- Well, welcome to Church.
Come on, why don't you join us
as we praise God together right now.
Amen.
Come on let's do it.
♪ As we're singing ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ As we're singing ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh we praise you Lord singing ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Jesus ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh we give You praise Lord ♪
♪ Come on lift your voice ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ We praise You ♪
♪ You alone, You alone ♪
- Come on Church, why don't
you sing with us today.
♪ No one ♪
♪ Who has made the righteous bright ♪
♪ Come on if you're grateful you sing ♪
♪ Lord of my soul ♪
♪ I'll sing of your love ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪
♪ Sing, I'll sing of your love ♪
♪ Lord of my soul ♪
- Oh, so beautiful.
Father, we're just so grateful again,
that we gather in Your Name.
Lord, wherever the people are
part of this service right now,
I thank You, the Holy Spirit is with them,
that the presence of God is
there in the car or in the room.
Lord, wherever they may be right now,
the presence of God is there.
And Lord, we just thank
You, in Your precious Name,
that You can transcend one
physical place when we gather.
And Lord, You are omnipresent,
You're everywhere.
So we embrace Your presence today
and I believe the anointing
in that worship, Father,
just throughout this service
while the Word is being
preached, will be very evident.
Lord, we commit our time to
You and we thank You again,
that You are working in our lives,
even when we can't see it.
And I pray that every one of
these prayer requests, Lord,
this is only a small measure
of the many praise reports
and prayer requests.
But Father, right now,
I thank You for a God who answers prayer.
Our faith is in Jesus.
Our hope is in the Name of the Lord.
Lord, You are the author and the finisher,
the beginning and the end.
We can trust You.
And Lord, I believe that
whatever the request,
no matter how desperate
the need, we can trust You.
And Lord, I'm believing for
more of those praise reports,
and we thank You now, thank You.
Heal people, Father, right now.
Touch lives, Lord, right now.
Lord, You're reversing something
in the heart of someone else,
to turn a situation around, right now.
You're reconciling
relationships, marriages,
families right now.
Lord we thank You, in Jesus' Name.
Amen.
Amen, a big welcome to Church.
So good to see you all.
Here we go again.
Week 24, online church.
Hope you guys are good.
You look good and well,
I'm going to get right
on with this service.
So many great praise reports.
Keep sending them in, they're
such an encouragement.
And every prayer request, remember,
is seen by our pastoral team.
So they're followed up, okay?
So thank God for that, all right.
So this week, we've got our
Mega Prayer Meetings again,
first week of September.
So in Sydney time, Wednesday
10am, Thursday 7pm.
Don't miss, whatever you do,
I'll be leading those prayer meetings
with whoever else happens to be with me.
That'll be me and others,
it'll be fantastic.
But the prayer is powerful.
That's more important than who's there,
to be honest with you.
Because the Holy Spirit's there
and we're gonna come
and we're gonna believe,
as we pray, we're gonna believe again
for a quick resolve of
this COVID disaster.
We'll be praying for businesses,
praying for finances,
praying for jobs, praying for people,
praying for all sorts of needs.
As the Holy Spirit puts
it in on our hearts.
I hope you can be a part of that.
And hey, this is important.
All right, it's important.
Don't forget, next weekend's Father's Day.
Yeah, Mother's Day is important
but this one's the one, Father's Day.
Oh, that's right, I'm a
father and a grandfather.
Yeah, Bobbie, Father's Day.
You got it.
I don't know whether
my kids will see this.
Laura, you will, Father's Day. Yeah.
Hey, listen, we always
wanna honour the fathers
or the mothers, if it's Mother's Day.
We wanna make the special days, special,
and we will make it special.
And so don't miss it.
Get your dad along or if you are a dad,
use the day to get your kids along.
And let's really make
Father's Day special,
next weekend online, I think it will be.
And thank God for all the spiritual dads
All the dads who choose
to lead their households
in the ways of God.
We'll give you plenty
of honour next weekend.
So we will be ready for that,
I'll be preaching again,
I think next weekend,
along with others as well.
And so thank God.
And can I ask you right now,
as we continue worshipping,
to think about your giving.
Again, I wanna think our church
and the people who have
been part of our services
for your faithfulness in
giving and honouring God
and putting Him first.
Understanding the
principle of first fruits.
To me, it's tremendously important.
And in tougher times, it
doesn't become less important.
Perhaps, it becomes even more important,
that we show exactly who and
what we put our trust in.
Don't ever be afraid of the
blessing that is promised
to those who give and who
are generous and who tithe.
Some people they would try to stifle that,
they'll try to make it look like
you are all about yourself.
But I don't believe to have an expectation
that God's Word will work in my life
means I'm all about myself.
It's good for positioning,
puts me in a better position,
to reach beyond myself and
make a bigger difference.
