Welcome our state as the ACC president for 12 years and he’s currently the ACC National Vice President and also the director of ACCI.
So can you please join with me in welcoming Pastor John Hunt to stage. Thank you. Excellent. Well, praise God. Good to be.
Have a seat and great to be with you here this morning and our family at King’s. We’d normally attend Pimama. We live up that way but it’s great to be with you down here in Reedy Creek this morning. Bit more friendly down here I think than up there but anyway, it’s Good to be with you and we’ve been part of the church here now for about six months or so since we moved and left our our previous church where we’d been. I’ve been member of that church for 40 years.
Uh Francine had been a member of that church for nearly 50 years. So, she started there before she was born obviously and and so you know, we we we’re not church hoppers. Uh this is the second church my wife has been at since she was 10 and but it’s good to be with you and great to be part of the King’s family. Uh I don’t know whether you can remember the day. It wasn’t that long ago, I don’t think, anyhow, where maybe you inadvertently or accidentally sneezed in public and some kind soul would say, yeah, God bless you, right? Achoo.
Oh, God bless you. It used to be the way. You know, now, of course, if you sneeze in public, it’s like, you know, get behind me, Satan. You’re now considered a public pariah. Uh then go out if you if you’ve got a cold or somebody would think that you are spreading some disease or something but this whole God bless you thing.
I you know it’s it’s been around a while. People say it. I people say God bless you. Politicians. Not so much in this country.
But maybe another country here that I might say. You know God bless you and God bless our great nation. And and I guess at the end of the day let’s be honest. Who doesn’t want the blessing of God? Right? I mean you want the blessing of God on your health. I’m sure.
If you’re a in this room right now. I could guarantee you want the blessing of God on your children. Um if you’re a business person, you want the blessing of God on your business. I suggest most families want the blessing of God on their economy on on on their finances. You want the blessing of God on your future? You want the blessing of God on every part of your life.
I imagine. Um most of you are here. You you want that grace and favor upon you. This morning, what we’re going to do is we’re going to take a look in in scripture just to see not just where that blessing comes from because we know that blessing comes from God but we want to look at where God is sending that blessing. This is the reason why.
Cuz I’m of the opinion. The best way to pray is not God bless me. Not God bless what I’m doing. Not God bless us us for and no more or whatever. Uh but God, where are you blessing? Cuz that’s where I be.
I want to be where God is blessing. I want to align myself with the blessing of God. So, I get the full benefit of that blessing but not only that, I become the conduit of that blessing so that my kids and my children’s children and those, you know, connected to us are part of that flow of the blessing of God. If that’s something that interests you, it might interest you to know that the first time, the blessing of God was pronounced upon a people was found in Numbers chapter six and verse twenty-two and it was part of the covenant relationship God had with his special people, the nation of Israel, where this he said, the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless Israel. Say this, the Lord bless you.
There it is. That’s saying that gets repeated so many times. The Lord bless you. This is where it comes from. The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. Now, I I love that and and I’ve been around in church nearly all of my life and I’ve heard that that that that pronouncement over over my life, over the church. One thing I wasn’t aware of, however, until more recent times is the Psalmist who picks up that exact phrase, right? Just sort of rips it out of numbers and articulates it word for word in Psalms but he adds something else to it which is incredibly important. The Psalm tells us so that, why? Where is it going? The reason behind why God says, I want to bless you and cause my face to shine upon you. And when it hit me, when I saw it, I thought, wow.
Why don’t, why, why is it taking me all these years to know this? Because I now can position myself in the blessing of God’s flow. And I want to share that with you this morning for a very good reason. Um, Imag if I was to buy my daughter, we have three teenage, well, we’ve had to have three teenage daughters. We had three teenage daughters. Now, they’re still with us but they’re older and they’re all married now with their own kids but imagine I I take one of my teenage daughters and you know, she’s got her uni and she’s got her the youth and she’s rolled in the creative and she’s got her young adults and she’s got her all of her friends and she’s got this busy social life and I decide that I’m having a gut full of running here there and everywhere.
