06 Choosing Reliable Men

One of the challenges we face right now is that you read. I wish you couldn't, no jokes. I wish you would just read your Bibles. Most of us that do love the Bible and love to study, end up reading a lot of reformed writings.

Like John Piper and Wayne Grudem, and generally these are guys teach good theology. I often enjoy reading their work myself as well. I always want to know what they say. I don't easily want to drift from them. But when it comes to this area of the apostolic, often there's a misunderstanding of the truth about the apostolic.

Many of them also disagree on the gifts of the Spirit or the operation of the Holy Spirit. I think the danger of the Calvinist or the Reformed movement is it leans too much into the Bible and too little into the living Christ. So in other words, the Bible, the Bible, the Bible.

And while we never go beyond the Bible, they're right on that, Jesus is bigger than the Bible. He's alive. He says, "My sheep will hear My voice. I will lead them. I will live in them. I will empower them." When He sends them, He says, "I will give gifts and I'll manifest Myself through them."

Apostolic Grace and Reformed Theology

That aspect of reformed teaching is absent. Or at best very badly understood. So, those that read a lot and think like that, you end up hearing me through a lens of reformed thinking. Which looks like this: The foundations are laid by the apostles or the prophets or even in the book of Acts 2:42, "they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching."

The reformed way of saying that would be: Well, that's because the twelve had been with Jesus. They are the foundation. And I would partly agree with you, because remember truth is always like this. It is that. As a modern day apostolic grace, I can't go beyond what they did.

But at the same time, I also do lay foundations. I just build on their foundations. And the danger is, the apostles' teaching was already through the life of the church, but the church has had a problem with interpreting it, as we've seen. And so my grace is to be a better interpreter of, than to make things up or Jesus gives it to me personally.

And so in a sense, my grace should be a master building grace. Where elders might not be able to quite discern and always get that balance right. A master builder will have a deeper understanding, a better grip on holding these tensions together. To make sure that I'm representing Paul properly and not some lopsided angle of Paul because of ignorance or because of brokenness.

I build on their foundations, and I come into the churches, within an apostolic field; we do set doctrine, discipline, and direction. But as I said, the highest authority is the Bible. So we went through that whole process of, if you think I'm missing the point, there's ways and means of processing that.

But we agree that if we read the Bible we can see this design. "The reason I left you in Crete, Titus, was that you would set things in order." Titus 1. Titus is now not one of the apostles in Jerusalem, but he is setting in order.

He's laying foundations into the churches in Crete. That is what I would do. That would be the grace that the apostolic team within Four12 would carry. Does that make sense? It is a gift. It's a gift thing. How does a prophet prophesy? How does Merv tell you what you had for breakfast?

How does he pick up the mysteries of your heart? How? It's invisible to us, but the Spirit gives him the ability to do that. Likewise, the apostolic grace seems to just have a natural grace to know how things work. I often say, you'll see things become clear when the apostolic speaks.

What you should find happening if this grace is flowing properly is as I'm speaking, things become clear and obvious. And that's because the apostolic comes and it brings that light, it brings that clarity into your thinking. And it's a building thing. I'm not just giving you theology, I'm guiding you how to build.

In some ways, the worship that we had this morning, a devotion, that's the fruit of apostolic grace. If you get a good teacher in a church, you will not see worship like that. You won't see a people given, you'll see people educated. So the apostolic grace draws.

Who Carries Apostolic Grace in the Church?

And so we need to build with these graces within the church. Someone asked, "Who are the apostles among us?" It is an interesting question. A good question. Because there's some that are growing in it. Some that work with me in the field that are more apostolic representatives.

In other words, they come in, but they don't carry quite the same grace. For example, Mike. He oversees one of the regions. We recognize him as a five-fold teacher. He is not actually an apostle. But he's worked closely enough with an apostolic grace, that if the elders are now dealing with a discipline case or some theological challenge—

Think of that ship trying to get into a harbor. And some harbors are dangerous. A good eldership team acknowledges that they don't know how to get through these rocks to safety. Help. Mike will arrive first and he will work with the elders. He will say, "This is obvious. We've done this many times. I know exactly how we would do this." And he can help you get through that. Even though he's not an apostle, he's worked close enough with us that he knows how to do that. But he should know well enough when there is a real complicated thing.

And if he doesn't quite know how to get through, then he would bring it to those that are apostles. In some ways it goes through layers. And then we would try and work our way through that together. What happens if an eldership team finds one of the apostolic team, like Len or Mike, seem to be saying something that goes against the grain? They don't carry the same authority that Brad, Ryan, Jonathan, or myself carry.

How Church Authority and Appeals Work

Let's use a picture of a court. If you go to court now, you might start off at an equality court or magistrate's court. It's a lower court, and in some ways you would deal with basic minor issues. But if the issue you feel is a wrong judgment or this guy's not doing this well, you just appeal. It jumps up and up and up until you get to the Supreme Court. And the highest court would then make a ruling and then it's worked its way back down through the courts.

