Okay, we should be live now, so we have today's June 5th regular JSOC meeting, we are recording this session as usual, one of the things to keep in mind that it seems we have some issues with handouts on air, because we had two recorded sessions day and yesterday, and in all sessions we had issues with screen share recording, so just in case we do some screen share, maybe the information may be lost, hopefully not. Okay, we don't have a specific agenda for the today's meeting, some we got a doodle sent out for transport evaluation phase, so on May 24th, sorry, on June 24th, the evaluation phase starts, and what is our plan? By June 24th, the majority of tasks within the scope for field coding phase is completed, the mentors will start the evaluation and we will use this gap in order to do some org things like doing demos for other contributors to present the work for stakeholders, like special interest groups, and also some planning for the next coding phase. So our expectation is that by June 24th we finish active coding for the phase and then we do some cleanup things, etc. needed, but then coding continues in one week. So this is our plan, and yeah, do you see my screen by the way? Yes, I do. Yes. Okay, now this thing was definitely messed up, but it should be okay, so yeah, this is what we have. Regarding the rest, I think we just keep coding what we discovered over past weeks that not all students requested the knowledge transfers, and not all students got the right knowledge transfers as a part of community bonding. So if you feel that anything is missing, let's discuss it now, and yeah, if needed we will schedule additional sessions. So yeah, we have several people on the call, including Jen. So is my screen visible? Of course, Natasha says it's not. Yeah, I can see it now. Okay. So Natasha, do you have all the information to do the coding or doing the additional knowledge transfers? I have some questions actually, it's like about them blockers. About knowledge transfers or about the project generally? Yeah. I think it might be some general, general knowledge, so if I should ask it right now. Yeah, well, we'll bring the topic up and we will see whether it makes sense. Okay. Just show you what it is, right? Yeah, well, so what's the area you want to talk about? All right, it's just about the, oh wait a minute, I'm going to share my screen. Okay, please do so. Yeah, because basically maybe Martin understands what's the context, I don't understand what you're asking about so far. Okay, wait a minute. All right. So here is a question. So basically, I want to, I have a base class called, no, it's not this one, called, I built the wrong plugin, sorry, it's a mess. Here, I have no base class called disk, right? And then I have some derived class, so which means, and there is a, and there is a heat hero list that is called inside the disk pool. If you look at here, you will find there is a property called repeatable hero property and it points disks and this disk is a list, right? It's a list of disks. But I want the, so potentially there might be multiple types of a disk. What I want to do is like, every time when I load the disk, I want to first load the config jelly here and these are the fields in the base class and then I want to add some, I want to add a, I want to include the config jelly in the specific disk type here, like in here. There are some, there are some type specific fields of each derived class and then what I do, I noticed that in EC2, it does it like this, there's config.jelly, just do some stapler, include the descriptor and something like that. But when I do in my plugin, it just doesn't show up. I don't know, is there any, anything I needed to, to like some prerequisites I need to meet to make this mechanism work? Well, the mechanism you're looking at, EC2 plugin is quite outdated mechanism for jelly because what we use is a repeatable property, describable property and other things. So what you see here is all the implementation, which was used before. All right. Yeah, it's still operational, but in the most of cases, you do not really want to have it in the new code base. The question itself, yeah, maybe it's something to ask me, but yeah, if you want to ask me, that is, but you need to mention me in GitHub or maybe bring a question in the mailing list. I didn't know that you have such a question. I'm not sure when it was asked. I planned to ask you here on Wednesday. It's just a question. Yeah, after the meeting is perfectly fine. So we firstly discussed general topics, so then we can use the rest of the time to do such Q&A. But yeah, basically the approach for such questions is that you just ask in the mailing list or in the chat. Because if you wait till this meeting, you'll probably lose several days while waiting for this meeting. And yeah, we want the project to be more dynamic. Okay, thanks. I have done my asking. Okay, so yeah, we can discuss in details later, but yeah, it's probably not the question for this meeting. We can discuss later. Okay, back to knowledge transfers. Do we need any? Okay, maybe another question. Does everybody know what is expected by the end of the first coding phase? I think yes. Yes, so if you need this information, this information is actually available on the student page. Actually, I know. I know. I mean, I know. I raise my hand and say I know. Just for others as well. So if you scroll through this list, there are some details about evaluations. But yeah, generally, we expect you to have online presentation. This is what we have doodle about. And you publish a summary page. In addition to that, of course, please spend some time on planning the next phases. Because some projects in the first recording phase already struggled to go forward because there was no clear plan what to deliver as a part of the first coding phase. So keep it in mind when you start the second coding phase and use this time in order to do planning, because it should really help you to iterate quicker when the coding starts. Okay. Okay, I know. Sorry, I didn't open my mic at the end of my mic. Yes, thanks. Okay. So regarding the rest, Natasha, do we have any questions? Yeah, I would prefer not to ask them when everyone is on if that's okay. Okay. Okay, that's fine. So do you want to talk after the meeting? Yeah, that sounds good. Okay, let's do that. Or actually, we have the org admins on, or do you just want to handle that individually? It depends. Natasha, so if you want to have other org admins on the call, let's do that. Yeah, I think everyone would be fine. Okay, then I'll just send a meeting and invite right after this meeting. So if you do it, well, maybe in 30 minutes, is it fine with you? Yeah. Okay, then I'll send the meeting and compare it with the discussion. Yeah. Okay. Okay, I dig up in the rest. Any other questions? Yeah, there's some background discussion from somebody. Okay. Yeah, I guess it was Swedish. Okay. Okay. So if there is no questions, I think we can just close the meeting or maybe managers and org admins would like to add something to the conference. I just want to say, Oleg, that it's much easier for org admins to track questions in the mailing list. Yeah, so questions go to the mailing list as long as possible. Regarding the question from your fate, if we are on this call, we can take a look. But firstly, there is no guarantee that this question really makes sense to discuss with everybody, then it might be complicated to just do it because somebody needs a background etc. So the preference. I have a question for Natasha. Natasha, do you have a link to your design document? No, it's just something that I wanted to talk about. Okay, I'm just trying to complete the important fields in the community bonding tracking spreadsheet. So that's why I was asking. Yeah. Okay. No more questions from me. Yeah, I'm missing any other fields, Martin. The repository for the working hours plugin is not set in this spreadsheet. There is github.com where you can see a working hours plugin. So this is the main repository for the project and I believe that actually it's one we used. Just a second. I'll show my screen again. Do you see my screen? Yes. Working hours plugin. So this is the target repository where we expect all the changes to land. At least this is my understanding for the project. Okay. Yeah, there is already some cool requests, but yeah, I guess that, yes, it was discussed in the Github channel, the plan that Jack will be pushing code here because right now there is a private repository in Jack's repo where the coding happens. And yeah, I also noticed that it's something confusing for people because there was a question in the mailing list from Zachary about the progress in the project and since there is no full request, it's really hard to track it down. So yeah, basically by the end of this calling phase we want to have all the projects in public operating with the NGTCI organization. Okay. Okay. So yeah, I think that it applies to all the projects. Okay. Basically, we have hosting requests from Natasha and other projects already operate within the public, so the remote and crawl strategy, external workspace manager, they use existing plugins, promoted builds for pipeline, they also use existing repositories as a target. So yeah, I think we are good there. Anything else? Nothing for me, Oleg. Yeah, nothing from me as well. Yeah, I sent an invite for this in Cubs, so yeah, we will jump to another meeting in 10 minutes. So if you want, we have 10 minutes in order to discuss other stories. Okay. Do you want to discuss your question or do you want to proceed offline? Well, I think I will post a new mail in the public mailing list. I think you said that the previous mail is not, the hair is not good enough, so I just want to create a new one. Okay. So yeah, when you create a new query threads, make sure that you put a topic subject to the title so that I'll try to keep the mail as long as possible because I can track the issues in one mail, but it looks like it's not good. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Thank you all. So if there is nothing else left to discuss today, thanks everybody. Let's just keep this meeting short so that everybody gets more time to actually write code. So yeah, thanks all. See you in one week or the next project meeting. Okay. Sounds good. Thanks. See you. Bye. Bye. Okay. Thanks. Bye.


