A NEW SEASON | SUNDAY 18TH MAY | PS AARON MORE

By way of start, I've invited Lisa to

come and share uh a little bit of what's

been happening at uh Tiny Boppers. So,

can we give her a welcome? We could

probably do better than that. Yeah. Come

on. Come on. Bring it. Good morning,

church. Um so, I'm Lisa and I have the

amazing privilege of leading our Tiny

Bobers team. If you don't know who we

are or what we do, we meet on a Friday

morning uh right next door and we

minister to moms, bubs, dads, caregivers

that come along. And about 6 months ago,

we were averaging about 50 people. When

I took it over 18 months ago, that's

where we're at. And we've continued

along that trajectory. It's it's gone up

a little bit, it's gone down a little

bit. But lately, we've been getting over

a hundred people every week on a Friday

morning. And most of these people, they

don't come to church. They don't know

what we do. It's super exciting. It's

super exciting that the team get to have

conversations about God. Sometimes we

get to pray with people and we're just

super excited as a team for what God is

doing in tiny buffers in this place. So,

you may not know about what we do. Uh

so, that's why I'm here to tell you

about how amazing God is through this

program. So, what we need because of our

exponential growth that God is doing is

we don't want to cap numbers. We want to

keep our doors open for more people. But

what that means is I need more people.

So, I need more people on my team. My

team of 20 are amazing. They're all

awesome individuals, but I'd really love

more people. So, if you have some

availability on a Friday morning uh

between about 8:30 and 11:30, please

come and see me out in the street.

Otherwise, I might come and shoulder tap

you. Um specifically, we need people um

for we're going to have to do a pack

down a setup team because we are

actually planning on moving into this

space in here to accommodate our growth.

Okay. So, we need people for sound. We

need strong men who know how to stack

cars out there, you know, because the

car parking is not so great. So, if

you're one of those men who could help

with that or help with pack down and set

up of our chairs, we'd really appreciate

your help once a fortnight if you could

master that. So, um so that's a bit

about what we do on a Friday. We just

love it. We have a little music program.

Then we do um an epic morning tea which

Lily leads up in the kitchen. And we

feed people well. And we're actually

known really well in the community for

feeding people. Okay? So, we feed people

not only through food, but through our

love. Our mantra at Tiny Boppers is to

love always. And we do it so well as a

team. And we're just so blessed. We've

got the backing of you guys. But I also

want more people on my team to just come

and be connectors. So, if you can come

once a fortnight and maybe you're a

lovely grandma who loves to hold babies

or maybe you're super young like me or

somewhere in the middle um and you just

want to come and give some time and

maybe just connecting with moms and have

the opportunity to pray with people. Um

I'd really love to speak to you. So

awesome. So super excited for what God

is doing in Tiny Bobers. So please

continue to pray for us in our ministry

as we um as we go forward this year.

Thanks guys.

Isn't that good?

So

good. Wow. And Father, we do thank you

for uh tiny bees. Lord, we pray that

there would continue to be a harvest,

Lord. Lord, even for those who have been

coming for a while, Lord, may um may you

touch their hearts, Lord. May they come

into a relationship with you, Lord. We

bless uh Lisa, we bless the team, Lord.

everyone who leads in that space. God,

would your grace be upon them in Jesus

mighty name.

Amen.

Wow. It's been uh a few weeks since uh

since I've shared. Someone asked me the

other week, "Do you still speak here?"

Um so I was like, "Yeah, I stopped

speaking and numbers just kept growing

up." So, you know, we'll um we'll see.

Uh so it's been um awesome to have uh

such amazing ministry to have uh pastor

Trevor speak a few weeks ago and then to

have Matt Lans down then Britney Serpel.

It's been amazing right and uh as a

church you know we believe that uh

prayer presence and mission we believe

that we are to be a place of presence

and we're to know what it is to respond

to the moments of the Holy Spirit. Like

there are moments when the Holy Spirit

is doing something and we lean into that

like and sometimes those can be quite uh

that can be quite a simple thing like

just before at the end when I was

praying that the name of Jesus would be

over people's minds. That's because I

sense the Holy Spirit was doing

something in that moment. And so we need

to be sensitive to that. We see that in

the life of Jesus where he was teaching

and it says in Luke 5:17 and the power

Luke 5:17

of the Lord was there to heal. So there

was this moment where it was like yes

it's always a good time to pray for the

sick but there seemed to be this moment

where it was like this is what the

spirit is doing in this moment.

