We thank you that you faithfully watch over your world, ,in our lives to perform it, Lord God. Father, we welcome your presence not only in this service but into our lives and our hearts and everything they represent. Oh, we love you, Lord. We love you, Lord. We love you, Lord. Let’s just worship him. Praise you Lord. He puts a new song in your heart, he puts a new song in your heart. You know, he wants to put a new song in your heart today. God is really good at doing that. I haven’t got the world’s best voice but if I did, I’d sing some more. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Father, we commit this service to you. I pray you have your way, God. That you overcome any obstacle that we’ve got in our lives and you just push right into the middle of our hearts, God and do what only you can do and everyone said, amen. You may be seated. Thank you Lord. I could’ve just kept worshipping. That was so beautiful. Thank you guys. You’re just legends. I was looking at all these wonderful young people. Yeah, let’s give them a hand this morning. All jumping around.
My kneecaps were saying don’t do that. I jumped around so much when I was young. I used to play competition squash. So yeah and I loved it. But my kneecaps are paying the price today. Amen. What we do today makes a difference tomorrow. Who knows that? When you get to my age, you start counting the cost.You should have counted when you were younger. And I was thinking that about these wonderful young people over this side and spread right through. I surely say thank you. But my one bit of advice to you today if you don’t hear anything else was literally, just believe God. Because when I was younger and I first got saved if I just literally believed God then. But who knows, it takes time for God to convince us that we’re actually able to do more than we could ever ask, think or imagine. And we’re actually capable of achieving much more than we ever thought that we could. So, I’m sharing with you today that you have the power to change, to choose, and to create. Enjoy your morning guys.
Good job. I got that word in before they all left. How good is God? You have the power to change, to choose, and to create. I find it restrictive up here because I just wish I was younger because I’d jump. But I’m not game. I might break a leg if I tried to do that. The power to change. I invite you on a journey with me this morning. In these three areas, the Lord is still giving me revelation. You know if we stay open to God regardless of our age or circumstance, he can move us forward from where we are, to where he wants us to be. And it’s usually us that’s the roadblock. The way that we think. The way that we speak has to change for God to be able to get us where he wants us going. Nehemiah knew in Nehemiah chapter one we’ve talked a lot over the last few months. Out of the book of Nehemiah and we’ve heard some brilliant preaching. In this church of how God wants us to rise up and build. But guess what? You the building. You are the building that God wants to build. He wants to build our lives strong in every area. In our faith and how we relate to God. How we relate to each other. Is our expector awake. Because if our expector’s gone to sleep, our faith has gone to sleep with it. You know our faith is our expectation on the inside of what we are expecting God to do. That’s how you can give yourself a check up on where your faith’s at. What about your family and where they’re at? Who do you need to pray through? Who needs a little bit more prayer than they did last time? Or who’s not quite on their feet spiritually speaking? You know what about the fellowship and our church fellowship and what we do together?
There’s always room to move. There’s always room to change. What about our fitness level or our fun level, or our finances? There’s so many areas in our life that God just wants to change a little bit. Just to tweak. You know a little bit of change down the track can really help where God is wanting us to go. The most amazing thing is, you know when I was about 13 or 14 years old, my mom and dad had been arguing. They used to argue a lot. And I come from a very dysfunctional home. I’m a first generational Christian. And I can remember thinking one day, I wasn’t saved. But I can remember thinking there’s only a few things in life that I really want. I want to be, you know, a good mum. I want to be happily married. Preferably married first. But you know, happily married. Have children and live on a hill. So I didn’t really have a big life vision. Now I am happily married.
Praise God. It’s 48 years this year. Going on for fifty. I think we love each other more than we did when we first started when I was just a 17 year old, but I’ll tell you about my more teen years and say when you’re on a good thing, stick to it. And I’m sticking to it. Amen. Um, sticking to it. But Nehemiah knew, you know, he needed empowering. Before he started his journey. So he went to the king and he asked for permission, provision, and protection. You know where do you go when you need empowering? Because to the king is a really good start. Amen. If you need empowering for the journey, I used to think it was me that had to somehow get my act together or clean my life up or straighten myself out or get rid of my negative thinking or I don’t know, just be better than I was before God could ever use me.
