What does God want for His Church?

0 (0s): When does it begin to see your smiling faces? Let's pray as we begin and just invite God's presence. You're so good to us. You're so faithful. God, we depend on you. All that we have need of this morning. 0 (30s): We pray that you would meet us. Let's pray that your love would wash over every hurting heart. Every anxious thoughts set our minds on Jesus today. There's a whole lot of stuff going on in the world around us, but we focus our hearts on Jesus. We seek your kingdom. 0 (56s): Jesus died for me. I see is 2 (5m 28s): 1 (5m 30s): . 0 (9m 20s): I just had this sense today that the Lord wants to remind us that he knows this each by name. It just seem that reminder that human tells us that he knows the number of hairs on our tears in a bottle. One of them is touched the ground. So do you think God does not know about you you're wrong? 0 (9m 50s): He knows your whole story. There's nothing that's been out of his sight. He's near to us now. 0 (9m 59s): 1 (14m 50s): 0 (15m 16s): Yeah, it's a choice. Choose him to love him to follow him. You decided to follow Jesus, Lord. There's no turning back. The hardware's going to follow you wherever you need us. We're going to praise your name through the good times in the bath, ms. Lord, we know that she loved us and you care for us carrying us through those hardest times. Thank you that we can depend on you. It's your faithful. She love us more than we could ever comprehend higher than the heavens wider than the sea. 0 (15m 55s): He gets his love for us. Just pray that you would help us just to experience your love and account of your presence all through this morning. And His we receive your word this morning is Steve brings a message that you would just open our hearts to receive all that you have for us. We ask this in Jesus name, amen, woof, rollover so much. You're here. Would you take a moment to just say hello to someone around you? And then we'll be back in just a few moments with some announcements. 3 (16m 29s): So if you're new here, there's a, this is the sanctuary where I'm, where I'm speaking. And then behind us is the loft in between that as the breezeway and there's, that's where the bathrooms are. There's sometimes there's a little confusion with that. There's bathrooms are in the breezeway. We have the loft and we also have a third outdoor service that's in the patio. So a few different ways. If you want to come and visit us in person, but not comfortable to be in, in a building it, so those are there for you upcoming. We have a growth track that's coming up. It's, it's our way of connecting you to the, to the body. 3 (17m 0s): It's it's a way to find out the history of Harvest Church, it's a way to figure out what's going on and how you can plug in. So that's the God growth track. It's a four weeks course, and it's, it's, it's just a small intimate group that you get together and find out what's happening at Harvest Church and how you can plug in. If you're interested, you can sign up for that at the info station as well. Or you can send email to kristy@aigharvest.org to sign up. Thirdly, we have the care team. So Hey, if your spiritual gift is either helps or serving, we would love for you to plug in and to be part of the body of Christ. 3 (17m 40s): Here, we have a number of Memorial services that are coming up, and it's just a great way to bless those families. Who've gone through a lot of loss and that's just, isn't sometimes the service just involves setting up tables, loving them, them, helping bring, you know, bring meals, all that stuff. So if, if service or gifts is one of your serving or helps is one of your spiritual gifts, let us know. Or, or if that's just like, Hey, I want to do that. Let us know you can, you can, you can sign up for that at info at AIG Harvest or go by the info booth. 3 (18m 10s): And lastly, just to reminder, next weekend will be the, or sorry, October 17th will be the beach bonfire and baptisms. And we're going to be down at the end of Grande having some worship music, having a, just a time of fellowship around a bonfire. It's going to be at the beach. So I mean, it doesn't get better than that, but we're also going to be having some baptisms. So next week, next Sunday, we'll be having a baptism class. If you have not yet been baptized. And God's putting that on your heart, we'd love to walk you through the steps, what it means to be baptized, why all that stuff. 3 (18m 42s): So that's also, you can sign up for that at the info station. So without further ado, come on up, Steve, 4 (18m 49s): Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice. You see that? She went, boom. She knows. She knows what's going on. Welcome one other announcement. So I, last week I announced that we needed a 30 more, where am I going to put this 30 more Sunday school teachers and we got five. So now we need 25. It takes 60 Sunday school volunteers to man the Sunday school department. So if you are still interested in being a part of that, but haven't signed up, please sign up and we will put you on the team. 4 (19m 23s): It's a easy one Sunday, a month. And that you got your part covered and Sunday school is covered. So that's, that's it. That's it. Hello? How's everyone. Yeah. Is it cool down out there a little bit? It has been hot. Goodness gracious. You guys ready for a joke? It seems like a very quiet group. Very, very quiet. Maybe I should just whisper. So there's this woman. No. So the joke is I'm going to try to bring everybody up a little bit. 4 (19m 53s): So this woman, this old woman, it goes to the grocery store and she doesn't realize, but she shops and she comes back out and her keys are locked in the car while she finds a coat hanger and she's working hard for about 15 or 20 minutes trying to get the car unlocked and she can't figure it out. So she prays Lord, please bring someone to help me get into my car, right about that time, this Haggard looking guy on a motorcycle pulls up, he's tatted up all over the place. He's got a skull cap on, he's looking pretty rough. 