Neighborhood Overflow Sermon Series - October 4, 2026 - John Aureli Preaching

Uh, first of all, I want to just thank

Ted. This is a really cool podium, isn't

it?

>> Isn't it beautiful? So, Ted, what I love

about you is that you take things that

wouldn't necessarily have purpose and

you make purpose in them. If you've ever

seen his art, he's one of the most

creative, most beautiful artists that

I've ever met. And uh, you've just been

a huge blessing in this community

through your creativity. But then you

said, "John, I need to make you

something. I just have the desire to do

it." And isn't this beautiful? It's just

great. Thank you, Ted, so much. We've

been talking about generosity. We've

been talking about overflow. And I just

it's these simple things that we think,

you know, we get inspiration to be

creative. And God wants us to use who

what he's given us uh for him. And I

just love that like that was in your

heart to uh to to glorify God that way.

So, I'm going to give you a mic. And I

know this is intimidating, but there's

been a bit of a journey that you've been

through over the last five or six years,

right? At some point you received a

diagnosis for cancer and cancer of

>> I have a thyroid cancer and I got liver

cancer.

>> Thyroid and liver cancer.

>> And when you were diagnosed with thyroid

and liver cancer, they started giving

you medication. It was a kind of

chemotherapy, right?

>> Yeah. I went through Well, I went

through a lot because I've been going in

and out of the hospital since I've been

since I got diagnosed with uh cancer.

And uh first they found out that I had

steroid and then it traveled down to my

liver.

But uh I'm I'm glad that I came to this

church because God saved me. God put me

in this direction to get healed. And

I've been going over there to that

corner, my favorite corner. That's why I

sit over there in the corner because

that's the only short way I can go. And

uh I have uh Kate and her husband always

pray for me and he give me kind of like

chills on me and it feels like cool

shield and every time I come in through

them double doors I feel like a cool

air. I don't know it's not it's not the

AC because it feels something better

than AC. So you know to make the story

short I've been in a coma twice. I got

two death certificates.

>> Yeah. Yeah. You say that very quickly

and you tell me that story. I have two

death certificates and then you just

continue to go on.

>> Yeah. Well, I I don't want to go through

details because it's it's it's a long

story.

>> But you have been declared dead twice.

>> Twice.

>> And though there were incidents again,

Ted can tell you the story. He's not

afraid to tell you the story. And and

then you were diagnosed with cancer. And

then you've been they were you've you've

been waiting for even a a transplant,

right? Mhm. I was Yeah. They were

telling me that I needed a transplant

real bad, but uh all these treatments

that I've been going through, it wasn't

doing any good. So, I got to change

another doctor gave me a second opinion

and my my daughter, she works on a

clinic.

>> Yeah. She's a a nurse specifically

specializing in cancer therapy.

>> Yes. So, she asked the doctors, "No,

just come to our clinic and we'll we'll

take care of you." So, the doctor told

me, "You know what? Um, we're going to

have to put you on uh the radiation."

So, that radiation kind of kind of like

burned me, burned my neck, and it make a

hole right here. So, they gave me

something very special. It's a cream and

uh you can barely barely see almost the

inside of my throat but uh cuz it burned

me. But then they gave me a cream and I

put it on and didn't leave me any scar.

But I still got pictures of it on my

phone. I got proofs that you know it's

uh it's amazing that I'm I'm still

alive, you know, and I'm I'm doing good

now.

as as I say as as we speak now. Um I'm

cancer free.

>> You're cancer free?

>> Yes. I'm cancer free. So right now I've

been going to my to my doctor. He said,

"Wait a minute. Hey, you're overweight

already. You got to slow down." I said,

"Okay, I'll slow down." So they don't

want me to go too high over 85. I weigh

191 right now. So I got to go on diet.

