Understanding the Kingdom of God (Pt 8) : The Power of God's Word: How the Gospel Creates Reality, Brings Forgiveness, and Transforms Lives

And I want to just recap quick. I spoke last week, remember I said that the Word of God is like a seed.

Jesus said a farmer goes out to sow his seed and he sows the seed and it goes into different places, but there is power in that seed, the Word of God.

And that's. And I said there are characteristics around that word. Characteristic number one from last week.

It divides soul and spirit. The Word of God gets in there and it can discern and reveal what God is doing in us

and through us, what's of him and what's of the flesh. The Word of God can do that.

Second point I raised was it is living and intentional. The Word of God grips your heart. It causes you to accept spiritual truths.

For every single one of us in this room, where there was a time we weren't Christians,

there was a time you'd look at the Bible and think, I could never do what it says. I don't even agree.

Then you read your Bible and once you become a Christian and it comes alive, isn't it? You find yourself obeying texts you never would have before.

And as I've said before, the. The biggest setup you can do is invite a friend to church. Why?

Because the seed gets in there like a burr, like a thorn, like a hook. It gets in there and they ruined for life.

Whether they come or go, that word stays in there. It works without our effort. It's that word that the Lord spoke

when he created the heavens and the earth, isn't it? Let there be light. Bang. And there was light.

He didn't need permission. He spoke a word and that word went and did something. The Word of God is living and active.

God looks after His Word. And when God has spoken things, those things that he said are going to happen,

are going to happen because he said so. The third thing I said last week, the Word is substance.

It's a seed that sustains and births what God wants to give you. So you can be waiting on God for something.

And then suddenly the Lord gives you a word. He gives you a text, a scripture. Something comes alive inside of you.

And when that happens, the Word has become substance. It creates something out of your life. It births the will of God for you.

And last, second, last one, which we're going to start with this morning, so I didn't get time.

Last week is one of the fourth characteristic of the Word. The seed that is planted is. It shapes or creates reality in you.

It shapes or creates reality. What do I mean by that? What? Well, to be born again, John 3. 3 is to be born of the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit literally comes inside you and does something and makes alive in you something that was dead.

And it only happens when the Word of God is preached. The Word has power.

For 2000 years, the gospel has spread and people have become Christians through the preaching of the Word.

I understand the sentiment. Please hear me preach the gospel through your life and if necessary, use words.

I fully appreciate the sentiment behind it, but can I tell you, a good, nice, little smiling person

who helps old ladies across the road is not getting you into heaven. Okay? Only the word of God gets you into heaven.

I mean, Santa is a nice guy. He gives you presents that your parents paid for. What he does, I think he's dodgy.

He comes down at night in the fireplace. I don't know. This is South Africa. Santa comes to give gifts.

We're going to plug him so full of holes, it just won't work. So that's why most of us don't get gifts.

But the point is, it's not enough to just be a nice person. The church, you let your light shine and we feed the poor.

No, the Word has to be preached because the Word creates reality. It makes people born and again.

Romans 10:14. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in Him?

Romans 10:14

And how can they believe in him unless they've never heard about Him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?

And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the scriptures say, how beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news.

But not everyone welcomes the good news. For Isaiah, the prophet said, lord, who. Who has believed our message?

And in order to believe the message, you've got to hear it. Which is why it ends with the most famous words.

Almost. In Christianity, faith comes from hearing, that is from hearing the good news about Christ.

When you become a Christian, you are literally born again into another realm. Something that was dead inside you starts again.

You're given a new life, a different kind of life. You don't get a new start, you get a new life.

Something is implanted inside you. You remember when God spoke to Adam in the Garden of eden?

In Genesis 12:2, verse 16, the Lord God warned him, you may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden

Genesis 12:2

except the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat its fruit, you're sure to die.

Now, question, of course, to be asked is, did they die when they disobeyed because they actually had kids?

They were alive, but they died spiritually. They had a life in them that was lost. Do you remember?

