Ephesians Week 5

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the Upper Peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy our Ephesians series where we break down Paul's letter to Ephesus.

Welcome everyone.

Glad that you're here with us this morning.

My name's Pastor Mark.

I'm the lead pastor here at Northiron, part of this great family across the UP, Antonogden, Marquette Ishming, and Lance.

Would you greet everyone that's watching us online this morning?

We're thankful that you're here.

You're a part of our family.

We love that.

We believe that God has something special for you this morning.

We're right in the middle of a series as we're walking this summer through the book of Ephesians.

This is an important book that we have been looking at.

We would consider this a missionary manual, a survival manual, actually, to the new grouping of people who are experiencing Jesus a couple thousand years ago in the city of Ephesus.

Ephesians were a mixed group of people from different cultures, very spiritualistic, demonic.

There was a lot of spiritual and demonic activity going on.

And it was really a hostile environment which really speaks true to what we're experiencing in the world today.

And so we're walking through this chapter by chapter by chapter.

And we've been almost four weeks in the first chapter.

It seems like a lot, but it's it's really rich content, a study of God, you understanding what salvation looks like, that God's involved in every aspect of your salvation.

Father God draws you.

We see the Son uh coming in and accomplishing that salvation, and then the Holy Spirit working that out in your life and something we call discipleship or being a follower of Jesus.

It's not a one-and-done deal.

Following Jesus is a daily activity of giving up our culture for the new culture of the kingdom of God.

And what does that look like?

And Paul lays that out for us.

And so we're gonna be in chapter two.

We've moved over to chapter two.

We're gonna be, I'm gonna start in chapter two, uh verse ten.

If you need a Bible, raise your hand.

Uh, we have a great Bible to give you.

Everyone should have a physical Bible.

You're gonna find uh Ephesians right behind Galatians in the latter part of your uh Bible called the New Testament.

There's an Old Testament, the front part, uh, the back end is called the New Testament, and we're looking as as Paul is laying out what it's like to be a follower of Jesus.

Let me start this way because Paul's making a shift, and it's an important shift, and it's really tied to the first chapter, the second chapter, and I'll start in just a moment in verse 10 as we finished last week, and I think it's important uh that we start there.

But I want to just say this out in front, kind of as a foundation of what we're gonna talk about today.

The church is an important instrument in the tool belt of the gospel, in the tool belt of the gospel, and kind of allow that just to hang um in your thoughts as we walk through Paul talking about the implications of salvation in your life are always going to point to involvement in the church.

That's how God has set up the church.

Jesus created the church.

Man did not create the church, Jesus created the church.

And so we're gonna we're gonna talk about that and what are the implications for us who have come into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and maybe you haven't.

Maybe you're kicking around the tires, you haven't surrendered your life and made him your uh your savior or lord of your life.

We'll give you that opportunity at the end of the service.

But many of us here are kicking around the idea of what the implications of being a follower of Jesus is, and you need to understand that God created you with a purpose.

You're not just a youper by accident.

Some of you wonder, some of you complain about that, some of you want to be youpers.

If you want to be youpers, just call yourself a youper.

That's the first step.

Move from downstate, come to the beautiful north, God's country.

And uh, but you need to understand that God has a purpose for you.

I love how Paul says this in uh verse 10 of chapter 2, and you need to understand the power of this verse.

A lot of people kind of brush over it, for we are his workmanship.

That word workmanship, maybe your your version says masterpiece or maybe handiwork, but the word workmanship actually is the Greek word for pomia, which is really the word or how we get the word poem.

That you are a you are, God is an artist, and he's writing your story in a rhythmic fashion of a beautiful poem.

Maybe some of you are like, I don't know, Pastor Mark.

You should look at my boots after work.

There's nothing rhythmic or beautiful about me, but that's not how God sees you.

It's not how God created you and created in Jesus Christ as your salvation.

Eventually, that that comes back to good works in your life.

That you don't get salvation by good works or by your righteousness.

You'll see in a minute, you don't have any.

But salvation produces good works in your life, which God, by the way, has predestined.

Before you were even born, before you arrived, he predestined you for good works.

He's worked you together.

