The Kindness Project

0:00 Well today what I want to share on is basically stemming from the fact that I have been unable to get myself out of the Book of Acts since Easter.

0:12 You know Mark has been doing a series on Acts and the unity that was in the early followers of Jesus and so as I've been reading I've been so encouraged by what happened because of their unity and when you read it you read how you know that there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place on the day of Pentecost and the believers were empowered, empowered

0:37 to be about their father's business.

0:40 They were empowered to actually take the work of Jesus Christ forward and we see how within 35 years the message of Jesus actually spread from Jerusalem to Rome in less than 35 years and since then it has continued to spread throughout the whole world touching the lives and hearts of people who are Jewish, who are not Jewish from every creed and nation and nationality

1:05 of every age the Holy Spirit has been doing a powerful and mighty work and yes I know we can look at the world in which we live right now and see all the disarray but I'm telling you if the church is sleeping it's going to continue but I believe the church is here like a mighty army of God to rise up and to continue to move forward with the message of Jesus Christ the message of hope the message of there

1:31 is a God in heaven who is for you who loves you there is a father who is concerned about your well-being there is a father who has a plan and a hope for your life amen that is why we're here and we can see how the the early church how they were anointed to spread the message and what does that word anointed mean basically the word anointed it actually means to

1:56 smear and to rub all over and we see that in the Old Testament quite clearly when priests would be anointed the oil would be poured on their head and it would come down like we heard on the priest Aaron Moses's brother it would come down off from his head onto his head to his beard and down to the garments to the hem of the garments every part of the priest would be anointed with oil to be smeared

2:21 and to be rubbed over and what we can say and what I know for sure is that on the day of Pentecost humanity was anointed smeared and rubbed all over with the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit himself and that is what I'm believing God so much for an outpouring to come on our so that it will go and flood through the city streets into your homes into your neighbor's homes into the schools and the

2:47 universities and the workplace so your colleagues will actually start to sense that there is something on your life that is different so that we see these early believers how they went and we see as a result of them being united being empowered by the Holy Spirit that salvation took place salvation the art of reconciliation is no small thing salvation where those who are walking in darkness

3:12 now encounter their living savior and are brought into the kingdom of light so that they too can actually be about their father's business amen we see thousands of people in the days of old getting saved and making Jesus their lord and savior and I am believing in all of my heart and I'm praying that we will see those days again because we've been singing about the

3:37 new we're not content to know that this is something that happened in the past we want to experience it afresh and new and the Holy Spirit he is new he is fresh he reveals truth after truth after truth I don't know how many of you have read the Bible and maybe the same scripture and then you perhaps read it for the 20th time and something new is revealed to you that is what the Holy Spirit does he reveals truth

4:02 to you and I through his word his word is alive and it is new and it pumps just the right thing into our hearts when we need it if we are open to receive it you know what there's 3 .7 million people in our city alone

4:20 many people who need to know about Jesus I'm looking forward to the day where we literally have hundreds of people giving their lives to Jesus every week every week I have faith for it I believe for it I pray for it I thank God for it and it's going to take a church all of us together to do that to believe for it to pray for it to thank God for it to expect it this is the planting if this

4:45 is your church that you have been given responsibility for so I want to stir up within us this desire for the lost to come home for sons and daughters to come home and to know why they were created and to live for why they were created amen we see as well in the book of acts how people are not just baptized in water which they were a lot of water baptisms you have

5:10 salvation water baptism filled with the Holy Spirit that's literally the order of the day when you read the book of acts people were water

5:19 immediately there's immediately straight away baptized and you know what this is such a powerful spiritual act where you and I when we are water baptized we are identifying with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the impact of that on our lives so I want to encourage every single one of you if you're part of the church and Mark and I have you know you've us the

5:44 the permission so to speak to speak into your life I want to encourage you if you've not yet been water baptized to please come along on Tuesday please fill in a form allow us to have a conversation with you because every time I read in the book of acts it says gave their lives to Jesus got water baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit and that's the next thing being filled not just baptized in water but being baptized

6:08 with the Holy Spirit with the speaking in tongues and I know many people don't perhaps have I don't know what you think of that all I know is in the Bible Jesus talked about it the disciples got on and did it the New Testament did it Paul did it so I'm doing it and our church is doing it amen

6:27 yes you see we can't be so modern that we forget what our foundation is all about there's power and there's so many things that are a part of praying in the Holy Spirit amongst many other things one of the things that I think might actually get your ears to listen into is the fact that when we pray in the Holy Spirit we actually pray the perfect will of God and I don't know about you but there's many

6:52 situations right now today that I need to know the perfect will of God on and I know where to go to I know what to do and I know what to say I go to my heavenly father I pray in his language and I can trust him with the details amen and over time I feel like his spirit actually whispers these truths to me that I need to know on how to navigate and we all need that he's given us everything we need amen another

7:17 thing that we see in the book of acts is that the power of the name of Jesus actually becomes a revelation and so many miraculous healings take place in the name of Jesus so many chains of oppression and bondage are broken over people's lives because of the powerful name of Jesus we see in acts also that from this dynamic event kind of

7:42 name of Jesus crippled rising up dead raising up blind seeing but then we see this beautiful part of acts where this there is such a great spirit of generosity and hospitality

7:57 so vast so diverse from the dynamic oh my gosh he's walking and he's been crippled for 45 years to opening up homes and feeding people to there being no physical unmet need in the church the early church amen and then we see which is what I want to talk about today we see a company of people who gave

8:22 themselves constantly to prayer constantly to prayer and that's not because they were on their knees 24 seven praying as we think prayer should be but in the message that I'm going to bring today I want to just share a few different aspects of prayer that I think are going to help and encourage you and I to live lives as we go into the future constantly in prayer

8:47 amen I'm interested in powerful prayers not necessarily loud you know changing our voice kind of prayers oh heavenly father how great is our art kind of prayers no that's not what makes a powerful prayer it's not how loud or how eloquent we are it's fervent earnest prayers of the righteous of which you and I are because of Jesus

9:13 that's what avails much and makes a difference that is what makes powerful amen and I guess I wanted to ask ourselves this question today are we a group of people that want to see the miraculous happen in our lives are we a group of people that want to see the miraculous power of God and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit take place in our lives and the lives of our families and friends in our city are

9:38 we I pray we are I am let it not grow old and let us not grow weary this is as fresh today as it was I love what Caleb said Caleb knew he could go into the promised land and 45 years later he's presented with the same option and he says this give me that mountain I'll take it that's how fresh he was give me that mountain I'll

10:03 take it and I am saying to God today and I've been praying give us Berlin we'll take it in Jesus name amen amen and I believe that this is going to become a reality as we as a church Hillsong Berlin become a house of prayer Jesus talked about his house in Matthew 21 verse 13 he said my house will be a

10:28 house of prayer and yes we're going to be a house of praise we're a house of this but we've got to be a house of prayer if we want to see this a reality we need you you need us we need to get into this zusammen together amen zusammen everybody say zusammen together let's do it together because you and I have the most amazing opportunity to call heaven down to earth in the name of Jesus amen a world

10:54 onto earth the world that is so desperate for the love of Jesus so desperate for hope for forgiveness for peace for comfort amen and prayer prayer is such a powerful part of a Christian's life and our world needs you and I to be praying you know there's different types of prayer and I'm just going to mention a few of them which are personal and I think most of you would be able to relate to the

11:19 first prayer is I think the most important prayer of all and that is the prayer of salvation where you and I make Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior that is an amazing prayer and then there is the prayer of petition which most of us will be familiar with it's where we bring our requests to God and we've done that today in the service and you know for me personally this is a kind of prayer that I grew up understanding

11:44 because I grew up literally seeing miracles I am a result of a prayer prayed where I was miraculously healed from club feet where I would actually stand on my floppy ankles and could not stand on my feet because my legs were all flop my ankles were all floppy and my mother had heard about the name of Jesus and basically she prayed for me at home put her iron down watching me

12:09 crawl she was ironing put her iron down and basically prayed for me the first time she prayed I stood up on my feet and was able to wait there for the first time the second time I took three steps the third time she got quite excited with her prayers I started to walk and run and my father says that when he came home with my two older siblings I was walking up and down the stairs amen so I know miracles happen today

12:35 amen it's happened in the old days it's happened in my lifetime I believe it's going to happen again amen he's the same yesterday today and forever and then the prayer of intercession which some of you may know about is literally where there's a group of people that pray in a way where they hold on to the truth that God has and they hold on to the person who needs to have that truth in prayer not physically

13:00 but in prayer and they pray and they press through and they persist until that gap that bridge there's a bridge and that person actually either comes home or the thing that is in their life gets broken now none of these prayers actually affect people's choices people still have to choose but they are so miraculous in their working amen so there's some kind of prayers and I think they're the kind of prayers that maybe

13:23 we would be aware of but actually prayer there is so much more that is available when it comes to prayer that is just a part of what is available to us we can learn so much more about prayer and the best way to do that is when we actually look at Jesus's prayer life and when we look at people in the New Testament's prayer life especially people Paul who blesses Darling Heart wrote two-thirds of the New Testament it's

13:47 rather remarkable when we actually look at their lives and how they prayed and their prayers were not always petitions and requests so what I want us to look at in the moments that I have with you is John 17 verse 20 to 23 and this is when Jesus had come Jesus had been praying for us he'd been praying for his followers at the time but also was praying for those who would follow him in the future which basically means

14:10 this prayer was for you and me and it starts in verse 20 it says I'm praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me the goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind just as you father are in me and I in you so they

