I’m going to read from another passage of scripture today. So, the scripture I’m preaching from is Psalm 116 verses 12-14. Psalm 116 verses 12-14 says this: “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people.”
My message today is God’s will for everyone. Let’s pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I just ask and pray Lord that you would give us clarity, Lord, on your will for our lives. I thank you and praise you for that Lord. In Jesus name Amen.
Psalm 116 is a really cool Psalm. Did you know that it was the first passage of scripture that was preached from on the shores of this nation? February 3 1788, it was actually preached by a pastor by the name, a clergyman by the name of Richard Johnson. He says that he preached it under some trees and he preached from this passage of scripture. What can I render to the Lord for all his benefits that he has for me? I think it was a very prophetic moment and a prophetic statement in the life of our nation. They probably didn’t know at the time but we’re an incredibly blessed nation. We’re a nation where we actually are free to worship our God. Sometimes we think we’re heavily persecuted.
All you gotta do is go to some places of the world and realise that we are incredibly blessed nation. Being a Christian has a whole lot of benefits. What can I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? Well, Psalm 103 actually tells us, praise the Lord, oh my soul, forget not all his benefits. There’s benefits to being a Christian. You’re better off by being a Christian. When I was younger, I thought that somehow being a Christian meant that you miss out on some of the good stuff of life. How silly I was. There’s benefits to being a Christian. Now, he forgives all your sins. heals all your diseases, redeems your life from destruction, satisfies your desires with good things, renews your youth like the eagles. As some of you need to turn to the person next to you and say, that’s for me. When you, there’s benefits to being a Christian. I mean, what could we do for God after all that he has done for us? How could I possibly repay him? What would he expect of me after everything he’s done for me?
Well, I’m glad you asked because Psalm 116 tells us, what can I render to the Lord for all his benefits that he has for me? Psalm 116 is an unusual Psalm because no one know who wrote it. There’s a number of Psalms where actually we know who wrote it. There’s a number of Psalms which say a Psalm of David. Uh some commentators think David wrote this but it actually doesn’t say it. So we don’t actually know who wrote it. I think if it was written by an individual we could actually there’s a bit of a get out clause for us. It was written by an individual then we could say okay this is what he expects from you. If David wrote this and we say okay this is what God expected from David.
But I love the fact Psalm 116 is anonymous. You know what it means? It means that God expects from all of us some of these things that he’s actually saying. For every single one of us, God has a will for your life. You’re created for a purpose. Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:10 that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works that he prepared in advance for us to do. You are created for a reason. You’re created to do what God has called you to do. God has a specific plan and purpose for your life but who knows? There is a specific will of God for our lives but there’s also a general will of God for every single one of us. That there are some things he expects from all of us. I mean, even think about your everyday life. You have a unique calling. You have unique things that you have to do but there’s some things every single one of us need to do that we’re not absolved from. Everyone of us needs to breathe. We stop breathing, it’s over. Every one of us needs to eat. Every one of us needs to brush our teeth. The person next to him so he’s talking about you today. Every one of us needs to bathe. Now, I know some people think they don’t have to. I met a woman you know and and perfume and aftershave, that’s a good thing. I met a woman who forbade her husband from using soap or having aftershave. Cause she wanted her man to smell like a real man. Well, can I tell you the rest of us disagree, okay? Doesn’t matter if it’s brute thirty-three, doesn’t matter if it’s Blue Stratos, doesn’t matter if it’s Europe, doesn’t matter if it’s John Paul Gautier. Every single one of us needs a little bit like that. Some of us it takes a little bit longer to get the revelation. I didn’t use soap properly for the first 25 years of my life. I used to use soap to wash my face but that was about it. I would hop in the shower and just let the water cleanse me.