You're his workmanship, you're created to do these things.

God prepared them beforehand that we should walk in them.

We've been talking about this for the last four weeks of what salvation really means and how God orchestrates that in our lives.

And yet, Paul here makes a shift in the result of you being saved.

There's implications as a member of God's family in the grouping of what we call the church.

Now you need to understand that the church is not a building, it's a group of people.

Get that building thing out of your head.

If we had to meet at an IGA or at a bar or the VFW like we used to in Lantz, I think we've been in every bar in Lantz and got kicked out before we had a building.

We even started a church in a funeral home.

Most pastors say, Pastor Mark, that's the wrong direction.

But we didn't have anything.

So we just started wherever.

Just a group of people meeting together is a church.

And I don't want to dive into that, but there's there's historical implications there of why we call churches buildings.

And I I've done that in the past, I won't move there right now.

But Paul shifts and said, because of your salvation, because you're a group of believers and you're all following Jesus in unity, there's implications of this thing we're gonna call the church.

Therefore, he says, and that's important because that links chapter one with chapter two.

Therefore, you need to understand that there are gonna be things happening in your life that together God brings you together to purposely move the kingdom of God forward.

Now, before we we dive into verse 11, I at least need to talk about some of the things that are going on in our culture.

That you need to understand that there really are two things that have kind of shifted in our culture, and and again, they're shifting again because there's more involvement in church than ever, maybe not in the mainline denominations that simply have lost their way uh when it comes to the gospel, but there is an enormous spiritual hunger in America that is at an all-time high.

That that even the idea of being an atheist is dwindling and dying.

Most people are spiritualists or mystics or neopagans.

Everyone believes in something, everyone worships something because you're created to be a worshiper by God.

And so there's this enormous hunger that it is at an all-time high.

And at the same time, there is a move away from this institutional religion that a lot of us grew up with.

I like the question.

I read a stat or a question that 81% of Americans agreed with or said yes to.

It's this question.

Do you believe you can be a very good Christian without attending a church?

And in America, 81% of the people that were asked this question said absolutely yes.

I would say you should re-ask that question.

This is how I would re-ask that question.

Can God be powerfully at work in your life apart from being a part of Christ's body, the church?

And as you look at the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament and his apostles, the answer to this question is overwhelmingly, absolutely no.

Absolutely no.

God created, Jesus created the church for a purpose.

And you must be a part if you want to be used by God, if you want to experience the fullness of God, that the church is the vehicle for that.

That's important for you to understand because there's a lot of influencers out there that are foolish and can I say stupid?

I think stupid is a spiritual word.

I think it is.

If not, it's a youper word, and I'm just, I'm gonna use it.

To think that you can be outside the church and experience the fullness of God is absolutely insane and wrong.

So the answer is no.

So my question for you, because we have a full church and multiple campuses, God is doing something super, super powerful that I really don't even understand.

That He's He's gathering people for some kind of incredible harvest that's gonna happen in the north.

I I truly believe it, mostly because I hear it and see it every day.

I've heard generations praying for revival, and yet we're sitting in the midst of it, maybe not even understanding.

I don't even know if it is revival, as much as God is drawing his people.

And yet it's church is a lot like a professional football game.

A lot of bystanders.

People who kind of watch what's going on.

And I get it, a lot of you here are are are brand new, and you're kind of sitting back trying to figure out what's going on, and and you know, and and I know out of the a thousand four hundred that find North Iron to be their home every week, a third, or I'm sorry, a half are in small groups or what we call here branches.

They're involved in different kinds of ministries here, and yet there's only about a third of that thousand four hundred that are volunteering and and and using what they have to move the kingdom of God forward.

And there's a lot of people who are kind of sitting back, just sipping water, hanging out, not really doing actually too much other than walking in and sitting in the presence of God, and in a way you're kind of waterlogged.

So let me ask you this question: are you a consumer or a contributor to the mission of God?

That that that is heavy on your life, by the way.

Heavy on your life.

So I want to talk about some questions about Northiron as Paul lays out what it means for us to be in relation in the spirit and unity of God.

Questions like, why should I be involved at North Iron, or how involved should I be at Northiron?

