How to Live a Christian Life According to the Bible

TRANSCRIPT

Anita: This morning we are actually doing a recap of our unusual or Peculiar People series. Uh, it's been a great series to hear and I'm gonna invite Kev up to come and share. Um, but I'll just give, so the whole idea of this series was that as a Jesus follower, our life looks really different. We look different to, or we should.

Look different to the people around us. Uh, our life is marked by, um, kingdom values, the values that are quite different. And Kev started, kicked off our series actually, Megan's, oh, you gonna use that one? Yes. He's, he's wired, wired for sound,

Kev: although it was cutting in and out. So maybe, oh,

Anita: maybe you'll back up.

Kev: Let see how we go.

Anita: Yeah. Um, so Kev, you shared about peculiar character. Yes. And. Tell us, I'm gonna ask each of our teachers today to recap their message and I'm going to ask them to tell what? The whole message? No. Yeah. In, in two minutes. Oh, well, we'll see. Maybe more than two minutes. That's a challenge, isn't it?

A few minutes. No. What challenge's

Phil: accepted?

Anita: What did you want us to know from that message? So when we are preparing a teaching series, I get to work closely alongside Kev and the team of teachers, and we often say to our speakers, please get. Focus on what do we want people to know and what do we want them to do around a whole other framework of teaching.

But those are core things.

Kev: That's a, that's a key thing because there's actually three ways that you can approach teaching. You're teaching the Bible to people, which means you, you don't really care about the people. You just want 'em to know everything that's in that book. Or you teach people the Bible, which means you're a little bit softer, but you're still gonna make sure you get through everything in that book.

Or what we do is we follow Jesus' model where you teach for life change. If there's no life change and there's no application, you're not gonna be conformed to the image of Christ. It's a very different approach, so, mm-hmm. Yeah.

Anita: So today I am gonna ask our teachers, what did you want us to know? What did you want us to do?

And then probably the hardest one is, how has it changed you personally, your own message? What did the Holy Spirit do? Because we don't actually teach from, well, we hope. We hope. Our teachers are not teaching from, I feel like their flesh or just what they know, but from what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you in your life.

So, all right, I'll stop talking and go.

Kev: Okay. So Mom was on character. And I took it outta Galatians chapter five, which is the fruits of the Spirit, with the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. They're fruits of the spirit, but they're actually part of the character and nature of God.

So we should be peculiar and we should stand out. We should stand out, but not for weird reasons, other than weird reasons of the fact that, man, you guys are so encouraging. You're so kind, you're so passionate. So mine was all about that. And during the week, I, I dunno if you guys saw it on spotlight, there was a family called, uh, the Abdullah family.

Dunno if you watched that on Channel seven. Uh, it was amazing. This is the family, um, Danny Abdullah and his wife Lisa, I think his name was, they had lost three children. They were killed in a vehicle accident between a guy called Samuel Davidson that was drunk and on drugs. Anyway, he killed the three children and a cousin, but it's about this guy's story, Danny and he, I think they're Greek Orthodox, something like that.

And, uh, anyway, he, he reached a place where he said, I'm, I'm. He said, I'm either gonna be angry and bitter and twisted about this for the rest of my life, or I have to do something about it. So, so Danny actually reached out to Samuel, the, the young man that was on drugs that killed the children and built a relationship.

And started to build a relationship, um, with him and the journey was him going to meet him in prison and that kind of stuff. But it was amazing to see the level of forgiveness, the level of these fruits of the spirit, you know, this kindness to this man that didn't really deserve it, but they were giving it.

And one of the things he said, which is what I really wanted to pick up on, was he said, I had, I had a choice when this young man killed our kids. I either become bitter and twisted and that does not serve my family or anything. Or I build a rapport with this guy because whether we like it or not, our lives are entwined forever.

And I thought, how, what a good way of approaching it that is so counter-cultural and so peculiar in this kind of environment. So that was, that was good. That was great, that, that was, felt like God just put that on right at that time to just highlight the whole, carry his character. Nature can be outworked in spectacular ways.

And me personally, I dunno. I, I feel like every day for me is like a test of my character and, and I get pushed to do things I don't wanna do. I jumped on a plane and went to New Zealand for one day because there were a bunch of guys that were launching something and, and I, those that know me, I, I haven't flown since way before.

Um. COVID COVID. Yeah. And, and so, and back to New Zealand because I, some of you wouldn't know what Anna and I got caught in the big New Zealand quake and it messed us up really bad. And so as soon as I booked the flight, I'm waking up in the middle of the night having convulsions, thinking I'm in, in an earthquake and all this kinda stuff.

It was really weird. So for me, even that's a simple thing. I'm going over there to love and, and to encourage this guy. God did a work in you. It was a stretching thing in my character. Say, were you gonna do that even though this is all going on? And the answer is yes. You, you just push in regardless of fear and that kinda stuff.

