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The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
Kingdom Here, Now, And You
Kingdom living isn't about waiting for a future reality but recognizing and walking in the authority Jesus has already given us through His finished work.
• Understanding our identity in Christ is the foundation for Kingdom living
• Jesus commissioned the disciples with three specific instructions: preach, demonstrate, and give
• The Kingdom mandate wasn't just for the original disciples but continues for all believers today
• Healing and deliverance aren't just for special ministers but are part of every believer's authority
• We don't beg God for what He's already given us – we release what we've already received
• Kingdom ministry must become a lifestyle, not just a Sunday experience
• Signs follow those who go – we must step out in faith before we see manifestations
• Many Christians haven't seen Kingdom power because they don't believe they've received it
• Living from abundance means recognizing all we've already been given through Christ
• Small acts of Kingdom demonstration can have transformative impact on people's lives
Go out this week and ask yourself: whose life can I touch? You don't have to do something big; God will make a way if you're willing to step out in faith.
got to thinking about last week's message and I was thinking about what we talked about with the practical side of the kingdom, because I see God's just kind of moving us in phases right now and it's kind of like when you used to take math in school you learn one thing so you can do the next thing next week, and if you didn't learn that you're not moving forward, you're going back to repeat some stuff. So I see Him really putting us in a position to learn some things so that we can take the next step forward. And we've talked about our identity in Christ. For the last several probably the last year we've talked about that, really drilled down into it. We've talked about what it means to truly understand our true identity in light of the finished work of Christ. One thing to know my identity and to say I know my identity, but it's got to be in light of what Jesus said. What God said it can't just be something that I feel or something that I think. So it's understanding the Word and understanding who we are because of the finished work of Christ. And last week he moved us into looking at the importance of kingdom walk in our life, not just talking it, not just preaching it, but how do I make this practical in my life? How do I live this out? How do I walk this practical in my life? How do I live this out and how do I walk this out in my life? What does it look like to do that? So we talked a little bit about that. I'm not going to go back over it, but this week I found myself just piggybacking off of that.
Speaker 1:And let's go in a little bit deeper into a specific group of verses, and today's message is real simple. It's kingdom here, kingdom now. And you. It's one thing to have that catchy phrase, kingdom here, kingdom now, but can you see yourself in kingdom here, kingdom now? Can you include yourself in with it? Can you look at your own life and look at your own experiences? And look at your own experiences and ask the hard question am I experiencing kingdom right here, right now, or is it something I'm waiting on one day? So I want to go to a very familiar verse, but I want to break it down a little bit this morning to look at it.
Speaker 1:Out of Matthew 10, I want to read verses 5 through 8. We all know this verse here. We've read it many times We've talked about it, but I want to drill down into it just a little bit this morning and really make this practical. Okay, so when you look at this verse right here, let's start at verse 5. Let's go at verse 5. Let's go through verse 8.
Speaker 1:It says these twelve, jesus sent out and command them, saying Do not go into the way of the Gentiles and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and, as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely. You have received, now freely give. Let's pray, father. God, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you for what you're going to speak into this house, into these people this morning. Father, I pray that if there's anything that's trying to interfere this morning, that you just let your word come through in a way that it's never come through before. Father, I pray that you give me the words to say Help me to say it, help me to say it right this morning, father, and I pray that you give me the words to say Help me to say it, help me to say it right this morning, father, and I pray that we just realize that the kingdom here, kingdom now, and the kingdom is in us this morning. So we just thank you and we just give you the praise, honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:This group of verses right here is really when you talk about kingdom. You can't skip over this verse, just like I was reading something. I don't know.
Speaker 1:If y'all keep up with Miss Cindy Coates on Facebook, she's got some good stuff, got some good books out. She's part of you know, hooked up with Tommy Miller and some of them guys and that same affiliation. But she put a post online and it just kind of caught my attention. She put a post online and it just caught my attention. She said if you're trying to teach Revelation without an understanding of Matthew 24, you don't know what you're talking about. She's very blunt and I got thinking about that and it's so true. You can't teach the book of Revelation without understanding Matthew 24. You can go back and look at Matthew 24 on your own time and look at it, but it's talking about the destruction of the temple and everything You've got to understand.
