Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South
Australia. Lord, you are great, You are
wonderful. Lord, we thank you, God for this
opportunity to be together. We thank you, Lord, that we are
the church, we are your body, we are your sons and daughters.
Lord, we are your family. And that fills us with
excitement and joy this morning to know that we belong to you,
Lord, a good, good Father. You're so amazing, Lord.
Thank you for who you are. Thank you for all you're doing.
Thank you for all that you'll continue to do this morning.
In this moment. Lord, we just want to honor you.
Praise you, bless your mighty name, Jesus name, Amen.
Excellent. Well, I am, I'm excited to be
here this morning and I know that some of you are as well.
I'm looking at your faces. We're excited to be here, right?
Today's a good day. I can see the I can see the joy
in your Eliza. It's not because your shirt says
joy. I can see it there.
It's amazing. Now I just want to open up to
you guys. We started in prayer this
morning and we said that we come together and all of us has a
word and has a song and has something to share.
And I love that we're, we're growing in these things.
We're going to continue to push into that and come ready and
prepared. But I just want to ask you guys
here, has anyone got anything they'd like to share with us as
a church this morning? It's OK if we don't.
There will be more opportunities.
Amen. Like I, I, I want to, I want you
guys to know that when, when I'm sharing the word of God and when
we're, when we're preaching the word that we want to be a
church, that, you know, Jesus was interrupted a lot.
If you see that in Scripture, right?
And I think that we got to be open as leaders and, and in the
church to be interrupted as music leaders, whatever.
We got to be open to be interrupted.
If it's the Lord and something's burning on your heart and it's,
it's in line with what we're sharing and you feel it's the
Lord, come and share it. Just, I don't know, put your
hand up, make us aware. We want to be open to what the
Spirit of God is saying. It's more important that the
Spirit of God would lead us and speak to us.
Then I just stand here and share with you all the things that I
feel God's saying because we are the church.
Amen. Yeah.
We're just leave that at that. But yeah, I just want to welcome
you guys to do that. Excellent.
Come, please. That'll give me time to work out
what's going with this. Morning on Friday night, we went
to Daniel and Bianca's home. And I get excited, Daniel and
Chantal, sorry. And I get excited because I get
to meet you. And it's not only that, it's
because I'm learning how to speak to you because of who you
are and I get to share with everyone else, but also to bring
you in as well so that you're not left out.
And so that excites me. And it's exciting for us to be
able to enjoy each other because we're unique.
And what God has put on my heart for these since Friday night is,
do you know your authority in Christ?
Do you know who you are in Christ?
Really. Because our uniqueness makes us
so powerful and so different that God will use it and He will
use us and use that to be able to speak to the ones out there
that need it more than we do in here.
But to be able to come in and enjoy each other's company and
be able to encourage each other. And then we go back out there,
you know, and it's out there where the harvest is that God
needs us the most. But when we come here, we need
each other to encourage each other to be able to keep going
out there because that's where we live now.
The understanding of we are in this world, but we don't belong
to it comes into play because we do come into this world, but
that doesn't mean we belong to it.
We belong to a heavenly realm and a heavenly place that God
will give us the words, the encouragement, and the guidance
to be able to live in this world.
And so that's my encouragement to all of you is is know who you
are in Christ. Know who you are and carry it.
And he will always do something magnificent just because of
what's so ugly out there. We can be a light in that
ugliness, and so shine your light.
Amazing. Thank you.
We're going to help each other
to know who we are. Right.
It's so good. That's very, very.
Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, it's very much in line
with what we're talking about this morning, which is great.
So we've seen a lot of that this morning, which is good.
So love that. All right.
We, we had an amazing time last week with Justin brought a word
to us talking about, you know, what if we caught what it was
that God's wanting to do because we need to like, if we don't
catch what God's wanting to do, then what are we doing, right?
We're just doing our own thing, right?
So we need to catch what God's wanting to do and we partner
with God. And so that's really exciting.
This is the season that we're in as a church to really push in
and hear what it is that God's wanting to do, what he's wanting
us to be and where he's wanting to lead us, you know, as
individuals. What Lord, like, what do you
want me to be? Who do you want me to be?
How do you want me to be like you?
How do you want me to represent you?
And there's such an adventure in God.
I thought we didn't talk about this a lot, but like what an
adventure it is to be in, in Christ and to serve him like the
greatest adventure that you could ever go on.
It's such an exciting thing to to know the God of the universe
and to like seek him and find him and be led by him.
That is the greatest adventure we could ever go on.
And we get to go on that adventure together.
It's like people don't do well on their own, right?
