The Best Life

This week we’re back to class as usual at SURFCiTY College following our Summer Camp last week.  Guest Speaker Dustan Bell, Principal of Kings Training College and Lead Pastor of Kings Noosa impacted our students with his incredible preaching ability.  At just 23 this man has a phenomenal future ahead of him, already he holds more responsibility and boasts more talent and ability than most his age.

I bet you never thought of this benefit of first class!

You never know what a day holds.  Emma Sophina certainly didn’t when she boarded the ill-fated US Airways flight that crashed into New York’s Hudson River.  Emma, a member of a large Perth based church, was in the US trying to make it in the music industry.

Following the crash Emma wrote a song Send Another Prayer for which she gained a recording contract and has appeared on a variety of US TV shows, including CBS’s Morning Show.

What a great reminder to redeem the time and make the most of every day, for we don’t know what tomorrow may bring. Ps 90:12

I am one very proud Principal.  We have just returned for another year at SURFCiTY College.  Student numbers are the highest they have been in many, many years, possibly ever.  This week was our first week of Chapel. I love chapel – a short, impacting one hour service run entirely by our students.  Everyone did an amazing job – the College Band, the MC and the Preacher.  I was thrilled to be there and could not have been prouder.

David Bright, one of our students, shared a great message on tithing and giving.  I have included an extract from his message below.  Now you must remember, this is a brand new student and our first chapel service, so he’s not had a lot of practice.  In fact, he’s overcome a pretty rough past to get to where he is today.  If, like me, you were impressed, leave a comment and I will pass it on to him.

I want to speak to you on Tithing and Gods heart.

What we give over, God will take over.  Malachi 3:10… Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. It doesn’t say lets have a debate over this. It simply states ….Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
Why? … Because it demonstrates that our trust is in God

Many think when it comes to a tithe message we are just trying to get the church’s hand into your pocket.  Well…NO!! I am actually trying to put your hand into God’s pocket, where you are able to prosper, not in the accumulation of things, but in the expansion of God in all things within your life.

What you withhold from God, you isolate from His ability to inhabit and multiply.

But you may say, “I don’t make enough to tithe; I’m going to run out of money.”
Well if you think you’re going to run out anyway… run out… into God’s arms, run out trusting Him, because He promises to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until it overflows.

God says He will rebuke the devourer for you.  Many are suffering from a spiritual devourer – an enemy that drains away energy, time and resources so that you never seem to have enough.

The Lord is saying, “Now turn your finances over to Me and I will turn over my resources to you and destroy that very thing which is destroying your prosperity.”

Whatever we get from God we need to sow back as Gods gift is a gift that keeps on giving.  Let me recall a story in 1 kings 17 that exemplifies this principle.

During a time of terrible famine the Lord told Elijah to go to Zaraphath, as He had commanded a widow there to provide for Elijah. Notice the Lord did not command a wealthy businessman to provide for him, but a destitute widow – a woman facing starvation who was about to prepare her last meal for herself and her son and then die.

God’s way to activate her faith and to bring her into a supernatural provision was to require her to give over the little she had to fulfill the purpose of God.
What seemed like an insensitive, even cruel command, Elijah ordered her to feed him first and then take food for herself. Although she didn’t know the plan and provision of God, Elijah knew and he urged her into both faith and surrender. As a result, God provided for her miraculously: “The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty” until the famine broke (v16).

Remember Jesus fed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 Fish from a little boy

When I hear people say, “I can’t afford to give,” I immediately think, “You can’t afford not to give.”

When faith is activated and surrender perfected, God steps into our lives.  We need to have a testimony of God’s supply, where each of us can say, “God came through for me.”

God multiplied the widow’s provisions during a drought. Maybe it’s in the times of need that we need ‘surrender’ the most.  Our faithfulness with money shows Jesus that we can be trusted with greater things such as miracles.

Why live in the pitiful little realm of unbelief when we can have the provisions of the Most High?  Ask yourself, “How is it Jesus always had what He always needed”?
John 17:10 reveals, “Praying to the Father, Jesus said …. “All things that are Mine are Yours…””

Jesus surrendered all. As a result, He could continue with confidence in His prayer, “And what is Yours God is Mine.””  So also with us – make this same act of surrender.

Whatever we have was God’s in the first place anyway.  To those who give all to Him, He says, “What’s Mine is yours.” We exchange our little for God’s much. Whether it is with our finances, our families, our future or our past.

The key to unlocking the destiny of God is faith and surrender.  What we give over, He will take over.

Sometimes the thing that God has given you is the very thing that can cause trouble in your life.  But unless you properly discern that the trouble is part of the process to the accomplishment of what God is doing in your life you will never receive all that God has for you, because you’ll always be running from the trouble instead of running through it.

In Genesis we read the story of Joseph. He was a man with a dream from God.  It was a dream that one day he would become the nation’s leader.  But before he had that dream, the only trouble in his life was that his brothers despised him, because his father favoured him.

Then he tells his brothers of the dream he had and they plot to kill him.
But rather than kill him they sell him off.
He’s then wrongly accused of sexual assault and thrown in jail.

