Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message.
[00:00:05] Father, we just thank you this morning.
We worship you this morning. God, we stand in awe in your presence this morning. God, we thank you that we have arrived to this moment in life.
Whether life had its mountaintops and victories or valleys and disappointments, Lord, we are alive in this moment to worship you, knowing that you can bring us through, knowing that you have brought us through, knowing that you've given wisdom and power and strength for all that we're walking out in life, no matter what the circumstance may be, Lord, you are with us.
It's in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray and we all say amen. Come on, give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
Come on, give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
Man, I said last week worship was good. I have to say, this week worship is good.
Amen. Leah, you did such an amazing job today. All of you did an amazing job today honoring the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Can you turn to two or three people and just say, welcome to church?
I think I've decided to preach this. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
No. I feel like we're in for a treat.
Would you please welcome the ministry gift Katelyn self this morning?
[00:01:53] Wow. Thank you, guys. Oh, my goodness, you spoil me. You're too nice. Stop it.
Wow. I'm.
I don't even know where to start. I feel like that was really unfair. But the Holy Spirit is so good. He prepares a way. And I've been praying all week. I'm like, lord, this is like such a heart. It's a life message for me. And so I've been praying. I'm like, holy Spirit, you have to prepare the way. Because it is not my word that I'm bringing this morning, but I believe this is really a word from the Lord.
Before I start, before I do anything, I just have to honour Pastor Kyle and Tina, our senior pastors, our good shepherds of our church at World Changers. And I just want to honour also the rest of the team who's preached in the last couple of weeks. Pastor Tina, Pastor Claire, Pastor Jeremy, Pastor Paddy.
Oh, my goodness. Like, we have had such a rich, rich word.
I'm. Yeah, I'm just honored to be wrapping this up before we jump into PK's epic message. I understand why Paddy had a sniffly nose last week, because now I have a sniffly nose because that worship was incredible.
Well, I'm just going to pray in before I say anything. We're just going to submit this time. Holy Spirit, I just thank you this morning that you are here with us in this place, Father. May not be my will, not my word, Father, but that I'm just the vessel, Father. And thank you that this is a rhema word from heaven, Father, that this is fresh bread, manna for our souls. Jesus, I just thank you for this church, for the mission and the vision that you've put in the hearts of world changers. Father, that and as this morning, just as I bring this word, would this just be like a sharp, sharp knife like it says your word is, Father.
Holy Spirit, I just thank you that you lead and guide me in everything I say and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Can someone get me a tissue? I understand now maybe why they put the tissues on the side.
Oh, thank you. Well, I want to start out quickly by sharing a little bit of my testimony in Revelation. It says that they're overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. So I want to share this morning what Jesus has done in my life. I grew up in a Christian household.
I am beyond blessed and grateful that my parents, they absolutely championed salvation for the generations of the Ferguson family. And I am just a fruit and a byproduct of the absolute warfare that they went through to see that their kids were raised in righteousness.
Amen. Yes.
They deserve all the honor because they are amazing. So I grew up in a Christian household. What does that look like? Church Sunday. I maybe remember two Sundays the entire time growing up where I wasn't at church, my parents ran connect groups, my dad was on worship team and I just grew up in this atmosphere, like literally Eliana, just this was my place, these were my people.
But no matter how much you are surrounded by the word of God, good people, it is only when you make a decision for yourself that Jesus is going to be my Lord and Savior, that you actually see the outworkings of his goodness in your life.
And my story was not a linear one, although it was very short.
When I was 18, I. Oh no, 17, I graduated from high school and I went on a rather bumpy, turbulent 3ish to 6 months where I was just like, I'm just gonna do everything my friends are doing, which is not a wise idea.
So. And I'm not going to go through all of that, but just to wrap it up so you understand the context of where I'm coming from. My most glorious moment was when I decided that it would be a fantastic idea to have all of my friends over to my house.
