9th Nov 2025: Which Tree Are You Eating From ?

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

Australia. Well, it's great to have you

guys here this morning. I really enjoyed, you know,

Justin's message last week. I think he did a great job.

I think it's more than just doing a good job.

I think that God is speaking and you know, he was talking about

how we can prepare ourselves to run and some of the ways he had

like 6 points for us to, to seek revelation on so that we can be

prepared to for the coming seasons that God's leading us

into as a church and as a people.

So one of the things that stuck with me out of that was this

point of knowing God. It's just like, oh, we're going

to talk about knowing God again. Of course we're going to talk

about knowing God again, you know, and something that Justin

did share last week was he said that, you know, not just knowing

God and how wonderful he is and how amazing saviour and all

these things, but knowing the things that God likes and in

knowing the things that God dislikes.

That's really important for us as a people following the Lord

to know what is pleasing to God and what isn't pleasing to God.

Isn't that true? Like I want my children to know

the things that bring me joy that I'm pleased about.

And I'll definitely want them to know the things that I want them

to stay away from, right? That's what a good parent does.

And I'm not, I'm not saying, hey, look at me, I'm a good

parent, but that's what good parents do.

They want their children to grow up and to be healthy and strong

and fruitful. And us in the church, we want

our children to grow up to be healthy in the Lord and, and to

run and to take the things that God's put in us.

We want our children to catch that and take it further and

beyond ourselves. And so, you know, to know God

and to know what he likes and what he doesn't like is just a

way that we can follow him, right?

Like if we don't know the things that are pleasing to the Lord

and the things that aren't pleasing to him, we're going to

have a hard time following him because we're, we're following

the Lord and he's guiding us and he's giving us steps to take.

And the Lord's never leading us astray.

He's never leading us in the wrong direction.

So his ways are always good. And those are the ways that we

want to follow. And I was thinking about, you

know, all of these things as I was preparing.

And I thought, I thought about where it all went wrong.

Where did it all go wrong in Genesis?

Where's Genesis three? Yeah, It's like that's where it

all fell apart. And like, you and I are living

in a world today that is a result of what happened there

and that those things haven't been changed yet.

Jesus has come and done a good work and changed us from the

inside out, but we're still living with the fool.

Can I just say that again? We're still living with the fool

guys. You know our bodies are going to

die one day, right? And I know that Jesus is

powerful and mighty and his will is for life and all those

things. But Jesus hasn't moved death out

of the way just yet. Can I just say that?

So we're still living with the fall, OK.

And so where it all went wrong in the Garden of Eden, God said

he, he, he, he, he said all of these trees, you can eat that

one. Just stay away from that one.

Don't eat that one, you know. And then there was 2 special

trees. There was the tree of life, and

there was the tree of the knowledge of and good and evil.

That one. Stay away from that one.

Don't eat that one. And I asked myself, I asked

myself this question. I'm going to ask all of us this

question. If you were Adam and Eve,

knowing all that you know now, knowing all that you know about

the things that have unfolded through the fallen, through sin,

and through God's word and through all of the Scripture

where he's leading his people and, and revealing himself and

all of those things. If you knew all of that and you

went back, would you eat from the tree?

I hope not, right? But this is an interesting thing

to ponder, right? So we're going to unpack that a

little. And so, you know, since the

fall, the pattern has been God speaking and people doing

something else. And it's been on repeat over and

over and over again. Like we, the church would just

look at Israel and go, oh, what are they doing?

What about us? What are we doing?

You know, like, because God's speaking and we're doing

different things sometimes. So we don't get off the hook

here, guys, you know, But Genesis one, I'm just going to

read some verses here. Genesis one, verse 11, sorry,

I'm going to read verse 12. It says that the earth brought

forth grass, the herbs that yield seed according to its

kind, and the tree that yields fruit whose seed is in itself

according to its kind. So the key point out of that is

that that seed produces after its own kind what God made.

God put seed in it and it could only produce after its own kind.

And we read on when God created the animals, verse 21.

I'm just going to read a couple of points.

You don't have to go here, but it says again, it's the same

thing according to their own kind, God created these animals

and told them to be fruitful and multiply, but they could only be

fruitful and multiply after their own kind.

