Welcome to the podcast of the white Church in Adelaide, South
Australia We're. Going to be pretty like diligent
about the way that we live our lives and the things that we
give ourselves to and all of those things.
But you know the goal for this year, the goal like the the our
desire as a church this year is the same as it was last year.
You know, it never changes what we're what we're, you know,
heading towards and what we're believing God for.
We're believing that we're going to grow, you know, both in
ourselves and become transformed to become like Jesus Christ,
that we would be conformed to his image.
We're believing that God's going to grow this church and grow our
footprint and help us, you know, to to be, you know, better
equipped to be able to reach not only this community, but this
city and this nation and beyond. So we're believing to grow
personally and we're believing to be used by God in the Great
Commission to go there for that's the that's the plan,
guys, that this is the plan for this year.
Do we agree that's a good plan is a good plan?
Why is it a good plan? Because it's God's plan.
Like God's plan is the best plan.
We can make our own plans. His plan is better and, and his
plan is the one that's going to succeed if you want to be on the
winning team, if you want to enjoy success in your life And
as a body, as a church, we got to do things his way.
We got to do and get in line with his plan.
And then we'll taste success and we'll we'll enjoy life in a
greater way. It's not much fun to go through
life and, and just fail at everything, is it?
Right. I've failed at many things.
Not much fun. You know, I don't even like
losing board games to my son who's like 6 right?
But but you know, like there's in the Kingdom when we get on
board with his plan and we're victorious, we live in victory
every single day because of what he's done and what he says,
We'll come. So we want to mature and we're
going to talk about God being sovereign this morning.
God is completely in control. Do you guys believe that?
Completely in control. He is sovereign.
Nothing happens that God does not allow.
You know, I'd heard it said from someone in this room.
It's Father filtered. It's like everything that we
experience in life God allows and it's filtered through him
and we like that. That's a pretty important truth
that we need to land going into another season, into another
year that God is in control. What does sovereign mean?
To define sovereign, It's a supreme ruler.
Possession, possession, possession.
Oh my gosh. Supreme or ultimate power?
God is supreme. He is the supreme ruler.
He has the ultimate authority and power.
That's how it's like when we serve him and when we follow
him. That's how we can be on the
winning team. God's not losing.
This God's never lost anything. He is the supreme ruler.
Amen. All powerful, created all
things, right? It's amazing.
Can our Lord do whatever he wants?
I mean, I read in the, I think it was in one of the Psalms this
morning, it said the Lord does what he wants and it's true.
But there are still things that God can't do or that he won't do
right because of God's perfect character.
God is perfect. God is flawless.
God never makes a mistake. You could say that God can't
make a mistake, right? You could say that God can't
sin. Jesus didn't sin.
God can't be evil. God can't lie.
This is an important one for us to understand.
God can't lie because of who He is.
He is, it is impossible. The Scripture says it is
impossible for him to lie. And that's really important for
us when we when we want to consider our God to be sovereign
and all powerful. God answers to nobody.
But God is bound to his own word, his word, right?
The things that God says will be.
I hope we trust that that's true.
There is nothing ever that God has spoken that has not come to
pass or will not come to pass. Everything God says will be,
will be. We don't understand the timings
of God sometimes, right? But God said it so we can trust
it. Numbers 2319 says God is not a
man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should
repent. Has He said it will, and will he
not do? Has He said, and will He not do,
or has He spoken, and will he not make it good?
Isaiah 5511 So shall God sorry, so shall my word be that goes
forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void,
but it shall accomplish what I please.
It shall prosper in the things for which I sent it.
His Word will prosper in the things that He desires always.
God is sovereign. Why is it important for us to be
reminded this morning that God is sovereign?
Because it's easy to lose sight of that right?
In life, in the busyness of life, in the hardships that we
face. It's very easy to lose, lose
hope and lose sight of the fact that God is always in control.
And so as we start a new year, it is good for us just to
reflect on that, that all of the things that have happened and
all of the things that will happen are under our God's
control. And he is good all the time.
Some of us like how did we go last year?
Some of us faced some hardships last year, right?
I know, I know you guys like I, I know we did.
Can I say that more are on the way?
Look, I don't like to say that because that that applies to me
too. That applies to my family.
That applies to the things that I'm involved in.
There are hardships on the way, guys.
And so we just have to submit to him as our Lord and our Saviour
and our sovereign God for whatever's coming.
We need to be formed into His image.
You know how we're formed into the image of God through
hardships. I hope we know that.
