Catch The Fire Toronto - Live 11:15AM (September 12th, 2021)

[Music] do [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] hey thanks for joining us we are talking about vision we're talking about the vision that we feel that god has given us for this church catch the fire church in toronto and where he wants us to be in five ten years from now this has been a beautiful process for us as leadership hasn't it and we've been spending time lots and lots of time talking and praying and seeking god uh talking with our pastors with staff and um you know really just digging in together what is god saying the church should look like and some of these things are you know they're somewhat tangible now we're already there and there are other things that feel like they require a bit of a stretch of faith for us and i think this one that we're going to talk about today is a bit of both um i want to talk about this one we are a church filled with people from all walks of life and are intentional to move beyond our comfort zones to reach fresh generations and people groups this is something that you could say is true of our congregation right now but it's also something that we don't want to settle in and we want to be like it says moving beyond our comfort zones right so what does that look like for you and how have you guys stretched your own comfort zones um to be more inclusive in that sense the statistics ben are that two of every three adults in their church were not born in canada so we are a multicultural church we weren't that 15 years ago when i first came to this church 25 years ago plus it was predominantly white a white congregation and our city the city of toronto is not white it used to be white it's multicultural and so i am thrilled that multicultural new canadians feel at home at catch the fire we have intentionally done things over the years accidentally sometimes uh on purpose sometimes but we've we've tried to embrace multiculturalism as best we can the other uh interesting statistic for me is that two-thirds of our church are under the age of 35. so kids youth young adults we're a young church as well yeah so that to me is two amazing things for our future that says we do have a future sadly there are lots of churches in our city that are uh a much older congregation they're 60 plus in in the seats that make up their congregations they're going to be struggling to have a future uh in our city and we reflect the city of toronto so i think that that's always what god wants is that the the local gathering of the church reflects who lives in that city so here's some of the interesting little ones for us ben opportunities for us just to the north of us is the lowest income highest crime highest unemployment of all of the gta it's the north kipling community and that's where we've targeted our outreaches that's where we've targeted our partnerships for with other ministries is for that community they are real people in our community and uh they they need an extra help our church is incredibly diverse so we have high-end multi-millionaires that are in our church and we have people that live on pensions on disabilities we have people that have been at times homeless and are part of our congregation we've got a whole specter and i love that you sit beside people and probably don't know who they are what their background is but this is us and god wants us to continue to reach out just to the east of us at martin grove and dixon road we have 10 000 somalis that live in that community big gang community two big somali gangs are killing each other literally killing each other we haven't connected with that group yet we haven't seen a breakthrough in that community yet so that would be one of my heart's desires that in five years ten years from now we've got some wonderful somali people that are part of our congregation come to know jesus uh bringing their friends reaching out et cetera yeah i love how we um i we we here at catch fire celebrate multicultural multiculturalism we have just so many cultures um and i love the passion that each of them holds and i learn so much and so i just love what god's doing here at catch the fire and just bringing everybody remember years ago i don't know if you remember this ben but we used to have all the flags yeah and it was it was actually very um it was a very special moment that only people that were part of our church if they were born in that particular nation they could get a flag of their nation bring it forward and all the people in the church um would that were from that nation would come and they would stand behind them and they would they would describe what the flag meant and their culture and we we celebrated all the different cultures that way and then we hung it on our ceiling and we had i don't know how many flags hundreds um that we had from every nation and it was beautiful just beautiful to see and beautiful to learn from each other so it was wonderful it's one of my favorite things about this city here is that incredible multi-culturalism and i also love that multi-generational aspect of the church family because you when we do church when we do relationships and we do it together we are moving beyond the people that we might naturally relate to you know grandparents might relate to grandparents of a similar socio-economic class and a similar you know skin color or whatever and actually when we come together as church we bridge all of those divides and we there's this kind of beautiful exchange of compromise isn't there where it's like it's not exactly as this group might like it and it's not exactly as this group might like it it's not but but it's because as we come together we're actually not seeking any one of our own cultures or preferences we're seeking him and if we all fix our eyes on him it creates this incredible harmony between us which i i think is really beautiful yeah it's one of the best parts of our church is who god has gathered and i look forward in the next 5-10 years to see who god's going to be gathering in the future yeah by the people from where you're at wave throw them a kiss a hug like that you know that kind of thing we just want to bless you i want to welcome those that are watching online welcome to catch fire toronto here we are this morning getting ready to worship this morning i actually mentioned this in the first service but really felt um i know about a month or so ago i had written or read a prophetic word about being lethargic and then not being lethargic but becoming expectant and i felt like the lord was reminding me yesterday that even in the midst of everything going on it's