Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South
Australia. So we've got Leo is with us
today. Leo leads a church with his wife
Christine and the eldership team there, GGC in Sydney.
So we're blessed to have these guys here today.
Leo and Christine are part of the NCMI team.
You know that they're here to them to minister and impart
something of, you know, from their gift into this church.
So, you know, I say all that just to say that let's be
expected. Let's be expecting that God's
bringing these people in. These are, you know, we say
this, these aren't guest speakers.
We partner with NCMI. God brings the gifts in from the
from the NCMI team. They impart something here
that's needed for the building and the establishing of this
lampstand. And, and you know, these gifts,
where, where are they imparted? It's not imparted into this
building. It's not imparted to the name,
the way church. It's into the vessels of the
sons and daughters, the bride of the church.
That means that we need to be open to receive this morning.
And I know that we are, and I'm going to just invite Leo to come
and share with us. And also Dudley's going to come
and pray for us and for Leo. And I'll just hand over to these
guys. But I hope we're expecting
because God's wanting to do something in this place today.
Amen. Amen.
Just before we pray for you, I've known you for, I don't
know, 30-40 years. I don't know how long it is.
He's a man of integrity, got a great church planted out of
their church just in the last few years, 33 churches all
growing. To me, it's an absolute honor
and a privilege to have him in our church today.
I really mean that. I think it's a special time for
us and I can't say strongly enough how much I'd like you
just to open your hearts and say, God, we've got to change
whatever he has to say, no matter how tough it may be or
how encouraging it is, we embrace it all.
So Father, in Jesus name, I just put my hands on this man.
We stretch our hands out. He's your vessel, he's your son.
We just honor what he has done, what he's done for you, how much
he loves you, the joy we see, the liberty, the freedom, we ask
your blessing upon him. Give him such a sense of freedom
today that there may be that authority and power that
transforms and doesn't just inform in Jesus name.
Amen. Thanks for having us.
My wife went back to Sydney to preach in in our church and so
she left Friday so she would have loved to be with me.
Good to see. So good to see Leon and Pat
again after many years. And Leon and Pat were the first
one of the first couples that came into my home when my mom
was alive and she put on a massive Italian meal.
And that's when we first connected and they helped us
connect to the into my team. I got saved at 19, started the
church at 22 and Leon was talking about God uses rookies
and man was IA rookie and still am a rookie.
But I, I want to, I want to say that by God's grace, I mean
Dudley and Anne came from South Africa in 89.
Is that correct? 89 roughly around there and you
know, to, to take over a church and, and little did I know God
was connecting us and connecting the dots because I'm starting a
church in 1990 that already come from South Africa to Adelaide to
take over a church. And if we didn't connect with
the team, I can honestly say I would have been a shipwrecked in
ministry because I had no blueprint.
I had no understanding on how to do church.
I, I got saved at 19, started at 22.
I'm three years in the Lord and now I'm going to start a church
in my mom's lounge room. Literally had no understanding
except from the church that came out of which was quite religious
and legalistic and very, very American Pentecostalism.
And they spoke, they told unless you speak in tongues, you're not
saved and had a lot of other wrong doctrines.
So the Lord showed me through the word of God, I needed to
come out and but but two or three years after we started
with when we heard of Dudley, actually friend of mine, Kevin
Wilcox invited Dudley come to Wollongong.
I don't know if you remember that little meeting with about
8910 pastors because Kevin was leading a great church in the
Wollongong and heard about what's happening in Coastlands
and flew him over. And that's when I first heard
Dudley speak. And I thought this is this is
what I've been looking for. I've been looking for two or
three years after the church started and because we partnered
with the team of A5 fold ministry gift that's biblical
according to Ephesians chapter 4, God uses and God raises
authentic apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelist teachers to
give to the church to to equip the Saints to do the work of the
ministry. And then I started to I started
to start to understand the blueprint a little bit of the
blueprint meaning how do you build a house if you don't have
a blueprint? How do you build a church if
God's way if you don't have a blueprint?
And so little by little, month by month, year by year,
sometimes three years into it, I thought I've got this now.
And then ten years later realize I'm still changing, still
learning. I'm still unlearning all the
wrong stuff. 10/15/20 And now it's 30, five years later, I'm
still unlearning, believe it or not, still learning.
And I just want to, I want us to understand the way God does
this. I remember Dudley preaching in
one of the equips in Adelaide 25 years ago about and he was
preaching about the Kingdom. I remember in those days no one
was speaking about the Kingdom and he was saying how Jesus
brought the Kingdom and he preached the gospel of the
Kingdom. He said repent for the Kingdom
of God is at hand. And so I did my own study to
look at the word Kingdom and understand that's what he was
all about. But that's the nature of
Apostolic ministry. It shows the church to get back
on the Plumb line and focus on the word of God, what the word
of God speaks about. And so Tyra in the last, I don't
know, 10, maybe 15 years he's been speaking about bringing us
back to Jesus because Jesus is the Plumb line.
And we could hear that guy. Yeah, but why is he saying that?