You know and didn’t want any of those other things and I thought I was totally fine. Until I got a girlfriend. Uh her name was Trish. And the first thing she did was she bought me some shower gel. Never used shower gel before in my life. And a loofah. And I said what is this? What, how do you use this? And she said well you know you just gotta put it on and use it and so you know it’s so embarrassing. We’re at Bible College with communal showers. So, from now on, my toiletry bag went from just a couple of things to all this stuff and used to have to take and I was carrying the loofah with me. You know, and that sort of thing. But who knows? She told me something that no one else had the courage to. You stink. You need every one of us. In the same way, we all have individual callings but there are some things expected of all of us and that’s what this passage of scripture is talking about.
What can I render to the Lord? What can every single one of us render to the Lord for what he’s done for us? How could I possibly give to the God who has everything? Well, it actually tells us in this passage of scripture and that’s what I want to talk to you about today. Four things that God has called all of us to do. None of us are absolved from this. It’s not like, oh that’s for you, not for me. No, no, no. Four things that God has called all of us to do. It’s talking about the general of God. The first thing is this, what shall I render to the lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take up the cup of salvation. First thing is to carry salvation. Carry salvation. I will take up the cup of salvation. We just did communion before and Jesus talks about this just before he goes to the cross. So, take this cup. This is my blood shed for you for the remission of sins. So, the cup of salvation needs to be taken up. The cup of salvation is available for all. But the way that we access it is we have to take it up. Ah there’s a theology. I don’t even want to call it a theology. It’s really more of a heresy. Which basically it talks about, it’s called universalism. That Christ died for all and all are automatically children of God and saved. That’s actually not true. Christ did die for all. But the way that we access that into our lives is to take up the cup of salvation. Every single one of us are a receiver.
John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him, the only criteria. Whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God loved the whole world available to all but we have to believe in him in order to take that salvation. The thing about that salvation is we have to receive it. If we don’t receive it, we actually don’t get it.
Number of years ago, when we were in Mackay, our church was doing carols in the local shopping centre and so what we were doing we were giving people free chocolate, okay? Now, it wasn’t the cheap, no-name chocolate from like Silly Sollies or something like that. This was like lindt chocolate. You know, I love lindt chocolate. It’s my favourite. Christmas time this year if you’re thinking. Lindt chocolate is a lovely chocolate. It’s amazing and we were giving it to people for free. You didn’t have to give us your details. You didn’t have to tell us what you were doing. We just gave it for free and the amount of people that we gave it to were offered it to that wouldn’t receive it. The amount of people that we gave it to and they left it on a seat and walked off. and we said, hey, we paid the price. It’s free. There’s nothing. You just have to take this cup and they wouldn’t receive it. That’s the number one thing. Notice this, this is the first thing he requires.
The number one thing he wants is for every single one of us to take up that cup of salvation. Maybe you’re in this place right now and you’ve never received Christ into your life. Can I tell you? It’s the number one thing he wants you to do. It’s the first priority. Notice this is the first thing. It’s a first priority for his body. It’s the first priority for his church. As a leader, one of the things I always have to navigate is that so often, secondary priorities come in. Secondary things that are important but not as important. People try to put themselves at the front of the queue. Let me tell you from this scripture and all through the Bible, the number one thing we’re supposed to do is have that cup of salvation. The number one thing we’re supposed to do is to see people come to know Christ. The number one thing that we need as a church is to stay on mission.
Yes, there are lots of other things that we’re supposed to do. There’s lots of other things that we should get involved with but the number one thing we’re supposed to do and it’s the number one priority here. Is take up that cup of salvation. God wants to use us to see other people come to know him. God wants to use us to see people come and join his family. It’s the number one priority. So, if you’re sitting here and you’re saying, listen, I didn’t know I was good enough. I don’t know what I can do. I believe in the gospel. God has this for me. What could I do for him? Number one, is take that cup of salvation and accept what he has done for you. Amen. Through Jesus Christ. Thank you for that single clap. The second thing is this, He says, what shall I render to the lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. It’s talking about prayer and praise. Call upon the name of the Lord. What can I do for all that God’s done for me? We’ll praise him.