Or what is the mission of Northiron Church, and what are the implications for us?

So let's let's dive into verse 11.

Therefore, Paul says, remember, this is important, these are all new Christians, these are uh a multitude of different people.

There's there's Greeks, there's Romans, there's there's Jewish people.

Therefore, remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh, he's speaking to the Ephesians, he's speaking to us youpers.

That you need to remember that you're Gentiles in the flesh, separated from Christ, annihilated, alienated, alienated, thank you, AJ, for the commonwealth of Israel.

If you're here, this is a kind of a you know, I have interpreters out there that help me along.

It's interactive, can I say it that way?

I want to be polished, I just is not who I am, guys.

I'm sorry.

God has given me a thorn in in my flesh and it's my tongue.

If I could speak, I would rule the world.

And he's reminding the Ephesians, he's reminding the youpers, hey, listen, you were separate from God.

You were far from God because you need to see that there's that there's a correlation between Christ and Israel.

And if you wanted to be close to God or a part of what God was doing, you would have to be a part of the nation of Israel.

That there were many nations out there who were far from God, the people of God were Israel, and God chose them for no other reason other than they were weak, weak people.

And yet, for you to be close to God, you would have to be a part of the Jewish nation.

I think we all kind of understand that.

You were strangers, as Paul says, you were strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

That's that's important.

So I just want to take a moment for you to understand and just the scope of what's going on as far northerners up in the UP, that when Jesus gave the Great Commission in 28-19 as he was leaving the earth and instructing his disciples to spread the gospel throughout the earth in Matthew 28-19, he talked about the ends of the earth, he talked about the uttermost parts of the earth.

He was talking about us youpers.

And yet, isn't it amazing that all this time that people chose to spread the gospel that that the power of the resurrection was so great, and the fellowship of the church and the purpose of the church and the kingdom of God was so great that they told their family members, they told their business partners, they told their friends, and as as Larry Hale, former pastor, said, we just broke through the brush and kept on going.

And after 2,000 years later, we're up here experiencing what they talked about 2,000 years ago.

It's because of dedicated people who made their personal mission the mission of God.

And so we benefit from that.

And Paul's just recognizing, matter of fact, even at the time that Paul was preaching this, thinking about those tribes to the north in Europe and to the east and west and south, they were considered the Romans considered them the barbarians.

That's who you are.

You're the barbarians.

And when Paul was preaching this, we were swinging from trees, eating kouda g and beating each other up with war hammers.

Have you ever had that thing come across the internet where it says, find out what your name means in the barbarian language?

Have you ever, guys?

I know some of you do that because I see you, you got a lot of time on your hands.

One of those things popped up for me.

So I wanted to know what our barbarian pastors' names were in the barbarian language.

Mine meant an outlander or border man or frontiersman.

That makes sense.

Pastor Aaron was strong mountain, Pastor Matt was God's bear.

Don't mess with God's bear.

And Pastor AJ was golden hammer, and Pastor Arlen up in Antonogan, eater of the Chaco Taco.

Who knew?

God predestined it.

I'm sure I'm gonna get a call.

We love you, Pastor Arlen.

But I want you to understand this is close to my heart because I've been around the world, many, many, many, many, many nations, seeing the work of God.

The gospel is a global thing for all people in all times, in all places.

And there's implications with that.

Like something powerful is going on.

We shouldn't, you should not take it lightly in your life.

I I want to say that this might be one of the most important discussions that we have.

That you would implement these ideas in your life and hold to them rock solid.

And in that, God is going to use you, change you, bless you, and your family for generations.

I'm not saying we're perfect, the church is not perfect, but there is something powerful about dedicating yourself to be a follower of Jesus in the institution and the church that he created.

And I want to show you the power of that.

And Paul goes on in verse 13, and he says, But now in Christ Jesus, you were once far away.

You were your northerners, you were even a thought in the mind of the known world that you even existed in your tribes to the north and the west and the east and the south, but you were there and you were far off.

But you have been brought near.

Look at this.

Something happened.

The blood of Jesus got to you.

The redemption of Jesus got to you.

God predestined it, He ordered it, and someone came into your life and either mentioned Jesus and the scales and the foolishness that sin produces in your life begins to clear up, and you're be a you're you're able to start to spiritually see the condition of your heart and the redemption of Jesus.

And you are far off, but the blood of Jesus brought you into the family of God, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one.

There's a there's a unity, there's a there's there's a restructuring going on here.

He has made us both one, two into one, and has broken down his flesh by what he did on the cross.

He has broken down his flesh in the dividing wall of his hostility.

I think we all can at least recognize there's a little bit of hostility out in the world.

And Paul's speaking to a place that is a very, can I say multinational, multicultural, it was a a very, very rich harbor in Asia Minor where everyone traded, everyone brought their boats in.

And you need to understand that there was a lot of hostility that was going on, and Paul is saying because of what Jesus did on the cross, it tears down the walls of hostility that a Jew and a Greek.

Greek and a Roman and a Uper can come to an understanding not only the purpose in their life but the kingdom of God.

That's an amazing global thing that we're a part of.

It doesn't matter if you're in North Korea or if you're in Japan or Papua New Guinea or South Africa or you're a part of the Komisami people in northern Russia.

We all have something in common and yet the world kind of produces our culture and our nations produce this hostility.

And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no.

Jesus tears that down.

If you think about that and you dwell on that, that's an amazing thing.

After the Cold War, there was a political scientist, Francis uh Fukumama.

I like to say that name.

He wrote a uh a very important book called The End of History and the Last Man.

Really, his idea was that all the conflicts and hostility of the world really were around the central idea of ideology.

And because the American West, or maybe just the West in general, destroyed those ideologies, talking about fascism and communist, that that liberal democracy has won, and we're gonna ride the train of freedom to the very end.

It is the end, we won.

And it's going to change the world.

But then things begin to change.

And conflicts and hostility were no longer ideological.

They were cultural.

And another interesting, very smart man, political science out of Harvard, Sam uh Samuel Huntington wrote a book also in '96, Clash of Civilizations, where he said, the new the new hostility will be between the West and the East.

And that will be the end.

It's our cultures that make us hostile to each other.

And yet, two thousand years ago, Jesus gathered twelve dudes together in Matthew 28 and 19 and said, no, no, no, no.

The end, the coming age, will be a place of unity because of the gospel changing men's hearts.

That the kingdom of God will return, that Jesus will come and usher in a new heaven and new earth, and Jesus himself will reign here forever with his saints, and we'll live here on earth in perfect unity.

Jesus is the only one that can tear down the walls of hostility in our lives.

It's not going to be politics, it's not going to be the free market.

It's not going to be enslavement or dictators or totalitarism.

It's going to be Jesus and his kingdom.

Paul says, For himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing walls of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself that Jesus created this thing.

That in himself one new man in place of two.

That's what his resurrection does.

So making peace and might reconcile us both in God in one body through the cross, therefore killing the hostility.

That there is unity within us because the Spirit of God dwells within us and within all of us.

And that was reconciled by Jesus Himself.

Because there's one thing that kind of brings us all together, I don't care what part of the world you're a part of, and that's that, and we've already talked about this a couple Sundays ago, you're dead.

You're rotting.

Your neighbor and those across the pond.

There's one common problem in the world aside from finances and money and politics and cultures and nations.

It's that everyone's dead.

And listen, there's no degrees of dead.

Everyone's dead, dead.

I've seen, I know what you're thinking.

I've also seen Princess of Bride nearly dead is not a thing.

You're dead dead.

There's not a degree of dead.

You're dead in your sin.

It doesn't matter what culture you are, it doesn't matter what race you are, it doesn't matter what nation you're a part of.

Sin's curse has come upon us, everyone.

And there's all these degrees that we think are out there, but but they're not.

There is no good people or bad people.

There's not winners or losers or people who have it together or dysfunctional people.

There's only bad dead losers who are desperately in need of salvation of Jesus.

And what Jesus' resurrection does, it produces a third race.

Hang with me.

Some of you are like, what?

What do we call ourselves, Pastor Martin?

Paul says this through him we have access to one spirit, to the Father, so that so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, as he talked about in the past, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, what they're preaching, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together, as 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 4 through 5 saying we're we're living stones.

1 Peter 2:4–5

Together, we're like a fortress.

If you're separate from that fortress or you're separate from that church, you're just a rock.

But together, we're interconnected.

Peter says, we're living stones.

We grow into this holy temple in the Lord in him.

You also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

And so when there are fellow believers, fellow living stones who are in trouble or persecuted, we weep for them.

Because we're interconnected.

Our spirits are interconnected.

Like an advancing fortress across the world that the Holy Spirit is building upon.

It reminds me of the 21 martyrs, Egyptian martyrs that came about in 2015, February 2015.

Just construction workers who happened to move into Libya.

They lived and were Coptic uh Christians.

You know who Egyptian Christians are because they have a tattoo of a cross on their inner wrist.

And because they wanted to feed their families, they went into Libya as reconstruction was happening there.

The the place was in chaos, and and they needed to feed their families, and so they they went over there, a group of 20 Christians, and then one uh one African individual, one African man.

They weren't there very long before ISIS came in, and they captured the 21 of them simply because they had a cross tattooed on their inner wrists.

They took them to a secluded place and tortured them for weeks saying to them, All you have to do is deny Christ.

All you have to do is deny Christ, deny Christ, deny Christ.

These weren't theologians, these weren't pastors, these were construction workers.

And eventually the terrorists took them on in February 2015 to the Mediterranean on the beach there in Libya, lined them up and told them, you have one more chance to deny Jesus.

And each one of them said no.

And they went down the line and cut their throat and let them bleed out.

The African man wasn't even a part of this group.

By the way, this is all videotaped if you want to watch it.

They got to him and said, You're not even a part of this group, but if you want to leave, you can leave.

And he looked at the terrorists and said, their God is my God.

And they cut his throat.

When they filmed this and they sent it to the world, they tagged it with a message signed with blood to the nation of the cross.

That's the third race, everyone.

They meant it as a threat, but it became a confession or a testimony.

That Jesus is far more valuable than the breath of your life.

That the cross is not just a decoration, it's a destiny.

We speak truth, they kill us, and the advancement of the church moves forward.

The nation of the cross, as these Islamics gave us, the third race, have three things in common.

We have this common righteousness, who is Jesus, not our own, but Jesus' righteousness righteousness.

We have this common foundation of truth, God's word, a common purpose, and that's the advancement of the kingdom of God.

So let me answer those four questions.

I'll let you go today.

I don't have a lot of time.

The first one is this why must we be a part of the church?

We are interconnected, living stones.

And God has chosen to work all things through his church.

Salvation, redemption, discipleship, healing, all within.

This is where the Holy Spirit moves and functions.

So if you want to know Christ, you must be intimately connected to his body.

That's what Paul's talking about here.

You must be connected to his body.

That something happens.

It's like each one of us don't completely have all of the Holy Spirit.

Hang with me, some of you theologians.

But that as a group of us, the fullness of Jesus is here.

It's like a mosaic.

That I need to be a part of your life.

You hear me say it this way oftentimes that that life change happens in the context of relationship.

Pastor Mark, I don't like people.

We're not sure if we like you either, but listen, you need you need to be a part of those people's lives.

Because something Jesus is doing, something in them that I need to have happen in my own life.

And so as I have relationships with all these different people, you all bring different aspects of Jesus into my life.

And that's important in a hostile world.

Where you have people who can love you and speak truth and guidance and correction and love and redemption.

I love how uh it said in chapter three, Paul, so that through the church the manifold, some of you are like, manifold, that's my engine.

That through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known.

What does that manifold mean?

It means multifolded.

The multi-fascinated fascinat, someone say it for me.

Fascinated aspect of who Jesus is comes through our lives to each other.

I don't understand it, but this is what the Spirit of God does.

And oh baby, some of you need the manifold wisdom of God in your life.

And secondly, if you want God to work in your life, you have to be a part of the church.

Because there's this kind of idea that I come across all the time with people who are struggling with things.

And they they they they come in and they're they're praying for God to come in and and heal.

Maybe maybe it's your marriage, and you're like, God, if you could just come in and zap my husband and just heal his mind and and and and and heal his personality and make him clean up and make him love me.