Don't be afraid.
Don't let anybody else's
bad experience, religiosity,
if you like, their negative outlook
or their negative expectation,
not expecting anything from God,
don't let that affect
your belief in God's Word.
Malachi 3
listen to me, there's the challenge there,
that we remember to
tithe, to put God first.
And then of course, with the challenge,
what does the Lord say?
"Prove me now in this."
And then comes the promise of blessing.
And that's what I'm saying.
Let's not reject the promise of blessing.
Yes, this is the Old Testament
people, but you know what?
The New Testament,
the new covenant is
called a better covenant,
with better promises and a better hope.
Some of those are eternal, but believe me,
as new covenant believers,
we live in the promise of God today.
And here's this promise.
Malachi 3:10,
I know a few pests,
It's a promise.
Your story, your testimony,
will be delightful,
and people will call you blessed.
Well, I really encourage you.
Yes, give, give out of a heart for God
honouring Him, out of obedience,
but don't reject the
promise and the blessing.
Have an expectation
that God will bless you.
And especially if you're
going through difficult times.
You know what, God answers prayer.
We're getting testimonies every week.
Against all odds, people
are getting wonderful jobs,
amazing turnarounds in
some people's businesses.
And even if things look like
this is a terrible situation,
just learn to trust God in every season.
And have an expectation from Him,
because God is faithful,
the covenant keeping God.
So I believe for His covenant
in your life, in Jesus' Name.
We reject greed, but
we accept expectation,
that God blesses His people
as they put Him first,
and as they honour Him.
Amen.
So here's the video,
we show it because
there's always new people.
It just shows you how you can give.
And it doesn't really matter
where you are in the world,
you're welcome
to be a part of this
offering, this giving.
Check out the video.
This is how, when the only way
to give right now is online,
this is how you can do that.
Then I'm gonna pray a
prayer of faith for you.
And we'll move on with the service.
- Giving online is
quick, easy, and secure.
Here's how, to get a hillsong.com/give
or click the Give/Donate button,
if you're joining us on
Hillsong Church Online.
Enter your tithe amount
and your phone number or email address.
If it's your first time,
we will send you a verification code.
You can also activate recurring
giving by ticking the box,
enter your card details and you're done.
Thank you for investing
into the lives of others.
- So, come on.
Let's pray together,
Father, I just thank You in Jesus' Name,
for Your promise, for Your power.
And Lord, I just pray over the people
who are part of our
team, part of our church,
Lord people who are part of our lives,
people who are part of this service.
And I thank You Father
that Your Word we trust,
we put our trust in You.
Our hope is in the Name of the Lord.
Father, help us not to live
with small expectation.
Help us Lord to live,
with absolute certainty,
a conviction, that You answer prayer,
that You're a God of Your Word,
that You bless Your people
as we put You first.
Lord, we just thank You
for it in Your mighty Name.
And now I thank You for the
blessing this giving will be,
in the spreading of the Gospel.
In Jesus' Name.
Amen.
Thanks so much,
thanks again one more time,
for your giving, it's powerful.
Amen.
Obviously, I'm home alone today,
I'm the only person here.
So we kind of turned the times around
and as I'm recording this now,
it's very early morning in Australia.
So hope you don't see
too much of me today,
but you know what?
As Senior Pastor, it's
great to have the chance
to put into our church.
And where are we up to?
As I've said on other days,
right now we're fully
committed to online church,
even though in Darwin, our
church now is in the room.
I think still some social
distancing and so on.
Other places around the world,
like in Denmark and
Phoenix and Kansas City,
and to a degree in Sweden,
our church is gathering in the room.
I like what they're doing
in Stockholm, in Sweden,
they're having these
little micro meetings.
And what they are, there
groups of up to 49 people,
but they have dozens and
dozens of these groups,
of up to 49 people who are meeting in bars
and restaurants and cafes
and all sorts of places.
So all sorts of things are
happening in our church.
But right now in Australia,
Bali and wherever else we meet,
our focus is online.
And so next weekend is September,
in fact, a couple of days, it's September.
And so, you know, it's another
month, it's another month.
And that's how I'm looking
at it month by month.
So to have an expectation
at the very least,
we'll be fully online
till the end of September.
Then we'll have a look at it again.
And of course, each State
around Australia is different.
And we're looking at that.
Last week, I encouraged people,
I encouraged people who,
maybe you've been watching us online,
but you think, I'd love to
be a part of that church.
A lot of people think they'd
love to be part of Hillsong,
but it's nowhere near me.
Well, you can be part of our church.
We have a full-on online campus
where we treat those who are part of it
as part of our congregation.
They're building community online,
building in connect groups online.
There's pastoral help available online.
Our prayers are available for you online,
and you can be a part of our church.
