Finding Treasure - Andrew Selley (San Clemente)

So, I already felt to preach what I'm preaching now, obviously I think every week I'm trying to spend time in the Lord's presence trying to hear His voice about what He wants to say. And I feel this week, if I'm going to talk to it, I'm calling this "Finding Treasurer". It's interesting. And obviously, yeah, "Finding Treasurer". Now, we had the most amazing news even in here when the church gathered together and said goodbye to 2025 and hello to 2026. And there was such an incredible time as we gathered. I think we met for two hours and we started off with people coming and telling stories about what Jesus has done in their life this year. And I don't think there was one dry, just the miracles of God, the miracles of what God has done and is doing in us at the moment. And there's been such a time of exhilaration. And I think just hearing the stories was just, it was mind-blowing. And then from there, going into time of worship and prayer into the New Year. And it was really, for me, it was probably the highlight of the year, it was one of those like the best night ever. And just that sense of Jesus doing radical things in people. And in many sense, it's a time of transition. And I feel for us as much as it is in the New Year, that this is a time of transition. It feels sometimes as you lead or you try to follow Jesus as he leads the church. It feels sometimes that suddenly you're kicking to another gear. You know, I come from stick areas in Africa, you don't drive automatics, you drive stick. And when you change into a new gear, you suddenly get the surge of, you can suddenly go faster, your engine's revving lower. And suddenly, you're going like faster and better than you've ever gone before. It feels like something shifting in us at the moment, like something is changing. And God has done a very deep work and is doing a deep work and that will continue. But actually, it feels to me as a sense that the Lord is about to bring us into a time of radical transition or massive change. And that's exciting and it should be exciting and scary because it means things that God will bring to us that we've never maybe faced before. It means that we'll be needing to do things that we've never learned how to do before. It means stretching. It means that who we are is not who we will be. And I hope you realize that that is a good thing. If you stuck in the same old, same old, you've missed the whole point of what God is trying to do in and through us as He prepares us for His glory. And so in 2 Corinthians 3, 17 to 18, Paul, the Apostle tells us about this transition that continually is happening for those who work with Jesus. And if you're working with Jesus, at trust, you can see change. Because if you're not changing, you're probably not working with Jesus. And so Paul has telling us how, now the Lord is a spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. In other words, the place where real freedom is found where God is, where God is, that's where we find freedom. And then we learn something about God and we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord. In other words, when I came into Jesus, I began to see God. How many of you saw in worship today? Just seeing His glory. We weren't just singing songs that were some theological things. We were seeing His glory for those of you that have visited us. Maybe you're not there yet. It's because maybe you haven't fully encountered Him. Because when you know Him and you experience Him and you see Him with an unveiled face, something starts to happen. You start to get changed or being transformed into the same image. What image? The image of who I see. So as I begin to see Him, I change, I start to change. And that goes from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. In other words, the Christian life is this. I hope as I preach, I hope as we worship that you see Him, that in your homes as you gather that you see Him, that is you spend time in your quiet times with Him, you see Him. And as you see Him and behold His glory, something starts to change in you. You start to feel the spirit of God, the one who wants to bring you into freedom starts to challenge things in you. How many of you found that? It's like walking with Jesus is the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life. And I've done some crazy things. But I find the beauty of the challenge is as I see Him and I'm challenged, I find freedom. I find the freedom that my soul has longed for. When I try to find it in surfing, when I try to find it in drugs, when I try to find it in all these things, I long for freedom and I only found freedom when I be held the glory of God and started to be changed into the very image of who I began to see. And so we started changing and it's one degree of glory to another. In other words, when I got saved, there was a degree of glory that came. But then like taking steps, I can't stay there. There's another degree of glory and the degrees go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. And so this is the Christian walk. This is what happens if you follow a cross. You will not be able to stay the way you were. There'll be change coming all the time as you grow into the one that you see. And this is beautiful and it's wonderful and I think for each of us, this is the promise that we have. Your wife, your kid should be saying, you're not who you were. I remember years ago, a man who actually served alongside us for many years, he literally changed the world with us. He's now with the Lord and I remember he'd been in ministry many years and then joined with us and his name was Will Marie. And this man, man, I mean, he had led big churches but he just hadn't allowed the Lord to do the work in him that God wanted to do. And I remember we took him, we actually stepped him down for a season. He came in, he was like one of the loudest voices in our nation and when he joined us, we stepped him down because we felt he was falling short of what the Lord had called him to be. He