 Well, let's jump into this idea I want to share with you tonight. I'm going to read to you from John 14 and verse 1. Then I'll just read Proverbs 24, verse 3, both of these scriptures together to take our idea from. In my Father's house, Jesus said, are many rooms. Then Proverbs 24, 3, by wisdom a house is built through understanding is established and through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful things. And of course, many of those rare and beautiful things are you, our people. I want to talk to you tonight this idea I have that is called the six rooms that I think are missing from God's house. That's the house, and it needs few more rooms. I passed it as many of you know for over 30 years in the same church in the north of England. Tough gig. England in 98% un-churched and quite anti-churched. So to carve out a church that we did in the hostile territory of England in the north of England, I learned a lot about me and about God and about people. So I was involved in building God's house for decades. And I visited many of God's houses around the world also for decades, and I figured that in this last 10 years especially since I stopped pastoring and since I stopped being needed in one location as much as I was, that I should make some observations, take some notes even for my own benefit about observations I've made about God's houses around the world of things that I think were commonly missing. Common things I've felt in some way or other occurred to me. I think what we're crying out for, I think what we're missing is because one of the things about blind spots is blind spots are when people know something about you, you don't know about yourself because you can't see it. And so when we are all involved in what we do, this is why organizations and corporates bring in consultants because they have this what I call zero gravity thinking about an organization and they're able to see things effortlessly, effortlessly where you can't see because you're so involved you can't see the wood for the trees as they say. So I want to speak about these rooms that are missing from God's house. Let me just prefix that by saying it's the Father's house, it's God's house that I'm going to be speaking to you about tonight. I know that sounds obvious but in case it's not obvious what I mean is that this is not your house. It's not my house. It's not the pastor's house. It's not the leadership team's house. It is not a denominational house. It is not a government's house or a nationality's house. It is not a tradition's house. It is not the older member's house. It is not the worship team's house. God's house, the Father's house is none of those things. It is the Father's house. It's good to remind ourselves that it's not ours, but it's God's. Just in case we get picky and cheesy about who we think can be in this house. It is not a white house or a black house or an Asian house. It's not a male house or a female house. It's not a gay or a straight house. It's not a Republican or a Democrat house. It's not a left wing or a right wing house. It's not a rich or a poor house, a young or an old people's house. It is the Father's house. And it consists of all those and many more that we could list all night here until we exhausted the list that there's still someone we're missing that the Father would include. This house is not Mary's house or Martha's house. It's both of their houses. We have been cruel historically to a number of Bible figures. One of them is Martha. Imagine being known as the woman all your life as the, you know, the drama queen. The panicker, the one that chose the worst option because Mary shuddered his feet and we get from the passage that the example of Mary is the one we should copy and the example of Martha is the one we should avoid. But I think something far more significant is going on there because the Bible tells us regularly that Jesus loved these two. Didn't love Mary and tolerated Martha. He loved them. And in fact, if you read carefully in Scripture, you'll find out that the house belonged to Martha, not Mary. It was Martha's actual property. And Mary lived with her, a sister that lived together and Jesus went to the house on multiple occasions because he loved going there. And on this occasion, because we know the story, Mary sits down worshiping at his feet and Martha's in the kitchen cooking and she comes out stressed because she thinks Jesus should tell her lazy sister to get up and help her in the kitchen and we read it as Jesus told her off, so don't ever be a Martha. But I'm going to tell you, I have been to Mary churches. They're the ones that forget to pick you up at the airport. Because they're away with the fairies. I have been to Martha churches where they're so organized and so efficient and clinical, it's hard to find Jesus in it. But to God, there's no difference. There's nothing more sacred of the oil that Mary used to anoint his feet. There's nothing more sacred in that oil than the oil Martha used in the kitchen to cook dinner. And every church needs both because before you all arrived tonight, the Martha's were here ahead of you, turning the lights on, setting up the building, making this place hospitable for you all so that you could come and have a Mary experience. In a house that Martha builds, a Martha takes care of, a Martha volunteers and a Martha staffs, so we can't do what we do. We can't sit at his feet without Martha been here too. But we've kind of outlawed Martha and celebrated Mary and I think it's unhelpful. So it's both houses, Mary and its Martha's, just in case you think, well, I'm a Martha, good, we need you. You're not a lesser species because you're not a Mary. The Father's house is judgment free. It's carpeted wall to wall with grace. The Father's house is filled with a climate of love and acceptance. It has that alibaster box fragrance that it says filled the house and it still should. It has no stairs this house. It is not hierarchical. It has no locks or bars on the doors. Whosoever