The book came out about two years ago that in three cases really cast aspersions on Mark and Mark called me and what should we do? I said don't do anything. Don't stoop to that. And the thing that really hit me at the time was the man who wrote the book, you'd all know, was really questioning whether or not the Lord had really led Mark and spoke to him. And I don't do very well in the book either, by the way, but that's beside the point. But the thing that really hit me was I said, if the man who wrote that book spent the rest of his life to do one thing, to become loving like Christ. I really don't believe he has enough time to be as loving as Mark Boubek is. And that has really bothered me over the time that the idea of being in holiness is I've stopped sinning. And that's not it, people. It's to be like Christ. And the first time Mark and I met, first time we met, remember Mark? We just went up and we hugged each other. And you know, there's a sense of the body of Christ coming together. And most people don't know that Mark has for years gotten up every morning and took a walk with God. I mean, his contribution to the body of Christ has been prayer. And don't tell me God hasn't spoke to him and blessed the church by him. So, and I wanted to say also, How deeply we all are appreciative of Dan Rumburger and Jim Logan, their whole ministry. I do conference work. I know the work it takes to put out something like this. So let me be and speak on behalf of all of you. Thank you for the amount of work and time you've put in doing this thing. Aren't you glad that God gives varied and different gifts to the church? And what a wonderful ministry and music he's given you, brother. If I could sing like that, I'd be an egomaniac. He knows who to give good gifts to. I'd like you to take your Bibles if you would and turn with me to Luke chapter 9 And we're talking about reaching our cities for Christ and whether or not we're fit for the kingdom And we want to look at an incredible thing. I've never quite seen this before But we have to ask our own self the question Are we fit for the kingdom? And we're going to find out that the twelve weren't and And the Lord did something rather dramatic between chapter 9 and 10 where he sent out the 70 But let me just start with Luke chapter 9 verse 1 and he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over the demons and to heal diseases and to send them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing and And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, neither a staff nor a bag, nor bread nor money, and do not even have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there. Take your leave from there. And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out to that city, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. And departing, they began going about among the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now, here they go. They're taking their Training kit with them. I'm sure and they've gone through a Certain level of their seminary training and we're going to find out in a moment. They're not quite there yet but let me put the substance of what he's really suggesting to them because in preparing the 12 to carry on the work of the ministry of the church the first thing he said is that you have authority and power over demons and You're going to go out and confront the God of this world and reclaim the territory that was originally given to his people to rule over the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, the fish of the sea. And Satan had no authority at that time, but when man fell, he became that rebel holder of authority. And Jesus himself would say, now the ruler of this world is coming, but he has nothing in you. And so the Lord acknowledged that. And he realizes that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. We're told that in scripture. That Jesus came to undo the works of Satan. That's why he came. 1 John 3. So into that you're going to go. Now I've given you authority and power. And you're to address human needs. to heal the sick. I think sometimes we overlook that. Thank God for World Vision and other organizations that realize that before we can qualify ourselves to bring the gospel, we ought to give them a loaf of bread, that we're trying to deal with a whole man here, and that we've got incredible needs in my life, and I just bypass that and then share the gospel with you. Sometimes we got to earn that right to share what we have to share to prove to the world that we really do love you. Not just a portion of you, but all of you. And so that was part of their going out. And then they were to proclaim the kingdom. And lastly, if you read the text, it's not said, but it's there, is you're to do this under my power. You're going to go out and accomplish these things. I don't want you to take a tunic. I want you to trust totally on me. How did they do? Well, verse 7 says, Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was happening, greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others. I'll tell you what he heard about. He heard about Christ. Well, that's what he heard about. I didn't hear much about what they were doing. I've never quite seen that before, but now notice what happens. Verse 10, And when the apostles returned, they gave an account to him of all that they had done. Boy, that's powerful. He didn't give them an account as to what God had done. He gave them an account of what they had done. We give an account at the end of the year in our church. Look at all the things we've done. We've done this, we've done that. We've gone here, we've gone there. And so what did God do? If you can account for everything that happened in your ministry by hard work and human ingenuity, then where's God? I'll tell you what he does. In this next chapter now, he takes them and strips them of their self-sufficiency and reveals them certain attitudes that they had that would not qualify them to be fit for the kingdom. That's what he's going to do. Now watch what happens. And he said, to give him an account and taking them with him, he withdrew by himself to a city called Betheda. But the multitudes were aware of this and followed him in welcoming them. He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing. And the day began to decline, and the Twelve came and said to him, Send a multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, and then find lodging and get something to eat. For here