You are invited to step out of your comfort zone and consider how God might be calling you to support global missions or serve in your own community. Whether through prayer, financial giving, or personal obedience, your generosity fuels the work of the gospel. Ask the Lord specifically what seed He wants you to sow this week.
With that being said, I wanna invite Brad and Kelly. Would you guys come forward? You you don't even know who you're clapping for. My brother, love you, man. Yeah.
You too. And, *praise the Lord*. So, I met them 2 years ago. Actually, I'll I'll tell just a 60 seconds of the story. About 8 years ago, I was in the Lusaka Airport in Zambia, and I saw this teenage girl who had a brace on her knee.
And I was like, the the Holy Spirit led me to go pray for her. I had a thought to go pray for her. Well, you that's not gonna be my flesh. It's not gonna be me. It's probably the Holy Spirit challenging me to go pray for her.
So, I walk up, and I notice that she's a teenager, and someone that looks like her dad is right there, so I should probably ask her dad. So I said, hey, excuse me, I felt, you know, what happened with with her knee? And they told me, and I said, well, would you mind if I pray for her? I just believe Jesus loves her a lot and can heal her. The guy said, yeah.
So I laid hands on on her knee, and I prayed for her. And then afterwards, I struck up with a conversation with with her dad. Her dad's name is Jake. And, well, he he kinda helps run Overland Missions, which is the mission organization they're a part
of. Yep.
Which is pretty cool.
Yep.
I didn't know that at the time. That was that. We kinda stayed connected on WhatsApp barely. You know? About 5 years later, Gabriel Mullens said, hey, I'm going to this conference.
This was 2 years ago. Overland Mission Conference. Would you like to come? I said, sure. So I went.
When I went, I saw Jake, who's like second in command of Overland Missions. I'm like, wow, this is a God thing. This is crazy. And so, then I met these guys. And you guys have met they're missionaries to Lao, who came here, and they're amazing.
And and so there's this partnership building. Those of you that don't know, as a church, we give 10%. We tithe as a church to the global body of Christ. So at least 10% of everything that comes in, we sow into the global body. Well, we're growing as a church, so that 10 percent's growing.
Well, praise the Lord. We got a new partnership, man. We're sowing into Brad and Kelly and what they're doing. In Zambia, I'll let them tell you a little bit about it. They've pioneered a mission base in Zambia for overland mission, are made making a major impact in the nation.
*God*'s impacting it's it's a lot. So he's gonna tell you about it. He's gonna bring a message today that's anointed. He's a pioneer in the global body of Christ. Their family is.
They both are. And, I'm very thankful and honored to have them here. And, if you listen, you weigh what they say as if it matters, it will matter to your life and change you forever. Amen?
Amen.
*Praise the Lord*. Glad to have you.
Thanks, Pastor. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. Unless, do you want say anything about Go ahead.
Go ahead. Well, Kelly Kelly, step here for minute. Morning, everybody. Thank you so much for the warm welcome. It's great to be with you guys this morning.
Like like pastor was saying, we've had like a beautiful relationship with a few people in Real Church. Gabe and Mariah came out and met us, out in Zambia. We were helping launch another base at that time, and there's just been a relationship kinda stewing there with Jake and and, even, a guy named doctor Leon, Van Royen, who's really connected to Overland. He's on our board. Pastor David was meeting with him faithfully for a while, and so we're just really excited about what God's doing.
God's a big, big God. I was sitting there during worship, and I'm just like, every time I get a chance to worship, I just, it it takes me back to when God just redeemed me out of the pit of, you know, stuff that he had me in. I I didn't grow up in the church. I'm not a pastor's kid. I'm not a missions kid.
I was a mess. I was a wretch. I was in the depths of sin, and and God came and he pulled me out, and I just like, gets me pumped up. So, just real briefly because I definitely wanna spend time for the message. I really wanna, minister.
I feel like God has something that, he wants to release to you guys to weigh and and figure out what it means for all of you. But, my wife and I have been living in Zambia for 6 years now, and like like pastor saying, we we pioneered a mission base, which basically means we went out to a very remote area of developing nation where there was nothing developed, and we began to develop some stuff. And there's houses, and running water, and all that stuff, but that's just really the the framework. It's like you guys need a school to do what you're really doing. The base is just a framework to do what we're really there to do, which is raise disciples who make disciples.
Right? And so, Kelly and I have been doing it for a while. It it's it's funny how it's changed, you know. It's kind of like you guys did your story from, you know, beginning a church to what it's gonna be in 5, 10 years, you know. And, when we first got there, there was no running water, there were no toilets.
