Five Types of Spiritual Leaders - Evangelists

shalom like to welcome everyone today and uh especially would like to welcome our live stream audience uh tuning in from wherever uh we're glad you're joining us we bless you in the name of the lord may god's presence fill your homes and minister to your hearts to your children to your loved ones and may today be just a breakthrough day for all of you thank you for uh joining us in our live streaming today at this time we're going to go into our liturgy so i'm going to ask everyone to please stand as james and megan lead us in our liturgy today thank you blessed are you yahweh our god ruler of the universe who sanctified us by your commandments and justified us through the blood atonement of yeshua hamashiach and gave us yeshua our messiah the light of the world father in commemoration of creation and recreation through yeshua the light of the world we bless the menorah an ancient symbol of your presence among us blessed are you yahweh our god king of the universe who sanctified us by your commandments and justified us through the blood atonement of yeshua hamashiach and commanded us to be a light for the nations and it was evening and it was morning the sixth day the heavens and the earth and all the contain were completed by the seventh day god had finished the work which he had been doing and so god ceased from all his work then god blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it he ceased from all his work of creation blessed are you yahweh our god ruler of the universe who sanctified us by your commandments and has taken pleasure in us and in love and favor you have caused us to inherit the holy shabbat in remembrance of the creation a day which is the beginnings of our holy gatherings and as a memorial of our departure from egypt even our egypt from sin and shame for you have chosen us and forgiven us your sins through the blood atonement of yeshua mashiach and in love and favor have caused us to inherit the shabbat for rest and refreshing shema hero israel yahweh is our god yahweh is one you shall love yahweh your god with all of your heart with all of your soul and with all of your might and you shall love your neighbor as yourself and these words which i am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them as you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates and when you walk about they will guide you when you sleep they will watch over you and when you awake they will talk to you for the commandment is a lie and the torah is a light and reproofs for discipline are the way of life we'd like to invite all the families with children to come to the front of the sanctuary where we will impart a parental blessing for our children shabbat shalom yes all right let's begin by praying for our daughters please repeat after me may yahweh bless you like sarah and rebecca rachel and leah and miriam the mother of yeshua and may you find favor in the eyes of yahweh all the days of your life and now let's bless our sons please repeat after me may yahweh bless you like ephraim and manasseh and may you find favor in the eyes of yahweh all the days of your life and now for one another and the whole congregation may yahweh bless you and keep you may yahweh make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you yahweh lift his countenance upon you and give you peace in the name of the prince of peace yeshua our messiah now let's take a few moments and pray together as families all right shabbat shalom i have a few nonsense before we move on with the rest of our service children will be dismissed after announcements the first of which is nursery will be available every shabbat from 12 50 to 3 pm for ages 6 months to 3 years parents please pick your kiddos up immediately following the end of the service i do have a note for you here due to very minimal usage of the nursery this last week when we reopened it we're going to be evaluating the need for nursery through the rest of this month so he's kind of just wanted to let you know that for the rest of this month all right my second announcement is that we need volunteers in many different areas we need everybody to kind of step up as a community together and work together to really serve the lord every shabbat when we come together there are a few areas that i would like to highlight that we do have a need in the first of which is security as well as youth group office admin volunteers and um setup and breakdown so those are a couple of the areas that we definitely need help in so if you would be willing to serve once a month in those areas or twice a month please see myself or pastor chris after service and we'll help you get plugged in to those areas thank you at this time i'm going to invite pastor mark up for a special announcement and uh yeah so elder randy are you in the house there he is back here all right you're moving tomorrow are you moving tomorrow do you need more help you don't know yet all right well listen he's moving tomorrow he might need some help so after the service you know if you want to help for a couple hours just talk to him and let him know get some information or he can get your phone number and then if he needs help he'll give you a buzz but we'll see if we can find some support you bet it's moving alone is hard been there yeah okay and then also uh yeah we we are we're we're raising up our security team so for those that were broken into here a couple weeks ago we're now monitoring the parking lot during the service and so uh we're on that now and uh it's just kind of finalizing some things to make sure that we got enough men to make that happen on a weekly basis so and again if you were broken into and you have out-of-pocket expenses you have expenses that were not covered by insurance please see me after the service and we're going to try to see what we can do to help you out with those out-of-pocket expenses all right back to shaina thank you pastor mark all right i have one last announcement for you today um we've been working on something very exciting behind the scenes and today is the day that we get to announce it so um you are invited to join the harvest new messianic dance academy davidic dance has been a pillar of hebraic religious experiences for centuries the purpose of davidic dance is simple it's to praise and worship god through dance at the harvest we dance many of the traditional israelis israeli dances as well as we've choreographed a number of new dances to um up and coming christian music you see that every day that we're here um this month 14 classes will be released on youtube in which you can learn foundational dance steps and beginner dance choreography this is just the start of classes being released for our virtual dance academy get excited for the release of this new dance academy on june 22nd at 5 p.m mountain standard time on our youtube channel and this will not be the end we're going to go forward and work on follow-up dances including intermediate advance and a number of other things so i hope that you join us on june 22 on youtube thanks guys at this time children are dismissed for tour time and you may stand and greet one another hey everyone thank you and find your seats please at this time we're going to go ahead and take up the lord's tithe and our offerings and so if you need an envelope for cash giving just raise your hand and the ushers will get you an envelope raise your hands ushers get you an envelope if you're writing a check you don't need an envelope just make the check out to the harvest or if you want to just go to the link in the description below if you're watching via a video you can go to our donate page and you can donate there right there online so encourage you to do that praise god and for those that are online i just want to say if you don't have a place to attend and you want to give your tithe and offerings this is a great place to do that you can send them to us i mean we're a congregation that loves yeshua we exalt