God would walk in the garden in the cool of the day and spend time with Him. They lived in the land of the provision of God.

And the moment they sinned, they were taken out of the place of the provision of God

into a place where they would have to fend for themselves. Cherubim with a sword protected them from being able to come in.

And only when the God who provided for them in the garden would provide through eternal life,

through the death of his son later, only then would they be welcomed back. Why? Why?

Because something had died. Something was dead that was alive before that needed to happen again.

A new birth from above. And that is why we're not shy to talk about the new birth.

That's why we've never had a public meeting where we don't do an altar call. Because you have to know about being born again.

And here are three scriptures that speak or emphasize the availability of the fact that eternal life comes from God.

John 1, verse 12. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

John 1:12

They are reborn not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

Next verse. Just to make 100% sure. 1 Peter 1, verse 22. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth.

1 Peter 1:22

So now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart,

for you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever

because it comes from the eternal living Word of God. Oh, you got the picture. Now, just in case you didn't,

here's the third one, James 1:21. So get rid of all the filth and even in your lives

James 1:21

and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts. And for it has the power to save your lives, your souls.

The implanted word becomes a seed. It has a power to shape and create reality.

Do you know that when you give your life to Jesus, you surrender to Him. You acknowledge who he is.

He literally takes what's in your life and starts to rearrange it. He leaves nothing untouched.

And he has a goal we're going to get to now. And that goal is to form you and I into the image of Christ.

And so, in a sense, God makes you his project. He determines to work in you and on you and through you,

even in ways you'd not even prepared for him to Do. Once you become a Christian, as long as you're not in opposition

or rebellion to him, he begins a work to make you more like his son. Are you okay with that?

And once you're a Christian, God no longer fights the devil. He fights you to get you to do his will,

to seek first the kingdom of God, etc. But God is committed to giving you a whole new reality when you give your life to him.

The last thing the kingdom does. Well, not. But in terms of the seed, this. This word number five.

The kingdom brings power. It brings power. Like the farmer in the parable who just scattered the seed on the ground.

He waited for the harvest. You've got to scatter the seed. But it's got to be the right seed.

It's got to be the right word that you sow. The gospel of the kingdom of God is the only word

that will ever have the effect it's meant to have. This Bible, not this one. Your one too,

and every other Bible is the infallible word of God. The word of God. God looks after it to perform it.

Not a word from this book will fall to the ground. Are you okay? It is infallible. It is absolutely true.

But the gospel is of the kingdom. The gospel is not the message about the Bible.

Only the gospel isn't even the message about the church. And church is good. As a matter of fact,

you can't be a Christian if you're not in the church. Think about what I just said.

You can't be a Christian unless you're in the church. I didn't say unless you go to a meeting.

I said unless you're a Christian. You cannot. If you're not in the church. You can't be a Christian

because the Bible says when you're born again, you're born again into the body of Christ,

which becomes the church, Isn't it? The gospel isn't even the gospel only of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

That is a part. The message of the Gospel is the availability of the kingdom of God to every single Christian.

You only enter the kingdom by being born again because you hear and receive the Word.

You only enter the kingdom because you're born into the church. You only enter the kingdom because something happens inside of you.

But what needs to be revealed to the world is the fact that there is a king and there is a kingdom.

And that kingdom is what we call to enter. It is the one thing Jesus spoke more than anything else when he preached here on Earth.

It is availability. And the good news of a kingdom in which you live. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus makes you born again.

It gives you entry into the kingdom. You don't stay there. There is much that happens in the kingdom.

In fact there are three things, three acts of power that are available to you when you become a Christian.

Are you ready for them? Number one, forgiveness of sin through the work of Jesus

and his substitutionary sacrifice before God on our behalf. Our sins are forgiven through the mercy of God.

How do you feel this morning about the fact that your sin is forgiven past, present and future?

Some of you aren't that excited because you were little sinners, tiny ones. In other words,

you grew up in a Christian home, you stole your grandparents biscuits, you took the odd sip of wine.

