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"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We're taking a break from a revelation series while our lead pastor, Darren Rounce, is on sabbatical. During this time, we're gonna continue to push into the Garden's mission of creating resilient disciples by working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. Over the next few weeks, we'll have some amazing pastors from all over the world coming to impart their wisdom and insight on what is the most influential and profound sermon ever given. Enjoy.
Ramin Razavi:Well, this morning, we've got the honor of honors as I get to welcome up one of my best friends in the entire world, pastor Reward Sibanda. Let's show pastor Reward a little love. We're continuing our Sermon on the Mount series, and my brother has just written a book on fasting. You wanna can you hand me that, honey? Oh.
Ramin Razavi:He just gave it to me. Uh-oh. Oh, gosh, you guys. This is not as smooth as it should be. It's right there.
Ramin Razavi:Oh, it's off. Okay. Here we go. He's just written a book on fasting, and he's come today to help us continue this series. And what I wanna share with you, though, is that I've known reward for about five years.
Ramin Razavi:And what I've seen is a man, and he and his wife, Pam, who's here, so let's welcome Pam, who's called to bring awakening to the generation, who's called to preach the gospel, who's called to lead renewal in the church. But more than anything, I know a man who longs for the presence of God like no one else I've ever seen before. And the Lord's gift to him is to help us just get a window into some of what he's tasted and seen. So I hope you've come hungry today.
Reward Sibanda:Come on.
Ramin Razavi:Let's pray for pastor Ward. Holy spirit, just come and increased measure. You're already with us. And so we just ask that you yield us to what you wanna do today. Lord, you are good, and you give in abundance.
Ramin Razavi:And so I pray now that the resources and the abundance of heaven would be unleashed in this room. And would you make us the best soil possible, god, to receive everything you want to give and that it would bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what is sown for your glory here in California and around the world. We thank you, Jesus, for this brother, and we pray in your name that your name, Jesus, would be glorified above all things. We pray together. Amen and amen.
Reward Sibanda:Amen. You
Ramin Razavi:want this up here?
Reward Sibanda:No. No. No. You yeah. Thank you.
Reward Sibanda:Appreciate it. What's up, Carlton? How you guys doing this morning? Good morning. Alright.
Reward Sibanda:I like the service. I mean, you guys you guys know what it's about. You woke up. You had breakfast. You had coffee, and you're like, alright.
Reward Sibanda:Let me show up. Listen, that do not let that intro, you know, fool you. I am a gardener to the core. You know what I'm talking about? I am family, y'all.
Reward Sibanda:I, that's what they call me. They call me the prodigal gardener, you know, out in the streets,
Intro/Outro:but, no. They don't. But it's such an honor to be here.
Reward Sibanda:First of all, I get to do ministry with one of my truly, pastor Ramin is one of my best friends in the ministry. We have, locked arms and purpose in the dark night of the soul and had conversations. You know what I'm saying? Not only is he to be to be honest, one of the smartest people that I know, but he just loves and bleeds for people, him and his incredible family. The force is strong with this one, y'all.
Reward Sibanda:So I just wanna honor him honor pastor John just for your heart and your leadership and for loving the Lord and loving his people. I wanna all the honor the elders and the team and the staff and the worship team and everybody who has laid down their lives to make sure you get an encounter every time you come here. And special, shout out to my boy Seth for all the slides. I'm gonna jump all over the place, but I love you though. You know what I'm saying?
Reward Sibanda:Somebody give that man a high five and a donut on your way out. But, yep, my wife is here. What's up, Pam? Hey. Wave to everybody.
Reward Sibanda:There we go. I know you guys might look at her and go, how did he have the game to pull that? I don't.
Intro/Outro:It was prayer and fasting, and I wrote a book about it. But, I love it. Somebody told me if
Reward Sibanda:you don't have it, you know, to marry it. When I married her, I didn't have style, so I married style. Yo. I had bad credit. I was between banks and everything, so I married good credit.
Reward Sibanda:You know? Now I'm living good, but she's such a gift, to me. And, our son is out there just being a little lion and everything, and they send their love. But listen, before, right now, we're, at a church called Saddleback, and, God is doing incredible things there. But before that, we were the pastors, the associate pastors at a church called the Upper Room in Dallas, Texas.
Reward Sibanda:And we got to see what it looks like when God decides to visit a community and grace it with his presence. And listen, I'm going to say something, and it is as true as anything. It it might as well be canon. The traits of what God does when he's about to visit a community are right here in this place. You are a part of something so incredible, so unique, so fresh, and so God that I want you to hold on as tightly as you can.
Reward Sibanda:Give lean into this particular community because your generation is about to pour into those doors. So God is doing something incredible. But God doesn't move in communities if he doesn't trust the leaders and the pastors of that particular community. And I wanna say pastor Darren and Alex are good friends of mine, and they were friends before we ever even got to do ministry together. And I wanna tell you that they love you, they love God, and they will pay whatever price to make sure that there's encounter for God here.
Reward Sibanda:So if you guys don't mind, wherever they are just, you know, resting and enjoying the Lord, can we just stand up and just honor them? Could because that's what we do. Right? We stand up for the things that we honor. And if you don't mind, can you just, boom.
Reward Sibanda:There we go. Pastor Darren, if you guys are watching this, love you, and thank you for having me. Now if you don't mind, stay standing for the reading of the word, and, we're going to do this, together, family style. Come on. I got some Texas in me.
Reward Sibanda:So that's the best way to do everything. So Matthew six verse 16 to 18. At the count of three, I want us to all read it together. Ready? One, two, three.
Reward Sibanda:Let's go. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Let's pray.
Reward Sibanda:Can you just put your hand over your heart if you don't mind and and just say this with me. Just say, come holy spirit. So we just center ourselves in that expectation, father. Because the holy spirit is the spirit of truth. And when you come holy spirit, our hearts burn within us and we see Jesus.
Reward Sibanda:And when we see Jesus, we're transformed into that same image, the deep imprint of the beautiful one. And so we just lay our hearts open before you, our minds open before you, and we receive with joy the engrafted word which is able to save and give rest to our souls so that mixed with faith, it will bring profiting in our lives. Come blessed teacher. Come and teach us. So we open our hearts, lord.
Reward Sibanda:We pray for the council of heaven to find expression through this lips of clay into hearts that are ready to receive it, to run with it, to be transformed and transform a generation with it. So come, Holy Spirit. We're asking we thank you. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. Amen.
Reward Sibanda:High five the person next to you and say, let's go.
Ramin Razavi:Let's go.
Reward Sibanda:And you may be seated. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. What I love about this particular scripture about this pericope is the fact that it starts with moreover. And what moreover is when we look at, the the laws of grammar is what you call a conjunctive adverb.
Reward Sibanda:And a conjunctive adverb joins it not just sentence to sentence but it joins a specific ideas. And so this particular, verse or this particular scripture, this particular pericope is the culmination. It is the end of the build up of three things that Jesus essentially shows as the foundation to the faith. It begins by him saying, when you give, don't let your one hand know what it is doing. Right?
Reward Sibanda:To when? Everybody say when. When. What does when connote?
Ramin Razavi:You're gonna do it.
Reward Sibanda:That's exactly right. Right? You are going to do it. Right? This says, when you do it, don't do it to be seen by men because if you do, you already have your reward.
Reward Sibanda:But when you do it, do it in such a way this, this, this. And then at the end of it, he gives us an extrinsic motivator and he says, when you do that, the Lord will reward you openly. And then he goes on to say, when you pray, everybody say, when? When. What does when connote?
Reward Sibanda:You're gonna do when. Exactly. You are going to do it. And says, when you do it, do not do it for the reason of being seen by people. Now he is not making an indictment against corporate prayer.
Reward Sibanda:What he is saying is, yes, you can pray in public. Yes, whatever. But if your motives are misaligned, then you already have your reward. But if you do it in secret, God will reward you openly. There it is.
Reward Sibanda:Once again, why is he talking about rewards? And then he calls to say moreover, which means there's a culmination of that particular thought process. He says, when you fast. Everybody say when. When does when connote?
Reward Sibanda:You cannot do it. Exactly. You are going to do it. And he says, when you do it, do not do it for the wrong motives. Right?
Reward Sibanda:Yes. You can go on social media and say, I'm fasting. Everybody pray for me. That's fine. But if you're doing it so that other people can see you, then you already have your reward.
Reward Sibanda:But if you do it the right way, he promises an open reward. Now the question then becomes, why is it that the God who calls us to pray, to give, and to fast, when we do those things in the secret place, he is right there and we know that he is the absolute reward because in his presence, there is fullness of joy. So why would he then take a step further and give us an open incentive outside of himself. And may I propose to you that the reason he promised us an open reward is because the very gospel, the nature of the gospel, the nature of the faith itself is something which is supposed to be lived out. And the culture and the ethos of the kingdom in that particular gospel is something that we call power.
Reward Sibanda:Everybody say power. Power. Now, before we understand that the reason he says when and when and when, even though he's speaking to a broad narrative of people, he's not necessarily speaking to Christians or whatever. He knows it's going to reach. He is speaking to a particular community or a cultural context where they were what we call, a theocracy.
Reward Sibanda:So God was the absolute government and because of that, the things that we call practices in our daily discipleship to Jesus were things that were culturally ingrained into this particular people. He gives every family a mandate and he says, teach your sons and daughters to pray, teach them to read the word, teach them to do all of those things. So they were culturally indoctrinated into habits and cadences and rhythms of prayer and fasting generosity. So that when he is talking to a generation of people, he is talking to people that understand that this is not an elective, but this is the main thing. This is a rule of life.
Reward Sibanda:This is what you live by. And then for whatever reason, he does not issue an exemption to us twenty twenty five Christians in the modern day church, which means the fact that Jesus think about it this way. Right? When Jesus decided like, if you think about it, when Jesus wanted to give us the gift of his son and the gift of the kingdom, he had to step out. Right?
Reward Sibanda:He exists outside of time and space. So he had to choose an inflection point for the story of divinity meeting humanity and he had to culturally, right, contextualize it so that if he gifted it to a specific culture and a timeline, it would have resonance across generations that will come later. Which makes sense why he chose that Middle Eastern context in Israel because they were a generation, they were a nation, they were people who understood something fundamental which is that discipleship happens in the home and when it does, then your contribution exists outside of that particular context. I'm making a case because I am talking to Gordon. See now, when I have conversations around fasting even just around the book I wrote and everything, I speak to a lot of other communities.
Reward Sibanda:And in some communities, right? Because fasting is such a broad there's such a spectrum of benefit when it comes to fasting. Other communities I speak about the soul care benefits of fasting. Right? In other communities, I speak about the clarity of hearing from the Lord.
Reward Sibanda:But garden is different because you have an apostolic mandate by virtue of the type of leadership that you sit under. So think of it, gardener garden in itself is what you call a utilitarian kind of church context because you show up here with your boots on because and you get filled up with the spirit of God and the power of community because there's an expectation that you're going to walk out of those doors and turn a generation into gardeners. Come on somebody. So my conversation and the cadence of my conversation and the potency of my conversation is very different because I am speaking to people that there's an expectation and there's an ROI that has been invested in you to where you're supposed to go out there and bear fruit. So you will see that a lot of my conversation will be calling you to a practice lifestyle and it might seem harsh in advance but I'm doing that simply because at the core of what our faith is, it is what we call an orthopraxy.
Reward Sibanda:Now that's just a $10 word but let me put it this way. See, your boys from Africa, so if you were to look at, if you think of an African stool, if you ever seen her in Discovery Channel, I don't know if they still showed Discovery Channel but I'm from there. So think of me. Right? Listen to it.
Reward Sibanda:So there used to be this, like, three legged stools. So if we're to look at our faith, what theologians talk about is that our faith hinges and stands on three particular things. Right? They say that there are faith is an orthodoxy. The word ortho means right and doxy means doctrine.
Reward Sibanda:Right? So these are the three non negotiables which are foundational to our faith. Right? Right doctrine. There are specific things you cannot remix, reimagine, reinvent, re whatever it is that our generation does with things.
Reward Sibanda:Okay? Like, when it comes to the doctrine, it has to be right. The resurrection of Jesus. Right? The divinity of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, like all those things are right doctrine.
Reward Sibanda:Right? That is orthodoxy. Everybody say orthodoxy. And then the next one is, what you call ortho pathy, ortho right pathos feelings. Right?
Reward Sibanda:That there's specific things when you believe the doctrine, there's a specific way that we align our feelings and everything that we are on the inside of us and that there's a right way to be internally. And when you are that way, you can bear the fruit that then brings glory to God. That's also non negotiable. You cannot distance your belief system from what is happening internally.
Ramin Razavi:That's right.
Reward Sibanda:That fruit. Right? Fruit. The fruit of a life in dwelt and overtaken by the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, patience. Against those things, there's no law.
Reward Sibanda:Why? Because that or that those are the essence of what you call an orthopathy, right feeling. And then finally, it's something that we call orthopraxy. Ortho right, proxy, right action where you get practice or practical. Right?
Reward Sibanda:And the orthopraxy demands that the the the the the proof of our faith, right, that the tangible evidence of the fact that we've been transformed by the power of the holy spirit and the sacrifice of Jesus is our actions. There are certain things that we do which prove that we are Christian. And that outside of those particular things, everybody has a right to question those particular things. Prayer is one of those things. Fasting is one of those things.
Reward Sibanda:Giving is one of those things. Now the trap, right, of the enemy could be the fact that you might think, well, we are dragging us back to a gospel of works. And I would say no because see, you come here and you understand because of the incredible investment of some of the voices that have spoken to this. Pastor, you spoke about the our father. Right?
Reward Sibanda:You guys under you remember that. That we are pleased. We are anchored in the love and the acceptance of God through the sacrifice of his son and nothing can shake us from that particular place. Foundational manifestation of the ministry of Jesus, right? God says, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Reward Sibanda:Before he healed a single eye, before he multiplied a single fish fry, come on somebody, before he did any of those things, God was pleased in him. And from that place of acceptance, he labored more than everybody else because he knew he was loved. Because here's a fundamental truth, right? You can never outwork a lover. You can never out give a lover.
Reward Sibanda:So because we are loved, then from there we'd step out and we bear fruit. So there's not an exemption from living lives that bear fruit. There never is. But there's an invitation to where from that place of love, we bear fruit because the world is is attracted to fruit. And when they see the love, the joy, the peace, and all the things that we have on the inside of us, they're like, where did you get that?
Reward Sibanda:Right? And the way it is, then we tell them, we lead them to the garden because that is in essence who we are. So this conversation about prayer, about fasting, hinges on the simple premise that the reason that God saved you and you didn't just disappear and be with him in eternity is because he had a mandate and a purpose for your life. And the mandate that he has over your life is something which is called the gospel. Everybody say the gospel.
Intro/Outro:The gospel.
Reward Sibanda:Now what does the word gospel mean? It is. Come on. Man, you guys are sharp. Pastor Ramin.
Reward Sibanda:Yo, man. I mean, 08:00 was cool, but you guys are like, you guys are some bright crayons up in here. I mean, they were pastel. You guys are neon. Come on somebody.
Reward Sibanda:But listen to this. The gospel is the good news. Right? I'm from Zimbabwe y'all and I work with World Vision so I travel all over the world. And how many of y'all know that good news in Zimbabwe feels like good news?
Ramin Razavi:Yeah. Yeah.
Reward Sibanda:And good news in The US feels like good news. Right. And good news in Mexico feels like good news.
Ramin Razavi:Right.
Reward Sibanda:Right? I can't just come to you and say something is the good news if it doesn't feel like good news.
Ramin Razavi:That's right.
Reward Sibanda:So first of all, good news has to fill a specific way. Right? But the second and the most important thing about that is the fact that good news is subjective. If I'm starving, good news is food. Right?
Reward Sibanda:If I am hurt, good news is healing. Right? If I'm depressed, good news is not that I save 5% with GEICO and my car insurance. No. Good news means that it has to be specific to my particular context and therefore it can be good news.
Reward Sibanda:So if the gospel is not good news to specific people, then we do not have the right to call it the gospel because that is the essence what we call false advertising. So which is why when Jesus calls us to go and be proxies of his kingdom by propagating his gospel, the first thing that he said to the disciples that he says to us on a daily basis is, hey, tarry until you are endured with power from on high. Because when you meet somebody that is sick, the only convincing good news would be be healed in Jesus name. When you meet somebody that is oppressed and possessed, the only good news is when you extend the scepter of his kingdom, which is your hand, and you bring the government of heaven over their mind, their wills, and emotions. And when you bring that alignment, everybody can say that is good news.