So, the Bible says Psalm 150, verse 6. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. You know what that means? If we’ve got breath, we’re supposed to praise God. Why don’t you put your hand in front of you. Breathe on it. Feel that warm sticky thing you just felt on your hand. That’s your breath. If we’ve got breath, we’re supposed to praise God. Love the story about when Christ was returning to Jerusalem. Just later on, he actually went to the cross. But as he enters into Jerusalem riding on a colt, they were lining the streets and praising and worshipping him. And people were throwing their jackets on the ground and they were putting their palm fronds on the ground so he could walk so his colt, his donkey can walk across it. Ah, and they were worshipping him. They’re saying, Hosanna, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And at the time the Pharisees weren’t happy about it. The Pharisees turned around and they were saying to Jesus, hey Jesus, can you actually stop that? Can you tell them not to worship you and praise you anymore? And he just said to them, listen, if they don’t praise me, even the rocks will cry out. Yeah. It’s not a rock’s job to praise him. Whose job is it to praise him? It’s our job. It says, let everything that is breath, praise the Lord. Doesn’t say let everybody with an extroverted personality. Praise God. It doesn’t say praise God if it’s your favourite song. It says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. That’s kind of our job. I don’t want to rock doing my job. What can I do for him?
Well, praise him is one of those things. That’s why as a church, I’ve seen some churches try and do church services and not do praise and worship and it’s like, you know, because sometimes new people don’t like it. We’re not praising for them. We’re actually praising for the Lord. Who else is going to praise him in our community? Who else has got? If we don’t do it, who is? Somebody’s gotta do it and it’s actually our job Well, I have a terrible voice. We know you do. But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t say let everybody with a recording contract. Praise the Lord.
Oh a few weeks ago I was preaching in a town called Dalby. And I never preached at Dalby before. I knew I’d arrived because you know I’d never preached there before and you know the pastor there’s a great friend of mine. He’s actually a great man of God. And he’s an absolute character. And one of the things about this pastor, he just does not care what anyone thinks about anything. He’s one of those people. And so he was praising and worshipping God. Now he would acknowledge his voice is horrible. Right? And so on the front row and his voice was so out of tune, out of time, and he was yelling as loud as he could. You know, and honestly, I was there with Trish and my youngest son, my 12 year old and if it was thought it was so funny and if I just looked at me and he’s laughing and I’m standing next to the pastor and I’m about to burst out laughing and I’m looking at if I and we’re just like, this is so hilarious. This guy cannot and I just thought a lot of us should learn from him. If you got a bad voice, don’t worry. You won’t be on the worship team. That’s okay but I’m here to let you know that for every single one of us, doesn’t matter if you have a nice voice, it doesn’t matter your age, it doesn’t matter your station of life.
The thing he expects from everyone. It doesn’t matter if that’s not your personality. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never sung before. If you’ve got what can I do for God? After everything he’s done for me. Just praise his name. The third thing is this, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I’ll take up the cup of salvation, call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows. Third thing is prioritise generosity. Interesting, isn’t it? And makes it in there. He’s kind of saying one of the signs of being a believer is being generous. It’s also being generous to his work and it’s also about being generous to his house. It’s not like an optional extra. It’s not like, oh no, that’s not my spiritual gift. You know, you’ve got the spiritual gift of generosity. That’s not my spiritual gift. No, it’s not a it’s not a spiritual gift. It’s part of the Christian lifestyle. It’s actually a sign that we’re Christians. We’re showing even the spiritual realm. What we’re no longer dictated to. We don’t serve money. We serve the lord and so we tell money where to go. And so we don’t forever listen to what our money actually tells us and we’re generous. And one of the things we do is we’re generous to the house of the Lord. That’s part of one of the aspects of the Christian life.
I love the story about Zechariah. I’ve told you this reference, sorry not Zachariah, Zacchaeus. And I’ve mentioned this story many many times because I feel like as a culture of our church you know how Jesus interacted with Zacchaeus was so so important. So Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He’s a very short man and very unpopular because he was a tax collector. Rip many people off. And he’d heard Jesus was coming to town. So what he did was he climbed a tree to get a better view. As Jesus is walking past with the crowd surrounding him he turned and saw Zacchaeus, knew his name, and he said, Zacchaeus, I’m coming to your house today. Gonna spend some time with you. And so he went to Zacchaeus’s house. So, which was interesting. Zacchaeus didn’t have to prove that he lived a holy life. Zacchaeus didn’t have to prove that he was perfect. Jesus accepted him and embraced him before that happened. That’s what the culture I want. And sorry, the culture we have as a church, that you can come in, you don’t have to be perfect. We can accept and then God will work on you and with us on the journey. And then what happens was that Zacchaeus was so touched by what Jesus did. That he actually said at the so he said at that luncheon he said I’m going to give away half of what I have to the poor. And I’m going to pay back everyone I’ve ripped off fourfold for what I’ve ripped them off. And you know what Jesus said? He said salvation has come to this house today. No altar call.
No come forward and I’ll pray for you. He says, I know you’re saved. How does he know he’s saved? Because of his generosity. Cause one of the first things he was willing to do was to be generous. Generosity is one of the lifestyles. It’s part of the patterns of God. Even look in Genesis where God created the Earth. The Bible says that God had created the Garden of Eden was watered with four rivers that flowed from it. Not flowed to it. We are watered by what we allow flowing from us. Amen. It’s all through. How many times have we seen it that we’ve sometimes been in financial lack and then we’ve stepped out in faith and we’ve been generous and all of a sudden, provision is released. Have you noticed that? It’s one of the keys to actually live in the Christian life.
I love the story about when Jesus is in the temple and the Bible says that Jesus in the temple and people are coming and bringing their offerings and they’re putting it at the altar and Jesus was standing there looking at it. I thought Jesus didn’t care. He’s standing there and they’re coming in and he’s looking at what they’re giving. Could you imagine if we did that at church? That we Kate, okay, come up to the Hello Hub. Now, we’re going to stand here and watch what you do. And Jesus was standing there watching and then people are giving out of their abundance and a woman who only had a couple of coins, very poor. She came in and she put that in the offering box. And then Jesus was so excited. He called his disciples over. And he said boys this is amazing. Everyone else gave out of their abundance. This woman gave all that she had. And he was so blessed by it. So Jesus knew she gave all that she had. And he didn’t give it back. I would have thought Jesus would say, hey, listen here, don’t worry. I’ve got lots of money. We’ll just give you this back because you need it more than they need it. He doesn’t do that. He lets her go. So, what that tells me about Jesus is, number one, couple of options. Number one, knowing that it was all that she had. He wanted her to die. or option two he knew that even though she gave all, God will still take care of her.
How many of us here have experienced that? When we have been generous towards something and thought, mate, how am I going to get through? Well, clearly you have because you’re still here. That’s the God that we serve, amen. There’s only a couple of things he requires of us. One of them is to take up the cup of salvation. Another one is to praise his name. Another one is prioritise generosity and the fourth one is this, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I’ll take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the lord. Now, in the presence of all his people. Doesn’t say from my bedroom as I’m watching online. He says, now, in the presence of all my people. What does he want us to do? He actually wants us to participate in corporate worship. To actually come together as a church. The word church is not singular. You know how we say things, I’m the church, I’m not the church. As an individual, I’m not the church. We are the church. Amen. We are only a church because it’s corporate. Yeah. We are only a church because we gather together. And that’s why it’s so important for us to prioritise the gathering together like what we do. We offer different service times and that sort of thing. So make it easier for people.
