The Poker Game

Church is a great thing!  Church at its best is a beautiful thing!  In my last congregation we had a lovely lady who worshipped with us.  Her husband did not attend.  Tragedy happened and they lost their son.  I was on holiday at the time and thought about rushing back but was told firmly by God that I should stay with my family for the last few days and trust in the Church.  The day I got back I rushed round, hoping and praying the church had shown the love of Christ.  I need not have worried!  Wall to wall were cards, most of which were given by the church.  The gentlemen then said ‘come and look at my fridge and freezer’, it was stuffed top to bottom with food people had cooked them.  They had been visited by Elders, deacons, the prayer ministry team and the pastoral team, they had rooms offered for relatives coming to the funeral from long distance.  I prayed that day that God may do something beautiful from this darkest of places, that great healing would happen.  The funeral happened and afterwards he started to come to church.  There he was blessed by prayer teams, welcome teams, coffee teams, preachers and worship leaders.  He did the alpha course, joined a home group, and went on men's walking weekends, curry evenings, breakfasts and lots of amazing socials.   Two weeks before I finished, just a year and a few months after the death of his son I had the privilege of baptising him.  He stood in front of the congregation and shared his testimony.  He said, ‘Ben prayed for me that something beautiful would come out of this dark, dark place, and it has, I have met the love of Jesus, revealed by His church.  Each one of you, every one of you, has loved me and shown me Jesus’.  Church is an incredibly beautiful thing!

However!  We are studying the book of Acts at Westbury on Trym Baptist Church at the moment and the community described there seems incredibly to be another step on!  The believers then were united in heart and mind, Gods great grace was on every one, no one was in need, they gave everything to God and it was such a beautiful community thousands joined them as they transformed village, town, country and continent in Jesus name.  But what was it about them?  What can we learn so as to become an even more beautiful expression of church today? Well much!  But for starters...

In my late teens/early twenties my friends and I loved a game of poker!  We would each bring five pounds worth of change and we would play.  Now for those of you that don’t know the game, you have your cash in front of you when you play and you are given cards and then you bet on the strength of your hand.  You may bet a bit or you may say you are out and throw your cards away.  Every now and again you may be so confident in your hand or so desperate you may get all your money and push it in the centre and say ‘I’m all in’.  This is what made the early church so unique, if you picture the poker table and imagine the people that made up the early church around the table, all of them were ‘all in’!  All their possessions, gifts, talents, money, work life, hobby life… it was all pushed to the middle of the table with the words ‘I’m all in for Jesus’.

Are you all in?  Picture yourself around the poker table and in front of you is all your money, your possessions, work life, play life, daily routine, family, neighbours.  What have you pushed to the centre?  What are you holding on to?  Are you able to say ‘I’m all in’? 

Because when we are all in for Jesus, when we give everything to him, when we empty ourselves we can then be beautifully and magnificently filled!  God comes through His spirit and fills us with his presence, transforming us into His likeness.  And the fruit of the Spirit begins to manifest itself in us.  You know the ones?  Love, kindness, gentleness, peace, patience, self-control…  When we are empty we are filled and blessed by the presence of God in our lives.  And then we become a blessing to others.  Peter became so much like Jesus as he emptied himself and was filled with the Spirit that people believed that if they just stepped into his shadow they would sense God and know His healing!  That’s the sort of shadow people who are ‘all in’ give!  Goodness, healing, love and confidence in Jesus Christ!

May you be all in!  Because unlike poker it is not a gamble!  By giving we can receive.  By emptying ourselves we can be filled.  And may are churches start to impact our communities as that early church did all those years ago.  But a starting point… all that we have pushed to the centre with the words… ‘I am all in for Jesus’.

Be blessed! And may your shadow be one of blessing!