will may come, whosoever will may leave. That's the Father's house. It has many doors, many entrances, many exits because people need all kinds of options and ways to find their way to Christ. The Father's house, by the way, as I speak about this to you, depends on the kind of Father you know. As I mentioned a little bit this morning, what your version of God is. So the Father's house, when I mentioned Father, it may not even be a good word for you in your experience and your background. If you were to interview the two boys that lived in the Portugal's son's scenario house, the Portugal's son would have one version of the Dad's house and the older brother would have another one because they had different relationships with the same Father, as do all of us. So depending on your relationship with God would depend on what Father means to you and what you think the Father's house should look like. So if you spoke to the Portugal's son about the Father's house, he would say, well look, I screwed up badly and I don't deserve to live in the Father's house. If you interviewed the older brother, he'd say I didn't screw up and I do deserve everything in the Father's house and I should have had it before now. If you interviewed the Father, he'd say about both sons, you both screwed up and you both belong here. I love you both the same because it's the Father's house and so it's a house for protocols and it's also a house for older brothers. Both are welcome. In the Father's house, Judas, by the way, is as welcome as John because we have been unkind to Judas too. Judas had a destiny and his destiny was to be a betrayer. That is, many people's destiny in life is to be a betrayer. It's not a happy one, it's not an easy calling but many people's destiny is to play that part in the great drama of Watson folding in any period of history and we've been unkind to Judas, we've been unkind to Jonah, we've been unkind to Samson, I could go on. We have to reframe what I think their lives are there to tell us. The Father's house is not a house of saints who used to be sinners. It's a house of saints who are still sinners and every single day need the grace of God in the Father's house. I think an observation I have before I get to my six rooms, not what I didn't forget, is that we need to constantly work on and upgrade our welcome. I've been grateful to you guys today all day about your welcome because I think you do that really well but again, my experience as a visitor as a visiting speaker is not typical of yours tonight because I get driven somewhere, I'm taken into a green room, I get a coffee so that's not your experience as a visitor. So I know my experience isn't typical but sometimes I try and imagine what it must be like from my experience to be a visitor and took notes all over the world about the different kinds of welcome. As I said this morning, welcome isn't a person's job on the door. Welcome is everyone's job. In fact, welcome isn't words, welcome isn't welcome. I've been to lots of places where they said welcome and I didn't feel welcome. So welcome isn't language or words or a team that have welcome badge on. Welcome is an atmosphere, it's an energy, it's a culture and we have to be careful about our welcome because I was in a church recently and I went into the front door rather than the green room thing so I thought, oh this will be fun because I don't normally get to go through the main entrance. I thought, and I was obviously a new kind of person and look a bit odd with my man born and whatever. And I was obviously new to the, and this guy said to me, my driver said to me, oh, you have to come through this entrance because that's where Mary is. And I said, who's Mary? He said, there's Mary. And Mary was this huge Polynesian lady who specialized in hugging people. I know, that's not what I thought. And he said, so you gotta come by because Mary, you know her thing, she's done it for years, she is on the door and nobody gets past Mary. And I said, I don't wanna hug from Mary. I said, has it occurred to you that I may have been abused as a child? I may be dealing with something and I don't like being hugged by someone so don't make me have to be hugged by Mary, let it be an option. And my point is that I think a lot of people would not go back to that church if they were mugged by Mary. And we love Mary, but clearly Mary's been on that for years and that's Mary's turf. So I felt, I felt as a visitor, I'm been asked to serve Mary. It's the wrong way around. And welcome is not one size fits all. Great for Mary, but don't make us all go through Mary. And don't let Mary think that if she missed her hug, you're not really respecting Mary's ministry. And we can have this territorialness in what we do and I think it has to be, the father's house is welcome to all. There's multiple forms of welcome. Maybe the coronavirus will release some people from all this hugging and handshaking you never wanted to do anyway. And that's okay. As James told us this morning, we're all good, it's okay. I was in America recently and I was in one church and a driver came from another city to drive me after the service to his church and I'd not been in either church ever. And when I got into the car with the driver afterwards who was clearly a visitor that day because he came from another state, another city, I said, how did you find this church today? You were a visitor for the first time. I know you came to pick me up, but they didn't know that. I said, tell me, what was your experience as a visitor here? And he said to me, well, he said, it's funny because I thought to myself, you know, we sang that song when it was popular, you know, he knows my name. Remember that song? You sing that song, he knows my name. And he said, we sang that song all morning, he knows my name. But he said, nobody asked me my name. Blind spot. And he was clearly different a new person and no one spoke to him. And so that's what I mean. He may have had his handshaking at the door or not, but just in case we miss