Who is excited for the vision that Pastor Ben has released across our it is an exciting day to be a part of Kings. Let me tell you. And if you’ve just joined us I just wanted to bring a recap of what’s been happening in the life of our church over the last couple of months. You know Pastor Ben released the vision Sunday over 2 weeks. And the first week he spoke about the graced years.
Our five year plan as a church. And I gotta tell you these are exciting times. You know we are very excited that we are launching Kings Runaway Bay this year. Isn’t that good news? In twenty-5, we’re launching our Bible College In 2-six, we’re going to Ipswich with another school location as well. In 27, we’re going to King’s Coolangatta and in twenty twenty-eight, there’s going to be a question mark around our next campus but we are launching another church and school campus in twenty-eight.
It is exciting days in the life of kings. And the second part of Vision Sunday, Pastor Ben released the theme of our church for this year, which is Morin twenty-four. Come on, who is god for exceedingly and abundantly more this year And that’s really where I wanted to set the tone of where we’re wanting to go this morning. Ephesians three twenty. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.
According to his power that is at work within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. Throughout generations forever and ever. Amen. That is a powerful declaration church.
And can I tell you for those that were at our lift conference, can you give me a wave? Who came to lift this year? Such an incredible time. You know, this word was again confirmed to us as a church because if you were there, you would know that Pastor Richard got up on the first night and the title of his message was There Is More and he was preaching from Ephesians 3twenty and he didn’t know that that was the theme of our church this year. God is confirming. God is speaking this over the life of our church this year. Who’s believing God for more.
Amen. He is worthy. You know Pastor Ben and Trish had our lift conference really felt that there’s something significant that happens when our four campuses come together. That we believe that as we come together that God is going to send the rain of his Holy Spirit to refresh us and to empower us. To step into everything that God has for us in this next season.
And I gotta tell you we need his grace. We need the empowerment of the Holy Spir we need rivers of living water to step into everything that he has And if you were there at the conference you would know that Pastor Ben had got up and he actually declared the word that I want to speak from this morning. He was talking about Elijah praying for an abundance of rain. And so I want to kick it off there. The title of my message this morning is let it rain.
In first Kings we’re going to start a little bit before that. Chapter eighteen and in verse thirty it says then Elijah said to all the people come here me. They came to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes, descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come saying, your name shall be Israel. With the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord.
Everyone say name of the Lord. At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed. Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Let it known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me Lord.
So these people will know that you Lord are God. And that you are turning their hearts back again. In verse thirty-eight, it says then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice. The wood, the stones and the soil and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they cried.
They fell prostrate and cried. The Lord he is God. The Lord he is God. And in verse forty-one and Elijah Elijah said to Ahab go eat and drink for there is a sound of a heavy rain. So Ahab went off to eat and drink but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
Go and look toward the sea he told his servant. And he went up and looked. There is nothing there he said. 7 Elijah said go back. The seventh time the servant reported a cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.
So Elijah said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. In verse forty-five, meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds. The wind rose. A heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came on Elijah and tucking his cloak into his belt.
He ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. A very powerful encounters that happen in this story. And I want to start by saying this Elijah rebuilds the altar in the name of the Lord. And the glory of God comes to that place. I want to tell you that when places are rebuilt in the name of the Lord.
His glory and his presence comes. And Pastor Ben has declared over our church that we have been in a rebuild season over the last 7 years. And we are seeing the glory of the Lord fill this place. You know when I consider what God is doing across the life of our church. We have seen the grace and the hand of God every step of the way.
Amen. And when I consider and when I look at the generation that is coming through that the fire of God that he is placing in their hearts. If you haven’t been to that upper room service you’re really missing out because I want to tell you there is a move of the Holy Spirit that is happening right now. And it’s in the hearts of our young people. They are burning for Jesus.
Because nothing in this world satisfies when they have tasted and seen his power and his glory. The glory of the Lord is surely in this place. When I consider what God is doing at our Pimpama campus, they have tripled in size in the last few years. That is incredible. When I think of Saint when I think of Logan Village and Pastor Sue and Garnet, you know, we’ve launched a morning service this year.