4 (20m 23s): And he's like, Hey, I can get you into your cars. So he helps her out. And within 15 seconds, she's in. And she's like, Oh, praise the Lord. She gives me a big hug. And she's so thankful that the Lord has brought this, this, this capable young man. And he said, or this good young man. And he said, Hey, I'm not good. In fact, I was just released from prison for auto. 5 (20m 48s): It seems like, Oh my goodness. And she gives the guy another big hug. And she's so thankful for you. 4 (20m 53s): You said, Lord, you even sent me a professional. 5 (20m 57s): There you go. 4 (21m 0s): Hey, listen. When you're optimistic, when you're, when your head's in the right place, you can be grateful for anything, right. Things happen. And we can find gratitude in the most crazy of circumstances. Hey, why don't we go in and stand up? We're going to be in Colossians chapter two verses one through 10 today. And I'm so I'm going to have you stand. I'm going to read through the 10 verses and then we'll pray. And then I'll unpack them one at a time. Does that sound good? Here we go. Cautious to listen. Along as I read verses one through 10, Paul writes, I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea and for the many other believers who have never met me personally, I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. 4 (21m 46s): I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself in him in Christ lie, hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge I'm telling you this. So no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments for though. I am far away from you. My heart is with you and I rejoice that you are living as you should. And that's your faith in Christ is strong, verse six. 4 (22m 18s): And now just as you accepted Christ Jesus, as your Lord, you must continue to follow him, let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ for in Christ lives, all the fullness of God in a human body. 4 (22m 48s): So you also are complete through your, you, your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority, Clawson stew one through 10 Lord. We pray as we open up the word that you would speak to us. God I know that you've had a message for each of us and it will be slightly different for each of us, but you know what we need to hear and I'm praying and I'm believing God and asking God that you will speak that truth to us. Whether we need encouragement or strength for the journey, whether we need wisdom to fight temptation or whatever it may be, whether we just need more love in our hearts for difficult people. 4 (23m 27s): I pray God that you would accomplish those wonderful, miraculous and supernatural things that we need you to accomplish in our lives and in our circumstances. So bring our bring peace and wisdom to our lives in every arena we ask Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be What. Does God want for His Church that's the title of the message today What does God want for His Church do you believe God wants something for us? When I say Church, I mean, the people of God people that make up the, the corporate gathering of believers, I believe God's got something for his church. 4 (24m 6s): And so I'm just going to give you the answers out of the Gates. I'll give you the first, the three points that I'll be teaching out teaching from today. I'll give you those. And then I will go back and hit them one at a time. So what does God want for his Church number one, he wants the church to be encouraged. He wants the church to be encouraged. Number two, he wants the Church unified and number three, he wants the church confidence. God wants this for the church. He wants this for you and for me, and because God wants this, get this because God wants it. 4 (24m 41s): Paul wants it. Paul's writing under the inspiration of the Holy spirit, but his heart aligns with God. And because God wants something for the church, the apostle Paul also also wants this for the church. There's something powerful in that understanding. When we begin to understand what God wants, it's really, really wise to align our lives with the things that God wants. It's really, really wise. It's a good idea. That to get on board with God's plans for his church, do you want what God wants? 4 (25m 15s): I think we do. I think that's why we're here. I think we're at church every week because we want to know what God wants and we want to implement that in our lives. How do you know what God wants? Let's say in his word, these three points that we're looking at today and kind of dissecting today, all come from verse two, Colossians two, two, all three points come from Colossians two, two. So there's a lot crammed. There's a lot packed into one verse. And so as we read the scripture, sometimes we can gloss over certain areas because they seem like, well, I've read this before. 