Sermon

28th Sept 2025: Walking In God's Intent

The Way Church Podcast

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

  2. Australia. Lord, you are great, You are

  3. wonderful. Lord, we thank you, God for this

  4. opportunity to be together. We thank you, Lord, that we are

  5. the church, we are your body, we are your sons and daughters.

  6. Lord, we are your family. And that fills us with

  7. excitement and joy this morning to know that we belong to you,

  8. Lord, a good, good Father. You're so amazing, Lord.

  9. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for all you're doing.

  10. Thank you for all that you'll continue to do this morning.

  11. In this moment. Lord, we just want to honor you.

  12. Praise you, bless your mighty name, Jesus name, Amen.

  13. Excellent. Well, I am, I'm excited to be

  14. here this morning and I know that some of you are as well.

  15. I'm looking at your faces. We're excited to be here, right?

  16. Today's a good day. I can see the I can see the joy

  17. in your Eliza. It's not because your shirt says

  18. joy. I can see it there.

  19. It's amazing. Now I just want to open up to

  20. you guys. We started in prayer this

  21. morning and we said that we come together and all of us has a

  22. word and has a song and has something to share.

  23. And I love that we're, we're growing in these things.

  24. We're going to continue to push into that and come ready and

  25. prepared. But I just want to ask you guys

  26. here, has anyone got anything they'd like to share with us as

  27. a church this morning? It's OK if we don't.

  28. There will be more opportunities.

  29. Amen. Like I, I, I want to, I want you

  30. guys to know that when, when I'm sharing the word of God and when

  31. we're, when we're preaching the word that we want to be a

  32. church, that, you know, Jesus was interrupted a lot.

  33. If you see that in Scripture, right?

  34. And I think that we got to be open as leaders and, and in the

  35. church to be interrupted as music leaders, whatever.

  36. We got to be open to be interrupted.

  37. If it's the Lord and something's burning on your heart and it's,

  38. it's in line with what we're sharing and you feel it's the

  39. Lord, come and share it. Just, I don't know, put your

  40. hand up, make us aware. We want to be open to what the

  41. Spirit of God is saying. It's more important that the

  42. Spirit of God would lead us and speak to us.

  43. Then I just stand here and share with you all the things that I

  44. feel God's saying because we are the church.

  45. Amen. Yeah.

  46. We're just leave that at that. But yeah, I just want to welcome

  47. you guys to do that. Excellent.

  48. Come, please. That'll give me time to work out

  49. what's going with this. Morning on Friday night, we went

  50. to Daniel and Bianca's home. And I get excited, Daniel and

  51. Chantal, sorry. And I get excited because I get

  52. to meet you. And it's not only that, it's

  53. because I'm learning how to speak to you because of who you

  54. are and I get to share with everyone else, but also to bring

  55. you in as well so that you're not left out.

  56. And so that excites me. And it's exciting for us to be

  57. able to enjoy each other because we're unique.

  58. And what God has put on my heart for these since Friday night is,

  59. do you know your authority in Christ?

  60. Do you know who you are in Christ?

  61. Really. Because our uniqueness makes us

  62. so powerful and so different that God will use it and He will

  63. use us and use that to be able to speak to the ones out there

  64. that need it more than we do in here.

  65. But to be able to come in and enjoy each other's company and

  66. be able to encourage each other. And then we go back out there,

  67. you know, and it's out there where the harvest is that God

  68. needs us the most. But when we come here, we need

  69. each other to encourage each other to be able to keep going

  70. out there because that's where we live now.

  71. The understanding of we are in this world, but we don't belong

  72. to it comes into play because we do come into this world, but

  73. that doesn't mean we belong to it.

  74. We belong to a heavenly realm and a heavenly place that God

  75. will give us the words, the encouragement, and the guidance

  76. to be able to live in this world.

  77. And so that's my encouragement to all of you is is know who you

  78. are in Christ. Know who you are and carry it.

  79. And he will always do something magnificent just because of

  80. what's so ugly out there. We can be a light in that

  81. ugliness, and so shine your light.

  82. Amazing. Thank you.

  83. Thank you. We're going to help each other

  84. to know who we are. Right.

  85. It's so good. That's very, very.

  86. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, it's very much in line

  87. with what we're talking about this morning, which is great.

  88. So we've seen a lot of that this morning, which is good.

  89. So love that. All right.

  90. We, we had an amazing time last week with Justin brought a word

  91. to us talking about, you know, what if we caught what it was

  92. that God's wanting to do because we need to like, if we don't

  93. catch what God's wanting to do, then what are we doing, right?

  94. We're just doing our own thing, right?

  95. So we need to catch what God's wanting to do and we partner

  96. with God. And so that's really exciting.

  97. This is the season that we're in as a church to really push in

  98. and hear what it is that God's wanting to do, what he's wanting

  99. us to be and where he's wanting to lead us, you know, as

  100. individuals. What Lord, like, what do you

  101. want me to be? Who do you want me to be?

  102. How do you want me to be like you?

  103. How do you want me to represent you?

  104. And there's such an adventure in God.

  105. I thought we didn't talk about this a lot, but like what an

  106. adventure it is to be in, in Christ and to serve him like the

  107. greatest adventure that you could ever go on.

  108. It's such an exciting thing to to know the God of the universe

  109. and to like seek him and find him and be led by him.

  110. That is the greatest adventure we could ever go on.

  111. And we get to go on that adventure together.

  112. It's like people don't do well on their own, right?

  113. We do well when we're together. And this is, you know, funnily

  114. enough, this is the way that God structured things to be right,

  115. because he knows what he's doing.

