vimeo.com/.../421443582

Welcome to the online church service of ecclesia church,

I am happy about this day

I am happy about everyone who is joining today,

no matter whether in front of your XXL screen or on your mobile phone,

so awesome that you have taken the time to celebrate and experience church service with us,

the bible says where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name,

there I am among them and this also applies to virtual gatherings,

God is here, He is real, God loves us
and He wants to encounter uns and you,

no matter where you are,

Let´s that make the best of this time
and you are invited to actively participate

and experience God through different elements in this service,

We want to praise God through worship songs,

we want to celebrate communion together.

It´s best if you already prepare some bread and wine or juice,

we want to honor God very practically through our finances

and we want to hear a sermon from God's Word that can change our lives

and right now we have a live chat going on parallel to this,

where you can just join in and also receive prayer

and right after the church service we have online foyer

to hang out and exchange a bit, it´s a cool thing!

More about that later but now I would say:

Let's go, let´s worhsip God, let´s make Him great,

feel free to stand up, get moving, clap your hands,

raise your hands and give glory to God.

The Lord bless you.

What a powerful song, I like it so much.

This is God's heartbeat that we can see throughout the whole Bible.

God wants good things for us. For you and for me,

and also in this challenging time you may know: God can

and wants and will turn everything for the best. We can trust Him.

I think the greatest proof that God loves us and blesses us beyond all measures

is the cross of Jesus and we celebrate this in the communion,

in the communion we thank Jesus for giving His life for us in our place.

His Body was broken in our place, His blood shed

so that we can live and experience freedom and healing.

And this bread stands for grace.

Take the bread for you personally

the body of Christ broken for you.

Whenever we take communion and drink from the wine or juice

we remember that Jesus will come back,

He will renew everything, His kingdom is completely without suffering

without pain, without danger, without sin.

In the blood there is life and hope.

Take the wine or the juice and take it personally for you and

I can speak that over you:
Christ's blood shed for you.

Jesus I thank You so much for everything You did for us,

thank You for coming to this earth, that You died and rose again

that You have given Your life so that we can live.

Thank you that You will come back,
thank You that we have an absolute hope,

even in these times that are challenging and difficult,

we give you all the honor for that,

Amen.

Hey, you can also have communion during the week in your Online groups and families

and keep celebrating together what Jesus has done for us,

and receive what He has for us.

Hey, God blesses us through communion,

and whenever we talk about blessing the topic of giving is not far from it.

God blesses us with good gifts materially and financially and much more

and that is why I have realized in this crisis that I am actually really well

and we are doing so well, I have everything I need and even more,

thanks to God.

But did you know: God bless you so that you can be a blessing for others?

Giving means blessing, nothing different

and we want to do that now that we just give finances

because we don't want to stop in difficult times to give and God does not stop blessing us,

because God is absolutely constant and He is reliable

and many people in Ecclesia do it for example through a monthly payment,

but there are also completely different options

and you can also find all the information you need on this page

it is important that nothing has to be given, it is absolutely voluntary,

especially if you are a guest among us

but anyone who would like to give can do so,

whatever God puts on your heart

and at this point I want to say:

Ecclesia, thank you for your generosity.

Yes for everyone who gives.

Everything that we give together and put in is a huge blessing for other people.

So now is the time for it and the end now just following we have a few news and infos,

and after that we hear the sermon.

And after the sermon we´ll see each other again
and I will tell you a little bit about

how things go right after the service we can meet,

have a really good time!

Halli Hello, I am Maria and
I send you the best regards to your home

in front of your screen or even in the podcast

no matter how and where you are,

how nice that you are joining in and celebrating with us.

So amazing to see how many people are online together,

so feel part of this big community and click directly into the chat now,

there you can get to know our team and other dear people.

If you are new here or wonder who we are and how you can do your part,

then I can encourage you to join the next steps today.

Just like the service, next steps is also available online,

and here you can easily join from your home,

we look forward to getting to know you and exchanging ideas

and that you can experience how church online is not anonymous

but ecclesia church consists of an incredible number of dear and valuable people.

Whether big or small,
for our kids we also have an online service with lots of fun.

If you have children at home then tune up the boxes

for the kids church in the online edition.

Above here you will find the link for kids celebration.

Enjoy it and celebrate!

At the current time it is super important that we pray together.

Praying but also just praying together,

that's why I want to invite you to join Pray First

every Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.

You don't even have to leave your home at the moment
because you can simply join online

you can find it as usual under [e-mail]

The last information I have for you, I'm really excited about

The application phase of the Momentum College in Nuremberg is starting again.

I don't know if you knew this but as ecclesia church we have

a campus of the Momentum College here in Nuremberg.

If you want to take a year from September on

where you invest in yourself and your relationship with God

but also want to spend a really cool year with many young people and if you are under 30,

then just apply.

