WEBVTT 00:00.091 --> 00:05.333 [SPEAKER_00]: My make shift message tile today is what is ministry? 00:05.733 --> 00:06.433 [SPEAKER_00]: What is ministry? 00:06.453 --> 00:07.613 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see this here, right? 00:07.733 --> 00:11.234 [SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter 13, we're only going to go over three verses. 00:11.294 --> 00:14.595 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we'll go into a few more if I fly through this. 00:15.115 --> 00:16.216 [SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that I will. 00:17.136 --> 00:18.376 [SPEAKER_00]: If you've been here a while, you probably won't. 00:18.396 --> 00:18.517 [SPEAKER_00]: But, 00:20.977 --> 00:25.618 [SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter 13, it's a turning point in the book of Acts. 00:25.658 --> 00:30.199 [SPEAKER_00]: It's actually a first occurrence in the church history, right? 00:30.259 --> 00:34.319 [SPEAKER_00]: So what we're going to see is we're going to see there's some new stuff on the rise, right? 00:34.339 --> 00:47.302 [SPEAKER_00]: If you remember with me, Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus, before you sends back into heaven, he tells the disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth, right? 00:47.322 --> 00:49.062 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, you will be my witnesses. 00:49.762 --> 01:00.573 [SPEAKER_00]: the primary way that Jesus made them be His witnesses up to this point is through something we don't really like, we don't wish upon ourselves, but it's through persecution. 01:01.293 --> 01:07.920 [SPEAKER_00]: First 12 chapters of Acts, as we see that persecution comes right Peter, the disciples, the apostles, they're arrested. 01:08.340 --> 01:09.862 [SPEAKER_00]: right because they're preaching Jesus. 01:09.882 --> 01:11.484 [SPEAKER_00]: They say, hey, you can't do that anymore. 01:11.504 --> 01:14.428 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to let you go, but you can't preach Jesus next morning. 01:14.468 --> 01:15.229 [SPEAKER_00]: They're in the temple. 01:15.269 --> 01:16.591 [SPEAKER_00]: They're preaching Jesus again. 01:16.911 --> 01:19.134 [SPEAKER_00]: They get arrested this time to get beaten up. 01:19.214 --> 01:19.415 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 01:19.435 --> 01:22.318 [SPEAKER_00]: They're like, hey, we're going to, we're serious about this, guys. 01:22.338 --> 01:23.660 [SPEAKER_00]: You can't be doing that anymore. 01:23.680 --> 01:24.942 [SPEAKER_00]: And so persecution comes. 01:25.362 --> 01:31.605 [SPEAKER_00]: Last week, we saw that James, one of the original disciples, he was beheaded, right? 01:31.625 --> 01:35.247 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk about persecution like this guy gave his life for Jesus. 01:35.267 --> 01:41.170 [SPEAKER_00]: We saw Peter arrested again this time he's with a whole troop of guards because the 01:42.030 --> 01:46.553 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm haired the guy in charge, he didn't want any chance that Peter would get out. 01:46.953 --> 01:54.737 [SPEAKER_00]: It seemed as if this was going to be like the holding cell until we can execute Peter's kind of the vibe that I get when I'm reading through that scripture. 01:54.757 --> 01:57.058 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think Peter even probably thought, well, this is it. 01:57.519 --> 02:00.800 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give my life for the lower here today and it is what it is. 02:01.121 --> 02:04.202 [SPEAKER_00]: But now the Holy Spirit came through and did a miracle, right? 02:04.262 --> 02:05.023 [SPEAKER_00]: Peter got out. 02:05.583 --> 02:08.865 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit threw a rock at him or something like Peter, come on. 02:09.185 --> 02:22.682 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go, we got to go now and he gets him out of jail if you will out of jail free and then Peter shows up at the house of all the disciples and Christians are all waiting there and they can't believe their eyes that Peter is actually free. 02:23.123 --> 02:24.384 [SPEAKER_00]: And so the primary... 02:25.325 --> 02:30.249 [SPEAKER_00]: driver of the church growth up to this point was persecution, right? 02:30.289 --> 02:35.873 [SPEAKER_00]: Now again, we don't like persecution and this definitely isn't the end, right? 02:35.933 --> 02:40.737 [SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter 13's not like, oh, we ushered in a new way to reach people and there's no more persecution. 02:40.757 --> 02:42.478 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to go through any hard things anymore. 02:42.498 --> 02:43.819 [SPEAKER_00]: That's definitely not the case. 02:43.839 --> 02:44.600 [SPEAKER_00]: That's not what I'm saying. 02:44.960 --> 02:51.505 [SPEAKER_00]: But today in Acts chapter 13, something changes and now instead of just persecution being the driving factor of 02:51.605 --> 03:00.947 [SPEAKER_00]: people going out to spread the gospel because just understand, like if there's intense persecution here, right, say like the hudd, says, I know you can't have church anymore. 03:01.227 --> 03:02.087 [SPEAKER_00]: You can't meet here. 03:02.127 --> 03:03.387 [SPEAKER_00]: If you do, you're going to be arrested. 03:03.407 --> 03:04.267 [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to be in prison. 03:04.287 --> 03:08.288 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to find you, you know, take your house away, like who knows what could happen? 03:08.308 --> 03:12.129 [SPEAKER_00]: Like we would probably go find other places to me, okay, well, we can't be here. 03:12.429 --> 03:17.490 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's go out to the outskirts of the city where they don't have jurisdiction, right? 03:17.510 --> 03:19.790 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of the vibe of the 03:20.350 --> 03:22.112 [SPEAKER_00]: early church up to this point, right? 03:22.132 --> 03:23.413 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like persecution comes. 03:23.433 --> 03:27.356 [SPEAKER_00]: So then they kind of like, well, let's go out to the outskirts of the city Let's go to Judea. 03:27.416 --> 03:28.297 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go to Samaria. 03:28.317 --> 03:36.844 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's start to spread the gospel But now what we see in Acts chapter 13 is the church for the first time sends people out on purpose, right? 03:36.884 --> 03:42.229 [SPEAKER_00]: It's actually them sending if you will missionaries out and we're gonna see Saul who's also known as what 03:43.442 --> 03:45.443 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul, right, and we're gonna see that today. 03:45.463 --> 03:47.604 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, actually, that'll probably be next week. 03:47.624 --> 03:49.685 [SPEAKER_00]: That's further down, like, a couple verses down. 03:49.725 --> 03:54.787 [SPEAKER_00]: But, but we're gonna see Saul and Barnabas, they're sent out. 03:55.067 --> 04:03.891 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, they are the first recorded, biblically recorded missionaries sent out on the first mission's trip, if you will, to go evangelize, 04:04.251 --> 04:26.818 [SPEAKER_00]: the lost right now what they would go on to do is they're going to go all throughout the Roman Empire and they're going to preach the gospel they're going to plant churches they're going to raise up leaders they're going to say hey you're here you're supposed to stay here complete the work that got has for you and then Paul would move on to another city he preached the gospel raise up leaders and he moved on he was a church planting machine if you will but this is the first time we see 04:27.738 --> 04:29.318 [SPEAKER_00]: the church sending people out. 04:29.679 --> 04:35.860 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is the movement that will eventually again take the gospel throughout the whole Roman Empire. 04:36.160 --> 04:49.504 [SPEAKER_00]: But the way that it happens and this is what I want us to really try to key in on today is it happens in a way that we probably, I don't know, maybe we don't appreciate as much as we should. 04:49.724 --> 04:50.985 [SPEAKER_00]: We take for granted, 04:53.547 --> 05:00.050 [SPEAKER_00]: because it doesn't start with Paul and Barnabas and the church getting together, let's create a church planting strategy. 05:00.550 --> 05:02.431 [SPEAKER_00]: How are we gonna go out and do this? 05:02.451 --> 05:04.832 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't come together, say, hey, how's this gonna be funded? 05:04.872 --> 05:07.893 [SPEAKER_00]: How are we gonna find enough money to support what we wanna do? 05:07.934 --> 05:12.696 [SPEAKER_00]: This wasn't their idea, it wasn't Paul saying, hey, I think I'm ready for bigger and better things now. 05:13.076 --> 05:18.598 [SPEAKER_00]: This was starting, it starts with the church, they're gathering, and all they're doing is simply worshiping God. 05:18.618 --> 05:22.160 [SPEAKER_00]: Now we're gonna key in on this word worship this morning, but they're starting. 05:22.520 --> 05:23.561 [SPEAKER_00]: together, right? 05:23.581 --> 05:27.523 [SPEAKER_00]: That's important to note is what they weren't on their own in their own houses, right? 05:27.543 --> 05:33.706 [SPEAKER_00]: The church came together to meet together, to worship together, to pray together, to fast together. 05:34.046 --> 05:35.287 [SPEAKER_00]: How many of you love fasting? 05:36.400 --> 05:38.181 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, yeah, so I thought it's hard. 05:38.561 --> 05:39.342 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we got one. 05:40.823 --> 05:43.725 [SPEAKER_00]: But fasting is a spiritual discipline. 05:44.585 --> 05:47.047 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it will really tell you a lot about yourself, right? 05:47.067 --> 05:49.749 [SPEAKER_00]: You could quit a whole lot of other things, but she's like, food though? 05:49.809 --> 05:52.070 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it was cookies look good though, you know? 05:52.971 --> 05:54.412 [SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, I digress. 05:55.323 --> 05:57.504 [SPEAKER_00]: But what we see is the church gatherers together, right? 05:57.524 --> 05:59.025 [SPEAKER_00]: They're worshiping their praying. 05:59.165 --> 06:10.591 [SPEAKER_00]: And then what happens is in this moment as they're worshiping the Lord is that then, and that moment, while they're just surrendered unto God, that's when God gives them the mission, right? 06:11.131 --> 06:19.096 [SPEAKER_00]: So what we gotta see is that the ministry, this is what we'll unpack here this morning, ministry comes before mission. 06:19.256 --> 06:23.058 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna tell you what I mean here, but let's look at verse 1. 06:24.445 --> 06:49.157 [SPEAKER_00]: says now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers and that's just important to note right there's prophets and teachers there and Luke who's the author of Acts is going to list five of them here for us we got Barnabas we know Barnabas he's the son of encouragement right we don't know a whole lot about him other than he's the son of encouragement which means he's probably like that super chipper guy who's always positive and kind of upsets you a little bit you know what 06:49.697 --> 06:51.117 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, like, dude, chill out, man. 06:51.137 --> 06:52.038 [SPEAKER_00]: I guess it's a real world. 06:52.058 --> 06:53.898 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to give me that facade, but Barnabas. 06:53.918 --> 06:56.278 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, dude, like you're doing a great job. 06:56.318 --> 06:57.139 [SPEAKER_00]: Keep it up, man. 06:57.159 --> 06:58.599 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, dude, worship was awesome. 06:58.839 --> 07:01.679 [SPEAKER_00]: Dude, the preaching was awesome, and he like, dude, it wasn't awesome. 07:01.699 --> 07:02.200 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a mess. 07:02.220 --> 07:03.700 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, but he's, no, it was great. 07:04.040 --> 07:04.720 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't know. 07:04.740 --> 07:06.100 [SPEAKER_00]: That's just what I imagined Barnabas. 07:06.120 --> 07:12.182 [SPEAKER_00]: He's just the guy that kind of annoys you just a little bit, but you're also grateful, he's there, because he's the only guy who says, hey, just keep it up. 07:12.502 --> 07:13.942 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes with Barnabas is there, 07:19.964 --> 07:24.409 [SPEAKER_00]: Manion, a lifelong friend of Herod, the Tetrarc, which is interesting. 07:24.469 --> 07:28.234 [SPEAKER_00]: That Herod is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist. 07:28.274 --> 07:35.764 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you think about the picture here, we got Manion, who is a lifelong friend of Herod, the one who beheaded John the Baptist. 