SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Sozo Kyle Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: To learn more about Sozo Kyle Church, including our gathering tonight in the Kyle area, visit us online at Sozoktx.com.
SPEAKER_00: Today's talk comes from Pastor Chris Paul.
SPEAKER_01: I was greeted this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start with this.
SPEAKER_01: Happy opening Sozo Kyle.
SPEAKER_01: And a picture made from one Johnny Welch.
SPEAKER_01: And he's probably in the kids area right now.
SPEAKER_01: But how about integrated your grand opening with a homemade picture?
SPEAKER_01: And that may be the highlight of the whole thing right there.
SPEAKER_01: So so wonderful it's gonna stay up here with us as we go through this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: My voice.
SPEAKER_01: Last night I pulled out the camera on and the Hayes uh Hawks, the local football team here, rescheduled their game from Friday night to Saturday night because of lightning without asking me.
SPEAKER_01: But the coach, the head coach, actually had sent me a text message and said, Would you mind live streaming game?
SPEAKER_01: I don't typically live stream, I always I always post videos afterwards because my mom and dad were in Colorado is how this all started 10 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And so then they couldn't see the field wasn't striped or marked well, and they said, We can't make sense of what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Well, I'll start talking you through it.
SPEAKER_01: And so as I talked them through it, it turned into play-by-play announcing.
SPEAKER_01: And so 10 years later, that's what I've been doing.
SPEAKER_01: So the head coach texts me on Friday and said, Would you mind live streaming?
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, sure.
SPEAKER_01: And so then last night, it's halftime, and I've spent a whole hour and a half probably pushing the voice a little too hard to do this announcing thing.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, somebody comes over to me like, just wanted to remind you, you have to preach in the morning at your opening.
SPEAKER_01: You might want to just tame it back a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, that's actually the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I did or not, but got my trusty water.
SPEAKER_01: I prayed last night as I went to bed about too late.
SPEAKER_01: I won't tell you what time, uh, that I'd have a voice this morning when I woke up.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's feeling pretty good, sounding pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: If if I have a a pre-pubescent cutout or something, you'll know you'll know what what it's about, what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: So my name is Chris, and um I know most of you, there may be a few I don't.
SPEAKER_01: Natalie and I um have had an invitation, we like to say, from the Lord for probably a long time to help lead the charge in the area that we've lived in for 18 years.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, there's almost 70,000 people in Kyle alone.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably a third of that in Butah, South Austin, Driftwood, Wimberly, like all these areas just continue to grow as everybody finds us.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, they say that for every 1,000 people in a region, there needs to be at least one healthy local church.
SPEAKER_01: And I know there's some healthy churches around here, but there ain't 70 in Kyle, and there ain't more than that in Butta and the other areas.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord's just taken us on a journey, and the journey has probably been longer than I was cognizant of it being, but really in the last five years to wake up and realize there's a real need.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I know that I've got a call and some equipping, and it would be selfish to not do something with it.
SPEAKER_01: And since we've said yes, um, it's been the right of our life already so far.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm so thankful.
SPEAKER_01: And there's been hungry people like you that have uh helped, and we have big dreams of of helping the mission of God in this area.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'll start with what our vision is, because um, don't let it be uh cliche or plasticky.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that's gonna work, even your own personal family, needs vision.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have a vision to see the kingdom of heaven advance in our own lives, in the region, and to the ends of the earth, which were Jesus' words.
SPEAKER_01: I think that part region is really important too.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than just the city, I think that the heavenlies actually operate in regions.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in Ephesians 6, uh Paul actually tells us kind of a bigger zoomed-out picture that our our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against actually principalities and regional influence, um, perhaps where the church has kind of stepped back and gone absent.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's been uh an unoccupied area over region for influence to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And so to see the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, actually move forward and advance in our own lives in this region that we all find ourselves in, and actually to the ends of the earth, which is possible from somebody like you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let that fly over your head.
SPEAKER_01: Like I believe the local church can have far-reaching effects.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm excited about what that could look like.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the vision.
SPEAKER_01: You need a vehicle to get to your vision.
SPEAKER_01: You have to have a car to go in to get to the vision.
SPEAKER_01: So, what is that?
SPEAKER_01: What's your mission?
SPEAKER_01: And our mission is to be a family on mission.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to talk about the mission of God today, um, that is representing Jesus to the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: And I love that part representing, because it means two things.
SPEAKER_01: It means representing Jesus, which is all of our call to do, to represent Jesus, to walk through your life um salty.
SPEAKER_01: And people are like, something about you, and and then especially you start loving people and even praying for people, and they're like, okay, you got to tell me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm experiencing love and acceptance and power.
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: So that's representing Jesus in um the world around us, but representing Jesus is also an interesting idea because there's a lot of thoughts about who Jesus is, who God is.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some write on and maybe some write off.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe it's been because there wasn't a mom or dad who took Junior by the hand and said, Hey, this is what it is to be a man of God, son.
SPEAKER_01: This is what it is to be a woman of God, daughter.
SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe just didn't have the mentors in life or a church or somebody to show who Jesus is rightly.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of ideas of who God is, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Um, some people imagine God to be uh like a Zeus figure with a lightning bolt in his hand with some angry eyebrows, and who's like, hey, I'm going to punish you if you even step out of line.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, okay, God's to be feared.
SPEAKER_01: But he's not.
SPEAKER_01: He's a father, and he's a good one.
SPEAKER_01: And that's that's a representation of who God, who Jesus, who the Holy Spirit is.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: So that's really the mission.
SPEAKER_01: So that's how you see the vision of um reaching the world happen is realizing that we're first a family.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not just an organization, it's not just a club.
SPEAKER_01: It actually has family bonds.
SPEAKER_01: That might scare some of us.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, you say family, and I start twitching.
SPEAKER_01: The truth is, God always meant for the church to be a family.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he uses the word father.
