IN BETWEEN THE YES AND AMEN | SUNDAY 14TH JUNE | PS SARAH MORE

Amen. Well, if you didn't know it, you

are at session five of Replenish. You

are welcome, guys. I know you wanted to

come along this weekend, so this is your

chance. This is session five of

Replenish. Doesn't our decor look pretty

amazing? We've had a great team. We have

had a great team. So, if if you have

served this weekend as part of our um

replenish conference, I'd love you to

stand up because I'm not going to throw

you out a crunchy bar because I've got

something better than a crunchy bar. So

Sue, listen to me. Stand up. Audrey,

Jarusha, you were in the kitchen. Were

there any girls on our um dance at the

start of Friday night? You girls were

amazing. Maybe they're coming in the

second service. Anyone who has served

Michelle,

Katherine. Yes, we've had a great team.

We've had a great team. And so I just

want to bless them because they have

been such a blessing. Here's our um Anna

who um led an amazing testimony. Just

keep standing there. You're good. You're

good.

Thank you, Jesus. Lord Jesus, as these

ladies have served so well this weekend,

I pray that they will be blessed by your

presence. I pray that they will be

blessed with joy. I pray that they will

be blessed with deep rest, with deep

peace, with restoration, with the

desires of their heart as they have

given so much to us as ladies this

weekend. I pray that you meet them, that

you bless them. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

>> Amen.

All right, let me get my notes out.

So, um, 20 20 plus years ago, Aaron and

I, we've been married for a year. And

during that first year of marriage,

actually, we planned an amazing trip

around Europe. And it took us all year

as we planned it. And um we had

everything. It was a lot of fun just

like figuring out where we're going to

go and where we're going to stay and

different um things we're going to do at

each destination. And um I probably took

it one step further and I had it all in

a spreadsheet because I love a good

spreadsheet. And I had it all budgeted

exactly what we would spend each day

like on food, accommodation, travel,

activities. It was down to the tea of

exactly what we would do. There was no

room. There was no wiggle room. But we

got to our last destination, Rome, and

we were staying at an accommodation

place probably about 20 minutes outside

of Ren. It was kind of like a a little

bit of a holiday park type vibe. It was

quite cool. And um we got to the

reception desk, checked in, and then it

was like this lovely little lane down to

where all the accommodation places was.

I remember the first place I I went to,

I saw the bathroom, the abolution block

there, and it was amazing. It was all

marble, like there was no other

material. It was all marble. There was a

um a fountain, a marble fountain in the

middle of the bathroom block. It was

incredible. My expectations were up

here. It was amazing. And as we kind of

walked down and down and down this lane,

the accommodations just got a little bit

worse and worse and worse until we got

to our accommodation. And it was this

kind of porticcomicom type cabin at the

end and um with two rooms with bunk beds

and these really skinny mattresses and

um they'd obviously been airing the room

out cuz you walked in and it was black

with bugs. There was just the ceiling

was just thick with bugs and um and

there was one toilet and sink in between

the two rooms, but you you could smell

the toilets before before you got there.

it would you just wouldn't use it. You'd

go to the marble toilets down the road.

And um and then the other room was being

used by, let's just say, three European

lads who um the the mess was just kind

of spilling out the room. And they

stayed up till I think about 3:00 a.m.

in the morning talking and chatting and

drinking and all that stuff. And we

didn't get a lot of sleep. It wasn't a

lot of fun. So we reworked the budget

the next morning. We thought we can't do

this. And we'd seen those other um

cabins. There was no air con. There was

no fan. It was stinking hot. It was it

was June. It was stinking hot in um in

Europe. And so we we reworked the budget

the next morning. And we're like, "No,

we can do this. We can get an upgrade.

We can go for that aircon room with the

TV." I don't think we'd had a TV the

whole way around. And we were just so

excited to go out, explore Rome for the

day, get back, put our feet up in the

air con and watch some TV as you do. Um

and so we went to the reception. They

said, "Yeah, sure, Mr. and Mrs. Moore.

That's fine. we'll have your room ready

for you when you come back from your day

in Rome. So off we went to Rome and and

we were that day we were um in St.

Peter's Square in the Vatican and you

know there's heaps of queuing and it's

really hot and I remember there were

some steps to go up to look down onto

the St. Peter Square and we like should

we or shouldn't we like people were

fainting in the heat of there was like a

heat wave thing happening you know and

um and so we're like no we can do it

because we're going back to that air

conditioned room we got the promiser air

conditioned room right so we can do this

we climbed those steps we did the view

we got back to the accommodation place

and Aaron said you go and pack the bags

and I'll go get the key sweet so I went

down and then about a few minutes later

he followed me back to the room we were

staying in and without te and he said

there was no room. They've made a

mistake and there's no room for us. They

they they didn't take the booking or

something something's happened but there

was there was no key and so there was a

little bit of tension between us. We've

been married a year

and um I was like what what do you mean

there's no key? There has to be a key.

had promised us this new room and um

we'd been looking forward to it so much

that day. We were exhausted, we were

hot, we were tired, we just wanted that

room. And so Aaron said, "Fine, you go

talk to them then if you don't believe

me, you know." And so I I'm I'm usually

quite a nice person.