I've never shared this story publicly, have I? My parents are shaking their heads like what are you doing to us? My parents were on a cruise for a wedding anniversary.
They were enjoying their merry time, no wi-fi on a cruise.
And they get off the cruise ship to find out that their daughter decided to invite all of her friends over, get drunk around a bonfire and just enjoy, party hard. To top it off, the person who was house sitting us and babysitting us was my youth pastor! Anyway.
Albeit to say it was definitely not my most glamorous moment.
And I remember Pastor Kyle and Pastor Tina were mentoring me at the time. I hadn't started dating Alex and in fact we weren't even friends really.
It's just the truth.
And I remember he sat me down and he said to me, there is a 1 degree difference between you getting on a plane and arriving in Tokyo and you arriving in LA.
And my life didn't take this radical crazy turn.
And I don't have an insane testimony. In fact, my testimony is that my parents championed me knowing who Jesus was.
That's my testimony. That's all it is.
But there was a time where I had to choose. I'm going to stop riding on the coattails of my parents relationship with the Lord. If I continue any further. All I'm going to be living in is under religion and under fear of just doing the wrong thing and not having an understanding of a relationship with Jesus. And just a word of encouragement that the Lord really put heavy on my heart for all the parents, for the parents to be is that bringing your kids to church on a Sunday is the most incredible start but it is not the finish line.
It is what will tip it over. And what I know tipped it over for me is them getting to see the overflow of your relationship with God every other day of the week.
And it wasn't because my parents brought me to church. But it was because when my mother was stressed and crying, I saw her lock herself in her room and open her Bible.
Because I saw her on her knees in prayer. And because I saw my mom and dad lean on the wisdom of God for breakthrough in their life. When we had financial troubles, when we literally moved from house to house to house every single year. When we moved to the Gold Coast because we just couldn't find a rental. I saw them lean on the goodness of God.
I want to read this to you because for me it was, it was literally a 1 degree difference between just doing this because I was told that it was the right thing to do versus doing this because I fell in love with the person of Jesus.
Matthew 11:28-30, “Are you tired, worn out, burnt out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it.”
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. I don't know about you, but it is a continual journey to live in the freedom and the light of the Lord. Amen. And so this morning I want to just give us some principles, some unchangeable, unperishable truths of the Word of God. My message this morning is a tale of two kingdoms. Religion versus relationship.
All three of these principles that I'm going to touch on are things that I've walked with the Lord in my life as I've grown and matured in my relationship with Him. Now to do this, I want to take us back in history to two kings. The first king being King David and King Saul. And you'll find their stories in the books of first and second Samuel. If you want to go and read, I'm not going to tell the whole story. We will literally be here for hours. But if we buckle in, we're going to have a super short story time with Caitlin. You're welcome.
Now the reason that I love preaching from the Old Testament and just stories from the Bible is because A, Jesus did it. So it's a good place to start. He taught using parables also. Again, my testimony isn't that crazy. I don't have any amazing stories. So where better to turn than the word of God? Am I right? It says that the word of God is living and active, is sharper than any two edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
So we're going to pick up in the story of Judges just to give some context. So the Israelites have been delivered from the Egyptians and they go through this crazy journey of being in the wilderness and they are brought to the promised land of Cana. Hurrah. They triumphed. The Lord brought them through.
And then we get to the book of Judges and it is an absolute dumpster fire of silly, silly stories and just stupidity. It is absolute debauchery and depravity.
So this book is summed up in the very last verse very perfectly. And I believe that this is very prophetic and indicative of the world that we live in. Judges 21:25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
Everyone relied on their own truth to govern them and guide them. And I don't know about you, but my truth has not got me any place good. So Israel cries out to God. God says, I'm your king. I'm your protector, I'm your defender. But he's a good God, and he hears their cries and he says, okay, I'm going to raise a king up for you. And there's an incredible man, a prophet of God, who brings the Word, and he rises up, raises up Saul, King Saul. He's the man of the people. He's good looking, he's strong.
