Forward Together | MFI Global Leadership Conference 2021

he is [Music] the apostle paul in romans chapter 8 you're well familiar with he has some unanswerable questions at the end of that chapter he says what then shall we say in response to these things how many people would agree we've had a lot of these things going on in the last 20 months there's a lot of we can go through a list of these things what do we have to say about these things well he answered this first question if god is for us who can be against us these are no-brainer questions he goes on to say who will bring any charge against those whom god has chosen everyone say i am chosen say the person next to you you're chosen of course the answer is this man god justifies them dumb question dumb answer great answer dumb question who then is the one who condemns paul answers this one himself directly no one we are not tonight under condemnation i know the enemy beats on all of us as leaders we could have prayed more done more visited more processed more said more said less said less a lot god doesn't condemn amen but the biggest one is who shall separate us from the love of christ and he goes through the list hardship all the other things that we can name i don't even want to name them these days you just even say the word that causes an argument [Music] but nothing's going to separate us from the love of god amen now this conference is titled forward together and that's two concepts to it the verse is four we're going to talk a lot about you getting faith moving forward strategy moving forward confidence moving forward but it's also about together it's about families why we're here tonight why the buzz was going on and the church foyer and people hugging each other and and it's been like a big giant reunion because we're just not a movement or we're just not a we're just not a group that kind of rallies behind some type of banner of truth where those who are covetedly committed to each other we love each other we experience the love of god that's why we're here and i want you just to spend maybe the next two or three minutes just blessing one another what i mean by that high five hug tell somebody appreciate them don't even know them just say i like your shirt okay you got to be a cool guy come on love each other bless each other for the next couple of minutes good job guys good job [Music] so [Music] me [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] okay you can be seated make your way to your seat you did really good on the blessing part [Music] hey [Music] once again you can make your way to your seat [Music] tonight it's a it's a great honor to be able to introduce our chairman and our speaker tonight it was easter sunday i was uh getting into my car after church and i got a text from sharon dimaggio saying frank's gone back into the hospital and started on that particular text she can only send the most detailed specific and get you the general idea text as as all that was taking place in his body as one complication after another and that began a 70-day ordeal for frank to be in rehab and in the hospital before he could go home they'll tell you about it here in a second but i met pastor frank in in 1979 he laid hands on me in a in a prophetic meeting and my wife and i i was 24 sue was 23 and prophesied over us every word of that prophecy came to pass in our life and i made a career change based on that prophetic word and that's why i'm here today that's how it started then he mentored me not without a you know a relationship but he wrote a book called the making of a leader and in a very dark time of my own growth i read that book about three or four times underlined every principle prayed every principle fasted over the principles cried out to god and they all began to work according to the wisdom he laid out in that book and then i had the great honor of getting to know frank over the years and then he became my pastor and i was on i was on the team here at bible temple at the time and part of the transition when pastor iverson gave him the church and then he was my pastor to send us out to start city harvest church and he's been an apostle in my life but more than any of that he has been my friend for 42 years i've watched him walk with god i've watched him go to some very very difficult times and have watched the favor of god be upon his life as he's responded in such a righteous way i think we can all agree that the devil hates frank dimaggio [Music] the reason why the enemy does is because he really is an apostle with a message for the church of jesus christ and the earth today it's not his time he's greatly needed in his wisdom his apostolic wisdom to steer this thing called the church so we don't go off the rails and we go go right in the direction god wants us to go and i hate and i can't begin to tell you how much i hate to see what he goes through but i've watched the grace of god just release greater and greater anointing in what he's gone through and what sharon has gone through being by his side we have a we're greatly honored to have him as the chairman of mfi it's a great honor to have him in my life and i know you feel the same way too and i'd like you to tell frank and sharon how much we love and appreciate them as they come to share with us oh thank you so much you can go ahead and be seated i just wanted to share a few things with you before before my husband preaches first of all i want to say how happy that both of us are to see all of you it is so wonderful to have you here and we missed not having conference last year because 2020 was crazy i never spent so much time standing in lines to get my two rolls of toilet paper [Music] i cleaned my house again and again and again i sanitized everything i cleaned it again because those virus demons could jump on anything at any given time i tried to keep my husband safe he stayed home i was the one that you know ventured out with my mask and standing in line and all of that and then then i heard about a very difficult situation now i'm sharing this from a friend and this is the fact that when husbands are home 24 hours a day things are a little different again i'm sharing this from a friend husbands are wondering why are you cleaning the house today because i'm in my office i'm trying to pray the vacuum cleaner why is it so loud the dishwasher why is it so loud the dryer why is it so loud why are you doing laundry today because i the holy man of god am trying to you know fast and pray and intercede and you are doing these menial tasks spraying everything what can we say about 2020 it was a difficult year i was so glad to say goodbye because surely 2021 was going to be so much better little did we know that we were going to enter a storm we felt like the disciples who were with jesus and jesus said let's get in our boat and right from the very beginning he said let's go to the other side jesus knew all along they were going to get to the other side but in the middle there was an incident that's how frank and i felt this year we left the shore of what we knew what was comfortable what we were familiar with and we were in our little boat because of covered by ourself and we encountered a storm the trauma of that reminded us of seven years ago when he went through his journey with cancer the traumatic experience back then it was like we relived that but this time we didn't know what was going on with him we found out that his hip had been greatly damaged from the radiation seven years ago and he got a staph infection which got into his blood and then when you have bacteria in your blood it will go to the weakest part of your body and so it ended up going to his hip and his hip bones became septic and so his initial time in the hospital was horribly frightening with the doctors trying to figure out what was going on and for six weeks he didn't walk he could hardly move he couldn't take care of himself and it was a very scary time for both of us he was so medicated i was the one communicating to the doctor and trying to navigate in my heart and my spirit what was going on it was really frightening again because of covered i was doing all of that alone no one else could come and see him and so for me i felt like i was like with the disciples we were in that boat in a storm except i felt like yelling to the disciples you guys had it easy you were only in the store maybe a few hours but for us this has been going on for months and months and months and it becomes very very worrisome what do you do when you're in a storm i know to do two things i know on the one side i'm to stand up i'm to declare that god is faithful i'm to stand on his promises i'm to call for the intercessors to pray and believe god's word that he is a good god and that he is for us and not against us so i know to