Church Online // Lessons from a Battle: Paul Molyneux

oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] hello [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] and we're live good morning everyone great to see you how are you steve not too bad great to be here yeah that's a bit average outside we're just saying sunshine it's been so warm melbourne four seasons in one day so true uh or in one week as it were i mean i was just thinking about what was it like two when we had encounter on thursday yeah it was hot and humid it felt like being in you know asia or queensland or something it has and all of a sudden we're what was 14 degrees when i was driving here this morning yeah it was pretty cool yeah last night was a cool evening i went for a scoot after church and um yeah it was it was breezy i should have had a jumper on but yeah but i didn't i braved the elements it's pretty brisk yeah yeah yeah that's right so speaking of um i was just saying that um encounter on thursday yes yeah and you were saying you managed to hop on the online one i did it was great it was really really good i um i really had a good look at it and um going through our seven days 21 days of our prayer and fasting and i really enjoyed it it was um it was fantastic you yourself and um and the worship was really good it was just a time just to be still in the presence and part of my partial fast is taking out the youtube entertainment okay and replacing it with the youtube um christian teaching and worship so yeah it was a really good good city like content then yeah yeah yeah yeah so well we've got stuff obviously so you know for those of you who have been um coming along to midweek yes uh and you know for those of you who haven't that's on youtube right so yes if you're doing what steve's doing which is fasting from media you can say that yeah yeah media entertainment so you can always hop on and watch our stuff and not just similar with my wife she really enjoys watching uh shows like the bold and the beautiful and neighbors and yeah they've been um abolished for 21 days so okay yeah getting with your time of reading and whatnot so um yeah it's been a good start strong start understanding our spiritual authority over the first seven days is really good the identity in christ really important to um be mindful and refresh ourselves of the importance of uh growing in christ through our identity and understanding our authority i've really enjoyed being um doing the fast for 21 well so only seven days so far it's been it has been challenging yeah i've been fasting breakfasts and lunches yes um and so what i do now is at 12 30 if i'm here a bunch of us the staff actually go into a room and we take the prayer requests and we pray over them yes uh if i'm by myself i'll you know 12 30 i'll that's when i normally have lunch yeah so i'll create a space you know have a look at the prayer requests that are coming through yep pray over there and pray over the bible readings all of these things by the way nacho vino i i showed steve this morning because he didn't know and i suspect many people don't know but if you go to our bible reading page at the moment yes on the city life website yep or on the app there's actually a little section where you can put in a prayer request yes so please feel free to do that we do pray over them um you know there's a a few of our sites have printed out a few and people can can kind of write in their prayer requests and put it up on the wall yes uh so online we don't have a wall uh because we don't wanna you know publicly display everyone's prayer requests put it all over our bodies but but we are praying for them we've got them they all come to my email so i see them yep uh and yeah so we we we we're making sure that we're coming coming through all of these so don't be afraid to do that absolutely and of course we've got a kids one too yeah prayer board and um involved in the in the kitchen side of things that's right yeah and really really good oh our preacher just walked past us behind her oh he's gone what are the beautiful things about doing this in the auditorium yeah um so i hope you guys are enjoying your 21 days of prayer and fasting as well hey let us know in the chat what have you been doing um i've been doing the the breakfast and lunches and it's weird because i plan around lunch yes i like to plan ahead they're like oh what am i gonna get for lunch today or what have i made let's have a lunch you know good time to stop and just chat to people but all of a sudden i'm going okay no no no this is now a time for prayer absolutely you know that i carve out i go away i'll do something you know like um we're up in phillip island yesterday nice with family yeah there last sunday actually it's great place isn't it yeah it's nice but even then you know i sort of went all right 12 30 everyone's having lunch yeah i'm actually still gonna step away yes and take that time and pray because you know we've committed to this 21 days absolutely i'm committed to it so yeah it's really interesting really would be mindful you wouldn't want to be walking down the main street of cows near the ice cream shops and all that no maybe not that but uh yeah you know find a quiet space somewhere have a swim in the beach would have been great friday would have been nice and warm up there yeah yeah but by being able to do that and just create that space for yourself to see it to pray yeah really really helpful and really good practice i think to be able to do any adventures in phillip island no no no we never go to a quiet kind of place it's just family time really for us yes yeah yeah yeah so um what else has been going on um you know we talked about mid-week yes and that's been a pretty regular thing that we do on thursdays yep um so the next couple of weeks i'm actually really looking for well i look forward to all of them yes but i've got um two of our site pastors coming so i've got kim hammond in a couple of weeks and i've got sam grimshaw next week oh that'd be great listening to those guys with their biblical background and knowledge yeah well that's a spiritual experience and and the thing i like is you know it's being able to pull out the everyone's story yes learn a little bit about them and and you know kind of figure out you know all the stuff that you don't get to hear in a normal service you don't yeah just our life experience overall yeah yeah and being able to learn a bit about that really really enjoyed that to be honest oh would be great yeah it's been a great the online i mean how long you've been running about a good six weeks now you've had some good i've started off with shelley then you went through yeah quite a few weeks yeah yeah yeah i don't remember since january yeah yeah i mean just putting on a spot like what's one aspect out of it yourself that you've really learned from it hosting it i think it's the importance but it's what i was just saying right it's the importance of just being able to sit and listen to people yeah hear their stories hear what's going on like i've learned so much just from those conversations yeah um but but it's it's learning for me not to not to focus on asking questions or not to focus on my response because that's what we do right when we have conversations but to sit in the stories to learn yes and that's taking a lot of discipline you'll see me on camera just kind of do this like almost lean forward to ask a question and then remind myself just lean back yes listen pause you know really really important to be able to do that so yeah that's been one of the fun things yes definitely yeah all right we've got about 25 seconds before we come into a time of worship we have um why don't we take actually can i invite you to pray for us yes yes in a quick 10 seconds heavenly father we just commit this time before you allow the worship to be a presence over our online viewers lord god touch them heal them anoint them wherever they may be watching from in jesus name amen amen amen all right so over into the auditorium for worship everyone amen very good to be here this morning really good to come together in one voice here and online as well let's get ready to raise a hallelujah this morning lift up the name of jesus let's put our hands together [Music] [Music] in the presence of [Music] hallelujah [Music] raise a is if it comes to fight for me [Music] hopefully [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] louder and louder [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sing a little louder sing a little louder [Music] sing a little [Music] louder from the presence of my enemies [Music] is [Music] in the middle of the storm is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] always keep singing the weapon may be for but it won't prosper when the darkness falls you won't breathe it's the god i knows knows only how to triumph it's my god my god will never fail my god will never fail my god will never fail and i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see you [Music] for the battle belongs to [Music] let's declare the power [Music] there's power in the mighty name of jesus every walk he wages and i'm not backing down from any giant as i know how this story [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] belongs [Music] belongs to you [Music] is [Music] would you lift your hands this morning or put your hands out in front of you step into the presence of god this morning just as we've been singing ready to raise our voice is ready to raise our praises to him this morning and to have confidence and boldness as we step into the presence of god this morning as we step into this space this season as a church even this series around the authority that we have in the name of jesus i just want to say again this morning right now that we can be confident that we can declare we have authority that we have power that we can declare the name of jesus and when we come with that it's nothing that we muster up but it's all in the power in the hands of jesus and all that he can do through his strength through his might through his glory through his power amen amen [Music] something stirring in my heart this morning was that while we are in this season and while on one hand we do have confidence and we should it should give us rise it should give us confidence that you give us an excitement a joy a hope something that gives us that declaration and something it should set a fire within us at the same time we're called to live by the power that comes in the name of jesus we're also called to live like jesus jesus came with absolute power and he also came as the suffering servant the one who laid his life down for many the one who gave himself completely [Music] and i feel that even as we call on the name of jesus and even as we bring power to our praise and declare jesus over every battle that we face at the same time there's a calling to lay ourselves down again in humility and to pour ourselves out again afresh to god so again i just want to say why don't you just hold your hands out to god even in that sense in the presence of the powerful god that we serve and also as a way of declaring again god i humbly come before you ready to lay myself down at your feet ready to pour myself out pull my life out again it's god i want to live in the name of jesus and i want to live like jesus and as we continue to praise god as we continue to press into him for all that we need we trust that god's power is made perfect in our weakness there's an excitement there's a confidence even in being able to lay ourselves down in this way and to lean into our own humility our own weakness because that's where god's power is made perfect amen amen lord we thank you jesus thank you lord for all that you've done for us jesus for who you are lord who you are jesus we pour our lives out to you lord lay ourselves down before you say god come take us as we are i will boast about my weakness cause your power is made perfect lord i will boast about my weakness and have confidence in you jesus come move lord by your holy spirit [Music] as you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good you turn it for good when you take you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good you turn it for good take what the enemy you take what the enemy meant for you turn it forward [Music] you turn it forward [Music] of good love [Music] foreign i'm gonna see your victory for the battle belongs to you lord i'm gonna see your victory i'm [Music] [Music] victory [Music] [Music] victory [Music] all in your hands [Music] thank you jesus [Music] [Music] bless you lord beautiful name of jesus [Music] i just wanna speak the name of jesus over every heart and every mind i know there is peace within your presence i speak jesus [Music] i just want to speak the name of jesus every dark addiction starts to break declaring there is hope and there is freedom i speak jesus [Music] your name is power your name is healing your name is life thank you jesus break every stronghold shine through the [Music] i just wanna speak the name of jesus delivery dark addiction starts to break [Music] every soul held captive by depression i speak jesus your name is healing your name is [Music] your name is [Music] every stronghold [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] shout jesus from the mountains and jesus in the streets jesus in the darkness over every enemy jesus for my family i speak the holy name jesus [Music] shall jesus from the mountain jesus in the streets jesus [Music] jesus [Music] your name is life break every stronghold break every stronghold shine through the shadows jesus stir up our hearts jesus [Music] jesus [Music] let's keep pressing into him walking around these walls i thought by now they'd fall but you have never failed me yet waiting for change to come knowing the battles [Music] for you have never failed me your promise still stands great is your faithfulness faithfulness i'm still in your hands this is my confidence you never failed me [Music] i know the night won't last your word will come to pass my heart will sing your praise again [Music] for jesus jesus you're still in now keep me within your life [Music] my heart will sing your praise again [Music] oh you promise still stands your promise still stands greed is your faithfulness faithfulness [Music] i'm still in your heads this is my confidence you've never faced promise your promise still stands great is your faithful [Music] this is my confidence you never feel me cared [Music] confidence is in you jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is confidence [Music] we'll sing it again your promise still stands great is your faithfulness faithfulness i'm still in your hands this is my confidence you never fail you promise your promise still stands great is your faithfulness faithfulness i'm still in your hands this is [Music] is [Music] amen do you believe in that come on we believe a god of the impossible amen our god is able amen he's the god of the supernatural church we are in the 21 days of prayer we got some some prayer needs right now there are some prayer requests i want you to stretch your hands at this time we are afraid to believe that our god is able amen that we are standing on the victory ground and today if you're watching us online you can stretch your hand our god is a god of no limits and so stretch your hand right now to those requests and let's pray come on join me in prayer father today in jesus name we believe that you are the god of the supernatural there is nothing that you cannot do today father today allah we come against every work of darkness we come against every power of darkness we come against habits father we come against sickness we break through those for the impossible situation father god even those who might be feeling discouraged those who are feeling disillusioned those who are feeling disappointed today father we fall upon your power today your power to come and release release release jesus we call upon the name of jesus today god today lord through our god we can do triumphally and today father we stand on victory ground today release your power right now in the name of jesus come on give me the bigger shout out [Music] is [Music] and i believe [Music] amen what an awesome time of worship it was great from the balcony it was amazing yeah and being able to come back and pray for those prayer requests yes so good why don't we take a second do that now you know some of the prayer requests that have come in lord we just thank you so much again for you know that we are able to come and approach you in prayer and and we lift up every single prayer request that has come in over these last few days that will keep coming in and we pray that we're able to move more and more of these