The Way of Jesus 9.0

We're gonna jump in.

We are gonna continue, a bit of, a conversation we had last week.

who was here last, last Sunday?

I thought some of the content was really helpful.

We got a lot of feedback during the week, so we're gonna continue

that a little bit.

and we're gonna add

to that, actually doing an interview of three people tonight, which is

gonna be good.

And so, the purpose of this

message today is to encourage, all of us to understand the nature of what

we're describing, the burden of the Lord.

That's our emphasis tonight.

The burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord, the blessing of this

burden, and to try and ask the Holy Spirit to come tonight to stoke the

desire, to seek the burden of the Lord.

As an aside, sometimes when we ponder the idea of repeating content in church, you

can kind of approach it with a sense of.

I've heard this.

Don't do that tonight.

Do the.

Am I embodying this?

And I think it's such a temptation to just come to our sort of

information saturated environment and go, yeah, oh no, I've heard this.

That's the wrong question everybody.

The question we should be asking is, am I embodying this?

That's the thing we want to be saying.

So potentially before you embody it, you need to hear it and hear

it, and hear it and hear it.

So now you know the series for the next 15 weeks, it's gonna be great.

Excellent.

Last week we looked at Matthew chapter nine, verses 35 to 38, and it says this,

Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues

and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease in affliction.

Awesome.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and

helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send

out laborers into his harvest.

The four points we we tackled last week, and I'm gonna put them on the

screen all together tonight because when we read this scripture, we recognize

that we don't actually have a harvest problem, we have a laborer problem.

But as we dig down on that, that statement, considering what Jesus

has told us, actually we don't have a laboring problem, a laborer problem.

We have a prayer problem.

If we keep on digging, we don't have a prayer problem.

You and I have got a pride problem.

And if you keep digging, we don't actually, you and I have a pride problem.

What we've actually got is a heart problem, and we use this format to kind

of dive deeper into our hearts because we are ultimately asking the question

of our hearts because we want to connect the idea that our hearts are the place,

it's the location in which a burden sits.

Now, there's all sorts of burdens, but the question we're asking today

is, what is your burden of the Lord?

The burden of the Lord is what?

Is it your specific articulation or part of that burden that he's

presenting to you?

I like this question,

the same question, but where do you dream of harvest?

I like that question.

Where do you dream of harvest?

I've been asking the Lord to stir and fuel in me a kingdom imagination

for what a harvest could look like.

Like I was think pondering going.

Do you think it's possible for the Lord to enter a nation and to turn

a nation upside down overnight?

Like, do you think that's even possible?

Absolutely.

It's been done.

We've read it in the Bible.

He turned an ocean upside down.

My question is, could he still do it in our day, in our time?

I'm just asking you these questions to begin to stir your

imagination for the possible.

Now, when we think about the burden of the Lord, you may say, excuse me, Adam.

Excuse me.

Listen, because Jesus has died on the cross.

It's his finished work on the cross.

He's actually taken all our burdens so I don't have to carry a burden.

Yeah, that's not untrue.

That is true.

But when we think about the burden of the Lord or the concept of burdens,

I wanna, clarify it for you.

There are burdens that God takes and there's burdens that God gives.

There's burdens that God takes and burdens that God gives.

The burden that God takes primarily is the burden of your sin.

He took the burden of the punishment of your sin, and he laid, laid

it upon his own son Jesus.

And so you are free from the obligation or the burden to atone for your own sin.

It has been done, it is finished.

But because of this burden carrying capacity of Jesus, we can cast our

cares onto him because he cares for us.

Because in the end, you and I, we need to be living in light of eternity,

not the temporal present moment, but in the light of eternity, we can

confidently cast our cares on him.

Does that make sense?

So there's, there's burdens that he takes from us, but don't be mistaken.

He still wants to reveal his heart, the things that burden the Lord.

He wants to reveal that to you.

Have you heard that phrase, father?

Or that prayer?

Father, break my heart for what breaks yours.

That's what we're talking about when we think about the burden of the Lord.

An example of this is in Habakkuk chapter one, verse one, the very

beginning of the book of Habakkuk.

It says, this is the burden that Habakkuk, the prophet received in a vision.

Sometimes it says not just the word burden, but oracle or prophecy.

Habakkuk received the burden of the Lord.

You can read that in your own time.

But what we read, just as we read in Matthew chapter nine, Jesus looks

upon the lost and he feels a burden.

He feels a compassion.

Some very strong guttural response to this burden that people are harassed.

And they're sheep without a shepherd.

And so this question, what is the burden of the Lord?

What exactly do we mean by the burden of the Lord?

Let's just continue to drill down in a definition, sense, a burden of the Lord is

when we care deeply about what God cares about, when we share in the sufferings

of Jesus for what he cares about.

What I mean by that is you know, you've got a burden of the Lord.

If you have a willingness to enter into suffering because he

is present in that very space.

For instance, you're willing to pay the cost of suffering because

that burden is real to you.

You feel it deeply.

It's not something you can just flippantly pass by and turn your head.

The

last, thing there is, in terms of what is

the

burden of the Lord, when we are moved with

deep compassion, not to just acknowledge, but to work to relieve the suffering

of others in the name of Jesus.

Many of us have no room for the burden of the Lord because we leave the burden

of the Lord, kind of in the margins of our lives, not in the midst of our

lives actually allowing the burden to hit front and center in our lives.

But many of us, 'cause we have no room for the burden of the Lord because we

are carrying so many burdens of our own.

But listen to what Jesus says about the nature of this burden

in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28.

Matthew 11:28

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I'll give you rest.

Everyone say rest.

Rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart,

and you'll find rest for your souls.

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

The way you'll know you've got the burden of the Lord on your life is, is.

And we'll get more specific a bit later, but you'll know that that burden is,

it's always matched by the grace of God.

It's always grounded in rest and hope and beauty and delight and joy.

So the experience is, there's a weight to it, but it's matched by a lightness.

Spurgeon says this, when God places a burden on you, he's, he

places his arms underneath you.

That's good, isn't it?

So burden is not a weight to crush it's wings to ascend.

Oh, that's good, isn't it?

It makes us start, we're trying to reframe the idea of the burden of the

Lord in our own hearts tonight, but there's obstacles to receiving the burden.

This is not a simple, transaction.

God's

got a burden he wants to give it to you.

Now, in, in the core of our hearts, we resist various things because

this is just a very simple list.

It's harder to receive the burden of the Lord when you

own your own heart is wounded.

It's not healed.

All right?

Prayerlessness there because I believe that it's in the presence

of God through prayer, that the burden of God is revealed to you.

