Then They Gathered

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, see us in the Bible. Come in the kitchen, lick the ball. He was eating with them, he gave them this command, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promise which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this

time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will received power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, into the ends of the earth. After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from

their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them, men of Galilee. They said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back wow in the same way you have seen him go into heaven verse twelve. And I'll stop. Then the Apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day walk from the city.

I lied, I need verse thirteen two to tell you what I'm supposed to say. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew James, son of Alpheus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James. They all joined together, I promise this last verse. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women. I can't leave that out and

marry the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. Now, y'all, I stared at this text so long. I didn't want the familiarity of this text to eclipse its significance for this moment. So the first thing that I kept seeing was the word that y'all all shouted in this section right here in Acts one, a power. You will receive power. And for the longest I thought that was the message God had for us, that when we re leaves our pride,

we receive God's power. The Lord said, that is true, and you can preach it sometime, but not this time. That's not the message. So I said, well, what else could it be? And there's all kinds of things that that you see in this passage that are amazing, like when they said this same Jesus will return like he doesn't change. His nature, doesn't change, his character, doesn't change, his purpose, doesn't change, not controlled by some political power.

What Jesus looks like. He's not made in our image. We're made in his. So he doesn't change. We change as we behold him. The Lord said, that's not the message for Elevation leader either, And I thought, well, we're running out of stuff here. Lord, that's the best stuff in the passage. You know, what does it do not leave Jerusalem? Does it do not leave? Am I supposed to tell him don't run off and join another church, you know, don't don't sign the divorce papers or whatever.

Is that the message do not leave? The Lord said no, no, it's not there. And so what the Lord told me to focus on today is in verse six, and this is my message. Then they gathered. I want to preach to you today on those three words. Then they gathered. Then they gathered, say it one time before you take your seat. Then they gathered, be seated. One of our volunteers is kids play sports with our kids. And he asked me right at the beginning, when he sew me

up here sweating on the stage. But Chris and John sal and Jennohn Stools preaching back in February of twenty he said, is that weird? I said what he said, learning to preach in an empty room? And I said, it's not learning to preach in an empty room, it's remembering. Huh. I found out a long time ago. A lot of spiritual growth isn't about learning anything. It's about remembering, remember who you are the Book of First Simba. No, it wasn't weird at all. It just took me to remember.

Like how David said, this is an unusual circumstance with a nine foot giant whose helmet outweighs me. I really didn't come here to fight, but I do remember how to because I've done that before. I never thought this before, but I have fought. And so the key in the David and Goliath passage just to realize that the God who delivered me from the Paul the line and Beryl delivered from some circumcised philistine, that the enemy's changed, but

the power that you're fighting in doesn't. So every time that you shift from one stage of your life to another, or one mode of leadership to another, or when you shift in the role that you're playing, you know, like our campus pastors when everything shut down, and I'm not trying to take us so far back because i know we just got good news that everything is gonna and

I'm really hesitant to trust it. So I'm kind of just like dipping my toe in feeling happy about that, you know, But just to go back to that time, a lot of them that were used to hugging people, praying for people, and being with people basically did the job as if they were hired at a call center.

And instead of, to quote the great lin Manuelmoranda, the room where it happened, it was all of a sudden, the zoom where it happened, and the adaptation of this church in that time was one of the greatest proofs that I've ever seen in my life of the grace of God upon this ministry. There is a grace for adaptation.

There is a grape for adaptation. Just ask Moses, who needed a sign that God was with him, and all of a sudden, the shepherd's staff that he had carried in the wilderness of his decision to kill an Egyptian became the instrument as he threw it on the ground and it turned into a snake to prove to him that God can change anything. There is a grace for adaptation, just as the disciples who were also in a desert place trying to feed some hungry crowds. You know, crowds

become mobs real quick. I'll talk about that momentarily. So on the verge of that turn, when you realize that a crowd is not a church. A crowd is not a church. Would you please write that down so you can come back to it. A crowd is not a church. That you understand. When the disciples came to Jesus and placed the meager resource, you know, the feeding of the five thousand into his hand, it became enough as he touched it, as they brought it. There is a grace

for adaptation in your life. Right now. I want you to know there is a grace for adaptation. There is a grace for you by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. In God taught words what Paul teaches and Corinthians for us to express in our lives, realities that we have no experience of. But God gives it to us as we need it. That's the grace of adaptation.

