SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thanks everyone. Why don't you stay standing for a minute? I gotta read a scripture while we stand. Is that all right? First Corinthians chapter two. I'm gonna start in verse one. The apostle Paul writing this, he says, When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness, timid and trembling, and my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would not trust in human wisdom, but in the power of God. Paul sort of finishes this passage by writing this, and he's in a bit of a mood, as you can see. He says, Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again, but I will come and soon, if the Lord lets me. And then I will find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or where they really have God's power. For the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk, it is living by God's power. Can we pray together for a moment? Thank you, Father, for your Holy Spirit. I thank you, Lord, that you are present in this world. You're present in our lives. Thank you, God, that you see each person, you see each life. I thank you, God, that you see the future and the hope of the future, God, and I pray that you would move today. To draw us to yourself, to draw us out of what we're in, God, that we might live for you, that we might live the godly life that you have called us to. God, I pray for your power. That it would move where we can't move ourselves, that it would unstuck people tonight, God. In Jesus' name. Amen.

unknown 2:18

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Why don't you grab a seat? And why don't we thank the worship band while we do that? Awesome. As Hamish said, I come all the way from our Bondi location. That's right. But I'm a long ways from Bondi. You gotta give me a second. I feel like I just gotta give my get my bearings a little bit. Is that alright? That's right. I'm in Newcastle. I've heard many legends of Newcastle. Here's the question I want to ask you this morning. Uh it's not morning, is it? Here's the question I want to ask you this evening as we start. Is what you're doing really working? In Bondai, there's a huge culture around ocean swimming. And uh any ocean swimmers here? Here we go. And when I first moved there, as you do, you get caught up in the cultural trends of the day. Uh Bondi is especially sort of trendy, trend comes in every three weeks, and everyone's a part of it, and it's the newest, biggest thing, and then it's gone the next month. Um, but ocean swimming is one of those things that remains, and I decided, even though I know how to swim, but I had never really been a swimmer, I decided that I was going to have a go at being an ocean swimmer. And I decided that I was going to swim the bay, which is about a kilometer. And it's sort of a local accomplishment. I definitely like to set goals and do them. And so I started swimming. Uh, and I started sort of on the north end, you go out a little bit and come back in, and then go out a little further and come back in, just testing myself, learning to swim. And one gorgeous, perfect day. The ocean was flat, there was hardly any surf. It was beautiful. It was winter, so it was still cold, but the sun was shining. And I and as I went out, I thought, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go all the way right here. So I put my head down and I just started swimming. Uh, and I got farther than I'd ever been, and then I go and I pick my head up and I realize I was halfway, and I realized something about ocean swimming that's a lot different than running, right? So I also run, I've spent way more time running than ocean swimming. The difference between running and ocean swimming is when you're running, if you don't make it, you just stop. You just take a break. You just walk the rest of the way. But when you're swimming, there's no option. It's like you die or you finish. It's very dramatic. And you think I'm being dramatic, but when you're out in the middle of the ocean, halfway across the Bondi Bay, and you realize it's the same distance from there to there to there, it's true. It's like I either finish this swim or I die. Those are the two options. And uh, so I I felt the panic level rising a little bit, and I thought, that's the devil, so I can't panic. Put my head down, keep swimming. And as I kind of came towards the south end, um, I realized there was a bit more of a wave on the south end than there was when I started. It was a bit heavier and a bit of surf crashing. And as I'm swimming in, I'm thinking, man, this looks very intimidating. I'm gonna have to swim through this. Uh and so I'm I'm approaching, getting closer and closer, and I noticed that just to my right, I could just go here, and there's no wave here at all. There's a wave there, but there's not a wave here. Now, I think to myself, that's good, I should just go here. But then a more intelligent part of my brain kicks in and goes, you shouldn't go here. The reason there's no wave here is because this is where the current is going out, and that's why there's no wave, which means I'm gonna turn and swim straight into the current, straight into the rip, and it's not a good idea. But I looked at the waves and I thought, that looks scary. I can handle this rip for sure. So I turn, go the easy way. I'm swimming, I'm swimming, but