It is very easy and currently we still have free spots, so be fast!

You can find all information online at momentumcollege.de

or send us your questions to [e-mail]

Me and our whole team, we would really celebrate to start the next school year with you.

Now that's it already, we´re starting with the sermon,

best regards and see you soon!

Hello, friends! It's great to have you
with us today in our online service.

It's really cool that you tuned in.

Whether it's on your phone, laptop, or TV

or whether you watch and listen via podcast,

whether it's today or two years from now:

Cool that we can be on this road together and that I may speak to you today.

And I thought, right at the beginning of this sermon.,
I'd like to start by honoring the people,

that make all this possible,
for us to watch this service here,

that it can be on the TV at your house, that you can listen to it, that you have a powerful worship time,

that your kids have an encouraging service, that you can hear a sermon.

And these are the wonderful people
are from the Creative and Production Team.

They are really wonderful and invest
an incredible amount of time in this service.

You have no idea how much time it takes, to record something like this.

Yes, and so thank you all very, very much.
I'm going to look across the room here,

because there's a couple sitting here, of course. Thank you very much for your service,

for your time and for your investment.
That's really, really awesome.

As our Pastor Konsti often says: "Hey, the church is not built on the talents of individuals,

but on the sacrifice of a great many people. "
And if we're honest, at least the service is resting

on just a few shoulders of people,
who just do an awesome job,

and thank you all again for that. And if you have Instagram or Facebook,

hey, why don't you do a story and link Ecclesia Church Production underneath,

I don't know, film yourself giving a round of applause
or whatever, be creative,

people have definitely earned it. I don't know if you noticed, but our world has changed a bit.

There's more skepticism, more suspicion than usual.
If somehow there are a lot of people on the streets,

then you think: Are these really two households?

Are they really relatives?

On public transport, you can see if everyone really wears a facemask or not,

whether or not people sneeze into their elbows. There is simply more skepticism, that is quite normal.

People look at me and wonder
if I have the bubonic plague.

But no, I just bumped my head badly on our
bathroom cabinet. Don't be surprised, I'm fine.

But there's more skepticism in our society right now,

and a lot of people are insecure and kind of nervous.

It's just a more negative atmosphere than usual.

You might notice it when you walk down the street.
And it's kind of logical, because all the time

the phone rings with some new breaking news, there is some new forecasts, news or Liver Ticker,

news ticker, "ZDF Spezials" and "Brennpunkte
or" even worse, there are a thousand opinions,

Accusations and theories and much, much more. And the things I notice about myself:

It has absolutely the potential to take my focus away
and let my focus drift.

My focus is drifting so slightly right now about my family, about my marriage,

to my phone. My cell phone, where again, somehow a new message pops up,

and I think I need to be up to date, I need to know what's going on, I need to know what's going on.

I need to know what the latest news is. And something seems to change around here every day,

and you've got to know everything, right? Maybe it's the same for you. And what I'm also noticing is:

Not only is my focus drifting, but my mood is also drifting away very slightly.

From a good mood, from joy, to fear.

From light-heartedness to fear.

And it's no wonder, because we see so much negativity out there, too.

So much negative news that's coming our way.

So many accusations, so many conspiracy theories or whatever, that have the potential to pull us down.

And to be honest with you, I personally don't want to do that, but I can still feel it doing something to me.

And you'd think, for the moment, hey, we're all kind of in the same boat.

All the people in the world feel the same way, at least in our Western culture.

Everyone is going through and experiencing similar circumstances, and it's kind of like all of them.

But my observation is that it's not.
There are people, yes, who are stressed,

and maybe you belong to that group,

maybe you're really busy right now.

Maybe you have your kids at home
and have to make sure somehow,

that they're learning something, and somehow be the teacher-
play the teacher for them.

Maybe you're just worried about your job and don't know what's gonna happen next,

and maybe you just wish for a break
and just kind of normal, your old life back.

But there are also other people,
they're relaxed, they're confident,

content with himself and with the world,
and you can't tell anything about them.

It's like everything's normal these days.
And I ask myself, what's the difference?

Because people's circumstances are similar,
are the same.

There may be different circumstances in different people, but I think this has a lot more to do with it,

what it looks like on the inside.
That their “insides” have a lot more to do with it,

whether they're relaxed or stressed.
We read in 3 John verse 2.

There John writes to his friend Gaius: "My dearest,
I wish you that you're fine in every way

and you're healthy, like me.
"just as in your soul."

So John writes here that he wishes Gaius
"Hey, I want you to be well, I want you to be healthy,

but I know you're fine inside,
you're healthy there."

And I think that's the most important thing.
It's much more important that we're healthy inside

and that we're okay on the inside.
Maybe you already figured it out:

Everywhere you are reading these days,
it always says "Stay well" at the bottom.

Any e-mails, in advertising, in letters,
It says "Stay well" everywhere.