We do well when we're together. And this is, you know, funnily
enough, this is the way that God structured things to be right,
because he knows what he's doing.
And so, you know, we're on this adventure, you know, the, the
NCMY team. I just want to speak about this
for just a moment. You know, when we're at the when
we're at the, I think it was the eldest time last year, You know,
Ty just spoke about what this team is and, and he simplified
it in, in these terms. He said that we're, we're an, a
trans local team of the fivefold gifts given to the church with
an Apostolic and prophetic heart.
She's laughing because she's laughing because Ty singled me
out after he just said it and I couldn't say it again.
And then I wrote it down. Then he singled me out again and
I still couldn't say it. So so he gave me another
opportunity. Then I finally got it out.
So anyway, here we are. So that's so cool because you
know what, someone came up to me afterwards and said you're never
going to forget that, are you? And I'm like, probably not, but
it's true and it's not. That's not just for the NCMI
team guys. That's the heart of the church.
You know, that's the heart for us as a church having an
Apostolic prophetic heart to go, you know, so an apostle is, is
simply, you know, there's a, there's a gift of an apostle,
there's an office of the apostle.
But apostle just means it's the sent one, the one that's sent.
So we, we need to have a heart to be sent, a heart to go.
And the other side is a prophetic heart, you know, in a
very simple, in my very simple way of understanding what
prophecy is, It's hearing what God's saying and then telling
someone, right? You know, So yeah, that's my
simple understanding. And that's the heart that we
need to have. We need to have a heart that's
willing to go to be sent with a prophetic heart, one that's can
hear God and can share wherever we find ourselves what God is
saying. And so this is the the vision
for us as a church. You know, God wants to do
amazing things with the way church.
I'm so hopeful that of the things that we're going to see
God do in and through us as a people here, we're going to be
successful in God's economy. We're going to see God do what
God wants to do in US and through us.
We're going to see people reached with the gospel.
We're going to see people saved. We're going to see people whose
needs looked after. We're going to see a people in
our midst, us included, that are going to grow.
That are going to hear what God's saying.
That we're going to even as mum said, that we're going to be
refined. That God's going to burn the
chaff off, you know, and that we're going to stand here in a
year's time different to how we stand here today because God is
working in US and through us. God's will is always for things
to grow. I was, we were reminded of this
a couple of weeks ago. It's all through his Word.
God's will is always for things to grow.
You, you could witness that with your own eyes.
Just have a look outside, have a look in the garden.
God's will is for things to always grow.
Babies grow, people grow, they grow.
God's intention is for growth. That applies to us the way
church. God's intention is for us to
grow not only in ourselves and in becoming like more Christ
like and being able to represent him better, but that God would
add to us. Growth is numerical in the
Scriptures as well. We should be expectant, and
we're hopeful and we are, that God will add to this church.
He will. He is.
And as leaders, you know, we're committed to these, these
truths. We're committed to what the word
says about growth. We're committed to what the word
says about having a, a prophetic and Apostolic heart.
We're committed to these things. But I want to ask you as, as
Saints in this room, are we committed to those things?
Are we committed to the word of God that says yes, when when
things are healthy, there's growth?
Are we committed to know that the Holy Spirit wants to do a
work in and through us? Like if we ask each other what,
what work is the Holy Spirit doing in and through you?
We should have an answer for that at any given time.
What's the Lord doing in your life?
You know, think about that. That's a question that we should
be asking God. That's a that's a question that
we should be hearing the answer to.
I want to know what it is that God's wanting to work on me.
And I believe that we are committed to these things.
I believe that we do want to grow, that we do want to become
like Him. Amen.
But you know, us as leaders, just getting back to the leaders
side of this, that we're committed to hearing God and
doing the will of God. Are you guys submitted to your
leaders? I know that you are like, I'm
not saying you guys need to submit.
I'm just saying that as a body, as a church, we have to be
submitted to our leaders. And I say that because, you
know, we're going to, we're going to have conversations.
Leaders are going to have conversations with science
because they're leading them. And we're going to have to talk
about some hard stuff. We're going to have to unearth
some hard truths. And if you're not committed, you
know, to us as, as your leaders, you're not going to want to hear
that. This is why it's important that
you have to be sorry, submitted to, to leadership, because you
have to trust that leaders will come with the word of God and,
and, and challenge you on things.
And you have to be willing to hear.
And you know, we have to be submitted to you guys.
We have to lay down our lives to serve you guys to, to, to go and
find out what God is saying to spend time in prayer for you
guys. You guys should be doing that
for us as well. But we need to as leaders, we
spend time praying and asking God, what are the things that
these people need? And so when we come and we, we
have these conversations with you guys, it's not just
flipping, it's not just like, oh, how you doing and then try
and speak the word of God. It's prayerful.
