Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message.
[00:00:06] Holy Ghost, we thank you for what you do. Thank you, Holy Ghost, for what you do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Holy Ghost. You know, a lot of people these days, because of the times we live in, are crying out, maranatha, come, Lord Jesus.
[00:00:25] But I'm not one of those.
[00:00:29] I say one more year, Lord. One more year.
[00:00:35] God, understand something we can't do when we get to heaven.
[00:00:44] What we can do now.
[00:00:47] There'll be no opposition.
[00:00:50] There'll be no department of condemnation working their plans against us every day.
[00:00:58] There'll be no tears. There'll be no lack. There'll be no ill sickness. There'll be nothing to put a block in our way that makes now so very, very special.
[00:01:19] I believe the gold, silver and precious stones, somehow we'll wear them as a part of our garments in heaven.
[00:01:30] Somehow there'll be jewelry or something, and each one of those stones will represent us standing in the face of a mountain and saying, no.
[00:01:43] God supplies all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I'm healed by Christ's stripes.
[00:01:54] Once we've left this place and we're in heaven, we don't have any more opportunity for gold, silver and precious stones.
[00:02:06] We won't have any more opportunity to praise God and worship him.
[00:02:12] With all of the opposition that comes against us, praise and worship in heaven will be our default setting.
[00:02:22] Are you hearing where I'm coming from?
[00:02:28] We had our little. One of our. We've got 10 grandchildren. We had one of our precious granddaughters around yesterday and she was showing us the photos from school.
[00:02:39] I couldn't tell you what one of the other kids looked like or was wearing. I was only looking for our granddaughter, you know what I'm saying?
[00:02:51] The whole host of heaven, all of the angels in heaven, when they praise and worship God, I'm sure that brings God joy, but he can't remember what any of them look like. He's looking for you.
[00:03:06] When you praise and worship God down here on earth in front of with all of the opposition that you are up against here on earth under the curse of the law and sin and death, that warms God's heart.
[00:03:22] We don't get that opportunity again.
[00:03:26] It's not part of my message. I just wanted to bring that out to remind you.
[00:03:36] How precious our time with Michelle and the gang is.
[00:03:40] What an opportunity. What an opportunity that is each week for us to praise and worship God.
[00:03:47] Don't hold Back.
[00:03:50] You've heard me yelling out in praise and worship.
[00:03:53] That's not easy.
[00:03:57] The Ministry of Condemnation. I call them the Department of Condemnation.
[00:04:01] You know, we have the Department of Defense.
[00:04:04] America now has the Department of War. I love that. Good. Good on you, Trumpy.
[00:04:08] Well, we have the Department of Condemnation working against us. You know what? I don't think they have to get out of bed till 10 or 11 o' clock in the morning because the church does their job for them.
[00:04:23] Let's get into the message.
[00:04:26] Thankfully, a message dropped in just before I got up, so I've got somewhere to go.
[00:04:33] There are two. We have two assignments.
[00:04:36] We have two assignments to fulfill our commission on earth.
[00:04:41] Our commission is laid out for us in Ephesians 2, 10. For we are his workmanship. I love that word. That's a specially chosen word by God to show us what our commission is. We are his workmanship. That's the word of a master craftsman. Workmanship, fine detail. You see God with his little spectacles on and he's designing our perfect good works. Perfect for us.
[00:05:05] We are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. What we're created for. Created in Christ Jesus for good works that he has prepared for us. That's our commission to fulfill the good works. And listen to how it finishes.
[00:05:23] That we should walk in them. Walk. Wow.
[00:05:29] Not try to.
[00:05:34] Should not could.
[00:05:37] God has an expectation of us to fulfill our good works.
[00:05:42] My goodness. I take that very, very seriously.
[00:05:45] Very seriously.
[00:05:48] But Matthew 11:28 29 says, Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you a rest.
[00:05:57] Imitate me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
[00:06:01] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The yoke is the work he'll have us do. And the burden is the actual works. The amount of works.
[00:06:12] Light and easy.
[00:06:19] Yoke is easy. My burden is light, easy and light. Light and easy. So God doesn't have a whole lot for us to do.
