Morning Community Live Stream - Sunday 19th September 2021

do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the joy of the lord is [Music] when i cannot feel your hands and mine let faith arise to you god of mercy [Music] in your presence [Music] joy of the lord is my strength the joy of the lord is my [Music] the strength of the lord is my strength [Music] the joy of the lord when sorrow comes by the way you are the children [Music] [Music] welcome to chat it's so lovely to see so many of our kids there thanks for welcoming us this morning guys i'm pretty sure i heard a happy birthday in there somewhere as well all sorts of love and greetings from some of our young people so fantastic to see you um all on the chat this morning as well hello we hope you've had a good week uh beautiful sunny day outside today yes thank you for joining us but do get on out and enjoy it when when we're done when you're done or you can watch this later go for a walk now come back and watch it later so many options so many choices this morning um what to talk about kicking into school holidays yes do we have to do another bush folks what do you think should we take mum on another bushel [Music] i do like the bushes what kind of bushwalk that's true uh i do miss the c at the moment you do mr c i don't know how you guys are feeling about school holidays but awesome if you do have ideas for us or perhaps everyone else let us know as to other things that we can do during the school holidays we'd love to hear from you we've been watching quite a rugby recently haven't we yeah we have was very exciting we were shouting at the screen yesterday afternoon very exciting very exciting to see the wallabies doing a bit better yes um yes what else have been up to um i was just i was actually just wondering um you know as we've been in lockdown it's been hard to kind of celebrate and kind of uh um do anything to do anything but that's right and so i was talking to a friend of mine the other day we were saying how we're actually only doing that through food right now yeah so i don't know if you have any creative ways of how you're celebrating that maybe it doesn't revolve around food i think the only other thing we've done is balloons and the occasional drink but um but yeah so feel free to put it on the chat if you have any sort of thoughts and ideas about sort of how do you celebrate that's right in this time okay well we're gonna crack on with our um servers this morning we're gonna uh kick into hearing from our kids pastor grace who's gonna uh give us a quick intro into what's happening at kids church and then we've got some family you worship after that so it's gonna be why don't we listen to grace for a bit hi kids so this week we're doing something a little bit different in kids church instead of having our zoom party that we normally have we are doing a special kids church video in celebration of freedom day so this week's video is all about mission and how we can be missional today in our current environment with the current restrictions that we've got going on and i've had so many amazing people pitching in to make this video happen so please check it out it's a bit longer than normal but i promise it's going to be lots of fun in fact i've got a bit of a sneak peek for you right now [Music] [Applause] so [Music] make sure you follow the link to check out our new kids video i will see you guys soon [Music] we worship the god whoever [Music] he parted the raging sea my god [Music] and we won't be quiet [Music] [Music] we shout at your praise [Music] my god still rolls the stones away [Music] [Music] we were the beggars now we're loyalty we were the priests now we're running free we are forgiven accepted written [Music] now we're royalty we were the prisons now we're running free we are forgiven accepted printed by his grace let the house of the lords there's joy in the house of the lord there's joy in the house of the lord today and we won't be quiet we'll shout out your praise [Music] [Music] i've got to show you [Music] oh we shout out your friends [Music] oh that was awesome thank you i worshiped him thank you anna that was yeah beautiful beautiful reminder of community and family and shipping together i haven't heard that song before either it was a really really lovely song there you go yeah there you go um we're gonna um pay for our kids and youth now um so youth just so you know that's where you can go um to hang out with everyone else and so let's pray for our kids and youth if you have them in your house why don't you lay a hand on them um otherwise feel free just to stretch out a hand and let's pray for them father we thank you for all that you're doing in growing and teaching our young people kids lord we ask that you would be with them now as they um maybe watch some of the content online or hang out together on zoom um or go and do whatever it is they're gonna go and do lord we pray that you would bless them that they would know more of your love and your presence with them and that they would grow in faith and in love we pray this in jesus name oh man okay all right youth you can head on out as well fantastic there's just this small exodus tv room can you close the doors and um we're gonna crack on with our service now that our kids and youth are finding things to do it's quite it's quiet for us and it