Catch The Fire Toronto - Live (August 8th, 2021)

[Music] to receive now this humble offering i want to bless you the world you want come on [Music] be [Music] and praised praised with the song we sing be praised [Music] do you [Music] a thousand [Music] this songs offering [Music] i want to bless the world [Music] be praised [Music] i [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] with a heart that loves your name [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] sounds this morning [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning everybody that's at home right now good morning all of you that are in the room welcome beautiful day outside for those of you that don't live in the city of toronto uh we had thunderstorms yesterday it was uh sort of a good day for my garden to be watered and it was starting to go a little brown anyways friends we're so glad that you joined us from wherever you are today whether you're watching live right now or you're watching uh on demand afterwards and just want to say for those of you that are watching live we have a bonus and that is at the end of the meeting today we're going to have a special prayer room open for you we'll give you the the link later on but you can have real people live pray for you today and for those of you in the room same thing at the end of our meeting you'll be able to go into our house of prayer at the back and have some people minister to you if you'd like i'm wondering if anyone had a stressful anxiety filled argumentative week anybody have challenges this week how about you stand up if you don't mind i was just feeling to pray for the peace of god to come and calm your hearts today so if you're at home standing and by the way people at home fully participate like if we say stand stand yeah so those of you that are seated if you can see someone that's standing around you just stretch your hands towards them and father we're welcoming the wonderful shalom the peace of god to come and paul writes about the peace of god it guards our hearts talking about our emotions our feelings and the peace of god guards our minds all the thoughts all the stuff that just goes back and forth and should we shouldn't we and so daddy may your wonderful peace come right now and father i'm asking that there would be a separation from what was last week the worries the concerns the arguments the conflict of last week it just breaks off right now and name it jesus and we enter into your peace your rest [Music] so father me may the presence of god may the peace of god may the spirit of god come for every one of you that's standing right now and may he give peace into your emotions into your heart and into your mind in christ jesus we pray amen church family how about you stand with me we're going to worship and hope is going to take us into the presence of god today god bless you [Music] the mountain shaking crumbled [Music] the earth will [Music] the rejoice we shout your name shout your name filling up the scars with endless praise and this praise yahweh our way we love to shout your name the morning breaks in glory at your name creation sings your story [Music] the angels will bow the earth will rejoice this place y'all [Music] we will praise you praise you there's no one like our god we will sing we will sing there is no one like our god we will praise you praise you there's no one like our god we will say [Music] no one there is no one like our god we will praise you there's no one like our god we will sing we will sing there is no one like our god we will pray praise you there's no one like our god we will sing there is no one like our god we will praise you praise you there's no one like our god we will sing we will sing there is no one like our god we will praise you lord of all the earth we shout [Music] endless prayers [Music] filling up the skies [Music] lord [Music] we love to shout your name oh we love to shout your name we love to shout your name oh lord [Music] i just want to encourage you this morning even as we're not supposed to sing there is something so powerful about declaration declaring who he is there's nothing holding you back from declaring who he is this morning king of kings the king of kings the lord of lords we love to shout your name prince of peace god of the ages wonderful counselor almighty god prince of peace just declare who he is over this region over your life today boldly declare who he is our provider you're our healer lord all we need is found in you lord the truth of who you are changes everything the truth of who you are changes everything we will partner with who you are lord we will partner with who you are there is no one like our god we will praise you praise you there's no like [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] lord of all the earth [Music] [Applause] [Music] we love to shout your name we love to shout your name [Music] oh give thanks to the lord he is god and his mercy endures forever bless his name [Music] he is god and his mercy indoors forever balance is the perfect life he gave his perfect life a pure father's sacrifice finished for all he turned [Music] oh give thanks to the [Music] is poor and his mercy and doors forever [Music] renewing [Music] [Applause] [Music] hands and freedom won by his command we [Music] received [Music] [Music] forever he is [Music] rejoice rejoice he's fighting to save [Music] thanks to the lord [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] oh give thanks to the heart he is god and his mercy endures forever bless his name with one for he is god and his mercy endures forever endures forever endures forever endorsed forever endorsed forever endorse forever [Music] oh [Music] i'm returning to the secret place just and a flame [Music] love is found here in our sacred space i hear your voice i see your face you're still my first love you're still my only one you're still my first love you're still my only one there's a table just for you and me break the bread and pour the wine perfect union [Music] nothing in between i am yours and you are mine you're still my you're still my only one you're still my you're still my only one i feel my heart getting out of my chest want [Music] [Music] i wanna stay forever [Applause] [Music] is you're still my first life [Music] you're still [Music] my [Music] is i wanna burn forever [Applause] burning us god [Music] fill us with passion stir up the hunger stir up the hunger in us today lord [Music] stir up the hunger today stir up the hunger today you're still my first love you're still my only one you're still my first love you're still my only one yes you are lord you're still my first love [Music] you're still my only one you're still [Music] you're still my only one [Music] wow [Music] [Music] we're [Music] [Music] i wanna stay forever [Music] i wanna stay forever [Music] this [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] i feel my heart beating out of my chest i wanna stay forever like