The Chain Is Already Broken. So Why Can't You Move?
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We're wrapping up this, uh, series called Irresistible, and, uh, for those of you that, uh, are fairly new around here, it's a six-week series trying to cram down what God did in, like, 10 years. So it's been an incredible challenge to pull that off. Uh, but God has done the most amazing things. A- and, and I see people that are catching it so much more quickly than we did.
I don't know why God took 10 years. Maybe we were slower. I don't know. Maybe it was me as the leader. I don't know. But it took a while for us to, to really get our head around the fact that he wanted to unhitch us from the obligation to both the temple and the empire. He said, "You gotta get free of both those things to get back to the way."
So let me just show you a picture of something first to help us understand where I'm gonna close this. This is a picture of an animal Those of you that don't understand, that's an elephant. Just in case you're new to the planet, you know, um, it's an elephant. Now, they've, they've stopped training elements
Well, they, in f- they're trying to ban it everywhere, but what they would do with a baby elephant is they would tie a chain around its foot, and they tie it to a very strong tree or pole, and that baby elephant would then just keep yanking on it and yanking on it, trying to get free, trying to move on, trying to get beyond the world that it was, um, enclosed in.
But eventually, it reaches a point where the elephant gives up. It gives up and just stops. At that point in time, they can take the chain off the elephant, and they can take it anywhere they want to, and they can put a s- small rope around its leg and a little flimsy plastic thing in the ground, and it will not move.
Because the memory, it doesn't believe it can go beyond what's here. Do you know when that elephant is fully grown, weighs about five tons, they can do exactly the same thing. Slight little rope around it, not a big chain, not anything, they're just a slight rope. Someone puts a peg there and the elephant goes, "Okay, so that's as far as I go," and it will stand there, and it will not move beyond that because it has been conditioned to that way.
This section is that world. It understands that. It's not the chain. It's now just a rope. But it won't move. Think about this. For about 1,400 years, the people of Israel lived under the law of Moses. It was full of rules and regulations and requirements, uh, that they had to fulfill. Of course, they couldn't do it.
They couldn't achieve it, so therefore, they were always in a constant state of feeling guilty and a constant state of the law saying to them, "Well, you are nowhere near good enough." And by the way, the law would only highlight to you how bad you were and then would condemn you to death. That's what it would do.
But that was their frame of reference for 1,400 years. So it is- it's any wonder, like, Jesus comes along and starts making some outrageous claims about himself and about the temple and about what's going on, and starts saying there's something kind of new, and they're all going, "Whoa, okay. This is different."
And so He starts to initiate this new thing, this new way through His death, burial, and resurrection, and He says to them, you know, "It's no longer gonna be about laws and regulations and all this kind of stuff. It's just gonna be about love, and it's gonna be about you connecting with Me, and out of that place of intimacy, you love people the way that I love you."
And yet the people that came out, the Jewish people that made the decision to follow Jesus and came into this new way, unfortunately, they kept not going very far. Jesus said, "Go. Go make disciples. Go everywhere." And they just stayed where they were. Even though Jesus had taken away the chain that held them, the memories that they have been conditioned with for so long kept holding them in a certain place Um, I don't know who's on words today, but I'm going to go rogue.
So try and keep up. Go on then. Um, I was thinking about this this morning, and, and historians have two different things on what happened with Constantine. Uh, Emperor Constantine, about 300 AD, he turned the people of the way into what was a, basically a sect, they considered a sect with a cult following of Jesus, and then pushed it into a religious sector.
So Constantine came to faith, uh, about 312, I think, AD, and then he saw that these, these followers of Jesus had gone from, like, 12 guys back to 11, 'cause you always gotta have one blowout, then up to 120, and then suddenly now they're 30 to 40 million. Wow. This, this new covenant, this new way is so irresistible, it's spreading like an airborne virus.
Anyway, Constantine... This is why they say Constantine came to faith. I'm not so sure this was genuine. But Constantine had a problem. The Christians are everywhere. They're infiltrating every aspect of society, and that's pre-cording, c- be- causing so much pressure. And I think, I think Constantine saw a problem and an opportunity.
Because before Jesus got here, Rome, the, the empire and the temple were, like, joined at the hip. The religious leaders in Rome, they made a lot of money out of this, and they controlled a lot of people, and they manipulated a lot of things. But of course, in AD70, the prophecy is fulfilled, and Judaism is shut down.
The temple's torn to the ground. So Rome has lost what? Rome has lost influence and control over these people, which are now in the way, that's been dispersed everywhere. And not only that, they've lost a lot of money, income. So I think Constantine, when he saw the way and how big it had become, I think he made some kind of allusion to a commitment to Christ so that he could actually put back in place what was taken out of place.
And my reason for this, I mean, and I say historians dis- dis- historians disagree on this, but when I looked at Constantine, he never let go of his Roman title. He held onto his Roman title, which I think was, uh- Uh, Pontius Maximus or something, or Pontius Festus Maximus, which was a sun god. He never let go of that title.
Secondly, he never got baptized. He was never baptized. He delayed that until the point of his death. Thirdly, two years into his reign, he had his son and wife executed 'cause he didn't like what they were doing. None of that feels anything like Jesus to me So I think what happened is that he pragmatically made a decision, says, "You know what?