from prayer requests to praise reports answers um you know that have been received from people who have lifted them up so we lift up every single person to you uh those praying for illnesses those praying for relatives overseas for family for relational questions um for you know for conflict all around the world we lift all these things up and we give them over to you knowing that you are god who responds in the mighty name of jesus amen amen amen brilliant good to see you steve again yes now great to be back yeah yeah absolutely worship all right and we trust our online viewers have just really sensed that as well yeah absolutely whatever they may be uh watching from yeah and so you know if you're here just give us a wave in the chat say hi seeing a couple of people talking about how they um how they're going through 21 days of prayer fasting jackie was saying that she's fasting from tv and sugar no she's pretty solid uh and liza goes uh two hours of complete silence which um i don't think i could do i wouldn't mind it two ways i don't know yeah wow that's all right it's a pretty solid one so really interesting to see how different people are engaging with 21 days of brain fasting yes if you're doing it feel free to let us know how you get yeah throw your ideas out there so other people can pick up the ideas absolutely hey what we haven't done is said hello and welcome to all the people who are joining us online so if that's you you're here for the very first time find a way to let me know yeah totally shoot us an email and there's a text a number that you can text which has come up on the screen yes you can just say hi in the chat loves to connect with you love to find a way to help you make city life your church home if that's something you're interested in totally yeah yes and we're a fun church we are yeah and like i said you can view us from anywhere that's right yeah yeah exactly so any form of your devices out there yeah and yeah you could be down the surf beach you could be traveling somewhere there at home that's it and i know people who you know watch this on the on the bus on the way to work yes you're mentioning that earlier before we went to where yeah yeah i know someone else who you know watched um watch you know from different countries and yeah all men have different ways of engaging with what we're doing yes one of the ways you can do that is through midweek midweek yes week uh which is a thursday night thing yes uh well thursday night melbourne time i should say run by yourself run by myself um it's basically like a devotional space yeah the whole idea is we come around our bible reading um you know for for the week we'll pick a couple talk a little bit about them i get in guess my teaching team and then we just yeah just go through it have a chat yes really fun and you got coming up this week uh so like um like i said earlier this week i've got sam sam grimshaw who is will c campus pastor yeah uh and then the week after that i've got kim hammond who is our casey sat back yes um so catch us on thursday evening 7 15 we start but if um you're not able to watch on thursday evenings melbourne time you can always watch us back on youtube absolutely and any idea of get some ideas of what's coming up on your midweek this week or you're still in the planning stages so what to look forward to yeah well we're going through the 21 days of brain fasting so it'll kind of be themed around that yeah be around those questions of spiritual authority around healing around um i think deliverance in a couple of weeks stuff like that yes so a lot of these key themes that we've been engaging with throughout the last couple of weeks and of course coming up i think it's from tomorrow understanding our minds yeah it should be great over the next seven days of our prayer and fasting so we're really looking forward to delving into scripture related references yeah absolutely to the power of our minds yeah a couple other quick announcements uh kids as always you know you guys know by now and we've always got the banner behind us for kids yes um you know if you're part of kids church you can join kids zoom 10 o'clock yes otherwise you can go to any of our sites where we will be having uh kids church of course and there is kids content online so if you head to our website you'll be able to catch all of that um oh and one more thing before we head to church news um clcc our community care mostly based out here in knox um many of you may or may not be aware but clcc are able to take donations yes so here's something i learned the other day did you know you can actually get a kohl's or woolworths order delivered to clcc really yeah groceries and whatnot yep yep vouchers yeah that's it so if you want to be able to if that's something you'd like to do you can hop to their website it's cdlife.care yeah um and there's a list of the things that they need usually sort of your canned goods and stuff you can just do a big shop put it all online and then someone can even deliver it for you fantastic yeah really good way to help um people in our knox community yes and they provide a great service now they said a lot of care so many different forms of services cancelling and yeah that um you can go to online and find out more detail yeah absolutely really really important so encourage all of you to look into doing that um alright so we are gonna take a second now and head over to church news so over to church news [Music] i think one of the reason why we pray and fast it is give us more time to seek god and express our confidence in his feelings to hear and answer our prayer some years ago a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer and she had to undergo [Music] surgery so on the day of the surgery i just i woke up that morning and the holy spirit i believe the spirit of god was just saying to me you have to start praying at a certain time he said stop praying at 1 30. why 1 30 well then because it won't go away i i even at some point i was like okay i didn't even have any peace you know until i said okay i i surrendered today and i was also specifically told to pray for exactly 30 minutes so you know that you go okay all right we'll do it so i started at 1 30 exactly 30 minutes later i finished praying and that was it so well she had her surgery she came out of everything went well so that the next time i saw her when she was recovering she said can you believe that on that day when i came we actually started the surgery at 1 30 on the dot and when i came back around the doctor said to me that they finished it exactly two o'clock and then it was my turn to go oh my goodness this is not to say it's my prayer that made it go well or it's not to say god would not have done it if i hadn't prayed because he's god but you know you know how i would have felt if i did not obey it was during one of our regular sunday service one of our guest pastors asked people who needs prayer to raise their hands and come to the front so i was one of those people who came because almost a year i've been trying my luck to find a job which is related to my field but maybe because of copy all of my application was not successful but a day after that particular service i received an invite for a job interview it wasn't really something that i was expecting but at the back of my mind i was hoping and praying that hopefully it could be it throwing up a week after i receive an email from the hr team that my application was successful so right now i am now working as on my field as an i.t business analyst in one of the local council in cbd area so that was really something or that really shows how jesus works in our life we just need to turn to him pray and ask for his guidance and he will really give what our hearts desire [Music] so it's just important for us to trust the holy spirit and let him do whatever he wants to do as long as we know that this is the holy spirit not in knows [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right and so great things happening so if you're if you uh i want prayer like we were saying earlier you can go to our bible reading page and there's actually an area there where you can put in a prayer request if you've had a prayer answer you can put in a praise report which is great and if you'd like to be water baptized we haven't quite worked out what that'll look like for someone who's attending online but let me