Mike and Sandy are in the house. We love Mike and Sandy. They have been such a gift. There's such a gift to our city But but Mike we've been meeting with Mike for over 10 years and he's just been a spiritual father and mentor to us in ministry and even before we were before house group, I'm just like when I was in college and I was Mike and And he's the real deal and he's really fathered the twin cities for decade after decade after decade He's he's fathered senators and and on the Capitol He's been the chaplain and the Capitol and and has just fathered so many ministry leaders and brought unity to the Twin Cities and specifically God's marked him as a father over St.
Paul Spiritfully, so we're so grateful for his leadership in our life Every day would not be a church and would not be a ministry if it were not for Mike Smith and and the Smith's as a couple And so we are so grateful for Mike Smith. Let's stand our feet in honor and Mike as he comes and preaches Alright, alright Praise God boy. God is so good in this place tonight. It's so good to be with you Let me get this out of the way right away.
I also had a dream about this moment Very real. I just heard just a few weeks ago just briefly that there that there was a property that potentially could be that is going to be yours and I just heard just not knowing anything about it that night I had a real dream and I dreamed that I was standing in front of every day in front of you and this was the word that I was In my dream. I was just saying it's not about the money. It's about obedience It's about following the leading of the Holy Spirit And so I'm declaring that over you.
It's not as though God is looking at 20 million dollars going wow where we're gonna come up with this You understand it. It's not about the money. It's about obedience. It's about following the leading of the Holy Spirit Isn't that right and so that was the dream and I woke up So thanks for having me come God bless you.
Have a good night That was the obedient part of my my story. Hey listen a Couple of things When we were singing hallelujah over and over I don't know you probably all know the story of Handles Messiah But when when handle was performing that the very first time the king was there sitting in the audience And they came to them to the hallelujah chorus of Handles Messiah And for the first time ever in honor of Jesus the king stood and when that happened ever since then for all of these centuries Since handle had written handles Messiah when it comes to the hallelujah chorus It is traditional now for every every gathering to stand in honor of Jesus isn't that beautiful and I thought of that because we're singing hallelujah, and we just kept singing it and Jesus is glorified I thought of how during covid Everything was shut down pretty much and in one of the one of the we're blessed to have such a multicultural Congregation and we got this Mexican worship team that's so so anointed and they decided during COVID Every Saturday night they would live stream from their backyard And so they would pull together and they would start leading worship in in of course in Spanish and and I You know my Spanish. I don't know my me people could go very little But but I always communicate we communicate so when I could I would just be when standing I would be homeless on those Saturday evenings We would go to live stream and they would be singing and worshiping and all of a sudden somebody would say Pastor Mike you know and they'd see that I was on live stream with them and immediately They'd finish the song and they would go into You know what and in every language we sang that song and they knew that of course we would worship in that song Sandy And I've done mission work in Vietnam as one of the things that we've done for a number of years when the country was closed We were able to get him so we built networks of Relationships with large number of churches there. We just love Vietnam And so whenever we would go we'd just go worship and because they knew that we were there they would start singing hallelujah Do you know that song hallelujah It was it was a breakthrough song that simple song that many of you've heard before that we would sing the church would sing hymns and We'd worship and I love the hymns I remember just as a growing up in the church and we'd be in these in the church building and when they would sing hymns They would always have someone at the front directing the hymns like this I don't know how many of you remember those days or you're looking at me the blank stairs right now I could tell that so but in the whole congregation would sing like a choir and we had hymnals and everybody would sing a harmony And I remember that as a kid hearing people just lifting their voices seen seen men just lifting their voices and singing Jesus paid it all to him.
Oh, sin had left a crimson stain. He washed me What is still and we would sing those things and I'll tell you what friends those things still resonate my heart I wake up all the time singing a song there somehow was in those gatherings and it just it's alive But then someone came up. I don't know who it was. I think I don't know who it was But then but then someone came along with just a simple Hallelujah, hallelujah, you want to sing it?
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah And you know what? That song is still being sung all around the world Even after all of these years if that was the breakthrough song for then more contemporary worship and then interesting wow I'm getting off to something you know what? You know, I've only got another hour and a half here so this amen Love your enthusiasm or was it sarcasm? I'm not sure Well, we are so blessed to be here tonight.
I love you so much and you know I am so thankful for the leadership of this church I am so so thankful for Josh and Katie and as he said years ago before there was any dream of this any dream at all I just felt my heart just connected with Josh and Katie And I remember just going away from some of those times just thinking oh, I'd love to work with him You know here we are working together. Amen. I'm on staff. Did you know that?
Amen, amen, amen Actually the staff just the staff took Sandy and I with them We went together with everyday staff to Jesus image pastor's conference and boy. We had a wonderful time Knitter hearts together was so great just to be just connected with them And actually when when Josh first called me and asked me if I considered going with them to that conference We had been at Jesus image Just just some weeks before that and Michael Koulianos had been and Jessica at different times They've been at redeeming love and and I loved what they were caring But when Josh asked me to go with him, I just thought of oh man I've got all of this you know I've got all of these meetings that were lined up and and and I just could I just couldn't find my way But I said I pray about it and I think Sandy probably I think Sandy said to me Well, you know you could probably you know reschedule some of those meetings and you can have someone else take those meetings And every now and then she reminds me that the church can run well without me Hallelujah But so I was praying so I was really I prayed about it I was thinking of it and there was actually two things that happened right next to each other I mentioned one in the first service. It's a simple thing I was I just praying through you know just praying early in the morning I go I met redeeming love early in the early morning before anybody gets there because I need to be with Jesus long term Because I'm here's a secret. I'm weighing over my head everything I do I don't have the ability to do and so I am constantly going after Jesus speaker I am anyhow I need Jesus.
I need the Holy Spirit I need I need him so much anyhow so I was praying and I walked into our comfort our staff conference room and and Was making some coffee because how many if you know coffee helps prayer? Can I get a witness on that I'm not sure? You know I pray so much better when I have coffee Sometimes I think the Lord is with I know he's with me, but sometimes I picture him just going like this going oh Anyhow, so I'm praying and I'm waiting for the for the coffee to you know It's dripping into the cup and I'm just I'm leaning over and thinking god I really like to go to Jesus image with every day, you know Give me some clear answers and I just opened up my eyes and here somebody had brought in a package of cookies and on the cookies It said every day chocolate chip cookies Now there's two things there. I love every day and I'm addicted to chocolate chip cookies You know don't pray for me to be set free from that addiction, please All right, I'll live with it I thought I Score cookies on the street all the time so anyhow, so and I thought well It's late in the day.
It's late in the day. We got isn't it right? It's late in the day How much is anybody still sleeping area right now? Well, so I don't think you know I never knew that there were cookies called every day cookies But there it was every day cookies that actually took a picture of it because I didn't believe it and then a little bit later on a friend of mine who Mike Lynch she we've been partners for you might know him But Mike Lynch is a police chaplain in Minneapolis and and we've worked together serve together and minister to police officers in the Twin Cities And out of the blue he sends me this text message and he says Mike just want you to know every day God's favors on you He's never said so I thought okay I'm gonna go with everyday staff and and and be one of them and Josh and Katie Sandy and I can't thank you enough and your staff for how much you just always just loved us and we just are so thankful for the For the the spirit led leadership that you carry you know We're so blessed through the years to be network with a number of churches churches that we've helped us start And they always started just simply out of relationships and sharing common vision and and I remember you know early on just the beginning of just The vision that Josh and Katie had and they started on fold that and to see what's happening today is a blessing Hallelujah, I'm just kind of waiting on the Lord for just a little bit talk amongst yourselves No, I better not let you do that because it would be hard to get you back You know, I'm loving this identity conference I believe that we are living at a time and I don't mean to take away from because you're gonna be taught so much more But we're living at a time when when there's a generation that has lost its identity You know this whole issue of binary gender this whole issue of of People not knowing if they're a man or woman really at the core of it is a loss of identity and the way that identity is Released is through fathers and there's a lack of fathers today Even in this room I could probably have you know many of you have gone through really just a lack of a father or maybe just have not had a Healthy relationship with your father.
It's a it's almost well. It is its epidemic today But listen, it's into this moment that God speaks He tells us in the very last verse of the Old Testament one page before the New Testament one page as a matter of fact I believe I've heard someone else say this so it's kind of an echo but really it's almost like Malachi could have been the start of the New Covenant You know because in the very last verse it says in that day in that what is Luke quotes it and says in that day this that God says I will raise up a spirit of Elijah We know that's the Holy Spirit and in that day and I believe it's speaking about today He says I will turn the hearts of fathers the sons and daughters and sons and daughters to fathers And he said if that doesn't happen there's gonna be a curse released Well, we're seeing today the effects of a curse on our land that is stealing the identity of a generation Is it okay if I'm you know, I know we're gonna have a conference on this, but but I just want you to know this For every mom and dad out here. I believe that This nation right now. We're seeing a resurgence I believe of Spirit-filled mothering and Spirit-filled father and we have not had a model for this previously You see but I but every mother What mothers release is they release spiritual intimacy In humility if that's imparted to children Fathers on the other hand really spiritual identity and hope and what happens is if you're if you're a father Or you're going to be a father one of the great things that you can do is release hope into your children When even in the discipline the discipline becomes positive because during the time of discipline You're calling them into their destiny And what this generation needs is to be called into its destiny because it's in the destiny God says I will He says I will fulfill my purpose and plan for you And then you will seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart So when we find ourselves in this in this place of fathers being released in the land today in fulfillment to Malachi 4-6 we can see healing in America and we just recently had Cindy Jacobs speak at our church And she relates this prophetic word over us that there was going to be healing for America released through this message I believe God is releasing within the within the context of every day a place where we began to understand Spiritual fathering and spiritual mothering in a whole new dimension I know that there's so many young people here right now, but I believe that you if you have not had that in your life I am telling you God's gonna raise you up to be that in someone else's life If if there's been generations of sin that's been passed down to you from from fathers who are dysfunctional I am telling you this is the time of change where you are going to be a functional move You're gonna be moving in the Holy Spirit with influence.
It's gonna release It's gonna release something powerful that is so needed in our land today and that's identity and So I'm excited so this is a promotion for your next week Alright This conference this next week is gonna be so important Not only for you, but I believe it's gonna I believe that every church is gonna get the fruit of what's gonna be released here. You see because we're one church is that right? We're one church, you know, I was telling Josh we were talking about it, you know, sometimes the church is you know We get merchandise we call it merch, right? And we get and we get and so I've got these redeeming love t-shirts So redeeming love hoodies and and redeeming love other stuff I don't know what it is, but you know And there's every you know, but the point is is that I'm thinking to myself, you know, it's sometimes I don't wear it You know because I just don't I just want to identify I want to just somehow get one thing that comes together and says the Twin Cities Church That we're all one in this or maybe maybe a t-shirt that has you know We're the church of the cities and then lists all of our names of all the churches on the back.
Amen. Amen Wow Somebody's just right now you're texting that or ain't you're gonna make a lot of money off that statement? I know that remember to tithe because you got a building coming up. Okay.
Okay, amen It's only 945 someplace No, listen I have still really I'm talking I'm praying about this this is this whole time is a little different from before the earlier service But you know I've been praying that the Holy Spirit would just impart something because the truth is we don't you just don't need to hear another voice You need to hear God's voice. I'm hungry for that friends So listen just I've been reading through the one your Bible never totally never thought I'd be sharing this part of this But as I've been reading through it I do that all the time simply because it takes me into Passages that I normally don't go to you know saying and I find myself So it's a little bit of a discypling for me And I've been doing it for years and one of the hard things is to go through like Leviticus You know and it's kind of like you get through all of those you know and all the numbers of all the tribes and you know I decided to memorize all the numbers, but then I decided not to From moment there So any So I'm reading through Ezekiel right now and Ezekiel's tough But I keep telling people that I speak to man There's such a sense of need for the word of God to be put in our hearts I mean we need to just embrace this so when you're reading through like some of those Old Testament Scriptures and and there's so many times when Sandy and I'll just look at something and we don't understand what happened there I mean because sometimes it gets really difficult. Isn't that right? But but I look at it like I'm mining I'm looking for the gold and so I Purposely look through it and sometimes when I'm reading through all of the all of those names that are so difficult You know and this one gave birth to this one and then the begat this one and then I'll just stop and I'll look at some of those names And I'll think you know what that person Had no idea that their name would be written in a book That would be called the word of God and who knows and I'll start the picture what they were like, you know I just look at it.
We'll just think here here's these people it looks like a phone book of the Bible and you're reading it And then I'll just stop and I'll look at some weird name and I'll think wow that's great You know I've looked at some of the names. I thought if I ever get a dog, I'm gonna call it bad You know, I know disrespect no disrespect, but it's Please you know By the way, if any of you have any complaints, please just call Josh all right afterwards, but so reading through Ezekiel and it's a struggle sometimes But can I find these these words that are so powerful? For instance, you just read and you'll come to Ezekiel 22 30 and God says I am looking for a man to stand in the gap On behalf of the land So it would not be destroyed and I found no one What a sad scripture God saying you can hear the plead of his heart. He's saying the land needs healing you can hear it in God's voice He says I'm looking for someone I'm looking for a man who can stand in the gap Stand in the gap on behalf of the land so it would not be destroyed and I found no one Every one of my Bible's I got something worn out and every one of them go like I would go to that scripture I write in my Bible.
I'll just write in God you found me I'm gonna be a gap standard and I think of that every time I go to prayer every time we have a prayer meeting I'm thinking we are standing in the gap on behalf of the land America needs healing our nations need healing There are problems in creation that are so deep and so immense and people think that that the answer is politics and government And they'll think that the answer is finance and economic Structures, but we know that the answer to heal the land is not found in who is elected into office It's found in the body of Christ who is safe. We're gonna stand up as one man as one person We're gonna stand up in such a unity and we're gonna call on God And we're gonna stay in there until the twin cities are healed We're gonna stay until this the cities are moved and that's what God's raising up and that if I could leave that with you tonight That's that's the key, but then I keep reading and I was reading this this morning Ezekiel 36 and I quoted it and I misquoted it in the last service, so I wanted to make sure I get it now I'm holding up my Bible like this, but the reality is I've got this I'm reading it on it And one of the reasons why I'm reading it I'll tell you one of the reasons why I use this all the time and is simply because I can make the font is big as I want For God so love the world So you know Somehow my other Bible the older it's gotten the words are fading off the page and it's and so I'm just so I'm I hold my Bible like this, you know, and I'm preaching and I'm looking at the big letters that are well lit You know, it's well lit, but listen Ezekiel 36 says listen Ezekiel 36 26 gives you a key for healing in the land He says and I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you I will take out of you the heart of stone and I'm gonna give you a heart that's a flesh if soft He says I will give you a heart of flesh when I'm reading that the next verse says this And I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my ways Isn't that beautiful and you're gonna keep you're gonna keep righteousness at the core He says and you will keep my judgments and righteousness and you will dwell in the land of giving you that beautiful God says I'm looking for someone who stands the gap is equal 22 30 and then he says and he's equal 36 26 And I'm gonna give you if you're gonna stand in the gap. I'm gonna give you a new heart That stubbornness that's in your heart and we all have that that stubbornness that thing that seems to resist That thing within us that we find ourselves so many times just pulled into the comfort of our own flesh our own our own will Sometimes just supersedes gods and it's so easy for us to have a lifestyle of saying no or just not or neglecting obedience Every time we say no to him every time we go our own way. It creates a hardness in our heart Every time we do that it just creates something within us and it happens so simple so easy We're not even aware of it, but he's a heavenly father who loves you and he's saying listen I am going to take out of you that hard heart.
I am gonna put within you a heart that will be I can mold and I can shape how many of you want that? I want it One final scripture and this is what I'm leading to it's the very very very last scripture and Ezekiel the very last verse And here's what it says Ezekiel is matter of fact you can just stumble over it, but he's talking about this structure It's just details details details He's talking about how the land will be divided up in the structure And then he talks about how there will be the city and the priests will live there and the very last verse says and the name of that city Will be the Lord is there. Oh my goodness, and I just want to say this to you tonight I believe that that's the desire of our hearts I want the twin cities to have an identity that the Lord is there I want the nation to say hey go to the twin cities because the Lord is there and I want them to say well What church should I go to and they say pick one Pick one because as big as every day with a vision that you have it is not it is everything By the way, I'm not meaning this to save us way But what I'm saying is in comparison to the need of the twin cities in comparison to the need It's going to take all of us together. It's going to take every church every church every day being filled with the Holy Spirit Every church every shouting that's just to keep us awake, but every day it's going to take every day every church Experiencing what we're experiencing right now, so you'll become contagious with the presence of God You become contagious with that hunger.
I'll tell you what so there's three things that are necessary and I don't have to teach on tonight, but It's so important for if we're gonna have that kind of an identity in the twin cities. There's three things we need to have an over flowing uncommon Humility we have to have an uncommon humility There's no room anymore for church pride Seriously we can love and love I love what's happening in our churches and I love the I preached at a church in St Paul summit church this morning and one of the churches that is part of our network and it's right in it and I'm thankful for it I'm just releasing this word we've got to work together and it takes uncommon humility to have an uncommon unity But when that happens anything is possible if two or three agree is touching any one thing What it will be done Jesus said when you come together in my name. I'm in your midst the more we give him the glory the more he trusts us with his glory Amen, I'm coming humility and it's gonna take an uncommon overflowing hunger for the Holy Spirit Alonging it's gonna take a humility that says in a hunger that says Lord. I cannot let you go until you bless me Jesus said in the very first message he preached he said or that's recorded he was recorded He said this the very first words that is recorded of a sermon was this Blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven God is looking for a place that will be so filled with humility that actually the kingdom of heaven becomes a tangible force in their midst Then he said blessed are those who hunger and thirst After this right it says after righteousness what that means is it to be in this right relationship with him They're hungry for the presence of God Amen, finally, there's hope our nation needs hope do I have time to tell him about the what happened in George Floyd?
Okay, listen The the day that George Floyd was killed. I was in my friend of my church actually I was taping messy We're doing COVID and we were doing it so I had the camera crew there and and Somebody that was helping me with the prompting all that stuff and so we're doing this and all of a sudden one of my staff Was running and he says Mike. He said we just heard that George that there was a man killed on 30th in Chicago And people are starting to mess together and it looks like you're gonna be revived revival. Yeah, Orion by the way I'll hold this close.
All right, I keep forgetting. Thank you. Could you give me a kind of a Latino accent? All right, if you got that app, I appreciate it.
Yeah, I've always wanted to sound that way, okay Sorry, I never look at my wife when I'm preaching because she said they're going like this I love you. Sandy and I have been married for 51 years. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you It was a lot of hard work on my part, but we made it No, you know, so this person can running in and he said it looks like riots are starting in the heart of the city It was a reflexive action on my part. I didn't I wasn't thinking it through all I can tell you is that it's like I just ran out to my car jumped in my car not knowing what I was gonna do and I drove down to 30th in Chicago And I'm a part of black hole and I walked over and there's a massive crowd already forming And I just walked around and I didn't know what to do except my heart grieves for the city I believe that God's called us to pastor a city When we passed when when we go after the city Jesus builds the church, amen, and so we passed it together So I went there just for this pastor's heart and I started walking well not knowing what to do but I was weeping because anger the Justifiable anger people were so filled with anger and you could feel it in the air and people with my megaphones and and And yelling and I just stand in there and at that moment I'm though at that time I was the only white guy in the crowd, you know that at least that I knew of and And just as I'm standing the praying I happened to glance over and I saw Two young men and a young woman standing to the side and you could just see the look on their faces There's frustration if for some reason I just went over to them I know it was the Lord now, but I didn't feel like I'm leading I felt more out of my element You know so I went over to him and I just said hey I'm a pastor in the city and I'm praying for people to have hope because that's what I was praying and I walked over I said kept then I said can I pray for you and they looked at me and they just all of a sudden they just changed the countenance and they Knotted yes, I said what can I pray for you now? And I said yes, so I said okay, let's pray and I start praying God in the middle of this pain in the middle of this hurt We need hope I pray for these young people I pray that you'll give them hope beyond this May they see if that you love them and that you give them a hope in the future and I looked up at them And when I opened up my eyes to look up to them I was aware that doing people gathering around me leading in to listen So I thought oh my goodness, you know that it's like I was you know I was just somehow highlighted in that moment And I just looked at everybody and I said I'm praying for these people to have hope I believe God wants to give hope and I'm a pastor in the city can I pray for you everybody in that group said yes In the middle of all the anger and the bitterness so I said I didn't know what to do so I said join hands I don't know where that came from. It's I'm gonna hit be and that's the way you prayed years ago And so so they're going okay, and here's all of these people joining hands And so I start praying for him God the same prayer God we need hope beyond the pain of this moment Lord you love us let these people know how much hope they can have in Christ in Jesus Lord Just give them hope let them know that God you give them hope in the future I looked up and there was a crowd no around them So I lifted up my voice because there was again a lot of a lot of noise around so I Lift up my voice and I just said listen I've never done this before but in that moment it was the presence of the Lord and in that moment I just said can I tell you all how I got hope they're all going yes And I just said there was a time in my life when I was empty and I was hopeless and then one day somebody told me that God Love me so much that he gave his only son Jesus and that if I would just believe in him and turn my life over to him He would come into my life and forgive me for all my mistakes and failures and he would and he would just lead me from that moment On and he changed my life forever and now when I'm in pain or I'm hurting and broken I know I can call upon him and he's there for me and I and I said Do you want to pray and receive Jesus as your Savior?
Do you want to receive him as the center of your life and give your life to him? Everybody in the crowd said yes And I said okay pray this with me and this is a crowd this forum around me. I'm not on a platform I don't have a worship team. I don't have soft music by the way.
I love this worship all of a sudden I Got some music going here, but you know what you know what this is by the way There's a sense of worship in this room. Isn't it right? I've been aware that we've been worshiping the Lord even in our laughter even throughout this whole message It's like worship because it's pointing to Jesus in that moment every one of those people I said pray this with me dear God in heaven. You can hear the voices rise up dear God in heaven I ask you right now to come into my life.
I ask you right now to come to my life Lord forgive me for all my past mistakes and failures Lord forgive me for all my Jesus asked you to come and fill my life right now Jesus come and fill my friends. I got to tell you every one of those I've been networked in Minneapolis as well and right in the corner of 30th in Chicago There's this little there's this little church the pastor's chris for our impastor Chris is just this wonderful man humble man Small church and all I could tell him is this listen God sees that he answered your prayer get connected to that church I pointed him over there. I wasn't have anything to give him Let me just say from that moment on I started doing that through the crowd for the next few days and Multitudes came to Jesus no platform no music nothing just going and giving people hope. I'm telling you I believe hope Hope is going to be released through every day That's going to touch masses of people and that's going to bring healing into twin cities I believe God's going to really he's going to raise up his church to give hope to a twin cities right now That desperately needs an encounter with him.
I believe that the twin cities would be known as the city Named the lord is there the lord is there But I also believe that about you. I believe in you Jesus believes in you. He knows your heart He wants to give you hope He wants to fill your life with hope beyond what you ever imagined You've been sitting here and fitting in sitting in the crowd tonight and and you're you love what's happening in this place But when you walk out of these doors, there's times when you feel empty There's times when you're wondering god do you have a plan for my life? I'm telling you every one of you Are significant to god You're significant to this pastor you're significant to sandy and I we might not ever meet face to face But you are significant there's something that god's going to release in you but significance only comes When we're willing to lay down our life Success comes when we find life But significance comes when we just say lord whatever it is wherever it is whatever it is On yours How many of you want to commit yourself to that tonight if that's you would you stand with me would you stand with me right now Father right now.
I just pray over this place Lord, I thank you would you just hold out your hands like you're about to receive something. I believe god wants to impart to you right now He's gonna release in you an uncommon humility in other words, you're gonna be hidden in christ But christ is gonna be seen in you Amen right now in jesus name a release uncommon humility uncommon hunger You're gonna hunger for you more than you've ever hungered before there's gonna be a desire You're gonna first for the living water and it's gonna be poured out into you so that it can be poured through you I release that in you right now and I say hope arise in jesus name They hope you release to bring his healing In jesus name you are a son and a daughter and I hear him saying over you. I'm well pleased Amen. Thank you.
God bless you