What I didn’t realise is, I didn’t really have too much to do with it. He just wanted me to yield to him to be the vessel and to be, you know, the person that he wanted me to be but if you want the blessing of God, you must go to God to ask him, am I where God wants me to be? You know Moses back, you know, I think it’s in Exodus, he says to the Lord, “Lord, I’ll go, but only if your presence comes,with me.” Now, that might sound like a piece of cake. But you need to go to God and say, God, is this what you’re wanting for my life? Am I travelling in the direction that you’re actually,wanting me to go? Because all I know is when you’ve got the blessing of God it doesn’t matter what comes against you. You’ll finish up where God wanted you to be. You might have to grow a bit of spiritual muscle like Pastor Greg said in the first service. You don’t get fit by walking through the gym, reading a book about the gym or meeting someone that goes to the gym. You have actually gotta go and lift some weight. Amen. That’s what we have to learn to do in the spirit. And we need builders.
We need men and women that are prepared to build himself in the spirit, and to start reaching out and building other people in the spirit, because we are the church. Amen. So let’s have a look here. Judah, you know, he asked some people, how’s things going in Judah? How’s things going in Jerusalem? And Judah, represents our praise and our worship. Jerusalem is a place of peace. If you’ve lost your ability to praise and to worship God, and you’ve got no new song in your heart and you’ve lost your peace. You know that your walls are broken down. And that you need to get back to God. And build your own walls so that you can then build somebody else’s. Amen. And it’s okay. Things happen. Life happens. Walls fall down. We put our guard down. That arrow or whatever someone says gets through. Then we have to do some more building in the spirit with our spirit man.
Our spirit woman to actually overcome the arrow that got through our armour. Amen. Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1:5 said, if it pleased the king and if I had found favour in your sight, I ask you to send me to Judah, the place of praise. Send me God, to the city of my father’s tombs that I may rebuild it. There’s a lot of building that needs to go on in the kingdom and you and I have the privilege of being part of that process. And it is a privilege, amen. Let’s have a look at this first scripture Exodus 9:16, and this is my prayer for you today. But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up. That I may show my power in you. That my name may be declared in all the earth. If you change, everybody notices. Change starts from the inside out. You know if I don’t have a quiet time for one day, I notice. If I don’t have a quiet time for two or three days, Greg starts to notice.
If I go, you know, more than a week without a quiet time,heaven forbid. I don’t think I’ve done that ever since I got saved but if I did, I reckon the whole world would know. Amen. We need to stay close to God. He says I want to show my power in you. You have the power to change. See we look at ourself and think oh well, I can’t change. If I think back,,to when I first got saved, I get teary when I preach so I gotta try and hold myself together. When I look back to what I was when I first gave my life to God, I don’t think that I was very valuable in the kingdom as in I couldn’t have really helped too many more people because I was just too messed up myself. Amen. God has to work on me first before I got to that point.
In Ephesians 3:16, it says that he would grant to you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit, in the inner man. So God starts on the inside of us. And we need especially in the hour that we’re living in. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or next week or the week after. Life has a way of taking us by surprise. But if we stay strong in the spirit, close to the word, close to the Lord. In our daily disciplines, it will pay off. When calamity comes, when things fall to pieces, when the unexpected happens, you’ll be ready. Amen. You have the power to change. Micah 3:8 says, but truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord. And of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgressions and Israel, his sin. People don’t necessarily love it when you, when you tell them the truth. You know Pastor Greg said this morning on truth or spin. If we built a relationship with a person, you know, we need to be more truthful with each other. We could help each other so much if we prepared to just be a little bit more honest. Look,if you tweet this part of your life or you tweet that part. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing with each other. You know iron sharpens iron. We’re meant to be correcting and directing and instructing one another. That’s what the body does. When we love each other, we’ll put our the line to get somebody where they need to be going. You know that’s what a real mum or dad in the spirit actually do. You know, I used to speak to my, yeah, I can,remember my eldest boy.
