Greater Things Have Yet To Come...(ROBBIE)

For those of you who were in service this past Sunday, you know that there is one song that has practically become the anthem of Give Love Away 2009. It's a song called "God of this City," published by an Irish worship band called Bluetree. Pastor Todd gave us the account of how this song was birthed, a story which brings new life, passion, and conviction to all who hear it...

Here is Bluetree’s story:

"In November of 2006, our band, Bluetree headed out to Pattaya, Thailand to participate in an event arranged by Belfast missionaries. We’ve no expectation of the event; we were just looking for an opportunity to serve somehow. We didn’t know much about it before we left, but Pattaya is a dark place. It’s a small seaside town notorious for it’s sex trade. Throughout our time there we heard countless stories of girls who are bought from their parents for a price, sold to the sex industry at ages as young as 5 years old. Arriving in Pattaya the spiritual climate seems to change, it’s hard to define, but there is a very tangible change. On the bus journey in we’d been our usual cheery selves, but entering Pattaya at 10am and turning on to a street lined by girls ready for business, the bus became very quiet. We’re in total shock. It’s a sunny day but it’s incredible how dark it feels.

‘Walking street’ we learn is the epicentre of the sex trade in Pattaya, it’s about a mile long and at night springs to life with neon signs. Thai people are generally conservative in their dress sense — it’s generally considered provocative to bare your shoulders. But on their street the girls are wearing very little, and offering anything you can imagine for a price. It’s easy to look around with human eyes, see the depravity and get angry. You see older men walking hand-in-hand with young girls — as a daddy, that’s hard to take in. It’s easy to get angry, it’s easy to judge — but that’s not our job, so we grit our teeth.

We were in Pattaya to be part of a praise event not far from this street, the soul purpose of which was to worship and show God’s light in a dark place. We wanted to play more than the scheduled slots while we were there, so we found out that one of the bar owners would let us play a worship set in her bar on the proviso that we brought as many from the missions team who would buy coke-a-cola all night. We walk in to the bar which is about the middle of walking street, girls are lined up on the stairs waiting for business. We get set up, we’re really nervous and quite uncomfortable but we kick in to a familiar beat of worship and soon it’s ok. God starts to speak and we started to move in to this spontaneous song. The truth is when you worship in a place, you start to see God’s heart for that place. What would God say to a place like this?
Amidst the depravity God say’s, I’m the God of this City, I’m the King of these people and Greater Thing are Yet to Come, Greater Things are Still to be Done HERE. The song wasn’t written before that night, but we came out of the bar having worshipped with the song that is now the title track of our album — God of this City (Greater things).

The song isn’t just for Pattaya — it’s for your city, and it’s true. By faith we must expect that greater things are still to be done."

Upon hearing this story, the staff at NLC realized the truth and power that comes with this song. The same God who wants to do great and greater things in the dark city of Pattaya, wants to do great things through us right here in Charlotte...and Matthews...and Stallings...and Indian Trail...and Monroe. But it's up to us how much we get to be involved in it! So, my challenge to you is this...be thinking and praying right now what you and your family will give on Challenge Sunday. The greater we give, the greater our involvement will be in the things God will do...in. this. city!