Who is the GOAT | Pr Joel Vijay

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

In my journey, I've been so imperfect that I've rubbed

off people so many, so many.

Times the wrong way, and we encountered that.

I want us to know that church is not a

perfect place, but it's where we become more like Jesus.

The what perfected means too mature in the Bible.

So as we this disciple and we follow Jesus as disciples,

God perfects us in our journey. And I want us

to take note that there will be disputes that happened.

How do we deal with disputes?

It says here you read verse edity Tree again, it

says he was in the house with them. He asked them,

what was it you disputed among yourselves on the road,

So you know, journey, there will be disputes. Look at

your neighbor and say, there will be disputes. There will

be things that you don't agree on. Yes, as friends,

as if you're married. Here you guys will not even

more like they're things that you won't if you're just

friends or you're thinking about someone next to you.

There will be disputes. I want you to know that

it does happen.

There will be differences, and how do we journey through that?

How do we overcome that? How do we keep walking

and being perfected in our journey? In in Melbourne, I'll

give you a glimpse of Uh, we're we're kind of

like ex Melbourne church size.

We have young families.

All of us are all hands on deck, so everyone's serving,

whether you're in an espresso ex kids, thank you everyone

for serving this morning. We know what it takes if

you're a family here or like maybe you just came

in and then people go like, wow, you make it

look so easy. Uh, there's some sacrifices that no one knows,

and I want you to know that God knows. God

sees it, and he rewards.

In his timing.

And there's some sundays where we don't know what's happening.

And uh, I'm just giving you a glimpse. Can I

be real in this church?

Yes?

So there's some sundays we're like what on earth this

happening in this church. I'll give you an example. How

many of you love espresso. Espresso, not the coffee, but

the food, the serving espresso, in in x Melbourne, we

have espresso for everyone. Actually, wow, right, so after service

there's usually a spread. Uh, they'll do that here. Yes, okay,

that's good. Okay, so we're not so special after all.

All right, but that's that's usually a spread after service,

and and and and and and everyone loves vessel. How

long do I have to twelve?

Yes?

You number forty five? Check out the story shot so

you can go to lunch. Change the clock so I

have to You're and at twelve, telf daddy, Okay, I'll

do my best. So talking about espresso again that Sunday,

there was this Sunday where when we came to church,

of course I'm preaching the other serving, and then we

realized the person preparing the espresso they didn't show up right,

and there was no espresso arranged for that Sunday. So

think about all the people who are like looking forward

to post service, right, think about all their hungry people

that could be angry. And then we know hungry and

angry is hungry people that.

We have to deal with.

We're thinking, oh, dear, like no wonder Jesus fed the

five thousand, right, I was thinking, oh no, we got

to do something, and so of course deliar people think like, oh,

bussa Joe does a lot of things. Actually Delia does

a lot of things rand the scenes. So she she

just jumped and she's like, I'm like okay, she said,

I saw this. She went and grabbed espresso. I don't

know where she ran got things. And then in the

end of the service, everybody was like, wow, this is great,

good food and they had a great time, all smiles,

no hungry people.

And then we jump into the car.

We're driving thirty to forty minutes back home, and along

the journey, I think like ten to fifteen minutes around

the journey, we started talking about this dispute's right disputes.

Along the journey we started talking. We said like, oh,

my word, who was supposed to do express so ooh,

and then we started chatting. We said like, you know

that person, that person saw that the chat but didn't reply,

and then we begin to think, and then there was

a conversation and then I think a lot of conversation

went like hey, uh, you know that person never replies

usually it's always late to reply. And they was like, well, yeah,

is that person usually like that? And we started disputing

and complaining. And as we're driving, suddenly someone has a

little voice that spoke from the back of the car.

It was not Jesus or burning Bush. It was my child, Sophie.

And she says, Daddy and Mummy, are you complaining? Why

you're complaining so much? And then at that moment we

decided we should drive back to church and repent, right,

do another service just for us, right, because people might

have gotten saved, but these people need to repent.

