BE TRANSFORMED | SUNDAY 15TH FEBRUARY | PS AARON MORE

Awesome.

You can

grab a seat. I uh the other day I saw um

something that said uh I

decided to run a social experiment and

put my son in a Manchester United shirt

for a week to see what would happen. And

uh so far he's been bitten, teased, and

kicked. and I'm really wondering what's

going to happen when he leaves the

house. And so, uh, that one's for Pastor

Trevor, uh, who is a Manchester United

fan. Um, but good morning. Welcome. Hey,

it's great to, uh, have you with us and

to gather in the name of Jesus. And uh

hey, in just a couple of weeks, we will

actually be having uh moving to two

Sunday morning services where one will

be at 9 and one will be at 11:15

a.m. And some people are excited. Um and

that's good. Um and so I think it's it's

it's going to be so uh amazing to see

what God does. And when I think about

that, I think of kind of the three ways

that we're making room. And we'll be

making room for some more people, which

will be amazing for them to encounter

Jesus. We'll also uh be able to push the

chairs back a little bit. So, we

actually be making room for a bigger

altar. So, that's good. We're not just

believing that, wow, we'll all of a

sudden become some slick streamline

service. No, that actually we'll make

space for even more of the spirit moving

in our midst. And then we're also going

to have a less packed street which

actually means we'll be able to connect

and see one another better and it won't

be quite so full in there and it will

just enable that opportunity for us to

connect together. So we're really

looking forward to everything that God

is going to do through that. Can I also

encourage uh you uh add my encouragement

to Jess's Lent is starting with 72 hours

of prayer. You can sign up for a oneh

hour slot to pray in our prayer room if

you're like what does that look like? We

we set up the station. So there is uh

aids to help you pray into certain areas

if that's what you want to do or you can

just come and take the hour by yourself.

You can come some with someone if you

want to, but you can also totally just

book that time in and come by yourself.

And uh I must say much to surprise

there's still a 400 a.m. slot available.

So if anyone is uh keen for that, you

can uh avail yourself of a 400 a.m.

prayer time. Um but it would be awesome.

You know, my heart is that we would see

um just everyone sign up and come and

pray like that. We would uh you know uh

Tyler Sten says we uh learn to pray by

praying. And sometimes um you know it's

like well what are the steps? What are

the Well, the best step to pray is go

shut yourself in a room for an hour and

every time your mind wanders, just bring

it back to Jesus and start to pray

again. And we learn to pray. But you

will have noticed when you came in uh on

your seat was a lifeg group signup

sheet. And one of the things when I

share is that um intentionally I hope

when I share that most of the time you

don't actually know where I'm going.

Some of the time I know where I'm going,

but hopefully most of the time I kind of

part of my aim is that you actually

don't know whereabouts is the message

going. But of course, this week we kind

of put a piece of paper on your seat

which gives you a bit of a blueprint of

where the message is going. And this

week is what we call sign up Sunday for

our small groups. And so my hope at the

end of this uh time is that there'll be

some people who have never been to a

small group before that will be like,

"Man, I'm going to sign up for a life

group." That there'll be some people who

are like, "Man, I've done that before

and thought I was over it, but maybe I

need to re-engage." That there'll be

some people who are like, "Man, I was

wondering if I should keep going to my

small group." And my hope is that uh

through that that we all um decide wow

you know this is something that could be

of value to our lives. But the vision is

not to simply run small groups. And can

we have that first scripture up please

in second Corinthians? It tells us that

we are to be transformed

into the image of Christ. that the Lord

is working in our lives through a whole

lot of different ways to transform us

into the image of Christ. And so even as

we talk as a church about small groups,

our desire is not that you go to a small

group, our desire is that you become

more like Jesus.

>> And uh is it simply that you go to a

small group and all of a sudden you're

exactly like Jesus? No. But relationship

and relating to one another is one of

the ways that we become more like Jesus.

>> You see, we are transformed in our

relationship with the Lord. As we spend

time with him, time in his word, uh you

know, as we practice spiritual

disciplines, we are transformed into the

image of Christ. But here's the reality.

