Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South
Australia. It's.
A privilege for me to share the Word of God with you this
morning. We have been talking last week
about the why and the what. Jesus being the wire for the
church and why we're here and the what is and you know, the
reason for this specific lampstand.
Why is this lampstand here? Why is the way church here in
this time in this place? This is a this is a huge topic
for us to unpack. We're never going to be able to
unpack this in a week or two. So this is something that we're
going to have to continue to talk about and massage in today.
We're going to be talking about The Who and the how.
So the the why and the what is, is like the vision for the
church, The The Who and the how is like the strategy, how like
who, who's going to be a part of this thing?
Who's going to be a part of this lampstand?
And, and what are the strategies we feel in God for us to to see
God's vision played out in this time, in this place, in this
community. And those the The Who is those
that that consider the way church to be your home
fellowship. That makes you The Who that
makes me The Who that makes us The Who.
You know, we're crossbody. We've been joined together.
You know, we've been talking about marriage with a, with a
young couple that's going to be married and just the bigness of
marriage. You know what it's pointing to.
It's like the Lord and his bride.
What an amazing picture that is. And so we're the body of Christ
here. We are the bride of Christ, the
church. And that's such a special thing.
And if we remember the these pivotal words that that Ty had
shared with us a couple of weeks ago, he said, it's not God's
plan for my life. It's my plan.
It's my sorry, it's my life for God's plan.
We're going to continue to remind ourselves of this.
This is so key for us to understand the reason why we're
here, the reason for us being The Who and what that means.
It's it's my life for God's purpose.
All right, so there it is. That's settled then.
We're The Who. No, that's not settled.
Like there's why, why are we The Who?
I'm just going to read some scriptures.
There's so much, there's too much.
I I don't think I'm going to get very far today.
You know, when I look at my notes and when I consider even
just like what I was hoping to unpack here.
Not a chance, not a chance. I'm going to get close and
that's OK. We've as far as I know, as far
as we know, we've got some time. We may not have some time, but
so as we know, we're going to just continue to work and get on
with what he's calling us to do. And So what does the scripture
say about us being called? It's Our Calling The Who we're
called. I'm just going to sort of
machine gun some scriptures here and not say too much, but I
would encourage us always to go away with with with notes.
Can I just say just on that on notes, we're going to start
encouraging us to bring in our Bibles, our Bibles.
Does everyone have a Bible? Everyone has like a paper Bible.
I'm like, I'm a stickler for a paper Bible.
OK, it's fine if you if you read off your phone, whatever, but at
least have one because if something happens and it all
goes down, then what are you going to do?
Have a paper Bible? Get used to reading a paper
Bible. There's so many options for
Bible. You can get print.
That's about this big. There's no excuses.
You can read it. But we're going to encourage us
as a people to walk through the door holding a paper Bible.
OK, this is going to this is the culture that we're going to
build. You know, we use the screen
because it's easy. We can have one version and we
can all use it, but I'm going to start encouraging us to open up
the scripture. When you get familiar with your
own book, it's just a really healthy thing to do.
You, you will learn to love having your own Bible and using
it and knowing where things are and stuff like that.
And a notepad as well. A notepad.
You can, again, you can use your phone.
I use my phone for notepads, but a notepad.
I was chatting to some guys this week and one of the comments
that people make about the the sermon on a Sunday, it's just,
there's just so much in it. Like I just can't seem to take
it off course. You can't.
You know, when I'm taking notes, I do take notes when I'm
listening to people preach and I'm taking a bunch of notes.
But quite often what I'm going to do is I'm going to put a star
next to a couple of things that really spoke in here.
And then I go home and I and I digest that.
I unpack that further. I seek the Lord in it.
That's a really healthy way of taking what the Lord is saying
through the Holy Spirit to you personally.
There is going to be so much in a message, but we are a bunch of
people in this room that come from different walks of life.
We're in different seasons of life.
We've gone through different things.
We have different ways of learning all of these things.
We have things that hinder us and all of these things.
And so the Lord is going to speak specifically to you.
Do you believe that the Lord will speak specifically to you
about the things that you need? Because the Lord wants, it says
the Holy Spirit wants to teach you and lead you into truth.
And what you need might be slightly different to what I
need, but the Lord is faithful and the Holy Spirit will give
you what you need. He will feed his people.
Amen. So Notepad and your Bible,
please. All right, let's go.
Let's read some scriptures here. We've got John 1516.
I'm just going to read them. Pete may not be able to keep up
or not. Let's just see what happens.
I'll make these scriptures available to us after the
meeting so that you can go and read these.
OK, But John Fif, they're in. They're in your Bible.
You got it. That's it.
John 1516. It says You did not choose me,
but I chose you and appointed you.
That you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should
remain. That wherever you are, that
whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give you.
Those are amazing promises. But what did He say?
He said you didn't choose me, I chose you.
There's not a single person in this room that chose Jesus
first. He chose you.
He drew you to himself and you said, yes, Lord, Amen.
One Peter 29, it says. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people
that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Isn't that amazing? We spoke last week about this
being a lampstand. We, we mentioned that you are
candles placed into the lampstand.
He's pulled you out of darkness and and brought you into his
marvelous light that you could bear light of his, of his mercy,
his goodness, his glory. Amen.
It's good stuff, the Scripture's good stuff.
Romans 828 And we know that all things work together for good to
those who love God, to those who are called according to His
purpose, For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first
born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined,
these He also called. Whom He called, these He also
justified. And whom He justified, these
whom he, who these He also glorified.
You are called. You are called.
I called you, You're called. Do you know how much you run
into this in the Scripture? Do you think that the Lord wants
us to understand this truth? I have called you.
I've called you for purpose. Yeah.
Amen. Ephesians 4.
First four, first one. Sorry.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy
of your calling, which you were called, with all loneliness and
gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in
love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. There is one body, 1 Spirit,
just as you were called in one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, 1
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all
and through all, and in you all. There's such unity in that that
not only were you called as individuals, called into the
body, into the oneness, into the 111, into unity, we as
individuals have been called into one body, into one church,
one bride, Amen. Isn't that wonderful?
Jesus doesn't have many brides. Jesus has one bride.
Jesus has many sons and daughters, though.
The Father has many sons and daughters, but they all belong
to the one bride. They're his one bride.
Same body, same purpose. Amen.
Same purpose. Galatians 513.
I saw I told you that. I've got a few here for you.
Brethren have been called to liberty only.
Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but
through love. Serve one another.
Again, this is talking about being called into unity, into
fellowship, into oneness. Don't, don't let liberty cause
you to be selfish. Love one another, take care of
one another. Isn't that wonderful?
Ephesians 118 the eyes of your understanding being being
enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling?
What are the riches of his glory of the inheritance of the
Saints? Again, this is just
strengthening that it's it's his purpose.
It's not my purpose. It's not my calling.
You are called into his purpose, not your, not your my life for
your purpose. Yeah.
All through the scripture, same narrative, all the way through.
You find it over and over again, which is really good because I
need reminding a lot. Like my wife's not here, so you
can't ask her, but she knows that I need reminding a lot.
I need to be constantly reminded and, and you know, have truths
just massaged in. We're a young church.
We, we haven't been walking alongside each other for very
long. So hasn't even been two years
yet. We've got some this God's got
some work to do here to unite us together that we would know how
to in our togetherness, find the call of God and run together in
it. Like I'm called as a leader in
this church, as one of the elders, as the visionary,
visionary leader for the church here along with my wife,
Hillary. And you know, it's funny like
because because you hear leaders say this and I'm going to say
this thing that you hear leaders say all the time.
I think time might have said it. I wouldn't have chosen me.
And you know, it almost sounds like there's, you know, false
humility or what? I wouldn't have chosen me.
I, I actually believe that I wouldn't have chosen me.
And and I and I, you know, it's easy to question that when you,
when you believe, when you just go, gosh, Lord, there are other
people around pretty close to me that in my, in my understanding,
I go from that person would have been a better, a better option,
Lord, But you know what you have to do?
You have to be humble and you have to go, but you know better,
Lord predestined, the Lord knew that he would call me to this
and I have to trust him. And how do I make sure that I
don't lose sight of of trusting him and being established in the
core? I have to believe that I'm
called to lead this church, but it doesn't say that I don't
experience doubt sometimes. How do I stay steadfast in my
core through the Word of God? The Word of God is our anchor.
And if that's true for me, that's true for every one of us.
And so one of the Scriptures that I lean on is found in Two
Corinthians 3 verse 4. And it says, and we have such
trust through Christ towards God, not that we are sufficient
in ourselves to think of anything as being from
ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us
sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter,
but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. When I'm doubting, I go to the
word of God and not just to the, to the to the letter to the
written word of God. I go by the Spirit of the Lord
to my Father into the holy place as we spoke about this morning.
And I take these words that I know to be true and I and I
speak them and I say, Lord, thank you God, that you have
made me a sufficient minister of the new covenant that it was
your choice. It wasn't my choice, my life for
your will. And he's made it very clear that
he's called me to this. And so I'm just going to do the
only thing that I can do. I'm going to stand in faith and
I'm going to trust him and I'm going to trust those people that
he's put around me who, you know, can can lift me up when
I'm down. And again, if I need that, you
guys need that. And that Scripture is not just
for leaders. Can I say, did you hear what it
said? It says that I'm going to read
it again. It says that who has also made
us us sufficient as ministers in the new covenant.
Do you realize that we're ministers in the new covenant,
right? You realize that we have
ministry to do. You realize that God puts
leaders in place for the raising up of the Saints for the work of
ministry. We've got to catch that because
that means that like the Lord has work for us to do, and it's
called ministry. Amen.
That Scripture's for you. Go read it.
Go into the holy place, seek the Father and stand on it through
faith, as I've mentioned this morning.
All right, so let's talk about the hell where we are, The Who?
Is there anyone in this room that is still sitting there just
going, oh, he's not talking to me.
I'm not going to put you on. You don't have to tell me, but
I'm going to trust that the Lord's just doing a work in
here. Even if you're struggling with
it, the Lord will help you because this is this is this is
his, his desire, this is his will for you.
This is where you find fulfillment in life.
All right, So how these are the strategies that we feel as a
local church that God's got us here for to be involved in.
Can I say that strategy changes? These things change the things
that we're going to be involved in change The Who could change
the in terms of like the Lord might lead you out of this
lampstand. Can I say he'll never lead you
out of lampstands altogether because it's the body of Christ.
You always have you planted in a lampstand somewhere that's
that's biblical, but your time might come to an end to be
serving as a minister in this lampstand and that's OK.
So that could change and the strategies, the, the things that
we feel in God, the things that we need to be involved in that
we need to be pursuing could change.
The why and the what never change.
Jesus never changes. You know, the, the, the plan for
the church never changes. The why this lampstand here is
never changes. I don't believe that, you know,
a healthy lampstand that Jesus puts in place should come to an
end. He does talk about if, if you do
this, if you allow these things, if you, you know, don't follow
me, then I will be forced to remove this lampstand.
But it's never the Lord's desire for a lampstand to be removed,
is it? Well, I'm telling you, it's not.
I don't believe it is. OK, so this lampstands here.
And so the things that we're involved in, when you think
about what are the areas of service.
That this church needs to be involved in or that we're
feeling to be involved in the areas of service in this church.
Now I just want to say if you're thinking about when I say what
are the what are the areas of service this church needs to be
involved in? If you start thinking kids
ministry, music, team, leadership, elders, like if you
start thinking of the specific areas that are in place,
especially on a Sunday meeting is what I'm getting at.
If you start thinking, oh, you know, maybe I could serve on the
coffee or maybe I could be a part of the kids team, You're
not understanding what I'm saying.
I'm going to explain that a bit. This church is not a Sunday
meeting. This church is involved in many
things. Most of them are not on a
Sunday. Most of the service that takes
place, most of the ministry that takes place in and through the
the life of this church happens outside of this room.
Because the the church is a people.
We are called to be with each other regularly.
And so the church, like the church is every day.
The body of Christ doesn't take a day off.
So they think about, OK, what are the things that I can do?
What are the areas of service that I can be a part of?
Needs to be broader than just a Sunday meeting.
We are involved in a food hamper ministry.
When I'm preparing for this. This is what I said.
I said to you guys that I'm not going to get very far.
What I'm going to talk about is some of the specific areas, some
of the things that are happening in the life of this church.
And we can't just talk about the meetings that we have and the
stuff that we're involved. We have to go way deeper than
that. But those are going to be the
focus for some of these things this morning.
So we're involved in a food hamper ministry.
And specifically there's a demographic, demographic of
people that we're called to reach.
And so the Lords put it on our hearts to provide food, not just
physical food, but spiritual food and to engage with the
community. And we've been doing that in our
time as a church through the through the local school where
we started. And as of this year, as of this
week, actually on Tuesday, we're going to be meeting basically in
this room. We're going to have our food
ministry start up in in the Community Center here.
And basically we're going to get food together.
We're going to pack bags and we're going to hand those bags
out to people in need. And so 1:00, you're jumping the
gun, bro. I'm going to tell people after
that that's OK. Thank you, man.
And so this is a very special thing.
And we, we put out registrations to see, you know, who, OK, who's
going to be in need of this thing?
Do you know that our registrations filled up in a
couple of days? And you know, it's not even
until Tuesday. And so, you know what that says
to me? There's more need than we're
able to, to meet at the moment. But the other thing that I know
is that our Lord, we'll make sure that we have all of the
resources that we need to take care of the needs that he has
called us to reach. And I'm excited about that
because we're going to be doing about 60 bags.
We've been doing 50 before that. We're going to need to do more.
Lord help us. This is such a cool opportunity
because we're going to see the the hand of the Lord.
You what? You watch this space, you watch
what God does, if there's need, the Lord will take care of it.
Amen. That's exciting to me.
And so this is one of the areas that we are going to need to
minister into. And I'm so chuffed because you
know, there's we've, we've had the people that have been
volunteering and stuff in, in the school.
We've, we've got like double the amount of volunteers already.
You know, you guys have just gone.
I want to come and help and that's that.
I'm so happy with that, that again, this is the Lord just
going there's going to there's more need here.
We're going to need people. So what does he do?
The Holy Spirit starts staring people's hearts.
You know, it's not an accident. The things that that the tire
came and talked about. It's not an accident.
The things that we're talking about.
There's a season here. We're moving into this season.
So praise the Lord. Thank you, Lord for providing
already before we've even started.
All right, so our community groups, why do we have community
groups? We provide a space for people to
come into. We provide a space for people
outside of our context to be able to come into and be
ministered to. That's the point of the
community groups. I want to see this explode.
I want to see this flourish. I don't want our community
groups to be a group of us as believers sitting around just
enjoying each other. We do do that.
It's because it's fun. We love that.
But this is a space for us to bring others in so that we can
minister to people that are outside of our context, that are
unbelievers. So we're believing for that.
The the community group is not for us.
The community group does not exist for you and I.
It exists as a platform for us to serve for us to serve the
community that God's called us to reach very special.
This could be the same for your home.
This is on every level guys. The home that you live in was
provided by by the Lord. The Lord provide.
You provided your home, whether you know that or not, the Lord
provided it. The word says that the Lord
provides for the unsaved, for the lost.
He provides for the lost the same way that he does for us.
He gives us food. He gives us shelter, right?
Those that don't have it. You know who's supposed to take
care of those people? Us.
The church is supposed to be the, the, the, the vehicle that
takes care of those that are out there somewhere disconnected
from the Lord. Because the Lord takes care of
people. He takes care of the lost.
He takes care of those that know him.
The Lord has provided enough on his earth to take care of the
needs of every single person. Greed.
And you know the the the evil of riches and people's desire to
keep everything for themselves if the reason that they're
starving people in the world, not because of the Lord and the
Lord will use his church to take care of the needs of the people
that are around the lampstand that he put here.
Amen, Amen. That means that your home is
there for the Lord. Unsaved friends can I say do you
have any unsaved friends? If you don't, you should get
some. I just thought about that this
week. Don't just like want try to hang
out with Christians all the time.
Make some unsaved friends. Do you know how easy it is?
I mean, I know it's difficult for I say that it's such a
flippant thing to say. Forgive me.
It's not that easy for for some of us to make friends.
So, you know, I say that that's a silly thing to say, but
talking to people isn't as hard as we think.
I think that the enemies made it seem more difficult than it
actually is to start a conversation with someone.
