Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Well done. Well, Happy New Year to you all. You've done it. You didn't think you'd be able to go an hour without chocolate, but you've done it so far today. Well done to you. I hope you haven't overindulged too much over the festive period, but I'm so excited to start today a two week series on our vision for you and our vision for the region and our vision, what we believe God is inviting us to, to be a part of. I'm sure you've come to the end of some years in the past and you thought, you know, I haven't fulfilled the potential that's in me. I love potential. I think potential is a great thing to spot in other people. But I also get really frustrated when I see that there's potential that is just not being accomplished and not being hit. It's one of the most frustrating things that when you see someone get to the end of their life and they think about what could have been, what would have been, if only they'd stepped into the fullness of their potential. And so in these next few moments, we're gonna look together at how you can step into the fullness of what God has got for you. We're gonna look at some things that have got some people stuck in the room and stuck in certain places, preventing you from stepping into potential. And we're gonna look at a way that you can step forward into that. That's where we're gonna go in these next few moments. But I'd love to do something I wasn't planning on doing. I'd love to take a moment where we pray for all of our under 25s and pick up on some of these themes that we've seen here this morning, that God is wanting to do something new and we need to speak life over one another, speak prophetically over one another. And I would love, in this day, when we are about to look at the importance of all of us, I would love us to speak life over our under 25s or 25s and under. So if you're 25 and under, will you just raise your hand, give me a wave?
[00:01:58] And those who are waving, would you stand where you are? If you're happy for people to pray with you, would you just stand a moment? We would love to gather around you and we would love to pray and prophesy that this will be a year that you will step into the fullness of the things of God. This will be a year of not wasted opportunities. This will not be a year where you look back in 12 months time and think, I wish I'd done something differently. But this is a year where God will bring life over your life and through your life in the name of Jesus. So if you're around these people, would you raise out your hands towards them and would you begin to speak life over them now? Would you begin to speak the life of God?
[00:02:41] Come on, let your words articulate. What is it you're wanting to see rise up in this generation today? What is it that you believe God wants to do in them and through them?
[00:02:55] We all too easy know the challenges that come against them. But in the name of Jesus, we speak the life of God over every woman or every man. We speak the life of God over them. We speak over them that they will know the breath of heaven breathing into their lives, breathing into their studies, breathing into their relationships, breathing into their dreams and their desires, breathing into their careers. They will know the life of God pouring through them, that they will not just survive this next year. They will thrive in the things of God. They will rise into the purposes and the fullness of all the Lord has for them. Can these bones of this generation live? And we say, yes, Lord. You can bring life, Lord. You can bring resurrection, hope. You can bring release and freedom and forgiveness and joy into their lives. And we speak it over this generation. And Lord, as we pray for those in the room, we pray for all of those across the Southwest who are among this generation. And we say, oh, God, we believe that you can cause these bones to live. Hear the word of the Lord, the Southwest. Hear the word of the Lord. Know the power and the might and the spirit of the Lord bringing transformation into a generation. We pray in the name of Jesus.
[00:04:23] Amen.
[00:04:25] Amen. Come on, let's give these guys a big clap and a cheer. Thank you for allowing us the privilege of praying with you.
[00:04:35] Wonderful.
[00:04:37] So how do you and I fulfill the purposes of God in our lives in 2025?
[00:04:43] How do we make sure that our lives are aligned entirely with the purposes of God?
[00:04:53] How do we as a church community ensure we step in line with all that God desires to do in us and through us in these critical days?
[00:05:07] Today, I'm going to help you align your lives with God's purpose. But before I do that, you might want to ask yourself the question, does your life really matter?
[00:05:20] Does it matter whether or not you align to God's best this year?
[00:05:26] Does it really matter if you get to the end of this year and miss the purposes of God. Listen to this answer.
[00:05:35] Yes, it does absolutely matter. It matters more than you realize. It matters more than a car with a missing tire. It matters more than a song with a missing chorus. It matters more than a jigsaw with a missing piece. You matter. You are important. You are a part of the purposes and the plans of God. And you need to hear this this morning. If you've come into this room feeling deflated, if you've come into this room feeling insignificant, if you've sat at the most obscure part of the building in order that no one notices you because you don't think they notice you anyway, if you sat at the front desiring to get some notice and some attention because you feel like you haven't got much to give. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, your life matters. And fulfilling the purposes of God in your life matters. This year there are several things that God has invited us, both individually and collectively as a church, to fulfill. And over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to help us unpack and invite you to respond to God's invitation.
