A Legacy of Faith - Ps Jono Kerridge

Hi there and welcome to Garden Church Podcast.

We're excited that you've tuned in to hear a message from one of our team.

I know that you'll be encouraged in your faith and challenged to live for God.

We pray that you'll encounter Jesus in new and fresh ways as you listen to this podcast.

God has got something great for you.

In the last 10 weeks, last season, we've been leading into today, which is what we call Building a Legacy Sunday.

And it's a season where together collectively, you know, the walk of faith is so very personal.

I've been saying that to the people getting baptized today.

It's so very personal, but it it our faith is actually a communal faith that God calls us together.

It's like both and it's like this personal relationship with Jesus, but then it's actually with brothers and sisters in Christ together, called his church.

And for 10 weeks, the last several years, uh leading into building a legacy Sunday, which is today, we've been together speaking about us as a church community together.

And so today is very important, today.

It's significant.

The greatest we speak about legacy, right?

The greatest legacy anyone can leave is a legacy of faith, a life that points others to God.

When the Bible speaks about faith, one man consistently rises above the rest.

Abraham.

He's called the father of faith because his life demonstrates what it means to trust God over a lifetime.

You want that kind of life?

Two or three of you, that's good.

You want your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, you want the people around you to say, you know, they were the I couldn't understand why they were following Jesus, but they did it, and now I'm seeing their life shine.

Now I'm seeing a blessing on their life.

You want your grandkids to be saying, you know, they made decisions of faith that still impacts me today.

Amen.

So Pastor Josh took most of my notes last week because he preached from this same passage.

He didn't take my notes, just as how the Holy Spirit works.

And so we're gonna use the same passage, but God brought some different things out of it today.

Romans 4 18 to 22.

Here we go.

Speaking about Abraham against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him.

He was said, this is said by God to Abraham, so shall your offspring be.

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old.

Anyone say, wow, and that Sarah's womb was also dead.

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.

I love this.

This is this is a promise for me these last months of this.

Being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

God bless the reading, the application, and the preaching of God's word.

Amen.

Today I'm speaking on the thought over you today, individually in us as the community of faith, the legacy of faith, the legacy of faith.

That's what we that's what we see in Abraham.

If you remember back for those that grew up in in the church, you remember seeing Father Abraham, Father Abraham had many sons, many sons at Father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you.

So let's just praise the Lord right, Father Abraham.

You you get the picture.

I mean, it it was hip-hopping happening back in those days.

That was the top of the pops for kids' church 101.

Amy's still going, she's going with the left foot, right foot.

Father Abraham had many sons.

I didn't get it till later that we are part of the lineage of Abraham.

I was like, hang on, is he my great great great great great granddaddy?

Well, no, but and we'll see this in today that through Jesus we are part of his promise.

So we're people of promise by inheritance.

There is faith in your DNA, there's legacy in your DNA through Jesus.

My grandma, my mum's mum, I call a nana.

Who has a nana?

Yeah, nana, nana's nana's special.

She she was a lovely lady, and uh she was gentle but strong, a lot like a lot of the women in my life.

It's just like you know, they'll smile but they'll slap you with a velvet glove if you don't know what I'm saying.

But strong and godly, Pastor Lorette, that that made you laugh.

I was only joking about they wouldn't actually slap you.

And so my nana was one of those godly strong women, and and I loved her.

She came out from Scotland uh as a six-year-old.

Her her father had a call actually to as a Presbyterian minister to Australia to uh communicate the gospel, to bring the gospel to shores, amongst uh other things.

And so they felt their first church was in Townsville, and it's in Townsville that my grandma, my nana, got baptized in the Holy Spirit out on out on a veranda with her sister.

They were just crying as young ladies, crying out for more of God.

They got baptized in the Holy Spirit and profoundly uh took the word of God that had been placed in uh my grandmother's life and just put a fresh fire in it, and and and it put a fire in her heart as a young lady.

Fast forward, she ends up uh going as a young lady to Brisbane, where she studies nursing and she becomes a nurse, and she's nursing, but she's got this fire of God in her to touch the world in the name of Jesus.

And she meets uh a young man, dashing young man, um named Joseph Bruce.

Joe Bruce, who was a shearer um by profession, but had a uh had a deep call of God on his life.

They get married, fall in love, get married, um and start ministering.

Now they start ministering.

This man brings them in and begins to mentor them.

