You're Blessed | Brian Houston | Hillsong Church Online

you're blessed that's the name of this message you are blessed of course it's father's day and so as dads we can lead our families in blessing now i'll just tell you that donkey kobe is one of our very key hillsong college lecturers and leadership team and i spoke in staff last weekend a message and he encouraged me and i haven't packed it up so i should speak the same message to the whole church so that's what i'm about to do so we have a family chat like i'm sure many families do and in that family chat uh bobby wrote this you're right just loved the parenthesis in the amplified version be blessed today in case you haven't had a chance to read or soak in the word mum so that's what bobby wrote and that's bobby in a nutshell so then she quoted the scripture from the amplified bible and the emphasis was remember on the parenthesis so it's a sermon on the mount it's matthew 5 verses 1 to 11. uh sorry yeah yeah it's not from verse one but it says when jesus saw the crowds he went up on the mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him then he began to teach them saying blessed parenthesis spiritually prosperous happy to be admired are the poor in spirit those devoid of spiritual arrogance those who regard themselves as insignificant for theirs is the kingdom of heaven both now and forever blessed forgiven refreshed by god's grace are those who mourn over their sins and repent for they will be comforted when the burden of sin is lifted blessed inwardly peaceful spiritually secure worthy of respect are the gentle the kindhearted the sweet-spirited the self-controlled for they will inherit the earth blessed joyful nourished by god's goodness are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness those who actively s seek right standing with god for they will be completely satisfied blessed parenthesis content sheltered by god's promise are the merciful for they will receive mercy blessed anticipating god's presence spiritually mature are the pure in heart those with integrity moral courage and godly character for they will see god blessed spiritually calm with life joy in god's favor are the makers and maintainers of peace for they will express his character and be called the sons of god blessed verse 10 comforted by inner peace and god's love are those who are persecuted for doing that which is morally right for theirs is the kingdom of heaven both now and forever blessed parenthesis morally courageous and spiritually alive with life joy in god's goodness are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil things against you and exceedingly be glad sorry and exceedingly joyful for your reward in heaven is great absolutely inexhaustible for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you i actually love the way that the writers of the amplified bible really try to bring some of the well some of the nectar some of the jews you know in the scriptures to life we read the words of course and our translations of the bible in this paraphrased translation it just brings all sorts of things to life and it actually talks those few verses about 20 different things that are either definitions or descriptions of blessing so very quickly here's the 20 of them number one blessing is spiritually prosperous it's happy it's to be admired it's forgiven just think about that it's refreshed by god's grace it's imminently peaceful it's spiritually secure it's worthy of respect it's joyful yeah it's nourished by god's goodness it's content it's sheltered by god's promises it's anticipating god's presence blessed is spiritually mature spiritually calm with life joy in god's favor what i'm reading you is just all of those parentheses describing blessed in matthew chapter 5. so comforted by inner peace and god's love morally courageous spiritually alive life joy number 20 in god's promise wow i love that so meditate on all of that while you sit in lockdown if you're in a stateless lockdown which is of obviously victoria and new south wales your other guy should be blessed that you're in church no matter what the restrictions might be at least you can be in the house um we can get frustrated we can get discouraged we can feel anxious or angry we can start struggling internally and mentally but remember this those those words i i listed they include spiritually prosperous spiritually secure spiritually calm spiritually mature and spiritually alive so what i'm going to do over the next few minutes on father's day i'm going to talk about just the first seven of that list of 20 different descriptions of what it really is to be blessed so the first one is blessing is to be spiritually prosperous and i guess that's the opposite the antithesis to being spiritually bankrupt which sadly sometimes people are spiritually bankrupt uh nothing bankrupt is you got nothing in reserve that means you can't trade actually it means you can't function it means you are in it beyond your possible realms of moving forward inside that bankruptcy obviously there's life for people who are bankrupt beyond bankruptcy so some people are actually spiritually bankrupt i mean if you if you're a pastor what's that look like that's the result when preaching sermons without feeding your spirit i mean for any believer it's spiritually bankrupt as opposed to spiritually prosperous is not praying not reading the word regularly you know regularly fellowshipping communion with god that's spiritually bankrupt to me it's living thinking and speaking carnally out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks it's a function of whatever you do your business or work purely dependent on what you have to do and skills your ability rather than out of the overflow relationship with jesus and love of his church you know prospering spiritually if you're living on fumes and some christians are you got nothing in reserve let's be honest there are people who are part of the service right now and spiritually speaking you're living on fumes and god has got so much more for you you can go so much deeper what do you have in you it's tested when it's tested oh man i know that have you dug the deep wells last time i spoke it was from isaiah 55 verse 1 and 2 and it's ho everyone