Right. So at that.

Moment we realize, oh my words, she's right, she's right,

and we apologize to say, you know what, So, if

you're right, we should not complain because we don't know

what someone went through. What we can we do is

you know what, instead of complaining, we should what give

the benefit of a doubt? We should again consider someone else?

Can we be more considerate? So I had to catch

myself at me and dealer. We made a pack that day, like, hey,

you know what, let's not complain about others when things

go wrong. Let's catch ourselves and consider one another. There's

a verse in a Bible and speaks about hey, can

we consider one another to love and go works? Read

Hebrews ten, Verse twenty four to twenty five. If you're

for Bibles, it's not in the slides. But Hebrews ten

twenty four to twenty five it says, here, let us

consider one another in order to stir up what love

and good works, not forsaking the sembling of ourselves together

as in a manner some Then there's another verse that

goes but exalting one another. The word exalting means to

encourage one another.

So you now this.

We were discouraged. We're like, what's expresso to? Instead of complaining?

Can we encourage one another? Can we encourage one another

to do.

Good works?

So much more as you see the day approaching? So

I'm here to encourage us that in our journey in church,

things will go wrong.

When you're dealing with people.

Even more there would be days where you slip up,

And can we consider one another to do good works?

Hey man, think better about someone else. I'm I'm I'm

the kind of person that thinks a lot.

Dylan knows this.

There'll be a thousand thoughts in my head before I

say it, and she's sometimes she catches me, She's like,

what are you thinking?

I'm like, nothing right, And I'll give you a glimpse.

There was ones. I'll share with your story. A nice

story you guys, Okay, Bazzi, Kenneth and Bassandra. I love

them near your senior process. They're my senior process as well,

and I'm bringing their great things. But I'll share a

story with you. In our journey in ex Melbourne. I

think this was like the first year. I don't think

Delia even arrived yet. It was just twenty fifteen. They

sent me there, they say God bless you, and then

they left me there. No kidding. But one of the trips,

they came and we were gonna visit a friend. So

they came and they said, hey, you know what, there's

this person that invited us to their house. And so

they says, Joe, Wayne, you want to join us. We're

gonna join this family and go for dinner. I'm like,

do you have a choice? Right, I'm thinking, just me

being honest, I'm like, I do I know the people

I don't know. But by the kind of goes like

when do you come? Yeah, you can be a blessing.

I'm like, okay, right, it's a one hour journey on train.

Okay.

So I was thinking like, oh my goodness, one hour

train half we doing the journey again along the way.

Guess what on the train the train make stops right

along the way. At one of the stops, the person

I don't want to name names just in case you

google them, okay, steps into a train and he goes like, hey,

you guys are on the way to my house. Uh.

Then we're like, yeah, but we're slightly early. Dinner was

at six thirty. This is five o'clock, right, five o'clock.

We want to try And she says, hey, you know what,

you guys are way too early. Why don't you hang

out on the mall? And then Bussy Kenneff goes like,

uh no, why don't we follow you to your house?

Then she says, but my house is in a mess.

It's not ready yet. How many of you will go

right or you want to be like me?

Okay? I was like, let's go to the mall.

Right, let's go to the mall because the house is

not ready at it's in a mess. So we were

in this dispute like do we go or do we

could do we go to the house or do we

go to the mall? And so I looked at buss

ken if I said, like, I think we should go

to the mall, Busy Kennef, I think we should go

to the mall, and then bass Kenna says, I think

we'll go to the house. And I was like, guys,

this is a bad idea. I said, you ready said

it's not ready, and then we ended up. Of course

we follow basket right, So we go to a house

and then she opens up and then it was a

glorious house that was not ready. Okay, not ready. I'm

giving you a glimpse of not ready. There's laundry baskets here.

Uh.