I hope we believe that. Romans 828 It says and we know
that all things, let's all say all things, all things work
together for the good of those who love God, to those who are
called according to His purpose, according to His purpose for
whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed into
the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among
many brethren among many all things for the good.
And it says those that are following his purpose.
I thought about that again this morning, His purpose.
I sort of touched on it even as we started.
It's just like we have to be a part of his purpose if we're
going to be formed into his image.
That's really important, you know, and it and it says like it
also says that all things work together for the good of those
who love God. And we know that the Scripture
teaches us. Jesus says this.
He says that if you love me, you will do what I command.
And so when you put those things together, it just means that all
things work together for the good of those who love God and
follow his ways and live according to his purpose and not
our own. And that he knew you before you
were born and his desire is to have you to be transformed, to
become like Him. That we would become like Jesus,
who is the perfect image of God. When we see Jesus in the
Scripture, when we see how he how he lived and how he acted
and how he responded, that's God.
And we need to act and respond in the same way.
And it takes trials and tribulations for us to for the
for us to die and for us to live in the Spirit and follow him.
Because our flesh doesn't want to be anything like God, right?
Our flesh wants to respond in a way that is not God like.
And when Jesus came, he represented God.
He showed you and I what it looks like for us to submit
ourselves to God and to follow him.
And that's amazing. That means that like that's
where the victory is, guys, you know, we spoke about not wanting
to fail in life. That's where the victory is in
following him and, and getting on board with his ways and his
purpose. Amen, Amen.
This is an exciting time, guys. We're coming into a new season.
You know, when people talk about the new year and they make all
of these decisions, oh, I'm going to get healthier this
year. I'm going to stop eating that
and you know I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that,
and then two days pass and they're back doing the same
thing anyway. It's not my point.
But the new year is an opportunity for us to push into
the things of God once again and be reminded of why it is that he
has us here. Why God's planted this lampstand
in Morphevale right here that we could be conformed into His
image and that when people look at our lives and experience, you
know us that they would see Christ, they would experience
God because we are bearing his image.
We're image bearers in the same way that we can look at the
scripture and read and and by the Holy Spirit have these
things illuminated to us to see who God is and who Jesus is.
People can read your life. You know the scripture says that
people read you. They read the way that you live.
They read the way that you respond and you, you either show
them your flesh, you either show them your, your human nature or
you show them who the Father is. That's really important, isn't
it? Because I want like, I want
people to see him because I see him and he's wonderful.
Amen. I think it was, I think Justin
said something the other day about, you know, people look at
it was, it was God looks at the heart of men, but men look on
the outside, right? And I've been thinking about
that when you said that, because it's like when I, when I've
thought about that in the past, I've just thought about, you
know, I just have to have a good heart towards God.
And then that's all I'm, I'm sort of going for because he
sees my heart. He's not looking for the
outside. He just sees what's in here.
So if, as long as my heart's good, then that's the walk I
need to walk. But Justin reminded me that
people see the outside. And so if you want people to see
Christ in you, they're going to be looking at the life that you
live, they're going to be looking at the outside because
they can't see your heart, right?
And the way that you live exposes your heart, the way that
you speak, you know, out of the heart flows the things through
your mouth and stuff like that. So it's not just enough to have
a good heart. And we know that God's given us
a new heart and we're new creations.
But you've got to let the heart of God out.
And to let the heart of God out is it's, it's physical, It's
what can be seen. The words that I speak can be
heard, the, the things that I do can be seen when I'm generous
with my money. People see it right when I, you
know, I've, I've spoken to my friends that aren't believers
about tithing about giving 10% of all that I have to the church
and to God, you know, that, that the church could be successful
in, in doing what it's called to do.
And even some of my friends go, well, that makes sense.
They don't even believe us guys. People in the church will
complain about tithing and all these things.
I hear it all the time. And I'm just like, if my non
believing friends can see the value in this and see the need
for this because these are business people that understand
business. Nothing happens outside of money
in our world, right? It's just, it's just the way
that it is. I didn't come here to talk about
tithing today, but yeah, like it's just the ways of God.
We have to submit to the ways of God always in all things.
All right, So what are the some of the things that, you know,
we've experienced in life that push back against this truth
about the sovereignty of God? Well, I can, I can think of a
few just being sick and hurting, you know, having a having a, a
broken heart, you know, it can push back on that.
You lose sight, you know, you start to see what's right in
front of you and you don't see the truth again about who God
is. Frustration and envy, watching
other people live and comparing your life to them.
