Connect Online Sun 17th May 2020 - Shane WIllard

[Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] like help me to see are you tossed on my Cindy to see hey Dan reminded of how I've been buying it it's hard to believe that I'm free and my momma been praying for me she afraid that I'm straying away I'm afraid at the way that I pray enough I've been lacking the faith you right now the grace cuz I need a lot I never do what I I I rather do what I want then I go back to the cross find that your love is greater than none of mine [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] no destiny husband a Noah's chiming Kregel make it through the Texas all night no matter what the odds make rain our way I can see the blood [Music] [Applause] [Music] is coming my way [Music] [Applause] - perfect look I'm flying cause life's been worth it no because a boy here's is work [Music] we're gonna make it through if it takes us all night no matter what the odds may bring our way I can see the blessings coming my way [Music] the buses [Music] I can see the blessings I can feel your presence leaning on the change in my heart for your endeavors I pray I'm your reflection I feed for your correction the cross brought the connection into Jesus is perfection like the hit me crazy bit more stress than ever living like whatever gonna rain I feel you strolling closer Lord make me better take me shake me use me I am yours take me for the glory of the Lord it's like [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hey Church welcome at Saturday's service can a Christian Church it's so good to have you we're gonna come around a time of praise and worship so why don't we do that together praise our Lord on all the Lord worship the Lord and lift up his name left [Music] either God - it says [Music] the ground [Music] try [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] that's [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] these are career why sure [Music] it bears the war as deep as the [Music] I mean you hear Lee he's like ever why surely as a worship your majesty worship Jesus my and so they I am [Music] we go to heaven [Music] [Music] the worship as a worship [Music] Jesus [Music] Oh [Music] Jesus [Music] the heavens where are the girls whatever Oh [Music] [Music] lord [Music] what said that now the bowl of your spoon ever break out now and I go where there's a laugh but you've done it before would you do it again the Lord said I what something [Music] and then break [Music] [Music] but work [Music] the center or send it out of yours break calm down cover this leg like you've done it before do it again [Music] [Music] [Music] churches that our prayer isn't that outcry that we want God to bring a revival into our community into us as individuals into our family and so our neighbors us as a church God we want revival why don't we pray into that together why don't we declare that together Lord God all across all our homes all their houses wherever we are watching this service Lord God would you send revival Lord revival starts in me revival starting in in you the people the individuals go would you bring revival within us fill us with your Holy Spirit give us a new just in feeling of who you are Lord God a greater and deeper understanding of who you are Lord God we want to come to know you more God that you are the one constant in this time of turmoil Lord God that we can hold on to you as our anchor Lord God all across this place I pray for your people that you just fill them up with your presence why don't we go back in and sing why don't we declare Lord send revival God [Music] cover this alert like you've done it before watch it again housing worship being great today why don't we pray together if you're at home and you have any needs won't you lift them up before the Lord with me today god I pray for my brothers and sisters Lord you know all of our circumstances you know them intimately Lord God and I pray for my brothers and sisters who need a touch of you Lord God that you just move in their situation move in their circumstances Lord God all the needs that are represented across all the people that make connect Christian Church connect Christian Church Lord God would you move in the Lord we submit them to you we give them over to you we pray in your mighty name amen amen well it's been so good Church coming together online each and every single week I know personally I've been so grateful to to have this area of connection in a time where we feel felt so disconnected and I I I've had the privilege personally of of coming in and being part of a recording process every Tuesday we were recording on Tuesday nights and I just want to share if I can for a couple of moments a praise report a testimonial I want to give a shout out to a very special champion young man who's been a part of the team behind the scenes who's making so much of what you're seeing on your computer your phone your TV each and every week he's a part of making that happen and I want to give Cory a shout out is a man manning a lot of the cameras he's helping out each week setting up is the first one here is one of the last ones to leave is sitting behind the camera is directing different shots and making it happen so that we can have church and our Landrum's and it doesn't stop there here's a part of our youth team and as part of the youth filming and recording which we also do on Tuesdays and he's taken at home and he's editing it together he's piecing it together and his his being apart is an integral part of our young people on a Friday night being able to have youth ministry to them as much as we possibly can in this time and so I just want to honor Cory I want to give him a shout out so what a champion young man that he is and we're so grateful for him was so blessed to have him and and you you're not going to know sitting at home because you don't see him he's behind the camera but I'm telling you the amount of hours and the amount of work that young man puts in that comes from a place if he loves his God and he loves the people of connect Christians and here's someone that says I want to make a difference with my life I want to make a difference with the time with the resources of Who I am I want to make a difference with those and so I just want to honor you Corey we're so grateful for you now we're so blessed to have you as part of our lives and part of our church and we love you and you know that's just one example of many different examples of things happening in our church we're going to hear