And they are just seeing an incredible harvest of souls coming from that community. And when we think of Saint George, a campus who started with seven people are now seeing 50 people their church service. Can we just give God praise? When we rebuild things in the name of the Lord, his glory comes. But what really struck me about this story is that the fire fell and this powerful encounter came. But yet in the very next verse in verse forty-one, here we find Elijah again positioned and hungry and open and ready for more.
He was praying in rain. And so he didn’t settle. Even though God was doing incredible things. Here we find him positioned and calling in the rain. And so the first thing that I believe for more in twenty-four is that we don’t settle.
We don’t settle because God has more territory. He has more breakthrough. He has a fresh mission and anointing for us. As a church this year. And we have seen God do incredible things.
But I gotta tell you there is more that he has. That we gotta start praying in the reign of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We need his grace in this season. And so we don’t settle.
You it’s so easy to find ourselves settling when things are going really well, isn’t it? You know, we’re we’re creatures of comfort. I know that I love being comfortable You know, but what happens is that if we settle and if we stay comfortable is that we actually rob ourselves and we miss out on actually what god wants to do here and now. You know, some of us, we can even stay settled in a moment in time or in a in a time of encounter that maybe happened last month, year, 10 years ago, where maybe it was a very fruitful time in your ministry. You know, maybe you were part of a great move of god and we sort of look back at those days and we go, wow, they were the glory days but what happens when we settle there is that we miss out on the new thing that god wants to do right here and right now and I gotta tell you that this season that we are stepping into, these are the glory days in the life of our church. The most fruitful season.
What we’re going to achieve, what god is going to achieve next five years. These are the glory days now. And so we don’t settle in those places. We don’t settle for comfort because there is more that he has. And in the same way sometimes we can settle for things that aren’t designed for us to settle in.
You know maybe you’re like that servant and you’ve gone back seven times and you’ve looked for that cloud and you can’t see it. And what happens is that we can become really disappointed. And we can become disillusioned. And our hearts are just waiting for that promise and what happens is we can find ourselves settling in that place. But I want to declare the word of Ephesians 320 over you this year.
Because he is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more. And you don’t need to settle for this anymore. You don’t need to settle for that depression. You don’t need to settle for that anxiety. You don’t need to settle for that marriage breakdown.
You don’t need to settle for that financial hardship. Because Ephesians 320 says that he is able to do. Immeasurably more than we can imagine. You know when Elijah positioned himself and called in rain The region where he was placed was actually in a drought at the time. It had been three and a half years since it had rained.
And because he decided that he was going to stay open and hungry to everything that God had. An entire region received their breakthrough. God sent the rain. And I want to encourage you this morning that there is a city and a region church who need the reign of the Holy Spirit. And it requires us as the church to not settle for what we have but to go after everything that God has.
There is a city and a region that needs the reign of the Holy Spirit. You know, there’s this wholly dissatisfaction that I believe comes in the heart of every believer when we look at the state of our society right now. Church, this is no time to settle for the way that our society is right now. This society needs Jesus. You know, we can look at the face of confusion and we can say no in Jesus name.
I am not satisfied with a generation that are coming through who are confused about their sexual identity. I say no. We are not satisfied and we cannot settle as the church. That we need to press in. And you know when God brings these things to our attention He does that because he’s calling for a response from us.
That when he unsettles us that it’s because he’s calling us to a place where we need to lay hold of more. In what he has in our in our life. There’s destiny and purpose that he’s always drawing out of us. You know and maybe he unsettles us because he’s calling us to pray. Maybe he’s us to to fast.
Maybe he’s calling out a new a kingdom business idea Maybe he’s calling us to, you know, serve at the Community Care Arm. But he needs his church to press in and to intercede. Because our society needs Jesus. Amen. This is no place for the church to settle.
He will send the rain. And so we need to position ourselves because the rain’s coming. You know last year, Nathan and I went to a conference and someone there prophesied over us and this is the power of the prophetic word because what happened was that prophecy came and then god started unsettling Nathan and I. You know, god started stirring. He started speaking.
He started, you know, blowing on that gift and that call. And it came to a point where Nathan turned to me at the end of last year and he said, Ash, I just, I just feel like god is calling me to the mission field. I just feel like god is breaking my heart for our nation. And I’m no longer satisfied just staying settled here. But god is calling me out of the boat.
