Think Above and Beyond

Mum and Dad said they were visiting her. Would they

like to cut we would would we like them to

come and speak? And I said, of course yes. Rich

and Mimi live in They live in Vancouver, part of

a church there which they've handed on to the next generation.

And God's doing some amazing things. I'm sure Rich is

going to give us a glimpse of some of the things.

I've even given you one or two hints as we've

talked about it. Laying foundations of digital school and university

around church planting, and there's some amazing things going on.

So Rich, come and share with us, Come and be

at home. Welcome him Church, Father, God, I thank you

for this, Mighty Man of God. I thank you that Lord,

he's laid foundations Lord, where no one else has laid foundations. Father,

thank you. He's gone to places that you've taken him to.

And Father, we welcome here, him here, and we welcome

you as Lord, You've spoken to him, speak to us.

Let our hearts be open, our hearts be ready in Jesus.

Then I'm end.

Thank you so much, thank you for the introduction. It's

wonderful to be with everyone this morning. I'm just going

to set myself up just a bit here. Actually, this

is the very first time I've ever used my laptop

to preach. I'm old school. I usually print out my messages,

and my dear daughter, she's all digital, so she doesn't

have a printer at home, so I'm glad to be

able to use my laptop here. As Pastor Dave said,

we come from Vancouver, Canada. I was born and raised

in the States. We pastored there for almost fifteen years

before our family heard the call of the Lord to

move to Vancouver, which is a very multicultural city, very

much like London. So visually when we come to London,

we just feel very much at home seeing the mix

of the nations that are here in the different ethnicities,

so international, and we really really love the city here.

We planted a church there and we had a startup

team of six people, and that was my four children

and Mimi and I. At that time when we moved

from the States to Vancouver, our kids were twelve, ten, eight,

and five, and over the course of the next twenty

years we were able to establish the church and I'm

happy to say that our core team did a great

job and we are so glad that we have a

wonderful church that's there. As Pastor Dave mentioned, we have

passed on now to an associate pastor. I'm going to

make him mention more of some details in terms of

our transition. After passing for thirty some years, we are

now focused on church planting and the Lord is really

opening up some wonderful doors for us. And so I'll

get into some of those details in just a moment,

but let's look to the Lord as we.

Get into the message.

Here, Father, we thank you for God's people, and we

thank you for.

The power of your word.

We thank you for the Holy Spirit that quickens the

word to us so that it becomes alive, that it

speaks to our hearts, that it gives strength to us,

becomes spiritual man for us. Thank you for each person

that's in this room. Thank you for each person that's online.

That you are the great Shepherd and you see every

person's need and where they are. So we commit this

message and this time to you in the precious name

of Jesus.

Amen.

So the title of my message this morning is think

above and beyond. It's going to be anchored in a

very famous passage from HAGII, chapter two, verse nine, in

which the prophet says to Israel that the glory of

the latter house, the glory of the latter house.

Will be greater than the former.

Now, if you pause and just think about this verse,

actually it's a very bold word to the people of Israel,

and it was also.

A challenge to think above and beyond.

The Israelites had returned from their exile from Babylon to

Jerusalem to see their beloved temple in ruins, as it

had been left seventy years earlier when Babylon had burned

it to the ground through a.

Decree by King Cyrus.

The Jewish people were returning to Jerusalem in many ways

of immigration, and Zerubbable kind of a big name there,

was appointed as governor of the group, and his first

order of business was to go about repairing the temple.

So he went back there after seventeen years of stops

and starts, in little progress. So they're trying to get

their temple rebuilt. HAGGII drops it prophetic bomb. The glory

of the latter house will be greater than the former. Now,

to understand the staggering implications of this word, we need

to recall for a moment the glory of the former

temple and why this was such a bold prophetic word.

That temple was originally built by Solomon, and this was

a masterpiece of architectural splendor, featuring lavish materials and divine

manifestations that made it the spiritual heart of Israel. There

was tremendous gold that was put into this temple. In fact,

Solomon's father, King David, whom we of course know well,

had given his son billions of dollars worth of gold

to build this temple. The floors, the walls, the inner

sanctuary was gold laden and maybe you did not know

they even had gold nails.

That's how much gold was in this temple.

There was intricate carvings, the walls were adorned with cherubims

and palm trees, open flowers, many precious woods, cedars of Lebanon, Cyprus,

olive wood, and of course as you walked in towards

the temple, you saw this monumental bronze artwork, which was

the massive pillars, and these were approximately twenty seven feet

tall with intricate lily shaped capitals. Of course, the inner sanctuary,

which was the most glorious part of the temple, was

the holies of holies.

Maybe you didn't.

Know, but the dimensions of it was a perfect cube

inside two fifteen foot tall shrubam made of olive wood

and overlaid with gold.

And of course, when the whole temple.

Was dedicated, the Chicago Glory, the very presence of God

came so powerfully and visibly that the priests that were

dedicating it were put under by the power of God.

And maybe one little.

Thing that we haven't noticed in that whole story was

that there was a unique kind of hush policy for

building the temple. None of the temple as it was

being built was done on site. All the stones were

fully finished at a quarry off site.

There was no hammer, chisel, or iron tool.

So it was a very quiet and a very holy

building process. So as the people saw Solomon build this temple,

it was incredibly glorious. Fast forward close to seventy five

years later, it's completely burned down, and HAGGYI says, when

you rebuild this, it's going to be more glorious than

it was under Solomon's temple.

So that was crazy, borderline.

Insane to say something like it, And how could this be? Well,

the answer lies in Zachariah chapter four. So there was

a prophetic duo, a prophetic tandem at that time. Hagyi

and Zachariah were both prophesying to the nation of Israel.

And so besides hagy prophesying, Zachariah also was prophesying.

And in chapter four.

Of Zachariah four, this is the key to how the

temple will be greater. The plumb line is found in

Zerububule's hand, chapter four, verse ten, And in that verse

of verse ten says these seven referring to the seven

eyes of God, will be glad when they see the

plumb line in the hand of Zerubbible.

And this is part of God's.

End time purpose is to put a plumb line in

each one of your hands, not just in Zerubibles, but

in every single one of your hands. It's the measuring

line by which you will fulfill your call, your destiny,

the way that God will use you to impact the world.

It's amazing to sit here in this wonderful church and

to see all these flags, maybe thirty nations represented here.

It's a display of the impact that this church will have.

And so when we talk about the plumbline, it's that

measuring line by which God will give to you to

fulfill your call, and that plumb line represents how you're

going to go about the Father's business. Where, what, when, how,

and with whom It's going to be that specific, that concrete,

and that detailed. As a pastor for over thirty years

and also traveling in the prophetic ministry, the two most

common questions I get are, how do you hear the

voice of God? I'm sure, Dave, you've heard it many times.

And the second is what is God's will for my life?

And it's like this mysterious things that Christians are trying

to find and sons and daughters of God, what is

God's will for my life? In Colossus, chapter one, verse nine,

God's heart is very clear. You know the thousands of

prayers that the apostle Paul prayed, there were a few

that were captured for us in the scriptures, and this

is one of them.

And he's praying to.

The Colossian he's writing to the Colossian church and he

gives them this prayer.

He says, when we have heard.

Of your girl, this is the pre verse nine, we

have not ceased to pray for you and to ask

that you be filled with the knowledge of His will

in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

God's will is that you know His will.

God's heart and burden is that you be filled with

the understanding of why He created you what you're called

to do. God is not a scrooge somehow just meeting

out a little knowledge here and there. He wants you

to be filled in the Greek that's the word, to

be overflowing with the knowledge of His will in all

spiritual wisdom and understanding. So it's not just you have

the big picture, but you have the detailed and specific picture.

This is God's heart for each person, so that, as

it says in verse ten, you may walk in a

manner worthy of the Lord, to please them in all respects,

bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the

knowledge of God. How do we bear fruitfulness? How do

we walk in the joy of the Lord? How do

we have purpose? How do we have momentum? How do

we break out of our doldrums? How do we break

out of our passivity? It's to walk in the purpose

that God has for us. God gives us a north

star and we start moving in that direction, and the

Holy Spirit begins to orchestrate things to cause those things

to come to pass. So, in the context of Zachariah

chapter four, the scripture is going to show for us

how the greater glory of your temple, your house of destiny,

will be built, and how you can walk in this

wonderful plumb line that God is putting into your hand.

So the first point that we're going to see here

and the exhortation of the prophet, is not to despise

the day of small beginning. Again, this is a famous

phrase that we've heard and read before.

The prophet says, who has despised the day of small beginnings?

So Za Rubbobula is standing there, He's looking at this rubble,

and he's like, oh, how am I going to build

something that's going to be more glorious than Solomon's temple?

