The Teacher: Office Gifts of the Holy Spirit

To watch the sermon The Office Gifts of the Holy Spirit: The Teacher

Just kids class this week, just kids class.

The preteen and youth are all for the most part still.

Woo!

Moses stood on a mountain.

That was Michael Stallsworth, he got that in my head this morning as he was back there rapping to some 90s music.

Camp was amazing.

And I wasn't really a part of camp.

I was just working on the campground, painting cabins, stuff like that.

But I got to, from a distance, see and interact with the youth and the groups that were there.

Somewhere between 120 and 130 people will funnel in and out this week and through the weekend.

So pretty excited about that.

There was multiple people who gave their life to Christ.

There was multiple people who dedicated their life to ministry and service.

So just want to praise the Lord for that opportunity to sew into the kids' life.

We were looking at the numbers of the graduating class that's getting ready to graduate next month in September and move up into a grade.

Hey man, we got a lot of kids.

So we got a lot of kids.

So the youth camp is only going to grow, which is really awesome, but at the same point in time we need to keep it as small as possible so that we can keep the mission of discipleship and the fellowship and the amount of adults to the kids in that way.

We've been a part of youth camps.

Brent's talked about this a little bit for over 17 years.

And a lot of times when you have too many kids and not enough adults, it becomes just kind of a conference.

And while there's nothing wrong with that, and that can be a lot of fun, the true discipleship, the true ability to sew into their life normally doesn't exist in those areas.

And when you only have the kids for one week, it's kind of like hydration.

It's like when you go to the hospital and you need hydration.

You want to pour into them as much as humanly possible in that week and then be able to send them back into their homes and their schools and all the other places that they're going to be.

So thank you for your prayer for that.

Continue to pray for the preteen camp this weekend.

I think Brent's teaching tonight.

And then I'll be going down and relieving Brent this evening.

And we've got Matt Knapper teaching in the morning.

And then I will be closing out the camp tomorrow afternoon.

And then we'll all be coming back home.

And I'm sure the youth will sleep for days upon days.

My son tried to do that.

And maybe I'll get some sleep too when all is said and done.

But it is the highlight of my year.

Funny thing is that when you get kids together, they all come from a very different background.

They're all at a very different stage of life.

But they argue over what their favorite candy bar is.

They don't argue over pronunciations or what does this Bible verse mean.

They're not walking around intentionally as internet trolls or anything like that.

So not trying to be offensive or provocative.

Today we're going to talk on the office gift of the teacher.

Next week we will wrap up this portion of the series with the apostle.

And then we're going to go into a mini series on the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

So we led off with the manifestations and the gifts of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

We're now going through the offices of the Holy Spirit.

And then we'll go through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

It's important that we go through all of that because a lot of times you'll have like the fruit of the Spirit and everybody talks about, well, we should have peace or we should have joy, but they don't try to correlate it necessarily with how do you do that as a teacher, as a pastor.

Last week we talked about everybody as a pastor, even over themselves or over their own home.

And today we're going to talk about teacher.

This is very, very popular in our corner of Christianity.

See everything is cyclical.

If you look at the history of Christianity, if you look at the history of Judaism, if you look at the history of politics, if you look at the history of anything, it's cyclical.

They go through seasons and seasons come and seasons go.

And just like now, you know, the seasons of the seventies clothing in the eighties clothing is back, but yet everything goes through seasons, seasons, right?

Malachi through seasons.

You want to handsome dude.

He's just walking around and he's just like not a care in the world.

That's peace that surpasses all understanding right there.

And that smile was definitely joy.

So I want to kind of recap before we dive into the teacher.

There's two main schools of thoughts when it comes to the office gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I want to remind everybody because it's important as we go through five, 10, 15 weeks of different series that sometimes those points get lost as we add points every week.

There's two main thoughts, schools of thoughts when it comes to the office of the Holy Spirit.

One is that the office gifts, the manifestations, the healings, the miracles, tongues, all those types of things were given to only the first century disciples of Christ.

And for the most part are done away with now.

Brent very succinctly are put that argument to bed.

Everybody is a cessationist.

Everybody believes that the, uh, that the Lord isn't still doing things until somebody, somebody wants to be healed or somebody wants somebody to be saved from dying or whatever.

Then everybody's praying for a miracle, even if they don't believe miracles still exist.

The other is that these gifts are still alive and applicable today and we should desire and pursue them to further the kingdom of God on this earth.