who thirsts come to the waters come to the well the whale of spiritual life and spiritual blessing let's be people who understand the difference between spiritual prosperity and spiritual bankruptcy you know the thing about prosperity or prosperity it starts with spiritual prosperity i mean you can be rich but it doesn't make you prosperous you can be married but it doesn't make that a prosperous relationship i think it all comes down to spiritual prosperity everything else comes from there so whether it's in your home in your finance in your marriage in your physical or mental or spiritual well-being in these times i'm telling you it's so critical all of us are feeding our inner man our inner person spiritually prosperous it means you're spiritually alive listen to first corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 to 16 in the message as well it says the unspiritual self just as it is by nature can't receive the gifts of god's spirit there's no capacity for them they seem like so much silliness spirit can be known only by spirit god's spirit and our spirit in open communion spiritually alive we have access to everything god's spirit is doing and can't be judged by unspiritual critics isaiah's question is this is anyone who knows what he's doing has been answered christ knows and we have christ's spirit praise god blessing is spiritually prosperous are you prospering spiritually and then number two blessed is to be happy which obviously is opposed to being unhappy i mean so many people are fundamentally unhappy and i'm sad about that like i'm sad for you genuinely i i think it's so sad when we have to live just with no happiness um you can become discontent you can become discouraged you can become anxious no real joy you're striving all the way through to people who are complaining whinging and negative etc and it's a sad way to live life's not always happy but that doesn't mean that we have to be unhappy i know a lot of old pastors to be honest and i'm a national pastors and they're just like well they're just angry they're just unhappy i mean there are dads who are locked up emotionally it's father's day locked up and so they're not exuding happiness and they're not passing on happiness to those they love those in their family i think we dads can be the key to a family's happiness i really do believe that so i'm not speaking actually about the happiness that can rise and fall according to what is happening right now uh i'm not speaking about the emotional rollercoaster-like momentary happiness that can visit us and then leave as quick as it came because that's you know there's a level of happiness and that's what it's like i'm happy today but i was unhappy yesterday and i might be unhappy tomorrow see i'm speaking about a happiness that is an overarching condition a happiness that accompanies blessing yeah because blessing at least in the amplified bible is described as happy and so that's what i'm really talking about and it partners actually really closely with joy i mean let's be honest i'm not happy with my situation right now the unfairness of it in my in my mind in my opinion it's not a happy it's not a happy time but i'm happy i'm happy with my family who made me cry before i started preaching i'm happy in my marriage got the best wife and well the globe so patient looked after me they're in good times there and bad times i'm here i'm happy with my grandkids i love them one of my grandkids has got a a soccer tournament on this weekend so i'm looking forward to going down there tomorrow and watching her play soccer i mean i'm happy doing that i'm happy leading such a brilliant church with so many incredible people and and well i could go on talking about how incredible you are our church forever i mean i'm happy with my friends and all the wonderful people in our lives i'm happy when jd and jad say yes you are my spiritual dad our spiritual dad i'm happy with my dog who's actually been sick this week they think he might have eaten something he shouldn't have eaten so yeah i mean i'm happy sometimes i'm not happy but i'm happy do you understand what i'm saying so i enjoy the happiness that signals that i'm blessed i mean i remember when i first started coming to america years ago they used to start service with a song i've got a feeling everything's gonna be all right [Music] yeah it was a while ago over 30 years ago but you know what that's kind of where i'm at i've got a feeling everything is going to be all right number three blessed from the amplified parenthesis is to be admired i guess that's better than being scorned usually if you're admired there will be people who are also holding you in school i mean people long to be admired let's be honest people want to be famous they want to be popular but it can be an empty life an empty futile search that's not a good foundation for life or leadership or or ministry even in a family because not everyone is going to like you just it is what it is maybe you or your faith threatens them your faith does threaten people it especially threatens forces of darkness demonic forces and the bible itself says beware beware when all people speak well of you we don't just go out there antagonizing and creating enemies but we have a message and values that are just despised by many people so if i want to be popular i'm going to have to compromise and to be honest i would rather stand by god's word who he's called me to be the values we stand by than selling all out to be admired so why is the amplified talking about blessing being to be admired well before i get into that listen to luke 6 26 again in the message it says there's trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others saying what flatters them doing what indulges them popularity contests are not truth well they're not truth contests look now look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors it's talking about old testament ancestors your task is to be true not popular i think that's important exodus chapter one god's people they came under the uh the rule the absolute oppression of a new pharaoh and he was totally threatened by god and by god's people and so the bible says in exodus one they gave them bondages they afflicted them with heavy burns but