You are called to be grateful for what God has given you while pressing on toward the goal He has set before you. Whether you are supporting mission work in unreached areas or equipping others in your daily life, your role is vital to the body of Christ. Start today by stepping out of your comfort zone to share the gospel and support those who are discipling others.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. I say that I get to be, and just to pastor a little bit, that should be your attitude in everything that you do in your life. God has blessed you with the job that you have. He's blessed you with the relationships in your life.
He's blessed you with the friends. He's blessed you with the place that you live. You get to live there. Why would God bless you with something else if you're not grateful for what you have? Amen?
Amen. So some people just need to repent for their lack of gratitude. They've had an envious spirit. An envious saying what God has given is not enough, so why would he give you more to steward? Amen?
Amen. You guys okay? I didn't mean to bring that out. I don't know where that came from. Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord, we repent of an envious spirit.
Lord God, we wanna be grateful for everything that you've done and are doing. Hungry for more of you, but grateful for where you've brought us from and where you've brought us and for where you've brought us to. In *Jesus*' name. Amen. So my prayer is that every single 1 of you encounter the power and the presence of God in a very real way.
This is your first time or you've been coming for years, if you've you're new to the church and you're "kicking the tires" of Christianity or you've been walking with Jesus for 50 years and and man, you're here because you know it's biblical. My prayer is you walk away with a deeper understanding of the love of God. And it causes you because when you encounter the love and the power and the presence of God, he leaves you in the valley or leads you to the valley of decision, where you have to decide either you walk in deeper levels of surrender or you stay stagnant where you are. Because yesterday's manna is not enough for what today's calling. Yesterday's obedience is not enough for what he's calling you to today.
It's forgetting what's behind. Thankful. Praising the Lord for the testimony, but forgetting what's behind and "pressing on" toward the goal where he's called you in Christ Jesus, running the race he's called you to. Amen? Amen.
So I I mean, I honor you if you've been running the race for 50 years and done amazing things all around the world and you're here today. Man, that God would send you here, praise the Lord, that's great. However, what you did 50 years for the last 50 years isn't gonna get you into a deeper level with Jesus. It's gonna be 1 step of obedience at a time starting today. So let's press on and press in.
Amen? Alright. I wanna I wanna start with giving you guys a couple of updates that I have missed out on just because we've been busy the last couple of weeks with other things that God's been doing in the church. But but number 1, many of you know this, some of you don't know this, and so I'm gonna tell you because I love telling the story. But we're very involved in Pakistan and in helping to disciple an aspect of the nation of Pakistan.
God put it on my heart about 10 years ago to begin praying, gave me compassion for this nation, and I knew deep down I'd be a part of some move of God in Pakistan 1 day. A lot of times what you pray for, you're invited to participate in. A lot of times. Amen? So what happened?
God opened the door, confirmed some relationships that I could trust through other people that knew their family. Daniel, some of you guys have seen Daniel in pictures, others you will 1 day. And our church ended up sending Daniel and his wife 14 hours from where they live by train ride to an area that God had prophesied over their lives that they would impact in that nation. He told me that prophecy, what people had had told him about him and his wife when he was a kid. And I said, well, let's pray about it.
And God will invite you there. And we prayed, and 2 weeks later, he got a call, invited him to come share the gospel with an unreached people group and that a man and his family and his friends. So he went. And we this was the beginning of what's happening in Pakistan. It was about 4 and a half years ago.
We sold as a church 500 into this thing. Daniel and his wife, Pamela, took that 500, bought a plane a train ticket, 14 hours, drove. The man had gathered his friends, his kind of influential friends from 15 villages. 400 people showed up. And over the course of 3 days, 300 people gave their life to Jesus.
Problem is, Daniel and his family didn't know how to disciple them and to multiply. And so, they they on a Zoom call, they asked me, would you teach us how to disciple these people to multiply? And I said, I was shocked because God was inviting me, inviting us into a deeper level of caring for this work that had started than I originally thought. So, I asked them to pray for me and they prayed. As they prayed, God gave me vision.
And, so, I did what the Lord said, began to disciple, it began to multiply. Daniel is the 1 that runs the work on the ground. It's amazing. In the last 4 and a half years, it's went from 1 man asking us to come and preach the gospel. We've got to go multiple times to now well over, and I say this because the last time we counted was about a year ago.
Well over 65,000 people being discipled every week in well over 1,500 villages from over 4 people groups that were unreached on Joshua Project. When we went in March, there's a lady named Radha from a Dati tribe. Radha had been working with us for about 6 to 8 months. Reminds me of Lydia in Acts, the seller of purple cloth. For those of you know, you know.
And she had been working, raised up many leaders, and we're we're pouring into the evangelist that we have 20 right now. Next next month, we'll have 22 full time *evangelists* that are going from village to village, setting up groups, and and I'll tell you more about that in a second. But, Radha was a volunteer at the time. And, she she stood up in the group and she said she had 4 or 5 men, 3 to 5 men, stand up beside her. She said, these are the leaders I've raised up for the Dati.
Would you send me to the Megvar community? The another unreached people group that we hadn't touched yet. And God had put it on her heart to go. So we were in 3 at that time. But in March, when when somebody does that, what do you do?
