theexpandingshrink

Christ Community Church

September 14, 2012 

The American church is about to do serious harm and violence to the pharisaical religious spirit..

God is saying, “Let my people go..”

We are citizens of heaven living here on earth.  We are bringing here what is normal in heaven.  We are pursuing what is not normal here.  God is going to turn us upside down and inside out so we have real possibility of fullness and abundance so we can take riches of God’s grace to the world.

All control in the church goes out the window except self control. Only time you know freedom is present is when people are learning self control- taking control of their relationships and lives.

We need to move out of a “poverty mindset.” The poverty mindset says “Let’s do the most we can in the least amount of time with least resources.”

We must break the cycle of a ‘sanctuary driven spirituality’.  We need a ‘gathered and a scattered’ paradigm. In early church, real kingdom work was in ‘house to house’ scattered aspect of paradigm.  They were so scatted though out the community that the enemy would have to destroy the community to get to the church

Quality of worship.

Does this team have capacity to lead into the presence of God?

 We need a model for intimacy.  Congregation needs to see leaders on their knees and on their faces.  If there is a limit in worship there is a ceiling on the congregation.. A non engagement in worship signals a non engagement with God in life.   If worship and thanksgiving is first thing we encounter with a person, it tells us about the quality of that person’s life.  If leaders do not pursue worship and only see worship as a precursor for the rest of the service there is a problem. There is no substitute for intimacy with God.   David was fascinated by God so he could deal with a giant.. Authority without intimacy can only take you so far.   A ‘world beating, supernatural’ church is an intimate church.

We must HOST the presence of GOD AND NOT JUST PURSUE THE PRESENCE of God.

 

Cooke has been in meetings where people got healed just by being in the presence of God.

We must be hungry to see the kingdom come.. Kingdom comes first and church comes out of the church. God says, “You seek the kingdom and I will build my church”.. We have built the church and not built the kingdom.

If the church in America was good enough we would not be in revival but reformation

What if biggest problem in America is lack of goodness. We are to overcome evil with good. We are so busy railing against sin, that we are not going about doing good and healing. We try to avoid those oppressed by the devil.  Jesus went to those oppressed and healed and delivered them.  It is not our job to judge but to demonstrate the goodness of God.

II Cor. 5:14.   God was reconciling the world to Himself.. Jesus died so that every human is reconciled. God does not have anything against anybody. Not everyone is redeemed but all are reconciled. Every obstacle has been removed. God says, “I have nothing against anybody.” You may not know God but He knows you. The way is wide open to His heart. We are ambassadors of reconciliation. We are agents of reconciliation

Does worship team try to motivate congregation to worship?  Ideally the congregation pushes the worship team to a higher level in the spirit.

How many of these leaders have another fight left in them.  Does a leader have the capacity to lead the fight into the place God wants us to have.  How many have a grasshopper mentality and how many have a Caleb mentality. Caleb, one of the ten spies said, “We can do it.”   Intimacy cloaks you with a majesty. What would it take to believe that I am magnificent toward you?. I need a radiant idea of God and the church.  We need to use problems as a stepping stone to see what God has for us. We need to turn problems into positives in seconds.  We need to practice turning negatives to positives, till you see the opportunity and not crisis.   We are growing up into Christ in all things.  we see all things as a profit and not a deficit..  Jesus is not just Savior he is our Lord.

There is a process that every church has to go through..

We need to get Closure on Egypt.. We are not going back there. The Israelites were a rabble of slaves. They were salivating over the vegetables in Egypt, not glorifying the Lord.. This is stupid.. Pharaoh is not going to welcome you back.  Every plague brought down a household god in Egypt. Pharaoh lost half his army.  How could he ever welcome you back? A poverty mind set is a poverty mindset. It is about living with meager possibilities.

It is right to feel small in comparison to the vision of what God has for you.  He then enlarges you till you become the giant.. Caleb becomes the giant.  “Give me this mountain.”.  I want to be in this last fight. God is looking for men of a different spirit.  He wants those who are not banding together in mediocrity but are saying, “I want this fight.”

Cooke was told prophetically that he would fight a religious spirit and wake a sleeping giant. He is now living in the unfolding of that prophecy.. That is his calling- To kill a religious dragon and waken a sleeping church..

