Here's How To Be Part Of The Jesus Revolution (Episode 28)

0:00 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. Welcome to Gems for the Journey, Wisdom from the Word of God. Hey God bless you everybody. Welcome to Gems for the Journey, Wisdom from the Word of God. And we're your host Matt and Stephanie Garrity. And we're founders of River of Heaven Ministries. And we have a three-fold vision to rebuild and restore, equip and empower and revive and heal.

0:43 Through these broadcasts you're going to be touched, rebuilt and restored, equipped and empowered, and revived and healed. And you're going to be functioning like never before as a kingdom man or a kingdom woman. Amen. Great to be with you today for another episode of Gems for the Journey, Wisdom from the Word of God. Revival is here. Revival, awakening. Many people are calling it revival. Many people are calling it awakening or even great awakening. And when you think about revival, the first thing that really comes to mind is when someone dies, right? When someone dies, oftentimes they're attempted to resuscitate that individual or the defibrillation panels are broken out. And there is a charge that's applied and you hear somebody yell clear and then there's a tristly that comes forth. But really in that case, really in either case, resuscitation or defibrillation panels, we're trying to again start the heart. In order to acknowledge that there needs to be a revival, you first need to acknowledge that something's dead. And if you want to go the route of awakening in order to understand that there needs to be an awakening, their first has to be an admission that people are asleep. And so there's a lot of people that are saying, wow, there's a revival or awakening. Well, that should tell us one or two things either that the majority of the church has fallen asleep if we really need a great awakening like that and or that the majority

2:15 of the church, you know, they have reputation of being alive yet they're dead. That's what it says in the book of Revelation of the church of Sardis, you've got a reputation of being alive but yet you're dead. And so either way, we now realize, I believe with everything that's going on, how asleep much of the church has been or how dead much of the church has been. And it takes like a awakening or revival at a small college campus in the middle of the, you know, the boonies in Kentucky for us to really realize, wow, man, maybe we've been asleep. If this is what normal Christianity is supposed to look like, if this is what I should be involved in, many of the church, they're looking at that and some are criticizing it, some are saying, oh, well, you know, it's the Methodist denomination or, oh, it's this or it's that. There's no signs, wonders and miracles that are breaking out really, but there's a lot of people repenting. Beloved, here's the bottom line.

3:18 The bottom line is anytime you've got people come from all over the world to a place that started off as a chapel service where the chapel service never stopped. It was not planned. Someone gave a little sermonette and I listened to the guy testify who gave the sermonette. He thought he had a whiffed. He thought he had given like not that great of a sermonette. In other words, it was nothing instituted, organized by man. It was all done by God. See, Leonard Ravenhill used to say that when man attempts to start a revival or awakening, man gives the altar call. But when the Lord brings forth a revival or awakening, he gives the altar call. In other words, he's moving.

3:59 Holy spirit is bringing conviction of sin. He's been drawing and drawing and drawing the people of America from all over on the tail end of this whole thing where the Grammys came out. There's all these enduendos and there's all these potential, many believe that it was like almost like a satanic ritual going on. And it's just amazing. Isn't it just like God to show everyone, listen, you're worried about all this stuff and Satan taking over and all these things. And yet the Lord said, let me show you something. Let me show you. You want to see worship if they're worshiping the devil for the Grammys or whatever they're doing? I'll show you what real worship is. And he institutes this revival or he institutes this awakening where people had traveled within two weeks from all over the world. Why? Because God was moving, because God was doing something fresh and something new amongst a lot of students there down in Kentucky. And really, interestingly enough, we've got a movie called The Jesus Revolution, Jonathan Rumi and others directing and producing this movie that deals with the Jesus revolution, what happened in the early 1970s, the end of 1960s, the early 1970s, where people were searching. There were all these non-God ideologies out there. These young people were searching, many called them hippies, but they were searching and they're trying to explore all different types of spirituality and all different types of ways of going about that. But

5:31 yet through all that searching, there was a Jesus revolution. And if you've seen the movie, you now know the backstory of it, but long story short, brief synopsis, there was at least one church, the well-known church was Chuck Smith's church, Calvary Chapel, and how he took a huge chance. He was being persecuted by the religious people and you can't let the hippies in the church and all this other stuff. And yet Chuck Smith embraced the hippies. He embraced, especially a young man named Lonnie Frisbee, who headed up really or was a big part or one of the key people in this searching for Jesus in the hippie movement. And again, he was not free from problems or all these different other considerations. People are imperfect people. God is a perfect God.