september you know we're we're in the beginning of our new series um that we want to come to church expecting don't we even though in the natural there are limitations on us those that are watching online you may feel that there's limitations where you are in home but the holy spirit wants to break through in your home today and he wants to break through in this church today and so i am so grateful and so thankful for the presence of god and so let's just lift our hands up to the lord right now father i thank you that even right now that you are coming and you are just unraveling things in our lives father and even this morning holy spirit as we watch online or as we're in the room and those that are coming in father that you would come in power father that you would come and lord we thank you for the transformation that you are already doing in our lives and in our city father and i feel like this morning that there's some people that your eyes are going to be open to the things that god is doing [Music] and so we want to come into agreement with that don't we we want to declare that the lord is going to open our eyes so that we can see all that he's doing we can go oh that's what he's doing and it's just so simple it's like being childlike right do you know how children they just say oh look mommy look daddy look what look what's happening there well that's what your heavenly father is just saying you know what you're my kids and i want you to see all that i see and so father i thank you for the supernatural i thank you for your presence father i thank you today that we get to worship you the living god the true god you're a god of love your god of provision lord and i thank you father that we can come together so holy spirit would you come and just allow us to come into that place of expectancy and to worship you with everything that is just inside of us lord in the name of jesus and everybody said amen let's worship the lord let the king of my heart be the mountain where i run [Music] the ransom for my life oh he is [Music] [Music] let the king of my heart be the wind inside myself oh he is [Music] [Music] [Music] me the wind inside my cells oh he is [Music] [Music] you're good [Applause] [Music] you're never gonna let me [Music] [Music] you're never gonna let me [Music] you're never gonna let me [Applause] you're never gonna let me down you're never gonna let me down you're good [Applause] [Music] [Music] let me down yes [Music] never gonna let me down [Music] never gonna let me down [Music] i'm never gonna let me down [Music] know [Music] [Music] never gonna let me down [Music] never gonna let me down [Music] [Music] you are good you are good you are good you are good [Music] [Music] boundless [Music] we have been redeemed fully gave his perfect life [Music] give thanks to the lord he is is [Music] [Applause] [Music] every day [Music] we received [Music] [Music] [Music] reach us reach us he is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] oh give thanks to the heart he is god and his mercy endures [Music] forever with one voice he is [Music] forever [Music] hello [Music] [Applause] forever [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] hello [Music] oh foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh thanks [Music] he is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] and sing like never before [Music] [Music] it's time to sing your song again whatever may pass and [Music] let me be singing when the evening comes [Music] worship this [Music] i worship your holy name [Music] [Music] your name is gray and [Music] i will keep on singing 10 000 reasons [Music] so bless the lord is oh [Music] [Applause] i [Music] [Music] has come still my soul will sing your praise on [Music] years and then forever [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] bless the lord [Music] me [Music] i worship a name that is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i worship ourselves [Music] [Music] [Music] name [Music] i'll be [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] day [Music] me [Music] me [Music] name [Music] be your name [Music] be on it [Music] i [Music] your father [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] be your name [Music] oh [Music] in heaven [Music] [Music] father in heaven [Music] [Music] [Music] worship this whole [Music] [Music] i will worship i worship your holy name [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah yeah [Music] [Music] purpose [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] your greenness will be [Music] [Music] for you alone will be exalted [Music] you'll be seen is [Music] [Music] glory that in all things you would have the first place [Music] is [Music] [Music] you would is the first place [Music] [Music] um [Music] just let me see your beauty [Music] [Applause] [Music] just let me see your beauty [Music] [Applause] just let me see your beauty i'll serve anywhere just let me see your beauty [Music] oh [Music] oh oh [Music] my choice oh oh my oh yeah [Music] [Music] it's all for you [Music] [Music] it's all for you [Music] we surrender all to you [Music] we surrender all [Music] free [Music] [Music] church this is a really mature song this is not just a song about saying god i recognize who you are this is a song of response i see who you are and i respond to you do you know what i missed in the pandemic about not gathering to worship is that as an individual i am a christian following him but together when we gather together we are the body of christ we are the bride of christ [Music] and the imagery of us being the price is important because in a marriage covenant you yield yourself completely to the other you defer completely to the other you love self-sacrificially and this is no earthly marriage this is the marriage between heaven and earth [Music] that a god who made everything good we see around us made us as well and you know the story we reject god and doing everything he can god gives of himself his son jesus jesus you came and poured out your life you were faithful to the father but you were faithful also to humanity in all of your life and in complete obedience you surrendered yourself to death on a cross so he did nothing wrong he gave himself to die on a cross [Music] why [Music] because we were made for union because we were made for communion a relationship that is back and forth back and forth love waves of love wave after wave of love the love that you were made for this song is a mature song put me anywhere all my life for your glory to treasure you above all others to love you like i've loved no other [Music] if you don't know jesus today i've