1st March 2026: More Jesus...

Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South

Australia. So we've got Leo is with us

today. Leo leads a church with his wife

Christine and the eldership team there, GGC in Sydney.

So we're blessed to have these guys here today.

Leo and Christine are part of the NCMI team.

You know that they're here to them to minister and impart

something of, you know, from their gift into this church.

So, you know, I say all that just to say that let's be

expected. Let's be expecting that God's

bringing these people in. These are, you know, we say

this, these aren't guest speakers.

We partner with NCMI. God brings the gifts in from the

from the NCMI team. They impart something here

that's needed for the building and the establishing of this

lampstand. And, and you know, these gifts,

where, where are they imparted? It's not imparted into this

building. It's not imparted to the name,

the way church. It's into the vessels of the

sons and daughters, the bride of the church.

That means that we need to be open to receive this morning.

And I know that we are, and I'm going to just invite Leo to come

and share with us. And also Dudley's going to come

and pray for us and for Leo. And I'll just hand over to these

guys. But I hope we're expecting

because God's wanting to do something in this place today.

Amen. Amen.

Just before we pray for you, I've known you for, I don't

know, 30-40 years. I don't know how long it is.

He's a man of integrity, got a great church planted out of

their church just in the last few years, 33 churches all

growing. To me, it's an absolute honor

and a privilege to have him in our church today.

I really mean that. I think it's a special time for

us and I can't say strongly enough how much I'd like you

just to open your hearts and say, God, we've got to change

whatever he has to say, no matter how tough it may be or

how encouraging it is, we embrace it all.

So Father, in Jesus name, I just put my hands on this man.

We stretch our hands out. He's your vessel, he's your son.

We just honor what he has done, what he's done for you, how much

he loves you, the joy we see, the liberty, the freedom, we ask

your blessing upon him. Give him such a sense of freedom

today that there may be that authority and power that

transforms and doesn't just inform in Jesus name.

Amen. Thanks for having us.

My wife went back to Sydney to preach in in our church and so

she left Friday so she would have loved to be with me.

Good to see. So good to see Leon and Pat

again after many years. And Leon and Pat were the first

one of the first couples that came into my home when my mom

was alive and she put on a massive Italian meal.

And that's when we first connected and they helped us

connect to the into my team. I got saved at 19, started the

church at 22 and Leon was talking about God uses rookies

and man was IA rookie and still am a rookie.

But I, I want to, I want to say that by God's grace, I mean

Dudley and Anne came from South Africa in 89.

Is that correct? 89 roughly around there and you

know, to, to take over a church and, and little did I know God

was connecting us and connecting the dots because I'm starting a

church in 1990 that already come from South Africa to Adelaide to

take over a church. And if we didn't connect with

the team, I can honestly say I would have been a shipwrecked in

ministry because I had no blueprint.

I had no understanding on how to do church.

I, I got saved at 19, started at 22.

I'm three years in the Lord and now I'm going to start a church

in my mom's lounge room. Literally had no understanding

except from the church that came out of which was quite religious

and legalistic and very, very American Pentecostalism.

And they spoke, they told unless you speak in tongues, you're not

saved and had a lot of other wrong doctrines.

So the Lord showed me through the word of God, I needed to

come out and but but two or three years after we started

with when we heard of Dudley, actually friend of mine, Kevin

Wilcox invited Dudley come to Wollongong.

I don't know if you remember that little meeting with about

8910 pastors because Kevin was leading a great church in the

Wollongong and heard about what's happening in Coastlands

and flew him over. And that's when I first heard

Dudley speak. And I thought this is this is

what I've been looking for. I've been looking for two or

three years after the church started and because we partnered

with the team of A5 fold ministry gift that's biblical

according to Ephesians chapter 4, God uses and God raises

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

authentic apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelist teachers to

give to the church to to equip the Saints to do the work of the

ministry. And then I started to I started

to start to understand the blueprint a little bit of the

blueprint meaning how do you build a house if you don't have

a blueprint? How do you build a church if

God's way if you don't have a blueprint?

And so little by little, month by month, year by year,

sometimes three years into it, I thought I've got this now.

And then ten years later realize I'm still changing, still

learning. I'm still unlearning all the

wrong stuff. 10/15/20 And now it's 30, five years later, I'm

still unlearning, believe it or not, still learning.

And I just want to, I want us to understand the way God does

this. I remember Dudley preaching in

one of the equips in Adelaide 25 years ago about and he was

preaching about the Kingdom. I remember in those days no one

was speaking about the Kingdom and he was saying how Jesus

brought the Kingdom and he preached the gospel of the

Kingdom. He said repent for the Kingdom

of God is at hand. And so I did my own study to

look at the word Kingdom and understand that's what he was

all about. But that's the nature of

Apostolic ministry. It shows the church to get back

on the Plumb line and focus on the word of God, what the word

of God speaks about. And so Tyra in the last, I don't

know, 10, maybe 15 years he's been speaking about bringing us

back to Jesus because Jesus is the Plumb line.

And we could hear that guy. Yeah, but why is he saying that?