So if you are not even spending time with Jesus, I'm sorry.

What you're not gonna get from his heart to your heart is

the things that burden him.

We find the burden of the Lord in prayer, in his presence.

Another obstacle is the worries of the world, the deceitful fullness of wealth.

We are numbed and hardened to the pain of our city.

We can become so familiar with the sufferings of the people around us that

we can almost be so blind to it that we don't even see it anymore familiar.

A lack of desire or faith for his presence.

That's kind of a similar connection to the prayerlessness there.

Transient.

We live in a very transient community.

We, we, we don't lock into a space and time based on a location.

We move around all the, all the time because we are more in

potentially more interested in 2025 in jobs, in relationships.

And so they cause us to not sort of be rooted in a location.

And then as we are there long term, we're actually seeing the, the arc of people's

lives over the long term To discern

the pain of a city, is the pressure of

our own burdens and ambitions, our selfish ambitions.

They help, they prevent us from seeing the burden of the Lord.

Cynicism.

Cynicism is kind of like a pride

function that causes you, to be cynical about

suffering.

And so, for example, if someone's suffering, a cynical person will

go, I've already, concluded what the cause of this is.

Oh, the cause is, oh, that's because it's their own fault

and they should know better.

Do you, you see what I'm saying?

A cynical

mind, dis discards, what actually is going

on?

And it prevents you from actually receiving the burden of the Lord.

Frustration.

Frustration.

Here we go.

Frustration in the church has in some ways become a weird kind of virtue

signaling where there's no genuine burden.

There's frustration, but there's no genuine burden.

'cause we resort to this demonstration to show how much we care, or trying to prove

how much we care by sort of demonstrating and expressing this righteous

frustration that we hold to and newsflash frustration is not the way of Jesus.

I've been thinking about this a lot and I've got a little diagram for you today.

Now.

This idea of confrontation.

So you may experience something in your world, in your life that

confronts you, that that confrontation could be on a variety of levels.

One of them could be, well, what I'm seeing right now, this is

not what it should be in heaven.

It's not on earth as it is in heaven.

It's not.

We're confronted by the gap.

We are fronted, confronted by the pain of our city.

We're confronted by, the brokenness of our city.

So that thing that confronts you can be a variety of different aspects.

And there's gonna be two reactions here.

One of them is called frustration, which we just talked about.

Now.

I was pondering it and I was thinking about how frustration

is generally motivated out of your own personal preference.

Oh gee, I'm frustrated.

I wish I hadn't have happened.

Potentially what you're doing is you're not receiving the burden of the Lord.

You're receiving the burden of yourself.

It's not a great place.

You know the gun to your head problem.

Who's holding the gun to your head?

Oh, you are.

You're actually burdening yourself.

God never rush you to carry that burden, but you're carrying it and you get trapped

in a frustration cycle and you can feel like you can never break out of it.

But the other side, oh, there's life here.

Consecration is sitting in the.

The rub, the tension, the friction of something and actually saying, Lord,

can you show me what you are doing through this particular situation

and show me how you want to respond.

So there's a posture of surrender and trust, and it's actually

in the surrender and trust.

I'm putting my hands out 'cause I'm trying to embody it.

You know, I'm trying to say, Lord, I don't understand it.

I'm hurting.

I'm confused, I'm frustrated, but I don't want to let that rule me.

What I wanna ask is, can you show me how you see this as I surrender

to what you are doing in and through this situation and how I can

co-labor with what you are doing?

Does that make sense?

And if as you do that, guess what happens?

Christ likeness begins to occur because when you do that, all of

a sudden you're gonna start to experience a burden of peace, a

burden of hope, rest, joy, delight.

Excitement.

Oh mate.

The last 48 hours, my heart's been ripping.

I've been so stirred by a holy fire that the Lord is capable of doing far more

than the little box that I put him in.

Oh man.

Seriously, I am so excited.

I don't, I, I i's tell you like there's a holy fire in my guts.

As I talk about this, I'm not talking about this topic because, oh, that

sounds like a fun topic to talk about.

I'm talking about this is burning inside of me.

This idea that the Lord has got this burden to reveal to me, and I'm

sorry folks, you're part of Red Door.

You're gonna get bled on right now.

We're gonna bleed on you tonight.

So you pick up on this holy desire for the burden of the Lord.

Remember, the burden of the Lord is specifically customized and catered

for who you are, what you are called to do and designed to do by Him.

You are made on a purpose.

For a purpose.

You're hearing me, but you've gotta posture yourself.

If you're living in frustration land, you're never gonna get it.

Man, there's so many things that can frustrate you.

Do you know that?

Oh, it's like a reflex reaction.

Hit the knee and bang.

You know, man, so easy to be frustrated.

Takes a choice to say, I'm gonna consecrate myself.

Set myself apart.

Lord, what are you doing?

I'm not gonna draw in the treadmill of frustration.

I'm gonna jump in and say, Lord, what are you up to in this space?

Oh, stop.

Stop there.

Good, good.

So today we're gonna hear from a few people and, I'm gonna ask, Elise

Loudon to come forward, and she's gonna talk a little bit about what the burden

of the Lord has looked like for her.

We're swapping seats today.

Is that okay?

Yeah, I can handle it.

Good.

Good.

Everyone say hello Elise.

Hello everyone.

Elise is an absolute champion, mom, daughter, wife.

I'm so inspired and so, oh, just such a joy to know Elise.

So Elise, the day that we're gonna ask you the question Yes.

Well, we, it's quite a difficult thing to talk about the burden of the lawn

'cause it's quite a vulnerable place back.

I can see.

But it's a, it's a vulnerable place, right?

Because we're kind of exposing a little bit of the deep parts of our heart,

and that's anytime we're revealing the heart, there's a vulnerability there.

So, Elise, what, what, how would you define the burden of the Lord for you?

And, well, you're married, so it's not just the burden in this case

for you, it's for, for you and Ben.

What does that look like for you?

our, our burden from the Lord is, for children, for children

who don't

have homes, or, safe family life in

particular for children in the foster care system.

Big right now.

You have got how many foster kids?

Two.

And how many of your own biological children.

So you've got four people in the house?

Yes.

Have you ever had more than four kids in the house?

Yes.

For a long period of time.

We had five.

Five?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So three,

three foster children.

and our 2, 4, 4 under

four.

Just just

bow your heads, we've gotta pray for them right now.

In, in terms of this journey, this didn't just happen overnight.

Tell us a little bit about how did this burden kind of come about for you?

Yeah.

So, when I was 16, I, I

attended a Salvation Army Youth Camp, which was a camp for

children in foster care in the school holidays for them to attend

for a week.

and, at the end of that week, I, I realized and noticed

that a lot of the children were going home.