SPEAKER_01: He could have used the word something else when he actually described himself, but the most way God is described out of Jesus' mouth is father, because he has sons and daughters and family and everything.
SPEAKER_01: So there's the the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you this for free too.
SPEAKER_01: Uh sozo.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Um, good question.
SPEAKER_01: I asked the same one about five years ago.
SPEAKER_01: It's not so so church.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of good, kind of not, so-so.
SPEAKER_01: Sozo is the Greek word for salvation, and it means uh holistic saving.
SPEAKER_01: Not just you go to heaven when you die, but today and holy, the entire part of you being touched and rescued and made well by God.
SPEAKER_01: There's a story in the Bible, of course, of the woman who had a bleeding issue, and Jesus is in the crowd, he's walking, maybe you know this one, and the disciples around him, and he feels this woman who's got this bleeding issue in her body reach out and touch his garment, and he turns around and he says, Somebody touched me.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples think, Jesus, everybody's around you.
SPEAKER_01: We all touched you.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, I felt intention in the touching and power go out of me, and sees the woman and says, Woman, your your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_01: And when he says well, it's actually the word sozo.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith has made you sozo.
SPEAKER_01: And what he's saying is not just that your bleeding issue is healed, but your whole life is transformed because the kingdom of God has now come to you through your faith, through your realizing.
SPEAKER_01: So your eternity, yes, secured, but your now is transformed to be uh a woman of God with new possibilities in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's kind of a teasing word, Sozo, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It's a nice talking point, but it's actually loaded with meaning.
SPEAKER_01: And so, if you were wondering, that's what Sozo Kyle is about.
SPEAKER_01: So Sozo San Marcus exists a few miles to our south, and um the Sozo family has a vision to plant 25 local apostolic hubs, we call them.
SPEAKER_01: So that's a fancy$10 word, like like a big one.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Uh local local apostolic hub is just a local church, but it's a church that has a vision of equipping people and sending people.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, sending, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're gonna talk a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, don't get nervous.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like are you trying to send me to Africa or something?
SPEAKER_01: I mean maybe, but um not right off the bat.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe never.
SPEAKER_01: Sending can look in a lot of different ways, but sending is intentional.
SPEAKER_01: And so um so Sozo Kyle is really the first of those 25.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if if we get to tweet, like is a hardline 25?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I think so.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
SPEAKER_01: And then 25 abroad.
SPEAKER_01: There's already three abroad.
SPEAKER_01: We have some friends in Japan, uh, Burundi Um and Pakistan, and then a couple more that are kind of kind of coming into the family, just getting the mission.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that any other church mission's wrong or bad, it's just that we feel unique to what God's called us to.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a French term je ne sais quoi, if I'm even saying that right.
SPEAKER_01: And it means what is the unique standout factor about you?
SPEAKER_01: It's probably a good question to ask about your own life, too.
SPEAKER_01: What do I carry?
SPEAKER_01: What's unique about my wiring?
SPEAKER_01: What's my je ne sais quoi that makes me stand out that God's put his fingerprint on?
SPEAKER_01: And just feel like that's kind of been our our call as a church family, to want to really major in equipping people and sending people.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh we'll get into it here.
SPEAKER_01: Um, ecclesia is another big word.
SPEAKER_01: We're using big words today, and it means in English, the church.
SPEAKER_01: And it comes with a belief that the church can actually change the world.
SPEAKER_01: And that's another phrase that can fly right over your head and feel too big for your britches if you're not careful.
SPEAKER_01: But it's it's not.
SPEAKER_01: The world's all around you, and in you is the seed to really bring real change and transformation, not only in your own life, but really to the people who know you, to the people who are watching you, to the city you end up living in, to the kids that you end up raising, to the grocery.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just the gamut goes on and on.
SPEAKER_01: Real change in the church, the ecclesia has the power to do that.
SPEAKER_01: It comes from a Greek word.
SPEAKER_01: We won't always be so Greek, but today we're Greek apparently.
SPEAKER_01: Um the first word is ek, eK.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if I'm saying that right.
SPEAKER_01: Some some Greek scholars could could help here, but the word ek, eK, means out.
SPEAKER_01: And then the other compound word here is kaline.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: And it means to call.
SPEAKER_01: So it literally, this word ecclesia literally means the called out ones.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus decided when he was telling people, his followers, about the church, he decided to use the word ecclesia to exemplify what actually it is.
SPEAKER_01: What are we actually doing?
SPEAKER_01: We are saying that we are going to be the called out ones for a real purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's a political term, at least it was then.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's translated uh in English as the church.
SPEAKER_01: But originally, when Jesus would have used this word, everybody who heard it would have known it to be a political term that was for the uh local legislative government called out body in a city, in an area.
SPEAKER_01: For instance, when Paul goes to Athens in Acts chapter 17, and he is talking to at the Eragopacus, he's talking to the leaders there in Athens, and of course he sees the sign on the wall that says to an unknown God.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, I can actually tell you guys about the unknown God, and he he goes into it.
SPEAKER_01: Who he would have been talking to there in Athens would have been the ecclesia of the day.
SPEAKER_01: They were the governing body, they're the called out ones, they were citizens, but they were marked to say, hey, you guys come and be a part of the um the ones who can instill law, who can make judgment calls, the government.
SPEAKER_01: And they were seen as such, and they had the authority.
SPEAKER_01: They had it was agreed upon authority, the ecclesia.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus shows up and he says, This is what the church is, it's the ecclesia, we might actually call it ecclesia or something.
SPEAKER_01: So if we miss miss up the terms, give me some grace here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't speak Greek fluently.
SPEAKER_01: Um, what he was saying is that all of authority on heaven and earth has been given to me, and I give it to you, the church, to actually have the governing authority to bring what is in heaven to be on earth.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not just like a pie in the sky, cross your fingers, kind of hope that somebody hears your words or sees your your love to them and that changes their heart.
SPEAKER_01: You actually, as the church, as the uh ecclesia, have the authority to instill heaven's values and culture and reality.