Because he's Apostolic and trying to get us back to the

word, trying to get us back to what the Bible emphasizes.

And so, you know, this year I, I thought to myself on, on my

holiday and I was, and I thought to myself, well, our, our vision

for the, the year, it's always the same, but we want to present

to the church the same vision. But we try to say, guys, what

are we going to focus on this year?

And it's more Jesus. And we're going to explain

throughout the whole year, what does it mean by more Jesus?

What do you mean more Jesus? So that's of course, it's about

Jesus. But when you read the Bible and

even the way you see the church operating, a lot of times it's

not about Jesus. It's not it's we we get off

track and we we emphasize on everything about what the Bible

emphasizes. And so Jesus has to become the

Plumb line. And so I thought to myself, I'm

going to look up the word Christ Jesus in the New Testament. 238

scriptures were there. I mean, I'm going to go through

every one of them one by one. Then I looked up the word Jesus,

just the name Jesus in the New Testament.

It's 998 scriptures in the New Testament, the name Jesus.

I'm going to go for every single only started.

So it's going to take me a long time to get through, but to read

with fresh eyes and look at the word and what the what God's

Word emphasizes. It's about being in relationship

with Christ. It's about knowing him, you

know, because when you start a church when you're young, it's

easy to you start to do things because you want to grow.

You can start to even prepare messages.

So I find, I find I'm going to be really honest with you.

Sometimes there's passes or leaders or leaders of churches.

We, we, we'll pay a price because we want the church to

grow. So we'll pay a price and seek

God's face and get in the word. And, and so I'm in the word was

going to prepare a message. But what about my relationship

with him? There were, there were stages in

my walk where I had to prepare 5-6 messages a week, morning and

night service. We had a radio ministry, a

Wednesday night leaders or Friday youth.

And there's always, sometimes at 5 messages, 6 messages.

So every time you're in the Barb, you're trying to get a

message that can burn you out because your relationship with

God isn't being sustained, just you and him.

And he speaks to you as a son and your identity comes out of

your relationship with him, not because you want something to

grow. So I, I think people have paid.

Please hear my heart. And we all mean well around the

body of Christ. I mean, the men and the men and

women of God that are in leadership are doing the

absolute best and, and sometimes we'll pay a price because we

want to succeed. I mean, who doesn't want to

succeed? We're created to succeed.

No one, no one wakes up in the morning and go, I want to fail

today. I want to fail so good.

Like you don't wake up thinking I want to, I want to be a

failure. Now you wake up, whatever you're

doing, business, ministry, work, home, family, you want to

succeed. So we seek God because I want to

be anointed. So we'll even pray and fast for

days and seek God's word. I want to be anointed so I can

preach the word with power, so the church can grow.

And it's usually my motive was so I can look good.

So without knowing there was pride there and selfish

ambition. When I, when I started at 22, I

didn't know I had so much selfish ambition.

But you can't wait until you're completely clean of all those

wrong motives. So don't hear what I'm not

saying. You've got to move with God and

in the process of growing and changing and, and, and you know,

doing the will of God the best way, you know, he, he, you die

1000 deaths, you die to yourself, you die to your flesh,

you die to your selfish ambition.

You died of the wrong motives, right?

So, so please don't look too introspective and go, I must

have some selfish motives. I'm not going to do anything.

No, pay a price, seek God and let him cleanse us and wash us

and purify us as we move closer to him.

So, so I'm just saying, I believe that when people are

paying a price for success and whatever they think success is,

when they get there, they're no longer motivated to pay a price

because they weren't paying a price to know him, to be in love

with him, to be known by him. So if you're paying a price even

because you want your business to grow, I'm going to, I'm going

to be this soft discipline. I'm going to be, I'm going to,

I'm going to get in the word. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm

going to get wisdom from the word so I, I can make my

business grow and all that. All great motives.

What happens when you, when you arrive, what you think is

success? If that was a motivation, the

motivation's no longer there. And that's where, where people

will fall. You've seen many, many men and

women that fall once they've got to what they thought success was

because along the way you lose your intimate relationship with

the Lord. So they were sincere.

They started well, but we've got to stay focused on it's all

about relationship with him and stay.

And I, you know, I, I looked up the word like, as I said, Gee,

and I'm still going through those scriptures and I, and I, I

just want to show us how the, the whole, the whole word of God

is all about him from Genesis to Revelation.

It's actually about God's love story where God the Father

restores us back to himself through his son, Jesus Christ,

from the book of Genesis to the revelations, right, right at

the, the whole, through the whole redemptive story.

It's a whole plan of God, God's mystery that was hidden in God

so he could bring mankind back to himself.

It's all about him. It's all about Jesus, all about

that love story. I don't know how we messed up

and make it all about us. I suppose it's our selfish

motives and fleshly motives. But but the whole Bible, you

know, because I looked up the word, you start to see things

and sell one of our guys. He he was doing the same because

I asked him to get into the word and have a look and he said he

saw the first scripture, Matthew chapter one verse one.