I knew I had to give it a good crack, right? So swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming, getting closer, getting closer. Then I start not getting closer, and then I start really, I'm not getting any closer, and I can like almost feel the sand under my toes. You know, I'm probably like this deep, I'm like almost there, but you'd still die in this much water, you know? Like, and and I'm and I'm swimming with all my strength, and then I finally realize I'm not gonna get there, so I take a break. And as I take a break, I watch the shoreline. I'm just floating back out to where I started. And uh it was okay. It wasn't a real extreme day. I wasn't gonna go out kilometers into the ocean. I just was going back to where I started, I just put all my energy into it. And as I'm on my way out, I'm taking a deep breath, thinking, okay, just you know, rest. You know what you have to do. I have to go into the waves. But I don't know if I really tried as hard as I did could last time. I reckon if I give this one more shot, this time, this time I can get through this the rip. So I take a good break. I'm just out there and floating. It's like when you're out there, it's like a gorgeous, perfect day. There's no current, there's no waves, and you think this is easy. The confidence starts coming back. You think, all right, here we go. So I turn around. The waves look way too scary, so I'm gonna go here again. So I'm swimming and swimming and swimming, I try harder and harder and harder and harder, getting closer and closer, and sure enough, I don't make it. I took a little break again, start treading water and watch as out to the sea I go. And it was almost comical, except for again those panic levels that are like, all right, you got no option. So I finally go to the waves. I think it was probably the first wave, it crashes over. I caught it, the whitewash washed me very easily up onto the sand. There I was, it was all perfectly fine. And I just knew as I stepped onto the sand that there was some lifeguard with his binoculars watching me, and he's just thinking, this absolute rookie. I like this story because I do think it's a bit of a commentary, an illustration of the way we live our lives sometimes. That looks scary. This looks easier. I might even get told, hey, that's the better way. People might have even experienced this before. There might be wisdom about it. But by sight, I'm gonna try this way. And so we push and we push harder and harder and harder. And whatever principle it is that you're uh you're living by, whatever goal you're trying to achieve, whatever success looks like for you, the human condition is to be deceived by our sight and try a little bit harder and a little bit harder and a little bit harder. Financially, you think, man, if I just had a little bit more money, right? I'm not trying to be a billionaire, I just need a little bit more. So, what do you do? You work harder and harder and you get there, and then you achieve it, and you got your mortgage in your house, and you think, but if I just had a little bit more, because I still am feeling so like, you know, maybe second property, passive income, and then I'll be alright. So try a little bit harder, a little bit harder, and then I get there, and it's like I'm almost there. Meanwhile, happiness, joy, life, family, just staying still, going backwards. Depending on what you're doing, success-wise, you're working, working, working. What about relationships? Right? If I just try a little bit harder, what about um, you know, your the the way you the the things that you're passionate about, the things that you're calling to? If I just try a little bit harder, a little bit harder. I um as a pastor, I get to talk to people a lot, and it's good, it's good fun. And I know if you're feeling there thinking, yeah, I do that. Like I know all of us do. I know I do that, I know we do that. We have this tendency, like I said, the human condition tendency to be deceived by what we see. The Bible says we walk by faith, not by our sight. This is a little bit, I think, about what the apostle Paul is talking about when he says the kingdom of God it does not consist of talk, but of power. What do I mean by that? Well, the church in Corinth, some of you might know this, might not, Paul's writing to a church that he planted, and it's in Greece. And it's writing sort of, it's almost at the peak of the classical Greece, Greek philosophical period. Many of the legends of philosophy, of human thinking, come from this era, from this area of the world. People like Aristotle and Plato and Socrates. And in Greek culture, what you did is you figured out who was the best philosopher, and you argued about it, and you separated it into camps, and you said, Well, I'm like an Aristotle guy, I think Aristotle's ways are the best, or I'm a Plato guy, and I think like Plato, and I think Plato has the best ideas, or I'm an Epicurean, and I'm I think Epicurus has the best ideas, and Greek culture was constantly trying to figure out who had the best philosophies for life and which camp were we in. And we even, uh the Greek culture even divided cities and lived in schools with each other, and who's got the best ideas. Everyone was in pursuit of the best wisdom. And Paul, when he writes to the church in Corinth, realizes this is happening in his