Speaker 1: Amen, Father, we just thank you for the bread of life.
Speaker 1: It's good to be in the kitchen, good to get
Speaker 1: the bread of life, good to get the nutrition from above.
Speaker 1: We welcome your word to feed us today, sustain us,
Speaker 1: lead us, shift us internally. We give you the praise
Speaker 1: for it in Jesus' name. And everybody said, I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about the blessed risk of Yeah,
Speaker 1: the blessed risk of ministry really is what I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about, and how good it is
Speaker 1: to lean into the blessed risk of ministry. And then
Speaker 1: there's going to be a clipboard coming at the end
Speaker 1: of this. The clipboard is for you to get involved
Speaker 1: a little bit. So there's a caveat to my message.
Speaker 1: There's a level one involvement, and then there's a level
Speaker 1: two involvement, and then there's a level three. Now the
Speaker 1: clipboard doesn't say that, so when the clipboard comes, you
Speaker 1: have to kind of, you know, let us know.
Speaker 2: Level one is supporting.
Speaker 1: Undergirding, getting engaged in small groups more so small groups support.
Speaker 1: Everybody's saying small group support. Level two would be hosting
Speaker 1: a small group so somehow engaging in opening up your
Speaker 1: home and hosting a small group, even if you don't
Speaker 1: want to lead it or don't feel enabled qualified. And
Speaker 1: this could be a monthly meeting, a weekly meeting, just
Speaker 1: any kind of meeting at all. But if you want
Speaker 1: to help host, if you're even interested in having the
Speaker 1: discussion of hosting, then put that on the clipboard. Level
Speaker 1: two and so that pastor Frank will reach out and
Speaker 1: just kind of talk things through with you and explained.
Speaker 1: Level three would be you want to lead a small group.
Speaker 1: And I'm guessing in a group this size, probably half
Speaker 1: of you want to lead a small group, So lead
Speaker 1: a small group. So all right, everybody say lead a
Speaker 1: small group. Thank you for volunteering. We got that on
Speaker 1: the record right now, and so yes, you'll be getting
Speaker 1: that phone.
Speaker 2: Call leader this week.
Speaker 1: Let's let's jump into the word and I want to
Speaker 1: start with Acts thirteen thirty six. Acts thirteen thirty six,
Speaker 1: And I'm going to talk to you a little bit
Speaker 1: about purpose. What's our purpose, what's your what's your divine purpose?
Speaker 2: How do you walk that out right?
Speaker 1: Acts thirteen thirty six says now David, when he had
Speaker 1: served God's purpose in his own generation. So this is
Speaker 1: interesting when we think about the life of David with
Speaker 1: a great warrior, he expanded the territory, the promised territory,
Speaker 1: further than any other leader. David took out Goliath. It
Speaker 1: was a symbol spiritually of a victory over darkness. David
Speaker 1: instituted worship in a tent, a large tent, probably a tent,
Speaker 1: you know, bigger than this building called Zion, on the
Speaker 1: highest point in Jerusalem. And Zion means the mountain of
Speaker 1: God's pleasure, or the mountain of sunshine, or the mountain
Speaker 1: of his brightness. For forty years, the arc of the Covenant,
Speaker 1: the tabernacle didn't have the ark. The tabernacle continued in Gibbeon,
Speaker 1: and they had sacrifices in Gibeon with no arc. David
Speaker 1: had the arc, and for forty years the arc existed
Speaker 1: in Zion, in this tabernacle on this highest peak in Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: with only the sacrifice of twenty four to seven worship
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven prayer twenty four to seven instruments
Speaker 1: and prophetic word, and the bowing and the dancing and
Speaker 1: the singing of God's people. So David did a lot
Speaker 1: of crazy stuff. We could go on and on about.
Speaker 1: David also failed. David was also frail. David also messed up.
Speaker 1: David also made mistakes. David also had sexual issues. Any
Speaker 1: men in the house, David had sexual issues. Your sexual
Speaker 1: issues aren't qualifying you from God's ministry. Your sexual issues
Speaker 1: are driving you to the cross, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Your sexual issues.
Speaker 1: Shoes drive you to the cross where you stay humble
Speaker 1: and where you stay before the Lord and when you
Speaker 1: and where you learn to walk out your deliverance. But
Speaker 1: they don't keep you from ministry. Sorry, nothing disqualifies you
Speaker 1: from ministry. It didn't for David. Even Jesus is called
Speaker 1: the son of David, the son of somebody who had
Speaker 1: sexual issues. Hello, somebody, you're quieting here. I know you
Speaker 1: thought that something that you're doing disqualified you, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't disqualify you. You need to quit letting something you're
Speaker 1: doing or have allowed, disqualify you. That's a trick of
Speaker 1: the enemy. You need to let that drive you, that problem,
Speaker 1: that harm.
