In the book of Acts we see things changing. Jesus had already taught extensively about the Kingdom, but it is in Acts that we actually see His church beginning to unfold. The Local Church became the instrument to fulfill the Kingdom of God. It is an essential progression to understand.

How did the Kingdom operate on a day-to-day level?

What was the focus of the early Apostles?

What is the context of most of the New Testament after the Gospels?

The local church!

There are many people today that want to stamp their own definition on church. They want church to be defined by culture, philosophy, theological extremes, new trends, and marketing ideas. The problem with this approach is anyone can do anything and call it church.

Some people seem to want to move from ‘rediscovery’ to ‘reinvention’. The former is the journey to reveal the original purpose; the latter is the journey to recreate a new purpose.

God’s original purpose for the church needs to be rediscovered by each generation, not reinvented.

Here are the components of our Church’s Core Vision:

Our Key Vision Scripture is known in the Bible as the Great Commission. It is where Jesus gives us His Mission Statement. Matthew 28:19 says:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

(Note that ‘Go’ is used here in the sense of  ‘As you go…’ rather than ‘Go somewhere else’)

Our Vision Statement: Equipping people to be the church seven days a week.

We are only in church about 1% of our week, but whatever our walk in life, we are called to make an impact and ‘be’ the church seven days a week.

Our vision is of a church that empowers people to make an influence – seven days a week.

Our core values: Relevance and Depth.

With both these aspects in balance, we have a great foundation to build an exciting future on together as a church.

Opportunity comes from the Latin opportunus, which describes a favorable wind blowing towards the harbor. It literally refers to having a wind pushing against your back making your journey easier and more productive.

Colossians 4:5

⁵ Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity.

Everyday we are surrounded by people. So everyday we are surrounded by opportunities.

Making the most of every opportunity is embracing a lifestyle of reaching people who are far from God. Not seeing it as a one off event, or a once in a blue moon kind of thing, because evangelism is not an event. It should be a part of our lifestyle, a function of who we are. Living with a perspective that is not inward focused but outward focused.

Is prayer an event? no.

Is having the fruits of the spirit an event? no.

Is reading the Bible an event? no.

Is growing in our faith an event? no.

They are all part of the journey of life. Well, evangelism and reaching people is just as much a part of that journey of life.

Reaching out in a relational way has to be part of our everyday Christianity.

Each day make a daily decision to seize opportunities to reach people in small, practical ways.

The book of Jonah in the OT is only a small book but I truly think it is one of the most honest, real, authentic, narratives of how a personal actually felt about his mission to reach the lost.

Jonah 1:1-3

^“1The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” ³ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.”

Jonah was sent to a city that He had no heart for. In fact, he didn’t go to the city, as he didn’t want people to hear his preaching as they might repent and be spared God’s judgment. He wanted them to experience Gods judgment.

The Bottom line for Jonah is that he is a man who has forgotten to care about others and thus turns from God’s plan for his life. However, the resulting storms and circumstances from Jonahs disobedience turn his eyes back to his purpose.

Here is the heart of Jonah’s story. Before you start feeling guilty and saying yes I am just like Jonah: remember that God still used Jonah! Now if he can use a man that:

1. Went and got a boat ticket in the opposite direction of his calling
2. Hated the people he was supposed to reach
3. Was more concerned about the shade from a tree than the welfare of 120,000 people.

Then why can’t God use you?

Think of this: God transformed Jonah first. From a storm, thrown overboard, belly of a fish, robbed of his shade, Jonah is a different man by the end of all this. God transformed the man so that he could transform others.

God is at work in you but it is not for you – it is for others!

Here is the greatest injustice in the Bible. By one man’s sin we all have sinned (Adam). Seems unfair doesn’t it.

However, think about this: the second greatest injustice in the Bible – By one mans death we all have life (Jesus).

In other words, the same formula that brought sin is the same formula that brings life!

Through the cross, Jesus made it possible for us to connection with God again.It is so easy to forget about the main aspects of the Bible. We can get caught up in all kinds of secondary issues, and get tied up with the business of life we allow the vital fundamentals to fade into the night of forgetfulness. Let’s remember the basics.

Jesus made a way:

1. He Died in Our Place:
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8

2. He Rose from the Dead:
“Christ died for our sins… He was buried… He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures… He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred…” I Corinthians 15:3-6

3. He is the Only Way to God:
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.’” John 14:6

What is the cross? It is a symbol of death but also a symbol of God’s love for humanity.

However, for us it is an image of what it means to be a Christian. We all have to die to ourselves. In other words, the kind of life where you are the final authority and your happiness is the most important thing – that needs to be replaced with this:

God and the Bible are the final authority in your life, and living for God is the most important thing.

Jesus made a way, so take up your cross and follow him!

I am an ardent local church guy. It’s what I do. The New Testament certainly sets the local church up as an absolute essential to the Christian life.

Having said that, I do not view other churches as competition. In fact, we are on the same team. Our competition is the nightclubs, bars, pubs, and anything that would keep people away from God.

Unity is an important word. Many use it as a thinly veiled disguise for a lack of commitment and accountability. “Well we are all the body” or “I go to numerous churches” are usually just people that are not planted and won’t be accountable to a local community of believers.

On that point, unity is not this either: “Let’s bring all the churches together for a revival meeting in a stadium.” It’s not in the Bible, and the point of getting a bunch of Christians together seems like the salt being in the shaker rather than in the world. In fact, the last time all the disciples were together in the same room was the Upper Room experience. From that point on they set about changing the world.

So the first step to unity is actually to strongly commit to a local church. The next step is to encourage other churches and speak highly of them. The final step is to hold a local church theology in one hand, and a kingdom theology in the other. They actually complement each other.

Remember, over 90% of Brisbane is still in need of a church on Sunday! Comments?

Membership is absolutely vital for the connecting of your heart and life to the local church.  It is common practice these days to cheapen what church membership is. But in the Bible, to be an active member of a local church had great spiritual significance.

I’ve heard it put this way: “A Christian without a church family is an orphan.”

We consider membership to be very important in our church.

Membership is not the entrance into an institution, a company, an elite club, it is the entrance into the family at Lifeplace.

This is where we go from friends to family. It is a spiritual family – God’s family – In a local setting.

Membership is a big deal to God, it is a big deal to us.

When you call this church, “my church”, then you should consider membership.

I am urging our church to go through our membership class.We already have over 60 people signed up which is incredible for a church of our size!

Click here to register now.

This Sunday we start a new teaching series. 1 & 2 Timothy: A Life That Pleases God.

Basically we are going to look at a new chapter each week and work our way through both of these books.

These letters written to Timothy were written under extreme pressure and in a unique context. Paul was in prison both times, and he knew his days were numbered. These letters then are his summation of everything that is important to our walk with God and the local church.

Each chapter contains a powerful theme, and some of the ones we will look at include:

• Principles and convictions
• Character
• Godliness
• Speech
• Faithfulness
• Relationship

We can spend so much of our lives trying to please other people, but how often do we live a life that is focused on please God?

I know every person will be equipped, empowered, and challenged by this series.

On Sunday night after the 6pm service we will also be having a question and answer forum where you can ask me a question that relates to my sermon. Should be fun!

Generations are God’s tool for progress. Here are 5 things God does through generations in the Bible and in our lives today:

1.    Blessing
There are three types of generational blessings:

a.    Ministry generation: Elija and Elisha
b.    Spiritual generation: Paul and Timothy
c.    Natural generation: Isacc and his son Jacob.

Some of you feel like the only thing you got from your generational heritage is a generational curse. That’s not true. You are now spiritually part of God’s family. You are a child of the most high. That means everything flows down from him.

1 Peter 2:9-10 (NKJV)
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

2.    Multiplication
Abraham was the father of many nations. He was speaking regarding Abraham and all his generations that were to follow.

3.    Honour
Honour and respect are two different things: Respect is earned by a leaders performance but honour is a matter of your own character. It is easy to think we  are too good to honour anyone. We need to restore honour. Why? Becuase how you perceive someone is how you receive someone. Honour release the annointing on a persons life.

4.    Fulfillment
God’s plan for you will happen through your family. Both your spiritual family, and your natural family.
Matt 1:17    So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.

Notice God’s counting methodology. He didn’t count years here, or all the people. He actually counted in generations.

5.    Advancement
The local church is all about building for the future. And God’s way is always to be moving forward. Increasing, taking more land, reaching more people.

Jesus was referred to as the Son of David. Why? Because God’s plan always comes through the generations.

Start to look at your life generationally. As a Christian, who are you raising up from the next generation?

Gen 17:7    And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

We live in a society and culture where we want everything instantly. We are the Twittering, Blackberrying, microwaving, takeaway society. We can now email from basically every device we own.

We are used to things happening fast. To things happening now. And this also crosses over into our faith. We like shorter church services, more punchy sermons. I am reminded of the prayer a young boy said, “Lord give me patience, and give it to me now.”

However, let’s remember this: God goes by a different clock. His strategy for progress is different. God’s method of fulfilling dreams, and taking promised lands is different than ours. When we see days, or months, or even to our own shock, years, God sees something else. What is this something else? God sees generations. He looks generationally.

So what is God saying in Genesis 17? It is this: God’s concept of progress is generations. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Generations!

In fact, the Hebrews seem to have measured time by the generation.

Most Christians today are too short term in their thinking. We need to catch the concept of thinking generationally.

God’s plan for our lives has always been generational. In your life, it is essential to understand how generations affect your own family, your church, and even your business and legacy in life.

Here’s the punchline: it may not happen in your lifetime, but it will happen in your lifeline.

Here is the greatest misconception about worship today: It is something that the band does.

Here is the greatest Bible truth about worship:  It is something the entire congregation does.

Sometimes the world culture can bleed into the church. So , many people go and ‘watch’ the worship team worship on a Sunday.

Like secular culture, we can end up watching a few celebrity Christians worship on the stage and feel like our job is done.

Here’s the thing: Worship is not a spectator sport. It is a full fledged contact sport. So you have to get in the game.

Concert worship: Watching, viewing, standing still, disengaged.

Congregational worship: Participating, singing, lifting hands, clapping, engaged.

Worship – it’s less about Christian rock stars and more about you engaging in worship.

Front page headlines in the news right now is a tragic story of a lady and her daughter.

Here’s the story:

• Mum has diabetic daughter
• Mum prays for healing
• Mum refuses medical treatment
• Daughter dies
• Daughter would have lived with basic medical care – fluids and insulin.

Isn’t it amazing how much somebody’s theology matters.
Incorrect thinking = incorrect actions
Imbalanced doctrine = imbalanced decisions

The Bible talks about healing, it talks about faith. But does this not sound more of extremism more than faith? The question is this: is there a more balanced way to handle situations as this?

What do you think? Add a comment and give your thoughts.

Psalm 92:12-13    The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courtyards of our God.

There are 2 primary pictures in this Psalm.

Number 1 is the tree: That represents your life.
Number 2 is the environment: “Planted IN the house of the Lord”. The environment represents the context of your life.

So you have your life. And the context of your life.

The Psalm marries these two together. So there is this bond, this relationship between your life and the environment in which your life is planted.

Now, let’s go deeper. The Bible is then specific about the environment. It specifically names exactly where to be planted to thrive the most. Where is this place? The house of the Lord, which is the church. Let me show you the Bible connection between house of God and church:

1 Timothy 3:15 I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

You cannot disconnect thriving from being planted, and specifically being planted in a local church family. Psalm says the righteous thrive when they are planted in the house of the Lord. Being planted is one of the essential keys to growing in life.

Are you planted in your church?

I’ve never done this before. Consider it a sneak peak – a preview of what is to come.

Here is part of my message for my new teaching series tomorrow called “Thrive”. You get to hear it even before it is preached. This is like getting a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper today!

We start this series against the backdrop of the worst financial crises in modern history. It is a very unique situation.

Here is my study methodology: I searched the Bible to find some of the most challenging situations, and how people were able to thrive in them like a flower in the desert. Then, I set about excavating principles and keys that we could then activate in our own lives.

Here is the amazing discovery: It would seem that it was not the rare occasion, or the exception to the rule, that God would act in hard situations.

Rather the Bible shows God specializes in crisis.

He always rose to the occasion. God seemed most active, most at work, most powerful, most strategic, and most able when the odds were stacked up against one of His people.

Here’s a principle in scripture we can apply right now:

The 10,000 promise
Psalm 91:7 (NKJV)
A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.

In other words, things around you might get downright impossible. But God’s odds are so high that even in a room of 10,001, if you are living for God, then all 10,000 people may fall but you are the 1 that stands.

See – I told you – God specializes in crisis!

And that’s just a taste test. That’s not even the introduction! Come Sunday morning for the main course.

See you at church!

Church has to be more than a Sunday meeting.

People are looking for more than an event, or a program, people are looking for relationship and a place to belong.

This poses an important question: What is authentic church community? So often we can come to church, and we never get beyond the polite Sunday morning handshake.

Community, in its simplest form, is a connection of friendships. It’s about relationships.

Acts 2 is the start of the local church as we know it, and it gives us a picture of what church community should be.

Acts 2:42,46: ” And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 46. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.”

In other words, in the Acts 2 church people were connected in community. There were relationships and friendships. There were sacrifices, there were also tensions at times between people.

The word used to describe this community is fellowship. It means ‘sharing’ together. It is the Greek word Koinōnia which gives us a richer understanding of community:

1. Partnership
2. Participation
3. Communication
4. Distribution
5. Fellowship

Here’s the heart of it: They didn’t just do church together, they did life together. There’s a big difference.

Do you have any ideas on how we can make church an authentic community? Add a comment – I would love to hear it.

As we finish the series on purpose at Lifeplace, here is a list of some of the primary scriptures we looked at to discover what the Bible says about purpose. Go ahead, save them, print them out, put them on your fridge, in your Bible, in your journal, keep them somewhere you will remember:

Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Proverbs 19:21 (The Message) We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God’s purpose prevails.

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Psalms 36:6 His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.

Ephesians 3:10 God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 3:11 (Amplified)  “This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect, in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord.”

John 18:37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world- to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Exodus 9:16 But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth

Acts 13:36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption

Jeremiah: 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope

2 Corinthians 4:18 While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Genesis 1:26-28 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”