How to Share God's Love

TRANSCRIPT

 So our mission around here, if you happen to be new around here, our mission is to partner with the Holy Spirit, to teach people to love God, love others, make disciples who can make disciples. That's what we are about. As Ruth said, that leaks out of us everywhere. But the interesting thing is that we partner with the Holy Spirit who's driving this process.

It's not being driven by us, it's not being driven by our flesh or anything like that. It's coming out of nudges from the heart of God prompts to actually engage. So we want everybody, and we're on a politic event. We want you to be living mission every day means that you are looking at the rhythms and the routines of your life.

Where you go every day, the people that you see and learning how do you love on them by living a spirit-led life. A spirit led life, which means that you have one ear listening to what's going on in the world around you, and you've got one ear listening to the Holy Spirit, and you do this on the rhythms and routines of your life.

You do not have to go to the other side of the world. People think, I've gotta be a missionary. I gotta go to the other side of the world. Well, Jesus had something pretty nasty to say to the religious people of their day with their mission program. He said to the Pharisees, he said, you guys, you go to the other side of the world to make a convert.

Well, that's pretty good, isn't it? That's a good mission. But then he didn't stop there and then he goes, and you make them twice as much a son of hell as you are. How would you like that said about your mission program by Jesus? But he's trying to get the point across. It's not about making converts. You have to teach people how to follow me.

How to follow Jesus. Jesus said, you come, follow me. So we're about helping people move from unbelief to belief in Jesus in every area of their lives. And the reason we do this is because Jesus made a very powerful statement and fortunately the Apostle John was around to dictate it down and take it, and he thought, that's a good thing.

I'll write that down. It's been historically preserved in the Book of John, and he said these words. A new commandment I give you now that statement there, what drove them nuts? Because we don't need another new commandment. We're all Jews. We've got the 10 commandments, we've got the 613 that come outta that.

We don't need another commandment, Jesus. He goes, no, no, but you do need a new commandment. But this is the, this is the new commandment. Love one another. Well, that's unusual. That's not, that's not anywhere in our commandments, so we gotta love one another. But then he goes on, he's not finished, he goes, as I have loved you.

As I've loved you, you've gotta go and love one another. Well, when you think about Jesus' life, and not even from just a biblical point of view, historical point of view, uh, his, his birth, his supernatural miracles that he did re supposedly representing God, his father, his death barrel, and resurrection.

It's all out there, not just in the Bible. It's out there historically documented, and that is the foundation of the faith of Christianity. The death barely in resurrection of Jesus Christ. So he says, you gotta love one another the way that I've loved you. So that doesn't really give us a lot of wiggle room to treat people badly and to walk over people and step around people.

Now. The, the real big kicker with this one is 'cause we've grown up, some of us have grown up in churches and we all think that we know what makes us look impressive to people, what really connects with the heart of people. But I got some bad news for you. It's not the preaching and it's not the teaching as good as it is today.

It's not that, it's not about that. It's not the worship, it's not the singing songs, it's not doing the miracles. It's not building buildings and projects and things like that. It's not that he says, the thing that connects with people outside when they see us is our love for one another. That's what shines through.

That's what leaks out of us, God leaking out of us and onto them. That's like when we went to Fresco Park last week, a few people come up and said, when's Pastor Kiv gonna preach? We're not out there to preach. We are out there to let the love of Christ in us be seen. And I don't know if for those of you that here, it was a great time.

We went around and I, I talked to a few different people that were watching on and they're going, what, what is going on here? And I said, well, we can't get into our church. God shut us down. Took the car park away. And they went, really? He did that? I said, no, we're just fixing the car park. But it's amazing.

They think that God's doing all sorts of bad stuff and he's not doing it all. But it's always a fun way to get the conversation going. And I said, so well, what are you doing there? Said, we're just coming out. We're hanging out. We're out here to love on one another. And anybody else that wants to join in.

