Paradoxes Of Purpose
Message Moments & Highlights
The First Shall Be Last
Victory Through Surrender
Strength In Weakness
The Only Way To Radical Change
Paradoxes Of Purpose
Understanding God's paradoxical ways is crucial for discovering and fulfilling our divine purpose. While human logic pushes us to seek control, recognition, and self-reliance, God's kingdom operates on principles that often seem counterintuitive. The principle of 'the first shall be last' teaches us that true leadership comes through serving others. 'Victory through surrender' shows us that releasing control to God leads to miraculous breakthroughs, as demonstrated in stories like Daniel in the lions' den.God's power manifests most perfectly through our weaknesses, transforming our limitations into platforms for His supernatural work. Just as an orange tree can be grafted to produce lemons, our connection with Christ enables us to bear fruit beyond our natural capabilities. This transformation process requires us to embrace these divine paradoxes, surrender our need for control, and allow God's strength to work through our weaknesses. By aligning ourselves with God's paradoxical ways, we position ourselves to fulfill the unique purpose He has designed for our lives.
Key Insights From The Message
Related Bible Verses
Mark 9:35: "He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and he said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everybody else.”"
Luke 17: "Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it".
2 Corinthians 12:9-10: "But God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong".
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Well, this morning, church. I mean, I'll tell you, I just got like a. I just got a really strong word on my heart for you this morning, so I'm excited to get into it. You know, I believe that sometimes being a Christian and following the directions of God can just be one of the most frustrating things at times.
You know, sometimes we can feel like we're going really good and it's just smooth sailing, but who knows that sometimes we can feel like we're going through rough winter waters. Amen. And it can sometimes feel like we're we're trying to get ahead, but we. Sometimes we just. We just can't get there, can we?
And so I've entitled my message this morning, Paradoxes of purpose. Everybody say it with me. Say, paradoxes of purpose. Paradoxes of purpose. And you might be thinking, what on earth is a paradox?
Well, we'll get in there. We'll get in there in just a moment. But before we do, let's just pray. God, we just really thank you that you have such a great purpose for us that, Father, God, the moment that we signed our life over to you, Father, that there was a strong calling and empowerment of your holy spirit. But God, we are just frail people.
We are just mere mortals sometimes. And so, Lord, I just pray that in this moment that you would give us fresh clarity and fresh vision to know how to step into the purposes that you've got for us. And Father, I just pray over this congregation. I pray that all of our hearts and all of our ears would be opened and in tune to the revelation and the word that you want to give us this morning. And so, God, I pray over my own words, Lord, would they let them not be my own words, Father?
God, but I pray that they would be your words because I don't want to teach anything out of my own strength. And so, God, empower me and equip me right now to deliver your word. And everybody said amen. Amen. All right, I've got a really hard trivia quiz for you guys that I'm not sure if you're going to pass.
So we'll see who the smart people in the audience are who can identify what this is. Oh, okay. Wow. Okay, wow. We got the first one done.
Orange. You guys are pretty. What about this one?
Did you say yuzu? It's impressive that you know what a yuzu is, but no, this is a lemon. This is a lemon. Now let me ask you a different question. You got through round one pretty good.
Good. What does this grow on? Orange tree. Yeah, orange tree. Now let me ask you, can an orange tree ever start producing lemons?
Imagine you were an orange tree. Every single. Wow. Narel's onto it. Every single one of you is an orange tree.
You've grown up, you've come out of the tree soil. All you've been growing your entire life is oranges. And then one day someone comes across to you and says, I know that you've been growing oranges your whole life, but can you start growing lemons? What do you think the chances are that you would be Able to start growing lemons. Zip.
Is it maybe one in ten? Do you think it's one in ten? One in 100, one in a thousand? Or would you say that it's impossible? Impossible for an orange tree to start growing lemons?
You're a bit quiet this morning. Impossible. Well, did you know? Fun fact, fun fact. Did you guys know that a lemon is not actually a naturally occurring fruit?
Did you know that? This is not a naturally occurring fruit. Nowhere in the world is this a native fruit to a region. It is actually a man made fruit. Did you know that?
It is a man made fruit. Really? You didn't know that? Because you were giving the answer before. As if you did know that.
You didn't. Oh, okay, there we go. Yeah. Did you know that lemons are actually a byproduct of oranges? You know that?
What happens is that the very scientific, smart people and the smart farmers, much smarter than me, thousands of years ago, what they would do is they would take a branch of an orange tree and they would take the branch of a citron tree. I'll leave you thinking, what is a citron? I don't even know. I couldn't find one. I tried to buy one, I couldn't get it anywhere.