But make no mistake that 90 minutes that we spend together every week sets up the other 9, hundred and 90. Do the math. It sets up the other nine thousand nine hundred and 90. Sometimes people you know think church consults are so inconvenient. I got all these other things. 90 minutes. To spend time in your father’s house. When you understand the heart of God and the relationship he has for us. When we come, every parent spends time with their children. Every parent. I find ways to spend time with my sons. The older they get, the harder it is. I’ve learnt with my older son who’s eighteen. The thing we do is we go to the beach. He’s my beach buddy. It’s the one thing he’ll just drop everything. I yell come with you Dad. And we do that. Now he adds no value but he’s my son. I like hanging out with him. My second son, gotta bribe him a bit more. We go to Flying Chicken. Uh Flying Chicken is just like this place at Varsity where you go and get rice bowls and that. That’s what he likes. So if I want to spend time with him, that’s what I do. He adds no value. Other than the fact that I love hanging out with him. Uh my youngest son, because he’s younger, he’ll just, he’s like mini me. So, wherever I go, he comes. And he just hangs out and that sort of thing. Why? Cause I love having him with me. My middle son used to spend time travelling with me on the road at various times.
My middle son was hilarious because we used to go and travel and he always really wanted to do my resource desk. Now, resource desk is, you know, I used to have CDs for sale and that sort of thing and he would operate the desk when he was ten. It never balanced. Um I remember one time I was preaching at this tiny church. I still don’t know the name of the town. I don’t know where it is. It’s in Far North Queensland. I just hopped in a car and ended up somewhere. I don’t know where it was. It was a tiny little church of about 15 people. They had wooden floors. It was in this wooden building. I went in there and preached and afterwards they received an offering. The offering was all coins. And so they just had this big jar of coins and that sort of thing. And then unbeknownst to me someone decided it would be wise to give that jar of coins to my 10 year old. It’s who was manning the resource desk. So, I’m sitting there talking to people. Next thing I hear on these wooden floors, coins going everywhere, everywhere. He wasn’t very helpful. was my son. I love hanging out with him. If we can view churches coming to our father’s house, think about it parents. What do you love the best? You love it when your kids come to your place. They don’t add a lot but we just, there’s nothing better than it.
Earlier this year, I wasn’t here on Father’s Day. My my parents had a significant wedding anniversary at the start of this year and and so, what I wanted to do was to throw a celebration for them and then I was going to them by coming to it with all the family and that sort of thing and and and my sister lives in Melbourne near them and so she got back to me She said, Ben, Dad is adamant because he knew they were going to put together something. He does not want any kind of celebration. He is saying there’s no way that he wants it and I said, okay, listen, what we’ll do is this, we will still come down and spend the weekend there but we’ll surprise them somewhere. We’ll surprise them at lunch and so this was on you know Father’s Day weekend and so we flew down. Trish and I and the three boys, we flew down on a Friday and we were going to meet my sister, her family, and my parents without my parents knowing at a restaurant. They get to the restaurant. Uh there’s like, there’s like twelve seats there but five of them vacant and my mom goes, why have they put us at this table? You know, and my sister goes, oh, I don’t know that sort of thing and we turned up and when we turned up, my parents looked at me and parents aren’t the most emotional people in the world. My mum looked at us. Boom. Burst out crying as we walked in. She walked up, hugged every single one of us and would not let go. That my mum’s not like that. You know what I mean? She did that. My dad couldn’t talk. And he because he was in such shock.
He was like couldn’t talk and that sort of thing and he’s got a bad heart. So he told me later he said don’t you ever do that again. He said you could have killed me by the surprise. And you know what they said to me later at the end of the weekend? They said that was perfect. We did not want a thing with everyone coming to. But we were just happy for you. That’s how our heavenly father, he knows if you’re not here. We come into our father’s house each week. He doesn’t expect a lot. Can we somehow shoehorn him into our busy lives and schedules? Could you imagine I was saying to my dad, sorry dad, I can’t. I’m just, you know, I’m going off to this sporting event. I can’t. I got too much on. There’s nothing better. It shows his heart. What does he want from us? Not a lot. As parents, what do we want from our kids? Not a lot. All we really want is them. And what can we do, what could I possibly do for the God who has everything? What could I possibly do for the God who’s done so much for me? Well, it actually tells us pretty clearly. Says, I’ll take up the cup of salvation. I’ll call upon the name of the Lord. I’ll pay my vows to the Lord. Now in the presents of all his people. Amen. You know, there’s something in common with all of those things, actions that he asked of us to do. They all attract his presence. salvation. Jesus says, come to me and drink. Allow me to come and live on the inside of you. That’s what salvation is. It attracts his presence. Not only that, praise attracts his presence.