And the more that you step out in that, the better that you
become in that. Anyway, I was going to tell a
story, but it's, it doesn't matter.
Can I say that like we are all accepted of the Lord through
Jesus Christ alone, None of us are worthy of him.
None of us, right? We are saved through grace, not
through works, not through getting it all right.
There's not one person in this room that is living a sinless
life that is getting things perfect.
The Lord has very specific ways for us to live and patterns for
life. And we're we're on a journey to
to follow him and to turn from the things that we're falling
short of. Amen.
None of us have made it. All right.
So men's group. I'm just going to continue on
men's group. Why do we have a men's group?
Come on, Tony. I was trying to keep that part
secret, Man, we have, we have the men's group.
It's for the same reason we have a men's group that creates a
space and an opportunity for people that don't know him to
come in to sit under the word, to fellowship with one another.
You know, there's these things that we're devoted to.
We're devoted to the apostles teaching.
That's the word of God. That's the truth.
We're devoted to prayer. We're devoted to the breaking of
bread. We're devoted to fellowship, and
so we want to create spaces where people that don't know Him
can come in and experience those things and experience God.
And so gathering for prayer, we have a prayer gathering.
Our prayer gathering has moved to Wednesday at 6:00.
Come on in, let's pray together. Devoted to prayer.
Why do we have a prayer meeting? Prayer is so important.
It's one of the things that we're devoted to as a body.
That's why we come our Sunday meetings.
Obviously, we're devoted to the things that take place in this
meeting. We have to come.
We have to be a part of this. You can't be a Christian or you
can't live out the call of God as a Christian on your own.
It doesn't work. We're a body, we're together,
we're unified, our outreach opportunities, our Christmas and
all of these things. Can I just remind us that the
Christmas lunch that we put on, it's not for us.
We've partaken it, but we do this for them.
It's about reaching, it's about taking care of need.
It's about Jesus being like shining in the community.
That's why we do it. The heart behind why we do it is
the same. There's a specific group of
people that we're called to reach.
We need to understand that nothing that we're involved in
is for us. We are the beneficiaries of it
always because the Lord, you know, he feeds us as we work.
I'm reminded about what Jesus says when he meets with the lady
at the World. They come, the disciples come to
him and they say, are you hungry here?
You haven't eaten, Eaten some food, mate.
And Jesus says, no, I've already eaten.
They go, who's given this guy some food?
And he says my food is to do the will of the Father.
When we get on with doing the will of the Father, when we get
on with doing his will, when my life becomes about his will, not
his will for my life, the Lord feeds us.
We are. We find our sufficiency in Him,
we find our life, we find health and strength.
We're fed. Amen.
So although it's not about us, although we don't do it for us,
we get all of the benefits as well as them.
We're partakers of the inheritance.
Isn't that amazing? The Lord's just put this amazing
structure in place that when you decide to look after others
before yourself, you are looked after at the same time.
It's so amazing. But when you're focused on
taking care of yourself and looking after your own needs,
you don't see the needs of the people around you.
And living selfishly is unfulfilling.
You don't get fed in the same way that Jesus talked about.
When I, when I do the will of the father, then I am fed.
She's so amazing. So it's, and, and you know,
because we've talked about some of the meetings and some of the
gatherings and, and you know, there's obviously a whole lot of
other things going on outside of that where we're just together
when we're sending each other scriptures, where we're praying
for one another just in our private times and stuff like
that. That's ministry, guys.
You're a minister of the new covenant.
That means that we need to be praying, lifting each other up
in prayer, taking care of one another.
And so it's not just about attending the meetings, it's
about being an active member in the meeting, a participant in
the meeting. It's not enough just to come to
the meetings. If we have a, if our idea about
being involved is just about going to something we don't
understand the things that I'm trying to help us understand
today. It's not about just going to the
meetings. It's about being an active
participant in the meetings. That is how you minister.
That is how you serve the Lord. That is how you serve each
other. Be active in the meetings, and
this is what ties together the why and the what with The Who
and the hell. It's like seeing the clear
purpose for the church, like seeing the big purpose for the
church. When you understand that you are
called into it and that you're a minister in it and that you need
to be working in it, you realize that you're required, like every
single one of us are required here.
It gives you value. It gives you purpose.
It means that in order for for this church to be everything
that we're called to be, each and every one of us has to play
our part. And again, it's more more than
just being here coming. It's about coming prayerfully.
It's about coming with a with a question that it that you woke
up with. You know what that question
should be here I am Lord, what do you want from me?
I'm going to the meeting today, Lord and I love that Pat just
shared in our prayer this morning.
She said I just said to the Lord this morning.
I said give it. Can I have a word please for us
as a church and it was all interesting.
You know why? Because she got one when you ask
the Lord, Lord, give me something for your people.
And that could be just if you're going out for coffee, coffee
with someone, Lord, give me something for, for Karen.
I'll say Karen because it covers most of us.
Give me, give me. There's three Karens in the
church. Give me, please, Lord, give me a
word for Karen. You know, the Lord will give you
a word for the people when you understand that you are The Who
and that you're an active participant because he wants you
to be actively participating. All right, so just quickly, I
know that I'm, I really need to wrap this.
My goodness, you know, beyond this church into this nation.
There's things that are organized by the leaders in this
city that we can be a part of, that we should be a part of.
There's city celebrations, there's worship nights.
There's an eldest time coming up in February.
I'll give you the latest in a moment, but there's opportunity
to serve here. There's going to be a bunch of
people from the churches that are going to be making coffee,
serving in various ways. There's an opportunity to for
for you guys to serve in that if you're available.
Talk about that after you come in to speak to us.
There's national equips that we should be a part of.
It's going to take you some sacrifice guys.
You're going to have to get into state, you're going to have to
buy a plane ticket, you're going to have to maybe take some time
off work. You're going to have to do
something. It's important for us to be a
part of what the Lord is doing in our in our nation, beyond
ourselves, you know, in our city and in this nation.
It must be said that some of you just can't make this stuff.
There's realities, you know, some of you guys just can't
travel anymore. You're not making it to a global
equip that has to be OK. Should you still be an active
participant in the life of this church?
Absolutely. You got to find a way in God to
be actively participating and I know that you guys are.
That means that you can be involved.
There's there's there's many ways you can be involved.
You could be involved in the food hampers without stepping
foot in this place finance. You could give generously of
your finances. You could be praying diligently.
You could be like our church is meeting 1:00 on Tuesday.
I'm going to be praying that the Spirit of God would move, that
they would connect with these people.
I'm going to be praying that we would see these people come to
know the Lord. You see, we should be doing
these these things. We can be, we should be.
You could be giving of your time, you know, like our kids
are looked after so that we can meet as elders and stuff like
that. There's things that our family
do and friends do to free us up to make us available.
You could be cooking meals for people so that they have free
time to minister in other ways. There's so many different ways.
If you start to ask the Lord and say Lord, how can I minister?
What can I be involved in? You know, he's going to show you
things, ask each other, say, how are you involved?
Oh, I'd love to be involved in that, too.
Maybe I'll come to your house. Maybe we'll spend a few hours
cooking together. We'll fellowship together.
We'll make some food for those that are with young children.
All of these things, there's so many different ways.
I feel like we're in a season where the Lord is testing our
devotion. He's testing what the things
that we're devoted to. You could be devoted to, again,
you could be devoted to the apostles teaching, to
fellowship, to breaking of bread, to prayer, to being part
of what the the Lord's doing in our midst.
Or there's a default setting. When you're not devoted to the
Lord's things, you're devoted to something else.
There's a default setting which you will be devoted to
something. So we're being tested in this.
I would encourage all of us to look at our lives and and find
out the things that you're devoted to.
You could be devoted to TV. You could be devoted to your
wife above the Lord. You could be devoted to your
children more so than the things of the Lord.
That's a weird thing to say, isn't it?
But if you're more devoted to seeing your kids at their
sporting game on Sunday morning than in the church
fellowshipping with the body of Christ, you're more devoted to
your children than you are to the Lord and for His plan and
purpose. And ultimately, you are doing a
disservice to your children. They're going to become what you
are. Those are firm words, but I
believe that wholeheartedly. You need to be devoted to the
things that the Lord has called this church to above the things
that you're called to. That could be work.
