Families of Promise

Hey, so glad you guys are here, and you're here for the first official ever preaching in a hoodie on Sunday morning. This is the World Mandate hoodie. Jesus is King, great, awesome hoodie. February 6th through the 8th, as you guys know, this is our Super Bowl weekend. Forget about Super Bowl, this is the Super Bowl where we celebrate God's rule and reign over the nations, his desire for every tribe, tongue, people, and nation to know him. And this is a community experience, and we have people come from all over the world, and then we video it out around the world. So here it is, just a little sneak peek for the hoodie you're gonna want. Yeah, well, this morning, I want to just unpack a little bit more on the timeless vision side of things, because I love this scripture. It says, without vision, people perish. But it's not just vision. That scripture, vision means without revelation knowledge, people perish. You can know about things, but God, as Zach prayed, open the eyes of our heart, God, open our ears to hear. And so that's my prayer, and I want to pray that before I open the word of God. Lord, we're just grateful. This has already been prayed. We're just grateful for your presence.

We're grateful that you're king of this house. And Lord, as we unpack your word, we pray for revelation knowledge, not just ideas, not just thoughts, but revelation knowledge for all of us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, I want to take you back to January of 2017. I get a phone call from a pastor friend here in town, and he says, hey, I want to invite you to something to meet somebody really famous in our nation. And the only thing is, I can't tell you who they are. You just have to be willing to show up. And they want to talk to us about religion in America. And I thought, okay, just curiosity alone caused me to cancel everything. Said, I'm gonna go see who this person is. And I'm thinking, okay, could it be a pro athlete? Is it a Hollywood celebrity? Is it some politician, et cetera? And we gather over at World Cup Cafe, Mission Waco's little cafe in our city, just a little bit across the street from here. And we gather in the World Cup Cafe, and they tell us there's about, there's 11 of us actually. Last service, I said 12 for those who are counting. There were 11 of us pastors. And they said, you'll line up on the sides, and then the security detail will come in, and then they'll come down,

and he'll shake hands with you, and then he wants to sit down and have a dialogue with you. Now I know it's a he, so it's not a she. All right, so who is he? And again, I don't always keep up with everything in culture, so the security detail comes in, and then this kind of five foot eight guy with curly hair comes in, and I'm thinking, who is this? Like I'm trying to, I'm like, praise God I'm sixth or seventh in line for the handshake, because it's kind of now, it starts making sense. I said, that's Mark Zuckerberg. And so there he is. Hi, Mark, how you doing? We're on a first name basis now. So Mark Zuckerberg comes in, and we all shake hands, and then he sits down, and he's a really kind guy. Because of the election of 2016 had shocked a lot of his meta world, he was on a listening tour. You can take Mark down now. I mean, you know, I mean, good guy, but yeah. So, oh, that's me. All right, there you go, yeah. So he's on a listening tour, and he met with business people in New York, and people in Silicon Valley for technology, et cetera, and for some reason, in the sovereignty of God,

Waco, Texas is where he wanted to land to listen to pastors. And so he said, well, here's the format. You have, you know, three to five minutes, share whatever you would like. What you think the answer to this question is, why is there such a renewed interest in religion in America? And how do you think that's affecting our nation? Or maybe he was saying actually the election. And so everybody goes around. I'm, again, I'm number five or six in line or whatever. And he gets to me, and I kind of had these things percolating through the years through my mind. And I said, well, Mark, since we're on a first name basis now, and he asked us to call him Mark. So I said, well, hang on, hang on. You guys are getting way ahead of me, not yet. There's Mark and me to prove it. But, so Mark and I were talking. So I said, hey, there's four questions that everybody in the world's asking, no matter what background, no matter where they come from, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, non-believers. And that is this, who is God? Who am I? Who are my people? And what is my purpose? These are the four questions, because we're all made for those questions.