Speaker 2: That addiction, that issue.
Speaker 1: You need to let it drive you to the cross,
Speaker 1: drive you to deliverance, and just keep you in a
Speaker 1: place of humility. I got news for you. I can't
Speaker 1: let one issue keep me from ministry. I don't have
Speaker 1: a choice.
Speaker 2: Why do I not.
Speaker 1: Have a choice and you do? Why does that work?
Speaker 1: Why does that make sense? No, you don't have a
Speaker 1: choice either. You're on board. You're on twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1: You think I'm on twenty four to seven because you
Speaker 1: think I'm called to the ministry. The news is you're
Speaker 1: called to the ministry. I'm only the equipper of ministers.
Speaker 1: You're called to the ministry, and that's really your highest
Speaker 1: calling in your generation. Your highest calling in your generation
Speaker 1: is not what you're doing every day to make a living.
Speaker 1: It's not even parenting that'll mess up. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: want to tell you something.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: You can't let parenting get in the way of your ministry. Wow. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's called idolatry. If you're letting your children and your
Speaker 1: household get in the way of what you're called to
Speaker 1: in the Lord, that's called idolatry. Now you've placed your
Speaker 1: children above the call of the Lord on your life,
Speaker 1: you'll probably end up with mess up children. Wow. No,
Speaker 1: the call of the Lord on your life is supreme.
Speaker 1: There's nothing more important. There's nothing more important. And this
Speaker 1: this is you know, the Lord said, this is I
Speaker 1: think it's Matthew eleven twenty nine somewhere in there. He said,
Speaker 1: take my yoke upon you, and then he said something
Speaker 1: about my yoke, and a yoke.
Speaker 2: Means a burden.
Speaker 1: It means get into this thing and poll with me, like,
Speaker 1: get under this burden and poll with me.
Speaker 2: Take my yoke, like what I'm yoke?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What's what's my burden? Because I'm not going to be
Speaker 2: with you forever, but.
Speaker 1: I'm going to send my spirit to live in you.
Speaker 1: And when I send my spirit to live in you,
Speaker 1: take my yoke. What my burden has been. Take my
Speaker 1: yoke upon you, upon you, upon the way you're wired,
Speaker 1: upon the way I created you, upon your talents, upon
Speaker 1: your skills, upon your joy, upon your laughter, upon your silliness,
Speaker 1: upon your personality. Take my joy up. I mean, take
Speaker 1: my burden, my yoke upon you. And then he says,
Speaker 1: and learn of me, Learn of me, for my.
Speaker 2: Yoke is easy and my burden is now.
Speaker 1: I personally think that we have perverted the word, or
Speaker 1: we've allowed Satan to lie to us. I think most
Speaker 1: of us think anything to do with ministry is actually
Speaker 1: hard and heavy, not easy and light. And since that's
Speaker 1: our faith that's what we get, since that's our confession.
Speaker 1: That's what happens because you get what you believe. You
Speaker 1: don't get what he said unless you agree.
Speaker 2: With what he said.
Speaker 1: You have to agree with what he said to get
Speaker 1: what he said if you disagree with these So you know,
Speaker 1: I've been around Christians all of my life who that's.
Speaker 2: Part of their brag.
Speaker 1: Actually, part of their Christian brag is how hard it
Speaker 1: is and how heavy it is. They brag about that.
Speaker 1: Do you understand what I'm saying. Christians brag about contradicting
Speaker 1: the words of Jesus. But their bag becomes the fulfillment
Speaker 1: but the and they justify it by by you know,
Speaker 1: by saying, body, it'll all be worth it when we
Speaker 1: make it the glory.
Speaker 3: Oh, it'll be worth it, Mildred. Oh, life is hell
Speaker 3: on earth. But it's you know, it's but where it's
Speaker 3: going to be worth No, we're in disagreement. We're in
Speaker 3: disagreement with Jesus. Getting ahead of myself.
Speaker 1: But what I'm trying to say is David understood that
Speaker 1: he was in his generation for divine purpose. These things
Speaker 1: are in scripture because we also are being called to
Speaker 1: understand that we're living in our generation for divine purpose.
Speaker 1: And the supreme expression of our purpose is found when
Speaker 1: we take his joke upon us and we learn of him.
Speaker 1: That's the supreme expression of our purpose. Now, so we
Speaker 1: have to think about you know, what was his joke?
Speaker 2: What is his joke?
Speaker 1: Right somewhere he said, I've come for this purpose to
Speaker 1: seek and to save the lost. Remember that, so that
Speaker 1: how many of you knew that one already?
Speaker 2: I got four.
Speaker 1: Yups and no hands. How many of you knew that already?
