Discipleship — Matthew 28

0:00 Okay. Thanks for coming out. Before we get started, I was going to mention just a few books on the book table. This is just out. It's published by Everyday Publication.

0:14 It's called Getting Back to Discipleship which goes along with our theme and subject matter this weekend. There's a number of brothers that work together on this. Jade Nicholson, Scott DeGroff, Steve Price, Micah Tuttle, Jamie Martin, Nate Bramson, Terry Wilson. Each of us had different sections and actually the cost of true discipleship is what I covered last night. It's one chapter out of this book.

0:49 So, I brought a few copies of those. There's also a book entitled Answer the Call. It goes for the call of salvation, sanctification, a call to service. That's also related to our subject matter this weekend and then there's Passing the Torch, how to make disciples, mentoring relationships. There's a whole chapter on that and then the kinds of things that you would teach as people who come to Christ as they grow, how to kind of work them through key subjects and spur them on in growth.

1:26 And then just one other book. This has been out about a year. I have an engineering background. I love numerology. And so this is a book on biblical numerology and symbols.

1:37 And so I cover numbers one through 40, how they're used consistently in scripture. We had fun with the cover design. I was working with the graphics designer. Said, hey. I'd like to do some color blind test.

1:50 I didn't know this, but, like, one in ten men have color blind issues. Anybody here have color blind issues? Well, can actually take the test if you just look at this book. So, you know, there's different symbols and so forth and then you can look on the back and let me know what you think that symbol is. Okay?

2:09 And that's all I'm gonna say about that. Again, if you're 25 and under, the books are half price that are on the table. Okay. So, we're going to do a quick review from last night. We talked about what true discipleship is and we saw that true disciples will be in the minority.

2:33 Rarely are the crowds correct. Rarely do the crowds represent the spiritual thinking that the lord wants us to embrace and so we should not be discouraged about that. A lot of the so called movements today like the seeker friendly movement, people come in and out of those doors. So, those church buildings quite frequently. True disciples is making true converts of Christ, teaching them all things that Christ taught, and seeing them mature.

3:06 True discipleship is an all or nothing venture. True disciples must forsake to follow. Everything that we hold on in this world will be a hindrance for us following and pursuing the lord. We must deny ourselves. It's only what the lord wants for our lives.

3:23 We need to be cross bearers. We come to the cross to get salvation. We leave with a cross and if you're nailed to a cross, you can't grab anything. So, it keeps our hands out of the world and submitted to to the lord and we must love the lord above all things. Disciples be instead of become.

3:44 It's a lifelong adventure with the lord. It's not this idea that I've arrived. I've come to some plateau of my spiritual growth and disciples obey the lord. If you love me, you'll obey my commandments was what the lord said in John fourteen fifteen and Mathatus is a Greek word for disciple. It means learner.

4:03 We're learning a person. We're learning to be like the lord. So, in this session, we're going to look at what are Christ's disciples to be doing. Two passages of scripture which are really important for us to consider as commands. First is in Matthew 28.

4:23 Now, in Matthew's gospel, the great commission is given. The lord's up on a mountain. Mountain symbolize kingdoms in scripture. You don't have the ascension of Christ in Matthew's gospel. Why?

4:36 Because Matthew's presenting Christ as the legal heir to the throne of David and so at with Christ up on the the mountain top, subjects of the kingdom before him, he gives this command. Matthew brings the curtain down of his gospel and that's it. I mean, Christ and his kingdom. That's his vantage point of of the lord Jesus Christ that he's presenting in his account and so the lord is saying this, he says, go therefore and make disciples. That's our word, Mathatus.

5:09 The the Greek verb here really is saying, as you are going, make disciples. There was never a thought that the disciples, the lord had invested 11 men that he invested in three plus years. We're not going to go. He says, as you're going, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit, what are they to do? Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and low, I am with you always to the end of the age.

