On Sunday, a friend and I went to visit Hillsong church in Norwest. I’m no advocate for Hillsong but there were some interesting things I learned while observing in their evening service that I feel that we could glean from.

One thing I observed was the amount of organisation that went into one service. I found out that before the Sunday evening service different teams would meet on different days through the week to setup and prepare for Sunday. They had teams for music, for stage, for arts, for admin etc. They would meet, talk, act. On Sunday the teams would meet again and discuss that evening’s plan and the week. Very organised.

Secondly, their use of people and their gifts. At the end of the service, I saw people who were helping and being developed in the differing ministries that they had. They didn’t use just one person for the same ministry, but rotated people so everyone could get opportunity.

Thirdly, the preaching was strangely biblical… That’s all I’ll say

Hopefully we can glean a little from this church.

Final Session: James Alley preached from Mark 14 with a sermon entitled “Far reaching fragrance”. The message focused on what we are doing for God and reminding us that if we do live for God, we will often be criticized by others.

Well this is the final post to this year’s NBF. It was a interesting experience and as always a great time of fellowship. Next year it is on at Perth and until then,

God bless!

The morning started out with missionary Rob Booy who spoke with a refreshing reverence for the task of preaching. He spoke from 1 Samuel 13ff and began with some unabashed allegorisation, but soon moved on to make some very helpful points from the narrative of Jonathan and his armour bearer. He challenged us to be a person who takes action and steps out in faith. He also challenged us to remember that even though Saul had some weaknesses, Saul was not the enemy.

The next session—and one I particularly looked forward to—was by H. Richard Hester. After a few preliminary exhortations, brother Hester shared the testimony of God’s grace throughout his life. We saw the pre-eminence of God’s plan, God’s presence, God’s provision, God’s people, and God’s providence. A few highlights thoughts were:

-Don’t be pigheaded. Be teachable. Learn from others.
-Regarding talents, give God what you’ve got. Stop comparing and get your eyes on Christ.
-When we take a stand it’s easy to be mean. Don’t be. But you need to take your stand as well.
-Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Trust God’s providence and pray “Lord, I don’t have much, but it’s yours. No strings attached.”

Jeremy Pinero took the morning youth session speaking on “Why you should want my job” (as a missionary). Some highlights were:

-I get paid to do what I love to do!
-An illustration of a murderer who was saved. The next day she was in church and no one recognised her as the woman who had been saved because her countenance had been altered so drastically.
-God rejoices in even our baby steps. He is not angry and frustrated, but rejoices in each baby step that we take.
-Pastors and plumbers will hear the same “well done” when they get to heaven. We each play our part in the work and there are no stars in God’s kingdom.

All in all it was a very encouraging morning which was followed up by a barbeque on the grounds. We ducked out before the final youth session and headed to Wendy’s for some fellowship with family and friends. Until tonight, grace to you.

In the evening there was 2 speakers, Missionary David Crowe and main speaker James Alley.

Session One: David Crowe preached from II Chronicles 18. He preached on the life of King Jehoshaphat and how he basically was a Godly man, that had made a mistake. That we should judge ourselves before we judge others and how like him can be described as having a willing spirit, but weak flesh.

Session Two: James Alley preached from Acts 9, and drew the sermon on 2 questions asked in the text. 1) Lord who art thou? and 2) Lord what will you have me to do. He also drew a third question from this text and that was 3) When will you do it?

Once again in the evening after the service we fellowshipped at the nearby Macdonalds and stayed up later than we should of :) At times like this though, sleep is an afterthought.

God bless!

The evenings sessions were excellent, but I’ll let Alen give you the scoop on that. Tomorrow morning Jeremy Pinero speaks to the youth. We’ve also got a sausage sizzle for lunch tomorrow which should provide a good opportunity for fellowship. Today we did lunch with a friend before heading back for a bit of a rest.

Grace to you.

In spite of a large crowd and a fairly late arrival we managed to get fairly good seats. Early on in the service there was a video presentation promoting the Biblical Builder which was followed by Robert Bakss preaching. His message was from Ruth 2 and was titled “Nothing Catches God By Surprise.” He asked the question “To what end were you born?” and then gave three points which came naturally from the narrative of the text.

Count your blessings where you are.
Choose who you will spend your life with.
Consider why God has brought you here.

Rob Booy then presented some photos from his ministry in PNG which were followed by the main speaker, Jim Alley. Alley took his text from Matthew 14 where he focused in on the role of storms in our lives. He pointed out that in the narrative, the disciples had:

A directive to follow (they were instructed to cross by sea)
A storm to go through (they were told they would make it to the other side)
A Saviour in the middle of the storm
And a lesson to be learned (“You are the son of God”)

One of the great blessings of conferences is the fellowship with other believers. Last night Maccas presented the venue. This morning we’re making out with coffee and random snacks for breakfast and it all starts again at 9am.

This morning we had two main sessions and then a split session.

Session One: Ernie Veszely
The theme of the NBF this year is “for such a time as this” taken from the book of Esther. His message this morning was taken from Esther 4 and was titled “The hidden hand of God.”. His two main points were, 1) God’s hidden hand is guided by his providence and 2) God’s hidden hand is directed to his purpose. One excellent point that he made was in regards to God’s sovereignty over all things taken from verse 14. God’s will is not hindered even if His people disobey.

Session Two: Brad Williamson
His message this morning was titled “Challenging the Laodicean mindset.” Taken from Revelation 3. His message was an exhortation for the church to abandon the “Laodicean mindset” of shallow outward Christianity and have a heart change of a renewed focus on God and no longer remain spectators but participators in the work of God.

Youth Session: Peter Blake
I attended the youth session for the split sessions and I am so thankful to God that I did attend. The message was titled “What motivated David?”. He preached from 1st Samuel 17. He started off by giving a thorough description of Goliath and the reaction of the nation of Israel. He then focused on what were the motivations of the: Soldiers, Saul and then David. The soldiers were motivated by fear and Saul by fear and reputation. David in contrast was motivated by “The Glory of God and His Holy Name”. An excellent point was made that circumstances do not make us who we are, but merely reveal who we really are.

He then asked the question: “How do I kill a giant?”. We do so by 1) Identifying our giant 2) Choosing our battles carefully 3) Not starting with the problem, but begin with God. And lastly Don’t spectate, participate.

Another good point that was mentioned was “Some giants will never fall until God’s Glory becomes our highest motivation.”

Well that was this morning’s sessions. This afternoon we went out and had lunch at Nandos which was a wonderful time of fellowship.

Until next time, God bless!

Once again we’re planning to live blog the NBF. That is if we can get all the plans together to do so. So stay tuned.

The evening started off with the Mayo family doing an item. They sang “This is The Day the Lord Hath Made” which was quite beautifully done. We then sang through several songs before the Kwok brothers did their special (Ben Kwok the Pastor of Rouse Hill Church, Mike Kwok one of the elders at Fellowship Baptist Church, and Jeremy Kwok a deacon at Fellowship Baptist). Just before Rev. Webb came up to preach we sang one song I wish to make mention of. It is a puritan prayer that was organized into a song called “O Great God” the lyrics were truly remarkable.

This evening the message was called “Pentecost Power” The text was Acts 2:36-47. The message was on on revival and viewed this passage on Acts as a ‘blueprint for spiritual revival.’ Through this passage there were five observations:

1. The soveriegnty of God.
Gods soveriegnty was displayed through His choosing of a day, time, and place which had a maximum effect on the people.

2. The spiritual preperation of the people.
A key statement he made was that Pentecost power must be preceded by Pentecost prayer. It’s prayer that releases the power.

3. The suddeness of the event.
The event occurred quickly. He also mentions the occurance of tongues and quickly clarifies the misconceptions many Charismatics and Pentecostals hold onto. He points out verses 6, 8, and 11 make mention of the fact that they all were speaking in known languages.

4. The striking power of the Apostolic preaching.
He points out that Christ is the central focus of the message and that our preaching today also needs to be Christ focused.

5. The superabundant blessings that followed.
The adding of people to the church, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit were some of the blessings.

The concluding thought of the message was that Pentecost is not just a day or an event, but a beginning of the work of God.

The evening started out with some singing and then moved onto a special by the Faith Baptist choir. They sung “Who Can Satisfy My Soul” which was very well done. After Alan Webb, the guest speaker, was introduced another special item was performed by Sarah from the Bob Jones University team. She sang “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”. After this Rev. Alan Webb preached his sermon entitled “What’s Right With the Church?” He had 4 points:

1. The church is the biggest institution in the world.
He states that there are over 2 billion adherents and that over 80, 000 people profess faith in Christ a day. He mentions the work in China and that over 63 million people profess faith in Christ. Moreover Korea which for most of history had no believers now has over 30% of its population claim Christ.

2. The church is the smallest institution in the world.
In reference to the local church he mentions how the body of Christ works together and how if one is effected all are effected.

3. The church is the most radical institution in the world.
The church is radical because it forces change in people’s lives.

4. The church is the most triumphant institution in the world.

He concluded the message with the thought that we are taken out of death and darkness into life and light, and not only are we taken out of and into, but unto. We are taken unto eternal life.