yeshua we believe he's the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to the father except through him and we also believe in the commandments of god you know many places uh they they believe in jesus but not the commandments and then you have many forms of judaism that believe in the commandments but don't believe in messiah and here we are we believe in messiah and the commandments of god so it's a good place to sow your tithes and your offerings we encourage you to do that so i just got to finish mine up here too and at this time as you're getting that ready i'd like to uh invite up one of our own to share a little bit about how he came to faith and then discovered the torah please welcome justin gardner how's it going justin oh wonderful that's great that's great so uh so tell us a little bit about uh how you came to faith and and maybe even a little bit about your background prior to coming to faith yeah so um when i was growing up i didn't really grow up in a religious home by any means uh the most religion that i had was my mom would go oh god we'll take care of us and that was really about it so um that was pretty much my exposure growing up and uh other than that like sports was really my religion that's what i did day in day out i'd have practice almost every day every weekend we'd have a tournament um and that's that's where i came from and then i went to a private high school specifically for football no other reason and it was a catholic high school and i learned a little bit about catholicism the sacraments things like that and i felt like i knew a lot right so i went to catholic high school i felt like you know yeah i know jesus i know you know what it's about and lent and stuff like that and so i felt good about it and um went and played college football at a uh a school in central illinois which it had nothing there i don't even think it had a walmart it was that small but it had a pig factory where they like butchered pigs and then it had a dog food factory so it would smell fifty percent of time of pig and the other fifty percent of the time dog food um but so i went there i played football and um a christian fellowship group approach like they do this every year they approach all the freshmen and say hey if you guys want we're gonna do steak dinners for all the freshman football players um and of course i like steak um it's tasty and so i said yeah i'm down like let's do it and you know and so i went and with a couple of my buddies and none of us really cared that it was a jesus thing they're like hey come get steak and i like we like steak so we went and got steaks and so they invited us into their home and they didn't even talk about jesus i mean to be honest they just talked about life and where we came from and asked for our stories and all that kind of stuff and just kind of developed this this friendship atmosphere and then at the very end they they kind of just said hey by the way we had this little bible study thing no pressure but one of your your seniors on your football team actually leads it um they're like yeah so wes leads it and if you want to come it's you know wednesdays in the in the evening after practice and you know feel free and hang out and and join it and so i liked wes he was a nice guy i was like sure i'll try it out and a couple of us went and um from there it was it was literally a booklet that just led you to christ like the whole point was just you read through jesus being your savior and then your lord and what does that mean and at the very end they go all right well do you do you want to believe in this do you believe in this um and that's when i at first i said no i was like i don't know like i i think i believe but i don't know if i'm ready for that and it was really just chipping at like the hard parts of my heart and so like there was even a time where i was so puffed up that i said yeah jesus sinned duh like he got angry like everyone you know like he definitely sinned and he's like no he didn't sin actually i mean he was upset but he didn't he never sinned because he was the perfect sacrifice and so it was just really chipping off at those hard parts of my heart and just say you don't know everything you don't control your entire life and and i know what's best for you and so eventually as i kept going to these things and i really went because they were happy like it was either partying or i would go to these like movie nights with them and things like that and i would do both in in the beginning of it um and then eventually i was like these guys are happier i'm happier when i'm over here um they're supportive like it's it's the other side is just gross and full of sin and stuff like that and i guess in the moment it was kind of fun but i never felt good afterwards but here these guys are happy they're supportive um and eventually one day they're going hey by the way are you christian yet and i'm like you know what yeah i am and then i bleed and they led me to faith and um from there i've been a believer so how long ago was that um six years six six years ago okay yeah so so how did so you went from kind of a traditional maybe evangelical kind of christian experience how did you discover the toro how did you end up here keeping shabbat the dietary laws the festivals that's a big change how'd that happen yeah so what's funny is i didn't like um like lent stuff like that because i was like well i don't see this in the bible a lot and so and some of these things that they that i was doing in high school and things like that like i was just like i don't understand why i have to do this it's not in the bible i don't want to do what a man tells me to do it's just not what i want to do and so when i discovered so i went to the evangelical church and it was very topical and it made me feel good about myself and stuff like that and encouraging um and then eventually i i met shayna and then pastor mark and he's immediately asking me about christmas and you know what do you think about kosher and all this kind of stuff and i just be honest my god it's cool you know it's whatever and as i started reading the bible with a different lens i was like well that that's in the bible i like that and and ultimately my whole heart growing up was what's in the bible i'll do that but it's not in the bible i don't want to do it and so it's that simplicity of just understanding if it's in the bible then then do it why fight it if the bible's telling you to do it and then as they reread through especially the new testament and and you really connect those dots of like they never say the law is bad not once do they say the law is bad in fact they say it's it's good and so i was like well that makes sense and so as i went through that transition and i went to two different churches this one in a sunday church it just kept talking in my heart that this was really feeding into what god wants you to do because it's literally in the bible and so it was that simplicity of don't over complicate it if it's in the bible then do it and that's what i did yeah that is amazing you know that that's a great story because what i've discovered is people that don't have a religious background growing up you know they grew up in kind of a secular home they're far more open to well it's right there in the bible what's the problem versus the person that has all kinds of baggage that they were brought up with and they just assume that what they were taught is true then trying to show them in the bible it's like nah nah nah you know i already know this i've learned this and this is the way it is and so a lot of times people really struggle if they have a religious background versus a non-religious background so all right quick what do you want to say to everyone so i think it's interesting a lot of times we overcomplicate evangelism and what i realize is i'll never forget the guy that led me to faith and it was just the pure genuine nature of he wanted what was best for me and it was that simple and