this may the flame of my heart always be led i wanna burn forever like this we love you lord oh we love you lord we love you lord [Music] [Music] our father in heaven i'll be your name [Music] say [Music] is [Music] is [Music] your name [Music] [Applause] the same on earth in heaven come [Music] come [Music] is [Music] is [Music] let heaven [Music] let her let heaven come let heaven come let us [Music] [Music] i [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is oh [Applause] [Music] happy [Music] let her let her [Music] [Music] yours the power yours the glory [Music] yours the honor the strength yours the honor yours the glory not by our strength lord not by our strength yours the power yours the power you're the power [Music] [Applause] let having [Music] come on just begin to declare today yours god is the power yours lord is the strength all the glory is yours lord all of the glory is yours all of the honor is yours all of the might all of the majesties all that is within us praise come on [Music] all the guys forever [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] thank you lord thank you lord that it's not by our strength it's not by our power it's by yours thank you that we get to worship we get to worship from a place of victory and knowing who you are and who we are in you lord today we just declare who you are all the power all the glory god of the ages who was who is and who is to come forever and ever and ever and ever and ever i just want to encourage you today you get to rest in that he's eternal love eternal communion with the one who holds it all you get to rest in that and we get to worship from that place we get to worship from that place it's not just in a what we do but it's in a being a being we were created to worship we were created to worship that's who we are that's who we are [Music] so just one more time can we just sing [Music] yourself forever [Music] is a glory forever [Music] is a glory forever [Music] not just the voices [Music] is i love the the prayer of jesus when his disciples said how do we pray and that's the song that we've just been singing about your will be done your kingdom come and there's three primary things that jesus the apostles taught about the kingdom of god and it's it's reflected in in john chapter 10 where jesus said satan comes to steal kill destroy steal your money kill your body destroy your relationships are the three topics of jesus that he covers the most and when we read about heaven those are the very three things that we read about in heaven is that no one is sick in heaven so health is absolutely part of the kingdom of god nobody's poor in heaven because streets are gold pearls make the walls instead of concrete it's emeralds and everyone has an amazing relationship with each other and with god that's what the kingdom is and so when we're praying for god's will to be done on earth right now as it is in heaven those are active prayer requests that god has for us and so for those of you at home those of you in the room if you have any of those three needs today health financial breakthrough relational breakthrough i'd like you to put your hand up nice and high just keep your hand up in the air so daddy look at us how about you just wave to father god and say it's me i'm here i i need healing today i need hope about a relationship today i need a financial breakthrough today just wave your arm to the lord let them see you [Music] father you've asked us to pray for your kingdom to come and your will to be done on this planet in our city in this building in our homes that's your prayer that jesus taught the world to pray our father who's in heaven who's holy he's perfect he's hallowed [Music] and we're asking for your will we're asking for the kingdom of god to be established in our lives even today and so father may may divine healing straight from heaven come to us those that need healing may breakthroughs come in finances may breakthroughs come in relationships even today father this is this is the will of god we can unashamedly say this is what god wants for me it's what god wants for me and i say yes bring it on father minister to me minister to my circumstances care for me as a wonderful father care for me today [Music] change my circumstances change my life today we welcome that father we welcome that [Music] i'd like you just to stay stand with me i went down to the rogers center yesterday afternoon baseball game with the blue jays and if you've taken the go train you get off your union station and then there's the the covered walkway that takes you through union station and it brings you almost to the uh to the rogers center right outside the aquarium it's called the path and as chris my son and i were walking there yesterday and you come to the doors and right in front of you is the cn tower and i don't know if there was the family in front of us were tourists or just that the kids hadn't been downtown in a long time because they the doors opened and then they went wow and they just mom that's so big looking at the cn tower and it's impressive i want you to pretend that steve long as a pastor was invited to the construction team for the cn tower and the engineers are explaining all the stuff that we have to do and for every 10 feet that we go up we have to go so many feet down and they're they're just explaining the millions of dollars that's going to go into the foundation and steve long pastor not an engineer not a construction pastor says guys no we don't need to do that i think if we go like 20 feet down that'd be good and the engineers are going to look at me the construction people are going to look at me and go you just do not know what you're talking about you have no experience in this area leave it to someone who knows who they're they spent their life preparing to build a structure like this yep all of you would say steve that's not your expertise stay out of that you're wrong do you know i have friends i have extended family that when it comes to being born again talk the very same way that in my pretend story steve long would talk to the engineers i have friends that somehow feel that their idea about getting into heaven being with god eternal life that they get to set the rules they get to choose they get to sort of well this is how we do it despite what jesus who came from heaven and knows the right way and when jesus said i'm the way the truth and the life you need to have me as part of your life what jesus said to nicodemus a rabbi and he said you must be born again jesus is the expert friends he is the expert and if he if he says that the foundation needs to be you know this far deep for the building of the cn tower he's right because he knows and when jesus said that he's the way to connect with god we don't get to make it up friends we don't get to think well i think i hope i i i would really like it to be like this no jesus has made it so wonderfully clear eternal life is based on a relationship with