stand i can do that but i also know that i need to sit down i need that time to sit down with jesus in my boat and say lord this is a crappy season for us i need you to come and take us in your arms and hold us i need to pour out my heart to you and say this i don't know at this point if my husband's going to live or not now again i go back to the basics my husband belongs to you [Music] i gave him to you years ago and i am so thankful and so privileged to be married to him for these 45 years but my husband belongs to you and you have him in your hand but lord i am struggling i'm hurting there is so much pain and i'm so tired and i don't know what to do and i i'm stuck here in the middle and i i don't know if we are going to the other side and i just i just needed the lord to come and wrap me in his arms and say sharon it's back to you understanding that i'm faithful you gave me your life when you were a young girl you surrendered but it's a continual process of surrendering to god surrendering to his will surrendering to his purpose and his calling for your life and so i've had to stand and i've had to sit and at this point you know frank has been just so incredibly sick this man that you see right now looks a thousand times better than he did a few months ago he was so sick but god has touched him and we are coming coming to the end of the middle if there is such a thing we're coming to the end of the middle we're not quite to the other side and i know there will be adjustments on the other side but i know the lord will take us there you know a couple of years ago when we were traveling a lot one of the things i always liked to do on a plane was read the magazines and i i think it's in the united magazine there's always an article that's called three days three days in barcelona i've never been there but that would be fun three days in london three days in phoenix three days in la and i was thinking about conference and i thought three days at mfi what could three days at mfi be for you what would you find [Music] would you find real people people who don't have a high opinion of themselves people who are not fake would you find kindness would you find brotherly love would you find comfort would you find a place where you could show people that you have bruises and hurts and they wouldn't be asking why did you not have enough faith they would just be saying i have a pocket full of bandages let me come alongside and comfort you would you find peace would you find water would you find air space to breathe space to be yourself space for the holy spirit to come in this room and be present with you a place where you could be seen and known a place where there would be refreshing and god's presence and healing and mercy and grace and all of those things that we so desperately need what would three days at mfi be for you but that's what we have to be for each other with god helping us right and so i pray that your three days here will be just everything that that you need that you need that god would come and that there would be moments of refreshing and replenishing and god's touch upon you that you would hear that you wouldn't have to talk so much you could listen and hear from god that's our prayer for you three days at mfi [Applause] it's great to see everybody that's that's an understatement uh before i jump into the word i want to introduce joe and laurie champion because they'll be speaking in the morning at the general sessions and i wanted you to know them before you see them and again tomorrow night john lawyer once you stand fine looking couple over here give them a hand a pastor a thriving church in austin a celebration church a sizable church and a great leadership team the our roots actually go back a long ways because his roots are with a lot of the same guys my roots are with mel davis or in baxter all those people and so we had an immediate bonding also laurie who is a co-pastor they both preach they both lead they both make decisions lori hosts one of the largest women's conferences uh that side of the states she's a marvelous lady and she's also been through cancer and so i think that was a bonding for us my roots and then her being through cancer and me and so we just kind of hit it off great to reconnect and they become great friends and i appreciate their spirit their honesty their their fatherhood what they represent joe's dad was an nfl coach and he played for lsu we forgive him for that but they come from a football family they have three wonderful grown sons and so we're we're honored that you're with us and pour out your heart make yourself at home and i know you will okay um i want to go to the word tonight and i want to give you what's on my heart the uh the challenge for me and this conference was many many sighted excuse me a lot of it had to do with the season we're in not just me but us a lot had to do with the season we're headed for a lot had to do with me not speaking for 18 months i've not been in a live audience for 18 months to speak and so i was a little intimidated by myself and trying to get the mind of god did not come easy i wrestled with it i changed i tried to put myself into the season i tried to come out from that and try to wrestle with it for a word that i felt would be the right word for this conference and i believe i landed on that i'm going to give that to you you there's no use for me to go back and talk about 220 or even what's happened with 221 you all know the pressure the beating down of the culture the negativity and the pressure in the church were people leaving the church over you wear masks we shouldn't you know you sponsored black lives matter we shouldn't do that you did this you did that i mean there's no end to it and so what was happening in the government landed on the church a spirit of division and the government has never been in my lifetime never been this divided and there's no bringing the sides or many sides together but you wouldn't think it would land on the church but it did and so people are leaving for shallow reasons been with you for years and then they decide we're not following you you did this you did that and you're you're too hard you're too soft you don't communicate you communicate too much you said something personal i don't like that and so not only did you have cova to go with you also had all these divisions uh in in my estimation uh a demon demonic attack on the church of the living god that's what i felt this is none other than the devil himself taking advantage of the church and to attack the church at a vulnerable time and to attack the leader at a vulnerable time should i do this should i go forward should i preach this someone else should be preaching i'm discouraged the money down the money is up but the people are not here i don't know when we'll ever get back to normal i've heard it over and over again from coast to coast not just in my pastors but all pastors are going through this because the pressure hit everybody there was there was no being out of the pressure you were in whether you liked it or not but you are very good leaders you are anointed leaders you are leaders who are here for the long haul you are leaders that understand principles your leaders that understand demonic attack your leaders that understand the word of god and you have stood your ground and i want to congratulate you tonight for standing your ground because you did you stood your ground so i'm going to do a message called leading the way forward what would leading the way forward look like jeremiah 7 24 said they went backward not forward and so we have some churches if not maybe many it could be a lot more than we think that have gone backwards in attendance and money and leadership and confidence in joy of ministry joy of preaching where it used to be such a fun thing now it's a i got to watch everything and so some churches have gone backwards some leaders have gone backwards some leaders have flat out quit they can't take it they want out of the heat and so they just resigned and walk away they said a secular job would be so much easier than trying to lead the church my response to that the call of god is not secular and the call of god is personal and if you're satisfied with a secular you were never called that's my response to that there's no way for you to walk away from the sheep in the middle of a battle and the giants are coming down the hill a shepherd would never walk away from the sheep which means you started wrong and it's easy to get you out and in my opinion i'm glad you're gone i'm serious because what has happened during this time is a whole lot of shaking a whole lot of purifying and a whole lot of basics are you called or not and if you're called you have no choice but to let people kill you you have no choice but to take the