Wow, well we like we talked about we're we're going into a summer break and First of all, I just want to say that like yes, there's we're absolutely looking at God going Here's the here's the rhythm. Here's how we model and then as we've stepped into that we've seen the intentionality of the Lord in that It's not just our staff that takes a break. We have approximately 350 owners. These are people serving on teams That's insane and those folks are pouring themselves out hands up if you're serving on team kids connect groups doing and soul care You're in parking security facilities, and then many of them are actually back serving with kiddos right now So there's and there's so many people that are giving themselves to this and what's what's interesting is when we start talking about rest and Brakes and all that stuff it kind of rings It sounds similar to what you've heard all over the place right now There's a lot of people a lot of businesses a lot of corporations that are like we value rest and the wholeness of the individual and whether that's their HR Department or their PR department or whatever like there's a lot of people talking about like hey take a break rest It's important But something that I've noticed and something that I've kind of been curious about is how often does that actually cost the organization Something or is it like listen people are mad and we got to figure this out And so we're gonna budget this amount of money and this amount of time into that but you know like does it cost something to prioritize heart health that cost something to prioritize rest and man, I think that the church is specifically in danger of Minimizing the value of rest because we're so self-important in our own eyes But like maybe like it's people got you know don't forsake gathering together We got to do the thing I mean like this is this is what it's all about and we use Christian language to validate a hustling grind mindset where staff owners people that are Like building the thing you get told that God is so good and so worthy that you should work harder all the time And that we're just taking a sledgehammer to that thing because that's not the priority system of the kingdom.
So One of the things that Pastor Mike Smith taught us you guys know Mike Smith. He's a pastor redeeming love church absolute legend guys He is I want all of you to one Sunday just go to our LC for the morning and sit under his leadership He's the kind of guy. He's probably I don't know I was gonna guess an age Scary he's got great hair. He's right here guy But he's leading his community that he has led for many many years and there are times where he'll reach out to pastor Josh On a Monday and be like hey watch your message last night You're doing an incredible job like who who leads their own church and sits and watches a sermon from another church just so they can encourage that He's incredible anyways He's shocked our staff meeting once just to like let us know that he loves us and thinking about us the kind of man You want to follow anyways pastor Mike has taught us some things and one of the things that he's taught us is that in the kingdom We never make decisions based off of man money or momentum What this means is we don't make decisions based off the fear of man.
What are they gonna think? Well, I hope I don't get an angry email It's not the value system of the kingdom so we can't make our decisions based off of that money Oh, this decision feels like a really hard decision because we might lose money or maybe more dangerous This feels like a great decision because look at the amount of money that we're gonna make in the kingdom We do not make decisions based off of money and perhaps the most Devious mischievous one of the whole lot is momentum We don't make decisions based off of momentum All gods really doing something the kingdoms really advancing there's a lot of momentum right now We don't want to stop this do we then we don't want to get in the way of what God's doing as though We could get in the way of an actual move of God But we make these decisions sometimes by going we just got to keep the ball rolling We don't want to stop this now because then we'll lose the momentum It's not a value system in the kingdom Kingdom is not hype train. They got to keep rolling and so we just we've anchored ourselves in that going as a church We refuse to make decisions based off of man money or momentum And so this decision to step into rest was so beautiful and so good and I can say that because yes I'm a member of our executive team But this decision wasn't made by me. This is made by our lead pastors on our board that said we need to put our money where our mouth is Like we talk all the time about healthy hearts and healthy homes And yeah, it's gonna disrupt some stuff But if the value system of the kingdom is actually the thing that's all of our decision making is being filtered through It's a no-brainer We take care of people and we give them a deep breath so they can connect to the father So the break is gonna be really good because it allows us to rest allows us to take a deep breath But breaks do something else for us breaks allow us the opportunity to slow down enough to reflect And we gift because so often it's just one thing after the next right it's like every day heroes happens It's like wow praise God so 61 kids got baptized and it's all that awesome Sunday's coming We got certain prep we gotta do the thing we gotta make sure our own accept communication We gotta make sure oh whether it's hot we gotta make sure the h-backs running I mean these are real things that I'm getting a window and how quickly God can do something amazing And we just move on from it because there's stuff to do how many of you have been on a missions trip short-term or long-term great Well, I'll praise God that is us hands up again That's I'm just not expecting that that's awesome for those who haven't vacation before anyone great perfect That's all that's good There's these these moments these these moments that we are completely outside of our normal scene We're in a different country maybe we're doing something that's drastically different than what we normally do again Whether it's vacation mission strip whatever but it's these moments that they're different and they are so much packed into it Right because everything's different everything's new.
We'll take the mission strip example You go on a mission strip and it's like every day There's a wild testimony that you might you maybe had one of those every year leading up to this But now it's this condensed moment where the Lord is really moving and you're gonna God spoke to me in this way in that way And all these stories we come back from either a mission strip or your vacation and someone goes how was it and our Our desire is to go wow God God moved so profoundly he said this to me and this to me There was this moment that I'm gonna remember forever because God did this and man that ties in with this other moment I got to see Jesus do this it was amazing that's what we want to say inevitably what we say when someone says how's mission strip you go Awesome, it's really good But you don't even know how to describe it because you just come off the plane someone asked me How it was and you didn't give time to process it you didn't give time to actually internalize what happened? You were a witness to it you experienced it, but to actually be able to let it sink in That takes time Do we have any self-appointed grill masters here you know how to work a grill? I appreciate the confidence there's some wives volunteering their husbands. I'm the only man do we have any female grill masters?
There we go there it is good good good good good okay This is for all my grill masters and I'm not I shouldn't say that because I don't know that it's fair to call myself that we've got a blackstone Very fun and before you're like wow he must be really into this It's because I just completely obliterated my propane grill in a grease fire. So before you think too highly of me It's like 20 minutes into shooting flames. I was like something must be done And then we got a blackstone because yeah, whatever okay, we've derailed Grill masters, you know that every recipe that talks about grilling meat talks about the marination right you have to marinate today And there's many of us that are like those flavors sound great that sounds delicious, but I only have 20 minutes So I'm gonna mix it up I'm gonna drop it in the bag shake it around a bit That's probably good and slap it on the grill and then we're stunned that it doesn't taste like we thought it was We're stunned because we're going but the ingredients were all there. How can I not taste anything?
There was 15 tablespoons different spices in that thing and it just still just kind of tastes like it did before Let this extent of metaphor about grills be less than to us as we're talking about the value of actually slowing down and like Mirinating in what God's done. We have been talking for seven months about the kingdom in this community We've spent seven months talking about what the kingdom is and who it's for and how it expresses itself and how you access it and every week There's a new Message there's a new lesson. We've been looking at the parables of Jesus Those are our launch pads because a lot of times Jesus starts his parables by going the kingdom is like and he names something We are in danger if we just sit and go and the ingredients are all there But we don't actually let it sink in and we don't actually pause and take the records at time to go Okay, let's let it actually sink in now You guys have heard us say this. It's like when there's input and no output.
It's like the Dead Sea It's like a swamp knowledge puffs up. There's all these dangers that we run into if we're just constantly getting filled and so So tonight we are going to spend our time reflecting We're gonna step into our break by taking a deep breath and reflecting on everything the Lord has said and done over the last seven months It is one of the great joys of my life to prepare content and to dive into scripture and to look at the global church and all the stuff in Mine information and then share it. I love teaching and I will I had my parable all picked out and everything friends. It's very exciting and And and I felt the Lord so strongly said they don't need another message They just need to reflect and so tonight we are going to reflect and take a breath and go into break Actually having some language for what the Lord has done.
So when people go, how's this series of the kingdom? Maybe don't go awesome It's been really good. We actually want to pause and some of you are gonna love this and some of you are gonna hate this But I'm probably gonna talk for another 15 20 minutes and then we're gonna get in small groups And you're gonna talk about what the Lord's done. This is who we are and for some of you like no, no Those nights dad gummets are gonna make us talk to each other Yes, that is that's who we are as a community We are all about empowering people to get off the bench and into the game to actually live the thing and like Participate in the thing and so if you are someone that is really excited about that.
You're like, oh, that's why I come here I love it. We break into small groups you get to be the cheerleaders and if you're the person that's already planning your bathroom break That's gonna take about 30 minutes stick with me because it's really it's so necessary that if we actually want to be transformed By the messages we have to sit in it Scott taught us this I thought it was so good. He talked about the four stages many of us stay in hearing And I heard a good message about the kingdom. That's awesome the key ingredient you need to hear Then you might step into knowing I didn't just hear it I know that I could repeat to you the different part S models of how we found the Rames in that parable together I know that then there's believing we actually believe that truth.
Well that I've looked at it. I've understood it I believe that that's true all that is good But the end goal of everything that we're about here everything that we're about in our sermon series everything that the kingdom is about It's not just knowing and believing it's transformation. I want to be different because of it Transformation by definition means it was one way and now it's different and if we're not actually letting this sink in and transform us We're not we're not getting everything out of it. I'm gonna try to squeeze another grill metaphor and we don't have time for that.
Okay Okay, so I want us to reflect on everything that we've learned about what the kingdom is but I'll start this with okay One little new thing will start with one new thing and then we'll go into it But Jesus talks all the time about the kingdom Paul sitting under the authority of the apostles sitting under the scripture He's learning about this and there are some parts of his epistles where he tells his followers. Here's what the kingdom's not I think that's really helpful because the kingdom as we've been talking about we've discovered it's hard to pin down You can't like write a dissertation go here is everything you need to know about the kingdom But there's something about it that you see you see something and you go That's the kingdom and you see something happening over there and you go that feels so kingdom you can identify it But you can't fully always describe it Likewise Paul says here's some things that it's not and just helps our filter But Paul Paul says this about the kingdom in first Corinthians 4 he's talking to the Corinthian church And the Corinthian church needs a little bit of kicking the pants because things aren't going so well and they have what Paul Mockingly calls super apostles. It's in the word you can find this because I'm like super apostles These people that come in and they've got all this profound wisdom. They are mining the depths of the parables better than you Or I ever could there there's so much There's so much talk there's so much impressive language and Paul has this phrase in first Corinthians 4 20 where he says the kingdom is not In talk it's in power.
What he means is that this is not just Wisdom there needs to be an expression And that's true wait, I mean I don't know maybe what they're saying is actually really true But he's going that's not it if it doesn't have feet It's not really the kingdom if it's not expressing itself. It isn't dripping in the power of God It's it's not the kingdom so don't be fooled Paul says it's not just in talk It's in power and then Paul knows that all of us go alright power. We're gonna do the thing I'm gonna build a perfect system so actions all the time. I'm gonna do the thing I'm gonna act all the time Thank you Paul for writing Romans 14 where he's also pointing out our propensity to systemize everything and make it about religious obligation All right.
Well, God says to do stuff Okay, but in Romans 14 17 He's been going on this whole thing about eating and drinking and the different ritualistic things that people are trying to implement to do it right Paul says it's not about eating and drink the kingdom is not about eating and drinking meaning It's not about religious obligation. No, the kingdom is in righteousness joy and peace in the Holy Spirit He's he's defining the kingdom not just by What you do but in like how you do it? It should feel like the righteousness of God when you're walking in the kingdom There should be peace there should be joy should be filled with the spirit So it's it's not just talk and it's not just action. There's something else there My wife and I will occasionally on our Saturdays like our Sabbath where we break Occasionally take books of scripture and just read them out loud together last night We read James if you haven't read James in a while brace yourself James James doesn't hold you punches I think that the church should just agree to read James quarterly just to keep us just to keep us on the straight and narrow Because James is just over and over and over saying like Stop just going through the motion stop just saying you have faith man.
This is the whole part We says faith without works is dead. It's ineffectual. He says show me your faith without deeds and I'll show you my faith with deeds It's not one of the other he's saying there's something in the middle here when faith meets action where talk meets power It's actually infused by the spirit. So it looks like righteousness peace and joy.
He's going all these other things aren't the kingdom But that's now you're touching something kingdom, okay So let's let's take that context and let's go back in time and let's start to look through what we talked about the last seven months by God's grace We're gonna do this in ten minutes But we started in January talking about the kingdom and the best definition if we want to put one banner overall of it The kingdom is what it's like when the king gets his way The kingdom is what it looks like when the king gets his way when God gets his way That's what the kingdom is but we started this whole thing with a bit of a revelation for some of us that walking in the kingdom is Not it's not the same as salvation. It's not the natural outflow of everyone who gets saved is automatically walking in Kingdom multiplication in the kingdom lifestyle and that was a little bit of a shock for us because some of us were raised going well I got saved and now I have all things and so isn't that the same thing? Well first of all when you got saved That's incredible. We're not talking about classes of Christians here So don't get strange about it and try and make it into the super fossils thing again We're not going there salvation is incredible you get born all over again in a new creation comes You're gonna live forever with Jesus in eternity when he's when he's made you new awesome But the kingdom seems to based off what we've been learning actually have some participation on our end that's required For it to fully manifest and so we we started this whole series by looking at the parable of the sewer remember that pastor Josh Tossum Josh.
He's about my height Good man one of the pastors here. You don't know I'm so bad forever Josh Josh gave this it was like three or four weeks where we looked at this parable of the sewer because it's provoking in Mark 4 Jesus says if you don't understand the parable of the sewer how we can understand the rest of these parables in some way It seems to be like the mother parable it seems to be like the anchor that everything kind of comes off of and so we look at the parable of the Sewer and we looked at it we realized that when we're talking about the difference between the kingdom coming and the kingdom not coming It's not a sewer problem, and it's not a seed problem It's a soil problem the difference between seeing kingdom multiplication in your life is actually how you hold your heart and the soil of your life It actually has a direct impact on seeing the kingdom advance in your life So we looked at the different types of soil We looked at how if you have a hard beaten down path where there's a hardness on your heart the seed's gonna fall on and it's not gonna spring up So we said father would you tell the soil of our hearts keep me from hardness because that seems to seems to inhibit kingdom multiplication We talked about rocky soil these big rocks and our conditions and we put on God that when the sun's out and there's a little bit of space there Oh kingdom growth this is amazing look at us We're really doing it then it hits that non-negotiable, but God you just can't touch this God You just can't move this thing you can't ask me this and we come with our conditions and it stunts growth So we prayed and we said God remove the rocks and the conditions in my soil Then Jesus goes for the jugular and he says Man, there's thorns that actually grow up. This sounds like us going Jesus I love you, and I want you to fall my heart, but I also really want this vacation because I need to rest and this is where I'm gonna find rest God I love you with all my heart now want to follow you I want to live in the kingdom gosh But I'm just right now is just kind of an inconvenient time for me Lord You can do anything you can take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to be it But man I am distracted right now because do you see what's going on in the world? Do you see all the problems that we have just not just in our country in our world?
There's problems everywhere God Jesus calls this the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world Those things can actually choke out kingdom growth So the kingdom isn't just the fall backwards reality of everyone It seems to say that the condition of our heart and how much we let the Lord till our soil So it's good soil that seems to be a condition because when there's good soil 30 60 hundred fold multiplication and this is not in any way to say look at how awesome we are because we have good soil That's absurd to look at a flowering plant and go all credit to the soil though, right? It's like no it's the seed it's the solar like there's it's fully not about us, but there's there is a dynamic there That we're just we're looking at as a community talk to you weeks ago about hunger Not how you don't take a lamp and hide it under a bed and under a bowl You don't you don't take what the Lord's done to keep it away. You have to do something put it on stand Let it shine there is a call For the people of God to let the kingdom actually grow multiply and be expressed in their life. Yeah Okay, so it's it's all God It's all grace, but there is a partnership that we have to play through hunger and through submission letting him do that So who's this for a lot of the parables that we've looked at tell us that the kingdom is for everyone the kingdom is available Everywhere to everyone there does seem to be a specific place in Jesus heart where he loves children He loves giving the kingdom to simple little things he loves using the weak things to shame the wise He loves taking things that feel disqualified him through his power and his grace getting massive glory and redeeming that thing and making it into the kingdom We talk about mustard seeds talk about how those things have no real intrinsic value It's not just that they're small and so they have really no value and God says but when I planted turns into a tree Remember this like the mustard plant doesn't grow into a tree But God is saying it's a transformative process through which all of the nations now come Everyone's invited because God did a miracle in this little sea we talk about how it's like 11 remember the story of Sarah But the kingdom's like leavens only into flower this points back to the story of Sarah 90 years old Angel comes well from scripture seems like two angels in the pre-incarnate Christ look it up And it's like Sarah's gonna have a baby and Sarah starts laughing behind the tent going Don't know much about biology do you I'm 90 ship has sailed it's not gonna happen And then God says you laughed out of mockery you'll be laughing in joy when you give your little boy Isaac fresh life He's using things that are disqualified and he's breathing life into a net becomes a testimony forever So God seems to love taking small disqualified unimportant things and making them kind of talismans of his kingdom that he gets to hold up It's for all nations We get used to the fact that we go yeah No, Jesus is for everyone but back when he's talking he's remember the parable of the net Josh talk about this one where he's talking About the Gentiles actually being brought in we take this for granted in the kingdom like this is this is transformative For the time that he's teaching going no, I'm not just the god of the Jews on the god of everybody everyone's welcome So the kingdom is for everybody Great.
So where is the kingdom? Well, you can't really point to it and go there it is there. It is I've figured it out The kingdoms inside of you. He's actually she he's sharing the kingdom Well, why would he do that because he adores you because he loves you and the goal from the beginning was that he'd be able to partner With you this is where Scott talked about the pearl of great price in the treasure hidden a field God saw value in you he pursued you Jesus didn't have to come to the planet We've talked about this but we need to just go actually didn't have to it's because of the desire of God to be with his people And to restore all things and so Jesus comes on the scene pursuing people going I saw you and you were buried and had no purpose But man, I value enough to scoop you and carry you and bring you up to me the kingdom looks a lot like the king The kindness of God expressed this is why the kingdom was brought and when you're saying okay, so it's inside of me And God wants to share well, how do I participate in that we talked last week about how it's by the spirit?
It's not about your effort. It's not about your knowledge. It's not about the things you can do You've been actually saved and now you worship him in spirit and in truth that new creation that was made at Salvation you get to actually partner with God by going it's all for you and then you just lead you just lead God You just lead me. I just follow you and it's by the spirit All of this friends has been anchored in this concept of listening and obeying This is the best way that we found to activate the body and to participate in this something as broad and mysterious as the kingdom is every day We go Jesus.
I love you What's one thing I could do with you today? And he starts to sow these seeds friends in this last seven months We did a 40 day fast called the make room fast remember that what a transformative experience for our body We got to come under the leadership of Jesus. We wake up in the morning We had people leave in zoom calls just processing little pieces of scripture and then inviting everyone on the call to pray together And go how can we obey you today? And it was the delight of our heart for anyone that participated in that it was life-giving This was not God using us and spending us and they parables don't say the kingdoms like a ton of heavy bricks on your shoulders Don't say that when you walk in the kingdom It sounds a lot like righteousness and joy and peace and the Holy Spirit And so we participated in that and the stories that came out of that time were wild because you realize just how broad and how wonderful The kingdom is as you're giving God the permission to say anything and do anything and you work up all the zeal encouraging your guts to go I'll do anything and we're afraid that he's gonna embarrass us or he's gonna send us to someplace that we hate or something and God goes Drink some water have a snack go to bed early you push yourself too hard, and then God says Do you want something crazy?
I said I do anything He was go and talk to that person and initiate a conversation about me the stories that came out of this is we took little steps of faithfulness and boldness Where people are going you'll never believe what happened? I just said yes in this one area and this relationship's been restored this part of my family unit got healed God initiated this rhythm It's transformed our family and God God asked me to do this I'm thinking about my my wife who came up and shared the story of like God saying at this intersection at this time There's gonna be a man. I want you to do this for him like the adventure of that going No way there's actually someone there and then finding out that she's supposed to give him all these gifts and the guy goes I can't believe this. It's my birthday today Like the kingdom is awesome.
We learned that listening and obeying was the best way to live he cares about me He cares about my friends he cares about my family he cares about strangers I get to participate in the kingdom and so this whole journey has been marked by us just exploring What is it like when the king gets his way and we've felt that we've experienced it So if you're looking for any sort of a summary statement the best I can come up with is that the kingdom of God is God's reign That was ushered into the world through Jesus and is now active in the hearts of his body and empowers them to live out in the world This is the kingdom of God as best as we can describe it. So This sounds less like a list and more like a way It's just the lifestyle of how someone in the kingdom lives. I listen I obey I take breaks occasionally I push hard occasionally. I'm just gonna do what he says.
I'm gonna live open-handed I'm gonna celebrate wildly. I'm gonna weep at those who eat these are the kingdom things and again You can't necessarily go so what's the list how to know if I'm checking the box? You just start to walk in the way of Jesus You go oh, it's kind of like that and you find yourself speaking in parables saying the kingdom of God is like a man standing on the side Of the street on his birthday the kingdom of God is like a glass of water when you really need it the kingdom of God It's like a generous heart that sees their brother in need and gives generously and we start talking in parables We're just going I don't know how to describe it's kind of like that. It has been a beautiful beautiful seven months And so what we're going to do is we are going to maximize what the Lord's done.
I'm not saying embellish I'm just gonna say maximize. This is where we marinate a little bit This is where we go I want all of those ingredients to sink in I want to be transformed by this And so the best way that I know how to do that is by actually activating all of us to just start talking And so what we're gonna do is I'm gonna put some some questions up and we're gonna get in groups hold off on putting the questions up You get distracted To everyone knows that's what would happen straight up But what we're gonna do is we're gonna get into groups and we are going to just answer some questions And we're gonna draw out one another and share Here's what the Lord's done because the goal here is that we take our break to reflect and actually let all of this transform us Yeah, okay, so before we put this up here's how small groups work around here If these small groups work everywhere and I'm just gonna give language to help us out Okay, small groups can be weird if we're not all on the same page Okay, so we should all know going into small groups some of us are internal processors and some of us are external processors Internal processors, it's okay. It's gonna smoke if you go hold on a minute. I'm just thinking I don't want you to just stir up some guts Encourage and say something I want you to actually share and so internal processors you have some space to go an external processors You need to give them space Because sometimes it's like man I have no idea what the Lord did but I'm just gonna start walking and see what happens in your group It's along for that journey and I just want to give us permission to go I'm self-aware enough to go.
Yeah, I'm an external processor Maybe maybe the whole group maybe we just start with like a minute of like thinking maybe right now is I'm talking you start to zone out I just want to know the question so I can start processing Fine, but that's actually a gift for your group You just kind of know where we're all at if there's one person that shares for 20 minutes This is an ineffective time and so I want all of my external processors I'm one of those who have a tendency to overshare and over communicate you're looking at one of them We're gonna have self-control. It's gonna be awesome and for all of you are internal processors typically don't share don't see this as you trying to This is not you showing off or you sharing some It's this is you actually glorifying God by naming what he's done and honoring what he's done So it's actually a good thing to be stretched in this area because it's getting already God, okay? Great who wants to see the questions? Okay, put them up there put them up there We have a framework that we use around here to try and describe the values of the kingdom So these are not everyday values these are kingdom values celebration honor and hunger you've heard this before yes, great This is how we're gonna frame up our discussion time We're gonna start by celebrating something that the Lord has done in the last six months This is where you can look back at something that happened during the fast.
This is where you can look at wow I used to do this and I don't do that anymore I really struggled with this and I've been relatively consistent by the grace of God in this area But we're looking specifically for the transformation looking for it was different or it's different now than it was and so we're gonna celebrate What God's done everyone in your group when you start thinking what something you can celebrate that God has done Something you prayed for and then it and then got answered something that was broken and now it's fixed Those are the kind of things that we actually want to as Abby said once you got do some math So we actually want to share these things because we believe that God wants to multiply it You're the expression of the kingdom that you've seen is not just for you. It's seed that can multiply okay So we'll start with celebration honor. This is the fun one I want you to think about the person that you know that you think exemplifies the kingdom more than anyone else It's so helpful to get a picture to get a framework And you might not even fully know why but try to describe why this person reminds you of Jesus This person is this person's walking out in the kingdom Why share with your group get a picture start to share ideas of like this is what it looks like using real examples that you've seen Yeah, that's a fun one and then hunger This is where we enter in by going and here's one thing that I actually want to grow in I want the kingdom to increase in this part of My life we're gonna stay hungry. It's so good and necessary to celebrate We're always gonna go and I know Jesus that you you want to continue to multiply this in me And so when all that's done will take time and we'll pray for each other and if you still got time Shameless ask pray for this community We believe that God wants to do something in your life But we believe that God wants to do something in our house that actually puts like a light a Light that shines we want to be a city on a hill We want people in our city to get a sight line into what it looks like to live in the kingdom And we believe that God wants to do that here and so rather than spend all of our time talking I'm gonna be randomly interrupting you on my mic going make sure you have time to pray Make sure you have time to pray because that's where we're actually going to see a lot of this transformation So some of you are super happy and excited for small groups Some of you are like team-mind is one minute till the bathroom break Please stick around and if you haven't been coming here for a while here Well, I wasn't here for these Kingdom series great news none of this is actually This doesn't require you to have been here.
This is where we just get to multiply the kingdom however We can through sharing all right, okay functionally we're gonna do groups of four or five everyone say four or five We can't do six we can't do eight because then the groups to vague and not everyone can share likewise We can't do two or three because then you'll go through this really quick And then go what are you supposed to do now? Well, you weren't in a group of four or five and say wait quicker So groups of four or five if you are someone that feels like man, I'm a leader in this house I'm a deacon I've been here for a long time try and make sure that you're in a group with people that aren't as much as possible because you just know How this works in this longer setting and I should I should have said this before if you don't want to do this You don't have to do it. It'd be so weird if you got bullied at church pastor made me do it. No one's gonna make you do anything I'm encouraging you.
I'm exorting you. It's good for you You want to marinate in this even if you don't share you want to listen and go get like a sight line into what the kingdoms like But no one's gonna make you do this. All right. All right, we're gonna get groups of four or five We're gonna go through these it's gonna be awesome.
You're going to have a half hour For some of you you're like that's not enough time some of you like what I'm gonna do with all that time It works from the first service or we're gonna do it again So 30 minutes is what you got everybody turn to a neighbor getting groups groups of four or five here we Go hey, I'm I'm going to commission us out here in a minute, but just wanted to share something with you at the At the risk of sounding kind of corny You know we talked earlier about how you can't always Make a list about what the kingdom is but you know it when you see it and just looking out and seeing seeing a church full of people a congregation full of people that are just given some prompts on a giant screen and told to talk to each other pray with each other and seeing Seeing you guys partner with each other and we've got groups of people of different ethnicities and different You know aged brackets and socioeconomic backgrounds and your styles don't match at all and you're you're gathered around each other Praying and going and we just want the kingdom like that's it. That's what it looks like and I'm just so grateful I understand that this is a high challenge night You came not knowing that you're gonna break in the groups and be asked a bunch of questions and you leaned in and I'm just I'm just so grateful To be part of a community like this As you guys were in your groups I just prayed and asked the Lord what he would want to say as we head into our our break and God is kindness likes to keep it simple And so he said make room take risks love well And so our our our our commission out is just us saying yes Lord So if you guys would stand I'm gonna pray and commission us out Into this incredible break altar prayer team you can come up to the front We have some folks with lanyards are gonna be available to pray that if you're someone that your group doing a chance to pray over you And you would like to receive prayer you can come up and receive prayer there But let's pray together as we launch out father Your way is the best way we want to live in lock step with the way that you do things God for me and my friends We just sign up again to explore the kingdom to give you our little yes and our little hunger and let you come and multiply and do something Spectacular in the little soil that we can provide you God we choose to enter into this break and make room We make room to reflect to give you space to give you opportunity God we choose to take risks we sign up again To trust you when you say to step we step to trust you and you say to stop we stop We sign up again to live in lock step with you and even right now we take time to listen and obey Lord What's one thing that you have us do over break that we could partner with you and we stop and we listen? That's a great idea Lord. We'd love to do that with you Father we we just want to be like you we want to step out and love well and so I commissioned out all of us into this break to go And make room take risks and love well We get to represent the kingdom and the king everywhere that we go And so we launch out of here with expectancy that you can take little people like us and you can actually multiply the kingdom in and through us We thank you Jesus.
We're happy to be yours. Amen