15th March 2026: Values of God's House

Welcome to the podcast of the White Church.

In Adelaide, South Australia. Well, Justin's going to be

bringing the word this morning. I was just thinking this morning

just about, about, you know, the, the law, it was in the

Lord's Prayer, just talking about your Kingdom come and your

will be done as on earth as it is in heaven.

And the, the the church, this space that we find ourselves in

right now, this gathering of the Saints together is something

very special that we need to understand and grasp because

this is where are the called out ones.

Jesus said to pray that the things that were in heaven would

be here. And praise is something that is

certainly in heaven. But you know, like we're not

going to get tired from praising in heaven.

Amen. So, you know, that's one of the

things you know, and just being together, being together.

When people come in from outside, from the world, from

their communities, from that which they know of the world,

when they come into the church, when they come into the body of

Christ, they should be experiencing something way

different than what they have, they have used to and what

they've seen. And we, we pray that they do.

And that means that the Spirit of God in US and through US is

the thing that they're going to be experiencing, you know, the

love of God, the community, the fellowship, but so much more

than that, God's power, healing, freedom, hope, hope, guys like

we're coming into Easter. Hope.

We have something that the world doesn't have hope and that is an

amazing thing and we praise the Lord for that.

But I'm going to invite Justin up.

I'm going to pray, Lord, we just pray your anointing on Justin

right now. We pray that you would speak the

words that you would want to say in him and through him.

God, we pray that everything else would fall to the wayside.

We pray that we we would hear your words today and that we

would be empowered to be the church that you've called us to

be. We pray this would be a time of

enlarging for Justin and for us. And we pray that we wouldn't

leave this place the same. In Jesus mighty name, Amen.

Amen. Cool.

Before I I kick off, we have Kiara with us this morning.

So Kiara actually lives in Perth.

Moved from Adelaide to Perth. Was it was for work?

Yeah, yeah. Moved there to work.

And then friends of ours, friends of this house, Liam and

Alana Meesk, planted a church in Perth called Represent, which

Kiara is part of. So I've just asked her if she

can share, just for a couple of minutes, what God is doing in

Perth, what God is doing through Represent.

So. Hi family, I'm so excited to be

here with you today. God's doing such an incredible

work in Perth. It's so honestly like such a

blessing to be part of it, adding new people to our church

every single week. We're based on a university

campus and we've got students. It's like, oh week.

So it's the start of the first semester and every single week

we have people coming in. I was just looking for a church.

I've moved from Interstate, I've moved from overseas and I found

I saw there was a church on curtain campus.

And so I came and, you know, just adding to our family and

we're seeing God just provide in like supernatural ways in, in

our ability to keep using the building on such a secular

campus. It's been so incredible.

And just seeing God's like blessing and favour and adding,

we've recently added deacons to our team, which has been really,

really awesome. And yeah, just seeing like so,

so many kids as well, just everywhere all the time and like

just seeing how God's moving in them and even just like how

we've got a couple of teenagers and stuff.

But yeah, it's just been so awesome.

We recently saw celebrated our first birthday as well, which

was so cool just to see how God's like, grown us so much

from Liam and Alana's little house to like a proper like,

lecture hall. And it's just so encouraging to

see more seats filled every single weekend.

And God be glorified in all of that.

So yeah. Father, we just pray for

represent right now is their their meeting this morning.

We just pray Father, just for your blessing upon them as

they've celebrated one year. We just pay that you would

continue to grow that house. You will continue to stretch why

they're 10 pegs. They would see more and more

people added in. They would see more and more

people added to their leadership team, more favour with the

university. We thank you for the great

fruitfulness and and as they they say on earth and in Perth,

as it is in heaven, we proclaim that we prophecy that again over

their church into their church. We thank you for Liam and Alana

laying down their lives to go relocate and plant this church

in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Awesome.

Thank you Chiara for allowing me to put you on the spot there.

Very cool. Well, as a as a local church

here, we've been very privileged and having some Apostolic input

over the last few weeks. We had Tyrone for a couple of

weeks who leads the NCMI team. He spoke in January.

We had Leona Kotra on the back of that as well coming in.

And those guys, they really spoke a lot around church

culture. What kind of culture do you want

in church? And it's not so much based on,

you know, lights and cool projector screens and great

coffee. That's when they were talking

culture. That's not what they were

talking about. They were talking actually, how

do we build a Kingdom culture into the life of the church?

Because ultimately the thing that's going to last is not the

church that we build, it's the church that he builds, right?

Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell

will not prevail. And then the Psalms tell us that

unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labour in

vain. And so we want to be a people

here who make sure that he's building his house.

We're not trying to build his house for him.

We're not coming in with our ideas of what we think church

should be like or our preferences.

But we're actually kind of saying, go what?

What do you say in the Bible about what?

Your house? Should look like.

And you know, God is very clear in his in his word about some of

the stuff and some of the pillars that he wants to build

into his house about what his house wants to look like.

And I'll just remind you the definition of culture is that it

is a shared set of beliefs, values and behaviours that

define a. Particular group of people.

