Bayside Church Online | Sunday 31 January

[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hi and welcome to bayside church online so great to have you join us here today i'm looking forward to worshiping together and hearing a great word from pastor rob if you're here for the very first time we would love to get in contact with you our hosts right now are placing a link in the chat if you wouldn't mind clicking on that link and filling out your details and we'll get in touch with you any questions you have about bayside church we would love to answer them i'm joined by caitlin out one of our youth leaders very first time on bayside church online yep first time being here today yep your debut how are you feeling a bit nervous different community online but i'm sure it'd be great oh look they're not that scary they don't bite that's right so be kind everyone be kind please so you just had uh youth on last friday night you had a chill-out time at the beach yes what's coming up for youth yeah so we've got connect groups coming this week which we're super excited about so um we're splitting off into connect group year levels and um creating those relationships and we're super keen so that sounds great if you're keen on coming reach out and we'd love to have you fantastic and all you need to do is get in contact with us and caitlin would love to be in touch with you absolutely sounds really good now caitlyn would you like to pray just to lead us into worship yes i would love to dear lord i thank you so much for today and the opportunity that we get to connect with people online i pray that as we enter into this worship that you may fill us with your holy spirit lord reach us where we are at and um just place your hand over us amen amen we'll send it over to the worship team come let us worship our king see what a savior has done he has done great things [Music] [Applause] you have done great things you've been faithful through every stone you'll be yes you're oh jesus [Music] hallelujah you have done great things [Music] hallelujah [Music] you've awakened oh jesus [Music] [Music] i love you lord for your mercy never fails me and all [Music] [Music] [Music] you have been faithful [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i love your voice [Music] i've known you as a father i've known you as a friend in the goodness of god and all my life you have been so good [Music] of god you know my life you have been so oh after is is is [Music] [Music] life you have been so so good with every breath that i am able to see of the goodness all the good news [Music] how great the chasm that lay between us how high the mountain i could not climb in desperation i turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night your loving kindness talk through the shadows of my soul your work is jesus christ [Music] is [Music] [Music] the cross has spoken i am forgiven the king of kings calls me warm yours forever jesus christ you have broken every chain there's salvation in your name jesus christ you have broken every chain the salvation in your name jesus christ your buried body [Music] has [Music] [Music] [Applause] as though came is a victory hallelujah you have broken every chain this salvation in your name jesus christ you have broken every chain there's salvation in your name jesus christ jesus christ oh god you are [Music] living hope i just love that song that it's such a wonderful reminder of how jesus is our living hope no matter what we go through in life no matter even if we face death uh jesus has the last say jesus has the last word and right now i just want to read the scripture over you as part of our prayer time it says by god's great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead that is into an inheritance imperishable undefiled and unfading it is reserved in heaven for you who by god's power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time be encouraged right now that no matter what we are going through god is able to get us through and we have the living hope in jesus right now we're going to continue to worship around a time of giving and so if you'd like to participate in this offering there are a number of ways you can do that you can simply go to our tithely app and select bayside church melbourne alternatively you can go to our website and click click the giving option there and follow all the prompts caitlyn would you lead us in a time of um offering message yes i'd love to and i kind of want to take us a bit into the old testament with it sure back to exodus just to be fun with it yeah sure and it's in this real cool time where um the hebrews have just exited out of egypt and they're in this real transitional period and they finally got their hands on some gold um jewellery and in this real transitional period and they finally after so many years of slavery have something in their hands to work with and it leads us to exorcists uh 35 22 and it says all who are willing men and women alike came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds brooches earrings rings and ornaments they all presented their gold as a wave offering to the lord i think it's just really cool as we reflect on where they are at in this moment they don't know what's next or the land that they're going to or what god has planned for them or where god is amidst that and they finally got a bit of comfortability right yep but even then they still decide to sacrifice that over to the lord because they have a sacrificial heart and an expectant heart and that's kind of what i want to reflect on today is i've been thinking about giving is that we should go into it with a sacrificial and expectant heart because they sacrificed what they had to him but with the expectancy that the god that brought them out of egypt is the same god that's going to use that grow it and