How to Move from Crisis to Christ Is

In this powerful message, Gus Meyer gives four vital keys to navigating times of crisis so we can centre our trust and faith on Jesus Christ. It's very easy to look at our circumstances and allow them to dictate our emotions and worldview. But this is not the way of the Kingdom. We are called to trust God in area season of life and believe for His provision over us. 

Our heart at Celebration Church Rarotonga is that this message will greatly bless your walk with Jesus and help bring you closer to Him. We pray that you would be stirred to live a life that is passionate about loving Jesus!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoma. We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hey, it's uh it's a real honor and a pleasure um to share the word this morning and thank you, Jonathan Natasha. Honor you both. What a journey life is, eh? What a journey life is, and um, I was thinking about it. Uh Sophie and I gave our heart to the Lord in 1999 um on a on a trip to Auckland. And so that's roughly 25 years, and I want to tell you, the kids were young. Um, my I think my youngest Janine is 30 now, but she would have been four or six at the time, and it was chaos, man. All sorts of things happening and and life happening. But one thing that Sophie and I did once we met Jesus Christ, we never let go. We never let go. And I'm just as excited now what God's did it in our life back in 1999. Um, I got saved, and um if if I show you my uh photo of my baptism, I'm wearing a WWF t-shirt. Hulk Hogan. But anyway, but what I want to say is that man, what a journey. So we've been uh not as long in the Lord as as others, but 25 years. But it's been it's been a bit we've had battles and struggles, but man, I tell you what, I can attest to one thing: the faithfulness of God. He has never let us down, he's never never let us go hungry, he's paid every bill. He's just been so, so fantastic. Amen. I just love the Lord so much. Hey, that's not even on my message. I was I just I just wanted to share that. Man, God is good. Let's just open and pray. So, Father God, I just thank you, Lord, for the guys here. I thank you for the families here. I thank you for our visitors that have come overseas. That's a that's an anointed visit there. But Father God, I pray firstly that you anoint me to preach, Lord. Father God, not my words, but your words, Lord. But also, Lord, I pray that you bring an anointing on the church to receive, to receive the word, to receive it, Lord. And Father God, that we won't go home empty, but we'll come home encouraged and full of the Holy Spirit and energized in the power of the Lord. Amen. God is good, eh? Hey, when we were having the uh the prayer meeting before service, and I was over there, and uh, I thought to myself, this is a holy meeting. This is a holy church meeting. And uh I go through meetings all through the week, and I'm sure you do too, but what makes this meeting different? It's a holy meeting, the holiness of God. But the other thing I was thinking about is that um what makes it holy? It's the presence of the holy God, it's the presence of the Holy Spirit makes this meeting and gathering, we call it church, Sunday morning service, and makes it holy, the presence of God. But what attracts the holiness of God, it's the holy hungry people. So I just I thought that's that that's really cool. So the thing is that sure we come every Sunday, which is great, but I just want to uh probably reinforce the point that this is a holy place, it is a holy place, not by anything that man does, not by anything that we do, but only purely by the presence of God, purely by the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is attracted by holy hungry people, and that's gotta be us. Amen. Hey, that's cool. That's cool. Hey, um, there's a lot going on on the world, and what I'm gonna talk about is gonna help you a lot. Right at this time, it's exactly what we need to hear. It's gonna encourage us, you're gonna be fortified men, you're gonna be more manly. Woman, you're gonna be more womanly, and kids are gonna be more kiddly. If that's if that's a word, I don't know. So, in my uh day job, um one of the roles that I have is that I'm a director of the Bank of Cook Islands, and I'm also uh a member, uh soon to be the chairman of the Risk Audit Committee. And part of this week, I've had three high-level meetings discussing the Middle East war at governmental level, and this means that the bank we had to put together a detailed analysis of the Middle East, and we had to present that analysis on Friday to the CIAC, and the CIAC take what we've, our viewpoint as a financial institution, and they present that to government, and the government will uh put that as part of their total response. And I want to share some things. The BCI paper was entitled The Perfect Storm of Crisis. That's what that was the actual name of our presentation, the perfect storm of crisis, where we overlapped all the events of the world, uh, the Ukraine war, China, Taiwan, and the Middle East War, and we overlapped them into a perfect storm. So, what happens with all these events in a perfect storm, and what risks would they have to the