4 (25m 53s): I've studied this before. And God sometimes just wants us to slow down because I can't tell you how many times I've read Colossians chapter two, but it's been a lot over the course of my life. And every time I go to teach a familiar passage, I begin to say, Lord, show me what it is that you want me to see and understand from this revelation, from this truth that you've communicated to us, show me, and then show me what the church needs so that I can communicate what the church needs. I can stand up here all day and say all kinds of stuff. 4 (26m 23s): But if God is not speaking through me, then it's not going to be revelation. And man, it's not going to be what you need for your spiritual lives. And that's what I want. I want you to have. And I wa I want, I want to have that as well. I want what I need for my spiritual life. So we get to know what God wants through his word. And we get to know what he wants through prayer. And I'm not talking about, give me prayers, like, Hey, Lord gave me this and give me that. And I need that. And I need this, but it's the kind of prayers that touch the heart of God. If you prayed a sincere prayers, you're touching the heart of God, no matter what your request is, but there's something that God wants to do deeper within our spirits, deeper within our souls, deeper within our lives. 4 (27m 4s): He wants us to touch the heart of God and, and go to the father through the, through the purse of the Lord, Jesus Christ filled with the Holy spirit. He wants us to know, go to God wanting what God wants, and we will figure that out as we just go through the word. And as we spend time with the Lord in prayer, and often our prayers are busy, we're asking and we're, you know, thinking about a million things and we're distracted. And God sometimes just wants us to be with him. 4 (27m 36s): Not even saying a lot, but just doing our best to listen. I have a really hard time doing that, by the way. I'm so easily distracted. So what I have to do is I have to go on walks and go in nature because walks in nature helped me to focus on the attributes of God. The goodness of God helps me to understand who he is. And when I do that, I'm able to be grateful maple, to understand maybe what God is trying to communicate with me. He won't do it in a hurry. I mean, I'm usually, I mean, if you, if, if, if it needs to come in a hurry, he'll give it to you. 4 (28m 8s): But usually the answers that we're looking for come over time and maybe we prayed about it, but we don't get anything right at the moment. But over the next day or two days or week or month, the Lord will begin to show us what we needed. So we begin to figure out what God wants as we, as we pray, as we read the word. And then as we read the word and pray, we begin to trust him. It's, it's the best thing in the world to know that you can trust God, imagine you're going through the worst possible scenario. And your reaction is, but God, I trust you. 4 (28m 41s): There's just a load is lifted. All of a sudden, when you can say, when we can say, I trust you, something is lifted out of our souls. A heaviness that is on us is lifted off of our shoulders and we're able to rest in him and we can trust him. We learn to walk with him. That means we're inviting him and we're wanting to follow him. And everywhere we go, we're wanting God's presence there. So the word prayer trust, walking with him, all of these things help us to understand what God wants for his church, for his bride, for the body of Christ. 4 (29m 17s): But we have to check our mindset. So I'll ask you this question. What is your mind sets toward God? What is your mindset toward God? There's really only two mindsets in life. There is a fixed mindset and there is a growth mindset. A fixed mindset says, ah, I'm probably as smart as I'm ever going to be. I'm probably as good at golf as I'm ever going be. I'm probably as spiritual as I'm ever going to be. Probably not going to grow much more throughout the course of my life. 4 (29m 50s): It's this fixed mindset that says I'm probably not going to move beyond. There's a big, I can't attach to a fixed mindset. I can't go any further in life. A growth mindset is absolutely just the opposite, a growth mindset. 7 (30m 9s): It says that improvement is possible. 4 (30m 13s): A growth mindset says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. There's this 7 (30m 20s): Math class in Alaska math class in Alaska, that was dead last 4 (30m 26s): In math scores in the whole state of Alaska, they were dead last. They probably had a fixed mindset that said, Hey, mom was bad at math. Dad was bad at math. I'm going to be bad at math. I'm always going to be bad at math, right? A fixed mindset that says I'm never going to be any good at math. But what happened is some, some well intentioned people went into that classroom and they begin to challenge that mindset. And it began to speak truth and begin to teach, 7 (30m 56s): Teach, and coach the students so that the beginning 4 (30m 59s): And understand little by little, they begin to understand math. Like they'd never understood math before. So before long. And when the program kind of wrapped up, they were not 7 (31m 11s): Dead. Last class in 4 (31m 13s): A math class, in the state, they were the first rated class, first ranked class in all of Alaska. Pretty cool stuff, right. That's possible for us. So when I was a little guy, my mom enrolled and signed me up for little league baseball. Well, I had never played baseball before. I'd never even really watched baseball before I was raised by my mom and she wasn't interested in baseball. And so I sign up and I'm out there and I have no idea what to do. I have no idea. Somehow I had a glove and I got a cap and they gave me my uniform. 