And they said, people, they're so, you guys are so happy. No one's angry. Everything feels real. Just so different. I said, that's because we believe that a love for God is manifest in love for one another. If you come in here and you tell me, oh, I love God, but gee, I hate my wife. I got some bad news for you.

You don't love God. Oh, I love God. But that person that worked, they drive me nuts. I hate him. You can't say that you love God. And then hate something that God loves, which God loves people. So today's gonna be a little bit different where I'm gonna read a lot more scripture for you because I want you to actually engage a little bit in this because when it comes to being four people, uh, you can either make excuses, you can make an excuse, or you can make a difference, but you can't do both.

Mm-hmm. You can't do both. So here's what I want you to do. Grab your phones out. We're gonna do a little Slido question. There's gonna be a QR code on the back of your chair, and I'll up on the screens and you guys online too. I just want to hear from you, what kind of excuses do you tell yourself to give you the reason to not lean in, to not be for someone, to not step in.

I mean, there's lots of them, you know, like, oh, I don't, I don't feel like I know what I'm doing. Or I might offend people, but I'd be interested to see what yours are. At the same time, I'm gonna read to you a good portion of the Book of Luke, and I want you to just to listen for excuses. Just listen. But I want you to put yours up there and we'll just see.

So it's Luke chapter 14. On the Sabbath day, Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, so he is already on enemy ground and he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling in his body. Jesus asked the Pharisees, the experts in the law, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not, but they remain silent.

So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. Then he asked them, if one of you has a child or an that falls into a well on a Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out? And they said nothing. Yeah, that's the worst thing you can do to Jesus. 'cause he just keeps going on and then he watches how they're interacting in this thing.

And he goes, Hmm. When someone invites you to a wedding feast, don't take the best place of honor for a person. More distinguished than you may be invited. If so, it's though the host will invited you, will come down and say to you, you need to give up your seat at the front and go down to the back and then you'll be humiliated.

And he says, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled. And those that hum themselves will be exalt exalted. Now what have we got? Hef here to see. I'm too good looking. I've never actually had that issue getting rejected. Too awkward. Lack of time. Okay, keep going. Let's just see. Then he goes on, tells 'em a story about the kingdom and he talks about a, a wedding banquet.

Banquet. And this particular thing he's sharing to let the, the Jews know that they're missing it. You. You've been waiting for the Messiah. I'm here by the way, but they're missing it. And they're still missing it. So he says, A certain man prepared a great banquet, invited many guests at that time and he sent the servant out, invite everybody to come in and they all like began to make excuses.

One said, I can't. I've just bought a field. I must go and see it. Please excuse me. Another said, I've just bought five yoke of oxen. I'm on my way to try them out. Please. Excuse me. Still another said I just got married, so I can't come. Not even a, please excuse me. What is the deal with that? Then the servant comes back and says to the master, Hey, listen, they're not coming, and he's mad, he's angry.

He says, you go out in the streets, you go find the poor. You bring 'em all in. He said, we've done all that. He said, okay, go out to the rows and the country lands and compel them to come. So my house will be filled. It's a picture of the kingdom of heaven, and the Jews are not coming in, so he's inviting everybody else, which is us, which is good.

We get in, but at the end of it, he says, I tell you. Not one of those who were invited will taste of the banquet. So what have we got here? I'll do it later. I'm too busy. I'm tired. I'm hanging out with Matt. That's gotta be Tom. Uh, they're weird. They won't listen to me. Mental health issues. So there's a fear in there.

Too hard. Okay. Interesting. So, of all the stuff that I just read, then just very quickly. Where did, where did Jesus not bend to ex excuses? He's in the middle of a house with, with a prominent Pharisee. He's amongst the religious leaders. He already knows, as far as they're concerned, it's illegal to do anything on, on the Sabbath and his deserving of death, so he doesn't crumple to that bud.