We are also transformed into the image

of Christ as we live in relationship

with one another.

See, we are transformed through both

spiritual disciplines and our connection

to Christ and also our connection to

Christ through one another. And so the

reason why we take a week aside to have

sign up Sunday twice a year is that we

say, "Hey, we believe that we are

actually called into relationships that

help us become more like Jesus."

And so in the scriptures, you'll find uh

the next scripture, Jesus had uh

different groups of people that he

interacted with. He had the three um

that were his close three and he would

often uh just pull aside with just those

three. And all of us in our lives need a

small number of people that can speak

very deeply into our world. And uh

sometimes it's really important to

define those relationships. I actually

went out with someone uh last year who I

was um asking if they would speak into

my life in a greater measure. And I was

like, "Yeah, I really want you to do

this." and they said, "Yeah, I see it

more like a friend. I see it's like a

friendship." And I'm like, "No, I don't

want a friendship. I need someone that

can speak into my life." And and and and

so Jesus had this three. And then we see

that Jesus also had the 72. And uh the

72 even though they were a a wider group

and a collective group, they actually

went still went out two by two. So they

would grow go out in groups of two.

Pastor Trevor taught us that on the Fiji

mission trip. I remember being in a

hospital uh next to Clinton and uh I was

pretty pleased that we were two by two

because Clinton said to the person in

the hospital, "What can I pray for you

for?" And the guy said, "I'm crazy." And

actually did the hand signal in case we

didn't get the English. And uh Clinton

prayed with his eyes open um as we were

two by two. But this So Jesus had the 72

and then he also had the 12 disciples.

And we can see in the scriptures that he

pulled aside with the 12. And there were

times where he actually just called the

12 to himself. Now I want to be very

clear because the Bible is really

important to us. It's the word of God. I

am not saying that um our life groups

are the 12 disciples like we're not um

saying that this is exactly the same

thing. But what we are saying is when we

look at the life of Jesus, we can see

that he had different sized groups. And

if he is our model, there was clearly

something in this that he would have

different size groups that he would pull

together.

>> What's interesting when you look at the

disciples, if you've ever been to a life

group and you've thought, flip, I don't

know if I really fit here, and if you've

even thought, I I know no one else ever

would have thought this, but I don't

know if I actually like all these

people.

like,

you know, in those other churches you've

been to, not the life groups here. It's

really interesting when Jesus came to

choose his 12 because he actually didn't

go and find a best friend circle and

say, "Hey, there's 12 best friends. I'm

going to pull them all together." It's

actually really interesting when you

look at the makeup of his group. He had

Matthew, who was a tax collector, and

Simon, who was a zealot, in the same

group. Now, what a zealot was was they

were people that were trying to covertly

overthrow the Roman Empire. And so, uh,

some of that sect would actually, um,

like kill officials within the Roman

Empire. Matthew as a tax collector was

an official within the Roman Empire.

Like, that's an interesting life group

when you say, "What have you been doing

at work this week?" Well, I've been

collect collecting tax for Rome. Oh,

I've been trying to kill tax collectors.

Like that's an awkward moment at life

group right there.

I don't know if I really fit.

See, Jesus didn't necessarily grab 12

people together where it was like, "Wow,

this is the most comfortable group of

people possible that I'm going to

assemble." He actually grabbed a group,

a cross mixture of tax collectors and

fishermans and treasurers and a thief

and all of these people together and was

like, "Hey, let's journey together."

And you know, we have words in Christian

culture like, "We do life together."

And um that's really good. I just think

we don't realize how messy that is. Like

we do life together. like, yeah, we do

life together. That's actually an

invitation into a little bit of mess.

>> And so we run these small groups and we

don't believe this is the entirety that

this is the only way you grow in God.

But we do believe within our cultural

moment, this is one powerful moment of

how we can set aside the intentional

practice of walking together with other

believers to become more like Christ.

