WEBVTT 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:28.535 You're listening to the Garden Church podcast. We're in a series called church on fire, a journey through the book of acts. This is a story of ordinary people filled with the spirit, carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission. 00:00:31.240 --> 00:00:44.005 Today, we we're gonna talk about a verse in the Bible that frames the entire book of Acts. So if you have your Bible, will you hold it up real quick? Pull it up. Show me. If you hold your phone, you're in the wrong house. 00:00:44.965 --> 00:00:48.805 1111. Keep on up. Keep on Let's go. Alright. Because I gotta tell you, yes. 00:00:48.805 --> 00:00:51.685 Look at eleven. You win again. Look around. Look around. Look at this. 00:00:51.685 --> 00:01:21.475 When we started doing this, it was like this section of five and then it was all phones. And now the phones go up and you all get shamed big time. I heard from a person in our church whose parents started coming that they bought a bible because of what I shared last week. Because they're like, yeah, I do go on my emails and check Instagram and look on Amazon Prime when I'm doing my devotion and I was, exactly. Here we go. 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:40.995 So Acts chapter one verse eight. We're gonna talk about it the next two weeks. This week, we're gonna talk about what it means to be witnesses. Just hold on to it because I'm gonna reframe the definition because I think that word witness needs some new p r and that new p r is you. So we're gonna go for it. 00:01:41.235 --> 00:01:55.040 But also next week, we're gonna talk about how do you grow in the power of the holy spirit. Yeah. And I wanna give you some things I've learned over the years. And then we're gonna talk about the the next section of chapter one and then we'll get to Pentecostal. Spend We'll a couple of weeks on the Holy Spirit. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:11.585 I think I'm just gonna take my time, give us some theology of the Holy Spirit, talk through gifts, all those things, talk about tongues. Because it's We're just so unaware in the church today and there's so much controversy. I wanna give you biblical teaching on that. Is that alright? I'm glad you agree because I'll do it either way. 00:02:13.185 --> 00:02:43.665 So there's a famous rabbinic or a a scholar who is one of the most respected scholars of studying rabbinic teaching in Judaism And he says, the final words of a master or a rabbi are to be remembered above all others for they reveal the essence of his way. Now, if you were a rabbi, your disciples treasured every word you spoke when you were alive but your final words were the most unique. They were carried more weight. They weren't random. They weren't wasted. 00:02:43.825 --> 00:03:12.675 They were meant to sum up your whole life in teaching which was supposed to be carried on by your disciples. And so, when you get When you look at the Jewish tradition, Moses' last words to Israel is the book of Deuteronomy. And you can read his last kind of commands in the book of Deuteronomy. Joshua's farewell statements to Israel. He says, choose this day whom you will serve but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. 00:03:12.675 --> 00:03:38.465 Last words of Joshua which by the way, if you study the old testament, he's the only leader that begins well and ends well. If you Anyone read the old testament here? It's so disappointing. Which I just wanna say is a great argument for the validity of the bible because it's the only ancient source that's self critical. It's historical and self critical. 00:03:38.465 --> 00:03:56.010 It says, we got it wrong. Solomon had 666 talents given to him as his his salary. $6.06 6 in the Jewish mindset is man and failure. It's just all this symbolism of how they got it wrong. But the anyways, getting that was a freebie. 00:03:56.010 --> 00:04:21.830 But getting back to the If you if you wanna learn more about that, listen to our Revelation series. Here we go. In the Jewish tradition, the last words of a leader or a rabbi were seen as as kind of a distillation of their mission. As a testimony. So we get to Acts chapter one verse eight and we have the rabbi of rabbis, the son of God, Jesus in his final moments with his disciples before he ascends into heaven. 00:04:21.830 --> 00:04:45.555 Which by the way, I have always read the ascension as, alright, he's gone. He's leaving us now. But the way it's framed in the gospel by by the author Luke in in Acts is he's not leaving us. He's taking the the the seat of authority. He's stepping into the cosmos, to the space where he now has dominion and reign. 00:04:46.190 --> 00:04:56.590 Where his authority is exercised. It's the control center if you will of creation. You with me? And then he says this line. And it's his last words. 00:04:56.590 --> 00:05:29.605 He doesn't give a timeline. He doesn't give a political program. He just says, verse eight, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So in this text, we have not only the last words of Jesus according to gospel or according to Luke but we have, kind of the framework and blueprint for the church. What we have is the rest of the book of Acts will be organized from this verse. 00:05:29.605 --> 00:05:57.395 It will reveal to you the progress of the gospel through ordinary men and women filled with the holy spirit, given power to now go and be witnesses to Jerusalem, the places you're familiar with. Judea and Samaria, the places you would never want the gospel to go because you don't like them. They not like us. Now, woke up. And to the ends of the earth, the mysterious places of the unknown. 00:05:57.555 --> 00:06:09.460 Because that's where you as a follower are destined. Now, this framework, I'm gonna get back to what it means to be a witness. But Matthew shares it this way. I just wanna read it so you can see the theme. Matthew 28. 00:06:09.460 --> 00:06:21.060 Go ahead and turn in your Bibles, Matthew 28. It says this, verse 18. It's called the great commission. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Now that Greek word for all means all. 00:06:27.565 --> 00:06:37.090 Just just want you to think about that for a moment. Not some authority. Not a little bit. Not a little of heaven, little of earth. No. 00:06:37.090 --> 00:06:48.290 No. No. All authority. All the ability to govern God's dream and desire and will has been given to me. The right to exercise my rule. 00:06:48.690 --> 00:06:59.015 Therefore, it's not, hey, you have the right practices. Hey, you figured it out on your own. Hey, you read the right book. You got the right podcast. No. 00:06:59.015 --> 00:07:08.460 The authority of heaven is mine. Therefore How we doing church? Yeah. Therefore, make Christianity comfortable. Yeah. 00:07:09.660 --> 00:07:22.935 Therefore, go and consume lattes and have bible studies with your friends. Yeah. Call a church. Therefore, take your own processed wounds, start a podcast, and make a deconstructed version of Jesus. That was all free. 00:07:22.935 --> 00:07:36.210 That was for you. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. Not disciples of you, but of Jesus. Immersing them, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, holy spirit. Not in the name of a brand. 00:07:37.570 --> 00:07:56.345 Not in the name of our church website with our logo. In the name of the father and of the son of the spirit. We have through a trinitarian perspective from the beginning. Teaching them to obey some of my stuff. You see, I'm already correcting all of our bad theology. 00:07:56.345 --> 00:08:15.030 Right? Like, teaching them to obey the parts of the scripture that really align with my values. Teaching them to obey the sections of the of the scripture of Jesus' teaching that are inclusive, not the exclusive part. Just get quiet. Teaching them to obey what? 00:08:15.110 --> 00:08:28.375 Everything. That that I have commanded you and surely I'm with you always to the very ends of the age. So, is These are the last words of Jesus from two different texts. I just wanna say, it's the essence of the Jesus way. It's the heart of his teaching. 00:08:28.375 --> 00:08:37.150 It's the verse that frames the entire book of Acts. It's the blueprint for the church. It's the heartbeat of our identity as a disciple. It frames the mission of God. The mission of God. 00:08:37.150 --> 00:08:48.165 Say mission of God. Mission of God. So, witness has something to do with the mission of God. Now, I love what one of the scholars who's written extensively on the mission of God. His name's Wright. 00:08:48.165 --> 00:08:58.085 He has a book. It's about this thick. I'm not exaggerating with eight font. Eight point font. And he says this, I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me. 00:08:58.085 --> 00:09:11.470 When I ask When I should ask what kind of me God wants for his mission. I wanna just correct some theology. We're gonna talk about witness. Now, stay with me on witness. But I need to talk about the mission of God because the mission of God is the entirety of scripture. 00:09:11.470 --> 00:09:37.620 And the problem with the mission of God, the I idea of mission is consumer Christianity which if you grew up in the church you've been immersed in, ask this question. Where does God fit into my story? But the bible or a disciple of Jesus asked the question, where does my story fit into God's mission? See, the mission of God is the entirety of It's the entirety of scripture. It begins in Genesis one and two. 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:48.855 God creates humanity. Now, there's a mission God gives humanity. He he commissions. He mandates. He imprints his image because we're made in his image. 00:09:49.015 --> 00:10:12.720 And his design and his rule on all humans. He designed humanity to live out of their image bear The the image bearing witness that they are to cultivate environments in partnership with him for the rest of creation to flourish. You were designed as a human. This isn't a Christian mandate. This is a humanity getting back to the origin story. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:42.705 You are not a product of randomness and chance when atoms collided millions of years ago or billions of years ago and you just happen to grow an eye from a freckle as Darwin wants to argue. It's in in it's in his book. The sunspot became the eye. That's evolutionary theory. You were made by a loving being, father, son, holy spirit and he destined you to to carry his essence into the world. 00:10:42.705 --> 00:11:05.550 To reflect. To take a mirror in right loving relationship with God, to bring that to the rest of creation. So wherever you go, as you create environments in your business, as you create environments as a student, as you steward your kids in the little years, you are reflecting the destiny for you to be an image bearer of Jesus. You're right. So your mission is to reflect God into the world. 00:11:05.550 --> 00:11:18.355 Now, that got distorted because of sin and rebellion. We chose to go our own way and the only way this works is if we're in relationship with the loving God. We're not in a relationship with this energy. Right? Or or the gods that are all the same. 00:11:18.355 --> 00:11:24.595 That's No. Our god has a name. His name is Jesus. And it's different from all the other gods. Those are all false gods. 00:11:24.990 --> 00:11:37.790 And somehow, we wanna loop them together. We wanna put them together and be like, oh, all roads lead to Jesus. No. One road leads us to the father and that is Jesus. I'll get back to that in a second when we talk about witchcraft again at 11:00. 00:11:39.285 --> 00:12:00.760 But then God chooses Abraham. So this part part of his loving mission to restore humanity to what was lost in Genesis three is he chooses a people and they are a missionary people from the beginning. Abraham, you will be blessed to be a blessing to the nations. And then through Israel, he calls them out of Egypt, frees them, and at Mount Sinai, he makes a covenant. He says, you will be a holy nation, a treasure possession, a kingdom of priests. 00:12:00.760 --> 00:12:12.135 Why? To reflect me wherever you go. So Israel was to live in a way where they become a light to the gentiles. A light to the nations. That was their vocation. 00:12:12.455 --> 00:12:20.560 It was something formed in Genesis one and two that was embodied vocationally in Israel. Right? But what happens? Do they do it? No. 00:12:20.560 --> 00:12:37.345 They fail. And so, comes and what does Jesus do? He fulfills the mission of God. Through his life, he casts out demons, heals the sick, he includes the gentiles, he includes the outsiders, he dies on the cross. Not just to atone for your sin, although he does, but to save you from slavery to Satan and defeat death once and for all. 00:12:37.345 --> 00:12:45.185 Come on church. And then he says, all authority Yeah. Yeah. After he does that has been given to me. Yes. 00:12:45.185 --> 00:12:55.860 And then he gives it to you. I mean, think about this. This is not okay. Say a prayer and sign up for a meeting. This is say a prayer and give your life away to the nations. 00:12:55.860 --> 00:13:09.955 That's the call of the church. Yes. And that's the vocation. Now, the church takes on the mission of God. Which if I were to summarize it, it's to continue that Jesus' mission by the power of the holy spirit proclaiming and embodying the kingdom of God. 00:13:10.115 --> 00:13:23.590 Making disciples of all nations, blessing the world, and pointing all creation towards its ultimate renewal in Christ. Why do I give you a theology of mission right now? Here's why. This isn't about sprinkling Jesus onto our goals. Yes. 00:13:23.910 --> 00:13:37.365 It's about surrendering our lives to the raging river of his purposes. The great commission acts one verse eight is not a side hustle. It's the defining vocation for every follower of Jesus. Can I get a witness? Yes. 00:13:37.365 --> 00:13:43.950 So what does it mean then? Amen. To witness. What does it mean to witness? Because here's what it means to me. 00:13:43.950 --> 00:14:05.525 Growing up, I left the church, came back, I went back to a Calvary Chapel. God bless Calvary Chapel. Many of us are here because of Calvary and SoCal. Praise the Lord. But I was taught witness meant buying from this one church, buying Ray Comfort tracks that had, you know, a million dollar bill that you put it in and you give it as a tip to your barista or waiter and say million dollar question. 00:14:05.525 --> 00:14:15.960 They don't get a tip. Here's the tip. Are you going to heaven or hell? I'm witnessing. I got my NASB bible down at Huntington Beach Pier and I would try to win people over to Lord. 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:23.160 And this is what I thought it meant. This is what I thought witness meant. I studied and I love this. You'll You're like, this is so you, Darren. I get you now. 00:14:23.160 --> 00:14:50.100 You're such a nerd. I studied Christian apologetics resource ministries, karm.org. Alright? Back before YouTube and TikTok evangelist would teach you, back before chat j p t, I would go online and memorize and print out on paper the apologetics questions and arguments for Jehovah's Witnesses, for Mormons, for New Age spirituality, for all the cults out there trying to win people to Jesus. Right? 00:14:50.100 --> 00:15:01.855 That was my heart. I wanted them And I thought that's what witness was. Now, here here's the truth. It is part of witness. But when you understand what Jesus is getting off at, it's far more beautiful than just standing on the corner yelling at people. 00:15:03.295 --> 00:15:29.375 Witness the word in Greek is this word, martyrs and it's where we get the word martyr. So Jesus wants to give you power from the Holy Spirit so that you become the kind of person that lays down their life. That you become the kind of person that is a witness, that is testifies. Here's here's another translation. A witness testifies or it's someone who affirms truth. 00:15:30.015 --> 00:16:02.210 One who lives in such fidelity to Jesus that their very life and if necessary, their death point to Jesus. I would like to say a witness is someone whose life points to Jesus. If you were called as a witness in a courtroom and they show up, a witness is someone who's bringing evidence for a case And they're gonna be cross examined about the testimony they bring. And what Jesus wants you to become in the power of the holy spirit is someone whose everyday, ordinary life, not just standing on the street corners yelling, but your everyday ordinary life. You're coming and going. 00:16:02.210 --> 00:16:05.010 You're eating. You're sleeping. Your friendships. Your relationships. Your dating. 00:16:05.490 --> 00:16:13.090 Your marriage. Your parenting. Your work life. Your school life. All of that becomes a testimony. 00:16:13.250 --> 00:16:33.430 A case study for his resurrection. You become the kind of person that your just existence when it walks into the room. People are like, gosh, there must be a God. But it's not just witness as in you. When Jesus speaks, it's plural. 00:16:34.390 --> 00:16:52.585 It's the local church's witness. So let me just rephrase. I'm gonna give you a couple more definitions. Witness is not primarily about arguing someone into faith but embodying the reality of the risen Christ in public. Now, it is communication but it's also demonstration. 00:16:52.745 --> 00:16:57.625 Right? So it is proclamation and demonstration. A witness is a living demonstration. Sorry. Go back to the last one. 00:16:57.625 --> 00:17:03.560 My bad. I went too fast. That Jesus is alive. Witness is both verbal and visible. It's proclamation and practice. 00:17:03.560 --> 00:17:28.890 It's not just preaching sermons or testifying publicly. It's living lives that match the message. And we, us, are called to do this together. Therefore, the local church is witness. So, your behavior, your practice, your decisions, the way you talk reflect our corporate witness. 00:17:28.890 --> 00:17:51.965 Which is why I constantly have to apologize for y'all. I mean, right? Like we live in a world why aren't like Gandhi said I'd be a Christian if it weren't for Christians. Isn't that interesting the testimony that we're called to give is how we live. But what the world hears is how we judge. 00:17:53.005 --> 00:18:08.210 How we speak against. Not what we live for but what we come against. And the local church is designed to be witness. It's designed to be a trailer of what's coming. Back in the day, youth, some of our youth are here, they didn't have YouTube. 00:18:08.530 --> 00:18:17.855 And I can't imagine. And Apple used to have trailers on the Apple website. Do you guys remember that? Anyone? Like, previews of movies coming? 00:18:17.855 --> 00:18:21.935 Am I that old? I'm 41. Come on. Who did it? Okay. 00:18:21.935 --> 00:18:28.090 Does anybody like trailers? How about I'll start. Anyone like movies? Wait. Raise your hand. 00:18:28.090 --> 00:18:33.530 Who likes movies? Raise your hand. Who likes trailers to movies? Yeah. What time does this movie start? 00:18:33.530 --> 00:18:37.130 At the time or twenty minutes after? Just curious. On time. Correct? On time. 00:18:37.130 --> 00:18:44.465 This is not this is not a debate. It starts on time. Twenty minutes. That's part of the entertainment. The trailers are part of the experience. 00:18:44.865 --> 00:18:55.520 My wife is raising kids that think it starts late. I'm like, no babe, that counts. We get there early. We don't go to the restroom during the previews. We watch the previews. 00:18:55.520 --> 00:19:15.745 I don't know what's wrong with you. I don't know what kind of pagan household you grew up in. We we will serve the Lord. The local church is a preview of what's coming for God's kingdom. We're an outpost that announces and displays that Jesus is Lord and heaven is invading earth now. 00:19:15.745 --> 00:19:22.400 By what? By what we say? Yes. By how we live. By how we engage. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:27.840 By how we we share our resources. By our generosity. By our kindness. By our patience. By our gentleness. 00:19:27.840 --> 00:19:40.215 By our self control. By the way we use and engage technology. By how we post what we post. We're in the tone. We speak to one another. 00:19:40.375 --> 00:19:57.260 That is how Christ oozes out of you, which is a Greek word, oozia by the way. It's essence. It's in Philippians chapter two but that's a whole other theology that just came out, you're free. Thank you, Vanguard University. That's where I learned it. 00:19:57.260 --> 00:20:08.035 Professor Rebartek, love you. All rights reserved. There you go. I'm gonna I'm gonna skip some stuff. This is our destiny. 00:20:08.035 --> 00:20:21.840 Right? To live in a way that reflects Jesus. This is witness. And then Jesus says, hey, you're gonna be my witnesses. So your your life in the power of the holy spirit which we'll talk about next week is going to is going to point to the reality of my resurrection. 00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:39.985 That's what's gonna happen. And, you will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So, Jerusalem would be your hometown, the familiar places, the places you always go. The shocking word that's included in his statement is the word not ends of the earth but Samaria. That's right. 00:20:40.705 --> 00:20:54.340 In context of first century Judaism, the Jews hated the Samaritans. They were religious heretics. They were ethnically half breeds. There was a racial tension, ethnic tension. They hated those people. 00:20:54.580 --> 00:21:20.370 And Jesus makes it clear, the gospel will go where you don't want it to go. The gospel will include to the people you don't want to include. So don't think twice about it. It's gonna push past the familiar and the safe and it will push push past your natural training because the gospel of Jesus is border breaking, barrier smashing, culture crossing. It doesn't stay in your little comfort zone. 00:21:20.370 --> 00:21:31.970 The gospel spreads and it does. It spread to every culture. It's the most powerful thing. Why? Because it's the creator of the universe. 00:21:33.065 --> 00:21:52.770 It's his story for humanity being redeemed. So, I can talk about first century context and how this spread and we will as we go about the book of Acts. But, I wanna speak to our culture. I just wanna give you a kind of ways of seeing our current culture right now. Southern California has a culture. 00:21:52.850 --> 00:22:09.075 Would you agree? Yes. A very strong culture. And I would say culture are not just our values, our habits, our longings, our our words, our vision, our dreams embodied in a people. It's also It's an ecosystem we live in. 00:22:09.795 --> 00:22:33.745 Right? So, there's It's a formation machine, you could say. We are formed in the space we live in Southern California. Now, it's hard to name this without including like the digital world that's forming us as well because we're all formed by algorithms and our streaming platforms and entertainment and and all that stuff. But I wanna name eight things that are unique to Southern California culture, primarily western culture. 00:22:33.825 --> 00:22:39.665 Number one. Here we go. You ready? Okay. Number one is we're we're influenced by radical individualism. 00:22:39.825 --> 00:23:07.165 Carl Truman in his book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, he said, he calls it expressive individualism. We live with a world view that's this, I am who I feel myself to be inside. So people define themselves by feelings and personal choice rather than tradition or faith or community. So self expression is the highest good and anything that challenges that feels oppressive. Number two is a therapeutic world view. 00:23:07.165 --> 00:23:31.235 We I love therapy. I think therapy is a good thing. But what's happened is we We've seen the purpose of life is seen as a psychological well-being and self fulfillment. So what God is reduced to He's reduced to being a life coach who validates my dreams and my desires. So if the church or scripture doesn't affirm someone's sense of self, it's just thrown away. 00:23:32.035 --> 00:23:39.400 Right? And I see it all the time. This is what we do. It's what Thomas Jefferson did with the bible. He had a humanistic world view so miracles didn't exist. 00:23:39.400 --> 00:24:15.070 So, he just literally cut out all the miracle stories in the bible and then taped it back together and had his Thomas Thomas Jefferson bible. You do the same thing. Oh, I love what God says about rest but I'm not gonna let him touch my money. Gen z, young millennials, like, love that we don't wanna burn out but we don't burn for Jesus at all. Jesus talks about money more than anything else other than the kingdom of God and he uses money as an illustration for the kingdom of God and yet we get offended when pastors talk about money. 00:24:15.150 --> 00:24:25.915 You don't realize what Jesus is after. Right? So we dissect And that has to do with your therapeutic world view. The third is we have just a general distrust of institutions. Right? 00:24:25.915 --> 00:24:47.635 So, we don't trust government no matter who's in office. We don't trust the media and we especially don't trust the church. And we don't trust any institution because they're all We're all looking at all institutions with suspicion. So, in Southern California, what we have are spiritual people who aren't religious and they want transcendent experiences but they resist any kind of commitment to organizational structures. Right? 00:24:47.635 --> 00:24:53.235 That's why we click maybe on everything. Are you coming? Yes? No? Maybe. 00:24:53.235 --> 00:25:09.210 Maybe. That's We've been shaped by this fomo character but this distrust and I see it all the time. What I see is we reduce Jesus to one verse. We reduce Jesus to one. He's rabbi only. 00:25:09.210 --> 00:25:18.250 Not Lord, not king. Not savior, not friend. Not Yahweh in the flesh. Not holy. He's just a rabbi that I followed to make my life better. 00:25:19.105 --> 00:25:40.040 So we reduce him to practices which I love practice. We do spiritual practice but it's it's a contained thing that we can do for ourselves like my coach at the gym. But Jesus, all of those things. Or we get hurt by the church and we think, all church is bad. And so, gonna find other people that are hurt, find a podcast that I love, and build my own little church. 00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:59.185 But brothers and sisters, you can't like, you can't love me and not love my wife, Alex. Like, imagine if you're like, I would love to hang out with you but if your wife's there, I'm not gonna come. I'd be like, what? And then, like, that's what we're doing to Jesus right now. Yeah. 00:25:59.185 --> 00:26:07.270 We're divorcing faith from the only way we live out our faith, the context of church. You with me on this? Okay. I'm gonna keep going. That's a freebie for someone. 00:26:07.270 --> 00:26:26.965 The fourth is consumer Christianity. The gospel is the American gospel. It's been shaped That shaped people to see church like a product. Something to sample or consume or rate or leave when it no longer meets our preferences. So, we mistake worship for entertainment and discipleship for self help and our mission becomes about our branding. 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:40.240 Then there's pluralism and spiritual openness. This is the idea that we live in this pluralistic society. There's so many world views and ethnicities and religions. They all overlap over each other so we just bring everything in. I wanna speak to this for one moment. 00:26:40.565 --> 00:27:02.510 The experiment we have in Southern California is that we'll experiment with mindfulness and yoga, astrology, psychedelics, tarot cards and psychics. We're obsessed with the supernatural but we don't go to the source which is Jesus Christ. And I wanna say this, I said it here. I said it the 9AM last This this week because I I didn't say it there. I had a dream about witchcraft in our church. 00:27:03.950 --> 00:27:24.710 And I know many of you don't understand what witchcraft is because you think it's okay to follow Jesus and deal with tarot cards. To follow Jesus and play with crystals. To follow Jesus and do shroom and ayahuasca tripping and find a guide that leads you. That's satanic. I'm not gonna play around anymore. 00:27:24.710 --> 00:27:38.310 It's not as the spirit of the world. It's the spirit of Satan. It's the holy spirit or it's the unholy spirits that Satan is ruling. So it's the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of God. There's no neutral territory in Southern California. 00:27:38.415 --> 00:27:50.335 So, you're opening yourself up to spiritual realities which brings torment. That's right. Not like bad dreams, spirits. Yeah. Good. 00:27:50.335 --> 00:28:00.210 And you need to stop. Yeah. I'm like saying it. I'm like, I actually believe this. Some of you have part have been participating in witchcraft without knowing. 00:28:00.370 --> 00:28:09.965 Using spiritual powers to control your world. Using unforgiveness to manipulate and control. That's witchcraft. And you need to repent. You need to confess. 00:28:09.965 --> 00:28:26.500 It's Acts 19. They realized what happened. They confessed publicly what they had done and they burned the scrolls and the artifacts of Artemis. Church, we need to get rid of the crystals, the tarot cards, the astrology apps. All the things that you're playing around with. 00:28:26.500 --> 00:28:37.695 They're bringing, inviting, and harm. And we need to be a holy church set apart for this moment. Yes. And I just wanna say to all the witches in the room. I'm not kidding. 00:28:38.415 --> 00:28:57.990 There might be a handful in all the three services. No curse spoken over this place or the overflow will land. Yes. And I just I I I bind in the name of Jesus, your work from this day forward. I believe that the authority of Christ is more powerful than any other authority. 00:28:58.550 --> 00:29:12.715 And if you come to Jesus, you'll see what real power looks like. And you're not welcome here unless you repent. So I just encourage you to get up and leave if you're a witch. Okay. No one go to restroom right now. 00:29:12.715 --> 00:29:25.440 Just wait. Say, wait, what? What's going on? Alright. There's a couple more and I wanna get to some good. 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:40.565 So sexual revolution, fallout, these are all eight things that we're dealing with. So this is a big one. Identity is tied to sexuality and gender. Right? Which is not big enough for who you are because you are spiritual and physical, relational, emotional and intellectual. 00:29:40.805 --> 00:30:08.635 And to reduce your identity to your gender preference or your gender or your sexual preference limits your capacity to hold the mystery of who God made you to be in his image. And what we do is when when to question someone's sexual self expression today is seen as denying their humanity. And this makes Christian teaching on the body, on marriage, on holiness feel radically counter cultural. Two more. There's We live in a digital and distracted era. 00:30:08.635 --> 00:30:45.540 So smartphones has shaped our attention, relationships and identity. Social media has become part of the air we breathe, so we curate images and it's trained people in outrage rather than discipled into Jesus and people are connected but lonely and they're surrounded by information and noise but starving for meaning. Lastly, we live with a culture that's burnt out. Because SoCal promises freedom, success and pleasure but people are exhausted, anxious and disillusioned. So we have a We've been fed a shallow form of consumer oriented Christianity and we need to feast on the real thing which is Jesus. 00:30:45.780 --> 00:31:00.825 And here's the thing, the question is how do we engage in culture? I wanna go through this fast. I don't think I need to teach much on this. We can either avoid it which leads us to becoming irrelevant. We could try to fit into culture which which leads us to losing our salty witness. 00:31:01.065 --> 00:31:17.920 We can take over culture and try to get our guy in the office which is not a bad thing. I'm not saying politics is bad. But I'm saying that's not the goal. The goal is to redeem culture. The goal is that we live in a way what we lovingly sacrifice, speak truthfully, but show people a better way. 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:41.815 We stop avoiding it. We don't try to compromise through fitting in. We don't try to conquer it through winning people and challenge and domination. But instead, we show the world what Jesus looks like through how we live. And I just wanna make it clear when we talk about witness because I did a lot of things in the name of witness that didn't look like Jesus. 00:31:45.150 --> 00:32:22.970 And I think, you know what's happening in the church is we I'm just gonna say it. Say it. We excuse the lifestyle, the tone, the methods, the way, the means that church leaders that speak on platforms and podcasts and churches, we excuse it for the sake of the ends. But the means never justify the ends. Because you can't sell the Jesus truth without living the Jesus way. 00:32:23.450 --> 00:32:49.120 It's Eugene Peterson. I did things in the name of witness that were aggressive and offensive and just mean and not generous. And if it doesn't look like Jesus, then it's not Christian. If it doesn't look like Jesus, it's not Christian. If it doesn't sound like Jesus, it's not witness. 00:32:49.120 --> 00:33:04.055 Can we just have that in our hearts? Because I What I'm Here's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to extend the kingdom of God through you and I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm not sleeping on Saturday nights. 00:33:04.295 --> 00:33:11.560 You can pray for that. It's a lot of stuff going on. The enemy's out. And every time the kingdom of God moves, the enemy moves against it. Right? 00:33:11.560 --> 00:33:16.840 So it's okay. Just need your prayers. Thank you. My kids my kids need your prayers. My wife needs your prayers. 00:33:17.080 --> 00:33:39.650 But I'm tired of apologizing. I'm tired of saying, Yeah. That's not what Jesus would have wanted because of the church. And I I have a desperate plea. I got to show up to youth on Thursday to pick up my boy who's in sixth grade And, I listened to the end of Slav's talk which was powerful and fire. 00:33:39.650 --> 00:33:56.715 I was like outside praying for Slav as he was giving his last bit. I was like, I can't believe my boy gets to be in this youth group. Because I had to heal from my youth pastor. And there's a lot of us that have. And I, you know, I hired Slav saying years ago, you're gonna be my son's youth pastor. 00:33:56.715 --> 00:34:05.995 Don't screw this up. Just I did. I talked to I talked to you about that. And I'm I'm watching. I watched the response. 00:34:06.890 --> 00:34:21.130 Where like 90% of the kids of 70 kids there came forward and got their needs to repent, to be right with God this year. I'm like, that's the youth. I'm like, oh my gosh, Lord. I was just I was overwhelmed. I'm like, this is what's happening in our youth. 00:34:21.745 --> 00:34:29.425 They did a prayer room. It was the biggest prayer room we have. Yeah. Just calling you out. Where you at, prayer people? 00:34:29.665 --> 00:34:41.010 Yeah. We'll wait on the Lord conveniently. Oh I gotta sit down eleven. Oh no. I was talking about the youth. 00:34:42.770 --> 00:34:58.625 I and this is part of our staff culture, they get it. I'm trying so hard to build a church my kids don't have to heal from. Now, we're gonna make mistakes. We're gonna make errors. Our staff's gonna get it wrong. 00:34:58.625 --> 00:35:09.780 I'm gonna get it wrong. Lord knows if you're on our staff, how many times have I apologized to you? A thousand times. I'm the first to apologize because I'm aware I get it wrong all the time. And all the staff can say amen, hallelujah, if you know that's true. 00:35:09.780 --> 00:35:23.595 Amen. Okay. I get it wrong. But I want you, Garden Church, to give Jesus better PR. So witness means we don't run from culture. 00:35:23.595 --> 00:35:34.770 We don't worship culture. We don't try to dominate culture. We redeem it by living in it as the people of Jesus. You with me church? Because this is what we're after. 00:35:34.770 --> 00:36:03.720 We're after a kind of church that looks like heaven on earth and that requires you to be all in. The early church didn't conquer Rome with swords and politics. It became irresistible not through campaigns and crusades, but through ordinary people living empowered by the spirit. The goal isn't to win the world, but it's to live like Jesus and love like Jesus in the power of the holy spirit. And as a result of that, transformation comes by a by by product. 00:36:03.960 --> 00:36:28.335 So church life filled with invisible power leads to visible transformation. You become a testimony to the risen Christ by just being filled with spirit and walking with Jesus. And, your transformation This is what I love. The point of the power of the holy spirit which we'll talk about next week, is not so that you become the best version of yourself. It's for the sake of the world. 00:36:29.960 --> 00:36:49.505 And so therefore, witness is a push back against all the ways we make Christianity in the image of America. Witness pushes back against our consumer focus. Our self help project me discipleship. Witness means we lay down our lives to Jesus. It's a life that points to him. 00:36:49.505 --> 00:37:01.300 It's not pointing to your hobbies. It's not pointing to what you're passionate about unless it's Jesus. It's not pointing to your success or your knowledge or your dreams. No. We come to church to die. 00:37:01.460 --> 00:37:12.285 But we've made churches wanting wanting to make you the best version of yourself. So here's growth track. We go, give us your passion. Give us your strength. No. 00:37:12.285 --> 00:37:16.525 Give me your weaknesses. Give me your fears. He'll use those. Yes. Come on. 00:37:16.525 --> 00:37:33.490 We gotta stop seeing witnesses. It starts with me and what I feel comfortable doing. As we read the book of acts, what the world view need need to have as a witness is Jesus. What is your need mission need for me right now? What is your mission need from me right now? 00:37:33.490 --> 00:37:45.995 And how can I serve? It's not I'm an enneagram three with gifts of helping administrative tasks. I have a disc test of this and a Myers Briggs personality. I'm an introvert so I'll be behind the scenes in the camera. No. 00:37:45.995 --> 00:37:57.940 It's what does the mission of God need? What does your church need? I'll get a towel and get lower. Great. You're a CEO. 00:37:58.020 --> 00:38:06.180 Wash some feet first. Clean some toilets. Cover the $500 a week over there. Absolutely. But get low. 00:38:06.180 --> 00:38:28.030 Church, this isn't about elevating. If anything's elevated, it's the cross of Jesus. Because what we do in the consumer church is we we we take on convenience. We put on the comfortability of Christ, not the cross. And we wonder why we don't have witness anymore. 00:38:28.750 --> 00:38:39.630 Because we look just like the rest of the world. We look like a shopping mall or a YouTube channel. We don't look like the image of Jesus in the world anymore. And that's what witness is. Witness is all of the things. 00:38:40.025 --> 00:38:55.200 It's when you say yes to Jesus, you're laying down your life to his needs. You're you're you're not starting with your passion and competency. You're starting with your weaknesses. And you'll say, I'll serve with the things that I'm terrified at, I'm not good at. I'll use my God, use my fear. 00:38:55.200 --> 00:39:18.615 I'll serve wherever I'm afraid. Use my brokenness because my struggles can be a safe place for other people to find you. Use my past failures as a platform for others to stand on. Use my mistakes that are confessed and covered in grace as the entry points for others to see freedom. Lord Jesus, use my life, but if necessary, use my death for your glory. 00:39:18.615 --> 00:39:25.220 Because when you die, you live. And that's what witness points to. It's redefined. So what is it? Yes. 00:39:25.220 --> 00:39:32.260 It's blessing your neighbors. It's providing meals. It's worshiping with passion. It's confessing your sins. It's meeting in homes. 00:39:32.260 --> 00:39:41.445 It's carrying each other's burdens. It's sharing your faith. It's discipling the next generation. It's using your gifts for his glory. It's volunteering. 00:39:41.445 --> 00:40:05.665 It's ushering. It's working with kids. It's hosting. It's practicing hospitality. It's preaching the gospel, it's praying for the sick, it's welcoming in strangers, it's loving the least and the last, it's going to the lost, it's inviting your friends, it's holding space for broken people, it's making disciples and dropping off dinners, it's visiting people in hospitals, it's cheering at the football games for youth and showing up to bible studies. 00:40:05.665 --> 00:40:14.545 Why? Because he lives. Right. Because our guy's raised from the dead. There's no other greater why. 00:40:15.750 --> 00:40:35.545 Because of the cross and his resurrection, it doesn't matter. You are not the point of your story. At least, witnesses aren't. So, are you a witness? Are you a Are you pointing to Jesus' resurrection? 00:40:35.545 --> 00:40:48.140 Are you pointing to your passion? Are you pointing to your hope for a relationship? Are you pointing for your need for retirement? Are you pointing to your four zero one k and your desire for wealth? Are you pointing to be used for your gifts, to be in the entertainment world, to be an influencer? 00:40:48.140 --> 00:41:04.675 Are you pointing to all the other things or are you pointing to Jesus? I don't know about you, but that that kind of witness, if I would've heard that early on, I would've left. So maybe you wanna leave. That's fine. Because the call when our leadership team was saying, what's the call for response? 00:41:04.675 --> 00:41:19.440 I was like, I got one call. You ready? Come and die. Because I want you to come and die to the old self. I want you to come and die for the old ways. 00:41:19.520 --> 00:41:45.680 Come and die to all those idols of comfort and convenience. Come and die to the gospel you made in your image so that you may rise into the gospel made in his. Come and die so that finally, the spirit will fill your life and you will be a sign of resurrection. And, death is the only window into resurrected life. And truly, you can't die for Jesus unless you learn to live for him first. 00:41:47.040 --> 00:41:47.920 Let's pray. 00:41:48.880 --> 00:41:52.480 For more information, visit us at garden.church.