Speaker 1:Again, context, because context matters. So I feel like if we're talking about kingdom, and we're talking about kingdom now, kingdom here, kingdom now, uh, kingdom here, kingdom now, kingdom in you we have, we cannot ever skip over matthew 10, because this is the immediate context of what I want to show you in this verse. The immediate context is the commissioning of the 12th. We've got to go back. You can look all through the Bible and you can see where Jesus done things and he established patterns all through the Bible and what Jesus done for the 12 and what Jesus done for the 70 is the same with us today. It was a foreshadowing, it was a pattern that was established. If I want to know what I'm entitled to, I go back and look at what Jesus entitled them to. I don't just have to guess and try to figure it out on my own, because Jesus is order, he's pattern, he sets and establishes things. So these verses in Matthew 10, 5-8, is the commissioning of the twelve.
Speaker 1:Now Matthew 10 records Jesus sending out His twelve disciples on their very first mission. In verses 5-8, he gives them very specific instruction. He don't just gather them up and say, hey, you guys have been following me, you've seen what I've done, you've heard what I've said Now go. But he called them together and he gave them very specific instruction and we're going to go over these in a minute, but I'll just tell you the three Preach, demonstrate and give. Preach, demonstrate and give.
Speaker 1:When he told them to preach, demonstrate and give. When he told them to preach, he said the kingdom of heaven has come. He didn't just say go out and preach anything that you want to preach. Go out and just find a topic, come up with something and just preach whatever you want to. He was even very specific with that. He said preach. The kingdom of heaven has come is near. So he told them make sure you say this.
Speaker 1:But then he goes a little step further. He says don't just preach it, but demonstrate the kingdom. And then he even goes on and shows them how to do that. What does that mean? Can you imagine standing in front of Jesus? Put yourself in the disciples' shoes for just a minute. He looks at them and he says I want you to go preach. And then he says but do it like this. The kingdom is at hand. He elaborated on. This is what I want you to do. Then he says don't just preach it, but I want you to demonstrate. And then he stops this is how I want you to demonstrate.
Speaker 1:He always gave them very specific instruction. He says demonstrate the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons. Very specific instruction. And I can imagine there was probably some one or two in there with the twelve that said I'm not a preacher, I don't have the gift to heal, I ain't fixing to mess with them demons, all the things we say today. I'm sure there was one or two in there that, done that, there's probably one or two that said don't know if I'm qualified for this, I just come off a fishing boat, don't know if I can do this.
Speaker 1:But then Jesus even had that answer too. He said rely on God's provision. He said rely on God's provision. He said freely, have you received now freely, go out and give these things. You're not doing them on your own accord. You're not doing something that you've gained power and authority within yourself to do. I have given you something and I'm simply telling you go out and give back freely to the people everything that I've already given you. Something, and I'm simply telling you go out and give back freely to the people everything that I've already given you. This is not on you. Can I tell you today? This is not on you. Jesus has freely given and now it's our job to go out and freely give back. At this point, jesus is giving them a temporary. Now listen to this Temporary, specific instruction, because when you look at this and you look at the context of it because everything has to be taken into context You've got to go back and say who was talking Jesus?
Speaker 1:Who was he talking to? He was talking to the twelve. What was? Who was talking jesus? Who was he talking to? He was talking to the 12. What was the time frame in which he was speaking? Who was he telling him to go out and speak to? All that matter?
Speaker 1:And this first mission was to israel. He was telling them in matthew 5, 10, 5 and 6. You can read this. However, he comes back. This is this commission that he gave them to go out in this small area and preach to these people and demonstrate to these people. That was a simple instruction, but it was also the foreshadowing of a much, much larger instruction that would come later during their global mission. This was a small town. Go out to Alma. Let's even make it smaller than that Go into your workplace, go into the grocery store, and now, after you get used to doing that, we're going to expand this thing out. We're going to say let's go into Alma, let's go into the county, let's go into those areas that nobody wants to go to. So it starts small and then it expanded out. So it was a foreshadowing of a later global mission after His resurrection.
Speaker 1:Part of the job is now, and then, after I go to the cross and I'm gone, I'm going to expand this thing for you, because I'm not going to be here to do it anymore. It's going to be on y'all, and I just believe that Jesus is sitting there now looking down, saying it's on y'all. You keep asking me to do it, and I've already done it. Not only did I do it, not only did I do everything that the Father sent me to do, but I went back to the Father and I've sat down. And I've sat down because it's a posture of rest, there's nothing else to do. And I've sat down because it's a posture of rest, there's nothing else to do. And I've sat down because there's nothing for me to do, because I've freely given everything that I had over to you. And I'm asking you now go out and do this. Go out and preach. The kingdom is at hand. Go out and demonstrate, heal the sick.