jesus and friends if you're in the room and you're in that little category in your and i've just got you thinking it's like oh i hadn't thought about that before that an expert knows and the bible clearly says that jesus came from heaven came from god to live amongst us and to die for us so that we could have a a home with god forever we could have eternity put into our hearts and the main issue of sin we can repent of our sin we can turn our lives around and go a different direction and say jesus i'm all in for you and if you're at home you're in this room and you're going okay i've never become an active follower jesus i've been sort of casual i've been thinking about it but steve i understand i need to have a relationship with jesus if that's you i'd like you to pray this with me so church how about we how about we all say this prayer together jesus i'm trusting you as the expert if the bible's true and you came from heaven and lived amongst us and told us how to get into a relationship with god i trust that to be true and if you said that i need to be born again then i choose to be born again i repent of my sins i'm saying god forgive me for doing things my way i turn to jesus today and say jesus be my savior i'm going to become your follower i'm going to live my life after you i choose to be born again today now those of you that said the prayer in the room at home i'd like you just to close your eyes and just let god come and visit you right now and many people when they say this prayer they begin to feel inside their everything just begins to it's like there was turmoil and now there's peace stress just lifts off of them and they can know that they know that they're born again and i just speak to those of you that are that are in this decision right here and we say peace to your spirit right now may you surrender your life to jesus right now may you not battle against an expert may you not hold your own opinion but may you yield to jesus who is the way the truth and his life to just feel god's presence feel him change your destiny you're now marked by god eternity is now in your heart the bible says you're now a child of god and instantly favor comes instantly the presence of god comes to live with you and dwell with you and be with you forever the spirit of god's inside you the same spirit that was on jesus that jesus depended on for everything that he did that same spirit bible calls the holy spirit as opposed to a demonic spirit the holy spirit is with you forever we say thank you father come thank you and come and be with us in jesus name amen for those of you that are at home there's a chat and if you just say put in the chat i just prayed that prayer there's some people our hosts will connect you or you can go one better if you want to go to our prayer room right now we have some wonderful people waiting for you right now at the website ctftoronto.com get prayer now and that's on the screen so you can see it right now and a team of people that are at their homes waiting for you right now they've been praying for this very moment to be able to talk to you pray with you so do that those of you in the room i'd like everyone just to stand up one more time with me those of you in the room that just connected with jesus right now i want you to do something real brave i'd like you just to come right over here to david truman just standing over here and i'd like we have a team of people to pray with you this morning right now and i'd like you to do something real brave and just make your way right over here my wife sandra as well just come on up to the front if you don't know for sure for sure for sure that you'd meet god today the bible says you you can know that for sure this is not one of those things you guessed that this is i know i know i know so that's you just come on over here and our prayer team would love to minister to you as well anyone else great now you can sit down god bless you church thank you so much for being with us today i understood that we had a full registration and so and i i usually get an email on saturday from two or three people saying i tried to register and it said i couldn't get in you know why you couldn't get in others got in first and took all the seats registration for every sunday starts at one o'clock as soon as we're done you can you can register for next week so just let you know and any of you that want to come and you can't pre-register uh we have yet to turn someone away friends it's one of the oddest things but i went out this morning after the first song and there was probably 20 people waiting and hoping that at least 20 people will not come to church today that have registered so i don't know the dilemma of how god does that if god's trying to figure out these 20 people shouldn't go to church today even though they registered so that these 20 who have come get to come so i don't know how god figures that out but anyways it works out every sunday we've yet to say no you can't come uh malcolm come on up please about six months ago maybe longer i did a little video for our church family and introduced malcolm and a lady by the name of joyce and both of them were running for politics and malcolm was running federally for the come on over here sir up on the light where people can see you can take your mask off and joyce was running provincially joyce didn't win her nomination but malcolm won his nomination and he's going to be malcolm is here the writing that you're going to be representing stand up right over here in the light yeah perfect where's your writing praise god uh scarborough center scarborough center so what are the boundaries for scarborough center so from 401 south to eglinton um victoria park to mccarvin perfect yeah and malcolm uh how do i say this he has been in involved in the uh helping other politicians for years you just felt this is something you're supposed to do as a volunteer and how did god tell you to run how did that how did that work out so it all started right here in this house in 2012 2013 when you were preaching pastor on how as god children we should be engaged in the system contributing to the system then i had a chance to meet with our local mp then and i became a party member and started volunteering at the board level worked in many campaigns supported many candidates and every time i i pray for god's will to happen and god started slowly moving me into the board from a director to an executive director and i thought okay that's good that's my level of involvement thank you god but he made me you know you're not done i'm going to make you the president of the board so i was graciously elected as a president of the board three times sorry twice and i thought that's it that's great you know thank you god i engaged i contributed and this is it president of the board it's something that i can put on my resume and be proud of but god didn't stop there every time i prayed and i wanted i thought that's it god raised me gave