That's what culture means. I did multicultural studies at

university back a long time ago and we've studied a lot around

culture and cultural communication and all of this

kind of stuff. And, and that's basically the

academic definition of culture is a shared set of beliefs,

values and behaviours that define a.

Particular group of people. You can't actually tangibly

explain it. It's that it's one of those

weird things like I can't quite. If I was to describe the culture

of my house, I could give you some ideas, but you'd pick up

way more when you were actually in the house and you were like.

Oh, I get it, I get it. I can't.

Really be like, you know, our culture is, I mean, if some of

you have been to our house, our culture, it's loud.

We have 4 young kids, it's loud. It's hopefully fun.

Our kids crack me up all the time.

It's fast. We move quite a fast pace.

Again with kids, the attention span is just we're doing this

and then we're doing that and it's, it's a whole bunch of

crazy fun. We hope like that some of the

culture. But again, until you're in it,

you don't really know it. Does that make sense?

It's not something you can be like, if you just do these five

things, then you've got the culture.

It's like we have to be immersed in the culture.

And that's why it's so important that when we go back to the Word

of God, we actually got to go. These aren't necessarily stuff

that we have to do, but it's stuff that we actually immerse

ourself in. Does that make sense?

So we don't come to church with our checklist and be like, if we

do these six things, then, you know, we're establishing God's

culture. We actually immerse ourself into

it and say, God, help me to encapsulate what you're trying

to say and actually action it out.

Does that make sense? So this morning I, I'd, I'd like

to actually look at just some attributes when I was looking

through the, the scriptures to kind of say what, what are some

of the characteristics of God's house?

Again, not trying to be like, here's a checklist of things we

need to do, but just what are some of the things when God

talks about his house? What are some of those values

and behaviors that he wants to build into his house?

And hopefully they become our hearts desire for what God wants

to do in this place. Does that make sense?

Yeah, cool. In One Timothy chapter 3, Paul

writes to Timothy this young Apostolic leader, and he he

gives him this command and says, go teach the people how to

conduct themselves in the house. Of the Lord.

So hopefully some of these things is is actually just kind

of go how what are some of the values and behaviors that we as

people should be like? Man, this is what we want to see

in this house here. All right, in Hebrews, the

writer of Hebrews says that we are God's house.

It's not so much about the values we want to see in the

Woodcroft Community Center. It's about the values we want to

see is when we meet together. Does that make sense?

Awesome. So we're going to run through.

We're going to see how many we can get through.

I apologize for my voice. It comes and goes.

I've been on well for a little bit and then I've just got this

tail end of no voice. So please forgive me with that.

But we're going to look at the first one and this Dave shared

last week on this in Isaiah 56, seven and Matthew 2113.

God says this. He says My house shall be called

a House of prayer. For all nations.

So my first thing if we're talking about attributes of

God's house or values and behaviors that God expects of

his house is that it would be a praying house.

It's a prayerful house. And when Dave shared about

prayer last week, you know, we can sometimes we can have veiled

prayers that are more like complaining prayers.

And we can be like, oh Lord, like my neighbor really annoys

me. And you know, I really don't

like how their kids hit the ball over the fence.

And it's really. So if you could just deal with

that's not prayer like that's not, that's not Godly's prayer.

When when we're talking about my house should be a House of

prayer for all nations. We're talking about the stuff

that Dave shared last week, like becoming God, you're a great

God. Bless my neighbor.

Let him be saved in Jesus name. Like let them come to Christ

like it. It's it's a front footed prayer.

And so when we're when we're talking about pillars and

behaviours and values, we should have a house desire to come and

to pray. I wonder if your first response

is, is to pray when there's situations.

And we pray with authority. We've tried very hard in our

kids to establish a value in our house that when we're injured,

it's our first response is have you prayed?

And to the point where now our kids pray for each other when

they're injured and they're going well, I've prayed, but

they're still hurt. They need a Band-Aid.

We're like, cool, but we're teaching them the first thing we

need to do whenever somebody's hurt or injured is we pray.

It's amazing how much that works.

And they're just like, yeah, cool, I'm fine.

Now we've prayed and they are on their way.

God has called us to be a prayerful people, a prayerful

house. Second thing which we've been

emphasizing this morning is that we would be a praising house, a

praising house. And again, it's, it's really

interesting some of the emphasis that's come through this morning

around praise because I think all of us in our hearts are

going, yeah, I praise the Lord when I get up in the morning,

I'm like, thank you, Lord, for, you know, the sunshine and

everything like that. And you know, it's a great day.

It's interesting when it says in Psalm 42, four, which is up

there, it says how these things I remember as I pour out my

soul. This is a psalmist writing how I

would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the

House of God with glad shouts and songs of praise.

A multitude keeping festival praise is not something that's

quiet. When the Scriptures talk of

praise, it is something that is allowed.

It is something that is, that is overflowing.

The psalmist in Psalm 135 says a similar thing.

Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.

Give praise, O servants of the Lord, who stand in the House of

the Lord, in the courts of the House of our God.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.

Sing to his name, for it is pleasant.