So

Anita: that's me. So good. Thank you. Thanks for sharing. Um, and that is real what Kev shared about the character. Um, challenging and the just stretching him. I'm gonna invite Pauline, come and sit on the hot seat. Meg, search your mic. So, Pauline, you spoke about, uh, unusual love was your topic and loving the un lovely living open handed.

Tell us what. Did you want us to know from your message?

Pauline: Okay. Um, 32nd summary. So, Jesus lived in a really, and lived and loved in a really unusual way. It was extremely counterculture for the time. And one of the things that made his love for people so unusual was that he loved them without any judgment.

He met them exactly where they were at regardless of how they'd been living. That's a really unusual love and he commands us to. Love the Lord your God, but then also to love your neighbor as yourself, giving people the same amount of grace and um, compassion that you would give yourself. We need to be giving that same level of love and compassion to people around us, which is a challenge in such a judgmental world that we live in now, but that's what makes our love look more unusual.

What makes it stands out, stand out, and what makes it so transformational for people as well? That's the difference. So, um, the do. Would be that we, what I have been going through over the last few weeks and months is becoming people who don't have judgment as our first response to people. And that's really hard to do.

I've admitted completely, I'm a judgey mc, judgey face about a lot of people. Um, and doing that means. Recognizing that we ourselves need so much grace. Like every person needs so much grace. Uh, all fall short. Doesn't matter whether you know Jesus or not. All fall short. And we all need the same level of grace.

And once we realize how much we need Jesus every day. That's when we are able to then love others as ourselves. We recognize the grace that we get for Jesus from Jesus for being human, and we are able to extend that same grace to other people. It starts to transform that judgment into compassion. Um.

What was the last bit? Oh, how has it changed? Oh, okay. How has it changed you? You sort of said, Ooh. Yes, I sort of did, but I'm gonna say one more thing. I, it has changed as I've been focusing on this, my relationship with Jesus. 'cause I always thought of Jesus as being like my bestie. He was my buddy. And when I would sit with Jesus or spend time with him, I always felt like he was sitting next to me.

And what I've learned over the last few weeks is that I wasn't. Spending anywhere near as much time as I should have been, recognizing the power and the glory of Jesus, and actually sitting metaphorically at his feet and really saying, Jesus, I'm so sorry that I just fall short all the time. And thank you for what you did on the cross.

And I was reading yesterday in, um. Romans, I think it's chapter six. So Paul wrote this letter to the Roman Church. Paul had a massive history and in chapter six, uh, he's talking about how he knows what he wants to do. He knows what's right, and yet he just continues to do the wrong thing anyway. And in this verse, it's like 23 or something.

He says, A wretched person that I am, how do I escape this body of death? How do I get out of this, this cycle of continuing to do the wrong thing? And then he says, thank goodness. For God through the love of Jesus Christ. So when we recognize that, that every day we have this wretched body and we need to sit at the feet of Jesus, we need to thank him again.

We need to recognize how much grace we need. We recognize that we're all in the same boat. We all need grace. It's just that some of us are found and have grace and some of us are lost and haven't found grace yet. So that changes our heart towards those people 'cause they're not now just bad people and we are good people.

We are found and they're just lost. That's so good. And the judgment disappears, sort of. I'm not perfect at it yet.

Anita: Yes. Yeah, no, that's so good. Good. That's it. Thank you, Pauline. Thank you. You're tag teaming with Phil here. I'll hold that. So good. I love that thought. Um, and the judgment idea is what challenged me out of your message for sure.

And yeah, that whole idea of just sitting at Jesus' feet because of who he is. Yeah. So amazing. Good morning, Phil. Good morning. Hi.

Phil: Good morning, church.

Anita: So Phil spoke about trusting God when it doesn't add up, so trust and peace. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us, what did you want us to know out of your message when you shared?

Phil: Yeah. I, I really wanted to focus on peace in my message and, um, we all know that we live in a chaotic world and, uh, sometimes it's just the level of chaos that is, uh, increasing or decreasing. But I wanted to share that we can all have peace in the middle. Of the chaos and that we can be peace makers even in the midst of chaos, as we step out to help others and love others, uh, we can have that peace and uh, God wants to give us that peace and it's about he guards your heart and he guards your mind and that peace of God can be with you.

So that's, uh, what the message was ultimately about. What do we want to do? What did you

Anita: want us to do? Yeah,

Phil: yeah. Well, we really do need our minds transformed and, uh, I use the scripture out of Romans, the book of Romans that Paul wrote, uh, Romans 12, two, that we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and that doesn't come easy.

Uh, particularly in the midst of chaos. But as we take the time to be with Jesus, like Pauline said, and worship him and love him and read his word, our minds slowly but surely do become transformed. And he said, be anxious for nothing. And it's very difficult to be anxious for nothing in the midst of the chaos that may be consuming you right now.

