Keeping

God is a keeper. One of the most commonly used words you'll find

in the Bible right from Genesis onwards is this idea

of God keeping us. Yeah? He keeps saying I'll keep you

when you go out, when you come back. Number 622

the Lord bless you and keep you. So the idea of keeping

is something that God has always been. God is a keeper

and the word keep comes from this Hebrew word Shamar

and to keep is to guard, protect, attend to, hedge in,

what else? Give shade, watch over. These are the different

senses that one can derive from that simple word Shamar

which means to keep. So when God says I will keep you,

what he's saying is hey Jacob I'll guard you,

Isaiah 27 talks about this. Someone was saying how they

felt that this idea of God watching over and keeping

Acts 29 is a word for now and I was agreeing with them.

So this idea of keeping as in to attend, to guard, to protect.

Jacob I'll guard Acts 29, I'll protect them, I'll guard you,

I'll attend to you, I'll hedge you in, I'll give you shade,

I'll watch over. This is who God is. God is a keeper.

Now why is this important for us to talk about?

How can this be a continuation from yesterday?

Yesterday we were talking about angelic protection

and now we are talking about how we can keep each other

just as God keeps us. But to fathom how we can keep each other

we must fathom how God keeps us. God has made a covenant

to keep us. God has made a covenant to keep us and in keeping

there are a few things that are involved when He keeps us.

One, He extracts us from places of trouble, so there's extraction.

Then part of keeping involves sustaining us now that He's extracted us.

Sometimes after sustaining us we still mess up, fall,

sometimes because of our own ways and He has His ability

to restore us. All this is part of keeping.

That aside, He makes sure that part of keeping is the continuous voice

of His presence. These are four aspects of keeping that God

will always be faithful to. That listen, I have made a covenant

to keep you. He did this with Israel. I made a covenant to keep you,

so here's what I'm going to do. I'll extract you every time you're in trouble.

Whether you're in exile, that was something I imposed,

or whether it was something that you weren't responsible for

but were taken captive in, I'll extract you.

We'll read some beautiful scriptures with regard to this.

I'll extract you and then once I extract you out of that place

and rescue you, I'll sustain you. I'll adorn you. I'll sustain you.

After sustaining you, should you still fall or should things begin to break down

or decay, don't worry, part of my keeping is to restore you.

I'll never take away my voice and my presence from you.

The voice of my presence is always available to you.

Israel sometimes would miss out on that because they lived in the old covenant.

In the new covenant we have the voice of His presence.

The voice of His presence. But Jacob you haven't mentioned that before.

I've mentioned voice and presence separately, but when you call it the voice of His presence,

man, it's like I got both always.

That is something that happened once Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

He restored what man lost in Eden.

Here are some scriptures that we can look at that talk about this.

When you think of extraction, one of the scriptures that comes to mind is Deuteronomy 4.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 32.

Deuteronomy 4:32

I'm reading from the message.

Verse 32 to 35. Ask questions.

Find out what has been going on all these years before you were born.

From the day God created man and woman on the earth and from the horizon in the east

to the horizon in the west as far back as you can imagine and as far away as you can imagine.

Has as great a thing as this ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?

Has a people ever heard as you did a God speaking out of the middle of the fire and lived to tell the story?

Or has a God ever tried to select for Himself a nation from within a nation using trials, miracles and war?

Putting a strong hand in, reaching His long arm out, a spectacle awesome and staggering.

The way your God did it for you in Egypt while you stood right there and watched.

You were shown all this so that you would know that God is, well, God is, well, God.

He's the only God there is. He's at it.

I love that verse 34.

Has a God ever tried to select for Himself a nation from within a nation using trials, miracles and war?

Putting a strong hand in, reaching His long arm out, a spectacle awesome and staggering.

The way your God did it for you in Egypt while you stood right there and watched.

You were shown all this so that you would know that God is, well, God.

He's the only God there is. He's it.

There is this idea of extraction.

That Jacob, if I keep you, I will make sure that I rescue you.

I'll be God like I was God when Israel was in Egypt.

And He doesn't stop there because then He begins to sustain you.

If you go to Ezekiel 16, Ezekiel 16,

4 to 16, I'm reading from the NIV.

Ezekiel 16, 4 to 16.

On the day, 4 to, I'll stop when it's right.

Ezekiel 16, 4. On the day you were born, your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you.

Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for on that day you were born, you were despised.

Then I passed by and I saw you, Jacob, kicking about you, kicking about in your blood.

And as you lay there in your blood, I said, live.

I made you grow like a plant of the field.

You grew and developed and entered puberty.

Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.

Later I passed by and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love,

I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body.

I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.

I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you.

I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.

I adorned you with jewelry.

I put bracelets on your arm and a necklace around your neck.

And I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

So you were adorned with gold and silver.

Your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth.

Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour.

You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.

And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty.

Because of the splendor I had given you and I made your beauty perfect, declares the sovereign Lord.

Keeping involves this, man.