so a lot of times you might not even be the individual that led me to faith he specifically didn't lead me to faith but he led me on the path to it and so it was really just keep chipping at people's hearts and just being a good person to them and that ultimately is what changed my heart and when i thought about evangelizing initially at the tent idea and going out there and i'm like you know what like that's not how i was even saved if someone did that to me when i was in high school i would have probably laughed at them and not that that's a bad thing at all but it was really that genuine nature of i care about you and let's just hang out and i'm gonna show you i'm a good person and i like being happy and i want you to be happy so let's laugh together and and stay together and so i always just encourage everyone to keep it simple keep it simple tug at their heart be a good person really genuinely care and ask them questions and ultimately that's that's what i will remember for the rest of my life and it's the simplicity and evangelism and i think we can overcomplicate it but when we overcomplicate it we stumble on ourselves so keep it simple and love on people and ultimately that that shows jesus amen thank you justin if you're going to be interviewed you have to move your own chairs so okay i'm going to invite the worship team back up as we collect the lord's tithe and our offerings thank you lord we love you we bless you you're so amazing in every way and we thank you for every opportunity that you give us to represent your son in this world we bless you in yeshua's name amen [Music] i want to say what i say every week and as soon as the offering passes you i want to encourage you to stand and worship with us again [Music] kind [Music] i don't know [Music] my toes i wish [Music] i'm giving you all my days [Music] my [Music] yourself [Music] is [Music] holy are you [Music] holy are you are you [Music] is the voices [Music] time you the parasha this week is karak translated quora it's found in number 16 in verse 1 and runs through chapter 18 and verse 32. we're going to read a portion of the portion you can turn with me to numbers chapter 17. i would like to ask sheree chandler to come forward at this time and lead us into blessing over the torah portion and our reader today will be james cameron please rise for the blessing over the torah let's begin with the opening blessing for the torah [Music] yahuwah [Music] [Music] [Music] yahweh the blessed one blessed are you yahweh our god king of the universe who has selected us from all peoples and gave us your torah blessed are you yahweh giver of the torah amen please extend your right hand a blessing to the one who has come up to honor yahweh he who has blessed our fathers avraham yitzhak nyakov may he bless james cameron who has come up to honor yahweh in the torah of moshe may the holy one bless him and his family and send blessing and prosperity on all the work of his hands number 17 1-13 the lord spoke to moses saying speak to the people of israel and get from them stabs one for each father's house from all their chiefs according to their father's house 12 stabs write each man's name on his staff and write aaron's name on the staff of levi for there shall be one staff for the hand of each father's house then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony or i meet with you and the staff of the man whom i choose shall sprout thus i will make to cease for me the grumblings of all the people of israel which they grumble against you moses spoke to the people of israel and all the sheeps gave him stabs one for each chief according to their father's house twelve staffs and the staff of aaron was among their staffs and moses deposited the staff before the lord in the tent of the testimony on the next day moses went into the tent of the testimony and behold the staff of aaron for the house of levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and it bore ripe almonds then moses brought out all the stabs from before the lord to all the people of israel and they looked and each man took his staff and the lord said to moses put back the staff of aaron before the testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebels that you may make an end of their grubblings against me lest they die thus did moses and the lord commanded him so he did and the people of israel said to moses behold we perish we are undone we are all undone everyone who comes near who comes near to the tabernacle of the lord shall die are we all to perish let's end with the closing blessing for the torah baruch yahuwah eloheinu [Music] blessed are you yahweh our god king of the universe who gave us the tour of truth and implanted eternal life within us well um the prophet and brother of yeshua jude many years after this perishing was experienced and written about said this he said yet in the same way these men also dreaming defi defile the flesh and reject authority woe to them for they have gone the way of cain and pay and for pay they have rushed headlong into the era of balaam and have perished in the rebellion of korah so this was spoken in the context of an appeal and instructions to the early church to resist false teaching and jude went back to genesis and to do passage two passages in numbers to do this now the timing for this parish hour was a few months after um moses had announced that everybody would die in the wilderness of that of that generation so that was a real not a real popular plan and besides that moses claimed to hear from god and so he spoke and there was a challenge to that and to top it off he appointed his big brother as the chief priest so there was a sense of nepotism there um and that a p that kind of fed this discontentment cora was the head of a levite family uh and they were kind of from their perspective the aaron and his family got to do the temple services they just slept the the tabernacle and put it up took it down they were relegated to servants nathan and nibirum were rubinites and they were probably discontent because of the plan for them all to die in the wilderness they were unrelated but it's interesting in the in the temple or in the camp reuben was camped near the the camp of korah and so associations could have played a part here in the rebellion chapter 17 the james redd um is or the perishables chapter 16 which deals with this uh tragedy and the loss of almost 15 000 people chapter 17 is kind of a symbolic reenactment almost of chapter 16. and then chapter 18 has to do with the clarification of priestly roles in relationship to the community of israel and how the priests would be um supported and addressed the heartfelt crime that the last verse that james read was they discovered that it really is dangerous to have god living in your camp there was a genuine this was not a theoretical problem this was a real problem uh and uh in numbers 18 1 god spoke directly to aaron and not to moses in there and so it kind of reaffirmed what occurred in chapter 17. um now a staff as you listen to james reading is an official insignia and it was basically a stick carved out of wood it was dead but it was there was symbolism in it which symbolized the the chieftain and his tribe um and so it's interesting now this was true of aaron's rod too before it was brought when it was brought with the other rods it was a dead stick too i mean it was carved out of a tree and um had the symbolism of aaron and probably the levitical tribe and um but what happened in and the passage bears witness of this is aaron's rod uh bore fruit and um and grew a couple of things on that uh what that was a reminder to israel and to the to priests and the levite was life did not reside in them per se but they were to mediate and bring uh the people who might have been living in death to the source of life which was yahweh the source of life wasn't aaron it was yahweh his dead stick became alive when it was put in the presence of yahweh also interesting is the hebrew here for almond