>> Okay. Okay. So,

and thank God for your diet. I know your

wife likes to regulate you. Your

daughter likes to regularly. So, I know

you'll be okay with your diet, but there

was a moment you were in the alpha

course. And during the alpha course, you

learned about different things and one

of them is healing. Does God still heal

is the question? And uh I don't know if

you were there because the night before

you had had to prep for they were going

to check and see if if your cancer was

still there. And there was an

expectation that really it was either

you needed a transplant or your time had

come. You were going to get your third

death certificate. And I remember

waiting for that week that your

appointment was on a Wednesday and we

prayed for you and we expected really

you expected the worst. But then you got

the diagnosis and the doctor was kind of

blown away, right? Like wait a second,

there's no cancer left in your liver.

>> No, there was no no more. It's just it's

just a different color. It's not the way

it was, but

the color is getting kind of white.

Well, it's almost almost white, but he

said just do what the best you can. Eat

proper foods.

And I never ate I I never ate like

broccoli or spinach or green beans. But

that's that's the good thing that he

told me that, you know, cuz I never ate

none of that stuff. That's what's that's

the one that's changing my liver, you

know,

>> because at some at first, so we

celebrated

>> his cancer was gone. Ted's cancer was

gone. And then a month later, you came

to me, you said, "It's back." And I

went, "Oh, no." And I I remember crying

with you that day.

>> Yeah.

>> And then you went to the appointment the

following week and after we prayed again

and what happened? Well, he he saw the

results, but uh he said that uh it it

was his mistake because there was

something on the

picture that was kind of dirty. And I

said, "Oh my god." And I cried and I

said, "Don't ever do this to me anymore.

Please, you're killing me now."

So, I want I wanted to share with you

the journey with Ted through cancer.

He's been so humble and so glorifying

God and so real with God. God, like I

don't want to lose my life. And he's

been so faithful to go for prayer. At

the end of the service, we have prayer

teams to pray for any any need. And uh

you really believe God completely healed

you. I mean, they're saying that there's

something there or whatever, but and you

have to eat broccoli. God forbid, but

but God healed you of cancer, Ted.

>> Well, let me tell you one thing. When I

went to the hospital because of my

cancer, they were going to run some

treatments on me. Uh, I was kind of like

asleep. They put some kind of a

medication so I can relax on that MRI

and I knocked out, but I didn't know

until I came out. I was in the bed and

uh I felt something grabbing my arm and

it was well my hand and but it was real

cold and uh and I know I know it was

him. It was right beside my bed. And I

mean, you know, this is the truth

because I told I told my wife and and

she goes, "Well, I think God was with

you that day."

>> Wow.

>> So, you know, until now until now, I

Well, I didn't want her to wash my hands

because I didn't know. But I had to wash

them, you know, cuz I know it was him. I

know it was him that was there for me

and he was protecting me and I'm still

here.

>> No more death certificates.

>> No more.

>> Not for now anyway. No, not forever.

>> Not forever.

>> Uh, can we thank God for this? And go

ahead and cheer. Thank you, God, so much

for healing Ted of cancer. We glorify

you, God. However you've used the

doctors, however you use nurses and

family, we glorify you for Ted's healing

for cancer, God.

>> So, would you extend a hand? Let's let's

let's continue to pray for Ted. Lord, we

thank you for this and we continue to

pray in the name of Jesus. cancer. You

have no right over his body in the name

of Jesus. We claim the blood of Jesus

over Ted. No other authority. God, you

know what he's been through. And right

now, God, we claim his life for you. He

surrenders his life to you. He belongs

to you.

>> And uh God, we bless you for his

healing. We ask you to seal that healing

on his life and his top of his head down

to his toes. We bless you, Ted, in the

name of Jesus.

>> Amen.

>> Thank you, Ted. Thanks for everything.

>> And for those of you who didn't go to

Alpha this past week, you missed out on

Ted's wife, Jennifer, making all the

Chinese food for Alpha.

You missed out.

Uh last week we ended our service

sending you out with cascarones. If you

don't know what a cascaron is, it's an

egg that's been drained and filled with

confetti. And the whole idea was to send

you out with God's generosity. Does

anybody have a story you want to share

about how you shared God's generosity

cascaroni as you left? Any Did you hurt

anybody when you smashed their heads?

Did any stories of sharing God's

generosity you want to share? Anything

fun?

