Kingdom Work - Contemporary
First B Jackson
2019-03-31

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

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Good morning church family. Will you please stand up and let's worship God? And let's do it like never before. Amen? Because I am aware that his presence is is in this place.

Amen? And that's why we gather together to worship, to learn, to understand what he wants from us. Amen to that? And of course, to praise him with all our hearts.

Come now is the time to ocean. Just

as you are

before God. One day, every tongue will confess you are God. One day, every knee will bow. Still the greatest to lives. Still, the greatest treasures remains for those who gladly choose you now.

Come. Now is the time worship now is the time to give your

You may have a seat. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're a thin group this morning. We are stretched around the globe. We've got people in Israel.

We've got people in Florida and California and who knows where everywhere else, but, thank you for being here and, we wanna just give you some announcements this morning. First off, we're gonna have some announcements but get your bulletin. There's lots going on at the in the church here and, so there's lots of things you can be a part of, and we don't cover everything. But first announcement is Monday nights were not are going to happen tomorrow night, but Awana is not going to happen. So tomorrow night, we've got Eugene, I believe, with a a meal and a study.

And part two. Very good. Thank you for doing that for us. So come and get a meal. Bring a friend.

Awana is not happening tomorrow night, so kids enjoy your family being at home. Precept study there as you see, part two. So that meets, Thursdays at 11:30AM down in the fellowship hall. So you guys are all aware of that. And then refit, those of you who need or like to work out and enjoy that and, come on Tuesday nights, 05:15 here.

I believe it's here in this room. Is that correct, Sam? Thank you for Sam for doing that and, get some exercise there. That's always a good time. So, this movie coming out, I'm sure you've heard about this on, it's not getting a lot of commercial time.

Unfortunately, people aren't they're not letting them buy airtime to even advertise this film, but this film was made by a gal who used to be a director at a Planned Parenthood, abortion clinic. And when she saw and witnessed an abortion, sorry, It changed her, and she said I can't do that anymore. And so it is a powerful movie. It it and I think what they said is it pulls back the curtain on the abortion industry. And, so we are having a one time showing.

It is April 7 here, at the Twin Cinemas, which is right down the street here. And you can buy your tickets, I I think, just in the office here. They're selling them the plan or, crisis pregnancy. Turning Point is is selling the tickets, and, so yes? Thank you.

Also online at Turning Point. So it it it

is, from what I've heard a very informative and educational film and, it's, a must see. Between services we have connect hour down the hall here where we

can fellowship between ten and eleven and, I think that's it. The others you can look for in your bulletins and let's stand up and just greet each other and, they'll call us back here in a moment.

You are made for the stage. Let's worship together. Your love is like radiant diamonds.

Your love is like radiant diamonds. We cannot complain. Is like radiant diamonds bursting inside us. We cannot go to thank. Hallelujah.

Your love will surely can find us like placing wildfire to your may this offering stretch across of mercy sweet love of mine I have surrender to your

Amen.

Stay standing. I'm gonna read a psalm. Actually, Psalm 84. How lovely is your dwelling place, oh, Lord Almighty. My soul yearns even faints for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my flesh cry out for the Lord of for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home and a swallow a nest for herself where she may have her young, a place near your altar. O Lord Almighty, my king and my God, blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley Of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer, oh, Lord God Almighty. Listen to me, oh, God

of

Jacob. Look upon our shield, our God. Look with favor on a on your anointed one. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Amen.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk, whose walk is blameless. Oh, Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Let's pray. Father, thank you. Lord Jesus, I I pray you continue to fill this place, Holy Spirit, with your presence. Amen. Fill this place.

I pray that you'd open our hearts and open our our understanding this morning as we as we come and worship and desire to hear your voice and your word this morning. Pour out your spirit in this place. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Everyone needs compassion, a love that's never failing. Let mercy fall on me. Everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of a savior, the hope of nation, the conquered the grave. Jesus conquered the grave. Shine your light and let a whole world see.

Singing for the glory of the risen king. Jesus, shine your light and let the whole world sing. Singing for the glory of the risen king. Savior,

Praise God. Amen. It's good to be here and worship God. We're gonna sing one of my favorite song. Actually, this one and the next one and the last one too.

