SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoga.
SPEAKER_00: We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_01: I want to say this, and I'm going to uh just uh share some things before I hook into a series starting next week.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know what the Holy Spirit does?
SPEAKER_01: He puts color into our life.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what he does do.
SPEAKER_01: And uh he just doesn't have you blend, he's into the uniqueness of really who you are, and uh, but really it's it's a case of today, it's like God has his people stand out.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you know that.
SPEAKER_01: If you're born of the Spirit of God, you stand out.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the reasons why you stand out is because you have a pursuit, a pursuit of kingdom character, and that makes you a whole lot different from most often from the network that we're around.
SPEAKER_01: You commit to character.
SPEAKER_01: What the Holy Spirit does, he gives us spirit, and the Bible says he gives us life, Zoe life, the God life.
SPEAKER_01: And that makes us different because we're all really look the same on the outside to some degree.
SPEAKER_01: We're like a shell or a human shell.
SPEAKER_01: But what brings the magnetism and the life is the life of God that flows through our eyes, it flows through our being, it flows through our mouth.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the world is looking for.
SPEAKER_01: The world is looking for substance right now, it's looking for God in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've got a huge opportunity before the law was ever to return.
SPEAKER_01: And when he does, we have a massive opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: We have a window of opportunity, no matter how old you are or how young you are, to actually reach our community with the power of Christ's reality.
SPEAKER_01: I've written here the Holy Spirit helps us, you know, he helps us to rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he does.
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, Natasha, I felt uh preached a really amazing message last week and talked about the roots of bitterness and talked about as we get older.
SPEAKER_01: She mentioned about my mum, my mom, she did say that.
SPEAKER_01: She said that we get the face that we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, that's really true.
SPEAKER_01: And honestly, what's in it flows out, and that's what I'm trying to say to you.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got Jesus inside of you, it flows out, you're a living witness.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so what it is is God wants one of the things God wants us to do is quit.
SPEAKER_01: Quit complaining.
SPEAKER_01: It's cheap, it cheapens who we are.
SPEAKER_01: Our murmuring, our criticism, all that sort of stuff, God wants us to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: If you're alive this morning and you are breathing, you have a lot to thank God for because a whole lot of people aren't.
SPEAKER_01: We say this, it's a if you've got money in the bank, you can cruise around the island in a vehicle, you got a house, you got a job, you're in about the top 8% of wealthy people in the world now.
SPEAKER_01: And so it gets me, it gets me as a minister of the gospel or a pastor when we become so lack of gratitude towards God, yet there's so much to appreciate Him.
SPEAKER_01: We appreciate Him in the highs, we appreciate Him in the lows, we're grateful in the long stretch and the short stretch.
SPEAKER_01: But there's got to be something within us.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe if the Spirit of God is inside you, the natural overflow of Jesus resident in your life is to rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Come on now.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we don't have God, when we don't have the power of the Holy Spirit in our life, we default to dryness and emptiness.
SPEAKER_01: It's like we're like the shell on the beach, the little animal is gone away.
SPEAKER_01: So we look like we have the form of the external, we have the form of godliness, but the power, the resurrection power is not there.
SPEAKER_01: That's called religion.
SPEAKER_01: Hollywood makes fun of that.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what it is?
SPEAKER_01: Is God would have us to be so filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know that He's our helper, and it's interesting about our helper.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know I was thinking about this?
SPEAKER_01: You and I have never been designed to live outside of God.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_01: You can live out, but that's not the design.
SPEAKER_01: You've not been designed at all to live outside the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're created for.
SPEAKER_01: That's like the missing gap.
SPEAKER_01: That's why people who don't know Jesus respectfully, and I say this honorably, get often frustrated and irritated.
SPEAKER_01: We know that we're missing something.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in a church context.
SPEAKER_01: It was a Baptist church, it was a Pentecostal Baptist church, it was an awesome church, great pastors and just amazing people.
SPEAKER_01: I gave my life to the Lord at the age of 18 years of age.
SPEAKER_01: But before that, I knew that I was missing something.
SPEAKER_01: I knew that there was a gap that only God can fill.