Nobody shared God's generosity.

All right. Well, onward to our new

sermon series. And maybe this one will

stick better. Here we go. Here we go.

We're in a series now beginning today on

neighborhood overflow, seeing spiritual

authority in our city. And if you don't

remember anything else from today, I

want you to remember this. God's

authority meets us where we already

live.

God's authority meets us where we

already live. And so before we keep

going, I want to pray. Lord Jesus, thank

you for your generosity towards us.

Thank you for your generosity in the way

we get to see it in physical healing in

in provision in encouragement, in

blessing,

God. We want to be a part of your

generosity in your authority.

We want to live under your authority,

God. So would you come this morning

more than my teaching, God? Would you

use your scriptures

to seal in us what it means to live in

your authority for the sake of our

lives, but for the sake of the

neighborhoods you've sent us into? We

ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

God gives us spiritual authority

in the places of our natural authority

so that his goodness can reach our

neighbors through us. There's two kinds

of authority that I want to talk about

right now. natural authority and

spiritual authority. If you read

anything of Jesus, Jesus talks to Roman

soldiers. And this Roman soldier says,

"Hey Jesus, you can tell me to and pray

for me and if you say it, it goes." And

you know how I know that, Jesus, it's

because of my natural authority as a

Roman soldier. If I say this, they do

it. I know authority works.

And so for Jesus, he recognizes their

spiritual authority and it relates to

our physical authority. But physical

authority, if you can imagine any

anybody who has who's a boss here, do

you have you have people that work for

you? You have authority. Mark has his

authority in his restaurant. At least

you you think you should, right? I mean,

sometimes your workers do it sometimes.

But they work for you in their job

description. They work for you and you

pay them. And so that there comes with

it a physical authority, right? And

people expect for Mark to show up and

direct the restaurant. That's the way

authority works, right? There's a shared

expectation. Chris says the same thing.

Chris oversees people. And if Chris

didn't show up and do his job, everybody

would be confused because he lives in a

certain authority. His job. Each one of

us have that kind of physical authority.

There's a place where somebody expects

you to show up. Moms, dads, if you

didn't show up for your kids, something

else would happen, right? All the moms

are thinking this morning, chaos, you

know, like

complete chaos would happen. I don't

know if you've seen this Nate Bargati

movie recently where Nate Bargati is a

great car salesman, but his wife is, you

know, runs the house with systems upon

systems and one day Nate is has to take

over all of her systems and the whole

world falls apart. If you haven't seen

it yet, I highly encourage it. There's

physical authority, but there's also

spiritual authority. And we often

imagine that in our work environments or

I'll give you an example. Recently, we

we fixed my son's car up. It it was not

running. We tried to make it run for a

year. We could not make it run. We did

not have the physical authority to make

the Jeep run. And so, we brought it to

somebody with authority. They said they

could not make it run. And so, we

brought it back and we got depressed.

And then we brought it to somebody else

with authority. And they with their

authority got our Jeep running.

Now,

it cost a lot of money to that person

with authority to get that car to run.

But there was something else going on as

we were engaging in the physical

authority of the mechanic over this

Jeep, this 25-year-old Jeep that still

wants to run, I believe, in the name of

Jesus.

And so, I was with the mechanic and I

was just wondering, God, is there any

kind of spiritual authority that you

want to engage in here?

There's a physical engagement of

authority that's going on. He has

authority over my engine and making it

work. And he did. Thank God. Is there

any spiritual authority? And I got to

pray for my mechanic, which was great.

And wouldn't you know it, my mechanic

actually needs spiritual authority in

his life. Do you need spiritual

authority in your life? Well, so did my

mechanic. And so, we introduced the idea

that God could have some authority in

his life. And it was great. And I went

off with my Jeep. Hallelujah. Except for

recently,

all of the sudden, the Jeep decided that

it wanted to overheat and the head on

top of the engine blew. It cracked and

that means that um the car basically

eats itself in a in one way or another

and it and it and it's gross. It's

really really gross. And so, wouldn't

you know, we got to bring my Jeep to

physical authority again,

which also led to another encounter of

spiritual authority where I got to

engage with my mechanic again and be

curious with God. God, is there any

spiritual authority that you also want

to have in this moment? And wouldn't you

know what, God did want to have

spiritual authority in that moment?