What a friend we have in Jesus. Isn't that beautiful? Not only that we know him as personal savior, but we know that he's with us until we depart from here. And then when we're gonna depart from here, we're gonna be with him. And according to the book of Revelation, it says that we we might not need the sun over there because his face will shine, and the light that comes from his face will be enough for us to dwell in that place.

Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. That's a beautiful song. As you know, I like to sing fast, but this one, slow tempo. Let's enjoy the lyrics on this one.

Amen?

A privilege to care. Our Everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often for faith oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not care everything to God in prayer have we trials and

You may be seated. So in Ray's absence today, have one of our missionaries, Norris Williams, will be speaking. Norris is with Novo, formerly CRM, Church Resource Ministries. Novo is is a Latin Latin for to make new, and, they're in a name change this year, so, we'll get used to that. But, as you know, this church is a very mission minded church, and we have he's part of our our regular part of your every week's regular offering goes to help support Norris and all of our other missionaries.

And so Norris will be speaking today, and he's gonna give us a message, but also a little bit of, report on what's what God's been doing around the world. And and and he if you get a chance to talk to Norris, do it because he's got some stories of what God is doing around the world that just will drop your jaw. And so it's it's very exciting. We're also gonna have so this first offering is gonna go to Norris and support him in what he's doing, and he's all he'll tell you where he's working, but he's all around the world. He is not just in one place.

And, so this first offering will go to him. At the end of the service, we will take one for our general offering. If you came today just prepared to give one offering, please put it in this one. I guarantee you the return on your seed money is incredible, and we want to ask God to bless that. We also want to invite you back tonight at 05:30.

We're just gonna have a very informal time. We're gonna meet in the fellowship hall. We'll have an informal time with Norris. You can ask questions. We can just chat.

And, I I promise you if you come, you will be blessed. So let's let's pray. You know, I'm gonna pray Lord too for our many of our body who are in Israel this morning. What a what a joy, what a treasure for them to be there and to see where you walked. Lord, Jerusalem is the apple of your eye, and we just pray your blessing over them.

Lord, as they are there that the stories of the Bible would come alive, and you would just, Lord, transform them even as they tour around there, refresh them, renew them, keep them safe, protect them as they begin to head back. I believe this week, Lord, we just we pray for your safety and your protection. And, Lord, many of our body are traveling either last week, this week. Lord, it really is good to get together with each other and to worship you, to thank you, Lord. We we worship a risen savior.

And as I was reading this morning in John and Nicodemus, came and, John or Joseph of Arimathea came and they took your body and they laid it in a tomb, and it struck me how bizarre that sentence was that they took the God of the universe, the creator God, and they took his body and put him in a tomb. Lord, we thank you that you did not stay there. We thank you that, you laid down your life. You gave up your life for us and paid the penalty for us so that we could have fellowship with you, so we could know you. And Lord, I pray that you'll teach us to hear you, teach us to walk with you moment by moment.

Lord, we I thank you for this congregation who is such a giving congregation. Thank you for their heart for missions. We pray now. We dedicate these funds to you. Lord, they are yours.

It's all yours. We're just giving back a portion. Would you multiply it, Lord? Would you attach the good news of Jesus Christ to every penny that comes in and goes out from here. Would you use it to implant it into hearts that are fertile, hearts that will bear fruit?

Lord, make it may it take root and bring forth much fruit, Lord, we pray. Thank you for this opportunity. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen.

This song, it's so good. It goes straight to the heart. I promise you. Now when I choose the song, I picture Bernadette here, and I also picture Ryan here. They are not here.

So now have mercy on me, but please pay pay attention to the lyrics. It's such a good song.

Above all above all above all all nature and all created above all wisdom in all the ways of man you were here before above all above all the world has ever known the above all wells and treasures of the earth there's no way to measure what you're

One, it's good to be back here. We are delighted to be part of your family, part of your team. All these young ones are headed out. It's a good thing for them probably. Really is a joy for Laurie and I.

It always still amazes me that I get introduced as a missionary. I I want you to know that I'm a cherry farmer, so I'm just a a normal guy. I have 420 certified organic cherries, cherry trees that we're in the middle of pruning right now. All the suckers that grow every year. If you wanna grow fruit, we're in the middle of it.

And it's always the reminder of what God is doing with us, pruning out the things that are not bearing fruit. So it'll be the focus of this message this morning. So as we prepare to hear from God, let's let's just pray. So, you've given us all authority, father, in heaven and on earth, and we use that authority right now to silence, any other voices that would compete with father, son, Holy Spirit speaking today. So no other voice has permission to speak in this place.

So we just wanna hear from you, and we bless you, Lord. We are here to minister to you and to love you. In your name, amen. So I don't know how long I've been coming here, but that's what we look like when I first started coming here. So that was, about forty years ago.

I married Laurie Ann, and that's what we look like today. We've been married thirty nine years this May, and we have we've been missionaries for about thirty five of those years. We now have nine grandchildren. We have one more since this picture was taken. We live in the little town of Cashmere, Washington by God's grace, and and God's really doing something in that valley, Central Washington.

We've seen him work and start some of these same same things that are happening overseas are now beginning to happen in the Wenatchee Valley. What I do? I'm, I find, serve, and train movement leaders around the world. Accelerated kingdom of God movements are fueled by rapidly reproducing disciple makers who multiply the gospel into their natural social networks. The momentum that this creates can sweep through nations, cities, neighborhoods, businesses, schools, and families with the ability to create thousands of churches in a relatively short period of time.

These movements are also referred to as movements of the gospel or disciple making movements. So that in a nutshell is what we're doing, creating, finding, and serving God as he he's really the one doing these things. We're actually just finding where he's working, joining a minute, and raising up ordinary men and women. The one of the reasons why I always introduce myself as a farmer is that I always wanna relate to farmers. If I say that I'm a missionary or, like, Bill was sitting here and he said, he's our preacher today and believe me, I'm not a preacher.

I'm a I could never be a pastor or a preacher. I have way too many violent thoughts to be that merciful and I'm not a very nice person actually but I have a lot of compassion and I love I love the trinity but my wife's the one that if you want mercy, she's the one you go to. You know, you know, she has high mercy gifts. So it's better than I'm not a pastor. I'm doing what God's called me to do.

And he's uniquely given me the ability to see things and find these national leaders. Back in 2003, I started going into The Middle East. And I was asking Holy Spirit all the time, who are you speaking to that you want us to serve? We didn't go with a prescriptive formula or a plan. We believe that God wants to do new things all the time.

He's wants to glorify himself all the time. So we are asking Holy Spirit every day, every hour of every day, what do you want us to know about this situation? Who do you want me to talk to? Because oftentimes when I'm doing trainings or my there's quite a few people in the room, but I know really only a few of them are gonna respond. Statistically, it's just the way it is and I'm okay with that because you really only only need to reach a few to reach the many and building teams of those key leaders is what we're doing.

So I found a guy back in 2003, Nadim Costa. You're gonna see him in this short little video that I play. And now, fifteen years later, whatever it is, sixteen years later, we have a 105 Arabs on our staff called NEO leaders. We have over thousand volunteers over we're approaching 200,000 Muslims that have come to faith in Christ, and it's in 13 different countries. And it started by finding the right person that Holy Spirit was speaking to and then discipling and mentoring.

So when I go to these places, I only meet with a few, and then they in turn replicate everything on all the way down the line and there's no, professional staff, there are taxi drivers, there are disabled, They're women that can't read and write, but they're leaders. And we believe leadership is about influence. It's not about a position or a title. And we find leaders everywhere that they're needed, and we help them to see that they've been uniquely prepared to lead and serve the king and build his kingdom right where they're at. So I'm gonna let you watch this short video.

The spirit of God, the master, is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners.

The ministry started in 2005 when God called a group of passionate followers of Jesus to serve the region of the Middle East. God has been taking this ministry in unexpected directions and to many new places.

When you see people's lives changing because of what Jesus is doing, when, you give them hope, when you help people in a physical, way to see that kind of transformation and, you know, to be able to bring smile into their faces.

In Psalm 40, it says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. And I believe that that is what we're doing at NEO. We're we've been pulled out of the miry clay and we're helping also to do the same for others.

Jesus honored women in so many ways and I want us to do the same. So I believe reaching women with the gospel eventually leads to equipping their families and consequently the community. And we do so through developing, training, coaching and teaching women from different nationalities and different backgrounds. Women are a major catalyst of change.

God has opened a new door to start children's ministry based on weekly clubs. We started doing clubs in Lebanon and in Egypt, and we had, like, more than 50 clubs running in these two countries. And we are hoping and aiming and praying that God will open new doors in the all Middle East and North Africa region. God is so merciful to let me to see the beginning of a church planting movement in Lebanon and in the region. And it's a privilege to be able to work on this level with people and see their lives transformed.

My dream is to see a movement of church planting in The Middle East and the Near East area that is sweeping across those nations.

We are experiencing a great movement of God, an unprecedented adventure. We are chasing what God is clearly doing throughout the entire region. As we start our fourteenth year of ministry, I can look back and clearly see the hand of God working in supernatural ways. The spirit of the Lord is sweeping every segment of society, every community, in every nation. The gospel is proclaimed boldly and obeyed boldly, and God is raising a whole new generation of passionate followers of Christ who are the servant leaders of the multitudes.

My vision, my passion, and my dream is to see the name of Christ proclaimed among all nations so the kingdom of God is embodied and expressed.

So the Nadim, the guy you saw right at the end is we met. He was a businessman. He now leads this whole work, and all those men and women that you saw are just ordinary folks that God's been raising up to a great harvest. In addition, been going to Nigeria for the past six years, believing that God's starting something there just like he did in The Middle East. Here, you see part of our team, the guy who's to my right well, let's see.

To your left is Ben Akpera. He leads he's I call him the Nadim of Nigeria. And God highlighted him to me six years ago at a training, and he now leads our work there called HTL, Healing and Transforming Leaders. The guy the other guy next to me is Dan Zaggy. He's part of that team.

Dan Zaggy is 60 years old now. When he was 18, he was a Muslim, came to faith. His his dad set him on fire as a result of that. And when you see him, he's scarred. All his legs are just all scarred.

Just poured oil on him, lit him on fire. But you'd not know that had you when you know him, he's just filled with the joy of the Lord, and he's got ministry to Muslims that's just legit work. And in this region, healing and transforming leaders, the reason that it's called healing is because they know everybody needs healing. Recently, Ben and Lydia went to a town to do a DMM training. They were given a house.

They go to the house in this village. And in this house, it was filled, and everybody in it was sick and dying. That's where they had been sent to go and die in this house. So they were rolling up their mats to leave. And Ben and Lydia said, no.

You just you're gonna stay here and be a part of this. By the end of the week, every one of them had been completely healed of everything that they were and been trained as disciple makers to go back into their families as a witness in that village. And if some of you have been aware, the persecution in Nigeria is very intense right now. Thousands are being slaughtered. Thousands.

But thousands are coming to faith. Wherever we see the most chaos, we're seeing the most fruit. And those sacrifices are not in vain. Our friends are being killed. Our teammates are being killed, but they don't quit.

It just opens up more to the kingdom. I could tell you story after story. This woman on your left, she's a hairdresser. She's one of her best disciple makers. And when she has the ladies there in the local wack and yak, that's what I call it.

You know, they sit and talk and she, you know, and she has the woman there for an hour. She takes them right through a whole discovery Bible study, right? Well, she's got them, in in the hairdressing. Sweet, humble gal. There's Ben and this is coach Bright.

He's another one of our leaders. He we started soccer teams amongst the street kids. And coach Bright is one of the coaches. And the and the young gal there, his name her name is Roth. She just got signed by the national Spanish team to go and play there.

And as I was talking to her here, she said, yeah, I'm gonna take this whole discovery thing, and I'm gonna start leading Bible studies because that's what she's been trained to do. All of the boys that come to play, all the girls that come to play soccer on these teams from the streets, all have to learn to to do discovery Bible study, every one of them. And here's a picture of during this I was there during this tournament. There's coach Bright and then all the boys that are trained then break in and all the visiting teams, they lead them through a discovery Bible study right during the soccer matches. This guy, there's Ben on the left and the guy next to him is his name is Solomon Wakawa.

He was born in Borno State, which both where Boko Haram is some of you may know who that is. They're the the, ISIS equivalent in, the middle in Nigeria. That's where he was born. And him and his wife and his two girls are going back there. God's just anointed him to go back into this place to bring the gospel.

He's one of your teammates. You bump into him, you bump into the Holy Spirit because he he's in him. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna run through. All I have is scripture here for you to kinda tell you how what where we where we land in this whole idea of making disciples and what the kingdom of God is really all about. So what are the jobs in the kingdom of God?

So let's start here. God's job. John six forty three. Jesus answered and said, do not grumble amongst yourselves. No one comes to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day and it's written in the prophecy shall all be taught of God and everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me.

I can tell you that this passage alone changed everything we do in ministry because we realize this is God's job. It's not our job. Our job is to get them to a place where they can hear from God because it says, everyone who hears and learns from the father comes to Jesus. And don't you I'm gonna make all of these passages available for you if you want. So, then Jesus' job, he's the way, the truth, and life.

No one comes to the father except through him. No one comes to the father except through the person of Jesus, not through your doctrine, your theology, your good teaching. Come because of the person of Jesus alone. We have some of those people you saw in that video cannot read or write, and yet they're leading Bible studies. You know how they learn the scripture?

From grandchildren, from somebody else who can read and they because it's not about learning scripture, it's about obeying scripture. And whatever we teach obedience based discipleship, Meaning, what you learn, you have to show that you're going to obey it in an accountable relationship with everybody else in your group. And our love language to God is obedience. If you love me, you'll obey me. And this radical obedience is what produces these movements because they hear from God and they obey him.

The Holy Spirit's job, he's the one that will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. That's not the missionary's job. It's not your job to convict anyone. It's the Holy Spirit's job. And we just when we train people, we wanna train them right from the jump, what's their job and what's God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit's job.

So we don't get those confused. So what's our job? This mark 12 passage is one that when I was 16 years old and I was struggling with God's will and my pop told me, my dad, he said, Norris, the God's will for you is not a mystery. It's the same every day. If you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, your neighbors, that's his will for you every day.

You do that, and he'll show you what to do. Then that bottom passage, the one you all know, the great commission, go and make disciples. This is a mandate. It was a mandate for me when I learned it as a teenager. My job was to make disciples, and it started when I was 13 years old.

And I was discipled to make disciples. This is not for the pastor. I was a 13 year old, high school. I disciple football players, wrestlers. I disciple people.

I was baptizing people in high school because we were taught that was normal to make discipleship and go and make disciples. Ordinary people Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. That's this is the the number one thing we're trying to get our leaders to know is that the kingdom of God is our present reality. Jesus said more about the kingdom. The kingdom of God has come among you than almost anything else.

This gospel of the kingdom means that you're in it, and you can't send your way out of it. Once you're in the kingdom, you're in the kingdom. He's the king's right here. Right there. You can't get away from him.

And in the kingdom, there's the cross. In the kingdom, there's forgiveness. In the kingdom, there's confession. And this thing called the kingdom of God is where we walk in the spirit twenty four seven. So we we are training people this is your new reality.

Twenty four seven you're in the kingdom not just when you're having your Bible studies or your meetings, but we take them through passages of scripture where when Philip was on the road. He wasn't in a church when he heard God say, go stand by that chariot. He was on a stinky manure field road, and he's walking along, and God says, go stand by that chariot. Okay. Now what?

Oh, you're reading this. Remember? Goes and he gets I have too many stories. It's already So this Ethiopian guy had one passage of scripture that God gave him, and it was that one chapter about Philip when he saw the Ethiopian eunuch. That's all he had.

And there was this place in in the mountains of Ethiopia that nobody had been to before. So he that's all he had was that I think it's John. No. I can't remember what passage it is, what chapter, but that's all he had. And there's a presentation of the gospel in that chapter.

And so he just started asking God, and God would transport him to these places. Transport him. Now I know that sounds really weird, but it was normal Christianity for Philip. And when these other missionaries got to this place, and everywhere they went, they said, yeah, so and so came. So and so came.

Well, how did he come here? We don't know. He just showed up. And when they got to him and and interviewed him, they said, so how are you doing this? He goes, well, he he said, this is what I have.

I don't have any more of the Bible. This is what I have. And and he said this to him. He said, isn't this how all Christians do it? Because he had no he had no filter like that's not possible.

And I could I could sit and tell you story after story of the miraculous things that are happening. Miraculous by ordinary people getting them done. Your kingdom come, your will be done. One of the ways we teach this prayer and that Laurie and I have been experiencing this prayer, the kingdom of God is our present reality. The earth is not my responsibility.

So we pray it this way. Your kingdom come, your will be done in our kitchen as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come, your will be done in our bedroom as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come, your will be done on my drive to town because the kingdom of God is present everywhere you are. So we're asking your kingdom come right now, And that means I'm in constant contact with the king.

Jesus showed us how to live this way. He always knew what to do, and he always knew what to say because he was he was listening to the father. He was completely connected. He showed us how to do it. And he says that's possible for you and me.

Because now it's no longer we who live, but it's Christ who lives in us. That's our reality. And we we train them right from the beginning to live this way that they cannot live this way without the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, I'm I'm a farmer, and if if you wanna bear fruit, you gotta abide in the vine. And we train this really hard.

I don't I don't have time to to go through all of this, but if we say we are truly biblical people, people of the Bible, then we should be biblically filled with the spirit and living in God's kingdom, and the Bible provides the path for this. It's very, very biblical. Just read the book of acts and all the references to all the the apostles and the people being filled with God's spirit. Let's see here. In the gospel kingdom movements, we train and disciple men and women into a biblical path for living in God's kingdom, walking in the fullness of the spirit every hour of every day, period.

That's our bottom line because this is our current reality and nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. This idea that's been that I I was taught when I that you were separated from God and there's this big chasm. That's a lie. That is not the truth.

That's not biblical. It says nothing can separated us from the love of God, and he pours out his spirit on all mankind. What we want people to know is God never separated from you and your sin doesn't separate you from him. He's right here. He's a breath away.

He's right here and he's always right there because he loves you. He's not mad at you. I'm mad at you. There are people I don't wanna become followers of Christ because I'm mad at him. God God never loves that way.

His love is great. And these are the truths that we're we're discipling people into right from the jump. The guiding power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Let's see here. I'll say I'll just those who spend the most time with Jesus make the most disciples.

One of our leaders in Africa, to join his team, there's two requirements. You gotta pray three hours a day, and you gotta be willing to die. If you wanna if you can do that, you can join his team.

Yeah.

Spending time with the king in the kingdom. The movements are not happening because of anything besides prayer. And wherever people are praying the most, they're they're seeing the most fruit. So I'll just end with this one here. All kingdom works are planted by prayer and by faith.

Everyone, all through history. All are God's doing. The primary strategy for all teams is to pray. They did not consider prayer as preparation or empowerment. They considered prayer as the primary work of mission.

Our teams pray. I got off the plane in Nigeria at, like, five in the evening. I had flown thirty hours. They say, hey, we're gonna we're going to a prayer meeting. I said, okay, let me just take a shower.

And, they picked me up at seven. We finished at 7AM. Prayed all night. They're serious because they want to see God's move. God will move in response to our prayers.

All commune with Jesus all the time. They dedicate blocks of time to lavish extravagant attention on Jesus. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear fruit and your fruit will last. There's no other biblical path. It's not how good we teach.

It's not what we know. It's him. It's his work. And the moment we try to steal his glory, we're out of it. We're not accomplishing his will when we're trying to build our own kingdoms.

It's the kingdom of God that's expanding across the face of the earth. Millions of people right now across the earth are coming to know Christ. Six years ago, I did a training in my hometown there in Kashmir, Wenatchee Valley. And I said, you know, I know that there's 60 people here. Only a few of you will actually do anything with this training because we just like to go to trainings most of the time.

We don't actually do anything with it. That's okay. I said, but what I'm really looking for here is a team of men and women that wanna pray. Wanna pray for movements across Central Washington. We've been meeting now for four years every Wednesday morning, 6AM, and the Holy Spirit leads our prayer.

And now we're beginning to see miraculous stuff happening across the Wenatchee Valley. People are being told by God to move there from different parts of The US. People are experiencing the presence of God in new ways. They're learning how to walk in the kingdom. They're learning how to pray and hear from God themselves.

Just take a take a touch a walk through scripture and look at all the ways that God spoke to people, the way that Jesus spoke to people, the way the Holy Spirit spoke to people. He's still speaking today. We just don't believe he is. We don't believe he When do I have to be done? I'll I'll end with this.

We do a training on the difference between strategy and tactics. How many of you like strategy? I love strategy. I can't help myself. It just happens.

But there's a big difference between strategy and tactics. Oftentimes we we take this tactical thing that we've done and it's born fruit and we call it strategy. And we want to replicate this thing that happened once and do it again and again and again. That's not biblical. When Joshua got the big kingdom strategy was to retake the land, that was a big objective.

That was a big place. When he got to Jericho, where did he go to learn the tactics for that battle? Where did he go? I'm really asking you. Where did he go?

To they called it the Tent Of Meeting. Right? Where he learned about this. You go back and look when Moses went into the tent of meeting, Joshua went with him and was watching everything and he said, when Moses left the tent of meeting, Joshua lingered in God's presence. He learned how to hear from God.

So when he got the marching orders, he goes into the tent of meeting and k, God. What do we do here in Jericho? Alright. This time, the trumpet section gets to lead the battle. I'm trying to imagine his military commanders when he comes out.

Alright. What are we gonna do? Alright. Get break out the band. We're gonna march real quietly, and then we're gonna blow and they're going, go back in.

That can't be what he wants us to do. What about the swords and all that? Right. It made no military sense. And they did it.

What happened at the next battle? What did he forget to do? Forgot to go in because he thought, okay, now we know what to do. How many more times did the band lead the battle? How many?

Zero. Every time they went into a battle, God wanted to get the glory, not Joshua. God wants to glorify himself, and he wants to download tactics to us every day. What do you want me to know today, God? I'm here in this tent of meeting.

I'm here in your presence. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to say here? Because God wants to do new things. He's doing new things all over the world.

And the biggest obstacle to the new things God is doing is the existing church in the places where we are at because they're saying, no, that's not how we do it. We don't do it that way And we take a posture of humility, and we bless that church, but we don't let them be the gatekeepers of what God is doing because we have to obey God. And we take them to these passages to where people heard from God so they knew what to do. When I went when I was making decisions, my father took me to and literally, I had elders telling me, Norris, you cannot play football the way you do. You are too violent.

You're hitting people too hard. How can you do that and play that way and call yourself a Christian? You know, I'm 16, 17 years old, and so I go to my pop, and I say, what do I do with this? And he says, well, let's look at acts 20. And it says, Paul sailed past Ephesus and landed in Miletus.

And all the elders from Ephesus came to Paul. And to the man, what did they tell him? Don't go to Jerusalem. He said these were good people. They weren't evil people.

They had Paul's best in mind. But every one of them told him not to go to Jerusalem. That gal prophesied, you're gonna be in chains. And Paul said, if death or chains awaits me, I'm on my way to Jerusalem. My pop told me this back then.

He said, if you hear from God, that's what you obey, even if everybody else opposes you. Because it will make no sense. Most of the thing God asked people to do makes no sense. It doesn't seem safe. Safety and security is what we want.

So we train people, get into that tent of meeting. They ask us all the time, so what should we do? And we say, we don't know, but we know who does. God is never going, what do we do now? He never scratching his head like, he's never scared.

He's never at a loss, but we don't even ask him what he wants to do, what what with what we're doing right in front of him. We just go on in what we already know. God's wanting to do new things because he wants the glory, not your church, not your program. His glory is what's at stake alone. So these movements are happening because people are broken before God, listening to God, and they're laying everything on this altar, every program, everything they've done before.

And for me, that's how I think. I'm a fruit lover. I'm an orchardist. I don't I don't waste any resources, time, or money on anything that doesn't produce fruit. If that tree doesn't produce fruit, I jerk it out and plant a new one.

So if you abide in me and I knew you will bear fruit and your fruit will abide. Movements happen. A movement can happen across Jackson if you are willing to pray. You gotta pay the price. You gotta pay the price.

It's gonna require time. You're gonna have to stop doing certain. I have people tell me all the time, I'm too busy to make disciples. Well, I wonder who's causing that. One of the gals in our prayer meeting, Wednesday morning, last week.

And the way we start our prayer meetings, we don't we say, okay, what got what's God been saying? And I always ask Lisa. She homeschools four kids, but she always is hearing stuff, and I know it. So I always ask her. So what's God been saying this week?

She goes, well, I was asking him, why is this transformation of my life taking so long? And she said, God said, you know, I'm at work transforming you all the time. How much time it takes is up to you. And it just brought conviction on our whole team because we choose how we spend our time. We do.

And the enemy, I'll guarantee, is gonna fill your time with all kinds of really good things. And you're gonna have to prune it away if you wanna bear fruit. Just gonna have to. There's no other way around it. There's no other path to movements.

