Live to Give - Greg Willmott

and if you would uh open up the word of god with me to first john chapter 3 verse 16 first john chapter 3 and verse 16 we're going to read through to verse 18 three verses of text first john 3 16 i believe it's on the screen there the bible says hereby perceive we the love of god because he laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren but whosoever hath this world's good and sees his brother has need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of god in him my little children let us not love in word neither in tongue but indeed and in truth amen i want to speak to you here for short time stealing the 2012 aym theme live to give live to give let's pray for the ministry of god's word father we're tremendously grateful for your word let it find good soil here this morning father let it sow seeds that would uh produce fruit in our lives that would glorify your name father i pray every person that's at home listening would be touched and blessed let your word not return void lord father let it accomplish what you set it out to accomplish we pray this right now in the matchless name of jesus if you believe would you say amen amen praise god i'd say please be seated but many of you probably are there have been many tremendous costs of the covert 19 pandemic virus has touched every person on earth in some way or another even if somebody has not personally contracted the virus it's affected them in the way that the virus has changed the world we begin obviously with those who have actually become sick with the virus and had to overcome covert 19 then there are those whose livelihoods have been taken away whose industries have either been destroyed or damaged by the restrictions the virus has placed on their industry covert 19 has had an impact on the mental health of everybody to varying degrees some it has brought on diagnosable mental health complications to others extreme loneliness and isolation and to others like my wife and i it's the stress of trying to deal with educating multiple children while balancing work demands the one thing that we can agree on here today is that our world is not the same obviously the way we work is not the same the way we worship is not the same how our children are learning at school is not the same life is not the same and i feel like i'm obviously stating the obvious here this sunday morning but if i may there is just one more question i want to ask of you here today in what other ways do you believe covert 19 has impacted us specifically on us as christians and believers how has covert 19 impacted how we think about one another how we treat one another and how we talk to one another now i obviously know that this question has different answers for different people but the one thing i do know for sure regardless of who you are this morning is that covert 19 if it's done anything it has kind of forced us to live and think inwardly not because we are bad people necessarily or not because we don't like people not because we are self-centered uh or simply simply because the opportunities for connection amen the opportunities for connection that we once took for granted we once thought they were normal and not there for us any longer we used to gather every single sunday morning here for church and even if we didn't want to we would somehow come across 300 people every single sunday we used to go into the office for work and had no choice but to talk to people in the workplace we used to shop for clothing actually at a shop as opposed to in front of a screen with your credit card details we would typically pray for people by the laying on of hands and now we are reduced to unmuting our zoom and and praying for people uh into a screen in so many ways amen the world has changed it's just different and i don't think anybody here could deny that it feels very different but despite that here this morning i'm here to remind you that though the world certainly does feel different we are still called to be the children of god we are still amen the people of the name jesus christ and it might be more difficult or more inconvenient in 2021 to be an apostolic than it was in 2019 we are still called to be the light of the world we are still called to make a difference in the lives of people around us praise god i know you're there at home but i hope you're saying amen there we're still called to love the unlovable praise god we're still called to forgive the unforgivable we are still called to bless the ungrateful and if you're there at home right now listening and feeling a little bit flat today let me encourage you you're not only called of god when you're living in abundance and feeling good you are all so called of god when you're feeling isolated and a little bit flat and a little bit unmotivated you still have the ability even in your house in lockdown to make a difference in the lives of people around you to bless your brother and your sister to have an impact on those that we share this faith with praise god you might ask how that is possible how can i give of myself when i'm not feeling connected how can i make a difference when the doors are shut at church how can i be generous when there's nobody around me to be generous to if that's your question here today i completely understand it's a valid question but here is the answer when we get it from the word of god itself here is the answer we don't need to be in the presence of people to be generous we don't need to be surrounded by man to give of ourselves here's what we have to do straight out of first john 3 and verse 16 we have to see the need not be around the person we have to see the need here's what the scripture says but whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of