Sunday 2nd April - A Different Frequency - Ian Harding

foreign [Music] [Music] hello there and a super warm welcome to C3 Sunderland online my name is Kat and I'm with my husband Ian we have the incredible privilege of pastoring this wonderful Community right in the city center of Sunderland the best city in the whole entire universe and we're so thrilled to have you tuning in with us online today we are a church that exists for Christ for people and for our city and we are so passionate about helping one another grow in our Vital connection to God our Vital connection with each other and our Vital connection to the world around us if you're joining us today hey why not take a moment to reach out and say hello we would love to connect with you and if you jump on our website there is a form right there on the home page it says get connected just take a couple of seconds to fill out a few details just means we can reach out and say hello in real life not just in this online space and it also means we can keep you in the loop of everything that's coming up in the life of our church this week we are very excited it is Holy Week we are on the run up till Easter Sunday and we are going to be celebrating in style this weekend on Sunday morning we have our usual Sunday Gathering taking place at Diego's joint we have a beautiful baby dedication and we're also going to be sharing communion together as a church family so we would love to encourage you why not come and join us in person at 10 30 a.m at Diego's joints the second thing is that in the evening we have an Easter night of worship this is taking place at 5 00 pm at the beautiful venue which is 1719 right in the East End of the city we're going to have such a beautiful time as we carve out space to worship God to celebrate Resurrection Sunday and to just be together in his presence lifting up his name hey come and join us everybody is welcome this is open to absolutely anyone bring your friends bring your family bring your goldfish and we're in for a great night but in the meantime right now I'm going to hand you over to Pastor Ian who is wrapping up the series that we've been in for the last few weeks called the second space so let's get ready to hear the word this morning good morning everyone lovely to see you all I'm here um and uh yeah it is uh we have been over the past um a number of weeks um in a series that we have been calling the second space and today um is our final installment so it's our our final time kind of like looking um and exploring this particular concept and this particular idea um and so I'm just really really excited um to be doing that there we go I've got everything all set up fantastic so um just to kind of catch you up during this particular assault um preaching series and teaching series what we've been looking at we've exploring this idea that Jesus has designed us to meet him in more than one space and as we've been unpacking this idea um one of the points that we've been making um is that actually Jesus has designed us so that there are spaces where we meet Jesus where it's for encounter but actually there is also a second space and this is where our encounter and where Jesus impacts Us in that gathering on a Sunday that the second space is groups whereby God actually wants us to take our relationship and to take our encounter into a place where we deepen and grow and today I want to wrap up this series by exploring an idea which I believe um is something that God is moving in in the church right now and he's calling us to step into all the more the title of this morning's message is simply this a different frequency now um I recognize that the title might sound just a little bit cryptic but um stick with me because as I unpack this very quickly and it's all gonna make sense there are different frequencies of Prayer um I am of an age whereby I remember uh radios that used to have um a dial that you turned has anyone ever seen these like you know like on on those movies you probably didn't have one we did um but you had like you had the radio and the amazing thing about it was you would turn the dial and then suddenly you'd find a radio station it would be clear as day but then if you continue to turn the dial the radio station would get more and more crackly until all you were hearing was static and noise and even now like I'm speaking through a microphone this microphone works because there's a frequency that this is on and then the receiver is on the same frequency change the frequency of the receiver though and suddenly the microphone doesn't work it's the same when it comes to prayer there are different frequencies of Prayer here's just a few that you may recognize there's the frequency of worship and adoration there's the frequency of petition this is where we come to God and we ask God for things for things that we know we can't do for ourselves there's the frequency of communion you know those kind of prayers that you have where it's about you and Jesus and your meeting face to face it's what we see frequently in the life of Jesus where it says Jesus went away by himself to go up to somewhere else and to pray towards his father in Heaven this is the frequency of communion where we commune we learn how to be with Jesus there's the frequency of Thanksgiving where we come before God and we thank God because God has done something amazing in our world and we just want to come before him we just want to thank him we're saying God thank you so much that you've done this thank you so much for this this change thank you so much for this promotion there's the frequency of Praise where we just want to praise God for who he is not because of something he's done necessarily in our life we want to praise him for who he is this is the frequency of surrender you know those prayers that you have where you realize that God is speaking to you and you say you come before God and you say God right now I Surrender whatever that thing is the frequency of confession when we come before God and we say God I'm sorry is the frequency of intercession where we come before God not because of something that we need but because there is someone we love and they need something and that we know God is the ultimate source of everything I sometimes think though when it comes to prayer there's the frequency of doubt the kind of prayers that we pray to God where we're like God I'm just not sure God if I'm honest I'm struggling to believe this is the frequency of Lament and we see this frequency throughout the Psalms well we come before God and we bring our pain we bring our trauma we bring our struggle because we know that God has invited us to bring it to him because he wants to hear it there's the frequency of Faith you know those kind of prayers my God puts a seed of something on the inside of you and you're like I'm going to pray the prayer of faith as the frequency of agreement you know when someone else prays and you pray in agreement with what they just prayed now amen now I've noticed and that's part that's pretty much what amen is amen is I agree now I've noticed that no matter who you are and every single one of you in this room will have a natural tendency towards a certain frequency there's a kind of frequency in prayer which feels like a natural gear for you for some of you that natural frequency is the frequency of lament you're like I really love bringing all of my problems to God I've always felt that like God is one of those people I can come and I can bring him just my authentic self with all of my junk and I just get it out in prayer for some of you you're kind of like those people you're like I'm a prayer of kind of worship and praise kind of person so when you come to pray your natural frequency is praise your natural frequency is adoration and worship and the reason I bring this to your attention is the fact that I think as Christians part of our journey when it comes to prayer is is we have a natural frequency that we all have and then part of our growth journey is that we actually discover that there are different frequencies of prayer on what we grow in and what we deepen in and what we mature in is we learn how to pray in a different frequency we learn that there are other frequencies of prayer and we become moradette at praying in those frequencies oh [Music] the reason I want to bring this message this morning is because I do believe fundamentally that the timing of this message right now in 2023 is prophetic because I believe that the holy spirit is moving in his church worldwide and one of the things that he is calling us to is he is calling us to discover or ReDiscover or prioritize a different frequency I believe the holy spirit is speaking to the church worldwide and he is saying it's time Church to discover to ReDiscover to prioritize a different frequency when it comes to prayer I believe that we are on the edge of a move of the Holy Spirit but here's the thing as we are on the edge of a move of the Holy Spirit we are going to need to discover we are going to need to prioritize this different frequency of prayer sometimes when the Holy Spirit is moving what the holy spirit is saying is saying look I know that this is your intuitive natural frequency but it's now time for you to adjust the set it's now time for you to tune into where I am at it's time for you to get a different frequency and one of the frequencies when it comes to prayer that I feel that in this season that we're in as a church worldwide that God is calling us to is the frequency of praying together I want to make it clear that like what I'm saying here it's probably not something new like you're probably like yeah I've heard about praying together but here's the thing sometimes when God does something new it's not about the fact that he wants us to discover something new it's that he wants us to join him and partner with him where he is right now by the power of the Holy Spirit and what he's actually often doing is he's saying no I want you to come into alignment with where I am and I want you to reset your frequency to where I am for every single one of us right now I know that whatever you're going through you will be tuned into a particular frequency what I believe the holy spirit is saying right now it's time for you to re-tune your spirit into the Holy Spirit and into where God is at and if we decide to do that as a church Community here in Sunderland I believe that the wells that have been dug in this place through the prayers over the generations I Believe prophetically by the holy spirit that we are about to see the wells burst open we are about to see the Holy Spirit poured out on his people renewing the church from the inside out and that this is the season where the Holy Spirit wants to move and he is saying to us will you tune your spirit to the different frequency this is something we see all the way through the early Church in actual Fact one of the things that as I've been preparing for