The Bible says, God inhabits the praises of his people as we praise him. His presence comes. You may not realise this but generosity attracts his presence. All through scripture when they laid out offerings, so often, the fire of God will fall upon the offering. Sacrifice and attracts his presence and corporate gatherings attract his presence as well. Why is that? Cause Jesus says where two or three are gathered in my name I am there. So what does that tell me? What can I do? For the God who has everything. He just wants us to be close. And all these things help us to experience his presence. Amen. And so what we’re going to do today is this. We’re just going to worship God a bit. As we praise him his presence comes.
Can I flip things around for a sec? Can we do goodness of God? We’re going to sing goodness to God. As we do his presence comes. The Bible says we put on the garment of praise in exchange for the spirit of heaviness. There’s not a lot he requires from us. But just these things will keep us continually feeling close to him. And that’s all he really wants. Could you stand your feet right now? Lift your hands to heaven. Father, in Jesus name, we thank you for your presence in this place. We know you’ve done so much for us. You’ve healed us, filled us, saved us, set us free. We thank you for all that you’ve done. And all we can do in response, Lord. It’s just praise and worship your name. I thank you father that there’s benefits for even praising. And I pray Lord, as we worship you for the next moment, your presence will come and fill us with life joins. Let’s worship him in this place guys. All your mercy never fails me and all my days I’ve been held in your hands from the moment that I wake until I lay my head oh I will sing all the goodness oh God let’s lift our hands. Things that are unseen and God we give you back our praise. We give you back our worship. We give you back our generosity, our time lord God and even all of that added up cannot compare to everything you’ve done for us lord God. So, with our mega worship and our mega offering compared in the might and the breadth and the depth of what you do for us lord God. We give it anyway. Yeah. And we thank you for it in Jesus name. In Jesus name and everyone said. Amen. Amen. Let’s give a hand to the Lord this morning. Come on. God. Wasn’t that a good message? Sometimes we need to hear the simple truths. You know, we hear again and again that you need to meet together as a church. You need to be generous. You need to praise. We hear those things but sometimes, it just needs to be drilled in again and again and again.
Actually, we make this so complicated. We need to get back to the basics. Amen. Amen. Amen. You know, there’s one thing we want to do, just a couple of things actually but one major thing we want to do before we wrap up the service. I’m actually going to our senior pastors Ben and Trish to make their way to the stage if you could. This past week, we have been at a state conference and we’ve been experiencing a wonderful time there and actually I’ll invite all of the pastors as well and elders to come up on the stage as I’m saying this as well. Um we had a state conference and if you don’t know what ACC is, it’s the Australian Christian Churches. So, King’s Church, you come along to King’s Church. It’s a great church. We have Logan Village, Pimpama, all of them, Saint George, and we are our own thing, Kings but we are a part of the Australian Christian Churches which is a denomination. So, like you’d hear a church being a baptist church or an Anglican church, all those types of things.