They're putting on the screen right now,
the link that you can go to.
And last week when I talked about this,
a lot of people did it.
So it doesn't matter if you
live in Greenland or Timbuktu,
you can be part of Hillsong Church.
And I hope you will be.
Maybe you even live somewhere
as remote as Adelaide,
but we would love to
have you in our church.
Just kidding, you know that.
Love Adelaide, well, I love
some people in Adelaide.
Okay, so lots happening,
I'll talk about it a bit later,
but tonight we've got
something pretty special
with Young & Free.
This is Young & Free's big opening release
of their brand new album
which they worked on a long time ago
and some of the plans were
set aside because of COVID.
In other words, and bush
fires actually at the time,
which changed the plans of them doing it
as part of Summercamp.
But they've come up with something
brilliant and incredible.
And I love it.
And I know you're all going
to love this album as well.
And our youth pastors,
Peter and Laura Toggs
well, I know they're related to me,
but I have to tell you I
am biassed and I am proud.
They're phenomenal and Laura,
she's gonna bring you
a great Word tonight.
I already we'll talk about
that at the end of the service,
in case you forget, but bring friends,
bring young people, bring older people,
bring people who at one
time were at church,
but haven't been around lately.
And why don't you see if you can get them
to connect with you
depending on the rules,
wherever you were.
Why don't you see if they
can come around with you,
to your house that you could
watch church online tonight.
Thanks so much.
Okay, you know what
happens now, don't you?
Yep, that's right.
It's time for the Word.
I've got the big, long journey,
from here to that pulpit.
And then I'm excited
about preaching God's Word this morning.
Welcome, here we are, of course,
ready for the Word of God.
This great online Sunday
morning in Australia,
whatever time of the day
it is, wherever you are.
"If you live by the Gospel, it
will be well with your soul."
I've already spoken. If
you live by the Spirit,
it will be well with your soul.
And then if you live by the Word of God,
it will be well with your soul.
Today, if you live by the Gospel,
it will be well with your soul.
Where were you, moments?
Can you think of any moments
like that in your life,
significant moments, and you
know exactly where you were?
When I was nine,
I remember when President
J.F. Kennedy was assassinated.
My brother and I were
playing with a young friend,
Rowen Greatbatch and
we were up in the bush,
behind his house, came down
to get something to eat
and at the back door, I
still vividly remember,
even though nine years
old, his mother telling us
that the president of
the USA had been shot.
Martin Luther King, when
he was assassinated,
I was delivering newspapers
early in the morning,
folding my newspapers
and the major news item,
obviously on the front page,
in New Zealand, where I grew up,
was Martin Luther King
had been assassinated.
I remember when Princess Diana died.
Exactly, it was a Sunday.
And I think it was on the way to church
that we heard that she'd been
in a terrible car accident.
And it was immediately after
church, we heard she had died.
9/11, 9/11 just like many, many people,
we remember exactly where we were.
I was actually in Gainesville, Georgia,
with Pastor Jentezen Franklin.
We'd had a worship night
with our whole Hillsong worship team,
woke up in the morning in the
hotel, in little Gainesville.
And on the way to breakfast,
many of you would remember Russell Fragar,
he passed me coming the other way,
and told me a plane had
hit the first tower.
So I went straight to my
room and watched for hours.
The whole horrible dreadful drama unfold.
I remember exactly where I was.
Well, let's talk about the Gospel.
Where were you when you
first heard the Gospel,
the good news of Jesus?
Did you respond that first time?
I mean, some people,
maybe you've been in church
since you were nine days old,
so you've listened to the
Gospel in various ways,
all your life.
Certainly a few years
ago, I know in our church,
I'd speak to older people
and they would tell me
that they first gave their life to Christ,
heard the Gospel in a Billy Graham crusade
when he came to Australia.
Some people you walked through
the doors of Hillsong Church,
someone invited you and
you heard the Gospel
and you responded.
Maybe for some during this
season in online church
during this incredibly
frustrating pandemic,
maybe you came online
and heard the Gospel.
And in your own heart, you've
made your peace with Jesus.
What is the Gospel?
You see, it's more than a
three point evangelistic
or evangelastic message.
It's more than even a
single prayer, though,
we embrace Jesus and
enter into the Gospel,
by a simple prayer and
confession of faith.
I mean, Jesus Himself
was completely committed
to the Gospel.
He gives insight into just
how full the Gospel is.
Remember Luke 4:18-19. He said
Why?
And He goes on and
talks about the fullness
of that Gospel, I believe.
He was obviously all about the Gospel,
and the apostle Paul was
certainly devoted to the Gospel.
He was sold out to it,
in all the right ways.
In fact, in Romans 1:16-17, he says,
And that's my text right there.
This Gospel that Paul
refused to be ashamed of.