also means to watch and to be awake the almond blossoms that james read about typically was one of the earlier plants to blossom in the spring and so what it did is it heralded to the people that spring was coming the cold and the wet winter was almost gone and so in this it appeared a couple of things for the priesthood one they were to be watchmen over israel and the second is they were to be an encouragement for israel standing in adversity to hang on the deliverance would be coming and they could stand fast and wait for god obviously this is this got a lot of messianic implications too resurrection is part of it out of a dexter stick came life um out of a generation that died in the wilderness came a generation that was going to live to take the promised land yeshua said that in john 12 truly truly i say to you a a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains by itself alone but if it dies it bears much fruit so we have here is this probably the the truth that you may have heard death of a vision birth division what what you thought god was going to do the way it was going to look how it was going to happen didn't happen but possibly it was a matter of timing or a new vision grew out of that out of death came life and that's an experience that we as believers in yeshua have as we seek first his kingdom interesting too that the staff was put in the holy of holies where israel wouldn't see it the priest would see it and so yeshua said this he said you didn't choose me but i chose you and appointed you so perhaps the priest who might come into duty thinking you know i don't see much difference between me and the reubenites would be reminded no there is a difference here there's a difference of god's choice god chose you you didn't choose him to do this role yahweh chose you and and that they would bear the responsibility for any encroachment on the camp and i think just kind of in summary here james wrote this [Music] reflecting back on the fact that with israel when the proper order was set in place stability and success returned to the camp of israel and james said for where selfish ambition and bitter jealousy are there is disorder in every evil practice and then he went on to say that there will be a harvest of righteousness and sown in peace by those who make peace just in closing as um one of the worship songs dealt on peace that we find peace another aspect of finding peace is coming to contentment with the order and structure of your life and the community that you're in learning to rest in him with your gifts and your capabilities and not restructuring your experience or restructuring your community or restructuring your life based on your desires but submitting to the organizational structure that god places in us in the body of christ pastor mark praise god hallelujah so all of this is connected and so if you follow the torah portions and also the comments by the apostolic writers you'll see everything kind of dovetailed together and if you're sensitive to the holy spirit uh you'll have application for your life and so always always always in everything that we do look for the spirit of god in that and what he's saying to you in the worship times in the service whatever it is our god is a living god and he loves to interact with us so open your heart to him so i'm gonna pick up where i left off last week we're in a series on the five-fold ministry offices so we've been talking about five types of spiritual leaders in messiah's community there are apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers today we're going to look at the evangelists so we've been unpacking these offices and looking into them and discovering some things about them that i think are really super interesting if we want to be a healthy congregation and community we have to recognize what god is doing in us who he's calling us to be and to find our place in the body and go to work go to work for his kingdom to advance his kingdom so this is what it's all about so keep in mind that these five offices have their roots in the tanakh you'll see all of those already in the tanakh when we come into the renewed covenant basically those come up to their fullness in terms of how they operate so um let's talk about evangelists and let's go ahead and define them ready evangelists evangelists recruit they are recruiters these infectious communicators of the gospel message recruit others to the cause they call they call for a personal response to god's redemption in christ they also draw believers to engage the wider mission of growing the church however evangelists can be so focused on reaching those outside the church that maturing and strengthening those inside get neglected does that make sense they are so outward focused so passionate about the lost that they'll ignore the saved and that becomes problematic so again each of these offices need each other and the balance of the evangelist is to hang out with some of those apostles and pastors so that they don't lose sight of those that are already saved right it's in reach and it's outreach and some of you i mean think about it right what motivates you what's your passion is it those that are saved that are here that really kind of motivates you or is it the loss those outside the church right if it's those outside then you're more in that profile of an evangelist than you are maybe a pastor and so that's kind of how you sort those things out even in your own heart so let's look at one example in the new testament of someone who is in the office of the evangelist let's look at philip in acts chapter 21 philip is actually called an evangelist that's important for us to understand in fact note and note well it says this that this man philip the evangelist this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses is that interesting he's an evangelist his daughters all four are prophetesses and we talked about the prophets what moves the heart of the prophets the name and fame of god they're all about god's reputation god's ways they want to teach believers god's ways they want to call people into conformity with god's ways the evangelist is like what that's crazy i just want to go get new people and tell them about jesus so i'm sure he was pretty surprised of ending up being the father of four prophetesses maybe god gave him four daughters who were prophetesses to keep him well-rounded as an evangelist who knows i just thought that was interesting okay so let's look at how this evangelist works in his calling because this is kind of a big picture of what evangelists do so acts chapter six verses one through six now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number a complaint arose on the part of the hellenistic jews against the native hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food so the twelve summoned the congregation of disciples and said it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of god in order to serve tables therefore brethren select from among you seven men of good reputation full of the spirit and of wisdom who may we may put in charge of this task what task serving tables but we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word the statement found approval with the whole congregation so they chose seven men among them was philip he's one of the seven it says that he was full of faith and full of the holy spirit and these they brought before the apostles and after praying they laid hands on them to do what serve tables that's exciting right hey let's go get some tables let's set up some chairs let's do some setup and let's do some breakdown right you know they were actually anointed to do that they were actually commissioned to do that because in the mundane the kingdom advances everything that we do here takes a host of people behind the scenes prepping it and then actually breaking it down what we have here in the harvest is the result of everyone who is serving to make everything happen it's your community this is your church and it's a beautiful place because of what you do and we don't take that for granted we're grateful for each and every one of you and what you do in this place so philip he's a good man he has a proven and known track record in his community he's filled with the holy spirit he's wise or shall we say competent find competent men find men that that can get the job done that that's how this word wise is being used however before philip actualizes his call to be an evangelist he serves tables set up breakdown right cleans up stuff remember elisha elijah says man i want to i want to be mentored by you elijah you know i want to hang out with you and be mentored by you i kind of want to do what you do i just feel like i'm called to this elijah says okay there's my underwear go clean them and by the way this is how i like my my pancakes or whatever they would eat back then right yeah he served elijah in these mundane tasks do you think he's saying hey come on when's my training going to start elijah says that is your training now get to work what do you think training looks like right reading books and taking tests that's not training it's about serving and in the service of the lord your character is formed and that character transformation that's taking place is what's getting you ready for ministry yeah the lesson here is that the path to your office is preceded by character formation service in your community yeah i serve i i serve i sign up and i serve once a month for 30 minutes i'm serving go broncos that's good that's a good starting place that's a good starting place yeah we have to have a lifestyle of service those that are really geared and motivated by serving are the ones that are going to be raised up it's there that they get their training now what keeps people from their calling it's rarely their gifting see gifting comes by grace it's given to you by god gifting's easy hanukkah it's fun up unwrapping gifts isn't it yeah unpackage that look at that gift learn how it works play with it and next thing you know you're uh expert with your gift yeah that's the easy part it's by grace through faith that you receive gifts from the holy spirit character formation that doesn't come by grace but by hard work serving and getting your character tested and formed and shaped so people usually usually are held out of their office because of a lack of character and a lack of service not gifting god doesn't choose the highly gifted god's choosing the humble who make themselves available that's who god chooses the humble that says here i am use me you know do i need to do some laundry cook some food put some chairs away here i am use me it doesn't sound spiritual but it is it's part of your training that's where everyone starts jesus came to serve not to be served he gave his life as a ransom he's our model for service you say where's the reward it's in the doing really this you know serving each other there's a blessing in that that just makes life worth living when you see someone who's impacted by your kindness and the smile on their their faith face that does something inside you that's a beautiful thing something that money can't buy now the good news is character formation is always possible for anybody and everybody no matter how young or how old you are if you're saying yeah you know what i want to be shaped i want to be formed because i want to be used that's that's that's good we'll we'll do that for you we are specialists in character formation reproofs for discipline are the way of life okay acts 8 1-8 saul was in hardy agreement with putting him stefan to death and on that day a great persecution began against the church in jerusalem and they all i'm sorry they were all and that's philip included phillips in this group they were all scattered through the regions of judea and samaria except the apostles some devout men buried stefan and made a loud lamentation over him but saul began ravaging the church entering house after house and dragging off men and women he would put them in prison therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word here's philip's account verse 5 it says this philip went down to the city of samaria and began proclaiming christ to them why he's an evangelist what do evangelists do they proclaim christ they are the ones that communicate the gospel of jesus the good news that jesus came died in our place so that we could be forgiven and escape death and receive eternal life they're all about proclaiming who jesus is and this is what he did he went down there and began to proclaim the messiah the prophets are different they're going to go and teach torah the evangelists they're going to teach about jesus they're the ones that present the gospel who jesus is they're all about getting people saved they're not proclaiming torah as a way of life but rather jesus as the way to life i've hung around fivefold people i mean i i can on some of those that are evangelists it's like it's unbelievable it's like oh my gosh everything is jesus they don't talk about anything else they cut to the chase and they're good at it they're good at it i you know i i don't even know if i can tell this story it's pretty funny i don't maybe i should yeah i'm like okay so we're at a sporting event you know i'm with my evangelist friend it's like i can't even enjoy the game you know i'm talking about the game and he's talking to someone about jesus i'm thinking good grief can we watch the game you know but he's going to lead people to jesus wherever he's at because that's what evangelists do that's what motivates them that's who they are it's a beautiful gifting that they have yeah so we get up to go to use the men's room so i'm standing there in the men's room i'm next to him in the men's room and someone else steps up next to him and it's the corner and the door is the other way and i'm thinking no no way don't even go there how are you doing i guess it's doing pretty good you know jesus i'm thinking no he's going to present the gospel we're standing there at the wall and it's not the western wailing wall right and he did and he has this guy cornered the guy can't get out and he presents the gospel there in the men's room with this guy i just walked out that it's too much it's too much i love the evangelists but you know what there's got to be some boundaries right so so that's what they do though they're all about getting people saved and into the kingdom that's their specialty that's how god made them they're about justification not sanctification they're about getting people saved they're going to rely they're going to pass people off to to the other fivefold ministries as justin was sharing you know he got he got handed off a couple times different people took him you know so far and then handed him off and he went to a new person and then that person took to another person he ends up getting saved and into a church that's how that works it takes a team of people it takes a community to win people bring them in get them baptized and discipled that's what we do acts 8 6 the crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by philip as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing he's not even an apostle he's one of the seven that are serving tables and yet he's doing signs and wonders why jesus said the worst that i do you will do and even greater works than these remember earlier we were talking about this when they were being persecuted for assuring jesus in the temple and they were brought in and threatened and persecuted by the the leaders this is what they said if you remember it says now lord take note of their threats and grant your bond servants that they may speak your word with all confidence while you extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant jesus that's how that works philip just went and proclaimed christ and then god was doing signs and wonders to validate what he was sharing you share christ god will do the rest you just proclaim christ love people like like