Speaker 1:All these things that we look at, we get caught up on the way it words that I'm telling you, people don't like to hear it. When you're talking about raising the dead, people don't like to talk about casting out demons. That's scary to people. People don't like to talk about things like that. Cleansing the lepers Context. I mean, listen, we don't have a lot of people walking around Alma, georgia, with lepers. Okay, so can you go out and cleanse the leper, but you can go out and lay hands on other people that have physical and mental and emotional illnesses and sickness. We have the ability to do these things. This context was different, but it didn't change the overall mission that he sent them out for. So let's look at Matthew 10 and 8 just for a second in light of the finished work of Christ. From a finished work perspective.
Speaker 1:This verse is not just about what they were to do, but why they could do it. We miss that part. We are quick to say go preach, go demonstrate. And just like them, most of the people in the church today is going to say how am I supposed to do this? I mean, are you saying I'm like Jesus? Yep. Are you saying that I have the authority that he has Yep. Are you saying that life and death lies in the power of my tongue? Yep, I can't raise the dead. Well, life and death lies in the power of your tongue. Dispute it if you want to, but that's the Word. And we're not just talking about somebody's heart stopped and we're bringing them back. We're talking about dead situations, dead circumstances, people who are dead in their life. There's people today who their heart is beating, but they're dead. They're dead emotionally, they're dead in life and we can go and we can speak life into a dead situation. We always kind of close that part of it out because we can't fathom walking in and laying hands on a corpse that's been laying there. It's hard. I've done it.
Speaker 1:We walked into a hospital up here before when somebody passed and do you know how I'm not going to use the word embarrassing, but it took a little bit of swallowing my pride when the family goes in and they come out and whatever, and you've got a couple of nurses and you've got a coroner up there and you look at the coroner and say, hey, can you give me five minutes? He looks at you like, huh, can you give me just five minutes? And he did. And we walked in and we prayed over that dead body. I know that sounds crazy People.
Speaker 1:If I listen to this, they hear me say that they're going to say that guy's lost it. But I guarantee you, if I never pray over a dead body, if I never pray over a sick person, they will not raise up and they will not be healed, guaranteed. But if I'm willing to put myself out there, what is God willing to do? Just because the faith that I have in that God? You said this. You said I had this authority. You told me you gave me instruction to go and lay hands on the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse the lepers. You said this. I didn't.
Speaker 1:So if I can just come into agreement within myself, come into agreement within myself, come into agreement with what he said, my gosh, what could happen? And a lot of times we don't see it happen. And it's not because God hadn't done it, it's because we're not willing to believe that we can do it. We keep waiting on God to do it. Come on, you hear the prayers all the time from people. God, if it be your will, he's already told us His will. There's 66 books that tell us His will. Why are we praying and asking Him what His will is when we already know it? We know His will, so it's not like we're trying to get an understanding of what he wants. We're trying to come into agreement with what he's already said. Big difference.
Speaker 1:So, from a finished work perspective, this verse is not about what they were to do, but why they could do this. The power they received again came freely. They didn't do anything to earn this or to buy this. It came freely. Jesus gave them authority to heal and cast out demons In Matthew 10 and 1. They didn't earn or qualify for this power. It was freely given to them because of what he done on the cross. Likewise, all believers today operate from this same finished work authority. It's not our own merit.
Speaker 1:Listen, if we was to bring one of the big time pastors, tv evangelists, in here and people heard man, we wouldn't have enough chairs to fit the people that wanted to come in. I mean, we filled First Community up because of he's good. I like him. Tv Evangelist was coming in. He was funny, he was popular at the time. He's still popular, but he was very popular at the time and we had overflow rooms. That was overflowing Simply because people looked at him and said there's something in that guy. The same thing that was in him was in everybody that was sitting in the pews.
Speaker 1:But we've seen it different. We've seen it different when people go to these healing ministries. These guys, their ministry is built on healing. You know, most of those people are healed before they ever get to the stage. Because he's not doing it, god's doing it through Him. It's not anything special that he has except belief he believes. It's not anything special that he has except belief he believes. He really believes that God has anointed me, god has given me authority and when I lay hands on the sick person they will recover. That's a belief system that he's coming to agreement with and because of that, manifestations happen. Can we get to that place? You don't have to have a TV ministry, you don't have to have a large congregation. You can go right out on the street and do this every day, and probably the best place to practice anyway.