And is it like an for all time this is

the only way to do it? No. But we do

believe there are biblical principles

that are met and and ways of fellowship

that can happen. Like there are things

that will happen in a small group that

won't happen in an auditorium like this.

And then there are things that will

happen in a group of 12 that won't

happen in a group of three. And so

there's just this growing in Christ that

we have. So historically, you know, the

purpose of a life group is to study the

Bible. And we do believe that's 100%

important to come together. We're not

just coming together to discuss the

weather or to talk about um

>> the warriors or whatever else. We're

actually coming together to open the

scriptures, to encourage one another, to

come around the word word and see what

it says to us. But at the same time, we

realize that's not the entirety of what

we're trying to do. We're trying to do

that in the context of relationship

where we love one another. You see, the

goal is not simply to know more. The

goal is to love more.

That the Christian maturity is not just

measured in what we know. And sometimes

we do need to know more. We believe in

knowing the word, that we need to read

the Bible, that we need that. But we

also believe that that purpose of that

is that we become people of love and we

learn to love one another more. I

remember talking to uh a friend of mine

and asking him for some advice a number

of years ago. I was journeying with a

particular person and I was spending

time with them and um you know I said to

uh my mentor I was like hey I'm spending

this time and I'm just not seeing really

the change in their life that I'd love

to see and uh you know I kind of just

wonder it doesn't really feel like it's

going anywhere doesn't really feel like

it's doing much and um I remember being

so challenged because my mentor said to

me are you the kind of person that's

only going to love when you can see the

right level of change in the other

person.

Or are you a person of love that

actually you're going to continue to

love even if it doesn't result in the

100% outcome that you want. You see,

sometimes what we need to do is learn to

grow in love. And sometimes that looks

like not always having everything run

exactly how we want, but we actually

relationally journey with people. And

even when there's differences and

differences of opinion, we continue to

love well.

>> See, we've been talking about Lent and

the season of self-denial that we're

coming into. And I believe practices of

self-denial are so so important. But the

interesting thing about practices of

self-denial is sometimes subtly the

focus can still be on self like I'm

denying this thing. This is me denying

it. And I do believe we we should have

that as a practice.

But you know one of the best ways to

practice self-denial

is to commit to loving a group of

people.

>> Like you can spend all your time

wondering how do I deny myself? I'll

deny myself this. I'll deny myself that.

But I can promise you if you get into a

group and decide, I'm not just here just

to have a conversation, but I'm actually

here to love. Well, do you know you'll

find yourself invited into self-denial?

>> Like the next morning in your prayer

time, you're like busy praying. You got

all the things you want to pray for and

then you remember, oh, that person at

Lifeg Group. Wow, I need to just deny my

prayer lists and begin to bring them

before. Wow, I was home and I was

rushing to cook the meal for my family

and then I remember, wow, I've got to

actually cook a meal for that person in

my life group who's sick. And so all of

a sudden, we actually find in the

process of uh loving others

intentionally,

if it's true biblical love, it actually

requires me to deny myself. And that's

why in Philippians 2, it actually says

it talks about Jesus and us imitating

Jesus. But what's interesting is it says

starts by saying in your relationships

with one another have the same attitude

as Christ Jesus. And then it goes on to

talk about him dying on the cross. You

see, so part of self-denial is actually

achieved when we realize I want to love

like Jesus loved. And part of the denial

actually means I don't have to focus on

all of these things I have to deny. I

just need to get around people with the

intention of loving them and straight

away it's actually going to cause

self-denial.

>> But if we don't realize that's what's

actually being caused, we'll see it as

inconvenience and we'll think, "Flip,

who wants to go to a life group?

I thought I was turning up to do a Bible

study and now I'm cooking a meal for

someone."

And if we don't realize that actually

there is a greater purpose of what Jesus

is trying to do in our midst to develop

us into a loving people, we sometimes

will actually despise the very mechanism

that he is using. The reason why it

feels uncomfortable is that we are being

encouraged to grow in love.

>> We do life together.

That's messy.

