You can turn in your Bibles to Matthew 9 with me. We're going to get into the Word together. Matthew 9. Man, what a joy for us to launch the prayer room this week.
It just honestly felt surreal. And I think to build off what Ben was saying, you know, we were anticipating you guys would be burnt out on the prayer room because we did a 24-hour burn, right? And that was a lot of prayer. There was a lot of worship.
Some of you guys just bringing your sleeping bags. And you didn't even know if it was okay that you had a sleeping bag, but you brought it anyways, you know? And there was so many that camped out with the Lord through the middle of the night. I remember our 2 AM prayer set.
We had 140 people or something like that. But I mean, 2 AM, on a Saturday, where there's just so many hungry ones going, Jesus, you're worthy. And it's our joy to just commission this prayer room. And so what we were anticipating is on Monday, you know, bright and early, there'd be no men at men's prayer.
You know, there'd be nobody that would show up to the noon set and all of a sudden, like, Ben is saying the prayer room is bustling with people that are just hungry for the Lord, saying, I can't get enough. Like, I want to read my Bible more. I want to connect with the Lord more. And so it's actually, it's surreal that we get to have a prayer room in our city that's open and just hosting connection with the Lord.
So we're on cloud nine and still kind of recovering from the launch. Our team is like, this is amazing. And wow, that was a lot. And but man, there's so much joy in it.
So Matthew 9, I want to start in verse 35 here. As we're moving into the base, I want to center us on some things and Katie and I, we're talking about, man, what does the community need? And we really feel that it's important to remind us of who we are and what Jesus is speaking over us, what he's called us into as a people over this next month because God is not wanting us to get distracted by the nice carpet and the nice screen that we barely, it's just like usually plain colors, you know? And there's not some like screensaver.
How many of you guys remember the star screensaver in Microsoft where it's just like, you're flying in outer space? Can you imagine if we did that back here? None of you would look at Jesus. You just be, it's like when it's snowing and it's hitting the windshield and you're like, I should not be looking at the snowflakes, but I can't stop, right?
I don't know why I'm saying that, but I don't want us to get soft and distracted with the building. The building's great, okay, like let's move on, it's Jesus, right? It's the kingdom that we're going after. Matthew 9, verse 35, it says, and Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages.
He was teaching in their synagogues, their churches and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And then he turned to his disciples and he said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, I've got something that you need to do.
Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He's speaking to those that are learning from him and sitting under his sage wisdom. And Jesus looks at all of the crowds.
He's moved with compassion. He's seen that they're harassed by the enemy. He's seen that they're helpless and he's going, you know what the problem is here? The problem is that they've got bad soil.
The problem is that their hearts are too hard. The problem is that there's too much immorality in culture. The problem is that there's too much, no, he isn't saying any of that. He isn't saying that that's the problem.
What's the problem? That there's not enough laborers. He's not going, the problem is that there's not enough churches. The problem is that there's not enough non-profits.
The problem is that there's not enough qualified preachers. He's going, no, no, no, the problem is that there's not enough laborers. He's going, it's not a watering problem. It's not a God's not giving enough increase problem.
It's not, God is in the throne room folding his arms, waiting for us to pray hard enough to send revival problem. Are you hearing me? It's not, well, you just gotta wait long enough and then God will start moving. He always says, it's a laborers problem.
It's not, they're not ready problem. There's not enough laborers. And as a people, we have this ache and this grit on the inside of us that goes, Lord, here I am. Send me.
There's a send me in our souls as a community. And if you haven't jumped on the bandwagon, I wanna encourage you, hop on the bandwagon to have that be a prayer in your heart. Lord, you gotta send me. Put me in the uncomfortable position.
Give me the divine appointment. I'm ready to roll. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to be the messenger.
I'm ready to bring the kingdom. And that's what's inside of you as a people. And I wanna remind you, that's who you are. You're the hungry ones that go, send me, I'm the laborer, and I'm gonna pray to who, the Lord of the harvest.
Have you ever meditated on the knowledge of God that he is the Lord of the harvest? Can you just pause on, he's not just the Lord of the church. He's not just the Lord of all of those that have surrendered to him. He's the Lord of the harvest fields.
He's the Lord that likes being in the dirt. He's the Lord that likes being on the streets. He's the Lord that likes being in the spheres. He's the Lord that likes being in the wild.
That's his soul. That's what he loves. He likes being outside of these walls. He loves here.
