Selfies and Soldiers - Believing Big

Well listen, uh you should be uh if you're where I am, you're looking at something called session four selfies, now that I demonstrated one, selfies and soldiers, and we'll talk about that in just a minute.

Um Now, uh let me give you, you know, you I'm a history buff, so you guys are sick of history, but I'm sorry.

You're gonna have to hear this.

It's 1861, it's July, it's a hot day in Washington, D.

C.

And all the fine ladies and gentlemen of of Washington are at church, of course, on Sunday morning.

Well not not everybody is at church on Sunday morning, because the Confederate Army is moving against the Capitol of the Union.

They're moving through Northern Virginia to attack Washington, D.

C.

It is early, very early, because only the previous April at Fort Sumter has the Civil War begun.

The Confederates are making a bold move to take the nation's capital.

And so troops are massing on both sides of a little peaceful stream called Bull Run.

Meanwhile, church lets up.

And nobody's really taking this too seriously.

It's going to be over in a couple weeks, probably.

And so the ladies and gentlemen of Washington, D.

C. got in their carriages in their Sunday finery, because they're going to have a picnic on a beautiful summer day.

On a hill, overlooking a little creek called Bow Run.

And the carriages pull up and they pull out the baskets and eat their fried chicken.

It's boys in blue and boys in gray.

Clash at that creek just below them And history records this absolutely unbelievable, if it wasn't true, scene.

As boys in blue and boys in gray mingle their blood in the waters of that stream In the middle of this battle, there are people having a picnic on the hill.

Now fast forward to twenty thirteen and the American Church Could it be that while an eternal battle for people 's forever is raging, a lot of God's people I haven't the picnic together.

Well, get ready to see the book of Ezra and the picnic and the battlefield.

You'll see in your notes that what we're going to look at now is an maybe, and it was for these people, an explanation they never expected for why their prayers were not getting answered. were for why they were not getting the progress they hoped for, why nothing they were working on was working And until a prophet of God came, they had no idea why things were the mess that they were.

What explained their restlessness and what explained their frustration may explain Irish.

Ezra chapter 4, and we've had some guests come in and some of our team have come in today.

So let me review very quickly.

That after seventy years of of Babylonian captivity and having been transported from the land, or most of the people who would have ever seen Jerusalem and seen the promised land were dead and it had been devastated.

There was nothing to go home to but a pile of rocks and miraculously, because one of the keys to a supernatural breakthrough to supernatural outcomes is to embrace God's plan, and they did, as King Cyrus said, I want you to go back and build this temple for this God of yours So under and we're going to be in that part of it.

There were three waves that went back over a period of about 70 or 80 years, but this is the first one now And this is when Zerubabel, the manager guy, the make-it-happen guy, and Jeshua, the priest, the make-it-god thing guy, the spiritual leader, team up and lead these 50,000 people back.

And for two years they get busy.

Now what did they build first?

Their altar.

Remember, you build your altar before you begin the work.

So they did.

They began, they built their altar, and then they began the work.

And they laid the foundation and there was a great celebration now because what had just been a hole in the ground and a pile of rocks And all the people of the land were applauding.

They were so happy.

All that Jewish stuff, all that Jehovah stuff was gone, and suddenly there's a foundation there, and they're starting to move, and boom, it stops For seventeen years.

It's what they were brought there for.

And it stops Let's get the story.

Ezra chapter 4, here's how it works.

Thus, the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

Now, we're going to get to these guys in a minute.

I'll tell you the story of what happened.

The enemies all get together and go, this has got to stop.

We gotta nip this one in the bud, baby.

So they write a letter to the then king of Persia and say basically, you know, we are your loyal subjects And you know you can count on us, and you know these Jews, you know their history.

They don't pay their taxes, they rebel against, they don't, they don't submit to any government.

They're a bunch of rebellious people.

Are you sure you want them getting their temple built again?

Cyrus is gone now.

Different king.

And this and the king gets it and you go, are you kidding me?

I sure don't want that anywhere in my empire.

So he sends back to the guys who kind of were his reps, his his governors, his delegated authority in Judah, he says, you just go tell them to stop So they go and they say you guys stop the king said so.

They're like, okay, we'll stop.

They say, well, they had to stop.

They didn't have to stay stopped.

I'll tell you why.

Seventeen years later, when they finally wake up, which we'll look at in a minute Seventeen years later, when they finally wake up, they have an idea.

They write a letter back.

They don't just roll over this time.

They go, oh, they write to now a new king, Darius is the king.

And they say, if you will check your records, go back in your archives and look at the records from when King Cyrus was the king, and you'll see he authorized this.

And the Persians had a rule, the law of the Medes and the Persians, which altereth not.

So when there has been something decided, not even the king can reverse that.

This time they decide they're gonna put up a little fight, so they send a very courteous and all these correspondences are in the book of Ezra.

You can read them.

They're pretty long.

Both what the enemies wrote and what the Jews wrote.

And when they write to the new king, he says, oh really?

I better check that out.

He said he sends some guys over to the archives, they Google and they find, they go Cyrus, proclamation, temple, and they Google it and they find that actually that is what happened.

He goes, oh for goodness sake Well, listen.

And I'll I'm not going to tell you the rest the whole rest of the story because part of it you got to hear tonight.

But some amazing things happen and they get back to work.

So they could have done that when the first stop order came.

But they didn't.

Here's what they did do.

Now Haggai the prophet.

Now guys we're getting into our little minor prophet guys.

Here we go.

Haggai, by the way, he was the old guy.

God actually teamed up an old guy and a young buck.

He does that.

The experience and then the vision and the fresh ideas of the new guy.

Zechariah, he's the kid prophet.

He's a young guy.

Haggai only has four months of ministry we know of.

I don't know how long he lived, but he shows up for four months He's kind of like the hammer.

Wait till you see what he says.

He's like God's sledgehammer with these people.