I mean, we believe that we should pursue

Jesus in a way that his grace works in

our life and that we walk out holiness.

Like we do actually believe we should be

transformed to become more like Christ.

That we actually should be growing more

and more like him. That we should be

turning away from sin. that that as the

people of God in our relationship with

Jesus we realize we can't do it on our

own but through the Holy Spirit through

the encouragement of others we should be

becoming more like Christ

but at the same time I can tell you if

you are going to be around people and

love them it will be incredibly messy

it's a little bit like the guy who was

on a deserted island and uh he'd been

stranded for two years and finally they

came and they picked him up. They found

him and the and the guy who rescued

him's like, "Wow, you know, get on

board. You're free." And as they're

going away, there's three shacks in a

row. And the guy turns and he says,

"Well, what are the three shacks?" He

says, "Well, the first shack is my

house." And he says, "Well, that makes

sense." He says, "What's the second

shack?" He says, "Well, the second shack

was my church." He says, "Well, that

makes sense." He's like, "What's the

third shack?" The third shack was the

church I used to go to.

And the idea being man if there are

going to be people around us there is

going to be mess

>> there like we should do our best to not

have it we should never just excuse

things but at the same time it is the

reality of the kingdom and it's actually

part of the love that we're invited to

display not to have perfectly clean

groups but to have groups that are

trying to be more like Jesus that love

one another in the midst of our journey

as we go.

>> As a pastor, people say things like to

you like, "We need to get back to the

early church." And I agree. Like, you

can see some amazing things that the

early church done. I often think they're

reading through rose tinted glasses,

though. I'm like, "Well, what parts of

the early church do you want to get back

to?" Like, do you want to get back to

the part where they had to have uh call

and find people that were full enough of

the spirit so that food would no longer

be distributed along racial lines

like in the New Testament church or an

apostolic leader like Peter that's

acting one way in front of people uh

when certain people are around and then

acts different when other people are

around. And people are like, "Man, we

need to get back to the early church."

I'm like, "Yes, I agree. We do need to

get back to the early church. But if you

think you can say, "Let's get back to

the early church." And it means that we

no longer need to be around broken

people, that's not what it means. It

does not mean, "Wow, all of a sudden, we

have this perfect community where

everything's just lovely and and there's

no mess." No. Getting back to the early

church means we pursue Jesus. We pursue

the word. We pursue the spirit. and we

pursue relationship in the midst of all

the messiness.

>> Now, it goes without saying, but I know

we're in a cultural moment where there

are have been real um hurts and abuses

in the church. And so, when I say we

need to be around each other and mess,

we're not talking about capital T

traumas. We're not talking about being

around abusers and that kind of thing.

What we are saying is that if we are to

love one another, well, we actually need

to understand that that's not going to

be comfortable. It's not an invitation

just into a comfortable, but it's

actually an invitation to love well in

the midst of mess.

And so,

in just a moment, we are going to have

an opportunity to sign up for life

groups. And I guess what I would

encourage everyone is if you are part of

a life group, man, my encouragement

would be what would it look like to

approach it as this is a group where I

am striving to become more like Jesus

through iron sharpens iron and through

loving well.

>> It's a radically different change. If

you're at home thinking, I need to go to

group. Yes, I want to have conversations

and be shaped by the word, but I

actually want to live it out that people

would be loved well by me. God, could

you help me with that?

>> You know, and all of a sudden it's it

changes the attitude. It's like, well,

all of a sudden it's like, I'm not going

to stop going because that person

overshares and they won't shut up. It's

like,

>> come on.

>> What would it look like to love that

person? so well to where they actually

felt known

>> and they didn't need to overshare

because they were no longer insecure

because they felt like they had been

embraced by a community of people who

loved them just as they are. What if

rather than like that's a frustration

and a stench to me. It was actually like

that's an invitation to push past and

love well in the midst of it. And don't

worry, we do coach our life group

leaders on how to redirect people who

talk a little bit too much. But anyway,

that's okay.

You know, John Mark says this, "If we're

too busy to follow Jesus, then we're too

busy."