You know, like a a bear can't have a elephant calf.

It's just it's just not, not the way that God structured this

right? So only after their own kind.

And if we pick up together in Genesis one verse 27, I'll just

read all of this. It says that so God created man

in his own image, in the image of God.

He created him male and female. He created them.

Then God blessed them and God said be fruitful and multiply,

fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion.

So God puts a seed in mankind and it's a good seed, you know,

for God to create mankind in his own image and then tell them go

be fruitful and multiply. God's wanting himself to go and

fill the earth. God's glory would fill and cover

the earth God made after his, his in his own likeness.

And he said, go reproduce this seed, good seed that, and fill

and subdue the earth. This is God's plan.

God wants to be glorified in you and I as people.

This is not like he hasn't got a new plan now with the church.

That's the plan God wants to put Himself in US and for us to be

fruitful and to multiply. So I'm just going to look at the

command that God gave Adam and Eve in Genesis 2.

In verse 16 He says, and the Lord God commanded the man

saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but

of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not

eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

So the all knowing God, the creator of all things is telling

them the truth. He's giving them knowledge, he's

giving them wisdom, understanding.

He's saying don't eat from that tree.

You will die. Eat, eat of all of these other

trees. Be fruitful, you know, multiply,

enjoy. Let's do this together.

Just don't eat of that thing because all of this will change.

This is a good God giving good promises and saying good truth.

So he's giving them knowledge and the knowledge is what's

right and what's wrong. He's saying what you have here

is great, these ones here good, right?

Choose those that one here wrong, evil.

Don't do it. Do you see?

God is revealing good and evil. And so Adam and Eve has a choice

to make now. And So what is the choice that

Adam and Eve had to make? They could either trust and

believe God was right or that God was wrong.

So or that you know they could, they could either trust what God

was saying as true and right, or they could just they themselves

could decide what was right. Do you see the picture?

Trust God, follow him, do what he's asking, do what he's saying

for the good or make up your own mind.

You decide what's right and wrong.

And so it's interesting because the tree is called the knowledge

of good and evil. So God's giving them a choice to

either trust him for what's right and wrong, for what's good

and evil, or eat that tree and find out for yourself.

Right? And the thing with going to the

tree for the knowledge of good and evil is you are going

somewhere other than God. You've got, you're going to go,

you're going to turn away from God and you're going to go

looking for something for yourself.

And so you've, you've just decided that God himself, the

creator of all things, the one that put you in this garden

here, that he doesn't know what he's talking about, that what he

says is right and wrong is invalid.

I'll go find out for myself. He could be wrong so that we

better find out. Do you see what I'm saying?

There's there's no trust in the Lord in this.

And so Eve does this, she eats from the from the fruit, but she

has some help, right? So Satan's there twisting God's

word. So in Genesis 3 verse 5, it says

Genesis 3:5

this is what Satan says to Eve. He says for God, I'll put in the

King James Version here. So just bear with this, right?

For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then

the eye, your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God's

knowing good and evil. Now Satan doesn't exactly lie

here, not blatantly, but he always twists the truth and

highlights things that aren't to be highlighted.

Right. And I'm going to come back to

that in a second, but catch Eve's response just before she

eats of this of this tree of the fruit in verse 6.

She says so when the IT says so. When the woman saw that the tree

was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and the

tree was desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and

ate it. So she seeks knowledge in the

wrong place. God had already given her

knowledge, and God, you know as he walked with him when in the

garden, He would have continued to give them wisdom and

understanding and leading and guiding.

But she chose to take that for herself.

And again, it was just from another place that wasn't from

God's mouth. And so then Adam eats of of the

fruit as well, and the seed enters mankind's heart, the seed

from this tree, as we've read, the seed enters their hearts.

And what is this seed? What's a seed of death?

It will produce death. And every person is born with

this seed from that point after. But this is a this is a seed of

self seeking. This is a seed to know good and

evil for yourself, that you would judge what is right and

wrong. That's the seed that is in here.

And it's from within ourselves, that seed, when you think about

it, that seed to that we would want to decide what's right,

what's wrong, what I can do, what I shouldn't do.

