HILLSONG UNITED - WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

WHAT ABOUT WORSHIP?

I was asked recently to speak to our awesome people at Flame Youth on What About Worship? I have posted my notes below.

Worship – means to ascribe, attribute, assign and credit worth towards something and to give honour

Worship can be also referred to as Worth-ship. Placing worth on something and in our case that thing is God.

We can worship many things in our lives:

We can worship money
We can worship romance
We can worship our family and friends
We can worship ourselves
We can worship our TV
We can worship the movies we watch
We can worship our heroes // actors // pop stars // sporting legends // our favourite teams

Sometimes it’s easier to worship created things rather than the creator of those things

When Flame Youth joins together and sings together, we’re not just getting ready for a message or a sermon... It’s not just the handful of songs we sing before the preaching starts. It really is so much more than that!

When we worship we are actually reconfiguring or realigning our lives so that God is placed in his rightful place, at the top of the worship chain and all other options are removed.

What is worship? It’s not about us!

We often think worship is about us when we come expecting the music to pump, to lift us and take us somewhere. We are expecting the worship time to serve us, bless us, lift us, but worship is not about us!

Worship is all about Him!

Worship is everything within us responding to everything He has done for us.

Worship is about ownership of the fact that it is your own responsibility to touch God and not the worship leader’s role to make you enter God’s presence.

John 4:23-24 "It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."

Psalm 40 1-3
I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.

Romans 12:1-2
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

ACTS OF WORSHIP
(1) Present your everyday life before God as an offering
(2) Embrace // Acknowledge // Give credit for everything God does for you
(3) Say no to the culture of the world that drags you down
(4) Recognise what God wants from you and be quick to respond

Worship is humility, selflessness, loving, serving, passion in action, surrender of a life designed with a free will but chosen to be consumed by God.

We have a free will and cannot be forced to love God. It must be a choice that we make. We cannot be coerced or tricked into loving God. It must be a deliberate choice.

In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce asks ‘How do you make somebody love you without affecting free will?’ and God responds ‘Welcome to my world son, if you come up with an answer to that one you let me know!’

Bruce’s girlfriend Grace left him and he is left with the disturbing challenge to win her back but he can’t make her love him. Bruce can’t mess with free will.

It’s the same in our lives. As much as God is honestly yearning and seeking us to worship Him, He can’t make us. He holds the universe in His hand but he loves us so much that He creates us with free will so we can choose to worship Him and not just be robots that are designed to simply love Him without any consideration or decision process.

God wants us to make the choice to worship Him.

As much as Bruce tried to get Grace to love him and as much as he tried to use his powers, he could not make her love him.

As much as we as worship team try to make you worship God, as much as my preaching tonight is designed to bring you an awareness of the importance in worshipping God, our team can’t make you worship, I can’t make you worship. All I can do is encourage you.

I said earlier this evening my definition of Worship is that worship is everything within us responding to everything He has done for us.

I have presented to you your options and tonight all I can do is encourage you, implore you to lift your eyes above your current perspective, turn your eyes upon Jesus, and worship Him... and when you do... everything else falls into right perspective and the things that we thought were so important and the things that we thought so mattered... all of a sudden... those things don’t matter anymore.

HOW TO BE A GODLY FATHER

Many men desire to be good fathers, but what really matters is whether or not they are godly fathers. Here are four Biblical principles that, by God’s grace, can be used to lay a sound foundation in helping fathers become godly fathers.

1) Godly fathers are first godly men
It doesn’t work for fathers to bail out and say to their children, "Don’t do as I do, do as I say!" (Matthew 23:3). Children must be able to see an example of Christ in their fathers.
Paul says to his spiritual children in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Until men by faith follow in the example of Christ themselves, they cannot be godly examples for their own children.

2) Godly fathers love their children unconditionally
Unconditionally is a significant word. It implies that love is not merited or earned and that the father’s treatment of his children is not dictated by what they can offer him in return. The father of the prodigal son stood waiting and watching for his son to return to him (Luke 15:20).

When he finally did return, the father didn’t judge the son or force him to earn back his favor, love, and approval. He simply embraced him and threw a celebratory party for his son. He could do this because his love for his son wasn’t based upon what his son could do for him but simply and strictly upon the fact that he was his son.

Godly fathers don’t make their children earn their approval, and they don’t use their children’s behavior as a condition for their love.

3) Godly fathers train their children how to love and honour God
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it."

Ephesians 6:4 echoes the Proverbs passage, saying, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

Training in righteousness requires learning the Scripture for the Bible is how a child must come to know Who God is and what God wants.

4) A Godly father seeks to give his children good gifts
Godly fathers go beyond just giving spiritual gifts such as wisdom and Biblical instruction. They love to give good gifts of all kinds. Our heavenly Father is the ultimate example of this.