We lost the temple, man. Look at all that money we're going. Hang on. Let's take the way and push it right back up there, make them a celebrated majority, and we'll put them up there, and now we can hitch Rome to the way," which was the Christians. And at the same time then, let's build some buildings that look like temples, which let, let them know that Moses needs to be back in the mix.
And then from there, the clergy came back in, and from there he just added everything back in. And the Western church hasn't really recovered from that. So therefore, you have people within the context of the Church, even though Jesus has broke the chains of all that stuff, they're still standing right there, just outside.
"Oh, well, it's Jesus, but, you know, you better have some circumcision in there. It's Jesus plus some new moon Sabbaths. It's Jesus plus this." He's going, "No, no, it's not. It's Jesus plus nothing." Nothing. The minute you add something to the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are weakening it and diminishing it and losing it of its power.
That's why Jesus said, "It is for freedom" you back on, "It is for freedom that I've come to set you free." It's for freedom. Therefore, stand firm. Do not let yourself be burdened again by a sl- yoke of slavery. He's saying, "Don't let yourself go back. Don't let yourself, with a memory... The chain is broken, but you've got these memories and you're still stood here thinking it's this plus this."
He's going, "No, no, don't let that be the case. I have called you to freedom." Now, a bit of confession from me here. It's not easy leading a church. It's very difficult, and sometimes I look at the j- look back at the journey that we went through and I think, "God, how did we actually do that? I have no idea." I was, like, seriously winging it the whole time.
That's how I felt. I felt so like that. And then I know some of the stuff that God's got planned for us further on, and sometimes I find myself, like, almost paralyzed, like, with fear. I don't wanna get this wrong. I don't wanna make a mistake and hurt people. And, and it's, and it's like the rope. It's still there.
It's like, mm, I'm frightened if I go too far, if I step out or something like that, then you get hammered, you know, 'cause you made the wrong thing, you get punished. What is that? That's no tone of Jesus. That's the tone of the law. And I know we were never under the law, but because of what happened with Constantine, it all got mish-mashed back in together, and now we find ourselves in the same kind of position.
And I'm sure that ones of you would be exactly the same. God will put stuff in your heart that's to do with freedom, that He wants you to do, and you should be running, and you should be out there, but like the elephant, you've got that kinda rope on your leg which is nothing more than a memory. That big elephant, it could go and break that any time it wants to and run, but it just won't because it's got something in here that's been programmed into the computer it can't let go of.
So a little recap of what our journey's been. I started it off where we talked a bit about the fact that God's downsizing from the temple, all this kind of stuff going on, to us. We're the temple. You get the customs officer inside you, the Holy Spirit's within you. He's the one that lets you know what comes in and what does not come in.
Some's granted, some's not. And then we got real practical. Meg's talked about compliance, and it's not about compliance. Now it's about connection. It's all about relational connection. God is not after laws and things like that. That never caused His people to love Him. It caused them to find loopholes, get themselves in a bigger mess, and then eventually have to send someone down to beat them up and get them back on track.
And they would fall away all the time. Simon helped us understand there's so much of this stuff is burdening people, and people need to be able to find Jesus out of a relationship, not be trying to find Him through laws and regulations and things like that. And then I came back, and I think I did, uh, help us understand 613 laws down to two.
That's a pretty master feat from Jesus to get that for the Jews, down to two. But they found a loophole in the middle of two, so then He said, "Well, let's just tighten that up," and He brought it down to one royal command. "You go love one another as I've loved you." And there is no workaround on that. Doesn't matter who you've hurt or what, or someone's hurt you or whatever, you're gonna have to answer that question: What does love require?
How do I love the person in front of me that has just betrayed me so badly? How do I love them the way that Jesus loves them? All the loopholes gone That's why Mr. Trump doesn't like the Jesus movement very much, even though he will say he likes it. He lives a lot more in the Old Covenant. Because you can get around that and you can justify all sorts of un-Jesus-like behavior.
Although it seems to be costing him Ruth then came up and helped us understand, what is this all about? Why are we going on this journey? What's it all about? It's because of the fact that you have to go and make disciples. We all have to go and make disciples. And not about... And, and that's not gonna happen from here.
I can inspire you, I can vision cast to you, I can help you stay on track, that kind of stuff, but you gotta go and make disciples to make disciples. And it's supposed to start in Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth. And Ruth had a very nice map. Look at that. There it is. And that makes her very special, 'cause she's got a map.
Yes. That means it's legit. If you've got a map, it's legit, right? We got that? So the question to be asked about the whole thing, and I do, I grapple with this a lot of different times, why did we have to go on all this journey? Why... It was so horrible, it was so heartbreaking and, and struggling. It's like, why did we have to do that?
And He said, "'Cause this is about, this was about you becoming irresistible. And even though Jesus took care of the chain, you still have that memory rope that you pull back, and it keeps flicking you back into things, and it robs the gospel of its power." And He said, "This is so important because I so love the world.
For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." That's the reason why this is so important. What Jesus offered the world back then was a different way to live, and a different way to interact between God Himself and the world around you.
It was not a religion. That didn't happen till after Constantine, but Constantine figured out, "Here's my opportunity to take the way and turn it into a religion. And once I've got it as a religion, we can hook it nicely to the empire, and it becomes very profitable, and we can control people again." It's amazing.
It's amazing. I mean, he was very clever in what he did, but as I said, I don't think it w- the motives were pure. But you don't have to agree with me, 'cause there's others that disagree. So most people feel like God is angry with them, like all the time. We talk in the cafe, it's like people, why, what do you think God is angry with you?