Like, it's inside of us. Who is God? Who am I? Who are my people? What is my purpose? And I answered that for him. I said, who is God? Jesus, right? I said, Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me. Take every opportunity. Got one second there. And a little plug for Jesus. And then we went through and talked a moment about each of those questions. Well, afterwards, we're having a little, you know, snack time and socializing. And Mark and his assistant come over to me and they said, hey, that was really interesting, those four questions. Well, actually, let me say, before that, he had a time to share. And during his time of sharing, he said, well, you know, those questions that the pastor had mentioned, he said, I think Facebook kinda answers those questions. And he was saying, right now, there's a billion people on Facebook, and he said, sometime by the end of the day, there'll be two billion people getting on Facebook. And there's people who gather around their faith.

There's people who gather around their particular interest or trying to discover who they are, be a better person. There's groups that talk about all kinds of different niche parts of life. And there's people that are looking for purpose. And he said, so, you know, I think we're in the same flow here. There's just a, this tool of Facebook is really something that I see as being used to help people. Well, so now we're in the private time, and he comes back up to me and his assistant with Mark there, and he says, hey, I'd like to review those questions again. And I took the opportunity. Well, when who is God, the answer is Jesus, and you weigh the truth in life, no man can abide through any salvation than Jesus alone. Just thought I would throw that in. And then we get down to each of the questions. And then they asked for my email and said, hey, we would like to keep in touch if you have any more thoughts. And I thought, this is it, right, of course. And so I go home, immediately I type out my whole testimony, everything I can about answering those questions theologically. And then, of course, I put my personal phone number on there, Mark, if you need any other help, just give me a call, here's my personal phone number, personal email.

Well, sadly, I haven't heard back from him. And that means one of two things. He got the message, he's saved and delivered, and God's doing great things, not so sure. But continue to pray for him. Secondly, he never saw it, because his assistant read it, probably the most truth. Or he saw it and didn't feel the need to respond to it. But regardless of the journey, those questions remain true. The questions are true, but the answers are even more true. And the smartest person of all time is not Mark Zuckerberg, it's a guy named Jesus. And every year, 2026 again, I've said this for the last several years, my learning lesson from 2025 is Jesus is smarter than I thought he was, again this year. So here we are, let's go back to the scripture, Jesus answering those questions. In the book of Matthew, chapter 16, hopefully a very familiar passage, says this. Now, when Jesus came in the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, who do you say the son of man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Now, can I just say that every year, or actually every day, you need to re-answer that question in this particular trial, in this particular season of life. Who is Jesus to you today?

Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, will not overpower it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Isn't that amazing? So let's first answer question number one, who is God? And the reason I answer with who is Jesus, is because Jesus is the revelation of the Father. He said that of himself. The scriptures admonish us in that way. So when we see Jesus, we see God. So if we see Jesus rightly, we see God rightly. As I've told many of you guys in college, I began a journey of saying, I gotta find out who God is for myself. And I started in the book of Matthew, and just said, I am looking for Jesus. I'm not looking for myself. I'm not looking for answers to all the problems in the world. I'm looking to know him.

Paul said, I wanna know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. You will never regret the pursuit of knowing Jesus, as he has revealed himself, not just who you want him to be. I'm gonna take. One of those key passages that meant so much to me, but before I do, I just wanna address the questions that they asked in Mark 16. And they said, well, are you John the Baptist? Or some people say you're John the Baptist, a man who preaches for repentance for sins. And the answer is yes, he's like John the Baptist. He called us to repentance. Are you like Elijah? Are you a man of signs and wonders? Absolutely, everywhere he went, the power of God was released for healing, dramatic multiplying of food, incredible miracles. Are you like Jeremiah? Or are you Jeremiah? Jeremiah was often called the weeping prophet, the one who with compassion, wept and prayed and intercede in the midst of Israel's rebellion. Or are you like one of the other prophets? Are you just a prophet? And then Peter answers so powerfully, he says, no, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And that word Christ means you're the anointed one.