SPEAKER_01: You could be a billionaire sitting here this morning, but you could be as empty as hell.
SPEAKER_01: Seriously.
SPEAKER_01: You could be tied up in all sorts of bondages and all sorts of things, but you could be empty on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: You can be brought up in the church like I was, but until you have an encounter with Jesus Christ, you haven't hit reality yet.
SPEAKER_01: We can die from here, and if we die without Jesus Christ, and we we die and we miss the whole meaning of life.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not you say, Well, I've given my life to Jesus, but let me tell you this, it's like, can I, it just should be real?
SPEAKER_01: Can I talk to some real people this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's like this, it's like, and I use this illustration, it's like being married, but you're 40 or 50 years um uh married, and it's just like wow, it's just like the wow factor's gone, the magnetism, the chemistry, it's just you're existing today.
SPEAKER_01: It's like living professional lives.
SPEAKER_01: That is not the plan for marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: Mate, am I getting a witness on that or what?
SPEAKER_01: We want vibrant, passionate marriages in this house, I tell you.
SPEAKER_01: Not absolute silence.
SPEAKER_01: That's concerning.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, when when we when we have a relationship with Jesus, it was never meant to be just this dry, boring, barren stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We're losing a generation of young people, of teenagers, because they look to what we've got and they're wanting to see the real God stand up.
SPEAKER_01: They're wanting to see the reality of Jesus Christ, the resurrection Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He breaks the shackles of pornography, he breaks that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: He breaks nicotine and alcoholism, he breaks drug addiction, he breaks some of the sexual addictions in our lives, he breaks that.
SPEAKER_01: He breaks the shackles of anger, resentment, and bitterness and unforgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: He breaks that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: So when we want to hate somebody, we find ourselves loving them.
SPEAKER_01: When we want to be selfish, we find ourselves generous because that's the fruit of Christ inside us.
SPEAKER_01: The evidence and the proof that he's here.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's not just rocking into church and and and uh ticking that box.
SPEAKER_01: I do that.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's it's not just about attendance, it's about a life.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the Zoe life, the God life.
SPEAKER_01: And that, my friends, hey, that's what the world wants to see.
SPEAKER_01: It's wanting to see that.
SPEAKER_01: It's wanting to see that you're holding on to victory, that you're living the Christ life.
SPEAKER_01: It's the void that only God can fill.
SPEAKER_01: And I often use the illustration, it's like you're going to a uh gasoline station or a petrol station, you're going there and you say to the attendants, can you please fill my truck up?
SPEAKER_01: Should be diesel, but can you fill it up with Coca-Cola?
SPEAKER_01: And he would say to you, Are you mad that I hear you write Coca-Cola?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to fill it up, man.
SPEAKER_01: Just do as I say, I'll pay it.
SPEAKER_01: Fill it up with Coca-Cola.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's how we live our lives.
SPEAKER_01: You can fill it with anything, but you'll never fill it with anything.
SPEAKER_01: You can try to.
SPEAKER_01: There's a space reserved inside of our life that only the Holy Spirit can fill.
SPEAKER_01: And we try and do life, church life on energy, on rhythm, on systems, on structure, on management and administration.
SPEAKER_01: We try and do it on charisma or personalities or sounds, but if he ain't in the house, we've got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: We just got a spiritual social club that doesn't dent this world, it doesn't impact this world.
SPEAKER_01: But what the Holy Spirit wants to do is come to town.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit wants to come to Raratong and the Cook Islands and have a national revival.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to revive all of our government officials and have them firmly born into the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Every household wife, every girl that's got a the two toddlers at the sink at the kitchen, God wants to fill that woman and the toddlers.
SPEAKER_01: The business holders, the the business people, the entrepreneurs in our nation, the creators, the influencers, whoever you are this morning, God wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's his design for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Outside of that, look, tell me, look, I tell you, outside of that, this is incredibly boring.
SPEAKER_01: No passion for the word, no passion for worship.
SPEAKER_01: We sit here like a stunned mullet.
SPEAKER_01: It's like there's nothing really happening in our town.
SPEAKER_01: Seriously, there's nothing really happening in here.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a concern, that's a sign that we're kind of like separated ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We agree with our heads that God is, because we've been taught that, and we know that.