"Well, I've seen how He smashes people." Where? In the Old Covenant. Right, well, you don't understand what that's about. So they don't understand how to read the Bible. God's not angry with you. If you're here and you don't know, and you're trying to develop a relationship with Him, He loves you. He's not angry with you.
He's angry at the devil, and I think He gets angry at religious people that try and put burdens onto people to stop them from seeing the way of Christ. I think that's where He sits. So for us, you know, God's for you, and we're gonna be for you. Won't be perfect, but as much as we can, we're gonna be for you the way that Jesus- Is for you.
So we did about, uh, go back to the beginning. We had about four years where we didn't know whether we would survive as a church. We had a fairly significant bad start. And so we were just t- treading water, saying, "Well, are we gonna make it? Are we gonna make it?" And then when we did, the Lord asked us... Uh, sorry, the elders said to me, "Why don't you go away for a few days and just pray, and just see if the Lord's got some vision for us, what he wants to do?"
So I, I, I, I went off for a few days, but half a day in, y- it, it was, like, all over. You know? Like, the, the Lord started speaking to me about the church that he saw, the church I see. And he put all this stuff, and wrote it all down. There's a whole, there's a whole lot there, and, and I'll, I'll let you actually have a listen to it in a minute.
But basically, uh, but at the end of it, everything about who we are, the, the mission strategy, values, vision, it was all there. And then he gave us a name change, which I didn't like, to be honest with you. And I let him know, "I don't like that name, Our Church." And then he, he just slapped me around and he said, "You go back and do a study on the word our."
And he said, "The church in the West has made it very me-centric. It's all about me, me, me, but if you go and have a look, it's our church. He's our God. It's our suffering. We're in this thing together. It's a collective." So rather than me say any more, have a listen to this, The Church I See. This is what the creative team came up with, and then I'll, uh, come back and we'll close her up.
Speaker 2: Imagine a church not limited by buildings and facilities. A church with a structure that allows God to expand his kingdom organically under the Holy Spirit's direction. A community in which everyone has the potential to learn and grow, no matter where they live or their circumstances of life. In this church, every person's committed to live and serve together and acknowledge the vital role they play in fulfilling the Father's plan and purpose.
Every person is treated with honor and respect regardless of age, race, or gender as they engage with courage and conviction in mission and discipleship. This church is Spirit-led, spreading like a bushfire from suburb to suburb, city to city, carrying the timeless message of Christ's love, forgiveness, and redemption.
The Kingdom of God is contagiously advancing into families, education, sports, politics, media, business, and the arts through people with hearts of love and generosity sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Through this church, the culture-shaping agents of society will once again be captured and redeemed for our Heavenly Father's plan and purpose.
A church like this will be a powerful force for good, helping people connect with their creator. This church displays to the world a life filled with fun as each member carries the joy of the Lord deep down within their souls. It will be counter-culture and propelled by love for God and love for people.
Imagine a church where every home, every workplace, shopping center, and place of business becomes a potential venue for mission and discipleship. This church will once again become a movement of exponential growth. Through this church, led by the Holy Spirit, the Gospel is advancing everywhere. Friends, this is where our God is taking our church.
We're guided by servant-hearted leaders and propelled along by the Holy Spirit. We're sustained through life-giving systems and structures that ensure the continuation of organic growth. We are a people committed to be Spirit-led and kingdom value-driven. Our church wakes every day to do our Heavenly Father's business, for we are saved and we are commissioned to go into all the world and share the Gospel.
Our church exists to fulfill our Heavenly Father's plan and purpose of becoming one church in multiple locations with multiple expressions. Our church will remain mobile and flexible, continuing to adapt in order to reach all people. Can you imagine a church like that? I can. I can see it. I can feel it.
The Father is shaping us and molding us into that church. His church. Always remember, friends, He is our God and we are His people, and His church- His church is our church
Speaker: I can see a lot of people going, "Man, I, I, I put on some weight since then." That, I wrote that in about 20 minutes, and I went and shared it with the original founder pastor's wife, who was still alive, and she cried. 'Cause I told her, I said, "I don't like the name." She said, and she said, "If, if Ted would've lived, we'd have got to that, because you're back at the heart of what it was all about, is becoming a church for the unchurched, a place for people to belong while they work out what they believe."
And that was what it was all about. But that has formed everything. Like, this is pre-unhitching from the obligation to Temple and Empire. So when I da- when I shared that, it was so awesome, it was so fun. We were going, "Yeah, ha, ha, ha." And then we had 10 years of hell. No.
It was difficult, because that was lovely. It was great, but how do you get to that? But everything that's in there is now part of where we're heading and what's going on. So really, and really that is nothing different to the Great Commission. Jesus came and said, "All authority on Heaven and Earth has been given to me.
All authority on Heaven and Earth has been given to me." Who's missing from this statement? No mention of Moses, no mention of the temple, no mention of the law. He said, "It's all now to me. Therefore, go make disciples of all nations." That just means ethnos, people groups. "Baptizing them in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
Teach them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age." To the very end of the age. We're gonna start a new series next week, and we're gonna pick up a bit on this, because this is another rope that is s- stopping us from where we need to go. It's a mind thing that's there.
It's the great commission. So out of that, our mission statement is to partner with the Holy Spirit, teach people to love God, love others, make disciples who make disciples. Where does it start? With the Holy Spirit. We partner with the Holy Spirit. He's the one that is taking the lead, not us. He's the one.
He leads, we follow. That's how everything works around here. He leads and we follow. So what was our strategy? Our strategy was to be a multi-generational church. We want to do as often as possible, make sure the generations stayed together. I felt like that was a strong thing the Lord wanted. But a, a multi-generational church have intentional small groups.
Our small groups need to be intentional. Intentional about care, intentional about accountability, and intentional about mission. Because the mission side of the church happened in the early church through the small initiatives. That's where it grew. We did a series on that, uh, called Risk, going back a few years.
Um, and a focus on family, and people thought, "Oh, my family." No, not your family, the family, God's family. And healthy relationships. I think that ties back to the word that bounced out of your leading this morning. That, that, that un- unforgiveness. It's, it's not sin that ruins the church and ruins relationships, it's unrepented of or undealt with sin.
'Cause you're always gonna sin. You show me a person that never sins, and I'll show you a dead person. And I've even tried it. I've even tried it, because I've sat... I've done a lot of funerals, and I've done there, and I, I, sometimes you have an open casket, and I'm aware of the sort of struggles that this person had, you know, then occasionally I'll just lean up to the casket and say, "Would you like another cigarette?"
Want a drink? Nothing. No reply whatsoever. Why? Because dead people don't sin, and that's why you understand that you are dead in Christ. This is what gives you the power. This is what gives you the freedom. So underneath that was our family values. There's a bunch of them in there. Should be a slide. Spirit led, love and generosity, find a way, honor and respect, protect and serve, learn and grow, courage, conviction.
They're all kingdom values. So what God said to me when we launched this, he said, "You're not gonna lead with a vision." 'Cause everyone leads with vision. Yeah, vision, vision, vision. No. He says, "No, no. You lead with the mission. You follow the strategy, underpinned by the values, and if you live this out, truly live this out and allow me to flow through you, vision's a byproduct, because all healthy things grow."
So we messed with our vision a few times. It was o- one church, multiple locations, multiple expressions, as you heard there. And then we switched it around to one church, multiple expressions, multiple locations. And so the problem was the last two, multiple expressions and multiple locations, were borrowed from another church, Life.Church, years ago, and never really kind of fitted us.
So we tried with the multiple expressions to, uh, release and do things in certain ways, but every time I release someone, they go and do the very thing that God spent 10 years undoing and start a new small version of the Nile model of church. And in, once again, I, I'm a bit thick sometimes, so God has to slap me around.
He said, "What are you doing? What's this multiple expression thing? I've just spent 10 years unhitching you and getting back to what you're supposed to do and now you're gonna do multiple expressions?" I said, "Hmm, okay, what do you suggest?" Well, there's only one way, so now we're gonna have one church one way, and that's the way of Jesus.
So anything that we do, whether it's small, big, whatever, it's gonna be one church one way. Now, now, multiple locations, we borrowed that from Life.Church. The only problem with the word multiple locations is that it does project into people's thinking buildings. People automatically think buildings. And I don't think that's out of the question, but it's too limiting when you aut- automatically just think buildings.
'Cause we're asking you to go make disciples anywhere and everywhere. Yeah. That's what we want you to do. We want you to go, live mission, love people, share with people, share the good news, help them to start following Jesus. They can follow online if they want to, they can come here, or they can go to hundreds of other churches.
Our main is to help them find Jesus. So we ended up messing that around. We got rid of multiple locations and we came up with this. Da da da da. Whoo. Anywhere you are. So that could be a building, that could be you just from your own home, that could be you on the road, traveling, doing whatever. Anywhere you are.
And the reason I spelt it like this is because my team hates me using lower, uppercase, and letters. I'm not, I'm not talk- This is, this is not just a, a like, I, I, I dislike it a little bit. It's like they hate it. So I said, "I'm putting that up there 'cause it's anywhere you are." I want you to get it. One church, one way, anywhere you are.
But then from here you'll probably see it like this. Boring. But that's okay. That's okay. We love each other. That's okay, we love each other. So,
actually, you know what? Anywhere you are. Let's do a vote right now. Who here likes... You guys online too, don't let me down. Who here likes this one? No. There's only like six. So who's with mine then? It's unanimous.
And if Ruth doesn't want it, we don't get it. So- That's a good advert ... I think it's a better hashtag, yeah. So I'm thinking socials, you know, um.
I thought my age, what's a social? Um, so what I wanna do is just like, I wanna bring Anita up because I, I want us to be practical. So, 'cause the whole reason why we wanna get back to this being irresistible is that, is this mission. How do we, how do we serve you and everybody anywhere that wants to? How do they help make disciples, make disciples?
How do we do that in, in a way that, uh- You can do it. So we're, we're talking a whole lot about analog and digital, and, um, how they seamlessly come together to make disciples that make disciples. And Nic kinda has, her role's kind of in that space of ministry development, so she takes the lead in that kind of stuff.
So I asked her to come up and just walk us through, what does, what should this discipleship thing look like? And then you can bounce where you want from there.
Speaker 3: Okay. I vote for the second one, not that one. Yes.
Speaker: All those with a knee, put up your hand.
Speaker 3: No, not many people voted. You intimidated them. No, that's what I thought.
You definitely like the proper spelling. You're fired. Surely. We're normal here. Come on. Oh, no. We're not normal, Shane, you're right. Ruth and I were rallying for the proper spelling. I think we even got Megs on board, yes.
Speaker: All I care about now is I have people on my side when I go to bat on this.
Speaker 3: Paul will not agree.
Paul Bamford does all our branding. He's, like, not up for the h- capital and the li-
Speaker: the, no. If you're going for the second one, just know that I will give you a treat every time I speak on it, and I will put mine up.
Speaker 3: Love it. There's a lot of fun in the, um, office when we're landing on things like this, 'cause Kev definitely thinks differently to everyone else.
It's good. Okay, so-
Speaker: S- something came up a little whi- little while back and said, "Man, there seems to be a lot of people on the spectrum around here, Pastor." And I, then she said, "Why is that?" I said, "'Cause I am the spectrum."
Speaker 3: Okay. You'll get a chance to share some of those crazy ideas in a minute. Oh. But I wanted to talk through, uh, Kev wanted me to highlight some of the tools and resources that we have available, uh, to you in discipleship.
So we're constantly on a journey to put resource into your hands to help you basically, uh, share the gospel with the people in your world. So I just wanna highlight a few different opportunities. And, uh, Portia shared last week in her, uh, interview with Ruth just about how she could easily share on the rhythms and routines of her everyday life as a mum, and engage in conversation.
So when she shared, she talked about being interrupted, and often that looks a bit nerve-wracking to some of us who are more introverted, to think, "Oh my goodness, I have to have a conversation with someone I don't know. Uh, how do I start that?" If you are Kev, you actually probably are a bit introverted, but you've learnt to cultivate the art of conversation.
If you ever go to the shops with Kev, he will talk to everyone. My kids are like, "Uncle Happy is talking again to someone he doesn't know about something." And he will cultivate that conversation- Yeah ... often asking about their story, leaning in and listening. So it starts with something as natural as "Hey, we run into each other all the time.
Wanna grab a coffee, have a chat?" Love to. And love to, love to catch up and talk about, uh, your story. So it's that listening and leaning in that we can do just as humans basically and connect. Um, three ways we can do that is looking at, uh, engaging in what is their story. Now, this is the living mission, uh, component.
We talk about this quite regularly, but on our website under our resources section, uh, you'll find that there are three opportunities, I guess, we ask you to lean into. So look at, uh, what is their story, becoming interested, asking great questions, leaning into what is their story. Listen to their background and their wins.
Allow God to open a door for you to share a little bit of your story. And then ultimately, if the conversation pr- progresses there, and this could be over, like, more than one conversation. This might be over multiple, um, times that you meet sharing his story. And what I love about the idea of sharing story is that Uh, something I've held onto in my life is that God never wastes a hurt or a challenge Yeah.
True If you have faced something in your life, He can often, uh, and you have processed that, and you're willing to be vulnerable about that, God will often use that for you to encourage someone else in those conversations to be able to share. And it should be something that is really natural for us to be able to do, to share in conversation.
But it can often also cast fear into our hearts of thinking, "I might no- not know what to say. Like, what if they ask me some great, uh, theological question and I don't know the answer?"
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker 3: Um, yeah. You think that's good. Yeah. But the normal people in the room-
Speaker: No, but it, it- ... think, "Ah." It's great because- Mm
that's your cue for a second catch-up to say, "That's a great question. You know what? I don't actually know." "I have no idea." "But I know a few people that are." Yeah. "Let's catch up again next week." Mm. This, it's just code for you got another way to continue on.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I have often in those moments, uh, I had a parent ask me, a, a friend who had a child similar age to mine.
She has questions. She's not yet walking with Jesus, and didn't know how to answer. And her son goes to the school where my son goes, and she rang me and she said, "He's got bedtime questions about God." "And he's asking me all these things about heaven, and I don't know what to answer. And you're more qualified."
She knows I f- love Jesus, and she rang. "You're more qualified to answer than me. What would you say?" And so that was, in that moment, I was like, "These are big questions," you know, our kids ask when they're trying to go to sleep at night. Is that
Speaker: the one that wanted to have a gin and God group? Is that
Speaker 3: the one?
Yes. A gin and God group. She did. I don't re- I don't drink gin, but I said, "Okay. Maybe I'll have a gin, um, and have a chat about God." Who knows what's coming out the end? I might not end well. I've never had a gin, but that's okay. Anyway, gin and Jesus. But, um, I, I'm, I digress, but that whole point was in that moment when she shared her question her child was asking, I had to take a breath 'cause I thought, I don't have an immediate...
It was one of those big questions about, well, why does God allow suffering? Or, you know. And when a nine-year-old's asking that question- You have to think about how you answer so that they get it, but it's also theologically, you know, there's a lot of things. Anyway- Yeah ... I said to her, "Hey, that's a great question.
My kids have asked a similar question. Can you give me a few hours to think about that, and I'm gonna call you back?" Uh, and we had a better conversation because I had time to think, "What am I going to say?" Because it was two-pronged for me. It was, how do I help her, because she doesn't yet know Jesus, so I don't want to give her the c- the God answer.
The cookie cutter answer? Yeah. Yeah. Straight away. I wanna think, "Lord, how do I help her?" And then help her to answer her child's question. Um, so I had a few hours to think about that, and to ask a few people, "Ruth, what would you say? Kev, what would you say?" You know, get some wisdom, and then pray before I rang her back and was able to talk about.
And I basically went from, "This is what I would say if my child was asking it, but obviously, I answer from a Christian worldview. Where are you at in your thoughts about who God is?" Yeah. And I got to have a conversation about where she was at in her faith, which was great, and that's still a journey. Um, and I'm still connecting with that family and having those conversations as God leads.
So that's the power of story. But she has, she has
Speaker: become very familiar, 'cause she brings her dog over, which is, like, five times the size of our cavoodle.
Speaker 3: And have a play
Speaker: date in our backyard. And the next minute I'm upstairs, and next, you know, up comes our cavoodle, and this other monster's coming up, and they, and they're doing laps around-
Speaker 3: It's a groodle and a cavoodle- Whoa
for those who are dog people. The groodle's big. So
Speaker: we're,
Speaker 3: uh- Anyway. It's good ...
Speaker: making her comfortable.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's good. So the story thing is great. Uh, and the fear is okay to have fear about a conversation, but it's also okay to say, "I don't know," and use that as a way of engaging further. Uh, another tool that we have is, uh, exploring, maybe you've got a relationship and that person is ready to read the Bible together.
We have a course, or it's not really a course, but it's a tool called The Seven Signs in John, and it's basically seven stories that are really great for opening up the gospel. So it might be a relationship that you have with someone, and you think, "Oh, hey, uh, is there any chance you'd like to read the Bible with me?"
And you might use SOAP, or The Seven Signs in John stories, and SOAP about that. Now, we've talked a lot about SOAP here. I won't go into it too much, except that it's a scripture, observation, application, and prayer. A way to read the scripture so that God can speak to us about how we can live out that.
Speaker: And- I do that, I do that one a little bit differently, like, with that ask, because when you, that's very forthright, and it might be right for yours, but I th- I'll usually say something like, um, "I've been looking for someone, I've been looking for someone to try and read the Bible with me.
I don't suppose you'd be interested?" And I wait for them To say yes or no. Because I've already told them, "Oh, I d- I don't think you're interested." And so that, for me, that works. Then they come back, "Well, well I might be." Maybe. "Tell me a little bit more about it."
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: It's just a different way of phrasing.
Speaker 3: And Ruth has a great story about this that she's
Speaker: done with that. And as well, so we're Aussies, so when someone tells us-
Speaker 3: We can't do something ... what
Speaker: we shouldn't do,
Speaker 3: we wanna do it anyway,
Speaker: so. Then you wanna do it. Well, yeah. Don't tell me what I shouldn't do.
Speaker 3: It's true. Uh, yeah, so that is an opportunity just to connect with someone around scripture and the word.
Another great tool that we have is the One to One app. Excellent. So if you have a mobile device, you can download this. Uh, there's a link on our website to get to it. But it's a very simple way of looking at the foundations of faith. So that would be the next step. When someone is really curious about Jesus, you can look at using the One to One app and stepping through,
Speaker: um, that- It
Speaker 3: is
Speaker: brilliant because i- if, particularly if you're dealing with different languages, it has all sorts of different languages in there.
Yeah. So they can actually get it in their native language, and there's hundreds of them in there, so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good. Uh, you can download the app and then choose the language you want it, uh, in on your phone. And that's really great. Wendy has used that lots of times for people, and that's really good if you are a busy person and you don't have time to connect with coffee every single week.
When we were putting this message together, I actually thought- I don't have a lot of margin in my life to do extra catch-ups and coffee, and obviously that's something I need to work on, 'cause God works in the margin. Um, but in this season of life where my, I'm running kids around and I'm doing all of the things, how do I fit a coffee catch-up in with someone?
Everyone runs the kids around? Yeah, everyone runs the kids around. There's a lot. If you're a ch- if you're a parent of a child in that season of sport and all of the things, it can be a lot. But the one-to-one app is something that you can use on the rhythm and routine that you're already in. Uh- I think-
standing ...
Speaker: Tom, Tom had a mate that came over from Philippines sometime, um, a little while back, and they were trying to figure out how to do stuff over there, and I shared it with him and said, "This is great. This is the answer to what we wanna do, 'cause we don't have the language."
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker: And so it's really helpful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is really good. Really helpful. Uh, so that is an opportunity to use that tool on your regular rhythm and routine. And then the multiplication question, uh, is, would you know somebody in your world who would like to do this with us? And then all of a sudden, out of that, you can build an anywhere you are, everywhere you are.
Speaker: Ooh, that says anywhere you are.
Speaker 3: Group. So a village. A village is a group of people who connect, who do life together for accountability, belonging, and care. So if you are in that relationship, maybe with your family, extended family, maybe there's one or two families in this gathering here that you do life with.
Uh, you may have people in your neighborhood, in your street, you wanna do some kind of village. Anywhere you are.
Speaker: Yeah, it doesn't have to be all believers. Yeah. In fact, it's kinda, it's kinda fun to not have ones in there. It's great when a thing comes out and goes, "Oh, you know-" You know, I read this thing about Jesus, and I think he's an alien.
He came down on this thing. It's like, ooh, tell me more. I've never thought about that.
Speaker 3: Tell me about that. Uh, and the final tool is, of course, serving. We talk about that often here, and it is everyone plays. So everyone gives, everyone serves, everyone loves, uh, everyone picks up a towel and serves. So in a traditional model of church, I guess it would be the pastoral team or the church staff that do this.