But God, yes, he works in moments, but

he also works in seasons. And so, it's

one thing to know the moments of the

Holy Spirit, and we need to know what

the moments of the Holy Spirit are, but

we also need to know what the seasons of

the spirit are. And uh you know I'm

familiar with different seasons when you

spend some time in central

Atago because when we moved down there

uh we I I didn't have a job. So I

applied and uh funnily enough a few

people didn't want me. And so in the end

I got a job at the local Nissen um as a

parts advisor. The only problem was I

knew nothing about car parts. And I'm

not exaggerating. I knew nothing. And so

what would happen is central it

targetago, you know, you'd have people

that would come in uh for their car

chat, right? And so they'd come in and

their spates drinking, deep voice,

facial hair, and that was just the

woman. And then, you know, the then the

men would come in and they'd come in on

a Saturday morning and they'd want

nothing more than their bit of a car

chat, you know, like, "Yeah, good day,

mate. I'm looking for one of these. is

it true that the the turbo on the D21

slightly different than the D22? And

I'll be like, I'll just go away and find

out for you. You know, it was quite

emasculating for me. But anyway, while I

was there, funnily enough, maybe partly

due to having a parts guy like me, the

company wasn't doing so well. So, it was

in a hard season. We had two

apprentices. One of them was quite good

and one of them was a work in progress

would be the polite way of saying it.

And uh the thing about the one who was a

work in progress was whenever he didn't

quite get it right, he always had an

excuse, even if the excuse was no good.

Like we had this uh you know new Nissan

ute about to go out, brand new. It's

been groomed. It's been everything. The

last job was to put the number plate on

it. So someone's going to pick up like a

$70,000 ute including accessories. I go

out to give it one look over before the

customer comes and the license plate is

on on an

angle. And so I said to the apprentice,

"Hey, hey, do you notice anything about

the truck?" You know, they told me,

"Don't tell. Always ask."

Self-discovery. You know, people go on

their journey. They learn more if you

ask them to discover it themselves. So,

I'm like, "Hey, open your eyes and have

a look. Do you do you notice anything?"

And uh straight away his response was,

"Well, it was straight when I put it on.

like, "Yes, yeah, someone's come and

unscrewed it and twisted it in the last

3 minutes." Um, anyway, so we had he

wasn't such a great apprentice. The

other apprentice was an amazing

apprentice. So, what happens on this day

is um he decides that it's time to go

and ask for a payriseise. The problem is

it's in like the worst month of the

company's history. And here's the tip

for anyone thinking about asking for a

payriseise. He also chose to do it on a

Monday. Never ask for a pay rise on a

Monday. Always ask for a payriseise on a

Friday. Like people are happy on a

Friday. You don't want to like So, you

know, staff, you cannot book a meeting

with me on Friday. No. Um, but don't ask

for a payriseise on a Monday. But you

see, he didn't realize what the season

was. It was actually the season where

the owner was doing everything to keep

him in work. and he had the wrong

season. And so when we don't understand

the seasons that we're living in, the

action that would be totally acceptable

in one season becomes totally wrong in a

different season. And Jesus talked a lot

about being able to tell the signs of

the times and knowing the seasons. uh

Luke 5:17 um sorry not Luke 5:17 Luke

Luke 5:17 Luke 5:17 Luke 12:56

12:56 he said you hypocrites you know

how to interpret the appearance of the

earth and the sky but why don't you know

how to interpret this present time how

come you can't interpret what's

happening in the times and so we need to

know what seasons we're living in

sometimes uh what's happened in

Pentecostal churches is we've tried to

take a word and call it a season. Like

people be like, "It's a season of debt

recovery." And it's like, "Yeah, God

might be doing that in some people's

lives, but it's possibly not a season

right across the earth, right? Sometimes

people are like, I have the word of the

Lord for

2025." And yeah, sometimes they do, but

sometimes it's a personal word. It's not

actually a new season. And so I wonder

if we are in a new season like I believe

we are, what season are we

in? Because if we don't understand the

season, we will not understand what we

are called to do in that season.