That could be entertainment. That could be sleep, that could
be many things. Again, I don't don't come to me
and ask me. You go to the Lord and you ask
him to say, Lord, what am I devoted to?
What am I truly devoted to? Are they your things or are they
my things? All right, so some questions
that we can ask ourselves, are we actively involved in God's
plan and purpose for this lampstand?
Are we go and write them down? So of course I am go make a
list. What are the things that I'm
actively involved in for God's plan and purpose for this
lampstand? Am IA consumer in this room or a
contributor? That means do I come with an
offering? Do I come with something to
bring or do I come, come give me what I need?
That's a good question to ask ourselves, isn't it?
Am I contributing or am I consuming?
You know, I've been watching, I am, I'm rapping really.
So I'm sorry, this is, it's long, but I just a couple more
things that I just feel I need to say.
You know, I've been watching in our meetings, I've been watching
in our community groups. I've been watching in family
barbecues. I've been watching in parties of
unbelievers. I've been watching, I've been
watching to see who's a contributor and who's the
consumer. When you go to worldly things,
it's usually like if if you go to a party, it's normally like
the the whoever's hosting the party, they're the ones running
around doing everything. And then you've got a whole
bunch of people that are just like the honoured guests that
just walk in, make all the mess and then leave.
And then you've got these poor people that have like hosted,
opened up their homes, provided for everything.
They get left to clean up the mess.
This is not the culture that we are building here in our church,
in this community. So when we're together, we are
owning it together. We're serving one another.
We're looking to see how we can be the ones that are tidying up
and cleaning. We're going to leave that place
the way that you know that that family or that those people
could go to bed. I'm just going to get in my car
and go to bed. We are going to be serving
hardened. We're going to make sure that
we're going to do everything that we can do to be a family.
Amen. In our community groups in our
homes when people are around. I know you understand what I'm
saying. All right, So I'm going to close
with this scripture. Acts 2.
I started reading it, but I'm going to read on a bit.
Acts 2, verse 42. They were continually devoted.
They continually devoted themselves to the apostles
teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to
prayer. Everyone kept feeling a feeling
of sense and awe, and many wonders and signs were taking
place through the apostles. This is talking about the early
church. The Acts Church and all the
believers were together and had all things in common, and they
would sell their property and possessions and share them among
all to the extent that everyone, everyone's needs were met day by
day, continuing with 1 accord in the temple and breaking bread
from house to house. They were taking their meals
together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising
God, having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding
to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Isn't that an amazing picture that the church could be, that
the church should be? This is the church that Jesus is
building. This is a very strong picture of
what should be seen and expected in our gatherings when we're
together. So I would love for us to go and
read that and open your eyes when we're together.
Open your eyes after we close this part of this meeting.
See who's serving, see who's consuming.
Don't go and say, well, you're not really serving there.
Please be gracious. But look, hey, look, look to
yourself. Don't look to others.
Am I going to serve? Right?
You know, you guys are just laughing.
I get it. All right.
So anyway, I'm just going to pray.
Let's seek the Lord together. Father, we, we thank you for
your word. Your word is truth.
We thank you for the Holy Spirit's lead.
We thank you for the stirrings of our heart.
We thank you, the Lord, that You are building a strong, healthy,
glorious, powerful church. That this lampstand, Lord, is
placed here to burn bright, to shine bright, to see Your
Kingdom come and Your will be done.
We are The Who and we give ourselves over to you
wholeheartedly. Lord, speak, lead, guide, do
your will, our lives for your will.
Lord Jesus, we love you, we honor you in Jesus mighty name,
Amen. Amen.
Thank you guys, Thank you. Men's group this Monday 6:30.
It's going to be awesome. Come and serve our hampers.
Tuesday 1:00 prayer prayer Wednesday six to seven here the
community groups are up and running this week 630 I think
Daniel 6 O clock the anchor in Justin eldest time is I spoke
about it's they're like a elders leaders time elders and leaders
from all around the country coming together.
That is in February 25th to 27th.
We need to own this together guys we need help so come and
speak to us after. Bless you guys, have an amazing
day. Thank you for joining us for
today's message. For more information about The
Way Church, please visit ourwebsite@thewaychurch.com dot
AU. Have a blessed day.