His name is William Booth Clibbon.

He's the grandson of Booth Clibbon, who uh uh was the founder of Salvation Army Church in in London.

You all of us know Salvation Army Church reaches beautiful ministry to all sorts of people, and so the grandson, William Booth Clibben, um, becomes the mentor to my granddad.

Now, now William Booth Clibben was filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized, um, had a fire in his spirit, had a heart for people, but a fire uh to preach the gospel, and he starts these revival meetings in Brisbane.

They literally find this uh few acres of land and they set up a tent.

Set up a, they they end up calling it the the Canvas Cathedral.

And it wasn't like just a little, you know, like I'm going camping three by three, you know, Marquee.

This is like uh over 2,000 seater uh cathedral, uh, you know, tent, big circus tent kind of thing.

And they just have these revival meetings that starts off with weeks running these revival meetings that goes for months, that that ends up going for years, people getting saved, being filled with the Holy Spirit, miracles, people getting out of wheelchairs, you know, you know, just kind of God kind of stuff.

Stuff that's unusual, possibly to you and I, but normal to God, you know what I'm saying?

You know, we call it miracle, God's like every day.

But it's it's just this move of God.

Such is the move of God that they record recognize that hang on, so my nan and my granddad, I just wrote part of this.

My my nano's playing the piano, leading on worship, my granddad's leading meetings and speaking in those moments.

Um the people running all these meetings recognize that hang on, this needs we we need to take this.

We can't have this in this field and in a marquee forever.

We gotta build a church, we gotta build a church that can put the roots down so that the move of God and the hand of God and the touch of God that is upon this can continue to grow, that this can be like an Antioch church.

If you know the book of Acts, Antioch Church was a church that was central to sending missionaries out, it was central to the word of God going out through a whole region.

And that's what they they believed and that God was calling them to do this church.

And so here's all these people that are part of this revival crusade, and my granddad and and William Booth Clibbon and amongst other leadership that they ask the people that are part of the these these meetings and gatherings to give financially to purchase land and therefore to build a building.

Now, yeah, you say, yeah, yeah, I hear that all the time.

No, no, no, no, no, you don't understand.

People are on food stamps, it's the Great Depression.

People are reusing iron to build houses, and yet people are audacious enough to say, come on, let's build a church.

That's what faith does, and that doesn't ask for permission.

Excuse me, can I um I don't want to bother you?

I know.

No, faith does not ask for permission, and so they did, they did as a church, they did as a move of God, and they gave in the middle of the Great Depression, and they bought land and they built a building that was known as Glad Tidings Tabernacle, and it became a pillar church for our movement, which we're still part of today, Australian Christian churches.

It was assemblies of God back then of sending missionaries into the world, literally thousands sent into the world from that church.

Church plants begun throughout Australia and the world, and and and so and people raised up and discipled.

In fact, we were we were blessed to be the youth pastors there for a couple of years.

It was right in the middle of the valley, right in the middle of Brisbane Valley, you know.

And that was the story, it was a legacy of faith.

But the story goes on.

One of the church plants was planted in the southern districts of Brisbane, known as Mount Cravat.

And my parents, who had now got together and got married, hadn't gone to Bible college, said, you know, we want to be a part of that church plant in Mount Cravat.

It's the end of the earth, you know, out there in the southern suburbs.

And so they were a part of 40 people that planted the church that did become known as Garden City Christian Church, that that I was born into, that I received the call of God, that I was baptized and baptized in the Holy Spirit, that I was saved in.

I met my bride in the church.

Come on, somebody.

I got uh, yeah, come on, that deserves the hand clap.

That's a miracle.

If you don't believe in miracles, just look at my wife.

I mean, in a non-weird way, that's just connected to.

And oh, I how may Holy Spirit communicate this?

And then a church was birthed out of that church that we became a part of.

It was Metro Church and then IC Church, and then from that church, we were sent out to this back in the woods region that nobody's heard of, that nobody would ever go to.

It's just a fishing village, you know, nothing good can come of from Nazareth kind of place called the Tweed Region.

In fact, I gotta tell you this people said to me, You've lost your mind going down there.

I'm so glad that once again, faith doesn't ask for permission.

Faith is obedience, and you respond to him and look at you.

I'd just like to take a snapshot of you and send it to those people now and say, in the name of Jesus, that that's spiritual for.

I don't know.