Because he's Apostolic and trying to get us back to the
word, trying to get us back to what the Bible emphasizes.
And so, you know, this year I, I thought to myself on, on my
holiday and I was, and I thought to myself, well, our, our vision
for the, the year, it's always the same, but we want to present
to the church the same vision. But we try to say, guys, what
are we going to focus on this year?
And it's more Jesus. And we're going to explain
throughout the whole year, what does it mean by more Jesus?
What do you mean more Jesus? So that's of course, it's about
Jesus. But when you read the Bible and
even the way you see the church operating, a lot of times it's
not about Jesus. It's not it's we we get off
track and we we emphasize on everything about what the Bible
emphasizes. And so Jesus has to become the
Plumb line. And so I thought to myself, I'm
going to look up the word Christ Jesus in the New Testament. 238
scriptures were there. I mean, I'm going to go through
every one of them one by one. Then I looked up the word Jesus,
just the name Jesus in the New Testament.
It's 998 scriptures in the New Testament, the name Jesus.
I'm going to go for every single only started.
So it's going to take me a long time to get through, but to read
with fresh eyes and look at the word and what the what God's
Word emphasizes. It's about being in relationship
with Christ. It's about knowing him, you
know, because when you start a church when you're young, it's
easy to you start to do things because you want to grow.
You can start to even prepare messages.
So I find, I find I'm going to be really honest with you.
Sometimes there's passes or leaders or leaders of churches.
We, we, we'll pay a price because we want the church to
grow. So we'll pay a price and seek
God's face and get in the word. And, and so I'm in the word was
going to prepare a message. But what about my relationship
with him? There were, there were stages in
my walk where I had to prepare 5-6 messages a week, morning and
night service. We had a radio ministry, a
Wednesday night leaders or Friday youth.
And there's always, sometimes at 5 messages, 6 messages.
So every time you're in the Barb, you're trying to get a
message that can burn you out because your relationship with
God isn't being sustained, just you and him.
And he speaks to you as a son and your identity comes out of
your relationship with him, not because you want something to
grow. So I, I think people have paid.
Please hear my heart. And we all mean well around the
body of Christ. I mean, the men and the men and
women of God that are in leadership are doing the
absolute best and, and sometimes we'll pay a price because we
want to succeed. I mean, who doesn't want to
succeed? We're created to succeed.
No one, no one wakes up in the morning and go, I want to fail
today. I want to fail so good.
Like you don't wake up thinking I want to, I want to be a
failure. Now you wake up, whatever you're
doing, business, ministry, work, home, family, you want to
succeed. So we seek God because I want to
be anointed. So we'll even pray and fast for
days and seek God's word. I want to be anointed so I can
preach the word with power, so the church can grow.
And it's usually my motive was so I can look good.
So without knowing there was pride there and selfish
ambition. When I, when I started at 22, I
didn't know I had so much selfish ambition.
But you can't wait until you're completely clean of all those
wrong motives. So don't hear what I'm not
saying. You've got to move with God and
in the process of growing and changing and, and, and you know,
doing the will of God the best way, you know, he, he, you die
1000 deaths, you die to yourself, you die to your flesh,
you die to your selfish ambition.
You died of the wrong motives, right?
So, so please don't look too introspective and go, I must
have some selfish motives. I'm not going to do anything.
No, pay a price, seek God and let him cleanse us and wash us
and purify us as we move closer to him.
So, so I'm just saying, I believe that when people are
paying a price for success and whatever they think success is,
when they get there, they're no longer motivated to pay a price
because they weren't paying a price to know him, to be in love
with him, to be known by him. So if you're paying a price even
because you want your business to grow, I'm going to, I'm going
to be this soft discipline. I'm going to be, I'm going to,
I'm going to get in the word. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm
going to get wisdom from the word so I, I can make my
business grow and all that. All great motives.
What happens when you, when you arrive, what you think is
success? If that was a motivation, the
motivation's no longer there. And that's where, where people
will fall. You've seen many, many men and
women that fall once they've got to what they thought success was
because along the way you lose your intimate relationship with
the Lord. So they were sincere.
They started well, but we've got to stay focused on it's all
about relationship with him and stay.
And I, you know, I, I looked up the word like, as I said, Gee,
and I'm still going through those scriptures and I, and I, I
just want to show us how the, the whole, the whole word of God
is all about him from Genesis to Revelation.
It's actually about God's love story where God the Father
restores us back to himself through his son, Jesus Christ,
from the book of Genesis to the revelations, right, right at
the, the whole, through the whole redemptive story.
It's a whole plan of God, God's mystery that was hidden in God
so he could bring mankind back to himself.
It's all about him. It's all about Jesus, all about
that love story. I don't know how we messed up
and make it all about us. I suppose it's our selfish
motives and fleshly motives. But but the whole Bible, you
know, because I looked up the word, you start to see things
and sell one of our guys. He he was doing the same because
I asked him to get into the word and have a look and he said he
saw the first scripture, Matthew chapter one verse one.