know and we'll figure it out maybe we'll work it out yeah i'll mail you some water or something we'll figure it out or i'll come to you we we can work it out and we're going to come to time of giving we certainly are steve tell us a little bit about it yes totally yes i think over the last couple of years we've had our rhythms of grace and i remember andrew chisholm spoke on that uh a good couple of years ago during the start of the lockdown and i think uh just the importance of part of our rhythms of grace is of our giving of our tithes and offerings and i want to share with you and it's a regular scripture that i do share out of 2 corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 to 8 you must each decide in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure for god loves a cheerful giver and god will generously provide all you need then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others and i also think it's a time matthew chapter 11 verse 28 to 30 just the importance of resting in christ and no doubt from time to time we go through our battles with finances and especially over the course of the last couple of years but can i just encourage everybody just to go into that time of resting in christ and just really that scripture matthew 11 28 30 those that come to christ shall rest and our burden shall be lifted and i think it's just important just to have that time even of meditation and reflection of where we stand financially before we give because again god loves a cheerful giver yeah we don't want to be giving reluctantly um he wants us to give cheerfully so really it comes from within really having our understanding and knowing who we are in christ and where we stand even if it means you need to have have a break from from giving if if we are just out of the habit of just giving just reluctantly because we want to give cheerfully so it's really just the importance of um giving cheerfully because god does love a cheerful give it doesn't hurt to take a break yeah from time to time and you know one of the things that i've been reflecting on in this period is that whole idea that you know like so at the moment we're talking last night about how um you know a lot of people are trying to give money to the ukrainians right given what's going on there yeah and and people are so well careful right in that sense to be able to give money there yeah you know and i keep reflecting and going that's that's a practice that you know for our church yeah it needs to be central in all that we do yes it comes out of a genuine desire and understanding of going yeah this is something that we do and this is something that's important yeah um and and the difficulty is that you know which church you can drop in importance can't it sometimes absolutely yeah totally get what you're saying then and i love that idea of just you know maybe just resetting and re reorienting your attitude our attitude yes really towards that hey can i get you to pray for it sure absolutely we'll pray into our times and offerings this morning heavenly father we just commit before you lord that our faith is in you because you are a god that provides we don't put our faith in people to provide we put our faith in you to provide holy spirit so reluctant so regardless of what people may be going through lord god we're not going to sweat on individuals relying on giving week to week lord god because at the end of the day you are a god that we rely and that our faith is in you and we just allow your presence to work through each and every person in and through lord god and then we just pray that each and every person through this prayer will have that better understanding lord god especially ones that may be going through that struggling period right now lord that we just allow you just to really work a divine intervention through into their lives in every area especially when it comes to our giving financially yes before you going forward in jesus name amen amen amen brilliant and it's funny because um you know today's bible reading um i'll pull it here so we can both have a look at it yes but today's bible reading comes out of romans 12 verses 1 to 2. paul says i urge you brothers and sisters to offer yourself as a living sacrifice very very thematic holy and pleasing to god yes this is your true and proper worship and different translations have different wording around that they do yeah but it is this is your your way of worshiping yeah do not conform to the pattern of the world yep but be transformed by the renewing of your mind um so yeah you know perfectly aligned with what you were saying there this idea of let's reorient ourselves around our giving let's think through yeah and not just arguing i think all of us different spiritual practices yes i think we we do get into the habits sometimes that we have kind of just doing it because we have to we have to yes you feel we just have to it's a rhythm and you just think yeah it's a great rhythm but um sometimes if it's just out of um just out of compulsion and obligation then it's like well maybe we just need to rethink and and just really find that time before christ just to come before him again with them coming those that are weary and a burden i shall give you a rest and i'll come before christ yeah and really sacrifice at that time yeah really important to be able to do that and i think 21 days of prayer and fasting really good way to kind of hit that reset button a little bit absolutely um create some new practices that's what i'm trying to do i'm trying to create this new practice for myself where you know i take part of my lunch and i go and pray yeah um absolutely a little bit up it's not easy no of course it's a bit of a bit of a challenge quite frankly but we uh we get there we just step by step yep right and one of the things i was saying um when i was standing with liz on um on canada on thursday is that you know you don't have to get it right every single day you know and just because you don't get it right uh once doesn't mean you failed you know it's something that you just keep keep keeping yourself up and keep going keep going keep going you know because otherwise you you let yourself get worn down and dragged down and you get you know quite disappointed yeah absolutely and it's just really getting into good habits isn't it and it doesn't necessarily have to be reading the word you can be going for a walk i mean one of my habits that i've really enjoyed and i've done it for a number of years now and it seems a little bit crazy more so even through the winter time is um after work i try and get down to the beach never swim for half an hour and um that's just a great way of refreshing your spirit soul and your body yeah and uh that's something i've really established for quite a long time now again it might seem a little bit crazy in the winter because it is pretty cold but um still it's just a way that works for myself and it could potentially work for other people yeah just a thought yeah no absolutely and having that recognizing that you know body spirit soul you know all these things are connected yeah and giving yourself physical space to relax yeah also very important yep and just even just getting out my skirt i just love doing that as well too it's just yeah getting out in the fresh air and like you said you love doing your bike riding too yeah yeah just unplugging yeah just having that space we've got another minute and a half before paul comes on yes um and we're go we're going to be hearing from paul molyneux knox lead pastor today uh great message yes um i'm really looking forward to hearing from but but since we've got another minute i'd like to just throw up something we haven't done in a while i really love it bible trivia just for everyone oh yes yes look this is a medium one some people may know it may be really easy for some may not be others um but the question is what were the names of the two kingdoms that came that the kingdom of israel split into after solomon what are the names of the two kingdoms that the kingdom of israel split into after solomon so if if you know the answer type it in the chat let me let me actually pull the chat up to see if anyone knows this right off the top of their head whether somebody's responded already yeah that's it i'm sure there's a couple of people who already know this um what do you think what do you think i think