It's exactly that picture in the church. So when Len or someone comes in, if you feel they're messing up, you simply have to say, "I'm struggling with this." And it could be nuance, it could be some aspect. So normally your posture is yield. But your yielding isn't as deep as it would be to a Supreme Court. Does that make sense? I'm using courts by way of illustration. I feel like I should ask a question. I'm just trying to help us understand. Because there are questions about what happens if...

And realize he's learning. These guys are learning. We need them to get it right. We need them to be master builders. But they're developing in their own grace. Good. All technical stuff, but actually, when you're on the ground, you need to know this stuff. Or you can shipwreck a church very quickly. You just make a few bad decisions and everyone loses heart. So the important thing for the elders is to know when do we need help. Because your credibility as an eldership team is only as long as your last victory.

If you have a lot of victories under your belt. Picture this: Do you want a guy leading your church that thinks he can do it? He's going to go at it. Even if it's a bit dangerous and he's never done this before. "Hey, we're on the boat and I'm the leader. So let's try this." And there's shipwrecks and shocks. And he's going to take you through that thing. Or do you want a leader who is wise enough to realize when he does not know and needs help? But the fact is that there's lives on this boat. I am too scared to just go without what I want to do. I need to get help. Let's make sure that when I lead you through this, that we have got the best pilots we can. Because at the end of the day, you want to get to your destination.

Broken People, Growth, and the Need for Reliable Men

And that's really when elders build or break their own credibility. Okay. So be wise as an eldership team. I wanted to dig into another subject now. One of the challenges with us is that we are people. It's a challenge. We're not yet perfect. We're people. We're still broken. We still have our own struggles. We still, and we're all still on this journey of becoming more and more like Jesus. So the day you stop learning is the day you should die. The day you stop changing is the day you should die.

There's none of us that gets perfect. So we are all trying to allow the Lord to shape us to become better and better and better. But often as we grow in this journey of faith and come into different spheres of authority, the cracks in us start to get revealed. Because God is more interested in us than He is interested in what we will do. So God will even use a number of things to reveal the cracks in you so that you can change. And this will happen either while you're waiting to do what you think you're called to do, or while you're doing what you're called to do.

There's always going to be this recalibration. This change. This repentance that needs to take place in our hearts. We are doing Reliable Men next. There is a real danger for us that while God gives us everything we need to get through, the Bible warns us about people that shipwreck their faith.

And that's actually the language of Scripture. You can shipwreck your faith. You can destroy that which God has called you to. You can be like Esau, who can sell it for a bowl of soup. There's so many ways that you can damage and destroy that what God's putting in you.

The deal is this, God needs all of us to come through. Because He's chosen to limit His glory, that only as each part does its bit, will the body grow and have life. Which means, unless you walk in your destiny, we will never walk in the fullness of ours.

Nor will Christ get the fullness of His. He might replace you, for example, Judas. Let his place be taken and given to another. But He doesn't want to, He's our Father. He wants you to come through. You must run your race. You must beat your body.

You must make sure that you come through. And there are a lot of things that will try and shipwreck you. The great difficulties within the church is to find men and women that will be able to stand the test of life. To pass the storms.

Strike the shepherd, Jesus said, strike the elder, and the sheep will scatter. So, if one of us goes down as elders, it is devastating to the house. It's like a mom and a dad getting divorced. It's devastating. There were elders who failed in the Bible.

Paul warns the Ephesian elders in the book of Acts. That even from among your own ranks, wolves will emerge, who will draw away disciples after themselves. So even in Paul's churches in the first century, there were wolves that will emerge within the eldership teams.

That will actually do great damage to the church. And this is life. No matter how well Paul built as a master builder, this is going to happen. Somewhere in your life, in leadership, you're going to be dealing with brothers who turn into wolves.

It's terrible. It's the worst part of church. But it is a reality. And the thing I want to make sure is that you're not that wolf. So pay attention. Pay attention. I do believe Jesus gave Judas every opportunity to repent. But Judas missed what Jesus was trying to do in him.

In 2 Peter 2:17-22, Peter writes about people who will come to the church. And he speaks about people who are men of springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness... He's talking about leaders in the church here. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

For with lofty and empty words they appeal to the sensual pleasures of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping—otherwise just getting saved—from others who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by the world again, their final condition is worse than it was at the first. It would have been better for them to have not known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.

Peter's writing about men that'll come into the church. Men that'll be at their love feast. Men that'll preach and teach in their churches, but actually there'll be deepest darkness will be reserved them. 'Cause there's darkness in them. And at some point they're gonna bring doctrines into the church that'll entice people away, that are just getting saved and coming into the kingdom.