5:41 The fact that it'd be impossible for 11 men to reach the whole planet with the gospel and the lord would be with his church, the gates of hell would not prevail against it to the end of the church age tells us, this is a propagating command. It's going to go from generation to generation. And last evening, we looked at just some of the the dynamics that just seeing one person come to Christ a year and discipling that person and then having that person go out, you could reach a whole planet in just seven years with the gospel. JWs and the Mormons spend about two point five billion hours a year taking the gospel, their false gospel across. Can you imagine how many people would be reached for Christ if blood bought, born again, heaven bound Christians would have that same kind of enthusiasm.

7:16 By the way, my father-in-law used this He's with the lord now. He used that verse to to prove that nobody should be flying in airplanes. He says, low, I'm with you always, not high, and he never did fly in an airplane all the way to his death. Alright. Another key passage is Acts one eight.

7:43 So this is Luke's account. The lord is on the Mount Of Olives. He's getting ready to send into heaven and also he gives a great commission to the disciples and then he's going to send up into heaven. He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. You shall be witnesses.

8:14 Now, this is very important. Ephesians chapter four, one of the the gifts that Christ gives a church, individuals are evangelist. But in the context of Ephesians four, although evangelists are very gifted and soul winning, in the context of them give being given to the church, they're to stir the rest of us up to fulfill the great commission. They are to edify, equip us to be witnesses for Christ. So, all of us may not be evangelists but we're all called to be witnesses for the lord.

8:54 A witness just tells what we know. So, in a school, our workplace, wherever we're at, we're to be a testimony of Christ. So, we can engage in the work of evangelism although we may not have the gift of evangelism. Alright. So, what are disciples to be doing?

9:12 There's three main ministries that the church is to be engaged in. We're mainly talking about this middle one here, the inward ministry but there's the upward ministry and that's offering up exalting the lord, giving him worship. And that's given to us in the imagery of the priest. If you're born again, you are a believer priest. First Peter chapter two, you're a royal priesthood, a holy priesthood.

9:45 John says the very same thing in the first chapter of Revelation. So, you're a believer priest, priests offer up praise and worship to the lord. Then, there's the inward ministry and that's the edification or building up of the body of Christ. And that's given to us as the shepherd. And then there's the outward ministry, and that's evangelizing.

10:11 And that's given us... To us in two different imageries of the fisherman and the farmer. Okay, the farmer throws out seed over a wide types of soil. Some will receive it, some won't. We get that in Matthew 13 in the kingdom parables and four types of hearts of men that the seed might, gospel seed might come upon and the fishermen, you know, if you're if you're out fishing and you throw a line in, you know pretty quickly if you get a fish or not, right?

10:41 It's a one on one thing. So, it's two types of evangelism. There's fishing which is one on one but there's also the broad sowing of seed. Gospel tracks going out at parades, campus ministries. You know, there's different kinds of evangelistic methods.

11:00 So fisherman or farmer, and this is important, a healthy assembly will be active in all three ministries. This is critical. I think in our circles, sometimes we put a lot of credence on the upward ministry of worship. But if you have a local assembly that's very active in worshiping the lord but they're not engaged in evangelism, what will happen in time? They're going to die out, right?

11:30 If you're not seeing people one to Christ and replenishing the ranks so to speak and time will die out Or what if you have great evangelism but you don't have discipleship? Well, those believers can be blown to and throw with every wind of doctrine and you'll probably lose them as well. And so all three of these ministries are critical for a local assembly to have. I don't believe any one of them is any less important than the other. It's vital that all three of these be active.

12:21 I believe in believers baptism but I'm not a baptist. I believe in evangelical methods but I'm not a Methodist. I believe in plurality of church leadership. The press Presbyteros but I'm not a Presbyterian. I believe in the movement of the Holy Spirit.

12:35 I'm not a Quaker, right? Some gather to people's names, Calvinist, Lutherans, and so forth. We gather to the lord Jesus Christ. It's interesting in in first Corinthians chapter one when when Paul's trying to get this church, it's all out of order back into order. You know where he starts?