And then as I walked in, I was like, oh,

where are we going to? And then Bassisandra is there

as well, and you know, Bussysandra can be Selena knows this.

She's very orderly, and she's like, oh, where are we

gonna sit?

And I was there like, Buzzykennef, I told you not

ready means hanging them all right, And he says, no,

it's okay. Look there's a dining table there. Why don't

we sit at the dining table?

And so we sit there.

I was ready in this mode of like, Lord, why

are we here? Where am I here? And this is

not cool, and then she says the whole says, you

know what, I'll just whip whip up papasta and you

guys can just chew there. My husband will be back

and then we'll have a great dinner. And then she

whipped up and then she she dishes out the pasta

to myself to buzz kenna, Passandra, you're waiting, and so

I'm just just there being nice, okay, being considerate, trying

to be considerate, and thing dong at six twenty five.

Husband comes. He's like wow, he said, oh you guys early. Yeah,

And so I do the most typicult thing. I stand

up to the table and then I'm like, oh hi,

and I greeted husband.

I'm like, hi Kevin. Sorry, yeah, she.

Wouldn't give you names, don't google it, but hi Kevin.

Okay since you know his name, Hi Kevin, how good

to see you. And then he's like, oh, yeah, good

to see you, mate. And just grab a seat and yeah,

just make yourself at home. Okay, we will we try

sit And then I was trying to grab a napkin.

In Australia, like most houses, they will give you a

like a napkin. You had to tuck it because I

was eating pasta, you know, like you don't even splash

on your clothes and so so I was like, oh,

my napkin, and I was trying to reach for it.

I grabbed and then I tucked it in. And then

as I tucked it in, Plazza Sandra looked at me

and she goes, what are you doing? And I was like,

this is my napkin?

And she's like.

And as I looked at myself talking in it was

not a napkin. It was a piece of clothing that

was triangalarship that looked like a napkin that I was

casually tucking into. Wom you think my pasta? And I

did not know what was So I was like, okay, now,

I was like what And I looked at myself. Yes,

it's a triangular piece of inner garment that was just

at my neck. And at that moment I looked, I'll

give you a bigger glimpse. Is the whole time I

was looking at laundry, laundry, laundry, laundry, laundry, and I

was thinking to myself, is this even done right?

This is laundry clean or dirty?

And I freaked out right at this moment, I'm like, right,

just chucked it under the table and just get rid

of it. And I started kicking right, and guess where

did this nap can go? It went towards Cassussandra right,

and she freaked cause she's like, get away, and all

the is is while we're we're trying to have dinner,

and buss Kenneth had this phase of grace. I say

that buzz cannev is a phase of grace because he

saw this whole thing. He's like, and he gave this

smile and the whole said, is everything okay? You guys

seem seem to be laughing and and just uncontrollably is

everything okay? And then buzz Cannep says no, they just

think they're just happy to be here. It's just at

that moment, I just I couldn't wait. Cut a long

series short. It was a short dinner, lots of chaos,

and as we walked out, I was thinking, never again

am I coming to this place agreeing to this? But

what she said at this point, I was thinking, like,

how could this turn around in a good way? And

she says, thank you, pussy Canna Bassandra Bassa Joe for

coming all the way because we didn't think you would come,

and we've been wanting to invite you. We love the conversations,

and we felt that there was warmth in his house

and we felt that God has spoken to us in

all that chaos. I was thinking, no way, God spoke

in all this. In this mess, God moves. And as

I walked out that place, I look at Pascno. I

was like, Boss Cane, the next time you're going to

do something like this, can we go to a place

when someone says, if they're not ready, let's not go,

let's not go. And Bascno says, you know what, It's

not always going to be clean, It's not always going

to be a good visual place. But God can still move.

Where am I going is We're always not going to

be in a comfortable place. And I'm going to talk

about that word comfort right now, the word kaeper now.

And no one wants to know what's the meaning of

kapow Kaepanow is a flourishing city of Galilee situated on

the western shore of the Sea of Galilee of the

Lake of Gennesaret. It also speaks about It's also known

as the village off.