I don't like conflict. I don't, you

know, but that day got me and I stormed

down that lane to the reception area. I

think the woman saw me coming

and I stormed in and and said, you know,

we we we booked this and she kind of she

stopped at the reception desk and she

looks like this and she just looks at me

and and I was kind of a bit confused and

she goes, "You look like somebody." And

I was and then this is kind of in an

Italian accent as well. though. And she

goes, "H,

you look like Renee Zelwigger."

And I was like, "What?

What's Renee Zelwigger got to do with

anything? Come on." And she goes, "You

are, aren't you? You're Renee

Zilwigger."

And I must admit, I I, you know, I'm a

good Christian pastor's wife. I don't

lie. But I didn't say no.

I just smiled. at her because I was a

little bit confused as well. And um she

said she looked down at her her book and

she was like, "Yeah, yeah, we do have a

room for you. That's right." And she

gave me the key.

Yes. So I walked back to Aaron quite

proud of myself and said, "Here's the

key. Let's go to that air conditioned

room." It was so good. The um Yeah. Our

theme of replenish conference is um that

his promises are yes and amen. And we've

got a scripture we're going to put up

there. Got a scripture coming. Um 2

2 Corinthians 1:20

Corinthians 1:20 says, "For all God's

promises," it's gone from up on the wall

there. Oh, with a resound um Okay, I'm

facing this way. For all of God's

promises have been fulfilled in Christ

with a resounding yes and through Christ

our amen which means yes ascends to God

for his glory. So my message today is

waiting between the in between in

between the yes and the amen because um

it was only a day that we waited

for that promise to um be fulfilled of

an air conditioned room. But I know that

for some people there's a long painful

gap between that yes and the amen. You

see in that verse when um it talks about

the yes. The promises of God are yes.

And we've got this huge big Bible on the

stage here. It's pretty chunky. And if

you find a promise in there, it is

always yes. God's promises are always

yes. There is no doubt in that. They are

there in the Bible and they are yes. But

that amen part that sometimes that's

about us. That's about the waiting.

That's about us coming in line with his

promises. And sometimes there is a gap

between that yes and that amen.

See, I got the promise fairly quickly

that day with a little bit of false

recognition. Um it still doesn't help

those of us who are left waiting for

their promise. So, my message is about

how do we respond in the waiting?

Let's get into the Bible. Huh? Um, I

sometimes think, what if I were a

disciple walking with Jesus each day of

his ministry? At what point would I have

realized that Jesus is the Messiah

talked about for generations past? Would

there have been behind the-do

conversations with other disciples

wondering too, trying to fit all the

pieces together? or would it just feel

so foreign that the Messiah would want

to hang out with me?

Peter realized and was bold enough to

profess when Jesus asked his disciples,

"But what about you? Who do you say I

am?" And Peter answers, "You are the

Messiah." I mean, what a moment that

would have been. Imagine being there

when it was professed, Jesus, you are

the desire. Yet shortly after complete

disappointment as Jesus hung on the

cross in what seemed like story over.

All that they had hoped that you know

that that that Jesus would bring change

to the world would restore hope and make

everything right. Instead it seemed like

another story of promise ending in

disappointment. Does this sound familiar

to you? what hopes, dreams, ideas you've

had have ended in disappointment or had

not panned out the way that perhaps you

thought they would.

Some of us may cling to the scripture

that he will do exceedingly abundantly

more than we could ever think or dream

of. And that is great. Yet also, we're

humans and in our human nature, the very

human feelings of frustration

unfold. Again,

the truth is God always wins. He always

claims the victory.

We um we had an amazing testimony

yesterday on session four of um

replenish. Anna shared about her and

Kyle's um story of infertility and the

the really real

really really real feelings of

frustration of anger and everything that

went through that and it was beautiful

to listen to that and um but as we heard

actually she started with with the

victory that God um God claimed the

victory in the end.

You see, I could never try to outthink

God of how a situation is going to work

out because he's way too creative and

out of the box for me.

Maybe I just need to give it all to God.

>> So, how do we sit and wait for the

promise? Well, I have three P's. P for

promise. Three Ps. Okay. So, number one,

perceive or recognize that Jesus is

Lord. Matthew 16:156-16

says, "But what about you?" He asked,

"Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter

answered, "You are the Messiah, the son

of the living God." You see, in my story

of being falsely recognized as Renee

Zelwiger, it led to the promise of an

airon room. And my discomfort was

removed.

