Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South
Australia. Father, we come before your
throne. Our hearts are expectant.
You've created something in our hearts of a deep desire to be
ministered to, to work in our hearts and lives and change us.
But Lord, more than all of those things we come to say, we want
to do what you say, live out what you speak to to us today.
And so we pray your anointing upon Tyra now that you give him
a freedom, a humility, grace, that he would speak
prophetically, profoundly, that Lord, the word of God will not
return unto you void, but it will accomplish that for which
you purpose it. So soften our hearts, creating
us that expectation deeper than we even have right now, and just
impart truth, the truth that frees us and sets us ablaze with
a fire from heaven in Jesus name, Amen, Amen, Amen.
Thanks Pops, I'm good. I got thanks Grace.
Well, good morning. Thanks to the guys to letting me
come back. I wasn't sure I was going to get
an invitation or suddenly the doors were closed this morning
and you can't come back. But thank you.
And I'll be Australia today, I guess tomorrow, right?
Or is it today? It's this weekend and great
Southland of the Holy Spirit. What a great, great country,
great, great country. I know you've all got history
and stuff that's happened, but the reality is it's a great
country and God's got much in store still with this place for
this place and I believe from this place and so well done to
you guys. Just serving God faithfully and
appreciate the opportunity to share his word.
If you have a Bible, please go with me to first Peter chapter
one. Just tell me if I'm preach
speaking too fast, OK, I'm going to try and slow it down.
But first Peter chapter one and last week I started just I try
to go somewhere I didn't get too far, which is probably what I
get from my dad. That's the anointing there.
But I'm just joking, pops, but I we were just looking at the
difference between a Chapel and the church.
You know, we mentioned, yes, last week.
Couple of things. Let me highlight and just say
that God doesn't just give cities to churches, which is
great, but he gives churches to cities to impact them with the
gospel. And I'm absolutely convinced if
this is not a man man thing, which it's not if it was, we
appreciate man and all that he's doing, but whatever man
attempts, that's not God is futile and and guaranteed to
fail. And so we don't start churches.
This is a God thing. This is a response to God saying
I want to set up another lampstand in this great city of
South of Adelaide. And we believe this is a God
thing and God is a God of lampstands.
He loves this region so much that he gave his Son, but he
also gave a lampstand here called the white Church.
Just one of many, but absolutely not just to do something, but to
serve the plans and purposes of God.
We don't just need another church or a great church.
We need a people who truly are committed to God's plan, God's
purpose, to serve in a sense, as in our generation, the purposes
and plans of God, which the Bible says.
So this church, I believe, has been given by God to the people
to reach these wonderful people that are from all over lost,
desperate. Some don't know they lost,
others many do know they lost, but God put us here as a people
to shine the light, to shine bright in the darkest.
As the world gets worse, the church should be getting better.
And God has a plan with his people.
And so we, we said that last week also talked about that the
church is not the center of God's plan.
Jesus is the center, right? We know that it's we're not
about people. We're a people who are about
Jesus. The Bible is very clear.
It all revolves around Christ. It's all around you, Jesus, even
heaven right now worshipping Jesus.
Jesus has been glorified and and so he, he's the center of
everything. But we are the church who are
central to the plan of God and God doesn't have another plan.
And I'm sure at times we wish he did.
We would look around and go, God, if only you could do
something else. But God in his wisdom, God in
his, in his understanding of all things said, I'm going to pick.
I'm going to handpick men and women of all walks of all life
with all their drama and all the issues.
I'm going to handpick them to serve my plan and my purpose in
partnership with me. If I can just say to you, God
doesn't need us to do anything. God needs nothing.
If he needed something, he would cease to be God.
And I listen to people talk about God needs us and God wants
us. And, and I want to say if you
look at the original intention of God, if you go back to the
beginning, the book of Genesis, in the beginning, God, and this
is God created, God spoke. And then we understand that God
picked us. God chose men and women to work,
not for him, but to work with him.
It's a very different understanding if it's for him,
it's just get on with this job, get it done.
But he created us to work with him, in partnership with him.
And then people messed it up. And then God didn't put another
plan in place. God put a rescue plan in place
to get us back to the original plan, which is God in
partnership with us. And so we're at church who
partners with God. We're here to serve his plans,
his purposes, and He's called us to work with him.
And so we are central to his plan, but we're not the center
of it. It's not all about us, it's all
about him. And He's included us.
And we mentioned last week again, and this is a kind of
last reference I want to make to then move into what I want to
share this morning is that it was said by Martin Luther that
wherever God's building his church, the devil is building
his Chapel or a Chapel. In other words, what does that
mean? It means that wherever God's
creating and doing things, the devil is counteracting or
bringing a fake or the imitation of the real.
The devil's not a creator. He cannot create.
So he just imitates with the counterproductive, the wannabe,
not the real thing. And so wherever God is building
his church, and I'm convinced this is part of his call, here
is Jesus said, I will build my church, he's building his
church. And while he's building that,
the devil is imitating and bringing something not of an
opposition, but almost a joining and imitating.