You say, come here. And you grab some oil, you "lay your hands" on her, and you commission her to go. So she went. The last 3 months, she's reached 35 megawatt villages. And in each village, there's at least between 3 and 5 people that are sold out for Christ and multiplying already since March.
I just got our last quarterly report. So they send me pictures and videos of of each evangelist that we have full time. They're going every quarter. They have a set goal of new villages that they're going to. They go just like in the book of Acts.
They go and they preach the gospel. People give their life to Jesus. They disciple them. They set up groups on how to multiply. Hold on 1 second.
You need to see this. Patience. I gotta get this book out of my backpack. It's right over here. You can't see where I am, but you can hear me.
I said right over here. Okay. Here I am. I'm back. So this is what God downloaded in my heart when they asked me to disciple them.
It's a method called t 4 t. We kinda shifted it a little bit just for Pakistan and and what we're doing because that's what you do. You incarnate the gospel into different cultures. So you you you shift it in a way that impacts the culture without without taking away Jesus as Lord. The Bible is the holy written word of God.
You don't take away any of that, but you just help to that community and that culture to understand it. So we wrote this and gave it to them when we went this last March. Now all of the leaders are taking this out. It's helping them to get to do more baptisms. More people are are getting water baptized, baptized in the Holy Spirit**.
There's more multiplication happening. In the last 3 months you guys okay with this update? Yeah. Alright. In the last 3 months, our *evangelists* have went to a 196 villages.
Wow. What? And raised up a 196 leaders in those a 196 villages. And those leaders are preaching the *gospel* on throughout the week. Those leaders are leading a Sunday service for the groups, and some of those villages have multiple groups of believers just in 3 months.
Guess what they're doing the next 3 months? Going to the next ones. And it was only a 196 because of the massive monsoons and rains that happened. So next 3 months, I expect it to be between 2 and 400 new villages as we continue to multiply. Every local church should be meaningfully connected to the global body of Christ and growing more so.
Because how can the finger not be connected to the body? If if if you as a local church, the local church is only concerned about itself. It's unhealthy and it's eventually going to die. You guys are getting the benefit of being connected to the global body of Christ. You've had people like John Wandera come in, people like Diane Harrison.
You're gonna have many, many more come in and see what God is doing around the world. I'll give you 1 more update because I haven't given the whole church the update. We just got back from Peru a couple weeks ago. And, man, God did some cool stuff in Peru. Alex, David, and I went.
We got to minister to a tribe called the Uralina tribe about 8 hours up the Amazon River. And in the church where we were ministering, there was probably, depending on the service, anywhere from like, in the days, it was more like 60 or 80 people. At night, it was like a 140 or so, a 130. Meaning, he gave their life to Jesus, which was awesome. But, really, I think our main role there was equipping the people to understand that they were ministers of the gospel.
And, the pastor's role wasn't just to be a minister, but the pastor's role was to equip them for works of ministry. They had never heard that concept before. It was it was shifted things, shifted culture. And and really, the women there, when they first came, they told us, you know, that they're a very non emotional people and a people that are very non social. You know, you'll think they're mad at you while they're you're listening to them.
But when they first came, the women would hide in the jungles and under the church just because of how that culture is. And it's a river people. The the church is built up on stilts over rivers. There's there's really no walls in the houses, just statues. And it's really it's really interesting.
So anyway, the gospel had begun to transform culture so the women and the men were sitting in church together, but just on separate sides. So I'm like, God, how do you want me to equip them to do ministry? And he said, teach them to pray. So we were sitting in in the service and I said, I want I wanna talk to you guys about prayer. Is there anybody in here sick?
Or you have pain in your body? And the man who had planted that church, who had spent 26 years on the early translation of the Bible was there. Leader was there. And it's very good because if the leader leads, usually, if other people see that the leader accepts what's happening, the rest will follow. So I asked that question.
Anybody have sickness or pain in your body? I wanna pray for you. We're gonna talk about praying for people and healing and other things. He stood up. That's great.
Praise the Lord. God, you gotta do something. I said, sir, you know, where's the pain in your body? He said, my knees. Of course, all of this was through a translator, so I just laid hands on him and prayed real simply.
Father, I thank you that you're the healer. In the name of Jesus. Knees be healed. Thank you, Jesus, that you're the healer. I said, man, check check your knees.
Did it get worse? Did it get better? Is it the same? Just be real honest. He tested his knees.
He goes I said, is there any more pain? He goes, in my hip. Alright. So we prayed for his hip, hip was healed. After that, more people wanted to get prayed for.
So another man stood up and he came forward and I had this man that was just healed, the leader of the the original planter of that church, lay hands on him And that man was healed. And then I had anybody else have pain? Then the pastor of the church that this man had passed the church off to came forward. And the layman, the man who's not a pastor or leader who was just healed, laid hands on the pastor and the pastor was healed. Then I asked
if there was any more pain, and
a woman came forward. So the pastor laid hands on the woman, and the woman was healed. So God's just "breaking all kind of boundaries". Then another woman came forward that needed healing, and the woman laid hands
on the other woman, and
the other woman was healed. This challenge in some of your theology? It's okay. It's biblical. It's in the book of Acts.
