Ps Justin Update 14-09

good morning i trust you're having an amazing week uh hey i just want to say a quick hello it is tuesday morning here around 7 a.m at the beautiful presence church i'm sitting up on level four which we call the penthouse i do at pan right now but the uh the phone is locked in i can see the hinterland mountains where some of our families live the cranes going up on the of capri all the way down to the water and just reminded how blessed we are to live here on the gold coast whenever you're watching this as i say to my kids every day hunter and macy today is a good day and we're enjoying our lives today's a good day and we're safe and we're healthy today is a good day and we live in a beautiful part of the world i really quickly wanted to uh just say hello to you and some of you heard on sunday that we are beginning a 21-day fast now once again i know school holidays i understand a week's notice for some people is is like is like insufficient and i want to apologize for that we don't want to leave anyone out maybe you could do three days seven days 14 days i don't know whatever it is firstly let me just say to you fasting is uh the depriving of the body of something that is of good daniel in the context of the type of fast i will do daniel for a season of time he basically only ate anything that came up out of the ground from a seed in other words vegetables fruits and nuts and even in there there is some flexibility uh you know i think another thing that we we joke about especially as pastors is even drinking coffee coffee is a luxury for me i'm going to do my best at least for the first season to abstain from coffee and i want to read to you um what jesus says about fasting most of you would know this in matthew chapter 6. this is from the new king james version he says when we come to fast he says moreover in other words when you fast do not be like the hypocrites for they have a sad countenance they look like they're fasting they look depressed and miserable for they just figure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting in other words they they want people to know that they're in this holy moment he says so that they appear to be fasting assuredly i say to you they have their reward in other words their reward comes from the applause from men but this is what jesus says but when you fast anoint your head with oil it's easier for me to do than you as you can see anoint your head with oil wash your face and in verse 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting but to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in the secret will will reward you openly you know as we fast in this season i remind you specifically that fasting is not um an action that we do to try and uh move god because then that can become a pagan activity um and and i think the mature people listening to this you'll understand what i'm saying but what i find in a season of fasting specifically where i feel the lord has called me in um the other day i was reading isaiah 58 and i just felt such a strong conviction that now is the time beginning tomorrow wednesday to begin this 21-day fast uh fasting is about separating some things um so that we can prioritize more of jesus that we can prioritize uh drawing near um asking seeking knocking uh believing that doors would be open not to contradict what i said earlier but during a fast um time and time again i have seen miracles happen uh through things that i've been praying for and it's not necessarily that we've become more holy that we've separated ourselves from things but our attention our intimacy has just been more focused on god you know specifically over the course of this fast my leadership team we have three points that we're praying for one is we just want to get closer to the feet of jesus identifying those things that may have become stumbling blocks whether it's media whether it's news whether it's conspiracy theories whether it's whatever whatever it is for you i really believe as we take some time to pray and seek jesus and separate ourselves from maybe some of the luxuries that we put into our body using that time to pray let me say this if you fast and you don't pray you're just on a unusual diet but if you fast and pray that's prayer and fasting that's seeking the lord the second thing that my team and i are really going after in the context of praying is not necessarily vision for 2022 but we're going after god what's your heartbeat for our community for 2022 for 2021 we have been setting the pace we have been pacesetters and so i want to encourage you um as you pray maybe for your family maybe for uh for yourself as an individual maybe as a young adult as a youth whoever you are watching this right now um you'd be praying god what's what's my word for 2022 give me a word would you start to speak to me and give me clarity something that i can run after and thirdly we're praying around the expansion i had a prophetic word come in earlier this year um someone that sat in one of our services a renowned prophet from melbourne he actually said in a message recently that he will never forget the encounter of the presence of god that he had when he sat in our service and he said he saw my shoes turning gold lighting up and turning and walking to the west meaning geographically as a community so we're just praying god what what what's next for president's church uh now that we've set the pace now that