SPEAKER_01: So what's in heaven can actually be reality on earth.
SPEAKER_01: What's not in heaven?
SPEAKER_01: Sickness, poverty, anxiety, despair, depression, suicide.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the list just goes on.
SPEAKER_01: That stuff's not in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, when he prayed, he said, pray like this, live like this, that uh heaven come to earth.
SPEAKER_01: And you have the power to do that because you're the ecclesia as the as the church family of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're that's what you're coming into as a born-again believer in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a club or an organization or something that you attend when you have time and you're in town.
SPEAKER_01: When you become a part of the family of God, you become part of the ecclesia and have keys to the kingdom to implement heaven's rule on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we can pray things and say things like regional transformation.
SPEAKER_01: Like things that are wrong around here can actually be made right through the power of God through us because he's chosen to partner with us as the ecclesia.
SPEAKER_01: So the church can absolutely change the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you have a grand opening and you ask yourself and you ask the Lord, what do you start with?
SPEAKER_01: What do you lead with?
SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of things you could say to perhaps fresh ears, maybe even try to put your best foot forward.
SPEAKER_01: What do you lead with?
SPEAKER_01: And I think what you lead with is what is the mission of God?
SPEAKER_01: And what is Sozokile going to stand for and be about right out of the gate?
SPEAKER_01: You know, we all have past experiences, we have past church experiences, maybe our experiences as no church and we don't have a clue what to expect.
SPEAKER_01: But I think having a good understanding and framework of what the mission of God is is actually really important and helpful.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why I want to start here for the next um even a couple of weeks is talk about what is the mission of God and how does the church fit into it.
SPEAKER_01: Um few months ago now, uh, my wife Natalie was at Summer Moon Coffee, and she was meeting uh another young lady for for coffee, and she works at Gold's Gym, some in San Marcus, and so the summer moon, this was at the summer moon in San Marcus, and one of the baristas there was about to uh go in for some pre-cancerous kind of surgery stuff and was pretty nervous about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so um, because Natalie had kind of formed a relationship because she bought coffee on the regular firmer, she had mentioned it to Natalie.
SPEAKER_01: She had a little anxiety and some nerves about it all.
SPEAKER_01: And so Natalie just said, Well, let's pray that those nerves go away and that you have the peace of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so the barista said, Heck yeah, let's do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so she did just right there, a simple prayer of just Lord, we invite your peace right now in the heart, and we invite your power on the body, and we just pray that this anyway, whatever she prayed, I wouldn't there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm making it up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it was something like that.
SPEAKER_01: You're a great prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So she finished, and the girl that she was having coffee with said, How did you know to do that?
SPEAKER_01: And Natalie said, That's just what the people of God do.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's just what the ecclesia does, essentially.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you were used that word, probably.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, but it was this eye-opening moment for this other girl to realize, oh, this this is allowed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm empowered to do this as a child of God who carries the authority of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: When we see, when we spot, when we sense something out of line, something out of balance with what heaven's reality is, then there's an invitation to pray and to invite that thing in.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, what if what you pray doesn't happen?
SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome to the mystery of God, because there is some of that in it.
SPEAKER_01: But the mystery of God can't come at the expense of a complete abandonment, of you saying, Well, I've seen it not work, and so I'm I'm gonna jump ship and go live over here and do this other thing.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the chances of God coming through and heaven coming to earth are a lot better the more often you instill faith and pray than when you just don't and say, I'll leave it up to the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: There is a divine extension of partnership for the people of God, the family of God, that God is inviting you into, and it's specific and it's unique to where you are.
SPEAKER_01: The subdivision that you're in today may not be the subdivision that you're in next year, may not be the job you're at, your your child situation.
SPEAKER_01: You may graduate your kids off and be an empty now.
SPEAKER_01: Like your season's always going to shift and change.
SPEAKER_01: There's always gonna be opportunity around you no matter what your season is.
SPEAKER_01: The voice of the Lord is always speaking, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like he goes on vacation, checks out, decides I'll get you back when you're ready to listen or something.
SPEAKER_01: He's just always opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, this curtain pulled back, moment, revelation, wisdom here.
SPEAKER_01: We get to have as much of it as we want to go for.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just the heart.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that we decide to go for it a lot.
SPEAKER_01: So the central idea today is that the mission of God is to make disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That was the last instruction Jesus gave us.
SPEAKER_01: It was the it was the primary instruction.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus didn't say was go into all the earth and plant churches.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Said go and make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: What's a disciple?
SPEAKER_01: It's a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody who says everything, the filter of my life goes through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: My thinking, my believing, my acting, my recreating, my everything goes through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I'm an apprentice of his.
SPEAKER_01: If he thinks it, I think it.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's been the instruction.
SPEAKER_01: And so from the beginning, that's been uh that's been the mandate, that's been the mission.
SPEAKER_01: And the church came after the mission.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the mission of God to make disciples of all the nations existed, and God said, We need a vehicle for the mission.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna we're gonna have a church, we're gonna have a family, and it's gonna accomplish this.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than the inverse of that, which sometimes, and at least in my mind, maybe you've been there too, you thought, well, you know, Jesus rose from the dead, and then the church started, and then the church was like twiddling their thumbs, what are we gonna be about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know we'll make disciples of people.
SPEAKER_01: Could have worked that way, but it didn't because the mission of God has existed from the beginning of time.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I was gonna read a verse, I'll wait, I'll wait, I'll go in order.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read you something else in front in front.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'll have to watch my time here.
SPEAKER_01: I you guys can get me going.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have to listen fast today.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna Um Okay, but I gotta read you this.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, this is this is gonna take just a minute, but I think this is profound.
SPEAKER_01: So so put your focusing listening ears on.
SPEAKER_01: On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station.
SPEAKER_01: The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat that went out and saved the shipwrecked people.
SPEAKER_01: But the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, they went out day and night, tirelessly searching for the lost from the shipwrecks.
