Dock
Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 4 October 2026
Summary
Phil speaks to us about a simple invitation for this next season at SPS: God says grow. Looking at Jesus’ call to his first disciples in Matthew 4, he explores what it means for us to grow in depth, grow in impact and grow in number – becoming people who follow Jesus more closely, carry his presence into the world around us, and make room for others to encounter and follow him too.
Key Points & Takeways
God says grow – healthy, living things grow, and we should expect growth as God works among us.
Grow in depth – before Jesus sends us anywhere, he invites us to follow him. The best way to make disciples is to be a disciple.
Grow in impact – intimacy with Jesus leads to imitation of Jesus. We’re sent to carry his presence and kingdom into the places God has put us.
Grow in number – numbers matter because numbers are people. We want to make room for more people to encounter Jesus and follow him.
Ask yourself: How am I growing? How am I helping others grow? Am I making room for others to grow?
Dock Discussion Questions
Jesus’ first invitation is simply “Come, follow me.” Where do you sense God inviting you to grow deeper with him at the moment?
Phil talked about intimacy and imitation. How does spending time with Jesus shape the way we live like Jesus in everyday life?
Jesus says, “I will send you out.” Where has God placed you to make a kingdom impact, and what might that look like this week?
Numbers matter because numbers are people. Who could you pray for, invite, welcome or make room for to encounter Jesus?
Long-form, edited transcript
God Says Grow
Back in March, a whole bunch of us went away together for our SPS Weekend Away. And across that weekend we gathered around one really simple phrase. Some of you will remember it: God says grow.
And I want to come back to that this morning. Partly because not everyone was there. Lots of you have joined us since then. But more importantly because this wasn't supposed to be a theme for a weekend. I think it's something God is saying to us in this season.
God says grow.
Not as pressure. Not because bigger is always better. Not because we're trying to build something impressive. But because growth is what healthy, living things do.
When something is alive, it grows. When disciples walk with Jesus, they grow.
When God is at work among his people, we should expect growth.
And we talked about three dimensions of that growth: depth, impact and number.
Depth in our life with Jesus. Impact as we live like Jesus in the world. And number, as more people come to know and follow Jesus.
Or, in the language of our SPS vision:
Make Disciples
Transform Communities
Plant Churches
And I want us to come back to that this morning, grounded in Matthew 4, because here, right at the start of Jesus’ earthly ministry, we can see this whole framework laid out.
Jesus begins with this extraordinary announcement: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
That's where everything starts. Not with us. Not with our plans or our activity.
God comes near.
The kingdom is breaking in.
And then Jesus walks along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and calls some ordinary people into it.
“Come, follow me”, He says. That's depth.
“I will send you out.” That's impact.
And then, by the end of the passage, v24, “News about him spread.” That's number.
Jesus calls people,
Jesus sends people,
and more people come.
And I think that's a pretty good picture of what we want to see here at SPS. Not simply a bigger church, but a growing church. People growing deeper in Jesus. People making a greater kingdom impact in the world. And more people encountering Jesus and beginning to follow him for themselves.
Depth. Impact. Number.
God says grow.
Grow in Depth
So first, grow in depth.
Jesus has announced that the kingdom of heaven has come near, he’s on the beach and sees Simon and Andrew casting their nets.
And he says, “Come, follow me.”
A simple invitation.
Before Jesus asks them to do anything, he asks them to follow. Before there's a mission, there's a relationship. They're simply invited to be with him.
And that's where Christian growth always begins.
At the weekend away we talked about the two i's in disciple. Anyone remember? Intimacy and imitation.
We'll get to imitation later, but it all begins with intimacy, being with Jesus. Learning to recognise his voice. Allowing his presence to shape us.
But we need to hear this: it is possible to be around God-things without actually growing deeper. We can come to church, sing the songs, serve on a crew, know the language, even lead things, and still find that our relationship with Jesus isn't really growing deeper.
I talked last week about the difference between proximity and intimacy. In any relationship you can spend a lot of time around someone without really knowing them.
And Jesus doesn't simply say, “Come to church.” He says, “Come, follow me.”
That's our first part of our vision for SPS. Before the programmes, before the projects, before anything we might build or launch, we want to make disciples. People who are actually following Jesus and becoming more like him.
Our vision is to make disciples, and I have no doubt that the best way to make disciples is to be a disciple.
We can often make discipleship sound like something we do to other people. Something we need a strategy for, a course for, a programme for. And all of those things can help. But ultimately disciples make disciples.
If I'm following Jesus, growing in intimacy with him, learning to hear his voice, allowing him to change me, then others will see. And I'll have something to share. Something I can invite somebody else into.
Not because I’ve arrived. Discipleship isn't saying, “Look at me, I've worked this out.” It's simply saying, “I'm following Jesus. You can too.”