me the opportunity to put my name forward for the nomination and god be glorified it's not it's not my powers not by might not by power but by spirit the favor that god showed me at the doors and the people engagement was just humongous i never never expected that i would have won by 60 percent of the votes in the nomination race so it's huge amazing so god be glorified and i actually had asked malcolm to come last sunday and he said well no i'm going to be knocking on doors for another candidate in another riding and it was like malcolm like i was thinking shouldn't you be selfish and if you're going to be knocking on doors knocking the doors in your riding and he was serving another person and i love that about you malcolm thank you malcolm is a small business owner he has a medicine health and social health worker kind of a related business and uh malcolm it's it's a like a good thing and i think that god wants to do something in your writing because the lady who has the provincial seat for scarborough center is a lady of faith i had lunch with her two weeks ago and i was telling her all about you and to get ready to meet you and connect with you thank you so we're looking forward to that friends we're not allowed to tell you what party malcolm's a part of i told him he can't wear the colors of his party so he's worn neutral colors today um but i want to encourage you if you live in scarborough center at the end of the meeting malcolm do you mind going outside the coffee shop in the patio stand in the middle of the patio sure good looking guy black suit and friends the rumor is that election is going to be called even today that's the rumor that election is going to be called today and so that malcolm's going to be really really busy and if you live in scarborough center if you don't live in scarborough center but you'd like to help them out malcolm i'm going to give you at least one day knocking on doors i do that for everyone who is successful regardless of their party i don't care what party they are i'm just going to stand with you and church how about you stand with me and let's ask for continued favor for malcolm and that he represents scarborough center with dignity with honesty and with god's favor in his life would you agree with that regardless of his party yeah so father we thank you so much for malcolm father i thank you that that you have allowed him to serve you in politics for many years and just taken a background role helping others and father may all that he has done be a seat in the ground for himself and daddy we're asking for the favor of heaven to be on him father we're asking that you give him all the finances that he needs father give him the volunteers that he needs father may may you just watch over this man father we're asking to protect his health protect his marriage bless him as a dad bless him as a husband and father now bless him as a politician we pray this in jesus name amen thank you thank you malcolm just stay here one more those of you that were here maybe three years ago malcolm uh you remember the bootsmas used to be pastors with us they're now at catch for raleigh that's what they're based by the way the bootsmas just announced this week on tuesday they are moving from raleigh to kansas city are going to be starting can catch the fire kansas city so they're going to be starting a brand new church in kansas city in september is when they're going to be starting so we could be praying for the bootsmith anyways i can remember a sunday that patricia was preaching and before she started preaching she said is there a malcolm here and i was sitting right about where mary andrew was that was back when we had all the chairs properly you know in order and everything and i'm thinking there's only one malcolm that i know in our church and it's this is this is the malcolm and he sits over there because he's got little kids and so i turned around and sure enough right by the stairs there's a guy waving his hand and it's the malcolm i know and patricia calls him out to the front and says to him something like this malcolm the lord saying it's time to change your business from this kind of thing to this kind of thing and he's sobbing standing right over here sobbing sobbing sobbing well because i know malcolm and because i'm a nice pastor i went over and prayed with him and you know gave him a hug and when he finished crying i said malcolm what uh why were you crying so much do you remember what your prayer was that sunday it's a it's a life-changing incident that happened uh that day august 2017. um i always had uh i'll be quick faster i always had that you know when people get called out in meetings um quite honestly i was like why god why don't you call me like don't you have plans for me like why can't you call me out fright from my young teenage and when i walked into church that day august 2017 the service i had great dog in my heart there's something going to happen there's something's going to happen i was worshiping and pastor patricia putzma called out is there a malcolm in this house i feel the name malcolm and that's it that was it for me i was i broken down i was crying i'm walking down i was crying she said god is about to change your life something's about to change vocation wise god is going to she prayed joseph's anointing over me and she said there's a lot of money that's coming through my hands that will bless the body of christ these three just hit me hard because that's exactly what i was praying like what should i do in my direction because we were at that a level of crossroads what are we supposed to do as a family we were trying to make some decisions and that was like a voice from god through pastor patricia here that called out and specifically said three things uh changing job voice vocation wise uh praying the joseph's anointing and financial blessing that i'll be a blessing to the body of christ so that's just changed that was a game changer in my life the word changed god be glorified at that and since then 2017 is when i actually want to be the president of the board and continue to be the president of the boards things started changing and uh god be glorified i i never expected i'll be at this place and i know god has greater plans for canada because we all love canada i'm grateful to be serving the people because i know i have a calling in my life that's to serve people and i'll be glorified for that malcolm's being very humble and modest but what he and his wife prayed that sunday morning before they came to the meeting was if you want us to make changes in our life we need to be called out by name today yes and only one person was called out by name and that was malcolm praise god i love that friends i'm do you know what that's called the bible calls that faith when you hear from god and act on it amen that's called faith in the bible so he heard god say ask for a word today ask to be named in public no one else was named just malcolm yep