They were getting picked up by people they didn't know, didn't know who

was coming to get them, and they didn't know where they were going

that night to sleep.

and that.

Absolutely broke my heart.

and I was, I knew then

that I would do something

about that one day, but didn't know how

or what

that would look like.

10 years later, Ben

and I are pregnant with our

first child.

She's, I'm five months pregnant and, completely outta the

blue.

My cousin was in contact with me.

I hadn't spoken to

her in years.

And, we ended up taking

in her just 2-year-old boy for a period of

18 months full time.

and we fostered them

through the, through the, fostered him

through the department.

and then after he transitioned back to m we knew then that we

were, we wanted to foster in the

future as a family.

and we made some decisions

in order to make that

happen.

So we decided to.

try and we're very

blessed to have one

more child so that, as children came in

and out of our home, our eldest daughter would always have a

sibling who was constant, because it was quite

hard when, when the,

when our nephew left.

and it was quite in

the home and hard for Annabel and for

all of us.

and, so we had her and then

we decided we would stop

there so that we could, foster and take in siblings and, increase our ability

to have more children in the home.

Yeah.

Wow.

When we think about fostering children, and there's different rub points, one

of them being the moment that Oscar left, and I'm sure as the thought of

these precious kids who you're currently caring for, the thought that they may,

the system may move them on, there's a weight there, a heaviness of, but

there's also weights from the fact that, you know, the, the children.

Without care are gonna be experiencing.

There's waits for that.

Yeah.

What, what does it look like when I, when I was talking before about,

okay, these burdens matched by joy, it's matched by something.

What is, what is the positive sides of these burdens that you've experienced?

What, what does that look like?

Yeah.

so yeah, I think maybe

I'll start with the cost.

So just to talk on that a little bit.

There's the cost of, physically it's very hard, with, with all the

children, the young children communicating with the department

and organizing visits, and there's a lot of stuff that goes on there.

Then you've got the emotional cost, which I think is what you are

referring to there, where, once you step into

it, you, you're no longer turning a blind eye and you can't, you can't ignore it.

So you're seeing the, the suffering that's, or, you know, the, the

need, the great need.

and that can be really

hard.

But at the same time, there's, there's so

much joy that comes

from it as well.

So, as an example, we,

we, this week we had an extra child come to stay with us for a

couple of nights because, there was just nowhere for him to go.

He'd been in

his six years old, has level three autism,

was in a crisis

care, temporary home, with like shift staff

for two nights and wasn't allowed to stay there any longer.

so he came to us, but we, for multiple

reasons, unfortunately, just can't have him long term.

And we had to make the

call that we couldn't.

and as I sent him off

to to school on that Friday with all of his bags packed, and he

didn't know where he was going

that night either.

and that breaks your heart and you see it.

and you, you have to

feel that.

But,

at the same time, I know that God has him, and that, the.

The children that

are in our care full time and they have come into our care and gone

back to their parents won't have

that story.

And so, there's a lot of joy

that I can take from that and that Ben and I can

take from that where, we can't save, we can't

fix the whole

problem that exists, but we can be a laborer

and

do our, do our part.

and I dunno if you've

got more questions before I accidentally go through everything.

No, I, I was ponding that you know, the nature of someone calling

your family and saying, listen, we've got a desperate situation.

We need help.

And your will.

Oh a your willingness and that's your heart.

Now there's obviously been a journey of.

Like managing of this burden that we carry.

How much can we do of it and how much can we not do of it?

Yes.

How have you tracked with that?

Yeah, that's been a, a

huge learning curve.

so we've been doing

the general foster care system for about 18 months now,

like after our seconders is a

bit older.

and that is the part that I find the hardest.

for context, like the

problem that I talk about is that in, so in 2023 there were 46,000

children needing in, in foster care and there were 9,000 foster homes.

And so that has declined over the last couple of years.

I don't even know what the numbers are at the moment, but I know it's worse

than that.

Mm-hmm.

and so the reality

is for all of those children who

aren't in those homes, they are just trans.

They're just passing around through.

So they have to ask, the department asks carers who are already at capacity.

If they can just have them for a few nights or just have them

for a week or two weeks, and then until they find somewhere else

for them to just go.

and so that's, that's

the, that's

the problem.

and, that is, you know,

it's a, it's a difficult thing, but the, the burden that I have

for the children that Ben has, and the, you know, the, where we

are with all that is, and what I'm learning

is that it's, it's a

compassion and a, and a, a stirring to take action.

and it causes that.

But it's not, I'm not carrying the weight of the burden.

I'm not carrying the weight of

the problem because, God's doing that and

I can't, I can't fix that.

And no one can fix that.

God,

God's got them.

And, so.

When that, this

is just, just experiences this week for the first time where I realized

as hard as it was to say goodbye to him, I knew that God had him.

And I knew that for our whole journey fostering, I'm gonna have

to remember that, that God is, God is the one who has this and not us.

And we can only do

what we can do.

But we can pray over him.

We prayed over him while he was in our home and you know, God will hold him.

God will hold, God will hold all of the children.

An off script question.

Oh, sorry.

No, it's fine.

Go for it.

How do you go when you see the need?

Know the burden.

Know how to manage the burden and see others doing diddly squat in this arena.

Right.

How on?

Yeah, please.

I want, I want to hear it.

I want to know like, how do you navigate that for your own heart?

It's

really hard because it's a full commit.

Job right's.

No, I'm just gonna put my toe in.

There's no toe in here.

This is, I'm in.

Yeah.

I think people

genuinely don't know, or, people often say, you

know, I couldn't do it 'cause it would hurt too much when

they go and I un I completely

understand that.

I do.

but then if you take

a step back, you know, what's, what's the reason that

we're doing it?

We're, the emotional toll that comes from it, doesn't outweigh the

benefit to those children in that time.

You

know, like I, I think, yeah I do, I do find

that hard, but I'm also rem reminding myself that everyone has a different

burden and there is so much need in the world, not just for children, but for

so many, for so many different issues.

And I, so I think

the main question is, not, you know, are

you doing something for the children specifically, but are you doing

something for anyone beyond yourself?

Very good.

Like our family.

Have made a really conscious decision to be an outward looking family.

Like, even as our children are growing up, not to be like, oh, well just

focus on us for 20 years, and then when they're grown up, we'll do it.

It's like, no, we're, we are gonna

live that throughout.

and so that will look

different for everyone depending on what, what your burden is.

And

such a mature response.

Elise, there's this, there's tendency in Christianity, I call it, I

call it gift projection, where you assume that the other person should

have your gift and they don't.