There's 28 chapters in the book of Acts. We're in *Acts-29* for the last 2000 years. So God did amazing things, and the relationship there is building. I'm I'm still kinda trying to figure out what our role is that God's asking us to do in Peru, but but I'm excited to continue to to to mind that relationship. Got to meet Marcos.
And it was interesting while I was there at the main camp, which is very beautiful base that they have called Aurora. I was there and I realized that we have a Jamie Flores is very connected with Revive Ministries that helped started Aurora. And I don't know if Jamie even knows Greg and Robin who are very connected with Revive Ministries that started Aurora. And are they're both good friends with Dave and his wife. I forget his wife's name that are over that ministry.
So our church is, like, doubly or triply connected to this place. So it seems like it's God. You know? So I'm just kinda wondering, what are you doing, Lord? What's next?
And hopefully, maybe 1 day, you know, I'll get to take some of you guys there with us as we continue to develop more connections with the global body of Christ. As a church, a "healthy church" should be impacting and changing their local community healthily. And, impacting the global body of Christ while learning from the global body so that the global body can impact their community. It's this beautiful give and take relationship. That's how every relationship works.
Amen? You guys follow me? Alright. I wanted to give you that update before we dive into the message. Guess what we're back in?
Corinthians. We're gonna get to 2 verses today in Corinthians. Those of you that don't know, we've been in Corinthians series for like 2 years almost. And we it's the base series we go back to when God's not saying something else. But in chapter 9 verses 1 and 2, my goal today is to to teach a healthy understanding of the biblical structure of a church, of the church, the global church, and churches.
This might break some of your boxes. This might challenge some of your theology. If you see it in scripture, change your theology. Okay? I don't care what you've always been taught or what I've always been taught.
If scripture disagrees with what we always been taught, then we gotta take what we've always been taught, honor the people who taught us, but at the same time line it up with scripture. Amen? Amen. Okay. *1 Corinthians-9:1*.
Am I not free? I've already preached the message on this, but I'm gonna stick here for just a second. Paul is saying, am I not free? Of course, he's free because he gave his life to Jesus. He surrendered to Jesus as Lord, and he who the Son sets free is free indeed.
If you've surrendered to Christ, then you have been set free, and you've probably been set more set free than you realize right now. And there's a process of renewing your mind to the reality of what God has done on the inside. *Romans-6*, combined with Galatians-2:20, shows that anybody who is in Christ has died with Christ, has been crucified with Christ. So it's no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. And Romans-6 says, anybody who has died has been set free from sin.
So what are you set free from? You're set free from sin. You're free from it. You don't have to choose it anymore. You can, but why would you?
It's only gonna cut you up and prevent you from living out the fullness of the purposes God has for you. You have been set free. Everybody say, I have been I have been
set free free sin sin in Christ.
*Christ*. Romans. That's the beginning of your freedom, not the end. You're set free from sin to live out his purposes so that you're not entangled. Throw off every sin that hinders you and every weight that entangles you from running the race that God has set before you.
You're set free. The Holy Spirit** puts in is put in you and you're free to follow him towards the purpose as he created you for and they're immeasurably bigger than you could ask, think, or imagine. God's created you for some amazing things. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm standing in the spot that God molded me in my mother's womb and had in mind on July 27 at 11:07, I want you on the stage at Oak Grove Middle School teaching this group of people this message.
There's no place I'd rather be because I'm in
the "center of God's will". Man, I'm standing here in peace and joy, walking out his righteousness and overflowing to you so that you'll do the same. Man, it's fun following him. You're not just don't My hope is that you grow from being so sin conscious and sin focused just trying to get free from sin. That's "baby stuff", man.
Understand that you're forgiven and take your eyes off of sin and put them on Jesus so you can walk out the purposes that he's called you to. You repeat what you reflect what you focus on. And if you're always focused here, here, here, oh my gosh, I can't get let that stuff go. It says this there's no benefit. Focus on Christ and follow him and watch as this just begins to fade as he conforms you into his image more 1 step at a time.
Amen? So you're free from sin and free to follow the purposes he has for you. So choose wisely. Alright. That was a message for like like from like a month and a half ago, but I just need to hit it again.
You guys good? Yeah. And then Paul says, am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my workmanship in the Lord?
If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. Everybody say apostle. Apostle. Uh-oh.
We're getting in some social media controversial theology here. You watch any social media videos on anything the church. You got people that are tearing apart the body of Christ saying, oh, there's not apostles today, there's not prophets today, oh, there's no miracles, miracles aren't real. Like, have they read their Bible? Let's talk about it.
What is an apostle? It's obviously biblical. It's here. What is an apostle? *Jesus* was the 1, the first 1 to use the word apostle.
As a matter of fact, Jesus is the first apostle. Hebrews-3:1. Could you bring that up real quick? Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, **Jesus the apostle** and high priest of our confession. Jesus is the first apostle and the best apostle.
As a matter of fact, he's the first and the best prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Every 1 of those offices in the church overflows from who he is and from his spirit. But what is an apostle? Why did Jesus use that term specifically? Because it wasn't a Jewish term.
It wasn't a Hebrew word. It was a Greek word used in Greco Roman society. And when he used that term, they would have understood what he was meaning. An apostle was the leader of an armada of ships from Greece and later Rome. That when they were taking over a new territory, they would send in the armada with the apostle and the apostolic team as the lead.
And the role of the apostle was to go into this new culture and shift the culture to reflect the culture of the empire's capital city. So that when the Greek or Roman emperor would come into that new colony, he would feel at home, like he was in Rome. An apostle, literal translation, sent 1, is 1 sent to change culture to reflect the culture of the kingdom of heaven. Usually very steadfast, very strong, very vision minded. Why?
Because they're piercing culture, they're they're shaping culture, and in their obedience coming up against culture, it's creating a wake for many to follow and things to be set up. *Jesus named the first apostles. They were the 12 disciples. There were many that followed him, but he picked 12 of them. Luke-6:13*, prayed all night, came out.
Why did he pray all night? Isn't he God? Yeah. He was God, but he's fully man, chose to live life as a man dependent on the Holy Spirit** to hear the Father's will. Came out after his prayer all night and chose the 12 disciples and named them apostles.
12 of his disciples and named them apostles. He even picked Judas Iscariot, the 1 who was destined to betray him. Those 12 hold a special place. They're different. Why?
Because in Matthew-19:20 28, Jesus told them that they would sit on 12 thrones in his coming kingdom when Jesus returns and he's going to. That's just not just a metaphor. Jesus is actually going to return. There's going to be a kingdom and there will be 12 thrones that the first 12 apostles sit on judging the 12 tribes of Israel. They're important.
Every 1 of them. When Jesus was *resurrected* after the Holy Spirit** was poured out and they waited in Jerusalem a bit, then they were scattered and they went to multiple different places in multiple different nations. You hear about Paul because that's what's what is written. Thomas went to India. There's another 1 that went to Northern Africa.
They went multiple directions, changing culture and spreading the gospel. Question is, are they the only apostles? No. Actually, explicitly in the Bible, is it okay if I just teach a little bit? Yeah.
Okay. I'm gonna teach a little bit. Don't worry. I'm gonna make it applicable to your life. I'm gonna teach a little bit.
In the Bible, there's 18 explicitly named apostles. 18. When Judas denied, the disciples picked a twelfth named Matthias. Matthias is 1 of those that's gonna sit on the 12 thrones. A lot of people say, well, Paul's the actual 12 apostle.
No, he's not. Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. These 12 are apostles to judge the 12 tribes of of Israel, for those of you that wanted to know. Then it wasn't just them as James was the the brother of Jesus was later called an apostle. Barnabas started out as a teacher or a prophet, but then was promoted to apostle later in Acts.
There's many Oh, there's a good 1 that I like to bring up in Romans-16 verse 7. There's a woman apostle named Judea. Wait. There can be women leaders in the church? If there can be a woman judge in the Old Testament, then there can definitely be women leaders in the church.
And if I wax theologian on you for just a second, just bear with me. But the all of the translations of the Bible, I like most of them, but a couple of them have a couple of things that they get wrong. And the ESV, this is 1 of the things that it gets wrong. It's only 2 or 3 translations that mistranslate this verse because of their maybe a bent towards more chauvinistic theology. But they say that Junia was outstanding or well known to the apostles.
But the original translation and most translations of the Bible, going back to the early the way that the apostolic fathers in the first couple of 100 centuries translated the Bible, Junia was well known to well known among the apostles or outstanding among the apostles. So that's what it's supposed to say. Junia was outstanding among the apostles, which means she wasn't just well known to them, but she was 1 of them and not just 1 of them, but 1 of the best ones. Hey, women can be leaders in church. We can talk about the theology and the rest of verses and stuff another day because it's not my message today.
But at Real Church, we put women in leadership because it's biblical. The Holy Spirit's the great equalizer. In Joel, they prophesied. Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh. Sons and daughters will prophesy.
End of Acts, there's prophetesses. If a woman can be a prophetesses, prophet, however you say that. And she can lead in the church. And if you're a male and you're going, I
don't like this. This is different than what I want.
You need you need to repent before the Lord for seeing yourself as more than. You have a role to play in marriage as leader of the home. But every 1 scripture people miss mistranslate as every woman or every yeah. No woman can teach any man. Are you serious?
For somebody in here, the same word for woman is the word for wife, and the same word for man is the word for husband. It's talking about order in the home. Big tangent. Anyway, so 18 specific explicitly named apostles, not all of them were the first 12, and in the book of Acts, more are named, which means God raises up more. And hey, we're in Acts-29.
There are 23 or 24 implied apostles throughout scripture, but I'll just stick with the 18 named. That being said, are there apostles and prophets today? Because once again, the "social media warriors" would say, no. Social media warriors need to get in their word. Ephesians-4.
Watch this. And then we'll make it applicable for today because God wants to impact you and help. Verse 7, it says, but grace was given to each 1 according to Wait. Sorry. But grace was given to each 1 of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
So Jesus Christ "gave gifts", and those gifts have a grace to them. What is grace? Grace is God's power empowering you to be who you can't be on your own and to do what you can't do on your own. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. And saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth?
He who descended is the 1 who ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things. That's Jesus. Now, watch this. And he gave, these are the gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. *Pastors* and teachers.
Those are people and gifts to the church with a grace to do something. What are they called to do? Their the grace on their life is, verse 12, to equip the saints for the "works of ministry", for the building up of the body of Christ. Until Here's where apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Here's where these offices end.
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ. Have we reached the measure and stature of the "fullness of Christ"? Is there no disunity in the global church today? Have we all attained to that that knowledge or do we need to keep growing to look more like Jesus? If we need to keep growing, then there still needs to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers.
Right? So
that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every window doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. So, man, I I'd say we still have a ways to go. So, man, we still need apostles. We still need prophets.
We still need evangelists. We still need pastors. We still need *teachers* to equip the saints for the works of ministry. Amen? Now, me explain how that works.
Each 1 is anointed and they see the world through a specific mindset that God has given them to **overflow and impact** the church. So imagine 5 cups, the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher, and they have anointing, which is the oil of anointing being poured into their cup and relationship. They're developing that relationship with the Lord because anointing grows out of obedience and and spending time with him. So that anointing grows to to where it begins to overflow out of the cup. And where is it overflowing to?
The church, equipping the saints for the works of ministry. Now, the the apostle, he's a culture changer. You heard it. What is an apostle? He goes in, wants to shift culture to the vision that God's given him.
His eyes on the culture of the kingdom of heaven and shifting wherever he sends to reflect the culture of the kingdom of heaven. He's thinking multiplication, multiplication, **"great commission"**, like you come to him with a problem. He's probably gonna pray for you for the miracles and the power of God to impact your life. He's maybe try to cast out a demon or 2 and then say, go multiply. Why?
Because signs and wonders follow apostolic ministry. Biblical. The prophet was a prophet. The prophet hears from heaven. He cares about what the spirit is saying, what the Holy Spirit is saying.
When you come to the prophet for ministry, he's probably gonna say, had a dream about you last night. I knew you were coming. The Holy Spirit** said, you're like, woah, how did you know? It impacts your life and impacts your heart, it builds faith for you to take steps. The prophet's gonna say, you need to go get alone and hear from God.
That will fix all your problems. And then, you walk away and somehow, some for some reason, if you hung out with Gabe, you have a dream that night. How many of you have hung out with Gabe or you've started coming to this church and all of sudden you started having prophetic dreams? Raise your hand high if you've had dreams. Come on, raise it high.
No, no, like everybody, I know there's more than that. Raise it high. Everybody look around. Here's what's happening, they have *anointing* in certain things and it overflows onto your life and so that anointing fills your cup and you start experiencing what they were experiencing. The goal of that anointing oil flowing into your cup is when you get to experience it but it develops a hunger and a desire for you to have that same thing in your life.
So what do you do? You go get along with the Lord and learn how to walk in that aspect of life personally so you can minister in that way. That makes sense? Let me keep going. I'll get back there.
So evangelist. The evangelist, you come to evangelist with your problem, you know what the evangelist is gonna say? Dude, you've been sitting in church too long. You need to get out of these 4 walls and go "share the gospel" with somebody. Why when's the last time you led somebody to Jesus?
The reason the reason you're having problems is you're focused on yourself too much. Get out of yourself and go into the highways and the byways and watch as it fulfills and and all of your problems begin to go away because you're seeing Jesus come to come to people. That's important. It's necessary.
So you ever hung around Robbie and you never and you've never led somebody to Jesus, and then you hung around Robbie and all of a sudden you wanna share the gospel with people? Just comes out of nowhere, and then maybe you you led somebody to Jesus just because you started hanging out with Robbie? Are there people in here like that? What what's happening? The *anointing* that God has placed on Robbie's life as an evangelist is overflowing and starting to fill your cup.
And you get to experience the overflow of that anointing, and you start leading people to Jesus. What's that supposed to do? Spark a hunger in your life. Equip you so that you go get along with God and realize that this is part of your calling. You go get along with God and you pray until that becomes a normal part
of your life where you can begin to lead people to
*Jesus* when necessary. Are you gonna lead people to Jesus as much as Ravi does? Probably not. Because he's anointed to equip the church for that, so
he has to demonstrate it always. It's just
who he is. It's the way he sees the world. But you need to be equipped to be able to lead people to Jesus in your daily life when necessary, when Ravi's not around. And if you're only getting oil from Robbie's cup, you're not gonna be equipped. You need to develop that personally with the Lord and let the overflow of Robbie cause a desire for it so that you go develop it personally.
But it's going to be an offense to your flesh because your flesh doesn't wanna do that kind of stuff. Most people's flesh wants to hang out with the pastor. Who's the pastor? The pastor sees the world. The pastor just wants to love people and he just wants people to love them.
Love him. The pastor's like, I hadn't seen you at church in a while. Are you okay? Is everything okay with you? Do we need to sit down and talk?
