Called to pray

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Let's spend some time in prayer together this morning. Lord God, thank You that in this time, in this place, You have called us together, brothers and sisters in Christ to turn our attention to You, to seek humbly Your will for us as Your people. Lord, we submit to You, our God. We thank You that very truly death and sin is defeated. Jesus is victorious and He's coming again. Lord, we pray that as we continue in this season of seeking You, Lord, reveal to us our transgressions. Reveal to us the ways in which we have sinned against You, lead us in repentance. Let us not delay in receiving the forgiveness made available to us through Christ. And let us live transformed lives in obedience to You, that we would be disciples that bear much fruit for Your glory alone. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Good morning church. It's good to see you all here this morning. Welcome if you're joining us online as well. I want to begin this morning with a story. It's a real life story and I've got permission from this person to share it so you don't have to worry about that. But it's a story about a young man who a number of years ago attended his local church. Then on a particular Sunday morning, the Sunday morning that we're going to be speaking about here, he arrived at church like he normally did, walked through the back doors and sat in the very last row. Not because that was the only seat left, not because he was a good Baptist in quotations, but because he wanted to be able to make a quick unnoticeable exit as soon as the service had finished. See this man, he was familiar with the crowd. He had grown up in the church that he was attending. People knew his face, they knew him by name. And he didn't want to get caught up after the service, he wanted to be able to disappear. He'd be coming to the church for pretty well a decade at the time that this took place. Over those 10 or so years he had served in various ministry roles. But more recently, in the year leading up to this particular Sunday, things had changed. There had been an increase in work commitments that ate into his time as he went about life. Where he used to attend weekly or close to on a Sunday. This over the last year had been pulled back to more like monthly. And if his weekend wasn't spent working, this monthly attendance would be dependent on whether he felt generous enough to grace the church with his presence, his words. On the particular Sunday, his walkthrough set himself at the back of the auditorium. There was a spiritual battle taking place. He knew that a relationship with God was important. But he had also seen, he had also experienced deep church hurt. And having on this particular Sunday decided to grace the church with his presence. He came in expecting to be entertained. He came in expecting to be made comfortable. To be taught something from the preacher that he had never learnt before. To be drawn into closer relationship with God through the efforts of those serving on that particular Sunday. What he experienced was quite the opposite. The worship leader had chosen, in his words, old outdated songs. The bare bones music team struggled to play in time, struggled to hit the right keys. The pastoral spot, well, that seemed to drag on forever and ever and ever with a bunch of words that just seemed irrelevant to life itself. By the time that the sermon began, this young man was disengaged, restless, and wondering why he had even bothered to come to church that morning. As the sermon began, he looked around the room and judged the church. What is wrong with everything that I see, he said to himself. And it's in the midst of this judgment that victory occurred. In the midst of this judgmental self-focused lament to God that the church that he was currently in no longer met any of his needs, God spoke to him. A small, quiet, profound whisper shook him from within. A simple thought provoking question in the midst of this lament. What are you doing about it? Today we launch into week two of our intentional church prayer. Week two of seeking God's will and plan for Caboolture Baptist Church. And I wonder, how did you go last week? Did you actually engage, meaningfully, in prayerfully seeking God's will for Caboolture Baptist, not just the list of things that you had for the week, did you actually intentionally engage in prayer for us as Caboolture Baptist this week? Or did it fall out of focus? Was it pushed to the side for things that seemed more important, more relevant? How did you go? If you've got your bibles there, I'll invite you to open up to Romans 12. But as you do so, it's important as we look at Romans 12 to realise that this is the 12th chapter in Paul's very deep letter to the Romans. And so it seems only appropriate for us to quickly recap the first 11 chapters. Not going to use my words. This is a quick recap that one of the commentators I read throughout the week put together. But I think it's helpful because Paul writes this letter to the Romans. And he highlights a great deal of God's mercies shown to you and me and the Romans and all of humanity. In the first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul highlights that through Jesus we have justification from the guilt and penalty of sin. We're adopted in Jesus and now have identification with Christ. He highlights that because of Jesus, we are placed under grace and no longer the law. He highlights the good news that when we accept Jesus, we're given the Holy Spirit to live within us, that we're promised help in all affliction, that we have assurance in our standing in God's election. Confidence in the coming glory. Confidence that we will not be separated from the love of God. And confidence