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In this video 0:00 The Spiritual Battle in Cities and the Call to Reach Souls10:58 Jesus' Model for Eternal Life and Salvation28:52 Holy Spirit Empowerment: Indicators for Reaching Souls
The Spiritual Battle in Cities and the Call to Reach Souls 0:01 Hey. Welcome to the men's global livestream. If you have a Bible with you, I need you to hold 2 spots. 1 in John 17 and the other in Acts chapter 4. If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it. The0:12 verses are gonna come up on the screen. If you're joining us for the first time, we're in part 6 of a series called The City. And what we've been learning in parts 1 through 5 is that cities that we live0:24 in, whether it's a metro urban city, a medium sized city, or even a small city, the cities that we live in are hubs and hotbeds. What do I mean? They're hubs for a lot of things.0:36 Functionally, there's logistics, there's banking, there's industry, there is architecture, there's power, there's people, there's cultural diversity. Cities0:48 are hubs, alright, because people populate them. But they're also hotbeds for the same reason in a city because there's things going on in them. People are restless. That's why we talk about1:00 New York City. It's the city that never sleeps. Right? So there's activities. There's people. There's cultural diversity. There's stuff happening. And in that context of cities and communities1:12 that we live in being spiritual hotbeds, the deeper dive on that is that there's a big spiritual battle for control of your city. There's God's agenda and God's kingdom,1:24 and then there's Satan and the world's agenda. 1 is God filled, 1 is Godless, 1 is marked by the Holy Spirit, the other is
1:36 marked by cultural values that are godless, the flesh, and the orchestrator of all that who is the devil. Now because that's
1:47 reality and reality is our friend, in the Bible, God's solution for cities in winning that battle between the word and the world, God and Satan,
1:59 kingdom agenda versus the world's agenda, listen to this, is a collection of spirit empowered men. That's what we see in the Bible, and that's what we have
2:11 been learning. And what we need to know as God's men who live in cities and communities is that everyone that we see, everyone that we interact with, whether it's
2:23 at the grocery store or the coffee shop or the restaurant or in the cubicle next to you. Everyone that we're connected to is caught up in that epic spiritual
2:35 battle, whether they know it or not. And when I say God's solution is a collection of men in the city, we see that in Acts chapter
2:47 2 in the Bible where not every man is suited to fight the battle we're talking about in a city. In fact, God's men aren't ordinary men. They're
2:59 filled with the Holy Spirit, and that spirit of God has come inside them, has taken over control of their minds, their bodies, their energies,
3:12 and they're behaving, listen, differently and dangerously in a good way. Right? Not dangerously in a way that makes people suffer. And that's what we've been learning in parts
3:24 1 through 5. What are they doing, you ask? They're releasing captives. People who are stuck and paralyzed, whether that's physically, emotionally, or spiritually, they're releasing captives. They're reducing
3:35 loads. Right? They're burden sharers and burden carriers. They're relieving pain. Okay? Emotional, spiritual, psychological pain. We talked about that. And last time, we talked about how they're raising
3:47 spirits, and it's sort of like the dominoes just start to fall. When you're getting people unstuck in life and as people emotionally, physically, spiritually, psychologically, when you're
3:58 reducing loads, relieving suffering, man, you raise spirits. Now here in Park 6, our last session, we're gonna look at the last key indicator that we see in the Bible,
4:11 in terms of the behavior of this collection of guys who are filled with the Holy Spirit. They're spirit empowered. And we're gonna look at the last key indicator, of the
4:23 this movement of men in a city, and that has to do with reaching souls. Alright? What what does that mean? Right? Leading people to
4:35 personally believe in the person of Jesus and the work of Jesus for them. Alright. So spirit empowered men in the city, they're releasing
4:47 captives. They're relieving pain. They're reducing loads. They're raising spirits. Part 6, they are reaching souls, helping lead and persuade
4:58 people through actions and words to belief in the person of Jesus and the work of Jesus on their behalf. Now if you are a
5:10 god's man, here's a attitude and here's a guiding thought that you always have to have. Behind all my connections, you might even wanna say it out loud, behind all my connections,
5:22 is the kingdom of God. Right? A lot of times, we just kinda wander into situations, whether that's a restaurant, or we see a neighbor, or somebody drives by, or we're walking the dog,
5:34 or wherever we are, behind our connections, random or intimate, is the kingdom of God. And to get your head kind of going in that direction, I wanna tell
5:46 you a little story about my daughter's soccer coach when she was 10. So this is a guy who's on my radar because he's he's coaching my daughter. Right? And so I'm there. I'm a sports guy. I'm watching
5:58 him do his thing, and I really like this guy. And I can tell by his name that either he's a practicing Muslim or he's culturally Muslim. His name is Ali. Right? And and so I don't know him very well, but
6:10 over the course of time and helping out a little bit at practice, you know, picking up cones or whatever, we get to know each other a little bit. And, then I find out this great coach,
6:22 Ali, he's leaving our club, our soccer team. And, he he messages me through the computer, says, hey, I just wanna let you know that I'm gonna be
6:34 leaving the club. And that's when, in my context with him on my radar, God just says, hey. This is a private conversation even though it's over instant message.
6:46 You need to share your story. And let's just press the pause button on the film in that. I'm having this internal conversation. I'm hearing this thought come into my mind, which is you need
6:58 to give him your testimony. You need to share your story of how you came to faith and belief in Jesus. And then I start to battle, and I start to pre qualify, and I start to say, well, he's Muslim.
7:11 And my faith just kind of keeps rolling with this voice in my head, which is the Holy Spirit just kind of prompting me. And I'm like, hey, I don't know if you're a believing person, but I believe that
7:23 God brought you to our team for a reason. Send. And now, now I've jumped off the cliff. I've crossed the line, I'm discussing
7:35 spiritual things, I'm a Christian, he's a Muslim, and all I can see here are the little bubbles, you know, like on your text messages, you see the little bubbles except for this had bubbles and Ali is typing.
7:47 And And you know what the response, bling, comes up, or at back then, I think it was bloop. It says it says, I have been searching for a conversation with
7:59 God. And then it just went from there. I just shared with him my my simple, story of meeting Jesus, how I met
8:11 Jesus, how I prayed a simple prayer to begin a relationship with God through Jesus, to have my sins forgiven, to find my purpose for living,
8:22 to have a home in heaven. And then I just at the conclusion of that, I said, have you ever prayed a prayer like that? He says, no, I haven't. I said, would you like to? And he says, yes, I
8:34 would. Now, big wheels turn on the small axles of choices to lean in to reaching someone's soul. No
8:46 1 could have predicted that behind this 1 man's life, thousands of people would come to know the Lord. But that's been Ollie's
8:58 journey for these last 19 years. Right? He's, he reaches athletes. He reaches college athletes. He travels. He does soccer camps all over the world. He's just an
9:10 incredible person. But here's what I want you to hear. Behind my connections is the kingdom. Right? God's everywhere and God's at work, and God loves
9:22 people. God's everywhere. God's at work. God loves people. You have no idea the drama happening behind the
9:33 faces of the people God has in your life until you ask or until you take a step of faith. And Ali was in my
9:45 context. Who's in your context? Ali is on my radar. Who's on your radar? God was already at work, which I didn't know, and I wouldn't have known unless I had
9:57 kinda jumped in the water. God's already at work in the people around you. Now I could have prequalified him, and I kinda started going down that road. Who are you
10:09 prequalifying in terms of reaching their soul? Being used by God to persuade someone to believe in the person and work, of Jesus. You know, that has happened to me
10:21 so many times that now the least likely person, I think, is the most likely person. And sometimes the most likely person is the least likely in reality to place their faith and trust in
10:33 the person and work of Jesus for them. Now here's where we're headed in part 6 of the city. We just wanna see, again, like we've done in
10:45 in in parts 2 through 6, just what God models on this particular issue, whether it's releasing captives, reducing loads, relieving pain, raising spirits. Now we're gonna look at what God models when it comes to reaching
10:57 souls. Okay? And then we're gonna see how God is really ahead of us when it comes to reaching a soul. In fact, he does the lion's share of the work. 99 percent of the work is on
Jesus' Model for Eternal Life and Salvation
11:09 God. He's ahead of us. We're gonna see that. And then we wanna identify how the Holy Spirit is at work in you and through you to reach a person for
11:20 Christ, listen, in an authentic and a powerful and supernatural way. Okay? So let's let's get those Bibles
11:32 out. Let's turn to John 17. If you don't have your Bible, no sweat. We're gonna put the verse on the screen. And and by way of context, when it comes to reaching souls and being used by God to help a
11:44 person begin a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we just have to look at what Jesus himself models. And we see this in John chapter 17 verses 3 through 8 says this, Jesus talking,
11:56 this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth
12:08 having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Now father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.
12:19 I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now,
12:32 they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words which you gave me, I have given to them. And they received them and truly understood
12:44 that I came forth from you and they believed that you sent me. There is the model. There is the temple. Alright? What did
12:56 we see? Number 1, we saw that Jesus prays for men to know him so they can know eternal life. The 2 are synonymous. When you know Jesus, you know eternal
13:08 life. And what's on his mind? What's number 1? I mean, the guy is in the final he's in the red zone of his entire life on earth. It's like the
13:19 2 minute drill. What's on his mind? He's praying for people that they will know eternal life by knowing him. That's his number 1 desire,
13:31 thought, and prayer that people will have eternal life. Okay. Now let's hold up the mirror. What is your number 1 thought, desire, and prayer
13:44 for the connections that you have with people who don't know Jesus personally. Let's look at the second thing. Jesus
13:56 recognizes his time, space, and unique assignment from God. He says, I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work
14:08 you have given me to do. So he realizes that that there's a time, that time's going away, okay, so he recognizes time. Right? He emphasizes
14:20 his work that he's got to accomplish within that time on a certain part of the planet. He says, I glorified you on Earth, which I'm here temporarily,
14:32 having accomplished the work you have given me to do in this time and this space. Right? And that you've uniquely assigned to me. God gave
14:43 him a specific assignment for a limited time on a certain space. That's Jesus. Alright? So he recognizes his time, space,
14:55 and unique assignment. Question, Do you recognize that? I mean, if it's good enough for Jesus, this is the way Jesus is talking. This is what he's thinking about. We have
15:07 limited time. We're put in a specific space with a specific assignment to accomplish by faith. Third thing we see is that Jesus
15:19 brings God into his interactions with others. He says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave
15:31 me out of the world. Okay. So Jesus is in a time. He's in a space. He has a unique assignment. What do I do in my time, in my space, in my unique assignment? Right? I bring
15:42 God into my interactions because that's God's intention. That's why God has us here on Earth, to bring God through word and deed. It's not always word. It's not always deed. Sometimes
15:54 people need to see deeds before they'll listen to your words. Right? But I'm bringing God in. Right? I'm bringing God's purposes. I'm bringing God's agenda. Right? I'm bringing God's love.
16:06 I'm loving him with my life. I'm living it out in front of others. I'm loving people the best way I know how. Right? But there is a manifestation. There's an incarnation of
16:18 God when Jesus is among men. Okay? Well, question. Do you bring God into your interactions with the people that
16:29 God has given to you? You see, we talk about what's most important to us. We bring what's most important to us or what's happening to us that's most important to us at any given time
16:41 into our interactions. And it comes in answer to the question like, hey. How's things going? You know? Let me let me challenge you. I wanna challenge every man nation,
16:53 worldwide. The next time someone asks you, hey, how's it going? How you doing? Say this, man, God is good. And then tell him
17:04 why you think that. God's good. And then tell him why. Alright? That's an easy, simple way for you to talk about
17:16 what's most important to you, what's on your mind, who you're in relationship with. Right? Fourth, we see that Jesus seeks for people to do 2 things, understand and
17:28 believe in him. Right? He says this, for the words which you gave me, I have given to them and they received them. Okay. So and then he says, and truly understood that I came
17:40 forth from you and they believed that that you sent me. You know that that's Jesus' desire, not just for the men that God gave him or the people that God gave him. That's God's desire
17:52 for everyone. Everyone? Yes. Everybody. Everybody. To receive
18:04 the knowledge that Jesus came from God for them, died for their sins, to understand that at a deep heart level, not an intellectual level, at a deep heart level. For me?
18:16 Yes. For you. And to believe that he came from God to die for you and to receive that for yourself. Now,
18:29 here is the simple application. This is Jesus. He's praying for men to know him so they can know eternal life. He's recognizing his time, space, and assignment from God. He's bringing God into
18:41 his interactions with others. He seeks for people to understand and believe in him. This is Jesus. Jesus is in you. Okay? This is increasingly you.
18:53 No one's gonna do it as good as Jesus. But if this is Jesus and Jesus is in you, it makes sense that if you're an authentic man of God, this is
19:05 increasingly you. And that's what sets us apart, man of God. That's what sets us apart, men's group that is filled with spirit
19:17 empowerment. That's what sets us apart in our families, in our workplaces, in our cities. This is Jesus. Jesus isn't us. This is increasingly us. Now
19:29 God is intentional. Look at what it says in John 3 17 just as a support to what we just learned. Says this. God sent his son into the
19:41 world, not to just the world, but to do what? But to save the world through him. Now if you read the gospels or you're a reader
19:53 of the Bible at all, these words will ring true.
19:56 Right?
19:56 And they're they're Jesus' words that sort of mirror what we just read in John 3 17. Remember when Jesus says, just as the father has sent me, I myself
20:08 am sending you. Right? So God's intentional. God sent His Son to save the world just as the Father sent me, I myself am
20:20 sending you. To do what? To reach souls. To be used in this process of a personal salvation decision. Wow. What a privilege that we get to
20:32 participate in that. God doesn't need us, but he thought that it would glorify him to use us to
20:43 reach the souls of other people. And and that's what you see here in scripture. So there's there's God's model. There's the basis for reaching souls. It's what God models for us. So
20:55 what do we learn about salvation? Alright. Write this down. Salvation is a matter of intentionally showing up. Key words, chosen very specifically. Just like God,
21:07 God sent his son into the world with the intention of saving the world. Jesus says, I myself am sending you just as the father has sent me,
21:19 same principle. What is he sending us to do to help reach that person's soul? Right? Jesus lays hold of us, we lay hold of others. God sent his son
21:30 into the world, Jesus sends us into the world to save. What a privilege. What an amazing privilege to ambassador salvation
21:43 in the name of Jesus. Can I get an amen? Man, that hits me hard. Now, if you're thinking or if you've ever said to yourself, oh, yeah. I know where Kenny's going here. You know, I'm not an
21:54 evangelist and, you know, I like that worship fellowship and discipleship thing, but, you know, that that that ministry and mission and evangelism thing, you know, that's just that's just not my gift. Baloney from the
22:06 Greek word baloney. Okay? Don't prequalify people, but don't prequalify yourself. Man, I can't tell you having having done men's ministry for, you know, the
22:18 last 35 years, watching people that thought that way and lived that way for a lot of their lives blossom
22:30 into the best reachers of souls I have ever seen. And they didn't really changed. They didn't really change their their way so much as their thinking
22:42 about themselves and what reaching a soul is is all about. And and let me just say, you let me give you some good encouragement if that's you. Right? If you're just like, oh, no. That's not me. That's my God's
22:54 way ahead of you. Like, it's like in golf, they call it what? A gimme putt? Okay. That's when, you know, like, the ball is here and, like, the cup is here and all you have to do is just, like, to tap
23:05 in. Alright? God is way ahead of you. God does all the heavy lifting in the soul before he puts you into a space to
23:17 potentially reach that soul and pick the low hanging fruit for him. Alright? So we're in the harvest. Everybody around us is experiencing spiritual battle. There's
23:29 a battle for control of the minds, hearts, and souls of people. There's 2 agendas. We're in a space. We're in a city. We're in a community, and God's way ahead
23:41 of us. Here's the good news. Ecclesiastes 3 11 says this, he has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity
23:53 in the human heart. Yet, no 1 can fathom what god has done from beginning to end and so the picture is there's god and what he's up to and we're limited and
24:05 he's unlimited and he's doing a bazillion other things that we can't even see because our tiny little brains can't even take it in. Our our eyes can't take it in. But behind the scenes, there's
24:17 all this stuff going on. And 1 of the main things that's going on behind the scenes is that he has made a space for himself in everyone. Write that down.
24:29 God has made a space for himself in everyone. So behind every connection you have is the kingdom and then, good
24:41 news, he's made a space for himself in everyone. It's what Saint Augustine called that that God shaped vacuum that can only be filled by
24:53 God himself. Now, there's there's rip off versions that people try to fill that hole with materialism, sensations and hedonism,
25:05 self importance, visibility, power, a feeling, drugs, sex, porn, but they just come up empty. They stay thirsty.
25:17 They have to keep chasing that. Why? Because it's a God shaped vacuum. It's eternity. The eternal space inside of every human being cannot
25:29 be filled by a limited temporal source. Money, temporal, goes back in the box. Houses, vacations, goes back in the box. Cars,
25:41 even if you have a beloved 1, goes back in the box. Right? All the things of earth that we get fulfillment and enjoyment out of, which we should, alright, but we just can't
25:53 use those things to try to fill a hole in us that only God can fill. And I know right now the Holy Spirit is speaking. And there are men right now. You're trying to fill
26:05 the hole that's meant for God to fill with other stuff. In fact, there's believers and you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good. You have filled that hole before. You know what I'm talking about. There's
26:16 that satisfaction, that peace, that fulfillment. But because something hurtful or traumatic has happened to you, you've used that as a license to go fill that hole that only God can fill with things that
26:28 aren't good for you and your relationships are suffering. That's what the Lord is saying right now. And you know what, man of God? Can I just encourage you, brother? You'll always be thirsty. You're gonna feel bad.
26:40 You're gonna be destroyed if you keep going down that path. God's ahead of you. He's put that that hole in you where longings and fulfillments and desires, it can't be filled
26:52 by a closed deal. It can't be fulfilled by relationship outside of marriage. It can't be fulfilled by by bourbon.
27:04 It can't be fulfilled by and don't accept the substitute anymore. God's saying, that's my space. That's for me.
27:15 Okay? Doesn't mean that we don't enjoy some of the things that I mentioned. That's not what I'm saying. It's when you make a good thing the ultimate thing. And there are men right now listening to the sound
27:27 of my voice. You've made some good things that God has blessed you with, the ultimate thing. And now you're beginning to experience the emptiness that comes from doing that.
27:39 And God God's saying, hey, I I made a space for myself in you. I've made a space for myself in everyone. Alright? So if you're a man of God, and you're in
27:51 that kind of place, it's really easy. Just repent. What does that mean? It means change the way you're thinking. Like, yeah, that's right. Those things can't fill me up, but God can. And then
28:04 just go back to the dinner table, bro. Just go back to the dinner table. Go back to fellowship. Go back to the word of God. Get your butt back to church. Okay? Start talking to God
28:16 again. Get in his word. Get silent. Get away. Do what you gotta do. Alright? Now thank you that I can make that digression because, hey, listen. That's where we all are.
28:28 Right? This community of men in the global livestream, some of us are having really great days, and we're walking with the Lord, and God is ahead of us, and we're proactive. Other days, man, we've been bowling balled
28:39 and we need to just
28:40 add encouragement to lift us up. So now going forward, everybody, just know that everybody around you, god's ahead of you. There's a space inside of everyone for god himself.Show more
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