4 (31m 46s): And I said, I don't even know how to put the socks on. You know, the special, a little baseball socks. I had no idea how to put those on. So I'm watching my buddy put his on. I'm like, Oh, put the white socks on first, then the socks. So I figured it out. Well, I was obviously the worst player on the team. I didn't know how to throw. I didn't know how to catch. I didn't know how to hit. I didn't know how to ground a ball. I didn't know how to do anything. It just was clueless. But one of the coaches would pull me aside. Every practice, the rest of the team would be at the baseball diamond and they were practicing and playing and actually played the game. 4 (32m 20s): Well, and I was off with the coach out in left field or right field, wherever we were. And he began to just coach me on the basics. This is how you throw the ball. This is how you catch the ball. This is how you hit the ball. This is how you feel the ground. Or this is how you catch a pop fly. This is how, and just little by little, so a couple of years of playing a little league baseball, I actually got chosen to be on the all star team. And it wasn't because I was special. I didn't know anything about the game, but somebody changed my mind. 4 (32m 53s): I went from a fixed mindset. Like I'm always going to be the knucklehead on the team, right? The worst guy on the team, my, my coach saw something that could be different in me. And I'm so grateful. So he taught me how to play baseball. And I played baseball for a long time. And I'm so, so grateful for that. There's the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A growth mindset makes change possible and improvement possible. How's your mind today? How's your mindset in Christ? Are you thinking, man? 4 (33m 23s): I'm, I'm about a spiritual as I'm ever going to be. I mean, I've read the Bible. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And so I'm not going to try to figure it out. I would say that if you're in that mindset, God wants to change your mind. He wants to flip the switch. He wants to help you understand that you can actually understand there's something powerful about God what God will do. The Holy spirit will actually begin to teach us when we're serious about learning what the Bible says. The Holy spirit will begin to teach us into this great Bible study tools that if we just we'll apply our selves, we can actually learn the Bible. 4 (33m 56s): When I was in junior high school, Randy or Gary Tucker was my, Randy was my high school pastor. Gary Tucker was my junior high youth pastor. And I would sit and in youth group and I'd look at his Bible and it was all marked up. Like he'd read that thing a thousand times. And I thought, man, I know nothing about the Bible. And just over time, God gave me the grace to have a hunger for it. And, and now for some reason, they've got me up here teaching it. I have no idea why, but this year I am. So I'm just saying that you don't start out in life having all of the answers. 4 (34m 29s): You know, you don't start out in life. Knowing what to do. Paul is wanting something for this. Church, he's writing something to this church because he desires something from them. Now they're, they're not even a bad Church. We read in the Bible about some of the churches that are bad. They've grown cold and they've lost their first love. Paul said in verse five, I rejoiced that you are living as you, 8 (34m 53s): You should. 4 (34m 56s): And that your faith in Christ is strong. So maybe you're here today and you're doing pretty well. I would just say if you're here today and you're doing pretty well, praise the Lord. Stay humble, stay teachable, right? That's probably the best advice I can give you in life. Stay humble, stay teachable. Maybe you're here struggling today. What's the answer there. Stay humble. Stay teachable. Depending on the day, depending on the day, we're all in both places, depending on the day, stay humble, stay teachable and watch what God will do. 4 (35m 27s): Paul wanted something for this church because God wanted, wanted something for this. Church what does God want for you individually? And then what does God want for our church? These are questions that we should always be asking ourselves and asking of the Lord, God, what is it that you want of me today? Or what is it that you want for me today? We're getting ready to wrap up this whole year. It's October already. I cannot believe we're in October, 2020. It was nothing like any of us expected, right? And so we're wrapping up 2020. 4 (35m 59s): And maybe we're just down to the last few months. Maybe we need to be asking the Lord, okay, Lord 2020 was nothing. Like I expected nothing that we expected. What is it that you want to do with us individually and corporately? What do you want to do with us? What do you want to show us? What do you want to teach us? What do you have for us Lord? And when, just with that openness, that perspective, that lens, God will begin to show you things. As you read the scripture, as you pray, as you trust him, as you walk with him, God will begin to show you those things. 