To take a step of faith. And I’m not, I’m no longer going to sit back and stay comfortable. But I’m asking God to send me. Because when we step out and we take those steps of faith and we allow God to to unsettle us and allow the call of God to become active in our life. He will send you to the nations.
He will call you to do something that is beyond the way you naturally think. And so let’s press in. Let’s not despise those times when the spirit is stirring. Let’s pay attention to what God could be saying. What is he calling you to in this year? There’s a call and a response.
And there is breakthrough on the other side of our obedience. Amen. There is more. The second thing is this. Elijah hears that there’s a sound of an abundance of rain.
And in verse forty-three he says go back toward the sea, he told his servant. And he went up and looked. There is nothing there, he said. Seven times, Elijah said, go back. You see, Elijah declared the word before he saw the promise.
And so in this season where we’re stepping into exceedingly and abundantly more, we need a faith declaration in this season. We need to start declaring some things. We need to start looking at Ephesians 320 and saying, what does that mean for my life? Where I can expect that god will bring an exceeding and abundantly more breakthrough. So, we need to start opening our mouth and declaring the promises of god. What has god placed in your heart to declare this year? You know, maybe it’s a prodigal that’s coming home.
I know that my family, we are believing god for some breakthrough in our life personally. We’re believing god for miraculous things. You know, maybe there’s a new home in this inflated market. Maybe it’s a financial breakthrough. Maybe you want to see god restore your marriage or a family situation.
Maybe you’re going after healing Whatever it is, there is power in our faith declaration this year, church and so we need to start speaking and decreeing Ephesians 320 over our life. You know, maybe you’re in this place and you’ve simply just grown weary in the waiting, that you’re waiting on a promise of God and you haven’t seen the fulfillment of that yet. Can I tell you that one of the weapons that God gives us is our praise. God gives us praise as a weapon. It’s a weapon that disarms the enemy.
It positions us for his presence. It releases an atmosphere of faith where the environment becomes pregnant with expectation. It’s the power of the local church. When we gather together and we lift up the name of Jesus, his glory comes into this place. His presence He loves the local church.
He loves when we sing his praise. You know, in Isaiah fifty-four this gives us a prophetic picture of the power of our faith declaration. The word of the lord is to sing to a barren woman and so he identifies her by her condition. She’s walking through something that is hard. And the instruction of the Lord is to sing.
And so in verse four it says sing barren woman. You he never bore a child. Burst into song out for joy you who were never in labour. Because more other children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent.
Stretch stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords. Strengthen your stakes. For you were spread out to the right and to the left.
Your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. This is a picture of the power of our praise. Notice this, the instruction is to sing. It’s not to pray, it’s not to fast. It’s not to take a Sabbath.
All of those are great things but for this specifically, it was to sing. And then in verse two, it says, enlarge the place of your heart. What is God saying to this woman prophetically? He’s saying, make room for me to move. Remove the limitation. Open yourself up to the God of the impossible.
Expand your temptation. This is the power of our praise and our faith declaration church. And so we need to start declaring things over our life this year. Have you noticed when we talk about praise? Have you ever walked into this place? And maybe you’re carrying burdens from the weak. Maybe there’s something challenging that you’re walking through.
And you walk into this place and you just feel like I do not feel like praising God today. Can I tell that we’re not led by our feelings. That praises biblical. It is spiritual. It is spiritual warfare.
And it’s incredible what happens when we start to turn our affection and we turn our attention to Jesus. When we start magnifying him and taking our focus off of our natural circumstance. It’s incredible what shifts in the atmosphere. When you walk into a room of faith where we are declaring the goodness of God in spite of our circumstance. There’s a shift happens in the spirit and all of a sudden because he is the God of the suddenly.
We open ourselves up to the God of the impossible to intervene in our life and in our situation. That is the power of our praise. And in that moment we start to sense even though we’ve walked around that same mountain seven times we start to sense the cloud rising from the sea. And he heals our heart and our praise. You know promises that we’ve been waiting on for a long time can make us heart sick.
But I want to tell you that your praise and your faith declaration is going to be a weapon in this season. And so you need to start declaring again. You know, when a woman, I want to speak about promises for a moment because when a woman is pregnant the gestation of carrying that child is 9 months. But looking at her physically, you wouldn’t know that she was pregnant. She actually doesn’t start showing until about three months.
But that doesn’t mean that the promise of the child isn’t there. Even though we don’t see it, it doesn’t mean that it’s not coming. And so I really felt and Pastor Bill spoke about this in one of our services. Those promises that we’re carrying in the spirit. What has God in your life? What are you carrying? What are you pregnant with that God actually wants to birth in this season? Cuz I believe that there are promises that God has for us.
That we are going to see the breakthrough. That we are going to see the fruitfulness of those promises coming to life. I believe that. There’s a story about this. In Ezekiel thirty-seven He comes to a valley of dry bones.
It says the hand of the Lord was on me. He brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley. Bones that were very dry.
He asked me, son of man, can these bones live? And I said sovereign Lord you alone know. Then he said to me in verse four, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones. I will make breath into you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin.
I will put breath in you and you will come to life and then you will know that I am Lord. We need to start prophesying and over our promises again friends. God has promised you things. You are waiting on something from the Lord. You need to start speaking and prophesying that you’ll see that breakthrough in this season.
This is the power of our prophetic word. What dream is lying dormant? What dry bones do you have in your heart? I believe that there’s some dry bones that need to hear the word of the Lord this morning that you will live in Jesus name. Bring it forth by the power of your spirit. And the final thing is that in this season of exceedingly and abundantly more we need living water. Verse forty-five.
Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds. The wind rose. A heavy rain started falling. And Ahab rose off to Jezreel. In verse forty-six the power of the Lord came on Elijah and tucking up his cloth into his belt he ran ahead all the way to Jezreel.
This encounter that happened was a physical rain that was falling from the sky. It was a physical rain. But I want to speak to you about the reign of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as living water And we’re going to need living water to sustain us and to empower us to step into everything that God has next. It is only by his grace.
It is the grace of the Holy Spirit. That he empowers us to do things that are not in our own strength. The scripture says that it’s not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord. You know, in the next 5 years, we are expanding our kingdom footprint. Previously, what has taken forty-seven, we’re going to do in the next five.
We need the grace of god. And I believe that he is able to do it. That his grace is sufficient for everything that we need in this next season. We need to know how to drink from living water. You know, Jesus has an encounter with a woman at a well.
And she’s gone to this well because she’s looking for something to drink. And she has this interaction with Jesus. And this is what he says to her. Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water which is the natural water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again.
The water that I will give them will become in him a spring of water Welling up to eternal life. This is the living water that Jesus offers. This is the living water that our society, our region, our nation needs. They need the reign of the Holy Spirit. And they need to encounter a very living God.
You know one of the things we’re believing for as a church this year is we’re believing for more souls. We are believing for a harvest of souls. And you know, we are carriers of this living water. And there are streams that God wants to send from this place out in this community. And do you know how he does that? He does that through you and me.
And so we need to be drinking from this river. Because we’re not very effective when we’re only half full Just feel it all over myself How do we know when someone’s full? It starts overflowing. You can tell. You can see it. And so we need to be a church, a people and drink rivers of living water to a place of overflow because if we’re going to be effective for what God is asking us to do, if we’re going to see a harvest of souls, then we need to be full to overflowing in Jesus name.
We need to drink. In Isaiah forty-three he says, behold, I am doing a new thing. Now, it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Do you know Pastor Helen at our Lyft conference? She got up and she’d had a prophetic word for our church and Pastor Bill again confirmed this this morning.
She said this church is like an oasis. It’s an oasis. And when she said that something resonated in me And then Pastor Shawn when he did our team night at Ferrida Creek a couple of weeks ago he talked about the oasis as well and something’s resonating. And I found two things I’m going to invite the team. An oasis is a fertile spot in a desert where water is found.
When you look up the meaning of fertile it is a land that produces an abundant harvest. And so an oasis in full meaning is a land that produces an abundant harvest where water is found. We are an oasis. And it’s our heart as a church that when people come into this place, that they would find living water that they would come and drink, that they would encounter Jesus and his presence, and his glory. That he would bring his reign.
There’s a river that flows in this house I’m going to invite you to stand this morning My prayer is that this has been an encouragement to you this morning. That it has challenged you. That it has motivated you to maybe believe that God is able to do exceedingly, immeasurably more this year. We’re believing as a church that there is breakthrough in your life and in the life of our church. And we need the reign of the Holy Spirit and his grace.