multiply it for his incredible good i love that i love the fact that you know it took them to get out of their comfort zone again and god always does that doesn't it of course he does just to keep it interesting that's right and i think as we head into this 2021 season we don't know what it looks like we've come out of 2020 honestly like we never know what life looks like but especially in this fluctuating time i don't know what my work looks like or this church looks like or um what uni will look like for me and that's the reality for a lot of people yeah and i think as we go and come from our own egypt in 2020 we should go into giving with a sacrificial and expectant heart that he who took us out of that period is going to use what we sacrifice for his incredible good this year that sounds great yeah and i just wanted to reflect on that as we go into a time of giving together um like what do we expect of god as we give it over to him what sacrifices are we making and and what do we expect that he's going to do with that because he's going to do incredible things oh that sounds amazing i'm excited already are you hopefully you are too yeah get keen and i just as we finish up in this time of generosity i would just like to pray over us today so if you will join me in prayer lord i thank you so much for all that you give us i thank you for your protection and your hand over us in everything that we do lord i pray that as we head into 2021 we don't know what that looks like lord but i pray that you instill in us a sense of trust and expectancy that the same god that brought us out of last year is the same god that will bring us through 2021. i pray into all of the lives of people at bayside church that truth and that reality lord as you continue to lay your hand over us this season amen amen how amazing that's fantastic and you're going to see a little bit more of caitlyn right now in a couple of promos coming up check it out [Music] coming up on bayside church online we have vision weekend tune in on saturday the 6th or sunday the 7th of february as we get ready to embrace 2021 and hear the vision from pastor rob on sunday the 14th of february we'll be having beach baptisms at chelsea beach baptism is a powerful declaration of one's faith in jesus and the transformations he has made in their life if you are yet to be baptized and are ready to take the next step register to take that plunge on the bayside church website for more information on anything you've seen here head to baysidechurch.com or follow us on facebook or instagram well hi there really looking forward to vision weekend next weekend on bayside church online as well as in person some very exciting things to share with you which i think will be very appropriate at this time as we continue to navigate our way through uh the current crisis if you want to follow this message in your bible term with me to 2 corinthians chapter 6 you'll find message notes on the app and the website and also at the end of the message notes some discussion questions that can really help you either go a little deeper personally or with some friends or in your connect group as well i want to wrap up the series that i began before christmas on becoming like jesus and i've got plenty more to say on this subject i mean really this is the goal of the christian life that you and i as followers of jesus christ would become progressively more and more and more like him so much more to say on this but i just sensed the holy spirit has some other things that he wants me to share with you over the next few weeks and so i'll be getting into that from next weekend if you're taking notes the title is in this world part two and this statement is taken from a verse from the apostle john he wrote this in 1 john 4 17 and he said in this world we are like jesus in this world we are like jesus you think about that for a moment jesus is god in human form he is the word the expression of god made into flesh and blood and so when we look at the person of jesus christ we know what god is really like not what people thought god was like not the way they saw god through their culture or their life or whatever but what god was really like is manifest for us in the person of jesus christ and then the new testament one of the analogies that it uses for the church is the body of christ in other words we as followers of jesus are also to flesh out what jesus is really like and so as jesus lived so the church should live as jesus fleshed out god so the church should flesh out and live like god and so if we want to know what god is like we should be able to say look at jesus and look at the church look at christians and you know as kath and kim go look at me look at me look at me in this world we are i am like jesus and i know we get it wrong right and when we get it wrong we just need to apologize and own our mistakes and keep going humbly uh walking with our god and so what does this look like this this being like jesus in this world well last time we looked at it being respectful and i used the example of paul he's arrived in athens the rest of his team aren't there yet and so as he's waiting for his team to arrive he's walking around athens and we read in acts 17 verse 16 that while paul was waiting for them in athens he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols i want you to think about that for a moment here's paul is walking around through ancient athens and he's looking at all the idols all the idolatry and his spirit is distressed but then he engages with people in the city they invite him to this place called the areopagus which was the place where discussions on philosophy and religion took place and when paul was invited to speak he gets up and he starts talking to the athenians but i want you to note what he says here he says people of athens