And it's kind of like a wish,
people have towards others.

I was with my daughter the other day, she's in the kindergarten age, looking at a book of friends,

that she got and was supposed to fill out.
And there's always a question:

"Hey, what do you want for me?"
And a lot of kids wrote in:

"I wish you good health.
I wish you a healthy life."

And I was wondering.
It's New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Eve you wish?
A Happy New Year.

Or in Franconia one wishes for...
"A gsunds neus."

Especially beautiful, and it always comes from the heart. But I've always felt a bit -

I must say, I'm surprised at that.
Because I thought to myself: Honestly,

a Happy New Year is nice,
but I'd rather be happy than healthy.

It's not the same thing.
I'm not automatically unhappy,

when I am sick
and I'm not automatically happy,
when I'm healthy,

but you have to differentiate.
Well, my wish is much love,

to have a happy new year
than having a healthy new year.

And I don't mean to trivialize illness.
It's absolutely terrible to be sick and

if you're sick right now, I hope,
that this sermon will really give you a new perspective,

and helps you gain new hope,
but illness is a circumstance,

as there are many circumstances in this world,
as we have had many circumstances in our lives,

as we currently have and will continue to have in the future. There will always be difficulties.

If you're going through a difficult period,
I'm sorry to say this won't be the last.

It's not very encouraging now, I know,
but it's honest.

Even though you're doing really well right now,
even that won't last forever.

We will always have difficulties and suffering
in our lives.

That is why it is so important to learn,
to deal with difficulties,

and to remain emotionally stable even in difficult times. And this is what I called the sermon: "Stay stable."

The song "Germany is stable, boy" has inspired me a little, I admit it, but you don't have to listen to it,

if you don't know it. It's not that good.
But it's so important,

that we remain emotionally stable, especially in difficult times.

And maybe you're like me, and you can't even hear the evil "C" word anymore.

"Corona." You hear it and you check out, you shut down, whatever, because it just sucks now.

I totally get that. But don't check out,
because I think the sermon has potential,

no matter what difficult times may come,
with or without Corona,

to help you develop good thinking,
how you get through crises.

Proverbs 4:23: "More than anything else, pay attention to your thoughts,

because they decide your life. Pay attention to your thoughts, because they decide about your life."

And the word here translated as "thoughts"
is the Hebrew word "lev."

Everybody say "lev" - exactly.
And when you're in live chat,

write "lev" in the live chat.
You don't have a Hebrew keyboard,

It's not a big deal, just L-E-V.
The word that's there,

actually means "heart" or "inside."
Which means you could translate:

Watch your insides,
because it decides your life.

Well, what's inside of us?
I think our insides are

made up of our thoughts and our feelings
and also our character.

But today I would like to pay special tribute...
talk about our thoughts and feelings.

And these two things are often depicted as such,
like they were just there.

Like we can't control them.
We kind of have good feelings, bad feelings.

You wake up early and you're kind of in a bad mood.
or you're in a good mood and that's just the way it is.

It's like we have no control over it.
But I don't think that's true.

I think that's wrong,
and I think that we're making ourselves

also far too dependent on our circumstances.
Why? Because we can't let our thoughts and

often let your emotions run wild. We do not control them, we don't care about them,

but they're just there or they're not there.
And that's not so great in good times,

but in difficult times it is difficult and fatal, because you won't come through a crisis well and stable,

if you let your thoughts and emotions run
and if you can't control them,

you don't care about them.
Well, it's not like we always just say

what we think and we're gonna burst into tears, when we don't have our favorite food. Fortunately, no.

And I hope it's not the same for you, but we have already learned, to control that a little bit.

That's also what kids learn,
as they get older,

their thoughts and their emotions to the outside world
to control and also to hold back.

And that's a good thing.
If you have small children, you know what I mean.

Because little kids, they just let out.
One second the world is going to end.

At home, my daughter became upset because
I brought the wrong fork,

namely the fork, which at one end the handle goes up and not down. How could I?

Yeah, how dare I bring her the wrong fork.
It's the end of the world.

She's a bit older now,
and it's not like that anymore.

By now she just says, "I don't want the fork."
Yeah, okay, good, and I know it, too,

I give her the right fork, she's fine.
But also my son Frederik, who is two.

We had dinner just a few days ago, and there was salad, and my son Frederik doesn't like salad.

He doesn't like anything green.
And he doesn't eat it, so he ate bread,

that's fine, too.
Anyway, he discovered, hey,

in the salad there are also pieces of mozzarella in there
and I wanted to try one.

"Da ham" he said, so "eat there".
"Ham, me," and I gave him some,

and he tasted it, and he liked it,
and he wanted more.

Yeah, he just wanted to eat the mozzarella slices,
and there's no such thing, of course.

There's no such thing as cherry picking,
but he has to eat something beneficial from the salad.