got to tell you [Music] jesus is god himself come and revealed to us and it's the reason why we as a church body as the bride of christ is the reason why we sing these outrageous words of surrender [Music] today if you do not know that you have yielded your whole heart to jesus you might even say i'm a christian but maybe you don't know that you've yielded your whole heart to jesus to say yes all my life for your glory all my life if that's you i'm gonna invite you to come and respond in a minute if you feel the tugging in your heart that's the holy spirit we believe that god moves actively on us and he's moving across this room today if that's you today you feel that pounding in your chest you're like this is my time to be right with god we're going to take communion in a minute i would love for you who give your lives to jesus to join with us in this very first time if you need to give your life to god to get right with him to be in right standing with him i want to invite you come running down to the front right now come right down come right down we've got pastor rob down here [Music] if that's you this morning you know i need to give my life to jesus come right down come right down don't hesitate don't delay [Music] we're gonna take communion together i'm gonna grab my bible [Music] who if there's anyone that knows they need to give their life to jesus i just encourage you come this morning now is your time there's someone here i know there is [Music] come on church stand with me come on [Music] stand with me i don't feel foolish taking time on this because this is the most important thing we do with our lives if you know you need to give your life to jesus say all my life is for your glory if you are aware this morning you've been living for yourself calm calm surrender today come come to the front [Music] if you know you've got to give your whole life to him come come come come [Music] bless you come on yes you can clap come on this is the most beautiful thing if this one person makes you emboldened come join come come come come all you who are thirsty come [Music] [Music] and the rest of us church oh come on bless you the rest of us church let's just hold out our hands to him in surrender this morning [Music] jesus we give you our whole selves jesus we give you our whole selves [Music] we give you our whole selves [Music] we've got to go back into this can we go back in i don't know what bit you want to go into but [Music] let's push into this worship time come on such a beautiful time of us giving ourselves again to him we go for hope it's my joy to surrender all my life it's my joy to surrender all my life for your pleasure [Music] coming out your way [Music] it's my joy to surrender all my life for your pleasure coming out your way it's my joy to surrender all my life for your pleasure coming out your way me it's our joyous our joy to surrender [Applause] [Music] to surrender catch me catch me [Music] my joy [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] it's my joy to surrender all my life for your pleasure [Music] it's my joy [Music] my god my joy [Music] our joy yes you can clap jesus you are our joy our delight oh surrendering to you is the most beautiful thing we're gonna take communion together i just had to grab another cup because i sat on the other and i have a wet bottom [Music] a blessed bottom now [Music] paul writes this for i received from the lord that which i also delivered to you that the lord jesus the night he which which he which he was betrayed took bread and when he given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way he took the cup and after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes therefore any anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the lord but a man must examine himself and in doing so he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup church before we eat and drink we have to search ourselves so i invite you take a moment let's close our eyes and just together let's invite the holy spirit to come and reveal to us any place where we are holding unforgiveness any place where we have judged any place where we are not in right standing with him and quite simply we forgive where we need to forgive we repent of where we have judged and we repent uh for where our any of our actions are not lining up with his will okay so holy spirit come search us this morning [Music] just as we come and do this sacred act in remembrance of you we want to come with clean hands and a pure heart in right standing with each other and with you [Music] and in that place church family let's take the bread together this is his body which is broken for you broken for you jesus we remember you [Music] and this juice is symbolic of jesus blood which was shed for us for the forgiveness of sins it symbolizes the new covenant that no longer are we slaves to sin [Music] the slaves to righteousness made one with him that puts a smile on my face i hope it's putting a smile on your face this morning so let's drink this jesus we remember your blood that speaks a better word than the blood of bulls and of goats it says to us that we are back in relationship with you and we are so thankful this morning let's drink together [Music] and church while you're standing the the bread in that passage in corinthians the penalty of not examining yourself in that passage in corinthians is that your physical body gets sick gets weak and some people even prematurely die so that's the negative the positive of remembering jesus and what he did for us remembering the beating that he took which was for our healing remembering the cross which was for our our sins but the positive of taking that bread is that it's a healing time as well so i'd like you just to close your eyes and those of you at home those of you in the room i felt two things this morning and we're gonna pray into number one i heard the holy spirit this morning around four am saying to pray for people who have bone problems so if that's you in the room that's you at home just put your hand up and father here we are we're saying the bible says that by his stripes i'm healed and if there's a penalty to my physical body of not taking communion correctly the other side of it is there's a blessing that comes to my physical body and healing comes in matthew matthew 8 says by his stripes by the beating that he took i'm healed and so for everyone with bone issues arthritic issues backs shoulders wherever that there's problems joint problems we receive your healing right now father and if that's you just begin to just feel god coming you may feel heat in your body you may feel a tingling kind of thing you may feel very peaceful lots of different ways that god comes but daddy we receive health today the second thing i was feeling was uh family members that are having like they need a miracle they need a healing they have cancer issues like severe problems that some of your extended family have parents siblings any of you have that in your family extended family that need god to heal them just keep your hand up way up high daddy would you see us here we are we're waving our hands and we're saying it's our mom it's our dad it's our sibling it's our kids and father we thank you that there's stories in the bible there's two for sure of jesus healing people who were not even present not in the room and it didn't matter because it's not about jesus being in the room it's about what jesus did period he died on the cross he paid the way for our healing to come it's part of the kingdom of god and so we we bless our extended family today moms dads uncles aunties kids neighbors best friends father we bless our friends to receive healing today wherever they are in hospital rooms in their in their house wherever they are may the healing of jesus come father may this be a great day of people connecting and feeling your your your tangible love expressed through healing them may there be rejoicing today holy spirit come touch our bodies come [Music] let's everyone just put our hands out have a time to receive the holy spirit [Music] just let your heart be at peace right now i don't know if you've ever played the trust game where you stand and people are going to catch you and you fall backwards but i'd just like you to picture picture you about to go backwards and it's your father in heaven that's there for you and it's the most secure place that you can be is wrapped by your father god's with us he's always with us and on earth today we have the spirit of god the holy spirit to be with us forever to be in us for us and on us for others and ephesians 5 says that we are to be continually being filled with the holy spirit so spirit of god come fill me again [Music] i have plants on my windowsill it's my job to water them every two or three days i need to water them because the soil gets dry and that's exactly how i am i need to be filled with the spirit regularly because i get dry so how about you just say that with me spirit of god come and fill me again i need to be led by your spirit this week i need to have the grace of jesus with me all this week [Music] would you manage my life this week [Music] may i rely on you at all times this week [Music] come holy spirit welcome you welcome you here thank you father amen good morning church before you sit down if you already sat you stayed there but if you're still standing look around wave with someone catch their eye can't give hugs yet but welcome to catch the fire church in toronto and for those of you watching at home thank you so much for being with us apologies for those in-house we had two little glitches today for the second meeting and the first was that we had to reset the computer system so we opened the doors like 10 15 minutes later than we normally do and so that caused some congestion and we didn't have a well identified kids check-in lane for kids church so just to let you know we'll have that really well identified for next week and i had so much fun i was agreed this morning on the inside i was helping all the new parents that are new to catch the fire or have never had their kids go to kids church before helping them to figure out which room they're going to and checking in and some kids were running because they wanted to be there and some kids were running away didn't want to be there so it's sort of like first day of school isn't it so that was uh it was just fun to meet some new people so those of you that are new to catch the fire welcome my name's steve and we normally have a an offering time right about now which we're not going to do today because my our whole talk is about being generous today but for those of you that are online uh on the screen there's all sorts of different ways that you're able to give and for those of you that are in the room on the screen all sorts of different ways to give and for those of you with newcomers way over 85 percent of our church we give through a phone app or through online donations and if that's new to you and you're figuring this is going to be your church james is at a he's sitting at the desk right over there by the doors you head out and you can see him and he'll help you set up that phone app and if you do prefer to give in person there's a box right by the doors you head out you can do that or you can see james blessings friends last week we started a series we our sermon series for the year goes from september to august and our theme this year is called church is dot dot dot and every sunday we're going to be almost every sunday we're going to be exploring what that means and today's topic is church is sharing and so we're gonna in just a second here i need to get my computer here that's the reason we're not plugged in perfect thank you perfect almost almost you see that you don't see that there we go church is sharing so here's the passage that we're looking at last week today and next week and so all three talks that we're going to have are sort of this is what the very first church was like and so we're just sort of repeating the basics and uh just to let you know we're every sunday we're sharing a video and if you missed it we showed it right at the very beginning good news you if you missed it you can watch the i was going to say the rerun that's not it go to our youtube channel or social media on tuesday it's going to be on there as well but uh every sunday there's a little video today was all about churches us it's all different kinds of people that make up church and today we're going to be talking about churches sharing here's the passage they how many of you are they anyone who attends a church that's you i'm a they they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship fellowship is hanging out enjoying each other to the breaking of bread we just did that and to prayer everyone was filled with ought to many wonders and signs performed by the by the apostles all the believers were together and they had everything in common we're going to talk about that they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts they broke bread in their homes they ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising god and enjoying the favor of all the people and the lord added to their number daily those who are being saved those who have been born again and friends in this passage there's three ways in which the generosity of that church the sharing is uh is demonstrated and the first is it says that everybody was a generous person everyone was willing from time to time to have things in common and friends here's here's the interesting thing that seems to have happened when the holy spirit came in acts chapter 2 and it says that there was like 13 different languages different culture groups are named in that passage in acts chapter 2. they're visiting from out of town they're they're coming from for maybe days walk maybe even a month long to be able to get to jerusalem and now they've experienced the holy spirit now they're born again and the church starts to meet and they're going i i don't want to go home yet i want to just stay and grow and learn how to be a follower of jesus and it would appear that all of these thousands of people many of them out-of-towners are staying and they've run out of cash they came for a weekend had enough money for a weekend remember no credit cards friends they came enough money for a week or supplies or food but if they're gonna stay and be part of this local church they got nothing they're like brand new canadians mostly come with nothing and who looked after them the believers did the people who were living in jerusalem and it would appear that this passage was saying that right away everyone got involved to be able to help these new ones that are choosing to be a part of this church whether for a week for a month or they're they're going to just get up and move to jerusalem be part of this church everybody began to help out and i love that we have a couple that are part of the church i saw them this morning and um came as refugees our church sponsored them a number of years ago manir is his name he's on our maintenance team he was helping to clean the building and we sponsored them mom dad five kids uh helped them come out of pakistan and i can remember that we had to do everything they we helped to get them an apartment we helped to get them close we helped to furnish them the very first christmas because they came early december and kids church upstairs had an incredible christmas party just for these kids new canadians don't speak the language and we've been helping that family for a number of years and now they're established and now they're helping others that's what the church did rodney and maria if you guys don't mind coming up and grabbing the microphone over here that'd be great number two is the church had a few people from time to time who are extravagant givers and it says they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need and the very first person that is mentioned in the scriptures that did this was a guy named barnabas and it would appear that he was a business person because it says that he sold property on the island of uh crete i think it was he's like selling a condo a vacation house that he has and not everybody it didn't say that everyone did this but it's it's highlighting that a few people were very very generous and friends in the life of this church our church is uh started in 1988 and in the life of our church we've had some individuals from our church who at different times have been extraordinarily generous extravagant about three years ago someone who i do not know who it is paid off the church's mortgage 1.3 million dollars that was a good day i can remember the first time that a gentleman uh who's a part of our church today came into my office and the holy spirit had told him that he needed to write a big check and he did 400 000 it was like oh my goodness i've never received a check on behalf of our church that big ever before i can remember years years ago maybe nine years ago and our sister church in montreal catching fire montreal was in a they were renting a section of a home depot and over like their church is growing and expensive property in montreal and the city of montreal has a bylaw which no new churches are allowed to be built in the city of montreal no no new builds for churches if you're a church that's starting all you can do is rent or you have to buy an existing building but a new building cannot be built in montreal that's one of the rules that they're having and so every time there's a building that came up for sale it'd be a bidding war between multiple faiths and it just was getting really awkward and here's this is a crazy story people a real estate agent was driving along whatever that street is like say eglinton in montreal and saw this church saw the sign saw all the cars maybe got confused with home depot cars i don't know but he saw all these cars and he's thinking those guys need to find a building i could probably make some money off of those guys he as he turned the corner on to st charles which is again a major street in montreal he saw a baha'i building and saw like three cars four cars and he's going those guys don't need their building i'm going to get those guys to buy this building and he went into the baha'i people and he said i've got a buyer he did not have a buyer he's lying i have a buyer are you willing to sell okay went to the church to uh jerry and marcia who are the pastors and said i've got a church building for you and they go what i've got a building for you and uh they're willing to sell whereabouts just around the corner when jerry and marcy heard about that it was like oh my goodness have you told anyone else talking to the real estate no no no we haven't done that shh don't tell anyone else we don't want to get it in bidding war the problem was they didn't have the cash john arnott our founding pastor heard about that on a sunday morning here in toronto john arnott said we need to help our brothers and sisters in montreal they need a huge amount of cash and that sunday morning we raised 170 dollars but friends here's how it works almost every time that there's a if i could say it a big amount there's one or two people who god speaks to to be extravagant and that sunday one person gave one hundred thousand one person gave thirty thousand and everyone else gave a combination of forty thousand and friends that's the way the church usually is is that everyone does a little bit and some people the lord say do a big bit yep rodney and maria come on up here i want to highlight two of our extravagant givers not so much about money but their lifestyle so this is rodney maria schunker and i found out this morning because we did the same interview they came to canada in 1994 from pakistan and how much was in your bank account twenty five hundred dollars twenty five hundred dollars and you had three three kids three kids how old was david and jonathan jonathan was eight david was six five six and abigail was two abigail was two they're all now married and their oldest son john jonathan is one of the pastors at catch fire raleigh ronnie uh in the states right and you guys came like most new canadians and you're just starting out but eight years ago you guys began a business so they have a mortgage broker business it's called kingdom mortgages and uh they named it kingdom mortgages because they were making a declaration that this is going to be a kingdom business and for some of you you you weren't able to be a part of it but we had a summer teaching series to help people start a small business and rodney was one of those people and it was all about a kingdom business and a kingdom business is that you're not just making money for you you're making money for the kingdom and so friends here's what i want to say about this amazing couple rodney and maria train people from our church and other churches followers of jesus how to start a business and they train them how to start a mortgage business that is going to be in direct competition to them once they're trained yep why would you do that steve as our business grew first we started off as beehouserich.com that was the name of our business and then as we matured into it god gave us a roadmap for the business and the business was to bless the kingdom of god and we said it's going to be kingdom mortgages so everything we do is with that mindset of sharing and giving and uh god has just blessed us so we don't see anyone as competition we see them as family uh we are blessed and we want to make sure that we are a blessing to the others right we need to we need to be extravagant and because i heard rodney's talk in the summer series that we did rodney shared that every year you're having incredible multi multiple growth you're like you're 10x you're past that aren't you in double digits so last year the volume we hit in 2020 we achieved that mid-year 2021. so we've now we're going to double our volume again 100 growth a year after year i mean i'm not talking about a few hundred like we are talking about millions so god has just blessed us god has blessed you yeah [Applause] friends in the scriptures as i mentioned this the very first person to be recognized as being an extravagant person was barnabas if you read after chapter two you hear his story that he sold a vacation property to be able to bless the church doesn't say what the offering was for but that's what this person did and it would appear that he was a business person because i'm not aware of any of the apostles owning vacation property in the mediterranean business people on property in the mediterranean rodney's not there yet but sooner or later he'll be he'll be in that category anyways barnabas reward from the lord was that he began to move into an opportunity where when the very first gentile church started in the city of antioch the apostles sent him and there was something on barnabas that they just saw and bible says it he was an encourager his life was to encourage other people and they said well if there's a very interesting new church started where they're not jews they're greek people in the city of antioch in modern day syria how would you like to be the team leader and so friends when we're generous the lord always pours back for them its finances but the lord always when we're extravagant he pours back into us yes or no rodney 200 200 perfect i'd like us i'd like to just challenge you friends if you feel that in your lifetime you'd like to do one extraordinary gift or more extravagant gift way past your ability to give i'd like you to stand and gonna get maria and rodney to pray for you if you'd like to be in that club that occasionally just you're ahead of everyone else you're the you're the pacesetter in terms of your giving can i get you to stand up i'm standing on this one friends because yep we've already had one person write a check for a million uh but we need to have amen a few other people do that kind of stuff okay maria rodney how would you pray for these guys so father we just thank you for this morning we thank you lord god for the anointing as a queer lord god in our spirits.god that you have witnessed enough lord god to be give us lord god and father in giving lord god you have not only multiplied all that we've given but lord you've allowed us to be a blessing to others so father i just pray that for the congregation we are not god for people who need to understand the principle of sizing and giving and sharing lord god father i pray for a release in the spirit's lord god father for you by a holy spirit to come through for them lord god i give them breakthroughs in there and their finances not god in and things that really matter so father just pray that you would release their finances lord god bring them out of that cursed lord god are withholding from you and father i pray for releasing them lord god thank you jesus that you're you're you're jehovah you're a king you're a king of the entire world lord god the universe and father we can never be we can never give you enough we can never say thank you enough so father i just pray for that um acknowledgement in each of our lives lord god just to acknowledge that who you are in our lives not god and pray for that release on individual god who are struggling financially lord god i pray for breakthroughs lord god and i pray for for a generous spirit in in in their lives not god to just give and be blessed by you and and to test you lord god to test you that your word is true that you will multiply all that they give a hundredfold lord god in jesus name amen amen amen thank you maria we didn't get you to say something what would you like to say last last word to the lady you get to preach for two minutes go okay pastor steve is not uh anymore about us it's about all about god and what he's given us and what he's doing in our lives and it's really a blessing to see how he's multiplied all that he's given us because as we give out we find that we can't out give god and he's just been blessing us and he's been putting us in places where we can be a blessing to others and to come to that place of rest and peace in him so that we can give him the glory the honor and the praise that's due his holy name and our prayer is always that he would give us clean hands and a pure heart that we would continue to serve him and continue to walk in his ways so that he we would be a light to the nations and be a light to everyone around us and continue to bless those whom we come in contact with amen amen good thank you guys thank you so much there's a verse in proverbs that sander and i try to live by as well and it just happened to come up in our bible reading last week and it's if you choose to refresh others in their finances the lord refreshes you and uh i shared this in the first meeting but sandra and i it's it's not an exact thing but we attempt to give away 500 a week just to random people and it's part of our if the bible says you can live like this we want to live like this so yesterday uh sorry not yesterday friday morning i'm in my local metro grocery store and we got a shopping cart full of stuff because we have a couple barbecues that were scheduled friday night and today and we had lots of stuff in the cart and we're at one of the check-ins and right beside us is the check-in for the express like eight people 12 people you know those check-ins we don't qualify we got way more than that but there's nobody in that queue and the lady waves us over and as soon as we got in the cube guess what people are standing behind us now and they're looking at my cart and it's like it's full and they're going i don't know that they were doing that but i just felt they're doing that so the guy who is right behind uh i just walked closer to him and i said sir i apologize for taking so long we were in the other queue and the girl invited us over and he looked at me and he goes are you judging me and it was like and i'm going no i was just trying to give an explanation because if i'm in your spot i am judging and so we sort of had a little chuckle and i felt the holy spirit said get ready to pay for him so it's like okay and i looked in his cart he had a huge piece of roast beef it was like oh that's 30 anyways and so i haven't said anything yet and the cashier you know she brings this up and she says do you have air miles and i go no because i don't and then i had a thought i said sir do you have air miles and he goes yeah i do and by the time he got a zero miles out she goes oh i'm so sorry i've said no and it can't go i can't reverse it it's like ah so i definitely gotta buy you now don't i buy your groceries so anyways i said sir for the inconvenience of you losing my air miles and for you having to spend extra time i'm gonna pay for your groceries and he's like no no you don't need to do that i can afford this and i go yeah i know but you don't understand something and here's my opportunity i said i'm a follower jesus and i try to be what the bible says and be a generous person and so i try to give away 500 a week my wife's ahead of me so far this week i got to catch up i don't think i said that i just said anyways i'm just saying that because sandra's right here and anyways i explained to him and he's like really really so i need to pay for you goes okay friends this is how the church was so unique that daily people were giving their lives to jesus it was because of the generosity of people so the third thing is this everybody was gracious they were gracious hosts they would have people to their homes for meals they would have people for barbecues they'd have take people for coffee this was part of the lifestyle of this church of you have some that are giving away big amounts and some are just buying coffee but it all counts and it all characterizes the church as a church that shares what they have and so friends here's the bottom line number one live for others what's mine is yours i don't own anything friends everything i have is a gift from god rodney maria came with nothing and now the lord's blessed them that's how i entered the world nothing i didn't even arrive with a diaper had to be provided for me yep number two is we're giving for others and sometimes it's going to be my turn to be the extreme giver and number three i can love everyone of just being a host church how about you stand up with me i want to pray for everyone this morning and for those of you that are online just to let you know in a few minutes we're going to send you to the to the prayer rooms so we'll give you some instructions sam did you want to come on up and help me pray just close your eyes friends so many different ways in which the church can be characterized and sadly in our city i think most people have a real negative reputation or thought of what the church is they don't see church people as nice and kind they see them you know however they see them and it would appear that this church in jerusalem the very first church that started they were known for being generous for sharing and the end of that passage says that every single day people became followers of jesus and sharing and being generous is one of them and so church here's what i want to encourage you to do do not hesitate when you give money away to someone see someone on the street do not hesitate when you're at tim hortons and you do it to pay it forward to say the reason you're doing that is because you're a follower jesus just say that i'm a follower of jesus i believe in being generous i'm going to pay you for your coffee starts declaring that and people who don't know jesus are going to start hearing this over and over and over and they're going to go oh my goodness the christian church are generous people it's one of the ways we win people to jesus is by our generosity so father would you help us with that please father i recognize that some of us are living below standard we're living below the the average i found out this week friends that the average or sorry the city of toronto was saying that the average that you need to have to be above the poverty line household income is 98 000 sandra and i are way under that most of you are way under that and yet father somehow here we are we're able to be generous at all times we're able to love other people unconditionally through blessing them with finances rodney maria giving people jobs and helping them start a business father may that be true of all of us even if it's just a simple thing like having someone to our house for a meal we're beginning to be generous we're beginning to live for others who are being beginning to be extravagant we're beginning to hear what's on the heart of people as we have those conversations we're beginning to just drop a little statement a little question into people's heart like the guy about his groceries for of okay that's what followers of jesus do they live to give and father i thank you for the example of this church in the book of jerusalem and father may catch the fire be like that and may we continue to be like that and just really feel just to pray for creativity and being generous and that can look different for each individual so father i'm asking that you would just come and be with each person lord in their create help them to be creative in the way that they're generous father whether it's with finances whether it's with the meal whether it's giving of their their talents father however they they feel led father i just pray that in return lord that we would receive much joy father that you would fill our bellies with joy and i can just see that in this next season that there will be people that will be generous in all sorts of ways and that the lord is going to fill your belly with joy and i can see you laughing with your spouse or with just on your own and just going oh my goodness look what the lord has done you know we hadn't we came with nothing but we gave everything and the lord has filled us with his joy so holy spirit would you come and just fill these ones with your joy and your peace father and creative ideas in the name of jesus amen you may be seated for two minutes those of you in the in the room those of you at home uh thank you so much for joining us and just to let you know there's extra seats uh for the two different meetings that we have here nine o'clock at 11 15 and so if you're thinking of coming and joining us you definitely can come and join us and speaking of that those of you in the room you registered to come today you do not need to register for the next few weeks months in advance you don't need to do that all you need to do is just check in uh all you need to do is just check in we're not going to have the the sort of the pre-registration until we start to hit our max again and because we've doubled the meetings it means we've got double capacity and so we'll let you know if you have to pre-register but you've already done that for all of next week sandra just want to add to that but if you have if you're a family and your's children just so you know they can take 30 kids upstairs 15 i think it's 15 12 or 15 in the ark and five in the twos and threes right right now we don't have um workers for the um the nursery so that's not open so i know that you'll have to um get a hold of sandra abrams sandra.abrams at catchthefire.com and just see about registering your kids ahead of time but we're really excited this is our first sunday having children's ministry in a long time very thankful to the lord and listen let me just put a uh something out there i know that um they sure could use some help so if you would love to um to help out and just go to sandra at the end of the service or email even stephen and i and we can connect you with the right person there's a procedure we'd have to put you through plan to protect and all that but but we would love it you know that stephen and i actually i spent most of my time my first 10 years here teaching underneath the elephant and we used to have this is before restrictions and before number but there was there some sundays there would be me and 60 kids and i would call i beg my children they were a little bit older i'd say please come and help your mother but anyways but i i want to bless some you know we want that next generation um to to really um get all that they have for the future and just so you know camp like i was hearing that they were doing hearing god's voice and journaling and all that kind of stuff so they're doing the stuff we're doing and so we want that don't we we want our kids to be learning a lot we want our youth i know our youth program has started and so just email and get that information but again if you're not getting anybody just email stephen and i and we'll be glad to help you perfect so sandra that was next sunday's sermon this is about serving okay you're ahead so now you don't have to come no no no no no they do sandra because it's going to be like a you know proper talk not just sanders talk it's going to be steve's talk they can come to my house you know while you're here we can have meal in the backyard now all right sounds good all right those of you watching if you'd like to have someone minister to you right now if you go on to you'll see on the screen is our link it's ctftoronto.com getprayernow love to minister to you that is open for the next half hour and so thank you so much for our online church be blessed head into that room peop we have specialists for healing for prophetic just general ministry uh amazing people at their homes ready and willing to pray for you right now so god bless you church family in the room we have an amazing prayer team here as well and so prayer team if you don't mind getting ready and heading into the chapel room the house of prayer room and if you'd like someone to minister to you this morning not able to lay hands on you yet but just let you know we're going to be that the team are there it's going to be um distance there's couches that you sit on so prayer ministry team if you don't mind getting ready and church family stand up with me god bless you for being here uh look forward to seeing you next week bring some friends uh yeah church is sharing say that with me church is sharing god bless you father may your presence be with us and all that we do may we be a blessing even today to other people we pray this in jesus name amen god bless you friends friends thank you so much for being with us today for our online church we are so glad that you were with us my prayer was that you've had a good experience of meeting god i'm hoping maybe even cried a little bit i'm hoping that you felt the presence of god when the prayers were given for you so we want to bless you today and just a reminder friends one of the best things you can do for us and for you is to press that like button to press that share button and just post this on your social media so that your friends see what you're enjoying and we sort of get the word out and i want to encourage you again that if you uh feel that you want to be a part of what we're doing at catch the fire three things that you can do be attending regularly be serving all those opportunities you'll see on our website and being a part of our financial contributors so thank you so much god bless you have an amazing day [Music] um [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so so do [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Catch The Fire Toronto

Views: 1,010

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Worship, Praise, Canada, Music, Christian, Spontaneous, Live, Encounter, Presence, Transformation, Church, Production, Broadcast, Stage Design, Musician, Catch The Fire, Christmas, Message, word

Id: NNd6klxRzqs

Length: 113min 50sec (6830 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021