I Looked For Someone

I look for someone. And so, it's something that God does say. Even though Christ came

and stood in the gap, God still looks for people that He can show Himself strong on

behalf of. He still does that. So, in Ezekiel 22.30, it says in the message, I look for

someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf

of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. And so, that's Ezekiel

22.30. That tells you what God wants. And should He find a person like that, then He

goes to 2 Chronicles 16.9. So, when He finds this person that He's looking for, then He

goes to 2 Chronicles 16.9. What does 2 Chronicles 16.9 say? Just turn to it. It's a very popular

verse. 2 Chronicles 16.9, For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen

those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. So, when He finds a man that He thinks

can stand and do two things, stand in the gap and build a wall, when He finds a man

like that, and I know that Christ has already done it, but God still looks for this man,

this woman, when He finds someone like that, 2 Chronicles 16.9 goes into action, which

is God saying, that listen, my eyes have seen you and I will strengthen your heart. Why?

Because I realize that you are fully committed to me. And throughout the scriptures, you

find people like this, eh? So, if you go to Numbers 16, for instance, if you go to Numbers

Numbers 16:46–48

16, verse 46 to 48, you find a man called Aaron, who's quite old now, and yet, he's got this sensor

in his hand, and he's running to and fro. Must have run quite a lot, man, because you're talking

about a million people, and a plague has started, and there is this one old man, one old man, running

between the people. Anyone who comes on the right side gets life. Anyone who stays on the other side

dies, because the plague has started. You'll find that throughout the scriptures, you often find

one man or one woman who needs to step up. It still hasn't stopped. While Christ finished what needed

to happen by standing in the gap for us, He's still looking for people who'll step up. And that's kind

of where we want to go. Only we don't want to look for one man or one woman. We want to look for an

entire group of people, which is far more effective. So, you see that in Numbers 16, 46 to 48,

where you had Aaron running, and one side of him was life, the other side was death.

Here's another guy. That was Aaron. Here's another one. Numbers 25, verse 7 to 9. Who was this guy?

Numbers 25:7–9

Any guesses? No? Phinehas. And so what does Phinehas do? One man. He sees this woman called

Cosby and this guy called Zimri caressing each other. It's insinuated when the glory of God came

into the camp, and he knows disaster is going to strike the camp, because it's irreverent before

a holy God who's hallowed the place. And so Phinehas takes the death of the man, and he's

going to take the javelin and spears Cosby and Zimri, putting an end to the plague. One man again.

So much so that God says of him that this man showed such zeal on behalf of me that he'll be

remembered forever. One man. He's always looking for one man or one woman. And why does he look for

one man or one woman? Because everything in the kingdom starts from one. Nothing in the kingdom

is democratic. Nothing. There's nothing in the kingdom that's done through a democratic process

of majority choosing something. The only time the New Testament that the majority chose someone,

they chose Barabbas. But otherwise, it's a kingdom. And in a kingdom, it always starts with one. Why?

Because that one plus God becomes a majority. That's the intent. Can I take that one person,

regardless of how weak and insufficient he is, and join him to God, and suddenly things happen?

That's his intent. Let me pick one. And he usually picks really weak people like you and me.

Check Gideon out. Check David out.

Check Pavan out. Check Mark out. Check Dane out. Check Anne out. Weak. Nobody is.

But then you become a majority as soon as God joins with you.

And so he always picks one man or one woman. That's always how we started, eh?

Throughout the Bible. Adam, Noah, Jacob, David, Jesus, Paul, Gideon. Just continuously.

In fact, in Isaiah 52, I think it says, look back at the quarry that you were cut out from.

Look back at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, your mother.

And out of that one person, I have created a nation.

Here's another one. First Kings 18, 22. Who's the guy? Elijah. What did he do?

Reform an entire nation. Brought it back from the brink of apostasy to once again following God.

Choose who you will serve today. Yahweh or Baal? One man.

Brings the entire nation back. And so we don't think like this anymore because we are so used to

being democratized. It's strange, eh? We are highly individualized when it comes to self.

But highly democratized when it comes to any exploits that have to do with God.

Highly individualized when it comes to self. Highly democratized when it comes to exploits for God.

Then we won't chance it alone. We suddenly go humble. I'm a weak nothing. Of course you are.

But now join yourself to the majority of one which is God.

Every movement in the world has started with one man or woman.

Every movement. And it doesn't matter. I'm not talking about Christian stuff.

I'm also talking about non-Christian stuff. Stuff with one man or woman.

The tough part is how do you raise someone not to be a maverick and yet to be this?

That's the hard part.