Zechariah is kind of like the hope guy.

He's got the better job, I think.

He's got a vision for the future, and the book of Zechariah, by the way, is pretty amazing because it is considered by Bible scholars to be the most messianic of any of the minor prophets.

Zechariah will prophesy.

He doesn't know Jesus' name, but he will actually Prophesy the coming of Jesus on Palm Sunday into Jerusalem.

You remember they quote some, if you remember the Palm Sunday accounts, there's some prophecy quoted about it that he will come on a colt, you know, and all that.

That's out of Zechariah.

Zechariah tells the story of Jesus before Jesus comes.

He says he'll be pierced.

He tells the story.

He talks about him coming back and conquering.

So Zechariah, what he does, his job is to paint the big picture for God's people to say, this thing that's going on, this dot right now on the canvas, let me tell you, there's a whole big thing you are a part of here.

That goes and Jerusalem is going to be the place, going to be the God center for the whole earth one day.

So that's that's who these guys are.

Now The problem was that they could no longer raise money and give tax-deductible receipts because with Haggai and Zuckaray they are no longer a nonprofit organization.

Never mind.

Um, so oh for goodness sake.

So Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet They prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem.

So this is get apparently near the end of that 17-year little timeout, little vacation they took.

And they came in the name of God of the God of Israel who was over them.

Now the preachers have arrived.

Then the Zerabbabel, son of Sheelteel and Jeshua, set to work.

Hagai and Zechariah must have said something because suddenly Zab Zrababel goes, oh yeah, a temple.

And they go to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem.

I love this.

And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.

There's no big shot ministry guys here, man.

They're getting their hands dirty.

They're down there carrying the bricks and you know laying the bricks and bringing water to the guys I love that that's that the prophets of God were with them helping them all right And uh we got some more?

That's okay.

Well that's good.

We can work with that.

Now it's time to go over to the book of Haggai.

Because I want to know what he said that got them going again.

Because something woke them up from their little slumber they were in.

Here we go.

We're going to go over to the book of Haggai, chapter 1, in the second year of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month.

Notice, boy, God's keeping records here of this is pretty important events to him because he's giving you like exactly when it happened.

The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel.

Governor of Judah and to Joshua or Jeshua, the high priest.

This is what the Lord Almighty says.

It would be time to tune in.

This is a bad time to have ADD.

This is what the Lord Almighty says.

Okay.

These people, this is God speaking to Haggai about the people, Haggai's quoting the conversation God had with him, the time these people say, well, it's not time yet.

What?

Oh, it's not time yet for God's house to be built.

No, no.

Let's go on.

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Headgai.

So is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses?

Oh, that's what they've been doing.

While this house, my house , remains a ruin?

Now this is what the Lord Almighty says.

And three times this is in the book.

You think about what you're doing, Matt.

Will you think about what you're doing?

Give careful thought to your ways.

Think about how things have been going, guys.

You have planted much.

Have you noticed?

You've harvested a little.

There isn't much ROI here.

Not much is coming back.

You eat.

But you never have enough.

Your appetites are never satisfied.

You drink, but you never have your fill.

You put on clothes.

But you're not warm.

Nothing's working, is it?

You earn wages.

Sounds like inflation or something here.

Only to put them in a purse with holes in it.

You ever feel that way?

I earn wages?

There's just a hole in the purse.

That's the problem.

I don't have one.

This is what the Lord Almighty says.

Here we go again.

Think about what you're doing.

Give careful thought to your ways.

Have you stopped and thought about this?

Go up into the mountains.

Bring down timber and build the house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord You expected much.

You see?

It turned out to be a little, didn't it?

It not nearly as good as you thought it was going to be.

What you brought home, you worked as hard as you could, but you brought home, I blew away.

You're wondering why?

What?

declares the Lord Almighty.

What sobering words are these?

Because of my house, which remains a ruin.

Well, each of you is busy with his own house.

Therefore, because of you, don't blame me Because of you, the heavens have withheld their due, and the earth has withheld its crops.

I called, God says, I called for a drought on the fields and on the mountains and on the grain and the new wine.

Interesting, these were their mission impossibles.

If they had texted in their mission impossibles, this would have been somewhat what their text would have been.

And the reason wasn't the mission impossible.

It was their priorities was the issue.

The oil and whatever the ground produces on men and cattle and on the labor of your hands.

Well, pretty sobering passage, huh?

Nothing irrelevant for modern Christians, right?

Well, they took their eye off the ball.

And now we're ready for the fourth step Toward supernatural outcomes.

First you embrace the great plan of God, the bigger thing he's doing, even if you don't know what that is, you operate on the fact he is, and you stand on the promises and you believe the promises are your deciding factor.

You begin with Jesus.

You build your altar before you begin your work.

And then of course, there's the sin issue that we addressed last night And now, now staying on mission.

That's the fourth step.

That's exactly what they did not do Staying on mission.

You will not have supernatural outcomes if you abandon the mission of God for which he delivered you.

So I've got three wake-up calls in the notes for restless Christians who are wondering what's wrong, who are wondering what's missing.

I sat across from a friend of mine who's very successful in his privately owned business and he goes to the right church and he gives the right money and he's a dear brother in Christ.

And he just said, Ron, I believe all the right things.

I give to all the right things.

I think I'm doing all the right things.

He said, there's got to be something more.

I think he's the voice of millions of Christians.

Those people back then would have said, man, I'm a child of God, and I still believe in God and I'm worshiping God.

There's got to be more than this.

And God says, you bet there is, but I'll tell you why.

So these are three wake-up calls for restless Christians.

Here's the first one.

You're stuck in selfie syndrome.

He now I told some of you and and we're all at different points in terms of the technological revolution. you know, kind of Mr.

Low Tech guy, I don't know much, but I know about selfies.

I you hang out with young people, it's gonna happen.

And man, you see it all the time.

You see these all these pictures of who needs a photographer?

I'm my own photographer.

Click Oop, and I got a I got a camera in my phone click.

I'm taking the selfie.

Ooh, that's good.

How many pictures of me would you like to see?

Because that's my favorite pictures are pictures of me Here is me uh wearing red, here is me wearing green, here is me when I get up, here is me when I'm eating pizza, here is me when I'm sick of pizza, here is me I mean it It's re here is me owl.

Me, me, me, me, me, me, me That's what happened to those people.

They would know nothing about selfies or cameras.

But they were in the selfie syndrome.

They hit a wall.

They hit a wall with this opposition that they got to doing what God called them to do.

So what did they do?

Did they fight back?

Did they say, how can we counter this?

No.

They went to default position.

They turned inward and it became all about me.

That is our instinctive default position.

That we we don't instinctively Do the big thing God wants us to do, we instinctively go back to looking at what I call self-focus.

An individual Christian can become extremely self I got my business, I got my family, I got financial things I gotta deal with, I got this, I gotta deal with this, I gotta deal with this, and I'm really busy with my own agenda.

And suddenly we're not really praying, thy kingdom come.

It's a lot more about my kingdom come than it is thy kingdom come.

It's a lot more about my will be done on earth than it is thy will be done on earth.

We just kind of rewrite the Lord's Prayer.

Self-focus is where we naturally go unless we make a decision to go somewhere else.

Individuals can become self-focused.

Churches can be perhaps How could it be?

Tell me how this could be.

That we have the largest Christian subculture in the history of the of the church.

Never in 20 centuries have any Christians could even dream of what we have.

We got Christian everything.

We got Christian camps and Christian conferences and Christian television.

Christian internet, Christian radio, we got Christian ways to to to uh save money, we got Christian ways to spend money, we got, you know, we got uh all kinds of stuff.

We got uh Christian ways to lose weight, Christian ways to gain weight.

I mean we got we got everything conceivable.

We got Christian everything.

The church couldn't have dreamed of this for 2,000 years But while we were building the biggest Christian subculture in history, we lost our culture.

Don't blame the darkness if it's dark, folks.

Dark is always dark.

It's a failure of the light.

Just turn on a light and the darkness goes.

So if you don't like the darkness, don't blame all those evil politicians and pornographers.

No, no, no, no.

Look in the mirror.

Because we've turned inward.

The American Church is busy with its own house.

And forgetting the people outside the house Meet my needs, build a more co What should we spend on?

Missions giving out of local churches has been on a steady decline.

Supporting evangelism, bottom of the list We instinctively go to self-focus.

Individuals do it, organizations do it, churches do it.

We choose to hide out in the Christian cocoon and to stay in our comfort zone.

Karen and I were gone for a while.

This is some years ago.

And we came back and we heard we heard chirping.

Well, first we saw spiders.

We saw spiders hanging out of the vent over the uh stove in the kitchen.

And then we heard chirping.

As far as I know, that is not supposed to be a sound that the stove makes.

Birds had while we were gone decided to make a nest and in the in the exhaust fan thing, whatever we call that thing And um pipe, whatever.

And we're like, well, we have a little problem here, because we turn on the fan, we'll kill the baby birds.

And we'll pedo come in and shut down the house and all of that stuff.

So what but we can't just we can't use it because we got we got birds in there So um we just we waited for one day when the when the it looked like the mama had all the birds out of there, all the babies out and and we got a stick and got some gloves and and we got down in there and we were able to lift the nest out.

Much to our surprise, there was a bird still in there.

He w I don't mean to be critical, but he was are you well you know there's like a video game uh called Angry Birds.

This one would have been the one called Fat Birds.

This was a fat bird.

I mean this was a he'd been in there eating apparently.

This is a big bird in there.

Not big bird from Sesame Street.

But I mean this is a big bird in this in this nest And and um he's just not getting out.

He's he's apparently eating so much he can't get out.

And I I thought, is this a picture of some of us spiritually?

That we've just been feeding spiritually, piling up the blessing.

We have more blessing, more Bible studies, more teaching, more tapes, more videos, more conferences.

Oh my goodness.

And are we that that bird?

We can get out of the nest.

We're stuck in our nest.

That's what they were doing.

They were just all about their lives, all their lives.

And forgot what God had called them to do.

You can write this down, it's in your notes.

Those who are addicted to their comfort zone will almost surely miss the will of God.

Did you get that?

Those who are addicted to their comfort zone, I am gonna stay where I feel comfy, where I feel safe I want to be socially safe around people I feel comfortable on.

I want to be geographically safe.

I wouldn't want God to make me move anywhere.

I want to be geographically safe.

I want to be economically safe.

I want to be safe in all these ways, just as long as I can.

You know, kind of keep this little not disturb my life too much.

You want to stay in your comfort zone, you're going to miss God's will because you read the Bible, God almost always, his will's almost always out of your comfort zone Now, sometimes he'll call you to something risky to do and you'll take that risky step, but guess what?

What was once risky, that can become your new comfort zone.

He's asking you to take a new risk now.

So if you're playing it safe, you're probably missing God's will.

That's what they were doing back then.

They didn't want us to disturb anything.

They didn't fight back.

They played it safe.

They went to sleep and they did their own thing.

It could be that there's somebody in this room who God has been actually summoning you to a radical change of plans That would rewrite the narrative of your life.

Change the way you spend your time.

Because you've been a taker long enough and he's ready for you to be a giver.

And he might be summoning you to a full-time work for him.

I meet people all the time.

Who have done their if they're baby boomers, they've boomed.

If they're baby busters, they well, I don't know.

They're millennials, but then they've m melan melanized or whatever millennials do.

And they're like, I don't think this is it.

I think God has something more for me.

Please listen to that voice We were at a dinner, Karen and I, many years ago.

Doug had just gone to the Hopi Reservation.

We were talking at this table with some folks, some business people.

And uh we brought up our son and how he was sleeping on a table in a in a storeroom, didn't have any money, didn't have any friends, had gone to this people where you know was he couldn't find one Christian and And it would look like Mission Impossible he was on, pretty lonely out there on the Hopi Reservation.

And uh and I just told about how Doug had called in the midst of all of this Stuff that no parent wants to hear their kid is going through.

And he said, but mom and dad don't worry about me.

He said, I have never felt this kind of peace in my whole life.

He said, because I'm doing what I was born to do.

Being what I was born to be.

This guy afterwards said, Ron, come here.

He said, 30 years ago I heard a call of God like that.

And my wife and I said, Lord, if you want us to go to that reservation to serve you, We're going to put out a fleece.

We're going to ask you that we'd be able to sell our house this weekend in one weekend.

He said we had a buyer by Monday morning.

And my wife said, can't do this.

Can't go He said, I've been very successful, my own insurance agency.

Done very well in business.

He said, but I have known all of those 30 years.

That I wasn't where I was supposed to be.

Seventeen years after I said no, we were divorced, probably because of that.

And he said, if I could only go back and do what God called me to do.

If you hear God summoning you to a work for him, The only good answer is yes.

Remember I said on the bus that when God asked us to start this ministry with no money, no people, no nothing.

It was a risky obedience, but I said that's an oxymoron.

There are no risky obediences.

There's only risky disobedience.

God's calling you out of the selfie syndrome and spiritual narcissism where it's all about you. to something greater.

Jim Elliott, the martyr, who I've mentioned a couple of times, martyr by the Aka Wadani Indians.

Gave his life the man who so wonderfully said he is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose wrote this after he graduated from Wheaton College.

He was preparing to go to the Qicho Indians, where we have been with an On-Eagles Wings team in South America.

And uh he was uh waiting, he kept waiting to get approval from his church, and it was taking a while.

And here's what he wrote.

Consider the call from three places.

He said, consider the call from the throne above, saying, go ye!

Consider the call from around about you.

Come over and help us, which brought John Elliott to the Native Americans.

And hear the call from the damned souls below, crying, send Lazarus to my brothers, that they may not come to this place.

Impelled them by their voices.

I dare not stay here while Kewa was perish.

God probably has more for you to do than you are doing.

Is it a major change?

I don't know.

But if he's calling, answer the phone.

Listen.

Say yes.

Spiritual narcissism, it says in your notes.

Oh, looking in the mirror, thinking about me all the time.

You magnify the trivial.

Trivial stuff becomes so big and you neglect the eternal.

Building your own house.

Well, the work he wants to do is in ruins.

Why things aren't working?

They were distracted.

They got disobedient.

It led to total dysfunction, and God had three words.

Will you build the house?

Will you build the temple?

Hello!

Do you remember why I redeemed you?

Do you remember why I delivered you?

Build my house.

Build Can you say that with me?

Build my house.

Wash my lips, God says.

Build my house.

Build my house.

Go get the wood.

Stop building your own.

Go build mine.

Haggai chapter 2.

Look what happened.

Verses 17 through 19.

There's only two chapters, so Haggai is not a really challenging book.

I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew, hail.

He 's stubborn people back then, not now, but you know, they were stubborn.

Yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.

From this day on.

I mean there are there are little turning point days in people's lives that for it's been recorded for thousands of years.

Literally a day that everything changed.

Wasn't even a process, a day.

From this day on, from this 24th day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day.

Remember when you laid the foundation 17 years ago?

Remember how exciting that was to see what God had done?

Opened the doors, opened the heart of the king, opened people's wallets, made it all happen.

Remember that?

Give careful thought to that.

Now, is there yet any seed left in the barn?

Not been going too well, has it?

Until now the vine, the pig tree, the pomegranate, the olive tree have not borne fruit.

Notice this turning point statement.

Which could be this day for somebody here from this day on.

I will bless you God says there's stuff I want to do for you.

Prayers I want to answer.

You've been waiting on answers for.

I want to move some mountains, change some things, change things in your life that have not changed.

The blessing returns when the obeying returns.

That's when the blessing starts.

We went to a community with Arn Eagles Wings on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota There's a young man named Bo, B-E-A-U, who is a Cheyenne River Sioux, who I met at a banquet I spoke at a couple of years ago for a Christian ministry we partner with.

I was truly a God thing.

And he gave us testimony there.

He's a rancher.

Now don't think like J.

R.

Ewing or whatever, some rancher with, you know, 10,000 head of cattle.

I think he's got like a hundred and fifty head of cattle.

So it ain't much of a ranch, but it's what he's got.

And his wife, Suzanne.

They uh we we always try to make sure we have partners that we're gonna work with when we go to the reservation because we have a whole plan for follow-up and there are amazing stories of the youth ministries that have been born and ongoing works of God going on today Well, let me tell you about Cherry Creek, South Dakota.

It's in the poorest county in America.

You can check the last census.

It is the poorest, no, poorest county in America.

Cherry Creek's the poorest community.

It's like nowhere.

Nobody goes there.

Not even the tribe does anything.

The tribe takes care of their main town where the headquarters is.

And nobody really gives a rip about Cherry Creek.

That's like Nazareth.

I said it was like Nazareth.

Can anything come out of Cherry Creek?

They have no store.

They have no gas station.

They have no school.

In order to do our events there, we had to create a basketball court.

We have portable hoops.

So we had to go and Derek with another Sioux guy went door to door and said to folks, can we close your street?

And make a basketball court for three nights?

So we did.

We just had to use the street for the basketball court.

And God moved wonderfully.

But the problem was Bo had been a little edgy about doing this follow-up thing Because he said, I've never done, and we don't know what we have clueless in youth ministry.

We never did anything like this.

I don't, uh we'll we'll find somebody.