That'd be pretty great, wouldn't it?

Some of you wise would be slipping your husband Jesus pills, if you could.

These eggs taste strange.

No, honey, eat them.

I I kind of wish that, but that see, that brings we're always looking for God's help, oftentimes outside of the church.

And then if it doesn't, if that zapping or those pills don't show up, then we go to the church.

Well, I guess I gotta try this this small group thing.

Or I guess I gotta try some marriage counseling.

Same thing with addiction.

It's the opposite.

This is a revolutionary truth for some of you.

God's plan A in the redemption of your life is the church.

It's where you find healing, it's where you find truth, it's where you find foundation, it's where God's Spirit does his work, it's where he dwells.

He's here right now.

So I'm gonna say something that is offensive.

I tried to make this as offensive as I could.

I rewrote it six times.

There is a pride and arrogance asking for the power of God if you have separated yourself from the means of that power.

So, how involved should I be in the church?

It's probably the wrong question.

Let me let me ask you this.

How involved do you want Christian Christ to be in your life?

How well do you want to know Christ?

It happens as you come together in a family and you begin to open your spirit and open your heart in relationships, getting your hands dirty.

There's a reason why we work hard at this church.

It's because when you do that, men listen to me.

When you work with a fellow man, a fellow believer on the kingdom of God, I know you're swinging a hammer, but you're changing your heart.

So, what is the mission of the church?

Let me end with this the North Iron Mission.

It really comes in in three areas.

Listen, we we preach the gospel.

We're compelled to preach the gospel.

We have received this incredible gift of the gospel.

We come in the saving knowledge of Jesus because of what Paul is saying here.

It's almost in hindsight.

It's it's an incredible, the greatest privilege of my life for all eternity.

As I told you last week, because of the grace of Jesus that I received, because someone told me and preached Jesus in a room when I was 13 years old.

I grew up in the church, but I really surrendered when I was 13 by a fire-brim sold preacher, cowboy preacher.

And I ran to the altar, surrendered my life.

That is an incredible privilege that God has given me.

And so, likewise, we preach the gospel.

We're not going to change.

There is, you need to understand, as a pastor, there's a lot of pressure on me from the culture of this world to manipulate, and as Paul says, twisted pastors preaching twisted things for itching ears.

I'm just not gonna do it.

Because I'm 60.

Because of all of you, I'm just tired.

Okay?

I haven't eaten an Oreo in so long.

Alright, I gotta move on.

Alright.

Ultimately, because I I'm gonna be 60 and I only have a few more breaths.

And one day I'm gonna be standing before Jesus and giving an account for every word I speak in front of you.

Now, you will stand before Jesus to give an account for receiving those things.

Some of you are just pushing me off.

You're pushing the Holy Spirit off.

You don't like my shirt, you don't like my tone, whatever it is, but you too will stand before Jesus and give an account for the things you hear and the things you lay your hands to.

And you will rest in eternity in a place of torment or a place of pleasure, determining how you accept the word of God, but we'll never stop preaching it.

These are just some of the benefits of being under the preaching of the gospel, joy and deep satisfaction.

You can look these up as you get home, partnership with God and one another.

We talked about the growth and boldness and faith, as we find with uh the apostles, spiritual fruit and eternal reward, a share in Christ's own mission and his suffering, the presence of power of the Holy Spirit, the promise of Christ's presence in your life.

We take all this seriously here.

We will always preach the gospel at any place, any condition, anywhere.

Building or not.

I will stand on a five-gallon bucket and preach.

I've done it before.

Because the message of the gospel has to go forward.

It is our purpose, it's one of our dear, dear, dear responsibilities.

Secondly, we're here to equip those saints and followers of Jesus.

We take this so so seriously.

We work so so hard at this.

The amount of finances that we pump into the the next generation and the branches groups, those those are the that's where the the small, the large church becomes small.

You all need to be a part of one.

Your life will change in the context of the relationships there.

We have a a forged school of ministry.

We have about 12 or 15 students who feel called to bring the gospel to the World, and so we want to equip them, we want to teach them, we want to send them out.