And the prophets exhorting him, don't despise the little days.

Don't despise the small things. Great things start in small ways.

Christianity started in a manger. Deliverance of the Hebrews happened

and began in a floating bacinet. Gideon's ministry began with

a one man wine press. Small things when you look

at it visually seem to be underwhelming and underpromising, but

they over deliver because of the Kingdom Dna that's in them.

Jesus said, he is faithful and little, will be faithful

and much, And is your faithful in the little things

that God gives you. Step by step, chapter by chapter,

page by page, He will give you more and more.

The glory will increase in your life. But you have

to be obedient to the promptings. You have to be

obedient to the things that God quickens in your heart.

So don't despise the day of small beginnings. Second thing

that we see in chapter four of Zachariah, he says

it's not by.

Might and not by power, but by my spirit.

Again a very famous phrase, but I think maybe we

get refreshed this morning by seeing in the context of

the overall word that's given by Zachariah the prophet, not

by might, not by power, but by my spirit. We

live in a secular context. We live in a world

that's just obsessed with success and pursuing goals and pursuing

money and becoming famous. And it's the antithesis to how

God gets things done. What makes us distinctive as Christians

is that we are under the guidance and influence of

the Holy Spirit. We don't do things out of soul power.

We don't do things out of our own imagination. We

do things because we are quickened by the Holy Spirit. Now,

in Acts chapter thirteen, when the church was planted there

in Antioch, we know that God also spoke of very

radical things to the leaders there.

He said, set aside for me, Saul and Barnabas.

Now we're talking about the founding pastors of the church.

Why would you send out the founding pastors so quickly?

Because as God was about to begin a church planting

movement into Europe into Asia Minor, he wanted his best

leaders to be out there. He wanted the picture of

what Jesus would look like embodied in those leaders to

be planting churches, so that when people began to hear

about Jesus, what is this thing we've heard about about

this man that raised him the dead? And they had

a visual of people and leaders that had embodied the

very life of Jesus.

And it was by the Spirit that they did it.

And we know, of course Acts two, that glorious chapter

where the Holy Spirit is poured out. It's gonna come

again church all over the earth. There's going to be

waves and waves and waves of the Holy Spirit pouring out,

filling our mouths with joy, filling our mouths with articulation,

filling our mouths with anointing. We're gonna speak the Gospel

with clarity and unction and power, so that when we

say the words of Jesus and declare what he has done,

it's gonna land on good soil. Oil will break open

the hard ground of soil that's in people's hearts, because

the anointing will break the yoke. The anointing will break

the bondage. The anointing will break the hardness and unbelief

that's over people.

It has to be done by the Holy Spirit.

So I encourage you day after day to sow into

your spiritual life, to get under the presence of God,

to be able to sense the power and the moving

of the Holy Spirit, so that when you open your

mouth it's life. Like Peter when he opened his mouth,

it was life. And thousands came in Jerusalem at that time,

went from neutral to turbo because of one's sermon.

And that was because the Holy Spirit isn't it interesting?

It was tongues of fire, not fire that came on

their hands or fire that came on their feet. There's

something about the articulation of the Gospel that the world needs.

We can do great good deeds in the name of Jesus,

and social compassion is something that's very close to the Lord,

very much associated with the.

Work of the Gospel.

But if the articulation doesn't come out, if the name

of Jesus doesn't come out, salvation doesn't happen. There are

many religious societies that are not Christian that doing very

good humanitarian things.

But we need the name of Jesus to be declared.

So it's not by might and not by power, but

by the Holy Spirit. That's what makes you and me

distinctive in this city, on this college, from the countries

that you've come from and the countries that you're going

to go to. A third thing that we see from

this passage comes from verse seven. Do not be deterred

by the bigness of the task. God's grace will sustain you.

So the prophe says, what are you.

O, great mountain?

Before before zerubbable, you will become a plane, and he

will bring forth the topstone with shouts of grace grace

to it. So back in those days, when you finish

the building, you'll put a capstone or topstone, as if

to say it is done now again. Zerubbabul just using

his own visuals like this is a mountain of an

assignment that God has given me. But the prophetic word

to him is like, you don't need to worry about

the size of it, because God is going to resize

the situation for you. When David went to see Goliath,

thank you very much. All a saul soldiers were just

in fear. That's why no one went out right to

fight against Goliath. But somehow, when David went into battle,

he didn't see Goliath as someone too big to overcome.

He saw him as someone too big to miss.

