Nee

Welcome to Three CR. Thanks, Matt.

Very kind of you. Yeah.

So we've been in Zimbabwe and had an amazing time there

through a friend of ours who's a friend of ours who's a friend of

ours. And actually it all starts with

a man in this church called Rhone who got saved in Zimbabwe,

and a man called Tom Dishell. And they have a building 10

times the size of this. And so it's so nice to walk into

places and you realize we're just a little blip on a radar

somewhere. And I said to them, they've got

more people, they've got more influence.

They've got. I said, I don't know why I'm

here, but it's good to be here. I said, how did you earth did

you build this thing? Because I know when we built our

thing, it wasn't easy. It was a miracle of God.

And they said, oh, that's quite easy.

A few people came and gave a million U.S. dollars.

I said, oh, it's easy to build a church, you know, so million

U.S. dollars. I can build a church with a

million U.S. dollars, he said. And then one day a Zimbabwean

man walked in here and gave us 20 million U.S. dollars.

I said, you lie. He said, I can't, I'm a pastor

20 million. I've I've got a financial friend

in in the church. So it's a mess.

And I said, what is that in today's terms?

He said 600 million Rand. So so we're very humbled.

I've got a choir of 100 people. It's probably the most amazing

worship I've ever seen. And they they want to be

friends. They want to be our friends.

And so they invited us because they want to be our friends.

So we've got friends all over the world.

It's nice to see you. If you're in the overflow room,

it's awesome. If you're in the over other

overflow room, it's awesome. And then I got a message from my

friend Philip Smith and his wife Melani in the Carew saying we're

watching you online and she shouted the background and we've

got your bank details. So for all of you in the Carew

and my friend Richard and Elis Russ, it's so nice to have you.

We're doing a series called No for you guys NIA or most of you

guys NIA, say NIA no. So we're just going to start the

year with no, just the ability of God to teach us no.

And we're just going to do it for this.

This will be the last week. It's just a little against the

grain reminder that there are choices in our heart that if we

make them, it has a deep impact down the line.

Amen. So let's read Titus chapter 1.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

If you went here last week, we just introduced it and we

realized it's surrounded by such very beautiful words.

And today I'm going to look at some of the practice of that.

It's really, really good to see you for the grace of God.

Say the grace of God that brings salvation.

Say salvation, beautiful word. It's a, it's a spacious word.

And so God is going to teach us to say no, but he introduces it

amongst grace and space. So most people think, well, if I

come to church, everything's just going to shut down on me.

But actually, before God even shuts anything down, he just

opens it up. Let's always remember that.

It teaches us to say no. Say no inverted commas.

That's like quite a strong no. Say, just say no.

Yeah. Or they're more English.

Either that or you guys have forgotten what Loftus is like.

Let's try it again. 123 near 123 no, I said 123 near yes.

Yellow Mainsa listening Markley follows that one mains that

one's weird prove here in two year three.

Don't forget. It teaches us to say no to

ungodliness and to worldly passions and to live self

controlled, upright and godly. Lives in Pretoria in 2026 at

Tickeys University, surrounded by this government, in these

economic crises, in this present time, it teaches us to say no to

ungodliness while we wait. Say wait, wait.

Not easy to wait, eh? Not easy to wait for sex when

you're 19 or 20 years old. Not easy to wait for the blessed

hope, say blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great

God, say great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

So when it says great God and Savior, it's like saying he's a

great husband and father. What it means is a great husband

and a great father. So our great God and great

Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself us to redeem us, say,

redeem us from all wickedness and purify for himself, for

people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

These then are the things that you should teach.

Why, Rory, are you starting this year like this?

Because the Bible says we must teach these things.

And if you're in this church, you should have the whole

council of God that after a season of being in this church,

you should actually have the full expression of God, the yes

of God, the Amen of God, the blessing of God, and also the

know of God. It's part of the teaching.

Encourage and rebuke with all authority.

Don't get up there like a war story, get up there and roar

like a lion. No, and you Afrikaans folks

better not despise me. So the Bible says so.

Let's have a look at these words surrounding no grace, salvation,

blessed hope, glorious appearing, great God, great

Savior, Redeemer. No.

And how beautiful is that? How beautiful is that?

If you were in the tent, you'll remember the story.

If you weren't in the tent, you won't.

But I had the unbelievable privilege of going to the army

with the worst troop that was ever, ever taken into the South

African Defence Force. His name was David Lambert.

