2023 Laborers' Conference- Session 1 "God's Means for God's Ends"

You know what I was supposed to do? I was supposed to play the short intro. Let me go ahead and do that. Welcome to the

Laborers Podcast, which is a part of the Truth in Love Network. Join us as together we strive to grow up together in all things into Christ.

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Now let's join our laborers for tonight's broadcast. All right.

And so this time it's for real. Here we are at the first annual

Laborers Conference 2023. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

That's where we are. Vertical Life Church, Newton, North Carolina. It's difficult for me to say this, but it's 111

West 8th Street. I can't say West and 8th too close together because I'm not sure why.

And yet here we are. Never have seen Brother Claude in person before.

It's difficult to imagine that you can know somebody as well as I know you and have never actually seen you without it being two -dimensional.

I'm glad to see he's a real person. At least we wouldn't have that delay too.

So do you want to arm wrestle? I mean, you talk about it all the time.

Yeah. Well, I'd have to be on the other side of the table. Yeah. It'd be just awkward. We're just going to call it one.

I'm going to say he won. So we joke a lot about arm wrestling.

We joke a lot about a lot of stuff. So, but on the Laborers Podcast on Thursday nights, every

Thursday night at 830, you're going to see come up on your Facebook live feed if you're on Facebook.

And so from anywhere from 830 to 930 to 10, just depends on our topic, our subject for the evening.

We are talking through the scriptures, which is wonderful. And so tonight we are going to be on just for a couple of more minutes here, maybe five more minutes because Big John is going to be going out to be on stage.

We're going to try. And play some music tonight. We're going to try that too. Definitely covet your prayers on the music part of it.

And so this is something brand new for us too, just so everyone knows this being on the spot at a conference, doing what we're doing right now, absolutely live, is a bit challenging.

It is a bit challenging, a little scary. So here's what we need you to do as you log in to whatever device you're streaming it from, whether this is, if you're watching this live,

I would like very much for you to comment so that if there's any questions, if you have a question concerning what is going on, if you have a question concerning the word of God, need prayer, we want to be there for you.

And in any capacity that we can be there, even if it's digital. So again, this is a, we're, we're hammering through some very unknown things.

We have, we have the IT professional here in the room with us as well. And Rob, and they're, they're trying to make sure everything's working.

If, if you are watching this right now, if you would like John mentioned, please just comment, say,

Hey, we can hear you, or we can't hear you or say, Hey, we would like some prettier people on the screen.

And so tomorrow there will be some prettier people on here, but tonight you've got us.

We just have to deal with what you got. That's all there is to it. So brother Robert Knapp is going to be preaching here in 10, well, about 30 minutes, probably because we're going to sing for 15, 20 minutes or so.

Don't know. Yeah, we don't know. We don't know. We're going to, uh, by any means necessary, we're going to worship the

Lord. And I already can tell that there's a, there's an attitude of praise.

I believe in everybody that's here. Uh, I've, I've been blown away that the differences of opinions and the differences of teaching that falls outside this group and everybody stays single of heart that this is

Jesus alone. That's right. And though I may be wrong. Yeah. I could be wrong.

I've been wrong a couple of hundred million times in my life. I've watched several, uh, debates lately where there was no,

I won't say love period present in the debate. And these were two

Christians who were debating something that wasn't salvific in nature.

Right. And you would think that at the very least you would be able to say,

Oh, well, we just disagree. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. And love one another. So I'm appreciative of my brothers in Christ.

And I appreciate you for, for having an opportunity to say, I respectfully don't agree with you.

I love you in here. Amen. Amen. That's right. That's right. All right.

So, um, we got, uh, maybe another minute or two here we'll do. Um, and we will, we'll give the people a, uh, is that right?

I'll jump over there and we'll do it real quick. I want you to, I don't, I don't want you to have to sit down.

You stand up. So y 'all, y 'all can see right here,

John's a big man. I am a little dude. So I would literally probably have to jump up on, on his fist and jumped up and down to get arm wrestling down.