My wife, 6 months pregnant, was bathing, like bush bathing out of a bucket, so like we didn't have a shower, so we would just bathe in a bucket, and she was doing that with like this massive baby, you know. She wasn't massive, but the baby was massive, you know. I'm still I'm still Words matter, know. So I'm still trying to figure that out. Let
me just remind you that like probably over half the world baths in buckets more than 6 months pregnant.
Fun world fact, if you have a flushing toilet and a fridge and electricity, you are in the minority of the world, just so you know. You are in the minority of the world because the majority of the world is still going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground, and they don't have electricity. That's actually the majority of the world, just to give a picture of like world economics, you know, if you've never traveled. But all that to say, we we're really thankful. Our our team has grown.
We started off just Kelly and I, like I mentioned, and now it's grown. We have like 11 missionaries that are with us serving in that area. We have well over 40 full time, *ministry* partners, so those are locals that we've trained up, raised up, and released out to go and minister. And it's just been amazing to watch. I mean, I I could share countless testimonies of salvations and healings and supernatural words of knowledge that have come to some of our ministry partners.
The cool thing is it's not actually us doing the ministry. Yeah. It's our our local guys that have been raised up that are now carrying the passion that God has put in them to go to the nations and go to their people groups. That's that's what we're here for. Right?
We're not here I love there's a scripture in Ephesians where it talks about how God gave apostles and pastors and deacons and elders for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. And so often in church, we think that the pastor and the worship team and the people that are on that are serving are the ones who are doing the ministry. But in fact, their role and our role is to empower you, and it's your job actually to do the work of the ministry. That's the the biblical model. And so we're just full pumped about it.
There's another scripture I've always held on to, since early on in my walk where there's only 1 time recorded, a fun fun little another bible fact, only 1 time recorded where it says that Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. And it came after his disciples had returned, after he sent them out to go pray for people and preach the gospel. And when when when they returned with the good news of what had happened, it says that in that moment, Jesus was filled with joy of the Holy Spirit. And I just think it's so cool to realize that Jesus is what drove Jesus was to see other people walk in their identity and who they were. Right?
Because that's what God That's what Jesus came in the flesh to present is is a new identity through his sacrifice, you know? And so that's what our joy is. We get to watch that every day and it's been fun. So, don't know there's anything you want
Yeah. It's fun now. I mean, solid 5 years in going into 6 years, like, it's not about us. We went, we said, yes. We said yes, like, no, we wanna live radical for the Lord.
We wanna be as much as we can be for the kingdom of God. We wanna impact as many people as we can, but it's not about us. So, it's not us going out doing all the things and standing in the stage light and saying, look what I've done. No, it's not about that. It's about him and about his finished work on the cross.
So, reproducing everything that he's done in us, reproducing it in somebody else so that they feel empowered and impacted to be able to go out and reach the next person and reproduce it again. So, like, seeing the seeding those seeds, sowing those seeds, planting seeds? I am not a farmer.
All of the above.
Anyways, all of the above. In other people and letting the Lord just shower them, and rain on them, and see the work that he can do in their lives, and then watching them just completely blossom into, like you said, like a "new creation" of just, oh my gosh, like look where you came from and look how far the Lord has how far the Lord has got you and how much farther you can go because whether you believe it or not, he has placed seeds inside of you to "sow into others".
Come on.
And then others, take those and to sow into others and sow into others. And it's just this reproducing that isn't just 1 turns into 1, but 1 turns into many. And those many turn into hundreds, and those hundreds turn into thousands, and we get to be a part of that. And so if we're just faithful to sow the little that we have in belief that the Lord is gonna shower and rain on it, and Come on. It's gonna be turned into something beautiful, then it it's it's always gonna be worth it.
It's always gonna be worth it every And so, I know we were sitting in worship and I my kids were it's been a long couple weeks. We've been at conferences and traveling and they're just exhausted. They did not wanna go into kids care this morning, so I only caught the last song. But while we were sitting there worshiping, I just remembered this, like, man, like, sometimes you go through hard seasons, and you just wanna, like, slow down and give up and say, man, I'll just I'll I'll do that later. I'll press into the Lord later.
I'll choose to live radical for the Lord later because right now I just kinda need to like chill out for a little bit. And don't get me wrong, there are seasons for that, but I feel like it's in those moments that define you of whether or not you choose to press into everything that the Lord has for you. And you think that you're being strong by choosing to stand out and stand on the sideline, but in reality, it's the opposite. What is that scripture that's sharing in the day in the day of adversity? Where's my phone?
I have it written down.
Mhmm. Not sure which 1.
0, my gosh.