It says the genealogy of Jesus, the beginning of Jesus, the the

origins of Jesus and it gives you the whole someone said begat

begat, begat, begat, but it's all about Jesus, the genealogy,

the beginnings, the origins of Jesus, the book of Revelations

right at the end, the last verse, last few verse.

It's actually the cry of the bride Lord Jesus come quickly

and the and it finishes with the grace of our Lord Jesus be with

you, not the grace of positions looking for a position in the

church. I'll pay a price.

I can get a titles, I can get a position now that's that's that

is where we get it all wrong. It's the grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ right, all right. This is so many scriptures when

you look at it, when you look through the word of God.

I love the fact that Jesus the Bible says Jesus will return in

the clouds of glory and wrap up history and time and eventually

that Angel will say time will be no more and when he returns, his

face will shine brighter than the sun.

I want, I don't got time to go for all the scriptures, but it's

in Daniel, it's in Matthew, it's in the Gospels, it's Acts

quotes, it, you know where the sun shall be darkened on that

day. The sun shall be darkened and

the moon won't shed its light. The moon turns into blood, but

the sun will be. What does that mean?

The sun shall be dark? I don't get it.

And when you look it up, it's, it's talking about the last

days, talking about Jesus returning.

And it says on that last day, it's like, because of it's the

last day and the Lord returns, the sun will be darkened.

And I saw it Jesus when he when he, when he comes back to earth

and he splits the eastern side and he talks about I will come

back with clouds of glory. He's the glory of Jesus will

outshine the sun so that the sun won't even seem to turn

darkness. So I have a light bulb here and

it's turning in and everything's, all the lights are

turned off in a light bulb and I get a floodlight, a massive

floodlight. That light bulb goes to

darkness. You won't see it anymore.

The, the physical sun. And I, I look at the sun now

like, oh God, one day you're going to come back.

Your face will shine the sun. This is the glory of the face of

Jesus, our God, our Creator, when it comes back to the

planet. I love the fact that Revelations

2123 again, I just want to show us the magnificence of our Lord.

And the Bible says in, in Revelation 2123 and the city has

no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it.

For the glory of the of God has illuminated it and it's lamp is

the Lamb of God, which is who is Jesus.

Now think about that for a moment.

That's not playing with words. When when New Jerusalem comes to

the earth, there is no need of a physical sun because he himself

will sit on the throne and his face shines and bright brightens

up the whole city. I mean, wow, it has to boggle

our mind who we worship and that everything we do is to know him.

And, and you know, as, as you know, the Bible, it talks about

Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

The, the word of God is really clear with, yeah, the, the

revelation of Jesus. Peter, when, when the Lord said

to Peter, who you know, when the Lord said to his disciples, who

do people say that I am? And we know that story where

basically they say, well, some people say you're Elijah come

back from the dead. Some people think you're

Jeremiah, one of the prophets come back.

I mean, really, really wrong, right?

But that's what they were thinking, religious,

superstitious, possibly them. And they said, but who do you

say that I am? And Peter stood up and says,

you're, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus responded and said, flesh and blood didn't reveal

this to you. My Father in heaven showed you

that I'm the Christ, the Son of the living God, which is

powerful. And then he says, and upon this

Peter, Little Rock, upon this rock, the revelation of you

knowing who Christ is, I'll build my church.

So I'm encouraging you all to know that God's going to build

the church because of your revelation of Christ.

So intimate love relationship with Christ, not the right

principles of growth finding all the what what do we do for

growth and what are the methods What are just have a revelation

of Jesus. Preach the revelation of Christ

because it's when we get a revelation of Jesus every one of

us as part of the body of Christ here in the way when we get a

revelation of Jesus God will build his church because he's

the foundation that's powerful. When Jesus said I will build my

church upon the revelation of people understanding who I am my

identity. Your relationship with him.

He will build his church, although I had to build the

church. No, he'll build his church when

you get a revelation of Christ. Our responsibility is to have an

intimate relationship with Jesus and preach Christ and and make

it all about him in relationship.

I mean think of the the reality and the power.

I love this. Revelations 17 Behold, He is

coming with the clouds and every eye will see him.

I mean, the Bible says every eye will see him.

Every eye is going to see him one day.

What about this one? Philippians chapter 2, verse 10

Philippians 2:10

and 11:00 So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and

every those in heaven, those on earth and those under the earth,

and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the

Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Just every, every billions of people that are on the planet,

8000 million people on the planet right now, all the people

that ever existed, those in heaven, those on earth, those

under the earth will confess and will bow not willingly, but

because they stand before the throne and they will confess

that Jesus Lord. I'm just the reality of the

emphasis. I don't know the the importance,

the power, the glory of who Jesus is, the fact that one day

everyone's going to do it and we need to be preaching, speaking,

connecting, encouraging, pursuing everyone to have a

relationship with him. Matthew we, we went through

that. Ephesians Oh no, I, I, I just

thought I'd start to understand about how do you build

everything on Jesus? Everything we preach about

should point us to Jesus, everything.

So you say tithe and offering. Preach on tithe and offering in

the context of ultimately you talk about the Old Testament,

the New Testament and everything, but explain that we

bring the 10% of all that have increased to who?