justin was saying just be kind do good deeds and look for opportunities to share who jesus is god will do the signs and wonders that's what makes this so exciting now i know some of you are saying man i just that's not me and that's okay you know for for those who were called to evangelism you'll love that that that'll work for you not everyone's called to be an evangelist everyone's called to witness and give testimony but not everyone's called to be an evangelist but those that are called to be evangelists man we need them we need you that's how we're going to help grow this local church like all local churches grow through the spirit and anointing of the evangelists acts 8 7-8 it goes on to say this for in the case of many who had unclean spirits they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed so there was much rejoicing in that city he's out proclaiming christ god's doing the rest people are finding freedom demons are coming out of people they're screaming and screeching and demons are leaving them and people are seeing that and they're recognizing the hand of god in that you know those those evangelists are preaching jesus they're saying things like uh if if you're bound up jesus will set you free you know he he himself said you know if you come to me and put your trust in me and abide in me i'll set you free and those who the son of man says free shall be free indeed and someone starts screeching and all of a sudden you know they pass out and all of a sudden they're like back up and different and crying and they're a whole different like demeanor and people are recognizing the freedom that came through the proclamation of the gospel you know we were doing church one time and uh this is back when we were down at the happy church like early on and we had this really uh really really rough guy that was his mom brought him and he was in his early 20s and he was a lot of tattoos he was in one of the local gangs and kind of grew up in the gangs and he was he was the real deal he was a real bona fide you know uh i don't call him gangster well for us we're boomers right i think they're called gang bank bangers now but gangster i'm with you man i'm a boomer i think they even have a better name today anyway so but he came up you know he you know his mom got him up there and we were just doing some prayer groups after the service and he came up and and uh he was standing there and uh so we had gathered around him and we're just waiting on the lord and i got this prophetic word for him and he was just standing there and he was just staring at me i mean just we were just locked on staring at each other and i got this where i said you know i want to give this to you this way i sense the father saying in heaven your your father in heaven i hear i hear the father saying tell my son i love him and we're locked eye to eye i said the father wants me to tell you he wants you to know he loves you he's proud of you man this guy's lips just like he he just he just clenched his jaws his lips kind of you know you know popped out and he just squinted his eye and he was fighting as hard as he could not to cry and all of a sudden he just burst into tears and he starts weeping so hard he just bends over and he's like coughing and all of a sudden he straightens up and throws his head back his eyes rolled back into his head and he roared like a wild animal i mean just this ah it was just this unbelievable roar you know and he did this big back bend and everyone jumped back some of the people got up and ran out of the church they just started running other people started running up into the front they wanted to see what was going on and then he leaned forward again straight and was crying again and they stood up again rolled his eyes back and roared a second time until he passed out he roared and exhaled until he just passed out bounced on the floor and then we just were praying and ministered to him we we recognized our team recognized he was being delivered he was encountering christ and christ was freeing him and that day when he got up off that floor he sat first he sits up he just sits up kind of crosses his legs and he was kind of like you know bobbing back and forth just kind of crying and he just kept saying i'm changed i'm changed he says oh my gosh i feel so much love he says i just feel so much love i've never felt this before he said someone go get my mom get my mom then she comes up she's crying we're crying he it was it was amazing he stayed there for like an hour we just talked and talked and talked but he was a changed man when he left that day he's serving the lord to this day i have followed up he loves jesus he loves his family he loves his kids he's a changed person he's been grown in the lord ever since yeah that's evangelism you know our job is just to look for opportunities to share who jesus is as we pray god you do the rest you do the signs and wonders okay and so you know it's not always signs and wonders that doesn't mean that happens every time you share christ but you got to get ready because you never know what jesus is doing always be suspicious of jesus okay you gotta you know just understand jesus is always up to something good so you know get ready because you never know what's gonna happen right all right so in summary the evangelist is gifted and passionate about sharing the messiah with everyone even people he has no relationship with he or she knows how to find and get people into the kingdom think of billy graham he was like the consummate evangelist he was so good he got elevated to where he was actually just reaching so many people and it wasn't just here it was abroad he went all over the world god used him in such a fantastic way and that that's a great consummate example of who an evangelist is but i want to encourage you some of you some of you got some of that gift mix in you and you just love working with the lost and you have a knack of just like communicating with strangers you're like you know typically the evangelist is a high extrovert you know there are no strangers in his world okay so uh and some of you have that and i just encourage you in that that's a beautiful gift all right so i want you to uh to always keep an awareness of divine appointments divine appointments what's the divine appointment divine appointments are encounters with people who are ready to encounter the love of god that man that came that day that was a divine appointment god was going to do something that day we didn't know that we didn't know what was going to happen when we when we when he came up to be prayed for he was prepped and ready god was going to do something we just stumbled into what god was doing if we put our antennas up throughout the day and we're saying god what are you doing around me and my little world right and look for opportunities to engage people you never know where that's going to lead but get ready because some people every day are ready for an encounter with god through you if you don't recognize it you'll skip it and miss it so get ready all the time i remember you know the story that vaughn uh uh has and uh he was wearing z seats and someone else saw the zits and the next thing you know he's talking with this guy and boom all of a sudden this family comes with a harvest they've been with us ever since how'd that happen because vaughn was looking for you know this connection of people around him and using a toolbox to make sure that you know there's gonna be some connection when you wear your z seats people ask you questions about them all the time i remember the story of one of our first pastors on staff you know he said he was at work in a business office with a lot of employees and he was wearing his his tassels and he was up at the copy machine and one of the gals came up behind him grabbed his z seats she says giddy up giddy up and she was like laughing and he turned around and kind of looked at her and then she realized oh that's not funny and she kind of like let go she