Let me hear your problems so we can make make sure that they're all healed. I care. I want you to know that I care. I really love you. That's the pastor.
The pastor wants you to know that you're cared for. The pastor doesn't want the sheep scattering, the pastor wants the sheep in community. Are you in a small group? If you're not in a small group in community, you need to be in a small group in community. That's the pastor's thought.
You come to a pastor with your problems, the pastor's gonna say, hey, why have you been alone? Come to church. Why why are you not in small group? Go get in it. Go get in a small group.
Get in community. You need friends. I'll be your friend. That's the pastor. The pastor's bleeding heart and he's anointed or she's anointed for that.
That's the way that they see the world. And everybody needs good pastors in their life overflowing into them so that you can care more than you do. But then you go get along with the Lord and you develop that oil of relationship personally so that
it doesn't just come when you're hanging
out with pastors, but it comes out of your daily life. Because here's the reality. Why are those 5 things Oh, the teacher. Let me let me get to the teacher. You go to the teacher with your problems, the teacher says, Have you been in the Word lately?
Because you believe in a lie. Let's go find in the Word what is the answer to your problem, because we're gonna make this thing right. The teacher loves to be right. And the teacher is right, usually, because they know the Word. You walk away from hanging out with a teacher, you got a passion for the Bible.
I wanna get in the Word and know more. So important. Problem is in the church, got different people that have an affinity for different things. Maybe the pioneer, the missionary type, the multiplication, like hard nose, I'm standing, you know, likes the apostolic *ministry*. The the people that, you know, see numb see numbers.
A digital clock is not just a digital clock, it's a portal to heaven. All the numbers lined up. 12 34, it's divine order, 1, 2, 3, 4. They just see Jesus operating everywhere. And so they like hanging out with the prophets, but they think the the evangelists are weird because they want to get them out of this and go share the gospel.
You guys go do that. That makes me uncomfortable. And then the evangelists don't like the pastors because the pastors just want to gather everybody, and the
evangelist walks in and says, no, go. Get out of your chair. Go share the gospel.
Pastor says, no, get them here. They're my friends.
We can even meet together.
And the teacher's like, you're all wrong. You need to know the word. By the way, a good teacher, which we have, Man, Daniel Mannix is a great teacher. It's show and tell. It's not just heady knowledge, but it's also you know, what's your favorite classes?
The favorite things you remember from from high school. It's probably chemistry class when you got to put the stuff together and just watch it go boom. It's probably physics class when you got to see how it really works, you got to was it chemistry or biology where you got to dissect a frog? Show and tell. A good teacher isn't just tell you heady knowledge but demonstrates it.
Amen? So this these are these **anointings** that are important. Why? Because every father and every mother needs to be able to pioneer and change culture of their home. They need the apostle they need to be sitting under apostolic ministry, being willing to stand in the midst of a culture that's trying to shift things.
Need to be able to pray for miracles and signs and wonders. Everybody needs to be equipped with that. Every father and every mother in their family needs to be able to hear God, *prophesy* over their kids, understand and teach their kids how to do that. Every father and mother needs to be able to share the gospel in their daily life, and their kids grow up learning how to share the gospel. They need to be equipped with that anointing and develop it in their daily in their daily life.
It's the great commission, not the great suggestion. Amen? Every father and mother needs to be able to pastor their kids well, and listen to their problems, and counsel them, and and care about them, and spend time with them like a good pastor would. Every father and mother needs to be able to teach and show the kids how to
get in the word and understand the word. So they need
to be under *ministry* that is maturing and developing and overflowing those anointings and equipping the saints for the works of ministry,
not just in your specific area or affinity that you like to hang out with, but in your area of weakness too that makes you uncomfortable. Because you need to grow up to be mature like Jesus, reflecting Jesus in every area of your life, and if you've been shying away from the evangelistic ministry because it makes you feel uncomfortable, that's the 1 you need to lean into. If the prophetic makes you feel uncomfortable, good. Go to encounter nights from now on, and then let that overflow overflow in your life, and *repent* for shying away from the your weakness that you need to grow in and "look more like Jesus". You need all of them.
Here's my fear, my concern. See, when you're born again, *1 John-2:20* talks about you being anointed. *1 John-2:27*, you receive the anointing that teaches you all things. What is that anointing is talking about? It's talking about the Holy Spirit**.
You're born again. You're born of the spirit. The Holy Spirit comes inside to lead you and learn how to hear his voice and walk by faith. Sometimes you need spring on by brothers and sisters in Christ. You need the overflow of other people's lives to grow.
But the problem is, not everybody who's *prophesied* has a relationship with Jesus. Not everybody who's been healed or prayed for healing for others and seen it happen has a relationship with Jesus. Not everybody who's seen miracles, who shared the gospel and other people gave their life to Jesus, has a relationship with Jesus. They could have just been experiencing the overflow of people at church. Let me explain.
*Matthew-25*. Got a parable of 10 virgins. They're getting ready for the wedding feast, and they're waiting for the midnight hour when the bridegroom will come and take them. I wanna show you something very specific, and then we're gonna land the plane. So these virgins have their lamps, but 5 of them have no oil.
As verse 5, as the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight Can you turn me down just a little bit? At midnight, there was a cry. Here's the bridegroom. Come out to meet him.
Then all of those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your *oil* for our lamps are going out. Now, a second. Those 5 foolish virgins had had oil in their lamp because they had a flame. But their flame was going out.
Were they Christians or not? Let me tell you. Verse 12. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore for you neither know the day or the hour.
They weren't Christians. But how did they have a flame? How did they have oil? They didn't know Jesus. Jesus didn't know him.
No know the 5 virgins. Here's what happened. They probably went to church where somebody was overflowing *oil* and was burning bright. And that overflow from that apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, from that anointing filled their cup with some oil. That fire that was burning at that church, which you experience here during worship or you experience as we're teaching and preaching, you just start to weep because God's moving on your heart.
It's starting to light a fire in
your heart. That's an overflow from the anointing on me or on the worship team or on other leaders in the church, and it's lighting your candle. But if you never authentically surrender to Jesus as Lord, your oil and your fire came from me, not from Jesus. And that's not enough. Your oil and your fire came from your friends, or your small group, or your men's group, or whatever it is, not from Jesus, and that's not enough.
The reason I "burn bright" for Christ, and the reason I have an overflow of oil is because daily, I'm getting alone with him, not because I I I feel obligated, but because I want to, because I know him, and I burn for him alone. And that oil is developed in my life with him because of relationship, because of spending time in his presence and obedience to his voice. That's how you develop oil. That's how you cause your flame to burn bright. And it overflows out of me and impacts you, impacts other people's lives.
And that's a good thing, not a bad thing. But what's bad is if you only depend on my *oil* and my flame, and don't take that as developing hunger to go and build your own. So the evangelist overflows and you share the gospel with somebody and they give their life to Jesus. That's meant to develop a hunger in you to go home. Pray Lord, do that in me.
And then when you're alone and you feel uncomfortable, you pick up your cross and follow him anyway. And say, yes Lord, and share the gospel when the evangelist isn't around. And learn to develop that oil so that you can teach your kids, and you can "change the culture" of your business, and everywhere God has you. *Prophetic* makes you feel uncomfortable, but you go and hang out with Gabe. Next thing you start having prophetic dreams and other things.
That oil overflowed. What's that for? To develop a hunger for that in your personal life, So that you go home and you spend time with the Lord. You say, Lord would you show me how to hear your spirit? Let me eagerly desire prophecy and the gifts of the spirit like your word says in 1 Corinthians-14.
Let me not shy away from it because I feel uncomfortable. Let me lean in to what you say, so that I can overflow. And anytime that you need to use me in that area, I'm equipped to saint for the work of ministry. You don't like people, go hang out with a pastor. Learn to like people.
Next thing you know, you're gonna love people because you're gonna be equipped. You feel like
a loner or or man you're just just introvert. Well, there's no biblical verse that gives introverts an excuse not to hang out with the church, and not to share the gospel. So what do
you got to do? Go get along with Jesus. Say, I
mean I love how that pastor loves people and that evangelist shares the gospel, and I see that need in my life
and it makes me uncomfortable. But God, would you break me and stretch me to learn how to be like Jesus and take steps of obedience outside of your comfort to look more like him. Change the culture of your life. Next thing you know, you're acting in ways you never thought possible because you've died to self and you're living for Christ. It ain't about your personality and your uncomfort anymore.
It's about looking and being conformed to look more like Jesus. Just don't like getting in
the word, not consistent at it. Go hang out with a teacher. Let that oil overflow. Next thing you know, you're picking up the Bible and then you want to put
it back down. You're like, no Lord. Developing me a hunger for your word. Change the culture of my heart so I can understand your voice more clearly and I could see where I need to change because your word is cutting every aspect of my life. And do the work of carrying your cross and saying, yes Lord, in your daily life.
And not just getting around other people that are burning, and then assume that you're burning when you're really not.
I'm glad we have many amazing leaders that are overflowing anointing here. And I want every 1 of you to have a relationship with Jesus that's so authentic that it ain't about your comfort anymore but it's about growing in your areas of weakness to look more like Jesus. You feel uncomfortable here from time to time when different people are preaching? Good. Why?
Because that's an area that you probably don't look like Jesus as much as you should. Don't run-in your own comfort to some other place that doesn't have an evangelist or doesn't have a prophet so you don't have to feel uncomfortable. Instead lean in and look more like Christ. Go get along with Jesus and let Him transform you. Amen?
So, here's what I wanna end with. It's gonna have to be short prayers, guys. But, I wanna call Gabe, Robbie, Deasia, and Daniel to come up on the stage. And they're gonna pray over you. We haven't ordained Gabe as prophet in the house yet.
That's happening likely in in October when Diane Harrison comes down from Canada. But if you've hung if you've hung out with him, you know, how does it how is a how are people promoted to the office? God calls them and anoints them, but then they're not promoted yet. Many are called, but few are chosen. And then they begin to operate in their daily life with the gifting God has for them.
As they operate in their in their gifting faithful with a little, God gives them more. Next thing you know, they start leading a ministry. And then they lead the ministry and God multiplies. And next thing you know, the people, just like king David. David was anointed king, but then the people ordained him as king, what God already spoken.
So these we've already recognized the anointing that God's God has placed on their life. And 3 of them we've already ordained. Gabe's just a little late. But Gabe, actually, I'm gonna have you pray last. Deasia is our established pastor who helps people to get established in the body of Christ, make sure you're connected on healthy teams and other things.
Sounds pretty pastoral. So I'm gonna have her pray over the congregation with that *anointing* and just receive. If you don't like people, receive from this prayer and go home and get along with God and ask him to teach you to love people.
Father God, I just thank you for who you are, I thank you for being a good and loving father. Father, right now, I pray over our congregation of every person in this seat, Lord. I pray for them to experience you unlike ever before, God. And as they experience you from those encounters, that your love pours out of them into everybody that they encounter. Father, I speak your love over every person in this room, Lord.
Father, I thank you for the anointing that flows in each and every person that has a relationship with you. And if they don't have a relationship with you, that they come and do business with you and get a relationship with you, God. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to encounter your presence daily, Lord. We honor you and it's in your name we pray. Amen.
If you don't know how to share the gospel simply, hang out with Robbie. If sharing the gospel freaks you out, you probably need to go hang out with Robbie. He's got an engaged training coming up in September. You need to sign up for it and hang out with Robbie because you all need to be able to share the gospel in your daily life when necessary. Don't worry, it's a process.
It takes time. Most people are uncomfortable with that because it takes makes you it you need to step out of yourself and in the harvest to be able to do it. But, man, it's part of the Bible. Share in Jesus and declaring him openly, "confessing him as Lord". So, Robbie, would you pray over us, man?
Yeah. Lord, I ask for a release of a burden for the lost. Lord, I pray that in this city, wherever we're going, Lord, I pray that you give us eyes to see that there are people who are on their way to hell, but we could be the answer or carry the answer who is Jesus Christ, Lord. I thank you that you would give us boldness, Lord, where it's overflow of what you've done in our daily encounters where we simply "share who Jesus is" to us and he's available to everyone, Lord. I thank you that you would make evangelism easy over our church.
And Lord, the courage to step beyond discomfort, Lord. It only takes 90 seconds out of our comfort zone to win the lost. Lord, I thank you for boldness. I thank you for eyes to see, awareness of people around them, Lord. That that the gospel truly is the answer to demonic strongholds.
The gospel is truly the answer to anyone separated from you, Lord. Give us boldness and courage to step out. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. And if you don't have a passion for the word, get to know Daniel Mannix. Go back and just listen to some of his teaching on our podcast, and you'll hear it and develop a passion for the word. Would you pray for for our people, brother?
Absolutely. Thank you.
Oh, Lord.
Thank you so much, Lord. Thank you for the gift of teaching, Lord. It is 1 of the gifts. And and the the great commission there where it says, go therefore and make disciples. It says, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.
That means everyone in this entire room has been called to teach. Parents have been given a specific commandment to teach their children. Lord, so everyone who's in this room is called to teach. What do we teach? We teach Jesus Christ because all wisdom, all knowledge is in Jesus Christ.
And so, I pray that everyone would have a deeper hunger and thirst for righteousness. I pray that everyone in this room would have a deeper desire to sit down and get to know you, to get into your word. Lord, I pray that it keeps them up at night. I pray that they have such a inner unction, Lord God, to get to know you more. Lord, you've given us this beautiful "procedure manual" to get to know you in the bible, Lord God.
You've given us the keys to wisdom, and I pray that we would all honor them as this precious gift that they are, Lord God. And as we get to know you more, Lord God, not only do we pour it out into others, but we are transformed by it, Lord, that we become more like you. In Jesus name, amen.
Gabe, I've already talked enough about you. So why don't you just pray for him? Alright. So
And so father, we just thank you *Jesus* for who you are, God. Thank you, Lord, that you said your sheep know your voice. It's so easy. It's so easy to hear you, God. And I just pray that that the prophetic and real church, the prophetic culture is your culture first and foremost, but it's a culture that's easy.
And I pray for a demystifying of of hearing your voice, that the the the weirdness and the hooby dooby ness around hearing your voice would would fall away, Lord. And we would just come into a very easy understanding that we can all hear you, that we can all talk to you regularly, and we can all hear you regularly. God, I pray that you would pour out dreams and visions in this group, impressions, intuitions, words of knowledge, "words of wisdom". I pray for an abundance of the the gifts of your holy spirit* flowing, Lord Jesus*, and that miracles and signs and wonders would be associated with the prophetic word when given. God, I pray that we would we would simply enjoy knowing you and and enjoy knowing your voice.
In Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. Now, clarification. Are these the only ones? No. God has risen up many apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in our body and will continue to do so.
So praise the Lord. If you're in process, that's awesome. Do all of you have to be 1 of them? Nope. Most of you probably aren't, and that's a good thing because God's called you into business and to and to many other areas of society to impact culture.
Our role is just to equip you to be able to do that. That's it. That's how the the healthy body of Christ works.