4 (36m 30s): First one, Colossians two. I want you, 9 (36m 32s): You don't know how much I've agonized for, 4 (36m 34s): For you and for the church at Laodicea. Paul is agonizing. We assume in prayer for these churches, he's under house arrest. He can't do much more other than just agonize for this people and in prayer. So it's for this church and this collage and Church, but also for the Church that layer to see, which is about 10 miles away. So it's a neighboring city, a neighboring church. And Paul is agonizing for this group of people. He said, I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea. 4 (37m 5s): And for many other believers who have never met me personally. So he didn't plant this church. 9 (37m 12s): He didn't, he didn't know 4 (37m 15s): No, the people in the church. And yet, for some reason, he had agonized. He knew the guy who did found the Church and he agonized for these people. What did he want for these people? What was Paul agonizing over verse two tells us I want them to be encouraged. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself in him lie all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 (37m 55s): So let's take these things one at a time. Number one, he wants the church to be encouraged. God wants the church to be encouraged. Sometimes we can. We can think about encouragement and think, well, I'm just, I'm surprised. Paul's not praying for something more spiritual than encouragement, but if we're discouraged as individuals, and if we're discouraged as the Church or very much hindered in our ability to trust God, we're very much hindered in our ability to believe God, to follow him. 4 (38m 26s): We're in a dark place, not really functioning the way that God would have us to function. So this is why Paul agonized for Church so that they would be encouraged. The Greek word for encouraged means to call to one's side, to call to what's a great picture, isn't it. So if Doug's discouraged, you're on the front row and I called Doug up and put my arm around him, or if I'm discouraged and Doug comes up and puts his arm around me and just loves on me a bit, then I'm encouraged often. 4 (38m 59s): It doesn't take much, right? Just a little bit of human touch, an inappropriate word spoken to at the right time. And then all of a sudden there's encouragement, flooding our lives to call to one's side. It's signifying such ideas as comfort, encouragement, and exhortation. So Paul's passion for the Church was, was that the people would be encouraged and it, and it went way beyond the people that he knew personally. And it, when I read that, it challenges me to remember, to pray for all of our missionaries who are out in foreign soil, sharing the gospel, taking the gospel to dangerous places. 4 (39m 41s): And I think, I don't know the people that they're ministering to, but man, I need to pray for them fervently and passionately agonizing for them in prayer like Paul does. He didn't know them personally. He never met these people, but he loved them intensely. Anyway, you can sense that in his writing, he loves them with an intensity. So as I think about our missionaries in Greenland, I think man, we need, I need to be praying more fervently for these missionaries and for the, the, the people that they're ministering to. 4 (40m 13s): We've got missionaries who are serving in Mexico and Israel and Azerbaijan. I just got an invitation to partner with a couple who are going to Papa new Guinea. They're going to go there for 15 years. That's their goal. We're going to go for 15 years. We're going to live among the people. We're going to learn their language. We're going to translate the Bible in their heart language. And we're going to stay with them until a church is planted. And until indigenous people can run the church and pastor the church and shepherd the people. This is their 15 year plan. 4 (40m 44s): It's powerful. Just, just their, their vision alone makes me want to get on board with them. I don't even know who they are. Somehow we got on their mailing list. They're from a, Church the pastorals Bible church. And in Pasa Robles in the North County don't know who they are, but I'm excited about maybe partnering with them. Not because I know who they are because I'm excited about their vision, about what God is doing. I think that's what Paul's doing here. He's showing us how to love people intensely. Even if we don't know them. I wonder when was the last time we prayed so fervently for total strangers. 4 (41m 16s): Sometimes we don't do that. And I think we're encouraged in the scripture. What does God want for us? He wants to be praying for, he wants us to be praying for people that we don't even know. And I, I'm kind of a knucklehead. Sometimes I'll be driving down the road and something will happen and somebody will catch my eye. And I'll just pray for their salvation. I say, Lord, I know who they are, but I think they need you. So would you just, would you help them maybe? Cause they cut me off on the road. I don't know about it, but I just pray for them. It's better than getting mad at them. Right? So I just begin to pray for them. Why do God's people need to be encouraged? 10 (41m 47s): Well, we're in a battle. We're in a battle. 4 (41m 50s): It's a spiritual battle. 2020 has been a crazy a year. People with differing differing ideas and plans. And it's just, it's just a hard thing. So we need to call people to our side and we need people to call us to their side for encouragement. We need people to come alongside us and we need to come alongside others and help them and encourage them to stay focused on the Lord. So life is full of disappointment. We need comfort. 