Citron tree. And they put those two branches together in a very special way called grafting. They tape it all up, they wrap it up, they stick it in the ground, and then it starts to produce a new fruit. The DNA from the orange tree mixes with the DNA. Actually, I don't know if you call it DNA.
Is that what you call it? Vincent Trees? I don't know. Anyway, they mix it with the DNA of the citron tree, they combine and they produce an entirely new fruit. And so what that means is that there was an orange tree thousands of years ago, and the only thing it was doing in its life was producing oranges.
And then one day someone came up to it, looked at it and said, you know what? This thing has the potential to start growing and new fruit. This thing has the potential to start growing lemons. And I'm sure that if you were that orange tree, you would probably be thinking to yourself, that is ridiculous. This is impossible.
What are you talking about? I only grow oranges. I'm not able to grow lemon trees. But do you know what? It seems like it's very unrealistic.
It seems like it's untrue, but nurtured in the right way. And an orange, orange tree can start producing lemons. And you know what I really feel like sometimes that's the way that we can look at our purposes with God. You know, before we become a Christian, we're operating in the natural and all of us have gifts and talents and things that we're good at, things that we're not so good at. And maybe you can feel like sometimes you're an orange tree where all you've been doing is just producing oranges.
But then that magical moment happens where you give your life over to God. And all, all of a sudden, even though you've just been producing oranges your whole life, God comes up to you and says, it's great that you've been doing oranges, but now I'm calling you to do lemons. What you were doing before was great, but now in the new life with Christ, I'm calling you to produce a new fruit. Amen. And I really think, like sometimes we can feel like God, that's impossible.
God, how am I meant to do that when all I've been doing is producing oranges? My whole. But if we look at the kingdom of God, if we look at the way that Jesus operates, it is full of paradoxes. What is a paradox? I've got the definition here for you.
If you could put that up, Victoria, that would be great. This is the definition of a paradox. It's a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated, may prove to be well founded or true. See, this is the thing I feel like when we get called from God, when God puts a purpose on our life, I know for a lot of us we can hear that purpose and we can think, no way, God, that is unrealistic. There's no way I'm ever going to be able to do that.
But this is a paradox of the kingdom of heaven, because God is going to say things that seem untrue. He's going to give you statements that seem absurd, that seem contradictory. But when you really invest, investigate it, they're going to be true in your life. And I want to claim that over you this morning. You see, I want to look at the life of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is full of paradoxes, full of these aspects of himself that on the surface they seem like they cancel each other out, they're contradictory.
But if we look at it, they're 100% true. You with me so far? So these are the paradoxes of Jesus Christ, right? He is full God, yet he is fully man. He is the King of all kings, yet he lived the life of a servant.
He is the sinless one. But he took on Our sin. He brought absolute life through his own death. He was rejected by man, but he was chosen by God. He was the king of heaven and earth.
He was the richest entity in the entire universe, yet he chose to be born in a manger. He was tempted, but he never sinned. He was silent at his own trial that would lead to his death. Despite having all the authority in the whole world. We categorize him as both the lion and the Lamb.
He came to serve us, yet he is the one that deserves to be served. He was bound so that we could live free. He died, but lives forever. You see, this is the kingdom of God church. This is the way that Jesus operates.
He operates in paradoxes that on the surface seem way untrue. They seem like they're contradictory. But if we really look into it, we know that they are 100% true. And so, you know, I want to ask you this morning and maybe we can show of hands here, who feels like they confidently know the purpose that God has put on their life?
Not many hands. You know what? I think it's a struggle that we can all rely. I struggled with this myself for many, many years. But can I encourage you?
If you start looking into the kingdom of heaven as a big, big paradox that might seem untrue, but in fact is actually true, you're gonna step into the open doors of your purpose that God is gonna open. Who wants that this morning? You ready to receive that? So this is what I want to do. I want to give you three keys to stepping into your purpose by unlocking these.
Unlocking these paradoxes. So everybody say this point. One, the first and the last. The first and the last. Do we have any big sports fans here?
No, I've got a resounding no from the front row then. Any sports fans? Yeah, we got a lot of sports fans. So each and every one of you would know that when your team is winning, you feel like you're the king of the earth. Earth, don't you?
You're not even playing. You're not even like you're not one of the, the people playing in the team. But when your team is winning, oh man, you feel like you're on cloud nine, don't you? And then it's the opposite. Hey, when they're losing, that.
Oh man, that is so sad. You know what? Keep Harry in your prayers. Many of you might not know, but Harry is a massive Dallas Mavericks fan in the NBA basketball. And if you don't know, they made one of the worst trades in NBA history.
This week. And so pray for Harry, because every time I look at him, he looks sad. And it's because his team has made the worst decision they could have ever made.
Yeah, Steve, you feel the pain. You feel that any basketball fan knows that it was crazy what they did this week. And I felt that myself. You know, I. If you know anything about me, I'm a huge NFL fan.
I love American football. Anybody else love American football? I know it's a niche, Steve, Come on. All the American sports love them. Awesome.
You know, I'm a massive fan. I love it. It's like my main sport that I love, you know, and who. Many of you might know that my wife Gab's in the front row here. She's due to have a baby in eight days.
Can you believe that? Wow.
Man. I tell you what, she's been an absolute champion this whole pregnancy. She is a. Oh, man. Just nothing can, like, stop her.
She is an absolute machine going through this pregnancy. But there was this one thing that I just pleaded with her. I was like, gabs, I know you don't have any control over this, but please, can you just wait to have the baby until after super bowl on Monday? Please? I really want to watch the Super Bowl.
If I'm watching it from the hospital, I'm going to be pretty sad. I'm a no, no, of course I won't. Of course I won't. I'll be overjoyed. If you didn't hear it, she shouted out, you will.
But I remember 2013, my team, the Seattle Seahawks, they won the super bowl. And it was like one of the greatest days of my life. It's quickly, soon going to be replaced by the birth of my coming daughter. But right now, right now, it was one of the greatest days of my life. I was on such joy because when our team was winning, I felt so good.
But then the next year, they went back to the super bowl. Back to back. Very rare to go back to back. And right at the end of the game, there's 10 seconds on the clock, they are one meter away from winning their second back to back super bowl, and they don't do it. They lose.
And can I tell you, I'm not a big crier, but when they lost that Super Bowl, I was bawling my eyes out. I don't know what it was, because that's a part of our human nature. Is it? We want to be the one that wins. We want to be the one that's ahead, isn't it?
I don't know what it is about us, but we just have this desire to want to win. Is anyone like. Like that with me? We've got that. We've got that nature within us where we just crave to be recognized, don't we?
We crave to be a provider. We crave to be the one that's successful. I mean, all you have to do is look around out of society and you can see where we put value. I mean, all these celebrities that are doing these seemingly cool things, they've got millions of views on their Instagram, and they're making millions of dollars off of it because everybody wants to look to them and go, what are you doing? Even just a snippet of your day?
I want to see what it is because we have this society where we value people. We value if you're a mega movie star, we value if you're really rich, we value you if you're. If you're really successful in your workplace, don't we? And so there's this human nature thing inside of us where we go, I just want to get ahead. I just want to do well.
You know, I remember back in my old job, I was. I was one of these young guys that was trying to climb the corporate ladder, right? And so I remember what it was like. I remember that, you know, especially in Covid, our company was really low on stock, and so all of the account managers and the salesmans, like myself, we were all trying to fight over the stock, and we were trying to go, you know, make bargains and deals with all the buying managers to go, hey, I need this stock for my customer. And, you know, you would kind of get into this little bit of a toxic mentality where you'd kind of be like, I want to get up everything for myself.
And if anyone else got something that you didn't, you, you'd start to look at their success with a bit of a cloud of judgment, you know, like, I can't believe they got it. Does anyone ever feel like that? Ever feel, oh, I can't believe that person got something that I didn't. I can't believe that person got the promotion. I can't believe that person is living in that house when I'm just here struggling.
We have this nature inside of us that wants to be the first. We want to be the one that's successful. And a lot of the time, if we see someone else that has something that we don't, we can often just start to just look at it with a bit of disdain, don't we, don't we? And you know, I love what Jesus tells us in Mark 9:35 says this. He said he sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and he said, whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everybody else.
And you know, I really want to encourage you this morning, if you want to step into the purpose that God has for you, you've got to start being okay with being in last place. You've really got to start being okay with being in last place. Because it's so true. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. That's something that is taught many times in the Bible.
We look at the life of Joseph. Hands up if you know the story of Joseph. Incredible figure in this Old Testament. For those of you that don't know what happens with the story of Joseph is that Joseph is this young guy that from a very early age, God drops this incredible dream upon his heart. Anyone ever in here felt like they've had a strong dream or something they've tried to achieve in their life.
Well, this was Joseph. He had this strong dream, and God put this dream on him that said, you are going to lead many people. You're going to be a great leader. In fact, even your own brothers are going to start bowing down to you one day because of the leadership that you're going to have. And so Joseph, we see in his life that he is always trying to work towards this dream.
He tells his brothers, and what do his brothers do? They immediately sell him into slavery because they're like, what are you talking about? You are not going to rule over us. You are the youngest brother. And so they sell him into slavery.
But you know what he does? He starts working as a really great slave. And he's under this guy named Potiphar. And Potiphar elevates him to pretty much second in command of his own hand household. And Joseph is really beloved under this servant.