So I tried to slip him a piece of pickle.
All the parents know what I mean.

So I stuck my fork in the pickle.
and then the mozzarella, hoping that

that the mozzarella covers up the pickle and he doesn't see it and just accidentally eats the pickle.

It didn't work out so well, honestly,
cause I got it in his mouth and I got it in his mouth,

but only because his mouth was actually
already open enough to roar.

He was screaming and screaming and the world ended.
Thick tears ran down his cheeks,

and it was really horrible for him,
that Dad tried to slip him a pickle.

It was really bad, I've apologized a thousand times and I snuggled him and I said, "I'm never doing that again."

and then it was good again.
You know what I mean.

Kids are like that.
We as adults, at least most of us,

have learned to let our emotions and thoughts
at least on the outside, to control them.

Well, at least most of the time. There are times when the feelings come out, for example in soccer.

Men know what I mean.
In soccer, emotions come out,

that's why the Bundesliga has started again.
So that there is finally a place again,

where men can let their emotions out, too,
there's a place where men can cry again.

That's why the Bundesliga had to start again,
because this is just systemically relevant.

What do men usually do with their emotions
that somehow suppresses them seven days a week?

Once a week, that just has to come out.
That's why it's so good to get soccer going again.

If you have a husband,
maybe you already have seen the positive change

I don't know, with your husband.
But this is very important.

Like I said before,
we have learned to let our emotions and thoughts

to be controlled from the outside,
but inside us, we often let them run free.

They're just there and we don't consciously control them. But we should, because we just read

that our thoughts and our insides control our lives.
Now the question is, of course. How can I do that?

I just can't say. Okay, I'm in a good mood now and then I'm in a good mood. This is not working.

I think the key is to feed ourselves with good things.
Because everything you feed grows.

Everything you feed grows.
It makes sense. In nature, we see this everywhere.

When I give food to my children, they need something to eat, so they grow.

Plants need water, they need nutrients, they need sunlight to grow.

Animals need the same thing. It's quite normal.
My wife Selma, she usually bakes our own bread.

And now there was a time
when you couldn't get yeast anymore.

At least not us. We were
always unlucky in the supermarket.

Under normal conditions I always couldn't find it, and I certainly didn't find it then.

Then she started to make sourdough.

No yeast is needed for sourdough. She read herself into it a bit because she has such a book.

She prepared the sour dough.
But sourdough needs care.

It has to be kept at a constant
temperature and fed daily.

It was always in a jar with a blanket around it and a hot water bottle underneath. And a thermometer plugged in somewhere.

And my wife came to my office a couple of times a day, that's in the attic.

It's warm, it was the best place, to see if the sourdough was still okay.

To see if the temperature was right and to feed it, of course. Yes, water and flour every day.

And the best thing was, in the book it was written that you should give the sourdough a name,

so that you have a bad conscience if you don't take care of it and forget to feed it.

That's why our sourdough was and still is called Gunnar.

Yes, Gunnar stands next to me in the office and has a good temperature and my wife takes care of him,

probably almost better than me. No kidding.
And he's growing. Yes, the good thing is he's growing.

I also benefit from it because we have bread I can eat and so I grow, too.

So it's a win-win for everybody. And everybody's happy.

But you get it, right? Everything we feed grows. Everything we feed grows.

And the big question is: what do I feed?
What do I feed my life with?

By what I do, by what I look at, by what I listen to.

Do I feed my fear or do I feed my faith? Do I feed my fear or do I feed my faith? It's the other way around.

If I keep away from things, if I keep away from things, then they shrink, then they lose the influence on my life.

That's why I want to encourage you: Feed your faith and starve your fear. Feed your faith and starve your fear.

Eliminate the voices that want to rob your joy.
What does that mean?

I think right now it means turning off your phone.
Turn off the news ticker.

Don’t watch the news 24 hours a day, but maybe only 15 minutes a day or every two days or not at all.

Depending on what is good for you.

Do yourself a favor and don't do socialdistancing, but do Facebook distancing.

Distance yourself from Facebook, from all the opinions, the whole end of the world prophecies,

the conspiracy theories, the accusations, the anger and whatever else is going on around you.

And just let it go. Don't read it. I know that when I look at Facebook these days

I scroll through it and I just get upset by what I read.

So I'm just gonna let it go and try not to do it so much.

Also, a 1.50m safety distance between you and your smartphone hasn't hurt anyone.

Maybe you need this to eliminate the voice of fear during this time.

Instead, feed your faith and do things that will make your faith grow.

Because then your thoughts and emotions will change

and you will be stable and safe regardless of the circumstances.

And that's what we want, isn't it?
Now how does that work, how can I feed my faith?