Speaker 1:We've got to understand that it's not just about coming to church or even going to heaven. Healing and deliverance are part of the kingdom mandate that we have right now. Healing and deliverance are part of the kingdom mandate that we have right now. Healing and deliverance what do you mean, healing and deliverance? This is broad. We've got to quit being so narrow-minded and just thinking, oh, healing is specifically this or deliverance is simply this. We're not just talking about delivering people from evil spirits. We're talking about delivering them from addiction, delivering them from a mindset that keeps them out of who God's called them to be, delivering them from anything that has got them off track and not seeing the purpose that God has for them. They can be delivered from that, delivered from messed up thinking. They can be healed from physical, from emotional, from all these different things that healing can take place Healing in their life, healing in their marriage, healing in their relationships, physical healing but we just look and say physical healing Nope, can't do that, I'm not even touching that, and we automatically just shut it down.
Speaker 1:Jesus' statement that the kingdom of heaven has come near means these miracles. You've got to see this. This is the statement he made. He said the kingdom of heaven has come near Context. He wasn't talking to you, he was talking to the disciples If the kingdom of heaven had come near, then this means miracles. Were the signs that the kingdom had arrived. Were they doing miracles, absolutely? Were they doing things that was blowing people's minds? Absolutely? Jesus was doing them when he was here, and then he passed this authority to His disciples and said go, you go and do it. So kingdom of heaven has come near. Shows us that it was there.
Speaker 1:Now I don't know how we can explain it away and say well, it was there with the disciples and then it left. For the people who don't believe that the kingdom is here now, when did it leave? What caused it to leave? I'd love to sit down and just talk with somebody about that and see what their answer is. Because if we're waiting on the kingdom one day, why did he give it to them and then just say, well, forget y'all, y'all ain't getting it. That don't make any sense.
Speaker 1:And because Jesus finished the work on the cross, the kingdom is now fully present. You've got to catch that word. It is near, it is at hand, it's right here. But now he went to the cross, he did everything that he was supposed to do and he went to heaven and he sat down at the right hand of the Father. He ascended and now what was at hand is fully present, fully present. They just had a little bit. We got the whole thing. They did more with a little than we got the whole thing. They did more with a little than we do with the whole thing. Healing and deliverance are part of this ongoing reality that we live in, which is kingdom.
Speaker 1:The end of verse 8 says freely you have received, now freely give. This verse has bothered me for years, still bothers me. You got to ask yourself what does this mean me? For years Still bothers me. You've got to ask yourself what does this mean? Freely I have received, now freely I give. Giving freely means ministering from abundance, not striving. The disciples were not to charge. They weren't taking gold coins for healing, they weren't performing, they weren't performance artists. That was out there doing this and putting on shows and saying come and pay this and we'll put on a show for you. Freely. You have been given. Now freely, come and pay this and we'll put on a show for you Freely. You have been given, Now freely go and give In the finished work. We are not earning God's power, but releasing what has already been given to us.
Speaker 1:I can't say that what happened on the cross is sufficient if I'm not willing to step into the sufficiency that it brings. I have to be willing to step in to everything that comes along with it, not just forgiveness of sins and an entrance into heaven. Is that part of it? Absolutely that's part of it. But there's so much more to it than just that. And if I'm going to say that what he did is sufficient, then I've got to take everything that that entitled me to and say I have all of it.
Speaker 1:So we've looked at the historical context. We know who was speaking. We know who he was speaking to. We know the time frame. We know who the intended people were that the disciples were to go out and minister these things to. We know the time frame. We know who the intended people were that the disciples were to go out and minister these things to. That's historical. You can't change that. It's already happened History. So we can go back in the Bible and we can look at it. So we've looked at that. But what about the broader context as it relates to you and to me and to every other born-again believer today?
Speaker 1:This was a kingdom mandate for all believers. I don't know how we, how, as Christians, we miss that so often. It was a kingdom mandate for all believers. While Matthew 10 was a very specific mission to Israel, jesus later expands this into a commission. Okay, mission to commission. And he commissioned Look at Matthew 28.
Speaker 1:A couple of verses I want to show you 18 through 20. And Jesus came and he spoke to them, saying All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, and on earth, go, go. People going overseas, missionaries, don't have no problem using this verse. They will use it in a heartbeat. He's telling me to go and they go. But we can use it here. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Again, missionary people will use this because this is their justification to go to Africa and to go to India and to go to all these other outer parts of the world.