from pastor Margaret and pastor Susan about some other things I have that are happening in the life of Connect Christian Church it's great to be with you and I'm here to delete you know what's happening and the life of Hastings Connect Christian Church I'm here with my beautiful sister over here Susan whose fun Peninsula and I've got some praise report to give you with our we've had our first what he called person who's joined our church through this time of isolation and it's been fantastic been following her up she's been feeling the love how cool is that even on technology she feels the love she's been followed up from a couple of the ladies they go now for walks so it can be done keep believing because people can be saved then people will come to church and they will join you know I'm gonna hand it over to you Susan and we've been really challenged in doing our zooming but we are zooming together in our pajamas and getting on that zoom and connecting with one another and loving one another and building great relationships we are still connected hello connect Christian Church it is so good to be with you I just want to let you know a couple of things happening if you are new with us first time tuning into our online service then we would love to get to know you and give you more information about what's happening in the life of our church especially at this time so you can go to our website connect Christian dot church and on the front page there is a button called get connected just fill in the details you're comfortable with on that form and let us know that and we will be in touch with you and let you know the things that are going on the other thing happening is we've got our connect online groups we're using zoom our connect online groups I tastic way of staying connected with other people and go for about 40 minutes and if you'd like to be a part of that also go to that get connected form tick the box there that says you'd like to be part of a group and we will get you into a fantastic group where you can get to know some people and and stay in relationship not just being stuck at home the other thing is that connect kids program online is amazing it's brilliant we've got worship we've got a fully tailored program for your children and so can I encourage all of our parents to make sure that your children are able to be a part of that we've got an email we've sent to you with details there and also on our connect You Tube channel you'll see the video coming up there every week that your kids can watch during the service we're having or at another time as well and so we'd love you to be a part of that connect community care continues to run and at all our locations on Fridays especially we'll have times at each of our locations where food parcels are available either for pickup drive-thru pickup or delivery for people particularly in need at this time so we're doing that and we're looking forward to a great time in the life of this church and so now we're going to come around our time of giving you'll see the details coming up on your screen now see on the screen there's a few different ways you can give depending on whether you from Frankston potential Oh Hastings you can give I direct credit from your account you can go into our website and give that way and you can give by credit card that way if that's the most convenient way and there's also you can give by texting the number you see there for the different locations takes the word give to that number and it will send you back information about how to set up giving through text message and it's all secure and you can give via a credit card that way can I just encourage you please as you're able to please continue to give into the life of the church let's believe God that he's going to use this time to reach more and more people with the love of Jesus Harbor care keeps on running connect Community Care keeps on running we're continuing to meet people's needs during this time and so I want to say thank you for your giving why don't we pray and then we're gonna give Lord we just want to say thank you Lord Jesus for your provision for each and every one of us no matter what we're going through God that you are with us that you are our provider that you promised to take care of us Lord and we take ahold of that no matter where we're at no matter what's happening in the natural you're a provider Lord and I just want to say thank you as well for every person Lord who's continuing to give freely and generously into your house lord I thank you for them and I pray use every part of finance given Lord for your glory Jesus that more people may come to know you and your love we pray this in Jesus name Amen amen god bless your church as you give this one wasn't that great hearing from two awesome ladies people who I love dearly and it's so great being able to do life and do church with such amazing people and we're going for a real treat today we're gonna hear from certainly one of my favorite communicators of the word and that is pastor shame wheel art it was so awesome hearing him at culture night a couple of weeks back and we're very blessed to have him share with us again today so why don't we sit back and enjoy what the Lord has to say through pastor Shane we live hello everybody is so good to come into you into your home's today to open up the scripture today I get to open the scripture up and I love doing that and so what we always do when we open up a scripture is we ask what happened and then we ask a more important question what happening in me right now because of what happened and so I want to tell you the story of four different people from the scripture who went through a troubled time and I want to talk to you about how to build your faith in the middle of a troubled time I think we almost ruined the word faith that faith for the last two and 50 years has become a what word like what do you believe do you believe what I believe and it's it became a what word when faith actually in its rawest form is that who do you trust word not a what do you believe word if you're gonna make it anything it should be a how do you see the world word and so I want to I want to look at these real people real places at real time and how they dealt with this and and let's see if we can find ourself in this story this is a guy named John the Baptist who was a forerunner of Jesus and he's in prison and he's writing he's sending somebody to find out something about Jesus and the nature of his ministry and this is what it says now now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ he sent word to his life as I said to them are you the one who is to come or should we look for another and jesus answered them saying go and tell John what you hear and see the blind receive their sight the lame walk lepers are cleansed and the Deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them and blessed is the one who is not offended by me now in Hebrew this is something called a Ramez it's an allusion to something else that John would have known he's almost directly quoting Isaiah 60:1 but he leaves out an important part let me just read Isaiah 61 verse one two three the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me or he cry stood me too to bring the good news to the poor to send me up to bind the brokenhearted to proclaim Liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are about will John's in prison so here's what's going on here John's in prison Jesus quotes Isaiah but he leaves out the entire part about setting prisoners free it's an allusion it's like John and saying hey are you the one that's gonna stab which the kingdom and Jesus is like yes I'm meeting this but he Eve's the part a lot about John getting out of prison and John would have figured that out pretty quickly he would have memorized Isaiah 60:1 so in Jesus quotes Isaiah 60:1 and leaves the part off about a prison escape well that's Jesus's way of saying I'm doing what I'm supposed to do but you're gonna have to be in prison for now so John is doing nothing wrong except following God and he finds himself in prison here's another stories from Deuteronomy 32 that very day the Lord spoke to Moses go up to this mountain of the ever amount Nebo which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho and view the land of Canaan which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession and I go there and die on the mountain which you go up and be gathered to your people as Aaron your brother died on Mount hor and was gathered to his people because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the wilderness of zin and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel for you shall see the land before you but you shall not go there into the land that I'm giving to the people of Israel so in this story Moses spends 40 years leading the grumbling people out of Egypt into freedom and God says after 40 years of object cause and struggle and and and meaning and going for it after 40 years he doesn't get what he was shooting for and he has to go somewhere else to dice and the first story this guy's doing nothing wrong he finds himself in jail in the second story the guy is faithful for 40 years makes a few mistakes and he finds himself missing out on what he thought he always wanted here's a third story about a guy named Jeremiah Jeremiah was a kid prophet and he gets very disappointed with God and this is what he says in Jeremiah 2000 or do you have deceived me so he's calling God a liar he's like hey God I'm calling you out on your lie here you have deceived me and I was deceived in other words you got me you got me brother hey you got me good you are a stronger than I and you have prevailed in other words I give I submit I tap out right you deceived me I was deceived you got me you're stronger than me you prevailed I tap out I have now become a laughingstock all day long everyone mocks me for whenever I speak I cry out I shout violence and destruction for the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach in a derision all day long so in this story Jeremiah is just doing his best to hear God and say what God's saying and it's backfiring on him and people are laughing at him and mocking him and now the word of the Lord which should bring life for him has become a reproach and a derision all day long here's a fourth story about a lady named Mary and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus and he will be great and he will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will know no end sounds like good news and Mary said to the angel how will this be since I'm a virgin and the angel said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God that's Luke 122 225 now skip before 13 verses and Mary said behold I am the servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word and the angel departed from her now in mark chapter 3 verse 20 this is what it says then he went home in the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat and when his family heard it they went out to seize him and they were saying he is out of his mind so this child ends up becoming an adult no one's buying this story in the Mary story you imagine trying to convince people you didn't know anything and in let me just a quick cultural thing in their world if you got pregnant in and should have been probably 13 I mean the way marriage worked you had your first period and then you were sort of betrothed within six weeks and then married pretty quickly after that so so if you if you were pregnant before the appropriate time that what your family did was they did something called sitting Shiva with you sitting Shiva is a ritual of mourning the death of someone it's seven days where you sit with them after someone has died but in this case they would have done sitting Shiva with her and then after that she would have been considered dead this is why later they end up in a town way far away but then Caesar requires everybody go back to their hometown to do the census and it just happens to be the time she's fixing to give birth they're in their home town and you don't you mean to tell me not one person had a spare room not one person had a spare couch not one person had a spare space on the floor know she finds herself in a barn because she had been disowned so in this story she is submitting to the will of God and she ends up in a barn in labor in this story Jesus is submitting to God and the crowd is calling him out of his mind in this story Jeremiah is submitting to God and people are mocking him all the day long in these stories from the narratives of scripture John the Baptist is doing everything God's called him to do and he ends up in jail in these stories in these narratives we should be able to find ourself in these stories that their story is not unlike ours sometimes it's not that we're doing something wrong sometimes we're doing everything we could do to follow God but we find ourselves in a jail we find ourselves in this oppression we find ourselves being mocked we find ourselves being being tried in some