But you don't want to break my hand. I can't get to all this. No, we don't want that then forget the arm wrestling, forget the arm wrestling.

So this is a, I mean, you, you see folks on TV doing what we're doing right now, like pre -show talks and stuff.

And it's, and it's almost surreal. Yeah. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say. Like Ricky Bobby, right?

With your hands. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing with my hands. I did. Oh, I'll tell you another thing we want to do.

Brother Jonathan Foster and his church has have been so kind to us. We want to thank

Vertical Live Church for opening their doors for setting up this. This is the fanciest room

I've ever seen. Full disclosure. I sit at my kitchen table. So sometimes if you listen, you'll hear like the dryer buzzing or maybe it's the dishwasher or something, you know?

And I don't, I don't know what I'm supposed to, there's two big lights and I'm scared to look at them because I won't be able to walk out of here.

So, but in all seriousness, they've been nothing but kind, nothing but hospitable. And really,

I think an example of the love of Christ that we're supposed to have for our brothers and sisters. Amen. Amen.

The scriptures tell us, and we'll close with this. The scriptures tell us do good unto all men, but especially them to that, that are the households of faith.

And so as you go along tonight, we're going to be switching over to the sanctuaries.

And we are going to, and we're going to let you just go live there.

I'm going to make the sanctuary screen, the main screen right now. I've been held in your hand from the moment that I wake up until I lay my head down.

I will sing of the goodness of God. Well, good evening.

I am so thankful that we're intimately together tonight to worship and to pray and to kick off this weekend.

We didn't know what to expect on a rainy Thursday night. We said, it doesn't matter if there's three, five, seven, two, 5 ,000, we're going to worship

Jesus. We're going to prepare our hearts for this weekend. We know we have a lot of folks registered throughout the weekend.

For us guys that call ourselves the laborers, we're excited. We're geeked out because we're always looking at each other through a computer screen, whether upstate

New York or Tennessee or wherever. So we're excited to be face -to -face and be fellowshipping together.

And we're really glad you're here. So tonight it is a night of prayer and preparation as well.

We are going to, we are live. We are going to be live with the stream tonight and that'll be going out just like it normally would on a

Thursday night, right? Except we're just doing a little earlier. And so we are glad you're here.

So can we, can we come in together? Is that all right? Like, like some of you folks in the back, they're coming on in, they'll come on in.

We'll come in together and fellowship just for a second. So stand up and here.

We don't believe in COVID in North Carolina. So shake hands. If that's all right. And I think you'll be fine.

So this song has been on my heart this week. It's taken straight from the book of Isaiah chapter six.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his road filled the temple.

And above him stood the seraphim, had six wings, with two he covered his face, two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And one called to one another, holy, holy, holy is the

Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Foundations and the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called. The house was filled with smoke.

And I said, woe is me, for I am lost. And I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King and the Lord of hosts.

And one of the seraphims flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he might have taken with tongues from the altar.

And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.

We talk about all the time seeing the gospel in the text. When God shows up, the holiness of something very important for us to remember tonight, and why that allows us to even approach.

We had one that cleansed in his son, to bear our guilt and take away our sin.

So sing with me. You may be seated tonight.

Welcome to the prayer night and warm up night for laborers conference 2023.

We are so glad you're here. I want to introduce you to our fearless leader.

Okay. Leader among leaders. This is a ministry and a vision for and a passion for.

He's relentless. He just won't leave you alone. Right, Dan? I mean, he's like the dripping water on the forehead kind of thing.

Eventually you get on his podcast and then once you get on there, you're just addicted. You know, it's just, no, not really.

I was very attracted to this ministry, this network because of all of us guys that participate on it, we come from a diversity of backgrounds.

We come from a diversity of denominations, the diversity of systems.

Luca, you would love these guys. Okay. You just, you just think you're like, you get in a room with these guys.

It's like, holy cow. Uh, and they, they always use these $5 words, you know, this like this long

I like. And so, uh, but at the end of the day, this is a group of guys that we've committed to love

Christ and fast to those non -negotiables, enjoy sharpening one another, iron sharpening iron, and asking hard questions of those open -handed issues, live together in fellowship as the body, as a body of brothers for the glory of God and for the message of the gospel.