It says the genealogy of Jesus, the beginning of Jesus, the the
origins of Jesus and it gives you the whole someone said begat
begat, begat, begat, but it's all about Jesus, the genealogy,
the beginnings, the origins of Jesus, the book of Revelations
right at the end, the last verse, last few verse.
It's actually the cry of the bride Lord Jesus come quickly
and the and it finishes with the grace of our Lord Jesus be with
you, not the grace of positions looking for a position in the
church. I'll pay a price.
I can get a titles, I can get a position now that's that's that
is where we get it all wrong. It's the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ right, all right. This is so many scriptures when
you look at it, when you look through the word of God.
I love the fact that Jesus the Bible says Jesus will return in
the clouds of glory and wrap up history and time and eventually
that Angel will say time will be no more and when he returns, his
face will shine brighter than the sun.
I want, I don't got time to go for all the scriptures, but it's
in Daniel, it's in Matthew, it's in the Gospels, it's Acts
quotes, it, you know where the sun shall be darkened on that
day. The sun shall be darkened and
the moon won't shed its light. The moon turns into blood, but
the sun will be. What does that mean?
The sun shall be dark? I don't get it.
And when you look it up, it's, it's talking about the last
days, talking about Jesus returning.
And it says on that last day, it's like, because of it's the
last day and the Lord returns, the sun will be darkened.
And I saw it Jesus when he when he, when he comes back to earth
and he splits the eastern side and he talks about I will come
back with clouds of glory. He's the glory of Jesus will
outshine the sun so that the sun won't even seem to turn
darkness. So I have a light bulb here and
it's turning in and everything's, all the lights are
turned off in a light bulb and I get a floodlight, a massive
floodlight. That light bulb goes to
darkness. You won't see it anymore.
The, the physical sun. And I, I look at the sun now
like, oh God, one day you're going to come back.
Your face will shine the sun. This is the glory of the face of
Jesus, our God, our Creator, when it comes back to the
planet. I love the fact that Revelations
2123 again, I just want to show us the magnificence of our Lord.
And the Bible says in, in Revelation 2123 and the city has
no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it.
For the glory of the of God has illuminated it and it's lamp is
the Lamb of God, which is who is Jesus.
Now think about that for a moment.
That's not playing with words. When when New Jerusalem comes to
the earth, there is no need of a physical sun because he himself
will sit on the throne and his face shines and bright brightens
up the whole city. I mean, wow, it has to boggle
our mind who we worship and that everything we do is to know him.
And, and you know, as, as you know, the Bible, it talks about
Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
The, the word of God is really clear with, yeah, the, the
revelation of Jesus. Peter, when, when the Lord said
to Peter, who you know, when the Lord said to his disciples, who
do people say that I am? And we know that story where
basically they say, well, some people say you're Elijah come
back from the dead. Some people think you're
Jeremiah, one of the prophets come back.
I mean, really, really wrong, right?
But that's what they were thinking, religious,
superstitious, possibly them. And they said, but who do you
say that I am? And Peter stood up and says,
you're, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus responded and said, flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you. My Father in heaven showed you
that I'm the Christ, the Son of the living God, which is
powerful. And then he says, and upon this
Peter, Little Rock, upon this rock, the revelation of you
knowing who Christ is, I'll build my church.
So I'm encouraging you all to know that God's going to build
the church because of your revelation of Christ.
So intimate love relationship with Christ, not the right
principles of growth finding all the what what do we do for
growth and what are the methods What are just have a revelation
of Jesus. Preach the revelation of Christ
because it's when we get a revelation of Jesus every one of
us as part of the body of Christ here in the way when we get a
revelation of Jesus God will build his church because he's
the foundation that's powerful. When Jesus said I will build my
church upon the revelation of people understanding who I am my
identity. Your relationship with him.
He will build his church, although I had to build the
church. No, he'll build his church when
you get a revelation of Christ. Our responsibility is to have an
intimate relationship with Jesus and preach Christ and and make
it all about him in relationship.
I mean think of the the reality and the power.
I love this. Revelations 17 Behold, He is
coming with the clouds and every eye will see him.
I mean, the Bible says every eye will see him.
Every eye is going to see him one day.
What about this one? Philippians chapter 2, verse 10
and 11:00 So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and
every those in heaven, those on earth and those under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Just every, every billions of people that are on the planet,
8000 million people on the planet right now, all the people
that ever existed, those in heaven, those on earth, those
under the earth will confess and will bow not willingly, but
because they stand before the throne and they will confess
that Jesus Lord. I'm just the reality of the
emphasis. I don't know the the importance,
the power, the glory of who Jesus is, the fact that one day
everyone's going to do it and we need to be preaching, speaking,
connecting, encouraging, pursuing everyone to have a
relationship with him. Matthew we, we went through
that. Ephesians Oh no, I, I, I just
thought I'd start to understand about how do you build
everything on Jesus? Everything we preach about
should point us to Jesus, everything.
So you say tithe and offering. Preach on tithe and offering in
the context of ultimately you talk about the Old Testament,
the New Testament and everything, but explain that we
bring the 10% of all that have increased to who?