And notice who Jesus gives this invitation to.
Simon and Andrew aren't sitting in a Bible college. They're standing beside a lake with nets in their hands. James and John are in a boat with their dad, getting on with the working day.
Jesus walks straight into ordinary life and says, “Follow me.”
Back in March we used the phrase: Jesus calls real people, not ready people.
He doesn't wait until we've sorted ourselves out. He doesn't give us an entrance exam. He doesn't say, “Come back when you know a bit more, pray a bit better, understand the Bible a bit more, have a bit less baggage.”
He calls us. And then he grows us. That's how discipleship works.
So when we say God says grow, this isn't a message for some future, improved version of you. It's not for the person you might become when life calms down, when you've dealt with that thing, when you're more disciplined or more spiritual.
Jesus comes to us in the middle of our very real life and says, “Come, follow me.”
And then the growing begins, and never stops. However long you've followed Jesus, there's more of him to know. More to discover. More of our character to surrender. More of his word to understand. More of his Spirit to receive.
We never graduate from discipleship.
So the first question when we talk about growth isn't, how can SPS grow?
It's much more personal than that.
How am I growing?
Because a growing church is simply a community of growing disciples.
And there are already some really encouraging signs of that among us. Outside of Sundays we now have around 100 adults meeting in 11 Docks, plus three Young Life Docks.
That's not just a nice statistic. That's people choosing to go deeper. Opening Scripture together. Praying together. Sharing life. Learning to follow Jesus together.
That's growth in depth.
God says grow.
Grow in Impact
And that takes us to the second kind of growth: grow in impact.
Because Jesus doesn't only say, “Come, follow me.” He continues: “and I will send you out...”
Come to me. And then go, launch from me.
There’s a landing and a launching here.
Come to me. Land with me. Find love, forgiveness, wisdom, guidance, a depth of relationship. In Jesus we find the rock beneath our feet, solid ground.
And then, from that place of growing security, we’re launched back into our communities to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this broken world that so desperately needs him.
And here's that second “i” in disciple: imitation.
Intimacy is being with Jesus. Imitation is learning to live like Jesus in the world. And you can't really separate them.
Intimacy without imitation becomes a very private Christianity. Me and Jesus. My faith. My quiet time. My spiritual life. All good things, but somehow none of it ever really touches anybody else.
But imitation without intimacy just becomes activism. Lots of doing, lots of activity, lots of trying to make a difference, but increasingly disconnected from the person and power of Jesus.
We need both.
Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will send you.”
And Matthew shows us what this sending looks like, what it is we’re imitating. Verse 23: Jesus goes throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the people.
Teaching. Proclaiming. Healing.
Jesus doesn't simply tell people that the kingdom has come near. He shows them what the kingdom looks like.
And that's what we’re sent to do, that’s the impact we're called to grow in too.
Back in March we spent two whole sessions unpacking this. We talked about growing in our confidence to speak about Jesus. Not all becoming preachers with microphones, but ordinary Christians learning to speak naturally and courageously about the hope we have.
Because: God's people preach.
At home. At work. At school. Over coffee. Around the dinner table. In those moments when somebody tells you what they're going through and perhaps, rather than just saying, “I'll be thinking of you”, you find the courage to speak good news and maybe ask, “Can I pray for you?”
We also talked about growing in authority. Because Jesus doesn't just speak about the kingdom. He confronts the things that resist it.
Where there's darkness, he brings light. Where people are trapped, he brings freedom. Where there's sickness and suffering, he brings healing. Where people have been pushed aside, he restores dignity.
That's kingdom impact.
And again, there are already really encouraging signs of that among us. Right now, centrally, 121 people are serving across 14 different crews at SPS.
Some of those crews make Sundays happen. But many of them are outward facing, giving away what God has put into our hands. Tower Tots. Baby Bank. Our local youth work. The Gym Project. Our community gardens. The night shelter. Our Father’s House recovery ministry. People serving one another and sharing the life of Jesus with our communities.
That's growth in impact.
And of course, it goes much wider than organised SPS activity. Most of our kingdom impact doesn’t happen on a Sunday morning, or even here on site.
It happens when hundreds of us walk out of these doors and carry the presence of Jesus out into East London and beyond. Into offices and schools and hospitals. Into homes and friendship groups. Into difficult meetings and ordinary conversations.
Jesus doesn't call us out of the world, for our sake. He sends us into it, for the sake of others.
Your relationships. Your work. Your experience. Your influence. Your home. Your voice. Your prayers. God can use whatever he's put into your hands to bring his kingdom near.
So if a question for depth is, “How am I growing?”, perhaps a question for impact is, “How am I helping others grow?”
How is my life helping other people encounter Jesus? Where could I speak up? Where could I serve? Where could I pray? Where could I bring something of the life of Jesus into wherever I’m sent?
