Bread of Life Church of Fresno
Welcome to the Bread of Life Church Podcast! This podcast seeks to bring the Bible to life through teaching and sharing what God has given us in His word. The goal of these messages is to obtain a functional spirituality that is worked out on a daily basis through the love and power of God.
Bread of Life Church of Fresno
Pursuit 2025: A Fresh Encounter with God
Join Tom as he outlines our vision for 2025, focusing on the need for fresh encounters with God and a culture of pursuit. We explore essential themes such as the importance of pursuing God, and the four key areas of focus that will guide our community in the coming years.
- Introduction of the vision for 2025
- Importance of community and believers in pursuit together
- Four key focuses for 2025: Word, People, Excellence, Prayer
- Practical steps for engaging in this pursuit
Find more content at bolcf.org
This morning I would like to break into the vision for 2025. The Lord began to deal with me about this oh, probably about a month ago a little more than that and began to speak to me about what was going to be next for us as Christians, for what was going to happen in Bread of Life, and I think it might be even connected to what God is doing in the nation and, hopefully, ultimately in the world. I don't know if you realize this, but the Bible talks about there being seasons in the way God works. The Bible says we go from faith to faith. It's possible in your life to have walked out a season of faith and come to the end of that season and need a baptism and an encounter with God to have faith for what he's going to do next. The Bible says we go from grace to grace. I have watched this many times in my life now. I've seen it in my own life. I've seen it in churches and leadership teams, where a season of grace ends and the season of that work was completed and the grace for that hour was expended and there needed to be a fresh encounter and a new encounter with God to receive grace for what he was going to do next, a new encounter with God to receive grace for what he was going to do next. While God's ways never change, he is the God who says in Isaiah behold, I will do a new thing. Would you not know it? Would you become aware of what I'm doing? The Bible says we go from strength to strength, from glory to glory. I believe 2025, and the beginning of it in this year, is the beginning of another place of strength, another place of glory, another place of faith, another place of grace.
Speaker 1:How many of you could say in your own life today, I could use a fresh encounter with God and deposit of grace upon my life to do what God has given me to do next. Listen, yeah, you could thank God for that. You're not ready to pack it in and go to heaven just yet. If you're still upright and could take nourishment on your own and you're breathing, you're not ready to pack it in just yet. That means that you have a purpose in this earth and God has set upon you an anointing, a calling, a grace, a gift and a role in the body of Christ for you to live a life that's pleasing to him and that expands his purposes. How many of you have come to understand that salvation doesn't mean better life for you? It means serving God and then he gives you his will, which is always a better life.
Speaker 1:But the idea that I got saved just to be more blessed and more happy and just have more American things and more first world comforts that is not what salvation is. Salvation employs you in the kingdom of God and sets you on a path of righteousness where we have to live in a thing called dependency, where we have to live for God in a way that we depend upon God in every day of our life, and that means every season of change. Imagine if God never allowed a season of change to come to you. When would you ever refresh your dependency? When would you have a need to get on your face again and get on your knees again and look for him for what's next? So one of the reasons God does it this way is that he's constantly inviting us to a place of pursuit to see what is next.
Speaker 1:And so, as I was describing, a little over a month ago, it was very early in the morning and I don't often tell these things because I don't want to sound strange, I don't, or mystical, but at the same time I kind of am, and I think some of you are too. What do I mean by that? How I ever got into this thing is because God spoke to me. I didn't go to career day and choose a career path at the university that I thought suited my interest and personality. Nobody in their right mind would choose this on that day career path at the university that I thought suited my interest and personality Nobody in their right mind would choose this on that day. Here you could become a real estate agent and a broker and make millions. Here you could become a banker. Here you could become a doctor. And here you could be hated by everyone in the world, suffer a cross, lose all your stuff all the time and endure pain and suffering for the glory of God. On career day, this doesn't become your first choice, it's true.
Speaker 1:The point is is that God spoke to me and he called me and he said you are going to become this on my behalf in the world, and your life is not your own. You've been bought with a price Glorify me through your life. How many of you understand today? Your life is not your own. Come on now. How many of you got saved like that? Your life is not yours, jesus says. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. When you got born again, your life was given over to him and it is no longer your own, and so God has the right to come to your life and ask of you an obedience that meets his will, and in that he will meet your needs. Amen.