What I'm saying is the legacy of faith is rich in your DNA that it lasts beyond you.

God is looking for people of faith.

Jesus Himself said in Luke 18, 7 that when he comes back, when he returns, will he find faith on the earth?

He's not looking for perfection.

He's not looking for, he's not looking for the cerebral perfection of knowledge which is glorified in our world.

Now, hey, I've got to make sure that it's the perfect theology that I've just got to get it right because I've got to make sure it's now he's looking for faith.

You know you can have all that and miss God, you know you can have brilliance of intellect and miss God.

I'm not saying boohoo on intellect, I'm saying it needs to lead us towards a heavenly savior.

He's looking for faith.

We cannot please God without faith.

Hebrews 11 6.

And without faith, it is impossible.

Finish it with me, to please God.

Faith grows from our exposure to the word of God, Romans 10 17.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by being on Facebook.

Come on, somebody.

In fact, I need to touch on that.

The world will only take your faith, the world will only destroy your faith, the world will only confuse your faith, the world will only boohoo your faith, the world will only criticize your faith, the world will only mock your faith.

So the way you grow your faith is not through the world.

The world will make you cynical and bitter and twisted and mocking, even at preaching like this.

But once again, in the name of Jesus, because the word of God be true, and all every man a liar, that God be King of kings and Lord of Lords.

We will preach his word, we will declare his word, we will live in his word, we will show his word to be true in Jesus' name.

So faith is not just believing in God's existence, even the devil believes in God's existence.

Dogs, if they could talk, believe in God's existence.

The trees believe in God's existence.

The oceans believe in God's existence.

That's why Jesus spoke to the oceans and they're like calm orders.

So faith is not just believing in the existence of God.

Hebrews 11:6, the second part here, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists.

Hebrews 11:6

That's the slight base level.

But he rewards those who earnestly seek him, who who seek him, who seek him.

You you come to church, you're seeking him, you you spend time with him, you're seeking him.

You want God's decisions and will for your life, you're seeking him.

It's an element of faith.

Today I'm not talking about cultural faith.

I'm not talking about Sunday only faith.

I'm not talking about the minimal, barely surviving faith.

I'm talking about Father glorifying, Christ purchased, Holy Spirit sustained, the devil rebuking, demon-binding, mountain moving, atmosphere shifting, door opening, miracle-provoking, verifiable, certifiable, undeniable, unstoppable, unbreakable, unparalleled.

Faith.

Faith being confident and trusting in the nature and promises of God.

Someone tell me what God's word is over our year this year.

Promises of God.

How good is God?

He's speaking, can you tell he's speaking to us?

This is not your normal religious faith.

This kind of faith is the faith that shows the reality of what we hope for, the evidence of things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1.

Hebrews 11:1

You see, this faith builds a boat to save the godly from a flood, Noah.

This faith speaks to a rock and water comes out, Moses.

This faith releases a shout and walls come down, Joshua.

This faith prays and fire comes down, Elijah.

This faith is the cause that always has an effect.

Faith says, My lunch in the hand of Jesus can feed a multitude.

The boy with five loaves and two small fish.

Faith says, if I just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be healed.

The woman with 12-year battle with blood disease.

This faith perseveres in taking Jesus to his deceased daughter, Jairus.

This faith carries a crippled friend to Jesus to be healed.

This faith calls out louder for Jesus to touch you when the crowd tells you to stop.

That's a man born blind, Luke 18.

This faith stands up at Christ's command, even after not walking for 38 years.

That's a cripple at the pool of Soloam.

This is the faith I'm speaking over you today.

Now, it may not be needing to walk, because most of you walked in here today, but you've been holding on to stuff.

Shame has been holding on to you.

What's shame?

Shame is when sin gets into your identity.

And you say, Well, I'll walk with this for 10 years, 20 years.

Faith says, No, Jesus takes my shame.

That when Jesus went to the cross, he took not only my past, my present, and my future, and he made a way where there was no other way, and he makes me born again and brand new.

You see, don't know like like I say to I've said to God before, but but God, my my faith only small faith.

It's only small faith.

Remember saying that to God one time?

He said, I've got no problem with small faith.

Well, your problem is with little faith.

What's the difference?

Well Jesus speaks about the difference.

Matthew 17, 20.

He actually rebukes his disciples.

Imagine that being a follower of Jesus and being rebuked by the Son of God.

And he's saying you have little faith.