them on the door, make sure you don't miss them. He's what I think is a healthy culture. Make sure you say to someone, hi, I haven't seen you before. They'll probably say to you, I've been coming here for 10 years, but risk it. All right. Let me get to these six rooms that I think I'm missing. The first room I think we're missing in the church is a panic room. I think we need a panic room. I think we need somewhere for people to escape to who are in a panic in their lives. And we've all been there. Some people live in a continual sense of panic because they're battling mental health issues, or they're battling depression, or they're in some recovery from something, or they're battling some form of PTSD, or they are suicidal, or they are desperate, or they feel they've done something that if you knew about it, you would reject them, not accept them. So they go on the run from God, and on the run from God's house, like the prodigal did, and they go walk about and they're missing in action because they don't feel that whilst they're going through something that makes them panicky and anxious and fearful and nervous and sensitive and defensive, they don't feel there can be around us because often the church is obsessed with fixing people. And like Job's friends try to fix him, as I mentioned this morning. And some people, and these rooms are metaphorical, of course, we don't want a literal room, which is what this is in many houses now, you know, Jodie Foster movie years ago, The Panic Room. It's the equivalent of the, I think, in the church where you feel that you're in the kind of house where if you are going through something that's best defined as, I just feel I'm kind of, I'm just in a panic. I just, I'm just panicking all the time. I'm anxious, I'm fearful, I'm going through some stuff. That you can still come here and feel that you can come and be here in your panic and leave with your panic and come back next week with your panic. It's okay, it's okay. In the Old Testament, you know, Moses been aware that some people needed somewhere to run to in a panic. They nominated six places called Cities of Refuge. These were places that were nominated for you to escape to if you'd committed a crime, but there wasn't time for it to be heard yet. And so somebody was after your blood and they were going to take your life. And so Moses knew that was potential amongst them. So he created these escape places where you could run to. And once you got to the city of refuge, you were immune from prosecution until a proper trial in here and could be arranged. And I think we need the equivalent of Cities of Refuge as it were metaphorically, panic rooms in the kind of culture we build into God's house so that people don't feel in panic they have to skip church. I passed it for decades and I used to say, where's so and so? Haven't seen them for months. Then I'd find out so and so is going through something and I felt it was an indictment on us often, not always, but sometimes that they didn't feel they could go through it and still be in the house. Number two, I think we need a messy room in the house. I think we need a messy room. I think we need a room where you can come and be messy in your life, messy in your humanity, messy in your relationship with God. I think we need a place where we can be uncomfortable and be okay, we've been uncomfortable. I think we need to be able to have awkwardness and disruptive conversations where we can be vulnerable and we can disagree and we can have no judgment while we do all of that. A messy relationship, a messy kind of culture in the house. Many of you have children and grandchildren. It's a mess, isn't it? It's a mess and despite your best attempts to make it tidy, it's never tidy and it won't be tidy until they learn to appreciate if they ever do the benefit of living in a tidier space. And some of us are such tidy OCD freaks that you need a good dose of grandchild invasion to mess with your tidiness. And I think I've been to too many churches that just have this feel of it's so tidy here. It is so clinical, it's so organized. Nothing's out of place, nothing's set out of place. There's no randomness, no spontaneity, no crazy, no weird. It's just safe and same and comfortable. I don't think that's good for God's house because the last thing Jesus is, he's safe. You need to know about Jesus, he's not safe. He's not house trained. He's not trying to fit in. He's not one of us. He's not born again and he's not a Christian. He's not. That's what I said this morning. We think he is, that's the sin of certainty. We think he's one of us, meaning he's all those things but he's none of those things, he's Jesus. He's okay with that stuff but that's not who he is. So if we make him that and then he pops up in another identity different to that, we say that's not God. And Jesus suffered without all his life from people that decided how he should look like before he arrived. A messy room I think. Transition's messy. Handing over what we're doing to the next generation. It's a mess. Let it be a mess. Let transition be messy when it needs to be messy for a season before we over tidy it too soon. When we tidy a thing too soon, we deny it its evolution. We deny it its valid season of messiness because we're obsessed with naming it and tidying it up and giving clarity and structure and we do it too soon and sometimes what was about to emerge a month later was the new thing that would replace the old thing but we tidied it up too quick and I think we need to have a messy room. You can sound confident and have anxiety at the same time. It's okay, it's messy, it's okay. You can look tough and cry. It's okay, it's messy, it's okay. You can be beautiful and feel ugly. It's messy, it's part of our humanity. It's light and it's shade. You can love people and be sick of people. It's all good, it's okay. Jesus got sick of people. That's why often withdrew to solitary places. He's self-isolated regularly and if you're in the people game, it's a good thing to do.