I wonder this will either prove a great

point or not a great point, but we'll we

we'll we'll try it out. I wonder if

you're here uh if you and you have

either come to Jesus, so you didn't

previously have a faith in Christ and

you've put your faith in Christ or uh

you were away from Jesus and you've come

back since 2018. Don't worry, I'm not

going to get you to do anything else

other than pop your hand up. If you've

come back to Jesus since

2018 or you've given your life to Jesus,

can you put your hand up now? Just be

nice and

brave. So if you look around, you can

see like there are a number of hands

going up. Number of hands in the Audi.

Like there are um lots of hands going

up. What I would say to you is if you

did that 10 years ago, you would not

have seen as many hands going up. You

would have seen some but not as many.

Sarah referenced Pastor Boyd. I showed

um my notes because it was in my notes

but I can provide a slight correction.

It was at Elen Wimbleton he preached. Um

he said uh not that you know that's a

good tip there. Husbands always correct

your wife in public.

E hope that couch is okay

tonight.

Uh he said still buzzing from preaching

at Elim Wimbledon yesterday. This church

is on fire. Baptisms every Sunday, every

service. People running to Jesus. Faith

in the room. Hunger on another level. I

witnessed an 84 year old get baptized

last Sunday. You can't fake something

like this. Isn't that awesome? That's

good news.

You know, I think uh for me it was the

first time when the lions got baptized

that I'd ever seen three generations

baptized in the same day like uh last

year. Wasn't that amazing? Just to see

what God is doing. And then we read

things or we we we we have experiences

like, you know, 10 to 12 young people

getting baptized every term, every time

we do a baptism. I'm like, I guess it's

going to be a down one this time. It

might be three or four. No, it's another

eight, another 10, another 12. There's

just this thing that God is doing in our

midst. And maybe you've come in and

maybe you are new because of it. Maybe

uh you've come in and and you're

experiencing it and seeing, wow, it

seems like God is doing something. Can I

say to you, he's not just doing

something here. It's actually a season.

That's right. And if we can have the

statistics up from uh so uh the Bible

society in the UK done a study uh called

the quiet revival and uh they actually

hired an external polling firm. So this

wasn't like just churches reporting to

themselves. This was actually a a an

organization called Yuggov that did a

study on church attendance from 2018 to

2024. what they were asking people of do

you go to church at least once a month

and consider yourself a Christian so in

2018 8% of people in the UK said I go to

church once a month or I'm a Christian

and uh that grew over a period of 6

years to be 12%. Now that's 50% increase

on top of population growth. So you got

population growth then you've also got

increase. You'll see in 18 to 24 year

olds it's grown from four to

16%. I asked AI if that continued at the

same level of growth in another six

years what percentage of 18 to 24 year

olds would be in church and it said 64%.

I was like, "Wow, that's just if the if

what's happened in the last six years

replicated over the next six years and

you can see the different age groups um

and uh and the growth or the slight

decline in some age groups that there's

been, but there's actually signs that

this is not oneoff churches that this is

something that God is doing." How is

this for a headline in vanity fear?

Christianity was borderline illegal in

Silicon Valley and it's now the new

religion. That's awesome. Isn't that

amazing? Like uh the uh the Wall Street

Journal did an article about Bible sales

in America that said in 2023 they have

grown by

22% while book uh growth grew by 1%. So

books grew by 1%, Bible sales grew by

22%. You have the Wall Street Journal

saying part of the reason for this is

because younger people are interested in

the faith.

Isn't that amazing?