things are in order so i'm just really just believing that god would put some clarity on that um let me lighten the load up if you're right now wondering okay what is a what does a fast look like what action should i take outside of a fast you know my my my life scripture outside of matthew 6 33 would have to be isaiah chapter 58 the first night when i checked into a center where i began to change my life i started reading through this this passage and it's isaiah 58 and god's talking to israel about true fasting he begins it and i'm paraphrasing but he says man you guys you guys seek me and it looks like what jesus said on the outside you put sackcloth on and and you just figure your faces and you act like you're holy but then on the day that you're doing this you're unfair to your slaves you're rude to your own people you're not worrying about your own community and then jesus go well excuse me god speaks to isaiah and then isaiah goes through and lists and we can take this from god he says this is what i call a true fast and he goes through and lists all these principles about lifting the yoke off your people doing away with the finger pointing stop gossiping he's talking about within their own community he's talking about putting action into place like feeding and clothing and housing people who don't have the necessities or the needs i guess that we have available to us and then what i love about isaiah 58 is god says if you do these things and this is what i call a fast is what god says he says there there will be a reward in other words there's a principle for following the will of god in the context of what he calls fasting and isaiah chapter 58. and then he says if you follow the principle that there's actually a reward that comes from heaven one that stood out to me at that particular time was i will always be with you and i will always lead you i will rebuild your frame in a sunscorched land now understanding my testimony i had just come from new zealand maybe a third of every day was sun scorched in new zealand it was cold it was wet the climate changed i love new zealand i can't wait to go back and go fishing um i have kiwi blood in me through and through but when i arrived on the gold coast i was down the road again in a recovery center um 500 meters from the beach uh on my first day in i'd been on the gold coast for a little season being a little bit of a rat bag but i knew that i was in a sun scorched land and so i read through this and it was like god was speaking to me saying justin if you were just just start to change your life if you would just start to seek me if you'd start to not focus internally and focus on yourself and start to worry about other people as a lifestyle he said i root i'll rebuild your frame in a sunscorched land i'll call you a repairer and your people a repairer of streets and dwellings and you know i just see that as as a a mission statement almost for my life and for my family's life and i know you'll get your own word but i just wanted to encourage you if you have a chance and a time maybe even before we fast or during to read through isaiah chapter 58 it will bless you um i want to give you some real quick thoughts first we're going to be praying or at least i'm going to be praying and hopefully my team will join in we're going to be praying from 5 30 to 6 30. this is privately i'm just just telling you from 5 30 to 6 30 from 12 to 1 if you can i know most of us work but from 12 to 1 and 7 30 to 8 30 now the reason i've set these times i have four children even this morning i was up at 5 30 and had some quiet time and it was about 6 30 when i jumped in the shower and i got out of the shower and i realized that my bible was in what i call my secret place and my phone had worship on it and i came out of the shower my phone was gone it's about 6 30 that my family starts to wake up and my kids are looking for my phone my ipad so that's the time that that works for me i want to encourage you to find a time that works for you and again that would be around my breakfast time so not necessarily depriving as i said i'm going to do the daniel fast well i have some fruit but i'm going to use that time where otherwise i would be watching the news or doing something else and i'm just going to pray i'm just going to seek god pray in the spirit i'm going to worship and read scripture secondly uh 12 to 1 most of us have lunch time around then i know i'll be down in the auditorium on most days that i'm here at the building uh and 7 30 to 8 30 i usually begin putting my kids to bed at 6 00 p.m with chrissy 6 30 um but it's usually the la they'll come out like three or four times i'll hear little footsteps coming out into the lounge room and both my girls will be like i'm hungry i want dinner again i want some more water and bless their little cotton socks but it's about 7 30 to 8 30 that you would know that the blocks on and all the good shows are on that we all like to just sit down and detox to after a big day but i'm using that time specifically so 5 30 to 6 30 12 to 1 and 7 30 to 8 30 specifically the bible says pray without ceasing you can do that all day the last thought that i have for you and i know this has gone on and i just want to thank you for your time if you are doing this as we begin tomorrow um if you're wondering how do i pray what do i pray you know something i did this morning as i went into what i call my tent time my secret place my