God says grow.
Come, follow me. Grow in depth.
And I will send you out. Grow in impact.
Grow in Number
And the third dimension of growth:
grow in number.
Look at what happens next in Matthew 4. Jesus calls people to follow him. He sends them out. He begins teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing. And then in verse 24: “News about him spread.”
More people come to Jesus. People start bringing people to Jesus. People who are sick. People in pain. People who are suffering. People who need freedom and healing and hope.
And then verse 25: “Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”
Loads of people come.
And I want to say this really clearly:
numbers matter.
Numbers matter.
Because numbers are people.
Sometimes in church we're a little nervous about talking about numerical growth. And rightly so if what we're talking about is ego. If we're comparing ourselves with other churches, measuring success by the size of a crowd or trying to build something impressive.
But that's not why numbers matter.
Numbers matter because every number has a name. Every number is a story. Every number is someone made in the image of God who Jesus loves.
Some of you will have met Arthur, a student from India who joined us earlier this year. He’s passionate about sharing Jesus with others and has been helping us think about how we reach out to our South Asian neighbours.
Just this week we were out talking to people in Whitechapel when a young Muslim guy approached Arthur, wanting to know more. When Arthur heard that he had a bad back, he offered to pray for him and shared the good news about Jesus our healer.
And now today, at 1.30pm, while the Persian service is worshipping here in Farsi, Arthur and a little team will be over in SPS House launching a brand new Dock in the Telugu language.
That's why numbers matter. Because every additional number is another story like that.
And there are thousands more stories still to be written.
There are people all around us who don't yet know the love of God. People carrying shame who haven't discovered forgiveness. People carrying grief who don't know the comfort of God. People who are lonely and looking for community. People who are searching for meaning, hope, purpose, somewhere solid to put their feet.
We want more of those people to land here, to encounter Jesus here.
So growth in number isn't vanity.
It's mission.
And I want us to be unapologetic about that.
We want SPS to grow. We want more people coming through these doors. We want more people in Docks. More children and young people growing up knowing Jesus. More people coming to faith. More baptisms. More people finding freedom. More leaders being raised up. More churches planted. Not because bigger matters, but because people matter.
And with that we also need to hear:
growth stretches us.
We talk about growing pains because growth isn't always comfortable. When something grows, the container has to adjust.
More people means more stories. More stories means more complexity. Different backgrounds. Different cultures. Different expectations. New Christians with new questions. People arriving who don't know how we do things around here, and perhaps don't particularly care how we've always done them.
That's good.
But it means a prayer for growth is also a prayer for change.
As God grows us, we'll need more people to serve. More people to lead. More generosity. More flexibility. More patience. More forgiveness. We'll need to make room, physically and relationally, for people who aren't here yet.
Bigger numbers will stretch us.
But if we really believe numbers are people, then we welcome the stretch. Not because we love discomfort, but because we love people.
And of course, none of this is about manufacturing growth. We can't make anybody follow Jesus. We can't engineer the work of the Holy Spirit.
God gives the growth.
Our job is to be faithful. To pray. To invite. To welcome. To make room. To keep growing in depth and impact, and trust God with the numbers.
So if depth asks, “How am I growing?” And impact asks, “How am I helping others grow? Then number asks, “Am I making room for others to grow?”
Because God says grow.
Grow in depth.
Grow in impact.
Grow in number.
Let's be ready to receive it.
God Says Grow
So that's the invitation I want to put back in front of us as we begin this new season together.
God says grow.
Grow in depth.
Grow in impact.
Grow in number.
And these aren't three separate things. They're all connected.
Because people who grow closer to Jesus begin to become more like Jesus. And people who become more like Jesus have an impact on the world around them.
They speak differently. Pray differently. Love differently. Serve differently. They carry something of the presence of Jesus wherever God has placed them.
And as that happens, other people encounter Jesus and begin to follow him too.
That's the movement we see in Matthew 4.
“Come, follow me.”
“I will send you out.”
And then: “News about him spread.”
People come. Lives are changed.
The kingdom grows.
And that's what I want us to be hungry for at SPS in this next season.
Not growth for growth's sake. Not bigger for the sake of bigger. But more of Jesus among us. More of his kingdom through us. And more people coming to know and follow him.
SPS as a place where people land with Jesus, grow as his disciples, and are launched into the world.
A church full of ordinary people who have responded to the invitation of Jesus.
Ordinary people like Simon and Andrew, and James and John. A bunch of young fishermen standing beside a lake with nets in their hands.
And ordinary people like you and me.
With whatever is in our hands. With whatever our lives look like right now. Jesus comes near with the same invitation, ‘follow me’.
Because the kingdom of heaven is near.
And God says grow.