we are in a desolate place. And he said to them, You give them something to eat. Well, where am I going to give them something to eat? Now, we have no more than five loaves and two fishes. Unless perhaps maybe we go and buy food for all of these people. I'll tell you what he's doing. It's just fascinating. You give him some dean. We can't feed him. Right. You can't. Would you at least do this? Take what you do have and use it. Now, he said, go out and get them in groups of 12 or so. Now, frankly, he got them to do that before he had multiplied the loaves and the fishes. Now, I got to credit them for having a sense of trust and obey here. He told them they were obedient. They went and did that. So they got them in the groups. And there were about 5,000. And he said to the disciples, have them recline into eating groups. And they did so. And he had them recline. And he took the five loaves, the two fishes, looking up to heaven. He blessed them and broke them. and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude, and they all ate and were satisfied, and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve baskets full." How many disciples? Twelve disciples. Now you can look at that and we realize the miracle, the feeding of the 5,000. If you go to Israel, you can see a commemoration there along the hillside of Galilee, and it's wonderful. I think we can miss the point here very easily. We can't feed the sheep, people. It has to be God who can do that. But he will ask us to take what we do have. I'm saying, God, I don't have enough money to do this. I don't have enough resources. Use what you've got. Use what you've got. Now, you would miss it if you just read Luke here. Mark has some added stuff here that is just critical to realize. Because after the feeding, he sent them across the lake. He went up to the mountain to pray. And the text says that in that night, on that storm, there was a storm so bad, they thought they were going down. And they're rowing, and they're rowing, and they're rowing, and they're not getting anywhere. And the text says this, that the Lord came walking by and he intended to pass them by. And I believe that the Lord intends to pass by the self-sufficient. You want to get across this lake by yourself? You want to deal with the storms in this world? Go ahead and row. And I believe he'll let you roll. I believe he will. Go ahead, see if you can get out of this by yourself. You can do it. And then the amazing thing about the passage of Mark is that when they did come to him, it says very clearly that they had not learned the lesson of the feeding of the 5,000. They still hadn't learned it. How could you miss that? I was in a church about a year and a half ago, and it was doing a little pre-conference to come back a year later. In the meantime, this very, very good church. It was in Canada. It was just a contemporary church. It was relevant to this community moved from the inner city to the outer city The man was a solid biblical man and in eight years time he got undermined and the church was about split and they asked me to In that sitting I came in with our conference And the board was going to meet one night. I was going to talk about forgiveness. And I said, oh, please, sit in with this tonight. And if you want, I'll talk to you tomorrow night. So I went to this church and just devastated. The board and the staff decided to divide it just right down the middle. One was for this guy. One was for that guy. And the staff was divided. The board was divided. And I said, listen. And they were going to find out who did it, who was wrong. And the new interim pastor was a loving, gracious man. And we're going to sign you a committee to find out who is wrong here. I said, if I know who is wrong, it won't solve it. I said, you want to try and get out yourself, but I said, you better not allow the Lord to pass you by. I said, you're the leaders of this church. And the answer right now is Christ. And I said, and we talked for a little bit. I said, do you realize that it was Judas who said, Lord, is it I? When there was one who's going to betray him, now is that man either an absolute blatant liar, or is this man deceived so bad that he did not know it was him? I said, I'm going to pray. And I said, would you ask yourself four questions? Who do I need to forgive? Who do I need to ask forgiveness of? How am I right now a part of the problem of this church, and how can I be an answer and part of the solution for this church? And so I prayed, and it was the long pause. I asked for it. And boy, one person after the other just started to cry and ask forgiveness. And it was just an amazing thing. And the Lord that night did not pass him by. And I said, I got to leave right now, because I got all day tomorrow. But I said, I got one more boat story to tell you. This time, they're going across in the storm, but Jesus is in the boat. But he's asleep. And they're afraid, so they wake him up. He said, oh, you unbelieving generation. And let me put my words in. Do you honestly think that that boat is going to sink with Jesus in it? You see, if he's in the boat, folks, he'll get you across to the other side. But you've got to get Jesus in the boat. And if he's not there, he'll let you roll. And I think one of the things that spiritual battles and warfare does is that you quickly come to the end of your resources, folks. You realize you couldn't send anybody free if you wanted to. It's not within your power, my power. And if you don't call upon the name of the Lord, you'll never be saved. Well. So he uses that occasion to tell them the great omission. That's my terminology. You know the Great Commission, go into all the world, make disciples. But if we don't enter into the central teaching of all four Gospels, what he's gonna cover here next, you will never fulfill the Great Commission, we'll never reach our status for Christ. Listen to what he does. And it came about that while he was praying alone, the disciples were with him and he questioned him saying, who do the multitude say that I am? Now let me say some time here, you know the whole issue. And what happened, verse 23, and he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake is the one who shall find it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? And who's ever ashamed of me and my words of him? Will the son of man also be shamed when he comes in glory? And that's what I call the great omission. You see, God has a way of systematically bringing us to the end of our resources. It seems so austere, doesn't it? Let him deny himself, pick up his cross daily and follow me. Seems as though he is asking everything of me and promising nothing. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is trying to restore a fallen humanity. Lordship is not a negative doctrine to preach. It's your hope. It's the ultimate struggle in life. Who's in charge? There can only be one God. You're either going to serve God or mammon, or I'm the master of my fate. I'm the captain of my soul. Oh, no, you are not. You'll either serve God or mammon, one or the other. And we are being deceived as though we're serving self. And indeed, we are not. We are just being subject to the God of this world. Denying yourself is not self-denial. Every student, every athlete in the world does that. Saying no to yourself is the ultimate struggle. There's a beautiful picture of it in the Old Testament. Abraham and Isaac, and then Jacob coming along. He cheated his own brother out of his birthright. And fearing for his life, he runs. He comes to Bethel, puts his head on a rock, and has his first little salvation experience, if you can accept that out of the Old Testament. But here he sees the heavens open up, the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. And with that, he goes up to Pater Marum and up in Pater Marum for 20 years, he bargains for one wife and gets another wife and for sheep and goats. And after 20 years of frustrated living, I've had it. You know, if this is what the Christian life is all about, forget it. And so he packs up his sheep and his goats and his wives and his children. And he comes down to the river Jabbok. It's a little tributary into the Jordan River and there's a Jordan River place called penile means face of God and he sends his sheep across his goats across his wife across his children across and he's all alone on the wrong side of the Jordan River and the angel of the Lord comes And he rustled with God all night But he doesn't know who it is and this stranger is there and he's struggling to get away struggling to get away and then the dawn cracks And he sees the face of the stranger, but it's not one of hatred, it's one of love. And the entire battle changes. And he's not struggling anymore to get away, he's struggling to hang on. And God reaches down and touches his sockets and he limps across to the other side, a broken man. But you see over here is Jacob, but over here is Israel. He'll never be the same again, never. He came to the end of his resources, and he went back and faced the truth. That has to happen to all of us. We gotta discover God for ourself. There was a time in my life when I relied on all my seminary notes and whatever else, and one day I began to own that stuff, and realized I had a personal relationship with God. And I began to preach out of my own life, and things began to change quite radically. But I had to come to the end of my resources. You see, it's the ultimate mystery of life. Easter had to be in the spring, didn't it? Because being a farm boy from Minnesota, every year you, that tree died, man. Look at, you can snap a branch and it would break. That's just frozen. But in the spring, there would come life. You want a great, Oak tree? Well, plant an oak tree. No, plant an acorn. You plant an acorn, if you could watch the process, what would happen? It would die, wouldn't it? But out of it would come that giant oak tree. It really is the ultimate mystery of life. And you and I have the seed of God planted within us, but if we don't learn to come to the end of our resources, then frankly, that seed will never come out. Job puts that whole passage in an interesting way. He said, it's time now for the Son of Man to be glorified. What follows next? The coronation? The ascension? He said, verily, verily, I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. And somehow God has to strip us of that self-sufficiency and realize this is not based on a program or a strategy or somebody else's notes. It's God who does it. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. and so austere. But what are you really sacrificing? You're sacrificing the lower life to gain the higher life. It seems to be the great ambition of man to be happy as animals instead of being blessed as children of God. You're sacrificing the temporal to gain the eternal. You're sacrificing the pleasures of things to gain the pleasures of life. What would you exchange for love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control? What would you exchange for that? A new car? A degree? The lie of the world is that those things will give me love, joy, peace, patience. They will not. That's a fruit of the Spirit of God in me. That's the light that he wants to bring out in me. And so he told them this. Did they get it? No. Not yet. Not fit for the kingdom yet. But I say to you truly there are some there who are standing here who shall not taste death until they shall see the kingdom of God. Most commentators and I agree with them. And Matthew is the same context here. He's talking about those who were really right there. Peter, James, and John were chosen to go up to the Mount of Transfiguration. And there the Lord has transfigured before them. And then all of a sudden Moses and Elijah appear. Now they've been called to preach the kingdom. Who are Moses and Elijah? Boy, they are the Old Testament kingdom figures. One has set up the theocratic kingdom in the Old Testament, gave them the law. I mean, and then Elijah, he's the forerunner of the coming kingdom. And so there's Moses and Elijah. They're seeing all this start to come to completion. And then when they see the kingdom, they saw it. And the Lord was just transfigured in front of them. And Peter blurts out, oh, let's build three tabernacles. Three? Poof, poof, two of them are gone. This is my beloved son. There's the king. He's right in front of you. And he's going to be in you, Peter. And when he's in you, you're going to go into this world and you're going to establish that kingdom in the hearts of man. And if you like it, someday, maybe on earth. Depends on your theology. But he's the king. And he has to be the king of our lives. Not us. He's the king. They're not there yet. They got some bad attitudes. So he shows them some of their bad attitudes. Let's go on, verse 37. And it came about on the next day, that when they come down from the mountain, a great multitude met him. And behold, a man from the multitude shouted out, saying, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only boy. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams and throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth, and it mauls him. And it scarcely leaves it and I beg you disciples to cast it out and they could not and Jesus answered said oh I'm believing in perverted generation. I want to submit something to you here. Why couldn't they? Didn't he tell them that they had authority and power over that? And his answer was, you unbelieving generation. When Paul writes, he said, I pray that your eyes would be open, that you would know the hope of his calling and the richness of the inheritance to the saints and the power that's been extended towards us who believe. And perverted. They got some bad attitudes yet. There's something wrong here that God really couldn't work through them at that time. It was part of their unbelief. Let me tell you what I think happens. And it happens in a variety of ways. I mentioned this slightly yesterday, but I said, you have people who have a tremendous heart for God, like a Bill Bright. And out of that has come the largest missionary force in the world, number-wise. And these are great men of God. And to illustrate that, I was down at Frank Barker's church in Birmingham, and Frank told me at lunch one day, he said, you know, 20 years ago, I asked Bill, how can I pray for you? And Bill said, pray that I don't lose my first love. He said, 10 years later. He said, I was talking with Bill. I said, how can I pray for you, Bill? Pray that I don't lose my first love. That's his heart. And out of that came Campus Crusade for Christ. And they developed some transformable concepts and 10 basic steps to maturity. And what happens is, people, is that you develop that kind of material. Then the second generation comes along. And they've been touched by Bill Bright. And they take those tools and they use them. The third generation comes along, and they think it's the tools. They think it's the program. And their confidence is, hey, this will work. Try this track or try this program. They don't realize it worked because there was a great man. And Dawson McAllister started Navigators. And the good material came out of that. And I realized, I said, what's the steps to freedom? Just a tool. Just a tool. How does it work? I'll tell you how it works. You've got to have this kind of a person. 2 Timothy 2.24, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, able to teach, patient with wrong, with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance, leaning to a knowledge of the truth, that's what sets them free, that they may come to their senses. Where's the battle? It's between the ears. That they may escape the snare of the devil. Haven't been held captive to do his will. And O. E. M. Bowen used to say, men are looking for good methods. God's looking for good men. What he needs is instruments. He can use any old tool. It's amazing. And we think it's the tool. And God has used our steps to freedom all over the world. Thank God. I'm fighting for the next generation coming along. Try this. It works. And you got the wrong people doing it. And it doesn't work. Because it's the people. And they were all amazed because the Lord set this man free at the greatness of God. And verse 46 says, and an argument arose amongst them as to which of them might be the greatest. And Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by his side. He said to him, whoever receives this child in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you, this is the one who's great. Peter learned it? No, go to chapter 22. There they are, arguing again. And the Lord comes to Peter and says, Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded the right to sift you like wheat. Whoa. But what right did he demand that? Look at the context. They were arguing who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. You know what the Lord said? I'll pray for you. And when you've turned again, and here's the attitude of Peter, and I believe it was right. Oh, God, I'll do anything. I'll go. I'll die for you. I'll go to prison for you. Peter, before the day is out, you'll deny me three times. What happened? Denied him three times. He lost control. Pride. Pride's a killer. Just a killer. And here they are arguing. Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Look at possessiveness. Verse 49. And John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We tried to hinder them because he does not Follow along with us. When Jesus said to him, do not hinder him for he who is not against you is for you. I'll tell you that possessive enough today. How can that work? You know, you're not a Baptist. And it's that old party line. You know, somebody's using my material differently. And Paul had to say that. They're out there witnessing all the wrong purposes. Thank God they're witnessing. Even if it's for the wrong motive, but they're witnessing. And well, they're not one of us. We're all children of God. I think there needs to be a sense of tolerance that God could actually work a little bit differently in somebody else than myself and have a little different perspective than I have because I realize they all do. And that's why, by and large, you get shaped through your own life in ministry. You've heard my story before, but I used to do premarital counseling. I'd hold up my hand like this. I said, describe what you see. And they would describe details and skin and hair. And finally, they'd say fingernails. I'd say, sorry, there are no fingernails in this hand. Of course, they'd look at me like I was a nut. I said, but truth of the matter is, from my perspective, there are no fingernails on this hand. And one day you go through that old paradigm shift, don't you? Oh my goodness, there are. See, we have trouble accepting the fact that truth can have that dimension to us. That there are people who see things that lie outside the realm of our education and our experience. That's why we have difficulty taking this message to this world, because they've gone through a whole seminary system and an educational system that basically has dealt with this as a non-reality. And you come in and say, oh, by the way, it is a reality. And I've had to have some of our faculty sit with me at Talbot and say, would you sit in with me? And they walk out, oh, OK, I see what you're talking about now. And I remember the first time I ran across an MPD. That scared the socks off of me. No training, no background, never even heard of it. And I'm sitting about six years or so ago, and this girl, who are you? How did I get here? I'm getting out of here. I said, goodbye. Man, I just. never had a fear for the demonic. I can thank God for that. That scared the socks off of me. I just sat there. I said, what am I doing? You know, what was that? And, uh, that was a paradigm shift. I mean, all of a sudden, Oh my goodness, there are fingernails out there. And, uh, Of course, then I struggled with it being a Sem Prof, the theological aspect of it for the longest time. And I've admitted that to you yesterday, all right? But it's amazing, isn't it? How, well, you're not one of us, kind of a thing. We're all children of God. We're all children of God. We have to learn to adapt our message to a lot of different cultures and understanding. And I'm saying it has to be truly from my perspective, and that's not true. See, that's when I got married. I was the head of the home, so I had to make sure that the right perspective was brought on all issues, which, of course, was mine. And then I grew up a little bit and began to tolerate my wife's perspective. Then I grew up a little bit more and began to appreciate it. Then I grew up a little bit more and began to seek it out and realize that her perspective was just as valid as mine, but painfully almost always somewhat different. And so my good Norwegian stoic farm background, when my son would scratch his knee when he was two years old, I'd go, get up, be a man. And Joanne's response was, oh, poor baby. Now, which is right? Well, kind of both, I would think. So now when he's 22, he scratches his knee, I said, get up, poor baby. Joanne says, oh, poor baby, get up. I mean, you know, we've had that kind of interplay on each other's life and realized that perspective. She's my compliment. And we've got complimentary ministries, and we don't sometimes appreciate that. And if we're honest, you know, the pastor has trouble sometimes, or the theologian has sometimes trouble accepting the legitimate Christian psychologist, for instance. But if I read my systematic theology, there's theology and also psychology. You know, we've got to have a biblical psychology, however. We have to have a big old theology, too. You say, well, there's bad counselors out there. Man, there's bad pastors out there. I mean, really bad ones. But let's go on. I mean, possessiveness. Is that true? all right verse 51 and it came about when the days were approaching for his ascension that he absolutely set his face to go to jerusalem and he said messengers on ahead of him and they went and entered the village of the samaritans to make arrangements for him and they did not receive him because he was journeying with his face to jerusalem now you know the story here they would just journey around Samaria but Jesus would walk right through it. I mean it was fascinating, but they wouldn't receive him there So here's the response by the disciples and James and John saw this they said Lord Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? And he turned and rebuked him and said you do not know what kind of spirit you are You would use the power of God to rain destruction on people when the power of God is to rain healing and forgiveness and love and mercy and Now, I'll tell you what, you and I are going to be tempted to do that, man. God, rain, destruction on the false memory syndrome. They're children of God, most of them. A lot of them are Christians. I struggled with that when I was in Israel because I'm kind of a Zionist and believe in the future state of Israel and those stupid Arabs. And then I found out the only really Christians over there are Arab. And God created them too. And God loves them just as much as he does the Jews. And boy, we have to watch our own heart in those matters. And in our book, Setting Your Church Free, there's some hard stuff about Moses. And you can go through numbers and clearly see where his staff, Miriam and Aaron, rebelled against him. Then his whole congregation rebelled against him. And then his board, 270 elders, rebelled against him. And God brought judgment on it. Guess what Moses did in both cases? Oh God, would you judge the whole congregation? And instead of saying, God, they deserved it. He said, Lord, you know, would you withhold the judgment? He said, God is searching for the world for somebody to stand in the gap. And we pray that prayer. We don't realize what he's talking about there. He said, I'm going to bring judgment against this nation, but nobody would stand and pray against that judgment coming. So I brought judgment upon the nation. That's the context. And I said, there's a lot of difficult people in this world, and we're supposed to bless those who curse us, not ask for judgment to come upon them. I mean, boy, I learned that hard thing in ministry because I, oh God, remove this person, bring judgment upon him. And Moses prayed that the judgment would be withheld, and that's why he was the most humble of all men. And boy, because that would be hard for us to do that. What spirit are we? I wish that we had all. find our freedom in Christ. Boy, there's sometimes people hurt me, I want to hurt them back. I got to deal with that in my heart. I will not count their sins against them. I want to be a reconciler. And it's hard when it comes to you. I realize that. It's hard for them. The Son of Man didn't come to destroy man's life, but to save them. And here comes a false confidence. As they were going along the road, someone, Matthew says it was a scribe, said to him, I'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. I see God's heart and mind is single, looks upon the heart. And here is a man filled with self-confidence. I'll go wherever you want to go. No, you won't. I know you won't. As soon as it gets a little tough, you go back to your party and whatever. Then the other false, lame excuses that come, he said, well, follow me. He said, well, let me go back and bury my father first. Well, he wasn't dead. Because in that time, if somebody died, they buried him just like that. And he said, well, I got to go home and do this. I told you to follow me. But you didn't want to. You wanted to go home and take care of this first. I realize these are very difficult attitudes that all of us face. I said, God, I'll follow you wherever you go. But it better not be this or this or that place. See, I think God's will for my life is on the other side of that door. Well, what is it? Door's closed. Well, show me God. He won't show you. Do you know why? You got to solve something on this side of the door first. If God is God, he has the right to determine what's on the other side of that door. And if he doesn't have that right, then for you, he's not God. And so you say, well, okay, God, I'll follow you. See, I got to be convinced on this side that God's will for my life is good, acceptable, and perfect. I believe that. One of the reasons he may not show you, there could be some real hardship on the other side of that door. I read the last chapter, Walking Through Light, and we'll tell you about ours. Had I known what my family would have gone through 12 years ago for me to be here today, I can tell you right now, I don't think I'd have come this way. But I can tell you from my heart, and my whole family will, looking back now, we're glad we came. We're glad. And there may be some hard things. So we put our foot in the door. And we said, why did you do that? Well, just in case, man, I want a way to go back. And it says, well, anybody who does that is not fit for the kingdom of God. When I left engineering and went to seminary, I kept my foot in the door. I stayed on as a consultant. They needed me. I needed them. I thought I did. You know, nice little income. Case seminary isn't what I thought it would be. I could go back and be an engineer. And I'll tell you what, I pulled my foot out after the first semester and said, I knew I was doing that, really. And for the next five years, I was tempted many times to go back to engineering. But you're not fit for the kingdom of God. Press up. Never stop becoming what God has called you to be. Well, I mean, stripped them of their self-sufficiency, revealed some of the attitudes that they had that were just wrong to be fit for the kingdom. Then after that, it says, the Lord appointed 70 others. Appointed 70 others. and sent them two and two ahead of him to every city and place where himself was going to come. And he was saying to them, harvest is plentiful, labors are few, therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into your harvest. And so principle of selection at this time. Can I encourage you in this kind of ministry, don't ask for volunteers. Do you know why? You'll get volunteers. And you will not get the best of your congregation. And this isn't a game that we're playing here. Boy, you better have people free themselves, or you're going to put them in a ministry where they're going to fail. And it can't absolutely destroy their life. And I realized how God has carried me through this. I said, it's a simple concept. You better have a person deeply understanding what it means to be in Christ from Ephesians 1 and 2 before you tell them about Ephesians 6. There's an order here. And you go into this conference, boy, I've learned some new stuff. I'm going to go share with my congregation. You may get thrashed and find yourself out of ministry in about six months. And you gotta lay the right kind of a foundation first, as God does, I believe, in scripture. When you establish a person free in Christ and tell them what his authority is, then you can tell them about what the dangers are in the world. And they can face it, because they've got a truth foundation now by which they can live on. And that's why I said it's a scary thing. Somebody come in, well, I'll give them the punchline, lead them through the steps to freedom. Do they know who they are as children of God? Do they know the authority of the believer? Do they understand the battle for their mind? They didn't know how to stand. Getting a person free is one thing. Staying free is something else. It really is. Well, by the way, appointed. I remember I was so burdened. It was a big church, a couple thousand. I was an associate. And evangelism at that time was It was so far in the back burner. I think it was really off the stove. And once a month, we had a visitation program. And a big plea would come once a month. Please, please show up tomorrow. We need you so bad to follow visitors. And 20 would come, and 20 of them you really wish hadn't come. You know what I mean? Representing your church, but you asked for them, so you got them. And they're hardly good ambassadors for your church, but they'll come because you put a guilt trip on them, and they came. And I asked the pastor at that time, I said, could I try something different here? And I said, can I have those cards? And what I did for myself, I want to trade myself. And I took a card. I said, I'm going to follow up, because nobody taught me in seminary what to do here. So I just went out and learned. And I made a commitment. I'm going to go to this first house, but I'm not going to leave that house until I ascertain whether or not they are a Christian. If they're not, share Christ with them. That was my goal. Got there at 7, didn't leave till 11. It took me so long to, by the way, I found I could do that now in about 5, 10 minutes. And so then I called 20 people that I, I mean, very carefully, prayerfully selected 20 that I thought were the best I could get in the church and asked if they'd meet with me, challenged the socks off of them. I said, I want you to commit me one year. We're going to go out one night a week and we're going to read together and study and learn together. I thought I would get it down to about two or four people. 18 said they would do it. And so 18 of us, we studied, we prayed, we role played, we got ourselves familiar. Then we went out door to door to get them over the shock. Then we started following up visitors. And after about 12 weeks, we were winning a personal week to Christ out of that group. Then we, amongst ourselves, chose another that we felt we could train. Within a year, we had 100 people in our church paying to get in the program to cover the material costs, because I didn't have a budget, meaning three nights a week, a different group every night, and we were winning an average of 12 people a week to Christ. Now that is exactly the same church, the same people we had a year earlier. What's the difference? Right here. You've got to choose the best. You see, good people don't respond to volunteer programs, by and large, because they know if anybody can do it, let anybody do it. But good people will be challenged to do something like that. So it was an exciting time. We found out the field was white on the harvest. It really was. And you