Contending for Apostolic Foundations
Tribe
2023-09-11

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Yeah. I was just I was just

overflow. That's our prayer today. That our hearts would receive and that we'll be ready to receive all that you have for us. Spirit, come. Let's just sing this bridge again.

The We give you permission yet, but you'll go be now in there. Sing it together, spirit. Whatever would distract you this morning, Be quick to just deal with that. Either lay it down or discipline your mind, whatever you need to do this morning. There's a real battle going on and that when we worship, we are not to underestimate in freedom that we're on the front lines.

And I'll just share this with you then. Almost every time that I get up here to lead worship, rehearsal goes great. I'm feeling great. I'm in the spirit. And we hit the first note, and I'm just being honest with you.

It's like I can't get air to come out of my lungs. And it's like I'm being choked. I'm not kidding. Almost every single time I worship, been now twenty five years. Like, I almost feel like I'm gonna pass out sometimes because I just I can't get the I can't get it to come out.

And I've learned over the last maybe decade like, oh yeah, you bring it. Like, it just reminds me that there it's something happens that's supernatural when we worship. It doesn't scare me. I press through it. But maybe whatever that thing is for you, that's very tangible for me, you know, because I'm trying to lead y'all in worship and get these melodies out.

And you just worship through it. You know, I first asked the Lord, is there something I need to repent of? Am I walking in the flesh? I go through this checklist. No.

Lord, search my heart. Okay? Search my heart. I'm good? We're good, Lord?

We're good? Alright. Then dirty devil, do you take your hands off of me right now? You take your hands off of me. And guess what?

Every time, every time without fail, the spirit just comes. So I just say that to encourage you that if there's something that feels like it's blocking you this morning from worshiping, thought process or something that has happened to you or a burden or something that's just weighing on you today, I'm telling you, Don't just leave it there. There's freedom for you to worship today. Yeah, there's freedom in this place today. And at first, it might feel like you're choking.

It might feel like there's just like the weight of the world. You go to open your mouth and you're like, well, I'm supposed to feel free while I'm worshiping. But when you start, you may feel this heaviness. The Bible says to put on a garment of praise when you have a spirit of heaviness. Right?

So, lord, right now, we just come before you and we just say as we continue to worship, if there's heaviness, if the enemy is trying to choke out someone's worship in here today, we just say that there's no spirit allowed in this place today. But your holy spirit. Come and have your way in this place. Jesus, we give you this time and we give you this place. Lord, search our hearts.

Be let us be found ready for you at all times. The best way to defeat the enemy is just open your mouth and just say, Jesus, you're worthy. Just say, I praise

midst We're

microphone going around to somewhere. I We're think Connor the We're has it back there. The lord would have you share something, maybe an encouragement, maybe an experience, maybe something that the lord wants you to share to help set someone else free in this place today. Just lift your hand and Colleen's got some. That's good, Isaiah.

Thank you. Lee's got something up here, think. That's Isaiah.

You can

find him after if that's you. Who doesn't wanna look more like Jesus? Have the mind of Christ. The Bible talks about when we get born again, we get our spirit comes alive. And then we get a new heart, whatever that looks like in the supernatural.

But that it's through the renewing of our mind that we have to be diligent. Just like what you're saying. That we dig into his promises. Yes,

Lord.

Lord, our prayer this morning is that you would be continually transforming us, transforming our mind because ultimately, we're gonna see you face to face. Get us ready, Lord, on this side of heaven to look like you. Let's sing this together as find me ready. Just let him just do a work in you. And ready for you.

Lord, that's our prayer. As Steve comes today and brings a word, Lord, we ask that our hearts would be open, that we would take what we hear and that we would apply it as it lines up with your word, and Lord, that you would just come and just do a mighty, mighty work in us today. We wanna leave here changed. Spirit of revelation, come. Spirit of revelation come because you're never never done with us.

And Lord if there's places in us that we've thought one way and you wanna change that to line up how you see, how you love, what you care about, Lord, today, we just ask that you would do that. We give you permission. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. We'll turn around and greet somebody. If there's somebody new that you don't recognize, say good morning, grab your coffee, and get your Bibles out.

Hello. Hello. Hello. You ready to roll? So the other morning I was doing some how many of you do morning devotions if you're married with your spouse?

Maybe? So I was sitting down with my wife the other morning. I had this I saw this really awesome quote. I just wanted to share it with her and pray about it together and it said, wives, never critique the faults of your husband. If it weren't for those tiny little imperfections, they would have found a better wife.

It can go both ways. It can go both ways. Yes. It can go both ways. I'm gonna set my timer on my phone here because I found that people tend to stop really paying attention right around, like, the three hour mark.

So I usually set, like, 02:55 so everybody yeah, no worries. No worries. No worries. Well, really is an honor to speak with you guys this morning. I see a lot of new faces that that I don't know and you don't know me.

I see a lot of familiar faces. Good to see you guys. Thank you to Brian Lissa for asking me to speak. It's always an honor. And I'm super excited about this journey and understanding God's heart for Israel.

And to take the time, the twenty one days, whether a fast or just, what's the other word? Deny yourself. Deny yourself. Yes, that's it, which is awesome. Joy did a great job.

I was out of town last week, but I, on fasting, it was really cool. I was since Brian asked me maybe a month ago, I just had been praying. Israel's such a vast topic. And as I share a little bit of my testimony, you'll see kind of how I've interacted with Israel things like that. But I have a really cool teaching called Apostolic Foundations, and I wanna get into that.

There's some really good stuff. But even as I was praying this week, man, the Lord just started really stirring my heart. I mean, even this morning, just found myself weepy. And I'm not really a weepy per well, my family calls me boo hoo boy when I wake up in the morning sometimes. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I'll say, oh, I guess I'm making my own coffee.

So I guess in some ways, I am a little weepy, but but, yeah. But Harrison, my son right here, wanted me to embarrass him, and so I will tell you a quick little story. I've been trying to get him, you know, we've been hiking Snow King, well, trying to get him to hike Snow King. How many of you have tried to get your seven year old to do hard things? And so you know Harrison you know motivate and motivate we think we've done it three times together this year and so I'm really trying to motivate him I said Harrison man you're seven years old there's kids your age that have already hiked the Grand Teton and he says dad I'm just not one of those kids that never gives up.

I thought boy he knows himself well he knows himself well so there you go buddy but so I found myself weepy as I reflected on my own personal journey with the Lord in regards to not just Israel, but what I'll just term apostolic foundations in general. And so I wanna share, if I can, a little bit of my story because a lot of you don't know me, and so I just wanna share a little bit of my story. And then I just wanna share a little bit about Apostolic Foundations and as it relates to Israel. And my goal isn't to give a great I mean, I'm I was honestly so encouraged the first week when the scriptures that Brian shared, man, those scriptures and those themes, it's a rarity in the body of Christ in the West, I can say, and around the world to emphasize this emphasis because here's why. What does Israel have to do with you?