it also says the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew i love that i actually believe that i mean over all the years we've kind of seen it as a church the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew and so why is blessed to be admired well for example honor honor ultimately is to be admired it comes from often longevity and consistency and uh you know people look up to that it's awesome fathers dads let's live in a way that our families admire us not because you're perfect i already know you're not you know you're not but because you're consistent and you live honorably that's powerful what does it mean to be admired in the good sense in the right sense it means you're trusted it means you've built something significant or you're doing something significant i mean what does the world admire her mother teresa because what she did was significant why do christians all over the world now admire billy graham well i think it's a story and i remember by the way when i was young and billy graham was at his peak i remember people ah he's all about money which he never was about and just writing off billy graham but his impact they'll only ever be recorded in eternity so to be admired people envy you in all the right ways other amplified bible translations of the word blessed talk about being happy prosperous fortunate to be envied envied in all the right ways because people are inspired by your example and they're like i want to be that one day dads if you can just live consistent i'm telling you your kids will grow up and they'll be i want to be like my dad one day they may do different things they may take different directions they may even make decisions that you don't agree with but they'll look at you and they'll admire you because you're a solid dad imperfect flawed but you loved your family and you loved your kids and that's really as dad's the best we can ever do number four blessed is to be forgiven i mean we've all done stuff everyone has brendan brown is actually here now leading with his wife in san francisco i know he's done stuff really bad stuff come up here brendan real quick i mean this guy his salvation story is crazy here he is look at him look at him look at you so brendan what's the worst thing you've ever done oh gosh thanks for that okay i think maybe the worst thing i ever did was when i was a little kid a friend of mine and i were in a place in wellington new zealand called johnsonville and we went down to the local store and we stole some wrigley's juicy fruit chewing gum in those days the little packets with about four chewing gums in them so we stole them in the store and then we went right out of town way up onto like a side of a hill on a farm and we started enjoying the chewing gum and then i got freaked out i felt so bad and i thought we were going to get in trouble expecting to see the police so we dug a hole and we actually buried the chewing gum because we're so scared so that's the worst thing i've ever done ah you know i'm kidding yeah we've all made mistakes hopefully our mistakes are not the ones that define our future in our lives but we've always made mistakes and that's the thing like forgiveness we all need it we all really can't move forward especially spiritually without it and forgiveness dads let's never forget we're forgiven and it's a three-way street actually there's the most important which is god's forgiveness that's what we preach that's what we teach that involves repentance and confessing our sins but when it's done it's done it's final we're forgiven number two by others let's pray some people can never let anything go and we live forgiving others which is important jesus said how many times should you forgive seven no 70 times seven which is a good mathematical equation early on a sunday morning 70 times seven forgiving yourself you're not living blessed if you're living condemned if you're guilt-ridden honestly it's weak leadership and it's weak [Music] weak living when you refuse to genuinely forgive and and you hold people's trespasses against them which is exactly what god doesn't do listen again to second corinthians 5 verses 18 and 19 it says all of this talking about by the way verse 17 is you know you're a new creation old things are passed away he makes all things new then verse 18 he says and all of this is a gift from god who brought us back to himself through christ and god has given us the task of reconciling people to him for god was in christ reconciling the world to himself no longer counting people's sins against them i think that's so important that we don't live holy people's sins against them and he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation number five blessed is to be refreshed by god's grace i love that i mean i think when we live in a weak way weak leadership even weak fatherhood parenthood you know we exhaust rather than refresh the goal is to work very hard which is what we do the hillsong church our team they work very very hard but we have to work out of a place of refreshing that's our team i mean they're amazing but the difference between living stressed and anxious and pressing in the flesh and trying to get stuff then living out of being refreshed i think life we've got we're called to work hard if we don't work you don't eat we're called to work but i pray that we'll understand what it is to live in the wonder of grace it refreshes the new testament links refreshing to repentance it actually does uh it comes from our grace relationship with god and so that's interesting to me when we live repentant and we've put our faith in jesus christ the result shall be we're living refreshed in isaiah the old testament 28 to verse 12 and it's talking about those old testament rebellious people because that's what they were god would give them some grace and they would then turn about it forgetting all that god has done i'm loving seeing this text this this uh this chain of messages because i'm on the i've got here the youtube version of of the uh the it's awesome taya gawk roger hello taya i think i've heard of you before uh she's saying loving this message linus akuro is it amen and for this fires and there's amy and amen and there's good morning chelsea there's like brian you