A Note From Dave

A Note from Dave: February 4

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Jesus did a lot more with His disciples than travel around the countryside raising the dead and performing amazing miracles. They were perhaps the overflow of the real work, or that section of the iceberg that is visible above the water line.

As we move towards Vision Sunday, more than ever we need to focus and build what is below the waterline, or the stuff that is unseen that supports and sustains what is and will be seen.

Matthew 10:1(NLT)
Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness.

In the previous chapter Jesus asks His disciples to pray for workers. Next, He sends them out but not before calling them together and empowering them with His authority to go…

All of us would like to live a life with more authority, hallmarked with miracles and healing. There were three key factors that took place before Jesus sent His disciples out.

  • Prayer
  • Gathering
  • Empowerment (or receiving authority)

As we move to Pop Up Festival and Vision Sunday, let’s heat up the value of prayer, gathering and receiving His authority through coming under His authority.

See you in Church.

Ps Dave

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God Money & Me

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Hi Church,

This year we’ve had a focus on breakthrough. It’s not God’s will for you to be or feel stuck. Jesus came that we would have life and have it to the full (John 10:10).

In Church life we’re comfortable talking about spiritual and emotional breakthrough, but perhaps less so when it comes to financial breakthrough, or living in a greater degree of financial freedom. Our heart is that you can become someone that breaks through in all areas of life.

One of the greatest pressures we experience in life is money. Statistics tell us 50% of marriages end in divorce because of money issues. It’s a big subject and we believe as a church we need to address it from a God perspective; we’re comfortable talking about many other of life’s challenges so we should talk about money.

In Church we hear a lot about giving and generosity, but perhaps less about the subject of money. Perhaps you even feel like you’ve been faithful in giving and embraced a generous spirit, but haven’t experienced the level of financial freedom you would like.

This Sunday, we commence a five week series, “God Money and Me”, which is a holistic look at money from a God perspective. It’s all about seeing you become more financially empowered and not being ruled by the power and pressure of money.

Our speaking team will be teaching this subject at our morning services (10:00am Hobart and Derwent Valley) for the next five weeks and we will also have the opportunity to discuss and study the subject in our connect groups. Your connect group leader will have the study guides and video and audio material.

Let’s embrace this together as we continue to walk into new areas of breakthrough.

See you in Church,

Ps Dave

A Note from Ps Dave – 7th July

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IMG_7390Hi all,

I’ve been having a very encouraging and refreshing time at Hillsong Conference. This morning Jentzen Franklin brought a fantastic message entitled “The Seventh Hand”.

“These are the measurements of the altar in cubits (the cubit is one cubit and a handbreadth): the base one cubit high and one cubit wide, with a rim all around its edge of one span. This is the height of the altar:”
Ezekiel 43:13 NKJV

A cubit was six handbreadths. A cubit is the distance from your middle finger to the inside of your elbow (your forearm). For most people that will be six handbreadths, six times the width of your hand with your thumb tucked in.

God was showing that the temple would be built to a new measure. Throughout the Bible six is the number of man and seven is the number of God.

What God was showing was that He wanted to add His hand or His spirit and His power to our effort. As we work and do what we can, it will never be all it can be without the hand of God on it.

I believe that’s something God is showing us at the moment.
Breakthrough is not simply about working harder; it’s about doing all we can, being faithful with our part, or our sixth if you like.
Breakthrough happens when God places His hand on our work and our faithfulness.

As we approach another amazing opportunity this Sunday, let’s continue to ask for the hand of God or His spirit on our efforts. As we do what we can, He does what we can’t!
Let’s make room and seek the seventh hand on our efforts.

See you in church!

Ps Dave

A Note From Dave: Sunday January 8

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We hear a lot of talk about living a large; most people like the idea and don’t want to  feel like they live small. However, that is the reality for so many: feeling small, the result of which is thinking and living in a small way.

We are created in the image of God who is certainly large. No one was created to be small and insignificant.

“Make your tent bigger. Spread out the curtains of your home, and do not hold back.  

Make your ropes longer and your tie-downs stronger.” Isaiah 54:2 (NLV)

So many of the prophecies, given to God’s people are about lifting their eyes and their thinking, choosing to live the way they had been created to live and stepping out and taking the opportunities that God had put in front of them.

So often our experience of growth can be that we grow and then hit a wall, a limit or a lid, finding ourselves stuck, or even retreating.

In a New Era, in which we want to live expansively, let’s focus on our ropes and tie downs. We need ropes that are long enough to allow for expansion; that means releasing control and living with some margin.

Stronger ties downs, to me, is all about our security: knowing who we are in Christ.

Paul talks about our roots being in Christ:

“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:7
See you in one of our services this weekend! Let’s keep praying for God to move powerfully; let’s pray that lot’s of people turn up this weekend and we see multiple salvations!

Ps. Dave

A Note From Dave

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Hi all,

We are all familiar with sacrifices in life. Some sacrifices are large and significant; others are more everyday. Sacrifice could mean anything from forgoing the last piece of pizza for your friend to giving up a kidney for a family member , just like a member of our Energizer family did a while back.

Making sacrifices is a noble pursuit. As a nation, on ANZAC Day, we remember and honour the sacrifices made by thousands of service personnel throughout the various wars our country has been involved in. Parents sometimes remind their children of what the sacrifices involved in raising them.

We are about to celebrate the birth of Jesus; He was born so He could be a Holy sacrifice for humanity.

“And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.” John 17:19(NLT)

That Holy sacrifice is at the very core of Christianity; without it Christianity would not exist. So as Christians, we are very familiar with the concept and see it as noble. As we embrace a new era, I believe we will have a greater understanding of sacrifice.

Often we pursue and celebrate the various acts of sacrifice, but miss the real heart and motivation behind it and take on a martyr-type spirit. To make real and genuine, life-changing sacrifice part of our lives in a new era, we need to understand what God desires from us most.

Interestingly, He doesn’t ask for martyrs but, as King Saul found out, He rates obedience above sacrifice.

“But Samuel replied, 

“What is more pleasing to the Lord: 

    your burnt offerings and sacrifices 

    or your obedience to His voice? 

Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, 

    and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22

Our submission to God and our obedience to His voice should be our sacrifice to Him.

Our submission to Him will always trump our various acts of sacrifice, which all too often, in our humanity, we live to resent. Submission to God brings freedom; seeking acts of sacrifice alone can become religious.

In our world I’m humbled by the amazing sacrifices you all make to see our church grow and lives impacted. Let’s keep making the source of motivation our obedience to His voice and submission to God, then we will continue to live in freedom and true joy.

See you at our services this Sunday and let’s keep making intentional pre-service prayer part of our culture!

Ps. Dave

A Note From Ps. Dave

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Marketing companies spend a lot of time, effort and money developing packaging, because packaging sells; we’re attracted to the bright and shiny.

At times the packaging can be even more exciting and durable than the product it contains. You probably still have shoe boxes that contained shoes that have long since expired!

And of course, the beautiful iPhone boxes: all part of the “Apple experience”: too beautiful to discard, they mostly outlast the phone they once carried.

Collections of Grange Hermitage, the famous Australian red wine, have sold for over 150 000 dollars. However, to those uneducated in the world of wine, a bottle of Grange worth thousands of dollars may look less impressive than a ten dollar bottle, even though the contents are worlds apart.

“We are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us.”

2 Corinthians 4:7(CEV)

Another version says earthen vessels, meaning common everyday crockery. All of us can feel rather ordinary and feel like we fall well short of the perfect package, even cracked or broken like a clay jar or piece of everyday crockery.

Our God’s power is not limited by the size, quality, or finish of the container. His power can’t be contained and was never supposed to be contained. Out of your imperfection or brokenness can flow a power that can’t be contained, managed or even fully understood.

Out of our imperfection flows true perfection.

Let’s not see our brokenness as a limitation, but rather an opportunity and channel for God to do something magnificent through us.

Let’s be specific with our prayer this weekend, especially in our pre-service prayer meetings. Pray for new people, salvations, breakthrough in giving and for powerful life-changing encounters with God.

See you Sunday!

Ps. Dave

A Note From Dave

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One of my favourite passages of the Bible is found in Ezekiel 47, where the prophet saw a vision of a small stream that became first a creek and then a river. Wherever that river flowed, there was life and vitality, even as it made its way east, through the desert, eventually bringing life to the once lifeless dead sea.

Life will flourish wherever this water flows. Fishermen will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea. All the way from En-gedi to En-eglaim, the shores will be covered with nets drying in the sun. Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean. But the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will still be salty. Ezekiel 47:9-11 (NLT)

Marshes remain salty because only a small amount water flows in, but is unable to flow through and flush out impurities, hence the swamp remains toxic. Therefore, the best way to deal with a swamp is not to try and remove all the impurities and toxins, but to introduce adequate fresh water and provide a path for it to drain away. As the fresh, clean water flows through, toxins, salt and sludge are washed away, making way for life to return.

Purity is not so much about living to certain standards and ideals; it is more about living in such a way that impurity is flushed out of our lives by the life-giving spirit of God. That flow is increased as we allow that spirit to flow through us, removing contamination and bringing life to those around us.

This Sunday we’re going to look at what purity really is; what are the benefits of purity and how do we find it?
See you in Church!

Remember, pre-service prayer before all services: let’s make it a priority!

Ps. Dave

A Note From Dave

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Hi all,

Joshua and Caleb were the only two, out of all the Israelites, who came close enough to the promised land to actually walk into the promise. Imagine the disappointment they must have felt as a whole nation had to turn their backs on that promise and just walk away. Imagine trying to live the next forty years full of faith and expectation, when they knew they had come so close.

But, they did it! They were the only two to walk into a new era, In fact, it was Joshua who was given the big job of leading his nation through their previous disappointment and into the promise. God spoke to Joshua as he embarked on this new era and his first words were:

“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people…”

Joshua 1:2 (NIV)

Often, to fully embrace a new era, we have to let go of the past. For Joshua, God was saying more than the obvious. He was telling him to let go of the disappointment; let go of the old thinking; see yourselves differently. See yourselves as owners, rather than borrowers; see yourselves as inhabitants, not wanderers; see yourselves as thrivers, not survivors!

For Joshua to make this shift he had to let go of the Moses era, which was an era of survival; it was living day to day and hand to mouth. That era was over. However, the thing Joshua had to do was be courageous enough to walk into and lead a nation into the promise.

“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

Joshua 1:6 (NIV)

Three times the Lord said to Joshua “be strong and courageous”. We know that God is our strength; we know that when we are weak, He is strong. God did amazing, powerful things that Joshua could never have dreamed of, but what only Joshua could do, was use his own strength and courage to leave the familiar, leave the disappointment and walk across that river into a new land and a new era.

What is God asking you to leave behind as we walk into an exciting new era?
“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the laws my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:7 (NIV)
Let’s remember to be filled with faith, courage and expectation this Sunday!

Ps. Dave

A Note From Dave

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Hi everyone,

Earlier this year we were quite concerned that here in Tasmania, we might run out of power, due to the fact that our dams, which supply the water to generate our clean, green electricity, were at a record low: apparently down to ten per cent of their capacity.
To make matters worse, we became aware that the Tasmanian Government had been selling power to Victoria, hence using up a lot of the water storage, leaving us very exposed and feeling under-resourced when the power cable connecting Tasmania to the national grid was severed somewhere across Bass Strait.
The government started bringing in expensive diesel generators to get us through. Ironically, at the 11th hour it rained and rained and rained. The dams became full, then overflowed; we had floods and after all that, the countryside became green and lush and now we all feel secure again.

In hindsight the problem doesn’t feel so large, because the resource came in the form of rain, rivers flowed and life returned.

“For I am about to do something new.

See, I have already begun!

Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.

I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

Isaiah 43:19 (NLT)

Rivers speak of supply, resource, refreshment and sustainability. In a new era, we will experience rivers flowing through what has previously been dry and uninhabitable. Resource in areas where previously nothing has been happening.
Unlike what happened with the Tasmanian power supply, our God does not cut our life line; He is our constant supply.
“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (NLT)
In a new era, He will supply from His unlimited riches, which have already been given to us.
See you in church!

Ps. Dave