12:55 That's the highest occurrence of the Greek word Kurios in the New Testament is in those first 10 verses of first Corinthians chapter one. Curios is the word normally translated lord and so where does Paul start? He gets them looking at the head. The lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus the lord.

13:16 They had all kinds of... They were carnal. They had disunity within the ranks, they had doctrinal problems, and he starts by getting them looking at the head. And so most of the time, where we do have difficulties in our local churches, if we can get everybody looking at the head, the other problems quickly diminish. He's the head.

13:38 He deserves our allegiance. We have weekly remembrance meeting that calls our attention to that in a reoccurring way, which is very needful. And then we're also believer priest. We can worship individually or corporately together. Individually, every time that the word of god and spirit of god says, do this and my flesh and the world and the devils enticing me to do this and when I just say, I'm going to yield to god, follow him, that's that's a living sacrifice.

14:13 That's a sweet aroma in the nostrils of god. He breathes it in and that reminds me of my son. So, twenty four seven can be a worship experience with the lord and then we have the inward ministry which is mainly our topic for this weekend. A local assembly is is dynamic. It's alive, and the meetings will breathe in and out.

14:40 Sometimes, they cease to exist. They die out. It's a living environment of of living stones that have come together as a a temple of the lord Jesus Christ. Paul refers to the local assembly as a temple in first Corinthians chapter three. Individually, our bodies are a temple of the lord as well.

15:08 This is another important point. An assembly that is in steady decline should first critique its inward ministry. I would say at least once a year, I'll get a call from somebody that will go something like this. Our our meeting is diminishing in numbers and we need you... Actually, I just had this conversation a month ago.

15:29 We need you to come and teach us about evangelism outreach methods. And it's very hard to tell them, you know, if you're consistently in decline, before you think of outreach methods, before you think of reproduction, you may want to critique yourself to see if you've a healthy body life. Right? A husband, a young man and a young woman, husband and wife, that both have cancer and dying, they're not usually thinking about reproduction. Right?

16:02 You gotta get healthy first and then you can have the babies. So, it's important to look at the inward ministry before you start thinking outward. If you don't have a good spiritual nursery, why would the lord ever bless you with new converts? If you can't take care of him, disciple him, and care for him as a great commission, then why would he bless you with that? So there might be wrong attitudes, religious pride, lack of unity, traditions.

16:29 And by the way, we're all prone to traditions. How many of you here usually park in the same parking spot out in the parking lot on Sundays? How many of you here sat at the same place on Sunday mornings? See, we're we're creatures of rote. And then what happens is we we keep doing that, and after a while, starts feeling wrong if we don't do it.

16:52 And then the next step is we criticize people for not doing it. Right? So we're all prone to that. Again, a sick body is not prone to reproduction. Alright, mentoring versus training programs.

17:43 And now you're an engineer. Now you're a nurse. You know, now you're a doctor. And so these are... This is the way the world educates and trains.

17:52 And unfortunately, churchianity, people say, oh, I wanna be a a pastor. I wanna be a a church leader or whatever. So they go through some seminary program and they go through their classes and they get a diploma at the end and now they're a church leader. Then this is god's method. If you're born again, god has a special plan for your life.

18:21 I love what Ephesians one ten says, we are his poem, his workmanship. Each one of us is a poem of god's grace and he's given a spiritual gift or gifts in a we'll see here in a moment. A ministry to perform in the body of Christ and believer, you'll never be happier than doing what god wants you to do for your life. You'll never be happier. Walking in communion with god, being filled by the holy spirit, pursuing the very desire of god for your life.

18:55 You'll never be happier. So, mentoring and relationships are quite different than training programs. In our next session, I've devoted a whole session on mentoring relationships. I'm really excited about thinking through that with you. Alright.

19:17 Beneficial body life. Again, when everybody is using their spiritual gifts or sound in doctrine, everybody is active, That's going to be where you have the most beneficial body life. And I want to think with you now just about mentoring. What are the main goals of mentoring? Let's say you're a a more mature believer and god's brought a younger believer in your life.

19:43 What is it that god really wants you to accomplish with this person? And I'll suggest there's two main goals in mentoring. We read in second Timothy three sixteen through 17, all scriptures given by inspiration of god is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be completely, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now the word... The Greek word that's translated instruction, instruction in righteousness is paideia.

20:19 Paideia is a multifaceted word that talks about all kinds of... It's like a big toolbox of educational things, educational devices. It includes instruction. It includes correction, reprove, admonition. It's interesting that in Hebrews 12, it's translated four times as chastening and that's also how it's used when Pilate says, of the lord Jesus in Luke 22, I shall chastise him.

20:55 Well, he was speaking of scourging the lord. And so paideia has the idea of train by pain also. And so in child rearing, all these things, this is a word that's often used in raising up children for the lord. It's a multifaceted teaching word. The NAS renders paideia training.

21:19 The New King James instruction training is actually the better translation. Alright. So we're using god's word for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction. So, god's word teaches us right thinking, right behavior. It reproves bad thinking, bad behavior.

21:40 Why? That the man of god may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So one of the important aspects of mentoring relationships is that the the mentor spends time with the mentee, and you're applying the word of god in real time so that that younger believer is developing Christ like behavior. When I was still in engineering at Sunstrand, I would often have workplace bible studies at lunchtime sometimes before work would start and I had a a man that I met at the coffee pot. Didn't know him very well but he asked...

22:26 Well, I'll tell you the conversation. I came in early because I had a bible study at lunch lunchtime and he was there first. I got there. I'm pouring a cup of coffee. He says, can I ask you a question?

22:40 I said, sure. He says, is that a bible on your desk? I said, it is. He says, do you read it? I said, every day.

22:49 And so I'm putting the pollutants in my coffee, stirring it up, and I asked him, I said, Craig, do you have a bible? He said, yes. He said, do you read it? I just asked him the same questions back. He said, well, I used to.

23:04 I said, if you give me thirteen lunch hours, I will teach you the main message of the bible and you understand the Christian faith. Really, man? You do that? He said, yep. You'll commit.

23:15 I was thinking Gene Gibson's basic Christian training book, which we've seen dozens of people come to Christ by that 13 lesson series through the years and so he stood me up a couple times and but then he came, the lights were turning on in the first study. After he was hooked, we moved back to, lunch hours. I had to move... We're both... Had leadership positions and lunch hours didn't work.

23:41 So we... I think for three times, we met in the morning. But I came into the conference room and he was there ahead of me. I think it was our fourth study and you could, he was just vibrating. I mean, you could tell, you could feel the energy and I said to Craig, man, you're different.

23:56 Something's happening. Goes, I'm a believer. Like that. He said, I knew Jesus Christ was the son of god. I knew he's born of a virgin.

24:05 I knew he was sinless. I knew he died on a cross and then he welled up. He said, but he died for me. So, that's right. That's a good sign And so I started working with him.

24:17 And about two studies later, we were talking about lordship. And he said, you know, the lord has been convicting me that I have a foul mouth. And I said, praise god. You do. I said, I wanted to see if the lord would convict you.

24:33 Now, I'm going to keep you accountable and by the way, there's ways that you can do that when you're working with new believers that calls their attention to it without shaming them like he would use terminology and I say, now, just how big of a load is that? You know, you can you can do it or you take the lord's name in vain. I just say now, were you praying then or were you taking the lord's name in vain? So you can do it in a gracious way, but that's the benefit of mentoring. You have to spend time with new converts and you're applying the word so that they are developing Christ like character.

25:12 Craig had the gift of evangelism. He's led many people to the lord. A lot of his family came to the lord. He thought he he wanted to be a teacher but in time, he understood that's not what he was called to do. He settled into what god called him to do and god greatly used him.

25:28 But if I would have taken Craig that say to street preaching after he was a new convert and he was using profanity every other word like he was when we started. Would that been a good testimony of the lord? See, it's important that in whatever we're doing, we're reflecting the character of Christ. That's all that's necessary And so if we're not reflecting Christ in what we're doing, we're doing more harm than good. And that's why character development is essential to these mentoring relationships.

26:31 He's taking the redeemed with him all the souls and he's those that he has captured. He has the authority now to give those to his church and so he's giving individuals to his church for edification. He talks about apostles and he talks about prophets. He talks about evangelists and teachers and pastors were the point main gift. By the way, let me say that apostles were church leaders, those were males but the other four gifts are genderless.

27:05 Right? There are female prophets and male prophets in the New Testament. Philip had four daughters in his house that prophesied. Now, wouldn't be speaking publicly in the church meetings, but they had personal There's men and women that are are female... Or men and women that are evangelists.

27:23 There's men and women that are teachers. There are men and women that have a shepherding ministry, a Point Bay ministry. And all those are are necessary. In church leadership, you have a plurality of elders, and this brother may be good at administration. This good...

27:42 This brother's good at teaching. This brother's good at at counseling. You know, maybe this brother is good at pastoral care and he has a gift, a poign main gift. Not all church elders will have a poign main gift. And so, if somebody has a point main gift, he may be or she may be serving as a shepherd within a local assembly and not be part of leadership.

28:07 But when they're born again, they have that gift for life. If a brother is an elder in one meeting and he goes to another meeting, he may not be an elder in that meeting. He may or may not have the poignant gift and so the poignant gift of shepherding is not directly associated with the office or the position of oversight. It's important to see that. So the lord gives these individuals as gifts for the edifying of the body, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for edifying of the body of Christ.

28:41 I was listening to a message by Bill McDonald on Voices for Christ a few years back, and he references this verse. He said, when I was in my twenties, this was a verse that absolutely confirmed in my mind that New Testament principles of gathering was the right way to meet. Yeah. I'm sorry to interrupt.

29:00 It does seem point may get back.

29:02 What's that?

29:04 Point may get. It mean word.

29:07 Oh, point main. Sorry. That is the Greek word for shepherd or shepherding in scripture. Sorry. Yeah.

29:15 Thank you, Andy. Poimen is what's translated at... Like, for example, I don't have it here, but in John Timmler, it says, the lord is the good shepherd, good poimei. Hebrews 13, he's the great poimei. First Peter five, he's the arch poimei.

29:35 So poimei is the the noun. Poimeno is the verb translated pastor or shepherd in scripture. Yeah. Thank you for that. Alright.

29:46 So the work of ministry. The the word here for equipping is to completely furnish. So you're discipling somebody. I'll go back to Craig for example. He really liked to be up in front of people.

30:06 In Bible studies, I'd often give a believer after a period of time, an opportunity to maybe lead a study, develop questions with them, and to see if he has a teaching gift. And I remember the first time that Craig did the study, I think it was on Ephesians two and almost every question had to do with the Well, Ephesians two isn't really about the gospel. You know, it's this great wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles broke down all in one body in Christ and he didn't even catch the the context of the passage and so that was my first inkling that yeah, he's probably an evangelist. So, look for that. How people when they give an opportunities to ministry, look for how they respond and that may give you an idea of what god's called them to do.

30:57 So, a mentor is looking at the mentee and seeing how they exercise a gift. See how... What... Where there's blessing in what they do, where they have joy in what they're doing, and you're trying to guide them into what god's called them to do, which means you gotta spend time with them. So there's the character development, but there's also you want them to come in this work of ministry that God's called them to do.

31:24 And this is why mentoring relationships are so important. Now I have an example here, a children's waiting pool, and this is how this this edification works. So if you can picture like a a wading pool here, and let's say there's... We use Justin and Heather's kids. Alright?

31:46 So here's four kids in this waiting pool and, let's say Tim comes and he jumps and big cannonball right in the middle of the the waiting pool. So this this wave comes out and as it hits each of the kids, it reflects back and it hits each of the kids again including Tim and then it reflects back. Actually, in engineering college, have a whole class on wave propaganda propaganda... Not propaganda. Propagation.

32:17 Thank you. It's propaganda to have propagation. So, this propagation of the wave motion back and forth and so, as somebody is using their spiritual gifts and the power of the holy spirit, there's this edification, and then that comes back as they share what they've taught to somebody else, and and that comes back and you have this reflective benefit. So for example, one of my favorite writers from past days is C. H.

32:51 Macintosh. He writes something a hundred and fifty years ago and that blesses my heart. I take the the quote, put it in a book. Somebody reads the book. That blesses somebody else.

33:16 But this is a whole idea that we're we're really... I'm sharing things that I benefited from in years past from a number of authors, number of preachers this weekend. And I... It's this carrying on that wave motion for edification. Alright?

33:33 It's very needful. So two main ideas or goals in mentoring is, one, the character development, which means you have to spend time. You're applying the word of god. You're encouraging. By the way, the idea of encouraging is somebody's going the right direction, and you add energy to that.

33:53 So they keep going in the right direction. Right? Exhortation is... Means to come alongside and turn. So here you have a younger believer and you think, oh, man.

34:04 If they keep going that way, they're gonna get in trouble. So you come alongside, you affirm love, you can just turn a little bit and you say, oh, there you go, on your way. It's not even a reproof. It's just come alongside. If you keep going that way, gonna get in trouble.

34:16 Turn a little bit. There you go. That's exhortation. But you have to have a love relationship for it to work. So use a lot of encouragement.

34:26 It's the same in child training. If you're heavy on the exhortation and not so much on encouragement, it becomes overbearing for children. But constantly approve the good and when the exhortation is needed, it should be Paul gives us a great format in Ephesians four with these two sisters that are causing a problem. He says, dearly beloved, he affirms love, he gives the correction And then he talks about the good works that they've done in serving. Ends with the love.

34:57 That's a nice way to do exhortation. Quipping for ministry and character development. So when we're looking at training in righteousness, obviously, there's gonna be the word of God, guidance of the Holy Spirit, mentoring of spiritually minded believers. And if you're married, you already have a spiritually minded believer that's gonna help. Right?

35:21 I was talking with Justin about this before. Respectful information. Information given respectfully is never an insult to submission. Those in leadership need it. I need it.

35:36 I want my wife to give me feedback and correction. And likewise, there should be this ability to do that in a way that in love, it's mutual encouragement so each person reaches their full potential. And then there's the equipping for ministry, seeing a a younger believer come, excuse me, Come into the good of their calling. Again, the world is not the believer's playground. It's god's classroom.

36:06 We're in the lord's school and as I said last night, we're only here for the praise of his glory to make him look good. So, want to read some more on planet Earth. Alright. The outward ministry. We've talked about the upward ministry.

36:20 We talked about the inward ministry, and then there's the outward ministry. I actually have a coffee cup at home. It's e cubed. I kinda like that terminology, Exaltation, edification, evangelism. Okay.

36:32 Those are the three ministries. Reproduction is a normal part of body life, and so a healthy assembly should be engaged in all three ministries. And outward ministry reproduction is necessary to keep going forward. The great commission was given on three different occasions. Mark, Luke, and John.

36:57 It's given on resurrection day. As I already said, Matthew was sometime later on a mountain in Galilee. And then in Acts, we have it on the Mount Of Olives right before the Lord ascended into heaven. Disciples are responsible to evangelize. 11 disciples could not teach all nations all that Christ taught, but subsequent disciples could.

37:20 And the lord says, I'm with you to the end of the age. You know, each of the gospel writers are presenting the lord from a different perspective. Matthew, Christ is the heir, the legal heir to the throne of David. Mark, we have Christ as the lowly servant of Jehovah. Oothus and Oothios, two adverbs like 45 times in Mark.

37:44 He's he's doing this immediately. He's doing this forthwith, quickly, serving, serving, serving. No wonder he fell asleep in the stern of a boat in a raging storm. Think our lord was tired most of the time. People were coming to him all the time.

37:57 Luke in his humanity, perfect humanity, John in his deity and so Mark, when he closes his gospel count, he talks about the ascension of the lord and then he says this, the lord who's in heaven still working with his disciples, alright? That's Mark's vantage point. So, although we're here, the lord is still with us working. He's building his church and by the way, there is nothing in this universe that is going to stop the lord Jesus from building his church. Amen.

38:30 Nothing. Gates of hell will not prevail. I know sometimes we look out and it's like, wow, things are really dark and wicked but the lord is building his church and by the way, the greatest revival ever come is still future. The tribulation period. We read in Revelation seven, a great multitude that can't be numbered of tongues, nations are going to be before the throne in heaven.

38:54 They won't bow to the antichrist. They won't take the mark of the beast. So, the lord knows how to save and what we need to be concerned about is doing what the lord wants us to do. Upward ministry, inward ministry, outward ministry. The great commission is a propagating command from generation to generation of disciples until the lord comes back and removes his church, his temple from the earth.

40:18 One, we're not dependent on the lord. As we should be. We think, oh, I I can do this, my own strength. I can, if I get things get tough, I'm going to get tough. I'll I'll push through this but the lord said in John fifteen five to his disciples, the night before he died, he says, without me, you can do some things.

40:40 It's not what it says, is it? Without me, you can do nothing. But we read in Philippians four thirteen, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So without him, we can do nothing. But with him, we can do all that's within his will.

40:57 We don't live in the days of small things. We have a big god. He's very interested in honoring his son's name by doing big things. And so it is our prayers that are the limitation. We're not dependent on god or it's a submission issue.

41:15 It's hard if I got my hand in the cookie jar to say, lord, I really need your help. Don't look back here. And he sees it. Right? And so we have to have clean hands and a pure heart.

41:28 And so we come before the lord expectant. And so this really marked the the prayer meetings, and I think it's a good litmus test to where the assembly... Local assembly is at in this what you're praying for. If it's all health issues, job issues, and the superficial, you're not getting to the deep level that god needs... Really wants in the meeting to be dependent upon him on.

41:52 Leonard Ravenhill, he's one of my favorite revival preachers. He gets me he gets me fired up. And you can download some of his messages off the Internet. He's with the lord now. He said, no man under heaven will be greater than his prayer life.

42:09 Watchman Nee says this, if a believer fails to pray, he fails at everything. I think that's true. And so the great revivals all started. You can see it in scripture, the revival, the water gate revival in the days Nehemiah, the revival before that with Ezra. It was believers that were broken before the lord about the spiritual state of god's people, and they they committed themselves to prayer, and then that's when god responded with a great work from heaven.

42:45 And that's pretty much consistent throughout the church age with the great revivals that that we've seen. So going out, some examples. The lord sent 12 to preach throughout Galilee, early ministry, sent them out two by two, and that's in Luke nine. In Luke 10, we see him sending out 70 through Judea. Paul, he preached both publicly and from house to house in Ephesus, Acts twenty twenty.

43:13 Philip preached in Samaria. So here's some examples of the saints going out. So just in review, we have the upward ministry, the exaltation of god. We're all believer priests to do that work. There's the inward ministry of building up, edifying.

43:33 That's given to us as the shepherd in scripture. And there's the outward ministry, and that's given to us by the farmer and the fishermen. We're evangelizing all nations. Fishing's one on one farm is a broad seed sowing adventure, reaching all kinds of soils with the gospel. And again, a healthy assembly is not gonna neglect any of these three important ministries.

44:09 Thank you for the saints that have come out and we just pray father that you would speak to us this weekend. Excite us about this great plan of building your church and that we might be a part of it. We pray for each one here that the spiritual gifts have been given would be effectively used. There'd be advocation building up. We pray for this assembly at Westlake to be a vibrant lighthouse for you into the community.

44:37 Thank you, lord. We give you thanks in the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Amen.