Speaker 1:Nothing wrong with that. Some people are called to do missionary work, but we're all called to do mission work, even if it's right here. So it says Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe what, all things, all things, all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. I'm not going to leave you. I really want to go in and pray for this person in the hospital, but I'm scared. I'll be with you. I really want to lay hands on this person that just passed and I'm kind of weird. I'll be with you. Whatever it is that you want to do, if you're willing to do it. He said I'll be with you, I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
Speaker 1:Mark 16. 17 and 18. See that Matthew 28 now was the great commission. In your Bible it probably says the words great commission. He commissioned them at that time and then in Mark 16.
Speaker 1:And these signs? These signs will follow those who believe In my name. They will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will see them recover. So he's talking I'm slowing down here because I want you to see this Matthew 28. He's talking to a group of people and he's saying I am of people and he said I am commissioning you Go.
Speaker 1:And then in March 16,. He says because I'm telling you to go because you are believers, you're not going alone. These signs will follow you. They will follow you. I'm going to preach right now. They're following you. Which means you've got to go. First, we're waiting on the signs to come, and then we want to jump up and get all happy and lay hands on somebody. He says go, and these signs will come behind you, they will follow you. Which means when you step out and say in the name of Jesus, I command this cancer, leave this body Now, the signs show it. Why? Because I'm walking with the authority. I'm walking and I'm leading with authority. I'm going with authority and the signs follow me.
Speaker 1:Acts 1 and 8. Everybody knows this one. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Missioned them, told them to go, told them what signs would follow them and said the Holy Spirit will empower you. You ain't doing this on your own. Don't get a big head thinking you're all this and that the Holy Spirit is what's going to empower you. Because you're a believer, I'm not sending you out alone. I'm not sending you out there to try to figure this thing out. While you're going, I'm telling you ahead of time exactly what's going to happen. Go, signs will follow you. You're going to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. You're going to lay hands on the sick. They're going to recover. You're going to do all these things.
Speaker 1:But the first thing he said was go, church ain't going that much anymore, including us. We were, and then we cut it out and we got to get it back. We got to go Because they're not coming. They're not just. Nobody has knocked on that door and said can I come in? Since we started they're not coming, not just talking about us. People are not.
Speaker 1:Church is not what it used to be to people, to society. Statistics will tell you that. Go, look them up. Pew Research Go study it. It's not the same anymore. People feel like they can sit home because of social media. Why do I need to go listen to Pastor Brown when I can sit at home and watch Ron Carpenter? I can sit at home and watch TD Jakes. I can sit at home and watch anybody else I want to watch and they're not coming because I can just click play and if I get thirsty, guess what? I can hit pause. You can't pause me up here. I can just hit pause and go do what I need to do and come back later. It's convenient.
Speaker 1:I might have to revisit a message I preached it's been probably three years, four years ago on why we don't want to go to church anymore. There's a reason. So this means in Matthew 10, 8,. It's not just a historical text, it's a picture of the ongoing mission of the church, especially with Acts. There's no ending, there's no conclusion to the book of Acts. Really give what Christ has already accomplished and given to you. I'm close to closing. This is not going to be long.
Speaker 1:Today I narrowed this thing down so much because I wanted to get some specific things in there, but in closing we need to remember that Matthew 10 and 8 is a powerful, powerful reminder that kingdom ministry is not about striving, it's not about some of these other things that we attach to it. It's not about one day when I get there I'm going to enter into the kingdom. It's about right now. Kingdom ministry is about freely giving what we have already freely received because of the finished work of Christ. I hope you see how these are tied together and what the finished work means. We talked about what it is. We talked about what Jesus done, we talked about what it means to us, and now we're talking about what it means to the kingdom, because without that we don't have kingdom here fully, but now we do, because of what he done, because of the finished work of Christ.
Speaker 1:Here's something to think about why are we not seeing more kingdom manifestations? And when I'm saying it like that, I'm saying listen, when you go overseas, there's a belief in these people. They're fully expecting something's going to happen. When they see an American coming into a village somewhere on the other side of Thailand, these people get excited and they almost treat you. It's easy to get a big head over there Because they treat you like a god, like you're a god walking in there. They really do, and I think that's one of the reasons that so many ministers fall in love with it Not saying they're not called, not saying they're not called, not saying they're not needed. But it's easy to fall in love with that Because you are almost worshipped when you go into these other countries. So why aren't we seeing them? Because we hear people say that all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, we're not seeing the things here that we're seeing across the waters, we're not seeing the healings, we're not seeing all these other things, and I believe that's a fair question. I believe it's a question that we should ask as Christians, as believers why are we not seeing these things more often? We're seeing them. Believer, why are we not seeing these things more often? We're seeing them. It bothers me because I want to get to a point that nobody at this church can ever walk out and say I haven't seen it. Everybody in this church should be able to witness and demonstrate this. Be a witness to it, build your faith up and then demonstrate it. And it's an indictment on us and it's an indictment on the church. If you walk out of here and say I've never experienced that, that's sad. I'm not saying anything about you, I'm saying it's sad for the church, because we should experience this, not just in church every day. And I got to thinking about that question why are we not seeing more of these?