That's where I would come out.

And that's where this church comes out is that, that the office gifts, the manifestations of the Lord, the fruit that we should see in the Holy Spirit, not only were they given to the first century, uh, apostles, but they were also then supposed to be taught.

They were supposed to be sought after.

They were supposed to be manifestations and empowerment of the Lord throughout all time.

And until the wife of the lamb is brought from the heavenly realm in the new Jerusalem and the sun and the moon cease and Jesus says the temple sits in that new Jerusalem and shines brightly.

I believe that those gifts and those powers will continue to manifest themselves.

The offices will continue to exist and these are all crucial for us to build up the body of Christ.

No different than if you are wanting to get in shape, it's crucial that you, that you eat a certain type of diet.

If you, if you want to reduce inflammation in your body, you eat a certain type of diet.

If you want to get ready for a game, there are certain types of things you do.

Whatever the sport is, there's training.

Well, to train to be the kingdom of God on this earth, you also need the empowerment of the gifts of the father.

Yet today where we come from in Christianity, one of the most popular things I have heard is, is do you have a Torah teacher or you need a Sabbath teacher?

Do you go to Sabbath school and have a Torah teacher, a Torah teacher, a Torah teacher?

This is something that's very, very popular where we come from.

Whereas when I grew up as I was a part of the Baptist church and a part of the Presbyterian church and my dad was a part of the Methodist church when they actually had morals and, and the, I mean, it's not wrong, so it'll live on YouTube, but growing up in that portion, they also had teachings and doctrines and things.

And so I've been a part of, of various different things, but I don't ever remember in my time in the Presbyterian church, the emphasis on the title or the office gift of teacher quite the same way that I've experienced in 17 years, walking in whatever you want to call the root space of, of Christianity.

It is, it's a huge like status symbol for somebody to say, well, I am a teacher of the law or I am a Torah teacher.

And yet sometimes when that terminology is used in scripture, it's not necessarily used in some of the greatest ways.

So we talked last week about the evangelist and we talked about how teacher is sometime used in a prop, profitable way.

Like, Hey, this is a good thing for you.

And then sometimes it says, well, you just go and you seek after teachers to teach you exactly what you want.

This is what's commonly called confirmation bias.

This in the day of age that we live in is a little bit different than ages before.

Why?

Because you had to seek out a teacher.

You had to seek out a teacher, whether you went to school or you went to a church or you went to counseling centers or whatever it was, you had to seek out a teacher to be taught something.

Nowadays there's algorithms in social media and, and, and on the internet.

If you visit Google, if you visit a duck, duck, go, if you visit true social, if you visit Twitter now X, if you visit Instagram, any of these social medias, including rumble and all of them, there's no conservative or liberal leaning one that doesn't do it.

They all do it.

There are algorithms that actually will take what you search for, what you're looking for, and they will actually propagate your feed.

It's not Russia.

It's not the Democrats.

It's not the conservatives.

It's, it's the machine of commercialism that's trying to get you to consume more and more and more.

It's true.

It's, it's, it's, it's a modern day propaganda, but we don't think of it as propaganda because if we get what we already believe or what we already know or what we're already looking for, then it's more confirmation that we're on the right path.

And a lot of people sometimes are like, man, Chris, you are just a harsh person.

You're just really mean.

I don't believe I mean at all.

I believe that that I see through some of those things and I care enough about you to call it out the same way I place people in my life to do the same thing with me because everybody has confirmation bias.

It's not new.

It's just a lot easier to fall into confirmation bias.

Now I'll give you an example.

We're in a political cycle right now.

Joe Biden did not have the greatest of performance on, on the debate.

Um, I'm going to use as much grace and mercy as I can afford here because I need grace and mercy all the time.

And what immediately happens after that, all of the news cycles will give you wherever you came out.

Well, this was just a bad night where you can go to Apple news and if that's what you're searching for, you'll have wall street journal, you'll have the post, you'll have Fox news, you'll have all these articles that are populated from these different news sources and, and they will say like, Oh, it was just a bad night for Joe Biden.

We really need to see what happens next.

If you immediately were like, this guy doesn't know where he's at.

This is elder abuse.

Some of the other terminology I've read about in the news, then what happens?

That's predominantly what shows up in your newsfeed.

I'd like to tell you if you don't believe me, try, try utilizing your phone or your laptop with the things you currently look for and then go to like a public library or go to, um, go to somebody else's house and ask them to be able to use their browser and search for something different and see if the feeds match up because they don't.