  116. And so, you know, we're on this adventure, you know, the, the

  117. NCMY team. I just want to speak about this

  118. for just a moment. You know, when we're at the when

  119. we're at the, I think it was the eldest time last year, You know,

  120. Ty just spoke about what this team is and, and he simplified

  121. it in, in these terms. He said that we're, we're an, a

  122. trans local team of the fivefold gifts given to the church with

  123. an Apostolic and prophetic heart.

  124. She's laughing because she's laughing because Ty singled me

  125. out after he just said it and I couldn't say it again.

  126. And then I wrote it down. Then he singled me out again and

  127. I still couldn't say it. So so he gave me another

  128. opportunity. Then I finally got it out.

  129. So anyway, here we are. So that's so cool because you

  130. know what, someone came up to me afterwards and said you're never

  131. going to forget that, are you? And I'm like, probably not, but

  132. it's true and it's not. That's not just for the NCMI

  133. team guys. That's the heart of the church.

  134. You know, that's the heart for us as a church having an

  135. Apostolic prophetic heart to go, you know, so an apostle is, is

  136. simply, you know, there's a, there's a gift of an apostle,

  137. there's an office of the apostle.

  138. But apostle just means it's the sent one, the one that's sent.

  139. So we, we need to have a heart to be sent, a heart to go.

  140. And the other side is a prophetic heart, you know, in a

  141. very simple, in my very simple way of understanding what

  142. prophecy is, It's hearing what God's saying and then telling

  143. someone, right? You know, So yeah, that's my

  144. simple understanding. And that's the heart that we

  145. need to have. We need to have a heart that's

  146. willing to go to be sent with a prophetic heart, one that's can

  147. hear God and can share wherever we find ourselves what God is

  148. saying. And so this is the the vision

  149. for us as a church. You know, God wants to do

  150. amazing things with the way church.

  151. I'm so hopeful that of the things that we're going to see

  152. God do in and through us as a people here, we're going to be

  153. successful in God's economy. We're going to see God do what

  154. God wants to do in US and through us.

  155. We're going to see people reached with the gospel.

  156. We're going to see people saved. We're going to see people whose

  157. needs looked after. We're going to see a people in

  158. our midst, us included, that are going to grow.

  159. That are going to hear what God's saying.

  160. That we're going to even as mum said, that we're going to be

  161. refined. That God's going to burn the

  162. chaff off, you know, and that we're going to stand here in a

  163. year's time different to how we stand here today because God is

  164. working in US and through us. God's will is always for things

  165. to grow. I was, we were reminded of this

  166. a couple of weeks ago. It's all through his Word.

  167. God's will is always for things to grow.

  168. You, you could witness that with your own eyes.

  169. Just have a look outside, have a look in the garden.

  170. God's will is for things to always grow.

  171. Babies grow, people grow, they grow.

  172. God's intention is for growth. That applies to us the way

  173. church. God's intention is for us to

  174. grow not only in ourselves and in becoming like more Christ

  175. like and being able to represent him better, but that God would

  176. add to us. Growth is numerical in the

  177. Scriptures as well. We should be expectant, and

  178. we're hopeful and we are, that God will add to this church.

  179. He will. He is.

  180. And as leaders, you know, we're committed to these, these

  181. truths. We're committed to what the word

  182. says about growth. We're committed to what the word

  183. says about having a, a prophetic and Apostolic heart.

  184. We're committed to these things. But I want to ask you as, as

  185. Saints in this room, are we committed to those things?

  186. Are we committed to the word of God that says yes, when when

  187. things are healthy, there's growth?

  188. Are we committed to know that the Holy Spirit wants to do a

  189. work in and through us? Like if we ask each other what,

  190. what work is the Holy Spirit doing in and through you?

  191. We should have an answer for that at any given time.

  192. What's the Lord doing in your life?

  193. You know, think about that. That's a question that we should

  194. be asking God. That's a that's a question that

  195. we should be hearing the answer to.

  196. I want to know what it is that God's wanting to work on me.

  197. And I believe that we are committed to these things.

  198. I believe that we do want to grow, that we do want to become

  199. like Him. Amen.

  200. But you know, us as leaders, just getting back to the leaders

  201. side of this, that we're committed to hearing God and

  202. doing the will of God. Are you guys submitted to your

  203. leaders? I know that you are like, I'm

  204. not saying you guys need to submit.

  205. I'm just saying that as a body, as a church, we have to be

  206. submitted to our leaders. And I say that because, you

  207. know, we're going to, we're going to have conversations.

  208. Leaders are going to have conversations with science

  209. because they're leading them. And we're going to have to talk

  210. about some hard stuff. We're going to have to unearth

  211. some hard truths. And if you're not committed, you

  212. know, to us as, as your leaders, you're not going to want to hear

  213. that. This is why it's important that

  214. you have to be sorry, submitted to, to leadership, because you

  215. have to trust that leaders will come with the word of God and,

  216. and, and challenge you on things.

  217. And you have to be willing to hear.

  218. And you know, we have to be submitted to you guys.

  219. We have to lay down our lives to serve you guys to, to, to go and

  220. find out what God is saying to spend time in prayer for you

  221. guys. You guys should be doing that

  222. for us as well. But we need to as leaders, we

  223. spend time praying and asking God, what are the things that

  224. these people need? And so when we come and we, we

  225. have these conversations with you guys, it's not just

  226. flipping, it's not just like, oh, how you doing and then try

  227. and speak the word of God. It's prayerful.