[00:06:49] There's a wonderful verse in Habakkuk 2:14, and it says this for as the waters fill the sea and the journey I had this morning filled the roads as well, to be honest. But for as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of God. I want to live in those days.
[00:07:18] I want to live in the days when every neighbor that lives around me, where every contact I make during the week, where every shop I go into, where every person I meet is filled with an awareness of the glory of God. That's the world I want to live in. And it's the world that God designed. It's the world that God created us for. It's a world that the world needs.
[00:07:44] Politics will not fix the problems of this world. New political leaders or new political parties will not fix the issues of this world. New philosophies of politics will not fix the issues of this world. Better education will not fix the issues of this world. Advancements in technology will not fix the issues in this world. The issues the problems of this world are the issues of the heart, and the only thing that resolves it is the glory of God invading the space of our hearts and transforming us into his likeness. It's the only hope of the nation. It's the only hope of the nations.
[00:08:21] Nothing else works.
[00:08:25] The gospel is the hope of glory to a world that's lost and dying. And the gospel brings transformation to the most unlikely people on the earth.
[00:08:37] The gospel goes into the deepest places of darkness and brings transforming light.
[00:08:44] I want to be alive in a day where the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord, just like the seas are filled with water.
[00:08:53] But how can the world move from a place of current ignorance to the awareness of the glory of God to a place where everyone is aware?
[00:09:06] Well, God has a plan.
[00:09:09] Ephesians 3:10 says this.
[00:09:13] God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. God's plan to reveal Himself to the world is the church.
[00:09:38] You go on a few verses in Ephesians 3:20, 21. It says, now all glory to God, who is able through his mighty power at work. Where?
[00:09:55] Where is his mighty power at work?
[00:10:00] Is it in the big gospel campaigns in African countries?
[00:10:04] Well, yes it is.
[00:10:06] Is it in the most remote parts of the world where the gospel is arriving in the middle of jungles and revealing? Yes, it is, because it's in us.
[00:10:22] Look at your hands in front of you and say, the power of the gospel is at work in the possessor of this hand. He's at work in us, the church.
[00:10:34] And it says, now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we may ask or think.
[00:10:46] Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever, ever. Amen.
[00:10:59] The church. And you know what the church is, don't you? You know it's not the building. This is not a church building. This is a building that is used by the church. But the cathedral in the city center, that's not the church. That's a church building that is used by the church. The church is not the building. But the church is not even the gathering of the people. The church is the people of God stepping into the fullness of following God and fulfilling his purposes on the earth together.
[00:11:32] The church is the revealer of the glory of God.
[00:11:37] The church is you and I filled with his mighty power, working within us in a way where he can do infinitely more than we can ask or even think or imagine. That's the power of the gospel today. I refuse to allow anybody to tell me that the church is not going to continue to thrive across the earth, because I believe that it's God's plan that when his people allow his presence to work powerfully within them, that he can do infinitely more than we can ask, think or imagine. That's the gospel that I believe in. And it's the call for us to speak the life that we've heard about this morning, to speak to the dry bones with conviction and with authority and with power, because he is infinitely able to do above and beyond what we can ask, think or imagine.
[00:12:35] Our vision as a church is simply summed up in one simple sentence.
[00:12:40] It says, revealing the glory of God to the Southwest and beyond.
[00:12:49] Do you know there are 5.7 million people who live in the Southwest? In the last census in 2021, there were 6 million fewer people who identified as Christians in the nation than the previous census ten years before that. We know that many of those who identify as Christians wear it more as a name tag rather than a transformational experience.
[00:13:17] Church attendance is now below 5% among the population, and in many areas of the country, particularly rural locations, it is even significantly lower.
[00:13:31] Let me ask a question. In that context, is it our goal as a church to build a bigger church?
[00:13:39] No.
[00:13:41] Our goal is not to get more bums on seats in this place or any other place we acquire in the years that are ahead. That's not our goal. Our goal is to reveal the glory of God to the entire 5.7 million people and beyond.