So we get busy with stuff, church stuff, good stuff,
cultural stuff at the expense of what God has intended from the
art set. And so we got to keep coming
back to that. I I don't believe that the devil
has the power to destroy us. And I know that Siri just
disagreed with me, but that's OK.
God does not. I mean, the devil does not have
the power to destroy him, right? But he has got the power to
distract us. So you know how he destroys us?
By distracting us, by getting us busy with many things, as long
as they're not God things and as long as God's not in it, the
devil's got nothing to fear. And so here we got a description
in first Peter chapter 1. And I want to read quite a few
verses and just highlight some of the things that God has to
say about his church through the Holy Spirit, right?
Peter has highlighted some description of what is it many
texts that we could look at this morning that describe the
church. I was just taken to this again.
I feel like it's just great to start here and then we're going
to make a few comments and then we'll be done for the day.
But first Peter chapter 1 and for we'll pick up in verse 23
Peter Rice and he says for you have been born again.
And can I just say that that born again means this
spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His
purpose? Born again is not just now that
I'm saved, I'm headed for heaven.
That's awesome. But we're still here on earth,
and God saves us and sets us apart to serve His purpose while
we're on this planet. It's not what is your purpose
for my life. It's what is my life, my life
for your purpose. When we say what is your purpose
for my life, we will find a purpose, maybe, probably the
imitation and give our lives to stuff that people endorse, that
the church says it's good, our government says it's good, our
family says it's good. And we will miss the very reason
God put us on this plan. I'm convinced it's not what is
your will for me, it's what is your will and how do I fit into
your will? What is your purpose and how do
I fit into your purpose in the things that you've called us to?
Peter Wright says is not of perishable seed, but of
imperishable through the living and enduring Word of God.
For all people are like grass, and their glory is like the
flowers of the field. The grass Withers and the flower
fall, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Verse chapter 2. Verse one.
Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit,
hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind, like newborn babies
crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in
your salvation. Last week we mentioned that God
is working on us while He's working through us, that God is
committed to bringing us to Him. We are His mission while we are
on His mission. And I don't like to be worked
on. I like to be worked through.
I like God using me. I don't like God working on me.
But we are to grow up in our salvation.
We are to mature and be ready for the return of cheese.
And so he's working on us while he's working through us and
that's what we see and that you've tasted and that you may
grow up in your salvation. Verse 3.
Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good as you come to
him. The living stone rejected by
men, but chosen by God and precious to him.
You also, like living stones are being built into a spiritual
house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For in Scripture it says, see I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen
and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will
never be put to shame. Now to you who believe the stone
is precious, May, may I just pause and say this.
The church that Jesus is building cannot and will not
fail. Many churches are failing
because they're not being built by Jesus and the cornerstone has
not been Christ. And the moment we move from the
cornerstone, the chief cornerstone, we begin to lose
our way, lose our vision, lose our foundation.
Christ is the foundation and we understand that His church will
be successful because he's the chief cornerstone, the rock.
The church is built on the rock, Jesus being the rock, and so it
cannot fail if that's true. But to those who do not believe,
the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone and a
stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.
They stumble because they disobey the message, which is
also what they were destined for.
All right, verse 9, here we go. But you are a chosen people.
We're talking about how God sees his church, how He describes us,
His people. You might not feel like you've
chosen this morning. Straight up I wouldn't choose
you. Straight up you wouldn't choose
me. But the fact is, we are chosen
by him, chosen people. Let that sink in.
How can we reach them if we don't believe God loves us?
We love to talk about how God so loved them, but we forget God so
loved us. He handpicked us for such a time
as this in all the stuff with all the things we carry.
But you are a chosen people that speaks of dignity.
You literally means a select race, an elect race.
This is how God sees us. A royal priesthood speaks of
destiny. A holy nation speaks of
distinct. Can I say we are holy people and
people set apart different to everyone else?
And I've watched many people say I'm just not happy in this
church and I'm happy at that church.
And can I say the church's role is not to make us happy, it's to
help us be more holy, which sometimes makes us unhappy
because he's working on us. And I don't like to be worked
on. So let me go find a church where
they don't work on us. They just tell us how great we
are. It's about maturing, growing up.
My sons, two of our sons are in this room.
And they never least in love it when they're growing up that I
would tell them, grow up, son. They wouldn't be our.
Thanks, Dad. Great word.
I appreciate it. No one wants to be told to grow
up, but that's the reality, friends.
God's making us a holy people, a people separate, not of this
world, still in it, but not of it.
And then it goes on and says a people belonging to God, a
people for God's own possession is what it speaks of, That you
may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light. Our call is to declare, and I
said this last week that the church has never been louder,
but we've never said less that our message is confusing.
We confuse by ourselves and we confusing the world by the
things we declare. We called to be a people who
speak and declare what it is God's called us.
Someone said the church is not the way to heaven, which we
know. The Church is the sign that
points to Him. We are to proclaim His wondrous
deeds, to show forth the glory of the Lord, and to make known
His gracious dealings with His people.
