WEBVTT 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:10.880 Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills. 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:12.320 This is the Road Podcast. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:13.679 Thanks for joining us. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.960 My heart is to empower you to change the world. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.839 I hope this message impacts you. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:29.760 Alright, so turning your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 1 of Ephesians 3. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:35.119 For this reason, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles. 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:40.399 You know what's interesting about Paul is that Paul was a rising star in Judaism. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:42.399 He was a part of the Sanhedrin. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:44.159 He was a leader of leaders. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:45.679 He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:47.520 He hated Gentiles. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:49.520 He couldn't stand them. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:55.679 They were the flesh-eating, pig-eating, pork-eating Gentiles that he was trying to persecute. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:01.039 And on one of his assignments from the Sanhedrin, God just nails him. 00:01:01.759 --> 00:01:03.439 And he gets saved. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:05.760 He goes blind. 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:10.239 And then three days later, some guy that he's never met before. 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:13.920 Ananias comes, lays hands on him, scales fall off his eyes. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:15.599 He's born again. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:25.599 And then God calls him in a direct, visionary way, go to the Gentiles, who he hated. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:30.159 You guys know that God is really weird sometimes in his callings. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:36.799 So when I was in high school, my worst class was Spanish. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:42.400 Now I'm just going to tell you, there's not a language for an American to learn that's any easier than Spanish. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:50.000 Now, part of it was I had a gymnastics coach who was my teacher, and he knew a lot more about gymnastics than about Spanish. 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:54.319 So I wouldn't say that he set the place on fire with his Spanish teaching. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:58.079 But I always got good grades because I was his star athlete. 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:04.879 But, but I mean my point is that I wasn't good in linguistics. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:06.079 I wasn't good in languages. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:09.280 I never tried, and it would, I just figure it's too hard. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:11.759 And then God calls me to Japan. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:13.680 Are you kidding me? 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:16.800 That's like the worst language for Americans to learn. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:21.439 Everything's opposite grammatically, it's just a messed up language, man. 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:27.759 And um and I soon learned, you know, language is a reflection of culture. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:38.560 Here's what you learn about Japanese when you study Japanese and you're around Japanese, you live in Japan, is that they're always tug about being tribal. 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:44.159 So what they do is they're very tribal, they're very cultural, group-oriented in everything they do. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:52.400 So what they do is they put their verbs, and they they put their verbs at the beginning, but they put their nouns at the end. 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:53.120 You know why? 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:57.599 Because they're looking for the response and reaction, and they can change the sentence at the last minute. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:02:58.479 I hate that. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:01.360 Okay, we always start off, that's American, you know, we're English. 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:03.199 We start with the noun, man. 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.599 We start with the subject right there. 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.800 I, you know, boom, you know, direct object. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:10.800 With they do it just the opposite. 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.439 But I be I preached in Japanese. 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:16.000 Well, that's like supernatural, man. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:17.840 There's no way that's natural. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:22.639 So God may call you to do stuff you never thought you could do. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:36.159 My wife doing school in a box is like so out of her normal orbit, but she she formed this team, and they've got these killer projects, these killer trainings that you go through as you go through the Bible with school in a box. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:37.360 It's really, really good. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:45.680 And so, what God does sometimes in our lives to give, you guys have heard me say this before, I'll mention it again, paradigm shift. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:48.479 If you're taking notes, write down paradigm shift. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.919 Paul had a massive paradigm shift. 00:03:52.080 --> 00:04:09.280 That means his whole worldview shifted in about three days from hating Gentiles to now being called the Gentiles, his understanding of the law and the idea of the legalism of Judaism into an understanding of grace that was supernatural. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:11.039 God can do that in your life. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:21.120 God can sometimes come and reorient you, and you're at the right church, by the way, because we're open to the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:28.879 We're open to the present Holy Spirit, and God, like I had a couple come up after the first service and say they come out of the United Church of Christ. 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.199 They come all the way from Parker down here. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:39.360 And the wife just comes up to me and she just effuses praise for what we're doing medically and physically to help so many people. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:41.920 She's following our protocol and getting her parents better. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:46.480 The husband comes up and he goes, I've I've gotten born again here. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:48.959 And my kids, you know? 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:50.480 And I'm like, Yes, awesome. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:51.839 That's what it's all about. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.480 That's a paradigm shift, men and women. 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:59.680 When God comes and you thought church was this, and then you come and church is that. 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:02.879 It's not an institution. 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:07.279 I mean, it is an institution, but it's not an institution. 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:10.560 It's an organism more than it's an organization. 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:18.720 So what that means is that God moves as the CEO of the church. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:20.800 He's the senior pastor. 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.399 He's the capital S, capital P senior pastor. 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:30.959 So he comes and invades Paul's life, and now Paul's in prison. 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:32.399 How about that? 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:34.800 Eat those apples. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:37.600 So he's the star, rising star in Judaism. 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:44.399 Now he's in prison writing the Ephesians, and I can guarantee you he's not in prison. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:50.800 He's in prison physically, but he is not in prison spiritually. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:56.639 How many of you know that you can be put in prison physically, but it has nothing to do with your heart? 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:09.680 Some of you have been through divorces, some of you have been through betrayal, some of you have been through drug addiction, you've been through the gamut, and in and if we were to look at you, we go, man, that was a time where you were kind of in prison. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:14.639 But what God was doing during that time is he was reorienting your heart. 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:16.800 He was changing your heart. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.399 God does his best work when you're in prison. 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:26.160 Dietrich Bonhoeper wrote his best works when he was in prison. 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:34.800 Solsenitsyn in the Russian gulag wrote his best works because of what God did in prison in a communist concentration camp. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:44.480 John Bunyan came up with the whole vision and idea of the Pilgrim's Progress, probably one of the greatest books written in Western Christianity while in prison. 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:53.120 Some of us may go to prison here in America because of what's happening in Washington. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:59.519 But you can be a prisoner physically, but not a prisoner spiritually. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:01.600 You know who the prisoners were? 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:04.160 All the guards that had to watch over Paul. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:07.680 They were the prisoners because he preached to them all the time. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:22.639 Verse 2, if indeed you heard of the dispensation, underlying dispensation, write over on the side with your pen, write stewardship. 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.519 That's what that word can mean, stewardship. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:50.480 If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God which is given to me for you, that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets. 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:51.199 Mystery. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:53.040 Write down mystery. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:00.399 The mystery of the gospel is what Paul is talking about, and he says he had a revelation. 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:02.399 Now we don't know what that revelation was. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:07.199 That's the same Greek word for the book of Revelation, which means the unveiling. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:13.439 So there was some kind of a paradigm shift through a revelation of God the Father to Paul. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.079 We don't know if it was a vision, a dream. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:30.160 He was maybe reading in the Torah, and God spoke to him, but he began to understand that there was this mystery of the past that men and women had not understood about the things of Christ. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:37.360 And mystery is really hard for Western Christianity. 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:41.600 Western Christianity struggles with mystery. 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:45.120 We like everything cut and dried. 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:54.000 The church, the part of the body of the Christ that understands mystery the best and has always been the most open is Eastern Orthodoxy. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:58.799 And when I was uh when I was in seminary, I took Greek, loved Greek. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.600 Father Sam was my professor at Fuller. 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:04.000 Now check this out. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:10.080 Father Sam had been a vineyard pastor who became a Greek Orthodox priest. 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:12.720 That's weird, folks. 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:13.840 Okay? 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:21.039 And I would go into his office sometimes with my Greek questions and stuff, and I'd be in there and there'd be icons everywhere. 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:24.320 It's icons from so I loved it. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:26.159 I always felt like the presence of God was there. 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.000 And it's like, whoa, what are you for icons? 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:29.039 I'm not, don't make any states. 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:31.360 That's the reason you struggle with mystery. 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:33.840 So I'm in there and I'm like, whoa. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.240 And there, you know, it's like icons of Mary and Jesus and angels and stuff. 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:43.039 And I'm just telling you, man, it was like freaky cool. 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:44.000 Okay? 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:45.759 All right, listen. 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:51.279 Here's why we struggle in Western Christianity with mystery, in my opinion. 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:53.279 I want to give you three thoughts on that. 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:58.720 Number one, Western Christianity is largely based in a Western worldview. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:05.840 We have a Western worldview, which is rationalistic, materialistic, and linear. 