It’s Elim Missions Sunday. But, I want to start with the story of THE ELIM PENTECOSTAL CHURCH
The Elim Pentecostal Church was founded in 1915 by a Welshman in Monaghan Ireland.
George Jeffreys was an outstanding evangelist and church planter.
He came from a Welsh Congregational Church background and was strongly influenced by the Welsh Revival of 1904.
Our name ‘Elim’ is taken from the book of Exodus where the Israelites, exhausted from their escape from Egypt, arrived at an oasis in the desert called Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. Exodus 15.27.
While many traditional churches and denominations were shrinking, The Elim Movement grew rapidly, it really was a place of spiritual refreshment.
So what about Missions work?
Between 1915 and 1934, George Jeffreys was involved in some amazing evangelistic missions.
This unknown preacher would commence a mission with a mere handful of people, and by the end of the week, thousands would queue for a seat.
Amazing miracles of healing were taking place.
And after the missions, large churches were planted.
The Elim Movement continued to grow and today there are just over 600 churches in the UK and we Elim is active in nearly 50 countries around the world.
ELIM INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS was birthed in the spirit of evangelism and church planting.
As early as 1922, Missionaries were sent out to Africa.
In 1929, The Elim Missionary Society was founded.
After the Second World War ended in 1945, missionaries went out to many countries in Africa, South America and Asia.
We are committed never to forget the sacrifice that our missionaries made in the Vumba Massacre on the 23rd June 1978.
The memory of them is our inspiration to keep going into all the world with the Gospel.
Throughout June 2015, would you join us in giving to and praying for our missionaries and partners involved in church planting overseas?
Now known as Elim International Missions, our missionaries may face different situations in different countries, but all of them have the same aim -
to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ.
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This month we have been encouraging people to support the work of Elim Missions.
Your tithes and offerings this morning will also be given to support the work of Elim Missions.
£1 in the UK probably won’t get you very far:
maybe small cup of tea, a pack of crisps, or a couple of bananas.
But around the world your £1 could be someone else’s lifeline.
If each of us gave just £1 a week, or £4 a month to Elim Missions its amazing the impact it could have.
We missionaries serving across 5 continents and we are also partnered with a number of Emergency Relief organisations and churches around the world.
So this month please help our missionaries, their ministries and projects, church planting, training, teaching, healthcare.
We can be participants in the Mission that Christ has given to His Church,
to go into all the world with the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus Christ is the only way of Salvation.
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Next year a number of our youth are hoping to go on a short Term mission trip on the coast of France.
Elim Missions, Surf Church and Elim’s Youth Work Serious4God have joined together to take a group of 16-30 year old on a week of serving and worship (with a little surfing if they manage to get some spare time).
It’s a week long missions experience, in Hossegor, France and young people from all over Europe will experience how mission life for themselves.
Daily devotions - Beach mission - Helping at Surf Church - Worship nights - Evangelism training - Seeing the amazing sight of lives being changed and transformed by God - Surfing and serving God!
“A person doesn’t have to live a long life to make a huge impact in the world. A person just needs to be willing to lose it for christ.”
Can you imagine our young people being so passionate about the lost people of the world?
Can you imagine our young people forsaking their own ambitions and careers to gain a greater prize?
Can you imagine our young people learning a new language so that they can communicate with those who have never heard the truth of the Gospel?
Can you imagine our young people speaking out of their own experience a divine message that will continue into their next generation?
Here’s the thing.
Our young people need to raise the funds to pay for the trip.
For travel, food and accommodation each of them will need about £500.
Can I ask you to pray about their fund raising?
Can I also ask if you would prayerfully consider if you could financially in any way over the next 12 months?
Every penny and pound we can contribute will help them to experience Serving God in a Missions context, and who knows - they may be so moved by their time there God may call them into full time Mission Work for His honour and Glory.
We are living in days when the Holy Spirit is calling our young people to do something more than what is being offered to them from within their world.
God is calling young people within Elim into global mission - this could be a defining moment in time - seeing a young generation not just called but sent as missionaries.
Can you imagine the impact this would have on the world?
Let’s take a moment to pray together for the work of Mission. ============================
SERMON
It’s Missions Sunday and it’s also “Father’s Day”.
It is a day that has only been celebrated for about 50 years ago.
Fathers Day has become another card and gift buying occasion.
It has become another opportunity for shops to make money by selling pointless stuff at inflated prices.
But, Fathers Day is meant to be the day of the year when we are supposed to honour our fathers and our grandfathers.
In the Bible in one of the Ten Commandments God gave Moses for the people of Israel was: “Honour your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
The dictionary defines “Honour” as ‘to regard with great respect.’
But sadly, for some, that is a very difficult thing to do.
In the modern, mixed-up, sinful world we live in there are many children whose fathers are absent fathers, and there are many people whose experience of their earthly father has been negative.
In my own life, I never really knew my biological father.
Between birth and the age of nine, I only remember seeing him 3-4 times. I would love to be able to say that those times were good times but I honestly don’t remember much about them.
I know there was one occasion when we went with my mum on a day trip to Southend.
And there was another trip we took to see one of the many half-brothers and sisters he had created with someone.
And there was an occasion when I visited him in hospital while he was recovering from a particularly bad alcoholic episode.
And that was the last time I ever saw my biological father.
I couldn’t tell you anything important about him.
I couldn’t tell you anything nice about him.
And it is pretty impossible for me to honour someone who I have never been in a real relationship with.
Actually, it’s pretty hard to honour someone when you don’t even know if they are still alive or dead.
Yet the Bible commands me, commands us to Honour our fathers.