But there is no elite team to do this. Every single person has a calling to, um, basically use the gift that God has given you in the context where you are. And in 1 Corinthians 12:18, it says, "But in fact, God has placed all parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be." So disciples making disciples is- Cool
basically taking living mission everywhere you are, using the gift. Uh, we need hospitality, practical hands, um, serving- Yeah ... leaders who are willing to learn and grow with our youth and our young adults and our preteens and our toddlers. Uh, and I was so encouraged again, as I am every time we look through the lists of volunteers.
Uh, we are going to put-- You'll get information out about this in the coming week, but we're going to have a shout-out event for volunteers just to celebrate those who give. And on the list that we pulled from our records, and we always hope it's right 'cause we know lots of people give beyond. But a hund- we have 165 people on serving teams here.
That's awesome. And I don't know if there's even 165 people sitting in the room this morning, but that's a lot. Yeah. I love the heart of people giving and serving and giving back. So that's including Love This City and all our midweek volunteers and people that come in and, uh, dress her with dignity and all the programs that go out into our local community.
But- I'm a big, I'm a passionate believer of growing when we give out of ourselves, of our finances, our time, our talent. Uh, God does more in me when I serve and I give back than what I do for anyone else. And I think that that's real, uh, key, and I love- Yeah ... that the heart of our church is to give and serve.
Speaker: All this stuff too, like, everything that we're sharing is on the site in some way, shape, or form. It's not easy in your fingertips. And that's part of the recalibration. We're trying to figure out how do we figure out how to get this and set it up in such a way that you're resourced in your pocket with your phone wherever you need to go, so you've got it at hand, and you can share it.
So that's part of our recalibration, which is gonna... I thought would be done this year, but it's looking like it'll be a bit longer.
Speaker 3: It's always quicker in your mind, Kev, than what we, in reality of getting things done. Okay. So we are- It's a fair point ... out of time. We're
Speaker: out of time.
Speaker 3: But do you... So Kev, you have always these big ideas that are visionary.
Yep. And sometimes they make people go, "What?" And other times people jump on board, and they happen. Yep. Um, so I wanted to give you opportunity now, and maybe you just go off the top of them because, uh, it, we could be here for a whole other service if Kev starts talking vision. Anyone who's worked closely with him knows.
But, um, so you have-- I'm gonna list off-
Speaker: Oh, list them off ...
Speaker 3: the initiatives. Oh. And there's actually a slide for each one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then I'm gonna ask you to pick your favorite to tell us about it. Oh, I can't do that. 'Cause we don't have time- I can't do that ... to talk about them all. Okay. So number one, the Jesus-first Bible.
You might have already heard about this because Kev posted on his social media about the Jesus-first Bible. The Four Initiative, a midweek gathering to combat loneliness and start spiritual conversations. That one actually is nearly- It's in motion ... ready to go. Nearly ready to go. We've nearly solved the food part of it.
We've shared about that one before.
Speaker: The f- I just want you to know there's, like, four or five days in those midweeks, but we're only just doing one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right. The, the social enterprises is the next one. Yeah. Uh, this is maybe a heaven-sent me cleaning, um, business or, uh, there's lots of ideas in that. The next one is a family discipleship to do with children's books, kids clubs, production, a family interactive family discipleship.
This one, Hodos- Is a disciple-making game. If you are a gaming person, Kev has an idea for a biblical-based, anyway, game. There's a lot to it. Tiny- It's like if you're a
Speaker: big gamer ...
Speaker 3: A ti- I'm not. I don't know. A tiny home movement. This is a Love This City project. Yeah. Some of you might have heard Kev and Ruth talk about this.
Actually, this one was birthed in Ruth's heart, right? This was her dream.
Speaker: And a not just, it could be a tiny home or it could be Love This City, like if someone's, you know, your kids are grown up and you've got spaces, we could modify the home, and then you could actually take people in. That's the only way we're gonna resolve the-
Speaker 3: Homelessness issue
homeless-
Speaker: not, not just homelessness, but the im- hard for young people to get into anything today.
Speaker 3: And the last one on, in this is the Common Sense Leadership Party. Kev talked about this a few weeks ago. It's the political side. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker: So
Speaker 3: Kev, there's a slide with them all up. See which one you want.
If you can put that one up, Lucy. Thank you for keeping up today.
Speaker: So-
Speaker 3: Okay, here we go. So there are all of your current ideas. Well, not all of them.
Speaker: They, they didn't all come at once.
Speaker 3: Some of them.
Speaker: They came out over time. So on
Speaker 3: the server, there's a file- And they go together ... called Kev's Ideas, and everything gets put in there.
Speaker: Eh. And let me just say about this, like, these, some of these are discipleship initiatives, and, but we all have to go and make disciples, so that's the key thing. We wanted that first. These things are not necessarily the spearhead of discipleship, but they're more about spearhead of the kingdom, creating proximity into other areas of society which we maybe don't touch at the moment.
Like you-
Speaker 3: And it is an expansion of the church that I see. Yeah. When you said, uh, disciple ma- making movement into every area of life. Yeah. So a lot of these spring out of that. God doesn't always breathe on everything, but you put it out there. You see where God moves. And anyway, so tell us about what's your favorite?
Speaker: Oh, I, no. You don't have a favorite. I don't, I don't have a favorite. I th- I think it's all tied. It is, all, all of this stuff is springing out of the church I see. Uh, and some of it flows together, like that family discipleship. That was just a little whisper. Like, how did we all get discipled in society?