What does it have to do with the practicalities of my life? And so we're gonna look into that a little bit. So I was just so encouraged by that, but my goal isn't because there's so much, and maybe another time, and and, man, Brian's doing such a great job. I just wanna encourage you from my own testimony and encourage you from the scriptures to really press in for sure in this twenty one days, but as a as a lifestyle and for a lifetime to press into to not just Israel but to these apostolic foundations and I'm gonna explain why here in a minute. But real brief briefly, I'll try and take ten minutes and just kinda show bit about who I am, where I'm from.

It's my wife, Charlene, my daughter, Liliana, my son, Harrison. Yeah so I'm a PK I grew up in South Florida my dad was a pastor, my mom was a worship leader awesome parents love me, God man they went for it in their generation you know my mom I would say she led worship every Sunday 50 Sundays out of a year, my dad 50 Sundays out of a year, homeless ministry. They just love people and pressed into these apostolic foundations and they taught us about Israel growing up, they the gifts of the spirit, I saw a lady resurrected from the dead on a Sunday morning one time verifiable cancer healed, my parents just went for God in their generation and we did lots of weird stuff too Charismania, pantomimes, you know, the name of the children's ministry in our church was called the Levites and it was my parents had felt the Lord had put it in their heart to train us how to minister to the Lord, first and foremost. So that's a little bit of my my upbringing it was a Lutheran charismatic church so it was too weird for Lutherans and too Lutheran for charismatics but we it was just a weird thing but hey here we are but my parents love God they still love God they're still pressing in I called them this morning just to have them pray for me as because I don't do this a lot anymore I used to do this a lot get in front of people and speak so I'm a little I guess I don't know in a different bag than I'm used to so thank you yeah I grew up but if I'm honest I didn't have a revelation of Jesus Christ or of the gospel as much as I had awesome parents that loved me as much as man I wasn't allowed to read Harry Potter I wasn't allowed to watch Star Wars, you know, just things my parents really wanted to preserve the purity of our hearts and of our spirits, and they fought for us.

And, you know, we could I could look back and I do some things a little different as a parent, but I'd never discredit the love and the care that they had for me and my brothers. They fought for us. And so I go into college and see in high school, I was you know, I got an academic scholarship, so academics was always my strong strong suit so I got a scholarship to college I was gonna do law school and so I studied philosophy and then I really came along and I was a hardcore communist socialist believe it or not on the on the front end of where it became popular you know just reading Karl Marx and Max Weber and all sorts John Locke and Thomas Hobbes if any of you know some of these government theory stuff and I longed for revolution I longed to believe I didn't believe that God cared about humanity in the world. I thought from my experience that Christians are mostly self absorbed with their own blessing and favor and thriving and joy and and mostly disconnected from the from the levels of sorrow and pain that the world's experiencing.

The levels of systematic oppression and poverty that the world's experiencing. You know, there is no real poverty in America. Poverty isn't when you work fifty hours a week for a dollar 40 in other countries. I mean, in America, you can get free meals in pretty much any city. And so, just beginning to that was what drove me, man.

I was like, man, I wanna smuggle weapons into third world countries. I didn't care about money. I didn't care about any of those things, but was in a life of sin. And when I took a class called Jesus, Moses and Muhammad, it secular was liberal arts university. I began to see the plan of God to bring justice to the earth, that he cared.

And so, man, I began to read my bible with a passion. I began to just pursue it with everything in me, and I remember reading about the repentance. If you lose your life for the gospel's sake, in the end, you'll find it. Man, I went through a three month season of repentance, and I had plenty to repent from. And remember, feeling sorry isn't just isn't repent isn't fully repentance.

It's a part of repentance, but it's making recompense, saying I'm sorry to people, you know, getting things out of my life. And then I and then I realized how hard that is without the power of God. So I began reading about the power of God in the book of Acts, and I thought either this power is real or these guys are con artists. Because every culture has its mythology and its folklore relating to God. It involves spiritual powers and sacrifices.

And so I said, God, either this stuff these apostles walked in was real or man these guys really pulled off a big con. And I began to press in for that power and I mean it was an obsession. It wasn't a casual thing. It wasn't like I've got here's 10 things I wanna do in my life. Here's a little supplemental pressing in of God.

It was everything in me because if this is real and if this power is real, then it's the most important thing in the planet for us to walk in and demonstrate if it's real. And so, sure enough man, I began to get dreams in the night. I began and one night that changed my life forever. I had a dream the night before. I'm on my porch actually smoking a black and mild, not listening to any worship music.

I wasn't emotionally stirred up. I wasn't expecting it. I didn't work a lather up to encounter God, but someone came out. Some a friend of my roommate brought a friend for me to pray for him, and the same thing that happened in my dream happened right there on the porch, and the power of God, like a thousand volts of electricity went through me. I'd fell back two feet against the wall, and I've never been the same since that moment.

And I've never doubted God since that moment. And in that moment, I gave my life for the gospel, to serve the gospel, and that's what I ended up doing. I went home and pastored with my dad for a couple years, found out I wasn't a pastor. And then and then and then I my heart began to be to just long for for to see breakthrough in the darkest of places. How many of you wanna see breakthrough in the darkest of places?

And I remember this one night. How many I write poetry, and so I used to. I haven't wrote it written anything new in a long time. I still write songs, but but he said and I wrote this poem. It was an expression of a prayer to my heart to God, and it said, I climbed to the top of reason, but found out it was an empty game because every step I took, I took in vain.

So I cut the ropes that kept me safe, fell into arms of youthful faith, and pleaded until the thunder filled my soul. And armed with new security, I fled into obscurity. Unbothered, I could ponder mysteries. And as I'd sing all through the night, I fell in love with holy light, this glow that heals my soul. And in this fire I made my home, I came to know what was unknown, this glow that heals my soul.

But now I feel the time has come to blow the horn, to beat the drum, to let this river flow into the sea. So come weigh me down with holy weights. You sealed my heart, you sealed my fate, these chains from which I can't escape are love. And toss me in the raging sea. I have no regrets, no plan b.

Death is a door I walked through long ago. It let me sink down deep where there is no light, where creatures lurk all through the night and hope is still a rainbow not yet seen. And I will sing as light breaks forth from this secret storehouse you have stored, this glow that heals my soul. And it was this prayer to God, and he was and he was saying to me he was saying to me, son, there's there's treasures in darkness. Will you let will you be my vessel?

Will you let me throw you where I choose? Will you let me put you where I choose? Well, God, what's my gift? What's my identity? I like this.