  228. We're asking God, Lord, how can we serve these people?

  229. How can we help these people to grow?

  230. How can we help get to the deep roots and the things that are

  231. holding us, holding the people back so that we can speak the

  232. gospel into it, so that we can apply the gospel into our into

  233. our lives. It's the applying of the gospel

  234. that brings freedom. And so, you know, there's a

  235. there's the big visions for the church that, you know, the

  236. things that we're about and, and the bigness of being a body

  237. that's worldwide and all of these things.

  238. But the steps to be a part of the church and to be a part of

  239. the, the bigger vision. It's daily, it's a lifestyle for

  240. us. It's like consistent living in

  241. the Lord that leads us to the bigger picture.

  242. We're never going to get where God's leading us to go without

  243. consistent living, without daily walking, without the steps that

  244. lead to the to the place, to the destination.

  245. We need a godly rhythm for our lives.

  246. And So what do I mean about these little steps?

  247. It's like I thought about this, you know, the global equip,

  248. right? This is an example of this.

  249. This is grand vision for the for the global equip.

  250. It's like come from all of the corners of the earth and come

  251. and gather here and we'll be unified together and we will

  252. hear from from leaders the things that God's wanting to say

  253. to the to the church around the world.

  254. He got like we want to catch God's plan and purpose for the

  255. global church and it flows all the way through to the local

  256. church and to our lives. So that's the big vision.

  257. It's like, all right, guys, let's all come to South Africa

  258. and we go, OK, let's do it where we're in South Africa, you know,

  259. because if we all just go, all right, we're going to South

  260. Africa, we all jump on a plane, then what are we?

  261. Are we together yet? No, I'm over there.

  262. You're over there. We don't know where we are.

  263. So it's like we need a clearer vision now so that we end up in

  264. the same place, right? So we need further revelation.

  265. We need, we need, you know, we need the the we need to narrow

  266. it down a bit, right? Well, OK, What what city we're

  267. going to, we're all going to go to Johannesburg.

  268. OK, great. Let's all go to Johannesburg.

  269. We're not quite there yet, are we?

  270. What suburb? What street, what number do you

  271. see? Like it?

  272. It just gets more detailed. And it's the same with our

  273. lives. It's the same for us as a

  274. church. It's like we have a, we have a

  275. broad vision of what God's wanting to do in US and through

  276. us. And then it's like, then we get

  277. the more specific leadings and guiding the daily steps in our

  278. lives so that we can reach the destination.

  279. The destination doesn't change. It's we've got the vision, we've

  280. got what God wants to do. And now it's just like working

  281. out, OK, you know, because we're all coming from different

  282. places, right? Think about that.

  283. Like I, if I jump on a certain plane and go there, other people

  284. have to go on a different plane to get there.

  285. So it looks unique. Now, you know, my personal walk

  286. to get to God's destination is different from your personal

  287. walk to get to God's destination.

  288. But we have to just be hearing clearly and being obedient and

  289. saying, yes, Lord and taking the steps in obedience.

  290. And again, it's the same way for us as a local church, for the

  291. way church is the same, same for us.

  292. We can have a big understanding of what God's wanting to do.

  293. But now it's like, all right, let's break it down and talk

  294. about our lives. Let's talk about how we live.

  295. Let's talk about how we apply God's truths to our lives in a

  296. daily step by step manner. That's what we do from here.

  297. We bring things down, we simplify things, we try to help

  298. us to catch the truths for today and for tomorrow and and you

  299. know, for our lives. I enjoyed Justin's message last

  300. week and I love that, you know, we're talking about the coming

  301. weeks, hearing from God and, and catching what it is.

  302. These are catching the specifics for the season that God has us

  303. in. This is what we should be

  304. hopeful for. This is what we need to be

  305. praying about. This is why we're going.

  306. We want to catch the specifics for us, not only just for our

  307. lives, but for the local church, for the church in this city, how

  308. we connect to the the churches around the world, all of these

  309. things. We want to catch some specifics

  310. and put some things in place. I love Justin Eva's list of ES.

  311. I love how Justin preaches on a whole different way to how my

  312. brain works and it's so good because like, we need that,

  313. right? What Justin brings in the way

  314. that he teaches and the way that he shares is so different to me.

  315. This church needs it, right? It's wonderful.

  316. But you know, some of these, the Justin Eva's ease were

  317. excitement and encouragement expanded, emboldened, equipped,

  318. envisioned expedient. I love the expedient.

  319. The Expedient 1 is the one that stuck with me because I want to

  320. see things happen now. It's just like I shouldn't

  321. ignore the other ones, but you know, like I'm, I'm excited for

  322. for things to move, you know, and I and I hope I'm catching

  323. God in that, that that's something that he wants to do in

  324. US and through US. I would love to see that.

  325. And I believe it is. Yeah.

  326. And so let me just remind you of the scripture that Justin shared

  327. with with us from Ephesians 310 says his intent was that now and

  328. he highlighted the now because this wasn't just written to

  329. them. This is written to us.

  330. This is the now. His intent was that now through

  331. the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to

  332. the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.

  333. This is a big vision statement. And again, the vision is big,

  334. but the footsteps are small. Something that you know, the

  335. things that God wants to, you know, the manifold wisdom that

  336. God wants to be revealed in and through his church in us as

  337. individuals is just him. It's who he is.