But we can. We can have that peace in the midst of chaos and it will stand out to others who know what you're going through. And then you have that peace of God that does pass understanding. It does stand out and people wanna know why you've got that. Yeah.

Anita: So good. And how has it changed you personally?

Phil: I think. Perhaps one of the biggest gauges or measurements is how much are you worried or concerned about your primary loved ones? And I think I've made some strides in that to be at peace in the midst of that chaos. And there has been many, many times, and there has been. Some major miracles in terms of peace, uh, in, in our lives during times of stress and struggle and sickness and, and whatever.

So I think, and the other thing I want to share is. Perhaps the greatest enemy of peace is, um, unforgiveness. And sometimes we not, sometimes we just have to learn to forgive and that will help us, uh, in terms of our peace. So, um, well done, Jen. You made it to the end.

Anita: She really did. And we're love that.

Thank you, Phil. Yeah. I love that forgiveness piece. Yeah. So good. All right, Megan.

I had, um. Just something on what Phil said there, and also what ties through with what Kevin Pauline also shared, also shared, which was just, uh, about the kindness of God. Like God's so kind to us, uh, the kindness of God to give us his grace and his mercy, and he wants to draw us alongside. Uh, he wants to draw alongside us and he wants us to lean in and in his kindness, he.

Helps us to do the things Kev talked about at the start, which is the surrender of all of the things that are hard to surrender. So yeah, God just dropped that in my spirit then when, when Phil was sharing. But Megs, you spoke about unusual joy and it was a joyous message last week.

Megs: Yeah, so

Anita: fun had some things in there I wasn't

Megs: expecting.

Um, but yeah, joy, ultimately it was the last of the series, but I feel like it really brought everything together because we were looking at the source. The source of your life then comes out in your character, then comes out in your piece. It comes out into all these ways in which we see other people. So it, I think it was a great way to finish up.

So great idea in having that one as the last one. Um, but we were really looking at the fact that happiness is an emotion that is fleeting. A lot of us are chasing the happy feels. But the joy of God is the thing that will hold you. True. And so that's what we were looking at last week and the fact that that joy comes from remaining in the love of God.

All these things we've already talked about, recognizing that in our lives. But then not leaving it there, not the trickle down from God to then Jesus, and then Jesus did that for us and then we're like, oh, thank you for this gift that I never share to somebody else. It's then the going and the sharing that to someone else.

And Jesus himself said, when you do that, you get a complete joy. Something that cannot be stolen from you, unlike happiness can be stolen from you. So that's what we were looking at. Um, and there's so much to it, which is. I really actually love digging more into that as we were going through. Um, but one of the things that I really was reminded about, things that we can do, so the practical side of what we can do, um, and really it was thinking about our own lives and taking a stock take.

Where am I currently at and what am I giving out to those people in the world around me? But not staying at that point and going, oh, woe is me. Look where I'm at. But then assessing and saying, what do I need as my next steps to be able to get to that place of accepting that joy in my life and then cultivating that joy.

And so that will look different for some people, but ultimately, whatever we're handing out. That is what everybody is experiencing as a person that loves Jesus. So we need to, we need to be serious about it and go, hang on a minute. We're not always gonna get it right, but we can apologize, all that sort of stuff.

Um, but that's really what we wanna do. Be honest with ourselves. Even looking at stuff that is difficult and accepting, I'm not really good at that. Being honest and then doing something about it, I think is How's it challenged you? Oh, look, I've been challenged for quite a while in this area, but for me, it all is all around that checking myself before I'm wrecking myself.

Yeah, check yourself word. It's true. Um. I've wrecked myself a few times. So essentially I can tell, I can tell straight away when I'm like, yeah, that's not, that's not coming from, from a place of joy that is coming from a place of unrest. We all know it. We're not, we're not naive. It's whether you are willing to accept it of yourself.

So for me is being I've, I've accepted that's not good. Um, like I did not win in that moment. And then saying, well, what do I need to do? I really need to connect back into Jesus. Wow, my soap devotions started to ease off a little, and now I've got on rust. Whoa, how did that happen? So being realistic about it and saying, this is my next step.

If I'm not remaining in Jesus, you cannot live from a place of joy. You just can't. So get back to that place prayer, listening to the word, listening to all of those that are around you, encouraging you and getting back to that spot of complete joy. Thank

Anita: you. That's awesome. Yeah. I loved, um, Megan's message.

We're gonna cut back to Kev for some more thoughts, but the practical thing I got to apply out of your message last week was I've, um, Dexter's been struggling with going to school. Not loving it. 10-year-old boy sitting in the classroom is not his favorite thing. And, um, we were talking about having joy in our circumstances and the song we sang at the end of last week, uh, I said to him, Dex, we just need to put this on in the car on the way to school, and you're gonna have joy and you're gonna go and share that with other people and trying to help him reframe.