Listen to it in The Message.
Romans 1:16
Well, I think I already mentioned
Gospel means, good news.
In a world of bad news,
everyone needs some good news.
And the Gospel it's the best news.
It brings me back to why
I titled this message,
If you live by the Gospel it
will be well with your soul.
Because believe me, in times like these
people's souls need anchoring.
Emotions for some are all over the place.
Feelings of helplessness maybe setting in
as the pandemic seemed so prolonged now,
and global economies
are taking such a hit.
Thinking, mental health can
be heading south, as it were.
It's easy to become
indecisive and double-minded,
which the Bible says,
"Causes us to be unstable,
unanchored in all our ways."
And Hebrews 6:19, you see, it
talks about your soul and said
Those verses speak of two
immutable, unchangeable things,
Jesus' Name, and Jesus' promise.
These two things that we have access to
only because of what?
The Gospel, the good news of Jesus.
Eugene Peterson, he called it,
"This extraordinary message
of God's powerful plan
to rescue everyone who trusts Him."
I mean, I guess there's a
lot of Gospels out there.
And right now there's a Gospel
according to politicians.
In the USA, the Gospel according to Trump
or the Gospel according to Biden.
And let's be honest,
both have they devotees, their followers.
And it's so divisive each way,
people attacking each other.
Thank God our fellowship's
not built on politics,
it's built on the Gospel of Jesus.
There's the Gospel according
to climate change people,
or climate change denying people.
The Gospel according to the religious,
which tends to be harsh and hard.
Or the Gospel according
to compromising people,
which tends to be weak and wishy-washy.
There may be the Gospel according to you,
or the Gospel according to me.
Sometimes people ask me, when
it comes to social issues,
people ask, well, what do you think?
What do you think about gay marriage?
And ultimately, you know,
what I think doesn't matter.
What I think, well,
that could get us into
all sorts of trouble.
But as a senior pastor of a global church,
it's not what Brian thinks.
Always dangerous to talk about yourself
in the third person.
It's not what I think, it's
what the Word of God says.
You've probably heard people say,
"That's the Gospel truth."
They're trying to make
a point and they'll say,
"This is the Gospel truth."
But there's only one true Gospel.
And that's a journey that starts in faith.
Romans 1:17 says, "Continues in faith
and ultimately will end in faith."
It says there in that
verse, "Faith to faith,"
New King James version.
Or "faith first and last," in the NIV,
or in the New Living Translation,
"accomplished start to finish by faith."
Why?
"Cause the just shall live by faith."
The Gospel can only ever
be embraced by faith,
faith in Jesus.
To forgive your sin, to cleanse
you from unrighteousness,
to supernaturally make you righteous,
and ultimately to justify you by faith.
Justify, just as if I'd never sinned.
All things spoken about in Romans 1:16:17.
In the Scriptures, Paul
spoke about the Galatians
or the so called super-apostles,
who perverted the Gospel mainly
with old religious thinking.
Wanting to revert back to things
that Jesus had set them free from.
In 2 Corinthians 11, for
example, verse three, Paul says
He goes on to talk about super-apostles,
who were still putting their
trust in religion and works.
In Galatians 1:6-10.
Strong words
There's only one true Gospel.
People talk about the grace Gospel.
But yes, the Gospel includes
His wonderful grace.
People talk about the prosperity Gospel
and I believe the full Gospel.
It includes the abundant
life of which Jesus spoke,
"I am come that you might have life
and that you might have
it more abundantly."
But still, there's only one Gospel,
and that's the Gospel of
our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Praise God.
I mean, the Gospel according to me
is usually filled with
self-righteousness or carnality.
It perverts the purity of
Jesus' good news, the Gospel.
So think about this, number one.
It's because of Jesus,
that Paul was completely sold
out for the Gospel, are we?
In the very first verse of Romans,
he makes his passion
and priority so clear.
Listen to it.
The very first verses
of the book of Romans.
Romans 1:1-2
The Gospel in a nutshell,
was everything that Paul was about.
He said that he was set
apart for the Gospel.
And after his salvation, he
was just all about the Gospel.
And he wrote the book
of Romans, by the way,
to explain and unravel the
Gospel to make it clear.
This book of Romans, that's
a goldmine of a book,
worth studying and devouring.
In it there's good news
of God's salvation,
that's available to everybody.
All humanity is the subject pretty well
of the entire book of Romans.
Let's turn this into a
little quick Bible study,
for a moment, all right?
Romans, in chapter one,
In chapter two,
In chapter three,
In chapter four,
And in chapter five,
In chapter six,
And in chapter seven,
Chapter eight
And chapter nine
And chapter 10
Chapter 11
In chapter 12
In chapter 13
And chapter 14
Then finally, chapter
15 and then chapter 16,
After all, it was a letter.