And every single week somebody gets to share the gospel in our podcast, praying that people are hearing and receiving and believing the gospel.

And that's what this weekend is going to be about. It's going to be taking some topics. And what does the gospel speak into that specifically the supremacy of Christ all authority under heaven and earth in Christ.

How does that speak in the world that we live in? And so Robert's going to kick us off tonight and share, share his heart.

Tyler asked him, said, what text are you preaching? Robert said a lot. Okay. So, so it's going to be fun.

So you guys make our leader, Robert, feel very welcome tonight as he comes forward. While he's getting, while he's getting his

Bible open, after Robert gets through, we are going to have a prayer after that, specifically each of our labors.

So Dan, I know you didn't know this, but you're cool with it. But we'll go, we'll just take, but specifically over the area that we'll be speaking or like, so for example, so I'll lead a time of prayer over the home and over that session that God will minister through that.

We'll corporately pray specifically in those things. And each, each laborer will come forward and lead a time of prayer.

And then you'll be joining in corporately with us in that to pray specifically, because I know that there's going to be people in each session that God's going to minister to.

I'm very comfortable with that. Okay. So that'll follow the sermon and we'll have a closing song and we'll go home.

Okay. All right, brother. Appreciate it, brother. Can you hear me? Good. Um, so it's not really that important and I'm, I'm glad Jonathan did all that introduction.

So I don't have to do as much, but I did want to let you know who we were, kind of how it started a little bit of history. So at the end of 2019,

I needed an outlet. People have different outlets. So people go to the street,

I needed an outlet. And just like many other people, I was on Facebook and around that time, it was really popular to go to a community group for sale type group and people were selling things online live.

And I was like, I can do that. I can go on here and I can do that.

And I can share Jesus. So that's kind of how it started with me. I needed an outlet and that's where I found it.

And I started the podcast early 2020. And then God began to send friends to me.

Dan was the first one. Uh, actually he and I spoke, I think a number of years ago about doing something together, but then the

Lord brought us together, um, early 2020 and we began the truth and love podcast.

God brought more friends to us and that began the truth and love network. And then as that developed, we began the labor podcast, which is on Thursday.

And we're, we're thankful that you all pray for us and support us. We really appreciate it.

And the Lord has brought us together for this labors conference weekend. I'm really thankful for that, but it's not about us.

Just wanted to introduce us to you. I'm Robert tonight and I'm thankful for you. And I'm really,

I'm going to say this all weekend long. I'm really, really thankful for vertical and all that they've done and hosting us.

And so you're going to get tired. Like that's probably literally going to be true that I'm going to be thanking you so much because I'm so grateful for you guys and what you've done and opening your doors to this conference.

So let's begin on the topic for tonight. God's saving a bad world.

God's means for God's end. All right. So I hope you have a pen and a piece of paper with you tonight.

If you take notes, if you don't have a pen or piece of paper with you tonight, log it in here and stick it in there somewhere.

And hopefully you can recall it because if you, if you look at the schedule, but if it's not look at the schedule tomorrow night, we're going to have a

Q and A with the guys. And we hope that you guys will be asking questions of the panel.

And we're going to have another Q and A Sunday after the service. Ask questions then.

And we would love to try to answer. I'm not one of those that has the $5 word. Some of my other brothers do and they can give you some pretty good answers.

But I have a kickstart for your list of questions. And if you want to write this one down, if it intrigues you and you want to bring it back up, you can ask it, ask it

Friday during the Q and A session. So here it goes. Here's the start off your list for the

Q and A session. The questions that you may want to ask. So our first passage is

Matthew chapter seven, verses 13 through 14. Now listen closely.

Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction.

And there are many who enter through it. Now here's the interesting part. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life.

There are few who find it. Now here's the second passage.

Revelation chapter seven, verse nine. After these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could could count from every nation and all tribes and people and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hand.

Boom! These passages just blew my mind.

So which is it? In eternity are there going to be few that find it?

Or in eternity are there going to be such a number, such a multitude that we can't even count?

There's your question for the Q and A tomorrow night. This does relate to our presentation tonight, but I wanted to give you a head start on your

Q and A. And maybe you can look it up, come up with an answer and you'll be ready for it tomorrow night.

But I'm going to go with Revelation chapter seven, verse nine, that God is going to be saving a lot of people.

And I think that we would pretty much have a consensus among us all that God is going to save a lot of people.

The question is, how is he or how has he been doing that? And that's what

I want to bring to you tonight, that presentation. How easy and how has he been doing that?

I want to steer us in a direction and get us to a point where we are looking at what is

God doing from a certain perspective, from a biblical perspective.

And I hope tonight we'll be a little interactive. So I'm going to be quoting some verses that you're probably familiar with.

And so you can help me finish them. Starting in Genesis chapter one, verse one, in the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth. We're starting our perspective.

Okay. Genesis one thirty one. God saw that all he had made and behold, it was.

Wait a second. Very good. Genesis one thirty one.

It was very good. Absolutely. Genesis two, sixteen, seventeen.

The Lord God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden, you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. Romans five twelve.

Just as sin entered the world through one man, death through sin. And in this way, death came to all men.

First Corinthians fifteen twenty two. For as in Adam, all die.

So in Christ, all will be made alive. John three sixteen.

For God so loved the world that everyone believing in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

And Matthew twenty eight, eighteen through twenty. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. So what have we learned about God?

God has created and here's our perspective. God has created the heavens and the earth. It was very good.

God created man and man created the whole world. We have a bad world now.

God is good, caring and loving. But towards whom?

His entire created world. He has a plan to save a bad world.

God's plan is global. God has a global plan.

So those points should be leading us to ask these questions, or at least it did me.

So if God's plan is global, number one, why do I focus so much on my own salvation and my own sanctification?

Why do I focus or why do we focus on reaching and discipling our family? If God's plan is global, why am

I spending so much time? Why are we spending so much time focusing and reaching and discipling our neighbors?

Why are we so locally focused when God's vision is global?

We'll get there. I want to walk us through God's means in saving a bad world.

We know from the New Testament in John, and I'm going to read it from the New American Standard 95, because this has always been an intriguing, interesting verse to me.

We know that Jesus was there from the beginning. John chapter one, verse three, you have to listen to this verse very carefully.

All things that came into being, all things came into being through him. Apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being.

Nothing came into being that has come into being. It's almost like he's being repetitive.

He's saying the same thing twice. But what I figured out is that in my mind,

I like to draw pictures. I draw a circle, and this is where we can have a difference, a good biblical theological difference between the

Jehovah's Witness. Everything that has been created is in that circle, and Jesus is outside that circle.

He's not a created being. Everything was created by Jesus. We also learn from John that all things were made by, for, and through him.

He was there at creation where man was introduced into the world. Adam and Eve were given what we call the creation mandate, and I'm also going to be referring to the kingdom mandate, and I hope

I'm correct in comparing those two terms, creation mandate and kingdom mandate.

Go fill the earth and subdue it. They weren't to stay in the garden perpetually.

They were to leave it and fill the earth, and I think it should be understood that when they were told to go fill the earth and subdue it, that they were to be taking

God with them. Because of man's disobedience, sin entered the world.

They wanted to stay in the garden and continue to eat the forbidden fruit. However, God's command and his plan for his world did not change.

Man was forced out of the garden and was not welcomed back. They did go out and began to fill the earth, but because of sin, it was now very difficult and not very good.

Because of sin, man was tempted to not take God with him, and most of them did not.

The hearts of men were evil and sinned continuously. However, God always had a remnant.

God destroyed the earth with a flood due to man's sin, but saved

Noah and his family. God told Noah, fill the earth, and here again we have that creation kingdom mandate.

