Eyes Up // Amy Gellie

Welcome to the One Hope Baptist Church podcast.

Wherever you are in the world, we're so glad you've joined us.

Our prayer is that this message encourages you, challenges you, and reminds you that

you're not walking this journey alone.

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head to our website, onehope.org.au.

Enjoy.

Good morning, church.

It's so good to be here with you this morning.

If I haven't met you before, my name's Amy, married to the awesome Mark down the front

here, and we get the privilege of being the campus pastors here at Baraboo Hills.

I've just done a cross-town run from our Moorlap campus, had a wonderful time there, and it's

great to be with you all here this morning, especially if you are watching online or listening

in too.

We really do welcome you as well.

Well, can anyone remember turning 18?

For some, it wasn't that long ago.

For some of you, it was a long time ago.

That's okay.

We won't ask who's the oldest here.

I was so excited to turn 18.

I think last time I preached here, I talked about I grew up in a town called Little River,

and it's about half an hour from Geelong, and so I was just super excited to get my

driver's license and to have the independence to drive where I wanted, go and see friends,

and I remember the day of my license, I got it, and I was so pumped and went to get my

little photo ID and got the photo taken, and I looked at the ID afterwards, and I was like,

this is weird.

It doesn't even look like me.

I could not work it out, and then I remembered that in the photo on that day, I had been

wearing gigantic plastic white triangle earrings.

I was going through that early 2000s plastic jewellery phase.

Anyone else go through that?

And so the white big triangles had blended into the background, and I looked weird.

It looked like I had bits of random hair just out like this.

Anyway, when you're 18, you want to use that card, and so I was with some friends, and

we were at a venue that needed to show ID, and I proudly put it up, and the security

guard said, that's not you.

I was, oh, it's me, I promise.

No, no, no, that's not you.

He took it off me.

This is not a joke.

He took it off me.

I had to go with my parents to the police station the next day and bring my passport

and like prove this is me.

It was so bad.

I was mortified.

You know what, there's something worse, though, than not being recognised by someone else

or knowing who you are.

What's worse is when we ourselves do not know who we are, and that's what I want to talk

about today.

We're going to look at some really rich text in Colossians 3.

If you've got your Bibles, open it up, get that scripture out, otherwise it will be up

on the screen.

And so just to give a bit of quick context, Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul.

He's currently in a Roman prison, really bad conditions, in 60 AD, and he's writing this

as a letter to the church in Colossae.

Now this church, he's never met them before, but he's encouraging them, and he knows actually

that they're doing a really good job, that there's great things happening there.

However, there's also some weird and confusing teachings that are starting to emerge, things

combining human philosophy and a bit of sort of strict religious rules, as well as some

mystic stuff and sort of these special experiences.

And so he's actually writing to them, have that in your mind.

That's the context.

He's saying to them, don't have Jesus and try and add other things to him, a little

bit like last week when Matt was talking about the boost juice and adding the supplement.

That was a little bit what the church in Colossae was doing.

So let's read together from chapter three, verses one.

And your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality,

impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must also rid

yourselves of all such things as this, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language

from your lips.

Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have

put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge, in the image of its creator.

That's a great text.

Colossians 3 is about a radical reorientation of identity.

This is a radical reorientation of our identity, of behaviour that actually is about being

raised with Christ.

It's not just be a better person, like try really hard and see if you can get this right.

It's live as if your old self is over and you are now living with a new self on.

Your new self is in effect.

You know, I think the most profound word in this block of text is the first one, since.

Since then, you have been raised with Christ, not keep trying, keep going, you might get there.

No, no, no, since you have been raised with Christ, this has already been done.

If you've said yes to Jesus, you have been raised with Christ.

This is huge.

It talks about how we're hidden in Christ, that literally means to be covered.

Our lives, our old lives, our sinful lives have been covered by Christ.

And you are seated with Christ at the right hand of God.

This is massive.

Ephesians 6 says that in a different way.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Jesus

Christ.

I was trying to think of an example to even give us some sort of perspective on this, on

the magnitude of this.

And I was thinking, you know, if you're a Cats fan, although probably not a good time to

mention the Cats this morning, but if you are still a Cats fan, you know, and it was the

grand final and you not only got invited to the grand final, Chris Scott, the coach said,

come and sit with me, you know, come in the coach's box.

I was like, oh, that doesn't even come close.

You know, I was trying to think about the royal family and maybe the king's coronation

three years ago, like everyone watched that and we just saw all the important and elite

people in the world gathering in this one place.

Imagine you're invited, you know, sitting next to Will and Kate.

This does not even come close.

God himself, the creator of the universe, invites you to be in a relationship with him

and to have access to everything in the heavenly realms.

This is massive.

It's not about just getting an entry ticket into heaven here, guys.

If you're here this morning, you think I'm turning up at church to get my ticket stamped

so I can get to heaven.

That is not what the Christian walk is.

That is not what our faith is.

Our faith is that every day we're invited alongside Jesus, that we are raised with him

and that we're asked to look at things above.

You know, when I read verses like this, I hold them heavy, like I hold them heavy in my

heart and I ask God, God, have I got this perspective?

Like, have I really got this?

And, you know, this morning, maybe you too are having a moment now where you're reflecting

and I encourage you to do that.

Like, are you living with a heavenly perspective?

Are you living in a way that reflects your identity in him, this identity you've been

given? There's a really famous story, I guess it's like a kind of parable.

It's not biblical.

It's called The Eagle Raised Among Chickens.

And it was originally spoken about by a missionary back in the early 20th century.

His name is James Agree.

And then it became really popularised amongst other leaders and people.

And I'd love to read it to you this morning.

I heard this about 10 years ago and it just struck a nerve in myself.

And so I want to share it with you.

The Eagle Raised Among Chickens, it says,

He placed it in the nest of one of his hens.

In time, the egg hatched along with the rest of the brood.

The young eagle grew up among chickens.

It learned to scratch at the dirt for food, to flap its wings only enough to hop onto a

low fence and to cluck like the rest.

It never questioned this life.

It simply assumed that this is what it was made for.

Years passed and the eagle lived and behaved just like a chicken.

In time, oh sorry, no, not that bit, like a chicken.

One day, as it pecked at the ground, it noticed a magnificent bird soaring high above in the

sky. With powerful wings outstretched, the bird rode the currents effortlessly, far above

anything the eagle had ever known.

What is that?

The eagle asked one of the chickens.

That, said the chicken, is an eagle, the king of the birds.

But don't waste your time thinking about it.

You and I are chickens.

The eagle looked up for a moment longer, then lowered its gaze back to the dirt and kept

scratching. And it lived and died, believing it was nothing more than a chicken.

The point that Paul is making here in Colossians 3 is far truer and far deeper than this

story, but it's like the eagle.

It's actually possible for us to live in a place that is far below what is true about

ourselves or who we've been made to be.

It's not about pretending to be something you're not.

It's about living in a way that you know who you've been made to be.

Let's not be shaped by our surroundings, our habits, our assumptions.

Let's be shaped by our true identity.

You know, I really believe God wants to lift our eyes today.

We're not in a teaching series at the moment.

And I couldn't believe last week when Matt was preaching about the above and the below

and the narrow path.

I'm thinking, oh, my goodness, I knew I was talking on Colossians 3.

God wants to lift our eyes this morning.

Because I believe it's really easy and it's really possible, and I think it's happening a

lot, that actually we can be living as Christians that are acting like chickens.

When we were created and designed to be like eagles that actually have a heavenly

perspective, that soar above it all, and are able to look down and see what God's

wanting to show us.

We so often can have this identity crisis, and I believe that Paul talks about these

two issues in this text, the two core issues that we have.

The first is that we're often just focused on earthly things.

Our focus is wrong.

We're focused on earthly things.

And the second one is that we can still so often be ruled by our earthly nature.

These are the two core issues.

Again, in verse one and two, Paul says,

What's an earthly thing?

Well, earthly things, it's really, Paul is talking about anything that consumes us,

anything that keeps making us think back to us, anything that helps us just to fix our

eyes more on me, me, me.

He's not saying that the physical world, the material world is bad, as in like, oh, my

job, that's an earthly thing, or paying the bills, that's an earthly thing, or, you know,

keeping my house clean, that's an earthly thing.

Although I did say to Mark the other day that I don't think I'll get to heaven and ever

regret not doing more cleaning.

So maybe that is an earthly thing, I don't know.

That's probably an excuse there.

You know, this is not bad things around us, like earthly things.

God's created a beautiful earth that we get to live in, our family, our friends, our

gardens, nature, all of that.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying earthly things is anything that takes priority in your thinking, in your life

over God, over your relationship with God.

And it's when we're often ruled by our desires and our instincts.

It's the I want or what I want or what I need or this is how I feel.

That's an earthly thinking perspective.

Let's be honest, we can enjoy earthly things.

It's great to feel in control or successful or comfortable.

This is a constant thing that we push against as Christians, we weren't called to be

comfortable or in control or successful.

We were called to look at things above, to have a heavenly perspective.

We really need to shift our perspective to match our identity.

So our first issue is we can be too focused on earthly things.

Our second issue, as I said, is that we can allow our earthly nature to still be alive.

And Paul talks about this.

I'm going to read it again in verse five to ten.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality,

impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice,

slander and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have

put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

We so often allow old desires to drive us.

You know, when I was about 10 years old, our parents asked us, would you clean the gutters

on the house?

And so my older brother, he's 11 years older, so it's a lot safer for him to be up on the

roof. And I was down on the ground.

It was his job to scoop all the gunk and the yuck and the gross and slimy stuff and bird

poo and all of that. He was to scrape that out.

My job, very important, was to hold the bucket at the bottom.

Now, I don't know about you, but if you've got an older brother, they're not always the

nicest to their little sister.

And so he thought this was a really fun game of not throwing it at the bucket, but throwing

it at me.

And so I can remember at the end of that time being absolutely putrid, like disgusting,

like I smelt I had gunk all over me.

I could not wait to get that jumper off.

Like, I think I probably threw it in the bin.

It was just disgusting.

Why would I ever want to put that top back on again?

This is what Paul is saying, like you had this old self, you had the world that had

thrown every element of gunk and yuck and your sinful nature that made you putrid.

Why would we try and put that on again?

Paul is saying we need to allow our earthly nature to die.

You know, in Matthew 9, 16, Jesus himself says,

No, they pour new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.

You know what?

We cannot contain new life in old structures.

We cannot get that old jumper or that old jacket out and put it on and just give it

a wash or dust it off or, oh, I'll just put a repair here, I'll make an adjustment.

No, no, no, it has to be completely gone.

So these are our two issues.

We can be ruled by, sorry, we can look at earthly things.

We can have a wrong focus and we can be ruled by our earthly nature.

Thank goodness Paul also gives us a pathway forward, an action plan.

And so there's three things I want to share with you this morning.

The first one is that he says to set your heart and your mind on things above.

I want to focus on our thinking for a moment.

I really felt like God wanted to press into this today.

Modern research has actually showed that we have about 6,000 thoughts a day.

If you're a parent and your kids play sport and there's WhatsApp groups and

Viber, you probably got about 10,000.

But otherwise, on average, we have about 6,000 thoughts a day.

Now, half of those are in the present moment, but the other half are in the past,

like past thoughts or future thoughts.

We're thinking things like, you know, did I do the right thing?

What should I do with this situation?

What do people think of me?

What might happen next?

But honestly, most of those thoughts are about me.

They're about ourselves.

What Paul is saying is so countercultural.

Set your minds on things above, your minds on things above and not on earthly things.

He's not just saying, you know, have an abstract view of spirituality, like, you

know, that saying you got your head in the clouds.

He's not saying that, like, you know, just think of God and, you know, playing a harp

up in the clouds.

Seriously, that is not heaven.

Can I just tell you now, heaven is not going to be playing a harp up in the clouds.

OK?

Heaven is being close with God with perfect love.

