Futures Church Australia · Transcript · · Updated
Connect Group Term 4 Ep 1 2026 – Transcript
Video by Futures Church Australia · Watch the original on YouTube
Summary
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- Futures Church Australia is starting a term four connect group series focused on family, discussing how church members are called to be family.
- Pastor John explains that prayer and vulnerability serve as the foundation that holds families together and protects their unity.
- Believers are encouraged to fight for one another through prayer and to share personal testimonies of victory to build faith within connect groups.
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Transcript
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Well, hey everyone and welcome to a new term of connect group studies.
We're so glad that you're here with us and in this term in term four, we are going to be talking about family and so what better person who else to start this conversation about family than the man himself, Pastor John. And so we're going to be talking about a whole different range of things about how as a church, we're not just called to be a place that has a sense of family.
We actually are called to be family. Jesus says in Matthew 12, his mother and his brothers are trying to get his attention and Jesus says, so who is my mother? Who are my brothers? It's anyone that does the will of my father. And so that means that we are family. And right now you're sitting at connect group.
You are in your family dinner, you're at a family conversation and we want to spend the next few weeks talking about what that means for us and I guess what responsibilities we have within that family. And so for this first week, we're going to be talking about how to fight for family, not fighting with our family, but we want to be the family that fights for one another.
And the Bible is pretty clear that when it comes to fighting, when it comes to warfare, we don't fight a fleshly battle. We don't fight the things that we can see, but we are engaged in spiritual warfare, which means that the way that we fight for one another is we pray and we have a culture of prayer, not only in our church, but we pray in our connect groups and in our family.
And so Pastor John, why do you think prayer is one of the main ways that family can fight for one another? Oh, it's the foundation really that holds families together. And I love it, you know, you might be sitting in your connect group and say, he's not my brother, she's not my sister.
But you know what, this is the great thing about our church. When you truly understand that we have the same father, you know what I mean? You go out of your way and you make yourself known and say, we are truly family. We're not just making it up. The Word of God tells us that we are family.
So then you treat people like your family. And if things go south, that's why we're generous and we reach out to the people. That's why we look out for them because they're family. And that's why we have that nature. And I think God wants to instill that.
But there's always an attack on the family because that's the fabric that keeps the unity and the grace. So welcome to the family, right? And one of the things that keeps us tight is vulnerability and openness when we come to pray.
And the enemy's got all these different schemes, Dave, that he wants to rob us from out because where the unity is, that's where the blessing is. So if we can keep something hidden and just not be vulnerable and open it up, he's kind of like holding it back.
So we're not getting our breakthrough that we can actually see as a couple. But when there's vulnerability, you say, you know what? I'm going through this at the moment. Can we just rally through and pray? That is the best thing you can do. Actually, the Bible tells us to do that.
It says, in James, it says, if there's anybody sick, if anybody's in trouble, he says, you know, come, gather together. And look what it says in James chapter five verse eight. Therefore, pray for each other so that you may be healed for prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Yeah, that's so good. And I mean, I've always heard that, I guess the back end of verse 16 where it says that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. And it's so great because we are righteous, not because we've earned it, not because we've prayed enough. And now finally our prayers can be powerful and effective.
We're righteous because of Jesus and His righteousness. But I do love that verse 16 of James five. It's actually linked with something else that maybe is a little bit harder to just say amen to, which is the whole part where it says, therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for one another that you may be healed.
And it says then the prayer of the righteous man is powerful and effective. And, you know, it's true that our prayer relationship with the Father is between us and him, but that doesn't mean that prayer doesn't involve family. It doesn't mean that that vulnerability is not something that we engage in.
And I think one of the ways that we fight for one another is through prayer, but it's also through vulnerability and prayer of, hey, this is what I'm going through, like you said. And I think one of the great distinctions between someone that's family and someone that isn't family is our willingness to be vulnerable.
You know, we might be talking to our boss at work and we don't want to show them our weaknesses because they're our employer. We might be trying to impress a friend and we don't want to show them our weaknesses because we're trying to, you know, we're trying to get in their good books. But when it comes to family, it's like the walls are down. You know who I am. You know what I'm going through.
You know, you know, what's an all. You don't realize what's actually going to come out of that time of prayer. Yes. Because sometimes you see people and you say, a person might come with a certain need and someone might rise, you know what? I've battled that myself and I've seen victory in that area.
So I say, why don't you pray for that for him? Yes. And there's a faith that rises in that person to believe, you know, God, as you've done it for me, Lord, do it for Harry. You know that he'll be able to see it in a new light, light I've never seen before. So then you don't even realize, but you're getting someone to pray for you that's already been there is on the other side and has got faith to believe that you're going to come on the other side.
So when you do that, the prayer is activated and involves. So I encourage you when you pray for each other, know and go a lot. You were talking about righteousness. No, it's not because of who I am. It's because of what Christ has made us.
So when we go, we go in Jesus' name. We present it to Christ. So it doesn't matter if our words are mumbled, if our words, God sees the heart and the presentation of it, you know? And when we pray with the spirit, that's the powerful thing.
You know, sometimes we're not here to say, oh, the best words that we can ever think of and make our prayer, you know, so lovely, so flowy, so poetry. No, it's not about that. It's praying the prayer of faith. It's saying, God, my brother, man, he's going through suffering.
It's genuine saying, God, I'm pressing in for him. Lord, we're believing that you're going to do something for Dave. You know that he's going to see something changed in his life. Lord, you did it for him. I don't know how you did it, but you did it for me. Maybe you did it so that I can believe for him too, you know?
When you begin to pray with that and doesn't, you know, my words always come out so different than what I have in my head, but God sees what's in my heart. And I said, thank God for that, you know? And you might be the same.
You might be shy even to hear your voice. Can I encourage you to do this? Start praying at home, not quietly, but aloud. Pray talking to yourself. You might be thinking, no, I'm talking to God. So when I talk to God, I know that He's walking with me.
So I have conversation with Him. God, I just, I haven't got the words to say how you just are so amazing to me. I feel so grateful that you are in my life, that you've rescued me. So I talk and I hear those words and what happens, it breaks the fear of my own sound of words.
Many times we don't pray with each other because we're afraid of our own voices and afraid of hearing that. I love what you're saying, especially about the whole thought of what we've been through and the victories that we have, then are things that we have faith for to pray for others.
And even what you're sharing there of breaking the spirit of fear about our prayer life is so important because it's, yes, that's about you and God, but it's actually also about others. Because once you break through that next level of being able to pray out loud to pray for others, then the things that you've been through, the things that you've suffered, the challenges you've been through now become weapons in your arsenal to go in faith and pray for other people that have been through the same things.
And so one other question I want to ask you, Pastor John, and I love, again, as we're thinking about family, one thing I love about family is you can always glean and learn from each other. Oh, definitely. And as someone in our church who I think that we would all agree is a spiritual father in yourself and you and Anna are just your integrity and the way that you've led for so many years in our church.
One thing I think is so, that's so evident about your life is number one, your love for the Word. I mean, I won't touch your Bible because it might finally fall apart, but it's on the way out, right? But that's, it's a sign that you're in it. But also for those of us that are on staff and for those that walk closely with you, it's so evident that you have a thriving prayer life.