And there we read a parable in Matthew 7, which Jesus gives us and on that basis

I also want to build up the sermon a bit.
And Jesus writes there:

Whoever listens to me and acts according to me is wise and acts like a man who builds his house on solid rock.

Even if the rain rushes down from heaven in torrents,

the water comes over the banks
and the storms shake this house.

Maybe this is what you are experiencing in your life right now. It won't collapse because it's built on rock.

And he goes on with this parable and tells about another man, a stupid man, who builds his house on sand.

And the water comes. The torrents come and wash away the sand and the house collapses.

So they practically take the
foundation from the other house.

That means our life needs a foundation that lasts.
That is strong, that is safe.

And on which we can build
a life that will survive the storms.

And that foundation in our lives is our relationships.
Our relationships.

Once our relationship with God and our relationships with other Christians. Both are so important.

And that is very clear, because we humans are relationship beings.

We humans are not made for going through life as lone wolves and taking everything out with ourselves.

I am also tempted from time to time.

No but we are relationship beings and we have to connect with other people and be in touch

with other Christians, that's is so important. I think you don't need to always do it alone

Just spending time with God. Talking to him and reading in his word.

To go really deep into bible passages. To meditate on it.

Thinking about it and going deep so that Scripture can dive deep into you.

Feed your faith with God's promises.

I was at a friend's house the other day and her mother has goats at home. In the garden, of course.

And these goats are ruminants.
I didn't know that, but now you do.

They ruminate. So we were there with the goats and petted them a bit. My kids loved it.

And every now and then a goat had food in its mouth, yes, it choked it up again and kept on chewing it.

I know it's not that appetizing, but I think it's exactly how we should deal with the Word of God.

We should chew on it over and over again. Think about it again and again.

Bring it out again and again. And meditate on it.

Just like the goats with their grass, we should think about the word of God again and again,

because God's Word has so much nourishment for us.

It has so much food for us.
It has the potential to feed our faith and make us grow.

And that is so important. Feed yourself with good things. Feed yourself with good.

If you don't know where to start, hey. Romans 8, for example, is a wonderful chapter.

You can ask any Momentum College student, because they had to memorize the whole chapter.

And in Romans 8, I just want to read two things and feed your faith a little.

Romans 8:18: "I am certain that all we suffer in this world is nothing compared to the glory that God will give us one day."

Or Romans 8:26: "And also the Spirit of God intercedes for us with supplications and sighs. He expresses what we cannot say with our words.

In this way he comes to our aid in our weakness, because we do not know how to pray."

Feed your faith consciously with these promises.

Time with God is crucial.
And just do what is good for you.

My time with God is always changing.

Right now I get up early, before everyone else in the house is awake and go out and just take a walk.

Walking a little bit around. Nobody's out at this time either. So I can just pray out loud.

And have my time. And it's really good for me.

I'd really like to get up without changing my clothes and go straight to the office and work.

And just get some work done, because I know I'm early, in the morning really productive. I want to do something.

But I know it's not good for me.
I have a wrong focus then.

I just work ahead. I just want to, no, I want to start the day with God.

And to get the right focus. And to start on a good emotional level.

And just like we need time with God, we also need time with other Christians.

Often you only realize how important something is to you when you don't have it anymore.

In the time of the Curfew, I don't know about you, but I missed my friends.

I realized: Man, I miss something. I realised it the most when it was possible to meet people again.

Two weeks ago, shortly after you were able to meet again with another whole household,

I and my whole family met with Tobi, the Campus Pastor from Nuremberg and his whole family

and we spent a long afternoon at the lake and had a really good time.

It was so wonderful. And we really noticed how everyone, the adults, like our children, just breathed a sigh of relief.

Yes, like taking a gasp of relief together and somehow the pressure falls off a little bit.

It was just such a good time and Tobi also said days later when we talked on the phone, he said:

I still drew, I still drew from that afternoon we had.
And I honestly felt the same way.

We were totally on relationship withdrawal. And that's when I realized how important relationships are in our lives.

And not just because they make life more fun.
It definitely is.

But simply because we need each other. We need people who support us, who are there for us.

And the difficulty is, relationships don't just happen. They don't happen automatically.

I don't have relationships that just happen, I have to take care of them.

I have to be active. I have to initiate meetings. I have to take an interest in people. I have to write people.

I have to call people. Meet people. It's important, if I want relationship in my life, it's not automatic,

I have to take care of it.
You have to take care of it.

And by the way, yes, we do
have small groups. Online groups.

If you want to invest in relationships, feel free to do so and find a small group.

Through our website you can easily click on small groups, choose one, sign up and spend time with really awesome people.

Absolute recommendation.
Don't think you are James Bond.

Especially us men. It's a bit cliché.
But it's often the men.

We think we don't need anyone. We are the great hero. Without feelings.

Without anybody who cares about us. But honestly, even James Bond has M and Q.

He's got somebody who believes in him, who supports him. And you need that. You need that, too.