For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own

possession. So it says again, it's this idea

that praise means something. It's got it's got an action to

it. I think we can hold a value of

praise in here. But even the Scriptures teach us

as a man thinks in his heart, so shall he be like.

The idea is that praise should actually look like something.

When I say, hey, praise the Lord as we've been sharing some of

the stuff this morning, it looks like something.

It looks like something. And so when God says I want my

house to be a praising house, it's going to be a house full of

dancing. It's going to be a house full of

jumping. It's going to be a house full of

clapping. It's going to be a house full of

singing, full of hands raised up, full of people aren't like,

that's the kind of house that God imagines when he looks at

this house. It's going, that's the house

that I want. I want a house like that of

people lifting their hands and and jubilantly singing with all

of their mind. That's the house that he wants.

The house he wants is a house that's prayerful, the house

that's praising. And Luke 14, Jesus tells this

parable of a guy throwing a wedding feast.

And it's Luke 1415 to 24. It's a big parable, but

basically this guy sends out, it says, go, go invite my invited

guests and all the invited guests that have excuses, you

know, one guy's like, I just bought a field.

I can't come. Like I've just bought some oxen.

I've got, I'm just getting married, all of this kind of

stuff. And he goes, well, go find other

people and invite them in and he invites them in and he's still

got room. And the statement that he says

to his servants is go off to the highways, to the byways, go to

the far off towns and invite people in that my house might be

full. So my third thing that Jesus God

wants, his desire for his house is that it would be a.

Packed house. A packed house.

Right. God's desire for this house here

is that it would be packed. Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine that viewing this, this is a big dividing

wall here. Can you imagine that God's heart

for this church isn't that it would stay this size, his heart

for represent over in Perth isn't that it would stay that

size that it would be packed. But more than that, not just our

venue, but our community groups, your homes like this.

Let's make it personal, right? So some of us we we enjoy our

our personal time, right. We're like, man, I just I love

coming to church, but I also like being at home on my own.

You know, God's desire for your house is that it will be packed

with people who want to know him because we are the House of God.

It's not about this space. It's about the people of God.

His he wants his house to be packed and that requires also

talking about being a packed house is those servants were

going out and now we're inviting anybody and everybody.

They're like, do you want to come to a wedding feast?

Do you want to come? Do you want to come and see what

God is doing? Do you want to come and be part

of what God is doing? Come and be part, come and be

part. I think in our thinking, we can

be so selective. Oh, that person, they're

probably going to say no to coming to church.

So I won't even bother inviting them.

Look, I need to extend a bit of a more of a relationship before

I invite that person to church. This parable teaches us it's

just like, just come, just come and I'm going to.

And if you say no, I'm going to go to the next person until

this. House is packed.

God wants his house to be packed.

I wonder if our desire as well is that this house would be

packed. The our desire is, you know

what, I'm just going to start inviting random people to

church. Come to church.

We've got Easter coming up. We've got to do some stuff here

on Easter Sunday. The idea is that we want this

house to be packed. So if you've got some people.

In mind that you're like, man, why don't you come to church at

Easter? Because God's heart is that he

wants his house to be packed, people to encounter him, right?

So, so God's. Idea these are all from

Scripture. This is what he these are some

of the cultures, the values and behaviors that he wants in his

house is that it would be a prayerful house, a praising

house, a packed house. Psalm 122 verse one says I was

glad when they said to me, let's go up to the House of the Lord.

He wants it to be a positive house.

I wonder I was thinking about this last night.

I wonder if you were glad when you woke up this morning because

you were coming to the House of the Lord.

I wonder if you were glad. I wonder if you were glad when

you realized prayer meeting was on Wednesday night and you're

like, man, it's Wednesday. I'm glad when they said to me,

let's go to the House of the Lord.

I wonder if you were glad on on Friday night when your community

group was on. You're like, man, I'm glad

because I get to go be. With the people of God.

God's desire is the people. We would be glad when they said

to us, let's go to the House of the Lord.

It's often said the Christian should be one of the most

positive people on the planet. Why?

Because we have an eternal hope and we have a people that he's

redeemed. Like we're all, we're all going

to get to hang out forever in eternity.

He's wanting this to be a positive house.

And we, we sometimes we do have bad days and bad sleep and all

that kind of stuff. But when somebody says man,

yeah, but do you want to be with the people of God?

I'm like 100% because that's going to be the most

encouraging, uplifting, hope filled place that I can find on

the planet. And so of course, I was glad

when they said to me, let's go up to the House of the Lord.

I wonder when we wake up in the morning, is our attitude.

I was glad when they said to me, let's go to the House of the

Lord. Or is it a burden?

Is it a struggle? Is it is it tough?

And you're like, look, I'll go to church out of duty, not

because I'm positive, I'm glad. Like it's a, it's a huge

privilege for us in this country to come to church in other

countries around the world, they're persecuted and stuff

like that. But you.

Should see the joy. I've been to some third world

countries, the absolute joy on their face when they get to meet

together. It's it's blows me away just so

like man, I get to be with the people of God encountering him.

That should be our heart, our attitude.

We are a positive people. That's God's idea for his house

is that it would be a positive people Next one.