When I was nine my mum married a man called Richard and he became my step-father.
He was not perfect, but he loved me, it’s easier for me to honour Him.
My step-father brought me up, he corrected me in love, he looked after me, he cared for me. He taught me.
When I was sixteen, I met another father for the first time, Father God.
Father God was and is perfect, He loves me,
He corrects me, He looks after me, He teaches me,
He leads me, He cares for me, He has a perfect plan for me.
Father God is someone I can fully honour every day of my life, Father God is someone I can respect every day of my life, Father God is someone I can be in relationship with everyday of my life.
Every day we experience His presence, His Mercy and His Grace.
He has promised to never leave us or forsake us.
He is with us in the good times and the bad.
On dark days and happy day and average days,
He is Our Gracious Heavenly Father and He loves us and cares for us more than any human parent ever could.
Father God is worthy of all our honour, all our praise, all our worship today and everyday isn’t he? =====
Let me tell you a story:
There was a family with three small children who
really, really wanted a puppy.
The children nagged their mother day after day, “please can we have a puppy?”
“Please.” “Please Mum.”
“Can we have a puppy PLEASE?”
The mother did not want a puppy.
With everything she already did in the house,
she knew she would be the one who would end up looking after the puppy.
But the children promised they would look after the puppy, they would feed it, they would walk it,
they would wash it, they would train it.
So, being a loving mother, she said they could get a puppy.
And the next day mum went and bought a puppy.
The children named the puppy Danny.
And as promised they took care of him.
But, as the days went by, Mum found herself becoming more and more responsible for taking care of the dog.
It got to the point where mum decided that the children had not kept their promise and it was becoming too difficult for her to find the time to look after the dog.
So the mother began to look for a new home for Danny and when she found one and she told the children Danny would have to go.
The mum was a little surprised by the lack of reaction from the children.
No tears, no protests, no complaints.
One of them just said “Oh well. We will miss him.”
“I’m sure we will,” the mother said, “but he is too much work for one person and since I’m the one that has to do all the work, I say he goes.”
Then on of the kids asked “What if he didn’t eat so much or if he wasn’t so messy, could we keep him?”
Mum held her ground and said, “It’s time to take Danny to his new home.”
Suddenly, with one voice and with tears in their eyes, the children shouted, “Danny? We thought you said Daddy!”
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It may be a funny story, but its also a sad story too. The puppy had more of a place in the children’s lives than their father.
Maybe they chose to reject his love.
Or, Maybe he was always too busy, maybe he was always working, maybe he was more absent than present.
Perhaps he was not someone they could look up to.
Maybe he was not a good role model.
Humanly speaking, who do you look up to?
Who is a role model for you?
Who inspires you to become the best you can be?
Is there a male film star or TV celebrity you enjoy watching?
Is there a male singer you think is great?
Is there a male chef you’d love to prepare a meal for you?
OK. That was pretty easy.
Maybe we could even go as far as saying that you regard those men with great respect - you honour them.
Here are a few more questions - you might want to just answer them in your head this time.
Is there a male teacher who inspired you?
Is there a male friend who has helped you?
Is there a male relative who you look up to, or a
male member of the family who has loved and cared for you?
See, for some of us, our biological fathers may not have been the best male role models we have ever experienced.
But there are others that we can honour almost like a step-father.
Our human fathers may have been imperfect.
But in the Bible, we have the best example of who a perfect father really is.
The God who Jesus describes as Our Father in Heaven
A Gracious Father who keeps on loving us even when we refuse his help.
A Gracious father who sometimes says ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ to discipline us for our own good
Produce the couple of presents wrapped up, asking what they think is inside - perhaps let some have a feel and take a guess.
Jesus once said that if this present was from your father, would you expect him to give you a cuddly... scorpion? Or a cuddly... snake?
Of course not.
Even a bad father wouldn’t be so unkind. If that’s true of earthly fathers, then how more eager will God, our heavenly Father, be to give us good things.
Get someone to unwrap the presents.
God is the perfect father who is wiling and able to give good gifts to us His children.
God is the pattern for being the very best parent ever and we can find good father figures in many different kinds of people.
For a young man called Timothy in the Bible, the apostle Paul was like a father to him, even though they weren’t related (2 Timothy 2:1).
For an even younger teenager called John Mark in the Bible, his older cousin Barnabas was like a father (Acts 15:36-39).
And Jesus had a step father called Joseph who loved Him and cared for Him too (Luke 2:51-52).
Friends... cousins... stepfathers... teachers... coaches... dads... even church pastors...
I wonder who you could thank today because they have been like ‘a father’ to you.
Today lets each take the opportunity to honour the fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and all the men who have filled important roles in our lives and the lives of our families and our church.
But above all let’s honour our Heavenly Father for His love, His Mercy and His Grace.
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Just before we sing our final song I want us to say the Lord’s prayer together.
And I want us to do it with some actions!
So we start with Our Father i will run through once then we can say and do it together.
1 Our Father in heaven- Praying hands
2 Holy is your name - heads bowed
3 Your kingdom come - make a gesture of invitation
4 Your will be done - a salute
5 On earth - make a circle with two hands
6 As it is in heaven - Point at the sky
7 Give us today our dailybread-hands out to receive
8 Forgive us our sins - hands on heart
9 as we forgive others - shake hands
10 Lead us away from temptation - blinkers
11 And deliver us from evil - Hold hand up stopsign
12 For yours is the kingdom - spread arms wide
13 the power - muscles
14 and the glory- Jazz hands
15 Forever and ever - draw a large circle with one hand several times
16 Amen - clap your hands
Let’s close by singing: ‘Father God, I wonder how’