pressure and show the church how to move forward you have no choice in the matter if you're a called leader because we don't serve the kings of this earth we serve the only mighty king jesus and we report to him and that's our call that's our call so forward is an individual choice every leader every pastor every elder every ministry you have to decide am i going backward the answer should be never am i going forward well at least i'm standing my ground to give forward a chance that's still good and then when you start confessing i'm going forward you tell the church i'm going forward we're going forward we're all going forward better days ahead god is god nothing has changed in the bible we are winners we are not losers we're the head not the tail and we are going to do mighty things for god well when everything was good you could do that rhetoric and make it sound really good and people would say that's right but when everything goes down that's when the church needs faith-filled leaders anybody can lead anybody can steer the boat in the calm anybody can stretch out on the deck blue skies drink some lemonade isn't church wonderful but when the storm comes they're looking for a captain they're not looking for lemonade they're looking for a captain what do we do well what's our bearings okay keep the bearings what about the the big waves we'll go through them we will not side what about the staff they're all hiding underneath get them up what about the passenger that fell over you need a captain you need leadership when the church is in a storm brothers and sisters we've been on the storm we've weathered the storm the storm maybe is not over yet i don't know you don't know only god knows but i do know one thing i don't want to turn my boat back into the storm i i do understand that i want to get through the storm and so i'm going to hold my steering wheel and i'm going to prophesy to myself you are a great captain you know exactly what you're doing okay okay you will get through this and it will be a mighty beginning yes i i i believe that you have to take you got to fight [Applause] you got to fight for this it's not just going to drop on you you got to fight for it when i was in the hospital dying the first time with cancer the second time with the first surgery and the third time with the second surgery and the doctor is saying all kinds of things we would not get into at all but i had to prophesy to myself the thief comes to steal the thief is a robber and this is not a god thing to take my life and to rob me of all this it's a devil thing it's an attack on me therefore i'm going to say my life is full my life has purpose i'm not in the hands of doctors and i'm not going to listen to all the doctors and if you think you should listen to everything a doctor says you need to be delivered because they will give you always this side the worst and i'm going with this side which doesn't make sense but i'm telling you right now the church needs leaders who understand that their realm of leadership is not in the secular realm your realm of leadership you're not a philosopher you're not a humanist you're not a fatalist you're not a politician you're not a scientist so why act like you are why try to give advice on something you have no business even talking about doesn't matter what anybody says i don't understand it anyway but what i do understand is where god called me where i'm supposed to stand and how i fill my mouth with the word of god how i pray that matters i asked several pastors to finish the sentence for me the way forward will take blank so this is what they said all different men and women it will take fearless leaders who walk with god yep it'll take leaders who walk with a limp humility and are totally dependent on the holy spirit it's going to take leaders with a clear 2020 vision it's going to take leaders that see into the future while holding the tension and difficulties of what is present it's going to take creative grit i like that one creative grit great courage committed to the scriptures of faith and the sovereignty of god that what he has birthed he will finish jesus size fidelity and an uncommon anointing true grit passion perseverance holy spirit power faith courage and focus it's gonna take us to stand on ground can somebody shout a big amen to all this and that's you that's me now that's introduction i'm now gonna start the message okay i'm going to quote two scriptures because of time and then i'm going to go to my text and read it all right two scriptures i'm going to quote first corinthians 10 1-6 why am i quoting it i want you to see how paul used the old testament that i'm not just making things up first corinthians 10 1-6 paul doesn't say and they were fed manna he says and they ate spiritual food he interprets the manna to be spiritual food and it's not just that they had water miracle water he says and they drink spiritual drink not just that they had the cloud and the pillar he said they are under the spirit of god he begins to interpret and why they do this it's interesting to me both hebrews and corinthians they go to that one part of the story in the whole old testament the whole old testament they go to the one part of the story that has to do with the red sea all the way through the journalians and up through getting into the promised land that's what paul does in first corinthians 10 he says they're examples to us and we need to be very careful how we do the journey then you go to hebrews 3 and 4 they go to the same historical spot and they say joshua was going to lead them into a peace into a rest but he couldn't lead them into the ultimate rest because he wasn't jesus he was only a joshua but what they did what they did in principle and then the hebrews writer three and four begin to point them out if i had time i would just teach on those two scriptures because i think it's astonishing the way they interpret it down and then bring it right to us and say now you are to understand the old testament was written for your admonition you you need to see israel as the example you need to understand that these things were natural but they were spiritual remember new testament writers had no bible the old testament was their bible and so as their writing the epistles they're using the only bible they have and the old testament so they would teach the truth and move it right in the new testament framework and context now i'm going to the old testament i'm going to read exodus chapter 15. exodus 14 actually verse 15 and 16. the lord said to moses why do you cry to me tell the people of israel to go forward the verse before that he says to all of them stand still now he's saying move there's a time to stand still and there's a time to move and moses said to them stand still and see what i will do and then he says to them after god spoke to him because moses is somewhere praying by himself this was not a word to israel this is a word to moses the leader and the lord said to moses why are you hiding over here crying well i can give you three million ideas the egyptians are right there the red sea is in front of us they're already talking about stoning me and you wonder why i'm crying yes why are you crying tell the people to go forward that took a lot of everything from moses to comprehend it and to do it forward there's no way to go god this is a dead-end street with the egyptians coming to kill what do you mean go forward god says listen this is what you're going to do lift up your staff stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it now moses hasn't seen anything happening in the sea moses hasn't watched the movie ten commandments where he's up there and he's he doesn't know what's going to happen and god says we'll just lift up your stuff this stick right here yeah the stick and stretch out your hand this this hand against the seat yes that's i want you to do this and then divide it he doesn't say to moses and i will divide it for you he says to moses divide it leadership does not wait on sovereignty only leadership acts on obedience and sometimes your obedience is in the dark you don't know what in the world is going on so moses thank god he did he obeyed the word and then the sea and the wind and the dry ground and all the stuff that started happening but moses didn't know that tell the children of israel to go forward the word forward in this verse right here means to journey by stages for them it was 42 42 stages for us who knows the torah lists all 42 stations and give that to their students to study and make them visit the places and they apply the interpretation of the name of the place to their life and they write about it and bring it back to the rabbi so that number 42 is a holy number in the jewish community they have written books on 42 they have written all kinds