[00:14:02] It's not just to have a few extra people coming to church. Because if our vision was to have a bigger church, it would be all you'd have to do to be a part of fulfilling that is, come every week and bring a friend and we'd be fulfilling the vision. But that's not the vision. It's way bigger than that.
[00:14:23] We have a need for this transformative gospel to be spread across the Southwest, and we believe that's what God's invited us to be a part of.
[00:14:35] I believe that there's a critical task to be done, and this requires you and me to align fully to the purposes of God.
[00:14:46] And this week and next week, I'm going to look at two expressions that we believe that are particular keys that God has given us here at Rediscovery to help you to fulfill the purposes of God, to help the church serve the Lord in fulfilling his vision and his purposes, and for us to see the glory of God fill the Southwest just like the waters cover the sea. I believe I can see across the Southwest fires alighting in villages, towns and cities where lives will be impacted by its flames, where the gospel will transform the most unlikely where drug gangs will be broken, where. Where trafficking gangs will be broken, where the gospel will go for the most needy context and situations and bring transformation.
[00:15:35] I love those stories of the Welsh revival where there were days when the courts didn't have one case to listen to because no crime was being committed.
[00:15:49] I longed to live in those days.
[00:15:53] I long to live at a time where people are not withholding crime.
[00:16:02] They're not engaging in it because they may get caught. But they're not engaging in it because the gospel has transformed their heart and give them a higher purpose for living.
[00:16:13] I long to see that day. Do you believe we could see that?
[00:16:18] Do you want to see that?
[00:16:21] I'm not sure we do, if I'm honest with you. At times, I'm not sure that we're not too conditioned and comfortable because to get to that place, it's going to require us to move from the comfortable place where we stand. And in fact, before I share with you one of these keys that I believe will help you and me step together into the fullness of what God's got for us. I believe that God showed me three metaphorical places that there are people in this room camping out at one of these three places.
[00:17:08] And ironically, there are three places that every good, healthy church should have.
[00:17:14] But they're not meant to be places of residency. They're meant to be places that you visit.
[00:17:19] What do I mean? Let me explain.
[00:17:22] Well, the three places, they can begin with A, B and C. The first beginning with A is Accident and Emergency.
[00:17:35] If you've ever visited Accident and Emergency, first of all, it's a test of your patience, isn't it? Not just patience with a T on the end, but your patience with a CE on the end. That there is such a waiting list often.
[00:17:52] I remember visiting AE a number of years ago where I had a golf injury.
[00:17:57] I cut my forehead with someone's swing and the blood was profusely pouring out of my skull. Still got the war wounds somewhere to show on my forehead. I've never really played golf since then. It's a very dangerous sport. In fact, I hear that some of the biggest reasons that people go to A and E are often sport related. And sports supposed to be good for you. Very few people go to A and E because they've had an injury with a donut. So, you know, maybe eating donuts is safer than sport. I'm not sure. But I know that over the years that there are some characteristics of A and E departments, not the length of time that you have to wait because of the demands on the wonderful staff that work there. But we know that it's a place where injuries are treated, where Illnesses that require immediate attention is given.
[00:18:57] And I believe in many ways a good church needs a good A&E department.
[00:19:02] It needs rediscover needs a good A and E.
[00:19:07] And we, all of us have times in our life where things go wrong, where accidents happen, where we're not in a good place, that we need some triage and we need some help and we need some support and we need some care, we need some medication spiritually to help us to move forward.
[00:19:26] But A and E is not meant to be the place that we live.
[00:19:31] It's not meant to be our residence.
[00:19:34] If someone was arriving at an A and E with injuries, someone may ask the question, why?
[00:19:43] But there would be no judgment.
[00:19:46] Someone might say, how did you get this injury? How did you get this cut on your forehead, Mark? Well, I did it in a golf injury. Okay, no problem. They don't start by giving me a lecture on how I should be more careful they treat the injury. And I believe a good church with a good A and E department doesn't have a judgmental spirit about it. It's not like, well, you shouldn't have got yourself into this situation, you shouldn't have done this, you shouldn't have done that. It's like, first of all, we help respond to the need and we love the person with the need. And we put our focus on healing and well being and helping them move forward, helping them address the gaping knee that there is because of their circumstance. I believe every good church needs a good A and E department.