Comfort.

Now we think about yourself. The disputes happen in this

place off in this village of comfort. Sometimes in our church,

in our journey, where we get too comfortable with one another,

that's when we start having disputes, even in our in

our marriage. So sometimes we realize, I'm like, we get

overly comfortable, we forget considering one another as a church.

If we're not.

Too consider it, if we get too comfortable, we start

taking each other for granted. And I'm here to say, like, hey,

can we number one watch out for the disputes. Can

you watch out that? Hey, you know what, before I

go like like like someone can go like this person's

always like that, before we even you label that person,

always watch watch it. Just just hang for a bit

and say, Lord, help me to consider, Lord, help me

to think about and that word dispute in the in

today's today's concordance, I'll give you the world's definition the Bible.

The Bible has a different definition, and the dictionary has

a different The word dispute here means to engage in

the debate, to argue vehemently, to quarrel, But bibically, if

you look into the word dispute, and he wants to

see the dispute.

The word dispute is to reckon. I think they're Aussie, right.

The word reckon thoroughly to deliberate, meaning you, you think

about it, you reflect, you consider again that word consider.

If there's one thing I wanted us to catch from

point one is can we consider before we go into

a conflict, just consider it as a holy spirit. We

sing about the Holy Spirit, but this is where the

Holy Spirit helps us in our thoughts. Help me consider

to love, consider the situation, whether it's the best, and

how do we guid ourselves against conflict? Anyone wants to

read James three, verse four to five, It says here,

look also at those ships. I highlighted the worships because

it speaks about relationships, speaks about friendships, speaks about discipleships.

But look at those ships all day. They are so

large and driven by fearce winds. They are turned by

a very small rather wherever the pilot desires. Even so,

the tongue, it's a little member and bose great things.

So can we watch our tongue?

All right?

Don't look at your neighbor now, but think about my

own town. I'm like, oh right, I'm still working on this,

but it was a great reminder, Like before I say something,

even with the expresso thing, I'm like, this person's so

always like that, right, if I even use they will

always think about consider can I laf on that person?

Let's read Mark nine, Verse.

Thirty three says, then he came cat for now and

when he was in the house, he asked them what

was it?

You disputed? Right? What was it? And sorry I highlighted

there that he was in the house. He was in

the house. A lot of times our conflicts. When we

deal with conflicts and then we settle it outside the house,

we talk, We talk about people, We have conversations about people.

But God is saying that maybe you should bring it

back into my house. Bring those doubts, those conflicts, those disagreements.

Bring it to me and He will help us.

Some conflicts we will never know the result because we

can't see the person's heart. But when we bring out

conflicts to God, he helps us deal with our own.

So I'm here. Courages.

Take your thoughts, your doubts, your discouragement. Take they get

all to Jesus. Go like, Lord, I don't understand this.

Person. Maybe it's your spouse.

I don't understand why this this conflict happens, but you

know what, Lord help me. On our first year of marriage,

me and Daarlier, we are like I think and Joelo

and noticed we we can go each other like because

we've known each other since our college days. And the

first year we I think when we did a pre

marriage counseling, they asks our wedding counselors ass like, how

are y'all in communication? And then our answer was like,

we get each other, right, We are like that best friends.

We know each other.

I know what she'd think on a first year marriage,

we didn't get each other. We didn't because I give

it the simple stuff like and we we laugh at

it now, but I would say we both loved eating

apples in the morning, and so I cut the apples.

I'm like, yay, let's eat apples together, right, And then

there's a line I'm not saying who said it. It's

like why is the apple cut like this? That's not

how I cut apples. And then I go like, well

I cut it like that, and then why is the

two piece like that? Why is it not here? Who

preach it? Is it getting real who put the milk

like that? Why is it like that? And I'm like,

and then I reflect that we get each other right,

we don't get each other.