God's a really good God. He He doesn't

let things happen without his spiritual

authority wanting to be engaged in all

the physical authority that we deal

with. So you may have lost a job

recently. I want to let you know God is

not done with that yet. And there's a

spiritual authority that he wants to

engage with whatever physical authority

is going on. You may have won a million

dollars. I want to tell you that

physical authority that you have now is

not meant to be absent from the

spiritual authority that God wants to

have in your life.

They go together and they're not absent

from one another. When we say our

mission statement as a church, our

desire is to welcome Jesus into all of

life.

As we recognize there's no physical

authority on earth that should operate

without the spiritual authority of God.

Now that's hard when anxiety goes up. So

the other day, the other night, my

daughter calls me and her friends car

broke down and they are in a bad area of

town and I am ready to use every

physical authority I can to go and

rescue them. And I waited for a moment.

I said, "God, is there any spiritual

authority that you want to engage in

here?" And wouldn't you know it, she was

able to get a ride home from somebody at

church and now their relationship is

closer and there's all kind of

excitement around their Bible study and

this one person coming to Christ. In

fact, today there's somebody coming to

Christ and and getting baptized today in

her church.

We're going to get into Matthew 10 right

now. And in Matthew 10, it's after

Matthew chapter 9. In Matthew chapter 9,

Matthew 9 · chapter mention Matthew 9 · chapter mention

Jesus is doing physical authority stuff

in spiritual authority. So, demons are

being cast out. People are being healed

just like what you heard here. Ted's

story is a story of physical authority

and spiritual authority coming together.

welcoming Jesus into all of life,

doctors being used, but also doctors

being confounded.

>> Similarly, Jesus is going out and he's

casting out demons. He's healing the

sick. He's raising the dead. And he's

doing all of it. And he's got these

really close friends called disciples.

They're sort of apprentices to Jesus.

They're walking with him. And they're

like, "This is really cool." Cool. And

if you can imagine hanging out with

someone with such authority, wouldn't it

be cool if you saw me raising the dead

every day? You'd want to hang out with

me more, wouldn't you? Or you'd be

freaked out. You'd just want to avoid

me.

But all of a sudden, Jesus changes the

dynamic of what's going on. This is

Matthew 10. And he called to him his 12

disciples,

those apprentices.

And the way that Matthew says this, it's

just like and

1 plus 1 equals 2. And he gave them

authority.

So the same way that Jesus was

practicing raising the dead, casting out

demons, healing the sick,

Jesus

in his God man personhood is able to go,

okay, you too go.

Your turn also.

Okay, go. And he does. He gives them

authority over unclean spirits or demons

to cast them out. How fun would that be?

I mean, Halloween's coming. All the

spookiness of Costco is coming to grasp

in our lives. Imagine casting out real

unclean spirits, not just the 12-oot

tall skeletons that are there.

He gave them authority to heal every

disease and every affliction.

Imagine,

just think, just would you think about

your neighborhood for just a second?

Think about your workplace.

Think about everyone that's close to you

and every single thing in their lives

being completely healed.

Divorce is reconciled.

Addictions. I love to sing this song.

Shout Jesus to the mountains. Shout

Jesus over addiction.

Imagine you get to be in that place and

have the authority of Jesus over all the

things

that challenge people's lives because

you have physical authority to be there.

And why do you have physical authority?

Because they expect you to show up. Your

neighbors expect for you to live there,

right? You you live there. I have a

friend of mine that's got a lawsuit

against his neighbor because his

neighbor thought that he had the

physical authority to build on my

friend's property. He didn't challenging

that physical authority.

Similarly, in Jesus, Jesus is giving us

the authority to challenge when there's

a trespass into the places that God has

domain.

>> But we have to

Well, I'll show you what Jesus does.

to cast every uh to heal every disease,

every affliction. And he names the 12.