God is looking for a leadership whose best fights are ahead of them.  If a person demonstrates there is no more fight in them, honor them and give them other things to do than to be leaders.

We need people fascinated by Jesus and not intimidated by the enemy.   Best leaders have talent scouts to see what God is intending in those they are mentoring.  Have a conversation with those who receive a prophecy.  The process begins when you engage the word.    Asking God to confirm world is ridiculous.  You need to become as serious about these words as God is.  If you are going to be a prophet you need to start seeing things differently. There are no excuses.  Every situation is designed to turn you into a prophet.  No whining or complaining. Everything will prepare you for that role.  Everything now is about training for reigning.

We have enough of pulpit driven spirituality.  We need to grow from ground up and not top down.

Vision is the broad brush strokes.   Details are the people God brings to us.  We engage according to the passions of the people God has given us.  Need to check the demographics and then check the passions that are in people’s hearts.

In one situation Cooke found 850 single parent families.  In the church were a dozen guys out of work.  800 of these single parent families had fixed it needs.   The church started a business to fix cars and watch kids out of kindergarten.  Created a way of interacting.. Painted every house. We showed them what the kingdom was like.  We were 1000 in membership by the time we wanted to be but not by way we had thought.

Why did you elbow the person out who did not fit your vision rather than help the person realize their vision.

We have a fascinating job. It is important to remain fascinated.  Transitions need to take place in the leadership.  Paul said…in me first.. I want to go through it first. We need a leadership that is excited about tomorrow.  We need a leadership that wants to take territory.

We need to do a SWOT analysis:  Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat..  Be a talent scout.  Who is God calling who has a sure outcome and will survive the process.

Dave had prophecy that he was going to be king which was told him by Sam.  So it sucks to be Goliath, because it was clear Dave would survive the encounter…

We need to learn the process of how to work out God’s ways.  It takes years to learn.  It is life that trains us. It is God that trains our hands for war.  Life, not seminary trains us.  Seminarians often are trained by academic theologians who have not been in active ministry for years.

Who are leaders, what sets them apart…

What is it that you believe about yourself that makes you think that talking to him like that is okay.. Address the identity, not the behavior but identity. Behavior arises out of identity.

 

 What are three biggest obstacles to creating movement and momentum?     All football coaches understand the importance of maintaining momentum

What do you want to be that you are not?

Where do you want to go that you are not yet going?

What would you do if money were not an issue?   God is not short on money but is short on people to invest in.

Cooke wants to build a training center in Santa Barbara, California that costs $10,000,000 but he is hoping it will cost $30,000,000 because that will really display the riches of God.

God does not want us to cut down our dream to manageable proportions,.

Tension does not mean something is wrong but that something is happening. There is no movement without tension… Be sure tension does not become a friction. We need the oil of the Holy Spirit.  Be sure tension does not become relational.

Why is enemy tackling us. What is enemy afraid of? If you are not a problem to the enemy you are irrelevant in the world. If he is attacking us, we must be close to something important.

We need closure on a victim mentality.

We are called to conversion to become like Jesus. This conversion is a process ‘from glory to glory’.  It is a lifestyle, not an event.  Becoming like Jesus does not happen in a conference.  You do not learn patience in a weekend..God has people around you to help you grow in grace.  Some are around you to teach you joy.. Everyone wants to connect with the joyful person because he is a joy to be with.

Cooke had no vision for a peace that passes understanding, now he can come into peace in 15 seconds. He was taught by someone else..

In developing a training program, we want to train people, not to think like we do but to think like Jesus.

Leaders have a sphere of influence. We lead from the midst of the people.  We need someone to write a “Presence Oriented Life” book to complement “The Purpose Driven Life” book.  We need to grow sons and build service. He is looking to bring sons into glory. Sons have a share in the house.

There is no paradigm for the kingdom rather a paradox: we must give to receive. We are a building and a body. We are ‘growing‘ something in people so we can ‘build’ something.

Every brick is not identical; there are big and small bricks.   If we build by bricks according to a string line it is different than building by the shape and nature of the stones.    A builder needs to know the nature of the stones around him. He looks at the stones before starting to lay stones. He has to get a feel for each stone..  Then he carefully places each stone in the place it will best fit.

Every team needs to be building and blessing.   We ask “Who are blessers and who are builders in this congregation.  Some have overlapping gifts.

You cannot allow a negative influence to abide. A negative person is not a behavior issue but an identity issues. We need to ask that person, “What are you seeing now that makes this acceptable?”  The best time to prophecy is when the person is doing well.  When the person is not doing well, go back over what God has said specifically to that person in the past to see what they may be missing now.  No one needs a prophecy.  Everyone needs Jesus..  Let’s go back and see what He said to to you that you may have missed.

People do not read their Bibles but they do read their Christians.  The Lord is intentional.  Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world. He agreed to be a sacrificial lamb before the foundation of the world.  There is something about us that is fascinating to God.

We can only speak about the Lord in superlatives.. We are astonished at God.. The message is to see us loving God and being loved by God.. We give a mixed message about the gospel:  “Come to us and we will take you in or  if you do not come, we will do you in.  We influence from our identity.

Themes of Cooke’s life: To pay attention to prophets and prophecy.  To live from heaven to earth. To have my ministry match my life style.. To have my ministry flow out of who I am

How do you love when love is not returned... Love does not seek a return.  I am what I love and not what loves me.  I do not want to react to peopele..I want to respond to people..

We talk and pray through our values.

My value is that “Everyone I do business with must have an advantage by doing business with me”.  In one situation Cooke said, “I need to be paying you more.  I need to see you blessed.  That is the kingdom I belong to.  You are touching the kingdom today.”  Salesman said with tears “I never had such a conversation..I am still working through our conversation of five months ago.”

Know the words and prophesies of friends. Be intentional about relationships.  Keep files of the prophesies on all your kids and families.

Three desires we have: I want to be loved.  I want to be significant and I want to belong to something amazing.. Talk into present and future.  Get excited as God is about you. He has planned this to change you.   He is intentional.  He allows in his wisdom what he could easily prevent by his power.

Wants to make people confident in what they have been called to beyond themselves

God gives us the “n” word…”nevertheless”

I stutter, said Moses.  God said, “Nevertheless, I am sending you because you stutter…

Moses goes into Pharaoh’s throne room where there are thousands of people and many different levels. Moses has to give a word to someone who takes to Pharaoh… (When you live in the desert nothing is interesting.

The story behind the story.)

I want to influence people to be passionate about their story and their journey. I want to look back with gratitude..  I do not want things from my past to define my story and journey.  Get passionate about freedom.  Teach people to reverence the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the most energetic and enthusiastic and comedic person in the world. He loves the outrageous.  He is not easily offended.  A dove is scared; the Holy Spirit is not scared. A dove lands lightly; the Holy Spirit lands lightly upon us.  He is not easily offended. He is robust and happy . He is a genius and he knows it.   He knows ten ways to solve a problem. He is the genius of heaven resident here on earth. He is thrilling and fun. He is also mischievous. He gives us humor.

When Jesus was on road to Emmaus, He said to the two, “What things? Tell me the story as you see it.  Then his work was done and he disappears.

Let us count everything as joy.  Find joy in everything.

Graham is first white sheep in family..family is still in crime.

The Holy Spirit loves to influence the way you think about yourself. He will teach you how to love.

Rejoicing is our response to who God is.  He celebrates our victories..  God is joy.   But he is the most brilliant comforter.

If you find it easy to be offended it is because you do not know the comforter.

We are created to be overwhelmed.  It is who you are with God that influences people.

I want to be an unashamed celebrant.  I am an influencer. I am intentional.  I want my sons to go beyond where I have gone.  The Holy Spirit takes everything from Jesus and gives it to us.  He is a specialist.   He has a brilliant sense of humor.  He has a lot of material in us  in which to find humor.

Accountability is not calling a person out on their behavior but calling them up to their identity. We act based on our identity.. Our job is to help people to see more about themselves than they could see by themselves..Questions help us explore and discover..God is including all of us in the next reformation..

What is my footprint going to be in this city?  I am not blindly going down every path but the ones He plans.. Walking with Him is so much fun. He is a genius and a champion.

You are an influencer.

Of all the places God could dwell He chose to live in me.

 

Coming into a realm of confidence in Him..

May we be magnificent with others as He is with us.

 

I pray that we would become amazing influencers.

I pray that you would increase your influence in our lives and our influence in others.