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"Here as in Heaven."
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You're listening to GARDEN CHURCH Podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey through the book of Acts. This is the 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.
Darren Rouanzoin:Hey, what's up 11:00?
Darren Rouanzoin:Can you guys say hi? Wave to Huntington Beach. Turn around and say hi. Just kidding. HB eleven I'm so glad you're here.
Darren Rouanzoin:Can we grab our bibles? Let's let's raise them up. Let me see. I'm always comparing you to Huntington's so I just want to go back. Not so good today.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's fine. It's fine. C minus. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
Darren Rouanzoin:Acts chapter 19. Oh. I'm definitely tender right now because 9AM, the Lord was ministering at the nine. We saw some spontaneous baptisms and just God begin to heal people and I just feel so tender because I I I think so what I'm experiencing in the growing church which, you know, it took us fifteen years to grow to 300 people in attendance and now we are a church that has crowds and we're not used to that. I'm not used to that.
Darren Rouanzoin:I want to make sure people are being discipled but my passion right now is to recognize that a lot of people are sheep without shepherds. And we have been sheep with influencers and celebrity pastors and toxic leadership which I'm I'm not saying we aren't any of those but I am saying my heart is compassionate. It's deeply moved right now for the work of God to minister to his church. And I just think there's so there are so many wounds we have in here. And how are we gonna go out into the world and minister and share in Jesus' ministry to the world when we're walking so wounded by the leaders in the church, by the fellow brothers and sisters, fellow saints.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I'm just moved. I'm overwhelmed. So that's not in my notes. I'm just overwhelmed. I'm dealing with the residue of watching God's ministry.
Darren Rouanzoin:I can't imagine how exhausted Jesus must have been. In Matthew, actually I'm just gonna do this, forget it. I'm not gonna use my notes for a second. In Matthew chapter nine, Jesus is doing all sorts of ministry and at the end of chapter nine verse 35, this actually speaks to some of the context I'll preach on. Verse 35 of chapter nine, Jesus went throughout all the towns and villages.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can get there in a second. I clearly got there first. You should you should want your pastor to get there first. I love the word of God. Jesus went throughout the towns, why Lord?
Darren Rouanzoin:Why? God, would you just move? I don't I don't wanna do it. I just don't wanna build a church that doesn't look like Jesus. And the threat is we keep growing And, some system or non church culture is gonna make us look not like Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:Want staff to burn out because they have to do ministry the wrong way. I don't want leaders to give up their lives for some vision that's not his. We can't do it anymore. We can't buy into it. And the amount of wounds that are in the church, they're so overwhelming.
Darren Rouanzoin:I got a glimpse this week in my prayer for you. Woman is crying in the back because God met her in the nine and she just couldn't stop crying and I'm like, let her cry. And with all the technology and all the things that we have to figure out because we didn't try to do Costa Mesa and now we have thousands of people in a church, I don't want to build a church that doesn't look like Jesus. I don't want to lead a church that I want to leave because it doesn't look like the thing God wants us to build. And we do it unintentionally.
Darren Rouanzoin:We do it unintentionally. We want these things that are our preferences not his. And we accommodate because we don't want to lose the thing. Forget that. I want him and that's it.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I want you to want him and that's it. And at some level you've been sold something that has nothing to do with him. I know because that's my story. There's this passage in Matthew and I I want you to see this. After after all these experiences of what God's doing, Jesus is doing, he's being questioned by the Pharisees.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's being questioned by the disciples that John the Baptist had. Why aren't you fasting? Because the bridegroom is here. And the old thing that was the new thing is now being judged by those that were a part of the new thing to say the new thing God's doing, the last move of God was all about fasting and repentance and we judge the new thing by the old thing. Why aren't you fasting?
Darren Rouanzoin:So he's questioned and he's all these things. And then it says, after all this, Jesus went throughout the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and illness. When this when he saw the crowds, he organized a business meeting. When he saw the crowds, he took a picture and said hashtag revival. When he saw the crowds he bought a domain name for the movement.
Darren Rouanzoin:He had compassion in the Greek. The bowels of his inside are wrenched. It's compassion that our Lord Jesus had when a man who's commanded by the Torah to shout 50 paces away unclean, keeping his hair long, his clothes unkempt because he was a leper, and he sneaks into the crowd and falls before Jesus. If you are willing, you can make me clean, and he doesn't say, I can say it. He touches the leper.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's moved to touch the untouchable. It's his compassion that in the midst of a crowd, he leaves the crowd to go to the one man's daughter who's dead. And it's that same compassion that allows him to be interrupted when a woman who also is commanded by law to be separated from the rest of the community who sneaks up on him and touches his cloak and power moves through him. Who touched me? And rather than being condemned by a religious person, he says, Daughter.
Darren Rouanzoin:The very identity she lost because she was excommunicated and isolated because of her illness. Could you imagine the emotional wounding? Could you imagine the spiritual wounding that her God wants her to suffer for twelve years without friendship, without sacrifice in the temple, without being near community because she's bleeding and can't stop it. She she spent her life resources to try to get back to the spiritual connection, back to the communal relational connection. Back to the the people.
Darren Rouanzoin:And she has the audacity to believe that this man, if I just touch the hem of his robe, I can be healed. Guess what? She was. Jesus sees right through the crowd to the one that says, Daughter your faith has saved you. Sozo healed delivered set you free brings about salvation.
Darren Rouanzoin:Her faith to touch the hem and be taboo, saved her. Jairus falls to this man's knees and he goes to her her... His daughter's room interrupted by the interruption and makes it up and he says, Talitha kum, little girl get up. Tells in this story in Matthew nine, all those professional grievers wailing with sounds of death in the room to get out, she's asleep and they laugh at Jesus. It's the same compassion that says Matthew throw a party.
Darren Rouanzoin:Bring all of your friends who are excommunicated from the temple. They're heretics. They're conspiracy theorists. They're conspiring with Rome. Your people hate them.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm gonna hang out with you. Those are the people. And not just those. It's the same compassion that compels Jesus to go to the other side in Mark. His disciples are like, the other side?
Darren Rouanzoin:The other side. You know where there's gentiles and there's demons and there's false gods and there's herdsmen of pigs, unclean animals. And they get there after they nearly drown from a storm and they're confronted by the very thing they're terrified of. And the man falls to his knees and says, what do you want with me? Jesus, son of the most high.
Darren Rouanzoin:Have you come to torture us? What's your name? Legion. The wild man who couldn't be chained, lives in the graveyards is met by the son of man who comes to take the sins away from the world. And he's set free and the whole city is terrified.
Darren Rouanzoin:Get out of here because you tamed the untamable. You healed the incurable. It was that compassion that compels the church. But you know what compels us content? Consumeristic comforts.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're compelled only when we're uncomfortable. Oh sure, I'll give up this habit. It's wrecking my marriage. Not because the God of the universe longs for you to be wooed into loving relationship the way you were intended to be. I don't know what's going on but I know that his compassion is what compels him to touch men and women and heal them of their wounds and draw them back to himself even though you're so far away.
Darren Rouanzoin:There's no way God can forgive my story. You don't know pastor Darren. It doesn't matter. There's a story Jesus tells about a crazy dad. And if you ever wonder what kind of compassion Jesus has, he tells stories to make sure you understand how wildly crazy he really was.
Darren Rouanzoin:If it wasn't enough to see demons healed, if it wasn't enough to see women bleeding for twelve years healed, if it wasn't enough to raise the dead, to welcome in tax collectors and sinners, to include women who should be stoned to death for their adultery, It is... It's enough to listen to his words when he tells the story of what is God like. What am I like, he says. I'm like a father that has two sons. One of them said, I wish you were dead.
Darren Rouanzoin:I just want the inheritance that I'll get when you die. And the father's crazy enough to say, sure son, you can have it. And the boy takes off and squanders the money, launders the money, loses the money in wild living, drinking and partying and all sorts of debauchery. He loses everything because of a famine and he goes and he starts working for the worst kind of job and that time he was working for a man's working with unclean animals serving the pigs and he realizes the slaves, the servants in his dad's house eat better than he does. So he goes home, and on his way home, he rehearses the speech.
Darren Rouanzoin:You know the speech. Some of us were doing it this morning on the drive to church because we know the moment church goes, this conviction of the Holy Spirit convicts us of Saturday night events. When we knew better, when we said we weren't going to, but we still did, that state of conviction that you have, that state of I did it again. Will I always do the thing I've always said I don't wanna do? And you come in rehearsing the speech like the younger brother who says, I'll I'll earn it back.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'll pay it back. I know I messed up. I'm not worthy to be called a son. Make me a slave. He's rehearsing that speech.
Darren Rouanzoin:While he was a still long way off, the father saw him and takes off running. First century context, no man would ever run. It requires you to lift up your tunic your robe exposing your legs disgraceful. And Jesus says that's exactly what this father does. By the time he gets to his boy the boy starts practicing this rehearsed speech but the father wraps his arms around him And in Luke chapter 15 verse 20, in case you wonder what it's like to come into the house of God when you're riddled with sin, it's the same picture that Jesus gives in the prodigal son story.
Darren Rouanzoin:The father in Greek couldn't stop kissing his boy. Kill the fatted calf. Bring me a robe. Give me a ring. My son who is dead is alive.
Darren Rouanzoin:My son who is lost is found. You come in here with a rehearsed speech, it's gonna be met by a sea of wet kisses. But no perform. Keep pretending that if you can just get the right habit, if you could just read the right verses, if you could just memorize the right things and sing the right songs and get the thing down and discipline yourself, then one day you'll be enough. You are enough.
Darren Rouanzoin:And if that story doesn't do it for it, then it's the cross. The greatest image of what any love on earth should look like self sacrificial. You want to know what love looks like? It looks like Jesus being hammered with a nail to a piece of splintery wood saying to his father forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.
Darren Rouanzoin:When he's breathing his last, he sees his mom next to his disciple John and says, John, this is your mother, mother this is your son. He's wondering at the moment where the worst thing could ever happen to him, who's gonna look after my mama? That's Jesus. And yet, we come and we create churches. It looks nothing like Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:There's no ministry for the power of the spirit to touch you when you're weak. We create programs and planning centers and liturgies that leave no space for his presence. We wanna reach the lost, but we don't even know how to reach him anymore. We don't know what honors him. All week long, we dishonor the spirit of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:All week long, we're grieving it. I'm not talking about better quiet times. I'm talking about forgiveness. I'm talking about anger. I'm talking about the way you treat each other.
Darren Rouanzoin:We have built churches thinking that we're just gonna live the way we always live, and then sing a couple of songs on Sunday, throw some money into a bucket, and think that that pleases God. Meanwhile we're filled with church hurt and wounds and sin and brokenness and we don't know the slightest thing about Jesus yet we want to consume it. When he saw the crowds he didn't make a business plan. When he saw the crowds he didn't try to tweet it, Instagram it, build the platform. He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
Darren Rouanzoin:We need shepherds in the church today. We we don't have there's no word for leader in the New Testament. It's shepherd overseer. It's servant. And if anyone steps up on this platform they need to be on their knees all week long.
Darren Rouanzoin:They need to be cleaning the floors with their tears and washing feet. But we love a good comeback story where our guy wins don't we? That's what we want to be a part of right America? Our team wins. Successful.
Darren Rouanzoin:Our team goes all the way. We release all the good things. But Jesus wants us at the feet. I don't want to build a church that doesn't look like Jesus. I don't have time to go back and do this message that I have prepared so you'll have to podcast it.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's really good. There's incredible slides, quotes that make you think I'm smart. There's a passionate story that moves you to response. I just want you to know Jesus. And right now the church doesn't look like Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:And we have to own that. Stop blaming the church you came from. Forgive them and move on and and live better. Minister to the heart of Jesus. Notice what happens.
Darren Rouanzoin:After he sees all these people that are sheep without a shepherd, they're harassed and helpless. They're torn apart. They're literally torn apart. He says to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into the harvest field.
Darren Rouanzoin:He doesn't say, gather the leaders. He doesn't say, get the especially anointed strategic developers. He doesn't say, okay, get the best communicators and put them on Instagram, and let's go viral. He doesn't say any of that. He says, gather the day laborers.
Darren Rouanzoin:When the harvest comes, God uses day laborers. That's the Greek word. Not generals, not Ephesians four, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers. He looks for those that sees the harvest and says, let's get to work. And what is the work?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's his message. It's his ministry by his spirit. It's not my calling. I'm not here to help you with your calling. We are called to Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:We don't get to cherry pick. I don't care if you're an educator, a business owner, a hairstylist or in school. You and I have the same commission. And I might be further along in my studies. You have the same access to the same spirit.
Darren Rouanzoin:And what happens is we think, oh, we'll professionalize the ministry. No. You have the same message and the same ministry that Jesus had. That's what the book of acts is all about. Acts chapter one.
Darren Rouanzoin:Paul, Luke begins the discussion. I'm gonna piece this together somehow. Acts chapter one. He begins this discussion with, in my former book, Theophilus. I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach.
Darren Rouanzoin:Acts chapter one is simply that. Those couple of verses is when you're watching Netflix it says recap in the bottom left. So what that means is this is season two. Acts is season two of what? Of season one.
Darren Rouanzoin:And season one according to Luke is the life, the message, the ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The life, the message and ministry of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's all of Luke. Acts two is the life, the message, the ministry of Jesus through the church by the power of the Holy Spirit. And if you're here and you haven't heard that over the last year, you're not awake.
Darren Rouanzoin:So wake up. Because Acts 19 where we've been over the last several weeks is about conditions of revival. In Acts 19 there's all sorts of aspects that make the revival possible in Ephesus. The the church first, it it confesses there's... They're...
Darren Rouanzoin:They confesses and burns their idols. The church is marked by discipleship vision. The church is formed by the word of God. The church is filled with the holy spirit. The other aspect that if you study all revivals comes from a church that is full, that experiences revival, is it does the ministry of Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:Throughout history, it's like the church awakens to the word and they realize we're off. And that's what I'm feeling right now. I'm feeling the conviction of the Lord that we have one message and one ministry as the church. It's the same as Jesus and his message. And I don't have time to go through all the amazing text because I sat here when I was 19 years old, right over here in the Scott Center.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I took my first intro to the New Testament class. The very class that awakened me to scriptures that made me wanna become a pastor. And it was the first class I was a sophomore student transferred over from UCSB and it was a required freshman class. So I thought, I know more. And this is the question the first day Professor Twyman, adjunct professor asked, What's the primary message of Jesus?
Darren Rouanzoin:And I raised my hand. I was the first to do it. Was... Love. No.
Darren Rouanzoin:The world stops spinning. I grew up in the church. How did I not know the message of Jesus? Do you know the primary message of Jesus? If you say, Oh believe in him when you die.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's not that wasn't his message. Where is that in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? What was the message of Jesus? And he said, because nobody could answer correctly, The kingdom of God has come near. In that moment I had an awakening to the scriptures and it would take years to fully understand and this has been the the center of my life has been around this, the message and ministry of Jesus are together and when you understand the kingdom you understand Genesis to Revelation.
Darren Rouanzoin:You understand the story of God in a nutshell that the kingdom of God is not about you going to heaven when you die. That's not the message of Jesus. It's that God's loving pursuit of creation has always been here. He's been working to restore all things back to the way they were intended in Genesis one and two. And the kingdom of is of God is God's reign and rule and realm.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's what life looks like when God's in charge. It's what heaven looks like. It's the way... It's what life is intended to be. A life marked by healing and wholeness and justice and freedom and the forgiveness of sins and a life filled with the holy spirit.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's what we were designed for. But ever since Genesis three, we've missed the mark. But in the person of Jesus, in the message of Jesus, in the ministry of Jesus, we have access back to the way it was supposed to be. That's the power of the gospel. Not that you go to heaven when you die, but right now the resources of heaven, the loving relationship that you long for with yourself comes through the loving relationship that you have with Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:And when you get this right, you get this right, and then we get this right, and then the rest of the world will know that's the message of the kingdom. But it's not enough to tell you about it. Jesus preaches it, and he says, God's in charge. Good news. And then he's moved with compassion, and people are healed, and people are delivered.
Darren Rouanzoin:People that are so far away from God are included. And all of a sudden, you look at Jesus and you're like, this is what heaven should look like. Exactly. That's the kingdom, and it's available to all. And then we get into acts, and what we see in the book of acts is it's not a story of Peter.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not a story of Paul. It's a story of Jesus continued because the church has one message, and the church has one ministry by the same spirit. Let me see here. Same message, same ministry, same spirit. Same message, same ministry, same spirit.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do we have a slide? No. We don't have a slide because it's fresh. Paul, I knew we had a slime. Acts 19 verse eight We got there.
Darren Rouanzoin:We got there. We got there a different way. Know choose your own adventure and I chose a different adventure. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. Whose message is that?
Darren Rouanzoin:Well done 11:00. I didn't ask the 09:00 but I know Huntington shouted it louder. Whose message is it? Jesus. That's right.
Darren Rouanzoin:It goes on. We already read that passage verse 11. God did extraordinary miracles to Paul. Luke has to create a new category of miracles for what takes place in Ephesus. Now can I remind you that Ephesus is the most idol filled influential wealthy city in the Roman empire at the time that Paul was alive?
Darren Rouanzoin:So you're looking at a context so far away from Jesus. You know when people are like, I'm leaving California. They don't have what I want. Let's go to Idaho or Florida or Arizona. I say, great.
Darren Rouanzoin:God's gonna move. Why not again like Ephesus? Because for four hundred years, Ephesus becomes the epicenter of Christianity. One scholar says 90% of Ephesus by the three by three hundred AD is Christian. 90%.
Darren Rouanzoin:God did extraordinary miracles through Paul that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to those who were ill and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Oh come on church. I don't want to pray for people, it gets weird. It's not in the bible. Well, Peter's shadow casted out demons and healed the sick.
Darren Rouanzoin:And now handkerchiefs. Now here's the thing. I said in the last service, in the Greek, it's sweat rags and aprons from working in the leather shop. That Paul's by vocation as he's working to pay and fund for the Holo Tyrannus, who knows? After he wipes his brow, people grab the sweat rag and cast out demons and heal the sick.
Darren Rouanzoin:By the way, who's the subject? Let's talk about the grammar in the Greek. Who's the subject of that sentence? Who does the miracle? God does the miracle.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not Paul. Paul doesn't have the power to do that. You do not have the power to raise the dead, but God does. That's the point. This is his ministry, not yours.
Darren Rouanzoin:And you have to have an imagination for our context that in a context like Ephesus where superstition and magic was wild, God accommodated to them and used what resources he had to empower. Now I talked like we're not gonna make a model out of handkerchiefs. I said that in the last service. I tell you what happened last service. An older woman and man, first time in our church, their friends brought them.
Darren Rouanzoin:Have grown up kids. They said, this is the most important passage in all of scripture, the one that I just talked about verse 11. I'm like, wow, why? And they start crying. And here's their testimony, they couldn't get pregnant for years.
Darren Rouanzoin:Her sister could get pregnant, had all these things. Her dad was, traveled the world seeing God move in power, saw limbs healed, saw blind people see, went around the world. And on one trip, one occasion coming back from Dubai, the person on a plane said, is there anything I could pray for? You know, and and he says random things and then the guy says, do you have children? Yes.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do they have kids? One of them can't. I knew it. This guy goes, I have a ministry. No.
Darren Rouanzoin:I have a specific anointing where I pray for handkerchiefs for women who cannot get pregnant. And if you believe that God could heal, put this on her and lay hands and God's gonna heal her. This is he said on the plane. So after years of grief, have you... Could you imagine all the tests, all the things this woman is crying telling this testimony?
Darren Rouanzoin:The husband is in tears. He can't say a word. He's saying, in a family gathering for the birthdays of all sorts of kids, the grandpa, the parents, and they were there. And his... Her father pulls out this handkerchief and says, do you believe?
Darren Rouanzoin:She's like, I don't have enough faith. He says, all you need is a mustard seed. They put hands on her. They put the handkerchief. They laid hands on her womb.
Darren Rouanzoin:Three weeks later, she's pregnant with her first son. I'm not making up. That's the story. Why do I say it? There's so much more.
Darren Rouanzoin:Could you imagine if today you just agreed to step into the family business? To carry on the same message and the same ministry that Jesus has already commissioned you to have and say wherever I go as a hairstylist, a student, as a business owner, as a mom raising up little ones, I'm gonna carry that faith wherever I go even if it's a small as a mustard seed to carry on the ministry of Jesus. This is the invitation for the church. Stop making about content. Stop can stop consuming it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Start being the one that gives it away in power. Now, do you begin? Can I tell you where I began with this? Because I was convicted by the Holy Spirit. I had this incredible encounter with theology here at this school.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it would be '22, I was filled with the Holy Spirit in London. And that church experienced renewal because of a church in Anaheim called the Vineyard. So the Anglican church had renewal because of the church I grew up next to. And as a as a kid, I was warned against the crazy charismatics. I was cessationist.
Darren Rouanzoin:I did not believe in the ministry of Holy Spirit. They were crazy. Maybe demon possessed. That's what I thought. I was blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Darren Rouanzoin:Maybe not that far. Can't be forgiven of that according to Jesus. Then I'm filled with the holy spirit. I started church. I'm figuring out the kingdom and realizing how it all works together.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then I got convicted. My friends and I, we have accountability groups. Anyone in an accountability group? Okay. There's 12 of us that are holy but that's fine.
Darren Rouanzoin:Just kidding. But this accountability wasn't just about confessing sins, was about holding each other accountable to the life of the kingdom. Generosity, praying for the sick, all those things. So we committed. Anytime we'd see someone with neck braces or casts, we'd pray on the street because if you want, we learned the content of Jesus' ministry, you have to apply it to the context of Jesus' ministry.
Darren Rouanzoin:You want his ministry, you're praying for prophecy and healing except you're just praying with your journal by yourself. Go on the street and look for sick people. You're like, oh, I'm afraid. Great. Let fear be your Lord then.
Darren Rouanzoin:If you love me, obey my commandments. Gotcha. So my friends and I began to pray for people and I remember the first one because it was marked in a well, You've heard this before but this is my defining moment. I was at Ralph's, my son Ezra was in a stroller so he was like less than one and I saw this woman who was obviously pregnant and I don't pray that anymore, I don't pray like that anymore because I've made mistakes in the past. Don't do that one.
Darren Rouanzoin:But I had this sense from the Lord so I'm like a word of knowledge I'm gonna go pray and I walked over to her and I said, Hey this might I might get this wrong. I always say that. I think you might be afraid of having a kid and this is your first child and you have a bad relationship with your mom and I try to get to the prophetic stuff and she's like, Yep, that's wrong, this is my fourth or fifth kid. And her mom comes around the corner and puts her arm around her. So I take the groceries and I run.
Darren Rouanzoin:I throw it to the side and I walk home and I text my wife, I just I left. I don't want to ever come back to this Ralph's ever again. But I did it out of obedience and I failed in trying to grow. I wasn't doing anything other than trying to love this person and hearing on behalf of him and I got it wrong, which I get it wrong all the time. That same day, there's a knock on my door, UPS driver, I grabbed the box, he's got big old brackets on his arms and knees.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I made a commitment to my friends, I'm gonna be held accountable. So I say, hey, what happened? And the door is like right here. I'm gonna go on disability, all this stuff about pain, he can't do his job because he's got all this pain in his knees and his arms, arthritis or something like that, I forget what it was. But whatever it was, it was serious enough to him to go on disability.
Darren Rouanzoin:So I say, Hey, can I pray for you? And remember I have zero faith at this point. I say, In the name of Jesus, heal my brother and I close the door. I'm not gonna test this one. I can't get too wrong today.
Darren Rouanzoin:A month later, I'm in my office which the GARDEN CHURCH we had like, I don't know, three people in the office and he walks in, UPS driver with no brackets on his legs and knees and he's like, Darren. He jumps, he runs in and he grabs me out of my desk. Your prayer healed me is what he said. What prayer? He went back to church.
Darren Rouanzoin:I see him in Long Beach all the time. Still healed. Talks about that day changed his life. Changed his life. A half hearted prayer with no faith, just obedience.
Darren Rouanzoin:God's like, I can use it. And now I I pray all the time for sick people, for people with illnesses and I think because that's what we're we're designed to do. We're designed to carry the ministry of Jesus. Yes? Same message.
Darren Rouanzoin:Same ministry. Same spirit of God. And it's not for special people. It's for the whole church. Because all of the ministry of Jesus is available for all of the church.
Darren Rouanzoin:Problem is we don't look like Jesus. Somewhere along the way we got lost. We substituted compassion with convenience and programs. We excused poor behavior because, oh, he just must be tired. He's doing all the ministry.
Darren Rouanzoin:None of that anymore. It needs to sound and look and feel like Jesus. That's the church we're trying to build. This is a visionary series. That's the church.
Darren Rouanzoin:Same message. Same ministry by the same Holy Spirit. And so the invitation today is a few things. Number one, It's to be part of the ministry of Jesus. If you're a follower of Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:How many of you are followers of Jesus? You don't want to raise your hand. There's a lot of us. In case you were wondering when you'd be commissioned. Go in peace.
Darren Rouanzoin:Is that does that work? So the baristas, in the name of Jesus. Carry his ministry message to the coffee shop because Lord, we need better lattes out there. For the teachers, for the students, for the business owners, for the graphic designers, for the accountants and everyone in between. In the name of Jesus, go.
Darren Rouanzoin:Carry his message. Carry his ministry with whatever faith you have. I love the story of Gideon. Greetings mighty warrior. I'm the lowest, the least, the last.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm literally threshing wheat in a wine press. You throw wheat up in the wind. It's supposed to take the chaff and instead he's in a wine press which is buried in the ground and he's that's the image of the mighty warrior. Coward. God can do a lot with a little.
Darren Rouanzoin:Maybe today is where the movement starts. Maybe today is when five generations from now they'll tell your story as the matriarch or patriarch of the family. That's when our family history changed for a thousand generations. What if? Why not?
Darren Rouanzoin:But it starts with you knowing that you're commissioned. The second thing is, most of you don't know the real Jesus. And we've been in a church for so long that makes it really casual and convenient to not to confess that he's Lord and raised from the dead. How sure of you? How sure are you of your salvation?
Darren Rouanzoin:Like if I die, my last breath is my first breath with my boy Jesus. I'm dancing and singing. Amening and hallelujahing, slapping his hands, doing some secret handshake that we created. You don't know about it, I do. It's like the end of the last Spider Man movie.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's for those that have ears to hear and eyes to see. You got me, I can see it, you get it. Have you confessed? Do you believe? Today we are doing baptisms.
Darren Rouanzoin:Think we have one or two people. We got three baptisms. Some of you have never been baptized. Do you know there is no such thing as like a private prayer that makes you assured the only confession is a public one. Oh cool you brought your best shoes take them off.
Darren Rouanzoin:Oh Nana's not here to watch we'll live stream we got great footage for you. We got a person up front. They'll be closer than they could ever be in person. But I wanna tell you that this water might be cold, but lukewarm spirituality is way worse. You didn't know October 11 is the day...
Darren Rouanzoin:Today's the day you're getting baptized. This is your new birthday. Because you finally went public. Remember, it's after this they confessed what they had done and the name of Jesus was held in high honor. It's time to start holding him in high honor today.
Darren Rouanzoin:The last thing. So you're commissioned. We're gonna do baptisms is we wanna pray for you. So we're gonna bring the worship team up. Huntington Beach I hope this is as exciting as it is in the room.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm sure you're going on fire but I'm gonna bring the worship team up there. We're gonna sing. We're gonna celebrate. If you wanna be baptized we're gonna have you go to my left in Costa Mesa and to my right in Huntington Beach. Someone's gonna be standing there.
Darren Rouanzoin:I got Daniel over here waving like he just he does care. Someone over there is waving like they care probably more energetically than DJ right here so. But we love to baptize you right now. So if you wanna get baptized, go change. We're gonna sing a song.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then after baptisms, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pray for the ministry of Jesus to heal people today. That's what happened last time and God began to move. We're gonna heal the sick. We're gonna cast out demons.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're gonna commission you. So let's all stand and let's worship.
Intro/Outro:For more information, visit us at garden.church.