As Pastor Ben talked about, we've been in a big season of transition every day. There's so many exciting things going on as we're planning on closing on this building. And I've taken some time to reflect on all of the different words that the Lord has given our community. And as Pastor Ben brings up of, hey, there's still some things that need to happen.
Why I'm not phased by it at all is because I was in a room with Pastor Josh and Pastor Katie 15 years ago, in the prayer room at Northwestern. So if you remember, a couple months ago, they had a slide up there going through all the different things that the Lord had spoken to them, the time frame, and they had a picture of a prayer room with some red carpet. I was in there with them when they started to share what the Lord had been speaking to them. And so I can attest to you firsthand that 15 years ago, the Lord started to download vision in their minds for a base.
They talked about how the Lord was calling them to gather a people in Minneapolis and St. Paul, that there would be a space where people would be able to go to to get refreshed, to get equipped, to meet the Lord in worship and in prayer. And they threw around this term the base. And this was pretty new to me being in the more charismatic movement of the church.
And so I didn't really have a grid for what they were talking about. And I just kind of smiled and nodded acting like I knew exactly what they were saying about this base vision. Didn't at all. But fast forward 15 years, starting to see it come together and starting to see that God who began a good thing will be faithful to complete it.
And so that's why I can stand up here knowing that the Lord is going to provide for it because I've seen everything that has happened over 15 years. It's also a testament to not only Pastor Josh Katie, everyone on staff and the board of them stewarding what the Lord had given them, and pursuing the Lord's heart and partnering with the Lord because we're about to see the fruit of all of that. I just want to thank them for that. It's going to be so amazing as we move into this new building.
In the meantime though, the Lord has been speaking to our community spiritually. And there's a big call on our community to start to enter into the deep things of the Lord and into intimate personal relationship with Him. And so we've been in the series in Romans 12 about what does it look like and what are the characteristics of a believer. And we're going to be continuing that tonight in Romans 12 verse 11 in the very beginning portion of verse 11.
But before we jump into that, I want to share a word and a vision that a friend of mine gave to me yesterday. Because I believe that this is very timely for our community. It ties in with what I'm going to be talking about tonight. And it's highlighting something that I think is a necessity for our body.
So this friend of mine does not go to every day. And he texts me saying, hey Mark, I had a vision that I think is for your church. Can I share it with you? And so I called him up and I was like, yeah, I would love that.
As we were talking on the phone, he says, okay, so I'm driving home to my house and I'm on 35W. And when I got to the intersection of 35 and 36, I went into a vision. And for those of you that don't know the base that we're moving into our new building is at the intersection of 35W and 36. And so he goes, I went into a vision and the Lord said what I'm about to show you is for every day.
And so in this vision, he saw a picture of a Ukrainian egg. And what an Ukrainian egg is, think of an Easter egg, what you used to paint growing up, think of it about a million times nicer than all of that. Beautiful works of art, they're amazing to look at, but there are these beautiful eggs that are decorated by people. And he said, in this vision, I saw a Ukrainian egg and then the Lord's voice came in and said, yes, it's beautiful on the outside.
But the chick that's on the inside is dead. And the Lord started to speak to him of saying that the Lord cares more about what's on the inside than on the beautiful outward appearances. And so the Lord gave him a little tool to start to crack the egg. And then he got out of the vision.
And the Lord said to him, I want you when you get home to go to your journal and look at an encounter that you had from October of last year. Because there's an encounter that you had last year that ties in with this vision that I want you to give every day. So he got home, when he found his journal from last year, opened up the journal and there was an encounter that he had with the Lord. And the Lord brought a verse to him out of Ezekiel 13.
They talked about how they're going to be people who are going to be building walls, and these walls are going to go up, and people are going to start throwing whitewash on it. And in the verse it says that those walls are flimsy. And as he was telling you this, I was immediately reminded of when Jesus says, whoa, two scribes and Pharisees, because they're whitewash tombs, beautiful on the outside, but spiritually dead on the inside. And so then he saw that, and then the Lord said to him, to confirm this, I actually want you to look at the name of your journal that's engraved on the outside of it.
So he turned to look at the outside of the journal, and bear in mind, he didn't know about every day at this point. I just started to get to know him just a couple of months ago. So on the outside of this journal, what's engraved on it says, celebrate every day. So he shared this with me and he goes, does any of that resonate with you?
And I'm like, yeah, a lot of it does. And in fact, tomorrow I'm preaching a message on how to be fervent in spirit so that our spirits become alive and that we're not just walking around with a beautiful outward appearance, but that we're actually alive on the inside. And I feel like it's a big call from the Lord of it's time for us to stop putting on a good face on an outward appearance. It's okay to start having hard conversations with the Lord, talking with other people, inviting them into the difficulties of us, for the little chicks to start coming out, to start coming back to life growing and being with the Lord.
And so even right now, if you're here and you're like, you know what, I've been coasting in the Lord, or I'm even spiritually dead right now, those words and visions aren't meant to be something that is condemning. But it's actually the Lord showing his heart for you of that he sees where you're at. He wants to partner with you. He wants you to stand up and move along with him.
And he wants our community as a whole to get up and start being spiritually fervent, taking ground in the Lord. So I'm going to just open us up and pray, Lord. I just thank you that you are always the one that is pursuing us. I thank you, Lord, that even right now that hurts in people's lives, that because of those that they're not wanting to talk with you, that those are starting to get healed right now, Lord God, that your presence, your tenderness is being felt all over this room, that we know that we can be safe going to you, that we know, that with you, we don't have to put on a fake face, that we can come to you and that Lord, you're wanting to come in and share your love with us and have us abide in your love.