When he's saying little faith, Jesus used the term that it's shaky, it's wishy-washy, it's weak faith, it's faith placed in or built upon things that are movable.

That your faith on sand, your faith on the opinions of people, your faith is on what the populist opinion on Instagram is, and it's and it's shaky faith.

And and that beautifully in the way that Jesus does, not in a you're a loser way, but in a hey, there's a better life for you way, he rebukes us and says, no, no, no, no, you have little faith.

Because he doesn't rebuke small faith.

He says it here.

He says that small faith is powerful.

He says that even when you have small faith, you take on a uh when you have a small faith in me, you take on an authority that you can even look at a mountain, an obstacle, a uh opposition, a uh a moment that's in front of you, and you can speak to that mountain and it can move.

That's the kind of thing that Jesus is getting to that.

Even with a a little, uh a small faith, rather, in a big God, great things could happen.

That's what he says, that nothing will be impossible for you.

So here we are in the text of and of I'm only going to take a couple of moments to wrap this up here.

But Abraham, back to Abraham.

There's three declarations of those living in faith that I'm calling you into today.

They're declarations, but they're postures of our heart.

They're postures of our hearts, those living uh in faith.

The first declaration is I trust him.

I trust him.

I trust him.

So here is Abraham.

He is 75 years of age when God calls him to come out from the tent and look up.

Look up into the sky and count the stars in the sky.

And the number of stars in the sky is represented by the number of people that will be in your family.

He's 75.

Come on, somebody.

And God says, You will be called Abraham the father of nations.

And then he has to wait 25 years.

His wife then is 75, and he is a hundred.

But the declaration and the posture of this father of our faith, and I pray for you individually, and us as a church, is hey, I don't get it.

But I trust him.

I don't know how.

But I trust him.

I don't even know when.

I've got stuck on that before.

Come on, somebody.

The when and the how always gets us tripped up.

We gotta watch out for the what and the who.

That's what we gotta focus on.

What is he promised and who's making the promise, but he's also the God of how.

Let's release the how and the when to him.

That's his business in his timing.

He's working it, he's working all things together for good.

For those that are in Christ Jesus, our Lord, he's also got the how because he is the God of how.

Tell you the person beside you, he is the God of how.

Go and tell them.

So I trust him is the declaration.

The second declaration is this, and you've written it out today.

We're going to respond to that is one day I will.

What faith does is the opposite to what fear does and worry.

Fear, if you have you noticed, it just doesn't start with, it's it starts with some kind of facts, maybe a doctor's report, maybe something you read online or something.

It starts there, and then your mind, your spirit, your soul goes down a rabbit warren trail that takes that fear, but then it goes into scenarios of what may happen.

Come on, are you with me?

Anybody real out there?

So faith is the same, except it's a totally different, uh, a totally different emotion and outcome and blessing over your life.

So faith comes with a promise, faith comes through with a promise, and then it goes down a trail, and it the trail looks like this.

You know what?

Because when God comes through with this promise, one day I will.

That's what Abraham was saying.

He's saying to himself all the way through, he's like, you know, God's promises come.

I trust him.

One day I'm gonna hold a boy in my arms.

I don't know how, I don't know when, but one day I will.

In fact, it just doesn't stop with the the baby in my arms.

God's promises that I'll be a father of nations.

I can't even comprehend that.

But he's like, one day I'll be the father of many nations.

Oh, church.

So you're picking this up today because I'm dropping it down.

People of faith, just like you, I'm not just gonna sit in the status quo, but you're gonna let faith spark something in your life to say, you know what?

One day I will.

One day I will live in freedom.

One day this anxiety is gonna get an evil grip off my mind.

One day, us as a youth ministry are gonna touch every school on the tweed region.

One day we're gonna have a move of God.

Like a building can't be big enough designed for what God's going to do.

Oh, come on, somebody.

That's what faith does.

It speaks over your marriage.

You know, anybody can see what you see, but faith sees what you can't see.

And it says, you know, one day, one, one day.

The third declaration is this after God's come through, we've trust him.

One day we will.

You know what?

This happened to Abraham.

He's like holding this baby.

He's like, God did it.

He did what he said.

He did it.

I want anybody that has had that revelation in their life, God, God, your promise over your body, over your mind, over your marriage, over your ministry, and you kept persevering and trusting in God, and you came to the point where you're like, you know what?

He did it.