church. If you know the passage, you know he calls them out. He says, You guys are arguing about whether you're of Paul or of Peter or of Apollos. Right? It's the same thing going on in this intellectual, philosophical culture of Greece that's coming in the church. And he cuts through the whole way of thinking by asking him this question. But is there power in it? Because when God shows up, there is power. The kingdom of God is not talk, it's not your clever philosophies, it's not your persuasive speech. The kingdom of God is power. Where we live, where I live in Bondai is very much like this. Like I said, it's very trendy, it's very much about what's popular, it's very much about which influencer you're looking, you're listening to, very much about which influencer you're becoming, very much about which trend you're picking up. Everybody's got all kinds of objective material wealth and stuff, and yet there's this sense that once I get to the right camp, if I find that life hack, if I find that secret sauce, that's what I'm aiming for. Meanwhile, our lives are untransformed by the things that we chase. And Paul actually is making this argument because he's lining them up to confront them on their untransformed lives. You've divided and you boast about which camp you're a part of, about your clever philosophy, about who's your leader and who's your leader, and you boast about all the ideas you have and look at your untransformed lives. Isn't it working? I think this evening, I think constantly the scripture is challenging. Is God are we gonna give our lives to God to have him actually work transformation, or are we going to think about it and talk about it and organize ourselves around our ideas? So, what is the power of the Holy Spirit that Paul's talking about here? Now, I know in a place like this we know the power of the Holy Spirit, but I want to give this quick illustration. Maybe you're new, or maybe you don't know, or maybe you wonder, or maybe you've had an experience but you don't understand. I like to think about it like this. I was actually taught this by a clever theological doctor you might know, Dr. Leroy Burns, when I was in college. Was he here this morning? Oh, that's awesome. You may have heard him teach this then. There's two Greek words, and there's two good English words that we use to describe power. Okay, one is dynamis, where we get dynamite from. And that's the word that shows up when Paul says the kingdom of God is not talk, it's power, it's dynamite. The other one is the Greek word exusia, which we often translate authority. And you can see in English there's a lot of overlap between these two words. It's like a Venn diagram, authority, power, they're very similar, but they're different. And the great clever example that Lee uh shared with us when I was first learning this in college was um like if a um a traffic light goes out and the police send an officer to go handle the intersection for you, and he's got the authority to stop you, and you go, and you go, and you stop, and he's got all the authority to tell everyone where to go. But when you're sitting behind the wheel of your car and the gas pedal is beneath your feet, he has no power over you. He has authority for sure. But if you hit the gas, it doesn't matter what he gets in the way, doesn't matter what he says, you can go. And that's the difference between power and authority. However, if for some reason that situation becomes a lot more dramatic or intense, and he pulls his firearm off his hip and points it at you, now he's got authority and power. Okay? So Paul is asking the church in Corinth if there is any power to their clever ideas. And he actually lines this up because the very next thing he's gonna call them on, the beginning of chapter five, is that somebody in their congregation is sleeping with his grandmother, and everybody's celebrating that, or maybe not celebrating it, everybody's celebrating their great theological ideas. I think I said that wrong. Did I say grandmother? Yeah, that's not what happened. He's sleeping with his stepmother. I was trying to think if that's like weirder or less weird. Anyways, it's just weird. Right? He's trying to call him out saying you got all you argue and you boast about whether you're this camp or that camp, and whether you've got this clever philosophical idea or these Greek intelligent ideas, and your lives are untransformed. The kingdom of God is not about your talk, it's about power. Not just about, even in this, in this tran uh, in this verse, not just even about authority, although that's an important part of the power of God, but about the actual ability to do it. Are you with me? So what does Paul say here that the power of God is for? The Holy Spirit's power shows up in your life for what? Well, if we follow through the correspondence between Paul and Corinthians, I think there's a clue here in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. He says, For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image. One of the reasons I like the imagery or the story of the ocean rip is because the destruction in our lives, the destructive habits and behaviors and the things that happen to us that we need to be free of, they often maybe start with a bad decision or a bit of foolishness, but often the way they destroy is that they