i see that in every way you are very religious for as i walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship notice that compared to the verse we read paul was greatly distressed and i feel that sometimes as followers of jesus christ our spirits are distressed because of the the sin that we see around us but then we start to speak to other people out of our distress and then we're not respectful and so paul he was able to own his distress at looking at all of the idolatry but when he was speaking to people he spoke with great respect he referred to their idols as objects of worship and he complemented them on being religious he was finding common ground with them and then from there of course in a beautiful way he shared the gospel with them and some of them became followers of jesus christ isn't that wonderful we need to make sure that we communicate with other people around us out of respect the apostle peter talked about those same things in 2 peter chapter 3 and verse 15 he says in your hearts revere christ as lord always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have but do this with note that gentleness and respect and so being like jesus in this world means that we will be respectful of other people and as peter adds there that we will be gentle with them as well i want to spend a bit of time looking at number two today what this looks like being jesus in the world is it looks engaged and i love the way that over the last couple of weeks amelia pickering and jimmy day have uh really both taught into this aspect of jesus life that jesus was engaging amelia looked at the story in mark 2 the calling of uh levi uh that was one of the names given to matthew i think i think levi was his jewish name or maybe he was called levi because he had really cool genes i don't know i know one thing in in matthew chapter one there's a gene eology so and i can hear the groaning from here but as you look at this through the gospels jesus was engaging with people and then you get into some of paul's writings and and it looks like on the surface that paul in his teaching or some of his teaching was actually contradicting the way that jesus is presented in the gospels and so i want to unpack that with you today so if you've got your bibles handy 2 corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 to 18. let's have a look at these verses together the apostle paul writes this to the corinthian church do not be yoked together with unbelievers for what do righteousness and wickedness have in common what fellowship can light have with darkness what harmony is there between christ and belial now belial was a name uh that was given for extreme wickedness here it's talking probably about the personification of satan um that stresses the deep wickedness of of the devil and then paul goes on or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever what agreement is there between the temple of god and idols for we are the temple of the living god as god has said and then paul goes on and he quotes from various old testament uh prophets so leviticus jeremiah isaiah and ezekiel and then to samuel he says i will live with them and walk among them and i will be their god and they will be my people therefore come out from them and be separate says the lord touch no unclean thing and i will receive you and i will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters says the lord almighty come out from among them be separate now every pastor has their favorite bible verses i have mine and uh i'm going to share one of those with you in a few minutes time but the church i used to attend in western australia the pastor was no different he had his favorite bible verses and one of his favorite verses was here in two corinthians chapter 6 come out from them or from among them and be separate says the lord and he would say that to us on a fairly regular basis we had in our church it was a little pentecostal church beautiful people loving jesus and i grew very very strong in the lord in that church there was a lot of really positive stuff but if there was a negative there it was that we were kind of like in a bit of a holy huddle it was us versus them we were holy we were the followers of jesus christ and all of the people outside were dirty rotten sinners and we should be separate from them it was a bit of a kind of a fortress mentality and we were just holding on until jesus returned in 1983 when all of the planets aligned that's another story and of course i was working for a mainstream radio station back in those days i was on the breakfast show and uh playing you know top 40 music back in the late 70s early 80s and every year we had a christmas party and i was always invited to the christmas party but because i'd heard this teaching be separate come out from among them and i will receive you says the lord i figured that god didn't want me to go to the christmas party and so i never went i regret that now because actually i should have been there and and my last year uh in that town geraldton in western australia before i went to bible college uh in new south wales i i went to the christmas party and everyone were like oh we're so glad you're here and ended up having a lot of fun and great conversations with people but i hadn't gone because of this teaching is paul contradicting the way jesus lived because jesus was engaged with people he was out amongst the people but paul is here saying come out from them and be separate have a line of demarcation it's us and it's them so let's have a look at what paul is really teaching here verse 14 and verse 17 are the challenging verses so let's have a look at verse 14 first of all it says do not be yoked together with unbelievers the words yoked together there are actually one greek word and the word really means mismatched so what