Because folks, what we're doing here, this is not the battle. This is like halftime where the coach brings you in and pat your butt and say, okay, eat some water. K. Here's what you gotta do different. K?

We're gonna change things around so we can get back out there. Because the lost people in Jackson, you know you know hundreds of them. That's where the battle is. And the enemy is gonna do everything he can to keep you from there. He always puts fear, guilt, and shame right in front of where he wants where God wants us to go.

And another he he's putting busyness. Are we willing to prune away things? It's what it takes. So, father, thank you for what you're doing around the world, the testimony of these simple ordinary men and women who are bearing fruit for your kingdom. And they have nothing except you.

You're all that they have. You've become their whole life. Are you our whole life? Have we surrendered all things to you? Are we willing, Lord?

Please show us. Holy Spirit, speak to each man and woman here, each teenager, Lord, speak to them about you and what you are wanting them to do here in Jackson. Where are you wanting to go? I pray that a team will arise that is willing to prune out of their life whatever it takes for them to meet with you and spend more time with you. Lord, show us.

You're you're just waiting there. You're a gentleman. You don't force us into your presence. You ask us to come into your presence into the tent of meeting. So will you do that with these men and women?

Will you pull them into that tent and speak to them? You're just waiting. Nothing is impossible with you. There's nothing too big for you to take care of here in this town in any relationship. But we've gotta be listening.

So I pray that we would. In your name, amen.

God.

I am weak but thou are strong. Jesus keep me from all wrong. Just the closer what we did. Oh, this is where we it starts the ministry right here in this place.

I am weak, but thou art strong. Jesus, keep me from all wrong. I'll be satisfied as low as I want. Let me walk close to thee just to closer walk with thee. Grant that Jesus is my world of stone and plain my burden none but thee dear Lord none but thee just the closer walk with thee granted thee let it be dear Lord let it be daily walking daily walking close to thee let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Amen. You may be seated. Now I ask gonna ask the ushers to come forward one more time. I know most of you did not come prepared for two offerings, but if you did, we wanna give you that option for the second blessing. This is for the general offering, general fund.

And while I'm just gonna let you guys go ahead because I'm gonna talk in in a little bit, but if you have something planned tonight at 05:30, if you can cancel it, I encourage you to cancel it and come and sit and listen and ask questions. Go ahead. It's almost cruel for us to ask you to come and talk for twenty, thirty minutes. It really is. I talked to a lot of missionaries for a lot of hours.

Norris has has blessed our family for him to come and sit with us for two, three hours. We took him out for dinner the other night. We hung on every word. It really is. I I apologize.

It's it's cruel to have you come and try to share in fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes what God is doing around the world. So I I challenge you, if you have something planned at 05:30, if you can get out of it, somebody's if you got something with somebody else, bring them along. We're just gonna meet in the in the fellowship hall and we're just gonna talk and we're gonna listen to Norris tell some stories that he didn't have time this morning to tell. And I wanna warn you, they'll shock you. They shocked me.

I grew up a little Mennonite boy on a farm in Pennsylvania and I was told God doesn't move in certain ways and, I'm learning through being on the mission team. The way God moves is unlimited in today and I believe our time is short. I believe he's preparing to come soon and he's gathering his people from every nation around the world and you guys are all a part of that and we want to share, we want to bless you by hearing some of these stories that will make your mouth drop open. So I just wanna invite you back tonight. Our Father, heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you so much for loving us, for pursuing us, for having a big plan that you came, you died, you rose again, you paid for our sins so that we might know you.

Lord, forgive us. We are so easily distracted. We get so bogged down in our comfort and our ease and our safety that we forget that you are you you take chances, you call us to move out into the unknown. Told Abraham to leave his home, didn't tell him where to go. Just said follow me.

Many of his disciples, he said the same thing. Lord, I pray that you would let us hear your voice today because you're saying follow me, trust me. Lord, give us the grace to obey, to make decisions, to to to be obedient and to act and to follow. Cleanse us, we pray, through your the power of your blood, your word. We thank you for it.

Take this offering, Lord, and that was just taken to Jerusalem here and just use it here in Jackson. Use it in in Wyoming. Use it in The United States. And use it to the other most ends of the world to to bring people to you, to know you, to walk with you, and to worship you Lord. We pray in Jesus name for his glory.

Amen.