This, the worst day of his life is going to school. You know, when you're 10, that's the worst day. Um, and so just trying to help him dig deep and, and live out of that place of, well, what has God called you to today that you can then go and share with someone else and make that day awesome. So, um, that's been our challenge in our house and anyone who's a parent knows that encouraging your kids is sometimes hard when you've got all the other things on, but we've all been digging deep.

To try and get him over the line and happy to go to school. But yeah,

Kev: schools have progressed haven't they? Right. You should be loving you. I used to be able to wa it for days and no one even know I was gone. 'cause no one took a role. No one did anything. You got cameras chasing you in all directions. I've seen you here.

Seeing you there. You can't do anything.

Anita: So you can't do anything. Can't do anything

Kev: at all. Poor guys.

Anita: So Kev, you are gonna share just some more ideas about servant hood or unusual and peculiar people serve extravagantly. Um, just

Kev: keep talking. I'll rewrite my message.

Anita: Ah, no over to you.

Kev: Don't go away.

You'll be back on shortly. Uh, yeah, I just wanted to talk a little bit about of, uh, the trip to New Zealand. 'cause that was one of the things for me that, that I felt prompted out of my message was be kind to, these guys go across and be, there's only six or eight of 'em. They're just starting this. If this ICN irresistible church network that we're part, obviously go over there and be with 'em and it really did impact them.

Quite a lot more than what I expected to do. I thought, oh man, just an Aussie coming over here. They were really impacted by it, but I actually got to sit in there with them as they were doing what we were doing in the summit here before I left, which is looking at IICN is the irresistible church network.

We're committed to having an unchurch. We want a church for the unchurched in every LGAA local government community. They call 'em areas. So there's about 500 areas in Australia, but there's 297 where most of the population are. I think there's 60 something in New Zealand. And there's about 46 where most of the population are gathered in those local government areas.

And so the commitment was in five years we'd like to have one, one irresistible church in at least a hundred of those areas. And I think New Zealand shooting for 30 of them. Uh, and then from there, there to be able to expand and, and. Move influence out beyond from there to partner with others to, to have somewhere that unchurched people can come that makes sense, that they feel comfortable, they can belong and they can actually discover a journey of faith in Jesus for themselves.

So that's kind of what we're doing. And then I got to see how our junction points. Were, were to work in con in conjunction with what's happening with ICN and had an Anglican eye, offered me $1.5 million to come and put a junction point in Christchurch. I said last time I was in Christchurch, he behaved very badly.

I'm never going back there. So I said, I said, let's just leave it all on the table. But there was conversations coming up like that. So, uh, I kissed what I would say to you, 'cause we're all in this thing together. If you know Australian pastors of smaller churches or New Zealand pastors. That are really burdened by the fact that we are not going and making disciples that are making disciples.

Ask them to make contact. Make contact with us on ICN and we'll work together because that's what we're all about, is helping people to develop churches and spaces that Unshipped people want to connect with. So our mission, of course, is to partner with the Holy Spirit, teach people, love God, love others, make disciples and make disciples.

We do this through these junction points, which are run by urban missionaries. This is what we call ourselves now because we don't just sit around waiting in pastoral offices for things to happen. We're engaged with the community all the time. And then out front of that are these things called these intentional missional villages, which you'll hear, hear a little bit more of.

But none of this vision and this mission that God's given us will come to pass unless we become these unusual, peculiar people that are so radically different and carry so much of his character and nature and commitment to what is important to God. So we are really unusual, peculiar people are really what I call servants of the most high God.

That's exactly what you are just servants and you know you're servants. And so you're available to pick up a towel and do whatever, wherever to be deployed and without your gifts and talents. And that in order to make people, uh, to make a place where people can connect and get to know Jesus. So at our church, we say we all give, we all love, we all care.

We all serve, we all do mission. We all do it all. It's not just one, it's not a clergy centric, this is a body centric kind of thing. And so we serve within the context of our family gathering here, and we serve in the context of our community. We do a lot within the context of the community. Uh, people often ask me, say, how did love the city get such incredible, uh, uh, in roads into the community?

And they say, you know what? Did you go out? Did Ruth go out with her? I'm the executive pastor of Love This City and we are here to help you. It's like, no. We just went and said, Hey, listen. We're a church. We love God. We love people. What do you need? That's, that's our approach. And that has continued to open up.

We're not there to tell them what to do. We are there to say, where is the need and could we step in? But we're very clear all the time. If you want to tie our arms that we can't share the gospel of Jesus, we can't help you because you want life change and behavior change, but none of that happens without heart change.

So, um, Jesus is the only one that can change your heart. So, and in all these areas, we've never had a department in any area, including the police. And the child said, never ever had one say, you can't do that. All they say is that we don't like it when our churches only do that and they won't do anything else.

But because you're doing everything else, we're open to it. So serving is another way that we are conformed to the image of Christ. And I think I'm just gonna read the statement that Jesus did. So we wanna go back and hear some more stories. This is what Jesus said in regard to servanthood. He called them together and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lauded over them.

