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
Making Jesus ways, Our ways, Together.
What if embracing the teachings of Jesus could lead to an intentional transformation in your life? Our latest episode promises insights into living a life of purpose and fulfillment by exploring the powerful story of Levi, the tax collector who chose to follow Jesus, leaving everything behind. With inspirations from John Mark Comer and Gabor Mate, we dive into the human quest for meaning, often sought outside ourselves, and how aligning with Jesus' ways can fulfill our deepest longings.
Join us as we unravel the fascinating journey of Levi, also known as Matthew, and his internal struggle between comfort and calling. We relate Levi's story to our own experiences, sharing how Jesus' invitation to follow Him is a testament to love and acceptance, especially for those marginalized by society. This episode serves as a heartfelt encouragement to prioritize Scripture and deepen our connection with God, echoing the essence of His teachings as we navigate life's challenges in this new year.
Explore the transformative power of surrendering to the lordship of Jesus, where faith becomes a union of God's work and personal change. Reflecting on Bonhoeffer's insights, we discuss how true transformation is a gracious process, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that enables us to cultivate love, joy, peace, and patience. As a community, we aspire to embrace God's plans, allowing His power to restore and transform our lives, just as Matthew did when he said "yes" to Jesus.
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Well, welcome, welcome. It's great to have you here. Welcome back If you've been here before, welcome If you're new around here. Like I said, my name is Luke. It's great to have you here and good to be together. We're going to have a good year together in Future Church. It is our community really all about, and I want to share about this one sentence that I believe really encapsulates a lot of what we're trying to do together and who we're trying to be together, and that is this making Jesus' ways, our ways together. Making Jesus' ways, our ways together. We're doing it together. Making Jesus' ways, our ways together. We're doing it together. Jesus' ways of living. Jesus' ways of thinking. Jesus' way of speaking. Jesus' way of loving people. Jesus' way of relating to the Father our ways. And when I have a choice between my way and Jesus' way, I'm going to choose Jesus' way. When I have a choice between Australian way and Jesus' way, I'm going to choose Jesus' way Because, first of all, I am a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1:We're going to read a scripture from Luke, my favorite book in the bible luke, chapter 5. It was actually in three of the gospels, but I chose luke. Uh, chapter 5, verse 27. It says after this, jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of levi he's also known as matthew sitting at a tax booth. Follow me, jesus said to him. Le Levi did an incredible thing he got up, left everything and followed him. I love what John Mark Comer said like this to be human is to change, to grow, to evolve. This is by God's design.
Speaker 1:The question is not am I changing? But who or what is changing me? We are all becoming someone. The question is are we doing that intentionally or are we doing that by accident? Are we being shaped simply by the people and the circumstance around us, or are we choosing intentionally to follow Jesus and make Jesus' ways of living become our ways of living? So if I was to ask you this question, fast forward 20 years in your life, right now. If you're on the current trajectory of your life, meaning you're doing exactly what you're doing don't change, keep at it. Just do exactly what you're doing right now. In 20 years from now, the trajectory of your life, ask yourself the question am I becoming the person that I hoped I would? Am I becoming the person that I hoped I would? Is the life that I'm living right now leading me to the dreams or the person of mature love that I want to be. Is that happening? Or maybe, like for me, there's some changes that need to be made in my life. I hope we'd all agree changes that need to be made in my life. I hope we'd all agree. For us, formation or forming your life is not a Christian concept. It's a human concept. Everyone is becoming For the Christian. We are intentionally becoming more like Jesus. That is the goal for us.
Speaker 1:Gabor Mate is a famous psychologist. He talked about addiction and he talked about this. He said the question is not why the addiction, but why the pain. Addiction is not the primary problem. It is an attempt to solve a problem. The problem with my addiction is not that my addiction is the problem. The addiction is my solution to my problem and maybe I've filled my life with the wrong solutions to the pain that I have in my life.
Speaker 1:And so many of us feel this way beneath the surface of our successful lives that we have in Australia. I mean, australia is amazing. If you live in Australia, what a great place to live, incredible. We have a beautiful country, beautiful life that we have here together, especially in Brisbane. I've traveled other cities, brisbane. What an amazing life to live in Brisbane. I've travelled to other cities Brisbane what an amazing life to live. We've got the Broncos, we've got beautiful weather. You know, just winning, winning all around.