  338. It's his wisdom, it's his goodness, the goodness of God.

  339. It's his power. You know, we spoke about the

  340. laws have shared. It's his authority that we stand

  341. in. This needs to be demonstrated

  342. through the church. It's God's heart for people.

  343. It's God's ways in and through the church.

  344. This is like what we need to be expressing and showing and

  345. revealing and manifesting that the world would know who God is.

  346. And it's interesting when you think about that, it's not, it's

  347. actually easier than you think when you just start having

  348. conversations with people and just bringing in the truth.

  349. Just bring the truth in, bring who God is when someone's

  350. struggling and and stuff like that.

  351. You say, mate. You know, you know that God's

  352. intent was never for you to be struggling.

  353. Just this is just as an example. It's just like, just bring God

  354. in, bring the gospel in, bring the truth in, reveal Christ,

  355. reveal God in, in everywhere you go, wherever you find yourself,

  356. Reveal the manifold wisdom of God everywhere you go.

  357. Just tell people the truth of the word.

  358. Tell people who he is. Tell people what he's done.

  359. Bear witness of his goodness. Share your testimony.

  360. Don't hold it to yourself. Tell someone, especially when

  361. someone asks. When someone asks, that is it.

  362. That's like the green light. That's that's just like, all

  363. right, here we go. If someone's asking me now,

  364. you're going to cop it. Do you know what I mean?

  365. I'm going to tell you now like you asked.

  366. And you can even say that I've said this to people.

  367. Well, you asked, right? That's a green light.

  368. Love, when people ask why do you go to church, take a seat, you

  369. know, I'm going to tell you. So this means something in and

  370. through all of us. None of us have excluded from

  371. this. All of us have a part to play in

  372. revealing who God is, the manifold wisdom of God.

  373. It's wonderful. This is ministry, Gods, this is

  374. ministry, but that is ministry going.

  375. This is like the, you know, we've heard this before.

  376. This is like half time. This is like when we come

  377. together and talk about what we're going to do when we leave

  378. here, right? This is half time.

  379. This is being equipped. This is the Saints being

  380. equipped for the for the ministry and the ministry.

  381. It happens in here, but it should be happening a whole lot

  382. more out there because we've just made it about this.

  383. That church is where ministry happens.

  384. Ministry happens wherever you are because the Holy Spirit

  385. lives in you and he wants for you to release him, his truth,

  386. his Spirit wherever you go. And so the church is like a

  387. training ground for us to, you know, trust to even share, like

  388. when we talk about us coming together as a priesthood of all

  389. believers and, and when we ask, hey, what's the Lord saying?

  390. What's the Lord saying? What's the Lord saying?

  391. This is like a training ground. If you could be bold to share

  392. what the Lord's saying here, you're being equipped to share

  393. what the Lord's saying out there.

  394. This is a training ground. It's like learning to walk.

  395. It's like babies need help to learn to walk.

  396. Young kids, they don't just do it on their own.

  397. They don't just get up and start walking.

  398. You know what you do? You hold their hands and you

  399. walk with them, you know, and then they get, then they get

  400. confident and you let them go for a bit and they're all you

  401. know. It's really cool to watch, but

  402. that's what we're doing here. We're taking each other by the

  403. hand and we're helping each other to become fruitful

  404. ministers in the church. And so once the kids learn to

  405. walk, it's like it's not over. You know, I think about your

  406. maturity in Christ. It never ends.

  407. Once you learn to walk, then what?

  408. Well, now you're going to want to run, right?

  409. And when kids start to run, they fall a lot.

  410. So they need to be picked up again, you know, Then they want

  411. to learn to jump. It's just like as we grow in the

  412. Lord, it's like you're always going to need the body around

  413. you to pick you up again, to dust you off, to send you back

  414. out. The Word of God is so powerful.

  415. He has knit His word in everything.

  416. You can see God's goodness in everything.

  417. So amazing. Once your eyes are open, you see

  418. it everywhere. You see God everywhere.

  419. This is why it's quite easy to share God because it's

  420. everywhere. And Jesus did this all the time.

  421. He shared things through physical things that were around

  422. him. Both physical things still

  423. existed at you, us. You could still use them to

  424. reveal Christ. Amen.

  425. So we're talking about, you know, the priest sort of

  426. believers. We're talking about carrying

  427. this thing together. We're talking about equipping

  428. each other to do this work together.

  429. And I just want to, we had such an amazing time on Friday night

  430. and I wanted to share around that.

  431. And Eliza already sort of touched on it a little, but it

  432. was such an amazing time. And so I just want to, I've

  433. asked, you know, just a couple of the guys that were here.

  434. I've asked Tony, do you want to come up or you want me to hand

  435. you the you want to stay there? OK, All right.

  436. So we're just going to share just something that we enjoyed

  437. on Friday night. So go for a bit.

  438. Eliza touched on it really because I enjoyed everyone's

  439. company, but I enjoyed getting to know this fella Brayden and

  440. you know, and his story and getting getting to know him

  441. because I used to be the real new person.

  442. And but that's what I found, you know, as much as you enjoy

  443. everyone's company and that it was just someone new and it was,

  444. you know, that's that's what I found uplifting other night.

  445. So. Good.

  446. Yeah. Thank you, man.

  447. Amen. We love you bro and thank you

  448. for being bold enough to share that I'm going to take it takes

  449. courage, man. Thank you man, I'll.

  450. Walk with you, come with me. So it's such a good night.

  451. And you know, one of the things that God really impressed upon

  452. me was the work he's done in Tony.