was like in your house it could be very different in your house but it is nice to have a bit of a bit of space space pace pace struggling with my words um [Music] yeah look we just i firstly just want to say thank you to everyone um who's been supporting our storehouse family thank you for those who've given so generously um i know a couple people have also contacted jenny ryan about um uh calling and praying and making contact with the families and so we just want to thank you so much for uh yeah the generosity in giving and we just want to encourage you that if you have some time um or space or just the capacity at the moment to even just give a family a call you know a lot of these families are single parents single moms particularly with single parents and um they would just love a call from someone just to say hi and just to to chat to so if that's something um that you are able to do we'd love you just to go to our website i'm on our what's on page and you'll find all the information um there yeah absolutely there's also a marriage course coming up um we have run one earlier in the year we're going to be running another one as a church um and uh many of you might know chris and ruth chilton are going to be leading my evening from our avian community thank you are going to be leading this marriage course so i don't know if there were more details about that there are details on the website so again go on to our what's on page and you can do that the other thing we would say is that we are also running a pre-marriage course um so if you know anybody who um would need that and who's looking to get married um please do contact the office and we can give you the details for them that's all online isn't it those two yes both those courses online and yes good okay um now this morning you may have seen in your what's on this week that we are going to uh spend some time um thinking about freedom sunday so freedom sunday is an initiative by international justice mission um who we've partnered with and look the reason we're gonna do that this sunday is because as a church we really believe that god's kingdom is um wide in the sense that it's not just about where we go after this life his kingdom is is definitely about salvation but it's also about justice for those who are deprived of justice and freedom for those in captivity um there's a beautiful verse why don't we grab thank you there's a beautiful verse in psalm 33 we were just reflecting on in the prayer meeting before the service this morning let me just would you why don't you read it that's four or five yeah so this is uh psalm 33 verse four and five for the word of the lord is right and true he is faithful in all he does the lord gives righteousness but sorry the lord loves righteousness and justice the earth is full of his unfailing love so it's just what an awesome picture of the kingdom and you know we've been partnering with ijm international justice mission for the last four or five years now because they're an organization that um really believes that too believes that that's what god's kingdom is about as well and are working tirelessly across the world to um to bring about that reality so we're going to spend a bit of time this morning thinking about what is happening across the world um we are quite conscious that some of the things that we're going to be talking about there the truths of of what that reality is like for many people who are in captivity who are in poverty um and who are uh at risk of violence because of that um some of those things they're very confronting and you know whilst our heart for us this morning is that um we would expand our capacity to love and care um and respond in a way that god wants to we're also really aware that for some this might be quite triggering um so guys we just really want to encourage you to just take a breather if you need to as we listen and as we talk about some of those things if you need to just pause and go for a walk or if you need to call someone and have a chat and get somebody to pray for you please make sure that you care for yourself as you as we watch this and um as we engage in this so why don't we pray for ourselves um and then we we've got a few things to listen to and then we'll have a bit of a think about that so father that is our heart this morning that you would just expand our hearts you would increase our capacity to love this world as you loved this world and gave your son lord we thank you um that you are almighty god and you see everyone and everything that happens in this world nothing is hidden from your science and so lord we ask that you would um give us a heart give us a heart and break our hearts for the things that break yours well that's easy to pray we pray that you would actually make that a reality in our hearts and we would as a body we would be a church that um yeah it stands up for your kingdom both in this life and in this world and the one to come and we pray that in jesus name amen amen 150 billion a year 40 million souls 1 in 4 a child 99 women and girls 4 billion unprotected know it's easy to quote these numbers to you after all they're just that numbers numbers don't cry out numbers don't raise the hairs on your neck numbers don't breathe or run don't have eyes that reveal a life of unfathomable horrors but people do while we live comfortably