Lord, here we are, we love You. We're here for You tonight. Lord, we want Your presence, Your glory. We want to minister to Your heart tonight. So even before we sing a song, Lord, we just come before You with praise and thanksgiving in our hearts, Lord. Lord, we enter Your courts with praise right now. Just begin to think of things to thank the Lord for in Your life right now, all over the room. Just begin to think of the goodness of the Lord in Your life. Yeah, just begin to lift up Your own voice. Thank You, Lord, thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord, we love You. We praise You, God. We praise You.  Sing Your own song right now to Him. Oh, we love You. We thank You, Lord. We praise You. Yeah, praise Him right now. Oh, You're so good, so kind. You're so merciful, Lord. We praise You tonight.  You're generous. You're merciful. You're kind. You're gentle with us, Lord. We love You. We praise You tonight. Praise Him. Praise God. Praise God from blessing. Praise Him. Just one more time. Well, praise God. Your own song right now to Him. Voice for your city. Cry out in intercession right now. I'm singing this song, I'm just reminded of the moment where Jesus in Matthew chapter nine says he came into a city and he saw the multitudes and he was moved with compassion because they were like sheep that had no shepherd. They were those who had been harassed, those who had been abused and Jesus was moved with compassion for them. I believe that when Jesus looks out over our cities that are represented in our lives and our churches, what sometimes we see as a distraction Jesus sees in deep need, dire need. So our prayers when we pray over our cities like that, we're not trying to, we're not getting God to do something He doesn't wanna do. We're asking Him to align our hearts with the same compassion that moved His heart when He sent Jesus to come and to die on the cross for our redemption. So all over this room, Paul said, I wish that men when they pray would lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting tonight. Let's just lift up holy hands in the presence of the Lord. Lord, we are asking you one more time. Lord, we know that you've moved in this nation through great awakenings and revivals. You've visited generations with your presence, with revival, with deep conviction and Lord, we your people are standing here tonight and we're asking you. Lord, with your eyes blazing with compassion and your heart beating with salvation, one more time, Father, would you move across this nation? Would you sweep across the landscape of America with a tsunami of grace and a weight of your presence? Jesus, as you walk across this parched landscape, let the Holy Spirit rest upon this generation like dew that refreshes and renews it. Lord, let it rest upon your church. Renew us once again, that Psalm 85 prayer. Lord, will you not revive us yet again? This is what we're asking for and we're asking you, Jesus, Lord, would you do it in us one more time? Renew us, speak to us tonight in this place, Holy Spirit, as only you can. One more time, give us ears to hear what your spirit is saying, give us eyes to see what you are doing and give us hearts of obedience to say yes and amen. Praying this tonight in the matchless, powerful, glorious, merciful name of Jesus. Everybody who agrees with that prayer says amen, amen.   There is nothing like that. This morning was, I just felt the presence of the Lord this afternoon, they met us again and I have no doubt that tonight is gonna be more of the same. So would you do this, would you just spin around, give somebody a high five, a handshake, or a Christian hug and let them know you are glad that they are here tonight and then. That is spread across all of North America and both here in the United States and even in some other nations that was formed in birth out of radiant church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Years ago, God gave us a vision of not just being a healthy spirit and true church but also giving birth to other churches and providing resources and relationship and apostolic covering for not only those churches that we've planted but also for adapting in and welcoming other churches that have their own autonomous government and their own vision and their own locations but wanna be a part of something bigger than themselves. And so the vision was born then to create a network, a fellowship that people could join and be a part of that would also provide them some of these things that oftentimes independent churches don't have and find themselves kinda out there. Pastor, your church has a unique mission. You have a unique calling before God and we're not gonna take that away. We're here to partner with you to help you thrive in accomplishing kingdom vision We've both been pastors for many years and we've learned that doing ministry alone is dangerous. Doing ministry together is fun, it's effective and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can connect with other pastors, you can certainly connect with network leadership and we can help you overcome and give you some keys that will really unlock some things that will help your church thrive into the future. Being part of something bigger than yourself is just a good idea. Yeah, resources, seeing what other churches are doing that kinda gives you that catalyst forward instead of having to go from zero to one, relationships with like-minded people that you can pray with, develop friendships, gather together, spend time with one another and then in many cases providing an apostolic covering for leaders, for elderships and for local churches. I believe when these things are in place, the local church is stronger and it's healthier and that church is able to fulfill its God given vision and calling in its region for this generation. And so for those of you who maybe are here for the conference and you're not necessarily connected to the network that we call Radiant Church Network, we want to invite you to check that out. I really think it's important that we all are connected to something bigger than ourselves. And it's important to find your people so that you can run together. How many know we're stronger together than we are by ourselves? And so we just wanna encourage you. We're not looking to gain anything as much as we just wanna help strengthen a local church, help leaders flourish in the call that God has for you. And so if you're interested in knowing more about that, we have a little kiosk, a little booth out in the lobby about the network. Please stop by there, we can give you that information. And then tomorrow night, everybody say tomorrow night. If you are a senior pastor and you would like to know more about the network, we're gonna have a dinner tomorrow night that's gonna be our network pastors, those of you who are senior pastors and your wives. We're gonna have a dinner tomorrow night. If you are a visiting pastor from a church that is not necessarily connected with us and you'd like to know more about it, you can register for the dinner. It's gonna be a fantastic dinner. I already know it's gonna be beef tenderloin and some other things. So if that's, it's not a burger, I promise you. It's gonna be really good, but more than that, you're gonna be able to sit at tables with some of our network pastors and leaders and get to make some friends, maybe get some questions answered and find a tribe that you can run with. And so I believe there's a QR slide right there. If that is you, you can scan that QR code and you can register. I think we have nine spots left for that. So nine pastors and couples, if you're together, please you can register for that and you can also stop out at the booth and get additional information. Hey, tonight I came out in worship and I got a text from a dear friend who slid up into our conference and surprised Michael and I. So Billy Humphrey, would you stand up? Billy Humphrey is here from Atlanta, Georgia. And, man, leading up to this point, Gate City Church in Atlanta, they've had 24-7 prayer in Atlanta for way more years than I, I think we did 10 days. And I don't know, you've done like 20 years or something like that. But just a hero in the faith, leader in the prayer movement, so glad to have him just pop in on us. And everyone, tomorrow you are gonna get to hear from one of my heroes in the faith, Dr. R.T. Kendall and his wife, Louise, are here. Would you guys stand so that everyone can just greet you and welcome you? So honored to have them here. And it just speaks so highly of them of wanting to be here and sitting on this, on this service tonight. Though my dear friend, Michael Miller and his wife, Larissa, found it and lead the upper room in Dallas, reaching millennials like nobody else I've ever seen before. Just been moved and inspired and encouraged by what's going on in their church, especially their worship and their heart for Jesus. He's one of my dear friends. I can't think of many other people I would rather run with. And we're just having the time of our life over the next couple of days. I'm excited to hear from him again. So everybody, would you stand to your feet? Welcome to the platform. Michael Miller as it comes. Thank you guys so much. What an honor to be with you. This is my favorite group to speak to. I love pastors. I've been one for 24 years in local churches. I've been a youth pastor. My first church was around 70 people. I had four kids in my youth group. Three years later, I had four kids in my youth group. It was a very unique church to work at. And then was a pastor at another church for five years as an associate and then we planted the upper room. So I've been a pastor of three churches and I just love pastors. I love guys that are in the trenches on a local level so it is an honor to be with you. And Lee and Jane, I love you. This has been such a fun three days just hanging out. Pastor Lee this morning talked about wartime pastors. And here's the beauty about events like this is wartime creates fellowship and friends unlike any others. When you find others that are in the same trenches you're in, something clicks and connects. And that happened at an event like this between Lee and I. And so I love Radiant Church, the Radiant Network. I'm gonna figure out a way to join. I wanna throw in, sign me up, I'm in. And he snuck one on me because we had dinner tonight with Dr. Kendall who