he's saying here is that you are not to be mismatched with unbelievers so christians wrongly committed to a partner for example a marriage partner or someone that you're dating or maybe a business partner who holds very different values and priorities that run contrary to your faith now if you find yourself in a marriage like that right now i am not saying separate and get divorced right that's not what i'm teaching here if you're able to make that marriage work then all power to you um but it's going to be challenging and you already know that right because as a christian you find yourself in a relationship where you're kind of going in opposite directions on at least certain things particularly when it comes to your faith and and this is important because if you're single at the moment but you want to be married you have to make sure that the person that you end up with is spiritually compatible with you and if you don't believe me go and have a chat with a man who is married to a woman who is different to him uh on spiritual matters or a woman who has a husband uh that's an unbeliever for example and talk to them and find the challenges that they find in their marriage life it's the same maybe you have a business partner if you're going to business with someone make sure that you're not mismatched with that person doesn't mean they have to necessarily be a believer in jesus christ but you want to make sure that their values and priorities don't run contrary to your faith that's what paul is talking about here do not be mismatched with unbelievers and paul's really kind of gleaning from uh leviticus here where talks about not sowing two types of seed together not mismatching different types of cloth or not trying to mate one animal with a different type of animal those things would be a mismatch and that's what paul is talking about here the passion translation that actually gets this spot on as the passion does uh on on much of its in translation it says don't continue to team up with unbelievers in mismatched alliances it's powerful isn't it and then verse 17 it says come out from among them and be separate the words separate there's probably not the best translation the the literal uh interpretation of that is to establish boundaries and particularly establish healthy boundaries and we'll see a little bit later there's certainly something that jesus did in his life too and so is paul contradicting the way that jesus lived and the way jesus taught us to live well the answer to that is no not at all we never abandon our responsibility to love other people but we must be cautious of relationships that will divide our loyalty to christ and that's what paul is emphasizing here and also if we go back a few verses we will find uh paul really kind of is balancing up the truth and so if we go to 2 corinthians chapter 5 just a few verses previously in verse 18 to the first part of verse 20. paul says all this is from god who reconciled us to himself through christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that god was reconciling the world to himself in christ not counting people's sins against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation we are therefore christ's ambassadors as though god were making his appeal through us and so here we see four things emphasized by the apostle paul that really presents a beautiful balance with what we've looked at already from 2 corinthians chapter six number one we have been reconciled god reconciled us to himself through christ if you are a follower of jesus christ god has reconciled you that word literally means to be made a friend of god god has brought you back to himself through jesus christ through his life death and resurrection he's brought you back into friendship with himself you are reconciled to god if you haven't chosen to follow jesus yet i'm going to give you an opportunity to do just that in a few minutes time right at the end of this message today so number one we have been reconciled number two we've been given the ministry of reconciliation the number of christians i talk to and they say oh pastor rob i'm just trying to find my ministry i want to know what my ministry is well here it is right here you have been given as a follower of jesus christ the ministry of reconciliation number three he says we've been given the message of reconciliation so we have the ministry and the message of reconciliation and here is one of my favorite verses it's 2 corinthians chapter 5 and verse 19 and it says god was reconciling the world to himself in christ not counting people's sins against them isn't that a wonderful truth what was god doing in jesus well he was reconciling the entire world not just you not just me not just followers of jesus but the entire world reconciled to god becoming friends of god through jesus christ and god did this by not counting people's sins against them how powerful that is and so this is the balance to what paul is saying before about not getting into mismatched alliances and establishing healthy boundaries he's not saying i don't want you to be out there in the world i just want you to be cautious in your dealings with people in the world but get out amongst people because god loves people god has reconciled people to himself it's just that they haven't found that out yet they need to know the good news that god's love is toward them that he's not counting their sins i love that that's what jesus did jesus wasn't counting people's sins he was out there with people mixing mingling eating together as amelia said a couple of weeks ago if a jew was eating with someone it was a statement of you are equal to me and so he was out there with the sinners and the tax collectors and the up and out and the down and out and there was jesus hanging out with those people saying you're equal to me he