The Community Church: Sermons and teaching

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God is good all the time. I think I always say that when when I get up to speak. because it is true. Yes, God is good all the time. In every situation, in every circumstance. God is a good God. I don't always understand what's going on. Always. Don't always find what's going on easy.

But we have a good God. We have a good God who loves us. But we remember the story of the Bible, the history of the Bible. If we go back, how? Right at the very beginning, the very purpose of this whole book, the very purpose of the creation, is so that God would have a people if you want to ever have anybody ever ask you, what's the purpose of God?

What's the plan of God? What's God doing? It's God wants to have a people. That's all it's always been about. in the beginning, he created the heavens and the earth, populated it with people. and it was a Paradise before the fall. It was a Paradise. And that's God's plan A, and he doesn't have a plan B.

We've often said that that's what God has always wanted. The fall, of course, changed everything. And we've seen the scriptures of how God is working, in all of the earth, even now, to bring about the fulfillment of his original purpose and plan, which includes me. Fantastic. Aren't you pleased? It includes me. And it includes you. And as we read in the scriptures how after the fall and all that took place and and the people of Israel and being in Egypt, God bringing along a deliverer by the name of Moses, he brought them out, pass through the waters into the, journey that they took for 40 years to the promised land, got to the

Promised Land, the Jordan opened, and they went to the land, and they were living, as God's people in God's land. however, don't you just hate that word? However, however, the people came to a place in Samuel one Samuel chapter eight. The people came to a place where they started to say to, Samuel, who was a judge, a prophet, to the nation.

they said, we want to have a king. We want to be like the nations around us. We want a king. that was there was a plan and purpose of God for them to have a king. God wanted to be the person they looked to. He didn't want a human king. he wanted them to, be different than the people around them.

He wanted them to be a distinguishable people. God said when Moses was setting out to take the people of Israel to to the Promised Land. God, God, Moses said to God. So God said to Moses, I will go with you. And Moses says, if you don't go with us, we're not going to go. How else will we be distinct between all of you, the people on earth?

We are called to be a distinguished and distinguishable people. I'm still working on the distinguished.

But that's what we're called to be. We're not called to be like everybody else. We're not called here just to blend into the wallpaper of society. But we're called to be God's alternative society here on earth, that we are different. We are different. We are different. The great tragedy often is that Christians don't seem to be any different than anybody else.

And that is, of course, not what God planned. So God, they ask God for the King. kept on asking and kept on asking and kept on asking for them to God to give them a king. And eventually God says, okay, I'll give you a king. You know, be careful when you press God over and over again for something.

It's not in his plan and purpose because you might just give it. You and it will not work out well. It will not work out well. So God had a, God commissions Samuel to, appoint anoint a man called Saul to be the king. Saul, the part. Saul. Look, the part of a king. He was the kind of stature in the kind of impressive looking guy that you want is your king.

Yeah.

So I I'm stopping myself saying something I shouldn't say, because it was political. But maybe I'll say it anyway. I don't know what party you're going to. I don't know what party you're going to vote for.

But don't just vote for a man who looks a part.

You might say. Is it Mr. Sheen? Oh, he doesn't look like this. Not like a minister. Prime minister material. He's too little. I'm not saying I'm voting conservative. Please be honest. But do not look on the outward appearance, because that's a dangerous thing to do. Saul looked the part. He really did. He was sure head and shoulders above everybody else.

He he was he was a man. And yet he was disobedient to God. He rebelled against God, and God rejected him. And Saul grieved. It says it. Saul was grieving for him. One Samuel 15 last verse. He said, soul was grieving for him. So I just want to pick up on this story in one Samuel chapter 16. And I'm verse reading from verse one in the NIV version, if you want to open your Bibles, turn on your machines.

Look at the screen. Ideally, always bring the Word of God with you in one form or another. It's a good practice. I think a lot of people out of the practice of bringing the word of God and opening the Word of God together, but it's a good practice to be in. One Samuel 16 verse one the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul?

Since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your hole with oil and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king. But Samuel said, how can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me. And the Lord said, take a heifer with you.

But if he does, he said, ha! He objects to God. How can I go? So we'll hear about it in King and kill me. God does not even answer that objection. It just says, take a heifer with you. I'm glad when he sends me on a mission, he doesn't say I have to take a cow every time I go.

That would be the Lord's take. Ever with you to say I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate. Saul did what the Lord said when he arrived at Bethlehem. The elders of the town trembled. When they saw him.

They asked, do you come in peace? Samuel replied, yes, in peace I have come to the sacrifice of the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me. Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. Where do you live? Samuel saw Eliab and thought, Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance of his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. That's a great verse. That's a really good encouraging verse. God does not look at your outward appearance.

God looks at our hearts. We can find that quite scary sometimes without prayer of David. In the Psalms it said, search me, O God, to know my heart. And sometimes it's a bit frightening to ask God to come in our full access and I search me. But you know, he doesn't have any way. It's a lovely name for God.

It's only in the New Testament only appears a couple of times. And, the first time is when they're trying to find an apostle to replace, Judas. And there's two guys, Joseph and Matthias. and and it's in acts chapter one, I think it's, I don't know, it's some of the, and and they play this prayer and they said to him, Lord, you are and in Greek is you are the cardio gnosis.

You are the cardio gnosis. You are the Noa of hearts is not a lovely name for God because he knows your heart. He knows every prayer that you pray, every tears. It's wept in the night, every cry of your heart, every desire that you have which has never been spoken out, maybe to anybody else. But God is in Noah of your heart, and he loves you, and he's for you.

He's a know of hearts. And it says, the Lord does not look at the things that man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. See? Samuel thinks is Eliab. Guy was a guy to replace Saul because here's another tall guy, and he's probably looks a part.

But he wasn't the man.

Then Jesse called a the dab and had him puff in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, the Lord has not chosen this one either. Jesse, Shammah pass by. But the one Samuel said, nor has the Lord chosen this one. Jesse had seven of his sons passed before Samuel. But Samuel said to him, the Lord has not chosen these.

So he asked Jesse, of all these, all the sons you have? Well, there's still the youngest. Jesse answered, but he's outside tending the sheep. That's it. The youngest. He's out there tending the sheep. It kind of shows something of the low regard that David had in his own family. It's just the younger one. He's out there tending the you know, he doesn't that you've.

His name is David. Just oh, the younger one, he's out there. He wasn't invited. Is David the son to the sacrificial feast? He wasn't even given an invitation to come. He was not invited. And he was only called to come because Samuel insisted that he he was brought in. That's David. I don't know about you, but you may not be well thought of in your general family circle.

You might be thought of as the black sheep of the family, or the runt of the litter, or whatever it might be. You might not be held in high regard for your in your family circle. You may not be highly educated or highly cultured. You're not. Might not be wealthy, all of them or esteemed by society. It's just him.

You may not have any of the trappings of success on your life.

When you think about yourself, what do you think? Because David was just the youngest out the tending some sheep. But those who are rejected by men are the very ones God. God calls because he is the card. You'll notice he is the Noah of hearts.

Is still the youngest, Jesse answered. But he's tending the sheep. Samuel said. Send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives. So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Some of us have that advantage.

Why are you laughing? Then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. He's the one. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on, the spirit of the Lord came upon David, and power. And then Samuel went to Rama.

Interesting little story. I kind of wonder in my mind, in my imagination, what these are the seven brothers felt like when the kid brother received that we say desired it was normal. It was the eldest brother that got the fullest. They have a double portion. And yet here's the kid brother of no God out there looking after a few sheep.

And he got what no doubt they desired. I want you to know that the genuine, honest desire of the leaders in this church is that a younger generation will come through to take us further than we've been able to take. You.

I want people to rise up a younger generation, and you're listening to my voice. I'm probably older than most of you anyway. I want the younger generation to rise up, to take this further, that we can take it.

More cloak theologians. think that David was about 15 years of age when this took place. Just a 15 year old love. Nothing more than when he was anointed. And the prophetic word came upon him. That was that. You will be the king. And he took another 25 years before the anointing to be king found his ultimate fulfillment.

When he was crowned. 25 years between the promise and the fulfillment, I think it was. Jean was referred in a prophetic word to us about the about of the London Underground, where they have this phrase when you get off the train, well, it says, mind the gap, mind the gap, mind the gap. Now faith stayed with me. Mind the gap between the promise of God coming to you and finding its fulfillment.

Mind the gap. And in the midst of that gap between the promise and its fulfillment, that we need to be a people who remain in faith. And they remained focused on what God has said to us. And it's the anointing of God which will enable us to hang on in that gap. Period. He had 25 hard years. 25 if you read the story of David, he had a horrendous time, faced all kinds of problems.

Much of the time he was fearing for his own life being persecuted, being hunted, being maligned, 25 years of difficulty, 25 years of tremendous pressure. You know, when the produce the anointing oil is olive oil, it's produced by putting the olives in a press under immense pressure, and that the thing that releases the oil. I want you to know that the release of the anointing is often when you are under pressure.

You think, oh, I'm having a tough time. Life so difficult. I've got this problem or got that problem. Oh, it's so difficult, you wouldn't understand it. So I want you to know God's releasing something in you when that's going on. That's what God is doing. The problem and the difficulty and the pressures of life. That's why James writes in his book.

He says, count it all joy when you encounter difficulty in hardship. You know that verse, don't you? Anybody seeing that verse? Oh, it's a funny old verse, but that's the point of the verse. God is producing something in you in that time. You when you encounter that problem, what what is released from you was what comes out of you.

Is it the anointing of God and the power of God and the strength God? Oh, you just complained and a moaning and, and like everybody else, we're not like everybody else. Well, God's distinguishable people. I know it can be tough. Please. I've been there. In fact, I'm still the, And if I'm not there, I'll probably go there again.

Because that's the nature of life, isn't it?

But the pressure and the problem and the hardship that releases something produces something in us.

Samuel took the horn of oil on that day, and he anointed David in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on, the spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. And then Samuel went to Rama. Some Samuel just got up and he went. He left, you know, the meeting was over. The man of God had gone,

So what changed for him? What was different for him? What was different?

Mom and dad and his brothers were the same mom, dad and brothers. Mom and dad. So dad and the brothers probably went out and carried on with the work. And nothing has changed. Mom went back to doing the ironing or whatever. Moms do.

David, dripping with oil, goes back out to those same fields, to those same sheep, to those same problems, those same issues. Nothing's changed. Was changed. Everything seems exactly as it was before. Nobody started treating him differently. Does that mean he's just still. David looks after a few sheep. Nothing outwardly special changed about him. To the natural eye, everything seemed the same.

Outwardly, life was just as it have been before to the natural. I. Everything seemed the same. But for David, life would never be the same again, because he'd been anointed.

We can come to this place on a Sunday and encounter God, only to find that on a Monday we're back with the same family, the same job, the same boss, the same situations, the same circumstances, and nothing out. The has changed whatsoever is the same mess that you face and same situations that you've changed and you think nothing's changed.

But you're wrong. Something's changed. You've changed because you've been anointed by God. You've encountered God and been anointed by God. And the anointing you receive will enable you to go out and change your world. The anointing you receive will enable you to go out and live life to the full, in the midst of all the situations that you face.

That's the purpose of the anointing of God is to an hour empower you to do something. It's to enable you to do something. The purpose of the anointing is to enable you to do something. And the anointing of David, the anointing that he received that day was an anointing for a purpose.

An anointing that kept him strong and focused. The living in the anointing of God. Power. The spirit comes upon you. You've been anointed by God. You've received from God. Spirit of God has come upon you that enables you, delivers you from foolishness in life.

It delivers you from fool. You know nature abhors a vacuum. If it's a vacuum, things want to come in to fill it.

In a vacuum, was it a man or a woman will always want to be filled with something. And if it's not filled with God, if he's not filled with the power of the spirit, you fill fill it with all kinds of foolishness. That's the reason why many people get caught up in sin is that they are not caught up with the things of God.

It's the anointing of God, the power of the spirit in you that delivers you from such foolishness doesn't deliver you from temptation. I mean, anybody else found that? Well, just me. I feel really bad. I'm saying I feel this, I'm a nobody else has those same temptations that I have. It does not deliver you from temptations, but your purpose has you so distracted.

You don't have time for junk because you're busy doing something for God. If you're not caught up with the things of God, you'll get caught up with all kinds of junk. And the anointing enables you to live free of that. And for David, life was never the same again from that day on, because the spirit of the Lord had come on power, and he would remember that day.

He remember the place, he remember the time when the anointing of God came upon him. Because the anointing, the power of the spirit should change everything. It should impact every part of our life. On the seventh, excuse me. On the 17th of March 1977, at number eight Napier Avenue, Tarleton, 830 in the evening it was a Tuesday. I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit of God that changed my life forever.

I can tell you the time. I can tell you the place. I can tell you where I was. I can tell you what took place. I woke up speaking in a strange language, which surprised me greatly.

My head was underneath a piano stool. I don't know how I got there. I'm looking up, looking at the webbing of this piano. Still of my life has never been the same again. Because I was filled with the power of God and it changed everything. And we need encounters with God that will change us forever. We need encounters with God that will so annoying to us, so empowered that we could turn away from the foolishness of so many things in this life which only distraction to the purpose of God.

I will never be the same again. I hope you can say the same, that for you you've received an anointing that remains, and life will never be the same again. For David, everything has changed. God has spoken is the spirit of the Lord had come upon David and life could never be the same again. He had the promise of God upon his life.

He has now purpose and focus for his life. And life would never be the same again. When the lion and the bear came to take his sheep, he could deal with them because he had God's Word over his life, and life would never be the same again. The spirit of the Lord is upon him, and when he faces Goliath, he could do so with confidence.

You know why? Because the anointing of God was upon him. The purpose of God is focus, and life would never be for David the same again. He could deal with Goliath. And if the anointing of God is upon you, you could deal with your Goliath. If the anointing of God is upon you, you can deal with the lion and the bear.

If the anointing of God is upon you, you can deal with your family's unkind remarks in other people's unkind remarks. If the anointing of God is upon you, you can deal with the pressures of life, and life will never be the same again. If the anointing of God is upon us. And David was, he was still out in the field.

He was still facing the same same old, same old as he faced before. But the spirit of the Lord was upon him. And even in the field, even in the fields, he's a worshiper of God out there with just him in the sheep. He's a worship of God, not just in the meeting place on a Sunday morning, but David out there on the hillside composing love songs to God because the anointing changes everything.

The power of God changes everything and he would never be the same again. It changes everything because the anointing is to enable you to do something.

I it's election time coming up.

How's of you? Fed up with it already? Hands up if you don't know who to vote for. Who? With whom?

The problem I talking about. Who should we vote for anyway? to be honest, we haven't got a clue. So what we said was, we we have a plan.

Which will drive to church, and we'll look at the signboards as we go. You know, those boards outside houses. I will count out who got the most numbers. and we're going to vote for them. yeah. So at the moment, we're voting purple brick.

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they feel like every day you see my letter box, I get yet another manifesto of what we will do, what we will accomplish. What will it you. I was watching a news program early on this morning, and it was saying about how voters now have no confidence in any political party. Just who. Who do you trust?

All these manifestos of what we'll do, what we will accomplish. But here's a manifesto that I can't believe. Luke chapter four. Here's a manifesto of Jesus. The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, opening of prison doors. That's what his manifesto was. Jesus came with his manifesto, announced it, and then went, did it?

I vote Jesus?

I vote Jesus because then he says, It's the Spirit of the Lord is on me. This is Jesus. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. Yeah, let's me to to do something, to preach to. He's anointed me to something. The anointing is not just a yet funny feelings in a meeting the morning.

He's not just so that you can feel good on a Sunday morning for an hour. The anointing is to enable you to go and do something. Holy spirit is in you and he wants to get out of you. Doesn't want to be a prisoner. I'm a part of the the means by which he's going to communicate to a world.

I'm not his jailer holding him in my little prison. The anointing is like petrol in your car. You fill the car with petrol in order to go somewhere. The petrol provides the power to enable the vehicle to perform, you see. But without the petrol, you're static. Without the petrol you're going to go nowhere. A Rolls-Royce with no petrol will not take you anywhere.

In fact, you'll go further with a lion. Will loving a lion ride?

Suddenly, if your vocal suddenly your vocal.

Failure. Three Wheeler. My first car with a bubble car.

What we call. A Robin Reliant. That's the word I was searching for. You go further with a Robin Reliant than you will with a Ferrari with no fuel in it. See?

The fuel. The fuel is what enables the vehicle to move and enable it to perform. And it's the anointing of God coming upon your life enables you to do what God has called you to do. The anointing of God is to move you to perform, to do something, to be effective. I'm not just talking about doing spectacular things right now.

I'm not even talking about praying for the sick or all that. I'm just talking about the anointing of God is to enable you to live life. To live life the way that God wanted you to live your life in your home, in your family, with your kids, every area of your life. That's what the anointing is for, is to enable you to live life the way that Jesus called us to live life, and he calls us to lay our hands on the sick and all that kind of stuff.

But I'm just talking. God anointed you for life, for life, to live life. Two Peter 113 says, God, by his divine power has given us everything for life and for godliness. He's given you power for life. It's not just to kick in when you want to pray for somebody, it's for life. A part of our life is praying for people, but by life, because of me, I'm not doing that all day, every day.

He doesn't anoint you to sit back and look cute. He doesn't anoint you to attend a meeting. He doesn't anoint you to make excuses and procrastinate. The anointing is in you and needs to flow out of you. Miriam said earlier about

About we need to die daily.

We need to die daily. You know, I believe is only in the power of the Holy Spirit that I can die daily. Because if it's just down to me and my own power, I have no power to overcome my own flesh life. Do you know what I mean by that? My natural I have don't have power to overcome my own natural flesh.

Like I need the power of the Holy Spirit to enable me to die daily. Do you agree with him? Thank you. Thumbs up for me. It must be true. So that's my life.

Living in the power of the anointing. In all I do in life.

