LIFE Church Online: Sunday 3rd October 2021| Steve Gambill - FIRM FOUNDATIONS

[Music] got a feeling deep inside my soul nothing in this world comes close i was driving i'll give you control this is love great love hit the bottom but your grace came through found me broken make me new all the praise i gave it all to you this is love great love [Music] this is love the greatest thing i've ever known [Applause] is love i just can't get enough i just can't get enough when you find my soul [Music] i just can't get enough [Music] new directions set inside my veins yes i know that something's changed found the dream of living in your grace this is love great love this is love the greatest thing i've ever known this is love i just can't get enough i just can't get enough [Music] this is [Music] this is better than the trends that fade oh that happened lasting anyway in everything i'll follow you instead this great love [Music] there's nothing like there's nothing like there's nothing like your love [Music] there's nothing like there's nothing like [Music] me [Music] i just can't get enough [Music] let there be peace [Music] everlasting overwhelmed peace complicate i steal the raging seas holy spirit help this world in need let there be hope strength for every week and we [Music] let the voiceless arise and sing a victory song father your kingdom come god that you will be done here as in heaven let it be your earth [Music] let there be [Music] has grace teaches now to go into this day for our friends and for [Applause] we pray [Music] father your king [Music] [Music] let it be only [Applause] [Music] over the city streets over our families in all of creation let your will be done every heart can hold [Music] heavenly father let your kingdom come [Music] over the city streets over our families [Music] [Music] heavenly father let your kingdom come nation that you will be hey good morning guys good afternoon good evening and welcome to wherever you are joining us from in the world my name is israel this is my beautiful wife with one hello guys today we're your online campus pastors yeah um we have got the whole team in the studio we've got producer evan um behind the desk and we have got katie in the chat yeah i'm hosting the chat today um let us know where you're joining us from say hello to katie um you can be as loud as you want no one's gonna tell you to be to be quiet um we've already got people already saying hello we say hello to a few people later on but as always we've got a big service ahead of us today right yeah absolutely for those of you who are with us regularly you know that every sunday around this time we meet together and we do church together and we hope that it is a blessing for you because we know that in this season um you may still not be able to come to a physical location church or maybe you've um it's easier for you and your family to actually do church from home so we have continued to do this despite lockdown easing here in the uk and we hope that that has blessed your world so church what does church include on sunday morning online we will myself and easy will host you every morning um and then most mornings will come every sunday every sunday most sunday mornings we'll be your hosts we will then throw over to the live service um happening in the auditorium i'm pointing this way which means nothing to you guys but to my right is the building and then at the end of the service it'll come back to us um to give you some any announcements and to pray over you as you go into your week so we hope you'll join us for the whole service um throughout the service we have a chat that um that is managed i was gonna say amanda was managed by katie today and she will answer any questions you have let you know what the name of songs as they get sung yeah and obviously any scripture that's um i believe it's pastor steve today it is talks about you yeah during his preach she will also pop that in there so if you're taking notes you don't miss anything so we hope that you enjoy church with us this morning get engaged this is not um a show it is still church you can still stand and sing and worship be engaged write in the chat say your amens throw in your fire emojis whatever it is that keeps you engaged in the service because there's still a time of honoring worshiping and adoring the king of kings that's right android or apple any device you're all welcome okay there is now no more condemnation so whether you've got the latest iphone or you're still rocking iphone five i don't think anybody's working i bet people are let us know what phone you're using in the chat if you want we don't want to start any any uh i was gonna say word that i can't remember okay don't worry about it we'll move on you don't want to start any divisiveness in the chat that's right right um so we also try to remind you guys every week that there is a email address that you guys can use to um send us any prayer requests or praise reports if you're not familiar with those terms all it is is that obviously when there's something going wrong and right in your life we spend part of our walk with god is to be in constant communication with him talking to him sharing with him our our thoughts our um our dreams dreams issues anything going on in your life just like you would share with a good friend you share that with god that's all prayer is talking to god but obviously as um talking to someone is communicating is a two-way thing so he also talks to us so prayer is just that time where you were talking to god god is talking to you so if you're listening to me you are yeah listening like taking time to listen as well yeah that's why i'm yeah i'm thinking about our relationship us communicating like it's important as well for me to listen absolutely it is that's the same with prayer right yeah and so that is simply what prayer is so if there's something that you were speaking to god about and asking him to man um to fix a situation heal a situation do a miracle in a situation and you have been praying and praying and asking god for that you can share that with us and then we can also be standing in prayer with you so we can also be praying for the same thing on your behalf and that's what we do as a christian as a family as a christian family that's right we um we believe with each other for what it is that you're hope you're praying for and we pray with you as well so that um we can all support each other obviously we can't be together physically um all the time but we can always be together with each other in prayer so that's what this email is all about church online at livechurchhome.com you just have to send us through whatever it is that you're praying about and we will take time to also pray about it um with you for you on behalf of you yeah that's crystal clear for me because i'm aware that not everybody is watching this has been a part of church for their whole lives or understands all the terminology that we use so i just wanted to be really clear what prayer requests are and when god answers your prayers that's what we and you want to share that and thank him and we all want to step thank him together we call that a praise report so you share with us what god has done and we can all thank him and praise him together hello that's what prayer requests and praise reports are and all you have to do is email us church online at livechurch.home and we can be standing in prayer with you and thanking god together so good yeah i don't know how you remember all that stuff just blows my mind every week you're amazing thank you baby i love you i love you guys we have got our growth track is still on available on demand for digital it's it's like i would say it's better than another streaming service starting with an n and ending in netflix it's right there and it is available for you to do it's been purposefully made online on demand for our online campus um we'll we'll put the link for that in the chat if you need it and also that email address on the bottom that um came up there we'll send you the link to do growth