And their high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you. So he's making a state and this is not how it's gonna be. This is not the way you are gonna operate. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave and servant of all.

Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. There's our model right there. That is the model right there. We are here to serve, and the greater one will become the servant of all. So unusual, peculiar people say yes to Jesus a lot more often when he makes a request and it's outside your wheelhouse a little bit, you still say yes, because if he's asking, I got something to contribute in there.

So we say yes, and we're prepared to risk not to get more outta this world. We don't need any more junk outta this world. What we need is to risk everything in this world. To see the kingdom expand and advance, and that's what we are. That's what this whole series has been about, becoming unusual, peculiar people that carry the character and nature of God, that love people passionately, the way that God loves them and will do anything short of sin to see them come to faith in Christ.

So that's kind of all I wanted to say and I'm gonna throw you back to Anita 'cause she wants to just talk about some stories of people that we wanna recognize in this servant space.

Anita: Thanks, Kev. So I wanna invite Hannah Brown up. I was looking going, is she here? Yes, she's here. Good. Um, and Hannah's gonna share, I just wanted to highlight a couple of stories this morning.

Some people will share their own story. Others I'm going to just share. I just got a time check in from the awesome Gemma to say we're 13 minutes behind. I know. Woo. We'll be all right. I'll, um, we'll tighten it up. Um, Hannah, I wanted to ask you, so Hannah serves in our youth ministry and also in our cafe team.

Uh, she has done that for many years. Um, how, what inspires you to serve, tell us that, and then I wondered if you could tell us also how has serving changed you?

Hannah: I don't know. So I suppose a lot of things inspire me to serve. Um, I think it does just come from that place of. Yeah, like Jesus served in any kind of opportunity he got in big ways and small ways and you know, he just loves us so much and I just see serving as a way to just like overflow that love.

Like you get to pass on that serving to other people. Um, you know, using the gifts and talents that I've been given and just taking the most of opportunities that present themselves. Um, and yeah, I just. It's so cool to get to serve with like amazing teams as well. Like that's so inspiring to see people just turn up week after week, you know?

And they're just loving from that overflow as well. And yeah, you have a lot of

Anita: fun, right? It is so fun. Team and the cafe team have a lot of fun together. Yeah. So what would you say, so we talk a lot about, or people might have a perception that serving is about what I do. Having a job to do, but in my experience, serving actually has changed me more.

So. So I wanted to ask you how, what has being involved in those serving teams done on the inside of you, how has it changed you?

Hannah: Yeah, I mean it's definitely helped me to not see it as like a thing that just needs to be ticked off, like a thing you have to do. It honestly has made me. Like it's changed me.

I think like it's made me a lot more grateful and a lot more, it's built my character. Just being able to be a part of that every week and change the perspective of it, which I think is, yeah, really cool.

Anita: That's good. And as a the, I didn't prepare you for this question, but I just thought as a youth leader, what.

Do you get to do as a youth leader? Like I'm thinking in terms of inputting into the next generation, do you find it challenging to do that or do you find it's just a natural thing?

Hannah: I mean, it's just amazing. Like I learned so much from everyone in the youth, the youth leaders and the youth kids. Like it's just incredible.

So I think it's, you know, it's so cool to be able to input into them, but then also have them, you know, input into me and it's just like, yeah, we just get to share with each other and build each other up and just push each other closer to Jesus, which is just. That's so good. Yeah, it's amazing.

Anita: Cool. Yeah.

Thank you Hannah. Thanks for sharing.

Hannah: I'll take that one.

Anita: The other person I wanted to highlight is actually serving in our kids team this morning upstairs, and he'd prefer not to be on a microphone anyway, but, um, Cameron Moore, and I meant to ask him the number of years, is Susie here how many years he's been serving in kids ministry?

But it would easily be. I don't know, 15 years, I think maybe more. And he started serving when his kids were in kids' ministry and now they're in youth nearly right through youth. And he's still serving on our team up there. And he, I asked him, uh, to share with me what inspires him to serve. And I'm just gonna read what he said because I think it's good to hear his words and not words I'm putting in his mouth.

He said, I serving kids ministry because I feel that. We have the greatest impact on people by discipling them while they are young kids are eager to open and to learn, and I believe giving them a foundation of faith when they're young isn't just impacting them in childhood, but for the rest of their lives and potentially for generations to come.

I get to witness the. Of the kids ministry that the kids ministry team have. Seeing the kids grow to become teenagers and then adults seeing the impact is awesome. And it keeps me serving even though my own boys are older now. Teaching others also grows me in my own discipleship. Two, which is what Hannah said then about how they give back and grow her.

Um, plus it is really good fun. Who wouldn't wanna come to church, play games and do cool activities? So yes, I think a few of our kids team feel like that. Who wouldn't wanna come and be up there playing games, learning about Jesus. So yeah. Cameron is, um, yeah, just one of those guys you wanna get to know and rub up against and just.