Do you know that word declare actually means to advertise?
Do you know that we are walking billboards?
Not Sunday, not this. The last billboards you got out
the front. Every day you and I are
billboards declaring something, and our role is to declare the
goodness, the gracious dealings of God in our lives, the stuff
God's working on. It's this understanding of how
great God is, how merciful, how kind, how gracious he is.
And we've met Christians. Again, we're not talking to this
church, but every other church out there.
We've met grumpy Christians, always grumpy and say what's
wrong? God's dealing with me.
Your declaration is not helping because God's not harsh in his
dealings. He's kind and it's gracious, but
you know, we don't turn it on and off.
We always billboards and I wonder what people know.
What do we want them to see? What are they seeing in my life?
Not Sunday here, every day, wherever we're at.
God's called us to be billboards.
You know, I we live in the US and whatever you think of that,
that's the way it is. And I've watched your news.
You're very negative about us. It's easy to blame us.
We could talk about your nature, but we won't.
We'll just move on. And but, but America is an
incredible place. And if you've ever been there
and I get to minister all over the US, but you know, when you
travel, I go minister in New York, for example, when you
land, there's a, there's a, if you go to New York, it's the
most incredible city. I mean, I wouldn't want to live
there, but the city is overwhelming.
It's beautiful. It's it's got history, it's got
buildings. But wherever you go, you can
find nowhere. Times Square is you can see it
from anywhere. In actual fact, I landed in New
Jersey, which is a different state, and I looked across the
Hudson River and I could see the Times Square from another state
because of how lit up it is. Its the Billboard capital of the
world, the lights shining nonstop day and night.
Its lit up with billboards and when we land.
I landed recently a while ago in New York, New Jersey.
I felt the Lord said that is the church.
As I looked out my the window of the aeroplane when we were
landing in another state. I could see this lit up 4:00 AM
lit up of New New York Times Square and I felt the Lord
remind me that's my church. You always shining and people
are always looking regardless of the time of day or where you're
at. And that's not an accusation.
That's a challenge God wants us to declare to the world to
advertise the goodness of our God no matter what we're going
through. Amen.
CS Lewis says the church exists for nothing else but to draw
people into Christ. Verse 10.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
We have been delivered. God looks at us and says you've
been delivered. Have we?
I also want to say that the church is the great lost and
found department. When you people are lost and
they're called to be found, we God's people are the great lost
and found department. Let them come and be found
because we're here, because we serve in the plans and purposes
of God. Verse 11 Dear friends, I urge
you as aliens and strangers in this world to abstain from
sinful desires which war against your soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse
you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God
on the day he visits it. God wants us to be a people
devoted to him. And there's been a lot of talk
around the the the rapture and the rapture.
And I don't know what your take is on all that.
I'm not going to talk about that, the rapture here this
morning. But what I do want to say is it
does seem like many of the Church want to be raptured from
our responsibility here on it. We're just me and the Lord.
We don't care about anything else.
I don't want to say I just want to be taken and be wrapped it
from what I've been put. We're on this planet.
This church has been birthed by God to serve his plans and
purposes and that's awesome. That's good news and we are
called to be devoted to him. So there's one text we've just
read. I want to just for the few
moments that I have left, just highlight some cultures that I
believe that if we contend for that, if we create and we
cultivate, how many of you know that culture has got to be
cultivated? You can lose culture and you
inherit culture like this. And if we don't cultivate it,
then can I suggest we will become the Chapel, even in good
intentions, even with a couple of years in as a church plant,
it's very easy to just get busy with the other stuff.
And, and I'm looking at scripture saying, Lord, I don't
want to waste one second of my life, not one minute, not, not
$1.00, one dime, whatever. You have your sense.
I don't want to lose it. I don't want to waste it on
something that seemed to be. I don't want to sew my children
into something that's church rather than king Kingdom.
I don't want to miss. I want to serve your plans.
And I don't want to give the devil one minute of my life
because he had my life for some years.
And so there is a guarantee from Scripture that we can come back
to these things. And if we contend for these
things and if we create and cultivate these things, then we
will never be a Chapel. And it's not up to elders of
David. It's up to all of us to carry
this in our hearts, regardless of where we serve God or even
how we serve him, to make sure these cultures are being created
and and understood. What's interesting about culture
it it comes through communication and what we
celebrate. The culture is learnt.
It shocked me when I looked this up.
It's not natural and it's transferred through generations
via imitation and observation. Two of our boys are in this
room. They get a lot of good from
their mom. None.
And some not good from me. That the the times I look at my
son and I go, Oh my word, that's me.
But that's not the good me. That's me.
Where did you get that? You sound like me.
You look at you're acting and and you know what?
They're imitating me. They caught it from us.
Just think about that. I know that there's some seniors
in this room, senior campaigners, seasoned
campaigners in this room and and we're grateful for your life and
that. But you're not done and God's
not finished with anyone in this room, otherwise you'd be with
him right now and you know, So live it out, be it.