And so you get frustrated at 'em.

Welcome to the trap.

There's also a thing called burden projection, where you're like,

oh, you're burdened with that.

Why aren't you doing something about it?

Welcome to the frustration trap again.

Mm. So the fact that you're saying what you just said, like,

'cause otherwise it'll crush you.

Yeah.

The

burden crushes and you'll be a shell of a person.

Yeah.

And you don't wanna resent people or you know, no

thing.

And I think, um.

Like with the numbers, you know, you say there's 40, the number of

children that there are, if there were just

a few families in every single church in Australia, that need would be covered.

Like, it doesn't, it doesn't need to be every single family, but there are people

who are, who are able to and called to do that, who like, it's totally the dream.

The dream of the harvest is that the church.

Would wrap their arms around these children and they can Amen.

Like there are enough people to do that.

I agree.

And it doesn't have to be everyone, but, but there are people, yeah,

I wasn't gonna say this, but one of the things that we're trying to

investigate as a church community here is how do we support those people who

wanna step into fostering and, and we're doing our very best to support.

And you are, we really appreciate it, the family

in this, in this realm.

Yeah.

But I suppose what I wanna say there is if, if the whole realm of fostering

and children is something you want to investigate, please come and talk to

Elise and know that you won't jump into it alone because you have a church family

that want to support you in that endeavor.

Because what's the role of the church?

The role of the church is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

And this is a saint here, doing ministry awesome.

May not look like some sort of formal church structure, but she's

bringing the kingdom to bear.

And so, I just wanna say thanks.

It's generally not.

I get a lot of thanks.

Thanks.

But, we love your heaps.

Thanks

for the encouragement.

Yeah.

And

yeah, if father speak to me now or get my number from Adam or

someone, you can give my number to

him.

We can put pass it on.

Elise, thank you for sharing tonight.

Give her a big hand.

Encourage her.

Awesome

love.

We're gonna, hear from Mr. Alex

Mule, so don't you come up forward, Alex, give him a hand as he comes.

Alex, we're gonna jump straight into it.

Let's go, let's go.

Alex, what's your burden?

Talk to us.

yeah.

So there's been

a few

burdens over the years.

I'm gonna say that

the first burden was more of a general burden, just

in a general sense.

it's a very striking

thing when the love of God gets

poured into your heart, you do start caring

about someone beyond yourself.

And so I guess that's kind of where it started, where I just loved people and

I wanted to serve people and didn't really know what that looked like.

As I've gone on my

journey, it molded into, well, from my experience

of reading the word, this burden to preach and, oh, not preach, but, you know,

help people understand what God wants to say to them in the Bible to make these

concepts and these truths, known, because you

know, the truth and truth will set you free.

I'd experienced that freedom and I wanted other people to have that freedom too.

And as I've continued down my journey,

it has surprisingly, shifted to evangelism.

it's not something

that I

ever saw for myself.

but that is the burden that has, become even greater

than wanting to preach and teach.

It's interesting the nature of the word, right?

If the word of God is Christ himself.

Yeah.

The interconnection between making Christ known in an evangelical

sense and this in initial desire to.

Inform others of the word, they're so deeply connected.

Like you can't separate the word of God in Jesus, you know?

So no way that, that space, I, you said a bit earlier something about you've been

going into shopping centers and, but now when you're going into shopping centers,

you have this sort of strange experience where you're feeling a bit of pressure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Can you, can you talk

about that?

Yeah.

Okay.

So.

Every step that I've taken is a new step.

I, I have no idea.

what I am doing.

I

am learning through experimenting and learning through failure.

And because of that,

I've got some pretty, you know, some stories, of things not working out.

as I have this desire

and I want to grow in evangelism and the Lord has

placed this on my heart, I have had to figure

out how to do that.

And before what I was doing was putting all the pressure.

On me going to the shops and being able to step up to the plate and

almost in a work sense, start up this conversation

and somehow have

the perfect words, to speak to this person

and get them to react and have an interest in God.

It's so much pressure and it was

just overwhelming.

and I just, I just

could kept turning back like I would see someone that I could

approach and turn my back and go home, and I hated that feeling.

And to avoid that feeling, I would just stop going to the shops, even

just to get milk, you know, or, or all those basic things because I didn't

want to turn my back on somebody.

And I kind of figured out, man, this is not working.

This is, this is not how I'm supposed to go about it.

And I was reading through John 15, and of course this was the Holy Spirit

who's teaching me and training me instead of putting the pressure or the

focus on being out there, I'm instead putting it on abiding in him as he

abides in me because it says, if I do that, then I'll bear much fruit.

And so I've shifted my focus and it's all about my communion with the Lord and

seeking him in my, my granny flat and.

It's a good granny flat.

What I'm experiencing now is I am very, I can very easily

walk up to somebody.

I did it yesterday

and as I approached them, the Holy Spirit was on my chest and it was the most

smooth and casual and normal experience.

There is no more pressure in that area 'cause I've put it all on abiding in him.

And that's been the shift.

Come

on.

Such a subtle, difference.

Totally.

Yeah.

Between this kind of feeling a burden and then in your own

strength kind of trying to do it.

Yeah.

Where it's crushing.

Yeah.

Which is what

we described versus truly being the burden

of the Lord, which is it's his.

Yeah.

So the focus is the Lord, not necessarily the burden.

Because it's the burden.

It's not the burden of Alex, it's the burden of the Lord.

Totally.

First and foremostly.

Yeah.

And the closer you get to him, I think that's where you start

accessing joy in the process.

Peace in the process.

Yeah.

Excitement in the process.

Would you agree?

Totally.

One thing I've learned is, as you know, Christ lives in us.

He's made our home, he made his home inside of us, and he's not renting.

He lives here and owns it.

When he moves in, he brings in all of him.

He brings in his heart, his mind, his desires, his power, all of

those things comes in with us.

And he's not being transformed into our image.

We are being transformed into his image.

And the place where you're gonna get that burden is when

his heart becomes your heart.

And the things that you see him doing in the gospels, he hasn't changed.

He still wants to do those things, except now he's doing it through us.

And that's the kind of where you get the burden from is when his heart becomes your

heart and it's through reading the word and is being in relationship with him.

Yeah.

Was there a question?

I don't, I don't know how to,

that was, that was good though.

Did you feel that that was good?

Yeah.

It's good.

Hey,

there's a, we're gonna just spend 30 seconds on this concept because

you've now got this fresh burden.

Yeah.

Same con, same context, or same content of burden, new context.

Yeah.

And it's in, in Thailand.

Yes.