>> And

I honestly believe that in some way,

it's not just life groups, but if you

are going to follow Jesus, you need some

form of relational group that you are

journeying with. You don't want to call

it a life group. Call it whatever you

want. But you need people in your world

that you are journeying with. And can I

say in love, if we are too busy for

that, then we're too busy to follow

Jesus.

Because if the son of God had his 12 in

the midst of coming to reconcile God to

man, I promise you, you can fit

relational journey into your schedule.

like three and a half years of ministry,

everything that Jesus accomplished and

in the midst of it, he was present and

with a small group. Can I suggest that

for any of us here, if we're actually

like, man, no, I just don't have time,

then we actually need to relook at our

schedules. And I say that in love, not

because we want to have so many groups,

but because we want to see people

transformed into the image of Jesus.

That we actually need to push past that

which is comfortable. And sometimes

realize that that which is uncomfortable

is actually an invitation to love well,

that we would

become more like Christ.

Loving one another is messy. Having a

group of people that I'm committed to

loving is actually really hard because

it's really easy to love the church.

Like, oh, I love all of you guys because

that that's really easy. Like it's it's

nice and comfortable. I love you by

sharing the word on a Sunday morning.

And that kind of love does not cause me

to have to bump into you and you feel my

prickles and I feel yours. But there is

something different when it's actually

like now love actually looks like a

particular group of people.

>> And maybe they're not everyone I would

have chosen.

>> I mean, you can imagine

Matthew going, "Why on earth is there a

zealot in our group? Aren't those guys

killing people?"

and Simon going, "Why on earth is there

a tax collector in our group? Aren't

they exploiting people?" And somehow in

the midst of it, Jesus calls a group of

imperfect people together and says, "I

want to put my spirit in you, on you,

through you, let's encourage one

another, build one another up, and go

and change the world."

>> And that is his heart. And so in just a

moment um I'm going to pray and then uh

the lifeg group leaders are going to pop

out after that and uh they're going to

be at barrels out in the foyer. Sarah's

going to come and give us some

instructions and and we're going to have

the opportunity where you can sign up to

a life group. And um you know we do also

say I do get hey not every group will

actually work for every person. You may

end up going to a group and go actually

no this isn't the group of people I'm

called to love. Um, and that's okay.

It's a life group, not a life sentence.

But, um, there can be a fine line

sometimes between a long life group and

a hostage situation. But anyway, um

you can uh

but I want to challenge you, you know,

if you've been

following Jesus for a long time,

there's possibly the mindset of like,

well, actually, I don't know if I really

need that anymore because, you know,

I've possibly been through a similar

Bible study to what they're discing.

blessing or I don't know if I need that

information. Can I tell you I think we

can all continue to grow in our

knowledge of the Lord. But bigger than

that, even if there's some information

that's on repeat, can I tell you I'm

sure there's someone that you need to

love? Can I tell you, I'm sure there's

someone that the spirit of God wants to

put something in your life that you

would reach out and love and that man

actually what you might find is the

crazy thing I think you find is when you

go with an idea of loving people well

you actually get so much out of the

discussion you get so much you find you

learn so much you actually when that

heart changes you know if you turn up

for the study you kind of often actually

end up going I don't know if that was

really deep enough what I found is when

you turn up to love people well, you end

up with both. You actually learn and you

grow and you see transformation. Jesus,

thank you Lord that you

want to transform us into your image.

And Lord, I pray that

uh we would be open

to being in relationship with the people

that you're calling us to be in

relationship to loving well those who

you are calling us to love. And Lord, I

bless each of our life groups. Lord, I

pray they would be places of biblical

truth. Lord, there will be places of

robust discussion and uh just um iron

sharpening iron. And Lord, in the midst

of that though, there would be places of

great love where people would come to

love and be loved, to know and be known,

Lord, where people would journey

together through all the ups and downs,

the messes, the awkwardness, and Lord,

somehow in the midst of committing to

loving other people well. We would find

ourselves in a self-denial story where

we would take on the attitude of Jesus

who did not consider himself but humbled

himself. And God, I pray that that would

be true for each one of us and it will

be true for the groups in our church in

Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Awesome.