stand up if you need to hear the lord about a decision in your life you got something in the balance not sure what to do malcolm pray for them please a loving heavenly father we thank you for this time lord thank you lord that you are the king of our lives lord just as we sang today o father god let your kingdom come that yo will be done in our lives so father holy spirit come have your way of father god as we stand today jesus asking for your will to come to happen in our lives of father god we surrender our lives i pray that over each and every individual here right now father god call them out by name for their destiny in their lives you have a plan father god for each and every one of us father i pray that blessing over all of us here of father god to call them out by name and take us to the destiny that you have for us for your word says i know the plans i have for you plans to prosper good hope and future of father god jesus i speak that word over every one of us here of father god that we will prosper our father god so your name be glorified our father that your name be glorified in jesus name amen malcolm can i give people your facebook page yes yes so malcolm m a l c o l l m and his last name is spelt p you can get your facebook out right now p o n n o y a n sorry b o n n a y a n what did i say oh oh sorry listen to him say it again b-o-n-n-a-y-a-n yeah malcolm and you can get all the information he'll be standing outside thank you malcolm can you go and give your microphone to jonathan he has to wipe it down perfect all right friends you may be seated [Applause] it's my pleasure to introduce by the way friends those of you in the room if you'd like to give an offering most of you do that online so i don't even need to say thank you but i will say thank you those of you like to give cash or a check there's a box one of our team in fact james is right by the door right now that you can see him afterwards thank you so much for doing that and jonathan clark is our preacher today and jonathan i always love when jonathan preaches we have so many different styles of preaching and jonathan is one of the guys who goes deep uh gord harris is one of the guys who goes deep mel who was sitting right over here our youth pastor she's one of the ones who goes deep i try to be light and fluffy and very practical and what i love about jonathan is he is passionate about knowing god passionate about knowing god and not just our worship pastor but oversees all the discipleship that we have and friends if you don't know it sadly jonathan and ellis and their two children are gonna be moving back to england in december and so just to let you know we're gonna have a big party at some point i haven't figured out exactly the day but uh jonathan you're gonna have probably about six seven more preachers maybe i don't know i i put together the schedule so maybe that's a prophetic word but uh talk to us about who we are today what's our identity that's your topic isn't it good morning church how are you doing good good if you have your bibles with you uh please open them to matthew 5. um we've just had the finals of the olympics anyone been watching yeah a few of you not as many as i thought but cool okay okay i'm not an avid sports guy but there's one sport that really grabs my attention uh that is the sport that uh gives the label of the world's fastest man and that will be the 100 meter sprint if there's one event that determines who's the fastest dude on the planet it's the hundred meters men's final and this year despite uh a canadian coming third it was rather a just a bit of a letdown and the reason why it was so anti-climactic was because of who has retired anyone know who retired at the last olympics usain bolt yes all the jamaicans know who i'm talking about uh usain bolt won gold for three olympics straight uh he holds the world record the top three times actually uh nine seconds 9.58 seconds this dude was like running perfection so when it got to this year everyone realizes we're back to the slower people now you know when he was running breaking world records every running coach around the world was looking how do we emulate this man how do we emulate this man in high school i was terrible at running uh and i ran the 100 meters in just over 19 seconds uh thank you thank you uh which is the time it takes usain bolt to run 200 meters yes it's a bit embarrassing i was never going to be a usain bolt uh but thankfully for me we are not here to emulate runners this morning as followers of jesus as disciples our primary goals are to love the lord and to follow him there is a man who i am drawn to emulate he is the gold standard not just in a sport but on how to be a human perfected in love and i am compelled to be crafted into his likeness and that man is jesus so matthew 5 let's go uh from verse 43. you've heard it said love your neighbor and hate your enemy but i tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your father in heaven he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sense the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous if you love those who love you what reward will you get are not even tax collectors doing that and if you greet only your own people what are you doing more than others do not even pagans do that be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect i'm gonna pray because i find this passage difficult and we're gonna tread it with care so holy spirit we ask that you would just breathe life on our thinking this morning on your word would you come and just illuminate your truth to us give us grace to see past 2 000 years and to know exactly what you're talking about jesus we want to follow you with our whole heart so come and speak to us this morning amen amen amen amen well if we skip back a little bit in matthew 4 jesus begins his public ministry and he is uh declaring to israel that he is israel's new king he is proclaiming that the kingdom of god is near and he's giving his disciples an understanding of the culture of that kingdom if you read through the sermon of the mount it's full of outrageous behaviors that jesus is calling his disciples to not outrageous in a scandalous way outrageous because they are so selfless they are so filled with love that they seem impossible for any normal person to fulfill anyone with me good a few of you are honest people the rest of you need to work on that i'm kidding he's showing the new way to be human it's it's radical and it's a new way that is built on righteousness and love in the time of jesus jewish rabbis would be teaching their disciples what it meant to follow god and how to perform outwardly actions that would please god how to behave in a way that would please god yet with jesus no longer is it the case that it's okay just to focus on the outward actions but rather jesus is interested even before the action happens on the posture of their hearts and adding to what has been already an extremely challenging