We need each other. We need other people in our lives.

Because loneliness is by far a worse pandemic that has infected our society for far too long.

Don't be a part of this. Invest in relationships.
...Say amen to that.

Even if you're home alone now, even if you have someone sitting next to you, say amen.

I need relationships. Okay, we have the foundation now. The foundation of the house.

Looking good, being stable. holds up.
Well, what's on top of it?

I don't know, yeah? I'd say the shell is on top.

Sorry, I have no idea, yeah. If you know about it, but I've never built a house.

If there's anything technically wrong, have mercy on me.
But I imagine that this thing is called a shell.

That means walls, ceilings, roof beams.

The scaffolding. The structure. So that the thing is somehow held together.

Make it look like a house.

Exactly. And the question is, what is this structure, the scaffolding in your life?

If the foundation is your relationship with other people and with God, then what's on top of that?

That what comes out of it? Yes.

What grows from this foundation in your life. What is it with you?

Of course I don't know what it is with you.
But I hear a lot of people these days saying,

"Man, it would be nice if we could go back to normality.

Back the way it was three or four months ago. When everything was normal.

Hey, I can fully understand that, but I think that these are often people who just said three or four months ago:

"Oh, man, my life! It's absolutely chaos.
It's totally busy. Stressful.

There are a thousand building sites and
I can't get through. Yeah.

And they complained a bit about their lives and that's where you're going back to?

Well, honestly, I don't want to get back to normal.
Normal's not desirable.

I think God has so much more for us than normal.

I believe He can do so much more in us, change us and do it through us, so that we don't have to go back to normal.

I believe God can create something really wonderful from the chaos in me, from the chaos in this world.

And create something great.
So that we don't have to go back to normal.

I have faith, I have faith that people will come out of this crisis and your marriage is much better than before.

Hey your marriage is a lot more intimate than before. You get along much better. You fight less.

Hey I have faith that your kids fight much less than before and you have a much better

relationship with them and you as a family stick together even more.

I have faith that we as a church can reach this world more than ever before.

More people, that the harvest is greater than ever before

and that our light shines wider and brighter than ever before.

Have faith for that and don't think you just want to go back to normal.

Hey, that would just be a step back.

No, we want to go forward, we want to look forward and have expectation

and have faith that God is doing something wonderful in and through this time.

And so let's use this time so that God can work on us, so that God can change us,

so that your marriage, your family, your relationships, your friendships, your inner being is strengthened.

That is what I am really experiencing right now.

That God just goes into areas of my life, that our marriage is blessed, my relationship

with my kids becomes closer and that is an absolute blessing and I don't want to miss that.

Do not miss this time.
Don't be in pause mode.
Go forward!

We read in Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know exactly what plans I have made for you,

says the Lord. My plan is to give you salvation and not suffering - to give you a future and a hope."

Well, I don't know what your plans for your life are.

Or maybe what they were, because everything's all messed up now and you don't really have any plans.

But I do know that if our relationships are the foundation, if our relationships with God and with other people

Then let what comes out of being in God's plan - what he has for your life - to live and make a difference in this world.

The foundational relationship is to God, relationship to other people is mainly about me, it is about you.

It is about us being strengthened in our relationship with Jesus, that we are stable,

that we mature and grow as a person and that we simply become a strong person

and have a stronger relationship with God.
And that's good, but it's about me.

Let something grow from this foundation where it is no longer about you.

Where it is about other people,
where other people are blessed,

where you make a difference
in the lives of other people.

Let something grow from the foundation of your relationships where other people see:

You're really deeply rooted in Jesus.

This is an example for me and what do I have to do to become such a personality.

Let us have an eternal influence on other people.

I think that is what is so important in our lives

and also what will make us really happy when we have an influence on other people.

Why is that so?
Because God made us this way.

We are made for relationships.

Even secular sociologists have found
out that what makes people really happy

is when it has a positive
influence on other people's lives.

And I'm telling you this,
it's an absolutely wonderful thing.

You're happiest when you're
doing what God made you to do.

And I want to be honest with you,
I also had some difficult days during this time where

I was without a plan, where I didn't know what to do, where I was a bit of a vegetarian,

with struggling finances.

And somehow continued to keep myself busy without really doing anything

not really having a real focus.

But as soon as I started to prepare this sermon
I felt a fire inside me for,

a desire and joy for God like I haven't had for ages.

I had such a good time preparing the sermon like I haven't had in a long time.

Why?
Because I was doing what God made me to do.

What did God make you for?

It's not without reason that we have this similar vision in Ecclesia - similar to what I just said.

We wish that people get to know God -their relationship with God,

we wish that they experience freedom - their relationship with other people.

We wish that they discover their destiny and that they make a difference.

And by the way all this is also possible online,
we are not on break,

we have church services, we have online groups, we have Next Steps online.