[00:20:30] But if they keep coming back with the same injury, then, and there's a pattern that begins to develop, then I believe that someone in the AE department would say, do you know what? Every week you visited us with this very same golf injury. Do you think you need to be thinking about a different sport? Do you think you need to work on your swing? Is there something you need to do differently because this is not healthy for you? That's not judgmentalism, that's help.
[00:21:03] That's health.
[00:21:05] And if you find yourself perpetually and continually in need of spiritual A and E, I want to ask you, is this the year for you to review the patterns and the cycles of your life and to say, I'm not meant to live here, I'm meant to visit here.
[00:21:22] And you know who staffs the AE department?
[00:21:26] Everyone who's. Well, we all do.
[00:21:31] We're all part of the team.
[00:21:34] We all love and care for one another.
[00:21:36] Churches cannot exist without a strong pastoral A and E. But if everyone is a perpetual patient, then we can't help the lost and the dying world.
[00:21:46] That's the A. The B is a barracks.
[00:21:50] The purpose of an army barracks is to provide permanent housing for military units while also separating the soldiers from the civilians and reinforcing discipline and training.
[00:22:04] Some points around this separation from civilians. The Bible says that we're separate from this world, that we're not of this world, but we are in it. And the barracks. The church as a barracks is not meant to keep us away from those who are in need in the world.
[00:22:22] Barracks in the armed forces, they keep the armed population away from the civilian population. But we are just following the example of Jesus. We are meant to be in the world.
[00:22:34] And I know that in a barracks, discipline is reinforced. They are sometimes called discipline factories for soldiers. And boy, do we need discipline. Boy, do we need. In these days, do we need us to grab ahold of things that help us to do what we don't want to do. How many of you feel like the easiest things to do are the things that you shouldn't really want to do?
[00:22:58] Why is it that the weeds grow in the garden easier than the nice flowers? Why is it that chocolate's more attractive than salad? Why are these things. Why does it feel that the challenging things of our lives are often the things that are best for us?
[00:23:13] And the same is true of the things in the spirit, that it's easier to step into the temptations of the enemy than it is to step into the fullness of the things of God. And we need to be a community of discipline, to hold one another to account, to cheer each other on in the good things that we're stepping into. But we're not meant to live in the barracks.
[00:23:39] Because even though we do training in the barracks, and I pray that we do good training here, I pray that we're like a good barracks here. We create disciplines, we create training opportunities. We help prepare you for battle, and we help create a team spirit by that sense of togetherness. But armies cannot exist without barracks. But they cannot listen to this. They cannot win battles if they never leave the barracks.
[00:24:09] This year, it's time to face your fears and get out of the barracks.
[00:24:15] It's time to put your training to practice.
[00:24:18] I've met believers who've been following Jesus 50 years, and they still don't think they're ready to leave the barracks.
[00:24:26] That, my friend, is a ploy of the enemy.
[00:24:31] That's not you being sensitive to the spirit of God.
[00:24:35] That's you yielding to the intimidatory tactics of the enemy.
[00:24:40] God hasn't called us to sing songs of victory in the barracks. He's called them to demonstrate songs of victory on the battlefield.
[00:24:49] And I believe this year God's called us to win some battles and all the army in the barracks said so. An A and E, a barracks, and the third one, a cruise ship.
[00:25:04] Cruise ships are wonderful experiences. Those who've had the privilege of going on one will know that everything is set up to please you, to serve you, to make you feel special.
[00:25:16] You get quality meals, good entertainment, comfortable environments, beautiful decorations, wonderful destinations. And if the standard of any of these is below par, then reputationally, that cruise company's reputation is damaged and people are less likely to book in the future.
[00:25:35] Now, I love that church is meant to be a place of blessing. We're loved.
[00:25:40] You're one of God's favorites. You know that.
[00:25:45] You're one of his favorites.
[00:25:48] He celebrates you.
[00:25:51] And he loves to give his children good gifts.
[00:25:54] He has blessed us, the scripture says, with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.
[00:25:59] He pours himself out in generosity and abundance on our lives. He gives us life. He gives us hope. He gives us joy. He lavishes his peace on us.
[00:26:10] He's a good God. He's a good father who loves to give his children good gifts. And I believe a good church should manifest the goodness of God. We should bless one another. Amen. We should pour into each other. We should be generous to each other. We should love each other. When you leave a conversation from someone else in church, you should leave feeling blessed by the conversation.