These are the things that that rob us from being submitted to
God, you know, because we want what they've got.
You see, this is all through the scripture.
What about like lack of met expectations?
Like I've got an expectation of how I think things should unfold
in my life. And if they don't happen the way
that I think they should, I can fall away from trusting God and
I can begin to question him and lose sight of the fact that no
matter what is happening, he's in control always.
And I know that some of us have faced some of those things in
the, in, you know, the year just gone.
And I know that there's other things that you can think of
even sitting here right now. Then you go, this thing sort of
taking my focus away, right? Why don't we just let the Holy
Spirit speak to our hearts even right now?
Lord, speak to us. We pray that you would highlight
these things that have taken away our focus.
Lord, won't you bring to mind, won't you open up our hearts to
see the way that we're truly living and the things that are
robbing us and the things that you know are hindering us from
following you? Lord, let us have ears to hear
this morning. Lord, thank you, God, Jesus
name, can I remind us that we face a very real enemy in this
world? He's there.
He's got an army. They are out to steal, kill and
destroy. And do you, do you realize that
He can and he does do those things.
Satan kills, steals and destroys.
If you don't believe that, ask Stephen, who was martyr who was
stoned in this scripture, right? They dragged him out and they
killed him. He was killed by the enemy,
right? Got Satan's influence on men and
all of these things, right? What about the the early
apostles? What about these guys?
You know, I gave this some thought throughout the week
because there's this scripture that talks about when Peter was
in prison and they all got together and says they were of 1
accord and they were praying together and God sent an Angel,
right? And he released Peter and Peter
got out and then he showed up at the door and they're all amazed.
And that's so these prayers, you know, God was able to intervene
and save Peter, right, from being killed, but Peter still
died, right? Peter was still martyred.
Like later on God's timings, God allowed Peter to die.
Jesus even warned him of what was to come.
And all of the apostles and these guys were all persecuted
and killed. Why don't we ask the believers
in Nigeria today, right, If Satan can steal, kill and
destroy, Let's ask them today because the churches are getting
decimated in Nigeria, right? This is happening today.
This is happening as we speak. And I don't say all of this to
scare us. Please, we don't need to be
scared, right? Because Jesus is Lord, God is
sovereign, God is allowing things to happen and he knows
best and he is good all the time.
But don't make this life that we live here now more important
than the life to come because our life is found in Jesus.
Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
We will be enjoy a resurrection also and we will live on forever
and ever and ever through all eternity.
That's the life that we are living towards.
That's the true life. This life here for many of us,
we're passing away. Jesus is going to return, but
many of us are going to pass away.
Matthew 1028 it says do not fear those who kill the body but
cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell. Did you hear what that said?
Like fear the one who holds life, who will decide who's
living and who's going to hell? That's the one that we fear.
That's the one that we submit to.
That's the one that we trust our Lord Jesus.
So Satan can hurt and cause pain.
You know what Satan can't do? He can never snatch you out of
God's hand. Never.
That is the hope that we have. No matter what has happened, no
matter what we're going to face, we will never be snatched out of
His hand. It's His word.
We started by saying that what God says will be done.
You and I will never be snatched out of his hand.
Satan is unable to do that. Our life is secure in Jesus
Christ. But we do need to drop, I think
an expectation of having a perfect life.
Sure, I'd love to have a perfect life.
I would love for things to go perfectly all the time, but they
never do or that's that's not true.
They they don't always go perfectly right.
And if you have an expectation even of God, that every time you
pray to him, every time you ask him, every time you say, Lord,
do this thing, do that thing. And if your expectation is,
well, the Word of God says that all things that are asked will
be done, right? If you ask in my name, it'll be
done. And you're just declaring that
over all of these things that we're just asking God for and
we're not seeing it. Do you know what that does for
us? It makes us disappointed.
So now we're living in disappointment, wondering why
God's not coming through with the prayers that we're praying.
But again, the prayers that we need to be praying to the Lord
need to be in line with His word.
It's no good for us to be praying that God would help me
to win cross lottery. Sorry, like you might, I don't
know. But like you know, and there's
other things as well. It's like there's certain things
that you're just praying out of your flesh.
You're praying out of what you believe that you should have in
this life, not the things that God says that was one, to give
up and two, to follow and to pursue.
And so we need to make sure that what we're asking of God is in
line with his word. Is that true?