James 1:7 says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."

Just as our Father is the giver of every good and perfect gift because He knows when, how, and what to give us, so to us dads need to become a giver of every good gift.

He knows what we desire and ask for because He knows and cares for what we really want and need. Fathers, too, ought to be sensitive to their children’s desires and needs. They need to avoid the extremes of spoiling their children by giving into their every whim and being too stingy and holding back from their children.

A child’s view of God will largely be shaped by their father’s treatment of them. So as fathers take interest in what brings their children joy, they will go a long way in helping to shape a healthy view of a God will do for them what is necessarily the kindest, wisest, and best.

FORGIVE AND RELEASE

Psalm 86:5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive

Luke 23:34 - Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

Jesus was released from this planet to heaven when he uttered the words "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

The same release is available to us when we forgive those who sin against us. We are released from the weight of our baggage created by the unforgiveness we are holding onto when we release those who hurt us.

Imagine someone that holds onto unforgiveness against every person that does something wrong to them. Imagine if that unforgiveness is represented by a phonebook. So when ten people have hurt this person they are now permanently carrying around ten phonebooks!

This would certainly be an uncomfortable state to be in and you can imagine the agony after a day, a week or even ten years of carrying such a weight. But as we forgive those who sin against us, we are putting each phone book down and leaving the baggage behind.

As we forgive we are made free! What a much better way to live!

Forgive and release!

FORGIVE AND REMEMBER

Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.

In life you are going to find people who constantly repeat their offence towards you. Do we need to continue to forgive these people? The bible says we must.

Matthew 18:21-22 21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

The Bible never tells us to “forgive and forget”, it asks us to “remember and forgive”!

Christianity is a religion of remembrance! Throughout the Old Testament God calls his people to remember the hardships of their lives in Egypt as well as during the 40 years of wandering in the desert.

In the New Testament, Christ instituted Holy Communion as a sacrament of remembrance of his death. We are repetitively reminded to “remember” and to be transformed through the exercise.

The cross is our level ground for reconciliation: we remember Christ dying for our sins and our iniquities and that is a call to repentance, confession and forgiveness. And we remember him on the cross carrying our pains and our sorrows, crying to the Father to forgive and that is a call to healing and forgiveness.

You cannot remember Christ on the cross without being transformed into a better person! A person who understands the power of forgiveness.

Joseph remembered what his brothers did to him in handing him over to slavery. The thing is... Joseph turned it around by not only forgiving his family... but the very thing that Satan intended to be bad with Joseph’s dreams being squashed as he is handed over to slavery... Joseph turned it around for good by forgiving his family and saying that God had always ordered his steps and led him to his final destination as joint ruler of the land.

Forgive and remember that Christ has forgiven you so you should return the favour.

For those that continually want to hurt you, you must make the tough decision to remove yourself from the position of continual hurt. Forgive and move on!

FORGIVE AND FORGET

The first thing we must do when it comes to unforgiveness in our lives is forgive and forget. We don’t forget what’s happened to us but the thing we must forget is the act of retaliation or revenge.

In the message bible Romans 12:19 says:
Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

Wounded people often say...”you know what, you don’t understand. What they did to me is so horrible, I will never forgive them, I can’t forgive them for what they did...
But what if God said that...

Luke 6:37 says:
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Forgive and forget and release unforgiveness from your life.

FORGIVENESS BRINGS FREEDOM

All people have wounds, luggage that we sometimes choose to carry. We sometimes think we are over our wounds but at times we are into our wounds more than ever and the wound gets reopened and hurts and then it becomes a day, a week or even 10 years later and now the wound has become part of us. It gets to the point where the wound shapes who we are and defines where we are heading.

The fact is hurt people hurt people. In life there is a higher way and a lower way and it’s very easy to stick to the lower road and seek revenge against those that hurt us. We get to the point where we can’t shake it and leave it behind so revenge becomes our only hope.

We sometimes say why does this happen to me? Why are people always picking on me? Where is God in all of this when people come against me?

But here’s the encouraging thing. The bible says:

Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.

God knows all, sees all, understands all, and is with you in the midst of your circumstances.

Over the next three days I am going to share three things that we must do when it comes to unforgiveness in our lives.

GOD CARES FOR THE ONE

The video below was shown at a recent Sony Executive meeting. After watching it I was reminded of how amazing it is that in a world full of over 6.7 billion people, God cares about and is interested in each and every ONE of us!

Titus 2:11-14
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to
ALL MEN,
12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior
JESUS CHRIST, 14
WHO GAVE HIMSELF FOR US,
that He might
REDEEM US
from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

PREPARING FOR THE BIRTH OF A NEW THING

I also shared on Sunday night eight things I have had to do in preparation for the new baby girl that's about to come into our world. There are many similarities between the birth of a new child and God birthing something great in the life of our churches.

Below are some more notes from my sermon:

8 Things we must do in preparation for the birth of a new thing

1. Be involved. Read the pregnancy book together so you can understand what is going on with her body and what stage the baby is in. Go to the doctor’s appointments with her. Make decisions together. Shop for baby stuff together. It will give you a better insight on what is going on in her body and she will appreciate the time you are spending with her. Understanding her will also minimise misunderstandings between you two.

THE CHURCH – In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church we need to be prepared to be involved at every opportunity. Attend a life group so we can grow together and be on the same page together. Doing life together helps us understand each other and we can move forward together as the church. Being involved means we are others focused, one for another, putting others before our self and demonstrating love in character and love in action.

2. Offer to help. Help with chores around the house. Fatigue often creeps up on the mother to be. Her body is changing to support a baby so it can take a lot of energy out of her. Doing the dishes, cooking, sweeping the floor, doing the laundry, or even picking up the stuff she dropped off the floor (especially in the later months of pregnancy when bending down is difficult) can help her a lot.

THE CHURCH – In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church, the church must offer to help. We, as the church, must put our hand up both inside and outside the walls of our house. We need to serve with gladness at what God is doing in our church and know that every hand that is put to a good work in the house invokes the richest of blessings from our heavenly father who appreciates each and every good act of kindness and servitude. We also need to put our hand up in our community and be willing to meet the need and bring social justice to our community

3. Massage her often and rub her swollen feet. Her hips, shoulders, and back will ache. Her feet will swell most days. Be sensitive to that and try to help alleviate the pains by massaging her, even if it’s only for a few short minutes.

THE CHURCH – In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church we need to massage our prayer life, our devotion life, our worship life

4. Love and appreciate her changing body. She may hate her own body now that her belly has grown so big. She’s gained lots of weight and those stretch marks are ugly. But you have to still love her body. Remember, it’s only temporary. Take time to especially appreciate the belly because your baby is growing inside. Spend a few minutes every night talking to the baby or rubbing her belly or kissing it.

THE CHURCH - In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church we need to love and appreciate her changing body. The 21st century church looks very different to the church of hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Her mission and purpose is the same but to move on into all that God has for us we need to embrace new things. New kinds of people that come into the house. New kinds of music. New ways and styles of preaching. The message is always the same but the delivery needs to be ever changing.

5. Refresh her by offering to help rub lotion on her. Especially her back, legs, and feet (and give a quick massage while you’re at it). Her skin may be very dry. She will appreciate it very much!

THE CHURCH – In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church we must be refreshed, not by the rubbing of lotion but by the rain from the Holy Spirit. Believe for the rain, ask for the rain. When times seem dry or you don’t seem to be experiencing the presence of God in your life, ask for the rain (the Holy Spirit) to saturate your life. We must also pray for favour even when favour is falling. God always has more, much more, for His church. More than we could ever dream or imagine.

6. It’s best that she eats a healthy diet. Help her by eating healthy yourself. This can help steer her cravings away from junk food. In addition, do lots of light exercises together. Take after dinner strolls together. Getting her heart pumping blood throughout her body is good for her and the baby (and yourself as well!).

THE CHURCH – In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church we must have a consistent healthy diet. What are we feeding our minds, our spirits, and our souls? What movies are we watching lately, what music are we listening to? What words are we speaking over our lives?

7. Have the route to the hospital planned out or memorized. Her water might suddenly break or her contractions are only 3 minutes apart. Either way, you will be the one driving her to the hospital. Your brain cells may not be working correctly because you’re too nervous or panicky or worried about your screaming wife.

THE CHURCH – In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church we must have a plan. In times of challenge or stretching it’s easy to divert from the plan God has for us but if we have a plan and it’s clear, we have a point of reference.

8. No matter what, do not leave her while she is in labour and/or the delivery room. Your grand kids will even hear the story of how you left her.

THE CHURCH – In preparation for God to birth something great in the life of our church we must
not leave when the new thing is birthed.

GOD IS DOING A NEW THING!

Below is an excerpt from my sermon notes on Sunday night at Hinterland Christian Centre. We had a great day in church! Enjoy.

What is the new thing that God is wanting to do?

Isaiah 42:5-9
5 Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it: 6 "I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, 7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. 8 I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them."

Isaiah 43:18-19
18 "Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.

1st New thing was to be the coming of Christ

Isaiah 53:4-5
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

2nd New thing was the drawing of all men and women together

Isaiah 60:1-5
1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. 4 "Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side. 5 Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you

3rd New thing and the thing I believe God wants to do through the church of today is to anoint us for every good work

Isaiah 61: 1- 3
1 "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

The 21st century church is to be others focused, community minded, one for another, as we live a life poured out. The new thing I believe God is doing is the anointing of the saints and the empowering of the workers to go beyond the four walls of our meeting place and take the church into the community.

We, the church, need to be Jesus' hands and feet as we outwork the gospel. The days of the river church where God pours out his spirit and confines it to a church meeting or worship time are behind us. Yes they were good times and yes we had many a good thing imparted into our lives during that season but I believe God has now filled us to overflow so that we may GO into all the world and actually do what we have been called to do, make disciples.

INCONSISTENCY IS AN ENEMY

Anyone that knows me well enough knows I love my beloved Collingwood Magpies!

I was born in Victoria and AFL will always be my football code of choice; it's in my blood. Could this really be our year... it's been a long time since the dizzy heights of the 1990 premiership and I believe we have the team to pull it off. But it's all about consistency.

Collingwood at their best are an insurmountable prospect for most teams but inconsistency is the enemy that holds us back.

Its the same in our life walk really. A life walked with confidence in who God says we are and what He promises us is an insurmountable prospect and makes us an unstoppable force but inconsistency in our faith, beliefs, identity and who God says we are is the enemy that holds us back!

Check out the preview for this weekends clash Crows V Pies. CARNA PIES!

Preview: Crows v Pies - Official AFL Website of the Collingwood Football Club

ON THE CHURCH

I love the church and what it can do as it collectively gathers so many different personalities and people groups together in one place and radically changes a community through the things we do as a body working together towards a common goal.

The church is an immovable, unstoppable force when it is in unity and exists not for its own benefit and gain but for the improvement of the community in which it is positioned.

I love our church at Hinterland Christian Centre in Cooroy on the beautiful Sunshine Coast as it contains ordinary people just like you and me who are doing ordinary things each and everyday with extraordinary outcomes as people say yes to Jesus.

“Church isn’t where you meet. Church isn’t a building. Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s not go to Church, let’s be the Church.”

THE POWER IN IMAGINATION

Your imagination may often seem wispy and nebulous. It is in fact very real and powerful. Look around you and consider all the real, solid, useful and valuable things that began their existence in someone's imagination.

In the beginning God created... He has made you and I in His image so we too have the ability to create using our God given imaginations.

What you can imagine, is clearly possible.

Most likely, your imagination has far more power than you realize. There are aspects of your reality today that come directly from long-forgotten stirrings of your imagination.

What would you dare to imagine if you were certain that it would become real? In fact, most of what you imagine does indeed influence your life and your world in some way or other.

Obviously, the things you imagine do not instantly spring into material form. Actually, something even more amazing happens.

Your imagination plants a fertile seed in the capable, creative, intelligent, effective person that is you. Take great care with such seeds that you plant, for they will surely grow.

ACTS 2:17 "In the last days," God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people. Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters; your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams.

GREAT YOUTH PASTORS

Pastor Michelle & Luke Hulcombe are such an asset to our thriving church in Cooroy. People think Cooroy is some out back hippy town but most people that think that have never been to one of our pumping Flame Youth services let alone visited Cooroy in the last 12months! The place is now a bustling affluent community being driven by progress.

Michelle and Luke have grown the Youth Ministry from a tiny 4 kids a short 5 years ago to a thriving Youth Ministry with over 70 kids on our attendance list! The place is pumping and full of life and it was sad to be sending them both off this evening as they take time out in preparation for the birth of their own little girl in 3 weeks time.

On a positive note, its been great for Anita to have anther girl to experience pregnancy with for the first time. Flame Youth will still be pumping with our amazing Youth Leadership team carrying the load until our Youth Pastors return to action.

Enjoy the well deserved break Luke and Michelle and enjoy parenting... stoked we get to do it all together!

Have a great weekend everyone!

SUPPORT YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

I believe in cheering on young people who simply want to have a go and support a great cause while they are at it.

Joshuah Buckle (www.joshuahbuckle.com) is a great childhood friend of my wife Anita and he is a young man with a passion. He is a Writer, Designer, Entrepreneur and loves God.

Check out his latest journey at www.project121m.com where he proposes to turn $1 into $1 million dollars in support of the starlight children's foundation.

I love seeing people search out and aim to achieve what initially seems unattainable. It brings the God factor to the forefront of their lives.

Go for it Josh we are cheering you on!

MOBILE POSTING

I have also now discovered the beauty of on the go posting using my Blackberry Bold.

How good is it to be alive in this stage of time!

Be blessed

Jeremy

THE BLOG IS RETURNING...

For those of you who have visited this page since October last year wondering what happened to the blogging... it is coming back...

We are expecting the birth of our first daughter in September 2009 a mere 7 weeks away and I am looking forward to revitalising this Blog with stories about life, friends and parenting for the first time.

Looking forward to communicating again!

God bless,

Jeremy