was leading his wife well, it just was making some mistakes. And so for a season, I remember he was about to go flat to Brazil to lead a conference. Literally, we had an entire conference in that nation. All the churches coming together and we became aware of something and I remember calling him at the airport and saying, well, I can't let you minister there. You can't go because as leaders, we've got to be setting an example for people and everything. And there's an area in your life that's so lacking right now. And it was a big deal. I mean, we had a conference, a people had traveled from around Brazil and he was a little bit freaked out at first but he came through the process and I remember just before he died and she died of cancer a few years ago, his wife said this and I saw it. His wife said, you've become the man I thought I married. You've become the man I dreamt you were. And I saw that man grow from one degree of glory to another and I remember being with him and he's lost few preachers and felt like he was already in the presence of God sometimes when he preached. He knew he was going to go and it was like he would be, it was just God had done such a transformative work inside of him. And this is the dream for all of us that God will continue to transform us into the image of the one that we see. And so that means church, that means change is the norm. One degree to another, to another is the normal Christian life. If you are not changing, I am failing as a leader or you've been rebellious. And so part of the thing is to keep challenging, to keep trying to stretch you, to help you to understand, to help you to see so that change continually comes. And I would say this, you have no idea who you can become in Christ Jesus. You have no cooking clue what God can do in and through your life as you start to walk with him. Because he takes foolish, weak, broken, the things that the world is looking at him and that's bad material. I don't want to build this. And he says I will use these, I'll use these to glorify my name in the nations. The weak will be made strong. And so we said, I hope is God, here I am Lord. I know where I am, I know where I come from. I know that actually he's just like on my own, I'm pretty messed up. But I'm seeing you and I'm being changed every time I see you. I'm growing from one degree to another. And this is from the Lord, who is whispered, that means the best is yet to come. That means your life is right now, it's not where it's going to be. It means if it sucks now, it can change. And that's the hope of God that he would move us forward from one degree of glory to another. And I feel like we're coming into a season of change and I feel like if we don't understand the transition, we can actually miss God, you know, sometimes the disciples are walking with him when he was on the earth. And actually they just miss what he was saying, they miss where he was going. And then he's got to try and find them again. And the Bible says, Jesus said this, my servant must be where I am. When we were coming to America, it was exciting and terrifying. And I remember coming in here and just, you know, the dollar against our currency. And it was just, it was nuts. And I remember my wife saying this, she said, somebody asked about it, what's it like? Where's home? And she said, home for us is where Jesus is. Wherever Jesus is, that's where our home is. We're people in a journey with him and we're moving with him. And so there was a change that had happened for us. God wanted to move us geographically. For you and for us, this is something he works in all things for the good. America's been good for us. Just to slow down and to be more careful and less offensive and trying hard. And I never want to lose the heart to lead boldly and courageously. To lead the church we cross tells me to lead it and the elders with me. No matter if we lose everyone, I want to be where he is. If I lose every single one of you, if I'm with him, I've won. I'll do my best and I know his elders will do our very best. But we have to be where he is because this is not our church, it's his church. It's no matter what the price, no matter how hard we don't want to let him go. I just want to be where you are, God. I want to be in your presence, God. I want to be following after you. I want to see you, Lord, I want to reflect you, God. So we need to understand what the Lord is doing and the title of the preach is finding treasures. One of the reasons that we live the way we do is because we don't understand the values of what heaven treasures. In other words, we live in this world and because it's very fine art and it's very around us and it's, you know, it's, we kind of think treasures are things around us. Like if I see a, I go to Newport, often to go and minister up there, I've been working a lot in Newport over the last while because we've had to try and help some of the people transition. And every time I get up there, I'm just like, dude, what kind of treasures? How do people earn the money that they earn to live like this? How do they, how do they so many ridiculous cause that it's just like every little boy's dream, you just drive around and drool because it's just like, and we, our treasures seem for us to be earthly things. We want to give ourselves for finances, for a bigger home, for a, and the reason for that is because we haven't understood heaven's treasure. We haven't understood the ways of the king and the kingdom and so we actually give ourselves for petty, weak, silly things like big homes and nice cars instead of seeing what's truly valuable and what's truly a treasure. So if I was going to ask you and I to illustrate, if I, you know, what is the most precious expensive thing on the earth? What is it? What is the most precious expensive treasure? And then I found this out in my little research this morning, Russia has got $75 trillion worth of natural gas reserves. It's the most wealthy gas reserves on planet earth, $75 trillion US dollars. The United States has got $45 trillion