  453. You know, I think as as Christians have been around for

  454. a little while, we can we get tainted, we get tainted and you

  455. know what, what what the Lord's saying to me through seeing the

  456. freshness and the growth and the change and his just his spirit

  457. moving in you buddy. It's just it's just so

  458. encouraging and to meet you again.

  459. It's a little while since I've seen you, but it's great.

  460. Great to spend some time with you also, but what God quickened

  461. to me around seeing the freshness of the spirit of God

  462. on a man who's changing visibly because that's the question that

  463. we were discussing was when come that he comes up to you and Tony

  464. was saying this my friend saying to me what's going on what's

  465. happening? You know what you're changing

  466. and and I I was quick and that I had a time in my life where that

  467. was really prominent as well where people could see the

  468. change in me and I'm my my cry out to God is Lord that that you

  469. would take me in you into a season where people would see

  470. that change again, that I would be refreshed that we would all

  471. be refreshed within the Lord and that change that that those

  472. steps that we're taking towards him would continue to be

  473. manifestly visible in the change that he's affecting enough.

  474. Does that make sense? So God's doing great things and

  475. my prayer is, Lord, let your Spirit be visible through us and

  476. on us to the people who need to see you and to know you, thank

  477. you, Lord, so. Good.

  478. Thank you. Did you want to share?

  479. I'll, I'll bring it to you. You look like you were a bit

  480. handsful. Well, again, I think everyone

  481. who was here for the pre prayer before we started caught this

  482. anyway. But Dave just shared the

  483. scripture out of Acts when they were waiting for the spirit to

  484. come at Pentecost and how they were all together in one accord

  485. and, and in the context of the of the evening.

  486. I mean, as dad just said, there was a recurring theme of people

  487. crying out for the freshness of God and, and that was why Dave

  488. shared the scripture just of being in one place and of 1

  489. accord. And I I guess my faith was

  490. really just stirred for for seeing that actually out worked.

  491. And then and then I guess it overflows into today when we

  492. start talking about being woven together and just that real

  493. being of 1 accord with each other and the faith to see the

  494. fruit of what God can do in that space.

  495. Yeah, and the power that comes when we're unified and together.

  496. Amazing. So good.

  497. And so, yeah, like I, I had such a great time, you know, it was

  498. wonderful and it was cool because we made a plan to be

  499. together. You know, it's a community

  500. group. We're going to come together.

  501. So that's like the first step. Let's be together, you know?

  502. And then. But the cool thing was that

  503. everyone that was there actively participated.

  504. There was no one, you know? Hillary nodded off on the couch

  505. for a bit, but she was tired. OK, so that's OK.

  506. We'll we'll let that slide. Sorry, babe, but everyone was

  507. actively participating and you felt it.

  508. You're like, this is wonderful. You know, the Lord's here and

  509. and we're his people. And it was just, it felt

  510. wonderful. And we ate together.

  511. We love eating together. You know, he's just eating

  512. together is just one of the privileges we have.

  513. You know, Dan LED well when he opened up the word, he's just,

  514. it was as simple as just, hey, you know, I just felt this

  515. scripture. I mean, he read it and then we

  516. started talking and it just opened up this conversation with

  517. us. We were, as Hillary said, we

  518. were able just to share out of our own lives and their own

  519. struggles and, and it was all entwined together.

  520. It was just wonderful. Such a simple, simple thing, you

  521. know, and we waited on him. Isn't that just such a simple

  522. thing like that? We would come together and then

  523. we would wait on him and just say, Lord, we're here because of

  524. you. We know that you're here.

  525. What do you want to do? You know, and when we share out

  526. of that and it was just good, but that's that you.

  527. I'm saying all this because, you know, that's what we should be

  528. expecting every time that we're together.

  529. You know, church has become a lot of things in a lot of places

  530. and we've kind of lost the just to be together and to all

  531. participate. It's become very much about a

  532. stage mentality and that the only ones that would share with

  533. those that have the stage and have the mic, you know, but we

  534. can still, we can still actively participate even though, you

  535. know, we have these things for a reason, right?

  536. But we can still actively participate, no matter how big

  537. we get when we come together in the morning.

  538. And I would encourage us to come because we pray at 9:30 and the

  539. purpose behind it is just to hear from the Lord and see what

  540. it what it is that he was wanting to do today.

  541. And so I'd encourage all of us to be here to do that.

  542. But yeah, church can, church can look like that, where it's just

  543. a family of believers coming together and playing their part

  544. and contributing. You know, when I was, when I was

  545. prepping for this message, you know, I said that.

  546. I said that there was a there was a guy here.

  547. This is what I wrote down in my notes.

  548. I said there was a guy there and I could see that God was working

  549. in him. Yeah, that's what I wrote down.

  550. But then I had to change that because, you know, I, I don't

  551. want to, I'm not going to single you out or anything.

  552. You don't need to come up here. But we're dude, we are excited

  553. that you're here. You've heard we were excited

  554. that you were there. And the reason that I had to

  555. change this is because Brayden gave his life to the Lord the

  556. next day. That is a huge deal.

  557. Thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord, you know, so so

  558. it went from being there was a guy here that you could

  559. literally see God working in to there was a there was a guy with

  560. us that received Christ that was saved.

  561. That is so exciting. We are so stoked, you know, and

  562. I've got a scripture for you bro.

  563. It says Luke 1517 says this. It says this is Jesus speaking.

  564. He says, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy

  565. in heaven over 1 Sinner who repents than over 99 that who do

  566. not need repentance. Do you know what that means?

