in there. We've 28 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:57.600 got a college in there, training council. It's super exciting. So that's so good. And I think 29 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:03.680 from everything that you're involved with, you have to be someone that's engaging with God 30 00:03:03.760 --> 00:03:09.680 in order to carry all of these spinning plates like there's just a lot going on. And I think 31 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:15.600 for all of us in this room and what we kind of want to unpack in this conversation is how do we engage 32 00:03:15.600 --> 00:03:21.200 with God in the daily so that actually our faith isn't seasonal or momentary but it's actually 33 00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:28.480 sustained. And for you to spin all these plates, I would love to imagine and believe that your 34 00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:33.520 faith can't be a momentary. That is actually the day to day rhythms of Jesus that gives you 35 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:37.920 the strength to carry what you carry. And so I would love to like kind of unpack a bit of your story 36 00:03:37.920 --> 00:03:44.160 and I guess like what does it look like for you to engage with faith like from when you first 37 00:03:44.160 --> 00:03:49.200 encountered Jesus or before then to now like what are some of the things that have changed or some 38 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:52.880 of the things that you've learned in how to engage with God like every single day. 39 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:59.200 I think you're absolutely right is any you have to you know you can't just get 40 00:03:59.200 --> 00:04:08.640 biased on fast food you know just at the start it's like help and God I'm sorry and you know 41 00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:16.240 but actually if you're just just as in your physical body if you're going to be healthy and you 42 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:21.120 know live a long life you've got to eat healthy and you've got to exercise and I think the same 43 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:26.320 with faith with faith you have to eat healthy and you and you have to exercise and what I mean by 44 00:04:26.320 --> 00:04:33.680 eat healthy it means a good balanced diet of you know reading the Bible and but also I love reading 45 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:41.280 other books about people of faith things that can feed me and also spending time with people are 46 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:45.920 good for me you know how some people suck your faith out of you and some people of spending time 47 00:04:46.640 --> 00:04:52.400 you you feel in the courage you feel more courageous because they have encouraged you so healthy 48 00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:58.160 diet prayer is obviously essential and then and then it's not just healthy diet but you have to 49 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:04.880 exercise it's like if I just eat even it's healthy I'm I'm not going to be healthy and as I'm 50 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:10.240 burning off my energy and I think some people they do the prayer and the Bible and all that bit and 51 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:15.360 they read lots of Christian books they never share their faith they they never you know fight 52 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:20.800 injustice they never do anything with it other than turn up at religious events and and they kind 53 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:25.440 of that's not healthy as well so I think if you're going to live a long healthy life spiritually 54 00:05:25.440 --> 00:05:33.840 you need a good balanced diet and you need some good spiritual exercise okay I love it it's 55 00:05:33.840 --> 00:05:38.160 often the simple things right as you said it's learning to read your Bible it's learning to 56 00:05:38.880 --> 00:05:44.000 not just have a moment with God but actually live it out share your faith and it's the practical 57 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.200 things that we're taught in in Sunday school but actually it's got so much significance in our faith 58 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:56.480 I grew up here in the same thing and it's beautiful it's a message that stands time 59 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:03.360 like learning to balance your diet but I felt like when I when I was first starting I didn't know 60 00:06:03.440 --> 00:06:09.040 who to look to as an example or have any grid for that look like personally and I'm still learning 61 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:14.240 that I'm still learning what it is to spend time with Jesus every day but if you don't mind would 62 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:20.000 you give us an insight into your kind of secret place what what a secret place is is basically time 63 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:25.360 alone with God whether that's in your room whether that's in your kitchen wherever it's just 64 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:30.560 you and God looking to him it's like secret God says that he he's very much there when we run to 65 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:36.640 run to our bedrooms close the door and pray to our father yeah so that's just to get this a little 66 00:06:36.640 --> 00:06:42.400 grid on on what the rhythms in the secret place look like and how do we as young Christians and 67 00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:48.960 old develop those rhythms for ourselves such a great question one of the problems I think is 68 00:06:48.960 --> 00:06:54.960 the people who like teach about how to do Christianity by definition their secret place is secret 69 00:06:54.960 --> 00:06:59.840 so you don't get to see it and then it's like I know how to do all the other stuff but 70 00:07:00.400 --> 00:07:08.720 that stuff's hidden so really I love the question um so I think you have to think about you know 71 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:21.840 what your daily rhythm is weekly and so on um and what what I do is is um okay so some people if 72 00:07:21.840 --> 00:07:27.360 I could do a survey here raise your hand if you have the same breakfast pretty much every day just 73 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:33.280 raise your hand okay raise your hand if you like to like mix it up a bit you move from one serial 74 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:38.560 to another different times the year okay so we've got a fairly even split yet I think it's a lot 75 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:45.360 like that spiritually some people their secret time with God their quiet time each day is pretty much 76 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:49.600 the set that we they do the same thing every day that's the way they're wired and others get bored 77 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:54.080 and they need to move on and I think it's good to have some self-knowledge I tend to need to change 78 00:07:54.080 --> 00:07:58.560 a little bit from time to time just to keep it fresh but one of the things that has really stuck 79 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:06.240 not for months but for years for me is I have a book of um prayers that actually roots in the ancient 80 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:11.200 traditions of the church the daily offices and it gives just scriptures it's just scriptures 81 00:08:11.760 --> 00:08:18.000 for each for different times of day each day and I'll always get those open and I and I will 82 00:08:18.320 --> 00:08:23.520 there's always a bit of a psalm there's always you know reading the gospels and so on and what I do 83 00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:30.800 is I read them I I wait for like the highlighter pen to come down on something there's always like 84 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:36.720 always something that sticks out at you if you if you if you expect it so I don't go into going 85 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:42.400 I wonder if God is about to speak to my going to going God is about to speak to his quiet sight 86 00:08:42.400 --> 00:08:50.400 and that's faith right and and and