Life City Church, Jesus is here. The presence of God is here and my worship is in this house, whenever there is worship and attention to the Lord. He just has a habit of showing up and you are a praising church, you are a worshiping church, you are a church that gives honor to His name and I honor you and Pastor Tanya and Pastor Paul, it is our great delight. God just sometimes blesses you with the great opportunity to be able to just do a bit of life with people and it's people like this that we can just rub shoulders together but it's all about building the house of God and it's all about just making a difference while we here on this earth and six years, my.
How did we get here so quickly? Does it feel fast? Not always, not always. We pioneered our church, Highway Church on the northern end of the Gold Coast.
We just celebrated 27 years, yes. April 9 this year we turned 27 so we started young and now we are not so, not so. But it's been a wonderful journey to see what God has done. When Byron and I started we felt like the least qualified, the least able and our thought was just to obey the word of the Lord and we will follow in the steps of God and we will kind of care take until God sends in the right people to Pastor this church.
Well we are still here 27 years later and it's been a wonderful pioneering journey because it was about Fiverr and thank you Pastor Newton for the prophetic, there is such a prophetic sound running through this meeting this morning and it happened really as I walked in today and I just feel a prophetic sound coming through and you really just sort of went with the flow of the Lord there. But you know the Lord spoke to us about five or six years prior to stepping out and pioneering our church and he called us out, there was a meeting at Saul's Breet and we were sitting there and there was a missionary from China who was a visiting speaker and we were just minding our own business sitting in the second row. So for all the second row people you are in a lot of trouble this morning and I don't know what it is about the second row but whenever God speaks to us we seem to be in the second row. So we were in the second row and this missionary from China called us out and he said get yourselves ready for you are pioneers and God is about to launch you out and my husband and I looked at each other and thought we think he's called the wrong couple out because we are so not pioneers and anyway about five years later an opportunity came to you know plow the ground and pioneer a church at Ormo if you don't there was a time where no one knew where Ormo was.
Now we've got a traffic light so everyone moved into Ormo and I thought once the traffic light moved in our prayers have been successful for praying community and schools in and colleges and it's quite a Bible belt now and we stepped out and pioneered our church with 11 adults and 8 children and 3 of those were mine and that was 27 years ago and so you know the journey of pastoring is a privilege and to see people like you in the room today celebrating with your pastors six years that is not a small thing so well done to your pastors well done to God. Yeah do you know I love the word of the Lord and I love it when God speaks and there is there's significant moments when the Lord speaks and I had one of those moments just a few weeks ago I've got a blue chair that is in my in my bedroom and I was sitting in this blue chair and if I kind of thought in advance I would have brought a picture of the blue chair because this blue chair I don't know what your meeting place with God looks like but at least on this occasion mine was in this blue chair in my bedroom and the Lord began to speak to me and he began to speak to me out of the book of Haggai and he began to speak to me about it is time it is time to build and it is time to build again it is time to build again and in these next few minutes that I've got with you today if you were to allow me to draw you into my little moment my which what started off as a little moment that has expanded into a bigger moment and I shared this scripture with some people that I was in Mount Tamborin with recently and I imparted this word and someone said to me and they said you know you might have thought that that word was just for you but I want you to know that that word is for the church and so as the church as the church right here in Australia in Queensland in your part of the world I want to share an impart this word that the Holy Spirit gave to me just a few weeks ago so if you're journey with me over the next few minutes before we break and celebrate some other things in the service today I'll take you for a few minutes into the book of Haggai because I want to be able to impart this word to you because God spoke to me and I'll abbreviate some of it because some of it is quite lengthy and we don't have a long time because we want to enjoy everything today but if you knew the season then when the book of Haggai at this moment was speaking the people in Haggai chapter one it's only two chapters so you've got time to read it but in these two chapters it picks up on how the people were thinking where the people were at where their lives had gone and the people were saying this is not the right time to build and if you think about the season that we've been in on the earth over the last few years you could be forgiven for thinking this is not the right time to build we've had so much opposition we've had so much closure we've had so many lockdowns we've had so many things against us there's things that have come against our homes our health our families our businesses just about everything has been touched by opposition in some way or another and when the Lord began to speak to me out of the book of Haggai he said the people are saying it's not the right time to build but he said this is what I say and you and I thank God there are people in this room today that have got an ear to hear what the voice of the Lord is saying our culture might say this our society might say that the times and the seasons that we find ourselves in might be dictating that but you and I are in this room today to say God we want an ear to hear what you are saying and so it's with that that the Lord began to get my attention and he says in Haggai chapter one of verse one and verse two the Lord says the people are saying it's not the right time to build but he said this is what I'm saying and the Lord says it is the time to build it is the time to build and he addressed what happened in their lives and he spoke to them back then and he said through the prophet and he said you know you've planted but you haven't harvested a lot he said you've sown seed and you've sown but it's like it's like your purse has got holes in it and you're not as prosperous and not as successful as you could be or as I want you to be and he said the reason is is because your focus and your attention and your commitment has been on your things your desires your houses your interests your buildings all of that and he says but and I love it when the Spirit of God begins to speak and cut right through and into where we are at and where he wants to take us because God is taking us and building his church and I'm so grateful for the people here because you guys are the builders in Haggai one seven he says this is what the Lord says he says give careful thought to your ways and he says go up into the mountains collect the timber and he says and build my house and he tells us why he wants his house built and he tells us why life city church is so important right now on the earth it's it's because it's because he can take pleasure and be honored by what has been built you know as a pioneer pastor we try make things as comfortable and as nice and as you know we feed people we've got scones happening every Sunday they're the best scones you'll find anywhere in Queensland it's worth driving don't drive to all my water Sunday but it is worth driving to all my just for the scones alone laden with jam laden with cream when I started 27 years ago I was skinny and now I'm not and the reason is we've had too many scones and as much as we love to do those things for our people that come and we provide it the best of what we've got but the motivation for the house of God is this that whatever we build let him take pleasure in the building amen that his name be honored and he says give careful thought and I'm sitting in my blue chair it's a great blue chair and it's one of those comfortable ones and at four a.m. in the morning you could easily not off but it was one of those times when the spirit of God was speaking to me and he said give careful thought and I had to pause and I had to think about where we were at as a church where we were going what it was that God was speaking to us right now and I began to give careful thought to my to my part in all of this and then as the Lord continued to speak he said out of this script you said go up into the mountains and when we talk about mountains and I spoke to our church just I don't know a couple of weeks ago about you know how we are all mountaineers I'm not adventurous at all I don't jump out of airplanes I don't bungee jump I don't do all those someone said the other day they bungee jumped off a clear for my question was why why do you do that why you put yourself through that you know for all of those that love to do that and you just you just you're just happy you did it God bless you not one of those but you know when when God said go up into the mountains I realized that what he was saying was that the greatest riches are in the places of elevation in the places of elevation and you have to climb higher in order to sometimes get what God wants you to impart what he wants you to sow what he wants you to contribute and don't get all mystical with that but for me that place of elevation was sitting in my bedroom in the blue chair having an ear for the voice of God and I realized I was in a mountaintop experience because I had heard what God was saying and he said go to the mountains and collect the timber in the new American Bible standard Bible it just simply says bring the bring the wood and build and I'm I'm we've been on this journey for like 27 years we pioneered from 11 adults and I'm thinking God surely at this age when people sensible people retire you're not asking us to pioneer again surely that doesn't mean that for us but I realized that what we were what God was speaking to us was that we were coming out of a season and that season is done with that we have we have already stepped into a new era we have stepped into a new moment a new time and you see that if you want to call it that and it is time to come with that which God has spoken to us about see the mountains speaks to us about very simply our relationship with the Lord to carry a word into our time I believe that one of the things that the enemy has and if you're not sure about that there are two kingdoms that operate there is the Kingdom of God and there is the Kingdom of darkness and they are opposing one another all the time and I believe that one of the things that has been stolen or at least tried to have been stolen over the last few years is our perspective it's our perspective because if you end up with clouded perspective you're not sure where to go what to do what do I put my hand to what am I meant to be involved in what is my part in all of that and perspective is lost there was a time some years ago when I was you know not that you guys would do this you're much nicer than I am but I was having a bit of a complaint to the Lord things weren't right things weren't happening things could have been better and I was telling God as if you know he didn't know all of the things that weren't right in my life and I was going through the list of complaints and then I'm looked down on the floor and it was the kitchen floor it was a white tile the grout separates the tiles and I had this little tiny thought why don't you just take just one step just one and I just did one step from this side of the tile over the ground into the next tile and instead of rehearsing the problems and rehearsing the complaints and rehearsing my disappointment and rehearsing my discouragement and rehearsing all of the things that hadn't happened I began to praise God for who he was and who he is and you know something happened in that moment and the Lord taught me a valuable lesson in the next few minutes and that's all it took I began to feel victorious I began to feel like more than a conqueror I began to feel faith rising deep down deep in here somewhere I began to give God all the praise for what he was about to do and the answers that would come in their right time and the health and the assistance that would come and I I don't know something changed to me and I said to the Lord I said God watch us change in the last few minutes and he said to me when you got into my presence you also got my perspective and I believe it's time church that we went to the mountain again into a place of elevation so that we can have the perspective of God so that we can make a difference in our time in this day right now and he says collect the timber who's the timber they might have collected seed or whatever else they used in that time but as I'm sitting in my blue chair God spoke to me and he said you are the timber the gift on your life that which I put in your hand to do the anointing that's on you the talent that I've given you the things that you've had a leaning and a desire for that is the timber that I'm about to use to build my house and to build my house again and the scripture says here if we were to read Ephesians 4 16 and the amplified it says from him the whole body the church in all of its various parts joined and knitted together firmly together by what every joint supplies and when every part is working properly it causes the body to grow and to mature building itself up in unselfish love and God said to me as he sang to us build the house again it might be six years but this is the exciting stage you ain't seen nothing yet this is the exciting time Lord began to stir my spirit and as we and I won't go into it because I want to honor the time I've been given but if we were to continue to read and again read to Haggai one and two but it says that the spirit of God came upon the rubber book came upon Joshua's rubber was the governor Joshua's a priest and came upon the remainder of the people and so I began to do a little bit of a search and a look and I thought God what does it what what happened back then what does it mean what does it mean when the spirit of God comes upon as a rubber or a Joshua or the people what does it mean when the spirit of God comes upon our church what does it mean for the spirit of God to come on live city church and as I did a bit of a study on that one of the things that came through loud and clear was that when the spirit of God came upon them there was like they had woken up out of their slumber they had woken up out of their sleep they had woken up out of the season that they were in they had woken up something had come alive and was refreshed and renewed within them but one of the commentaries that I looked up was very interesting and I wish I'd written down to tell you where I got it from I can't remember because I didn't write it down and when you get to this age if you don't write it down it's gone right but it said that when the spirit of God came upon the rubber or Joshua and the people there was a spirit of enthusiasm that came on them an enthusiastic spirit upon them and I tell you as a pastor when enthusiasm is in the building when enthusiasm is in worship when enthusiasm is in prayer when enthusiasm is in praise when enthusiasm is in the intercession when enthusiasm is when God does what he does you become an unstoppable church you become an unstoppable place and the enemy takes a back seat someone said to me the