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Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
How we change - The Spirit // Vision Series
Have you ever been touched by a moment of spiritual awakening that reshaped your entire perspective? Today's episode is an invitation to experience such a transformation as we witness the profound impact of God's Spirit on our everyday lives, starting with an incredible story of healing at the pool of Bethesda. We'll explore how embracing Jesus leads to a fundamental reordering of our habits and priorities, and the essential role that community plays in our spiritual metamorphosis. It's a call to rise, to renew, and to embrace the joy found in a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit.
Learning to discern God's voice amidst the noise of the world, serves as a personal testament to the beauty of God's presence in our daily walk. Join us as we traverse the conflict between flesh and spirit, drawing wisdom from Galatians 5 on the power of love and self-control. This episode isn't just about those extraordinary breakthroughs but also about the gentle, quiet transformation that happens when we make space for God through spiritual disciplines.
As we wrap up, I share an intimate struggle with claustrophobia and how faith played a pivotal role in overcoming that fear, symbolizing the broader struggle we face in our spiritual practices. We pray for our church to be a home for miracles, a sanctuary for seekers, and a living testament to the fruits of the Spirit. Let's open our hearts together, inviting the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit into every corner of our lives, and envision a future where our personal peace and the health of our church community are deeply intertwined with the fabric of faith.
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Okay, shall we jump into the Bible? I think this might be my last time to share for some time for a little while maybe a month, five weeks, something like that Because radiation is kicking my butt, but not today. So I'm on the meds. So if I say anything weird, that's why let's put it down to that. It probably didn't mean it.
Speaker 1:Okay, john, chapter five, verse one to nine this is a great story about Jesus and how he does miracles. Now he heals people. I want to talk to you today on how do we actually change? Okay, after this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, there in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, there was a pool called Bassida which had five roof areas.
Speaker 1:In these layer, multitude of invalids the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One of the men had been there and invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he'd already been there for a long time. So he said to the man do you actually want to be healed? That seems like such a rude question. I feel like if I went to the hospital and said that to someone, I might get a little slap in the face or something you know, at least a little pushback, like what do you think I'm doing here? A little offense. And the sick man said, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water has stirred up and while I'm going to step down into that, you know, someone gets there before me. I'm a victim, all right, everyone's ahead of me. I can't get ahead of the game, I can't make it. Jesus said to him get up, take up your bed and walk. And the man at once was healed and he took up his bed and he walked. What a powerful story. Jesus is kind of referencing here, and I'm sure John is kind of, as he's writing this story. He's putting this together. You know about the children of Israel walking through the desert 38 years before they enter into the promised land of God, and they kind of do it going through the same process. You know 38 years of nothing happening, 38 years of suffering, 38 years of where is God, and then in a moment things can change. Jesus comes into this man's life.
Speaker 1:The last couple of weeks we've been talking about the goal of our church is to become like Jesus. That's the goal. The vision is Jesus. That's the vision. And last week we talked about how we have to get together. We're in community. We become like Jesus together at the community.
Speaker 1:But today I want to talk to you about maybe the most important part of the whole thing, and that is that the only way we're becoming like Jesus is through the power of the Spirit of God. We are not changing ourselves, we are not habit stacking our way to becoming great disciples of Jesus. We are surrendering our way to becoming great disciples of Jesus and allowing God's Spirit to come and work in us. So many of us want to add Jesus to our lives, but there's a replacement that needs to happen in our lives, where there's a replacement of habits, of practices, of individualism for community, of environment for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. All of us here are being formed in one way or another by the environment that we are in. That is a fact. That is a human condition.
Speaker 1:This man was sitting in a pool in an environment was probably a pagan environment where there was a lot of superstition, pagan rituals. We talked about the angel of the Lord. It doesn't necessarily mean what you think, and I think about the angel of the Lord. God's not some psycho who only is like playing games with invalids stirring the water and then whoever gets in there, for what a sicko that would be if that was God. We're not talking about Jesus God here. We're talking about another God.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't working. He kept on missing out and I think many of us chase after things and if only I can get into that pool, if only I can get that promotion at work, or if only I can get that girl or that guy, or if only I can get that thing, then everything will be okay. Then Jesus comes into the scene and says you've been looking for the wrong thing the whole time. What you've been looking for is Jesus, and he is willing and able at any moment to say stand up and walk. What I love about the process of following Jesus is Jesus has a part to play and I have a part to play. Jesus and I was not 50-50. He's doing all the heavy lifting. I don't know what the ratio is If it's 99.9 and 0.1, I don't know the ratio, but I have a part to play. He could have stayed on a mat. It would have been easier Today in Australia. It is easier in some ways to stay oppressed and a victim. It is easier in some ways to do that.
Speaker 1:If you can manage, then it is to stand up and actually build a life in the ways of the kingdom of God. That is easier, but oh, so joyful it is to follow Jesus into all that he has for us. It is so good. I encourage you not to miss out that. Charles Spurgeon put it like this Without him we can't, but without us he won't. I think that's very true about God, that God is waiting on us to say yes to his work in our lives. I wonder what God is calling you to stand up from today. But he is calling you up from today, out of your junk and out of the sin and out of the shame of your life. He is calling you up, his hands outstretched to you. His power is ready to make a difference in your life. But you also have to stand, take a risk.
Speaker 1:Willpower has a certain place in our lives. Willpower is good for some things, right, you know like little things willpower is good. But it's very difficult to actually influence your will. In the moment of temptation or in the moment of challenge. It's very difficult to lead your will it's almost like your will has to be worked on before to the spirit of God. So when you get into the moment, you actually have some strength, whether that's eating, or maybe you know your porn addiction or your hang-ups from your old fling. When you get tired, you want to reach out to that old person or that old coping mechanism that we so easily go back to when things get hard.
Speaker 1:It's gotten very quiet in here. I'm talking human to human right. This is the struggle of change we're talking about. How is it possible to actually change? You need community yes, that's wonderful but you also need the power of God. You need the power of God to change. There is things in my personality that I cannot change about myself. Is anyone done enneagram before? You've ever seen that before. If you think that's bad, don't worry about it. Enneagram is number seven. It's like the most addictive personality. That's my personality. Enneagram is the personality that resists pain the most, which is kind of ironic.
Speaker 1:At the moment, willpower does not seem to be able to get you through, but God is able. So how does God deal with us? He deals with us through the Holy Spirit, which is not a force like Star Wars, not a genie like Aladdin, but as a person. Aren't you so glad that God doesn't come to you as a book of theology or as a genie or something like that. He comes to you and me as a person. He comes to you as someone that you can know, not just study about, but you can know. You can know God in your life.
Speaker 1:I want to talk to you about knowing the Holy Spirit. I am very aware that there's people in our church who have come from very different backgrounds. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, some of us are nervous about it because you've seen it be weird that's my background. Some of you have come from places where it's not talked about at all. It's very much like a soul affair. I want to talk to you about that.
Speaker 1:John, chapter 15, verse 26, says Jesus is Jesus speaking? He said I will send you a helper from the Father. The helper is the spirit of truth. It was his work to help Jesus' followers understand God's truth. That word helper actually is like the same word for lawyer. It means the person who will actually go to bat for you, defend you.
Speaker 1:When the devil comes and says to you, you ain't no good, the Holy Spirit is going to say boom, boom, that's rubbish, don't believe that. When the enemy comes and says you can't do that because you messed up in the past. If anyone knew what you really did in the past, none of these good people here would accept you. And the Holy Spirit comes and says boom, boom, that's rubbish. That's not true. I am with you. You are a son of God. You're a daughter of God. You've been chosen by me. I love you, I care for you. Is this making sense to anyone? Is this sounding familiar? Or is it just me? Even AA knows this. I need a higher power than myself to change. It's at the center of it. So how does the Holy Spirit change us? Two things I want to talk about. The Holy Spirit changes us through powerful breakthrough experiences, moments, and then also, at the very same time, break down slow processes. Let me talk about both. We see all these through the Bible. To the Bible, there's only one Bible Radical encounters with God, paul falling off his horse, meeting Jesus Moses with the burning bush. There's so many Incredible.
Speaker 1:I remember being at City Point Church when I was 16 years old for a Planet Shakers conference, when I was from Warwick. We came up on a bus. There was 4,000 teenagers there and we were singing. Send me, I will go, don't look at me, I'm a refugee. What, and you know what? There was 4,000 teenagers singing that song and I remember God saying to me you will go and I went, I will go. And two years later I went, changed the course of my life forever. That moment, that one word from God Changed me. I remember being in prayer and seeing glimpses of when I was 16, seeing a church with thousands of young people Asian young people being passionate for Jesus and not seeing that before and the word God had spoken to my heart. And 10 years later I was seeing it with my very eyes in Osaka, japan.
Speaker 1:I remember when my brother had an incurable disease called Crohn's disease. He would scream and cry at night in the bed next to me because we had the same room. Nothing you could do for the pain, nothing, nothing could fix it. I remember him being in a meeting one night in the pastor saying let's stop in the middle of worship, let's pray for healing. He felt a fire inside of his stomach, not a painful fire, but something happened to him and that day he was healed of Crohn's disease. I saw the scans myself. He went one day he had Crohn's disease. He went back. The next day he had no Crohn's disease. That is the power of God. God works in these ways. I don't understand it all, but I know that God works in these ways.
Speaker 1:I remember my sister going through a time in her life where she tried to take her own life so many times. It was heartbreaking to watch Over and over. She started, she tried to take her own life and she lived far away. I remember being a young teenager, a young believer in Jesus, and with my dad we drove, I think, like 10 hours to be with her. We prayed with her all night. We put on old hill song, worship music and lifted up our hands and I remember my dad holding her hand up and me holding her other hand up and we just said we're going to worship God until something happens. And I remember something happened in her life that day where she never wanted to take her own life again. Today she is one of the highest level social workers on the Gold Coast today, dealing with the worst situations that the Gold Coast has. That's what her job is. She is a beautiful person. Jesus came into her life in a powerful way that day.
Speaker 1:I remember my father well, I don't remember this because I wasn't born yet, but my father was a drunk, he was a violent man, he was a bad man by any stretch. He was walking into the pub one day while my mom had just started reading the Bible at home by herself and she was praying the only person she knew how to pray God just changed this idiot Like just honest, I don't know what to do. Just a wife pray, that's right. And he walks in. He's walking into the pub to get drunk again and he hears a loud voice behind him and the voice says don't go inside, you won't need it anymore. And he gets freaked out. He's turning around, there is nobody around and he thinks he's going crazy. So he tries to walk in again and he hears exactly the same voice out loud Do not go inside, you will never need it again. And he gets so scared that he gets back into the car and starts driving home. And on the way home he pulls over because he cannot stop crying. Doesn't know why, doesn't know how. But he walks back home and my mom says it's because I was praying for you that God would get ahold of you. Just weeks later I was born.
Speaker 1:They didn't have all the help that they needed. They're living in a small town. They didn't really have anyone to help them, so it had an powerful encounter with God, with no community. We need powerful encounters with God. Our church needs powerful encounters with God. We need to believe for this more. And then there are breakthrough moments that those big moments, I gotta say they're not the common, they're not the normal, they're not the everyday. Sometimes we desperately need them, but they're not the everyday and I encourage you not to come with an expectation of every single time it's going to be the biggest moment of your life and that's why we're just not so much on the hype train because, like we believe in miracles, believe that God will touch you. But even if there isn't a huge miracle, I'm still okay because I know God has got me on a good process and along that way my son, 10 year old, might call them Easter eggs or something. And along the way there's beautiful big life changing things that will happen, but most of it comes by daily walking with God, daily walking with the Holy Spirit, galatians, chapter five. Galatians is a wonderful book. It's a component Paul's response to a whole bunch of challenges around this area.
Speaker 1:Verse 14, it says the entire law is keeping this one command love your neighbor as yourself. It's pretty tough, actually. If you bite and devour each other that's an expression. Unless you're my two year old daughter, she will literally bite you and devour you. Watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other. For I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The flesh is the normal, the culture, what is every day around us, what I want, that I know that I should not want For the flesh desires what is contrary, opposite to the Spirit and the Spirit what is opposite to the flesh. They're in conflict with each other. So you are not to do whatever you want.
Speaker 1:I was talking to my little girl the other day in the car and I said do you pray? And she says, yeah, I pray. But God didn't speak to me yet and I was like how do you know that? He was like what do you think God sounds like? He said I don't know and I said okay, how about you try this Next time? You're alone by yourself. Just close your eyes and ask God, god, what do you think about me? And then just close your eyes and let God speak to your heart. See what happens. So simple. And she said I can do that, that's easy. God wants to speak to you so badly. You know that, right, like way more than you want to speak to God. He wants to speak to you. He wants to be close and intimate with your life, much more than you ever could, and you will get to know God's voice over time by practicing listening to God's voice.
Speaker 1:When Izumi calls me on the phone and sometimes you don't see who's the person if you just say hello, izumi, she's one of the people who doesn't wait for you to say hello she says look, she'll just start talking. I tried to talk to her about it. It doesn't work. I just let it go. Now, after 15 years, something she just let go. Sorry, I thought she was in kids. She's right there. Sorry about that, but she has this tone of voice Hello, she has this tone of voice. I know it's her. I know it's her. I've heard them million times. I know Look, look. She has a certain tone of voice as she says for look, look. And it's very strange.
Speaker 1:Actually, you will get to know that my physical therapist called me on the phone the other day. I've been three months with this woman helping me rehab my legs. I didn't know who I was talking to for about 10 minutes on the phone. We got into this conversation about 10 minutes and I said I'm really sorry, who is this? She said it's Jen. It's Jen, you're doctor. We've been working for three months. I said I'm so sorry I didn't recognize her voice. One has known three months. One has known 15 years.
Speaker 1:This is what it's like with God. If you are newer to face, don't be alarmed when you say God's not speaking to me all the time. You're just not sure yet it's not clear yet about how God speaks to you or what it sounds like, what it feels like. But you will, you will if you keep going, you will and it will get better and better. David had this revelation in the Psalms. He said God, where can I go from your presence? If I go up to heaven, if I go down to hell, if I get in the grave, where can I run away from you? God, you're always there. That's a revelation to live with. God is close to you all the time. Our issue is we are not aware, not that God is far. That's the good news. The Bible calls this sowing to the spirit, meaning. The more that I listen to God, the more I hear God. Richard Foster, one of the fathers of the modern day spiritual formation movement, he said it like this Spiritual disciplines, which we are talking about reading your Bible, prayer, fasting, community Sabbath some of these spiritual disciplines are a means of receiving His grace.
Speaker 1:They allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can change us. By themselves they can do nothing. Reading your Bible has no power until God actually lets that into your life and changes you. It's not the ink on the pages that has the power. You understand what I'm saying. It's the receiving of the Word and the Holy Spirit breathing on that and making it real and changing you. It's the discipline of reading your Bible that allows that. It's providing the conditions for that to happen. It's creating the environment where that can happen. That's what the disciplines are for. They can put us in a place where something can be done. They are a means of sowing to the spirit. They are a means of God's grace.
Speaker 1:Some Christians, as we go through this journey of practicing our faith, you will go through this thing. First of all, feeling like a total, like you are terrible Because you're not doing it well, feeling down in the dumps. That's a sign to you to tell you that you think it's all about you. That's not the right approach to it. Then you will start doing it well and then you will start getting prideful I'm doing them really well. Then maybe even judgmental Other people are not doing them very well. That's called arrogance. Then hopefully we will get past that into a place of humility and a realization that it's God who's doing all the heavy lifting. All I'm doing is presenting myself before God. Thank you, jesus. That's where I hope we get to the work of the spirit. Over time. It takes time. Over time, what used to be weak it's like if you play tennis and you're a right-handed but you're playing left-handed what used to be really hard over time becomes more natural, smoother, easier, like I just naturally want to pick up my Bible.
Speaker 1:What was the hardest thing about becoming a Christian for me? I'll tell you, the hardest thing for me to become a Christian was knowing that I would have to forgive people. I knew it, intuitively, I knew it. I knew that Christians had to forgive and I did not want to forgive. Honestly, that was my barrier to saying yes to Jesus, especially my father. I never wanted to forgive him. You know what the amazing thing was when I received Jesus. I feel like I just got full of the Holy Spirit. And here's the amazing thing Over a period of a couple of months, I started wanting to forgive my father. I still haven't done it yet, but I wanted to. It was almost like God reordered my desires and changed my heart. To want to forgive people Isn't that crazy. That's what the Holy Spirit does. I didn't work hard to forgive, I surrendered and God changed my heart. The hardest part was simply saying it out with my mouth. That was the hardest part. In that moment I had freedom, in that very moment. That's been my experience with the Holy Spirit. God is almost finished. God is very, very gracious and kind. Guys, the more I know God, the more I can tell you who is so kind and so gracious. This sounds like the fruit of the Holy Spirit, right? Not driving you like a cowboy, whipping you, but leading you like a shepherd and saying come, follow into greener pastures.
Speaker 1:When I personally, I really struggle with claustrophobia. Is anyone else struggle with claustrophobia? One person, god bless you. Two, do I have a third? Okay, you guys won't get this then, all right. No, no, custrophobia is just basically a fear of tight spaces. Right, okay, welcome to my world.
Speaker 1:I remember saying to my wife about a month ago when I found out that we were going to tie me down to a bed and put this mask on me that is scary, looking like a Halloween costume and tie it so tight that it leaves marks in your face and tie you down and then put you in this little chamber like a microwave and you're going to do that every day for seven weeks. I just said to a Zoomie I don't think my body, I just don't think my body will allow that to happen. Like I may mentally give a scent to it, but I don't think my body I will spaz out. Like it would just disconnect my mind and my body would disconnect. I told the doctor I may be a very difficult patient. I'm so sorry. They were like don't worry, it happens all the time.
Speaker 1:And I had this little word from I remember the first day and Will was there and I had this Will's mostly there on my really bad day. I don't know, it's a thing, isn't it? I'm not blaming you, but I had this little word from the Holy Spirit, a little voice, a little one. This is how God speaks to me, like a little one sentence that just comes at once poing in my heart. This little voice has said through there is the pathway to peace. This is the pathway to peace. I don't have peace. This is the pathway to peace. And I went okay, god, I'm going to trust you and at first they drug me up a little bit. Give you the happy, happy so you can relax. Next week, half dose. This week I'm going to do no medicine.
Speaker 1:Now, if you know me, this is like this is a big deal, because I'm incredibly claustrophobic, like irrationally, and I believe this is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Each day you go through, you have a fear, you have a need, you have something happen and you need something from God. And it's like the very words from God contain the power to actually do the thing. When God says to you forgive that person, it's like when you believe that those words actually give you the power to actually be able to forgive. It's quite incredible. So I would encourage you to lean into the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Our church is doing a pretty good job, I think, of teaching people how to daily do stuff. I think we need to get a little bit more excited about God doing some miracles. I think that's something we need to believe for, actively pursue God for and ask for. If you don't ask, you will not receive. I think we should ask God for miracles, ask Him to do big things, do that. But here's the bullseye, because this has been like a little mini-vision series.
Speaker 1:While I can Okay, let me show you a triangle, I have not, and this is what has kind of been in my heart, I don't have great language for it, to be honest, I'm really working on this. But to see the church have great depth theologically in the spiritual practices, have amazing community and teaching, yet a deep love for the Holy Spirit, is something that we haven't really seen in Australia before. And the reason is because usually denominations take one corner and say this is going to be my corner, I'll take the theology, the Pentecostals will take the Holy Spirit, we'll take, you know, the Salvos will take community outreach and we'll all you know. But I really think in our generation something is changing. I really think it's changing that we could actually see a Holy Spirit empowered, theologically rich, deep community, great teaching church together as a model of health for church, planning for the future. That's a dream in our heart To be able to head that way. Does that make sense here? I think? I think we can do it and we're working towards it, but it's gonna take time, experimentation and A lot of the rest.
Speaker 1:So if you're worried about this stuff around the Holy Spirit, let me just. Let me just finish this one verse. This is the results of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Okay, tell me if you like this list. Love, joy, peace, forbearance is like patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Anyone want any of those on the list. You'd be happy with all of those ones. There's nothing in there? You'd be like, oh, don't want that one. You'd be happy with all those. This is the result of the Holy Spirit working in your life in mind. This is what our church needs desperately. You can't get that one by working harder. It only comes by receiving. Much of being a good Christian is being a good receiver. Much of it. So let me ask you these two questions to finish, and I'll pray for you.
Speaker 1:No one have you ever had a really life-changing experience with the Holy Spirit, something that marked you, something that you said I Came out of that experience different changed. May not be everything changed, but something changed that moment. And if you haven't, I pray you start seeking God for it. Ask him, asking for something big, asking the show up big time in your life. Maybe it's to break off a fear of your life or to help you with a relationship or A healing or Some kind of trauma from the past or Something deep. Asking him to do something big.
Speaker 1:And then second question is this what is the daily thing that the Holy Spirit is trying to do in your life right now? Maybe you're resisting it or Maybe you're simply not presenting yourself to God daily through spiritual practices. But you could. You could start today. You start right now saying God, here I am. You know we haven't got, we haven't got to all the signage and everything yet, but in our first building we had this big sign on the floor to said here I am, and it was a reminder of when I step into this place I'm going to thank God.
Speaker 1:Whatever you want to do, here I am, I'm ready, come and do it, and I pray. That is our heart. So let me pray for you today. Thank you, god, and we thank you, holy Spirit, that you are so good, so powerful, so close, so kind, better than we could ever hope for. In a Holy Spirit, we invite you to come and fill our lives with your goodness. Let this fruit that we just talked about, the results, be the marker of this Church, of this of our lives, over the future of our church.
Speaker 1:It's going to take time, god, but we're just surrendering to that pathway. Now pray as we present our lives to you this week. God, you would come and you would show up big time in our lives. Do something powerful, and we're asking you for miracles to happen in this church. That this would be a house of miracles, where the unexplainable happens regularly. The only God, the but God would be a regular and common story. I pray for people here that don't know you yet, god, that you would show them how much you love them. Take away a hard heart and give them an open heart today. Cause them to lean and trust on you today, in Jesus name, amen.