The more we wrap our heads around the keeping power of God,

the more you will be able to take risks with this God who has a covenant attitude towards keeping.

Then there's John 21, 7-16 where this idea of restoration is always present day.

This is not a one shot God who says, okay, I've done this for you, now what are you going to do for me?

I'm not going to help you again.

John 21, 7-16, these passages are self explanatory in terms of what I'm trying to point out about the keeping nature of God.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter,

It is the Lord, as soon as Simon Peter heard him say,

It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off and jumped into the water.

The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish.

See, it's all in verse 8, it says,

The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from the shore, about a hundred yards.

When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals, there with fish on it and some bread.

Jesus said, bring some of the fish you have just caught.

So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore.

I don't know what took over that man.

Here were a whole lot of disciples dragging a net full of fish and it was hard for them.

But now that Peter has seen this Jesus whom he had let down,

who he hasn't seen yet since he rose again, except for a brief moment when Jesus appeared among the disciples.

He runs into the water, runs to Jesus.

He knows that something is going to be restored in his life.

If he doesn't know it, there's this hope that it is going to.

This man suddenly possesses so much strength that when Jesus says, bring me some fish,

he goes running back into the boat and this one man alone drags a net full of 153 fish.

And so it goes on to say, so Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore.

It was full of large fish, 153.

But even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come have breakfast.

None of the disciples dared ask him, who are you?

They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, gave it to them, did the same with the fish.

This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Yes, Lord, he said. You know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my lambs.

Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

He answered, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep.

The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me?

He said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my sheep.

This man who had once been selected as the guy who would open the kingdom to the rest of the world

is now brought to a place where he is fully restored and commissioned, restoration and commission.

This is part of Jesus' keeping. He keeps, in fact, in John 17, it is such a beautiful prayer.

He's praying to his father and he said, father, I've kept those that you have given me,

except the one who was destined for perdition, but I've kept the rest of them.

Keeping involves being restored. I don't know where you're at, but my God, man, don't wait another day.

Your God has a keeping covenant with you and keeping restores.

And finally, the voice of his presence, we can see different scriptures for it.

One of them is Deuteronomy 31, Deuteronomy 31, verse 6, which is then again repeated in Hebrews 13, 5.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Deuteronomy 31, verse 6, long, long ago, before Jesus came, God had this nature.

Deuteronomy 31:6

He says, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them.

For the Lord your God goes with you. He will, he's saying this to Israel,

the stiff-necked people who had walked away from him multiple times.

And what is he saying? He's saying that he will never leave you nor forsake you.

If you go to Exodus 33, we read that passage plenty of times, Exodus 33,

Moses remembers the kind of God he is.

And in Exodus 33, 14, the Lord replied, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.

Hebrews 13, 5, Hebrews 13, 5, yo, Hebrews 13, 5, yo,

Hebrews 13, 5, what's up? Come, come, come.

Okay, Hebrews 13, 5, in the same way Christ did not take on himself the glory of,

the glory of, oh no, Hebrews 13, 5, sorry, I'm reading Hebrews 5, 5, Hebrews 13, 5.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have

because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

Hey, I know it's hard at times when things are going really wrong, you feel alone,

there's nobody around, but one of the first places you need to go to

before you go to friends, before you go to anywhere else, is to the scripture,

which simply says, never will I leave you, nor will I forsake you.

Now you, your parents are going to come and take you.

There's a small interruption, just give me a minute.

That's fine, that's fine.

Let her take it.

Excuse me, do you mind leaving?

Don't worry about it, Jane, I'm just kidding.

No, she can take the bottle if she wants.

Okay, pardon? Okay.

These are parts of God's keeping nature, eh?

The more God is your keeper, the greater your ability to step out of the boat.

The more God is your keeper, the greater your ability to step out of the boat.

The more God is your keeper, the greater your ability to step out of the boat.

Israel did. Israel was so confident of God despite their stiff-neckedness. Why?

Because they had heard God say to Moses, say to Aaron, say to these people,

that this is what I declare upon them, that I the Lord bless you, I the Lord will keep you,

I the Lord will be gracious unto you, I the Lord will lift up my countenance and show you grace

and give you peace and show you favor.

Israel was confident of it. We are not, guys, we are not sure that God can keep us.

Words like, he will never leave you nor forsake you, just roll off people's tongues so easily that it's lost meaning.

But God is a keeping God. I've got to start believing that he keeps me and keep is to guard me, to protect me,

to attend to me, to hedge me in, to give me shade, to watch over me.

One of the things you have to ask yourself today is what is the keeping promise that God has given you?

What is the keeping promise that God has given you?

One of the keeping promises that God has given me that I go over almost every trip I go on,

which was almost a year ago, is Genesis 28 verse 15.

Genesis 28:15

I always read this before I go. And it was given to my namesake, not my namesake, it's the other way around,

but Genesis 28, 15. Here's what it says, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.

I will bring you back into this land. I will not leave you until I've done what I promised to you.