enslave us, they get into us, and before we know it, life, what started here, what seemed like not a big deal, it's off it goes. And it's out of control. And constantly the biblical language around sin, around living life poorly, is not that just stop choosing it, it's that we actually have to be free from its power. And so the power of the Spirit is to set us free from that which has power over us. Freedom. The Bible does not say that God wants you to be a different kind of a person, or to 10x your morality, or to 10x your wisdom, or to 10x your abilities. The Bible regularly communicates that God wants you to be free of the evil powers so that you can become who He's created you to be. So the Holy Spirit comes to set us free. What does this look like? Near my house, there is a chicken and chip shop called Frangos. Now, there's also one out by the Hills district. Does anyone know Frangos? I can hear from a comment here. We know a bit of Frango's. Now, Frango's is delicious, if you ask me. It's the best chicken and chips in the city, but it is not even remotely healthy. Now, I love my frangos, and every time I am low on willpower, which when you're a dad of raising toddlers and get tired and don't feel like cooking is often it's just to frangos. And I find it interesting, and frango's is maybe a silly example, but I find it interesting how my body, which needs to be healthy to enjoy itself, craves the very thing that will get in its way. And again, isn't this part of the human condition? The thing that we feel like we want is often the very thing that we need to avoid. Now, I like example like Franco's because it's a very innocent example, and it doesn't sort of poke at us or it's not too in our faces, but as Jesus says, let he who has ears to hear, let him hear. How much do our own appetites become the thing that enslaves us? And this is exactly what Paul is confronting the church on. You boast about your clever ideas, but your appetites are out of control. Paul confronts very directly the current Corinthi, the church in Corinth on sex and food. And actually, there's two sort of elements to both of those two things, which is on the one hand, they come sort of from the internal, they come from out of us, they come from the flesh, they come from the old person, the unredeemed, untransformed person. They're our own problem. And we know that. There are our appetites. Why do we crave that which would destroy us? But also there's a sociological element to us, because we live in a culture that normalizes the wrong things. When you come to Bondi, you're gonna say, the pastor went to Frangos, and therefore I should do it. Right? We live in a culture that sets us off to lose, that influences us in the wrong direction, and so we've got to deal with ourselves and we've got to deal with the culture within which we live. And so we don't just need clever ideas to get free. We don't just need better philosophy, we don't just need better takes. We don't just need better ideas, we don't need more talk. We need power. We need to get free. And it is why you cannot, you should you cannot prioritize. You're talking about it, you're understanding it, your ideas about it, over your relationship with God who wants to give you power to set you free. Amen. Now, the second element of that verse that I read, if we read it again, 2 Corinthians. Corinthians 3. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image. There definitely is sort of two sides to the same coin here. On the one hand, often what we need the power of God to is just to get free. And at the same time, we need the power of God for us to become like Jesus. God has created us in his image, but we've found ourselves a long way off. And we can talk and we can teach and we can cleverly think about how we can become more. But ultimately, it's God's power that we need to become that. Now, what is becoming like Jesus in this context? I like to think about this. Jesus didn't just walk around not sinning. Jesus lived the full experience of human life. The Bible says this, and Paul also writes in a different part in Galatians 5. He says that the fruit of the power of the Holy Spirit in our life is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. I always feel good when I get to the end of all nine. That is the fruit of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and that's what it's meant to be. I like to look at those first three. Love, joy, peace. What more could we want in life? But I think this, I think Jesus, or maybe let me say, and I think this, I think Jesus experienced the fullness of love, of joy, of peace. But we may have to get over our clever ideas about those things in order to experience them like Jesus. Because Jesus experienced the fullness of human love. And he never got married. That's a word for the single people. Some of the married people are like, Amen. It says this in John chapter 13. Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. Here's one of the things I think we don't think about when we're considering our lives. That we all do not have an equal capacity for love, joy, and peace. And we think if I get all the external things coordinated, if I manipulate the world around me and get all the ducks in a row and I achieve all my goals, then I will have the fullness of joy. But we haven't considered whether we're even capable of experiencing it. Because joy is an internal thing. Love is an internal thing. And we see this all the time. You get into the right circumstances, and you think love, no? Self-consciousness and insecurity and pride and frustration and impatience. Where's the love? I managed the whole external world to put me in the right place. Do we experience joy? No, I figured it out. I got to success. I succeeded. All the goals. Where's the joy? Well, your heart is filled with anxiety and frustration and resentment. Meanwhile, God is like, hey, if you just let go of the external things and let me do a work in your heart, be amazed at the experience of joy that is available to you no matter what the circumstances are. Jesus experience the fullness, the full human experience of love. I think we need the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us into the type of person who can experience full human love. How about full human joy? It says this about Jesus, John 15. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will be overflowed. I love to think about joy. C.S. Lewis talks about joy in sort of a theological sense. He talks about how he reflects on his life and realized that joy, true joy, was when he managed to completely forget about himself and be caught up enjoying the other. Whether it was a thing or a person. Right? How many of us have the capacity even in our heart, in our character, in our worries, in our mind to completely let go of figuring it out about thinking about ourselves? I noticed this especially with my kids. I've got a five and a half year old and a three-year-old, and they are the joy of my life, for sure. They're just happy, right? Dad, welcome over work. It's like the best thing ever. Dad, let's play. Okay, let's play Barbies. Okay. Dad, be this Barbie. Okay. Why? Because I'm thinking about myself. Why? Because I feel bored. I wish I didn't feel bored. Dad, throw me again. Oh, but my back hurts. Why? I mean, they just like again, again, dad, again, again, again, dad, again. Joy, joy. And I'm like, yeah, but it's not working for me. Right? I'm at the park, dad, joy. And I'm like, yeah, but the other dads might think I'm not very cool if I do that. It's real. Way more than circumstances, you need the power of God to transform your heart, to experience joy. If you want to leave tonight, if you want to live your life happier, you need transformation, not circumstance. And the power of God is to transform you. We can boast about our clever ideas and how right we are about this or that, but God wants to transform you to experience joy. How about peace? Mark chapter 4. It says they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind. Although the boats followed. But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. I think I have made the point. But same with peace, right? Jesus is asleep in the storm, and we can't sleep because we're worried that a storm might come. So what do we do? Control the lives, manipulate the circumstances, get rid of this person, go after this thing, work harder to have more money for this. Work on my image over here. Wish my reputation wasn't this. Worry about what that person said to that person because I heard they might have said something about me. Peace. You don't need clever ideas. You don't need to think about it more. You need the power of God to transform your internal so that you can experience life, a full, abundant life, the best of that which God has created in this life. And a life that lasts forever, that cannot be taken away from you. A life that even death itself cannot steal from you. That's the kind of life God wants to give you. That's going to take transformation, not clever ideas. I wonder if the band wants to come on up. As we finish. When you get free of sin, and you look over there, and that person's broken and stuck in it, you think, man, I gotta help. And the last thing, and the thing that we often focus on the most, and what I love, and it's for good reason, but is when we begin to realize the transformation and the freedom, the power of the Holy Spirit is available to us. The Holy Spirit then empowers us to do anything, whatever God will, so that you can be a witness to that which God has done and that which God will do. I know you would know this verse well. Acts chapter 1, verse 8. The disciples are waiting for the power of God. And he says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria, and all the way to Newcastle. Right? I think we really need to grapple with this first part. We need the power of God to be set free from sin. And we need the power of God to transform our heart to experience that which God has called us to. They've been deceived by their sight. They looked at the life God had called them to, and they thought, that looks scary. I bet I could just go in here. I was chatting with a mom at a park a couple years ago. My kid was in the playground and our kids played, and this other mom came over and introduced herself, and we were chatting, and she says, What do you do? And I said, I'm a pastor. And she goes, Oh, I'm a Christian. I said, Oh, great. What church do you go to? And she's like, Oh, I've never been to church. Never been to church at all. No, I've literally never been to church. Wow. How do I ask this next question? So I'm like, So when you say you're a Christian, like, what do you mean by that? You read your Bible, you she goes, No, I've never read the Bible. Never at all. No, I've literally never read the Bible. Like my head, I'm thinking, you're not a Christian. So I'm like, so what do you mean when you say you're not you're you're a Christian? And she goes, looking around, I'm thinking the world has gone too blank. I'm with the Christians. That's what she said to me. I've had similar sort of sentiment and conversation with people. You know, when I first started out in ministry as a teenager in my 20s, youth pastor, it was like we lived in an era where the whole world was suspicious of Christianity, and everybody believed that if you just got rid of God and got rid of church and religion, then the world would work out and we'd all be much better off. But like in less than two decades, the world has flipped on its head. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the world is desperately lost. I'm not saying they are, but they don't know it. They know it. I talk to people constantly who are like, man, I thought that if I did this and did this, it would all work out. I would be fine. I would just get to the beach, but I've been swimming in this rip and I have no idea why. And I'm like, I know. And people are walking into church all the time, I'm sure it's here too, all the time in Bondi. I've got all the money, I'm an influencer, I've got all the coolness, I've hit all the successful goals, and I am broken and I am enslaved. What is happening? You are called to be a witness. And can I say, like right now, today, I'm not saying in general, I'm saying right now, I have never been in a time like this where there are so many people all around you who are not just very quietly wondering, they're actually wondering, they're actually lost, they're actually disillusioned with the ideas that the world has given them. And we are prime, like we are primely, primely, we are positioned well. We are positioned perfectly. God has set it up for us to be positioned perfectly to be a witness. When people come and say, Man, I'm broken, I'm stuck. Yeah, well, God has the power to set you free. Oh, tell me what your clever ideas. Nah, it's not about what trend you're part of. Man, I I got everything, I've made all my money and I've got all the success, but I'm flat, I don't have joy. You are called to be a witness. I'm really passionate about I've run into this constantly all the time. I think we're on the edge, we're on the edge of something that like so interesting for me. People are searching, they are lost. Will you be a witness? Will you let your light shine? Later on in that book to the Corinthians letter to the Corinthians, Paul shares a very famous passage you would note. He says, A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person, the spirit gives the ability to give wise advice. To another, the same spirit gives a message of special knowledge, the same spirit gives great faith to another, and the someone else, the uh the one spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still, another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which each gift person, which gift each person should have. Now, I want to challenge us. I've been in Pentecostal church my whole life. We love to figure out which spiritual gift personality we have. But this passage, if we try to simplify it, it means this that when you're out in the world, nothing is impossible for you to be a witness. Nothing. Is it wisdom that's needed? Pray to the Holy Spirit, God's personal presence in your life. God, I need wisdom. This person needs wisdom. God, use me. Is somebody literally sick? Pray. The Holy Spirit wants to empower you to heal them. This passage is actually about how we're empowered differently and we work together. So you maybe you don't have to be the one who's anointed to heal, but you can say, Man, I got a friend who is. Come to church, come to this. But if we're not aware of the great reality God has given us and how far off the world is, people will live their lives broken. They'll live their lives swimming in a rip. And first, I want the power of God to set you free, I want the power of God to transform you. But almost immediately, God wants you to be bold and to believe that nothing is impossible when you partner with the Holy Spirit because He wants you to be a witness to all those who are stuck, who all those who are broken, that God's power is available to transform them. Paul says this about his ministry at the end of Romans 15. So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God. Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them. They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God's Spirit. In this way I have fully presented the good news of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum. I love that. Paul reflects on his ministry. And signs and wonders were just the way he did it. They weren't the main thing he did. He preached the gospel, that's what he says. But the way he did signs, wonders, miracles, healings, gifts of prophecy, speaking in tongues, the Holy Spirit wants to empower you to witness to the reality of God's power at work in your life. And I think that the world needs us to rise up and to believe for it. Amen. Why don't we stand together? Do you guys got a song?