SPEAKER_01: But the living reality of Christ with inside us, the power of the resurrection Christ, if He's not abiding inside us, then we're empty.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This is Sunday fun day.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit knows everything.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever lost something?
SPEAKER_01: And you say, God, can you please show me?
SPEAKER_01: This is how you practice the word of knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Can you please show me in a picture or an impression?
SPEAKER_01: But show me where it is, and God gives you a random place and you go find it that's there.
SPEAKER_01: God knows.
SPEAKER_01: God knows where all the missing money is.
SPEAKER_01: How about this?
SPEAKER_01: He also knows where the missing bodies are.
SPEAKER_01: There was one uh in a one state of America that were uh hitting on some psychics trying to find where the bodies are.
SPEAKER_01: They should come to the church.
SPEAKER_01: We'll know where they are.
SPEAKER_01: Praying fast, God, I'll put myself on the line.
SPEAKER_01: You have to tell me now.
SPEAKER_01: You have to show me.
SPEAKER_01: Just give me some more time.
SPEAKER_01: More time.
SPEAKER_01: God revealed in uh 2 Kings 6 revealed to Elisha the secrets of the heart of the king, so that the king ended up saying, guys, I want you to come in and we're gonna have a talk leadership team.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a mold in our midst.
SPEAKER_01: Someone has to be telling them.
SPEAKER_01: He said, No, no, no, no, nobody's telling them, we're completely loyal.
SPEAKER_01: He said, God, Yahweh, Yahweh, tells him, the prophet, the secrets of our discussions.
SPEAKER_01: That's the God we serve.
SPEAKER_01: You know, many years ago, true story, I was a Saturday, we had Saturday services back in Canterbury, and um uh we had church on a Saturday, and the uh the wallabies were in town.
SPEAKER_01: And it meant that they were playing, they were playing while we would be at church.
SPEAKER_01: And I grew up like a 10-year-old, nine-year-old, introduced to rugby by my mother, and and we we would just watch everything.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you get up at three o'clock, watch them play France and all that sort of stuff, and it was interesting, and you grow up with it all, and how exciting were those days.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I just I I felt the draw.
SPEAKER_01: I I knew I should be at church because I was preaching.
SPEAKER_01: I I but I'll but part of me is thinking, man, I I want to see that game.
SPEAKER_01: I'm ashamed of myself.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what happened?
SPEAKER_01: The still small voice came to me and said to me, This is this is this is true.
SPEAKER_01: Can I not tell you the score?
SPEAKER_01: And immediately the score came down, downloaded it.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I went to church the Saturday night, afterwards got home, found out it was exactly here's the funny thing is the all blacks were supposed to have won that game, and I just was looking back that up today to confirm it.
SPEAKER_01: It was a shock loss.
SPEAKER_01: The wallabies won, it was exactly as the word of the Lord had said.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know the God, the Holy Spirit will not ill advise you?
SPEAKER_01: He will not ill advise you, he will tell you the truth, he will help you, but he won't ill-advise you at all.
SPEAKER_01: He will show you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm we were we were going to buy a uh well, we looked at a house in in the same area in Christchurch there to buy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we went to the auction, um, we were unsuccessful.
SPEAKER_01: And I went away thinking, oh man, I want that house.
SPEAKER_01: I should have gone away rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: Because the plan was that we ended up not being we were unsuccessful, we ended up building a five-bedroom home brand new in another subdivision.
SPEAKER_01: Two years later, I go past that house and I knew I knew they'd put a a um a highway through, but they put a highway through the back end of that property.
SPEAKER_01: A bridge, Avendale Bridge.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody knows that, right through over the river.
SPEAKER_01: The house that we looked at was smack bang in there.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked at it, I thought, man, it's overshadowed, it's not even getting any sun.
SPEAKER_01: Because God knows better, he knows how to give you the best deals, and maybe you're gonna pay more for the deal only because God knows there's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is our helper.
SPEAKER_01: Seriously, the Bible talks about him being an enabler or a coach, but he's with us.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus is the right hand of the Father, that's where he is making intercession for us.
SPEAKER_01: But he's the Holy Spirit is who's moving through the church and moving in the harvest fields and moving through the world today.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit, the Bible says we have communion and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He is part of the Godhead, the expression of Christ, the expression of the Father, and we can talk to him every single day.
SPEAKER_01: So that's when you can get up in the morning, like Benny Hinn used to say, you can say, Good morning, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote that book.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you've read that book, whether you like that book, whether you like him, or whatever, it's irrelevant.
SPEAKER_01: The point is that was the truth.
SPEAKER_01: That was a profound truth.
SPEAKER_01: He got up in the morning and he would say, Good morning, Holy Spirit, because God wants to talk to us.
SPEAKER_01: You can go to the board meeting on Wednesday, God will give you supernatural wisdom that will defy the intelligence of that table.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: But this is how we kind of live our life.
SPEAKER_01: We live our life a little bit separate from him.
SPEAKER_01: We don't inquire of the Lord, we don't uh wait upon his presence to hear his voice and so forth.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you, there's a there's a there's a profound life that you and I can live in, an incredible life of adventure and excitement when we connect into him and actually get talking to him and build that relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, it works.
SPEAKER_01: Totally works.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that what God does is the Holy Spirit, he brings soundness into our thinking, he brings soundness into our emotion, he brings a thing called wholeness, emotional wholeness, that we can face people, we're not insecure, or we're not trying to bat for our performance or the time, or we're not trying to, you know, uh uh always looking at it at you know, our image of those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: No, God breaks those things down and he wants to change the inside of us.
SPEAKER_01: So we're not performance oriented, he wants to bring us, and I this is falling on deaf ears, I can feel it in the spirit, but let me tell you this God wants to so refine and change you to be in the image of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ would flow out of you.
SPEAKER_01: That it doesn't matter what happens in the economy, you are secure.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what happens in the the doctor says something about the health, you're still secure because you're going based on the word of God now.
SPEAKER_01: And we get afflicted.
SPEAKER_01: Honestly, we the church needs a revival, a revival of faith, a revival of trust, a revival of the character and the nature of God, who he is and what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: And we've we've kind of replaced a lot of stuff with religious experiences and and no experiences at all.
SPEAKER_01: But God wants to profoundly impact our life, honestly, and you know what he wants to do?
SPEAKER_01: He wants to break, you ready for this?
SPEAKER_01: He wants to break down the self-sufficiency and the stuff that's in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a scripture I'm gonna give us.
SPEAKER_01: It's found in Isaiah, a very important thing.
SPEAKER_01: God, there's some things that God looks for.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: There are some things that God totally looks for, and it's Isaiah 66, verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: You ready for this?
SPEAKER_01: Thus says the Lord, it's God speaking now.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven is my throne, you'll know the scripture, and earth is my footstool.
SPEAKER_01: Where is the house that you will build for me?
SPEAKER_01: And where is the place of my rest?
SPEAKER_01: For all these things, my hand is made.
SPEAKER_01: All these things exist.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, hey guys, realistically, they don't impress me.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm looking for.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't impress me.
SPEAKER_01: I can do that, you can do that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a problem.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like, wow, you've created this big building and God is going, hooray! No, no, no, it's not what he's looking for.
SPEAKER_01: What's he looking for?
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Isaiah speaks to us.
SPEAKER_01: But on this one will I look on whom who is poor and of a contrite spirit and he trembles at my word.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So let's break it down real quick.
SPEAKER_01: But on this one will I look.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever wondered what your wife wants, husbands?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever asked her?
SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe she tells you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, God, there's some things.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever wondered what God's looking for?
SPEAKER_01: We should.
SPEAKER_01: We're in this relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: And so, wouldn't it be to our advantage?
SPEAKER_01: And would it be an honoring thing for actually inquire of the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
SPEAKER_01: What are you saying?
SPEAKER_01: How are you feeling?
SPEAKER_01: What do you want us to know, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: So, but on this one will I look.
SPEAKER_01: Now that there is not a glance.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like, oh, I'll just have a quick look.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: It actually means God is deliberately fixing his eyes and his attention on you.
SPEAKER_01: On whom who is poor.
SPEAKER_01: It's not someone that's got low self-esteem or somebody that's financially wretched or poor.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's one that recognizes dependency on God.
SPEAKER_01: It's one that's kind of pushed past and renounced the self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_01: Very important.
SPEAKER_01: And a contrite spirit is one, you ready for this?
SPEAKER_01: That actually, very much like David the psalmist, David the psalmist, what did David say?
SPEAKER_01: David said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, you know, when he sinned, he said, You alone have I sinned against.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we our look, our pride, we get upset about that.
SPEAKER_01: Our lusts, that's a big deal to us.
SPEAKER_01: Our selfishness, we become greed because he's aggrieved.
SPEAKER_01: Our anger, we go put that right.
SPEAKER_01: Our independence and our self-sufficiency, that nauseates us because it nauseates him.
SPEAKER_01: But what we've done is this is we allow all the stuff in our inner world to exist, and we try and clug up the holy hill, and we've got all this baggage and all this bitterness, all this resentments, all this jealousies, all this discord, all these comparisons, all these insecurities, all this stuff, all these other motivations and other quests and other desires, it actually weighs us down.
SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what Paul talked about.
SPEAKER_01: Those things that easily entangle us.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, in this coming move of God, do you know what I believe God is doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's actually purifying his bride, and he's bringing he's getting rid of what was called our self sufficiency, and he's getting rid of Junk on the inside so that we are single-eyed before the Father.
SPEAKER_01: We're still heavily involved with the community.
SPEAKER_01: We're still creating things that are designing things and planning things and building things.
SPEAKER_01: We're still there's still intelligence on the table with God's wisdom, all that sort of stuff, but he's coming back for his people.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming back.
SPEAKER_01: You ready for this?
SPEAKER_01: For a people that actually love him.
SPEAKER_01: A people that his heart is turned towards him.
SPEAKER_01: A people that are not in self-sufficiency, but a people that are dependent and reliant upon him because we come to a place where we realize we can't do it all.
SPEAKER_01: We need help.
SPEAKER_01: We need God for our nation.
SPEAKER_01: We need God for our government.
SPEAKER_01: We need God for our health system.
SPEAKER_01: We need God for our economy.
SPEAKER_01: We need God in our nation.
SPEAKER_01: And when the church, who's like the catalyst or breakthrough spiritually, that brings the open heaven, is doubled down with so much junk and so much sin and whatever is there, then it's just like we're like this conglomerates of stuff, but we're not shifting anything.
SPEAKER_01: We're not changing anything.
SPEAKER_01: And God wants us to actually get hold of us from the inside out and revive us on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what God wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know what ends up happening?
SPEAKER_01: When we break over our sin, there's a grace that comes out of us, and there's a sweetness that comes out of us, and we become an incredible joy.
SPEAKER_01: And Natasha talked about that last week.
SPEAKER_01: She said, when we get older, there's a sweetness about us.
SPEAKER_01: There's a woman I sat at the cafe, there's an evangelist from Australia, his name is Paul, quite a well-known guy in the circles, and we met for I met for a bit and talked, and he told me about a woman who I've read her books, her and her husband.
SPEAKER_01: They had a powerful ministry, had a powerful deliverance ministry, and and they uh they were writing stuff and they came under a lot of flack and a lot of uh sort of pressure as you do in the ministry and that sort of stuff, but it never touched her spirit, it never dictated the terms of who she was.
SPEAKER_01: She still rejoiced in the Lord, she still had emptied herself out of all the self-preservation, the criticism, all the retaliation, all the resentments, the offenses, all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: She never went down that road.
SPEAKER_01: He told me this about it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he gave me a manual of hers, actually.
SPEAKER_01: He told me this about her.
SPEAKER_01: He said, She was so sweet as she got older in her 80s.
SPEAKER_01: She was so sweet.
SPEAKER_01: She wasn't full of reaction.
SPEAKER_01: She was not an embittered woman.
SPEAKER_01: She had so much grace around her.
SPEAKER_01: Her husband had died.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I went to her place and made an appointment and had lunch with her.
SPEAKER_01: Morning tea it was.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, And I'm sitting there, and she says to me, This the Lord has said, I'm going to die on Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: And he's going to come for me at 11 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to come and take me away.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, You know what happened?
SPEAKER_01: The family, the sons and daughters gathered around.
SPEAKER_01: 11 o'clock, they were there around the bed, and she was sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: And 11 o'clock, she gave up her soul, and the Lord took her away.
SPEAKER_01: Amazing story.
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you this even as a young person, you can have grace, you can have sweetness, not reaction, not uh stuff that's like the junk on the inside, the bitterness.
SPEAKER_01: We're not trying to prove things to people all the time, but there's a sweet grace, an amazing grace that flows out of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And did you know one of the prayers that I pray is God that you would totally and absolutely soften my heart, soften my heart towards the harvest, suffer, soften my heart towards every people group in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Soften my heart to those who would persecute us, those who come against us.
SPEAKER_01: Read some horrifying stories this morning on our mission front about some woman have been totally taken advantage of of the worst kind.
SPEAKER_01: Loving our enemies, loving those who persecute us, doing good deeds and being kind to those who come against us.
SPEAKER_01: They say this one of the most emotionally whole people existing on the planet is when someone criticizes you terribly and unjustly, criticizes you, yet at the same time, your response is to love them in return.
SPEAKER_01: They criticize you through a messenger, and you're able to say something good in return.
SPEAKER_01: Not a self-justification, not a defense, even, and not a retaliation.
SPEAKER_01: Well, they did this and they did that.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Out of the wellspring of our hearts, we're still, the Bible says, speak evil of no one, we're still able to bring a measure of grace out of it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want that?
SPEAKER_01: That's attractive.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the world wants to see.
SPEAKER_01: The world is sick and tired of all the jammed-in offenses and criticisms and the hatred or the all this sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: There's a different theme going on right now, and that's the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: We don't roll with that.
SPEAKER_01: We don't roll, even politically, like Zach James was saying, we don't roll with bitterness, we don't roll with that stuff, we don't laugh at that.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus walks in the room, we're not ashamed because we're able to not match his standard, but we are in the image of him.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Jesus we're serving.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I believe the secular harvest wants to see.
SPEAKER_01: When we pray, God soften our heart, we're praying, you know, Lord, help me to love you.
SPEAKER_01: That when we praise and worship, we can give God actually a genuine offering of praise and thanksgiving and worship out of the wellspring.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God the Father looks for.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, spirit and truth.
SPEAKER_01: When our neighbors are in lack and whatever, that we actually are soft, our hearts are softening to them and our hearts are softened to our enemies.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Jesus coming inside of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the amazing grace.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna close on the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's found in Matthew and it's found in Luke, and we'll go to the one in Luke.
SPEAKER_01: This is just a profound uh uh one that every Christian will know this.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Luke 8, 14, and it's about the parable in Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is giving to a crowd of about 800 to a thousand people a parable, an illustration.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lesson to be learned by the illustration.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what it is?
SPEAKER_01: There are there were agricultures there, people, there were people that are fishers, amen, and there are farmer fishermen, there were fishers, there were fishermen, and there are farmers, there are business holders, all sorts of things, and just people.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus gives us illustration and he said, Hey guys, just to give you a heads up, puts the boat out and he said, Hey, there are four kinds of hearts in our midst, four kinds of people, four kinds of conditions of our hearts in the crowd today.
SPEAKER_01: I'll pick them off one by one and see if you identify with it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And so he begins to go down and he said, Hey, there's a farmer is an illustration for us.
SPEAKER_01: There's a farmer who goes out and sows the seeds, and he sows them on all sorts of terrain, all kinds of ground.
SPEAKER_01: But the one I want to dive down in for our illustration here is 8.14, Luke 8.14.
SPEAKER_01: Now the seed fell on the thorns.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what they used to do though is they used to hack the thorn bushes up.
SPEAKER_01: They never used to get the roots out.
SPEAKER_01: They used to hack it and get it out, then they would sow the seed.
SPEAKER_01: The idea would be to go through the soil and get all the veins and get all the root system out, get it out, plough it out, plough it out, and plough it out again, like we do here in the island, plow it out, plow it, plow it out, and begin to cultivate the land, soften the land up, then you begin to plant your seeds.
SPEAKER_01: And you get the Bible says a crop 30, 60, 100fold, because why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's fallen on what the Bible says is good soil.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to submit this to us, close on this point.
SPEAKER_01: This is really important.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I believe this is critically important.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 18, 14.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the one that fell among thorns, Jesus now is explaining in private what he meant to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: The ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard the word, the seed, they go out.
SPEAKER_01: They go out, they've received it, and are choked, ready, by cares, riches, the pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to submit this to us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you and I fall into this category.
SPEAKER_01: If so, it's a challenge, no condemnation, but God can help us out of the bind, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's this is when we default or capitulate to cares, worries, anxieties, worried about the mortgage, worried about the kids, worried about the destiny, worried about the business, worried about your status, worried about you, worried about what's going to happen to the kids over the over the ditch, worried about that all this all sorts of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Riches, the pleasures, the riches, the stuff that the world has, we pursue it, no problem pursuing it.
SPEAKER_01: But if it has your heart above Jesus Christ, we're in some trouble.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus is telling us now.
SPEAKER_01: The pleasures of life, and then it says, and bring no fruit to maturity.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we could be sitting here, my mind could be, or your mind could be in a million miles away.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is talking to you, not even hearing it.
SPEAKER_01: It could be that that you're burdened, you're worried, and you're you're swamped and you're overwhelmed with stuff, Jesus is speaking to you.
SPEAKER_01: It could be you're enamored by the pleasures of life and the pursuits, and you know, and you've been torn this way, you've been torn that way, Jesus is speaking to us.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say this that often in the life as a pastor, as a pastor, as when we look at the congregation and our congregations, sometimes respectfully, and being there, done that.
SPEAKER_01: Being there, God, you have to help me.
SPEAKER_01: Being there, I have to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: But there's stuff that we just allow to swamp our own emotions, swamp our own soul, swamp our own heart, and as we allow it to swamp our heart, do you know what the Bible says?
SPEAKER_01: It's liken that the seed of the word of God comes on thorns and it makes us fruitless.
SPEAKER_01: We're not too much like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: No fruit of people getting born again around our life.
SPEAKER_01: So we excuse, oh, that's for the evangelists.
SPEAKER_01: And I I believe, and I'm telling you, like prophetically, this is one of the key messages that's coming through.
SPEAKER_01: God is gonna get his way with the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I've often said this, and I'll say this for the probably the 30th time in the last 10 years, I've said it exactly what I'm about to say right now.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what, God?
SPEAKER_01: God is gonna get his church.
SPEAKER_01: A bride that's spotless and blameless.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna get that.
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: You know how one of the reasons how he's gonna get that?
SPEAKER_01: Ready?
SPEAKER_01: Government legislation.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be pressure on the church to conform.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be pressures on us to abide.
SPEAKER_01: You can't hear it now.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you can't see it now.
SPEAKER_01: You wait, it's coming.
SPEAKER_01: It's we're seeing it a little bit in Canada right now, a little bit in Australia.
SPEAKER_01: We're seeing the contention of it in America right now.
SPEAKER_01: But legislation, government policy, and changes where it will try and shift, shape, and mold the church into something that we're not supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: And we come to the point where we say, well, we don't bow down to you, we serve the living God.
SPEAKER_01: That we've we've made that decision.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you prophetically, we don't sit in Raratonga because this is a good land.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the nicest countries in the world, if you didn't guess that.
SPEAKER_01: Seriously, the Cook Islands is one of the nicest countries in the world.
SPEAKER_01: What a good and if you're you're here, mate, you're just you PR guys, you're so happy.
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you this, it may not be like this in a few years.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we've got to pray for our government.
SPEAKER_01: Not just have prayer meetings, we've got to pray for our government.
SPEAKER_01: Our church does pray for our government.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to encourage this family today, and if you're visiting, hey, let's let's dive down deep.
SPEAKER_01: Let's seek his face.
SPEAKER_01: Let's ask God, Lord, if there's something around my life you could help me with, is there something I'm doing that's offending or grieving your spirit and stopping the life flow of God flowing through me?
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not like I should be.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I've got stuck on the inside circumstantially, I'm stuck mentally, I'm stuck emotionally.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I want to shift on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: The only way you can do that is by Him, the helper.
SPEAKER_01: Seriously.
SPEAKER_01: You can go, you can listen to James Clare stuff and that great.
SPEAKER_01: I just man, all these guys have got great stuff to say, brilliant motivational stuff, great tips for the top, all of that.
SPEAKER_01: But essentially, what is going to shift the insides of you is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So you could be tonight this morning, you could be outside of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: That means you've never really surrendered your life to Jesus, you've never really crossed the line, you've never fully surrendered your life to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You're what I'm talking about this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But you could be in church this morning and say, Well, okay, I uh identify with Christianity, I know it's the truth, but man, my emotions and my mind are all over here somewhat.
SPEAKER_01: I'm speaking to you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So crushed down with burdens, trying to get ahead.
SPEAKER_01: We never, Natasha and I, and we we never ever decided to pursue wealth for wealth's gain.
SPEAKER_01: We would seek first the kingdom of God, and I know there's there's a the mandate of people to uh to to to create incredible wealth and bless you, and God's in that, no problem.
SPEAKER_01: But it's it's what has us on the inside, it's the bitterness, it's the resentments and different things like that.
SPEAKER_01: God wants his church.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This morning, if God is speaking to you, thank you, James.
SPEAKER_01: Let's give James a hand this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: If you say, Lord, I know I need to align, and maybe you're visiting this morning at look, mate, what an opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: God has brought you here for a divine purpose, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01: But this is an important time in your calendar.
SPEAKER_01: This is it.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes the Holy Spirit can move off a congregation, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes He can move off an individual, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: This is the most important time for your life.
SPEAKER_01: If you this morning have said, okay, I need to realign my life with Jesus, I'm not gonna get you coming out the front this morning, I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're saying that man, the passion for Christ isn't there, and I know it should be, and I want to respond to that.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, help me God.
SPEAKER_01: There are keys to pursuing him, but it starts by us being honest with God and honest with ourselves and say, Jesus, I'm not feeling I'm numb on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: I need Jesus, I need you today.
SPEAKER_01: You can say, Well, I've got him through salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about, I'm talking about you and I living in that vibrant relationship with He is your Lord and He's your all.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not there yet and you want that to be, and you know you got side swipe, you've allowed other things to swamp who you are, if that's you this morning, inside and out.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to stand if that's you today in Jesus Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you as you stand.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody out there's more people.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: I'd tell you what, Winnie Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Just stand where you are in Jesus Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: If God is speaking to you this morning, just stand where you are.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, just because we're a church, it doesn't mean we're all saved.
SPEAKER_01: That's rubbish.
SPEAKER_01: That that is that is not I'd I'd bat that theologically till it went downtown.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not that's not the right.
SPEAKER_01: You need to walk in a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's your passion, that's the pattern of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Gotta be in with him.
SPEAKER_01: If that's you this morning, I want you to lift up your hand right now.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you at the back there.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you all over there.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Out the back here, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: There's hope for you, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, Jesus' hand is upon your life.
SPEAKER_01: The governance of his presence is on you right now in Jesus Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: If that's you today, Father, I want us all to confess after me in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I come to you this morning and I surrender my life afresh to you.
SPEAKER_01: Revive my heart.
SPEAKER_01: My heart's got cold, it's got distracted on the way.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, you're calling me out today.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive me for walking my own path, and today's a new day.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, I humble myself, I ask your forgiveness and your acceptance.
SPEAKER_01: I declare the blood of Jesus cleansing me this morning in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let me tell you, you stood today, let me pray for you, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, for all those, Lord, I pray you create a path of breakthrough, you create a path of blessing in Jesus Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Father, where there's a wrestle on the inside, we break it in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, we pray for the kingdom power of your presence to touch lives in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Revive us, O God, in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody says, Amen and Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, give somebody a high five this morning.
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SPEAKER_00: We'd also love to hear from you.
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SPEAKER_00: Until next time.