Speaker 1:But underneath that there's all kinds of longings that the human heart has that we naturally try to fill with different things. Maybe it's through Netflix, or alcohol, or sex, or eating or shopping, take your pick. We are all trying to fill the longings of our heart with something. Ronald Rollheiser, in his book the Holy Longing, said it like this Every choice we make is an expression of our spirituality, a way of us responding to the longing within us. This is true Any Star Wars fans here yes, one on the front row if you've been to Will's house Anakin Skywalker. Big talent, big future, big opportunity. He is going places. He's going to rebalance the force.
Speaker 1:He is a man of consequence and he's the chosen one. But he has this wonderful appearance but underneath the surface he has this kind of longing and he's really driven by this fear of loss. So so much of what he's trying to do in his life is trying to make up for or fill this fear that he has of losing his girlfriend and also the way that he lost his mother. So this fear of loss is driving him. He has this insecurity. He's very talented, but he has this insecurity and he has this lack of trust and this becomes a big frustration in his life, until someone walks into his life, emperor Palpatine, and says to him I come and be my apprentice and I will make you stronger. You've seen this before. Come and I will show you the dark side of the force.
Speaker 1:Whoever's been in a place of great need or great longing in your life and the very wrong person has come into your life at that time. Maybe a relationship or something has come into your life at the very moment where you needed a longing to be met and all kinds of hell breaks loose in your life. The invitation for us today is that Jesus is here right now and he's inviting us not simply into a set of religious beliefs, but he's also inviting us into a way of life, and that way of life leads to life, real life, the deep longings of our heart being satisfied. You've got to be careful who you choose to apprenticeship under. Yeah, any tradies here today. You've got to be careful who you choose to apprenticeship under.
Speaker 1:In Scripture we see these stages of apprenticeship. There's three that are quite obvious. I'm sure there's more. The first one is Jesus invites people to come and spend time with him. This is the fuel of transformation. The closer you get to Jesus, the natural change becomes in your life. It's not striving or trying to force something to happen.
Speaker 1:I remember for me when I became a believer in Jesus at 14 years old. The reason I didn't want to become a believer is because I knew I would have to forgive my father. And when I became a believer in Jesus, when I said I'm going to follow Jesus and I asked Jesus to come into my life, what I naturally discovered is the closer I got to Jesus, the more I wanted to forgive my father. Naturally it was changing, happening on the inside of me. And that transformation empowers action, meaning that the results of my life start changing. There's things in my life that I start doing differently. It's not just you know, christianity or following Jesus is not just a set of beliefs that we have on the wall. It actually needs to result in a changed life overflowing to the people outside of the walls of this room. And then, thirdly, that action deepens our dependence on Jesus, meaning the more that I do for Jesus as a pastor, I've experienced this, the more I realize I can't do that much. I'm so limited and my dependence on Jesus grows more and more I've realized I need God. I need him so much.
Speaker 1:It would be helpful today to maybe to think about what stage of apprenticeship are you at in your life with Jesus? Maybe you are freshly being called to follow Jesus, or maybe it's time you have that relationship with Jesus, but it's actually time to start living out your faith. Or maybe it's time to try something big for God and really put yourself in the deep end of dependence on God, meaning, if God doesn't show up for me here, I don't know what I'm going to do. Wow, what an adventure. Following Jesus is certainly not boring. I can tell you that there's adventure in that. But this process I want to just let you know this process is a real process of grace. In fact, this is the way that grace actually works. First of all, we receive grace. Grace is God's work in my life that I can't do for myself. The grace of God changes my heart and then it overflows out of me in contribution and love to others. That is the way the grace of God works. This is a gracious process.
Speaker 1:Let's look at one story together of one person in the Bible, levi we started reading it about how his life was changed. Matthew, or Levi the tax collector. He's sitting at a tax booth. He's sitting at a booth, sitting down, he's collecting taxes Probably one of the most hated people around right. He's taking taxes from his own people for the Romans who are oppressing his people, like that's rough, right, not a super. He doesn't get invited to many parties. He's not super loved. But in verse 27 it says after this, jesus went out and saw the tax collector by name. He said follow me. And he got up and followed him, follow me.