I like I'm not asking you those things, son. Will you be a servant? You know, everybody loves we always say, I wanna know what God's plan is for my life. Do you realize it's not your plan? What we usually mean is, God, reinforce my plan for my life.

And we teach people that, and everybody's disillusioned and feels like they don't know what their purpose is because we've indoctrinated them in this idea that God wants to make all your dreams come true. What I see scripture saying is you die to what who you think you are. Christ lives through you according to what he determines and decides. And thank God for that. Really.

And so long so this is a cool side note. I'm sharing some of these testimonies because I want I believe the anointing of God is gonna touch different ones in this room. For you to go on your own journey with God. For you to go all you know, God will take you as serious as you take him. He'll take your life and and what he wants to do with you in your life to the same seriousness that you'll take him.

Half measures get half measures. Full measures get full measures. And so I have this I have this poem like this is a cool poem and it was like in this glory moment with God and I'm pastoring with my dad and down there and so I go to sleep that night and I wake up in the morning and I say a first and last name out of my spirit. I mean wake up say a first and last name I'd never even heard this name before. So I go what is I Google it It was the name of a famous deep sea treasure diver and the Lord was confirming to me, you think you're right in this.

You were in the something's going on here. So long story, I began from that moment on. I went and worked in a juvenile justice sex offender treatment program where God threw me into some dark murky waters for two years. It was also our first year of marriage with my wife Charlene. And it was one of the roughest two years of my life.

The level of darkness and the level of perversion. It was a prophetic boot camp where I began to have thoughts and dreams that I'd never had in my life. Perversion, murder. It was an inner city, mostly African American community, and it's a sobering thing to stand across from a man and tell him that his stepson has sodomized his two little boys, and to feel the pain and how dark and nasty the enemy's twist has twisted humanity, and to feel powerless about it. Because I I went into it thinking, man, I've had some cool experiences with God.

I'm I'm God's prophetic warrior. I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna fast. I'm gonna we're gonna see breakthrough. And honestly, I didn't see any.

And not only that, I put on 50 pounds, which I'm still working off. Our marriage was hard. I remember walking in our first year of marriage, and she's reading the book, Why I Stayed, but that was super encouraging. That was a that was a super encouraging moment for me. So I get to the end of this season, like I said, no breakthrough.

I've I'm I'm I mean I've never had money I never I was broke we had enough to get by God bless Charlene man she married me I had like $6 in debt and I thought maybe a thousand bucks to my name with no plan I didn't read finance books I didn't have a great I didn't and I wish I would have don't get me wrong but that just wasn't me so she's rolling with me I'm making $14 an hour I don't discouraged. Am I did I miss God's call? What am I doing? I'm wasting my gifts. I'm wasting my life.

And this season comes to an end at this sex offender treatment program, and I'm crying out to God. God, I you told me to do this. This has been devastating. Darkness is so powerful. I don't see any breakthrough.

There's I don't feel any power in the church to address what's really going on in the world. People are mostly comfortable if their blessing is good and their favor is good and their family is good. We need to contend. We need to penetrate. We need to be a force in the body of Christ.

I read a quote the other day, it says, that every evil vile thing in the world exists in the vacuum of the absence of the manifest glory and presence of God. Every evil thing exists because of demonstration of the power and glory of God doesn't exist. And it's on us, his body, to be those vessels that release glory and power and his dominion in the earth. I was looking at this this picture here. Do you know there's no battle for dominance in heaven?

Did you know that it's not good and evil right there? Good has Jesus has so far dominated. He is it says he's seated high above every power, every dominion, every name that is named in this age and in the next age, every governor, every demonic principality, he is seated far above it. The enemy is under his feet. Good and evil.

Jesus isn't there duking it out with the devil, taking blows. He's already crushed him. This isn't good and evil. This is me and my flesh. This is me and my comfort.

This is me and my version of powerless Christianity that I'm okay with. As long as I'm good, and my marriage is good, and my money is good, and I want all those things to be good. Don't get me wrong. You don't want it to be good. And it and it is good.

And I'm thankful to God it wasn't always good. But it is good now. I'm thankful to God for that. So I have this dream as I'm coming out of that season and I say, Lord, you gotta explain to me what this was about because this cost me money. I used some of the best prime working years of my life making $14 an hour.

This cost me pain in my marriage. This cost me my physical I'm overwhelmed emotionally with how devastating this is. I don't what was this for? So in this dream, I get in this river and I talk a lot about dreams sorry you don't know me that's one of the ways God spoke to me through through my life it's scriptural if that's weird I'm not trying to weird anyone out or I'm so cool I have dreams it's just how I've learned to walk with God and But anyways, I had this dream, so I get in this river and all these kids that were in the sex offender program are in the river behind me. And I'm floating through the river and I can kinda swim a little bit.

I'm feeling good. All of a sudden, river's getting murkier and murkier and murkier and murkier. I guess it isn't good in the dream. And all of a sudden, gets so thick that I can't even navigate anymore. And that's how I felt in that season.

I mean, I'm totally at the whims of this perverted current of darkness. I have no control, no power, no. I'm just where it goes, I have to go, and I'm terrified. And I look up at the head, and I see these huge alligators on the side of this river. And I'm in the dream, I'm just trembling because I can't maneuver any kind of way to get out of the way of these out I mean, they're coming.

They're salivating. They're ferocious. And I'm I'm crying out to God in the dream, like, man, this is and and then finally, I just go, you know what? If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. And the minute I said that, these alligators shrunk down to nothing.

And this and and I passed by them, and then I got out of the river. And the holy spirit spoke to me. He says, I allowed you to go through the season to break your fear of death, to break your fear of what Christians think about you, to break your fear of what your spouse, your kids, your pastor, anyone thinks about you, to break your fear of failure, to break your fear of not measuring up, so that you can actually serve me in faith and with a pure heart. So I pop out of this river and what's interesting part of this, I'm shaking off this tar on the side of this river. I'm like, man, thank you, God.

And I'm violently I had to violently shake this tar off. And one kid from behind me popped out of the river with me, and he's shaking the tar off too, next to me. That's how cool God is. The next day, I go into the program. Of course, I don't share that dream with anybody.

And the the therapist who dealt with the kids said, I don't know what happened, but this kid just got it overnight. I've never seen a shift like that happen overnight in a kid, and it was the kid in my dream the night before. And God says, I can do I can do what I want, when I want, how I want. This was never about your productivity. This is never about your success in being a miss a ministry person.

I'm doing a deeper thing, and this was preparation for you, son. So as I get out of that out of that river, there's a house there and I and I'm walking around serving the foundation of the house. And I knew the house represented the body of Christ. And I'm thinking that's pretty strong. This looks good.

The house was nice. It looked nice. Nice style. It was on like a nice little hill, nice grass, it looks fine. Well, all of a sudden this river had turned into an ocean and sets of waves were starting to come crash against this house and the first set was like four feet.