He's not saying, have your head up in the clouds, this abstract idea.

He's saying, don't just have a mind that is constantly full of all these thoughts about

self, but not properly directed towards God.

We've got to learn to have our minds focused and properly directed towards God.

You know, we can become obsessive in our thinking.

We can be over thinkers.

I won't get people to show hands of who, you know, where the over thinkers are in the

room. But in general, I think we can have just a lot of wrong thinking too.

And I think we talk a lot as Christians about, you know, our behaviours and the way we

act. But what about what's up in here?

Like, seriously, what is going on in your mind?

In 2 Corinthians 10, it talks specifically about what we should be doing with our

thoughts. In verse 5, it says,

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of

God. And we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

We're often willing to say, God, I surrender everything, my whole life, our finances, my

family, everything.

What about your thoughts?

Don't let those thoughts run wild and free.

Paul says, take them captive and surrender them, make them obedient to God.

I think this is a really important thing for us today.

You need to be asking the question, does that thought or do those thoughts match who I am?

Like, do they match the identity that God has given me?

Because if not, get rid of them.

So this is how we can better set our minds on things above.

He also says in Colossians 3 to set our hearts on things above.

You know, as I said before, eagles have a great perspective.

They soar up high.

They actually can see tiny prey, like a tiny little mouse or something like that from a

couple of hundred meters up in the sky.

They will spot that thing.

They have vision that is actually four to eight times sharper than our human eye.

This is what God's calling us to do.

This is what he's inviting us into when he says, set your hearts and minds on things above.

To be like the eagle that actually soars above, has like a bird's eye view of humanity and can

see that person there, like that person there needs to be encouraged today.

That person there just needs a hug.

That person there might actually need something practical like a meal made or some money given

or just a friend to listen to them.

The Holy Spirit wants to lead you in this.

But if you're stuck on the ground, scrounging around like a chicken in the dirt,

how can you lift your eyes to things above?

You need to have a heavenly perspective.

We need to have a heavenly perspective.

When our hearts are set on things above, our perspective shifts off self and onto God.

If I was really dramatic right now, and I will be, and I said, you know what?

Someone's going to tell you tomorrow, or I'm telling you now, or just pretend that you're

thinking this, that you have literally been told you've got one month to live.

What would you do with that month?

I can tell you now, you wouldn't be obsessed with housework or making sure everything was perfect

or, I don't know, making sure you looked good or making sure you had enough money in the bank

or all those work tasks were done or scrolling on your phone and keeping up.

You would not care about that.

You would be spending as much time with the people you loved.

You would be with the ones that you were closest with, your friends, your family.

And you know what?

I think you'd be really bold in your faith.

I think you'd be telling people the truth about God and that Jesus loves them and that,

you know, He wants to have a relationship with them.

You'd be really bold.

Our perspective shifts when we truly know who we are.

And if that was you, your perspective on life would shift.

And I've got news for you guys.

I'm sorry to say, it's a great message this morning, but we've all only got months to live

on earth, whether it's one month or 500 months, we all have an expiry date here on earth.

We will live with God forever in eternity, but our time on earth is limited.

Our perspective needs to reflect our identity and show others who God is.

The second point is, put to death your earthly nature.

We talked a little bit about this before.

I just want to say practically, this is a choice.

This is a choice.

This is a choice.

It's an intentional, purposeful, it's not a passive operation.

This is a choice to put to death your earthly nature, your desires and things that drive

you at times that are not of God.

How do you allow something to die?

You starve it.

You stop feeding it.

It's time that we stop feeding our earthly nature.

It's time we stop feeding those desires that keep popping up.

You know, if greed is an issue for you, if you're just always thinking about money, I

just need to get more money, more money, I need to be richer, I need to be like that

person there, stop feeding yourself with weird self-help books or new ways, you know, quick

rich schemes, that sort of thing.

If it's lust, if that's an issue for you, stop screaming.

Stop scrolling and looking at things you shouldn't or watching TV shows or movie shows

that highlight this stuff.

If it's lying or gossiping, stop hanging around with those people that you know are

going to encourage that.