Speaker 1:Imagine the conflict inside of Levi's heart right now. He's got a terrible situation on the one hand, but on the other hand it's comfortable. Ever felt that way? I want to change, but better the devil, you know, than to risk changing and into the unknown. Ever felt like that? I felt like that. So he becomes used to, or comfortable with the pain of his life rather than seek change. I think all of us have been like that. And then a moment comes where Jesus comes to him and says come and follow me. Suddenly, someone actually cares about his life. Someone cares, someone sees him, someone looks at him in the eyes and says I want you. When everyone else around rejects him, jesus says I want you on my team. Wow, what an incredible honour. Can you imagine the tension or the conflict in his heart at that moment? But what does he do? He gets up and he follows Jesus. He leaves everything to follow Jesus.
Speaker 1:The psalmist in chapter 42, verse 1, you've heard this psalm maybe before. It says, as the the psalmist saying the deepest longing of my heart, it's not somewhere out there, it's God. God is the only one who can really satisfy the deepest longings of my human heart. And what if this ache that we have for meaning and connection and longing, what if that's not a bad thing? But what if it's a sign post and a gift from God to point you into the arms of a loving Father? I believe that it is. And when Levi this is verse 29,.
Speaker 1:When Levi had held a great banquet for Jesus at his house and a large crowd of other tax collectors started bringing all of his unloved friends and they were all eating together. But the Pharisees, the religious elite and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to their disciples, saying why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Why are you loving people that shouldn't be loved? For a rabbi that's Jesus to eat on a table meant acceptance. It meant welcome. It meant welcome. It meant hospitality. It meant like I want you. A rabbi would never eat with someone like Levi.
Speaker 1:That sends way the wrong message. That sends the message of maybe that lifestyle is okay, we can't love people. But Jesus is saying hang on a second. Look at what Jesus says. He says it is not the healthy. You need a doctor, it's the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. I have come for the lost. I have come for people who understand that they have need, that they have longing. Maybe some of our problem here today, especially in the West, is we think we have no need. We've medicated with all kinds of things our longings for God. But I think if we're really honest, we know this is short-term solutions. God is the one who will satisfy your soul. So what is Jesus offering you today? He says to Levi come and follow me, come and be close to me. He was really inviting him to come and live with Jesus for the next few years. That's a big offer of friendship to a guy who's pretty hated. That's the kind of love that Jesus offers In John chapter 15, jesus speaking about closeness with God.
Speaker 1:He talks about it like this. He says remain in me and I will also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain. Want to have fruit in your life, want to see good things in your life. The key is to be close to God. This is the truth of my life. The closer I've been to God, the more at ease and the more naturally fruitfulness has come. Not striving for it, trying to make something happen, but a closeness with God. There's a grace to that. There's a smoothness. In old Pentecostal circles we used to call this anointing. It just means ease. There's an ease to what you're doing. That seems like what it used to be hard push is now smooth. It's ease, there's a grace to it. That's what it means to be close to God. It doesn't mean everything's perfect, but there's a grace to it.
Speaker 1:One of the best ways to get close to God is I'm going to keep on harping on this until I retire from this church is reading the Scripture. One of the easiest ways to get to know Jesus is by reading the Scripture. If you have not read the Scripture, I want to encourage you. This is a great time. This is a brand new year, 2025. I'm going to read the Scripture.
Speaker 1:Jesus loved the Scripture. Jesus prioritized the Scripture, quoted the Scripture, memorized the Scripture. Jesus prioritized the Scripture, quoted the Scripture, memorized the Scripture. If it was needed for Jesus, surely it is needed for us. It's definitely needed for me. I need to know. There is so much coming at me today. If I'm not anchored in what Jesus says about my life, what hope do I have of standing in the middle of trial?