They didn't find anybody.

He said, Ron, I wonder if if it's all come back to maybe it's come full circle.

Maybe God wants us to do this.

Well, for the next few months.

Their life got really chaotic and lawsuits that were unjust and all kinds of junk and he had to he never he didn't he didn't do it.

Then I learned just not long ago That Bo and Suzanne had said, you know what?

If there's going to be a youth ministry in this community, you can't do it part-time.

With no idea where the money would come from.

Suzanne quit her job in the tribal town an hour away.

They're gonna live on whatever the ranch will do and they've had three years of drought.

Which would pretty much kill any rancher, especially a guy on a little ranch with not many cattle to lose It's a long story.

I'll make it short and tell you this.

The first night after that decision, that Bo decided to have an event.

Because we gave him a basketball hoop when we left.

So he had one.

It rained the next morning.

It hadn't rained for three years.

We saw him.

We had just finished this summer's ten reservations.

Karen and I felt led to stop by there with our excess energy.

And see if we could encourage them.

Having heard, they had literally stepped out of the boat to walk on water, not knowing where the money would come from.

Every time they've had an event, it has rained.

His 79-year-old father said, son, 79 years have been around only one other September in 79 years I've ever seen our fields look like this in September.

It just keeps raining.

The drought has ended.

Did you see the news about 100,000 cattle lost in the state of South Dakota by an October 1st blizzard?

They hadn't moved the cattle from summer pasture yet.

Nobody expected it.

Never snowed then.

So they were still in summer pasture unprotected.

Bo was in Bismarck when the storm hit and his cattle were vulnerable.

His dad called and said, Bo, our next door neighbors lost 70 cattle are dead right now.

Bo got home.

He called me in tears the next day.

He said, Ron, we have not lost one cow.

They're all alive.

When the obedience begins, the blessing begins Wouldn't it be nice if it was the other way?

How about you start blessing me in our way?

No, we don't do it that way.

I wonder what God's telling you to do, to leave a larger footprint for him.

It'd be good for him to be able to say, did I hear you say yes?

Then from this day on.

I will bless you.

And that you know what that day was?

They got back to work.

That's the day they went back to work on the house of God.

This day it's the day you not say, the day you surrender seeking your kingdom to seek first the kingdom of God because he didn't bring you out. to settle into serving yourself.

He didn't rescue from a Christeless eternity, from a from a hell we that's unthinkable, from a life without meaning.

He didn't rescue from all you from all of that.

See you can spend your life serving you.

He brought you out to serve his mission in the world.

Which brings us to the second wake-up call You are called to the unfinished mission, just like the people of Zahagai's day, just like the people of Zerubbabel's day and Jeshua's day.

You are called to an unfinished mission.

It began 2,000 years ago because now Jesus is not building a temple.

He's building a family.

He's trying to get more sons and daughters into his family.

That's his agenda today, not a building.

He has a much bigger mission for his people today.

There is a uh a story uh in the Old Testament about these uh about a um an enemy army besieged in 2 Kings, an enemy army is besieging the capital city, and uh uh there are four lepers who live inside the city living off whatever crumbs the people will throw to them.

No one will get near a leper.

Well, there's been now a siege going on for months.

The whole city's starving.

Guess what?

The lepers are eating.

There's no leftovers.

There's no crumbs.

They're like, oh boy, our only w we're gonna die.

We're wait a minute.

We got one chance.

Why don't we just Throw ourselves on the mercy of the enemy.

We'll just surrender.

We'll probably get shot on the way in.

But let's go over there and say, uh, we give up.

You know, not exactly valuable POWs, but they're ready to, they're they're like this is our last hope.

In the meantime, God has worked a miracle and got this Assyrian army turning on each other They're killing each other.

They abandoned their entire camp.

It's been there for months.

So the lepers are like, we're gonna die.

We give up.

Hello?

Hello?

We give up.

There's nobody to give up to.

There's nobody home.

And all these tents have food in them.

And they're like, oh man.

And they start stuffing themselves.

And finally, with bloated bellies, one of them says this We are not doing the right thing, guys.

Perhaps they perhaps they heard the scream of another mother whose baby had died in the night from starvation.

Coming from the city.

They knew what was happening to those people, totally forgot about it to stuff themselves.

We are not doing well.

This is a day of good news.

And we must tell them they finally woke up and said, we have been stuffing ourselves with what could save their lives What a picture.

Busy with your own agenda.

Well, my agenda is in ruins. 150,000 people go into eternity every single day.

Every single day, ready or not. 150,000 people in heaven or hell.

It happened yesterday.

It'll happen today.

That's the mission today.

Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my What?

My church, my called out ones.

I am trying to call more people out to become part of my family in the world and the mission statement of Jesus must be the mission statement of anyone who claims to be his followers.

For the Son of Man came to look for, to seek.

And to save those who are lost.

Jesus said, I am on a rescue mission.

I am on a life or death mission.

That's his unfinished mission in the world.

And the problem is Christians get caught up in what I call lesser battles.

You know wonder some of the lesser battles were fought.

First of all, some of us are fighting.

You know what battle we're fighting?

What's wrong with those Christians?

We're gonna fix those neurotic Christians, those legalistic Christians, those messed up Christians, those Christians who don't see all the starving poor people in the world.

Absolutely, you're right.

But that's to abandon the lost for that.

That's not the number one mission Some of us are trying to fix what's wrong with non-Christians.

We're like, oh look at this, all these homosexual things and abortion things and poor night.

It's horrible.

God, it breaks God's heart.

But the problem is they're lost and they're acting lost.

Hello?

Lost people do what?

Get be lost.

They need a savior for heaven's sake.

Charles Spurgeon said the only broom that will sweep a city clean is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The first century Christians lived in a horrible world where baby girls were left in jars on street corners to die, and every other person was a slave, and people meant for Not NFL games, but 50,000 people to watch animals tear people apart.

That was their idea of entertainment.

And in the midst of that, did they pick at the Colosseum?

Did they call for social change?

They just kept saying, Jesus died for you.

He is alive.

He is your Savior.

And they change the world with the gospel.

It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

So there's a lot wrong with Christians.

There's a lot wrong with non-Christians.

There's a lot wrong with our country.

But those are not the those are not the first battles.

The first battle is for ever-living, never-dying souls.

That is why Jesus came.

Adrian Rogers Great preacher, with the Lord now, said this.

He said, when the Holy Spirit took over on Pentecost, 120 Christians reached 5,000 people for Christ.

In today's church, 5,000 can't reach 120.

I didn't say that.

I'm quoting somebody else.

Okay.

I believe it though.

When I was in Canada speaking to some native young people, some of them came from an area called Slave Lake.

Which had a horrible you know some of our wildfires, we don't hear about in Canada, but a lot of people burned out of their homes.

A lot of them were on a poor reservation in the Slave Lake area.

Some of those kids didn't know if they'd have a house to go back to And if people were asked to evacuate instantly, you know, like, get out, get out, get out, don't have time to get anything.

Well, this one lady, um was at was was she thought you know I may be asked to evacuate I hear it's moving our way and she made a decision she had one vehicle she had to decide what she would carry out with her if she got the evacuation order She said, I tell you what I'm gonna do.

She said, I'm gonna leave my stuff.

She said, I'll load it with all the people I can get in it.

Later, at a service in a church, she did in fact have to leave everything behind.

But she loaded up her vehicle with as many people as it would carry, including a mother and some children.

With tears in her eyes, she got up and she said, as we were on our way out, I actually had joy in my heart that there were people able to come with us.

Because people are what matters.

So what you gonna carry out?

Stuff Or people who will be in heaven.

Because of what you did, what you gave, and what you prayed for.

That's uh fill up with people going out.

Proverbs 24. 11 says, rescue those.

See these names?

That's them.

Rescue those being led away to death.

And hold back those staggering towards slaughter.

You could put your name in there, by the way.

The name of the person?

Rescue, who's being led away to death.

Hold back, hm, who's staggering towards slaughter.

Look at Jude 23.

Snatch others from the fire and save them.

Is that rescue or what?

This is life or death.

Snatch them from the fire and save them.

So let me just tell you the third wake-up call.

You've been in selfie syndrome.

You're called to the unfinished mission, and you are made for eternity living.

You are made to do eternity living while you're here.

I'm not talking about eternal life now.

I'm talking about eternity living here.

Ecclesiastes 3. 11 says God has put eternity In the hearts of men.

You got this thing in you that the only it's not going to ever be satisfied by something that's not going to last.

It's only going to be satisfied by you doing every day stuff that will count forever So Haggai said this, and this is why we've got a reachable world right now.

You look around and go, boy, people are really lost.

They don't really care about Jesus.

Look at what Haggai said back in his day.

He said, here we go again.

This is what the Lord Almighty says.

Give careful thought to your ways.

No, I wanted to go back to, I'm sorry.

Chapter 2.

Can we go to chapter 2?

Verses say, yeah, in a little while I will once more shake the heavens.

He said, I'm going to shake everything up, the sea and the dry land.

I will shake all nations.

And if you've sung um what Christmas Carol is at?

Hark the Herald Angels sing?

Yeah.

One verse says, come, desire of nations come.

That's referring to Jesus.

Eventually, some set when everything's shaken up, everybody's gonna want a Messiah.

They wouldn't always may not know it's Jesus, but they're gonna need a Savior.

They're gonna know that nothing here is gonna do it.

I will shake the nations The desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty.

See, um, what happens is this.

When nothing's working for people, the government's not working, their family 's not working, the economy's not working, there's stuff in their life they can't fix They have no way to control it.

They have things they can't change.

When everything starts shaking, which it is.

They're ready for Jesus.

Except they don't know they are.

And you know what some of the things are that have made them ready?

Disappointing relationships You know people whose relationships have let them down.

There's only one that never will.

An uncertain world makes him ready for Jesus.

Unrelenting pain.

I don't know what to do with the pain of my past that pursues me everywhere.

I have no one to help me with this.

Unexplainable loneliness.

Parenting battles.

Fearful times.

Uncontrollable darkness.

I can't conquer my temper.

I can't conquer my depression.

I can't, the stuff that hurts the people I love the most, I hate it, and I can't change it.

These are the things that make people ready for a savior.

And as Jesus said, the harvest is plentiful and harvest means ready.

So let me give you.

Let me give you the good news about where you are right now.

First of all, it's a rescue-ready moment.

People around you are ready for a relationship that will not disappoint them, a love that they cannot lose. a power to change to deal with the pain of their past and be released from the pain of their past, to have a broken heart healed by the only one who can heal it.

You know so many Humpty Dumpty people All the king's horses and all the king's men, their hot life is so many pieces that they they can't all the king's horses, all the king's men cannot put them together again.

But the king can.

Only the king can put together the broken pieces of Humpty Dumpty lives.

You know those people, and you know who can put them together.

They're ready for Jesus.

We live in a rescue-ready time.

Secondly, you are a supernaturally situated, supernaturally situated messenger.

2 Corinthians 5. 20 again.

You are Christ's ambassador.

The book of Haggai in chapter 1 says this about him.

It says that God They obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai because the Lord their God had sent him.

You have been sent every bit as much as Haggai was.

You have been divinely positioned to take some people to heaven with you.

I remember hearing a guy who in his time was one of the great kickers in the NFL.

His name was Rolf Bernershke.

He played for the San Diego Chargers, helped win some playoff games with them for some last-minute field goals and stuff.

And he was very close to his holder.

Now , for those of you who don't know football, know how important a holder is to a kicker, if you remember Charlie Brown and Lucy.

This will help you know what the holder does.

Lucy was the one holding the ball.

Remember Charlie Brown's trying to kick it and Aug you can see it now, right?

Okay, the holder let it let him down.

Okay, well Mike Fuller was Roth Bonershka's holder.

Roth Bonershka in the 20s, at the peak of his career, got a potentially deadly disease, almost died from it.

Came back from it, made him think about life a little bit.

He knew Mike Fuller had something he didn't see in many NFL players, because you never know if you're gonna have a job next week.

Week to week, you could be injured, taken out, you could be traded, you could be cut So he said, but Mike Fuller had peace.

I didn't know guys with peace.

Mike Fuller knew Jesus.

He told Ralph Panushka about Jesus The reason I know this, I was at a Billy Graham Crusade.

Ralph Benershke was the chairman of the Billy Graham Crusade in San Diego, in Charger Stadium where he used to play.

He was giving his testimony.

And I never forgot his words.

He said, Mike Fuller was holding more than a football.

He was holding my eternity.

His hands.

There's somebody you know like that.

And in a sense , you hold their eternity in your hands, for you know how they could go to heaven and they don't.

The message must get delivered.

And you, yours, remember this.

Your situation is your assignment.

If God puts you in the hospital, it isn't just about getting better.

It is he has positioned you in that place because there's somebody there who needs to hear about your Jesus.

He put you in a hospital bed for that reason.

Wherever he puts you.

Walmart?

An office?

A partnership?

A neighborhood?

A rotary club?

Country club, wherever it is.

Well, you're not there for you.

You're there, you're his face, you're his voice.

He's there to help those people go to heaven with you.

So you are a supernaturally situated messenger.

Thirdly, you have a God-entrusted message.

He's entrusted his life-saving message to you, just as he did to the prophets of old.

And I love in 2 Corinthians 4. 4 because it says this is really what the gospel is all about.

The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light.

Now here's what the gospel is It's about the glory of Christ.

Here's what the gospel is.

It's all about how amazing Jesus is.

That's what you got to tell him.

That's your story.

Here's my story.

I'm sticking to it.

Jesus is amazing.

What they can't see, what you gotta help them see, is the glory of Christ.

It's all about Jesus.

Don't dare talk to them about religion.

What a detour from the main subject.

If they want to talk about Christians, those hypocrites, those priests doing things to boys, that pastor who ran up as secretary.

My uncle was a Christian.

I'll tell you about him.

Jesus didn't say follow my followers, he said follow me.

I don't want to know about your problems with his followers or his church or his leaders.

What's your problem with Jesus?

It's all about Jesus.

How amazing he is.

Keep bringing it back to Jesus I'm not going to go into this, but you should look up Zechariah and see the things he pointed to about Jesus.

It's amazing.

You can look, it's a little Bible study for you.

But I honestly believe the bridge that will bring people to Jesus. is what I call a journey of three stories.

Some of you guys have shared this before, but it bears repeating.

Their story, your story.

And his story.

You listen to their story.

You have a relationship with them.

And you will hear the holes in their heart You will hear the hurts in their life.

You listen to their story.

Which will give you the right to tell your story.

What we call a hope story.

And the difference Jesus has made in your life.

And that means you're going to tell how his story changed your story.

Forever.

I've asked Rachel Tree if she would come right now because of a very powerful point that her hope story represents.

I want you to write this down.

You turn your hurt and your hardship into a hope story.

Turn your hurt and your hardship into a hope story.

There is nothing so awful that has happened in your life that does not become holy and sanctified when it becomes a way to give people Jesus.

I've been on many reservations.

I've listened to dear Rachel.

Tell her story.

Remember, God turns your hurt into hope for other people.

Rachel, tell us your hope story.

Hi, my name's Rachel Tree.

If you don't if you haven't met me before.

Um just be ready to be here for four more hours.

I'm just gonna tell you a little bit about myself.

I grew up in a Christian home.

Uh my mother was a single parent.

Um at a young age.

Um I experienced a lot of physical and emotional abuse from my own mother.

Um I remember times of my life, my childhood.

I remember just times of my mom grabbing me by my hair and dragging me across the room, telling me I am nothing.

I will never amount to anything in my life.

And because of this, I grew a lot of anger against God, against everybody around me.

And I I remember my father being so abusive toward my mother.

And um Because of this, I was I was just so angry at God and as I as I was a little kid, I always heard about Jesus, I always heard about God, I always heard about all these things.

And as a young kid, I would burn by burn my grandma's Bibles all the time because that's just how bad I hated God because of the pain that I inflicted.

And during the time I was just so alone, by the age of fifth grade, or by the time I was in fifth grade, I turned to alcohol, I drove, I turned to drugs.

And my freshman year I enter entered into high school and that was when I joined um a gang, a local gang in our town.

And there was just so much physical we would fight all the time, fight with people.

And um By the time I was sixteen years old, um by this time I always wanted a father, I always wanted someone in my life.

Who I could trust, someone who can protect me.

And by the age of sixteen I was um Uh my mom had her boyfriend and I was like, man, I finally have a dad.

And I trusted him.

I mean that by the age of sixteen I was molested by him and I had no idea.

What why this happened and when I was sixteen years old I remember being in a room while everybody was gone and and I held a gun to my head and I said, why am I living?

I have nowhere to go.

I have nothing to live for.

And I had a gun to my head and I said, you know what, God, I I don't know who you are.

I don't know why you created me, but I do know that I need you in my life.

And that's when I first experienced Christ in my life.

I felt the love of a mother, the love of a father that no one could ever give me.

And right it was right then there that the pain was gone, the pain was lifted.

And today I attend IABC in Indian Bible College and Flagstaff.

And um I can say that today, because of Christ, because of him going to the cross, I have forgiven my mom, and I have forgiven my abuser.

And today he has given me a future, he has given me a purpose.

And I'm only crying because I know.

Where God has taken me, where God has been, and what God has saved me out from.

And this verse always stuck with me.

It's in Psalms 34, 18.

It says, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

I can tell you that the Lord was near and he did save me when I was crushed.

And today I actually shared the gospel with my mom and during the time I told her about it, she blamed me for what what had happened to me.

But my heart has broken for her.

I pray for her daily.

And God has given me the desire to want to share what I have with her.

So I heard one of I heard one just to encourage you.

Just whatever you're going through I heard a speaker say this.

It says, every miracle begins with a problem or a need.

If you have a problem, you are a candidate for a miracle from God.

And that's what I fully believe, that God has met every miracle in my life.

And He can do that for you too.

Thank you.

I've seen time and again Rachel, God through Rachel, turn ashes to beauty.

On reservation, her story is the story of thousands of Native young women.

Though the details are a little different, probably most of our team members But you heard hope, didn't you?

Did you see her countenance change?

She takes command on a basketball court And young women come to Christ big time through her.

She just keeps coming back saying, guess what?

Another one.

Another one.

You see what opens up other people's hearts is not that you have some canned gospel presentation, but you tell your story.

Tie it into their story.

But your story won't get them to heaven.

You gotta tell his story.

That what happened on a cross and an empty tomb is what changed your story and could change theirs as it did yours.

So that's why you are where you are.

That's the unfinished mission of Christ, and he's given you a piece of it to finish.

And we're not talking about dropping a gospel bombshell on people.

Okay, well, you know like how parents are with the the with with like the birds and bees thing?

Who's gonna talk to her?

Who's gonna explain it to him?

Somebody has to, I think it's time for the talk.

He's 18 He may start to get curious about this soon.

You talk to him.

The talk!

The feared talk.

Don't have the talk.

You have lots of little talks from the time they're young.

Introducing them to boyness and girlness and all that stuff.

So it is in presenting the gospel You don't have the talk.

You weave parts of the gospel.

You ask God for open doors that something may come up that'll give you an opportunity to say, man, you're right.

Man, you think about it?

That's like there's something messed up inside of us, isn't it?

You ever feel that way like there's something broken in us we can't fix?

I actually found out what that was because it was broken in me The thing is broken is we we've been doing it our way instead of God's way.

That's what messed me up.

So it messes everything up.

So you you sew it a little, you wove it in.

It fit right there Another time, if something's coming about relationships, and you're able to say, you know, I had a, I have a, there's one relationship I found that literally changes what you just were talking about.

So you weave it in, it's the gospel weave, it's not the gospel bomb.

You're sharing pieces of it as you go along, and one day you ask God to be able to let you bring that home.

He'll answer their prayer because he wants to.

So just keep sowing the gospel in every opportunity you have.

But look at your notes.

Always, always Talk about the cross.

Always the cross.

Always the cross.

Paul said, knowing more theology than anybody ever knew in history, Paul said I was determined to know only one thing, Jesus and his cross, when I talk to you.

Your job is to walk them up to that cross and tell them that was for you, man.

That was for me.

Just stick to the cross.

Stick to Jesus.

Don't get in all the other baggage.

It's all about this.

Keep pointing them to the cross.

Charles Spurgeon said, a living Christ they may love.

But a crucified Savior they must love.

For if they know how he died for them, their hearts will be stolen away Get him to the cross.

Make much of the cross.

That's his agenda.

He's building a family He says, please, please don't be so caught up in your agenda, your kingdom.

Build my family.

Build my Heaven residents that are going to be in heaven.

And you got guarantees from God.

He'll get hearts ready.

You will have his words.

You will have his power to do it.

He delivered you not to settle down into comfort and complacency.

He brought you out so you could bring others in John Parker had it made.

John Parker was an African-American slave.

Twice he tried to escape from a brutal slave master.

Twice he was captured, and it was more brutal.

The third try he got out Now, I was in a hotel room actually on the Kentucky side by Cincinnati and I had an African-American brother tell me that that the the Ohio River, that the slaves were called the freedom line.

Because if they could get to the Ohio River, it was the freedom line.

Get across that and you're in free country.

That was their goal.

They risked a lot to get to the Ohio River.

Our freedom line runs across a hill outside of Jerusalem.

The freedom line is the where the cross is in front of the cross of Jesus.

Well, he got to the freedom line, got across the river, and right across the river is a place called Ripley, Ohio.

I've been there And he actually got a job there.

And then he actually ended up having a business of his own and owned a foundry.

This guy was a smart guy.

Gave a lot of people work.

He was very successful.

People thought of him pretty highly in Ripley.

Had it made But every night, as soon as it got dark, he got in a little boat and rowed across the Ohio River.

To see if he could rescue another slave.

At the risk of his own freedom, at the risk of his own life Safe, comfortable, free.

Every night he put all that on the line And it is believed that John Parker brought more than 900 slaves to freedom.

By taking the risks to rescue.

Because he said, how could I go free And leave these people slaves.

I will take the risks like Jesus did.

To bring some other people out.

He rescued you to be a rescuer.

Stay on his mission.

And he will say, from this day on, I will bless you, and the supernatural outcomes will come.

Let's pray.

Lord, show us where we have been building our own house And neglecting yours.

And all caught up in our own agenda.

And neglecting the one for which your son died.

And may this be a day like back in Haggai's day, a day.

Where we turn that around.

Say, Jesus, this is not going to be a sidebar in my life.

This is not going to be just a check I write.

A prayer I pray Here am I.

Send me.

May our situation always be viewed as our assignment from you.

And I pray for the men and women in this room that wherever you have positioned them and you do in the future, that they will be faithful messengers. of the only message that changes eternities.

And it's all about an amazing Jesus.

And a life-changing cross.

May we be amazed by that and all about that as we go back to rescue others from that from which we have been rescued.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.