To the high priest, to Jesus, because of my relationship with

him, He's my creator, He's my God, he's my king.

I want to bring my first fruits to the high priest, that'll take

my tithe and I receive to him so he can do what he wants to do

with the Kingdom. He spends it on the preaching of

the gospel of the Kingdom to establish his covenant on the

earth. But to let people know you're

not just tithing because we're asking you to.

We're not tithing you because the church is asking you to.

We're asking you to tithe to him as Lord.

So if you you call him Lord, give him he owns everything

anyway. Start with 10% and start to give

more than that for the sake of the King to give to him.

I'm intimately in my relationship.

I'm actually giving my first fruits times and offering to him

my relationship as a person. I'm following my Lord.

Amen. Teach on teach on marriage

Ephesians 5. It's all about Jesus.

Jesus been the pattern, Jesus been the model.

So when you preach on marriage, don't just preach on the

principles how to get together and live together.

Men are different, women are different, and you preach about

all that, but you don't preach Christ.

We should be preaching Christ when we preach on marriage.

If you teach on faith. I've heard so many messages on

faith and I've heard the principles of faith like this is

how it works and no mention of Jesus, no mention of the person

of faith works like this. Jesus speaks to me and I trust

His word, so we have to preach faith.

Because you have faith in Jesus as your Lord and when you have

an interval relationship with him, he speaks to you.

And because he spoke to you, that's how faith comes.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by God spoken word to

you. So you have to preach to Jesus.

When you preach on faith, you can't do it any other way.

But we've, we've heard so many principles and success, but

we've done that to so many of these even songs.

We've there are so many places we've seen and we don't even

know who we're singing about sometimes in some places and

like I said, some messages, some sermons, some preaching where we

preach and we that's a great motivational thing.

That's great. And now I know how to walk in

faith, but no relationship with him.

Everything has to point to him. Does that make sense?

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1116. We haven't got time to go

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

through it, but it's, it's I'm quoting you all these scriptures

and, and Ephesians 11 basically says the apostle, the prophet,

the pastor, evangelist, the teacher were gifted by Jesus to

the whole body of Christ. So they can they can equip the

Saints to do the work of the ministry so they can grow the

Saints into maturity. And this is going to happen

until we all come into the unity of the faith, until we come into

the fullness of the stature of Christ.

So what do those gifts do? Point us all to Jesus in our

relationship with him so that we can become more like Jesus.

They want to preach so they can impress people.

So that wow, I love that preacher.

You know, sometimes we go to church and we go, wow, that was

a great message. I love that message.

That was so powerful. And we didn't, instead of

saying, I went to church and man, Jesus is amazing, I just

got a fresh revelation of Jesus. Well, you know, the songs and

you say the worship was great. I love the worship.

But what about if we say Jesus was so amazing in worship I

drink closer to him. So the focus isn't the encounter

or even the experience. It's I enjoyed him.

You're following Ephesians chapter 2, verse 21, having been

Ephesians 2:21

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ

Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.

And you know, I, I, I looked up, I heard about this, but I looked

it up as well and researched it how they used to build with a

chief cornerstone. They had to get the squarestone

and if it, and they'd also test that stone and hit it and if a

crack that would use it, they're going to make sure it's a strong

stone so they can be in the corner of the, of the building

and they're going to Plumb line. That stone has to be a straight

stone because depending on that stone will determine how strong

that wall will be on that side and on this side.

If you've got a crooked stone and it's offline and off kilter

kilter, it would, the building wouldn't stand, wouldn't handle

the pressure. So in the mind of a building

those days, the cornerstone was the most important stone and

everything, it's lined up, planned by it, you know,

directed by it from the cornerstone.

So Jesus is the cornerstone, but he's also the foundation of what

we built, like everything we do is built on him.

Does it make sense? I mean, Jesus said, if you hear

my words and don't do it, you're like a man who built his house

on sand. He's actually talking about

foundation. But if you hear my words and put

it into practice, you're a man that built his house on the

rock. The storms came, the floods came

to both. And we usually act like, oh, you

don't know what I've gone through.

I mean, really, really bad. I like, like, you don't know,

I've just this happened, this happened.

My mom died of cancer. I, you know, my, my wife left me

for another person like you, you, you What we're doing is

we're, I started a business and I went bankrupt.

What are we doing? We're blaming the severity of

the storm. So you don't know how bad my

storm was. This is why I'm crumbling.

I'm crumbling because the storm was so bad.

Now the storm was bad for the one who built on the rock and

the storm was just as bad the one who built on the sand.

The difference was the foundation.

So when you got the right foundation, even when the storms

come, it won't move you. It wasn't the severity of the

storm. No matter how hard the storm

hits, you're on the rock. You got nowhere to go when

you're on the foundation of the Word, which is Jesus's word.

Amen. Colossians 3 verse one there.

Therefore you have been raised up with Christ.

Keep seeking those things that are above where Christ is like

you've been raised with Christ. Keep seeking those things that

are above where Christ is No, this Christ is seated at the

right hand of the Father. It says think on those things

dwell there seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above where Christ is not on the

things on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden

with who Christ. So the Bible's always

instructing us to make sure your mind, your focus, your heart,

your faith, your relationship is about him.

