You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘church’ category.
"refuse to live without a burning heart"
you are future revolutionaries preparing for a reality that does not yet exist
grace teaches us to say NO to ungodliness – titus 2
you cant build the new on criticising the old
honour calls to the deep things, the hidden significance in someones life
5 FOUNDATIONAL BELIEFS
1. the first commandment needs to be in first place
you SHALL love Him because you SEE Him and respond to Him, He is better than you can imagine
not you SHALL love Him out of obligation, order, duty
2. the surpassing greatness of this man
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ Philippians 3:7-8
the best strategy for dealing with sin is to fix your eyes upon Jesus.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
willpower is not enough
behaviour is driven by values. to change your behaviour change your values – you have to value something/SOMEONE more
the key to dealing with sin is to encounter JESUS
3. revival
massive missionary mobilization
4. Jesus is coming back
while we wait for the blessed hope— the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ Titus 2:13
our supreme, blessed, biggest hope is the return of Christ
5. house of prayer
be a people that pray
have a life of prayer
church notes from The River, guest speaker Kristen Williams Sunday 1st April ten am
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 2 Timothy 1:6
the gift that is IN YOU
IN YOU ALREADY
DEPOSITED IN YOU
ALREADY THERE
fan it into flame
STIR IT UP
ACTIVATE IT
REKINDLE IT
WORK IT
USE IT
DO SOMETHING!
you have a gift/s from God within you BUT you must activate it and use it for it to be effective and useful
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. Genesis 5:21-24
our pastor, peter morton, preached an excellent message this morning about walking with God, from the genesis text above. these are my notes taken during the message.
he begun with a surfing illustration, sharing with us how you have to suck at something before you can be good at it, how you have to be patient at being bad so you can learn to be good. like his surfing.
and like walking with God. its a learned practice. and there may be good days and bad days in the experience, but as we practice it we will learn to walk with God.
its interesting to note the pattern in chapter 5.
someone is born. has kids. lives some more. then dies.
enoch breaks the pattern.
he is born. has kids. lives some more.
but the difference is that enoch walked with God and then was no more. he didnt die.
God can break the cycle in your family line.
enoch is the first man recorded in the bible to walk with God (apart from adam and eve walking in the garden)
in genesis 4:26 it says that men began to call on the name of the Lord.
how often do we call on God when we need Him? in an emergency? during an exam? in traffic? in a crisis? He is our 111 God.
but enoch walked with God every day – not just in emergency moments, not just visiting God.
enoch had no bible, no law, no mentors to model how to do it, no dvds, no podcasts, no worship music on cd… BUT he walked with God! (challenging to us who have everything at our fingertips!)
how do we walk with God?
1/ practice the presence of God
2/ pursue His priorities
3/ pour out for His people
1. practice the presence of God
be God conscious, throughout the day turn your heart and mind towards God. think about Him as often as possible.
2. pursue His priorities
the interesting thing is that often His priorities are different to ours. eg we would choose bitterness and slander over His ways – forgiveness and love
the plans for our lives look like they bring life but they bring death, but the plans God has may look like death but bring life.
matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
3. pour out for His people
enoch continued to be a father as he walked with God. he had more sons and daughters.
we dont hide away to walk with God but we live our lives in our real world.
how do you walk with God in the places you walk the most aka work, home, school???
just got totally text bombed by everyone @ FIVE. wondered why my phone was going ballistic. totally made me cry happy tears – missing being @ FIVE tonight cos of family situation and chicken pox. so appreciate the love!
FIVE is our young adults service which i have been priv’d to be a part of and preach at and help organise for the past 3 years. tonight is our last night for the year and is not only a go after God encounter night but a night to celebrate the things that God has done for us, in us, through us and to us. its been so amazing see the great work of God in these awesome young peoples lives. This is what life is about!
last week something caught my eye…
it was a competition for small group awesomeness.
“My small group awesomeness contest” at Life & Theology by Ben Reed, who is an awesome small groups guy with an awesome totally useful blog and who i also follow on twitter. love his stuff. love the comp.
esp when i saw the prize!