He was the most rebellious out of the three of them and you know, he still hasn’t grown up. But I can remember speaking to the inside of his potential. And he’d say to me, oh mom, you know, no-one else’s kids do that. And I say, well you’re not normal. You know, you’re supernatural. You know, you are the child of pastors. So, what, you know, if you plant a carrot, you get a carrot. If you plant a cabbage seed, you get a cabbage plant, a leader, you’ll get a leader. Amen. So, as we step it up, I expected my children to walk with God. I expected them to read the Word every day. I expected them to be hearing the voice of God. See, a good coach gets you where they know God wants you going. And I pray, that God, you know, do some to your heart today that you realise you can affect more lives than you think. If you stay close to God, strengthen yourself in the spirit. How much help, you know, could we then be to each other? You know, the ministry of encouragement to each other. See God speaks to our potential. He always speaks to our potential. He’s convincing us constantly that we’re capable of more than we think we’re capable for, because we’re trying to fit it into our mindset or experience.
And God’s trying to convince us that he’s way bigger than that. We’ve sung about it this morning. He’s way above. You know what we think or what we can see. Matthew 3 says this. While Jesus was living in Galilee, John, called the Baptiser, was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple, like,the desert surroundings, change your life. God’s kingdom is here. Change your life. Let the evidence of you and your walk with the Lord be visible by those around you. And we can only do so if we allow the Holy Spirit, the change agent to constantly keep working on the inside. You know, Matthew 3:2 says, repent. Change your inner self, your old way of thinking, your regrets, your past sin, live your life in a way that proves repentance. Seek God’s purpose for your life, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And that’s, you know, what the Lord wants us to do. He says, but in Romans 8:11, I love the scripture. It says, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. It’s good to pray that when you’re my age. Through his spirit who dwells in you. Amen.
So he wants to strengthen us. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. So what’s the problem when we read the word? We read these scriptures. We know that it’s all true. What has to change? Well I’m glad you asked that this morning, because I’m going to tell you a little story here and I love this story. I have to keep reading it over and over to remind myself that it’s the perception of how we see things that has to change. And perceptions like a map. It’s not the territory. It’s just the map. Don’t ever take Pastor Greg with you if you’re trying to find somewhere. Amen. All his sense of direction went into people. And none went into geographical location. Amen. So don’t ask him to take you anywhere unless you’ve gotta, you know, GPS thing in your car. You’re going to need it. But is like a map. You know, that’s how we think we’re going to get there. If you’re given the wrong map, you can work on your behaviour, you can get to the wrong place faster. You can work on your attitude and be very happy when you get to the wrong place. Amen. Let me read you this story. Frank Koch in proceedings, the magazine of the Naval Institute, records this story.
Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on manoeuvres in heavy weather for several days. I was serving the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge at nightfall. The visibility was poor, patchy fog. The captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all the activities. Shortly after dark, this is your bedtime story before your nanny or granddad nap, okay? Shortly after dark, the lookout, on the wing of the bridge, reported, there’s a light bearing on the starboard bow. Is it steady or a stern, the captain called out?
The lookout adds, steady captain, which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship. So, you could be on a collision course. And you’re not even aware of it. The captain then called to the signalman. Single signal that the ship was on a collision course. We advise you to change your course 20 degrees. Back came a signal. Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees. The captain said what? Send a captain send, I’m a captain, change, course, 20 degrees. I’m a seaman, second,class, came the reply. You better change course 20 degrees. No one’s winning here. By that time, the captain was furious and he spat out sand, I’m a battleship. Change course, 20 degrees. Back came a flashing light, I’m a lighthouse. They changed course. Amen. God’s your lighthouse. His word, his house, us as his people are his lighthouse to each other. And we need, sometimes to change course. Just to tweak it a little bit to where God wants it to be. So, that you don’t have to walk through a plate glass window to know that it cuts. You just have to know that somebody else did it and that’s not a real good idea. You know we don’t have to fall into big holes. Surely all the lessons we’ve all learnt so far is going to help us as a body not fall into those same pitfalls. There’s some things that just work. Amen.