And there's multiple documentaries on Netflix and stuff like that, that this, this is part of the goal.

My wife can talk about something and I were sitting on the patio one day and we were talking about a swing and the next day I'm getting ads on everything about patio swings.

Like some people are scared of AI.

I just want AI to pay for the swing.

The jokes hit differently this week.

Fantastic.

That one was not in my notes, but from where we come from, and I know not everybody comes from the same place, but the origin story of this church is heavily aligned with what we consider to be Hebrew roots or Messianic or all of those things.

And so where we come from teacher is considered to be the creme de la creme.

If you're a gamer in this room and you're trying to try to get to the highest level, the highest level is the teacher.

And if you can throw a law or Torah teacher or something in front of it, then somehow this is a status symbol that you have arrived to.

Whereas in a lot of other denominations there, there's the pastor, the pastor is in higher esteem than maybe the teacher is, or in some of the more charismatic backgrounds where there's more charismatic, whether that's Pentecostal or assemblies of God, sometimes the prophet or the evangelist is, is, is a little bit higher as far as what people are trying to obtain to be.

But for us, it's teacher where we come from, teacher is big.

And then a lot of times what happens is we have a teaching ministry and then all of a sudden you'll see that teaching ministry morph into, well, now the teacher is now listed as a pastor, but maybe they never shepherd.

And again, we did that a couple of weeks ago and what is a pastor, but maybe they never shepherd.

And then we, we start to teach people how to blur the lines between what the Bible says and the responsibilities of each one of these offices.

Now I also want to make sure that you understand the scripture does make it abundantly clear that a lot of times people have multiple office gifts.

So it's not just because somebody is a teacher, but they call themselves a pastor.

That's not necessarily incorrect or necessarily wrong because at there's different points of time throughout the scripture, especially when Paul is talking to Timothy and there's a writings where he says, I'm an apostle and I'm a teacher, I'm a prophet and I'm this.

But just because you're a teacher doesn't make you a pastor.

Just because you're a teacher doesn't make you an evangelist.

And this is something that I think if we're being honest with ourself, if you've been in the roots base of Christianity for any period of time, you already know this.

Most of the proclaimed teachers of the law, they're not evangelizing.

There's very little conversation on the gospel.

We heard last week Sarah Wallace's testimony that for 17 years growing up in this faith that there was almost no emphasis, no ability for the evangelist to operate or to speak.

And then she gave the testimony of all of those hundreds of friends that she met and all of these different youth camps and things like that, that they've all walked away from the faith.

Some of them have walked away from Jesus as a whole.

And I got to tell you, nothing makes me more mad.

Nothing ignites the fire and the passion in me more than when I hear about the testimony of second generation, third generation who can quote the Hebrew scriptures, who can tell you all about what is appropriate and not appropriate on the Sabbath, but they don't know the Lord of the Sabbath.

They don't know what the gospel is.

They somehow attach the gospel to a works based salvation.

At no point in time can you punch your ticket to heaven by anything you can do with your feet or your hands.

It's only by the blood of Mashiach.

Most of us think of the office of the teacher in a predominantly classroom based setting.

Now if you're like me, I didn't do well in a classroom based setting.

I did really well on tests, but when it came to sitting in a class and sitting down and taking notes in a lecture hall or whatever, that wasn't my forte.

That wasn't something I did very well in.

That wasn't something I enjoyed.

And so a teacher in that setting is more of a lecture setting.

They're there to teach you something.

And while this is certainly a portion of what the biblical teacher is, by the model of Jesus himself we can see that that is void of the complete picture.

Jesus, I believe, was the perfection of all five of the fivefold ministries in operation together.

And so Jesus as a teacher, even while he sat on the mountain, while he sat on the hill, while he gave the greatest Torah teaching ever, he also then came down off that hill and did life with people.

And this, this is Jesus the Messiah.

He was building a family on mission.

And while it's true that what we experience now, what we consider to be a teacher is far more of a classroom setting.

The reality is, is most of us don't do well in a classroom type setting.

That's not how we learn.

And this is part of what we see in the American culture is that not all persons were created with the ability to sit in a classroom setting.

Remember just 20 years ago, the increase of trade.

People would go to school and if you were in high school, you could go to, to the blue collar school, to a trade school, and you didn't have to go sit in a classroom all day long.