So we just thank you for this in Christ's name, amen. So as I said, we're going to be continuing in Romans 12, the beginning of verse 11. So what is Paul saying here? He says, do not be lagging in diligence, but be fervent in the Spirit.
Now, different translations say different things. I read out of the New King James Version, but the ESV says, do not be slothful in seal, but be fervent in the Spirit. The NIV says, do not be lazy in seal, but be fervent in the Spirit. So what is Paul getting at with this verse?
What is the Greek behind it? So when it says, do not be lagging in diligence, the word there for lagging in the Greek means either slothful or indolent. And up until a couple of days ago, I didn't even know that the word indolent was a word. So I looked at that and I was like, yeah, I guess Lord, but I looked it up and it means wanting to avoid work, or another word for that is lazy.
Then what does diligence mean? Again, in a lot of translations, it gets translated seal, but that's not exactly the best translation of when we normally think about the word seal, where like Jesus says, seal for my Father's house is consuming. It's not that. It's not the same word as seal in Romans 10 where Paul says, yeah, I can confirm that they have a seal for the Lord.
It's not that. What this word diligence means in the Greek means business or consistent work. So what is Paul saying here? He's saying, don't be lazy in doing the Lord's work that he's called us to do.
Another way of saying this is, don't be lazy or negligent in keeping the commandments that Jesus told us to keep. Now here's the question that I want to pose to us. If that's the case, what are the commandments that Jesus is calling us to keep? Because we need to answer this because the answer to this is where we base our walk with the Lord upon.
So John answers this very clearly in 1 John 3 verses 22 to 24. In verse 22, what does John say? He says that if you ask anything, it will be given to you. Why?
Because you keep his commandments and do those things that are right in the eyes of the Lord. So most of us read that or hear that. And what immediately comes to mind for us is, oh, yeah, that's the law. That's the 613 commandments that if we want to get answers from the Lord, we have to keep the law.
Or other people come in and say, well, it's not the whole law, but a good chunk of it. That if we want answers to prayer and if we want to please the Lord, we have to keep those commandments. But what is John saying the very next verse? He answers the commandments that we're supposed to keep.
He answers the commandments that we're not supposed to be slothful in keeping, slothful in pursuing. And what does he say? This is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love others as he gave his commandment. So I'm going to make some connections to some different verses.
This is not to just throw a whole bunch of stuff at you. But again, I think this is so important for us to understand because there are lies of how we talk to the Lord that if we don't understand what it is that we're supposed to be doing, our faith is going to be built on our own works rather than the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Because you see, when I read that verse in verse 23, most people then will go, oh, John is quoting again the two great commandments. Love the Lord by God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is like it.
Love that neighbor's Iself. I want to submit to you that that is not what John is talking about here. He's actually making a clear distinction of now that we're in the new covenant, now because of what Jesus did, it is a better way of talking and operating with the Lord and growing in love for the Lord and growing in spiritual freedom. And it isn't because of the works that we do because think of it.
The law doesn't say try to love the Lord, your God. It says you shall love the Lord that God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. I want to ask this and I do actually want to raise of hands. Think of your best day with the Lord ever.
How many of you can say during that day, I actually did love the Lord with every ounce of my entire being? No one. Yeah, if there was someone, here's the microphone. Show us how it's done.
We haven't done it, but then we try to justify ourselves like, well, yeah, he just wants like a good effort. It's no, you're going to do that. And then we operate with the Lord of I'm going to try to grow in love for the Lord by mustering up love out of everything in my being. And there'll be some days where it's kind of good, but most of the days it's not going to be good.
And then our walk with the Lord goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, because it's all based upon what it is that you're doing. And John is coming and saying there's a better way to have a more firm foundation in the Lord. And he says first and foremost, it's to believe on the name of Jesus Christ. The work that we're called to do, to not be slothful in, the work of the kingdom is to start to renew our mind to who Jesus says he is, the work that he did on the earth, who he says the Father is, and what he says is true about us.
And our work that we need to start pursuing is taking every thought captive that comes up against the knowledge of God and stop basing our walk on the Lord with what we do and base it upon the finished work of Jesus on the cross. This is why in Zachariah 4, Zachariah has a vision and he sees a lamp stand and oil trees going down to it and he asks what in the world is this? And it says that this is the word of the Lord to the root bell, not by power or by might, but by what? The Spirit.
There's a shift coming of that walking with the Lord and growing in love for him isn't based upon trying to muster up our own power and might, but it's actually about being plugged into Jesus and letting the Spirit start to grow different things. So the work that we're called to do, believe on Jesus. This is something that I want to just trumpet for our community. It is time for us to stop being slothful in this area of that we need to start looking at what areas of our life are we not coming into agreement with what Jesus says is true and start going to war against that, taking the wrecking ball of the enemy and not letting it stand in our life.
And that isn't saying that what you're going to be doing is somehow getting any right standing with the Lord. No, Jesus made you in right standing with the Lord. Doing works isn't going to make you righteous. Jesus is the one that made you righteous.
And why this is so important is because Jesus' love for us never changes. When we base our walk on the Lord based upon what Jesus did, we don't go back and forth all the time because his love, his work is constant. And this is why we have to do it because there'll be good days. We're great.
We're still with the Lord. There's bad days and rather than turning away, we say, Lord, I know that I'm not having a good day right now, but I know that my standing with you is based solely upon Jesus. And my work is putting faith in him. And he says that he created a new and living way where I can now go to the holy of holies and that all the work that you've done to forgive as far as the east is from the west has made me righteous.
Even though I don't feel it that right now, I'm not going to let that stop me from pursuing you going into your word and growing in your love. What does this then say in verse 24? It says that he who keeps his commandments abides in him and he and us. And this is how we know that he buys in us because of his spirit.