This is attitude in people. That's just like, don't tell me

what to do. Who are you to tell me what to

do? People say this in the church,

like, what do you, you can't tell me what to do, right?

There's a that, that there. That's the seed.

That's the I I'm my own king. I'm my own boss.

You can't tell me what to do. I am yielded to no one, to

nothing. And that's that seed in the

heart of men is the reason why our world is in such a mess

today. This is the reason why people

could believe things that are so ludicrous because they've just

gone so far away from God's truth.

The truth and truth has just become whatever they think it

should be. Have a look around in our world

at the moment. Like we read here that God made

them man and woman. That's up for grabs now.

Do you see how crazy things have gone?

So that's the seed that is in our hearts that we're born with.

And so, so there, there was a relationship severed when

mankind decided that we could decide what's right and wrong.

We'll find out for ourselves. We won't trust the Lord and His

word. There was a relationship severed

between man and God. God wanted to walk with mankind

in the garden and in the cool of the day, and he wanted to tell

them the truth. He wanted to be the one to

reveal truth and give them knowledge and lead them in the

paths of righteousness and all of these things.

And that's always been God's desire that because that desire

has never changed, but that relationship has been severed.

So God wouldn't continue to walk with them anymore.

He drives them out from the from the garden.

That's that's brutal. That means that now because of

our choice to decide what's right and wrong, God takes a

step back and goes, I'm not going to walk with you.

Then if you want to decide, go and decide.

That's a very scary thing. And we can see where that's LED,

right? And so I said that Satan didn't

exactly lie. I'm going to get back to that

now. Genesis 3 verse 5 For God doth

Genesis 3:5

know that in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes

shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

So that's what Satan said. You'll be like God, you'll be

gods, you'll be able to judge, you'll be able to know good and

evil, you'll be able to make a a choice what's right and wrong.

And God actually confirms this strangely, strangely enough.

So after the fall and after the curse, listen to what God says

Genesis 3 verse 22. He says then the Lord God said,

Genesis 3:22

behold, man has become one of us to know good and evil.

And now unless he put his hand out and take from the tree of

life and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him

out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground in which he was

taken and he drove the man out and he placed cherubim at the

east of the garden of Eden, a flaming sword which turned every

way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Do you see what happens? God says, OK, they've become

like us. They will decide what's right

and wrong now. And he goes, but not in my

house, right? So he closes the gate and he

says off you go. Then go and do that over there,

you know, because that's not going to be taking place in my

presence because I'm the Lord and I only stand for truth.

I do not allow liars to to be in my midst.

I don't allow these things to be in my house.

You know, the Garden of Eden is like God's house.

He made it perfect and he made people in his image.

And it was like as soon as they turned from him, out you go.

Then you can't be with me anymore, right?

And so Adam and Eve found out first hand that what they did

was evil, didn't they? They realized, oh gosh, we have

made a mistake here because now we're tilling the ground by the

sweat of our brow. Now things are hard now.

Now the earth is producing thorns and thistles.

Things are bad now, you know, so they realized, so now they have

this problem. They're cast out from the

presence of God. They can't take freely from the

tree of, of life, right? And they can't put that God's

seed in them any longer. The seed of life to live and to

have perfect, to live in perfect creation.

The seeds been taken away, but worse than that, this is the

worse than that. They can't be directed by the

Lord. They can't follow him anymore.

That that there the fool that there that God has had to remove

himself from people when he can't.

He won't lead them anymore. That's the worst thing that

could ever happen to anyone. That's it.

To be separated from God. That's what hell is, isn't it?

To be separated from him that he wouldn't be leading you.

He wouldn't be, you know, teaching you and and and helping

you. That's the worst of it.

You know, not that they had to like work hard now and not that

they're going to die and you know, it's just that God's not

there anymore. I hope you guys grasp the the

amazing God who's made a way for us to know him through Jesus,

that he would put his spirit in US.

I don't think we realized this. See, I'm trying to help us to

understand that that Jesus has fixed the biggest problem in on

in history. They're being separated from the

Lord. He's made a way for the Spirit

of God to come and live back in US, that we would be alive

again, that we would be able to to, to eat and have the seed

back in US. Yeah.