And they'll be drawn back into worldliness, into sin. And then it's worse for those people. Because now they are trampling the Son of God under their feet all over again. Do you see that? It's quite scary actually. When the Bible spells it out like this.

We have to be careful. And I think Jude writes about their teachings that will spread like a gangrene. Like a cancerous growth, through the lives of the churches. We are living in times where people are sitting at our love feasts and are bringing doctrines that are leading people back into immorality.

As we go through this, one of the things we have to do is to make sure that we ourselves. Like Paul said to Timothy, be careful that after preaching to others, you yourself aren't disqualified. That was Paul to Timothy. So you've got to run this race wisely and well.

And there are minefields ahead of you. Especially as you come into more, because every level of leadership you come into will simply enlarge the cracks that are there. And God will use that because He wants you like Him. So God wants to redeem you through that.

But you must be aware that as you go through life, there's things that are going to trip you up. And if you don't know what they are, when they come, you can get in trouble. Peter writes about these shadows, deepest darkness. One of the challenges is there are shadows in our own hearts that we don't always understand.

There are things that trip us up. There are things that cause us to become destructive, even to the house of God. And I want to just mention a few of them. And then we will have a look at finding men of character or reliable men.

Maturity, Character, and the Shadows in the Heart

What causes shadows? What causes people to cause problems in the church? Or do damage in the church? Or causes people to to get stuck and fall? Obviously, the first one would be immaturity. If someone's not mature in Christ, they're going to misunderstand things, and they'll do stupid stuff.

It's an obvious one. But there can be an immaturity in a number of areas. One of them is in the knowledge of God. If you don't know God properly, you're probably going to end up with certain shadows in your heart. Because then you're in the house, but you don't know God.

You don't know who He is properly. We read earlier about Peter writing about broken men who distort. These are areas of shadows. You can have a crack or an immaturity in your character. Some part of you that's not yielded properly to Jesus. I mentioned, for example, a man with an orphaned spirit.

And often will rise to leadership because he will succeed. He's learned how to survive. He is a street survivor. But when he comes into the kingdom, if that thing's not dealt with, and he hasn't put that to death, he can actually become frustrated.

He can become angry. He can strive for things he shouldn't strive for. And actually can do great damage to the house of God. Your character can do great damage to the church. I remember Len, as a simple illustration. Len came out of a school of thought that believed that everything was very serious.

So, I remember when he came to us, he would often come into our meetings and he looked angry. Almost, God on the mountain, Old Testament, with bolts of lightning in His hand. It felt like that. We joke about it now. But I remember saying to him, "Len, there's this aspect of you that's not helping the churches."

And I remember saying something like, "Len, just smile." And after this he used to come to all the elders meetings looking like this. And it became a joke among us. But in some ways I was trying to help Len. Because Len didn't realize that that's how people saw him.

But that's how he felt. It is hard to approach a man like that. So, for the sake of what God's called him to, we have to guide him through. It is such a small thing. But that can stop all that God wants to do through him.

If he doesn't change it. I'm using it as a very simple illustration. But that can stop. That can stop your destiny. You didn't smile enough. Or you smiled too much. You've become a joker. No one takes you seriously. Your words need to be weighed.

It's a good thing to laugh. There's nothing wrong with laughter. God laughs. But you can come to the point where you're just a joker. Now you're damaging it the other way. Nothing is serious. It's finding that balance. Proper knowledge of the Word of God.

Proper Knowledge of the Word of God

You need to have a good understanding of the Word of God. Just to illustrate this. Moments ago I mentioned reformed men that you would read. And when I am saying, "the Apostles lay foundations or set the doctrines," you hear me through a Calvinist mindset.

So you're not hearing me. And so what I say from that point onward starts to work against us. Because you've already closed your heart to me. Because you think I am not wise. You think I don't understand the Bible properly. Where actually, I think it's you that was stuck, not me.

But your theology is now working against us. That's why Paul says we need to take every thought captive to make it subject to Christ. Theology can be a terrible thing if it's not nuanced. You with me? So proper knowledge of the Word of God.

God’s Will to Heal Must Be Balanced

A proper knowledge of God's ways. One of the dangerous statements that have been said—there's been many—"God wants to heal all the time." Now again, every truth has to be balanced. Does God want to heal all the time? Absolutely. And, absolutely not.

Both at the same time. God wants all men to be saved. The heart of the Father, those of us who are in Him will be fully healed. God wants to heal. He is a healing God. But, does God always want to heal? No.

Because Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit and God needed to make an example that the fear of the Lord had come into the church. And so God struck two people dead. Did God want to strike them dead? No, He wanted to heal them.

But they lied to the Holy Spirit. They resisted the Spirit. And so even though God wanted to heal them, He had to judge them. But the statement, "God wants to heal all the time," becomes a dangerous statement if it's not balanced. Does God love it when He heals us?