Um and so we are in a season where God

is doing

something and we need to respond to

that. Now, what I'm not saying is we're

in a season of perfection where it means

the world is all perfect. There is

actually a lot of public hostility to

the gospel. There is a lot of public

hostility to what God is doing. But in

the midst of public hostility, there's

actually a huge private openness. And

so, we have both of these coexisting. It

doesn't mean, wow, everything in the

world is now amazing. And can I say as

well, it's not that we are seeking a

return to cultural Christianity where

it's like, well, we will be a Christian

nation. No, it's not so much that. It's

more that people would encounter the

risen Christ and their lives would be

transformed. And yes, the fruit of that

might be some moral outcomes in our

society, but actually the goal isn't

moral outcomes. The goal is lives

transformed by the reality of who Jesus

is because it's a season we're walking

in. Someone asked me the other week,

um, hey, obviously there's been a little

bit of growth in church. There's been

people saved. How do you find that?

Like, how's your pride level? And um I

was like, well, you know, you're

ignorant to ever think that you are

immune from pride. So I'm like, you

know, your starting point is, hey,

there's probably some pride somewhere

and when when I think there's the least

pride, that's probably when there's

more, right? But I've been in ministry

for 17 years and I can tell you, I

realize what's happening isn't because

of Sarah and I. Like we realize that

because we've done this for a while and

we actually realized there was this has

been happening and the momentum started

years ago that even when we first came

back to visit we were like wow we just

noticed as we're talking to people that

there were people who had come back who

were saved and we're like wow God is

really doing something and that was

happening well before we arrived and it

is accelerating but we realize man on

our best

day, we don't have a hope of seeing what

God is doing. It's all about him. And I

don't say that as some form of humble

brag. It's 100% like we know that we

can't do this. It's not us that's doing

something. It's God that's doing

something. And it's not just that he's

doing it here, but he's doing it across

the earth. And how amazing. So, we are

in a new season.

The thing that happens though is our

thinking gets shaped by the seasons that

we were in. So if we previously were in

a season where it did seem like people

weren't so open to the gospel like for a

fairly long period of time, our thinking

gets shaped by that season, doesn't it?

So our thinking actually gets shaped by

a particular season. And so one of the

things that happens is when the season

changes, we actually need to change our

way of thinking so that we align with

the new season. And and like the Lord,

there's prophetic scriptures like sing

to the Lord a new song. And and it's

it's an invitation to actually begin to

partner with a new season.

And so, how was our thinking formed in

the last season? You know, in

Alexandria, it was funny. We uh sold our

church building and and and bought a new

one and we're in the middle of a

building project. And um it was

reasonably being a small town, um when

your church goes on the market, people

notice because it was on a prominent

area, people drive past it all the time.

And so, you would have people um I had

probably three different people say to

me who who weren't Christians, "Oh, I

I'm sorry. I see you've had to sell your

church and um oh, you know, are you

going to be okay? And I'm like, oh yeah.

Uh by the second one, I actually played

it up a bit. I was kind of like, oh

yeah, it's a real pain. We're going to

have to be down at the school hall while

we build our new bigger auditorium so

that we can fit people in who God's

bringing. And it was like, but there was

this idea that wow, it must be

struggling. And that has been the lot

for a for an amount of time, right? Not

universally. Some churches went ahead,

but by and large, statistics would say

Christianity was on the decline. And you

know, as someone who'd been in

ministering around church for a while,

you know, you'd heard the saying that

there will be a move of God through

young people for decades.

And on your worst moments, you began to

think, is this just something we say to

ourselves to kind of encourage ourselves

as there seems to be an inevitable

decline? Like there were times when it

felt like that, weren't there? Like is

this just something we say and a as as

things go down? And then what happened

was during that period there was not

necessarily a whole lot of openness to

the gospel. Like I think we would all

acknowledge like society didn't really

feel like a place where people wanted

you to share their faith, your faith.

And so Barner did some research because

and they began to encourage us with

reports that said, "Hey, this is how

many interactions it takes with someone

to become a follower of Christ. So if

they start over here, then what happens

is because the society is a lot more

secular, they need a lot of

interactions." And that was true for the

time that people needed a lot of

interactions to come to Christ. And we

found often if you just went up to them,

of course there were exceptions, but I'm

talking in uh broad brush strokes. If

you went up to them and talked to them

about Jesus, generally there wasn't a

straightaway response. And so we began

to think, okay, we need to be a little

bit more strategic. Hey, yes, they know

I'm a Christian and it's a good start if

they don't think I'm totally weird, only

just a little bit. And then maybe, you

know, I mow my neighbor's lawn and they

know I'm a Christian. And so we go, hey,

this is a step towards that. We begin to

take these steps. And then hopefully

somewhere down the track, there'll be

this after years of different people uh

reaching out. You know, I remember when

I first started going to youth group, I

would do things like arrange a cricket

match between my youth group and my

school cricket team. And the idea wasn't

that we would share Jesus. The idea

initially was just let's get some

relationship happening and hey the

Christians will bring the food and

that's how we'll serve you because we're

trying to break down barriers because it

felt like there was a lot of hostility.

Does anyone else kind of identify with

that sort of

season and so our thinking gets shaped

by those seasons.

I had someone across uh the road. I went

to uh talk to the owner about the car

park because um we needed to to get the

owner of diesel mechanics to move their

cars a bit better on a Sunday morning so

we could uh for everyone. I was sitting

in there waiting and this lady came in

and sat down next to me and she said,

"Oh, I'm waiting for are you waiting for

your car?" And I said, "Oh, no. I'm the

pastor of the church next door and I'm

coming to talk to them about car

parking." And she said, "Oh, you're a

pastor. You don't look like a pastor." I

was like, "Oh, yeah.

I don't know what to make of that, but

that's

okay." I'm sure she meant you're better

looking. Um, but maybe

not. And then she said, "Oh, how's that

working out for

you?" And I said, "Oh, it's really

good." And she said, "Cuz people aren't

really that interested in church, are

they?" And I was like, "Oh, your

thinking's been formed by the old

season." Yeah. I was like, well, I was

able to say, I can tell you tonight

there'll be like 120 young people

gathered at church. And she was like,

really? And I'm like, yeah, the reason

why we need to talk to the guys is we

can't get everyone parked when they come

on a Sunday. So, we need these guys to

clear their park. She's like, wow. And

why do you think that is?

And you know, I was like, "Wow, here's

an opportunity to let her know it's a

different

season." And I think a little bit of

what's happened is uh to have a little

bit of cultural analysis. I definitely

think it's something that God is doing.

clearly the Holy Spirit, but also what's

happened is you you would have seen in

that quiet revival statistic that people

of my age and and sort of 20 years older

that 45 to 65 gap were actually the only

ones that dropped off, right? And

actually that was a generation uh that

actually really embraced uh atheism and

secularism in a in a huge way. And

uh what I believe has happened is the

enemy thought he was winning and

actually what he has done is provide a

poster child for what the next

generation didn't want to

be. And I don't mean this to be

triggering in any way to people. I'm not

meaning this disrespectfully. And

there's huge grace for I know people

have gone through different situations.

But many of them have seen uh multiple

divorces in their families and have been

like wow I I I see the brokenness that's

come through some of the fruits of our

society. And then where that hasn't

happened sometimes what they've seen is

wow mom and dad are successful and that

looks like flat whites Monday to

Thursday a nice glass of sav on a Friday

night and once a year a trip to the Gold

Coast and none of those things are bad

but they're going man I don't think that

make that makes a good week it doesn't

make a good life like it makes a good

day like finishing a Friday with a glass

of sav that's not a bad end to a day.

But if that's the highlight of your

week, they're like, "Wow, we are

drowning for meaning." And so the next

generation have looked and and the Holy

Spirit's been moving and saying, "Wow,

look at this." And so what does teenage

rebellion look like to a

generation that have seen their parents

abandon faith? They're like, "Wow, I see

the fruit of it and man, I am going to

turn back to God." And so you actually

have teenage rebellion is people turning

to Jesus because they've seen the

fruitlessness of sec of secularism.

Isn't God

amazing? So how do we

adjust to the new season?

You know, Paul encouraged Timothy to be

ready in season and out of season with

preaching, which actually tells us two

things. Number one, we're not meant to

solely be defined by the season, but

there actually are in season and out of

season. There are seasons where people

are more receptive to the gospel and

there are seasons where people are less

receptive to the gospel. We need to be

faithful in both of them. But there is a

reality that there are seasons where

people are more receptive to the gospel.