look like you need to lose weight i made that one up but it's true anyway listen to the first isaiah 28 to whom he said this is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest and this is the refreshing so this is speaking about god's work in people's life cause the word to rest and this is the refreshing yet the scripture says they wouldn't would not hear which was the way often of the children of israel god's people in the old testament so refreshed by god's grace think about that compared with living in bondage you know legalism you're not living refreshed you're not in god's grace you know children will flourish raised in a grace-filled home rather than under a harsh legalistic religious mum or dad that's just true fill your home with grace you know it's actually what i know because i've lived a while is you don't have to work very hard to become a legalistic christian it just creeps up on you over time mostly it means though there's a gulf between how you live and the standards you hold others accountable to that's what relevance actually is to be relevant is not well whether you've got holes in your jeans or your hairstyle or anything else relevance ultimately if you want to be relevant irrelevant it's the gap between what your spouse what you supposedly stand for and the way you live if there's gap there then your message your life is irrelevant as dads if we're living the way we live in our homes and there's a huge gap between what we say we stand for and what our children are experiencing our wives are experiencing well that's where irrelevance really comes number six blessed is to be inwardly peaceful i'm working hard at that i'll be honest i'm not succeeding every moment of every day that living peaceful and to be honest bobby too like we're feeling the stresses like life is stressful sometimes we're feeling the stresses and you know your prayers your love and your support which has been overwhelming it means everything to us everything so we're so grateful peace though it's a gift from god it's focused on god is focused on him it's focused on his word and his promises i'm talking about how we can live in peace not focusing on me and my circumstances on god on his word on his promises isaiah 26 3 you will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you this is where our peace comes from because he she trusts in you peace is beyond what makes sense maybe you've got no reason to feel peaceful i mean life's upside down you're locked down things inside your home are not great you can't get to work you can't do what you should be doing business-wise life's not always peaceful but listen to this philippians 4 verse 7 the peace of god surpasses all understanding it doesn't make sense but it will guard your hearts and your mind through christ jesus i love that verses that are well quoted many would know but sometimes it's good to just meditate on these things because blessed it involves inwardly peaceful it's hard to live it's hard to lead in the absence of peace if you have a race in mind it does not bode doesn't bode well for a quiet spirit you know what i'm saying a quiet heart nor does an extra soul i mean ultimately the bible said be still be still be still still still still those hearts lord still those spirits lord still here our wild thoughts lord father i pray for people right now be still and know that i am god let's be still think about it still still still finally number seven blessed is to be spiritually secure the idea of being secure there's an interesting concept actually because humanity is fundamentally insecure i'm certain it's part of the sin nature because our security has no foundation and so it's just like confidence it needs a foundation your security needs a foundation and you know who the foundation is and what the foundation is i mean to an insecure person it's his or her own worst enemy and it's transparent people can see it we think maybe we're masking our insecurity but i promise you people can see straight through it in other words no matter how much you try to mask it it's clear and all of us have a fight with transparency with insecurity everyone does and insecure leaders for example they they can't even work with people who are more talented than them i'd be in trouble if that was the case because i've got a staff a whole team who are more talented than me god's good god's good yeah but i'm pretty good at what i'm called to do but outside of that you know what people get insecure about other people who may draw attention away from them first corinthians chapter one that's where it talks about those who compare themselves to commend themselves and uh it's actually second corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 but they compare themselves commend themselves the bible actually says paul's talking about those who class themselves compare themselves and measure themselves amongst themselves and he says it's not wise because ultimately it's insecurity and then the verse i was going to quote first corinthians chapter 1 verse 12. you know it says now i say this that each of you says well i'm a paul i'm a polis i'm a cephus or i'm of christ and then the scripture is asked paul's asking is christ divided uh was paul crucified for you or were you crucified in the name of paul of course not i mean as a pastor i can't afford to live too insecure and a church like ours multitudes of people there's multitudes of weddings and sometimes actually most times people say i want such and such to marry me not me but someone else and if i was insecure i'd be like why are they marrying you and why why but it's actually a great blessing because if i was doing too many weddings i'd never get anything else done but insecurity it's just weird the way it works you know it it has many symptoms sometimes it's just talking about yourself far too much it's speaking yourself up it's actually putting other people down you'll never feel better by making other people feel worse that's true so insecurity is comparing it's measuring and classing and all those things that paul spoke about it can be shyness it can be uh feeling nervous it can be getting intimidated it can be feeling like you don't belong like you're in a room that you just don't feel qualified