say in some cases disowned like mary in some cases people think you're out of your mind right and some in some cases it says but what you find in this story is that the people in this story they weren't necessarily doing a lot of wrong things actually some of them were doing nothing wrong sometimes the story of our journey in faith with Christ is a journey of the struggle and the question is this what does faith look like in that struggle not how do I have enough faith to get out of the struggle but what does faith look like in the middle of it this is Luke chapter 4 verse 28 when they heard these things all in the synagogue were filled with wrath that's a bet that if I put it today's language after he finished preaching the sermon the whole church was infuriated with him and they rose up and drove him out of town and brought him to the brow of a hill on which the town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff I've had some I've had mostly positive responses to my sermons but never a negative response that included throwing me off a hill this is what they're doing Jesus is just following his father his father he's just doing his best he's doing everything he could do to fulfill what God had given to in the world and people are trying to throw him off the cliff now let's let's ask ourself what happened in these stories and then let's see where we find ourself in it 1 Jeremiah and Mary were simply doing the right thing and even in that it fell apart the idea that if we're doing the right thing it will all work out is it all work out like we imagined that's just a myth it's just not true it doesn't hold up to scrutiny this is mark 14 verse 32 and they went to a place called gethsemane and he said to his disciples sit there while I pray and he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed in troubled and he said to them my soul is very sorrowful even to death remain here and watch so Jesus is having a despairing to even live he's in so much pressure and going a little further he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible that the hour might pass from him in other words if there's any way that we can get around this let's not have this be the way and he said Abba Father all things are possible for you remove this cup from me yet not what I will but what you will what you find in Christ is not the absence of doubt you don't you don't find the absence of questions you don't find the absence of certainty that you do find the absence of certainty you definitely don't find the presence of uncertainty you find him despairing to life itself you find him doing everything God's asking to do but yet having profound doubts profound questions but profound uncertainty but what you do find that is moving is surrender I know you could do all things and if you can remove it but if you can't I'm gonna trust that you are God and I am NOT that is the invitation to live some observations about this the cup was an ancient symbol of wrath so there there was a struggle for surrender even with Christ the pressure of this makes Jesus collapse to the ground and despair at life itself see the problem in this story is that there's it brings up all kinds of questions about what we think God is like so the questions we hear a lot in the middle of trying times is why can't God just fix it he can fix it like that like all things are possible right if if all things are possible why wouldn't God fix it like that and evidently Jesus pointed that out as well so did Jeremiah so so did Moses write separately our struggle is their struggle it said here's the challenging part of the story Jesus either can't or he won't control Judas who betrays him he either can't or he won't control the disciples who desert him he either can't or won't control the Jewish leaders who were conspiring against him Jesus either can't or he won't control people places and things because that's how religion works evidently Jesus chooses a greater ethic which is love and love requires us to surrender even to the point of death love says surrender is where life starts control will put us in jail surrender is where life starts evidently what we find in this story and I hope this inspires us is that Jesus can only control his own surrender he can't control them he can't control them he can't or won't control them he can't or won't control him he can't or won't control that he can't or won't control that but what he can control is his own surrender and if Jesus is a bullet point on a pamphlet this is very difficult to live by but if Jesus is the fundamental way we're supposed to see our world then maybe we're not called to figure everything out maybe we're not called to be certain about everything maybe we're not called to lived out free but we are called to a profound life that invites us to surrender to our lack of control maybe one of the lessons we learn from this story is that life actually starts when we fully surrender and admit we can't control it so let's let's ask a few questions about this because we don't want to just know what happened we want to ask what's happening in me right now because of what happened so a couple of thoughts about this for us today what are we in the prison right now of trying to control someone we just can't get them to do what we want and at some point hopefully we don't live our whole life in the prison trying to control somebody else at some point we realize that we can't control them while remaining in love so we will surrender so sometimes we find it easy to submit our lives to God but actually what this is calling us to do is to also submit their lives to God that if God isn't working me and God's at work in them then we can trust God with them as well number two are we trying to control our circumstance we just can't get it to move obviously right now in the world there's a virus pandemic and part of the invitation I think in this is for those of us who are control freaks and like to figure everything out and and we're the problem solvers but part of that is when you can't see the problem and you can't control the outcome I own a business and that business isn't a bit of peril if crowds can't meet maybe you're a part of a tourism industry maybe maybe your job is in peril and so what it does is is it makes us fight we asked the same questions the Bible characters asked so don't feel bad when you ask these questions because they're the same question as Jesus asked if it's all possible for you why can't you fix it in another way if if your hand isn't short why don't you