is a hero of mine and I had no idea he was gonna be in the room when I'm preaching. And so I feel like I'm about to do layups in front of Michael Jordan, you know, like it is an honor to have met him and to be in his presence. And I also want to acknowledge just the Radiant staff, those that have put on this event with excellence. Can we just give it up if, thank you guys. There's a spirit of excellence here, a spirit of excellence and the gift of hospitality. It has marked me every time I've come here and I just love the Radiant crew. You guys are really carrying something special. God has ordained something here in Kalamazoo of all places. It's amazing that we're in the middle of a cornfield as Lee would say and encountering Jesus. And so I think he has more of the same for us tonight. Billy, good to see you, man. And just so many other friends. I wanted to start out just giving you some good news. Can I give you some good news? First, I wanna talk about Gen Z. I am so hopeful for what God's doing in Gen Z. I know that there's a lot of talk around millennials in Gen Z and upper room is Millennialville. We have millennials everywhere. We're like a H&M catalog. That's what our church looks like. And they are our Sunday night service, minimum two and a half hours. Usually we don't really have a clock. Just we don't have childcare in the evenings. But millennials specifically start lining up two hours before our service. And we will sometimes go from five till eight. I think Sundays went till eight. We've gone till nine. But there is just such a hunger for the presence of God. And so I'm encouraged about that. I'm also encouraged by what's happening in high school campuses. I'm a part of a team that hosts an event called Gen Z for Jesus. We're doing our second one on September 9th in Los Angeles. And I was just last week there with Brian Barcelona and Lou Ingle and we were just meeting with pastors. And this young girl came up to be by the name of Faith. And Faith is a senior at her high school in Newport, California. And one voice, part of their ministry is they encourage students, empower students to go into their high schools and start a Jesus Club. A Jesus Club is one hour during the school week where instead of going to lunch, they come to the Jesus Club. They bring their lunch and they worship and preach the gospel. Brian started it. They're at Roosevelt High School a few years back and it's just really swept across the nation. I think it's in hundreds of high schools right now. But Faith three months ago had Faith to start a Jesus Club in her high school. And she said, I'm not a leader. I'm not a speaker. I'm not an extrovert. I had no idea what I was doing except I felt a prompting by God. So I went and I found a sponsor and I invited a couple of friends. And three months later, so she started in January. I met her last week. They have over 200 kids coming to her Jesus Club. They baptized, this is awesome. They baptized 20 of them at Pirates Cove there in Newport Beach a couple of weeks ago. And then it gets even better. Wait, there's more. She was watching the Jesus Revolution film that just came out. And Lonnie Frisbee came through Newport and preached the gospel at Newport Harbor High School. Greg Laurie attended Newport Harbor High School, gave his life to the Lord at Newport Harbor High School. She's watching the film. She's a senior at Newport Harbor High School. And she's like, that is happening now. What God did then is happening now. One generation is telling the works to another. And I just am expecting Gen Z is looking for a cause to give their life to. And there's no greater cause than the gospel. We have something for them to give their lives to. And so let's be faith-filled when we look at that generation, amen. Just super encouraged. One more event I wanna tell you about is on July 3rd, my friend Peter Lewis who's just one of my best friends and associated it up a room. And Lou Engel, our hosting event in Philadelphia. It's at Philadelphia Hall, which I think is where they sign the Declaration of Independence. And we are hosting a communion service for two hours. You can go to, there's a website for this, just wanna tell you, because it's specifically for pastors. It's come to thetableamerica.co. Come to thetableamerica.co. And we want pastors, you stream it. We're not asking you to come to Philadelphia to take two hours that day and come to the table with us. We're believing for a communion revival across America that there's something about the table of the Lord in the presence of our enemies. He invites us to a table. He's feeding us, I think, as his shepherds. And we are gonna gather on the table that day. So I just wanted to make mention of those two events. It's really encouraging what Jesus is doing in this hour. So I really feel like I have a word for pastors this evening. I'm just speaking to you as if I was sharing with myself when I was 30. I wanna give some pastors the freedom to think differently tonight. I believe we're in a shift in our nation and I believe there's a massive shift happening in the church. COVID was a wake-up call. We are not returning back to what was. And I wanna maybe put framework around just what I see from my little perch as to what God's doing in the church and encourage you as leaders. It's gonna dovetail the interview that we did this afternoon which if you weren't here was really about the house of prayer. And so I wanna give a little more context to that. My story and then just some theology around that. So if you have a notebook, get it out. I've got five points and I'm gonna do something that I typically don't do to start this message out. In fact, they probably say you should not do this and it's to read a lengthy quote. But there's a book that I read when I started the Upper Room. I've only read one book from this man. He's a famous author that many of you have maybe read but I've only read one of them but I read this book every year with my staff because I think it's prophetic in nature describing where we're going. It's called The Apostolic Ministry and it's by Rick Joiner. And again, it's a long quote but this will tee up where I wanna take us tonight. So I love the first line. So the first line in the book, love this. It says there's more power and a single Christian than in all the armies on the face of the earth. This truth will become known throughout the earth before the end of the age. God dwells in his people and when his people come to know this as a living truth rather than a doctor in the world then we'll know this truth also. It says the emerging generation must have adventure in their lives. I think this is Gen Z. The devil often takes advantage of this need but God has put it in there for a reason. The final generation of this earth are going to live in the greatest adventure the world has ever known. There's no greater adventure than the true Christian life and the true Christian life is about to be restored to the earth. This truth and ultimate adventure is food for the soul. Many try to meet this need with movies, books through which they try to live vicariously but none of these will ever satisfy the longing for this reality in our lives. Nothing can satisfy this longing like the true Christian life. We must also understand, it's important, we must also understand that this will mean the end of the church as we see it now. Radical change is coming and those who are not discerning enough to see it and become a part of it will not survive much longer. This is not a slam against the church as it is which has been effective in its time and powerful salt and light in the earth and its generations. The church is also the mother of the great last day ministry which is soon to emerge to Benjamin. The last son born to Israel, the same will happen to the church when the last day ministry is born. A major part of the church as we know it is not going to die because it has failed but because it has succeeded. It has given birth to the ministry that will help the world transition between the church age and the kingdom age. When Benjamin was born, this is so, so powerful.  She named him this because she was dying however Israel. The father changed his name to Ben Hamim which means the son of my right hand. The right hand of God is where Jesus sits which in Matthew 26, 64 is coined the right hand of power. The reason the church emerged in the book of Acts as a force that could so change the world because the Lord was among them. They had encounters with him day by day. He was their message and he did great works among them because of this, it was not long before the most powerful influences on the planet knew these people and not long after were in great fear of them. These believers shook the earth with their message and their lives and it is going to happen again. It seems as if the Lord purposefully, this is so encouraging to me. It seems as if the Lord purposefully chose leaders for his new church whom absolutely no one would follow unless these leaders were anointed with his presence. The people knew their leaders had almost all recently denied the Lord and fled from him when he needed them the most. These leaders did not have a great plan or program. In fact, there was no reason for anyone to follow them except one, the Lord had appointed them. He anointed them and he was with them. Their authority was a result of just one fact, the king lived in them. The first century church had really only one thing going for them, God. He was all that they would need. The Lord was in their midst doing wonders, teaching, comforting and providing and the last paragraph is this, the Lord had his first leaders in a place where they were completely dependent on him. They could not lead, build or even teach unless he was present. They had no other plan to fall back on if he did not go with them and do the works. If the Lord did not go with them, they were helpless. This is precisely the foundation that the church is about to turn to. Believe this, put great language to a transition that we're in right now. And so would you put your hand on your heart and would you just bring your will before him? And Father, I pray for yielded wills tonight. And lo that you would confront what needs to confront, be confronted, you would correct what needs to be corrected, you would direct what needs to be directed, prune what needs to prune. But Lord, we are first followers of you. And so we submit our leadership, we submit our influence, we submit our positions of authority, Lord, to you tonight. And we ask Lord Jesus that you would encounter us in a profound way in the name of Jesus. I pray, amen and amen. So I mentioned this morning there's a few more people tonight.  