Uh, he's obviously learning a lot from, um, people, uh, the kids that are in his team as well. Um. This morning I wanted to share another story. So those two stories are about Sunday and our junction needs. But if you've been around here long enough, you'll know that we talk about living mission and serving on the rhythms and routines of our own lives every day, uh, no matter where we are.

Um, I'm gonna ask Carolyn to come and share 'cause she's got a story about what she's doing in her community. And while she comes, I'm just going to tell you. About, um, a story that Doug Chapman, uh, has said I can share today, and it's really cool. So, Doug was a, uh, Uber driver for many years while he was at university doing his teaching degree, and he started, uh, answering the call of this, um, family that needed to be picked up and driven places.

They didn't have their own car, and he did that and he got. Calls repetitively and started to build a relationship with this family. Anyway, many years have passed and Doug had kept contact with that family, and most recently they reached out to him. They knew he was a Christian, he came to church and they had, uh, they have a teenager and they.

The teenager had said, Hey, I'd really like to go to youth somewhere. So she, the mum, reached out to Doug and said, do you think you'd pick her up and bring her to youth on a Friday night? So this story is so fresh. About a month ago, she started coming to our youth on a Friday night, and it's all because Doug, in his rhythms and routines of his own life as an Uber driver.

Just shared his story and built relationship and that family then had a connection to someone who knew God. And when their teenager said, oh, I wanna know a bit more, uh, he was able to get involved and bring her along to youth. So I wanna share that just as a. Encouragement to be kind, um, be unusually kind.

Doug did not have to keep up that, um, connection with that family, but he went out of his way to do that and build relationship there. And his work became worship 'cause he was surrendering that to God. And then we get. Great to have relationship with this young girl who's now coming to youth and she's discovering who Jesus is.

So just a little encouragement there. Carolyn. You are doing something outward focused as well. So Jim and Carolyn have run our life groups or small groups, villages, whatever you want to call them, for many years in the traditional way that villages are run in the home. Usually a Bible study talking about soap devotions.

But most recently. God spoke to you, Carolyn, and I'll let you tell the story. Yes, thanks.

Caroline: I guess a little bit unusual, so last year I got challenged. Um, I felt God, holy Spirit, speak to me and say. That I needed to do something. Uh, Kevin, uh, shared the word and yeah, just it all resonated. And, um, we've been blessed.

We, um, live opposite a beautiful park, and over the years that we've lived there, uh, we've made, well, I've made some amazing friends. I think, uh, if you've got dogs, you'll know what I mean. You'll only need to walk down the street and, and you can, you know, someone else's dog will come along and you'll instantly strike up a conversation.

So. My little dog likes going over the road constantly to the park. So I've been building relationships with, um, people over there and, um, and just on the series, um. This, you know, the last, um, few Sundays, it's also been talking about risk taking. So beginning of the year I did a, a big risk and I, um, I really felt that God, um, wanted me to invite them and start a small group of some sort.

I didn't know what it was. Um, so I prayed for a bit of wisdom and, um, I felt to start a little alpha group with my. Dog friends that I'd made. And you know, there's about 10, 13, 14 of them. It's at, you know, at different times, mainly half past four in the afternoon if you wanna come on up. Um, and I just felt, look, if no one else can, you know, speak God's word to them or share.

To them, then who else? So God needed to use me and I just needed to be a little bit brave and, and get out there. And, um, yeah, I did and it was, it was great. Um, you know, I got lots of different responses and, um, I just know that even though they didn't come, um, the person that I did want to especially come, she came and if nothing else, I just know that God's word will is, is speaking to her.

And, um. Yeah, so waiting for the next, next slot. We've only got a little small house, so God uses, you know, whatever you've got and just, yeah, step out and take that risk and yeah, you know, you're just doing what God wants you to do and I just know that because I listen to what. God had spoken to me about I was being obedient and I wanted to be obedient and, um, take that risk.

Anita: Yeah. Thank you so much. So good. Thanks Carolyn. Okay, so we have lots of servant hearted, um, people in our church. Uh, we have also, so Kev, do you wanna come back up and share about the intentional missional village? Um. Part. We also have, uh, we shared a few weeks back, but I'm aware that not everyone comes every week.

So I wanted to say again, Erin, um, has started a moms group here for moms with under school age children here at the Junction on a Tuesday. And Erin, and Mikey and Jess and a bunch of the other moms, Kees been coming. Uh, if you have, uh. Mom with a baby in your world, you need to let them know that there is a group here that they can be a part of also, uh, a mom's group.

So that is with a focus on connecting moms too in that season of life. Uh, I love what Carolyn's done there. And we've also got the intentional missional village, which do, which we have talked a little bit about with Chris and Kerry, who are not with us today, but we're gonna interview next week.

Kev: Yeah.

We'll catch up with 'em next week. Yeah,

Anita: yeah. But if you can tell us about. Uh, that because we've, we sort of are being innovative in terms of what that looks like. It's not going to look like a traditional church group. No. Uh, it looks different and I think that when we talk about church groups and what they look like, we can bend back to the way we've always thought about something.

Everybody

Kev: always does it.

Anita: Well, it's how our brains work. This

Kev: is a group over here. The next thing they're doing worship, they're doing communion. Someone's gotta preach. Yeah. That's not what it's about. It's a missional village. So therefore it's, it's not gonna have any of the classic things that you think about.

Like if you're doing a family gathering, we don't want someone preaching there. We don't want someone sharing communion. We don't want someone singing songs. You don't wanna go off and be baptizing people. That's the function of the church. So these intentional missional villages, we want them to be an add-on, a blessing to the wider body.

Yes. So we want a a, a group of people that can just sit in that space, help people discover a relationship with Jesus for themselves, teach them how to start their own little community together, and then help them share with their friends. And so in that process then whoever's in there, so Chris and Kerry, we talked about this.

Their job will be, once they've discovered or led someone on their journey, is to help them find the right part of the body of Christ for them. So we're gonna be filtering into other parts of the church, and then when they get in there, that's the ideal place for them to be baptized. You know, because when, when you're baptized, you're baptized into the body and it's very hard if you baptize someone externally, you, you birth the baby, you've got this new little one here.

It's all on you. Then they're gonna look to you to be fed all the time. And that can be really exhausting. And we don't want that for these ones. These guys need to be like these urban missionaries. You're just gonna be there. Help them get started. Teach 'em how to read the scriptures, what to apply, what not to apply, teach 'em how to love God, teach 'em how to love others.

Start a little community, help 'em find a part of the body of Christ. And now, and that's not saying that it couldn't evolve into like if, if up there. Broadwater, we suddenly have like 60 or 70 people. Then it might be a case that it evolves into a junction point or a family gathering there, but at this stage, we're looking at to be missional in that space.

Help them

Anita: discover Jesus. Yeah. So whoever finds God finds life is something we've had up on our, uh, foyer. That's what we started. Yeah, it's where the junction started. Whoever finds God finds life and just that idea of helping people find God, helping, answering their questions, coming alongside them, building relationships.

So that's

Kev: what the group will look like to people externally. We're not gonna go in an intentional missional village 'cause they'll know that. They'll think you're, we're just a project. No, no. That's for us. So that we remember that when we start this thing, it's intentional. It's missional. It's not for the ones inside, it's for those yet to come in and it's this little village that you're gonna help them grow and and move.

Mm-hmm. So that was the initial thing that we started with the Life church all the years ago. That and, and we'll do anything short as sin to reach people for Jesus. That was the starting point, wasn't it?

Pauline: Yeah.

Kev: So there, the promotion, we'll see, we believe it. Whoever finds God finds life, sign up. If you wanna go on the journey with us, keep it very low key.

So

Anita: good. So there's, we've sort of highlighted, um, a few things that you can be a part of, uh, today. I've given out at the door. This everyone plays, um, sheet here, which has a QR code. If you are new to our community and you haven't had opportunity to jump in and serve anywhere, you can, uh, click on the QR code with your phone there and it'll take you to a website that just gives you an overview.

Of what's happening now. A lot of the roles are what it takes to make a junction point happen on Sundays. Um, but we also have lots of serving opportunities during the week in our junction cafe. Uh, also, we would love to hear if you have, if God's whispered to you this morning out of Carolyn's story, uh, out of the idea that the missional.

Uh, group will start up at Southport. And you wanna do something in your community. Yeah. We are here to resource you. So we would love to talk with you about you do this that looks could in your street if you want to.

Kev: You could have an intentional Miss Village in your street. Yeah. Specifically your school.

If you are school. School, if you're allowed to run a

Anita: lunchtime group, you wanna do something, young people at school, uh, you wanna do something at your, in your university, we would love to resource you to be able to serve. Yeah. 'cause serving is not just, you know. Handing out coffees, although that's important, or even kids or youth ministry serving is about reaching people in your community and sharing Jesus.

And we don't, we don't

Kev: need professional laity. Clergy for this. This is like, no. This is just everyone

Anita: plays.

Kev: Everyone plays. This is like someone this, I'm someone that loves Jesus. Discover relationship. I wanna help you find a relationship with Jesus, help you figure out how to build some community, help you figure out if you've got some challenges, find you a good church to go and connect with and teach you how to show.

Do the same thing for your friends. Hopefully they go off and start their own village. That's, that's the key overarching dream, whether it goes that way. I've been doing this long enough to know the, what you say and where it goes. But it's good. We see.

Anita: I'm gonna read Matthew 28, 18 to 20. Uh, you read it earlier, but we'll read it again.

Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Yeah. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

Mm-hmm.

Kev: Yeah. Do you remember? I'm just thinking now. Do you remember when, what was the year that we did the, I did the bridge disaster to understand. Can anyone remember that

Anita: last two years ago? About

Kev: three years ago? Excuse me. This is, this is actually part, this is tied to that. 'cause part of it was

Anita: everything feels like yesterday.

I dunno.

Kev: Yeah. Everything goes into a blur like. At when the church was born, first birth, it was missional villages everywhere, missional that, that the mission happened through the small groups After Constantine in 300 ad what happened was Constantine built buildings copied of temples, started the professional clergy back, and we've never recovered.

But what it did was that this, the big, wider gathering became the main missional thing. And so we've been banging on to bring people to church. We're gonna bring people to Jesus this's the way it's gonna happen. It's not the way that it worked, the way that it worked in the first century was this. The little mid villages were missional rather than being a thing.

Rather than being a case that's like, you come here now, we teach you this, now we put you in a little safe place to keep you safe until, so we come back next week, so we end up with a short leg. So therefore, this thing became the idol. Almost an idol. Everything has to happen on the Sunday. And then the small group is just this little thing.

But anyone that's been a runner knows that if you have two legs, one like that and one like that, you cannot get any momentum 'cause you cannot run. So part of the journey we've been on is God been going, let's pull this idol back down to a certain position and let's get these missional villages up where they're supposed to be doing.

So they're out making disciples to make disciples. Now you can actually get momentum back for the gospel. So that's kind of, this is kind of now practically going to what was launched back those three years ago.

Anita: That's so good.

Kev: Should I go away? Two legs?

Anita: No, you can wrap up. We're wrapping up. Oh, do you wanna pray?

Kev: Sure.

Anita: The guys are gonna lead us in a song. Yeah. And I'd love you to just reflect and it's not about us saying do something. It's actually about God. Talking to you about what can you do? And a few weeks ago, um, we shared about what's in your lunchbox. And I actually have a list in my notebook, my lunchbox.

Um, so we talked about the loaves and the fishes, and the boy just bought his lunch and God multiplied that it shouldn't be an effort. It shouldn't be a struggle. We just have to lean into what God wants and then it multiplies and that is where we're at. We wanna say, I actually have a book I show Kev during the week.

On that day when that word came and you shared about the loaves and the fishes, three separate people came to me with ideas and I've written them in the book. Um, because, and I shared them with our staff team when we came back together during the week, because more brains working together make things happen.

You might have an idea that God's dropped in your spirit and there's someone else sitting in this room who would love to get Yeah. And be a part of that. But we need to share that. We need to share what is God saying about how we wanna serve? Because someone might come alongside you and it's. You coming and sharing it with us doesn't mean we're gonna make it happen.

'cause we can't make everything happen. Thank you. But we can say, this person's also got that dream. You have coffee with them and we can try and connect you and then we'll start to see, you know, God birthing these things.

Kev: That's why it's important for the body to meet together regular. Some people got in the habit of not doing that, and Paul says, don't do that because the the body, we are organs, we are knit together.

And I think one of the catastrophic things that we will see is someone getting, getting to heaven and going, oh man, I had this a great idea but I couldn't get it off the ground and this, and I just couldn't figure it out. And then the Lord just says, well, if you're a battle to walk across the aisle, they had the other piece of the idea.

So that's why it's important for us to keep sharing. We want to keep that kind of community where. Talk, share, dream, whatever you got on your heart, and let's just see where it goes. You know, like, God's got this. The vision that we have is so big, I, it keeps me up at night sometimes. It's like, I have no idea, Lord, no idea what you're doing.

But that doesn't matter because he knows the idea when he asks Philip, how are we gonna feed these? These people, Philip goes, oh well I dunno, I guess we're gonna do this. But it goes on and says, this was just a test for Philip. 'cause the Lord already knew what he was gonna do. The Lord knows exactly how this works out.

We just gotta be comfortable in the place of faith where you only get it a little bit at a time. So let me pray and then we're gonna, I've asked the guys to sing the song that we launched a few weeks back called I Have a Mission. It's very, um, poignant for where we are at right now. So Father, I just thank you.

That we have become a really unusual, peculiar people in a good way, and it's come because the Holy Spirit is allowed to reside within us, and we're more surrendering ourselves now to whatever's on your heart and your plan and your purpose and look continue to make us extravagantly generous, servant heart of people that.

Display your love, your joy, your peace and kindness and everything in just in unusual ways. And look, we dunno exactly where you're gonna go with this intentional missional village out there. But look, you do. That's cool. So you lead, we'll follow, we'll just step out and Lord, I, I hope you're talking to others.

And you, we can have one in here as well. We can have one down the road. It's, there's no end to this 'cause it's not clergy run, it's actually Saints run out there just teaching people how to love you. So Holy Spirit, we just wanna sing together and just stand before you and just with this song, just acknowledge that you have a mission and uh, Lord, we wanna be a part of it and we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.