He doesn't crumple and make an excuse, even though he had a good one right there. He doesn't do that. Yeah. And then when he gets down and tells the story that I read last, he makes three very, very important directives around where excuses come from. He said, one person's just bought a block of land. In other words, I, you know, I got a block of land.

I gotta go and check this thing out. I'm gonna build my great home and I'm gonna build my kingdom and this is gonna be great. He says, you gotta watch that. That's, that can be an excuse. For not being four people. And he says, I've just bought some oxen. Now we probably don't. Not many of you are managing oxen.

I don't imagine. Have you got any oxen on your, any of your businesses managing oxen? No, no, no. But what he's talking about is the guy's got a business, he started a business. And you get, you know what happens in business? You get busy and then you start working and then you're doing more. And then you're obsessed with Merck and you gotta have, gather more.

And how much more do you need? Well, just a little bit more. How much more is that? Just a little bit more. And you keep going. So if you're not careful, work. Work can be a, and a business can be an excuse to not lean in. And of course the final one was of course marriage. Yeah. Sometimes we use our spouses, sometimes we use our kids.

We use all sorts of circumstances to justify why I shouldn't have to engage. When God asks us to be four people, religious people dance around. They use excuses. They talk themselves out of why they don't have to do what God wants them to do. Listen carefully. To this, it's not gonna be on the screens.

When God in your relationship where God is relegated to the lowest priority in your life, other people become no priority.

I'll say it again. When God is relegated to the lowest priority in your life, other people become no priority at all. That's just the way it works. But how did Jesus not panda and bow down to excuses? How did he do that? And it got me thinking as I was preparing this, I'm going, how do you do that? And I've come up with one thing.

You just need one thing to silence all those excuses. And it's all tied to acknowledging that you are a servant. That's what we are around here. We're servants of the most, oh God. Which means we're available. We pick up a town and we serve wherever, whenever God asks us to. We're servants. You heard Lincoln up there before building a car park.

He's a busy man. He's got a lot going on. Got plenty going on in his world. But why did he give up his time to build a car park? Well, because God is a high priority in his life, so therefore, out of love for God and love for people, he sacrifices and he does one thing. He accepts one thing, which enables him to make a difference.

A huge difference. Anybody wanna have a punt? Have you figured out what the one thing is? Not yet. All right, let's look through another account of Jesus. I'm just gonna walk you through some scripture today so you can get to see it. Look for where potential excuses could be, what you think is behind it happening.

'cause I want you to kind of discover this for yourself. This is in Luke chapter. 19 few chapters later, Jesus entered the Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man there called Z and he was a chief tax collector and wealthy tax collectors were despised in the first century. Well actually come think of it.

They're kind of still despised now. Now they were despised in the first century because they were corrupt, they were unjust, and they would rip people off. They had no friends. They would, in fact, this is how bad tax collectors are when this one quote that Jesus said is worse than tax collectors and sinners.

They've got their own little category along with sinners. You know, they're not just a sinner, they're a super sinner when they're a tax. So this guy is really in, not in good place, and the best thing that Jesus could do, you know, what is. He's passing through Jericho. Just pass on by. That's what you should do.

Just, just keep on going. Jesus, you got enough trouble already. You're in enough trouble with the religious people. You just don't. This is one headache that you don't need. So Zacchaeus, he wanted to see who Jesus was. So there's something in Zacchaeus. He's just curious about this. Jesus. So he wanted to see He was, but the trouble was Zacchaeus was short.

He was a very short guy. Now we get someone in our community that's fairly short. Guys, his name's Graham. He's got a massive big heart, but he's just kind of a short guy. And, uh, every so often he, you know, gotta get on things to kind of get up on top of things. And, and I'm not saying he's real short, not, not real short, although his last acting role.

He did play Elf on the shelf. So that's, I'm, I'm just saying. So anyway, Graham, I don't know where you are, Graham. I didn't, I didn't even run this past you mate. We love you and we love Donna. He does so much work around here a couple of days a week. He just volunteers and, uh, Donna's mum passed away, uh, just shortly and they have to go down to Sydney.