then when something leaps out at me I turn it into a prayer 87 00:08:50.400 --> 00:08:56.720 so I actually speaking here in in the other venue last night I talked about something how to be 88 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:02.480 last week in my secret place where a psalm I've not really massively meditate on before there 89 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:08.320 were four words that just jumped out at me last week and it was this the four words were 90 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:16.960 holiness adorns your house simple holiness adorns your house but it really kind of I don't 91 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:24.560 it just hit me and I started to talk to the Lord about it and I said oh God I'm so sick of how ugly 92 00:09:24.560 --> 00:09:31.520 we've made church and how ugly leaders have made church by the way they've lived and and 93 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:38.240 holiness meant adorns very beautiful many magnetic attractive and I started to pray that God would 94 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:45.280 raise up leaders whose lives would be beautiful like not just they're not a narcissist but they're 95 00:09:45.280 --> 00:09:51.280 humble or not just that they you know that they're faithful in their marriage but actually they 96 00:09:51.280 --> 00:09:58.000 model purity like like the beauty of holiness adorning of God's house the beautifying of God's 97 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:03.760 house with holiness and I prayed around that for quite a long time and I actually went journaled 98 00:10:03.760 --> 00:10:10.240 on it later and I've been thinking about it since so that would be an example of how not just 99 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:15.840 reading the Bible but praying the Bible turning the Bible into his conversation where the Bible is 100 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:21.520 God starting the conversation then you respond in prayer and I have some set prayers I use I always 101 00:10:21.520 --> 00:10:27.920 pray the Lord's prayer as a prayer pray every morning my life it goes like this almighty never 102 00:10:27.920 --> 00:10:32.240 lasting father you've brought me in safety to this new day preserve me with your mighty power that 103 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:39.760 I may not fall into sin and so on so so there's certain fixed prayers I pray every every day and then 104 00:10:39.760 --> 00:10:46.560 some of you are there anyone is anyone here who uses lecture 365 okay number of you so that really 105 00:10:46.560 --> 00:10:52.320 is about learning to pray the Bible we have three different times in the day for that and that's 106 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:56.880 what they used to do in the ancient temple used to pray three times a day Jesus would have done 107 00:10:56.880 --> 00:11:01.840 that the early church would have paused to pray three times a day and so we're trying to in the middle 108 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:06.400 of the day really short five ten minutes and the end of the day is something beautiful like putting 109 00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:12.640 your soul to sleep you know with God with scriptures in your head so last but I could say about that 110 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:18.640 but that's some of my daily rhythm and I don't by the way I don't want you to get like any sense of 111 00:11:18.640 --> 00:11:25.440 I couldn't do that because you can and some days will just be a bit boring and there'll be that 112 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:34.000 but other days it will just be life changing and I just encourage you know that when you just 113 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:41.040 make space for God in a world that rejects him and some of it hates him can you imagine what it 114 00:11:41.040 --> 00:11:45.760 means to his father heart that you actually have given him a few minutes of your day so remember 115 00:11:45.760 --> 00:11:51.280 he's smiling at you not scowling at you he's happy to be with you he's keen to spend time with you 116 00:11:51.280 --> 00:11:57.440 than you are with him so there's also Marcus say about lecture divina and about the examine and 117 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:02.160 about you know Sabbath and about times of retreat but those are some of the things for me 118 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:09.120 and I hope we can unpack some of those things because that would be really great but I also 119 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:14.400 really likes the analogy of the breakfast because I think like when you're getting into like your 120 00:12:14.400 --> 00:12:18.400 ribbon with God and trying to figure out okay like what what does my quiet time look like what does 121 00:12:18.400 --> 00:12:23.360 it look like for me to to talk to God it can be really hard when you see like your friends doing 122 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:27.280 it a certain way or maybe your youth leaders or whoever or your parents and you're like I love 123 00:12:27.280 --> 00:12:32.400 that for them but when I try it just does not work for me and it can feel like really operating and 124 00:12:32.400 --> 00:12:36.880 it can almost feel like okay God the guest like we can't have a rhythm but actually love what you 125 00:12:36.880 --> 00:12:42.320 said because God might have a rhythm with them but he wants a rhythm with you and your rhythm 126 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:47.120 will look different because you are different and God embraces difference because he made us all 127 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:53.200 uniquely and I really really like that I wish kind of if you could unpack a little bit more 128 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:57.680 about like the importance of the secret place like I mean we've talked about like reading the Bible 129 00:12:57.680 --> 00:13:03.280 we've talked about prayer and turning your Bible reading into prayers which is like basically what 130 00:13:03.280 --> 00:13:08.400 the Psalms is right but just to hone in a little bit more about like why is this actually important 131 00:13:08.400 --> 00:13:13.680 like can you skip a day like if you just you know don't spend time with God for like a week or so 132 00:13:13.680 --> 00:13:18.000 or things get busy and you're like hey God I'll see you in a bit like like what do you think about 133 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:23.600 that like why why do we need to be in the secret place such great questions I'm going to pick 134 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:30.640 up on you said two things the first thing is yes pray the way God made you and some people really 135 00:13:30.640 --> 00:13:35.680 struggle with prayer they think they're bad at prayer and it's just because they're trying to 136 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:40.640 pray the way that someone else is wired to pray I give you an example if you're a massive introvert 137 00:13:41.520 --> 00:13:46.880 and an internal processor so you're the kind of person says can the world please shut up 138 00:13:46.880 --> 00:13:52.560 let me get on my own with my journal so I can work out what's happening you're an internal processor 139 00:13:52.560 --> 00:13:57.120 but if you're like an external processor in other words when you're left on your own you don't 140 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:01.840 know what to think about but when you're with other people when you get to talk it out then you 141 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:07.280 actually start so you know that's when you make sense of the world like say you're an internal 142 00:14:07.280 --> 00:14:13.200 processor and you're in a massive Pentecostal church where when everyone says let's pray it's 143 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:17.600 shout about yeah everyone's praying out loud you may think aren't you're bad at prayer but actually 144 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:24.240 what you need is to get away to that secret place equally if you're a massive external processor 145 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:28.800 and you hear someone banging on about you've got to get alone with God just you in three squirrels 146 00:14:28.800 --> 00:14:35.280 and a cup of tea