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Just a mention makes a way. Just a leg so we can't swallow the strong spray. That's the power that I clean. It's the same power to great. It's the power. Just the shit so it's all I see you take. I see you take it. I see you press. You will do what you say. Oh we all stay up now and to be quick. It's no power of the way. Your power is taking to the enemy. Just a power of your money. Just a mix and makes a way.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Just to be set free. And you know that there's some destructive issue, some appetite, some part of your life, maybe it's some relationship situation, and you're feeling stuck. You just need freedom. I'd love for you just to be brave and put your hand up, and we're gonna pray for you. Amen. That's awesome. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that you love your children, God. We thank you, God, that you said that when we ask for the Holy Spirit, you will give it, God. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would come and you would free your people, God. I pray for miraculous stories of freedom even from tonight, God. That people will be set free from the things that are oppressing them and hold them in bondage, God. That you would miraculously set people free. I pray, God, that you would speak. I think that your word brings transformation. God, I pray that you would speak to people who are stuck. God, that they would hear you, they would know you, that you would lead them out. I pray, God, that where it's fear and anxiety, God, where it's courage that's needed, God, I pray that you would embolden them. That you would embolden us, God, to make the hard choices, to do the things that need to be done, to trust you, God. Amen. And I wonder, maybe you're part of that second category, and you think it's not so much that you're stuck with something, but you want to experience life and joy and fullness. And maybe, maybe you are stuck, but it's just thoughts and anxieties and insecurities, and you're too busy sort of thinking in your head to actually be present in the world, to be loving, to be joy. I want to pray actually. I want to pray specifically for joy. Maybe you're in the room and you think, I need some joy. Would you put your hand up? If you're brave, awesome. Awesome. Once again, I pray, Father, that you would see your people. I pray that you would bring joy. I pray that you would loosen people's stuck on their mindsets, God, so that we could experience the fullness of joy that you have for us, the best part of this life that you've given us, God. I pray for laughter this week. God, I pray that people would be reminded randomly this week of your goodness. God, I pray for gratefulness, God, for what we have received, that we wouldn't be focused on what we don't. God, I pray supernaturally by your spirit that you would speak to our minds and you would bring us to joy, God, that we would have joy, newfound joy in relationships that feel old, that feel that they've gone. God, I pray that we would find newfound joy. God, I pray for the sense of calling, God, for those who have purpose but haven't feel exhausted by it, for people who wonder whether the purpose has run its length. God, I pray that you would bring a joy in it, a freshness, a laughter to it, a happiness in it. God, I pray that you would bring joy to your people. God, I pray that for those who feel numb to love, God, that you would bring love, God, that people would experience your love. And experience love with one another, God. I pray for peace for those who worry. Pray that you would give sleep tonight, God, for those who can't sleep. In Jesus' name, and I'd love to pray for you all, for us, Hillsong Newcastle, that we would go and be witnesses. And if you're not in for that, you might have to sort of dodge this prayer because I'm just gonna pray. I'm gonna volunteer all of us, alright? But if you're up for that, why don't you put your hand up and let's pray together that God would use us. Father in heaven, you see your people. God, I thank you that you see all the broken people that we are surrounded by constantly. You see all the pain. And that you have healing and redemption and reconciliation and restoration for all of it. God, I pray that you would put these people in exactly the right places, that you would fill them with exactly the right words, that you would fill them with miracle-working power, God, that they would be a testimony and a witness to the power of God, that God has not left this world, God has not abandoned Newcastle, that God is present here, that his kingdom reigns here, that the powers of darkness can't oppress his people anymore. God, I pray that you would use these people, God, to speak wisdom, God, to speak truth, God. I pray that you would embolden them to pray, to lay hands, God. I pray that they would find themselves in supernatural situations, God. I pray that there would be friends, that they would be, these people would be surprised by friends who open up on the need for Jesus, the need for light, the need for breakthrough, God. And I pray that you would remind us all as we go from here into our Mondays and our Wednesdays and every day of the week that there is a hope that the broken world around us can live for. God, I pray that you would embolden us and you would not let us walk about our lives thinking about ourselves anymore. In Jesus' name. Amen.