But know this, that what you're investing now, you're leaving
for generations, you inherit that what you highlight or low
light or devalue or value as a people, you actually understand
this generations, kids, babies and those gods adding to this
church who are going to embrace and simply by imitation and
observation, do it because you did.
And that freaks me out that people will just take on what
we're doing regardless of whether it's in the Bible or
not. So I want to make sure these
cultures are real, that they're biblical.
See, culture encompasses the shared behaviours, the beliefs
and values that characterize a particular group of people.
What are these things from Scripture?
Find the freedom to express them the way God wants you to.
But we've got to cultivate these if we're going to be a people
who really are serving the plans and purposes of God.
So #1 and I'm sure you knew this was coming first and foremost, a
culture of Christ. A culture of Christ, not of
Christianity, not of biblical teaching.
No, a culture of Christ first in everything.
How do we make sure Christ is being their culture, is being
created? We glorify Him in everything and
every song, declaration, truth, preach, or everything else in
our lives. Christ first in everything.
That's what the Bible teaches us.
We said this last week. Many are raised in the church
but are not raised in Christ. Why is that?
Because church became the focus at the expense of the head.
A body without is a head is is a corpse, but a a head without a
body is irrelevant. And God made it where Jesus is
the head and we are the body. We work hand in hand, but he's
the head and my body does what my head tells it what to do.
My body doesn't tell my brain what to do.
Would you agree? I hope that's true.
That's should be otherwise things are wrong.
And so I'm convinced of this, that our view of Jesus with our
view of Jesus is wrong. Our view of everything else is
wrong. Everything else is wrong when
you don't understand, we don't see it.
And that's where I think the devils come in and just get in
Jesus and see, I have found, and I've got some passions out there
and I've got some stuff that I believe biblical gods coming to
when Jesus and that thing becomes together, that thing
always takes the place of Jesus. Jesus and justice.
If you hear this morning all about justice, I'm telling you
this, if it's next to Christ, you're going to become about
justice at the expense of Christ.
If it's Jesus and whatever it's Jesus, then justice, because
that's what gives you the absolute value of what you
called. So don't make a Jesus.
And it's Jesus and it's not. Yeah, OK.
Do you understand what I'm saying here?
Jesus. It's not Jesus and anything.
It's Jesus, then everything. And that's where your value
comes. But we've got to build that
revelation and understand it. In Colossians chapter 1.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together and
he's the head, the life source and leader of the body, the
church. He is the beginning and the
first born from among the dead, so that in everything, all
things, he will have supremacy. First place in everything.
Jesus has been given first place in everything.
The question I asked this morning to us, does he have
first place in your life? Is he still #1 Jesus Christ?
He will stand supreme and preeminent in everything the
Bible says. See, modern Christianity wants
Jesus as a therapist to heal their trauma, but not Jesus as
Lord to lead their life. And I want to suggest you cannot
have one without the other. The real question is, do we want
him or do we want what he can do for us?
You know, Jesus is the reason for everything.
That's not a cliche, that's fact.
We gathered this morning because of him.
This church exists for him. We don't go and do stuff for
people, for the leaders, for each other.
We do it for him. He is the reasons hard to lose
your way when you realize he is the reason for it all.
He's the why to it all. And honestly, as a leader, I've
got busy and I lose my my heart for people when it becomes about
I'm doing it for them. I'm travelling for that nation,
I'm going to this region. It's not for them, it's for him.
And it's hard to lose your way when you lose your why, when you
when you don't lose your why, When you lose your why, you lose
your way. So I wanted to say to you this
morning, the reason we're here is for Jesus.
The reason you do what you do out there is for him.
And that's why we celebrate each other.
But can I say it's not just the reason?
He's the reward. So many people get so busy for
him, they forget about him. And that happened in the Book of
Revelation where he addresses the church in emphasis.
He says, hey, you've done all these great things for me, but I
have this one thing against you. What about me?
You did it for me, but you forgot about me.
You and I can make him the reason and forget he's still the
reward. Everything is about reward for
people. I mean, I read that.
I forgive. Forgive me, those of you who
don't believe in this, but I still sometimes read the Bible
of my app, one of my Bible apps, because it's more convenient
when I travel in there. And here's what happens.
The more you read, they give you a badge.
I've got a badge for reading so much.
My reward is a badge, an electronic badge that means
nothing. Can I say the reward is Christ
in everything? We don't need these other little
accuser. Well done.
Pat on the back. You've the reward.
Don't get busy for Him. He is the reward.
He's our reward, He's our great reward.
Not just the reward. He's my great reward and I don't
get stuff from him. I get more of him.
That's got to be the culture that's been developed here more
and more. The main thing is keeping the
main one, the main thing I've watched people lose their way
and I'll tell you why. Because they had faith in
leaders, they had faith in ministries, they've had faith in
the church. There are people all over
Adelaide that have faith in the church and had made in ministry
and leaders and pastors who have lost their way and now they
blame God and are serving, not interested.
Why is there? Because they had faith in
people, not faith in Christ. And I want to say to us this
morning, people are going to come into this church and people
are going to leave this church. And some will come really well
and leave very well. Others will come badly and leave
badly. And I want to say this, have
faith for everyone, but have faith only in Christ.
Don't have faith in anyone, Only faith for everyone but faith in
Christ. Hebrews 13, verse 8.
Nobody. Jesus Christ is the only one who
never changed. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever more. You with me faithful and faith
in Don't get those mixed up. Only faith in Jesus.
Secondly, we need a culture of conviction, a culture of
conviction. It's like people are just I'm
shocked how people who I've admired followed not faith in
faithful but learn stuff from in ministry who just losing their
conviction. It's like when you hit trauma or
crisis, you just stop believing truth and stop.
And we're allowing what we go through to determine what we
believe. We can't allow circumstances to
determine our theology. Friends, the word of God doesn't
change based on what we go through.
It's God's word. It's unchanging and and you
don't really know what you believe till you test it and go
through stuff. And many people borrow truth,
but they don't have their own revelation.
So I want to just cheer us this morning to say this.
We need a culture of conviction, whether it's acceptable to our
culture, whether people like it or not.
You know, the world is so fallen in love with lies that truth is
now offensive and hate speech and the church has become quiet.
I don't want to like look like I hate speak truth in love, but
truth is still truth carry conviction, even if it's not
popular because God's looking for his church to be a pillar of
truth. And we need a culture of total
conviction. We love all people, but we don't
just accept their lifestyle because it's more relevant
today. It's not up to us, it's up to
him, and we need the word of God.
Someone said this to a church without mixture, God will pour
out His spirit without measure. Mixture.
We got a bit of political, we got a bit of cultural, we got a
bit of my history, your history. We put it all together.
Say God blow wind on it. The laws of blame wind on our
stuff. The Lord is empowering us with
His truth. So we don't want to mix, we want
truth. Are you with me, friends?
That's the church Jesus is looking to build and that's what
I believe. It's Word and Spirit.
It's together. Those someone said the Word
without the Spirit is powerless and the Spirit without the Word
is weaponless. We need both word and Spirit.
Can I just say a couple of things about the Word?
You know, when you open your Bible, don't forget this.
God opens his mouth and speaks. And I love the many things about
the Word of God, but one of the best things is that God, the
author, is always present when you're reading His Word.
He's always with you speaking. I have found that the greatest
threat to God's word are not those who outrightly oppose it.
It's those who claim to believe it.
But I don't know actually what it says.
There's many of us, maybe not in this room, but every other
church, they claim we believe the Bible.
We believe it, and we don't know what it says.
How Can you believe something you don't know?
That's a danger phrase. And we need to come back to
making sure we know what the Bible says.
We've often heard about the meat of the Word and the milk of the
Word. Have you heard about that?
What's the difference between the meat of the Word and the
milk of the Word? Well, milk is a result of food
digested by someone else. Meat is something you get to
process for yourself. That's maturity.
And that's what God's calling of us to obviously come and hear
the Word of God preach and thank God for these men and women who
unpack Scripture. But this isn't where you get it.
This is a stirring to go read it for yourself.
If I can convince you of something, someone can
unconvince you of something and I've seen it.
But when you get it for yourself, friend, you carry that
conviction. And that's why we all have the
Word of God for ourselves. We don't challenge the Word of
God, we let it challenge us. Let me step on your toes.
If I haven't, here it is. When last did you allow God's
Word to challenge you, Not just encourage?
And I think I am encouraged by the challenge, but you can't
just read God's word for encourage me, Lord, because if
you're reading it for what it really says, He's challenging
us. So be challenged and encouraged,
but that's how we carry conviction.
Read it, learn it, live it, pray it, teach it and die to it.
Wherever your life comes across God's word.
Can I suggest your life must change, not the word of God,
Word and Spirit. John 16 Go read what Jesus, the
word of God has to say about the Holy Spirit.
And in John 16, Jesus teaches us that the word, the Holy Spirit
is the one who brings conviction.
He's the teacher, He's the great reveal.
He actually, Jesus said he will teach things that I've taught
and make them known to you. If you're just reading the Bible
without the Holy Spirit, friends, you won't carry
conviction. But when the Holy Spirit
convinces you of truth, guides us into truth, makes known these
truths very hard to lose your convicts.
So I'm challenging me and us. Don't just read the Bible like a
book. Let the Holy Spirit convince you
of truth. That changes the way we live,
but also we hold true to regardless of what others are
telling us. Amen.
I don't think the great challenge we're facing is the
self indulgent culture of other people out there.
That's not that's not hindering the progress of the gospel.
I think there's a greater challenge.
It's the self-sufficient mentality of the believers in
this room, not you. Again, other churches.
Sorry, my bad. Seriously, it's almost like we
could say I got this. Lord, I've served you long
enough, I know how this works. I know what the Bible says, I've
got this. We would never say that, but we
can live like that. You've got nothing.
We've got nothing if we're not relying on the Holy Spirit.
Friends, He's not an optional extra for deluxe Christians.