Well, we belong to the Australian Christian churches which is a Pentecostal movement and specifically, we belong to the Queensland and Northern Territory Region and over this past week, our senior pastors, Pastor Ben and Trish, have been inducted, I guess, is the word, as the new state presidents of Queensland and Northern Territory. And I want to tell you this is not some insignificant thing. They actually set a conference this week that I think over 40 years, there’s been only four leaders for Queensland and Northern Territory. Only four leaders. And the cool thing is for Jess and I, we’ve obviously just come to be a part of King’s like next week will be four months Even though we feel like we’ve been with you for 10 years in a good way. We’ve been so blessed by the leadership and direction and vision of our senior pastors Ben and Trish. It’s actually made easy to slide into kings because there’s so many exciting and good things happening here and represented on this stage here are people who are being here from the start when they’ve started they’ve come along the journey and we’re all behind these people and even our Pimpama campus, our Logan Village campus, our St. George, everyone online. We, when we heard that these guys were going to be the state presidents, we’re like, absolutely, absolutely. Because they have such vision and heart for people on their lives and we’ve been blessed as a church and we know that Queensland and Northern Territory are going to be blessed by it. So, we want to pray these guys into their new role. We want to pray and believe that as they step into it, it’s going to be a good thing. Now, they are becoming the state presence but they’re still your senior pastors. They’re not going anywhere. Just in case, there’s any confusion where you’re like, oh, they’re leaving us. No, they’re going to hold those two things and they’re going to do it well. So, we want to support them, cover them in prayer, believe that God is really going to bless them in this next season as they lead not only our church but our movement. Amen. So, I’m going to welcome one of our elders, Bill Layva, is going to lead us in prayer this morning.
Thanks, Pastor Shaun. This has been a journey over, I don’t know, nearly 12 months. So, the elders have been praying about this. It reminded me of a story in Acts 13 when the teachers and prophets were having a worship time and a prayer time and the Holy Spirit said to them, separate me, Barnabas and Saul for a special work that I have called them to and I’ll reiterate these guys are not going anywhere. They are our senior pastors but God has called them to specially work to be the president of ACC Queensland and Northern Territory. So, they’re going to a higher level. Let me just encourage you to pray for them. We should be praying for our senior pastors and pastors anyway but pray for them. This is not such a small thing. This is something that they have been prepared for for their seasons along. The Lord would say he’s prepared you. Both of you for this season. And that even though others might feel the weight, the weight, the burden won’t feel so heavy because I’ve prepared you, Says the Lord and the anointing is upon you. And there’s preparation. You’ve been faithful in little things. You’ve been faithful in much and I’m calling you into this special mission that in this and it’s not a timing of man but a timing of me says the Lord. I have caused this to precipitate this season.
And I will cause you to come into places where there’ll be governments that you will need to sit down with. Even kings. I get the word kings. That you’ll sit with kings and prime ministers. And you will present what you have to present, says the Lord, that there will be no compromise because you have authority in my name, says the Lord, to speak on my behalf and see things shift and I will cause you to to see things shift. You’ll say, Lord, this is impossible but it will shift like the parting of the Red Sea. People would say, it won’t ship but God says, to Moses, strike the sea and it will shift. authority has been placed upon both your shoulders. And this apostleship is not used lightly and not used a lot. But the Lord would say I have placed my apostleship on you. You are apostles. Both of you carry the mantle of apostles. And that you will build my church. And you will build my movement. There’ll be multiplication. There’ll be such multiplication. And you’ll give to the Lord and you’ll cause people to worship and come into the things of God in an extraordinary way but I’m thinking the word extrapolated. It’ll happen quickly, says the Lord. Father, we thank you for pastors Ben and Trish. We thank you for the season that you’ve called them into. We use the church, Lord. Send them out. As Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the church. Lord, to do a mighty special work and Father we thank you for them. We thank you for this time, a significant time, a watershed time, not just for their lives but for this church, for this movement. We thank you for them. We thank you for that you’ve anointed them, equipped them. Father, but we as a church, get behind them.
Pray for them. Lord, think of them. And whenever you put it in our hearts to pray, but Lord, we will lift them up. For the work that you’ve called them to do is one that only they have been called by the laying on of the hands of the eldership of the movement of ACC and the apostles and the prophets that you have established them. We, Lord, as a church, movement, King’s church, release them into the flow and the freedom. To do what you’ve called them to do. We love them. We appreciate them. We thank you for them that they’re our senior shepherds Lord. That they love us and we thank you for the increase that you’re bringing in their lives that we will benefit the Lord as a people, the flow of the anointing, the flow of the river of God. We thank you for that father. We bless them. We bless them in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