He his desire is that we would be a prophetic Apostolic.

House Ephesians 219 to 20. It says that his house, the

household of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and

prophets. And what that simply means.

You can look at that and say, well, that means the Bible, but

it means more than that because we see apostles and prophets

kind of going extending beyond that.

A prophetic means to to see what God is doing, to see what God is

doing and to Apostolic is to be a sent people, to be a going

people, to be an outward looking people who can we send?

So it's the ability to see what God is doing, see what God is

doing in this house. Like the Bible gives us a whole

bunch of values and stuff, but there's also seasons in God that

we pick up and we say, well, God, this is where you want to

take us as a people. And he's called all of us to

come together as a prophetic Apostolic people and we partner

with a prophetic Apostolic team as well.

That helps in that regard. He's called us to his desire for

his house is it wouldn't be stagnant.

It wouldn't be ritualistic, traditional.

It's, it's it's hearing what God is doing in the season.

It speaks in the word of God about these people who knew the

seasons and knew what to do. And that's the idea of being a

prophetic Apostolic people that we can understand what God is

doing and we know what what needs to be done.

And God's desire for his house is that when we come together

here, we're all like, man, we know where God is taking us and

that all of our hearts is like, if God is saying, Hey, I want to

send you, you're like, yes, Lord, I'm there.

I have a heart to go. I have a heart to be sent from

this house and and sent out to our neighbors, sent out to the

nations. That's God's heart for his

house. One of the values and behaviours

that he wants in his house is that we would all be picking up

what God is doing in and through US.

So God has called us to be a prayerful people, appraising

people. He wants it to be a packed

house, a positive house, a prophetic Apostolic house.

And in Ephesians 220, it does go on.

It says built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets

with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone.

It, it's a house that is predicated on and pointing to

Jesus. It's the house that's predicated

on and pointing to Jesus. Well, second point came up.

That's cool. Predicated and pointing to

Jesus. Now, Leo, a couple of weeks ago,

I would encourage you to go back and listen to that.

He just basically preached on this whole idea that it is all

about Jesus. Do you come, do you come this

morning and kind of go, this is, this is great.

This is Dave's church. He's leading this.

So do you come and go, Hey, man, God planted A lampstand here.

God planted A lampstand. Dave was just the guy that said,

yes, this is God's house, right? This is God's house.

So it, it is predicated upon and pointing to Jesus.

Everything we do is pointing to him, right?

We can say, Oh man, you know, I, I love the way that this church

does XYZ, but ultimately we need to be pointing to him and

saying, actually, you come to church to meet him.

You come to church to sing songs to him.

You come to church to hear from him when somebody preaches,

right? So we're always pointing to him.

And when somebody comes to me for advice or like in the

privileged role that we have as elders in the church, when

people are like, Hey, what do you think our objective is to

point you to him. It's not to give you our ideas

or our advice. It's actually say we'll look to

him, look to him and everything we do comes from him.

Everything that we try and do in this house and in this place is

actually starting with the base of him.

And so we have to always go back and say, God, what is, what is

your desire? And then from there I move

forward. And so we're always predicated

upon everything that we're doing is founded upon Jesus to begin

with. And it's always pointing to

Jesus at the end. In fact, the scriptures, I was,

I was doing some more research on this.

They interchange with the word capstone and cornerstone

throughout the scriptures. And they're kind of going, well,

they kind of mean the same thing that they're different things.

A cornerstone, as Leo spoke about, is the first stone you

lay in the foundation. It sets the tone for everything

else. It is the thing that gives you

your straight edge. And Christ uses our cornerstone.

And a capstone is different. The capstone is the last stone.

You put in place. It's the one that holds.

Everything together right at the very end, and we need to

remember that everything. We do is.

Founded and grounded and guided by Jesus, and everything we do

is pointing to him and pointing to an eternity with him, our

great bridegroom. And so he wants church.

God's heart for his house is that we would be predicated upon

and pointing to Jesus, right? We're getting those so.

God's heart for his house, one of the values and behaviors that

he wants as well is that this would be a powerful house.

In the book of Genesis, this goes right back to the very

beginning. Actually, the first mention of

the word House of God in the Scriptures is found in Genesis

Genesis 28 · chapter mention

chapter 28. Jacob has his dream.

Jacob awoke from his sleep, so he's had this dream.

This dream is this ladder going from heaven to earth and angels

are ascending and descending. This really strange dream.

Hey, I don't know if you've had any dreams like that.

I certainly haven't. Like so vivid that I'm like, Oh

my goodness, wow. Like literally where he is, this

ladder going up to heaven and angels and heavens opened and

it's, it's crazy stuff. And then he woke awake from his

sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this.

Place and I did not know it. Next verse and he was afraid and

said, how awesome is this place this is none other than the

House of God. This is the gate of heaven and

it goes on. He says he called that place

Bethel, which means House of God.

God's heart for us as a people and heart for.

Every church is that. It wouldn't just be a place to

be come and go, but it would be a place where his supernatural

power is demonstrated well. We would see testimonies of the

miraculous. We would hear stories like that.