of stuff on 42 because of what happened in the wilderness with these 42 stations this is what i'm going to say to you forward right now right now forward is a gateway that you better not miss but it only opens up all the other forwards that are in front of you so the forward that's right here that i'm going to talk about is only one season one stage one act one obedience hearing the voice of god and you move forward seeing what you see believing what you believe but it's only the gateway to other forwards if you go backward there are no other forwards if you stalemate there's no other forwards you have to take the forward in front of you in order to get the forward that's coming and to do that there has to be a spirit of faith you have to be courageous and you have to believe in what you're doing in 1519 during the spanish conquest of mexico when he landed on the beaches of mexico there were 11 ships he had 11 ships there were captains talking to crew about we should leave cortez and just go back this is this is a horrible situation for us to be in cortez caught wind of it what would you do hang the captains that would be satisfying no he did the thing that nobody in the world thought he would do he burned all 11 ships and he said to them your only way home is to conquer this empire and go home with their ships so if you don't conquer there is no way back i think sometimes a pastor has to convince the congregation and the leadership convincing all the teams you lead you have to convince them there will never be a retreat there will never be a backwards there will never be us saying the property is just too much the congregation is too mean the elders don't know what they're doing i'm going to put in and try to apply for another church or i'm going to go be a carpenter or whatever it might be the point of leadership at this time you have to burn the ships and then you have to say to them when or die so what they do that no other group was able to do because there were many groups that tried to conquer the athletics they did it in two years with 300 men against 5 million the aztec empire was five million not 500 by the 5 million and would you be standing there looking at the 300 and we're going to conquer this empire and we're going to bring back word what has happened we're going to do this there's no possible way we're going to win but now either we win or die so they fought with a different level they fought for their kids and their wife and they did what no one else could do 42 stations you will find listed in numbers 33 all 42 of them another message now i'm going to give you um as much as i can i have how many points do i have some of you are really mean i have seven okay and i have about 40 sub points now i want to get through this because i really believe this could help some people number one the way forward is to understand where you are where the church is and where the team is that's number one you have to understand where you are where the church is and where the team is if you have not sorted that out yet you're kidding yourself to move forward if it's only you that's filled with faith and courage and we're going to do this and the team is saying that chance bozo we are not following you this way this is or the church congregation is sitting there do we not have enough pressure already and you're trying to move us forward so i'm asking you the question where are you here's some identifying marks where you might be i told you some points but but these are these don't count as points where are you number one under the broom tree are you under the broom tree at the bottom but he himself on a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under the broom tree and he asked that he might die pretty serious saying it's enough i have it's enough i'm not i'm not leaving the tree now lord take away my life for i am no better than my father's and he laid down and slept under the broom tree and if you were god listening to your sermon servants say okay maybe god just squeezes the adam's apple a little bit and his esophagus and just you're gone but that's not what god does when you when you're at the bottom god understands when you are so discouraged that you'd rather die i didn't know the depth of discouragement that i could get to but in this last six months i mean it was a dark deep black hole and i couldn't see any way out of this so there were days that i just wept no prayer i just wept there were days when i was just speaking time there were days when i would lay hands on myself and try to get my spirit back try to get my spirit back because this is horrible if i don't get my spirit back i was under the broom tree but then god has a way and behold an angel touched him and said to him arise and eat broom trees have food and the food the angel brought was enough for him to start to nourish his body and his spirit then he went back to sleep again and then there was all right under the broom tree discouraged mid-level crisis level don't know how to get out of it that's what we're for to help you the second place you could be is crossing the jordan filled with vision no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life jesus as i was with moses i'll be with you i won't leave you nor forsake you be strong be courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that i swore to your fathers this is joshua 1 where joshua is at that place where he takes to baton he says we're going to cross we're going to cross the jordan go through all the camp and tell all the people to prepare because we're moving out jordan was overflowing because of the reigns it was not crossable again another another opposition but joshua had his spirit filled with the word of god and he's able to say we are going across we're going to cross this and we're going to take whatever cities we have to but we are moving in three days pack your stuff we're out of here maybe you're there third you could be give me the mountain give me the mountain so now give me this mountain of which the lord spoke in that day for you heard on that day how the anakim the giants david only killed one out of five and one family of giants that's all he killed with goliath he he had not wiped out the giants there were giants living in the mountains all over and so caleb bless his heart as an older man some of you need to listen to some older men i've been there done that yeah we went through this went through that yeah i thought i was going to die but i live so don't make a big deal out of this so here's caleb saying give it to me i'm strong for the challenge give it to me maybe you're there or maybe you're like david run toward the giants the giants that you had a courageous leader he started toward david the giant it says the wording here never gets old even though those stories hold you know david took off from the front line running toward the philistine david reached into his pocket for a stone slung it hit the philistine hard in the forehead and bedding the stone deeply the philistine who you would have been a great prophet if you would have stood up after david said i'll go out and fight him you would have been a great prophet to say and by the way the lord's with you you're going to kill him and he's going to crash down on his face before you boy i hope that's a right prophecy because i'd like to see that but if it's the wrong prophecy that prophet would have he would have been gone prophesying something wrong nobody prophesied but david send me out to him i'll bring his head back well have you ever fought anybody like this no but i fought some lessers that i still did that with the lions and and i still did that with other things that attacked my sheep and i know how to do this if you tell me to take him out i will go take him out no way will he live and it says they were so astonished at his confidence they said go ahead so are you running toward your giants limping toward your giants trying to negotiate with your giants are you trying to write a new contract with your giants are you ignoring that the giant even stands there are you ready to send your team to kill the giants where are you running toward it or running from it here's another one pressed but not crushed sterling resilience the apostle paul still my hero we are afflicted in every way okay we are but not crushed we're perplexed in a lot of that but not driven to despair second corinthians 4. we've been persecuted but never left for dead we've been struck down but not destroyed we always get up come on which one are you which one are you you got to know where you are and then you've got to do the second thing where is your church where's the church not just a guest you better have a plumb line or a dipstick or something where you know how to get to the state of affairs and the church in this