So we need to change our perspective. We need the correct map. Amen. Secondly the power to choose. So not only do you have the power to change, because God makes it possible to change because the Holy Spirit is the change agent. We also have the power to Jews. And there’s some beautiful scriptures here. It says I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you. I’ve set before you life and death. Blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life. That both you and your descendants may live. That you will love the Lord your God. That you may obey his voice. That you may cling to him. That he is your life and the length of your days. Um and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob to give them. You know, God wants to bless us. He wants to strengthen us. He wants to direct us toward him. Why? Because he’s a good, good God and he wants what’s best for us. Amen. And we’re the best that we can be as men and women of God if we co-work with the Holy Spirit. Joshua 24 says this, and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day, whom you will serve. Whether the Gods of your father served on the other side of the river or the God of the Amorites in whom led to dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And I made that decision as a young woman. I said as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Was I the perfect mother? Absolutely not. But you know what? The Holy Spirit can teach us to be better than we were. And you know as we commit things to prayer we don’t have to be perfect at it. We just have to yield.
And let God have an opportunity to work things into our life. Amen. Psalm 25:12 says this. Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose. And if we keep working with the Holy Spirit, he’ll highlight areas of our life that he wants us to shape up in. Amen. And that’s why it’s so important that we work with him. Proverbs 3:31,says do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways. It’s a caution in the spirit. We know the difference between right and wrong. Choose the right path that you know the Lord wants you working on. Proverbs 12:26 says the righteous should choose friends carefully. You know some of our associates or people that we are friends with, we need to let them go to the outer circle. Because it’s bringing trouble. And you know, when a relationship gets complicated, it’s time to put it a bit further away from us so that we strengthen ourself to be able to cope with it. Amen. Um Isaiah 7:15 says curds and honey we shall eat. That he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. Isaiah 56:4. Here it is,again. Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath,and choose what pleases me. There’s a key to choose what pleases God. Amen. And hold fast my covenant. There’s just simply no shortcuts. There’s no shortcuts in God. We need to choose when he speaks things to us. I can remember one day the Holy Spirit speaking to me and saying I want you to overcome your fear of the dark.
Now, that sounds like a piece of cake but for me, I was terrified of the dark. I wouldn’t even get out of bed and go to the toilet when we first got married. I’d wake Pastor Gregor, poor guy and he did, you know, escort me and stand outside the door while I went to the bike. It was ridiculous. I know it’s ridiculous. So Ben. But my mom was terrified of the dark. She used to get a wedge of timber and wedge it under the she’d locked the door as well. You can never get in my bedroom. Uh, my mom’s bedroom at night time. She wedges the timber under the door just so she knew she was safe. And she had a piece of timber in the window so no one could get in there. My dad used to think it was funny. I was thinking about this yesterday. My dad used to say to mum it’s alright love. You know if they come and take you through the night they’ll soon drop you when it’s daylight. That’s what they used to say to mama. It was terrible. She’d say oh Liz you know that was my dad’s name. But when you’re trying to overcome something in your life. Doesn’t mean it’s going to be a piece of cake. No. We were living in this house that had a winding driveway and I can remember I’ve been a Christian for a couple of years and the Holy Spirit said to me, I want you to start overcoming your fear of the dark because it really was quite restrictive. I couldn’t hang washing out at night. I couldn’t walk out of the car without Gregor.
It was just ridiculous. Ridiculous. It just had to go. And the Holy Spirit said to me, I want you to walk up to the car in the dark. I don’t want you to put the front lights on. The driveway was a bit steep and the car was up the top. You got no idea. That was traumatic for me. My heart started thumping in my chest at even the thought. I hadn’t said yes to God yet. Just even thinking about it. I was scared. And I thought no you’re going to do it. Now to make it worse. I do recommend, don’t let your kids watch scary movies. I’d watch the movie when I was a kid. My dad had let me watch this movie. And in this movie there was this hand about that long and it was living in the back of this car waiting for somebody to get in the car and then the hand climbs over the seat and chokes this person that was driving the car. So, you can imagine what I was thinking as I stepped out the front door to say, yes I’m going to overcome, you know this fear of the dark. All I could see, I got in the car and I was shaking and I thought, oh, but at the same time, I felt excited that I took a step of faith and all I could imagine was this big hand getting off me, alright?