She’s got a license. I forced her to get a license. I forced her to get a license and a manual because I’m a mean and and now I’ve bought her a car, right? Now, now, I bought her a car so that, right? Do you know what the sew that was was? So, that she can get herself to these places, right? Cuz I’ve had a gut full of driving here there and everywhere, every minute of the day. So, I buy her a car, so that, she can make herself to uni, she can take herself to you, she can take herself there, and also take herself to church, she can take herself to wherever she needs to go. Anyhow, Imagine that I do this out of the generosity and and goodness of my heart.
I’ve blessed my daughter. But imagine she takes that car, she parks it, you know, on the side of the driveway there and she thinks, wow, this is beautiful seats. This is a lovely car. I’m going to put some curtains in there, you know. There’s a flat surface so I’ll put a cushion on it because I’m a female and females put cushions on flat surfaces all the time and you know, when I was a kid, my mother used to make me, make my bed in the morning.
Now, when I get up from our seat at home, I gotta make the seat. You put the thing back, the fly ball over, and the seat and oh God. Anyway, anyway, So, they put cushions in there and she makes, you know, she makes a home out of this car that I bought her, right? And she said, I don’t need a key. She throws them in the bin and and she thinks, this is what I’m going to do. When I have guests over, I’m going to entertain them in my own special little space where I can lock the doors and my parents can’t annoy me.
And how many know that that if she did that, that would be the last time I would ever bless that girl with a car, right? Because I didn’t get it for her for that reason. I bought it for her, so that. You understand end. Well, this morning, what I want to do is give you the big so that behind the blessing of God so that you can get into that because here’s the thing, right? You get into that so that I want to suggest you that more blessings going to flow. When you understand why God pours out his blessing, then you get yourself in that place and more blessing than is able to flow.
So, Psalms Psalm sixty-seven is found and I’ll read to you from from verse one. It says, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. I told you, he ripped that straight out of numbers so that. Now, take that off the screen. I don’t want you to look at it.
I don’t want anyone to read it because I want to play with it for just a moment. So, that. If you were writing the Bible, right? What would you say so that? Um if, if, if, if you were to for a moment to examine your own heart and you were to say, God, I want you to bless me. So, that Why? So that I can pay off my house. So that I can get a whole bunch of new shoes.
Cuz how many know Shirley? We can’t have enough shoes, right? So that I can get my teeth straightened, you know, because they need, they’re all a bit yellow and a bit wonky. Lord, I want to be blessed. Why do I want to be blessed? Lord, I want my kiddies blessed. Why do I want my kiddies blessed? So that they’re happy because I just want my children to be happy. What parent doesn’t want their kids to be happy? So that if if you are riding the Bible and if you were articulating to show that, right? Why you want to be blessed? What would represent what words would represent the intent of your heart.
Well, let me give you the intent of God’s heart because we’ve got it right here in front of us. The motive. He says this, so that, so that your ways may be known on the earth and your salvation amongst the nations. Did you see that? May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. So, that.
This is the motivation. This is the reason. This is the big idea, ladies and gentlemen. So, that his ways might be known on the earth and his salvation might be experienced amongst the nations of the earth. That’s why he blesses us.
That’s why his blessing exists so that. Now, interestingly and for what it’s worth, that was the first time God blessed a group of people in numbers. We just read that in the Psalmist dragged that out and added to it in Psalms. The first time God ever blessed a person. He ever promises to bless somebody.
He’s found before that in the book of Genesis. In the book of Genesis some of you Bible schools will know this. The book of Genesis in the eleventh chapter. We have an institution called the Tower of Babel. Now, the Tower of Babel was a manifestation of the arrogance and the and and the height of man’s pride.
And so what God did to in a sense disabled man was he created many nations out of one nation. Many many languages out of one language and he disperse people and he created the nations of the earth. Right? Remember we just saw so that his salvation would be made known amongst the nations. Well, the nations didn’t exist in Genesis chapter ten. They weren’t created to Genesis chapter eleven and then, in Genesis chapter twelve, something quite remarkable takes place In Genesis chapter twelve, at the height of suspicion, right? At the height of division, when people were getting in their own groups and forming their own traditions and their own laws, in their own nations.