To the high priest, to Jesus, because of my relationship with
him, He's my creator, He's my God, he's my king.
I want to bring my first fruits to the high priest, that'll take
my tithe and I receive to him so he can do what he wants to do
with the Kingdom. He spends it on the preaching of
the gospel of the Kingdom to establish his covenant on the
earth. But to let people know you're
not just tithing because we're asking you to.
We're not tithing you because the church is asking you to.
We're asking you to tithe to him as Lord.
So if you you call him Lord, give him he owns everything
anyway. Start with 10% and start to give
more than that for the sake of the King to give to him.
I'm intimately in my relationship.
I'm actually giving my first fruits times and offering to him
my relationship as a person. I'm following my Lord.
Amen. Teach on teach on marriage
Ephesians 5. It's all about Jesus.
Jesus been the pattern, Jesus been the model.
So when you preach on marriage, don't just preach on the
principles how to get together and live together.
Men are different, women are different, and you preach about
all that, but you don't preach Christ.
We should be preaching Christ when we preach on marriage.
If you teach on faith. I've heard so many messages on
faith and I've heard the principles of faith like this is
how it works and no mention of Jesus, no mention of the person
of faith works like this. Jesus speaks to me and I trust
His word, so we have to preach faith.
Because you have faith in Jesus as your Lord and when you have
an interval relationship with him, he speaks to you.
And because he spoke to you, that's how faith comes.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by God spoken word to
you. So you have to preach to Jesus.
When you preach on faith, you can't do it any other way.
But we've, we've heard so many principles and success, but
we've done that to so many of these even songs.
We've there are so many places we've seen and we don't even
know who we're singing about sometimes in some places and
like I said, some messages, some sermons, some preaching where we
preach and we that's a great motivational thing.
That's great. And now I know how to walk in
faith, but no relationship with him.
Everything has to point to him. Does that make sense?
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1116. We haven't got time to go
through it, but it's, it's I'm quoting you all these scriptures
and, and Ephesians 11 basically says the apostle, the prophet,
the pastor, evangelist, the teacher were gifted by Jesus to
the whole body of Christ. So they can they can equip the
Saints to do the work of the ministry so they can grow the
Saints into maturity. And this is going to happen
until we all come into the unity of the faith, until we come into
the fullness of the stature of Christ.
So what do those gifts do? Point us all to Jesus in our
relationship with him so that we can become more like Jesus.
They want to preach so they can impress people.
So that wow, I love that preacher.
You know, sometimes we go to church and we go, wow, that was
a great message. I love that message.
That was so powerful. And we didn't, instead of
saying, I went to church and man, Jesus is amazing, I just
got a fresh revelation of Jesus. Well, you know, the songs and
you say the worship was great. I love the worship.
But what about if we say Jesus was so amazing in worship I
drink closer to him. So the focus isn't the encounter
or even the experience. It's I enjoyed him.
You're following Ephesians chapter 2, verse 21, having been
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ
Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.
And you know, I, I, I looked up, I heard about this, but I looked
it up as well and researched it how they used to build with a
chief cornerstone. They had to get the squarestone
and if it, and they'd also test that stone and hit it and if a
crack that would use it, they're going to make sure it's a strong
stone so they can be in the corner of the, of the building
and they're going to Plumb line. That stone has to be a straight
stone because depending on that stone will determine how strong
that wall will be on that side and on this side.
If you've got a crooked stone and it's offline and off kilter
kilter, it would, the building wouldn't stand, wouldn't handle
the pressure. So in the mind of a building
those days, the cornerstone was the most important stone and
everything, it's lined up, planned by it, you know,
directed by it from the cornerstone.
So Jesus is the cornerstone, but he's also the foundation of what
we built, like everything we do is built on him.
Does it make sense? I mean, Jesus said, if you hear
my words and don't do it, you're like a man who built his house
on sand. He's actually talking about
foundation. But if you hear my words and put
it into practice, you're a man that built his house on the
rock. The storms came, the floods came
to both. And we usually act like, oh, you
don't know what I've gone through.
I mean, really, really bad. I like, like, you don't know,
I've just this happened, this happened.
My mom died of cancer. I, you know, my, my wife left me
for another person like you, you, you What we're doing is
we're, I started a business and I went bankrupt.
What are we doing? We're blaming the severity of
the storm. So you don't know how bad my
storm was. This is why I'm crumbling.
I'm crumbling because the storm was so bad.
Now the storm was bad for the one who built on the rock and
the storm was just as bad the one who built on the sand.
The difference was the foundation.
So when you got the right foundation, even when the storms
come, it won't move you. It wasn't the severity of the
storm. No matter how hard the storm
hits, you're on the rock. You got nowhere to go when
you're on the foundation of the Word, which is Jesus's word.
Amen. Colossians 3 verse one there.
Therefore you have been raised up with Christ.
Keep seeking those things that are above where Christ is like
you've been raised with Christ. Keep seeking those things that
are above where Christ is No, this Christ is seated at the
right hand of the Father. It says think on those things
dwell there seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things above where Christ is not on the
things on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden
with who Christ. So the Bible's always
instructing us to make sure your mind, your focus, your heart,
your faith, your relationship is about him.