And I’ve said, no, Jesus is in this garden. If you touch me, you gotta touch him first. Cause I knew that much about the word. Amen. That you can’t pass the blood of Jesus without his permission. You know, and if I get choked, I’ll go straight to glory. That’s the worst thing that could happen, amen. And,you know, bit by bit, I’ve gradually, you know, over the following 12 months or two years after that I’ve overcome now. I’m not scared of the dark at all. You stick me in a dark room, it won’t make any difference to me. When I look back, it seems so ridiculous that that was ever the case that I was frightened of the dark. But I can remember Pastor Greg and I going to a hospital to visit a guy. 82 year old. On his deathbed. And Greg said to him, there’s still so much fear over your life. You know where did that ever come from? Then the Holy Spirit spoke to Greg and said something happened to this man in his childhood. When he was six years old at school, they’d locked him in a library. Switched the light off and the teacher forgot he was in there and left in there for the entire day. And he had suffered with that fear his entire life. So I encourage you, face your fears. Face what’s holding you back. Face it. Fair and square. And let God do the changing. You can choose in every situation of life.
You can choose life or death. But co-work with the Holy Spirit so he can move you forward. And my last point is the power to create. Inside of us God has put the creative power of the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You can have the life that you’re wanting. Simply by stepping out in faith and believing God. 11:20. I’ve got 8 minutes. Oh I can talk for ages now. Nehemiah 2:17. You know this is Nehemiah speaking to the people. He got the revelation. He got the permission of the king. He got the blessing. He got the provision. He was on his way. He’d assessed the walls. Now he goes back to the people and he says you see the distress that we’re in. How Jerusalem lies waste and in its gates are burned with fire. Come. Let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach. And I told them in the hand of my God which had been good upon me and also the King’s Word that he’d spoken to me. So he says to them let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to do this good work. See when I transfer that over to the New Testament where Jesus is speaking to Peter. And, he says to Peter who do you say that I am?
And Peter says, you are the Christ. Now that actually means you are the Christos, you Lord, are the anointed one to rule. You know, when we pray the Lord’s prayer, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I love what the preacher said last week at conference. We have to pray, Lord. My kingdom go, so that your kingdom can come. My kingdom of insecurity of rejections, hurt, damage, whatever we’ve been through. Lord, let it go. Your kingdom can come. Because we’re stopping what God is wanting to do in our lives. And then he says to Peter upon this rock of revelation, I will build my church. See, there’s only one building project that Jesus Christ was into. And that was to build his church. And he wants to do it through you and I. We can build each other strong. We can help empower each other. Amen. But he needs men and women that will take seriously what he is saying. He says, you know, and I also say to you, you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Amen. It doesn’t mean you won’t have some battles. It doesn’t mean you won’t have some struggles. You probably will. Um and that’s what strengthens us up. Amen. Amen.
In Ephesians 2:19, it says this, that’s plain enough, isn’t it? That you’re a wandering exile and that this kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer a stranger or an outsider. You belong here. You know often if we’re new, especially if we’re new to a church, it’s like, do I really belong here? Um, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all, irrespective of how we got here. And in what he is building. He used the apostles, the prophets for the foundation and now he’s using you. Fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone. With Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all parts together. We see it taking shape day after day. A holy temple built by God. All of us built into a temple in which God is quiet at home. See God wants to build us. He wants to build you. And he wants to build me. So that we can keep the church strong. The enemy hates the church. He’ll do anything to destroy it. He’ll do anything to get you ticked off with it. He’ll do anything to separate you if he can. Amen. That’s why we’ve gotta keep our eyes out for the stragglers and love them into the flock. Cause when you’re in the middle of the flock it’s the safe place. Amen.