Go fill the earth, and of course they also should have taken

God with them. Population began to grow, but they failed to obey

God and fill the earth. They decided to stay in one place and build a tower to heaven.

Keeping with his plan, God dispersed them to fill the earth since they wouldn't do it themselves, and he confused their languages.

God's plan and concern for his created world never changes. The man again and again goes far from him.

God always knew this, and we as believers now, because we've been unveiled, we can see looking back with 20 -20 vision, man is unable.

They were unable to accomplish this task. Therefore, God intervenes.

He narrows his focus. God chooses a remnant so that through them, through this people group,

God would send someone that would save the world.

God promises Abraham a land, and that he would be the father of many nations.

Then we have Jacob, who became Israel, and then we have from him the 12 tribes of Israel.

We have Moses, whom God uses to take the people out of slavery and into the promised land.

God gives them his law through Moses and promises that one will come that is greater than him,

Moses. Generally, the rest of the story is God keeping his remnant together despite their best efforts to mess it up, so that through them, through this people group, he might save his created world.

From Genesis to Malachi, God continuously reveals through promises that through them, one would come to save the world so that he could fill his created world for his own glory.

God told them to go fill the earth, go save the earth, go grow my kingdom, and every time they failed, by narrowing his focus,

I mean that God went from commanding them to go fill the earth to, okay, we're going to keep these people, we're going to save this certain people group, so that through them, a

Messiah would come. He himself would come and save his world.

Then we have Mary, whose lineage we can take back and trace all the way back to the beginning, and she was given the promise, you will bury his son, his name will be called

Emmanuel, which is God with us. He shall save his people from their sins.

And now we get to Jesus, and we begin to start back onto the world again.

John 3, 17 says that he did not come to judge the world, but that through him, the world might be saved.

And then John 3, 16, again, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, everyone believing in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus accomplished this by his life, death, and resurrection. Victoriously, he ascends to heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of God.

John 16, 7, Jesus says, but I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I am leaving, for if I do not leave, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you. Now, if you would, mark this next statement.

Jesus' work, his work and ascension provided the ability for his people to now be empowered by the

Holy Spirit to obey where they could not before. Jesus' work and ascension provided the ability for his people to now be empowered by the

Holy Spirit to obey where they could not before. Now he sends his people out to fulfill that creation or kingdom mandate, to fill the earth by God's means and by God's power.

Matthew 28, 19 and 20, which we've already cited, all authority has been given to me, Jesus says, in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded.

I will be with you even to the end of the age. God has always had his chosen people through whom he worked.

In the Old Testament, he had physical Israel. Now in the new covenant, he has spiritual

Israel, fulfilling his promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the sands of the shore and the stars in the sky.

Romans 9, 6 through 8 says, but it is not as though the word of God has failed, for they are not all

Israel who are descended from Israel, nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants.

But through Isaac, your descendants will be named. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of promise, the promise are regarded as descendants.

We are Israel. We are spiritual Israel. We are his workmanship, Ephesians 2 .10.

We are his temple, 1 Corinthians 3 .16. We are his ambassadors, 2

Corinthians 5 .20. We are the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12. We are the bride of Christ, Ephesians 5.

We are his new creation, 2 Corinthians 5 .17. We are his workers. We are his laborers.

We are the means in which God is using to save a bad world.

Doug Wilson uses the analogy of an omelet in his documentary on saving the world.

He's way smarter than I am, so I'm going to try to explain it the way I understood it, which is probably different than what he meant.

But this is how I understood it. Jesus is the creator of the recipe.

Jesus is also the chef. We are the egg. You are the egg in the omelet.

All the ingredients, all the other ingredients in this omelet are all the different aspects of your life.

Jesus uses you as the egg to permeate and hold all things together so that it can be molded, shaped, and even flipped by Christ.

Here's where we can begin to answer our question from the beginning. Why is our focus so local when

God's plan is global? Because it is his means to accomplish his ends.

In other words, God's ways are higher than our ways. God's wisdom is foolishness to those who are perishing.

God's means to save the world is by working at the grassroots. It is with you and me.