Whatever you feed grows, whatever you starve will die.

You know, we can feel shame around this.

We're made new in Christ and then we always tend to fall short and we can feel that shame.

God's not saying to you today to feel shame or feel condemned.

He's saying, remember who I created you to be, put off the old self, put on the new self

and when those things crop up, make the choice that I'm not going to live like that because

that's not who God created me to be.

He created me to be a child of God.

He's given me the robes of righteousness.

We don't walk in condemnation church.

We walk in a way that God has given us authority to actually say no to things in our life.

So when these things crop up and you don't sit and go, oh, I feel really bad again, like

this happened again and now I'm feeling all, you know, greed and lust and no, no, no, make

a choice.

Stop feeding that thing.

Get into the Word of God where He reminds you who you are and who He created you to

be.

Getting a bit loud now, aren't I?

Sorry, guys.

In the New Living Translation, I love here in Colossians 3, 5, it actually words it like

this.

It says, so put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you, lurking within

you, just waiting, waiting to be fed.

God asks us to make a daily choice.

God asks us to make a daily choice.

And it's often not an easy one.

Like if you didn't get that last week with Matt, I'm telling you today, if you thought

this life was easy as a Christian, you're in the wrong building.

I'm sorry, but it's true.

Jesus is really blunt about this.

In Matthew 5, 29, it says, if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw

it away.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown

into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

This is shocking imagery that Jesus is using, but it's deliberate.

He's making a serious point here.

He's asking us, don't manage this casually.

Don't just say, oh, well, or make excuses, play it down.

Be willing to make the tough choices.

Be willing to make the tough choices.

Let me ask you, is there anything in your life at the moment that you're allowing in

that's keeping that earthly nature alive?

Or are there perhaps things that are feeding, you know, wrong desires?

Have a moment to reflect on that.

Ask God to help you make the right choices in that.

So we set our hearts and minds on things above.

We put to death what belongs to our earthly nature.

And finally, we put on the new self.

This is the third thing Paul suggests.

Now, many of you will know I've got a young little girl, Mila.

She's four and a half.

She's absolutely gorgeous, very stubborn and bold too, but that's okay.

And we have some pretty constant negotiations in our house.

They tell you you shouldn't negotiate in parenting.

Well, tell me a parent or show me a parent that doesn't do that,

because I feel like it's pretty standard.

But it's around clothing.

Now, I thought after having two boys that I would have a little girl

and I was just going to have a wardrobe full of dresses, like beautiful dresses,

like sound of music, recycled vintage curtain,

pinafores with little white socks, you know,

very much like the beautiful Kennedy children.

I often see the girls or the lanes, you know, like beautiful just outfits.

But I have instead a little sporting superstar,

and I've got some photos to show you here.

I don't know if this is the influence of two big brothers,

but, you know, on the far left here, we've got the basketball Jordan fan

with the Crocs, of course, the hot pink Crocs.

Then we've got in the middle, the Cats fan.

She loves her footy gear.

Then on the end, we've got the hybrid.

This is the basketball and the footy with the socks and the footy boots.

And the next slide will show the latest thing is

she's wearing her big brother's school uniform.

Now, I thought that the school uniform, this was just getting worn at home.

It was really great when I ran into someone recently,

and they said on the school holidays,

they saw Mark with the kids at the shops

and Mila was wearing the boys' school uniform.

That was great.

I imagine the parents, they're going,

why is this poor child having to wear uniform on school holidays?

But obviously, you lost that battle.

And my personal favourite, some of you will know last week,

I talked about our family holiday where we all had the red hats.

So we've got the red hat, the school uniform.

This is the mashup with the pyjama pants and the pink sparkly UGG boots.

So that's a personal favourite.

I think this morning she may have escaped in her basketball gear here.

So you can see that, you know, yourselves after the service.

But the conversation I'm often having with Mila

is not because I don't love that she's got this personality

around this sporting gear, but I talk to her about,

you know, sweetie, there's some places we go to

where you just need to be properly dressed and appropriately dressed.

Like there are certain places like church

that it's really nice to wear an appropriate dress

or something like that at church.

Pray for us with that.

But gee, this is us as Christians.

Like we need to be properly and appropriately dressed.

Like God has given us this new identity

and He so desperately wants us to clothe ourselves with Him, the new self.

We need to put on the new self.

It says it, I'm going to read it again in 9 to 10, verses 9 to 10.

Paul says,

since you have taken off your old self with its practices

and have put on the new self,

which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

And further along in Colossians 3.12,

it says, therefore, as God's chosen people,

holy and dearly loved.

Like, do you know that this morning, church?

That you are dearly loved.

That He's actually saying this about you,

that you are chosen and holy and dearly loved.

Because of that,

clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,

gentleness, and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone,

forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And over all these virtues, put on love,

which binds them all together in perfect unity.

You know, He's saying put off the old self.

But don't forget to put on the new self.

You don't want to be caught in the middle, naked.

No one wants to be in that position.

Put off the old self, put on the new self.

You know, there's so many spaces in our life

where we put on a particular outfit or a uniform

to represent our role or our identity.

Like if you're going to school as a student,

you wear a school uniform, you put that on.

If you are playing football,

you put on your football outfit.

If you're a surgeon, you put on your scrubs.

I'm not suggesting that Christ is something

we put off and take off.

I'm saying that if we are Christians,

then we put on what matches our identity

and who we've been created to be.

So you put on those attributes of Christ,

compassion, kindness, patience, love.

Like if you're walking around

and no one can tell the difference in you,

if they can't see that Christ's love emanates from you,

then what are we doing?

Like, what are we doing?

Put on Christ every day.

It's not just about us.

We don't just put these things on

so that we can walk around all pious,

thinking we're amazing Christians

because I'm compassionate and kind.

No, no, no.

We do that out of our love for God

and that should radiate from us.

But it's actually not about us.

It's not about us.

God wants us to be clothed in who we are

so that other people that don't yet know who they are

can be drawn to that, that we can show them love.

There's a whole world of broken people

that don't know they were created in God's image

and that there's a purpose and plan for their life

and that actually God sent His Son, Jesus,

to die on the cross and then rise again three days later

so that we can be forgiven and walk in freedom.

This is what we call the good news.

This is the gospel message.

And if we're not clothing ourselves with Christ,

then what are we doing?

We just look like a naked idiot in the middle.

Seriously, put off the old self and put on the new self.

I love this quote by Teresa of Avila.

She says,

Christ has no body on earth now but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks out

with compassion on the world.

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.

Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world.

What a privilege.

Honestly, what a privilege.

We need to shift our thinking.

We're not just Christians to get our entry ticket into heaven.

We are joined with Him.

We are raised up with Christ in the heavenly realms.

We need a heavenly perspective.

We have the opportunity to say no to our old earthly nature,

our old desires.

And we have the opportunity to step into what God has for us every day,

to be like that eagle that soars freely but with purpose to spot the one.

That's what God has called you to.

So we set our hearts and minds on things above.

We put to death our earthly natures and we put on the new self.

You know, 2 Corinthians 5.17 sums it up beautifully.

It says,

therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

the new creation has come,

the old has gone,

and the new is here.

So exciting.

There's times when my kids,

and I'll actually get the worship team.

You can come up now.

There's times when my kids are being kids

and they're being naughty or silly

or they're being mean to their brother or sister

or doing something.

And I often try and find opportunities to sit with the child

and actually say,

like, this is not who you are.

Like, you're saying these things to your brother

and you're being really mean

and you're actually being selfish here.

This is not who you are.

Like, you are kind.

You're a really good brother.

You're a really good kid.

You know how to be generous.

I'll often have those sort of parenting chats.

I really felt this morning

that God wanted to have that chat with us today.

Like, just to pull us aside and say,

I've made you like this.

I've given you access to every spiritual blessing.

I've forgiven all those sins.

I've made you a new creation.

You are my coworker.

You are anointed.

The Holy Spirit has been sealed within you.

You are a child of God.

You are accepted, redeemed, forgiven.

Made whole.

These are all words from the Bible.

These are all Scriptures.

You can never be separated from the love of God.

That you have not been given a spirit of fear,

but of power and a sound mind.

This is who you are

because of what Jesus did for you.

So since then,

set your hearts on things above.

Can we do that, Church?

Like, can we do that today?

Let's not be ruled by our old desires or our wrong thinking.

Let's lean in and be the person that God created us to be.

Just while we're all seated,

I just wanna give an opportunity

to anyone who has not yet said yes to Jesus.

I'm just gonna ask you all to close your eyes.

It's just a very private moment.

You know, you might be sitting here this morning

and church might be new for you

or faith might be something you're exploring

and you are so welcome on that journey.

We want everyone to know that they are welcomed in this place.

Come as you are.

But this morning, you might think, you know what?

I wanna accept this gift.

This gift that Jesus has given me.

By dying on the cross and raising to life in three days

as the perfect sacrifice, the atonement for our sins.

There's nothing you can do to earn God's love.

Let me say that to everyone in the room.

Whether you know God or not,

there's nothing you can do to earn God's love.

He's already made the sacrifice.

This is a gift and it's now up to you

if you receive the gift or not.

And so I just wanna give some space and time now.

If you've never made that decision for the first time today,

no one's looking, it's just myself and a few of our leaders.

If you'd like to make that decision this morning,

I'd love you just to raise your hand up really high

so I can see you and just pray for you.

Just raise your hand up really high.

Yep, great.

Thanks, over to my right there.

Over to my left, awesome.

Just give it a few more moments.

You can pop your hand down.

If there's anyone else that wants to say yes to Jesus

for the first time today, just pop your hand up

and we can include you in our prayer.

Yep, in the middle, awesome.

Thank you.

So good.

So good.

Well, everyone, keep your eyes closed.

I just wanna lead you through a prayer now

and everyone can just have some time

even to pray in this moment.

Lord God, for these people that have responded

to You this morning for the very first time,

Lord, we are so thankful.

We are so thankful that these people have just shifted

from old to new, Lord,

that they are now included in You, Jesus,

raised up in Christ.

We thank You, Lord.

And those people that have said yes,

I just encourage you right now to take a moment

just to say, I'm sorry, God.

I'm sorry for my sin.

I'm sorry for the way that I've lived without You.

And now just begin to thank Him.

Thank You, Lord, for Your sacrifice.

Thank You, Lord, that You provided a way

for me to know You and be in relationship with You.

And just invite Him in, just simply invite Him in.

Lord, would You come and live in me?

Would You dwell in me?

I invite You in to be my Lord and Saviour.

Thank You, God.

Thank You, Lord.

Amen.

Well, church, why don't you, as you stand,

just give those few people

that have made a decision this morning

a huge round of applause.

You can stand up.

We're gonna worship together.

And do you know what?

I just invite you in this moment of worship,

not just to sing the words or just listen to the melody

or be already thinking about the sausage rolls,

but actually to have some time just you and God.

What do you need to leave in here this morning?

What things that, you know,

have you been feeding yourself

that you need to leave here this morning?

Those feeding those old desires

or what perspective shift might you need

or what do you need God to remind you of this morning?

I encourage you, you know,

it's so important that we often open our hearts

in a state of repentance,

which just purely means turning back to God,

turning back to God, God, I'm sorry.

Like, show me, show me what You want for me.

Show me how I can do this.

Show me how I can make this choice.

Give me the strength to make those choices.

So do some business with God now.

Ask the Holy Spirit to come in

and speak to you about that.

Bless you guys.

God's love for repentance and disbelief

or simply just missing the mark

has separated us from Him.

Ultimately, that's why Jesus came.

John 3, 16 says that God so loved the world

that He gave His Son, Jesus,

so that whoever believes in Him can have eternal life.

If today you're ready to take that next step

and start that journey with God,

you can simply tell God that you believe in Jesus.

And if you've made that decision today,

that's so exciting.

We'd love to hear from you

and help you take that next step.

Visit onehope.org.au to get in touch.

Thanks for listening.