We're hearing from representative how God is

supernaturally providing buildings and people's lives

being turned around, people coming to Christ, which is the

greatest miracle, people being healed, people being set free.

He's expecting his house to be a house full of power.

One of I wonder if it's stirring in your heart saying.

Lord, I want this house to be a house full of power.

Lord, would you come and open up, make this a gateway of

heaven. The people would come in and

they would touch something of what the heavenly heavenly

realities is the Lord's Prayer right on earth as it is in

heaven. That's that's how Jesus taught

us to pray on earth as it is in heaven.

There's something of what is in heaven that we're expecting to

take place here on earth. And so God has called us to be.

A powerful house. A house demonstrating and

walking in the power of God and we see this throughout the book

of Acts like as Dave mentioned this morning, like this guy's

paralyzed on a mat. They're walking to a prayer

meeting and Peter and John look at this guy and say get up off

your mat and he goes in and he's miraculously healed.

There's a power. The early church is birthed in

Acts chapter 2 by the Holy Spirit coming upon them in power

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Jesus command in Acts chapter 1. So we're going to go backwards

Acts 1 · chapter mention

in time as you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

upon you. And then you would be my

witnesses. There's something of the church

that should actually be demonstrating a walking in the

power of God. And I want to encourage you.

That's God's heart for you. That's God's heart for your

house as well. This isn't just, oh, I come to

the white church and that's where the power is.

No, no, no. The book the Bible actually

teaches that we are the House of God, which means when people

come into your house, that should be a House of power.

Where you're actually giving testimonies and testifying of

what God is actually doing in supernatural power in your house

that God is providing, that there are miracles, that people

are getting transformed and changed.

There's prophetic words, there's there's words of knowledge and

wisdom and all that kind of stuff that we see in the Bible.

That should be in your house as well.

Every time we come together, community group prayer meeting,

they should be powerful places where things are moved and

shifted on earth. Prayerful, praising pact,

positive, prophetic and Apostolic, predicated by and

pointing to Jesus. Powerful.

Malachi 310 The last one. The next one is that God wants

his house to be a providing house.

Malachi 310, which is often quoted when we're talking about

tithing. Do you have it there, Pete?

Awesome. Let's throw that up.

Bring all the ties into the storehouse that there may be

food in my house. Bring all the ties into the

storehouse that there may be food.

In my house, one of the values and behaviors of that God wants

for his house is that there would be food in the house.

I want to ask you, how does the food get into the house?

Because God has called us as people to demonstrate a value

and a behavior of bringing and providing for the house.

Bring all the ties into the house.

When they took up ties and offerings throughout the Old

Testament, when they said, hey, bring your offering, it was very

clear where they had to bring it.

Bring it to the house, bring it to the priest, into the

Tabernacle, into the temple. Bring it to where God is so that

there would be food in the house for those who need it.

One of the values and behaviors that God desires for every

church is that it would be a church that's able to to provide

for those who need it. We see this in the book of Acts.

When they met together, no one had need because everyone,

everyone sold what they had, what they had surplus of and

gave to the church that the church could then give beyond.

So God's heart for you is a a value and a behaviour that He

wants to instill in you and me. Is that we would be people who

actually provide for God's house through tithes, through

offerings that we would provide to God's house that God's house

could then administrate what he wants to do right.

We know the saying money makes the world go round right?

It's a reality. But there's something about this

that God says actually in my. House, bring your stuff.

To my house that my house might be able to provide it's a one of

God's values for his house as it would be a providing house that

when people come we're like we can provide why because people

have provided so God has called his house to be a providing

house with the provision of God just flows through.

It's not meant to be a dam. It's a river where we give to

God and God that just flows through and we say cool, we

could. We're just administrating what

God has already brought in so many times through the

Scriptures is. It's amazing.

I challenge you to go look it up.

When people provided to the House of God, they actually had

to tell the people, stop. We've got too much we've

actually we can't get. Rid of this.

Quick enough, we we're giving it away as fast as we can, but we

still can't do it. Like that is God's desire for

his house. That's his desire for this house

here that we would have to say, whoa, whoa.

We can't actually administrate everything that God's bringing

in because God is bringing in so much and we're just trying to

provide for everything and we've still got some leftover.

Because we serve a great and generous God, but it's going to

take every single one of us with this value and behavior that we

provide for the House of God so that the House of God can

provide. God has called us to be a

providing house. Psalm 92, our next point.

It's providing house. It's called us to be a planted

house. The righteous shall flourish

like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in

Lebanon. Next verse.

Those who are planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish

in the courts of our God. What are the next?

They shall still bear fruit in old age.

They shall be fresh and flourishing.

I wonder for some of you older people in the room whether

that's your prayer, whether you actually read the Scripture and

you say, man, God, you've called me to bear fruit in my old age.

You've called me. To be fresh and to flourish when

you are planted, That's God's promise.

You shall be a fruit and be fresh and flourishing in old

age. Nexus to declare that the Lord

is upright. He is my rock.

There is no unrighteousness in Him.

The desire for God's house is that people would be planted.