Cook Islands economy, to the people, and what do we need, what do we need to do to mitigate these risks? I love the conversation because me, I mean, in in the in these meetings, I'm looking for opportunity as well. What is the opportunity? What is the opportunities? But I won't get into that. But I want to say that we had this paper called The Perfect Storm of Crisis. But what I want to stress is that this was a worldly discussion. This was a discussion from the perspective of the world. This is where we were using worldly principles at a worldly meeting, looking at world events from a world perspective, and we were giving it worldly solutions, pike an oil tanker out there, pipe it in, all sorts of things. But what I want to say is, what's the kingdom response? Okay, and how should we respond as Christians? And what is God's perspective? So I've been fully part of the world's perspective of what's going on at the moment, but what's God's perspective? And as mature, mature, everyone say mature, mature, as mature Christians, solid in our faith and ground in the word of God, we can have karma in the storm because of Jesus Christ. We can have karma in the storm. And I want to say, mature Christians, mature Christians. What a mature a mature Christian is someone who's been in the word, they've been through some rough seasons. God has has never um has always had the hand and brought them through, but you're mature, you you you've lived life a bit, but you're mature. You read your word, um, you pray, you you do all those mature things. But what I like about mature Christians is that there's new Christians in the church, new ones, and they're a bit rattled, they're a bit shaken, what's happening? But there's got to be a maturity in the church where we can say, hang on, hang on. I understand where you come from, I've been there, but come alongside me, I'll take you on the journey. This is the response. And I like that because as if if you're mature in the Lord, you can, what's the word, settle down the fears of people who might be new in the kingdom of God. This might be fresh to them, and their trust mightn't be there. So God really has it's your testimony, but I really like that that I believe maturity in the word carries a substance, a real substance that we all need. But the other thing about mature Christians is that um, you know, I can go to Tunny Lao and and and grab his arm like that, bro, and then we can grab some other brother, bro. And by by the level of maturity, there's a strength in that, there's a fortitude. And I I want to say that that's um that's cool. In 2 Timothy verse uh 17. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. God had not given us the spirit of fear. Did you know that you can be given the spirit of fear? It says there, you can be given it. It said, but God won't give us the spirit of fear. But the other side of that message is that you can be given the spirit of fear. You can listen to a report on YouTube and be given the spirit of fear. You can listen to a media report and be given the spirit of fear. You can read the headlines in the Cook Islands News on Monday and be given the spirit of fear. But Timothy says that God doesn't give us the spirit of fear, he gives us power, he gives us love, and he gives us a sound mind. And I want to address that this morning, the that that spirit of fear. Because what I want to say is that if you're gonna be given the spirit of fear, just say, no, thank you, I'm good. No, thanks, I'm good. You can pass it on. I don't, I don't, I don't need it, I'm good. But I really want you to feel there's a couple of things you need to recognize when someone is giving you the spirit of fear, but you just need to say, nah, that's good. Um move on to the next, and uh, I'm just looking at Jesus Christ. Amen. So here's the title of today's message. The title of today's message how to move from crisis to Christ Is. You got it? How to move from Crisis to Christ Is. And I 100% will tell you that Chat GBT didn't come up with that. How to move from Crisis to Christ is. And the goal of today's message is it's it's not complicated, it's to realign our thoughts to the kingdom of God, realign our heart to the kingdom of God. But specifically, I want to address areas of worry and anxiety, but not just in the what's happening in the world. Maybe you're oblivious to happenings in the world. You say, I don't even know what's happening in the world, but maybe just a life, just in life, but where it we're really where it fits for you today. I want to say that this is not a doomsday message, the end of the world. It's not a doomsday message, it's actually the exact opposite. This is going to be a message of faith and a message of hope. Man, and we need that, eh? We need more of that. In Romans 12, too. You know the scripture says, do not conform to the world. Let's put a little word in there, to the thinking of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, perfect will of God. So it's a transformation of our minds. And today we just got to stop thinking one way and we're gonna start thinking God's way. Amen. So if you if you think you've received the spirit of fear this week, then this is gonna be the message, the