  567. That means that when you said, Lord, I take you as my Lord and

  568. Saviour, that heaven erupted and they praised for you.

  569. And we do the same thing in this place, man.

  570. We are so overjoyed that God has gripped your heart and that you

  571. made it here because I know that it's difficult for you to be

  572. here. But you're overcoming already,

  573. man. And you're going to need to

  574. because you know, we're going to have to overcome together.

  575. But can we just lift our voice and just give it a big praise?

  576. And we thank you, Lord, we thank you, Lord, thank you for Braden.

  577. Lord, thank you for the work you're doing in him and through

  578. him. Bless him, Lord, strengthen him.

  579. Lord, we just pray your protection over him.

  580. We pray that you would protect him.

  581. We pray that you would reveal yourself to him.

  582. We pray that you would be formed in him.

  583. We pray that you would fill him with joy and with hope and with

  584. peace and with strength, that you would make yourself known to

  585. him and use him. Lord, I pray that you would use

  586. him for your plans and your purpose in and through the

  587. church. Lord, that the manifold wisdom

  588. of God would be revealed in and through this Son in Jesus mighty

  589. name, Amen. Amen.

  590. What a wonderful thing, Thank you Lord, Thank you.

  591. Lord. And so you know, I left that

  592. meeting, you know, before I even knew about that.

  593. I left that meeting just being excited.

  594. I was pumped up. I was like, that was wonderful.

  595. You know, we woke up the next day and Hillary and I are

  596. talking. We're just going.

  597. That was so nice, you know? And you know what?

  598. We're feeling excited, encouraged, expanded,

  599. emboldened, equipped, and envisioned expedient.

  600. We saw God move in a in an instant.

  601. Amen. So let's be expected that God's

  602. going to continue to do in, in these things in and through

  603. these coming weeks. This is a big week for us as a

  604. church. There's a lot going on.

  605. And so, you know, the other thing that I thought about last

  606. on Friday night, I was just like, I would be excited to

  607. invite someone to come along to that.

  608. Like be excited. Like I'd, I'd be like, yeah,

  609. you, you need to come to this, you know, not inviting out of

  610. obligation, you know, not inviting because we should

  611. invite people to church. We should invite people to

  612. community because we should. That's what we're supposed to

  613. do. Excited because God was there,

  614. because we saw the Spirit of God move.

  615. And that's what the world needs. That's what people need.

  616. That's what your unfriend save, sorry, your unsaved neighbors

  617. and friends and work colleagues, That's what they need.

  618. We need to invite them along, you know.

  619. And again, sometimes it's going to be easier for people to come

  620. for a meal with with a small group of people than come into a

  621. church context. And we've talked about this in

  622. weeks gone by, this fruit. Now that means that God's on

  623. this, right? Our our gathering together at

  624. our men's group. There's fruit there, there's

  625. people coming. We're sharing the word of God.

  626. We're in a room and it's not just believers.

  627. People are wanting to come and, and I'll leave those meetings.

  628. Do you enjoy those meetings, Brandon?

  629. Do you enjoy the men's groups? So good, so good.

  630. You know, it's another one of those ones that you leave and I

  631. know that you enjoy it too tiny. We leave and we were like, that

  632. was one that was wonderful. God's with us.

  633. You know, this is super encouraging for us guys.

  634. So awesome. All right, so Jesus got people

  635. gathered to Jesus through word of mouth, didn't they?

  636. They just went and told people what it was that that Jesus was

  637. doing. They they told him who he was

  638. and they said you got to come and see this guy.

  639. You got to come and see the things that Jesus does.

  640. It's the same for us. When we get excited about what

  641. God's doing. It's the same.

  642. Come and see, Come and see what Jesus to come and see, you know,

  643. there's an excitement. There's a word of mouth.

  644. We grow through word of mouth predominantly.

  645. That's how the church has grown. That's how the early church

  646. grew. You got it.

  647. Yeah, it's still growing that way now.

  648. You know, we won't rely on other things now, but word of mouth is

  649. where the power is. Do you know why?

  650. Because like when I'm standing next to someone, you know what?

  651. Someone's experience. Holy Spirit, It's true you.

  652. When we're together, we experience God in a real way.

  653. When we're on the phone, God can do amazing things.

  654. Don't get me wrong, God can come and touch people through the

  655. phone. But when we're together, the

  656. Holy Spirit flows in US and through us.

  657. It's like when you walk into a room.

  658. Do you know who walks into the room?

  659. God walks into the room. The Holy Spirit's here.

  660. It's very cool. It's this is like the, this is

  661. the adventure of being a son of God or a daughter of God.

  662. This is the adventure knowing that when you show up God's

  663. there and the authority of God, that Christ's authority has gone

  664. with you. It's pretty cool.

  665. And so this is the, the, you know, when we think about the

  666. church like this, this is a healthy DNA for a church and

  667. into the future. It's like if we can build

  668. something that's healthy and strong, then when we plant out

  669. of this place, you, you build upon out of the DNA that we have

  670. here. Then, then, then you build, you

  671. multiply somewhere else and you build a healthy church there.

  672. That's what church planting is. That's what's happened here.

  673. We've come out of another church.

  674. We've been planted here. We've had to find our way for a

  675. little while now. It's time to grow and with the

  676. intent of planting into the future because we want to see

  677. more churches where we can experience these amazing, fun

  678. things that the presence of God in our midst.