6:25 Jesus Christ is for everyone. John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son Jesus, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but receive everlasting life. Whosoever means everybody. That means that Jesus died for the hippie. That means that Jesus died for the one strung out at drugs. That means that Jesus died for the businessman or the business woman. That means that Jesus died for people in other nations. That means that Jesus died for people that don't look like you do. People who have a different skin color than you do. People who have a different, who may be from a different class of society, if you will, or have a different upbringing than you do. Jesus died for President Joe Biden. Jesus died for Kamala Harris. Jesus died for Donald Trump. Jesus died for all these political figures over the years. Jesus died for everyone regardless of how many people want to elevate individuals and people and political officers and political pundits even or heroes in the faith or whatever. Jesus died for everyone.

7:33 And so really that should show us one thing, that our eyes should not be focused on man. It should be focused on Jesus. One of the amazing things about this new Jesus revolution, if you will, is the fact that this revival or this awakening on the campus of Asbury University in Kentucky, they wanted no celebrities. They wanted no one with a big name, no big name worship leaders, no big name preachers as if they should be any of those things anyway. But these people that have big recognition and fame in the body of Christ and maybe even in the world as well, they didn't want any of that. They wanted the focus to be on who? On Jesus. We need to understand that what God is doing right now, you know, even with the things that happened with Donald Trump and all these things that are happening now with Joe Biden and the administration that's in there, God wants us to get our eyes back on him. A president is not going to save us. A wing of the government is not going to save us. The military, although great at protecting us, is not going to save us. There is one who saves and that is Jesus Christ. And it's amazing how God orchestrates all this to come together to show us that he's still the answer. He's still the answer, beloved. He's still the answer. And one of the things I've been thinking about lately as we've pondered this was, you know, just leadership, leadership in the body of Christ. You know, Chuck Smith took a massive chance. He

9:06 endured persecution. He endured, you know, all these different people talking about him. And again, Chuck Smith was not a perfect person. He may not have had perfect doctrine like many people don't have, but he wasn't a heretic. And there's a lot of people think this way or that way about Chuck Smith or about Lonnie Frisbee. And I realized that. But let's, let's dig a little deeper than that and look at, there was a man who was willing where nobody else really was willing to embrace that hippie movement. Chuck Smith was. He was willing to say, you know what, Jesus died for those men and for those women. And we can't look down upon them. And even though many people might look down on people, he said, you know what, we can't do that. And we want to wash people's feet and we want to welcome them because that's what Jesus would do. And when he did that, there was an explosion in California of Christianity. There was an explosion or I shall say a reinvigoration of the gospel, a reinvigoration of people coming to the Lord where things had been stale for quite some time. Uh, if, if you look at history, the history of the church. And so, you know, I want to talk to the leaders today. If you're listening to this podcast or you've been following us on social media, you know one thing that we love to lead leaders. We love to impart to leaders.

10:21 I have a passion to help to strengthen, equip and empower leaders. And so leaders, leadership is not Lordship. Leadership is not dictatorship either. This is especially true for five-fold leaders, for those who embrace the fullness of the five-fold ministry, the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor and the teacher. Leadership is laying down one's life for other, other individuals. It is serving a group of individuals and in doing so, providing an example for many to follow. From a Christian perspective, authentic leadership is demonstrated by fathering from the father's heart. And that's the key. We got to have the father's heart for the women, for the ladies, it's mothering from the father's heart. The apostle Paul makes a fascinating statement in his first letter to the church of Corinth. He writes this in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 15, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Paul looks at this like a family. Paul looks at this like I need to have the father's heart to be able to reach anybody. And not just that, but I'm a father figure and that these are the kids. This is the body of Christ. This is a family.