So you're in our thoughts and prayers and thank you for helping me make this point that Zacchaeus was short. So he's short. And he can't get there. No one is gonna let him in. No one's gonna let him get to the front of the line to see Jesus. 'cause everybody despises him. So he is gotta get creative. So goes and runs up a tree and he's up on a tree and he's just hanging in there looking out and waiting for Jesus.

Now when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, so he's come here, he's looked up, and what does he say? Come down immediately. Come down immediately. What are you doing? Jesus. Jesus. This is not, this is not good for your PO portfolio. This is, you can, you're just gonna get in a world of hurt here.

Just you should let this go. He's a social outcast. Don't do anything else.

See, as KISS comes down the tree, Jesus says to him, I must stay at your house today. What are you insane? So he came down and he welcomed him. Gladly. Keep going. Is there anymore? I. All the people saw this and began to mutter. He's gone to be a guest of the sinners.

Jesus just keeps putting himself in the line of fire. Why? Because he is for Zacchaeus and anybody that's short, that's gonna run ahead and climb a tree, he knows my heavenly father must be doing something in their hearts. So he's for them. He's for them. And then there's this pause and Jesus goes to the house and we don't even know what happens.

We dunno what they're talking about. I wish we did. It'd be make a lot more sense. But suddenly in the midst of the conversation, Zakia stands up and says, right now, Lord, I give half my possessions to the poor. I imagine his mates that were around the party too. The other task collectors going. Mate, we're takers.

We're not givers, mate. We are, we collect, we don't, we don't give. What are you doing? This is making us look bad. So this is really, and, and Zia isn't finished. And then he goes up and says, and if I've cheated anybody, cheated anybody, you're a tax collector. You cheated everybody. I'm gonna pay them back four times the amount.

What is going on here? Jesus was for Z Kiss. He enters in because he knows God is up to something. And do you know what Jesus says? This is amazing. He's just, he's become so extravagantly, generous and wealthy, and wants to share his wealth with other people. Jesus says this today, salvation has come to this house, which means when someone truly encounters Christ.

There is this extravagant generosity that enters their heart. They're no longer concerned about just themselves, but they wanna, they wanna put things right and they wanna love people and they wanna do things and they want to help and it's, it's just amazing 'cause Jesus is for him and he's having to overcome some things and then he makes, he tips his hand as to why he's doing this.

He said the son of man came to seek and save those that are lost. Jesus risks at all to be for, he's not, he is not going to be pandered to, and he is not gonna allow excuses to stop him from engaging where God is clearly leading him into. So what one thing has Jesus got to embrace in order to silence the excuses?

I wonder, let's bring it a bit more close to home. Anita. Um, she's on staff here. She's one of the executive pastors. And anyway, she decides she's gonna have a bit of a holiday and she's gonna take her kids and she's gonna go with, uh, Katie and Rey, and they're gonna go a thousand miles, a thousand kilometers out to Quipe, the middle of nowhere.

Why are you going to visit Talia? Have you heard of Zoom? No. To visit Talia, why do you wanna go and visit Talia? Because we want Talia to know we are for her. She is building a great life out there. She's had some difficult times, but things are going really well, and Talia was the first person to give their life to Christ.

When we started the junction, she sat in the cafe for six weeks. And eventually I walked her through that board. Over there in the corner, there's just the gospel presentation. He said, we just want to go out and we just wanna love on her. And we just wanna go and let her know that we are for her. Couple of days beforehand, Anita gets a phone call.

She gets a phone call from a lady that had come here for line dancing with her daughter to say that I am really sick and I. I am probably going to pass away of these holidays because it's that terminal. And I watched her take the phone call and I watched her, her eyes well up, and I watched. I thought, whoa.

And then I watched her engage and she was all in with this lady, what do you need? How can we serve you? How can we help? What can we do?

And then she goes on holidays. And at the same time, she's got her phone and she's staying in contact with this lady on this journey of passing through. She gets to lead this lady to Christ. She gets to support the husband and the family all the way through this journey. And I'm, I'm not sure I've got the timing right, but I think, I think Kate might have passed away before you got back, is that correct?

Or just after you got back somewhere around there? Just before. And then we were planning a celebration of Kate's life and we did it here on Friday. They had 190 people in here, 190 people and another 80 online. It, it was unbelievable. And the vast majority of these people, Kate warned me as I stood by her bed preparing to go.

She said, just let you know I've been an atheist my entire life. You are gonna have some fun with these guys. I said, okay. And she said, and here's what you have to do. You have to spit some Jesus at them. I've said, I've never had anybody ask me to spit Jesus at 'em, but I'll have a go. I'll give it a go. And so we had this, this celebration of life and, um, it was such a privilege.

And Kate's mom's here, Lorraine, and we, we just want you to know that we love you and we are praying for you and your family. And, uh. Your daughter's life we saw in the room impacted so many people more than she could ever, ever realize. But I watched Anita through that and I thought there again, she embraced the one thing that you have to have if you are gonna be four people.

Have you figured it out?

Have you figured it out? Neither? I didn't even tell her. I.

If you're gonna be four people and you're gonna be led by the Holy Spirit and you're gonna be active in what God wants you to do, to silence those excuses, when God gives you the nudge, you're gonna have to humbly and joyfully embrace one word in convenience,

inconvenience. When God comes, he always comes at a really bad time, or so you think it's a bad time, but you've gotta embrace joyfully and willfully inconvenience. I watched her grapple with the fact I'm going ahead to build memories for my child, but man, my heart is with this lady and this family, and I want to love and serve them well.

And I watched it. Just inconvenience. Okay, God, this is kind of a little inconvenient for the timing of everything, but you know what? That's cool. I'm good with that. That's, I'm good with that. That is what we have to get resolved in ourselves. God is gonna ask you to do things and lead with people and connect with people when it's the most inconvenient of time, and you've gotta be able to go.

Embrace it. Joyfully, willfully. Embrace it because that's the moment when you are gonna go. It's time to pause building my kingdom and get about the kingdom that God wants built, which is seeking and saving those that are lost. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. Maybe you've thought about Jesus, about the inconvenience for him.

He's part of the Father, son, and Holy Spirit. He's eternally in heaven. They're living in perpetual community and he has to give all that up. Take a walk across the universe. Be born as a baby, the most vulnerable. Lose his omnipresence to be everywhere. One, be confined to this body experience. All the horrible things that we have to experience.

Let go of all of his majesty, all of his glory, all of his power. In order to come down and help us get out of our brokenness and get back into relationship with him, mate, that is a whopping inconvenience. I sometimes think I, I kind of, I. I, I have a fairly vivid imagination, so I kind of think like what was happening?

Were they kinda like having, like were they like sitting around the table one day, father, son, holy Spirit, having a glass of wine looking down, going, oh, what a mess. And the father goes, these guys are in such a mess. And, and he, he goes, I got this, I got, I got this plan, but man, it's gonna be really inconvenient.

And it's, it's gonna require someone to sacrifice and someone to go down there and be with them and help them and reveal them, reveal me, and, and I just have this picture that Jesus just steps up from the table and say, I'll go, I'm in. Cool. I'll do it. Just, I'll go. I'll do it. I know how much you love them.

I'll go. I don't care what it takes. I'll go and you see that in Jesus' life all the way through where this isn't, it's not convenient to go and heal someone in front of the Pharisees when they can put you to Estonia to death, because in their law you're not allowed to do that. But he never makes excuses.