How did we come up? And I remember as a kid, you know, you had play school, and then high five, and then these other kind of things. Well, I wasn't high five. It was further back. Uh, and I thought, "Wouldn't it be neat if you could come up with a values-based and the fruit of the spirit-based something that took parents, that they could have something that they could read to their little ones, and then go up into the toddlers, and then go up into the primary, and using the fruits of the spirit?"
And, uh, the idea is it'd be called The, The Kingdom Tumble Town, and Tumble Town has the Tutti Frutti- dances and things like that in it. So it's, it's like a full, it's a full kind of thing, but it takes up through into the, into primary, and then at the end of primary, as they're getting a little bit older, there's a little series called Mr.
Nobody, because through the hallway growing up, there's been a silent character in everywhere, and it's just the gardener sitting in there, which doesn't get revealed till later on. And then it leads into Hodos. So it leads in then game. So how do you use a game then to actually help kids discover the way?
And so the Hodos then that really flows an extension out of, out of that one then. What
Speaker 2: does Hodos mean?
Speaker: Hodos means the way. Yeah. Yeah. That's all it means. It, it means the way. Um- The idea started for me around, ar- around, um, Halloween. Because our, uh, I don't know what it's like in your hou- neighborhood, but for us, like hundreds of families come around the thing.
And I thought, "Wouldn't it be really neat if I could find a way how to get them to celebrate the living dead?" But do it with a bunch of cards, like, like baseball cards and things like that, about the heroes of faith of old. Old Bible characters and things like that. And then once they get these and they start trading these cards, then there's a s- there's a link in there which actually lends them into Hodos, which is a two-portal system, and they come in there, and they first discover this, the creation story and the fall.
And then they're taken on a journey. If, if they have a relationship with Christ, well, go on the backstory. Work through all the mess and see how God fixed it up, or portal through to Jesus, get the solution, and then come back. So, and all along the way it takes them out of the analog world into the digital world, and they have to, they have, uh, they have to prove they've been baptized, and they go...
It's a whole, they can-
Speaker 3: It's a whole thing.
Speaker: Anyway, it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 3: He needs a little,
Speaker: um- And I'm not, and I'm not, I've never played games in my entire life, just so you know. So it's completely out of context.
Speaker 3: Pastor Creative. If you, if any of these ideas that we've shared this morning spark something in you and you're keen to talk more, that, uh, would be a great...
Like we could form groups around these ideas and just put it out there and see what God does, um, in it. But let's invite the team back to
Speaker: finish up. I think they're already hanging in the wings, aren't they?
Speaker 3: They're ready, 'cause they're looking at the time.
Speaker: They're going, "These people have waffled on again."
Speaker 3: It's exciting to talk about vision, though, and I feel like if Kev- I just
Speaker: want you to know that wasn't me, this was you this
Speaker 3: time ... No, and if Kev only ever shares with the team in the office, then it's not getting out there to, so that you can hear and you can get excited alongside some of what God might wanna do.
Speaker: Um- Maybe we can take those things and just put a little bit more around them or something so people can have a little bit more clarity-
Speaker 3: Yeah ...
Speaker: on them. Yeah.
Speaker 3: You good?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You wrapping up or am I?
Speaker: I don't know. Up to you.
Speaker 3: How about I just pray and they lead, they... Did you wanna do any more?
Speaker: No, I think you've done enough.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. So your sticky statement for this message was, "We didn't unhitch to survive. We unhitch to thrive and multiply and be irresistible." This whole series is about how can we be- Yeah ... irresistible to those who don't yet know Jesus.
Speaker: Yeah. T- for too long, it- we've made it difficult for people to begin a relationship with God.
It's been too difficult, and even the apostles said, "Let's not make it difficult. Let's not make it hard for people. Let's not put on a burden on the necks of people," which we couldn't actually do, and say, "Well, you have to do this." But, well, no, let's get back to being the irresistible church, the one that was like an airborne virus that just exploded.
And I think part of it for us is we've got a willingness. We, we got these memory things, you know, like we don't step outside there 'cause we've got these things that are there. We could allow the Holy Spirit to... He's already broken the chain, but y- we could allow him to actually renew our mind and say, "You know what?
I am gonna step out here, and I'm gonna move away from the stake and, and, and move across." And then that's why I wanted the team to do the song in closing of this series called Yes Again, 'cause I think some of us just need to affirm with the Lord that, "Yeah, I, I'm available," you know?
Speaker 3: That's good. Let me pray.
Lord, we just thank you for the season of unhitching and rewiring and connecting, uh, to who you are. Father God, I pray that the seeds that have been planted in our hearts throughout this series of Irresistible, Lord, that you would help us to turn it into a personal, um, something personally that we can take and activate in our lives, in relationships with those in our world, on our rhythms and routines.
And Lord, ultimately, that you would take this teaching and make it practical so that we can see disciples coming into your kingdom, knowing who Jesus is. Father, I just thank you for the heart of, uh, our church. Lord, I thank you for the servant-hearted, uh, leadership that is here. And Lord, we just ask that you would guide and lead us through the coming season heading into Christmas.
Lord, bring back to our memory things that have been shared, uh, opportunities that we might have to be able to dig back into the teaching of the last six weeks and really apply that in our everyday relationships. Father, we just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.