[00:26:35] His glory is present in his people. And therefore the manifestation of his glory should result in blessing to one another.
[00:26:44] But if our relationship with God is only defined by how we receive his blessings, we will fail to step into the fullness of his purposes.
[00:26:57] See, because as some of you do in the Bible, in a year would have read either today or yesterday that in our lives there are blessings and battles, often both concurrently together.
[00:27:11] Over this last year, we've known many blessings in our lives, Nitra and I in the family. We've seen God open doors. We've seen God provide needs. We've seen God go before us. We've seen God anoint us. We've seen God use us. And it's been blessing. But I tell you, there's been battles.
[00:27:27] There have been battles that you know nothing about. There are battles that there are things that concurrently running with the blessings that we've needed to pull out our armor and our sword and we needed to stand in the power and the authority of God and say, no, we're not having this. In the name of Jesus, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
[00:27:48] And I believe that we are in danger of causing church in the west if it doesn't meet the standards of a cruise ship, then we're going to go and find another one.
[00:28:00] And I want to let you know that when you decide to follow Jesus, he leads you to good places. He leads you to green pastures, but he also leads you to to the gates of hell, and he leads you to the places of darkness, and he leads you to the lost and the broken, and he leads you to those whose lives are so messy.
[00:28:20] And if you don't want to leave the blessing, you won't be able to follow the one with the blessing.
[00:28:29] And often we find the most beautiful expressions of God in those locations.
[00:28:35] God, I thank you for the metaphorical A and E and the barracks and the cruise ship. I thank you that this church is a place of blessing. I thank you it's a place of training. I thank you that it's a place of care.
[00:28:47] But Lord, we choose as our highest priority to follow you in all times and all matters, in all ways.
[00:28:53] Holy Spirit, show us how to break unhealthy patterns in our lives. I pray, help us to follow the example of Jesus who came to serve and not to be served.
[00:29:06] Now, let me quickly take you to this key that we're unpacking this week.
[00:29:12] In Ephesians 4:7, it says these words, now, grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
[00:29:29] For it says, when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive, and he gave gifts to people.
[00:29:38] We see in the verses that follow what these graces and gifts were.
[00:29:46] We see them identified as five graces or gifts.
[00:29:51] Apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherd, and teacher.
[00:29:59] These are five graces and gifts that the ascended Jesus, Jesus, who manifests all of these gifts, that as he ascended, it was like he tore Himself into five parts, and he distributed them to who? To the church.
[00:30:17] And these graces and these gifts are now present the Body of Christ.
[00:30:25] Let's read the verses together. Verse 11 it says, and He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry and to build up the body of Christ.
[00:30:43] As all of these graces are fully seen and manifest in the life of Jesus, we see that he now wants to manifest Himself through His church. And so he has given us these gifts, these graces, in order to help reveal him.
[00:31:02] These graces, which I'm going to shorten to apest, apostolic, prophetic, evangelical shepherd teacher. They're all needed to be demonstrated in the body of Christ if Jesus is to be fully seen, if his glory is to be fully revealed.
[00:31:18] Now the Western church has predominantly operated with the shepherds and teachers, the STs.
[00:31:27] But they are incredible graces and I thank God for them. But if they operate without the apes, the apostolic, the prophetic and the evangelists, then the church becomes a loving club rather than a world changing movement.
[00:31:48] It's why many movements throughout history have stopped being movements and have started becoming institutions.
[00:32:00] Because they have lost the apostolic, the prophetic and the evangelistic.
[00:32:07] The church needs all five if it's going to reveal the glory of God.
[00:32:13] Now the apostolic just in short summary, it's about breakthrough, it's about innovation, it's about establishing something that wasn't there previously. The prophetic is about revealing and aligning, provoking.
[00:32:35] The evangelistic is about proclaiming, communicating and convicting.
[00:32:41] Shepherding is about loving, healing and sharing.
[00:32:47] And teaching is about empowering, equipping, equipping and maturing.
[00:32:54] Now it says in the verses in Ephesians he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be shepherds, some to be teachers. And over the years this some has been understood as some special group in the church that the majority of us cannot participate in, that they may be the leaders of a church, that those are where the apostolic and the prophetic and the evangelist and the shepherd and the teachers rise up, and that God has given those some to equip the rest of us to do whatever we're called to do.