4 (42m 22s): We don't always understand God's plans. We need encouragement. Sometimes we want to give up. We need people to exhort us to exhort, needs to appeal, to council, to speak truth, to appeal, to counsel, to speak truth. We sometimes I just need somebody to say, Hey dude, you're struggling. You need to knock it off or Hey, you need to get, you know, get over this because you know, it's time for the Lord to use you in a new way. We need to be exhorted. It's like somebody helping us to get our feet out of the Myrie clay and get us on a solid foundation against so that we can move forward. 4 (42m 54s): Sometimes we just need strong words, spoken to us in love so that we can do that. God wants you in courage. He wants you to enjoy your Christian experience. He wants you to enjoy your relationship with him. He wants you to experience a shift in your mindset, moving from a fixed, nothing will ever change mindset to a growth. All things are possible. Mindset. Philippians four 13 in the new King James version, it says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 4 (43m 25s): I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If you've got a fixed mindset, you don't believe this. If you've got a growth mindset, all of a sudden you believe it, you read the scripture. And you're like, I believe that I believe it. Maybe I haven't been living it up to this point, but I got a growth mindset now and I believe it. And I'm going to start doing some things about it. He wants the church to be encouraged. Number one, number two, he wants the church unified again. We're seeing all of these in verse two, verse two. I want them to be encouraged. Number one and number two knit together by strong ties of love. 4 (43m 56s): We're just calling it unified. God wants his church unified knit together by strong ties of love. The message Bible says this. I want you woven into a tapestry of love. Isn't that a beautiful picture. Once you woven into a tapestry of love, if you look at a tapestry and you turn it around, it's just a mess, right? There's all kinds of thread and yarn going all these different directions. But then when you turn it around and you've got this beautiful picture of this piece of art, well, that's the body of Christ. 4 (44m 33s): All of us coming from different backgrounds and different places. And we're working together by the grace of God to accomplish as the purposes of the plans of God to create something beautiful. And that's what happens. We're all coming together from different places, wanting to honor the Lord and doing our best to, to, to affectively unified unified in a unified approach, attempt to make things beautiful in the world. God's love allows people from diverse backgrounds to unify under the banner of Christ. 4 (45m 5s): People from different socioeconomic backgrounds, people from different walks of life, people of different education levels. I know our retired prison warden. Who's very, very good friend is an ex-con that used to be in his prison. Why is, how is that possible? I mean, what is an ex con have to do? I mean, what kind of, what do they have in common with a retired prison ward and what, you know, what they have in common? Jesus. Yeah. They just have Jesus in common. 4 (45m 37s): And so now they're good friends and they actually tell their story together and testify to the goodness of Jesus, the goodness of God in a person's life. And so they share their story together and it doesn't matter their past because Jesus is in their lives now. And they're moved together with the Lord. He is their banner over them. When Christ is the common denominator, all people fit together and Jesus prayed that we would be one. He prayed that we would be United together even as he and the father are United. 4 (46m 9s): It says here in John, 17, 20 and 21, I am praying not only for these people, this is Jesus. I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. So he's praying for the original 12, right? And he's praying for us because we've believed as a result of their message as their other proclamation of their message. I pray that they will be one. I pray that 11 (46m 34s): They will all be one just as you and 4 (46m 37s): Are one as you are in me, father and I, 11 (46m 41s): I am in you and may they be in us 4 (46m 44s): That the world will believe you sent me. So one God, three persons, right? The Trinity one, God, three persons, one Church many members. We are United. If we're in Christ, we belong to God. So even I, even if you've never met somebody, but they're in Christ, your brothers like their brotherhood or sisterhood there's family, there's a family connection there. I, wherever I travel in the world, whether you know, locally or abroad and I meet a believer, there's just this common ground that we share. 4 (47m 17s): And we can pray together. Even if we've never met together, we can give hugs and high fives. And there's just this connection. There's just this connection that takes place because we're all in Christ. So many people, Many different people carrying different responsibilities. I wrote this different roles, same goals. We have people doing different roles, playing different roles, but we all have the same goals. We want to honor God and glorify him. Different people, same purpose, different churches, same commitment. 4 (47m 48s): When I say churches, I mean small CA churches. We're all part of the big C church, different churches, same commitment monthly. You guys know this. I meet with pastors from all over the, all over the central coast once a month. And we're going to meet this Wednesday and it could be 25, 30, 40 guys that come together and we just come together to eat together and pray together and enjoy company together, encouraging one another. And there's just something beautiful about that unity, because it allows us to be more effectively salt and light here on the central coast. 