this message that has struck me is that in terms of the frequency of prayer that the church the early church actually demonstrates the frequency that they demonstrate more often than any other type of frequency of prayer is the power of praying together it seems like the church understood in a way which I think we've kind of slightly stepped away from and forgotten because we live in such an individualistic age we live in a moment in history where we're where we have um read and we have consumed books about how can how I can improve my own personal prayer life how can how I can improve my own individual walk with God we have forgotten the fact that Jesus calls us to be a body of believers who come together who pray together and who understand that when we pray together there is something that happens when we pray together that cannot happen when we pray on our own that there are times there are seasons where God calls us to pray together because the breakthroughs and the answers that we are looking for will not happen any other way and right now I believe that this is this is the movement that we're in as the Church of Jesus Christ you know we have come to a point where we have tried so many different strategies we have read leadership and strategy books until they have come out of our ears and still I would say particularly in the west there are so many of us who hunger for a deeper more authentic connection with Christ and we're like Christ Jesus we have hungered and thirsted after you but we're not seeing the move of the Holy Spirit and I feel like what the holy spirit is saying or the holy spirit is saying to us is saying I have something new for the church but I want you to get a different frequency I want you to tune into where I am at are you willing are you in a space where having chased everything you can do are you finally willing to say Jesus we don't know what to do and you have to use that lyric we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you come back to the Simplicity of saying Jesus our eyes are on you not my eyes our eyes are on you we are coming to you to pray together because there are breakthroughs and there are answers that only come when we come together let me take you to a couple of examples acts 4 verse 23 to 24. as soon as they were freed Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and the eldest had said when they heard the report read this all the Believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God a move of the Holy Spirit begins when Peter and John come back to the church and they bring what has happened to them they bring their Rapport and then the whole church prays together look again acts 16 verse 25 to 26 Paul and Silas are in a jail look at what they do around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God they are praying together as they pray together if you read the following verses you see um the the you see that the present is shaken the doors fly open and God does something Supernatural look at this acts 12 verse 5 but while Peter was in prison the church that you me everyone here prayed very earnestly for him it seems to me that the early church understood the power of praying together they believed that when we prayed together something happened they believed not only that prayer was a space where they individually could meet and encounter God they believed that when they prayed together there was something about the way in which the dynamic of Faith came together and the faith of one person joined with the faith of another person which joined with the faith of another person that actually enabled the spirit to be awoken on the inside of us and we got a different vision for what God could do and we broke through that barrier whereby we're saying God but it's so impossible it's so difficult I can't see how you could possibly change this circumstance and their voice joined together collectively and they got a different voice because they were tuned to a different frequency they were no longer speaking in the power of human beings they were speaking in the voice of God and as they spoke in the voice of God like we see throughout scripture when we speak speak in the voice of God light comes into dark places where people are sick people get well where people are cowed by addiction where people are carried by anxiety and worry and fear the love of Jesus Christ comes and when the love of Jesus Christ comes it banishes those things it breaks people free and right now I believe what the holy spirit is saying to us is the church he's saying will you wake up will you decide that it now is the time for you to position yourselves where the holy spirit is and where the holy spirit is is he is there saying to us church will you bring nothing more than yourself but pray together and say Jesus what do you want to do you know when you read the histories of revivals you actually realize they're really weird you know I think as human beings we get so attached like mechanisms so we're like oh let's have a look at this revival that happened oh I noticed they did this and they did this and they did this and they did this and so what we do is we basically just like we brand it and we copy it so we're like right there were three candles on the table right I'm gonna put three candles on the table and somebody was wearing an E4 so you know like everyone in church suddenly starts wearing efods you know like it's the 21st century and you're like why are you wearing first century clothing again because but oh there was this revival and we just get so attached to the methodology that we miss the fat did the reason why the Holy Spirit came was because there was a group of people who in the heart had come to a place where they were like it wasn't about what they did it was about the fact that Jesus came like I was reading just this week this is the moment where the disciples find themselves in the storm and they see what appears to them to be a ghost walking across but then one of them says no I think it's Jesus and Peter says if it's you Jesus tell me to come out and he walks out on the water but here's the interesting thing and it's not about the fact that he looks around and he sees that there's a storm and it's not that the storm had gone away he stepped out into the storm but still walked on water but the most amazing thing about that story for me is is not that the circumstances changed it's the fact that his eyes were focused on a different thing his eyes were focused on Jesus and when his eyes were focused on Jesus guess what he was able to walk on water the storm hadn't gone away the situation and the circumstances hadn't changed but he was able to do something that had up until that point become impossible are we a church who dares to believe that even if the storm does not change even if the circumstances do not change that we can still walk on water because the one that we believe in he he is able and that's what we're being called into right now it's to remember where our strength and where the supernatural power of God comes from it does not come through a tradition it does not come through a certain observance it comes through the moments where we realize that our eyes are gaze has been tuned away from Jesus and onto something else and in the world that we live in there are so many different frequencies that kind of like that we get just slightly pulled towards and our focus and our frequency goes off Jesus and so much so that we don't even realize that that's what's happened and then we walk into circumstances we walk into situations and we suddenly realize that Jesus is no longer there this morning I believe and again my message is really simple I believe that the holy spirit is saying it's time to adjust the frequency time to come back to this frequency of praying together because what these passages show and I'm just going to briefly cover them is that there's something that happens when we pray together there are gifts there are gifts for each and every one of us as we pray together the first gift is authentic courage and I use that word deliberately authentic courage I think it's the church worldwide we have got really really good at faking courage you know the kind of like shout from the front Rara Jesus Jesus Jesus and don't get me wrong mixed in with some of that I believe was a real sense of like God we want more of you but it's God we want more of you without the surrender and here's the thing without surrender to Jesus you will not receive the power of Christ but what we see in what we see in the um in Acts 4 in Acts 4 Peter and John the context of what we were just reading earlier is this that Peter and John have been threatened by the council now this is the same Council who had Jesus crucified and they threatened Peter and John and say you need to stop speaking in the name of Jesus so they knew that when they said this this was not an idol threat this was not like naughty naughty naughty don't do it again they were basically saying the subtext was very clear we did it to Jesus we'll do it to you do not speak about this Jesus again and so what they do is guess what they do they go back home they cry lots and lots of Tears um and then move on no no they don't they go home to the rest of the church body and guess what they give them the Rapport we'll pick it up in verse 24 it says this when they heard the report all the Believers lifted their voices so they go and they tell the church say this is what they said and then the church says right it's now time for us to lift up our voice there are moments where your voice is needed your the moment your voice is needed is when people and circumstances come against you it is time for you to take that stuff to the correct place and here's what I've realized when I take that to myself when it just when I even just take it me and me and God and I take it to God I'm like I'm not saying that's wrong I'm saying yes have that frequency but I'm saying sometimes there is what you need to do is you actually need to bring it before the church you need to bring it to the church and this is why the second space of groups is so valuable because we actually get to share it with one another when we say hey look this is what I'm walking through right now this is what I'm going through right now and then guess what we will then prey on your behalf and we will stand with you and we believe that as we do that just like you see here there's going to be a download from Heaven from God onto us which is going to give us and it's going to allow us to carry a different spirit because when we tune ourselves to a different frequency guess what we hear the voice of God and when we hear the voice of God we carry a different Spirit but you need to be tuned to the different frequency it goes on look at this look at what they say all the Believers lifted their voice together um in prayer to God oh Sovereign Lord creator of Heaven Earth I love the way that prayer begins they don't say oh God who might be in charge oh God who if you could just you know do a favor for us that would be lovely because obviously I know you're really busy Jesus and you know you're like you've got lots of stuff on your plate so um you know only if you possibly can if you can just squeeze me in your calendar like we have to stop approaching God like he's a man God is The Sovereign creator of the universe that means he does not sleep that means he does not Slumber that means his holy spirit is always available that means his holy spirit can always do something in our world look at this oh Sovereign Lord creator of Heaven and Earth the sea and everything in them they remind themselves of who God is God this is who you are God this is who I know you to be and then if we'll pick it up again in verse 27. they even they even bring up what happened to Jesus say in fact this has happened here in this very City for heroda for Herod Antipas Pontius Pilate the governor the Gentiles the people of Israel they were all United against Jesus your holy servant whom you anointed but everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will in other words it may not it the situation you are currently facing it may look like that God is not in control but let me remind you God is in control the great lie I think of our generation the great lie of the time in which we live is that we live under the delusion and the illusion that we were in control in the first place okay and because we are surrounded by a culture that gives us so much Choice it feeds into the human belief that I'm really in control I can choose I can choose to get a takeaway from loads and loads of different places any time of the day if I want a coffee delivered to my house there's an app for that if I want to I don't know if I want to watch this particular TV show it's not like I was one what's not like it was when I grew up where you had to I don't know like look at a TV guide and go right I would really like to watch that and I'm now going to have to wait till 8 PM for that to happen it's like I'll watch that now and I'll watch that now and I watch that and I'm gonna watch this and I'm gonna watch this and then once I've watched well then then when I've watched this actually the amazing thing is is the algorithm so powerful it'll tell me you've enjoyed this maybe you'd like to enjoy this oh the point I'm trying to make is that we live in a world whereby we have been presented with so many options that we have begun to believe the lie that we are in control of all aspects of our life as well the early church didn't believe that they knew exactly he was control it was God and I said and now O Lord hear their threats and give us your servants great boldness in preaching their word they remind themselves of who's really in charge and here's the incredible thing when you realize that God is in control and God is in charge there is something that happens to you you actually get courage that's what verse 29 says they pray for great boldness courage comes when we decide that we are no longer going to believe the lie that we were in control courage isn't just stepping out of a boat like Peter did courage is when we start to sink we say Jesus save us we go to the right place because the interesting thing is that it says in that scripture when Peter calls out Lord save me Jesus is right there the difference is not the presence or the absence of the storm the difference is the presence or absence of Jesus when Jesus is present there is courage always because Jesus is better than we think and he has more on offer than we dare imagine I just got four minutes left [Music] secondly you're gonna like this one the second gift that comes when we learn to pray together is miraculous breakthrough who would like to see miraculous breakthrough look at Acts 12. and we're going to look at five then seven eight ten to eleven but I think counting's gonna need to skip some verses here's the context Peter has been locked up in prison he's been locked up in prison and because Herod um discovered that James I think it's big James for those of you who watched The Chosen [Music] it's not sad though Big James because he's John's brother isn't he is that right yep so big James John John's brother at the beginning of Acts 12 guess what's happened to him he's been executed aren't I now here's the thing Herod Herod sees that it pleases the Jewish people and the Jewish Council so much that he arrests Peter and puts him in prison and he has every intention of doing the same so when we when we pick up the story we're picking up the story where the church have heard that Peter has been arrested and they know that Herod has in mind to kill him look at what happens though but whilst Peter was in prison this should be involved the church prayed very earnestly for him then skip to verse 7. suddenly there was a bright light in the cell and an angel of the Lord stood Before Peter the angel struck him on the side to awaken him I love her come on get up and and said quick Get Up and the chains fell off his wrists then the angel told him get dressed put on your sandals and he did Now put on your coat and follow me the angel ordered then jump into verse 10. they passed the first and the second guard post and came to the Iron Gate leading to the city and this opened for them all by itself so they passed through and started walking down the street then the angel suddenly left him Peter finally came to us I love this the