in this city what we hardly hear or see is that the same devices used to reach speak hear and teach are the same devices being devised to destroy souls worldwide offenders using their laptop screens to witness some of the most heinous things in countries like the philippines little boys and girls locked up by so-called loved ones beaten violated abused spat on and refused their dignity their sanity their capacity to be a child stripped bear by even their own so tell me how can a child trust anymore when they're no longer safe in their own homes one million victims alone this 24-hour cycle with children reduced to click bait traders no longer only shipping the abused and i thought we were getting better in this digital age seems that no level of innovation can cure the darkest parts of man's heart that requires spiritual restoration in ghana's fishing industry fifty thousand little ones risked their lives on the high seas i'm talking 19-hour days on lake volta sun up to sun down friend drowns sun up to sun down friend drowns yet who knows if these little ones will have enough to eat this calamity a reality for thousands no escape no way home so afraid where can they go yet the sirens of freedom ring she's the sound of a rescue boat riding along the high seas or an effective sting to break a five-year cycle of a silent child's loss of dignity she's the tender care of a social worker she's the resounding voice of justice yearning from the hilltop she's you and me so let us be the hands and feet and though things look dim let us look to him now 150 billion a year 40 million souls 1 in 4 a child 99 women and girls 4 billion unprotected by the law but today tell me what will you do [Music] m [Music] esta was born in a small village at the southern part of water region the father one day had a visitor who came around and asked that they wanted somebody to stay in a different community but the purpose was not for her to go to school it was rather to work in the fishing industry [Music] like [Music] like [Music] [Music] do you know if esther was ever abused severally [Music] she never liked the place there was a boy joffrey who was trafficked to the area we were given information by our police partners about this young man named jeffrey they conduct a rescue operation at that point rescue jeffrey bring him back we do a small debrief with jeffrey and jeffrey's telling us all this information about the rest of the kids that are out there they have plenty of meaning they should go back and rescue them too [Music] [Music] mr [Music] [Music] [Music] once we started diving in more she was just like oh don't forget about this person don't forget about that person [Music] [Music] we believe that this problem can end we make sure that every survivor or every victim gets justice the life of esther is a story of hope it's a story of freedom it's a story that must challenge all of us [Music] [Music] hmm wow it's really um it's really profound and i think it's interesting the resounding thing for me is that it reminds me the difference that one person can make and sometimes it feels like the one little thing that we can do um is just a small thing but the repercussions of that and and the follow-on of all of that can be massive and wow yeah yeah it's powerful to hear these stories of of rescue that ijm are doing um particularly i mean that's that's a really tangible story um i had a chance earlier in the week to sit down with one of the team here in sydney dave from ijm and chat with him a little bit about what is igm's heart and vision behind much of the work that they do and uh yeah so we pray this will be helpful for you we're gonna watch this interview and then we're gonna um just to have time to worship and just reflect on god's heart for justices after that so let's watch that well dave thanks so much for joining me really good to have you with us this morning um dave grunenboom everybody works for igem i'd be practicing your name as you can tell um works for igm and uh yeah i'm just excited to have you with us mate we'd love to hear a little bit about who you are what's your story and how you connected with ijm sure yeah thanks rob and uh thanks uh uh northridge for having me in today um well like i have been a pastor for 35 years actually um and it's only been the last three and a half years that i've worked for rjm um i think through my pastoral life i've always had this sense of you know the church should be there for the people who are on the fringe uh from disadvantaged i don't know if they ever practiced it that well but certainly in my mind there was that there was that notion that we are here to be salt and light uh and i tried to live those values out as best i could i think it was 2008 i was at um the global leaders summit at willow creek global leader summit and i was just uh up in brisbane and where i was passing at the time uh and the second last speaker was gary haugen i'd never heard of the bloke and and i was actually hanging out for bill hybels as you did in the day um and i thought oh will i go home early no no i'll hang around i'll listen to this black i've never heard of and um and then i'll i'll get hubble's uh you know final pump up at the end of the conference anyway gary hargan who you may know is the uh is the the founder and our current president of uh international justice mission um and he basically took us through isaiah 58 uh you know what is true fasting true fasting is that you loosen the chains of injustice you know that you take up the cause of the widow and the orphan and so on and so forth um and a typical lawyer that he is he he he basically well he had me in the dock um and uh i i had probably preached on isaiah 58 a couple of times but i i i had i had never really made that connection between um fasting or worship um and justice and they need to go together and i was saying to myself i've been a pastor for 20 years at that time um why have i never made such a strong connection um and so i was quite convicted in that moment and went home researched ijm this is as i say back in 2008 they weren't in australia i connected with the dc office and i just started to promote igm's work uh through you know social media i did a bit of blogging um brought a lot of those justice issues into my preaching um and so i've been part of the ijm family for a long time it was uh 2018 early 2018 we did a road trip i was pastoring at perth at the time i've been around the block a bit and i saw an ad that says you know if you this was from igm australia now if you love justice if you love uh connecting with people uh you have a handle on a theology of justice come and talk to us because we want a church relationship manager and i i remember where i was when i saw that out i still have a copy of that instagram ad on my phone um but it came as quite a call at the time for me to um [Music] move into working with ijm so i was part-time with ijam and part-time with turt pastoring for a while and then at the end of 2018 we moved over east and um i went full time with ijm and uh we've been there ever since so uh that's that's the the the story arc of ign in my life well thank you dave it's great to hear a bit about your story um i i'd love to just ask you what the sort of big why is you would say and i'm sure you've touched on some of this but the big why is for the folk who are out there on the field for ijm as an organization here in australia and i know it's obviously part of the broader um global organization of ijm um [Music] is there what what's the real vision that kind of is driving the team on and what's sort of behind that yeah thanks uh rob i mean obviously um you'll know and the church will know that we do a lot of rescue work um you've seen a story this morning or you will see more stories this morning about the rescue of esther and things around that that's that's pretty important um but i think we're captivated by a vision that's kind of an end-to-end uh justice system solution so of course we want to rescue people and who are in slavery and held you know under threat of violence but we also want to restore them and place them in trauma informed aftercare as long as that's necessary but in addition to those things we also want to rebuild justice systems that aren't working well and that's that's part of the problem i mean all all countries have laws against slavery but they're not upheld for a whole host of reasons um and beyond that even we want to build partnerships that actually increase demand for the the poor and the vulnerable to be protected so in a sense we we want governments to take ownership of their problems and the situation within their justice systems and we want them to rebuild and have those justice systems working well and we want to facilitate them as best we can so to boil all that down into into into one or two words what we actually want to do is scale protection for the vulnerable and and really this has been at the heart of of god uh all the way through the scriptures and protect the widow the orphan the foreigner uh the the oppressed um and and so we we want to end slavery and violence against the poor that's that's the big deal that's the big deal protect the poor from from everyday violence and we've seen this happen in jurisdictions um around the world um where uh our case work has been um successful over a period of time um we've seen whole aspects of uh violent oppression people break away um it's not that it doesn't happen but in that like with um commercial sexual exploitation children in the philippines for example um you no longer see that happening in the philippines because of the work that we've done it happens in other ways it happens online that's a major thing that we're dealing with at the moment yeah but it used to be like 15 years ago [Music] cebu manila papaya um uh other places in the philippines were were were pretty rife with uh bars that had kids running through them that that they those little kids would be there for the the um desires of western tourists you do not see that anymore so there's still red light areas but there's not children in them anymore so let's move to the online thing and that's what we're working on now so we're going to use the same methodology there when people realize that if they do this they're going to get caught they're going to get prosecuted they will go to jail and eventually that will shut down and we'll have something else that we can work on another thing that we can we can work against i just thank you because it's just um it's fantastic i know that you know the problems move yes i appreciate that the job's not done but um i think can i say that one of the things that has always um really impressed me can actually capture my heart which is one of the reasons why i regularly pray for ijm is because of exactly that vision that you talked about of um really attacking the whole problem and and and the vision is huge i mean just there's an audacity about it which actually i love and i think yeah connects with god's heart that says why not why can't we change the entire justice system and try and do that across the world um and i think that yeah for me i just get excited about that that's so exciting just to put a little bit more concrete um make that a little more concrete the uh our goal really by 2030 is to be protecting around the world half a billion people half a billion people so you know we're expanding into malaysia with we have um offices sitting up there um we've got thailand and cambodia myanmar a little bit of trouble there at the moment um but we're we're bangladesh uh may be opening up soon so we're we're really looking at at areas where there are significant issues of um uh of violence against the vulnerable those who are poor and we're trying to say now what we have what's the best way to attack this what's the best way the most noticeable way that we can break this violence down so that people will see um that they're not going to get away with it anymore and the governments will take ownership of their responsibility to do good for their people and to protect those who are vulnerable so we're just utilizing that theory of change in every jurisdiction where we're working yeah that's great dave thank you now um we are obviously all quite conscious that uh this year and and what we're going through in uh fairly comfortable like you and i were saying we're fairly comfortable but it still is great this um you know lockdown and all that's going on around australia um has that shifted or created any particular challenges um either here in australia for the team or potentially further afield and and can i also ask you i guess i'm thinking uh does that change at all the way in which we as the body of christ think about how do we respond or engage with some of the the needs at the moment yeah that's a that's a great question rob i mean um if anyone's been into ijm or knows anybody who works uh for us you'll know that we're a relational bunch of people we love being together and we can't be together at the moment um and and that's a bit of a bummer because you know we all we all like to to connect and we kind of bounce off one another it becomes a fairly creative environment so yeah okay we we miss that um thankfully uh people tend to be supporting us along with with the same kind of passion so you know we're encouraged by that um we um we're very very thankful that uh for everything we can send to overseas into the field to support that mission and ministry so yep much like you and me and everyone else who's watching this on screen we're doing okay on the field uh covert has created uh some additional difficulties you will appreciate that in lockdown investigators can't get out as frequently or as easily to to look at situations that may need to be challenged or investigated it's harder for courts to meet and we have virtual sittings in australia virtual sims of parliament virtual settings of um of course um and they can do all of that overseas but in some cases the the internet is not as reliable that makes it difficult um it just creates although it lengthens the whole process basically um and of course the the big issue is that people who are vulnerable are more vulnerable because if if they're locked down they can't get away from the people that they want to get away from um in many of the places where we work healthcare is not great so there are a whole lot of increased risks and difficulties and complexities that covert has brought into the situation and so we um in a way what we're doing is even more important than it's ever been because of the increased risks and vulnerabilities that are there well dave thank you so much uh for spending some time with us we really appreciate it's a busy time with lots of churches doing freedom sunday at the moment but we just loved hearing your heart and your story and sharing with us some of the realities uh outside our little bubble that is you know that we're in at the moment so really appreciate your time with us thank you so much a pleasure rob and uh thank you uh folks for uh for listening to us and uh just thank you for your ongoing support uh your love and your grace and your encouragement to us is just uh it's incredibly meaningful and we thank you so much for that so we oh sorry no i was gonna say that was great to chat to dave and hear from him personally yeah yeah it was good and look as we're watching that we're conscious um there's a lot to take in and we just want to take a moment just to breathe and to reflect actually on god's heart so we're about to worship together and just to turn our attention to the lord and and it's in some ways um we have to we want to be doing that conscious of all that we're hearing and bringing that to the lord not to ignore it but to actually kind of gather it together and and let's settle let it settle in our hearts as well with some of this can easily sort of wash over but we want to let it settle in our hearts and and open ourselves up to hear what the lord is saying to us in terms of