So like all good letters,
it finishes with a greeting.
Well, listen, I love the book of Romans,
and I love the Gospel of
the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Think of it, it's the Gospel
of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
That's not His name.
Lord, is His title.
Jesus, that's His Name,
and Christ, that's His anointing.
So how does the Gospel
of Jesus affect you?
And what does it do for
you in this time now, 2020?
Well number one, remember it's because of Jesus
that Paul was set apart for the Gospel.
Now, number two, it's because of Jesus,
that you are a partaker in
the promises of the Gospel.
Promises that were foretold by His prophet
all the way through the Old
Testament in the Scriptures.
Romans 1:2, remember, we went here before. It says
Jesus' bloodlines track all
the way back to King David.
And what does that mean to you and I?
Well, what it means is you as
a daughter or a son of God,
you have royal lineage.
You're part of a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, I love this.
In Jeremiah, Jeremiah
23:5, prophesying Jesus,
I love the New King James,
there it actually it says of Jesus,
You see Jesus was declared to
be the Son of God with power
through His resurrection from the dead.
Jesus stands above, separate and distinct
from all other founders
of any other religion
or any other religious system.
Why?
Because of His resurrection from the dead.
And it's in that resurrection power,
that all the promises of
God in Him are yes and amen.
And number three, it's because of Jesus,
that we cannot be ashamed of the Gospel.
Even though Paul was persecuted for it,
for preaching the Gospel.
And was paying a huge
personal price because of it,
spending much of his Christian
life in chains and stocks,
or obviously in jail.
Especially in his final years
when he was shipped off
by the Romans to Rome.
And how ironic that that's most
powerful, wonderful Gospel,
is the subject of the
book of Romans, primarily.
And you know what I love about that,
so much persecution from the Romans
but he's not ashamed of the Gospel,
which he unfolds in the book of Romans.
In Romans chapter one, one more time,
verse 16 in the Message,
not ashamed of it.
and on it goes.
It's so powerful.
Paul was always more than
happy to share that good news
about Jesus Christ to
anyone that would listen.
You see many Bible teachers,
many theologians, if you like,
they described this Romans 1:16-17,
as the central theme
of the book of Romans.
In the previous verse, verse 15,
Paul shows how keen he is to come
and preach the Gospel in Rome,
which was a great, a
multicultural city even back then.
Romans 1:15, he says
He spoke also there of being hindered.
You see, he's bold.
I think when it came to the
Gospel, he's loud and proud,
that he's not ashamed of the Gospel.
I guess he sensed that maybe
some of the Christians in Rome
were tempted to be ashamed about it.
There may have been only
a few Christians in Rome,
I don't know,
but the great truth about Christ
seem new and strange to many people.
Christians were being persecuted
in Rome and from Rome.
So I guess it's one thing
to believe the Gospel,
but it's another thing to take the risk
of preaching it to friends and
strangers alike or living it.
Or living out a life whose
testimony points to the Gospel.
You know, Bobbie all
the years I've known her
has never been ashamed of the Gospel.
She tells a story how one time on a plane
she got talking to a young guy,
young enough to be her son,
good looking young guy.
And then he asks what she does,
and it came around to the fact that
we're pastors of Hillsong.
And she said she could almost
sense his countenance change
and the walls go up.
And he said, "Well, I'm gay."
And then Bobbie felt that
the Holy Spirit spoke to her
and she put her hand on his arm
and just began to tell him
her story, her Gospel story.
She said, let me tell you
what Jesus has done for me.
And by the time she finished
this young man had tears
rolling down his face.
That's the power of the Gospel.
You don't use it harshly.
Don't use it to judge people,
just don't be ashamed.
It's a message we should
be proud to proclaim.
I say, don't underestimate
the power of the Gospel
in this season right now.
Don't underestimate the
power of your testimony.
So many people, they're
clutching at straws,
grasping for somewhere to turn.
And some are turning to
all the wrong things.
Prescription drug abuse
is way up and other vices
are doing a roaring trade.
The Gospel is the only
real, sure, foundation.
Nothing to be ashamed of.
You know, right now Sydney
Morning Herald reported this week
research from Mark McCrindle.
And he's a social researcher
who surveyed 1,002 people
between July the 24th and 28th,
and found more than a
third, 35% of people,
said they were praying more,
41% were thinking about God more.
A quarter said that we're
reading the Bible more,
nearly half, 47%,
said they had thought
more about their mortality
and the meaning of life.
And the research is showing
that this COVID situation
has rattled Australia,
Sydney Morning Herald said,
or he said.
And got them thinking about
the big purpose of life.
It's got them reprioritising their life.
And that particular journalist
asked a whole lot of church
leaders including myself,
about whether or not there
was a turn toward the Gospel
during this COVID season.
