“iServant” – part 1

Read Philippians 2 –

Paul who is in prison and in chains writes this letter because of his care and concern for the Christians in Philippi (if anyone had a right to complain it was Paul because he was in prison).

Phil. 2:2-3 he encourages us to be of one heart , one mind and one spirit & purpose in being UNITED with CHRIST.

V. 3 – we should do NOTHING out of selfish ambition or vain conceit – but in HUMILITY consider others better than ourselves.

• So let’s look for the good in people. See them as Christ sees them. See their God given potential and gifts.

v.4 – Each of us should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

•  This includes looking out for the needs of others – including students, migrants, refugees, the poor, the fatherless, widows, those who have had a tough time and have lacked certain good relationships.
•  Are we looking out for others, and not just ourselves?

 Paul is really dealing with the ISSUE OF PRIDE & SELFISHNESS (it looks like nothing much has changed in mankind over 2000 years).

 He then presents a strong case dealing with our ATTITUDES: which SHOULD BE THE SAME AS THAT OF CHRIST JESUS.

He goes onto describe some key features of Christ:

1. Jesus did not hang onto or grasp to his high position (even though he is God) a. in other words he LET GO OF HIS RIGHTS!!! He could have demanded so much as king, but chose instead to make himself NOTHING and become a SLAVE-SON.

2. He made himself NOTHING –

     a. this means no titles, no position, no degrees, no occupation, no middleclass or upper class or any class for that matter. (He was born in a manger)

3. He took the very nature of a servant –

    a. Jesus didn’t just SERVE people (including his brothers & sisters, God the Father etc) HE took the VERY NATURE OF A SERVANT

    b. Today it’s so hard to get certain people to serve others –their family, their church, their community, – we are all so busy and don’t have enough time… but Jesus did MORE than serve – he became A SERVANT (in nature) even though he was still the son of God.

c. IN fact he came to DIE for us.

 d. So if Jesus is our Master – and Jesus washed the feet of his disciples – he said NO SERVANT IS GREATER THAN his MASTER. How much more should we as FOLLOWERS and DISCIPLES Of Jesus CHRIST – go LOWER than our Master Jesus. WE should serve and wash the feet of each other. Are you greater than your master?

4. He HUMBLED HIMSELF and became obedient even to death on a cross:

    a. The KEY IS HUMILITY – Jesus set an example for us in ALL our DEALINGS – we should HUMBLE ourselves. ONLY THEN DID GOD exalt Jesus to the highest place and give him the name that is above every other name! What an awesome Servant-King, Master, Leader, friend and God we serve. Take some time out to examine yourself:

1. Check our pride and selfishness – are we just living for ourselves? Is our pride decreasing?

2. Check our attitude – IS IT THE SAME AS CHRIST who: a. Cared for others, loved people, healed people, shared life with everyone – including the despised & rejected? b. Served others – even washing the feet of his disciples?

3. Are you Serving God in any capacity? Are you serving in the House of God? If you are serving – have you taken the VERY NATURE OF A SERVANT? Do you have the very nature of a servant? In other words do you pick and choose what you want to serve in? Do you serve on your own terms – when you want, how you want, with who you want? How does that reconcile with the obedience that Jesus had?

4. Do you consider others better than yourself?

5. Are we living the humility that Christ had? Read Hebrews 5:7-8.

My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest (Exo.33:14)

In Exo.33:14 we see God making an incredible promise to Moses.   Now Moses and the Israelites were at Mt Sinai, they had seen the miraculous power of God in delivering them out of Egypt and now that come to the Mountain of God to worship their God. It was at this mountain that God commissioned them to be his kingdom of priests that would bless the nations.  And now they were about to launch forth to take the promised land.  But Moses realized the importance of the presence of God on this mission.

I spent all of last week in the class with Dr Ed Stetzer, a leader in the MISSIONAL CHURCH movement. We looked at the importance of the missio Dei (the mission of God) and how the church is an instrument that is called forth to partner with God on HIS MISSION to reach all the nations of the earth.  If we are truly going to be a Spirit led people who are ON GOD’S MISSION – then we must be people of PRAYER.

Every Missionary (that includes every Christian who lives on this earth) is called to a life of prayer that is Spirit filled and led. As a CHURCH ON MISSION with GOD- our churches need to be Houses of Prayer for all nations!

Accordingly there are some powerful principles we can learn from MOses encounter with God on the Mountain:

1) REVELATION and Mission should be birthed out of prayer and God’s word:

We see Moses in dailogue with God. Notice that God first makes a promise that His Presence will go with Moses and He would give Moses rest. Moses then immediately prays this promise: “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here…”  Moses repeats and prays the promise the God made to him in v.14!

In the same we must pray to understand the Lord’s Will and moreover we must understand the importance of God’s PRESENCE that went with Moses and the children of Israel.  

The word PRESENCE in Hebrew can literally be taken ”the FACE of GOD” – in a sense it is the same word that is used in the Deuteronomic blessing in Numbers 6, where the Priest would bless God’s people by declaring that “God will make his FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU.” Likewise, it si important to understand that God’s presence involves GOD”S FAVOR and BLESSING being Upon us.

This adds new insight into what is meant by SEEKING GOD’S PRESENCE and SEEKING HIS FACE!  In otherwords when we approach God in prayer we are to seek Him, but more than that we are to SEEK HIS FACE. When we look at someone’s face – we give that person our full attention and respect…. it is also a picture of exclusivity and intimacy. 

So when we being to understand God’s Presence – turning to seek His face, his favor and blessing – shining upon us – then we can have the confidence to do what he wants.

But Moses went a step futher.

2) Moses prayed “Show me your glory”:

This was a daring prayer of Moses – for no one could see the face of God and live.  So God hid Moses in the rock and caused  his goodness pass by Moses.  IN Exo. 34 – we see that Moses saw God’s glory – He saw the goodness and very CHARACTER (the essence) of GOD!

So when we pray don’t merely focus on claiming the promises of God which are in His word – PLEASE UNDERSTAND – that the center and basis of our FAITH MUST BE IN CHRIST ALONE – IN HIS CHARACTER AND GOODNESS!  many Christians claim scriptures as though it were some magic formula – yes they are promises and God does answer prayers. BUT LIKE MOSES – we need to understand that we need to seek our saviour – we need to seek God’s character and not merely the subject of what he has promised.  Our trust, our worship, our adoration, the subject of our prayer must be focused on Christ and WHO HE ESSENTIALLY IS!

Seek the GIVER not the GIFTS. More than that we will be TRANSFORMED WHEN WE BEGIN TO SEE WOH CHRIST IS. Like the apostle Paul I encourage all of us to pray: “I want to Know CHRIST, the powe rof his resurrection and the feloowship of sharing in his sufferings, becomign like him in his death. And so somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil.3:10-11).

God bless all of you!

You are missionaries of the Most High God – so begin to live as missionaries!

ps Jono

M.A.R.C.H. ON!

Contentment & Generosity because of God’s grace & character

I’m  not sure whether anyone has mentioned the importance of CONTENTMENT in other sermons in the series – I think that could have been brought into the equation – once we understand contentment – then it becomes easier to deal with BALANCE…  so people will inevitably struggle with balancing work, money, relationships, service in church etc… – but it’s because they haven’t learned to be CONTENT – as Paul says I have learned to be content in all situations whether with much or little. Most people struggle with wrong desires – related to food, money, relationships – because they haven’t learned to be content with the situation they are in and those wrong desires begin to be the driving factor.

 I also think it was great how the point was made that we cannot out give God. When we meditate on that we begin to realize that God is in fact a GENEROUS GOD – so if you really KNOW GOD and his character – you will become like Him – in generosity – God is a Blesser! And God doesn’t bless us just because we bless him, honor him, do good works… rather God blesses us because when we are generous- we become more like him (in nature & faith). And God LIKES PEOPLE WHO ARE LIKE HIM! (god loves cheerful givers).