tracks awesome um i think it's like just four or five weeks weeks getting to know more about our church getting to know about how we interact and fit in with the church we as a the family of the church and we also have our alpha course which is an awesome um course to jump into yeah at any time in your your walk if you've got any questions you know like who is god what is the holy spirit yeah um what's the rapture all about all these kind of things you can feel free to talk about them in the alpha course yeah and now of course has started but you can still jump in it's still a good time and it's all online and it's a great way to start your walk yeah um with your christian journey if you're if you're a new christian but it's also a great refresher a reminder if you've been doing this for a long time um it's yeah i think regardless of where you are in your faith journey it's worth doing it this place to be yeah um yeah and it's again it's it's as good as is here in as in that you can just bring your own um bring your own cakes your own tea whatever you want to do you don't have to have the screen on you can have it off you can just sit there and in silence wherever you are whatever you're doing yeah i'm so happy to um be with everybody today yeah an awesome service ahead of us i don't know if we mentioned but we've got baby dedications happening today um and if you're joining us from anywhere in the world because we are an international church so yeah if you're joining us your friends and family from of the children that are getting dedicated you are so welcome yeah um we are getting the wagon wheel sign from the producer wrap it up if you're wrapping it up with that time or should we wrap it up right now yeah okay okay okay we are getting ready to throw over we will be with you in the chat today we've got a lovely katie who's looking after the chat um if you have any questions about anything that's happening or you just want to like throw in your praise reports or your like emojis as everyone said feel free but we're about to hand over yeah put the coffee aside to your side let's get into a position of praise yeah yeah see ya see ya well good morning good morning good morning everybody great to see you all today welcome to church this morning so pleased that you made the decision to be here or if you're watching online a massive hello to youtube we're in for a great day special welcome today if you are here visiting with one of the families that is dedicating our babies today we got some cute babies coming up so we're going to be dedicating them to god a little bit later but first we're going to start like we always do with focusing our attention on jesus is that a good thing to do today hey if you're new and you're not being here before just feel at home the words are on the screen just enjoy it we're going to get into the presence of god together here we go thanks guys [Music] where people pray when we hear praises [Music] [Music] it's the sound of the savior's robe as he walks into the your faith room morning [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is crazy [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] isn't it good to be in the house this morning [Music] there's no room [Music] [Music] standing on his word that holds the truth [Music] of the lord [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my soul [Music] hallelujah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] loud there's nothing like the house of the lord [Music] grace and mercy hallelujah praise the lord cause all these blessings peace and kindness all my days i pray [Music] [Music] standing on his word that holds the truth [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're here to worship you jesus [Music] we gather in your house to lift your name sing worthy worthy of every song we could ever sing worthy of all the praise we could ever bring you're worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you [Music] we live for you lift his name jesus jesus of every other name jesus [Music] worthy of every [Music] there is [Music] [Music] around me [Music] worthy of every song we could ever see worthy of all the praise we worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] jesus [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] there is [Applause] [Music] show me who you are [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] who you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] the way the truth oh [Music] oh [Music] and i [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] show me [Music] [Music] who you are [Music] there is no [Music] show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around [Music] so good isn't it to remember who our life is built upon i'd love us to just hold out our hands for a minute if you're up for that let's just sing this back to god that i will build my life just sing it as a prayer to him this morning as you let go of some of the things that you're holding on to when you're holding some of the weights that you're holding just offer them out to god come let's do this as we just dedicate ourselves back to him this one thank you thank you god let's sing that together [Music] i will put my truth in [Music] we're going to pray but just before we do i want to read you a couple of people that have written in to testify to say he is my firm foundation somebody just told me this morning that they had a family member who's been sick and had various operations and they've been praying for them and they've been recovering they've been okay but sadly they got rushed back into hospital and in fact we're in icu and that's very serious but they had a friend nearby and they decided that they would pray but that person wouldn't just pray that they would go to the hospital and say god's told me to come and pray for you for healing well he prayed for healing over them the next morning when they when they came to do the operation and do all the tests beforehand they did all the tests and found you're fine there's nothing wrong with you no operation needs to happen just past every test come on only god deserves a bigger round of applause than that thank you jesus i also had another story this week as somebody writing in to tell us that they were yeah they were everything was good and then they had one of those moments you know where financially you just get hit with something and you're like oh we were not planning for that and they just reached out to god and said god i just don't have the money to resolve this for my family and i know that you want us to be blessed and want us to keep moving forward but we are stuck and they just prayed within a couple of days there was money in their bank account enough to cover what they needed to do come on how good is that so good let me read you this let me read you this before we pray because we've got some prayer requests that we're going to pray for but let me just read you this it's a psalm of david psalm 146 he says i will praise the lord all my life i will sing praises to my god as long as i live goes down to say blessed are those who whose help is the god of jacob whose hope is in their god this is who he is he goes on to say i like the way he encourages himself here he says he is the maker of heaven and earth the sea and everything in them he remains faithful forever he upholds the cause of the oppressed and he gives food to the hungry the lord listen what he does he sets prisoners free the lord gives sight to the blind and the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow and he finishes by saying the lord reigns forever praise the lord come on that is our god that is what he does he's doing it then he's doing it now so right now we're going to pray we've got some needs in our house we've got people who've written him with several people that are struggling with their mental health right now we're going to press into that we've got people who are going through bereavement and grief right now let's let's lift them up before god and maybe there's people in your world in your