I love you know, this is when you go through the scriptures 1
by 1 you'll start to see it's all over.
Like I said, 928 scriptures just on Jesus Christ Jesus 238 and
and and like for example, this one, it says all in Colossians
2-3 in whom in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. So not like not me attending
church, not me not even me being faithful going to church, which
we need to do, but churches ask gathering because we all have an
intimate relationship with Christ.
So, so to me that's saying in Christ, my relationship with him
and obeying his word are hidden in all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge. And then we do get we are
connected to the body of Christ. We are connected to family, we
are connected to the community. We do serve together.
You can't just say, well, I'm going to follow Jesus and I'll
be at home. Thank you very much.
That's not going to work because Jesus himself said we need to
gather, we need to be a body, we need to be a family, and we need
to be in covenant. You know, my children, I've
raised five children. Never ever once my children
were, even if they had arguments with each other, and they never,
ever did this. So I've had enough.
I'm going down the road and find another family.
I've never done that, never tempted to do that because they
belong to our family. And so yeah, when we don't
understand how we belong little little little misunderstanding a
little thing here a little a little hurt.
I'm going to find another church that's not biblical thinking
Kingdom thinking. I love here it says Jesus says
Romans one verse one Paul a bond servant of Christ Jesus.
Think about that for a second. Paul is a servant of Christ.
So when we go to church who am IA servant of I'm a servant of
Christ first. Not even I'm not a servant of
the way or the leadership here or the elders here.
You ultimately serve Christ. But Christ puts us in and we
submit to our elders 100%. But my hard attitude is I'm
serving him first. That's the foundation.
And because I serve Him, he puts us in a body.
And yes, submit yourself to your elders.
Obey your elders. Have a rule over you.
You know, there's so many promises, the redemption, which
is in Christ Jesus, the promises that are in Christ.
In other words, the promise of the Spirit, the promise of God's
presence, the promise of the Holy Spirit living in me is
because we have relationship with Christ.
Isn't that true? You can go to church every week
for social reasons. Even because I'm lonely, I'm
going to, I'm going to connect with someone that I can talk to,
so I'll go to church. But you're not having an
interrelationship with Christ. The promises are in Christ, in
your love. That's why everything we do and
emphasize should be all about Him, because that's all the
promises, redemption, everything found is in Christ, in our
relationship with Him. I love the fact that Bible says
we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.
Think about that for a moment. Everyone one day is going to
stand before Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his
deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good
or bad. And I used to think, what?
What do you mean? Whether good or bad, How do you
get recompensed for what you've done in your body, whether good
or bad? So if I've done something that
was a bad thing would be my fleshly works, not, not, not
listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, but trying to do
something in my own effort. So that'll burn up and mount to
nothing. I'll suffer loss in that day,
but I'm still saved. And in First Corinthians chapter
3 gives us that well Paul opens it up a lot better and he goes
verse pick it up from verse 11 chapter 3.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is
light, which is Jesus Christ. Again the foundation is Jesus
can't lay any other foundation other than Jesus right now if
any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver or precious
stone. Now gold, silver and precious
stone can handle fire. Gold, silver and precious stone
gets purified in fire. You're following.
So if I, if I put gold through the fire, it purifies, it
handles the fire and it gets better on the other side, silver
is the same, precious stones the same.
But wood, if you build on the foundation of Jesus with, with
the objects of wood, hay and stubble, straw, I mean wood, hay
or straw is going to burn up, right?
Each man's work will become evident, for the day will show
it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself
will test the quality of each man's work, so that the day of
the Lord will test it. If any man's work which he has
built on remains, he will receive a reward.
If any man's work builds up, so anyone's work is burnt up, he
will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet so through the
fire. How do you suffer loss when you
stand before the judgment seat of Christ?
Whatever I've done on this earth with selfish motives, prideful
motives, not listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, where
He spoke to me and I acted and obeyed, if He spoke to me and
acted and obeyed, He'll be rewarded.
If I done it in my own strength, it'll burn up to nothing.
Be careful how you build. But the foundation is Jesus.
So we want to build with the right things because in heaven
you will be rewarded. It's just that's just God's
nature. But if we don't do it his way,
it'll burn up to nothing. Again.
It's it's, it's all about intimate relationship with him.
I'm trying to help us see that everything I do for him, it's
all about relationship with him. And, and, and I love Philippians
chapter 3. And maybe before we read that
and quickly read that, but because I think Paul's really
trying to hit something about it's all about Jesus.
It's all about knowing him but Ephesians chapter 1, you know
his pray as an apostle. I mean write 3/4 of the New
Testament. He's close to the Lord.
He's writing scripture and he's emphasis of prayer.
I, I bound my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and
this is what he prays for. I pray and I pray that the Lord
will open up your eyes and sorry the Lord pray that the Lord will
give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Jesus. That's it.
The spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him better.