[00:06:28] Be encouraged.
[00:06:30] I fully believe that I'm going to fulfill every good work God's ordained for me.
[00:06:36] Now, I know that sounds egotistical and it is, but he said should walk in them.
[00:06:46] So what I want to share is why I believe I'm going to fulfill all my good works. And it's certainly not because I'm a good human being. If God honest me asked me, Tony, give me a score, 1 out of 10, 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest, what sort of human being, what would you give you? I'd give myself a three, probably being A little bit on the high side there, but I'd give myself a three.
[00:07:11] Then if he said, Tony, what about as a Christian, what would you give yourself? 1 being lowest, 10 being highest.
[00:07:18] I'd give a 3.
[00:07:21] I don't think there's too many above 3, though, to tell you the truth.
[00:07:27] But 3 would be about as high as I'd go.
[00:07:32] But when he's giving me. When he's giving me my score, he says, okay, I'm gonna get my score pad out and give you a ranking Tony so you know exactly what your real score is.
[00:07:49] And he says, okay, effort.
[00:07:52] And he doesn't look at me.
[00:07:54] He looks at Jesus and he says, tony, you get a 10.
[00:08:01] And he goes down the whole list.
[00:08:03] 10, 10, 10, 10, 10.
[00:08:12] We need to know the two things I said, two things that are important for us with our assignment.
[00:08:20] One is we embrace our good works.
[00:08:23] The second one is, and this is essential for us to be able to fulfil our good works.
[00:08:30] We have to rightly divide the word, word of truth.
[00:08:34] That's our biggest challenge.
[00:08:37] And it's a particularly big challenge because all of our understanding in Christianity has come down to us over the centuries from the great philosophers, you know, through the Murray commentaries and all the different commentaries on the Bible. And they all come to us through the filter of religion and. And legalism.
[00:09:02] And when we try to understand God's word, his letter to us for our life through religion and legalism, we get a 0,0,0,0,0 because old wine ruins our wineskin, no matter how good it sounds. And man, religion sounds good.
[00:09:33] Legalism sounds fantastic.
[00:09:38] Take a scripture like Jesus said, be holy, for I am holy.
[00:09:46] Our conditioning from religion and legalism makes us feel, oh, I've got to try harder.
[00:09:55] I got to be better.
[00:09:57] I know I'm not holy enough.
[00:10:00] 0,0,0.
[00:10:04] If we interpret that scripture as we should interpret all scripture through righteousness and grace, then we interpret it through the eye of the great exchange.
[00:10:22] Jesus is saying, be holy, for I have won your holiness for you. I am holy. Everything I have is yours.
[00:10:31] You are holy. Be holy, for I am holy.
[00:10:42] We need to rightly divide the word of truth so that we know how that yoke works, so we know what the burdens are and how we're to go about them.
[00:10:59] The burdens aren't about volume and numbers.
[00:11:05] The burden is about walking in close intimacy with God.
[00:11:09] Because Ephesians 2, 10 doesn't finish with the words good works that you should do them.
[00:11:22] That would be what religion would say to us, that would be what legalism would say to us.
[00:11:26] Ephesians 2:10 finishes with good works that have been prepared for you, that you should work, walk in them, Our good works.
[00:11:44] When we've got our yoke on correctly, our good works are a natural, easy overflow from our close, intimate walk with him.
[00:11:59] We don't go out. And after our good works, we relax into them in our relationship with our loving Heavenly Father.
[00:12:13] I love being in a grace church.
[00:12:17] I love the message of grace.
[00:12:20] I don't call it grace. I call it the truth of the Gospel.
[00:12:29] Two times in Galatians, Paul uses the phrase the truth of the Gospel, and once in Colossians, and he uses it in relation to religion and legalism. Trying to take over the early church, Peter and Barnabas and other disciples had started requiring that the new Gentile believers be circumcised, do the same ceremonial washing of hands as the Jews, and sit separate to the Jews when they ate. They went back. They were going back under the law.
[00:13:04] And Paul said, I saw they were not walking according to the truth of the gospel.
[00:13:12] So the truth of the Gospel was Paul's antidote for getting into legalism and religion. That's why I call grace the truth of the Gospel, rightly dividing the word of truth.