SPEAKER_01: Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding areas wanted to become associated with the station that gave life to these shipwrecked people, and give their time and their money and their effort for the support of its work.
SPEAKER_01: New boats were bought and new crews were trained, and this little life saving station began to grow.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the members of the life saving station were unhappy that the building that they were sending the boat out of was so crude and poorly equipped.
SPEAKER_01: They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.
SPEAKER_01: They replaced all the emergency cots that they had in the hut with beds and put better furniture, and they even enlarged the building.
SPEAKER_01: Now the life saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it as a sort of club.
SPEAKER_01: Few members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions.
SPEAKER_01: So they actually hired out crews to do this work.
SPEAKER_01: The life-saving motif still prevailed in this club's decoration, and there was a liturgical lifeboat even in the room, so they could see it in person.
SPEAKER_01: About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people.
SPEAKER_01: They were dirty and sick, and some had black skin, some had yellow skin, some had red skin.
SPEAKER_01: There were all kinds of people off this big boat.
SPEAKER_01: And this beautiful new club was now in chaos because everybody was landing in the now club, the what was the rescue station.
SPEAKER_01: So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of the shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.
SPEAKER_01: At the next meeting, there was a split down the middle of the club membership.
SPEAKER_01: Most of the Members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club.
SPEAKER_01: Some members insisted upon life saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that this is how we started.
SPEAKER_01: We're called a life-saving station, hello.
SPEAKER_01: But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life saving station down the coast aways.
SPEAKER_01: So they did just that.
SPEAKER_01: And as the years went by, that new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old one.
SPEAKER_01: And it evolved, too, into a club.
SPEAKER_01: And yet another spin-off life saving station was founded, and history continued to repeat itself.
SPEAKER_01: And if you visit the seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore.
SPEAKER_01: Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but most people drowned.
SPEAKER_01: I could almost get teary, and it's just an allegory.
SPEAKER_01: I think um for me about five years ago, my hope in the in the in the local church was restored.
SPEAKER_01: Um like a lot of you, I've had a lot of church experience, and I'm thankful for it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful for what God has done in me and everything.
SPEAKER_01: But I think I found my place myself in a place a little bit of boredom and maybe just a little bit of visionlessness.
SPEAKER_01: Like, like what do we exist for?
SPEAKER_01: What are we really accomplishing?
SPEAKER_01: And if it's just a coming together gathering, there's some good in that.
SPEAKER_01: There's some peace in that, there's some power in that.
SPEAKER_01: But I think I my heart, after about 17 years of doing it, just kind of ran out of gas on that.
SPEAKER_01: And I just feel like God renewed my sense of vision of what the church could be by returning me to the original mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: To not get comfortable, to not be a place where it's come and see only, but it's a place of go and tell also.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's not one or the other at the expense of the other.
SPEAKER_01: There's gotta be a come and see.
SPEAKER_01: Come and taste that the Lord is good, the scriptures say.
SPEAKER_01: But if the come and see just leads to getting fatter and fatter and fatter, and there's really no going and telling, I mean, really with intention in your life and mission, then you'll run out of gas eventually on it.
SPEAKER_01: You'll get bored of it, you'll get tired of it.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of life on repeat.
SPEAKER_01: And I think for a lot of people, perhaps that's been the experience is just week in, week out rhythm, routine.
SPEAKER_01: And some of that's good.
SPEAKER_01: We need rhythm and routine in our life.
SPEAKER_01: But I just know, and I think you do too, that there is opportunity beyond our wildest dreams to see the kingdom of God on planet earth in our day and age, like like maybe it's never been before.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it it hinges on if the ecclesia of God sees it and decides to be that in the earth today.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you a little picture of um of of where we've come from as a church family.
SPEAKER_01: I mean from the beginning of Acts, when the churches were born.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, I'll say the church didn't come first, the command did.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 1.28.
SPEAKER_01: I'll skip Matthew 28, Lori, because I already mentioned that.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 128 says, God blessed them and said to them, this would have been in the garden, by the way, at the beginning of time, be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it.
SPEAKER_01: The heart of God has been multiplication from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: From the beginning, grow and multiply, not just biologically, but new creation.
SPEAKER_01: New creation, the people of God multiply.
SPEAKER_01: And then you see in Acts 1.8, now we're getting close to the birthday of the church, the mission of God is restated as the church is being born.
SPEAKER_01: It says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.
SPEAKER_01: You see the promise here of the mission?
SPEAKER_01: And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Pause.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem is where it was the epicenter where this thing started.
SPEAKER_01: And we're about to look at the Jerusalem church and what they were up to as this thing was being born.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus doesn't stop in Jerusalem with his instruction.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and in all Judea, not the Jewish place.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Gentile place.
SPEAKER_01: This would have been completely radical thinking for a Jewish person, which is the heritage from the Old Testament, to think, wait a second, you're saying, Jesus, that this thing is for more than just our insider family?
SPEAKER_01: This is revolutionary.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: He says, by the way, go to Samaria too, hated place.
SPEAKER_01: That's the enemy place.
SPEAKER_01: That's the crosstown rival.
SPEAKER_01: We'll go to Judea.
SPEAKER_01: We ain't going to Samaria.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you are, if you're going to be on the mission.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it doesn't even stop there.
SPEAKER_01: This is like one of Jesus' things like, well, how many times do I have to forgive them?
SPEAKER_01: Seven times, seventy, seventy-seven, seventy-seven times seven, seven, seven, seven, seven.
SPEAKER_01: Like how many sevens?
SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, the point is you don't stop forgiving.
SPEAKER_01: This is the idea.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and go to the ends of the earth for all time, forever, every place, everybody.
SPEAKER_01: This is the mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's been restated there to carry something that's always existed in the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_01: The church that forgot its mission.
SPEAKER_01: The Jerusalem church was the first church.