You're the one that everyone's been looking for, for eternity. You are the answer and the solution to the promised Messiah to come. Peter didn't even know what he was saying. He didn't even know the depth and breadth of it, but he said it rightly. You are the anointed one. There is no other way to the Father, but through you. There is no other answer to salvation for mankind. There is no other way to be forgiven of sin. There is no other way to the Father, but through you. Again, he didn't understand all of it, but he answered the question appropriately. You are the one sent by God. And I love this next phrase. You are the Christ, the son of the living God, not of the distant God. Thomas said that as he was leading us into worship. We're not worshiping and hoping and grasping for God because God has come in the person of Jesus and he has stayed in the presence of the Holy Spirit. God is here. He is a living God. He is a historical God. Yes, he is a future, present, and we will see him again face-to-face and live with him forever, but he's here. He's here. I just wanna pause and all friends watching online,

God's here. The Bible says that whenever we turn to the Lord, the veil's taken away. And I just wanna give you just 30 seconds to turn to him. You may not have gotten there yet. I just wanna just pause for a minute. God, we just, we turn to you as the God who is present right now. We turn to you. Even if we don't know how, Lord, we're trying. We're opening our eyes. We're opening our hearts. People came voluntarily this morning. They need you. And just ask him a question. God, show me your love. God, take away my fear. God, come love me. Just talk to him for a moment. He's here. He's here. Amen, God's here. And all of his children as well, as you can hear. God's here and he's the son of the living God. And so Peter gets this revelation, not even knowing, and that's true with all of us. I learn something about Jesus every day. If I'm attentive, I'm still awed. Have you ever read something and said, why didn't I see that?

How is that, that it'd still be fresh after 40 years of walking with Jesus? It's because the revelation of Jesus is called the unsearchable riches of Christ. It always gets better. There's always more. It's richer and deeper. Let me take you into one of those passages that I meditate on often. Colossians chapter one, starting verse 13. For he, God the Father, rescued us from the domain of darkness. Domain, the rule and reign of darkness. Anybody feel under the trap of the rule and reign of darkness? Good news, the Father rescues us from the domain of darkness and he transferred us in the kingdom of his beloved son, Jesus. When we repent and turn to Jesus, the domain of darkness is broken and now we're under the domain of the abundant life of God. It's amazing, isn't it? Yeah, that's a good clap. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Not for some sins, but for all sins. Not at one time, but for all time. Cleansed by the grace of God.

We confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all, not some unrighteousness. He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him, Jesus, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, in invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him, Jesus, and for Him, Jesus. And what that speaks to is this, He is the image of the invisible God. How many times have you said yourself or heard someone else, I don't believe in God because I cannot see Him? Anybody ever, just give me a wave if you ever had that thought or somebody said that to you. All right, the rest of y'all, just come on, give me a break. I know how this happened, all right. So here's the deal. He's the image of the invisible God. So God is not invisible. He can be seen in the person of Jesus. When you open up the scriptures and you read the life of Jesus, you are seeing God. So you can't say, I can't see God. If somebody said that they can't feel God, I don't understand God, then say, read Jesus,

start in the book of Matthew, read through the book of John and then tell me what God's like because He's not invisible, He has been made manifest in the Son of God, Jesus Himself. Isn't that beautiful? And whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers, all things are under Him. I had this revelation knowledge, this fresh look on Christmas Eve. I was preparing for Christmas Eve and it's fairly traditional, you know, the angels and coming of the Lord and all that. And I'm sitting there looking at it and I'm reading the second part after the angel first comes. It says, then a myriad of angels or a host of angels came. And I began to think theologically, I thought, okay, the devil is literally a fallen angel. He was the lead worshiper in heaven, Isaiah says. He was cast out of heaven with a third of the angels who rebelled against God. And so literally on the angel level, we're two thirds to one third. We're already in the majority just in angels, let alone the supremacy of Jesus who has victory over sin and death for all time, once and for all. You are so much in the majority, it's ridiculous. It should blow the springs in your mind. When you have fear, when you have anxiety,

when you have concern over darkness, listen, if you are submitted to the rule and reign of Jesus, He reigns fully victorious over all darkness and every domain and every vestige of it. Just if He released ministering angels alone, it's two thirds to one third. You may get taken out just by the angels, let alone the blood of Jesus. May fear leave your life because you're in Christ, in grace. All right, where were we? And in Him, He is before all things. And in Him, Jesus, all things hold together. I often say this, but has anyone ever felt like you're losing it? Now this, I want honesty. You know what, that's encouraging because I feel like I'm losing it. This is great. Not today, I'm doing good, but I could. And I use a key word, I feel like I'm losing it. But in Jesus, in Him, all things hold together. I get a little teary, a little motion there. He has held me together. I'm living and breathing today. I'm still alive, I shouldn't be. In Him, all things consist. And He holds all things together. Thank you, Jesus. And He, Jesus, is the head of the body. He's the head of this church.