If you read it from the NKJV or the ESV, it says, behold, I'm with you and will keep you wherever you go

and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I've done what I promised.

Every time I leave Canada, I read this verse out before I go.

What is the keeping promise that God has released to you?

It's like a lifelong inheritance.

Get one for yourself because there are hundreds of keeping promises in the Bible.

It is an essential part of God's nature to keep you.

Why else would he include it in the Aaronic blessing?

The Lord bless you and keep you.

Such a, it's a word that is so full, so many things are covered in it.

Dwell under it. Use it to build a tent above you.

Learn the dimensions of God as a keeper and two things will happen.

One, you will begin to mirror his nature and two, God will be able to use you to keep others.

Listen to me. Learn to, learn to, learn the dimensions of God as a keeper and two things will happen.

One, you will begin to mirror his nature and two, God will now use you to keep others.

Israel had keepers.

In the Old Testament you read about how there was a keeper of the city gate,

there was a keeper of the king's forest, there was a keeper of the tabernacle,

there was a keeper of sheep, there was a keeper of vineyards.

Keepers were chosen and here's the odd thing.

Keepers were chosen for their courage, for their integrity

and for their trustworthiness in times of need.

And for their trustworthiness in times of adversity.

So here's the question. You man enough to be this, woman enough to be this?

This is not a concept that the church is familiar with.

That I'm supposed to be a keeper.

I think God's cry falls on deaf ears in churches when he says,

Aren't you Sheldon, your brother's keeper? Aren't you Brandon, your brother's keeper?

And the answer suddenly is, me, my brother's keeper?

Aren't you Jacob, your sister's or brother's keeper?

We're not talking about blood relations.

Brandon is not responsible for being Jillian's keeper.

Brandon is responsible for being his brother's keeper

and he has to figure out who his brothers are.

These are the requirements. Courage, integrity, trustworthiness.

If you wanted to be a keeper in the Old Testament.

Keepers were chosen for their courage, for their integrity, for their trustworthiness in adversity.

Man enough, woman enough?

Keepers were chosen for their courage, for their integrity, for their trustworthiness in adversity.

Man enough, woman enough?

Another word for keeper was armor-bearer.

Armor-bearer.

And the actual sense of an armor-bearer was one who keeps the head.

One who keeps, one who keeps the head of his charge,

one who keeps the head of his charge, keeps the head, as in the actual head,

the head of his charge safe.

If you were someone's armor-bearer, your job was to make sure that you were part of the president's secret service detail

and that you would keep the president safe.

This is what we're being called to.

This ain't for namby-pamby believers.

A man's life would be placed in the care of his armor-bearer.

I'm telling you man, this is what God is calling us to at this time.

There is angelic protection, but there is much more flesh and blood protection here on earth right now.

I'm talking to all of you guys sitting here in the crew too.

Man up, woman up, whatever the word is when it comes to women.

David learned this early guys, which is why he progressed the way he progressed.

David learned keeping early.

He learned how to keep early.

First with his father, he learned how to keep early.

First with his father's sheep.

In those days, sheep were a sign of wealth and keeping his father's sheep represented all of Jesse's wealth.

And David would defend those sheep against raiders.

He would defend them against lions.

He'd defend them against bears.

And it is in keeping what was given to him initially that he became faithful so that he could eventually deal with Goliath.

You want to have dominion released to you so that you can fulfill God's mandate in your life.

Start keeping what you've been given first faithfully in the little that you've been given.

Domain does not increase.

Dominion is not given if I'm not faithful in keeping what has been initially given to me.

And when we are talking about keeping, we are not talking about sound or light or money.

We are talking about soul.

If I don't learn to keep the souls that have been given in my charge and these are as precious as children,

I'm not talking about the soul.

I'm talking about the soul.

I'm talking about the soul.

I'm talking about the soul.

I'm talking about the soul.

I'm talking about the soul.

The other cool thing about David in 1 Samuel 17, 20 is that eventually when David goes to the front line to become Saul's harpist and later on fight Goliath,

David makes sure that he finds another keeper to watch his father's sheep beautifully.

It always gets me.

This is why we pray before I leave.

My God, I haven't left for 360 days.

Today is March 7th.

March 12th was the last time I traveled.

This is why we place someone in charge.

1 Samuel 17, 20.

If you are heading off somewhere and you have a responsibility, you must place someone in charge.

It's a responsibility you must discharge.

Otherwise you ain't a keeper.

Guys, our present commission demands that we be a church of keeping relationships.

Our present commission, if you don't know what it is,

listen to last night's teaching and there's a point where I outlined it.

Your present commission demands that we be a church of keeping relationships.

Not that we have to, keeping relationships not as in cultivating relationships, but keeping relationships.

Demands that we be a church of keeping relationships.

Keeping relationships.

Both with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Keeping relationships.

Both with God and with man.

Both with God and with man.

What does it mean to be kept by God?

What is involved in that?

We talked about it.