The disciples, they recognized that

their rabbi, their teacher was far more

than that. He was the Messiah.

Imagine that moment when it suddenly

dawned on them. when the scriptures they

studied came to life that they

understood that the Messiah was Jesus.

The promise of salvation, the promise of

his spirit living within us is the

greatest of all. Before anything else,

we need to recognize we need to

acknowledge and perceive that Jesus

Christ is Lord. Point one. Point two, we

need to position ourselves with Christ.

Mark 3:14 says, "He appointed 12 that

Mark 3:14

they might be with him and that he might

send them out."

So, um, yeah, the disciples, they

positioned themselves for Christ for

three years before they truly realized

who he was. We already know who he is.

We've seen what he did on the cross and

his resurrection, but we need to learn

to walk with him as the disciples did.

So, how does that look like? How do you

position how do we position ourselves

with Christ as as the disciples did?

Matthew 4:19 it says come follow me and

Matthew 4:19

I'll make you fishes of men. So that's

the first thing we need to do. We need

to answer the call to follow him.

Secondly um the disciples they observed

Jesus' character, his maturity, his

prayer life. They observed that he was

sinless, that he had no sin and they

imitated him as much as they could in

their human nature. Their desire was to

be sinless, too. 2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21

says, "God made him who had no sin to be

sin for us so that in him we might

become the righteousness of God."

Thirdly, they sat under Jesus' teaching.

They opened the scripture, the Torah

together, and studied the word of God.

And I'm sure they would have done this

every single day probably. I like to

think around a bit of a campfire. Um

this weekend over replenish we have

pulled out so many promises that are in

the Bible. We had these stations all

around the church. We got to have a good

look around the church, don't we ladies?

And um there were Bible verses at each

and every station declaring the promises

that are spoken over us. And my hope is

that there would have been one or two of

those that really resonated with ladies

over this weekend. Number four, they

lived life together. Interestingly, that

is the catchphrase of our church life

groups. Bit of a plug there. They were

there for each other in the daily grind

of life.

Jesus chose 12 knowing he would speak

into each of their lives. Who are your

12? Who speaks into your life? Whose

lives do you speak into?

And number five, they served others. I

love this. They didn't position

themselves for prestige, but they

demonstrated selfless love by prior

prioritizing others needs.

So that's how we position ourselves with

Jesus. And thirdly, my third point is

that we posture. We posture ourselves

before Christ. Psalm 95:6 says, "Oh

Psalms 95:6

come, let us worship and bow down. Let

us kneel before the Lord our maker."

If positioning ourselves is an outward

expression in our actions to receive the

promises of God, then our third P that

of posture is an inward expression or

alignment of our heart and our will.

This is more than a physical position.

It is about how we approach him. In

Matthew 28:16-17,

Matthew 28:16–17

it says, "When Jesus returned and gave

the great commission to his disciples,

when they first truly recognized him as

the Messiah, they bowed down and they

worshiped him." The Bible talks about

four different types of postures that

I'm going to run through. Some of these

postures might be comfortable to you.

you're used to being in that place of

posture and others might be not so

comfortable. Um, the first one I have is

lifting your hands. This one is quite

familiar to me if I'm honest. Um, it's

an outward expression of openness. It's

praising God's greatness and releasing

control to him. It is an act or

expression of surrendering everything to

him.

In 1 Timothy 2:8, Paul tells Timothy,

1 Timothy 2:8

"Therefore, I want the men in every

place to pray, lifting up holy hands."

Another type of posture is kneeling or

bowing, symbolizing submission of your

will to his, acknowledging his lordship

over your life. It is an act of

humility.

In Acts 21:5, Paul says, "When it was

Acts 21:5

time to leave, we left and continued on

our way. and all of them, including

wives and children, accompanied us out

of the city. And there on the beach, we

knelt and we prayed together.

A third type of posture is being still

and silent before God.

This allows you to focus on his presence

and recognize that he is God. You're

being reverent to him. Of course, a

favorite scripture is Psalm 46:10. be

Psalms 46:10

still and know that I am God. And

sometimes in the chaos around us, in the

noise of life, we just need to take time

to be still and silent in his presence.

And fourthly,

my last posture I'm going to share today

is lying prostrate with your face to the

ground.

This acknowledges your unworthiness,

your brokenness, your total dependence

on his mercy.

When we are succumbed by him and we are

overwhelmed by his greatness, scripture

tells us that when the wise men first

saw Jesus in his mother's arms, they

fell down and worshiped him completely

overwhelmed by his greatness.