was demonstrating the love of god to all of those people i read this during the week someone sent this quote to me and i love it jesus ministers to the centurion the oppressor and to the bleeding woman the oppressed he calls both the tax collector the one funding the oppressor and a zealot the one fighting the oppressor to be his disciples his body and grave are attended by a pharisee a religious leader and a group of women the marginalized it seems in life and death he shows that grace is for all regardless of station because he knows they are all trapped in the same system of sin isn't that stunning stunning truth i want to ask you today is this the message that most aussies are getting from the church not counting people's sins against them when i talk to people in our community who are not necessarily followers of jesus yet that to me is not the message that people are getting from the church normally they're getting a kind of a moral message be a good person live a good life go to church and and they know where we stand on moral issues but they don't understand the gospel that to me is one of the absolute tragedies of modern christianity that they know what we where we stand on abortion and voluntary assisted dying and same-sex marriage and all of the other moral issues of our time they know what the churches stance on those things of course we're against we're against everything but they don't have a clear understanding of what it actually means to be a christian we've we've muddied the gospel message with morality and that's got to change if you to ask the average aussie what the what it means to be a christian they'd say oh yeah christians someone who tries to live a good life does good things to other people goes to church all of those kinds of things that's not the gospel the gospel is that god was in christ making the world a friend reconciling the world to himself not counting people's sins against them and so we have that message we have that ministry and number four we are christ's ambassadors christ's ambassadors an ambassador is a diplomat sent by a state as its permanent representative to a foreign country this world is a foreign country to those who follow jesus christ the bible tells us in philippians 3 20 that we are citizens of heaven citizens of heaven that's where my passport is from that's where yours is from and so we're sent uh by heaven to be ambassadors diplomats to represent our home nation on foreign soil in a foreign country and while we're here our message and our ministry is that god was in christ jesus telling the world that you've been brought back into friendship and not counting people's sins against them let us take that good news and let's walk that narrow road that paul is talking about here in 2 corinthians 5 you know about the love of god engaging with people loving people sharing good news with people but also be careful don't make mismatched alliances and establish healthy boundaries that's what jesus did and we want to be like jesus and so that's what we will do too jesus radically identified with people he loved them he healed them he ate food with them he taught them but he also lived a radically different life to most of the people around jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard but he was neither he was holy he was blameless he was tempted in always like you and i but he never sinned that is he didn't compromise he established healthy boundaries and he didn't get involved in mismatched partnerships with other people let us walk in that wisdom this year together i shared a few minutes ago how uh if you're not a follower of jesus yet that you can become a follower of jesus today and i'm just going to lead you in a prayer right now so if you want to bow your head close your eyes so you can really really focus and if you want to become a follower of jesus or if you just want to reconfirm your faith in jesus christ repeat this prayer after me heavenly father i thank you for the gift of your son jesus i believe that jesus is god in human form who lived who died and who rose again i believe that jesus does not count my sins against me that i am reconciled that i am a friend of god because of jesus christ i invite you jesus to come into my life to wash me clean and to fill me with your spirit from this day forward i will live for you and serve you in your name amen if you've just prayed that prayer for the very first time we would love to put you in touch with one of our leaders at bayside church our host is putting a link in the chat feed right now if you just want to click on that that will send you to a brief form fill that out and it'll connect you with someone from bayside church and we will love to send you a bible and some information on how you can get started on this brand new journey of following jesus christ god bless you see you next weekend for vision weekend right now back to sandra and caitlyn thanks so much pastor rob that was such a great message as per usual if you have any questions about uh today's service or questions about bayside church feel free to contact us at connect baysidechurch.com and if you're interested in getting baptized anytime soon feel free to register on our bayside church website that's great well well done first uh based our church online you've done it you can tick that off i know tick it off yeah it's great it's great to have you we hope that you enjoy the rest of the day and we look forward to seeing you next time on bayside church online take [Music] care [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so you

Channel: Bayside Church Melbourne

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Keywords: bayside church, rob buckingham, bayside, God, Christianity

Id: LTA2Q6E4rGU

Length: 70min 46sec (4246 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2021