And I'll tell you right now there is.
I have met and heard from so many people
who have been watching church
and being part of church in
the privacy of their own home.
Who maybe in the past would never, ever,
have darkened the doors of a church.
So God uses times like this.
We have nothing to be ashamed of
with the good news of Jesus.
Right now it's like election polls.
They seem to be very out often.
Why?
'Cause of the silent majority,
no one wants to get beat up
for their political views,
so they keep them to themselves.
And then when it comes to the day,
it turns the polls upside down.
Let's not take on that same
mentality with our faith
and passion for the Gospel.
You know people say,
we don't talk about sex
or politics or religion.
Well, that's not what Jesus said.
He might not want us
talking too often about sex,
or I don't think it's
His priority necessarily,
our politics.
Some may disagree with
that, but I'll tell you,
He cares about His Gospel and
your story, your Gospel story.
It can help so many people in your world.
And even if they reject you now,
it's amazing how people come back to it.
They don't forget when
they reach rock bottom,
when heartbreak hits or whatever else.
Sometimes I've seen people in our church.
And when they, as young
people, came to Christ,
they got such rejection and persecution
from their parents or their siblings.
And how over the years
hearts have softened.
Bobbie, Bobbie's just like that.
When she first gave her life to Christ,
she kind of got rejected
by her extended family.
Well, here's the good news.
After years of consistency,
her sister Karen,
is probably listening
right now from Queensland.
We love you, Karen and well, her mum,
before she passed away,
she'd become a lovely, lovely
old woman who loved Jesus,
a woman of faith.
And today I've got doubt she's in glory.
When I was a kid, you know,
sometimes the Gospel
was almost like heavy,
it was pressure.
We used to have what
they called open-airs,
It was old school.
So an open-air, late night shopping,
you'd go down they
had this caravan and the front opened out
and it would become the stage
and they were rather primitive
microphones and so on.
And people would tell
their testimonies, right?
They're just shouted at
everyone walking past.
Well what I remember, is
myself and my brother,
and the same kid I
mentioned, Rowan Greatbatch.
They got us to sing.
I mean, I was young, year six, maybe,
maybe seventh grade, young.
I used to be so embarrassed
'cause they'd get us to sing.
And I can still remember,
as a matter of fact,
I brought my ukulele.
It's not mine, actually
it's Diego Simila's,
if you know Diego.
Yeah, it's been a long time,
so don't judge me, all right.
But we would be there in the street,
everyone's preaching
the Gospel, as it were.
And all three of us in harmony,
with high pitched voices,
cause their voices hadn't
broke and we'd sing.
♪ Saviour guide my footsteps ♪
Oh this is good
♪ Saviour keep me true ♪
♪ Saviour ♪
Listen to this
♪ Be my master ♪
♪ Teach me thy will to do ♪
♪ Every moment of the day ♪
♪ Guide my footsteps, words and actions ♪
♪ That way the Lord I am ♪
It's been 55 years
♪ Every moment of the day God ♪
55 years.
Well, it probably shows.
But all I remember,
just hoping no one from school went past.
There so much pressure to compromise.
I mean, there was so much pressure.
Well you know, it doesn't
have to be like that.
Living out the Gospel, they're
just living out your story,
your testimony, the life of Jesus in you.
Often, there's so much
pressure to compromise,
to keep your religious view to yourself,
to be afraid, to take a stand
for Jesus on key issues.
Even the early apostles were fearful
under extreme persecution
from Herod and Pontius Pilate.
They prayed for boldness,
you know, Acts chapter four.
And then going on, verse 31,
Let's live bold, let's let our lives talk
and our testimony talk.
Let's believe for that same
Holy Ghost boldness to live,
pray out of our Jesus story.
Not ashamed of the good news of Jesus.
Number four, gotta move on.
It's because of Jesus we can
know the power of the Gospel.
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel
for it's the power of God unto salvation.
In his early life, Paul was
caught up in a religious system.
He was a true blue Jew.
He kind of said that
himself, in not those words.
Where a person's relationship to God
depended on performance or the good works,
keeping the law, et cetera.
And listen to the way Paul
spoke about his old reliance.
It's in Philippians chapter
three, I'm using The Message.
He says, verse two
Well, Paul's looking back
at what he was depending on.
It was works, it was law,
it was performance,
it was not faulting or failing.
And it wasn't working for him.
I guess that's why he's so
passionate about the Gospel,
the good news of Jesus.
In Romans chapter seven,
Paul starts describing his own turmoil
while trying to attain God's
approval through his works.
And I love these verses
because they give us all
hope in own struggles.
And in Romans seven, he says,
"I do things that I do not approve of.
And I don't do the things
that I know I should.
I hate the things that I am doing in me.
That is, in my flesh there
dwells no good thing.