And the spirit of.

God resized the situation and what would look like a giant,

actually David was a giant in the situation.

That's what the grace of God does.

He helps change our inner vision so that we see

as a spirit sees and not as we see. So

what looks like a great mountain will now be under

your feet, and it will be a plane. As the

prophet says, turns it into a plane. That's why Paul

says in First Thessalonians, faithful is he who calls you,

and he will do it. Related to this point three A,

you will have a finishing anointing. This is so important

for us as Christians. We can be filled with a

lot of inspiration and we can get started on something,

but God wants us to be finishers. We're not called

to just be starters. We're called to be finishers. And

one of the most glorious things that Jesus said was

it is finished. There is no man under heaven that

could have done what Jesus did. And right at the

very end, he prayed, Oh God, if this cup can

pass from me. But it was almost like I've got

to finish. I've got to finish. And he got to

the finish line and he said, it is finished. God

wants every single one of us to be able to say,

as Paul did, I have fought the good fight and

I have finished the race. Don't stop halfway into the race,

don't stop three fourths into the race, or stumble at

the end, hit the tape and get to the finish line.

David didn't just knock out Goliath. We tend to think, okay,

the stone that hit him between the forehead. By the way,

this is where we get the name of our church

planting organization, five stones impact. That's a whole sermon in

of itself. And okay, I'll just share one thing. God

showed us that the stone to the head is the

truth that he needs to hit the mindset of the world.

They need that truth right between the eyes. But as

Goliath went down because of this projectile that hit him,

he was just knocked unconscious, and the Israelites could have

celebrated a little bit too early. We won the battle

is ours. But what did David do? He finished and

cut off the head of Goliath. Now that might seem

a little gruesome, but you know, finishing the job requires

some grit, It requires a strong stomach, It requires that

final push, and we need to have that kind of determination,

and we need to have that finishing anointing overcome the

challenges obstacles of spiritual warfare. I'm sure we have testimonies

and stories of the different things that God has taken

us through as we've walked in His will. But just

know that the grace of God will be sufficient and

it's so key that we have the vision to go

all the way. A fourth thing here that we see

from Zachariah forore is that God will provide prophetic encouragement

and confirmation along the way.

Verse six.

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbable, not

by might, not by power, not by but by my spirits,

says the Lord. So that was what Zacharia was saying

to Zerubibyl. But in the cross reference to this and

Ezra chapter five, verse one, the two teamed up, and

that verse says, I.

Don't have a quoted here.

The prophets Hagia and Zacharia, a son of Idle, prophesied

to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name

of God of Israel, who was over them. Then Zerubebil,

the son of Shitiel, et cetera, et cetera, a lot

of fancy names. It says, they rose up. Okay, So

for seventeen years Zerubibul is working. It's not really going

very well, doesn't seem very fruitful.

There's no breakthrough.

And then the prophetic word comes and there's an activating power.

To the prophetic word.

It says, they all rose up and again that's the

Holy Spirit doing something. The Holy Spirit is going to

speak something to run met Christian Fellowship. The Holy Spirit

is going to speak something to you, and it will

activate your spirit, and you will rise up and walk

in a different mantle and will walk in a different

momentum and energy that comes from the Holy Spirit.

That's what we want.

That's what allows us to rise up with wings like eagles,

to run and not be weary. When we had made

the decision to move from United States to Vancouver, we

had a fairly large church. It was six seven hundred people.

It was out in the suburbs in the city of Minneapolis,

and we had a lot of trades people in our church.

It was wonderful because there was never lacking of help

or hands to get things done. And God had called

us now to this cosmopolitan city on the West coast, Vancouver,

one of the most well known, highly rated cities in

the world. And before we had told anyone, I happened

to be preaching in another church and the intercessors gathered

around me in their prayers for me, and one of

the pro warriors there got a picture said Pastor Rich,

I don't know if this is going to make sense

to you. But I see that God is switching out

your shoes. You're not going to be in work boots anymore.

You're going to be in wingtip shoes. And that was

such a powerful encouragement. That was such a clear sense

that God was using the prophetic to bring confirmation, to

bring encouragement that we were walking in the ways of God.

My spiritual mentor visited us soon after we moved to Vancouver.

At that time, we were in a situation a little

bit like this, and during the worship time, he had

an open vision and he said, I see that you're

going to be in a place where the world is

going to see you. And the front of a building

that the Lord is going to place you and is

going to be fully glass, and it's going to be

facing south.