I mean, wow, his whole emphasis, his revelation is the best
prayer I can pray is that you would have the spirit of wisdom
and revelation to know him better because it's all about
knowing him better. And that he would open up the
eyes of your understanding to the hope of your calling.
And I know calling's got to do with your calling.
You know your destiny, your what you're called to do.
But I believe it's even more, it's the word.
The word is invitation. I'd like to look at it this way,
open up my eyes to the hope of my invitation into relationship
because that's the foundation, not what I do for him.
Does it make sense? Like if I'm if I'm motivated to
pay a price so I can grow and succeed, what happens when I'm
no longer leading a church? What?
What stops us from sin? The fear of the Lord stops us
from sinning. So what should stop us from
sinning and walking in the flesh?
The Bible says give no provision to the flesh, but put on the
Lord Jesus Christ and give no provision to the flesh.
Why do we not give provision to the flesh?
Because if we give provision to the flesh, it hinders our
relationship with God. Not the growth, not success, but
our relationship with God. And your, your relationship with
God is so precious to you. And it's, it's the most
important thing that I don't want to do that it's hindering
our relationship. That's what's going to motivate
you to become holy and set apart.
And I say, Lord, one day, if you one day he will, I'll hand over
the church and and trust God. I'll still minister and
everything, but what happens if I've got no invitations?
How about me and the Lord? Am I still willing to spend time
in the word in his presence and pray and seek his face just to
know him? If it's if we if we preach the
word, I think we will. Paul says for to me to live is
Christ to live is Christ to die is going because I go straight
into the presence of God. But to live what's what's living
about Christ. Think about that for a second so
we don't get sidetracked where we our focus becomes everything
else but my relationship with him.
Even in the church. I believe I know Tyron's been
speaking to us for for over a decade, 10 years.
Get us on the Plumb line, get us back to the Lord, back to the
Word, back to Jesus. And he talks about doing it in
him, with him, from him, for him.
I write down for him, to him. Everything's got to be for him,
from him, to him, with him. And that's in the book of
Revelations. That gives you a love.
Romans says. For from him and through him and
to him are all things. To him be glory.
Forever. Worthy are you, O Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things, and because of your will they
existed and were created. Everything is for you.
And so Philippians, who is it? Philippians?
Let's read Philippians chapter 3 and where Paul really is using
this powerful argument like he's talking about wanting to know
Christ and he says you know it gives his qualifications, but
you don't understand what he's saying.
Verse 3 says, for we are the true circumcision who worship in
the Spirit of God and glory in Christ.
We glory in Christ. Everything we do is glory in our
relationship with Christ Jesus and put on put no confidence in
the flesh. We don't put any confidence in
the flesh, right? Although I myself might have
confidence even in the flesh. In other words, he's saying if I
was to be like you and try to have confidence in the flesh,
then I've got a few things that I can boast about.
I wouldn't do it, but it is if I was in the flesh and I wanted to
boast, I would say this is what Paul's saying.
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far
more circumcise the 8th day. I mean, really big deal.
Circumcise the 8th day. Listen to what he's trying to
say of the of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews as to
the law of the Pharisee, as to zeal.
I was persecuting, persecuting the church as to write the
righteousness which is in the law found blameless.
But whatever things were gained to me in the flesh, if that was
supposed to be gained to me, those things I counted as lost
for the sake of knowing Christ. If I rely on those things, I'm
not relying on Christ, even if I think, well, I've been a
Christian for 39 years, I preached the gospel for 35
years, Big deal. It gives me no right standing
with God. It gives me no access to the
Father. I have no confidence in the
flesh. No matter what I've done.
I've preached thousands of messages.
So what? It's basically what he's trying
to say. It means nothing.
We all stand before God because of the blood of Jesus, because
of what he did for us on the cross.
I, I can't have any confidence whatsoever.
Anything I've done for him all my life, even if I've served him
for 100 years, there's nothing I can't look at that.
I don't even look at that right. More than that, I count all
things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. See how he his emphasis is
that's nothing. Oh, that's nothing.
So that I I don't rely on it. I don't take confidence.
I don't I'm not confident what I've done for him because I want
to be look what he says. View of the surpassing value of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all those things and count them but rubbish so that I
may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness
of my own. If I've got a righteousness of
my own, that means I've got confidence in what I've done for
him. And he's saying I don't rely on
anything I've done for him because I want to be found in
Him. Not having a righteousness on my
own, but my righteousness which comes from God on the basis of
faith. Do you see what he's concluding?
He's saying, guys, none of nothing that you've done for him
all the years you've served him means nothing because that
doesn't give you access. If it did, then then it relies
on our good works. Realize how good we've been.
It's got nothing to do with our access to the Father through the
blood of Jesus Christ and faith in him.
And so, so he's basically saying that that that I would be found
in him, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which comes from God.
I mean, think about that for a second.
God's righteousness on the basis of faith so that I may know him
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his suffering and being conformed to his death in order
that I may attain to the resurrection of that I be that I
may know him all that I'm doing. Everything I'm pursuing Paul
saying is to know him. Isn't that beautiful
encouragement and in verse 12, not that I have already obtained
or have already become mature and know him.