Well, when Jesus died, and was resurrected, and then with his disciples for 40 days, and then he ascended into heaven and and the Scripture tells us that as he ascended into heaven, a cloud takes him up. And the disciples stood looking up, going, wow. He says, two angels come and they see and say this to a man of Galilee, talking to them just men of Galilee.

Why do you stand here looking into the sky?

You know the the why do you stand looking into the sky? I kind of figure that most Christians seem to live their life looking into the sky, waiting for God to do something, waiting for God to take some kind of action that they can join in with. But I don't find that the means by which God operates. I think now, because the power of God is living in me, that God is often waiting for me to do something that he can join in with.

John waiting for God to commission me, or telling me to go to play for somebody who's six. He's already told me to do that. I'm not waiting for God to tell me to go to witness to somebody. He's already commissioned me to do that. He's given me the power of His Holy Spirit living in me to enable me to do those things.

And I'm not waiting for something to come down out the sky. Mark 1620 says these words. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. The Lord worked with them. We were always talking about, I just want to work with God. God said, I want to work with you to do something, and I'll join in.

Go and do something and I'll join in.

I believe that the anointing of God kicks in when I do something. When I witness, I might not feel like I've got anything to say, but I just begin to witness. I believe the anointing of God comes upon you to enable you to be effective in your witnessing. When you go to pray for someone who's sick or just to speak somewhere, or to help, or to serve or whatever it might be, I start and the Spirit of God will help me.

But he's waiting for me to do something, for me to do something that he can help me with. I really do not live in some kind of holy Spirit bubble. I don't live in this kind of constant feeling. The presence of God in me. Does anybody feel, always conscious of all the presence of. Or. I just feel like I'm a normal bloke, but I do know the Holy Spirit is in me.

And I do know that when I take an action, the Spirit of God is there to help me and to work with me. So many of us can end up just waiting for God to do something and got something to say. Will you? For crying out loud, turn the ignition key, spark up the engine, use the powers in you and do something.

That's what God is like. He's waiting for you to do something.

My wife will tell you I don't live in some kind of Holy Spirit, holier than thou bubble, do I? Yes, I do, he said. I really don't float around life of an elder in the church, so therefore I must be ever so holy. And that's not like that. I'm just a bloke, but a bloke filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I can take action. I want to take action. I know that God is there to work with me. Arnie Scoggins favorite phrases give God something to work with. Give God something to work with. Get up to speak and the anointing kicks in. Start to witness the anointing. King said. Start to do something. The anointing kicks in because you've turned the key and the engines away.

There's an anointing for you today that is to remain. Let me just say this in closing, there's an anointing today for you to remain that will take up residence in you. One John 227 says this. As for you, nudge the person next to you. You must tell him I'm talking about you.

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you. I think it's some versions says abides in you. He's come in to abide. He's come in to live. He's not here today and gone tomorrow. He's not a weekend visitor. He's not a day tripper. He's in me. He lives in me. He abides in me. And I have to believe in my heart that that is true.

Because then I will take action on what I believe to be true. Yeah. If I don't believe that to be true, I don't feel anointed today. Well that's nonsense. He came to abide. I'm not asking you how you feel your feelings. I've got absolutely nothing to do with the anointing of God. Your emotions have absolutely nothing to do with the anointing of God.

What he's got to do with is how do I receive the power of the spirit? Yes, I know I have. I'm anointed. Therefore, whether I feel it or not, I can take action and I know that the Holy Spirit will be there to help me. God wants to anoint us afresh this day with powerful living, powerful, effective service, and an anointing that will remain that will enable us to fulfill God's Word for this church, which is increase.

Power that remains. Power that abides. Power that light. David, we can say, I will never be the same again. there are many county musicians come back. Dave, the song we're going to sing. Thank you folks. I believe there are many who will say to themselves, I just need to receive an anointing today that I know will remain.

I know will abide in me, and the anointing that will enable me to change. And I'm tired of this fiddle. I'm tired of the battles. Tired of the old. I'm tired of being tired.

I believe God wants to ignite in you a fire that would enable you to accomplish his plan and his purpose in your life. But if God wants to stir up gifts in you that have lain dormant for too long, I believe God wants to use you like you've never been used before.

So we're going to sing this song, and then I'm going to invite those of you who value, to come out, and we're going to do something kind of different this morning. What we're going to do is this, we will anoint you with oil. So remember, whatever, having done that before, as we pray for people just to be filled with the spirit, to be anointed by God.

But we're going to anoint you with oil. Just as David was anointed. The Spirit of God will come upon you, abide in you, prepare you for all that he wants to accomplish in and through you.