Speaker 1:Know the Scripture, which means and some of you are like okay, well, sign me up for Bible college. You don't need to be a Bible college student to start reading the Scripture. Open it, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you and to show you, reveal to you, what the Scripture means. He so wants to relate to you. Just start with the book of Luke, it's a great one. Or start with Matthew or Mark. Start with one of the Gospels about Jesus, because the whole Bible is about Jesus. You might as well start at the point with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Learn Jesus' ways of living and loving and in the rhythm of his life and his teaching, it will be life to your soul. I feel like I'm selling some kind of health pill, but it's even better than that. It's free. It will always be free and it's for you, it's for your good. So I encourage you, don't put it off. Don't say someday, when or when I join a group or something. Just start today. And if you miss tomorrow, don't feel guilty about it. Just start again, because guilt and reading the Bible don't go together. Grace does, and soon you will find that the Holy Spirit filling your life, and you will get into a situation where you won't know what to do. But God will remind you of the Scripture that you just read and it will be exactly what you need in the moment. I can tell you thousands of times that has happened in my life. I'm reading the Scripture on forgiveness. I get offended. God reminds me of the Scripture on forgiveness. I have a chance to forgive and forgive. I thank God. I've read the Scripture. Does this make sense? Over and over, this is the way that God works, because he cares about you and me. He cares Rich Valotis in his book the Narrow Path love this book, he said, moral constraint.
Speaker 1:It is about the freedom that comes when we surrender to God's way of life, trusting that it leads to flourishing. Have you ever heard of this big word? It's a big, maybe a theological word called lordship. Lordship ever heard of that? Lordship just means who's the boss? Who's the boss in your life? Who's got the final say in your life? The top of the order of who? I listen to? Maybe mom, you know, grandma, where's Jesus on that list? Is he number one?
Speaker 1:So I think some of us have been tricked out of the lordship of Jesus in our life, thinking I know better, I can do it my own way. In fact, jesus should adopt my ways, my ways should become Jesus's ways because I know what's up. Now we wouldn't say that blatantly because that sounds silly, but maybe in our hearts, if we examine the life that we're living, it's really saying to God my ways are better than your ways, and humility would say that needs to be reversed. God, surely, god's ways are better than my ways. Surely, surely.
Speaker 1:There's another big word that comes in this. Jesus says I have come for the sick, the righteous, and I've called sinners to repent. That word, repent, literally, just means change, metanoia, change of mind which, basically you could say it like this he's saying I want you to change your ways to Jesus' ways. I want you to change. Jesus is calling us to change and that's what Levi does. He responds, he changes, becomes an incredible leader. And maybe today, the prayer for you, if we just have a little moment right now, maybe the prayer for your life is something like this Jesus, I've been going my own way, I've allowed other things to shape me, to lead me. You're not my priority, you are not my God number one, and I repent. I'm coming home today, I'm coming back and I pray you would take the wheel of my life again. Maybe that's the prayer for some of us here today. Jesus, come and take the lead again. Jesus come and take the lead again. So how do I really change, then?
Speaker 1:Rich Valotis in his other book, the Deeply Formed Life I also love this book he said the way of Jesus requires a complete reordering of our lives. It's not just hard, it's impossible Without the Spirit empowerment, the work of God in our lives. Let me just relieve the pressure a little bit for you. The work of God in your life is slow, maybe some big moments, but usually the work of God is slow. Just ask anyone in this room who's been a Christian for 40, 50 years. Maybe there's no one 50 years yet. I'm not sure, not quite 40. We can make it 40, potentially. Yeah, let's go with that. Yep, Ian became a Christian when he was one year old, so it's 41 now. Just ask anyone who's been a Christian a long, long time and they'll tell you the work of God is slow.
Speaker 1:But also the work of God is gracious. So gracious meaning God doesn't turn up to your steps with a list of things that need to change. That would kill you. You would be so discouraged if you knew how much you needed to change to be who God wants you to be. That's a huge for me. I mean, that's a massive list. I would probably just keel over, I quit, I give up, can't do it.
Speaker 1:But God graciously comes into your life and he says one thing I would like you to surrender your fear to me and I'm going to come and replace it with perfect love. And that's what we're going to work on for the next little while is surrendering fear and replacing it with love. We're just going to work on that for the next couple of years or so. It's this slow, gracious process of you and you go off track a little bit again and then you come back and it's oh, I've done it again. Here I am again God, I surrender again. This is the process God has you on, and God is not anxious about the process that he has you on. He's enjoying it. So don't give God a try for a month. Give God your whole life.