I'm not I haven't arrived, but I press on to that I may hold,
sorry, I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also
I was laid hold of in Christ Jesus sounds like a bit of
mixture of words, but he's basically saying he goes, I
press on Paul saying I press on so that I may lay hold of that
for which also Christ laid hold of me.
The witch. What motivated Christ that laid
hold of me? What motivated Christ that laid
down his life for me, his love for me, the very thing that
motivated Christ to love me. I want to be motivated to love
him. That's what he's saying.
I want to I want to be motivated by the same everlasting love
that motivated Christ to take a hold of me.
I want to, I want to also take a hold of him, right.
And he's saying not that. Yeah, brethren, I do not regard
myself having laid hold of it yet.
I mean, this is after he's raised the dead, healed the
sick, planted churches, turned the world upside down with the
gospel is I have not because his pursuit wasn't the things and
the planting of the churches. Yet we do all that and preach in
the gospel. His pursuit is Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it, but
one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, forgetting what lies
behind, and there are some pretty successful things for
Paul and reaching forward to what lays ahead.
I press on towards the goal of the prize, of the outward call
of God in Christ Jesus. I press on towards the prize.
There's a, there's a word that I looked up and said.
It means the prize. Like when you aim at a target,
there is a focus of what we do and why we do what we do.
And the focus, the target is to know him.
That's actually what it's saying, the prize of the high
calling, the high invitation. This is a high invitation that
God invited us into relationship with Him.
But that's my prize. That's what I'm going for.
Our eyes are on that, not the things we do, but on Him and
relationship with Him. And I love this because he just
keeps making the point stronger and stronger and he says I press
on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are
mature have this attitude, what attitude to seek him to go after
him. And if anything you have
different attitude. God will reveal that this also
to you. If you have a good different
attitude and it's not the this attitude which are the mature.
The mature has this attitude go after him.
And so because we want to know more, we want to know him
better. I remember asking the Lord just
a few weeks ago, I said, Lord, I want to know you more.
How do I get to know you more? And obviously it's hearing his
word and obeying. Hearing his word and obeying.
You get more into me. You get to know Him better.
You see his work, you see his faithfulness, You see how he
never lets his word down and you get to know him better.
And the Lord spoke to me. He says, Leo, it's the little
foxes, the spoil, the vineyard. I know that's in the Bible.
He just said it to my heart, little foxes.
So I looked it up in Song of Solomon chapter 2 and it's found
in verse 14 and 16 and it says, oh, my dove in the Cliff of the
rock in the secret place of the steep pathway.
Let me see your form. Now this some people say it's,
it's it's us saying that to God. I believe it's possibly God
saying it's us. Let me see your form.
Let me hear your voice. I mean, have you ever thought
that God wants to see your form? God wants to hear your voice.
He longs for you more than you long for him, right?
Let me hear your voice. Let your voice.
I'm sorry your for your voice is sweet.
And I thought God, you, you think my voice is sweet.
You want to know me. You love me so much and you say
my voice is sweet and and your form is lovely.
I'm not talking about physical form, obviously.
You talk about our heart. Your form is lovely to him.
And out of the blue, catch the foxes for us, the little foxes
that are ruining the vineyards while our vineyards are in
blossom. So the vineyards are blossoming.
They're, they're harvest. And think of the little foxes.
I think a little fox. We, we, you know, we let a
little fox come into the harvest because that won't affect me.
That won't affect the harvest. That won't affect the blossoming
harvest. It's blooming everywhere.
That's OK. One little fox.
I let 1 little fox into my really into my hindering
relationship with God, but I let it.
And then so the problem with letting 1 little fox in, it's
got a little fox, got a little friend and then before you got 1
fox, it's got 2 foxes. Then before you got 3 foxes and
maybe one minute won't affect the harvest, maybe one hour
might not. But after a few hours and a few
days and a few weeks and a few months and they got a few foxes
around, it starts to actually ruin the harvest overflow of
your relationship with God. Ultimately, the little foxes
have been sent to hinder your relationship with God.
That's how we should see it, not the harvest.
I think it's pointing us. We have this attitude, that's
fine. The harvest is blossoming.
It's not going to affect, but it's the little foxes you got to
get to. Then you got to ask yourself,
that's what I'm asking you to do.
What are the foxes in my life that are hindering my
relationship with God? And be honest with the Lord.
Remember how beautiful he is, how magnificent he is, how how
wonderful he is. He loves you of an everlasting
love, that the greatest desire of your heart in my heart is to
actually know him. And then sometimes I ask myself
why, Lord, I'm not pursuing the way I should.
I know you're so good because we sometimes forget.
But what are the little foxes, Anna, You can answer that with
the Holy Spirit and say, Lord, what is it in my life that could
be hindering my relationship with you, the little foxes?
And then the next phrase after we deal, we got to deal with it.
My beloved is mine and I'm his, his pastor, his flock.
He passes his flock among the lilies.