it's a great question it's one of those right like if you if you're not afraid of being put on the spot but yeah i think through it during the message yeah for sure uh it's one of those ones that you know if you it's it's in that part of the old testament that not many people will spend a lot of time in necessarily we we tend to you know enjoy the the pre-solomon stuff we spend a lot of time in that and then after that it's sort of because there's so many lists of kings and things it becomes a little bit vague doesn't it absolutely yeah yeah uh i see linda's answer and karen's answered it but we've got to head back into the auditorium so we'll be back with you and i have the answer shortly so into the auto term we go good morning everybody great to be with you this morning i want to welcome everybody that's online today and to all of you gee it's great to see so many of you with us this morning uh if it's your first time with us i know doubt it's already given you a warm welcome perhaps it's your first time with us this year back in the room or it's your first time in a long time so good to have you with us and i hope you sense particularly as we come back to worship together to allow god to be at work amongst us you really sense his presence and god being at work amongst us great to see some of those testimonies too isn't it and just two weeks ago love to tell you the story about a young man that came into our service he told me that he came to 11 o'clock service he told me that morning he didn't wake up planning to come to church but he just couldn't help but coming along the church to our 11 o'clock service two weeks ago and i hadn't been to church for four years in fact had really drifted away from god drifted away from the things that he knows that god has for his life and came over sat on the front over there in our morning meeting 11 o'clock two weeks ago just had an encounter with god and we've connected him to a life group and can i encourage you maybe you're watching online today maybe somehow you've drifted into the service but you know god's speaking to you i invite you to again freshly surrender the things that god has for all of us perhaps over this time where we haven't been meeting together uh some things have drifted for you invite you to come back to him connect with god and see god's plans for your life unfold amen well today we're going to carry on in our series of victoria living victoriously and liz started this series for us last weekend around our spiritual authority and if you didn't get a chance to see that message you can can see that online today we're going to have a look at a story in second chronicles chapter 20 second chronicles chapter 20 if you've got your bible or some other device encourage you to look there it's the story of king jehoshaphat the story of king jehoshaphat and the leadership that he shows us when you face a significant battle all of us are going to face trials aren't we we're going to face different kinds of challenges and there's some lessons that we can learn as we face these challenges we all tend to face some some natural things in life don't we natural things that just come at us and then i think there's some of these spiritual battles that come before us and it feels like when we step into something new perhaps even as the church starts to gather again as the the mighty force that god has called to bring his kingdom to the world through his church as we start together there can be some things that want to hinder us and if we are not careful some of these battles start to get ahead of us and so jehoshaphat gives us some keys and some principles and the great thing is if you're following god you're not alone in those battles in fact jesus said when we are living in this world we are going to face some trials and tribulations have you read that it's kind of like thanks jesus that's really encouraging but he says that take heart don't fear because i've overcome the world it's not your battle i'm with you as you walk through the battle and whatever battle that you might be facing today god is with you amen i know that there's other battles being fought too we know that there's flooding in new south wales and queensland right now and there's some people facing some mountains we know that in ukraine there's a serious battle taking place and i think it'll be great for us to take a moment to pray for those situations would you join with me in prayer online please join with me as well our loving god we submit to you you are the great god you are lord over the heavens and the earth and we pray today for our brothers and sisters in new south wales and queensland facing the devastation of floods we pray that you would be with them be there allow your spirit to be at work and lead and guide in that recovery we also think today of our uh brothers and sisters in ukraine we pray that you would bring peace to that nation we pray that you would supernaturally move in jesus name we know that there are christians there we know that when there is opposition the church finds its voice and has great opportunity and we pray that you would be at work as we come to your word today i pray that you would speak to us and allow your word to challenge us and allow us to see the things that we can do when there's a battle that each of us are facing in jesus name amen second chronicles chapter 20 normally what we would do is we'd read the passage of scripture if you're there you know that it's a long chapter and so i'm not sure i can read that well that long and so we're going to break it down over a couple of points in a couple of chapters i know you'll be inspired and so perhaps later this afternoon you want to read this passage in one piece uh it'll only be good for you second chronicles chapter 20 verse one says after this after what well in verse in chapter 19 jehoshaphat had brought the children of israel back to god they drifted away from him just like we can if we're not careful we can drift away from the plans that god has for us so jehoshaphat had bought a spiritual renewal he had brought the nation back to god they were turning into back into a just nation they were honoring god they were getting rid of their idols and they were following and living the way that god had intended them to live a little bit like as i said earlier as we enter into a new spiritual awakening and allowing god to speak to us and entering a time of renewal there can be opposition that comes against us and what jehoshaphat shows us is how we can approach that and deal with that and have a victorious outcome in our lives so after this after that renewal the moabites and the ammonites and with them some of the menu nights there were probably some jedi knights they came against jehoshaphat for battle some men came and told jehoshaphat a great multitude is coming against you from edom from they are beyond the sea they had surrounded him and they were literally a day or two away this is a time of crisis for jehoshaphat it was a battle that he was not expecting there are times when we have battles and we're expecting battles aren't we we're expecting we know about this we get noticed we can plan for it but here jehoshaphat didn't have any notice and it wasn't a battle that he was expecting in fact these these were the people that were when the children of israel were given this land by god that god said you can leave them in their lands you don't have to worry about them they're not going to be a threat to you but yet here we see in second chronicles that they are now coming up against jehoshaphat and the children of israel after a time of spiritual renewal and sometimes don't aren't you like me that we can say to ourselves but god i'm following after you my life is surrendered to you why am i facing this battle you know i find personally that it's in those battles that god i find god stronger i find personally i go deeper i find myself more surrendered more in tune to his spirit and so if you're facing a battle today invite you to step into the things that god has for us the bible talks about different trials mountains that we might face obstacles and so today we're looking at the battle that jehoshaphat faced in this first passage of scripture i see three things the first thing is that jehoshaphat's afraid he was afraid of what might happen and isn't fear a natural human reaction to things we get scared around some things but the question is what we do with that fear do we live in fear or do we live in faith and trust god do we hand our fear over to god and say god i give this to you i don't want to fight this in my own strength and if you're facing a battle today and there's some kind of fear around you hand that over to god the second thing that jehoshaphat did is he sought the lord he prayed the third thing is that he asked for others to join in jehoshaphat had proclaimed a fast and too often isn't it true that we tend to withdraw and we try to face some battles on our own that's why we've got a prayer board that's why we're taking time in our service and right through the week our staff have been taking some time over their lunch to to pray for those prayer requests every week we take prayer requests as well and join together in our life groups i know that people are praying together for particular needs and right through our ministries and church if you're facing a challenge don't face it alone and this is what jehoshaphat shows us and teaches us the first thing that he did in his crisis is that he prayed have you ever heard people talk like this that they're almost despondent in a situation or a crisis and they say well the only thing we can do now is pray have you heard that and that's a good thing i'm not saying that's not a good thing prayer is always going to be important for us but shouldn't prayer be our natural response to whatever situation we face shouldn't prayer not be our last resort but our first response prayer is not our last resort in a situation but it's actually our first response into whatever situation we find ourselves whether you're on a mountaintop or you're in a valley that we would give thanks to god and call upon him and this is what we see in the life of jehoshaphat many centuries ago we know that towns were built around churches and you would hear the church bell regularly ring throughout the day and that would be a reminder for people in whatever they're doing working in their field working in their shop to stop and take a moment for prayer to remind them and we see this in the life of the disciples and and with jesus we're drawing from particular situations throughout the day withdrawing from the ministry and from people and communing with the father refilling re-energizing restoring and literally communing with god i wonder whether we need the church build a ring for us every now and then to remind us through the day of the some of the battles that we feel like we're facing that we don't face them alone that we allow god to be at work in us and through us i've got a friend and his mobile phone tends to chime and ring and get messages regularly anybody got friends like that don't nudge the person next to you what he's told me that he does is when his phone chimes even before he looks at it he will take a moment to pray to breathe to allow god to speak if he's facing a challenge he uses that as a his church bell to ring throughout the day to remind him about the things that he can hand over to god there's some really simple things we can do aren't there for us to be able to pray continuously and we see this in the response from jehoshaphat we all need that prompter in the bill to remind us that as we draw near to god when we have a challenge when you're facing a mountain a trial that we can draw near god not drawing away from him because james promises us that when we draw near to god he draws near us the second thing that we see in this story is that jehoshaphat remembered what did he remember he remembered the promises of god verse 6 verse 6 says he prayed o lord god of our ancestors you alone are the god who is in heaven you are the ruler of all of the kingdoms of the earth you are powerful and mighty no one can stand against you oh our god did you not drive out those who lived in this land when your people israel arrived and did you not give this land forever to the descendants of your friend abraham your people settled here and built this temple to honor your name they said whenever we are faced with any calamity such as war plague or famine we can come to stand in your presence before this temple where your name is honored we can cry out to you to save us and you will hear us and rescue us when you're facing crisis jehoshaphat reminds us to recall the promises that god has given us the promises that we find in his word to us and draw them to our reminder of the things that he's done in the past that he's been faithful to us and he will continue to be faithful to us in the future in verse six he reminds god who he is he says god you're bigger than this crisis that we are facing and the smaller the crisis is the bigger our god is and he tells god how great he is and that he is over the crisis and the mountain the trial that he's facing the second thing he says i know what you've done in verse seven you delivered us from our enemies and then he says i know what you've said remember you gave us this land i remember when i was 21 years old it's a few years ago now 1991 february the 1st i moved to melbourne from perth to go to bible college felt the call of god on my life and so i moved over here was i knew i'd face some trials i was only 21 but i was smart enough to know that i would face some trials i didn't know a lot but i did know that and so as i came here i obviously as a student looking for work couldn't find a job but it started bible college within about three months i'd used all of my funds bought a car set up a house all the usual things that you do i had a credit card might be good might not be good and i started to use my credit card and within three months i got to having six dollars left at a thousand dollar limit which in 1991 wasn't bad uh i had six dollars left on my credit card and i was facing a mountain i was facing a battle now at least i had six dollars left that was a good thing but as i was facing this battle i reminded myself god i know who you are you are a loving father you care about my needs you care about the food i'm going to eat i know what you've done many times before i've seen it i've seen you provide for my parents from my family i've seen you provide for me in the past and i know i can trust you and i know what you've said i know that as i serve you as i surrender my life for you you are concerned about all those details of my life and you know i found and experienced god start to do more and more my sisters i just sent some some cash in the mail remember when we did that some of us remember sending cash in the mail and some of us even more enjoyed getting cash in the mail uh and i would see god provide and you know that's the beginning of a journey of faith and i know that there'd be many people in the room many people watching online that would have stories of the provision that you've seen god do jehoshaphat jehoshaphat tells us i know who you are i know what you've done and i know what you've said do you know in god's word there are thousands of promises to us if you want to know what god said well let's open his word let's allow his word to penetrate our heart our mind so when you face a battle when you face a challenge you're not facing on your own but you're facing with the promises of god that are within you like isaiah 43 where the bible says when you walk through the waters you will not walk through them alone i will be with you when you go through rivers of difficulty you will not drown when you walk through the fire of oppression you will not be burned the flames will not consume you jeremiah 29 verse 11 for i know the plans that i have for you says the lord plans for every person plans for everyone watching online today and in the balcony they are not to harm you but they are to prosper you to give you a hope and a future these are the promises in god's word for us matthew 17 20 jesus speaking he says i tell you the truth if you have faith as small of a as a mustard seed and isn't it true sometimes that's all the faith that we've got it's a small mustard seed jesus says you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move nothing will be impossible for you one of my favorite passages of scripture and and promises philippians 4 verse 4 rejoice in the lord always and when i'm facing a trial that's a word for me again i say rejoice i can put my trust in him and remember his promises i know what he has done i know what he has said i can put my trust in him he prayed he remembered he trusted verse 15 says this is what the lord says this is the response from the prophet following the prayer of jehoshaphat this is the response god speaking through his prophet this is what the lord says do not be afraid you know whenever the prophet says don't be afraid there's probably a lot of reason why you should be and you know that they were but they'd given their fear over to god he says don't be afraid don't be discouraged by this mighty mighty army for the battle is not yours but god's amen i believe that'll be a word for people this morning the battle is not yours but it's the lords verse 16. tomorrow march out against them you will find them coming through the ascent of ziz at the end of the valley that opens into the wilderness of jarreal remember that it's the it was a wilderness that this battle was taking place verse 17 says but you will not even need to fight take your positions then stand still and watch the lord's victory he is with you a people of judah and jerusalem do not be afraid or discouraged go out against them for the lord is with you then king jehoshaphat bowed low with his face to the ground and all the people of judah and jerusalem did the same worshipping the lord then the levites from the clans of korath and korah stood to praise the lord the god of israel with a very loud voice they trusted in god they didn't have an outcome yet they had a promise from god they had a word from god that god was with them that he was going to lead them and guide them but they hadn't seen the victory yet but yet they're able to worship god confidently because they'd handed their battle over to him you know over the last few years i think when you read something in second chronicles it says the battle is not yours the battle is the lord's i think the last few years i know from my own experience you know i've been fighting some battles that are not mine some battles that i needed to hand over to god a sense of weariness comes over you know when you fight a battle it's not yours it's not my argument it's not my fight do you find that some of that really takes your energy and your emotions come on we have these naturally we have them in the workplace we have them in families at times and at times these things can really take out energy from us when the battle belongs to the lord i've told you before that in my previous role spent a lot of time flying around and i would spend time going to different parts of of australia and can you imagine what it would be like sorry can you imagine what it would be like if when i get on the plane just as taking off taxiing down the runway can you imagine what it'd be like if i started to flap my hands sitting there in my seat waiting for the meal to arrive and starts to take off can you imagine a steward coming down and saying sir what what are you doing i said i'm helping the pilot i'm helping them fly the plane in fact get everybody else to do it as well the host would say you're being silly this thing will fly by itself sometimes when we fight our own battles that belong to the lord we're using a lot of energy and flapping around on things we don't need to be spending our energy and emotions on it's true [Applause] and there are battles that we need to literally hand over to god a few years ago in my previous role as i've said i took on a project we had a very generous person donated a piece of property to us mission australia does a lot of work with young people helping them break free from addictive behaviors it's part of our plan too that they'd have an encounter with christ while they're with us we have a property property up in new south wales over 30 years we've been seeing young people be set free from addictive behaviors every year between 150 to 200 and 12 months later they're still free from their addictive behaviors it's great to see people who have been in some kind of bondage be set free in jesus name well there was somebody wanted to see the same thing happen here in victoria and so uh we started to work together property down in gippsland uh in fact my friend michael told me this morning that he used to be the town planner down there and i wish he was when the town planner when we were working through the situation of this property and we knew that this property was going to be difficult it was a little bit too remote for all the services that are needed hospital support other medical support services we knew that it was a large property 400 acres i mean that's a big property to look after can you imagine mowing that lawn it's a big lawn and so we started with it became my project and you know there's a natural thing within all of us if you've got a project you want to do well you want your boss to be impressed with the way that you can get outcomes and deliver results that was the personal side but also there's the benefit to other young i want to see this thing come through and make a difference for young people so we went through lots of planning conversations there was a great sense of excitement in the community down there and but we knew this was going to be a real battle we had a mountain to climb to get this thing through there'd been fires down in that region in the years earlier and so all of the fire overlays all of the plants it was going to be a difficult process it's about 90 minute drive and i'd drive down there about once a month meet with people meet with other uh councils and uh other officials to see how we could make this happen on the way home sometimes i'd get a little bit discouraged because there wasn't a lot of favor coming through and so towards the after about 12 18 months we had to make the really difficult decision actually to sell this property and take the funds from this property and find a another place because we were told it was never going to happen here little did we know at that same time in new south wales about two hours away from the current property that we've had for 30 years there was a christian couple who were retiring and they had an eco-friendly resort it is amazing it is higher spec accommodation than we would ever be able to afford to build in fact the whole property is better than we would ever be able to afford to to build even over numbers of years and we didn't have to build it it was ready made and they wanted to sell and it was in our price range and what we discovered two hours away not only is it a better property than what we had in victoria only 20 acres a lot easier to manage and maintain better buildings than we had here on the property that we had and because it's so close to our other property two hours away our staff can share across both campuses and are both about both properties you know we want to get our own outcome don't we i did a lot of flapping for 18 months trying to get this outcome but yet god was working on my but on my behalf in a different way to get a different outcome than what i was expecting we can still be a blessing to see young people be restored from addictive behaviors we're just doing it at a different location and they come from all over the country to those properties to experience freedom and to experience the things that god is leading to us i tell you that story because god works on our behalf even when we're not expecting it that jehoshaphat shows us that when you're in a crisis he prayed he remembered god's promises and he trusted the fourth thing and last thing that he shows us is that he praised there is a point of faith in all of our lives that if we can praise before we see the outcome our faith goes to a new level you know when we face a crisis and when we face a battle can i be honest sometimes i tend to have a pity party anybody else like a good pity party come on let's be honest this morning but god wants to turn your pity party into a praise party this is what scripture says after consulting the people the king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army singing to the lord and praising him for his holy splendor this is the this is what they saying give thanks to the lord his faithful loving jews forever goes on to say at the very moment that they began to sing and give praise the lord caused the armies of ammon moab and mount syria to start fighting amongst themselves they were facing a battle and this is how god helps us as we begin to praise him if we can take that step of