He has all of the things going for him. But try as he might, Saul is not a good king.
So what God does is he sees that Saul is unrepentant in his ways and he's disobedient, and he has no regard for the word of God. So God says, all right, I'm going to raise up a man after my own heart.
And he picks this young man in the fields named David, who's a shepherd boy. Now, to say that David is a perfect man would be the understatement of the century. And we're going to get into some of his rather spicy stories in 2nd Samuel.
But he continues to be a man after God's own heart, despite his shortcomings. What ensues between the two men when Saul finds out that David has been anointed over him because he wants his sons to be the next kings of Israel? And God's saying, that's not my plan because you've disobeyed me is a crazy story full of betrayal, swords fight, blood, gore. It would make a really good action movie.
So I want to pick this story up from when Saul is chosen by God and contrast it with when David is chosen by God.
And the reason that I want to look at these two today and these stories is because it's a really good lens to look at and to use it as a thermometer and be like, where am I in my relationship with the Lord? It's always so important as believers that we take account and say, am I falling on either side of religion or relationship as we see that the world rages, the spirit of the world rages. And Perversion and depravity are being shoved down our throats as normal. It's super easy for us to fall to one side and be like, well, I'm going to do everything right, and I'm going to be the most righteous person in here and you all can't touch me. Or it's super easy to fall on the other side and be like, you know what? Who gives it two rats tushies. Like the word of the Lord. What? And it is an easy trap to fall into. One that I've fallen into many times in my life is that we aren't in love with Jesus enough and firm on his word. So when the chaos in the world surrounds us, we are shaken. So I want to look at these two men, two mighty men, but with very different stories. And so we can use it as a thermometer to be like, you know what? How am I going with this? So Samuel the prophet, he goes and finds Saul. The word of the Lord comes to him. He says, go find my man. 1 Samuel 9:2 Kish had a son whose name was Paul. A handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he was.
From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. And then we look at when Samuel goes to find David. 1 Samuel, 16:6-13.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart.
Then Jesse called all of David's other brothers to be presented before him. But Samuel said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to him, the Lord has not chosen these. So Samuel's scratching his head. He's been told, go to this house, find my anointed. I'm looking at all of them. And God's saying no. I can only imagine the inner dialogue between Samuel and the Lord. He's like, have you. What is going on?
So he asks, are these all the sons you have?
Jesse says, there is still the youngest. He is tending the sheep. So Samuel said, send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives.
So he sent for him, and he had him bought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Now, the Bible never calls anyone short or ugly. For example, when, whoever the author is, talking about Rachel and Leah. They say Rachel was the most beautiful woman in the land and Leah had nice eyes. It's like, what do you mean?
And so we see this difference between Saul and David. Saul is this esteemed, mighty man. He stands taller than everyone else and they're like, David was glowing in youth. Well, I hope so. He's 14.
Then the Lord says, rise and anoint him. This is the one.
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. My first point this morning is this. Religion is about performance, but relationship is about transformation.
See, religion focuses on what your outward doings are. I love what Alex, the scripture that he brought this morning about love.
Because religion focuses on, I can prophesy, I have the gift of prophecy, and I'm going to tell you what the Lord says. But…you're not being loving or joyful or peaceful.
See, Saul was the chosen king of the people. He had the qualifications. He had the size, the stature, the confidence that was required of him. He could do the job. David was chosen because he was a shepherd boy. He did not meet the standard compared to his brothers, let alone the mighty man that Saul was. But David allowed his character to continually be transformed through his constant relationship with the Lord. And God grew him to occupy the position.
See, the Lord has called each and every one of you. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, his calling and his purpose for you is, go and make disciples. It's really not that hard. You don't need to sit around and twiddle your thumbs and be like, Lord, what have you called me to do?
Go and make disciples. Go and love people. Go share.
Go share the Gospel. That simple. It's all that it is. But God has an assignment on the inside of each and every one of you. And in his timing, he will grow you to occupy that position. It is not something that we have to strive for. But when you're in relationship with the Lord, when you're following Jesus, you will find that things in your life begin to transform.
Religion says, what do I need to do to earn God's approval? It leads to exhaustion because it's rooted in striving to live up to an external standard rather than being transformed from the inside out.
Religion is the lie that you can save yourself by doing good, that you are good enough without God. When we humble ourselves and pursue a relationship with God, we know that our perfection does not hold up our salvation.
Instead, what happens is God will transform you from the inside out.
One phrase that we see constantly across the story of David, and especially in the Psalms, which the book of Psalms, if you didn't know, was written by David. It's 150 Psalms and it is just worship, exhortation, tears, crying, tantrums, all of the above. But at the end of it all, David lifts up the name of Jesus and said, Lord, you are my strength. You are my tower of strength. See, Jesus loves you as you are, but he loves you so much that he does not leave you as he finds you.
This is something that I think I say most times when I get up to preach. But if there is one thing that is, I feel like a personal just mission of mine is to help people understand that Jesus loves you so much and the world says you're loved as you are. Yeah, Jesus does. He loves you as you are, but he is so, so good and so, so faithful that he does not leave you in the mess and the brokenness of what the world does to you, of what sin does to you. He does not leave you in the miry clay, but he will lift you up like on wings, like eagles. Amen. That he is your strength and your provider.
A life marked by a relationship with Jesus is one that is continually shaped by inward transformation. You will find that as you walk with the Lord in your life, you'll continue to be refined. There are going to be things that, like gold in a fire, that the Lord brings to the surface. And it's our job to bring those things to him and say, Lord, heal this in me, restore this in me. Heal my broken heart.
The difference with religion and relationship is that religion pushes you to perfectionism because you have to, because you're not good enough. So do all these things and you'll be fine. It's your actions that qualify you, whereas relationship with God will propel you towards the things of God. You will find when you are in relationship with the person of Jesus, that he brings things to your attention that need to be surrendered. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here. I think some of us need to start living like we're a new creation in Christ and not like the things that the world says about you, the sin that you have done, the sin that has been done to you. But know that God replaces your heart of stone for a heart of flesh, that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus.
So this brings me to my next point.
Religion will condemn you where the Holy Spirit will convict you.
And this is something that I have for sure struggled in my life because I was told, okay, abc, here's how you do good. Live right. You know, don't get yourself in a mess or a pickle. And yes, all of those things are fantastic. And it's wisdom, really. It's nothing that crazy.
But when we don't understand the heart of God, that it is for our good and our benefit that we live in the ways of righteousness, it is so easy for the enemy to come in and condemn you. How dare you come to the throne room of grace when you have all this crap? Or as Christians, instead of pointing each other to righteousness, we point each other to the mistakes that we make.
So how do we know the difference? I have a very easy one sentence for you.
Conviction pulls you closer to the heart of the Father. Condemnation pulls you away from the heart of the Father.
We see a lot of sin in the lives of David and Saul. In fact, if you look at it, if you wrote down everything that Saul did and everything that David did, you would actually find that Saul was a much more good man. At least he tried. David committed some crazy things, and he did just craziness, which I will get into in one second.
But it was David's heart of repentance and his heart to please the Father, to do the will of the Father that made him the man of God that he was. Not because he did everything perfectly, but because when he made a mistake, when he fell short, he ran into the arms of the Father, saying, lord, would you restore me? Would you lift me up?
So there's this interesting moment. Saul finds out David's going to be the next king. He gets really angry. And there's just chapters and chapters and chapters in the Bible of Saul hunting down David. And I was reading in my Bible, it's like Saul, Saul chasing after David, he tries to kill him with a spear. He tries to kill him with this, he tries to kill him with this. Like, that is a very stressful amount of things to go through. And when Saul realizes that David has. When he realizes that he's been delivered into his hands and that David spares him twice, we see a very sad Saul, but we don't see a repentant Saul because he continues to chase after him versus when. We see that in 2nd Samuel, verse 12, when David meets Bathsheba. And I don't have time to read the whole story, but Basically, David is on the roof of his palace while the rest of his men are at war. And that's the first sign that something's not right, because you're the king and you should be with your men. And it's important that we stay in the mission of what God has asked us to do and not go on our merry way.
But he's just chilling, and he sees this beautiful woman bathing and swimming in the pool.
And, you know, married man, the king, the man of God, who knows what is right and what is wrong, thinks, let me invite this woman to come and have dinner with me. And she's thinking, oh, my goodness. The king has asked, requested for my me to come to the king. He is a good and godly man. So she goes on her merry way, and they have an affair and she gets pregnant.
So to cover up his sin, what David does is he sends her husband, one of his mighty men who was loyal to King David.
He's like, I'm going to repay you for your loyalty and your goodness, and I'm going to send you to the front line, and let's just hope that you don't come back home and realize the wrong that I've done. See, sin will always require more sin to cover it up.
So the Lord sends Nathan, who's the prophet after Samuel, to David. And so Nathan comes to him and he tells him a story.
There was two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little lamb.
He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. He shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
Now, a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the little lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, as surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die.
He must pay for that lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity.
Then Nathan said to David, you are that man.
Mic drop. What we see as a result of this is an outpouring from David's heart of repentance and sorrow. The Holy Spirit does not convict you by pointing you to your sin. He convicts you by pointing you towards your righteousness.
Conviction is Not a bad thing. In fact, it is a very important indicator of the Lord working in your life.
What conviction does is it lead us to repentance and pulls us to the things of God. Condemnation leads to shame and guilt and will lead you away from God, which is exactly what we see happen with David and Saul. Now, the cool thing about both of these stories is David brings the truth to Saul and says, I've been hunting you down. Why are you pursuing me? And he brings the truth of the Lord to him. And on the other side, David has brought the truth of the Word from Nathan and is saying, look at what you've done.
Relationship with Jesus will also lead us to closer relationship with godly people who will call you to a higher standard, who encourage you and lift you up in your walk with Christ. Many times in Saul's life, he chose not to listen to the wisdom of God, but David leaned into it.
If you allow it, God will surround you with people who will love you enough to tell you the truth of the Word of God.
So as Christians, it is not our job to condemn nor convict. Now just bear with me.
Conviction is the Holy Spirit's job, and condemnation comes from the enemy.
It says that the enemy is the accuser of the brethren. So when we are condemning people and accusing people, we are partnering with what the enemy says about them, not what God says about them.
But it is our job to present the truth in love and lead people to Jesus. If and when conviction happens, it will be because of the Holy Spirit and not us. Not necessarily that we are making anything happen, but simply that we are making an opportunity available for the Holy Spirit to do his work.
It is our job to go and make disciples.
And it is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance.
See, the fruit of the Spirit is not for you. Have you ever thought about that?
Like an apple tree doesn't sit there all day munching on apples.
It's for the good of the people and others. And that's why the Lord is so good. And he spells it out, plainly. It's like the fruit of the Spirit because it is supposed to be the fruit of the Holy Spirit, evidence that A, he's working in your life and B, the light of the world showing people that there is a difference in me because I have been radically transformed by the grace of Jesus. It is not of my own strength that I love well, that I live my life in joy and peace. It is because of his radical transformation in my life.
Light doesn't have to convince you that it's light. It is light. Salt does not have to convince you that it's salty. And as believers, it's so easy to run around and be like, look at what the Lord has done in my life. When people just need you to love them, when people just need you to be peaceful even when the world rages against you. People just need to see there is a difference on the inside of that person. That I don't know what it is, but they are so joyful all the time.