And I had to go like, oh God, who did

I marry? Right?

And she's probably thinking, Oh my word, who did I

get married to? And then we realized, you know what, God,

Jesus and the center of it all. We brought it

to Jesus on our own. We could never resolve it.

What's the best way to cut apples?

Right?

We've all got different methods, but in the end of

the day, it's just apples.

Right.

God wants you to know that, you know what, end

of the day, it's not the little things, but you

know what He wants to work in us. Can we

surrender it? Let's read one Peter five, verse eight. I'm

giving you some verses to know that you know what.

The devil will.

Discourage you as well in your journey with Jesus. The

devil will try to discourage you. And the way he

discourages is not with big sins. Sometimes it's with the

little things. He says, Stay alert, watch out for your

great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring

lion looking for someone to devour.

So if we're not we're not careful, we just fall.

You might say, Jesus, I love you, But then you

might build some anger and resent men along the way

on a Monday, on a Tuesday. So watch for that.

Matthew twenty six. It says, watch and pray lest you

enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the

flesh is weak, and all of us are flesh. Right,

look at your neighbor, don't pinch them to your heart.

But we're all flesh. We're all willing. But God wants

you to know that. In his word, he says that

God is spirit, and those who want to worship him

must worship him in spirit and in truth. How do

you make that more practical? It's like, Lord, if I

want to worship you, I have to function in a

way that you function. I have to function not just

by the flesh, by my feelings, by what I think

is right.

But Lord, help me submit to you. Amen.

This guy named Paul, you'll know Paul in the Bible,

anyone named Paul here NOx.

Eighteen, he says x eighteen. Verse four.

He says, and he reasoned in the synagogue and every

Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. So I want

us to bring think of that word earlier, dispute. If

you bring your reasoning. The other word for reasoning is dispute,

if you bring your your disputes to God in his house.

He says, yeah, that Paul reasoned in the synagogue and

he persuaded Jews and Greeks. So meaning with that conviction

that you bring to God, you go like, hey, you

know what, Lord, you are able to convince. There's some

people that you feel like, I want to bring this

purpose person to Christ, but I don't know how. And

it's not about arguing about facts. It's about, hey, you

know what, God loves you. God cares for you. And

as you bring those reasons to God, you know what.

Paul managed to not just convince, he persuaded, He reasoned,

and he persuaded Jews and Greeks. So there are things

of their people in your life that you think like, oh,

I'm never gonna win them, you know what, Bring it

to God, bring those convictions. Paul was one of the

biggest critics of Jesus. He was killing Christians, and God

changed his life.

Around.

Instead of persecuting, he was publicly declaring, Jesus, that's what

God can do. So I'm here to tell you that

in our journey, before we even say like, Lord, send

me like missions. Right, you're like, oh, send me, it

starts in the house. It starts in your home. It

starts in those days around us. Can we watch for

the disputes and ask God to re figure our speech? Lord,

change my tongue, change the way I talk.

Amen.

Number two is I'm going give it to you straight.

Realign my desires. It says here he sat down called

the twelve and said to them, if anyone desires to

be first, he shall be the last of all. It

talks about, Hey, you know what positioning talks about where

where we think we are and where are these right?

I'm going to put this diagram up here on the

screen about family, church studies. Okay, it's a fun fact, right.

I think most of us you consider this what comes for?

Right?

So all the Christians here, you all know that God

comes first. Yes, So I'm not going to argue that.

But here's the pop quiz here, family church, school work, fun,

right and health. I'm not asking someone to stand up,

but like, think about it, where do you prioritize? Like

what comes first in your own mind? Mentally you can

make a note, right, you can go like some of us,

you might think like helpless because if I'm not healthy,

I can't help somebody.

Right. True, I'm not.

I'm not I'm not making fun, but I'm going like, hey,

you know what, maybe health it is important to you

or someone else here family you feel like family is

important others church, Church is number one, school, school is

a work, work is priority. I need to keep work there.

