Send

Jesus gave us a parable the first path right the farm went out through seed the first path the what came down the Ravens the birds came down down they ate up all the seed the second path was rocky soil come on rocky soil received the word there was no roots it sprung up when the heat came the plant no the crop died the third soil is Thorns thank you the Thorns when when the seed grew up the cares of Life choked out the word and then there was a fourth one the good soil no rocks no Thorns no birds and that soil will produce a harvest of 30 60 and 100 fold I'm sorry Jesus said 160 30 but same difference so we're praying for that good heart soul to receive the word with gladness and that hearing the word produces a harvest of righteousness in us so week one we talked about the soo everyone says Soo what is soo renewal restoral restored sorry to be kept and it's so it's it's to be brought back into wholeness and it's to be kept whole it is to make whole and it's to preserve whole the Lord came that we would be preserved not just in our bodies right the one with the issue of blood she's like if I just touch him I'll be made well Jesus said daughter Soo was beyond her physical condition he spoke to the internal condition and the Lord restored her a majority of the Miracles when you when you look into the Greek a majority of the Miracles have so you are whenever you see Jesus whenever you see whenever you see it says your faith has made you well that is always the word for Soo your faith has made you well your faith has restored you brought you so again how does faith come Fai comes by hearing the woman the issue blood she must have heard about this man going around kicking out demons and taking off religious leaders and she was like oh let me get a hold of this guy she heard and what she heard about him stirred her faith to such an action that she was willing to go out of her way to touch him Soo that's what the Lord as the Lord is building us threshold Church up the Lord is going to bring people to us to be Soo people to be restored people to be brought into wholeness people who are who are far off from God are going to be brought near are going to be made whole through us his body the church is not just building it's not it's not about broken people coming to this this facility broken people coming to us oh I'm I'm feeling it I'm feeling it I'm feeling it because it's it's it's us so convinced in who we are in the sun it's us so convinced about what God's given to us that the gospel is not this five-step program that we walk people through the gospel is US telling the story of how the Lord found us how the Lord restored us how the Lord kept us and we declare that to the broken we declare that to the far off we declare that to those who are not brought into Covenant with God so that they might hear and believe and be brought into the soo brought into the holess everyone here our testimony begins with us being a far off us being far away and the sun coming to us and bringing us near to himself and then Jesus commission we're just going to jump right into it everyone say sent we are soed to be built up and we are built up to be sent out the Lord said this he walks into the room this is John 20: 21 Jesus comes in the room he says peace to you so the father sent me everyone say sent as the father sends me so I send you actually he said Sending it's it's an action verb I'm sending you and this call is not just for those who are in the room it's not just for those who are there in that that that that one point that one fixed moment in the historical timeline this words come up the pages and they come right to us and that the father has sent Jesus so Jesus is sending us out that God is tired of people coming to a building this is this is if I had the I I know a question I ask people is if you had to give a TED talk just like know an excert on something you're really passionate about I would I I my heart is on this that God is breaking out of the temple system that God is breaking out of the geological location system that God is breaking out of a building mentality and that God is hosting himself inside of a human body so that wherever the human body goes there there goes the glory of God in the garden God withdrew his glory but it wasn't the end of the story the story was that one would come the crush the head the serpent that one would come and through his act we'd be redeemed back to God and that God would be able to habitate again with man what we lost in the garden is now restored through the broken body through the spilled blood of Jesus also take this moment to just on April 12th I was asking the lordlord when are we going to do communion again I was really just because again like you can't have church about communion some someone told me that there's got to be bread there's got to be the juice I was like Lord when are we doing communion and the Lord no didn't really answer me but when when uh can can everyone say thank God for Lexi so uh this is so Passover is happening because Lexi came to me with a three-page detail outline of how we're going to do this thing and I was like you mean you mean it's not not on me I was like oh I was like if it was on me guys we wouldn't be doing it I'm sorry but Lexi came and Lexi had the passion she had the vision she had the dream and so Lexi just had this whole thing out and I was like yeah like this is and so as we're preparing for Passover I was just praying over it and just praying about it and I was like oh shoot I was like we're doing communion on on the 12th because communion is not just Protestant communion is not this Catholic element communion goes all the way back to Passover that the Lord was prophesying that through the broken body that through spill blood that man would be redeemed back to himself Passover declares to us that as the father sent Jesus so we are being sent out that you are someone's chance at Salvation that the Lord soed you because he loves you the Lord restored you because he was tired of seeing you harassed by sin the Lord is tired of you see be being harassed by anxiety by depression that religiousness and we talked about earlier during our ministry time oh I'm not good enough I don't no no no no no the Lord came and he made you whole so I would not that that mindset the old mindset would not hamper you in and dampen your life from the fullness he has for you the Lord is building you up into a mature person into a person who's not swayed back and forth by every wi of Doctrine a person who does not go around getting teachers who tell them what their itch ears want to hear the Lord is building you up into maturity through his word so that you can be established for every good work we always stop there we always stop that the word of God is given for teaching for correction for reproof for doctrine that the man of God might be thoroughly equipped for every good work it's not just reading the Bible for reading the Bible sake it's reading the Bible to get this word burning in your heart so that you could be established for every good work God has for you that when you read the word and you see Jesus restoring a withered hand you now know that's possible and then Jesus says As the father sent me so I am sending you we look at the life of Jesus he met people's needs he met them he met their emotional needs their physical needs their spiritual needs he addressed the person on a holistic level and so as the father sent Jesus so Jesus is sending us to go out and to meet people in a holistic level amen I'm trying to slow down my preaching I've been told I I come out like a fire hydrant so I'm trying to Pace myself yeah I'm trying to I'm trying to take it easy on this tonight that the Lord is sending us out the Lord is building you up for a purpose parents we have children and we're not doing a good job if the kid is unable to ever leave the home if the child is never able to reach out on their own to venture out and find their own like to go with God into their calling to go with God into society to go with God into secondary learning or to um to a a trade school or whatever have you if we don't prepare our kids if we never help our kids to leave the entertainment stage of their life and we never bring the maturity of them to be functioning members of society we are not doing our job as parents and so the father is building us up moving us past the emotional neediness of the immaturity stage and he's developing us so that when bad times come we're not saying we're not coming undone when a tough times come we're not we're not melting a part he's maturing us so when the bad times come we stand firm we are Concrete in our faith to know that the God who brought me to the wholeness can keep me in my wholeness and that nothing I'm going to face is going to affect that last week I told you no two weeks ago now I'm confused I told you my one of my favorite poems good when he gives extremely good no less when he denies afflictions from his Sovereign hand are blessings in disguise if I told that to someone who just came into the faith they're going to be they're going to be what there's bad there's bad times ahead there's afflictions ahead but to the mature there's an understanding that growth comes when I go through a hard time and he and I see him walking me through that hard time the maturity comes when I seen a sickness in my body that no medicine can cure for me but then he comes and he cures me or better yet when there's a Grace to empower me to go through what would stop the ordinary person when God doesn't heal me but he gives me the grace to go on we see this in the life of Jesus let this cup pass from me but not my will let your will be done I'm gonna boast on Christ for a moment it amazes me I am utterly sounded by what he did a sleepless night rejected by his 12 they all left him in one night all of his friends abandoned him in one night Peter would go on to curse him Jesus throughout the night being tortured beaten deprived of sleep no food no water no nothing his beards pulled out Isaiah prophesied it I did not turn my face away from those who would pull out my beard he is flogged on top of that and then he has made to carry a centered be that weighs 150 PBS 7 miles to the place of his crucifixion and then he is hung on this tree suspended Between Heaven and Earth sleepless night no food in the body no water in the system emotionally distraught his own countrymen turned him into the Romans I got to boast on him this man did something that no one else could have done if they had the ability to he stand firm for us he carried the cross for us he was hung on that cross for us and he stayed there six hours on this cross and every time he would have to breathe he had to pull himself up he would put his bones onto the iron spikes to hoist himself up to catch a breath of air to then slump again and start suffocating all over again every time the Suffocation got so bad he would hoist himself up take a breath again a shallow breath because his whole back is exposed because of the Roman beating the price that was paid the price that was paid for us to be sent out the price that was paid for us to be Sozo the price that was paid for us to come into maturity to come into this this holistic mindset of walking in faith and then the price that was paid so that others would hear the story our Salvation came because we heard someone who Hur from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone to the m degree of a man coming and dying on the cross for us we are here because someone was sent out and they told the story and they shared the facts with us they had the common courtesy to conf to go against their gut reaction of not saying a word every time I evangelize there is a pit thing in my stomach that I feel like oh like I don't know Lord it feels like jumping off a waterfall every time it just it feels like and you never get over it you you never get past it it's with every time you can evangelize I saw a guy last night an evangelist last night this man has knocked on over five 50,000 doors and every time he goes to another door there is always that pit feeling in the stomach you never get over this pit feeling never let this pit feeling never let your emotions never let the lies that enemy hold you back from stepping out it's never going to get easier it's never going to get better but there's a Grace to counteract what you're feeling in the moment to be sent out the price that was paid for your Sozo the price that was paid for your wholeness to be brought to be built up and then a price for you to be sent out that there is a reason for your wholeness there's a reason for your if if you just have Bible knowledge for the sake of Bible knowledge that's not good Jesus told the Pharisees you search the scriptures because you think in them there's salvation but the scriptures point to me the scriptures are on a mission to equip us for every good work if the Bible know stays in and it never gets out what good are what good is your studying if all you're doing is praying and there's no life coming from your praying there's no there's nothing coming from your prayer life what good is your prayer life the cross was born from a three-hour wrestling match in a garden the cross was it it was a fix point in history it was going to happen but there was a three-hour Blood Sweat and tear prayer match in the garden that gave room for the cross to happen if your prayer life if praying is not producing anything what good is if our if our disciplines it's is nothing more if there's no life coming from what we're doing in God you can sing all you you want but there's no life coming there's no action coming from it you can pray all you want but there's no if there's no action you can read the word all if there's no action if it doesn't move you out to do something there's something wrong there's a disconnect somewhere as the father sent me I am sending you this is the end game of what God is bringing us to as a church family you might be no you still might need some Zozo some some restoring your life you're still being built up you still but it's towards the end goal of sending you out into what God has for you to do there are good works appointed for you to do not for me to do there's good works appointed for you to do not for the most spiritual person in a room to do there are good works that are set apart for you to do that no one else can do there's good works that no one else can cheat for God other than you because there appointed for you to do and no one else can do it for you there is a person that the Lord is calling you to there is a situation for the Lord is calling you to step into and this is what he's building you up for to join the son and seeing man redeemed and brought back to him Paul would say it this way if you have your Bibles turn me to Second Corinthians chapter 3 when you're there say parchment 2 Corinthians chapter 3 are we beginning to commend ourselves again or do we need as some do letters of recommendation to you or from you you yourselves are our letters of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us written not with ink but with the spirit of the Living God not on tablets of stone but on tablets of a human heart such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything from as as coming from us but our sufficiency is from God who has made known who has made us sufficient to be Ministers of a new covenant not of a letter but of the spirit for the letter kills but the spirit gives life Paul says two things in this passage right here Paul is saying you are God's letter written to the world that your life is a story that is being penned by God to be read openly into the public last week when we talked about being built up the Lord taking Living Stones not cutting anything away from you the Lord is redeeming your past to declare his excellencies to those who are in the same predicament as you were the Lord takes away the dirt he washes away the filth he takes a sting out of your past and he redeems your past for the sake of his own Glory that others might hear that I was broken I was messed up and I was looking for help in all the wrong places and I found no help and I heard a say I heard a story of a Jewish Messiah who made himself available to me through a cross and I believe the world is looking that that story it's it's cut and dry that's that's the that's the skeleton of every story but the unique part is how did God do it for you and how did God do it in you and then how are you through the spirit going to tell others about it that you are God's letter written to the world and that we have now been entrusted with a Ministry of life who has made us sufficient to be Ministers of a new covenant not the letter but of the spirit for the letter kills but the spirit gives life we have been entrusted with this Spirit of life to go in part to those who are dead to those who are unsoed if I can say it like that the unhold the unrestored the not restored the unrestored the unho we have been given the spirit of life to go out and tell them to reach them and so everyone take a deep breath in and take a deep breath out the good news is I've been saying it no send out send send sent the good news is you don't do it in your own strength you don't do it in your own power you don't do it in your own creativity you don't do it in your own way you do it as the Lord moves you to um I'll end it with the story I am uh I was coming from a meeting in gap I was actually coming from meeting with Dan smucker drove all the way to Gap have lunch with Dan and I was driving back and I had another appointment and I was like oh you know what there's a cafe around the corner I can just go and wait there until I I go meet with this person so again Uncharted unplanned I just take a quick WR it was it was a shock to me I was like oh it was it was for a moment decision okay I'll just make a quick rate I'm going down this road I'm walking down the road and I see a man walking on the side of the road and I hear this little like nudge in my heart pick him up and I'm like no that's that's me I just want to be a good person and I'm okay I'll just drive I drive past a guy and the Lord says stop get him I was like oh that was you okay so I sto it was and again too Josh you don't have it figured out yet I don't have it figured out yet I'm I'm still practicing I'm still like I'm still learning I'm still learning to be sensitive I'm still learning to to heed his voice it was so it was so it was ever so subtle it was just pick him up I okay so I stopped well no I I drove past that but then I heard stop and I picked him up and so I wait for this guy to get my car he gets my car I'm like Hey Brother know I just I tried I tried conversating see if like some kind of like Master thing was gonna open up like I was gonna say this key word and something's gonna happen and we're talking and nothing's happening we finally pull up to where he's going and I'm like okay buddy this is crazy but God told me to pick in my head I'm like I got to find out why I got I why I got him so I was like buddy the Lord told me to pick I was like this might be crazy to you but the Lord told me to stop and pick you up and the Lord told me that to give you a ride to where you going and the man started crying in my car and he was like he told me the story of how he just come out of Satanism and he came into the faith and he didn't know where to go he didn't know what to do next and I was like oh my god well brother I you're new you're new in the faith I'm a new pastor I'm like where just we're both trying to figure something out right now and so again so on Wednesday me and Sarah had uh lunch with him and his fiance uh we're going to do their marriage we're going to do the wedding for them um yeah right praise God and so she was no she was in Witchcraft and she left witchcraft he he left Satanism they both came to Jesus at the same time and then they're like okay like we're living for Jesus and so they no well the Lord put us together and so again when I drove down that Road there was no inkling of of ascending I I thought I was sending myself down this road I thought hey I'm going to go to this place I'm going to go pick up my and on this road the Lord had already predestined this moment to happen and all the the the key part to sending the key part to sending is just to partner with him it's just to listen to him to only do what he says if you drive by D someone and the Lord doesn't tell you to pick them up you don't pick them up it's not good advice don't do that if you're driving by someone the Lord says pick them up go ahead with wisdom right with wisdom have to say with wisdom I texted Sarah I'm like hey I think the Lord wants me to pick up someone and Sarah was like don't do it she was like Sarah Sarah tried calling me and I was like up that's that's not right now that's I I I know what the Lord's saying honestly that's that's like the one time it worked out for me like 99.9 times Sarah's right this point1 the Lord was right um but again sending is nothing more than being available to the Holy Spirit to do what he's telling you to do in the moment he's telling you to do it and it's being confident enough in your relationship with the Holy Spirit why am I using holy because the father sent Jesus and Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit you tear and wait in Jerusalem until you are endued with power to be witnesses to Jerusalem to Judea to Samarian to the ends of the no to the ends of the Earth and lo will be with you always well that's Matthew 28 I'm mixing up I'm I'm mixing up commissions but anyway this is it's still the same going with the Holy Spirit working with the Holy Spirit partnering with the Holy Spirit listening to the Holy Spirit and it only comes by you opening yourself up the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit I make myself available for whatever you would want to do I may not me the most eloquent I may not know the most verses I may not be the most polished but here I am do what do with me what what you will it's funny that God has a habit of picking people who no one else would pick to free Israel he waited for Moses to be deconstructed from all of his Egyptian learning and then he Rec then he commissioned Moses to go out he took Paul he took Saul later Paul and he hid Paul away for 14 years 10 14 might be off he hid Paul 10 years inactive not doing anything and then again resent out the Lord has a way of preparing us nurturing us equipping us to go out the Lord has been preparing ing you your whole life for you to be sent out you might not feel edified you might not feel you might not feel equipped enough you may not feel encouraged enough you may not well hey I'll help you with that but you are if you have the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside then you have everything you need to do what God's calling you to do and you know what too a lot of us would be like you know what it looked so easier it looked easy when Moses was doing it it looked easy when David was doing it it looked easy when Elijah was doing it it when we go to these people they are going to be goooo and eyeing over us because they're going to be dying to know what was it like to have him on the inside what was it like to have such access and such proximity that no one else in human history ever had they all had the spirit on them they never had the spirit in them you and I are living in such a moment in history where the spirit of God is not just resting on us but resting in us and is empowering us to go do what he's called us to do you don't feel Ed you don't feel equipped enough you don't feel no no no no no you're in a good place blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven when we recognize our spiritual poverty I don't have what I I don't have it Lord if you don't give it to me I can't do nothing Lord if you don't help me Lord there's no hope for the world there's no hope for my employee there's no hope for my for my coworker there's no hope for my spouse there's no hope for my husband there's no hope for my wife there's no hope for my lost mom my lost Dad if you don't give me an unction of your spirit to do what you're calling me to do there's no help blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are you when you recognize it you don't have it in yourself to do what God's called you to do and that begins to arise of desperation of asking for him Lord I need your power tonight can we just get worship hat on we're gonna have a small a soft dismissal I'll open up this altar if you want to come to the altar he is sending you without a doubt if you are a disciple of Christ if you belong to the congregation of a called out people through the revelation of Jesus then you are being sent that is the end goal for you but you need to make available yourself to the power of the spirit to enable you to go with power to go with help to go with wisdom he is a spirit of wisdom and Revelation he's a spirit of Prophecy he's a spirit of Holiness he's a spirit of fire he searches the hidden things of people's hearts and he makes it known to the father and he takes the hidden things of the father makes it known to us Jesus said it's good that I go away because if I don't I can't send you the helper but if I go I can send you the helper and he will take whatever is mine and he will give it to you one factor between the the disciples there was one factor the disciples when they were with Jesus they did Miracles they saw they saw demons cast out they cast demons out but on the night of his betrayal there was not an ounce of courage in any of them to stand up for him they all left all of them cowards they've seen him do Miracles they they had walked with him one walked on water with him and yet that hour they all parted they all left the Holy Spirit comes the Hool starts dwelling on the inside and every one of these guys all died gruesome deaths they loved not their lives unto death because they were filled with something greater than themselves they weren't just filled with seeing Miracles they weren't just filled with head knowledge they were filled with the spirit that was on and in Christ and that later empowered them to do what they were called to do and every one of these guys stared down their deaths most gruesome deaths a person can live and they went through it without batting an eye without turning a cheek because they were so convinced in the spirit that had Empower them to do what God called them to do threshold we're going to see wholeness come to people's lives we're going to be built up and I've been saying it know from the beginning because the spirit is leading us this way and we are going to be sent to prisons we're going to be sent to nursing homes we're going to be sent to the the to the streets of Lancaster we are going to be sent not with head knowledge not with some kind of three-step program we are going to be sent with the power and the unction of the Holy Spirit to do what God's called us to do but it has to start with this making ourselves available to that power making ourselves available to the Holy Spirit and it's very simple we're going to close our eyes we're going to Bow our heads and we're going to ask him Lord would you fill me that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead would you fill me actually if you can do you mind standing up with me all around the room if you have a prayer language in the room I invite you to begin to pray it out if you want to your prayer language is not a neat party trick your prayer language is a deposit of power given into you to be a witness father fresh baptism father Fresh Fire right now if you don't have a prayer language begin to raise your hands begin to ask him Lord would you fill me with your Holy Spirit Lord would you Empower me to do what youve called me to do there is no end to our night there's no there's no close to our night our night's done when you want to be done when I put the mic down our night's over but I encourage you make space for the Holy Spirit ask for him to fill you ask for that power it's ours in Christ he died to give it to us it's ours through him and he wants you to have his Spirit to do what he's sending you out to do oh you [Music] as I was praying over there I just feel like we're in a moment right now where there's a fresh yes that can come from us I feel like there's a window of time right now that God is saying will you let me interrupt you again I feel like there's a time for Holy interruptions in your life this week that there's uh Divine appointments that there's people that you're going to encounter this week that need to hear the gospel that just need to hear um just Hi how are you uh there's but God is saying will you let me interrupt you again sometimes we really like convenience sometimes we were like what well God I'm busy I got stuff to do but I just feel the Lord saying will you let me interrupt you again there are people dying right now spiritually that need a fresh word from the Lord people need to to know that God loves them simple as that people need to know the gospel there's something on that so if that's you I just encourage you to raise your hands and say Yes Lord here am I send me father I pray for every individual in this room myself included God Lord I'm asking that you would divinely interrupt us again Lord God that we would hear the small still voice of your Holy Spirit and that when we hear you that we would obey you as well God I'm asking God for divine appointments and Ministry opportunities in in the homes God in in in businesses Lord in the supermarket in the gas station God lord I just pray that when we hear you we would obey God if you're telling us to give money to somebody would we obey God if you're telling us to to just tell our testimony would we obey God even if it's to our own family members I just hear the Lord saying I'm even going to put family members on your heart and there's going to be text sent out to give them the word of the Lord and God I just pray right now God that we would have faith and courage to step out once again and Obey what you're telling us to do Lord God let the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit rest on every individual who is saying yes tonight God lord I pray that there would be faith that would arise that courage would arise and God that we would be able to come here next week to testify of the goodness of God and what you're doing in Jesus name like I said there's no formal dismissal you leap and you want to leave but if you're looking for someone to pray with you you're saying pastor Josh man I just want some prayer I I don't feel like I'm no no no there's lies that you're wrestling with you are you are you are and it's asking the Holy Spirit to be greater it's asking the Holy Spirit to make louder the truth and the that all the all the insecurities or all the anxiety or all the pressure you might feel I just a little quick testimony the first person I ever led to the Lord was a person in Home Depot I was a pastor for eight years never let anyone to the Lord I worked at Home Depot the lord gave me the grace and it was the most awkward evangelism time of my life but it wasn't about me it was about the Lord reaching out and so I just want to encourage you if you need if you want prayer I'm telling you have all that you need but if you want someone to stand in the Gap and to pray with you for what Erica just mentioned the holy interruptions God empowering you then I'll come no I'll pray with you love to pray with you love to know see God do that in your life this week um but with that know encourage us to keep praying if you want to pray feel free to go when you want to go if you're going to go just be mindful of of the atmosphere and just be respectful um and just leave quietly