Over the last couple weeks, we've been really unifying around what are we building together and what is God calling us into as we're building the base. So the first week we talked about we're building the base for God, and then the next week we talked about how we're building the base for the lost. And then the next week we talked about how we're building the base for the believer. And tonight I want to talk about how we are building the base for the city.
For the city is the name of my sermon tonight. You can open up your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5 for the city. I believe that the Lord is calling us to dream bigger and to think more long term, to think about legacy rather than just what's in front of me today. But the Lord is calling us to begin to think about tomorrow.
And as a people we need to begin to start dreaming with God about the future of what is his heart for our city five years from now. What is God's heart for our city 10 years from now? 20 years from now? Jesus, when he was with his disciples, maybe you remember that he taught them how to pray.
Our Father who art in heaven, how would be your name, you know the poem that he taught. He taught the disciples a prayer poem so they learn how to pray. And that's what the Lord's prayer is. And he said, on earth as it is in heaven, that was part of that prayer.
Right? And I just wonder if the Lord is putting within us the prayer of the Lord of in Minneapolis and St. Paul as it is in heaven. I wonder if we start dreaming with the Holy Spirit in my city.
As it is in the heavenly city. God depositing his heart not just for conversions, not just mass conversions to Christianity. Can you just pause with me and reflect on the church could double in size in our city. There could be twice as many Christians in our city.
And the problems that we have today could still be problems in that day. Is that true? We could have double the amount of Christians and still be living with the same problems that we're living with in 2023. Why is that?
Because it's not about conversions. It's not about salvation, even though that's part of it. It's actually about disciples bringing forth a kingdom, heaven, reality into cities and into our spheres. When Jesus, he said, hey, I want to give you a mission.
He says, this is our commission. We're going to go together and it's our mission. He says, I want you to make disciples of every nation. He doesn't say, I want you to make converts of every nation.
He doesn't say, I want you to make evangelists of every nation. He says, I want you to make disciples. Well, what are disciples? Disciples are ones that actually have a lifestyle.
Like their Monday through Saturday is not different than their Sunday. A disciple is someone that they walk shoulder to shoulder with their rabbi and teacher. And then they do everything that their teacher does every day. Why are we called every day?
Because God is calling every day believers, AKA every day disciples that follow Jesus every day and live with Jesus in their workplaces and in their neighborhoods and in all their spheres of influence. And that's actually the key to cultural transformation is you not just being a convert or a Christian as culture has defined it, but you being a disciple of Jesus. And so Jesus has a destiny for our city. And what's wrapped up in that destiny is a heavenly destiny for our city.
You've heard it many times every day. We're all saying something like, Lord, I'll pray. I'll ask God for this. Lord, make Minneapolis and St.
Paul your top 10 favorite places on the earth. Right? And it's like, oh, that's funny, but I want it. You know, where I want all of the problems that we see today for there to be reconciliation and restoration and wholeness brought to those problems.
So that our city looks more like heaven 10 years from now than it did in the 2020s. You know what I'm saying? Yes. Will we be able 10 years from now to look back and go, remember when our city was like this, that?
And look at where it's at today. Can we look at the Twin Cities and go, remember 2013? Man, we've come a long way. Or is it just same old, same old?
See, cities are like gardens. If the people of God, we're like little gardeners that God has placed in the city. And if we exit the city, you know, it's like I'm still showing up to work, but my faith is completely checked out. My faith is for Sundays and the whole rest of the week is for me.
Okay? What happens is Billy Graham had a quote. I'll read this. He said, the Christian is the glue that holds our society together.
When that glue begins to weaken, so does the fabric of society. Do you know what he's saying by that? He's saying, when the Christian exits, when the Christian retreats, when the disciple, when the believer becomes more like an attender and a spectator on a Sunday, what happens is society begins to break down. And what we are seeing in our day is this.
Christians have for the most part backed out of society. And what we've done is we've backed out of the political sphere, out of the medical sphere in leadership, out of the media sphere, and we've backed away from it and completely become dualistic in our faith and our work. And because of that, what's happening is we're on the outside looking in and then we're accusing and we're pointing the finger at media, at politics, at the education sphere, at the medical sphere, and we're looking at it and we're pointing our finger and going, how could they? And then the Lord says this in Saint Corinthians 5.