And it all started with a dream from God that he was going to be the nation’s ruler and now he’s in jail.  Does it get any worse?

Between the conception of a dream and its birth there will always be a variety of seasons that bring many challenges that must be overcome.

But despite the difficulties and the trouble that he went through Joseph never gave up on the dream.  He discovered that the pursuit of a God-given dream is not an easy one.  Many dreams go unfulfilled because people cannot cope with all that comes with the pursuit of a dream.

And tonight I want to give you three things that you must go through as part of the pursuit of your dream.  No one ever sees the fulfilment of their dream without experiencing these three things.

1. YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE SOURCE OF THE DREAM
Some have inherited dreams from people who want to live out their unfulfilled dreams through you.  And if you are trying to be something that God didn’t create you to be then you will end up resentful and frustrated trying to fulfill something that others have imposed on you.

We hear about it so often with child sporting stars who, despite having some level of success are miserable in a sport to which they have been imprisoned by their parents.

As long as you are trying to live out someone else’s dream you remain a prisoner to the person whose dream it is you’re trying to fulfil.  You might have achieved many things in life, but when that dream finally comes to pass, you will be miserable and resentful and take one loo at it and hate it and suddenly realise that you have waisted a lifetime pursuing something that never belonged to you.

Where did your dream come from?

2. YOU MUST BE PREPARED FOR TROUBLE
As much as we idealise the easy and hold on to a fantastical hope that everything is going to be easy in the pursuit of your dream you will come to know that no one ever achieved greatness because everyone agreed with them.

The first thing that Joseph discovered about his dream was that he was going to have to do this alone.

Between you and your dream there will be controversy and conflict.  Your dream, that very thing God gave you, will get you in trouble, but you have to keep going.

If Joseph had of waited until his family liked the idea of his dream then he would have died empty unfulfilled of his life’s purpose, never had seen the miraculous work of God in his life.

The dream that God gives you is the very thing will bring trouble into your life, but you must remember that, that trouble will also bring you new things that God has for you. That trouble is the sifting of the old and the establishment of the new.

3. YOU MUST BE PREPARED FOR CHANGE
Everything about Joseph’s life changed. Absolutely everything.

Every time anybody starts going to a new level, instead of honouring them and praising God for them, they are shot down. They are ostracised, criticised and ridiculed.  You can’t do anything or say anything without your critics scrutinising every little look, every little murmur.

There is something inside the carnality of humanity that it doesn’t like what it can’t control and that’s just the work of the flesh.  The flesh doesn’t like what it cannot control.  That’s why we have such a problem with violence, sexual immorality, lust and doing what they shouldn’t be doing, because it’s motivated by the flesh and fed by the flesh and the problem is you’re trying to control it by the flesh.  But the flesh cannot control what it doesn’t like.  It has to work the other way around.  It’s the Holy Spirit who must rule and reign over your flesh.

And the problem the dreamer must overcome is the challenge of the flesh not to change, to remain small, maintain the status quo. They’ll love you while they can control you, while you’re still within their reach, while you haven’t broken new ground.  But the moment, you go up a level, the moment you break new ground, the moment you begin to change is the moment they’ll shoot you down.  But you must continue to change.  The pursuit of your dream requires you to change.

In the pursuit of your dream don’t let the very thing God gave you become the same thing that destroys you.

© Mark Sceriha

Leviticus 6:8

Then the LORD said to Moses, 9 “Give Aaron and his sons the following instructions regarding the burnt offering. The burnt offering must be left on top of the altar until the next morning, and the fire on the altar must be kept burning all night. 10 In the morning, after the priest on duty has put on his official linen clothing and linen undergarments, he must clean out the ashes of the burnt offering and put them beside the altar. 11 Then he must take off these garments, change back into his regular clothes, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean. 12 Meanwhile, the fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must never go out. Each morning the priest will add fresh wood to the fire and arrange the burnt offering on it. He will then burn the fat of the peace offerings on it. 13 Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out.

There is a secret to getting hold of God and being a carrier of His presence – don’t let the fire go out.  When the fire of God is burning in our life, we can enjoy some great benefits.

1. WE BECOME ATTRACTIVE
There is something about fire that attracts people.  When your life starts burning for Jesus, people will be attracted to you and will want to know what’s going on with you.

It’s so important that we don’t let the fire of the Holy Ghost burn out of our life, the moment we do we will lose the attention of the world.

2. WE WILL BE GUIDED
When you’re on fire and you’re carrying the presence of God, you will be directed and guided all of your days.  When the Children of Israel were working their way through the desert toward the promised land, the Bible says that a pillar of fire guided them by night and a cloud guided them by day.

If you let the light of the Holy Spirit shine in your life he’ll show you where to walk, who to trust and who to stay away from and what direction to take.  And you will be a carrier of the presence of God.

3. WE WILL BE COMFORTED
Sometime life can be very hard we can feel alone, but the Fire of the Holy Spirit is an embracing fire that keeps you warm.  Just like it did the Israelites at night in the desert.  The fire of the Holy Spirit is the Comforter.  Jesus said, “It’s important that I leave because I am going to send you the Comforter”.