Sorry. Nobody's talking to help you. I don't know which 1 you're
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is
Oh, yeah.
Who knows it? Does anybody know it? You know what I'm talking about? If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is weak?
Your strength is weak or your yeah. Your strength is
I'm gonna fact check it, and I'll I'll text it to Brad while he's preaching. But reminded me like, man, like, when we're facing adversities, like, we can we can we can faint away and think, like, the Lord isn't with me, and this is a hard season, or we can choose to just, like, believe with everything that we have and just "press forward" and press into the everything that the Lord has for us. And it's like, I don't wanna be weak in the day of adversity. I wanna stand strong even if in the flesh it doesn't make sense. Even if if everything around me and everything in the world is saying like, man, I should just give up right now.
I should just come home. I should leave the field. I should come home because and I'm not thinking this, but like as an example, I should just come home because it would be easier. It's not. It's not.
You're gonna be more *blessed* tenfold if you press into what the Lord has called you to
Come on.
Again and again and again and again. And so
Yeah. I don't know.
2410, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength small.
On. Shrength is small. Don't let your shrink be small. Rise in the day of adversity. Oh,
So it's funny. I, you know, as a as a minister, we always wanna be, prudent not to have a message or some kind of, presentation that is trying to please people. Right? Like, our our our our My job is to get something from God and deliver it to you faithfully because it's from Him. Right?
That's that's what's anointed on my life. And I thought it was hilarious that *God gave me such a blessed* Sunday as this Sunday to not have to worry about making anybody happy because if you don't know, I am from Detroit. So so which means I'm a Detroit Lions fan by definition and and so I don't have to worry about pleasing any of you because you all hate me today because we play each other. So now I can offend all of you however I want to. I'm just I'm just joking.
I'm just joking though. I did I did get a laugh out of it though, so I thought it was a good joke to share. But I There there's so many things I wanna share with you this morning. I want I wanna talk about a specific topic that's really been kind of brewing in my spirit over the past few weeks, and, we attended a overland missions conference a week ago or so, and, there was a message in it that really revealed a missing component of what I felt like God was really speaking to me and it's about holiness and being holy unto the Lord and and and God's holiness really and a fun fun bible fact, holy, be holy or holiness, some version of that word is mentioned over 900 times in scripture, and it is the single most talked about attribute of God in both the Old and New Testament. God's holiness is his most talked about attribute in all of scripture.
You think God is love and he is. He's a 100% love. But holiness is actually the thing that is referenced most from start to finish throughout the bible. And, I don't know if I don't know if anybody, you know, you guys Every I've I've met different people with different terminologies for holiness, but the the basic the basic meaning of the word holy is to be separate. Right?
There's a there's a scripture you may be aware of that says, "come out from among them" and be holy. Right? Be come out from them. Be be separate from them. Right?
And and I I think we all know that there's a certain component of holiness that's connected to, you know, not not participating with sin, not living a life of sin, being clean, being pure before the Lord, and what I what I really what I really wanted to What I feel like God is trying to reveal to me, and what I what I feel like he's trying to reveal to us as a body is is what's the purpose of holiness? You know, we talk about holiness all the time, but I don't actually ever hear people talk about the purpose of holiness very much. Or or or maybe not even the purpose. What's the motivating factor for holiness? Like, why why should you be holier?
What's what is the thing that's driving holiness? And and and God spoke it so clear to me. You know what it is? It's love. **Love drives holiness**.
Right? *Love drives holiness*. Why? Think of anything that's unholy. Maybe somebody can say What's something that's unholy?
Give me something, somebody. Lust. Drinking, lust. Right? These are unholy.
Now, think about this for a second. Let's let's use lust as an example. The only way you can lust after another person is if you're not considering love towards that person. So so we're so caught up in trying to be separate, and be holy, and be pure, and like, you know, sometimes I meet a lot of really religious people. They they look a lot like the Pharisees and Sadducees.
They are so separated from the people, but it has nothing to do with love. Oh, it's so good. Yeah. It has nothing to do with love, but love is supposed to be the whole thing that's driving it. You know, we sing we sing that song, we run into the arms of the Father.
Right? That when we when we have this full expression of love coming over us, we're filled with that. And then, that has to be the driving factor for what we do. But we holiness must must accompany the life of a believer. The Bible says, be holy.
*God* says to us, "be holy as I am holy". Be holy as I am holy. Or another and there's another scripture that says, be holy for I am holy. Yeah. And I really love that.
Be holy because I'm holy. Why? Because it's actually coming out of identity. I wanna use an example of, like like kitchenware, like plates. Okay?
How many people have special kitchenware that they only bring out for holidays? A lot of people. Right? A good a good chunk of people. Right?