And then.

Because God is number one, then comes work. Right, I'm

here to suggests. The next tagram is may we think

about it as God in this right in the middle

and the things around it are interchangeable depending on your

circumstance where you're at that right. So there will be

times in your life where family does come right after

God because you need to put priority on that. Maybe

that family member God will speak to you.

There will be times where you know what church, you

know what church is going to need you to be there.

You're like, oh, I need and I see this with

some parents, They're like they bring their kids and their

kids are sleeping, right, you're sleeping but I need to

be there because Selina will kill me ifrom no, no, right,

I need to be there. And if they go like

if I'm putting, if I'm serving and I want to

give my best, then what's a little sleep, right? And

so you put your sleep aside, bring your kids in

your PGAs to church, and you know what you're saying, like, Lord,

I'm giving my best. Right. There are times where you

feel like fun, oh this is everybody likes this, right, Yay,

go for holidays. But there are times where you need

to realize that, hey, you know what, there's a place

where fun is also possible that you need to prioritize that, Wow,

this is coming down fun confetti coming from the sky.

Right.

Fun is is where someone came up to me. I

think like Sophie came up to me once and then

because she sees me probably on every other Sunday preaching,

and then there was a time where I said like, hey,

let's have fun and she goes, thank you, daddy. And

sometimes she may not see me as sur passed as

she sees me as a dad. And in having fun

she gets to taste and see that God is good.

Does she want to become more like Jesus. Does she

love the same Jesus that I love? How does she

experience Jesus?

Is true?

Me enjoying that time with her? And then I open

up that conversation. Hey know what, God loves you in

this space. So there's time where you can even use fun.

You may never reach someone, and then you start a

cooking class and it's fun and then they decide like, wow,

I didn't know cooking?

Is this fun? And true? That fun?

You engage your conversation and so God can use that

as well. I'm giving you, oh life partner, anybody your

prior tizing life partner or you're thinking, my life partner

is my next thing? Right, I'm here to think about

God first again. Keep God there, and God will use

these errors. That's where I'm going. God will use these.

Areas to glorify him. What does that mean?

How do I align these desires so that it pleases him?

Pam thirty four, verse thirty seven. Verse voice says, delight

yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the

desires of his heart or the desires of your heart.

So when you submit, Lord, I'm submitting this dream. I'm

submitting this desire as you delight. You're saying, Lord, this

is what I think is best. But Lord, I'm submitting

it to you. I learned someone asked me, like, how

do you work with this? I know some of you

are saying like, Bazo is back for songwriting. I'm not

back for some writing. I'm here to work with a team,

but I'm also working out the differences. I'm here to

say that, hey, you know what in songwriting, I'll give

you a glimpse. One of the first songs that I

wrote in Acts by the Grace of God is the

song named God of Everything. It's a funny song in

a way that it speaks about God is a god

of everything. And as I wrote that song, we brought

it to church and we were like, wow, I think

we sang it at camp.

It's a good song.

And then we brought it to leadership, and then leadership

when like, it's a great song, but can you cut

off the bridge? Ooh, can't cut of a bitch because

it's too long, right, But as musicians and those that

worked on the song, they go like.

But that's the best part past the sena. Do you

know anything about music?

Okay, didn't hear that, but like it almost goes like, what,

that's the best part right in a movie, It's like

cutting the part where the hero comes in.

Dude, right, cut off that part. I'm like, no way.

And she says, I think if you cut off that

part and rework the song, maybe I'm like, oh my word,

it's like you cooking something presenting. And then they go like, wow,

the salad here is very nice, right, but your main

steak is a mistake, miss steak right. And at that

point I just wanted to like flip the table and

take it. But you know what God did. God said,

realign your desires. Realign your desires. You might desire this

part to be gay musical, but you know what, God

needs to maybe trim that. And so I said, I'll

pray on it, right, pray about it, do the Christian thing.