worth of coal. So let's make it maybe more gold, and gold kind of feels more treasured to me than coal. And so maybe, you know where the largest gold reserves on the planet are? Fort Knox, over 8,100 tons of stored gold in one big fat safe, 8,100 tons. One pound of gold is $145,000 US dollars. And there's how much 8,100 tons of the stuff. Can you imagine? Now if I had to say to you, for three hours, remember a pound is $145,000 US, a pound is like, I'm going to give you three hours, take as much as you want. Whatever you take is yours. If you can get it out of the safe, it's for you forever. What are you going to do in that three hours? How are you going to be sitting down and having cup of coffee and thinking about the weather next week? What are you going to be doing in that three hours? And most of us are going to be working out little butts off, running around carrying as much as I can, just like, because I have an opportunity to win a treasure. Right? I mean, literally, you would drop everything. I mean, let's just say, let me drop something, your daughters are about to get born. And in that time is your three hours. What are you going to be doing now? It gets a little bit like, oh, I guarantee you, it's not going to be an easy other way. But most of us are going to be thinking, I think I'd be thinking this, babes, this is going to set up our daughter and her daughter and her daughter. Like, I'm going to miss a moment she won't even know, I'll be there three hours later. Like, I am going to, and it's not that I don't love her, it's just like, man, in the light of like, that's a great moment. But I think of what a bit of sacrifice in that moment will do and it will provide things that I could never provide for her. Maybe you wouldn't all do that, but I think I probably would. I think Emecy would probably say, do it babes. So why is it that people go to church and that I don't even give three hours and are comfortable to sit in this pew and just watch? And the reason for it is because we don't understand what a treasure we have, right here. We don't understand what's truly valuable from God's perspective. Valuable, not just in this world, but valuable into eternity. In other words, the thing, gold might make my next, I've only probably got another 30 years or so. I think I'm going to make a great 30 years, but forever and ever and ever. What I do when I find true treasure is my reward. I think the reason why the church is so comfortable at being comfortable worldwide is because we just don't understand the values of heaven. The most valuable thing on the planet, let me tell you what it is, according to the Bible, in all creation, it's in 1 Peter 1, 18 to 20, you know, you weren't ransomed, you weren't ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things. That was when the price came for you to be made right with God, to be saved. You weren't saved with perishable things such as silver or gold. Not with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has made manifest in these lost harms for the sake of you. You weren't ransomed with perishable things like silver or gold. Do you realize heaven's right now comparing what's truly valuable? And he says, "When God paid for you, when God got you, he didn't use something of little value like Fort Knox. He ransomed you, he paid for you with his own blood. And the whole point here is you, you. He tells me that you have more value to God than all of what we have in Fort Knox. And more silver or any other earthly thing, in other words, you had such value to God when he wanted to ransome you, that he didn't use anything perishable, anything that we have on this earth. He paid for you with something eternal, he paid for you with his own son. And that is profound, and what it does is it teaches us that the most precious commodity on planet earth, the most precious thing in all of the world is human beings. There is nothing more valuable. God would give all the gold and all the diamonds and all that. It means nothing to him, it's perishable. But one human being is worth infinite value, eternal value. So sitting here, right around you, is the greatest treasure known to man, and it's human beings, people, you. And so, do we realise that? I mean, do we really realise that? Again, if I'd have put gold bars in every seat, and I said, "Guys, the door's open." At nine o'clock, and there's an opportunity to reach treasure, what you can pick up, it's yours. Who's going to be a, what time are you going to be at? Are you going to be at nine, because I guarantee you, you're going to be too late. The reason why we come at quarter past ten, because we don't understand what's valuable, we don't understand what's truly a treasure. You see, this is a problem that humans have had for years. This is a problem that Israel had in the old covenant. They were the people of God, and God had said to them, "The whole point of making human nation is that you'll be a lot to the Gentiles, that others will see the glory that is God, and will run to worship the God that you worship, that they will be saved through you, that they'll run from darkness into light." You called to be a lot, and you know what Israel did? They missed that entirely. And so when Jesus came, we all know the story of when He went through the temple, and He began to flip tables, and you know what He was doing. You see, they had made the temple comfortable for them. There was a special part that God had kept in the design of the temple that was supposed to be for Gentiles. The Gentiles weren't able to come at that point into the presence of God, but God wanted to start reaching them already. And so the largest part of the temple was a place for the Gentiles. It was the largest place. This was like, "My house," He says, "will be a house of prayer for nations." And you know what Israel did? Hey, that's a really cool space to use for ourselves. You know, we want to bring sacrifices to God, so why don't we just use that part of the temple? And we can even get our sacrifices that we need, because we