14:35 might be one heart and mind with us then the world might believe that you in fact sent me the same glory you gave me I gave them so they'll be as unified and together as we are I in them and you in me then they'll be mature in this oneness lovely

15:00 and give the godless world evidence that you've sent me and loved them in the same way you've loved me basically if we put this prayer of Jesus's into one sentence it would literally be that Jesus was praying that you and I would know God that's simply

15:22 that we would know God we are supposed to have a relationship with God and prayer in its purest simplest form is simply communicating with God communicating with our heavenly father and I'm sure that there is a prayer that you are all

15:47 familiar with the Lord's prayer I'm very familiar with it because from being young from being like 11 to 18 we said this prayer in school every single day but we would go our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is now and give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver

16:08 us from the power of the evil one for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen that's literally that is literally how we say it at school but you know what if I had just paused and then we'd run off to our lessons but if I just paused about it and just took for a moment those first two words

16:28 because prayer is simply in its purest form about communicating with God

16:35 if I just took those first two words our father I think it would change everything about the way you and I pray because when we say our father we are simply praying from a position of being a member of the family isn't it beautiful how God wants to position

17:00 us straight away as a family member as sons and daughters of God sons and daughters not based on what you've done what you haven't done good bad and ugly not based on what you have achieved so far all the letters after your name but purely based on the fact that you are his son you are his daughter

17:26 positioning us into this beautiful place of family you know some of you may not have had a great earthly father but I'm telling you I'm not speaking about an earthly father I'm speaking about the God of heaven who said he will adopt you as his child and that he will be your father I'm talking about a father who wants to in our prayer

17:51 life actually share with us his wondrous love towards us his heart towards us

17:58 he's the father who sent the finest that heaven had to offer in order to win you back and bring you home it's like the father in the story of the prodigal son who was waiting looking from the day his son left he was looking and waiting observing for hope hoping to see the silhouette of his son coming home and when he saw his son he didn't wait

18:24 from where he was he picked up the hem of his garment that they wore back in the and he ran which was most undignified back then in that culture was most undignified behaviour to pick up the hem of your garment and as the man of the house to run towards a prodigal who had actually been living with pigs and he runs towards him and he embraces him he brings

18:49 him into his home back home again the home that he left he brings him back into the home he puts a ring on his finger cloak on his shoulders and sandals on his feet suffice to say that everything that this father was saying was that you belong here and that everything that I have belongs to you and that is your father that we are speaking about today that is the father when we go father in

19:14 heaven it's the father who loves us who is saying that everything that I have because of Jesus now belongs to you that is what our prayer life that's what he wants to reveal to us in our prayer life he wants to reveal everything Jesus paid a price to give to you and I that's what he wants to reveal prayer life is not just about the petitions it's about him communicating with us because communication

19:39 is both ways him revealing himself and his love and his heart towards you and towards me I often think of the father behaving in such an undignified manner as he ran towards his son and thinking how undignified it was for to hang on the cross naked and battered beyond recognition the king of glory how undignified he was

20:05 in his attempt to rescue you and I and I'm thankful for those of us who've said yes to him and thanked him but I know that there's so many more so many more who don't know that's what he did for them and I'm mindful of the fact that they're coming home they're coming home and as a church we're not going to be the older

20:30 brother we're actually going to be like the father we're going to extend the love that he extended us we're going to extend it to them as well amen just like it was extended to us we're going to extend it to them we pray as a member of the family we pray in faith we pray in faith which is why my dear it is so important that we know what the word of God says because Romans tells us in Romans 10 verse 17

20:55 that faith comes by hearing the word the word of God so we pray in line with the word of God so it's important to know that there is power in the word of God and when we use that when we pray there's even more oh my gosh there is power power amen faith is not denial of facts or feelings faith is in spite of facts and feelings when we pray

21:20 in faith we know that regardless of circumstances God is working actively working on our behalf amen and as I bring this to a close we pray in the name of Jesus the name of Jesus and we see in Philippians two verse nine that God has exalted Jesus to the highest place and given him the name that above every name verse 10 goes on to saying that at the name of

21:45 Jesus every knee should bow and in heaven and in earth and under the earth every knee shall bow every other name whether it is insecurity fear doubt whether it's abuse whether it is cancer whether it is diabetes whatever it is whether it's dysfunctional relationships they are names but what we are

22:10 the name of Jesus is higher than that when we pray in the name of Jesus like my mother did she heard about John and Peter praying for the man in Acts 3 verse 6 she heard that they had said silver and gold have I none but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus rise up and walk and that's what my mother prayed over me she went silver and gold I don't have choice but I have the name of Jesus

22:35 and I pray in the name of Jesus I command you to rise up and walk and that is why I'm standing here today that is why I jump in church because I walk because of the name of Jesus I have been saved because of the name of Jesus I've been set free because of the name of Jesus

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