John is quoting again what he wrote in the Gospel of John. So he's saying that if you keep his commandments, that's how you abide in him. So again, what is the primary commandment? Believe on Jesus.
What did Jesus say in John 15, 9? As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. What? Abide in my love.
You might be saying to Mark, are you saying that we're not primarily supposed to love the Lord? I'm saying that there's a better way of doing it that's going to bring about growth. And it's by resting in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We're called to abide in his love because again, what did his love do?
Greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for another. So when Jesus went up to the cross, paid the ultimate sacrifice, there was a million different things that he did, but one of the things that he did is he paid the price for sin one time forever. I'll pass to present and future sin. And what did Jesus say?
Those who are forgiven much, what? Love much. Jesus also said, or John also says that we love because what? He first loved us.
So we start to see a massive change here that John is bringing in of where, believe on Jesus what he did, set up yourself in his camp, stop trying to get works to bring you into right standing with the Lord. You will always fail, but Jesus never failed. He will never fail. And we can then have hope, steadfast love for him, that is going to grow by his spirit when we start to plug into Jesus rather than into our own works.
This is again why Paul says in Galatians 3, he said, did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? And what was it? It was the hearing of faith. Having begun in the spirit, are you now trying to be perfected by your own works?
And he's like, that's foolish. He actually says that you're bewitched if you believe that. And this is again why in verse 22 it says that if we keep his commandments we do those things pleasing to the Lord. Well, what's pleasing to the Lord?
Hebrews 11, without what? Faith. It is impossible to please God. You see the call of a believer, what Paul is talking about in Romans 1211, of the work that we as believers are supposed to do, is we are supposed to get ourselves set up firmly planted full faith in Jesus Christ and nothing else.
And anything that contradicts that, it's time for us to start going to battle against and throwing it out and starting to get correct thinking. That is the work that is supposed to be done. Anything else outside of that where you're feeling justified by different things will always fall short and it's always based upon Jesus Christ. Jesus even showed this to us in Luke 2, verse 49.
Do you remember that story of Jesus' parents came to him and said, Hey, where have you been? And he goes, why are you asking me this? Do you not know that what I have to be about my father's business? I have to be about the works of the Father.
And what were those? He said, he was in the temple for three days sitting and learning and asking questions to the priests. Jesus even illustrated to us the works that we're supposed to keep is to sit before the Lord and get refined by him and grow in him. Because what does it say in verse 52?
It says that Jesus grew in stature and wisdom and he grew in favor before both God and men. Think about that for a second. I think out of all the verses in scripture, that is one that messes with my mind the most. That Jesus fully God grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God.
And what did he attribute that to? He attributed to doing the father's work which was going and sitting in his presence, letting the truth of the Lord speak over him, asking questions to grow in maturity. And if Jesus fully God needed to do that, how much more do we need to stop being slothful of being like, Hey, I'm not going to go into the Word and start to see what is happening in the Word. And start to see what is actually written about the Lord or about us.
Second part of verse 23. Where it says that we should love others as he gave us commandment. Again, a lot of people will say, or think, well, is this just also going to be rephrasing the second great commandment to love others as yourself. And I again want to say that no, John is making a different change of path here.
And how do I know that? Well, one, Jesus, two times between John 13 and 17 says, a new commandment I give to you that you should love others just as I've loved you. But why is he making a change and a distinction from love your neighbors yourself? Well, big reason is because most of us don't love ourselves very well.
And here's how we know that. The example that I gave last service is if we were to take everyone here on a field trip down to a prison and go on to death row and let's say we met a person there who was a mass murderer. And we started talking with him and that person says, you know what? As I've been here, I've been reading my Bible and I started to get convicted of my sin.
And I realize that I've fallen short and I want to give my life to the Lord. But I don't think that the Lord is going to forgive me. I know that every single person here would be like, that's nonsense. The Lord will 100% forgive you.
We know that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So everyone here would do that. But then after leading that person to the Lord, you'd go home, you'd sin, and then you'd go back into your corner and be like, I actually don't think the Lord's going to forgive me. I actually think I need to take some time away from the Lord until I feel better about myself.
And it's insane the difference of what we do with people and with ourselves. So Jesus is saying, there's a better way that I'm going to show you. Love others just as I have loved you. How did Jesus love us with sacrificial love?
Greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for another. So when you start to understand and have faith in Jesus, you get plugged into his way of growing us. When we start to morph into his image, we start to get his heart, and then we start to see just because God loved the world that he gave, we're also going to sacrificial give to others. So the call on a believer for the works that we're supposed to do, of not be lagging and diligence.
First and foremost, putting our faith solely in Jesus. Not 90%, not 99%, 100%. Your identity, your foundation can only come from what Jesus did and what he accomplished and who he says you are. Anything else outside of that, it's time to get to work and start throwing it out and coming into alignment with the Word.
And then as a result of that, we go sacrificial give to other people, even if it costs us everything. We show the love of the Lord because we know that we've been forgiven, we love much and pour out our lives for other people. Do not be lagging and diligence. What is the second part of that?
But be fervent in spirit. So Paul is saying it's time to get to work of having faith in Jesus and growing up spiritually there because it's going to result and being fervent in spirit. Now what does fervent mean? In the Greek, the adjective for fervent means to stretch yourself.
The verb means to boil or be extremely hot. So the result of putting faith in Jesus and getting our identity and growth from him and not from the things that we do is going to result in a spiritual walk in a life that is vibrant, alive, getting the outer eggshell crack down, allowing us to walk out in our true identity. And it will be one that will produce fruit that will last. So I want us to take a look at three different stories in the scriptures of where we see people who show us what it means to live a fervent lifestyle in the spirit.