Speaker 1:And so I heard the voice of God a little over a month ago, and he woke me up early in the morning. It was still dark outside and it was amazing that I felt like I woke up to a conversation that was going on in heaven, and I heard the Lord talking to me and I woke up to his voice. I woke wide awake and I heard him saying and this is what I heard him tell me he said it is time for you to pursue me. I know what those words mean. I said, lord, I am pursuing you. He said no, he goes. I don't mean like that. He says. I mean pursue me like. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:And right then I understood how I ever encountered God and got into these things is because I was pursuing him as a young man, meaning this kind of pursuit meant that I set everything aside in my life and I do mean everything, every desire, every hobby, every need to appear to look good, even at times, for moments even looking for my own provision, where I had to depend upon him. The pursuit was so intense that I thought I would lose my mind. The pursuit was so intense that I thought I would lose my mind, because when you live in a Christianity and you don't know anyone pursuing God like that, you think you're crazy, you think something's wrong with you. It's like are you hearing voices? Why is God asking you to lay on your face and fast and read the Bible and weep for days on end? You don't see anybody else living like that. Preachers don't live like that. What's wrong with you? But the Lord said don't look at preachers, look at me and do what I'm telling you to do. You stay here until I'm done. And he reminded me of those days. He goes. This is what I'm talking about. I said Lord, there's all these good people. They go to church, pay their tithes, they go to home group. He goes. That's all good, he goes. But that's not the pursuit I'm talking about, and he caused me to understand just being a nice person and going to church on Sunday. There's a pursuit beyond that and he said I'm asking for that pursuit out of you and ultimately out of the church.
Speaker 1:The weight of that fell on me very heavy because, being in this for over 40 years, I understood what that meant. It meant that God was going to carve into my life pretty hard, which I constantly invite him to do but I knew it was time to re-up. It was time to re-up in my faith. It was time to re-up in the call of God on my life. It was time to re-up the church. It's time to come back to a hot altar, a hot pursuit of relationships, a hot pursuit of knowing the word of God and a hot pursuit of knowing the Word of God and a hot pursuit of raising the bar of excellence and service servanthood in the church.
Speaker 1:Not long after that meaning that morning, because it was like 4 or 5 in the morning I meditated on that for a long time and while being 5 in the morning, I drift off to sleep and I had a dream that spoke to me about what he had just told me and I'm not going to go into the five in the morning. I drift off to sleep and I had a dream that spoke to me about what he had just told me. And I'm not going to go into the details of the dream because that sounds mystical. I'll just tell you this. The dream measured three things. He said the worship is not ready to do what I'm getting ready to do.
Speaker 1:In this dream, 1000 people stampeded the altar in one message and he said this is the scope of how I want to work in the world. If you could hear it. He goes I want to bring thousands of people into the kingdom of God quickly, if you can hear what I'm saying, because Jesus loves people and does not want them to be destroyed in sin. When you walk outside, don't look at these people and think oh, those poor people, their life isn't as good as mine. Understand that they are on their way to hell, to a devil's hell, and the devil's hell they're going to is already working on them. Now it's coming up through the earth and invading their lives and eating them alive.
Speaker 1:And the Lord spoke to me in this dream. He said your worship is not ready to handle what I'm bringing to you. Your administration is not ready to handle what I'm bringing to you. Your administration is not ready to handle what I'm bringing to you. And he said when there's reckless ideas, words and movement among leaders, it will kill everything. There were three warnings in this dream the worship, the administration and the role of leaders need to get it together. And I was humbled and I felt the measurement in my spirit. And so I woke up from that dream deeply troubled, realizing we are under the dealings of God and under the development of heaven as a church. And God's not looking at all the other churches right now. He probably is, but right now it's not my concern. My concern is my life, my leadership, my obedience before the throne of God and then shaping a culture of pursuit inside of this church that has power and purpose in the earth, that lives for something beyond our own selves. How many of you understand, you think, so far, what I'm trying to say? Say man, this is heavy already, it'll be okay.
Speaker 1:There's several scriptures in the Bible that talk about pursuit. By the way, I don't know if you know this, but pursuing God is a critical theme of the entire word of God. It is central to the book. It's amazing to me how I hear preachers around the world all the time preaching from this book and somehow neglect to mention that. I'm like how is it that you miss this?