And he doesn't name experts.

He names fishermen, tax collectors, and

who knows what the other jobs are. Maybe

they don't even have jobs.

So, if you don't have a job today or if

you're a tax man or if you're a

fisherman or whatever you are, I want to

tell you Jesus gives you authority in

the spiritual realm just as much as he

does in this picture.

>> So, as you hear these names, I want you

to see yourself. Simon, who's called

Peter, Andrew, his brother, James, the

son of Zebedee, John his brother, Philip

and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the

tax collector, James the son of Alfus

and Thaddius. Simon the Zealot. Judas a

Scariot. who betrayed him. So let's

include now you

who have betrayed Jesus.

Jesus wants to invite you into this

authority too. Not without dealing with

the betrayal,

but he wants you to have authority.

So these 12 Jesus sent out and he

instructed them in an interesting way.

He says, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles

and enter the town of the Samaritans,

but go rather to the lost sheep of the

house of Israel."

So, there's one reason why we can

imagine that Jesus is doing this. Maybe

the disciples aren't ready for the

Gentiles and the Samaritans. Maybe

they're not smart enough. Although, I

doubt that at all. This isn't about

smarts, is it?

But I wonder if Jesus

is inviting the spiritual authority of

their lives to be executed first among

those

like them rather than those who are not

like them.

I wonder what's easier for you to send a

tweet to people who you don't know

or send a text to people that you do

know. And here's the tweet or the text.

You need to change your life.

Is the tweet easier or the text?

>> The tweet. And I'm aging myself because

I said tweet. I don't know what else

we're using these days. You X a message.

I have no idea. Nobody uses it anyway.

Right. Anyway,

what's easier?

What's easier to call up your brother or

sister who know you really really well

and say, "Hey, I've got a problem. We

need to reconcile or to say the same

thing to your neighbor

or to say the same thing to somebody on

the street. I was just in New York this

past week and man, how many people I

touched without wanting to. They just

shoved me on the street or I shoved

them. I don't know.

But if I did that to my neighbor, if I

just went up to them and shoved them and

kept on walking, it's a completely

different dynamic, isn't it?

Jesus is sending his disciples to those

they know.

And there's a challenge and there's also

familiarity. There's a challenge in

saying,

there's a change in you that I want to

have in them. There's a love that I've

given to you that I want you to give to

them. And here's how Jesus says it.

Go to the lost sheep of Israel and

proclaim as you go, saying, "The kingdom

of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick,

raise the dead, cast le uh cleanse

lepers, cast out demons. You've received

yourself without paying.

Give without pay. Have the same grace

that you've received on the same people

that you know that they receive the same

grace."

And then they give he gives him another

challenge. Go without pay. Don't go with

anything that you feel like would make

you strong. Don't prove yourself. Don't

show them your Instagram feed of how

awesome your life is before you start

talking to them or sharing this

authority.

No. Go without pay. Acquire no gold or

silver. No bag for your journey. No

tunics, no sandals. Don't try to look

good.

And by the way, while you're there, make

sure to receive from them. I've lived in

my neighborhood now for 11 years and I

thankfully with my neighbors we have a

good enough relationship where um they

pity me.

Uh they pity me and and I'm so thankful

they pity me. So every once in a while

through the years my neighbor has mowed

my lawn for me. I thought it was fine

but in their pity they mowed my lawn for

me which was fantastic. And then they

said we're not going to let you mow your

lawn anymore. We're going to do it for

you. So, it must mean that I'm really

pitiful. I feel like I'm following

Matthew 10 really, really well. Don't

look good at all.

But what that's led to is some really

fun conversations with my neighbors to

the degree at which I was able to say,

"Hey guys, would you pray for me?"

Now,

I've been in situations in hospital

rooms with them in difficult situations

where they've gone through horrible

things in relationships. We've gone

through it together because of the

proximity and the way that we've related

with one another and how pitiful I am.

Those moments of physical authority of

being neighbors have led to spiritual

authority.