07:36.204 --> 07:54.874 [SPEAKER_00]: uh... like maybe they grew up together i don't know maybe they're in kindergarten whatever school might have looked like for them back in the day but they grew up together what i think that important note is like you could grow up in the same environment but you could have totally different paths have you guys seen this in your own lives uh... sadly like one of my best friends i consider him a brother 07:55.534 --> 07:56.635 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we grew up together. 07:56.656 --> 07:59.539 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, my earliest memories, it's like, he's part of it. 07:59.559 --> 08:02.522 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I knew since I was five years old, it's like, we grew up together. 08:03.022 --> 08:10.090 [SPEAKER_00]: People thought we were brothers, you know, as a fun story, and this isn't my notes, but I'm just gonna say it, because it brings me a smile. 08:10.430 --> 08:12.372 [SPEAKER_00]: But when we were kids, we'd go to the mall. 08:12.392 --> 08:15.335 [SPEAKER_00]: I think my mom took us to the mall and we were fighting over something, you know. 08:16.516 --> 08:35.322 [SPEAKER_00]: And anyways, some lady at the store is like at Mervins or, you know, you guys remember Mervins, you guys are like Mervins, what is a Mervins, is a store, a clothing store, maybe it was there, I don't know, but anyways, we're there, we're fighting in an arguing, pushing each other, and in the lady, I get the stores as well, it's so cute when brothers fight, and then I was like, he's not my brother. 08:35.742 --> 08:50.734 [SPEAKER_00]: and then he said, I hate it when you say that, you know, and it was just my mom busted up laughing because like we really weren't brothers, but we were basically, but we grew up together everything we did was together, but then as we grew into high school and beyond, it's like we had incredibly separate past. 08:50.754 --> 08:53.977 [SPEAKER_00]: He went away of, I mean, honestly he went to prison. 08:54.637 --> 08:58.200 [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of stuff there and it's like, and then I went and I eventually planted church. 08:58.220 --> 09:02.103 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, we have the same upbringing, if you will, but incredibly different path. 09:02.143 --> 09:03.544 [SPEAKER_00]: And I just reminds me of that. 09:03.564 --> 09:04.805 [SPEAKER_00]: There's this guy, Manion. 09:05.105 --> 09:10.530 [SPEAKER_00]: He's a lifelong friend of Herod who's not necessarily a great guy, but God still uses him. 09:10.590 --> 09:10.890 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, 09:11.190 --> 09:18.737 [SPEAKER_00]: We got these five guys here and it gives us this diverse group of people right different backgrounds, different experiences, different churches. 09:18.777 --> 09:21.540 [SPEAKER_00]: And what I love about this, it's a beautiful picture of the church. 09:21.580 --> 09:24.182 [SPEAKER_00]: Just look around real quick, have people around you. 09:24.202 --> 09:27.505 [SPEAKER_00]: You guys have been here for a while and like all while I know them, they always come to church. 09:27.866 --> 09:29.767 [SPEAKER_00]: But hey, God has brought us together. 09:29.828 --> 09:31.069 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, just think of it this way. 09:31.489 --> 09:36.153 [SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus wasn't in the equation, would any of you know each other? 09:37.405 --> 09:39.206 [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't know any of you, right? 09:39.446 --> 09:50.112 [SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus wasn't in my life, if I had surrendered to Jesus, I never would have went to Calvary Tucson, I never would have met my wife, we would never would have got married, we never would have moved to Texas to plant the church, right? 09:50.172 --> 09:53.314 [SPEAKER_00]: We wouldn't have you guys here, I wouldn't know any of you, you wouldn't know me. 09:53.694 --> 10:01.278 [SPEAKER_00]: My life would look totally different, but God has brought us together in the unifying common factor is Jesus. 10:01.958 --> 10:02.078 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 10:02.098 --> 10:04.680 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like you might like different music than me and that's okay. 10:04.720 --> 10:04.881 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 10:04.921 --> 10:06.542 [SPEAKER_00]: I like certain kind of music. 10:06.562 --> 10:07.963 [SPEAKER_00]: You might think, well, I hate that music. 10:07.983 --> 10:09.224 [SPEAKER_00]: That's terrible music, right? 10:09.244 --> 10:10.766 [SPEAKER_00]: But that doesn't matter. 10:10.926 --> 10:11.907 [SPEAKER_00]: We love Jesus, right? 10:11.927 --> 10:15.209 [SPEAKER_00]: You might come from a different background, different hobbies and that's okay. 10:15.490 --> 10:18.592 [SPEAKER_00]: But we come together in Jesus' name and so we see the church. 10:18.632 --> 10:22.876 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just this diverse group of people who's united about around this common, 10:23.376 --> 10:28.359 [SPEAKER_00]: unity around Jesus in Jesus alone, and that's just a beautiful picture of the church. 10:28.419 --> 10:40.247 [SPEAKER_00]: And what we got to understand, too, is like when you come to church, maybe you're new here, you're checking out church again for the first time in a while, it's like the church is not here to say you got to look like everybody else. 10:40.807 --> 10:40.967 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 10:41.007 --> 10:45.688 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know I don't look like probably your ideal picture of a pastor, right? 10:45.728 --> 10:47.308 [SPEAKER_00]: Every time someone's like, what do you do? 10:47.348 --> 10:48.609 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm like, I'm a pastor. 10:48.629 --> 10:49.509 [SPEAKER_00]: You're pastor, really? 10:49.869 --> 10:52.129 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, just because I don't look like, and that's totally fine. 10:52.749 --> 10:54.010 [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't need to look like me. 10:54.050 --> 10:54.970 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to look like you. 10:54.990 --> 10:59.271 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not here to look this same, but we're here united in Jesus' name. 10:59.731 --> 11:02.291 [SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus is what has brought these men together. 11:02.611 --> 11:05.332 [SPEAKER_00]: They're here in this common unity. 11:05.532 --> 11:09.733 [SPEAKER_00]: And it says that verse two, and this is where we're going to spend most of our time this morning. 11:10.917 --> 11:15.378 [SPEAKER_00]: Verse two, it says, well, they were worshiping the Lord in fasting, and we'll pause there. 11:15.779 --> 11:26.502 [SPEAKER_00]: I know the rest of the verse is probably on the screen, but while they were worshiping the Lord in fasting, and I underline, or I highlighted that, rather, and if you're a highlighter, note-taker, I think this is worth highlighting. 11:26.542 --> 11:28.443 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, they were worshiping the Lord. 11:28.483 --> 11:31.104 [SPEAKER_00]: Now some of you, do you have a different translation? 11:31.624 --> 11:37.186 [SPEAKER_00]: I use the ESV, maybe you have a new King James, or King James, N-A-S-B, anybody, 11:41.692 --> 11:42.132 [SPEAKER_00]: Minister. 11:43.574 --> 11:45.075 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, yeah, what translation? 11:45.536 --> 11:46.056 [SPEAKER_00]: King James. 11:46.617 --> 11:47.798 [SPEAKER_00]: Nice, yeah, so what he got. 11:49.259 --> 11:51.281 [SPEAKER_00]: And ASB was, it's a ministered. 11:52.992 --> 11:53.212 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 11:53.552 --> 11:55.212 [SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to talk about this, right? 11:55.232 --> 11:56.433 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like two different words. 11:56.493 --> 11:59.293 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got two different translations, right? 11:59.333 --> 12:04.594 [SPEAKER_00]: Mind says as they, while they were worshipping, you're says as they ministered, right, to the Lord. 12:04.934 --> 12:07.655 [SPEAKER_00]: And the word is the same word. 12:07.755 --> 12:09.795 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just translated different, right? 12:10.035 --> 12:14.696 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is the minister to the Lord, and we'll talk about what ministry actually is. 12:15.136 --> 12:19.217 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, sometimes I think you guys may be have the misunderstanding misconception 12:22.358 --> 12:24.900 [SPEAKER_00]: You're up there, you're preaching, you're sharing the gospel, right? 12:24.920 --> 12:29.083 [SPEAKER_00]: You're praying with people after service, visiting people, doing all these different things. 12:29.404 --> 12:30.124 [SPEAKER_00]: That's ministry. 12:30.144 --> 12:32.046 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's definitely part of ministry. 12:32.466 --> 12:34.387 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's not all that ministry is, right? 12:34.407 --> 12:39.131 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need a microphone or a stage or a pulpit to have a ministry, right? 12:39.171 --> 12:39.471 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 12:39.491 --> 12:40.612 [SPEAKER_00]: You guys understand this? 12:41.013 --> 12:41.153 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 12:41.173 --> 12:46.116 [SPEAKER_00]: And so you might think, though, you come in, well, no, ministry is something like somebody on church staff does. 12:46.917 --> 12:58.727 [SPEAKER_00]: But when we look at the New Testament, specifically today too, we see that the New Testament talks about ministry and that it's something very different than just being behind a pulpit. 12:59.247 --> 12:59.468 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 12:59.548 --> 13:05.733 [SPEAKER_00]: Ministry isn't a platform that you have to try to receive praise or recognition, right? 13:05.793 --> 13:12.478 [SPEAKER_00]: Ministry and maybe if you take notes right down, ministry is service rendered unto someone else. 13:13.239 --> 13:13.439 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 13:13.679 --> 13:17.061 [SPEAKER_00]: That is what ministry fundamentally is. 13:17.101 --> 13:20.303 [SPEAKER_00]: And another word for it, you're a servant, right? 13:20.683 --> 13:21.183 [SPEAKER_00]: You're a servant. 13:21.203 --> 13:26.146 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there's some of you here today that you come in and you have a desire to get into ministry, right? 13:26.186 --> 13:29.128 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, I think I maybe I have the gift of teaching. 13:29.148 --> 13:32.990 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, or gift of worship, leading and different gift giftings. 13:33.270 --> 13:34.611 [SPEAKER_00]: And you definitely might have that. 13:35.411 --> 13:38.013 [SPEAKER_00]: But then you think, well, you know, you long for 13:39.190 --> 13:41.313 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, something that ministry really isn't. 13:41.913 --> 13:49.803 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's people who get into ministry because they want the recognition, they want the praise, they want to look good, they want to whatever, you know, they want all this stuff, it's kind of about them. 13:50.243 --> 13:54.308 [SPEAKER_00]: But what we see again as ministry is, you're signing up to be a servant. 13:55.265 --> 13:56.606 [SPEAKER_00]: And so you got to ask yourself, right? 13:56.626 --> 13:59.768 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like if you do get into say full-time ministry, right? 13:59.808 --> 14:03.890 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you become a staff member at a church or your missionary. 14:04.351 --> 14:10.995 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like ministry, your definition, defined role as you are rendering service unto someone else. 14:11.795 --> 14:13.598 [SPEAKER_00]: That's literally what you're doing. 14:14.299 --> 14:19.465 [SPEAKER_00]: Now there's several Greek words that we'll talk about ministry to give us a bigger picture of this. 14:19.526 --> 14:24.352 [SPEAKER_00]: The word used right here in Acts chapter 13 verse 2, I'm not a Greek scholar. 14:24.392 --> 14:27.857 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't speak Greek, but I'm going to try my best. 14:28.317 --> 14:30.999 [SPEAKER_00]: The word use here is luteirgio. 14:31.539 --> 14:33.760 [SPEAKER_00]: It's probably not how you say it. 14:33.820 --> 14:35.141 [SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, that's my best one. 14:35.181 --> 14:45.647 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's what they, they Paul or Luke, rather writes here when he says when they were worshiping or as they ministered, it's this Greek word luteirio or luteirgio. 14:46.107 --> 14:47.588 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's two words put together. 14:47.608 --> 14:49.790 [SPEAKER_00]: It means people and it means work. 14:49.930 --> 14:50.530 [SPEAKER_00]: People work. 14:50.570 --> 14:57.114 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, okay, hey, as they were doing work for somebody else, it's a service rendered if you think about it, right? 14:57.134 --> 15:00.857 [SPEAKER_00]: If you go to get new tires, how many of you love to get new tires? 15:01.557 --> 15:02.978 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, on your car, nobody loves that. 15:03.038 --> 15:06.441 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it does look nice and drive smoother, but she's like, dude, that was like money. 15:06.521 --> 15:07.902 [SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't playing on spending today. 15:08.843 --> 15:09.904 [SPEAKER_00]: I had to do this recently. 15:09.944 --> 15:13.747 [SPEAKER_00]: But when you go there, right, and the people put the new tire, that's service rendered unto you. 15:13.787 --> 15:16.550 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we exchange money for their service. 15:16.570 --> 15:19.332 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's not necessary, that's not ministry, but you get the idea. 15:19.432 --> 15:21.714 [SPEAKER_00]: Service rendered unto someone else. 15:21.734 --> 15:23.536 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it. 15:23.876 --> 15:25.017 [SPEAKER_00]: for you, right? 15:25.037 --> 15:26.258 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the word he's using here. 15:26.278 --> 15:29.300 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it means to serve, to minister, to render service. 15:29.340 --> 15:36.606 [SPEAKER_00]: And in this particular context, by to carry the idea of performing service, rendered unto God. 15:36.626 --> 15:38.148 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we got to understand. 15:38.168 --> 15:46.514 [SPEAKER_00]: Like before anything happens in your life, before you try to pursue ministry, or love someone else, pray for someone else, minister to someone else. 15:46.534 --> 15:52.720 [SPEAKER_00]: You got to understand that our primary ministry, every single one of us is unto the Lord, first and foremost. 15:53.400 --> 16:01.341 [SPEAKER_00]: And so this particular context is like they came together to minister to render service to worship the Lord. 16:01.902 --> 16:02.082 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 16:02.102 --> 16:04.082 [SPEAKER_00]: Their worship was their service. 16:04.302 --> 16:07.262 [SPEAKER_00]: Their prayer was their service unto the Lord. 16:07.303 --> 16:07.443 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 16:07.463 --> 16:09.543 [SPEAKER_00]: Because like, well, how do I minister to the Lord? 16:09.563 --> 16:10.483 [SPEAKER_00]: He's got everything. 16:11.043 --> 16:20.525 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, you minister to the Lord, like you service rendered unto him through things like prayer worship as we see here as well, fasting. 16:21.490 --> 16:24.692 [SPEAKER_00]: Right there, attention's directed towards God. 16:24.712 --> 16:30.917 [SPEAKER_00]: And we see in this text here, it's like, before they ministered for the Lord, they ministered to the Lord. 16:30.937 --> 16:35.421 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's important, like the order of events is important. 16:35.441 --> 16:39.744 [SPEAKER_00]: If we get that backwards, everything is gonna feel hard and messed up, like, why isn't it working? 16:39.764 --> 16:41.325 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm doing what everybody else is doing. 16:41.345 --> 16:44.527 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to preach and teach, and trying to get people to know Jesus. 16:44.547 --> 16:48.671 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, have you forgotten your first ministry unto the Lord? 16:49.730 --> 16:52.353 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, because you might be waiting here for break through today. 16:52.974 --> 16:59.562 [SPEAKER_00]: We talked about a couple of weeks ago on our six year anniversary, right, break through just to keep going. 16:59.582 --> 17:00.763 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't stop on six. 17:01.204 --> 17:02.946 [SPEAKER_00]: And you might be like, well, Nick, I'm not stopping. 17:02.966 --> 17:04.648 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to keep on keeping on. 17:04.708 --> 17:08.632 [SPEAKER_00]: But what you might be forgetting is the one service ministry 17:09.233 --> 17:13.514 [SPEAKER_00]: that is the key to everything else and again that is service rendered unto the Lord. 17:13.834 --> 17:22.357 [SPEAKER_00]: Now there's another word that the Greek New Testament uses for worship or ministry and it's a word called diaconos. 17:22.817 --> 17:24.118 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, don't speak Greeks. 17:24.178 --> 17:26.478 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't hold me to the pronunciation of that. 17:26.839 --> 17:31.260 [SPEAKER_00]: But this is one that you might be more familiar with because we get the English word deacon. 17:31.840 --> 17:35.761 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's like a ministry leader, right? 17:35.781 --> 17:38.502 [SPEAKER_00]: The practical servant is kind of what the idea is. 17:38.822 --> 17:43.384 [SPEAKER_00]: Here, and it carries the idea, someone who attends to the needs of someone else. 17:43.464 --> 17:46.265 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus uses this word diaconos in Mark 1043. 17:48.421 --> 17:51.644 [SPEAKER_00]: When he's telling the disciples, because they're kind of arguing, who's going to be the greatest? 17:51.664 --> 17:56.349 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, whoever would be great among you must be your servant. 17:56.569 --> 17:59.111 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the word diaconos, must be your diaconos. 17:59.131 --> 18:02.174 [SPEAKER_00]: You want to be great, you got to be a servant to all. 18:02.755 --> 18:06.238 [SPEAKER_00]: Now think about how backwards that is from the way the world thinks, right? 18:06.258 --> 18:07.880 [SPEAKER_00]: You want to be great, right? 18:07.900 --> 18:12.984 [SPEAKER_00]: The world's success in standards is like, no, you want to get to the level where people serve you. 18:13.625 --> 18:16.166 [SPEAKER_00]: Like you want to be the boss, the top of the food chain, right? 18:16.186 --> 18:17.747 [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have people beneath you, right? 18:17.767 --> 18:25.170 [SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus says, no, if you want to be great, you got to be a servant, a diaconos, a minister, to all. 18:26.070 --> 18:31.293 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul uses the same word in Colossians 125, and he talks about becoming a minister. 18:31.413 --> 18:33.874 [SPEAKER_00]: Colossians 125, four in 25, I'll read. 18:34.254 --> 18:37.375 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. 18:37.395 --> 18:38.675 [SPEAKER_00]: And I just get the picture here, right? 18:38.715 --> 18:41.175 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul, he's a minister for sure, right? 18:41.195 --> 18:42.816 [SPEAKER_00]: He's going out planting churches. 18:42.836 --> 18:46.036 [SPEAKER_00]: He's riding collocions to the church at Colossae, right? 18:46.056 --> 18:48.397 [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, hey, I rejoice in my sufferings. 18:48.457 --> 18:49.117 [SPEAKER_00]: I rejoice. 18:49.137 --> 18:53.918 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm grateful for the hard things I have to go through for your sake. 18:53.938 --> 18:58.959 [SPEAKER_00]: And he says, in my flesh, I'm filling up with his lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. 18:59.279 --> 19:00.579 [SPEAKER_00]: That is the church, verse 25. 19:03.880 --> 19:12.243 [SPEAKER_00]: minister, diaconos, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known. 19:12.283 --> 19:13.503 [SPEAKER_00]: Now think about that, right? 19:13.543 --> 19:22.066 [SPEAKER_00]: The apostle Paul, he doesn't look at the church and say, hey, you are here to serve me and do whatever I say, right? 19:22.086 --> 19:24.187 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, no, I'm here to serve you. 19:24.787 --> 19:29.129 [SPEAKER_00]: All the hard things that I'm going through is worth it. 19:29.289 --> 19:36.633 [SPEAKER_00]: If I get to serve you and help you get to know Jesus, and Paul's like, that's my ministry, and that's the idea of ministry here, right? 19:36.653 --> 19:42.457 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a third word that the Greek New Testament would tell us, and again, I'm going to mess this one up, but hyper-readies. 19:43.275 --> 19:45.756 [SPEAKER_00]: Hyper-edis, I don't know, anyone speak Greek in here? 19:46.697 --> 19:47.477 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, good. 19:47.497 --> 19:50.919 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's the correct pronunciation, right? 19:51.339 --> 19:58.703 [SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Robert, my pastor, you just say, you just got to pronounce it and just say it confidently and everyone will believe you, because most people aren't a Greek scholar. 19:59.024 --> 20:04.807 [SPEAKER_00]: But Hyper-edis, this word has the idea of a servant under authority. 20:05.307 --> 20:26.877 [SPEAKER_00]: right and this one's important right when we're talking about ministry and we're trying to render service unto others and we're trying to serve all people and help needs as they arise this word's important for context because it describes someone who's a subordinate right someone who's beneath someone who's in authority you get the idea right the word literally is like used as a picture 20:28.109 --> 20:42.421 [SPEAKER_00]: for like you think of a boat right back in these days like there be people like rowing these boats on like the bottom floor level of the boat you get to idea right with ors and stuff like that is the idea of this word hyper readies like you are a uh... 20:43.382 --> 20:46.703 [SPEAKER_00]: Under Rower is really what the word kind of means. 20:47.063 --> 20:53.025 [SPEAKER_00]: And so you're the one underneath, you're doing the hard work, you're doing the labor because you're under authority of somebody else here. 20:53.045 --> 21:00.506 [SPEAKER_00]: And so this word is used in first Corinthians chapter 4, verse 1, Paul writes again, he's writing to the Corinthian church this time. 21:00.526 --> 21:05.928 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, this is how one should regard us as servants, hyper-edis, 21:06.548 --> 21:09.930 [SPEAKER_00]: underrovers of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. 21:09.950 --> 21:15.412 [SPEAKER_00]: So he's like, hey, this is how people should understand Christians, the church, right? 21:15.432 --> 21:21.355 [SPEAKER_00]: As people who are submitted to the authority of Christ, right? 21:21.375 --> 21:29.299 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll just, again, I love this picture, because the minister or ministry leader, right, isn't the boss of this thing. 21:29.339 --> 21:33.580 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not about me, it's not about you, and not about any one of us, it's about Jesus. 21:33.681 --> 21:33.961 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 21:34.930 --> 21:35.090 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 21:35.130 --> 21:36.610 [SPEAKER_00]: It's saying we're under authority. 21:37.070 --> 21:38.131 [SPEAKER_00]: We're under God's authority. 21:38.151 --> 21:39.691 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not building my church. 21:40.151 --> 21:43.732 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not building or preaching my message or advancing my kingdom, right? 21:43.752 --> 21:45.472 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm serving King Jesus. 21:45.552 --> 21:48.093 [SPEAKER_00]: And He is the one who gives us the orders, right? 21:48.173 --> 21:52.313 [SPEAKER_00]: We, I, all of us, like, we are here to serve, render service. 21:53.194 --> 21:56.494 [SPEAKER_00]: I were here to be a diaconos, to minister to people as they have knees. 21:56.514 --> 22:00.355 [SPEAKER_00]: But we're also here to be a hyper-reities one who is under authority. 22:01.985 --> 22:17.453 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's another word that you might, if you are a Bible nerd, and we won't get too much into this one, but it's a du-low, I believe it is, but that one's more of a bond-servant slave, but that also gives you a picture of, okay, what's a minister, it's someone who's a slave to Christ? 22:18.034 --> 22:24.057 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's some strong wording, you might be a little uncomfortable, like, well, hey, I'm free, I ain't no slaves, nobody. 22:24.077 --> 22:28.900 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, no, when we give our life to Jesus, we surrender unto Him and we say, hey, my whole life is yours. 22:29.528 --> 22:30.429 [SPEAKER_00]: What do you want me to do? 22:30.449 --> 22:31.330 [SPEAKER_00]: Where do you want me to go? 22:31.371 --> 22:32.752 [SPEAKER_00]: Who do you want me to minister to? 22:32.772 --> 22:36.498 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you want me just to stay here by myself and pray and fast I'll do that. 22:36.518 --> 22:39.141 [SPEAKER_00]: If you want me to go plant the church, I'll go do that, right? 22:39.241 --> 22:40.102 [SPEAKER_00]: My life is yours. 22:40.143 --> 22:42.906 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a underroar of Christ, if you will. 22:43.707 --> 22:46.551 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, you don't need to have a platform to have a ministry. 22:47.092 --> 22:49.533 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to have a microphone or a title. 22:49.914 --> 22:51.214 [SPEAKER_00]: You've got to be on staff. 22:51.254 --> 22:55.117 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to preach at all to have a ministry. 22:55.157 --> 22:57.278 [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't need anyone to really know your name. 22:57.318 --> 22:58.479 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about your own lives. 22:58.559 --> 22:59.539 [SPEAKER_00]: Many of you are parents. 22:59.559 --> 23:02.961 [SPEAKER_00]: You have kids and you minister to your children all the time. 23:03.882 --> 23:04.802 [SPEAKER_00]: You minister to them. 23:04.842 --> 23:06.463 [SPEAKER_00]: A husband ministers to his wife. 23:06.523 --> 23:09.085 [SPEAKER_00]: A wife can minister to her husband. 23:09.365 --> 23:14.208 [SPEAKER_00]: Someone who ministers, like when you're praying for somebody, you're ministering to them. 23:14.988 --> 23:16.689 [SPEAKER_00]: Write your rendering a service unto them. 23:16.709 --> 23:19.510 [SPEAKER_00]: You're putting their needs above your own needs. 23:19.550 --> 23:23.693 [SPEAKER_00]: When you encourage someone, like Barnabas, you're ministering to somebody. 23:24.233 --> 23:27.655 [SPEAKER_00]: When you tell someone about Jesus, of course, you're ministering to somebody. 23:28.055 --> 23:33.578 [SPEAKER_00]: And when nobody sees what you're doing, except God, I mean, you're ministering. 23:34.885 --> 23:38.688 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to get you to see, it's like, ministry is not just, oh, that's just what Nick does. 23:39.288 --> 23:44.492 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just here to consume and get some education, maybe draw close to Jesus. 23:44.532 --> 23:48.555 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, no, we're all ministers in this in some way, shape, or form. 23:49.575 --> 23:52.858 [SPEAKER_00]: Right, ministry isn't, but ministry isn't just... 23:54.760 --> 24:08.557 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not something we like achieve and we're done, but it's something that we pursue, but what we got to see the first and foremost in this text today is that the early church, they ministered unto who? 24:10.467 --> 24:11.088 [SPEAKER_00]: unto God. 24:11.708 --> 24:13.670 [SPEAKER_00]: For those of you, you have something else that's sleeping, it's okay. 24:14.010 --> 24:14.330 [SPEAKER_00]: Wake up. 24:15.331 --> 24:15.511 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 24:15.752 --> 24:16.912 [SPEAKER_00]: They ministered unto the Lord. 24:16.933 --> 24:18.554 [SPEAKER_00]: They were worshiping unto the Lord. 24:18.574 --> 24:21.016 [SPEAKER_00]: And so again, just look back at this and think about it, right? 24:23.178 --> 24:28.342 [SPEAKER_00]: Where we're going in Acts over the next several weeks, maybe a few more months, and we'll finish up Acts. 24:28.422 --> 24:31.905 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's about to pick up steam or speed, if you will. 24:32.426 --> 24:34.848 [SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to see this incredible missionary journey. 24:35.388 --> 24:37.590 [SPEAKER_00]: Right, and some of us like, man, I just want that in my own life. 24:37.610 --> 24:39.791 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, God give me some clear direction and help. 24:40.031 --> 24:42.954 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to go change the world, help me to do that, right? 24:43.054 --> 24:45.115 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's going to be churches planted. 24:45.155 --> 24:55.443 [SPEAKER_00]: Lives will be changed, but where we find Paul Barnabas, the early church, when the Holy Spirit does call them, is that they are rendering service unto God and unto God alone. 24:56.023 --> 24:59.806 [SPEAKER_00]: There's no ulterior motive, like, hey, let's get together and let's pray in worship. 24:59.926 --> 25:02.849 [SPEAKER_00]: So that God has to give us a mission so that we can go on. 25:02.869 --> 25:05.171 [SPEAKER_00]: They're just there because that's what they want to do. 25:05.211 --> 25:06.212 [SPEAKER_00]: They love the Lord. 25:06.232 --> 25:07.813 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what the church does. 25:07.853 --> 25:08.614 [SPEAKER_00]: They come together. 25:08.654 --> 25:09.655 [SPEAKER_00]: They worship together. 25:09.675 --> 25:10.595 [SPEAKER_00]: They pray together. 25:10.615 --> 25:11.636 [SPEAKER_00]: They fast together. 25:11.656 --> 25:14.419 [SPEAKER_00]: They're rendering it service unto the God. 25:14.439 --> 25:18.002 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, before they have a mission, they have a ministry. 25:19.003 --> 25:20.545 [SPEAKER_00]: Before you have a mission, right? 25:20.605 --> 25:26.392 [SPEAKER_00]: Directive of what's next, you have a ministry to do, and it's unto the Lord, right? 25:26.552 --> 25:31.879 [SPEAKER_00]: Each and every one of us, and that's the first and foremost ministry in all of our lives. 25:31.919 --> 25:35.643 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of you are like, well, but I'm married, and I don't know, I suppose some minister to my spouse. 25:35.663 --> 25:38.106 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you are, but your first ministry is unto the Lord. 25:38.867 --> 25:40.308 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the most important one, right? 25:40.408 --> 25:42.530 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been said, and I believe it to be true. 25:42.550 --> 25:50.477 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you should love God more than you love your spouse, because it's like, over the overflow of that, your spouse is going to know that you truly love them. 25:50.797 --> 25:52.419 [SPEAKER_00]: And care for them, you should love your spouse. 25:52.479 --> 25:57.363 [SPEAKER_00]: I think more than your kids, because out of the overflow of that love, they're going to know, oh, man, he loves. 25:57.743 --> 25:58.563 [SPEAKER_00]: My mom, right? 25:58.603 --> 26:00.624 [SPEAKER_00]: And he cares for her and he cares for us. 26:00.664 --> 26:03.445 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just kind of flows down order of priority. 26:03.465 --> 26:05.586 [SPEAKER_00]: But a lot of us, let's just be honest, sometimes. 26:05.626 --> 26:08.007 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, we put God at the back burner. 26:08.087 --> 26:10.088 [SPEAKER_00]: If I have some time, maybe I'll pray. 26:11.148 --> 26:17.290 [SPEAKER_00]: If I want to go to church on Sunday, I mean, it's kind of cloudy out, you know, how many of you didn't want to wake up this morning. 26:17.310 --> 26:17.790 [SPEAKER_00]: That's just me. 26:17.850 --> 26:18.611 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to wake up. 26:18.651 --> 26:20.191 [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, man, I'm sleeping so good. 26:20.852 --> 26:23.092 [SPEAKER_00]: I always sleep good on Sundays, too. 26:23.112 --> 26:24.213 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the worst part about it. 26:25.819 --> 26:31.944 [SPEAKER_00]: The fun fact though, I get like the least amount of sleep and I wear this little watch track or thing called Woop. 26:31.964 --> 26:36.328 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you like a recovery score almost every Sunday and I mean this is the Lord. 26:36.688 --> 26:37.970 [SPEAKER_00]: You can see in the metrics. 26:38.010 --> 26:40.131 [SPEAKER_00]: I get the least amount of sleep Saturday nights. 26:41.392 --> 26:43.513 [SPEAKER_00]: Sunday morning, I always have a green recovery. 26:43.653 --> 26:47.615 [SPEAKER_00]: There's been like three times where I didn't have this green, anyways, I'm like, it's the Lord. 26:47.655 --> 26:50.556 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I'm sleep deprived, yet I'm recovered. 26:51.017 --> 26:53.138 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand it, but it's because I sleep good on Sunday. 26:53.158 --> 26:57.800 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to get up sometimes, but we want to come together to minister unto the Lord. 26:57.820 --> 26:59.841 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we have a ministry that we need to fulfill. 26:59.881 --> 27:01.521 [SPEAKER_00]: We need a duty, if you will. 27:01.982 --> 27:03.962 [SPEAKER_00]: But again, some of us, we take it for granted. 27:03.983 --> 27:06.604 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, God's always here, and I can talk to him any time. 27:07.384 --> 27:09.445 [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe that's part of the problem. 27:10.326 --> 27:11.466 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll talk to him tomorrow. 27:11.486 --> 27:14.008 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just a little bit tired tonight. 27:14.048 --> 27:16.849 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll go to church next week because I don't know. 27:16.889 --> 27:19.211 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just it's rainy and stuff today. 27:20.011 --> 27:20.611 [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? 27:20.651 --> 27:22.533 [SPEAKER_00]: Or I'll tune in maybe some of you online. 27:22.553 --> 27:26.635 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll tune in next week because I mean, there's my favorite football teams playing right now. 27:26.715 --> 27:29.597 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know, you know, the excuses could be 27:30.900 --> 27:31.240 [SPEAKER_00]: many. 27:32.261 --> 27:35.263 [SPEAKER_00]: But our first ministry is to minister to the Lord. 27:35.844 --> 27:39.706 [SPEAKER_00]: Before you have a mission of what's next, you got a minister to the Lord. 27:39.746 --> 27:44.530 [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't minister to the Lord to receive a mission of like okay, well what's next. 27:45.230 --> 27:48.132 [SPEAKER_00]: But we just minister to the Lord because like, well this isn't what we're here for. 27:48.392 --> 27:51.455 [SPEAKER_00]: You gave your life for me, Lord, and I just want to worship you. 27:52.115 --> 28:05.766 [SPEAKER_00]: when we enter into worship I know like again it's like it's a rainy day and it's just like we're a little tired and groggy but like we should come in and say I just want to worship you like lift your voices raise your hands kneel down whatever you want to do it's like but just respond to Lord God I'm here for you. 28:06.347 --> 28:18.536 [SPEAKER_00]: Not here for what I can get from you I'm here to give you praise because you deserve all glory all praise all honor right and from ministering unto the Lord eventually will come the next step or the mission. 28:19.537 --> 28:23.159 [SPEAKER_00]: A little story about us, so we planted this church. 28:23.620 --> 28:31.185 [SPEAKER_00]: We just celebrated six years, but before we came out here to plant this church, like me and my wife, we felt like a stirring. 28:31.205 --> 28:34.107 [SPEAKER_00]: We knew God was doing something, but we didn't exactly know what. 28:34.207 --> 28:36.788 [SPEAKER_00]: And is this church plant or doing anything? 28:36.828 --> 28:38.349 [SPEAKER_00]: Is this just our own idea? 28:39.050 --> 28:42.512 [SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't want to follow my ideas, because I know the Bible says about that. 28:42.572 --> 28:44.674 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want this to be of the Lord. 28:44.714 --> 28:45.995 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, anyways, 28:47.215 --> 28:53.657 [SPEAKER_00]: I went to this conference, one of my friends, he put on a conference and he was a quaintance more than a friend. 28:54.377 --> 29:02.060 [SPEAKER_00]: He just invited me, I ran the conference at our church, our annual conference, and I invited him out, and he invited me to his conference. 