And in Acts Chapter one, particularly, the Holy Spirit of God is coming to these disciples who we listed a moment ago, Peter, James and John, the famous ones, Philip and Thomas, who make some cameo appearances. Bartholomew shout out, Bartholomew I ever preached about him before. The women marry the mother of Jesus and his brothers, they're all standing at a moment where it's very different than it is

for us, because everything is changing in their world. It was different to be a disciple of Jesus back then because back then there was a lot of political unrest. It was different. Everybody say, back then, you're so quick. It was different back then because back in those times there were many arguments about gender equality. And back then, to be a disciple of Jesus was hard, you know.

Back then it was complicated because as the Jewish believers were becoming Christians, many within the religious communities saw their conversion to Christ as traitorous to their identity nationally. It was different than people used to divide themselves by things like skin color or custom, and so it was really different then. And the challenge becomes for me to bring you out of this irrelevant context in which the Bible

was written. But there is grace for adaptation. And even when you think about this, the way they would experience the presence of God was changing as they stood on the mount of Olives, which is itself a place of transition. Remember, the olives only become oil as they are crushed, and that's exactly what has happened to the disciples as their tears are barely dried from watching Jesus die. It's only been forty days, and now he's leaving them for good.

You felt like God left you a few times last year. You felt like God left you, like maybe you did something wrong and he took his hand off you. You didn't tell your volunteer team that. I hope you didn't. And that's too heavy for your volunteer team to know about. If you're a leader, we carry things as leaders, don't we. I'm not just talking about as a pastor. I mean even if you're a leader in your home, or if you're a leader in your business, or if you're leading

a volunteer team. Had a had a Gideon opportunity over the last year, do you know what that is? Gideon started with thirty six thousand and got down to three hundred before God gave him the victory. How many of y'all's volunteer teams is coming out of a Gideon season? You still don't look like you're good with it. That's I wanted to preach to you today about then they gathered. Then they gathered. Back then, when they gathered, there was

no multi psych technology back then, when they gathered. There was no nonprofit exemption for charitable giving. Back then, when they gathered, there was no guarantee that they could worship in safety. And I'm not talking about masks back then, and they gathered, which is a miracle in itself that they're together again. If you remember at the Cross, it says that all of Jesus disciples, the one we just listed,

they all scattered when he died. So I was happy to see in Acts chapter one, then they gathered that although the disappointment and disfiguration of their picture of the way the Kingdom of God would look when it came in power had been completely devastating to their faith and even caused them to fail, that God brought them back to this moment to give them a divine, supernatural empowerment for the task of taking the Gospel to the world.

They gathered everybody shall gather. We went through a season where the way that we gathered changed so much. But I found a verse that I want to show you that all of you good Baptists. Are there any Baptist in the house, Are there any recovering Baptists in the house. I went to a Baptist school and before that I spent a lot of time in Baptist Church before you know, I grew up Methodists. But they always quoted this verse in prayer meeting because nobody really came to prayer meeting.

I'm telling you the truth. There would be nobody at prayer meeting because Brother Wilson would pray for fifty five minutes and I'm hungry. So nobody came to prayer meeting, not because they didn't love God, but brother Wilson didn't know when to shut up, so it be a very few people there, and it could feel kind of discouraging. So somebody would quote at the beginning of the prayer

meeting Matthew eighteen nineteen. Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on earth agree about anything to ask for by the puck no Heaven, watch us verse twenty for where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them. I only ever heard that verse as an excuse for bad attendance. You know, well, the word says, if it's only two or three, Lord, you're here with us, and we know sister Mary has a cold, But Lord, is me and Wilson show up? Lord?