“Let me tell you about a new site, Only144.com. It’s like Groupon, but for churches. They’re a brand new company, trying to get word out about what they do. They’ll be offering phenomenal deals for churches on various resources. This has the potential to really help local churches out in a huge way.In fact, they’ll be offering some small group curriculum that has the chance to shape your church culture in a huge way.
And in order to help get the word out about their new site, they’re willing to give away $600 worth of curriculum here through my blog!
If you win, you’ll get:
- Philippians small group study, by Matt Chandler
- Love Life small group study, by Mark Driscoll
- Song of Solomon small group study, by Tommy Nelson
ooooh matt chandler… oooh philippians… ooh mark driscoll…. ooohhhhhh.
i oohed a lot.
so i entered.
because we have the best housegroup in the world.
seriously.
thats what we call ourselves.
its in our dna and ethos. we love our group. our group loves our group.
and i’ve been looking for some resources. something new and fresh. something like the above.
so i entered.
and i won!
got a message from @benreed this morning before dashing out to our awesome mums group that WE HAD WON!
YAYZERS!
i was so excited i could have imploded, exploded and peed all at the same time.
i feel really blest and feel blest on behalf of our group! i reckon it was just a God moment type thing… that He has done something cool. and yay for Ben for being the catalyst!
so now… we’re officially the most awesome housegroup in the world. we won a comp to prove it. stoked!
this morning in worship as we were singing LET IT RAIN by Michael w Smith and Jesus Culture… such a “for such a time as this” song in our church – i was so moved to be calling out and praying for God to move and pour out His Spirit that this “saying” or “cry” resonated in my heart… only by Your Spirit…
only by Your Spirit can revival happen
can the lost be found
can the sick be healed
the captives set free
only by Your Spirit
can blind eyes be opened
physically and spiritually
can lives be changed
fires lit
people restored
only by Your Spirit can we see what we dream of, can we built Your church and see Your Kingdom come
only by Your Spirit can a nation change, can i change
Come Holy Spirit
come Holy Spirit
come Holy Spirit
let it rain on me
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation— but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs— heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:12-17
we had an awesome morning at church this morning – fantastic worship – welcoming new members to our church – awesome testimonies of God healing people – tears – rejoicing – hugs – and a brilliant message from our pastor Peter Morton on being Led by The Spirit and Hearing From God. these are from my notes from his preach.
Romans 8:12-17 has 4 simple evidences that you’re a child of God
1. led by the Spirit
2. cry Abba – you begin to relate to God as Father – relationship, connection
3. the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit – assurance v16
4. we share with Christ in His sufferings
light always overcomes the darkness. turn a light switch on and the room is filled with light. but darkness will “fight” the light in our lives – light exposes the darkness so the darkness doesn’t want the light turned on and to shine – so we have contention/suffering
Be Led By God: our lives have reins – like horse reins. to be truly led by someone we have to take the reins of our life and hand them over to someone else.
Peter shared a life illustration about the time his step dad took him flying in a tiny plane. as they came down to land he was very aware that his life, and the lives of his kids, were in his step dads hands as he manoeuvred the plane ready to land. he felt helpless and didnt know himself how to fly a plane. but then remembered who was flying the plane. his step dad. a 747 pilot. with many many many years experience.
in the same way we can trust God with our life. He is the Creator of the Universe, God Almighty, Father…
an evidence of being a child of God is that we begin to trust God with our life and be led by Him.
Jesus was baptised and then filled with the Holy Spirit and then led by the Holy Spirit.
if you want to be led by the Spirit of God you’ve got to be filled with the Spirit of God.
most people don’t have a problem submitting to authority until they tell you something you dont want to hear. incl God as the authority!
most of the time God will lead you INWARDLY before He leads you outwardly.
inward = clean inside, attitudes, character
He will prepare us on the inside so He can use us outwardly and God is committed to us changing so we can be used by Him.
hear and obey! you may KNOW what the will of God is but we have to DO IT!
there is no better path than the path that leads to heaven ~ Steven Curtis Chapman
Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. Matthew 16:24-27
note the word ANYONE: anyone, there is no entry criteria, no restriction – anyone can come… but there is a cost
“i cannot truly say i follow Christ until i say i deny myself” Peter Morton
how do we get more of Him? less of us. self denial. yes there is a cost to follow Jesus, but the reward and return is glorious
how do i lay my life down?