29:02.100 --> 29:03.300 [SPEAKER_00]: I just thought, you know, I'll just go there. 29:03.360 --> 29:07.462 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if you're like me, but I usually go to these things with very little expectation. 29:07.482 --> 29:11.364 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, call me little faith, but I just feel like I just have this thing. 29:11.404 --> 29:12.405 [SPEAKER_00]: I get nothing happens. 29:12.465 --> 29:12.925 [SPEAKER_00]: It's okay. 29:12.965 --> 29:13.646 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fine with it. 29:13.666 --> 29:16.847 [SPEAKER_00]: But if God comes through and wants to speak to me, I'm totally open to that. 29:16.968 --> 29:18.328 [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I want that as well. 29:18.668 --> 29:20.930 [SPEAKER_00]: But I just went there because I'm like, I feel like he's just a friend. 29:20.990 --> 29:25.812 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to go there and support him and maybe I'll get ministered to by the Lord. 29:25.852 --> 29:27.633 [SPEAKER_00]: And I certainly did. 29:27.673 --> 29:29.855 [SPEAKER_00]: So I go to this conference and it was a... 29:30.575 --> 29:41.421 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a little weird, because if you, how many of you've been to a conference of some sort of church conference, right, not like a business marketing conference, because it probably doesn't open with worship, right? 29:41.721 --> 29:51.246 [SPEAKER_00]: But like a church conference when you go there, I mean, usually, anyways, most times is that you would open with, I mean, there would be announcements, welcome, or so glad you're here kind of stuff. 29:51.366 --> 29:54.087 [SPEAKER_00]: But then they're going to have probably a time of worship, right? 29:54.107 --> 29:55.288 [SPEAKER_00]: Was that your experience? 29:55.748 --> 29:56.068 [SPEAKER_00]: Anybody? 29:56.228 --> 29:57.149 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, no, maybe so. 29:57.349 --> 29:58.489 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's my experience, right? 29:58.529 --> 30:00.450 [SPEAKER_00]: So anyways, the guy, he gets up there. 30:00.470 --> 30:01.390 [SPEAKER_00]: We're so glad you're here. 30:01.751 --> 30:08.073 [SPEAKER_00]: So hey, for the first 10, 15 minutes what we're going to do is we're just going to want you to take time to seek the Lord. 30:08.093 --> 30:10.814 [SPEAKER_00]: They had like couches out, you know, rugs. 30:10.894 --> 30:12.095 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's chairs, of course. 30:12.115 --> 30:14.336 [SPEAKER_00]: And he's just like, go off wherever you feel comfortable. 30:14.356 --> 30:15.116 [SPEAKER_00]: You kneel down. 30:15.156 --> 30:16.037 [SPEAKER_00]: You can lay down. 30:16.097 --> 30:18.878 [SPEAKER_00]: You can stand up, walk around, doesn't matter. 30:18.898 --> 30:19.978 [SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, just seek the Lord. 30:19.998 --> 30:21.439 [SPEAKER_00]: Was he want from you right now? 30:21.979 --> 30:23.620 [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, you can, you know, praise him. 30:24.440 --> 30:29.586 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you get into a time of prayer, maybe read the Bible and you just look, God, what do you want to speak to me? 30:29.686 --> 30:41.078 [SPEAKER_00]: So this was unusual because I'm like, I'm ready to get into worship like not like, you know, in this like nine o'clock in the morning too, like I'm not ready to like, try to, I don't know, figure my life out with the Lord in this moment. 30:41.098 --> 30:42.340 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to help guide me. 30:43.060 --> 30:50.482 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and anyways, so it was awkward in a way, but then I said, okay, Lord, but you know, I'm here What do you want me to do? 30:50.502 --> 31:00.545 [SPEAKER_00]: And I just kind of was praying prayed over some things and anyways I it led me to Nehemiah and I'm reading through Nehemiah and I just start taking some notes down and I don't know if you're a note Take your like me. 31:00.565 --> 31:04.186 [SPEAKER_00]: I just like to drop down things doesn't really mean anything sometimes not like. 31:04.306 --> 31:09.347 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I want to write down this big idea that God revealed to me I'm just kind of like oh, that's interesting. 31:09.367 --> 31:10.168 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll write it down. 31:10.228 --> 31:10.868 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you know 31:11.408 --> 31:12.389 [SPEAKER_00]: That's just kind of what I do. 31:13.209 --> 31:17.691 [SPEAKER_00]: So I wrote down in that moment, Rise and Build, right? 31:17.711 --> 31:23.594 [SPEAKER_00]: Because the Amir, he rose and built the wall, and that's part of the story of Nehemiah. 31:23.634 --> 31:25.435 [SPEAKER_00]: And so now fast forward a little bit, right? 31:25.455 --> 31:28.156 [SPEAKER_00]: So again, the idea here's like, I came with no expectation. 31:28.176 --> 31:30.437 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just here for the Lord God, what you have and for my friend. 31:30.457 --> 31:32.598 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to support him, but I'm like, I'm open to whatever. 31:33.139 --> 31:37.201 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I just go through that, then there was a time of worship, then there was a teaching, 31:37.941 --> 31:43.987 [SPEAKER_00]: And then after the teaching, and this was like a worship or not a worship conference, they kind of the leader's conference, right? 31:44.007 --> 31:49.593 [SPEAKER_00]: So like everyone in there's like a pastor, assistant pastor, something of that nature, right? 31:49.613 --> 31:54.058 [SPEAKER_00]: So after the teaching, the guy like gives an altar call, right? 31:54.078 --> 31:54.999 [SPEAKER_00]: Which is kind of awkward, right? 31:55.019 --> 31:55.680 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we're all like, 31:56.674 --> 31:57.795 [SPEAKER_00]: I think we're all saved. 31:57.835 --> 32:00.456 [SPEAKER_00]: We're preaching to Jesus, hopefully everyone saved right here. 32:00.576 --> 32:04.738 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, but he's like, hey, but you guys give alter calls and offer prayer all the times. 32:04.758 --> 32:08.920 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to give you guys a chance to respond and come down the front so we can pray for you. 32:08.940 --> 32:11.101 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, of course everybody gets up and we go down. 32:11.161 --> 32:14.563 [SPEAKER_00]: No one wants to be the one guy that doesn't say I'll take prayer. 32:14.603 --> 32:15.323 [SPEAKER_00]: We all need prayer. 32:15.343 --> 32:16.263 [SPEAKER_00]: So I go down front. 32:16.343 --> 32:19.005 [SPEAKER_00]: All of us, this is probably 50 of us who are in the huge conference. 32:19.565 --> 32:28.173 [SPEAKER_00]: And I go down there, worship teams go on, and then there's a guy, the first guy comes by, he prays for me, it's just like a general prayer, something that you might have experienced in your life. 32:28.193 --> 32:37.921 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a good prayer, that's not be little, but it was just kind of like, you know, a Lord bless this guy and the things, whatever he might be going through, speak to him and power him, you know, some of that good stuff. 32:37.981 --> 32:39.202 [SPEAKER_00]: And so like, okay, cool, you know. 32:40.858 --> 32:42.179 [SPEAKER_00]: go back into worship, right? 32:42.199 --> 32:43.380 [SPEAKER_00]: We're still worshiping, rather. 32:43.960 --> 32:44.941 [SPEAKER_00]: That guy moves on. 32:45.141 --> 32:47.342 [SPEAKER_00]: This guy, other guy, comes by. 32:47.842 --> 32:50.484 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm, you know, worshiping my eyes or clothes. 32:50.804 --> 32:53.605 [SPEAKER_00]: Hands lifted on, I'm maybe I was right here here, which doesn't matter. 32:54.146 --> 33:00.269 [SPEAKER_00]: But this guy comes up, grab one hand on my chest, one hand on my back, and like grabs me, right? 33:00.309 --> 33:01.330 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a little startling. 33:01.350 --> 33:05.072 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you, like we don't do this here, the furniture, so let me pray for you, brother. 33:05.792 --> 33:07.713 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, this guy just put his hands on me. 33:07.773 --> 33:08.913 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, this is weird. 33:09.734 --> 33:12.115 [SPEAKER_00]: But a Lord, whatever, I'm here for it. 33:13.015 --> 33:15.016 [SPEAKER_00]: And so this guy, though, he's not praying. 33:15.036 --> 33:18.597 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, well, Lord Jesus, you know, I pray for this guy and all this stuff. 33:18.617 --> 33:21.618 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, he just starts speaking stuff, which was unusual for me. 33:21.658 --> 33:25.080 [SPEAKER_00]: Now some of you guys, you might come from a different church background than me. 33:25.100 --> 33:30.822 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I came through a Baptist church when I was younger, and then I went to a non-denominational church. 33:31.463 --> 33:39.399 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, when I like middle school age and then Calvary Chapel is where I like I came back to Lord now Calvary Chapel like was very a good old go to. 33:40.737 --> 33:47.760 [SPEAKER_00]: Go to our home church, I mean, things have changed, but if you brought your baby into the sanctuary, they'd say you can't bring your baby into the sanctuary. 33:47.800 --> 33:48.860 [SPEAKER_00]: That's how hardcore they were. 33:48.880 --> 33:49.701 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to need you to strike. 33:49.721 --> 33:50.401 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not like that here. 33:50.421 --> 33:51.481 [SPEAKER_00]: You're welcome to have your kids. 33:51.741 --> 33:53.122 [SPEAKER_00]: They're totally welcome. 33:53.202 --> 33:54.643 [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm just saying, it's just hardcore. 33:54.663 --> 33:56.223 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want any distractions. 33:56.263 --> 34:03.086 [SPEAKER_00]: If someone gets up, and you're walking around, praising the Lord, you might have a security team member, comes say, hey, sir, you need to find your seat. 34:03.106 --> 34:04.387 [SPEAKER_00]: They didn't want any distractions. 34:04.427 --> 34:06.647 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, so this was different. 34:08.108 --> 34:16.391 [SPEAKER_00]: you know, and we believe in prophecy, we believe in these things, words of wisdom, all these things that gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I've never experienced it personally. 34:16.872 --> 34:24.295 [SPEAKER_00]: So this guy starts speaking over me, and he said a lot of things, some of them are for me in my wife, I feel like. 34:24.335 --> 34:34.019 [SPEAKER_00]: But the one thing he did say was confirmation, like, okay, it's supposed to go plan to church this guy, he says, you're essentially, you're supposed to rise and build. 34:34.599 --> 34:38.164 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I wrote down, you know, 45 minutes prior in this thing. 34:38.745 --> 34:46.677 [SPEAKER_00]: And so like it was a clicking moment where it's like, okay, God, is this thought of maybe we're supposed to go church plants or do some kind of ministry or go somewhere else? 34:46.717 --> 34:48.279 [SPEAKER_00]: Is this just a me or is this a view? 34:48.319 --> 34:50.262 [SPEAKER_00]: And in that moment, it was just like, no, it's of me. 34:51.263 --> 34:55.606 [SPEAKER_00]: It was like, as I was, if you will, like, I was ministering to the Lord. 34:55.667 --> 34:57.128 [SPEAKER_00]: I was just rendering service. 34:57.148 --> 34:58.088 [SPEAKER_00]: God, here I am. 34:58.108 --> 34:59.509 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have any expectations. 34:59.529 --> 35:01.611 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm here to worship you or whatever you want to do. 35:01.931 --> 35:08.296 [SPEAKER_00]: It's in that moment where I'm surrendered to the Lord that all of a sudden he brings the next step, the next mission, if you will. 35:08.316 --> 35:09.657 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what happens here. 35:09.997 --> 35:12.979 [SPEAKER_00]: I sure that's story to say that's what happens in this moment. 35:13.019 --> 35:17.663 [SPEAKER_00]: While they're worshiping the Lord and fasting, it says the Holy Spirit said, 35:18.283 --> 35:29.186 [SPEAKER_00]: All of a sudden, God comes through the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God says, set apart for me, Barnabas, and Saul, for the work which I have called them, right? 35:29.206 --> 35:33.568 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's like, okay, as they're ministering unto the Lord, then comes the next steps. 35:33.928 --> 35:37.429 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, another thing that's interesting, they're ministering to the Lord, worshiping the Lord. 35:37.469 --> 35:38.189 [SPEAKER_00]: But they're also 35:38.769 --> 35:47.258 [SPEAKER_00]: Fasting and I just want to mention this because I know sometimes people get all messed up about fasting and prayer Right because you're like well, are we supposed to like if you're fasting? 35:47.278 --> 35:58.991 [SPEAKER_00]: You're not supposed to like let anybody know right and you're not wrong But I would say there's more to it right people will go me and one of my good friends He's a pastor back in Arizona. 35:59.031 --> 35:59.851 [SPEAKER_00]: We had this kind of 36:01.268 --> 36:12.451 [SPEAKER_00]: argument, it wasn't really argument, it was civil, but he was like, if we look at the Bible and what Jesus preached, he says, really, he's like, it's not biblical to pray from the pulpit. 36:13.411 --> 36:15.671 [SPEAKER_00]: And I said, I disagree. 36:16.332 --> 36:21.513 [SPEAKER_00]: And I went to Acts chapter 13, I said, look, they're together in the church. 36:22.533 --> 36:29.636 [SPEAKER_00]: Right in his, his basis, his biblical basis for his argument is Matthew chapter six, sermon on the Mount, anybody ready, right, best sermon ever. 36:29.996 --> 36:38.700 [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus says, hey, when you go pray, pray in your prayer closet, so we're no one can see you, only your father can see you, and he who sees you in secret, like he will reward you. 36:38.900 --> 36:43.042 [SPEAKER_00]: But the message of that is not like, hey, don't let anybody know your praying. 36:43.342 --> 36:46.843 [SPEAKER_00]: The message is, don't go out to pray to let everybody know your praying. 36:46.983 --> 36:47.724 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, look at me. 36:48.344 --> 36:55.111 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, when we come to church, it's like we're hopefully we're united in Christ and it's like we're praying together as we minister unto the Lord. 36:55.452 --> 36:56.453 [SPEAKER_00]: Fasting is similar. 36:56.493 --> 36:59.576 [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, hey, when you're fasting, don't go look all sad. 36:59.616 --> 37:01.638 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, man, it's hungry. 37:02.239 --> 37:02.820 [SPEAKER_00]: Why hungry? 37:02.880 --> 37:04.441 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm fasting. 37:04.561 --> 37:05.442 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm seeking the Lord. 37:06.143 --> 37:07.383 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, because I'm holy, right? 37:07.403 --> 37:09.604 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's literally what Jesus is saying. 37:09.624 --> 37:12.005 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't go out there to be seen by others. 37:12.025 --> 37:14.686 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't be praying so that people will see you. 37:14.726 --> 37:20.567 [SPEAKER_00]: But he's not saying don't pray where people can see you, like in church in a congregational setting, right? 37:20.587 --> 37:22.248 [SPEAKER_00]: And fasting is kind of the similar. 37:22.268 --> 37:31.171 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like we can have a fast, if you will, as a church where we say, hey, we're going to, as a church, come together, we're going to fast for 21 days because we want to seek the Lord. 37:31.191 --> 37:33.131 [SPEAKER_00]: We want to minister unto the Lord. 37:33.151 --> 37:34.632 [SPEAKER_00]: We want to see what he has for us. 37:34.672 --> 37:35.472 [SPEAKER_00]: That is okay. 37:35.972 --> 37:36.953 [SPEAKER_00]: That's biblical, right? 37:36.973 --> 37:40.075 [SPEAKER_00]: We see it right here, the early church, the church, that's there at Antioch. 37:40.095 --> 37:45.379 [SPEAKER_00]: They got prophets, they got teachers, they're worshiping together, and they're fasting together. 37:46.841 --> 37:53.746 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I guess you could try and be the devil's advocate and say, well, maybe they were just all fasting individually and didn't realize that they were fasting together. 37:53.986 --> 37:55.307 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that's the case, though, do you? 37:56.708 --> 38:03.154 [SPEAKER_00]: So they're together, and Jesus' message in the sermon on the mountain is just don't do these things. 38:04.268 --> 38:05.950 [SPEAKER_00]: for other people, right? 38:05.970 --> 38:10.755 [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, don't go out on the street corner and pray these elegant prayers so that you might be heard by someone. 38:10.795 --> 38:13.978 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, man, that guy's so holy and awesome, and I want to be there. 38:13.998 --> 38:15.720 [SPEAKER_00]: He said, don't do that, right? 38:15.740 --> 38:19.144 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't fast so that other people are like, man, you're so like disciplined. 38:19.204 --> 38:20.705 [SPEAKER_00]: And I wish I had disciplined. 38:20.725 --> 38:22.087 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, it's not about that. 38:22.107 --> 38:23.628 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about, no, we want to come together. 38:24.552 --> 38:31.095 [SPEAKER_00]: And we want to fast, pray, we want to worship together as we render service unto the Lord. 38:31.755 --> 38:39.879 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's something I think powerful about seeking God together in these ways where you're praying together, you're fasting together, worshiping together. 38:40.360 --> 38:46.002 [SPEAKER_00]: And even what we see here as the Holy Spirit speaks, they're listening and receiving together. 38:46.863 --> 38:53.206 [SPEAKER_00]: And so again, the first thing though is before they heard what's next, they're just there ministering unto the Lord. 38:54.206 --> 38:57.269 [SPEAKER_00]: says the Holy Spirit spoke, right? 38:57.790 --> 39:13.264 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit said, so that we see that this mission, this next one, right, this missionary journey is Paul's first missionary journey of several, again, he's going to go out throughout the Roman Empire, the Roman world of that day, he's just spread the gospel, he's going to plant churches. 39:14.005 --> 39:16.527 [SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is Paul didn't come up with this idea. 39:17.108 --> 39:18.609 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul wasn't like, you know, it would be cool. 39:19.210 --> 39:22.472 [SPEAKER_00]: If we went over to this place, plans to church, they don't know anything about Jesus. 39:22.492 --> 39:27.974 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, if we go over to Athens, and we go preach Jesus, they're old man, that will be sweet wouldn't it, right guys? 39:28.074 --> 39:33.997 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh man, if we went over to Colosse, and we planted church or Ephesus, and these Paul didn't come up with this idea. 39:35.393 --> 39:39.535 [SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas wasn't like the encouragement like, oh man, let's just, let's just go for it. 39:39.555 --> 39:40.036 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it. 39:40.056 --> 39:41.417 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't come up with this idea. 39:41.997 --> 39:47.920 [SPEAKER_00]: The church leadership there, those five guys, that are their prophets and teachers, they didn't come up with this. 39:48.000 --> 39:50.102 [SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit did, God did. 39:50.522 --> 39:53.103 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes I mean, I think we make our plans, right? 39:53.123 --> 39:55.545 [SPEAKER_00]: We're like, well, God, like, we have good plans. 39:55.565 --> 40:00.748 [SPEAKER_00]: We wanna honor God and we just ask, we make our plans and we're like, well, God, would you bless our plans? 40:01.738 --> 40:03.079 [SPEAKER_00]: We want to go and do this thing. 40:03.820 --> 40:10.345 [SPEAKER_00]: But maybe a better prayer or understanding as we ask God is that, hey, God, what do you have for me? 40:10.925 --> 40:12.146 [SPEAKER_00]: And how can I be a part? 40:12.187 --> 40:14.008 [SPEAKER_00]: What are you currently doing, Lord? 40:14.949 --> 40:16.610 [SPEAKER_00]: And how can I play a role in that? 40:18.211 --> 40:21.594 [SPEAKER_00]: And so he says, the Holy Spirit says, set apart for me. 40:22.915 --> 40:24.336 [SPEAKER_00]: Set apart for me, Barnabas. 40:25.298 --> 40:32.618 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, set a part as an idea to consecrate, like, hey, these are mine, and I love that the Holy Spirit says for me. 40:34.067 --> 40:37.350 [SPEAKER_00]: Not for you, not for anything else, not for anyone. 40:37.370 --> 40:38.631 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, set them apart for me. 40:38.651 --> 40:40.372 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, just picture this for a moment too. 40:40.392 --> 40:43.995 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, if this is the early church, I mean, there's five guys. 40:44.015 --> 40:46.077 [SPEAKER_00]: We know a little bit, maybe about some of them. 40:46.397 --> 40:48.138 [SPEAKER_00]: The most we know is about Saul. 40:48.158 --> 40:53.743 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, he's gonna go on to change the world quite literally and flip it upside down for Jesus. 40:53.963 --> 40:55.384 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's amazing. 40:56.205 --> 41:01.949 [SPEAKER_00]: But think about the church at Antioch, losing Saul in Barnabas. 41:02.879 --> 41:20.045 [SPEAKER_00]: wouldn't that be like kind of frightening right like wait a minute like he's our main teaching pastor like he's he's the one who understands all the Hebrew and Greek and air-matic he's the he's the most studious right we're gonna lose him but got to set up a part for me 41:21.307 --> 41:22.488 [SPEAKER_00]: Set them apart for me, right? 41:22.528 --> 41:34.939 [SPEAKER_00]: And so before they're separated or set apart, I guess, for a work, a ministry, a mission, they're separated for a person, Jesus, right? 41:34.979 --> 41:39.884 [SPEAKER_00]: Paul belongs to Jesus, Barnabas belongs to Jesus. 41:40.525 --> 41:43.848 [SPEAKER_00]: And as they worship or render service to the Lord, 41:44.786 --> 41:51.328 [SPEAKER_00]: As they hear the Lord speak, as they set them apart, that's where we see the calling begins. 41:52.353 --> 42:17.697 [SPEAKER_00]: right we often we ask i think it's a good prayer right but it's just like what do you what do you want me to do lower where do you want me to go but i also just think sometimes we just got to come before lords they got here i am we just fully openly surrendered to god uh we went to men's conference yesterday um as Luke said there was a former navy seal how many of you love like military you need navy seal stuff like i'm just like i'm like man i should 42:22.018 --> 42:26.001 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just all in, you know, this guy starts preaching this, this is me being honest. 42:26.361 --> 42:31.565 [SPEAKER_00]: I like guys start, he started off with an awesome story that we were written there who could jot a hat and everything went wrong. 42:31.905 --> 42:41.492 [SPEAKER_00]: And then he left us with a cliffhanger at the end, right guys, like he's like at the very end of it, he's like, if you want to hear the rest of the story by my book, I was like, man, that's messed up, you know. 42:41.952 --> 42:50.478 [SPEAKER_00]: But he's telling this whole story and then he gets into a Bible teaching, which I'm like, let the pastors teach the Bible dude, I want to hear, like, what happened over there in Iraq, right? 42:50.538 --> 42:56.903 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, obviously tie in the Bible, we want to give Jesus praise, but I'm just all in, I'm like, just give, I want to hear all the details, man. 42:57.664 --> 43:01.407 [SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, I digress, I really don't know where I was going with that. 43:01.427 --> 43:05.790 [SPEAKER_00]: He said something good that I was going to share, but I forgot, just give me a second. 43:07.051 --> 43:07.511 [SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh. 43:08.632 --> 43:10.034 [SPEAKER_00]: There were some, oh, surrender. 43:10.915 --> 43:15.981 [SPEAKER_00]: Surrender, that's what he talked about, because he's like, you know, as a Navy SEAL, he's like, you don't, you're not taught to surrender. 43:16.001 --> 43:17.763 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just even, there's like in life, right? 43:17.803 --> 43:22.569 [SPEAKER_00]: Especially like men, masculinity, we're like, no, we don't give up, you don't tap out, right? 43:22.589 --> 43:27.135 [SPEAKER_00]: And he says, but like, when you comes to Jesus, like we surrender unto Him, everything. 