I want us to look just really briefly at a phrase right here. Saint Corinthians 5 verse 19. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. Look at this phrase.
He was not counting their trespasses against them. Do you see that Jesus comes into the world and he's not pointing at the world? But he's going right into all of what the world is. He's going into every sphere and he's not saying, look at what they're doing, how evil they are.
No, he's actually going, I'm going to bring kingdom of heaven with me. And I'm going to bring restoration with me. Let's, I want to take a step back here. Let's look at verse 17.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. How many of you guys like new things?
How about new spirits? That's good news, okay? Verse 18, all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us.
The message of reconciliation. This passage as I reflect on it, as I reflect on the billy quote, as I'm reflecting about these things, what happens when the people of God exit? There's spheres of influence, chaos ensues. Have you ever seen a yard like if I didn't give my yard attention for about two months?
Do you know what would happen to my yard? It probably have more voles than it already does. I don't know if you have any voles in your yard, but they're the worst, right? Listen, but you, and there's chaos that they bring to your lawn.
But anyways, so you have this yard that you don't give any attention to, and you're going to start seeing that the garden becomes overgrown, and there's chaos that happens. But we see that Jesus calls us to be those that bring reconciliation, or wholeness, or another word for it is peace, or shalom, right? So our call is to bring wholeness and completeness to the chaos of our city. Jesus, do you remember when the angels announced Jesus' birth?
Do you remember what they said? They said, glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth. Shalom on earth.
That word shalom means like when a wall has cracks in it, and it gets restored, and all the cracks get filled in. There's like a wholeness that's brought, right? So when the angels announce Jesus, they go, glory to God. It starts with worship and prayer and magnifying the Lord.
Glory to God. And then it goes into this one. He's going to bring shalom where there's chaos. Because there is chaos and brokenness and decay and atrophy in the world and in the earth.
And now we're sending him, the Father's sending him to bring the shalom. And then what does it say right after that? And goodwill for men. Do you know what goodwill means?
Good things. Like delight. Pleasurable things for mankind. So the result is when shalom comes, everyone's lives get better.
It does not mean that 10 years from now, we just become a more spiritual city. It means that our infrastructure got better as a city. It means that we became more unified as a city. It means that there is reforms in our agencies, in our government, because the people of God stepped into the gap and filled the gap.
Not because from the top down, all of the decisions were made that were supposed to fix everything. But all of a sudden, there's more beauty in Minneapolis and St. Paul. There's more artwork, there's more music, there's more flourishing, there's better and stronger companies.
All of a sudden the orphans are brought into families. All of the problems in the corners of our cities start getting solved. And there begins to be shalom, wholeness that gets brought to the edges of our city and the society. Do you remember when Jesus handed over the kingdom to his disciples?
Do you remember that? His disciples who are teenagers, and they're like the misfits that didn't make the team. They didn't even get the internship under the other priests or the other rabbis. They didn't make the cut.
And he chose them to hand the kingdom to him, and he's like, Hey, 12, here you go. Gave it to him. And then what he did was he named them apostles. And the word apostles is actually a Roman military term that means culture carrier.
So what would happen is when Rome would conquer cities or nations, what they would do is is they would conquer a city and instead of just like moving on and saying, Yeah, this is part of our empire. They would send in aristocrats and artists and teachers. They would be culture carriers from Rome. And then they would infuse Roman culture into every city and every region that they would conquer so that the whole Roman Empire would feel Roman.
And so God is calling you as an ambassador, as an apostle. You are to be a house of apostles that go into our city and carry culture and pioneer heavenly culture into your workplace. And you're going, but I'm not, I just got hired. Yeah, you bring the culture of heaven.
What is heaven like? Heaven is patient. Heaven is kind. Heaven is not envious.
It does not boast. It keeps no record of wrong. That's what heaven is like. It's joy and patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control.
When you show up to work, it's like heaven walks through the door. It's a different culture. It's a different society. When you go throughout the city, all of a sudden heaven begins to spread everywhere.