unique season if you miss that you could be preaching sideways you could be missing what you're doing with prayer you could be missing the church because you're doing it the same way you did before the crisis and because you went back to the old even though the old not working so well on the new and so you go back to the old thinking everything will be just like it was before we'll worship this long we'll call people they'll come to church but it's not happening people are still staying away from church churches most of my talk to have only 50 60 percent returning and they're trying to negotiate what to do with the future you've got to know where your church is here's some things you could look for is your church showing signs of division you've got to fix it are they fragmented you've got to fix it before you ever say forward is your church solid stable and have gone through the storm with you and you know you have that core is your church thriving came back unusually strong the giving didn't dip the people are full of faith well that's great you might be able then to begin to move them quickly forward is your church a yes lord church whatever god says yes yes lord matthew 9 28 do you believe that i'm able to do this the answer is yes lord yeah is your church a goddess able church ephesians 3 20. now to him who is able to do far abundantly above all that you answer thing that's a good scripture and it's it's never better than at a crisis where we are right now is your church a church that says let's make room for a greater vision what you think there's more vision coming oh yeah yeah we got to make room for it with prayer and fasting and declarations and teaching and preaching the team's got to get behind this we're not done we've never been done well why do you say that because the church of jesus christ is the internal institution that will carry out the plans and purposes of god it cannot be stopped it cannot be stopped you cannot detour it will outlast every president every earthly king every crown that has fallen to the ground everybody that has tried anything when it's all said and done the church is still standing now if you don't believe that you're going to have a hard time leading see i believe this i believe the church is the wind-up of the ages i don't see the church becoming a laodicean church and i certainly don't see it sneaking out here with the rapture and leaving everybody else to roast i see the church able to go through stand their ground and preach the gospel that's what the church does [Applause] is your church stuck and then where's the team where is your team the team is actually the ones that will move everything forward with you you don't have the team with you you have a problem how's the team at every level doing some people only talk to the people they're connected with like the higher escalon team maybe the elders full-time pastors whatever but you better go down to the bottom of the ship and you better talk to the children ministries not that they're the bottom of the ship jesus that's that's not the right thing sir but maybe people you never talk to maybe you talk to the worship leader but not the team and so you got to start bailing down to where everybody is functioning home group leaders and everyone else and say how are you most important thing i think you could ever do is how are you how you weathering this i i know your business is doing horrible how do you feel about it i feel horrible i'm struggling past right i don't know how to get through this i don't know what's going to help but i'm here to pray for you because you are going to get through this and god is going to help you he's going to help me you're part of the church and i'm praying right now that god will work a miracle for you and i'm not giving up on you and your business and everything else if you do that day after day your team starts rising with you but if you only do a pulpit announcement i want everybody to be with me i want all team leaders to report for duty this is not a time to slack off it's not a time to stay home you're supposed to be in church and a lot of you have been missing church and i'm looking for the team leaders and i'm telling you right now you're not doing your job well and so i have a problem and i need you to start stepping up that's an announcement that will make sure you don't have a team you got to get under them and bring them up one at a time every team that a leader leads a team get them first and then start with that team maybe you do them together at your house and just have a team i don't know how you're gonna do it but okay this is point number two how many are getting something out of this how many are taking notes so you can re-preach it with power how about if i give you my notes no ain't gonna happen because once i say that you'll stop taking notes and you i'll look at you and you'll be just leaning over and waiting for the pie so i'm not sure if i would give you my notes but it would be a break in my tradition because my notes are birthed in the most holy place they're tablets all right point number two the way forward will be found in new levels of prayer intercession personally and corporately ephesians 6 18 pray at all times okay that's my time that's this time in the spirit all right a certain kind of praying with all prayer all supplication to that end stay awake persevere making intercession okay got it ezekiel 22 30 sought for a man and stand on the gap couldn't find anybody that's not good isaiah 56 7 my house will be a house of prayer acts 4 31 when they had prayed now what would have happened if they hadn't prayed the place in which they were gathered was shaken they were all filled with the spirit many of them again and they started speaking the word of god with boldness the praying church is what our culture and nation and your nation we need to get back to be in a praying church not just thursday morning with five retired women that are called intercessors and and you know there's nothing i'm not i'm not against those five women but it'd be nice if there was two young men there my point is bring prayer front and center and do it during your services don't do it on an off night we're having prayer on wednesday night and we had great time last week there was 16 here our church had 600 on sunday morning but we had 16 for prayer and i'm feeling really good about it that sick said why is that because you made prayers sound like it's a closet not not matthew 6 closet either you you made it sound like it's optional it's not the real thing it's not good for visitors to hear us praying like this who cares if you still care about that you're still missing the target i'm sorry i'm being so forthright but uh it's all the drugs they gave me in the hospital whenever prayer is passionate people become passionate prayer is the fire that burns the dross off the church refines people's spirit prayer is the power that god has chosen to move the church forward not a good song list nothing against the songless you had a wonderful song list i'm blessed my children are blessed everybody's blessed i'm i'm in but a good songless doesn't move the church forward it makes sunday better thank god for that but what moves the church forward is nothing less and nothing more than a good holy ghost prayer meeting and if your people don't know how to pray teach them teach them well you know i'm not big on prayer because well that's too bad jesus is paul is john is well you know i'm just a blue collar mechanic and those kind of things are just not in me you better get a menu blue collar white collar no caller you need to love prayer and you need to know how to pray intercessory prayer intercession is not a gift of the spirit it's a responsibility of everyone you will not find it in the bible as a gift why because all of you are priests unto god all of you are prayers and those that actually do it like it so much they do it more and more and more and then people start saying well those are great intercessors they praying for me pray for yourself prayer surrounds everything is under over and around everything prayer is the air we breathe intercession is that kind of prayer that you set new boundaries on the impossible possibility begins to come into your mind prayer feels the burden the pain and the suffering of others and you will automatically begin to lift them up i'm i'm telling you right now you will find more seeds for sermons in a prayer meeting than a worship service now we need both but prayer is work prayer is a discipline if you don't get inspired with prayer it's going to leave the church naked and weak in the coming weeks and months write down the words if you don't know this guy e m bounds if you could read any of his books he's got a slew of them he was many many years ago his books will melt you his books will inspire you his books will put you on your knees and you'll start praying the words that he's talking about he wrote the books on his knees and it's the best prayer stuff i've ever read in my lifetime is the imbalance okay we're still doing okay for time i got a clock in front of me it's right here here's number three the way forward is understanding the invisible realm and spiritual battles we face we're not just in a political battle a medical battle a moral decline yes and some other things i mean we could start lifting them all but the fact is is that you and i need to understand what's going on in the invisible realm what is happening in what god is saying in the invisible realm matthew 16 18 and i'll tell you you're peter on this rock i'll build my church the gates of hell shall not prevail which means you've got to be pushing against the gates in order for them not to prevail what gates are you pushing on you know it used to be back in the day i'm 71 and so i can say back in the day that if if you were spirit filled you were a little bit pentecostal so that you would pray pray in tongues you might even cast out some spirit that's roaming around the prayer room or the service you might you would do things in the invisible realm that brought it down to the natural realm so the people could knock at the gates prevail against the enemy we are so against being pentecostal that we become too ecclesiastical in our mindsets we might well be spirit-filled presbyterians it's it's true thank you frank that's a great point i appreciate that i think we're afraid because of culture and the way culture sees the church and the way culture says this is how you have to do church and all about you know the the visitors that come into our auditorium of course you explain of course you use wisdom i'm not talking about you know being weird and screaming in different languages nobody knows what you're doing and then you fall over and and the people ignored i'm not talking about people you know being weird i don't want weirdness back in the church thank god a lot of that god in jesus name let us stay gone but we are still birthed in pentecost and our services are unique because of the holy spirit it's not unique everybody is doing worship sets welcome home some flag some this some that you travel the world and everybody pretty much does the same thing it's enjoyable but the same thing is maybe not the thing that you need to push forward with your church you might want to understand that the invisible realm still works on people's minds you can't cast demons out of a mind that you don't believe the demon is even in instead we go to sociology and psychology so how long have you had this oh it's been years were you abused yes i was abused did you get counsel no i didn't get counsel i was ashamed of myself and so you're wanting counsel now yes but my mind is it's going berserk i mean i sometimes i feel like killing myself i am so much killed instead of laying hands on them and saying in the name of jesus you fell demon of lies and you foul demon of doubt i'm going to catch you out right now this woman is not going to tread this anymore you're not going to stay in her life anymore in her mind attacking her mind i'm a pastor i have power i have spiritual tools i take authority [Applause] we don't we don't do that at all we try to counsel hell out of people that's a bumper sticker right there hell out of people but as you and i both know sometimes counseling falls short sometimes there's something more going on and sometimes in our western mind we won't allow ourselves to think i mean it is it is in the bible you know demons and it's there i didn't make it up jesus the one who paul's the one who really went off on it somebody bothering your preaching you don't say ushers please just take this girl out she's troubled uh i don't know just take her somewhere no not paul you spirit that's been harassing me come out of her or she leaves and he delivers her then he goes on his way keys to the church you have the keys to stop hell's worst in the congregation they're beat up their minds are filled with fear they have a lot of doubt about the future many of them are still hurting losing loved ones or losing businesses they're losing jobs their finances are upside down you have the keys of the kingdom of god and i believe this whether you want to believe it or not i do believe this right here you have the keys of the kingdom of god to stop hell's worst over the congregation that's your realm to unlock prison doors shatter satan's change keys represent the authority one had the inner domains you weren't invited to and break down the walls that's why intercessory prayer in the church service part of it whatever you want to do will lift that canopy of pressure and you will find people going i can breathe i don't know what happened in that even visitors will say do you guys do this all the time i'm coming back i feel better i feel hope wow this is amazing prayer works it works more prayer is better than less prayer okay point four are you still with me okay some of you travel a long ways you're probably nodding out it's okay it's a book of joel dreams and visions we'll accept that number four could certainly be a teaching on its own and i'm i'm looking at how to develop this point because it will be the demarcation line the way forward will be led by prophetic leaders it's a line that you need to put in that will separate you from the boring ungrowing routine church are the boring announcements on the video that they don't even watch they use their phones to text mob in arkansas and then when someone else changes it's not our services now don't get me wrong because you can use video announcement all that stuff but there needs to be a prophetic touch on that service people don't come to hear me they might think i'm a buying orator and in fact i really am they don't come to hear david only they want to hear from god they want a word of the lord for themselves they they they need to be moved by something that hits them in the service has a supernatural something that answers their questions and ministers to them that's not gonna happen in warming up saturday night services from youtube or copying other people or other people's services going to have to get into a spirit of intercession you're going to have to pray that spirit upon you and you're going to have to preach with a prophetic edge if your message changes in the middle go with it if you feel words of knowledge words of wisdom try it they'll never forget it you know i'm just going to pause right here and i'm going to say to this young man wherever you're from i think your name is bob and we just met but i don't know anything about you but what i do know is that the crisis you're in is ending very soon and the things you've been asking god about your church and profiting and what to buy you're going to gobble it up you will not have a lack of finance or a lack of vision even though you're in the middle of nowhere god is in the middle of that where and so if they see that or i'm prophesying to a single mom i used to do this all the time when i was a younger preacher but the more mature i got the less prophetic because i'm a teacher too so i want everything perfect but to teach with a prophetic edge oh my my my my they'll come from every which direction to sit under that fountain and you'll find people closing their eyes while you're preaching this is for me this is for me this is for me the prophetic edge the prophetic spirit on you is an inner sense of direction the spirit on you is what quickens you it's what you feel i i can remember many many sunnies i mean i preached for night on 40 years and so a lot of sundays go into that but i can remember that sunday's i was quickened and i couldn't wait to get to the pulpit cut the song less short yeah cut this no no no no announcements today put the offering at the end ah i got it and i can't wait to stand up because it's gonna be boy the elders would pray yeah come on man let's go after it those quickenings is the prophetic spirit how long has it been since you were so quickened and so full of the prophetic that you couldn't wait to get to your pulpit because you had a word of the lord you're a preacher you're a teacher you're an inspirer you're an energizer you're a lifter but the one thing you better not miss you're prophetic now i'm not talking about just those who are ephesians 4 11 prophets okay we could go off on that and find out i'm not talking about bible ministry prophets i'm not talking about romans 12 gift of prophecy i'm talking about a canopy of the anointing of the holy spirit that comes upon leaders in the church that lift them to another realm lifts them into the anointing of the holy spirit lifts them into a refreshing and you don't even have to handle all the things that's going on just lift them to that realm prophetic ministry seeks to penetrate this prayer so that new futures can be believed wow so important right now and can be believed and embraced by people hope in a god word seeing that the present state of affairs is not the end it lifts people above confusion it lifts people above all the weird chatter and opinions of millions of people you got to get them above the chatter don't join the chatter you got to get them above the chatter because in that realm you have authority you don't have authority in secular realms now you might if you're in a secular job but if you are a leader of the church you can lean into the anointing and the anointing will lead into you anointing is what i'm talking about have you ever listened to a preacher and they have everything right introduction the way they're doing the illustration always a personal story first you know and then you know that bonds with the people and that takes 10 minutes and they have about 20 minutes to develop a thought and this is how you can be better how you can succeed how and then maybe one scripture scattered in it but it's a good communicator it's a good talk but it's not anointed i mean in my opinion and since i'm speaking it's my opinion what we need is not just good leaders we need anointed leaders because that's our inheritance anointing is that enabling power divine power that takes the preacher the leader receiving it beyond what you were going gonna do the anointing is what takes you beyond and when you hit that realm you're preaching and then when you remember that realm you're on your knees after the service saying god give me another one of those that was that was so rich it was so wonderful i was i was like i was watching myself preach and i was doing so good and the people were moved and holy spirit filled the altars and geez i need more of the anointing please don't let this just be a one time and you seek god okay it's nine o'clock and you got food to eat so [Music] [Applause] okay remember i i was forced into it but this this next point the forward way will be leaders who have this point number five leaders who have leadership filters in place and they used them skillfully what i have found during this last season although it was still apparently in a lot of leaders even before this last season uh not all but enough they don't have filters to think about what's happened don't have a filter and so they have to rely on someone else's word someone else's interpretation you know what is so-and-so saying what so-and-so is saying but they don't have a filter themselves and so i'm going to give you three filters and not try to go off on them but i i would think these would be the foundation filters for every leader to develop find a way to develop these filter number one theological filter not all theology out there is good what you believe at that level is going to steer the ship a certain direction if you're a calvinist well god will work it out god cause it uh calvinist theology has a lot of great things with them i believe in the tul i just don't go far with the ip tula calvinism reformed theology covenant theology dispensational theology if you've been raised in that you actually believe the church is a failure it's going to move you to do a lot of different things you can't preach it strong because how do you preach it fail you're strong you've joined a failure we will not succeed but we will live as we go how do you do that i can't i don't believe it the deepest influences on our theology are things that construct us and constitute us as the leader we have become early on i read theological books early on i was under kevin connor my wife's father who really helped me cut my teeth on theology both individually when i was with him in session and in the college he taught me that if you get this wrong everything will be a little off so you better decide on the theology of sin well you know i don't know about the apple the apple you know the apple was just kind of a thing that was there it wasn't real the tree wasn't real adam and eve really weren't naked you don't think they were naked do you bring uh and when they sinned that they killed animals that's wrong you know you don't kill animals that's an environmental issue you don't kill animals and so if i have a theology that allows me to be an environmentalist with all the hogwash they're selling the nation just my opinion you would think they are god and they unless you go with them we're in super big trouble i'm not in super big trouble because my bible says that day that christ comes is already scheduled and if the environment isn't perfect jesus comes anyway so i'm not into their mindset but then some pastors think they gotta go plant some trees and i'm not against that plant some trees but what do you believe philosophical bias filter number two philosophical bias filter a philosophical bias is when we as leaders prefer listen carefully prefer an idea as to only how we see it we have a bias and possibly we do not we don't give any thought to any other thinkers because this is my stream this is my thinking and your thinking has to be off because my thinking is on my big surprise going to uh fuller and going to oru my big surprise being under uh non-spirit-filled theologians more or less there is a couple in there but more most were not is how smart they really were and how they handled challenges and some of the things they challenged me with i couldn't answer so for the first time i began to think there's more smart people in the church than i know and i need to get more from them i wasn't moved to say i'm not spirit-filled the tongue's just you know gone and you know that which is perfect was jesus so all the gifts are gone and they didn't move me on any of that stuff i would just say that's not the only scripture on gifts and the gifts were used way after jesus was actually here and so was the early church wrong well they were untaught excuse me it says in the book of acts that they receive teaching from the apostle paul is the apostle paul wrong well paul interprets things that you have to reinterpret excuse me hermeneutics says there's one interpretation many applications and so if i interpret paul that he says and i speak in tongues more than you all because he is from the south you all i speak in tongues more than you all i have to take that and say paul spoke in tongues so i asked a professor do you speak in tongues he says well no i don't but i do speak other languages not other languages shandy rama tongues so my belief system was not moved but i was exposed to why they didn't believe certain things and it helped me immensely to address different kinds of leaders okay the third filter is ecclesiology filter if there was ever a time for you to get this filter right and don't be moved to anything else it's now the filter becomes that vital filter this is point number six that no this is still number five but i have you know many cousins under there uh the eclat ecology filter will help you war up all the voices all the voices it's a branch of theology ecclesiology is that deals with the doctrines pertaining to the church and so if i'm going to look at those i'm going to have to come up with a basic ecclesiology my bible college days and brother connor brother iverson and different books we read and then i got to teach for five years put the deeper into my spirit i was sold that the house of the lord is the best thing ever i was sold on gathering together with all fightful ministry how do you have a house church if nobody is five-fold it takes five-four ministry to perfect the saints unless you're the standard for that house and that is kind of bad that's why you have apostles and prophets and evangelists and teachers and pastors all on the eldership team or you bring them in and they help the church being raised up i'm convinced that one of the best keys for the church is fightful ministry if you don't have them bring them in just don't bring in the weird ones then you're forever cleaning it up we have enough flawed flawed models of church let's pray that their tribe doesn't multiply we don't need any more flawed models okay number six and seven i'm gonna uh probably just put up because truly i don't have a watch [Laughter] i have bands i don't have a watch i haven't needed one you know number six way for its leaders to renew their mind continually get rid of the old thoughts get rid of those things that are bearing down on you you know the doctrine but i'm saying to move forward thinking can become routine living on the path instead of faith-filled renewing your mind to move into the future bad thoughts are just that they're bad thoughts they don't come from the holy spirit they come