43:27.515 --> 43:31.237 [SPEAKER_00]: And I just thought I was so perfect because I'm like, yeah, it's literally what rendering service under the Lord. 43:31.257 --> 43:32.117 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, God, here I am. 43:32.157 --> 43:32.937 [SPEAKER_00]: You have everything. 43:32.977 --> 43:33.938 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm surrendered. 43:33.978 --> 43:38.680 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm tapped out to you, whatever you want me to do, whatever you have for me, I'll do it. 43:38.700 --> 43:40.361 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of the idea here, right? 43:40.401 --> 43:42.502 [SPEAKER_00]: So we render service under the Lord. 43:42.622 --> 43:45.923 [SPEAKER_00]: We ask God, what do you want to do in my life, right? 43:45.943 --> 43:49.645 [SPEAKER_00]: And as we kind of just see God, I think the next step. 43:50.827 --> 43:54.948 [SPEAKER_00]: will eventually be made evident, right? 43:54.988 --> 44:01.590 [SPEAKER_00]: And for us, in our cases, I got a conference that I didn't expect anything crazy to happen was like, that's where God met me in that day. 44:02.070 --> 44:04.111 [SPEAKER_00]: To speak a word, it was confirmation. 44:04.171 --> 44:12.873 [SPEAKER_00]: I was in one of many occasions, by the way, because I was still, I mean, me of little faith and I'm like, maybe that was just coincidence. 44:13.293 --> 44:15.654 [SPEAKER_00]: And God continues to be like, no, Nick, I'm calling you. 44:15.994 --> 44:17.134 [SPEAKER_00]: You're going somewhere, right? 44:18.074 --> 44:20.215 [SPEAKER_00]: And but it's like again, it comes from a place of surrender. 44:20.255 --> 44:21.856 [SPEAKER_00]: Lord, here I am, what do you have for me? 44:21.936 --> 44:22.856 [SPEAKER_00]: My life is yours. 44:23.597 --> 44:33.661 [SPEAKER_00]: So he says, set them apart for me and he says for the work which I have called them, right? 44:34.341 --> 44:36.442 [SPEAKER_00]: So God initiates the calling. 44:37.580 --> 44:44.223 [SPEAKER_00]: Right, Paul and, or Saul, Paul, if I say one or the other, you know who I'm talking about, right? 44:45.664 --> 44:48.605 [SPEAKER_00]: Eventually we'll just use Paul once he's anyways. 44:50.086 --> 44:52.007 [SPEAKER_00]: But they didn't walk in it now. 44:52.027 --> 44:54.548 [SPEAKER_00]: So we're starting a ministry, guys. 44:55.448 --> 44:57.069 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to plant churches. 44:57.089 --> 44:58.730 [SPEAKER_00]: They're like, what do you mean plant churches? 44:58.750 --> 45:00.050 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's a weird picture, right? 45:00.210 --> 45:03.392 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, plant the church, like, how's that going to work? 45:03.412 --> 45:05.313 [SPEAKER_00]: Or you know, like, then come in with this idea. 45:06.723 --> 45:11.608 [SPEAKER_00]: And the church leaders didn't say, hey, you guys are like pretty dynamic leadership duo. 45:12.189 --> 45:14.611 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you should go out and plant more churches. 45:14.671 --> 45:16.693 [SPEAKER_00]: No, again, it's God initiating. 45:16.713 --> 45:21.558 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, set them apart for the work which I have called them. 45:22.359 --> 45:24.401 [SPEAKER_00]: They didn't create their own calling. 45:25.117 --> 45:26.717 [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't create your own calling. 45:27.218 --> 45:29.958 [SPEAKER_00]: I know we're in America and you can go pursue whatever you want to. 45:29.978 --> 45:32.339 [SPEAKER_00]: When I go, I can, I'm free, I'll do whatever I want to do. 45:32.879 --> 45:34.759 [SPEAKER_00]: But our calling comes from the Lord. 45:35.479 --> 45:43.581 [SPEAKER_00]: And we receive or we realize our calling as we are surrendered in worship or in ministry, ministering unto the Lord. 45:44.562 --> 45:50.663 [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you're waiting today, like, you want that next step, but may I ask you, like, are you surrendered to Jesus fully? 45:51.893 --> 45:54.556 [SPEAKER_00]: I think probably everyone in here would say, yeah, I believe in Jesus. 45:54.576 --> 45:55.698 [SPEAKER_00]: That's not what I'm asking. 45:55.918 --> 45:57.440 [SPEAKER_00]: Are you surrendered to Jesus? 45:57.460 --> 45:59.943 [SPEAKER_00]: Where you say, God, whatever you want, you could have. 46:01.507 --> 46:02.107 [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? 46:02.387 --> 46:02.908 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever. 46:03.608 --> 46:08.431 [SPEAKER_00]: If it requires my life, you could have my life, if that's what you want, if that's what you need, if that's my calling. 46:08.671 --> 46:09.591 [SPEAKER_00]: You can have it, right? 46:09.631 --> 46:10.372 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is. 46:10.732 --> 46:10.912 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 46:10.932 --> 46:12.373 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't create our own calling. 46:12.413 --> 46:15.754 [SPEAKER_00]: We recognize God's calling in our own life. 46:15.794 --> 46:22.218 [SPEAKER_00]: And so what we see in this moment and then after this verse three says, then after fasting and praying, 46:23.113 --> 46:24.913 [SPEAKER_00]: They laid hands on them and sent them off. 46:24.953 --> 46:25.554 [SPEAKER_00]: So who's they? 46:25.574 --> 46:27.454 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's the church leadership in that day. 46:28.094 --> 46:29.695 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is how things work. 46:29.755 --> 46:30.855 [SPEAKER_00]: It's how it worked for me. 46:31.415 --> 46:36.976 [SPEAKER_00]: I think this is how God works most of the time when he's like, I guess we could use the word ordaining. 46:37.376 --> 46:41.557 [SPEAKER_00]: Someone into ministry, it's like, I didn't pursue being a pastor. 46:42.197 --> 46:44.298 [SPEAKER_00]: I was a janitor at Calvary Tucson. 46:44.318 --> 46:46.238 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you guys knew this part of my story. 46:46.298 --> 46:50.019 [SPEAKER_00]: I just, I mopped floors and cleaned toilets for the glory of the Lord. 46:53.260 --> 47:09.081 [SPEAKER_00]: And I enjoyed my job too, like I wasn't like man this sucks, like when am I going to get a raise or get like I liked my job, I was like I get to be around people who believe in Jesus and like there's nobody yelling at me or any of that stuff like I just clean toilets I do my job and he was that was what I did. 47:09.902 --> 47:19.084 [SPEAKER_00]: But then one day, and this is probably a few years later, one of the pastors, the system pastors, he came up to me to say, hey, I can't talk to you for a minute. 47:19.104 --> 47:22.905 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I mean, this guy understand a little bit of context in our relationship. 47:23.605 --> 47:26.046 [SPEAKER_00]: He's a pastor, ministry leader. 47:26.646 --> 47:28.407 [SPEAKER_00]: I had served in different ways. 47:28.587 --> 47:37.849 [SPEAKER_00]: He had removed me from ministry in a few different occasions, because I was a baby making some baby step mistakes, if you will. 47:38.709 --> 47:41.070 [SPEAKER_00]: And so he'd removed me from ministry several times. 47:41.390 --> 47:45.972 [SPEAKER_00]: We would joke sometimes where you just kind of like sarcastic with one another, just back at fours and whatever. 47:45.992 --> 47:47.413 [SPEAKER_00]: But it was always kind of small talk. 47:48.213 --> 47:53.436 [SPEAKER_00]: So he wants to sit down, I put my mop down, and I'm like, okay, cool man, what's up? 47:53.456 --> 48:00.599 [SPEAKER_00]: We sit at the table and he's like, well hey, next year I want to go plant to church and he was originally using a Colorado but then it ended up being Florida. 48:01.179 --> 48:06.841 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'm gonna go plant to church, he says, and when I do like next summer, he's like, I want you to take over the young adult ministry, 48:08.517 --> 48:11.698 [SPEAKER_00]: Dude, I'm like the biggest screw up in this building. 48:11.738 --> 48:12.939 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, are you sure? 48:13.439 --> 48:15.680 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you want, like that's my own thoughts, right? 48:16.000 --> 48:18.581 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, I didn't create a calling in my life. 48:18.641 --> 48:28.866 [SPEAKER_00]: It was something that he recognized through the Holy Spirit in some way and so I was like, okay, well, I mean, I'll pursue this path and I went and I interned with him and I was still the janitor. 48:29.526 --> 48:34.508 [SPEAKER_00]: Then eventually I took over the young adult ministry there as well, but then eventually I got ordained. 48:34.528 --> 48:36.609 [SPEAKER_00]: And then my pastor said, when he ordained me, 48:38.390 --> 48:39.450 [SPEAKER_00]: us or dating you. 48:39.490 --> 48:42.231 [SPEAKER_00]: It's us recognizing God's call upon your life. 48:42.631 --> 48:44.071 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's how I think it works, right? 48:44.111 --> 48:47.152 [SPEAKER_00]: For these guys here, they didn't create their calling or their ministry. 48:47.432 --> 48:51.172 [SPEAKER_00]: They recognize they heard from God that, hey, these guys are set apart from me. 48:51.472 --> 48:52.533 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to send them out. 48:52.573 --> 49:00.174 [SPEAKER_00]: And so the church leadership, they just recognize what God is doing and they say, hey, we want to come around and we want to pray for you and we want to send you off. 49:00.274 --> 49:03.655 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that's like the biblical way that people should go out. 49:03.695 --> 49:04.735 [SPEAKER_00]: Like when people go out, 49:05.155 --> 49:08.659 [SPEAKER_00]: And they don't know, I mean, not that God can do anything, right? 49:08.679 --> 49:11.141 [SPEAKER_00]: We see God speaks through a donkey in the Old Testament. 49:11.181 --> 49:15.565 [SPEAKER_00]: So like he could do anything, but I do think God works in ways of order. 49:17.407 --> 49:24.094 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think when people go out to say they just want to start a church or something and like, well, what church were you a part of? 49:24.134 --> 49:26.336 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I wasn't, you know, and I think there's good. 49:27.717 --> 49:37.082 [SPEAKER_00]: I love the heart, the idea, but I also think there's something where like, dude, you need to be under authority before you try to like be some type of authority. 49:37.102 --> 49:37.803 [SPEAKER_00]: You understand? 49:38.623 --> 49:44.487 [SPEAKER_00]: And so sometimes people will go out and like, they go out and they don't understand, no, ministries, not about you building a platform, dude. 49:45.187 --> 49:47.809 [SPEAKER_00]: Like ministries about making Jesus known. 49:48.649 --> 50:04.795 [SPEAKER_00]: ministries about service rendered unto God like hey it's I'm giving my life to God and it might get really hard difficult are you up for that you you know I mean like young guys they look at ministry and they're like man that'd be so cool I want to plan a church it's gonna be awesome and exciting and there are is awesome and exciting things but it's very difficult 50:05.593 --> 50:07.575 [SPEAKER_00]: And so again, it's like, we don't create our own calling. 50:07.595 --> 50:09.817 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't try and make up your own plan, right? 50:10.897 --> 50:14.621 [SPEAKER_00]: In Proverbs it says that man makes his plans with the Lord directs his steps. 50:14.661 --> 50:20.205 [SPEAKER_00]: When God directs your steps, friends, let me say, take the advice, take the direction. 50:21.126 --> 50:24.169 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't say, oh, I think God's telling me to do this, but I kind of want to do that. 50:24.189 --> 50:25.350 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to do that. 50:25.390 --> 50:26.030 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't do that. 50:26.571 --> 50:29.093 [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to cause more hard things in your life. 50:30.131 --> 50:31.331 [SPEAKER_00]: over-complicate things. 50:31.691 --> 50:37.173 [SPEAKER_00]: I know you think you're so smart and talented and amazing and you got all together, but God knows best what he's doing. 50:37.193 --> 50:38.973 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we receive our calling from the Lord. 50:39.313 --> 50:42.094 [SPEAKER_00]: We answer to the Lord when God raises up leaders. 50:42.114 --> 50:43.694 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of you may be even here today. 50:43.794 --> 50:44.714 [SPEAKER_00]: Join us online. 50:44.754 --> 50:48.975 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe God's raising you up to be in ministry at a greater capacity. 50:49.376 --> 50:51.096 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're going to be preachers, teachers. 50:51.636 --> 50:54.619 [SPEAKER_00]: one day maybe you're going to go plant the church or start a ministry. 50:54.679 --> 51:05.587 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what God has in store, but man, when God does start to raise that up, I want to be a part of it in the sense that like, hey, I recognize that God has this gifting upon you and we want to send you out. 51:05.647 --> 51:08.490 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, we want to do that for you, right? 51:08.530 --> 51:10.691 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like it's the church coming and even if it hurts, 51:11.372 --> 51:11.872 [SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean? 51:11.912 --> 51:21.694 [SPEAKER_00]: I think of Robert Furrow, my pastor, now when we moved, I don't know that it hurt him too, I think of Nick, he's a problem, and that's probably good that he left, you know? 51:21.834 --> 51:22.634 [SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm just kidding. 51:23.094 --> 51:25.095 [SPEAKER_00]: He prayed for us, and he did send us off. 51:25.795 --> 51:34.337 [SPEAKER_00]: But my friend, when my friend Sean Stone, he's a worship leader, and this dude, I don't know if you've heard some of his music, but he's a pretty gifted worship leader. 51:34.357 --> 51:38.778 [SPEAKER_00]: So I felt like when he left, if I was Robert, I would have probably done everything in my power to say, 51:39.738 --> 51:56.277 [SPEAKER_00]: you know anything like you know what I mean like can you stay please like because he's just so gifted but one god calls and he's calling you out our job is ministers is to recognize that calling and say all right i want to pray for you want to send you out and even though it might hurt the church right you they're losing salt 51:57.637 --> 51:59.198 [SPEAKER_00]: They're like, we recognize God's calling. 51:59.979 --> 52:02.120 [SPEAKER_00]: We're losing Barnabas, our hype man. 52:02.841 --> 52:11.788 [SPEAKER_00]: He's our announcement guy, open service, and he gets everybody dialed in, we're losing these guys, but they don't have that hard, they're like, okay, God's calling. 52:12.895 --> 52:15.557 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray for them, let's send them out and they lay hands upon them. 52:15.917 --> 52:21.942 [SPEAKER_00]: And I do think there's something powerful and obviously biblical about laying out of hands. 52:21.962 --> 52:34.310 [SPEAKER_00]: When we pray for each other, it's like, I mean, God, I think we'll work through just our audible prayers, but I also think there's something when we physically put your hands on somebody and you pray for them. 52:34.511 --> 52:38.213 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it is, but God says it throughout the scriptures. 52:38.714 --> 52:39.594 [SPEAKER_00]: We want to pray for you. 52:42.918 --> 52:46.439 [SPEAKER_00]: So they lay their hands on them, church recognizes the call. 52:47.579 --> 52:48.999 [SPEAKER_00]: They keep praying and fasting. 52:49.039 --> 52:49.820 [SPEAKER_00]: I love that too. 52:50.300 --> 52:55.821 [SPEAKER_00]: As the Holy Spirit speaks, they don't just say, okay, well, we got the next step. 52:56.121 --> 52:58.322 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just stop praying, let's stop fasting. 52:58.342 --> 52:59.882 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, they press more into it. 53:00.002 --> 53:02.383 [SPEAKER_00]: They get more dependent upon God. 53:03.243 --> 53:05.163 [SPEAKER_00]: And then they lay hands on them, they send them out. 53:05.183 --> 53:07.784 [SPEAKER_00]: And so in conclusion, we'll wrap this up pretty quickly. 53:13.472 --> 53:21.817 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's often it's going to come through us being surrendered as we minister or render services onto the Lord. 53:22.938 --> 53:27.860 [SPEAKER_00]: The overarching question, at least what I'm thinking, as I'm saying, there's what is ministry. 53:28.721 --> 53:33.604 [SPEAKER_00]: All ministries, not about us, me individual, right? 53:33.624 --> 53:38.686 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of you might have walked in with the wrong idea of ministry, but ministry is service. 53:39.932 --> 53:46.957 [SPEAKER_00]: Service rendered to God, service rendered to people, service done under the authority of Jesus Christ. 53:47.657 --> 53:57.143 [SPEAKER_00]: And a minister isn't somebody who's finally become important enough for other people to serve them or whatever a minister at its core is a servant. 53:58.124 --> 54:09.051 [SPEAKER_00]: And I just love the things about these few verses, the first three verses, like before anything happened, 54:10.072 --> 54:12.153 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like the great things are about to break out. 54:12.173 --> 54:16.335 [SPEAKER_00]: Like the church is going to grow in some big ways. 54:16.495 --> 54:25.219 [SPEAKER_00]: But before Barnabas and Saul, they before they leave Antioch or get on a boat or wherever they did, they ministered to the Lord. 54:25.239 --> 54:27.620 [SPEAKER_00]: They're worshiping unto the Lord. 54:28.120 --> 54:31.642 [SPEAKER_00]: They're fasting, they're praying, seeking God together. 54:32.762 --> 54:36.684 [SPEAKER_00]: And in the middle of their ministry unto God, God gave them the mission. 54:37.696 --> 54:40.970 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, just remember, ministry comes before the mission. 54:41.955 --> 54:42.995 [SPEAKER_00]: don't get it backwards. 54:43.875 --> 54:45.076 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I got this mission. 54:45.136 --> 54:48.677 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I'll do ministry one day, no minister unto God. 54:48.997 --> 54:52.337 [SPEAKER_00]: Each and every one of us can do that right here, right now, right where you're at. 54:52.998 --> 54:56.979 [SPEAKER_00]: You might have some hard things, baggage you've brought in here and you're struggling. 54:58.079 --> 54:59.259 [SPEAKER_00]: But man, I just encourage you. 54:59.279 --> 55:05.981 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, just let's join together, and as we close in worship, like that's worshiped the God of the universe together. 55:06.441 --> 55:08.481 [SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna render this service unto God. 55:12.062 --> 55:17.246 [SPEAKER_00]: or earning anything, but we're worshiping him because he's worthy, amen, right? 55:17.447 --> 55:34.140 [SPEAKER_00]: And so maybe just something to think about this week, maybe you need a deeper surrender, maybe you're not fully surrendered in certain areas, and might you just maybe hear some of what God said to this early church, like set apart these people for me. 55:35.088 --> 55:39.892 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think God's calling even us today is like, hey, set up part your life for me. 55:40.753 --> 55:41.813 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll take care of the rest. 55:42.954 --> 55:48.939 [SPEAKER_00]: And me and my wife, our whole team who came from Tucson, we can testify that God's faithfulness, like we moved out here. 55:49.039 --> 55:50.981 [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't have, I didn't have a job lined up. 55:52.142 --> 55:54.744 [SPEAKER_00]: But I can tell you this though, we've never missed a meal, right? 55:54.764 --> 55:56.125 [SPEAKER_00]: My kids are fed. 55:56.165 --> 55:58.167 [SPEAKER_00]: They might not have the food that they always want. 55:58.949 --> 56:01.810 [SPEAKER_00]: But they got food like because God is faithful, right? 56:01.990 --> 56:08.672 [SPEAKER_00]: As we minister surrender, render service, sorry, unto God, God takes care of the rest. 56:08.992 --> 56:11.673 [SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't Jesus teach us that as well in the sermon on the Mount. 56:12.253 --> 56:14.254 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like man, you're worried about your life, you know? 56:14.354 --> 56:21.496 [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, but look at the birds of the year, they're not having anxiety, tax or panicking or freaking out. 56:22.096 --> 56:22.316 [SPEAKER_00]: Right? 56:22.936 --> 56:25.277 [SPEAKER_00]: Although you do it, look at birds sometimes they're a little weird. 56:25.557 --> 56:28.318 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes you could say, maybe that one is weird. 56:30.397 --> 56:32.458 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, look, you're Heavenly Father takes care of them. 56:32.639 --> 56:34.460 [SPEAKER_00]: Aren't you of more value than them? 56:35.581 --> 56:41.024 [SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, just seek first the kingdom and God and His righteousness. 56:41.044 --> 56:45.007 [SPEAKER_00]: And he says, all these other things, I'm gonna take care of, right? 56:45.027 --> 56:45.928 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's a promise. 56:46.648 --> 56:49.070 [SPEAKER_00]: I know it's hard to maybe trust that promise, right? 56:49.090 --> 56:52.972 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, God, if I go and do that thing, like, how are we gonna survive, right? 56:53.293 --> 56:55.314 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and I know that's a logical question. 56:55.554 --> 56:59.477 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, it even person who's thinking, you'd say, well, do you have a plan? 57:01.005 --> 57:04.227 [SPEAKER_00]: And part of our plan was, we're just following God. 57:05.187 --> 57:07.348 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where I'm going to work, right? 57:07.448 --> 57:10.450 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, at one point I'm like, we might be living under a bridge. 57:10.530 --> 57:12.691 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, with all the other people downtown Austin. 57:12.731 --> 57:15.032 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it got space for me and my family. 57:16.253 --> 57:17.594 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm serious, like I was with thought. 57:17.614 --> 57:19.695 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, my wife's like, no way, we're not living under a bridge. 57:19.715 --> 57:22.476 [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm like, God, are you going to tell her or me? 57:22.576 --> 57:22.996 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. 57:24.613 --> 57:28.356 [SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, we render service unto God, and God's gonna take care of the rest. 57:28.496 --> 57:30.978 [SPEAKER_00]: May we just come before Jesus, say, here I am. 57:31.278 --> 57:36.483 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you want from me or for me, it doesn't matter I'm here for you because you've given it all for me. 57:36.503 --> 57:39.745 [SPEAKER_00]: And so as we close and worship this morning, I just wanna encourage us. 57:39.765 --> 57:41.026 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just come before the Lord. 57:41.086 --> 57:48.552 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just render service unto God because He is worthy, and because He is all deserving of all glory, honor, and power, amen. 57:49.293 --> 57:54.316 [SPEAKER_00]: So, Father, we just thank you for this time and your word, your word is exciting, it's alive and active. 57:54.736 --> 57:59.959 [SPEAKER_00]: I pray, Lord, that's you've encouraged us, or revoked us in some way, shape, or form, Lord. 57:59.979 --> 58:11.905 [SPEAKER_00]: But just I pray that we understand and realize God ministries, not about us, it's not even so much, always about, I mean, it is about other people, but God, person, foremost, it is all about you. 58:11.925 --> 58:14.527 [SPEAKER_00]: So, God, may we not get it backwards. 58:15.487 --> 58:19.291 [SPEAKER_00]: May we not put the burden on other people and say they're supposed to minister but not us. 58:19.311 --> 58:25.956 [SPEAKER_00]: God, we're all ministers and we can come before you and render service worship unto you this morning God. 58:25.996 --> 58:34.364 [SPEAKER_00]: So I pray that's you just go before us, cleanse our heart's Lord if we've sinned or we've fallen Lord, maybe we're dealing with shame and regret of things that we've done. 58:34.404 --> 58:39.128 [SPEAKER_00]: I pray that's you just wash us clean this morning by the power of your Holy Spirit and by the blood that was shed. 58:39.688 --> 58:40.310 [SPEAKER_00]: on the cross. 58:40.370 --> 58:42.595 [SPEAKER_00]: God, I pray Lord, as we dive into communion. 58:42.956 --> 58:52.177 [SPEAKER_00]: Now we can just have a deep fellowship with you, God, just coming here for you and you alone, not for what we might get or what we hope you would do, God, but just for who you are. 58:52.798 --> 58:54.602 [SPEAKER_00]: And so God, meet us in this moment. 58:55.284 --> 58:59.032 [SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you'd have your way with us, God, and I pray this in Jesus' name. 58:59.774 --> 59:00.095 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen.