Fulfill Your Ministry

0:00Every believer is a minister

All right, turn with me in your Bibles to — let me pick a Scripture here. Let’s go to Numbers chapter 3, verse 5. Numbers chapter 3, verse 5. We’ll go there shortly, just keep your finger there. I’m actually going to read less text than I normally do, but I’m going to teach you more Bible than I normally do. So I know that sounds counterintuitive, but I’m going to teach, because if we read this text it would actually be the whole message, and then we’d leave, and it ain’t one of those that would land there real good. This one needs a little explaining. Amen.

There’s some Bible verses you can just do that. We could just read Romans 5 and then call it a day and head on out of here. This ain’t Romans 5. Amen. And we’ve been in a series for the past several weeks called “We Are Relentlessly Driven By The Mission.” We’ve been talking about the Great Commission. We started in week one talking about just that: what is the Great Commission of the church? Week two we talked about some strategies that we know will be fruitful for reaching the lost. Last week we talked about how we can maximize our efforts by staying in our lane. By staying in our lane. And last week what we talked about specifically, we talked about staying in the right lane, because there’s a right lane and there’s a wrong lane when it comes to reaching the city, and we want to be in the right lane.

We want to be in the right lane morally, ethically, theologically, but also pragmatically, strategically. Stay in the right lane. We stay in our lane. We can’t be every other church in the city. We can only be who we are. Amen. How many of y’all love it when you cook something for everybody for dinner and they want something else? I can only put on the table what I can put on the table. Amen. So we stay in our lane. And then we talked about, I stay in my lane. I stay in my lane. You stay in your lane. She stays in her lane. He stays in his lane. We all have unique and individual graces on our life that we have to operate in.

Amen. Hey, that’s a good place to say amen. All right. Don’t make me beg, honey. Don’t make me beg for ‘em. Amen. Hallelujah. So last week we ended by talking about the king and the priest, and how there are believers who are in the ministry in the marketplace, and how there are believers who are in ministry in the ministry. There are kings who are believers in the marketplace, there are priests who are believers in the ministry. But this morning I’m going to challenge that, because sometimes in the kingdom — in fact, a lot of times in the kingdom — you will find that you will hear something, and the full understanding of that thing is that it is “yes, and.” Yes, and. So there is a truth that there are believers who are in the marketplace and there are believers who are in the ministry. That is true. And the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, that “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” See, it’s true that yes, there are believers in the marketplace and there are believers in the ministry, but it is also true that every believer is also a minister. Every believer is a minister.

Now, you won’t know this song, I promise, because the worship leader at our church wrote this little song, and we used to sing this when I got saved. I remember it. And he just used to sing this little song that said, [worship] Ben Stone wrote that. So if anybody from Kingwood is watching today, you remember that song. “Everyone a minister, everyone a Christ giver.” 1 Peter chapter 2 said it right there. It said that we are a royal priesthood to declare that he has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. You are a testimony of his marvelous light. Amen. Hallelujah. Everyone’s a minister.

So today what I want to do — this will not come from the text that I’m going to teach you. I’m going to borrow a title for this message from a portion of Scripture I’m not even going to read today. I will just pull one out. It’s 2 Timothy. Paul writes a charge to young Timothy, a minister that is taking hold of leadership in the early church, and it is believed that 2 Timothy is written on the night before Paul is executed for the gospel. It is believed that Paul writes this and he goes to heaven. Now, we don’t know that for sure, but we do know for certain that this was written — this is one of the last letters that he ever wrote. And he writes to Timothy, and towards the end of the book he just says this phrase: “Fulfill your ministry.” Fulfill your ministry. So today my message title is “Fulfill Your Ministry,” and we’re talking about fulfilling your ministry today.

5:38Numbers 3 and 4: the tribe of Levi

Numbers chapter 3 and verse 4 — we’re not, or, I’m sorry, not 3 and verse 4. It’s Numbers 3 and 4. Both of those chapters are our text for today. That’s why I’m not reading them. It’s going to be really long if I do. Numbers 3 and 4 tell us about the tribe of Levi. They tell us about the tribe of Levi, who are the ministers of the Old Testament. They are the ministers of the old covenant. And they’re going to demonstrate for us this morning where we have opportunities to fulfill our ministry in the church. Look at your neighbor and say, “Fulfill your ministry.” Fulfill your ministry. Fulfill your ministry. Numbers 3 and 4.

I do want to just look at Numbers 3, verse 5 for a moment, just so we can anchor into something. “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him.’” Now, for the Levites, their ministry happened in the tabernacle. For us, it happens in the church. They were the tabernacle. We were the church — or, we are the church. We must understand, if we’re going to understand how what I’m going to teach you today works, we have to understand what the structure in the nation of Israel looked like. It’s very simple. The nation of Israel was a nation as a whole that was divided into 12 tribes. Okay, can all of you count to 12? Okay, then you’re good. You’ve got good theology today. Amen.

Amen. So it’s 12 tribes. The tribes were then further broken down into clans. They were broken down into clans. These were sections of the tribes. And then clans were broken into families, and families into individuals. So this is why whenever it tells you about someone in the Bible — for instance, like a Boaz, or a David, or a Solomon, or a Zechariah, or a Jesus — that it gives you all of this context to see how this broke down. It gives you all that. That’s what those genealogies tell you. It tells you where they were at in the tribes. And so this morning I want to tell you about the three clans of the tribe of Levi that fulfill the ministry of the church. These are the three clans of the tribe of Levi. They’re the Gershonites, the Merarites, and the Kohathites. Y’all live next door to any of them? Amen. They fell off on the last names. Hallelujah. But the Gershonites, the Merarites, the Kohathites. And I’d also just like to make a note to you real quick before we move on, that we often kind of look at the tribe of Levi and think of them all as priests, but they weren’t. It was actually a very small portion of the tribe of Levi that were priests. But the entire tribe of Levi served in the house of the Lord. They served the tabernacle.

So we’re going to get started. Are you ready? Shout yes. Give the Lord a hand clap of praise. Pat yourself on the head and rub your belly at the same time. Hallelujah. We’ll get it all from you today. Amen.

8:58The Gershonites: hospitality

Number one, let’s talk about the Gershonites. It’s going to be very line upon line today. Let’s talk about the Gershonites. They had a very simple job in the house of the Lord. They had a very simple job in the tabernacle. They handled all of the fabric elements of the tabernacle. They did all of the curtains, the coverings, they put up the screens that would divide different areas. They essentially set the atmosphere and the boundaries for the house of the Lord. They set the boundaries and the atmosphere for God’s dwelling place.

Now, if there’s a modern connection to what we do today in the modern church — there’s a modern connection — and this would be the hospitality team in a church. I’m going to just go ahead and prepare y’all for something. Let me take a little sip there before I do it. Hallelujah. Y’all think I’ve just been telling y’all how to do good church. I’m about to show you how prophetic this whole thing is. I’m about to show you what the Bible says about how to build a church. Are you ready for it? Because I don’t know about you, I want to build it God’s way. Amen. And that’s what we’re going to talk about. So the modern connection for the Gershonites, it’s the hospitality team. They set the tone for the house. They set the tone. Just like the Gershonites, they create the environment that welcomes people into the presence of the Lord. Greeters, parking lot people. Do we have parking lot people yet?

We’re going to have parking lot people one day. When you leave today, I want you to get it in your mind, someone saying, “We’ll see you next week,” as you drive out, because that guy will be there sometime. Why don’t you go home and write down what he looks like? Maybe it’ll be prophetic, in Jesus’ name. Maybe it’ll be a vision. But parking lot people, people who make coffee. Just so y’all know, pray for our coffee maker. That thing has given us a fit. But Miss Jackie’s going to fix it today, in Jesus’ name. We got a plan. We have chemicals. Amen. People who do the coffee, people who do the first impressions. When you greet someone as they walk into the front door, that’s a first impression.

You make people feel like they belong before they ever hear a single word in the house. That’s powerful. That’s powerful. It’s even more powerful when you think about the fact that you don’t know who’s walking — now I feel like preaching all of a sudden, I’m sorry — when you don’t know who’s walking through the door. Because see, I walked into the house of the Lord week after week after week and I was living in hell on earth. I was raised by two alcoholics. I didn’t know what I was going to come home to. I was watching somebody get beat all the time, run off in a car all the time. Regularly had to make phone calls to my grandparents to say, “We’ve got to go find this parent again, I haven’t seen them in three hours.” So when I came to the house of the Lord, somebody setting an atmosphere that felt welcoming, it changed my life. It’s not a small thing. It’s a huge thing.

Because I don’t know about you, I don’t know about the people, you know, but what I know is these people are responsible for me being in the ministry today. Somebody give the Lord a praise. Hallelujah. Studies from Lifeway and Church Answers show that first-time guests — I told you this a few weeks ago — often return based on their decision to return; it is often based on how they were greeted, treated, and seated. A preacher must have wrote that. But how they’re greeted, treated, and seated. In fact, Lifeway goes on and says that first-time guests shared these preferences in surveys. These are things that first-time guests look for who end up coming back to church. They look for clear signage. They look for empathetic greeters. They look for visible hospitality.

Let me just toss this in. Some people don’t even want the hospitality, they just want to know where they can find it. That’s why we’re doing this, so when people walk in they can go, “I know I can talk to that person. They can help me. I can trust them with my kids.” Somebody ought to say amen right there. Amen. So clear signage, visible hospitality, and not feeling put on the spot. That’s why we never ask first-time guests to — y’all remember when we used to do this and we’d have them stand up and everybody clapped for them? And we don’t do that anymore. They won’t be put on the spot, in Jesus’ name.

So the Gershonites, they’re the hospitality team. They build the atmosphere of the church. They build the boundaries of the church. On occasion, somebody on the hospitality team is going to have to say, “We don’t go in there. We’ll go in that room. That’s the room with the safe.” Amen. We’re going to keep you out of that room. Sometimes they’ve got to set the boundaries, but they keep everybody moving where they’ve got to go.

14:01The Merarites: kids and youth

Number two, the Merarites. The Merarites. Their job was to carry and maintain all the structural elements of the tabernacle: the beams, the bases, the pegs, the pillars. Everything that held everything together. So while the Gershonites are bringing all of the curtains, the Merarites are bringing all of the structure. The modern connection for us is our kids and our youth teams. Our kids and our youth teams, they’re the Merarites in the modern-day church, because they build the framework for spiritual formation. Youth and children’s ministry gives us the greatest head start with a believer. They give us the greatest head start to see someone live for Jesus for the rest of their life. They don’t just serve during service, they shape future generations, because nothing stands without structure. Nothing stands without.

Now, pragmatically, from a strategic point of view, 62 percent of parents say that their decision to come to a church is strongly based on their children’s ministry. It is a huge decision maker. In fact, I have even been told, “We want to come to your church. We’re waiting to see how your children’s ministry does.” We’ve been through a little bit of shaking over the last few years in the children’s ministry. People are waiting to see what happens. They’re ready to come, waiting for a solution. And I am so grateful for our children’s ministry team that has stepped into what they’re doing right now. Let me just say just a quick word about Tiffany. Tiffany was thrusted into children’s ministry before I got here, and she has stepped up and kept that thing running and been doing a great job. And she’s not in the room, but you ought to sow a seed of appreciation and clap your hands for her right now. Hallelujah.

Now, about two-thirds of Christians come to the faith between the ages of 18 — I’m sorry, before the age of 18 — and 43 percent come to know the Lord before the age of 12. Children’s ministry and youth ministry are not optional. They are urgent. They are incredibly important. I want you to know that I actively work on figuring out solutions for the next generation. I’ve talked to multiple district youth directors. I have talked to youth pastors. I was talking to a youth pastor about something yesterday that I’m not going to tell you about, because I don’t want to get your hopes up. Amen. But I’ve been talking to people. I’m trying to do what we can to get that solved, because it is so important. And specifically with teenagers, there is a massive dropout rate that we have to be aware of.

When kids turn 18 years old, it’s pretty well understood that we’re going to lose them. In fact, when kids turn 18 years old — church kids, your kids, your grandkids that are in church right now — when they turn 18 years old, 60 percent of them will walk away from the church, and statistically only 20 percent will come back. That’s where we’re losing them. But thank God for smart people. Amen. And this is what the smart people tell us. They said the main reasons that these kids leave are because of life transitions. They go to college or work, or they move, and they just haven’t figured out how to make church part of their life. It becomes a complication. They feel disconnected from the church. They have intellectual doubts and unanswered questions. Or they perceive the church to be irrelevant and judgmental.

But the most critical window to shape a person’s faith is before they turn 18 years old, before they graduate high school. If you got kids graduating from high school at 15, you’re hurting your pastor here. I need three more years. Slow them down, in Jesus’ name.

18:13What keeps teenagers rooted

Now, what keeps them rooted in church? We also know this. There are five things that they’ve identified that keep kids in church. This is from the Fuller Youth Institute. It was part of a project that they did for a book called the Sticky Faith Project. Five things. Number one is that they serve regularly in ministry. I will tell you that I am not only the product today of people who were kind to me and prayed for me, to the point that I preached about one of them when I left my last church — preached a message on this woman, that kind — but I’ll tell you what, I’m also the product of a bass guitar. Because I got my hands on a bass. I found a place that I was useful and God changed my life with no more than four strings. I didn’t even need as many as guitar players. Amen.

So, serving regularly. Being mentored by an adult outside of their family — that’s why youth leaders are important. Parents with an active, visible faith. Parents with an active, visible faith. Worshiping with the whole church. Worshiping with the whole church. And being taught how to read the Bible, which I will tell you, in three weeks we are starting a series. If you have never read the Bible or have found reading the Bible difficult, I am going to rock your world. I’m going to teach you how to hear from the Lord over a six-week series. Amen. It’s going to be good. Those five things we know work.

So I just want to tell you, as much as I would like to have a youth ministry like yesterday, what’s actually more helpful is we want to make sure that every teenager in the church is serving in ministry. So if you have a teenager, let me tell you what they need to do. They need to get involved in kids ministry. They need to get involved on the hospitality team, or they need to get involved in this room. Because if they’ll get involved in ministry, I’m telling you — I’ll not toss this in because I’m putting it on tape, but I’m going to say it anyway: should have treated me better in real time. Amen. But my youth pastor hated my guts. I don’t understand it. I’ve never gotten it. He was horrible to me. But you know what kept me? That bass. Once I got my hands on that bass, it kept me. I’m telling you, if you get involved in ministry, it’ll change your life. I like it so much, I decided to do it all the time. Amen. Hallelujah.

20:34The Kohathites: worship and media

Number three. Number three, the Kohathites. The Kohathites. The Kohathites carried the most sacred items. They carried the ark, the altars, the lampstand, the table of showbread, and utensils. But they could not carry what the priest had covered. So there were some things that the priest still had to deal with, but in terms of all of the other sacred items, they carried those things, and they had to do it with reverence. And the connection to that is, I just call it this room. It’s everything that happens in this room. It’s the worship.

By the way, just — I’m painting a little vision for y’all. I don’t like being the only guy up here. It’s just what we’re doing right now. Not doing what I want, I’m doing what I can. If I was doing what I wanted, I’d be getting paid $320,000 a year and only showing up for five hours a week. Amen. So I said, “That sounds like a good deal. How do you get in on that?” Amen. But this isn’t what I want. This is just what we’re doing right now. There will be a day where you see a stage full of people. And people that look like you, people that don’t look like you. Men, women, big, small, tall, short, white, black, Mexican, Puerto Rican. Who else can we get up here? Pakistani? I might have me a Chinese fellow. I used to have a Chinese piano player. Shout out Virgil Fung, I see you. Amen. He was my piano player there for a long time.

But what happens in this room? It’s the things that happen in this room. This is where the Kohathites operate. They carry the most sacred thing. So we’ve got the worship team that carries in great degree our incense before the Lord. But we also have people back in the media team who carry the gospel. Over the next few weeks we’re going to have people getting on these cameras, and then I can come off the platform and get in your face when I’m asking for them. Amen. So I’ll get right down and I said, “Come on, somebody say amen.” I’ll be right in your face and we’ll be moving around the room.

Because I’ll tell you what, I told somebody at Calvary, the last church that we were at — someone was saying how great the message was that morning, which I appreciated, I’ll take that anywhere I can get it, amen, I’ll let you tell it to me today — but they said the message was great. I said, “You know who the best preacher in the whole house is?” And I was standing by the camera platform, and I grabbed the camera guy by the ankle. I said, “This guy right here reaches more people than I do.”

In fact, last week — I’m just talking a little bit now, y’all got to forgive me — but last week I posted this just a few days ago. I posted a video of Wednesday night’s teaching, because I wanted to try something out for this weekend, because we’re not doing everything we can right now. So I took the message from Wednesday night and I posted it on the internet. And I think there were about — you were here Wednesday night, right? There were like 40 people in the room, something like that. Say somewhere in that 30, 40, something like that. Thirty, forty people in the room Wednesday night. That message has already been watched by over 500 people. I’ll tell you what, that camera is a better preacher than I am any day of the week. It has an incredible reach. It can go around the world. It can do incredible things. The people who operate that, they carry the sacredness of the gospel to the world. To the world. That’s huge. That’s not a small thing.

We had a girl one time — I posted a video about pens, and I’m just telling stories. Posted a video about pens. You think, “Why did you post a video about pens?” Because I write in my Bible, and I think you should too. Amen. And so I was talking about the pens I use in my Bible, and I guess I had keyword tagged it in a way that a girl who went to Oxford in England — she was studying to be a doctor. Hallelujah. She pulled up this video on YouTube, watched it, thought the video was fun, because I like to have a good time. Amen. And she watched the video, then she started watching some more of my videos. The girl, looking for pens to study a textbook as she’s becoming a doctor, she gives her life to Jesus Christ watching those videos online. I’m telling you, that thing right there is powerful, and we’re going to reach the world with it, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Hallelujah.

Just last week I looked at a video that I had shared from a sermon that I preached here. Over 25,000 people have watched that video from a month ago. Y’all didn’t know you had impact, did you? That’s impact right there. Twenty-five thousand people.

In fact, I looked at this — it’s all right, I’m back — I was looking at this. I wanted to see how our Facebook page was performing compared to when Easter happened this year. How many of y’all know Easter is a pretty big day in the church? If not, we need to get you in a discipleship class. There’s some stuff we got to teach you. But Easter is a big day in the church. It’s the biggest day of the year. Some pastors call it Super Bowl Sunday. Amen. Because it’s a big day in the church. So I wanted to see how the Facebook page performed in April versus September month to date. Month to date — this was yesterday, I think, I checked it. In September, or in April, we had 10,019 people look at all of our Facebook content. At the time we were still live streaming. We don’t live stream, but we do post our videos every week, so you can listen to this 18 times. Hallelujah. I looked at the September month-to-date numbers on Facebook. Our content has been viewed — versus 10,019 times at Easter, all of the month of April — month to date for September, 19,968 times. And there ain’t nothing happening in September.

I’m talking about reaching people. The Kohathites, they carry this sacred thing that we have to distribute to the world. Amen. Hallelujah. This ministry is powerful. It has so much potential to reach the city, to reach the nation, to reach the world. And I’ll be honest with you, I want people to get saved in Saraland. I’ll take people getting saved in Dubuque, Wyoming. I really don’t care if people are going to heaven, I’m good with that. Somebody say amen. Hallelujah.

So you’ve got the Gershonites, the Merarites, the Kohathites. Gershonites are similar to a hospitality team in a church. The Merarites, they create the structure. They create the framework that young people and children hold on to for all of their life. And then you’ve got the Kohathites, who operate in this room, and they carry the atmosphere of this room. They carry the gospel and they magnify the ministry in this room.

And I just think it’d be appropriate this morning, if over the last few weeks you’ve signed up to join the team or you’ve actively joined the team — if you’re working in kids ministry, y’all came in on a good Sunday for this — if you work in kids ministry, if you are working on the hospitality team, if you’re back in the media booth, I want all of you just to stand on your feet this morning. And I want us to give you a hand clap of appreciation right now. I feel the Lord on this. Let’s just — God bless you. Thank you. And we can get you on the team by the end of the day. Amen. In fact, I would encourage you to do that. Sign up to be on the team.

28:21The ministry of provision

Now, there are some of you that are sitting there and you’re going, “Okay, well, that all sounds good, but I don’t think I see myself doing any of that stuff.” And I want to just say something to you. We’re in a heavy recruiting mode. I’ve been very strong on this. I have pushed this to the limit on some of y’all, and I don’t apologize for it, because you need to hear it. People are dying and going to hell, and somebody’s got to get in between them. Somebody’s got to step up and stop it. So I’ve been saying, “You got to join the team, you got to join the team, you got to join the team.” But if you don’t see yourself on the team, let me just say, that is okay. It is okay.

I need you to hear this: that some of the rhetoric comes from the place of the reality that our church has experienced some difficulties over the last year especially, and we need your help. We need your help. I need you to hear me. Your pastor needs you to step up and get involved. Because if one can put a thousand to flight, two can put ten thousand to flight. If I have learned anything in the past few weeks, it is how limited your pastor is. There is only so much I can do. There are days that I work at this church until I feel like if I don’t drive home, I’ll probably shut down before I can actually get in the car. I’m serious about this. I need your help. I need you to step up. If you have a gift, the Lord has a need of you.

But if that’s not you, there’s still a ministry for you. Maybe you say, “I can’t join that.” There’s still a ministry for you. In fact, if you were to look at the numbers, the tribe of Levi was only less than five percent of all of Israel. There were 11 other tribes that made up 95 percent. That even challenges the 80/20 rule. There’s 95 percent of people that did not work in tabernacle service, but they all had a ministry, and that is the ministry of provision. The ministry of provision and giving. Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 19 says, “Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in the land.” What it means is, it says there are people who are working in the ministry. There are Gershonites, there are Merarites, there are Kohathites, and they’re doing the work of the ministry. Do not forget them and leave them without provision. God forbid somebody serve in kids ministry but we don’t have diapers. God forbid someone serve in ministry, in kids ministry, and we had the audacity to tell them, “You go buy the diapers out of your own pocket.” There’s a ministry of provision that allows us to honor the work of the Lord and still be a part of what God is doing.

I do want to just say — and I don’t want to act like — you’re incredibly generous people. And I don’t want to act like there’s nothing coming in. Some of you give in a way that blows my mind. You’re incredibly generous, and I just want to let you know that over this last year, if you have made a decision to sow above and beyond, you are so appreciated. There are days that decisions get made that can only be made because of you. And there are things that we’ve been able to do since I arrived I haven’t had to think twice about, because of your faithful giving. And you’re so appreciated.

There is a level of giving that’s called tithing. Every believer is called to it: 10 percent of your income returned back to the Lord. I’m not going to teach on it this morning, but I figure, some clarity — I’ll let you know where I stand. I tithe. I’m not exempt from it. So we tithe. Everybody’s called to do that. But there is another level than just tithing. It’s called generosity. Generosity. The world of the generous gets larger and larger. When we’re generous to the Lord, ministry happens and our world gets bigger.

And I just want to be clear, I do not want to mince words. I would never dare to manipulate you when I can just be honest with you. And I’m not taking an offering this morning. And I’ll be honest with you, this is a good place to put one, but I’m not doing that this morning. This is not an appeal to get your money. This is not an appeal to get you to pony up or to empty your pockets.

33:02Vision, manpower and generosity

Reaching the city will move at the rate of three things. Reaching Mobile County with the gospel will move at the rate of three things. And I’m not trying to be heavy-handed, but reaching your family and your kids and your grandkids will move at the rate of three things. One is vision. One is vision. We have to have a word and a direction from the Lord. We have to. Number two is manpower. It’s the team. It’s the Gershonites and the Merarites and the Kohathites coming together and doing the work of the tabernacle in the house of the Lord. It’s people saying, “There’s work that has to be done in the church and I’m going to do it. I’m going to be a part of that.” And the third is generosity. The third is generosity. We will reach this city at the speed of your generosity.

God is about — this is not in my notes — God is about to call some of you to a greater level of giving than you have ever operated in in your life. And God is about to make some of your worlds bigger than they have ever been. Bigger than they have ever been. The psalmist said, “I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread.” Hallelujah.

34:28Joash's chest: the house restored

Last week I mentioned Joash and Jehoiada, the king and the priest. I told you, as we were talking about the differences between kings and priests, that the king and the priest came together. Jehoiada and Joash. Joash the king, Jehoiada the priest. They came together and they led an apostate, wicked nation of Judah back to the Lord. By the way, you need to be with me next week. I am going to preach about a prophetic word that I received on a soon-coming revival. I do believe there are some things that might be aligning. And I always hold that stuff loosely, but I got a word from the Lord about two years ago in the secret place. I’m going to share some insights on that next week.

But Jehoiada and Joash, they lead this apostate, rebellious nation that is far from God back to the Lord. They lead them back into the presence. So it’s a great awakening in Judah. What I didn’t tell you last week is how it happened. Jehoiada the priest had saw that the house of the Lord was in disrepair, and Joash the king made a pathway for people in Judah and Israel to come and to give to the house of the Lord for its repair. In fact, what they did is they took a chest and they put it next to the altar, and they bore a hole in it, and they called it a Joash chest. And it was a place that people would bring additional offering and they would put it in that chest. And as the chest would fill up, they would go in and they would repair the house of the Lord.

And I don’t see the connection in the physical, but when I look at the Word, I see that they did a construction project, and somehow God took the faith and the faithfulness and the showing up and the sowing and the getting involved, and he took that and he turned it to a revival that hit the whole nation. I don’t see the connection in the physical, but in the spirit it happens, because God is a God who honors faith. In fact, 2 Chronicles chapter 24, verse 13 says just that. It says, “So those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward in their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it.” And I don’t know about you, but I just feel like a strong church could wreck this city in all the right ways. Amen.