That there's extraction, there is sustenance, there is restoration, and there is a voice of his presence.

All that comes in the keeping package.

And I have to locate myself in that so that I can be kept by God.

And if I do, I'll find that I have a greater ability to walk on water and step out of the boat just because I know my God.

He who knows his God can do mighty exploits.

He who knows how faithful, he who knows how much a keeper God is, can dare mighty exploits.

So where do we start?

To begin with, if you are someone who wants to increase in this, then know this, that keeping doesn't wait to be pursued.

Keeping doesn't wait to be pursued.

As in?

You're not waiting for someone to say, oh, I'll look after you, I'll help you ease in and stuff like that.

No.

When you look at Ruth chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, look at who the outsider was.

Ruth 1:16

Guys, this is so critical, eh?

Today we've cultivated a church culture that requires that if anyone who is a believer comes to a church,

you have to mollycoddle them for the first three months so that they feel they are loved.

You know the problem with that?

At some point they'll feel unloved.

At the moment they feel unloved, we'll have to do the whole thing again.

What if we cultivated a culture where people who join new or who are old realize that they are Ruths, they are the R-U-T-H,

they are Ruths who are on the outside and instead of being pursued by Naomi who is on the inside of Israel,

it's Ruth who says in Ruth 1, verse 16 and 17, she says, and treat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you,

Ruth 1:16

for wherever you go, I will go.

What a cool thing.

Ruth 1, verse 16 and 17, she's pleading with Naomi who is an Israelite and she is a morbite.

Ruth 1:16

Ruth the morbidess is pleading with Naomi, not during a time of prosperity, during a time of famine.

Ruth has enough sense as a morbidess to say to Naomi, please I entreat you, do not ask me to leave, I want to be part of what you are.

What if we could cultivate a culture like that?

It doesn't mean that we be unloving.

But man, you know there was a time recently where I wanted some people to stay on in a certain group

and I thought okay, I got to make sure they stay, I shouldn't say anything offensive so that they leave,

my teaching should be something that should be tailored so that it's palatable to them.

And so for the first two, three weeks I did that and by the fourth week God started saying,

hey, why are you so worried whether they stay or leave?

I'll take care of them anyways.

You do what you're asked to and do it well.

Do not worry about keeping people, as in keeping them in a place or keeping them in a group.

It's okay if people leave.

Love them sincerely, but if they leave it is okay.

Do not be offensive, do not give them any offense other than the cross.

Do not take offense easily, but do not go overboard trying to keep people

because if you do that there will come a point where you will not be able to satisfy them and they will leave.

This is really not where I wanted to go with that, but it is perhaps where I need to go.

I know you've heard the word EQO, EQA.

It's not just one Ms.

If you spend so much time trying to make them leave,

it adds a lot more to the problem that you've Polish people are going to offer you.

I know you've heard this before but keeping 101 starts with this idea of, I've talked

this in the past, of abiding relationship, abiding relationship, abiding relationship.

Where does that come from?

Ruth's words, wherever you lodge, there I will lodge.

Wherever you lodge, I will lodge.

Wherever you lodge, I will lodge.

I pray God that people leave Acts 29 because they are sent.

Because you have this clear sense from God that it's time to go and that your leaders

are keenly aware of that sense of God and validate it and send you and don't hold you

back.

But that aside, wherever you lodge, I will lodge.

Abiding relationship, relational ownership, this is a frightening, beautiful term, relational

ownership.

Relational ownership.

Relational ownership.

Your people shall be my people.

Your people shall be my people.

Your people shall be my people.

As in I belong to you.

You have relational ownership over me.

I belong to you.

You don't belong to me but I definitely belong to you.

Whether you belong to me is up to you.

You can say it when you want to.

But I am saying to you that I belong to you.

Relational ownership.

This is the whole idea of a slave who was freed, going up to his master and say, I know

you freed me but listen, can you drive a nail through my ear onto the doorpost because I

want to be seen as one who had the freedom to walk away but chose to stay.

So on one hand we create a culture where we do not mollycoddle people to stay.

On the other hand we create a culture where people find it difficult to leave.

Third, divine ownership.

Divine ownership.

Your God is my God.

Your God is my God.

As in hey, now that I am part of this people that I presently belong to, I just want to

pursue the same causes.

I want to dive into what God has for us as a people.

I want to dive in.

I don't want to sit on the fringes like Derek was saying earlier.

I don't want to stand by the banks of the river.

I want to be found in the river.

Divine ownership.

Together in the causes of God.

Till I am sent on my way to replicate the same thing somewhere else.

And the last one, lifelong relationship.

Lifelong relationship.

Isn't that brilliant?

Where you are buried or where you die, I die and there I will be buried.

Where you die, I die and there I will be buried.

Where this relationship that I am entering into is not a passing phase.

This is something I am committed to for the rest of my life.

Any questions on this guys?

This is why...

Yeah.

Any questions?

Any questions here?