you know you maybe like I just don't I don't know what to think about and then 147 00:14:35.280 --> 00:14:41.200 there are some real keys for to help you to pray one is it's okay it's just as good to pray with 148 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:46.480 someone else as on your own another is journaling actually will help because it's almost like 149 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:52.400 using the page as a way of externalizing your thoughts another key interesting is reading the 150 00:14:52.400 --> 00:14:57.680 Bible out loud rather than just reading it silently a lot of the Bible was first written to be read 151 00:14:57.680 --> 00:15:02.800 out loud not not in silence because back in the ancient world they didn't really read in their heads 152 00:15:02.800 --> 00:15:09.760 so there's lots I could say about that but just work out how to pray the way that God made 153 00:15:09.760 --> 00:15:14.480 I remember we we did a guy called there was a guy called Rupert who just come to know Jesus we were 154 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:20.720 discipling him and he was like though the guy with dreadlocks in our town who did fire breathing 155 00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:29.200 fire juggling and you know he was sort of smelly and cool at the same time and he was he came to 156 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:37.520 faith through a sort of from quite a sort of occultic background and I remember he I was living 157 00:15:37.520 --> 00:15:41.520 in the same house as him and I came through the front door once he was trying to work out how to 158 00:15:41.520 --> 00:15:47.200 have a quiet time didn't really know and no Christian background at all and I just saw him 159 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:52.720 like a glass door on the porch and I don't know why but he had got into his head that this was how 160 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:58.080 to spend time with God he had his Bible open on the back of the sofa I just saw through the door he had 161 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:08.640 really loud blues on I think it was what's his name not muddy waters John Lee Hooker and so he's got 162 00:16:08.640 --> 00:16:14.560 really loud blues on for some reason and he's reading out the Psalms really loud kind of almost 163 00:16:14.560 --> 00:16:20.320 wrapping them over the blues like no one has said that's how to have time but he was working out 164 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:28.880 how to commune with God as him so that's just a long way of saying yes and amen learn your own 165 00:16:28.880 --> 00:16:34.400 language of how to communicate with God and one of the keys is when did you last pray and you 166 00:16:34.400 --> 00:16:39.760 felt close to God you felt like he was hearing you that's that's that's like a key to something what 167 00:16:39.760 --> 00:16:46.320 why did that work for you to the other part of your question what was the other part of your question 168 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:53.760 why do we need the secret place like consistently well because the most important thing about you 169 00:16:54.800 --> 00:17:03.760 is you and Jesus it's not what you do it's not everyone else and I'm fascinated I'm actually 170 00:17:03.760 --> 00:17:09.680 slightly obsessed by the thought that before there was any sin or sickness or suffering in the 171 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:16.960 world there Adam and Eve walked in talk with God every day in the call of the evening right and 172 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:21.520 it's interesting because most Christians all they ever pray about is sin and sickness and suffering 173 00:17:21.520 --> 00:17:27.520 like this per I'm sorry for doing this wrong please heal this person please remember friend come 174 00:17:27.520 --> 00:17:32.400 to know you yeah all that it's just all to sin and sickness and suffering but there wasn't any 175 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:37.760 so what did they talk to God about every single day when there were no problems in the world 176 00:17:37.760 --> 00:17:41.520 and the answer must have been that they just shatter them about what the weather had been like 177 00:17:41.520 --> 00:17:47.840 and how their day had been right and I think what I learned from that is your prayer life is at 178 00:17:47.840 --> 00:17:52.240 its best not when you're praying big prayers prayers occasionally but when you're praying tiny prayers 179 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:59.520 continually when you're just talking to God all the time and the the story I um I was used to 180 00:17:59.520 --> 00:18:03.840 illustrate that as I was walking down the street near our old house one day and God spoke to me 181 00:18:03.840 --> 00:18:11.040 very very clearly um like dramatic it wasn't an audible voice but it was such a sudden 182 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:17.280 sense him speaking in my head that it I literally stopped walking it was like douche and the thing 183 00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:24.880 God said to me was look at that tree so I stopped I looked at this frankly pretty average treat 184 00:18:25.840 --> 00:18:31.840 and I'm staring at it thinking something's going to happen got an angel is going to speak to me out 185 00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:37.040 of the tree or there's a cat up there you know I could rescue or I don't know I'm going to 186 00:18:37.040 --> 00:18:40.560 something's going to happen was God had said look at that tree I'm staring at his tree and 187 00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:44.800 literally nothing happened and people are walking past me in this street like I've had some kind of 188 00:18:44.800 --> 00:18:52.240 episode and then um eventually I say to God because I figure he's forgotten me he's got busy somewhere 189 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:57.920 else so I said okay God I'm still here I'm looking at the tree what happens now and I sense that 190 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:04.640 what he said to me was um why did you get so intense about everything I just thought it was a good 191 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:14.720 tree I went oh okay good job on the tree and he said he said thanks very much and I was it 192 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:19.120 that your prayer life is his best it's like totally underwhelming story that's all but your prayer 193 00:19:19.120 --> 00:19:24.400 life is his best when you're just talking to God about the details of your day um and then you 194 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:33.680 know so to have a real relationship with God you must have meaningful intimate conversation with him 195 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:40.160 if I said to you I have a great marriage to Sammy here's our wedding certificate but do you know 196 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:46.640 what we don't really hang out and we don't really communicate and actually we don't spend much 197 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:51.520 time together you as start to go don't show me your wedding certificate I'm worried about your 198 00:19:51.520 --> 00:19:57.200 marriage in the same way sometimes as Christians we say you know look at you know I've got 199 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:03.520 baptized I go to church and so me and God are like that but the truth is we don't really hang out 200 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:09.920 we don't really communicate well we don't even like being in our I don't much like being in 201 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:14.800 God's presence alone there's something wrong so you grow in your relationship with God through 202 00:20:14.800 --> 00:20:21.040 conversation and through making time to listen Jesus says mansion not lived by bread alone but by 203 00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:28.480 every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Father so good it's so practical I hope you're 204 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:35.280 making notes because I am like I'm here it's it's just really helpful to get a framework of what 205 00:20:35.280 --> 00:20:41.520 it is to walk with Jesus and I even love that picture that you're speaking about what did Adam 206 00:20:41.520 --> 