He loves it. He loves you. He loves us together. He loves when we get together.
He loves the prayer room. He loves all this stuff. He loves everyday kids. He loves this.
He loves happy Monday. He loves their coffee. He loves their grandma drink or whatever that I had last week. That was fire.
That was so good. But he loves the people. They're in the world. And God is calling us out of pointing our fingers at the world.
And we're actually going to step into, for God so loved that he gave. And because he's so loved and gave, now I'm going to so love. And Paul went in his footsteps. And I'm going to give.
I'm going to give my life. I'm going to go into the fields. Because they were destined to know him. They were destined to see him.
They're destined to get a sight line to know who Jesus is. Turning your Bible to Ephesians 4. I want to keep on going on this theme. Ephesians 4.
You could just say something like, well, but there's not enough people that are giving to missions. You know? Not enough business people. Not enough marketplace people that are really pushing the needle for missions and giving generously.
And that's why the harvest isn't coming in. You know? It's these classic things that church people say or church people think of like, I go to work so that I can give to people that are actually going to be laborers. And what we're not realizing is that we're all supposed to do it.
That you're not a paycheck in the kingdom. That's not your destiny as a person of God to just be a paycheck that you can give. You didn't show up on the earth so that you could get rich and then just invest into missions. God's calling you.
Yeah, you. To be a laborer in the field. Yes, he's going to use those dollars as little seeds. And you better believe he's going to take those seeds and he's going to multiply them.
And the kingdom is going to advance. It's going to be amazing. And he loves your generosity. But you get to do this stuff too, OK?
Ephesians 3 is jam-packed with so much of goodness. And the apostle Paul has a problem. He writes in Ronon sentences all the time. And then there's no punctuation in the Greek.
And the apostle Paul just loves it. He just never has a period. He just keeps on going with his thoughts. And they all interconnect and they all weave together.
And so you just try to read it. And then it just bleeds into itself. And so in your own time, you should read Ephesians 3 because it bridges into Ephesians 4. But we'll read verse 20 because it's so good.
Actually, we should probably read Ephesians. No, I'm just kidding. We'll start in verse 20. Ephesians 3 verse 20.
Now to him who's able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. According to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. What is the apostle Paul saying? The Lord's going to do way more than you think.
He's going to blow your mind. And how's he going to blow your mind? He's going to do things through you that surprise you. He's going to do things through the people of God that the people of God are going to be like, I can't believe that happened.
And I can't believe I was a part of that. He's going to blow your mind with his abundance and what he's going to accomplish that are kingdom things. And he gets all the glory. Can we just pause and remember?
He gets the clout. He gets the glory for it. He gets the honor for it and all the stuff that he does because we know how frail we are, how weak we are, how little we are. OK, let's move on.
Ephesians 4-1. Therefore, and his therefore is all about everything that was written in the first three chapters of Ephesians. As a prisoner for the Lord, I urge you, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. This is how I want you to walk.
Verse 2, with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. This is kind of like, how many of you guys remember Romans 12? It's kind of like this is how we carry ourselves. Remember that?
There's one body, one spirit, just as you were called, the one hope that belongs to our call or your call. These are all the things that get to unify us as a people. How many of you guys know that there's a lot of disunity in the body of Christ, but we're reading a list that can actually unify the whole body? We can just unify under these things.
There's one hope and there's one call. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. He's over all through all and in all. He's the one.
So just like heaven, we can gather around the one and go, you're it. We're going to gather around you. And then what happens is Paul begins to paint this picture of how Jesus descended. So if you remember, Jesus dies on the cross.
And as he's in the tomb, he descends into Sheol or Hades. And he takes the keys of death in Hades, and he rips that out of Satan's hand. And he says, I'm victorious over sin and death. And then he rises from the dead.
He overcomes death. And then what he does is he visits his disciples for 40 days. He's hanging out with them. He's eating fish with them.
He loves fish. And he's like cooks fish and eats fish. And he's just a fish guy. That's why he hired on fishermen to be his disciples, because he likes fish probably.
That's probably assuming his palate. But I think he likes it. And so he's rolling through for 40 days. He's appearing to over 400 people over 40 days.
And then in Acts 1, we see that he stands on his favorite place where he was kind of a familiar place where he prayed a lot. It's called the Mount of Olives. And he's standing on top of the Mount of Olives. And all of a sudden, he just starts floating.
And he just keeps on floating. He keeps on going up in the air. And his disciples are like, right? Their minds are blown.
And as he ascends into heaven, right before he did that, though, he said, hey, I want you to wait in Jerusalem, because I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. So what he promises is disciples is he says, just like a bridegroom that is getting engaged in Jewish culture, they would give the bride a gift when they went away to go build on their dad's house to prepare a place for their bride as like an add-on onto the house before they would leave to go do the building project during the engagement with their bride. They would give the bride a gift. And that gift was to remind them, hey, I'm coming back for you.
I'm coming back for you. So Jesus, what he does is he says, I am going to give, I'm going to send my gift to you as a down payment because I'm coming back. I'm coming back for you, church. I'm coming back for you, bride of Christ.
And so what he does is he ascends into heaven and he sends Holy Spirit down. And that's what this pastor starts talking about is Jesus ascends into heaven and sends gifts down. And he sends gifts that are unmerited favor, graces, but he also sends the Holy Spirit. But I want you to look at verse 11 because he gives something else to his church.
Verse 11 says this, and he gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, pastors to his church. So Jesus knows if there's not any leadership structure for the church, things are going to go downhill real fast because everybody thinks that they're the guy, right? And so Jesus is going, we need leadership structure or things are going to get squirrely. It's going to be like the Corinthian church and we need some order in here.
When the Holy Spirit starts moving, you got to know who's going to take responsibility, right? So Jesus gives the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. And he says, you're the ones that are going to actually be the leadership structure for the body. Okay, some of you guys are getting bored because I'm talking about leadership structures.
Hey, stay here, it's okay. We're okay, are we okay? All right, some of you want me to go deep into the fivefold ministry. I'm not going to do that tonight.
All right, yeah, talk about the apostles. I'm going to apostle, stop chill. We're okay. I'm a prophet.
Okay, you're okay. We're going to keep on moving. I want you to look at the role and the purpose of church leadership, apostles, prophet, evangelist, teacher, pastor. Verse 12, those people, those leaders exist to equip or perfect or fit the saints for the work of ministry.
That word equip in the Greek is that perfect or prepare or fit. You know, I was thinking about when I went to a shoe store back in the day, how many of you guys are sneaker heads? Sneaker heads, let's go. All right, only a few of you.
They're going to come, they're going to come. We're going to gather them, okay? I just bought two pair of shoes today, Missy, I didn't tell you. I was sermon prepping and I pulled the trigger.
All right, it's a good deal. There was like one that had defect and it was like 35 bucks and I just pulled the trigger, okay? All right, so listen, how many of you remember when you show up to footlocker, or you show up to some sporting like shoe spot and they have the metal measurement tool? When you were a kid, do you remember that?
And you put your foot and it's funny. But I was thinking about that and I was thinking about how the fivefold ministry, their call is to fit you and prepare you with feet that are ready with the gospel of peace. And I was just thinking about how like those fivefold are meant to get the right shoe on you so that you can get kicked out of the church and pushed out of the church and be fitted with the right feet to actually bring the kingdom everywhere you go. That's the role of the fivefold.
They're called to equip you, to give you tools, give you resources, why? Well, not to be watched to do the minute. Can you imagine if the fivefold ministers, their role, is to equip you to just watch them? Can you imagine if Jesus goes, hey, this is the strategy.
I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit so that he can dwell inside of every one of you, but then you guys are all gonna sit on the sidelines and you're gonna sit in the bleachers and you're gonna watch the fivefold ministers be in the game. They're gonna be the starters, you're gonna sit the bench your whole life. You're not gonna experience the kingdom, you're gonna watch them do the kingdom and then sometimes they might put a finger on your forehead and you're gonna fall over and you're gonna think that the kingdom really just came and you're gonna wonder why your whole life you're bored. You're gonna wonder why you're feeling unsatisfied.
You're gonna wonder why the world just seems more entertaining because man, they didn't preach as good this week as they did last week and it wasn't a very good message and man, I really didn't get challenged. Right? And we're waiting for a minister or a preacher to do something that will impress us. We're waiting for some type of leader to actually just give us that hit of dopamine because we just came from our couch and we got hit of dopamine at home and now we're expecting the same thing at the entertaining church service thing.
And the Lord's going, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I gave you the spirit and I have made you a temple of the spirit and I've made a home inside of you not to just be kept inside of you but you're actually called to be a saint. Somebody say, saint. Now, he didn't say you're called to be a sinner for the work of ministry.
Ha ha. He didn't say you're gonna be a dirty rotten sinner for the work of ministry. He didn't say you're gonna self fulfill the prophecy of your identity being a sinner saved by grace. He didn't say you're going to be miserable in your sin and you're gonna be enslaved in sin even though you've been forgiven of it.
You're gonna still be living in it for your whole life and you're gonna be a hopeless project for God and you're gonna do the work for ministry. He didn't say that. He said you're a saint for the work of ministry. Do you know how much hoops you have to jump through to become a saint in the Catholic church?
You at first of all, you have to die. You gotta be dead for a while and then you have to have somebody pray in your name and then a healing or a miracle happen in your name for you to even get to like the third level of sainthood. Jesus makes it super simple. He says, anybody that surrenders their life and makes me the Lord of their life becomes a saint in the kingdom of heaven.
He says, you know what? The only thing that can make somebody turn from a sinner to a saint is blood and not just any blood, God blood. Right? So you all need to understand.
I need to understand. I am a saint and you're a saint. Not because of anything that I've done. Not because of my good performance.
Not because I got a bunch of gold stars because I really was a good boy. I don't know because he was perfect and he took on my punishment and I surrendered to his lordship and said, I'm not gonna be the boss anymore of my own life. You're gonna be in charge. And then when I did that, I surrendered to Jesus and then my old nature got crucified and now it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives me.
And now I'm a new creation and the old is gone and the new has come. And now I'm an ambassador of the kingdom of Jesus. Now my call is a call to reconcile the world to Jesus. Now I'm a representative.
Now I'm a saint. Now I'm a new creation. Now I got a new purpose on my life. Some of us are going, man, what's my purpose?
I'm telling you, you're called to be a saint. You're called to have direct access to the throne room of heaven. Do you understand that there's only one person in all of Israel, God's chosen people that could go into the holy place and actually be in the very presence of God. And it could happen once a year.
And they had to put literally, they had to hook up, like chains onto his foot because the presence of God is so powerful and if he made a wrong step, he could actually die in there. Oh, there was, oh, there was, it was not changed as bells. Yeah, sorry, it's not changed. Man, that's intense chains.
Still intense, bells. And then what Jesus does is he dies on the cross, the veil, the curtain that separates all of humanity. From being able to have direct access to the presence of God, that thing gets ripped from top to bottom. It's like 30 feet high, it's impossible to rip from bottom to top.
And Jesus tears it from top to bottom. God's like, hey, I wanna get out of here and I wanna get into the fields. I wanna get into the streets and I wanna give access, fresh, real access to all of us so that we can be priests before the Lord. It's called the priesthood of all believers.
You all get direct access as saints. So that's good news that you're saints. It's also good news that you get to work. It's also good news that you have a purpose.
It's good news that St. Haley and St. JP and St. Ashley and St.
Ben and St. Mark and St. Mel and St. Alyssa and St.
Megan and St. Morgan and all, you all get to actually put your hand to the plow of the kingdom. You all get to be in the fields. You all get to be part of the project.
Have you ever watched something that's so inspiring, like a mission, maybe a war movie or something like that, and you're like, man, and you see yourself in it while it's happening? I mean, we all do that with movies, right? It's like, yeah, I'm part of the team. I'm part of the special ops crew when I watch it.
I did that. And I didn't do it, but they did it, but I was there. I was in it, and I was in the room. And the Lord's going, hey, I got this wild, exciting, exhilarating mission.
And you all get to be on the 18. You all get to be part of the work. You all get to be a part of the mission of bringing the kingdom. It's work.
I don't know if you guys remember walking into the building today, but you know that the room that you walk into, it's called the Round. It's that circle room. And then many of you looked up, and you saw new letters on the wall. Did you guys see that?
And it said, saints for the work. And that's from this passage. And it's to remind all of you that you're a saint, and there's work that you have. And it's a work of the kingdom.
Some of us are going work. What are you talking about? It's Sunday. Why are you talking about work?
I'm glad it's the weekend. And you need to understand and need to know that before the fall happened, how many of you remember Adam and Eve God, he plants a garden, sets Adam and Eve in the garden. Do you know that God's idea was that there would be work even before the fall? Some of us, when we think about, I was listening to Pastor Ben's message, make it a garden.
You guys got to listen to that sermon. It's so good. It's so important. But he was talking about how work was a part of God's design before the fall.
Some of us think of the garden before the fall, and we think of the all-inclusive restaurant, all-inclusive resort. It's like, on the beach, no work, zero responsibility. And that's what Adam and Eve were living in. They're just on the beach in the jungle.
It's like, oh, that's a new animal. They're looking and they're just sitting back, hanging out. They got the vines holding them. They're just relaxing.
It's just the glistening sun. It's like, man, I don't have anything to do. And it's bliss. No, that's not what they were doing.
The Lord literally commissions them and he says, hey, I'm giving you a place. This is where you're going to live. This is going to be your neighborhood. And I want you to work and keep this garden.
Because even before the fall, there was work to be done. And the Lord is going, hey, listen, I got to break it to you. If you're just sitting on the couch, watching TV, you're just sitting on the couch, playing video games, and you're feeling depressed. I know why you're depressed.
Because you're just consuming. And you're not getting to work. The Lord designed you to go to work. The Lord designed generation alpha and generation Z.
And the millennial generation, we all have the same call. And it's to get to work. It's to show up to work. It's to start the business.
It's to show up to the nine to five. Listen, you are designed. And you're going, man, why does something feel off? I'll tell you why it's off because you're still sitting at home.
Some of you are still sitting at home. You get to work. You just start making income. You need to start providing.
God's calling you to get off your butt and to get to work. And this is a bonus because it's not what this passage is even talking about. But some of you need to hear it. Some of you are depressed because you're not working.
And then some of you are looking for a job. And Lord, make it happen. And there's no shame if you're unemployed and you're trying to find work. I'm not talking about you.
OK. Is it OK if I get back to the word? Some of you are like, yeah, please. All right.
Back to the scriptures. Listen, that's in the Bible, though. It says that you're worse than a nonbeliever if you're not providing for your family. OK.
All right. OK. OK. OK.
I'll come off it. All right. Verse 13. Am I finished on that?
Yeah, I'm good on that. OK. Equipped the saints for the work of ministry. We're still in verse 12.
To build up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and into maturity. So we talked about being a saint. Now we talked about how you're called to work. And this work is a work of ministry.
So you're administering something. You're actually a representative of a different kingdom. And God is calling you into going to seminary. No.
We don't need more people to go to seminary and get cold hearts. Somebody say amen to that. I'm sorry. Some of you seminary professors.
You're probably not going to lead people to get cold hearts in the room. OK. But Jesus isn't ascending in heaven going, man. OK, I'm going to send my spirit.
But all you have to go to Bible college. And you're going to go into ministry. But you all need to be pastors. And you need to be a worship leader.
Or you need to be on staff at a church. And if you're really passionate for God, then you maybe start your own church. Or you start your own nonprofit. Can you listen?
You don't need to go in a full-time ministry. You get to be in full-time ministry in the fields. We don't need necessarily. I mean, it's great if there's more churches.
It's great if there's more pastors. That's great. That's awesome. But I'm telling you, Jesus isn't going.
Look at those five-fold ministers. Wow. If we only had more five-fold ministers in the fields. Fam.
Jesus is going, there's a laborers problem. There's a saints that are not at work in the fields problem. There's saints that are looking at their faith. And they're going, faith is sacred.
And it goes in this box. And my work and the rest of my life belongs to me. And belongs to my boss. And my free time belongs to whatever I feel like all the time.
And it's called a dualistic mindset, where we've separated. And this is what the world wants you to do. To separate the sacred and the secular. And we're upset.
Many of us, because we're going, once they took the 10 commandments out of the school, then everything went downhill. And I'm going, once the people have got stopped being the people of God in every sphere of society, and they stopped seeing themselves as ministers at the gospel, then there's also, there's attribute that sets in. Then things start breaking down. And chaos starts happening because all of the people that actually have shalom on the inside aren't bringing shalom on the outside and bringing order and wholeness and the kingdom of heaven everywhere they go.
Because then they're going, well, it's sacred. And I've got to retreat into the corners of society. And I've got to retreat into rooms like this. And I can't talk about Jesus because it's offensive.
Do you know what's offensive? That people are committing suicide every single day in our city. Do you know what's offensive? Everybody wants Jesus.
They just don't know it yet. And if they don't want Jesus, then that's OK. But they have to make a choice. And they're only going to make a choice if there's a messenger that has beautiful feet.
They got fitted and got cast out of the church and said, you need to spank in the pants. Go. Some of us are going, man. Yeah, you clap to that.
It's like, yeah, spank in the pants. Listen. You know what I've discovered as a leader in the body of Christ. I've discovered that most of the people of God are looking for some type of validation from church leadership to actually obey.
The people of God are so used to looking to a man to have their identity defined and to be affirmed and to know that they've got what it takes and they're OK. And so I feel it. And we don't need to be ashamed about this. But I feel the pull of like affirm me, like validate me.
And then I'll bring the kingdom. And so if you need some validation today from a church leader, you're affirmed. You got the stamp of approval to live the kingdom lifestyle. If you're looking for somebody to go, but do I have what it takes?
I'm telling you, you don't have what it takes. You don't got it. But you do have a Holy Spirit inside of you that can strengthen you in your weakness and you've got it in him. Man, you and I both know you can't do it.
You and I both know that you kind of mess things up. And people, you just like totally screwed up the conversation. And you're like, man, they're never going to say yes to Jesus after that. And then the Lord fills in the gaps.
And the Lord's like, I don't care how good of a labor you are. Somebody's got to hear that. Because all of us have this like, oh, I don't know if I'm good at it. I don't know if I'm good at bringing the kingdom.
And then Jesus is like, I don't care if you think you're good at it. The problem is the laborers. He didn't even say good laborers. He didn't say skilled laborers.
He didn't say qualified laborers. Seminary Bible school laborers. He didn't say really, really good orator laborers. He didn't say good teachers.
He didn't say he needs the prime time evangelist. He just said, he's literally Jesus is throwing bodies. He's just like, put the body in. Just like throw them in.
Get them off the bench into the game. We just need hands. We just need hands that are going, I'm willing to get off the cruise ship. I'm willing to get off of spectator Christianity.
I'm willing to get out of the recliner. And I'm willing to go, well, if I jump off the cruise ship of the American church and I hop into a lifeboat, and then I got a hand, and there's millions drowning, maybe God could use me. What if? And listen, you don't have to win 1,000 people to Jesus.
Jesus is going, this is the day where you're going to introduce ones and twos to the Lord. There's believers that are rising up. They're going, all I'm going to, I'm just if I just lead one person to Jesus. It starts that way.
Do you remember Jesus? He laid his life down, and it was one for all. And now it's all for him. It's all for one.
And he's not shaming you. He's not guilty in you today. He's not like, man, you have been doing work. You haven't been in the game.
You haven't been in ministry. You should be ashamed of yours. No, no, no, no, no, stop. That's not what he's like.
That's not his posture. He's like, hey, I got a spank for you. You know, he's just like, come on. He's ready to send you out.
You're like, I'm in process. He's like, so is the world. That's actually what's going to connect you to the people of the world. They're in process.
You're in process. But you know someone that helps and completely transforms. You're in process? Yes.
Jesus, like, you're qualified. You know the gospel? Get out of there. Get out of here.
Just get. Yeah. I want you to look at some of you are like, but I'm not an evangelist. And I want to just name that.
And that's OK. Verse 13, verse 12 says, building up the body and Christ. So then he goes into, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children. Toss to and fro where there's deception.
And we're deceived by human cunning and by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, we speak the truth in love. We are to grow up in every way into Him who's the head, who's Jesus, from the whole body, joint and held together, every joint. And what I believe is the fivefold ministers are the joints, which get everything else moving.
So every joint with which it is equipped, right? Because the fivefold ministers equipped. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. The fruit of saints for the work of ministry is that the body grows.
And all of you evangelists go, yes, the body's going to grow. Because there's going to be people there. They're going to meet Jesus. And they're going to get born again.
And they're going to be baptized up. And the swimming pool of the holiday. And then we snuck into and then in the lake now because it's warmer. And the lost are going to be Jesus.
And all of you evangelists are like, yes, let's charge the hill. And then everybody else is like, no, I'm scared. But the Lord knows, and He goes, I'm going to put leaders in your life in the church that aren't just evangelists. Do you see that?
And even the context of this passage, the main fruit is the building up of the body of Christ. Did you see that? So the saints are for the work of ministry to build up the body. And when we say body, we're talking about the people of God.
When I say building up the body, there is going to be a couple hundred different ways in the room that you go, this is how I build up the body. This is my specific gift set. This is my specific grace that God has given me. And we get to touch all of it.
You all get to introduce to people to Jesus. But what I'm saying is the pastor goes, you all get to carry building the body up and being that safe person that people can talk to. And you're caring for them. And in their brokenness, in their soul brokenness, you're actually going to counsel them into health, because you got that shepherd pastor thing on you.
And that's how you build up the body. And then some of you are the prophetic type. And you're like, it's very black and white. This is very clear.
This is the truth. This is the lie. And I'm going to bring the sword. And you've got that thing on you that's like, this is what God's doing.
This is what he's about. This is what he's saying. And you need emboldened by the prophet to go, hey, go. That's how you're going to build up the body.
You're going to build up the body through edification. You're going to hear the voice of God. And you're going to be depositing and affirming and encouraging and bringing identity into the body. You're going to prophesy.
And then some of us are, we feel like the way to build up the body is look at a problem and go, that problem has to be solved. And I'm going to start something. I'm going to pioneer something. And the apostle is like, who's going to solve the biggest problems in the entire world?
And you're like, I am. And you're this full of zeal pioneer. And the apostle is like, are you going to change the world? And you're like, yeah, I'm going to change the world.
And you're going to start things. And you're actually going to be equipped to go, I'm going to touch all of it. And I'm going to actually pioneer problem solving in the marketplace, in the education sector, in government, all those things, right? So it's the apostles, the prophets.
And then the teachers are like, hey, let me simplify this thing for you. You're going, you're emboldened to actually bring people onto a journey of understanding. And that's how you build up the body. But every single person, if we read the passage, you can look down and follow along.
We see that the fruit of you being saints for the work of ministry and living that out is that there's unity of faith in verse 13. You grow in the knowledge of the Son of God. You get to know Jesus better. And then everybody around you starts growing in their understanding of Jesus.
And then I want you to jump down all the way to 15. And then you're speaking the truth in love. Those are the things that are the marks of man saints are working. There's unity of faith.
People are growing in the knowledge of Jesus. And we aren't afraid to speak the truth, but we do it in love. And then all of a sudden, the body of Christ grows. And it flourishes.
And we grow up into the head. I want you to know that church buildings are great, that initiatives are awesome. Non-profits are awesome. They're great.
But God is leading us into a new day, as the American church. He's putting an end to you sitting on the bench. He's putting an end to you just doing business as usual, listening to good messages, continuing to live a life that's boring. You're not supposed to be a stale person.
You're not supposed to be lame and normal. You're supposed to be a saint. And when people look at your life, they go, well, that's different. Who's that?
Who's that? That's a holy one. That looks that felt different. What was that?
That's what happens when saints walk in the room. When saints walk in the room, all of a sudden, the kingdom just walked into the room. The kingdom of heaven starts bleeding into everything because saints are at work. You're meant to be Mary's on mission.
Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus and then leaving the feet of Jesus and going with Jesus and going on mission everywhere. God is calling us into the streets, into the fields. You're a laborer. And you get to be the answer to all of your prayers.
Jesus said pray for labors. Lord, send labors. Okay, okay. And he starts pushing you out.
And you realize, oh, I was the answer to my prayer. How many of you know that's probably like 90% of our prayer life? We're like, God, would you provide financially for them in the words like God's raising up saints that are going to go to the retail stores, saints that go to practice for their kids, saints that are lain by the pool, saints in our neighborhoods, saints at grocery stores, saints at family gatherings, saints at happy hour with our coworkers that are drinking too much, saints in the AA, our review of how the project didn't go the way that we thought it was going to go. Saints in the performance review meeting when the boss has some criticism, saints at the community group, saints in the field, saints on the water.
It's a new day for American Christianity. It's the dream of God's heart that you would be in love with him and go, I have to tell somebody. It's God's desire and God's dream that you'd go, I'm at work and I'm doing the work of being an ambassador and administrating the kingdom of heaven. You're a culture carrier.
You don't have to wait for God to breathe on something, to just be a saint. You don't have to wait for God to send revival, to pray for somebody. You don't have to wait for God to split open the sky, for you actually to talk about Jesus and bring hope to your sphere of influence. You don't have to have the Holy Spirit really bring conviction for you to be a person of character in your workplace.
Remember, you're a saint for the work. You're a saint for the work of ministry. Let's all stand. If I was to look at our city in 2024 and go, if I was to go back in time in 2014 and look at our city 10 years later, we had to face the facts and ask the question, is our city more like the kingdom of heaven, 10 years later, or is it not?
When it turns 2034, is Minneapolis and St. Paul gonna look more like the kingdom? Or is there gonna be some bigger churches and some smaller churches? Is there gonna be the same problems that just got a little bit worse?
Or is the people of God gonna start seeing themselves as saints for the work? And actually die to the lie that there has to be a divide between sacred and secular. And the people of God sign up and go, Lord, I want the kingdom. When you were dreaming on the cross of the future in 2024, you were looking at this hour at this time in our city.
Were you dreaming of good church services? Were you dreaming of anointed ministers that have good ministry times? Were you envisioning a people fully in love that goes, I can't just settle for good church experiences. I can't just settle for some good messages and some good Bible studies and then just move on with my everyday life and continue serving myself and live in comfort and live on the cruise ship of American Christianity?
What if Jesus is, is he's ascending into heaven and going? Watch this, I'm gonna send the spirit. If he wasn't just thinking about the five-fold ministers preaching, he wasn't just thinking about the ultra ministry happening, but he was going, I want every single person to know me. I want every single person to know me deeply and intimately.
And I want them to make me known everywhere they go. I want them to build up the body of Christ. I want them to be known by the way that they love each other. What if, what if that was what was on his heart?
I think it was. Jesus, we wanna fill up the desires of your heart. Jesus, I want you to activate me as a saint for the working ministry. You can just say that to the Lord, Lord, activate me.
Help me. I wanna see myself as a saint. Some of you are going, man, I just need to, first things first, I've been seeing myself as a sinner. I've been living in shame.
I've been living in guilt. I've been feeling condemned and I feel like my identity has been sinner pretty much on a daily basis. And the Lord's going, I'm after you. You're my son, that I delight in.
You're my daughter, that I delight in. You're a saint. And you're going, Lord, help me. Help me to change my mind to align with the gospel.
I wanna be seen myself as a saint. I wanna see myself as a holy one. I wanna see myself as a set-apart one. I wanna see myself as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Some of you are going, I don't even know where to start. I'm not the evangelist type, but Lord, send me. You've got that prayer in your heart. You're going, Lord, send me.
I don't wanna be bored in my faith anymore. I wanna live a kingdom lifestyle. I wanna bring the kingdom. I wanna put my hand to the plow.
I wanna be a saint for the work of ministry. I break off the lie that there's full-time ministers and then there's laypeople. Some of us need to break off the lie that there's laypeople and ministers. And there's a hard line and the Lord's going, no, no, no, you're all in the game.
And you can just say to the Lord, Lord, put me in the game. I don't know how, I don't know what it looks like. Put me in, coach. Holy Spirit is just wanting to invite us to pray over each other in the room.
I feel like there's an invitation for us to pray for brothers and sisters and just speak identity over each other and just affirm the call of us being, having that call of you're a saint for the work. You're a representative of the kingdom. You're an ambassador. And there's like prophecy and prayer that we're gonna do, okay?
And yeah, I just felt like the Lord's going like, hey, people of God need to put their hands on one another. And what I mean by that is like, and gather around each other and go, hey, God sees you. This is what he's saying over you. And so I just feel like we're supposed to go right into ministry time.
It's not gonna be long, but I feel like we're supposed to go in a ministry time, maybe five, 10 minutes. And I want guys to pray for guys, ladies to pray for ladies. And we're gonna kind of do a free for all, okay? So it's like, hey, find a guy, pray for him.
And when you're done praying with that person, you can go find somebody else and you just pair up and just start praying over each other, okay? And if you're feeling like, man, I don't feel comfortable to pray, that's okay. You don't have to pray good prayers. You don't have to be like a superstar prayer.
You can just go, hey, yeah, I'll let you pray for me. And just say like God encounter them. You know, it doesn't have to be fancy. Just pray for people, okay?
Are you guys good? All right, I'm gonna say one, two, three, go. And then we're just gonna find somebody to pray for. We're gonna pray for them to be activated in their kingdom call.
Ready, say go. Introduce yourself and pull the trigger. If you're done praying, you can find somebody else to pray. You can join somebody else that's praying over someone and you can put your yes next to what they're praying over that person.
Come up to the front. If you're on Ultra Ministry tonight, you can come up to the front. If you're ministering at the Ultra after service, if you're still praying in groups, you can wrap up your time. Let's all stand, I wanna commission us out.