how he wants us to respond and how he wants us to come to him with this so why don't we welcome the spirit um and and then we will be led in some worship holy spirit we thank you that you are here you are working in us and we ask now that you spirit of god you would come and you would rest on us you would fill us and lord you would stir us he'd lead us connect us with the heart of the father this morning yes thank you lord [Music] isaiah 61 the mighty spirit of lord yahweh is wrapped around me because yahweh has anointed me as a messenger to preach good news to the poor he sent me to heal the wounds of the brokenhearted to tell captives you are free and to tell prisoners be free from your darkness i am sent to announce a new season of yahweh's grace and a time of god's recompense on his enemies to comfort all who are in sorrow to strengthen those crushed by despair who mourn in zion to give them a beautiful bouquet in the place of ashes the oil of bliss instead of tears and the mantle of joyous praise instead of the spirit of heaviness because of this they will be known as mighty oaks of righteousness planted by yahweh as a living display of his glory they will restore ruins from long ago and rebuild what was long devastated they will renew ruined cities and desolations of past generations foreigners will be appointed to shepherd your many flocks strangers will cultivate your fields and tend your vines i will sing and greatly rejoice in yahweh my whole being vibrates with shouts of joy in my god for he has dressed me with salvation and wrapped me in the robe of his righteousness i appear like a bridegroom on his wedding day decked out with a beautiful sash or like a radiant bride adorned with sparkling jewels in the same way the earth produces its crops and seeds spring up in a garden so will the lord yahweh cause righteousness and praise to blossom before all the nations [Music] [Music] isn't he [Music] son of god isn't he [Music] isn't he isn't he [Music] wonderful [Music] almighty god isn't he isn't he [Music] yes you are yes you are beautiful [Music] son of god [Music] yes you were [Music] wonderful [Music] yes you are [Music] yes you are yes you are yes you are [Music] well uh good morning it's i'm really excited to have debbie shelton here with me um i've been really blessed by spending um the monthly prayer meetings by jam praying with debbie um when i can make it along and she's been very faithfully doing that for a while debbie thank you so much for uh being with us uh online as part of our service this morning um i've just loved your heart by ijm and i'd love you just to share with us all what was it was there something that really inspired you to first get involved with ijm and particularly in the way that you support and pray for the work of ijm um what's the story behind that yeah thanks rob so uh many years ago um when andrew starr was part of northridge he was working with ijm and he invited a lawyer to come and speak at one of the sunday morning services and she told us about the work that ijm international justice mission was doing around the world to rescue victims of slavery sex trafficking and i really wanted to engage with the work that they were doing because i hate when you watch the tv night after night and you hear these awful stories and it just leaves you with a feeling of powerlessness and what can i do about it i'm not a lawyer i don't have any experience and that side of things but the organization bases all the work they do on prayer and i just felt the lord saying to me well how about you set up a prayer meeting because that's something you can do and it's so important to the work that's happening throughout the world so that's what i did and yeah we've been going for a few years now and um it's just such uh a joy and privilege to pray into this work that's happening around the world yeah that's fantastic debbie thank you one of the things that i i'm very appreciative as we spend time praying for james is the stories that they share with us um and and some of the the answers to prayer that they share with us and the things that that's happening on uh going on in different parts of the world there have been some particular stories that have really i guess um encouraged you spoke to you that you've been um yeah really impacted by that over the over the years yes well there's one here that i've got um on a little car which i'll read you the information about which i think is an extraordinary story and really demonstrate how god uses people who've been in awful situations but then brings them through to actually stand for seeking justice and this is a guy called david and he's an african fellow from kenya now kenya has a real problem with police brutality and um a number of years ago an ijm lawyer who was representing another fellow who'd been falsely accused by the police this guy and the taxi driver so three of them they were actually um murdered uh after uh a court hearing so you know we we're talking about really awful things happening and this fellow david was also a victim of police brutality and he was shocked by police losing his right hand as a result of being shot and then he was accused of and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit but ijm supporters intervened sending a lawyer who accused uh who's sorry who managed to get david's release from prison and had the false charges against him dropped now david has now gone on to study law and he's been admitted to the highest court in kenya where he now represents the marginalized and i mean what an amazing story is that and there's a lovely little caption on the card it says single-handed yet single-minded in seeking justice and yeah that just sums it up so you know these stories are amazing because they're real people and [Music] they're impacting real people's lives yeah it is that's lovely i i've really um i must say i've also been really impressed with the way in which ijm work and we've often talked about this and prayed about it with the way that igm have thought about the whole problem and have sought to actually work across even if it's not them personally to but to partner with agencies and groups that are trying to address the whole problem systemically and um i think that's just taken such a big vision and i i've been really yeah really impressed with them i must say yeah they they don't actually go into a country to work until they've established an agreement with the government so that they have the government support to be working in the country and then as you say they don't work in isolation they seek to work with the existing groups in the company in the country and strengthen what the work that is happening in the countries so it's it's i think that's such a good model can i throw you one last question before we finish up and this is just uh not what i've given you to think about before so don't worry if nothing comes to your mind but i wondered whether there was anything you would particularly i guess like to say to us as a church community as we're spending a bit of time thinking about ijm thinking about justice and how we respond to it um and how i guess we how we should be impacted um by some of these things uh obviously you know trusting that the holy spirit will impact each of us differently but i wondered if there was anything you particularly wanted to say to the church community this morning well now i think what you said is that is really the uh right approach it's god's work and the holy spirit's work to convict people to do what he wants them to do because what he wants me to do is different to what he might be calling you to do but to be listening uh to what he might be asking you to do because i think it's very much on god's heart to be seeking justice and you know as uh as he says in micah 6 8 to seek justice and to love mercy and walk humbly with your god thank you so much debbie that's been really lovely to chat to you thank you and we um yeah we look forward to the next time we're praying for ijm together yes come and join along it's really easy because we're doing it on zoom 1 30 first friday of every month love to see you back fantastic well talking of praying if i jam we're going to spend some time just in prayer now as you know we're trusting the holy spirit speaking to us each of us helping us to respond so why don't we just take a moment wherever you might be and uh we're gonna ask the holy spirit to lead us as we pray so lord as we listen to these stories and we um talk with folk involved with ijm lord are we just reminded that your heart is for justice and it's easy to forget that there is a world crying out for justice and um lord we bring that world to you this morning and all we hear stories from kenya from ghana from the philippines from all around the world from india um and of course right here on our very doorstep lord we hear of um the desperate need for justice to happen and we know that's on your heart we know that's on your heart lord so lord we ask big prayers well we pray big prayers this morning as your body the lord that your kingdom would come that you would establish righteousness and justice on the earth as your word says that you do and we ask that you would use us lord we are your hands and feet let us not be idle or complacent no we we pray for our own hearts i know for me lord just it's hard to care and lord that's that's changing but lord we ask that you would increase our capacity for love and for care that we would be troubled by the things that we see and where we have become numb lord we ask that you would make us tender again soften our hearts lord for the cause of the poor in this world thank you lord lord jesus i thank you um that you see the one that you see every single face every single person um and lord i pray that you would give us your heart for the one sometimes you can feel so overwhelming lord and we and we're not even sure where to start and and what to do but i pray now for every single person listening father that you would begin to speak to them about the one thing that they could do lord just the one step that they could take that would make a difference um in this whole process in this whole journey holy spirit would you come now we open our hearts and our ears to hear your voice come and speak to us lord how you want us to pray how you want us to give how you want us to engage how you want us to advocate come and speak to our hearts now jesus thank you lord we pray specifically for ijm this morning we thank you for um the growing team here in sydney we just pray particularly for them um for the team here as they try to continue working together in these challenging times when they really can't see each other and person lord we pray for their own um their own well-being well we we know that they carry the stories and the realities of of um really hard and painful things and so lord we ask that you would help to to sustain them i would pray for jenny ross in her work um working with the team and helping them do that um lord we pray for others that we know who are working with our gem and supporting ijm lord we pray that you would inspire them give them new creativity and passion thank you lord thank you yes look there's maybe other ways that the lord's just prompting you to respond this morning as we've been thinking about and hearing uh all the different needs that there are um you may feel feel like you want to pray more regularly and we'd love you to have us with you we'll have you with us as we pray for ijm and you've probably heard debbie they're talking about the monthly prayer meeting which is the first friday of every month and we're doing that on zoom so you may feel like you want to pray and commit to pray and i would also just say i would encourage you if you know that you want a heart but it's hard to feel that heart because it feels like it's so far away and so detached from our lives and actually praying into some of the issues is is actually the best way um to stir up your heart and to begin to care more about these things so i really encourage you to think about doing that yeah and you can find information about that and look out for it on the what's on that um you should be receiving weekly if you're not go onto our website and sign up for the weekly newsletter that we send it's also on the what's on page on the website so do those are two places that you can find the information to join that pro meeting and obviously um as an organization igm relies on financial support we actually are really thrilled to be able to give to them as a church and it's it's actually really lovely to be able to together as a group give to ijm and to not just talk about our support for them but to give financially so we do that monthly as a church and we would encourage you just to if you actually want to be a part of that continue to be faithful on your tithes and offerings and we will be able to give and we hope to be able to give more to them next year if we can to into that work but we can also you can also become a freedom partner i think we've just got some information about that um we're all familiar with scanning the qr qr codes now that's right so you can do that you can scan that qr code that's on the screen right there and that will take you to information about how you can become what they call a freedom partner with ijm where um you support monthly just individually yeah i might leave that for another second or two in case you'd be trying to get your uh phone out uh if you've missed scanning that you can also just go to their website um and all the information will be there as well okay well look that brings us uh to the end of our time this morning thank you so much guys for hanging in there and um yeah just choosing to listen and to hopefully respond as you feel the lord leading you too just a reminder that for kids there isn't a zoom party uh this morning uh so that will be not happening i'm not sure if we mentioned we can take a little bit of a break for school holidays there will be a couple of things going on for kids and youth but um yeah the next couple of weeks we will not be doing zoom party and online zoom for youth hopefully we can start seeing again each other soon in different ways so we just really pray that as we come into these holidays um you guys will be you know that we would be safe but also be recharging our batteries finding those creative ways to do that that's right um so why don't we pray as we finish up and then we'll finish heavenly father we just thank you that we can come together as a community in this way and in this time and that we can um just that you can give us your heart for all the things that we've been talking about this morning lord our praise we go into our weeks and um and as we are processing some of this information that you would be speaking to us that you would be leading us and guiding us um that you would be giving us ideas and promptings lord to partner with you i pray also lord just where we are that we would even in this season that we would see the poor and the marginalized around us that we would see those who are in need and that you would give us creative ways to respond to to those people into those situations father i just pray yeah blessing particularly on our kids and our youth as we head into um school holidays just pray for um just your presence and your refreshing and particularly for our teachers as well lord that you would um just refresh them at this time in jesus name in jesus name i was thinking of everyone else you could pray for all right we're gonna finish up there guys bless you and we'll see you next week yeah okay [Music] my heart is [Music] whatever you want to do say whatever you want to say [Music] you

Channel: Northridge Vineyard Church

Views: 201

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Keywords: Northridge, Vineyard Church, Northridge Vineyard Church, Sydney, Rob Giles, Bonnie Giles

Id: X10ZYjUc-io

Length: 77min 5sec (4625 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021