God's calling us as a people to be like leaven in our city. Jesus goes, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's like leaven getting added to flower. And then all of a sudden, you know what happens in certain cities?
It happened in our city in 2020. The heat gets turned up. Is that right? All of a sudden the pressure increases and you begin to see what was underneath the surface the whole time.
And I believe maybe in five, maybe in 10 years, if we all just keep on bringing forth little pieces of leaven into our workplaces. We bring little pieces of justice to dismantle racism and increase equity and love into our spheres of influence. Then all of a sudden when the heat gets turned up, all of a sudden the kingdom leaven expands. And you start seeing the people of God that were bringing restoration all along.
Now it comes to the surface. And it's a kingdom reality rather than a darkness reality. See, God is not just after unity in the church, though he loves that. God is not just after beautiful church things.
He's not just after beautiful buildings that have steeples on them. He's after creating beautiful cities. God is building cities, not just churches. God builds people that walk on sidewalks and drive in cars and walk into establishments.
God builds people by his spirit. And God is calling us as a people to carry his heavenly culture everywhere we go. Do you know that there is hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the Twin Cities and that on average there's two to three that give their life to Jesus annually in the Twin Cities. When a believer hears that, they go, well, how are they going to know?
How are we going to reach our brothers and sisters that serve Allah? Do they not understand that Jesus is Allah in the flesh? How are we going to reach them? How are we going to show them the love of Jesus?
And then our brother, Pete, he starts a soccer gym in the middle of Northeast Minneapolis. And there's going to be coffee here and there's going to be footsoul in there. And now all of a sudden they know that there is tens of thousands of people of the Muslim faith within a mile radius or so, five mile radius, and those Muslim youth are going to start coming through their doors playing soccer in the middle of the winter. How do we reach our city?
Well, we build things that we love. Like I don't like soccer, but they like soccer, right? And so they go, God put a love for soccer in my heart because he has them in mind, right? We just are thinking that way.
I see a problem. What's your kingdom solution? What's your dream? What's your kingdom solution?
Now there's Bible studies that are starting because there's Muslims that are curious wanting to know Jesus because they were playing soccer in a building that just started a couple of years ago. Do you see how the kingdom of heaven advances with little acts of, whoa, that's not right. I'm going to bring wholeness with whatever resources I've got. Somebody, you know, the people of God, if we don't accept responsibility, no one will.
I'm looking at some of you in the room and you're inspiring me with notes that I haven't written before the service because I know your stories. I'm looking at a business owner that he's a consultant and he helps with mergers and acquisitions. And he talks to multi-millionaires that started companies in the tech field and he doesn't just help them sell their companies. He's their counselor through the most difficult part of their life when they're hitting their middle-aged, who am I?
Now I'm selling my company and my company was all that I am and he's actually going, well listen, there's more about your life than your company. And all of a sudden he's pastoring CEOs and he's shepherding CEOs and in the place of their greatest chaos, all of a sudden Shalom is getting brought. All of a sudden wholeness and they're starting to realize there's more to me than just my business accomplishments. What if there was something more than just the millions that I'm going to earn from the acquisition or the sale?
God is taking us and making us leaven in our city and that's how the kingdoms get advanced. You know, I think of Jenna From and her friends that have gone, who's reaching the strippers of our city? Who's reaching the women that are caught in this painful cycle of being consumed day in and day out? And they all of a sudden get their foot in the door at some strip club in the Twin Cities and they are in the dressing room with the strippers and they are, listen, those strippers are not strippers, they're lost daughters and they're going, do you know there's going to be a day coming where Jesus is going to go, thank you for the Dasani water bottle and they're going, Lord, I don't remember when I gave you the Dasani and he's going to go when you were in the dressing room and you gave her that Dasani water bottle and you were actually consistently loving them.
When no one else saw them, when no one else saw their identity, when everybody else saw that they were something to be consumed, you were giving them cups of water that are cold and all of a sudden our city begins to transform. One life and dream, God dream at a time. I believe that God is taking art, have you ever taken a walk through a museum and you walk into a room where there was someone that was hanging out with a demon while they did art and just like, why is this so dark? I just feel like I got slimed.
Have you ever experienced that? I was like, I do not, that was not good. I believe that God is raising up heaven-minded artists. I believe that he's raising, and I'm not saying the artists that are only going to create art that has Jesus hanging on a cross or a dove in the background.
What I'm talking about is kingdom artists that what's infused is the kingdom into their artwork and it might have nothing to do with the Bible or Jesus or anything like that, but it was done with the Lord. I'm thinking about engineers, medical device engineers. What if you, as you're designing the medical device for that Oregon that's malfunctioning, what if you were filled with the compassion of Jesus while you designed it? What would the implications of the creativity behind that computer be?
What if you are the one that is overseeing the purchasing of the product for that medical device to get built and you have the decision between titanium or aluminum alloy and you're trying to decide which one is going to be best for this device and you kind of know that titanium would be the better option, but it's a quarter of a cent more expensive per device and you start thinking through with the Lord's point of view and you're going, if this thing failed because of just a difference in the material, then it could add, if I chose the titanium, it could add a thousand more hours to a life and you start getting in your mind and you start thinking about life and not death and you start thinking about shalom and not chaos and you start going, the reason why I'm on the planet is to bring shalom, not to just make a paycheck, get a raise, get promoted so I can have more money and have more of the American dream and get a better car and a greater vacation we're creative for so much more, there's a city and a destiny on our city and listen, the destiny of our city is not going to be transformed through every day, it's going to be through people, it's going to be through every day people, every day disciples and I'm not saying the brand of every day disciples, no I'm saying like disciples of Jesus, kingdom disciples that carry the responsibility of an ambassador, look at the next verse in verse 20, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God is making his appeal, God is pleading to the city through us and this is what he is pleading and making the appeal to our city, this is what his appeal is, we implore you, Minneapolis and St. Paul, on behalf of Jesus be reconciled to God, be reconciled to God, know him, be restored by him, be brought close into relationship with him, God's heart is restoration, God's heart is reconciliation, I think about our girls when they were 11 last year, they were at a park where there was a lake and a beach and they're just hanging out as with their friends and all of a sudden do you know what happens in life, things aren't kingdom until they are, I want you to hear that again, things aren't kingdom until they are, so they're at the park, they're hanging out, they're chilling with friends and then they go this is how the kingdom advances, this is so important for us to understand, it starts with ideas, a little, just a little thought, do you know that we have electricity in our houses because of an idea, do you know that we're driving around electric cars, I'm not but some of you are, do you know that we're doing that, because of an idea, do you know that there's transformational technology that is happening right now because someone dared to dream an idea and have an idea that's never been thought before, well anyways our girls are at the park and all of a sudden my 11 year old daughter goes, hey we should ask Holy Spirit who is highlighting and then the Holy Spirit highlights the cop that's overseeing you know like keeping the shalom at the park right and the Lord highlights this female cop to my girls and they go over and they felt like they got a word of knowledge that she had knee pain and so they go up and say do you have knee pain, I felt like God said that he wants to bring healing and she goes how do you know that and then all of a sudden they're praying, they're like little girls 11 year old praying over her knee and then her knee gets healed and all of it starts and she's going do you have a parent here you know like where do you go to church yeah yeah Jenny was there but listen it's not kingdom until it is what if your business listen there's a difference between a Christian owned business and a kingdom business you can have a Christian owned business that doesn't feel anything like the kingdom when you walk in the door that all of the business dealings are just like the world or you can have a kingdom business and the kingdom business feels like the kingdom the kingdom business has values that are kingdom values that drive decisions that happen in everyday life well what is our profit margin and how do we interact with the customer how what does that look like how does honesty work when we're trying to stay in the black those like nitty gritty decisions in business and all of a sudden your kingdom business starts getting raised up as a standard and it starts waving the flag of there's reconciliation available to you there's a there's an appeal from heaven and it's happening through this company it's happening through my life it's happening through the sales call and the cold calling and another cold call and another cold call and another cold call and another cold call and all of a sudden the kingdom is advancing just through little seeds and little heaven but God is awakening the dreamers they aren't just going about business as usual but it starts with pausing and going where is their chaos in our city do you know one of the the the facts about the demographics of the Twin Cities is that we have more witches and warlocks per capita in the Twin Cities than any other city in the world do you know that there's ideologies they're lifting themselves up against the knowledge of God in the Twin Cities do you know that there's spiritual battles principalities and powers that are that are moving and active in the Twin Cities today I believe that the Lord is raising up why are we why are we building a prayer room because there's a contending house of prayer that is going to get established about a mile away and God is actually raising up a people that's going to take their rightful place and we're going to go hey every ideology that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God is going to get torn down and there's a people yeah come on there's a people that are taking their place of authority seated with Christ in heaven the places knowing Lord we are going to dismantle with your wisdom we can't do it with your wisdom we are going to dismantle everything that's raised itself up against you in our city Lord we want you to be famous we want you to be known we don't want just good church services and just keep the Christians in the building no we want you Lord and your kingdom and your way out in the wild I believe that God is is calling the the teachers to see destiny in this age of anarchy in public schools and I believe that there's people that are going to adopt public school teachers as they're in the fight every single day I believe that God is raising up people that carry the heart of like together for good and what they do in our city that in the foster care crisis of our day in the Twin Cities that we wouldn't just react and respond I mean 85 percent of the women that are in prostitution in our city grew up in the foster system what if we weren't just reacting to the problem but we're going how can I keep children out of the foster system what if we as a whole people start going I'm gonna adopt the single moms of our city I'm gonna adopt the single moms that are overloaded and overwhelmed and don't have enough financially to make ends meet and they're pushed into the corners of society and then they lose their children because there's hopelessness day after day after day and what if the church goes we're not willing to just adopt them out of the foster system we want to keep them with their moms and we're gonna come up under the single moms what if it wasn't just about how we voted what if it was about how we lived what if it wasn't just kingdom voting pressing in a ballot what if as the people of God we go it's not political it's kingdom what if it wasn't just political and we actually cared about the single mom in our city what if we actually cared about the least of these in our city what if we start going well who who's loving on the prisoners in the prison system and we started noticing all of a sudden we started noticing problems and we started going well who's gonna accept responsibility for it should I have the world do it or the government do it or should the church step in God is calling us to a city to dream with his dreams to have a vision to bring shalom to our city and I believe he wants to mark some of you he actually wants to give you God dreams that go beyond yourself go beyond just what you feel like you have capacity for go beyond where your bank account is today go beyond what your story has been up to this point God is actually going to deposit his heart in the coming years into your heart so that you start going lord really you're gonna have me do this who am I yep just like Gideon just like Gideon you're gonna be like who am I where me do you know where I came from in the Lord's gonna go yeah you I've called you called you to bring shalom you to bring restoration and it's not going to just be about you having a good life there's literally sacrifices that are going to be made and it's going to be costly how many of you know when you sign up for Jesus it wasn't just to be for your better than even though it's like there's great I'm always gonna remember I want to remember all of the positives of following Jesus but we're here for such a short time is that true there's not going to be people that don't know Jesus in the new Jerusalem and there's not going to be the opportunity that we have today to have never even though I've never seen him I'm gonna love him in my workplace having never seen him I'm going to make decisions that cost me in my profession because I swear allegiance to Jesus before me it may be seems really backwards but God is calling us as people out of comfort and not just for bigger church buildings and bigger ministries and nonprofits that's not what he's after he's after the people it's not just about signs and wonders and healings and salvation the Lord's dream is a city do you know that the new Jerusalem is going to be a garden city in other words there's going to be infrastructure have you ever heard about the gold streets that's pretty awesome who poured the streets who build the houses I don't know maybe God's going to just like create with his word but I wonder if the new heavens in the new earth is going to have traits men and women listen I just had this thought this idea this is so random but I want to say it I think this is very unique and interesting never thought about this in my terrible there's things that you'll never even thought of you know our desire for space exploration you know like some of us none of us really it's just Elon but listen you know where it's like how can we inhabit Mars you know it's like the the wanderless thing that some of you have I just wonder if there is a nately something like that in some of us because for eternity will actually have the opportunity to discover all that God has created and that new heavens and new earth there's going to be a restored heaven and earth but listen those things that God has put inside of you aren't just for this age they're actually for the age to come what if there's a continuation of what you're doing today and it was actually preparing you for the responsibility and the joy of the new heavens and the new earth and what God has actually designed you to do and put inside of you we're part of a big story God's entrusted us with our city right here today and it's bigger than me and it's bigger than you and God is going to put dreams in your heart that you're going to realize this is way bigger than me and that's why we go together there's going to be decisions that we're going to make with adoptive love in our hearts Stephen you can come up there's going to be decisions that we make in this hour where we go I'm going to I'm going to buy the big screen tv in the Nintendo and I'm always going to have a pantry full and I'm always going to have a refrigerator full full so that we're the party house and all of my kids friends come to our house because it's the place to be and it's the place to be because then they're going to sit around our dinner table and they're going to see our healthy hearts and our healthy marriage and our healthy home God is raising up singles with adoptive love that go even though I don't have a husband I'm still going to stand in the gap as a mother in the spirit and adopt children in the orphan in our city God is is taking his heart of adoption and he's going to help us to adopt our city as ambassadors and go I'm going to adopt this neighborhood I'm going to adopt this business and when I say adopt what I mean is take ownership and go your kingdom deserves to be here heaven should invade here heaven should invade this street heaven should invade this neighborhood heaven should invade this company this corporation why are you working at home why are you working from home after covid not so that you can just get taken out of the workplace but because God has a dream in his heart for your neighborhood we're thinking about all the things that we don't have all the things that we've lost and the Lord's going but look at where I have you now look at where I have them in the future would you dream a dream with me it's a divine setup that you're where you're at that God has given you your smile and your look and your eyes because he has something in mind for a whole city it can't be achieved by one ministry it has to be a people the stand in the gap between chaos and a vision for shalom wholeness in a city God wants to give us God dreams that's all stand it's a times two lifestyle God after multiplication he says make disciples of every nation the Lord is marking traits people and businessmen business women moms and dads those that are not just gripped with the glory of God but allow the glory of God to begin to transform our minds so that we are renewed in our minds to see the need with compassion in our city let's just spread out I just want to have a moment would you just spread into the isle spread forward you have a bigger vision than I have father father you have things in mind you have dreams in your heart because you have people in your heart there's businesses that are in the room that are just seeds and ideas there's justice ministries that are in the room there's practices that are in the room that the Lord has deposited into hearts there's things that are impossible to do in our own strength there's dreams that go beyond what our current capacity and resources would allow but the Lord is giving us a kingdom of heaven vision and Lord we say that whether it's a year from now or 10 years from now or 20 years from now Lord we want everything that you have Lord I want I want to be a carrier of your heart for a city Lord we repent for accusing the world and holding the world with a fist in our hand and bring an accusation to the world Lord we repent we want to change the way that we're thinking and we want a higher vision to begin to prophesy over our city and begin to declare life instead of death reconciliation instead of of slander Lord we want to release your kingdom culture in the Twin Cities Lord we want there to be a divine movement of the kingdom of heaven that wouldn't just be within church buildings that wouldn't just be at events Lord we want your kingdom to be like leaven everywhere Lord we ask that you would begin to deposit dreams even right now Holy Spirit would you begin to drop dreams drop ideas drop visions medical ideas educational ideas not so that we can take take over some spirits society but so that we can serve organically and wash the feet of the city Lord Lord we ask creative ideas media ideas arts Lord business ideas justice and religion ideas Lord educational ideas Lord we ask that you would bring forth your kingdom ideas we say yes Holy Spirit if you have a prayer language I just feel an invitation for us to begin to pray in the spirit you can pray in your understanding it's okay if you don't pray in tongues you just start talking to Jesus we're praying thank you Lord Lord we build up our spirit man to allow you we want to hear you we want we want to receive whatever you have Lord we want to experience it we want to hear it Lord