 We cannot earn God’s blessing – everything he gives us because of his goodness and Grace. We cannot earn it – so even if we  tithe faithfully and we do not receive any financial blessings in return- Don’t get upset! God is Still Good!  I think the issue boils DOWN TO HAVING THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST – which in part entails BEING GENEROUS and being content.

Blessings

Ps Jono

Friday Revival Prayer 21st August – Job 36:27-28

NLT – Job 36:27-28

He draws up the water vapour and then distills it into rain

The rain pours down from the clouds, and everyone benefits

Many people often think that they have a handle on God – they believe they can just say, “Hey God I am here , bless me!” But the problem is God’s blessing don’t just come down any time you want!

Job got it right – He said the rain will come down depending on the the amount of vapour going up! How many prayers have gone up? How much worship has gone up? How much dedication has gone up?

WE ALL SAY WE WANT REVIVAL – we pray to God and ask Him to pour down the revival rain, but God is saying where is the mist? Where is the vapour?

You see we have to give God something to work with – this speaks about our worship, prayer, praise, fasting, dedication….all these must GO UP! Then He will SEND DOWN the blessings, healing,power answers to prayers, church growth…REVIVAL!

IT IS ONLY COMING WHEN WE SEND UP THE VAPOUR!

Revelation 8:3-5

The incence plus the prayer of the saints becoming will go up to the throne of God.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and PRAY…..

I have not seen anyone get the Holy Spirit that was not seeking for Him

I have never seen anyone get a miracle where someone wasn’t praying for it.

KEEP PRAYING and COME and JOIN US every Friday night at ICC 10.30pm-12.30 pm or beyond.

Telling the World begins with ONE!

I hope you all had a great Synergy Conference – God is GOOD and God is great!   Last night our prayer text was John 1. We focused on several sections including the following:

Firstly in JOHN 1:45  Phillip went off to look for Nathanael and told him about Jesus.  Phillip the great evangelist started off his ministry by telling ONE person about Jesus.  Sometimes evangelism can seem daunting…  you may have thought “How can I(or we) tell the world about Jesus?”    As soon as Phillip became a disciple of Jesus he went to tell ONE person, Nathanael, - we must learn to look for the ‘ONE’s.’ Notice that Nathanael was sitting under the fig tree by himself – there are alot of people in the world who may be all alone just waiting to hear the good news about Jesus.

Phillip’s message was simple - ”I’ve found Jesus! He’s real… just come and see for yourself.” START by being led by the Spirit – is there a friend you know who is searching? do you know someone that is lonely? Perhaps they may be looking for something in life?   

While I was on the plane flying from Brisbane to L.A. I sat next to a 62 year old kiwi guy from Wellington.  We began to talk and he told me how his whole family (his parents and brothers) had passed away – he had no more family. He then shared about how his older brother had died in an accident when he was only 16. This death weighed heavily on him for all his life and he turned his back on God since that time.   Because he saw me reading my big Old Testament theology book I was able to tell him that I was a Christian. Although I didn’t share the scriptures with him I was able to listen to his story and tell him that God had not fogotten him.  God was definitely on his case.  Pray for opportunities everyday… let’s  be open to talk to people… it may be as simple as saying, “Come and see for yourself.”

Secondly, in Luke 24:52 – after Jesus had ascended into heaven- Luke records that, “They (the disciples and other followers of Jesus) worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem fill with great joy. AND THEY SPENT ALL THEIR TIME IN THE TEMPLE, PRAISING GOD!” 

Most of us are familiar with Acts 1 – where the 120 disciples were in the upper room seeking God… however, we often forget the ending of Luke 24 – where the followers of Jesus SPENT ALL THEIR TIME IN THE TEMPLE PRAISING GOD.   In the same way I would encourage everyone who is a follower and disciple of Jesus to CONTINUE to seek him.  Do you have such a strong desire for the presence of God?  Like the Psalmist do you have a deep passion to praise the LORD in the assembly (congregation) of the righteous?    Let’s pray this  for one another – that we will have great joy and continue to praise God as one body – for We (together) are the temple of his Spirit!

Come Let us go to our father’s house where we can seek him and behold his glory.

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