You feel to go to Thailand, you feel to move to Thailand.

Tell us a little bit about A, where that began and B, where we're up to right now.

2019, I went to Cambodia with my church and it was a very unique

experience where I saw a side of me come out that had never.

Been seen in myself before, like the environment brought that

part, that character out of me.

And it turns out that character really thrives and

likes being in that, atmosphere.

And so

that really put a desire for going into another country and doing these things for

a good long while.

I had a, I was working

on my masters of architecture at the time, and just as we're talking

about burdens, I have absolutely zero burden to do architecture.

I promise you.

I, that is the worst thing.

And I finished top third in my class, like, and yet it is the

most undesirable thing in my life.

I just do not wanna do architecture.

And so that was there.

I was doing architecture, so I wasn't

thinking about too much.

and then evangelism

came up and I, a

year ago in April, I was in.

My study,

reading the Bible and the presence of God came on me and I just heard Thailand,

and I wasn't thinking about Thailand.

I didn't know

anything about Thailand.

and over the next seven

months, that desire grew more and more and more to the point

where I didn't know what to do.

I thought about going to Thailand and just hiring a hotel and just being

there for a week to check out the vibe, you know, to see this thing

is the right path.

I found a vision trip

and I went there for a week and two days into the trip, I

just knew this is it.

the, the country's

1% Christian, overwhelmingly Buddhist, and I just, it's just a place where

I, I believe that I need to be gone.

Yeah.

So Good.

So right now you're

in preparation Yeah.

for this journey.

Yeah.

And what I'm inspired about

is someone who senses the burden and takes action

towards that.

And, yeah, this guy's currently

selling all his gear in his house so he can pay for the, the journey

where a church has actually said, Hey, you can come and lodge at their

property and operate through their ministry in order to do the very

thing that God's called you to do.

So, so the crazy thing is, what I see in that right, is you have a burden,

but God is the one who's faithful.

He's the one who calls you.

Yeah.

He's the one who's gonna actually do it and set you up for it.

Yeah.

Which is indicative of the burden of the Lord, as opposed to, I've gotta

make this happen in my own strength.

Yeah.

Right.

And it's a weird experience.

Mm. I've tried to get

things going before.

I've tried to join

mini ministries and go to this country, that country, and the doors have

just shut and it's just not worked.

And to have a door that's actually opening and things are happening that are

outside of my control, is very strange.

And

I am kind of like, how long into this

thing falls apart, if I'm being honest.

But I'm learning to, to change that mindset and I suppose not

carry that burden.

yeah.

Great mate.

Give Alex a big hand.

Encourage him.

I ask Zoe Regal to come forward.

She's gonna share with us.

She's just been at the women's retreat.

She's just an amazing

young lady, her family.

I've only sort of recently

gotten to know her a little better, but one of the things I'm privileged, I feel

privileged about is when you get to see

someone's heart.

And so, this journey of journey

for of burden for Zoe is probably a little bit different in one sense, but I'm gonna

bang you with the question right now.

What is, is Zoe's burden of the.

Zoe's

burden of the Lord.

can I set it up slightly?

Yeah.

Go have permission to set it up, please.

I was sitting in the service last week and like every single point that

Adam read out earlier was like, oh my gosh, this is literally Holy Spirit

talking directly to me.

and at the end he was

like, put your hand up if you have a burden from the Lord.

And I was like, yes, that is me.

I've got a fire in my belly and there's something in my spirit that drives me.

And then I put my hand down kind.

I slowly, and I was like, I could not articulate that in the slightest though.

What even is it?

How do I

even put words to it?

it was kind of in the

back of my mind.

And then Dale asked me to share today.

Well, she asked me yesterday to do it and I was like, oh, okay.

I guess I have to kind

of figure this out.

and I think this is

automatic pressure, especially as a young person to go, man,

I gotta know exactly what God's

calling on my life is.

so I can take action

and drive it and just

figure it out.

And, like it's so incredible

hearing such specific burdens for Lisa and Alex and like it's incredible to

hear that, but like at 21, like it's actually okay to not have it extremely

articulated in your mind.

but I think I've kind

of narrowed it down in the

last 24 hours there, to, I have a burden

for people

to be met by love.

specifically my heart

is burning.

Mm. I'll take

notes.

It's from him, specifically within

the church walls.

So for his

bride, like when people, in this building, I

have such a burden for people

to be met by love, specifically through

me.

'cause that's what I have.

Control and

responsibility over, I guess.

so through my words

and through my actions, how can people walk into these walls and feel

belonging, feel known, feel seen, and know that the spirit of the God of

the universe and the creator of this world is active and living and alive

in the people here.

and how can I make

that

come alive to them, and interact with them

and yeah, have it come in a physical form because we are

hosts of his presence.

so acting that out

in a sense of belonging and unity.

Met by love.

So good.

Zoe.

Zoe, I think that, what I observe in you

is like, love with legs, you know, understand what I mean?

Like, every time I see you, I can see you.

Like when you see someone you don't know, you seem to have a magnetism towards

someone, and that doesn't seem to be something that someone is pressuring

you to do from a human point of view, it seems to be something that's very natural.

How did you, you, how did you discover that sort of sweet spot for you?

Like, what was that?

You, yeah.

You're 21, but you've seriously, you, you've still got insight about

what God's calling you into, and that'll evolve over time, for sure.

But at the same, how did you know that this was something that, in this

case, was the burden of the Lord?

How did you, mm-hmm.

I think you discover

it.

Yeah, I can pinpoint it,

which is really cool.

I can pinpoint when

God's love became real for me.

And I think when God's love became real for me, that's when this burden began.

And it's only grown in through seeking him.

I can pinpoint it back to 2023.

I was not studying.

I didn't really have any purpose or vision or drive in life.

I was kind of floating around hurt from relationships and friendships.

And one of my friends was like, oh, let's come on, let's go on this camp.

It's five days.

This was like missionary organization.

And when we talk about expectancy, I had zero of it, like absolutely

no expectancy for this camp.

I was like, I'm gonna rock up.

I'm gonna meet some people from around Australia and it's gonna be really cool.

And I got wrecked like.

Absolutely wrecked by God on these five.

During these five days.

Explain, wrecked by God for the uninitiated.

Yes.

I was like, that's such a Christianese

word.

I hate that.

okay.

Unpacking, wrecked.

It's so, I came up with no expectancy and there's people with

great expectancy at this camp.

There are people flowing, flying over from all around Australia to gather and

learn about evangelism, to be equipped.

It's the vision for the camp, per se.

And I felt like through the teaching, through the worship, God took my

heart outta my body and operated on it and put it back in me like.