realized you know this is kind of a serious deal she goes what are those anyway and he says well these represent the king of heaven and his claim on my life they're to remind me that i'm supposed to live a holy life i wear them to remind me to live holy unto him she goes i am so sorry but they ended up having this beautiful discussion and it was a game changer i thought man that is exciting so yeah look for opportunities to engage people don't scare them though okay so let's look at a divine appointment there's many examples of this in the word of god i want to give you one and this of course continues to relate to philip the evangelist chapter 8 verses 25-40 and so when they the apostles had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the lord they started back to jerusalem and were preaching the gospel to many villages villages of the samaritans verse 26 but an angel of the lord spoke to philip saying get up and go south to the road that descends from jerusalem to gaza this is a desert road so an angel of the lord spoke to philip how did philip even hear an angel isn't it unusual i mean how many people do you know who converse with angels how does that even happen you know how that happens by spending time with the lord being immersed in the lord's presence by praying and devoting yourself to his word and you press in long enough and hard enough you'll begin to interact with heaven the leading of the holy spirit just be led by the holy spirit well in order to be led by the holy spirit we have to spend time with god and cultivate a deep relationship so that we can recognize the leading of the holy spirit here's philip an angel's trying to like direct him and philip is connecting so it says in verse 27 he got up and went and there was an ethiopian eunuch this is a divine appointment there was an ethiopian eunuch a court official of candace queen of the ethiopians who was in charge of all of her treasure and he had come to jerusalem to worship and he was returning sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet isaiah then the spirit said to philip go up and join the chariot here's the ethiopian very wealthy guy very powerful guy representing the queen in ethiopia and he's come down why because he believes in the god of abraham isaac and jacob he he made time to go down to jerusalem and he's worshiping there he's wanting to connect with god he's a seeker right god's saying you're seeking me well guess what you're going to find me today and so he then core or coordinates this encounter with philip and through philip this ethiopian is going to encounter the living god a divine appointment so philip ran up verse 30 and 31 and heard him reading isaiah the prophet and said do you understand what you are reading our job is to ask savvy questions you want to lead the discussion remember jesus at the well with the woman that's a divine appointment yeah she doesn't even know what's going on you know he says would you drive me some water she goes do you even know who you're asking if you knew who you were asking you wouldn't even ask because you're a jew and i'm a samaritan he says well really if you knew who i was you'd ask me for living water he changed the discussion man that was such a savvy move and that whole thing turns around she ends up getting saved and then she goes and tells all of her friends in fact that whole city had a revival a come to jesus meeting because of that one encounter at the well this is another one the ethiopian sitting up there reading reading the torah and philip asks a very savvy question do you understand what you're reading that's going to be a game changer now the passage says then he invited philip to come up and sit with them i'm sorry i'm sorry do you understand what you were reading and he said well how could i unless someone guides me and he invited philip to come up and sit with him now the passage of the scripture he which he was reading was this he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as the lamb before its shearer is silent so he does not open his mouth in humiliation and his judgment was taken away who will relate to his generation for his life is removed from the earth the eunuch answered philip and said please tell me of whom does the prophet say this of himself or someone else then philip the evangelist opened his mouth this is slight 70 by the way thank you then philip opened his mouth philip the evangelist opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture he preached jesus to him because that's what evangelists do they're going to tie everything into jesus because their job is to get people to the place where they receive jesus as their lord and their savior acts 8 36 they went along the road and came to some water and the eunuch said look look water what prevents me from being baptized oh happy day this is like the this for the evangelist it's like being a tornado in a trailer park oh happy day you know it's like no way this is like going from good to great so what happens right he's gonna he's gonna take care of some business right away keep in mind let me give you a passage mark 16 15-16 jesus says go into all the world preach the gospel to all creation he who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned the evangelists he wants to get people to encounter christ and then to move them right into baptism and then from baptism right into a local church where they can be raised up they're the baby makers they like making babies and after they got a baby they're going to pass out and say here here church change the diapers give some milk raise them up i don't do diapers i don't do milk i'm going to have to make another baby that's what the evangelists do so he then follows up and it says in verse 37 and philip said if you believe with all of your heart you may and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god so philip ordered the chariot to stop they both went down into the water philip as well as the eunuch and he baptized him when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord snatched philip away and the eunuch no longer saw him but went on his way rejoicing why did god snatch him up because he was finished he did his job he's the evangelist he ain't changing no diapers he's off to his next mission that's what evangelists do so verse 40 says but philip found himself at azotus and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to caesarea so let's put a bow on this evangelists evangelize their path their passion is for winning the lost to the messiah their mission is twofold twofold number one bringing people to faith in messiah baptism and finding them a church home they are not driven to nurture nor raise up believers they are not interested in planting new churches they are not interested in teaching believers torah they are not interested in teaching any of an array of classes on anything except how to bring people to faith in messiah that's what they do number two equipping church members for evangelism that's the second part of their mission they not only go and bring people to christ they also teach everyone in the church how to be an effective witness they give the the believer all of us the nuts and bolts of how to bring a person to christ and after equipping them and showing them then the community actually goes out and does the work of evangelism not as good as the evangelist but by sheer numbers they bring in a lot more than what that one evangelist could ever hope to bring in does that make sense so they're the equippers along with the other uh four offices so let me see a show of hands here how many here want to learn how to share more effectively their faith in messiah you want to share your faith more effectively let me ask you this do you let me see a show of hands do you know how to actually lead a person into a salvation experience in jesus do you know how to do that okay so there's there's maybe maybe about five percent of our community that knows how to do that it it it's really it's it's pretty easy we just need to know how to do that we're gonna give our community the toolbox to know how to do that it's actually fairly simple it's just a matter of learning how to do that so we want to help equip you to do that as a community because that's really who we are that's what we do we're to be a light to the nations we're to share jesus then the torah as a way of life so we're going to work on that over the next couple of weeks in fact that's going to be part of our summer outreach uh program so in conclusion we are all called well let me ask you this one too how many people actually feel like man i think i'm called to the office of evangelist as a vocation we're all called to be a witness some might be called to be like an evangelist and if i could do that full-time i would love that that's who i am anybody here kind of feel like that okay we have a couple this is great this is good all right good all right well stay posted because we're putting together some training programs to do uh what we need to do to help raise you up into your calling we're all called to share the gospel and to make disciples in fact that's what jesus commissioned us matthew chapter 8 verses 16 through 20. it says but the 11 disciples proceeded to galilee this is a post-resurrection encounter with jesus the 11 disciples proceeded to galilee to the mountain which jesus had designated when they saw him they worshipped him but some were doubtful and jesus came up and spoke to them saying all authority has been given to me on heaven and on earth verse 19-20 go therefore and make disciples go therefore and make disciples every local church is responsible to join the task of making disciples make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i've commanded you and lo i am with you always even to the end of the age three things we're commissioned to do we're commissioned to make disciples when people bring them into a salvation experience with jesus get them baptized plug them into the local church where they can then learn the torah as a way of life and then set them free to go out and do what you just done with them that's what local churches do share jesus baptize them bring them into the local community teach them torah as a way of life that's what we do that's what we're going to do better than we've ever done before we're going to set that into motion that's part of our new emphasis as we come into this new phase that's before us all right so where do we find people right where do we find the people to do this where do we find the lost well there's lots of different ways to go and do this work of the kingdom how many people here came to faith in jesus through a stranger how many people came to faith and it was a result of a stranger that you had no relationship with no acquaintance with you'd never met him before but they led you to christ three four five five people six seven people came came to jesus through a perfect stranger you never met before they just came up shared jesus and it was you were ripe for the picking how many people here came to faith through an acquaintance someone you knew that had shared with you the lord let me see your hands yeah the vast majority of you came to faith through an acquaintance let me give you the stats on that guess what the stats are in terms of uh coming faith through a stranger or through a friend ready the percentage of people that come to faith through an acquaintance is 95 95 of all believers came through a friend an acquaintance the other five percent came through a stranger didn't even know what hit him now both are strategies of winning the lost the evangelist is really super good with anybody and everybody even in the men's restroom and it don't that's what they do right but most of us are not evangelists so when we go out and try try to do that it just doesn't work we're nervous they're nervous it's a bad experience but all of us have eight to 15 close friends eight to 15 close friends that's our circle of influence those are the people that we have a natural open door with to love on pray for and lead to christ think about that we have 80 adults here coronavirus almost took out this congregation it was it it devastated us we're 80 adults what's 80 times 15 that's 1200 people 1200 people and each of those people that we might win in our circle of friends they have 8 to 15. and each one of them have eight to fifteen what that means is once we start this process and start leading people to christ and and to getting baptized and then getting plugged into the church oh it's endless the growth is endless we just need to learn how to be christ to those in our family groups in our work relationships in our school relationships and when we learn to look for those divine appointments and how to effectively share christ people are going to come to faith the kingdom's going to grow and so is the local church so that's what we're focusing on that's going to be our next venture as we step into our summer outreach and in reach we're not going to forget in reach right we're going to have babies and we're going to care for them and some like caring for them and some like making them so we're going to let the ones that make them make them the ones that care for them care for them because when you try to get the people that care for them to make them it's a mess so if you try to get those that like to make them to care for them it's a mess so we're going to try to help everyone kind of find their place through small groups you know you know i'll tell you what i'll tell you what man well i can't tell you but we'll we'll unpack that later but it's going to be a blast and we're going to enjoy it so in the next couple weeks i'm going to be presenting a vision and a strategy for reaching our acquaintances for messiah we're going to provide some training and equipping for the task it's going to be pleasant and natural and as we add evangelism to our emphasis on the beauty and the wonder of the torah as a way of life god will give us increase and we'll be strong again and vibrant again and hopefully be able to plant some congregations as well that's part of what we're called to do so we've done well with embracing the torah as a way of life for believers but we are yet to do well with bringing people to messiah in our local church that's what we're going to shore up so we're going to embark on this next phase in our church's transformation are you ready are you ready yeah praise god [Applause] so i'm going to pray for you and then we're going to have our closing benediction father i just just stand with me father i just bless you i bless everyone that's here i bless the gifting that's in everyone i just know father that we have all that we need as a local community to get the job done so we bless each of our people and who you've called them to be and what you've called them to do and i pray you stir up the gifts in each and every one of them may this be the beginning of some exciting breakthroughs for our community for our families for our friends may we never be the same as a result of what you're going to do in this summer that's before us so use us lord stir us up lord and let's let's let us join you in bringing a multitude into the kingdom of your beloved son for his glory in jesus name we pray amen remain remain standing please moses saying speak to aaron and his sons saying this is the way you shall bless the children of israel say to them may yahweh bless you and keep you may yahweh make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you may yahweh lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace and we add in the name of yeshua our messiah the prince of peace so they shall put my name on the children of israel and i will bless them receive now the name of yahuwah [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh shabbat shalom you

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Length: 95min 50sec (5750 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021