I want you to take 10 seconds to tell everybody else of the goodness of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Shout and thank God and praise him.

He did it.

He did it.

He did it.

And that's what God is doing in us as a church.

He's making us people that leave faith legacies where we trust him.

Where we go to a place.

Yes, I understand it's vulnerable.

It's a vulnerable place to believe in something that you haven't seen, to believe in God.

When people ask me in the world, in the community about the build, I can't really explain it to them.

Because what am I gonna say that's my brilliance?

They would soon laugh like I just did then.

There's brilliant people around, I get that, and I appreciate that, and I love that with giftings.

You just heard some of them today, but really, it's just the hand of God.

Even more so, what's God's gonna do through that building?

You know, I didn't realize this.

Uh Ben, I want you to come.

I didn't realize all that story about my Nana growing up.

It was a little bit later.

It was actually when I was at Bible college and we were doing a study on revival history in Australia, and I flipped over a page, and then I'm like, Nana?

Papa, what are you doing on that page?

And it's then ministering and speaking about the move of God.

All I knew was this godly lady that would come over and she'd put us to bed and she'd tell us stories about signs and wonders.

It was personal.

It wasn't in a history book, it was personal stories of God doing amazing things, people being saved, her being filled with the Holy Spirit on the veranda at Townsville.

And me as a young young kid, just getting pressured by God, a deposit of the faith that was upon her and her husband getting into my young life.

She'd sing songs, you know, as we were there, just I was going off to sleep, pretending, you know, I was going off to sleep and just listening to her stories.

She'd sing songs like what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything to God come on, somebody, anybody old timer like me.

She'd sing songs like that were modern-day choruses for her.

She'd sing songs like uh Turn Your Eyes Under Jesus.

What is it?

I can't even remember.

Yeah, that song.

And I'm just so thankful for God because you're either in a place where you are being blessed by the faith legacy, in some way we all are, that's been passed on to you, or you are first in line to change the future of the faith legacy that God has placed, the opportunity for faith legacy that God has placed in our lives.

You see, friends, our faith is not in faith, and our belief is not in belief.

Our faith has substance, our faith has confidence, our faith has assurance, because our faith has a name.

In fact, our faith has names.

Yahweh, the self-existent one, Elohim, the mighty creator, El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty, Adonai the Lord and Master, Jehovah Jorah, the Lord provider, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals, Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace, Jehovah Sitkenu, the Lord, our righteousness.

Jesus is our legacy.

Can you give me a second?

Uh I spend some time just uh a moment uh writing some thoughts just to bring us to a point of adoration of Jesus here.

Jesus is our legacy.

Today we boldly declare that Jesus Christ is the center of our legacy of faith.

He is the author and the finisher, the cornerstone that cannot be shaken, and the firm foundation upon which every generation must stand.

Our faith is not built on personalities, traditions, or accomplishments, but on the crucified, risen, and reigning King Jesus Christ.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

His cross is our victory, his resurrection is our hope, and his spirit is our power.

We declare that every testimony we leave behind will point to Jesus.

Every ministry will exalt Jesus.

Every generation that follows us will know that Christ alone is worthy of all glory, honor, and praise.

We reject every distraction that seeks to move our eyes from Him.

We choose to keep Jesus at the center of our homes, our church, our worship, our mission, and our lives.

We will not pass down religion without relationship or tradition without truth.

We will pass on a living faith in a living Savior.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is raising up sons and daughters who will carry the fire of the gospel with boldness, holiness, and compassion.

That will proclaim that Jesus saves, Jesus heals, Jesus delivers, Jesus baptizes in the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is coming again soon.

As for us and the generation after us, our legacy will not be with wealth, it will not be wealth without godly mandate, influence without purpose.

It will be unwavering devotion to Jesus Christ.

May every life we touch, every soul we win, and every seed we sow echo one unchanging truth.

Jesus is the center, Jesus is our foundation, Jesus is our inheritance, and Jesus is our legacy.

To him be all glory now and forever in the mighty name of Jesus and everybody's dead.

How good was that message?

I know that you would have been blessed.

Garden Church is a flourishing, life-giving church based on the northern rivers of New South Wales.

We have a passionate commitment to see you make a difference in your world, thrive in community, and most importantly, connect you to Jesus.

Visit our website gardenchurch.com for more details of ministries, our heart, and even some great resources to empower your life.

Be blessed, go and be life-giving.