Pastor Gail – Welcome & Prayer
1. I do not want rain today. No rain in the name of Jesus, amen. And Victor, and Victor, Emmanuel, oh my goodness, and Nicholas. Good to see you today. We’re glad you’re here. Where’s little Nicholas? Hi, Nicole. How are you, sweetie? We’re going to have a special time today at Children’s Church. Brian, are we online yet? So, good morning for all of you online. It’s good to be here today.
2. We have had a very, very busy month. And people who say Christianity is boring, I’m not sure they really follow the Christian life, amen. There’s always something new and wonderful and blessed to do for the Lord. And I’m just thankful that we get to serve our Lord, aren’t you?
3. We’re going to read this morning a little bit different scripture. I want us to look in the book of Micah. For you online, it is in the Old Testament. Chapter 6. It’s one of my favorite books of the Bible. Micah lived the same time as the prophet Isaiah. Micah 6:8 And we’re going to read, and I forgot my glasses, so we’re sharing glasses today from verse 8, I believe it is, “He has showed you, old man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.” And today, I’m going to read one more verse in Micah 7:7. “But as for me, I watch and hope for the Lord. I wait for God, my Savior. My God will hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will arise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.”
4. Lord, bless the word. Lord, we want to follow you in acting justice. Living humbly, be it living humbly, and to know, Lord, when we keep our eyes on you, we are victorious in you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
5. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Where you’re standing, could you just lift your voice and welcome the Lord into your life today? Father, in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. O Lord, heavenly Father, we welcome you this morning, God, in this room. Lord, I welcome you into my life in a fresh new way. Lord, every day, O Lord, every day, I need you. We need you. We call upon you to be exalted, to be lifted up, God. Who is like you oh Lord? There is absolutely no one there is no one like you God. Lord, we honor you today, we honor you today, God, Hallelujah. Oh, father you’re all together lovely you are the Lord of all creation. We praise you; we praise you in the name of the Lord hallelujah.
6. Today we believe in you, oh Lord. Lord, there’s a lot of ugly power active in the world right now. But Lord we lift up your name right now together, that heaven, heaven, your throne, you oh God, you ultimately have the last word. You will have the last word oh God. Father we praise you right now. Thank you, Lord, that we can stand before you God, and we can ask you to bring peace that passes understanding. Your peace, Lord. Your peace Lord, God.
7. Right now, if you know someone that is sick and needs healing, would you just raise your hand. We believe, we pray every Sunday, we believe God is the healer amen. One of the team that is with us got a call late last night. They expected her father to live only 48 hours. So, she got on a plane early this morning. I want us to pray for her to have words of peace for herself and for the family, Amen. Let’s just pray together right now, Amen. Father we just praise you right now. We thank you oh Lord, that your name is ‘I am the God who heals.’ Thank you, Lord, that you’ve declared, ‘I am with you, I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ Father we believe every week in spite Lord, of not yet seeing the healings, we believe that Lord you want to pour out in this country in this church God, ‘we say yes and amen, we agree with heaven Lord, that healings are on the way. That God we are going to see people healed like never before. Cancer gone Lord, osteoporosis. Heal Lord arthritis gone, eyes healed, love is cleared Lord in the name of the Lord, we thank you God. There is nothing too difficult, absolutely nothing too difficult for you God. We pray right now God; we pray for minds to be healed God. Lord heal the emotional difficulties Lord, today God we know that you are there, Lord there is nothing God too hard for you, so we give you all the praise in the name of Jesus Amen. Greet someone and tell them you’re glad to see them.
8. How many had a busy week how many had a busy week? Many of us did. George we’re praying you’re good that you sell at least one billion of your apartment. Sarah how was your week? Good praise God. Would all of our team would you stand up please from North Carolina. Welcome, welcome. We’re so glad that you’re here with us today and of course where missing one member and if you remember her, please pray for her that the Lord will just go ahead, Amen. The scripture is true, isn’t it? Life is a vapor. It goes real quickly. We just only what we do for Jesus is going to last. Let’s live for him, Amen.
9. We have with us pastor Rebecca. I believe, I think you go by that title and she is the co-pastor with her husband in Clyde North Carolina. Many of you will remember Betty. She’s been with this many times and Betty is a member of that local church and I’ve asked that Rebecca would come up and just greet the congregation for us today on behalf of the team. And we are going to the acropolis today, so I’m going to ask it pray no rain.

Pastor Rebecca
10. Good morning from North Carolina. We are with New Covenant Church. We’re so thankful to be here this morning with you. It’s just our hearts that we can praise and worship with you in multiple languages, and we pray for you and we bless you. We thank you for what you’re doing in this city and beyond. And we just ask that the Holy Spirit would continue to dwell here for many, many years. Thank you.

Pastor Gail – Announcements
11. She preaches too. We’re very glad to have them with us today. I want to just share a few quick announcements. My apologies, it’s been a really busy week. But let me just say a few things really quickly and they will be on the WhatsApp group and also the GCC Facebook page.
12. Actually, one of the most important, anybody knows what happens next Sunday? Yes, the clocks change. We go forward one hour. Don’t be late! Every year, I know we’re going to be, we’re always a few at the beginning, but we’re going to be fewer than usual. Next Sunday, put your clocks back when you go to sleep at night, one hour forward okay. And set your alarm. Praise God.
13. The care groups are active Christina, Henneke, Evy and Leto, but we will be having at the church for the next few Wednesday nights. We’ve been having lots of fun. Please do not forget Joseph’s cupboard. We are having more and more people come by the church for food and clothing. Please and remember don’t bring dented cans; don’t bring things that labels are torn off. Buy for them, what you would buy for yourself, please.
14. We are getting ready to enter those last few weeks before holy week. On the daily WhatsApp group there will be a devotional thought posted, to really begin to turn your thoughts much more to the wonderful love of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and if you would like to write a devotion, we would love it just let me know and we’ll post your devotional thought for Easter all right. You probably have a thought that’s absolutely beautiful, that’s your thought about the Lord, praise God.
15. So, I’d like to invite our ushers forward. We want to give to the Lord our tithe and offering. What a privilege, to bless the Lord with giving. I don’t know about you but I often think daily about how blessed I am, to live in a country where I freely worship the Lord, and I can work to give to the Lord. We’re blessed; we’re blessed.
16. I want to challenge you one other thing. The Lord’s been challenging me. If you’re watching the news and your heart is becoming hard against some of the people, some of the people groups, can you stop it. Ask the Lord, ‘Soften my heart, break my heart, break my heart Lord with the things that break your heart.’ We see so much on the news, and it’s easy to get a hard attitude against one people group, compared to another. But God so loved the world, the world, God gave his Son for everyone.
17. So, I’m going to ask Stavros today, I feel like Stavros needs to pray for the Iranians today, and I know we don’t understand Iranian, Farsi. There’s nobody here today, Mohammed is working at my house. But I’m going to ask Stavros if he’ll pray in Farsi for the Iranians. Is that all right and Farsi and that’s people from Afghanistan, it’s many areas but if you would pray for them, Stavros.
18. Ira, would you mind standing up. I’m not going to ask you to pray. Yes please. Ira is our Ukrainian. Let’s pray for the Ukrainian and Russian situation. Could we just do it right now. Just reach your hands out and pray. Father, we pray right now Lord, Oh God you have the answer Lord Oh God, you have the answer. Lord we pray for the many mothers on both sides who have lost their sons and their husbands and family God. We pray Oh Lord, somehow there will be a witness of that you’re there you see you understand their pain you understand their grief Lord, but you’re the God that can heal when nothing else, Lord can do, Lord. We ask this today Lord in your name Lord. We prefer Ira Lord that your peace will just cover her Lord. God you will protect her Lord, and God, you will make her a way God. At just the right time, to go home again, in the name of the Lord, in the name of the Lord, we thank you, we thank you.
19. Father in the name of the Lord we pray Lord for this offering today and the tithes Lord as we give Lord that will be given for your glory for your church for your Kingdom God, we pray Lord that we would give with a cheerful heart, because when we do Lord, we know we’re blessed, we want to bless you today, in the name of Jesus. Thank you. Leto if you’ll receive the offering.
20. Praise God we’re so glad you’re here today. And we live in an interesting time don’t we? I want to dismiss the children. Ole, hey Michael. You can sit down. Ole, Ole, Ole. and Heidi, OK. We don’t have Philip with us today but we do have Ole. Praise God it is good to see all, and Tina yes, I’m sorry I didn’t see your children. Wonderful we’re good to see him. Praise God, and one of the team is going to be helping with the children’s church today ministry, we’re so very blessed with that. Nico, you could go upstairs sweetie pie.
21. Time is speeding up. People are living longer, so we have a several generations alive right now, Amen. We have the opportunity to pray for the greatest harvest that the world has ever seen. We believe that in the name of the Lord that God will be lifted up, Amen. You may be seated.

Billy Hellmark – Main Message
22. Praise the Lord. It’s wonderful to praise him. If you’ve been coming here for a while, you know we’re talking about having a ‘Biblical Worldview,’ or a view of different things. And today it’s a very small, narrow subject. No, it’s a very large subject, ‘God’. Is there anything bigger than that? When I knew that was what I would be speaking on, I thought well that’s going to be easy. There’s so much to say. It’s all wonderful and we know it all. Yes sure, and then I started to think and the Lord really convicted me. I’ve been a believer for about almost 50 years, and honestly, I think I’m just scratching on the surface to understand who God really is. I think we all are.
23. You know the Lord gave his people in the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments, and I don’t know if you know them by heart, I think in the past we had to learn them in school even. But it’s not quite like that anymore. We don’t talk about them that much, but just to say that I started to think, the first three, they’re actually not about our human relationships, but they’re about our relationship with God, about our worship of him, and our understanding of him.
24. So, I’m just quickly going to go through the first three, up here yes, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Maybe that’s not so much that needs a comment. We understand that the God of the universe needs to be the first in our lives.
25. “You shall not make for yourself an image,” and that’s not because God doesn’t like art. I think he’s extremely creative and loves art. But I believe it’s because it’s so easy for us to create an image of what we think God is like. No matter what we think, we usually think I have the right idea about God. Our church has the right idea and it becomes too much of us. Yeah, God can become a reflection of us, what we think, what we are. And it easily turns into idol worship. That’s what God was warning and protecting his people.
26. And the third one, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” I always thought well we shouldn’t be swearing and actually I believe that’s true. But I think there’s more to this. We can very easily go into misusing the Lord’s name, when we attribute our ideas and thinking to him, and we actually, yeah, we misuse his name.
27. He’s not like us. In some respects, we are like him. We’re supposed to be like him, but we can very easily smear God’s name, by giving him supposedly the opinions that we have. So that just quickly about the first three of the Ten Commandments I think everyone has an idea about what God is like. If you have the pictures there. These are actually images of God. We shouldn’t do, but; kids. And I think it says something many people think that God is a nice old man, with a big beard, like a Santa Klaus, gives us anything we want.
28. Others are afraid of God. They think he’s always out to get us. As soon as we make a mistake, he’s there to catch us. None of those are correct. Even people that say, ‘I don’t believe in God,’ have an idea of what they don’t believe in.
29. So even if you don’t believe in God, you probably have a picture of what that is like, that you don’t believe in. And these ideas we get from experiences in life and all kinds of things. Some maybe had a very difficult relationship with their father. And it’s very easy to take your idea about God from your relationship with your father. And it can hinder us to really understand and know who God is.
30. Going back to Israel. They lived in an area where most nations had their god. And it was very obvious that they were this tribe’s god, this nation’s god. Each nation, each tribe had their God. And he’s on our side. And when we fight, he’s with us. And he’s going to help us to kill our enemies. But when God started to reveal himself as the God of the universe, the true God; in that revelation, part of it was that he’s much greater than this. The real, the true God, the creator of the universe. He chose the people to reveal himself through. But it was very clear that he loved all the nations.
31. In the Old Testament there are many wars, there are many fights. But I think just one instance that shows some of this that is about to change, the understanding of God is about to change. Joshua saw an angel. And in the fight, he wondered who is he with. So, he asked the angel, are you on our side or are you on the enemy’s side? It’s probably good to know when you meet a gigantic angel.
32. But the angel answered, neither. I am the commander of the army of the Lord, but I’m not with you, I’m not with your enemies. And I think it’s important for us in these days when it’s so divided in this world, many sides in all the conflicts that are going on, are saying, ‘God is with us.’ And I believe he is with his people; he is with us when we seek him. But he also loves our enemies.
33. Maybe we are brought up to hate others. But God wants to change that in our hearts. He wants us to love. And today I’m so happy to have a Turkish girl worshipping with us here today. There’s been animosity for, I don’t know, hundreds of years I guess between Turks and Greeks. And we have many other conflicts that we are affected by even in this church. But God calls us to love.
34. I don’t believe we have enemies in the church, I hope not. But God is calling us to love our enemies, to pray for them. And that goes for the big picture, the big conflicts. In the church, in society, in our families. I hope we don’t have too many enemies in our families, but it happens. And God is calling us to something different.
35. We’re going to read two scriptures. Let’s read from Galatians 4:8-9, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?”
36. And we’ll read also from John 1:14. “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth.”
37. God invites us to a life of knowing him. To be united with him. We read here, “Now that you know God rather are known by God”. So, coming from not knowing God, to knowing God and being known by him. That’s a mutual, a deep relationship. It’s not just a one-way relationship. It’s being united.
38. So how can we know God? We sometimes talk about God that he is transcendent. (Conveys the idea of going beyond limits or being greater than everything else) He is above everything else. He is not dependent on space or time. He is the one that created everything and is above everything. But we also learned that he is immanent (Predominant). Well, he is close to us. He is present and he is intimately involved with us in his creation in his universe. So, God is so great but he is also so close to us. And I think we need to understand that.
39. Sometimes we feel God is so far away. I mean we know that the people of Israel, they didn’t even dare to speak his name. God is holy. And we need to hold on to that. But the amazing thing is also that he is close to us. He is close to those that seek him. He is not far away. We don’t need to go up there and try to pull him down here. So, he is both.
40. He can be immediately present and near and personal to us. He knows what you’re going through. He sees all your struggles, all the pain that you have experienced. But at the same time as he is so present and involved in our lives, he also holds this whole universe in his hand.
41. And that’s hard to grasp. I don’t know if you doubt sometimes in your faith. You know, doubt is not the same as unbelief. I don’t know if I should call this doubt, but maybe. But I think my biggest problem to understand, is to see this amazing world that God has created. How good it is, how wonderful it is, what he is like, also to see the evil that is here, that we know doesn’t come from God.
42. But to see how people suffer, how things are sometimes really bad in this world. And then to see how good he is to me. It’s beyond my understanding. To see this powerful, all-powerful God, also see the sin and all the things that go on in this world. But also, to see how close he is to me. He knows every thought. He hears every word. He’s closer than a brother. I cannot explain that.
43. But we know that this amazing, powerful God has also made himself known to us. And of course, the most important way he’s done that. It’s when the word, the logos, became flesh and lived among us. God becomes human. This was hidden from the foundation of the world. And then he was revealed in the fullness of time. It’s hard for us to understand who God is. Even though people all around the world are trying to figure out. But he has actually become one of us. In every way like us. Except sin. This is the revelation of God in fullness.
44. You know, we can have a lot of facts about God. And we do. We see his qualities in the creation. Paul even writes that it’s obvious of his qualities when we view creation. We have a lot of information. And even revelation in his Word. But I would say that there is another level about experiencing God. It’s more than just information.
45. I could read a lot about information about my wife. What she’s like, what she looks like. And, you know, there could be a lot to write about her. And if I read all of it, but I never met her, of course, I would have an idea. I would have a picture of who she was. But it’s not until I meet her when we begin to interact. And we come closer to each other.
46. And I would say it’s not that different with God. We can read lots and lots of books. We can learn a lot. And actually, through the Scriptures we do receive a revelation. It’s not only information for here. But I really do believe that there is a different level of interacting with God. Of experiencing him. And I think we have emotions and we can feel things about people and anything else. But this experience of God, I believe it’s deeper than just our human emotions.
47. You know we are body, we are soul, but we are also spirit. And God wants to meet all of us. He wants to heal us and restore us. Our minds, our hearts, our emotions, but he also wants to touch our spirit. So, I think it’s wrong to say we shouldn’t be so emotional. We should just go by facts. Some Christians say that.
48. Experiencing God in our spirit, his Holy Spirit filling us, touching us, it’s not just about our emotions. It goes deeper. And I believe, of course, we should seek the Scriptures, read books, do whatever you can to learn more intellectually about God. But there is this other level where God wants to meet you personally.
49. We can read that God is love, but it’s another thing to really experiencing it and feeling it. We can never fully understand or grasp who God is. There is a saying in Latin, and I don’t really know Latin. It’s something like Deus Semper Maior. God is always greater.
50. Whatever your picture of God is, you know that God loves you. And maybe you have an idea of what that means. God is always greater. No matter how we stretch our minds to understand and to have an idea about what he’s like, he is greater. Whatever it is, his faithfulness.
51. And I have an idea. Yeah, I know God is faithful. But he’s more faithful than I can ever imagine. And I think this goes back to what we said about making an image of God. If we were to make an image of God, we would think, yeah, he’s loving, maybe a little bit more loving than I am. Maybe he’s a little bit more faithful than I am. But no; he’s much more loving. He’s always more loving.
52. Whatever image we paint, it’s like an insult to God. He is so much greater. So, this didn’t say so much about what God is actually like. And sometimes the only way to describe God, his greatness, for instance, we just have to say he’s without limit. We sang here, he’s uncontainable, I think. We don’t have words, we don’t have the understanding, it doesn’t reach that far.
53. The prophet Hosea has said, “Let us press on to know the Lord.” (Hosea 6:3) And I would just want to say today, we’ve just scratched on the surface of understanding God. If you know that you have made an image of God, that actually limits him. Let go of this and be there to put yourself in the position to know him and experiencing him the way he is.
54. To know this living God intimately. Even though he’s great, we don’t understand his ways. He’s close to you. We see the world with wars and all the things going on. But at the same time, he has not forgotten you. And he’s there to meet you. To seek him. Not just to know more about him, but to actually know him.
55. Let’s pray. Lord God, sometimes we struggle to even know what that word means. We understand that you are so much more, so much greater than we could ever imagine. But we also know, that you are so close to us, and you’re here with each one of us. So, I just pray, help us to seek you, to know you, to be known by you. Help us to dare to let go of our images that we have made. Help us to not take your name in vain. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen

Pastor Gail.
1. As Billy was preaching, I felt impressed of the Lord, that if we would just make greater in our life, if we would give him the glory, we would every moment of every day, find that peace and that joy, and that victory that we always need.