faith before we see the outcome before we see the victory in the battle to continually be able to allow to rejoice in hope as james tells us to allow our ability to trust him to be able to praise him even before we see the outcome to our situation and our battle now this was not passive god had told them to stand and be ready so it's not passive and retreating and hoping and waiting that maybe someday god would move no it's actually proactive standing and trusting god and praising him and as they started to sing then the miracle took place but god shows us that they didn't even have to pick up a weapon that he is fighting for us because the battle belongs to the lord now when we thank god for the victories that we have in circumstances after they've happened that's gratitude that's a good thing for us to do to thank god for all of the things that he provides for us but faith says that we can praise him while the result is not yet determined that we can step out in faith to trust him regardless of the trial that we're facing that we can praise him before we see the outcome to the battle that we're facing it reminds us that i know who you are i know what you've done and i know what you've said and as we pray for the various challenges that we face we pray for those things individually don't we we pray for things in our families we're praying for things in our church community and as we start to regather i'm confident that there are things that we are going to have to step in for god to come and be at work i look forward to god coming and doing things supernaturally amongst our church community we are believing for more and more people to come and be connected to our church community whether that's in the room whether that's online we want to see god do miracles we expect to see miracles as normal as we go about our day-to-day life that you would see god's provision in your life that you would see god at work because god turns our battles into blessing watch this towards the end verse 21 25 king jehoshaphat and his men went out to gather the plunder this is after the battle they found vast amounts of equipment and clothing and other valuables more than they could carry there was so much plunder that it took them three days to collect it all on the fourth day they gathered remember this was a wilderness but they called it a valley of blessing which is where it's got its name that day because the people praised and thanked the lord there and today it's still called the valley of blessing jehoshaphat teaches us that when you face a crisis our first response is to pray take it to god because the battle is the lord's remember his promises that we can trust god and that we can praise him through our challenge through our circumstance as a step an act of faith to say god this is your battle i'm going to give it over to you i'm not going to flap around i'm going to give the battle over to you so this morning as we come to close our message today i'm sure that there will be people facing battles today and i'd love to finish our time together for us to pray together would you stand with me please i wonder if you're facing a battle today whether you might want to hand that over to god you might want to lift your hand and say god i give this battle over to you would you come i want to stop flapping around i want to give this situation to you whatever you might be facing it could be natural could be supernatural could be a spiritual battle if that's you just hand that over to god right now loving god today we thank you that you are with us that you speak to us that you lead us and guide us and in this story of jehoshaphat i know who you are i know what you've done and i know what you've said i pray that you would remind us today that whatever the battle is that we are facing the challenge that is before us the trial the obstacle thank you that we are not alone in that battle but you are with us leading us and guiding us i pray that you'd speak to each one today that as we step into the promises that you have for us that you would go ahead of us working on our behalf bringing a supernatural breakthrough into whatever the challenge that we are facing i pray that we'd be so bold to believe that you're going to turn this battle into a blessing that you are going to restore relationships that you're going to provide supernaturally that you're going to break through what we haven't seen before god we actively hand this over to you we want to give it to you today because the battle belongs to the lord come on if you can say that why don't you give him praise this morning it's his battle [Music] for the battle belongs to you lord i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see the victory for the battle belongs to go see again i'm gonna i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to you lord i'm gonna see your victory i'm gonna see your victory [Music] [Music] be lost [Music] you turn it for [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] cause the battle belongs to you lord yes i'm gonna see your victory i'm gonna see a victory for the battle [Music] amen amen come on let's tank ball amen amen amen wow great message loved it yeah it was awesome key thoughts for you oh well i mean even taking out this morning and even when i was here last night just just the importance of fossil fat he prayed he listened yeah um he was still and um yeah just kept really key points in uh in our journey on our 21 days of prayer and fasting i think um just even just those little small seeds can make a difference you can take away with you yeah it's a really good study and for me it's that idea that chronicles you don't have to carry everything right not every battle is your battle and learning how to to give those over to god to to allow god to kind of be in control of that it's so important because we we do take on a lot don't we we do you know but i think paul really emphasized just the importance of prayer yeah absolutely and speaking of prayer actually we have had a couple of prayer requests come through during the service so i actually want to take a second and just pray for them so i've had a request from churnhua or jain and i've had another request come through for natasha i won't go into details but you know all of them relating to healing so just take a second pray into that hey lord we just thank you so much for these prayer requests um um for natasha as they come before you lord as we lift them up in prayer you see their needs we ask right now that you would begin to activate in their bodies and and for those that they're interceding for as well lift them up let your spirit flow through them bring a full and complete healing we ask in your mighty name and as we continue to pray for them help them to know that they are loved they are cared for and they are supported in the mighty name of jesus amen amen amen fantastic well steve i i did tell you what the answers were but uh do you remember do you remember what the two answers were i saw a couple of people got it in the chat israel was one of them yep israel was one of those kind of good question right and the second one was actually the kingdom of judah judah judah and i saw someone um said in the chat that they their child the eight-year-old adrian says went and got this kid's story bible and and was able to show israel so from the mouth of children yes no excellent yeah no daddy wanting to get further books and all that sort of stuff courage is a great place to go that's right yeah plenty of things and encourage you to engage with that get your kids on to it uh really good well thank you all so much for joining us it's very beautiful yeah we're we're pretty good tonight on the bike out on the bike and then you know lunchtime prayer and praying fasting again yes uh and then just the rest for the rest of day absolutely and you're heading to the zoo [Music] looking forward to taking the family excellent well thank you so much for joining each and every single one of us as always if you've got something please don't be hesitant to let us know shoot us an email online at citylife.church but otherwise have a wonderful rest of your week we'll see you on thursday evening enjoy all right take everyone bye [Music] you

Channel: CityLife Church

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Length: 98min 3sec (5883 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022