4 (48m 19s): When we're getting along, he wants the church to be encouraged and he wants the church United number three, he wants the Church confident. He doesn't want the Church arrogant, but he wants to, Church confident. It's okay to have confidence. Jolene gave me some fish to cook up yesterday and I did a really good job. And she's like, Hey, the fish is really good. I said, well, I know how to barbecue. 12 (48m 46s): I said, 4 (48m 47s): I've been barbecuing for the last 30 years. I, so I, I know that you can probably give me any kind of meat and I'll actually do a good job with it. Right. Jolene does all the heavy lifting. She does all the seasoning and all of the work before and she gives it to me and I put it on the grill for 30 minutes, then it's good. Right. So if I'd been grilling for 30 years and didn't know how to barbecue, I'd probably need to give up the grill. Right? So I'm not saying it in an arrogant way at all. I'm just saying, of course, if I've been grilling for 30 years, my mom knows how to make great pies. Right? So it'd be silly for her to say, no, I don't know how to bake. 4 (49m 17s): She wins all the bake, the pie baking contest. Right? So it's not an arrogant position to say I understand something or I know how to do something. Maybe you've been doing the same job for the last 10 years, 15 years. You're like, I kind of got this down. It's okay to, yeah. I know how to paint. I know how to fix cars or whatever it may be. I know how to do these things. So the Lord wants us confident in Colossians four 12. Epaphras one of the guy who actually probably founded this church that says this in Colossians four, 12 Epaphras is a member of your own fellowship and servant of Christ. 4 (49m 52s): Jesus send you His greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect. That we're perfect is the word mature, strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God, fully confident. There's nothing wrong with some confidence. Like if you've been walking with the Lord for five years, you should have some confidence that you've understood some things in those five years. If you're brand new to the faith, you should have this expectation. And then a year from now, you're going to have some greater confidence because you've spent that year. 4 (50m 25s): Reading the Bible you spent that year, you've spent that year investigating. If you've been a Christian for 10 or 15 or 20 years, you probably need to be leading some others in the faith, encouraging others and helping them to understand who they are, giving them confidence about who they are in Christ. Paul was passionate that the people of God will be confidence because with confidence, not arrogance, arrogance turns people off. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. 4 (50m 55s): We're not talking about arrogance at all, but we're talking about saying, Hey, you know, having the attitude that says, Hey, if God calls me to this, I'm going to give it my best by his grace. I, every time I get up to preach, I say, God, I've done this a bunch, but I don't want to do anything apart from your will. It doesn't matter if I do this for 50 years, I never want to get up there and be disconnected from you. So it's that kind of thing. It says I can preach. I can get up there and speak and teach and do those things. But I never want to do it apart from God's God's in his presence, his power, all of those things. That's what I'm talking about. 4 (51m 25s): So God, I can do this, but I don't want to do it without you. I'm ready to move forward, but I don't want to do it without you. That's the kind of confidence that God is looking for. Verse four, I'm telling you this. So no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments when you're confident, because you've invested yourself and you understand some things, no one can deceive you with well-crafted arguments for though. I am far away from you. Paul writes, my heart is with you and I rejoice that you are living as you should. And that's your faith in Christ is strong. And now just as you accepted Christ Jesus, as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 4 (51m 57s): So there's this responsibility that we have. We come to faith in Christ. We give our lives to him and then we continue all the days of our lives throughout all eternity. We're following him till he takes us home and into eternity. We're following. He is our Lord. We submit to him. He is God. We continue to follow him. That means we have to be intentional. Sometimes we put it in autopilot and we think, Oh, I've been doing this a long time, but we can't ever put it in autopilot. I'm just telling you, as soon as we put it on autopilot, we begin to drift. 4 (52m 30s): We need to be intentional with the Lord. Meaning every day, getting up and reading the word, spending your time with the Lord and allowing him to speak. And when you miss a day, you get right back to it. You miss a week, you get right back to it because life gets busy sometimes, right? So don't beat yourself up. Just get right back to it. I used to, when I'd miss my daily reading, I used to try to go back and play, catch up. I don't do that anymore. If I miss a day, I just pick it up where I left off. And God's grace is sufficient and I'll catch it next time around. So listen, it takes intentionality though. 4 (53m 1s): It takes intentionality to be doing what God would have us to do. He said, lets your roots grow down deep into him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness. The most grounded people in the faith, the most competent people in the faith I find are the most grateful people in the faith. We just, there's just an overwhelming gratitude. Yeah. 4 (53m 31s): Cause you know, apart from God you can do, you can do no good thing. And when God is with you, you can do wonderful things and powerful things. But there's just an attitude of gratitude when God is walking with his people. And when people are being used by the Lord to do great things, he said, don't let anyone capture you. Verse eight. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ, everything that we understand about God should come from Christ through his word. 4 (54m 2s): We should have our, our revelation and our information from the Bible and through the power of the Holy spirit. So don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ for in Christ lives, all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. So these verses should give us confidence, confidence in Christ that we are complete in him. 4 (54m 35s): He's done all the heavy lifting and he continues to do all of the heavy lifting. That means he makes our lives fruitful. When we're walking with him, he's working through us and in us, he's encouraging us. He's he's unifying his body and he's giving us confidence to do what he's called us to do. Paul couldn't have written two thirds of the new Testament and unless he had a level of confidence that God was up to something, right? He couldn't have written two thirds of the new Testament to the first century church. If he didn't know that God was speaking through him, right? 4 (55m 5s): He wasn't waffling about what God was doing. He heard and recorded what the Lord wanted him to record so that we could be reading it 2000 years later. What is it that God wants to do with you and in you and through you? What kind of confidence are you supposed to have doing the work that God has called you to do? Don't be timid, trying to be humble, missing out on your calling. All right. Let me say that again. Don't be timid trying to be humble and miss out on your calling. 4 (55m 36s): Right? Sometimes in our timidity, in our effort to stay humble, we don't do what we know we're equipped to do and what we're passionate to do. And so we miss out on, on the calling of God upon our lives. Don't let that false humility or sense of humility. Keep you from doing what God has called you to do. At some point, you're gonna have to step up and lead, right? You will, you'll have to step up and lead. And that's what God has called you to do the longer you're with the Lord. The more equipped you should be to lead. So what's your mindset spiritually. 4 (56m 7s): Do you have a fixed mindset or do you have a growth mindset? I believe God wants us to have a growth mindset. How many are committed? This, the balance of this year to have a growth mindset? I mean pick an area. Hopefully it's spiritually spiritual. Hopefully it's maybe in the area of relationships, maybe in the area of finances, it may be, but a growth mindset What does God want for His Church he wants us to be encouraged. He wants us to be unified and he wants the Church confident with that. Let's invite the worship team forward and we're going to sing and worship with a few more songs and then we'll get out of here and enjoy the day, the rest of the day. 4 (56m 43s): So worship team come forward. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing at Harvest Church Lord and not just Harvest Church but your church here on the central coast, locally and globally, Lord God, we're so thankful, thankful that we get to be a part of it. Thankful that you've called us to be a part of it. Thankful that we get to be used in the midst of it all. So God used us. We want to be doing what you would have us to do. Lord. We want, we know that you've got stuff for us and you want stuff for us. So help us to walk in that. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go and stand up. 1 (57m 18s): Awesome. That's so great. Thanks Steve. We just love you. We pray that you would just meet us in this moment. Just pray that you would really minister to people's hearts. Just that everything they just heard would just really take root. That seeds that have been planted and would truly bear fruit in our lives this week. 1 (57m 50s): So come Holy spirit things have means the 0 (1h 8m 55s): Thank you for your goodness towards us. Your safeness, your mercies that are new for this week, pray that you would lead and guide us every step of the way. No, we would overflow with your love in the world around us. The people would say no we're Christians because of the way that we love. We have patience, kindness, goodness, all those things God reflect who you are. So thank you. What you've done here in our hearts today is as you would to seal it upon our hearts to keep us safe until we come together again, you ask this in jesus' name. 0 (1h 9m 35s): Amen man. Church woo. You can celebrate. So I saw a few of you go for the clap. Yeah, that's a great morning. Thanks for being here with us today. We'll see you guys next Sunday. If anyone would like prayer this morning, we'll have some volunteers we'll be up at the front or any staff. We'd love to pray with you. Have a great week.