And and were, there were them and us, right? We we we are the good guys and them over there, they’re the bad guys, right? We are the Maroons and we rule and they’re the blues and they’re bad, right? How many know that the is the foundation of the of the human heart, politically speaking. We love to have a thems and the users. You know, we’re smart and we’re we think rationally and they’re all a bit crazy over there and that’s how the world, that’s how the world works. Well, the height of that them and us thing, at the height of that disunity, at the height of that the the establishment of brand new nations. God does something remarkable.
Let’s look at it, shall we? In in chapter in chapter twelve. In chapter twelve, God grabs a man. His name is Abraham. He lives in what we would define today as the center of the hyper Islamic world in the Iran, Iraq region. Fun fact, that’s the place of the Garden of Eden, right? Uh you go there today.
There is no, there is no support. In fact, there is no protection under the law for women from from domestic violence. It doesn’t exist. Um children are trafficked at a rate that would blow your mind. Um it’s kind of like this.
It seems to me that man’s first defeat will be the place of God’s last great victory. But it’s from that that region that God grabs a man by the name of Abraham. And he says this to him. In in chapter twelve. He says I will make you a great nation.
I will bless you and I will make your name great. Gives me three promises. Did you see that? Three promises. I will make you a great nation. Or did God do that? Yes.
The nation of Israel came from this guy, Abraham. So, God, God was true to his promise. He said, I will bless you and then God bless Abraham. He sure did. Abraham was blessed beyond comprehension in the context of his his wealth and and the power.
And he says, he would make his name great. Well, is Abraham’s name great? Well, Abraham is the father of every monotheistic religion of Judaism, of of of Islam, and of Christianity. We all talk about the father Abraham. So, Abraham’s name became great. We talk about him as the father of faith but essential to Judaism and he’s also essential.
You may not be aware of that but he’s also central to the Islamic faith. God made his name great But I want you to see what happens next. Because the initiative changes. Right? God says I’m going to do this. I’m going to bless you.
That blessing’s going to take many forms. Right? Your name will be great. You’ll be a nation. But then he says and then you note how the initiative changes from God to Abraham. He says and you will be a blessing you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you.
I will curse those who curse you. And here it is folks. Here it is. I find this remarkable. That the Psalm has picked up this whole concept in the in terms of the corporate blessing of God.
The the nation of Israel. I will bless you so that. And look at this so that here. I will bless you. Um and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.
At the height of the falling out of mankind. At the height of the establishment of the nations, the first thing God does is raise up a man and says, I’m going to bless you so that everyone of those nations that I’ve just created because of man’s arrogance, right? Everyone one of those people groups that have just been established because of a man’s pride, they will be blessed and that blessing’s going to flow through you, Abraham. Did you see that? That is, folks, I’m not sure whether the weight of that can really hit you because you you know back in back before the times of Jesus, nations, how many know the Romans never blessed any nation? They just took em over. How many know Genghis Khan never blessed any nation. He just took em over, right? Babylon, they didn’t bless nations.
They annexed nations. They made vassal states out of nations. This whole concept of one nation blessing another nation before Jesus never existed. You go and find it for yourself. There’s no oxfam.
There’s no red that there’s no world vision. None of that existed before Jesus. Nations didn’t bless other nations. That would be like, I mean, imagine, imagine, you know, that that cave had an earthquake tomorrow. So, Moscow sent in supplies.
That isn’t happening, right? That that, I mean, if there was a you know, if there was an an unfortunate event happened in in Ukraine, how many know that Russia’s not going to go? Oh, well, we better just pull back now and just wait because those poor people who need to send humanitarian aid. No. Russia will use that to their own advantage because that’s how nations treat other particularly in this time. God says, nations will bless nations. Because I will bless this nation.
Interesting, isn’t it? We’ve established that the blessing of God flows for the establishment of his name in the nations. Here is the ultimate goal and I want you to get this because this this is mind blowing folks. It goes on in verse three and says this. it says, may the people praise you, oh God, may all the people praise you, may the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the people with equity, and guide the nations of the earth. May the people praise you, God.