00:20:47.680 and Eve talk about before those sin yeah it was probably look at that tree isn't it cool like 207 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:53.040 I just think that's beautiful and it's a great framework for how we can be when it's just us and 208 00:20:53.040 --> 00:20:58.800 God I'd love to talk a bit about church just because you you led a church for many how long did 209 00:20:58.800 --> 00:21:04.400 you lead the church for actually now well we've been leading churches and planting churches since 210 00:21:05.120 --> 00:21:13.120 the first matter he didn't we say me so that's like 357 years no no it's it's how long it's like 211 00:21:13.120 --> 00:21:19.680 31 years 32 years we've planted I tried to work out I think we planted seven churches but the 212 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:25.360 the one that we've been we're currently seeing past all we're stepping out so we planted that 213 00:21:25.360 --> 00:21:31.600 in the in the bathroom of a pub about 18 years ago with quite a small group and that's quite a 214 00:21:31.600 --> 00:21:37.280 big church and everyone's it's just going great so we figured it was time to let everyone else get 215 00:21:37.280 --> 00:21:41.920 on our knees because they're better at it than us now so so cool so you know church well 216 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:48.320 we don't just know church well the good the bad and the ugly we love church yeah sorry like 217 00:21:48.320 --> 00:21:58.640 church church is everything that that was Jesus's design for for extending his kingdom was the 218 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:04.720 body of Christ the community of faith and some people you know they they they go around talking 219 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:09.120 about Christian things but they're not rooted in actual church community and that's where you're 220 00:22:09.120 --> 00:22:13.120 accountable what I find is I can come to something like this and talk and I go it's amazing but I 221 00:22:13.120 --> 00:22:20.400 go back to Mass road no one's impressed with anything I say that like you're just you know you're 222 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:25.920 just peep and that's really really good and really healthy we're just you know in fact when we 223 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:31.600 step down as senior pastors we said can we still be part of the church they said okay we'd love 224 00:22:31.600 --> 00:22:36.960 that actually like great so we said we don't want any title we don't want any roles we members of 225 00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:43.440 the church it's going to be so cool it is so cool it's so important and I love what you say about 226 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:50.800 how it's got to design right it's got to heart it's to use the church and regarding spiritual 227 00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:57.040 formation because we're talking about how to sustain faith community accountability you even 228 00:22:57.040 --> 00:23:05.440 said it as a word earlier what's the importance in in community and being in the church community 229 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:10.960 with our faith growth and maybe talking about mentorship the question of do I even need to go 230 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:19.840 to a church what's the need and the role of community in our faith yeah I mean your Christianity 231 00:23:19.840 --> 00:23:27.120 is not a solo sport it is a team sport and you know it's like saying I'm gonna world-class 232 00:23:27.120 --> 00:23:31.360 footballer but I don't ever want to be on it in a team you're like well you know a few tricks 233 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:41.440 but you're not gonna have a career we're designed for community for family actually and so church 234 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:48.640 is the context where we have brothers and sisters you know in faith we have mothers and fathers 235 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:53.920 in faith and we have spiritual children people that we're seeking to disciple and mentor and 236 00:23:53.920 --> 00:24:02.320 pour into and and it's where we break bread it's where we you know do the stuff next week I think 237 00:24:02.320 --> 00:24:07.360 I'm going to be at two funerals we're preparing for our son's wedding and this is the real stuff 238 00:24:07.360 --> 00:24:15.040 of of life so church is where all that happens and yeah I think you know you asked about mentoring 239 00:24:15.120 --> 00:24:22.880 that has been an absolute key for us when I was at university I started to be offered jobs 240 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:28.480 working for churches I'd come back to faith in Jesus and I could talk a bit and and I suddenly 241 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:33.680 realized it was horrific because my life was in a bit of a mess my girlfriend had just finished 242 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:40.800 with me and my life I just fall in a part it's really uncool it's very embarrassing but I had not 243 00:24:40.800 --> 00:24:47.680 coped at all well and I'm like that's the real stuff of my life right now do I have to wait for 244 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:54.160 a sermon on Sunday on when your life falls apart when your girlfriend church what if I missed that 245 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:59.440 week what if it's not a very good talk and then like you know a lot of young men struggling with 246 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:05.520 lust and stuff like like when do I talk about that with anyone like this is the real stuff and I 247 00:25:05.520 --> 00:25:10.240 was in an Anglican church context where they didn't know anything about discipleship they 248 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:14.640 they preached on Sundays or you could talk sometimes and I remember I went around to the guy 249 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:19.840 he did the best preaching he was one of the curates I knocked on his door I said which I don't know 250 00:25:19.840 --> 00:25:26.000 where I got the phrase from but I said would you be a father in God to me and it's a lovely guy 251 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:31.120 and of course he didn't say no he said oh yeah yeah of course you come on in and we basically had 252 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:36.080 the most embarrassing cup of tea of either of our lives because he didn't know what to do next and 253 00:25:36.080 --> 00:25:40.720 I didn't know what happened next I just had this phrase and what I was feeling was I think I need to 254 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:48.000 be mentored or actually to use a biblical phrase discipled and he just gave me a reading list 255 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:54.720 like here's a load of books you got to read and so I spent quite a long time it's going to sound 256 00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:01.120 weird but actively trying to find someone who could disciple me and most of the church circles 257 00:26:01.120 --> 00:26:06.240 I was in they didn't know how to do it and then eventually I met a guy called Roger Ellis at a 258 00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:10.240 funny little conference who's speaking out and I was really impressed with him because he he's a 259 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:16.800 sort of guy I could imagine holding his own at a party he's very normal but he really loved Jesus 260 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:25.200 and so I said to him you know would would you disciple me and he said yeah and I moved my whole 261 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:30.560 life from London southeast London down to a funny little place called Chichester where he was 262 00:26:30.560 --> 00:26:36.240 because at last I'd found something in fact he said to me you how about you write a diary a journal 263 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:41.680 every day about what you're really thinking what you're feeling I'll read it and it sounds weird 264 00:26:41.760 --> 00:26:49.600 but I was like at last I want that it wasn't that's my private life I want to hide I was longing 265 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:56.560 to talk about real stuff in my