So this is the pattern of Scripture all the way through

God coming to save his people with his word, giving them

direction, showing them what's right and wrong.

This is like, read the Scripture, guys.

This is what God's about. After the fall and after they

cast out, what does God do? God starts to make a way for him

to teach them, for him to lead them.

So he raises, you know, Abraham and it goes down the line and I

can't get into all of the things.

Just read and and open your eyes and see it.

But God raises up the Israelites, a nation to know

him, to be led by him, to have his word.

That's a very special thing. This is why Israel is a special

nation, because God's with them, because God chose them to show

them the way. That's amazing.

This is like God dealing with the curse in people in humanity.

God wants to show them what's right and wrong, but people just

consistently through the Scripture, as I said, just

constantly fall out of God's will and just come up with their

own ideas and their own way of doing things.

And it never ends well. It's always like the Garden of

Eden all over again. God has to separate himself

from. And then when we start again,

God raises someone up. He draws it near to do you see

what I'm saying? It's over.

And over, you know, I'm reading this morning in my reading, I'm

like, Oh my gosh, I've just sorted out again.

It's in, I was reading in Exodus.

And this is like when Moses goes up the mountain to get the 10

commandments and Aaron's down there and they come to him and

say, oh, we don't know what happened to that dude.

Like maybe we should just worship God the way that we want

it. You see, like God's given

various specific instructions. This is how you're going to

worship me. Oh, well, he's not around

anymore. Let's OK, guys, let's just make

ourselves a calf and let's worship the Lord, right?

We'll just do like, whatever we think is right or wrong, we'll

just do that. And God will be happy with that.

No, he won't. You know, Moses comes down the

mountain. What does he do?

What? What was he coming back with?

What was Moses coming back down the mountain with?

He's got the word of God. He's like, oh, these, these

people have been faithful. These people have been waiting.

I've gone up to get the word of God where God's going to speak

to his people and lead his people.

No, I just missed it. So what does Moses do?

He he shatters it. He throws it on the ground.

He's like, well, hey, if you want to choose what's right or

wrong, then we'll just we'll, this can just be destroyed then

not for you. Do you see Moses as righteous

anger? It's just like, well, you don't

deserve the word of God then if you're just going to do your own

thing and not be patient and wait for the word of God, fine,

do your own thing and it ends bad.

It's just it's just terrible. But it's funny because you read

on and let me just read this here for us.

This is verse sorry, chapter 33. This is just after all of this

happens and the Lord says, for, for I will not, not go up in

your midst anymore. And he said, and this is what

this is what it says in 33 verse 7.

It says Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp,

right? And everyone who sought the Lord

went to the Tabernacle of meeting, which was outside the

camp. What is the picture that we're

reading here? God is separating himself.

People decide that they're going to do things their own way.

God goes, all right, fine, but I'm separating myself because I

won't be a part of this. You will see this over and over

again in the Scriptures. This is what God does.

God won't stand for unrighteousness.

How much more in his church, God's, how much more in the in

the body of Christ? God is not pleased with

unrighteousness. God is not pleased with us doing

things the way that we think we should do it.

We have a very specific road map for life, how we conduct

ourselves, how we treat one another, how we serve the Lord

in the House of God. We have to do things His way.

God hasn't changed his mind about the seriousness of His

word. Can I say that I hope this is

getting our attention, guys. So the Bible is like a lifeline

to us, right? It's like to eat from the words

of this is like to eat from the tree of life.

Again, this is God's word. This is where life is.

Jesus says I am the word we're partake of of the seed of God.

Jesus even says in in Luke 8 verse 11, this is what he says

Luke 8:11

about the word. He said this is the parable of

the soul. All right.

Jesus says the seed is the word of God.

The word of God is seed. That means that when you partake

of it, read it, know it, absorb it, chew on it, live it out, it

produces something in us. It produces fruit.

It produces good fruit. Amen.

And and just further down in in Luke 8 here it says, but the but

the ones that fall on the good ground or the good soil of their

hearts, the seed that falls on the good ground of those having

heard the word with a noble and a good heart, keep it and bear

fruit. Catch this next bit with

patience. With patience, that means that

if things don't go the way that we think they should, like for

Aaron and the Israelites, where's this Moses?