To this day, in the records of military history in South

Africa, he ranks as the very worst troop ever.

And he happened to be in the same escarder as AC.

So when they got there, the corporal said V Van Yella is von

Durban. So a few of us put our hands up.

He said dacha workers. So I don't smoke dacha.

He says, you Van Durban here dacha.

But Dave Lambert was unbelievably poor as a A troop

and so when we were doing our marching out parade, there's

always an RSM in the in those days, there's always Afrikaans.

He always looked grumpy at small eyes, a big moustache and a bad

attitude. And he used to shout and we had

to follow his instructions. He used to go something like

this and you have to do something.

You have to follow him. You had no idea what he was

saying, but you had to follow him.

It was basically lungs and Columa Francaise.

And then you would turn 90° and you would March towards the

front. Now there's 600 of us marching

in this direction on the parade ground of Valhalla here, 600 of

us marching in this direction. He's standing at the in the

front. He's crossed.

We have to do this properly because our parents are going to

come and watching us pass out. And he shouts, oh, look, sit

down of ourselves. Oh, kid.

And 599 of us turn this way. And Dave Lambert turns that one

and he starts marching. And you just hear this guy

shout. Useless and then he marches up

to the front. He gets his track wrong and he

you're RSM, you say? Yeah, you say.

He's so stupid. He says you're RSM.

This is my, I guess, picky dwarf in my in Word, RSM dwarf.

But right then, yeah, we're just and I on the Manchester and I

said let let's dry. We get rest dry.

And I said let's dry. We get looks dry.

You're LSM. So when he turned right that

Lambert now is in the middle of this whole 600 people and he's a

little bit off Cupid. And I turn right, he turns

right. It's a little bit like grace.

We are surrounded by grace and redemption and salvation and the

glorious gospel of Christ and salvation.

And we're a little bit deaf to hear God when we start, but

eventually, when we understand who we are surrounded by, when

grace turns left, we turn left. When salvation turns right, we

turn right. And all of a sudden you realize,

yo, they're marching together and they're following the

instruction. Not from a Sergeant major, from

a beautiful Christ, commander of the armies of the Lord, giving

instructions about freedom and inheritance and salvation and

kindness. And all of a sudden, when I keep

in step with him, I realize, wow, my wife is blossoming, my

children are thriving, my friendships are igniting, my

inheritance is coming. And all of a sudden that voice,

which is external starts to become internal.

And actually I start moving before the command even comes.

Does that make sense, friends? It's beautiful, eh?

So if you're backing to say no, get amongst the group of people

that can and learn. It says he teaches us to say no

to ungodliness. We'll be passions.

So I want to just give you 3-4 examples.

The first one is in Genesis 39. It's the story of Joseph.

You can put the screen up now. Joseph had been taken down to

Egypt. Remember, Joseph got the

Technicolor dreamcoat from his dad Potiphar, an Egyptian who is

1 of Pharaoh's officials. The captain of the guard bought

him, say, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him

there. You know how he would have

bought him? He would have been taken with a

shackle around his neck, shackled to the man in front of

him, with shackles on his arm and shackles on his feet.

And he would have been marched into the slave market and there

would have been an auction that took place and the highest

bidder would have bought him. But we spoke last year that the

word redemption last week. The word redemption means I have

been bought from the slave market also with the chain

around my neck and my hand shackled and my feet shackled to

my past and my stupidity and to my sinfulness and to my

brokenness. And somebody asked me today, why

do you preach off the floor? I preach off the floor because I

don't feel like I can stand on the stage because I'm a Sinner

just like all of us. But we Saints, yes, we are

Saints, but the reality is we're redeemed Saints.

We got bought for the price. We were shackled.

And so actually we said it for those who weren't here, there's

a bidding war that took place over my life and it gets pushed

up higher and higher and higher and the devil says trillions

gazillions. And Jesus said I'll settle your

life with my blood. I'll settle it with my blood.

I will buy you, Sir, with my blood.

Now your shackles have come off. But now he gets bought again

because most of us work for two bosses, don't we?

We have our boss Jesus, who's bought us with his blood.

And then you have to report for duty of which you are in

shackles many times because you have to produce so many hours,

so much Rand, so many cents. You've got it produced, don't

you? And so we actually caught

between the two authority systems and we have to ask the

question, what am I going to say yes to and what I'm going to say

no to? Because if I realize that I'm

bought by the redemptive blood of Christ, then I don't have to

come under the slavery of my earthly master.