god in him that's what the word of god says that we have to see the need this sunday morning and to see the need we have to be thinking outside of our world outside of our world as covert would force our bodies to be contained to a singular location we have to be so careful as believers as apostolics as single members of the one body of christ that we don't stop thinking about our brothers and our sisters praise god we've got to be so careful it is so easy to become wrapped up in our own world that we can forget to consider the needs of our brothers and our sisters and i put my hand up here this morning i find it difficult myself of course it's not easy my daily routine my wife and i we wake up or our children wake us up then we wake them up the ones that are still sleeping we then try and feed them and then we fire up our laptops and if we have time we'll make a coffee then we grind the rest of the day trying to balance work and schooling and stopping your boy jumping off the second floor of the house whatever it may be and by the end of the day next thing you know the day is gone you've been so consumed with your own world that if we're honest with ourselves here for a moment it can become so easy to actually spare a single thought outside of my own life and outside of my own home it's so easy for us to do that and as i said i put my hand up and say that i'm no different but here's my prayer this morning god give us eyes to see the needs of others give us eyes beyond our own world praise god let us not become so consumed and busy that we lose our vision for the needy our vision for the sick our vision for the poor our vision for the brothers and sisters of faith that are in need praise god and i'm not saying it's easy we all get tied up in our own worlds praise god but let there be space in the life of every single apostolic that we consider those around us we consider those outside the four walls of our home because we are called to see the need and to meet the need of our brothers if we are to reflect the love of god that he first gave us praise god i'm talking about the sick the unemployed the depressed the isolated the anxious the offended the backslidden the forgotten there are needs all around us there are people that have needs all around us and we are still called to be the light of this world to reflect the love of god and to meet the needs of those whom we are called to serve with come on somebody that's what god's called us to be a people that can look beyond the concerns of our world and to see the needs of those around us can somebody say amen that's me that's what i'm called to be there is never a shortage of needs if you've been around the house of god long enough you'll know this there is never a shortage of needs but there is a shortage of people that have the love of god flowing out of them that have the ability to look beyond their own world and still seek to meet the needs of those there is a shortage of that praise god so we are called not necessarily to have to be around them to bless them we're called to see the need everyone at home say see the need or at church wonderful but once we see the need we've got to do something about it praise god the bible says again i'll read it who who sow hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of god in him it is one thing to see the need it is a completely different thing to meet that need prior to me working in a sales environment i worked in the city for about two years and i remember i used to catch the train to st james train station where we would see you arrive in the city and on my commute from the station to the work to my office you would see countless homeless people obviously there is a need yet they were still largely invisible people would walk past them by the hundreds without giving time to meet the obvious need it is one thing to see the need it's another thing to meet the need and i remember when i was working in the city i would get off at st james train station there was one particular guy that would always be at the same place he hung out right near the cafe adjacent in the st james train station remember thinking to myself why is it the one location that he would always be in i mean the city's a large place there are many places that he could probably be but he was always at this one location and on this one particular moment i i watched i stood back and i watched and i realized something it was only the people that had paid for their coffee that actually couldn't be bothered putting money back in their wallet that they would just put it in the hat this gentleman realized that though there is a need people don't actually care about the need and the best opportunity that he had to get some money was people giving out of pure convenience not because they had compassion for the person that had nowhere to sleep at night but simply because they could not be bothered to put 50 cents back in their wallet so instead of putting it back in their wallet if they just open up their hands they can get rid of that money and all of a sudden you know that that homeless person the homeless brother would have some money in his hat it was out of convenience it was not out of being compassionate for the need see this is not generosity that is not generosity that is convenience but the type of giving and generosity god calls of us is not the convenient type it's not the type that's like well there's my hand with some money and if i just open up the hand i'm gonna give money to somebody that's not the type of generosity and the type of giving that god calls us to know the type of giving and generosity he's called us to is the time that type that's not convenient to men sometimes it does hurt sometimes it does