So therefore, Doug Wilson says, don't be a bad egg. Do the things in your life that fulfill your moral, your ethical, and your spiritual obligations.

Pay your bills. Work hard and be honest. Love your wife as Christ loved the church, and respect your husband as Christ has commanded.

The list could go on and on, and we could go much deeper in application, and we will on Saturday. However, I hope you see the point.

Don't be a bad egg. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God, Micah 16.

And while you're living this life for Christ, remember this. Christians have a bad habit of living without joy because of the bad world they see around them.

Without a doubt, there is a bad world. There is evil in the world.

Our world is marred with sin. We see and feel the effects of it daily, sometimes in greater measures than we would like.

We allow this vision of the reality of the world to manipulate how we live in this world.

We have lost our joy because of how we interpret this bad world around us.

We see a sinful world, and we wallow in impending and inevitable doom.

However, this is not a biblical perspective on this bad and sinful world. Please throw away this bad perspective.

Here are two ways I think are biblical ways to view this bad and sinful world.

Number one, think of a piece of fruit. Think of an apple. Once this apple is full, it's bad.

And once it's gone bad, it's of no use because it's going to continue to decay and eventually go away.

Here, Hebrews 12 27, this expression yet once more denotes that removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which can be shaken may remain.

God's going to shake so that those things that can be shaken will be shaken and they'll be removed and those things that are his will remain that can't be shaken.

Bad cannot be sustained. Once an apple is bad, it's bad.

You can't fix it or doctor it up. Just like every evil empire in history has fallen, so will every sinful thing in this world.

Doom and destruction are not in our ultimate future. Evil cannot sustain nor remain.

That which can be shaken will be and removed. I hope you can see what

I'm trying to say. If you see something bad, it won't stay.

It will not be here forever. Number two, first Corinthians 15 25 to 26.

Jesus must reign until all his enemies are put under his feet. The last enemy is there.

Jesus defeated his enemies. He is defeating his enemies. His enemies will one day be defeated once for all.

Hebrews says it like this, chapter 2, verses 8 to 10. For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him.

But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. Therefore, when you see a bad world, see it through the lens of a savior that wins.

And bad things cannot be eternal because of the fact of their very nature is bad.

Keep these things in mind when you see murder, evil politics, hunger, cancer, and all other evil things.

They will all receive this double portion of the reality of God in the end. Because they are bad, because they are evil, just for that very fact, they cannot be sustained and they will go away.

They will rot and decay. And number two, Jesus is putting all of his enemies under his feet.

Brothers and sisters, we are co -heirs. We are brothers and sisters and serve the

King of kings and Lord of lords. We have been brought from death to life by the

Lord Jesus Christ. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. We have been commissioned or mandated with a victorious task.

We can pursue it with all of our being and with joy and with confidence because Jesus has already secured the victory for the glory of God and the good of his people.

Grace and peace to you, my brothers and sisters. Walk by faith, stand firm in Christ, and be strong in the

Lord and the power of his might. And remember that Jesus is

King. Go live in the victory of Christ, go speak with the authority of Christ, and go share the gospel of Christ.

Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this opening night of the Laborers Conference.

For it's not about us, it's not about us men or us this conference or our podcast.

We just want to point to you. We want to hear from your word. We want to love Jesus. We want to exalt

Christ. And we're humbled that you have given us the opportunity to do that with these brothers and sisters that you have given us, this fellowship that we have together, even with people that we don't completely agree with.

Father, you've given us a like mind that we remain faithful to the truths of Scripture and the foundations of our faith.

And where we disagree, Father, you've given us the heart to sharpen one another and learn from one another.

Father, we're humbled that you would choose us to save, to be saved, and be a part of your global work to save a bad world.

Help us to be the children, the husbands, the wives, the fathers and mothers, the neighbors that you would have us to be.

Help us as we share your gospel and help us to be careful to give you all the glory and praise and honor in Jesus' name.

So I want to lead us in a time of prayer now just to continue in that same thread. This whole weekend is a lot about what just Robert talked about.

We're going to cover a wide variety of topics. And so as we do that, we want to be praying.

Amen. I don't know how you feel, but I do.

I feel like we live in a pretty jacked up world right now. A lot of different things. But I'm very thankful that God is sovereign and on the throne.

And I was reminded this week that God always has a remnant.

He always does. So we're encouraged. So my responsibility this week is to preach on the home.

And so I'm going to start us in prayer and then laborers, if you don't mind, if you'll just come on up to the stage and Big John, just make sure that microphone right there is on.

And then laborers, just come on up and line up, introduce yourselves. And that way the folks at home can see who you are and know who you are and then lead in prayer.

And then following that time, Kevin, I'm going to ask you, if you would, to just lead a time of prayer over all of our laborers and speakers and teachers this weekend.

Okay. So let's pray. We're going to pray over the home right now. You can stand if you want to, or you can come together, however you feel led, whatever labors you come on up.

Father, thank you so much that you give us the institution of the home. We get to listen to your heart and your word.

You have a design for the home. You have a design for moms and dads.

You have a design for children. I just pray,

Lord, as the church, we would not apologize for what you've called us to do. I pray,

Lord, that you would strengthen home.

That would have become the first place that disciples are truly made. That it would become the first place that the children hear the gospel.

Revive our homes, we pray, Lord. Jesus. And I'll be, these men have been gracious to let me choose the title of the sermon that I'll be preaching on Saturday morning, but I'll be preaching from Psalm 110 on the topic,

Jesus is Lord. I've already given my message, but that doesn't mean you can't continue to pray for me.

I would appreciate that. Jesse Gomez is going to be giving the message

Sunday morning, and he is going to be preaching on the church. So let's pray for him and that time we'll have together.

Father, we lift up Jesse to you that you'll be even now preparing his heart, preparing the message that you would have him to bring to us.

Father, our churches need you. We don't need strategy. We don't need methods that man's wisdom that we can come up with.

We need you. We need to do it your way. And we want to hear from you and from your word.

We want to give you glory through what you do through your local church, through your collective churches as a whole.

And Father, we're looking forward to the time that we have together Sunday morning to hear from your word about your church.

And Father, we just pray your blessings on Sunday morning. And Jesse and his son, they got to come with them.

We thank you for that family in Jesus name. My name is

John. I'm speaking on the topic of evangelism and how God is sovereign over evangelism and has all authority.

Father, in Jesus name, I ask that you move, that you move on this church, that you move on this body of believers and those who tune in.

Lord, I pray that there be much made of your cross for the brothers and sisters who come to this place.

Lord, I pray your hand be upon them, that you guide them and direct them in all that they do.

Lord, that you show your supreme authority over spreading your gospel messages.

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Would you guys that are not laborers, when you laborers guys, you kind of come on the front row because I want to,

I want our folks to surround you. So if you don't mind those who are sitting, come on. Laborers come on the front row.

The rest of you kind of surround them. We do this at Vertical all the time. So come on. We got to do this. So let's surround these guys.

Perfect. Father, we just worship you and we thank you for this incredible opportunity that we have.

Thank you for these men of God that you have brought to us to share such valuable information that we need to know from a biblical perspective as Robert's even talked about.

Father, I'm very convinced that you are in this place tonight and you're going to be here this whole weekend.

And I'm also very convinced that the enemy is going to do everything he can to distract, to discourage.

So Lord, I lift up these men before you. I pray that they would be standing in the armor of God.

I pray you would protect their minds with the helmet of salvation, protect their hearts with the presbyterian righteousness as they proclaim truth to us.

I pray that you would keep them well physically. I pray that you would help them to be able to sleep well, even in a different environment.

Lord, I just pray that you would keep them strong. I pray as they speak that they would not speak their words, that they would speak the words that you have for them to say to us.

Lord, I just pray that this would be a springboard to even greater things that you're going to do because of what's going to happen this weekend.

Lord, we lift you up, us to lift the arms of these men up as they proclaim.