Yes, but sometimes we learn things through suffering. Paul, struggling with a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan—the word is *angelos*. It literally means, direct translation, an angel from Satan. So he's got this thing. He's trying to serve Jesus and he gets shipwrecked, beaten, this, that, everything's wrong.

What is this thing? It's like a demon chasing me. And he uses the words, I've got a messenger from Satan. People think it is his eyesight. A messenger from Satan. I don't know if that's the language. A messenger from Satan. Every Bible translation.

There's something that's come from Satan. It's not just sin. It's not just broken genes. Satan is the source. I think it's a demonic thing. And he says, God, please take this thorn from my flesh. You take this from me. And the God who loves to heal says no.

And he said, I didn't like that answer, so I asked Him again. And again. And three times the Lord said no. And then the Lord told me why. To keep me. Because of these revelations. I was taken to the third heaven. I saw things that people shouldn't see in the flesh.

God had such mercy on me. But to keep me, because of the surpassing great revelation, humble. He gave me a thorn in the flesh. The demonic entity fighting me is to keep me humble. Because God raises the humble but resists the proud. God, who knows Paul's heart, knows his heart can't carry the weight of glory that he's been given.

If he's left to his own devices, the glory that has been given will destroy him. So, to keep Paul safe, God says to the devil, okay, you can have a go at him. Keep going at him until he dies. Do we have authority over demons?

Yes, we do. Well, how did that work out for Paul? Every truth and most of your bad doctrines emphasize the one side. They take the scriptures out. We have authority. Yes, we do. But not always. God is a person. He's not a legal system.

Knowing God’s Ways in Suffering and Loss

So we form our own doctrine and we get stuck. A lack of knowledge of God's ways. People get stuck, they actually fall because how could God take my child? How dare He? Where was the God who heals? I trusted Him. You don't know God's ways.

You don't know God's ways. I remember my own daughter, when she was dying, in my hands. And I remember saying, God, are You going to take her? And I remember literally saying this to the Lord. Lord, You know the end from the beginning.

Life is so short. It's 80 years, and then she's gone. You know whether she'll serve You on that last day. For You know the beginning from the end. Master, I know she is on the edge of life and death right now. Father, if You know the end and the end is hell for her, I believe if she dies now, she's with You.

Father, would You rather take her now. And I'll deal with my heart, because I know You are good. It'll be mercy to me if You take her now, rather than let her live her life and decide to not serve You on that last day.

And if You take her, I'm going to rejoice that I will see her again forever. Versus, I had her for 50, 60, 70 years, and I'll never be with her again. I need to know the ways of God. He is good, but I must know the ways of God or my theology and my belief system will entangle me.

And I'll lose the joy and get shipwrecked in the way. This is why doctrine is so important. This is why we fight so hard to help you stay grounded. Does this make sense? Proper knowledge of my own call of being secure in God.

Promotion Comes from the Lord

Here's the thing. If promotion comes from the Lord, then I can't make it happen. All that I can do is be faithful with what He's given me. And if He promotes me, He promotes me. But maybe this is what He wants me to do for the rest of my life.

I should be okay with that. I remember I had this moment with the Lord where He took me back. I was actually reading in the Bible about men who do things with selfish ambitions and selfish motives. I don't think I've got a selfish motive now.

God Exposes Selfish Motives in Ministry

I was praying, just spending time with the Lord on that scripture. And the Lord spoke to me and said, Andrew, you did have selfish motives. And I asked, when, Lord? I don't remember ever having selfish motives. I always felt like I was devoted to You, God.

I mean, I did what I did because I loved You. I wanted to be pleasing You. I wanted to bless You, God. And the Lord showed me... you know how it is with God. Reading the Bible. What do you mean, Lord? Then He shows me my heart.

And it's the first time I've seen my heart properly. I'm talking about something that happened nearly 30 years ago. God, in a moment, shows me my heart 30 years ago. And I've lived 30 years and didn't know that was in my heart. And this is what He shows me.

He shows me, me coming into New Covenant and seeing this excitement about nations and inheritance and calling. And I was so caught up and I wanted to serve Jesus so badly. I remember learning and listening and thinking, how do I, how do I walk in my destiny?

How do I walk in what God's got for me? And the leaders said, "You need to start serving." And I thought, okay, I'll serve them. And so I started to make tea in church because that's all they'd let me do. But my motive wasn't love for people.

My motive was love for ministry. I'm doing this to get that. I should be doing this and be happy to do this for the rest of my life. But I'm doing this thinking, I'll do this, I'll pay the price. But at some point I'm expecting that.

And then, God, who knew my heart, was kind to me. Some of you, He hasn't been as kind to. Because some of you He has allowed promotion with that in your heart. With me, He kept me making tea forever. I felt like I was forgotten.

I felt like, dear God, am I ever going to walk in what You're calling me to? And God was faithful to me. I didn't know my own heart, but He saw my heart. I made tea till it was coming out of my ears.