SPEAKER_01: And there were 3,000 people added to the number of the Jerusalem church on the heels of Peter's first sermon when he lets out the gospel message of Jesus and all the people that were there for the Pentecost celebration, which was a lot.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you get 3,000 people in hearing range of Peter's message.
SPEAKER_01: Said, Wow, that's true?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm in on that.
SPEAKER_01: And the church began to grow.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't long after that that 5,000 more people, and maybe more than that, were added to the church.
SPEAKER_01: So the thing had movement, it had momentum, and it had power.
SPEAKER_01: It had miracles in it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Acts 2, 41.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of getting fired up here.
SPEAKER_01: Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.
SPEAKER_01: They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread into prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: All the believers were together and had everything in common.
SPEAKER_01: So they're all filled with God is what it's saying.
SPEAKER_01: They sold property.
SPEAKER_01: They went crazy.
SPEAKER_01: They sold their possessions to give to anyone who had need, like, you got need, I got something for you.
SPEAKER_01: They were just going nuts for this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
SPEAKER_01: We're only coming together on Sundays and maybe once a coup a couple times during the week.
SPEAKER_01: These guys are going every day, they can't stand it.
SPEAKER_01: They broke bread in their homes, they ate their meals together, they had gladness and sincerity in their hearts, and they praised God, enjoying the favor of all the people.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
SPEAKER_01: This thing was going like wildfire.
SPEAKER_01: It was a powerful move of God.
SPEAKER_01: But there's no record that the Jerusalem church actually went outside of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: They just continued to say, Hey, fellow Jew, come and hear about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's got power, and he did, and they did, and they experienced it, and they just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger inside the city.
SPEAKER_01: But God didn't say build the church of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Go here and go here and go there and just keep going.
SPEAKER_01: And the Jerusalem church didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: So God had to shake Peter awake with a rooftop vision in Acts chapter 10, if you remember that story.
SPEAKER_01: And he was just called to go to one Gentile, go to Cornelius' house.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter's like, No, I have never, I have never got eaten anything that is unclean.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: We just had 3,000 and then 5,000 be added to the Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to a Gentile's house.
SPEAKER_01: Like he was totally spaced cadet dead on the mission of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So he shakes him awake with this dream.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta read it in Acts chapter 10, or the curtain comes down and there's all kinds of animals.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Peter, get up and eat these things.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter's like, No.
SPEAKER_01: And God's like, yes, watch what happens.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's the transforming moment, but it takes all the way to Acts chapter 10 when the church was started in Acts chapter 2 for Peter to even get it.
SPEAKER_01: And then it was a long ride after that for all the other church leaders in Jerusalem to get on board with it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: So Jerusalem stopped being the key church that God was planting in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Now the second church that we'll look at is Emmaus.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've heard the phrase, the walk to Emmaus.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus has just rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: There's two guys and they're walking.
SPEAKER_01: It's Luke 24, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: It says, now the same day, two of them, these are two believers now in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: They're from Emmaus, but they're in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: They'd heard all about this, were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: So it's about a seven-mile walk, this walk to Emmaus, by the way, not just a five-minute thing.
SPEAKER_01: They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
SPEAKER_01: What had happened?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus had just died, and there's persecution happening, and it's like, hey, are we are we good to believe this?
SPEAKER_01: Haha, do we want to keep this on the down low?
SPEAKER_01: Like they're talking about what everybody in the town was talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, then Jesus shows up and he's like, what are y'all talking about?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Do you not know?
SPEAKER_01: You know, and they fill him in, and later they actually recognize who they were talking to.
SPEAKER_01: But due to its proximity to Jerusalem, when the scattering of the persecuted happened, it was likely that out of Jerusalem the scattered went seven miles to Emmaus, and that's where they heard about Jesus and what was going on there.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually the resurrection happens and they find out about that.
SPEAKER_01: So they start a church.
SPEAKER_01: So you have a village church.
SPEAKER_01: What's a village church?
SPEAKER_01: A village church is a church that's in close proximity to like a main city, a big city, something on the periphery.
SPEAKER_01: And so the village takes all of its cues from the big city.
SPEAKER_01: It takes its culture cues from the city, it takes its uh economical cues from the city, whatever the big city's doing, we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what was the big city church doing?
SPEAKER_01: It was Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_01: They were just getting fatter and fatter and fatter inside the city, but there was no sending, there was no missional movement happening with it.
SPEAKER_01: So Emmaus, the village over here, seven miles to the side, sees it and says, okay, I guess that's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: And so they just kind of all pool together themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Unlike the Jerusalem church, they're not growing and they don't care to.
SPEAKER_01: It's just their family.
SPEAKER_01: It's the club.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, I know you, you know me, let's not change a thing.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be in this club together.
SPEAKER_01: I know you.
SPEAKER_01: Some community groups turn into this, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: I believe community groups should be missional, like, hey, let's make disciples inside the community.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, we're gonna be family as well, but um there's gonna come a time where we got to add some more people to it because there's always people who need family, and people are always the vision.
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of times community groups are like, no, we are not nope.
SPEAKER_01: We like each other, and we finally found each other, and we're not about to give this up.
SPEAKER_01: You can't make us.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Knock yourself out on your own, but help us be missional and let's continue to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 1 28, it's in the original heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, get back off the soapbox.
SPEAKER_01: So the Emmaus Church was a village church, and yes, perhaps Sozo salvation came to the village, but I think real sozo salvation gets the heart of God in the mission.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe you've been a part of a village church before.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've had village mentality thinking, but it's not the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the third church we'll look at.
SPEAKER_01: It's Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: This is the church that was built around the mission.
SPEAKER_01: 90 miles to the north of Jerusalem, Antioch really is um adopting a way to make disciples of all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I know I've said this to a lot of you, I'll say it again today.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus said go into the world and disciple the nations, and when he says even go into all the ends of the earth, there is the literal meaning of going to the ends of the earth, and yes, nations are countries, but nations are also people groups.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know there's nations plural right here in our region?