11:43 Through this powerful letter that addressed many issues in the Corinthian church at the time, he was addressing many problems that were going on. Paul also explained that many individuals, instructors will offer to teach the Corinthians, teach God's people information about God. But still not many individuals are willing to lay down their life for the church once they finish delivering the gospel message or scripture teaching. But Chuck Smith was somebody that was willing to lay down his life. He was willing to be one that, you know, maybe he didn't consider himself a father, but there was a lot of these kids who had run away from home in the hippie movement. And God, I believe, really used him as a father figure to a lot of these young men and young women and to bring them to Christ or to teach them and to have them grow in Christ.

12:34 True apostolic ministry will father and raise up strong sons and daughters by laying their own life down, even as Jesus did. There's a lot of people these days that call themselves an apostle or say they have an apostolic function. Okay, but there also needs to be fruit that coincides with that. Amen. And one of the strengths that we see or one of the predominant characteristics that we see about apostolic ministry is what Paul says here. It's laying down your life for people. He laid down his own life and he said, I'm not just going to be an instructor. I'm not just going to be a teacher to you, but I'm going to be a father to you. I'm going to lay my life down for you, even as Christ laid his life down. Paul makes a powerful distinction that his example among the church was not that of just an instructor, but one of a father. Paul depicts fathers as different than mere instructors or teachers. Fathers will not only minister the gospel, but they'll invite you to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, but also provide other valuable teachings. They will also provide a covenant relationship, accountability, and a godly example to follow starting from the point of the individual's conversion to Christ or their spiritual birth when they're born again and continuing on. See, fathers will love you. They'll equip you. They'll empower you. They'll train you. They'll rebuke you and they'll walk with you all the way to the place of full maturity in the faith. We know that Ephesians chapter four starting in verse 11 talks about that Jesus gave

14:07 some to be apostles, prophets, some evangelists, pastors, and teachers, right? For the equipping, for the equipping of the saints, for the edification of the church, amen, and so that they wouldn't be tossed to and fro by the winds of doctrine, false doctrine, but that they might mature in the things of the Lord in Christ, amen? Whereas fathers are called to be much different than instructors on the other side of the spectrum. They're also not to exercise the Lordship as Pharaoh over God's people. Chuck Smith never decided he was going to be a Pharaoh. A Pharaoh would have said, get these people out of here. I'm the king here and these people are going to dirty up the church and they're going to, you know, you know, cause me to have to work extra hard or whatever.

14:53 That's not what he did though. He embraced them as a father and not a Pharaoh. God has called us to be servants. He's called us to be fathers for those of us who are leaders and not pharaohs. In the book of Revelation, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the head of the church, remember it's his church, specifically revealed that he hated the false doctrine, the practices of men lording over, dominating, and acting as a Pharaoh over his church. Although Jesus had some things against the church of Ephesus, he commended them for their hatred of the false doctrine and not allowing any dictatorship. He said this in Revelation two, six, but you have this in your favor that you hate the doctrine and the practices of the Nicoladians, which I also hate.

15:39 You know, amongst other idolatrous issues, the doctrine, the practices of the Nicoladians were terrible. They were such that they exalted knowledge above God like Gnosticism or like the Gnostics did, but they also instituted a hierarchy of spiritual men ruling and reigning as lords over God's people. The Nicoladians comes from the Greek word Nikos, which means victory ruling over or destroying, and the Greek word Laos, which speaks of a group of people or the Laity, Nikolaitans, Nikos Laetit. Today, we must guard and altogether reject any idolatrous notion that having power, influence, and all this puffed up knowledge makes us a leader. This is how the world thinks, and this is not how kingdom-minded people or leaders especially should think.

16:36 See, leading in the kingdom must be different. It must look different than leading in the world. To successfully lead in the kingdom of God, we must have the Father's heart and lead by Christ's example of serving others, not by dictating or manipulating others. Leading in this manner, fathering will produce sons and daughters and not slaves. Isn't that what we want? We want a family of believers, and we want people, pastors, and leaders of those congregations that act like fathers and mothers, especially to this next generation who is searching. They might be searching more than they were in the late 60s, early 70s. People are struggling in their identity.

17:19 All these young people, they don't know if they're a man, they don't know if they're a woman, they don't know if they're an animal, they don't know if they should believe in Mother Earth or Father Time, and all these different crazy things going on. I believe in the universe, right? That energy just seems weird to me, or your energy is great. They're so confused. Romans talks about a reprobate mind because people have chosen to worship the creation and not the Creator. And so many have a reprobate mind. Many don't know who they are. Many are searching, and so we need leaders to arise as fathers and mothers in the house of God, amen? And if you do leaders, if you choose to arise with the Father's heart and you choose to welcome those who may not look like you and may not act like you and may not dress like you, I'm telling you that you're going to produce sons and daughters and not slaves. Many churches these days are full of pharaohs and slaves. They're full of people that are under the task master's whip. Do this, or I'm going to do this to you. Do this or else. Do this, or I'm going to punish you and your family. Do this, or we'll never talk to you again. If you leave this church, we'll blacklist you to every church. You will not, no one will want to receive you because we'll just, we'll just spread all these things about you. See, that's pharoic nature. That's manipulation. That's acting like you're a Lord over people. Many immature leaders who are not fathered themselves are infatuated

18:53 with the idea of having power, authority, and or a title. If this behavior goes unchecked for too long and these individuals do not mature, they will begin to act as though they are Lords over a group of people instead of actually serving the people as a true leader. Remember, if anyone could have acted as a Lord over people, it would have been Jesus. But remember what Jesus said. He said, I don't come to be served, but I come to serve and to lay my life down as a ransom for many. So here's a little stock taking that I like us to go through today. There's some questions that I have or some statements rather to determine whether you're a father or you're a pharaoh. And this might shock you. But let's, let's go through these. Pharaohs want to be served. Fathers serve. So if you love people, the idea of people serving you and coming and serving you all the time, like you're some kind of a king that sits above everyone, you might be a pharaoh. Okay. But fathers are called to serve. Now people can still serve, they can still honor you, they can still serve in the ministry.

20:02 All those things are valid. It's just that's not, that's not the main focal point. The main focal point is that as a father, as a leader, you're to set the example of service. You're not wanting everyone. Everyone's got to serve me, but I'm never going to serve. Second statement. Pharaohs love to rule, but fathers submit to God's rule. See, pharaohs, people that love having authority, they love to tell people what to do. Go here, do that. And people will listen. Why? Cause they have authority. Okay. And authority is okay. Authority is good. We see many teachings about that in scripture, but again, there can be manipulation in that authority. Pharaohs love to rule, but fathers submit to God's rule. Pharaohs emasculate. They cut off the productivity of people, but fathers circumcised. They cut off what needs to be cut off so that their sons and daughters can be productive for work in the kingdom. Pharaohs enslave, they manipulate, they try to make people be afraid of them so they'll listen to them, but fathers emancipate. Fathers set people free.

21:02 They teach people that in Christ you're free, that Christ breaks the chains of the, of the devil and the chains of sin. Pharaohs hold grudges, but fathers forgive. The Bible says if we don't forgive others, God can't forgive us. Pharaohs restrain, but fathers train. Pharaohs are not interested at all in someone taking the torch and carrying it. They're interested in their rule, in their reign, in their dominion, but fathers want to train. They want to see their sons and daughters do more than, than they could ever do for God and for the kingdom of God. Pharaohs are full of idolatry, but fathers are full of humility. See, pharaohs, you know, they're not really serving the Lord. So they are full of all kind of, you know, compromise and all these other things, sinful behavior, but fathers are full of humility. They have the fear of the Lord. Pharaohs seduce and flatter, but fathers bring correction to the matter. Pharaohs will say whatever they need to say to whatever group of people they need to say it to in order to get money to come in to the church or in order to gain prestige or influence or rank, but fathers will bring correction in love if things are out of order, regardless of how much money people have, regardless of how influential people are. Pharaohs dominate, but fathers liberate. Pharaohs love to dominate, but fathers will liberate God's people. Pharaohs punish, but fathers replenish. Now, fathers can correct people, but it's never one of these things of condemnation. Fathers replenish. They, they correct, but then

22:34 they restore, amen, with the father's heart. Pharaohs walk in divination, but fathers walk in consecration. Again, the, just the understanding that, you know, that people will fill themselves with all manner of compromise and all manner of counterfeit if they're not truly in love with Jesus Christ, if they're not truly in love with the father, if they don't have a relationship with him. Pharaohs condemn. They produce condemnation, but fathers redeem. There is therefore no condemnation to those in Christ. So we don't want to condemn people as a father. Our heart is not to condemn people. It's to liberate people. It's to point them to the redemption of the cross, to redemption of Christ. Pharaohs consume, but fathers give. See, Pharaohs think that all the people in the church are just to give to them, to them, to them. They just want to keep consuming.

23:24 They look at people like a consumer good and everything that people are bringing up, it's all for me. It's all for me. It's all about me, but fathers don't have that heart. Fathers give. The Bible teaches that the apostle Paul, he was a tent maker and he didn't even take that much money for himself from offerings and things like that, but what he did was he tried to do something that would be enough money so that him and his sons, Timothy and Titus and others could serve in the ministry and have more than enough. See, father's heart is to give. It's to make a way for their sons and daughters. It's not to consume and take from them. Pharaohs destroy lives, but fathers lay down their lives. We talked about this earlier. Pharaohs, by their manipulation, their domination, their coercion, they actually destroy people's lives because those people, they look at them as a mean to their end, but fathers lay down their lives. And when fathers lay down their lives, people then can thrive. They will thrive. When you lay down your life for someone, it's putting yourself in a very vulnerable position, but you'll allow others to thrive when you do that. You don't always have to have the front seat, pastor, leader, apostolic minister, prophet, evangelist, teacher. Let somebody else have a chance. Let somebody else teach sometime. Let somebody else lead worship sometime. Train people, train others, train other leaders, give them an opportunity that's what Chuck Smith did with Lonnie Frisbee. And again, neither man was perfect, but it produced a great spark out there in California for the kingdom of God that ignited a flame and not just

24:58 there, but other places. And here in our time, we see this great spark, this great fire that's burning at Asbury University, but it's spreading other places. And God did it in a nameless and a faceless way so that only Jesus would get the glory. And now I believe that, that we're catching the father's heart in this. That's not about us. It's about Christ. It's not about us. It's about Jesus Christ. So let's minister from the father's heart. Let's be fathers and not pharaohs. Amen. So I just want to pray for you today, Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus, Lord, for all of the listeners, Lord, for those who are tuning in from across America, from across the United States of America and all over Lord, all the nations of the world. I thank you, Lord, that you are raising up true fathers and mothers that have the father's heart and Lord that we just see a new Jesus revolution. We see instead of people turning to drugs and alcohol and gambling and pornography and all manner of just disgusting filth that people are turning to you, Lord Jesus.

26:02 And we are saved by your grace through faith. I thank you, Lord. I just see many who are listening to me that don't know Jesus. Maybe you've just watched that Jesus revolution movie. Maybe you haven't seen that movie, but maybe you're feeling a tug on your heart. Maybe you think you came across this broadcast by coincidence, but I want to tell you it was the hand of God that caused you to come across this. And this is your time, my brother. This is your time, my sister. Just say this with me, Lord, I repent. I don't want to live this life anymore. Lord, I believe in my heart. I believe that you died for my sin. I confess with my mouth that you are raised to life. I believe you, Lord Jesus. I repent. I give my life to you. I ask you to come into my life.

26:50 I ask you to be Lord of my life. I ask you to forgive me for my sins. I ask you to take my sins away, carry them away as far as the east is from the west. And Lord, I ask you to save me, Lord Jesus. Friend, if you prayed that prayer or you prayed in your own way and you made it personal and you've repented and trusted in Jesus Christ, trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, then you're saved, my friend. You're saved, my brother. You're saved, my sister. Welcome to the family of God. God bless you. We love you. If you want to connect with us, reach out to us on social media. We would love to hear from you and we just want to see more and more and more people, millions and millions and millions of people saved. And what many believe could be the last harvest before the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God bless you guys. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you. May he be gracious unto you. May he lift up his countenance upon you. And may the Lord give you his peace and shalom until next time on Gems for the Journey. Goodbye.