People would be planted in His house.

God has called all of us to be planted in, to be knitted in, to

be knitted one to another. God's desire is that people

would be planted for a long time.

As it says, they still bear fruit in old age, which means

they've been there for a while. I'm not sure.

Leona Pat, you guys have been around church for how long?

Decades. Probably half a century or

something before 1960. That's 60 plus years, 60 plus

years planted in. The House of the Lord.

You still flourish and be fruitful and fresh when you're

planted in the house. We, we've heard even from Dudley

last year that unfortunately one of the biggest tragedies in

church life is people who call themselves Christians but are

not planted in. But the promise of God's house

is what he wants is that people who call themselves Christians

that would be planted in to a local church because that's

where you flourish, that's where you can be fruitful, is when

you're planted in, when you're built into the local church.

God once calls every single Christian to be planted into his

house, not just coming occasionally when they feel like

it, when there's a special event, when their favorite

preachers on, but that they would be planted in the House of

the Lord. God has called you to be planted

in, but not just to be planted as in coming on a Sunday, but to

be planted in, planted in with the people next to you.

God has called. His house to be a planted house.

I have three more and then we'll close.

Haggai one verse 4. It's it's what, and it's an

incredibly challenging text. This.

I'll just give you a summary. Basically, we heard last week,

Nehemiah, they're building a wall and they're rebuilding

Jerusalem. And then they get to the point

where they're trying to build their houses, right?

And the people of Israel are like, you know what, we're going

to build our own house. And the prophet Haggai comes in

this point, and it's not great. If we could throw that scripture

up here, his, his God's let it go for a while and he goes.

Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses,

and yet this temple to lie in ruins, or my.

House to lie in ruins. It's quite a challenging

scripture when God comes to these people and because they're

giving a lot of devotion to building their house.

But they're ignoring God's house.

And this can be a challenge for all of us, I think, because we

live in a world that that is all about making ourselves look

good. It's all about me making a

career for myself. It's more about me earning some

money, having a nice car and stuff like that.

And God comes to the people in the book of Haggai and says,

hang on, you're, you're building your house.

But my house lays in ruins. It's my point with this is that

God wants his house to be a priority.

His house is to be a priority. If I have a choice between being

with God's people and doing something else, my choice will

always be to be with God's people unless it is an

exceptionally rare circumstance. Because God has wants his house

to be a priority. And I know that can be.

There has been historically bad preaching on this, that it's

about giving everything you have to the church.

And if that's your heart, then that's that's not right.

But I give to his house because it's his house, right?

It's not because some pastor told me to that I have to be at

every meeting and I have to be there and serving or whatever

like that. I actually have a revelation

that this is what the house that God is building and that this

thing lasts forever as a God is cool.

God wants a priority, a value and a behaviour in his house.

Is that it is a priority in our lives?

That it is not the last thing on our list to kind of say, well,

I'll do this thing and that thing and if I've got some time

leftover, then I'll make it to church on time.

He's going, no, no, no. It actually takes high

precedence to be with the people of God, right?

And so we're like, oh, you know, maybe I'll do that thing and

then maybe I'm a bit tired now. I can't make it to prayer

meeting. God's called it to.

Be a priority because his house is to be a priority.

His house is to be a priority in our lives and he he expects it

to be a priority. And I want to just challenge

you. It's challenge for me as well,

kind of going, God, where in my life is your house not a

priority? And help me to make it a

priority. Do I need to swap some things

over? Do I need to change some of my

priorities here because I've actually let something take the

place of actually building God's house?

And it's not so much about just coming to God's house because

he, Haggai doesn't just say it's enough that you come to the

house. He actually says you've got to

come and build my house. And so it's not just enough to

say, well, I can go to church and that's enough.

That's that's what God is calling about a priority.

No, no, the priority is that I'm coming to participate and build

God's house. So are we making it not just a

priority to be here, but a priority to come and build here?

Which means I'm coming ready to contribute something.

I'm coming ready to encourage somebody, ready to pray for

somebody, ready to share something, ready to suggest a

song, ready to read something. The Bible actually speaks in the

book of Corinthians and says when you come together, everyone

should have a Psalm, A hymn, a spiritual song, a word of

encouragement, everyone, and that's challenging.

I want to ask you, did everyone come this morning whether you've

shared on the mic or not? Did everyone come with a Psalm

of him, a spiritual song, a word of encouragement, a word of.

Wisdom to share with somebody else.

When God says I want my house to be a priority, that's what he's

talking about. Not just I come to church on

time. God's house is to be a priority.

Hebrews 3, Four to six. Every house is built by someone,

but he who built all things is God.

Moses indeed was faithful in all God's house as a servant for a

testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but

Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we

hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm to

the end. My next point, second to last

point, is that God wants His house to be a persevering house.

We don't run when things get hard.

You see so many people when a church goes.

Through a bit of a trial or or something happens or the leaders

make a mistake or something like that, people run to the hills

and they kind of go. That's it, I'm done.

I'm out. The church hurt me.

I'm out God's. Value that he wants for His

church is that it would be a preserving, persevering church

that we would hold fast to the end.

God has called all of us to hold fast to our confession to the

very end because it's hard for all of us is to be persevering.

Last point comes from Ecclesiastes.

Walk prudently when you go to the House of God, draw near to

here rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do

not know that they do evil. If you go on into verse two and

three, it talks about watching what you say.

But my last point is that God wants a value in His House of

prudence, which is basically just to be careful when he

talks, like don't be so quick. We are meeting with the God of

the universe. Like I think sometimes we can we

approach God as our friend, which is great and God is our

father and that's awesome. But he's also Almighty God.

And the author of the book of Proverbs, Solomon, the wisest

man on the planet, said this the beginning, that the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so when we come into this

place, we are so careful why we are so free.

We are free because Christ has set.

US free we're. Also very careful because this

is also almighty God. And so I'm coming in and I'm

checking my heart and say, Lord, let there be nothing offensive

in me as I come to your house. If I actually says in in

Corinthians as well when they're talking about the Lord's Supper,

like taking communion and Paul writes and says, if you have an

issue with your brother, stop, go sort it out and then come

because you do it, you're dishonouring God.

And so when God says I want my house.

To be a prudent house. He's talking about that kind of

stuff. And so that when we come in,

we're saying, God creating me a clean heart, that when I come

into the House of the Lord, you would accept me.

And I, I plead the blood of Jesus over everything.

I can't remember, but I come in holiness and reverence of an

almighty God. And so we come here, we kind of,

as we encourage this warning around praise and around

worthiness, we're actually saying, well, you are worthy

because you're the king of all kings and the Lord of all Lords.

And yes, you're my ABBA father, and yes, you're, you're my

savior and my friend, but you are also King of kings, Lord of

Lords, Almighty God reigning and ruling in power.

And so I come and say, whore, I need some fear of the Lord in me

when I come. And I don't just throw things

off when God pinpoints stuff in my life, I don't just go, yeah,

it's fine because Jesus covers my blood.

It covers me with his blood. I go, no, no, no.

That needs to be dealt with because he wants it to be a pure

and a prudent house. When God speaks of his house,

these are some of the values and the cultures that he wants.

And I, I, I want to ask you if this is some of the stuff that

God wants in his house. These should be some of the

stuff that we want in our house. I want my house to be a

prayerful house that when people come in, I want them to know we

pray that we are a praising house.

We are celebrating who God is, that we are a packed house.

We we are always inviting people and our door is always open.

Because I know that God wants a packed house.

He wants people coming in. He wants people coming in here.

So I'm like, come, come, come. He wants it to be a positive

house, a joyful house. He wants us even in, in our

house, in our, in our home where we live.

He wants us to be thinking of the nations, to be hearing God's

voice for what he wants to do into our future and where he

wants to send us and lead us. He wants us to always be

predicated by and pointing to Jesus.

In everything we do in our house, we're always teaching our

kids about Jesus. We're reading the word and

pointing them. They have this great Bible, I

can't remember what it's called, but basically every story in it

ends up with the last paragraph that actually just points them

to Jesus like you're reading about Abraham offering.

Isaac as a sacrifice and it's pointing and saying, but there

was a lamb to come to take away the sins of the world.

And it's always pointing to Jesus.

That's what I want in my house, that everything, everything that

happens, I'm pointing back and say, oh, Jesus, and I'm pointing

my kids to Jesus. I want my house to be a powerful

house where the testimony is that God is at work.

I'd love and I dream of this, my neighbors being like, man, we

know that when you pray, God moves your house.

It seems to be where God does stuff.

So hey, we've got this problem. Come and pray.

And I'm like, yeah, I believe that God will move in power.

I want my house to be a providing house that we would

not just provide for the House of God, but that God would use

us to provide for his purposes and plans.

It says I got any resources you give to me?

It's not a question of how much I should get.

It's just a question. It just flows through.

I'm just like, Lord, you asked me to give that I give.

Why? Because you've called me to be a

providing house. He's called me to be a planted

house. I'm this, this is not optional

for us, our kids, even when they're like, oh, we've got to

do this. We've got to do this, yes, but

it's a priority. This is a priority.

Why? Because it's God's priority.

He's building his house. We persevere in our house.

I want our house to be a house where we persevere in the things

of God. They were saying, you know what?

Yes, things might get hard and tough and whatever, but we

persevere and we hold fast to God.

No matter what goes on around us, we hold fast when when

things get tough, we hold fast and we cling to hope.

And I want our house also to be a prudent house where we deal

with things quickly and we say, Lord, keep us clean, creating us

a clean heart before you so that when we come, there's nothing.

There's no offense, there's no issues, there's nothing.

And I'm just it's, we're keeping quick short accounts with people

and with things. So I want to ask you, these are

some of the values and behaviors that you want to see in your

house as well in your home. This is what God desires for all

of us to walk in and to live in. Would you close your eyes?

And we'll pray. Father, we, we come before you

this morning again, as we've just heard attributes of your

house. And we we thank you that it's

your house, your building, that these aren't just things that we

like. Probably some things we don't

like to hear, but ultimately this is your house.