We're a local church, but Jesus is King. He is the Lord. Yes, and thank you, Jesus. He is the head of the body, the church. And He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that He Himself, Jesus, will come to have first place in everything. Everything, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. All the New Year's resolutions about food and weight loss and diet and everything else. Why don't we just try the rule and reign of Jesus? Just kind of start there, get that one clear, and maybe He could give you a plan that's better than. Yeah, okay, right, that's another deal. All right. Where were we? For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, Jesus, and through Him, Jesus, to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, Jesus, I weather things in heaven or things on earth. When I was 22 years old. Old Laura and I were engaged to be married and we had quit our jobs and we were gonna move into the inner city and it was a very vulnerable place. We were obeying God, but we didn't know what the future held.

So in those seasons of insecurity, I turned to the Word of God and I was spending hours, maybe three or four hours a day just reading through the Bible, literally just desperate for help from God. And it seemed like the more I read, the more I realized what a sinner I am, how broken I am, how needy I am. It wasn't condemnation, it was conviction. It was like, man, if this is the way I'm supposed to live, everything in me, I mean, I've curved some behaviors, but man, there's just so much in me that is unholy and unrighteous. And I get to this kind of apex moment this particular day where Paul said he was the chiefest of sinners. And I paused and I just began to weep and I said, no, no, I am. Paul, you're not the chiefest of sinners. I am. And I grabbed myself by the shirt. I literally threw myself on the floor. I began to weep and I said, God, there's nothing good in me. There's every motive.

I try to do good and I don't. God, if you'll just pick me up off this floor and cover me, I'll give you my life. And you just blow me where you will. No longer my own. Please be king over me. I need a king. I need someone to rule over me. Of all the thousands of decisions Laura and I have made, that is the best decision we ever made in our life. And then we got back together and I said, if Jesus isn't king, we can't be married. If he's not king, we can't live in the inner city. If he's not king, we can't do what he's called us to do. He has to be king. He has to have the last word on everything and hopefully the first word because we can't do life without him. Amen. We have failed so many times. We come back every time. We know from where our hope comes from. And when we fail, we repent towards God. We don't run from God because he can only be good. He's a good, good father. That song went viral on purpose from God. He can't have a bad motive towards me. Why not let him be king?

He can't have anything about my best interests and mine. Why would I not be under his rule and reign? That's who he is. And when he's king, then everything else you want makes sense. It's kind of like when we were raising our kids, if they're throwing temper tantrums all the time, we can't get their attention to love them the way that we want to. And so I don't know what your parenting is like, but we didn't bow to temper tantrums because if we did it on their terms, they would end up destroying their lives. They would have had temporary comfort and long-term destruction. And so we didn't bow to temper tantrums. We just said, all right, that's called sin. You're missing the mark here. Little discipline, little correction. We're going to be under the rule and reign of Jesus. And right now we are Jesus' representatives. So congratulations, you're gonna get to honor us. And I would say they would look back now as adults and parents and have no regrets over us coming under the submission of Jesus. Jesus is king. Number two, I'm not gonna spend much time on, but it's good to note, Jesus said to Peter, Simon Barjona, he said, now you are Peter. And upon this rock or this revelation, I'll build my church

and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So Simon Barjona was his name. And Jesus said, no, you're a rock. Not the rock, you're a rock. Later on, Peter would pick up this understanding in 1 Peter 2 where he'd say, we're all living stones, but Jesus is the chief cornerstone. So if you will, Peter, you're a pebble in the building and I'm the rock to sustain the building. And when you understand that, Peter, then you'll know your place, you'll know where to fit. And I see value in you. This is before Peter's failure. This is before Peter knew all that was gonna happen in and through his life. And what I would say to all of you guys is this, is that trying to find yourself is a dead-end street. Find God and let Him tell you who you are. Don't try to become who you wanna be. And that is not about discipline and diligence and faithfulness. This is about submission to God. God created you for a purpose. You are here and you are as valuable as anybody else in this place. You are a rock in the house of God. You are a living stone to be rightly fitted. As you find a place of service, you will find who God created you to be. Again, so many things I could say about this,

but let me just reiterate to all of us, we have a new name as born-again believers. We have a new DNA, a new identity, a new security, a new purpose. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit. And John 14 says we are no longer orphans, but we are now in the family of God. We now have been adopted in its fullness. The Holy Spirit has come to live inside of us, to reassure us of God's love and care for us, and then to speak to us and lead us and guide us and direct us as little pebbles in the house of God and in the workplace or wherever God leads us. And as we do that, we look back and we see that we're doing that thing we were created for. Isn't that great? Just a little side kind of humorous thing to me. You know, this new thing through social media and everything is, hey, you need to get everybody out of your life that's toxic. It's all about you. You need to careen off and just have beautiful, perfect people around you because they don't deserve you. You are wonderful. And I'm like, man, you're toxic too. Like, oh, toxic people trying to get rid of toxic people. I'm like, that is ridiculous. I'm gonna get everybody out of my life. Great, so that I can be God.

Just don't go down that train. Now, this is not to talk on boundaries and abuse and all that. Of course, there's appropriate boundaries. But in the end, you guys, we're all sinners and we all have been sinned against. That's why we all need. There, come on, you got it, all right? So just quit spending all your energy getting all your toxic people out of your life. Get the toxins out of you and then maybe you may redeem somebody who's toxic around you for the glory of God. All right, there's a little freebie. Man, I should go viral with that. Okay, so we got number one, who's God? He's Jesus, that's who he is. Who am I? And then who are my people? And this is where I wanna camp out the majority of the time. The church, the people of God. The scripture continually speaks of we, not just me. Of course, I'm a part of a family, a nuclear family. But a spiritual family, the way I love to say it is this. No matter whether your nuclear family was beautiful or terrible, God has provided a spiritual family to redeem it all. So our need to be the people of God is so potent, so needed in the earth because people need so much healing from their past, right? Here's what the big board says on the church.

Says this, the church is, or we are, and you can just say it with me, and I'm gonna use the deal we are. We are the family of God. We are the body of Christ. We are the bride of Christ. We are a house of prayer for all nations. We are a building not made with hands. We are the administration of Christ. Wow, we are the pillar and support of truth. We are the army of God. We are the fullness of Christ. We are the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus. We are the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus. How big of a dream can you dream? When the church is the church, it's the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus because here's the deal. God wants his glory to fill the earth as the waters cover the seas, and that glory is housed in individuals and among a people. In Colossians 127, it says Christ in you, the hope of glory is a plural term. Christ among you, the hope of glory. Not when we're perfect, but when we're together repenting towards Jesus, loving one another, and never pulling out of the church, there's hope for the world around us. I've really adopted my friend Michele Shenko's

kind of mantra, a church for every thousand people on the planet in every town and village. The way that people will see God in the earth, there's 3.2 billion who do not know Jesus, who do not have access, heard the gospel. We always think it's an evangelist. It is a people setting up the glory of God at the very basis, a little house church so that the people have access to feel, taste, and touch Jesus, not just through a person, but through God. of people, the people of God. And for us here at Antioch, one of the little ways, again, that we put this together is what we call the five circles of church. I wanna put that up there, and I wanna put it up there just a moment to describe this for you. Again, each of these pieces are just biblical journeys we've been on, and we've just tried to capture that. What are we doing here as a community? If you're a part of this community, our desire is to help you, personal devotional life, learn how to disciple people, learn how to do house church well, learn how to celebrate well, like we're doing this morning, and out of the power of that, live on mission in the workplace, and or the nations of the earth. So this past week, I did a number of podcasts with just people in our body,

and I was so encouraged with my podcast with Craig and Christina Crenshaw. Many of you guys know Craig and Christina. I think we've got a picture of them up there. Craig's a businessman in town, doing a great job, and Christina is a professor and also a real voice for justice. She just has a new book out called Redeeming Justice that I would highly recommend because she puts Jesus at the center of justice, so we have hope. Just another little tangent, that's all I'm doing tangents today. There's one problem in the world, it's sin. There's one solution, Jesus, and there's one people who are called to execute at the church. I'm not minimizing all the tributaries off of that. I'm just saying if you're not clear that sin is the reason we've got problems, then you'll miss the Savior and the solution to the problem, and then you won't gather and partner with the right people to solve the problem. All right, there you go, another freebie. All right, here we go. So we're back to it. So these five circles of church, but as I talked to them, was moved to tears several times because they described their journey.

They love the church. They've been faithful to this community, but before this community, they were in Antioch, Boston, and Craig was single, and he was roommates with a guy named Jeff Bianchi, and Craig was sharing with tears, I wanted to learn how to spend time with Jesus, and so Jeff says, well, you gotta get up early because we gotta get to high ground and so on and so forth, and he said, well, that was a struggle in my life to that point, and Jeff said, well, that's fine. I'll help you, and he said, okay. So Jeff would stand at the end of his bed and begin to play worship with his guitar until Craig got out of bed. Craig was working, you know, 40, 50, 60-hour-a-week job, but Jeff would just keep playing until he got out of bed. Then he'd get out of bed, and he said, now, you need to make sure your Bible's open. You need to make sure you're praying, and Craig, with such fondness, said, I'm so glad that I had a brother to help me get into the presence of God, and Christina would say the same thing. The devotional life became a centerpiece for her. Well, she moves up there as they get married, and as a new married couple, they said, we wanna be discipled, and they said, well, we've got each other,

and of course, we can try to find mentors, but sometimes we wait around for the perfect mentor, and they were just a couple years' difference in age, and they said, well, why don't we meet on Thursdays as couples and talk about our need to be godly husbands and godly wives, and they said, we were overwhelmed, as we would meet, it would turn into confessing our sins to one another, how we had sinned against our spouse. I wasn't loving, I wasn't patient, I wasn't kind, and they said, literally, for 18 months, we met every week, and our lives were forever changed. Our marriage, their own statement, I don't know if we would have a marriage today if we wouldn't have been that honest and that vulnerable with trusted friends who were in the boat with us. That's circle two, that's just discipleship, and then their commitment to community and life group, and then gathering with us on Sundays, and then especially their impact in the workplace. They are missional, he is missional in the medical field. She's incredibly missional in her declaration of truth. Literally, she has a ministry throughout America redeeming justice, but when the end is done, they are not just what they do, they're committed to who they are. And for a season, they were working on California, and they came back to Waco, and they said, for this reason, we missed community,

and we cannot live without community if we're gonna be who God's called us to be. So in the simplest form, the church, I can give you the Greek words, it means ecclesia, called out ones, assembled ones, and all that, but remember, it's people together, likehearted, like-minded, under the rule and reign of Jesus who don't want some of what God has for them, but all that God has for them. Put that little arrow back up there. Here's what I wanna tell you. You can't get there. to that tip end of being a witness for Jesus without the power of the church. You can't do church halfway and get a wholehearted outcome. You can't do Jesus half-hearted and have an, and I'll say this, I'm preaching a big vision and I know, yeah, yeah, my church did this, they did that, so on and so forth. I know there's all these reasons for all these people messed up. I haven't figured out sin's the problem, but God's perfect and here's the deal. Antioch doesn't work without wholehearted commitment. I mean, I give a big vision and some of you guys get disappointed later on in life as if the vision didn't work. The vision's just the Bible and it's worked for 2,000 years. For those who submit and surrender fully to it,

it doesn't work without full surrender. And so that's, what is our vision? Full surrender and wholehearted commitment to Jesus in his church. All right, I'm gonna end with what is my purpose. Matthew 16, 19, I'll give you, Peter and the church, the keys to the kingdom and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Got a little key up here today, big key actually. And I love this, God's given us the keys to the kingdom and Jesus said before the famous Matthew 18 passage, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me and I'm giving it to you to go make disciples of all the nations, all ethnos. And that word ethnos can mean, of course, unique people group, unique culture, but every business people have a unique culture, nurses have a unique culture, construction workers. It's everywhere I go, I have authority to be a disciple maker Acts 1, 8, last words of Jesus. You shall receive power, dunamis power to be a witness for Jesus. So we've been given everything we need and Jesus is prophesying ahead of time and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I will literally inside of me give you the keys of the kingdom, I will put authority inside of you that so wherever you go, you can unlock prisons and people's hearts and lives, let alone your own.

In 2012, we were in Irkutsk, Russia and we were celebrating 20 years of the church being birthed and in 1992, we had a bunch of people in our 20s went, we saw a lot of teenagers come to the Lord and eventually planted a church and that church is still flourishing today. They planted many other churches and I was invited back to celebrate 20 years. One of the unique things that have been happening in the recent years in the Irkutsk church is they had a ministry to AIDS victims and out of compassion of working with people on the streets, they began to not just care for them practically with their needs, but began to pray for them and ask God for miracles. Well, a handful of these former drug addicts would not only get saved, but had gotten physically healed and it became such a big deal that it made the front page of the paper of the city of Irkutsk, a city at that time of 700,000 people and so there's this deal, there's this church and the six of them are getting healed and people are being delivered of AIDS and miracles are happening. And so I was so blown away, they had me come up on stage and they said, they had city officials and they had our church leaders and they said, we wanna give you a key to the city because you came 20 years ago with a group of friends and you unlocked our hearts to God

and healing for our people. We wanna give you a key to the city. I was overwhelmed emotionally, practically like wow, the power of the church, everything we believed in. And so of course, we had a beautiful night and so on and so forth. Well, what they didn't know at the same time, we had two of our friends, two of our workers imprisoned in the Middle East. They had led a woman to the Lord that was running a house church and her husband was an Islamic judge and had great influence in the nation that they were working in. And so they had a beautiful night and they had led a woman to the Lord that was running a house church and had great influence in the nation that they were working in. They had been apprehended, put in prison. We were working with our friends from the State Department, et cetera, saying, what does it look like? And they said, it's not good because this Islamic judge is best friends with the leader of the country and this, it looks like a long deal. They're saying everything from months to life imprisonment. So we're nine days into the journey and this is going on at the same time. We're in the Middle East and they're telling us

it's looking dire, we need a miracle. We have people interceding around the world. And we had this thought, let's take this key we've been given by faith that unlocked a city. And four of us got in this little hotel where we put our hands together. We said, God, you said that you will set captives free. that you've given us authority to unlock prison doors, now turn the key of their prison, oh God. Today, turn the key of the prison. We prayed, we called out and cried out to God as we kept turning that key and turning that key. We go to bed the next morning, my sat phone goes off, I call immediately and they said a miracle has happened, they have been set free. What could have been nine months, nine years, et cetera, was nine days, it was a miracle. Because we believe that Jesus not only calls us to be the church, but to give us authority to transform nations. One last story and then we'll end. World Mandate's coming up and one of our speakers is a dear friend named Clint who worked in the Middle East for the last 22 years. But I wanna tell you his story as we close. He was here at Baylor as a student, would come to Sunday morning church, but wasn't that involved. His last year, he got involved in our college group and we got to know him a little bit.

He had a girlfriend at home, he felt called to the ministry, so his home church back in Missouri asked him to come be the youth pastor and thought, well, that may be the last we'll see of Clint. But Clint, he tells his own story. I had it in my heart sometime that my wife and I would come back and do the Antioch Discipleship School, but maybe the nations was in God's heart for us. Well, he goes to Missouri and within a few months of his new marriage, he finds out that his wife is committing adultery with a good friend of his, an old boyfriend of hers. And all of a sudden, his world is shattered. I need to step down as a youth pastor. I need to try to restore my marriage. She wanted nothing to do with it and she divorced him. So here he is, a 22-year-old, believing all these incredible things and promises of God and now he's a divorced man and not knowing what the future holds. Some friends in a church in North Carolina said, just come out here and heal. While he's out there, God's doing incredible things in his heart. There's another young lady named Rachel in the church. She's going to Duke at the time. Brilliant young lady and they begin to become friends and if you know Clint, the highest conscience, is this right? Okay, my former wife is remarried.

Yes, I have legal grounds for divorce, but what do I do with this? I'm a broken man. I'm beat up goods here. Is it okay to even pursue this relationship? And he felt called to come back for a few days to wake her to talk to us and pray with us. And the way he describes it is they came back and just wept for three days. Just being among the people of God, being loved, being cared for, being ministered to. And eventually feels that peace from God. Okay, I can initiate this relationship. And as they did, they would marry and then they would come back into our discipleship school and on their outreach, they would go to Lebanon into the Middle East. Eventually they would end up living there as a beginning place. They don't live there currently. And they had this picture of streams in the desert throughout the Middle East. If they would give their lives for the Middle East, for Muslims, then God would give them other men and women in exchange for their lives. Today, 22 years later, we conservatively, thousands upon thousands of Muslims have come to know Jesus because of this couple, of course, and many other friends and co-labors have been willing and wanting to give their lives

for something bigger than themselves. And the reason I tell his story is that if you feel disqualified because of your sin, I'm telling you that we have a redemptive God who literally takes the greatest brokenness in our lives and turns it into something of beauty for ashes, rivers in the desert. Of course, God hates divorce. Of course, we are 100% covenant for life. And when life hits and brokenness happens, grace is still greater than the brokenness that hit us. I don't know where you are today in your own journey, but I wanted you to hear lastly the words of Clint. He was here last year and he shared a little word with us in staff meeting. We were able to capture it. In some of the background, you'll see our own works, as I think I'd said earlier, or maybe I did in the first service. We've had the privilege since 1999 of sending out 97 church planning teams around the world. And you'll see some of those in this clip. But I want you to hear Clint's heart, not just for the nations, but as a whole. His heart for you. You have, we have Jesus. You're dripping Jesus. Like I'm so stirred up this morning listening to you guys. You guys are Jesus people. You're dripping Him in the jails.

You're dripping Him in the neighborhoods. You're dripping Him to the kids. You're pouring Him out. And I mean, there may be an increase of darkness, Matthew 24, all that's gonna happen, but this good news of the kingdom, that He's real, that He comforts those that are hurting, that He's the hope that everybody's been looking for, that He knows you, that He loves you, that He creates you with purpose, that you're not alone. He's a wonderful counselor. That good news of the kingdom is gonna be proclaimed and dripped by you guys among every people group. And then the end will come. And I'm telling you, it's happening, man. It's happening here. I'm like, I was pretty discouraged going in here after being in America for a couple of weeks, all the division and finding a brokenness. And then I'm here and I'm like, yeah. I love this family. We're so thankful to be a part of this family. You guys are Jesus people. Thank you for being Jesus people. Amen, let's stand together. All right, hey, all of our prayer teams come quickly to the front. Now, here's what I want everybody to know. Just hang with me a few more minutes. You've lasted this long, come on.

Hang with me a couple more minutes. Every time we gather, we want to pray for needs. We know there are people physically sick, mentally in torment. We know marriage is on the brink. We know that difficulties are here. We know we've spoken to things from the word of God that may have opened your heart to a need. Listen, every time we gather, we want to pray. And here's what happens. I can say this with full integrity. Every Sunday, somebody gets healed. Not everyone does, but every Sunday, somebody gets healed. Every Sunday, somebody gets saved. Every Sunday, somebody finds peace and grace because they're willing to humble themselves and come for prayer. You may just want to turn to the person you came with and said, pray for me, confess the sin, let some darkness go so that the life of Jesus can be made manifest. So you can just start coming from wherever you are. We're gonna do one more song here to seal the deal, but either you're coming right now or you're praying with somebody next to you or you're asking God, God, what's my act of obedience as I walk out of this place? So as we worship, come bring a friend, but don't let anyone or anything, anybody keep you from getting what God has for you this morning.