We're on the verge of North Iron sending out hundreds of missionaries, everyone.

And we want to take this stuff seriously, but you need to understand that it takes finances, it takes time, it takes treasure, it takes talent, all of those things.

Sometimes I tell Pastor Noah, will you just put the brakes on this youth thing?

Across all of our campuses, God is blessing our young people, our children.

And you need to understand that we love doing that.

It's our responsibility.

But if you're going to be, if you're going to send your children to our ministries and our leadership and our pastoral care, man, be a part of this church.

I want you to understand that sometimes we struggle with, I mean, we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids and young people and and and young adults that show up wanting to be trained.

They're on fire for what God is going to do in their lives and the people around them.

We're excited about that, but it takes a lot of work and energy to make that happen.

I'll even have pastors who do nothing in their church and they send their kids to Northiron.

Oh, Pastor Mark will take care of them.

Like, guys, that's lazy.

I'm not saying your kids shouldn't be a part of this church, but you should, if your church, your pastor doesn't want to take on the kingdom of God and advance it, go to another church that is.

Start giving your life for the future, for the present.

Forward trips is an accelerated discipleship in your life.

We want everyone to go overseas somewhere and experience the fullness of Jesus in all these different cultures and see the advancement of God's kingdom.

Not only here in the UP, but around the world.

And listen, we plant churches.

Very thankful, very grateful, very humbled that God's doing something powerful across the UP.

There was a time where people are just showing up at Ishmael, and even our leadership is like, what are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do with all these Marquette people?

All these Greeks keep on showing up.

We understand the barbarians, we just don't know what to do with the Greeks.

So we took a step of faith, bought some property, bought a building.

I'm just I'm very humbled by the fact that we are at the edge of opening that up.

Pretty powerful.

But in that process, listen, all these people from Lantz started showing up.

Like, what are you doing here?

You live an hour from our church, and eventually so many of them showed up.

I said, This is ridiculous.

I'll just come out there and start preaching in the funeral home on Saturday nights.

Like, this is so organic, guys.

There's no strategy to this.

We're just facilitating people who are far from God.

The barbarians and the Greeks, Lord, we want them all in the UP to experience your presence and your power and your redemption and your salvation and the future work of the kingdom of God towards this incredible eternity that one day we will sit and stand with you, Jesus.

And God blesses us with a know-nothing place.

You talk about the ends of the earth.

And yet God gives us Arlen who moves through, Pastor Arlen and Kayleen, who move it through the Ford School ministry, and they just kind of show up as well as Pastor AJ and Pastor Ahmad and Pastor Aaron and Pastor Mike.

It's not even a strategy.

God is in the work of it all.

So let me tell you what we got going on in Marquette.

We got to finish.

Because I just want you to know that when we open those doors, God more than likely is gonna come in and say, I need you to go here.

I just want to prep all of you for that.

But this is where we're at.

Like we need 5,407 and 60 cents.

Don't bring me 60 cents.

Bring me a dollar.

I don't carry coins.

We just need all of our equipment to talk to each other.

That's what that is.

It's just networking.

It's very, very important.

You all don't know it, but this church is fully networked.

Probably go anywhere, get on the internet, our our sound equipment, talk to each other.

We're streaming online, all this kind of stuff.

That's a lot of nuts and bolts, but this is what it's cost enough.

And I know someone out there has this money.

The Lord has blessed you.

Maybe it's not all of it, maybe it's a portion of it, maybe it is one dollar.

But I need to get this$5,000 so I can get into Marquette.

When you start planning churches, one of the things you're realizing is when we started Lantz, which was not on our agenda, or Antenogdan, which was not on our agenda, we took equipment that we had planned for Marquette and we put it in all those other places.

And so we need drums, we need different instruments, we need three pianos, who would have thought.

But I need another$4,444.29 for that.

And ultimately, you need to know this that I still owe people about$50,000 in contractors.

They're gracious to allow us to kind of float us, but we're every week paying this down, and I just need it paid down.

We're weeks away, a month maybe away from starting in Marquette, everyone.

And that's gonna change a lot of things, and we need to be fluid and we need to have this understanding.

But listen, I need you to know that this is coming, our times are gonna change, and this is important across all of our campuses, that at Ishbaming, we're gonna have one service at nine o'clock.

One service at nine o'clock, and then all of our other campuses, and we'll let you know a couple times a couple weeks ahead of us opening in Marquette when we're gonna change this.

We're going uh our Antenant and Lance Marquette campuses, all of our services are gonna start at 10:30 across the board.

That's coming.

You would say, Well, Pastor Mark, this seems impossible.

But I I quote to you a very famous missionary who went to China with nothing to preach the gospel.

He says there's three stages in what God is always doing: the impossible, the difficult, and the done.

I want you to understand we're right here.

Pastors have a secret, secret phrase.

We call this white water, where it just feels like our nose is above the water, breathing, sucking down water.

Like, are we gonna survive this?

But I know I serve a great God, and I know that you have eyes and ears, spiritual eyes and ears.

You're listening to him right now.

Maybe you're online and you can help us with this, get into this campus, but it's gonna be done.

Hell or high water, everyone.

It's gonna be done.

I want you to see how Paul kind of wraps up in chapter three this idea of being responsible for the gospel for this reason.

Paul says, I'm a prisoner of Christ.

You understand, prisoners, they really don't have an agenda.

They don't have a personal agenda.

The prisoners of Christ, Jesus, on behalf of you and the Gentiles, assuming that you have heard the stewardship.

It's interesting that God is using this word, that Paul is using this word.

There is a responsibility and a stewardship for what you have received and being a part of the church.

God has healed you, redeemed you, set you up, reworked your purpose in this world.

You've derailed yourself, and he has set you up as a son and daughter of light.

And there's a stewardship that one day you will stand before God for God's grace that you have received.

It was given to me for you.

Of this gospel, I was made a minister to bring a light for everyone.

What is the plan of the mystery hidden for all ages in God who created all things?

This was according to the eternal purpose that has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness.

So I'm bold.

Not because I got it going on, I'm bold because of what I've experienced with Jesus.

So I ask you not to lose heart for whatever I am suffering for you.

By the way, Paul wrote all this in prison.

Suffering.

North Iron's mission is an eternal mission.

So what are the implications for you?

Let me ask you these three things.

I want you to be active in North Iron.

If North Iron is your church, then be a part.

If you want to go to another church, that's cool.

I'm not opposed to that at all.

I'm not opposed.

But if you're here and your children are here and your life is here, then you need to wholeheartedly support what's going on because he's going to radically change your life, your family's life.

Be open to the other styles.

And what I what I mean to that is as we move our campuses around and people are moving around, we can bump into each other.

Sometimes we're all kicking the same ball.

You just need to have a spirit of grace.

Our message is never going to change, but sometimes our methods do change.

And that's important for you to understand.

And you need to commit to North Iron your time, your talent, and your treasure.

Lord has given us a plan to move the kingdom of God forward, and it involves you.

He uses us, he's given us talents, he's given us time, he's given us treasure.

And are you honoring him with that?

Some of you are struggling with that.

I would encourage you to take that step of faith.

Give your 10% of your time, your treasure, and your talent to the Lord, and he'll radically change your situation.

It's his promise to you.

Would you stand with me?

Lord, across all of our campuses, Father, you've created us as one.

Barbarians, if you will, will take that naming.

But really, we're a third race because of you, the nation of the cross.

And Lord, though we preach the gospel and they turn against us and kill us, Father, the one consistent thing that does not change is your word and your church, Father.

It moves forward.

And Lord, we can invest in that eternal mission and perspective.

Lord, we want to grab and drag everyone with us to eternity.

So Lord, I pray that you would place these things deep in people's hearts, Father, as they move towards you, Father, at the closing of our services across Antonagdin Lantmar, Kedish Paming, as we pray for people, as we worship in your presence, as our spirits are knitted together in this incredible living stone experience, Father.

We all all look to you, Jesus.

Your mighty, mighty, powerful, powerful name, the Jesus of Nazareth, that we all love and know, Father, that you would lead us, Father, in the present and the future, Father.

You're the great I am, Lord, and we look to you in your mighty, mighty name.

Amen.