I was invited by a business leader to start a prayer meeting in the homosexual district of downtown Dallas. Oak Lawn is the name of it. It is described by church planters in our city as a church planting graveyard. It's where church planners go to die. And I watched many guys come into the area to plan a church alongside the same season we were planning a church that had more resources, more people, more vision. And they wouldn't last long. They would either shut down the doors or they would go to another part of the city that they felt called to. It was just extremely challenging and it was challenging for me. I had a background in ministry, I had a lot of gifts. I had a lot of tools at my disposal, but none of them were working. And it was as if the Lord was cornering me and stripping me. And he was saying, Michael, will you trust me? And will you allow me to build what I want to build? Now, I think before that, I would have said, sure, Lord, here is your servant. I'm ready, send me. But the process of him crucifying me and burying me, because this church planner died. He planted me. And here's what I learned about the Lord is that the Lord's, he does his best work with dead things. He does his best work with dead things. And in that process of him stripping me, I told the Lord several times, Lord, you've called the wrong guy. Like I have friends that are burdened for the homosexual community. I am not one of them. I like the burbs. I like guys that have the same struggles as me. But these people, I don't understand them. And the Lord spoke this phrase to me so clearly. In my wrestling and in my longing to go somewhere else, he said, Michael, I did not call you first to this neighborhood to minister to people. I called you first to sit in this room, which was self-described by this business owner as the upper room. We got the title of our church. He said, I called you down here to minister to me first. And Rick Joiner in that book, he asked a question and the question bothered me. The question was this, what if we as church leaders and pastors, instead of building communities that were first attractive to people, what if we started to build communities that were attractive to the Lord? What if our efforts and our energies were unto attracting Him and His presence? And those communities ministered to Him first. And so through the process of Him stripping me down, I learned what that meant. What did it mean to build a house first and foremost for the Lord? And so this is point number one tonight of five. One, I wanna encourage you as a pastor, as a leader, as a senior pastor, that we first build houses for the presence of Jesus. Let me say it again. I have a conviction and I have a conviction that where we're heading is that there will be churches that will be about a lot of things, but the distinguishing move of God is going to be God resting among us. God's presence in our midst. Us building homes for Him. I recently started my master's. I got sucked into it by my wife. We started a ministry school and a seminary came along and they said, hey, we wanna offer you an honorary degree and we want you to plug your students in so they can get their bachelors and you can be accredited. And so we went through this process and I wasn't that excited about going to school again, but my wife is a book nerd. She's like, tell me the courses we can take and tell me how, what are my options?  I was like, how quickly can I get a diploma? Like that's my approach to this. And so our first course though was Old Testament survey. And my wife was like, hey, we've got these chapters that we need to read and you need to write a paper and it's due like in two days and I hadn't read anything yet. And so she gave me the book and it was our Old Testament survey book and the first chapter was chapter eight of that book and the title of this book was beautiful. It captured my attention because the title was God's City Temple. God's City Temple. And it was about the Garden of Eden. And this author begins to lay the foundation and I mentioned this this afternoon but he lays the theological foundation that God designing the earth, the six days of creation that the climax, the apex of creation was the seventh day. And God resting wasn't him resting obviously because he was tired. God was resting because he was finished and he wasn't resting from his work. He was actually resting in his work. And the theological point that he's making is that Eden was designed to be a home, not for man, but first for God. That Genesis one and two is his living room. And that when we understand the design of Eden, we understand the designer's desire that we can understand God's desire to have a resting place on the earth which was Eden. Like Genesis 3.8, when he shows up in the coolness of the day in the garden, it was he who dwells everywhere. Amen? He's sovereign. He dwells everywhere. But he who dwells everywhere had a desire to dwell somewhere with someone, a space in place where he manifested himself. And then we know the question in Genesis 3.9. It's one of the most troubling questions I think in the canon, it's God asking man, where are you? Because he had built a home to dwell with the Lord. And so this desire in God's heart, it's found throughout scripture. This desire in his heart is still in his heart tonight. Lee gave you all a book. I was gonna preach on Psalms one to 32, but I don't think it's kosher to preach the chapter that the host of the conference, just wrote a book about. And so you guys read his book, but it's on Psalms one 32. And it's this desire that David found. David found this desire in God's heart and Psalms one 32 is Mount Everest of the Psalter. It's the vow that David made. David said, Lord, I will find a resting place for you on the earth. It was the distinguishing mark of his kingship. It's tabernacle of David reality that it was the center of all under his kingship. And so I know that when Jesus walked the earth, Jesus said something.  That's Luke nine. And it's about discipleship and it's about following him. And we can come up with some conclusions based on that, that Jesus didn't have a home, that Jesus was nomadic, but I think there's something deeper there because the word for rest is clean oh, say clean oh, clean oh is the Greek word for rest. He says, the Son of man had no place to lay or rest his head, but that's used one other time in the New Testament. And it's on the cross. It's in John 19 verse 30. It's after Jesus utters the famous three words, it is finished. And when he said that, when he said it is finished, it says that Jesus clean owed his head.  And it was at Calvary. Why? Because the work of salvation had been finished. Now get this, are the body of Christ. He is the head and I believe the Lord has a desire to find resting places on the earth for his head upon his body, which we are called to lead. But my concern tonight, especially in the West, especially in America is that Jesus lives in many of our homes, but he rests in few. And he who lives in us desires to rest with us. And if I can provoke you to anything, it's that we labor for his rest among us that our community would be marked by the last words in Ezekiel. I love Ezekiel. It's a tough book just to stumble into, right? Especially the last couple of chapters. Like it's tough to stumble into it, but the last eight chapters are Ezekiel prophesying of a city to come. Yeah? You guys with me? He's prophesying of a city to come. And he goes to the intricate details of the temple and the makeup of the temple. And again, you can like lost in it about the new ministry and the priestly ministry and Ezekiel 43's ministry to the Lord. But at the end of Ezekiel, it's like you've been really close, Google map, walking to the streets and the different addresses, but Ezekiel chooses to pull back. And you get this panoramic of the size of the city. But the last words of Ezekiel, what I want to focus on in light of what I'm talking about, because he gives the name of the city. And do you know what the name of the city is? It's the last four words in Ezekiel. The name of the city, I can't pronounce it in Hebrew, but the name of the city in Hebrews means this, the Lord is there. The Lord is there. It means if you're in that city, the best way to describe it is the Lord's there. The Lord's there. It's the coming kingdom. The Lord's there. The defining mark of it, the Lord is there. Do it in our hour. May it be the defining statement when people come into a community that I'm stewarding. They don't remember the preaching, although we'll preach the worship, although we'll worship, but they leave with this one gripping reality. God is there. God is there. God is there. I've seen the Lord manifest his presence in the hardest of hearts melt. My favorite testimony in the early days of the Upper Room when this DNA started to set in was, there was a man that was in the homosexual community and entrenched in it. His profession was to travel from pride parade to pride parade dressed up as a woman. He was a drag queen. And in the pride parades, I didn't know this, but the last float is a float of these drag queens and they have a pageant and there's actually cash prizes for the winner. And he was good enough and known enough that this was his livelihood. But unbeknownst to me, a few weeks later, he had had a sovereign encounter with God. He grew up in the church and had been running from it from wounds and he encountered God, gave his life to God and didn't know what to do. And a friend of his said, hey, there's a church in Oak Lawn. It's just a few blocks. You should go check it out. And so this specific night that I met him was the night of pride parade, which was two blocks from our church, which was always an exciting Sunday night. Good night. We were on the first floor windows everywhere and just people would stumble in thinking we were a part of the parade. We were celebrating something different. And anyways, he came up to me and he said, Michael, you don't know me, but you need to know my testimony. I said, what's your testimony? He said, last year I was in the parade and he tells me what I just told you. But he said, I've been coming to your church for the last couple of weeks. And I said, man, what an honor to meet you. I'm so glad you're here. What have you experienced in our community? And he said, well, I love it when you sing. I said, what do you love about it? And he said, well, I sit in the back corner because I'm a little shy and I don't know what you guys are all about and if you'll accept someone like me. But when you guys start to sing every time, it's like someone sits beside me and starts hugging me. I don't know why I feel that, but you need to know that I'm coming to your community. Maybe you have a program for someone like me. And I said, yeah, we do. Just sit in that back corner and let us sing. Because that person hugging you is Jesus. He's now traveling across the nation speaking to churches about homosexuality, the agenda and how to reach those loved ones that have fallen into it. It's phenomenal. But I've watched the presence of Jesus transform this man. There's a parable that I want to propose to you. It's out of Luke seven, if you have your Bibles. I want to take some liberties with this story to examine the modern day house of God. And this is a story you're familiar with. It's a story that begins with a Pharisee who I think had pure intentions. The Pharisee's desire was to eat with Jesus. He wanted to dine with Jesus. He wanted to inquire who he was. There was talk around the town. So he does what anyone would do. He had access to Jesus. He invited him over. And I imagine this Pharisee set a time, set a place, invited friends. He had a plan and the night came. And guess what? Jesus showed up because he always comes where he's invited.  Jesus answered questions. As they asked questions, Jesus honored all the protocols. But there was someone that heard about the dinner party. And it was a woman who was in the city and she knew she was in proximity to this man. She was not invited to the dinner. It's really important that you see that. And the Bible describes her as a sinner in verse 37. And it says, when she learned that he was reclining at the table of the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. She came prepared and unannounced, uninvited. She somehow made her way into this room and she stood behind the feet of Jesus. And I'm imagining Jesus was laying at the table as was custom in their day. And he might not have seen her at the feet, but he could have heard her begin to weep. And then he certainly felt the tears that began to touch his feet as she wiped him with her hair. And then we knew that he felt the kisses of her mouth upon his feet as well. Now the Pharisee who was hosting the party who had set it all up, he is provoked. He is disturbed. In fact, everyone's disturbed. And when he saw this, he said to himself, now this is important, it's an internal dialogue that the Bible tells us that her worship provoked inside of him. Now I believe this man was embarrassed because it was his home. And maybe his dinner guests thought that he was associated with her somehow. He, she's at his house. This is his party. He's responsible for what's happening. And so her act of worship brings reproach to him, which induces an accusation towards Jesus. And Jesus says this, Jesus says if this, or I'm sorry, the Pharisee says this, said to himself, if this man were a prophet, which he was inquiring, was he a prophet? If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is and that she's touching him and that she's a sinner. In essence, he would send her away. And Jesus shares a parable with her about forgiveness. Two debtors, one owed a lot. Another owed less. Asked Simon, which one would love him more for the forgiveness of the one that forgave him more?  But what I wanna highlight is verse 44. Because in verse 44, Jesus turns towards the woman. And he looks at Simon and he says, Simon, do you see this woman? Pretty obvious question, yes? Everyone saw her. And Jesus says this. Jesus says, I entered your house. Everyone say your house. I entered your house. And Jesus says this, you gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair. And he says, you gave me no kisses for my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. What is Jesus saying to Simon? Here's what he's saying. Jesus is saying, hey, Simon, I was willing to receive all those things from you. I was available to receive all of those things from you. But she offered them. What do they represent? I think we can see a few things in this. I think tears represent her pain. Kisses represent her affections. Oil represents her wealth and her treasures. He says, you gave me none of that. And I believe in our hour that Jesus is looking for people that will rightly respond to his entry. Jesus wants to crash our dinner parties. Jesus isn't looking for cute, put together meals.  He's ready to receive that from us. And listen to this. Listen to this. It's Jesus defines this. He defines this. He goes on to say, this is so powerful. For this reason, verse 37, for this reason, I say to you, her sins, which are many have been forgiven for she loved much. Who loved much? The woman loved much. Who she's loving? She's loving Jesus. What is this an example of? This is an example of first love. This is the example of first love. He rebuked the church in Revelation. You've left your first love. And I believe something that's happening right now is he's calling his bride back to him. We've been busy doing so much for him, but ministry to him. It needs to become central again. Loving Jesus looks like something. It's not doing something for him. Loving Jesus is actually loving Jesus. It's responding to him. It's creating places and spaces where we're adoring him. It's why he loved Bethany. It's why he couldn't sleep in Jerusalem. He always retreated to Bethany. Why? Because he was rightly received there. The house of Bethany. God's looking for houses that will break their alabaster jars. He's looking for houses that will rightly love him, that will rightly respond to him, that will study his coming, that yes, he enters in as the guest of honor, but as soon as he shows up, he becomes the host because the thing about this story is this woman postured herself in such a way she never says anything in the story. Although she says a lot, but she never verbally says anything, but she positions herself in such a way before the Lord that she actually receives exactly what she needs. He looks at her and he says, your sins are forgiven. She didn't ask for forgiveness, but she rightly honored who he was. And as she gave him something, she was positioned then to receive something from him. And I think we can put the onus on the Lord to meet those that come into our meetings when the presence of God takes us out of the plan. I'm convinced of it. It's building, rusting places marked by the presence of Jesus. The Lord is there. Is the preaching yes? Is the worship yes? But it's all unto a greater reality and the greater reality is Emmanuel. God is with us. I mean, you've heard it said that, you know, 90% of the activities today in the church would continue if the Holy Spirit was removed. I don't know who said it, but I just believe in the day and age ahead. It's not going to sustain us. We've been attracting people. We have attempted to be relevant and influential. And the Lord is looking for those that will come back to this posture. This used to be a theology for me, but now I've been living in it. And I see the grace that falls upon a house that's like this. We've not like toting a model because I don't think there is a model for a man. This isn't a science, it's a romance. There's not a how-to to do this. What it looks like in my context won't look like the same thing in your context, but it's the same one that I know wants to come because it's in his heart. He's looking for rusting places today. This is why the house of prayer is so important, but the house of prayer is unto something. Prayer is unto something. It's unto a person. It truly is. Can you tell how you're fired up about this? Jesus is looking for houses. So the second point is, if we're building houses for his presence, this is where we need to build houses of prayer. You know, Jesus said my house would be the house of prayer. And recently the Lord's just been speaking to me about the first word in that phrase. We talk about, you know, my house would be a house of prayer, but I think the emphasis needs to be on my. I don't know about you, but sometimes I got a house. I got four little ones. They have a lot of freedom in my house. But there's moments and times when dad needs to say, yo, this is my house. Oh, but dad, let's watch Mandalorian just a little longer. Don't judge us, all right? We love Mandalorian. No, no, no, it's time for bed. I have the final word in my house. Why? Because it's my house. And I think we as pastors sometimes need to be reminded of whose house we're stewarding. And I think the house of prayer is a means. I think the house of prayer, to me, is a blank canvas that has not been explored what this could look like. I'm so grateful, again, I said this this afternoon, I'm gonna say it tonight in the presence of Billy Humphrey and others who have labored to see houses of prayer emerge in America. I don't know of another ministry like what God has done in Kansas City and then Billy's been going 24 seven for some time, but I know that they would say this that it's a way to do it. And I think it's a red carpet for us as leaders to explore what Jesus meant when he said my house would be a house of prayer. I think we can explore that. For me, it has not been a quantity. I'm grateful for the 24 seven model, but just as a local pastor, I just never, never had a desire or call to build a 24 seven prayer house. And I am so, so utterly grateful. But for me, it's been about, it's been about the presence of Jesus. And so it's been about responding in those prayer sets to his coming. It's been learning how to study him, to study his emotions, to study his desires, to study what he likes. We read a lot about Revelation four and five, what God has chosen to surround himself with. But one of the things that I learned is the power of Thanksgiving. If you're building a house of prayer, I would say this start like the little hinge that begins to open up the door of what