And that's kind of the analogy I've used over the last few

years to describe it.

but I think growing

up in a Christian home, I'd just become very familiar with it.

And I, like, I was doing all the things and I was coming to church and

I was serving, and I'd been through the whole of youth ministry, but I can

pinpoint that moment when God's love felt so real for me, that it drove

me to action in places where I never previously had heaps of action in.

So in my workplace, I was like, this is a mission field.

These are, this is the harvest for me.

And so I went in and I approached my new workplace like that and I've seen

one of my really dear friends come to Christ and is like loving Jesus

more than I do now through that.

And that's just the fruit of that.

Um.

And it's in my church,

it's in my serving.

but yeah, I can pinpoint

it back to that camp.

So the more I've fallen in love with Jesus, I think I wrote down

here, the more I fell in love with Jesus, the more he grew

this burden in me.

and it also praying

the dangerous prayer, break my heart for what breaks yours and

he will break it for his bride.

He will break it for the lost.

He will break

it for his people.

that was my personal

experience.

Yeah.

I

love your picture of, open heart surgery.

Yeah.

He's the master of that.

He's so good.

And,

professional.

I think that's part of the encouragement that if you feel today, you're

sitting here and you haven't actually.

You couldn't articulate anything.

I mean, we're all on a different journey of discovering what

the burden of the Lord is.

But if you would say like, just with a sense of blank canvas, you dunno

what it is, is to actually decide, I want to enter your presence.

God, though I would place my heart open before you do the surgery and

in the midst of the surgery, the

burden gets revealed.

for Zoe, put some more

legs on it for us in terms of what are you doing in relationship

to that burden that you feel?

Is there things like these, there activity actions that you're taking.

Yeah, definitely.

So I think when I kind of felt this burning in my chest for his love

and for people to experience like, oh my gosh, I've got this joy in my

soul and I want others to have this joy in their soul and to know him

and know the king.

it takes stewarding

of that.

Like anything like you ce receive a prophetic word, you have to steward that,

or you receive like an incredible teaching and you have to steward that in order

for it to be grown, in your soul.

So I

think part of that stewarding is the

action.

Definitely.

so.

In my previous church that looked like, serving in heaps of

different areas.

I absolutely adored youth ministry.

Just getting to meet the lost and go into high schools and invite kids

that are so broken, into the church and

get them.

Yeah, just to be in community and feel known.

I think currently now that more looks like, I feel they've got a bit of

more of a specific burden, specific burden for the young women at church.

So that looks like creating spaces that they can come and commune and fellowship

and do life together.

and yeah, I think taking

it into all the spaces you, you are, so your

workplace, your uni, and getting to approach

them as environments that you

can love on people.

yeah.

What else?

Yeah,

I think, yeah, seeing gaps and taking action instead of seeing

gaps in going someone else's job.

Um.

But I think that's specifically our eBird.

And some people like see gaps and they rally other people

to help fill them.

but yeah, I'm blessed.

That's how I'm wired as well.

So it's interesting

just back to that

frustration and, and thank you very much

consecration, the sense of seeing a gap like confrontation, right?

The gap is the confrontation, but you're either gonna get frustrated about it and

go, the church should just be doing more.

Yeah.

Just frustrated, you know what I mean?

Versus consecration going.

Lord, how do I feel this?

How do I play a part?

How do I ring my peace to bear for that issue or concern?

Mm. So mature mate.

Well done.

What do you

say to the idea that, so we are, we all have

received the love of Jesus and we're all called to love

others as we have been loved.

But sometimes I sense in people, there's a generalized call of that for every

single follower of Jesus, but then there's this heightened experience, and when I

hear you talk about it, you're like on level 10, you know, like only heightened.

Like, and I wonder, I

wonder as I speak, to your heart, I wonder

if you actually are burdened with hospitality.

Mm. Because you remember earlier you said belonging, like you, we wanna

see people feel like they belong.

Yeah.

Like on steroids belong, like, know that you are loved, you know, like it's,

you know, like that's what you exude.

And I wonder if that's a way to describe the burden for you.

I love that

hospitality.

I don't know.

I'm receiving that.

Take leave.

It's

just a thought.

It's just, I'm gonna

steward that word and sit in it.

Yeah.

Good, good.

Pray.

Let, let Lord show you.

Awesome.

Just quickly as we bring

this to a close here, any tips on how to

carry this burden from, from, from what you've seen?

I think there's definitely been times where, so this, like burdens

are grown in intimacy with him, so praying, sitting with him,

reading his word.

And I think when I haven't

done that and I've, there's been periods where I've not been in my quiet place or

in my secret place, which is what I've become reliant on, is rather that I can

become critical of people and the burden gets twisted when it doesn't have his.

Spirit backing it.

So when I'm like, I've got this myself, I've got this burn from the Lord and

I don't need to pray and sit about it.

I just have to go to church and love on people, and I'm gonna get mad when other

people don't see the other new person.

And it becomes this really like gross critical thing inside you

that is not from him at all.

And I love that phrase, it's gonna stick with me for years.

I reckon that when the Lord burdens you, he gives you the

grace to carry it.

And who was it that did

that quote at the end that you said?

Spurgeon?

I think Spurgeon.

Yeah.

Spurgeon.

he puts his arms under

you.

Under you.

Yeah.

When he gives you that burden.

So I think if when it's felt tiring, like spiritually tiring,

like coming away from serving and

you feel exhausted, you're not charged

in the slightest, then that's how you know that.

You are act acting outside of his grace, which is quite a

like, hard thing to reflect on.

You go

like, oh that sucks.

but going back to the

quiet place and sitting with him and then yeah, feeling his

grace and his peace over that.

I think, I dunno if that answers the question exactly.

No, it does.

It does.

I think what you're, another way to describe it, same thing.

There's a, when you're in the secret place of his presence, the grace

gives you an ease to it and it becomes actually easy versus like forced and

like striving.

Yeah.

that's pushing you

away from.

The way of Jesus.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can I share one

more thing, please.

I think also he, Luke's laughing at me.

I think this burden

also has changed how I've approached church specifically is what we

were speaking about earlier.

That rather than, I dunno why Yeah, I

missed it earlier.

rather than coming

to church to be filled up, I think I, now, I know that now I rather come to church

with that phrase that Adam sometimes uses that, who can I love on today?

And how can I pour out?

And rather that I come to church, whether I've got a lanyard around my

neck or not, I'm coming here to love on his bride and love on his people.

And rather than, which isn't a bad thing.

Oh, like, no.

Like if you've come, if you've had a bad week and you need to come and get

filled up and be around people, that's not saying that's bad either, but

rather that I've become reliant on the secret place to fill me up in order that

church is merely an overflow of that.

So that, and that's become.

Goggles that I now view church through this goggles

Love

gospel goggles.

I know you love the goggles analogy.

Oh mate, love.

I had to tap it in.

Yeah, that's good.

You're talking my language.

Zoe.

Thanks for sharing.

Why don't you give Zoe a hand?

Encourage her.

Awesome, love.

Very good.

We're still gonna do communion today as well, and we're gonna do one more

interview and it's my best mate.

His name's Paul Morrison.

Why don't you come up Paul?

Welcome Paul, as he comes.

Where do you wanna sit it?

Everyone say, hi, Paul.

There you go.

Beauty mate, beauty.

So what is Paul's

burden of the Lord?

my burden is the souls

of Aussie men, the souls of Aussie men.

Has that been something that has been revealed to you

overnight or has there been a

journey towards that?

it's,

yeah, it's a lifelong journey.

yeah, I think, from, you know, getting saved and at, at, well from picking up

the Bible as an 11-year-old, from getting

saved at 16, from, throwing my job in

as a mechanic and gonna Bible college at 26, but I think

10 years in pastoral ministry

at review.

And then, when it kind of hit me was, I was doing a, worship.

a weekend with a guy,

a potato farmer by the name of Angus Bucken out

in, 2009.

And, I rocked up that weekend

and Angus had been seeing a, a, a big harvest of men in, in South

Africa, and I led worship and he kind of spoke a word over me that

weekend and, and I, I went home.

I'm just

going, God, you're stir me up so much, and a whole bunch of things happen that

would, I just don't have time to go into.

But one of the, I got a scripture in that time.

I wanna read it.

It's an obscure, it's kind of a bit obscure, but when I

got baptized as a, 16-year-old duly Baptist

in the cold waters of

the baptistry there, the, the, the minister

at the time, his name, his name was Chris Bill, he, he spoke a word over

me from, from Joshua chapter one, which is be strong and courageous

and talked about, you know, dividing in the word of the Lord and.

And trusting that God would give you where he, wherever you put your feet.

And I was reading that again and I came to verse 10 of chapter one and it says this.

So Joshua ordered the officers of the people go through the camp and tell

the people, get your provisions ready.

Three days from now, you'll cross the Jordan here to go in and

take possession of the the land.

The Lord, you, God is given you for your own.

But to the reubenites of Gadites and the half tribe of mon Joshua said, remember

the command that Moses, the servant of Lord, gave you after he said the Lord.

Your God will give you rest by giving this land.

Your wives, your children, your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave

you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men ready for battle must cross

over a head of your fellow Israelites.

You are to help them until the Lord gives them rest as he has done for you.

And until they too have taken possession of the land, the

Lord your God is giving them.

After that, you might go back and occupy your own land, which Moses, the servant,

the Lord gave you east of the Jordan

toward the sunrise.

yeah.

So that, yeah.

So do I explain

it?

just quickly, you know, east of here

towards the sunrise is a, is a, is a farm that my father grew up on, his

father and his father before him.

And, and in a lot of ways, you know, I, I've, God's given me all that

I need and want, you know, I got a beautiful wife and kids, but he gave

me this burden that it's not about you.

He said to go over ahead of your brothers and help them to find their rest, their

possession, which is essentially that.

That we would know God and that the man of this country

would know God.

And so, yeah, I ended up in Africa in 2009 and, had an encounter with

Angus and, and he prayed for us and dropped this burden in my heart that I

just could hardly contain for 12 months.

Ended back there in 2010 with you and, um.

Yeah.

And then been trying to, really trying to work it out for the last 15 years.

It's an interesting dynamic when you sense a burden and then someone else

who's unaware of a burden that God has placed on you, comes and confirms

it, or speaks a word, speaks a sense of confirmation over your heart,

such a confidence, like lifting moment.

And it sounds like you've had a few of them.

Oh, it, from that time on, it was like, you know, I stepped out, I left

Riverview in 2010 and stepped out, and God just opened these crazy platforms

within the context of this city.

You know, I was, I was part of a sporting organization with a million

followers.

You know, I, I ended up with a PR

platform and a microphone, you know, three to 400,000 people a month tuning in.

And I was like, God, you're, you're doing this thing, you know, this burden

for the souls, you're connecting me.

And, but in the midst of that, you know, uh.

You know, the flesh, because the beauty about the burden is

that we think it's about us.

It's not it's, it's about him.

It's his burden.

All these things we're sharing in, do you think God's heart for, for children,

for Thailand, it's his burden and he invites us in to co-labor with him.

And, you know, he invites us in not just to do, we're so in the, in, in, in

our, you know, charismatic Pentecostal.

We think it's about what we do, do, do, but it's about what he

will do in us with that burden.

It's this simultaneously this beautiful co-labor and where he's making us buy

this burden to say, look, I know this is heavy for you, but if you try, if you

carry this, watch what I'll do in you as

you do with me.

And, these things are happening

at the same time, which is awesome.

Can you put into words how that's been a blessing to you?

I know you kind of just did.

But can you go a little bit more specific?

How's that been a blessing to Paul, like co-laboring with him?

What's, what's,

what's that look like?

It is just force me, like Alex said, you've, you've gotta continually level

up live, but, and leveling up means going down, you know, deeper and in abiding,

in prayer, in, in the secret of secret places in the, in the place on your knees,

in the lonely, dark wrestles of the sobel where you go, God, I cannot carry this.

And it's a death to yourself, a constant death, because without that

death, there is no life unless the grain falls to the ground and dies.

And so I kind of, all, all that in a way I was saying, God, I, I kinda

lost my way a bit in terms of who I was, who Morrow was in that context.

And God really in his grace took it all away from me for

four years and forced me to.

To go to that deeper place.

It's like, if you want to build something big, you gotta dig a huge

foundation, otherwise it won't stand.

And, and it's being conscious of what that looks like in your life.

And I'm so grateful La the up, last 18 months, the privilege of walking

into a space and dealing with people dying and confronting all my own

fears and what this call looks like.

And, and, and getting to the point of, with, apart from me, you can do nothing.

And how freeing that is, there's nothing I can do

so good.

But he can.

And we, if we turn up in faith and we, we tune into what he's doing

just, and he invites us in, most of the time he's just showing off

and we just happen to be present.

That's what it, that's what's going on.

Come

on.

Show off, Lord.

Show off.

Come on, show off.

Show off.

Lord.

So good.

You've talked about what, what it's cost you.

Yeah.

That there's, it's not a, it's not an easy journey, but it's the most

satisfying thing you've ever will ever do.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Come to me.

Oh, you are weary and burdened.

Mm-hmm.

And I'll give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

Yeah.

I'm gentle and humble and heart.

Yeah.

You're a bit of a melancholy chap.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

So when you talk about the weight of some of this, it can

feel, it can feel a bit heavier.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

So can you just speak into some of the

Yeah.

The more, sanguine aspects of

Yeah.

The bird is light.

You know what I mean?

Yeah,

I know.

Sorry.

No, don't be apologizing.

No dogs like, oh, no, it's, and that's the space I'm literally coming into now.

I'm realizing that.

The la you know, the burden is actually a mantle.

Another word for a burden is a mantle or a grace.

And if you look in the Old Testament, you know, the, the grace, the cloak,

you know, Joseph in his coat, the mantle that was on some of the, you

know, Elijah, Elisha, there's this, there's grace that God would put on you.

That is the burden.

But it, it's from him.

And in a way, there, there is so much freedom in life in, in

taking that on, because that is god's, all God's ways are good.

And he wants to bless us and show himself to it and reveal himself and it's freedom.

And in a way that the burden is like a, it's like his free mantle.

Are we gonna go there?

Are we,

let's talk about free mantle, shall we?

It's his free mantle.

Oh,

that's so good, mate.

The mantle of freedom is what he gives you.

Oh man.

Hey.

Hey.

I

was with this.

I'm going there, bro.

Yeah, go on man.

I was with Adam last night.

Go on.

And we went, we went to Fremantle, and I know the burden this

guy carries for the territory

in this city.

And, I've, he's prayed and

fasted 20 years.

He's just, just had a, and we went and we led worship in this and had a two hour

prayer meeting in this church for this 180 4-year-old church uniting church.

And we were frothing, man.

It was so good.

We were so excited, so excited.

You know, I said to him on, I said, the funniest thing, I

said, you know, Fremantle are playing Port Port tonight, right?

Yep.

They did Port Adelaide.

What happened?

Freemantle, Dockers have never beaten Port Adelaide in

Adelaide, right?

And, last night, the captain

whose name is Pierce kicked the, the final goal and free mental beat port.

And my son sent me a text as I'm telling Adam this morning, come on.

And I, and he said, dad.

The curse is broken.

Fremantle have defeated port.

And I said, Adam, you you, you will have through Jesus.

Come on.

The king has pierced the darkness.

Pierced the darkness.

Jesus pierce the darkness.

Yep.

The curse is broken.

Come on.

And there were three, three people confirmed last night.

They saw Jesus walking through the streets of

Fre mantle.

Yeah.

And well man, it is on

you, man.

Yeah.

I had in my notes talk about the burden of the Lord for me free mantle.

And I've got free mantle written here.

What

was beautiful about, last night we're, we

are just jumping out of our skin last night, 'cause I dunno if

you're aware, there was some fairly dark things going on in

Fremont at the moment.

so we just gathered,

Chuck chucked it out on Thursday saying, Hey, you wanna come in to

Freeman and pray and 120 people roll up?

And we're like, and the place was lifted.

Like we didn't have any PAs or anything, so Good.

And worship was just echoing outta this place.

And we, it's like, man, Jesus is walking the streets.

Oh, I told you, we'll talk about this

forever.

I know.

But, Paul, thank you for

what you shared today.

Um.

Just wanna pray for Paul.

Is that okay?

Just lift your hands to him for Father.

Thank you God, that it's not by power.

It's not by might, but it's by your spirit.

And so the call to reach men in this city, father, we ask for an

increased anointing to do just that.

That it would be obvious that you are carrying the heavy burden of

it and, and you're using Paul to make a difference in this city.

Father, continue to show him, reveal to him that your kingdom strategies and

increase and fuel his kingdom imagination for the what is possible in you.

And so, Lord, we thank you for our city.

We bless our men of our city and we pray that they would

come to a living, breathing.

Example of what it is to be men of God.

Father, we thank you for your plans and purposes for this city, for

Fremantle, for the surrounding region.

Have your way, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth in

Western Australia as it is in heaven.

In Jesus' name everybody said amen.

Amen.

Give Paul a hand, encourage him.

Thank you brother.

I'm gonna ask the band to come up as well.

As we get sorted, we're gonna try and bring this home.

Thanks bro.

We're gonna, just get ready to share

in communion together.

We're gonna be doing it slightly differently.

We don't have the

normal carafes and bits of bread.

We've

just got the little cups this morning.

'cause the women's, retreat took all that

gear and then left us with nothing.

So, but

no, that's fine.

So, I just want you to

close your eyes right now.

Just close your eyes for a minute.

As we prepare our hearts to share in the

Lord's Supper, and, I want this time of

communion to allow you to ask the question, what or who has your

heart what or who has your heart?

And if you can sit here today and you know, man, it's the burdens of the world,

use this time to say, Lord, forgive me that the burdens of this world burdens

me more than the burdens of your kingdom.

If you look on the interior of your heart and you see the burden of the Lord,

pray God, as I take these elements, as I take in Jesus, I literally eat Jesus the

body of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, God.

Invite Jesus on the interior of your soul that it would be very

obvious it's Him in you working out this burden that is placed on you.

And may your prayer today be Father, give me courage to act.

Give me courage to say yes.

And lastly, if you look in the interior of your soul and you just can't see the

burden of the Lord there, simple prayer.

Just say, Lord, show me.

Show me your way.

Show me your burden.

Open my eyes.

Deal with the obstacles in my heart that are preventing me from seeing clearly.

God, we thank you that

we don't have to earn your favor or love today, but what an adventure it is to

co-labor with the creator of the universe.

Lord, thank you for every person here today, and I just declare over all

of you that you have been given very specific personalized assignments

from the king of his kingdom, of this kingdom, his kingdom, the kingdom of God.

There's an assignment specifically waiting.

It's got your name on it for you to play a part.

It may be a big part, it may be a small part, but it is

nonetheless a part to play.

And so Holy Spirit, reveal those parts to us and give us courage to say yes today.

Jesus, thank you that you've done everything for us to participate

in your kingdom by ourselves.

We are completely isolated and distant from your love, from your kingdom.

From your throne room, but Jesus, because you died on the cross, because you

rose from the grave because your blood was shed 'cause your body was bruised.

We have full access to enter boldly and confidently into the throne room of

God and hear from heaven what you have for us today, Jesus, we say thank you,

have us to open our hearts to you,

but as we take the elements that there's be, wounds being old, wounds being healed,

old misconceptions being removed, fears being dissolved, and new courage coming

in Jesus' name.

Amen.