He's the one who empowers us, he's the one who helps us, he's
the one who teaches us. He's the anointed, the one who
annoyed. And we need to come back to
understanding our need for the Holy Spirit.
Couple of years ago, Chinese Christians returned to China
after surveying the Western Church for some time and when
they were asked what's the most profound thing they'd learned
from the Western church. So they left China, they came to
the Western culture and they studied to come learn that what
the church is doing in the in the West.
This is their great I quote. This was their great response
and lesson. It's amazing how many things
Western Christians do for God, separate and apart from the Holy
Spirit and His power. They take away from learning
from the Western churches. The church is so busy doing
things without God's touch, without the Holy Spirit, and
without power. Friends, not them, us.
Let this church never operate in flesh and become so good at what
we do, we forget the need of God.
The Holy Spirit is essential in US.
And let me just tell you, the Holy Spirit doesn't just enable
us to speak in tongues. He doesn't just enable us to lay
hands on the sick and recovering miracles.
He also teaches us to be quiet, to apologize.
It's the same Holy Spirit. Many of us want the power of the
Holy Spirit. We're not interested in the
fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's both.
He is holy and will always be holy.
I just want to say we don't need the Holy Spirit to come again.
We don't need Pentecost to happen again.
Pentecost happened. We need to acknowledge it, make
room. And the Holy Spirit doesn't need
an invitation. He just needs to be honoured.
Not in our gatherings, in our lives.
But he's the great convincer. Let him convince you #3 quickly.
A culture of community, Community.
And there is that. Yeah.
And I love that. But let me just say this.
You cannot be connected to Jesus and separated from his body.
And there are many who believe that they've been hurt by the
church or can't get to a meeting and gathering.
It's so much easier online. Everything.
And and I understand that, but God's desire for his people is
to be together. And it's not because you need to
be here to hear Dave or me preach.
It's because God put us in a family together.
Now. Now please know this.
It's interesting how he uses family, not friends.
I've got to be careful because I've got a lot of my family
sitting in the room here. I did not choose my family.
I mean, the only one in this here is the my wife.
I chose my wife and I kind of think God help me choose big
time but and bless me, but the only one seated here is that I
really chose was Nicole. I had a big role to play.
I'll just say that in my children, but I never chose boy,
boy, boy. Try all the tricks.
You don't get to choose. And I never was chosen.
I never chose to be born into the family of my parents.
And so the point I'm trying to make is you don't get to pick
where you put yeah, we pick where we go.
I'm not happy, I'm not happy. I'm looking for happiness.
I'm looking for a bunch of friends.
Well, this is not about friendship because friendship
can disagree at every level and go about our own ways.
Family is a different thing all together.
And what I've watched even with my two brothers, which I love
dearly, I say that mom and dad, we are so different.
We with this a likeness, but we are like very different.
And that's what God does. He puts you in families.
The Bible says in Psalm 68, God puts the lonely in families and
God puts us in with people that don't look like us, act like us,
and maybe irritate us. And the reason he puts you in a
family is to help you grow up, not a bunch of friends who love
each other and cheer each other all the time.
Are you there? It's not looking for friends and
I hope family can be friends, but this is a family, not a
friendship gathering. And there's nothing natural
about this. And if it's natural, best you
get out of here because you don't want to be in a natural
church. You want to be in a
supernatural. The Bible's very clear in, in
Isaiah, he says that I'll put the, the, the, the case here and
the motel, the Oliver that put all these trees and shrubs and
bushes that don't belong in the desert and that don't belong
together. And he says, I'm going to put
them together in the desert. And then he goes on, he says,
said people may see, consider and understand.
It's the hand of the Lord that has done this.
In other words, not good strategy, clever preaching,
great facilities. I'm going to take what doesn't
belong. I'm going to put them together
to belong because I'll make them belong.
And people are going to look around and go, this is a
miracle, Let this keep being a miracle by you being part of the
miracle and not our issues with one another that we have, but we
work it out rather than we up and leave because I can't be
friends with you. I look at the guys that I'm part
of, the leadership, the team that I get to lead.
Honestly, I love the team I'm leading, but the majority of
guys I would naturally never have a coffee with if it was not
the call of God together. And it's not.
That's weird. It's because we put together for
the plans and purposes of God. So I choose to work with these
people, not let's be best mates. Am I?
Making sense?
The church, Adelaide has been known as the city of churches.
It's become very dark. Yeah.
Anyway, not other churches. They're not getting along too
well. And why is that?
I think it's because we're getting too natural, too natural
in our thinking. What suits me?
What's in it for me? What about me?
Rather than how do we serve with people?
God's put us. And when God moves us on, go
quietly, go well. Celebrate what you were part of
rather than slash it and slag it while you leave.
Because you're not helping the 'cause you're not helping the
Kingdom. Are you there?
You OK? We're friends still.
They're friends. Schaeffer said this and family
OK, Francis Schaefer said this. He said that Christian community
is the final apologetic. See, Francis Schaefer was an
apologist who went out and proved things from scripture
that the death of Christ happened, that the resurrection
happened, some of the sea scroll, the Dead Sea Scrolls.