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:08.879 Let me say it again, rationalistic, materialistic, and linear. 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:11.200 Now that's really good for science. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:13.679 That's really good for geography. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:16.159 That's really good for mathematics. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:19.600 But in the spiritual realm, it doesn't always work. 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:30.559 How many of you know that if you just think about you getting saved, can you explain that rationalistically, materialistically, or linearly? 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:32.799 No, you can't. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:35.679 The gospel is a mystery. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:38.159 There's aspects we don't understand. 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.440 Jot this word down, really key word, transrational. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:44.320 Christianity is always transrational. 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:48.879 God sometimes has to bypass your mind to get to your heart. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:57.919 I've had so many, especially men, through the years that come forward, they're up here, and they are like this. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:03.360 And if you ask them, and they tell you, my wife made me come up here. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:05.600 And they're up here. 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:15.840 And I like to bypass the mind and get to the heart and ask, tell me about your heart. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:19.840 What's happening in your heart right now? 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:23.840 I'm not trying to convince anybody of Christianity. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:26.720 I'm not trying to use a rational argument, which there's a place for that. 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:28.320 There sure certainly is. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:33.840 But most of the time, God works in the heart before he works in the mind. 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:43.120 And then as God begins to flood that man's heart with belief, folks, it's transrational. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:44.559 It's the Holy Spirit. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:46.399 Today is Pentecost Sunday. 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:53.919 If you come out of the Roman Catholic Church or the Methodist Church or the Lutheran mainline churches, they would be talking about Pentecost today. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:55.440 This is Pentecost Sunday. 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:59.200 The Holy Spirit coming in Acts chapter 2 is transrational. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:06.799 Just a group of cowardly, frightened, 120 disciples. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:09.120 Holy Spirit falls on them. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:15.679 Wind blows through, tongues of fire, like tongues of fire, they start to speak in tongues. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:19.840 That's not materialistic, linear, or rational. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:26.960 So what happens for us as Western Christians is we can't be open to the miraculous. 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:37.919 You go into South America, you go into Africa, you go into other parts of the world where I've been, and they not only believe in the supernatural, they give all the credit to demons. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:46.480 Then they get saved, and it's almost like this: like, I'm not going to believe in your religion unless you can get all my demons out. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:54.720 So if we think a rational, materialistic, linear approach only to the gospel is going to work, they're out of here. 00:12:55.360 --> 00:13:00.879 But when they see a Holy Spirit come and healings come and people are set free, they go, I believe. 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:02.720 And they get it. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:09.759 So secondly, second thing that I think is a problem for us in Western Christianity is we like labels so much. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:13.919 We need labels because labels give definition. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:19.840 We like to organize, we like to categorize churches, people, and denominations, right? 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:20.879 I do it too. 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:21.919 I mean, we all do it. 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:23.360 And so they're like that. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:25.039 They're holy rollers. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:36.639 How many have ever been to a church where people roll around on the floor? 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:44.080 Okay, I'd say there's 15 hands up out of five or six hundred people. 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:46.399 But you hear holy rollers. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:47.600 Where are they? 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:48.480 You know? 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.159 It's a come on. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.639 So the so it's a label. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:56.080 And that means you don't want to go to one of those kind of churches, right? 00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:56.639 Okay? 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:58.240 So we label things. 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:02.720 And so what that does, and we do that with God too, is we box him in. 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:06.399 So we box, this is what God can do, this is what he can't do. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:11.840 Don't talk about this, just talk about my little my little paradigm of what God can do. 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:16.799 Thirdly, Western Christianity's hermeneutic. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:20.320 Raise your hand if you know what hermeneutic means. 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:25.120 Whoa, a lot more smart people than the first service. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:28.399 Only one hand went up in the first service. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:31.279 Hermeneutic means interpretation. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:32.879 It means to interpret. 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:37.200 So Western Christianity is hermeneutic of experience versus Bible. 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:39.279 Experience versus Bible. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:40.960 Here's what I mean. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:45.200 It's actually another way to say it is lack of experience versus Bible. 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:50.799 So if I were to say, I don't believe God in that, we I hear this all the time, I don't believe in healing. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:52.720 God doesn't heal today. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:56.799 But then when they get healed, they believe. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:00.000 But nothing changed except they got healed. 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:10.159 So what happens is we have a hermeneutic in which we interpret life by either our experience or, listen, lack of experience. 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:14.639 So someone says, I don't believe in miracles until they have a miracle, and then suddenly they believe. 00:15:14.799 --> 00:15:15.840 Does that make sense? 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:30.240 So, so Paul is saying that he was given special wisdom from the Father about the mystery of Christ. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:36.159 I want to keep knowing Christ in a deeper way even as I grow older. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:38.960 I want to understand grace in a deeper way. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.039 I want to understand love in a deeper way. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:43.840 I want to love, I want to understand forgiveness in a deeper way. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.240 I want to understand repentance in a deeper way. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:52.159 It's an ocean of revelation and knowledge that's available to us. 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:54.240 That's the mystery of Christ. 00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:57.840 I haven't figured it out in either of you. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:15:59.840 But so many think they have. 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:01.919 They've got it all figured out. 00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:13.919 And they have websites, they got their little websites where all they do is get on that website and then show, and then show videos of other preachers preaching and then just critique them. 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:17.519 Like they're the Holy Spirit or something. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:23.519 I'm not talking about cults, I'm talking about other Christian believers. 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:30.879 And I remember because I was working for a guy named John Wember, who's probably one of the leading sort of charismatic pastors in the 80s and 90s. 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:32.480 I'm his assistant. 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:42.240 And Hank Hanagraph, the Bible answer man, is just hammering the vineyard, hammering John Wimber at meetings that I was at. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.240 And I'm like, that did not happen. 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:49.200 And I like Hank Hanagraph. 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:49.679 I've never met him. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:51.440 I mean, he seems like a nice guy. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:58.960 But he built his reputation on going after other believers in the body of Christ because they didn't do things exactly the way he did. 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:01.440 Be careful of that, you guys. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:05.359 Walter Martin, Kingdom of the Cause, he never did that. 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:09.200 But I don't even know if the Bible answer man's around anymore. 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:10.799 And there's a lot to be learned from. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:11.759 He's got some great stuff. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:13.519 I'm just talking about some of the other parts. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:17.599 My point is this we need unity right now. 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:19.839 We need to be for each other. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:23.680 I'm for Hank Hanagraph as long as he's for me, okay? 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:24.640 You know? 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:37.279 And the reality is, is within the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and the Protestant Church and the Evangelical Church, there's there's there's key things we work together on it, but it's a mystery. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:39.519 I don't understand it all. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:46.880 So now he talks about what these three mysteries are in our chapter. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:48.000 He says this. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:18:05.279 Look at verse 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:10.000 First thing is the mystery of Gentiles getting saved. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.440 We're almost everybody here is a Gentile. 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:17.759 We are the church in Colorado Springs. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:32.160 You go to South America, you go to Russia, you go to Southeast Asia, all Gentiles that have gotten saved because Paul got a handle on this mystery of reaching the Gentiles. 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:43.440 But men and women, when you look at the trajectory of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, it seems that this is all about the Jews. 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:55.039 But he was given revelation to understand that God was actually using the Jews foundationally for the whole world to hear the gospel. 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:58.960 So that's that reality he still does today. 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:03.920 In other words, God's doing stuff today that we don't completely understand. 00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:05.759 Let's just take COVID. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:20.640 Could not God be using this in some supernatural, mighty, mysterious way to actually bring the real church to the top to learn how to fight. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:34.000 To learn how to war, to learn how to take active their Christianity while they're on the face of the earth, not just singing kumbaya, but actually going out and making a difference. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:37.680 I know that's what's happened here. 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:43.279 With thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people coming through our doors. 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:48.240 Health running through our church. 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:52.240 I mean, we hadn't had a COVID case in months. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:55.839 And then the vaccine came out. 00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:58.400 Suddenly everybody's getting it again because of shedding. 00:19:58.480 --> 00:19:59.519 It's coming off. 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.839 Nothing against the vaccine except that I wouldn't get it. 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:07.839 But you can do what you want. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:09.200 I'm not going to tell you what to do. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:12.559 And your Christianity is not based on whether you take the vaccine or not. 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:13.599 Don't hear me say that. 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:21.440 I'm just saying there's now a variance of that COVID coming out through the vaccine. 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:23.359 And there's another one coming. 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:26.480 And it's going to be like what's happening in India right now. 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:29.680 This church is going to be ready. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:37.039 Many of you in this room have got strong immune systems because you've now experienced it and you've been in it. 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:38.319 So we're going to be one of the strong. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:42.400 I'll tell you, man, God's going to use this church in a mighty way. 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.680 The hospitals don't know what to do with it. 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:46.960 They just said, go home. 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:48.960 And they said, Great, call us. 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:50.480 We'll take care of people. 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:52.799 In about 48 hours, we get them better. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:54.960 Guess what? 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.559 You guys, listen, listen. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:57.920 Okay, listen. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:02.480 God made your body most of the time to heal itself. 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:05.119 If you're healthy. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:09.680 And the way you get healthy is you listen to us, because we'll make you healthy. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:14.720 So we're gonna start, we're gonna start cutting back on the donuts out there. 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:17.839 And I'm gonna lie. 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:21.839 Yay! Boo! Yay! Boo. 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:31.920 I just want you to know my one time of the week when I'm set free on sugar is on Sunday. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:33.440 I'll miss that. 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:35.440 My wife won't, but I will. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:37.039 No, we're gonna still have some. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:46.400 But my point is this that if you'll if you'll learn to eat healthy and follow God's regime of how to eat healthy, you're you'll rarely get sick. 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:47.599 You'll rarely get sick. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:50.000 I haven't seen a doctor in 20 years. 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:53.599 And it's and it's nothing, I don't have anything against doctors. 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:55.440 I think doctors are cool, they're awesome. 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:56.880 Come, we need doctors here. 00:21:56.960 --> 00:21:58.000 It's fantastic. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.759 But my point is that. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:05.359 I've been blessed with a good constitution and I try to take care of it, and so should you. 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:06.400 And so it works. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:07.119 There you go. 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:11.359 So I don't know what that all that had to do with the Gentiles, but there you go. 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:12.640 Now, verse 8. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:13.839 This is really important. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:14.720 This is really important. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:15.440 Verse 8. 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:16.480 Really important. 00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:23.599 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:27.680 And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery. 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:28.960 Now stop right there. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:30.880 What's the fellowship of the mystery? 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:45.839 Here's what the fellowship of the mystery is The Fellowship of the Mystery is when you truly believe that God is in control of what's happening in our life, even though others don't like what you believe. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:46.960 Let me give you an example. 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:52.319 So, Genesis 1:1 says God created the heavens and the earth. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:57.039 Darwin's theory of evolution is falling apart. 00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:07.519 Everybody out there that's true science and they're really studying it realize there's no link between microevolution and macroevolution. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:17.599 If there was, there'd be somebody out there that's like because they're halfway between. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:22.480 I mean, when you got seven billion people that at least be one. 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:27.200 At one who's kind of in between apism and humanism. 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:36.000 I mean, they're kind of right there, and they're and they're really good at gymnastics because they can just fly across the bars and everything, whoa, with a banana in one hand. 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:37.519 All right. 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:42.319 There ain't none. 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:44.400 There never has been none. 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:50.000 Darwin got it on the Galapagos Islands with microevolution. 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:51.839 That's a great discovery. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:24:01.119 But then we extrapolate, these atheists and agnostics extrapolate then into macroevolution. 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:04.720 And there ain't no whale people. 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:06.319 You know, I go go fishing. 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:08.160 I've never caught like this whale. 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:13.039 I'm pulling him in, and he's got like a head on it, and it's like a human head or something. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:15.599 Or a hand that comes out of the fin. 00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:17.200 Oh, that's a human hand. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:27.119 So you're so you guys, you believe in a creator God who created the heavens and the earth. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:37.839 And that we actually believe this book, we believe this Bible, and in so doing, you're a part of the mystery, the fellowship of the mystery, and it we're gonna win. 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:40.880 You see about the archway? 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:43.680 Darwin's arch? 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:44.880 Fell. 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:46.880 It fell in two weeks ago. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:48.720 CNN reported it. 00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:51.519 That is prophetic. 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:53.680 It's falling. 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:55.279 And we're gonna see. 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.960 I mean, look, you guys, this is how smart I am. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:02.160 I got a really cool watch. 00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:06.000 I paid$22 at Target for this watch. 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:07.119 A great watch. 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:09.200 It's a marathoner's watch. 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:11.519 It's got all these ways you can time and stuff. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:14.480 And every time I look at it, I think I should run a marathon. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:24.559 But if I were to take this watch and just take it apart, take all the components and scatter it in some woods. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:37.920 How many years would it take for all those components to come together and one day I'm walking in the woods and there's my watch all put back together? 00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:40.640 Come on. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:41.920 Come on. 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:53.599 But if I were to say there was actually an intelligent person somewhere that made a Timex watch and put it together, would you believe me? 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:56.240 See, we're fine with that. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:02.079 But if we somehow associate it with a creator God, we've got a problem with that. 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:05.119 It's because it's demonic. 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:12.960 And so, men and women, God's called us to be a part of the fellowship of the mystery. 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:18.400 The fellowship of the mystery says we believe the body can heal itself most of the time. 00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:29.519 So if I pray for someone to be healed up here of diabetes, but then they won't change their diet, then they're gonna get diabetes again. 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:34.640 But if we don't pray for someone for diabetes, but they change their diet, they can get healed. 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:38.319 So the natural and the supernatural are always working together. 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:43.200 That's the mystery, listen, the fellowship of the mystery. 00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:45.279 Guys, this is our team. 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:47.680 We stick together. 00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:56.319 And as we believe that, we become blood-stained allies, and God makes us a powerful, powerful church. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:19.279 So God created all things through Jesus Christ, verse 9, verse 10, and this is the second mystery, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:35.920 Men and women, when we come together as a church, we are speaking life, we are speaking Jesus, we are speaking salvation, we are speaking healing, we are speaking freedom to principalities and powers over this city. 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:47.599 That's why when a man or a woman gets saved, and then the kids get saved, the kingdom of God has come to that house and demons leave. 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:50.799 Some of you are demonized. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:53.200 Some of you are demonized. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:28:03.200 In other words, you're still carrying the demons of the past, and you're going to get set free in the days ahead because you're fellowshipping with the church. 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:07.200 By being in the church, God's setting you free. 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:19.759 And when we preach the gospel, when we get up and we make that declaration, our road declaration, we don't even know the power of that into the heavenly realm. 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:21.519 And that's why we have an open heaven. 00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:35.359 There's an open heaven over the road right now because we pray, we worship, we preach the gospel, and we just keep doing it day after day after day, and it's becoming like a, I like what Sean said last week, a shame-free zone. 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:38.240 A shame-free zone. 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:42.720 A bondage-free zone to begin to change us and transform us. 00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:44.640 That's what the church does. 00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:49.119 That's why they wanted to shut down the church last year. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:56.079 Because if we could shut down the church, there's nothing hindering demonic powers to flood our cities. 00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:57.920 That's the reason the riots happened. 00:28:58.000 --> 00:28:59.279 That's the reason all the stuff happened. 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:00.400 Where was the church? 00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:10.160 And that's why God spoke to Sean to go into those troubled areas and go in there, and thousands would come out, and they would see crime abate. 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:12.319 They would see God move in a mighty way. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:15.920 And church, that's why we're here. 00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:20.400 We're to be a revolutionary people, a counter-cultural people. 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:22.240 Who fear only God. 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:23.599 We don't fear man. 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:25.839 And we do it together. 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:27.519 You're not on your own. 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:28.799 Don't ever think that. 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:30.960 You're always on a team. 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:33.279 You're on the team. 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:35.759 You get the t-shirt. 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:40.880 Manifold wisdom of God in the heavenly places. 00:29:42.160 --> 00:29:50.160 And then lastly, verse 12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him. 00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:57.359 Therefore I ask you, do not lose heart in my tribulation for you, which is your glory. 00:29:57.759 --> 00:30:00.640 Thirdly and lastly, there's the mystery of prayer. 00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:02.799 There's the mystery of the power of prayer. 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:10.720 There's this mystery that we can go in boldness and access with confidence Jesus and His Spirit in our life. 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:13.599