want to worship God, and that's a great way for us to do that. And so when Jesus came, the area that was set aside for nations had been used to buy and sell things so that people could worship God easier. That's really what it was. I mean, it was literally, you need a special kind of lamb. You can't bring it with you from Egypt. You can't even use money from Egypt. You have to use holy money. So they would have used Jewish money. So you had to change money to buy something worthy of worship, from your Egyptian, whatever it was, or your Roman, you have to change. And then once you had exchanged money, you would then go and buy a lamb, because you couldn't bring that kind of lamb, it had to be a special lamb. And so they used that part of the temple, it's like, "Hey, our worship is just getting so slick and smooth." And Jesus is flipping tables. My father's house, he says, "It's called to be a house of prayer for the nations. Don't you understand the value of nations? You've made my house a tent of robbers." And the Church of the day settled for a comfortable, easy Christianity, really. Let's make it easy for us, that our worship is a great experience. That it's not too, you know, we can, am I making sense? You call it to be a lot of the nations and you've taken the very place that nations are supposed to worship and you're using it for your own comfort. Actually, it's not even your own comfort. You're actually using it a little bit selfishly, because you're actually going to offer those animals as a sacrifice to God. You're going to lose money as you exchange it there. But this isn't what I had. So the Jews missed him, because the most valuable thing to God was nations, people, individuals from every nation, tribe and tongue. And again, maybe to use an illustration, just to show by where value, "Can I have it? Is there any father and his son here?" Well, you're going to come stand here. He's already grown up, but I'll use him anyway. Okay Mark, I'm going to give you three hours and four knocks to take whatever you want. But the price will be, I get to kill him, or you can choose not to and then he's yours. What would you choose, honestly? I'm not going to do it, I'm not even a question, when you put it that way, because actually this person is worth more than what I can get in, I mean, I'll be set up for life, but when you put it that way, not ways, this is the most precious thing to me, my son, my family. I think we all do that, right, thank you. Family is more important than anything, and then the question, again, from a heaven's perspective is, "Well, who is your family?" Yeah, who is your family, yeah? This is blood, it's always that, it's a special thing. But there is also something else, because we get saved into God's family, we get adopted in. And actually, we become members of his family, members of his household, and so we actually become brothers and sisters, and I'm not just talking about the Nasr religious jargon, I'm talking about we as church would actually become as close as family. We should know one another, careful one another, love one another, I mean, this concept that we have today of coming and sending an up you in and out in an hour, because we want you to enjoy your Sunday, it's just so foreign to the New Testament, so foreign to the valleys of God. It's like we've commercialized the church and made it easy, and let's just make us a smooth, easy operation. And we've missed the point that the whole thing, it's about people, and it's about loving people as cross as love does. Who is my mother and my brother, Jesus did? And I mean, this is in Matthew 12.48, I mean, it's profound. Jesus is ministering at one point, and the police is packed, people can't get in. And somebody, his mother and brothers, I mean, the Catholics make his mom a big deal, learned that. And she was a pretty big deal, she was a godly woman, she had favor with God. But his mother and brothers come to visit him, and they've probably traveled a long way, and it's not by car, they probably walked. And so this is a big deal, and Jesus is ministering, and somebody sneaks through the crowd because they can't get him, and they say, "Jesus, your mom and brothers are outside." I think Joseph is already dead at this point, Joseph died when Jesus was young, so it's his mom and his brothers. And you would think Jesus would just be going, "Whoa, my family!" And he said something so profound, but you replied to the man who told him, "Who's my mother? And who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers, for ever does the will of my father in heaven, is my mother, brother, sister." Which tells me, "Who's my mother? I've got an earthly mother sitting there visiting from Africa, but who's my mother? Is Joel not a mother?" He's a little bit older than me, Joel. He's my brother, he's my sister, he's my children. They're sitting right here because I've been brought into an eternal family, I've been brought into a new family, and the church is actually a place where we actually love one another, as God has loved us, which is a pretty big deal. Like as God has loved me, like I'm still learning about how incredible it is. And with that love, that's how much I love you. That's how much I'm. That's how we've got to become. That's what we are being changed into one degree of glory to us. So you come here, and most of us come here selfish, let's be honest. You came here because you liked the preaching, when you liked the worship, when you had somebody locked you and you felt, well, I feel accepted here, I feel valid here. And then the point is, as you hear, as you start to see him with us, that something starts to change in you. You mean it's not about me anymore? It's a big revelation. You're infinitely valuable, but it's totally not about you. I mean, he died, he paid blood for you, isn't it? You are infinitely valuable. The world would stop for you, but it's not about you. He says, it's about you becoming like me, he says. And then it's about you learning to love as I love. It's about you becoming a community