He proved what the Bible, not that it needs proof, but he went
out to prove it and he came to the conclusion there's one final
apologetic that truly proves Jesus, Israel.
The world will judge us by the way we treat each other.
All these other things can be proved right, but we are the
final apologetic and we trash each other, destroy each other.
Can I, can I say this? We got to speak for truth and we
got to call things out. But division is not bad.
It's Antichrist. It's Antichrist Jesus and John
17 prayed that the father be 1 and said and he said make our
disciples one as we are one that the world we're not friends when
we begin to and again it's cool to have issues and work them out
but when we beating and dividing and man it's against Christ.
Yet the church loves to do it on social media anyway not you the
other churches so be free but don't go there please quickly a
culture of calling. We need to grow, see we count
success, but God, why is it maturity and multiplication?
God's called this church to multiply and grow up.
And I want to encourage you that God's called you to multiply,
not David. And all of us have a role to
play this church. As I said last week, it might be
offensive, but you need to be planting churches out of this
church. It's God's you birth churches to
plant, churches to multiply, not so we can have more churches so
we can have greater impact for the gospel, a culture of caring.
We've got to care. How do you know people care?
By giving not financially every for God so loved the world that
he he could have looked from heaven and going I love you
guys, but work it out. He gave so you can love without
giving, but you can't give without love and we've got to be
a people who give time and treasure and tell it not to the
church to the king of how we can serve together.
It's not for these guys, it's not for each other.
It's for him. One of the defining marks of a
follower of Jesus is generosity. Every area.
Generous with our time, generous with our talents, our gifts,
generous with our treasures, our finances.
You know what? Let me just say this.
God does not oppose wealth, but he does command generosity.
There's a devotional called God's Calling 2 Old Ladies about
100 years ago, very wealthy, and they prayed.
Jesus spoke to them and they wrote down what he said.
This is what he said about their resources.
They had lots of resources and they prayed, Lord, what would
you want us to do? And they wrote it down.
This is what God said. Don't be afraid of poverty.
Let resources flow freely. I will let in.
I will let it flow in, but you must let it flow out.
I never send resources to stagnate, only to those who pass
it on. Keep nothing for yourself, hoard
nothing. Only have what you need and use.
This is the my law of disciples. It's not bad to have God gave
you what you've got. Don't apologize, but don't hold
on to it and expect God to keep giving because he doesn't send
to stagnation. If you keep releasing, God says
I'll keep resourcing in every area of our lives.
The last thing I want to say is this a culture of Commission.
Go see. We will not impact the world by
only faithfully going to church, but we will impact the world by
faithfully being the church. When we go out into the world,
the church is not a waiting room for heaven.
We've made it there. Like kind of let's just have a
holy huddle and hang on and wait.
God put us here to serve his plans to go and be the church,
not on Sunday every day. And these gatherings are
essential, but it doesn't happen here.
It happens being the church wherever we go.
And I'll close with this story if I can just it hopefully stirs
you. It challenges me, excites me.
I hope it won't offend you, but there was this missionary in,
in, in, in, in Europe and God told him to go to a certain
church and he was ministering and working in Africa.
And God told him, I want you to go to this church on that
weekend. And I want you to challenge
those people to come help him. And so he gets a hold of the
leader of that church and says, I feel like the law is saying I
need to come challenge your church.
The guys like will come. So he walks in on the Sunday
morning and there's a bunch of really old people.
I mean, like, right, not not listen, right, Don't get
offended, right. Way older than you guys.
OK, And it's just old. Don't know because it's getting
a full flat. If you think I'm talking to you,
I'm not. It's a story you can read.
And he walks in and the whole building's full of old people
who can't walk. And he's saying, and then he
felt the Lord say, I want you to go to this church and I want you
to challenge them to come help you in the in the getting the
gospel out in Africa. So he walks in and he sees these
people and he goes, Oh, no, this isn't this is I must have missed
it. So he says, no, I'm not going to
do that. Lord said, I told you what to
do. I want you to do that.
He goes, well, Lord, I mean, anyway, he looks at the past,
the past goes, go ahead. So he stands up.
He says, he tells some stories and he says, I've got a
challenge from the Lord, who will go, who will go, who will
go? And I mean, he's thinking, like,
looking around these poor people struggling to walk out of the
building, How they going to? And there was a little boy on
the stage who was helping the lady with the piano or the
organ. And he said, I will go, I will
go, I will go. And they looked over and they
said, well, OK, but you're very young.
So they trained him up to be a doctor to go to Africa.
His name was David Livingstone. David Livingstone was a little
boy on the stage and a whole bunch of older people.
Where was that? And God said, I want you to go
to that place and mobilize and I'm going to speak to that young
boy. They got him ready.
He went as a doctor and he went and then the story goes on there
when he got to to Africa and he was ministering, they began to
have a bit of breakthrough with some of the tribes in there.