We're asking God, Lord, how can we serve these people?
How can we help these people to grow?
How can we help get to the deep roots and the things that are
holding us, holding the people back so that we can speak the
gospel into it, so that we can apply the gospel into our into
our lives. It's the applying of the gospel
that brings freedom. And so, you know, there's a
there's the big visions for the church that, you know, the
things that we're about and, and the bigness of being a body
that's worldwide and all of these things.
But the steps to be a part of the church and to be a part of
the, the bigger vision. It's daily, it's a lifestyle for
us. It's like consistent living in
the Lord that leads us to the bigger picture.
We're never going to get where God's leading us to go without
consistent living, without daily walking, without the steps that
lead to the to the place, to the destination.
We need a godly rhythm for our lives.
And So what do I mean about these little steps?
It's like I thought about this, you know, the global equip,
right? This is an example of this.
This is grand vision for the for the global equip.
It's like come from all of the corners of the earth and come
and gather here and we'll be unified together and we will
hear from from leaders the things that God's wanting to say
to the to the church around the world.
He got like we want to catch God's plan and purpose for the
global church and it flows all the way through to the local
church and to our lives. So that's the big vision.
It's like, all right, guys, let's all come to South Africa
and we go, OK, let's do it where we're in South Africa, you know,
because if we all just go, all right, we're going to South
Africa, we all jump on a plane, then what are we?
Are we together yet? No, I'm over there.
You're over there. We don't know where we are.
So it's like we need a clearer vision now so that we end up in
the same place, right? So we need further revelation.
We need, we need, you know, we need the the we need to narrow
it down a bit, right? Well, OK, What what city we're
going to, we're all going to go to Johannesburg.
OK, great. Let's all go to Johannesburg.
We're not quite there yet, are we?
What suburb? What street, what number do you
see? Like it?
It just gets more detailed. And it's the same with our
lives. It's the same for us as a
church. It's like we have a, we have a
broad vision of what God's wanting to do in US and through
us. And then it's like, then we get
the more specific leadings and guiding the daily steps in our
lives so that we can reach the destination.
The destination doesn't change. It's we've got the vision, we've
got what God wants to do. And now it's just like working
out, OK, you know, because we're all coming from different
places, right? Think about that.
Like I, if I jump on a certain plane and go there, other people
have to go on a different plane to get there.
So it looks unique. Now, you know, my personal walk
to get to God's destination is different from your personal
walk to get to God's destination.
But we have to just be hearing clearly and being obedient and
saying, yes, Lord and taking the steps in obedience.
And again, it's the same way for us as a local church, for the
way church is the same, same for us.
We can have a big understanding of what God's wanting to do.
But now it's like, all right, let's break it down and talk
about our lives. Let's talk about how we live.
Let's talk about how we apply God's truths to our lives in a
daily step by step manner. That's what we do from here.
We bring things down, we simplify things, we try to help
us to catch the truths for today and for tomorrow and and you
know, for our lives. I enjoyed Justin's message last
week and I love that, you know, we're talking about the coming
weeks, hearing from God and, and catching what it is.
These are catching the specifics for the season that God has us
in. This is what we should be
hopeful for. This is what we need to be
praying about. This is why we're going.
We want to catch the specifics for us, not only just for our
lives, but for the local church, for the church in this city, how
we connect to the the churches around the world, all of these
things. We want to catch some specifics
and put some things in place. I love Justin Eva's list of ES.
I love how Justin preaches on a whole different way to how my
brain works and it's so good because like, we need that,
right? What Justin brings in the way
that he teaches and the way that he shares is so different to me.
This church needs it, right? It's wonderful.
But you know, some of these, the Justin Eva's ease were
excitement and encouragement expanded, emboldened, equipped,
envisioned expedient. I love the expedient.
The Expedient 1 is the one that stuck with me because I want to
see things happen now. It's just like I shouldn't
ignore the other ones, but you know, like I'm, I'm excited for
for things to move, you know, and I and I hope I'm catching
God in that, that that's something that he wants to do in
US and through US. I would love to see that.
And I believe it is. Yeah.
And so let me just remind you of the scripture that Justin shared
with with us from Ephesians 310 says his intent was that now and
he highlighted the now because this wasn't just written to
them. This is written to us.
This is the now. His intent was that now through
the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to
the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
This is a big vision statement. And again, the vision is big,
but the footsteps are small. Something that you know, the
things that God wants to, you know, the manifold wisdom that
God wants to be revealed in and through his church in us as
individuals is just him. It's who he is.
It's his wisdom, it's his goodness, the goodness of God.
It's his power. You know, we spoke about the
laws have shared. It's his authority that we stand
in. This needs to be demonstrated
through the church. It's God's heart for people.
It's God's ways in and through the church.
This is like what we need to be expressing and showing and
revealing and manifesting that the world would know who God is.
And it's interesting when you think about that, it's not, it's
actually easier than you think when you just start having
conversations with people and just bringing in the truth.
Just bring the truth in, bring who God is when someone's
struggling and and stuff like that.
You say, mate. You know, you know that God's
intent was never for you to be struggling.
Just this is just as an example. It's just like, just bring God
in, bring the gospel in, bring the truth in, reveal Christ,
reveal God in, in everywhere you go, wherever you find yourself,
Reveal the manifold wisdom of God everywhere you go.
Just tell people the truth of the word.
Tell people who he is. Tell people what he's done.
Bear witness of his goodness. Share your testimony.
Don't hold it to yourself. Tell someone, especially when
someone asks. When someone asks, that is it.
That's like the green light. That's that's just like, all
right, here we go. If someone's asking me now,
you're going to cop it. Do you know what I mean?
I'm going to tell you now like you asked.
And you can even say that I've said this to people.
Well, you asked, right? That's a green light.
Love, when people ask why do you go to church, take a seat, you
know, I'm going to tell you. So this means something in and
through all of us. None of us have excluded from
this. All of us have a part to play in
revealing who God is, the manifold wisdom of God.
It's wonderful. This is ministry, Gods, this is
ministry, but that is ministry going.
This is like the, you know, we've heard this before.
This is like half time. This is like when we come
together and talk about what we're going to do when we leave
here, right? This is half time.
This is being equipped. This is the Saints being
equipped for the for the ministry and the ministry.
It happens in here, but it should be happening a whole lot
more out there because we've just made it about this.
That church is where ministry happens.
Ministry happens wherever you are because the Holy Spirit
lives in you and he wants for you to release him, his truth,
his Spirit wherever you go. And so the church is like a
training ground for us to, you know, trust to even share, like
when we talk about us coming together as a priesthood of all
believers and, and when we ask, hey, what's the Lord saying?
What's the Lord saying? What's the Lord saying?
This is like a training ground. If you could be bold to share
what the Lord's saying here, you're being equipped to share
what the Lord's saying out there.
This is a training ground. It's like learning to walk.
It's like babies need help to learn to walk.
Young kids, they don't just do it on their own.
They don't just get up and start walking.
You know what you do? You hold their hands and you
walk with them, you know, and then they get, then they get
confident and you let them go for a bit and they're all you
know. It's really cool to watch, but
that's what we're doing here. We're taking each other by the
hand and we're helping each other to become fruitful
ministers in the church. And so once the kids learn to
walk, it's like it's not over. You know, I think about your
maturity in Christ. It never ends.
Once you learn to walk, then what?
Well, now you're going to want to run, right?
And when kids start to run, they fall a lot.
So they need to be picked up again, you know, Then they want
to learn to jump. It's just like as we grow in the
Lord, it's like you're always going to need the body around
you to pick you up again, to dust you off, to send you back
out. The Word of God is so powerful.
He has knit His word in everything.
You can see God's goodness in everything.
So amazing. Once your eyes are open, you see
it everywhere. You see God everywhere.
This is why it's quite easy to share God because it's
everywhere. And Jesus did this all the time.
He shared things through physical things that were around
him. Both physical things still
existed at you, us. You could still use them to
reveal Christ. Amen.
So we're talking about, you know, the priest sort of
believers. We're talking about carrying
this thing together. We're talking about equipping
each other to do this work together.
And I just want to, we had such an amazing time on Friday night
and I wanted to share around that.
And Eliza already sort of touched on it a little, but it
was such an amazing time. And so I just want to, I've
asked, you know, just a couple of the guys that were here.
I've asked Tony, do you want to come up or you want me to hand
you the you want to stay there? OK, All right.
So we're just going to share just something that we enjoyed
on Friday night. So go for a bit.
Eliza touched on it really because I enjoyed everyone's
company, but I enjoyed getting to know this fella Brayden and
you know, and his story and getting getting to know him
because I used to be the real new person.
And but that's what I found, you know, as much as you enjoy
everyone's company and that it was just someone new and it was,
you know, that's that's what I found uplifting other night.
So. Good.
Yeah. Thank you, man.
Amen. We love you bro and thank you
for being bold enough to share that I'm going to take it takes
courage, man. Thank you man, I'll.
Walk with you, come with me. So it's such a good night.