If you want to find out more about what your destiny and calling is in your life,

join Next Steps at 1pm and 6pm.
I'm going to do some advertising.

Under NXS.ecclesia.church. Be there!
And we will help you find your destiny.

This is something absolutely great and wonderful!

The foundation is our relationship
with God and with people.

The interior sturcture is your
destiny to discover and live in it.

But there is still something missing from the house.

Something is still missing which makes the house homely, which makes it storm-proof

and which makes it look complete.
Namely the roof. The roof is very important.

Without a roof, it rains into the house.
You do not want to live in a house without a roof.

Only in good weather, but at least when the storms come you don't want to be in a house

where the roof is leaking or where there is no roof on it.

And also in your life, when the foundation stands, the scaffolding stands, life is going somehow,

that is all well and good, but you need something else.

Something is still missing and that it does not rain into your life in stormy times.

But that your house of life stands stable and remains stable and that you can be in it.

And those are two things.
And that is first: trust and secondly: initiative

Trust and initiative. And trust means, trust means I let go of things I can't change.

I let go of things I can't control and trust God with them.

Why? Trust knows Romans 8:28: "But we know that for those who love God all things work together for the best.

I am a Christian, what could happen to me.

The worst thing that could happen
is that I go to heaven to God.

That's one perspective.
If God is for us, who can be against us?

What's gonna happen to me?

I don't need to be afraid. And that should not lead me to put my hands in my pockets

and think to myself: oh I'm not doing anything anymore.

It should make you let go of things you can't control.
you let go of things that you can't control.

You don't think about it, no what if thinking, what do I do when this and that happens

such hypothetical thinking.
Maybe you know what that is.

Well, I know it from my own life.

The kind of thinking, "what if I don't
have enough time tomorrow."

"What if my company closes tomorrow?" "What do I do if I get sick myself tomorrow?" ...if the schools close?"

There are so many hypotheticals we could come up with - and so many things to worry about.

But no - not to do that but to let go of them and trust God with them.

Why? Because we know that
nothing can separate us from God.

Romans 8:38: "Yes, I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor invisible powers,

neither present nor future, nor forces hostile to God, neither high nor low, nor anything else in all creation

can ever separate us from the love of God, which is given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Nothing can separate you from God.
But also nothing at all.

So feed your faith with promises like these.
And faith is just another word for trust.

Let things go. How do I do that?

I heard a cool sermon the
other day and the pastor said:

Okay you just write a list of
all the things you can't control,

a list of things you can't control, I don't know: When do we have church services again?

When will my husband or wife finally have no home office anymore?

When will the children finally be able to go to school and to the kindergarten and whatever.

Many things at the moment that we cannot control.

You have these lists then you take your cell phone and set a timer to 10 minutes or so,

depending on how long you
like and then you really start to worry.

You're really going in deep. You get a little depressed,

you shed a few tears, you bathe yourself in your self-pity and accuse God and the world.

And when the time is up,
then you stretch out your hands,

open your hands and just give your worries to God.

Or you leave all your worries and
you just give them directly to God,

that would be my recommendation.

Make a list of things if it helps
you and just give them to God.

And leave him, leave him your worries.
We read in Psalm 37: 5:

"Let the Lord guide your life and trust
in him, for he will do it right.

He'll do it right."

Give up the things you can't control.
God will do it much better than you.

Give them to him and if it's not easy and if you say: "I have such existential worries, I want to give you a tip.

Read Matthew 6 from verse 19 to the end.
And if necessary read it daily,

read it several times a day if
you need it and read it loud.

And feed yourself with the promises that are in it,
feed yourself with the certainty

that God cares for them and that God cares for you.

Trust says I let go of the things I can't control.

Initiative means I do the
things that I do have control over.

I do those things. The emphasis here is
on doing, I just don't do nothing.

In the beginning of this lockdown,
it was that I didn't quite know what to do

and I was a little bit disoriented. But I thought no - I can do the things that I can control,

that I have control over.
Well what can you control?

We can control a lot.

If it helps make a list. You're not without options, you can control a lot of things in your life.

The only thing you can really control at all times, no matter what your circumstances are, is your attitude.

is your reaction, is your inner being.

You can always control your attitude and through that you can make a difference.

You can give hope to other people, you can bless them, you can encourage them,

you can be there for others.

For your children you can be an example in faith,

in trusting God but also in honesty and openness.

If you have worries and think you have to hide them from your child,

then I have to tell you that it will not work and your children will notice that.

Rather take the chance to teach
them how to deal with worries.

Pray together, maybe read Matthew 6 together and go through this crisis as a team.

Also with your spouse,
pray together a lot during this time.

Especially when you have difficult times.

Be with each other, be there for each
other and not against each other.

No matter what your circumstances are,
no matter if they are good or bad,

you can control your attitude,
especially if you have fed your faith before.