Now, with that being said, it is our job to be as righteous people, to be bold as a lion, and to speak the word and the truth of the Lord, which brings freedom to people. Like, how could you not? If I had the cure to cancer and I sat on my tush and pretended like I didn't know that I could heal all those people. How selfish of me.
Like, I have met the person of Jesus.
How can I keep that to myself when he is so good in my life?
My third and my last point, and I feel like I've gone through this really quickly, but oh will.
My third and final point is this religion fears the opinion of man over the Word and the voice of God. When we fall into religion, it is about seeking the approval of others and maintaining a certain image in front of people. People.
And oh, my goodness, this is something that I have so struggled with. If any of this. This is the thing that I've struggled with. Jeremy, your word on comparison the other week, it really set me free from things that I didn't even know that needed to be unlocked and set free. Because what we do is we hold up this standard of. We look at Pastor Kyle and Pastor Tina and how amazing they are. And Alex, oh, my goodness, such a good singer. And whatever it is in your life, it could be the houses, it be the cars, it could be whatever. And we hold up this image of people not knowing that we are measuring ourselves to that. Instead of choosing to measure my life to the person of Jesus. Saul, as Israel's first king, exemplified this. He was more concerned about how he was perceived by others than being faithful to God's will.
In fact, we see many times in Saul lives that he makes sacrifices in vain to the Lord. Even when the prophet has said, this is what I want you to do. And he's like, you know what? I just think this is really a better idea.
So he does it, and he finds out that when the Lord says, hey, this is the standard, that this is the goodness that I have laid out for your life. Not because I want to control you or be a tyrannical God, but because I know what is best for you.
When we're rooted in our relationship with Jesus, we stop seeking validation from others and start walking in the truth of who God says we are.
David, in contrast to Saul, placed his trust in God alone and in God's strength, not his own.
I think the Holy Spirit has so wrecked me with this message, I've literally been, like, not able to sleep at night.
I've been turning over and just, like, writing down a sentence and writing down a sentence because I'm like, Lord, I need to capture all of my thoughts.
But if there is one point that I can drive home to you today is to let go from the weight of caring what anyone else thinks about you, that it does not matter, and it holds no authority compared to what God says about me.
Now, you may think I'm a raging lunatic, but I could care less. Because Jesus calls me and he says, you are an heir to the throne to the kingdom of heaven, that you are chosen, that you are loved, that I paid a high price on the cross for you to stop caring about what other people say about you, but to stand firm on the word of God and the promises of how he calls you chosen, loved, valuable, beloved.
A key moment that I haven't talked about yet, and which is probably the most famous story of David and Saul, which is when David fights Goliath.
So for 40 days and for 40 nights, this Philistine, this giant, comes and he defies the armies of the living God.
And Saul is in a little bit of a pickle because he's the king. He can't choose to go out there and die. But none of his other men are standing up.
So David comes along, and he's been sent as a shepherd, and he's bringing cheese and bread. He's bringing a charcuterie board to feed his brothers, which, you know, sounds very nice.
But he gets there, and he sees the nonsense of what is going on, and he is saying, is there no man that will fight this. This Philistine? How dare you defy the armies of the living God? Is there not one single man?
And so Saul hears this, that there's this young little bloke he's piping off, and he's like, well, then you go.
So Saul brings David and says, I want you to wear my armor. And his brothers are saying, you know, how dare you come out here? They literally say that you're conceited and that your heart is wicked. When David's just like, are you serious? Are you seeing the same thing that I'm seeing?
So I want to pick this up. I think it's 2 Samuel something anyway. Verse 41, Naomi has it.
Meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield bearer in front of him kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him.
Just very interesting. Like, was he not a great looking guy? Like, that's just a very interesting thing. I've never realized that; he was healthy and he was handsome and he despised him.
He said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Come here, he said, I will give your flesh to the birds and to the wild animals.
David said to the Philistine, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled.
Come on. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.
This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals. And the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands. As the Philistines moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down to the ground.