Like, no big deal because the house was up a little bit on a foundation. The second set was like 15 feet, like, it's getting bigger. The next set was like 30 feet. Then I see in the distance, like a thousand foot set of waves of this darkness about crash in. And I'm looking at the waves and I'm looking at this structure and I'm going, there's no way this can withstand that.

Let alone prevail against it, which is what we're called to do. Right? We're not just called to batten the hatches and hope that, you know, we survive. We're called to actually advance and and create an opposition, a dominating force in the earth. So I'm crowned to God in the dream, like, God, what's going on?

What are gonna And right in that moment, he points me off into the distance and I saw a huge castle. And what's interesting is this castle was black, it wasn't cool, it didn't have a nice vibe, it wasn't The atmosphere wasn't amazing, but it was on like a 500 foot foundation. And you knew that there was no wave, no wave that was gonna be able to come against this thing. And I knew it to be the victorious church at the end of the age. The victorious church.

And the holy spirit highlighted these foundations and and pretty much said, I want you to seek out these foundations. And so that began my quest in that season of life to seek out these apostolic foundations. And so we went on a journey we went to ministry school in Redding California and it was awesome seeking out the gifts of the spirit and healthy family stuff man it was so cool and we did the whole thing and we gave all our stuff away we didn't know how we were gonna pay for it you know we did that and God came in and it was awesome and while I was there I worked with gangbangers out of Oakland in the inner city and Charlene did crisis pregnancy stuff we had our daughter Liliana there then the next season we with the Israel stuff, I had always had this part of Israel in my heart and I felt like God said, want you to pursue this this foundation this season. God arranged it. We spent five years serving a ministry in Tel Aviv and probably went to Israel fifteen, twenty times, traveled with Avi around the world.

Got to really get to know the body of Christ took hundreds of Christians there on on tours, studied this what the scripture says about it. And I thought, I'm starting to really take off. This is got involved with some other organizations. We made a doc helped make a documentary. It's got a 100 it's got a million views.

I'm starting to go speak around the world. Man this is I'm really starting to feel myself a little bit like I've arrived at what you know this is cool but something in me is like the Lord's like not I didn't call you this. This isn't the height of where I want you to go. This is what takes a lot of people out. They're satisfied because a lot of people listen to them talk.

They're satisfied because people like their music. They're satisfied with that. I I a contender, son. Will you let me throw you again into something? I'm like, I don't know.

This I'm making pretty good money. It is nice to fly around and stay in nice hotels and people think you're an anointed man of God and this is kinda nice. You know? But is it something my son would respect? Is it something my wife respects?

My daughter respects? Am I really that person? The truth is I wasn't. I can talk good. I know how to flow in the anointing of God, but it doesn't mean my character and that I'm actually a man that God can put something from heaven on with authority and power.

I want that. Talking is easy. I can present to you really well. I'm a pastor's kid. But to actually be in my core transformed into his likeness, that's God's looking for Christ like people that he can put the fullness of his glory on.

And so the Lord go, okay, then what am I gonna do? Lord's like, I'm gonna teach you to labor. I'm gonna teach you to toil. To persevere. To do something that you don't even wanna do.

That no one's gonna even see who you really are. I've been a plumber for the last seven years. And we were able to buy a plumbing company. And don't get me wrong, I'm on this side of it, and it's glorious. But it was a very difficult I mean, Boohoo Boy is in full effect for a long time.

And so that's the season that we're in right now and that's the apostolic foundation I'm learning right now is toil, perseverance. How do you press into God and stay with fire in your belly when everything's overwhelming? How do you raise your kids in the things of God and be authentic and real? So that's kind of my story. So when I talk about this apostolic foundations, I just want you to know a little bit where I come from, who am I to talk about these things and honestly who am I to talk about these things these are holy glorious things so if we go to the next slide and I'm kinda gonna get through it is everybody tracking with me So in looking at those apostolic foundations we're gonna look where it talks about that in the scriptures and then the one we're emphasizing the one you guys are emphasizing which I think is one of the most critical ones and oftentimes the most neglected one is Israel.

So this is my favorite life verse I wouldn't say life verse it's my favorite verse to meditate on before I preach or before I do any kind of ministry and it comes from the book of Jude which is a one chapter terrifying little book before the book of Revelation I encourage you to read it So he's writing to the church and he's saying, beloved, I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation. I found it necessary to write you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints. And then he goes on to say that certain men have crept in with different narratives about what it means to be a Christian, about what's important to God. And these men have are they're trying to come in and crafty men to gain followings for themselves and to get your resources and to get and they're actually distorting what was originally laid down from the apostles and from the mouth of Christ. So there's an there's an intensity in Jude.

And he goes on to say that these men that they're dreamers they they slander celestial beings they these men there's a special judgment for these men that are that are taking advantage of and distorting the gospel message. That is a very sobering thing. I just want to encourage you. You said, hey be in the scriptures we need to be transformed. Yes, amen and amen and it'll keep you out of bad places.

Know what the word says. So this word contend I'm not gonna try and pronounce the Greek word but basically it's to struggle for, to earnestly contend for. Jude's saying, hey, I want you to exert effort into contending for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Right? So that's what I wanna do this morning.

Maybe the next twenty minutes, twenty five minutes, if you can hang with me. Can we contend together this morning for this apostolic foundation so that we can get a revelation of it and it can encourage us? I think about contending so it's I have a crew now in plumbing business and every day we get up and we have a list of super hard things we gotta do. They're hard jobs. It's nasty jobs.

A lot of them. And so to work up that 99% of the time I get up, I don't feel like it. There's a 100 other I mean, god, again. And but if I'm not motivated, my guys won't be motivated. Mhmm.

And so part of the contending is you get up, you stir yourself up, you get to work, and by fifteen minutes in, you're working, you feel great. I'm a contender. That's like I was telling Harrison when he hiked Snow King, I said, listen, your emotions aren't your boss. You tell your emotions, you're the boss of your emotions. So And he was saying, I'm the boss of my emotions, but hasn't quite took fully.

A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. That's on the next slide.

Yeah. For sure. Great great idea. So so Jude says that, and if you look in Ephesians two, the other verse, now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. So Paul's actually saying, the apostles and the prophets are the foundation of the church.

Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, So Jesus is the chief cornerstone in the foundation. He's the ultimate. He's the alpha. Do you know Jesus is an alpha male? And he's also self righteous.

Being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together love this for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. He's saying hey These these apostles and prophets laid a foundation so that others could build on it. Why? So that you could actually be the place in the earth where the living God lives. You know, he used to live in a box in the Holy of Holies.