message for you, for us. Um, I'm gonna give you four keys. Key number one, I'm not even gonna tell, I'm even gonna tell you what the keys are before I give them. You get the heads up. Key number one, look from the kingdom of God's perspective. Key number two, put your trust in God. Key number three, look to Jesus, and key number four, there's a bonus key. That if you stick with me, one, two, three, I'll give you four. That's my retail ramide hat. Coming up, I give you a special. You get three, stick with the three, and I've got a bonus. Key number four, to be revealed. Key number one, look from the kingdom of God perspective. And I want to do a demonstration today. I want to demonstrate relative perspective. Relative perspective. Did you hear that petrol prices have gone up? Put up your hand. Did you hear that? Yep. Um, I worked it out. A motorbike before on a 125cc motorbike to drive around Rotong, it used to cost you two dollars. Now it costs you two dollars fifty. If you drive a BT50 Mazda, it used to cost me ten dollars to go around the uh island, now it's gonna cost me eleven dollars twenty. You're welcome to put your bike on the back and it'll cost you nothing. But here's perspective. A regular cup of coffee is 240 mil, costs five dollars fifty. That's twenty-five dollars a liter. Coffee is twenty-five dollars a liter. Diesel's three dollars eighty. Did you complain about that? It's a perspective. 25 that we should have coffee prices next to it. Oh, it's up to$25 a liter now. People queuing up to fill up their big coffee jars. Are you but now that you the price of coffee, are you worried about the price of petrol so much? Are you worried about petrol? Cut a few coffees down. That's perspective. 7,000 Christians were murdered in Nigeria in 2025, and 50,000 were murdered over the last 14 years. How does the price of petrol seem now? Over 20 million people face hunger. I can give you the countries Yemen, the democrat, the democratic or not so democratic Republic of Congo, and the Sudan. It's actually 23 million, but I just said just over 20 million are facing hunger. How's your$25 a liter coffee now? How's your perspective on your problem? You gotta have perspective. Currently the Cook Islands is ranked number four in world obesity. 66% of adults are obese and 30% of children. No one is starving in the Cook Islands. We're going for the number one slot. Come on, we can do it. Wrong challenge. But but I what I why I say that 20 million people are starving. 20 million. And our nation is on the fourth largest obesity in the world. How's your perspective on that now? On your on that? But what I want to say is that if we place our worries and anxiety next to God, how much bigger is God? It's perspective. How much bigger is God? Are you worried about petrol prices? How much bigger is God? Are you I don't know what your anxieties are, and I don't want to list them off. It's not that coming, but I want to say put it next to God. Put it next to a starving 20 million people, put it next to 50,000 Christians dead. How blessed do you feel now? How blessed do you feel now? I want to tell you, our life is so good. It's perspective. Zach's preaching was amazing on Wednesday, and I really honor you honor you, Zach. There was and I'm and I've actually um uh taking a portion out of your out of your preaching. Um and just so just on that, men, those meetings on Wednesday, the holy meetings, don't don't just say oh they're men's meetings. Fire up, man. The the the level of the of the teaching and what God is doing is amazing. Anyway, getting back to what Zach Zach said in Isaiah 55, 8, 9, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor my ways, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as heaven is higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts your thoughts. And Zach preached a great message, and he said exactly that it's God's perspective. His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And Isaiah 66:1, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Crazy, eh? Heaven is my throne, and earth where we live, that's where the Lord rests his feet. Perspective. Where is the house that we that you will build me, and where is my place of rest? We must have kingdom perspective. So important. Knowing that where God is looking, knowing that where God is looking from, and he not only sees the larger trials and tribulations. I want to see God sees the trials and tribulations, the wars, the starvation of the whole world, but you can't lose this point that he sees you, the individual. And sometimes I think the devil lies to us. Oh, he's he's busy, he's doing this, he's doing that. He doesn't care about me. That is a lie from the pit of hell. God loves you. You know that you know the the scriptures, you're knit in the worm, he knows the hairs on on your on your head. Uh getting easier to count for from me. But what I want to say is that the Lord knows you're part of his family. In Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and hope. You've got a future. But I the thing, what I want to say is the first part, for I know the thoughts, God thinks about you. He says, For I know the thoughts. I have this this uh this this this um uh picture of God sitting in his uh throne thinking about me. Because he says there in Jeremiah, he says, For I know the thoughts I have about you, the thoughts of peace, not of evil, of future and of hope. And that's the scripture, it's a memory verse for us all. But I'm thinking, God thinks about me. God sits there and he ponders. Oh, what's God's up to? But what but but you know what I mean? God thinks about you. I think you just need to sort of um maybe homework tonight, just grab that verse and just say, God, is it true? You think about me? For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, not towards the Cook Islands, towards the Middle East, towards what he says, towards you. So I want I want to say that yes, there's a lot happening in the world, but don't lose the fact that God is deeply concerned about you. It's it's amazing for things about you, and this is a sp and this is the perspective of God He's your father in heaven, and he wants peace, not evil, and a future of hope. Amen. Key number one, key number two put your trust in God. And here's a good one. This is more activity from you guys. Raise your hand if you remember COVID. Oh, yes. Good. So now you've raised your hand, you remember COVID. Looking back, um, COVID started around about April 2020. I I that was when the last flight um was stopped in the Cook Islands. But looking back over COVID, my question for you can you could you can you now see where the hand of God moved in your life and the cook islands? But for you personally, so you went through COVID. Now, if you look back, how many of you raise your hands can say that you now, when you look back, you can see the miraculous hand of God move during that time? Amen. Me too. Okay, Romans 8 15. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba Father. During COVID, cried Abba Father, Lord, Abba Father cried, cried out, cried out. But you didn't we haven't received the spirit of bondage again. Again. And what I want to say, and the mature Christians are gonna know straight away where I'm going with this, you can't go back to Egypt. You can't go back to Egypt. You guys remember COVID? You put your hands up, and and almost everyone put their same hand up and said, Yes, I remember that God moved. He moved, He looked after us. You you you testified to that. And if I I'm not gonna ask you to put your hand up for this one, but if I see it again, put your hand up, those who are feeling fear now. I wonder how many hands would go up. But the scripture says you did not receive the spirit of bondage again. He was talking to the Israelites to return to Egypt. Egypt was their place of bondage, which you know for the Israelites, but they were brought out of it with God's provision, they were brought out of it with God's miracles, they were brought out of it with the love of God, and they were there was there's more to it. So we can't go back. We shouldn't be fearing. It's funny, hey, we read Exodus and we go, oh, those guys will never do that, we'll never do that. Okay, let's see what the word says. What was the Israelites' reaction when Moses took too long up the mountain? The scripture says that he took so long with the tablets and everything, and then they had their meeting down there. You know how it goes. He's taking so long, he's left us, he's abandoned us. Grab all your gold, grab all your earrings, burn them. Let's fashion for us a golden calf, and let's worship this calf. And the scripture says, This is our God. And they started worshiping. What was the headline of the Cook Island News two days before the Middle East War? The headline was this Cook Islands 1.2 billion gross revenue. Oh, we're so proud of ourselves. We just did 1.2 billion. It was in the papers. We were oh we're so good. Oh, that golden calf looks so good. 1.2 billion dollars. And here we are, full of anxiety, full of fear. Are we trusting God or are we trusting gold? And we look at the we look at the Israelites and we go, we'll never do that. But you guys by your own me too, own testimony. Yeah, God looked after us all through COVID. All the bills got paid, never went hungry. We came out better. And here we are, another crisis. And the Romans says, you do not receive, who's been given that spirit of fear? Give it back. They want it. You do not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. No way. But I'm concerned. 1.2 billion. I mean, it is a nice figure, and there has economic. But as Christians, as a nation, where's our trust now? Gold or God. Our trust has to be a hundred percent in God. We can't serve two masters. Matthew 6, 24. No one can serve two masters, for either hate one or love the other, or he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And in James 4, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enemy enmity, enmity with God? For whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes them an enemy of God. Interesting. An enemy of God. I don't want to be an enemy of God, but all I want to say as an individual and as a nation, the Cook Islands, we can't worship gold. We got to worship God. God has to be number one. Has to be number one. And don't point fingers at the Israelites. We went through COVID. Our Egypt. We came through it, it took two years, our 40 years. God provided mana, our food packs. He provided finances, our uh wage subsidies. He provided, we had the most awesome time of the sports games. We had health, we had everything, and we came out. And then what happens a few years down the track? But all I want to say is we have to trust God. And and as a church, as Christians, and wherever you are, we got to lead the way. If you've got a voice, if you hear this, these kinds of discussions, just step up and say, No, we have to we have to trust God. I'm not gonna trust in gold. Gold is so temporal. Proverbs 3:5, uh three, sorry, five and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. These are like memory verses, we know them. Trust in the Lord all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and he'll direct your paths. Nahim 1 7, the Lord is good, our stronghold in the day of trouble. Cool, it's like Psalm 91. And he knows those who trust them. It's a good message with what's going on. We gotta trust God. We've got to trust God. There's another scripture there, but I'll just say quickly Psalms 118, verse 8. It's better to trust the Lord than put confidence in men. And nine, it's better to trust the Lord than put confidence in princes. Prince, princes, as in male prince. Amen. Hey, we're on key number three. You guys doing good out there? Okay. The secret is not to be just a hero, the word to be a doer of the word, you know that, eh? So when we go out, do the three the three keys and number four to be revealed. Look to Jesus. Ah, I have to open my Bible here. Matthew 14. Got it marked. Matthew 14, 29. This is the famous one where Peter was um in the storm and Jesus was walking on water. Again, these are Sunday school um scriptures, you know them well. So he said, Come, there's Jesus. And when Peter came down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, it's a storm, it was boisterous, he was afraid, and he began sinking and he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately that Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, Oh, you of little faith. I'll probably just stop there, but I just want to say Jesus stretched out his hand. You gotta look to Jesus. The thing is, there's a storm and we have full of faith. But man, you gotta hold on to Jesus' hand. I've been through some storms, man, in those 25 years. It's funny if I'm talking his perspective, I'm saying my 25 years, and I put my 25 years to Murray's 50 years. Those aren't storms. Okay, sorry. But you know me. What I'm saying is that there was a storm happening. Uh Peter had faith, as you know. But what I really like is where Jesus put his hand out. Put his hand out. And when Jesus puts his hand out, you hold on to that. And I want to tell you, that's probably one of the if if you forget everything today, what was one? I don't know. But if you forget everything today, just remember that one thing. Hold on to Jesus. Just hold on to Jesus. Hold on to Jesus. When Sophie and I gave our heart, Lord, in 99, we knew nothing about nothing about anything, didn't know how to pray, didn't have a Bible, but we met Jesus and we just held on. We just held on, man. And still holding on. But sometimes I think he's holding on to us more than we're holding on to him. But Jesus will always put his hand out. Man, I love the Lord. Jesus is good, eh? Um, there's a few scriptures here, but the one that I really want to talk about is that one. But this is the one I really liked. It was in Psalm 118. This is the day the Lord had made. We will rejoice and be glad at it. Save now, O pray. I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Whew, that's good. You can pray for prosperity. But he said, This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. And I think you just gotta wake up in the morning and say, Lord, this is the day that you have made. No one else made this day. Elon Musk didn't make it. This is a day that you made, Lord. You made it. You were thinking on your chair, Jeremiah 29, 11. What does Gus need another day? I know what he needs. He needs another day. I make one for him. And I've got a day. What am I gonna do with it? But I'm gonna say, this is a day that the Lord has made. Did you know that God made today? And did you know that God made tomorrow? And once you have the revelation God made the day, you know that God made every day? God made every day? Because this is a day that the Lord has made. And once you say, Man, you made this day, I'm gonna rejoice and be glad in it. That's perspective. Your problems are problems, they're not gonna go away, but I'm gonna rejoice in this day. No one else I know can make a day. The cleverest man in the world, the richest man in the world can't make a day. Only my God can make a day. Man, I want to rejoice in that. But he says, Save now, O Lord, and send now prosperity. We know that prosperity is a wide range of things. It's health, it's wealth, it's provision. But don't be scared to pray for prosperity. Lord, send now prosperity. Send now prosperity. If it's financial prosperity, send now prosperity. If it's health prosperity, send now prosperity. This is the day that this is the day that the Lord has made. And the very next verse is send now prosperity. First, we got a day, and if the day that the Lord made wasn't good enough, we can ask for some prosperity too. I want to say God is good, eh? God is good. Thank you for today, Lord. Send some prosperity, Lord. Amen. I just I just love the Lord so much. He's doing so much and so for now's lives so much. We got babies coming in our family. We have so many babies. We had a 21-day fast, Sophie and I just um just uh beginning of the year, just a personal thing. And one thing we prayed, we want our three daughters, um, two daughters and one uh daughter-in-law to have babies this year. Two uh Janine is due in two, three weeks. Joanna's due next month, and all going well, Erica will be due in October. Mate, perspective, eh? I love the Lord. Babies, man. And look at the church, everyone's getting pregnant. That's good. We just won't pray Sierra's prayer. We'll leave that for another day. Anyway, what I want to say is isn't that a good word from the Lord? This is the day that the Lord has made. Philippians 4 19, 4, sorry, 6 and 7, be angels for nothing. I just stopped there actually. The rest is just be angels for nothing but an all thing in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We're gonna turn this from a crisis to a Christ is. Christ is King, Christ is in charge, Christ is holding my hand. I'm not giving anything over to the spirit of fear. I don't want Christ this, I want Christ is. Oh my God is so good. Number three. Oh, a couple more scriptures over the page. Romans 8, 28. And now that we know that all things work together for the good to those who love God and who accord to his purpose, all things work together for the good. That just ties in with 29.11. Good purposes, good, all things were gonna work together good. So it looks if it looks a bit bleak, don't worry. Somewhere it's gonna work for good. It's gonna work for good for his purpose, for his purpose. Deuteronomy 31, and this particular scripture, I've used it personally many, many times. Many times, many times. I use it during COVID, I've used it in ups and downs, and and uh it's Deuteronomy 6, and it's be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them, whoever the them is. You you you you feel that out, who's your them? For the Lord your God, he is the one that goes with you, he will not leave you nor forsake you. And I want to say again, it's a lie from the devil where you feel left if you feel lonely, if you feel that God has left you. Because my word says, be strong and of good courage, do not fear. But he said, He is the one that goes with you, he will not leave you nor forsake you, Lord. You won't leave me nor forsake me. I tell you what, that is a real um anchor scripture. Like if things are getting tough and you go, Lord, I know you're not gonna leave me nor forsake me. And it just the the this is why this is so important. It's the word of God, it's truth, it's the anchor, it it helps you. It helps you. That's probably the most I don't know, it's the most basic thing I can say, but it helps you get through life. It points to Jesus, points to God, points to the Holy Spirit. And verse 8 of St. Deuteronomy 31, and the Lord, he is the one that goes before you, he will be with you, he will not leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Man, I hope those worries and all that are all going out the window now and over the reef, and and and you're getting perspective. You see, you see perspective. But what was going to change as your mindset changed, you realize what a blessing I I am, but what a blessing I can be. What a blessing I can be to people, what a blessing I can be by praying for people, what a blessing I can be. Because it says here everything's works for according to the purpose, and then you start your eyes start coming off yourself and go, Well, Lord, what's my purpose? What's my purpose? I ask the Lord that all the time, Lord, what's my purpose? Because the purpose changes. I thought my purpose was to bring the kids up and get them married and get them all sorted out, and they got done. So now what's my purpose? You know, serve the house. What's my purpose? But the thing is that we need purpose, but it's gonna work for you because the Lord's not gonna leave you nor forsake you. Amen. Hey, we're nearly there. We've got to the bonus key. Is everyone still here? Okay, this is the big reveal. The bonus key number four. Because you hung around for one, two, and three, you get an extra bonus four. Four. Man, that's that's a deal if I heard one. Bonus key number four. Uh, before I do that, let's just read what the last the first three were. One was look from the kingdom of God's perspective, two was put your trust in God. Three is look to Jesus and bonus key number four, because you've made it this far, is listen to the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God. Listen to the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God. What is God saying in scripture? And I'll just say it to you: if you're not reading your Bible, what I've learned is that the Bible doesn't come out and speak to me. I've actually got to open it and read it, spend some time. You gotta, you know, you gotta do some of it. What is God saying in scripture? What is God saying in prayer when you're praying? Not the corporate prayer, but you, when you're praying, what is God saying to you in prayer? And what is God saying to you in the preaching? I'm not saying my preaching in particular, but I want to say that every time someone gets up at the pulpit, I honor the speaker, I honor the word of God. Because um, as far as I can see, God has always spoken through an anointed preacher. He's always spoken so when Zach and the guys speak on um on Wednesday, I'm there. I'm there. When um uh we have our prayer meetings on uh on in the mornings, I'm there because I can hear the word of God. Because remember that those guys were at the prayer meeting and the word was trust. Who was there for that prayer meeting? Yeah, when the word was trust, God was speaking, and it actually goes a little bit further. Um uh when I'm hanging around or having a conversation with Jonathan, he'll say something, and he has no idea that he's dropped a little bit of God gold into I said, Oh yeah, that's good. And I and I and I wrote it down. There was something actually the other day, and I wrote it down. But I'm saying, God's knitted us together, right? But listen to the Holy Spirit. What is God saying in scripture? What is saying in prayer, what is he saying through the through the preacher? Um and last Sunday, uh Jonathan gave a clear uh teaching on how the Holy Spirit speaks to us. How the Holy Spirit speaks to us, indeed, the Holy Spirit does speak to us, and there was a great teaching on that. I won't go into that, but Sophie and I had this conversation. As you do, 4:30 in the morning, are you awake? And then we have a have a have a bit of a uh God, uh God talk. And um, what I said to Sophie, can you imagine our life if the Holy Spirit never spoke to us 25 years ago? Like if I had bought into that the Lord doesn't speak to us, just imagine when we gave our heart to the Lord and the Lord never spoke to us. I actually said to Sophie, where would we have ended up? Where would we have ended up? And Sophie said, Yeah, and I and um um we remember when we gave our heart to the Lord, and I said, What would happen if because God has been speaking to us from day one, tithe? No one taught us to tithe, no one never went to one tithing message, and and Sophie says, Oh, we're gonna tithe. And I said, The whole lot, everything, and Sophie gave like literally it was it was crazy because we were in New Zealand and we had spending money, and Sophie gave all the spending money, the whole lot, my warehouse trips and everything, but we were like that, we were like that. But I'm saying is no message, we were oh the Lord said, and then right through life, the Lord spoke to us, spoke, and I and going back to what Jonathan was saying, and I'm just thinking personally, if God doesn't speak to you, firstly, who is, but if God doesn't speak to you, what hope do we have? What hope do we have? Where would Sophie Nave ended up? I don't know. I have I have I literally have no idea, but it just it it couldn't compute, doesn't make work, doesn't make sense to me. Thank goodness he did speak to us, rebuked us. Um praised us, helped us all the way. So the main thing is listen. And I I can't stress. Oh, if I could ask the musicians to come up, that'd be cool. You musician. Maybe just the keyboard, I think. Yeah, that's fine. We just just we'll just keep it nice and simple. Thank you, James. So the bonus key. Listen to the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God. Oh man. Listen to the it's so exciting. I I was sitting at my desk, and and it's literally like this. I open my Bible, Lord, what do you want me to read? And he went, Noah. Just like that. I said, okay, I'm reading Noah. And I read all of Noah. And I said, Wow. I understood. Because he wanted to say to me, I give my men of God a plan. He said, There's a plan. Follow the plan. But he spoke to me personally. He said, Noah, I'll give you a plan. He got gave Noah plan. He said, Noah, I'm looking, he was looking for a righteous man. I said, A righteous man. Give a plan. And then Noah, I mean, we know Noah's struggle, but I want to tell you that that's what the Lord said. Read Noah. Not preach Noah, but read Noah. And then I said the Sunday, I just read Noah. God's gonna give me a plan to build an ark, to build something. But I want to tell you, this is so exciting. So exciting, eh? Personally, corporately, for your family. God spoke to me about distractions. I said, What's a distraction? And he said, It's a dream high, it's a moment where you just elevate yourself into someone else's world for a second. I said, That's good, Lord. I write it all down. And then I share with Sophie. But anyway, what I want to say is listen and spend time with God. What's the Holy Spirit saying? Man. Okay. Again, says says the scripture. What the Lord means, he says once is enough. You don't need me to prove myself again, do you? Don't worship the things of this world of gold. It's not a crisis if I'm in it. It's a Christ is. And if you got fear or you know, finances, things going the going, man, I've been there. But I want to say, just hold on to Jesus Christ.

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