And you know, one of the things that God really impressed upon
me was the work he's done in Tony.
You know, I think as as Christians have been around for
a little while, we can we get tainted, we get tainted and you
know what, what what the Lord's saying to me through seeing the
freshness and the growth and the change and his just his spirit
moving in you buddy. It's just it's just so
encouraging and to meet you again.
It's a little while since I've seen you, but it's great.
Great to spend some time with you also, but what God quickened
to me around seeing the freshness of the spirit of God
on a man who's changing visibly because that's the question that
we were discussing was when come that he comes up to you and Tony
was saying this my friend saying to me what's going on what's
happening? You know what you're changing
and and I I was quick and that I had a time in my life where that
was really prominent as well where people could see the
change in me and I'm my my cry out to God is Lord that that you
would take me in you into a season where people would see
that change again, that I would be refreshed that we would all
be refreshed within the Lord and that change that that those
steps that we're taking towards him would continue to be
manifestly visible in the change that he's affecting enough.
Does that make sense? So God's doing great things and
my prayer is, Lord, let your Spirit be visible through us and
on us to the people who need to see you and to know you, thank
you, Lord, so. Good.
Thank you. Did you want to share?
I'll, I'll bring it to you. You look like you were a bit
handsful. Well, again, I think everyone
who was here for the pre prayer before we started caught this
anyway. But Dave just shared the
scripture out of Acts when they were waiting for the spirit to
come at Pentecost and how they were all together in one accord
and, and in the context of the of the evening.
I mean, as dad just said, there was a recurring theme of people
crying out for the freshness of God and, and that was why Dave
shared the scripture just of being in one place and of 1
accord. And I I guess my faith was
really just stirred for for seeing that actually out worked.
And then and then I guess it overflows into today when we
start talking about being woven together and just that real
being of 1 accord with each other and the faith to see the
fruit of what God can do in that space.
Yeah, and the power that comes when we're unified and together.
Amazing. So good.
And so, yeah, like I, I had such a great time, you know, it was
wonderful and it was cool because we made a plan to be
together. You know, it's a community
group. We're going to come together.
So that's like the first step. Let's be together, you know?
And then. But the cool thing was that
everyone that was there actively participated.
There was no one, you know? Hillary nodded off on the couch
for a bit, but she was tired. OK, so that's OK.
We'll we'll let that slide. Sorry, babe, but everyone was
actively participating and you felt it.
You're like, this is wonderful. You know, the Lord's here and
and we're his people. And it was just, it felt
wonderful. And we ate together.
We love eating together. You know, he's just eating
together is just one of the privileges we have.
You know, Dan LED well when he opened up the word, he's just,
it was as simple as just, hey, you know, I just felt this
scripture. I mean, he read it and then we
started talking and it just opened up this conversation with
us. We were, as Hillary said, we
were able just to share out of our own lives and their own
struggles and, and it was all entwined together.
It was just wonderful. Such a simple, simple thing, you
know, and we waited on him. Isn't that just such a simple
thing like that? We would come together and then
we would wait on him and just say, Lord, we're here because of
you. We know that you're here.
What do you want to do? You know, and when we share out
of that and it was just good, but that's that you.
I'm saying all this because, you know, that's what we should be
expecting every time that we're together.
You know, church has become a lot of things in a lot of places
and we've kind of lost the just to be together and to all
participate. It's become very much about a
stage mentality and that the only ones that would share with
those that have the stage and have the mic, you know, but we
can still, we can still actively participate even though, you
know, we have these things for a reason, right?
But we can still actively participate, no matter how big
we get when we come together in the morning.
And I would encourage us to come because we pray at 9:30 and the
purpose behind it is just to hear from the Lord and see what
it what it is that he was wanting to do today.
And so I'd encourage all of us to be here to do that.
But yeah, church can, church can look like that, where it's just
a family of believers coming together and playing their part
and contributing. You know, when I was, when I was
prepping for this message, you know, I said that.
I said that there was a there was a guy here.
This is what I wrote down in my notes.
I said there was a guy there and I could see that God was working
in him. Yeah, that's what I wrote down.
But then I had to change that because, you know, I, I don't
want to, I'm not going to single you out or anything.
You don't need to come up here. But we're dude, we are excited
that you're here. You've heard we were excited
that you were there. And the reason that I had to
change this is because Brayden gave his life to the Lord the
next day. That is a huge deal.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord, you know, so so
it went from being there was a guy here that you could
literally see God working in to there was a there was a guy with
us that received Christ that was saved.
That is so exciting. We are so stoked, you know, and
I've got a scripture for you bro.
It says Luke 1517 says this. It says this is Jesus speaking.
He says, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy
in heaven over 1 Sinner who repents than over 99 that who do
not need repentance. Do you know what that means?
That means that when you said, Lord, I take you as my Lord and
Saviour, that heaven erupted and they praised for you.
And we do the same thing in this place, man.
We are so overjoyed that God has gripped your heart and that you
made it here because I know that it's difficult for you to be
here. But you're overcoming already,
man. And you're going to need to
because you know, we're going to have to overcome together.
But can we just lift our voice and just give it a big praise?
And we thank you, Lord, we thank you, Lord, thank you for Braden.
Lord, thank you for the work you're doing in him and through
him. Bless him, Lord, strengthen him.
Lord, we just pray your protection over him.
We pray that you would protect him.
We pray that you would reveal yourself to him.
We pray that you would be formed in him.
We pray that you would fill him with joy and with hope and with
peace and with strength, that you would make yourself known to
him and use him. Lord, I pray that you would use
him for your plans and your purpose in and through the
church. Lord, that the manifold wisdom
of God would be revealed in and through this Son in Jesus mighty
name, Amen. Amen.
What a wonderful thing, Thank you Lord, Thank you.
Lord. And so you know, I left that
meeting, you know, before I even knew about that.
I left that meeting just being excited.
I was pumped up. I was like, that was wonderful.
You know, we woke up the next day and Hillary and I are
talking. We're just going.
That was so nice, you know? And you know what?
We're feeling excited, encouraged, expanded,
emboldened, equipped, and envisioned expedient.
We saw God move in a in an instant.
Amen. So let's be expected that God's
going to continue to do in, in these things in and through
these coming weeks. This is a big week for us as a
church. There's a lot going on.
And so, you know, the other thing that I thought about last
on Friday night, I was just like, I would be excited to
invite someone to come along to that.
Like be excited. Like I'd, I'd be like, yeah,
you, you need to come to this, you know, not inviting out of
obligation, you know, not inviting because we should
invite people to church. We should invite people to
community because we should. That's what we're supposed to
do. Excited because God was there,
because we saw the Spirit of God move.
And that's what the world needs. That's what people need.
That's what your unfriend save, sorry, your unsaved neighbors
and friends and work colleagues, That's what they need.
We need to invite them along, you know.
And again, sometimes it's going to be easier for people to come
for a meal with with a small group of people than come into a
church context. And we've talked about this in
weeks gone by, this fruit. Now that means that God's on
this, right? Our our gathering together at
our men's group. There's fruit there, there's
people coming. We're sharing the word of God.
We're in a room and it's not just believers.
People are wanting to come and, and I'll leave those meetings.
Do you enjoy those meetings, Brandon?
Do you enjoy the men's groups? So good, so good.
You know, it's another one of those ones that you leave and I
know that you enjoy it too tiny. We leave and we were like, that
was one that was wonderful. God's with us.
You know, this is super encouraging for us guys.
So awesome. All right, so Jesus got people
gathered to Jesus through word of mouth, didn't they?
They just went and told people what it was that that Jesus was
doing. They they told him who he was
and they said you got to come and see this guy.
You got to come and see the things that Jesus does.
It's the same for us. When we get excited about what
God's doing. It's the same.
Come and see, Come and see what Jesus to come and see, you know,
there's an excitement. There's a word of mouth.
We grow through word of mouth predominantly.
That's how the church has grown. That's how the early church
grew. You got it.
Yeah, it's still growing that way now.
You know, we won't rely on other things now, but word of mouth is
where the power is. Do you know why?
Because like when I'm standing next to someone, you know what?
Someone's experience. Holy Spirit, It's true you.
When we're together, we experience God in a real way.
When we're on the phone, God can do amazing things.
Don't get me wrong, God can come and touch people through the
phone. But when we're together, the
Holy Spirit flows in US and through us.
It's like when you walk into a room.
Do you know who walks into the room?
God walks into the room. The Holy Spirit's here.
It's very cool. It's this is like the, this is
the adventure of being a son of God or a daughter of God.
This is the adventure knowing that when you show up God's
there and the authority of God, that Christ's authority has gone
with you. It's pretty cool.
And so this is the, the, you know, when we think about the
church like this, this is a healthy DNA for a church and
into the future. It's like if we can build
something that's healthy and strong, then when we plant out
of this place, you, you build upon out of the DNA that we have
here. Then, then, then you build, you
multiply somewhere else and you build a healthy church there.
That's what church planting is. That's what's happened here.
We've come out of another church.
We've been planted here. We've had to find our way for a
little while now. It's time to grow and with the
intent of planting into the future because we want to see
more churches where we can experience these amazing, fun
things that the presence of God in our midst.
We want for others to experience that over there where there's
not a church there or where there needs to be a a new
covenant church there. That's simply what church
planting is. And so in the coming weeks, I
loved Eliza's word last week. She said it's time.
It is time, it is time, time for what?
Time for us to get some clarity, time for us to to get the steps,
you know, where God's been showing us some cool stuff, but
we need some more clarity. We need to know, Lord, what is
it that you want us to do specifically in all of this?
That we could be successful that we could see your mighty hand
move. We want to hear the specifics
Lord give us ears to hear. Open our hearts up wide Lord.
So for those that are staying while we go.
I love this scripture. Obviously I shared this with
with you guys before it's one Samuel 3024.
This is David David and his men. He says for for who will healed
Sorry. Let me start again for who will
heal heed you in this matter. But as his part is, who goes
down to the battle? So shall his part be who stays
with the suppliers? They shall share alike.
That means that the men that grabbed their swords and their
weapons and went to fight share the inheritance with those that
had to stay. You know, when I was thinking
about this this week, do you think that there was work to be
done for those that stayed? They weren't just sitting there
just going, oh, we'll just wait till they get back and then
we'll just get on with it. They're looking after all of the
animals. They're looking after the kids.
And the, you know, there's they're, they're keeping the
house. There's work to be done.
And I say that to you guys because it's not like, you know,
we'll just send them away and wait till they get back.
There's work to be done here, you know, and, and Justin will
be here next week and I'm here this week.
So, you know, you're not left on your own completely.
But I say that because you guys are going to need each other
mostly out of looking after the the sheep, right?
You guys need to look after one another while we're gone.
You're going to need to make sure that you're OK.
Guys got to gather around this man.
Yeah. We've got to look after one
another. We've got to make sure that our
needs are met. You know, the early church took
care of the needs of each other. And that's going to be
prayerfully, but that's going to be more than prayerfully.
That's going to be picking up the phone and saying, how are
you doing? We spoke about Bianca last week.
Bianca's here with the family. And I know I love to hear the
stories that you guys are doing that.
But what about the rest of us? You know, because we need each
other. We need to just pick up the
phone. If you feel if you hear a name
or someone's on your heart, you just think about someone
throughout the next week or two, send them a text.
If you've got their number, flick them or give them a call.
Find out how they're doing. Just say, hey, I was just
thinking about you. Are you OK?
Is there anything you need? It's simple stuff.
Wonderful. So we need to be the church the
the, the the Bible church Acts 246.
So they continued daily with 1 accord in the temple and
breaking bread from house to house.
They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of
heart. They gathered together.
It's daily they were together. You know, I've heard push back
on this, you know, like when you start talking a little this way
and you just go, you know, the early church, they gathered
together daily. You've heard push back and
you're well, you know, that's the early church.
We don't need to be like the early church.
Are you sure? Because the early church
experienced the power of God. The early church saw 3000 people
saved in one day. I think we need to be like the
early church. I think that we need to take on
the example of the early church. So if they were gathering daily,
I think we need to make a way to be together as regularly as we
can. The other thing that the early
church did was they prayed together.
We pray together, We have a prayer meeting, we pray again,
we pray before the meeting. Very important.
Please come. Please come to the prayer
meeting if you can. I'd realize that some of us
can't make it. That's fine.
But what I do know is usually those that can't make it want to
be here and they're praying anyway.
Can I just say that Psalm 5 talks about prayer.
It says, I'm just going to read it to us here.
Psalm 5, verse one, it says, give ear to my words.
O Lord, consider my meditation. Give heed to my voice of my cry,
my King and my God, for to you I will pray.
My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning
I will direct it to you and I will look up.
We will pray. And then if you skip down to
verse 7, it says this. But As for me, I will come into
Your house in the multitude of Your mercy, in fear of You, I'll
worship towards Your holy temple.
Listen to this. Lead me, O Lord, in Your
righteousness. Because of my enemies, make Your
way straight before my face. This is prayer.
You know what this means? It means that when I pray to the
Lord, I lift up my voice and I speak to Him.
But you know what He does in return?
He leads me. He leads me in the paths of
righteousness. Prayer is not one sided.
Prayer is not just me spitting out all of my requests to God.
Prayer is me crying out to Him because I need Him and we need
Him. And God responds by hearing and
then leading us by His Holy Spirit.
Be expectant that when you do pray, Holy Spirit will lead you
and guide you. He does.
His word says that He does. We know He does.
Amen. All right, so we are and I just
getting back to the start, I'm just wrapping this up.
So we are an Apostolic prophetic people.
He shows the way that we go, the way the Church's name is is
significant for us. He shows us the way.
When he shows us the way, do you know what we do?
We go in obedience. Yeah, that's being sent.
That's Apostolic. That's going the way, Lord.
Show us the way, Lord, so that we can follow you, so that we
can go, so that we can do what you've called us to do.
He shows us the way to live. You know, this is the prophetic
side to this. He, he shows us not only where
to go, but he shows us how to go.
He shows us how to live. He again, prophetic is just like
hearing from God and then speaking, speaking it.
So we want to be a Apostolic prophetic hearted people,
priesthood of all believers. We read this this morning.
I'm going to read it for us again, a priesthood of all
believers. That just means that all of us
have a role to play in His church as a priest to the Lord.
The Old covenant had specific priests that would be in between
God and the people that they would come to the priest, and
the priest would. You know you're not in Christ.
A priesthood of all believers has direct access to God through
Christ. We are a priesthood.
That means that you don't need me to get to God, You don't need
me to go. Can you just pray for me that
God would, right? That means that you as a
believer, as a spirit filled believer, as a son of God, and
having received the cross, having received Jesus sacrifice,
forgiveness of sins, can walk boldly into the throne room of
God. That means that He is opening up
a way for you to come to him. It means that you can come and
ask, give him your, your requests and your needs.
That's a, that's a, that is a substantial truth of the gospel
that we could come to the Lord. So 1 Corinthians 1426, it says,
how is it then, brethren, whenever, whenever, today is a
whenever. Friday night was a whenever,
when I have friends around, you know, when, when Justin and
Bianca come for dinner, It's a whenever, whenever you're
together, whenever you come together, each of you has a
Psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an
interpretation. Let all things be done for
edification. All things whenever we're
together that we would be edified, strengthened, set on
the path that the Lord has for us.
Amen. So how are we going to respond
to that? Because any time that we share
the word of God, it's, it's if you, if you hear it and you go,
yeah, that's the Lord. He's speaking.
This is his word. Now we have to respond.
We have to respond to the Lord. And responding to the Lord is
very easy, again, because you've got access to the God, because
you can go into the holiest place where the Lord dwells, the
throne room of God. That means that responding
happens in here. We are the temple of God.
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
That means you don't have to look outwardly to respond to the
Lord. Respond comes in your heart.
It's as simple as saying, Lord, I hear you.
I want to respond to you. You can use your mouth, but you
can use your heart. So I'm just going to pray for us
and let's all respond. How about that?
Who wants to respond? We all need to respond.
Please, yeah, please. It's a verse that many of you
are familiar with because I've given it to some of you before,
but it's coming in to me this morning.
It's I grew up with as a young believer, and I spent a lot of
time in the Living Bible. And this is a verse from Psalm
32, verse 8. And in the Living Bible it says,
I would instruct you, says the Lord, and guide you along the
best pathway for your love. And then he says, and I would
advise you and watch your progress.
Be blessed. Add to that, we forget that He
loves our progress. He created us and when he sees
the faculties that he's put into us and the the gifting and the
other things, when we see us use that and move forward, he
rejoices. He sings over us, he dances over
us. Can he pray for us?
OK, Our great, wonderful, wonderful Father in heaven, our
Papa Father, the great God of the universe, the, the sovereign
God, the highest level of authority and and the deepest
well of resources that exist. We, we rejoice today that we
could come through the curtain that was torn.
They, the experts think it was 3 feet at least thick and it was
torn from top to bottom. So we come with boldness to you.
We thank you for the encouragement this morning from
your word. We thank you for the examples
that we have. Thank you for those 3 chapters
that that speak of. What do you do when you come
together? We thank you for what happened
on Friday night. I wasn't there, but I can
imagine. And so, Father, we pray that you
will help us to respond to the things we've heard, to respond
to what you are calling us to be, to respond not with fear,
but with confidence that if you made us and you sent us and
you've given us the incredible good news, then Lord, we pray
that you'll help us to be courageous enough and sensitive
enough not to go out of this door and justice think, Oh well,
I'm going to get on with life. No, but go out of this door
differently, expecting, aware of, of abiding in Jesus, of of
being in touch, synced, synced to you, Lord Jesus 100%.
So whatever you want to do, and you do it with us together, we
pray that in Jesus name for and we give you the glory and the
credit for what you're going to do in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you guys. I just wanna thank you all for
contributing and this has been a wonderful time together, hasn't
it? Bless you guys.
Hey, have a wonderful. Day, Thank you for joining us
for today's message. For more information about The
Way Church, please visit ourwebsite@thewaychurch.com dot
AU. Have a blessed day.