But, you know, he gets into this kerfuffle with Potiphar's wife, and his wife starts making up all these lies about him. And Potiphar gets really angry and he throws Joseph into jail. And so Joseph is in this moment where he felt like, oh, okay, I'm starting. I'm finally starting to realize the dream that God put on my heart. I'm starting to make headway.
Potiphar's made me second in command of his house. I'm starting to do it. But what happens? He ends up right back in jail. Of absolutely no fault of his own.
And so he's in jail, and so what does he does? He goes, okay, well, God, I'm going to be faithful. And he keeps working in the jail. And the Bible tells us that the jail that he's in actually starts giving him more and more responsibilities because they see that Joseph is a hard worker. And so he's getting back again.
And I'm going to cut a long story short, but he starts to interpret things. Some dreams of the guys in the prison, and those guys end up getting released to prison. They work for Pharaoh in Egypt. They go to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's having nightmares and all of these dreams, and they say, hey, there's this guy in prison that interpreted our dreams. Maybe he can do the same thing for you.
So Joseph, he gets brought to Pharaoh. Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh, and then all of a sudden, Pharaoh turns around and says, because you've successfully interpreted my dreams and given us direction, I'm going to put you second in command of all of Egypt. And so this is the amazing thing about Joseph's story. He goes from being in the very, very last place that you could be in Egypt, and then seemingly overnight gets elevated into second in command of all of Egypt. It's a paradox.
Church. It shouldn't work like that, is it? I mean, how much more would we love it if we could just go, God, what's my purpose? God tells us the purpose, and we go, great, here's point A, here's point B. I'm gonna go from here, and I'm gonna go straight to point B.
But who knows that often that's not really how God works, is it? No, He's a God of paradoxes. When all of the world might be going in a certain way to achieve their dream, God often seemingly goes the exact opposite way in order to achieve the thing that he wants for your life. And so, church, can I encourage you that if you want to step into the purpose that God has got for you, you've got to be okay with being in last place. You've got to be okay with being in last place.
Because I know. I know those nights and I know those prayers where you're crying out to God and you're saying, God, why have you brought me to this place? Come on. Am I the only one that ever feels like that? Do you?
Have you ever felt like you're just praying to God and you're saying, God, why on earth did this happen? Why on earth, God, have you allowed this thing to happen? And I'm not saying For a moment, that God causes bad things in your life. I'm not saying that at all. But what I am saying is that very often God will use the bad things in your life to elevate you to the place that he wants you.
And so if you stay in that place and you just stay bitter and angry with God, saying, God, why, why, why, why, why? You. You will not ever step into the purpose that God has for you. But if you can have the faith to be in that place, Church, Come on. If you can have the faith to say God, even though I'm in the darkness, even though I'm in a place I don't want to be, I know that you elevate the last onto the first.
Just like Joseph from prison, of no accord of his own. There was no reason why Joseph should be in prison, but that's where he was. And I'm wondering if maybe you feel like that in your. Your life too. You're feeling like, oh, there's no reason why I should be where I am.
But yet you are. Can I encourage you? God has not abandoned you. Come on. God has not forgotten you.
God has not left you to the wayside. In fact, you don't see it. But God is planning everything right according to how it needs to be for God to elevate you to that purpose. So can I encourage you? Don't be worried about being in last place.
Don't be worried about being in last place and church. Imagine if we could all band together with this mentality, man. All you have to do is walk out these buildings, out of these four walls, and you immediately get hit with a society and a community that is surrounding us, that are so out of hope, that seem like life is so desolate. All you have to go is go to the Frankston main street, and I gather, I guarantee you, you walk 10 meters and you will see someone that looks like they have given up on life. Imagine if we could be a church that brings them the light, the revelation that says, hey, guess what?
You're not actually valued based on how far ahead you are. You're not valued by how many Instagram followers you have. You're not valued by how much money is in your bank account. Come on. Imagine if we could share with them the knowledge that there is a God that simply just loves them, and that's why they're valued.
They're valued because they have a God that is with them, that is for them, and no weapon formed against them shall remain. Amen. Imagine the sort of change that we could see in our community if we did that. Hey, so come on, we gotta be the example as the church. We gotta be okay with being in last place.
You're with me this morning. First and last. We've got to be okay with being in last place. Everybody say point two. Point two.
The second paradox there is victory through surrender. Victory through surrender. Now, I'm going to share with you a bit of a story that I'm a little embarrassed to tell because it's really true to say that boys will be boys, right? And when boys are together, we just get up to stupid stuff and unfortunately it cannot be helped. So I remember when I was first joining the youth team, I became a Youth Leader at 16 years old, and I was running a small group and leading some guys, and I was pretty young, and I was like, okay, cool, I'm gonna do this.
And one thing I quickly learned is that youth leadership is pretty difficult. Not because we had to do a lot of pastoral care, not because we were giving up Friday nights, but because in our particular youth leadership team, we had this game called naturalist wrestling, Boys will be boys. And what we used to do is that anytime we were staying at someone's house or we were on a youth camp or we were on like a leaders retreat or something like that, we would just get out whatever mattresses we could find as a makeshift wrestling mat. We would chuck it on the floor, and then we'd just have wrestling matches with each other where the only rule was that you are our. If you tap.
That was pretty much the only rule. And so we would just wrestle each other. We would be like, getting each other in headlocks, even, like, making sure nobody could breathe and so they could tap that way. It was. It was bad.
It was bad, but it was very fun. But you know what I really learned in those wrestling matches, which is, I don't know, such a strange thing to. Strange place to learn something. You know, through all these wrestling and wrestling guys that were much bigger and stronger than me, I really realize that the more that you try and hold someone and the more that you try and get them to submit, the more tired you're going to be. And in fact, wrestling is not so much about who's the stronger one.
It's all about stamina. It's a stamina game. It's who can outlast the other one. And so often, you know, the great strategy in wrestling was not to come out and just try and dominate someone and use all your strength and pin them and then get them to tap straight away. A lot of the time what you would do is you would put yourself in a defense position.
You would let them do all the work. You just kind of like hold them back. They would be the ones that get tired, and then you would submit, and then you would, like, overpower them after that. Right? I know.
Thanks, Steve. Ooh. But you know, sometimes I feel like in our walk with God, who knows, that often we can always just be trying to control everything ourselves. We can just be trying to wrangle everything under our control straight away. And it's in those moments, isn't it, where we start to feel anxious, we start to feel tired, we start to feel bitter, we start to feel angry, we start to feel like life's not fair because we're just getting so tired from trying to control everything ourselves, isn't it?
Anyone ever feel like that? I love what it says in Luke, chapter 17 through Jesus gives us these incredible words. Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it. And whoever loses their life will preserve it. And the thing that this really shows me is that if you want to step into the purpose that God has for your life, you got to be willing to surrender.
You got to be willing to surrender it all over to God. Because I promise you, if you try and control it in your own strength, if you try and force it to submit in the way that you want it to submit, hey, can I encourage you? You're only gonna feel anxious, you're only gonna feel tired, and you're gonna start hating the thing that God called you to do because you're trying to do it all in your own strength. Amen. You know, I want us to be people where we can just surrender over to God and just say, God, I'm tired of trying to do it in my own strength.
I'm tired of trying to do it it in my own way. God, would you do it? Because you know, the reason we try to control things is simply just because we don't have enough faith. The moment you start trying to control your own life, it's simply just because you don't have faith that God has got your back no matter what. Let me give you an example of this.
Let's look at Daniel in the Bible, right? Anybody know the story of Daniel? Daniel was an amazing guy in the Bible. He was an incredible prophet. He was always listening to God, hearing from God, and then God would often use him to instruct kings and to build relationship with kings and give them the instruction that God was going to wanted to give Them.
And so Daniel was this guy where he was super in tune with the. With the spirit of God. Right at the beginning of Daniel's life, Daniel faces this thing where the king at the time was in Babylon, was this guy named King Darius. And King Darius had put together this insane decree that said for 30 days, I want everybody to turn away from their own gods and to start worshiping me as king. I mean, can you imagine the arrogance of this guy?
Can you imagine if the CEO of your company said, everybody, put your work down and start worshiping me? You would hate that guy. You know, like, this guy is the biggest jerk in the world. Whole world. And so probably knowing that he put in this decree that anybody that doesn't do it, guess what, they're going to get thrown into the lion's den and the lions are going to eat them for dinner.
And so I think for most of us, a lot of us would hesitate at that decree. If all of a sudden somebody came into our country as a prime minister and was like, I need you guys to start worshiping me or we're going to kill you. I think we'd all hesitate. I think we would all be like, there's no way that's going to. Oh, sorry.
We hesitate and be like, oh, okay, I don't want to die, but I also don't want to go against God, you know? But Daniel, Daniel in the moment. The Bible tells us that Daniel did not hesitate whatsoever. He did not even for a second consider that he was going to worship this King Darius. And so everybody in his.
In his neighborhood knows this because he's very open about it. In fact, the Bible says that he goes to his window and he starts praying to God in his window for everybody to see. I am going against the law. I don't care what they think. And so what does King Darius do?
He calls up Daniel and he says, daniel, well, you've been worshiping your God and not worshiping me, so we're gonna throw you in the lion's den. And I'm wondering if anybody this morning ever feels like God has led them to the lion's den. Have you ever felt like God has directed you somewhere and you've thought to yourself, God, this is ridiculous where you've led me, God, this is so counterintuitive where you've led me. It's un. Unfair.