[00:13:26] When it comes to grace, it's very important to understand how to walk in grace.
[00:13:33] A lot of people just think, okay, if I just believe right, everything's going to happen.
[00:13:40] Well, good luck with that.
[00:13:44] I've got some scriptures. Romans 5, verses 1 and 2.
[00:13:52] Romans 5:1 2 says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also Watch this. Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
[00:14:12] Faith has to be accessed.
[00:14:14] So I want to encourage you today to access your grace, access your grace.
[00:14:23] Let's have a look at how we access our grace. We'll come back to that scripture in a minute.
[00:14:28] Two scriptures that I have meditated on and studied for many, many years.
[00:14:35] I think God has fun with this. I really studied and meditated these scriptures for years.
[00:14:41] And about 18 months ago, God just dropped it into my spirit. And I just started.
[00:14:46] I went nuts.
[00:14:48] And I think he has fun doing that, you know, I'm sure He does.
[00:14:53] So I call these two passages of Scripture, one in First Thessalonians, chapter 5, and one in Philippians, chapter 4.
[00:15:01] I call them Paul's modus operandi for the Christian.
[00:15:07] So first Thessalonians 5, 16, 17 and 18 says, Rejoice always pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.
[00:15:15] For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
[00:15:20] Philippians 4:4, 7 says, Rejoice. And again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be made known to man. Let your moderation be made known.
[00:15:32] Let your prayers and supplications be made known to me with thanksgiving.
[00:15:36] And the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and soul.
[00:15:42] They're the gold and silver medals for the Christian. That's why I studied these for so many years.
[00:15:48] The will of God for our life and the peace that surpasses all understanding. My goodness. That's the gold and silver medals. So I've studied those for years. And it was only about 18 months ago God dropped the into my spirit what he was trying to teach there.
[00:16:07] I always thought those scriptures were about rejoicing, praying and giving thanks.
[00:16:13] And I approached all my study and my meditation of those passages about it being about three things.
[00:16:22] But it's not.
[00:16:24] It's not about rejoicing and it's not about giving thanks.
[00:16:30] It's 100,000% about prayer.
[00:16:35] God is saying, and I'll show you the scripture for this in a moment.
[00:16:40] God is saying, when you come to me in prayer, offer your prayer up full of rejoicing and thanksgiving.
[00:16:54] That's my will.
[00:16:55] That's what brings the joy that surpasses all understanding.
[00:17:00] Can we have Romans 5:1, 2 up again, please.
[00:17:07] Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We have access to this access by faith into this grace. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
[00:17:30] So the way we access grace is through rejoicing.
[00:17:40] The best study on faith is two chapters in the Bible, Hebrews chapter three and Hebrews chapter four. When you read the entirety of that, it's all one teaching.
[00:17:54] And the guy who is my mentor for teaching, I've never met him. It's just a guy. I've read all his books and listened to all his tapes many times.
[00:18:02] But the way he teaches to meditate the word of God, to rightly divide the word of truth, he says, you find where the teaching starts and where it finishes.
[00:18:14] Then you get a piece of paper next to you with a pen, you read through and you make a mark. You read it through again, make a mark, you don't do anything. And you read it carefully and thoughtfully. You Read it through. Read it through. When you've read it through carefully 50 times, then you get your highlighter and your marker out and you try to delve in.
[00:18:36] Now your peripheral vision is completely full. When you're reading it and you're trying to understand it, you, you have the whole picture and all the pieces.
[00:18:45] It makes reading and studying the Bible entirely different.
[00:18:53] So Hebrews chapter 3 starts with Hebrews 3:1 which notes Jesus as the high priest of our confession.
[00:19:05] Some say profession, some say confession. They both mean the same thing, come from the same word. Homologio.
[00:19:12] Confession. It's what we say. Jesus high priest of what we say, what we say.
[00:19:18] Rejoicing, Thanksgiving what we say. Rejoicing is what we say, how we say it. Thanksgiving, how we say it. Jesus is high priest of our confession.
[00:19:29] I mean if we were right in the Bible, we wouldn't put that.