I said, Jesus, what do you think I should do?

Listen to this leadership or go with what we already did?

What do you think what's the answer? Cut it or

keep it? Cut cut it right, cut the part that

you think is best. And then I did that. So

I cut that bridge and then we brought it back

to our team. And then two months later they said

this song works. What did you do? You did something

with a song? How is it different? We're like, we

cut the bridge. That's all we did. We just cut

the bridge. And it was painful because we had y'all know,

elder Beingo Bingo said, hey, dude, what.

Do you do with the song? Who's the best part?

I said, we cut it. Ah, there was the best part.

And I go like, no, this is what pleases God.

Because there was a unity that came with us surrending

and going like, hey, you know what, this is not

about the music.

This is not.

About the songs. This is about what is God doing.

And I'm here to tell you that as you align

your desires with God, it's what pleases him where you

can put your differences aside and put those His eyes in.

And so that song when we went on tours, doing

rebel tours and stuff, it was.

A great all to call song.

And I could honestly say it was not me because

what maybe we have written might have sounded musical, but

as God trims it and makes it what's pleasing to him,

you only can go like God, that's you.

And so God shapes us. How does Jesus respond?

Twenty two verse forty two, he says, Father, if it's

your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not

my will, but yours be done. Even Jesus himself, I

think if you were to pick disciples, he would not

pick the bunche he picked. They were all misfits. Peter

and John were going to a temple. Read X tree

and Peter and John actually not the best friends if

you studied it a characters. Peter was a guy who's like, hey, yah, right,

mount speaks, first cuts someone's ear, jump Jesus. But then

the minute Jesus being crucified and captured, and guess where's

Peter running?

Right? That's running from responsibilities and he's bailing the other way. John,

on the other end, is like the disciple.

He writes a whole book in the Bible and describes

himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. John's like, you

guys are great, Jesus loves me. His favorite song of

all time this sign no for the Bible. I think

he wrote it right.

And that's John.

So I can imagine Jesus was discipling this bunch of people.

They didn't get together, they didn't get along, but he

was the glue that kept him together even as they

aligned their desires. And they say like, nevertheless, we saw

Jesus in the garden as he prayed. He even he

didn't think the cross was something that he looked forward to.

But in the Bible he speaks about he considered the

joy that was set before them. He endured the cross,

meaning the cross was not fun. But what comes after

the cross? People get saved, you know what. There's a

way to heaven. And so when he considered that, he

goes like, this is worth it. And I'm here to

tell you that if you can align yourselves and those desires,

it's worth it.

God will make a way. Amen.

Last point here is don't despise the small. Most of

us we want to do great things. At the slide

there that says most of us were saying, God, I

want to do great things for you. And God will

challenge es sometimes with the small things. Small things. Can

you shake someone nice hand? Can you just smile? Can

you be faithful in the little things? I told I

think va someone was asking me like, oh, were you

always a musician or this? And that I go like, no,

it's definitely God. When I asked them, I said, I

guess the first instrument that God challenged me to learn?

And he wants to guess when I was serving God,

what was the first instrument? Violin, saxophone, uculearly, I'll tell

you twelve twenty. It's a tambourine, okay. And in those days,

if you're as young as me, our church how they

worship God is they have tambourine dances, okay. And so

I went our church. They said, like, who wants to

worship God and wants to serve him? And I put

my hand up. And then they sent us for a

creative workshop. And when we arrived there, they said, here's

a tambourine. We're gonna teach you how to serve the

Lord with a tambourine dance and ribbons attached to it. Right,

And I was there were only three boys and forty women.

I thought, God, what did he do? What it is?

I was thinking, Oh my word, what am I going

to do with this? And I learned it that At

that point I realized, you know what I'm gonna learn it.

I learned the full Gospel. I showed, I showed the students.