from carnal nature from the culture from the devil bad thoughts are your limitations so set your mind on new things things above things above things above quit watching the news so much good watching the news so much it depressing depressing to watch the news i'm thinking a hundred years ago they didn't have to go through this it was just hey mary what's happening there's no news to slaughter your brain all the time changing all the time some researchers took a container and they dropped in a bunch of fleas the fleas hit the lid of the container over and over and over and over and over again then they took the lid off and watched the fleas doing their research they never jumped again they never tried to hit the lid because they knew there was a lid there no use to jump i want you to be better than a flea i want you to take the lid off that you think is there and jump right out whatever lid has landed on you get rid of it whatever thinking pattern is haunting you throw it out you need to get around men and women of faith not people of negative talk negative this negative dad it's not going to work the whole world's going to die this is the mark of the beast this is you know we're all doomed now this is going to be it there's no way that we can overcome this this is uh well how can it be the mark of the beast since there's been no dragon since there's been no trumpets yet you had to have trumpets in order to have the beast and so did the beast not hear the trumpet this is not the mark of the bees people i will go out on a limb and say it is not the mark of the beast [Music] i i have some things i'm going to say right now that's in my mind but i have bound my spirit i'm not going to say them because i know they would offend someone no no you cannot talk me into it but this is what i'm thinking 0.7 the way forward will be leaders ability to shake off dirt and move on acts 13 50 and he shook off the dust and went on acts 28 5 when the snake bit paul he uh however shook it off threw it into the fire i think he was just so ticked off being in the water so long and everywhere else he just said that's not gonna do anything a stupid snake you know i don't see paul saying oh man i see him slinging that snake and say i'm beyond that i'm not gonna no you're not taking me out it's not my time but i'm taking you out into the fire you see snake [Applause] i'm telling you right now the band come to the platform that's always a good sign for the preacher to say you must shake off old dirt bad experiences come on shake it the dirt of rejection you take it on yourself every time someone does something how about the dirt of people leaving your church and you blame yourself if i just hadn't shake it off this is your time to let go emotionally mentally maybe not mentally emotionally and spiritually keep your mind give it to jesus and move on in order to move on and shake it off you gotta shake the hurts and the things that you don't like it's a lot of things i don't like but if i don't shake them off that's where they bury me right there that's the end of my journey i don't shake it off i give in to it that is my legacy that is not my legacy my legacy is going to be i shake off all serpents who bite me whether that be people in the church or people on staff if you bite i'm going to shake it off i will not let you poison me with your thinking i have a purpose my purpose is to see this church go forward see the body of christ go forward see the the city touched by the gospel nothing has changed in the heavenly people nothing has changed in the heavenly god is still there the angels are still there the holy spirit is still there nothing has changed all right is the band here all of them seems like we went to a weaker team here or something all right this is what i want you to do stand to your feet [Music] and i want you to shake off everything that's been weighing you down and i want you to give the lord a big shout and a clap come on come on come on come on [Applause] take it off [Applause] [Music] [Music] strange's name our blood is one children of generation of every nation of kingdom don't let your heart be troubled hold your head up i don't fear [Music] your eyes on this one truth god has madly in love with you so take her to hold on be strong remember where help from [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus in jesus entire salvation [Music] is in his blood [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't let your heart hold your head up [Music] fix your eyes on this one's true [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] come on some chains are gonna fall off tonight come on we're not done praising him hey [Applause] [Music] why don't you sing this out come on [Music] let the praise go up as the walls come down our creation everything with breath ripping the sound all these children [Music] are you [Music] clean [Music] [Music] [Applause] his name is jesus [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let the praise go up is his name is jesus [Applause] [Music] wow wow [Music] i know that you you feel the same way i feel when pastor frank ministers like that especially in the season that he's just been through there's something inside me i'm drinking everything that he's saying and i feel like well while you're ministering pastor frank i've i feel like i want to run back to church right now call a meeting and start praying it's like i just i just want to i want to get back at it already already just right there so much inspiration and so much impartation pastor frank you you're a modern day hero to us you are a modern-day hero my i'm filled already and we got a whole couple more days to go and i just feel so full so excited tomorrow's going to be incredible we got we got pastors joe and and and lori champion they're going to be ministering in some general sessions and ab sessions that are going to be just absolutely ridiculous and filled with so many so much great content some great speakers from across our fellowship and and we are gonna we are going to leave here overflowing i already feel full but i don't we're gonna be overflowing over the next couple of days but we're together we're forward together so that means we get a party some right well it does i was just i just want to encourage us something you know pastor frank said that we're spiritual people and we're prophetic people and we are going to go have some amazing food i'll tell you about some of that but you're carrying the spirit of god on the inside of you you know when we're in this room tonight i don't have to be a prophet to know that there are people that are hurting that need a word from god that are here desperate to hear from jesus and the spirit of god lives and dwells on the inside of you the gifts of the spirit are there and so we're going to enjoy some good food but will you do this with me church will you ask the spirit of god while you're having a conversation will you just pause when you hear his voice or when you feel like just go hug that person will you just hold him a little bit longer will you just listen to the spirit of god because i believe that god wants to touch and minister to people and you're the choice he's going to use and maybe some of you it's been a long time since you prophesied or you said something you don't have to prophesy like some of the spiritual greats in the room but you can just be like hey i haven't done this in a long time but i just want to try this out on you i was just in a meeting this last week and someone just stranger came up to me and said hey i don't know if this is going on in your life and just the fact that god knew enough about my story to cause a complete stranger to minister life to me was life-changing and i took that i'm like i'll take that word home and i'm going to stand on it so can we be the church the rest of the next three days together can we just allow the spirit of god to love people through us and stretch our faith stir up the gift so go ahead and stir it up and let it pour out on other people so that's what we're going to do our we have prayer team is going to be up here if you need prayer or not you're like i'm not even going back to my hotel room until i get prayer they're up here there's but there's prayer team all over you right but um we have amazing food out here tonight we have corn on the cob popcorn snow cones cotton candy all kinds of parties so um if you want to see someone and you are like me you're like i want to talk to you but i also want the food you say hey come with me we're going to stand by the popcorn and we're gonna have popcorn together so go in the grace in the peace in the mercy of jesus and enjoy

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Length: 111min 10sec (6670 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 05 2021