And people couldn't even go in there except the high priest or they die. And even sometimes the high priest died if he wasn't I mean, it was a terrifying thing to even approach the box that God lived in. And now this is saying that these apostles and prophets laid a foundation for the church so that that same God could live in us collectively. That there would be you know, the book of acts said that people approach the church cautiously. There was a sense of dread when they thought of the body of Christ because of the power and the presence of god that existed in the people of god.

And there was a barrier of entry to come into the community. Repentance and proof of it. It wasn't so easy to just give your heart to Jesus, feel a couple goosebumps, try not look at porn as much and I'm a Christian. There was a serious barrier of entry because there was a sobriety to it. There was a sense of costliness to it.

I mean, hey, people are getting killed for this. And so, man, this foundation so moving to the next slide, if we could. So I'll touch on this word apostolic. Ephesians four eleven through 15, some of you may know it. It's talking about Jesus giving gifts to the body.

The gifts these aren't spiritual gifts. The gifts are people. These are people that he's raised up with a particular grace from him for particular functions in the body of Christ. So it says, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Listen to this.

Till we all come to the unity of the faith. Did you know at one point, we're all gonna believe the same? Globally. The body of Christ. We're gonna believe the same.

Isn't that unbelievable? Some people say that all those gifts have passed, and I'm like, well, we I don't know if this unity of the faith has happened yet. Like, there's still a lot of disagreement about a lot of stuff. The unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God to a perfect man. Look at your husband and say, that's you, honey.

Joking. We're coming to Christ, the perfect man. Listen to this, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Paul's got he's saying, god gave these people to build this church, to build this habitation until we all come to the unity of the faith, and we all come to the fullness of the reality that Jesus lived in. That's where this is going, and that's why we need all these gifts to function together.

Now most of us are familiar with evangelists, pastors, teachers as we should be. Prophets make us feel a little uncomfortable, and certainly apostles make us feel uncomfortable. I would say apostles are when people are most uncomfortable with, just because we're we don't understand the concept. We don't understand what it means. But as the Lord is bringing forth this victorious church and establishing these apostolic foundations, these things will come familiar to us again.

And so I wanna just I'll finish this last one. That we should no longer be children carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men. You know there's men trying to trick you? In their cunning craftiness and deceitful plotting, But speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things in him who is the head Christ. So he's given these like, so the term a lot of people use is fivefold ministry gifts.

It's not a biblical term, but it's just saying and I think of it five fingers, fivefold ministry, apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, evangelists. I think it's also interesting that didn't David pick up five stones? And I think about these this is what consumes a lot of my thought and prayer life. I'm constantly thinking about, Lord, how does that work? How are you gonna build the church to be this habitation in the earth?

We begin to express your dominion over sickness, disease, dysfunction. And so an apostle, the Greek word is apostolos, which is a delegate messenger, one sent forth with orders. Apostolos, it's a Greek word, not a Hebrew word. And it's a word that actually existed before the New Testament. So it wasn't a word that was that came to its origin in the New Testament.

It already existed, so the ancient world would have heard apostolos and would have been like, yeah, we know what that is. And so in the next slide, this is some of the ways that the ancient world would have heard that word and what they would have understood. It's important to go back in history and go, hey, you know, what would that like, for instance, if you hundred years from now, if someone goes, oh, that's lit. Lit? Is it on fire?

You'd have to go back and ask, Hey, what did lit mean when you were a kid? Oh, whatever it means. I don't know. I just hear people say it. Next slide.

So the term apostolos was not a new term, like I said. To understand the term, it's important to understand the ancient mind would have heard that. So just briefly going through these, and these are coming from a book by a man named Rick Renner called Apostles and Prophets. If you want to understand it further, it's a good a good he goes into a lot of this, but so Herodus used apostolos to describe a high powered ambassador who had been sent to represent a government or king. Euripides, historian, used apostolos to describe important packages that were sent by powerful people that contained powerful and important contents.

Plato similarly used this word to depict a large ship that was fully loaded with cargo and manned by a specialized crew to accompany an admiral who ventured into new territory to construct a new community. These other ones, each respectively, used forms of the word to depict a fully equipped large fleet sent on an expedition to new territory, with the sending away of a trade ship filled with cargo. Polybus used this word to depict a huge ship that was fully loaded with cargo and manned by a specialized crew to accompany an admiral who ventured into new territory. So my favorite word to think about, I like this concept of admiral. A lot of times, they would call this admiral an apostle and his team an apostolic crew.

So he would take with a fleet of ships, they'd go into a new territory. Once he got off that ship, he was no longer a captain of the ship, he was now an architect of a new civilization. He had specialized crew members. They were there to teach language, they were there to teach culture, they were there to build buildings, and he would establish the foundations for a whole new community. And then, two, three, four years in, once those things were established, other people came in to manage and run the community, and then that admiral and his crew, they'd move on to a new territory.

Does that make sense? Some people say, I'm an apostle. I'm like, sweet, when are leaving? Right? Because they leave after two, three, four years.

Job is to work themselves out of a job. Right? And so my favorite there's a there's a modern example I think I don't of an apostolic I think a clear picture of an apostolic in an apostolic team right now is Deion Sanders in the Colorado whatever that is Buffalo Bison. How many of you know when did you how many saw the clip when he first walked into that locker room when they hired him? And he said that this team that only won one game, he said listen I'm we're coming and And I'm coming with my own crew.

And what was isn't gonna be. And he kinda put it out there, like, you don't roll my way, you leave. Sure enough, what, a 100 people left, 86 new recruits, and him and his team, in a short amount of time, they established their values, their foundation, their quest to win, and they won against TCU and against Nebraska yesterday. It's driving the sports world crazy right now. More people voted or bet on that game yesterday than the entire NFL this weekend.

The amount of energy and enthusiasm around it is electrifying. Why? Because we're we're seeing somebody who said they were gonna do something, and they did it and they have values and they wanna win. You know we're so used to not winning as Christians? We're so used to just if I feel comforted, if I feel safe in my calling, if I feel loved, if I feel we've lost the thirst for victory and dominion.

And here's Dion coming and saying, listen, we're not here to just win a couple games. And guess what? If you wanna win, there's work required. There's foundations you gotta accept. Well, I don't feel like it.

Then get off the team. Because this team's here to win. This team is here to express his dominion in the earth. And if you're not into Dion's protocol, you're not on the team. And so that's what a lot of these apostolic foundations are.

They're saying, I'm giving you guys the foundations of a team that wins to to express dominion of God over the earth. I wouldn't say over the earth, over the powers of darkness. And if we don't wanna get in alignment with that, part of sometimes it's like, yeah, I don't really care if I win or I just want the small wins in life. I just want the little tiny wins. I don't really wanna put in the work.