And then somewhere along the way, I think some of those things died. But 30 years later, I'm before the Lord in prayer. And the Lord says, "This was your heart then." I realized, I served for ministry. Selfish motive. I made tea. I did all the right things.

But my heart was not love. My heart was me. Father, thank You for Your gracious mercy to me. Because I was corrupt in that. I perverted the ministry. I perverted the call. Your kindness, God, that You even let me walk in this. I was so disqualified actually, but He was faithful.

A heart so deceitful. Without God working it out, we are in such trouble. Thank God that He who started a work is able to bring it to completion. But we must yield to the work of the Spirit. We must allow God to shape the things in us that He has to shape in us.

This is not where I expected this to go. Sorry. This preach. Ah. So we need to become faithful men, faithful women, men that are rooted in Christ and doing this out of love and not out of, "I want to serve God one day."

One day I want to be an elder, have a microphone in my hand. You have to do this out of love and that's hard work. It is almost impossible because humanity is humanity. We are rotten. But God wants us perfect. In 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul is an apostolic grace as a builder, and he says:

Paul the Wise Builder

"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care," or be careful how he builds. So Paul knows that God's given him a wisdom to build the church, and the church is people.

So he seems to have a grace to know who must do what in the house. And he writes this in AD 55. He writes a little bit later, just before he dies in... hang on. Let me... I'm running ahead of myself. And then he's building, and then as he's building, a few terrible things happen.

One of them is 1 Timothy 1:18-20: "Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight. Holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these, and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I've handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme." So Paul's now mentioning people by name who've shipwrecked their faith. So Paul, the master builder, is now mentioning individuals that obviously had an influence in his life.

They were important to him. And they have shipwrecked their faith. In 2 Timothy 4:10, we read about a man called Demas who was actually serving on Paul's apostolic team. Paul mentions him and commends him to the churches in another one of his letters.

Here he says, "For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone on to Thessalonica." So Demas backslides. He falls in love with the world, and so deserts the ministry and deserts what Paul is doing. You understand this is a man that Paul has previously commended to the churches as somebody worthy of being followed and imitated.

In 2 Timothy 1:15, this is shocking. Paul says this, "You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygellus and Hermogenes." Whoa, an entire region. Every church, every member in that church has fallen away, including, and He mentions specific men.

It would be like saying even Mike and Roland have fallen away. That's what He's doing. Everyone in this whole province. So you've got this whole region that He's been planting churches in, and that whole region is gone. It's decimated. Satan has got it.

So why am I sharing this with you? Well, hopefully the fear of the Lord a little bit, but at the same time to toughen you up. Because you're coming to leadership. You're going to face these things. You'll deal with these things. If it happened then, it happens now.

And so we must realize that when this happens, it is not the end of the world. It feels like it. It feels like the end of our world when that happens, but it's not. This is just the fight between God and the devil.

Good and bad. For the rulership of this world at the end of the day. All right. Then Paul writes this letter in AD 67. So he writes his first letter. I'm a master builder. In AD 67 he writes his last letter. He's about to die.

He knows he's about to die. I love reading... Go and read 2 Timothy. And read it realizing Paul's in jail. He knows he's about to die. It's the last thing he's going to write. He knows it. Now, read it through that lens. What is he thinking is important?

Entrust the Truth to Reliable Men

He says this, in 2 Timothy 2:2, to Timothy: "And the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men." In other words, the truths that I fought for, the truths that I taught and lived. Timothy, would you entrust those things to reliable men who also will be qualified to teach others.

In other words, Timothy, find reliable men. Men that won't fail, men that won't fall away, men that will hold their ground. That'll come through the shipwreck moments. Because if they fail, the work fails. So there's tests that we would go through and we need to know what they are.

You will go through this test on an eldership team. You will go through this somewhere. I want to run through some of these tests. We will run into a break time. Then we will do the last session. But let's start... or should we just break now?

I've been going... have a break now? Huh? Break now. Let's get together at quarter to again. I think, and then I can go to my last... Hey, want to go on a bit more? Okay, I'll go on a bit more. Okay, I will yield.

The Disagreement Test

All right. So here's some of the tests that we go through. And the first one I want to say is a disagreement test. At some point, you're going to disagree. At some point, you're not going to like the way someone on your team or I does something.

And, and it's going to happen. It's going to happen for all the reasons I mentioned at the start. Either I'm going to make a mistake, or the leaders will make mistakes, or you're going to not see it right. Maybe the leaders are not going to see it right, or maybe I won't see it right.

As you've seen. I've already repented of setting doctrine... I've shifted. I've got that wrong for many years. You know, who is the authority? I'm learning all the time. So, the first test, the disagreement test. And in one of the stories in the Bible, you know, we mentioned Judas earlier, this apostle, and he was an apostle.