Pardon me.

And so at that time we didn't know where that

building would be, we didn't.

Know how that would come about.

Actually it was through my wife, Mimi, who was looking

for different spaces for us to go into that we

ended up on a college campus like this, and it

turned out to be the main building of that campus.

It was an all glass building in it faced south

and so to walk in God's prophetic word was such

a delight and such a confirmation to our hearts, and

gave us such confidence because we knew that the Holy

Spirit was leading us. So for sure, as you're walking

out the will of God, he will confirm his steps

to you. He will confirm in your ear. This is

the way walking in it. Fifth point that we see here,

related to what I just shared, is that God's presence

will be with you. So in verse ten, these seven

referring to the eyes of God will be glad when

they see the plumb line the eyes of the Lord

which ranged to and fro throughout the earth. Now this

is related to the famous passage in Second Chronicle sixteen,

which says basically the same thing. The eyes of the

Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that He

may strongly support whose heart is completely his. I believe

there are a lot of hearts in here that are

completely his. I believe there's some of you here that

have walked through some difficult chapters. You've had to go

through some deep valleys. You've wondered if God was with you.

You've wondered if God's presence was still with you. You've

had to show a lot of determination. But the scripture

says here that God is looking throughout the earth to

find those whose hearts are completely His. God is with you,

and you are the apple of his eye. Now, one

of the great promises in the Great Commission, I find

many Christians miss.

We always here, go therefore and make disciples.

Right. That's the part that always gets highlighted, But rarely

do I hear the last part of the Great Commission

being highlighted.

As you go, and I will be with you.

The manifest presence of God will be with you as

you go. As you step out, Okay, you may step

out of the boat, you might experience that supernatural moment,

you might sink a little bit. It's okay, get out

of the boat again. Do it again, Do it again,

because Jesus will always be there to extend his hand

and catch you so that you can continue on and

what He's called you into. When we first moved to Vancouver,

Mimi and I went there. We specifically just scouted out

the city. It's a fairly large city, not quite as

large as London, but quite large, and we settled on

a particular suburb where there was a Christian school and

we thought this will be a good spot for our

kids to go into their elementary years. Enrolled them, got

their uniforms, and it was one of those strange feelings

after all our homework and the kids got to that school,

it didn't feel right.

We specifically had bought a home in this area.

Enrolled them, and I love the fact that in Canada

they have uniforms much like they do here, you know,

but it costs a lot of money for us as

a church planting family.

So Mimi and I prayed.

And we was like, oh, we've spent all this effort

to get the kids enrolled, but it seems like we

have to pull them out and put them in a

different place. So we told the kids we're going to

look for another school, but it might take a year

or two because many of the Christian schools had wait lists,

And so we called the most famous Christian school in

that area, and sure enough, the wait list was two

years long. But the admissions person said to us, well,

tell me the ages of your kids twelve, ten, eight

and five. And she said say that again. I said, twelve, ten,

eight and five. Now school had already started, and she said,

we just had a missionary family that pulled out with

four kids twelve, ten, eight, and five, and she said,

please send in an application so that we can get

your kids process.

We did it in seventy two hours.

They're in a brand new school, which they were at

then for the rest of their education. These are things

that give you confidence that the presence of the Lord

is with you. Go therefore, make disciples, and I will

be with you always. We raised three years of support

for church planting in three days. God just opened the

windows of provision and we received it. When we sold

our house, we sold it in four hours at full price. Again,

all these things God did so early in our church

planning adventure just to assure us we were.

Doing the right thing.

And we could look back on these faith markets and say,

you know what, we know that we know that, we

know that God is doing this. A couple other points.

Number six play the long game. So it took the

Rubber Bowl twenty two years, not one or two years to.

Complete the project.

Twenty two years, as I mentioned, seventeen years a somewhat futility.

He was able to relay the foundations of the temple

in two years, but it sat unfinished for seventeen years.

Until HAGII and Zachariah prophesied to them, and then it

came together after twenty plus years. God's assignments don't happen overnight,

and so it takes perseverance and faith and commitment.

You know, we live in a.

Society now where we want instant results. We hear about,

you know, a one idea that goes to market and

has a billion dollar valuation in a matter of twelve months,

and it's just like, that's not normal, that's not how

things always work out. But we become mesmerized by these

hyper success stories.

And we need to just re.

Visit our expectations and plant them in the biblical framework

and say, okay, God can move in hyper speed, but

he also will work through this process of diligence. So

it took the Rubbible, perseverance, faith, and commitment to the vision.

And we have to be soldiers for Christ.

You know, behind every great company, whether it's Apple or

Microsoft or uniglow, is a story of sacrifice. And should

we not do the same for the kingdom. Why do

we put so much blood, sweat and tears into our jobs.

But then when we come to church, somehow our mindset

switches all of a sudden, we become second class citizens

and we don't put the same kind of effort or

elbow grease into God's work. In the United States, we

have a holiday called Thanksgiving. You have that here something Okay? Anyways,

it's one of the major holidays in the United States,

and it's called a Turkey Day. And everyone eats turkey

during this holiday. And this family said, oh, we're you know,

we're lacking a turkey, and no, I think we still

have one. So they went into the freezer and looked

at it and looked the expiration date.

It was twenty years old, this expiration date.

On this turkey, and the wife said, Oh, I guess

we'll have to donate it to the church. Sometimes people

just do not have a mindset of excellence when it

comes to the things of God. We will sacrifice everything

for our secular positions, But why is it we don't

have that same heart to sacrifice for the kingdom. We

have to have that same heart and that saving burden.

Seventh point here we're coming to kind of the end

of my thoughts is that the Apostolic outcome does happen

above and beyond, comes to pass the latter glory of

the House indeed becomes greater than the former, and that's you.

You're His church. What began is twelve Disciples is now

over two billion people in the Earth. When we pivoted

from pastoring into church planting, in many ways, I feel

like I was just starting the ministry for the first time,

Like I finally had something that I could share with people.

I finally had things that I.

Could convey that would be a value to leaders and

to church planters. And we actually took a four month

sabbatical here in London in between our time, and I

was doing a research project at the University of Reading,

and it was during that time I would take a

walk per walk in the morning and in the evening.

I loved just the walking lifestyle that's here in London,

and I had no idea how intimate and how close,

like another level of depth, another level of fellowship, that

would have with the Lord. Because of those morning and

evening prayer walks, and God began to birth an Abrahammick dream.

And I remember praying to the Lord on the last

Sunday that I preached at our church in Vancouver, I said, Lord,

if I need to go to the next level.

I'm willing to be sacrificed.

I'm willing to be broken like those five lows, so

that there's that multiplication. And one of the things that

God quickened to me during the time here in London

is that God would raise up five thousand church planters.

And of course that's just above and beyond anything that

I could do, but I just it was so clear,

and so I just committed in my heart.

And then part two of that vision came.

Not only will you raise up five thousand church planters,

you were going to raise up and plant a new

church every single day. These are crazy, insane things. How

could that happen? Of course I can't do it, but

like Abraham, I hope that I'm applying a faith that

will be pleasing to God. Well, my son, who is

going to be twenty seven this month, began traveling with

me last year.

We're in Nepal.

We're doing a church planting training to about twenty leaders,

three day training. At the last day of the training,

the last fifteen minutes, two pastors came in and it

was like, Oh, it's too bad that you've missed so much.

And it turns out that they were stuck at the

Indian Nepal border and they only made the last fifteen minutes,

but they came up to us after the whole conference

and said, boy, what you said in those fifteen minutes

was really touching. I thought, wow, praise the Lord that

you know you were touched by those fifteen minutes. So

we ended up having a conversation said we'd love for

you to come to India and help us with church planting.

That was less than a year ago.

That particular pastor has now used our materials to train

over a thousand church planters. A fifteen minute miracle. Thank

you to the Lord. And it goes back to this

time of London, of seeking the Lord, being before him

and him planting a seed and saying yes to that vision,

and then God begins to multiply it in ways that

you have no idea how it will happen. At the

end of last year, Mimi and I were in a

service and the Lord clearly spoke to my spirit the

Damn bursts in twenty twenty six. The Damn Bursts in

twenty twenty six, I didn't have a full understanding of

what that would look like, but literally after the service,

one of the leaders in our church came up to

me and said, one of the main house churches in China,

they have one hundred thousand leaders that they want to

be trained. Can you please help with that? And I thought, wow,

that's the damn bursting for sure. I said, well, how

would we train one hundred thousand leaders? Now, get this,

We'll just train ten thousand of them at a time

on zoom. Ten thousand people on zoom. At the same time.

I went and researched this, the record is one hundred

thousand people being trained on zoom.

So ten thousand. Yeah, it's doable.

But I'm thinking, okay, we're gonna train ten, twelve thirty

forty people ten thousand. Only God can do these kinds

of things. I'm nobody. I'm literally I came from this

little town of ten thousand people, and all of a sudden,

God has put me in a place where I can

encourage and help leaders in different places around the world.

I don't know if you're familiar with this concept called

the butterfly effect, and it's the idea that little, small

actions can lead to large changes. This concept was coined

by a meteorologist and he was crunching data, and the

data was usually six decimal points out and it was

very tedious, so he just rounded it to the thousands

place to the third decimal point, and so then he

would generate these models, and this thought came to him,

Well what if I don't round it? What if I

keep it out to six decimal points. And to his

massive surprise, the models came out radically different. So he

said to himself, one little change actually made a big,

big difference. And when he mapped his two models, they

looked like two butterflies.

Two butterflies.

They were completely separate on the opposite sides of the screen.

So the way then he began to describe this model

is that the butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could

set off a tornado in Texas weeks later. A butterfly

flapping its wings in Brazil could set off a tornado

in Texas weeks later. Just this idea that the small,

smallest of changes can lead to vast and large impact.

And I think that this is what the church is about.

I believe this is what God is calling you into.

This is what five stones. Impact is about. Is each

person picking up their plumb line. So that when you

take those steps of obedience, it reverberates across the world.

That's why we're focused on church planning. It's part of

God's prominence and permeation strategy. Prominence and permeation strategy which

comes from Matthew thirteen, where the church becomes the most

prominent tree in the garden, though it started as a

mustard seed, and it becomes the Church of greatest influence

through all society, even though it starts hidden as yeast

in a lump of dough.

And I believe each one.

Of you are called to be part of God's prominence

and permeation design. I was reading the April newsletter from

RCA by Pastor Dave, and I'm quoting now. He says,

are we ready for what God is bringing? Pray bigger prayers.

Then you're comfortable with speak life over your family, neighbor's workmates,

your street. Don't shrink back from what God has placed

in your hands, even if it feels too big, especially

if it feels too big. That's a bold statement by

your pastor, and I say amen to that, and that's

usually the sign He's in.

It, quote unquote.

So my encouragement to you this morning is to think

above and beyond.

Don't think small.

The glory of your house, your ministry you're calling will

be greater than you can imagine. I believe that RCF

is called to be a digital hub. You know, there's

such an affinity and skill that Pastor Davis had with technology.

As he likes to say, we're punching above our weight,

and clearly that's happening. I believe that there's a call

to be a church planting hub into Europe out of

this group. And I want to end with this passage

from Matthew thirteen. It's the parable of the wheaten terrors.

And actually there's two parables of the seed in Matthew thirteen.

Most of us remember the parable of the sower and

the end conclusion Jesus says is that when you sow

the word, it will bear fruit at different levels. But

there's a second parable of the wheatened tears about the seed.

And you have to notice a very clear, nuanced distinction,

because Jesus says, the seed now is not the word.

The one who sows the seed good seed is the

son of man, and the field is a word. And

as for the good seed, these are the sons of

the Kingdom.

You and me are the seeds.

You're the good seed that the Holy Spirit is sowing

into the world. From whatever nation you're from or whatever

nation you're going to, you will be cast as seed

into the nations by the wind of the Spirit. I

believe some of you will be gripped by the burden

of the Holy Spirit that will completely ruin you. Something

will come on you and it will ruin you. It

will dramatically interrupt the path that you're on. Because God

lays his hand upon you. Some of you are going

to be church planters, some of you are going to

be financiers, some of you will be creatives.

But God will release.

An unusual level of influence through this church. Father, I

thank you for running me Christian Fellowship. I thank you

God for what you've done through this church all these years.

And now there's a next level. And now there's an

exponential increase that will come in influence, in impact, in vision.

There's going to be a new level of unity and

knitting of hearts in this place that will be scattered

by the wind of the Spirit, and the DNA that

they receive in this place will take root in other places.

I pray for an apostolic wisdom. I pray for an

apostolic grace. I pray for an apostolic supply to come

to this church. Bless the leadership here. Thank you for

the budding leaders that are coming up in this church.

That they are going to be pillars not only in

this church, but in other churches that they will be

sent into. So we thank you God this morning. We

thank you for your goodness and your grace. Help us

to think above and beyond, because the glory of the

latter House will be greater.

Than the former. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen,