We are going to go back to looking at the vision for word of life.
And now that you see all the things that are about to change,
you know why we need to go back and revisit this and get everybody on the same page.
We have these booklets available and yes, you can keep them.
I had people last time asking, can we keep them?
Yes, they're yours. You can keep them.
If you don't have one of these, just raise your hand,
and the ushers will come by and get you one.
And also a companion, this comes back.
This goes back to when we were in the modular, but I will be referring to it.
There are some of these expanding the vision out in the four-year area,
and we can make more.
This one is kind of the foundation for the one we're looking at now.
And I left some of the things that are more personal applications
out of the one we're looking at now.
They are here, helping people find the personal reason why they're here
and their vision and so forth.
So let's just really quick review,
because there's a couple of things we need to get moving toward.
Go to page three with me on this booklet,
and they'll bring it up online also, but you've got yours,
and if you have a pen and you need to make some notes or whatever,
we're just going to quickly review.
Last message, we talked about some principles that have to be laid out
before you can start saying, okay, this is what we're doing and why.
If you don't understand the principles, the other won't make sense.
This morning is going to be kind of the same thing.
There's some principles we need to lay out,
and then once we get past next weekend, hopefully in March,
we can just keep marching.
Yeah, march, keep marching.
Keep marching through this and get it knocked out.
But on page three, part of our purpose, our vision,
God will show us the end or the big picture at the beginning.
So we know what we're aiming for.
And again, don't let that confuse you in that,
well, I feel God wants me to own a hundred houses
and support missionaries.
Well, you may at the end.
But you're 23.
Realize this is going to be a lifetime run here.
And it's going to take some time.
It's going to take some finances.
It's going to take some education,
learning how to run two or three of them
before you go for the 30 and 50.
It's a growing process.
But God shows us,
here is where I want you to get to.
Here is what I want you to do.
And we talked about that a bit.
Won't go there anymore.
Jump over to page five.
These were a listing of the Scriptures on purpose.
And there's a number of them.
We went through some of them.
There's three pages of them.
And we're not going to go over them again.
We talked about them and laid some of this out.
So I'm just reminding you.
Jump over to page eight with me.
I want to mention this part yet
before we go off into what we're doing this morning.
This morning I'm going to...
to this point we just talked about purpose.
I'm going to bring some clarity to that.
Because it's more easily understood
if you understand purpose and sub-purpose.
They're separate, but they work together.
So we're going to go that direction this morning.
But on page eight, number two there,
there's three things in those Scriptures
that glaringly stand out.
God is the one who came up with your purpose
or your reason to being on this earth.
Not us.
He does not give us the option to decide why we're here.
What we're supposed to accomplish.
What we're supposed to do.
God is to slide that down just a bit.
You're up too high.
The other way, those three points right there.
Number two, those three points.
He's the one who designed and created us
to remember the principle.
God sees a need coming
and he created you to meet that need.
That's your purpose.
That's why you're here.
And we'll break that down a little bit more,
but that's the principle.
When God designed and created you,
Psalms 139 in your mother's womb,
and he gifted you and he wove everything together,
he knew what he needed you to accomplish
and he designed you to accomplish that.
And we use Moses as the example there.
So we're not the one...
this whole concept of you're in high school,
you need to decide...
decide what your life's about on earth.
You have no right to decide what your life's about on earth.
I don't either.
We've been designed for a purpose.
We just need to find what that is
and then to play that out
is going to probably be the sub-purpose.
Number two, out of those scriptures,
God will only support and bless
and perform his purpose.
In fact, if we try to do something
other than his purpose,
he will fight against us as a Christian.
He will try to stop us,
because you're going the wrong direction.
And that's why sometimes Christians' lives
are really difficult.
Because they pick the direction they're going
and it's just not working well.
Well, back up and find out what direction
God wanted you to go.
And go that direction.
He will support and bless that.
And number three, once he determines
his purpose, that's where he looks
for you and I.
Once he sees the need, once he sees
what has to be done, now he looks
for you to do that
and to take care of that.
Now jump over to page 12.
We're going to lay out a couple,
three more principles here, and I believe
I'm going to do some personal application.
This book, the first half of it
is designed to help
people find their personal purpose.
The second half
had to do with Word of Life
and the vision and the purpose for Word of Life.
The book we're looking at now
does not have much personal
stuff in it.
It's in this book and I thought, why
recreate the wheel? If you want that,
go back to that one.
This one talks more about Word of Life
and we're dealing with purpose
so I just want to stay on that.
Roman numeral number one there.
Because the first thing is purpose.
God establishes purpose
and then he starts building
things underneath that.
Letter A, every Christian church
has the same
general purpose
scripturally.
And there are the five reasons churches exist.
All of them.
That's what all churches are
supposed to do. And then down below
on that page you have a brief explanation
of what that means.
We're all supposed to be doing the same thing
with a different focus.
That's the sub-purpose. We'll get to that
here in a bit.
So I just want that to soak in a bit.
Now jump over to
I think it's
the next page. Let me get there.
Yeah, bottom of the next page.
13. Let's talk about this a bit.
Something that bothers most Christians is this question.
Why are there so many different churches?
The most
common belief
is because different churches
have different doctrines.
And that's why you've got Baptists,
you've got Methodists, you've got Catholics,
you've got Assembly of God, you've got Faith,
you've got whatever.
Because they all have a different
doctrine.
So the denomination
and the churches are built around different doctrines.
That's why there's different denominations
and different churches.
Well, it might be true, but it was never
supposed to be that.
We have one Bible
as far as I know, all Christian
churches use
one Bible. Now, there's different
translations of it, but I mean
we're all using one Bible.
And that one Bible says the same
thing to everybody.
Where the problem
develops, and I'm old enough
to have seen this now. When I was younger
I couldn't understand this, but now I'm
old enough to have seen it. Where the problem
develops where you get different
beliefs, eventually
different churches, different denominations
is because
most of the time
for instance, we believe
in healing.
Not everybody gets healed
100% of the time.
I mean, we don't have all the answers, we don't
understand it all, let's just leave it there and just go to the fact
not everybody gets healed 100% of the time.
So,
you're part of a church that, or denomination
that believes in healing, and
grandma's needing to be healed
and you're praying and believing for grandma
to be healed and nothing happens
and grandma dies.
Either
we have to go deeper
into the word to understand why that
happened,
and let me just say this.
You always
come down on the side
of God.
It's never
God's fault.
If you start blaming
God,
number one, there's nothing
to believe. I mean, when is God
for us or when is he against us? How do you
have faith?
God is always for us.
And God always
wants us blessed. And God always
wants us...let's just
use the word healed.
Jesus
died for everyone
to receive healing.
When we don't,
don't blame him. If you start getting in the thing
of, well, I don't know, it just seems like God
didn't want this to happen. No, now you're
contrary to the word.
Now we're beginning to go down the vein
of a different
doctrine.
Well, it seems like God was in agreement with this
and you're in pain.
Your emotions have been touched. You're hurt
depending upon what you said. If you didn't
use wisdom, you shot your mouth off too much
and now people are looking at you like, well,
didn't say what you said. Didn't happen what you said
was going to happen. So now you're embarrassed.
And out of
those settings comes disgruntled
people.
Well, I can't believe that anymore.
Why? Well, it didn't work for
grandma. That's not God's fault.
What does the word
say? Why it didn't work for grandma? Well, I don't
know, but I just don't believe it anymore.
Oh.
So now we're going to
start believing doctrine that's not
based on word.
You
get enough of those people together, you'll have
a new church.
No, we tried that healing
thing and it didn't work. So
there's a number of us here. I mean, we
don't even think it's probably for today anymore
because look at all the people here who
they're all disgruntled with it too. We're
going to start our own church. And out of that
church will come other churches and they'll
be pretty soon a denomination.
Who doesn't believe in it?
Because of the word? No,
because of bad experience.
Didn't work. And based
on my experience, I'm no longer going to
believe it. Folks, that
is the Achilles tendon
for Christians.
You believe because the
word says so, not
based on our experience.
Experience
will throw us in the ditch
every time.
Because sooner or later we're going to have
a bad experience.
It has to be founded on the word.
So when you say, well, why are there
different denominations of
Protestants?
I just explained it to you.
Well, everybody believes
something different. Yes, and if you could
track it back to the founders,
it came out of
disappointment, frustration,
a bad experience, and
they chose to go a
direction, make excuses
to, well, see it's not for
today. Show me where it says that.
Well, it doesn't flat out say it, but it doesn't
work. So we know it's not for today.
So now we're going to twist
the very book we're supposed
to be living by to fit
our experience, and we're going
to birth a new church
or a new denomination.
We're all supposed to be believing
the same thing.
Next page, page
14, middle of the
page, we're all supposed to be
doing the same thing.
All churches are supposed
to evangelize. Every church is supposed
to promote corporate and individual worship,
and on and on and on. You can read for yourself.
Those five elements are
supposed to be in every church.
So now slide that paragraph up just a
little bit that the other way.
There you go. The five
elements are the general
purposes for churches. Those
five, and they're just a repeat from
what we saw earlier.
However, each
church should have its own emphasis.
And emphasis is
not its own doctrine.
The doctrine is in
the Scripture. We're all with the same
Scripture. Why do we have different
doctrines? We shouldn't have. We should
all be believing the same thing.
He says, well, what would make churches
different then? Well, their
sub-purpose. The vision God gave them.
That supports that general
purpose. So let's go into that a bit.
Groups of churches
would form, denominations
would form, who carry
the same emphasis.
Not by doctrine,
but by what God asked them to do.
What is their purpose?
Well, for word of life and
for the evangelical free church,
to this side of us
and for Dr. Westerberg's church,
that side of us, our
general purpose is all the same.
There is no difference.
Scripturally speaking, we're all
supposed to be doing the same thing.
But how we do
it
can change.
That you got the
main purpose and then you've got,
okay, how is this church supposed
to carry out that main purpose?
You've got a sub-purpose.
Look at the bottom of that page.
Some churches
are supposed to do those five things,
but they're more of a
recovery church emphasis.
Some churches are 24-hour
prayer churches.
IHOP was built on that.
And I know so many pastors
who went to IHOP and got all excited
and bought all the material and went home
and their church is going to do the same thing
and fell flat on their face,
split the church because people were
upset, blah, blah, blah.
Why? I don't understand
why that happened. I can tell you why it happened.
That's IHOP's sub-purpose.
It may not be
your church's sub-purpose.
You know, they were able
to gather teams 24-hour prayer
24-hour worship because
that was what God wanted
them to do while they're doing
the big five.
That's how they
would do that.
If you try to instill
24-hour, everybody sign
it and if you're going to be part of this church
you're going to be worshiping
one hour a day and you're going to sign
the slot and you're going to put your name to it
and...
You know what?
Yeah.
That wouldn't work here.
You say, why? It's good.
Well, I never said it was bad.
Well, why wouldn't it work here?
That's not the way he wants us
to do it.
24-hour prayer and worship.
Apostolic churches. Go to page 15.
Street churches. There's churches
who don't own a building.
They're on the streets all the time
and then they'll meet at somebody's house or whatever.
Well, that's what we should do.
Now, that's not what he's asked.
That's not how he's asked us to do
the purpose.
You've got missions focused churches.
I mean, they're...
They give...
Depending upon how big they are, they give tens of thousands
or hundreds of thousands of dollars
to missions every year.
It is why.
That's...
It's the...
You got the general purpose. You say,
well, part of the general purpose is evangelization.
Well, how was that church going to do that?
Well, God leads them into
I want you to give
heavy into missionaries.
That's how you're going to do
your purpose,
your sub-purpose
is to give
everything you can in support of
missions.
And there's churches that do that. I mean, there...
You ask them, what's your church all about?
We're a missions church.
Man, we're on the missions field
and we're supporting missionaries
and we got 59 missionaries
that we give X amount of money to every month
and da da da da da.
Well, all of us have the purpose
to support missionaries.
That's part of the big five.
This church,
any church around us, we're supposed to be
evangelizing.
All of us.
But how we do it,
some evangelize by going to the streets.
Some evangelize
by supporting missionaries.
See the difference?
That becomes
their sub-purpose.
The thing that drives them,
motivates them
is we're going to evangelize
this is how we're going to do it.
TBO is more of that first one,
more of a recovery church.
And that's the people that get evangelized.
That's the people that get saved.
It's more in that realm.
That's what they're called for.
That's the emphasis there.
You got cowboy churches.
You got
aid-specific churches.
You got evangelistic churches.
All they ever do is
try to get somebody saved. They never really teach
about anything.
Every Sunday. But they're getting people saved.
Lots of people.
And they come and they get saved
and they stay for a while and then they go find
other churches and they more come and get saved.
That's their purpose. They kind of almost have
a revolving door because they get
people saved by the boohoo.
But then they go off
into... God leads them off
into something that their heart
is pulled towards.
Bible training churches. Native American
churches. Homeless people
churches. Prophetic churches.
On and on and on.
The thing
that's supposed to divide us
into subgroups
is not doctrine.
We should all be believing
the same thing
because we're all
based on the same word.
The thing that will divide us
is what is our emphasis?
What is he asking us to
accomplish? What is he asking them
to accomplish? And then
different ones will find out
they've got the same emphasis and they will
group up and they would have become
denominations on the basis of
we're a cowboy church.
And
everything we do
kind of, you know,
we bring horses into the sanctuary on Sunday
and people
love it.
Don't ever bring a horse
through those doors into there.
We're not a cowboy church.
You just time up to the fence.
We got a different
emphasis and cleaning up
after horses come walking through here
ain't one of them.
But there's churches who do that and they
thrive. Why?
Because that's what God wants them
to do. While
they're getting people saved, while they're praying
for the sick, while they're people getting
baptized in the Holy Spirit, while they're getting
delivered, the way they're
reaching into this world is through
a cowboy emphasis.
And there's lots
of churches around the country that way.
They would all join together and become
their own little cowboy denomination
and everybody believes the
same. They're just approaching it
different.
The underlying part there on
page 15. There's a specific reason
God establishes each church.
That is its
sub-purpose and its mission.
It's why that church exists.
You know when I asked the pastor not too
long ago because they were trying to figure some things out
and I asked him he got offended. So I don't know
if I asked wrong or I just hit a nerve
or what. I said why do you exist
as a church? Now it wasn't an insult.
It's just
why are you here?
Well we're here to get people saved.
Now that's not the answer I was looking
for.
Every church is here to get people
saved. What makes
you different than the one down the road? Why did you
even spend the money on this building? They're doing
the same thing.
Every church is here
to get people saved. Well we're here to minister to people.
Well show me a church
that isn't.
That's part of the big purpose
for all churches. The big five.
What I'm
after is the vision is yes
that's what we're supposed to do, but the vision
is to see how
we're supposed to do that.
The sub-purpose.
We just helped plant a church
and we're helping establish a church in Red Lake
right now.
What's its sub-purpose?
Well let me back up
because I don't want anybody to give me the wrong answer.
What is the purpose of having a church up
at Red Lake?
What's the big five?
Give people saved.
Worship.
Doctor and teach them what the word says.
You know, the thing that all churches are
supposed to do.
So now, okay,
we've got a church at Red Lake.
What is
its sub-purpose?
What is the focus that God wants
that church to focus on?
Native Americans.
They're right beside the reservation.
So to
accomplish that
you're going to have
to gear how that church
operates according to
the Native American culture.
You can't go up and white
man that church.
Or it will be empty
for years to come.
Because the target audience
is Native Americans.
That's the sub-purpose.
We believe in all these things up here.
Yes, they believe the same as us.
But their sub-purpose is
to reach into that reservation
and make a difference there.
Well they're going to have to be able
to identify with those people.
And you can't go in
with white man rules and make that
work.
What did Paul say? I have become
all things
to all people
that I might win some.
Now all things does not mean Paul got involved
in sin. Now what he's talking about?
He's talking about
if you've got a church
that's designed to go
after a certain cultural group
become what
that cultural group needs
to reach them.
That becomes the sub-purpose.
So
they're trying to get people saved
and they're trying to, you know,
all the things a normal church is asked to do.
But there
our sub-purpose is not
to reach
into a reservation. That's not why this church
is established.
Now we can be part of that through missions.
That's what we're doing up there.
We're supporting it. We put
a bunch of money there and
we've got people going up and helping and so forth.
But
we're not going to start modeling this church
after that church.
This church would fail.
That church is reaching
into the Native American culture.
This church is not asked to do that.
That's the sub-purpose.
The
vision helps each church
see how
they're going to do this.
It's their sub-purpose. It's the reason
they exist.
Letter F. Here again,
the principle plays out. God sees a need in the community
and he will create a person to meet that need
or a church to meet that need.
The purpose for their being alive is
dropped into their heart and they will search
to fulfill it. What they are alive
to do becomes their sub-purpose.
The method they are shown
to accomplish it
becomes the vision.
I see it.
This is how we
reach the culture
of the Red Lake people.
We establish
a white person's church.
No, that you're not seeing
what God wants you to see.
No, we're going to establish
a church that appeals
to that culture.
Still preaching the same doctrine,
still having the same belief, still praising and worshiping,
still evangelizing, still doing all
the general purposes a church is supposed to do.
But it's tailored to reach
into that culture.
Even to the point, if you ever get up there,
they've put certain things in the building
that are very Native American.
The way they built
and designed the building.
It's really cool. You walk in.
You see things that are part of their culture.
That's how
you reach into a culture.
That's how it's done.
So do you see the difference
between every church is supposed to be
doing the same thing? That's our purpose.
But how we do it
changes according to
what God has asked that church
how to do it.
See that part?
So now go back to page 12 with me.
I want to take and make a personal application here.
I feel I'm supposed to do that this morning.
Letter A there.
The five
fold reason
for a church.
Evangelized worship partnership, discipleship
and ministry service.
Those five are done by
people.
Ooh, that's deep, isn't it?
I'm just trying to get you to bite on the hook.
Those five are done by people.
The difference between
a successful church
and one that just struggles
is the people
you ask to do those five
or what aspect of those five
it has to come
out of their heart.
So they're motivated
to do it.
If it doesn't come out of their heart
and it becomes a job or a program
okay, I'll do that for a year
and then we'll pass it on to somebody else.
That thing will be a waste for that whole year.
Because they're not being called
or motivated to do it.
They're not being asked to do it.
By God. They're being asked by people
but not by God.
So for a church to function
correctly, you have to have the
people plugged in the right spots
who are motivated to do what's in
their heart, which somehow
will fulfill
those five. Like for instance, Eric and
Chris and children's pastors. Number one,
evangelism is in their part
in their heart.
But through worship
and discipleship, they want to
get the children
to know Jesus.
Not just be full of
information. Oh yeah, I know what Jesus is
and I'm...
Do you know him?
So you got
the five
general purposes of church
and they're part of the church. That's
how God is asking them
to reach it.
Now there are churches which
if that's what your heart, where your heart
is at, this is the wrong church for you.
There are churches who will evangelize
and try to partner with
children. And it's all fun and games.
There's
very little word professed.
It's just woo hoo, good time,
we're just partying. And they love
it, man. I mean who wouldn't?
Well
if that's what that church feels
they're supposed to do, I can't answer
for that, that's not my call.
It's not our vision.
But if that's what they feel, well so be it.
And hopefully the people
that are in agreement with that draw to that
and help that make happen, make that
happen.
That's not where we're at.
If we're
thinking in children's church every Sunday
they just got pizza and movies
and games and then they'll have
a little five minute devotional.
It's just the wrong church for you.
That's not where we're headed.
It's not where we're going.
We actually come from the perspective
of to make disciples
you've got to get something in their heart
and you've got to get their heart to know Jesus.
That's our sub purpose.
That's our focus.
So when you're dealing with
a church
and how it's supposed to function, how
does it work?
The emphasis is the same for every church.
The purpose. Why are we here?
How we accomplish that changes
almost with every church.
So let me say this.
TBO
Word of Life is not for every Christian.
Because not every Christian
the sub purpose
that this is how we're going to do it
is not in agreement with how
we're doing it.
Does that make us wrong?
No.
They just need to find where they
can plug in where how
they feel it's supposed to be done
that church is doing it.
They just need to be led
by spirit.
And find that.
So with that in mind
you've got the five reasons for the church.
Every believer
is called to the same thing
those five reasons.
Every one of us.
Now some of us will have more emphasis
on certain things.
That's why you have to have a body.
Not one person can do it all.
God didn't even design it that way.
You need a group of people
coming together.
And this one is strong in this area
and that one is strong in that area
and this one is strong in that area
and you put them together.
Now you can get a job done.
But those things have to come out
of the heart of people.
Which means every one of us is called
to accomplish something there.
Now Paul lists that out a little differently.
Can you bring up Ephesians 4?
Let's just go there.
So we can explain this.
The general purpose for every Christian
is to promote
and advance the kingdom of God.
I mean that's just a very general way
of saying it.
But
that's it. I'm going to use
let's go with New King James.
Ephesians 4
We're going to start right at verse 1.
This whole chapter
applies to what we're talking about.
Ephesians 4 verse 1.
Now he's going to talk
to the individual
of how they plug in to the church.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord
beseech you to walk worthy of the calling
which you were called.
Every one of us is called.
He's not talking to pastors there.
He's not talking to missionaries.
He's talking to the people,
the church of Ephesus.
Walk worthy of the calling
with which you were called.
Everybody's called and there's the attitude
we should carry towards it.
Lowliness, gentleness, long suffering
and bearing with one another in love.
Because if you're going to work together,
you've got to bear with one another in love.
Verse 3, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace.
Very, very, very
applicable advice
if you're going to try to grab
a group of people bring them together
and do something with the church.
We have to
as individuals
think verse 2
and verse 3. That's our job.
Then verse 4, there's one body,
one spirit, just as you were called
and one hope of your calling.
He's talking about being called.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all
who is above all, through all and in all.
I'm going to just stop
and just briefly touch one thing
because something always comes up
out of verse number 5.
If you go back to verse number 5.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
See, there's only one baptism,
pastor. You claim there's three.
You're in error.
Okay, let's take the foolishness
of that and just apply it
to a different situation.
There's only one God, pastor.
You claim there's three.
Yes, I do.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Same principle.
All three, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit
are united in one
to accomplish the same thing.
Baptism in water,
baptism in the Holy Spirit,
and then being saved,
which is the baptism into the body.
All three are working together
to accomplish the same thing.
It's one work
divided into three
separate events,
if you want to use that word.
Just like there's one God
divided into the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
But people will jump on that
and without spending the time
to actually study to show
themselves approved,
they'll just jump on that and say,
well, see, word of life, they're in heresy.
They believe in at least
two baptisms.
Well, so do the Baptists.
So do the Catholics.
Well, let's see it. It says there's only one.
Sometimes you just feel like going,
just believe what you want and just walk away.
It's like, time I'm trying to get done
explaining this to you, it's like,
yes, there's one
overall emphasis of
baptism the way there's one overall
God.
But there's three of the Trinity
and there's three baptisms. I'll show you that in the word.
But his point is, we're all
one big unit here. We're all trying to
head the same direction. So now with
the right attitude, verse two and three,
let's go there, verse seven.
But to each one of us, grace is given
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Now please, you have to see this.
But to
each one of us
he's going to go into
the five-fold.
Apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist
and teacher. That's where he's going.
But to each one
of us
this is
given.
That's why he said it
four or five times already in the first few verses.
Everybody is
called.
Somehow this
doctrine got in the church
that the five-fold only
belongs to a certain group of people
and nobody else.
And that's not
what the word says.
It says each one of us
has been given this grace,
this gift.
Huh?
So knock that thinking off your head if it's there
so we can continue on to see what it really
says. Verse eight.
Therefore, this is what he says
when he ascended on high he led
captivity captive and gave gifts to men.
That's when he came out of
hell and
came and walked on the earth for a while, led
captivity captive and then ascended, went
to the father. When he did that
he gave gifts to men. The word gifts
there is doma. It's gifts of men.
So that's
actually a poor translation.
It's not gifts to men
if
they add gifts of
men and women are included because that's
the neutral speaking of mankind.
It's not gender specific.
He gave gifts to men.
That's not gender specific.
That's a word that is neutral
talking of mankind.
If they'd have translated
he gave gifts of
men to men.
That would be more accurate because the word
gifts is in the Greek it's doma,
d-o-m-a. It means gifts of
people.
So when he ascended
on high he gave
gifts of people
to the human race.
You are given as a gift
to the human race.
Because you have something to offer
them that especially
if they don't know Jesus yet, they really need.
Okay?
So move on
with me. Verse 9,
now this, he ascended, what does that mean?
So he's going to talk about how he went down into
lower parts of the earth and
he paid for us in and everything there.
That's the picture of that story.
Verse 9 and 10
and then when he came out
verse 10 he who descended
is also the one who ascended.
He went down and he came back up
and he didn't stop on earth.
He went far above all the heavens
that he might fill all things.
So now he's in that realm.
And when he did that
verse 11
and he himself
gave some
now who are these some?
Well verse 7 says it's you.
To each one
was given.
Now not everybody got the same thing.
To some apostle
some prophet, some evangelist
some pastor, some teachers.
Well why would he do that? Verse 12
for the equipping of the church.
Is that what it says?
Does not say that.
Do you trust me too much?
For the equipping of the saints
who are the saints born again believers.
He gave the gift to you
to equip you.
It doesn't say he gave the gift to you
to equip the church.
He gave the gift to you to equip you.
Equipping of the saints
for
the work of the ministry.
For the edifying
of the body of Christ
till we all
come to unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God
to the perfect or the mature
the complete man
to the measure of the stature
the fullness of Christ. There's a lot in there.
I'm not going to unpack it at all.
I'm just going to say this.
He gave the gifts to you
verse 12
for the work of the ministry
and the edifying of the body
that now becomes how the church gets involved
because the body is the body of Christ
it is his bride
it is the church.
Then verse 14 he says
here's the purpose
we need to mature and grow up
and not be tossed around by all kinds of doctrine
verse 15 we have to learn to speak truth
and love to each other
so again we can grow up and mature
and number 16 the end result
of that growing and maturing
and everybody doing their part
and taking on their gift is we will be nipped together
and equipped as one.
Now he's talking church setting.
Yeah, let's do it.
You want to hand these out?
I found a handout I put together
on the last series
that we put this together so fast
I would have loved to put this in
so put it in your book there somehow
it breaks down
and gives a description
and I want you to see
this description
of this and how
it works for you and while they're handing that out
let me explain this
there's all kinds of apostles
sitting here
there's all kinds of prophets
all kinds of evangelist pastors and teachers
you're not full time
that's your purpose
when you came into the earth
is to advance
the kingdom of God
And God gave you a gift or two to plug into you so that when you do this, you do it a certain way.
Evangelists do it different than prophets. Follow me? Okay, so do me a favor, don't read that yet,
because then you won't hear what I'm saying. Okay. However, okay, I know what my purpose is and
not to work a secular job, but this becomes my lifetime's work. That's called a full-time
five-fold. And I don't know if that's even a correct description, but that's what we call it. Well,
your full-time in ministry, yes. Doesn't make that five-fold gift any better or any worse,
because Paul wasn't full-time in ministry and he wrote 14 in the New Testament book, so
go figure. It doesn't make the gift any better or worse. It kind of describes the sub-purpose
of the ministry. So let's explain these real briefly so you can plug yourself in.
An apostle of something... let's back up to the purpose. God saw a need. This is the last
message. God saw a need. He said, I have to have that taken care of in 2024. I am going
to create somebody and gift them and give them the desire to meet that need.
So he backs up and he gets a running start on this and he creates you.
And he gifts you and puts everything in you you need. And then as you're growing in God,
all the gifts he already has in you, he will plop one or two others on, one of the five-fold.
So that as you go out here, it's already... it's like a migratory bird. You know where to go.
I just know inside this where I'm supposed to go. It's what I'm supposed to do. It's what I'm wired
for. Okay? So now of those five, let's explain those a little bit. What are you wired for? An
apostle is someone who establishes things. So God prepared us for it to meet a need. So ask yourself
the question, what needs to be done in this world? From your perspective, which will be
different than mine, which will be different from everybody else's. Everybody's got a little bit
different tweak on it. From your perspective, what needs to be done in this world? Because
you're here to meet a need. That's why you were created. An apostle says, we need to organize
and get this group of people going the same direction. They are establishers. They establish
businesses. They establish ministries. They whatever they touch, it turns into some little
thing that was established. And they thrive on that. They love that. Prophets, if you ask them,
what does this world need? What does the church need? They need to hear a word from the Lord. And
they usually say it that way. We need to hear from God. See, that's totally different than the
apostle. The apostle says, we got to get organized. We're just like a bunch of chickens at sunset
trying to find our way in the chicken coop. We're just running around trying to see where
we're going. And the apostles say, come here. Let's organize this and make it look like we're not a
bunch of ding-dongs. The prophet will say, and once you get them organized, I got a message from
God for them. Let me tell them what the word of the Lord is. Was the prophet wrong? No,
that's what he's designed for. And there's people who just love to speak into other
people's lives. You know, it's a lot of responsibility. We won't talk about it long,
but that's them. Apostle, prophet, pastor, we just need people taken care of.
Somebody's got to be there to help them. That's a pastor's heart. Evangelist,
well, you can't help them until you've got them saved. We need to get out and get people
saved. That's what makes them tick. That's what's in their heart. And that's what they
always want to do. Whether it's a missionary, a missionary is an evangelist. A missionary can also
be an apostle. Apostle literally means sent to establish. Well, some missionaries go some places
and just minister there and do what God's asked them to do. And then that's it. Some missionaries
go places and this huge thing gets established. Or, doesn't have to be huge, this thing gets
established. Let's just say it that way. Evangelization, those people's heart is to share the
gospel with anybody and everybody, which really grinds on the last one, the teacher.
The teacher's motivation is if we can show them the right way, if we can show them the word,
their whole life will change, which is absolutely true.
But you can't take a teacher unless they recognize that's kind of where they're going to go and use
them much for an evangelist because they will try to teach people into getting saved.
Well, let me take you to Corinthians and after a half an hour of flopping back and
forth, the unsaved person's going, because remember, spiritual things are only revealed by the spirit.
They don't even have the spirit in them yet. And the evangelists will look at the teacher and say,
what is wrong with you, man? They're not even saved yet. Give them a basic simple principle
and let's get them saved. Now you can teach them something. So all these work together
and they're all motivations that work together. And when all five are working together,
the five things that the basic purpose for the church is established gets done.
But the sub-purpose of how it gets done is different to every person according to
one of those five-fold. And I'll say this,
as a parent, if you were not operating in all five of them, you had trouble in your home.
Because you have to establish a family and give them a general direction we're going. That's the
apostle. You have to tell them what God thinks of things. That's the prophet. You have to
evangelize them and get them saved and get them going for God and and evangelize them in
new beliefs and new understandings and so forth. You have to pastor them and take care of them.
And you better teach them something. See, so as a parent, we have to have a certain flavor
of all five. Now I was brought up to believe that's not possible. Well, just, yeah, I think
I know what they were saying is, well, if you're a pastor, you can't be out there
evangelizing. You need to be a pastor. What's like, maybe the big emphasis for me is to do it
this way. But if somebody comes along and says, how do I get to know Jesus? Everybody is supposed
to be able to say, here, let me help you. Rather than, I don't know, where's the evangelist
this morning? Let's see if we can find him. They'll lead you to Jesus. Why can't we? See,
so even as a pastor and a apostle, I can do the work of an evangelist. And isn't that what Paul told
Timothy? Timothy wasn't an evangelist. But Paul said, don't mess this up. You have to do the work
of an evangelist from time to time. You can't just pass that off to everybody. Follow me?
Okay, so now let's break it down one step further in sub-purpose. So you've got the
general purpose there for, and this is written for individuals on the top, general purpose
number one, sub-purpose number two. If you're called into more of the ministry realm, this is
your sub-purpose, your work in life is to be in ministry. It's how you make your living. It's
how you get through this world. Number two sub-purpose letter A there applies to us.
That is the smallest minority of Christians, letter A there.
Very few Christians are called into this is how I live my whole life is to minister.
Most of us are letter B. If you're called more into the business realm, you're a business owner,
you're an entrepreneur, you got a job at Target, you're an hourly wage earner,
you're self-employed, you're white collar, you're blue collar, you wear t-shirts with no
collar, whatever. There's some others listed there, public servant, etc.
If you're in that realm, now I'm going to, if you could go to that other book to page 22 and 23,
this book, he'll bring it up on the screen, this develops much more on the details of this,
and that's what I feel we're supposed to talk about here just for a few minutes
and plug us into this.
Page 21, letter M.
Right there. General purposes for mankind. This is for all of us if we're saved,
and it lists them on the bottom of 21 and on the top of 22.
And then it gives some specific purposes and so forth. Go to the top of page 23.
It starts with, on the bottom of page 22, but if you get this book goes top of page 23, and this is
online also if you want to download the PDF version. Sub-purposes. A whole bunch of things listed
just as ideas. So here's the thought. All of us are supposed to advance the kingdom of God.
That's why we're here. All of us have a five-fold call. All of us will work in one of those five to
a certain depth. So if you are a car salesman and your purpose is the same as everybody else's,
we're trying to promote the kingdom of God and righteousness and holiness here in this earth.
Get people saved. Get them to heaven. But your gifting is an evangelist. You are going to be looking
for every opportunity to try to help get people turned on to God when they walk through the door
to buy your car. If you're an electrician, it just flows out of you. You make your living by
doing electrical work. You end up in people's houses. You end up in commercial buildings.
You end up wherever. But if you're an electrician, that's your sub-purpose. This is how God's going
to take you through life and how you're going to approach it. You're still supposed to do the
main purpose. Every Christian's supposed to do. And let's say you're a prophet. Your emphasis
is a prophet. So most of your time is going to be doing electrical stuff. But that's what's
going to open the door on how you will reach into people's lives. And you probably won't be
getting as many saved as the evangelist guy. But there's going to be all kinds of people
that get brought into your path who are confused and just plain discouraged and frustrated and
they need a word from the Lord. And you're going to be talking with them and connect the
red wire there and just that and the other. And while you're doing it, I just don't know,
I don't understand. Sometimes I don't even know why I should be living and blah, blah, blah. If you've
got a prophet emphasis, a word from the Lord is going to drop in your heart. And you're going
to say something like, tell you what? At lunch. Or let's take, if you're the boss. If you're
not the boss, don't do this. But if you're the boss, let's take five, 10 minutes right now.
Come over here, sit down. I got something I want to share with you. And you're going to
work your way into, this is what God is saying to you about your life. And you're going to nail
them so squarely. They're going to sit there crying, trembling, dumbfounded. How did you know
that? How did you know what I was thinking? Because I'm an electrician whose purpose is to
promote the kingdom of God. And his gift to me is profit. And he will download things to
me to tell you about you and how to get you where you're going that the teacher will never get.
Because you operate different. That's the how he wants you to reach your world.
How he's going to use you.
Once we see that, that's called vision.
Once we see that and see how God wants to work through us,
now not only does your life become very fruitful, people's lives are changed, but now the kingdom
of God is promoted. And as God's kingdom moves forward, the church goes forward with it.
But a lot of Christians don't see the how they're supposed to be being used.
And we get all confused because God uses this person that way and he doesn't use me that way.
And God uses that person that way. And that's, all I am here is a janitor target.
What do I have to offer anybody? You got as much as anybody else.
What is it that boils inside of you? And how do you see yourself doing it?
That's vision. And without a vision, people perish.
If you don't see, this is why I'm here. To promote the kingdom and move God's kingdom forward.
And this is my sub-purpose to be, I'm going to pick on somebody, to be a landscaper.
And that's how we're going to make our living.
But man, God's got to do something in this state. And he drops one of the five-fold
emphasis on them. And now while they're driving their moors, digging their holes, planting their
trees, everything that's rolling inside of them is how do we get this state to conform to
God's purposes and get the wickedness and the evil out. And they're on the phone with people while
they're pushing the dirt around the roots of the trees. And they're on the way to Menards to pick
something up. And now they're discussing this with somebody else. See, the big purpose is why
they're here. The sub-purpose is, this is how you're going to make your living. And mixed
in with that is all the giftings, and this is how it will come out of you.
That make any sense? It's exactly what happens, doesn't it? And you say, well, they're not called.
Verse 7, Ephesians 4, there is much called as everybody else here. It's just how it plays out
with them. That sub-purpose is going to look different than how it plays out for some of
the rest of us. Now, if you feel you're supposed to be so deeply involved in this, it's your full-time
job, that's what we usually call the five-fold. Well, they're an evangelist and that's what they
do for a living. Well, that's true. That's their sub-purpose. That's what they do for a living.
That's fine. Not everybody's going to do it that way. In fact, most people will do it
those ways. You're a banker. You're an insurance salesman. I always wanted to be a fireman.
I just wanted to do it all my life. So, evidently, what I do in life for God is just be a fireman.
No, no, no, no. That's your sub-purpose. That is under the real reason.
Look at your hand out the second side of it. And we haven't gotten to assignments and mandates
yet. But everything builds from the bottom up. Mandates are basically commands or orders.
And that's on this handout, so you won't find it in the book there.
Mandates are basically commands. Assignments are projects. This is a project I want you to do.
Jim Isaacson coming here is a project for us, for those of you that know the story on that.
That's a project he asked his church to take on. He didn't command us to do it.
He offered it to us and said, if you'll do this, I'll do that. Here's your project.
The assignments and the mandates, which we'll get into explaining in the future,
support the sub-purpose. In other words, if you're an insurance salesman, what he commands
you to do and what he assigns projects to you are going to look totally different than if
you're over here an hourly worker for IBM. Your assignments, your commands
on how to promote the kingdom over here are going to look totally different than that person.
Does that make you or them wrong? No. I just said this to somebody this last week.
I said, if you pay any attention to what God does at all, he duplicates nothing.
Everything is a perfect individual. Even his flowers, even... you can't find two leaves
that look the same. Everything is custom built. You are custom built to meet the need.
And you always wanted to be a computer person, so you ended up at IBM. And this guy over here
says, computers, I barely know how to turn one on. Yeah, but if you're going to be in God's will,
you've got to know computers. Not for him, maybe for you, because that was what was in your heart.
Your gifting is that way. You can see it. You know how to make this work. Don't forget,
your whole life is not here for computers. Your whole life is here for the general purpose
of promoting the kingdom, and he's going to use that sub-purpose in your life to accomplish it.
So your mind is always ministry. Well, how am I supposed to minister? What are the five are you?
That'll automatically divide it out. What are the five are you? You're in a computer company
and you rise to the top and you get any management because you're an apostle.
Apostles are always in charge of something. It's just they know how to establish things.
They know how to organize it. They know how to get the whole group moving in the same
direction. And you'll have your own teams. Won't be long. They'll recognize that in you.
That is a gift in God gave you for the kingdom, but it's in you. So now in your sub-purpose,
it's going to prosper you. And you're going to grow and you're going to advance in your IBM
and wherever you're working and it's going to develop. Don't forget the real reason you're
on earth because you know what's happening from God's perspective. You're now gaining influence.
You're now gaining credibility. You're now gaining respect. And it won't be long. Someone will be
brought into your path who needs God. One way or the other, whatever it is, needs God. That
is why you work at IBM. Never forget whatever you're doing. The reason you're doing it
is to get the kingdom of God and the people who you have come to you, whether you're a salesperson,
whether you're a manager at Walmart, makes no difference. The people who are brought to you
from God's perspective are not to make your Walmart store shine above the rest. That might
happen because of the gifting in you. But the people will be brought to you. Your staff,
your hired workers will be brought to you because God sees what they need and He designed
you to meet that need. And He gifted you accordingly. So if you keep your eyes open to
the kingdom of God's side, there will be opportunities that will take place with
the people who are under you at Walmart because you're the manager, where now you can speak
the eternal purpose into their life. That's what God's after. That is the main thing He's
after. So every one of us have a homing beacon built into us if we will just pay attention to it.
And I said this in the first message. I'm going to repeat it here as we're finishing.
The world system of deciding what you're to do and how you're to do it is trash.
Who is the prince and the power of the air?
Satan. Whose system are we operating under? At the moment, it's Satan's system.
Look at our state government. Don't take long to figure that one out.
Okay, if the system tells you the main reason you look to do a certain business or a certain
job is for money, don't do it. Don't do it. You know, the counselors at school, most of them
are not into the kingdom building. They're into, okay, what can you do?
And I had one counselor, he was the principal too. He pulled me into the office. He said,
Peltz, what are you going to do when you graduate? I said, I don't know. He said,
here's what I see. And he laid out a few things. He said, you should come out of college making
$100,000 a year plus. He said, so you have no idea? I said, well, I have an idea.
Well, what is it? I'm called in the ministry. Ministry, what does that mean? Pastor.
He looked at me, he said, no, I don't want to discourage you anything, but are you nuts?
These people make nothing. You've got the capability of being very wealthy by the time
you're done. You're going to waste that on pastor? See, that's input of the world.
And it's not God. Everybody is designed for one big reason, promote the kingdom.
How you do that is your sub-purpose. And we plug in and cover society. I'm so glad we have
plumbers because there's times you need a plumber. And I'm glad that's their sub-purpose,
but I really like Christian plumbers who do the kingdom's work while they're plumbing.
It just adds a whole new dimension to it. Follow me? So like I said before,
here is God's way. You have to do these three things to find why you're here from God's side.
Number one, you have to take money off the table.
If you're deciding an occupation on the basis of what you can earn, you've already missed God.
He built into your heart what he wants you to pursue. That's why we have, what is it,
80 some percent of the nation. The last statistic I read, I think it was 82 or 83 percent of the
nation hate their jobs. Well, why are you doing it? Well, I can't find anything to pay me more.
Genius. So you're going to go through your whole life miserable, but you don't serve money.
Why are you there? You're serving money. That's why you're there.
You have to move money off the table. If money were not an issue whatsoever,
what boils up in your heart that this is what I would like to do?
Okay, the next two things you have to get off the table, which are the first two things that
happened to Adam and Eve when sin came. And they are a director of how this world system,
the world system uses them all the time. Fear and shame. Well, I would like to do this,
but I'm afraid I could never do it. Well, you got to get fear out of that. You know. I'm afraid
it wouldn't work out in the long term. Now you're making a decision on the basis of fear,
and that's not God. Or the third one, the shame. So you got money, fear, shame.
Why? And shame and pride work together. So you could just tie them together.
Isaiah 11, 1 and 2. Shame and pride. Where you find shame, you find pride. I think it's Isaiah 11,
1 and 2. Anyway, it's in there. I can find it for you if you need it. Proverbs. That's
where it's at. It's in Proverbs 11, I believe, 1 and 2. Where you find shame, you find pride.
Anyway, I talked to a parent. Oh, this is a few years back. This was their goal for one of
their children. We have no doctors in our relatives. Not a doctor of any kind.
So we are pushing our children for education, and we're hoping that one of them becomes a doctor.
So that at least there's one doctor in the relatives. What?
What? That's either a shame or pride thing right there.
Either we got to be able to push our chest out and say, we look at our child. We're wonderful
parents. We succeeded. We have a doctor in our family. Or what if they want to be a social worker?
A what? Social worker. There's no money in it. You'll never get ahead in life doing it.
And who is a social worker? There's nobody in society.
Ah, shame and pride are talking. You got to get those three out of the way
and just say, God, just show me. Boil it up inside of me. What do I want to do?
What would I like to see be accomplished? Because that's what you put in me. It's already there.
I just got to locate it. So get the clutter away and he will boil it up. You pursue that.
You pursue that. That is God's call for you. You will fulfill the big purpose. He will
plug you. He just now plugged you into the sub purpose. This is why you're here. You're here
for that. He'll drop on you one of the five, two of the five-fold to perform that.
Now you're not only valuable to the kingdom. Now you're valuable to the church.
Remember, all five are needed to build the church.
That's why, in my opinion, the demonic realm is set up so hard to fight young people from
finding why they're here. Because if we get a generation that actually finds out why
God has them on this earth and they do it, hang on now, amen. Everything is going to go.
The power that will come out of that generation will be unbelievable.
But what we have is, well, we're trying to please our parents. We're trying to earn as
much money as we can. We got to be able to buy a big house. We don't want anybody to know we're
going to do that for a living. I mean, that would be horrible. And we got all these bad
decision-making processes to find God. And what happens? The church gets paralyzed.
People's lives get paralyzed. You are called to accomplish something on this earth
way beyond what you think you can accomplish. Well, we need more people being called to pursue
this government thing that's going on. This is just ludicrous.
I'll give you one example of how dumb it is. So you probably all heard that Joel Olstein's
church, they had a shooting and somebody got shot in the leg and another child got
critically. I think they're still alive, but they got critically injured.
So you want to watch stupidity have grown up and gone to seed? This week,
one of the committees in our state legislature, I won't tell you which side,
one of the committees is going to, their plan is to bring a bill to Congress this session
that outlaws all armed security guards at a church, specifically a church. You can have them
at car dealerships, you can have them at minards, you can have them wherever, but we're not going
to let one more person get shot at a church because we're the government and we're going to
outlaw this. You are so stupid, stupid thinks you're stupid. The reason this person got
killed by two undercover cops is because they brought a gun and wanted to shoot people.
If you don't bring guns, bring them out, try to shoot people, you might live through a church
service. I mean, it's like we need some godly, righteous, common sense back in this government
and God is going to lay his hands on the people he's already called because he saw this
need coming a long time ago. And he created some of us and a lot who aren't here to meet that need
and turn that thing back for righteousness. And it'll boil in you. You see, but I'm not a preacher.
Good! Because they're all a bunch of gutless wimps right now. They're all sitting behind
their desk with their tail tucked underneath. Oh, we're not going to do anything because
we don't want to get our church people upset. We could lose half of them. Well, really, if half of
them are going to leave because of abortion, are those half even saved? There's a bigger picture
here than the offering plate. Well, I'm not a minister. Good! You're called. We just read it
in Ephesians. You're called. You're called to fill a need. You're called for a purpose.
And you might be a whatever occupation you want to pick. And God will start stirring in your heart
the big purpose and your sub-purpose and your call. And it's going to work right in with your
business. It's going to work right in with your occupation. And he is going to use you
to change what's going on now in this world.
Which, again, advances the church. It all works together. Now, the uglier the world gets, the
more opposition. So it's not always going to be a fun day. Boy, our saved born again
Congress people who are in there facing this day after day after day. Mine, hats off to them.
Like, man, oh man, how many times can you just get slapped in the face and you stand back
up and say, but it ain't right. Boy, there they are working in their purpose.
And very few of them are ministers. They come from all walks of life, sub-purpose, all walks of life,
but they carry that anointing to go in there and make a change. That's what I'm talking about.
So Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray first of all for our young people.
I pray for the children that are on the other side. And I pray for the parents of these young
people and these children. Help us focus them according to what's in their heart,
not according to what we think is best for them. Lord, but to recognize this is what
makes them tick. This is how they were put together. This is how they were wired.
And we support them to step out and follow you. Get in behind them.
And Lord, help our young people to not get caught in all the goofy little traps
of our culture that will make them hit the ditch and never, never really see why they're
here. Just chasing all the wrong stuff. And Lord, help us as adults. We're still here. We're
still living. We're still breathing. We can still make a difference. If we haven't found it yet,
help us find it. Why are we here? How are we supposed to approach it? How is it supposed
to come out of us? Help us find it. And then help us to get up and do it. In Jesus' name.
Amen. The kingdom of God advances forcefully and forceful men lay hold of it. Help us to become
forceful in the time we have left on this earth to accomplish what you want accomplished and how
it's supposed to be done through us as individuals. And to grab that thing and be forceful about
it and pursue it with everything inside of us. Help us see it and understand it and go after it
in Jesus' name. Amen.