Speaker 1:And I think it's the mindset that we have how can you freely give? And he just told us what are you going to freely give? You're going to heal the sick. You're going to cleanse the lepers. You're going to raise the dead, you're going to do all these things. That's what we are to freely give. But before I can freely give, I must believe that I have freely received.
Speaker 1:The problem is, many Christians don't believe that they've freely received it. They're going to get it one day. So if I don't have access to it now, how can I give you something I don't have? So if I don't have access to it now, how can I give you something I don't have? That's why we're teaching what we're teaching, because I want you to see that you have it now. You have the ability now to go and freely give. Why? Because you have freely received it. But you have to see that. You have to see that If you don't received it but you have to see that you have to see that If you don't see it and grab on to it and say this is who I am, then you don't have the ability to go out and give it. And you're one of the ones scratching your head saying why Africa, why all these other countries but not us? Because we're not doing what he said do?
Speaker 1:He said first freely. You have freely received. And here's the thing. The reason I say it's a mindset is because you haven't done anything to freely receive it. You didn't work for it, you didn't earn it, he did it. You didn't work for it, you didn't earn it, he did it. And he said this is yours, but again, $400 bill up here on this altar. I still got to reach down and say, brian, that's yours. I still got to reach down there and grab it. I promise you, if I walk out and I don't grab it, somebody else is. Even though it's mine, I still have to take possession of it. We haven't taken possession of what he's freely given. So therefore I don't have the ability in my own mind to give these things back. How can I lay hands on the sick? How can I do all these miraculous, supernatural things? See, we don't beg for healing. We're not beggars anymore. We don't beg for healing. We release healing that has already been provided to us. I freely received. Now I freely give. I've told you a while back and that's why my prayer life changed on that, the way I pray for people has changed. I don't beg God anymore. If somebody comes up here for healing, I don't stand here with my hand on them and beg God to heal them. I say release what's already there, father. Release the healing that you've already freely given us. Release it Now.
Speaker 1:We've all been in a situation. If you've ever ministered to people and you've prayed for people, we've all been in the situation where somebody comes up and something's going on with them and you pray for them and they walk away and they're the same way they were before they come up. We've all been there and in the beginning it's kind of like man, what you doing? You kind of get a little offended. But then you realize, just like that $100 bill, I can release something to you. I can release the healing that God has anointed me with. You can release the healing that God has anointed you with, but I have to receive it. The person has to believe that they have received it. There's been people we've seen that have received, then rejected. We've seen it. We had that revival years ago 2008, 2009, 2010,. Whenever it was that first community People received healing. Literally.
Speaker 1:Some of you think I was crazy if I told you some of the stories, watching legs grow out and they come back in there three days later in the same situation. They come in the first time. I'm like okay, you had a, you had a four inch shoe on when you walked in. You walked out without it not limping at all, and then you come back with a cane. It just don't make sense. And I'm not, we're all like that.
Speaker 1:That's where the belief. That's why he looked at his disciples and said we're all like that. That's where the belief. That's why he looked at His disciples and said oh ye of little faith. So we're not talking about anybody, we're not putting anybody down. He even told His disciples that when are you going to believe? When are you going to have the faith to just do what I told you? You have the ability to do? They had the ability to speak to the storm and they didn't see it. It's not that they didn't have it, they just didn't recognize that they had the ability to do it. So we don't beg, we release. We don't fight for authority, we just walk in authority. Sounds arrogant. Okay, you just walk in authority. You know who you are. That's why I don't worry about something. I know my authority. I know who I am. We don't wait for the kingdom, we manifest the kingdom. We're not waiting for the kingdom, we manifest the kingdom. We're not waiting for one day in the by and by. We're manifesting it now. We're not taking heaven away, we're just saying you're entitled to it right now.
Speaker 1:Let's finish by looking at three things right here in this verse that is relevant to us today. Here's the question how can we live this out? We can live from abundance and not lack. You have already received. According to the Word of God, you have been given every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. If you've already received everything that you need, why am I living from lack? And I'm not talking about material things here. I'm talking about a mindset. These people have got a lot less. That's living a lot more in abundance than people who have more materially. The mindset shift has to take place. Live from abundance and not lack. From what we're talking about right here in these verses, it means living from what I already have and not looking and saying, well, one day I'll get it, but I don't have it right now. It's living from abundance, meaning I have everything Jesus died for. If I don't, then what was the purpose of Him dying?
Speaker 1:Number two step out in faith. We've got to challenge each other to do this More in the community, more in the church. I'm telling you, people used to call all the time saying, hey, will y'all pray for us? Will y'all pray for us? People would go to other churches, but if they needed something, they needed a touch from God, they'd come visit with us one Sunday out of the month or just whenever they needed something. You'd see them. You'd be like, oh, they need something, because you've never seen them any other time than that. But you know, when they needed something and they believed that, we carried it. We knew our authority and we manifested this stuff. The only thing that's changed is we've just got away from recognizing who we are and understanding who we are. So we've got to step back out of faith.
Speaker 1:You are empowered to bring healing. You're empowered to bring freedom and you're empowered to bring healing. You're empowered to bring freedom and you're empowered to bring the kingdom to this world, to your job, to your community, to the people around you. Where they don't believe, who cares?
Speaker 1:One thing I've noticed over the years, especially when we used to go out and pray and do different things, is the ones that it had the most impact on was the people who weren't believers. When I could sit there and prophesy a word to somebody who don't believe and get all up in their closet and they're like how do they know that? I just wanted to share it with you? Or you lay hands on somebody and you heal them, and they weren't believers. And you might say well, you're contradicting what you said a while ago.
Speaker 1:No, I believe there's times that God does things even without the faith of that person. I can't explain that, I don't know, but I believe that Prophecy is for the unbeliever. What good does it really do to stand here and prophesy to a bunch of Christians, to a bunch of believers? I mean there's times that God will give a word to the house or He'll give a word to somebody specifically of believers. I mean there's times that God will give a word to the house or he'll give a word to somebody specifically in here. You know whatever, but really it's to go out and talk to the unbelievers and prophesy to them. What is prophecy? It's a word from God. Who needs that word from God more than them, more than somebody who don't believe? And it will have the biggest impact. We're standing in the pool pits trying to impact people who believe, just like us, instead of going out to the ones who don't believe and saying, let me show you something, let me introduce you something. Let me introduce you To somebody, let me demonstrate To you. Come hear me on Sunday. You're welcome, but let's go out and demonstrate. We're here to learn it, to go out to demonstrate it.
Speaker 1:And the last thing Make kingdom ministry a lifestyle. There are certain things that even in life, when we change our mindset on certain things, it has to become a lifestyle. You've heard people say it about people losing weight. It has to be a lifestyle change. It can't be it about people losing weight. You know it has to be a lifestyle change. It can't be a diet. Diets, by definition, are temporary, but a lifestyle change is permanent. When I decide to eat differently, I don't just fast for 10 days and I lose 6 pounds of water and say I lost 6 pounds, you lost water because you're not eating nothing. But, yes, you lost that. But if you eat the right things and you do, you know, mindset shift, it becomes a lifestyle. Now We've turned church into Sunday Instead of kingdom being a lifestyle that we live every day. Wherever we go to Make kingdom ministry a lifestyle that we live every day, wherever we go to Make kingdom ministry a lifestyle Give freely, because you have already been given, and freely given everything in Christ.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go ahead and put this back on Cynthia again to get our group started back whenever we can. We don't have to go as much as we did before. Whatever, you may have already started looking into that, but we used to meet up here and we'd go out and we'll go into people's homes. We don't stay long, we just stop and say, hey, can we pray with you? And you would be surprised at how many people's lives are impacted. It's not always an evangelistic tool from the standpoint of getting more people into the church, because it don't always work like that. I don't know if any of them that we went and prayed for has come to church. But can we shift our mindset and forget about church numbers and say, kingdom impact, yes, we want more people in church. Yes, we have a vision for a new building and more people in here would help with that. Yes, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:But kingdom impact consistently is what's going to do that, not just invitation, not just eating lunch. Lunch helps If you advertise for about two weeks that you're going to be having a fish fry man. People come out to woodwork for one day. Food will bring people out, cook and they will come, but we want to change lives, we want to impact somebody's life. So we got to be thinking and I'm not just, I pointed that out because she headed that part up before but any of y'all, if you can, if there's something, anybody in here, because we're all in this thing, we're all empowered to go out and be kingdom ambassadors. Don't have to be just one day that we're doing it Every day, everywhere you go. It would be so awesome to just have the first 10 minutes of the service every Sunday where somebody is just getting up testifying about a healing that took place, that you were a part of, or just something. Impact, kingdom, impact that took place. I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:I guess what's got me on this is I read something Tommy put online the other day and it challenged me. He said if you're preaching kingdom and you're not impacting the community, I don't want to hear what you got to say, because kingdom is impacting the community. We can come in and we can learn all the stuff, but what good is just getting spiritually fat and not going out and exercising? It does no good. You can stand. Let's start this mission, this ministry, with our own people.
