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John Kirkby, founder of Christians Against Poverty
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21st
May 2017
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You Never Know …
[We started with a Kerith #mystory
video of Alan and Ruth, describing how CAP and Christians had helped them. It’s a good backdrop to what John has to say,
so you might like to watch it on youtube at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dZdiVF1dSto]
You have no
idea what happens when you do simple things – God may use you to do something
that may profoundly affect a life, even a generation – and change your life too.
God can, does and is using everything that happens to his glory.
John Kirkby
has been a Christian for 25 years, and its 21 years since he founded CAP.
He’s very
aware that life falls into repetitive rhythms – another opportunity to give, to
pray, to serve, each very like the last.
That’s true of CAP – he’s done over 1000 ‘asks’ for CAP and there’s loads
more to come. It’s just as true of family life – John has had children under 10
for the last 30 years so he feels that one quite keenly too!
Even things
that start off exciting, like foreign travel, can feel boring and repetitive
with time. What was once a pleasure
becomes a chore, but also a stretch and a challenge to us to keep going. If we’re to do that, we need to need to come
back to God for strength, inspiration, freshness, and the motivation to keep
going – or in some cases to start going(!).
John
doesn’t want to get to heaven only to look back and feel there was more he
could have done.
We need to be
pushed in serving God. (Again, John
speaks from experience - as well as CAP, John also founded a church 9 years ago. He now styles himself the ‘reluctant elder’).
For some,
life has quenched the fire that used to burn.
We need continually to be reminded by God to “keep the main thing the
main thing”, and keep the important things to the fore. Three simple phrases
can keep us going:
“You never know …”
“Just maybe …”
·
Just
maybe today someone’s going to take this message to heart.
·
Just
maybe today a life will be saved
“The next …”
·
Time
to talk
·
Time
to serve
·
Time
life group meets
·
May be
significantly used by God.
There was
an evening when John was keen to get home from church, but on the way home he was
intercepted by someone he knew.
Reluctantly he paused to speak.
The man had a need, and a story to tell, and they prayed together. 3 weeks later someone else passed on a
message from that man, explaining that things had worked out for him as they
had prayed, and he was coming to church.
This week …
·
You
could invite someone to church. Yes they
might say no, but “just maybe …” this is the right time and they’re keen to
come.
25 years ago,
one man spoke to someone who looked all together on the outside, but was
falling apart inside. It was only an
invite to a BBQ, and then an invite to church – but it ended up with John being
saved and later baptised. Derek, the
person who baptised him, was also an encourager and a faithful giver and helper
in the early days of CAP. Only small
things, but they meant a lot.
So many
people did small things for CAP - encouraging, praying, supporting. Some people didn’t do apparently small things.
That’s OK – Jesus never left John on his
own – but it’s also their loss; they were not part of something that today has
helped 600000 people, and saves 1000 people each year worldwide.
Ecclesiastes
11:1-6 in the Message version (with John’s commentary interspersed):
Be generous: Invest in acts of
charity.
Charity yields high returns.
Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around.
Be a blessing to others. This could
be your last night.
JK – don’t be
too melodramatic, but take that immediacy on board as an attitude of heart –
don’t put good deeds off.
When the clouds are full of water,
it rains.
When the wind blows down a tree, it
lies where it falls.
Don’t sit there watching the wind.
Do your own work.
Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on
with your life.
JK - I’m
going to put all sorts of droplets in the air, so they can be part of the rain.
Don’t just sit there watching the winds … get on with your life and do
something!
Just as you’ll never understand
the mystery
of life forming in a pregnant woman,
So you’ll never understand
the mystery
at work in all that God does.
Go to work in the morning
and stick to
it until evening without watching the clock.
You never know from moment to moment
how your
work will turn out in the end.
JK - I’m
going to keep on serving him - he is my Master, I will do what he wants. I help
at a food bank at times, talking to those who com it. It’s not about second-guessing what God might
be doing (“is this the significant one?”), just treating people as people;
talking, listening, and praying with people in need.
3 years
ago, John was on holiday, chilling, and glad to be ‘off duty’. A lady recognised him. They didn’t speak then, but at church that
evening the same lady was there. JK
wanted privacy, but “just maybe”, and so they chatted over coffee. Today that lady is a market trader for CAP; 60
people have been helped through her, and 17 saved.
Hear the
call, and remember. “You never know”, “just
maybe”, and if you want encouragement as to where those small things may lead,
you need only look around at the lives that have been changed in and by this
church.
Questions:
How can you
keep that sense of urgency, that freshness, that readiness to believe that “You
never know …” when something you do will be used by God?
How can you
encourage or challenge others to step out thinking “just maybe”, and be encouraged
or challenged in turn?
What can
you do at “the next” opportunity to enlarge God’s kingdom?
·
Invite
people round?
·
Speak
to a work colleague?
·
Offer
to pray?
·
Serve
on a team?
