WEBVTT 00:00.351 --> 00:01.292 [SPEAKER_00]: How are we this morning? 00:02.633 --> 00:04.034 [SPEAKER_00]: Good, that's good. 00:04.674 --> 00:08.757 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm grateful to be here, grateful to any day that you get to open the scriptures. 00:08.817 --> 00:09.437 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a good day. 00:09.457 --> 00:11.038 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to do that together. 00:11.058 --> 00:14.400 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be reading from the book of Isaiah in just a minute. 00:14.901 --> 00:18.183 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'd encourage you to turn in your Bibles to there. 00:18.603 --> 00:24.427 [SPEAKER_00]: But this is the final day, the kind of harvest day, if you like, of our vision offering campaign. 00:25.147 --> 00:39.299 [SPEAKER_00]: for twenty twenty five and in a little while after we've read the scriptures and applied some of that we are going to take a moment where we give and then a moment where we pray together for our global partners as well. 00:40.840 --> 00:45.644 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really impacting to see these videos and to engage with what's going on. 00:46.065 --> 00:49.588 [SPEAKER_00]: It's also impacting to be there a couple of years ago. 00:49.608 --> 01:02.699 [SPEAKER_00]: My daughter Lucy and I had the privilege of traveling to see one of these projects and we went and visited this small village of about a hundred and fifty people in a really rural area in India. 01:04.040 --> 01:14.503 [SPEAKER_00]: And this village had no running water, no electricity, but subsistence farmers living off the land in that part of the world. 01:15.323 --> 01:18.384 [SPEAKER_00]: And we met a young girl about fifteen. 01:19.204 --> 01:24.806 [SPEAKER_00]: And her story was that she was about to be sold off to be married. 01:25.286 --> 01:27.667 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm in an arranged marriage type situation. 01:28.847 --> 01:37.792 [SPEAKER_00]: And that was because there was no other prospects there and her family needed to be able to do that in order to provide extra income for their household. 01:38.672 --> 01:41.734 [SPEAKER_00]: Because there was no electricity, there wasn't really much that could be done. 01:41.794 --> 01:52.660 [SPEAKER_00]: But what Africa did as an organization was help those people lobby the government, help them write an email to the government that said something like, hey, 01:53.460 --> 02:02.550 [SPEAKER_00]: Where a village in this little part of India, we don't have any electricity, would it be cool if you ran some to us? 02:03.832 --> 02:13.522 [SPEAKER_00]: And of time and persistence, nine months later there was electricity line that was run to this community that began with one light. 02:14.888 --> 02:20.131 [SPEAKER_00]: And what that light was able to do was this young girl was able to study. 02:20.891 --> 02:22.372 [SPEAKER_00]: She engaged in education. 02:23.012 --> 02:28.235 [SPEAKER_00]: She then became the school teacher of all of the kids in that village. 02:28.855 --> 02:31.457 [SPEAKER_00]: And she then actually opened the school. 02:32.097 --> 02:44.800 [SPEAKER_00]: in that village and did not have to be sold off to a marriage but was able to retain her place and then became a community leader in that village and in that entire area. 02:45.740 --> 02:54.402 [SPEAKER_00]: And now that started as something really, really dire and ended really beautiful but it began with one light. 02:57.673 --> 03:01.656 [SPEAKER_00]: One light made all of the difference in the world. 03:01.716 --> 03:15.807 [SPEAKER_00]: And so as we think about expanding our borders and as we think about the global church, as we think about renewing our home, renewing our community, and renewing our world, remember guys, this is not charity. 03:16.268 --> 03:17.249 [SPEAKER_00]: This is gospel. 03:18.109 --> 03:23.594 [SPEAKER_00]: This is extending and imagining the kingdom everywhere. 03:24.883 --> 03:27.885 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not just for one go, but for an entire village. 03:28.505 --> 03:32.988 [SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to remember we're not just a church in Mount Evelyn or in Frankston, are we? 03:33.228 --> 03:36.670 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not just a small local church, but we're connected. 03:36.691 --> 03:47.577 [SPEAKER_00]: We're part of a kingdom that stretches from the Arab valley to the Himalayas, from the peninsula to Peru, from Cambodia to the kingdom of heaven. 03:48.658 --> 03:52.821 [SPEAKER_00]: We're part of something bigger that's global multi-ethnic border breaking. 03:53.182 --> 03:58.006 [SPEAKER_00]: This is about a tonal momentum and growth. 04:00.027 --> 04:07.273 [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't have to get on a plane to become part of God's global move, although a lot of us would like to get on a plane. 04:08.034 --> 04:11.997 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to get on a plane to become part of God's global move. 04:12.017 --> 04:14.199 [SPEAKER_00]: You've just simply got to open your heart. 04:17.921 --> 04:24.004 [SPEAKER_00]: yourself to the possibility of imagining a different way forward. 04:25.264 --> 04:27.745 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's read together from Isaiah chapter sixty. 04:28.425 --> 04:31.267 [SPEAKER_00]: Arise, shine for your light has come. 04:32.307 --> 04:36.589 [SPEAKER_00]: And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you for behold darkness shall cover the earth. 04:36.869 --> 04:42.992 [SPEAKER_00]: Thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord will rise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. 04:43.452 --> 04:46.153 [SPEAKER_00]: And nations shall come to your light. 04:47.438 --> 04:52.743 [SPEAKER_00]: and kings to the brightness of your rising lift up your eyes all around and see. 04:53.703 --> 04:54.764 [SPEAKER_00]: They all gather together. 04:54.784 --> 04:55.445 [SPEAKER_00]: They come to you. 04:55.625 --> 04:57.086 [SPEAKER_00]: Your sons shall come from afar. 04:57.306 --> 04:58.968 [SPEAKER_00]: Your daughters shall be carried on the hip. 04:59.188 --> 05:00.729 [SPEAKER_00]: Then you shall see and be radiant. 05:00.970 --> 05:10.418 [SPEAKER_00]: Your heart shall thrill and exalt because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you and the wealth of the nations shall come to you. 05:11.707 --> 05:16.290 [SPEAKER_00]: After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation. 05:16.330 --> 05:17.811 [SPEAKER_00]: This is now in Revelation, sorry. 05:19.232 --> 05:32.840 [SPEAKER_00]: A great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothe in white robes with palm branches in their hands. 05:32.900 --> 05:34.461 [SPEAKER_00]: So what we're going to do this morning, church? 05:35.701 --> 05:40.784 [SPEAKER_00]: is we're going to make some observations from these two texts from Isaiah and from Revelation. 05:41.645 --> 05:48.349 [SPEAKER_00]: We're then going to think about what that might mean for us, how we might apply that to our today. 05:49.250 --> 05:56.675 [SPEAKER_00]: And then we will engage in a moment where we give and celebrate and pray together. 05:56.695 --> 05:57.515 [SPEAKER_00]: Is that sound okay? 05:58.636 --> 06:01.578 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, if you're joining us in the parents room, it's time to lock in. 06:01.618 --> 06:04.660 [SPEAKER_00]: If you join us online on the podcast, let's go. 06:05.340 --> 06:10.704 [SPEAKER_00]: Because what's happening here is in Isaiah, sixty this is written to post-exilic Israel. 06:11.224 --> 06:31.437 [SPEAKER_00]: You might remember if you know any of your Bible history and it's okay if you don't because everyone's here, you might be here for the very first time, you might be here for the thousandth time and every one of us is just learning on this journey but what happened back in the day was Israel was separated from their land, from their culture, from their people for a period of seventy years. 06:31.917 --> 06:42.263 [SPEAKER_00]: The northern kingdom of Israel fell, then the southern kingdom of Judah fell and they were taken away to a place called Babylon where they said we sat by the rivers and we wept. 06:43.183 --> 06:55.810 [SPEAKER_00]: Separated from people, separated from community, separated from temple worship, separated from all of the separated from a sense of national identity and personal spiritual identity too. 06:56.170 --> 07:01.033 [SPEAKER_00]: And right here in Isaiah sixty, God is decree their return. 07:02.411 --> 07:08.158 [SPEAKER_00]: arise, shine, your light has come. 07:09.039 --> 07:20.013 [SPEAKER_00]: Now this return, ashes in something very, very specific, because it says as the people come back, not only they don't come back alone, 07:21.315 --> 07:25.318 [SPEAKER_00]: They come back with all of the nations streaming towards them. 07:25.538 --> 07:29.320 [SPEAKER_00]: Did you know that Old Testament Israel was always meant to be a light to the nations? 07:29.740 --> 07:35.264 [SPEAKER_00]: We think about our God's working with this small group of people, this kind of ramshackle group through the desert. 07:35.644 --> 07:40.808 [SPEAKER_00]: Now God was always trying to build a global movement out of a small group of people. 07:41.688 --> 07:49.471 [SPEAKER_00]: He was always trying to build something that was going to be far reaching out of the one, out of the two, what did he say to Abraham? 07:49.491 --> 07:52.992 [SPEAKER_00]: I will bless the nations of the earth through you. 07:54.512 --> 07:56.173 [SPEAKER_00]: And God is doing that with you. 07:56.193 --> 08:00.694 [SPEAKER_00]: You got the blessing that God brings into your life when he changes and transforms your life. 08:00.714 --> 08:02.115 [SPEAKER_00]: He's not just thinking about you. 08:02.135 --> 08:08.337 [SPEAKER_00]: He's thinking about all of the others going to stream to the kingdom through you. 08:10.330 --> 08:14.592 [SPEAKER_00]: Your return precipitates the return of others. 08:15.832 --> 08:22.916 [SPEAKER_00]: The people of God and scriptures return precipitates the return of the nations that are around them. 08:24.096 --> 08:27.618 [SPEAKER_00]: So in this vision, we become a conduit, not a container. 08:28.718 --> 08:34.541 [SPEAKER_00]: We become something that the blessing of God flows through, not just two. 08:37.334 --> 08:38.154 [SPEAKER_00]: There's hope there. 08:38.955 --> 08:41.896 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's lots of different ways you can motivate people. 08:42.497 --> 08:44.278 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you can motivate people by fear. 08:44.858 --> 08:46.719 [SPEAKER_00]: You can motivate people through anger. 08:47.079 --> 08:49.260 [SPEAKER_00]: But God motivates us people through hope. 08:50.021 --> 08:53.603 [SPEAKER_00]: And says, hey, here's a vision of what could be. 08:54.697 --> 08:55.598 [SPEAKER_00]: as the nations come. 08:55.658 --> 08:58.700 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's a vision of what could be as you return to me. 08:58.940 --> 09:00.701 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's how God motivates us. 09:01.162 --> 09:02.983 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, here's where we're going. 09:03.283 --> 09:04.744 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to become a part of it. 09:05.064 --> 09:06.425 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I'm doing. 09:06.645 --> 09:08.366 [SPEAKER_00]: What did you jump in and see it? 09:08.406 --> 09:14.491 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a hope and there is a future that can be accessed by you if you would enter into it. 09:14.551 --> 09:18.213 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not by fear, not by anger, but by hope. 09:18.794 --> 09:23.277 [SPEAKER_00]: And he begins with these words, arise, shine for your 09:24.673 --> 09:25.574 [SPEAKER_00]: Light has come. 09:26.514 --> 09:27.375 [SPEAKER_00]: Light has come. 09:28.655 --> 09:39.181 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you are an ancient Jew, someone part in the ancient Near East, part of the Hebrew Scriptures, and you read the word, light, what does it make you think of? 09:42.423 --> 09:43.264 [SPEAKER_00]: Have a think for a minute. 09:46.406 --> 09:50.028 [SPEAKER_00]: In the beginning, God created the hands of the earth and God spoke, and He said, 09:51.529 --> 09:52.769 [SPEAKER_00]: Let there be lights! 09:53.730 --> 10:04.153 [SPEAKER_00]: So the Hebrew Scriptures talk about light and it's always like a code word for so much more than just R. I was in a dark place and now I'm in a light place. 10:04.993 --> 10:06.674 [SPEAKER_00]: I can see before I didn't. 10:06.934 --> 10:10.835 [SPEAKER_00]: When God says the word light, He's talking about creation. 10:11.135 --> 10:12.917 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about new beginnings. 10:12.957 --> 10:15.339 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about a sense of new future. 10:15.599 --> 10:19.623 [SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about there being chaos and now all of a sudden there's order. 10:19.843 --> 10:23.146 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a sense of momentum and movement going forward. 10:23.386 --> 10:29.452 [SPEAKER_00]: So when God says through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah, sixty, arise and shine for your 10:30.635 --> 10:33.356 [SPEAKER_00]: Light has come to a people in exile. 10:33.676 --> 10:34.977 [SPEAKER_00]: What does that meant to do to them? 10:35.577 --> 10:36.637 [SPEAKER_00]: What does that do to you? 10:37.338 --> 10:40.139 [SPEAKER_00]: If you've been in exile, you've been in darkness. 10:40.759 --> 10:45.180 [SPEAKER_00]: And God says, a rise in shine for your light has come. 10:45.220 --> 10:46.341 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to tell you guys. 10:47.933 --> 10:55.135 [SPEAKER_00]: No matter how dark it is, God is declaring light over you, a new beginning, a new future. 10:55.715 --> 11:02.517 [SPEAKER_00]: You can see away out, you can see away forward when God declares light over you. 11:05.058 --> 11:09.699 [SPEAKER_00]: And then we turn to Revelation and we see what all the fuss was about. 11:12.165 --> 11:21.468 [SPEAKER_00]: We fast forward all the way through to Revelation where the vision of all of these nations streaming to the people of God becomes a reality. 11:22.788 --> 11:35.111 [SPEAKER_00]: We see it in Revelation, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from old tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and the land. 11:35.812 --> 11:40.393 [SPEAKER_00]: So as I saw a light, John in Revelation sees the land. 11:42.169 --> 11:45.570 [SPEAKER_00]: The light becomes personal. 11:48.111 --> 11:58.334 [SPEAKER_00]: The radiance of the people of God has found its true source, not in architecture, not in geography, but in the person of Jesus Christ. 12:01.214 --> 12:06.476 [SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah saw nations streaming to the light and John saw them standing in the midst of it. 12:08.669 --> 12:11.392 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, many of you will have traveled. 12:11.732 --> 12:12.553 [SPEAKER_00]: Done a bit of travel. 12:12.573 --> 12:14.274 [SPEAKER_00]: You've clipped on the backpack. 12:14.575 --> 12:16.136 [SPEAKER_00]: You've braved the hostels. 12:16.456 --> 12:19.980 [SPEAKER_00]: You've made you way through different places and parts of the world. 12:20.320 --> 12:23.202 [SPEAKER_00]: And you've gone to see things that you hadn't seen before. 12:23.863 --> 12:30.627 [SPEAKER_00]: You've gone on a pilgrimage to be able to explore the world, to see something new, to engage with a different culture. 12:30.887 --> 12:32.828 [SPEAKER_00]: Here we have a different kind of pilgrimage. 12:33.108 --> 12:39.392 [SPEAKER_00]: We've got people streaming to the people of God as they've returned back to their place after exile. 12:39.612 --> 12:42.714 [SPEAKER_00]: They're streaming back with, they're not streaming to see something new. 12:43.114 --> 12:45.115 [SPEAKER_00]: They're making a pilgrimage of worship. 12:46.236 --> 12:51.079 [SPEAKER_00]: They're coming to a place to engage with a presence. 12:52.527 --> 12:54.790 [SPEAKER_00]: coming to worship. 12:56.352 --> 13:00.036 [SPEAKER_00]: And so once they're exiled, now they're full of hope. 13:01.218 --> 13:03.300 [SPEAKER_00]: And guys, we're seeing this in our church. 13:04.468 --> 13:24.116 [SPEAKER_00]: We're seeing this, you know, the COVID times was a great exile for the people of God, and I don't mean that in hyperbole, and I don't mean to, I don't mean to kind of fluff it up to be bigger than what it was, but globally you think about the exile of people being separated from communities and from others, and now we're seeing the light. 13:24.136 --> 13:27.698 [SPEAKER_00]: Has come to you know, Discovery Church in the last three years has grown, for thirty three percent? 13:29.396 --> 13:38.844 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I'll tell you why, because people who were separated and who were disconnected, and some people have never ever been to church before in their entire life. 13:39.925 --> 13:46.830 [SPEAKER_00]: The exile did something on the inside, and people said, you know what, I'll get my life right with God. 13:47.771 --> 13:56.238 [SPEAKER_00]: So the people that are sitting around you, and next to you, I'm just all everyone who was here before, nah, about forty percent of people who are here, never been here before that. 13:57.563 --> 14:12.047 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's because, as people return to God, the nations come, those who are on the outside come, the prodigals have come, the people who are estranged have come, the people who are marginalized have come because the light is starting to shine. 14:13.167 --> 14:16.228 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is not just our story, it's a global story, my friends. 14:17.708 --> 14:19.709 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a global story. 14:22.552 --> 14:24.172 [SPEAKER_00]: And so the city's not at the center. 14:24.592 --> 14:26.253 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not building something for us. 14:27.093 --> 14:31.914 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not building something because we want to make the church's name now. 14:33.354 --> 14:35.474 [SPEAKER_00]: This is about making Jesus name great. 14:36.315 --> 14:37.275 [SPEAKER_00]: He's at the center. 14:37.855 --> 14:40.275 [SPEAKER_00]: When you get to Revelation and you see, oh, it's not just a light. 14:40.335 --> 14:41.276 [SPEAKER_00]: It's actually a lamb. 14:42.036 --> 14:44.216 [SPEAKER_00]: He's the one who's there. 14:45.076 --> 14:46.397 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not about a city's glory. 14:46.437 --> 14:48.577 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about Christ's glory. 14:50.393 --> 14:54.394 [SPEAKER_00]: But we do need to talk just for a minute about this. 14:54.754 --> 14:58.896 [SPEAKER_00]: When we talk about global issues, we're going to talk about the elephant in the room, right? 15:01.117 --> 15:02.237 [SPEAKER_00]: So, all right, to talk about it. 15:04.038 --> 15:16.562 [SPEAKER_00]: But because we celebrate what's going on in Vision Offering, we celebrate the way that we're engaging with organizations like Ephacore, with compassion, with Glen and Jane Cox. 15:18.142 --> 15:19.203 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to speak of 15:20.437 --> 15:22.258 [SPEAKER_00]: What's happening with sober awareness? 15:23.079 --> 15:25.301 [SPEAKER_00]: Because the world's fractured, fragile. 15:25.761 --> 15:28.623 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, last couple of weeks, I've not wanted to open my phone. 15:28.663 --> 15:30.084 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to buy a newspaper. 15:30.345 --> 15:31.966 [SPEAKER_00]: You're like, oh, the world's in chaos. 15:32.026 --> 15:32.867 [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? 15:32.927 --> 15:36.610 [SPEAKER_00]: Seems so volatile, seems so kind of topsy-turvy. 15:37.110 --> 15:37.911 [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? 15:39.077 --> 15:41.718 [SPEAKER_00]: But as a church, guys, we're going to commit. 15:41.758 --> 15:46.059 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to sink down into the trenches of earthly politics. 15:46.379 --> 15:50.020 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to start picking sides and start saying, well, I like that. 15:50.320 --> 15:51.701 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't like that. 15:51.961 --> 15:55.762 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to align ourselves with those partisan divides of the world. 15:56.582 --> 16:01.806 [SPEAKER_00]: Even though we acknowledge that individuals in our community do align with them and we're cool with that. 16:03.167 --> 16:05.870 [SPEAKER_00]: You have that privilege in that right. 16:06.270 --> 16:13.275 [SPEAKER_00]: We want to continue to pray for those Christians who are in politics who are working to serve our nation and our world. 16:14.576 --> 16:18.680 [SPEAKER_00]: But our corporate posture is to take a kingdom stance. 16:20.228 --> 16:23.431 [SPEAKER_00]: an expansive view rooted in the sovereignty of God. 16:23.491 --> 16:28.596 [SPEAKER_00]: Here's a couple of things we want to affirm, and I want to affirm them with you today, and that is the God is sovereign. 16:29.337 --> 16:32.199 [SPEAKER_00]: He's doing a work from Genesis to Revelation. 16:32.259 --> 16:33.360 [SPEAKER_00]: We see it in Scripture. 16:33.701 --> 16:37.564 [SPEAKER_00]: He's writing a narrative on the earth right now, and he's in control. 16:38.445 --> 16:51.418 [SPEAKER_00]: He is the one who is at the end of the day, he's making all things new and he's using his church to do it, he's using his spirit to do it, God is sovereign and you can trust him. 16:52.078 --> 17:00.126 [SPEAKER_00]: And even in the midst of the volatility and the craziness that's going on, I'm so glad that I know that God who holds the future. 17:00.987 --> 17:04.690 [SPEAKER_00]: Come on, we've got to be able to hold to that. 17:05.331 --> 17:09.194 [SPEAKER_00]: We've got to be able to also affirm that Jesus is peace. 17:09.934 --> 17:12.236 [SPEAKER_00]: He came to abolish dividing walls. 17:12.616 --> 17:20.062 [SPEAKER_00]: He came to abolish enmity and make peace by His blood shared on a cross. 17:21.143 --> 17:25.867 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a day coming, my friends, where swords will be beaten into plow shares. 17:27.588 --> 17:29.030 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a day coming, my friends. 17:29.966 --> 17:33.848 [SPEAKER_00]: where need they will not learn a war anymore. 17:35.169 --> 17:49.536 [SPEAKER_00]: There is a day coming and we can affirm that that in Christ, here's the spirit of peace and we can yearn and pray and grieve and long for that in our world. 17:51.017 --> 17:55.900 [SPEAKER_00]: And then thirdly we stand in solidarity with the church in every nation, every nation. 17:56.825 --> 18:01.468 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you know the church in Iran is absolutely gone crazy right now, growing like nuts? 18:02.368 --> 18:04.489 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you know the church in Israel is gone nuts right now? 18:05.150 --> 18:16.056 [SPEAKER_00]: You know the church in China, right where it's illegal to be a Christian, pretty soon they're projecting that China will be the biggest Christian nation in the world. 18:17.677 --> 18:22.240 [SPEAKER_00]: IE, the nation with the most Christians in it, and they all meet in homes. 18:24.421 --> 18:25.262 [SPEAKER_00]: Let that sink in. 18:26.348 --> 18:31.967 [SPEAKER_00]: just for a minute, that when you try to squash the church, it's when we grow. 18:37.823 --> 18:46.006 [SPEAKER_00]: So we stand with Christians and churches, faithful people, men and women of faith, who follow the person of Jesus in every nation. 18:46.706 --> 18:58.271 [SPEAKER_00]: Particularly in places that are in conflict zones, places that are persecuted, places that are really, really tough to be able to be a Christian, we want to pray for them. 18:58.951 --> 19:00.092 [SPEAKER_00]: and we want to stand with them. 19:00.832 --> 19:05.735 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm going to, before we jump into the application points for this message, I would just love to pray right now. 19:05.795 --> 19:06.235 [SPEAKER_00]: Is that alright? 19:06.255 --> 19:07.075 [SPEAKER_00]: Can we pray together? 19:07.896 --> 19:09.657 [SPEAKER_00]: So Lord Jesus, you are our peace. 19:11.013 --> 19:16.758 [SPEAKER_00]: And in a world that feels like it's breaking, we lift up those cord in the crossfire of war and fear. 19:17.618 --> 19:28.847 [SPEAKER_00]: And we pray Lord God strengthen your church in Israel, strengthen your church in Iran, strengthen your church, and your people wherever they're found bearing witness to you in hard, hard places. 19:30.068 --> 19:31.009 [SPEAKER_00]: We pray for wisdom. 19:31.990 --> 19:33.171 [SPEAKER_00]: We pray for restraint. 19:33.211 --> 19:37.014 [SPEAKER_00]: We pray for a movement of your spirit in in ways that we cannot see. 19:38.418 --> 19:45.481 [SPEAKER_00]: We pray Lord God make wars to cease, make hearts to turn, and let your reconciling love renew our world in Jesus name. 19:47.062 --> 19:47.422 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 19:48.703 --> 19:48.903 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 19:48.983 --> 19:49.263 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. 19:50.103 --> 19:53.024 [SPEAKER_00]: Three application points, then we're gonna give him pray. 19:53.705 --> 19:54.445 [SPEAKER_00]: First one's this. 19:57.006 --> 20:00.768 [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom does not stop at our border. 20:03.225 --> 20:10.349 [SPEAKER_00]: So, God's plan isn't to get the nations into the church, but it's to get the church into the nations. 20:12.711 --> 20:15.232 [SPEAKER_00]: I thought that was going to be a better response than that. 20:16.033 --> 20:17.654 [SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I thought this is a good one. 20:18.374 --> 20:19.195 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me say it again. 20:19.255 --> 20:24.598 [SPEAKER_00]: God's plan is not to try and get everyone here, but to get everyone here there. 20:25.779 --> 20:27.720 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that's the plan. 20:29.103 --> 20:30.664 [SPEAKER_00]: Our church should not be measured. 20:30.704 --> 20:34.587 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been said before by a seeding capacity, but sending capacity. 20:35.387 --> 20:36.508 [SPEAKER_00]: We've got a send. 20:36.888 --> 20:37.909 [SPEAKER_00]: We've got to go. 20:38.389 --> 20:44.313 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about engaging with what God's doing in us so that we can go and be out there. 20:44.353 --> 20:46.374 [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom does not stop at our borders. 20:46.674 --> 20:53.218 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't stop at the corner of the property of eighty-nine or ninety-one mumble grotes, hundred and thirty-cranburg grotes, Frankston. 20:53.458 --> 20:55.300 [SPEAKER_00]: The property is not the kingdom. 20:56.120 --> 20:57.942 [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom is in our community. 20:58.342 --> 21:04.869 [SPEAKER_00]: It's being expanded into our global reaches through these organizations through individuals who go. 21:04.889 --> 21:08.032 [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom doesn't stop at our borders. 21:09.053 --> 21:14.638 [SPEAKER_00]: Our nations show come to your light, but let's not just reduce this down to, oh, that sounds really nice. 21:14.698 --> 21:18.002 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's kind of like a really beautiful sentimental thing to say. 21:20.673 --> 21:32.444 [SPEAKER_00]: And for cause advocacy in India has led to over eleven thousand families seeing increase in their living because of what they've done. 21:33.405 --> 21:40.492 [SPEAKER_00]: Over eleven thousand families, access to pensions, toilets, income sources, maternal child health, this is transformation. 21:40.552 --> 21:41.192 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just aid. 21:43.273 --> 21:45.394 [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom doesn't stop at our borders, friends. 21:45.774 --> 21:47.595 [SPEAKER_00]: So here's the first thing I want you to do. 21:47.615 --> 21:50.176 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to start putting a passport on your prayer life. 21:51.176 --> 21:55.738 [SPEAKER_00]: Right, you've got a passport, maybe, that you've got kind of sitting somewhere in your filing cabinet at home. 21:55.978 --> 22:05.681 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to get a passport for your prayer life and start stamping it with different nations, with different places, with different things that we've engaged with over time that you've seen. 22:05.921 --> 22:10.223 [SPEAKER_00]: The stories that we're telling start to passport those things and stamp them. 22:11.877 --> 22:15.060 [SPEAKER_00]: get in prayer for what God's doing around the world. 22:16.801 --> 22:18.062 [SPEAKER_00]: Global imagination. 22:20.044 --> 22:25.168 [SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, the marginalized are not a project at the point. 22:27.087 --> 22:42.480 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a project because when you get out there and you serve and you see and you go out and you go, oh we're going to do our, I do our bit for the poor people wherever, oh my gosh, what you realize is when you get there, you're meeting Jesus. 22:43.621 --> 22:46.484 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not and you need it just as much as them. 22:47.224 --> 22:54.531 [SPEAKER_00]: When can you tell me of a time or do you sit here completely self-sufficient, never needing any help ever from anyone at any time ever? 22:56.089 --> 22:57.290 [SPEAKER_00]: You've got emotional needs. 22:58.030 --> 22:59.411 [SPEAKER_00]: You've got financial needs. 23:00.031 --> 23:01.632 [SPEAKER_00]: You've got spiritual needs. 23:02.273 --> 23:06.255 [SPEAKER_00]: And in all of those things, they require humility to access help. 23:07.756 --> 23:12.859 [SPEAKER_00]: And when we go, what we realize is, I actually don't have it all together. 23:14.440 --> 23:22.765 [SPEAKER_00]: And that the person that is sitting in front of me in so many ways is more healed and more whole and more equipped than I am. 23:24.485 --> 23:26.966 [SPEAKER_00]: I am meeting Jesus. 23:31.189 --> 23:33.951 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I want you to change the way that you see partnership. 23:35.311 --> 23:49.539 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, because compassion partnering in Cambodia through the traumatic history of the last forty-fifty years there is actually seeing a generational and national shift as they engage with young people to develop leaders in that place. 23:50.620 --> 23:58.304 [SPEAKER_00]: Leaders that are going to be able to tell a different story moving forward to the story that they've been told for the last forty or fifty years. 23:58.764 --> 24:08.228 [SPEAKER_00]: It becomes about a generational transition of hope and of light moving forward and we get the privilege guys are partnering with that. 24:08.649 --> 24:15.332 [SPEAKER_00]: We're the first church to engage with that project with the churches through Compassion in Cambodia ever. 24:18.543 --> 24:24.688 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I want you to change the way that you see partnership, not as like recipient or giver, but as co-labours in the gospel. 24:25.689 --> 24:31.194 [SPEAKER_00]: Because it takes just as much to receive as it does to give. 24:33.356 --> 24:35.318 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't go to the margins to save people. 24:36.579 --> 24:37.680 [SPEAKER_00]: You go then and meet Jesus. 24:39.616 --> 24:42.837 [SPEAKER_00]: Thirdly, and finally, you're already part of the global church. 24:43.057 --> 24:46.659 [SPEAKER_00]: This might be news too, and this might sound a little bit funny, but guess what? 24:47.419 --> 24:57.943 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, when you think, oh, we pray for the people in here and there, and we look at it really objectively and look at the globe, like, oh, there's the global church that's happening, and it's kind of separate to us. 24:58.244 --> 24:58.804 [SPEAKER_00]: Guess what? 24:59.404 --> 25:01.686 [SPEAKER_00]: There are other people who think that about you, too. 25:02.386 --> 25:03.547 [SPEAKER_00]: And they're praying for you. 25:03.567 --> 25:07.930 [SPEAKER_00]: And they go, oh, we pray for the believers in the Arab alley. 25:07.970 --> 25:12.474 [SPEAKER_00]: We're praying for the believers in the share of the Arab ranges in Victoria, in Australia. 25:12.694 --> 25:15.836 [SPEAKER_00]: You're part of the global church that others are praying for as well. 25:17.017 --> 25:17.797 [SPEAKER_00]: You're part of it. 25:18.578 --> 25:25.023 [SPEAKER_00]: We're all part together of a big body that is that God is renewing over time on the earth. 25:26.408 --> 25:29.290 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't go to the global church when you go overseas. 25:31.532 --> 25:33.393 [SPEAKER_00]: You're in the moment you say yes to Jesus. 25:35.415 --> 25:37.957 [SPEAKER_00]: He's redeemed you and brought you into a big, global family. 25:39.178 --> 25:40.599 [SPEAKER_00]: You're part of Revelation seven. 25:40.619 --> 25:41.159 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you know that? 25:42.160 --> 25:48.605 [SPEAKER_00]: So every tribe and tongue, every language, under heaven, every nation, you'll be there. 25:48.665 --> 25:48.885 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 25:56.810 --> 25:57.350 [SPEAKER_00]: So you're in it. 25:57.891 --> 25:59.372 [SPEAKER_00]: You're in Revelation seven. 26:00.692 --> 26:02.914 [SPEAKER_00]: Along with every other nation, you're part of the global church. 26:04.515 --> 26:07.136 [SPEAKER_00]: So let you're giving reflect where you belong. 26:08.617 --> 26:16.422 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not giving out a guilt, but because we're part of something eternal, part of something imaginative, part of something generative, part of something that's moving forward. 26:17.582 --> 26:21.405 [SPEAKER_00]: So right now what we're going to do is we're going to move into this time. 26:22.332 --> 26:31.559 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, this is a big day for us as a church because we're saying yes together to what God's doing in our home, in our community and right around the world team. 26:31.819 --> 26:33.800 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'd love it if you could calm, that would be sweet. 26:34.901 --> 26:36.422 [SPEAKER_00]: But today's a celebration. 26:38.104 --> 26:39.585 [SPEAKER_00]: It's celebration time. 26:41.106 --> 26:42.387 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not tax time. 26:44.026 --> 26:45.587 [SPEAKER_00]: It's celebration time. 26:46.607 --> 26:52.990 [SPEAKER_00]: It's celebration time because we're leading towards something eternal together as a church. 26:53.651 --> 26:58.933 [SPEAKER_00]: We're connecting ourselves with brothers and sisters in faith right around the world. 27:00.794 --> 27:07.157 [SPEAKER_00]: We're giving to sea desires light and revelations worship realized in our time and in our day. 27:08.177 --> 27:09.218 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a response. 27:10.879 --> 27:13.220 [SPEAKER_00]: And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pray for us 27:14.870 --> 27:21.235 [SPEAKER_00]: And then after that, there's going to be QR code on the screen to give to our vision offering in twenty twenty five. 27:21.255 --> 27:28.221 [SPEAKER_00]: There's also slips that our hosts have that you can fill out and put into the giving stations around the room. 27:28.661 --> 27:32.605 [SPEAKER_00]: Then I'm going to invite back who's going to lead us in a time of prayer. 27:34.126 --> 27:35.167 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's pray together. 27:35.207 --> 27:40.331 [SPEAKER_00]: Father, we want to thank you that the kingdom does not stop at our border. 27:41.445 --> 27:53.873 [SPEAKER_00]: We want to thank you, Lord God, for the marginalized in our world who are not there to give us a project, but Lord God, to presence and image Jesus, back to us. 27:55.634 --> 28:06.842 [SPEAKER_00]: Lord God, we want to thank you that we're part of a global family, we're part of the global church, and Lord God, when one part suffers, we all suffer, when one part rejoices, we all rejoice. 28:08.883 --> 28:10.144 [SPEAKER_00]: And so today, Lord God, 28:11.463 --> 28:13.985 [SPEAKER_00]: by your Holy Spirit we pray you'd move amongst us. 28:15.627 --> 28:29.400 [SPEAKER_00]: Like you did at the beginning, when the Spirit hovered over the waters, and then the word of God spoke and said, let there be light, I pray, Lord God, there would be light that we would arise and shine to. 28:31.963 --> 28:36.507 [SPEAKER_00]: And we pray, Lord God, that nations would come to that light. 28:38.635 --> 28:46.577 [SPEAKER_00]: that nations would come to that light and kings and queens to the brightness of that rising. 28:50.939 --> 29:06.043 [SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit inspired us to take a risk, inspire us to step out, inspire us to be courageous as we give and as we pray in Jesus mighty name. 29:10.672 --> 29:26.436 [SPEAKER_00]: As we move into this time of giving, the Lamb's always at the center of why we give. 29:28.837 --> 29:29.897 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't stay in heaven. 29:31.238 --> 29:32.798 [SPEAKER_00]: He crossed the greatest divide. 29:33.558 --> 29:37.639 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus himself stepped into darkness so that we could live in light. 29:39.120 --> 29:39.980 [SPEAKER_00]: He became poor. 29:41.068 --> 29:42.569 [SPEAKER_00]: so that we could be rich in grace. 29:43.870 --> 29:50.093 [SPEAKER_00]: He was excluded and crucified outside the city gate so that you and I could be welcomed in. 29:52.635 --> 29:59.419 [SPEAKER_00]: And now every tribe, every tongue, every nation, will gather. 30:00.299 --> 30:06.903 [SPEAKER_00]: Every nation will gather, not around the cause, but around the king. 30:11.375 --> 30:14.602 [SPEAKER_00]: So let our giving today church reflect that identity. 30:16.686 --> 30:19.151 [SPEAKER_00]: Let that identity reflect the King in Jesus name.