life group in in your family that you want to pray for i want to encourage you let's lift them up this morning let's lift up prayers of faith knowing who the god is that we are calling on this morning so come on let's pray together father we thank you that you hear our cry that you know our heart you know what we need even before we open our mouths but god we we come to you now we come boldly before your throne and we ask we ask you god because we know that you want to give us good things we know that you're a healing god we know that you're a god that makes a breakthrough we know that you're a god that that brings wholeness and healing so god right now we lift up everybody that is struggling in that mental health god you would just break off the darkness in the name of jesus the light would flood into their minds that they would truly say i've not been given a spirit of fear but a power of love and of sound mind we declare it right now for those that are going through grief they are walking through the shadow of the valley of death but lord your rod and your staff will comfort them you will guide them you will lead them in ways everlasting father god i just pray for your closeness all across this congregation and for every person that we're lifting up to you now that we would see your goodness we would see your power we would see you and changing people's lives and hearts in the name of jesus we believe it and everybody said a good big loud amen amen amen amen all right grab your seats guys we're going to get into the next part of our service which is definitely the cutest part of this service not least because my wife's getting on stage because it's time for child dedications guys you can not be there that's cool [Laughter] we've seen your faces we're going to look at some babies faces now um so we're going to dedicate some children before before garden as i said welcome to every family member that's come visiting but we're all also family members in this church family and so um this is something we do whenever there's whenever we have new arrivals and it's happening quite a lot at the minute guys hashtag lockdown so um we're going to pray over the kids and uh and just dedicate them to god so i love this time when we get to do this as a family you know in the gospels of matthew and mark they're bringing the children to jesus and what what does he say he does he blesses them because that is his heart to bless our children and i know children are a blessing from god psalms 127 tells us that that kids are a blessing from him but you know how psalm 127 starts it starts with unless the lord builds this house and that's what i love about baby dedication that these are families who are going god we want you at the center we want you to be the one who is here building this house where's that with us giving us comfort giving us wisdom thanking you for the joy and just dedicating them back to him and we get to have a privilege of being his family brothers and sisters aunties and uncles all here helping to pray over them together yeah that's right it's about uh as shell said being thankful for these amazing gifts and as you say dedicating them back to god and there's also a moment here of of light dependence they're saying god we can't do this on our own you know being a parent is quite challenging especially in this day and age um anybody relate to the fact that parenting is challenging you know it's just us know a few okay it is a challenge and and you know we need god's help as sheryl said so this is a moment to say god we depend on you god we look to you god we submit to you we thank you for these kids and we offer them back to you that they would be great in your eyes that you would help us help help us help them steward their lives and uh and fulfill the purpose of god in their lives that's what we're gonna do so we're gonna uh we're gonna introduce all the families we're gonna get them up on stage we're gonna clap and cheer rapturously uh as they come and uh and and also okay so let's have the stage a dave and abby bishop with baby reuben more rapturous applause [Music] fantastic nice we've got lukman and emma saladin with baby mayor [Music] beautiful next up we have joel and hannah with baby osma hannah [Applause] amazing nice though we've got misty das moyadin with baby zayn and then finally last but not least uh we've got the only baby who has her own theme to you which is simon louise with baby ina also known as baby [Applause] [Music] so it had to be done thanks guys [Applause] [Music] fantastic come on give them all a round of applause in fact can you all come forward a little bit you're a bit come forward a little bit so everybody can see you but ina is going to make her first speech you didn't hear it but it was excellent it was really good it was really good so it's so good to have these amazing families i mean you know most of them but um just what a blessing each and every one of these kids are and we're just so delighted to be able to share this moment with you and uh yeah excited for what's to come um shell why don't you uh introduce sister dave and abby a little bit yes so david and abby you weren't here too long ago were you with baby joyce here we are with baby reuben but um i just wanted abby to share a little bit of her story you know i know pregnancies haven't been easy for you but yet through it all you've always told me about god's faithfulness and his goodness and i would just love for you to just encourage anyone else out there hello i'm not very good at speaking on a microphone so i'm just going to say what's on my heart but since i was 16 i've had a lot of medication a lot of medical issues through my life and i've had a lot of doctors tell me that it's not been worth it to get pregnant like getting pregnant it's gonna be a really big struggle and to think about it wisely and when i met dave we were just like we really want kids we're not gonna listen to what the world said but we're gonna stand on god's word and four years ago we actually started to think about having a family we sadly had a miscarriage and then a year later we had an eptopic pregnancy that was misdiagnosed for 12 weeks i ended up having internal bleeding and they told dave that i was probably going to die on the operating table then we had a doctor sit down with us and basically say it's because of the operation and because of your medical condition we won't be able to probably do a lot about it but because of the word of god two months later we had uh we found out we were pregnant with joyce which was just an absolute miracle and it was such a hard pregnancy i had lots of seizures during it and they kept on getting told that it's just going to be more and more difficult but i remember being in a hospital bed and just being in the presence of god knowing that his word is faithful and he just gave me this peace that just passed all understanding and i had people in church say all the time he's the past all understanding but actually when you do have that peace you got you can't explain it it's just it literally it just floods over you like water and you're just like wow and in that moment i understood that actually god is greater god is bigger god is is bigger than all these doctors that are telling me about fear and that it's never going to happen and we had joyce and she was perfect she's here today she's just over there she's just amazing and then two years later we've got reuben which is just again an amazing miracle and through that like we had a lot of scares and it was a difficult pregnancy with ruben as well but again because of god's word i think we just had to stick our armor of god on and go do you know what we've learned so much and god has given us so much faith in this that you know it's just worth it and when you stand on the word of god and you look at that and you think i'm going to go forward i'm not gonna look back at what's happened but i just know that he has plans for me plans to give me a hope and a future plans to make me prosper and as i look at us at a family i just