Speaker 1:Maybe some of us here we spent the first 20 or 30 years of our life doing our very best to screw up our lives. We've thrown everything at it. We've tried our best to derail our lives, maybe not intentionally. At least you've got the same amount of time to set you whole. At least we're almost at the end.
Speaker 1:Galatians 5, verse 13 talks about how the Holy Spirit changes us. Right and this is long scripture that I'm not going to read the whole thing. Galatians 5, I encourage you to read it, it's beautiful. It talks about being called to freedom, but not using that freedom to be a jerk, basically to become a person of love. And this is the key. In verse 16 he says so I say to you walk by the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit, meaning every step that I'm taking with God. I'm not doing it out of striving or in my own power. I'm really doing it moved and motivated and led by the Spirit of God. We need to talk more and more about what that looks like in our lives Verse 18,. But you are led by the Spirit. Verse 22,. But the fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 1:Notice all these key points of changing your life. It's the work of the spirit, not yourself. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleman, self-control sound like a good list. Anyone want someone on that list? I wish I could just order it like a menu. Some patience doesn't really work like this, is it? Oh, you want some patience? Ah, I can serve some of that up for you. Let me just put some really challenging people around you for the next five years. That'll develop some patience. God's really kind like that.
Speaker 1:But the result of being led by the Spirit is this beautiful fruit that comes out of our lives, and some of us here are struggling with this dichotomy. Okay, is it God then, or is it me? Is it like me changing my life, or is it the Spirit working? And I love this. It's not in my notes, but I love this quote from Bonhoeffer. He says I love this quote from Bonhoeffer. He says Faith is the intersection of God's divine work and my surrender. These two intersections is where faith lives, and that is the life that we are called to. Yes, you are going to need to change and, yes, you can only change by the Spirit of God. Both of those things are true. This is the journey we're going to need to change and, yes, you can only change by the Spirit of God. Both of those things are true. This is the journey we're going on together, guys, of making Jesus' ways our ways together. I remember going I'm going to finish with this.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was 16 years old, my pastor came in and told me you should go on a trip. You should go on a missions trip to Indonesia, and I said let's go. I'm from a farm. You know, like I've never been outside my town, we ride kangaroos to school. No, I said yes, I signed up right away. I remember going to Indonesia and having my mind blown. It was the first time I shared a message in a church. It was the first time I'd prayed for someone and saw them healed physically. I'd never seen that before. It was the first time I'd really seen a move of the Spirit that I had not seen like that before. And something happened in my life. Something happened to me. I came home and I started saying why am I not doing this in my high school? Why am I not living like this all the time? And it was the beginning of God's call in my life to do whatever came next and all the things that have happened since.
Speaker 1:I'd encourage you today your future really could come down to a few surrenderings to God, saying yes to God. Yes, I will follow you, take the lead. God has a great plan for your life. It's so true, but we need to surrender, and the power of the Spirit will come into your life and do what you cannot do for yourself. So let me pray over us as we just take a moment to respond to God, and I really pray that our response would be saying yes to this invitation of come follow me, not a. I want to be a Christian, not just that. That's not enough. I want to follow Jesus into the life of flourishing that he has for me. All right, god.
Speaker 1:Here we are Sitting with our community, these beautiful children running around. They're totally fine, by the way. They're totally fine If we can't respond to God with a little bit of children, then we're in trouble. Jesus, here we are Just responding to you. Come, holy Spirit. Thank you for calling each and every single person in this room to come follow you into the goodness that you have for them. Thank you for your gracious process that you have prepared for every person here, that you are so warm and kind and gracious to love us, even in the many, many lists of things that must change in our own lives. The gracious process.
Speaker 1:I pray for those here who maybe have been running from you or putting themselves above you or idolizing something else in our lives. I pray today that we would do what Matthew did, we would repent, we would change and we invite you, jesus, to come back and be the centre of our lives. Help us to follow you. Pray, holy Spirit, that you would come and fill people here today with the power to change, the power to live like you, even the power to just say yes and respond. Just for today, just for today, and we're trusting you with the rest. God Pray over this church that we would be a church that says yes to you. You're leading what you want for our lives. Come and restore broken lives here I pray this year. Come and do what only you can do. Jesus, we trust you, we love you, amen, amen.