May all the praise you. I I want you to see something key folks. I want you to see what the ultimate goal of the church and of mission is. The ultimate reason why we are here and we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The goal is simply that the nations are filled with an overwhelming joy of the glory of God.
The goal is the gladness of the people in the glory of the Lord. Did you get that? That the goal of your salvation folks Is that you get an a an overwhelming sense of internal joy not in your circumstances, but in the glory and the victory of our king. That’s what it’s about. Now, if you’re here today and you’ve been a Christian for a while and you’ve prayed and asked God for this, that and he’s given it to you, you’ve probably rejoiced in that, you know? I mean, if you were sick or something and you came and God prayed for you and you got healed, you know, like we read in the in in the Bible, the lame man and God raised him up and he he he walked and leaps and praises God. Of course, you rejoice in any blessing that God pours out on your life.
Of course, you will. But there’s something even greater folks when we recognise the depth and the breadth of the victory that’s ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. What’s already happened 2000 years ago and we glory and and what the Lord has done for us through salvation. When we understand that because that is the ultimate blessing. See when we talk about Abraham being raised up to bless the nations of the earth.
The nations of the earth are blessed through Jesus Christ. Jesus. He is the blessing. Let me let me let me explain to you what that means really perhaps in more practical terms. When we understand that, we can glory in his victory.
Just like, you know, we got people glory and I mean, you know, we had that game of of of of football during the week and naturally enough, the Blues went down again, you know, and all these Queenslands will walk around glorying in the victory of our great team and yet the truth of the matter is we glorify that victory but what did you do? Did you do anything to help them win? You didn’t lift the finger. I mean, probably you do is click the on button on your remote control. That was your contribution. And somehow, you know, you think that you can glory in the victory of what they did, right? And yet, I I guarantee you, I guarantee that Billy Slater has never rung any of you, right? I mean, if you forgot to tune in or you didn’t get to the game, he didn’t ring you to see how you were, did he, right? I mean, all they want is your money. Have you ever been? How much the tickets cost? You sit in these hard seats for hours.
Nobody talks to you. Everybody ignores you. You buy a cup of tea, they charge you 10 bucks, you get cold and want to buy a jumper, they’re going to charge you 250 bucks for a jumper. All they want is your money right? They don’t care for you and yet somehow, for some and strange reason. We glory in their victory.
Yet, they do nothing for us in in reality, right? But there’s a sense of identity that we have. We identify with them. We spend $50 and buy a cap to sort of show our our friends and and neighbors. Hey, you know, we’re on that team. We’re identifying with those guys.
We’re with the winners. Though we do nothing to help the victory along really. But if you think about it and you think about the victory that’s ours in Christ Jesus. We’ve done nothing to establish that victory but we can glory the day in the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death for all eternity. Yeah.
Unfortunately, we’re going to play those characters again another 2 weeks. But the victory that we have is an eternal victory in Christ Jesus. And we can glory in that victory. We can revel in that victory. We can have a heart full of joy in that victory.
Cuz that victory touches every aspect of our life folks. When we really understand it. You see, I want to put to you that the average person exists on a continuum towards salvation. Uh, even even if you’re not a Christian. I don’t know.
I don’t know everybody in the room. I don’t know who’s watching online but I would wouldn’t mind, you know, thinking that there’s gotta be a few people here that, you know, you don’t really know the whole God thing. You’re not sure about it. I want to suggest to you that every person you know is trying to work out their own salvation. They don’t use the word salvation, right? We don’t use that unless you’re a Christian.
Uh we we tend to look at it in terms of validation. You know, that I’m okay, that I’ve made it. And we’re pursuing that in terms of our career. Maybe we’re pursuing that in terms of relationships. Maybe we’re pursuing that in terms of our education.
You know, I’m I’ve got this degree and that doctorate and I’ve got this educational standard. I’m this successful and I’ve got I’ve got you know, this relationship I’ve made it. and and and this continuum that the world exists on between ego andflation and self loathing, right? Uh up here? Yeah, I’m a successful business person. I’ve got a lot of money. I’ve got a lot of employees.