sermon jesus inserts this phrase be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect we have to pause at this verse we have to pause because it's way too easy for us to brush over it without fully feeling the weight of these words be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect we're followers of jesus which means that any time jesus speaks to his disciples in the gospels he's speaking to us too any disciples of jesus in the room today excellent be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect as i read this the questions come thick and fast jesus are you being serious uh does this apply to me what is this standard of perfection to which i'm being called when do i have to accomplish this by isn't this something i just uh get transformed into when i'm in heaven i don't know about you but i find this very challenging this verse anyone with me is anyone with me yes it is challenging it's okay it's good practice for us church when we hear a difficult passage like this not to try and just interpret in a way that is most comfortable to us i'm guilty of this all the time well this is a challenging verse how can i make this the easiest translation we have to try and unsee through our cultural lenses and understand what jesus is actually trying to say so let's dig into it do you know that in the bible every biblical author is extremely aware of everything that has been written in front of them every biblical author is extremely aware of every thing that's been written in front of them they're aware of all the religious texts the old testament or the hebrew bible quotes and echoes itself over and over again and in the writings of the new testament including the words of jesus that's there's no exception it keeps referring back to what has gone before and as jesus makes this statement to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect he is certainly very consciously uh referencing a passage which is very close in leviticus 19 2 which says where god yahweh is saying over israel be holy because i the lord your god am holy and as the nation of israel was set apart unto holiness to reveal a god of love justice power and mercy to the world so through us who have been included as gentiles into the children of god we too are set apart people and as jesus is sharing this very radical identity of what his disciples will look like on the sermon on the mount he tops it off with this description that we can't afford to skip over we just can't skip this be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect this word perfect brought to its end finished wanting nothing necessary to completeness grown of full age and matured perfect jesus isn't saying be mature in the sense that a 25 year old is more mature than a 16 year old or even that a 65 year old is more mature than a 16 year old this is full completion the finished product and in praying about today's message i felt the invitation of the father to remind us that we have the highest of callings as followers of christ you have the highest of callings turn to your neighbor and say you have the highest of callings and that is to image to literally image the father to the world to daily be modeled into the likeness of god today i hope that those of us that are struggling with a lack of engagement in the transformation process whether it's through pride or through apathy that the holy spirit would light a fire in us and today i pray that those of us who feel helpless or hopeless would be empowered by this glorious plan the father has for forming us into his likeness many of us will have had powerful conversion stories where following jesus meant a radical change in our behaviors obvious rejections of worldly morality foregoing sexual immorality drunkenness changing our language for many of us that will have been the case and as the path of discipleship continues the transformation continues where there were obvious external behaviors that we had to reject god asks us to start to be transformed internally in and new behaviors of selflessness and charity and hospitality towards others start to emerge what i have noticed and what i find a challenge sometimes is that we as we walk this faith journey the the the quickness of the transformation starts to slow it may seem too slow external behaviors may have been conformed into looking more like christ and it's at this point in our spiritual journey that i want to confront today where we may feel like we're doing pretty good the question is is there further for this relationship to take us is there further be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect the journey does continue the disciple is invited into perfection into fullness into unity into maturity in this place internal structures of trust are developed unity with the father becomes the one desire this is a place of maturity where we begin to incarnate the love of god to those around us i have to stress at this point that this transformation journey does not happen by human effort alone thank the lord this is not a message about works okay this transformation does not happen by human effort alone nor does it happen with a lack of participation i'm asking some maturity today to hold something in tension now we will be fully matured and made perfect when we see him there is no record in the bible nor in church history of a person manifesting perfect maturity apart from maybe mary audrey but now other than jesus himself there's no record there's no record one john 3 2 says we know that when he appears we will be like him for we will see him as he is so a temptation lies before all of us whether after a season of deep transformation in our youth in the youth of our faith whether we ease up do we ease up do we resign ourselves to some of the deeply rooted internal ways of thinking and reacting and just wait until the fullness of time in us passing unto death is the catalyst for us being perfected in him that is a temptation that lies in front of all of us i want to address that and say the idea of waiting for heaven is a agnostic worldview that reads the bible and concludes that the real transformation happens when we die and are rid of these fleshly bodies that is a gnostic worldview that is not the world view of the writers of the new testament while there is an amazing true and deep measure of fulfillment that is promised to us at death physical death the new testament worldview led far more into the idea that new life new creation happens at the point of conversion and baptism if anyone is in christ he is a new creation new or mostly new 30 new and 70 waiting until death no a new creation and so we have to take seriously this invitation that jesus offers to come and be remade daily into his likeness to enter into maturity we live in this world but we're not to be of it and so uh i'm passionate that we watch cultural messages around us and we guard the gates of our thinking into the acceptance of cultural ideas there is a