I don't I don't wanna do don't wanna go to the two a day practices. Prayer meetings, oh, God. And Paul's saying, listen, I'm here to I'm here to lay foundations for a habitation of God in the earth. I'm not here to make sure your dreams come true. I'm not here to help you find out what your whatever.

I'm here to lay something whether you like it or not. I'm serving you as deeply as anyone's ever served you. I'm serving your city the deepest anyone's ever served you but it's bigger than you're conscious of right now because you're still focused on yourself. And we see that's a lot of times the issues that Paul's having. Know, what did he say?

What is it that divides you? You have but you don't get. You want certain things from people and God and you don't get it so you get mad and things and divide you. Go to the next verse or next page and I'm gonna kinda get through these. Is everyone tracking with me?

Okay. Paul, this is just some scriptures where Paul talks about some aspects of being an apostle but one of the things he says in the last one, well, first Corinthians four one, he says, this is how you ought to regard us as servants of Christ and those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. So part of Paul's he identifies himself as, look, I've been entrusted with mysteries from God. And he goes on, and we'll look at in Ephesians in a minute, he talks about this this particular mystery a minute mystery of Jew and Gentile becoming one. He says this mystery was hidden for ages.

God hid it from the Old Testament prophets, and he's revealed it now through his servants, the apostles. I mean, Paul's saying, he's putting such an emphasis on what this Gentile Israel thing means. It's actually a mystery that as an apostle, God gave to him and the other apostles, and he's trying to lay that foundation into the church that doesn't really care about Israel, and why would we? Yeah. It's not like God's like, man, he's shaming us.

Like, you don't you don't care a bit about Israel. Well, no. I don't care about Uzbekistan with any passion or name a country. And and Paul's saying, no. There's a special place in God's heart for Israel.

Then the last one, I love this. According to the grace of God which was given to me like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another's building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. He talks about how people's work is gonna be tested with fire. He's talking mostly mostly about ministers, and he's saying, hey.

I laid a foundation of these things. God's appointed you to come and build upon it, but you better build upon the one I lay. Because if you don't, there's a fire that's gonna come and sift you, especially as a teacher and as a minister of God. It's real. And so one of the things Paul says also, he says, I am what I am by the grace of God.

He even says that he was an appointed, called, and set apart. When was Paul called and set apart? Who knows? Before he was born. Before birth.

Paul didn't go to apostle school. You know you can't go to prophet school. You can't, I mean, there's just elections and graces of god that are, you know, the scripture says, we all have good works ordained. When did god ordain the good works for Kate to walk in, for Bob to walk in, for Clay to walk in? When?

The foundation of the earth, God ordained works for you. Are you doing it? Do you care to find out what it is? What if it's not what you're doing? And you stand before him, the Lord goes, okay.

And what does it say in book Revelation? Each one was judged or rewarded according to the works done in the flesh. Alright. You're up, Charlene. Here's the works I set out for you.

Oh, you did a lot of cool stuff. Oh, wow. Look at that picture. Look at look at your Instagram feed. When did you get around to oh, you didn't?

Well, I'm I'm only awarding you based on your faithfulness to the work, not on your faithfulness to say. To to crush it, to have a million followers on Instagram. I'm not saying we're unable does anyone have a million followers just so will you friend I think I got 34. So anyways, we're gonna be evaluated and judged based on these works. So going on to the next one.

I just wanna highlight some key some some apostolic themes, foundational themes. This isn't exhaustive, but Paul says in Hebrews six one, leaving the elementary teachings about Christ, let us impress on a maturity, not laying again a foundation, and he lists some foundation stones. Repentance from dead works, faith towards God, baptisms, plural. Plural, Paul. Spirit baptism, water baptism, laying on of hands.

What does public displays of affection have to do with apostolic foundations? The impartation of spiritual gifts through the laying on of hands was was Paul expected that to be elementary in our understanding of Christianity. Paul says, hey. You guys didn't receive the spirit yet, but you've been baptized. We're gonna come and lay hands on you so you'd receive something from God.

It was so common for them to understand what the laying on of hands meant. It says, be careful who you let lay hands on you. So laying on of hands was an apostolic foundation. The resurrection of the dead, and not just talking about Lazarus and Jesus, the actual the capital r resurrection of the dead when Jesus splits the sky. Everybody's comes into new bodies.

We face our evaluation before god and we enter into the millennial reign of Christ on the Earth. This which seems so foreign to us, Paul is saying this is basic. He goes, let us move on into deeper things. I don't wanna have to talk about these things again. And these are things that honestly many of us aren't even aware of because we drifted so far from the apostolic foundations.

Here's the other one, eternal judgment. That one doesn't really go well over with my friends. My mother-in-law gets nervous when I mention there's gonna be a judgment of her life. Paul saying this is basic in your understanding what it means to be a Christian. The return of the Lord, here's some other ones.

The return of the Lord, God's theocratic reign from Jerusalem, fasting. Miss Joy did a good job. Prayer and intercession, sacrificial living, spiritual gifts, Israel, and then I'm gonna end on just Ephesians three and thank you guys for hanging with me and this is where I wanna end and just pray for you guys. That's cool. It'll take me a second to get through it, worship team.

Couple minutes. But if we go to the next slide. In Ephesians three, Paul gives this awesome exhortation that kinda sums the ones I wanna highlight right now are Israel and prayer and intercession, how these things go together. And Paul does an amazing job of bringing all these things together. So if you have your bible or if you wanna read it on the screen, Ephesians three, I just wanna read through I'm gonna read it because I wanna highlight a few things and and get through it.

And, honestly, I there's no way I could pull out the richness of all this right now. But I would encourage you on your twenty one day for Israel, meditate on this Ephesians three, but I just love it so much. Let's see. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace which was given to me for you, how that by revelation, he made known to me the mystery which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men. That's pretty arrogant, Paul.

That's a serious statement to say. Hey, guys, I don't know if you heard it or not, but God told me things he's never told anyone ever. I'm daddy God's favorite. He made known to me the mystery which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed by the spirit to his holy apostles and prophets. Again, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

And Paul's saying, God has made this revelation known to the apostles and prophets, which are the foundation stones of the Gentile church. Let me just ask you a question. If the Gentile or the church isn't built upon this foundation, is it authentically the church? Or is it a five zero one c three construct that brings us some blessing in our life? But does is it actually a habitation of God in the earth?

Or was it built on something else? Is it weak and anemic, and we fake at it? And we we we sue it's a pseudo church, and we usurp the role of what the church should be, and we think we're it. But are we it? Am I it?

And so Paul's it's this is why these foundations are important. What happens to a house? And I can tell you, when most of you dream about your dream house, you don't dream about the foundation. How many of you, when you think about the house, you how many of you dream about the foundation? Nobody does.

But I I'm in foundations all the time. There's things leaking. There's things that aren't right. There's and the house looks great, and everybody's happy. The house is what I dreamed of.

It's my dream house. This foundation is terrible. I mean, most of us in this room, if you have a house, you probably got leaks and things underneath. Call Charlie's Plumbing for a free inspection. No.

I'm just kidding. Just kidding. But the reality is we don't dream about the we dream about the house and the vibe and the style, which all that stuff's cool. Whatever. Let's add and actually, in my family, I'm the one that's more into style and vibe than Charlene.

I'm pretty sensitive to the aesthetic things of our home. But I also know it's in my crawl I just had to redo gas lines and everything else. So, again, just just a mat like, we have to be conscious of the foundation that most of us just aren't because we don't care, not because we're bad Christians. It's just not what we dream about. But so going he goes on to say, which I became a minister according to the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.

To me, who is the less than the least of the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery from which the beginning of ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ to the intent that now. This is important. To the intent that now, the manifold wisdom of God might be known oh, sorry. Where am I at? The manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our lord.

Do you know that one of the main functions of you and I as the body of Christ has nothing to do with how it impacts people? Yeah. There is a place in the spirit. There's a priestly identity that we've been called to where we take this revelation under the unction of the holy spirit, and we're not even conscious of how if you like it or not. I I want you to like it, but I don't care if you like it because I'm mostly not saying this even today for your benefit.

I'm conscious and I'm aware that this manifold wisdom of god as it relates to Israel, as it relates to the glory of god and the church, manifesting his dominion. I don't just need you. I'm not just saying it for your benefit. I'm saying it and enforcing it in the powers of the air that mock it, that cast themselves above the knowledge of god. Paul says, our warfare is not flesh and blood.

It's not carnal but it's mighty into the pulling down of strongholds and every high and lofty thought, idea, narrative that exalts itself against the knowledge of god. Most of us are dull and when seasons that we are dull, it's because we're actually receiving more input from those principalities and powers pulling on our weaknesses and our sin struggles and our need to be liked and noticed and admired and they just got us neutralized. So, this eternal purpose of the church is so we would get this language of Israel, of the glory of god, the apostolic foundations. We talk about it. We pray it.

We sing it and it's not just so that and if people like it, great. If they don't like it, great because we're actually enforcing something in the powers of the air. We're pushing back and going, listen, we know what we are. We know where this is headed. He will have dominion in the earth from that throne of David in Jerusalem.

He will crush every oppressor. There will be blood up to this bridle of his horse. He will execute vengeance on the enemies of god. And when we begin to know that and believe that, operate like that, things begin the powers of the air begin to take notice. But, you know, they don't have to respect you if you don't believe it.

You know, when they do come against you, we do have power but if you don't believe you have power, guess what? You don't know the exercise power. If you don't believe you have authority, you're not going to exercise authority. So, Paul goes on to say, for this reason, according to eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. Moving down forward.

He goes, considering this, considering this mystery that God gave me to reveal to you and the apostles and prophets that was hidden, considering this eternal purpose of the gathered saints that were to make known the manifold wisdom of God to the powers of the air, particularly as it relates to this mystery of Gentile and Jew, He goes, for this reason, I bow my knees, and I pray that you would receive strength in your inner man. He's like, this whole thing of contending in the unseen realm, this whole thing of Israel and Gentile, it is it the principalities are gonna wax and wane against you. Every bit of Christian culture comfort narrative is gonna get you out of getting into these deeper apostolic foundations that god has laid for us. He's go, you need strength and power to press into these things because it's and if you do it casually, you won't do it. So as Paul said, I pray that there would be a release of power in your innermost being from here, Like grit, you would turn into grit right a steel right here.

Like I told my son, that's a six pack. Is it? He said he goes on to say that the the Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints. We know that's that passage. Most of us have heard of that passage, that prayer, but did you know Paul was giving it as it relates to the church in the place of intercession, particularly as it relates to the theme of Jew and Gentile, is the context from which he's actually praying that prayer.

So that's just the prayer I want to pray in closing. The next slide let me see which one the next one is. Go ahead to the next one. Oh, no. This is it right here.

Yeah. I just want to make this one last thing. Joy talked about when she was here about apprentices, which was an awesome term. And as a plumber, I have apprentices. But something I just feel like I want to encourage as I finish with this is apprentices get paid.

Apprentices what would happen if I didn't pay an apprentice? Like, hey, bud, I'm teaching you how to plumb. Isn't that enough? I want you to know that as we seek first the kingdom of god, that as we apply diligence, scripture says, he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Scripture says, seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things that you're worried about are gonna be handed to you.

And I wish I had time to elaborate that more on my own journey of how I've seen God hand me things. I mean, all I've known in my life is to throw every egg I have into this basket of seeking the kingdom. In whatever season and whatever it looks like, and I can tell you that he has handed me, handed me things, vehicles, homes, resources beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of. And I'm not smart. Here but here's one thing that I have done.

I I made this my top priority, and so I just wanna encourage you all. In this season of twenty one days and even as you move forward, go all in. Go all in. Really press in. You got a PDF with some books that Brian, I haven't had a chance to look at.

I'm sure it's full of great stuff. Read those books. There's some documentaries. Is there anybody that is just interested in learning more about episodic foundations? It's not my book, but if it was, I'd be selling it.

Is there anybody is there anybody that want to learn more? I wanna give you a book away. Jen? Alright. This book will change your life.

Father, I just wanna pray. Lord, I thank you for this season of twenty one days pressing into Israel. Lord, I'm so grateful for Brian, listen, the team. I'm so grateful for this congregation pressing into these things. Hallelujah, lord.

I just thank you that we are getting aligned. We're getting up we're getting our lives aligned, our ministry aligned. Lord, we're getting in the right place. And holy spirit, I do pray as Paul pray that even as we consider these mysteries, lord, that even as we begin to dialogue about them to begin to pray, it changes the way we pray. It changes the songs we sing.

It changes so many things about how we view our lives and we view Christianity. Lord, I pray just like Paul prayed for all of us that you would strengthen us with might in our innermost being. That the love of Christ would dwell in us through faith. Lord, that we would each one comprehend what is the depth, the width, the height, and the length of above of Christ which actually goes further than knowledge. And, I thank you that that you're not a socialist.

Lord, I thank you that you don't mind paying us, putting blessing on us as we what kind of friend gives you blessing for pursuing them? I mean, it seems so weak to go, hey, I'll bless you if you'll hang out with me. But, Lord, you designed us to be motivated by reward. And so I thank you for that. I thank you that as we apply diligence, you're gonna bring unexpected breakthroughs and rewards and and things you know, one guy says there's Christians that believe we should just be good for nothing, and that's what they end up being.