that the world longs for community. Look at the fall straight. You look at the breakdown of family. It's such brokenness our society. And people should walk through these doors and go, is this what family is? Is this what love is? It's the lack of the world that can try the United Nations and we can attack Venezuela and do all these different things. But the reality of it is, the reality of it is we, the hope of the world, not because of who we are, because if who he is and what he's doing in us, you know, he said that you are the light of the world, but then he said this. But if the light in you is darkness, how terrible will that darkness be? In other words, if you don't see what you need to see, if you don't get the values of heaven right, the world has got nowhere to turn. And so God brings us and He puts us in family. From 686, God sets the lonely in family. And family is beyond a Sunday meeting. I'm often amazed at how we often defer back and fall back into just enough. Like, before we came, some of you was like Sunday when the weather is not that good is enough. Like, I've got to laugh to live, but I'll do church. And so, and again, not understanding values, not understanding the ways of the king. And then you were like challenged and you started to actually be quite committed. And then we have a Sunday wednesday, we meet in our homes. And I would say this, if you are not in a home group, and I'm not doing a pitch for home groups, I'm doing a pitch for disabling you into all that Christ has called you to be. But if you are not in a home group, the chance of us disabling you effectively is almost zero. If you think listening to me on a Sunday is going to make you right with God, we are falling very short to the glory of God, because God didn't design that you just listened to some guy talking, there is power in the gospel, there is something that happens here. But community is where we grow, community is where we actually family is where we grow. And God sets us into family, which means we've got to shift our understanding to go, this is my family. My mom's and dad's and brothers and sisters and children, this is God's family and I'm part of it. And you know, Joel, I'll use it, I'm picking on you today, Joel. Joel will never claw on a church, but I can say this too, we're going to claw on churches. And it's when people like Joel get it and go, every family needs moms. And so what I'm going to do is I'm never going to be preaching properly, I'm not ship prophetic words here and there, but I'm probably never going to be the God that's doing what's interesting, but I can love. And so Joel comes early to every meeting, because the most precious thing in the universe is going to arrive at 9 o'clock. And she waits at the door eager to come in looking to love one of these little ones that cross-died forward. And as she comes in, she doesn't just rush to a seat as far as she can and open up a little pamphlet to try and keep us a bit, because she knows she's got two or three hours with us. It's probably three hours of lack. I get three hours on a Sunday and I'm going to, I get to show people the love of God, I get to love family, I get to bring people into the standing of family. So instead of sitting on my pew, I walk around and I'm looking for gold bars. I'm looking for gold bars. And what I do for the least of these little ones of mine, Jesus said, I did it for him and he says, great will be on my reward. And so I am not wasting Sunday morning with a pew. I am working every minute, like when they say, get the meeting, could you please sit down. She's not settling down easily, because she's got, but I've got a gold bar here. I've got a gold bar here, I'm not like, oh great, I can finally get this thing going and I can go home in an hours' time, because she understands the treasure of heaven. She understands, actually some people come into the church and go, I didn't get that preacher guard to funny accent, but oh my goodness, I felt so loved, I felt so loved. And do you know how churches, especially our kind of churches, I think, are New Testament churches built? Our message is pretty hard to pull her out, I mean it's like, people get offended. But if they get loved by everyone, they kind of in this, these pots are really don't like. But there's Latia, there's love here. And I believe churches will be planted, and because people like Jill get that, our churches will grow, even when the preacher isn't that good because we shouldn't go just for a good preacher, we should go to, you know, we know far too much, we just did half of what we know. The point isn't that I'll wow you with my new revelation of like, woo, I'd never heard that, come next week and we'll wow you some more stuff. Which is what most churches do, it's just like, oh we're gonna, you know what I mean next week, if you thought this were profound, next week's gonna be even better. And it's breeding consumers, it's breeding selfish, it's breeding versus, man I don't care how bad that guy sucks, I don't care how bad the worship team is. I'm meeting with Jesus and I'm gonna get to love people, and I'm gonna find my gold bars. Our churches grow, not because we that good, I remember years ago when we were fostering Africa, fostering church and I'm moving, which is kind of a big deal when you're like, what is that, like a city or something, I was like, her, fostering church and the movement. And then they asked me, they kept saying, why is your church growing so quickly? And I was like, I didn't know. So I went to the people and I asked all the visitors and I kind of remember, so why, you know, why did you keep coming back? And I kind of thought they would say, oh you're preaching is so good. Time and time again, time and time again, they said this, I'd never felt alive, like I did when I came through the doors of this building. I'd never felt the people embrace me, I just, that's what brought me back. And I was like, you know what, grew up church, it wasn't even me, it was us, people, loving people. And you know, the thing is