to be in maybe insecurity it has some weird ways of working uh it can be self-loathing it could be oh we need an ego stroke you know what i'm saying it could be feeling inadequate there can be a whole lot of things to be spiritually secure means basically you know who you are in christ simple you know who christ is in you feed feeding chapter 1 if you read it it says constantly all the way through in him in jesus he's talking about in him all the blessing we have all that we are in him and it also stands sealed by the holy spirit and that's the thing security ultimately it's remembering who you are in him security chairs other people on it lifts others up it's feeling settled and confident and content it's realizing there's no need to strive and security is often generational i mean we pass our insecurities to our children and that's kind of a tragedy i know as a dad i can pass my insecurities on to them they inherit them or i could teach them who they are in christ who christ is in them so father's day i say to every dad everywhere but it applies to everyone actually it applies to every person look to the father yeah let's look to him [Music] and that's how we live and we lead spiritually secure we look to him prose 14 verse 26 it says the fear of the lord the or the reverence of god in the fear of the lord there is a strong confidence not just confidence strong confidence not just security strong security and listen to this part i'll read the verse again in the fear of the lord there is strong confidence and his children our children your children will have a place of refuge praise god love your church thanks so much and thanks for surprising me at the beginning of the message for those messages from my kids who meant the world to me and so father i pray for people right now lord you've caught us to live blessed and inside blessing father there is so much richness there's so much wealth there's so much blessings so much strength help us to remember that we're blessed help us to remember what blessed looks like lord when people are struggling have your way and just looked at the father remember who the father abba god who you are and out of that lord will be our strength thank you in jesus name amen so amen thanks guys i've got a little crowd here i've got i've got a fantastic crowd congregation one two three four five six six people yeah about the most people i've ever preached to right there six but i've got a couple of camera people here got tech people out the back i've got people working i've got trevor over here trevor does everything all the lights and production stuff i mean i got will who drove me here we've got carl hugo who's on the screen in australia and i can see him right now literally doing this uh he's over here i can see the chat plenty of support please i've got to finish because time's running out but don't don't tune out yet all right uh jd chad over to you you guys take this service home well thank you so much pastor brian for such an incredible message and like we can see the chat here and it is incredible to see how many people are grateful but also how much it's helped and i think it's such a great thing for us all to remember in this season and hey before we end and we're gonna finish this service shortly we wanted to make sure that we gave everyone an opportunity to respond today to really access everything in that message that pastor brian talked about and and respond by making a decision to accept who jesus is and all that he's done for us and and make that decision to start a journey a relationship with him and really what it is is accepting that because jesus died on that cross and rose again that we actually can accept his love his forgiveness that pastor brian talked about his grace that forgiveness is so strong the bible teaches us that it doesn't matter what you've done in life there's no place that you've been or there's no mistake that you might have made i don't know during that message if when pastor brian asked what was your biggest mistake your brain went somewhere you know the truth is our greatest failures our greatest mistakes have been forgiven and covered in the blood of jesus because what he has done and the most incredible thing is jesus accepts us for who we are right now and the only thing we have to do is actually just accept him the bible says in romans 10 9 that if you had confessed with your mouth believe in your heart that god raised jesus from the dead you would be saved and that's what we want to do right now i want to pray a prayer with and for you and so i just wanted you to take this moment wherever you might be if you're on a laptop watching the screen or on a bus somewhere i want to ask where are you at when it comes to jesus have you made that decision to accept his love his grace his forgiveness or maybe you've never had that opportunity where you've decided to say you know what jesus i believe who you are and i want to accept all that you have for me well i'd love to pray a powerful prayer it's short but it can change your life and it can change your eternity and so if you know today right now through everything that's happened in this service what pastor brian has been encouraging us that we have access to if you want to say yes that's me today i want you to pray for me i want to make this decision i want to come and accept who jesus is i want you to pray this prayer with me right now why don't you repeat this after me and i know we've got our churches all in victoria and in new south wales here we're locked down but if you're still linked with us around the country i want our whole church to pray this prayer out loud but especially if you know this is your moment why don't you repeat after me say jesus i thank you that you love me i thank you that you died on the cross and you rose again for me i'm sorry for the mistakes that i've made please forgive me come into my heart give me a brand new start i thank you that you now live in me and i'll follow you the rest of my days amen

Channel: Hillsong Church

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Keywords: church, hillsong, jesus, live, online, praise, worship

Id: Adi2yroztmo

Length: 41min 23sec (2483 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021