See, the world may come against you with lies, with temptations, with financial trouble, stupid trouble.
The world may come against you, but we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.
And I can tell you right now that at the end of the day that victory has been had by Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross, he paid a higher price so that death and the grave could be defeated and that there is nothing that the enemy can throw at you or condemn you of you can stand boldly before the throne room of grace, knowing that you have an intercessor and his name is Jesus, who said, they believed in me, I've chosen them, that my blood covers every single sin.
When we are so secure in our faith in God. When push comes to shove, what will overflow what was the overflow of David's life is that he knew that it wasn't his strength, but it was strength of God.
Despite the fear that was spoken over him, David knew that the victory was the Lord's and it wasn't by his might nor his power. When your life is firmly planted on the word of God, it doesn't matter what people say, your faith in him will not be shaken.
Now I have no idea where you fall and what has spoken to you in this message. Maybe you have lived your life crippled by fear in religion and having to perform in a certain way and be perfect.
Maybe you've fallen away from your first love, Jesus, and you've fallen into the doings and the goings and the beings of just doing ABC and ticking the boxes instead of living a life that is outpoured from a heart that is so fully in love with Jesus.
Jesus did not die on the cross for us to have more religion or to do more. Don't let the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross be in vain.
He did not die for you to live a perfect life. He died to give you a transformed life.
He did not die for you to live in guilt, shame and condemnation. He died so that the Holy Spirit could come and dwell on the inside of you and change you from the inside out.
John 3:16; “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's One and Only Son, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world. But people loved the darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by the truth that comes by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
I think everything that I said is for naught if we don't. If we don't understand this principle, that it is by his goodness and his grace that for God so loved the world that he died on the cross for a sinner like me, for someone who didn't deserve it. And he did not come and die so that you could be bound by fear, by condemnation.
He died to unlock you into freedom. And to his grace and into transformation that you will never understand until you start realising, I just need to take one step at a time with Jesus.
I just need to just follow him, just one step behind him. That you don't have to. You don't come to Jesus with everything right, that you actually just come to him as you are and simply believe that for God so loved the world that he sent his only Son for me.
See, the greatest lie of religion out of everything is that you can save yourself without accepting the sacrifice of what Jesus did on the cross.
That the things you could do save you, that you are good enough without God.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
And I really believe, like we are going into a season as a body of Christ when we are going to have to shore ourselves up simply by understanding the radical love of Jesus and knowing. And knowing in our hearts that it is his goodness that brings a man to repentance.
If everyone could just stand with me, I'm going to close out in prayer. And again, I don't know what has impacted you. Maybe if anything, if I can communicate. If you've already accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, just to use this as a thermometer to check your heart and be like, Lord, am I a man, Am I a woman, After your own heart? Knowing that it is not what you do. Knowing that it is not how you act. But knowing that it is because of what Jesus did on the cross that we can come to the mercy seat. If everyone could just close their eyes and bow their heads. I just want to ask if you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. There is no better day than right now and we aren't going to make you come down to the front, but we are going to lead you in prayer. So if anyone wants to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, just raise your hand, knowing that eternal life comes from him alone.
And also I want to ask if you are burnt out on religion, if you have been burnt by the church. First of all, I'm so sorry, we serve a perfect God, but there are some imperfect people in his body, that there is restoration for your life.
I just want to ask if, if you are just feeling in your heart like, Lord, I just want to return to my first love with you. I don't want to be burnt out on all of this stuff, but I just want to come back to your arms. If you would just raise your hand and we're going to pray for you.
Amen.
Well. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this morning. Lord, I just thank you for this word Lord. I just pray that Holy Spirit, you continue to unlock our hearts to understand the goodness of your grace. Father Lord, that you died on the cross, that for you so love the world you gave your only son so that we could enter back into right relationship with you.
Father, we thank you for all of these things. In your mighty name, Amen.
[00:47:15] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers.life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team. And may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