I'm talking about is Thanksgiving. You know, Romans one is a juggernaut when it comes to theology. Just I studied that a lot cause I was in the homosexual community. And it's like, bro, what do you think about Romans chapter one? Tell me about that. And kind of became known in the evangelical world as someone who cracked the code on how to reach homosexuals. And one of the revelations I got was in Romans 121. It says, for although they knew God, how many of you know God? Although they knew God, this is where it begins. It says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him or give him thanks. And it says, therefore he gave them and then this litany of sin, all that's wrong ensues. In fact, Paul at one point in that part, he's like, they'll become inventors of evil. He's like, if I haven't named it, this little category will fit it all, all right? They'll invent ways of doing evil. But the Lord told me, go to Romans 121 and just do what they did not do. Honor me and give me thanks daily, corporately, corporately give me thanks. Why? Because we enter the gates with Thanksgiving. What is Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving I think is the highest form of praise. What is the Lord enthroned upon? The praises of his people. So you lead worship in my context and you do not put thank you in the body's heart to say to him, you wanna hear from me. Because there's a protocol to rightly approach him and it's with Thanksgiving. We never show up before the Lord empty handed. And once you start giving him thanks, you're not gonna out give him. And so the power of Thanksgiving, it's a weapon for us. And so we give thanks morning, noon and night in our context. Words matter, words we say to him matter. There's a difference between praise and worship. The difference between worship and intercession. All of it moves him and all of it creates faith in a room like this. But sometimes I think we just put a set together because it's cool. It feels right. But if we get meticulous about what we're saying to him, watch him respond. This is house of prayer language. You know, one of the things that happened when we launched our YouTube channel, which I'll talk about here in just a second, is there was this category that was next to all of our songs. And it bothered me. It was upper room and they would put a song and then it would say spontaneous. And then the next, it's sort of song that say spontaneous, spontaneous. And I was like, media team, come here. I gotta talk to you. Why do we put spontaneous at the end of every one of our YouTube channels? And I'm like, well, that's this genre of worship. And I'm like, it happens way too often for it to be spontaneous, right? Like spontaneous is like, we're just gonna throw against the wall and see what sticks. But like every time it's spontaneous, like what? So I said, let's try this. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna come up with a new genre of worship. Instead of spontaneous, we're gonna call it relational. And they looked at me like a confused dog. They were like, and I did not win this battle because of the YouTube algorithms. But in my world, I know, I know. But in my world, listen, in my world, I've watched it because of what's been cultivated in the secret place, because of this laboratory of sorts, of studying God's presence, I watch our team respond to the presence of the Lord. And I watch this faith muscle that they've created in the secret place show up in the public place. I could talk about it happening at Red Rocks in front of 15,000 people where they had a set list. They were given an hour to worship and they made it through one song because of this relational response to the Lord. And the Lord showed up as healer. They entered in with thanks, praise, worship, healer, agreeing with who he is. The revelation of him as healer hit Red Rocks. It was spontaneous. It was, I said it, it was relational. It was relational, it was relational. It was relational because the Holy Spirit came. And there were at least three dozen testimonies, medically verified testimonies that happened because of a relational response to what the Holy Spirit was doing. Why? Because a house of prayer is a people that's in relationship with the living God in his spirit, living in us and among us. And I love some of these little levitical hearts that used to be baristas. And I found this call before the Lord. They're known now and some of them, they have millions of views and invites to go anywhere, but they will not compromise their 6 a.m. prayer meeting where no one comes. And I was in one, two weeks ago with a name that a lot of people know. Guys didn't show up in the set and I was in the back behind him. And I just watched him ball his eyes out before the Lord. I was like, that is why God's done what he's done with this kid. It's house of prayer. It's the means to him. It's way bigger than one ministry, one expression, but it is a red carpet for us today. Amen. All right, my iPad's going wonky and I never pre soft my iPad in the name of Jesus. Well, I got another point. Can you put up my next point? Oh, you have what you need. Whoa. Thank you, God. All right, point proven. Thank you, Jesus. It is, man. I don't have faith for this. All right, you have what you need. You have what you need. Here's the point. When you're building a house for the Lord, like when it's marked by His presence, house of prayer, I felt for the longest time as a leader that I was missing something. If only I had this, if only I had that and I was living for another season. And what I didn't realize is that me understanding what I have is exactly what I need gets me to the next season, meaning where you're at right now, the Lord sees you. And the Lord is sufficient to provide for you exactly what you need. And one of the things I feel like is hindering a lot of leaders is the area of comparison and that we're living vicariously and seeing what's happening in other places, thinking we're missing something and not seeing what's right before us. I was gonna go to ministry school before Upper Room. Six months, six weeks, let me get it right. We lost in February, so August of the year before, my wife and I, my wife was going to med school and she needed to take a semester to finish her pre-reqs. Told you she's the smart one in the family. So we were gonna move to Redding, California and I was gonna get into ministry school just for like six months there, do BSSM and we were praying about it, we hadn't told a lot of people. This long story, make it short. We had a house we had found. I got a job with Eli Lilly doing pharmaceutical stuff. Like we were set, but we hadn't shared with many because a lot of people would have been stirred with us leaving, so we'd make a quick exit out of Dallas. And we went to dinner with this woman. Hadn't been with her before, hadn't been with her since. There was a couple and we showed up at the dinner and she said, hi guys, I had a dream about you two last night. We're like, awesome. She said, in the dream, I read you this verse. Her Bible was open. And she reads it, she's like, this is gonna make no sense to you but I need to be obedient to the Lord. And she said, it's Amos 5-5. Do you know Amos 5-5? Like I don't know Amos 5-5. Who knows Amos 5-5? Nobody knows Amos 5-5, right? Amos 5-5. Listen to what it said, her version. It said, seek, Bethel and die. It says seek me and live. She goes, I knew it wouldn't mean anything to you. And we're like, so needless to say we did not move to Bethel. And I love Bethel. I love Bethel. Like I'm getting the priest here in September. I'm super excited about it. I've gleaned so much from them and that was corrective for us, right? If you're about to get outside of God's will, He'll let you know. And a couple months later, we launched the upper room but that phrase has been so instructive for me to not echo something else. As much as I love the expression of Redding, California, as much as I love IHOP in Kansas City, much as I love Radiant Church and what's happening here, listen, your calling is so unique to who you are in the context that you're in. And you need to be confident that he who is in you and with you will supply for you exactly what you need. And as a leader, you need to be confident in that. We need to not attempt to be somewhere we're not because today's gifts, today's resources, today's people unlock I think tomorrow's gifts and what God has for us. And so I had a lot more to say on this, but it's in my notes.  If you're young, do not despise the day of small beginnings. God's doing something in your DNA. Let him do it. Give yourself over to it. Give yourself over to it. Listen, let the things that you birth come out of intimacy with him. Let me say something real quick. This influence thing is an idol and there are many that are influential for him and they are not intimate with him. There are many that are speaking for him, for him, but I am concerned they do not know him. I'm seeing it in the worship, worship, worship, worship, worship is holy, worship's for the Lord, worship's not, we're not producing it. Worship, worship is holy. And we need to treat it as such. It's for him. It's sacred. We need to honor those little Levites in our house and teach them how to minister to the Lord. Okay, so that was my other point. And the next one is a good one, too. It's number four. It's this, and I wrestled with how to say it, but I'm just gonna say it bluntly. Jesus is a better leader than you. And here's what I want you to know. You're not leading your church. He is. Another deal with his influence thing is, everyone's having leadership conferences. And that's fine, do leadership, but you as a leader are first a follower. He's not looking for leaders, he's looking for followers, and he qualifies leaders because they're followers. But once you become a leader, you've gotta continue to learn how to follow as a leader. That's a better point than you're responding to. God is in charge of growing your church. One plants, one waters. For me, one of the foundational truths in the garden that I found about authority, which you do have authority over your house, is in Genesis 2.5. And I'm gonna microwave this, but if you put Genesis 2.5 up, this is an interesting detail in the creation account. And I was reading it and pondering it because this is a second account of creation, but it's very unique