devotions um and it's it's beautiful to do that first thing in the morning especially where we are on the gold coast with the weather at the moment i actually opened up and i started reading uh from matthew chapter five and the bible says that jesus called the disciples he started to teach he started to heal he heard that john had been in prison and then it goes through and jesus starts to lay out it's it's his first sermon as such and as jesus is teaching things uh i i guess my spirit started to be stirred like i'm even just read from matthew chapter six but if i go back to matthew chapter five jesus is talking about going the second mile matthew chapter 5 verse 42 and 43 love your enemies so so as i read through this i got to about matthew chapter 6 um this morning and and got to the model of prayer and what i realized and and what i've always known true is is when you read scripture and get scripture into you first usually it will stir your heart for the prompting of the things to pray for because as we're renewing our mind um something has stirred in our spirits i want to encourage you if you're like hey i don't know how to like fast and just go and to pray and what do i pray for um i just gave you some things i want to encourage you to read your bible even if it's only one chapter and just ask oh god what do you want me to pray for through this looking at the new testament looking at the gospels looking at what jesus did i hope that you would jump on board with this season even if you are just praying maybe you're not fasting maybe you can't fast i want to say thank you so much first of all for being part of presence church we are shifting things here we are looking at new elements as covert came in 2020 it kind of stumped a few of the things that we do and i think just the church does in general i'm blessed to be meeting with some of our leaders uh of the city uh pastors of the city uh as we we really just pray and get things back on track in the context of just really believing for momentum for souls as new people come to our city we want to see the power of god flow through our services we want to see the fire of god touch people we want dynamic worship and we want to run after the younger community now is the time chrissy and i firmly believe that it's time to it always has been but more than ever before to focus on the next generation in the context of young kids coming through youth and young adults so we're really running after that i'm grateful for jason and julie george who have taken on that role here at presence church of kids pastors they are doing an amazing job our worship team our host team for everyone that volunteers here and again for you you've done well you've sat for 14 minutes and 10 seconds and i just want to say thank you so much i really just wanted to take some time as we begin this journey together once again we're doing a 21 day fast we're using the iron munich app on youversion excuse me it's not an app it's a plan on you version so even if you haven't jumped on board with us and you're not linked in with everyone else you can find that it was on the screen on sunday it's 21 days of prayer and fasting coming out of a community called i'm munich and and there is a daily devotional on there with a scriptural uh reference to read and just really helps to set the focus for the day let me encourage you fasting is depriving the flesh of something uh social media could be something if you are struggling with that you need to deprive from i personally will be off for a season uh but that's not a fast so fasting is depriving the body of something and so i want to encourage you i want to say thank you let me pray for you real quickly lord i just thank you for this season as we come into school holidays as the world is going crazy lord i thank you that you have called us to just focus on you lord i thank you for your promise that says as we draw near to you you draw near to us lord i'd literally take that literal every day and right now i become aware of your presence i thank you that you are here with me and every listener that is watching on the other side of the screen and god i thank you for all of our team here at presence lord for all the people that we've been meeting in hospital and the people that are struggling with mental health lord i pray that during this season father we would see your power we would see your provision we would see your promises in a clearer light lord jesus that we would have clarity wisdom and confidence in the direction that you are calling us to walk in jesus we love you lord right now i just thank you for every person on the other side of this lens that we are still yet to face the best days of our lives and today is a good day your word says in matthew chapter 6 verse 34 do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has worries of its own lord so we choose today to say thank you we choose today to give you praise believing that today is an amazing day in jesus name hey god bless once again thanks for your patience thanks for your time pastor christy and i were praying for you guys and our team here love your heaps have an amazing day and i look forward to going on this journey with you god bless

Channel: Presence Church AU

Views: 108

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Keywords: Presence, Church

Id: pH9p4NYCGp4

Length: 16min 48sec (1008 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021