SPEAKER_01: I would even venture to say that some of our youth generation, maybe Gen Z is a as a nation unto itself, has its own language, has its own culture, has its own style of norms.
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, low-key, you've got to be able to, you know, communicate to the nation of the Gen Z.
SPEAKER_01: Um, there you go, Ty.
SPEAKER_01: You're welcome for that.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so uh I think I heard one time that truck drivers are actually their own people group.
SPEAKER_01: Semi-truck drivers are actually considered a people group by definition because of their lifestyle, because of their isolation, because of the rhythms that are demanded on them, that they're actually their own people group.
SPEAKER_01: That's a nation.
SPEAKER_01: So you have to start looking at your life and say, okay, what are the nations I'm called to disciple?
SPEAKER_01: It may not be Ghana in Africa, it may be just right here in your backyard, you know, you what do what's your assignment?
SPEAKER_01: What's your nation?
SPEAKER_01: So look at Acts 11.
SPEAKER_01: This is the description of the Antioch Church, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed, traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, spreading the word only among the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_01: So the the big stoning of Stephen, it's a whole Acts chapter 7 thing, happens.
SPEAKER_01: And so everybody's like, oh, they're gonna stone me.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta leave.
SPEAKER_01: So they fly.
SPEAKER_01: Now this was I don't think the persecution was actually originally the heart of God, but I think he absolutely used it to spread the mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so this there's a scattering that happens, but as the scattering, they were conditioned to just go to the Jewish people, just the insiders, just the people that were on in the family.
SPEAKER_01: But verse 20 comes along.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak, here it is, to Greeks, also the first time you really see a move of inclusion with the original mission of God, all the way back from Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So just like a great number, um, 3,000 added when Peter talked, and then 5,000 more, you see the same thing happening here.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same power of God.
SPEAKER_01: A great number was added.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: But they actually did something.
SPEAKER_01: They actually stepped into the sending of the mission and they sent out Barnabas.
SPEAKER_01: And um they sent him to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: And when he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done in Antioch, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts and gave him basically a boo-rah, keep going, you guys are getting it.
SPEAKER_01: Barnabas, by the way, is a hero in the faith.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about him a little bit more here in the next couple weeks.
SPEAKER_01: He was a good man, it says about that.
SPEAKER_01: Right on cue.
SPEAKER_01: Full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So a great number of people were brought before Barnabas got there, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord after Barnabas got to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: There is a move of God happening now.
SPEAKER_01: We're starting to gain some traction, and it's Acts 11.
SPEAKER_01: This, by the way, is an additional, yeah, great number, just like the momentum is gaining, and I think that's how it works.
SPEAKER_01: I think once we start to see some momentum, even in your own life, like being intentional with people, you realize that was fulfilling.
SPEAKER_01: I can do that again.
SPEAKER_01: I can actually do that again a couple more times.
SPEAKER_01: I actually can get vision for that.
SPEAKER_01: It starts to build momentum.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, who of course we know as Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I gotta get this guy to where the thing is happening for the mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: So he spent a year teaching and equipping the ecclesia.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to say without sounding critical, if I can.
SPEAKER_01: I think if there's a critique on the church in the West in recent days, and maybe maybe from a long, maybe it's not recent, maybe it's been a pattern for a while, the church in the West does two things really well.
SPEAKER_01: They teach and they pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Teaching and pastoring, both part of the five-fold ministry, by the way, in Ephesians 4, absolutely necessary things to do.
SPEAKER_01: But if teaching and pastoring become a replacement for also the apostolic nature of the church, the word apostle, by the me way, means just sent ones.
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a Greek word, another Greek word of sent apostolos, to send.
SPEAKER_01: It's the sent ones.
SPEAKER_01: I think, because I've been a part of this, I've been guilty of some of this, if we're gonna have just a self-disclosure moment here, of thinking that the goal of church is to gather the people, pastor them well, and keep beating them and keep teaching them, keep teaching, keep, keep teaching, keep pastoring, keep teaching and keep pastoring.
SPEAKER_01: Good, but just not the whole picture.
SPEAKER_01: There's got to be an apostolic moment where the church says, okay, a year later, Barnabas and Saul, they just spent a year doing this very thing, teaching and pastoring, and now it's go gear, baby.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to discover what you carry, what's so unique about you, and be on mission with your life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that means going somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it means being risky and taking a job somewhere you never thought you would have taken a job.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it means making a move to another place to live.
SPEAKER_01: Likely it just means becoming more intentional with what you carry and being activated in it to live that out in every arena of your life.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not so much of just, hey, keep feeding me, keep teaching me, let me know more information.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, now I know some stuff and I am activated in what I carry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm about the mission of God.
SPEAKER_01: There's a real sending quality here in the Antioch church church.
SPEAKER_01: So notice this.
SPEAKER_01: The Antioch Church was founded by no names.
SPEAKER_01: It does not tell us who founded it.
SPEAKER_01: Now we know that Barnabas came, right?
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, there's a move of God, people are being added to the number, and so the Jerusalem church gets word about it and they send Barnabas, but he didn't start this church in Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: Who did?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And it's powerful that we don't know because this is the revolution of the ordinary man.
SPEAKER_01: So if in your thinking, making disciples of all the nations and being an influencer for the kingdom of God is just for the elite or the pastors or the super spiritual, think again, we don't even know who started Antioch Church, and it is the marker for what a church is to look like in the earth today.
SPEAKER_01: The revolution of Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Ordinary, Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Ordinary, unschooled, untrained, don't have a deep resume.
SPEAKER_01: What's your resume?
SPEAKER_01: Uh regret?
SPEAKER_01: Um, frustration with God?
SPEAKER_01: Uh pain?
SPEAKER_01: You want me to do it?
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the 12 disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly what we're looking for.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we've picked you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got the past that we need that can set this world on fire.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: So founded by no names, how about this?