Speaker 1: All right, that's better, hallelujah. Another place he said that
Speaker 1: his purpose was to destroy the works of Satan. Right,
Speaker 1: destroy the works of Satan. Another place, and this is
Speaker 1: when he quoted Isaiah sixty one one through three. You
Speaker 1: remember when he quoted Isaiah sixty one one through three.
Speaker 1: It was his first sermon in Luke for and Mark
Speaker 1: Matthew for right after his baptism. And he said there
Speaker 1: that he came to heal the broken heart, he came
Speaker 1: to set captives free, he came to bring good news
Speaker 1: to the poor. He came to take out vengeance on
Speaker 1: the sons, on the enemies of the sons of Adam.
Speaker 1: So he's a vengeance takeer router, like, wherever he finds
Speaker 1: somebody beating up the sons of Adam, he's going to
Speaker 1: take out vengeance on them.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: He also said he came to announce jubilee over every person,
Speaker 1: that this is the year of jubilee for every person.
Speaker 2: So these are.
Speaker 1: Things that he said in Isaiah sixty one one through three.
Speaker 1: It would be good for us to memorize this, because
Speaker 1: here's what you have to understand is that when he left,
Speaker 1: he gave you his assignment. He handed you the baton
Speaker 1: as he was going up in the clouds in Luke
Speaker 1: twenty four, as he was going up in the clouds,
Speaker 1: he was handing you in your generation, the baton of
Speaker 1: his ministry. So, if you don't know what your purpose
Speaker 1: is in the Lord, if you don't know what in
Speaker 1: the world you're called to in your generation, you're going
Speaker 1: to get up to the pearly gates and Saint Peter
Speaker 1: is going to be standing there to open the pearly gates,
Speaker 1: and Father is going to be there with a well
Speaker 1: done expression. But instead you're going to get the Pillsbury domain.
Speaker 1: You with me, No, you're not. Let's talk about this.
Speaker 1: How many of you have bought Pop Murphy's pizza before?
Speaker 1: How many have you bought Pop Murphy's pizza?
Speaker 2: Put?
Speaker 1: I want to see every hands bought a Pop and
Speaker 1: Murphy's pizza. Okay, good, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You take it home and you bake it. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. And there's instructions on top and
Speaker 1: the little ones. You heat the oven to four twenty five.
Speaker 1: But the Chicago stuffed three seventy five, Chicago stuffed longer
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, right, but the normal crust right four twenty five.
Speaker 1: And it's not good if you put more than one
Speaker 1: in the same oven. Now, how many of you have
Speaker 1: cooked that Pop Murphy's pizza? How many of you have
Speaker 1: cooked that? And you ended up messing up the cooking
Speaker 1: and it was dewey in the middle. I see a hand,
Speaker 1: dewie in the middle. Dewie in the middle. One two,
Speaker 1: three admitted, even if your spouse is here, four, five, six, seven, eight,
Speaker 1: We had twenty in the first service, nine, ten, eleven.
Speaker 1: I recounted you twelve, okay, twelve thirteen too young to cook,
Speaker 1: though I don't know about that. One thirteen okay, So
Speaker 1: we got thirteen twenty bad cooks in first service. What
Speaker 1: do you think of that? Okay, only thirteen bad cooks
Speaker 1: in this service. So what happens is and I just
Speaker 1: I hate this, right, and so I try to control
Speaker 1: the cooking. I try to control the and last time,
Speaker 1: you know, we've had two or three like sparring matches,
Speaker 1: Missus Wolf and mister Wolf because I'm trying to I'm
Speaker 1: kind of watch over the cooking because here's what here's
Speaker 1: what I hate. And Papa hates it too, that dewy middle.
Speaker 1: They bring you the pizza, you cut it with the
Speaker 1: pizza cutter, right, and then you get it and you're
Speaker 1: just so excited to have that, you know, Canadian bacon
Speaker 1: and pineapple or the meat lovers whatever it is. And
Speaker 1: then you bite in and the middle is dough. They
Speaker 1: pulled it from the oven too quick. And let me
Speaker 1: tell you something, when you pull it from the oven
Speaker 1: too quick, it's like it's just you messed it. It's
Speaker 1: dowie in the middle. Okay, it's not well done. It's
Speaker 1: not well done. What are we looking for when we appear? Listen, listen.
Speaker 1: You can make all the money you want to. You
Speaker 1: can have all of the cars, you'd like to have.
Speaker 1: You can have boats, you can have lake houses, you
Speaker 1: can have multiple houses. I know in Orthodontis with twelve houses.
Speaker 1: You can have all sorts of stuff. But if you
Speaker 1: get up there and you don't get it well done,
Speaker 1: if you're still dowe in the middle, then what in
Speaker 1: the world were you doing? If you didn't even know
Speaker 1: the purpose for which you were living. You have a purpose.