Yes, I’m really important. This ego inflation and then what happens, it all falls apart. This self loathing. And having you see, you know, stories of successful people who have got successful television programs or successful careers or successful businesses and the law goes belly up or things aren’t as you know, as rosy as they seem. that they’re putting an image on Instagram or they’re putting an image for the world to view but behind it, they’re falling apart and you really find out later that they’re suffering all kinds of self and some are even contemplating taking their own lives because they’re on this continuum of wow, I’m a good person.
No, I’m a terrible person. Well, I’ve made it. No, I’m I’m way behind everybody else. And they live with this insecurity and they live with the sense of, will I, am I good enough? Will I make it? Am I pretty enough? Am I strong enough? Am I, am I talented enough? And and you see, this is the blessing that ours in in Christ Jesus. He completely blows up the continuum.
I mean, for once, well, once for all we no longer live on this. I’ve made it. I have it. I’m good. I’m bad.
That’s gone ladies and gentlemen. We suddenly realize that we are so much worse than we ever could have comprehended but so much more accepted and so much more loved than we ever dreamed of. And we are validated. We are saved. We are we are decreed made it okay.
Not because what we’ve been able to do, not because we’ve been able to keep the ten commandments, right? Not because we’ve been able to give away our money and show what what wonderful people we are but because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has decreed upon us. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is the greatest blessing of all, folks. That is the blessing. God speaks of through Abraham.
Though Abraham was financially blessed. Sure, but that was all a byproduct, folks. That was all irrelevant compared to the fact that God was going to raise up through his seed Christ. He would bless the nations and we know how that has worked. God has blessed us clearly so that we might be a blessing so that we could bring the whole world into the knowledge of how good and gracious and powerful our God is.
So, world might be able to rejoice in the God of all creation. Verse six goes on and says again. It says the Lord of the land yield its harvest. God our God blesses us. And how many know? Folks that Australia is an incredibly blessed place.
You know, sometimes I think we’ve got no idea. Just how blessed this country actually is. I mean, we are one of the most economically, one of the most blessed nations on the Earth. The, that, that is an empirical fact. That’s not an opinion, folks.
That’s an empirical fact. God has blessed this land. You are living in a blessed land beyond your imagination. Why? So Folks, so that. He says it here again.
It’s again, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him. So that all the ends of the earth will find salvation in him. Or recognise that they don’t have to create their own pathway to God. They don’t have to be validated by the by the, the general public. You don’t have to be endorsed by the people who are close to you.
Because you are validated and you are endorsed by God himself. Here’s the blessing folks. We take off the masks and we are blessed. Jesus is the blessing. He is the blessing.
I I don’t know who in this room today. I I don’t know. Um you you you appreciate the self loathing, right? You understand what it means to judge yourself. Now, you’ve been judged by people close to you but that comes nowhere near the judgement you pass on yourself, right? And what I’m saying to you today is there’s a pathway out of that. It’s called Jesus Christ.
He paid a price. He died a death upon a cross for you so that you might go free in him. This is the greatest blessing. This is the greatest blessing. Just before we come to what to do with that and how we work that forward.
I I want to just challenge everyone for a moment to do three things. To do three things. Um I’ve just come back actually in the last 2 weeks. From a summit in the States where there was seventy-two national mission leaders got together of the the Assemblies of God. Now the Assemblies of God of which by the way you are a part of Australian Christian churches is the assemblies of God in Australia.
The Assemblies of God Now, the largest Protestant group on the planet. There is 5 8 million of us. Now, there might be 58 million here this morning but you are one today of 58 million of us that are gathering around the globe on this day worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. Under the the way that we do. 58 million of us.
Um seventy-two of those nations were represented in this summit. We as a nation were represented in the summit. And with a clear purpose and that purpose is this. The Bible says that the gospel will will be preached to all people then the end will come. How many more people do we have to preach the gospel to so Jesus can come back? That’s the question.