What's going to happen now is I'm going

to invite the life group leaders can go

out to their uh sign up posts and uh

Pastor Sarah's going to come and give us

uh a little bit of an overview of how

the next little bit's going to work.

>> Amazing. What a great message, huh? So,

so good. Um yeah, so Aaron has explained

the why behind life groups. I'm here to

talk about the where, what, when, how

it's all happening. So um we have

amazing life group leaders. I'm so

grateful to each one of them. They are

running incredible life groups, but um

we've got those slides up here. So here

are I'm just quickly going to go through

our life groups. Um these groups are

more connect groups. They're based

around an interest or activity. So,

we've got Francis and Jerry running a

family group on Sundays. That's um

that's around food and fun and um it's

always great. Amy is running Creative

Connect. Up to now, it's been Crochet

Connect. She has changed it to Creative

Connect. Looking um Yeah, just just for

those creative people who want to um get

into that. Malcolm's got table tennis

who likes to be competitive. Yes. And um

Ann is doing a flax weaving connect. Um

she did some flax weaving for a ladies

event last year and she's going to

continue that on. So that is quite

exciting. Next slide. All right. Oxygen.

I believe your life groups have gone

from two to four this year. Is that

right? That is awesome. And I understand

that the boys one is meeting in my

lounge on Tuesday. That'll be fun. Um

Jess has got a young adults. Uh Lucian

is continuing on with 60 plus. They do

awesome. And a new one this year is Emma

and Robert are running Youth Parents

Connect. So you can drop your youth here

on Friday nights. Hang at their house

for a little bit and then pick your

youth up. How good is that? Okay, these

are our Bible study life groups. So we

have Hannah in the Lakes with ladies

ages 25 to 45. We have a new group with

Sue for single inspired ladies connect

silk. How good is that? We have Aaron

and Lucian continuing on a midweek

daytime group and Eley is starting a

shift workers group. So we can't tell

you the time and venue for that. It

changes every time, but he will have a

WhatsApp group up for you. How good is

that? Next slide.

It's coming. It's coming.

>> No, there's more. Um, these are life

groups in our suburbs. We have Papamoa,

Mata, Bethlehem, and another Bethlehem.

And the next slide, Madam Mattera,

Lakespar, and our business focus group

for business owners to um come and

connect together. And lastly, um I have

three groups that I've got on my heart

that I believe God wants to start up

this year, but we just don't have

leaders or hosts for them yet. So, I'm

putting it out there. I will be out

here. If it's something that you've got

on your heart, we have Omokuroa Tapuna

who lives out north of Todonga. That's a

great place. There's quite a few people

out there. Um, Welcome Bay and

Mangatapu. We'd love to set up a life

group in that area. And the other one

that we've had interest in is young

families. So, this is when the men all

come together and meet one week and then

the women get together the next week

while the men are looking after the

children and then perhaps once a month

everyone gets together for a shared meal

or something. Does that sound good?

Awesome. So, our lifeg group leaders are

keen and ready to meet you. So,

basically from this side of the street

this way, all the lifeg group leaders

are ready. They've got sign up forms

where you can um sign up today and then

during next week they'll get in contact

with you with um the details of their

groups. Um

also, if you've already signed up to a

life group, you can go out there and

say, "Hey, put me down again because

there is a baking treat out there."

Thank you to E and um Ally who have done

some baking for me. So there's a yummy

treat. Um but yeah, just go out, talk to

the life group leaders, ask them any

questions that you have and um it's

going to be good. Does that sound good?

Let me bless you.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for this great

church.

I thank you that we can live in

community, that we can come and be part

of a small group, that we can encourage

each other, that we can love on each

other.

And particularly this week, Lord Jesus,

as we start this Lenton journey,

Lord, would you be so close to us? Would

you speak to us? Would you be with us?

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.