I desire to do good,
but I can't seem to
perform up to my desires.
The good than I would, I don't do.
The evil that I do not want
to do is what I'm doing.
There's a perverse law in me
that when I would do good,
evil is present with me.
I'm a wretched man, I
need someone to help me.
Here's the power of the Gospel.
It's not about our ability
to conform or transform,
it's all about the good news of Jesus.
Ultimately Paul, he threw overboard,
all the good works in his past,
when he came to the excellency
of the knowledge of Jesus Christ
and he considered them literally as dung,
and the literal Greek word is excrement.
You're gonna use whatever
adjective you like,
but that's exactly what it's describing.
They could not compare
with the righteousness.
Living by performance
that God had imparted to
him through Jesus Christ.
Through the Gospel.
He realised, I pray that we all
realise if we don't already,
the good news is the power
of God unto salvation.
The Gospel has power to transform lives.
It's got power to set people free,
has got power to heal broken hearts,
to bring sight to blind eyes.
I mean, I look around our church
and I see all the lives
that have been transformed
by the good news of
Jesus Christ over years.
As you know, we just
turned 37 years of age
and we would be able to find easily
someone from every one of those 37 years,
who is serving Jesus today,
transformed lives, because why?
They heard the Gospel
and they embraced Jesus.
I've witnessed the power of the Gospel,
not just once but many times.
The power of the Gospel to free a person
from the hold that Satan
has had on their lives.
I love that Jesus is
still setting people free
from their bondage, from
drugs, from alcoholism,
you know, from pornography, from bondage,
from condemnation, from legalism.
Well, number five, it's because of Jesus
that the Gospel sets us free
from the law of sin and death.
I love this part.
It's not so much the law of Moses
that the Gospel sets you free from,
Jesus fulfils that law,
It's the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:2
This Gospel is the power
of God to salvation.
Romans 1:16 says,
"For it is the power
of God unto salvation."
You're saved from the power of Satan
who once controlled your
life and was destroying you.
Same with me, same with us all.
It'd be very easy to
preach Romans 1:16-17,
'cause it's all good news
and ignore verse 18, which
takes a different turn.
It says, "For the wrath,"
depending where you grew up,
the wrath or the wrath,
we'll just go for wrath.
We speak a lot about the love of God,
but what about his wrath?
This verse talks about those who, listen,
suppress the truth, the Gospel,
through their unrighteousness.
I see that as people who have
been exposed to the Gospel
but choose to keep on
living unrighteous lives.
All of us have made mistakes,
all of us fail at times,
but this is willful choice, I think.
There's a lot of things in Moses law
that the Gospel has not changed.
But there are certain things
where Jesus made it clear
the Gospel has changed.
For example, eye for an eye,
becomes, turn the other cheek.
But you know the 10 commandments,
I guess they're the heart of Moses law
that he received on Mount Sinai.
I see them as just good common sense.
I was reading this week.
They are life giving principles
that fit beautifully into
the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus.
I mean, there's two tables, if your like,
two parts to the 10 commandments.
The first part is our commitment
not to living unrighteous toward God.
Those commandments, have
no other gods before me,
make no graven images,
don't bow down to other
gods or serve them,
don't take the Lord's Name in vain.
In other words, when you hit
your thumb with a hammer.
No.
The power of Sabbath.
Those are at our heart towards God.
And then the second
part, the second table,
is our commitment to each other
and not live unrighteously
towards our fellow man.
Honour your father and mother
that your day may be long.
Thou shalt not kill.
Yeah, and that's why I'm pro-life,
that's why I'm anti-abortion.
The Bible says it, "Thou shall not kill."
And you know what?
I know there's people who
are listening to me right now
and immediately that could
bring condemnation to you,
but that's the power of the Gospel.
He can set you free.
And I believe you can trust Jesus
with the souls of your
babies, born or unborn,
especially when you've
surrendered your life to Christ.
But it's a command, "No
adultery, don't steal.
Don't lie about your neighbour.
The King James version says,
"The power of the Gospel is a
changed life, transformation.
It's the power of God unto salvation."
Not just getting saved, but living saved.
And that's where my belief
in the fullness of the Gospel comes from.
The life-transforming power of the Gospel
for those who believe.
Romans 1:16, it says
it's a matter of faith,
it's a matter of trust,
it's a matter of belief.
But I believe the Gospel it's good news.
Includes great biblical
promises like salvation,
sanctification, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit,
divine healing and the Kingdom of God
that Jesus spoke about so often.
I'll finish with this, number six,
it's because of Jesus that
the Gospel is for everyone
and anyone who believes.
I mean Jesus Himself said that,
"Whosoever believeth
in me shall be saved."
The Gospel message is nothing
less than power from God,
for everyone who dares
believe to be saved.