We're going to see what it was said about them, what are attacks of the enemy that the enemy brought on them, and how can we individually and corporately start to cultivate a fervent life in the spirit. So if you have your Bibles, turn it on to Acts 18 and start in verse 24. We're going to be taking a look at the ministry of Apollos. Now Apollos was used as a man to set up a lot of the church in Ephesus.
It's interesting to note that he's the only one that is said to have a fervent spirit. And so I think it's important for us to look at what was said about him so that we can start to move in that as well. So we're going to read through this and then I'm going to go back and start to pick out some different points in the verses. So verse 24.
Now a certain Jew named Apollos born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit. There it is. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue when Aquila and Priscilla heard him. They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he desired to cross to Akiah, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
Let's go back to verse 24. So again, the only person in scripture that is saying that he was fervent in spirit. And Paul is challenging us in Romans 1211 that we too need to be fervent in spirit. Again, fervent to stretch us, to be hot, to be on fire.
Verse 24. Apollos was an eloquent man. Now the Greek behind the word eloquent is fluent. And what the author here is not saying is that just like I'm fluent in English, he wasn't saying that because Apollos was just fluent in a language that he was eloquent.
But what he's getting at is that Apollos was able to clearly articulate the different things of scripture. And so it then says that he was a mighty man of scripture. Here's something that I want to say very clearly, especially in the Charismatic Church. I love encounters with the Lord.
We should expect them. I believe they're a part of our inheritance in the Lord. But encounters with the Lord aren't going to produce a fervent spirit. What's going to produce a fervent spirit is being mighty in the scriptures.
Apollos was mighty in the scriptures, but he was also eloquent. And I want to challenge us as a community. Whatever doctrines you're thinking about, believing, it's amazing. You should also be able to articulate them.
If you can't, again, that is not a condemnation thing, but being fervent means stretching. I want to stretch our community spiritually. You should be able to eloquently articulate the different doctrines of scripture. It's why Peter says in 1 Peter 3.15 that he says, you should always be able to give an answer to those who ask about the hope that you have in yourself.
We should be able to clearly articulate different things. Why this is so important is twofold. One, by being able to articulate it, one of the things that I think gets done is we start to close windows and doors and cracks that we believe that the enemy is trying to get through and starting to mess with us spiritually. When we're able to actually articulate it, something starts to change where those doors start to get shut.
The second thing that happens, and what we see Apollo's do, is we get to other believers, and because we're able to articulate it, we again get to be a battering ram of the Lord to take down things that other believers are believing and help them encounter the Lord. He's an eloquent man, mighty in scripture. It's time for us as a community to start getting into the scriptures. Notice what it says though.
It says that he only knew about the baptism of John. There's a couple things that I think are important to make from this point. One, Apollo's stewarded what he knew in the Word very well. He didn't know everything, but what he did know, he stewarded it.
This is also important because what is John saying, Revelation 1, 3? Blessed are those who read here and keep the things that are written. What does he not say there? Blessed are those that understand?
Blessed are those that have knowledge of everything in scripture. Because I think this is a big lie that a lot of us, as we try to start diving into scripture, we look at people saying, well, they know so much more than me. It's like that's not what it's about. It's about connection with the Lord.
It's about what the Lord is speaking to you, of stewarding it. Yeah, but I read the scriptures and I don't really know what's going on. Your job is to sit on the fire of the Lord, of the scripture and start to burn. That is our job and our duty.
Jesus said in John 1426 that when the Holy Spirit comes, what he's going to teach us all things and bring to remembrance everything he said to us. John 16, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he's going to guide you into all truth. It is our job to start reading scripture, be mighty in scripture. Let's let the Holy Spirit start doing his job of teaching us and bringing us into greater depths in the Lord.
But Apollo's fervent in spirit, only knew of the baptism of John, didn't even know much of the new covenant of what we all know right now. But instead of being fervent in spirit. And because he sat on the scriptures, when other teachers in the Holy Spirit came, he was able to grow in that. He started those words well and was one that was speaking to other people and having them grow up.
Verse 28, he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly showing from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. So what's going on at that point? The Jewish people were saying that Jesus wasn't the Messiah, but him being mighty in the scriptures was able to refute that and bring truth to that. That there are lies that the world, the church are trying to bring in, that if we aren't mighty in scripture, even when Jesus was tempted, he was tempted with scripture.
But Jesus was mighty in scripture and knew the voice of the Father and wouldn't follow a stranger's voice. We need to start being mighty in scripture and stop making excuses for why we're not reading the word. Get into the word. That is our call.
Let the Holy Spirit do his job and grow us up into truth and start to expand different things. Turn with me to Luke 24. Luke 24 and we're going to start at verse 13. This is the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
And so well again, it doesn't say in here that they were fervent in spirit. We'll see you later on. If you recall, it said, where are hearts not on fire? So again, their hearts started to boil, started to become on fire as they were stretched.
So I think that this is a very important story for us to take a look at because it highlights a lot of different ways of one, how they were able to become fervent in spirit. It also highlights some different things that we need to be aware of in our walk with the Lord. So verse 13, Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to village called Emmaus. I want to stop here for a second.
I think this oftentimes gets overlooked. There were two of them that were traveling. If you're going about your spiritual walk alone, you need to stop it. You need to get into community.
You need to get around other believers, even Adam in the garden, who walked with God, God said it's not good for man to be alone and need to partner. How many people did Jesus send out when he sent out his disciples? Was it one by one? No, it was two by two because iron sharpens iron and you're able to look out for one another and spiritually discern things that the other person might not be able to discern.