[00:19:32] We'd put God as the God is the high priest of our good intentions, our good heart. Oh, he'll be okay. He's got a good heart. He's got good intentions.
[00:19:41] He does good works. High priest of our good works. He's high priest of our confession.
[00:19:49] He gets to make the rules.
[00:19:52] And he's made the rule that he's high priest. Jesus royal priestly function in the new covenant. He is high priest of of our confession. That makes what we say very important.
[00:20:09] The rest of Hebrews chapter three talks about why the Israelites didn't enter. The rest because of disobedience and unbelief and their hard hearts.
[00:20:23] If you take the time to carefully read chapter three, the hard heart is because they did not choose to believe and speak what God said.
[00:20:37] Well, I'm totally convinced Joshua and Caleb, the only two that were that were freed from the hand of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, only Joshua and Caleb got to the promised land. Out of the whole lot who were redeemed from Egypt just do.
[00:20:55] You can't tell me there wasn't precious beautiful people with great intentions and great hearts and doing wonderful things for the people.
[00:21:04] You can't tell me there weren't a whole lot of good people amongst them. But they never got to the promised land.
[00:21:11] The promised land is where all our needs are met.
[00:21:14] The promised land is where we fulfill all of our good works. The promised land is where we enjoy life and life more abundant.
[00:21:24] The only way to get to the promised land is to make sure we tick all the boxes when it comes to what the high priest of our confession requires.
[00:21:38] Now God, Joshua and Caleb got through because they came back and said, we've seen the giants. But God said we are well able to says they tried to kill him because the 10, the negative reporters who convinced everybody else, they, they were scared Joshua and Caleb were going to convince everybody they wanted to kill him.
[00:22:01] And I am totally convinced that every day, or pretty much every day for the 40 years Joshua and Caleb would have been walking around the camp. Come on, guys, we can do this.
[00:22:12] God said we're well able.
[00:22:16] That translates to us in our day. Whatever problem we've got, we can say, by Christ's stripes, I'm healed.
[00:22:25] God meets all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me in the strength of opposition.
[00:22:34] When the mountains come, if we will speak to them like Joshua and Caleb did, we will live in the promised land.
[00:22:43] So that's. And Hebrews chapter three finishes with them saying he wouldn't allow them to go into the promised land because of their disobedience and unbelief.
[00:22:55] Then Hebrews chapter 4 starts the first 11 verses of Hebrews chapter 4. There's 16 verses in Hebrews chapter 4. The first 11 verses.
[00:23:07] The rest is mentioned 12 times.
[00:23:10] I wonder what the topic is.
[00:23:14] The first mention in verse 1 says, There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
[00:23:21] The last mention in verse 11 says, we must labour to enter that rest.
[00:23:30] Our labour is rejoicing and giving thanks in the face of the Department of Condemnation.
[00:23:42] See, when a mountain pokes its ugly face in front of us, it could be lack, it could be health, it could be relationship, the Ministry of Condemnations because we think we better pray.
[00:24:01] And the department of Condemnation says, yeah, we believe in prayer too. Prayer's powerful. Oh, gee, but remember what you did yesterday?
[00:24:15] That dusty old Bible. When's the last time you opened that up?
[00:24:18] The Department of Condemnation. And even if you're doing real good, Department of Condemnation's been watching your every move.
[00:24:27] He just knows what buttons to push.
[00:24:32] To rightly divide the word of truth is to know who we are in Christ is to know how to rightly understand the Word through righteousness and grace, not religion and legalism.
[00:24:49] We need to know when that. See, my recent two favorite scriptures for the last couple of years are Romans chapter 5, verse 15, and Romans, chapter 5, verse 16.
[00:25:04] The last seven verses of Romans chapter 5 are the is where we find the truth of the Gospel. It's the seven most powerful gospel paraphrases in seven consecutive verses.
[00:25:18] The first one says tells us that our salvation is a free Gift.
[00:25:24] Not a gift.
[00:25:26] Much more a free gift.
[00:25:29] See, when the guy was in prison and he pleaded for the. Let go. I'll pay you. Please let me go.
[00:25:38] He let him go.
