You Don't Have to Be on a Stage to Make a Difference | Ps Joseph Van Eeden — Transcript

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1. 0:00Good morning. It's so wonderful to
2. 0:02worship the Lord with each one of you. I
3. 0:05hope you enjoyed the service and the the
4. 0:07worship this morning when we were
5. 0:09praying before the service, we really
6. 0:11asked the Lord, Lord, please pour out
7. 0:13your glory.
8. 0:14Be make your presence visible and known
9. 0:18to each one of us. And the Lord is so
10. 0:20faithful. When we pray and we ask the
11. 0:22Lord, he always answers and in his time
12. 0:27he's bringing revival to Living Word
13. 0:29Church. And I'm excited about what the
14. 0:31Lord is doing and I want to encourage
15. 0:33you as you sit here, just soak in the
16. 0:36presence of God. It's one of the
17. 0:38healthiest things you can do is to
18. 0:40receive God's presence and to to dwell
19. 0:43in his presence. That's the place where
20. 0:45he heals you, he restores you, gives you
21. 0:47new hope, gives you vision and ideas.
22. 0:51And each one of us are going into this
23. 0:52week with new life because we've
24. 0:55received something from the Lord today.
25. 0:57So don't miss out. Even where you sit
26. 0:59right now, you can just open up your
27. 1:01heart and receive.
28. 1:03I want to give you a testimony of what
29. 1:07happened in my life when I was a
30. 1:10teenager. So when I was 9 years when I
31. 1:13was 6, I gave my life to Jesus and when
32. 1:15I was 9, I went with my parents and my
33. 1:18two brothers to a function and we
34. 1:21received the baptism of the Holy Spirit
35. 1:23and it was just an amazing turnaround in
36. 1:25our lives because I knew about giving my
37. 1:28life to Jesus, but I didn't know
38. 1:29anything about the Holy Spirit and he
39. 1:31really
40. 1:33changed and transformed my life and my
41. 1:35dad in that week after we all received
42. 1:38the Holy Spirit, then he bought each one
43. 1:41of us a Bible. So he went and bought
44. 1:42five Bibles cuz we five in a in the
45. 1:45house and although all of us already had
46. 1:47Bibles, we just said we're going to
47. 1:48start a fresh, each one get a Bible and
48. 1:50he bought a bunch of markers and we sat
49. 1:52and we read the Bible.
50. 1:54>> [laughter]
51. 1:54>> We read a lot of Bible in the morning
52. 1:56and in the evening, especially the
53. 1:57Gospels. Every time when Jesus teaches
54. 2:00anything, we just marked it. And for
55. 2:03about 3 years, I would say, we did a
56. 2:06extraordinary amount of Bible study in
57. 2:09our house. And on Wednesday nights, my
58. 2:11dad invited the elders. We came from
59. 2:15Afrikaans Church. It was quite
60. 2:16traditional. And my dad was friends with
61. 2:18all the elders, and he invited them.
62. 2:20We're going to have Bible study at our
63. 2:21house. He even went to talk with the the
64. 2:24um
65. 2:25the Afrikaans dominee and said to him,
66. 2:27"Can we have the Bible study?" And he
67. 2:29said, "No, go for it." And so, on
68. 2:30Wednesday nights, they had a Bible
69. 2:32study. And I started with 18, cuz there
70. 2:34was 18 elders. And that Bible study
71. 2:37started to grow. My dad actually had to
72. 2:39buy chairs, because our living room was
73. 2:41quite big, and there was at sometimes 40
74. 2:43people in our house on Wednesday nights.
75. 2:46And then all the kids come, so we got to
76. 2:48take care of them and do Bible study and
77. 2:50all of that. And it was a
78. 2:51transformational time. And it was when I
79. 2:53was about 10 11 until uh 13 years of
80. 2:57age. That's That's what I have It's like
81. 2:58a revival in our own house. And lots of
82. 3:01people also got saved and touched by the
83. 3:04Lord right there.
84. 3:05And then, when I was 13 years old, there
85. 3:08was a new pastor then, Harry Smith,
86. 3:10where I grew up. They came and he
87. 3:12started the church, and he was friends
88. 3:14with Uncle Charles, and he was friends
89. 3:16with people at Hatfield Church, and also
90. 3:19a church in Bloemfontein. And my dad had
91. 3:21coffee with this guy, and he said to
92. 3:23him, "Well, we got this massive Bible
93. 3:25study." So, my My dad is not a pastor,
94. 3:27he's an engineer. And um why don't all
95. 3:29of us just move into your church that
96. 3:31you're just starting right now?" So,
97. 3:33that guy started with 10, and then the
98. 3:34next week he had 50 people in his
99. 3:37church. And it was actually a nice
100. 3:38boost. And that church ended up growing
101. 3:41until it became probably a 400 people
102. 3:43church there in Harry Smith, Harry Smith
103. 3:46Christian Center.
104. 3:48And uh And it actually started in our
105. 3:50house, although my dad wasn't the pastor
106. 3:53in that house. And it was based on uh
107. 3:55being filled with the Holy Spirit and
108. 3:57learning the word of God.
109. 3:59And so, now we joined the new church.
110. 4:01This is all new. We got a pastor, and
111. 4:02this guy's from Namibia. He's a little
112. 4:04bit different than us. That was
113. 4:05difficult. But he made an announcement
114. 4:08after the service, and he said he wants
115. 4:10all the youth to come. He wants to talk
116. 4:12with the youth. And so, we were about
117. 4:13five. So, he he he called us, and
118. 4:16there's uh four girls and me. So, it's
119. 4:18five, all right? So, he said, "Okay, you
120. 4:2013. I give you a a copy of the church's
121. 4:23key. You're going to have to go and open
122. 4:25up the church every Friday because we're
123. 4:27going to have youth. And he says we must
124. 4:29have worship, and he's going to preach,
125. 4:31and then afterwards us the youth team
126. 4:33must pray for all the youth."
127. 4:36And it was kind of a daunting task, and
128. 4:38we have to announce it at the school.
129. 4:39And he actually came to the school and
130. 4:40announced it, and then we every Friday
131. 4:42announced it. Um but soon we had quite a
132. 4:46bit of youth that started to come on
133. 4:48Friday nights. And my job as I went and
134. 4:51then I locked 5:00 the the building,
135. 4:54packed the chairs in the arrangement we
136. 4:56have for the youth, and then we have
137. 4:59youth. And afterwards um we pray for
138. 5:02them, and then we play a game, and then
139. 5:03afterwards I have to stay till everybody
140. 5:05left because I got to pack the chairs
141. 5:07again the way it's going to be on
142. 5:09Sunday, and then lock the church. And
143. 5:11so, that's my job. So, I came there
144. 5:134:00 5:00 in the in the afternoon, and I
145. 5:15left by 9:00 at night every Friday. So,
146. 5:18it was a long big commitment, and I
147. 5:21would not say serving was my number one
148. 5:23strength. But
149. 5:25this was my opportunity to learn to
150. 5:27serve, and uh I love praying for people
151. 5:30and reading the Bible, but serving and
152. 5:32packing chairs, oh yay yay. So, I always
153. 5:34try to ask, "You guys, please come
154. 5:36earlier. Can you please stay later? Help
155. 5:38me pack." And they didn't always come,
156. 5:40so sometimes it was just me by myself
157. 5:42feeling a little bit sorry for myself
158. 5:44packing the chairs and opening the door,
159. 5:46and I'm praying and I'm thinking, "God,
160. 5:48why? How did this happen to me?"
161. 5:51Uh but I want to tell you
162. 5:54the Lord said to me that that time where
163. 5:57you were
164. 5:58and then my parents didn't always come
165. 5:59and pick us up. We got to walk home.
166. 6:01It's just 2 km. It's not that far, but
167. 6:03you got to walk home.
168. 6:04And um
169. 6:05my the Lord said to me, "That was a
170. 6:08important time in your life
171. 6:10to learn how to serve." Okay. Now, I
172. 6:12want to jump to my very last scripture
173. 6:14that I got on my message. And um
174. 6:18it's the very last message that Jesus
175. 6:20gave. So, now you have to understand,
176. 6:23Jesus gave about 50 different messages
177. 6:25over uh the gospels and you'll see the
178. 6:29very last ones were very important
179. 6:31because um
180. 6:33uh Jesus wanted to emphasize that. You
181. 6:35know, you understand, just before he
182. 6:36went into heaven, he said, "Go into all
183. 6:38the world and preach the gospel." But,
184. 6:40there's a very special message that he
185. 6:42gave that night before he was crucified.
186. 6:45So, we see how he took the communion,
187. 6:47the cup and the bread. He broke the
188. 6:48bread, gave to them, and then he gave
189. 6:50them a cup. He says, "This is my new
190. 6:52covenant." And he gave them communion.
191. 6:55And then after he gave communion, he did
192. 6:57something very special. He took off his
193. 6:59top coat and he put on a towel.
194. 7:03And he started to wash the feet of the
195. 7:06disciples. And one or two of them were
196. 7:08not excited about this cuz they said,
197. 7:10"But you are Jesus, you are Lord. You
198. 7:13can't wash our feet." But, he says,
199. 7:15"Just permit me to wash your feet. I'll
200. 7:17explain to you now." And after he washed
201. 7:19their feet, he said to them,
202. 7:22"That if you want to be great in God's
203. 7:24kingdom,
204. 7:25you have to serve."
205. 7:27And I want to read to you this verse.
206. 7:30It's my only verse that I'm reading
207. 7:31today.
208. 7:32Um
209. 7:34it goes like this. This is in John
210. 7:36chapter 13 verse 15. So, if you scroll
211. 7:40right at the end.
212. 7:41All right.
213. 7:42For I have given you an example that you
214. 7:46should do as I have done to you.
215. 7:51That is what Jesus said to them. He
216. 7:53said, "I've given you an example how to
217. 7:56serve,
218. 7:58how to wash each other's feet. Now, I
219. 8:00want you to do the same."
220. 8:03Now,
221. 8:04in our church,
222. 8:06lots of us are getting saved. We give
223. 8:09our life to Jesus. We have an encounter
224. 8:10with God, and that's so amazing to have
225. 8:13an encounter.
226. 8:14And once we had that encounter, then the
227. 8:16Lord starts to train us, and he says,
228. 8:18"Now, I want you to start to represent
229. 8:21me."
230. 8:22And then you say, "Okay, Lord, I'll
231. 8:23represent you. I'll invite my friends
232. 8:25and my family to come to church." But
233. 8:27then he takes us to the next level. And
234. 8:30this is actually the highest level. And
235. 8:31so, you think, "What? Serving? Is that
236. 8:33now the highest level?" According to
237. 8:35Jesus, that's the highest level
238. 8:37of ministry. He said, "The highest level
239. 8:40is when you serve." He's the King of
240. 8:42kings and Lord of lords, and he was
241. 8:44willing to wash their feet. And so, the
242. 8:46Lord is saying to us, "Let's serve one
243. 8:49another."
244. 8:50All right.
245. 8:52You would think, "Is that the message,
246. 8:53Joseph?"
247. 8:54That's absolutely the message. I prayed.
248. 8:57The Lord says, "Serve one another." And
249. 9:01you see, when you serve one another, you
250. 9:02love each other. You put someone else
251. 9:04higher than yourself. You're obedient to
252. 9:06the Holy Spirit. You say, "Lord, it's
253. 9:07not about me.
254. 9:09It's about you."
255. 9:11And so, that's what I felt the Holy
256. 9:12Spirit's word for us today is. We're
257. 9:15saying, "We want to follow Jesus." So,
258. 9:18we say, "Yes, Lord, we're following
259. 9:19you." And he says, "Serve." All right.
260. 9:22Let me pray for you.
261. 9:24Father,
262. 9:26thank you that you have brought us
263. 9:27together as a body.
264. 9:29And Lord, that you have poured out your
265. 9:31Holy Spirit on each one of us. And Lord,
266. 9:33I pray even this morning for fresh
267. 9:36outpouring and a fresh infilling of your
268. 9:38Holy Spirit, Lord. We receive it. Thank
269. 9:40you for manifesting yourself among us
270. 9:43today. We are so
271. 9:45honored and thankful that you are here.
272. 9:48And Lord, today I believe you are giving
273. 9:50us a charge. Serve one another.
274. 9:54If you want to be a leader, if you want
275. 9:56to be great in God's kingdom, serve. And
276. 9:58so, Lord, I I pray for each one, Lord,
277. 10:00that they will catch a vision to serve
278. 10:04to serve their families and to serve in
279. 10:06Living Word Church. Lord, we give you
280. 10:09honor and praise today
281. 10:11in the name of Jesus.
282. 10:13Amen.