require sacrifice but that's what the word of god has called us to do and that's who the word of god has called us to be to see the needs of others and with compassion not convenience compassion to meet the need to display the love of god to people around us praise god i firmly believe here today that the devil sees this season that we are in as a prime opportunity to divide the body of christ why because it's less convenient to be generous it's less convenient to give of other people the body of christ is no longer gathering in person relationships are harder to maintain it's no longer convenient to be generous you know we come to church we come to the house of god we run into people and we're like oh there they are i'm going to give them a nice kind word or i'm going to bless them somehow even though it's good and i'm commending that don't stop doing that it's more convenient because they are there in person but what happens when the church goes through a season where giving and being generous is less convenient i believe the enemy is going to try and maximize this opportunity he has where it's less convenient for us to be generous and less convenient for us to give he's going to try and sow seeds of division and cause carnage amongst the body of christ and i believe that we are called to be extra vigilant and extra deliberate to give and to be generous amen to not give the devil an inch don't let him maximize this opportunity that he has i would to god here this morning that not even covert 19 could stop the love of god flowing in this church praise god and the kingdom of god i can't see them in person i'm not with them every sunday but i'm still gonna find a way to bless my brother to bless my sister can somebody say praise the lord because that's who we're called to be let covert 19 shut up the bowels of compassion inside of you whether you drop groceries at somebody's front step personally or whether you purchase an order for them and woolies does it you're still meeting a need for that person whether you meet up for them in person to sip some coffee or whether you're praying for them and speaking to them on the phone you're still meeting in need praise god don't let the devil tell you that because we live in crazy times you cease to be a christian there is still a need and when there is a need there needs to be apostolics with the love of god inside of them to meet that need even in this room right now there are people that have blessed my family we've had packages sent to us for my children we've had i've had multiple friends blessing us even though i'm not there in person it is possible for you to remind your brothers and sisters that you care for them that you love them that you're praying for them even though we're not meeting here and i would to god that you would mark in your diary don't forget to think about people outside of my world because god will honor your blessing god will honor your gift and you don't know how important that is for the person that's your blessing bible says this and not only that but we also glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope now hope does not disappoint because the love of god has been poured out in our hearts by the holy spirit who was given to us why did i read that scripture because god finds a way of connecting tribulation to the pouring out of hope this is what it means church to be like jesus sister gretch you'll notice something powerful about the text that we just read in verse 16 of our opening text jesus as our ultimate example is mentioned as the perfect model of sacrificial giving here it is hereby perceive we the love of god because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren notice this at his weakest physical moment as his physical body was being beaten he gave his greatest eternal sacrifice to mankind of all of the remarkable things that jesus did in his ministry it was this ultimate act of love that was chosen as our example if we are to be like jesus and we are called to be like him perhaps it's from our moments of weakness and frustration and pain and hurt that our generosity and giving to others has the greatest impact your greatest opportunity for giving church for generosity for meeting the needs of others might not be birthed out of the darkest out might be birthed out of the darkest hours that you've gone through let me say that again your greatest opportunity to show the love of god is not birthed out of seasons where you felt in control it's birthed out of seasons where you felt broken and downcast and you've gone through tribulation praise god if you've come out of the depression god could send you somebody that you can touch praise god if you've overcome sickness and disease god can send you somebody that you can touch if i could please just grab a quick glass of water i'm losing my throat if you've been abandoned if you've been left behind if you feel forgotten god will send you somebody that you can touch and you can minister to it did not come out of your season where you felt in control it came out of your season of hurt are feeling beaten of being downcast you ask yourself this question when you're going through something deep you will notice that you're drawn to people that you know that have been through the same thing you're not drawn to people that are that have not seen the same difficulty you're drawn to people that have gone through the same thing that you're going through praise god i think my voice has lost conditioning i'm sorry about that when you're going through trial and tribulation i just just right now just reflect on previous seasons of your life you will naturally find you will naturally try and seek out people that you know have gone through the same difficulties and the