And when we do pray in line with his word, then we can be assured
and full of faith that the things that we're praying will
come to be. You know, when we, when we pray
for sickness and stuff like that, we pray that people would
be healed and we believe that God heals.
Our God can do anything. He made people from dust.
He can heal, but he doesn't always in my experience, right.
And many people die of sicknesses and diseases.
But eternity, when we're with him forever, there is no
sickness there. There is no death there.
All of those things are dealt with.
So it's again, it's a timing thing.
Sometimes God can touch you and heal you right now, or God could
heal you in 10 years, or 20 years or 30 years or 40 years,
right? We got to trust Him.
We got to know that He is in control and we're just going to
live in submission to Him, knowing that one day all of our
cares, all of our worries, all of our hurts, all of our fears,
all of our stuff is going to be swallowed up and taken away.
We live for the life to come, not for this life, but we trust
God. We don't stop praying for
healing. We don't stop praying for
people, you know, to be snatched out of the hand of the enemy.
All of these things we declare God's word over the churches in
Nigeria. We, we proclaim God's word of
protection, Psalm 91. These things we, we always
declare the word of God and we trust.
And then we, we, it's almost like we leave it in our God's
hands as sovereign. We pray and we pray and we
trust. We pray and we trust.
Amen.
We've got to trust our Lord. He is faithful.
So how are we going to live this out together as a church in
2026? Well, we're going to do it as a
family, right? We are the family of God.
We are the sons and daughters of the King.
We are a covenant family here. The way church.
It's not just the church, it is the church, but we're a family
here and we take care of one another, right?
In hardships, in good times, we take care of one another.
We fellowship with one another. We reach out to people that are
struggling. We we reach out to people that
are doing well and we say, thank, praise God.
Do you see? We we fellowship with one with
one another always. It's like rain, hail or shine.
We're together and we'll be OK because we're together, because
we're the body, right? We can overcome anything
together. Overcoming on your own is very
difficult, isn't it? We've all experienced that,
where your flesh wants to pull back, right?
The Spirit of God wants you in fellowship with the people
because he knows that that's the safest place for us to be.
So God is calling the church in and saying, you know, don't give
up, don't forsake the gathering of the Saints, come together and
meet. This is God's plan.
Again, like if we want success, we've got to do things God's
way. God's calling the church
together in this context, in the greater context in this city and
beyond the nations together. God's calling the church to be
unified and together. I love maybe write this
scripture down Romans 12 verse 9 and we're going to read through
to verse 21. We'll come back and listen to
this after and get this and pull it out because these are these
are words for us to live by in 2026.
All right, I really felt that for us.
Romans 12 verse 9, are we ready? It says let love be without
hypocrisy, hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly
affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honour, giving
preference to one one another, not lagging in diligence, but
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient
in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer,
distributing to the needs of the Saints and given to hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.
That's what I was looking for. We, we laugh together, we cry
together, right? We don't isolate, we're
together. We, we, we see through life's
trials and and joys together. Verse 16 Be of the same mind
towards one another. Do not set your mind on the high
things, but associate with the humble.
Do not be wise in your own opinion.
We pay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in
the sight of all men. If it is possible, I love this.
If it is possible, as much as it depends on you and me.
If possible as much as it depends on me.
Live peaceably with all men, as much as depends on me.
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give
place to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is
mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him drink, for in so doing you'll
heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. Isn't that amazing?
I love that. So again, go back and read that.
Ask God. Lord, help me to live out these
things. Ask him to open up these things
in your heart so that you're reminded of these things as you
go about life. So as we put a full stop on
2025, you know, let's run together into 2026.
I've got an excitement in my heart about 2026.
You know, I enjoyed 2025. There was some hard stuff.
But I'm so hopeful for this year to come and believing that God's
just going to continue to be faithful and sovereign and, and
do what's needed to be done for us to live in success.
We're going to enjoy the good times and we're going to
surround each other in the hard times.
Amen. Excellent.
All right. And the only other thing that,
you know, I felt to remind us about in all of this is that
together we are waiting for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He's coming. He could come today.
I say this regularly. He might come before I finish.
He might come before Justin comes and closes this meeting.
Do you do you ever think about that?
He might. We don't know when he's going to
come. And it says that people are just
going to be going about their business and just doing
whatever. When he comes, today could be
the day. I hope that fills us with hope
to know that, you know, we're excited about the year to come,
but more than that, we're excited about the King of Kings
who's coming for his sons and daughters.
Amen. It's exciting stuff.
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.