Before you were 18 you weren't hectic, you were were just a good sinner like those lacquer ones.

All you needed was, you just needed to add Jesus and then you were pretty good.

But I want to say there are some other Christians who are not like that. Like Saul of Tarsus who became Paul,

who says I was the chief of sinners because I persecuted the church and the church is the message

for the good news of the gospel of Jesus. And I was shutting down the message for the salvation of millions.

And I see it now, he was a murderer of the gospel. And you know what's going to happen this afternoon?

I preached at 8 o', clock, I'm preaching to you at 10, then we're going out to Eden park,

that side there by Rachel park, into one of the township areas and we're going to be speaking

to about 50 or 60 invited pastors this afternoon where we're going to be talking to them

around what we offer into that community. Do you know that those pastors are going to reach

into those gang infested communities and they're going to preach the gospel to people who've done stuff

that were not very good. And so my question to you is this. How are you and I able to receive people

who have done not the little sins they've done the big ones? Do we still have a revelation

that the first power of the gospel is the forgiveness of your sin and someone else's?

If you've been following News24 the last week or two, you, you have seen some of the horrendous stories

of abuse of children by adults. My question to you is this. What happens if that serial long term abuser

meets Jesus Christ, the same Jesus you worshiped this morning? It's my question to you

and you sitting here this morning because you quietly haven't mentioned the fact that you yourself got abused as a child.

And you carrying resentment in your heart and you sing Jesus Forgiver. The healer, the healer, the healer.

But let someone who's done sins that you've been affected by, let them be healed. Now sudden you've got an issue

because you've never understood forgiveness. And I'm saying this because I'm telling you in the season to come,

people are going to be brought into the life of the church who've committed the big sins.

And are you and I, when they are prodigals and they're coming home, are we going to be the older brothers who stop them?

Or we're going to be a church that understands that, that forgiveness, the power of forgiveness

is for every single person who bows their knee to Jesus Christ. That they get the same chance you and I do,

they get the same forgiveness, they get the same father. Or you and I are going to limit forgiveness

to the little sinners and stop the big ones. I'm asking you a question this morning because what happens when they come?

Well, I don't think I like this very much. I think I'm going to go to another church. We hope you do.

In fact, why don't you go to Australia? Because there's no sinners there. It's just full of Australians.

Go figure that one out. Or maybe you should go to England, then discover it's becoming Muslim.

Or go to America. I don't know what that's becoming. Go to New Zealand and support the sheep.

Or is there the slightest chance that God has put you in a land that needs this gospel in this time for this season?

Because you have a word of power that's going to bring forgiveness to sinners.

But you don't understand how bad it is here. Of course I do. I've been here a few years.

I'm going to quote Nana from the Lord Jesus himself. Do you know he grew up in the backwater of Palestine?

Do you know that he had, I mean, how's the wisdom of God? The greatest empire in the world,

Rome has provinces all over the known world. And the worst posting you could get was to that dust infested Palestine

where they fight each other till today. And you know, like if you're, if you're a senior guy,

the emperor would come and he'd give you, you can go there and you can go represent me there.

The last post you wanted was Palestine. And when we read of King Herod and we read of Pontius Pilate,

they weren't great men. They were the worst rulers in the empire. The emperor didn't know what to do with him,

so Caesar said, send them. There was a backwater. And by the way, if the emperor today, Ramaphosa,

decides he has an issue with me, do you know I can run off to the constitutional court and get help?

In those days, the emperor was a God. His word was law. And remember, a lot of them were inbred, syphilitic.

They had. They had issues, mental issues. Nero decided to light his gardens at night by burning Christians,

literally 60 years after Jesus, less than 60 years after Jesus had ascended,

and God sent him into that backwater of a nowhere place to preach the good news of this gospel

so that forgiveness can come to the world. We're in a far better place than they ever were.

He's given you the power of forgiveness. That's why he says whom you forgive is forgiven

and whom you don't forgive is not forgiven. Because if they don't hear the message, they can't get forgiven.

Forgiveness of sin, number one. Number two. Transformation of character into the image of Jesus

getting saved is only the beginning. Then he wants to change you. Can I just say, kindly,

you know how kind I am in my heart, if you have been saved 30, 40 years and you've just become a miserable old sour,

can I just say to you, please don't come to us and say, well, it's just who I am. Take me as I am.

We don't want to. Are you alright? We love you, but we don't want you like that.

Because you are supposed to be the evidence of the fact that God is at work in you by the Holy Spirit.

That the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit is doing something in you. That you're changing.

Romans 8, 29. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his son.

Huh? To become like his son so that his son would be the firstborn. Among many brothers and sisters,

this is as much a work of grace as being born again. Because when you're born again, your sins are forgiven,

they're fleshed, but no one knows except you and God. But when you start to live a changed life,

suddenly your neighbors, friends, they've seen your light shine because they're seeing very differences.

What's happened here, this person is not what they used to be. There's evidence. 1 John 4:17.

1 John 4:17

And as we live in God, our preaching gets better. Read it there. As we live in God, our preaching gets better.

No. Right. As we live in God, our telling others what to do. No. As we live in God, our love grows more perfect.

So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence.

Listen. Yeah, because we live like Jesus here in this world. What a testimony your life becomes

when a spouse can say sorry to their spouse. Woman, you're listening. When a spouse can say sorry to their spouse

when they mess it up. Sorry. Love Men, we do it at least once or twice a year.

We forget a birthday and anniversary. Third thing that happens lastly on that third form of power.

You see, God doesn't just forgive your sin. He doesn't just transform you into the image of Christ.

A third thing is happening. Do you remember? We have a very real enemy, a very real spirit at work in this world,

causing every sickness, pain, disease, abuse, everything you can think of. We have a significant degree of power over evil.

We become more than conquerors. Light triumphs over darkness. I haven't got time to read it all,

but. Well, give it attention but. 1 John 2 you got it. This is a text you should read often.

John writes, I'm writing to you who are God's children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.

I'm writing to you who are mature in the faith because. Because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.

I'm writing to you who are young in the faith because you've won your battle with the evil one.

Remember, it's a reminder. I have written to you who are God's children because you know the Father.

I've written to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ who existed from the beginning.

I've written to you who are young in the faith because you're strong. God's word lives in your heart

and you have won your battle with the evil one. There is a word of the Kingdom of God.

He gives you that you and I are meant to be overcomers where evil cannot get in and have its sway in our lives.

Because although it comes, we agree with the Word of God. You see there? You've held on to the Word.

You agree with the Word of God. And when you agree with the Word of God, you agree with God regardless of circumstances.

And suddenly that agreement breaks in there and brings change that you could never bring on your own.

That's what he's telling us. And we don't live or teach by our own power. The kingdom of God isn't something we produce within ourselves.

It comes through the Word of God. And as I alluded to Nana, so I don't have to make the point.

Sometimes our work or our effort or our preaching lacks confidence because of the world we're in.

We see murder, theft, exploitation. But in the midst of all of that, we need to understand

the only hope for planet Earth is the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. There's no other hope, nothing else.

There are no more Luke Skywalkers coming. The last hope. There is only the gospel of Jesus.

And that gospel needs to be heard by every single last living individual to be confronted with its truth,

that they bow before another king, that this gospel can extend. Are you okay? Huh? All right.

So now I spoke about the characteristics of the word of God. But now I've got a question for you.

I think about all the time now. What happens if you've got a word? God has spoken something to you.

Now you. You've got that word. Remember 14 years ago I said when we gave our announcement,

I felt God had spoken to me 14 years ago about the church we're moving into after next week.

Do you know that anytime in that 14 years, I could have birthed an Ishmael any point and not an Isaac?

By just rushing a process, just moving into something, thinking, I gotta have it. You know the old song,

I want it all and I want it next month. You know, it doesn't. The song doesn't work if you do it that way.

How do I work with the word? When a word comes, can I give you the first one? Are you ready? Be patient.

Be patient. Have patience. Jesus puts an emphasis on the seed and the yeast and all of that in those stories

because he's trying to tell us to the church, in the words of Guns n Roses, just needs a little bit of patience.

Okay? Religious organizations, churches, preachers, sometimes can put heavy burdens on people

about all the things they're supposed to be doing, as if the kingdom doesn't have power on its own.

And what we do is we create a performance works gospel that puts people under pressure and into condemnation.

If you aren't doing. If you aren't operating and you suddenly put people on the hamster wheel of activity.

And the problem is Jesus gives us a picture of a farmer who scatters seed. And what we need to understand

is there are things we are supposed to do, but we have to understand what grace really is.

Can I define it in one sentence? Divine grace is God acting in our lives to accomplish what we cannot do on our own.

And God's grace infuses us. It. It infuses our actions. God will Work with us. If we open our hearts to him.

God's grace doesn't mean we do nothing. The farmer went and sowed the seed. God is not opposed to effort,

which is action. He's opposed to earning, which is attitude. I come, I do this and I demand

you don't do that with God. You do what he says because you're obedient. And don't come to me with that charismatic nonsense.

And I'm going to talk about some of you now and. And when you come to me with your charismatic nonsense,

I'm going to take you, I'm going to put you in your little box and put you in the cupboard. Not you, baby.

You don't have to leave. I know what he's doing. I know what she's doing. Our son's just been dropped off, okay?

He's been away for a whole weekend. I know you're going to fetch him or bring him here or whatever,

or. She just doesn't like my preaching. Don't know what it is. She's going to get it the whole evening tonight.

So some of you, I'm actually putting your little boxes in a moment. Don't come and say, well, if I do this,

if I do this, if I do this, God's got to do this. And God's. God doesn't have to do anything.

If you read Hebrews 11 and 12, you will discover it says none of them inherited the things they lived in faith for.

So don't think that just because I live by faith, I demand to inherit. You demand nothing.

All you need is a good dose of laryngitis because you need to be patient. So what do you do then?

How do you cope? How do you be patient? How about we let the word of the kingdom come and occupy our minds?

Start to fill yourself with the word of God. I think for a moment, I mean, my heart goes out to Joshua.

God calls Joshua. Think of it like this. God calls Joshua to go take a people across the river

to a place they've never been to. That's us in week after next. Go to a place you've never been to.

I'm telling you now, if I look over my shoulder and I've got millions of people behind me

and I don't know what's ahead of me and I don't know what to do. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be anxious.

And all the Lord comes to him and says, is this Joshua. Yes, Lord, I need a word. Okay, I got a word for you

meditate on my word day and night. Lord, do you understand how busy I am? Do you understand how many people want meetings with me?

Have you noticed in the last two, three weeks how many people have got the best ideas on what our church needs to do going forward?

I've been inundated with suggestions. Calls, words, prophecies, pictures, letters.

It's like we've got a couple of thousand people in this church. I've got information like this that God hasn't clearly told me.

He's told you to tell me about what we need to do going forward. And you try and sift through all of this

and how you know it's from the Lord is because the person comes with assuredness. And the Lord spoke to me,

must be. And in the midst of this, you go, lord, what do I do? What does he say? Meditate on my word.

It's like the wrong advice. But funny enough, when you do it, the word of God, like seeds, begins to get into your mind

and begins to get into your heart. And now begin to understand something. Jesus said, the farmer scattered the seed.

Now, I've never not a farmer, but I've seen it. They go and they scatter the seed. Yeah, yeah.

Then they go and they finish something here. And every two or three days they come back quick and they have a look

and it's out of the ground. Wow. Go back, do some stuff, come back now. In the end, there's a bit of a fruit.

Hey, there's a bit of a harvest. You're like, wow, look at that. Look what happened. They don't know how it happened.

They don't have Google. Like today there's no agricultural colleges, there's no sadara.

All you get told is, hey, put this in the ground. Something happens. What you don't see is a farmer planting

and he goes and does something. You know what, I'm just too impatient. Dig it up a bit. After three days.

Nope, put it back. It's going to kill the thing. Sometimes in being patient, you just got to let it sit there

and let the word germinate inside you. You don't have to carry a load. Just live. As a disciple,

I want to suggest you there are people who want nothing to do with Jesus and want nothing to do with the church

through nothing Jesus has done to them. But because sometimes you and I have not treated people with a little bit of patience,

we want so much for their lives that we push it on them when they're not ready for it.

Instead of allowing the word of God to settle. Paul was like that. So he writes about it in Romans 10:2.

Romans 10:2

I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it's misdirected zeal. Paul knows he was there.

So what's the first thing? How do you approach the Word of God when God has spoken a word to you?

Please, please be patient, number one. Number two, have utter confidence. I read a book in which a preacher shared this.

He said, years ago, when I was just starting Bible school, he's a famous preacher. He said, years ago,

when I was starting Bible school, I went to God and I said, lord, I want you to speak to me about my future.

So the Lord said to him, never try to find a place to speak. Try to have something to say.

I wrote that down. Never, never try to find a place to speak. Try to have something to say.

I thought that was excellent. What he felt God was doing was teaching him to concentrate on that.

Live with the Lord and count on him to do stuff inside you. You can walk into such rest.

I want to suggest to you this morning there are three things that you and I can always do right?

Number one, we're meant to allow the living water to. To flow and to concentrate on taking the Word in.

Do you know you never graduate from letting the Lord minister to you? Doesn't matter how old you get in your faith,

doesn't matter how busy you get. My car, I know, can do roughly 650km before it needs diesel again.

And at 640, it can make as many faith statements as it likes. But I'm stopping in 10k's time.

If I don't find a petrol station, doesn't matter how charismatic I am, I can get up, put my hand on that car

in the name of Jesus, because that's what makes it real, not Jesus. Jesus. And as the deer pants for streams of water,

my soul longs for the living God. You weren't made to work. There's angels for that. You were made to fellowship.

Make sure you're drinking streams of living water that you look alive. The other thing you can do, number two,

you can learn to experience the power of the Word, of the Kingdom yourself. This little Donovan

that shared this morning about, he's three weeks short of a year of having epileptic fits

that nearly cost him his life to the extent he had to be pulled out of school because he couldn't go into a public place,

but because one more could trigger brain hemorrhage and it's over for him. Do you know that no one can take away

From Donovan, the power of the Word of God in the last 47 weeks in his life, no one can.

Why? Because it's his story. He has held onto that truth for himself. He's not living on someone else's dream.

It's what God spoke to him. So, number one, let streams of living water fill you. Number two,

what word has God given you for you? Stop telling anybody else what you have faith for.

What are you having faith for? What are you believing God for? Then number three, don't make it happen.

Don't make it happen. Learn to relax. I personally think Jesus must have been the most relaxed

yet most intentional person who ever lived. Because only a relaxed, intentional person can sleep on a boat in a storm.

When I said to you, remember, they cried out to Jesus, wake up, wake up, something's going to happen.

They had faith in Jesus, but they never had the faith of Jesus because he woke up and said,

you have little faith. You've got faith in me, but you don't need just faith in me. You need my faith.

And I know this. I'm on mission here on Earth. So therefore, nothing's going to sink this.

It's just. It's just a free ride. You know, some people strap themselves up and jump off cliffs.

I don't know what's wrong with you. Or off a bridge or something, you just strap up and go.

I don't know why you do that. But that's sort of what Jesus was doing in the boat. Nothing's going to happen

because I'm at rest. I'm secure in what my Father is doing with me. Jesus was intentional, but relaxed.

So we need not only faith in Jesus, we need the faith of Jesus and then the next thing under that,

and I'm hoping I'm not going to offend anybody. But Jesus was not, because he had to be relaxed.

Don't make it happen. He was not seduced by crowds, by needs, or by success. Do you know,

on the night he was betrayed, he had to be identified with a kiss. Which one is he? He's the one I kiss.

They heard of him, they didn't know who he was. I go preach in countries where the preacher's face

and name is all over billboards everywhere. And we're following the Charismatic Church today

has built a cult of personality. We need to be like. We need to compare with. That's the. When you've reached that.

And I'm nervous because we're moving into a big space after next week where God's going to save people in the hundreds.

And I'm telling you now, when someone comes here, wow, how big is your church? You know what you say?

Big enough for you to come as well. You don't go and get boastful, please. Do you know how many sees our

pride comes before fall? It's a promise in the word of God. Please, I'm asking you, don't come and say,

well now we've arrived. We there, now we know where we're sitting under the promise of God,

with a spirit of God. And God can lift his spirit anytime he chooses. And I'm asking you to remember that

because it's not suddenly. I've already had someone come to me say, greg, you have to change your clothes,

you know it's going to go out, you need to stuff you. No, I need you to hear this.

We cannot allow the seduction of megachurch to get a hold of us as a people. Why do you think God spoke to me

when I got saved? On the night I got saved, 6th of August 1989. He said, Your life will be like that of Joseph.

I never understood it. Years and years and years and years of hiddenness. Then you will serve as a prime minister

before kings. You'll never be one. That was crucial for me to hear because now I'm Approaching My middle 50s,

having never done a whole lot of stuff, suddenly people are going to ask questions and know who we are.

You know What? I've had 30 something years of learning this. I would rather be a prime minister serving a king

than be a king. And it may be that in my 40s or my 30s or my 20s, had I been put into something,

pride comes before a fall and it may be I would have seen my backside along with everybody.

And I'm asking you, in Jesus name, when we move into space God has given us and people stream in

for the power of the Gospel, please walk with a humility that simply says, but God, are you hearing me?

And we hold each other to account. Please be like Jesus, be patient, have utter confidence in him.

And lastly, thankfully it's very short. We're done now. You don't have to make it happen.

Don't force people into what God isn't doing. Are you okay? What I love the most, John, the disciple of Jesus,

very close friend. I mean he wrote the book of John, he wrote 1, 2, 3, John and he wrote the book of Revelation.

When John tries to describe his relationship with Jesus, he defines it in 1 John 1:1. And he says this,

1 John 1:1

we proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning whom we have heard and seen.

We saw him with our own eyes, we touched him with our own hands. He is the word of life.

My encouragement to you is this, please let Jesus do the work. Don't make it happen, rather work with Him.

Everything born of the flesh is still flesh. Even if it's good flesh, it's still flesh.

Let's allow God to be God. What's our role as a Christian? We witness, we demonstrate the kingdom of God.

And 1 Peter 3:15 is like a verse for me. Worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks

1 Peter 3:15

about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. Don't make it happen.

Keep in step with the Spirit and allow God to allow you to lay things down. So reap when there's a harvest.

Have faith to let God work. Preach the word of God. 2 Timothy 4:2. Be prepared whether the time is favorable or not.

2 Timothy 4:2

Stand with me. Thank you so much for being a part of our meeting today. Can I just ask two things?

The first is if today the message has in any way been useful to you, would you mind just maybe liking it

or putting perhaps a statement down or a comment down that we can know how the ministry has helped you,

Maybe a thumbs up, maybe you can subscribe to the channel, do whatever, just so we can know

that what impact this message may be having on you. And secondly, you may be someone who's saying,

greg, I hear you and this hope that Jesus has for us can come into my heart and it can change me.

But the reality is that I don't even know if I know Jesus. I want to say two things to you right away.

The first is he's near you right now. Bible says if you believe in your heart that he is the Lord,

and if you confess him with your mouth, you will be saved. Which means you just need to where you are,

turn to the Lord Jesus Christ even now and just say, lord, here I am. I recognize who you are.

I confess my sin to you. I acknowledge you as Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, the Son of the living God.

And I want to follow you.