Expansion: Week Two • Ps Craig Clark

Settle it and sow it. Settle it and sow it. Faith without works, it dies. So when God speaks, you've got to act. And what's amazing is when he calls us out to take a walk somewhere, as you take steps, it gets clearer and clearer. Settle it and then sow it. I think this story shows us we can't out give God. I think this story shows us I think this year story shows us that we have a God who's a God who has ample supply. So when you trust him with what you have in your hand, not what you don't have, when you trust him with what you do have, and it's out of a heartbeat to serve and honor him, who knows? God will make a way not just for us, but I believe in Jesus' name, he'll make a way for his kingdom to come. His will be done in Jesus' name. Everybody said Amen. Amen. [00:45:49] (60 seconds)  #SettleAndSow

So how do we hear? If it's a faith step, it's a trust step, how do we hear? Number one, ask God. I think there's lots of us that don't ask God. Can I change that and just say, would you just pray so you can hear what God wants you to do? God, here's the prayer. What do you want me to do? You have not because you ask not. I don't have clarity. Just ask for the one to give you clarity. It's it's actually that simple but it has such intimacy attached to it. Hear this, if we have a heart to hear, our heart will hear. If we have a heart to hear, our heart will hear. And then we can respond to that. Apply a filter. [00:41:27] (38 seconds)  #AskAndHearGod

He invested wisdom, he invested understanding, but he never invested his heart and it was only a matter of time before his wealth led his heart astray. The bible says that where your treasure is, your heart will follow. It's not where your heart is, your treasure follows. It's where your treasure is, your heart we must engage a generation that says, come on here to partner with God's house. I'm unapologetically about hearing from God so I can do what God wants me to do. Because you know what that does? It safeguards us making it about anything else. [00:28:55] (28 seconds)  #HeartOverWealth

I wonder how many jars were in the neighboring homes that had other things in them that could have been taken out so that something more valuable could have been poured in. How many jars had just stuff in it? And had they just gone and tipped the stuff on the floor because the stuff can always find another home? But oil oil has to be housed. So I wanna ask the question, could we be here and could we be filled with stuff that stops the oil flowing in us and through us? Could we be filled with distrust, caution? [00:16:21] (42 seconds)  #MakeRoomForOil

And I felt the holy spirit say to me, this is the time where the idol actually has to bow its knee. This is the time where the idol has to bow its knee. Come on. Is it gonna be self first or is it gonna be, no. What is my savior leading me first? Come on. There's gonna be a sacrifice. You're gonna have to tell your flesh, I'm sorry. You don't win on this one. I'm actually choosing to do something I never thought I would do. I'm gonna partner with the church. Come on. We gotta go after it. Even if we do partner and we do regularly, have we got familiar and we just do flippancy or do we go back to faith and say, God, in this twelve months, what are you believing for? Come [00:19:57] (35 seconds)  #IdolsMustBow

But the truth is is that God wants there to be provision for the vision, so the vision is not a dream, the vision is a reality. And as we sow into it, we're actually enabling the future to become a reality. And so the the incredible thing is is we are believing we will start a new campus in the next season of time. God is doing something in kingdom realm that is honestly we've got to be praying for. God has put a place in my spirit. I believe it is our next home, but there has got to be some big kingdom miracles that makes it happen. But we're sitting in a big kingdom miracle, so we don't need to wonder, God, are you big enough? God, do it again in Jesus' name. Do it again in Jesus' name. [00:34:47] (38 seconds)  #ProvisionForVision

Can I encourage us as well when it comes to this question? What's generous for you may look very different to what's generous for somebody else. And Jesus revealed to us that the widow's two mites was the most generous offering even though others put lots in. Can I encourage us though, those who have been blessed with lots, is your generous generous towards you and God, or is it generous because my generosity compared to that family, I bet I give way more than them? I'm not asking that question. I'm asking, have you heard from God, and is it generous in the capacity that you have? We have a vision that could honestly see tens of millions of dollars be able to be sown into the kingdom, and it will grow great to condemn work. [00:42:46] (41 seconds)  #GiveFromYourCapacity

So the question has to be, is peace present? When it comes to a marriage, don't let finance become friction or frustration. Unity in a marriage is the most important thing. If you get different numbers and you go to pray about it together and you don't align, go for the lower number. Don't force somebody to go higher if they don't have peace. It's a journey. God is big enough to take both on a journey. We're not here about a one time moment. We're here about living a life of trust. Trust is built. It's not demanded. So you need to go on a journey. Does that just help a little bit? And then the last one is, if we're gonna hear from God, then we have to act. [00:45:03] (46 seconds)  #ChoosePeaceTogether

And up there is a whole lot of people, but you gotta hear it. Each one of them have a name. Each one of them have a story. Each have one of them have a moment where God met them. Right? Chantel, I can't she's up there in the top one smiling a lot. But Chantel, she grew up in a significantly unstable family. No stability around her. Went from foster home to foster home to foster home. And she stood up there on that night and she says, I've been in over 20 foster homes, but in the last month, God has brought me into a family and I finally know my heavenly father. I'm telling you, that's mind bending stuff. [00:30:59] (39 seconds)  #FosterToFamily

But we could have all the vision and it could be so clear in our heart, but I'm telling you, without the provision, we can't take the step. We we can't make the Christmas boxes. We can't do another location with Community Kitchen. Sometimes we don't join the dots between actually it takes resource to outwork and make it reality. But I love that we have a kingdom heart, a generous heart, and an ability that hears God. It secures the future. Secures the future. We have future designs for this site here where we for the capacity reasons for permits to be able to [00:35:25] (33 seconds)  #ProvisionEnablesVision

Elisha did not tell her to involve her sons. She involved her sons. We must engage the next generation. As I said before, we've been here two and a half years and incredible things of what God has done. Generationally, we can sometimes think, oh, you're talking about the kids ministry, and our kids are involved in expansion. That's it. Amen, Peter. Every 20¢ that a young person a child gives, every $1 that they give, I'm telling you, it's a part of the overall. That's the phenomenal thing about it. You kinda think, well, what will my thousand dollars do? Well, when combined with everybody else, it goes so far. Stop looking at it in isolation. You gotta realize we're operating in unity. [00:27:15] (38 seconds)  #NextGenMatters

Based on my heart's response, what would God's house look like? It's a great question to ask. Heavy? But when you realize Jesus doesn't talk about that being a dollar amount but a heart responds, you realize, man, we could have had a free, joyous, willing, great, big heart. Is this okay? Because I'm your pastor. I'm not here to try and present something so fluffy, so nice that you're so convinced I'm gonna do something. I'm actually helping us realize, come on, there's a responsibility as believers that we have to build God's kingdom while we're on this earth. And one day one day, all of us are going to stand before God and he's going say, what did do with what I gave you? And you're going, oh, no one taught me. [00:22:37] (45 seconds)  #HeartForGodsHouse

We've got to be careful in today's society not to create consumer mentality. When everyone around us is so generous, it can be challenging because it can look like, well, everything looks like it's sorted. We don't really have to do anything. That's consumer mentality. That's immaturity speaking. desire is that we would grow in maturity. While we'll we will always be recipients of what we all get to be a part of, the truth is is we have to grow a revelation of owning and entrusting our part. Right? We have to grow that. So we've gotta grow the sense. It's like, yes, I will get to be a a part of what's going on, but I also get to partner with what's going on. [00:21:30] (42 seconds)  #OwnYourPart

So I'm believing that maybe we've come in filled with certain things that are stopping the oil, I believe that's gonna change because the bible says that all jars were filled. Come on. I believe that we're gonna go from weary to wonder. Right? I believe that we're gonna go from cautious or critical to being captivated with kingdom cause. I believe we're gonna go from dormant, come on, then discovering God given destiny through what he wants to do. I believe if we've been living with a love of money, we're gonna be overcome with a love for God. I'm believing that if we've got an excuse that I haven't got enough, you will personally experience the God of more than enough, and he will operate in a way that enlarges your life. Alright. That was number one. It's okay. We've got seven more. Here we go. [00:26:27] (41 seconds)  #FromWearyToWonder

Well, I'm not here to shy away from the fact that with God given resource, we can achieve God given outcomes and see God given results in this city to see the name of Jesus lifted up, to see people come home to salvation, to see the world turn to Christ. Enjoy the tennis, but don't be offended when we go to build God's house with a big heart. Third thing to ask is assess, is peace present? Is peace present? It's not a pressure. It's a partnership. He's a person who does not pressure. He's a good God. He's calling us out if he's so if he's calling us out of the boat, he is not prying off your fingers to let go. Very He's calmly but clearly saying, come. Yes. Yes. When you step out of the boat, what's the key we learn in that story? Keep your eyes on Jesus. When peace is present, joy is guaranteed. [00:43:49] (64 seconds)  #KeepEyesOnJesus

I want us to understand if there's one thing we can understand as well, understand that we are a church and a family of faith that most importantly hears, trusts, and obeys God. That's who we are as a church collective. We are stoked with all God is doing, but we are not satisfied. We are here to outwork God's will, not settle in what we want. We will go, we will sow, we will serve, we will stand, we will not sit back, but we will surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and we will see the captives set free. We will see the lost found. We will see addicted people made whole. We will see the lonely found in family. We will see generations being set apart. We will see his kingdom advance. We will see the church built. We will see the gospel preached, and I declare in Jesus' name, we will see our cities and our nation one for Jesus. And if you believe that, can you say amen? [00:46:54] (58 seconds)  #HearTrustObey

The truth of it is we can. We've been in environments. We've been around situations. We've heard things in the media. We're all that kind of stuff. So we're We distrust, oh, it's the church asking for finance. But you've got to deal with that. You can either live a life of distrust towards the things of God or you could live an availability that says, that's been in there but I'm actually gonna deal with it now or I'm gonna always live limited to what God wants to do. You're gonna hear it. As a church, we have three lines or levels of accountability when it comes to anything that we do financially. [00:17:02] (32 seconds)  #OvercomeDistrust

Come on. The team have done a great job. Can we thank the team for all they've put together to enable that? But don't It's not a paperweight. It's not a paperweight. It's the potential of what God has in store. Encourage us. Read it. Look at it. It's just captivating. So the thing is is that facilities, community, their missions and kingdom, one heart with other areas, other churches, we're reading there how we partnered recently with a church in Tasmania to help them secure a permit to ensure their land is kingdom land. We have a heart not just for life, we have a heart for the house of god. And to see that, what a wonderful thing that we are in a we can do that. [00:37:06] (44 seconds)  #KingdomPartnerships

and the people around him are noticing the significant change in his life. He's put away his old practices. Come on. And he drives an hour and a half to be in church every single week. I tell you what, when God gets a heart, when God changes a soul, when God connects a life, understand the impact is eternal. Lost are found. Family are formed. I don't know about you, but I when Venna, I found my family. That's what I needed, and I got it. How many others out there are wanting, longing, hoping as a family that they could belong to? It's the broken set free. It's the hungry fed. [00:32:19] (45 seconds)  #LivesChangedEternally

have distrust. No. Work through your distrust. But you've got to get to a point that you can decide, God, can you flow through me? Does that make sense? Alright. You've to have the conversation. So we invite conversations. We don't say you can't ask. No. Ask. Number two, I think that we're filled with greed and mammon. We could be filled with greed and mammon. We did a whole series on tear down the idols. Who loved it? Wasn't it awesome? Can I just say this? It's one thing to talk about it, it's another thing to actually action it. [00:19:29] (27 seconds)  #TearDownIdols