1/ deny my will for His will
deny what i want to do and do what He wants me to do
BE THAT PERSON GOD WANTS YOU TO BE
“it will cost me more to miss the will of God than to do it.” Gerhard de Toit
and remember: GOD IS GOOD
2/ i must deny my emotions for His emotions
i lose my right to feel a particular way if those feelings are contradictory to God’s emotions
to counter our emotions with His emotions – to exchange them – we bring our emotions in line with the Word of God
we put the Word between our emotions and the decision and reaction process
i choose to respond as Jesus would respond
3/ deny my opinions for His opinions
4/ i must deny my dreams for His dreams
i lay down what i want for my life and choose to live for what He wants
notes from an excellent and provoking and challenging message our pastor, Peter Morton preached @ The River yesterday morning on laying our lives down from Matthew 16:24-27
The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 peter 4:7-11
we are all gifted. God has wired us with gifts and “things we can use” and “things we can do”. personality. strengths. gifts.
the motivational gifts in romans 12 fall into 2 categories: speaking and serving – which when you mash it with 1 peter 4:11 is AWESOME
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Romans 12:6-8
Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. 1 Peter 4:11 NLT
prophesy, teach, encourage as though God was speaking through you.
serve, give, lead, show mercy with all the strength and energy God supplies.
ministry is: being active in the gift God has given you
often we get a revelation on the mountaintop but that gift is to be used in the valley and the desert. (oooooh that is good!)
we get the revelation at a conference or at a camp or in an awesome service… but we use it in the everyday and in the hardplaces where its not all pumping and glorious… we have to press in and remember that we’re called and empowered and gifted and the WHY we are. to bring streams of living waters to the desert. to bring life where there is no life. to bring light to the darkness.
we have a choice: we can get critical or get pumping
we can get negative and grumpy or we can get active and use the gifts God has given us
eg: you have the gift of encouragement. God surrounds you with people that need encouraging (aka broken hurt discouraged grumpy negative people)
eg: you have the gift of leadership so God puts people in your life who need guidance and direction because their lives are a mess
3 things we face when we start activating our gifts
1. unappreciated
2. misunderstood
3. discouragement
1. unappreciated: we start off using our gifts and people are like “yay” and encouraging us, but then we become “part of the furniture” and people don’t encourage us or give us praise for what we do
There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. Ecc 9:14-15 awwww someone needs to give that man a hug and a gold star
find your security in Jesus. serve Jesus for Jesus’ sake.
if you don’t live by the praise of men you wont die by the criticism of men. Bill Johnson
don’t do it for the audience but do it for the glory of One.
2. misunderstood: be prepared to be misunderstood. dont be weird and bitter, work on your communication and keep a heart right with God
3. discouragement: success is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm – winston churchill
“failure is not the end of the world” peter morton
david strengthened himself in the Lord – at ziglag
the things that are lies can seem like realities when we are in the cloud of discouragement. remember that God wants to bring LIFE through you and your gifts and the devil wants to kill steal and destroy.
great practical challenging inspiring message by Peter Morton @ the River this morning on activating our gifts and living in the end times…
this morning at mainly music we sung:
if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands
if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands
if you’re happy and you know then you’re face will surely show it
if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands
it made me smile (yes, i choose the songs and still find a moment of aha ness in them) as i recalled what our pastor shared about yesterday at church
how what is on the inside shows on the outside.
what is going on in our heart is reflected on our faces.
moses encountered the glory of God and it was reflected on his face. he shone.
jesus was transfigured on the mount. and his appearance was changed.
we are called to reflect the glory of God.
we are called to be witnesses and ambassadors for God.
when we have clean happy hearts it shows on our face.
likewise malice, bitterness, anger, envy, discouragement etc can also show on our faces.
lets be people with clean insides and lets let our face know it.
sounds simple right.
lets let our faces know that jesus is Lord and saviour and that He died to redeem us because He loves us greatly!
thats something to SMILE about!
Recent Comments