Why is this taking so long? Oh, let's just get on with it.

Patience, trusting the Lord for what he says.

If you haven't seen it yet, patience, faith.

If it's written, it's true. If it's written, it will come to

pass. You can, you can take it to the

bank. You know this word is true.

Have patience, trust the Lord, speak his Lord and and wait on

him. Wait on him patiently.

So Satan is still twisting the word of God today.

I hope you realize that. Do you know where he's doing it?

In churches? Think about it like the word of

God's not really being preached anywhere else.

So where's Satan twisting the word of God?

That's a scary thought, isn't it?

And not just Satan. We twist the Word of God in the

same way that, you know, Eve added to the word of God And,

and, you know, we say things that are out of context

sometimes we can twist the Word of God.

You know, we've got to be careful with the Word of God.

We've got to handle the Word of God carefully.

One of the biggest twistings of Scripture that I just run into

all the time in relating to God's Word is that for you are

not under law, you're under grace.

You are not under law. This thing's just this heavy,

weighty law that you're no longer under.

You're under grace. Be free, just do whatever you

want. God has forgiven you.

That is not what that's saying. For you are not under law, but

you're under grace. You know, we would use that out

of I see that used out of context all the time.

What about like, you know, one example.

And please, if anyway, I'm just going to say it, if we teach

tithing, right, we teach the word of God.

The word of God teaches tithing, whether you like it or not, it's

in it, right? It's a pattern.

It's it's in scripture. It's good.

God's word is good. He says if you tithe, you'll

reap harvest. It's good.

That's good seed that you'd be selling, right?

So I hear people, you know, that just don't want to be generous

with their money. They just want to keep

everything for themselves. They just go, well, I'm not

under law. I'm under grace.

I don't have to tithe. That's law, right?

And, and you could go on and on and on with the commands of the

Lord. What I want to do that.

So I'm under grace, you know, I'm not under the law.

I'm under grace. That was just there, but we're

here. So if I'm under grace and not

under law, and I can just do whatever I think's right, does

that mean that God's always happy with the choices that I

make? Of course he's not.

Does that mean that God is willing to bless me if I'm

living contrary to his word? No, Sorry, guys.

Like it's just not true, you know, we can't just go because

I'm saved, because the Lord's died for me and because I've

received salvation, and because I've come from death to life and

He's put His Spirit in me, that now the Lord is forced just to

bless whatever I've touched my hands to.

It's just not true. God does not bless things that

are contrary to His Word. It's just not what He does.

He can't, He won't. So let me just read you this.

I'm no longer under law, but under grace.

Let's just have try and grab a bit of the context here, right?

Romans 6, verse 13. I'm just going to read a few

Romans 6:13

scriptures. You tell me what this is talking

about, and do not protect. Present your members as

instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves

to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as

instruments of righteousness to God.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under

law, but under grace. What then?

Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

Certainly not. Do not.

Do not know that whom you present yourselves slaves to

obey. You are the one slave whom you

obey, whether sin leading to death or obedience leading to

righteousness. Right, like this is talking

about obedience and righteousness and not living in

sin and choosing righteousness and not unrighteousness.

How on earth are you and I are going to understand

righteousness and unrighteousness without the word

of God? How?

Tell me because without the word of God, you know what we're left

with? We are left with our own

understanding of what is right and wrong.

We are straight back to the the beginning where all of this fell

apart because God spoke and gave his word and gave truth and we

decided that we would make our own truth.

Amen. It's important, guys.

Gosh, I could just go on and on. Hey, I'm just, I'm going to skip

some things because it's just like it's over and over and over

again in the scripture. So how do you draw near to God?

How do we draw near to him? Obedience.

Oh, it's what did you say? Yeah.

Humble humility, Right. God's way, doing things his way.

You know, I think that we've been deceived into thinking that

drawing near to God is just crying out to him and saying,

Lord, help me, Lord, come and fill us.

You know, like, like the drawing near to God would just be in a

meeting where the the music's really getting you pumped up and

you can just go, come, Lord, fill this place, you know, like

that that's drawing near to God. And there's a sense of that with

when you're crying out of your heart that you're hungry for him

and you want him, right? So this is kind of true.