He always makes a difference because he embraces, this is a little inconvenient. You see it again in the Garden of Gethsemane. When he's kneeling in the garden, sweating droplets of blood because he's realizing that the sin of the world is coming upon him and he's about to face the worst thing that anybody could imagine, and he says to the father, I really like it if I didn't have to go for this, but not my will, but your will be done.

When you embrace inconvenience from a kingdom point of view, essentially you're saying, Lord. Yeah. Not my will, but your will be done. What I think is important can wait while we do what you think is important. It's amazing. It's amazing. God's plan and purpose is for people. When you think about this world, it says, eventually this will all it's is all gone.

He said, it's a tear down. The whole thing is a tear down. He says, basically it's all gonna get thrown into fire and there'll be a new heavens and there will be a new earth purged of wickedness and evil and sin. The only thing God cares about is people. He cares about people and he wants people to love him well, because if you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, you are now in a good position to love someone without any kind of manipulation, with any kind of agenda in there.

And you can tell when someone's got an agenda and they're trying to love you. Say, Hey, ya know what you're about. We know that we can. We can. We can feel it instinctively. So we gotta be four people. And that's how it's always gonna be around here, just being four people, pick up a towel and serve. And so I want you just to remember that you can't, you can make an excuse or you can make a difference, but you can't do both.

And if you're gonna be four people, you just have to accept inconvenience, and you've gotta accept that, not begrudgingly, joyfully and saying, God, okay, you're selecting me to go and help someone. Discover you for salvation to come to their house. I'm good. That can wait. And then you watch and see what God does.

Now I wonder, knowing that now I wonder what you might do with that.

What would you do that, what we've heard you could start saying yes. Start saying yes to Jesus a lot more. When the nudges come, and I'm telling you they come all the time, but we make excuses to step around and step over or whatever. Say Uhuh, I'm not gonna do that. Not gonna make excuses. I'm gonna make a difference, which means they're gonna lean in.

Is it gonna be inconvenient? Yes, it is, but that's okay because a Jesus inconvenience and a God inconvenience for the kingdom has great benefits. Now lemme address the issue of not knowing enough. Um, making a disciple for Jesus does not require a seminary degree. In fact, it'll probably hinder you if you have a seminary degree.

I've been through a couple of different Bible colleges and I spent the last 10 years undoing, I would say 80% of what I learned to stick to the 20%. That's really important to Jesus. Think about Jesus, the religious elite of their day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were the seminary guys. They were the big noted ones.

And he walks right past them and he says, I'm gonna use ordinary unschooled people. And he picks fishermen. I mean, can you get any lower fishing? Does anybody here like fishing? There's only a few and they're lying. 'cause they just wanna, they're just, they're feeling sorry for fishermen. No, but what I'm saying is like, have, have you ever hung with fishermen?

They have an interesting vocabulary. It's very colorful, it's very colorful, lot, lots of adjectives. Uh, but this, this simple in their faith. But they have this wonder about them because they catch a fish and it's this big. By the time they get home to tell them all the misses. It's this big. And of course it got away because you, there's no evidence.

'cause think of the little one left, but he picks people that don't have, and I'm not against education. I think education is wonderful in all areas, but you gotta be careful when it comes to making disciple. It can really get in the way because people don't need that. What they need is someone that has a relationship with Jesus.

That can actually show them how to have a relationship with Jesus. And that will only happen if you willingly lay down your life. And instead of like, so when you, when you make excuses, it goes back to what I read earlier on. That's the exalting of self yourself. I'll exalt myself above what's needing to take place.

When you make a difference and you accept inconvenience, that's the humbling of yourself. So that God can make a difference through you, and that's how it all works. You suddenly, when you accept this, I'm telling you, you suddenly see people like you haven't seen them before and you'll wanna engage and want to hear their story.

And we got a bunches of resources that we can share with you on things that you can do to help people on the journey. You've got our soap devotions thing and you've got Discovery Bible, and I'm Umping things that's there to help serve you. But the real thing is just taking an interest, just leaning in and just loving on them.

And say, what's your story? Tell us your story. Everybody wants to talk about themselves. And then you listen and you'll, I'll guarantee you, you'll see that their story somewhere, they will interact in your story and then the real things start to fire. And then eventually it gets to, why are you so different?

Why do you love the way that you do? Why do you care the way that you do? Well, that's about my relationship with Jesus. That's the good news of the gospel. Has anybody, anybody, ever shared it with you? I could share with you on napkin. We can draw it here right now. I. And you help people to gain and maintain a relationship with God.

Like if you've been around here for a while, you realize, I don't ever tell you go bring someone to church. I don't tell you to do that because how do you bring someone to church? They either are the church or they're not the church. The church is the people of God called out. This is just a family gathering.

What I say is go out and shine the light of Christ. Show Jesus love to people. When they discover Jesus, by all means, you can use church online. You can bring 'em here to the family gathering or the cafe, and they might go somewhere else. I don't care. What I'm interested is it's them discovering Jesus for themselves.

'cause everything changes. Kate was amazing. She searched all sorts of things throughout her life and landed on atheism and she said afterwards. I never knew that what I was, the piece I was missing was in a relationship with a person. I've avoided church for so long because it's all been about religion and rules, and Jesus wasn't about that.

He came to make it far more simple. It's just about relationship. So my question for you is, who's on the rhythms and routines of your life? Who do you see all the time? 'cause you can only only disciple someone that you can see all the time. That God might be wanting you to say, you know what? Just accept.

It's gonna be a little inconvenient for me to do my work for you, but that's okay. You'll be rewarded. It's good. Let my will be done. Don't make excuses. Let me use you and make a difference. Bring salvation to that house. I mean, like I, I long for the day when everybody that calls our church home or is connected online or wherever you are, this is this.

Just as Ruth said, it leaks out of us everywhere. We're just here to to love. We're not here to judge. We're here to love. We're here to present the love of Christ to you, and hopefully you catch that. God does something, your heart, and then you can go share that simply with someone else. Man, I long for the day when everybody does that.

Yeah, we already have many of us do it, but imagine what happens when everybody does that could, that could actually transform the world if people loved one another the way that Christ loved them. Oh, that could change everything. Absolutely everything. We didn't build a a car park out there. You know what, you know what Lincoln built out there?

He built a bridge. A bridge for people to connect and come in and sit in the junction. A place that people will love them, where help them with physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs. A place that they can experience the love of Christ for themself to belong, where they work out what they believe.

He built a bridge when Kate knocked on Anita's door and she welcomed that inconvenience and said, Lord, I'm here for this family. And then what happens? We do the fam fa, the celebration of Kate's life in here. We didn't build a car park, we built a bridge for people to come in. As I was sharing at the, at the celebration, there was one lady sitting roughly just in this area here, and I could see she was watching very intently and.

And so everybody kind of left and she kind of kept siloed on the, and you can always tell when people would like to talk, but they don't really know what to talk about. So I just went down and I just spoke to her and she said, I, I really get what you said. 'cause I, I talked a bit about suffering. 'cause you can remember this is the cystic fibrosis community.

A lot of these people are like. Dealing with suffering every single day of their lives. And then some of them are organ donors and some of them are recipients. And it's, it's amazing to be there. And she said, I get what you said, but that suffering will can make you bitter or it can make you better. And I used the term, uh, that when I launched it, I said, Jesus said, in this world we will suffer.

He didn't pull any punches on that. He said, you will suffer. But then he goes on and says, but be of good cheer. I have overcome this world. I'll give you an out in a relationship with me. And I said, suffering will either make us bitter and then everybody pays the price or it can make us better. And so she wanted to pick up on that.

And, uh, she said, I, I kind of get that. And you, you, and she said, you, you mentioned the fact that God loved human beings so much that he gave. And I said, yeah. She said, I don't really have faith. I know, but I, I do understand that giving. And I just knew there was a story there that I think she wanted to tell but didn't want to tell at the same time.

So I said, okay. So I said, there's obviously a story that you wanna share. Tell me a bit, tell me your relationship to Kate. How'd you know Kate and the relationship with Kate wasn't I. It wasn't so much with Kate, but was with another guy called Kevin that was being the host with me here, a lovely guy outta Melbourne.

And, um, she said, I, I was a donor. And I said, okay. And I could just tell she needed to get something out and uh, I said, sir, you want to tell me that story? And she said, yeah, she said, I under, I understand this. She said, my little girl drowned several years ago,

and Kevin, the organ donut guy, made contact and we talked and talked about that my daughter's heart could give life to another child.

So she said, when you say God, so love that he gave, I get that. We so loved another person that we gave, we gave our daughters heart and we talked for a little bit, and then I just got to just pour courage into her. I said, you know, you'll see your daughter again. Scriptures are really clear, really clear.

That when an infant or a young person goes, they're immediately with the Lord, you just gotta hang on. You gotta figure out how to hang on to God until you get there.

What's that all about? It's just being four people. I knew that was gonna be an inconvenient conversation, but I knew it was a conversation she had to have. 'cause she's grappling with suffering and she's grappling with faith and she's grappling with a loving God. But why has this happen? And how do I deal with this?

And you just have to lean in and trust that God will give you the words when you need them. So let's be four people. Let's be four people. Let's not make excuses. Let's make a difference. And just accept your plans are gonna get mucked up. It's gonna be inconvenient at times, but if you'll embrace that joyfully and you will lean into that, like Zacchaeus, you might see salvation come to someone's house that then spills over onto many.

We love you guys and I, I love the way that God has. Formed us as a church. He's dismantled us and rebuilt us to the way that we are, and we are more than capable of leaning into anyone anywhere, anytime, and displaying the love of Christ that we have. And that is what impacts them. That's what they discover.

That's what brought Talia in, being loved unconditionally and then sensing God's love.

Really, I guess we're saying let's let God's will be done and let's just be four people. Let's pray. Father, I'm so grateful that you already modeled for us this, this area of embracing willingly and joyfully inconvenience 'cause it silences excuses. Jesus did this for us by entering this world could have stayed.

I could have stayed with you and just stayed in that perpetual state, but then we would be lost. But instead, he takes a walk across the universe and enters into all of our brokenness to try and reveal what you really like and how much you really love us. So I, I pray that we would become more like kind of on the Baptist and we go, you know, Lord, I'm happy for me to decrease here, that you might increase.

And, and, and Lord, right now we just pause and we just think. Who are the people that on my world, in my rhythms and routines, that I kind of know they want to talk. I kind of know they want to talk, and I know I should lean in, but I'm making excuses and I know they're hurting, but I'm just, well, I wanna stop making excuses today.

I just want to accept the fact that it's gonna be a little inconvenient. It's gonna be a little uncomfortable. But salvation needs to come to that house. The love of God needs to permeate. So, Lord, I'm asking that you would just make us more sensitive to your spirit. Keep leading us, you lead. And Lord, we will follow.

We will follow. Because when you get involved, that's when everything changes. People move from death to life. And that is a really, really good thing. So Father, I just thank you for just enabling us to talk around this topic and I pray that you would just help us to live it every day. Thank you. In Jesus' name.

Amen. I've asked the team just to sing over us quietly now 'cause I feel like a message like this. You need to sit in just for a moment and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. The ones that have come to your mind that you really know, ah, yeah, I should be engaging. Then allow the Holy Spirit to say, this is how I want you to engage.

It's not about preaching to them. It's not about preaching at them, it's about loving them. It's about letting the love of Christ in you spill out or to them. Then they will start asking the questions and you can bring the other side in and the teaching side.