in God's continued faithfulness. In short, in the very first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul highlights to them, to us today, that if we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, the full debt of our sin is forgiven. It has been paid in full. When we accept Jesus, we're given the Holy Spirit, this helper and assurance that we will not be separated from God's love. When we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we become disciples. We become a part of His church. And it's in the context of this that we then get the opening two verses of Romans 12. Paul writes, I appeal to you therefore, brothers. In the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Church we don't have to look far, we don't have to dig very deep beyond the surface level to realize that our world promotes all sorts of falsities, all sorts of false truths that sound nice, but when put against Scripture, when looked at with a little bit of common sense, don't actually stand to be true. The world tries to promote that busyness is a sign of productivity, but chronic busyness just wears us out. Busyness doesn't always mean effective. Actual fact, busyness can mean that we're ineffective. There's a difference between efficiency and busyness. The world will try to promote that wealth is a sign of security. If you just have this much in your retirement fund, you'll be able to get all the way through, no dramas, no problems. If you have this much saved up, then if this life event happens and something goes wrong, you'll still be able to coast through life's good. If we align that with Scripture, we see that wealth treasures in this world will fade. They're not certain. And more than certainly, our wealth here cannot buy us eternal security in Christ. In other words, it's meaningless. The world will try to promote that comfort is a sign of safety, but church, I've got to be honest, the more I look at this comfort is a dangerous breeding ground for idleness and spiritual stagnation. And the warning in Romans 12 for us this morning is clear. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. See, we've entered into this season of prayer to seek God's will for His church here in Cabocha Baptist. And very truly, we want to see God's church in this local area grow. We want to see God's church grow not only here, but around the world. But what does that mean? What does it actually mean for God's church to grow? The world will tell us to measure the number of people attending a service. The world will tell me to stand up here to count each one to look later and see how many watched online. And that gives me an indication compared to last week as to whether it's grown or not. The world will tell us to assess the building itself. Is it aesthetically pleasing? Does it have state-of-the-art facilities that cater to everyone's needs? Are the chairs comfortable to sit in for the duration of the service? The world will tell us to consider whether or not we're entertained by the music that's played or made to feel good by the preaching. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. The problem is, church, that these false measures lead us to be consumers rather than participants. They lead us to be attenders at a church rather than the church. False people gathered together to worship Him. If we use these false measures, the things that the world tells us to look at, then very truly like the young man whose story I shared. We can end up sitting in a service lamenting over everything that doesn't please our own selfish desires. We may sit there in the pews and lament over the fact that actually this week we had to sit in a less comfortable chair. We may lament over the fact that the facilities don't quite meet our needs, that the music wasn't to our liking, they did four songs, how dare they? That morning tea wasn't as good as it was two weeks ago. We may lament over the fact that certain ministries currently aren't running. We hear of this great need for volunteers and we wonder, why haven't others stepped up to make my church experience more enjoyable? We lament that the preacher spoke too long, or that he had the audacity to challenge us rather than to encourage sinful living. I don't know where you're at this morning, but if any of that resonates with us, we would do well to consider the thought-provoking question, what are you doing about it? What is your role in all of this? Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. See the Bible tells us quite plainly that we are God's church, not the building, not the ministries, not the stuff that happens. We the individuals, the disciples of Jesus, are God's church. That's why it's so important that we gather together, but there's an implication if that, if you and I, if we, because we meet here in Cabocha, are Cabocha Baptist Church, not the building, if we are Cabocha Baptist Church, then for the church to grow, we must grow in our relationship with Jesus, in our obedience as disciples. We need not drag new people off the streets through the doors, we must grow in our faith, in our obedience. Very truly church, we individually need personal revival. We need to ask God openly in submission to reveal the areas of our lives where we are rebelling against Him. Scripture tells us clearly that until Jesus comes again, we can accept Jesus, we will be forgiven, made fully righteous and yet fully sinful until He returns and that work is finished once. And for all that means that for each of us, regardless as to whether or not we've been a Christian for 50 years or five days, we will still sin, we still need to seek forgiveness. And so as a church, we individually need to seek God's revelation for the areas of our lives that we are rebelling against Him. We need to seek forgiveness through Christ for our sins. We need to live repentant lives in obedience to God. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to transform us, to grow us in Christ's likeness. See the church growth, the growth of us here at Kabuchah Baptist Church isn't dependent on people coming in, it's dependent on us growing deeper in our relationship with God and acting in obedience with His will. We can force people to come in, but we can't force them to accept Jesus. If you've accepted Jesus, our responsibility is to grow in Him and as we grow in faith, as we grow in obedience, we will then go out into Kabuchah. We will go out, we will share the good news as Jesus taught us to. He commands us, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. But church, we can't go with conviction. We can't go with any authenticity until we grow deep in our faith, until our going comes as direct obedience to God's call to God's leading in God's strength. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. Romans 12, 1 and 2, it's so small, so simple, yet so rich and difficult, if we're being honest, to put into practice. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. This is week two of our church prayer, seeking God's will for Kibbutzha Baptist Church. Church for us to grow, we who are already here, must be transformed, more and more every day into the likeness of Christ, into obedience to him and his will, in submission that Christ would be king and not I be king. This week, as you prayerfully seek God's will for Kibbutzha Baptist Church, I encourage you as part of Kibbutzha Baptist Church, ask God to transform you. That is, as part of Kibbutzha Baptist, that we would live more closely and obediently as his disciples, that in response to that, we would then be able to bear much fruit for his glory. We're going to have an opportunity here and now to respond in a meaningful way. I'm actually going to invite the communion stewards. Can you come up for me and start distributing communion? In a moment, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, praise God, that is good news. If this is you, I'm going to invite you to partake in communion with us. If you don't yet know Jesus as Lord and Savior, it's nothing to be concerned about for this aspect, but for life, consider this closely. Come speak to me, one of the other pastors, anyone you came with, but for now, if you don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, just let the elements pass you by. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as we partake in communion, eat the bread in your own time after you've considered this, but hold the cup, we'll declare the Lord's coming again together. Remember Jesus. Remember his death on a cross, his body broken, his blood spilled, that we might be forgiven. Not because we are worthy or deserving, but because we are loved by God. As we come to this, even before you eat the bread, I want to encourage you to do business with God. First Corinthians 12 verses 27 says whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. As you consider communion, as you pray individually in a moment, ask God to reveal the sin in your life. When he does confess your sin to him, receive the free gift of forgiveness from Christ. Remember his body broken, his blood spilled for you. Surrender anew your entire life. Ask the Holy Spirit to transform you. For personal revival, that your entire life would be in submission to Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. First Corinthians 12, 23, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. Which would you proclaim the Lord's death and his promised coming with me? Lord God, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that in the midst of our sin, in the midst of our unloveliness, in the midst of our rebellion against you, our God, our Creator and Sustainer. In the midst of our hurt against you, Lord thank you that you loved us so much that you sent Jesus to live a perfect life as a model for us in complete submission and obedience to God the Father. Lord thank you that in complete submission Jesus did not forsake the cross but willingly and obediently laid down his life, was nailed to that cross, his body broken, his blood shed that we, undeserving, sinful and wicked, yet loved by you, may receive forgiveness for the full cost of our sin, the full debt of our wrongdoing. Thank you for your Holy Spirit who dwells in us when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. Lord thank you for the Holy Spirit who is at work in us and through us for your glory. Thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit revealing our sins to us. Lord let us not be slow to confess, to seek your forgiveness, to live lives that are in obedience to you. Lord I pray that you would lead and guide each and every one of us. Lord by your Holy Spirit would you bring about in each and every one of us here at Caboche Baptist Church a personal revival. Lord renew the thinking of our minds, help us not be distracted by the things of this world, but to seek a fresh lives that are committed to following you, that are committed to growing deeper in relationship with you, our God. Lord help us not to take this immense privilege for granted, but each and every day in each and every way. Let us draw near to you, seek your will for us as Caboche Baptist Church and live lives that reflect your work in us and through us. Lord as we look to the future we don't necessarily know the way ahead, but we trust that you do. Lord we pray that you would draw us nearer to you, that you would reveal your will in your timing for your church, that you would equip us and give us the strength to act in obedience when you do. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be my disciples.