Back to romance, back to relationship, your relationship,
catch the foxes relationship, beautiful love relationship
between you and the, you know, the bride and I was Solomon and
the bride, but we're talking about Christ and the bride.
And then it was catch the foxes and then back to relationship.
In other words, those little foxes are hindering relationship
and we need to be honest before God and say, what is it?
Lord, this young generation, there's so many distractions
with social media and posts and reading the word and posts come
up, reading the word and notification comes up, reading
the word and SMS has come up. So that's your fox.
Get rid of that. Don't what?
Don't read the Bible on the mobile.
Read it in the turn off the notifications.
You know, like I did this with my wife and she's not here so I
can't really do it. But if I had a romantic dinner
with my wife and I'm poor and as a husband, I want to pour my
heart out to and I'll share my secrets and everything, but
she's on the phone. She grabbed the phone didn't
out. She's on the phone and she's
just looking at the phone and and then talking a selfie of
herself and and I'm trying to pour my heart out in a romantic
dinner. No husband would do that.
Jesus would never do that because he values himself too
much to pour out his heart to you if you're distracted with
everything. So when we, you know, spend time
with him, let's take his words seriously.
And I read, you know, we should be reading the word, not I've
done my chapter. I read my chapter.
No, I want to know you, Lord, speak to me, Lord, that's
fellowship. Speak into my heart.
What do I need to change to get closer to you?
What's stopping me from getting closer to you?
Which are again the little foxes.
Holy Spirit, highlight. Deal with it, repent of it, get
rid of it. And you watch your relationship
blossom from from strength to strength and and and continue
with it like because, because then the enemy will come in
again. You just got to OK like the Lord
spoke to me about my yoke is easy.
That's what he said. You know, our responsibilities
are growing in in the church and things that we're doing.
And the Lord just spoke whispered in my holiday.
He said they are my yoke is easy.
I knew exactly what he meant. So if if I'm not if I'm not
carrying a yoke that's easy. I mustn't be carrying his yoke.
I must be carrying my own yoke, yoke of performance, yoking of
being successful, yoking of looking good, the yoke of
wanting praises from people. Our pre appears and one of it
looks, that's a that's not his yoke.
That's not Christ's yoke to me. I need to take his because his
yoke's easy. His burden is light.
And that's what he says. Come unto me, all you heavy
laden and, and labor and heavenly laden.
I come to me. I will give you a rest.
That's it. For my yoke is easy.
So we've got to come to him to have a, a yoke that's easy.
Even if the yoke gets larger, more responsibility, it needs to
be easy if it's his yoke. So I'm carrying it with him.
He's got a lot of strength by the way.
He's got all the strength, eternal strength, eternal power,
eternal. And we're carrying his yoke.
So I now ask, now he's told me that a few weeks ago, but if,
if, if I start getting thoughts of response heaviness or it's
not easy. OK, not his yoke is easy.
I'm only going to carry his yoke.
His joke is easy. His joke is easy.
His burden is light. I'm doing it for him.
His burden is light. You're following.
So can we pray? I'm just going to pray, but I'm
asking you to in your own hearts to talk to the Lord.
Hopefully, I trust the Holy Spirit has already spoken to
you, has already highlighted, yet they're the little foxes
that that's what you need to do. You need to fix that.
And he's, he's actually highlighted in your heart.
If that's come to your memory or your spirit, then that means
God's saying yet that thing might be too much TV, too much
Netflix, too much social time. It could be anything.
The Holy Spirit could speak to you that this is what it is for
you, things that are not necessarily sin, but it's
hindering your relationship. And so Father, we ask, we come
before your throne, we come before your word.
We lay our hearts bare because we want to know you, Lord, we,
we want, we want everything to be about you.
Well, the church to be established in their love
relationship with you, that everything is built on Christ,
Lord, And anything that's not built on Christ will be burnt
away and will suffer loss and will be gone forever.
But Lord, we want to be obedient to you.
So Holy Spirit, speak to us about the little foxes in our
lives. We make a decision right now in
our hearts to get rid of it, to repent of it, to change our
thinking about it. And Lord, if it doesn't honor
you, if it's hindering our relationship with you, we deal
with it. We get rid of it.
We say no to it. Or we say yes to more time with
you, yes to more time in your word.
Yes, to be obedient to your word, not to, yes to not be
afraid of man, not to fee men, but to obey you.
We thank you, Father, for what you're going to do in and
through this church and what you're going to establish in
this place. Lord, a lamp stand for your
glory. We give you praise in Jesus
name, Jesus name. If I can just encourage you on
something with your children. When we first started at 2020, I
wasn't even married. 22, got married at 25.
We had the first kid a year later and then five children, as
you know, and little did I know, if you build, will slowly build
according to God's Word that God was going to use our children
the way he has been. So don't.
These kids are the next generation.
They're going to carry the revelation of Christ.
So invest in them, spend time with them.
Don't ever, don't ever think it's wasted time.
Your own children. I mean, if anything, that's the
greatest investment that you pour your life into them so they
can do great things for you, for the Kingdom.
Amen. Awesome.
Thank you. 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.