He’s the one who is there for you in your time of need.

I love what God says in Isaiah 43:19 – Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, can you not perceive it?

Years ago I was in Canada in the wintertime when I walked into a building that had two sets of automatic doors. There was about a three-meter gap between them. I walked through the first set of doors that opened quickly for me, but I stood in front of the second set, waiting and waiting for them to open.  I didn’t know what was going on.  It didn’t seem like these doors were opening, so I turned around and noticed that the first set of doors were closing – I became really concerned that I would be trapped in that gap.  But then the first set of doors finally closed completely and the second set of doors opened.

I had to go beyond the first set of doors in order to walk through the second set.

And it’s the same way in life – you need to let go of the things of the past – your failures and disappointments – let all those things go.  You cannot change the past, but you can determine that this is a new season – God’s going to do new things.  And for that to happen you need to let those first doors close and walk through the new set of doors.

You see what’s in front of you is more important than what’s behind you.  I believe that if you have the right attitude, you can give birth to more in the future than you’ve lost in the past.

Quit looking back – this is a new day.  It might seem like your dreams have passed, but God can resurrect your dreams, He is a supernatural God.  This is a day of new things.

With the recent celebration of Martin Luther King Day, in the US and the following day’s monumental inauguration of President Obama, I have been stirred by the ability of the human being whose eyes are fixed on an unseen, yet to be fulfilled God given dream.  No matter what the dream, the cause or the passion; a person whose life is committed to see it fulfilled is an unstoppable force.

Not even death could stop the dream of Dr King.

During a civil rights march in Washington DC, on 28th August 1963, Dr Martin Luther King Jr declared to the world, “I have a dream” and he continued to devote his life to the dream that God had placed in his heart.  Four years later, in a little church, he gave another speech in which he spoke of how “…It doesn’t matter what happens to me now…for I have seen the promised land…”

What makes that speech so powerful and almost eerie, is that the following day Dr Martin Luther King Jr was killed by a sniper’s bullet – almost as if he knew what was coming.

Now, with America’s first black President, there is no doubt Dr King changed the world.  He never looked back, he never said, “It’s not going to happen”.  Despite the threat of death he continued forward, looking unto the dream God place in his heart.

I love what God says in Isaiah 43:19 – Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, can you not perceive it?

What a great reminder this Obama-Hype has been to never give up or stop pursuing the dream of our heart, but to perceive that God is doing something through us that has the potential to shake history.

Too often we allow adversity, disappointment, set backs and trials to effect our life and we find that we’re not living the life that God created us to live.

You need to remember you are equipped and well able to do what God’s called you to.

Gen 13:14-18

1. Moments of opportunity must be taken hold of carefully.
Things aren’t always as they appear.  Abram gave Lot the choice to choose the portion of land he wanted – he chose what looked to be the most prosperous, the most flourishing, the greenest. But little did Lot realise the land which looked like Eden was occupied by evil and eventually destroyed.

Two men were faced with opportunity – for one he made a bad choice that bought about many complexities in his life. Today we are the beneficiaries of the other man’s choice.

2.  You haven’t seen everything God is doing.
V14 Lift up your eyes now, look from where you are.

It’s so easy to become narrow focused – it limits your horizon and you quickly find yourself walking around with blinkers on, like a horse that can only see in one direction.

But beyond your blinkered vision God is working supernaturally, orchestrating things that, if only, you would take the road less travelled, you would see His working and His wonders begin to form in your life bringing you to a place of success.

Lift up your eyes, look from where you are. God has something in store for you.

3. Be prepared to move.
In order for you to receive it, you have to move from the place where you are, just Abram did.  You need to move from fear, move from pride, move from the opinion of man and move to the place God has prepared for you.  You might not be able to see everything, but it’s time to make a step in the direction.

© Mark Sceriha

After a long day of celebrations, Simóne and I were discussing how Christmas Day is not so celebratory for some as it is for others.  While we all have the eternal gift of a Saviour to celebrate, the methodology surrounding our celebrations is often extreme and not by so by choice.

In his book on Giving, Bill Clinton transcribes a conversation he had with TV Queen, Oprah.  Asking her why she started the Angel Network, Oprah replies, “Three nuns I didn’t know made me fee like I mattered when my mother, half brother, half sister, and I were on welfare and they brought us food and toys for Christmas.  The best gift wasn’t the toys.  It was being able to give an honest answer when the other kids asked what I got for Christmas.”

The essential core of Christmas is about giving and, for me, this highlights it perfectly.  What a great deed to be able to give a gift that brings far greater joy than the gift itself.  Surely there is no better personal satisfaction than being able to give dignity, hope and relief to a child who knows poverty so well she doesn’t fear being without a gift but fears the isolation and segregation that poverty brings.

When God exemplified giving, He executed an act of immense depth and eternal, yet unsophisticated impact on humanity.

Giving is truly satisfying in so many ways.