And that when you spoke of building your church and

building your house, you said that the gates of hell would not

prevail against it, that this would be an advancing house

taking ground for the king and his Kingdom.

And so we pray, Lord, as a local church, as you build some of

these things into our culture, some of these values and

behaviors, into our midst, into our homes, the Lord, we would

see the gates of hell push back. We would see this house advance

into all that God. Has for it.

We ask for our own lives on that list that you would highlight

something to us where you where we need to change, where we need

to adjust a value and a behaviour in our life to align

with what you want for your house.

We thank you for our time together this morning.

We thank you for allowing us to meet here, for all that you're

doing over the past few weeks and all that you're going to do.

Into our future we pray Lord, that you would build and

establish your Kingdom come and your will be done in this place

as it is in heaven. In Jesus mighty name we thank

you. Amen.

Amen. Good.

Job, thank you bro, can we can we put this the list just back

up for a second, please? You know, as I'm sitting there

looking at this, I was just like I was thinking about Jesus,

right? Like Jesus was all of these

things, like all of them, like you look at that Jesus represent

every one of these things. He's perfect, right?

And we are, you know, like as much as these things are for our

house and for our houses and we are, we are a vessel for his

Holy Spirit. That means that all of these

things can be found in US if we're yielded to God and that

he's able to use us powerfully, right?

And they like they, they, they, they crossover as well.

Like, you know, like if you've got a, if you've got a

conviction that the House of God would be packed, you would be

planted. But you would, that this would

be a priority to you, you would be here, right?

And it works back the other way. Like if you, if it's not a

priority, you, you probably don't think too much about this

house being packed. But the reality is, if we're not

here, this place isn't packed. Do you see what I'm saying?

So they do crossover and all of these things like we can't, we

can not do these things in our own strength.

And I was reading this morning about you just in the book of

Acts, because, you know, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes

and empowers them, right? The Holy Spirit comes, that's

the thing. He empowers them, right?

But that's not the only place that you read that, because then

you read a bit further down and and they're praying and they're

persecuted and they're saying, Lord, you know, give us

boldness. What happens?

The Holy Spirit fills them. We need to be filled with the

Holy Spirit. So I'm going to pray today like

if you're willing, if you, if you want, if this is the desire

for you that you want to see the House of God built the way that

the Scripture teaches us to, to build and for him to do what he

says he would do. We're going to require for the

Holy Spirit to come and move in this place upon us, his vessels.

So would you, would you stand with me?

Like let's just stand on. I'm just going to pray and, and

according to your willingness, the Lord will give you what you

need to fulfill his will. Amen.

That is true. So Father, we, we look to you

and even as we see in scripture, they, they ask you, Lord, for

boldness. We've praised Jesus, we've lift

you high, we've lifted the name of Jesus in this place.

Lord, now we're asking, Holy Spirit, won't you fill us?

Won't you come and empower us? Lord, won't you allow us to

overcome the the hurdles to deal with the stuff that's held us

back, Lord, whatever it is, because there's things that are

going on in our lives, in our thinking, all of this stuff

that's contrary to your word. So I just pray that the Holy

Spirit would wash over us, wash over our minds, wash over our

spirits, wash over our bodies, Lord, and empower us to be the

vessels you've called us to be, but that we would be the house

that you've called us to be. And these things we pray in

Jesus mighty name, Amen. Guess what?

I think I've been sitting here, I, I really appreciate the, the,

the, the piece and I'm desperately trying to find

something that will convey the concept that house is mobile

because within an hour or two, the house is gone from here.

The house is in the house. I think we've got to separate in

our minds the brick and whatever mortal, whatever is around us

and the people of God. If we come to the House of God,

what are we coming to? We're not coming to a building.

We're coming to God's people. And I think it's very helpful to

realize that the word church, the word church is, if you go to

the etymology of the word church, it comes from a, a

Germanic base. It has to do with the building.

If we take the word from the the Greek text of the Bible, the

word is ecclesia, which is the coming together or the the

gathering of the covenant people of God.

We've got to I think it's such a pity we keep we've got to use

this word church, because you know, if you ask somebody

where's your church, you will say, Oh, well, it's on this Ave.

or that and to just here this morning just to separate

ourselves from the building. And I'm appreciate the building.

Don't misunderstand, but we've got to believe that when you

come to the House of God, where are you coming to?

You're coming to a family of God.

You're coming to the cold out and, and, and, and if you're

bringing money, where you, who are you bringing the money to?

To this building? No, no, no, you're bringing

money to this family of God that's being led by elders who

God is putting in position. It just helps me.

It helps me to separate that in my mind.

Very good. Very good.

Do you know that Kiara and Linda here, who are part of another

church, have come to church this morning, Right.

They've come to be with the family.

Amen. It's a wonderful thing.

Thank you, Leon. Thank you guys.

Let's enjoy this day. Let's pray for one another, ask

each other how we're doing, be the House of God, love one

another. Let's experience heaven in this

place. Amen.

Thank you for joining us for today's message.

For more information about The Way Church, please visit

[email protected] dot AU.

Have a blessed day.