Pastor Gail – Prayer
1. Many of you in this church know Sean and Beatrice. Their small son has gone back to hospital. We want to declare today, that the Lord can stop the sickness. We will pray for him, we’ll pray for Sunil, we’ll pray that the cancer will be completely gone, amen. We’re going to pray for Fernando, the doctors still don’t know what’s wrong with him. But God knows, and it doesn’t belong in Ferando’s body.
2. So, if you know someone that needs prayer for their body, we want to pray, just a moment. I want you to lift up your hand, as you’re lifting up that person. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, we praise You and we thank You. Your name is the God who heals me. Lord, we declare today, for little baby Luca, Lord, that whatever is troubling that little body, it must go in the name of Jesus. Give Sean and Beatrice peace. God, You created this child, so we praise You and thank You God, for deliverance from anything that’s attacking him. God, we pray for Sunil, for complete deliverance from cancer, in the name of the Lord, in the name of the Lord, that his body is made whole. In the name of the Lord, we pray for Fernando, that You will guide the doctors, Lord, that they will at least know and that it will be gone, God. Lord, we pray for the many that are sick, we live in the era of healing, we live in the hour of healing. God, we’re expecting signs and wonders and miracles. We believe. We believe, in the name of Jesus.

Pastor Gail – Welcome
3. Isn’t that wonderful. You may be seated. God doesn’t expect us to give Him, really, anything, we don’t give our money. But we give him our praise; we give Him our lives, amen. Well, you look great today. We have some new friends from Germany. So, you’re going to be working in the Malakasa camp. Praise God, we’re so glad you’re here. Please stand up, so that we can see how many of you there are. Bravo, bravo, bravo. Please stand for a second. I just want you to agree, I’m going to say a word, right now. Lord, we thank You for this team, and we pray that everyone in that camp, will be touched by the presence of God, to know You in the name of Jesus. Amen.
4. For just a moment, I would like pastor Ummet to come. We are going to have 3 languages up here. Pastor Ummet, I feel we’re so honored. Because, you know, the Greeks and the Turks don’t like each other. Pastor Ummet pastors a very thriving church in Turkey. Amen. Yay, yay.
5. That side of the room was in his city while he was in our city. And their daughter is here studying. We’re so excited that the Turks are in the land. Amen. God’s doing a great work in this region of the world.
6. So, I told him he couldn’t preach. Maybe later. But I thought it was a wonderful opportunity today for you to meet our brother from Turkey. So, he’s going to speak just a little bit.

Pastor Ummet
7. I’m serving in a local church in Izmir. And for really a long time I did the general secretary of a Christian organization in Turkey. And I feel like we’re right now like in Revelation 9:7-9. Even though Greeks say that we’re barbarians but we’re the same in front of God’s eyes.
8. 25 years ago, my church’s revelation was by a Greek pastor, Greek man. Yes, his name is Nick. I don’t know if he is alive or dead, but he starts a spiritual revival in my church. Thank you.
Pastor Gail
9. And you’re going to be with us for a while. You’re going to stay with us for a while here in Greece. Amen. So, God’s going to be doing big things. Thank you so much. Pray for Turkey and Greece. Pray that we can do great things together. Amen. Amen. Praise God. I’m excited about that.
10. We have so many nationalities in the room and you may not realize it. But I’m going to not let the team stand up first, but we have Germans. We have Swedes. We have Belgians. We have South Africans. We have Brazilians. We have Canadians. We have Lebanese, Armenians. We have Nigerians and Ghanaians. We have more Germans. We have from Denmark, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, England, Cyprus, Latin America. Oh, where’s my Finns? Aren’t the Finns here? Oh, and the Finns. We have Filipinos. It’s good to see you. You’ve got to dance. Praise God. I said England. I said England. Who’s from New Zealand? Who’s from New Zealand? Oh, hi, New Zealand.
11. Oh, great. Praise God. Is Henneke here? I don’t know. Okay, we don’t have Holland today. I said Cyprus. You look so good. Now, I would like the team from America, would you stand? We welcome you. Amen. And I’m going to ask Pastor Tad to come up. They are family for me very much. He calls me his evil stepsister. But you can’t preach.

Pastor Tad
12. We want to say that we’re grateful to be here with you. We’re barbarians from America. And we’re Mongols who are mixed up with all the nations in America. But we thank God that Jesus saves Mongols and barbarians. And so, we’re here to enjoy Greece and we just enjoy the time of fellowship with other believers because you’re our brothers and sisters of the Lord. And one day we’ll be worshipping together in heaven forever.
13. Treva and I have been here before, but we have a lot of people the first time to Greece. And they’re enjoying your food and your culture, and they’re getting the Greek experience here this week. Amen. This is my better half. I call her Mrs. Holy Spirit. She gives me strength, but we’re thankful to be here and grateful to be with you. And we bless you and your church and the work God’s doing here in Greece. Amen. God bless you.

Pastor Gail – Announcements
14. Pray for us today. We’re going to the Acropolis. I’m asking God to stop the rain. I want to make a few announcements for this coming week. Of course, this Wednesday night is prayer at 7 o’clock. And looking in the word at 7.30. And don’t forget, Tuesday through Friday, every morning at 10 a.m. the church is open for prayer. This is the year of prayer.
15. Men’s breakfast is moved to the first of November. Please look at the bulletin board. There’s a women’s conference coming up at the church downtown in Aiolou. We’d love to see some of our ladies go. And there’s actually going to be a conference for families with children coming up. Look at the bulletin board. If you need help with your children, you might want to go.
16. Michael, if you can hear me, Michael, bring out Ole. When all the little kids come up front, I want us to pray for our children very quickly before we go. Christina, when you come up here, sweetie pie, Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole. Katie, yeah. Would your children, Katie, come up with me really quickly so we can pray, please? I won’t skip. Hello, how are you today?
17. Our little Finns that can speak more language than I can. Hello, Daniel. All right. Hi, Daniel. How are you? Hot, hey. Oh, come on, Nico. Come on, come on. Where’s Ole? Hey, Hady. All right. Would you stretch your hand out to our children? We’re believing that we don’t have to wait until they’re grown up to be leaders for Jesus. But that now a little child shall lead them. Amen.
18. Let’s pray for our children right now. Father, we thank you for these children this morning, God. We pray that, Lord, the Word today will capture their heart. That, oh, Lord, they’ll fall in love with you more and more, and they will love what they hear. Lord, anoint their minister today, and we believe they’re going to do great and mighty things for Jesus. Amen? Amen. All right. God bless. You’re dismissed to children’s church. Hallelujah. Thank you, children.
19. I would like to have Marina and Leto, are going to come this morning to read a Scripture for us. And there are Bibles all around the room. We like to encourage people to use a paper, Bible. People are forgetting where books in the Bible are and where things are found. So, use your paper, Bible. It helps you.
Marina and Leto – Reading Scripture
20. Hello everyone, we’re going to read from Philippians 4:4-7. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. Amen. Amen.
21. Amen. As we stand here, let’s pray for our tithes and offerings. And please, let’s give to the Lord with joy and thanksgiving. Amen.
22. Praise the Lord. We give with joy. All right. You look so good. Hallelujah. What a great day to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. It’s so wonderful when we get to meet our brothers and sisters from around the world and worship with them before we get to heaven when we get to do it all the time.
23. Today, when we end service, we will have our normal coffee time. But please also forgive us. We’re going to set up for the group. They need to have their lunch before we head up downtown. So, we don’t want you to leave, but we want you to know we’re going to be organizing the room.
24. Now, hopefully in a minute you will see something. We have a dream that Brian and Treva and I, and hopefully Victor one day. One of the times when she’s here, we’ll have what’s called an old-time Gospel hour. Lots of times when we travel together, especially because Treva thinks I know every old song in the world and all the words, we’ll sing together in the car and it’s just so much fun. And today we’ll sing an old song.

Pastors Brian, Gail and Treva sing an old hymn.

Pastor Brian – Main Message
1. Amen. Grab your Bibles. I have one correction already this morning. Treva is not Tad’s better half; she is 90% of all the good. We are happy to have the Harvest Church family in the house. We have too many friends in too many places. So, all of you from Harvest Church and friends of Harvest Church, thanks for being with us. And of course, all of our other visitors that have already been mentioned.
2. Now this morning I’m going to not apologize but give a little prelude. Today’s message is a message for the Glyfada Christian Center. I believe because it’s the Word of God it will go home with anybody.
3. But we’ve spent the last two weeks in Romans 12. Pastor Gail started out kind of a little two-part series. We’ve been talking about the Motivational Gifts that the Holy Spirit invests in us. Pastor Gail launched that out by really expressing why the Holy Spirit wants to do that in and with us. If you weren’t here that Sunday and for those online, I would really encourage you go back and listen to that sermon.
4. When we say that we believe that the Holy Spirit is speaking to us as a church we mean that. And it’s hard to move together as a body when only half of us hear it. So, I really would encourage you if you miss Pastor Gail go back to that and then last week Anton talked more specifically about the gifts. And today I’m going to put a little bit of a bow on that.
5. So, turn with me to Romans 12. I’m going to read a good bit of Scripture and then we’re going to move pretty quickly. Until now we’ve been concentrating through Romans 12:8. We’ve read all of that. I’m going to begin at Romans 12:9.
6. I did not put a PowerPoint up for this for a reason. Because number one we keep trying to encourage people to use their Bibles again. Not just to know where stuff is in the Bible but to remember that in all those verses you read there’s a lot of verses around it. And too often we live in snapshots of the Scripture instead of remembering there’s a whole story. And we’re teaching our brains too much to think in two verses in a square.
7. And that’s important today because a lot of times the first half of Romans 12 is taught as almost separate from the second half. The first half is about the gifts. And then the second half is about love. But what we’re going to remember today is that that second half conversation flows right out of and is a part of the first half.
8. So, Paul writes to the Romans 12:9-21: “Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need; practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who mourn. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. (You might need to rejoice with those who mourn sometimes too. Especially when all they do is mourn. You might bring some joy.) Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, it is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. On the contrary, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. (Footnote, that is a quote from the Old Testament, putting burning coals on his head brings him to repentance. It does not mean for you to pray, God, if I leave them alone, you scar them for life.) Do not overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good. Do not overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good”.
9. Romans 12 is one of the most powerful blueprints in all of the Bible for Christian living ever written. The Apostle is not just giving good advice. I’m saying that for a reason. We approach passages like this, like it’s God saying, hey, if you don’t mind, live like this. Stavros, if it doesn’t bother you too much, maybe here’s some ideas. It’s not just good advice. He’s painting a vision of what it means to be the body of Christ. What it means to actually be alive in the Spirit. What it means to work together in holy love.
10. So, Paul begins the passage in Romans 12:3-8 by calling us to humility. Don’t think of yourself higher than you should. How counter-cultural that is. In a world that tells us to lift ourselves up and lift up those like us, Paul says, no, lift up others. And then we’re reminded that each of us is a part of one body. We talked about that last week.
11. Two weeks pastor Gail said, we’re one body with many members. If I remember correctly, she talked about if the eye tries to do the job of the foot, you’re going to be in a big problem. I have enough trouble walking, it’d be tough to do it like this.
12. So, we’re one body with many members, each with different gifts. We heard that they are not badges of status. If you feel like you have to walk around with a title in front of your name, go pray. People often honor me by calling me Pastor Brian. I think honoring the church is great, I receive it, not a problem. Except that number one, I’m not really a pastor. And number two, I’m just Brian. And it’s funny how most of you call me Brian outside of the church, but Pastor Brian in here.
13. Honor is good; badges of status are not. Because we’ve heard the church is not built by a few superstars. And in every church, I’ve ever been in the world, you have a few superstars in the mix. Because generally they’re the ones that everybody recognizes, are doing everything. But that’s not God’s plan or Paul’s plan. The church is built by everyone humbly offering their gifts. We offer them to God for the good of all.
14. So that’s the first half of the chapter. Paul then transitions the conversation from the idea of serving with your gifts to the subject of love. It’s not two different conversations. It’s one conversation that is continued. So, if you take notes, write this down.
15. Using our gift is an act of love. That’s easy enough to understand. The people on this worship team came early this morning to offer their gifts because they love you and want you to experience God.
16. Using your gift is an act of love. But listen to this. Withholding our gift. Not using our gift is an act of selfishness. Let that word sink in for a moment. I thought of it like this. Not using your gift to bless the body is an act of not loving.
17. So, get that down. Using your gift is an act of love. Withholding your gift is an act; it’s a doing of not loving. It says, I love my time. I love my space. I love my preferences. I love my resources. I love my desires, more than I love you. I’m just going to watch the heads for a moment.
18. So not using your gift is not just selfishness, it is actively not loving. Now, nobody wakes up on any day and says, today, I don’t want to love. Take that back, maybe. I may have woken up some days like that. But in general, we don’t think of it like this. We don’t think about the fact that God has given me something, and if I choose not to use it, it means I don’t love you enough to use it. And that’s not talking about being fake or just polite.
19. Serving people is not a performance art. It is not a show; it is not a dance. Truly serving is not a performance art. It is a real, meaningful serving, is Christ shaped love.
20. So, here’s where the spiritual gifts come alive. We heard all the gifts of prophecy and teaching and administration and serving. And Lord, let me not leave out giving. But listen, love is what gives prophecy its power. Love is what gives serving its joy. Love is what gives mercy its tenderness.
21. Without love, the gifts of God become empty gestures. And we are not in the church to perform. We are in the church to love one another. “For by this will all men know that you are mine.” (John 13:35) For by this will all people will know that you are Mine, God says. That you love one another.
22. So, Paul paints a picture of a community overflowing with grace. Hear his words repeated. “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn.” Can’t you just hear it? That’s good family talk.
23. Now how many of you, mine’s a little like this sometimes. When we get together, we don’t rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. We all kind of see how much more we can mourn than the other. Oh, I had this happen this year. Oh, you don’t even know. Let me tell you what happened to me.
24. We get into these competitions. That’s not good family talk. So, if that’s you, stop it. Three fingers pointing back at me. But what it means to live as the redeemed people of God. The power of that phrase to live as the redeemed people of God. Bearing one another’s burdens. Oh, you don’t know what happened to me. Instead of going, oh, you don’t know what happened to me. You say, I’m sorry that happened to you. Let me pick you up and encourage you. That was terrible.
25. Bearing one another’s burdens in love, not in competition. Forgiving people when you are wronged. No, Lord, don’t put that in the Bible, please. Blessing those who even persecute you. We live in a world where everybody is trying to get it over somebody else. They’re trying to get above.
26. It’s in our society. It’s in our politics. It’s in our family relationships. It’s in our jobs. Everybody is arguing for their position above that of another. Everybody is striving and demanding for themselves.
27. And God inserts himself and says, stop it, “bless those who persecute you”. He didn’t say agree with them. He didn’t say accept everything they say, but he did say bless them. Don’t go to war against them. That’s not your position. Bear burdens. Forgive evils. Bless those.
28. And Paul ends this section with the rallying cry. This should be probably painted on a banner of every Christian home where you walk out the door. “Do not overcome evil with evil. But overcome evil with good.” That’s the power of genuine love. You see, the gifts of Romans 12:3-8, those are the tool.
29. Romans 12:9-21, that’s the petrol, that’s the fuel. It’s what makes it go. So, Glyfada Christian Center and anybody else listening? What happens if we put this in action? I want us to really dwell on that for a moment. What happens if everybody is lovingly offering their gift? Not withholding it, but using it. And then above that, what happens when we do that with the genuine motivation of love?
30. I pick on Stavros all the time. He sits on the front row, so it’s his. The responsibility is on you, not me. But come here. I talk a lot about how this guy, and you guys know it because you’ve experienced it. You call him and he comes. I don’t know how many nights this man has driven me to or from an airport at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. And then had to turn around and go to work at 7. Or how many times some unmarried lady in the church has called and said, my plumbing doesn’t work, what do I do?
31. Or this one is for the Harvest Group. I don’t know how to turn on my air conditioner. Can you come help me? You see, I will address it on the bus the next day, he would have been going room to room. I’ll show you how to turn on the air conditioner. Showing people how to turn it on.
32. And this will be silly to a lot of you. But yesterday we were landing late on an airplane coming from Thessaloniki. Many of you know I have a dog that I love.
33. I love you. Don’t make me make a choice. My dog had to go to the doctor. She’s really also pastor Gail’s dog. We have split custody. Pastor Gail had to take her to the doctor. I couldn’t be here. And as silly as that is it bothered me. I wanted to be there, and I didn’t want to have pastor Gail trying to be controlling a 50 Kg all by herself.
34. And on Saturday, Stavros was picking Pastor Gail from the airport, and just simply said, ‘I’ll go with you.’ I got a text from pastor Gail. My anxiety level when from high to low. A simple act of service done in love.
35. And many of you have experienced that between yourselves. Love is what changes everything. It’s what motivates the reality, not the action, the reality. And when you use your gift, as simple as it might be. I had a text from a pastor friend, two days ago, the church wasn’t going to be able to pay its electricity bill. But somebody, didn’t have to be called, didn’t have to be coerced, somebody with a gift, dropped by the church office, ‘Pastor, I don’t know what this is for, but use it as God wills.’ And the need was satisfied. A simple act of somebody, who had no idea what they were doing, but it took a church forward for another day.
36. We make this too complicated. If your gift is teaching, teach. But not because you’re a good teacher, teach because you love the people. If your gift is administration, don’t organize things because you’ve got a good mind and put it in a spreadsheet. Do it because you know you have a gift that others don’t have, and God said ‘Use it’.
37. Love the people. Serve a cup of coffee. Shake a hand at the back of the room. Lay hands and pray a healing prayer on somebody. Speak an encouraging word. Grab a bag of groceries and give it to somebody in need. By all means, tell pastor Gail that you want to come to our church office to organize the files. And if you happen to have the skill to repair a photocopier, please talk to me.
38. But whatever it is, wash a foot, kiss a cheek, hug a neck and do something for the body. Because God gave you something, that He did not give anybody else. He said, ‘This is yours.’ If it’s one, use the one. If it’s five, use the five. If it’s ten, use the ten. But whatever it is, motivated by love, let God make it multiply. In Jesus’ name. Amen.