same battles and the same struggles in life that's why when god has brought you through something that's not a season for you to forget that is an opportunity for you to store up that experience and be the source of inspiration and the source of encouragement and the source of blessing to somebody else that's going through the same battle at a different time your difficult seasons your loneliest hours your darkest moments are not to be forgotten they are to be stored up because god will use you and anoint you to use that season to bless somebody praise god your greatest mistakes and your greatest setbacks never forget them keep them because god will use it for you to give and to be generous to a brother or a sister at a later season of life that needs words of encouragement so the world tells you that it's only from a place of strength that you can give the world celebrates the billionaire philanthropists that you know they give a hundred million dollars but their net worth is 50 billion yes that money makes a difference but that's not sacrificial giving the type of giving we are called to give is when it costs us something when it hurts our flesh just a little bit praise god in the kingdom it's the heart behind the generosity it's the motive it's the sacrifice that god is looking for us to give to brothers and sisters of faith you need to know here right now if you hear nothing else this morning hear this that you have the ability to make the difference in the life of your brother and your sister you don't need to be a pastor you don't need to be a minister you don't need to be a preacher nor do you need to be a singer your words have the ability to make a difference your prayers have the power to make a difference your generosity and your giving has the ability to make a difference in the life of your brother and your sister prays time praise god giving of your time and giving of your finances and giving of yourself to the service of other people essential to what it means to be a christian and when you do that you're showing the same love that god first gave us i believe it gets the attention of god when you have it in you to look beyond your own world and into the world of others i believe it gets the attention of jesus when we ourselves are in difficult times but yet still we consider the more afflicted it is human nature for us when we are going through difficult days to think inwardly and we are all going through difficult days to varying degrees with covert 19 but i believe it's the heartbeat of god it's the heartbeat of christ if we can be going through difficulties ourselves but yet still find it within us to be thinking of people and making blessing them and meeting a need i got no doubt the people that have blessed my family sending stuff to my door have had things going on in their own life but they had it within them to look beyond their world and still meet the needs of other people and that's who god has called us to be praise god the word of god says you are the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its flavor how shall it be seasoned it is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men you are the light of the world a city is set a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all of those that are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven we cannot allow covert to cause us to lose our saltiness we cannot allow covert to have our light hidden before men we don't do it to get the glory we do it so other people feel the love of god and that we would reflect the love that he first gave us praise god finally generosity and giving denies the enemy of our soul opportunities to sow seeds of division distance christian to christian silence between believers i believe is the devil's playground in my personal development as a christian and a leader i have learnt this lesson one of the greatest leadership lessons i have learned and i'm still learning this is to never assume anything never simply assume that things are okay in the life of somebody else never assume that somebody else is doing fine they're doing okay silence the lack of contact the lack of generosity the lack of giving of one's time to their fellow brothers and sisters are opportunities for the devil to sow seeds of division and i just be honest right now i've had seasons in my life where peers and friends of mine who i thought were okay things weren't okay and my silence actually served to further divide a brother to brother and sister to sister it is never wrong to be generous it is never wrong to be a giver it is never wrong to pray for someone it is never wrong to love someone it is never wrong to let somebody know i love you i care about you it is never wrong to check are you okay it is never wrong to do those things and i believe if we can create a culture in the body of christ to never assume but to simply love and be generous and give we are denying the enemy of our soul opportunities to tear the body apart we are strengthening the body of christ when we show love and generosity and give of ourselves can somebody say amen this sunday morning i believe it's so strong in my spirit that we need to give and to be generous and every single time we bless somebody in need every single time we let them know we're praying for them and care for them every single time we send them packages reminding them that we're thinking about them and loving them what we are doing is denying the devil the enemy of our soul a foothold an ability to rip the body apart and it creates a healthy body when we know how to be generous and know how to give and i just want to say this that it's not everybody's love language some people don't need it that's fine if you're the sort of person that you don't i don't need somebody to tell me they love me and pray for me that's fine but you're not doing damage when you do that but damage can take place in the life of a soul that feels isolated and vulnerable and feels disconnected we've got to love them and extend generosity to our brothers and our sisters if we could please have some music i'm coming to a close that won't be long it strengthens the body of christ and brings health to the body when we are generous and when we give without expecting in return first corinthians chapter 12 bible says in verse 12 for as the body is one and has many members but all the members of that one body being many are one body so also in christ for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body whether jews or greeks were the slaves or free we have all been made to drink into one spirit for in fact the body is not one member but many the death of a body usually takes place when multiple organs fail i've known of people to be in hospital with an organ failure they might have issues of kidney issue in their lungs depending on the organ medical professionals can still find a way to keep that human alive here's where medical professionals begin to lose hope when there is a cascade of organ failures in the lungs followed by the kidney followed by the liver start packing it in that's when medical professionals lose hope and so it is in the body of christ we need to ensure that when there's a single member a singular organ that is sick that we attend to that that we find a way to bring health to that because if we begin to have a cascade of members in the body sick the entire body becomes sick i believe in the absence of generosity in the absence of giving our enemy is looking to cause carnage among the forgotten carnage among the isolated carnage among the lonely and the reason that we need to be generous and the reason that we need to give is that it rejuvenates injured members it strengthens parts of the body that are unwell it reminds the injured member i am loved i'm not forgotten they care about me i'm part of something bigger than myself that's why we need to be generous that's why we need to think outside of our world that's why we need to bless those that don't live in my four walls [Music] that's why we need to be kind that's why we need to be encourages that's why we need to be empathetic that's why we need to be compassionate that's why we've got to be generous to others if somebody chooses to leave the body let it not be said but they left because they didn't feel the love of christ church this is the spirit of christ this morning and we are called to likewise be generous as he was generous givers as he first gave to every member in the body right where you are i want to encourage you to put your bibles down or put your phones down or whatever is occupying your attention and we're going to lift our hands and we're going to pray pray right now as a body as a singular body father we thank you jesus that we can open up your word here today i thank you lord father your word is still anointed father we pray for every single member of this body lord jesus the ones that are hurt the ones that are unwell lord father we pray that you strengthen them lord father we pray that you'd bring encouragement to them lord god we pray that you'd feel their life you feel your love and feel encouragement here today lord jesus we pray for a culture of generosity a culture of giving a culture of service one to another lord god that every single member of this great body of your great body would feel your love lord jesus we come against divisions we come against lord father offenses we come against the enemy of our souls trying to take advantage of this season of covet 19 where people are feeling isolated and lonely we bind every effort we bind every attempt that he is trying to tear us apart and weaken the body we bind it in jesus name and we lose your love we lose perfect love lord father let us as believers reflect your perfect love the love you first gave us let us love others as you love loved us lord god that people would feel peace people would feel connected people would feel remembered and people would feel loved lord father i pray right now jesus that you would continue to have your way that even through this season we would remind ourselves that though i need to keep my house in order i need to think outside the four walls and think about people in need lord god i pray that you'd have your way that the spirit of your love the spirit of this word would embed itself in our spirit that we would indeed reflect the love to others that you first gave us we thank you lord jesus let this word find good soil in our spirit we pray this right now in jesus name right where you are would you say amen and give the lord a handclap of praise he has called you to be a giver he has called you to be generous he has called you to love people and if you do that we are being as christ would have us be i pray you have a wonderful sunday i pray this word would find good soil i pray that you'd find new opportunities to give of yourself and to bless people and let's watch the kingdom of god go forward even in this season we're experiencing god bless you have a wonderful day in jesus name [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] your kingdoms [Music] darkness and we [Music] your church when we are we will show [Music] we will open up our eyes we will not ignore we will be the church and rise we will seek out therefore we will not be found

Channel: POSydney

Views: 344

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Keywords: sermon, Sydney, pentecostal, POS, Australia, worship

Id: MpxgMPdUN4w

Length: 37min 7sec (2227 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021