this, we call to love and it's something we would be careful of, because we actually do have a wonderful sense of community already, don't we? And that's a good and a bad thing. It's a good thing because we can form our little friendship groups now, and I've like I found my tribe, they love me and I love them. We love hanging out, we've got so much in common, we love Jesus. And so we formed these little groups of like, okay, I'm totally in my zone now, like I'm in my community, my family. But the point of the family is this, God who is perfect family, left God, Jesus left the Father's presence to go and seek and save what was lost. And so for 33 years, Jesus and his entire time on earth was in some ways not quite the same in his relationship with the Father, he was separated, he wasn't heaven, now he's on earth, and on the cross he is finally crying out, why have you forsaken me? There's a total breakdown at the cross as if some of the world comes onto him. And he does that to draw you and me into family. And so he says you can hang out in your little holy head of groups. But if you understand what's truly valuable, you see, even that can become our donatrist to us. Well I found my tribe, I feel love now. And I'm like hang on, you're making it about you again. Have I not called you to make the sapples of nations? Have I not called you to love the unlovable? Have I not called you to, so just when you get your little tribal and you're all happy and we're like we love one another, we find us together, look. And then the Lord says actually that's great. And what you've got I never want you to lose. But if you stay stuck in that little bubble, the world's going to die and go to hell. And they'll never get to see you. So if you'll just break out of your bubble like I broke out of mine and you find the lost in the bread, that's when my kingdom grows, that's when I have sons and daughters, that's when my father rejoices because another is brought into the family. And that's what James 27 tells us, religion, that God our father accepts his pure and faultless, is this to look off the orphans and widows in their distress. And this isn't like let's start an orphanage. This is just loving the people and I'm not going to give you anything back. He's not saying the church from now on is not orphanages because they didn't do that in the New Testament. Women's and widows were the needy in the community, they were the people that came to church and you were looking at them. You know Ken and Bobby walk in, California. Some celebrity walks in and they were like, "Oh, I remember years ago, we had, we have a rugby, we have football, but I remember we had, he was the greatest, at that time the greatest rugby player in the history of the sport, in the world. He'd scored more tries than anyone on the planet. But this is like big deal, he was in our church. And I remember going to the shop one day, Brian Abana. And he gets out of his car at the shopping centre and people start running. He couldn't even get through the aisle of the shop because everywhere that he went, people were like, "Oh, photo, photo, photo, I'm like, "Dude, how do you do anything in life?" Because he's a hero, because he can think about it, he's a hero, because he can run quickly and put a bull down. I mean, it was like he was God, it was like, I remember being with Scott going, this is nuts. And Jesus tells us, true religion is not to, when he comes in, we had to tell our church, please stop talking to him, just stop it, because every time he comes in, people are saying, "Please, we just sound my Bible." And I'm like, "Dude, what are you doing?" Seriously, we had guys, please, we just sound my Bible, I'm like, "Stop it!" Scott just wants to feel like a human being, don't treat him special, he's just like you and me, he's a sinner needing a Savior. And true religion isn't to, one, it's to run for those guys, true religion is, when somebody walks in and there's nothing that they can add to you, there's nothing cool about them. And this is exactly what Jesus tells us, he's a friend of text, lectures and sinners, listen to this, Luke 14, verse 12, to 14, Jesus is teaching his disciples, it's us, and he says, he said to a man who invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid." In other words, what's that? He's telling us the orphan and widow story, don't love cool people so that you can be loved by cool people. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the cripple, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. In other words, if you really get treasure, you get that you lovingly unlovable is what's going to give you big brownie points with God. I know that much people don't think they get brownie points God, but you do. You win favor with God, because you're serving him. You get that. So what that means is once I, and I've seen this happen so often with our leaders inside Africa. In fact, I see this all over the world. God has a very good, like if I come to the church, in our churches, I would be like a, like people who want to hang out with me because of what I do and who I am. And so I'd watch young leaders want to hang out with me. And I'm like, stop trying to hang out with me. I'm only a man. Stop trying to relate up. I see all leaders. That guy is awesome. And I want to learn from him. And you know, being near him could change my life. So, and I get, there's a part of that that's okay. And there's a part of it that's not, because actually I keep saying to them, Hey, love down. Love people that can't love you back. Love people that aren't going to betty, that aren't going to make you love down. And as those leaders have started to do that, I've watched the life of Jesus start to pour through them. And actually, they start to grow in favor with God and with men. In other words, once I've got my friends, I go, Hey, you know I love you and I know we love each other. But there's work to do. There's labor is needed. I remember years ago, Meloni did one of my best friends, Julie and I planned our church with us. We