Reward Sibanda:So much so that the gospel was never meant to just merely be a philosophy. See, so much so that Jesus who understood, who invented the very essence of what is called philosophy and epistemology. Right? He did not make a case for why the gospel was a good philosophy. He says forget everything that I do, but look at that I say, but look at the power.
Reward Sibanda:Right. For the kingdom is not in works, but in power. Right? Oh, come on. Do you know what it says about Jesus?
Reward Sibanda:It reminds me of one of my favorite heroes, Spiderman. See Thor and all those guys and everything. I like them and and,
Intro/Outro:and and and Iron Man and every
Reward Sibanda:but they have issues. There's just bigger things going on. But Spider Man is just a local neighborhood guy who just goes around. You're getting mugged. He's gonna stick them and you know what I'm saying?
Reward Sibanda:He just goes around. And the Bible says this about Jesus. Says how God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. And then he turns around and says, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dead and now dwells on the inside of you. What are you doing with it?
Reward Sibanda:Right? There's such an Romans one sixteen to 17 says this, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to everybody who believes. Now listen, if we know, right, that the gospel is power. We know that Jesus heals.
Reward Sibanda:We know all of those things. We believe them. Right? If you don't, you can get pray after this. I mean, we believe it in a fundamental level.
Reward Sibanda:But I'm pretty sure there's a few number of people in here that don't step outside those doors and they cannot wait to share the gospel. You know how I know? I was one of those people. Now listen, good news has a compelling force to it. If I find a good set of shoes, come on somebody, everybody gonna know it.
Reward Sibanda:The company doesn't have to beg me to talk about it. You know, if I find a good Texas brisket in Southern California, everybody is going to know it. Why? Because the nature of good news itself is compelling. And the only way at a subconscious level that I would not share that is if I didn't believe it was good news.
Reward Sibanda:So whatever you believe, whatever you think, whatever you've convinced yourself, at a subconscious level, if you had the power, if every time you prayed, somebody with a headache got healed and you heard somebody has a headache, would you not stretch out your hands and do it? Yes. You heard. You know why? Because it has power, which brings us back to this indictment on us in a generation.
Reward Sibanda:See, the apostle says this, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of the good news, right, of Christ, the anointed one, for it is the power of God for salvation. The reason we are ashamed of the gospel is because it has it does not have the power to save. Think of it this way. If I was going door to door and I was selling vacuum cleaners, I would be ashamed to knock on your door and say I'm selling a vacuum cleaner. You're like, show me.
Reward Sibanda:Display to me how it works. I'm like, it's got no power. Right? The reason we don't we are not pushed at a visceral level to share the gospel is because the gospel in our expression does not have the solutions and does not have the power. See, I grew up in an African orthopraxy.
Reward Sibanda:Right? And what I'm talking about is See, I had no point but to seek the power of God and to believe in the power of God. You know why? Because everything else had power. Yeah.
Reward Sibanda:See, I could not I did not have the luxury of coming up with a philosophy for a God who does not speak to his people. Do you know why? Because every other spirit spoke Right. To its people. The kingdom of darkness and all of these other things, I mean, it was there.
Reward Sibanda:It was real. There was a kingdom of darkness and it was expressive and it had servants and they went around doing evil to everybody that they could. And so now when I read this, I'm like, wait, there's a greater power and we're stewards for it? Then if you are in this house, that means there's a mandate, an apostolic mandate over your life to go and take territory for the kingdom of God. And how you do that, you do it like Jesus did it, do it like the apostles did.
Reward Sibanda:You say, hey, I don't have money. I don't live theological training. I don't even have the mind of a Rameen or just the, you know, the calm composure and the Jedi awesomeness of a pastor John, but such as I have, where are you hurting? You've been hurting your whole life in the name of Jesus. Boom.
Reward Sibanda:Oh my gosh, I can do The Bible is full of those types of stories. Right? Where it says, Jesus would make a miracle, like, is he the Messiah? He's like, whatever. He's like, I don't know, but boom, you're healed.
Reward Sibanda:And he says, they would believe them and the entire household because nobody can argue with the results.
Ramin Razavi:Yes.
Reward Sibanda:There's beautiful benefits in fasting. Like, you get to know more of the Lord and you get to understand more and the word comes alive and you get to see visions and dreams and all the incredible promises that come from a life that's in the proxy to the God of all generosity and the God of all goodness. But to use specifically, the angle that I'm taking and the invitation is to the power aspects of it because you're called to propagate a gospel and it is not good news if it doesn't have power because it takes power for it to be good news.
Ramin Razavi:Yes.
Reward Sibanda:I was in bondage for ten years and it wasn't a concept, it wasn't a theory that set me free. It was the power of God. It was somebody that had given themselves over to a life of authority and power and so when they stretched forward and they were like this and it was healed. Then the first time the Lord, healed me of something, it was things I didn't even know were spirits. I was like, well, you know, there's this thing I I struggle with, clinical depression and I was all these things and everything and it was like, no, I understand that but the bible says that the spirit of heaviness and as long as the spirit, I have authority over it.
Reward Sibanda:And right there, he spoke with authority and this is what he said. He says, I'm bringing the kingdom of God over your mind right now and I'm restoring it to God's original design and intent for it. And I'm going to count to three and when I snap my fingers, that thing is gonna lift off of you and you're gonna experience a joy like you've never felt. One, two, and then two, my skepticism was at an all time high. You say three, and he snapped this thing and something lifted off of me.
Reward Sibanda:That's literally how I went and I was like, oh my goodness. These things are real. And then God turns around and he says, that's for every single one of you. That's your birthright. Yes.
Reward Sibanda:Power. Listen. That's what it says here. Here's another one. Isaiah 61.
Reward Sibanda:So when they asked Jesus, they're like, alright. You're the Messiah. Right? You're running for the highest, office in eternity. So what is your what is your spiel?
Reward Sibanda:You know, why what what are you running on? And he says it's very simple. Isaiah 61 verse one to three says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. And then he drops the scroll. Everyone's like, alright.
Reward Sibanda:That's dope. Listen to this. The spirit. What is the spirit? Right?
Reward Sibanda:It's the culture. It's the ethos. It's the manifestation. It's the value systems. It's the culture.
Reward Sibanda:It's the mindset of the Lord. What is the word Lord there? Think of a landlord. Think of somebody that owns something. You know, you can always tell if somebody owns a building or a shop or a coffee because they have a different mindset.
Reward Sibanda:They're always walking around and fixing things and kinda picking things up and everything and it's like, even if they have employees, why? Because the the mindset of ownership is different. So God creates this perfect earth and he loses it because Adam ate a salad. Come on somebody. I kept telling Pam, don't make me eat salads.
Reward Sibanda:But the moment that is but his heart for his creation was still secure. So in his plan of redemption and divinity, you know what he says? He takes the same spirit of care and ownership, the same spirit that has the authority and the power to bring everything into alignment and he puts it on us and he says, I want to to go out there and be the gospel. Here's why. Says, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.
Reward Sibanda:He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. If you're brokenhearted, healing is good news. To proclaim liberty to the captives. If you're a captive, liberty is the good news. And the opening of prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, that's jubilee y'all, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who moan, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes.
Reward Sibanda:Man, I listen, I work with World Vision and I got to go and see, like, just the devastation of fire. Pastor Reminds what knows what I'm talking about in the LA thing. There is nothing dignified or beautiful about ashes, but he says to give them beautiful ashes in your marriage and your relationships and your mental health. All of those things can be in ashes, irredeemable. But it says the spirit of the Lord has been poured out on somebody from God and so that when they encounter you, they're supposed to bring beauty for those ashes.
Reward Sibanda:Do you see the power of the redemptive mandate that we have over our lives? Oh my gosh. The oil of joy for mourning. You guys know the mourning, it is such a heavy and a deep and a depressive thing, but we get the oil of joy. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
Reward Sibanda:Listen to this. Why does he do it? Why does he give us his spirit to make us all these things? And here it is. Says that they may everybody say they.
Reward Sibanda:That they may be called trees of righteousness. Come on, garden. See if it was up to you, maybe you could kinda limp around and kinda manage it, you know, and be like, well, I'm a deal with my sin and I'm a go to support groups and everything. He's like, no. I need you to accept what I've done for you and I need you to accept the full capacity of my spirit because on the other side of you stepping out as a proxy of my kingdom is a garden that has been burnt and charred and it's heavy and it's got all these things and when you stretch out the scepter of the kingdom of God, which is your hand and your will, come on somebody.
Reward Sibanda:He's gonna bring restoration and they will be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. You are gardeners and the garden has a mandate and that mandate is to go out and show forth the glory of God who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Come on somebody. For this reason was the son of man made manifest that he would go and destroy the works of darkness. Oh, so put on your punisher shirt and step outside there and just look for trouble baby because you are the answer.
Reward Sibanda:But listen to this, power. You need power for this particular manifestation. There's all the scriptures. But what is power? Let me break it down real quick.
Reward Sibanda:So the the the the the Greek essentially kinda like how there's five for love. The Greek essentially shares power in four words. The first is exousia. Everybody say exousia. The second is dunamis.
Reward Sibanda:Everybody say dunamis. The third is kratos. Everybody say crest kratos. And the last one is iscus. Everybody say iscus.
Reward Sibanda:Alright. Find out how to pronounce them. Don't say an African guy told me this is how you say it. No. I take no responsibility.
Reward Sibanda:But here's why it's different. Right? In the English, when you just say power. So for example, there's a guy called Mike Tyson in his prime. How many of you guys ever saw a video of Mike Tyson in his prime?
Reward Sibanda:Listen, he was just raw power and fury and anger and whatever it is like it was raw power. So when you look at Mike Tyson in his prime, you say that is power. Right? But at the same time, do you know that a presidential candidate or somebody that presides over a specific territory also has power? So both are powerful men, but those are two fundamentally different powers.
Reward Sibanda:And it's important to us to understand when the Bible talks about power, what it's talking about because in it lies the secret to all of these particular things. So the first is Exousia. This is what exousia is. It is the power of authority, influence, and of right privilege. The power of rule of government.
Reward Sibanda:So exousia is authority. That is the direct translation of it. So every single person, the moment you are saved, you get exousia because you are literally You may have been a junky two minutes before that but once you accept the Lord, the Bible says, you are then instantly transferred and you're seated in heavenly places above every power, principality, dominion, throne and everything that exists. So you have authority and it is positional and you cannot essentially build up or lose exousia. What you can do is increase authority based on the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Reward Sibanda:So when you read the word and you understand who he is and what he has done for you, your authority increases. Right. But the stature of it is instantly at default from jump. You are above anything and everything from hell. The second is Dunamis.
Reward Sibanda:Everybody say Dunamis. This is what it says. It says inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature or which a thing or a person exerts and puts forth. Power for performing miracles. So now Dunamis on the other hand is something that we have.
Reward Sibanda:It's power resonating thing by virtue of its nature. For example, I gave this example. Do you know that a lion is more powerful than a mouse? Right? No matter how many calisthenics and how much that mouse works out and you know how many motivational speakers it listens to, by its very nature, it is weaker than the lion.
Reward Sibanda:Why? By virtue of its nature. So we get dunamis when the holy spirit came on the inside of us, we got this dunamis. But dunamis though also translated as virtue. It's something that we can build up.
Reward Sibanda:So through prayer, through fasting, through all of these things, this is why Jesus would go and depart. And even though he had authority as a son, he would build up dunamis. And when he would go and extend the scepter of the kingdom through his hand or whatever it is, he could say, hey, I felt power leave me. That's what dunamis is. And it's very important when you approach spiritual things to know what does this require and what does this require.
Reward Sibanda:For example, right, dunamis is never for demons. Authority is for demons. See, because if you don't think that the Dunamis, you'll constantly be like, I gotta go do demons and so you kinda pray yourself up and everything. But let me ask you this. The president of a country, right, is called the commander in chief.
Reward Sibanda:And that president commands or is more powerful than the marines, right? He could be eating burgers all day and do all these things that never seen the inside of a gym, but he can wake up and command an elite force of people who have given themselves over to that. Why is that? Because his authority at a fundamental level is more than that. So demons have nothing to do with dunamis because dunamis is miracle working power.
Reward Sibanda:Demons have everything to do with authority.
Ramin Razavi:Yes.
Reward Sibanda:And which leads us into this particular part that I'm about to share right here on where we get this power. And it's in Matthew 17 verse 14 to 21. Let's go there. And here's what it says. Thank you, brother.
Reward Sibanda:Man, I love that line. I love running with you, bro. You're a wild man, dude. Come on. God loves you guys.
Reward Sibanda:You guys are wild man as shepherds. Here's what he says. Says, but when they had come to the multitude hey. Can you switch your mind to learning mode for a second? That means it's gonna be dialogical.
Reward Sibanda:Right? That means I'm about to be a hallowed back teacher. Is that cool? Yes. Alright.
Reward Sibanda:Stay with me. So so when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him kneeling down to him and saying, Lord have mercy on my son for he is an epileptic and suffers severely for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples but they could not cure him. What did the father do? He just gave a history of the affliction of this particular child through this particular spirit.
Reward Sibanda:Right? And he says, epileptic. That's what he says. Right? And then says, then Jesus answered and said, oh, faithless and perverse.
Reward Sibanda:What does it say? Faithless. Faithless and perverse. What is the indictment on them is that they're faithless and that they're perverse. What does the word perverse mean if anyone knows?
Reward Sibanda:Common. It means common. So he says the indictment on this people who could not cast it out is that they have no faith and their perspective on what's happening is common. Their conviction is common. Right?
Reward Sibanda:Listen to this. Says, oh faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon.
Reward Sibanda:What did he do? He rebuked. What does it take to rebuke authority? You see what I'm saying? And it came out of him and the child was cured from that very hour.
Reward Sibanda:Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out? Yeah. Why could we what is it? Demon. Come and work with me.
Reward Sibanda:What is it? The demon. The demon. So they came and say, why could we not cast the demon out? Right?
Reward Sibanda:What is the subject? What is the subject? What is he talking about? Subject means what he's talking about. What is the subject?
Reward Sibanda:The demon. Alright. Stay with me. Right? He's still talking about the demon.
Reward Sibanda:Right? He hasn't shifted. Right? What is he talking about? The demon.
Reward Sibanda:Alright. Let's go. So they say why could we not cast it out? The demon. Right?
Reward Sibanda:What is the subject? The demon. Alright. There we go. So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief.
Reward Sibanda:Because of your what? Unbelief. Alright. Now what is the subject? Exact Oh, you guys.
Reward Sibanda:Let's go. Exactly. It is unbelief. In conversation, if I come and I'm like, babe, let's talk about this phone. Right?
Reward Sibanda:And then I start talking about a boat. Unless I revert back to talking about the phone, the subject has shifted. And sometimes I've tried to use that as a defense mechanism when I'm about to go into the dog house and my wife will say, do not change the subject because those are the rules of effective communication. Right? If I change the subject, it remains changed until I change it back.
Ramin Razavi:That's right.
Reward Sibanda:So when they came, what was the subject? The demon. The demon. Right? And then when you shifted it, what became the subject?
Reward Sibanda:Unbelief. Alright. This is gonna be important. Says for surely I say to you, if your faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you. The context is still what?
Reward Sibanda:Unbelief. He's talking about faith. Listen, first of all, what is the one thing that every time we have it in the spirit, we get everything that we want from heaven? Faith. Faith.
Reward Sibanda:Exactly. Be it to you according to your faith. If your faith as a mustard seed, your faith has made you well. Faith is the substance of the things that we hope for and the evidence of things not seen. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which appear are made from the things which do not appear.
Reward Sibanda:Faith is the currency that gets us everything from God to where the impossible becomes impossible. Listen, I'm reading this and it's in red letters y'all. That means it's no cap. Come on somebody. If Jesus said nothing will be impossible to you, what did he mean?
Reward Sibanda:Nothing will be impossible for you. And he didn't shift the mandate. In that particular thing, he made the impossibility your birthright. And anytime you traffic in the possibility, you are forfeiting what could essentially be yours. For a bowl of stew or for bowl of soup or whatever it is you are selling your birthright.
Reward Sibanda:But Hebrews 11 and the entire bible is full of people who believe that this was true, and they essentially begin to walk out the impossible, big impossible. And now when we get to heaven, they're gonna be sitting at the cool table, and I'm gonna see me at all the other table where it didn't raise any dead or heal any sick, but I tweeted a lot of things and everything. I wanna be at this table till I say, I walked on water. Come on. I raised the dead.
Reward Sibanda:I healed the sick. I cleansed the lepers because it was my birthright.
Ramin Razavi:Yes,
Reward Sibanda:lord. So Jesus essentially says to this, if you, right, do not have unbelief, we're still agreed, then the impossible will be possible for you. We're still agreed.
Ramin Razavi:Yeah.
Reward Sibanda:But then he says this. He says, however, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. This kind of what? Alright. Let's try it again.
Reward Sibanda:They came to him talking about a demon. Right? That was the subject. Jesus says, don't worry about the demon. Worry about your unbelief.
Reward Sibanda:Right? Then he shifted the subject to what? To unbelief. Where does he shift it back to the demon? He doesn't.
Reward Sibanda:So when he's talking about prayer and fasting, he's talking about prayer and fasting because it deals with unbelief. If I come to you and I say, what is the problem with my car? And you say the tire, and then I start talking about the engine, I've missed it. The moment you tell me it's the tire, everything about fixing it is about the tire. So when he said the problem was their unbelief, it means the remedy where the impossible becomes impossible is through prayer and fasting.
Reward Sibanda:Yes. So the question we should be asking then is, how does prayer and fasting deal with unbelief? You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So first of all, if faith is the is how we get everything that we need from from from heaven, we need to understand that the opposite of faith is not doubt.
Reward Sibanda:Right? Doubt is in the middle. Doubt is agnostic. Right? Doubt says, yeah, it could happen, it could not.
Reward Sibanda:The opposite of faith is unbelief because unbelief, the Greek word for that is apistis. So unbelief, you know what unbelief is? It's a faith that the opposite will happen. So it's still So for example, unbelief was a perverted faith which says that there's no way we can heal this person. So the principle in the spirit of faith still holds sound except now they are using it to believe that this thing will not happen.
Reward Sibanda:So then what Jesus says is simply this, that the only way to get rid of unbelief which is a conviction that the opposite of what you want, the opposite of what is true, the opposite of the gospel will happen. A misuse and a perversion of your faith is through prayer and fasting. And in two minutes, if I may, Ramin, I'm gonna land this, I promise. In two minutes, let me explain how this works. In order for us to understand, this change completely blew my mind wide open when I understood this about the Bible.
Reward Sibanda:So man is what we call a tripartite, tri three part being. Right? So we are spirit, we're soul, we're body. Right? You guys agree?
Reward Sibanda:Yes. So the spirit is that part of us that comes from God. Comes from him, therefore it can commune with him. The soul is what you call the center of our self consciousness. It's your mind, it's your will, It's your mo emotions.
Reward Sibanda:It's your volition. It's your personality. The this. Right? The who we know you to be essentially.
Reward Sibanda:And your body is all this chocolaty goodness that you guys see in front of you. Come on somebody. So that's who we are. Now in our actual body, there are these things which I'm going to call the senses, but I'm going to call them faculties. Right?
Reward Sibanda:Touch, taste, sight, you know, hearing and all of those particular things. Now how magic happens in the outside world is simply this. There's a stimulus and when you align your stimulus with your faculty, you get perception or understanding whatever it is. So it's sound is the stimulus. Right?
Reward Sibanda:The ear is the faculty. When I match sound with the ear, what happens? I hear. Light is the stimulus. Right?
Reward Sibanda:The eye is the faculty. When I watch match light with the eye, what happens? I see. Right? Taste, alright, is the faculty or rather the mouth is a faculty and taste particles of food, whatever it is, you understand what's happening.
Reward Sibanda:Right? So that is also true in the spirit. When you look at the spirit, God with spirit, soul, and body has given us specific practices that as we live them out in our discipleship to Jesus, when we match the right faculty with the right practice, then we get benefit. For example, when he talks about prayer, you will never see the bible talk about prayer and not talk about the spirit. My spirit prays, Paul says.
Reward Sibanda:Well, it makes sense because if our spirit if we are spirit and God is spirit and prayer is communication, then it's spirit to spirit. Right? And the spirit comes from a place of the impossible. So whenever spirit connects with his spirit, the impossible is deemed possible. Now our soul is the rational part of who we are.
Reward Sibanda:Right? But when you look at it, you will never see the word fasting apart from soul. And how it always says it says fasting when I humbled my soul with fasting. There's multiple scriptures. I'll get them you guy to you guys are there in the book.
Reward Sibanda:But whenever it talks about fasting, it talks about how fasting humbles the soul. Another thing, that's what the faculty of the soul is the word. Right? Why? Because the word is a philosophy and your mind is renewed.
Reward Sibanda:Right? You're cleansed by the renewing of your mind, by the reading of the word and everything. So you know that if I, the Bible says great peace have they that love your law, nothing will offend them. Psalms one nineteen. So you know that if my soul is afflicted and I have no peace, if I go back into the word, it's going to wash over me and my mind and your my will and my emotion will do this.
Reward Sibanda:So you can recalibratively look at what is being ailed whether it's your spirit, your soul, and your body and find the accurate practice and align those specific things. So then, now as I land this, what does that have to do with prayer and fasting? Here it is. The truth of the manifestation of your universe will always be directly proportional to which of these faculties are in ascendance. For if your spirit if you've been feeding your spirit, sowing to the spirit, your spirit will be in a place of ascendance and you'll find that you're a person of faith and the fruit of the spirit and does all these things.
Reward Sibanda:And when you pray, you hear from God and you can speak to God. Why? Because the spirit is an ascendance. But if you spend time binge watching Netflix and feeding the soul and you're reading all these things and watching info wars and all this politics and everything, you'll find that your soul will be in a place of ascendance and your spirit will down here, will be down here. So if we then ask you to pray, you'll notice that you'll start begin to pray a prayer trying to convince yourself that it's God's will to do these things.
Reward Sibanda:Why? Because your spirit is in a place of subservience and your soul is in a place of ascendance. So when you fast, this is what fasting does and it's important. And could I get the band up here? So when you fast, what fasting does is it humbles your soul, your mind, your will, your emotion, the things, the rational mind that tells you specific things are impossible.
Reward Sibanda:The rational things that tells you that the kingdom is not upside down but downside up. All those things, they are humbled through fasting and by fasting. Then your spirit when you pray can be in a place of ascendance. And now when you're praying, you're praying a prayer of faith and that unbelief is dealt with then you can have the things that you ask for. So there's no such thing in the praxis, in their cultural context, in the alphopraxy.
Reward Sibanda:There's no such thing as prayer without fasting and fasting without prayer. Those two in their cultural context went together. That's why when people fast, they say, I could hear God more clearly. Why? Your voices were mitigated and the voice of the spirit was louder.
Reward Sibanda:And God is calling a generation of gardeners to say, come and find the deep imprint of my spirit. Come and hear my voice because when you hear my voice, you can step out and represent me rightly. So the call to Lent that your pastoral staff is calling you isn't just a call for you to afflict yourself so God can feel sorry. That's works. And so you can come into a place to where you can be somebody that meets with God in the morning like the priest did, the priest demanded that still resides over your life.
Reward Sibanda:You can meet with with them in the evening and the promise that he gave to priest was this. Let them come and meet me in the morning and in the evening, and there I will meet with them and speak with them, and they'll be sanctified by my glory. You're not sanctified by abstinence from sin or modification of behavioral habits. You are sanctified because you come into contact with the holy one, and his holiness becomes the deep imprint and ethos of your existence, and then you begin to step out into places and you do all of those things. And that is a place where the soul is in a place of subservience and rightly serves the spirit.
Reward Sibanda:And the call to holiness, the call to utility in his kingdom is a call to prayer and is a call to fasting because it's a call to power and it's a call to the impossible. And when you step out there, you will need power and you'll need the impossible to live out your divine mandate. God is inviting every single one of us here. And pastor Ramin is gonna come and take us into the heart of what that invitation looks like for us as a church family.
Ramin Razavi:Yeah. Let's go ahead and stand as we we can thank the Lord for the word reward reward brought. Thank you, Lord. Let's just begin to thank the Lord for the word that he just brought us. Thank you, Lord, for the goodness of your word.
Ramin Razavi:Thank you, Lord, for revealing more of your heart to us today. Do you know that God desires to give in abundance? He says, don't be afraid, little flock, because I long to give you my kingdom. And our prayer team is gonna come up now and come across the front of this room, but I just have a sense that the father has been speaking to some of you all morning, and you just need to come and begin to respond now. I'm gonna offer a few invitations, but you don't need to wait or hesitate to receive everything that your father in heaven wants to give you.
Ramin Razavi:So, prayer team, why don't you come across the front here? And if you feel the Lord calling you to respond, go ahead and and come up towards the front already. Jesus said that the flesh counts for nothing. Thank you. But the spirit gives life, and the words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life.
Ramin Razavi:And so the Lord wants to give his life to you today. And some of the ways I think he wants to do that is the reality that we have carried too much unbelief. Did anyone else feel conviction over that? Yes. And the Lord wants to just breathe out a fresh spirit of faith.
Ramin Razavi:Faith can only come as a gift from the Lord. And so if you want to receive a fresh impartation of faith from Jesus today, to believe in him and trust him, come forward and receive a fresh impartation of faith. That's not without doubt. How did the father pray? Father, I believe but help my unbelief.
Ramin Razavi:And if you need to receive a fresh impartation of faith today, come forward. The gospel is the power of God. And some of us have been believing a doctrine, we've been following a philosophy, we've been living out practices, but we don't know power.
Reward Sibanda:Yeah. Yeah.
Ramin Razavi:And what Jesus wants to do today is to touch your heart with his power. It may be healing power. It may be the restoration of your dreams and your soul. It may be freeing your mind from a habitual thought pattern of darkness. Jesus wants to touch you with his power today.
Ramin Razavi:If you want to receive a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, we are given the Holy Spirit upon our confession of Jesus, but we can be filled again and again and again. And if you need to receive a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, come today and receive from him. And some of us need to decide that we're going to build an altar with our lives, and we are going to, through prayer and fasting, become the kind of people that are a landing pad for the presence of God. And if you desire your life to be an altar for the Lord, come forward today, because what we do, Lord, is we wait on you. You are the one who sends your wind, you are the one who sends your fire, and so Jesus, extend your hand and begin to touch us now, Lord.
Ramin Razavi:Bring your kingdom here among us. Holy Spirit, come and give good gifts to your children. We are hungry for more of you, and we believe in your goodness, your power, and your love. Release it now in this place, Lord.
Intro/Outro:Thank you for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden.church.