It's unjust. It doesn't make any sense. It's unbiblical. God, why have you led me to this place? But can I encourage you, Daniel, in This moment totally surrenders over to God.
Totally surrenders over to God. And he willingly goes into the lion's den, fully trusting that God is going to protect him. And what happens? A miracle happens, Daniel, after the lions, then sends that. What happened is that in the night, an angel of the Lord came and shut the mouths of all the lions.
So he was totally unscathed. He was totally untouched. But you know what happened after that, Church, is that the king at the time, King Darius, saw this event, saw this miracle, and it set Daniel up for the rest of his calling. Because all of a sudden, Darius, this king, said, wow, if your God has protected you from this, I must take this God seriously. And you know what happened?
It invited. He elevated Daniel to this spot in his court where he said, you are going to be my number one advisor. I'm going to go to you first for any decision that I make. And so, even though it seems counterintuitive that God leads us to the lion's den, sometimes it's the very thing that needs to happen in order to elevate us to where God is. And so can I encourage you, Church, if you want to step into the calling that God has got for you, you've got to be willing to surrender.
Amen. Turn to the person next to you and say, I'm going to surrender. I'm going to surrender.
Can I encourage you, Church? The first shall be last, the last shall shall be first. There is victory through surrender. And if I could get the band to join me, that would be awesome. The third paradox is this.
Say number three. There is strength in weakness. There is strength in weakness. Come on. If you want to step into the calling that God has got for your life, you want to step into your own purpose, you got to be willing to be last.
You got to be willing to surrender, and you've got to be willing to be weak. This is maybe the most important part of everything that I'm preaching. You've got to be willing to be weak. Because you know me, I think I've shared this with many of you before, but I just felt called to share it again. You know, what I'm doing right now in talking to all of you amazing people, public speaking, speaking like this, you know, it's not actually something that comes naturally to me.
Growing up, I was an incredibly shy guy. I did not like talking to people whatsoever. I hated public speaking. In fact, sometimes I would, like, throw up if I needed to public speak because I was so nervous about doing that thing, you know, I was like we know that feeling. We all do.
It's not something that comes naturally to me. And Norell's right. If you were to talk to a lot of our pastoral staff, what they do does not come naturally to them. Can I tell you, I was not always a great singer growing up. In fact, I was a terrible singer.
But I remember God called me one day to be a singer. And I found that as I practiced, I got exponentially better than I ever thought I could be. That is a God miracle. The fact that I can sing is a God miracle. Can I tell you this?
The fact that I'm preaching here in front of all of you is a God miracle. It's not something that comes naturally because all that I was was an orange tree producing oranges for my whole life. And I clearly remember the day that God came to me and said, I know you've been producing oranges, but I want you to start producing lemons. I want you to start preaching in front of people. I'm gonna call you to be a singer and a worship leader.
I'm gonna call you to bring pastoral care to many people. I'm gonna cause you to have many victories in your life. And in those victories, it's going to inspire other people. These were words, Church, that at the time seemed ludicrous to me. I said, God, I can't do that.
In fact, I got really upset and I started crying and I was like, God, I. I don't want to do that. That sounds like a horrible life. Who would want it? Who would want to public speak and talk to people for their whole life?
That seems. That seems really rough. I don't want to do that. My dream at that stage was to. I don't know.
This is how boring I am. My dream at this stage was to be a computer coder. I was like, I just want to sit on my little desk. I just want to code. Sorry, if you are a coder in here, that's.
I still want to do it, so I'll trade places anytime. But that was me. I didn't want to be in front of people. I didn't want to be doing this. But the moment God said to me, you're going to start producing lemons, something switched, Church, because just like the orange tree that when gets grafted to a citron tree starts producing a new fruit.
Can I encourage you, Church, that when we take our little orange tree self and graft ourselves to Jesus Christ, there is a totally new fruit that starts being produced? Amen. Come on. I want to read this what it says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 9 to 10, it says this. This is a great dude named Paul in the Bible, and he's sharing this revelation that God gave him.
And it says this, this verse nine. But God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Then Paul goes on to share his own thoughts about this. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me. Come on.
Who wants Christ's power to rest on them this morning? This is why, for Christmas sake, I delight in my weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Church. Hey, come on.
Can I encourage you? Stop doing it in your own strength. Stop trying to do it in your own ability. How ridiculous would it be if I got the juice out of this orange and I tried to trick you into thinking it's lemon juice? Every single one of you could tell the difference straight away.
But, man, isn't that sometimes what we do? Sometimes we take this thing that we're producing naturally, we hear the call of God and say, okay, God's called me to do lemons. And so, okay, I'm gonna squeeze this for all it's worth. I'm gonna keep squeezing the fruit I'm producing, and I'm just gonna hope that it starts producing lemon juice. Can I encourage you?
It's never gonna happen. It's never gonna happen. But can I tell you this, man? Those moments when you're feeling stressed and you're feeling alone and you're feeling like there's a lot of anxiety, and you just put on that one worship song.
Jesus, just come. Jesus, would you just show me a new revelation? Come on. That moment where even though your world is chaotic around you, maybe you're in your workplace and you're just thinking, man, I just can't stand my boss anymore. I just can't steal the.
I can't handle the pressure of doing this anymore. And on your lunch break, you just go into your car and you start just praying to God, just saying, God, would you fill me with a new peace? Would you fill me with a new sense of life? Come on. In that moment where your family is driving you nuts, your kids are out of control, and you're saying, God, I don't know what to do.
God, I've been trying to control this. I want to control this, God, because I love my kids and I want them to do well. And if only they would listen to me, God, if only they would understand what I'm trying to teach them. But you open up your word and you just say, yeah, but, God, fill me with wisdom. God, fill me with truth.
God, fill me with conviction. Give me a new revelation. God, how do I do this? Because, come on, all of those moments are us taking the little orange tree that we are and grafting ourselves to the God Almighty through Jesus Christ. And can I tell you that when you do that, you're going to produce a new fruit that you couldn't even think about before.
He's going to cause you to radically change your life. But it's a paradox. It doesn't make any sense, what he asks us to do, and it drives us crazy. We can say, God, this is so ridiculous. There is such a better way of doing it.
Can I tell you, there's not a better way of doing it. It's the only way of doing it. And so, yeah, you might want to be first. You might want to control it, but be last. You might feel like you're trying to submit this thing and wrestle it under your control, but God's just saying, let it go.
Surrender. Submit to my will. Will. And if you can, stand before your problem and just say, I don't need to worry about my own abilities, my own strengths, my own weaknesses, because I'm grafting myself to the Heavenly Father. And in his power, through my weakness, it's made perfect.
Amen. So come on, can we just all close our eyes wherever you are? You know, I really want to challenge you. When I asked you before, who feels like there's a purpose on your life? I didn't see a lot of hands.
Come on. Can I ask you, if you're here this morning? You're just saying, God, I want a fresh revelation of what my purpose is in life. 2025. I want to be doing the supernatural.
I want to do the things that I didn't think I could do before. If that's you this morning, can you just lift your hand? I want to pray for you. I want to know who I'm praying for. Come on, lift your hand.
Nice and proud. Say, God, I want that. God, I want that new purpose. God, I've dreamed those dreams, but I haven't seen it come to pass. God, can this be the year?
Just lift your hand where you are.
Thank you, Jesus. Hands all over this place. I love that. Come on, let's pray for this. God, we just thank you.
We thank you that we don't need to do it. In our own strength, God, Lord, all we have to do is just rely on you. And so, Lord, would you just come right now and we just fill up your people with peace and with strength and with revelation that you are the king of Kings, that you are the Lord of Lords, that they don't need to be first in their life, they just need to surrender and boast all the more about their weaknesses. And as they do that, God, I know that you are going to open door after door after door. You know, I'm seeing people there of promotions that you've been trying to do it in your own strength.
God is just saying, don't worry about how unjust your boss is. Just submit, just work hard, just do everything as he's doing it for God. And God will open the way. And so God, I pray that over this congregation, Lord, where you just fill them with the new revelation of the plans and the purposes that you have for them. Father God, I just pray that from this day on, God, that they, they would be dreaming a new dream.
God, that you would fill their heart with hope, that you would show them what their future has in for them. And God, maybe they're just standing here just saying, yeah, but God, I'm just an ordinary little orange tree. God, would you show them that you've called them to make lemons, that they are making a new fruit. All they've got to do is just trust in your strength and in your power. Father God, we thank you.
Jesus, come on. If you want to. If you need a new revelation of what your purpose is in life, could you just stand? Stand where you are. Be brave right now.
Stand where you are. Just raise up your hands to heaven right now. Just call out to God right now. Come on. The same power that conquered the grave, that rose Jesus from the death is in you right now.
It is living in you right now. Come on, cry out to God and say, God, would you empower me? God, would you give me that new calling, God, that new purpose? Father God, I don't want to live in the same way I did before. God, give me a new thing.
Give me a fresh wind, God, come on. The same power.
Yes, we thank you, God.
Come on, church, can I encourage you? The greatest thing that you can do for yourself right now is to not let this word stay here. With every revelation from God there requires an action. So can I encourage you? Don't let it stay here.
When you go home, open up the Bible, start getting that down from God. Because I can't tell you what that Purpose is for your life. I can just tell you how to find it. But for you to receive that revelation from God, you got to go straight to the source. It can't be through me.
It can't be through one of the pastors. It can't be through the worship team. In worship, you have to go right to God. So can I encourage you when you go home today, open up the word, start praying to God. You know I love what it says in the Bible.
Lock yourself in your room, make a space where it's just you and God. Cry out to God, and I promise you he's gonna give you an answer. It may not be the answer that you like, but he will give you an answer. Amen. So come on, God, I just thank you for these people.
God, I thank you that you have called them for a great work, that you have good plans, your Word says for us. And God, I just pray that right now, every single person that's standing right now, Father God, would you put in them a strength to lead this word into action? Father God, would you fill them with a conviction that takes this word home, opens up their word, starts to cry out to you, Heavenly Father, and I pray that in that moment, God, that your spirit would come as you've done for me and many times in my life. Would your spirit come with the open heaven up in that room, with the heavens open up in that room? And would you love and your spirit just pour out on your people?
Would you show them the purposes? Would you show them the plans that you've got for them? And it might seem unrealistic, it might seem like a paradox, but God, I know that it is true because it is your word. It might seem unrealistic, but it is true because it is breathing word of the living God. And so, God, I just pray over these people.
Would your spirit stay with them? Don't let the fire die out, God, I pray that every day you would fill them with a fresh sense of joy and of peace and of strength, that you have got them no matter what. Even when Joseph was in the prison, you had him. Even when Daniel was in the lion's den, you had him. Even when Paul was worried about his weaknesses, you had him.
Because it's by your power, God, by your strength, would you do that for your people today, God, we just pray that and we just thank you that you're such a good and a loving God, that you are our heavenly Father. We pray this all in your name. And everybody said amen. Come on, can we give it up for God real quickly. We're we thank you, God.
Oh, man, we thank you, Jesus.
Am I handing over to you now? Come on, let's give it up for Narelle.
Oh, wasn't that a great word? Why don't we give Michael another hand? Thank you. So good. Rest.
Challenging. Yeah. Clean. Well, before we all go, I just wanted to let you know a couple of changes out in the foyer. If you are new, the left hand side of the doors, there's a table there for new people and new Christians.
So if you need. You don't have a bible and you would like a bible, you can go there. If you're a new Christian, our new person here, we've got our bags there, our kit bags for you. And on the right hand side of the doors, we have our Jackson connected hub for courses and groups and you'll be able to find about. Find out about all those things there.
So we've just separated those two just to make it clearer. So, yeah. Anyway, have a good day. Enjoy your week. Enjoy morning tea together.
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Finding Your Purpose: Understanding God's Paradoxical Ways
Life often feels like a constant struggle to get ahead and achieve success. However, God's ways of working in our lives often seem paradoxical - the complete opposite of what we might expect. Understanding these divine paradoxes is key to stepping into your God-given purpose.
What Does it Mean to Find Your Purpose Through Paradox?
A paradox is something that seems contradictory or absurd but may actually be true when investigated deeper. The kingdom of God operates through many paradoxes - ways that seem counterintuitive to human logic but align with God's wisdom.
Three Key Paradoxes for Finding Your Purpose
1. The First Shall Be Last
Our natural inclination is to want to be first - to get ahead, be recognized, and achieve success. However, Jesus taught that "whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everybody else" (Mark 9:35). Being willing to take the last place positions us for God to elevate us in His timing.
2. Victory Through Surrender
We often try to control everything ourselves, leading to anxiety and exhaustion. True victory comes through surrendering control to God. Like Daniel in the lions' den, when we fully surrender to God's will - even in seemingly dangerous situations - He can work miracles that establish our purpose.
3. Strength in Weakness
God's power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). When we acknowledge our limitations and rely on His strength rather than our own abilities, He can work through us in supernatural ways. Our weaknesses become the very platform for His power to be displayed.
How Does God Transform Us for His Purpose?
Just as an orange tree can be grafted with another tree to produce lemons, when we connect ourselves to Christ, He can produce new fruit through us that we never thought possible. God often calls us to things that seem completely contrary to our natural abilities - but His power enables us to fulfill that calling.
Life Application
This week, challenge yourself to:
Identify areas where you're trying to control outcomes and surrender them to God
Look for opportunities to serve others by taking the "last place"
Acknowledge your weaknesses and invite God's strength to work through them
Ask yourself:
Where am I trying to be "first" instead of serving others?
What areas of my life do I need to surrender control to God?
How can I allow God's strength to work through my weaknesses?
Am I willing to let God produce new "fruit" in my life, even if it seems impossible?
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A discussion guide for the sermon can be found here.