  679. We want for others to experience that over there where there's

  680. not a church there or where there needs to be a a new

  681. covenant church there. That's simply what church

  682. planting is. And so in the coming weeks, I

  683. loved Eliza's word last week. She said it's time.

  684. It is time, it is time, time for what?

  685. Time for us to get some clarity, time for us to to get the steps,

  686. you know, where God's been showing us some cool stuff, but

  687. we need some more clarity. We need to know, Lord, what is

  688. it that you want us to do specifically in all of this?

  689. That we could be successful that we could see your mighty hand

  690. move. We want to hear the specifics

  691. Lord give us ears to hear. Open our hearts up wide Lord.

  692. So for those that are staying while we go.

  693. I love this scripture. Obviously I shared this with

  694. with you guys before it's one Samuel 3024.

  695. This is David David and his men. He says for for who will healed

  696. Sorry. Let me start again for who will

  697. heal heed you in this matter. But as his part is, who goes

  698. down to the battle? So shall his part be who stays

  699. with the suppliers? They shall share alike.

  700. That means that the men that grabbed their swords and their

  701. weapons and went to fight share the inheritance with those that

  702. had to stay. You know, when I was thinking

  703. about this this week, do you think that there was work to be

  704. done for those that stayed? They weren't just sitting there

  705. just going, oh, we'll just wait till they get back and then

  706. we'll just get on with it. They're looking after all of the

  707. animals. They're looking after the kids.

  708. And the, you know, there's they're, they're keeping the

  709. house. There's work to be done.

  710. And I say that to you guys because it's not like, you know,

  711. we'll just send them away and wait till they get back.

  712. There's work to be done here, you know, and, and Justin will

  713. be here next week and I'm here this week.

  714. So, you know, you're not left on your own completely.

  715. But I say that because you guys are going to need each other

  716. mostly out of looking after the the sheep, right?

  717. You guys need to look after one another while we're gone.

  718. You're going to need to make sure that you're OK.

  719. Guys got to gather around this man.

  720. Yeah. We've got to look after one

  721. another. We've got to make sure that our

  722. needs are met. You know, the early church took

  723. care of the needs of each other. And that's going to be

  724. prayerfully, but that's going to be more than prayerfully.

  725. That's going to be picking up the phone and saying, how are

  726. you doing? We spoke about Bianca last week.

  727. Bianca's here with the family. And I know I love to hear the

  728. stories that you guys are doing that.

  729. But what about the rest of us? You know, because we need each

  730. other. We need to just pick up the

  731. phone. If you feel if you hear a name

  732. or someone's on your heart, you just think about someone

  733. throughout the next week or two, send them a text.

  734. If you've got their number, flick them or give them a call.

  735. Find out how they're doing. Just say, hey, I was just

  736. thinking about you. Are you OK?

  737. Is there anything you need? It's simple stuff.

  738. Wonderful. So we need to be the church the

  739. the, the the Bible church Acts 246.

  740. So they continued daily with 1 accord in the temple and

  741. breaking bread from house to house.

  742. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of

  743. heart. They gathered together.

  744. It's daily they were together. You know, I've heard push back

  745. on this, you know, like when you start talking a little this way

  746. and you just go, you know, the early church, they gathered

  747. together daily. You've heard push back and

  748. you're well, you know, that's the early church.

  749. We don't need to be like the early church.

  750. Are you sure? Because the early church

  751. experienced the power of God. The early church saw 3000 people

  752. saved in one day. I think we need to be like the

  753. early church. I think that we need to take on

  754. the example of the early church. So if they were gathering daily,

  755. I think we need to make a way to be together as regularly as we

  756. can. The other thing that the early

  757. church did was they prayed together.

  758. We pray together, We have a prayer meeting, we pray again,

  759. we pray before the meeting. Very important.

  760. Please come. Please come to the prayer

  761. meeting if you can. I'd realize that some of us

  762. can't make it. That's fine.

  763. But what I do know is usually those that can't make it want to

  764. be here and they're praying anyway.

  765. Can I just say that Psalm 5 talks about prayer.

  766. It says, I'm just going to read it to us here.

  767. Psalm 5, verse one, it says, give ear to my words.

  768. O Lord, consider my meditation. Give heed to my voice of my cry,

  769. my King and my God, for to you I will pray.

  770. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning

  771. I will direct it to you and I will look up.

  772. We will pray. And then if you skip down to

  773. verse 7, it says this. But As for me, I will come into

  774. Your house in the multitude of Your mercy, in fear of You, I'll

  775. worship towards Your holy temple.

  776. Listen to this. Lead me, O Lord, in Your

  777. righteousness. Because of my enemies, make Your

  778. way straight before my face. This is prayer.

  779. You know what this means? It means that when I pray to the

  780. Lord, I lift up my voice and I speak to Him.

  781. But you know what He does in return?

  782. He leads me. He leads me in the paths of

  783. righteousness. Prayer is not one sided.

  784. Prayer is not just me spitting out all of my requests to God.

  785. Prayer is me crying out to Him because I need Him and we need

  786. Him. And God responds by hearing and

  787. then leading us by His Holy Spirit.

  788. Be expectant that when you do pray, Holy Spirit will lead you

  789. and guide you. He does.

  790. His word says that He does. We know He does.

  791. Amen. All right, so we are and I just

  792. getting back to the start, I'm just wrapping this up.

  793. So we are an Apostolic prophetic people.

  794. He shows the way that we go, the way the Church's name is is

  795. significant for us. He shows us the way.

  796. When he shows us the way, do you know what we do?

  797. We go in obedience. Yeah, that's being sent.

  798. That's Apostolic. That's going the way, Lord.

  799. Show us the way, Lord, so that we can follow you, so that we

  800. can go, so that we can do what you've called us to do.

  801. He shows us the way to live. You know, this is the prophetic

  802. side to this. He, he shows us not only where

  803. to go, but he shows us how to go.

  804. He shows us how to live. He again, prophetic is just like

  805. hearing from God and then speaking, speaking it.

  806. So we want to be a Apostolic prophetic hearted people,

  807. priesthood of all believers. We read this this morning.

  808. I'm going to read it for us again, a priesthood of all

  809. believers. That just means that all of us

  810. have a role to play in His church as a priest to the Lord.

  811. The Old covenant had specific priests that would be in between

  812. God and the people that they would come to the priest, and

  813. the priest would. You know you're not in Christ.

  814. A priesthood of all believers has direct access to God through

  815. Christ. We are a priesthood.

  816. That means that you don't need me to get to God, You don't need

  817. me to go. Can you just pray for me that

  818. God would, right? That means that you as a

  819. believer, as a spirit filled believer, as a son of God, and

  820. having received the cross, having received Jesus sacrifice,

  821. forgiveness of sins, can walk boldly into the throne room of

  822. God. That means that He is opening up

  823. a way for you to come to him. It means that you can come and

  824. ask, give him your, your requests and your needs.

  825. That's a, that's a, that is a substantial truth of the gospel

  826. that we could come to the Lord. So 1 Corinthians 1426, it says,

  827. how is it then, brethren, whenever, whenever, today is a

  828. whenever. Friday night was a whenever,

  829. when I have friends around, you know, when, when Justin and

  830. Bianca come for dinner, It's a whenever, whenever you're

  831. together, whenever you come together, each of you has a

  832. Psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an

  833. interpretation. Let all things be done for

  834. edification. All things whenever we're

  835. together that we would be edified, strengthened, set on

  836. the path that the Lord has for us.

  837. Amen. So how are we going to respond

  838. to that? Because any time that we share

  839. the word of God, it's, it's if you, if you hear it and you go,

  840. yeah, that's the Lord. He's speaking.

  841. This is his word. Now we have to respond.

  842. We have to respond to the Lord. And responding to the Lord is

  843. very easy, again, because you've got access to the God, because

  844. you can go into the holiest place where the Lord dwells, the

  845. throne room of God. That means that responding

  846. happens in here. We are the temple of God.

  847. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

  848. That means you don't have to look outwardly to respond to the

  849. Lord. Respond comes in your heart.

  850. It's as simple as saying, Lord, I hear you.

  851. I want to respond to you. You can use your mouth, but you

  852. can use your heart. So I'm just going to pray for us

  853. and let's all respond. How about that?

  854. Who wants to respond? We all need to respond.

  855. Please, yeah, please. It's a verse that many of you

  856. are familiar with because I've given it to some of you before,

  857. but it's coming in to me this morning.

  858. It's I grew up with as a young believer, and I spent a lot of

  859. time in the Living Bible. And this is a verse from Psalm

    Psalms 32:8

  860. 32, verse 8. And in the Living Bible it says,

  861. I would instruct you, says the Lord, and guide you along the

  862. best pathway for your love. And then he says, and I would

  863. advise you and watch your progress.

  864. Be blessed. Add to that, we forget that He

  865. loves our progress. He created us and when he sees

  866. the faculties that he's put into us and the the gifting and the

  867. other things, when we see us use that and move forward, he

  868. rejoices. He sings over us, he dances over

  869. us. Can he pray for us?

  870. OK, Our great, wonderful, wonderful Father in heaven, our

  871. Papa Father, the great God of the universe, the, the sovereign

  872. God, the highest level of authority and and the deepest

  873. well of resources that exist. We, we rejoice today that we

  874. could come through the curtain that was torn.

  875. They, the experts think it was 3 feet at least thick and it was

  876. torn from top to bottom. So we come with boldness to you.

  877. We thank you for the encouragement this morning from

  878. your word. We thank you for the examples

  879. that we have. Thank you for those 3 chapters

  880. that that speak of. What do you do when you come

  881. together? We thank you for what happened

  882. on Friday night. I wasn't there, but I can

  883. imagine. And so, Father, we pray that you

  884. will help us to respond to the things we've heard, to respond

  885. to what you are calling us to be, to respond not with fear,

  886. but with confidence that if you made us and you sent us and

  887. you've given us the incredible good news, then Lord, we pray

  888. that you'll help us to be courageous enough and sensitive

  889. enough not to go out of this door and justice think, Oh well,

  890. I'm going to get on with life. No, but go out of this door

  891. differently, expecting, aware of, of abiding in Jesus, of of

  892. being in touch, synced, synced to you, Lord Jesus 100%.

  893. So whatever you want to do, and you do it with us together, we

  894. pray that in Jesus name for and we give you the glory and the

  895. credit for what you're going to do in Jesus name, Amen.

  896. Thank you guys. I just wanna thank you all for

  897. contributing and this has been a wonderful time together, hasn't

  898. it? Bless you guys.

  899. Hey, have a wonderful. Day, Thank you for joining us

  900. for today's message. For more information about The

  901. Way Church, please visit [email protected] dot

  902. AU. Have a blessed day.