And it has been concluded. There are a lot more than 1700 unreached people groups. Right? But we’re talking about groups that don’t even have a missionary in them. There’s 1, 700. You define a group as reached once it has a believer.
A body and a Bible. Did you get that? A believers. These believers, a body like this, you know. There’s a people can gather and there’s a Bible. You’ve got the translation of the word into your language that you can read it.
Um the the the this is interesting. I think for me anyway, you might find it interesting but the largest unreached people group in the world is the death. Um because you got deaf people in third world countries that aren’t even literate because there’s no system to teach them how to read, Right. So and there’s noone to tell they can’t read it and there’s nobody to tell them that the message of Jesus. So, they live their entire life never even hearing that Jesus Christ ever existed.
There’s 1, 700 groups on the planet of people that there’s nobody even there’s noone in there in their group that if that believe in Jesus. There’s there’s no possible way they could hear about the gospel. And so, We’re taking upon ourselves the 58 million of us of which you are one by the way. The 58 million of us to address that issue over the next 10 years. So what I’m going to ask you to do is this.
We’re going to ask you to do three things, please. Become one of the 58 million. Gonna ask you to become aware of what’s going on in the world. Now, you say, how do I do that? Follow ACCI. org.
AU on Instagram or Facebook. We put stuff up every week, right? That gives you an idea of what different people doing in different parts of the world. So, it’ll help inform you. Now, it’s not the only way you can be informed but it’s a way and it’s our group of churches, okay? So, ACCI on Australian Christian Churches International on Instagram, on Facebook. If you don’t have social media, God bless you.
Go to our website. Maybe you have a philosophical bent against social media. I completely understand your position, madam. Well, sir. Uh and you can get onto our website, ACCI.
org. AU, ACCI dot org. AU. Click on the prayer and you can sign up for a monthly prayer Email that will come through. Firstly, you’ve gotta be aware, right? It’s got if you don’t, if you didn’t know that the biggest unreached people group in the world was the deaf.
How could you pray for that? I’ve just told you. Now, some of you I trust will take that on board and go and pray. Uh the second thing I want you to do after becoming aware is to pray. Obviously, you can pray. You know, Jesus it.
Pray to the Lord of the Harvest. He said the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are You know, he didn’t tell us to pray for much but he told us to pray for that. and yet, you know, there’s so many prayer meetings and we miss that. So many of our prayer times that we and we don’t pray for the very thing that Jesus told us to pray for, right? Can I ask you to align your prayers to with the angel who pours out the the incense on the altar of the prayers of the saints and that’s the prayers for the nations, folks? The the the angels pouring out as incense on the altar of God in heaven. Those people who what Jesus asks us to do when he said, pray to the Lord of the harvest that laborers would be raised up in these days.
We need to pray for people who can sign in another language. They just learn another language but they learn how to sign in that language and then can evangelize the death in Pakistan, the death in India, the deaf people of Sri Lanka, and so on and so forth. That nobody is touching or reaching. And this all matters every bit as much as your child’s soul matters. You know what I’m saying? But there’s literally no medium as I speak to tell them about Jesus.
That’s gotta be addressed ladies and gentlemen. Why should anybody hear the gospel twice when some not even have the means to hear at once. We’ve got to address that. We need to be aware. We need to pray.
We need to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out harvesters. And the third thing we need to do and this is to the point really. We need to either go or give to those that are going. They’re your two options folks. If you’re not going to go fine.
Then send your money. And give to someone who’s going. Uh you’re taking up an offering. In in this church. I mean you know I’ve I’ve talked to the pastor.
I know what’s going on. Um I I want to suggest to you, it that you are blessed beyond measure for this very reason right? For the pole purpose behind the offering that you guys are about to receive. This is the reason we are blessed. Now, I want more of God’s blessing. So, I’m going to align myself with what God is doing in the nations.
And you have an opportunity to do that, to give. All of us, every one of us. Now, some of us, maybe God’s calling you to go. Um One of the things that we’ve just introduced at ACCI in the last two months actually is our intern program. And if you’re here and it’s primarily you know aimed at university aged graduates but if, you know it’s not exclusively.