that Moses chose to put this in there. It says, no shrub of the field was yet in the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprouted. For two reasons, the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground. So the earth, the earth according to Genesis 2.5, it was not producing fruit and it wasn't producing fruit for two reasons. God had not sent rain and he had not made man yet. And so the earth's potential was connected to the authority that God would establish over it. And as the authorities worked the ground, the earth's potential would be unlocked. And that's been happening since Genesis 2.5. Like the internet was in the earth in Genesis 2.5. Man has been cultivating the potential of the earth since Genesis 2.5, are you following me? Like it's a spiritual principle that shows up in the natural, but there's also a revelation around you and I being dust. We are made of earth and God has put an incorruptible seed inside of us. And he sends forth the rain of his spirit and the second Adam Jesus and he cultivates the potential of our born again abilities. What's my point? My point is as one who is a steward for what the Lord has given you, you are cultivating the potential of your people. You're cultivating what he desires his house to become. Like I am realizing stewardship is so important in the people that he brings into my midst. Like one person introduced me recently. This is an example of what I'm talking about. One person introduced me recently at a conference and they were saying these things about me, but they said, Michael Miller and the upper room have made flags cool again. I look like flag waving, you know? I don't know if you've seen our videos, but we have flaggers and there's like memes about our flaggers and our dancers, right? Now, 10 years ago when we planted the upper room, I had no desire to be known for flags. Like truly, it wasn't into my plan to, man, I can't wait until we get the dance team and then the flags come out. Wow, that's gonna be awesome. Like where are the flags? I just like, my tradition I grew up in, it's amazing we even have instruments. I grew up in a very conservative deal. Now that we're known for flags is interesting. Well, here's how that came about. Is one day we were in a meeting and the Lord's presence is there, we're ministering to the Lord and I look in the corner and there's this guy dancing. And it was unique, it was very holy. I've never like had seen the Lord through dance like this and he could have been, he's like six, four African-American guy, it could be an NFL linebacker but he's dancing back there. And I'm like, bro, what's your name? His name's Vincent Hardy. So Vincent, I'm Michael Miller and another friend saw him and they invited him up to dance at one point in the worship and it just, it moved our people. So I started developing a relationship with Vincent and Vincent said, yeah, I was studying at, I think it was the school of Juilliard in New York, one of the dance schools up in New York City and I met the Lord and I realized he gave me this gift and it's for him but I haven't found a church where I can express this and I was like, man, I love that you're in the back corner doing that. He goes, my desire is to build a dance company. And over the last three years, he's built a dance company for the Lord. And so all these like professional dancers have moved to Dallas that are in our community and they're the ones that all of a sudden are bringing flags up, which wasn't on my grid. It's not a preference that I had but because of who was in my midst and the seeds that they're carrying God unlocked something in them and now I'm being introduced as the flag pastor. Like, how did that come about? Well, it came about because of who God put in my midst and we've got to see the people in our midst. Why? Because the Lord's a better leader than we are. He's a better builder of the house than we are unless he builds the house we labor in vain but sometimes I think our preferences, our experiences, we've got to yield all of that to see who he's put in our midst and unlock their potential. Are you with me? Some of you are. I can feel it in my spirit. There's like some worship leaders going, oh, he just green-lighted flags. I'm not green-lighting flags. I'm just saying what does it look like in your context? What do these things look like expressed? I don't know. I don't know, but he does. And all right, my last point. This is an important one and it's how I'm gonna end. It's a personal one. You're not alone. As a pastor, you're not alone. Peter Drucker has a quote that Samuel Chan put in his book called Leadership Pain which is an amazing book for pastors. But he said this. He said, the four most difficult jobs in America in no particular order are the president of the United States, the president of a university, the CEO of a hospital, and the pastor of a church. And it's really hard for people to understand what you wake up to, what a day would hold. I thought of my Thursday this week where I was notified of a potential trafficking case in our church, which that's an issue that pastors, we need to be aware of. There's resources for you, but I have a friend that has said trafficking is in every zip code in America. It is prevalent in here, but there was a youth group incident where a long email that hit me right when I woke up. Shortly after that, a court couple in our church had a blowout fight, showed up unannounced to come to the pastor's office, two of my good friends. We sat for an hour to walk through what they were going through right after that. The architect for our building, we've got a $15 million building project happening. He shows up and he wants to know how tall he wants the ceilings in our new sanctuary. Aesthetically, all that stuff he's asking questions. From there I led prayer, worked on my sermon, mentored to campus pastors. And while I was doing that, I got a sudden unexpected call that a core family of ours, daughter had given birth to their fourth child three days earlier.  She went to the doctor, they found out that her placenta had infected her uterus and it had turned to sepsis, attacked her organs. When I'm on the phone, she had just flatlined, she'd been dead for 60 seconds, 36 year old woman. I rushed to the hospital and they were care-flighting her into downtown Dallas and I'm at the elevators and the family walks in. Well, I meet my friend who's the husband and the mother-in-law is next to my friend. Well, the mother-in-law, the mother-in-law in 2018, her husband was one of our lead shepherds. He was 57 years old, had a silver hair helmet we call it, silver mustache, he was six six and just hugged everyone that came in. He was the epitome of a shepherd. You long for guys like this to be in your church, you long for him. And April 19th was a Sunday night. He got a prophetic word at our assembly and it was awesome. He came up to me that night, said, hey, I wanna talk to you about the direction of the church. It was really this cool moment. He was the next morning, his son called me and told me that Terry had died. So Terry died suddenly. And this is the same family showing up now. There's 36 year old daughter is life support and the mom when she sees me, this widow now breaks down crying cause I'm the first face she sees in the hospital. Tucker said, we're here again. She said, but I know Jesus is gonna show up. I know Jesus is gonna be faithful. We're gonna continue to walk through this. We go upstairs, get the report. And Laura is, she's like miracle after miracle after miracle. We think she's gonna be fine. There's a couple of more miracles, pray for her for her hands and feet, but we think she's gonna make it through. But my point is the history that I have with this one family and the day of trouble comes and then we are the frontline defense and the kingdom. And there's just so much that we wake up to so much a day holds as a pastor. Am I right? I mean, and I just want you to know you're not alone in the trenches. Not the only one that's waking up to what you're waking up to. We're in this together and we need one another because I think some of the greatest crises and challenges are ahead of us. I think there's persecution that the West has not known. It's coming to us. Listening to Lee and some of the stories that they're having, I am so grateful I'm pastoring in Texas, but it's coming to Texas. Things are changing and we need one another. We need one another, you need one another. And so I want to pray for pastors tonight. I want to pray for those that feel alone. And I want to pray that the Holy Spirit will meet you. And I want to pray that the Holy Spirit will give you courage. I want us to minister to one another, is that cool? So if that's you tonight, would you stand to your feet? If you're like, man, Michael, you're speaking to me. I want prayer. I'm waking up to those things too. I want to pray for you. So can I just encourage you to do that? Thank you guys for standing up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.  Let's just create a living room here for God's presence. If you need courage, that's another thing I want to pray for, courage. Courage to bring change. Courage that you're hearing the Lord that you're shifting directions. Would you stand to, I want to pray for you, for courage and comfort. Those are the two words the Lord gave me. Courage and comfort, courage and comfort, courage and comfort. He's going to comfort you to be courageous and as you're courageous, give you more comfort. All right, here's what I want to do.  I want to pray for them, just lay hands on them. Just begin to speak what you hear. Come on, like Lee taught this morning, let's pray for Gideons. Let's pray for courage. Let's pray for Valor. Let's pray, Holy Spirit, you would release comfort. God, where there's been hope deferred. Lord, where there's been setbacks. God, we pray that you would infuse faith into the hearts of these leaders. Lord, infuse faith that they're not alone, infuse faith.  