Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Welcome to the creative team talks podcast for Hillsong creative.
[00:00:18] Hey, everyone. Gabe here. And welcome to your weekly installment of the Hillsong creative team talks. I hope that you have had an amazing week, and I hope that you're excited for this weekend as we get to serve and build the house of God together, wherever you may find yourselves. I am so encouraged hearing great reports from all over cities and states of Australia and beyond of the great things God is doing in our team. So I'm excited to share with you this week.
[00:00:45] I wanted to start with a quick story. It was actually a long time ago now feels like a million years, but it was my first kind of missions trip into, like, essentially the developing world, like a part of Europe that was quite lacking in what we are really used to and take for granted in Australia. And as part of this missions team, I'd been billeted with, like, a local family. And so I'm thinking, that's fine. Like, it's a little bit weird. I'm sleeping on a trundle bed. I'm used to a normal bed. Like, there's not many blankets. I'm used to more blankets. And so there are little clues along the way. But I think it really hit Home for me the disparity in the way we lived in breakfast. The next morning, I got up with some of the other people from the missions team. We sat down to breakfast, and this family had prepared for us breakfast. And they'd put eggs and they'd put bacon, and they'd put sausage. All these amazing things. But they put them in their slow cooker overnight, and for them, this was a big deal. They even had a slow cooker. And so they decided to put everything in the slow cooker for minimum 8 hours. And we got there and sat down at breakfast. And because the slow cooker had done its thing, everything had shrunk down into, like, small, small, small portions, but also everything was tough as nails. The sausage was like biting into cardboard. The egg was essentially like this, eating styrofoam. I was there sitting kind of soaring at the bacon, like trying to get through for like a solid minute and a half. And as I'm kind of sitting there kind of thinking about this and going, oh, my goodness, I can't believe they put breakfast in the slow cooker. I look up around the rest of the table, and I notice that the family themselves are just sitting there watching me and my team eat. They weren't eating. They were watching. At which point I realized this isn't what they have themselves for them to have bacon, eggs, sausage, these things, this is a delicacy. This is five star. They have gone all out. And for them to then use it in the slow cooker is a massive deal. They have given us their very, very best and they've given us what they had for themselves. The kids were sitting there salivating, watching me eat their food. And I had this moment of initially incredible guilt, feeling so selfish and so dumb and so ill equipped to serve these people on this missions trip. And then a moment of realizing that this is one of the most powerful offerings they could have brought to thank the missions team who had come for them. This was everything.
[00:03:17] I was reminded of this scripture in two Samuel, and I'm sure you've heard of it. David is trying to say thank you to the Lord for appeasing them after like a great, great plague and a great attack. And he goes to the threshing floor of Araunah. In two Samuel 24 22 or verse 24, chapter 24, he goes to Araunah and says, let me buy this threshing floor from you that I might sacrifice to the Lord and praise him and thank him and we'll pick it up. In verse 22, Araunah said to David, let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. Your majesty, I give all of this to you. Araunah said to him, may the Lord your God accept your offering. But in verse 24, King David says to Araunah, no, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God. Burnt offerings that cost me nothing.
[00:04:17] So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid 50 shekels of silver, Thor for them. What a fantastic passage.
[00:04:30] What a enormous thought for us. Araunah was happy to give the king everything he needed. But David knew if he was going to offer something to God, it had to be something that cost him. It had to be something that he actually had to feel.
[00:04:45] My challenge and my encouragement for all of us this weekend as we go to serve in our campuses and our services. Don't rob yourself and don't rob God. Bring your whole self before him, your very best.
[00:04:59] That doesn't mean fake, but it does mean choosing to serve him with gladness in tough times. If this is a tough weekend for you, the schedule's tight, you're exhausted. There's been a lot going on. Be encouraged. This is a costly offering. You're bringing. God never asked for what you brought him to be perfect. He just asked it to be from your heart.
[00:05:20] And so this weekend go into Sunday, encourage knowing that you might feel like you don't have much to give. You might feel like you only have a slow cooker and some cardboard, paper, sausages, but that is more than enough.
[00:05:34] What you have is all God's asking for.
[00:05:38] As you turn up, to bump in, to set up, to rehearse, to sound check, to video check, to prepare for the services in our services this weekend, let me encourage you that if you bring what you have with a heart that says God, this is all I've got, but it's yours. That is worship that pleases the heart of the father. That is worship that invites his presence in a new way. That is worship that will see his church continue to grow and take ground as we set the table for our congregations to encounter a God who is more than enough. So be encouraged as you go into the weekend. God has got you covered. Bring yourself to him, bring your gift to him and he will take care of the rest.
[00:06:21] Amen. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and amazing Sunday and look forward to hearing all the good things God is doing in your campuses soon. Love you all. Bye.