know what's amazing? When I started the program, we had 10 visitors a week. I said, what are we going to do if we double this thing? We got 20 a week. What do we do if we double that? We got 40 a week. He said, how do you explain that? Well, there's a spiritual and a natural one. Spiritual one, I don't think God brings us any more than we can handle, by and large. And that's the spiritual side, and I think that's legitimate. There's another explanation, that an average church, say, of 200 people, after about one or two years, no growth, you've just exhausted your tentacles into that community. How many times can you keep asking that co-worker and family friend to come to church? It doesn't take long, and you have no more contacts. You get a new contact in your church, leading to Christ, A study showed that there's at least 12 people that that person is socially connected with. And out of that, two may come. And they have 12. And out of that, two more will come. And suddenly, there's a whole sense of new life in your church. You're no longer ingrown. You're starting to reach out. I put an ad in the Long Beach Press-Telegraph. Two lines. Need spiritual help? Call so-and-so. Got 10 calls a day. They got a recorded message from me. And one would leave a telephone number. We followed those up. Got in touch with a whole different group of people now, mind you. And it was strange. The principle of sending. We've been told the Great Commission, go into all the world. And that's a participle. It should read as you go. That's true. Here it isn't. It's an imperative. It says, go. You know why? It's the only way you're going to learn it. And here's a tool. Use it. Try it. It works. And we had the hardest time getting people over to sit down and lead a person to those steps to freedom. And so we put a video out and showed them how and everything else. And there were a lot of people. I said, you got to try it. I said, you ought to see what I tried with 10 years ago. Nothing. I fumbled away and made so many mistakes, it was unbelievable. So thank you for your comments, because I'm embarrassed about some of the things I did 12 years ago. And I'm just praying that I won't be embarrassed 10 years from now what I'm doing now, but it's uh... But go! Go! Help somebody! You know, don't wait for them to come to you, they won't! We got to go to the world. We got to go to the church. We got to go to the cities. We got to do that. Oh, y'all come. Go. That's what they did. We got enough people, Christians, strategically located in America, in every business, corporation, and school. If they would simply become the people God called them to be where they're at, we'd fulfill the Great Commission in six months. But they're not free. They're not. So what can they share? I'd like to share my bondage with you. You get a person freeing Christ, he'll be a witness just by his life. What happened to you yesterday? We get tons of letters like that. Man, you're different. They are different. They're freeing Christ. They know who they are. They're children of God. And you don't have to tell that person to be a witness. They're our witness. They're a witness of the resurrection. Really? You know, in Acts 1A, it says, you wait on high, for you shall be my witnesses. Well, these people have already seen the resurrection. What do you mean you shall be? Pentecostal. What are we a real witness to? The resurrected life of Christ within us. That's what we're witness to. That's what we're witness to. Is to get Christ alive within us. He's the king. Put him in residence right here. Make him king of your lives. You'll be a witness. Not to you, but a witness to the grace of God in our own personal lives and what he's done for us. And he says, by the way, I'm going to send you out as lambs amidst wolves. Hey, thanks a lot. I struggled with that for a while, because the world can be rather ravenous. But I was a farm boy, and we raised sheep. The major difference between a sheep and a wolf is that sheep, in their life, as they're living, give of their wool, and they'll die of their meat. They don't devour anything. They don't hurt anybody. They're the most gentle animal on the farm. They wouldn't hurt anything, seemingly. But they give, give, give. They give in their life and their wool and their death. They give their meat. But a wolf just lives off everything else, bites and devours. And I'm going to send you out a bunch of people that are going to bite and devour you and put you down. But you're going to go out as a sheep, and you're going to give. He said, when you go to that house, bring peace to that house. First say, peace be to this house. We can't preach the good news and be the bad news ourself. We can't do that. And so you come to the house, peace be with you. And it says, if there's a man of peace there, it'll come back to you. Boy, I found that to be true, that I could go out and share Christ and the love of God. I was afraid, what would happen if I got rejection? You know, that was always the fear, oh, I'm rejected. But you know what, if I came home and shared the truth, and I was not the offense, but the gospel was to that person, it just seemed like a piece of God would rest upon me. I knew I'd done the right thing. I remember one time I went to this campus, Long Beach State. I had a little questions I was asking students. I came across this guy, turned out he was half American Indian. I said, according to your understanding, who is Jesus Christ? He said, a figment of your imagination. Hmm. I said according to your understanding. How does one become a Christian? He said applied stupidity this was not ripe fruit and I Said you know something obviously has really turned you off to Christianity said Yeah, you bet. I said I'd really like to hear that He'd really like to tell me too and for a half an hour He told me I said, you know if I'd had that happen to me I really honestly think I would feel the way you do I I said, but what happened? He wasn't Christianity at all. Not that I've understood. I said, if you'd like to know how to really become a real Christian, I said, why don't you just read this? Okay, he said, took the track and walked off. And boy, be a peacemaker. While I like to play the devil's advocate. Why? He doesn't need your help at all, man. I mean, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. If I could put anything on my grave right now, I'd like to say, that man brought a greater sense of unity to the body of Christ. I would love that. He brought people together. He was a reconciler. That's what I once said on my grave. Somehow, reconcile the God to each other. Have a ministry of reconciliation. Well, I've got a ministry of condemnation. Oh, get rid of it, man. You can spend the rest of your life telling people what you don't believe, and you'll accomplish absolutely nothing. Preach the gospel. Tell the truth. Speak it in love. Don't be an offense. If the gospel's offensive to them, make sure it's the gospel and not us, right? Let them know this for our love and The reception is there or whatever else have they arrived when they came back notice what they said and the 70 returned with joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name notice the transitioning here the chapter 9 says I've given you authority power of the demons and then he says your disciples they couldn't do it these people couldn't and They came back and said, Lord, even the demons are subject to us. Once that self-sufficiency had been stripped, once those attitudes had been revealed, once that wickedness and non-belief had been stripped out of them, then they were able to do that. There's one more correction, however. Don't rejoice in that. It says, I watch Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I've given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions. That's not snakes and bugs. That's the devil and his angels. And over all the power of the enemy, nothing shall injure you. Nevertheless, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. I had a gal at campus one time. People kept trying to get this girl to come see me. She said, oh, you mean the demon man? I'm not the demon man, I'm the Christ man, all right? That would be a terrible perception to live with, you know? Oh, he's the guy that deals with demons. People, we're not called to dispel the darkness. We're called to turn on the light. We're to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We can spend the rest of our life analyzing what the problem is, and the answer's sitting right in front of us. It's Christ. There's a million ways that you can go wrong. There's only one way back to God. There's a million ways you can be abused in your childhood or whatever. The answer's the same. You're gonna have to forgive and renounce that use of your body. There's a million ways you can sin. The answer's the same. The answer's the same. And we're locked in that paralysis of analysis when the answer is right there. Let's get Christ in this thing. Look at him. He's right in front of you. He's the transfiguration. He's there. He's the king. Oh, three tabernacles. One of my seminary notes and the other one of whatever. It's Christ. He's looking for people who are dependent upon him, because all temptation is an attempt to get us to live our lives independent of God. That's what temptation is. It isn't the apple. It isn't the sex. It's to get us to live our lives independent of God. Did they make it? Did they pass? Were they fit now? I think they were. Now notice Jesus' rebuttal. At that very time, he rejoiced greatly, and the Holy Spirit said, I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent, and didst reveal them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Thy sight. All things have been handed over to me, all things to me by my Father. No one knows the Son. Who is the son except the father and who the father is except the son? Anyone to whom the son wills to reveal it and turning to his disciples. He said privately blessed are the eyes We see the things you see for I say to you that many prophets and kings wish to see the things which you see It did not see them and to hear the things which you hear it did not hear them We're looking for a good method I think it's the fear of ICBC and Be Mine that you go home and say, boy, I learned a new technique there. It isn't a technique that does it. It's men and women of God who have been stripped of their own self-sufficiency, who know enough to depend upon God for everything they do, who've gotten rid of some attitudes that are self-centered and selfish. and given up on the lame excuses, and realize that God has called not just Neil Anderson to speak to the church, but to all of you. We're all called. We're all called. Which side of the Jordan River are you on? You can spend 20 years in the wilderness, or you can come to the end of your resources and step across the river like Elijah took Elisha. You see what Elijah did? He took him as far as any one man can take another man, the wrong side of the Jordan River. And he was transported. I want a double portion of your spirit. Eve asked a hard thing. Remember the story? Second Kings 2. And so Elijah is called home. There's Elisha, wrong side of the Jordan River. 50 sons of the prophet over here, a little seminary program, living off the reputation of mom and dad. And they're on the wrong side of the Jordan River. And here's Elisha. He said, where's the God of Elijah? And he takes a man on strikes and walks across and drag out. Oh, let's go search for your master. Don't search, he said. You know why? Because on the other side, my master was Elijah. On this side, it's God. Are we fit for the kingdom? Do we need to be stripped of our self-sufficiency? Does one want to be the big person here? There's only one giant, it's God. We're all little children, little babes in Christ, totally dependent upon him. That's what he'd take them through. So he took Mark through, isn't it Mark? So he took me through. He may take me through it again. That's his choice. But even if he did, people, I'm so convinced whatever God has in store for us down the path, if we will commit ourselves to him, that his will by our lives will prove to be good and acceptable and right. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your love and for the body of Christ and for the truth of your word that No one man down here is sufficient. We need you, Lord. We need you for our own personal lives. We need you for our ministries. We need to be dependent upon you, so we submit ourselves to you. Pray that you'd fill us with your spirit. There's some dark days ahead of us Lord. I pray as we come out the other side that we will not be who we are today But people who are sold out to you fit for the kingdom. Thank you for the walk We look forward to seeing you someday face to face What up? What a day that will be God But until then may we be all that you've called us to be and we'll pray and ask for that in Jesus name Amen