do something about is there another pathway through this but the invitation of Jesus doesn't stop with the question it stops with the surrender - hey when it's out of my control I'll surrender in the story John the Baptist surrenders and he has life Moses surrenders and has life Jeremiah surrenders and ends up being one of the greatest prophets of all time Jesus surrenders and obviously that story still being told Mary surrenders and that story is still being told maybe the invitation to live and build faith and trying times is the invitation to surrender despite our lack of being able to get our head around it number three are we learning to surrender which leads to freedom that we find in the biblical narrative is surrender leads to freedom at number four control and manipulation lead to prison surrender for even them leads to freedom so here's my question as I look straight into your room are you surrendered the question isn't do you have enough faith to get out of it the question isn't is there a Bible verse that answers the whole thing somebody wrote me the other day and said Shane what's the Bible say about the coronavirus nothing it wasn't around the Bible does anything about rocket ships either that that's not a thing but but the Bible does tell the moving inspiring narratives of how people navigated their struggle and that is inspiring because the truth out is people say where is God in all this well God is present in those health care workers given their lives God is present every time a young person picks up food for an older person and drops it at their front door to make sure they're not in danger God's present in that God's present anytime we suffer a little for the sake of the most vulnerable God's present and that God is present in all the narratives not because of the lack of struggle but because of the struggle itself and the invitation to surrender so one of the ways we build faith in trying times is we say yes to the invitation to surrender because surrender is freedom can we admit that our control isn't working even our attempts to control it it's not working our attempts to control them not working that true love is surrendering to God for us and also surrendering to God for them surrender versus control gets to the question of who God is are we still trying to control it while proclaiming with doctrine He is God or can we surrender that God is God and we are not the question in trying times is can we let God be God what you find in the stories of Jesus Mary John the Baptist Moses and Jeremiah is that oftentimes it isn't something you've done and it's not God being mad it's just life and that life runs on a cycle of death and life and death and life and death and life and the meaning in life is often found in the struggle can we live surrendered instead of trying to control it may Christ be bigger in our world today grace and peace everybody I wasn't that fantastic from pastor Shane can I just encourage you we're gonna we're gonna have a time of Prayer in a second but can I encourage you I've known Shane for many years now at the moment he's a faith-based ministry at the moment he can't go and preach anywhere as we know and he's got great faith and and he's said he's he's let us use him to speak to us and and just done that out of his own heart and hasn't asked for anything in return I think it'd be wonderful if as a church we could bless him and just help him during this time and so if you'd like to do that can I encourage you when you're three online giving just put in the description there for Shane Willard and we'll make sure that that he's blessed by our church as a love offering to him that'd be great you know the question that he asked in that time is about our surrender are you surrendered to God and can I ask you this as we're going to pray together right now what do you need to surrender to God today we can talk about surrendering ourselves to God giving you my own lives but as Shane said there's other things that we need to certain sometimes we need to share in to other people to God in their actions and the things we can't control sometimes we need to surrender our future sometimes we need to surrender the unknown the things that going on around us I don't know what it is for you but we're gonna take a moment right now we're going have some final worship for us to be able to surrender that's God so can I just encourage us right now to bow our heads close your eyes and we're gonna pray together and as we do I wanna encourage you to surrender to God whatever you is you need to Lord right now god I just pray for my brothers and sisters God that Lord as they surrender to you Lord their own lives their situation their future whatever it is Lord that you would give them a peace that you would give them rest Lord Jesus that they would give them a freedom in surrender right now Lord that they would enter into it knowing they can't control it they can't change some of the things around them but Lord Jesus you are there right with them now and God you can give them that peace that passes understanding but if people need to give their lives to you right now Lord / pray that would surrender their heart and life to you and you would become their Lord and Savior Lord we do this in Jesus precious name Amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] wasn't that a great service thanks so much for being with us we hope you can tune in we've got devotions happening our Wednesday during the week tune in for those on our Facebook page and we'll see you again next Sunday 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. for church see you then [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] mutters odevened track I welcome to church hi hellowho connect Christian Church so good to have you with us today thanks so much for joining us for church why don't we stand if we're in our Landrum stand if we're in our bedrooms and we're going to come together and join together all across the different houses and we're going to have a time of praise and worship not really City understand I don't care none of you are watching honor you understand and you know the work that's gone into this we watch on Facebook live but actually be on Facebook scrolling through cuz then you can get it in the corner and it counts as a view actually through hatred [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Connect Christian Church

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Length: 71min 32sec (4292 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020