[00:33:35] It's a traditional unpacking of these verses that has been held by many people for years. But I believe because of the emphasis on the church manifesting and maturing the glory of God, I believe that the sum is is interpreted in this way. That in this room all of us have got some of the graces, but some have the emphasis on the apostolic. Some in this room have the emphasis on the prophetic, some in this room have the emphasis on the evangelistic, some have the emphasis on the shepherd, and some have the emphasis on the teacher. And together, as we all join together, we are 100% of the jigsaw of God's plan for rediscovery. We need all of the sums of the part to come together. And as we do that, as we lean on each other, as we connect, as we join together, that we help equip and empower one another to fulfill the purposes of God and to demonstrate his glory to this world. We need all of them. I believe this sum applies to each of us, but it's important that I just make a few points notes here that because you've got a shepherd grace doesn't mean to say you're called to be a pastor of a church because you've got a teaching grace. Doesn't mean to say you're going to be invited to preach other places as a teacher because you've got an apostolic grace doesn't mean to say you're going to be invited to speak at Christian conferences and write books because you've got a prophetic grace doesn't mean to say you have to start speaking in the King James language and start saying thus saith the Lord after every comment and every conversation has to fulfill something of the future tense in that conversation. Having an evangelistic grace doesn't mean to say you have to get a microphone for Christmas and start to speak on the streets about Jesus to people you don't know.
[00:35:26] I believe all of those things are genuine expressions of those gifts and those graces, but there are many more expressions of them. And I believe that you have a measure of these graces in your life, but you'll have a dominant one or two graces and that they will find their expression in every area of your life.
[00:35:49] Some of you have set up businesses and because you've pioneered, you've innovated and you've created breakthrough, you've probably got an apostolic grace on your life.
[00:36:03] Others of you have got involved in causes or charities.
[00:36:08] You're driven by a strong sense of fairness and justice.
[00:36:14] This can be driven by a prophetic grace because the ultimate call of the prophetic is to know the heart of God and to reveal the heart of God. The ultimate goal of the prophetic is not to give you a word about your future or to have a word of knowledge about your life. The ultimate goal of the prophetic is to help you see the heart of God and the prophetic. When they see an injustice in the world and they say that's not like God's heart, therefore we turn some tables over until God's heart is aligned with this world. And some of you are seeing that your causal convictions are because there's a prophetic grace on your life.
[00:36:52] Others of you have got involved in industries that compel people with messaging.
[00:36:59] Maybe you're salespeople, maybe you're involved in marketing, maybe you're involved in pr you spend your days enthusiastically, maybe even evangelistically, compelling others that their life will be better if they took on your product or they took on your services.
[00:37:19] Well, maybe that's the evangelistic grace. And what would it be like for you to use that gift and that grace to talk of the best thing that this world could ever know?
[00:37:31] Others of you are involved in care. You find ways of expressing through nursing. You shepherd other people, you carers in the home, you're carers in other people's lives. You find ways of loving on people and helping people and serving people. Maybe it's because there's a shepherd in grace on your life.
[00:37:49] Others of you are involved in teaching. I did some consultation with the church group recently, and one of the guys had come back with a response to a survey that I'm going to show you in a moment. And it said that his grace was teaching. He said, I'm not a teacher. He said, it's wrong, it's wrong. I said, well, okay, it may be wrong, but can I ask you a few questions? What do you do for a living? He said, I work in it. I said, what do you do in it? He said, I get alongside people and I coach them on how to use computers. I said, so basically you teach people. He goes, yes, that's what I do. I said, just pause for a moment. Do you think what you've just discounted that you can't have a teaching grace on your life? Actually, you do spend most of your time teaching. He said, actually, now you mention it, I think I do.
[00:38:34] You see, because these graces find a way of working their way out in our lives, maybe as a coach, as a mentor, maybe even as a teacher in a school, because they love helping other people to grab hold of concepts and realities, understanding. I wonder in those brief descriptions if you recognize your dominant grace.
[00:38:56] Thank God for how these graces help us engage with the world around us through our daily activities. But these graces are given by Jesus to reveal him to the world so that together we may present him for his glory to be revealed.
[00:39:13] So, in closing, I want to help you ask a few questions.