You know in cattle, there’s flies that can come and get around you know, cow that’s on the outside of the herd. Um and if they leave it out there it can actually be suffocated but when you’re in the body and you’re recovering, you’re safe. You know, you’re and that’s the most important thing that we understand. The other thing is I’ll just finish on a few of these scriptures. In Romans 4:17, it says this, we call Abraham father not because he’s got God’s attention by living like a saint because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. You know, when we’re nobody and we give our lives and our big messed up, you know things, decisions and choices that we’ve made. When we give it to God oh my goodness, what can he do with that? What he can do when we just yield our life to God? I look up, you know, what God’s done in my life. From where I started. So, insecure and had so much rejection over my life. And, you know, so much hurt and disappointment from childhood. And God puts your life together.
And then he says, no you can go and encourage other people. When I said to the Lord all those years ago, all I want to be is a mum, happily, married. I had no idea that he’d called me to be a mother to Israel, a mother to his church. And now I’ve got not only my own children and my son-in-laws and daughter-in-law. Daughter-in-laws and all my grandchildren. But I look across the greater body of Christ and think of how many lives have been influenced. Cause I chose to change. I chose to change. And I chose to create. See what is he wanting to create in your life? You know, being a mom is a very high calling in God. You start there. That’s your training ground. I can remember my son. He was about nine years old. And I told him he couldn’t swim. We lived right on the beach. We had a beachfront property. And he wanted to go and have a swim. And I said no, we’re going to do lunch first. Then you’re going to have a rest. Oh why should I have a rest at my age? You know I’m not a kinder in kindergarten. I said look, that’s what we’re doing. And he slammed the I said, don’t you slam that door.
So, he just looked at me and went and slammed the door. I thought, oh, now I’ve gotta do something. You know, I had my ugg boots on. So, I flipped off my ugg boots and he took off because he knew he was in trouble. Amen. I finished up, chasing him halfway up the beach, dragged him back to his bedroom, get in there. I said, you’re not getting any lunch, you’re not doing anything until you come down and tell me that you’re sorry and that you’re not going to slam that door. You’re going to do as you’re told. Can people change? Oh my gosh. I can remember hearing a message. Don’t nurse it, curse it, rehearse it, disperse it to God, and he will reverse it. And he talked about how prayer can change our lives. Our co-working with the Holy Spirit can bring about change. So I started praying for my three children. See, faith calls things that are not as though they were. And I can remember standing in prayer for over three months for each of my children. My eldest boy, it was, so that wouldn’t have any, he had a real bad temper. I thought that temper’s gotta go. Could I see it in the natural? No. But I started seeing it in the spirit. The more I prayed every day, I started creating a different version of him.
For my daughter, she started parading in front of the mirror with, you know, putting fancy clothes on and taking this set off and putting that set on. I’m thinking, oh, glory. I could never have lived with that. God knew that. So, I started praying against that vanity and saying no, lord. She’s going to carry a spirit. Oh my goodness. She is so beautiful and so womanly and so proper in everything she does. She and her husband are the senior pastors of the ACC, Church in Caloundra. And you know she’s raised four beautiful daughters who are exactly like her. They’re just so beautiful. They dress beautifully. You know they just loved living in dresses which I think is cool. And yeah. What God can do if you’re prepared to pay the price to change, to choose, and to create. For my youngest boy you know, he was so stubborn. And I prayed that stubbornness away. And God did miracles in his life. When I look at my children today you can create in the spirit what you cannot see in the natural. If you’ve got the faith to believe it. Amen. How about you stand to your feet? Father, we thank you that you never change. You, you are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
God, we thank you that,,through the power of the Holy Spirit, you’re speaking to each person even right now. And if you know you’ve got areas in your life that need tweaking, you know, I just want you to give me a wave. I’m going to pray for you. Put your hand up this morning and those around you are going to pray and believe for you as well. Might be just one little area in your life. You can see hands going everywhere. Let me just pray, Father I pray for an impartation of grace to every person that’s prepared, to co-work with you God, to bring about the change. We’ll change direction, we’ll change location, we’ll change our behaviour, whatever it is, we’ll yield it to you today, God and everyone said, amen.