Jesus had breathed on him and said, "Receive the Spirit." He had gone out in Jesus' name and driven demons out of people and healed the sick. He was one of the Twelve, one of the Seventy-Two. This is a man that had a ministry.

Peter would write about him that, he had a place among us. He let his place be deserted. He was given an office in the house of God. Judas loves following Jesus, but he's got a bit of a crack in him. The Bible tells us the crack in him is he actually loves money.

It's interesting how the crack manifests. He loves money. That's his issue. He's actually stealing money. As the ministry comes, he's entrusted with the money of the apostles and he's actually taking a little bit and putting in his pocket. A little, probably no one's noticing, but Jesus knows.

And then Jesus is talking about the poor, in Luke 4:18, "I bring good news to the poor." Luke 14:12, "give to the poor." Matthew 19:21, He says to the rich young ruler, "what must I do to be saved? Give all that you have to the poor."

So He's watching Jesus say these things. And then, just before Jesus is crucified, the Father knows that His Son is not going to get a proper burial. So He does something interesting. The Spirit of God comes upon a sinful woman, and she feels led, somehow, to take a bottle of perfume worth a year's wage.

And in an absolute extravagant moment, brings it. Jesus is sitting at a table and she brings this perfume worth a year's wage. You've got to think of how much it's worth. And she breaks it over His feet. All the perfume, worth a year's wage, runs out.

It's just extravagant waste. And Judas, the Bible tells us in John 12:1, the disciples are all upset about this. Let's go to Matthew 26:14. They're all upset about this. And this is the context of that scripture. They start to rebuke Jesus.

How could you let her do that? All the disciples, they're upset. Jesus, You've messed up here. You keep telling us, give our money to the poor, and You just wasted a year's worth of perfume. Shouldn't You rather have taken that and sold it and given the money to the poor?

That's exactly what they say to Him. Jesus, You're a hypocrite. And Jesus tells them to keep quiet. They don't know what they are talking about. Later, we read that the Father was doing this because He knew that His Son was going to die so terribly and not receive a proper burial.

The Father was honoring His Son. The Father was just extravagantly honoring His Son and strengthening Him for what was to come. But they didn't know that. And the Bible tells us there in that scripture, right at that place. Matthew 26:14. "Then one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, 'What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him over to you?'"

It's interesting that Judas falls over money and he's got an issue with money. You'll find when people have an issue with the church that it is normally their own issue that they're reflecting onto somebody else. But Judas disagrees and he fails, he falls.

At some point in your teams, you're going to disagree. Be very careful when that moment comes. Be very careful that you understand the situation properly. At that moment, the Bible says, Judas decided. And it actually goes on to say, then a little bit later, they're breaking bread and Jesus breaks bread and honors Judas and Judas doesn't respond even to that.

And the Bible says at that moment, Satan entered him. And then he went and did what he did. He was a brother. He was one of us, the disciples would say, but he shipwrecked his faith. All right. These things are not easy. Keep me from misunderstanding.

The Servant Test

Keep me from when I'm disagreeing that I don't start fortifying my position. Keep me Lord. The second one is the servant test. I mentioned my little motive for ministry. Doing this so that I get that. Some of us, even here, this is our demon.

This is our battle. I desperately want to serve God and I love ministry. If you love ministry, you've got to get before God. Love people. Love people. Your ministry is a tool for them. It's not for you. It's not your ministry. It's their ministry.

It's not your ministry. It's their ministry. It's the Lord's ministry. If it's yours, it's become idolatrous. And these are the nuances of our heart. Father, I'm Your servant, Lord. You can keep me as a servant, Lord, wherever. I would rather be a doorkeeper in Your house.

I'm happy with that, Lord. I'm content with what You've given me. The fact that I'm in Your house. And those, God can move forward into more. But at some point, serving becomes a burden and a bane. In Romans 16:17-18, "I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites."

They are serving their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. They are serving their own appetite. In other words, they have a desire, they have a hunger, and they serve to meet that need.

They serve to have that hunger quenched. Why are you here? Why are you hungering for ministry? Why do you want the Lord to see you? Why do you want the Lord to set you apart? Is it for your own selfish needs? Your own selfish hunger?

Or is it, Lord, Lord, I'm a slave. It's Your house, Master. I just want to honor You. I want to serve however You want me to serve. And I'm happy to serve for the rest of my life. I'll make tea for the rest of my life, God.

And if no one notices, I love what the Bible says. Jesus notices. The parts that seem the most important to us are the least important to Him. I love the stories of the Bible because they show us God's value system. I love the Pharisees coming to the church dragging money.

Their bags are so full. And the disciples are like, Whoa, look at that man's contribution. Whoa. Whoa. And Jesus sees what they don't even see. A widow. She's not even in their eyesight. She brings all that she has. It's like two mites, it's a few cents.

She brings it, she lays it before the Lord. Jesus says, Whoa, did you see that woman? They're like, what woman? That woman. She brought all that she had. She had so little. But she brought all that she had and she gave it to Me.

Whoa, the Pharisees get no glory. But that woman, one day you're going to meet her in heaven. Are you that woman? That one that gave all you had that the Lord honored. The value system of heaven is so different from the value system of earth.

We must not corrupt it. I'm going to blow my nose again. Is that all right? Anyone want to help? Just joking. Be content with what you have. Be content with the area you're in. And if the Lord decides to give you something else, then that's what He decides.

But in your heart, don't grow weary in doing good. Keep serving in whatever area God has given you. Knowing that if He wants to promote you, the King's heart is in God's hand. He can move it like a stream, He says. You can be noticed like this, if the Master decides for that.

The Failure Test

And if not, stay content and keep serving where you are. The failure test. This is a horrible one. Isaiah 48:10, "Behold, God says, I have refined you, but not as silver. I've tested you in the furnace of affliction." What God does is He takes us through tests and the test is specifically this.

I'm putting you into the furnace. I'm putting you into the fire. To test you. The word test is to refine you, the English doesn't quite convey the word well. It means I'm putting you into the heat, so that all the rubbish comes to the surface.

So that you can sweep it off and become more pure. And so God will put you into the fire. He'll put you in situations where it feels like all hell is broken loose against you. The Lord has put you in the fire, because as hell breaks against you, your flesh kicks.

Save me! What about me? Where's God? That is all the rubbish in you coming to the surface. And the Lord's putting you in there to refine you, to purify you. Often you'll find there's a resistance. One of the things I get so freaked out on, if you go on Facebook, there are these preachers and teachers now.

Your breakthrough is coming. I saw one man recently talk about a spider anointing that God's going to give you. So that you can climb your way into palaces. There is so much junk in our churches in this country, I'm thinking a spider anointing?

Hey, I want that one. Spider-Man. Jokes. I mean, seriously, the Bible doesn't use that language anywhere. But these are the fast growing churches in our country. The breakthrough is coming. The prophet will pray for you and you'll get your breakthrough. I'm like, seriously, the apostle Paul prayed and he never got his breakthrough.

God said, now I'm keeping you in the furnace. But your breakthrough is going to come because I'm praying. Seriously. And Paul writes, even as an apostle, one who's been sent by Jesus. The one who got the gospel. He's got the angelic host on his side, and he wants to preach the gospel, which is about the most noble cause that we can have.

When Satan Stops Us

And he writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18, "My brothers, we were torn away from you for a short time, in person, not in thought. And out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you. We wanted to come back. We wanted to come and strengthen you in your faith.

Certainly, I pulled it again and again. I try to get back to you again and again, but Satan stopped us." Hang on, Paul. Do you not understand your authority? Don't you have authority over Satan? Can't you just bind him and cast him out?

Can't you take authority over regions? I bind the spirit of whatever it is. Paul, do you not understand spiritual warfare? You need to read some of our books because we could teach you. I believe that we have authority. I've driven demons out of people.

But every truth must be balanced. Sometimes you'll have authority over them and sometimes they'll have authority over you. Even our Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Satan took His hand and led Him for a time of testing. And Jesus, in that moment, Jesus is the one in the fire.

Don't do the one plus one equals two when it comes to theology. Don't do that. There's mystery here. You have authority over demons. You can cast them out. But you've got to keep in the Spirit to know what's going on. And so not getting your breakthrough.

How many of you got a business? God, if only the breakthrough would come. How long, God? I'm tithing. I'm being faithful. I'm keeping You in the furnace. God, how long till my marriage breaks through? How long till my kids come right? I'm keeping You in the furnace.

And you've got to hold on by faith. You've got to go through the fire. Because if you get shipwrecked in that moment, it's over. Shipwreck. God will keep you there. Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Keep going. At the appointed time, the Bible says the breakthrough will come.

The World Test

God has set a time. Until that time comes, Father, I will not pull back. I will continue faithfully. Next one is the world test. Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me. You know, the devil came to Jesus and one of the things he offered was the kingdoms of this world.

Just bow down. I have them. I'll give them to you. I can give them to anyone I want to. You just bow down and serve me and I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. And Satan uses that same trick to Christians as they're coming through in ministry.

The devil knows if you come through in what God has for you. You see, the Bible tells us that Satan gets into the throne room of God and hears what God says about us. Consider my servant Job, God says, and Satan's in His hearing.

God says, consider my servant Mike to the angels, and Satan says, "Let me have a go at him." And God decides at some point, it's furnace time. And Satan comes to test him. And Satan comes and offers the world, and it's like this: I own the kingdoms of the world.

I own careers. I own the finances and the gold. What's your price? What's your price? How much do I have to offer you to get you to serve me and not Him? Watch the promotion though. God will open a door. The devil can open doors too.

Watch this. Watch that you don't get sidetracked. Watch if the devil says, come on. The world will test you. You need to come through. In Judges 3:1-4, listen to this: "Now these are the nations which the Lord left in Canaan when Israel was going in, that He might test Israel by them."

And so God leaves the Canaanites and their ways in the land so that He can test His people. And Canaanites offered gold, they offered religion, they offered sexuality, they offered all sorts of things, and these things tested His own people. The world will test you.

Russell's Test of Loyalty

And I remember one of our elders, Russell Fraser, and I'll finish with this story. Years ago, Russell and Jenny came. We didn't know much about starting a church. We had artists and hairdressers, no one was really wealthy. We started JoshGen in our house.

We are meeting in our small home. I think we probably had about 15 people. We don't have enough income. We just started JoshGen and a Mercedes Benz pulls into my driveway. I actually felt intimidated. I remember feeling that a serious person's just arrived.

I was actually timid. I thought, "Oh, there is a Mercedes Benz in our driveway." I mean, we were pushing our cars. And I was young and I thought, whoa. And then Russell and Jenny got out and they looked so old. I think they were about 35 in those days.

It was like our first old people, too. I was so intimidated. I don't know how they joined, but they did. And they stuck with us. And the church was growing and growing and growing. We got to know them. They're not intimidating anymore. You go through these things as a church family, right?

Then I remember realizing that Russell's actually called to be an elder. And we had apostolic guys coming in and they were checking him out. The consensus was that he would be our first elder after me. I'm so excited. It's our first JoshGen elder.

Yes! So I talked to the apostolic team. We are all convinced. God's in this. He's our first elder. Russell phones me before I have a chance to speak to him. He says, "Andrew, you're not going to believe this. I've just been offered an incredible job offer.

A French company have headhunted me. They want me to move to Johannesburg, Gauteng. And they are offering me, I think it was four times what I'm earning in Cape Town. My boys are actually at varsity age—that is quite expensive—and I don't earn enough where I am.

We're struggling to get by. And so this will more than meet our needs for the next season." It was just pretty much this dream package. I wanted to say, "Russell, don't!" And I heard the Lord say this to me: "Keep quiet. I'm testing it."

It's his moment. Russell's been led by the Spirit and Satan is now offering him the world. What are you going to choose, Russell? You're going to meet your needs or you're going to meet My needs? So I said, "What do you want to do, Russ?"

He said, I don't know. Let me pray about it. I prayed, Oh God, please. He phones back a day later and says, Andrew, this is what I feel God saying, JoshGen is my church. I need to be faithful to JoshGen. I'm laying that down.

Yes! Well done, Russell! I'm so excited! I said, Yes! Russell, I'm so excited. I've got such great news, brother. I need to see you. When can we meet? He says, I can meet you in three days time. I said, let's do it. I'm so excited.

I'm going to keep it a secret. I'm going to see him on the Friday or Saturday. And I'm going to tell him, Russell, you passed your test. You're going to come into eldership. He phones me the next morning. You're not going to believe it.

I've just arrived at work. The company that I'm in is deciding that they need to downgrade our company. I think they were bought out by another company and they need to retrench a number of people. And they've pulled me into an office this morning and I've just lost my job.

And the French company, Andrew, they still want me. What do I do? I can't believe this. He has got three boys. He's got a bond that he's got to pay. Russell, you've just lost everything. And what? And a Mercedes to pay back. I remember saying, Russ, I can't tell you what to do.

You need to hear the Lord. Put down the phone. Now he's gonna lose everything if he stays. He doesn't know. And he phones me back later and says, Andrew, nothing's changed. I don't have a job, but God put me in JoshGen. I'm not for sale.

And I met with him a few days later. He came onto eldership full time, earned a fraction of what he did. And today, he's Russell Fraser, man. He's a legend. He's touching nations. He had to pass his test. He had to pass his test.

Your Destiny Will Be Tested

You realize that your destiny, that which God has called you to, will impact the kingdom of darkness. You have an enemy who wants you to fail. Don't just think life happens. You're a child of God. Bought with blood. More valuable than anything in the universe.

There is a fight on for your soul. And a fight on for your destiny. And as Will Marrais said again, Everything is a test. I'll carry on in the second session, but pass your tests. God is your source. Seek His kingdom first and He will meet your needs according to His riches in glory.

And if you have to live in a car, in a garage, in somebody's house, what's that to you in the light of eternity? Seek the Master's house first and He'll meet your needs and bless you. Father, there's such a weightiness on this time.

Lord, would you help us navigate as Your sons and daughters our way through this. That we would, as Your children, pass the tests. And come through to hear You say, well done, My good and My faithful servant. Even as You said that over Your firstborn Son, Jesus.

Well done, My Son. Father, bring us through to the glory of Your name. Amen.