always look at that and go i'm gonna fix my eyes on god and no matter what we're just gonna carry on because god's going to be with us all the way so so good so good thank you so much for sharing that you know i've been and our church family know them really well but you would never know what they go through because they are so faithful through and through they're just like god is with us god is for us i've not never seen faith like it in their journeys they have both been incredible and i just want to commend you for just your incredible faithfulness your incredible hope in god and just your steadfast faith but yeah beautiful to celebrate you all this morning thank you for sharing that with us amazing we're gonna get to celebrate later with all these uh families that you've got little dedicated spaces out there with lots of treats for you and your families but we're going to pray over you now but before we do that and we're actually going to read something together and uh families your answer to this is with god's help we will so can you all practice that three two one [Music] and church you've got a part to play as well you're not getting out of this so your answer is also with god's help we will okay we've had a practice so here we go so parents will you accept your god-given responsibility to raise your child in a christ-centered home will you teach them god's ways impart biblical knowledge and spiritual values and will you first seek the purpose of god and the advancement of faith in jesus in your family fantastic now friends family church family will use the community of faith support these families in christian love and support and by the example you set by your lives fantastic all right i'm going to invite uh phil and cara to come and just pray over these families father we just thank you for the beauty of family that you created us to do things within a family lord so as these parents as these um young families start to raise their children lord i just pray this over them that for their children that no one will look down on them because they are young that's the word of that's your word jesus i pray that over them that they confidently walk in this world knowing no one can look down on them because they're young because they've been called they've been anointed they've been chosen by you for you with a purpose lord so as they go into this world jesus i just pray i speak that confidence over them lord that you've not given them the spirit of fear in your word it says but a spirit of power of love and of sound mind god so with this troubles that they may face that we all face in this world lord let them walk confidently knowing that you've given them a spirit of sound mind father thank you so much for their lives for the miraculous lives that are on these stages right now though we don't know all their stories we know that you have been there from the beginning that you knit them in their mother's womb jesus i just pray blessing over them i pray direction over them i pray wisdom over their parents as they journey this lord because you are good and i pray that every step they can proclaim that you are good over their children that you are good over their families in the name of jesus i pray amen amen amen last week church we sang that song because he lives that song was written a long time ago a big gray head like me but one of the verses in it says this how sweet to hold a newborn baby and feel the pride and joy that he or she brings then it says this but greater still that calm assurance we can face on certain days because he lives and that is so true so heavenly father we praise you because jesus is indeed risen and we have hope in an uncertain world and in an uncertain future we thank you holy spirit that you are here right now and we pray that the blessing and the peace of god would rest upon these families and that knowing the risen christ in all of his glory they would know that they can face the future whatever it may hold and that their children are in their hands but they're also more importantly in your hands and today in this act of dedication as they dedicate their children to you we as church family dedicate ourselves so that we might maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and in that bond of peace together as a body of believers we will play our part in encouraging the parents and in encouraging the children that they might live for you and come at a very early age to find jesus as their savior so heavenly father we ask that the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit would rest upon these families and we pray and we ask it all in the precious name of jesus amen [Applause] amen amen come on give him another round of applause fantastic all right family we'll let you let your head off we'll join you to party later on we'll join you for for cake later so good okay are you ready for the word are we ready for the word come on that's better better better appetite we've just said we're going to re raise these children in the way they should go now we're going to be raised up in the way we should go as we press into the word give somebody a little shove next year just say hi to a few people give them a quick high five and we're going to get into it all right let's do it [Music] hey good morning good morning church why don't you turn to the person next year and say i'm so glad you're here today so glad and then turn to the other person and say and you as well right come on so good hey we welcome our online church family today that are joining us for this baby dedication day we just want to welcome you and give you a round of applause thank you so much for just being with us i know you can't be here yet physically but we are aware of you and grateful that you're joining with us today and hopefully through the week too well today we're going to start a new series called life by the book now we've done this before as a church when we've looked at different books of the bible do you remember when we studied the book of ephesians we dug into that then we went to first second and third john but this is going to be a different kind of life by the book really it should be called life in the book because we're going to look at different people in the bible who have had an encounter with jesus and made an incredible difference in their lives because the truth is the bible is full of ordinary salt of the earth people who had an encounter to go on to to do incredible things so over these next few weeks you're going to hear from different communicators and you're going to hear stories and testimonies of lives that have been changed because of an encounter of what happens when you dig in not just to the pages of this book but when you understand that behind the ink or behind the screen however you're studying that there is a living jesus that it's not just the words that we read it's the fact that the word of god stands forever because jesus is alive and it's that focus and emphasis on jesus that i wanted to go to to kick off this series because the truth is is that the name of jesus is still greater the truth is that the love of god is as strong as it ever was the truth is that people can still discover the grace of god that's the reality that we live in and so let's get started with philippians chapter 4 verse 4. now as you turn there this is already a clue about who i'm gonna be speaking about today philippians chapter 4 verse 4 i'm reading from the message version because i love how it puts this philippians chapter 4 go eat popcorn galatians ephesians colossians that's how i remember how to get the philippians here we go some of you like i'll figure that out later okay good for you here we go celebrate god all day every day i mean revel in him make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you are on their side working with them and not against them help them see listen to this that the master is about to arrive he could show up in fact in any minute so don't fret our worry instead of worrying pray let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers letting god know your concerns and before you know it a sense of god's wholeness everything coming together for good will come and settle you down it's wonderful what happens when christ displaces worry at the center of your life summing it up all friends i'd say you'll do your best by filling your minds and meditating on these things true noble reputable authentic compelling gracious the best not the worst the beautiful not the ugly things to praise not things to curse and put into practice what you've learned from me and what you've heard and saw and realized do that and god makes everything work together will work you into his most excellent harmonies what a great word what a great bible scripture but i want to move past the bible scripture and look at who god chose to pen these words back in the day if you had the choice of selecting anyone here this morning or anyone online who would you pick to write these words maybe simon braithwaite on the front row you know because he's a man of god and he's strong or maybe debbie over here you know because she's got this incredible heart and passion for jesus and she's a theologian as well whoever it would be who would you pick to write this well i'll tell you who paul picked who god picked paul that's what i'm talking about sorry about that paul is not god right be clear about that god picked paul and at that point when paul was picked by jesus he was a murderer he was a terrorist and he plotted to destroy the early church years later we have just read what he wrote my question is how did it get there how did it get from the moment when he was on the wrong side literally acts chapter 8 tells the story when there was a leader called stephen who was standing up in court and this man paul was giving his consent that he would be stoned and killed and then we turned later on and we find out that one day when paul was on the road to damascus literally jesus appeared to him in a flash of light knocked him off his horse or his donkey whatever he was riding on that day and fell down on the ground he was blind for three days and and jesus spoke to him and appeared to him and said why are you persecuting me and from that experience and encounter this man would go on not just to write a fee that what we just read in philippians 4 but right literally this slightly over one half of the entire new testament think about that think about people that you might know that are that you think are too far gone for god right now think about somebody right now that you think is unreachable by the grace of god and maybe they're partying or maybe they're not interested in the things of god maybe they even have told you i will never follow jesus news flash jesus is bigger than any single human being on the earth today never say never and here's the apostle paul there when stephen was killed has an encounter with jesus and suddenly he goes on to be the man that we know and we read about in scripture but i want to reel it back in and move back to the moments of how he got there so let's just look at his historical context paul was a jewish and a roman citizen he had a dual nationality he was under the tutelage of the one-to-one instruction of a pharisee called gamaliel it would be like the equivalent of one of our university students going to oxford or cambridge uh or nottingham university where my daughter is right now somebody wherever it is and and studying over the brightest of the brightest because gamalio was the best of the best in creating leaders he was a leader of leaders in the pharisee culture and paul sat under his teaching on a one-to-one basis for a long period of time and in those days when you're under that kind of instruction you had to memorize the entire first five books of the bible genesis exodus leviticus numbers in deuteronomy some days i can't even struggle i struggle sometimes just to remember what the five books of the bible are and you imagine if that was your entrance exam to begin to study and that was paul's entrance exam in other words he was zealous and he was memorizing so many things but his his his walk with he believed at that point in time with god was something that he tried to earn it was something that he was trying to work up in his own strength and in his own flesh and even in his zeal for trying to do that now he's talking about something entirely different when he has this revelation of what it means to celebrate god all day why is he celebrating here it is news flash he who has been forgiven much will celebrate much [Music] and here's paul realizing of how much he has been forgiven and when you think about that you you have to ask yourself the question would you have chosen you would you have chosen you to be here to understand the things of god would i have chosen me probably not but the fact is jesus did choose you and i he did choose you and i and and we might sometimes feel like well why did he do that jesus he did that because of his great incredible magnimineous love for all of us his ever increasing love and i want to talk about this because it needs air time today and i feel so set up by the worship because the title of this message is firm foundation and we sang it in the worship already a firm foundation what's a firm foundation a foundation is a revelation about how to build and then a reality about how to work it out in practice hey if you want an architect to design something you don't want somebody doing it for the very first time do you you don't want somebody trying to dig in the ground you want somebody that's studied architecture they just don't have some dream from having domino's pizza last night you know they've studied they've become a master builder jesus is the greatest architect and like you've already heard today jesus holds the future whatever it looks like for us we know that jesus can take us there and that jesus has great plans for all of us why because we're not building on our understanding we're building under the revelation of that jesus christ is the king of kings and the lord of lords we're building on the revelation that the apollo talks about right through his writings that he had a risen knowledge he had a a literally a moment when he realized oh my gosh i am on the wrong side i am trying to hold down the christians so as fast as paul could he transferred over and he became a follower of jesus christ romans chapter 12 verse 2 which many people say is the central thought for the entire new testament says this do not conform yourself any longer but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and who wrote that the apostle paul wrote that and so he knows what he's talking about because he had to renew his mind from being a murderer to the greatest missionary that there ever has lived today and that's his transformation now the point of it is this if paul can do it you and i can do it too if paul can move from a place of all of the past regrets and pain and all the things that he walked through and we're going to look at those past pains in just a second so can you and i okay let's look at the list because there's a moment of comparison when paul after he was following jesus and started his ministry was being compared to other people and he was tempted to boast about his skills but the problem was this if you looked at paul and jewish historians that lived in the first century tell us that paul was nothing great to look at some people say he was a short little bald man with a crooked nose some people say and have recorded about paul that he had no eloquence about him and there was nothing in his appearance or skill that would draw people to himself in fact some people say that they would rather paul not talk and other people talk like barnabas who at one point they said look like zeus i mean all through the bible he was dealing with this and yet paul wasn't focused on trying to make himself look better this is what he said about his skill set and i want you to read it it's going to come up behind me second corinthians 11 16 says this that i have worked much harder been jailed more often beaten up more times than i can count at death store time after time i've been flogged five times with the jews rods 39 lashes beaten by roman rods as well three times pummeled with rocks once shipwrecked three times and et cetera et cetera et cetera et cetera i don't want to go into it because i already feel depressed and yet i ask myself the question not only did paul change his past it also held him in his present in some of the greatest storms that anyone how did he do that he's in these places and he had this incredible sense of who god is and who god called them to be how did he do that well we already looked at it we're going to go back now to philippians chapter 4. he says it here he says fill your minds and meditate on these things let's just pause for a moment and talk about how we fill our minds has anybody got here today and they're vehicle that they arrived in is nearly out of petrol or diesel or is it just me is there anybody who went to get petrol lightman diesel again a week on and still the petrol pumps were out of fuel and i find myself frustrated and i know it's going to happen the prime minister is going to turn up next week and he's going to say something like this he's going to say don't panic there's going to be plenty of petrol and what's everybody gonna do they're gonna flip and panic aren't they in a month or so somebody's gonna stand up and you know winter's coming and somebody's gonna say don't panic there's gonna be plenty of rock salt for the roads whatever we're going to do they're going to panic pretty soon somebody's going to come up and they're going to say don't worry don't panic the economy is going to be fine what's everybody going to do they're going to panic somebody's going to stand up and say oh there's another variant oh there's another situation and what we're going to see is all of the panic that's out there but what paul is teaching us is not to be influenced but what's out there but to understand how to flow from who is inside of you and that's what paul is trying to say he's doing philip on these things so let's look at what he said to fill up on what is true what is true he was talking about facing facts that no matter how difficult the world gets the reality is when you are in christ nothing and nobody can move you from that that sense of being in christ that is a fact that's the truth that's why the bible says that jesus is the way and the truth and the life jesus cannot lie now the enemy he's the father of lies the enemy wants to create lies and whisper to us all the time that our best days are over he wants to whisper to us and tell us that we're going to face more persecution and opposition than we can handle in the months to come but of course we understand that when you face the truth what jesus's truth says is that nothing can separate you from the love of god in christ jesus which report do you fill your mind with but let's move on to the next one noble noble nobility is to understand that you and i are children sons and daughters of the living god and we prayed for babies earlier and we pray as a church they understand that they're growing up with nobility not because of where they were born in the natural but because when you accept jesus and you're born again in this spiritual you become part of the greatest kingdom ever a kingdom without end a kingdom that is eternal a kingdom based on love and righteousness and peace not on the things that the world looks at and so nobility is so important and then paul goes on to talk about fill your minds with what is reputable to be reputable is to be highly regarded and favored favored by the lord and then it goes on paul says to talk about authentic the genuine the real the undisputed compelling lovely endearing and captivating gracious to be kind and pleasant and courteous and then he goes on to say and i love these opposites he says focus on the best not the worst people say let's look at the worst case possibility yes absolutely but then flip to the best right so to focus on what could be ugly but focus on what can be beautiful things to praise and not to curse paul was the master at reminding his mind of these things now i don't know if when paul wrote this that he understood that all those years ago 2000 years ago or so when he penned the words to romans chapter 12 that he understood how the brain worked i mean i've been studying how the brain worked now for about a decade and when i first really began to dig into this i studied dr caroline leaf who came up with this term the first time i've heard it neuroplasticity which is how the brain rewires and shifts from negative emotion to positive emotion how the brain can rewire itself when you start to praise instead of focusing on the bad things of life and it's a process it takes time to be able to do that but up until sort of the 1940s and 50s scientists brain scientists and i'm no brain scientist i feel like i know this much about it but i'll tell you what i've learned over the past decade is this that when you're facing really deep challenges in life really serious challenges that different people say that if you can learn to find a spirit of gratitude and to shift your focus from the pain and into a place where you're starting to focus on the beautiful things and not the worst of things when you focus on the best that god can do in your life and through your life suddenly your attitude and your emotions can change because if you follow your emotions and your attitudes it can leave you in a place probably like paul should have ended up i mean what would it have been like to be in a jail cell literally contained and captivated probably down a hole somewhere with no light and yet in that place what did paul do he praised god and from that praising of god comes some of the most beautiful scriptures in the bible oh church we got to read them we've got to dig into them more than that we've got to understand that behind the words on a page is a living jesus who gets with you in the valley of the shadow of death he doesn't leave you alone he walks alongside you he doesn't just allow you to go through pain on your own no jesus knows about pain he was crucified and endured what it was like to be on that cross experiencing that kind of pain that you and i could never have experienced and what happened he was resurrected and he's ascended and now when we know jesus everything changes and that's paul's message the firm foundation that we live on that we build on is so important and from the jail cell paul pins these words to our home today from the jailhouse to god's house the apostle paul said this and i want to focus on this today and look at it because i believe it was the secret for how paul did it we we looked at how he reminded his mind but but he was reminding his mind if i can boil all those things that we just read about about the the nobility and focusing on the good things down to the the one essence that motivated paul it's found in this colossians chapter 1 verse 26 colossians 1 26 in fact if you've got a bible go ahead and turn to it because i think it is worth turning to galatians ephesians philippians colossians go eat popcorn okay here we go colossians 1 26 the mystery that's been kept in the dark for a long time but now is out in the open is this that god wanted everyone not just jews to know the rich and glorious secret inside and out regardless of their background regardless of the religious standing the mystery in a nutshell is this christ is in you that's it that's the secret that's paul's revelation and from that place what happens next in paul's life is incredible could it really be that simple could overcoming life's challenges and difficulties really be that simple well to build a firm foundation i want to say it like this we have to find this principle and operate it in our life to be self-sufficient in christ's sufficiency let me say that again to be self-sufficient in christ's sufficiency there it is what's the word sufficient mean it means to have enough to have an adequate supply if we have jesus is he enough that's a question that we all have to ask is he really enough you know i love to cook some of you know i love to cook and pretty much every recipe that i've been making recently says to just add additives sugar you know you're making a curry and you're supposed to put sugar in it you're making pasta and you're supposed to put sugar in it and all these additives that i'm supposed to put in there and so a while ago i cut all the additives out because the meal was sufficient without it i didn't need all that stuff in it and when i see it in the recipe you know i don't put it in and sometimes my kids say to me hey dad did you put sugar in it because the recipe calls for that and of course now i don't even show them the recipe anymore because they can't taste the difference they don't know that there's not that unhealthy stuff in there and i'm not saying we shouldn't go eat sugar i'm saying if you eat too much sugar it's not a good thing and it's this sense of sufficiency that is jesus enough all by himself i want to go a little bit further and i don't want to challenge you too strongly but i just want to be real and authentic today is is this if you're relying on anything other than jesus your life will be insufficient you can run on on just a job insufficient you can rely on just another person insufficient you can rely on a family network insufficient but when you rely on the firm foundation of self-fulfillment in jesus everything changes and that's paul's secret he discovered christ in him the hope of glory and any and he motivated himself and inspired himself not based on external things how did he get through shipwreck how did he get through persecution because he realized that jesus is inside of him and he meditated and reflected on that what would our world look like if monday to saturday the church would remind itself that jesus is still inside of us what would our world look like it would look like this because when jesus is inside of you monday to saturday you have the healer with you you don't have to bring someone to church you can pray let the sick recover as you pray for them because jesus is inside of you you can see breakthrough and wisdom come in your office and in your workplaces because christ is in you the hope of glory he can flow through you and everything can shift maybe you're a university student and you're just now in the city of bradford we want to welcome you we are so glad that you're here for your university and all that you're doing and that's awesome that you're here but you need to understand that jesus is inside you and when he's inside you he helps you deal with loneliness and separation and all kinds of other things because of who he is let me put it another way the apostle paul wrote these words i can do all things which god has called me to do through him who strengthens and empowers me to fulfill his purpose and then paul wrote this i am self-sufficient in christ's sufficiency i am ready for anything and equal to anything through him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace see when you have that understanding that jesus inside of you two things happen you have a revelation and then you have to walk that reality out first the revelation and then the reality that you walk out the revelation christ is inside of you and then you have to walk that revelation out and keep stepping out in the good of that revelation every day and that's what paul's talking about a revelation of who jesus is the the road to damascus experience he has and now we find him walking it out i can do all things through christ who strengthens me that that walking it out that's the reality and that consistency that we find in paul's life helped him move forward so much and this is so important for all of us to realize that when christ is in us we live from that inner place that revelation of who he is and so there's these moments that we go through in life and we find paul doing this again and again we find him worshiping we find him moved to worship and as he worship the holy spirit jesus inside of him would just come rushing in and pouring out and lifting his emotions and lifting his mind and that's why i love all these songs that we've been singing as a church and i'll often just get along with god and i'll just sing like i've been doing this past week worshiping him and going there is none like you no one else can touch my heart like you do worshipping i remember one day there was this a person in the church's name was reg matthew and and and we were going through uh just a lot of stuff at the time about 15 20 years ago now and reg wrote me the chorus of an old song called knowing you jesus knowing you brought me out the chorus and sent it to me guess what i've been singing this week knowing you jesus because when you you go through these times sometimes these old songs pop up in your mind not to take you back but to give you strength for today and hope for tomorrow to move you forward into a better future and a better hope because christ is in you and it's this motivation that came out of paul's life because christ was sufficient the revelation he had the reality that he walked in and he ended up being in this place and i want to say this to you today if you feel insufficient remind your mind who is inside of you if you feel insecure remind your mind who is in you if you feel impatient angry frustrated concerned depressed remind yourself that your story is not over your life is not finished god is with you he's going to move through you because that's what jesus does and here is the apostle paul walking in his revelation walking out as reality and then he writes these beautiful words it was for freedom that christ has set us free no longer to be subject to a yoke of slavery he writes these great words about how to stay free what's freedom freedom is the foundation that you build on so we get more and more and more free paul the murderer was so free from his past and here's what i've realized in our christian life is that i think we're great at forgiving other people but how great are you at forgiving yourself how great are you about looking at some of the regrets and mistakes take a note from the apostle paul and live in a place of freedom from bitterness freedom from gossip freedom from living depletes others and understand that we have an understanding a motivation a desire and we also have this dedication to live for the one who's inside of us the sense that god is with us and walking with him means that we can turn our eyes to jesus see how do we do this practically how do we work it out we have to take our eyes off of whatever else we're looking at and i've been singing a new song this week a new song that's an old song turn your eyes to jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace how do we get from where we are right now and into our next step into a new reality we look to jesus christ are you looking to jesus are you looking to him to be a fulfillment to be your hope to being the great lifter of some of the challenges that we face because when we looked at jesus jesus can do incredible things in our lives unexpected things he can bring breakthroughs he can bring healing he can bring the help that we need in our lives when we turn to him i want you to just be in a place now stay seated please but the worst team are going to come and they're going to sing this turn our eyes to jesus and and as you're just sitting let these words wash over you and when you're ready stand in the presence of god and let your stand be a response from your heart that you are turning from and turning to jesus and many of us do this and we've done this if if you're already following jesus i get it and you're walking with jesus great but i believe we build layer after layer after layer of foundation and what it means to walk with jesus a new decision today a rededication simply to turn to him and then we're gonna pray lead us in this beautiful song turn your eyes upon jesus [Music] i'm a faithful our earth [Music] will grow strangely [Music] in the light glory and grace [Music] upon jesus look forward is wonderful [Music] [Applause] [Music] will grow strain in the light of your glory [Music] and the things of the earth will grow strangely [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] yes it's all about you [Music] yes it's all about [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] from beginning to the [Music] it's end been you jesus jesus [Music] jesus [Music] oh jesus jesus [Music] jesus [Music] so [Music] [Music] lord we turn our eyes from the confusion and the chaos to you and jesus you're the great hope bringer you're the lifter of our heads and we turn to you jesus we turn to you now in this moment we ask god that every burden we carry we cast on you jesus and we know that you're moving behind the scenes in a beautiful way and so we're looking to your hand your hand of provision your hand of providence thank you jesus for all that you're doing in our lives now right now with as we're worshiping and in this place just being still before the lord if you've never asked jesus in your life or you were following him and something cut you off an obstacle or some unexpected turn of events right now with no one looking around just lift your hand and say yeah i want a fresh start i want a fresh start with jesus wherever you are just lift your hand jesus isn't here to judge you he's helping you helping you right now to to get into your life and get in your world and help you just lift your hand wherever you are say yeah i want that fresh start with jesus i want that fresh start i want to accept you jesus i'm going to receive your love thank you jesus wherever you're writing the whole church is just pray in the balconies wherever you are right now or maybe online you're watching right now jesus thank you jesus thank you i see your hand i know there are others right now thank you i see your hand there others right now just let your hand say yeah i want to i need this jesus i need him i want to meet him thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus a man hey let's just repeat this prayer based on romans chapter 10 again what paul wrote and it's to help people receive the lord and savior so just repeat this prayer from your heart to jesus jesus thank you that you died for me so today i make you lord i invite you into my life thank you for loving me a man come on let's give these people a round of applause so good so good so yeah church christ is all we need except for the fact that today we have white a lunches to help feed university students who need more than just jesus today they need food as well all right you know what i mean church so i'm handing it over to the campus pastors right now our online campus passes and handing it over to john come on hey guys welcome back um so good to have you here with us give me one second [Laughter] excellent that's better so we had the tv on in the studio so the noise was double we hope you enjoyed that message thank you so much pastor steve that was a fantastic message really really practical really really helpful yeah yeah um if you prayed that prayers pastor steve prayed towards the end and you could hear people in the room were putting their hand up and saying here i'm praying that prayer for the first time if that's you today in the chat feel free put your hand up and let us know um as katie as as we give us a thumbs up and email us church on church online at lifechurchhome.com um we just like to get to know you a little bit better and just send you a few links to some more material just to help you out with the decision you've made and what it actually means i know it's quite a big decision if you prayed that prayer today like well done congratulations it's like the biggest decision that you'll make in your life it's an absolutely awesome thing right yeah okay yep all right and if you yeah if you need any prayer in the week or if you want to just get in touch with us about absolutely anything with regards to what we've talked about or sung about um or looked at today in in the word um feel free you can email us email address is on the screen below it's church online at lifechurchhome.com and also that's the same email address if you want to get the link to join our alpha course or join our growth track course they're both on there um we'll send you all the details for that yeah i also want to thank you for your continued giving through this season and if you need any information about how to give or where to give there's several ways that you can give we have an app we also have the um access on our website for you to um pay directly into into the church account um that information is all available by the url on your screen right now so you'll see um lifechurchhome.com forward slash give that's lifechurchhome.com forward slash give and there's also the qr code in the corner of the screen there you can just use any device take a picture of that qr code that will take you through to the app um where you can easily give but if you have any questions and you just want to know a bit more about why we give as a church and why we have giving in the bible what's it all about feel free you can email us um with the usual email address and if you notice the um url there lifechurchhome.com that's got absolutely everything on um all the links to everything that we do as a church um our conferences um all our our kids church stuff absolutely everything you know i worship music as well everything is available via the website or obviously where you are right now that's the place to be youtube our youtube channel everything is available on there yeah absolutely you all right okay um i think that's about it yeah yeah yeah okay should we pray we should all right okay all right god we just thank you for today we thank you for this awesome time we've been able to have together as our online campus we just asked that you would just help us to think about the stuff that we've um sung about today think about the things that pastor steve has talked about today help us to remember those things throughout the week holy spirit just help us to get a better understanding of the the strength and the freedom and just the the power that we have with you living in our life living in our heart and lord for for any of us that are still thinking about making a decision about um bringing you into our life can you help us to get a better understanding of who you are this week lord can you show us your truth show us your love show us your salvation power we thank you that you are king of kings you are lord of lords over every situation that we'll face this week and we just trust you and we love you amen amen all right church we'll see you next week have a fantastic week okay see you [Music] feeling deep guys my soul nothing in this world comes close i was driving i'll give you control this is love great love the bottom but your grace came through found me broken make me new [Music] all the praise i gave it all to you this is love great love this is love the greatest thing i've ever known this is love i just can't get enough i [Music] [Music] i just can't get enough i just can't get enough [Music] new directions set inside my veins yes i know that something's found the dream changed living in your grace this is love great love this is love the greatest thing i've ever known is love i just can't get enough i just can't get enough [Music] is [Music] this is better than the trends [Music] instead this is love great love [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's nothing like there's nothing like [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] i just can't get enough let there be peace [Music] everlasting overwhelming peace complicated i steal the raging seas holy spirit helpless [Music] let there be hope strength for every week and we resolve comfort for let the voiceless arise and sing a victory song father your kingdom come god that you will be

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Length: 102min 5sec (6125 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021