By definition, the whatever plates those are, silverware, things, those are holy. Because you've separated them from among the crowd of everyday use items, and you've put them aside and said, these are for special use. Right? Now, did you take an average plastic plate and say, you know what? I just want to make this 1 separate.
Right? You didn't take something that was common and just decide you were gonna make it holy, and then you put it here. You realize you The reason something you make like that, like a plate holier, you separate is because you realize it already is different. It already is special. It is That is an identifying factor about what it is.
And so because of that, then you separate it and make it put aside for special use. Hallelujah? That's how it is with us as believers. We're not trying to we're not trying to manufacture *holiness*.
That's right.
We're not trying to say, well, if I am, I need to I'm not holy. I need to be holy, so that I can be a child of God. It's opposite. You're trying to take a general plastic plate, and then put it over in the holy category. What needs to happen is we need to realize that God came and did a supernatural work in your life if you've chosen like Pastor David said, to make Him Lord.
And then, there's something the Bible says in in second Corinthians, it says that, when you put your faith in Christ, you become a new creation. The old has passed away and the new has come. Hallelujah. That's the beautiful thing about the gospel. Man, if this was up to me, I would have failed a long time ago.
And that's, I think, what I've learned, especially in in in in in the Western world specifically, why the gospel and why the true Christian message is so hard to get across and so hard for people to understand is because you can't earn it in any way. And there's We live in a capitalist society. You have to earn everything. Well, I mean, yeah, I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm I'm gonna stay away from political stuff. I'm gonna, Lord, purify it.
*Lord*, keep me in your presence. Okay? We we we are built up in a society where you have to earn. You have to go to school, you have to get the grades to get your degree. Right?
Everything about our society is built around you have to earn what you get. Right? But then we come to the gospel where you don't. Amen. Listen.
We teach our kids about Santa Claus and all stuff, and you gotta be a "good boy" or you're gonna get and you to get good things or otherwise, you're gonna "get coal". Right? We we we actually teach our kids from being young that that that their behavior dictates whether they're good or not good. And the whole thing of the gospel is that Jesus was good on our behalf. It says that, he who knew no sin became sin, so that you might become the righteousness of God.
Amen. That's the gospel. Amen. That's the life we get to live. That's the life that I get to live.
I get to say, God, I never deserved anything you gave me. I was a wretch in my sin, chasing after things I should have never done before. But, you came and you showed me away, and you said, the the path was already paid for me. All I had to do was surrender. All I had to do was to give myself over to it, and you are gonna take the reins and go from there.
That's the most beautiful thing in the world. 1 of the scriptures that has has kept me for for the 12 plus years that I've been walking in this faith journey is in Romans, the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6. It's it's a it's a controversial scripture that a lot of people actually don't talk talk about very much. But it says in in Romans-5, it talks about how should we go on does it start off? I'm drawing a blank now.
Right. That grace may abound, absolutely not. For we know that we who have died of sin should not live in it any longer. But the interesting thing, it says this. This is the part that I draw a blank on for a second.
It says, where sin abounds, grace abounds more. Where sin abounds, grace abounds more. Meaning, when you find yourself in a moment of temptation, or a moment of sin, our natural is to think like we're outside of grace now. We're outside of the love of God. We've fallen.
We're short. Listen, to a certain degree, it's true in the sense of you didn't hold up your end of the bargain of this of this relationship that you entered with Jesus, a 100%. Your behavior is not lining up with who you were identified as. That's a truth. But God's beautiful word over your life is when you do that, His grace is poured out more on your life.
And so then, Paul says, what should we do? Should we go on sinning so that we can I mean, who who knows those moments when you experience God's grace are the most beautiful moments in our faith? When the when when the grace of God just overwhelms you, you're just lost in tears like, you are so good. That can be a little bit of an addictive feeling. Right?
Like this you this this this feeling that you only get from God, nothing else in the world can provide for you. You can become addicted to that and want that more. So Paul says, what should we do? Should we go on sinning, so we can keep feeling that grace? Absolutely not.
That's right. Don't you know, those who have died to sin should no longer live in it. That's right. Amen? But, when we the the beautiful component of it is realizing that no matter where you're at, *God's grace* is more for your life.
Whether you're in this room right now and you don't know Jesus, you're just checking out church, or your significant other forces you to come, or not forces you, but like heavily encourages you to come, and so you're just sitting here because you feel like you have to, there's grace for you right now in your life. *God loves* you and sees you, he knows what you're thinking, and he's not offended by it. He's not mad that you're here because you have to be here. Yeah. He His his heart is so for you, it's not even funny.
Right? Maybe you've been in church, you've been coming to church for a long time, but there's just something that's in your life that you're having a hard time getting rid of, or you maybe have long stretches of success in, and then you kind of fall back, and then you kind of go through a long stretch, and then you fall back. There's grace for you. There's grace for you. But understand that grace is not meant to leave you there.
*Grace* is meant to empower you out of that place. Right? And here's here's here's why. Because when you understand the work of Jesus, and you understand who you are in Him, that He became sin, the 1 that knew no sin, became sin, so that you would become the righteousness of God. It changes the way you live your life.
It changes the way not even the way you live your life. It changes the way you process and understand life. Right? If you would have told me 7 years ago, when I was getting ready to launch out into Muralinka, that I was gonna do what I've done up to this point, and I had to build I mean, guys, I am the most unqualified person. I promise you.
And I don't say that proudly, but I don't say that ashamedly either because Jesus has qualified me. Right? But I don't have a building degree, guys. I don't have I don't even have an undergraduate degree in anything. I'm not I don't have any certifications.
I I'm not a teacher. I'm not a doctor. Right? When you think of a missionary, I'm not I'm not even I'm not a pastor's kid. I'm not a missions kid.
I'm not I didn't grow up in the church. I'm not I haven't been a leader for 15 years. Like, there's literally nothing about me in the flesh that would say, this guy should go out and do that work. But when God presented it to me, I had a choice to make. I had a choice to make.
And my choice to make was, am I gonna look inward at myself and say, where do I find the capacity? Or am I gonna look to Him and say, you gave it to me. It's all in you, God. I'm gonna I'm gonna walk faithfully towards it because I know you've called me to it. Amen.
So good. Now, you come to that mission base. You come to that mission base, and I promise you, you're gonna think an expert builder built those buildings. I promise you're gonna come and you go, wow. I mean, I have people that come that are builders like, who built this?
I did. Where where did you get trained? I didn't. But *God* gave me the favor and the grace to do it. He empowered me in grace to do it.
Right? But it can't come by looking inward at yourself. If if God is nudging you to do something, and you start questioning whether or not you're capable, you've missed it. You've missed it. You need to get back into grace and get back into the reality of the redemptive work of Jesus and realize it's all about him and it's never about you.
You need to be an empty vessel. Sometimes your skill sets get in the way of God's movement. Sometimes our trainings and our certifications get in the way of what God's doing. I was just talking to 1 of our friends last night at the meeting that we had, and we were saying how We have a midwife in Overland. She does medical stuff, and she's so amazing.
I love her. If you talk to her, and you ask her like, how do you like, what does it look like? She'll be like, yeah. Whenever I have a patient or somebody come to me or a woman who's having issues and whatnot, before we do anything, I'll just I'll ask God. We'll just sit and we'll pray and say, God, we want you to supernaturally touch this woman.
Before I even go into my brain of all the medical reasons why x, y, and z, and what does she need, what what medicine would help, or what, you know, diagnosis I should give her, God, we're going to pray right now that you're going to touch her supernaturally. We're going to believe for something. Before I even enter into my training brain. Right? Because if we're not careful, I'm going to say this and there's no judgment, but it's just something to be challenged by.
When we get a headache, what do we do first? We just run to the bottle. Meanwhile, God's sitting there going, I'm your bottle. I'm your bottle. It doesn't mean aspirin's wrong.
I'm not saying you can never go get I'm not I'm not trying to be weird about medicine. Right? Like, I love medicine. It's the it's the wisdom and knowledge of God poured out unto man to help his people. I'm just saying, God's trying to see, are you are gonna make it an idol or are you gonna trust in me?
And in all of these things, all of these things that we're talking about, it's really just you getting the ability to retrain your mind to trust in God rather than your own understanding. That's right. Right? And all of this, to go to wrap back around, to to come back to what I what I've been wanting to talk about, which is which is holiness and and God's holiness, is all of this springs forth from love.
That's right.
All of this. Everything I'm saying. The reason I trusted *God* to go out and do the mission based thing, and and and and and have now a 100 people that I lead for no reason, is because I felt His love. I felt His love, and His love touched my life and changed my life, and then I knew that I just had to operate out of that. And then, my desire now is to love because He loved me.
Right? Which is straight out of Scripture. Right? We love because He first loved us. Right?
That has to be what what what centers everything that we do. And so now, when we get into talking about *sin* and living out of sin, people said, oh, you're being kind of pious and holy and righteous, and you know, you're being judgmental. It's No. This is love. Anything that is sin is hurting someone.
That's the reality. I'm not even here if it's like, well, you're separated from the love of God, brother, because you're living as I don't even care about that. Whatever sin you're living in is hurting someone. Whether it's you or someone around you, it's hurting someone. If you're living a life sexual immorality outside of marriage, you're hurting someone.
That's what I care about. I don't care I don't even think God cares about that whole religious pretense around like, well, you know, God can't be in the presence of sin. Don't whether that's true or not true, I really don't care. I think God is saying, sin is destroying my people, and it breaks my heart, and I sent my son Jesus to die for it, so we wouldn't have to live it any longer. So my people wouldn't have to feel the effects of what Satan did back in Adam and Eve in the garden, that there would actually be a redemption of something, so we could live for something.
You have a purpose for your life. You were put here with a purpose. There is a work that was predestined for you to do. Also a scripture. Ephesians.
But we but there but love, if if if we don't get this, we're gonna miss the whole thing. We're gonna miss the whole thing. We need to be 1 of my favorite scriptures is also in Ephesians. We need to be rooted and established in love. Meaning, that has to be the basis for everything that we do.
We're so planted in in in firm and understanding of God's love for us, not how well I love others. We have to be firmly rooted and established in the fact that God loves me so much that that naturally produces a love to go out. And so then, you're gonna you this is why is why Jesus said, the law is fulfilled in 2 2 commandments. Love God and love others. Right?
Because in that, you are perfectly holy. If you do that truly, I'm not talking about like the the the western floofy version of love, you know, like pat pat pat toe in the butt type of love. I'm talking about like real visceral, deep, transformative love. You're gonna be perfectly holy. You will be able to do you will do no wrong if you are living in love.
Right? And then, the Bob Bible says, the love of God compels me or constrains me. The the the translation can actually go either way. What that's saying is, when you feel led to sin or operate in unholiness, the love of God is gonna convict you to be like, wow, I'm actually hurting this person. Or I'm hurting myself.
So it it it it compels me or constrains me and keeps me from doing something I was never meant to do. Hallelujah? Hallelujah. Are we Is is God speaking to our hearts this morning? So much.
Because I I think the reason I love Man, I I love preaching. Not because I love preaching like to you guys or be up on stage. I love preaching because I get to re encourage myself as I'm speaking. Like they There's a saying that talks about how teachers actually learn while they're teaching. Like, I'm like, thank you so much for letting me teach myself in front of a group of people.
This is awesome. Because I need this I need this more than anybody. Right? I want to talk about this **poverty mindset** that I see plaguing the church. And you and you hear it in people's it comes very apparent in people's prayer life.
And and again, this is there's no I'm not saying this is a condemnation or like there's anything it's an opportunity to have our minds opened, to see a truth, and walk in it. Okay? The Bible says that you were given everything you need for life and godliness. That you lack no good thing. That's right.
Okay? That that when you were born again, or if if if you haven't taken that step yet, if you become born again, there's a supernatural work that happens where God places His Spirit on the inside of you and everything becomes new. Okay? There's nothing lacking in Him in that. Okay?
So now, you have that as a reality. Let's put that there for a second. You have everything you need, there's lack You're lacking nothing. Right? But then you also have to deal with this idea of like, well, we're maturing in our faith.
And then now you have to figure out how do you how do you bridge the 2. You lack nothing, but then you're impatient. But I lack nothing but I'm impatient. How What's the trick? Right?
Well, the reality is, I like to use it in Zambia, like to use the expression of like, if I were to give somebody an airplane, obviously people in the bush of Africa have no idea how to fly an airplane. You guys, everybody here would just jump on YouTube and like be taken off in 2 minutes. Right? But like like to them, there's like they have no concept for They wouldn't even touch it. They would just look at it.
They wouldn't even get inside it. They would just look at it. Right? Because this is so foreign of a concept for the people of Bush of Africa to fly an airplane. Right?
But I said, if I gave you a plane, I I changed the deed, the deed's in your name, it has your name written on it, is a "100% you" It You own the plane. Does that mean that you know how to fly it? So so now, as you learn how to fly the plane, do you ever take more ownership of the plane? No. No.
Your ownership stays the same. You're just now learning how to utilize the thing that you own. Right? So now, when we're praying let me let me let me show you how it looks. So now when we're praying, we might start to pray.
This might be our an old way of praying. We might say, God, would you just please give me more patience for my wife? Yeah, not her. I'm saying, I just know how you all struggle. Okay?
So I'm just I'm just I'm just giving you something that you would understand. Oh gosh. Okay. So that's the old way of praying. Right?
What does that reveal? That reveals that we think we lack something.
*God*,
give me something that I don't have. Right? Now, here's the other way to pray. Father, can you reveal to me the depths of patience that you put on the inside of
me? And
why is it so important that we recognize the difference? Because 1, it's like a foreign thing. There's nothing we can do to attain it. We just have to hope God gives it to us. And if and if we don't act patient, well, we can just pretend like God hasn't given us the patience.
Somehow now it's God's fault that you're not patient because he just didn't give it to you. Right? But now if you're over here, you're praying, you're asking for revelation and understanding. You're asking to grow in what God already put inside of you. Right?
Sometimes when we're talking about maturity and growing in our faith, we're trying to add on to the finished work of Christ. But that shouldn't be the way we think about it. It should be, Jesus, help me understand everything you already did on the inside of
me. Hallelujah?
Let me let me go a step further on this 1. This this is a newer *revelation* in this whole poverty mindset thing that God How many people have, like, gone to someone to get prayed and, like, receive an anointing or, like, have somebody, like yeah, pray that they would receive something from God. I'm assuming most people have have done that. I've done that a ton. I've like love that.
Right? I I I was convicted. I was convicted. Not not to get prayer, but the way I was processing it because I was thinking, okay. Okay.
So this man is anointed for healing. So let me go to this man. I'm gonna ask him, not necessarily for healing for me, but but man of God, would you pray for me that I would I would just have an increase in my life for faith for healing? So I I pray that your healing anointing would come upon me so that I can heal as Jesus heals. Right?
But that would be it's listen, it's such a beautiful thing. You wanna we're we're growing with the body and learning, But then God spoke to me in my in my meditation on it, and it was like, he's not actually giving you anything. And he gonna get God gave me the picture of a key. Somebody who has faith like, let's say, you could look at me and say, I have a a faith now for pioneering work because I went and I did it. Right?
And it and it flourished and it happens. Now I have So now you might wanna come and say, man, God's asking me to start something. I just feel like I want I wanna do it the way you did it, and so would you just pray for me? All that means that I have a key into 1 of the realms that God has given us in our spirit. So I'm not giving you anything.
I'm just I'm just unlocking a door in you. I'm not actually giving you anything. Do we see the difference there? And it's so important that we understand that this is actually a poverty mindset. Because if you think somebody has to give you something, then you lack, and you've now nullified the word of God.
Which says that you've been given everything you need for life and godliness. Hallelujah? Hallelujah. This is good. This is so good.
So now when it comes to holiness and love and living out of the truth of God and living towards what God has for you, listen, God, it's not God, make me more holy. It's God, help me understand how I'm perfectly holy in you. And God, help me understand how your love drives me to live perfectly with everybody around me. And when I fall short, God, I thank you so much that your grace empowers me to live out of it. Not, oh, woe is me, I fell again, and oh man, like, now I'm never going to get over this.
Stop looking at yourself. It's not about you. Get over it. Look to Him. Get on your knees and thank Jesus.
Hallelujah? Listen, it's it's I'm not it's it's crazy. It's like it's it's always blast me for this leave mouth, but I feel like I'm it's like a Pauline thing, so I'm I feel okay with saying it. If you are in need of Jesus to touch you in an area of life, you're in a good place. You're in a good place.
Should you stay there? No. I don't want you to stay there. But that's I mean, who doesn't want that? Right?
I mean, I think I love where I'm at in my faith now, but hey, I go back I go back to those early days when I first got saved, man, and I I would like, sometimes I'm like, I wish I could go back to that, man. There was like because there was just something so beautiful about that first touch moment where God first redeemed you out of something. So if you're still there, praise God. Because now he's now he can touch you with something. Right?
Mhmm. Hallelujah. I wanna I wanna I wanna pray I wanna pray for the congregation, today, and I wanna pray that God is gonna reveal, things Well, first off, that God's gonna reveal His love to you in a new way this morning, that He or He has revealed His love to you in a new way this morning. And that in that, you're gonna feel this peace about stepping into something that you've maybe been uncomfortable stepping into. If you don't know, I'm just gonna say some stuff that maybe the pastor doesn't say or the people in the church don't say because I'm not connected to you guys that closely, so I can say stuff that they they'd maybe feel uncomfortable to say.
And and they didn't tell me to say this. This is me out of my own. But, the ministry takes a lot of, work. This church, to do what this church is doing takes a lot of work. To reach people with the gospel takes a lot of work.
It's not an easy path, that's why most people don't take it. It's uncomfortable. You have to put yourself out. You have to go up to some random 14 year old girl and risk the father thinking that you're like some weird pedophile guy trying to pray for her leg, and you know, especially in days that we live in, it's like, who knows, you know? So so so it takes it takes hard work.
It takes stepping out and doing something that's uncomfortable, but it's needed. And and the work is mighty, but the "laborers are few". The work is mighty, the laborers are few, and too many people are just coming to church to receive. But you were never called to come to church to receive, you were called to come to church to be transformed into something. Amen?
So I'm just I'm just gonna pray this morning as we close. I wanna honor you guys' time today and let everybody get lunch so they can go watch some football later. Watch the Lions. I was like, let me pause for a second before I say anything so I could hear what you Yeah. Let's just let's just let's just pray.
If everybody could just, if you could if you could, close your eyes and then put your hand over your heart. Father God, we thank you so much. God, we thank you that you you saw us as worthy, not because of anything that we've done, God, but because of what you spoke over us from the foundation of the world. God, I pray that that that the peace that comes with that reality just just comes over this church in a supernatural way, God. Let everybody in this room be so in awe of the fact that what they become is because of who you are, not because of what they do.
I *pray right now, God*, that you start to speak things into people, things that they can do, things that, people that they can minister to, people that they can love on and and reveal themselves to. And God, I pray right now that this, that desire for sin is just choked in Jesus name. And not because of some separation from you, but because of the love that drives it to be true. And that they can look like you as they live that life, God. I pray for all of us in this room, God, that we we move out of this place knowing that you've anointed us for something.
That that is not just reserved for the pastors and the missionaries and the evangelists and the prophets, but it's it's actually meant for everybody sitting in this room, that everybody here is called and anointed for something. If anybody doubts that right now, I break it in Jesus' name. If there's something that you're using, speech or education or or, personality quirks or living situation, or health, or anything, God. I pray right now you break that in Jesus name. Holy Spirit, have your way in this place.
We yield to you, Holy Spirit. We yield to your wonderful working power that you so willingly give to us, God. We'd be nothing without you and we wouldn't have it any other way. Let us never take the glory for what you've done, Jesus. We give you everything.
You are more than enough. *God*, we thank you that you return to us a hundredfold what we give to you. You are holy. You are beautiful. You are majestic.
You are so different from anything else in all of creation. We're in awe of you, God, and we love you, and we bless you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
It's a powerful word. Thank you, brother. And actually very in line with who we are as a church too. Ain't that cool? I didn't prep him on what to say.
You might wonder why I'm holding a trash can. I'm gonna let you know. So it's not an analogy for his message. His message was amazing and powerful and and really impacting. I got some some really good analogies moving forward that I'm gonna use.
I love that airplane thing, man. That was so good. Okay. They came and served, laid their life down to serve us with the word of *God* without sharing all the stories of everything that God's done in order to raise money for what they're doing in Zambia. So, he was just being obedient to God.
And, when he was being obedient to God to do what God told him to do, he was loving us in the way that we needed. Amen? So in that, I I want to honor that. That's a big deal. As a church, we do tithe and take a portion of the tithe, the 10%, to the global body of Christ, and a portion of that is we're we're sowing 300 a month into their family, and what what God is doing there.
And, so that you know, as a steward, a steward is not somebody that, you know, ties and gives an offering here and there. A steward, **"God owns everything"**, or the master owns everything that is the stewards. The steward stewards the master's resources according to the will of the master. Amen? So with regard to the kingdom, everything that you have is God's.
K? And, it's like having an apple, or an avocado, or, you know, a piece of fruit. In that, what you have, there's meat to eat and enjoy, and there's seed to sow. Yeah? A portion of the seed is the tithe that goes to the local storehouse.
But then, well, God, is this next is is this a bite I should take to enjoy? Or, God, is this a seed to sow? And so, there's a tithe, and then there's an offering over and above. As a church, we tithe, and then we're radically generous whenever God tells us to to do it. As individuals, it's the same.
Amen? So, I have made a way online where you can go to realchurch.us, click give, and instead of general, put Brad and Kelly. And, everything that you give today will be an *offering* into their ministry, and it's good ground. If you can't do that, I brought a an offering bucket. If you if you have, if you'd rather write a check or or cash, if God lays it on your heart to do that, please do that.
I'm I'm not compelling you to give. Just pray and ask the Lord. Heavenly Father, do you want me to sow into their ministry? And just say, whatever he says, "yes, Lord". Amen?
*Praise the Lord*. And, I think that's a good thing. So, Father, I pray that you would speak to their hearts, that they'd be obedient, either to say, nope, not right now, or yes, Lord. Father, I I pray that Brad and Kelly are blessed, Father God, from what you move on our hearts to sow into their ministry. And Chevy's gonna "close us out".
Transcribed with Deepgram