I do have to serve him. But when he asked me to do

things that I'm not meant to do, I can't say no in a world I've

just been in Zimbabwe, in a world that works with bribery

and corruption, Born again people are being forced to say.

If we learn how to say no to that which is ungodly, we will

start to see a revival coming to our nation.

Don't build your businesses on bribes and underhanded stuff.

Let's keep reading. He bought him from the

Israelites he had taken in there.

The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the

House of Egyptian master. I believe, Lord, they'll just

keep going back there. I pray Lord God, that every

person in this auditorium will prosper in the houses in which

they work, even if it's an unsaved house or unsaved boss.

I pray mighty God, if we understand redemption, that we

would not only prosper ourselves, but we'll bring

prosperity to the people that we work for.

I pray Lord God, for every school that has a headmaster

where we are a teacher, or every medical practice where you might

be a secretary, or every organization that you work for.

I pray that not only would you prosper, but the people you work

for will prosper to. Let's keep reading.

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the

Lord gave him success in everything, he did.

What a what a unsaved man. Hey, imagine if that's the

report. Joseph found favour in his eyes

and became his attendant. Pot of him put him in charge of

his household and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

From the time he put him in charge of his household and

already owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian

because of Joseph. Just open your hands like this.

May God bless your boss because of you.

May God bless your boss because of you.

May your boss. I know how you work hard.

I know, I know. You're one of the hardest

working men I've ever met. May God bless your boss because

of you. And when you take the controls

of the aeroplane and fly, May God bless your boss because of

you. And God sent you to work for a

company. It was given to a man when he

was 16 years old at a Christian camp to build an insurance

company that will change the world.

And God sent you there as the cultural director to bring in

his name. And May God bless your boss

because of you. The blessing of the Lord was on

everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.

So he left in Joseph's care. Everything, say everything,

everything he had With Joseph in charge, he did not concern

himself with anything except the food he had.

Now Joseph was well built and handsome.

Oh big problem. And after a while, his master's

wife took notice of him. After a while, after a while.

Can you imagine Mrs. Potiphar, Foxy lady, she didn't go virgin

in. She went to Virgin in mainland,

Special virgin. The one at the top there extra

fees, the one with the sunbed and the sorbet outside.

You know the sorbet, there's a sorbet there where you can

sorbet for the cream and for the for the legs tan.

And then Dr. Teeth whitening is just down the it's all all

happened in mainland. Mr. Potiphar gave Mrs. Potiphar

a gift voucher for Mainland Sorbet and Mainland Virgin, and

Mrs. Potiphar was financed by a company in Los Angeles called

the Silicon Valley. So Mrs. Potiphar was a foxy

lady, and after a while she took notice of Joseph.

Come to bed with me. You can put whatever you want to

say. Come to bed with me and my

business. Come to bed with me and my Come

to bed with me and my brokenness.

Come to bed with me and hope. But he refused.

Say he refused with me in charge.

He told her. My master does not concern

himself with anything in the house.

Everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.

No one is greater in this house than I.

My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you

are his wife. You must remember this God is a

God of big. Yes, God has withheld nothing

from me. God is a God of big yes and

small no. He's withheld nothing from me

except you. We think when we come to the

church, God is a God of big no and small yes, and that's why

some people won't come to church.

God is a God of big yes and small no.

And when he says no, he means no.

Lambert. Because you are his wife.

How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against

God? Next verse.

And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, say day after

day, he refused. Say he refused, he refused to go

to bed with her or even be with her.

One day he went into the house to attend to his duties and none

of the household servants was inside.

She caught him by his cloak and said come to bed with me.

But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

Friends, he had been bought with the price.

He had the cloak given to him by his father, so he already knew

the price of his life. And if you know the price of

your life, then when the opportunity comes for you to

sin, you see what happens. The house was cleared.

There was no servant in the house.

We think only God clears things. The devil clears things.

The devil has got an unbelievable way of clearing the

office at 7:00 at night. So it's only you and that

beautiful girl with the fake tan.

I'm, I'm talking. I'm I'm talking to you deeply.

There's a man in this church, one of my very dear friends, who

lost everything for a bottle of whiskey.

And I wish he was sitting here today to say if I'd known the

price at which I'd been purchased, I would not have

taken that whiskey because that whiskey led to a bed that led to

bed led to a brokenness that brokenness has led to.

And he said, but God's grace can cover, and yes, it can.

But the effects of that sin has caused absolute devastation.

Are you with me? So am I putting the law on you?

No, I'm just giving you the wisdom to know that when the

office is clear, you must run. You must run.

Must run. Amen.

I'm not talking to 21 years old. I'm talking to 566580.

One of the greatest Christian authors in the history of

Christianity in the world got into a fair at 78, which

continued to 85 because the grace that he preached and wrote

about, he forgot that the devil hates that grace.

And so you'll set up traps for you and I to fall.

I say one word to you, Lombard. Yeah.

You got a frat. Hey.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How are we doing?

OK, Let's have a look at Nehemiah chapter 6.

Nehemiah 6 · chapter mention

So Nehemiah's busy building the wall when word came to Saint

Ballot, Tobiah, Gersham, the Arab, and the rest of our

enemies that I'd rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in

it, though up to that time I'd not set the doors and the gates.

Sam Ballot and Gersham sent me this message.

Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain

of Oh no. Keep the Scripture up.

Say Oh no. So you've got a choice.

No or Oh no next verse. But they were scheming to harm

me so I sent messages to them with this reply.

I'm carrying on a great project. Say I'm carrying on a great

project. I'm carrying on a great project

and I cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I

leave it and go down to you? 4 times they sent me the same

message and each time I gave them the same reply.

I'm busy with a great project and the moment that you lose the

busy, my dad always used to say this, When little things start

bothering big people, then you know that you're in trouble.

When little things start bothering big people, you know

that you're in trouble. Don't worry about the little

rats and mice that are happening all around you, friends.

Get on with the project of God and I'll tell you what the

project of God is. He wants a people on this earth

that look like Him. That is the great project.

The project over my life and over your life and over your

life is to represent Christ on earth, not some legalistic, A

gracious, kind, gentle, saving, generous, amazing.

He's busy with a great project and friends.

I tell you, the greatest thing that I've seen in my life as a

pastor is regret. It's the greatest thing I've

seen. No verses.

Oh no, Because people go down and after they're done, they

think, Oh no, why did I do that? And I'm trying to teach you, you

know, when I handed over the church at Durban, I felt like I

felt this incredible guilt on me.

And the guilt was caused from two things, the things that I

did that I shouldn't have done and the things that I didn't do

that I should have done. And those two things carried a

heavy burden upon me. And I felt God say, put them

under my grace so that you can be free.

And I did that. And I'm absolutely free and,

and, and, and actually grace surrounds me and salvation and

the bliss of hope and all these things surround me.

So I can actually walk free. But then I actually start to

make choices where I live with less and less regret because I'm

busy with a great project. Beautiful, busy with a great

project. There's something small going on

the sideline. I say, I can't do that.

I'm busy with a great project. God's doing something deep

inside of my heart. He wants me to represent him.

So actually, I'm not going to get sidelined by other stuff.

And you will notice, friends, if you are caught up in the wrong

stuff, it's because you don't know what the great project is.

And you've got to be built in a great project, got to be

involved in a great project. The great project is called

Jesus on Earth, as, as Matt said, building a church,

building a church. You know that young guy you've

got baptized today? You know where he watched the

service last week? He watched the service on his

iPad in hospital because he wasn't well, he's an Afrikaans

young man. You know, he went and visited

him, a black pastor from this church.

And so a black pastor is talking to a young Afrikaans man in

hospital about baptism. And so when we watch that, you

think, what is going on here? A very, very great project,

Yvette. Don't come down from the wall.

Don't go down into the valley of Ono.

Stay on the wall and do what God wants you to do.

Amen. With me two more.

We've finished. I've got 5 minutes.

Not bad. Hello, Nick.

What else to see? How we doing?

We're nearly done. Next one.

The story of desire is an amazing story.

Desires. He becomes king.

You can go and read a two Chronicles 34.

The other one isn't 2 Kings 22, but Josiah becomes king at the

age of 8 and for 18 years he goofs around like some of you

have done for 18 years. He's just like, he's just the

king. He's just like goofs around.

This thing, that thing, wow, whistle.

People feed him grapes, couple grapes.

And then he thinks one day after 18 years, he's 26, He says, you

know what I think we should do? I think we should do some work

on the church and we should fix the church up a bit, clear the

old bricks, maybe paint it out, clear the rubble, open up the

doors and and just give it a fresh lick of paint.

And so he says, OK, let's, let's renovate the church.

He renovates the church. And they find this like, dusty

book. And he opens the book as the

Bible. I haven't read it for 18 years.

And and he starts reading about things.

Yo, oh, Passover, the Passover God redeemed, saved free.

And he starts to, he says, hey, guys, we haven't been living

like this. And in 72 hours, after 18 years

of goofing around, he completely and utterly reforms the society.

In 72 hours, he turns the whole nation of Israel around.

So he's renovated, he's had revelation from the word, he's

bought unbelievable reformation take.

It's just like the whole place has turned around.

And then he's on a road. He's just walking and another

guy's walking and he and he says God has called me to go and

fight that battle. And Josiah says, but you and I

are going to fight. And he says to Josiah, Josiah,

please don't fight me because actually God's called me to

fight there and he's told you to fight there.

So you're not meant to fight. But Josiah, this unbelievable

reformer, this unbelievable man about Revelation, this

unbelievable man who's bought a complete change to our country,

can't say no to a good fight. So he ends up fighting with him

and he dies. As I read this, this is a phrase

that came to the unnecessary casualties of war.

If you do not know how to say no to the battles, you're not meant

to fight. You're going to die or get

wounded in circumstances that you should have absolutely no

pardon, It says in the book of Proverbs, my hands are scarred

by dog bites. It says in the book of Proverbs,

A passerby who meddles in the affairs of an argument is like a

man who grabs the ears of a dog. And now we've got 1,000,000

millions of hurt Christians who don't come to church sitting at

home. Cross with the system, cross

with the people, cross with the leaders, cross with everything.

You know why? Because they never said no to

battles that they weren't meant to take part in.

You young girls don't get involved.

And you old girls from Wake Earth.

Listen to me carefully, Listen to me carefully.

You've been bitten by dogs because you got involved in

stuff you should never have got involved.

The grace of God teaches me to say no to ungodliness and

worldly passion. I reckon 95% of the stuff we

involved, we shouldn't be involved.

It's not our business. You with me last one again.

The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all

the kingdoms of the world and they splendor.

All this I will give you, he said, If you'll bow down and

worship me. Jesus said to him, away from me

Satan. For it is written, Worship the

Lord your God, and serve him only.

And the devil left them, and angels came and attended them.

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned

to Galilee. Why did Jesus say no, you can't?

Why do you think he said no? Why do you think he said no?

Took him at the high mountain and he said I'll give all of

this to you all the world be splendor and and the bio says

the grace of God teaches me say no to you ungodliness and

worldly passions. Now all those bright lights that

flicker that flame that that that that and and the devil says

you can all of this the valleys of San Diego, the valleys of San

Francisco, the valleys of Las Vegas, you can have all of this

stuff. Why do you think he said no?

I don't know if my answer is right.

I read all the I read all the commentaries and it didn't give

me the answer. In my heart, I believe he said

no, because he knew that he was going to end up on a high

mountain, But he knew that before he could get there to go

down to the valley and pick up a very, very, very heavy piece of

wood and he had to drag that piece of wood up the hill, that

same high mountain. Our people spat at him, cursed

him, sword him, and that he would have to put that cross in

the top of that high mountain. And I realized Jesus said no

because he realized there was no shortcut to the cross.

And I want to say to you, we have to learn how to say no to

the shortcut because holiness doesn't come by taking a

helicopter and dropping us at the top of the mountain.

Holiness comes by following in the footsteps of our Christ.

And eventually we'll stumble upon the cross on the high

mountain, and we will receive the grace that is not by

shortcut, but by following in the steps of our Master.

You can say no or yes when there's a Pretty Woman in front

of you. But if you realize you bought to

the price, I trust you will say no.

You can say no or Oh no to opportunities, but I trust when

you get caught up with a busy project, you will say no to the

Oh no and not live with regret. You can say no or yes to battles

that you should not fight, but I pray that we'll have no more

unnecessary casualties of war because we'll not involve

ourselves in in things that we're not meant here.

And instead of buying into the world system and taking the

shortcut to holiness, we'll just follow the ways of God.

Just close your eyes, Lord that Lord, I pray by your grace, by

your salvation, by your redemption, by your greatness as

God and Savior, by your second coming, your teachers to say no

to ungodliness and worldly passions so you can follow in

your ways in Jesus name, Amen.