[00:39:17] First one, do you know the predominant graces in your life?
[00:39:22] We've connected with a simple online tool where you can answer a number of simple questions and it will help you to determine and to discern the dominant graces in your life. You can go to. There should be a URL appear on the screen in a moment. Rediscoverchurch.com apest if you go on that page, you can Access lots of teaching on this topic. You can also connect to this online assessment tool. I think it's 10 pound because of the organization, they charge us for it. And that will give you a full printout of just the grace that is discerning in your life. It's a really helpful tool. Hundreds of us have done that here in the church and it's a really helpful way to help know what great grace and gift God has put into your life. I really encourage you to do that. If you've not done that before, then do pick that up. Rediscoverchurch.comAPest secondly, do you recognize how these graces have helped shape you and how they've helped you engage with other people?
[00:40:30] You probably find that you're instinctively drawn to people who have similar graces.
[00:40:36] But God calls us to work with one another. And in fact, it's only as we join together that the fullness of God is revealed.
[00:40:47] Sometimes shepherds are really annoyed by apostolic people because shepherds like it all nice and tidy and caring and therapeutic. And the apostolic come along and they stir things up and they begin to turn some tables over and they begin to make it uncomfortable. And the shepherds going, oh, no, it was nice and tidy and you've messed it all up.
[00:41:13] But actually the shepherds need the Apostolic. But the apostolic needs the shepherds. Because if the apostolic is left to their own devices, there'll be a new plan every week. There'll be a new idea, a new innovation, a new pioneering opportunity. And the shepherds need to put the brakes and say, whoa, these people, they need some care and love and support right now. We need to speak life into them. We need to help them heal up and it only works together.
[00:41:43] And that's true for all five.
[00:41:46] And the third question, how are you?
[00:41:52] I'm making this really personal.
[00:41:54] How are you going to serve the Kingdom of God with the graces at work in your life in 2025? If you can answer that question, I guarantee you it will help you align with the purposes of God this year. It will help you get to the end of 2025 and know a sense of fulfillment on your life. If you will live clearly understanding the grace on your life and how you can apply that to the kingdom of God, it will make a difference.
[00:42:25] Many hundreds of people in the church have begun this journey over the past years.
[00:42:29] And in the year ahead, we are going to create more forums to help us grow effectively in these graces. If you haven't begun this journey, then now is a good time to start.
[00:42:40] I believe this will help you fulfill God's purposes.
[00:42:43] You are needed.
[00:42:46] You are needed. If we're going to see the glory of God revealed to the Southwest and beyond, let's pray together.
[00:43:00] This grace is a work in you, the grace of God.
[00:43:04] It's placed gifts, opportunities will be before you this year, and there'll be opportunities that will align with the grace on your life.
[00:43:15] And I just want to encourage you to fan into flame the gift of God. The grace of God.
[00:43:21] I pray for those who feel stuck at perpetual A and E.
[00:43:27] May you know the freedom of the Lord.
[00:43:29] May you know the wisdom of the Lord. May you know the healing of the Lord. To move into a new season now, I pray for those who are fearful about leaving the barracks.
[00:43:41] And I pray that you will know that the victory is not a theoretical victory, but it's a reality that you can step into the promises and the purpose of God and you can rise up in victory in you is more than an overcomer.
[00:44:00] And if you just love the relaxation, the relaxation of the cruise and this is all a little bit too uncomfortable and too stirring, I want to encourage you. Adventure with Jesus is always better than comfort with the devil.
[00:44:18] Adventure is where Jesus leads us. His spirit leads us to adventure.
[00:44:25] And I believe he wants to lead us on more adventures this year.
[00:44:31] The critical days we're in is the Southwest needs the Lord.
[00:44:35] Lord, let your flame burn in me.
[00:44:39] Let your flame burn in me.
[00:44:42] If you want to position and posture your life to step into the fullness of God, would you just place your hand on your heart and say, lord, this heart, as I feel it beating in my chest and pumping the blood around my body, I pray that the metaphor of this, that the very epicenter of who I am, will fully yield to you, you, that your purposes will be revealed in me and through me. May your glory be revealed through your church this year.
[00:45:14] May the fullness of Christ be demonstrated. In the name of Jesus, I pray.
[00:45:21] Amen.