Speaker 1:So listen to what Isaiah 55 says in verse six seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. What an amazing thought the Bible says seek the Lord while he may be found. You know what that means. He isn't always able to be found quite like that. I don't know if you know this, but there are times and seasons where God pours himself out and if we are too busy or too distracted and say I'll get to it later, later may not come Windows open and close. I don't know if you understand that, but there have been seasons of great revival in the world and seasons of great darkness. And when God is opening a door and saying now is the time to find me, we're not going to say you know what, I'll get to it next year. Next year may be too late. When he speaks, we look now, we answer now, we go with him. Now Seek the Lord while he may be found right.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 29, 11,. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and you will find me. When you search for me with all of your heart and I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and then I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the places where I've driven you. How many of you think it would be a good idea if we could come and seek God? The Bible says when you come, you will find me. How many of you say, lord, I want to find you. Oh man, how many of you say today my life depends on finding God? I don't mean a better principle, I mean encountering the most high living God who sits on the throne, coming to your life and saying let me show you the plans that I have for you. Come and seek me and search for me, and then you will find me.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in the book of Hosea, chapter 10, verse 12,. Sow the view to righteousness. Reap in accordance with kindness. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes to rain righteousness on you. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord. Fallow ground is ground that's not been worked with for a while, and whenever I come to a point in my life where I realize that the surface and the structure of my heart has become fallow, meaning it's not been sowed in and it's a little bit crusty on top, the Bible says there break it up. How do I break it up? Why don't I ask God to break it up? Because the same reason that Paul said to Timothy stir the gift that is in you, you stir it.
Speaker 1:There is something about pursuit that isn't all on God's end, it's on my end. There's a responsibility that comes to me that says you begin to look for me and pursue me and build your life around the pursuit of knowing me and being in what I'm doing and in that pursuit is the breaking up of fallow ground. How many Christians go to church on Sunday and their heart is fallow ground? Hello, think about that for a moment. Has my heart ever become fallow meaning? Have I become dull to spiritual things? Have I become dull to my christian friendships? Have I become dull to the word of god? Have I become uninterested in serving in the house of god and seeing it beautified and see it, uh, glowing in the power of god? I'm more interested in my own pursuits and what I'm doing, and I'm not really having time for the word of god. I'm not really having time for the power of God. I'm more interested in my own pursuits and what I'm doing, and I'm not really having time for the word of God. I'm not really having time for the presence of God.
Speaker 1:That's a heart fallow and he says break it up and seek the Lord, for it is time to seek the Lord. If you don't hear anything out of this message today, may the power of God come upon our lives and raise faith in us to begin to break up the hardness of heart or the places that have become distant, where we begin to say it is time to seek the Lord. Psalm 14.2 says the Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men. Listen to this To see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. Could you imagine the Lord walking around heaven and looking and saying I'm looking upon all the sons of men. Is there anyone there who understands, who knows that they should be looking for me right now? Jesus says when the Son of man returns, will he find faith in the earth, meaning? Will there be people looking for my return? Will there be people looking for me? Will there be people in pursuit? Well, I think you get the idea.
Speaker 1:I'm going to keep going here, and so when I woke up from that dream and I had all that encounter with God, it was very heavy on my heart and I understood that 2025 needed four focuses. And I brought it to the team and the team heard it and they said pursuit. This revelation about pursuit is the theme for 2025. It was more than a moment. It's a guiding word. This saying this is what we're going to be doing. So I understood then that the job of leaders and the call of God was for us to develop a culture of pursuit and a community that pursues God. Let me say that one more time the church is supposed to be a culture of living pursuit of God as a lifestyle, as a lifestyle that's 24-7, seven days a week, 12 months a year, all the time. Does that mean that you're supposed to leave your jobs and neglect your house and just come late and alter all day? No, there may be days you need to do that, but no, because a lifestyle, a pursuit, has many elements to it. So here are the four tracks God told me had to happen in 2025.
Speaker 1:The pursuit of the word of God. Can I tell you something? So many things we blame on the devil, where it really could be solved is if we just knew the word of God and knew what to say when we were tempted. We could blame the devil on so many things, but the truth is is we were duped by his lies because we don't know the scripture. The Bible can put in you a foundation to save you hundreds of hours of counseling if you only knew it. Hallelujah, is that true. If I knew the word of God, it could save me hundreds of hours of pain because the truth of it would be the guide in my heart.
Speaker 1:The second thing he told me that we needed to do is we needed to pursue the care and the serving of people. We needed to pursue taking care of people, meaning there needed to be lots of home groups. I just thank God for our home group leaders. The home group leaders are like shepherds in the church. They are shepherd leaders, shepherds and shepherdesses, and they're going through the body and they are caring for the church and they are serving the needs of the church and I'm so blessed and they have heard this message and I have spent time with each home group leader. We've had meetings together and they are on fire to do this. There is a deep, burning heart in them to care for you, just like we have met with the teachers, jason and his crew, and they are on fire to bring the word of God in 2025 and lay down in us a foundation of the scripture. How many of you know that these two things already a deepening of the word of God and a deepening of pastoral care and love for one another are two healthy things to do? Can you say amen?
Speaker 1:A third thing was the pursuit of God's ways and excellence in serving. Can I tell you something? To have a church of 200 to 300 people, which we're on our way to just to build a worship team that can sustain that is going to take a lot of energy. I hope many of you who have singing voices and talents would be willing to become a part of something. The children's church, the ushers, the greeters all of this is going to take more energy. It's going to take more people. You can have a great move of God and great messages and great worship, but if your administration falls apart, that's what people remember when they weren't served or looked after properly.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, the fourth track would be a deepening of prayer. Nick Watson and I have been working on this, and in 2025, there's going to be a lot more prayer meetings going on. We're going to make more times available to us as a church. So right now, we have Saturday nights from 7 to 8.30. And then we have Wednesday mornings from 9 to 11. And there's more that are coming.
Speaker 1:How many of you understand, then, so far, what we've said is a culture of pursuit. You lived as a community. It's coming upon the church and it's going to look like four things Word, people, excellent of ways and prayer. Word people, ways, prayer, ready Word, people, ways, prayer Ready Word, people ways, prayer. It's very interesting that that's already in the Word of God. Can I tell you something? God doesn't do things outside of the Scripture, right, so I'm just going to give you a little prehistory.
Speaker 1:In the book of Acts, chapter 2, it started with a hot pursuit. In chapter 1, jesus is about to ascend and he tells the disciples to not go off and do anything yet, but to go to Jerusalem and wait for the outpouring of the Father's promise and to wait for that to happen before they did anything else. And it says the disciples saw Jesus go up in the clouds. And what did they do? They went back to Jerusalem and they went into a little place called the upper room and there was about 120 people there the day the Pentecost poured out. And you know what they were doing they were fasting and praying and they were ministering to the Lord. They had set aside everything in their lives to pursue God. Jesus said the next step isn't going out launching and building anything. The next step is pursuit. And on the other end of pursuit, then you'll know what to do. But as for you, go live in pursuit and wait for that arrival. And so those men there were 11 of them left that mountain with Jesus and they went off into Jerusalem and they started a prayer meeting that went on for quite a while, like nearly 50 days. I mean, right, pentecost 50. So there, I don't have time to go into all what that means, but Penta means right 50, 50 days after the crucifixion, resurrection, pentecost, they pursued heavy and then, all of a sudden, the Bible says when the day of Pentecost had come, in chapter 2, verse 1, they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a noise of a violent rushing wind and they were filled the whole house where they were sitting and there appeared to them tongues of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them until they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. So what you have to realize is right there pursuit broke through. Now I want to say this to you Pursuit has an end game in it. It's called breakthrough. Pursuit has an end game in it. It's called breakthrough.
Speaker 1:Some of you may be hearing this message and you're waiting for the part where I describe how the culture is gonna do it as a body, and that is really right. Some of you, a few of you, may be listening to this and saying how do I get into that pursuit where I break through? Has anyone in this room ever been called by God to seek him until you broke through. If you know, if you have done that, then you know. If you know, you know If those words mean anything to you, then you know when God said seek me, lay before me until you break through. And when you break through, you know it, because the power of God comes upon you, the word of the Lord comes to you and all of a sudden it's like filters are pulled back, blinds are pulled back and you become awake and aware of what God is doing in ways that you weren't before. And the whole world changes inside your spirit, inside your heart, because you got up to where God was and you're no longer where you were. Pursuit Some of you. God's calling you to that.
Speaker 1:But how do we live it as a culture, as a body? Well, how many of you know that after the day of Pentecost, peter and the boys could not call 3,000 people to an upper room? They couldn't repeat the upper room. Why? Because that's not feasible. Because it says 3,000 people got saved in one day. Quickly, the church went from 120, or it could have been as many as 500. I mean, there were people at work that day taking care of kids. So it wasn't like there were 120 special people. It was probably a bigger community than that, but it blossomed to thousands of people in one message.
Speaker 1:So how are they going to say, well, let's take 3,500 people and stuff them back in this upper room? That was not the plan. The plan was, rather than trying to stuff everyone into the pursuit the apostles had been living in, the purpose was to build a culture who could live it as a lifestyle around the city, and that's where we come in. How many of you would love to live in a culture of the pursuit of God around the community as the people of God? Well, we were in the same boat that 120 was in, but we were living it daily in life around the community, and the pursuit was producing the power of God all over town. I'll try that one more time. I know this is hard to hear, but just stay with me.
Speaker 1:Imagine, if you will, a move of God going from a few leaders in an altar to a move of God going on around Fresno and the Central Valley, and the intent of the breakthrough that happened at Pentecost was not to get everybody into 50 days of praying and fasting, but the intent was to create a culture of people who lived praying and worshiping the Word of God and serving as a lifestyle, as a culture. All over the area and in little bite-sized burning fires around town, pursuit was being lived as a lifestyle and that pursuit was enough to break the region open for God. Can I tell you something? God has never had a different design. For the entire history of the church, there's only been one plan People pursue him and break through. Then a culture of breakthrough gathers around that initial breakthrough and it becomes a lifestyle and it becomes a culture, the way we live. And the Bible says the church expands like crazy Soon. As you need a church growth plan, you've lost it. Can I say it again as soon as we need to hire somebody from a marketing group to come and grow the church, we've already left the Word of God. You know why? Because that's never the plan.
Speaker 1:God has a way that he does things. God's will is always done, god's way. How many of you know that? Yeah, I know I put a heavy emphasis on pursuit, but I really do not want to lighten that. I feel so convicted about it where I know that I'm going to have to reorient my life. I'm already making changes. I'm going to have to readjust my life again to accommodate the will of God again. There are times in your life where God shows up and says I'm asking you to change your calendar, to change what you do with your time, to change how you sleep, how you eat, what you do. I'm asking you to change how you do your work and I'm asking you to prefer me and make time to seek me and make me your priority and not other things.
Speaker 1:So the buildup the buildup is basically in Acts, chapter two. This great outpouring comes and the result comes down to three things Ready People were saved, people were baptized and a community was born to display the culture of the kingdom of God. And there's this little statement in there. It says Peter makes let's just turn to Acts 2, verse 37. So after he's preached this great message, it says Now, when they had heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? Peter said to them Repent each of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That needs to be preached over and over again. Not you will repent of your sins and go to heaven. We need to get a biblical gospel going, my friends Not repent of your sins and you'll make more money. No, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. As many as the Lord, our God, will call to himself, and with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting him, saying listen to these words, be saved from this perverse generation. So then, those who had received his word were baptized, and that day they were added about 3,000 souls.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about bread of life for a moment. We've lived in a micro season of this. In this last season there have been people being saved in this church every week and we've had many baptisms, and this message is constantly coming up from this microphone and from the home groups and from Sunday classes with the kids Escape this perverted generation, be saved there. It literally means be delivered from it and set free from it. My God, I want to shout that from rooftops. I want to be able to say to this whole nation escape the perversion of the culture and the hour we're living in Escape it be delivered from it, be set free from it and live in a different culture and not a perverted one. The problem with a salvation that sends you to heaven and blesses you there's no confrontation in your life to challenge the separation that must take place to be holy. Let me say that again, without this kind of preaching, there's no confrontation to your life that asks you to live a life consecrated to God so you could live in a pursuit of Him. It is time to seek the Lord and break up fallow ground. So three things happened. One more time they were saved, they were baptized and a culture was born that had been given by Jesus himself to the apostles, and they begin to build an amazing culture of pursuit. So let's look at that culture.
Speaker 1:Verse 42, the community of pursuit it says they were continually devoting themselves. Listen to these four things the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer. Let's just stop right there. First of all, what does it mean to be continually devoting themselves? That means well, let me read that. Actually. So my Greek teacher in Bible school wrote a book. He's a very famous author now and his name was Dr Bill Mounts. Is Dr Bill Mounts, and he wrote this in his lexicon of Greek words. He says to persist in adherence to a thing to be intently engaged in and to attend to constantly. So they were devoting themselves continually to these four things. In other words, when all those people had come in, when this community was birthed, the whole community, the whole community, thousands of people in one go, begin to adhere to the pursuit and to be intently engaged in and attend to constantly four things the word of God, fellowship being with people, the ways of God and the pursuit of God's presence in prayer. Remember the four things I told you were in the wheelhouse for 2025? Word, people, servanthood, excellence and prayer. They're right there and listen to this.
Speaker 1:Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles and those who had believed were together and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing with them all, as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Wow, how many of you would love to live in that? Right, I have wanted to live in that my whole Christianity. Ever since I was born again, I've had a hunger in my heart that somehow I could live in that, that I could live in Acts chapter two, that I could live in a place where God's spirit had poured out and asked for a heavy pursuit of him, and on the other side of it were salvations, baptisms and a culture born and birthed in the earth that lives like Acts two, and a culture born and birthed in the earth that lives like Acts 2. And so the reason people were getting saved daily and coming into the church was because the kingdom of God was moving in an operation and none of us could take the glory. When it's happening through all of us, then none of us get to be important. God is important, all right. So let's break this down for a moment. First of all, what were they in constant pursuit of? By the way, let's just say this to continually devote means pursuit. I mean, that's how I look at it. I believe chapter 2, verse 42, is a pursuit language. It's pursuit language. It's a continual, constant reorienting my life to pursue.
Speaker 1:I remember years ago I was in a sailing boat out in the English Channel and the man who owned the sailing boat gave me the wheel. That was dangerous because if you've ever sailed the English Channel, there are massive tankers going through there. When I say massive, I mean like the biggest in the world. And I said you know, you're sure you want me to do that. He goes oh, you'll be able to do it. And he said here's the thing. He said you see the white cliffs of Dover ahead of you. I said yes. He said just keep moving the wheel and keeping the sail adjusted and the rudder adjusted so you keep repointing back to Dover. I said, seriously, he goes yeah, it'll be okay. So I get up there.
Speaker 1:Imagine this he goes down to the is it the galley To make me a cup of coffee? He leaves me up there and I'm on the bridge, I guess, of this sailing vessel and I have this big wheel, you know, with the big handles coming off of it and I'm like I don't know about this. I said there are takers out here. He says just keep doing what I told you. I said what he says look at the white cliffs of Dover and don't take your eye off of that, just keep reading.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what was going on out there. Well, the wind, it's the English Channel, man. I mean, the winds are blowing and I'm like my God, we're going to die. And so I kept. Man, I was, oh, man, you know, I had my hands on that wheel for all my life. I'm like we're going to be dead in five minutes Could have been. And he's like just do what I told you, you'll be okay. He didn't even care. He didn't even come up to make sure I was doing it. Okay, I said you could be hitting a boat down there and die, and you don't even care enough to come up here. He says if you will do what I told you to do, we are going to be okay, guy down there making coffee for me while I'm up here holding on for dear life. So you know what I did? Every time the wind and the waves came, man, I was cranking that wheel.
Speaker 1:White cliffs of Dover, white cliffs of Dover. And I'm constantly. I fought without wheel. I fought wind and rain and waves. I did. And I'm like help me Jesus, help me Jesus, help me Jesus, because this big tanker is going by and I'm like my God. He said just stay on the course and you'll be okay. He goes, you might want to avoid the tanker. How do I do that? Well, adjust, but get back to your destination point. So I'm like I'm getting around the tinker. I'm getting around the tinker. Oh, that is stinking close. I'm looking up at that thing. We made it. I get back on course, but I never lost view of the cliffs of Dover and I kept adjusting my wheel until we finally got there.
Speaker 1:Constant pursuit is like that. You've got to get a hold of your life. You do, and you got to grab the wheel and don't just go down in the gully and drink coffee all day and let the wind just spin it. I don't know where in the world we're going, god knows. No, no, no, you got to go, take the wheel and go. Hey, we are going to be in constant pursuit and we're going to micro-adjust about every 10 seconds to make sure that I am on the point and on the goal, to get to what I'm supposed to arrive at and not be destroyed by these tankers. You better know I was in pursuit, but your life is like that. Are you in pursuit? Well, there's four things you can do.
Speaker 1:You may be sitting here saying this is all great. I think it's great that you and the leaders are going to come down here and snot and fast and pray at the altar and you're going to have visitations. But I got to get up and take care of kids. I got to wipe rear ends. I got to clean snotty noses. I got to clean my barf. I got to go to work. I got to mow my lawn. I've got to take care of my family. I've got to take care of my business. I have a lot of work to do. I can't be up here with the apostles all day long living in this life.
Speaker 1:So how do I live in this? How do we as a people live in a culture of pursuit? I'm glad you asked that question. How many of you would like to know the answer of how we live as a community of pursuit, together? Because the goal is to produce a community and not just a few leaders. Remember, we're not stuffing everybody in an altar all day long. We're going to live it in life.
Speaker 1:Well, the first thing we do is we continually pursue the word of God. The Bible here calls it the apostles teaching, meaning apostolic teaching is not necessarily American teaching. Apostolic teaching has lordship in it and then on the other side of lordship is a mission to expand the kingdom of God, and so lordship is training for the work you're going to do. Imagine if church was about you being trained for the work you're going to do, instead of coming on Sundays and being lifted up with a good message. So they were continually in hot pursuit of the apostles' teaching, meaning the word of God was rebuilding their foundation and their identity and what it meant to be alive. The second thing they were doing, they were fellowshipping. Now we could think you know they went to Starbucks or Cup of Joy for coffee. It's a lot more than that. When we have life groups, fellowship is more than show up at Greg's house or Jason's house or Mark's house and the Montoya's house and have all the good food they make. It's a lot more than that. You know what goes on in those meetings Real discipleships taking place.
Speaker 1:Sometimes even demonic spirits come out of people, people become healed, people are being transformed and it's a nucleus of relationships where we are living life together to see that our lives are in pursuit of God. And is there any course corrections that need to be made? While I'm out here on the wind and the waves, I have people around me discipling to make sure that the wheel isn't spinning, that we've laid hold of it and accepted responsibility for our faith and our life and we're being held accountable to it and taught and imparted to and strengthened and helped become strong enough to keep our grip on the wheel of navigating life by following what the Word of God says. There are times where you have to navigate.
Speaker 1:In my life there have been many problems presented to me and I could go to the Lord and say Lord, deliver me. He's saying I'm not going to do anything, I've done everything. I'm going to do. This is going to come down to what you're going to do. What do you mean, lord? Well, what decisions are you going to make and act on here? What faith are you going to operate in? That becomes something you do.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at that when the demonic comes to torment you in your house, it's one thing to cry out to the Lord deliver me, deliver me. It's another thing to stand up and say, in the name of Jesus, I am God's child and, by the authority given to me and my salvation. I rebuke you and I command you to depart from my house. It's not asking God what he's going to do. It's him looking at you and saying what are you going to do? I choose to be a disciple man. If I was you, I'd get in a life group right now. I'd get in one and I'd say, hey, I need to be made a disciple because I think the wheel is spinning up there and I'm down here on Netflix. It's like can you help me get out of the wind and the wave and get me to where I'm going? I need to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, with a clear heart and a clear life, so that I could do the will of God and not just sit here, hallelujah. So the word of God gives that to you and then becoming part of a community gives that to you. Man, this is a long message I'm going to hurry up here the next thing they were doing. It says they were breaking bread. Now, there's a big description on that. Obviously, that's the Lord's table. So it was doing this in remembrance of me.
Speaker 1:Communion was a big part of their life and they were living it as a constant. What's interesting is you read down. They were taking meals together and, as I studied the commentaries on this, yet again, communion wasn't a big ceremony on a weekend, but it was a lifestyle where these people were so continually devoted to worshiping God and seeking God that whenever they had meals together there was also communion, meaning the whole reason we're here is because of him and we're here to remember him, or we don't have anything here. Do you know that communion like that takes preparation and servanthood? Hello, the cup and the bread didn't just appear like on the day of 5,000. They fed the 5,000. It doesn't magically appear. That means somebody had to go to the store and get groceries because they usually had it with a meal. This was a daily lifestyle where they were breaking bread, they were having worship and communion and they were having meals together.
Speaker 1:25% of the four corners of the New Testament church was food. Food was. Corners of the New Testament church was food. Food takes preparation. Food takes finances. Food takes somebody serving. Food takes somebody accepting responsibility for the care of this, so that an administration is put together where we've had a meal and everyone has had a great time of fellowshipping, being taught the Word of God, so we can have communion Actually, in the New Testament, communion was not separated from a meal anywhere.
Speaker 1:There's nowhere in the Word of God where communion and a meal were separate events. In the Word of God where communion and a meal were separate events, they're always the same. The Last Supper, where Jesus offers the disciples communion was a last supper, not a last communion. It was a supper, it was a meal. Well, guess what? The apostles did not deviate from what they learned in the Gospels. They kept it going in the New Testament church. So instead of the apostles having meals with everyone, the church was having meals all through the city and they were breaking bread.
Speaker 1:I'm saying that there has to be an excellence and a pursuit of making sure that things are well done and provided for for us to have that kind of worship. Then, lastly, prayer, and it's interesting, in the Greek it's not just prayers a prayer, it's prayers, meaning it was more than one prayer meeting, it was a constant pursuit of God. That prayer was going on all the time, everywhere. So what have we said so far? For there to be a culture of pursuit, just like it was in the book of Acts, chapter two, so it has to be now, because God never changes his pattern. There has to be a pursuit of the word of God, a pursuit of people, a pursuit of God's ways and a pursuit of His presence in prayer. Finally, when this is all working, here's the fruit. When that's happening, there's a sense of awe in the atmosphere and the presence and power of God is there, with signs and wonders following.
Speaker 1:I preached this message for a long time. Glory comes by gift or by temple. We all want Benny Hinn or Catherine Coleman or some person to go up the mountain, pay the prices and then come back and show us all what it's like, and at the end it becomes monetized and it becomes a mess. Or it's glory by temple and instead of there being superstars, everybody gets in on it and that signs and wonders live among the community. Yes, the apostles were breaking it out, but how many of you know Stephen? His face showed like an angel and little old Ananias. We don't know who he was. He wasn't named among the apostles, but he had the ability to set Paul free from blindness. The average Christian in the Jerusalem church could rock it. They were walking with God right.
Speaker 1:Another thing that happened is that love was so real that it created a bond among them. That was so far beyond human interest and loyalty that agape was working, meaning what's happening in your life is just as important as what's happening in your life is just as important as what's happening in my life. And what do I need to do to help you get through? What do I need to sell? What do I need to give you? How do we live life together in such a way that we truly care about one another?
Speaker 1:Do you know the Bible says in the day of God's power, people give freely. Listen. We don't have to have 30 minute offering calls. We don't have to preach for a half hour on giving. We don't have to now make this a message of coercion that says to be in the church, you have to give all your stuff. You know how this works is when we walk together and love one another, we serve one another and careful one another without people having to mandate it.
Speaker 1:Can I say that again? When we love one another and we care for one another and agape is living in us needs get met, and sometimes we don't even know who's meeting our need. We just know God's helping us. Imagine, if you will, a church so full of love and so full of warmth and so given to the pursuit of the word of God and to people and to the excellence of servanthood, and whether the communion life is a life and not just a moment, and that prayer has power to bring an atmosphere of the glory of God that we're so overwhelmed by it all and so undone that we're like I'm already in heaven, I'm already in a heavenly realm, I'm already there with God, and so what I have is really kind of immaterial at this point, because something better than temporary things is here. The eternal kingdom of God is among us, and out of that place we care about one another and a love that's deep. This is the fruit of it.
Speaker 1:Finally, a daily devotion cycle works out deep oneness in the temple and at the home. It says that they were having their meals and enjoying the presence of God in the temple and in the home. It's down at the church and it's in our houses. It's not either or it's both. And Can you say amen? You know why we have home groups? Because the Bible had home groups. It was in the temple, meaning the church where they gathered, and it was in home to home.
Speaker 1:Some people build their whole church on home to home and refuse to have a central gathering. Some people, the other way around. The New Testament had both. If it worked for them, it'll work for us. Right? They remembered the Lord's table and they had meals together in a constant pursuit of God. Listen, if you are constantly looking for God and you're with your friends, then that worship in your heart to have a time of communion when you're having meals together. To stop, stop. Stop this. You know the roast beef and potatoes have been great, but this is really about Jesus and the reason we're here is about him, and we need to stop and remember. We're doing this in remembrance of him, not just enjoying ourselves, and this is how we make him first and put him first.
Speaker 1:The preparation for that and the excellence of servanthood that creates that a thousand different ways was at work. They were praising God, lastly, and having constant favor in their community. Well, actually, that's not last. Can I tell you something? The church should have favor in the community. Why? Because love is working and the power of God is healing people and generosity is coming out of it in such a way that it spills out into the town. Then the last part, and day by day. Listen to this. The Lord was adding to their number those who were being saved. Every day God was adding.
Speaker 1:Talk about a church growth program. That is a great church growth program. That is a great church growth program. Why are people being saved every day? I don't know. Could it be that a culture who is in the pursuit of God has an atmosphere of glory in it and an atmosphere of presence and power and awe, and signs of wonders are taking out and great generosity is working and favor is there and worship is hot and real. It's so much so that it's irresistible. And people that are watching it and families and friends and neighbors and associates at work, college students, people you went to school with, people that you know live on your street are watching your life, are watching how you're living, and they're watching your friends. They're saying what's that? I want in on that? How is that working? When you meet people and you say, could I offer something to you? What? The kingdom of God, jesus Christ, the power of God? And when you begin to talk about it, that atmosphere that you're living in begins to come upon them.
Speaker 1:Remember in my late twenties, when I was in a season, again, of heavy pursuit. For a little while I thought I could be a real estate agent and so I had a real estate license. This was a very short lived career because God was going to do other things in my life. But I remember being real estate agent and so I had a real estate license. This was a very short-lived career because God was going to do other things in my life. But I remember being in this real estate group and this older woman got in my car because we had to go to something the real estate agency was sending us to, and her husband took her car. She said I jump in with you real quick. I'm like I usually don't have women in my car, but we're not going very far and so you're a lot older than me. It's going to be okay.
Speaker 1:But so she got in the car and she picks up the worship cassette that was cassettes back then and she goes. You need to tell me about this. What is this? She goes I've been watching you and you're not like anybody in this place. I said what do you mean? She goes. You are different and different and she goes, and I know it's about this. Can you tell me what has happened to you? I said you really want to know that she goes. I absolutely do. I led her and her husband to the Lord, but the thing is, our life is going to have a contagiousness to it. That's awesome. A culture of pursuit will bear this.