You could go and you could take woodworking or you could go and you could take AutoCAD or you could go and you could take engineering or you could learn how to do HVAC or plumbing.

There was all these skills, you know, the skills that AI can't take away from you.

And then all of a sudden there was a huge emphasis to the more intellectual lecture type situation.

And we wonder why people struggle.

We wonder why there's an entire generation of very well-educated individuals who don't know how to take what they read on the pages of a book and go put it into practice with their hands and their feet.

But why are we surprised?

Because isn't this the age old issue that we read about in scripture?

Every time we read about Israel's rebellion, they heard, they saw, they read, and yet they couldn't figure out how to put it into practice.

Jesus takes issues with the teachers and the Pharisees and the scribes and the lawyers of the day because they were the most well-esteemed, but they were the ones who missed the entirety of what Jesus was telling them to do with their feet and their hands.

This isn't new.

If you think we're all going to solve this problem, we're not.

Odds are we're going to be all right.

Because in the end, it's Christ alone who gets us there.

It's Christ alone in the power of the Holy Spirit who leads us into the wisdom and knowledge and understanding of all things.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for the opportunity to come together.

We thank you for the opportunity to study your word, to worship you, to praise you.

Lord, we lift up all of the staff and the kids who are still at the youth camp, Lord.

We lift all of those up who are still in the process of traveling home.

And Lord, we just ask that you would continue to manifest your spirit, continue to manifest your wisdom, your understanding, Lord, that we could grow and model our life after you.

Lord, we thank you for Yeshua, our Savior, our Master.

For it's in your name we pray.

Amen and amen.

Most of our modern day teachers are classroom settings, seminary.

You can go online and do seminary.

You can go into classrooms and facilities and do seminary and be taught.

But you also have the internet ministries.

I want to point out that Jesus set the model for the teacher.

Jesus' model for a teacher, because Jesus was the greatest Torah teacher ever, was not only did he teach them intellectual things, here's what this says, but then he ate with them, he walked with them, he slept in the same house as them, and he did life with them.

It's not like we go to university and we sit down, we learn from a professor, and then we go back to our dorm and the professor goes back to their house and we have almost no interaction outside of the classroom with that person.

It's not like, oh, I just found this internet ministry and I'm just going to watch this ministry online and I'm going to make all these adjustments into my life based upon my interpretation of this teacher and this ministry, but yet, do you know anything about what type of a husband or father that person is, or a mother or spouse?

Do you know anything about their home?

This is why the model of Jesus is so important, because if Jesus was all five of the office gifts to perfection, then at times while he was being a teacher, he did not stop being a pastor.

And the times that he was shepherding and overseeing, he didn't stop trying to preach the gospel with words and with actions, that something different is here, something new is here.

You've heard about it.

You knew it was coming.

He did it in all areas of his life.

This wasn't just, let me teach you something that's heavily edited on the internet and then never let you get to see who I am as a man or as a wife.

Some people have asked me over the 17 years, why do you still hang out or why do you have a relationship with certain internet ministries?

And my testimony has been unchanging.

It's because I know what type of a father or mother they are.

I know what type of a husband or a wife they are.

I know what happens in their home when the cameras are turned off.

And it's because of that testimony that even if I disagree theologically or with their doctrine, I will still do life with them.

Just like some of you still come to church even though you adamantly disagree with certain things that I believe, and that's okay.

Those are important because that's the model that Jesus set for us.

If you're going to be a teacher and you're going to teach people things, then you also should do life with them.

We see in Acts chapter 13 verse 1 that prophets and teachers who were in Antioch, they would meet and pray and fast.

If you want to be a teacher, this is something I hear a lot.

And anybody who's been in this corner of Christianity, it's kind of like the arrival.

At one point in time, actually there was a running joke, which is not really a joke because it's really what the model was, which is you get yourself, you write a book.

Once you write a book, you do the circuit, you travel to conferences, the Sabbath conferences, you promote your book.

Then you host a regional gathering by inviting them in.

And once you host a regional gathering, about that time you should have been able to rub elbows with enough of the other ministries.

And once you rub elbows with enough ministries, now you're on your way to having your own ministry.

Last week we talked about systems, how as Americans we like systems.

There's systems in all kinds of things.

But Acts chapter 13 tells us that if you want to be a teacher, you should fast and pray.

Fasting and praying should be important.

Probably more important than writing your first book.

Probably more important than hosting your first regional gathering and rubbing elbows with the creme de la creme of whatever denomination you're a part of.

Fasting and praying is crucial.

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12, 28, Paul doesn't combine the pastor's office with the teacher's office.

So just because we have a teacher doesn't mean you have a pastor.

They're not the same thing.

And not all pastors are teachers.

In fact, the majority of my time as a pastor over the last year and a half is not teaching.

Brent's done the dominant amount of teaching.

Most of my time has been engaged with your phone calls, your emails, your text messages.

It's been involved in doing life with you, whether it's financial traumas or it's marriage traumas or it's whatever it is.

The majority of my time has been spent there.

That would be more shepherding, overseeing, less teaching.

Again, there's always some element of teaching.

But Brent has done the dominant amount of teaching while I've done that.

So Paul, he stipulates in Corinthians that you don't just immediately combine that office, even though sometimes we see that in the Western church.

This also would lead us to Timothy 3 verse 2, where it says that all elders, pastors, overseers should be able to teach.

So it has to be stated that they should be able to officiate in a teacher's role, not that immediately just because they were elders or overseers that they should teach.

We have some elders in our church who I know have the ability to teach.

They have no desire to teach.

They would much rather be involved in helping other people in other areas of their life than to stand on a pulpit.

I gotta tell you, I would much rather lead worship or much rather do the operational things than to stand on this pulpit and teach.

This is the least comfortable thing that I do in this office.

And I don't know why it's different.

But it is different to stand up here with this bad boy versus to put a microphone next to me with this bad boy right here and lead you in worship.

Same people in the room, same atmosphere, the fog, the haze is at the same level.

Everything is the same and it's different.

And you can think into your life, looking at the office gifts, maybe some of those are the same for you.

Maybe it's like I have no problem in opening the scripture and teaching somebody, but when it comes to going to Waffle House and evangelizing to that person, that ain't my forte.

And whatever that might be.

I don't do well with prophecy.

Like whatever that might be for you, there's things that you would be more inclined to be drawn to and there's things that you run away from.

That doesn't necessarily define that that's the gift that the Lord has given you.

I'll give you my own testimony again.

Been the pastor of this church since December of 2015.

I wanted to quit being the pastor of this church over a year and a half ago, go operate more in my apostolic gift.

And the Lord was just like, I can't release you from being a pastor when you've never been a pastor.

I held the title, I didn't function in the office properly.

And when the Lord kind of slaps you up the backside of the head while you got your feet, toes in the water, feet in the sand, it's a moment.

Paul also writes to Timothy that he, Paul, is an apostle and a teacher.

So sometimes when we try to use Paul in the terminology as a shepherd, you got to remember Paul identifies himself first as an apostle and a teacher.

Paul also states that we can have multiple office gifts and function.

Paul also calls himself a teacher of the Gentiles in his letter to Timothy.

So Paul's function wasn't a teacher to the Jews.

It wasn't a teacher to the Pharisees of which he does identify himself as that school of thought.

He identifies himself as a teacher to the Gentiles.

So being a teacher, again, we know this, so I don't know why we just kind of immediately like all of a sudden we're just like everything falls in a blender when we like come into how we've operated in the roots of our faith.

But like we understand if you've ever gone to school, you didn't have the English teacher wasn't always the Spanish teacher.

The Spanish teacher definitely was not the wood teacher, the one who taught you how to use a hammer and nails.

The shop teacher was not the homet teacher.

I don't even think they do that anymore, which is why we got so many problems in America.

We had that and then my wife had to teach me how to do laundry when we got married.

But I'll tell you that we already know it.

So why we just separate the two like we're thinking in real life, it's like a teacher of this doesn't immediately make you a teacher of that.

So why do we consider when somebody says I'm a Torah teacher, why do we automatically consider a Torah teacher one to be a Torah teacher to to be a teacher who is a full Bible teacher?

Because there's more than the Torah folks.

It's like, well, we don't need more than the Torah.

Paul didn't have the Torah or Paul didn't have the New Testament when he was writing these things.

Okay, stop it.

You need more than the Torah.

You need the writings of the apostles.

They were hand selected.

So why do we immediately assume that just because somebody says they're a Torah teacher, that there's somebody who preaches the gospel?

Why do we immediately assume that somebody who says that they're they're preaching the gospel will also preach the Old Testament and the commandments and the customs and traditions?

We immediately imply things that we wouldn't do in other areas of our life.

We need to be more discerning and how we approach those things.

The same discernment we need when somebody says, oh, well, I have a teacher and what you really need is a shepherd.

Most people don't want a shepherd.

Let's just be honest.

From where we come from, they don't want people in their business.

They want to be taught something.

Just teach me about the Hebrew or the Greek understanding.

And really what you have is you have a communication issue in your home.

By the way, if you have a communication issue in your home, I can almost assure you you have a communication issue with God.

Because what happens here has a reflection to our relationship with Christ.

And that's not to be mean.

It's not to be rude.

It's just the reality.

And if we could be more transparent about the reality of where we're at, maybe God might manifest himself more.

Because when we're walking around and we're like, well, I know everything about, I know more than the Baptist, so I can go be a teacher of the Baptist.

I can be a shepherd of the Baptist.

And God's like, that's great.

You can do that.

But first, I need you to clean out your closet.

First I need you to clean out your heart.

First I need you to clean out your home.

Almost every situation I have seen in our community, I can immediately trace back to an issue I see in that person's home.

And people get sideways sometimes with that.

But why?

Isn't that what we're supposed to do?

Are we supposed to be taught how to overcome these things?

Isn't that part of what Jesus did?

The pastor side loves them through and walks with them and helps guide them.

The teacher says there's different ways you can do this.

So today I'm not going to claim the office gift of the teacher, but I want to teach you something that my parents taught me not very long ago.

I'm a young man, still spry.

Once a week I'm spry.

And that is normally there's multiple ways to skin a cat, which means there's multiple ways to get to the same conclusion.

I know revolutionary, right?

I should write a book about it.

My parents taught me early on that whatever the goal is, there's almost always multiple ways to achieve that goal.

So if one way doesn't work, it doesn't mean that the goal is bad.

It doesn't mean that you're broken.

It doesn't mean that this is what you're doomed to.

It just means you have to pivot as Ross from friends would say.

And sometimes we pivot exactly like that episode of friends where it's like one guy pivots one way, one guy pivots the other way, and they just get more stuck in the stairwell.

Like that's okay too because we're human.

But ultimately we have to understand that as teachers, whether you're teaching your children and I got to point this out, it's not in my notes, but I got to point this out.

We talk about elders and we talk about Paul's writings to Timothy and to Titus and stuff like that, when we talk about elders and we talk about pastors, there are terminology in there.

It's like, well, an elder should be a husband to one wife.

And then people will, they'll talk about, oh, well that means that women can't be elders and stuff like that.

Well, I don't want to get in the weeds on all of that today, but I just want to point out again, the irony of women can birth a child.

Women are expected to nurture that child.

And through the nurturing of that child, they end up teaching the child.

You can semantic the terminology all you want, but they end up teaching the child.

So one of the most crucial things in scripture, which is that we are to teach up and train up our children to carry on the legacy of Christ.

And yet we say that women can't be teachers in the church.

I hate to break it to you men.

Women are teachers in the church.

They're already teaching your children.

And if, if you're honest as a husband, your wife has taught you a lot of things and most of it is when to shut up.

It's true.

My wife, most of the time we'll say, sweetie, you didn't need to say that or sweetie, you went too far with that or sweetie, there's another way to do that.

Life is a journey in Oklahoma.

Life is a dance.

You learn as you go.

Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow.

Is that John Michael Montgomery?

Oh man, we're going old school with music all day today.

Garth I'm from, uh, I'm from Ohio.

So don't, I'm not a native Okie.

You do not need to kill me.

The Bible does not afford this type of sin to be a stonable offense.

I'm just saying as a teacher, just making sure you understand the scriptural ramifications here.

I also have friends in low places.

That's just because I'm tall.

All right, now that we've pulled it all the way back in and I've taught you how to laugh at me, it's a great thing.

Everybody watching online is going to be like, did they, is that all they do in Oklahoma is listen to country music?

Yes it is.

Toby Keith and Garth Brooks are the only acceptable music that we're allowed to listen to in Oklahoma.

The rumors are true, but women are teachers by default.

They teach the most crucial element of our family and the fathers are to be engaged in that too.

The imbalance we have, we've done series before where we've talked about the statistics of homes where the dads are not involved and not engaged when the selfishness of a man takes over to say, I don't need to engage in my home.

And that doesn't even mean they need to go away.

It just means that they're not there to help teach and lead.

There's many absent fathers and derelict fathers who live in the same house as their family.

And what happens in those moments?

Does the mom stop teaching?

No, the mom continues to teach.