But there was a tribe and a chief of the tribe who didn't
like David Livingstone. And so he'd said to David to, to
he sent a messenger to tell David Livingstone that tonight
I'm coming with my my tribe and we're going to kill you and all
your people. And so David Livingston heard
that message and was freaking out.
God, how can you do this? Look at the people we're
beginning to see breakthrough. Please, Lord, would you save us?
Please help us. Anyway, that night, nothing
happened. And so David Livingston was
rejoicing and happy about them. A few years later, David
Livingston goes back to the church where he was sent out
from and he's giving the testimony of what happened.
And he said, you know, we, we had this pro thing happen and
then no one came and we'd grateful.
Oh, no, sorry, sorry, I'm sorry. He he ends up beating the chief
years later, leads the chief to the Lord and many people in that
tribe got saved. He said to the chief, the chief,
why did you not? We heard you were going to come
kill us and we're glad you didn't.
But why didn't you come? The chief said, no, we did come.
We showed up and there were 37 giants standing outside of your,
your camp. So we ran away, thought we're
not fighting these cars. David thought, Gee, that's
amazing. Wow.
So anyway, years later, David's Livingston's back at the church
giving a testimony of what happened.
After the meeting, the secretary of the church comes in and says,
David, do you remember the date of when that happened?
He said, of course I do. He gives him the date they open
the the the the the Ledger book and in it that day 37 old people
showed up to pray for David Livingstone and his people, 37
people prayed in Scotland and 37 giants were standing in Africa
protecting You can't tell me coincidence.
God has called us to partner with him and to obey him and do
what he says, even when it makes no sense.
God is controlling the narrative.
If we will just stay on board with what cost.
And so you, I know friends, I mean, I'm just going to be
honest. I know that a bunch of people in
this room, seasoned campaigners, you've run your race, you've
you've done stuff. I we walking in a blessing
because of your faithfulness to God.
But I just sense again, not in the flesh, in the spirit.
It's not done and your role's not over and you're not hanging
on till he comes back. There's a major role still to be
played in the economy of heaven. As God puts you in the places
you got to go. Maybe things will change on how
you've done things, but He has not finished with you.
Friends, don't become part of a Chapel in your waiting.
Stay true to being the church in your role and responsibility.
As God opens doors, keeps keep obeying Him in the things God's
called you to. Can I praise are you good?
Are you good? Can you close your eyes for a
minute, please? And we're not closing our eyes
to get all spiritually as to simply just for a moment pause.
And whenever God speaks, it's always for a response.
It's not just for talking, it's for responding.
And I realized that many of you in different places and you
probably think you're tired and you don't understand my context.
And no, I don't. But God has, God doesn't.
God brought me here from the United States to tell you this
this morning. Keep doing what I've told you to
do. It's not for you.
It's not even for the people around you.
It's going to be for nations and regions and generations.
And God knows exactly what he's doing.
So don't question, just respond and obey.
Keep doing this with him and for him.
Keep stepping out, stepping in, doing what you can do, and watch
what God says He will do. But he will not exclude us.
He's included us. He's chosen it that way.
Your and mine, 0.1%, His 99.9% makes 100% of partnership.
And so, Father, I just just thank you for these wonderful
pioneers, men and women who've sown, who've served.
They've experienced your hand and provision and protection.
They've experienced the gracious dealings of God that they've
shot. We've drank from their
fountains. But Lord, would you keep filling
their fountains? Would you keep using them and
not getting them to question how?
But just simply trusting each step matters to you.
And it's not survival, it's empowered.
This morning, I pray you would empower us afresh with Your Holy
Spirit, not by might nor by power, but by Your Spirit.
Beyond what we can come up on, beyond what we've walked in
truly trusting till the very end and being a church, the church
never settling for being a Chapel that might experience
growth but is no longer serving Your plan.
We want to serve you till we go. So bring that revelation afresh.
Stir these people. Bless this church, bless the
friendship and the families in this.
Keep bringing more people in and keep sending more people out as
you keep multiplying. Your lamp stands wherever you
desire for the people that are King.
Jesus can come back soon. We honor you King, we bless you,
we thank you. The guarantee is you are
building your church. That's our guarantee.
We don't look to man, we look to you and say it will succeed.
That's your promise and we give you all the praise.
That's where our faith is in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you so much, Ty. Thank you, Nicole.
Thank you, Jude. Thank you, Joel.
Thank you guys for being here. You know, we started out last
week and and just spoke about, you know, we're believing that
God's going to impart here and I believe that he has.
And this is such an exciting time because it's the beginning
of the year. There's such a freshness about
this year that we're started and we're stepping into and embrace
that and run with that and let's just trust that God's doing
amazing things in US and through us and with us.
And but all for him. You know, there was that
question is, you know, is, does he still have first place?
Is he at first place? I think that's that's the
starting point for me in every area of life.
Does does Jesus have first place?
Is does the gospel, you know, speak into every area of your
life? And I'm not going to say much
more of that, but let's just leave this place and run and,
and trust that we're all here for a reason and we're cold.
And thank you again, guys. We, we love you, Lord, thank you
for this day. Amen.
Enjoy. 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.