I love you know, this is when you go through the scriptures 1

by 1 you'll start to see it's all over.

Like I said, 928 scriptures just on Jesus Christ Jesus 238 and

and and like for example, this one, it says all in Colossians

2-3 in whom in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and

knowledge. So not like not me attending

church, not me not even me being faithful going to church, which

we need to do, but churches ask gathering because we all have an

intimate relationship with Christ.

So, so to me that's saying in Christ, my relationship with him

and obeying his word are hidden in all the treasures of wisdom

and knowledge. And then we do get we are

connected to the body of Christ. We are connected to family, we

are connected to the community. We do serve together.

You can't just say, well, I'm going to follow Jesus and I'll

be at home. Thank you very much.

That's not going to work because Jesus himself said we need to

gather, we need to be a body, we need to be a family, and we need

to be in covenant. You know, my children, I've

raised five children. Never ever once my children

were, even if they had arguments with each other, and they never,

ever did this. So I've had enough.

I'm going down the road and find another family.

I've never done that, never tempted to do that because they

belong to our family. And so yeah, when we don't

understand how we belong little little little misunderstanding a

little thing here a little a little hurt.

I'm going to find another church that's not biblical thinking

Kingdom thinking. I love here it says Jesus says

Romans one verse one Paul a bond servant of Christ Jesus.

Think about that for a second. Paul is a servant of Christ.

So when we go to church who am IA servant of I'm a servant of

Christ first. Not even I'm not a servant of

the way or the leadership here or the elders here.

You ultimately serve Christ. But Christ puts us in and we

submit to our elders 100%. But my hard attitude is I'm

serving him first. That's the foundation.

And because I serve Him, he puts us in a body.

And yes, submit yourself to your elders.

Obey your elders. Have a rule over you.

You know, there's so many promises, the redemption, which

is in Christ Jesus, the promises that are in Christ.

In other words, the promise of the Spirit, the promise of God's

presence, the promise of the Holy Spirit living in me is

because we have relationship with Christ.

Isn't that true? You can go to church every week

for social reasons. Even because I'm lonely, I'm

going to, I'm going to connect with someone that I can talk to,

so I'll go to church. But you're not having an

interrelationship with Christ. The promises are in Christ, in

your love. That's why everything we do and

emphasize should be all about Him, because that's all the

promises, redemption, everything found is in Christ, in our

relationship with Him. I love the fact that Bible says

we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.

Think about that for a moment. Everyone one day is going to

stand before Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his

deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good

or bad. And I used to think, what?

What do you mean? Whether good or bad, How do you

get recompensed for what you've done in your body, whether good

or bad? So if I've done something that

was a bad thing would be my fleshly works, not, not, not

listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, but trying to do

something in my own effort. So that'll burn up and mount to

nothing. I'll suffer loss in that day,

but I'm still saved. And in First Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

3 gives us that well Paul opens it up a lot better and he goes

verse pick it up from verse 11 chapter 3.

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is

light, which is Jesus Christ. Again the foundation is Jesus

can't lay any other foundation other than Jesus right now if

any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver or precious

stone. Now gold, silver and precious

stone can handle fire. Gold, silver and precious stone

gets purified in fire. You're following.

So if I, if I put gold through the fire, it purifies, it

handles the fire and it gets better on the other side, silver

is the same, precious stones the same.

But wood, if you build on the foundation of Jesus with, with

the objects of wood, hay and stubble, straw, I mean wood, hay

or straw is going to burn up, right?

Each man's work will become evident, for the day will show

it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself

will test the quality of each man's work, so that the day of

the Lord will test it. If any man's work which he has

built on remains, he will receive a reward.

If any man's work builds up, so anyone's work is burnt up, he

will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet so through the

fire. How do you suffer loss when you

stand before the judgment seat of Christ?

Whatever I've done on this earth with selfish motives, prideful

motives, not listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, where

He spoke to me and I acted and obeyed, if He spoke to me and

acted and obeyed, He'll be rewarded.

If I done it in my own strength, it'll burn up to nothing.

Be careful how you build. But the foundation is Jesus.

So we want to build with the right things because in heaven

you will be rewarded. It's just that's just God's

nature. But if we don't do it his way,

it'll burn up to nothing. Again.

It's it's, it's all about intimate relationship with him.

I'm trying to help us see that everything I do for him, it's

all about relationship with him. And, and, and I love Philippians

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. And maybe before we read that

and quickly read that, but because I think Paul's really

trying to hit something about it's all about Jesus.

It's all about knowing him but Ephesians chapter 1, you know

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

his pray as an apostle. I mean write 3/4 of the New

Testament. He's close to the Lord.

He's writing scripture and he's emphasis of prayer.

I, I bound my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and

this is what he prays for. I pray and I pray that the Lord

will open up your eyes and sorry the Lord pray that the Lord will

give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge

of Jesus. That's it.

The spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him better.

I mean, wow, his whole emphasis, his revelation is the best

prayer I can pray is that you would have the spirit of wisdom

and revelation to know him better because it's all about

knowing him better. And that he would open up the

eyes of your understanding to the hope of your calling.

And I know calling's got to do with your calling.

You know your destiny, your what you're called to do.

But I believe it's even more, it's the word.

The word is invitation. I'd like to look at it this way,

open up my eyes to the hope of my invitation into relationship

because that's the foundation, not what I do for him.

Does it make sense? Like if I'm if I'm motivated to

pay a price so I can grow and succeed, what happens when I'm

no longer leading a church? What?

What stops us from sin? The fear of the Lord stops us

from sinning. So what should stop us from

sinning and walking in the flesh?

The Bible says give no provision to the flesh, but put on the

Lord Jesus Christ and give no provision to the flesh.

Why do we not give provision to the flesh?

Because if we give provision to the flesh, it hinders our

relationship with God. Not the growth, not success, but

our relationship with God. And your, your relationship with

God is so precious to you. And it's, it's the most

important thing that I don't want to do that it's hindering

our relationship. That's what's going to motivate

you to become holy and set apart.

And I say, Lord, one day, if you one day he will, I'll hand over

the church and and trust God. I'll still minister and

everything, but what happens if I've got no invitations?

How about me and the Lord? Am I still willing to spend time

in the word in his presence and pray and seek his face just to

know him? If it's if we if we preach the

word, I think we will. Paul says for to me to live is

Christ to live is Christ to die is going because I go straight

into the presence of God. But to live what's what's living

about Christ. Think about that for a second so

we don't get sidetracked where we our focus becomes everything

else but my relationship with him.

Even in the church. I believe I know Tyron's been

speaking to us for for over a decade, 10 years.

Get us on the Plumb line, get us back to the Lord, back to the

Word, back to Jesus. And he talks about doing it in

him, with him, from him, for him.

I write down for him, to him. Everything's got to be for him,

from him, to him, with him. And that's in the book of

Revelations. That gives you a love.

Romans says. For from him and through him and

to him are all things. To him be glory.

Forever. Worthy are you, O Lord our God,

to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and because of your will they

existed and were created. Everything is for you.

And so Philippians, who is it? Philippians?

Let's read Philippians chapter 3 and where Paul really is using

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

this powerful argument like he's talking about wanting to know

Christ and he says you know it gives his qualifications, but

you don't understand what he's saying.

Verse 3 says, for we are the true circumcision who worship in

the Spirit of God and glory in Christ.

We glory in Christ. Everything we do is glory in our

relationship with Christ Jesus and put on put no confidence in

the flesh. We don't put any confidence in

the flesh, right? Although I myself might have

confidence even in the flesh. In other words, he's saying if I

was to be like you and try to have confidence in the flesh,

then I've got a few things that I can boast about.

I wouldn't do it, but it is if I was in the flesh and I wanted to

boast, I would say this is what Paul's saying.

If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far

more circumcise the 8th day. I mean, really big deal.

Circumcise the 8th day. Listen to what he's trying to

say of the of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of

Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews as to

the law of the Pharisee, as to zeal.

I was persecuting, persecuting the church as to write the

righteousness which is in the law found blameless.

But whatever things were gained to me in the flesh, if that was

supposed to be gained to me, those things I counted as lost

for the sake of knowing Christ. If I rely on those things, I'm

not relying on Christ, even if I think, well, I've been a

Christian for 39 years, I preached the gospel for 35

years, Big deal. It gives me no right standing

with God. It gives me no access to the

Father. I have no confidence in the

flesh. No matter what I've done.

I've preached thousands of messages.

So what? It's basically what he's trying

to say. It means nothing.

We all stand before God because of the blood of Jesus, because

of what he did for us on the cross.

I, I can't have any confidence whatsoever.

Anything I've done for him all my life, even if I've served him

for 100 years, there's nothing I can't look at that.

I don't even look at that right. More than that, I count all

things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord. See how he his emphasis is

that's nothing. Oh, that's nothing.

So that I I don't rely on it. I don't take confidence.

I don't I'm not confident what I've done for him because I want

to be look what he says. View of the surpassing value of

knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the

loss of all those things and count them but rubbish so that I

may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness

of my own. If I've got a righteousness of

my own, that means I've got confidence in what I've done for

him. And he's saying I don't rely on

anything I've done for him because I want to be found in

Him. Not having a righteousness on my

own, but my righteousness which comes from God on the basis of

faith. Do you see what he's concluding?

He's saying, guys, none of nothing that you've done for him

all the years you've served him means nothing because that

doesn't give you access. If it did, then then it relies

on our good works. Realize how good we've been.

It's got nothing to do with our access to the Father through the

blood of Jesus Christ and faith in him.

And so, so he's basically saying that that that I would be found

in him, but that which is through faith in Christ, the

righteousness which comes from God.

I mean, think about that for a second.

God's righteousness on the basis of faith so that I may know him

and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship

of his suffering and being conformed to his death in order

that I may attain to the resurrection of that I be that I

may know him all that I'm doing. Everything I'm pursuing Paul

saying is to know him. Isn't that beautiful

encouragement and in verse 12, not that I have already obtained

or have already become mature and know him.

I'm not I haven't arrived, but I press on to that I may hold,

sorry, I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also

I was laid hold of in Christ Jesus sounds like a bit of

mixture of words, but he's basically saying he goes, I

press on Paul saying I press on so that I may lay hold of that

for which also Christ laid hold of me.

The witch. What motivated Christ that laid

hold of me? What motivated Christ that laid

down his life for me, his love for me, the very thing that

motivated Christ to love me. I want to be motivated to love

him. That's what he's saying.

I want to I want to be motivated by the same everlasting love

that motivated Christ to take a hold of me.

I want to, I want to also take a hold of him, right.

And he's saying not that. Yeah, brethren, I do not regard

myself having laid hold of it yet.

I mean, this is after he's raised the dead, healed the

sick, planted churches, turned the world upside down with the

gospel is I have not because his pursuit wasn't the things and

the planting of the churches. Yet we do all that and preach in

the gospel. His pursuit is Jesus.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it, but

one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, forgetting what lies

behind, and there are some pretty successful things for

Paul and reaching forward to what lays ahead.

I press on towards the goal of the prize, of the outward call

of God in Christ Jesus. I press on towards the prize.

There's a, there's a word that I looked up and said.

It means the prize. Like when you aim at a target,

there is a focus of what we do and why we do what we do.

And the focus, the target is to know him.

That's actually what it's saying, the prize of the high

calling, the high invitation. This is a high invitation that

God invited us into relationship with Him.

But that's my prize. That's what I'm going for.

Our eyes are on that, not the things we do, but on Him and

relationship with Him. And I love this because he just

keeps making the point stronger and stronger and he says I press

on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God

in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are

mature have this attitude, what attitude to seek him to go after

him. And if anything you have

different attitude. God will reveal that this also

to you. If you have a good different

attitude and it's not the this attitude which are the mature.

The mature has this attitude go after him.

And so because we want to know more, we want to know him

better. I remember asking the Lord just

a few weeks ago, I said, Lord, I want to know you more.

How do I get to know you more? And obviously it's hearing his

word and obeying. Hearing his word and obeying.

You get more into me. You get to know Him better.

You see his work, you see his faithfulness, You see how he

never lets his word down and you get to know him better.

And the Lord spoke to me. He says, Leo, it's the little

foxes, the spoil, the vineyard. I know that's in the Bible.

He just said it to my heart, little foxes.

So I looked it up in Song of Solomon chapter 2 and it's found

Song of Solomon 2 · chapter mention

in verse 14 and 16 and it says, oh, my dove in the Cliff of the

rock in the secret place of the steep pathway.

Let me see your form. Now this some people say it's,

it's it's us saying that to God. I believe it's possibly God

saying it's us. Let me see your form.

Let me hear your voice. I mean, have you ever thought

that God wants to see your form? God wants to hear your voice.

He longs for you more than you long for him, right?

Let me hear your voice. Let your voice.

I'm sorry your for your voice is sweet.

And I thought God, you, you think my voice is sweet.

You want to know me. You love me so much and you say

my voice is sweet and and your form is lovely.

I'm not talking about physical form, obviously.

You talk about our heart. Your form is lovely to him.

And out of the blue, catch the foxes for us, the little foxes

that are ruining the vineyards while our vineyards are in

blossom. So the vineyards are blossoming.

They're, they're harvest. And think of the little foxes.

I think a little fox. We, we, you know, we let a

little fox come into the harvest because that won't affect me.

That won't affect the harvest. That won't affect the blossoming

harvest. It's blooming everywhere.

That's OK. One little fox.

I let 1 little fox into my really into my hindering

relationship with God, but I let it.

And then so the problem with letting 1 little fox in, it's

got a little fox, got a little friend and then before you got 1

fox, it's got 2 foxes. Then before you got 3 foxes and

maybe one minute won't affect the harvest, maybe one hour

might not. But after a few hours and a few

days and a few weeks and a few months and they got a few foxes

around, it starts to actually ruin the harvest overflow of

your relationship with God. Ultimately, the little foxes

have been sent to hinder your relationship with God.

That's how we should see it, not the harvest.

I think it's pointing us. We have this attitude, that's

fine. The harvest is blossoming.

It's not going to affect, but it's the little foxes you got to

get to. Then you got to ask yourself,

that's what I'm asking you to do.

What are the foxes in my life that are hindering my

relationship with God? And be honest with the Lord.

Remember how beautiful he is, how magnificent he is, how how

wonderful he is. He loves you of an everlasting

love, that the greatest desire of your heart in my heart is to

actually know him. And then sometimes I ask myself

why, Lord, I'm not pursuing the way I should.

I know you're so good because we sometimes forget.

But what are the little foxes, Anna, You can answer that with

the Holy Spirit and say, Lord, what is it in my life that could

be hindering my relationship with you, the little foxes?

And then the next phrase after we deal, we got to deal with it.

My beloved is mine and I'm his, his pastor, his flock.

He passes his flock among the lilies.

Back to romance, back to relationship, your relationship,

catch the foxes relationship, beautiful love relationship

between you and the, you know, the bride and I was Solomon and

the bride, but we're talking about Christ and the bride.

And then it was catch the foxes and then back to relationship.

In other words, those little foxes are hindering relationship

and we need to be honest before God and say, what is it?

Lord, this young generation, there's so many distractions

with social media and posts and reading the word and posts come

up, reading the word and notification comes up, reading

the word and SMS has come up. So that's your fox.

Get rid of that. Don't what?

Don't read the Bible on the mobile.

Read it in the turn off the notifications.

You know, like I did this with my wife and she's not here so I

can't really do it. But if I had a romantic dinner

with my wife and I'm poor and as a husband, I want to pour my

heart out to and I'll share my secrets and everything, but

she's on the phone. She grabbed the phone didn't

out. She's on the phone and she's

just looking at the phone and and then talking a selfie of

herself and and I'm trying to pour my heart out in a romantic

dinner. No husband would do that.

Jesus would never do that because he values himself too

much to pour out his heart to you if you're distracted with

everything. So when we, you know, spend time

with him, let's take his words seriously.

And I read, you know, we should be reading the word, not I've

done my chapter. I read my chapter.

No, I want to know you, Lord, speak to me, Lord, that's

fellowship. Speak into my heart.

What do I need to change to get closer to you?

What's stopping me from getting closer to you?

Which are again the little foxes.

Holy Spirit, highlight. Deal with it, repent of it, get

rid of it. And you watch your relationship

blossom from from strength to strength and and and continue

with it like because, because then the enemy will come in

again. You just got to OK like the Lord

spoke to me about my yoke is easy.

That's what he said. You know, our responsibilities

are growing in in the church and things that we're doing.

And the Lord just spoke whispered in my holiday.

He said they are my yoke is easy.

I knew exactly what he meant. So if if I'm not if I'm not

carrying a yoke that's easy. I mustn't be carrying his yoke.

I must be carrying my own yoke, yoke of performance, yoking of

being successful, yoking of looking good, the yoke of

wanting praises from people. Our pre appears and one of it

looks, that's a that's not his yoke.

That's not Christ's yoke to me. I need to take his because his

yoke's easy. His burden is light.

And that's what he says. Come unto me, all you heavy

laden and, and labor and heavenly laden.

I come to me. I will give you a rest.

That's it. For my yoke is easy.

So we've got to come to him to have a, a yoke that's easy.

Even if the yoke gets larger, more responsibility, it needs to

be easy if it's his yoke. So I'm carrying it with him.

He's got a lot of strength by the way.

He's got all the strength, eternal strength, eternal power,

eternal. And we're carrying his yoke.

So I now ask, now he's told me that a few weeks ago, but if,

if, if I start getting thoughts of response heaviness or it's

not easy. OK, not his yoke is easy.

I'm only going to carry his yoke.

His joke is easy. His joke is easy.

His burden is light. I'm doing it for him.

His burden is light. You're following.

So can we pray? I'm just going to pray, but I'm

asking you to in your own hearts to talk to the Lord.

Hopefully, I trust the Holy Spirit has already spoken to

you, has already highlighted, yet they're the little foxes

that that's what you need to do. You need to fix that.

And he's, he's actually highlighted in your heart.

If that's come to your memory or your spirit, then that means

God's saying yet that thing might be too much TV, too much

Netflix, too much social time. It could be anything.

The Holy Spirit could speak to you that this is what it is for

you, things that are not necessarily sin, but it's

hindering your relationship. And so Father, we ask, we come

before your throne, we come before your word.

We lay our hearts bare because we want to know you, Lord, we,

we want, we want everything to be about you.

Well, the church to be established in their love

relationship with you, that everything is built on Christ,

Lord, And anything that's not built on Christ will be burnt

away and will suffer loss and will be gone forever.

But Lord, we want to be obedient to you.

So Holy Spirit, speak to us about the little foxes in our

lives. We make a decision right now in

our hearts to get rid of it, to repent of it, to change our

thinking about it. And Lord, if it doesn't honor

you, if it's hindering our relationship with you, we deal

with it. We get rid of it.

We say no to it. Or we say yes to more time with

you, yes to more time in your word.

Yes, to be obedient to your word, not to, yes to not be

afraid of man, not to fee men, but to obey you.

We thank you, Father, for what you're going to do in and

through this church and what you're going to establish in

this place. Lord, a lamp stand for your

glory. We give you praise in Jesus

name, Jesus name. If I can just encourage you on

something with your children. When we first started at 2020, I

wasn't even married. 22, got married at 25.

We had the first kid a year later and then five children, as

you know, and little did I know, if you build, will slowly build

according to God's Word that God was going to use our children

the way he has been. So don't.

These kids are the next generation.

They're going to carry the revelation of Christ.

So invest in them, spend time with them.

Don't ever, don't ever think it's wasted time.

Your own children. I mean, if anything, that's the

greatest investment that you pour your life into them so they

can do great things for you, for the Kingdom.

Amen. Awesome.

Thank you. 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.