[00:25:40] Gave him the gift of freedom.
[00:25:43] But then when he found out what the guy did, he threw him back in. Wasn't a free gift, right? Wasn't free.
[00:25:49] It was just a gift.
[00:25:51] If he had a free gift, no strings attached. Once he's out, he's out. That's it.
[00:25:57] Isn't that interesting?
[00:25:59] It doesn't say, we have the gift of salvation. It says the free gift of salvation.
[00:26:05] Then Romans 5:16. The next verse says, we have the free gift of justification.
[00:26:14] The free gift of justification.
[00:26:17] That means God hears our prayers. The same on our worst day as a Christian as he does on our best day as a Christian.
[00:26:26] Justification means when we pray our prayers, the department of condemnation comes in with its stuff.
[00:26:38] But we say no.
[00:26:40] When God judges me, he doesn't look at me, he looks at Jesus. I get 10. 10, 10, 10.
[00:26:51] The free gift of justification. Not just a gift. The free gift of justification.
[00:27:02] So we labour to enter the rest. Hebrews 4:11, the last six verses.
[00:27:10] I mean, isn't it crazy?
[00:27:14] Fancier teaching being in context, going from one to another. Who'd have thought?
[00:27:20] Aren't you just supposed to take a scripture from here and a scripture from there and just make it say whatever you want? Isn't that how we do it?
[00:27:28] Fancy that.
[00:27:29] 11 says, labor to enter the rest. The last six verses.
[00:27:36] God must have been having a good day. Now he teaches us how to labor to enter the rest.
[00:27:43] And I'm sorry, Jesus, thank you for delivering us from the curse of the law of sin and death. I'm sorry I've gone this far without fear. Thanking you for dying on the cross for us.
[00:27:54] Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
[00:27:57] Bless you, Lord.
[00:28:00] Verse 12, verse 11. Labor to any of the rest. Verse 12.
[00:28:05] For the word of God is alive and powerful. Sharpen than he two edged sword dividing asunder between the bone and the marrow, the soul and the spirit. Discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart.
[00:28:15] The Word of God is alive and powerful.
[00:28:20] Wow.
[00:28:22] Labor to any of the rest. The next scripture is the word of God is alive and powerful. I don't think that's a coincidence.
[00:28:30] Next verse I love. He says everything is open before God. He's saying there's no plan B.
[00:28:36] Take note of this. You can't do it any other way. If you want to eat of the rest, where everything works out for you.
[00:28:43] Where? You see, when God made man, he put him in the Garden of Eden, not the desert.
[00:28:49] That's his. That's what God wants for man. And when they asked Jesus how to pray, first thing he said was, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth here as it is in heaven. That's the Garden of Eden. That's how God wants us to live. Where he wants us to live. That's where Jesus wants us to live. That he taught us in Luke 11.
[00:29:09] Then verse 13.
[00:29:14] Labored away the rest.
[00:29:17] 12, 13. Sorry, that was 13.
[00:29:19] Verse 14.
[00:29:21] Wow. Verse 14 says that Jesus as our high priest, was tempted in every way as we were.
[00:29:30] The high priest of our confession was tempted in every way as we were, and we're to hold sin fast. Our good confession.
[00:29:37] Well, hang on, good confession or what? Well, maybe the verse before the alive and powerful word of God, maybe it's all connected, but look, I know I'm making fun of that, but to tell you the truth, I've heard Hebrews 4, 15 and 16 quoted more times than I've had Sunday dinners. Never in relation to the rest, never in relation to confessing the alive and powerful word of God.
[00:30:08] We are to. Verse 14. We are to hold fast to our good confession. I'm nearly finished, guys.
[00:30:14] Then it says, therefore we have boldness to enter the throne of grace where we find help and mercy in time of need.
[00:30:27] So let's do what a primary school English teacher would do and connect it together.
[00:30:36] We enter the throne of grace by holding fast our good confession of faith to the alive and powerful word of God. That's how we labour to enter the rest.
[00:30:56] I'm going to do.
[00:30:58] Are you sure they'll do that?
[00:31:02] So, forum.
[00:31:04] My first business after I left school, I did little businesses at school. When you're a bit of an entrepreneur, you do it all the time or you're not an entrepreneur at all.
[00:31:15] And my first business was a tennis coach.
[00:31:20] I was a very successful. We had a terrific tennis coaching business and we were a sporting family. My sister Michelle is the current over 65 singles tennis world champion and that's a big deal. Tennis is a very hard sport to become a world champion in.
[00:31:43] She won it in May over in California.
[00:31:47] So with the tennis coaching, you had to do racket drill.
[00:31:52] I think we need to do confession drill.
[00:31:59] I do.
[00:32:00] Mainly because of Hebrews 4:13. There's no other way.
[00:32:05] There's no other way.
[00:32:07] Let me tell you, living in the promised land, we all get to heaven.
[00:32:16] But I call it the deception of Desert provisions.
[00:32:22] Even though the Israelites had been released from Pharaoh and redeemed, they'd had the Passover went through and as soon as the waters covered, the army they had was fully redeemed.
[00:32:34] And yet they negate to the promised land.
[00:32:37] They spent 40 years in the desert because of disobedience and unbelief and a hard heart. And the hard heart was not because they were bad people. There were so many fantastic good people there, but they didn't choose to speak God's word over their lives.
[00:32:56] I know when Tracy and I just went on our first big overseas holiday, my nephew got married in Austria. We're away for a month in the promised land.
[00:33:08] I mean, it's mainly about walking in close intimacy with God and fulfilling all of your good works, but God just blesses you trampings all the time.
[00:33:18] I can't begin to tell you the blessing. We walk in and it was just so simple. Every time we got on a flight, and we got a lot of flights, a lot of countries, we made it a real good holiday. We got the best flights on the plane, we got the best rooms at the hotels. I couldn't believe it. Every time we'd go in, they'd say, oh, we've upgraded you to a suite.
[00:33:41] And I. The first couple of times, I'd think, that's what we say at our hotel too. Yeah. Then I'd go in. Oh, my goodness.
[00:33:50] And everywhere we'd go, we'd get there just at the right time or, you know, the perfect. It's just, if you will get addicted to God and his ways, he will support your habit.
[00:34:09] So everybody stand up.
[00:34:12] Before we do our spiritual racket drill, I just want to take one minute to give anybody the opportunity who might be here and can't access the promised land because they don't know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
[00:34:40] We always need to have a good answer ready for the hope that we have.
[00:34:46] If you haven't got one, develop it, practice it.
[00:34:51] Right when you're talking to someone, connect with them. I mean, really connect with them, listen to them.
[00:35:00] And then after a minute or two or a few minutes, say, do you have any thoughts on eternity?
[00:35:09] You ever think about eternity?
[00:35:13] See what the response is? If they say, ah, that's it, finished. But usually they'll say something. Yes, yeah. And they'll give you some feedback.
[00:35:26] And I always, I've got my strategy down and I say, you know, Jesus said, if you want to have eternal life, you must be born again. Jesus said, that can't argue with that. Jesus said it.
[00:35:40] And then I say, you know, Romans 10, 9 and 10 is where the Bible teaches us how to be born again.
[00:35:47] If we all believe that Jesus is the son of God and God raised him from the dead.
[00:35:53] No, hang on. Oh, yeah. If you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and you confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you will be saved.
[00:36:03] That's all it is.
[00:36:05] But I don't give my way out because I've had too many people say things like, well, I can't really say that I believe Jesus is the son of God, you know, stuff like that. So I say, you know, God doesn't say we have to understand how God raised Jesus from the dead.
[00:36:22] God doesn't have to. God doesn't say. The scripture doesn't say, we have to know God raised Jesus from the dead. God's just saying, if you'll simply believe that God, God raised Jesus from the dead and you confess him as your Lord and Saviour, you'll be saved.
[00:36:38] And then I do the sales close.
[00:36:41] Would you like to do that now?
[00:36:46] It's 30 seconds.
[00:36:48] If you heard that here, now. And you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, that's all that's required to get saved. It's that simple. Because getting lost was that simple.
[00:37:05] So if you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, just say now to yourself, or just so you can hear it, just say it out your mouth quietly. Jesus, thank you for saving me.
[00:37:23] I receive you now as my Lord and Savior.
[00:37:26] Praise God.
[00:37:28] Come and see me or one of the team afterwards and we'll pray for you.
[00:37:33] But racquet drill, my goodness. When I was a tennis coach and I was doing the tennis coaching business, it was a wonderful business. It was fun. You were treated like a rock star. That was the best thing out in the country.
[00:37:47] And you were having a lot of fun. And I used to teach three to five hundred kids a week. I had a big school and my first student who came through and was my assistant coach coaches the Australian women's team. Now, Louise Pleming, you've probably seen her on the TV at the Australian Open. She's one of the commentators.
[00:38:11] But I was always amazed at how big a difference I could make in a player's game by making a little adjustment.
[00:38:21] It was amazing.
[00:38:22] And my sister, who's now the world champion and she was playing against ex professionals.
[00:38:28] She was. It was a three and a half hour match to win the thing and it was 40 degrees heat and 90% humidity in a three and a half hour match. That's a long match for a guy, not the ladies.
[00:38:39] And she said to my little sister when they were going on to the script, my other little sister, I'm not coming off till I've won.
[00:38:47] And when she shook hands, the paramedics put her on a stretcher and put her in the ambulance. Put heart monitors on her, a drip in her and an oxygen mask on. She had that for 24 hours. She was fighting them because she was also in the final of the mix playing John Lloyd, remember Chris Evatts ex husband. She was to play him in the mix and she wanted to play that match. She didn't care if she died on the court.
[00:39:11] But she gave up as soon as she finished school. She went to uni and became a teacher. She only took it up again about 12 years. And my God, she was a talent.
[00:39:19] So we know tennis and I know what little adjustments can make big difference. And I know in your Christian life, if you will dare to become a Christian, who will honor the high priest of our confession and begin to confess the blessings and promises of God that were won for us on that cruel cross.
[00:39:43] He deserves. He deserves your confessions, right?
[00:39:50] So here's our first confession.
[00:39:54] I rejoice and thank you, Lord, that you meet all my needs according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
[00:40:08] Hallelujah.
[00:40:10] I rejoice and thank you, Father, that by Christ's stripes I'm healed.
[00:40:19] Your word is life to my bones and health to my flesh.
[00:40:27] Your word quickens and makes alive my mortal body.
[00:40:33] Healing is my daily bread.
[00:40:37] I rejoice and thank you, Lord, that I'm healed, whole and well, and you renew my youth as the Eagles.
[00:40:48] You start praying that every day, a couple of times a day.
[00:40:52] You know the thing about confession, and I believe this is the greatest thing about confession.
[00:40:58] I've got a whole list of things that I confess every day. And I haven't just been doing it for weeks or months or years. I've been doing it for decades.
[00:41:06] Nobody can convince me that I'm not going to walk in health. I've heard myself say it, say I'm healthy too many times for anybody to tell me I'm not going to be healthy.
[00:41:16] You don't have to say it for decades.
[00:41:19] You start.
[00:41:21] You start doing it today.
[00:41:23] You start walking the same blessing it's taken me decades.
[00:41:28] And if you, if you muck it up one day, no big deal. The devil's at such a disadvantage, you can just say, oh, I'm sorry, Lord, I mucked that up, but I won't do it again. Like with my.
[00:41:37] And off you go. And you got a whole clean slate. Actually, you can't even. You can't even dirty a slate. You can't even dirty your slate. I don't know what I was trying to say there.
[00:41:47] I've been going too long today. You've got to let me sit down. All right.
[00:41:53] Find the blessings and promises of God. Every time there's a need in your life, find a scripture for it.
[00:42:00] Right?
[00:42:04] And when you pray it and declare it, say, I rejoice and thank you.
[00:42:11] Because that's how we labour to enter the rest.
[00:42:14] We read it. Rejoicing in hope.
[00:42:18] We access grace by rejoicing in hope. What a wonderful life the Lord has planned for us. Rejoicing in hope.
[00:42:27] Practice your faith confessions, guys.
[00:42:34] 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.