life and be honest about my sin first tutorial time I had with him 266 00:26:56.560 --> 00:27:02.080 I wrote all my worst sins down a bit of paper I thought let's just confess them because the bible 267 00:27:02.080 --> 00:27:08.080 says that confess your sins to one another yeah not just God to one another and you'll be healed 268 00:27:08.080 --> 00:27:13.360 so I remember walking along the age 27 dual carriageway holding a bit of paper with all my sins on 269 00:27:13.360 --> 00:27:18.160 it clutching it because I thought this would be really embarrassing if I drop it and it was like 270 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:23.760 breakfast time and I go and I push this bit of paper across the table to Roger like all my sins on 271 00:27:23.760 --> 00:27:28.880 it and I don't think he really wanted to have to talk about that stuff over morning coffee he's like 272 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:36.240 oh for goodness say but I was just desperate to be holy you know your house is doing with 273 00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:44.880 and so he began mentoring and discipling me and since then I've made it like a mission in my life 274 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:51.280 to have people who speak into my life and then people that I am I'm trying to break the cycle I'm 275 00:27:51.280 --> 00:27:59.200 making a normal thing that you disciple people and it's normal in our culture to say how can I 276 00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:05.360 grow like how did I do oh can I be honest I do I have the right to speak into your life those are 277 00:28:05.360 --> 00:28:10.800 just normal culture of discipleship conversations that we were trying to have in our church 278 00:28:11.520 --> 00:28:18.000 so good and I love that you bring that up because discipleship can be messy you know like it's not 279 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:23.680 it's not clear sometimes like okay cool Lord what do I do in this situation Lord help me find 280 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:28.400 the language to speak to that person or help me give me a word so I can get like it's we need 281 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:33.280 God for it and I love that you talk about like yes being mentored I'm being disciple but also 282 00:28:33.280 --> 00:28:38.800 you and I also disciple him and like it's just so real and I guess I just wanted to maybe touch 283 00:28:38.800 --> 00:28:43.440 a little bit more on the on the realness like you said like life's not easy I think every single person 284 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:48.160 in this room news flash if you didn't there life is not easy and every day looks different 285 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:52.480 some days are great like you walk with God you're hearing from him you're reading the Bible it's 286 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:58.320 great like church feels great other seasons like it's really dry it's like I'm praying to God 287 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:03.840 and I'm not hearing anything or I've actually had like a really hard time at church like it's not 288 00:29:03.840 --> 00:29:08.800 been easy or like people have been mean to me or whatever the situation is or maybe you've been 289 00:29:08.800 --> 00:29:13.520 doing a lot in school or at uni and you're just feeling really burnt out and like really tired 290 00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:18.880 like you've been serving you're tired but how do you right regardless of the hard season but 291 00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:24.640 how do you stay faithful how do you keep pursuing God how do you continue to keep up that daily 292 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:30.320 relationship and that constant rhythm with him even when life is really challenging well that's 293 00:29:30.320 --> 00:29:36.400 such a great question is in it I think one of the keys is actually what you were saying earlier 294 00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:46.480 when you develop daily disciplines they help you to you stay steady through the the boring times 295 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:54.080 the difficult times the dry times I always use the example when Sam and I first met we were kind 296 00:29:54.080 --> 00:30:00.400 of just like a lot of romance stuff young couples just kind of obsessed with one another like we 297 00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:04.400 we could talk for hours on the phone I don't even know like sometimes when we phone each on 298 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:08.640 that it's like what why did you call and after two minutes like all right that like we what we 299 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:13.920 went out a few years ago now but said we're going to go away for a couple of days and we're not 300 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:18.560 going to talk about work all the kids great great great and we just started telling what what do we 301 00:30:18.560 --> 00:30:26.800 talk about like like so at the start we could just talk for hours and hours and hours and we never 302 00:30:26.800 --> 00:30:34.080 had to book into our diaries to spend time together we just like together all the time and you know 303 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:39.840 we we'd go from meal together just like pheromones leaking through every pore of our you know 304 00:30:39.840 --> 00:30:45.280 big big and then and then a few years go on and we've been married now for 31 years 305 00:30:46.080 --> 00:30:54.400 and we're so boring that we book in dates like like let us let us go out from meal together let us 306 00:30:54.400 --> 00:31:01.520 go to the cinema together let's go for a walk together and I suspect a lot of 17 year olds say 307 00:31:01.520 --> 00:31:07.280 oh you're so boring I'd never want to become like that I always want my romance to be like you know 308 00:31:07.280 --> 00:31:14.240 wild and spontaneous and exciting but here's the thing we're 31 years closer to being the crinkly old 309 00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:20.080 couple walking down the sea front still faithful to our vows it isn't just lots and lots and lots 310 00:31:20.080 --> 00:31:27.120 of feelings that have got us there it is the disciplines of date nights and apologizing to one 311 00:31:27.120 --> 00:31:32.800 another and you know just speaking the truth in love and forgiving one and well that that's the 312 00:31:32.800 --> 00:31:39.280 stuff that gets you so same in your faith if you hope that just lots of feelings of Jesus feels so 313 00:31:39.280 --> 00:31:47.600 close and you know everything just feels wonderful that will run out but the disciplines of I 314 00:31:47.600 --> 00:31:53.120 know this is true sometimes I feel it sometimes I don't that's what keeps you going and then the 315 00:31:53.120 --> 00:31:57.120 feelings come and sometimes they go but then they always come back again if you keep doing doing 316 00:31:57.120 --> 00:32:02.480 this stuff so I think I think disciplines are essential and then the other thing is again we 317 00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:07.200 talked about it the importance of church one of the scriptures that meant I moved to join 318 00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:13.680 the church I mentioned earlier is this there's there's a brilliant scripture in Jeremiah that says 319 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:20.000 are you're like a tree are planted by a river that bears fruit in season and out of season it's 320 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:26.160 really interesting and I realized I remember I was in a park in an adapter in Danson Park it was 321 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:32.160 and God spoke to me one day and said you're like a tree that is only fruitful in season and I 322 00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:38.960 realized that's true I where like I was fruitful like I was leading the CU at university I had 323 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:45.040 smuggle bibles into China I'd driven trucks to Romania with wheelchairs so I was doing cool stuff 324 00:32:45.040 --> 00:32:49.360 I could think of doing for Jesus but I wasn't really in church and then what happened is my 325 00:32:49.360 --> 00:32:54.400 girlfriend chucked me or stuff went wrong I stopped being fruitful and God said I want you to be 326 00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:58.720 fruitful in season and out of season I'm like how does that happen and he said you have to 327 00:32:58.720 --> 00:33:04.560 plant it by a stream I'm like what does that mean I realize that's church when you're rooted in 328 00:33:04.560 --> 00:33:10.720 by something other than yourself God is able to feed you and minister to you and flow into your 329 00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:15.840 life when it's in season when it's easy but also when it's hard and that's why I was like I need to 330 00:33:15.840 --> 00:33:22.000 put down roots by a stream and I think there's a whole generation here that doesn't it shouldn't be 331 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:26.720 just out there trying to do cool stuff for Jesus but it needs to say where is a really good and 332 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:32.000 healthy not perfect but good and healthy place I can put down roots so I can be as fruitful as 333 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:38.720 God wants me to be so good and we're about to move into our little Q&A section 334 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:44.320 praise God the Q&A worked so I've been getting your questions I've been reading them I haven't 335 00:33:44.320 --> 00:33:49.840 just been on Instagram on my phone and so I've been reading through it praying which one should I 336 00:33:49.840 --> 00:33:55.360 ask and if you have any more questions please do send them in I'm going through it live 337 00:33:56.160 --> 00:34:02.080 the first one Pete you just mentioned then it's the the daily disciplines that keep you sustained 338 00:34:02.080 --> 00:34:07.600 for a really long time and there you know as with anything in the Bible there is slight nuance 339 00:34:07.600 --> 00:34:12.720 there is slight tension because also the Bible talks about how God wants to meet us in a new 340 00:34:12.720 --> 00:34:18.560 yeah and a fresh and a beautiful new way every day he's got something new for us 341 00:34:18.640 --> 00:34:27.040 it's so awesome and so exciting and and sometimes we know a lot and we're around church for many 342 00:34:27.040 --> 00:34:32.880 years I don't know if you grew up in church I grew up in church and I know all the textbook answers 343 00:34:32.880 --> 00:34:38.240 to most Christian questions I could say oh the answer to who built the ark is no 344 00:34:38.240 --> 00:34:44.400 love who win but sometimes we can then get over familiar with the Bible stories that we actually 345 00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:50.080 close ourselves off from believing that God can speak in a new way in the old scriptures 346 00:34:51.120 --> 00:34:57.920 and so the question on the q&a is beautiful how do you say how do you stay hungry and how do you 347 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:03.360 not get bored of or too familiar with teachings that you've already learned that you already know 348 00:35:03.360 --> 00:35:09.920 how do you remain like open to be spoken to in a new way such a great question 349 00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:15.600 one of the keys for me has been this thing electro divina so I'm going to if those don't I'll give you 350 00:35:15.600 --> 00:35:19.760 a crash course and this is an ancient ancient ancient way of praying the Bible you were never 351 00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:26.320 meant to study the Bible you always meant to use it as a way of really connecting with God devotionly 352 00:35:26.320 --> 00:35:31.600 and so it's more important to pray the Bible to meditate on the Bible than just to understand it 353 00:35:31.600 --> 00:35:35.200 it's important to understand it but you hear me you got to understand the heart as well 354 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:42.960 so electro divina you take a small bit of the Bible you read it several times 355 00:35:43.680 --> 00:35:49.120 like your brain will be like I've read that bit but you read it slowly and as you do so there's 356 00:35:49.120 --> 00:35:54.160 a number of kind of tricks that it or tools that you can use to then help bring that to light 357 00:35:54.160 --> 00:36:01.200 and one of them would be sometimes it works to say to use your different senses so say if it's 358 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:08.800 a Bible story that you've studied a million times at Sunday school like Jesus in the boat 359 00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:15.520 in the storm and you think I know this story I know exactly what happens but but if you read it 360 00:36:15.520 --> 00:36:21.760 two or three times through and anything like a what can I see and you're like oh well actually 361 00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:27.360 I the storm oh I can see the spray coming over the side of the boat and that's weird I can see a 362 00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:33.840 fish flapping around in the bottom of the boat huh they caught it they caught a fish and then oh 363 00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:38.720 there's a bit of blood coming out the fish and and and others Jesus asleep and I wonder what 364 00:36:38.720 --> 00:36:43.120 his head's resting on so you'll think about what you see and then it's like what can I hear and 365 00:36:43.120 --> 00:36:49.200 you're like I can hear that noise of the sail flapping in the wind and ropes and and bloke's yelling 366 00:36:49.200 --> 00:36:56.320 and and then here is strange like look at my taste and oh that damped the water the rain the sweat 367 00:36:56.560 --> 00:37:01.760 sweat coming off my and what what what what what can I and what can I smell well I can smell that 368 00:37:01.760 --> 00:37:10.560 fish and I can and I can and I can I can smell men's be oh because you know all you've done is 369 00:37:10.560 --> 00:37:15.280 gone through your senses but can you see how that old story is coming to life and you're kind of in 370 00:37:15.280 --> 00:37:20.880 it and so that that's one way of doing a lecture to be in the use of your senses now it doesn't 371 00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:25.840 work on some bits of the Bible because it's different types of literature another thing that you 372 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:33.600 can do with lecture divina is is read it saying which word or phrase is kind of jumping out of the 373 00:37:33.600 --> 00:37:39.680 page at me and I gave you an example of that earlier and then when it does turn that into a conversation 374 00:37:39.680 --> 00:37:50.080 with God and so technically the steps are you read and then and then you and then you meditate 375 00:37:50.080 --> 00:37:56.240 on what you're reading and then you turn it into it into a prep and where can we access this 376 00:37:56.240 --> 00:38:03.600 information well we have a free daily devotional app called lektio that's eddy ctio it's the 377 00:38:03.600 --> 00:38:10.240 Latin just for read lektio 365 you get it on wherever you get your apps from and it's gone a bit 378 00:38:10.240 --> 00:38:17.280 bonkers we have I think it's three hundred and seventy thousand people use it you know all the time 379 00:38:17.280 --> 00:38:23.280 so it's it's and it's available in various languages so that and that's just free that well that 380 00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:30.800 really will help you and we get the most incredible stories all the time and I know like you guys 381 00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:38.400 do with the way just amazing how God uses digital stuff yeah you're you're such just a well of 382 00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:44.720 wisdom I'm just like I'm learning so much somebody asked a question about collect the hardship 383 00:38:44.720 --> 00:38:49.920 and like suffering and kind of like we talked about how you know life with Jesus isn't always easy 384 00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:54.880 hey we live in the world it's not always easy to navigate and someone was asking about like how do I 385 00:38:54.880 --> 00:39:00.560 suffer well and how do I kind of like make it through the hard times with the promise of heaven 386 00:39:00.560 --> 00:39:06.080 in mind or maybe you've got had like promises from God like on your life that how do I suffer 387 00:39:06.080 --> 00:39:12.240 well with that also in mind how do I balance the tension of suffering but also like hey heaven 388 00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:18.240 hey God has blessings for me hey God has promises for me but how do I do that well whoever asked 389 00:39:18.240 --> 00:39:23.360 that question that is a phenomenal question I don't know if I've ever heard it phrase like that 390 00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:30.560 before but that's a brilliant question not how do I avoid suffering but how do I suffer well 391 00:39:30.560 --> 00:39:37.920 is it is an incredible question and you know over the years like everyone you know we we've 392 00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:47.280 definitely taken an ox and hardships and and and processed a lot of pain in lots of different ways 393 00:39:48.960 --> 00:39:53.040 that one of the things that we talk about more I mean very openly because some of it's quite 394 00:39:53.040 --> 00:40:00.080 private but is that Sammy there when our second son was seven weeks old Sammy got a massive 395 00:40:00.080 --> 00:40:08.640 brain tumor and it was the size of an orange in his skull and suddenly like the 24-some prayer 396 00:40:08.640 --> 00:40:12.960 movement was about a year or two old and we were just spreading all over the world and there's 397 00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:20.480 all this cool stuff happening and we were kind of the miracle people and then I watched Sammy's 398 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:25.120 well I went from thinking my prayers could save the world I'm wondering whether they could even 399 00:40:25.120 --> 00:40:35.840 save Sammy and like that that's it's very real like Sammy going into the MRI scanner to find out 400 00:40:35.840 --> 00:40:43.760 whether she was going to die or not the first time is so so scared that she you know puked all 401 00:40:43.760 --> 00:40:52.160 over this multi million pound you know machine and because when you go in the you're completely 402 00:40:52.160 --> 00:40:59.120 alone you can't even weigh your wedding ring that you just literally and it was like you had to 403 00:40:59.120 --> 00:41:04.080 be in about half an hour 40 minutes as long time and and we and we realized that's like the 404 00:41:04.080 --> 00:41:11.120 value of the shadow of death for us and so then she had to go back in and it's like how are you 405 00:41:11.120 --> 00:41:21.440 going to do it it's just so scary and she decided I'm going to memorize Psalm 91 which is this really 406 00:41:21.440 --> 00:41:27.360 cool Psalm that's got all these great lines in it about being under the shelter of his wings and 407 00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:34.080 with a long life I'll satisfy is this cool Psalm so she memorized long Psalm and she they will 408 00:41:34.080 --> 00:41:44.080 are back into the MRI and she just recited again and again Psalm 91 and when they pulled her out she 409 00:41:44.080 --> 00:41:50.000 said I met with God in there at yay though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death I'll 410 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:56.480 fear no evil way not because you pulled me out of it but because you were with me in the MRI tube 411 00:41:56.480 --> 00:42:03.280 right and so we were we were kind of going on a crash course of learning how to meet with God 412 00:42:03.280 --> 00:42:09.680 in our suffering how to suffer well not just how to use Christianity trying to avoid suffering at all 413 00:42:09.680 --> 00:42:16.160 costs yeah heal and make it go away cost out the demon deliver me you know that and um 414 00:42:17.120 --> 00:42:24.400 you know we we had to learn a lot I always say you know the best advice I ever had on 415 00:42:25.120 --> 00:42:30.480 on on prayer and this particularly applies to suffering is is this it's very simple it goes 416 00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:36.640 keep it simple keep it real keep it up so first of all don't be ashamed to praise simple simple 417 00:42:36.720 --> 00:42:47.280 prayers when you're suffering and honest prayers um you know keep it real but when Sammy was 418 00:42:49.040 --> 00:42:55.680 awaiting the brain surgery which as you can see she survived by the way we're incredibly lucky and 419 00:42:55.680 --> 00:43:00.240 I know lots of people you know have suffered much much more not something this is just our story 420 00:43:00.480 --> 00:43:06.640 but out the other side of the brain tumour then Sammy developed epilepsy and that's been our 421 00:43:06.640 --> 00:43:16.400 chronic illness battle now for decades and um and like quite serious epilepsy but as we were 422 00:43:16.400 --> 00:43:24.720 awaiting Sammy going into the surgery and we got a very very young baby and a toddler two three 423 00:43:24.720 --> 00:43:30.080 years old and I'm thinking am I one day gonna have to show them photographs of their mom and 424 00:43:30.080 --> 00:43:36.000 try and tell them what an amazing person she was and I was just so scared but I remember I 425 00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:44.000 one night my friend Dan came around to see me and we somehow we ended up we moved from talking to 426 00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:49.280 each other to actually pray we came pray I don't even it wasn't like now let's pray just somehow 427 00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:56.640 talking like this and I started addressing God and I prayed probably the most irreverent prayer of 428 00:43:56.640 --> 00:44:03.520 my life and it went something like this God I know I'm supposed to pray right now not my will but 429 00:44:03.520 --> 00:44:12.640 yours be done but I refuse I if you are planning to take my wife from me if you're planning to 430 00:44:12.640 --> 00:44:19.520 take a mother from her children if that's your plan I will fight you to the death for my wife 431 00:44:19.520 --> 00:44:26.160 you are not having her no deal I don't I said to God I don't care what you're with us I want to 432 00:44:26.160 --> 00:44:32.240 tell you what my will is and my will is that my wife doesn't die and I'm like I'm not just praying 433 00:44:32.240 --> 00:44:38.320 it like this I'm a ranting and raving tears flooding down my cheeks I'm pacing around the room 434 00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:42.560 my poor friend Dan is this thing he doesn't know if he's even allowed to say oh man at the end 435 00:44:42.560 --> 00:44:50.640 like it's so irreverent right and and and and Sammy survived and and I felt ashamed that in my 436 00:44:50.640 --> 00:44:58.880 guess ceremony I'd not been able to pray not my will but yours be done and God so kind and it was 437 00:44:58.880 --> 00:45:05.040 it was a while later that I just sensed or took me aside and said you know that you know that 438 00:45:05.040 --> 00:45:11.760 you know that prayer you prayed that night Pete I'm like yeah here we go and uh 439 00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:21.280 and he just said to me uh he said I loved that you prayed like that because I didn't want 440 00:45:21.280 --> 00:45:27.440 other go either and I think sometimes we think we're fighting against God we're actually fighting 441 00:45:27.440 --> 00:45:34.560 a with God against a very very broken world and he loves us and he's with us so keep it simple 442 00:45:34.640 --> 00:45:40.240 keep it real you can be real about half the Psalms aren't happy clappy they're messy they're 443 00:45:40.240 --> 00:45:46.080 lament right keep it super keep it real and keep it up sometimes you just mustn't give up praying 444 00:45:46.080 --> 00:45:56.400 one prayer too soon it's a beautiful story of God coming alongside you sustaining you 445 00:45:56.960 --> 00:46:07.040 thank you thanks for sharing thanks honestly thank you and praise God for miracles and him in 446 00:46:07.040 --> 00:46:17.360 him step in and the the next question is around walking away from highs in life and someone was 447 00:46:17.360 --> 00:46:25.120 asking about how it's very easy to meet with God and be fed spiritually when you're at something 448 00:46:25.200 --> 00:46:29.760 like a festival something like wildfires something like church and then Monday morning hits 449 00:46:30.640 --> 00:46:35.520 there was one person that mentioned I have to go back to school wow no one knows like my 450 00:46:35.520 --> 00:46:40.320 context that how do I stay spiritually on it in this place of all places someone else 451 00:46:40.320 --> 00:46:46.640 talked about work like how do I keep the fire burning how do I stay focused on God hungry for God 452 00:46:46.640 --> 00:46:52.560 expectant of God when actually everyone around me doesn't know God then on Christians and actually 453 00:46:52.560 --> 00:46:58.560 they're distracting me and taking me away from Jesus rather than pointing me towards Jesus and this 454 00:46:58.560 --> 00:47:06.000 is a question that I've struggled with as I've gone to Christian festivals and come home and suddenly 455 00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:12.400 faith doesn't feel as real and on fire but it actually feels quite small and distant and how do we 456 00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:19.120 keep the fire burning and how do we keep looking to Jesus even when we're kind of surrounded by 457 00:47:19.680 --> 00:47:24.320 other voices other distractions and non-Christians who are kind of trying to pull us away from God 458 00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:33.920 great question best present I was ever given was a puppy like a little cute Labrador 459 00:47:33.920 --> 00:47:43.120 pup I mean this is the sweetest thing ever and you can imagine I loved it to bits but if I just 460 00:47:43.120 --> 00:47:47.280 loved him so much I just stuck him in a cupboard and locked him up and thought I'll take him out 461 00:47:47.360 --> 00:47:52.480 once in a while to play with that beautiful puppy would have become a very dead 462 00:47:53.440 --> 00:48:02.640 smelly not nice thing you have to walk the dog train the dog feed the dog love the dog 463 00:48:04.160 --> 00:48:08.640 it's like you've been given something amazing but you've really really got to take care of it 464 00:48:08.640 --> 00:48:12.720 and I think when you come to things like this it's like God gives you something really amazing 465 00:48:13.360 --> 00:48:21.360 but then you have to do something with what he has given you not say I must be given a puppy 466 00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:26.320 every day or every week but God has given you something now what are you going to do with it so 467 00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:31.520 what that means is firstly 468 00:48:34.240 --> 00:48:40.960 keep living in the glow of what God has said to you like like if God said something to you in 469 00:48:40.960 --> 00:48:48.480 the Casuar Adams Adams thing earlier you know write it down stick it on your fridge put it on 470 00:48:48.480 --> 00:48:55.760 your phone pray about it every day that's one way of keeping the puppy alive if you know one of the 471 00:48:55.760 --> 00:49:01.920 keys to events like this is actually the friendships well set up a WhatsApp group or arranged 472 00:49:01.920 --> 00:49:06.400 like say hey I'm worried about going home from this I don't have many Christian friends at home 473 00:49:06.480 --> 00:49:13.600 could we maybe just meet like this time next week I'm just pray together you know you know we 474 00:49:13.600 --> 00:49:19.360 need fellowship so that's another way of keeping that the puppy alive and you know it wouldn't 475 00:49:19.360 --> 00:49:24.720 be healthy to continue to live on mountaintop experiences it's actually good thing to come down 476 00:49:24.720 --> 00:49:30.720 and go into the valleys but you need the times of intense experience but then you also need the 477 00:49:30.720 --> 00:49:37.680 times you just outwork it day to day and remember that you know of course when you're surrounded by 478 00:49:37.680 --> 00:49:45.120 loads of Christians it should be pretty good but you are a missionary in your school you are a 479 00:49:45.120 --> 00:49:50.480 pastor and a priest and a prophet in your classroom and if you're the only Christian that means 480 00:49:50.480 --> 00:49:56.240 you are the hope of that classroom God has put you there you're the one who's probably going to 481 00:49:56.240 --> 00:50:01.040 be more forgiving he's going to be kinder you're going to be the one at the party holding their 482 00:50:01.040 --> 00:50:06.000 hair back as they puke down the toilet bulbs who had too much to drink because you're a follower of 483 00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:12.560 Jesus you're going to be the one who's who's telling them about Jesus you're the one who's praying for 484 00:50:12.560 --> 00:50:18.160 them you know the one who when you hear something's gone wrong for someone say hey I want to pray 485 00:50:18.160 --> 00:50:22.720 for you and then you don't just say that you say them next time I was praying for you how does it 486 00:50:22.720 --> 00:50:29.360 going and so you become like the mountain top experience for them and here's the thing 487 00:50:29.360 --> 00:50:34.080 Joe I call John when we say the meat is on the street and what he meant was it's actually when 488 00:50:34.080 --> 00:50:39.040 you go out on the street you get into the classroom you get you know into your non-Christian family 489 00:50:39.040 --> 00:50:46.560 and you do the stuff that actually you grow and you mature so you know keep the puppy alive 490 00:50:46.880 --> 00:50:54.240 it's so practical and so so helpful and I don't want to be a man who locks what God has given 491 00:50:55.040 --> 00:51:01.760 in a cupboard to protect it I want to be able to steward it use it try it and even I don't 492 00:51:02.480 --> 00:51:07.600 as we saw half the people were in the room for the session before and would have heard the 493 00:51:07.600 --> 00:51:13.840 cattie said part of walking out your faith isn't letting failure stop you but it's letting that 494 00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:20.320 be a part of the process and it's about not being scared to accidentally feed the puppy chocolate 495 00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:25.520 if you're trying to do it right I mean that's a weird analogy but it kind of makes sense doesn't it 496 00:51:25.520 --> 00:51:31.600 it does I'm told some dogs are genuinely allergic to chocolate this is nothing to do with wildfires 497 00:51:31.600 --> 00:51:35.200 this is just a bit of veterinary advice so you got a dog trying not to give it chocolate yeah don't 498 00:51:35.200 --> 00:51:40.080 give the chocolate that was encouragement it was a metaphor but but we have had dogs that have 499 00:51:40.080 --> 00:51:47.760 eaten chocolate and have survived so don't panic as well I'm going to be honest do we feed chocolate 500 00:51:47.760 --> 00:51:55.680 do we not eat chocolate eat the chocolate yourself and now it's so helpful and and again just to 501 00:51:55.680 --> 00:52:02.240 reemphasize how we intro to it Pete is someone who's walked with Jesus for for many many decades 502 00:52:02.240 --> 00:52:08.320 for many many decades and these are the the tips the advice and how we can walk out our faith 503 00:52:08.320 --> 00:52:12.720 similarly it's through the daily rhythms it's through the daily disciplines not being afraid 504 00:52:12.720 --> 00:52:19.840 to find our own way with God and we're coming to a close now I appreciate we didn't get through all 505 00:52:19.840 --> 00:52:24.720 the question and answers there were there were lots on there there was stuff about relationships 506 00:52:24.720 --> 00:52:32.080 there was stuff about XYZ but before we end and just want to say big thank you Pete thank you so 507 00:52:32.080 --> 00:52:38.640 much I'm going to give it a round of applause so fun and so can we just can we just stretch out 508 00:52:38.640 --> 00:52:45.120 our hand to Pete and we'll just pray for him yeah Lord thank you so much for Pete how much he's 509 00:52:45.120 --> 00:52:51.040 poured out in this session and yeah Pete as as you walked in I actually had this sense that 510 00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:56.160 the Lord wants to invite you into newness and a new wave of encountering his presence 511 00:52:57.040 --> 00:53:02.400 and and so Lord we just bless that we thank you for the work that he's done but we pray well it 512 00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:07.600 just also be the beginning yeah although there'll be stories that he tells in 10 20 years of how 513 00:53:07.600 --> 00:53:14.240 this past decade this past two decades has has shaped and formed him and brought such beauty to his 514 00:53:14.240 --> 00:53:20.240 faith and and yeah Lord we just pray will you fill him up to do everything that you want him to do 515 00:53:20.880 --> 00:53:26.240 or your Holy Spirit rest on him and we just thank you for his vulnerability thank you for his 516 00:53:26.240 --> 00:53:32.880 secret about his secret place and and we pray for more of you in his walk with you in the name of 517 00:53:32.880 --> 00:53:41.040 Jesus amen amen guys thanks for coming that was awesome thanks yes love to have him yeah thank 518 00:53:41.040 --> 00:53:48.240 both of you and we'll see you later bye everyone