Our brother’s going to come and speak some announcements for us. And if anybody wants prayer, he’ll officially close the meeting but we’ve got a whole prayer team here that would love to pray with you, stand with you in faith. You know, the Holy Spirit’s the change agent and we’d love to do that at the end of the service. Bless you. Thank you so much Pastor Janet. And in this message where we’re empowered by the Holy Spirit to see, change, to choose, and to create. And for those that don’t know Pastor Janet, Pastor Greg at pastoral care here at Reedy Creek. Um feel free to step up and meet them at the end of the service. Uh, after decades in the ministry, they’re here to do you good. So, thank you again for that word. Um, just a few announcements from me as we close up today. Um, firstly I want to welcome you here to King’s today. I really want to welcome everyone who may be new, and visiting. Um, feel free to take your seats. Just as I read this next card and as Pastor Janet said, we’ll welcome you for prayer in a moment. Um but as you can see on your seats, we have these new hello cards. If you are new visiting here at Kings today, feel free to grab one of those and on the back, you can see space to fill that out. Um, in a few moments, when we take up an offering, I’ll invite you to put that in the bucket and we can reach out to you through the week. Um if you are new, we’d love to just get in contact and be the church that you need us to be where you are in your life right now but also for those who aren’t new, if you’ve been here for a while, you’ll see at the bottom of this card.
There’s a section,there for you to actually put down a prayer request or a praise report. Um we’d love to invite you to do that as well. If there’s something that you need prayer for specifically if you put this in our team, our pastors will get that through the week. We’ll pray with you. We’ll stand with you but we’d also love praise reports. We want to hear what God’s doing in your life. If something happens, you see a supernatural breakthrough with, we’d love to celebrate with you in that and bring that to the church as well and so I’d love to give you some time to do that. If you have pens, you’ll see some tables at the back of the auditorium. There’s some pens at the low hub as well. Feel free to fill that out. Um,but I actually did receive a prayer request from one of these today. And so what we’re going to do as a church, we’re going to pray, specifically for these prayer needs and as Pastor Janet said, I’d also love to pray for people in the room. If there is something in your life that you’re going through and you’re saying, you know, I just would love the faith of my church around me. If there’s a health situation, something with your job, something going on in your life. We want to pray with you. Um specific prayer request is about a family member at a knee operation.
There’s complications from it with some infections, swelling and we’re going to believe together as a church for healing in that need for healing in that situation. Um but I’d also like to ask is there anyone in the room today who just has a need in their life that they’d say, you know what, I’d love some prayer for that today. Whatever it might be, would you just show your hand for me so I can pray with you and then excellent and if you’re around someone with a hand up, would you just reach your hand toward them? We’re going to pray for this request,and the others that might be in,,the church here today and just,believe that god will move supernaturally. And so God I thank you so much for every person in this house. We thank you that you are a miracle working God. You are a God who is active, who is alive, and who is moving on our behalf. And I thank you for these needs in the house, those needs that you can see. We bring them before you God and we ask for your power. We ask for your touch and for your hand. We ask also for this knee. We ask for healing in Jesus name. We speak against the infection, the swelling. We thank you for order. We thank you lord that your hand will come and touch, and change and make it well. And we thank you for every need in this house. We bring it before you God and we have faith that will see you move. In Jesus name, in Jesus name amen. Amen.
So, you’ll see these new cards out over the coming weeks. Feel free to engage in that. Um we’d love to pray with you and give testimony of what God’s doing. Um but now, we’re going to actually come toward our giving and I’d love just to share a brief thought. Um I was thinking about the scripture in Matthew Chapter 6 where we’re encouraged by Jesus to not be anxious and to worry about nothing. Don’t be anxious about what you’ll wear, what you’ll eat, what you’ll do, even the birds of the sky, they have enough food to get through their day and a day of more value than you. I was encouraged by this scripture because it’s reminding me that we don’t have to respond to protect what we have but rather trust in the provision of God. We know that the situation around the world at the moment, there’s a lot of reasons to be anxious but if you’re in God, you have a reason to hope and that’s so true in your finances as well. This scripture is encouraging us to trust and lean into the provision of God and one of the ways we can do that is to be faithful in our giving, to let go of our control of the resource, and to trust in the provision of God and so as you give today, I pray that you’re blessed and that you have a sense of faith that God will provide for you.