But I started quoting that verse with renewed fervor and a revived vigor. Last year, I'd be looking out to preach back in March, and the cameras were on, and nobody was really in the room but Chunks over there underneath the camera. And you know, Chunks loves the Lord, but his face doesn't know he loves the Lord yet when I'm preaching and he's my guy, he's my guy. Well, I look over at Chunks and I'd be like, Lord, you said two or three. I look at Holly. I

got Holly. I got Chunks. We can do this. Have you ever had to gather something that was but what I love about our church that I saw last year, what's that We didn't stop gathering. We had to adapt, but we gathered and we stood on the promise of Matthew eighteen that was spoken by Jesus. If it's just two or three, God, I have to count the cat right now because I'm a part of Epham and I didn't plan to be. But hold hands with me, little kiddie, because the biple said, if two or three, I'll be two,

you'll be three. And let's phrase the Lord together. I'll be Paul, you'll be silas, we gotta get out of this prison. You'll stop. They gathered. Now watch this, not the crowd. The crowd was long gone. And we talked about gathered. Let's talk about they. They blind, Bartimaeus didn't gather. The woman with the issue of blood who was healed by Jesus is not reporting as having gathered. We're where's Lazarus? Isn't it crazy how certain seasons will thin out? Who

is your perception of they? And before we give the disciples too much credit, they didn't stay till the end either. Just John and the women. Just go to the narrative. Go to your favorite Easter story. Look at the cross. You're not gonna find loudmouth Peter. You're not gonna find honest Thomas. Y'all remember we renamed him. None of them are there? Just John and Jesus Mama. Then they Yeah. The the reason I was excited to come preach today is I wanted to talk today. I still happy, you know.

Did you see Holly tear up? She teared up because it's a difference between them and they. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think you're perfect or anything like that. I would have ever put that pressure on you. I don't think there's people in this room, you know who haven't who

haven't struggled. I don't think you know there's there's thousands of people right, so I'm not I would say, by the law of averages that there are leaders in this room who got high in the last day or two and are still trying to press forward and still do

what God called you to do. I have to be real about that, because if we think that the day that God uses are the ones who never cussed anybody out in target trying to get some toilet paper, I'm gonna have to update that reference never cussed anybody out at a gas pump and beat you over the head with this gas pump. Look, that's not an excuse for us to not grow up in the wisdom and maturity

of God. But it is a permission for us to realize that there is grace for adaptation and you are not yet all that you will be, but that doesn't stop you from being. They shout, they they. I think who you include in that day in your life is maybe the biggest determining factor in where your life ends up. In some days, you don't get to choose. Some of that is determined by circumstances outside of your control. But for me, this is my day, this is what God

called me to give my life to. They gather even though Peter cut off Malcus's ear in the garden. He gathered on the mount of Olives, even though he couldn't stay away. While Jesus was sweating like drops of great blood as the capillaries were bursting as he was preparing to go to the cross, Peter, James and John were sleeping. They gathered. What I'm trying to say, don't beat yourself up too much where you can't receive the grace that

God gave you to change who needs this. Sometimes I don't feel like they honestly, Sometimes, as I observe myself in contrast to the standard of Jesus Christ, you know, there's a lot of unworthiness that can get in. And what the enemy would love to do is to use just to believe in the devil more than ever. Pastor Fernick, I'll tell you right now, sleeps in the room next door. I see the NFL. I'll introduce you to him. I'll

show you a picture. But what the enemy loves to do is to use the condemnation to keep you from receiving the grace that would enable you to change, to get you to think that you are not they. But it said then they gathered the same ones that scattered at the cross gathered at the ascension, and there weren't many left. There weren't many left at the upper room. One hundred and twenty, to be exact, one hundred and twenty young people we had when we start our church.

The first Sunday we ever gathered one hundred and twenty one. I wish it was exactly one twenty, but I got to tell the truth that was one twenty one. But let's pretend the one was Judas one hundred and twenty. Guy, we got to make this an illustration work. It's only what I got. And I'm telling you something about this last season, y'all. Is there an acoustic guitar? Just bring me a guitar? Something about this season of church and ministry.

I thought I should share this with you today. It brought me back to realizing that God didn't just give us a crowd called Elevation Church that buys tickets at tour stops and listens to songs on Pandora and watch us sermons on YouTube once every five weeks. God gave us a core of committed disciples, imperfect disciples, and we wanted to remind you is it coming. We wanted to remind you, I'm gonna do like the disciples and wait for the gift in the upper I'm waiting for it.

I'm waiting for it. I came to remind you that you're still they. God gave us Holly a they when we were praying back in Dellwood Drive, three point thirty Delwood Drive, back in Shelby, our first home that we bought for ninety two thousand, five hundred dollars in Shelby, North Carolina, when we were there praying, and back then, back then, back then, back then, when we were praying back then, these are they? Does that blow your mind? Now?

They're dysfunctional, just like us, and they got bad tempers sometimes, just like us. And they don't read their Bibles every morning like they should, just like us. Oh, you're a pastor. I'm a person too. When I'm there, Peter preached on the day of Pentecost after cussing to the girl at the campfire. All the days makes some noise, Yeah, when they see us like Elevation Church out in the community doing good and giving cars to single moms and giving

education and supplying. I want them to say, there they go again, there they go again, acting like they really believe that it's more blessed to give than they received. But see, you know, there's there's there's a great value for me in realizing back back in the day, how

when it was just one. We have these cool worship songs like graves into Guard the blessing, but we we would just sing like the old songs like Robin Mark songs like these are the days of Elijah declaring the word of the Lord, and these are the days of your servant Moses, righteousness being restored. And though these are days of great trial, of famine and darknesses, now pull up. I was the worship leader because I could afford me. I couldn't afford Carrie Job and Chris Brown, and I

couldn't afford all of that. So it was just me saying, oh, he come ride in on the clouds, he dine in like the sun at the trumpet, call your scar of jubilee out of science, Sili this god like jehul Now what was the blessing for me of the last fourteen months, as our church has had to reinvent from the inside out, has been to realize, just like the disciples received the greatest gift of God's presence in between what they had already known and what they couldn't possibly predict, that God

was creating for our church a space for what we didn't even know to pray for yet. And in January we got together with Elevation Worship in Maverick City and recorded this album called Old Church Basement. And even though the campuses are open and some people aren't going back, I mean, God love them. They'll go everywhere else but church, but God when it comes to church. All right, now, I'm gonna tell y'all that story. I wasn't gona tell you.

I was at an establishment recently, and normally the people that are so nice that say we love your church, thank you for all that y'all do in the community. And usually they say y'all, which makes me feel good because this church is not me, it's they all right. So anyway, this woman was not saying any of that. She said. This woman said, what are y'all doing having church right now? I said, oh, man, well you know,

there's multiple things. We have our online ministry for people who aren't able to come, and we do all that and it's amazing. And God positioned us for that because we look really smart when this pandemic hit, like we had foreseen the strategic global pandemic and we'd set up our online ministry so that we could have a dispersion of no no, no, no no no. That was just God setting us up. That was just the grace of God that he knew we needed for the transition. We given

the glory for that. So I said, our teams are amazing and they can watch and we put all of that out. And I said, but I said, but the people who want to come, we open it up. It's safe. Our teams are doing a great job. Our volunteers are doing a great job. And she goes, I don't know if I believe you. That's a lot of people. I said, it is a lot of people. And what I'm telling you is you don't have to come. Is online nine thirty. You know, I just forgive me, Lord, I am day

and and so. And I should have walked out. I should have walked out what I did. And she kept going, I mean, just going and going, and then it hit me, Wait a minute, she's arguing with me about having church, and she's standing right here with no mask on, one of those one of those saints of God, one of those that has nothing to do with my point. But what I'm saying was it was a gift for me. It was a gift for me. In the last year, I wasn't happy about people who lost their jobs. I

wasn't happy about nurses working eighteen twenty hour shifts. I wasn't happy about kids not being able to go to school. I wasn't happy about people that were sick, obviously, people whose lives were hanging in the balance, and even those who lost loved ones. But what I became thankful for through the process of navigating ministry in the time of such isolation, was that the space that God left us was the room for something new that he wanted to do.

And I never forget. I don't think I've told anybody this, maybe not even Holly, But we were writing this song. It was one of the last songs we finished for the album Old Church Basement, and the song was called Come Again. And Holly put in an air sermon last week and it talks about I'm open and so get this at a time where we have all of these

empty seats in this church. We came in. It was a two night recording and everybody was tested before they came in and everything, and we did everything right, okay, And but then we came in here and we turned this whole church like right there where you're sitting, sir, yeah, right there with the hood right there. Yeah, well you two, but like right yeah, yeah, that's what I was talking too, right there, and the whole room was empty. And I asked Chandler and Brandon to meet me and finish the

song because it needed to be finished. And it said, it's not a building you want to fill, it's my heart and that's all it said. And I didn't know what would come next, and we had to record it that night. We had written songs for six months and we just needed one more line. A building you want to feel. It's not hot, feel it up, God, feel it up, feel it up, feel it up, just trying

stuff like an hour. I sat right there, I sat right there where you are, and the Chandler is on a piano and Brendan's on a microphone, and then a prayer came to me and I sang it, and I'm not the best singer, but I can get the job done when I need to. And I said, it's not a building you want a film, it's my heart. And I looked up at all the seats in this room,

this room, Valentine. I know everybody's in different rooms, but this room that I'm in right now, and I said, this empty space, it's what you want it all along. And I'm looking at the empty seats and a part of me wants to cry because these seats are so expensive. This building costs so much money, like Ladon Norman and Riverwalk, and all these empty buildings give me an ulcer as

a leader and a CEO, but as a pastor. What if this empty space is what God wanted to where When Jesus left the disciples in bodily form, he sent the spirit to live within. And when the spirit came, he said, greater works will you do in my name than I did in my body. But for the spirit to be received, the body had to be released before

we shout about you will receive power. In X one eight, we have to talk about releasing our need to control or understand everything that God does, And isn't that the hardest thing in the world? After all we've been through together, y'all won't be honest with me. Isn't it the hardest thing in the world to release your death grip on your plans for God? Because you know what Jeremih twenty nine to eleven says, God says for I know the plans you have for me. Oh, it doesn't say that

I know the plans I have for you. But the first step for those plans to be activated in a community or in an individual life is that you have to release the plans that were in the place where God wanted to do something that you didn't even know to pray for him to do. So the more I sang it, the more I understood it. This empty space is not that God isn't going to rebuild our church or our churches are gonna be full against. These buildings are gonna be full against, These buildings are gonna be

full again. These buildings are gonna be full again. These buildings are gonna be full again. These seats are gonna be full again. That orange seat, that gray seat, It's gonna be full again. Shout is gonna be full again. It's gonna be Don't get used to having all that elbow room, baby, because I promise it's gonna be packed out again real soon soon, and very soon, somebody's coming to take your seat. We're not doing empty rows for the next three years. No, We're about to build this

thing up for the glory of God. How prophesie of you, empty row, Here comes a sinner, Here comes a sinner. Here comes a sinner. Here comes a sinner, Here comes a sinner. Somebody shout here they come here, they come, here, they come, here, they come the line, the lane, here they come to hurry the broken. Here they come here, they come. Here they come, and the glory on the

lower house shouting greater. Whoa, I'm feeling annointing on this empty row that represents everything that is exceedingly abundantly My Papa, that you ask for a matt, He's able to do it. Here they come boot, Oh God, then they gather. God said, I had to make some space for they space for the Huh. Make room, you remember, make room, make room. Stretch your tent curtains wide, Do not hold back, do not bear. You will not be ashamed. You will not

be disgrace. That's the prophet I say. I'm preaching to us. I'll pour you out of blessing that you will not have room enough to receive it. Question, is that a promise or a problem? So I wonder is this what God wanted all along? Not the virus or any of that. Please don't misinterpret, y'all know me better than that, right, Come on, there's no trolls in here today. Are they trying to taste? Okay, okay, I'm just saying, then they gathered, then it would be one thing to say then they

gathered after they had received the Holy Spirit. But the profundity of it is that they gathered while they were waiting. That's why I love y'all, because these are they that didn't wait, that didn't wait for restrictions to be lifted, that didn't wait to have more answers. You know what, the best thing Jesus said in Acts one was for those of us who are control freaks and have a hard time releasing the way it used to be. It is not for you to know. Did y'all skip over

that part? I know you did. You wanted to get to the part you shall receive power but in the unknown, that's the space. I don't like not knowing. I don't like not knowing. I don't even like not knowing. In it funny, God gave me a sermon that he changed at the last minute while I was telling you that it's okay not to know. The Lord is funny, got jokes for it. But I wonder did God put this on the calendar because he knew the moment that we would be in as a as a global ministry. Then

they gathered when after they scattered. So this is something God gave me too. He said, tell the church, tell the ministry across every location. This is not anymore. There's the local church and then there's the global church. It's one family. Now this is they, this is they, And the last year is forced us to be more creative. We had to figure out. Thank God for the teams that God gave us just to keep the gospel going out no matter what. That's amazing. And I'm talking about you.

But the Lord said you were scathered to gather together. Let me say it again without messing up the point by mispronouncing the word. You were scattered to gather. What else is scattered together? Let's think about it. Someone twenty six, sit down. I have a little more teaching to do. This is a psalm of a scent, so means they would sing this song going up to church, going up to the House of the Lord, they would sing this.

This one's a little different because it was written after exile, so it was a song about what God had done for them after they had spent a long time in another place. And that's what I thought was significant about this. And we have our songs of a scent, right, we have our songs that we sing in church as people are coming in. And sometimes that's the ones where those people who really like don't have a lot of rhythm. They just stand there and kind of watch and they

wait for them. They're just waiting for the worship song. I just love the glory in the present. I don't want to walk how you walk on weather. I don't want to do any of that. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine, you don't have to do it. But the Lord gave his people a song for when they were going to the House of the Lord. And listen what he said. I want to read you the whole song. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion. We were like those who dreamed. We couldn't even believe that it happened.

We could not even get our mind. We were like those who dreamed. It seemed so crazy, it seemed like a dream. Our mouths were filled for laughter. Now this is five eighty six p. See, they've been in exile. The people are coming back. This is the song. God gave them. Our tongues with songs of joy. Then everybody shout. Then then then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for them. Then it was said among

the nations. Then verse three, when we came back, when we saw what God brought us through, then it was said among the nations, this is then this is then if you have ears to hear today God is saying this is. Then then they gathered. Then the nations will say, and it is a trick for you to always think. Then is somewhere out there when I get my teams back up, they ain't all coming back. Judas is dead. Okay, we gotta pick Matthias and build another thing. Right, we

gotta cast some lots and get another disciple. I'm not calling that sweet lady who couldn't come back and be a greeter Judas, I'm just using an analogy. Then it was said, after we spend a time in a foreign place, but trusted in God to get us through it, that's what you've done, That's what you've not perfectly. Then it will be said. Then they gathered then, and the Lord is saying, this is then, this now or never. The Church either has a message or we don't have a message.

We either are the bride of Christ or we're just playing around, just dating Jesus, just conveniently hooking up with God when we need something. This is then, and this is they. He said, when the Lord brought us back, we could not believe. When the Lord restored the God,

would you restore the fortune of Zion? Would you visit your people again with an outpouring of wisdom, with a message of reconciliation God, with peace flooding our veins, so that we walk in the earth as Christ was, so that we stand in the stead of the Living God, urging men be reconciled to God. Turn the times of refreshing may come from the Lord. I declare that these are the days of Elijah These are the days of Esekiel, the dry bones becoming as flesh. This is then you

are vain. We have gathered in the name of him who became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. And you are a chosen people, a royal priest, a holy nation. The Lord Word has done great things for them. The Lord has done verse three great things for us. We are filled with joy. Restore our fortune flory like streams in the Negath, like streams in the Negath. That's a dry place than Agath.

Oh God, it barely reigns in the Negath. But when it does, it rips through so suddenly that if you're not ready for it, it'll wash you out. And in in a dry place so long. But this is then God, When when God releases his spirit, when God floods your heart, when God does what he said he would do, you have to be prepared beforehand, because it happens so suddenly. If you're not ready, you won't have room to receive them.

Restore our Fortune's Lord, restore Goddess. In a season of restoring the years that the canker worm and the palmer worm and the coronavirus have eaten. But this is the verse that I thought I would leave you with, where he said, those who is so with tears, for everybody who has been mourning a disappointment in your life, for everyone who has been crying like the disciples cried at the cross, and your life has been scattered. The promise is that those who sow with tears will reap with

songs of joy. And those wait, let me ask a question. Who are those that God is speaking to today? If this, you lift your hands to heaven. If this you lift your hands to heaven, you don't have to be in this room. You know that by now those who go out weeping carrying seed to sew, Because even though you've been weeping, you never stop sewing. That's the thing about it. Even though you've had you've had depression that's been in your own life, but you kept, you kept doing what

God called you to do. You kept your eyes on the joy set before you. You kept sewing. So the promises that those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow, these are they that sowed anyway. These are those that gave anyway, These are those that prayed anyway. These are those that quoted Matthew eighteen over your two person e group on a zoom call in April. These are they that sewed anyway. So you're ready for this, Here comes

the promise. Get ready. It's a gully washing promise, like a stream in a dry place, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheets with them. So for a season they weeked, but then they gathered. For a season they had to weep. But God said, it's reebig time for indue season. You're sorry if you faith not. If you faith not, these are they that did not faith. These are they that waited. Lift your hands up, stay that way,

abo the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles, so running acrow wary they shall walk, eh not faith, These are they that waited. And now God, now that we have made room, not for our old period of church, now for our limited confides of what ministry looks like that was limited to physical buildings. But I believe that you scattered us for a season to gather a harvest for an eternal purpose.

I can't say that again. He scattered you for a season to gather for an eternal purpose harvest unto himself. These are the days of the greatest ministry that we have ever seen. But it's been scattered, it's been all over the place God knows it has. Does that feel like your life, your mind, even your priorities? I felt scattered, really disoriented at times. Who cannot trust who's with me? What's going on? What will it be like on the

other side. Then they gather from my heart. Thank you for sowing in the season when you were personally struggling, even if you scattered for a little while. Welcome back. There's room for you in the heart of God. There's room for you in the plan of God. There's room for you in the story that He's telling. And now we have all this room to receive from God whatever

he wants to do next in our ministry. I thought I would end my portion of this time by turning our our auditoriums and living rooms and cafes where people are meeting. They got through that in cafes. I just imagine someone's in a cafe somewhere. But maybe we can make it in upper room for a moment. Maybe we can be one twenty. Maybe we can offer God our lives as a foundation on which to build whatever he wants to build next. But I don't want you to

miss it, because I slipped this end. At the very end. They scattered seed in the dry season. Gather the harvest. You've got so much to look forward to. Please don't give up on God. Please don't give up on yourself. Please don't diminish your gifts. We've got so much to look for with you. And there's grace. There's grace for adaptation, there's grace for mistakes. But we've got to gather. We've got to gather. Then they gathered, They sowed in tears.

They brought home a harvest. They sowed in tears, and they reaped enjoy. So Lord, we're going up there with Bartholomew and Philip and Peter, James and John, the sons of Thunder. They were so messed up they asked which one of them could sid at their right hand, your right hand and left hand, and you still let them come. So we're good coming up here with the women Mary

Magdalen married, the mother of Jesus, and the brother. We're coming up like the one twenty, and we realize that you're reinventing us even in this moment, because we'll look back on this day where we gathered and felt so good, and then you send us out, and you scatter us that you might gather us again. Lord, I thank you for everybody in this room, beyond what they do in our church. God knows they're more than an usher. God knows they're more than not that these things are little,

But God, they're walking in multiple roles. And I thank you that you scatter your people everywhere in the world. You put some to be dentists, and some to be doctors, and some to be lawyers, and some to be teachers. You've got your people everywhere. That's how your kingdom advances. As you scatter us so that you might gather unto yourself, a renewed people. Then they gathered whatever happens next Lord, in our local communities, whatever limitations are, unforeseen, turns or

twists it takes. We're not leaving Jerusalem. We're waiting for the gift. So in this upper room right now, come Holy Spirit, Come breathe into these slang that they may live. I want to pray for somebody who's been out of church and they miss you and you miss them. Bring them back. Rejoice Signore we've got room for them. I want to pray for those who kept coming to church. But because we didn't really know, we just got so turned around and confused. But then they gathered without knowing

the answers, they gathered in faith, and you moved. And now this same Jesus who was taken up, this this same power that raised him from the dead, it lives in us. Your church. Restore the fortunes of Zion. Lord, and the glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former house. This is then, This is then, not when we were back in quadruple overflow at Valentine. No, no, no, this is then. Then they gathered. Then they gathered, Then they gathered. I thank

you Lord for our gatherings. Tomorrow they'll be like some of them will be one ninth full. Then they gathered. Yeah. God, Yeah, God, Yeah, God redeemed the empty space, give us a new norm. We thank you that this ministry never stopped reaching. We reached more people in this last season than we ever reached. You did a greater work than our linds could company.

So I release your people in the power of your spirit. Now, God, these ministry gifts that you've placed, their intelligence, their brilliance, their love, their compassion, their consistency, Be multiplied into the earth, Be multiplied into our cities, Be multiplied into your kingdom, Your kingdom. Come. You will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then they gathered in Jesus' name. Amen, we love you, Thank you, scattered together. I hope you receive that word today. I hope it was just what

you needed. I'm telling you, I felt like our whole church was supposed to experience it. I don't know if you heard what I said at the beginning, but I wasn't planning on showing that message to our whole church. But God gave me something and said, I want you to release it to everybody. And I believe it's what he's saying to us right now. It's what he's saying to me right now. And I prayed that this week God would just surround you with his favor. I know

I've already prayed. I know I've already declared this over your life. But I pray that God would restore the fortunes of Zion, restore your joy, your peace. I prayed that he would restore your health, anything that you've been lacking. We agree with you in prayer that God is a restoer and a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Thank you. Thank you to the thousands of you, tens of thousands of you who are a part of this ministry. Thank you forgiving financially. Maybe God would lead you to

begin doing that right now. You know you're they right. You're the one that God is going to use. And I thank you so much for sharing these messages with others. That's how we spread the gospel. You'll always pick on me because it comes so close on these videos. Just like to get right up in your face, invade your personal space and let you know that it is an absolute privilege to minister the word of God to you. Bless you.