were best friends. And we had something amazing. And people came in and we had capacity for maybe, I mean, we probably grew to like 30, 40 people. And we were still able to still. And then at one point, I realized the circle got bigger. For us to keep this, we don't have the capacity. And I said to them and I said, guys, we can, we can be a last little group. But if we break out of this group and love others and create new groups, we love orphans and widows. And we'll get nothing back from this. We'll do this to the day we die. If we keep doing that, people, more and more people come into what we have. And when we die and get to heaven, we'll bring many souls with us. And we'll hear well done, good and faithful servant. And forever and ever and ever, we'll get to hang out with each other and enjoy Jesus because the work is done. But we workers and we've got work to do. We've got to find what God loves. It's like we've got three hours, man. And I don't want to just hang around with my friends and having a last little come by, yeah, we've got work to do. This doesn't make sense. It's like a shift that we've got to work to. We've got to love the unlovable. Not those that we have everything in common with. I want to have to jump some stuff. So, practically, what does that look like? Think about, think about people as treasure. Think about that. Think about gold bars for three hours. I mean, we'll probably be today. Where did we start it? We actually started nine. Pray. And we finish up at about, what time we finish, Sarah, what do you guess? 12. And then we'll hang around for a little bit off to it. I get that to pick up gold bars. I get that to love the unlovable. I get that to draw others into community and into family. And I'm not wasting my time. And then beyond that, it's not just about Sunday. It's about drawing people into my life. God sits alone in family. If we get stuck in a Sunday in a Wednesday cycle, Jesus just send us to glory now, please. Because surely we've got to draw people into family, which means our homes have got to become places where people can actually come and join us. And we're doing this. Don't do this. Yeah, I'm going to love you and I hope that you're going to love me back. You get your reward when they don't love you back. So you keep reaching out. You keep loving their level. You'll watch me on Sunday when it moves here. A move is a good friend. He's given his life to actually run alongside me. He's a good friend. I love him. But I will, I will neglect him for you. And I hope he does the same. Because move, you secure and I'm secure. We know we love one another. We don't have time to just hang around and talk to our African stuff and be a little lucky out move. We get each other. Now, I want to draw others into this community. I want them to know what it is to become part of family. And so I'm not going to waste my time. Move, I love you. When I get to heaven, I'm going to spend a lot of time and I can't wait to worship him with you forever. But I've got a job to do, man. I can't eat land. Am I making sense? So practically, what does it look like? It looks like when your value shift, your life shifts. It's realising that all around us is the most precious thing in the universe. And God every week will bring new people in as long as we faithful. Jesus did this. I think the scripture is, I didn't lose one of those. Is it in John? I've left so many of your notes out here. John 639, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall use none of all those that he's given me, but raise them up at their last day. God will bring people to us. And not everyone will stick. Some people walk in and like, this is weird. I don't like it. I'm out. And that's fine. They're not, they're not those that God wants to entrust us. But there's people that are going to come that God wants to entrust us. I remember these guys when they first came, and just meeting them and like, God entrusted them to us. And our ability to draw them into community can help them make the transition. Because Jesus said, it's the Father's will that I don't lose one. And then later, He said, I didn't lose one, except the one. In other words, some people are destined to not be part of us. But some people are. And Jesus knew His responsibility was to not lose one of those that the Father was going to bring to Him. I look around us. God wants to draw people into family. That means getting out of my comfort zone and going, a little liberty where she was here earlier. She probably said kids. Liberty was here and I'm watching it. She's a little, how old is she? 12. Families in a time of transition. And yet she stands in the front. And we don't have a lot of youth at age yet. We'll get there. Still growing. And I'm, you see, I'm looking for gold. And I see a standing there and I think I want the Sunday to be a time that she doesn't walk in here and going, oh, my family might move you down here. And I'm going to lose all my friends. I wish I was 12 suddenly. I wish I could go up to and say, hey, how are you doing? I haven't made you before. But I'm not. But I'm still going to do it. How are you doing? How's your week been? I know you're going through stuff. Why? Because she's a gold ball. She's worth more than a gold ball. Because I wanted to know the love of God. And I think if everyone does that, we actually start to love the way it cross calls us to because he says, by this, will the world know that you might have saapples, by your love, one for another. And so in some ways, in closing, and I've left so much out, I was going to give you practical pointers and tips and let's go beyond just being friendly on a Sunday. Please, we're friendly on a Sunday. We need to draw people into family. And so you're a worker. You've got work to do. You realize that, eh? My job is to equip you to do the work of the ministry. Now, not all of you are going to preach. But if you do what God's calling you to do, they will, you actually get towards in heaven. You get to pick up gold bars for three hours. And so what am I calling you to? I'm calling you to stretch, man, to another degree of glory. Do you see the value of humans? Have I presented a reasonable case to you? Do you see it? And here's the thing. Peter spoke about being generous. As we continually do this, as we continually so love, guess what happens back? We reap love. And God gives us many, many people that actually do love us, but it's not about that you love me. It's about that I keep loving you, because I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this because of him, because I've seen him, and he loved me that way. So I want you to know that love. And we become the kind of church that the hell can't stop because, oh, my goodness, all of them are working. Where do I start this fight? It's not just about this poster or the celebrity upfront to whatever it is. It's about a community that's actually loving the way across. I've finished with the story. Years ago, I'll never forget this. I haven't shared this in a while. It's for most of you, this will be new, but I remember I was a young elder coming through on the leadership team, and I was doing this. We were loving people. Our home was, I never let our home group in my life, but we would often have 30 to 40 people in my home. They would come and bring food with them, bring in shares, and I remember just the presence of God being there. So I jumped from making tea and that into eldership, and now I'm an elder in this church. And I still haven't let our home group, never let our home group in my whole life. But our home was a train station. And then one sundown preaching in this church, and a couple came for the first sundown. I'll never forget them. The Hague family. Husband and wife. And I remember they sat about middle there in first meeting. Our church was a little bit bigger than this at that point. I was one of the elders I wasn't leading, but I remember we noticed them and they stuck through the meeting and stuck around and we connected with them. And then next week they were here again. And this time they went from the middle to the front row. And I was like, "Whoa." When worship started, they came out, looked at their hands. And I was like, "Whoa." So these guys are obviously Christian, they love Jesus. They started coming to everything. Pre-meetings. We had midweek pre-meetings that had come. We did church camps, they came to those. They went, "Everything we did." And they were committed. When worship started, they were first up front. I think they might even have been tarzing already. And then the one Sunday, they've been with us for about eight, nine months. And our elders meeting, we were getting to another man. Their elders were saying, "Hey, we think these guys maybe could lead a home group. There's something on them." Some of their elders were bringing that up in their elders meeting. And then I was preaching. And I said, "Is there anyone here?" This is about eight, nine months in. Is there anyone here that wants to give their love to Jesus for the first time? And then when the front row, they'd been worshiping like flat out. And they lifted their hands. I remember thinking, maybe like it's you know, sometimes you go deeper commitment. Maybe it's just a lack. Anyway, they came out, stood in the front crying. A few other people came out and prayed, "You know, Lord Jesus, forgive me for what I've done. I give, I surrender my life to you." And I was like, "Okay." So I went to them at the end of the meeting and I said, "Roy, what was that about?" And he said, "We got saved today." And I was like, "What do you mean you got saved today? You feel like one of the most committed members in our church." And he went, "Yup, today we met Jesus." And as he said it, I realized they had come to us as a community because of how we loved them. They'd never experienced true love like what they found amongst us. And after being with us for eight months, not knowing him. Finally, they got introduced to him. They experienced his love through the faith community for eight months until they found the father of the family. And they ended up in leadership eventually serving the Lord by this, Jesus said, "By this will the world know that you're mine, by your love I'd forgotten." And I said, "I'm calling you to love. I'm calling you out of comfort. I'm calling you out of coming at quarter past ten. Come on, we're in the first world country, we're not Africa. We're a first world country. It's not that hard to be here and to why? Why? Because we've got to work to do for goodness' sake. We've got people to reach. We've got the most precious thing in the universe coming through our doors and we get to love them into the kingdom of God. And so I'm not with a big stick here, but I'm trying to dangle a carrot. Do you see the value of heaven and will you love as Christ has loved you? We are here to serve him and to serve one another and so my last scripture and then I'm done, I've taken too long already. Philippians 2.4, "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others or for the good of others." This is what Christianity is. I don't come from my own interests. If you're coming here because you lack me preaching, please find another church because I don't want to become part of your problem. If that's what you think this is, we've missed the whole point. You've got to hear me on this. I don't want to lose one of you, but if if that's, this is not what the church is. The church is a place where they devote themselves to a king in the kingdom. The church is a place where cross-love is shed abroad in our hearts. The church is a place where they give fully of themselves. Can we do that for Jesus because of what He's done for us? And I would call from the least the youngest to oldest. Love one another, little ones. Love one another. This is what He's called us to do. Not just your friends. Not just those who love you back. Not just the cool and the hip. Love the unlovable. And you'll receive rewards if we have any Father. You get to pick up gold every single time we gather. Let's pray together.