And if God’s putting it upon you and you you, you feel, wow, you could finance yourself and go for 6 months. We’re offering a six-month cross-cultural internship in one of potentially six international locations. You go for 6 months. You work with the locals, you work with the missionaries, you work with the churches, and you come back and you work in your church. 6 months.
And maybe God’s put on your heart. Maybe you’re a you know like a young person in in that sort of early twenty age. 20, 21, 22, whatever. Um or maybe you’re a bit older. It doesn’t.
It’s it’s aimed at at that age group but it’s not exclusively. What I’d ask you to do is go to ACCI. org. AU and and click on go. And you’ll see interns there and it’ll tell you how to apply and give you some information there.
Um if God’s calling you to the nations then click on go. But God’s calling us all to give. God’s calling us all to give. He’s calling us all to pray. And he’s calling us to be aware.
Become a worldview Christian. For God so loved the world. Come on. God so loved the world. No, I don’t want to undermine or belittle your problems.
I know you got problems and I know you you need prayer for this, this, and the other thing. You know, you got kids that are going through struggles. I get all of that. But I gotta tell you this, I gotta tell you, Satan is going to constantly distract you from what the big picture of the gospel actually is. You’re going to have problems to the day you die.
If you don’t decide at some point, you know something? Despite my problems, I’m going to become the Christian that God wants me to become. I’m going to become a worldview Christian. I’m going to view what God God is doing in the nations. I’m going to pray for it and I’m going to bless it. And we I’m going to become a missional focused believer.
This is what God’s calling us to do folks. I suggest. And this month, we have a real opportunity to, you know, solidify that within our hearts. What if we’d all stand together? I’m going to pray for you all. Can we all please just stand for a moment and am I going to hand back to Ash and she’ll finish it but look, I want to I do want to just ask you and if you’re in the room right now or maybe you’re watching online, I don’t know and what I mentioned before how the real blessing is Jesus because outside of Christ, you gotta save yourself and that’s a shocking thing.
That’s a horrible position to be in. When you’re trying to validate yourself, when you’re trying to make it in your own strength because you never know if you’re good enough, you never know. There’s always someone who’s got more money who’s prettier, who’s stronger, who’s more talented than you, right? He’s just never quite there. Well, Jesus this morning, he’s here to give you salvation. It’s a free gift of his grace that you reach out to.
We call it by faith, right? All it simply means is that you open up your heart and you go, I’m sick of trying on my own. I receive him in Jesus name. If that’s you right now and you’re in this room or maybe you’re even online. I’m going to pray a prayer. I’m going to ask you this.
Quietly, pray this in your own heart. Don’t even have to pray that loud but just say, father, come into my life right now. Forgive me of myself effort forgive me of my own efforts to meet my salvation. I rest in the finished work that you achieved upon the cross and I receive it now through this prayer by faith. In Jesus name.
In Jesus name. If you’ve prayed that prayer, I really want to encourage you this morning to touch base with Pastor Ash or one of the the the leaders in this church and they’ve got more for you. What a for all of you because I just believe that God’s got more. I believe God’s got more for you. God’s got more for kings.
There’s more blessing because there’s more serving. There’s more nations to serve. There’s more people to save. And God is got his hand upon your life to be a part of that. If you sense that this morning, if you know that this morning, just lift both hands up to the Lord.
I’m going to pray a blessing over your life right now in Jesus name. Just lift both hands up to God. Father, you see those that are raised in this room right now. Lord, I just pray. I speak your blessing over their lives.
Lord, I speak your blessing over their finances. I speak your blessing Lord over their families. Lord, I speak your blessing over their future, over their health, Lord, over their businesses. Lord, over all that they put their hand to, father God. I speak your blessing so that, so that your purposes might be met in the world.
So that your will be done and your kingdom would come on earth. It is in heaven. We thank you for this. We align ourself this morning with your word and promise. In Jesus name.
And everybody said amen. Amen. God bless you. Thanks for your time. Thank you Pastor John.