But then I asked them to pray for me

and their prayer was answered. I asked

them to pray for you guys. I asked them

to pray for a physical location for our

church and their prayer was answered.

Jesus says, "Go

and be pitiful looking to these people.

Don't look impressive

and don't be afraid of being impressive.

But receive everywhere you can, for the

laborer deserves their food. And

whatever town or village you enter, find

out who's worthy and stay in it until

you depart. And as you enter the house,

greet it. And if the house is worthy,

let your peace come upon it. But if it's

not worthy, let your peace return to

you. So make sure you as you go out,

find people who are really nice.

Find the kind people, hang out with

them, receive from them, and and bless

them if if they're ending up doing good

things. And if they're not, don't worry.

You don't have to associate and say,

"I'm with them." Just just take the

blessing back.

And then Jesus ends this way. He says,

"If anyone will not receive you or

listen to your words, shake off the dust

from your feet where you leave that

house or town. Truly, I say to you,

it'll be more bearable on the day of

judgment for the land of Sodom and

Gomorrah than for that town." So,

reference point. Sodom and Gomorrah, if

you've never heard of it before, in the

Old Testament, it's seen as one of the

most destructive place of God's judgment

in all of the Bible

where people completely disobeyed. They

were destroying one another. And at the

end, God said, "I'm sorry. My judgment's

upon you." And he let anybody escape who

was willing to.

And Jesus says, "If people don't welcome

you as you use my authority, then guess

what? They're going to be sorry when

they meet me."

This changes the paradigm a little bit,

doesn't it? How many of you are afraid

to say for instance say how can I pray

for you to my your neighbor?

Anybody afraid to ask somebody if you

could pray for them

sometimes?

How about to share a story of how God

changed your life?

Anybody afraid of doing that?

Maybe you're afraid of saying the name

of Jesus

in public or with your friends. Our

neighborhoods are meant to be our

mission fields.

Those places where we are most familiar

and the where we have the most physical

authority. Where people expect you to

show up. Where you live, where you work,

where you have actual friendships. Those

are the places where God wants us to go

first to participate in his spiritual

authority.

First Peter says it like this. says,

"But you are a chosen race, a royal

priesthood.

You guys are the priests,

a holy nation, people that are set apart

to carry God's authority, a people for

his own possession. You have already

gained authority in Jesus because the

blood of Jesus is already set on your

life. You all of your sins have been

forgiven. You claim the cross of Jesus.

You've given your lives holy to Jesus.

You are part of him.

You are a people of his own possession.

And it's for purpose that you may

proclaim the excellencies of him who

called you out of darkness into his

marvelous light. That's you.

This is not the scripture for pastors.

This is not the assignment for special

people or for sinless people. This is

not the verse for people who have made

it on Facebook.

Some of you too young for Facebook. I

get it. It's okay.

This is for people who call Jesus Lord.

This is for people who consider

themselves under the authority of Jesus.

You are called out of darkness into his

marvelous light

because once you were not a people, but

now you are God's people and once you

had not received mercy, but now you have

received mercy. God's authority is meant

to meet you where you live.

Where you live. So, I'm going to

challenge you on the sheet of paper that

you have. You may not have a pen. Maybe

you need to take out your phone. And

that's fine. I want to challenge you

right now. Who are five local people

that you would want to receive a

blessing from God? Go ahead. We're

actually going to take a full minute

here. Who are five local people in your

life that you would love to receive a

blessing from God?

You are in physical proximity to them.

You want them to receive a spiritual

proximity from God.

for five local people you would want to

receive a blessing from God.

You have physical proximity to them.

They expect you to show up there.

You work somewhere. You live somewhere.

Your kid goes to school somewhere.

You have a regular cafe.

The barista is going to miss you if

you're not there.

Your favorite HB

person.

Four or five people. you have physical

proximity with that you want to receive.

You want to receive a blessing from God,

spiritual authority over

8 years old. We lived in a neighborhood

uh great neighborhood. Very thankful to

my parents for how they provided. I

really liked my room.

Had my own room. It's awesome. I didn't

like when my parents said that I

couldn't stay in my own room because

they invited somebody else to stay over.

That room had my authority. I didn't

want anybody else's authority. I loved

our Saturdays. I could go skateboarding

with my buddies around the block.

I didn't like it when mom said, "This

Saturday we're dedicating to the

church."

But let me tell you something. Those

times when my parents said, "Hey,

somebody else is going to be staying in

your room or that day we're going to be

dedicating to the church." It meant that

they had prayed and prayed and prayed

and prayed and prayed this prayer I'm

asking you to pray. who are the people

of physical proximity to you that you

want to receive spiritual blessing,

spiritual authority over their lives.

And so my room was used up for

missionaries.

My room was used up for homeless people.

My room was used up for people I don't

want to use my room.

I slept in the basement. That was fine.

My Saturday was used up for something my

mom created called From the Heart, where

she invited people I never wanted to be

in my house. Moms of my friends, I don't

want them in my house. And they would do

crafts and then my mom would share Jesus

with them. What was that about? It's

Christmas time. That's my Christmas

tree. Why are people in my house?

But she had prayed.

She had prayed and she had prayed and

she had prayed and God gave her this

idea that the physical proximity of

their lives wouldn't remain just

physical proximity, but it would become

spiritual authority.

There's a myth that I want to challenge

before we go. And here's the myth. That

spiritual authority should stay private

for some reason.

That it should only stay just personal

to me. What a lie of the enemy.

Spiritual authority is not meant to just

stay personal and private.

That is a lie of the enemy. You know

why? Because the enemy wants to keep his

authority in the private and personal

lives of everybody in the world.

But God God says no. All authority

belongs to Jesus. The rightful rule and

reign of Jesus one day will encompass

the entire earth.

Today we have been sent in physical

proximity to where we live so that that

authority would exist now in the

already. Right now,

a myth is that spiritual authority and

spiritual stuff is just personal,

private, and it's relative. Everyone has

their own.

In fact, respecting my neighbor means

keeping to myself.

And how I know that's true is the way

that they reject me anytime I bring it

up.

But the truth is

that spiritual authority is most

powerful when it's shared.

Spiritual authority that stays with us

becomes

a really gross mess like water stored up

in the wall of a house.

When you find it, it's typically moldy.

Spiritual authority is meant to be

shared. That's when it's most powerful.

And blessing our neighbor is what brings

the most dignity. It's the most

respectful thing we can do is blessing

them with the spiritual authority of

God. BECAUSE IT'S THEN THAT THE actual

walls of their lives that are hindered

by the enemy come down.

But until we share that spiritual

authority, then they will continue to

live in the spiritual authority that

they've already welcomed,

which is meant to steal and to kill and

destroy.

And if you're rejected when it happens,

it's not a rejection of you.

You may have not done it perfectly, but

it's not of you. It's actually rejection

of Jesus. Here's the dynamic that I

would love for us to enter into. When we

go out with spiritual authority,

carrying the spiritual authority of

Jesus,

Jesus is in charge of that message,

not us.

So we get to let go of the way that our

right to the way that we're perceived in

order for the spiritual authority of

where we live to be completely changed.

And what happens there is God's

decision.

His judgment and also his blessing is

under his control.

And so I want to encourage you as we

close and Steve you can join me if you

would

to take three steps this week in your

own disciplehip. Number one, pray for

your neighbors by name.

If you want for spiritual authority to

interact with the places of your

physical authority, start praying for

your people by name.

Number two, offer to bless places in

your proximity that need blessing. So,

very simply, oh, I I heard that your

kid's sick. I'm I'm so sorry. Hey, do

you mind if is there any other place in

your life that you'd feel like could use

God's blessing?

Mind if I just say a blessing over you?

And they may expect that you would be a

priest or something to do that. And you

know what? They're right. 1 Peter 2 says

it. You are a priest. You do get to

bless.

And the third challenge of your

disciplehip, be a good recipient.

Allow for the weaknesses and the

pitifulness of your life to be great

places where your neighbors get to share

with you and enter into relationship

where spiritual authority can happen.