Speaker 1: God rescued you in your generation for a purpose, and
Speaker 1: he saw you in the ministry.
Speaker 2: You're called to the ministry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now in America we still have problems.
Speaker 2: Probably worldwide, we still have problems.
Speaker 1: We have problems in that we still have this clergy
Speaker 1: thing going on. We still have a little bit of
Speaker 1: a leftover from Catholicism because we all came out of Catholicism.
Speaker 1: All of us came out of Catholicism, and Catholicism was
Speaker 1: really a reach back to the old Mosaic system with
Speaker 1: the priesthood, with Aaron and the Levites and the priest
Speaker 1: and the other eleven tribes. The other eleven tribes they
Speaker 1: were spectators, they weren't ministers. We had one tribe that
Speaker 1: was the ministering tribe. The tribe of Levi, and Aaron
Speaker 1: was the high priest, and Aaron watched over that, and
Speaker 1: so all the other tribes, the other eleven tribes. They
Speaker 1: had other assignments. They had vocational assignments, they had money
Speaker 1: making assignments, they had provisionary assignments, they had warrior assignments,
Speaker 1: they had building assignments. But they had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the ministry. Their job was just to bring their tithe.
Speaker 1: Catholicism is a reach back into that formality where the
Speaker 1: clergy holds all the keys to the ministry, and the
Speaker 1: clergy does the ministry. The clergy does the deliverance. Clergy
Speaker 1: does the salvation. The clergy does the absolving of sin.
Speaker 1: The clergy makes sure you're going to heaven. The clergy
Speaker 1: does your prayers. The clergy does everything. Everything's about the clergy.
Speaker 1: That system, that system is done. That system was done
Speaker 1: with the Resurrection. That system was done two thousand years ago,
Speaker 1: done over. Father replaced that system with a brand new system.
Speaker 1: Today's ministers are not your priest. The Bible, the New
Speaker 1: Testament is the priesthood.
Speaker 2: Of every believer.
Speaker 1: You are a priest and a king unto God. Your
Speaker 1: intercession is as good as mine on Monday, Tuesday, and
Speaker 1: usually on Wednesday. No, every day, your intercession is as
Speaker 1: good as my intercession. I can't pray better than you.
Speaker 1: I can't decree better than you. I can't prophesy better
Speaker 1: than you. I can't heal better than you. I can't
Speaker 1: forgive better than you. I can't absolve better than you.
Speaker 1: I can get somebody assurance of salvation better than you.
Speaker 1: I can't be an ultra worker better than you. That's
Speaker 1: why we don't have me being the sole altar worker.
Speaker 1: I'm not king ultra worker. It's the priesthood of every believer.
Speaker 1: We're all in the ministry. Did you know you were
Speaker 1: in the ministry? You're in full time ministry. You're in
Speaker 1: full time ministry. That means you better know what it
Speaker 1: is that the yoke kids, that you better know what
Speaker 1: your assignment is. Because this is supreme. Everything bows to this.
Speaker 1: Even my vocation is just my bi vocational support for
Speaker 1: my ministry. I might be good at it, I might
Speaker 1: be talented at it. People might want to pay me
Speaker 1: for what I do vocationally. You know, in America, seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of the churches are pastored by bi vocational pastors.
Speaker 1: The church doesn't pay them a salary. They have to work.
Speaker 1: Guess what, that's just like every other Christian in America.
Speaker 1: You're a bivocational pastor, You're a bivocational ministry. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say. You are called to the ministry.
Speaker 1: You are called to the ministry. We still have this
Speaker 1: mindset that only seminary graduates are called to the ministry,
Speaker 1: Only people that hold a position at the church are
Speaker 1: called to the ministry. Only people who get paid to
Speaker 1: do this are called to the ministry. Think about the
Speaker 1: implication of that contradiction to the words of Jesus. Think
Speaker 1: about that implication. Number One, You're going to be Pillsbury
Speaker 1: when you get to the pearly gates. He's going to
Speaker 1: poke a finger in you and just hit dough. You're
Speaker 1: going to have to come back because you're not well done.
Speaker 1: You're not going to get it well done. You're going
Speaker 1: to get a partial done, partial done. My good and
Speaker 1: partially faithful servant, Enter into a mobile home. Enter into
Speaker 1: a mobile home on the backside of Heaven's dump. You
Speaker 1: think I'm joking. The Bible says that our works are
Speaker 1: going to be tried by fire, and if our works
Speaker 1: have not measured up to our calling, we're going to
Speaker 1: make it into glory only by the skin of our teeth,
Speaker 1: and there will be no crowns for us. This has
Speaker 1: eternal implications. Your car has a five year implication, your
Speaker 1: stuff has a seventy eighty ninety year implication. But your
Speaker 1: works before the Lord have an implication. You're gonna you
Speaker 1: never will have another chance to be a minister again.
Speaker 1: On the other side of this, like you have now,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. Do you understand. Let's read it
Speaker 1: Ephesian chapter four, just for phone, and then I want
Speaker 1: to I want to tell you, though this sounds heavy.
Speaker 1: Everybody say heavy, Oh he's being heavy, but I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you that your joy is connected
Speaker 1: to this. I want to tell you that your wealth
Speaker 1: is connected to this. I mean what doctor Craig was
Speaker 1: talking on right now. Your wealth is for the offering.
Speaker 2: It's true. Your wealth is even connected to.
Speaker 1: This right because it because because the Lord makes it
Speaker 1: easy and he makes it light. But if we disassociate
Speaker 1: from our primary purpose and what we're called to, if
Speaker 1: we disassociate it from it, then we end up and
Speaker 1: our life is still hard. Even though we're a believer.
Speaker 1: Our life is hard, even though we've matured a little
Speaker 1: bit in the Lord. Our life is hard because we're
Speaker 1: not embracing the yoke of ministry Ephesians four. So Christ
Speaker 1: himself gave the apostles.
Speaker 2: Who did it? Who did it?
Speaker 1: Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, of pastors,
Speaker 1: and the teachers to equip his people for works of service.
Speaker 1: To do what to equip his people for works of service?
Speaker 1: The word service in the Greek is doma. Everybody say domama.
Speaker 1: It's not hard. The word doma. It's translated in the
Speaker 1: King James appropriately the work for works of ministry, works
Speaker 1: of ministry. Christ gave these five offices to the church
Speaker 1: to equip all of God's people for the ministry, for
Speaker 1: the ministry. We're all called to the ministry. You're called
Speaker 1: to the ministry, not fun. You've been wanting all your
Speaker 1: life to be called the ministry. Now you know that
Speaker 1: you are, so that the Body of Christ may be
Speaker 1: built up until we all reach unity in the faith
Speaker 1: and the knowledge of the Son of God. This is
Speaker 1: so the body will be built up. Now listen, He's
Speaker 1: going to tell you how that happens in a minute,
Speaker 1: is that the building of the body is not just
Speaker 1: through the equippers. The building of the body actually happens
Speaker 1: also through the ministers. So the body of Christ will
Speaker 1: be built up and come into the measure of the
Speaker 1: fullness of Christ. Did you know that holding Satan wants
Speaker 1: us to hang on to this old mindset, the clergy mindset.
Speaker 2: Woe is me.
Speaker 1: I'm just a little layperson. I don't know nothing. I
Speaker 1: can't lead anybody. I'm just a dummy head. I can't
Speaker 1: have a small group. I can't lead a soul. I
Speaker 1: don't have anything to say. I can't prophesy, I can't pray.
Speaker 1: Go see pastor Dwyane, have you called the office? Satan
Speaker 1: is so thrilled with that thinking, that thinking that reaches
Speaker 1: back into the days that God already canceled and said, no,
Speaker 1: that's not what I want. And then the church isn't
Speaker 1: coming into maturity. The church isn't coming into maturity because
Speaker 1: I won't embrace my calling. See until I embrace my calling,
Speaker 1: do you know how much answering my calling has caused
Speaker 1: me to mature. I've been doing this for forty two years.
Speaker 1: Actually forty four years. I started doing this before Bible College.
Speaker 1: I started doing this at nineteen youth pastor at nineteen
Speaker 1: So I've been doing this a long time, right, So
Speaker 1: just by accident, I've grown, I've matured a little bit,
Speaker 1: just you know, just by accident this because you know.
Speaker 2: But well, here's what.
Speaker 1: I'm saying is that when you embrace responsibility, that's when
Speaker 1: you grow. Hey, only, let's have sex. Okay, Oh whoops,
Speaker 1: I think something's in my tummy. Oh well, praise God,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be parents. Do you know how much that
Speaker 1: caused you to grow? You talk about mature. What if
Speaker 1: you would have never popped that seed in there? You know,
Speaker 1: what if you would being too frank, being too honest.
Speaker 1: What if you would have never had a little fun, Right, Well,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have had that child, and you'd still be stupid.
Speaker 1: You'd still be just a big boy, you still be
Speaker 1: a retard, you still be messing around and doing stupid
Speaker 1: stuff with your money. But now all at once you
Speaker 1: got a responsibility. That responsibility has actually produced maturity in you.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the way it works.
Speaker 1: As long as you shirk the Lord's calling on your life,
Speaker 1: you just stay a big dummy. You can be online
Speaker 1: all you want to. You can have entertainment, you can
Speaker 1: mess up, you can do whatever. You can even sin
Speaker 1: before Sunday. And it's okay. I'm not teaching anybody, Pastor Dwayne.
Speaker 1: If I'm sinning this week, I might not even get
Speaker 1: a word for Sunday. Lord, have mercy. My whole life
Speaker 1: is on the line. You hear what I'm saying. Time
Speaker 1: for you to rise up, Time for you to mature,
Speaker 1: Time for you to embrace your calling, Time for you
Speaker 1: to embrace discipling. Oh my goodness, this is one of
Speaker 1: the things.
Speaker 2: That he said.
Speaker 1: He said, this is his assignment, and he gave it
Speaker 1: to us, go and make disciples of all the nations,
Speaker 1: and go and teach them everything that I've taught you.
Speaker 1: That's actually, this is actually did you know what this
Speaker 1: is called, Matthew twenty eight eighteen through twenty You know
Speaker 1: it's called it's called the Great the Great Commission. You
Speaker 1: know what that means, The Great co Mission, the Great
Speaker 1: co Mission, meaning it's the mission that you are co
Speaker 1: brought into the Lord with. You actually don't have an
Speaker 1: independent mission. Now you can pretend you have an independent mission. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm an entrepreneur. Yeah, I'm this, I'm not in the
Speaker 1: other thing.
Speaker 2: You can be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: You just better remember your primary mission is the comission.
Speaker 1: Your primary mission is the coast. So how are you
Speaker 1: walking that out? How are you fulfilling that? Well? Most
Speaker 1: Christians in America are going to leave Sunday and virtually
Speaker 1: do very little, like almost nothing, to walk that out,
Speaker 1: because their life is their own, their home is their castle,
Speaker 1: their time is their own. They gave, they gave their
Speaker 1: ten percent, and they showed up for church. Most Americans,
Speaker 1: that's how they're going to function. And so the churches
Speaker 1: remain stagnant and growth is small and soul winning is little.
Speaker 1: Did you know that ninety eight percent of all Christians
Speaker 1: will never lead in America? Listen to me, ninety eight
Speaker 1: percent of all Christians in America will never lead a
Speaker 1: soul to the Lord. That sounded like a Pillsbury doughboy
Speaker 1: to me. That sounds like when you get to the
Speaker 1: priverly gates, we're going to get a lot of I
Speaker 1: wish you were well done, but you're not well done.
Speaker 1: You only have done of Americans will never Christians. Christians
Speaker 1: in America will never lead a soul to the Lord?
Speaker 2: Is that sad? Is that scary?
Speaker 1: Do you want to be part of that? I think
Speaker 1: we have to think. We have to think radically. We
Speaker 1: have to think different. We have to think like we're pioneers.
Speaker 1: We have to think like we're church builders. We have
Speaker 1: to think like we're kingdom growers. We have to think
Speaker 1: like we're called to the ministry. We have to think
Speaker 1: like we're scrappers and fighters. We have to think like
Speaker 1: this is supreme. We have to think like, how do
Speaker 1: we overcome darkness? How do we love people better?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Here's the truth. I want to tell you the truth.
Speaker 1: One of the most, probably the most effective mechanism for
Speaker 1: us to flesh out our calling. Probably the most effective
Speaker 1: mechanism is a small group. Thirty four years ago, Joel
Speaker 1: and I started a small group in our house. This
Speaker 1: church is the meturation of a small group. For twelve years,
Speaker 1: we met every Wednesday night without stopping. We never missed
Speaker 1: one in twelve years, with our kids there, with everybody
Speaker 1: coming and going, with traffic and cars lining around the block.
Speaker 1: Twelve years, that's seven hundred and eighty Wednesday nights or
Speaker 1: something like that. With diapers and troubles and people staying late,
Speaker 1: and crisis and difficulties and people to pray for and
Speaker 1: people to deliver and people to minister too, and me
Speaker 1: not having a lesson sometimes and not knowing what in
Speaker 1: the world I was going to talk about, and this
Speaker 1: that and the inner thing. And sometimes we had a
Speaker 1: boom box, and sometimes we had a guitar, and sometimes
Speaker 1: we had really good snacks, and sometimes they were terrible.
Speaker 2: Just everything right, and.
Speaker 1: People wearing at our carpet and wearing out, wearing out
Speaker 1: our hardwood with the little pokey's.
Speaker 2: On the bottom of their heels.
Speaker 1: But every moment was worth it, Every moment was worth it.
Speaker 1: Two years ago, we moved to a new neighborhood. We're like,
Speaker 1: how do we change this neighborhood? What can we do
Speaker 1: in this neighborhood. We weren't very effective in the last neighborhood.
Speaker 1: We really weren't. I would walk the neighborhood, pray over
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. I fastened over the neighborhood, prayed over the neighbors,
Speaker 1: tried to minister to some of the neighbors.
Speaker 2: We weren't very effective.
Speaker 1: We honestly weren't in the last neighborhood, and we were
Speaker 1: like dead dog determined, we want to make a difference
Speaker 1: in this neighborhood. There's two hundred and fifty homes in
Speaker 1: this neighborhood. So two years ago we started a small
Speaker 1: group with one of our neighbors. We've had seventy families
Speaker 1: come to our small group. They don't come to this church,
Speaker 1: they don't have to come to this church. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to convince him to come to this church. We're
Speaker 1: just trying to love on people and lead them into
Speaker 1: a deeper experience with Jesus. At the last meeting, Joel spoke.
Speaker 1: Joel said, I think I just want to talk out
Speaker 1: of my apologetics lesson. I just want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about what it is to know the Lord,
Speaker 1: and I want to talk about my own doubts. And
Speaker 1: so she talked about Thomas, doubting Thomas, and she talked
Speaker 1: about doubts. We had a Chinese lady there, a Buddhist
Speaker 1: Chinese lady. She reached out afterwards text to Joel because
Speaker 1: we have all their phone numbers, because we've worked hard
Speaker 1: to do this. You know, it's simple, but it does
Speaker 1: take effort.
Speaker 2: Right, So for.
Speaker 1: Months we just walked around and put a postcard in
Speaker 1: everybody's mailbox. And then you know, we do the next
Speaker 1: door thing, and we do Facebook stuff and and but
Speaker 1: after the meeting, and she shared a little bit out
Speaker 1: of what it is to not be condemned by your doubt.
Speaker 2: Let your doubt.
Speaker 1: Drive you toward more answers, and don't be condemned by
Speaker 1: your doubt. Then people start reaching out afterwards, they're texting
Speaker 1: pastor Jow, can we meet for coffee? Can you tell
Speaker 1: me more about why you're so assured of your salvation.
Speaker 1: People are hungry, people are lonely. The way America lives life,
Speaker 1: you know, we live life platform centered, entertainment centered.
Speaker 2: It's not just the church.
Speaker 1: All of America is kind of platform centered, entertainment centered
Speaker 1: that leads people really lonely. Love can make a difference.
Speaker 1: That's where small groups come in. That's where houses come in.
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty Vision Acts twenty twenty, the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: Vision of Church Growth his public meetings, but house to house,
Speaker 1: Paul said, I never failed to proclaim to you the
Speaker 1: gospel publicly and house to house. Those house to house
Speaker 1: meetings are so critical, they're so vital or so powerful
Speaker 1: and they're so easy. But if we don't get involved
Speaker 1: in some of these expressions, then we aren't really working
Speaker 1: the most effective too. We have to not only reach,
Speaker 1: but disciple and touch and love and minister to the
Speaker 1: saved and the un saved. And we've had both come
Speaker 1: to our Late TAPS group and we only meet once
Speaker 1: a month, once a month, and it's like been super
Speaker 1: effective to get these people there. It's crazy that they
Speaker 1: would come.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 1: We never who's got to know who's going to come
Speaker 1: through the door. But they all come with needs, and
Speaker 1: they all come hungry for love and open the prayer
Speaker 1: and wanting something deeper in God.
Speaker 2: And you carry it. You carry it.
Speaker 1: You carry something that you can impart and even if
Speaker 1: you host something you know level too is just even
Speaker 1: if you host it. Frank said, there's the there's a
Speaker 1: there's a guy from incarceration. There's a guy who's just
Speaker 1: a meeting and he's showing the chosen.
Speaker 2: Or just watching the chosen.
Speaker 1: Then they finished with a little discussion and some prayer
Speaker 1: and everybody's edified and they're building community and he's just
Speaker 1: made himself vulnerable. You don't have to know every answer
Speaker 1: he's just made himself vulnerable. He's taking a risk, and
Speaker 1: I'm telling you the blessing of it, the blessing on
Speaker 1: my word. It'll blow your mind. Read Isaiah fifty eight.
Speaker 1: Let him blow your mind. Then your restoration will spring forth.
Speaker 1: Then the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Speaker 1: Just read these scriptures. Just meditate on some of these scriptures,
Speaker 1: the one I was thinking of this morning. Mark ten
Speaker 1: twenty nine, Mark ten twenty eight through thirty. Lord, we've
Speaker 1: left everything to follow you. We've left everything and to
Speaker 1: follow you. What's in it for us?
Speaker 3: Lord?
Speaker 2: Lord, We've sacrificed.
Speaker 3: Lord.
Speaker 1: We're sacrificing our house, sacrificing time. I'm missing a coaching meeting.
Speaker 1: I'm missing a game, I'm missing a dinner, I'm missing
Speaker 1: my favorite show. Lord, we've left everything. We've left some
Speaker 1: stuff to follow you. Oh, nobody's left something. Who won't
Speaker 1: in this life receive a hundredfold. I chose years ago
Speaker 1: to follow this mission for my life, and I couldn't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do what others have done. I couldn't follow
Speaker 1: a better path of investments. I couldn't follow a better
Speaker 1: path of this, that or the other thing financially, and
Speaker 1: the Lord would like he'd pull me up sometimes, like
Speaker 1: when we built our third house. I was just going
Speaker 1: to keep building houses. And then the Lord's like, no,
Speaker 1: I need your attention right here. Are we going to
Speaker 1: pay attention to the Lord's calling on our life? Are
Speaker 1: we going to continue to put money ahead of the
Speaker 1: Lord's calling. One time, we had a big fight and
Speaker 1: I had made an offer on five acres over on
Speaker 1: the hill with a view of the mountain with three
Speaker 1: homes on it, right up of forty fourth Street in Tacoma,
Speaker 1: and it's above the Puyallup Valley. And because build and sell,
Speaker 1: build and sell, that's what I do. And we had
Speaker 1: a big fight and I had my house listed. I
Speaker 1: had an offer on that house. Guess who won the fight.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit won the fight. Holy Spirit said no, it's
Speaker 1: not time for that. It didn't mean the promise of
Speaker 1: blessing wasn't there. What God's done with us is beyond
Speaker 1: what I could have ever done. Where we set financially
Speaker 1: today beyond what It's beyond explanation, and it's beyond imagination.
Speaker 1: But it's because I stayed true to this. I'm saying
Speaker 1: this for your benefit.
Speaker 2: Not for mine.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, everything you give up for the Gospel,
Speaker 1: God will reward you above and beyond, and it will
Speaker 1: blow your mind what He does. When you prioritize building
Speaker 1: people instead of your empire. When you prioritize building people
Speaker 1: instead of your empire, God will begin to build your
Speaker 1: empire for you because you prioritize the building people and
Speaker 1: not building your empire. Say with me this morning, Level one,
Speaker 1: lovel one, I want you to let me know today,
Speaker 1: let us know today. I want to be a greater
Speaker 1: support to small groups. They're going to start up fresh
Speaker 1: in the fall, brand new small groups in September. I
Speaker 1: want to be a part of supporting. I want to
Speaker 1: I want to be an assistant leader. I want to
Speaker 1: be helping with food. I want to be praying. I
Speaker 1: want to be supporting somehow. I want to be plugged
Speaker 1: in small group Number two. I want to open my home.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what it looks like yet, I
Speaker 1: have no idea what it looks like. Tell us you're
Speaker 1: a level two on the thing today when you sign up,
Speaker 1: it's just say level two.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it looks like, but I'm open.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm going to show a chosen video.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm going to show a Dave
Speaker 1: Ramsey video, or I don't know if we're just going
Speaker 1: to watch the sermon from Sunday and talk about it.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what we're going to do, but
Speaker 1: I'm interested. Or level three, I want to lead a
Speaker 1: small group. I want to lead a small group. Now, lastly,
Speaker 1: here's what I want to tell you. Since you're called
Speaker 1: to the ministry, you should go to seminary. Since you're
Speaker 1: called the ministry, why don't you go to seminary.
Speaker 2: It starts September.
Speaker 1: Twenty two called Kingdom School of Transformation. It's on Monday
Speaker 1: nights only. It is such an easy commitment and you
Speaker 1: will become so smart theologically. You'll go through the apologetics class.
Speaker 1: You'll go through church history. You'll know what a Protestant is.
Speaker 1: You're going to go through the Seven Mountain class, the
Speaker 1: Dominion of Jesus class, the Hebrews class, so you understand
Speaker 1: the difference between the old and the new. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're going to grow like a weed in Eastern Washington.
Speaker 1: If you will come to seminary. Stop today and talk
Speaker 1: to us, take the brochure, find out more. It's dirt cheap,
Speaker 1: and you're going to go like crazy and it will
Speaker 1: feed you. To be a feeder because you are called
Speaker 1: to the ministry.
Speaker 2: Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen. And we're going to shed every
Speaker 2: excuse together.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be fighters, we're gonna be scrappers, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be church pioneers, church growers. We're gonna build churches and
Speaker 1: build campuses and build people because we love people and
Speaker 1: we're called to take his joke upon us. Father, we
Speaker 1: thank you for this day. We shout grace over your people,
Speaker 1: enablement over your people in Jesus' name, And everybody said, Amen.
Speaker 1: If you're brand new or newer, meet us back in
Speaker 1: the back and let us get you a coffee and
Speaker 1: a cookie.
Speaker 2: God bless your church.