SPEAKER_01: Um, it was also the place where the word Christian that we've adopted today first showed up.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't a term of endearment.
SPEAKER_01: It was a critique, actually, by the unbelievers that were watching around saying, You little wannabes, you guys are like trying to act like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You guys go around thinking you're Jesus or something.
SPEAKER_01: And what they were noticing in their spirit was that they carried the spirit of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They all seen Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus was on the scene.
SPEAKER_01: They knew about whether they believed it was a rumor or reality, they knew the story of death and resurrection and what he stood for.
SPEAKER_01: And they say, all you guys are trying to act like him, you little, well, what's a word?
SPEAKER_01: What's a word?
SPEAKER_01: Uh little Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's like your little Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, they said Christians.
SPEAKER_01: So it was originally kind of a slap to be called a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And now we've adopted it as absolutely because it lines up with the mission of God to make little Christians of everybody we come in contact with in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's the mission.
SPEAKER_01: What's the call of God on my life?
SPEAKER_01: To disciple people.
SPEAKER_01: Well, should I take this job or this job?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Pick one.
SPEAKER_01: And while whatever one you get to, make a make a disciple.
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't want to make light that God didn't have a plan for your life with some specifics.
SPEAKER_01: He does.
SPEAKER_01: He cares who you marry, he cares where you live, he cares about the details of your life.
SPEAKER_01: But don't get so hung up on, oh, I just don't know where or what or when or oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: Make one.
SPEAKER_01: Launch.
SPEAKER_01: And then make a disciple.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus said, go into all the world, the go is as you go.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think, I don't think the direction of the going is really as important as the just as you go.
SPEAKER_01: Because he listed a lot of places to go.
SPEAKER_01: And finally Jesus is like, to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Almost like it's all got to get covered.
SPEAKER_01: If you can do that at IBM, go make a disciple at IBM.
SPEAKER_01: If you need to go work at Apple, go do that.
SPEAKER_01: If you need to work at the gas station, make a disciple at the gas station.
SPEAKER_01: We're going everywhere anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Then again, I don't want to make light of the specific call of God on your life because he's got one and he does care.
SPEAKER_01: And ask him about it.
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, make a decision in faith and then make a disciple in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's the third highlight, I think, for Antioch Church is that they sent people.
SPEAKER_01: That was a qualifying mark of the Antioch Church.
SPEAKER_01: They were senders.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be like in church leadership to send somebody.
SPEAKER_01: You just need to be like, hey, what's going on in your life?
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: You have a call of God on your life.
SPEAKER_01: I see like connecting evangelists on your life.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to go find somebody.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, that person you were telling me about at Gold's Gym or whatever, you ought to maybe meet with them.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm I'm sending you.
SPEAKER_01: Everything I'm doing in my life comes to like this filter of being a sending agent.
SPEAKER_01: Like, well, what if I send somebody in the wrong place?
SPEAKER_01: Well, walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of God is always talking.
SPEAKER_01: And you're growing in your sensitivity to hear him and to partner with him.
SPEAKER_01: And some of the sending is for you to go, and some of the sending is for you to be an agent of sending some.
SPEAKER_01: Else, giving them courage.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the word encouragement means.
SPEAKER_01: That you literally give courage to somebody to step out.
SPEAKER_01: You're sending them.
SPEAKER_01: You're an apostle.
SPEAKER_01: You're an apostolic sender.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 13, verse 1, wrapping it up here.
SPEAKER_01: Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Barnabas, Simeon, called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, he's just listing them, by the way, in case you care.
SPEAKER_01: Menae, who had been brought up with uh Herod the Tetrarch, and then there was Saul, we know as Paul.
SPEAKER_01: While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them.
SPEAKER_01: So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on Barnabas and Saul and they sent them off.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, what organization takes their two best people and says, Go get out of here?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, well, what are y'all gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Guess we're gonna have to raise up some more two best people.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe two will turn into four.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe four will turn into sixteen.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'll actually make space for other people to develop in their gifting by sending some of the best ones out of here so that they can go and reproduce.
SPEAKER_01: And you just see this thing dripping with multiplication.
SPEAKER_01: And Antioch is a great picture of they didn't have to like have a long-term committee.
SPEAKER_01: Like, who are we gonna send?
SPEAKER_01: Do we have a backup plan in place if it doesn't work out?
SPEAKER_01: If we fall apart, what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: They prayed, they fasted, and they sent them.
SPEAKER_01: And that was as sophisticated as it got.
SPEAKER_01: There's just something about a heart that sends.
SPEAKER_01: And you matter because people are the mission.
SPEAKER_01: You matter as a sender, and you matter as a sent one because people are all around you.
SPEAKER_01: And don't think for a minute that if you find yourself like, I'm already a disciple of Jesus, so I guess I'll take a step back.
SPEAKER_01: I've already said yes to God, and and so I'm doing that.
SPEAKER_01: So I guess this is kind of a message for everybody who's not a disciple yet.
SPEAKER_01: No, you as a disciple of Jesus are a disciple maker, and that is the repeatable mission until your dying day.
SPEAKER_01: And there'll be different stages and seasons of that.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are well on, maybe in years, and you've been walking with the Lord for decades plus, and you're in like a sage season, a wise counselor, somebody that can tell people, hey, this is my experience.
SPEAKER_01: This is where I made it, this is where I didn't make it, this is what I would do different, here's how I would send now, here's how I am sending now.
SPEAKER_01: Take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go dormant, don't go quiet.
SPEAKER_01: That's a precious place to be.
SPEAKER_01: Others of us are young in zeal and passion, and we're like, just pull me back like a band and let me go.
SPEAKER_01: Aim me in the right direction.
SPEAKER_01: Give me some some some dynamite so I can go and carry the word so it explodes on the scene.
SPEAKER_01: Then everybody can see it and everybody can hear it.
SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of seasons.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe the church, the ecclesia of God, is to be a family, knowing each other, caring for each other, yes, equipping each other, but also on mission to advance the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe even measurably, and maybe eventually it can't even be measured because it's out of control.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it gets a little wild, maybe it just goes nuts.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope I'm alive to see it.
SPEAKER_01: And so everybody that's in the room today gets to help decide from the very onset whether Sozo Kyle becomes a clubhouse or stays a rescue mission, like its original invitation has been, just as the original invitation of the church is.
SPEAKER_01: And that decision is made every single week.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a decision that we make once on a grand opening Sunday, it's a decision that's made regularly.
SPEAKER_01: It's called culture, and culture is developed over time, and culture always exists in every nucleus of people, and it's gonna exist whether you're intentional about it or not intentional about it.
SPEAKER_01: But the more of us who get the mission and say, I'm gonna live missionally with my life, I'm gonna look at the opportunities around me at work or in my subdivision or recreationally or wherever it is, and start thinking differently and taking a chance and being risky by inviting people into the circle and saying, Hey, let's talk about the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's just let's just have a relationship and then being intentional to steer it in a direction.
SPEAKER_01: We talked a few weeks ago about the power of just having dinner with people, like hospitality, the power of having a meal.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's what your discipleship plan looks like is you say, you know what, at least once a week, I'm having somebody over into my life around a meal or something so that we can be intentional and see where that goes.
SPEAKER_01: Probably the times you do that will be the most providential spaces of your entire life.
SPEAKER_01: And so, um, yeah, if you would say, I want to be on mission of God, and ladies, you guys can come back up here.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I want to be a disciple maker, I want to take what I've been to the next level, and you don't have to stand up, but I would just love for you to stand right now if you say, you know what, I want to be intentional with my life, maybe more so than I've been before, because I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: And I also want to say this before I pray that I realize that the mission of God sounds like a big game.
SPEAKER_01: And it's possible that you have never before actually even had a conversation with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And like Deanna mentioned a minute ago, as we were coming out of our singing worshiping time, she said, you can know God and you can.
SPEAKER_01: And the way you do that is just with faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's a heart issue.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a magical formula, it's not a prayer that you have to say in the right order.
SPEAKER_01: It's a position of your heart to say, Oh God, I realize that you love me and that you have a plan for me, and you made a way for me to know you and to be in the family, and I want to be in the family.
SPEAKER_01: It's as simple as that to start, and then it's lived out in the family of God to grow.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna do things a little bit differently than we typically have done over the last six months.
SPEAKER_01: If this is your first time here, then you don't know what's been different.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been here a little bit, we typically huddle up and pray together.
SPEAKER_01: But this morning, uh, I want to invite a few prayer team people.
SPEAKER_01: You guys can come now, and they're just gonna be up here.
SPEAKER_01: And nothing extra wonderful about them, but it is there is something extra wonderful about praying with somebody.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you are today hearing all this talk about the mission of God, and you say, I actually want to make sure I'm in the family of God, then I'm gonna invite you to come up to some of these prayer people.
SPEAKER_01: There's some more, there's some more coming.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and pray with them about that.
SPEAKER_01: That's the decision where this whole thing has its origin point, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the stopping place, but it is the origin point.
SPEAKER_01: And actually, I'll say the origin point has begun before today, even with somebody like that, because you actually start your discipleship journey long before you ever even get saved.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that you start your discipleship even before you pray a prayer or anything, it's God working on your heart, setting you up, bringing you to places of ahas and awakened moments.
SPEAKER_01: And he's been on a journey with all of us for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: And if you need prayer about anything else, today would be a good day to do that.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a sickness in your body, if you've got a need at work, if you've got a relational breakdown today, I invite you to come and have somebody pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, you could have anybody that else that came with you today pray with you as well.
SPEAKER_01: But these guys um believe in great faith, and so I just invite you to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for you guys that are standing.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we've talked about this message a lot, haven't we?
SPEAKER_01: We've been on this journey, God talking about what is the mission of the church, and if you're gonna if you're gonna start a church family, what does it need to be about?
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I just want to say to you in front of my friends here today that it's a delight to talk about this and to explain this and to hopefully whet our appetites for what being the ecclesia, the authority carriers of heaven on the planet, the embassy that exists in our hearts of heaven for planet earth, especially in our region.
SPEAKER_01: What a privilege that is.
SPEAKER_01: We, Lord, don't take that lightly, and we're excited about it, and we want to get better at it.
SPEAKER_01: So for these standing, I bless you with open eyes, with clear vision to see opportunities that are God's setups for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Places He's been leading you to and walking you with that maybe you didn't see or maybe you did see.
SPEAKER_01: But I bless you with an anointing to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: I bless you with creativity and fresh ideas.
SPEAKER_01: I bless you with new acquaintances that could become friendships.
SPEAKER_01: I bless you with the ability to step into spiritual family like you've never known before.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray for relationships to go deep with the people of God, that the Lord would put everybody he needs into your life, if you need somebody to encourage you and to build your faith, that he would bring that to you.
SPEAKER_01: And then you would be that for others, that you would see yourself in a new light, that whatever your limitations and blindness have been on your own life, oh, I could never do that, or maybe self-reliance, or maybe self-condemnation, or maybe selfishness.
SPEAKER_01: We just kind of brush that stuff off of you and say, no, you are God's favorite, and you have all the equipping you need to be his man, his woman in the spaces he's put you.
SPEAKER_01: It's all on purpose, and he's with you.
SPEAKER_01: So I bless your confidence as a child of God today in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: These guys are gonna sing, and this would be the time to come for prayer if you want to, and then I'll come back and give you some instructions as we wrap up.
SPEAKER_00: If you were encouraged by today's talk, be sure to rate us and hit subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you stream your podcast.
SPEAKER_00: To experience other talks, videos, and live gatherings, visit us online at sozoktx.com, as well as on Instagram at Sozo KTX.
SPEAKER_00: And again, thanks for listening to the Sozo KTX podcast.