And I love this mindset, these thoughts, this attitude of saying: „I give up the things I have no control over.“

I don't get upset about it, I don't worry about unnecessary thoughts

and I don't waste time on things I can't change, but I do the things that I can control.

I take care of things I have control over and that are important, I take care of my marriage,

I take care of my children, I take care that I am feeling good in body, soul and spirit.

And I take responsibility for my life.

I don't know if you’ve ever lived in a shared apartment, but often in shared apartments

or even in churches, the fridge looks like no one has taken responsibility for it.

Yes, there are somehow ten opened packages of ketchup, three opened packages of cheese,

with half a slice of cheese everywhere, which is also getting moldy and it simply looks like

and you can also see it immediately that nobody has taken responsibility for this fridge

and often it's just pretty disgusting.

So you don't want your life to look like a shared fridge.

But take responsibility for your life, do the things you can control and which are important.

And there is such a good prayer about this topic,
it's by Reinhold Niebuhr,

an American theologian at the time of World War II and I would like to read it out now.

He writes: God, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change.

The courage to change the things I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

To live one day at a time, to enjoy one moment at a time, to accept privation as a way to peace,

to accept this sinful world as Jesus did.

Namely as it is and not as I would like it to be.

To trust that you will do everything right when I surrender myself to your will so that

I may be quite happy in this life and
forever overjoyed in the next.

That is what I find so powerful in this prayer.

Hey, put your trust in God and not in this world,
so that you will be quite happy

in this life but forever overjoyed in the next life.

And this prayer I would like to pray
with you where you are, close your eyes,

you can also pray with me
and we just want to pray together:

God, grant me the serenity
to accept things I cannot change.

The courage to change the things
I can change and the wisdom to know the difference.

To live one day at a time, to enjoy one moment at a time, to accept privation as a way to peace,

to accept this sinful world as Jesus did.

Namely as it is and not as I would like it to be.

To trust that you will do everything right when I surrender myself to your will so

that I may be quite happy in this life and forever overjoyed in the next.

Lord Jesus I thank You in such a
way that You are our foundation,

that You carry and hold our life safe,
that You are the rock, Lord.

I ask you Lord, that you help us to build
our life proof for crisis and storms,

to help each and every one of us who is listening today, to help us to go through crises emotionally stable.

No matter if it is a current crisis or a
future crisis that is yet to come Lord Jesus.

I pray that you will be our anchor,
that you will be our rock.

I thank you that we can always trust in you, Lord.

I pray so that you help us to build friendship,
Lord, and to invest in friendship,

for a three-stranded chord does not break,
says your word, Lord.

And I pray Lord, that we also bless other people in the present time, that we are also there for other people,

that we pray for them, that we encourage them and that we feed our faith and their faith in this time.

And maybe you are listening today and you don't know this Jesus at all,

you don't understand what I am talking about here, you have no relationship with him so far.

First of all I would like to say, it is really nice that you are here and that you are watching.

And it doesn't have to stay that way, maybe you notice that God is knocking at your door

and that you are drawn to him.

And so I would like to invite you to take the next step today and invite him into your life.

Hey he wants to give you so much,
he wants to give you a new life,

he wants to give you a new heart and
he wants to pour out his love over you.

And if you want that today, then I want to invite
you to say this prayer with me,

I always say it and you can just pray it.

Feel free to close your eyes and say it out loud, it is a prayer of giving your life to Jesus.

Feel free to repeat it: Lord Jesus, I declare today that I need you as my Lord and Savior.

I believe that you have died and risen for me.

God forgive my guilt and
my attempts to live without You.

Give me the strength to live with you,
for you and through you.

In Jesus' name.
Amen.

Hey, what a great message!

I hope you could take something for you.

Maybe you just made a personal decision for Jesus for the first time in your life or again,

we celebrate that totally.

It is the most important decision you can make in Your life

and we would like to help you take the next steps with God

in a very practical way in your everyday life,

so please let us know about your decision

so that we can get in touch with you during the week

easily via the digital contact card here on the page live.ecclesia.church

I think we had a really good time together,

Thank you Jesus, many thanks also to the whole dream team for this great service,

we are looking forward to hopefully seeing each other face to face and hugging again soon

but until then we want to make the best out of our possibilities

if you go to our YouTube channel you can watch the complete service again

or recommend it to other people

and you can also find all of our preaching on Spotify, Apple Podcast or our website ecclesia.church

and also on our website there is always the latest news

you can also subscribe to our new newsletter

feel free to follow us on Instagram or Facebook and to stay up to date

and there you will find our online hangout

where we hang out together and chat live and interactively.

You can totally join us, just go on Instagram or Facebook and then click on the livestream.

I look forward to seeing you.
We look forward to seeing You!

Have a ​​really good week
and see you soon, Ciao!