Okay, so I am going to go back to the question of the past.

So Evan is asking, is it better than not to be afraid to offend someone but just tell

them what you sense God is saying.

So my response is, I must try not to give any offense other than the offense of the

cross and what does that mean?

What Christ says and does can be offensive and that if it causes offense is fine.

I should do my best not to cause offense.

And if that means that I change my tone, my language, choose my words, speak in a way

that does not cut into your bruises that already exist but still is able to convey what God

wants to say without compromising God and his heart and his nature, then that needs

to be done.

And sometimes we can only learn that through mistakes.

When I hurt you, I must come and sit with you and try to take the hurt away.

There was a time when I did something that offended Don and Don was offended enough to

cry and I remember sitting with him in the car while he was crying and trying to take

his hurt away.

I won't happen by a simple, oh I am sorry Don.

Being hurt away takes time.

But that's part of keeping, right?

We don't realize how sometimes this relationship that we are talking about in terms of the

church, the only other relationship more intense than this is marriage.

Mike told me to preach it, Karen.

This is a very intense relationship, the commitment we have to make to each other.

But when people do this, man, it becomes a mountain that no animal can touch.

Because here's the thing, why is it that the mountain on which God came and dwelt could

not be touched because God was dwelling there?

But it does say that wherever brethren dwell together in unity, there the oil of God flows.

Whenever a people are in one accord, there God dwells.

And when God begins to dwell in that mountain cannot be touched.

Any beast that touches that mountain must be shot or must be stoned.

How does the lifelong relationship work if you are sent somewhere else?

How does, I would say the way it works with the Bergmans, Mark and Rhonda are in Vernon.

They've been sent there.

Oh my God, man.

They're more of a pain now than when they used to live in Langley.

And in the process, Tate and I have become really good friends.

Yeah.

Whenever Sue would be missing at meetings, she would say, I'm there in spirit.

And I would roll my eyes.

But there is something to being connected in the spirit with a people or with a person

where you can be miles away.

And yet, because of this ability to be drawing from the Holy Spirit and connected to the

Spirit, it is easy to have lifelong relationships.

They are real.

I've experienced them.

They're more intense sometimes than being physically present.

But so much of it is dependent on this quality of I'm deeply interested in the person and

I really like and love the person.

That's critical in this, eh?

And we'll talk about that.

It's incovenant that adversity is dismantled and people grow.

Just remember that.

Ah, man, these are such precious lines.

It is incovenant that adversity is dismantled.

If you have adversity in your life, it is in covenantal relationships with a people

that adversity is dismantled.

And it is in covenantal relationships with people that you grow.

If you are a part of a church and you are not covenantally connected with the rest of

the body, it is not possible for your adversities to be dismantled.

You might say, but Jesus will do it for me.

Jesus built his body.

He has certain ways of doing things.

The oil from the head does not flow to the body if you're not connected to the head,

through the body.

Be it Psalm 133 or Acts 1.14 where it says, they were all in monocor and then that's

where the Holy Spirit comes.

At the end of the day, because God loves dwelling amongst the people that are living in unity,

it's a great thing, man, to be in this situation where we have covenantal relationships with

because that now will lead to us keeping each other.

It will lead to us keeping each other.

Acts 1.14, Psalm 133.

So the next step, the next step is to, now that we've understood the 101 of our relationship

with each other, the next step is, okay, I will now become aware and diligent about others

around me in the body.

I'll be vigilant.

Every day I'll be vigilant so that God can prompt me to pray or help situations and people

without any prayer request or need being expressed.

There are two ways people can go about this.

One, you can go through a list every day of people and pray to God.

Or two, you can have deliberate times where you turn to God and say, Father, I want to

be diligent and aware and I want to be vigilant with regard to the body that I'm a part of.

If there's any situation or anybody that you want me to call to mind or do something for,

just let me know.

This is God-prompted.

And as we begin to practice it, there'll be times when we get it wrong.

But as we begin to practice it, we slowly become very naturally our brother's keepers.

Keeping is shepherd-like, guys.

Keeping is the nature of the great shepherd.

As a leader, it's an essential part of who you are.

But then who is not a leader?

Because everybody can be a leader tomorrow if you're not a leader today.

Acts 29 only has leaders and potential leaders because Jesus' nature is that way.

We are leaders and servants.

We are not leaders and followers.

You can't be anything else because that is who He is.

I actually believe that.

That's not lip service.

Acts 29 responds brilliantly to requests.

I've seen it.

It blows my mind.

Send out a request and the things people do is amazing.

One of the things that happened recently was through dreams, about three or four dreams

that people had, different people had at Acts 29.

One of the things that God exposed was that we aren't present and spiritually aware of

things unfolding over lives unless we are told.

We're good at prophetic words.

So there are tons of people across Acts 29 who will have prophetic words for each other.

Oh, by the way, Penny, if you're listening, happy birthday.

Penny Reimer, Vernon, Eric's wife, hi, happy birthday.

Don't want to break into song right now.

Might do it later.

Okay.

So, I know that sounded terribly abrupt, but going back to the notes.

Acts 29 is good at sending prophetic words for people because of prayer.

Acts 29 is really good at responding brilliantly to requests.

But one of the things that was exposed through dreams that people had was that Acts 29 was

not aware of things unfolding in lives.

And as people were going through things, when they looked for help, they couldn't find any

other guys there.

They couldn't find help there.

They couldn't find parents recognizing or realizing that they were missing.

And you suddenly realize that one of the things God wants to do in this season of our lives

is to bring us to a place where even when we don't have requests, even when there are

no needs being expressed, we become diligent and vigilant enough to be aware spiritually

that I need to pray for this person or I need to go here at this time or I need to supply

this at this time or I need to declare this at this time where something within you begins

to be prompted by the Spirit of God.

How cool will that be?

That's the people who learn how to keep each other.

Practice this, guys.

And this is an everyday practice.

It takes three minutes.

Three minutes.

Even if you had five children, you can get three minutes out of a day.

Here's another thing.

And this is for the older members of Acts 29.

By older, I don't mean in age who've been Christians for a while.

Sometimes one of the things I notice with myself and with Christians who have been around

for a while is that we get very passionate about God's interests in the church, but we

are dispassionate about people.

Hey, may you never get so caught up in being passionate about God's cause, God's interest

that you're no longer passionate about people in their ordinary ground level problems.

This is what I really appreciate about some of the leaders at Acts 29.

Now while Jacob may be thinking global revival, they're thinking about ground level problems

that simple situations that people are going through that need to be addressed.

May the older ones in this church not get so passionate and intense about God that you

get dispassionate about people.

Shepherds like sheep.

Keeping is weaponry, guys.

Keeping is weaponry.

If I learn to keep you and you learn to keep me, it becomes like a weapon against the enemy,

both defensive and offensive.

I was looking at, I was reminded of Roman legions and there are some pictures I have.

Roman legions and how they used to keep each other when they would fight and they had these

different formations that they would quickly go into where soldiers would keep each other.

This was called the tortoise or the testudo where once they began to keep each other this

way where they would go into this formation, it was impossible for arrows from above to

affect them or from the front to affect them.

Then in a second they could shift from this to the next picture which was a wedge.

The wedge was this idea of forming an arrow like the Canadian geese and going straight

into a place where it would be impossible to stop them.

These men would know how to guard each other's flanks and move in.

The third one was this thing called a skirmish where the second row would move forward and

the first row would pull back so that they had this continuous movement, gave them tremendous

flexibility and demolished the armies that came against them.

The last one was called, I forgot the name of this, but this was when horses would come

charging against them.

The spears would go out, the horses would stop and then the guys who were standing would

throw their javelins at the enemy.

These were formations that they would practice over and over again with two intents.

One, keep my mate on the left and the right safe and take out the enemy.

Keeping his weaponry, add to this angelic protection and now you have a choice that

can win battles without losses.

Just one quick caution before we go to the last part.

Avoid, when we start this process of keeping each other and have God prompting us to pray,

if possible, I know sometimes we have to go down this route, but if possible avoid vague

questions like, is everything okay?

Because sometimes everything is okay and then when you ask a question I feel obliged

to tell you something that's not okay because I don't want you to feel like you heard wrong.

So sometimes don't go with, is everything okay?

If you have something specific, say it, if not just pray the best you can.

Or one of the things that really gets me, and I don't know why it gets me, maybe it's

a personal problem.

People sit with me and they've come to seek some counsel and I've given them and then

before they leave they turn, can I pray something for you?

No need to ask that question.

If there's something you want, I need prayer for, I'll ask you.

These are Christian-ese things that we've got to completely dust.

Be prompted by the Spirit, follow the Spirit.

Sometimes we get into this holy mode where if you prayed for me now, I've got to do your

Now that you've prayed for me, say anything I can pray for you, brother.

Avoid these things.

These are not pet peeves guys.

I know there's a degree of meditation when I'm saying it, that is a pet peeve.

But what I'm saying is genuine.

These things are just Christian-ese things.

It's almost like Jesus saying, why do you call me good?

Avoid these things if possible.

Avoid I had a dream.

If you have a dream and you do not have the interpretation, do not give that dream to

somebody because now unless God is saying I'm not going to give you the meaning, you

go tell Derek that you have this dream, he knows the meaning, then go ahead.

But otherwise if you had a dream about somebody, make sure that it is something that you first

seek God for or send it to someone who has understanding, ask them to interpret it for

you and then see if you want to send it forward.

I just had someone text me saying can I pray for you?

Ha ha ha.

Another thing is guys, when you pray for people, when God is prompting you as a keeper, it's

not to pray that he or she changes because prayer huddles are places where a lot of Absalom's

and Job's friends are revealed.

Don't get into prayer huddles where let's pray for Don.

He's way too playful.

At this rate, he won't get married till Phoebe is married.

You don't want to go down that route.

Yeah?

So these are things that have been commonly spewed when people go down this keeping pathway

and I'm just bringing it up so that we avoid these pitfalls.

Especially don't pray for leaders and pastors and for their change.

If you have a change that the pastor should make in their lives, may you have the boldness

to come and tell the pastor and may you hope that the pastor is in a humble enough place

to receive it from you.

And if he is not, may you suffer a little bit of irritation from him.

But that is the better way of going than huddling together and praying for some change in some

leader's life because that, there's something about it that is not kosher guys.

I'm not talking about this church, eh?

I feel like the book of James right now.

I feel like this is getting way too practical and nitty gritty and not preachy enough.

I prefer preachy.

I prefer long sentences by Paul than stuff like this.

Final concluding step.

Guys, once we get the, okay, so here are the three, four things that we have to get.

First, understand how God keeps.

How does God keep?

First.

Second, understand how you, if you're a part of a church, have entered into a covenantal

relationship.

The quality that you see in Ruth's statement to Naomi in Ruth chapter one.

Third, you begin to ask God to give you both vigilance and diligence in learning how to

keep others in the body just through the prompting of the Spirit.

Under all this, when it comes to the body, it's a simple aspect of passionate interest

and love for one another.

Am I my brother's keeper?

I can only be my brother's keeper if I'm actually interested in him.

I can be passionate about the causes of God and dispassionate about my brother.

All that will happen is my brother will do well in the causes of God.

My brother will not benefit from my keeping because I'm dispassionate or disinterested

in him or her.

Hey, you know something.

There's no doubt about my passionate interest in the young adults in particular.

As I say that, the ones that are older may think, so you're only interested in the young

adults?

No.

But one of the reasons we are where we are is because this ability to keep has slowly

trickled down into my life.

Where it is critical for me to be actually interested in your life whether you're part

of Acts 29 or not.

And there are so many that are not part of Acts 29 that I meet with that I must show

the same interest in.

With the older ones, it's the same.

Sometimes it's harder for the older ones to be in a place that the younger ones are in.

That's natural with age.

But cultivate this, eh?

Paul saw it in Barnabas.

Barnabas sought him out.

When nobody else would take a risk and lay their reputation on the line, Barnabas went

to Tarsus, Acts 8-26 or 9-26.

Barnabas went to Tarsus and got Paul out and brought Paul, laid his reputation on the line

where no other apostle would touch him.

Barnabas went and got him.

Paul learned from Barnabas.

Paul then later on sees how he could invest in the lives of Silas, in Timothy, in Titus.

I learned this from people, people who were so passionately interested in my life, not

in the cause of God in my life.

They knew that there was a hand of God on my life, but they were so passionately interested

in me, in the way I ate, in the clothes I wore, in the way I used spoon and fork.

It's, I mean, there were so many things I didn't know.

They taught me basics of life.

Why am I hesitating on saying this?

Because I think this is something that should just trickle down to each of us and then should

spread through us.

Sometimes I wish every young person in this church was a guy, because then I wouldn't

have to worry about all this girl stuff, can't meet them alone and stuff like that.

It would be so much easier if everyone turned into a guy when they come to visit me, but

it doesn't work that way.

Oh my God, man, that is the kind of keeping that we should engage in.

And the strange thing is, many of us do, many of us do, I'm fascinated at that.

I'm just saying let's take it up to the next notch, where we become so aware.

When I watch some of these young leaders leading house churches now and how they're so aware

of the people in their house churches and they call and they find out, be it old or

young, I'm fascinated.

I'm at their age, I never could do stuff like that.

What happens next is, guys, God will commit me to a few to be their keeper.

God will commit me to a few to be their keeper.

I said, okay, Jacob, so you've learned how to keep a group of people, but now I want

you to be an armor-bearer to a few.

Some of them in Acts 29, some of them outside Acts 29.

I want you to be an armor-bearer for a few.

And once God calls you to that, you have to labor to build deep friendships.

You have to labor to build deep friendships.

Keeping is not passive.

Keeping is not passive.

To be a keeper is a costly thing.

You keep with your life.

You keep with your life without controlling, without seeking obligations, without wanting

to be included in everything, without expecting a response.

Keeping is not a passive thing.

It's a costly thing.

You keep with your life and you keep with your life without seeking to control, oblige,

be included or expect a response.

Something that sometimes lasts for a season, sometimes longer.

Well, I could give you many examples and some examples from Acts 29.

Let me just pick on one.

Chad.

Chad, I keep him and he keeps me.

He faces spiritual warfare because of the call on my life.

And I've gone to battle for him in a second and both of us bear the scars of standing

for each other.

And I've gone to battle for him in a second and both of us bear the scars of standing

for each other.

But I've committed my life to keeping him.

And he has committed his life to keeping me.

Once you step into that, a keeper is willing to give away his best for the one he keeps.

A keeper is willing to give away his best for the one he keeps.

A keeper is willing to give away his best for the one he keeps, a keeper is willing to

his best for the one he keeps. Jonathan gave David his robe, Jonathan gave David

his armor, Jonathan gave David his swords, Jonathan gave David his belt, he gave up

his right to be king in giving David everything. It's a choice and if it's a

choice between me doing well or Chad doing well, I would step back because he

is more important but we'd have to wrestle for it because he would do the

same thing. This is what keeping looks like where you're fighting to be second

best, fighting to be second best. That aside if I step into this role of

keeping the few that God has appointed me with an intensity of an armor bearer

that protects with my life the life of someone else then it also requires that

I be willing to step out when my friend is taking a leap of faith. I must be

willing to step out even though I don't know the outcome, even though I may

suffer loss, even though I don't have the faith for it because my friend says hey

I've got the faith for this I'm gonna take a leap of faith you want to come

and like Jonathan's armor bearer I must say whatever you want I'll come along.

You see that in 1st Samuel 14 7 Jonathan says hey if they say go up let's go up

and Jonathan's armor bearer turns to him and says whatever you say I'm with you

all the way. It's not like he had the faith but he was so committed to keeping

his charge that it doesn't matter that I may lose my life I will walk. Can we

imitate a friend that sticks closer than a brother? My God man there are people

at Axman and I do that for. I'm actually doing it for. Maybe they recognize it

maybe they don't but my God my heart would do anything for them.

How do I want to end this? I want to say this to you at Acts 29. You at

Acts 29 have kept me faithfully. You have been keepers of my life man. I would not

be where I am if you right at the beginning when there was just Chris and

Heidi till today. You have so brilliantly kept me. God will reward you

for that. I could not get to where I am today. My life wouldn't be where it is

today if it hadn't been for the fact that you have been such such willing

keepers of my life and I want to be someone who acknowledges that and

thanks you for it. And the forms of keeping can vary. Some keep me financially

others keep me by just encouraging me. Others listen to God for me. Others serve

me. Others just hang out with me. Others accompany me on difficult missions trips.

The different ways one can keep somebody else. Sometimes all you need is

someone who can just hang out with you. Jesus had that in John, James and Peter.

I thank God for you. I owe you and I long to cover you all of you. I just want to

bless you with Jude chapter 1 verse 20 to 24 and then we break bread. Jude

Jude 1:20–24 Jude 1:20–24

chapter 1 verse 20 to 24. I'm gonna read it from the passion translation this

time because how it's translated is pretty much the same as other

translations but the words are delightful. Jude 1 20 to 24. And so I say

to you but you my delightfully loved friends constantly and progressively

build yourself up on the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every

moment in the spirit. Fasten your hearts to the love of God and receive the

mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us eternal life. Keep being

compassionate to those who still have doubts and snatch others out of the fire

to save them. Be merciful over and over to them but always couple your mercy

with the fear of God. Be extremely careful to keep yourself free from the

pollutions of the flesh. Now to the one with enough power to prevent you from

stumbling into sin and to bring you faultless before his glorious presence to

stand before him with ecstatic delight to the only God our Savior through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Be endless glory and majesty great power and authority from

before he created time now and throughout all the ages of eternity. Amen.

Bless you guys for being who you are. May you learn how to be kept by God. May

you learn the covenantal relationship that is a foundation this church must

continue to build. May you learn to be prompted by the spirit every day

especially during the season to keep each other just through praying and when

you don't know how to pray, pray in tongues.

I remember ages ago, it's a story very long ago and I'll have to name people

and what they did so I won't. And then may you ask God, Father are there one or

two in this body that you are appointing me to that I can be an armor bearer to

that I can be a keeper to?

Two things as a keeper that you'll have to remember. One, oh God let it cost me

my life if necessary to keep this person's head and heart safe and two, oh

God can this person at some point because of my keeping go beyond me?

Desire this eh? Please remember get passionate about God's causes but do

not get dispassionate about the person. The person has to be precious. The person

has to be precious. Man we've got to show people how church is built and if in

saying this the way I've given these examples has not been your experience

with me then I'm at fault and I apologize. I'm not trying to be humble eh?

You know that doesn't go well with me but I just want to apologize because I

wish this was everyone's experience with me because this is a small church it's

doable and if that is not your experience with me may you find it over

the next one year in me and may you find what you have missed out through my life

in some of the other leaders in this church. May they compensate you for how I

was not able to be that. Yeah but my God man I just want to tell you that this

must be dear to our heart because it is the way God treats people.

Diana's question is how do we know this isn't happening? It's not whether this

isn't happening. It is let us make this a very important part of our church right

now because of the season we are in because we have angelic protection. When

we begin to keep just like the Roman legions we will see that it becomes a

place where the enemy has very little room because every time he comes up

keepers armor-bearers rise up. So the thing is not is it happening. The thing

is it must be something that is common to us all so that there is no one left

exposed on the flank above below. Yeah cool let's break bread.