But drawing near to God, we draw near to him through his word, we

draw near to him through obeying him, through following him.

Jesus said, follow me, right? He said, come, my yoke is easy.

You know what a yoke is? It's something that is put on

you so that you you're like where we become bond servants to

Christ. We don't like saying that, do

we? Servants, bond servants like

that. The Lord would put his yoke on

me and I'd just do what he tells me to do.

Oh my gosh. You know, like it's been so

twisted that that sounds like, you know, it sounds like what

sounds like what Satan was sort of saying in the garden, that

this is what freedom looks like. No, freedom looks like putting

the yoke of God on you and submitting, being humble and

following him. That's what true freedom looks

like, guys. And so you can draw near to God.

We should draw near to God. But it's through knowing his

ways and following him together. It's the primary way that God

speaks through his word. And you might be saying, yeah,

yeah, I know all this. Like I've been in church my

whole life. I've heard it all.

I've heard it all. I've heard all this, but I

started with, you know, I asked us this question.

I said if you were in the garden, if you were Adam and Eve

and you knew everything that you knew right now, would you eat

from the tree? We say no, but do we still live

contrary to the Word of God sometimes, right?

Do I still put aside God's word and his command and just go in

this direction because it's what it feels right to me?

Do you know what that is? That is eating from the tree of

knowledge of good and evil? So I'm scared, I'm like, if I

get put back in that garden again, I might mess this up,

right? Thank God that Jesus sent his

Son. There is only one righteous and

holy and pure. There is only one that is only

about the Father's will. Jesus.

That's it. The only reason that you and I

are saved, can come back to the Father, can come and hear the

truth of the word of God, can be led by him again.

It's because Jesus lived a perfect life and laid it down on

the cross for you and I. That's it, that's it.

And so I don't think I could do it.

I think if you put me back in the garden before long I think

I'd mess it up. I don't want to like I, I, you

know, like, because we all see her and goes, of course we

wouldn't eat the tree. Really.

What about 1000 years later? Like, you know, you're not going

to make a mistake. You're not going to do something

that the word of God doesn't tell you to do.

Do you see what I'm saying? We're in trouble, guys.

But Jesus, thank you, Lord. Oh my gosh.

That's why we that's why we hold him so high.

That's why we seek him with all of our might because he is the

one that did that went before us, and he is the one that has

the words of life, only Him. Amen.

So, you know, like I'm just, I'm imploring us as a church to go

after these things. We got to live for something

bigger than ourselves. You know, the church matters,

guys. It's like it's God's plan for

salvation across this earth. And the part that you and I play

on it matters in it. But you know, the part that we

play is, is obedience and willingness to turn from our own

ways and seek the Lord for his ways.

And you know, there's a reason why this church is called the

Way Church. We want to find out God's

direction. We want to find out the way that

he's leading us for our lives and for the church.

That's it. It's a pretty simple equation,

isn't it? What do you want us to do, God?

I want you to follow me. I want you to drop everything.

I want you to leave it all behind.

I want you to come get behind me.

Come follow me. You know, And so I think about

our lives. I'm, I'm bringing this to a

close now and I think because I've been thinking about this

stuff a lot and you know, how I go about living my life, how I

parent the sort of husband that I am, the sort of leader that I

am here. All of these things.

You got to consider the life that you live.

You got to consider the things that you give yourself to.

And it's not enough just to go. I think I'm in the will of God

in this, you know, God's OK with that or whatever.

We've got to find out what this says, you know, and this is what

we're, we as a church want to do when we gather together in our

community groups, when we gather together as men, when we gather

together, you know, on Sundays and when we're together

one-on-one, stuff like that, you know what we want to talk about.

What does the word of God teach? What is applicable to our lives?

Because you know, there's areas in all of our lives that we

haven't considered God's will in.

We're just going through the motions.

We've just made a choice that this thing that I'm involved in

is OK. Have you asked him?

Have you gone digging and saying, Lord, is this a good

thing for me to be a part of? Is this a good character trait

for me to have? If this is this a good

representation of your heart in this thing, you got to go

looking. It's like if you don't know what

the word of God says, how could you, how could the seed get in?

How could you reproduce? How could you see the fruit of

God in your life? We got to we got to pick up the

pace. I think we got to be more

diligent in asking each other what, you know, what are the

things that we're struggling with?

What are what are the things that God's saying?

You know what's what's going on in your life and have a

conversation and talk and then just go cool.

All right, Wonder what the word of God says about that, right?

Always I wonder what the word of God says about that.

Oh, you guys are having some problems in your marriage.

I wonder what the word of God says about that.

You guys are going to get married next year.

I wonder what the word of God says about that, right?

For all things. I'm having some health issues at

the moment. I'm struggling.

I wonder what the word of God says about that.

I'm I'm struggling financially. I don't have a lot of money.

I wonder what the word gods. I'm just, it's just, you

wouldn't run out of things, right?

I wonder, like I wonder what short sort of food I should be

eating. I wonder what sort of lifestyle

I should be living. I wonder what the word of God

says. This has the answers to all of

life's issues, you know, not just problems.

This has the answers that contain the promises of God.

This is how you partake of the promises of God.

But it's not just a one-on-one thing.

This is how we help each other. We've got to help each other,

guys. It's not the the days for us

just to meet up and talk about football and talk about, you

know, housework. I don't know what ladies talk

about, but but you know, like honestly, especially in the

church, like if we're just standing around talking about

our work and you know, hey, how are you going?

Oh yeah. You know, I've just been not

been working and it's been hard. And So what like, what does the

word of God say? Like how do we build each other

up? How do we strengthen, strengthen

each other? How can we ask questions of each

other that stir the word of God in US and through us because we

need to. So I am going to close here and

I'm just going to read Psalm one, the first of the Psalms.

It's an amazing Psalm. Blessed is the man who walks not

in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of

sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is

in the law of the Lord and his law.

In his law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that

bring forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall

never wither, and whether whatever he does, he shall

prosper. The ungodly are not so.

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement, nor

sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of

the ungodly shall perish. Isn't that a beautiful picture?

Like they we would be a tree planted on the waters and that

our leaves would never wither and that there would be fruit,

good fruit. See, the Lord knows what he's

doing. He knows what he's talking

about. He knows that those that give

themselves over wholeheartedly to the word of God and to his

ways will prosper. That's it.

I hope we want to prosper. I hope that you've got it in

your heart for this church to prosper, right?

Fruitfulness, for us to multiply, for us to see the hand

of God, for, you know, for the, for the neighbors and the

friends and the family around you.

Do you want to see those people come to the Lord?

Do you want to see fruitfulness? Well, then we need to get the

seed in. That's for us personally, but

more so for us as a people. We got to help each other grow.

Amen. Awesome.

Let's just pray. Would you just stand with me?

I think like standing is a good thing in that we can respond to

the Word of God. So when we're standing together

here, what we're saying is we trust you, Lord.

We believe that your word is true.

We want to follow you, Lord. And so that's a declaration that

we stand to our feet. So let's pray, Father, Lord, we

thank you for who you are. We thank you, Lord, that your

desire from the very beginning would be to lead us, to guide

us, to grow us, for us to be fruitful, for us to multiply,

for your glory, to fill this earth.

And so we thank you today. We we stand here, expectant

Lord, that you're going to reveal something of yourself to

us, that there's areas even right now in this room, areas

that you will highlight for us. This is a way that you are

walking away from me. I'm calling you back.

So, Lord, we just yield to you as as Dudley reminded us, Lord,

we come humbly knowing that you are the only way that knows

truth and life. And so we come to you, Lord

Jesus, we honour you in this place.

We thank you, Lord, that if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be

back, You know, into the Father's arms.

That is what you've done that's brought us home.

But salvation, Lord, is is to know you, is to come back into

your presence. But from that place, Lord, we

want to be pleasing to you. We want to honour you, we want

to follow you. We want to be transformed into

your image. And we ask Holy Spirit in this

place today that you would do what only you can do Convict us.

Lord, ask for your deep conviction in our hearts that we

wouldn't be able to get away from the things you were saying

to us and that you would give us courage and strength.

And even the peace Lord that we spoke about earlier.

The Peace Lord, to be able to walk this out well and to enjoy

this wonderful life you've given us in Jesus mighty name, 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.