strong cultural narrative that says that we all have intrinsic merit and worth this is true humanity is made in the image of god we carry intrinsic value at the same time the cultural message of this age will tell you that you are justified as a person that we are all worthy worth it and good enough no one can tell us otherwise but when i read the bible i read that we are both filled with the intrinsic value of being made in the image of god but also desperate in lit need of an external source to make us righteous and justify us we carry both an intrinsic value being made in the image of god but also are in a fundamental need of an external source to justify us the only way in which mankind becomes fully human as god designed is to be in relationship with him restored and made righteous by him to recognize that we are not complete and self-sufficient in our own rights you know what that requires in abundance real humility real humility holding these two ideas intention requires maturity but we need to understand with clarity the word of god that says that we do carry an intrinsic value being made in his image but that we are also in desperate need of him and not complete without him you cannot make it on your own you cannot in your own strength stand before yahweh the creator god of the universe and justify yourself on your own church you are not enough and you know even as i confess that which feels like it could be leaning on the side of we're not worthy we are all worms and we should all be spat upon and crush to the floor i don't feel that at all even as i confess that i am not enough i am so aware that he is given everything and that the weight of his affection is on me and i am chosen and called i am redeemed and rescued and restored because of great love this is empowering but church if we feel cultural permission to coast in our growth that we are good enough then we need a rethink in the eyes of the father we are enough for him to love us just as we are john arnold says this but he will never leave us the way we are because his will his will that we must submit to his will is to conform us to his likeness be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect there is a centuries-old attitude in christianity to daily walk in repentance with a healthy dose of fear and trembling with reverence that i stand a walk before a holy god that i think we risk losing in today's culture i think we risk losing it even in the church when outside sins of cruel behavior or violence or greedy actions are dealt with the internal sins of wrong thinking or impure responses can easily feel like they're of lesser importance and you know what it's okay i've dealt with the big stuff i'm okay but there's a journey we're on as followers of jesus it's one where we are daily being convicted of both wrongdoing and wrong thinking it's not being condemned by a persecutory voice or wracked by a defiling kind of shame conviction is the pure clean empowering voice of the holy spirit that all at once makes you feel honoured and glad that he would want to be close to you and bring you more into his likeness and on the other hand gives you the empowering to repent from wrong thinking and wrongdoing and move towards him this is sanctification this is the work of perfection however unlikely it may seem church and yesterday evening i've been thinking about this morning and certain small people in my household were behaving in ways that caused me to feel keenly my lack of perfection in him and yeah i just had to remind myself i'm being brought into his likeness that this is his goal that he wants to mature me into perfection free from sin and made complete in love i can barely wrap my head around this because i feel like it's too lofty a goal for myself scripture says what is man that you are mindful of him well you and i can sit here and say god who are we that you would want to craft us into your likeness there for a minute with me church to think of your self free from sin from wrong ways of thinking free from all greed and selfishness free from all fear of man free from those wrong reactions perfected in love church dream with me of a place where we walk around literally incarnating the love of god to those around us so that when they're with us they feel ah i'm in the presence of god as usual my hero c.s lewis can put it into a more beautiful and concise way than me he says this make no mistake jesus says if you let me i will make you perfect the moment you put yourself into my hands that's what you're in for nothing less or other than that you will have free will and if you choose you can push me away but if you do not push me away i understand that i'm gonna see this job through whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death whatever it costs me i will never rest nor let you rest unto you you are literally perfect until my father can say without reservation that he is well pleased with you as he said he is well pleased with me this i can do and will do but i will not do anything less he continues the practical upshot is this on the one hand god's demand for perfection need not discourage us in the least in our present attempts to be good or even in our present failures each time you fall he will pick you up again and he knows perfectly well that your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection on the other hand you must realize from the outset that the goal towards which he is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection and no power in the whole universe except you yourself can prevent him from taking you to that goal that is what you are in for and it's very important to realize that if we do not we are likely to start pulling back resisting him after a certain point i think that many of us when christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance are inclined to feel though we don't put it into words that we are now good enough he has done all he wanted to do and we should be obliged if he should now leave us alone we say i never expected to be a saint i only wanted to be a decent ordinary chap and we imagine when we say this we are being humble but this is a fatal mistake of course of course we never wanted and never asked to be made into the sort of creatures he's gonna make us into but the question is not what we intend ourselves to be but what he intended us to be when he made us it's worth it church we have the highest of callings the highest of callings i'm going to pray but i before i pray i want to offer some words of comfort and of caution firstly for those of you who struggle with your internal that you can close your eyes you start engaging with the holy spirit in this moment firstly for those of you who struggle with powerlessness in your internal dialogues if you're prone to the kind of shame that tells you you're never good enough that you'll never message our measure up this message may have the potential to make you feel smaller i pray it doesn't for those of us that struggle with fear that we must somehow live lives good enough to earn god's favor i want to speak of you that you are the beloved of the father that before the foundations of the earth the lamb was slain the god had a plan that involved loving his creation to the point of his self-sacrificial love i want to bless you today if you struggle with fear and the insecurity of not being good enough that you would feel the holy spirit warmly bringing you by invitation into this journey of sanctification i pray that small-minded thinking stubbornness and fear would be eradicated in jesus name secondly i wanna just bless those of us who are prone towards harsh judgment and high standards those of us who hold ourselves and others to the highest of standards but struggle to give grace for any of us that struggle with that i want to highlight that our god is a huge fan of process that he is patient for his children for the process that they go on and i bless us to have patience with ourselves and with others and lastly i want to bless us today to understand that the goal of which i've been talking for the last while is not perfection is to become like him father any place where we try to work ourselves into measuring up to a standard i ask that you would rewire our thinking and that we would be drawn towards you the person of you that as we see your beauty as we see your awesome power your majesty as we stand in awe of your holiness that we would feel empowered to come and submit ourselves to you because we want to be like you father my goal is not perfection my goal is to be like you which happens to be perfection i had a sense this morning that just a bunch of us will be feeling this morning just this realization i've been coasting i've been coasting that i don't feel that tug on my heart on my will on my emotions to be transformed into his likeness to submit to that journey i want to bless you today [Music] church if you want to respond today and you want to just say again father i am ready to be crafted into your likeness i'm going to invite us just to get on our knees if that's if that's you you just want to pray that today feel free to join me if you're not ready for that that's fine [Music] god we dare we dare to take you at your word that your heart's desire is to craft us into your likeness god we don't deserve it it's nothing that we earned of our own right and yet it's your good pleasure it's your good pleasure and we submit to it god we submit to it your good pleasure [Music] there's a song we sing uh in church here and we sing it's by your will and for your pleasure i exist [Music] father it's for your pleasure we're here to come and shape us come and shape us in jesus name we pray amen guys if you are uh meeting with god then stay in that place feel free to take some time here if you would appreciate some uh specific prayer we have a wonderful prayer ministry team [Music] who are going to be in the chapel someone give me a nod if that's right [Music] i'm pretty sure yeah yeah okay we've got a prayer ministry team they're going to be ready in the chapel so if you would love some specific prayer we would love to stand with you in prayer so you can make your way just to this side of the stage we've got people to pray with you otherwise church oh and for you those of you online you can go to ctftoronto.com forward slash get prayer now and we have some people online that would love to pray with you as well we love you church family it's great to be with you uh be encouraged this week uh and we bless you uh we'll see you next week have a great one thank you jonathan can we thank jonathan for this morning's talk thank you so much jonathan [Music] just before we dismiss a couple practical things we've been telling you that we're going to be starting two meetings again in september that is correct we've changed the time slot though the first meeting is going to be 9 a.m second meeting is going to be 11 15 and in the past it's been 11 30. so we're moving the first meeting used to be 9 15 and 11 30. so both of them are changing it's gonna be nine o'clock at 11 15 for the second meeting and the first time that we come back uh september 5 i think it is 4 5 whatever that date is the first sunday uh we're just going to be practicing if i can save our systems and just making sure that we're able to have the building clean and all those kind of things and then the second week of september is we're hoping to be able to have the prophetic team in the room healing team in the room uh kids church youth church junior high church all of those things to begin this to happen second week of september yep go like this got it all right good good uh those of you at home if you want to go to ctftoronto.com get prayer now uh there's a team waiting for you to be able to minister to you right now those of you in the room as jonathan said if you'd like someone to minister to you right out over here malcolm head out to the patio real quick if you'd like to meet him and if you look looking to find a small group over here by the tv screen if you'd like any help with setting up our push pay app for online giving james is at the desk and church one of the things that we're going to be talking about especially coming up is volunteering and because we're having two meetings we're going to need double the team and so the first thing to be able to do if you don't mind going to our website scroll down to the bottom where it says connect with us and you'll see a volunteer button click there that'll begin the process and just to say any of you that would like to have a a role where you're ministering to people you're going to need to go through a canada-wide program that's called plan to protect to make sure that that you're trained to be able to minister to minors seniors and vulnerable adults and so everyone on our team that is ministering youth kids prayer team small group leaders all of our team like that go through that so you can start doing that now even before you begin to be a volunteer amen church stand up turn towards the doors engage your feet start walking god bless you [Music] i'm [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] yours [Music] and i'm loved by you yes [Music] come on [Music] hello we're so grateful [Music] [Applause] [Music] who you say i am oh striving sees over me lord i am [Music] who you say i [Music] as you are singing over me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is is one who bears my shape there is one who leads me out of darkness just one name [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] and in your [Applause] [Music] my heart was born [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] raise your mind [Applause] [Music] everybody jesus [Applause] [Music] singing jesus

Channel: Catch The Fire Toronto

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

Id: rJ1RgV6iIx8

Length: 117min 59sec (7079 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021