Anyone, everyone who puts
their faith in Christ
and His death for their sin on
the cross will be justified,
will be made right with God,
and is welcomed into God's great family.
Welcome home.
So if that's all true and
Paul staked his life on it,
then what is there to be ashamed of?
In this famous verse, verse 16,
Paul continues that,
"This salvation from
God by faith in Christ,
is for the Jew first
and also for the Greek."
Greek here is more than
people from Greece.
The same as Gentiles,
it's all the rest of
us who are not Jewish.
I wonder why for the Jew first?
You see the Jewish people by and large
rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
Although many Jewish
people did accept Jesus
and put their trust in Christ
starting with His 12 Jewish disciples.
But it's fascinating that
whenever Paul went to a new city,
he generally started preaching
in the synagogue first.
If he was rejected there
or after he preached there,
he'd move on to preach to the Gentiles.
Jesus sent Paul to preach
to all the nations,
but he also commissioned
Paul to preach about Him
to the children of Israel.
At the time of his conversion,
he was charged to preach
to Gentiles, kings,
and the children of Israel.
It's told right at the
time of Paul's conversion,
for everyone.
The Gospel is for your
neighbours, it's for your family,
it's for your friends,
it's for your colleagues.
It's for your enemies.
Let's not be ashamed
of His glorious Gospel.
If we understand all that's
in the fullness of His Gospel,
believe me, it'll be well with your soul
and with your Spirit
and even with your body.
Thank God for the beauty,
for the wonder of the Gospel.
Can I pray for you?
Lord, I just thank You in Jesus' Name,
again, for the wonder of Your
Gospel, Your glorious Gospel.
Father, it's life to us.
Help us, Lord, to understand
the power of Jesus,
who becomes our righteousness,
who delivers us from all unrighteousness.
Who, as we put our faith in You,
justifies us, just as
if we'd never sinned.
Lord, You sanctify us, You
deliver us from unrighteousness.
We've got so much to be
grateful for, and I pray today,
people will make that choice
to embrace the Gospel,
the good news of Jesus.
Lord, I thank You for it,
in You're wonderful Name,
Amen, Amen.
Well, listen,
do you know Jesus in the
way I've been describing,
have you ever really embraced Him?
That is the Gospel, it's called good news.
You can know that good
news in your life today.
If you'll confess with your
mouth, the Lord, Jesus Christ,
and simply believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead.
If you'll confess,
that like all humanity you are
a sinner outside of Christ,
but say, Jesus, forgive my sin.
"He's faithful and just
to forgive your sin,"
the Bible says, "And to
cleanse you, cleanse me too,
from all unrighteousness."
I'm gonna pray a prayer, I'll pray.
There's many people
around the world right now
who'll pray this prayer with me,
inviting Jesus Christ into your life.
Pray these words
God bless you.
Well, listen,
if you prayed that prayer,
I would love it if you would
go to a simple website,
it's on your screen right now.
Go to that website, just fill
in, answer the questions.
And then we'll do what we
can to lead you forward
and see you move on from here.
And this COVID season
will not have been wasted
because you just made the
most powerful decision
of your whole life.
God bless you, so powerful.
As we go on with this service,
and we're just finishing right now.
I wanna pray for the sick.
I wanna remind you that Jesus,
and I believe it's in the
fullness of the Gospel,
He heals our diseases.
So Lord, in Your mighty Name,
wherever people are sick,
wherever people are
fatigued, whether it's COVID
or anything else, Lord,
I know that You are our healer.
I thank You, Lord, for the
healing power of Jesus Christ.
And even now I believe
people are being healed.
Lord, I thank You.
I thank You.
I thank You Father, for
stories of pain disappearing,
Lord for disease being turned around,
Lord, for health, for
aches and pains to be gone.
And we thank You for
it, in Your mighty Name,
Amen, Amen, Amen.
Tonight, don't forget,
it's Young & Free weekend.
They've released this
incredible, powerful,
new recording, it's powerful.
And tonight, my daughter, Laura,
Young & Free pastor,
she's preaching the Word.
She's a beautiful, powerful
preacher, I'm biassed,
but she's a beautiful, powerful,
communicator of God's Word.
I think we're all gonna
be blessed tonight.
So make sure you're a part of church.
It'll be fantastic.
Lord, I thank You,
You bless Your people and You keep them.
And You cause Your face
to shine upon them.
What a God You are, a God of grace,
a God of wonder, a God of mercy.
Father, may we know with confidence
that You're leading us and
You're guiding us, Father.
You're opening new doors of opportunity.
And even what the devil is
trying to do to destroy,
You will turn it around.
And we thank You for it, in Jesus' Name,
Amen.
Come on, let's get ready
to praise God some more.
Thanks so much for being with us today.
Keep tuning in.
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh yeah ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪
