Tribe Church. Byron Bay

The call to intimacy with God is a call to draw near to his heart and listen to his heartbeat. What is on the heart of our Father in heaven? What moves him? What motivates him? What are his highest purposes for our lives? For those who long for a deeper intimacy with God, the concerns of heaven ought to become our concerns as we align our hearts with the heart of our Father.

In this message, Phil Mason explores a dimension of our intimate relationship with God through the lens of the role of the fivefold ministry as outlined by the apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 4. The fruit of fivefold ministry is an explosive “knowledge of the Son of God”in the local church. (Ephesians 4:13) This is the knowledge of the heart of the beloved Son in his relationship with his beloved Father. May this message challenge you to draw near to God and align yourself with the things that move his heart: his desire to see a mature Church with a mature expression of sonship. 
We hope you enjoy this message.

The battle for the secret place is ultimately the battle for the focus and the affection of the heart!

We see in the book of Exodus that God chose to lead His people through a wilderness on their journey from Egypt to the promised land. This is not an isolated story. There are many accounts throughout the whole bible of followers of God who experienced wilderness seasons. Even Jesus himself was led into a wilderness after his baptism. 

In this message, Rosie looks at the purpose of these wilderness seasons in our lives, as times of testing and strengthening with the goal of transformation and drawing us into deeper trust and dependence on God. 

Rosie looks at Song of Solomon chapter 8:5 as a key verse which describes the Shulamite as one who is, “coming up from her wilderness leaning on her beloved.”

The Lord is seeking a bride who will trust him, partner with him, depend on him and lean on him like John the beloved at the last supper. He is also longing to set us free, to heal us and to transform us. These are things that will happen for us in the wilderness, if we choose to go on this journey with God. 

He has been preparing our hearts for this journey and he is longing to lead us “through the archway of trust” to wage war with him in the lion’s den and the leopard’s lair. (SS 4:8) In order that we will be transformed and come out of this season leaning on our beloved.

In Luke 10, we read about Martha and Mary, two sisters who offered hospitality to Jesus and the people traveling with Him. They had a brother, Lazarus. The three young people were friends of Jesus. When Jesus came to eat at their home, Mary sat at the Lord's feet and was consumed by His teachings, heart, and ministry. 

On the other hand, Martha was consumed with serving and preparing the dinner, but as we dive into this portion of scripture, Maria Mason opens an even deeper reality of what was happening. Martha represents our orphan heart, which often manifests a victim mindset and uses victim language to distract us from love. 

Mary represents the transformative power of the secret place, a place of intimate communion with the Lord. She chose the ‘better thing’ because she had already decided to be a person of the heart. Mary had predetermined to take responsibility for her inner life, which is the most important choice.

Maria shares some wisdom about our needs when we come to God. We need time to process our pain, lament, or repent. She offers some advice on using our time well so that when we do come to sit at His feet, we are free to gaze and not be in an emo mess. Processing in the secret place is not always a good use of our time and cuts into valuable time just looking at His face.

The Bible tells us to buy oil, wine, and bread. This is a metaphor for being in God's presence and withdrawing from His heart as we sit and rest in His love. Let us learn to pray like a Bride and not like a widow, full of revelation and light as we look on the Lord's face. It's from here that we are empowered, shifting from being a victim to a victor.

The Good News is God loves you with an unconditional love and He chooses to love you in that way every single day. God wants to be in relationship with us, and He values every moment we will give Him. So what kind of relationship does God want to have with us? All of Scripture is full of rich wisdom and insight on this. In this message, we take a look at the relationship between Mary of Bethany and Jesus. Mary went on to participate in the Messianic mission of Jesus because of the special insight she had received from her time with Him. 

Many who were serving Jesus completely misunderstood and ultimately missed out on partnering and supporting Jesus through the greatest act of love the world has ever seen. Why is it that not all who served Jesus knew what their Master was doing?

In Luke 10:42, Jesus says of Mary of Bethany that she had chosen the good portion and that it was a good thing to do and would remain with her always. What did Jesus mean by choosing the good portion? We explore the Psalms to uncover what choosing the good portion looks like as a lifestyle and what fruit it bears for our lives.  Jesus encourages us in John 15 to bear the fruit of remaining in His love and the wisdom given to the Disciples in this passage of Scripture was blessed to them because Jesus saw them as cherished friends.

Looking at a cross-section of Scriptures we draw out revelation on what it looks like at a personal level and at a community level to have a group of beloved sons and daughters choosing a daily relationship with Jesus, living from the abide-and-go impartation of His Spirit, and following in the more excellent way of love.

David Balestri takes us on a tour of the concept of the Imago Dei, the image of God. Human beings are image bearers, meaning we carry and express the very image and likeness of God. In Genesis 1:26, we read, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Through the fall, certain aspects of the image and likeness of God were lost, such as His holiness and His glory. However, through redemption, the glory of God has been restored to the sons and daughters of God. Paul now declares, “Christi in you, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27) David encourages us to step into the glory God has ordained for each of us to walk in. We can now shine with the glory of God. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine…” (Matthew 5:16). May this message inspire you to put on Christ and live large in your witness of Christ in this world.

In Matthew 5:9, Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”. What is this ‘peace’ that Jesus is encouraging us to ‘make’? And in particular, what does it look like to cultivate this kind of peace within a Christian community? Join us in Ephesians to hear how Paul encouraged the Jew and Gentile Christians in Ephesus to unify and foster this harmonious peace, despite their cultural differences.

This week our message is from Wayne Benn, our local Crosslink Network leader for Southern QLD. He shares on the power of the outpouring of the Spirit. 

The ancient custodians of Judaism loved an argument.…and they  had plenty to argue about around the time of Pentecost.However, their arguments became tired and weak against Jesus disciples.

Those disciples (fishermen and rascals) were academically inferior and theologically lacklustre. They should have been no match for the theological prowess of the rulers in the synagogue.

But Pentecost changed all that.

Gods power and authority was given to ordinary people. 

Its amazing how religious arguments always lose out to Gods power/ miracles/ signs and wonders.

Pentecost still happens because God is continuing to pour out His Spirit in the last days. Australia needs to see a church ablaze with the fire of God. Lets keep praying like the Bride for that which has been promised.

In this message in our Good News series, Phil Mason explores our reception of the gospel message. The gospel is not a subject to be mastered by the mind. It is a feast of God’s love for the heart. But the Western world has sold us a lie that the mind is the primary organ of perception. That’s how most people think in Western education. The truth is, according to the Scriptures, that our heart is the primary organ of perception and that we are to see with the eyes of our heart and have our minds subsequently informed by the revelation light that streams into a soft, open heart. Jesus said, “The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. If your heart is unclouded, the light floods in!” (Luke 6:22 TPT) Our goal in receiving the good news is to pursue an ‘unclouded heart’ so God can fill us with His love and His light. Jesus said the pure in heart shall see God. (Matthew 5:8) We hope you enjoy this message!

In this message we unpack Ephesians 1:5-6 where we see that the goal of God’s grace is His glory. The avenue for which this glory is poured out is through His “tremendous love cascading over us”. Specifically, the cascading adoptive love of the Father. This love as it says in Ephesians is what will “glorify His grace”!

We journey through the unpacking of what is grace, why we need it and what it leads to. We learn that God’s grace is full of His empowering presence, that grace has dominion and how we can carry that as beloved sons and daughters into a hurting world.

We finish with the verse from Matthew 5:14-16 with the stunning revelation that God wants His house, the church, to be the radiant light on the hill where His glory dwells. From here we are sent out as glory carriers to bring the lost and broken back home into these high-level radiant places of his glory. Evangelism is meant to be the overflow of the glorious love that is radiating in the House of God! 

We are coming into the hour where the church is going to be the most radiant place on earth full of lit-up sons and daughters overflowing with God’s love and glory!

In the opening chapter of 2 Corinthians Paul strongly exhorted the early church with the good news that our God is a “Father of compassion and and the God of all comfort” ( See 2Cor 1:3)

Paul wasn’t just making a “nice” statement. He and Timothy were writing to the Corinthians from circumstances of great hardship, pain and persecution. However in the midst of their trials and weakness, they were experiencing a supernatural encouragement and comfort of God, which enabled them, intern to release this comfort to other believers. 

Jesus also gave this same message to the apostles before he went to the cross. He said I will not leave you alone, as orphans. I will send you a helper, who will be a comforter, he is called the Holy Spirit (see John 14).

In a world full of many false comforts Rosie reminds us that the only true and lasting comfort comes from the Lord. He is calling us to draw near today. However, we always have a choice how we will walk this out. As secure sons and daughters of God we will choose to come to the Father for comfort, but the orphan places in our hearts will also try to convince us to go elsewhere for comfort. Let’s draw near to God today and receive all the provision and comfort of heaven that Jesus has made available for us to access in every season.