Speaker 1:I had a guy. I had a guy that I met with a few weeks ago. I had to call him in for a meeting at school about attendance with his child. I called the mama and the mama couldn't come. So she called me back and said, hey, daddy's coming. Okay, I thought anytime they say daddy's coming, I wind up, it gets ugly. It was supposed to be a 15-minute meeting. We sat in the counselor's office, me and him had church for two hours.
Speaker 1:Brother's kingdom Brother understands kingdom. I mean because I laid it out to him and he understood it. He sent me a text. We was going this week to LaGrange and I got a text Friday, thursday sometime. Oh, he called me and I couldn't answer it and I told him to send him a text and I said, hey, I'm in a conference. I said I'll call you back this evening or I'll be home Friday. He said, hey, I'm in a conference. I said I'll call you back this evening or I'll be home Friday. He said, well, he texts me. He said it's no big deal, I just wanted to see how I could pay a tithe and sow a seed. We can do that. And he's talking about you know, possibly coming sometime.
Speaker 1:Found out that I didn't know he was affiliated with the community years ago as well. Anyway, y'all probably know him. I was going to ask y'all about him. That's just kingdom impact Me and him just sitting down that day and we just talked. I'm sure I said some things he didn't necessarily agree with. He said some things I didn't necessarily agree with. We didn't fuss, I just moved right over it and come back with something else Impacting people's lives in some way. So much so too, that he impacted mine that I actually he was there for attendance because his son's missed so many days and I'm actually going to make him my parent liaison on my attendance team, so he's excited about that. So it's connection. You just never know how they're going to happen. So let's, as we go out this week, let's think about that Whose life can I touch? You don't have to be big, god will go as big as you want to, but it can be just something small. Let me just I don't feel the need to motivate some people. God will make a way if you're willing.
Speaker 1:I tell this story. I might have told it in here before, I don't know, but it was just so funny and it stood out to me because I remember one time years ago, many years ago. Some of y'all remember Lindsay. She was helping me in the youth department at First Community. Me and her was over in Waycross and we was eating and had little crystals over there and there was a girl behind the counter and I there was just something. I didn't know what it was, I was drawn to it. It was just something there. I just I hurt for it. I didn't know what it was, I was drawn to it. There was just something there that I just hurt for, didn't know what it was, and I was like God, why don't you give me this word? Why don't you give me this word? And then we're just sitting there and we're eating.
Speaker 1:Lindsay said I got a word for her, that's why we give it to me. I said you, that's why he wouldn't give it to me. I said you've got to go give it to her, you've got to go give it to her. And she's like no, she's working, no, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing it. And it just went on and just went on. So we're finally we're leaving, we're walking out the door and I said you've got to go give it to her, don't walk out doing it, I'm not doing it. So we're getting in the car, we sit down in the car. I said God, make a way. You gave her this word. You've got to make a way, you've got to open the door up. So we're backing out, backing the car up, and guess who's walking out for a smoke break? She's standing outside a crystal smoking her cigarette. I said got to go now Because God made a way. I mean, this is crazy little stuff that we see all the time, but it really is the way God works. God will make a way.
Speaker 1:If you get a word from somebody you don't know, you may say, ah, that ain't nothing. You don't know how life-changing that word may be to that person. Something small, something insignificant to you may be transforming for that person. Are we willing to do it? That's all I want. I want us to become that church again that is willing. I don't mind using the word radical when it comes to kingdom stuff. Be radical, because that's when you're going to see the things happen, sitting back in the pews and being comfortable. You're just going to keep getting church. You keep coming every Sunday. Guess what? I'm going to keep preaching your message. You're going to keep getting a few songs. That's all you're going to get if that's all you want. But if you want more, you've got to be willing to take a chance. Step out.