And this morning really more than

anything else, what I what I wanted to

provoke us with is that maybe we need to

change our thinking and our language

about

things. And you know it says

in sorry let me find my

scripture. It says in 1 Peter 3:14-16

1 Peter 3:14–16

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord

is holy. Always be prepared to make a

defense to anyone who asks you for a

reason for the hope that is in you. Yet

do it with gentleness and respect having

a good comp conf uh conscience. So when

you are slandered, those who revile your

good behavior in Christ may be put to

shame. It's kind of funny. Always be

willing to give an answer for the hope.

And

um there weren't as many people asking

10 years ago. It did happen. Not saying

it wasn't at all, but there weren't as

many people asking. And actually

gentleness and respect look like

something different when people aren't

open, right? Like there's actually a

respect that we have for people when

they are not open. That means I'm

willing to give a reason for the hope.

But gentleness and respect actually

means I'm not going to push it too far

because I actually understand you're not

open. But if the season has changed,

then what does gentleness and respect

look like in a season when people are

open? Is it possible that some of us are

are figuratively saying, "I'll I'll know

my I'll mow my neighbors lawn and they

know that I'm a Christian and that will

be a touching to them and they're

actually waiting for us to tell them

about Jesus in this season." What if

something that was actually a good thing

in the last season if we allow that to

be our thinking would actually be a

hindrance in this season because that

person is actually waiting for you to

talk to them about Jesus, not just to

have their lawn mowed. Yeah,

I was outside Jordan at Jordan's rugby

game the other week and you know you get

there early while they warm up and um a

parent said to me, "Oh, how come you've

moved back up?" And I said, "Oh, I'm a

I'm a pastor." And he said, "Um, how'd

you get into that?" And I mean, this is

kind of like there's people all around.

And you know, I'm being honest, my

thinking is still formed by a former

season. And so I'm all of these people

are around and I'm I'm not ashamed, but

I'm kind of thinking, okay, I need to

just kind of work out how how much do I

share on the side of the rugby pitch?

And so he's asked a question. So he

said, hey, um, how how did you get into

that? And I said, "Oh, well, I guess for

me, Jesus really touched my life." And

that meant, you know, as I pursued that,

you know, I became a pastor. And so I

kind of thought I was excited. I

thought, "Hey, that's great. I got to

share these guys around herd like people

know I'm a Christian. How good is that?

Because you

know in the former season it was always

like at what point do how do I get into

the conversation that I'm a Christian?

Right? Like I was often like hey how do

I actually get it known? Like I I want

to be able to drop it in in some way

that's seamless, but I don't want it to

be awkward but I I don't want to turn

them off but I don't know what do I And

so I was like ah this is cool. People

have heard. And so I thought that was

the end of the conversation. And then he

he said to me, "Well, did you come from

a relig religious family or or not?" And

I'm like, "Okay, now I've got to give

him my testimony because I'm like, you

know, so so but here he was just open

and then quite comfortable in the next

uh 15 sentences to drop 38 fbombs and uh

like which which I was actually okay

with. I'm like he's being himself. He's

just being who he is." And so, you know,

sometimes we actually don't need to get

too upset about that. like our ears

maybe aren't as precious as we think

they are. We can actually handle hearing

an F-bomb and going, "Hey, that's okay.

This is just who the person is. We don't

need to freak out. They're not going to

curse your ears." It's like, and so we

just then stood on the sideline after

that and had this conversation about

everything. But I was like, man, that

would have happened on occasions, but I

can tell you just the openness to keep

asking questions was something that is a

new season. So, we need to be willing

to move with that.

The other thing we need to do is

uh in Zechariah 10:1 he says ask the

Zechariah 10:1

Lord for rain in the season of rain. So

it's one thing to contend for things

that we want to see God do. Right?

That's one aspect of prayer. There's

another aspect of prayer where we see

what God is doing and we pray into that.

And so this is literally talking about

literal rain, but it's also prophetic,

right? So it's saying, "Hey, in a season

of rain, ask for rain. In a season where

people are coming back to Jesus, ask."

And so we get to partner our prayers

with what God is doing. We're not just

to be casual bystanders saying, "This is

the season. Wow. this is the season.

Let's pour fire on it with our prayers.

Let's begin to declare, you know, and so

I began to as I've just been realizing

this is happening everywhere. Part of my

daily prayer time is actually like, wow,

Lord, this season that we're in, help me

be aware to it. But would you keep

moving, Lord? Would you keep touching?

Would young people keep coming back to

you, Lord? Would there be a move of you?

Let's partner with what God is doing.

Let's ask for rain in the season of

rain.

It's quite amazing.

Um,

two two years ago, I um actually

preached almost to the day. Um, and

funnily enough, Pastor Trevor hadn't

preached for three weeks in a row, just

like I had hadn't preached for. and uh I

was coming up to do something for growth

culture and uh pastor said, "Hey, I'm

going to get you to preach, but we'll do

it as a surprise." Um so uh you know uh

so that was on the 21st of May 2023. So,

I was just here as a guest speaker and

um I spoke on multigenerational revival

and um I don't um it's just amazing

because as I say sometimes when you're

seeing a seed of something and you begin

to declare it and you're like man I I

don't even know is this and you know one

of the quotes in that message was

revival might be coming to young people

but it is coming through every

generation.

Everybody has a part to play in a

multi-generational revival.

You know Jesus in John

4, he said to them, "Hey, you look and

you say it is four months till harvest,

but I tell you the harvest is plentiful

now." now. And so he was using a natural

illustration that they were an

agricultural society that you believe

it's this long till harvest, but I tell

you the harvest is plentiful. And so I'm

not doing exugesus now where this

explaining what the original text meant.

I I believe the Lord spoke something

prophetic to me out of this passage

where he was like, we as a church in New

Zealand have been in a season where we

have been taught it's four months till

harvest. Hey, you need to have step one

with the person, step two, step three,

step four, step five, step six, harvest,

right? And that actually was the season

we were in. I know we tried to fight it.

We tried to be like, "No, it's not.

We're going to see." But that was the

season we were in. And I believe the

Lord is saying, "No longer will we say 8

years to harvest. Now he is pouring

something out where harvest time is

now." And he's already doing it w

largely without many of us being aware.

Like he's been doing it since 2018. And

now we're catching up going, "Oh God, we

see what you're doing." And he's like,

"Now I want you to change your thinking

that it is no longer 4 months till

harvest, but the harvest is plentiful."

And so that doesn't mean you need to

stand on your soapbox, but it does mean

with gentleness and respect, all of us

need to throw off the thinking of the

old season and realize that we are in a

season where people are open to hearing

about Jesus.

So awesome to hear uh Pastor Trevor and

Pastor Debbie both ministering down in

Christ Church, both seeing people saved

uh in each service. And it's just

happening right across the board just in

so many

places. And so we want to partner our

hearts to the season that God is doing.

We want to partner with him. And so I

want to pray over us this morning that

where there is thinking that has been

established that really is like it's so

long till harvest that maybe where some

of those mindsets have come and we don't

even know they're there that they would

be shattered not with some foolish

boldness but with a wise boldness that

would love well. That wouldn't be trying

to shove the gospel down people's throat

but would love people well. but that we

would step into a season of boldness

coupled with gentleness and respect. Why

don't you place your hand on your

heart? Wow. Jesus, we thank you Lord

that you gave your life for us and Lord

that we were once

lost and you made us born again of your

spirit. Yeah. And Lord, we thank you for

what you are doing on the earth. Lord,

we acknowledge that that's not what any

man is doing. It's not what any woman's

doing. Lord, it's what you're doing.

Jesus, you came to seek and save the

lost. But Father, I ask for each one of

us if we have mindsets that have been

from a former season. Lord, would you

convict us when we have those thought

patterns? And Lord, would we be able to

replace them with the truth of what you

are doing? Lord, thank

you, Lord, that you're

moving. Jesus, may you receive all glory

and honor. Lord, would we partner in

prayer with what you are doing, Lord?

Would we add our fuel to the fire of

your spirit? Not that you need us, but

you choose to use us. So God, would we

be vessels used by you in Jesus' name?

Amen.

you know, pretty amazing. I think uh

they had 36 at alpha on on um you know,

again, an old season would have told me,

hey, you start up here and it kind of

goes down like this to the end of the

10e program, right? Like it's actually

started there and it's gone up. More

people coming week two than week one.

Like it is a new season. And man, can I

encourage you if you're like flip? Oh, I

feel a bit intimidated by it being a new

season. Man, there are opportunities.

Sign up. Join an alpha team. Come to

Street Reach on Wednesday night. Help at

Tiny Boppers. Just do you, you know,

there's opportunities where we can have

on-ramps that are like, "Wow, I'll just

God, I don't know what to do. So, I'll

just turn up on a Thursday night and

move chairs and pray that that as I do

for the tiny boppers group coming in

that they'd be saved." You know, if

you're not free Friday mornings, you

know, you might be like, "Well, I can't

do that, but I can actually pull or take

a sign up to the alpha course to help

today." Like, he's more than happy to

sign you up to help. And so, you might

be like, "I don't know what to do."

We'll free your Thursdays. My Thursday's

busy. I promise you it's not that busy.

Maybe it is, but you know, I promise you

there's a way through. And I just want

to close by just

um just giving one more opportunity. And

obviously we've been talking about

people coming back to Jesus. And you

know during worship we sung a song about

the lamb of God. And for some of us we

may have been like hey I don't really

know what that means. But really what

that's talking about is that Jesus came

and sacrificed his life for us. And so

maybe even as I've been speaking about

that, you were like, "Well, I haven't

put my hand up yet to say I was part of

th those people from 2018 because I

actually haven't crossed the line yet of

wanting to make a decision to give my

life to Jesus." We believe that the

Bible teaches that all of us were lost

in our sin without Jesus and that God in

his loving kindness sent Jesus to the

earth to die upon a cross so that we

could have forgiveness of sin. He would

take our junk and he would give us his

life and his love and that we really get

access to that by making a decision to

lay our lives down and say, "Man, I want

to follow God's way." And so this

morning, if you are here and you're

like, "Hey, I I I've never done that.

I've never given my life to Jesus." Or

you're in a place where you're like,

"Man, I once walked with Jesus." And

again, I always say this. I'm not

meaning you had a bad week. Like that

doesn't mean you need to respond to

this. meaning, hey, if you've walked

away from Jesus and and you're no longer

close to him, then this morning we I

would love to say a prayer that would

invite you um to give your life to him.

And uh sometimes we actually uh get

everyone to close their eyes for for

reasons of privacy. But this morning,

I'm actually just going to say, hey, if

that's you, if you're here this morning

and you're like, "Hey, I know I need to

give my life to Jesus." Then I just

encourage you just to pop up your hand

if you're like, "Hey Aaron, I want you

to say that prayer for me." Then if you

just want to pop your hand up and say,

"Yeah, I I need to be included in that

prayer." Awesome. I see that hand. Is

there anyone else this morning that

would say, "Hey, I need to give my life

to

Jesus." Wow. We're going to pray and if

you were if you did raise your hand or

if you're like hey I should have raised

my hand then you can just say this

prayer in your heart as to God. Um and

it's not the end of something it's the

beginning of something. And so what I

would encourage you is if uh if you've

said that then at the front at at the

end there are people who would love to

pray with you and so you can uh come

forward and receive prayer and if you

have any other need you can come and

receive prayer. So we'll just pray that

uh prayer now. And so if you are giving

your life back to Jesus or you're

committing to him for the first time,

you can say this prayer in your heart.

Dear Lord Jesus, I come to

you. Thank you that you died for me.

Lord, I choose to stop living life my

way. Lord, would you forgive me of the

wrong things I've done? Lord, would you

make me a new person by your spirit?

Lord, help me to live life your way. I

give my life to you in Jesus

name. Amen. Amen. Hey, as I said, if you

said that prayer this morning, we would

love to pray with you. If you've got any

other need, there is a prayer team on

this morning. They'd love to to pray

with you. Don't forget, we do have our

uh new people connection area out there.

We'll see many of you here at 6:00

tonight for the all-in team night. As we

say, uh we won't always do this, but

this time it's actually open to anyone

uh who wants to come along who considers

uh Tonga Elim their church home. And uh

apart from that, have an amazing Sunday.

God bless.