Good get it good for nothing. It's it's okay to to believe in reward. Like, god designed us that way. So, father, I just pray that you give us faith and expectation in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you so much, Steve. I would just encourage you just like Steve said, there's so much richness in Ephesians three that today find time maybe before you go to bed or and read that through and just really spend some time in that. Consider what he's been saying. Consider it. And just take each line and just just give it the time that it deserves because we just don't have that time here this morning.

Steve, what a great word. Just close your eyes with me if you would real quick. Lord, I pray that you would take what we've heard today. And if the overarching thought that we leave with is that, Lord, we wanna care about what you care about. What a bummer to think we're serving you, but then at the end you're like, you show us that that's not what you care about at all.

But we called ourselves Christians, but we weren't even living for the things that matter to you. The one who saved us. Which is why we're on this journey. Lord, teach us these foundations that our hearts cry with you. Let our heart beat and burn for the things that your heart burns and beats for, God.

That's right, Jesus. We tell you we love you, Jesus. Amen.

As we stay in this attitude of worship, just a just a couple minutes longer, something that we love to do is worship the lord in any way that we can and there's so many ways to worship him. While we're here as a tribe family, we worshiped him through his word, through song, and we're gonna worship him by bringing our tithe and our offering to him. This is not as far as tribes concerned, not just a Sunday morning check the box. Oh, I threw some some coins in the bucket or hundreds. It doesn't even matter.

That's not that's not it. It's your heart posture to say, god, it's all yours anyway. And I this is one more act of worship to you, and I surrender to you in this way. So as we bring our tithe and our offering, we don't we don't pass buckets here. There's a if you have a cash or check, there's a little box with our tribe logo there at the end.

You can go also go on our website. But the easiest way, and you'll see these instructions on the screen, is just to open up your smartphone and just type a new number to 84321, and you type in that amount.

Can you throw that sign up, please?

But as you give when whatever your rhythm is and the amount that you and the Lord determine you give, don't think of it as like, ah, this is another Sunday thing. This is what I do at church. Just think, God, this is just one way that I get to surrender, that I get to say I love and I trust you enough to give a portion of my finances. It's an act of worship to him. So think of it that way when you give.

So let me pray over that. Just have a couple announcements. We can get you guys out of here. So heavenly father, we just love and adore you so much. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to kinda check our heart and to move from maybe complacency to passion for who you are in however many steps it takes and maybe bringing our maybe this is really hard to bring a portion of our finances to you.

So let this just be an

act

of surrender, baby step or big step that we take for you just to move one step closer to your heart today and say, it's all yours anyway. We trust you. We love you. We thank you for it. Thank you that we get to do the work of the ministry, that we get to be your hands and your feet.

Pray that more and more people will come to know you, Lord. Thank you for honoring our obedience. In Jesus' name, amen. Couple quick things. As you heard Steve talk about, as you heard Joy kick off with fasting, as you heard pastor Brian talk about last week, we are fasting or denying ourselves for twenty one days for Israel.

There is a difference. You don't do a juice fast or you don't fast from social media. The word in and of itself means no food. Right, Gretchen? No food, just water.

So that's fasting or denying yourself, meaning making room in your life. You've heard us talk about this. Make some room. Take a few thing one thing, 10 things. Take a few things out to make room to intentionally focus on praying for Israel.

And the way that Brian describes it is the nation of Israel, the people of Israel, and the great city of the king, Jerusalem, where he will one day on this physical earth set up his throne. And you're like, why is it important? Many reasons, but the bottom line is because it's important to Jesus whom we serve.

Because he said so. Because he

said so. If Israel, the nation, the people, and the great city of the kings holds such a place in his heart, then it should for us too. And even if we don't quite understand what that means or the depth of it yet, that's what we're doing in this twenty one days. We're making room so that the Lord can the Lord's heart and ours just whoop, align that much more. Who knows what's to come from that?

And who knows? Maybe down the road, we'll take all those different foundations, and we'll take twenty one days and fast and deny ourselves about those.

Who's with us?

Twenty one more days.

Welcome to tribe where you're not allowed to eat for the kingdom. Okay. So, anyway, that's what we're doing, and it's fantastic. And we're strategically we strategically chose the twenty one days to lead up right to Sukkot, which is something we will talk about even more and celebrate because it's in the Bible. So last thing is this, if you want to serve in any way and tribe, come see me afterwards.

If you're like, I'm not sure what to do. Come and see me. But one way that you can come and serve is just a little bit easier, and just come at 08:45, and we're gonna pray. Praying is a big deal. And Lanisha, will you just raise your hand?

This is Lanisha. She's kind of in charge of that. She is in charge of that, not kind of. But she if you'll meet her at 08:45, she just walks around and just prays. Prays for the seats.

God knows who's gonna sit where. Just pray for the air. Just pray for hearts to be tender as they come in. It's so important. So come at 08:45.

You don't even have to call. Just or let anyone know. Just come and do that. So if you'll actually, do wanna we already prayed.

Yeah. And if you guys need prayer for anything first of all, Isaiah's back there if that word was speaking to you and you just need someone to encourage you. Lanisha's gonna be over there right after service, and Lee and Colleen over by the curtain. That's where we'll call our prayer area. If it's private and you wanna go outside, just I encourage you, don't leave here today.

If you're feeling like a tug, you need someone to agree with you in prayer. Maybe you have a you're sitting in this room today and you're hearing all this stuff. You're like, yeah. Yeah. Great.

Let's keep god's heart for Israel and you're like, I'm struggling with addiction today. That I need, you know, power to come and break free my life. So, maybe there's a struggle in your life. Whatever it is, we don't wanna just pass over that. So, there is freedom today.

And just like Steve's story in that one moment, god can just come and do something mighty. So let him do something mighty today. Just take it seriously. Just head over there as soon as we wrap up. And like I said, if you need to go outside, sit at a picnic table.

You take as long as you need.

Mhmm. So let's stand to our feet and pray. We'll get out of here. Abba, father, you are so worthy of all of our praise. Thank you for the opportunity we have to serve you and to love you and to surrender ourselves to you.

Lord, I thank you that you are so loving and tender that you meet everybody where we're at. You want us to do certain things, but you let us have a starting point. You're so gracious in that, and I thank you for every person here in the families we represent. That you'll just help us to walk in obedience to you this week, father. Help us to hear that still small voice of the holy spirit and just to have the courage to obey it no matter what it is.

Thank you that you love us so dearly and you're for us. Thank you, father, that as our hearts attuned to Israel as we talk about it, it's the same thing as attuning our to you and just being more calibrated with the Holy Spirit. Thank you for that spiritual ear, that listening ability in the spiritual realm to just be attuned more and more to you. We love you. We praise you.

We thank you for who you are. It's in Jesus' name we all say, amen. Happy Sunday and as Brian says, you got this.