other day about Smith Wiggles Word said who was that person when the devil appeared at the foot of his bed who was that and I said oh that was Smith Wiggles way up so the enemy is footed his bed and he said oh it's just you and rolled over and went back to sleep it's just you do you know church it's time that we got there that we got there whatever opposition or resistance or whatever has come against your life your home your family your health your church it's time that we said oh it's just you I'm rising up in a spirit of faith I'm rising up in a spirit that is energized by the Holy Ghost and with power I'm going to rise up and build with enthusiasm in 1995 we planted and I thought we were done planting until the Lord spoke to me still sitting in my blue chair and if my knees would work and I could promise to get back up again I'd sit on the floor but it won't go there and this is what the Lord said to me he said the harvest that you are living in you are he said to me you are living in the harvest that was so and back there he said it's time to sow fresh seed for the harvest that is about to come and life city church can I say this with a prophetic sound in this room today that you sowed back here but it is time to sow again for what is up ahead because we can become so accustomed to enjoying the harvest and today is a day to enjoy the harvest it is this is harvest days we should be celebrating and enjoy this but after you're done celebrating it is time to sow seed again for the harvest that is in the future in Jesus name Zechariah for six says it's not by might and it's not by power but it is by my spirit says the Lord which meant that there was a continuous supply of oil and I believe that God by His mercy and His grace and His goodness and His love for His church and His love for the people that you and I in every stage and every age every stage and every age every season we can have a continuous supply of the oil of the Holy Spirit we got to be open I believe for God to move on us with a fresh move of His Spirit for enthusiasm and I've never really thought about enthusiasm as a spirit until I remember in Isaiah where it says that the great exchange from a spirit of despair that God would exchange despair for a fresh planting of joy if despair can be a spirit why can't enthusiasm in Jesus name and God said I'm with you this is a day of fresh beginnings the beginnings have already happened the ground has been plowed the seed has been sown but I tell you there is something more that is about to open up for live city church there is a there is a more expansive picture than the one that you're currently in and God is preparing and has prepared for where you are going let me close with this because my time is done but when the Lord said to me again it was quite a conversation with God and just to give some clarity to that it's not like this happens every second of every day this was an unusual time where the word of the Lord just kept coming to me and coming to me and coming to me and I wrote it down and hit it in my heart and the Lord said to me this word these words he said awaken the pioneer spirit awaken the pioneer spirit and my reaction to the Lord was God we did that we did that we pioneered with pioneer business with pioneer in India with pioneer orphanages with pioneer all kinds of work and India is a massive work today my husband looked into a field in India and saw a vacant piece of land and saw a beautiful white building on it and the Lord said build the building and today that building exists and creates money and income to feed the poor look after the sick we've got dental van we've got ambulances we've got orphanages we've got I can't go through it all and the Lord said awaken the pioneer spirit and I looked up quickly what a pioneer was and I leave this thought with you a pioneer is a forerunner a pioneer is a builder a gatherer a vision caster a pioneer prepares the way for others to come a pioneer pushes boundaries a pioneer is one who is grounded in purpose a pioneer endures hardships and different seasons and we've been through a different season a pioneer values possibilities and a pioneer sparks and initiates creativity and enthusiasm and life city church I speak and I know the power of the Holy Spirit is here and he is pouring out on you a fresh spark of enthusiasm to build into your future in Haggai chapter 2 verse 19 God asked the question he says is there any seed left in the barn is there any seed left in the barn and again sitting in my blue chair I said God what seed is in this barn that still has to be so on I felt I needed to remind God of my age he doesn't listen to those things he looks for seed I've got 10 grandchildren I know I'm too young for that but I do just it just comfort me with that say that's right yeah is there any seed left in your barn is there any seed left in this barn well I tell you what you do with seed you take it out of the barn and you sow it into the ground and you water it by faith and you watch over the seed and you watch and see what God is about to grow and it is time for this church your church that we begin to sow seed for future harvest days in Jesus name amen amen I'll hand over to Pastor Paul and you can take it where you need to go but thank you for allowing me to come and share with you this morning