Elijah turns back an entire nation. There's another guy, man. This guy I really liked.

His was a tough thing to do. In today's society, you'll totally understand how difficult it was.

There's a guy called Micaiah. This is worth reading. Go to 1 Kings 22, 11.

This is so difficult to do. 1 Kings 22, 11.

Okay. So let's start at verse 9.

So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, Bring Micaiah son of Imla at once.

Dressed in the royal robe, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah,

were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria

with all the prophets prophesying before them. Now Zedekiah, the son of Cana,

had made iron horns and he declared, This is what the Lord says. With these you will gore

the Arameans until they are destroyed. All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing.

Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious, they said, for the Lord will give it to the king.

The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, Look, as one man,

the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your words agree with theirs and speak

favorably. And then look at verse 17. Then Micaiah answered, I saw all Israel scattered on the hills

like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, These people have no master, let each go home in

peace. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, didn't I tell you that he never prophesied

anything good about me, but only bad? It is so hard to do that. This is cancel culture.

They were basically canceling Micaiah out, saying, Make sure you join in and say exactly what the others are saying.

And the guy had the guts to say otherwise. Very difficult. But one man needs to do it and then

suddenly you find others joining you. Next one, Genesis 45 verse 7, where it says, There was one man,

Genesis 45:7

one killer, who was a man, and he was a man. And he was a man. And he was a man. And he was a man.

Where it says, There was one man, one kid actually, called Joseph, who was sent before the famine

to Egypt so that the sons of Jacob could be preserved and would not die. One man preserved

and starts a new line. Here's another guy you're familiar with. First Samuel

1 Samuel 17:10

17 verse 10 and verse 36. Who's it? David. What's he saying? Here's Goliath who comes out and says,

Hey, send me one of your champions. Let's settle this. I defy the God of Israel.

One man. You have an entire army, but only one man, one kid steps up and he says, How dare he defy the

God of Israel? I've killed a lion. I've killed a bear. I'll do the same to this uncircumcised felicity.

Then of course there's Hebrews 6 20. Jesus, our forerunner. Jesus, our forerunner.

One man. And then if you look at any of the guys in Hebrews 11, you'll find all of them were one man

or one woman. Any questions on that? The entire book of Hebrews 11 is about one man who stood up

or one woman who stood up. Is this something that, is this something that you can't understand?

Is this something that you, you and I think of?

Because it's, if we don't think of it, we must think of it for our children's sake so that they

rise up. And none of it is for self-glory. Most of the guys who stood up as one man went through

really difficult times. Strong opposition, usually a breach in the family.

None of these guys did it without a breach in their family, some in opposing them, and strong

opposition. Some of them died. So there's very little self-glory here. But is this how you think?

Is this how Dilna thinks? Is this how Jennifer thinks? Is this how George thinks? That one man

can make a difference. Not in coming up with an invention for the sake of the kingdom.

For the sake of the kingdom. And one must think like this, eh? Because this is natural

for the sons and daughters of God. It's natural. It's not alien to us. And we must teach our kids

to think like this.

Be salmon. Get served. No, no. Be salmon. Swim upstream. Yeah.

Sorry. Any questions?

And the other thing is, many of us sitting here will suddenly think,

but I'm not 20 or 30 anymore. Well, at least you have more wisdom. It'll take you less time.

Yep. There's a 50-year-old saying, yeah. So guys, do not look at your age and say,

because at the end of the day, remember, the reason he chooses one is so that he can become

a majority with you. So that people look at him and say, it would have been impossible without

God, because we know what Dilna is actually made of. Welcome back, Dilna.

One man. That's why often when the prophetic is spoken over you, it sounds so impossible,

because it's addressing you and saying, you will do this. And you think to yourself,

how in the world am I going to do that? That sounds so out of the way that it's impossible.

Treasure it, eh?

So what do we have to guard against when we go down this route of one man, pride? You see,

it affected Uzaya, King Uzaya, and you'll find that in 2 Chronicles 26, verse 16. Sometimes

2 Chronicles 26:16

you suffer from what's called Elijah syndrome. Elijah syndrome is when he begins to say,

I'm the only guy left when he didn't know there were 7,000 others. That's in 1 Kings 19, 10,

where you become a martyr of thought. And then the other one with quite surprising judges,

you'll find in the Judges 8, 27, and it's Gideon. You know, if you are one man who really breaks

through, then make sure you raise others who can take your place. Superstars happen when superstars

do not raise someone else to replace them. A superstar is someone who's irreplaceable.

Therefore, he then becomes the idol that has to be worshipped because there's nobody to replace

him. So what did Gideon do in Judges 8, 27? He took an ephod and he built, it was his own ephod,

but when he died, he left it so that others could come and worship it. And the Bible says that people

in Israel began to come and worship Gideon's ephod because it was a detestable practice before

God. How come Gideon, a man of God who knew God so well, who actually kind of saw God, could not

leave behind someone else? Superstars are the result of people not moving out of the way so

that others can replace them. So those are the pitfalls of the one man God thing. God

wants us to go with. And so to be with that someone, each person here must engage God

in the context, you must engage God in the context of how he sees you and not how you see yourself.

You must engage God in the context of how he sees you, not how you see yourself. So I try to process

who I am and what I must do through the eyes of the Spirit. I try to process who I am and what I

must do through the eyes of the Spirit. What if you started that process at 23 or 24? Imagine what

will happen by the time you turn 30. So you engage God in the context of how he sees you,

so you engage God in the context of how he sees you, not how you see yourself. Because you will

be defined by either your work or your degree or your future career that awaits you or your money

or your job or lack of job. Something else will define you. And those are so not

how you define yourself. You define yourself based on over a period of six or seven months.

What is the context of how God sees me? And you can't say God sees me as a child of God.

That would be like your kid saying, I'm your son. No, no, no, no. You want your kid to see

who he really is. Yes, he is your son. But what else is your son? Is he kind? Is he merciful?

Is he courageous? Is he bold? Is he gentle? Is he strong? Does he have aggression or does he

be compliant? There are so many things that go into defining who a person is.

And God is the same. Just like you do it with your children, so is God.

I mean, if I ask you right now to define Joey, define Judah, define Phoebe, define Yahya,

you would have different words for them. They're not all the same. You won't just say they're

children. No, each one is so different, man. It's a wonderful process of discovery.

So what if it takes five or six months? Take the time. Aren't all your three kids different?

And you think the fourth kid will be the same? No way. They're so different.

So see it in that context, okay? Because once you begin to engage God in the context of how

he sees you and not how you see yourself, you begin to then become the man that he wants you

to or the woman that he wants you to become. The other thing is once you know that battles

are always fought, battles are always fought, battles are always fought at the treasuring,

at the treasuring level of life. Hey, and once you know what God has shown you,

the hardest thing is to stick with it. You know one thing that Jacob did in Genesis 39, verse 30,

Jacob brings these sheep of his and he takes the bark of trees and he cuts it so that they're

speckled and spotted and then he has a sheep come to the water trough and mate before these speckled

stems and so they give birth to speckled and spotted

lambs. So you know what he does? After they do that, he removes them and makes them face

another direction. Why? Because he doesn't want anything to disturb what they have already seen.

Once God shows you what you behold, make sure you don't go behold other things. Stick with it. It's

the hardest thing to do because everything he says is impossible. Everything he says is impossible.

And everything around you will tell you otherwise. I put it down this way.

Once you become what you behold, do not behold something other. Once you become

what you behold, do not behold something other because there'll be a battle for that.

The battle is always fought at the treasuring level of life. What do you mean by that?

What the heart treasures, what the heart treasures

or tramples, what the heart treasures or tramples is what

the mouth speaks,

the mind thinks,

the eyes watch

and feet move towards.

It's awesome hearing them, man. I love this part of the service.

It's awesome hearing them, man. I love this part of the service.

What the heart treasures or tramples is what the mouth speaks, the mind thinks,

the eyes watch and the feet move towards. Because whatever you treasure, whatever you treasure,

whatever you treasure,

praise the Lord,

what you treasure gives you

the power to free yourself

from competing offers.

This is so important, which begs the question, what do you treasure about what God has

given to you or called you for or engaged you in? What is it that you treasure so immensely

that it gives you the power to free yourself from competing offers?

What is it in your life?

It doesn't matter what kind of a job they'll give you, it doesn't matter how much money

they'll give you, it doesn't matter where they tell you to relocate to, it doesn't matter

how much crypto they give you, you just don't find it attractive. Why? Because whatever

your treasure gives you the power to free yourself. That's why sometimes when guys

meet a girl who lives in Timbuktu, they move to Timbuktu. Why?

Because that's where their treasure is. They move to Timbuktu.

I don't know where Timbuktu is, but I believe it's a nice place.

Where? It's in Mali. Okay. So, it's amazing what, how many battles are fought at the treasure level.

And you must be able to define it. If you cannot define treasure and it has to be specific,

not the generic. Yes, we start with the generic, but we always come down to the specific.

You must be able to define your treasure. Any questions? Good singing, Remy.

Any questions?

Because once you get this right, guys, then it creates time for you.

It prioritizes your choices.

It protects your passion.

It honors commitments.

And it destroys complacency.

Back to the question.

What then is my treasure?

Back to the question.

What then is my treasure?

Just imagine having all that. It creates time.

Because you found your treasure, it creates time. Don used to be a free man.

Now, he found a treasure and so he creates time for her. It prioritizes his choices.

He used to come and see me sometimes once, twice a week from Surrey. Now, once in two months is a gift.

It protects your passion.

It honors commitment.

And any competing offer is completely rejected. Other commitments will be broken because he now has found it. Treasure.

This is so important, guys.

And you must be able to define it.

Take three months, take four months, take five months, but define it, please.

And do not look at your age. This thing can happen to you.

And do not look at your age. This thing can happen so quickly. But define it. Don't leave it generic.

Any questions?

Yep, go ahead, Emily.

Yeah.

Yeah, I hate calling Jesus generic because that's terrible.

But it is, it is, yes, I know who I am in you. Yes, I'm supposed to progress the gospel. Yes, I know I'm a child of the king.

Yes, I know you're my father. Yes, I know you're my savior. But now that I know all this at this present time in my life,

what is your definition for me, oh God? For Jesus, it was being a carpenter.

And he was splendid at it.

And then at a certain point it changed.

It was the same for Moses. At one point it was a deliverer. Another time it was a nation-former.

And it was the same for Noah.

For Barnabas it was the same. At one time he was just

from the tribe of Levi and then he goes on to become a prophet or a teacher at Antioch and he goes on to become an apostle.

So there are these changes that keep happening and what if I could define it?

And we always start with a very vague definition, but it begins to clear slowly.

God is able to do this for us guys. Remember one thing.

Who gives you an inheritance?

The father. You don't work for an inheritance. Nobody works for an inheritance. If you're working for your inheritance,

perhaps you're illegitimate.

But anybody who

gets an inheritance, obtains an inheritance because of your relationship. That's how you get an inheritance.

And so if that's how you get an inheritance,

who is interested in giving it to you?

The father. Who amassed it? The father. Who wants to

dispense it? The father. How does he do it? In bits.

Why? So that you can handle it.

So that in the end you can continue what he has started into the life of your children.

There's nobody more vested

in giving me an inheritance and seeing his plan fulfilled for the years to come.

Why does he give you an inheritance? So that you can distribute it.

Just as he distributed it.

Who gave Jesus an inheritance?

The father. Acts chapter 2. Ask of me and I'll give you the nations as your inheritance.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It's fascinating how even the reason we are given an inheritance is so that someone else can benefit.

He's really interested in this.

Do not sell yourself short. This can be found.

It can be found season after season after season.

And once you find it, God will send other people to firm it saying, yep.

I love this. It creates time, prioritizes your choices, protects your passions,

honors commitments, destroys complacency.

That's the kind of church we want to build, right? An intergenerational church.

What's his name? Don came up during the break and said there was a time when we were only 10 people. Now we have 10 guests.

This is brilliant.

But when you look around, it's an intergenerational

group.

What we want to create is an intergenerational group.

What we want to create is an intergenerational church that is made up of sent ones ready to go.

Sent ones ready to go. That's what we want to create.

And for that we need a certain caliber of people, a certain caliber of people which we need to become.

Amongst these people, there'll be sons and servants.

I need to repeat this again so that we realize something. And I really believe this is based just on the nature of God.

And I've said this before, guys, in God, there are no leaders and followers. There are only sons and servants.

If we are made in the image of God, then we are not made leaders and followers. We are made sons and servants.

Which means then that every son and servant has the potential to lead two, five, ten, twenty, two thousand people.

The capacity depends on the skill set given you.

But we are made in the image of God, so we cannot be made leader and follower. We can only be made son and servant.

So the capacity to lead exists in everybody.

So if you're creating an intergenerational church or sent ones ready to go, you need a certain caliber of people.

And those already have this essential.

And from here, you find some that have learned, have learned, have learned, have learned.

And from here, you find some that have learned, have learned, have learned, have learned.

Learned the ability to lead and others who will learn it.

Dylan is not here right now.

Dylan is Abhishek's friend, and he's got other friends too, other than Abhishek.

But sorry, it almost felt like he was exclusively your friend.

Dylan actually goes to a flying school, and he is taught how to fly.

He's taught how to fly.

By the way, I've flown a Piper Cherokee and done two or three hours in an Airbus 320 sim.

I learned how to fly too. I assure you I can take off.

Yeah.

Who?

Lorianne is laughing.

I assure you I can take off.

Question is this.

Dylan's been taught how to fly.

I have learned how to fly.

Who would you rather fly with?

Alrighty, I've got a bunch of loyal people here.

So the point being, sometimes it is not enough to learn how to do things in the kingdom.

It is important to be taught how to do things in the kingdom.

Both require learning.

But it's obvious from your answer that none of you trust me.

You know, the sad thing about that whole flight thing,

it was the church that gave me that gift to go flying,

was that I took someone with me to record the whole thing on video.

But because the plane was moving fast, he just got the grass.

There's absolutely no proof that I actually took off, which is very sad.

Yeah, so,

if you want this to happen where we have the caliber,

this happens

in Paul Timothy context, guys, in Paul Timothy context.

That's the relationship in which this kind of learning can happen, where you and I learn

two things.

We are equipped,

and then we are entrusted so that we can in turn equip

and we can then entrust it to others.

I was just watching us during worship today, and Jane was standing here, and Tuni was standing here,

and Remy was leading.

I think to me, myself, there was a time when the only person who would lead was Jane.

At some point, Jane would spend time with Tuni and help him with the idea of worship,

not because Tuni wasn't a good singer or good guitarist.

He was all that.

But there was a need to be equipped.

And then Tuni now has equipped Remy, and each one then equips and trusts, equips and trusts,

and it keeps going.

And the relationship or the context that it always happens in, at least according to scripture,

is the Paul Timothy relationship or context.

You should do it for others, and you should have it for yourself, and you begin to flourish.

Timothy to Titus' relationships do not prosper it.

It's not possible to prosper it there.

In peer-to-peer relationships, guys, there's always error.

There's always peer pressure.

There's error.

There's peer pressure.

In peer-to-peer relationships, in peer-to-peer relationships,

that's relationships in the kingdom,

if that's how you want to learn,

then here are some of the things you'll have to watch out for.

There'll be error.

There'll be peer pressure.

There'll be superficial change.

There'll be muddy water, where it's not very clear, but it's clear enough.

And there'll be unintended steadying of the arc, like Uzzah did in 2 Samuel 6.

Any questions?

It's age is not the factor.

I always learn from someone better than me, and it's an essential.

We do it in every other area of life.

We need to do it in the kingdom, too.

Agree.

So it's not an exception.

Like, that happens, but I'm saying dominantly in the kingdom,

things are learned in terms of a Paul-Timothy relationship,

not a Timothy-Titus relationship.

Pardon?

No.

The Pauls have to go after the Timothys, not the Timothys after the Pauls.

The Pauls go after the Timothys.

Not the Timothys after the Pauls.

Pray to God, saying, Father, send me someone who will help me learn.

Because God is the one who has to supply it.

And in the kingdom, God would love to supply it.

God would like to build up churches where this can happen.

Where a math can teach someone how to do a website.

Where George can teach someone how to fold a tract.

Where an Aaron can teach someone how to do accounts.

Where a Nick can teach someone how to do miracles with bok choy.

So it's the context that we learn from.

But when it's peer-to-peer, imagine me teaching you how to cook with bok choy.

Here's what will happen.

There'll be error.

There'll be peer pressure saying, I'm going to cook with bok choy.

There'll be error.

There'll be peer pressure saying, nope, 20 minutes of boiling is what it requires.

There'll be a superficial change.

Bok choy will taste like something else.

There'll be muddy water.

And then there'll be unintended studying of the ark.

Unintended studying of the ark is when people touch what they're not supposed to

because of enthusiasm.

Zeal without knowledge is dangerous.

So here are the questions we should ask each other.

And I should ask you.

Can I?

I'll just ask them instead of writing them.

Can I expect you?

I'll repeat it.

Can I expect you to be a leader or a person willing to embrace a very demanding

soldier-like lifestyle free from the entanglements of life?

Can I demand that of you?

Let me just pick names.

Can I demand that of you, Mike?

Can I demand that of you, Pawan?

I mean, the answer is yes and no.

It's not like Mike is saying no as in he doesn't want it.

Perhaps it's his present answer.

But that's the demand that's being placed on us.

Can I demand of you?

Where is this coming from?

It's coming from 2 Timothy 2 verses 3 to 6.

2 Timothy 2:3–6

Can I demand of you the soldier-like lifestyle

that you will rise up to?

When Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 3 to 6, that's what he's saying.

Can I expect you to be a leader willing to embrace a very demanding soldier-like

lifestyle free from entanglements of life?

Can I expect you to follow rigorous habits of a top athlete?

Can I expect you to be willing to pay the price for a good job?

Can I expect you to be willing to do exhausting work

because there's a crop that needs to be harvested?

And these demands are not Jacob demands.

These are not Acts 29 demands.

These are demands being made by God in 2 Timothy 2, 3 to 6.

And our resounding answer, even though it presently may be no,

is no, I'm not there yet, but I want to reach out towards this

because that's what my life is about.

And the same question should be asked of me too.

Submit to that.

Thank God this is a religion that demands things of us.

Sorry, go ahead.

I'm praying that this church will have enough Pauls

so that as Timothy's come in, they can be changed into Paul's too.

The strange thing is, you know, even though Timothy started working

for Paul in ministry as a late teen, so he was 18 or 19,

and he was already ministering with Paul, Paul spent 20 years with him, developing him.

Crazy, eh?

I'm sure when Timothy worked with somebody, it didn't take 20 years.

But the first time around, it takes more time.

Your first child is the most difficult one.

You can ask Matt and Ray too.

No?

Okay, I take that back.

I have no idea of how those things work.

But the two things that God is after, and this has been the case

since the beginning of time, the two things God is after,

can I equip you so that I can entrust you with something,

so that you can equate somebody else and you can entrust them with something?

And can you do it in such a way that you will keep looking like me?

One of the saddest verses in the Bible is in Genesis 5, where it says,

and Adam had a son Seth, and Seth took after Adam.

Till then it was, Adam took after God.

But after Seth comes, it kind of breaks down.

Seth doesn't look like God.

Seth looks like his father, Adam.

Here's another question.

Is your eager willingness matched by completion?

Second Corinthians 8, 11 says, hey, now that you guys have started the process,

he's talking about offerings there, but the principle is,

now that you've started the process, Jacob, can you finish it?

Or are you going to leave it incomplete?

Yep.

Is your eager willingness to do something matched by completion?

And do you start in the spirit and finish in the spirit,

or do you start in the spirit and finish in the flesh?

That's from Galatians 3, 3.

Here's another one.

Can I trust you to demonstrate an increasing ability to handle conflicts,

handle fears without quarreling, complaining, or compromising standards?

Can I trust you?

Jacob, who are you?

I just happened to be the pastor.

Can I trust you?

So that's why I'm taking the liberty of asking you the questions.

I can say we, just to make you happy, but what's the point?

Can I trust you?

Can I trust you to demonstrate an increasing ability

to handle conflicts, fears without complaining,

without compromising, without quarreling?

These are the things that are required of us as a church

as we step into where we are going right now.

Can you do the work of the kingdom?

The work of the kingdom through the church without,

this is hard, eh, without being recognized, included, coddled, or patronized?

This is very hard.

As I've been asking myself these questions, I can see the areas of struggle for me.

I remember once being in a conference with Eddie, who I really loved,

and he would treat me so well, but at that conference,

he wasn't giving me the time of day.

He wouldn't ask me to sit at his table.

He wasn't engaging me in conversations.

I didn't like it.

I didn't like not being able to talk to him.

I didn't like it.

I didn't like not being included.

I didn't like not being at his table, patronized, coddled, recognized.

It's one of the hardest things in the kingdom, eh,

to do things without being recognized, coddled, patronized, and included.

But these, this is the caliber God is looking for.

Here's another one.

I was trying to ponder about this a couple of days ago,

just in a conversation.

I wasn't necessarily addressing him.

Can I entrust you to have a passion to become craftsmen of the word?

Can I entrust you to have a passion to be craftsmen of the word?

Craftsmen of the word.

If you've been a believer for three years,

and you haven't read the Bible fully through once,

then begin the process.

Three years is long enough.

One of the scary things in a church like this

is because there is a prophetic spirit that operates in a church like this,

it's easy to prophesy.

But if I do not have the word,

soon prophecies will become non-prophecies,

and non-prophecies tomorrow will become false prophecies,

because when the word is scant, then there's nothing to build on.

You'll just change things around.

Instead of saying, oh, in this new season, you'll say,

oh, in this new era, or new weather, or climate,

or whatever the word season, you'll replace it.

But can I entrust you to have a passion to become craftsmen of the word?

If I checked with May, if I checked with Dillion,

if I checked with Dawn, if I checked with Tooney,

what will they say about the growth of the word in you?

And this might, some questions may kind of make us feel guilty, condemned,

ashamed, work past it quickly.

But here's the question again.

If you've been a believer for more than three years,

you must have read the Bible at least once through.

Which means that if you have been a believer for 30 years,

you must have read the Bible.

Not three times, 10 times.

You might need courses in both reading the Bible and math.

Are you faithful?

Are you faithful?

I want your leaders in the house churches to ask you this question.

I hate calling it house churches sometimes.

I want your leaders in the churches to ask you this question.

Are you faithful?

And so I encourage them to ask.

Listen to this.

Listen to how strong these words are.

And how some of us will begin to chaff at it.

Yeah?

Listen to it.

So I'm asking May, I'm asking Jillian, I'm asking Tooney, I'm asking Don,

I'm asking whoever else I left out.

Jane and Sheldon, yeah.

I'm asking you, is he, and let's take, let's not think of is he as in,

is that person in your group, is he someone

who is so committed, he will suspend many of his own interests

to serve you as a soldier in, as a soldier serves a commanding officer.

What a question to ask, eh?

But just imagine if you were a leader and you had someone like this.

What can't you take?

Just imagine having a Jonathan like this.

What a question.

Peter thought he was like this till he betrayed Jesus.

John was like this.

Let me read it out.

Dillna is looking at it.

Let's pick on Dillna.

Is Dillna, so if I were to turn to May, May, he's in your, where's May?

Okay, so I'm asking May, May, is Dillna someone who is so committed

that he will suspend many of his own interests

to serve you as a soldier serves the commanding officer.

Crazy question.

Scary question.

But a kingdom question.

Tomorrow when Dillna becomes someone who leads the church,

what if he had one person like this?

That's what faithfulness looks like, guys.

It's a tall order, eh?

What we're building.

Once we learn the word, we'll see the word affecting small areas of our life,

not the large areas of our life.

Large areas are easy.

Today I was trying to get a picture for the teaching to put on,

when we put it on the website.

I got two pictures.

I'm thinking to myself, nobody will know this.

One picture was by NASA.

It's free, public domain.

The other one was better, but it's blooming copyrighted.

That is when the rubber meets the road.

Now what do you do, Jacob?

Full of the word, are you?

Let's see what you do in the small things when nobody's watching.

So I went to NASA.

But it was a momentary struggle, eh?

This is what faithfulness looks like.

Here's another one.

Is he willing, let's make it she.

Is she willing to exercise, is she willing to exercise a level of discipline,

a level of discipline in her choices?

That almost appear imbalanced, unbalanced like an athlete.

Competing for the Olympics.

That's what we learn.

like an athlete competing for the Olympics.

Let's pick on you.

Let's make you the she.

No, so let's assume you go to Tunis house church, just assuming.

So I'm asking Tuni, is Diana able and willing to exercise

a level of discipline in her choices that almost appears

imbalanced or unbalanced like an athlete competing for the Olympics?

Athletes are completely unbalanced.

They eat weird stuff.

They wake up at weird times.

They run weird kilometers.

They're unbalanced.

They're unbalanced.

But this is what the kingdom demands.

Got a wrapper, so I'll stop with one or two questions more.

Or does this come with excuses?

Or does it come with excuses?

Last one.

The second last one.

Is he critical of his circumstances?

Wanting something different?

Or going off on his own maverick adventures?

This is the caliber of things we want to develop.

Is he critical of his circumstances that he finds himself in right now?

Wanting something different?

No, I don't like this.

Give me something else to do.

Or going off on his own maverick adventures?

No, this is not what I want.

God is calling me to do this.

Then six months later, God is calling me to do this.

It just changes.

Is this true of the Bible?

Absolutely.

You see the guys who followed Jesus.

You see the guys who followed Paul.

You see the guys who followed Peter.

And when it used to waver, Paul would say to Barnabas, listen,

I'm willing to break up with you, then take John Mark with me.

Because John Mark deserted us the last time we did this.

There are two Greek words, not important.

I had to look them up to sound Greeky.

One is called nomos and one is called oikos,

meaning the law of building a house.

This was how they built it.

How dare we mess with it?

This is what we are being asked to do.

And here's the thing, guys.

Most of it.

You know, take me out of the picture.

Let's assume that I'm full of myself.

So let's remove me.

Take the others.

You'll find that most of the guys who lead you

are guys who've lived like this.

Most of the leaders in this church,

be it leading two people here, or a family there,

or a church here, or a Sunday school there, or whatever.

You'll find that most of them have paid the price.

Most of them have lived like this.

And now they get to equip and entrust.

May you rise up, because I truly believe

this is where we are going.

So what if we mess up occasionally?

My God, if you could look at the messes,

guys older than you are made, you're doing splendidly.

But this is where we are going.

And this we must embrace.

Because he'll be thrilled at it, eh?

At the end of the day, when he asks,

do you love me more than these?

Your resounding answer will be yes.

I love you more than myself.

I love you more than my own rights.

I love you more than my own self-interest.

I love you more than my own dignity.

I love you more than my own freedom.

I love you more than all this.

And then a time will come when it's your turn

to then train the ones that come after you.

Because you will then be entrusted to equip them.

And wave after wave after wave then begins to happen.

True.

Yeah.

Any questions, guys?

Any, any, any?

I mean, if you're not chaffing at these questions,

then bless you, man.

Because be abnormally committed to mastering the scriptures,

yeah?

Abnormally committed, not occasionally.

It shouldn't be sporadic mastering of scriptures.

It must be, it must be abnormally committed

to mastering the scriptures.

And master the tapestry of scriptures, not one topic.

Not just healing or apostolic or prophetic or kingdom.

You know what that'll look like?

That'll look like a person with a nose that keeps growing.

Suddenly you find things about the kingdom.

Kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom.

It becomes like a chant.

No, it has to be the tapestry of scriptures, mastering it.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

Here's the Paul and Apollos addressing.

It was not done by Paul.

It was done by Aquila and Priscilla.

So here is Apollos, a guy who knows the scriptures well.

But he knows the Old Testament well.

He doesn't know how it works in the New Testament church.

He doesn't know it.

And so he comes and he's a great orator.

The guy has tremendous talent and he's speaking in Ephesus.

And after he finishes speaking, Aquila and Priscilla go to him and say,

hey, come home for tea.

And they take him home and then they begin to explain to him

what the scriptures actually mean.

And then after that, he goes on to become who he is.

Is there a possibility of being exploited in this situation?

Absolutely.

Is there a possibility that you one day will exploit someone?

Possible.

But may it not be so.

You have to be better than the ones who taught you, right?

So if you've been exploited, make sure you don't exploit anybody.

When I look around the leaders that are presently in church,

I don't see the exploiting type.

I mean, it's your turn.

I can't see you exploiting someone either.

And then this thing begins to beautifully increase.

And sometimes Paul would tell a policy to go somewhere.

And policy would say, no, don't feel like going.

But that was a rarity.

And Paul would then write saying, I asked the policy for some strange reason.

He doesn't want to go.

I tried telling him he isn't listening.

And so Paul said, I'll leave him be.

Then there was Demas.

He tells Demas, Demas says, no, I would rather go back into the world

and do what I'm supposed to do.

So Demas leaves Paul.

Then there's Timothy.

Paul tells him to go somewhere.

He goes.

But when he goes there, he's behaving like a coward.

So Paul says to him, listen, God has not given us a spirit of timidity,

but of love, power, and a sound mind.

Then Paul sends Titus.

Titus goes to Crete.

When Titus goes to Crete, Paul says, glad you're going, Titus.

You set in order the things that haven't been set in order in Crete.

You see four different people with four different reactions,

and that's completely OK.

That's how this thing grows.

If everyone was perfect, why do we need equipers?

OK, let's pray.

How do you pray after this, Lord?

Jesus, at the end of the day, our allegiance

is to how you want to build the church.

In the process, there are steps.

And you have decided that the way you do it

is through faulty, defective people.

And so I repeat that again, Abba,

that our allegiance is not to our culture,

not to our previous denomination,

not to our self, not to what we think is the right way,

not to those things.

It is not.

I pray, Spirit of God, that you would prevent me

from going those routes.

Oh, well, that's what I was taught.

That's what we've been doing for a while.

Now, I don't think that's important.

It's not up to me.

It's not even an interpretation of scripture.

There are patterns of our laid out so plainly

that any blind man can see it.

I pray that we see it.

Then we say our allegiance is to building the brighter Christ

the way the bridegroom wants it.

You didn't make anyone here leaders and followers.

You made us sons and servants.

A day will come, Father, when the ones that are 20 and 25

and 45 and 50 here that may not be leaders yesterday,

but maybe leaders tomorrow,

we'll get a chance to work this out.

And I pray we remember.

I pray we remember.

Father, the one thing that I'm scared of doing,

that this church is scared of doing,

is messing with your bride.

Don't want to do that, Lord.

There's only one place, I think, where you say,

if you destroy the temple, I will destroy you.

You're a life-giving God.

And there's that one line,

I think it's in 1 Corinthians 3.16, where you say that.

We choose to build your bride

the way she needs to be built, her bridegroom Christ.

And this teaching is towards that.

And then raises up as a people, one man, one woman,

who starts things that you show us.

Allow the present leaders, allow me, to give wings about

to horses that want to run.

Give wings to horses that want to run.

I love that C.F. Lewis saying,

in the kingdom, you don't try to make a horse run faster.

You give it wings.

That's what we pray now.