So it's time to start getting into community and running with other people who are going to push you spiritually and you need to push other people spiritually. And this doesn't mean that you have to come about it in a mean way. That is not the Lord's heart. But it's, hey, there's something that you're believing that doesn't line up with scripture.
And rather than letting you get beat up by the enemy, I'm going to come in and because I might be in scriptures, I'm going to speak truth to that. And we're going to start to break off things and bring freedom to you so that you can flourish because there's going to be a time in my life where I'm getting beat up by the enemy. And I might not even know it. And I need someone else to come in and speak truth to me.
Verse 14, and they talked together of all the things which had happened. So it was what they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. And he said to them, what kind of conversation is it that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?
Then the one whose name was Cleopis answered and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have not known the things which happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things? So they said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who is a prophet might indeed and word with God and all the people and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him. But verse 21, but we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel.
Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since all these things happened. So notice these two. They're walking and they're in a state of sadness because of everything that has gone on. But how many of you know, even in times of hurt and pain in your life, that Jesus still shows up and wants to have a conversation about what's going on?
I think oftentimes we start to go through difficult times and one we isolate ourselves rather than getting around other people that we can talk with. But we also fail to realize that Jesus is right there with us wanting to have a conversation with us and speak truth to what is going on. But we're hoping that he was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, beside all this, today is the third day since these things happened.
Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find his body. They came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. And certain of these who were with us, one to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they did not see. Here's again another hurting point that I think is in the church a lot of times.
There are things that are going on that we believe were going to happen. Jesus was going to come and he's going to redeem all of Israel and that's true. He was going to. But then they also saw other disciples go to the tomb and see things that they were wondering about, but they didn't see Jesus.
How many of us in our pain and hurt are sitting, drawing back from the Lord and we see other people going to have these encounters with the Lord of going to the empty tomb and seeing stuff that we've been believing for breakthrough from. And we go Lord, where are you at? And we start to get sad and we start to walk and our eyes are blinded to the fact that Jesus is there wanting to come into our life and partner with us. Verse 25, then he said to them, oh foolish ones and slow heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.
Notice the first thing that Jesus does is he goes back to what? To the Scriptures of saying, why are you losing faith and hope? Why are you sad? Do you not know what the Scriptures say?
The Lord's word won't return void. For ever, O Lord, your word is established in the heavens. You shouldn't be sad. You should put your hope and faith in Jesus because he is the word.
So Jesus right away goes back and to speak to the situation that is going on starts to speak scripture and truth to him. And that is what we need to start doing so that we can become fervent in spirit of rather when we go through difficult times in life and drawing away, we go to the Word and start to let the Lord speak the truth of the word into our circumstances rather than taking our circumstances and letting them dictate the truth of the Word. Verse 26, not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. In the beginnings of Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them and in the scriptures things concerning himself.
Notice there are any difficult times Jesus is standing there wanting to come into this conversation. They are talking with him. It reminds me of Revelation 3.20. If you remember there is letters being written to churches and this is written to the church of Laodicea, the lukewarm church.
So again what are we trying to do? Get on fire. And what does it say in Revelation 3.20? So in this road to the mayus Jesus enters on to the scene in the midst of hurt that is going on and is wanting to talk to them and they don't notice that it is Jesus and they are kind of wallowing in their sorrows.
But Jesus is still there in the midst and I want us as a community in our lives to start to spiritually discern that Jesus in the midst of your hurt is there knocking at your door wanting to enter in. Because what happens right after this? Verse 28, then they drew near to the village where they were going and he indicated that he would have gone farther. But they constrained him saying abide with us for this toward evening and the day is far spent.
And he went in to stay with them. Now came to pass as he sat at the table with them that he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. So just like in Revelation 3.20 Jesus is standing at the door knocking.
What if we start to open the door and invite him to come in to sit down and dying with us just as these two disciples did? Because once they did that, it says they broke bread, immediately their eyes were opened and they started to discern things correctly. But because a lot of us we walk in our pain which again the Lord cares so much about our pain. But it's time for us to stop medicating our pain outside of the Lord and start going back to Jesus and inviting him in and to dying with us just like he did with them so that we can start to spiritually discern things correctly.
Verse 32 and they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us. We get the answer there to how to get a fervent spirit, how to get a burning heart. It's the exact same thing as Apollo's. Their heart became on fire when Jesus started to open up and teach the scriptures to them.
A fervent spirit can only happen by us sitting on the fire of the word. Just like the word fervent means to boil up. Our life you can think of as like a pot of water and it's our job to put it on the word and to let the Lord start to take the flame and start letting it burn and going and starting to bubble up and boil us. And how many of you know if you start to turn on the flame it doesn't happen right away?
It takes time. And just like if you're on a plane and you remember they go through the safety videos and they're like hey if a mass drops down put it on and even if you're not seeing airflow know that airflow is actually happening. Same is true of the word. Well Mark I read the word and I don't know if anything's happening.
It's happening. But yeah I just don't feel like things are happening. It's happening. Sit on the word let the Holy Spirit start to have it burn inside of you.
Let the Lord start to expound upon it. Bring it back to him. It will happen. There's life coming to your body and it's going to start to boil over.
But again it all comes back to sitting on the scriptures not trying to get these revelations from ourselves but it's about connecting with the Lord through the scriptures and letting the Holy Spirit do his job of opening up and bringing us into all truth. Turn it off me to Luke 2. We're going to look at verse 36. Luke 2 we're going to be taking a look at Anna the prophetess.
Verse 36. Now there was one Anna a prophetess the daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age and I lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And this woman was a widow of about 84 years who did not depart from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
And coming in in an instant she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who look for the redemption in Jerusalem. So these are just a couple of verses. But Anna led a fervent life in the spirit. For approximately 100 years was in the temple connecting with the Lord.
I mean I look at the last decade of my walk with the Lord and it's like I probably had a way easier time in life than she did. But she was fervent connecting with the Lord not only just every day but multiple times throughout the day. She understood the secret to a fervent bright spiritual life with the Lord and it was about connecting with him in the place of God. So go back to verse 36.
She was of great age and lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. It's again one of those that it's like what a weird thing to put in scripture. Like why would this be included in that she lived with her husband seven years from her virginity? I think part of the thing is to illustrate the importance of sexual purity.
If you want to life vibrant in the Lord and fervent in the spirit you have to be walking in sexual purity. Now if you're like right now thoughts going through your mind of A I haven't done that. B I'm in the midst of stuff right now. What this is not saying is that you can't get redeemed or anything like that.
But through the Lord and through Jesus right now you can break that off. You're a new creation in the Lord. The old is gone. The new has come.
And if you want a vibrant fervent spirit it's time to start saying no to sexual immorality. It's time to stop sleeping around. It's time to stop living with someone that's not your spouse. It's time to stop looking at pornography.
It's time to stop masturbating. It's time to start living a fervent spiritual life because Anna the prophetess did it for a hundred years based in purity. Because she understood the value that she had to the Lord and wasn't going to go into the pig slop and eat from things that don't feed her at all. And this woman was a widow of about 84 years.
So what this is saying is that she lived with her husband for seven years and then he died. And then she walked without him for 84 years. Now in the last service I asked anyone I think I'll overly well try again here. Has anyone here been married for approximately seven years?
Okay, yes. We got a lot of people. Awesome. Way better.
Yeah. Yeah, this is why the second service is way better. Joke, everyone. Joke.
So put yourself in Anna's shoes. I was married to this husband for seven years and then her husband died. So everyone that's around that, think of that in her case. Just something horrible that happened.
We're not called to gloss over that. It doesn't mean that there's not a ton of pain, a ton of trauma. It's something that is absolutely terrible to walk through. The person that she covenanted to herself to after seven years died and 84 years she was by herself.
Especially after saving herself for marriage. She only got to experience that for seven years. What did Anna not do? She didn't sit in the pain and turn away from the Lord.
Now don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that you shouldn't feel hurt, pain or work through or process different things. But what I'm saying is that if you want a fervent spirit as those hard things happen in life because in the world you will have tribulation. There's going to be hard things that come our way.
But a fervent spirit doesn't turn away from the Lord during those times. It actually goes back to the temple night and day serving the Lord, growing in the Lord, putting Himself on the flame of the Word and letting the Lord grow them in love and intimacy. As I was reading this I was reminded of Daniel. You see oftentimes we read the book of Daniel and we're like, hey this is just a bunch of visions about things that are going to come that yeah it's important.
But one of the things that I think oftentimes gets overlooked is the lifestyle of Daniel. Because do you remember in Daniel 6? So Daniel just got through the Babylonian Empire and now there's a different king coming in of the Medes and Persians Darius. And all the high ranking officials plan to kill off all the Jewish people and put Daniel in a trap.
Talk about just a brutal time to be in. You know we oftentimes when anything kind of goes wrong the kind of cool thing to throw on today is they're like, oh they're Nazis, they're Hitler. It's like Daniel actually lived in an empire that was the foreshadowing of the Nazi Reich. He lived under leaders who actually were Hitler's that tried to exterminate the Jewish race.
How did he keep a fervent spirit in the midst of terrible oppression? What did it say he did in Daniel 6? It said that after he heard that they were going out to kill him to try to wipe off his race, he went back to his house and prayed three times a day just as it was customary. What did Anna do?
Went back to the temple night and day serving the Lord in the midst of brutal terrible things that yes the Lord wants to speak to, wants to bring healing to, but it's in the context of us going back to him and starting to be have a fervent spirit in him rather than turning away from the Lord. One of the things that when I spend time with the Lord I'm very much of a do a bunch at one time and that's like kind of it for the day which you can do. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But again one of the things of being fervent means to be stretched.
And I think that there's a lot of wisdom in the life of the prophetess Anna and Daniel of where we're going to be coming into times where it is prophesied about Revelation 17 and 18. That there's going to be another quote unquote Babylonian empire that is going to be coming that's going to be oppressive. You know we might not experience all the physical things but there's going to be spiritual oppression that is going to come to everyone on the earth. And Jesus even prophesied that in that day the love of many will grow cold.
Well how are we going to protect ourselves from not growing cold. How are we going to keep a fervent spirit. We can see the answer in Apollo's and the people on the road to Mayas and the prophetess Anna and Daniel of it's getting into the word. But I think that there's wisdom in not just one time a day as great as that is.
But what if we started to stretch ourselves of morning, afternoon and night. I think that we're moving into times that will demand that that's where we sit upon the fire of the Lord all throughout the day and not just one time during the day as we start to move into a spiritual Babylon that's going to start coming. And I think that there are already signs right now and when there's a call to be fervent in the spirit it's time for us to stop being slothful. It's time for us to start to actually get our acts together and putting our faith in Jesus going to work against all the things that pop up against that.
What does it say that Anna also did it said that she served him in fasting and prayers. I think another thing that the Lord is going to start to bring back especially in our community and we've already done it to an extent is bringing back fasting as a part of our everyday lifestyle. There's a lot of questions around what does fasting do. Again fasting itself doesn't give us anything from God.
It's not like hey we fast now all of a sudden the Lord gives us something. The clearest thing of what we see the power of fasting is in Matthew 17 where if you recall that there was an epileptic boy that the disciples prayed for and they weren't healed and then Jesus comes down to the scene. He heals the boy and they ask him why couldn't we do this and what did Jesus say he said because of your unbelief but then what does he say in verse 21. However this one doesn't come out except by prayer and fasting.
That is a scripture verse that we oftentimes read and start to get a lot of bad theology around it where what we read is okay I can't cast out a demon except that I pray and fast. Jesus wasn't addressing that. He was addressing how do you get rid of unbelief. He said the way to get rid of unbelief is through prayer and fasting because what fasting does is if I passes our physical and gets us right into the spiritual side of things.
So it's like a cheat code for getting into the things of the spirit because we're called to walk by the spirit and not by the things of the flesh. So fasting is a way to get into that for us to start to spiritually see clearly and start to cooperate with the Lord in what he's wanting to do. So our call is believers when Paul says in Romans 12 11 to not be lagging in diligence but fervent in the spirit. It's time for us as believers to start getting to work on the actual works that we're called to do.
And that is putting our faith, our hope, our trust, everything that we have in Jesus and what he has done and who he says we are. It's time for us to stop basing our walk off of what it is that we've done because we'll always fail in that. But when we put it in the Lord we'll never fail in that. It's time for us to start sitting on the pot of scripture, on the fire of scripture every single day morning, afternoon at night.
Sitting on there having the Lord crank up the heat for us to start to boil up. It's time for us to start stretching ourselves. It's time for us to say, you know what, I'm going to keep taking ground. And even if you're like, wow, I'm in a good regiment with the Lord.
Stretch yourself, stretch yourself, stretch yourself, be fervent in spirit. Look at the life of Anna, 100 years with the Lord, day and night with the Lord. Being with him in his presence because she understood that the greatest reward that we get is Jesus. This is all eternity that they would know Jesus, my one and only true son.
And we get to have a taste of eternity right now because the Holy Spirit has been given to us to point to and bring revelation to Jesus Christ. I'm just closing up and then we'll close in prayer. We're in a season right now as a church where we're going through Romans 12. The whole point of it is to not be a better Christian.
The whole point of it is to see this is what Jesus did and this is what has been given to us. And when we start to realize that and we start to plug into him and let the Holy Spirit give growth, these are going to be the outflows of it. But we have to cooperate with the Lord. We have to start putting off laziness.
It's time to start pushing other people. It's time to have our conversations switch over to things of the Lord. There's so many fun things to talk about in life and the Lord loves those as well. But what if we started to shift more of our conversations, our get togethers, our gatherings to things of the Lord?
What if you're in a relationship and married and you start having conversations with your spouse about the Lord? I want to challenge people in relationships around that because it's easy to just start to coast in the things of life. But the Lord wants us to partner with other people and wants us all to start to boil and grow in love for him by being plugged into Jesus. So Lord, I just thank you so much that this is not heavy lifting that we have to do.
You did all of it on the cross. And our spiritual act of service is to say yes to you and put our faith in you. Lord, I just thank you that even right now that this isn't even supposed to be a message of, hey, we just need to start to get pumped up and like a come to Jesus moment. It's time to start to put our foot in the sand and ground and start going forward.
And Lord, I thank you that you have given us strength to do that because it's not by our strength, but it's by your spirit. So I just thank you that starting tonight, our whole community, we're going to be fervent in spirit, fervent in spirit, and let you grow us up in love. So we just thank you so much for everything that you've done for us. We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. We have maybe the best slide, Steve, in the country, and they couldn't keep up with the verses that you were throwing off. You'd say verses next.
Trying to catch up. Guys, I don't just bring that up to be funny. I bring that up because I actually want to let you guys know that we had someone else scheduled to preach today who got sick. And Mark found out that he was preaching on Thursday.
And I'm pointing out to honor him, yes, but to say that he's actually modeling the things that he's saying. Where he's saying, yeah, you should sit down the word. It's like, I mean, it's unbelievable to see what comes out of Mark when it's just like, hey, what would you have to say about Romans 1211? Right?
And I want us to be provoked by that. Guys, Mark was given this verse that so many of us probably heard in youth group as like, get up, firey for God. You've got to be on fire for God. And every time we think about it, it's wrapped in shame.
It's like, well, but I'm probably not good enough. And I probably can't do it. And that was at one time where I was. And we just beat ourselves up.
Mark started off, and I don't want to miss how Mark started off the night. By taking a sledgehammer, that thing that makes being on fire for God tied to how much I can perform for him. That is not what this message was about. And if you got sucked back into youth group days because someone started to tell you about practices and rhythms, and then shame came in, let me really quickly just put the bumper back up and say how we started this was by saying the reason why any of us is even able to have affection for God in our heart is by sitting down on the finished work of Jesus and saying, no, it's about his work.
What am I called to be committed to? Not works. I'm called to be committed to Jesus. Believe on Jesus.
Right? And so just to keep us safe from hearing all of the things that we're hearing about Apollo, some of the disciples in order to amaze, and rather than stir up striving, let's go, man. They saw something about God that I don't. I'm going to anchor in the finished work.
I'm going to set myself and does that take some diligence? 100%. Does that take a little bit of grit? Absolutely.
But it's not about how much can I impress God? It's about saying no, but I know that I know that I know that there's a truth here, and I'm anchoring myself. And when my friends all around you're going, bro, come on, I get it. You love God.
Can we just be normal for a second? This is my normal. I love God. I'm not moving.
When people give you every reason and try to sow seeds of the fence in your heart, I love what you said about Anna, just being like, I'm choosing to see the goodness of God, and I refuse to be moved on that. And does that take diligence? Absolutely. Are there times where it feels like you're just barely holding on?
Sure. Absolutely. But there is a grit that is through grace. Jesus, would you remind me again?
God, would you help me? And it's dependence that's actually our catalyst for being on fire for the Lord. Not our own. Try hard.
Do it better. I would just love, guys, this is not going to take long, but I really want us to actually have the opportunity to connect on a personal level, because Mark threw out about 15 different traits of how God might want to build ferancy in your heart. I would love for us to just have a moment to connect with the Holy Spirit and say, okay, let's talk about just one of these. And so I would invite you to just let's stand up and just get a little room.
We'll stand up. We'll move and then just sit back down. Okay. We can sit on the floor.
This is just a tool to help wake us up and make sure that we actually get some room. So spread out because you're going to get five minutes with the Holy Spirit, and I don't want you to be thinking about the person next to you. So if you sit right back down, fine, but if you want to spread out, get a little room. Great.
We're just going to take five minutes and let the Holy Spirit actually speak to us as individuals through the corporate teaching that just came. I'm going to use a little tool that my friend Todd here taught me. Todd, we love you. We are going to stay in a place of peace as we talk to the Lord.
We're going to fly in the face of that strivy. What do I got to do to impress you, and so what I'm going to invite you to do if you want to participate in this is just close your eyes. So if you want to sit, that's fine. If I'm staying that fine, just close your eyes.
And I want you to think of what you would say is the place where you feel the most of the time. That you feel the most safe and the most of yourself, the physical place for some of you that might be like grandma's house growing up. For some of you it might be walking in the woods. For some of you it might be maybe like a summer camp you went to growing up where you met God for the first time.
But think about the place where you feel the most safe and the most yourself and the most free. This isn't just mind games by the way. The Holy Spirit loves using our imagination. Just picture that safe place.
Not I want you to imagine Jesus slowly and without any sort of hurry walks in to join you. Wherever that is and sits down next to you. What's the expression on his face as Jesus comes and sits down next to you in that place? You're there with him and Jesus.
I just heard this message about being fervent and about being diligent. And I want that. Here's the question that we're going to ask Jesus in this space. God, what are you giving me grace to step into?
God, what are you giving me grace to step into? I want to be fervent. I want to grow up into you. I want to be red hot.
What are you giving me grace to step into? And now listen to what he has to say. If you don't feel that you're comfortable hearing the voice of the Lord like this, just ask Holy Spirit to remind you of one thing that Mark highlighted from the Scriptures. What are you giving me grace to step into?
I believe that some of us heard the Lord say something. We heard Jesus say something and we're immediately filled with this like, yeah, but I've tried that before. That again, we tried that last time and it didn't go so well. I wasn't consistent with it.
I didn't do that thing. And so if you're having kind of mental traffic because you feel like the Lord answered you, but the answer wasn't something you feel confident in. Ask him again. Are you sure?
Are you sure you're giving me grace for that? Friends, I get that it's happening in your imagination. But I believe that the Holy Spirit's been waiting to give you grace. I believe you've been waiting for you to ask that question because he wants to bring you into greater connection, greater alignment.
He wants to be with you and he's got this grace that he wants to give you. So don't take it lightly. I'd encourage you, write this down in your phone, in your journal, whatever. Write it down.
If God the Father is speaking through Holy Spirit saying, I want to give you grace to step into this thing. You asked me, I answered. Let's not take that lightly and go, oh, thanks Lord. And then we forget about it and move on.
This is part of us being diligent, you guys. This is part of us actually taking it seriously. It's not just having the church moment and feeling stirred up for a minute and forgetting about it. We want to be diligent with that stuff.
Again, it's not about your striving. It's about God spoke something and going, yeah, I just don't want to forget it, right? Jesus is in the business of giving grace to the humble. And so we're going to just continue to position ourselves as hungry people and humble people.
Going, what is there grace for God? What are you giving me grace for? Thank you. And we step into it with courage.
Some of you guys, you just heard that you're supposed to wake up early in the morning and get in the word. You're going to need grace if you're anything like me. Holy smokes. God says, hey, I actually want you to that person that you know kind of is young in the Lord and needs discipling.
You might feel like a paulos and you only know about the baptism of John, but you've got something. Go and step in and actually be that person for them. That takes courage and it takes grace. So you ask for grace and you step out and courage.
Yeah? Man, God's doing something in our community. He's stirring us up. This Romans 12 series is going to change our lives, you guys, because we're looking at what it means to actually follow Jesus for real, for real.
And then it takes the guts to just step into it. So would you guys all stand? I want to commission us out. We always call this commissioning because we're sending you guys out to actually do the thing, right?
This is an amazing gift to have a place to gather. We're so grateful for it. The work of ministry is when the saints actually step out and power and do the thing. And so if the Holy Spirit just gave you grace for something, I got great news.
That means that there's the ability to do it. Grace gives you the ability to do it. So step into it with confidence. Yeah?
We're going to have some people up here with land yards. They're going to be available for prayer afterwards. And so if there's anything at all that you would want prayer for, you can come up and receive prayer. We'd love to partner with you in that.
But I'm going to pray and commission us out. Father, we receive your grace. We want to be full of zeal, full of fervency, full of this diligence that's actually going to do the thing. But we can only do it by your grace.
And so we ask for that shamelessly saying we need your help. Would you give us help to step into this because we want to be more like you. We want to be in alignment with you. Father, God, I ask that for me and my friends as we leave this place today, we would feel that stamp of approval in our chest.
God, the Father actually says this one's kind of worthy to be a minister. This one's kind of worthy to be a representative and ambassador out in the wild. And so we just received that with humility knowing that you called us to actually go out and advance the kingdom everywhere that we go. We do this with faith in our hearts and smiles on our lips.
We're just so thankful to be yours. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Go do the thing, you guys. It's going to be fun.