Um,

a few a few probably about six weeks

ago, I um, God was teaching me some

things and I dropped my boys off at

youth on a Friday night and I was

already in my Friday night lounging

clothes if I'm honest. I didn't want to

see anyone. I just wanted to drop them

off, get out of there and and then I

remembered I needed to get something

from the office and I was like, it's

okay. I can just still just park down

here. Don't need to see anyone. Just

quickly go up, get it, get it. And then

as I got to the door, I realized I'd

left my phone on the charger at home and

now everything is by the app on your

phone to get into this place. And I was

like, "Oh, darn it. Okay, I can do this.

Just keep my head down. Don't make any

eye contact." I'll run through those

doors there where the youth will come in

and I'll quickly scoot around up the

stairs out. No one will see me. Just

don't make eye contact, Sarah. It'll be

okay.

And so I'm I'm pretty sure that Lou and

um Grace were maybe I didn't see because

I kept my head down at the door checking

checking youth in. And then there was

all these youth sitting around the

couches there. I don't know how it

happened but I walked in quickly came

around one foot went out and I ended up

on one knee. Now I must say it was quite

gracious. I was quite proud of myself.

It was beautiful moments of just this

whoosh down on one knee, but all these

young people I just remember looking up

and they all kind of went, "Are you

okay, old lady?"

And so I quickly picked myself up, kind

of went and just walked on and um got my

stuff, got out of there. What was that

about? And I looked back and there was

nothing on the floor. It wasn't like it

was even wet. I didn't even know how I'd

done it. But I went down on one knee.

And then about a week 10 days later, I

was at my ladies life group. I love my

ladies life group. And um we were we

watched the video on the on the TV and

then we go into discussion questions,

but I needed to go to the bathroom. So I

jumped up and I said, "Just go to the

lady to the bathroom ladies." And I

where we meet at Helen's um house, she's

kind of got like the sunken lounge, you

know, like three steps down into the

lounge. And so I jumped up and I Oh my

gosh, I don't know what I did. I got my

big right toe stuck in the other trails

leg

as I'm going up the stairs

and I ended up thump on the top of these

three steps. And it was not gracious

this time. It was an almighty thud down.

It was so loud. Well, it felt like it to

me. And um and all the ladies were then

behind me and I just heard this and I

was like, "Oh my gosh." And I jumped up

really quick. I said, "I'm fine. I'm

fine. I'm fine." And I wasn't hurt my

knee a bit, but I was like, you know,

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I've got

to go to the toilets." And I ran out to

the bathroom and I sat on the toilet and

I just went, "Oh my gosh, what is wrong

to with me? Why do I keep falling on my

knees?" And at that moment sitting on

the toilets in Helen's bathroom, God

spoke to me and said, "Because I'm

telling you, Sarah, you need to get down

on your knees and worship me." And um so

that was a moment in my life where God

has been speaking to me about my posture

that I need to get on my knees more and

um symbolizing that submission and and

as an act of humility. Um, that's

somewhere where where God is speaking to

me. But how about you? What's God

speaking to you about? Where is God

asking you to posture your heart? Where

is he asking you to um move past your

comfort zone where you're comfortable

posturing yourself and move into that

next area? You see, my message in

between the yes and the amen. There's no

magical formula to receive your promise.

Not even a Renee Zelwagger lookalike

apparently 20 years ago like me has the

magical formula for that. But what it

is, it's an invitation to consider your

actions, your positioning, and to

consider your heart, your posture.

I'm going to finish this message now if

um maybe the music team want to head up.

Um, and we're going to finish with a

song and an invitation to perceive, to

position, and to posture your heart

before God.

Now, this will look different to

everyone

at the foot of the cross over here.

We're going to have a an opportunity for

you. If your first step is that you need

to accept Jesus into your heart and you

need to to say that repentance prayer

and acknowledge that he is Lord of your

life, then we're going to have um

leaders down here who would love to lead

you to Jesus. All you need to do is

during our time of worship come out of

your st your seats and come down the

front and they will lead you through

that prayer. They would be privileged to

do that.

Um

during your worship, you may want to ask

God, what are ways you can position

yourself for the promise? Is there

something that I need to do? Is there

someone that I need to forgive to

position yourself

to receive that promise? What action do

I need to take? Ask God that and I'm

sure he will speak to you. And thirdly,

you may may need to posture yourself in

order to allow God to do the unthinkable

in your circumstances.

Posturing yourself in sacrifice to let

God take control. Posturing yourself

simply to be in his presence. And so

we're going to have a time as we sing

that you can come down the front and

posture yourselves however you feel that

God is calling you to or even in your

seats if you just want to stand in awe

of him. That's absolutely fine.

But I encourage you to to talk to God

during this moment and ask him what what

is your next steps.

No one's going to come and pray for you

up the front. It's just a time between

you and God.

May you be blessed as you posture

yourself in his presence.