Let them hear you. I want to hear you pray for them. Just declare life. There's life in the power of the tongue. There's life in your tongue. Release life over these brothers and sisters. Release courage. Release God's might and God's power. Release God's presence. Release strength and comfort. Release resolve, Lord. The eye of the Lord is upon you. He sees you. I see Jesus getting in that trench with you. You are not alone. Greater is he who's in you. We just declare the Holy Spirit. Come on, more, more, more. Just say, Lord, fill them with your spirit, with your power. Come on, pray for them as if you would want them to pray for you. Pray strength, pray courage. First love, I hear the Lord saying, I'm returning you back to me. First love, fix your eyes on me. I'm the author. I'm the perfecter. I'm the sustainer. Fix your gaze on me. Where there's been misunderstandings. Where there's been broken relationships. Lord, you're binding up the broken heart at tonight. Lord, you're binding up the broken heart. You're releasing comfort and help to the hearts of your leaders. Lord, you're restoring first love. Men and women after your heart. God, we got in this for one reason and it's you.  Let them feel the warmth of your love. Listen, God, freshen your love, freshen your power. Have what you need tonight because he's in you. You have what you need tonight because he's leading you. He's a good leader. He's a faithful leader. He's true to his word. He who called you is faithful and he will do it. He will fulfill what he called. He will sustain what he started. He will finish what he began. He will straighten that which is crooked. We just declare fresh faith, eyes of faith. But we look not into the natural, Lord. We don't walk by sight. We walk by faith. So we just declare fresh faith into the hearts of your leaders, Lord. Fresh faith, not to walk by sight. God, put the lens of faith on their hearts where they've been fearful, where they've been scared, where they've been disappointed, where they've been hurt. Everyone just pray fresh faith into their hearts. Jesus, you're the author of faith. It's your faith in us. Oh, Jesus, bravo, bravo. That was 60 seconds. Just pray and we're gonna do one more thing. Come, Lord Jesus. Seconds, 30 more seconds. Come on, give strength to your servants, God. Rata shiro toto. All right, we're gonna do one more thing. Keep, put your hand on them. If you still have your hand on them. I feel, I feel we're gonna do something prophetic that we're gonna worship. But can we just release a shout of deliverance over these guys? I feel like there's a, there's like a call. There's a call, there's an attention to spirits. I feel like the Lord wants to ready us for battle. Let's go, put a shout on them. On the count of three. One, two, three. Woo!


Everybody forced here up in 2022 Phoenix football hobby 4 box number 21 you check out the random results here anytime late sports cards calm Thanks for joining everybody and best of luck Jess is hoping for that that gold Tom Brady one-on-one Falcons Jesper Ritter on the rookie jersey out of the 299 right off the start Falcons 161 of 299 Silver Travis Kelsey. There's a Tom Brady fireforged bronze for the Patriots 24 50 The more Jackson flamethrowers Purple rookie Hassan Haskins Titans numbered 79 of 125 hot routes. Crystal Lave Saints rookie Yellow rookie Rashad white buccaneers numbered 60 of 75 Matt Ryan flamethrowers Colts Sameer white 1099 on the rookie patch card the raiders Color burst Josh Allen bills. Oh guys pull away again. So we're Cooper Cup contours Rams Number 23 of 199 contours Mahomes Chiefs Silver DeMarvin Leo rookie Steelers Fire and ice rookie Rams Kyron Williams number 29 out of 50 Hot routes Brandon cooks. I Always going Jess get through a lot of breaks tonight. Won't you breaks red Derrick Henry Titans? Number 150 of 250 Matt Corral rookie flamethrowers Panthers How you doing Jess? Willis Russell Wilson flamethrowers yellow 1175 Broncos contours Derrick Henry Pink for the Chargers Mike Williams 146 of 199 Paying manning fire forage Broncos Olava Cowboys Ricky Jalen Tolbert Number 172 of 175 You're happy to go to work tomorrow You okay Jess? Oh, she said work from home Oh, we're from home. I thought you were like happy to work. What are you talking about Jess? What do you do I wouldn't do that Heck yeah, we're from home. I was talking work from home kind of I don't know what I do would not be Would not be fun at home. It would be awful at home I would not work. I would not do this job at home. No chance, dude. Malik. Willis the 299 rpa titans I'm gonna have Dylan Try to clean this up with a microfiber But there are like a bunch of light scratches That's not crazy abnormal for something like this, but there's a bundle of them here and a bundle of them there So we'll see probably end up sending a box to the Titan spot silver Lamar Jackson Ravens Happy to go to work tomorrow. Yeah, I'm all right Flamethrowers Steelers Kenny Pickett number 92 of 199 jets contours Garrett Wilson Just scratches Yeah, we'll send a box wrapper to the Titan spot those were just a bunch of small scratches on the uh, Red Josh Allen bills 67 out of 250 rookie rising breeze hall jets Brady flamethrowers black. That's gonna be number five out of 10 Congrats Jess Black flamethrowers Tom Brady Tampa Bay Nice car Jess Flamethrowers Derek Carr Stop Patrick Bowman inception baseball releases tomorrow same with OP chi hockey Dallas Goddard eagles purple numbered 76 of 125 Second best quarterback of all time Right behind, uh, right behind Nathan Giederman. I'm Mario Cooper orange 1099 Justin Fields flamethrowers bears Ah Jared gotcha. Yeah Jalen Tolbert on the lava again to 175 cowboys Jared Goss is in the best quarterback in his franchise's history So 99 Eric he's a convo rookie patch card Go dolphins Color burst rookie Brian Roberts a junior commanders Spencer's not biased though He's not fireforged pink Kurt Warner Rams Number 32 of 175 Malik Willis Titans flamethrowers points card after a silver JMO for the Lions wild card All right, good luck on that one at the end ran to everybody at the end That's fine Yeah, no, I I mean Got red rookie cam Taylor Britt for the Bengals number 247 to 250 I mean that would be fantastic for the Lions. This is the last time the Lions won double-digit games And how many times does it happen in their history pink iukin diners Number 66 of 199. I mean if Jared Gough is truly a great lion, he will play two more seasons in retire Or chase hot routes there. Yeah, especially when Aaron Rodgers leaves They might have been the best team that division honestly I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the Vikings not saying the Vikings are bad like they're a fine team, but I don't have a whole lot of confidence and then they're going to be a bunch of good competition bears rebuild And Packers big question mark big question mark Well, the wheel is karson strong to 299 ricky jersey auto eagles Color burst avante atoms raiders hot routes tyree kill dolphins numbered to 125 Contours Aaron Rodgers green adam thielen vikings at 25 there we go 24 25 minnesota Flamethrower zack wilson Oh, no, definitely not definitely not Vikings can improve But yeah, their record was pretty inflated last year red iukin diners numbered 1 to 43 out of 250 Especially compared to where they started to where they ended up like Like they won a lot of gritty games, but they they got injured along the way and it's took them down contours red Cooper cup to 199 rams the rizak wilson pink rookie logan hall buccaneers numbered 71 of 199 Flamethrower's mass staffer lava cooper cup rams 174 175 contours brock lesnar vikings Legend right there another points card to the second points card in this box We just got double-pointed silver rookie jahan dots and commanders What the hell You didn't even see a lot of points yesterday. I was ripping it like there were like one here and there, but James Williams to Oh, we just got a bonus points card then rookie jersey out of george pickins. There we go stealers Okay, so I guess we got Me in a good way One of those points is extra so I guess there's that There we go. All right silver niners mccaffrey perth warner fire forage pink again for the rams numbered 15 of 175 Malik willis ricky rising titans aqua rookie or teal rookie jahan dots and 150 commanders hot routes ricky trail and berks Titans Yellow rookie fedarian math is commanders number 12 out of 75 nice color match and a flamethrower's ryan tannahill Nice. Good luck patrick. I'll be that tomorrow night. I'm guessing And phoenix is solid stuff though. It's a weird game Yellow flamethrowers packers erin rogers Chew out of 75 hot routes chrysalabe They literally live and die by them. Yeah, that's why they won't go that far off Hassan haskens lava rookie for the titans 103 a 175 flamethrowers matt ryan seal dallas goddard eagles 129 of 150 contours patrick mahomes chiefs rookie auto for the falcons troy anderson silver tom brady bucks I can't wait to see the vikings and the lions both win double-digit games next year Eli mitchell niners yellow I can't wait for that 375 rookie rising gary wilson jets Do you imagine the lions went 13 and the The vikings went 12 Where's the nfc better look out? Got a blue. Yeah, at a 35 rookie isael likely ravens cooper cub hot routes red kyle hamilton ravens rookie to 250 herbert flamethrowers james williams rookie base jaylin tulbert to 50 rookie patch card cowboys color burst rookie kyler gordon bares Watch bears one of the vision next year Williams, we've got a hot routes bronze jahann dotson commanders to 50 contours trevor lorenz Kenny picket to 149 rookie ball relic auto stealers killed it Heck yeah pittsburgh edward p That's a sick picket yeah 102 of 149 There you go rookie silver kyle hamilton ravens orange rookie james who williams lions 43 of 99 Nice jaymo hot routes mark angers red kyle hamilton ravens again to 250 33 of 250 and a lamar jackson flamethrowers All right points random here Everybody's in this one top spot gets wildcard second spot gets 400 in the random It's a seven Again top two spots here you should get points card seven times one two three four five six and seven wildcard vikings and 400 lions They're the talk of the break wildcard vikings 400 lions my quick recap Relic cards here of ericka zakanma zamir white jaylin tulbert the flamethrower's black tom braided to 10 It's a nice card autos troy anderson desmond ridder rookie jersey auto malik willis rookie jersey auto Carthage strong rookie jersey auto rookie jersey auto george pickings for the stealers and rookie ball relic auto stealers kenny picket number two Sorry put something in there to fill a space up that one was to um what 125 It's 125 on the picket That'll do it. Thanks again everybody Got more phoenix coming up