I'm like, hey, you know what. I still remember the

full Gospel. If anyone learned the tambourine here, you know

the full Gospel. It's a move. At that point I

was God was challenging my heart as a twelve year

old to think, like I can't think.

This is too little to praise God. There's nothing too small.

And as we serve God through the tambourine, came more

opportunities to serve Him. And it's not again about the instrument,

it's about your heart. An ex Melbourne recently about a

year ago, we were serving. We were in a comfortable place,

like people were coming, they had great espresso. People say

that Australia is great for food and stuff, and as

a church it was comfortable, so comfortable that in your

praise and worship or like in our praise and worship,

it was like it was just I'll be honest, it

was dull until there was this family that came in

and they were there was a white family who were like, wow, yeay,

we're not reaching chest Malaysians, right. I was like, yes,

we're in Australia, and I was like yay. And this

kid came up right to the front and I was

playing the guitar and.

This kid started.

Dancing, and our congregation were like, okay, great, this is

how great it is. How god by this kid looked

at every and you know what this kid started doing.

He started going up to each and every person who's

not dancing and stood next to him to make sure

they dance. Okay, so let's say if John was here,

he went up here, He's like yeah, yeah, yeah, And

soon the whole church okay, what we need to wish

your God, even though it's going to come to me.

And that was what God was doing.

And at the end of the service, we met with

the mom and the mom said, you know what, thank

you for worshiping God. And I want you to know

that she was not of the Christian faith right she

married into her mostly the background in Australia, and so

she couldn't really go to church because her husband doesn't

allow to go to church. She told her husband, I'm

just going to go to the market. But she ended

up finding a church near the market and then she

stepped in. She encountered and she says, it reminded me

of when I used to worship God. She was a Christian,

but she became again. She married and she was no

longer practicing and at that moment, she says, it reminded

me again of like what that joy I had with Jesus.

And I said, Amanda, you have no idea what Samy

did to us. Sammy her son changed the way we

worshiped because we thought we were worshiping God, but we

were worshiping a structure. We're worshiping a program aflow and

God was saying I had to share with our church.

I said, like, you know what he taught us that

regardless of your suit, your tie and stuff, why am

I here is to worship God?

Why am I standing here so worship him?

And he taught me that. I said, thank you. And

it was sad because her husband found out. She started

going to church and we noticed we were like in

the chat, We're like ah, And she says, can you

still pray with me that my whole family would come

to know Jesus. And that's what missions is about. Missions

is about regardless of of your skin color or anything.

You know what, God loves everyone, and if God is

bringing you to this church, then you have to think,

like it's not about just meeting here on Sunday. What's

happening on the outside. Lord can you lead me towards

being that little difference? What are some small things? What

are some small things? It's not about being great, but

having that servant heart to go like, Lord, I'm just

your vessel.

Lord.

If it's shaking a hand, if it's smiling at someone, Lord,

how can I be a blessing? As we draw to

a close and the worship team comes up, I'm here

to remind you that the Bible is filled with many

imperfect people. I have a slide that is here that

says Noah. Noah lived among giants and he outlived them.

Y'all know Noah in the Bible. Abraham and Sarah, they

were senior citizens and they had their first baby. Naymon

had soft baby skin after dipping seven times in the

dirtiest river of Jordan. Moses was like a hidden mickey.

Was found three months and he became the prince of Egypt.

Rayhab was a prostitute and she kept She just did

the simple thing. She just hit some people hit. She

just did what she could. Joseph became a slave before

he became prime Minister.

Small things. Jesus was born.

In a feeding trough. It's not even in a manger.

It's where you think about. It's where the animals actually

go in take their feet from. It's a feeding trough.

It's not even in a bed of hay. Kadian defeated

the Median Nite Army with three hundred people. David was

the youngest son who was not even recognized at that time,

and Ruth was a widower who melt who married Ruth.

Some of us you're thinking, like so many things, I

want to do great things God, and God challenging you

with the small.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as church Org. We

are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good, weak, a

hit for you. God bless