fact that this incredible Miracle has happened and to begin with there's a bit where it says that Peter basically just thought it was all a dream so he thinks it's a dream and then something's like he opens his articles oh whoa this is real he goes Peter finally came to your senses in other words God did something miraculous and just like us was like I was kind of like obviously I know that Jesus can do miraculous things but I wasn't really believing for it to happen for me personally you know I was thinking that it might happen to my friend Mel um it's really true he said the Lord has sent his Angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me now the point that I want to make here is really simple miraculous breakthroughs are often preceded in the book of Acts by the church praying together there was something about what was happening in people's lives in that time that people understood we need to pray together about this stuff one of the frequencies that we need to regain is the church is the power of praying together I know we live in such a highly individualistic culture where whereby we're encouraged to kind of keep our problems to ourselves work through stuff on our own but I don't actually think it's the kind of communion that the Bible calls us to the Bible calls us to a Holy Communion where we share life together where we pray together and the final thing that we see here and I've called this something deliberately the third thing that we see is Common Place Deliverance Deliverance means to get set free [Music] one of the things that I notice happening when we pray together and what we see in the New Testament is when that new testament Believers pray together other people get set free getting set free from our Hang-Ups from our past from our stuff should not be a rare occurrence or a rare event it should be common place and the reason it's not commonplace is because we have exchanged the beauty of being transparent in the Holy community of Believers for a Sunday mask and for a Sunday face where we pretend that our life with Christ is better than it really is and we have exchanged the Beauty and the glory of the Risen Son of God and everything that he offers us for some kind of cheap counterfeit or imitation [Music] and right now I believe that the holy spirit is saying to the church worldwide I'm gonna stop pouring out my spirit when you are showing up to worship Services pretending to be someone you are not that it's almost like Jesus has decided I'm putting an end day on that thing and I am starting a new movement and I am I'm inviting people to a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit and that new outpouring of the holy spirit is Gonna Come As you decide to show up as your true authentic self with all of your junk with all of your mess and what you say to Jesus Jesus take me as I am I give my whole life for some of us it's not that we turn up fake it's that we have we have decided that there are certain areas of our life that Jesus doesn't have access to we've decided to exchange this the life that Christ really invites us to of Integrity where all of our life has been given to Christ where we have decided like the Apostle Paul says you know my life is not my own it was born at a price and therefore I willingly give you my whole life I give you my financial life I give you my relational life I give you my family life I give you my work life I give you your I give you my my mind life I give you my emotional life I give you my spiritual life and Jesus show me how to integrate all of these things together by the power of your holy spirit so that I may become whole foreign [Music] together that's what you're invited into [Music] acts 4 31 says this this is coming back to this story of the church praying for Peter and John look at what happens they pray this prayer and they say fill your servants with great boldness and then we read these incredible words after this prayer the meeting place shook and they were all notice there was somebody leading that prayer but that wasn't the intention of God the intention of God was that every single person in the room was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and they all preached the word of God with great boldness everyone went out of that place transformed and changed I don't know about you but I want to be more like Jesus [Music] but I've realized [Music] that sometimes when I pray on my own it's not enough [Music] there are times and there are places where Jesus is saying I want you to pray together because I don't want to just bless you Ian I want to bless everyone and it's not that those are the things we shouldn't do them I'm not pleased don't misunderstand me I'm not talking about don't spend don't spend prayer time with God am I absolutely spend prayer time with Jesus what I'm saying is is that there is a dynamic there is a frequency when we pray together that releases something that does not just benefit you it benefits the whole church and I believe prophetically that we are on we are in a moment where God wants the poor eyes Holy Spirit but he's saying Church will you stand up and decide to pray together will you come to me [Music] will you bring all of yourself to me will you surrender what you need to surrender will you repent of what you need to repent well you need to bring your will you bring your problems to to me and then I can fill you with true courage we will see miraculous breakthrough and deliverance will become commonplace