And this is a church that allows the moms to teach from the pulpit too.

My mom's taught me a lot of things in my life.

And so how dare I say that, that she's not allowed to teach me something moving forward or just because we're a different gender that I can't learn something from you.

That's just not true.

And so as we look at this, we have to understand that each home comes into a church body to make up a larger family.

We talked about this with overseers in the roles of pastors.

So the truth is, am I the shepherd and the overseer of this family?

Yes.

But this family is made up of a lot of overseers.

So then to be real and real transparent and real honest, could I function as a teacher or Brent is the teacher of this family?

Yes.

But this family is also made up of a lot of teachers.

Not everybody in this room is a Torah teacher.

Not everybody in this room is a Spanish teacher.

Not everybody in this room is a mechanic teacher.

You have different gifts, different talents, and different focuses that the Lord has given you.

This is part of the beauty of the diversity of Israel.

And in the beauty of the diversity that we see manifested again, 12 tribes, 12 apostles.

There's a diversity that's there.

This is also why I take issue when people will tell me that God is my only authority.

I have no other head.

It's void of the biblical context of the outline.

Show me a man without a spiritual head, and that's a man without accountability.

And that includes me.

This is why we have elders.

This is why we have a board.

This is why we have relationships with other churches.

Because if you're a man who doesn't have accountability, who doesn't have a head, if God is your only head, I can tell you what has happened over 17 years of experience.

That is, God is not actually your head.

What you want God to say is what becomes the counsel you interact with.

Confirmation bias.

You must have others around you to point out the glaring flaws you have.

This is one of the reasons why teachers and pastors and apostles and all these things operate together.

I want to go back to Corinthians 1.14, which is where Brent had walked us through the outline of the gifts and the manifestations, and we see that a teacher should build up the body of Christ.

So if a teacher is an internet troll, what is the definition of an internet troll?

Somebody who goes out of their way to upset, cause division, or provoke people to anger, jealousy, or strife.

A teacher in a church, a teacher in a building, a teacher at a house group.

It's not just the internet.

Anybody who does that is not building up the body of Christ.

So they're not operating in the office gift of the teacher, even if they say that they are.

And sometimes, we talked about in the prophet, tough things are needed to be said.

But if the intention is to cause strife, division, and to provoke somebody into a negative place, that's not the Holy Spirit.

There's other ways to skin that cat.

If a teacher immediately sets out to teach you why you've been lied to, or why you've been manipulated, or why you've done these things that are there, we're not to start off by bearing false witness against people that we haven't read their teachings, we haven't got to know them, we haven't got to do life with them.

If we immediately just say that all of their intentions are wrong, or all of the history that they've done is wrong, we're bearing false witness against somebody that we don't have the proper information to state.

So what are we teaching people to do?

To bear false witness?

To use improper judgment against some person?

The Lord teaches us against unrighteous judgment.

He teaches us to use righteous judgment, which is judgment that can only come from Him.

These were given to stabilize homes, relationships, and to cause us to grow closer in mind and as an image bearer of Christ.

In Matthew 28, we see Jesus speak to His disciples, the charge of making disciples to all the nations, teaching them to obey the teachings of Jesus.

As a teacher, it is important that you attempt to empower people with whatever you're teaching them.

Earlier in Matthew chapter 15, it states, "And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a Canaanite woman from the region came out and was crying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.

My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.'

But he did not answer her a word.

And his disciples came and begged him, saying, 'Send her away, for she is crying out after us.'

And he answered, 'I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'"

A teacher heard this taught many times.

Some teachers will say, "See, this is proof.

Jesus did not come for anybody other than Israel."

And there's two theologies and doctrines that come out of that.

One that comes out of that, that if you're in Jesus, you must be immediately a part of Israel in some capacity.

And there's a lot of rabbit trails, and we don't even have time to go all the way into all of that.

That's one.

The other, which is a little bit more dangerous, that's taught is that Jesus didn't come to anybody who wasn't Israel.

So if you're in this room, then you have to be a part of the bloodline of Israel in some capacity because he only came for Israel.

Heard that taught a lot, a lot in 17 years.

But let's read the rest of the story.

"But she came and she knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, help me.'

And he answered, 'It is not right to take the children's bread and to throw it to dogs.'"

Jesus could get a little snarky, like he could.

"It is not right to take the children's bread and to throw it to the dogs.

She said, 'Yes, Lord.'

Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

Then Jesus answered her, 'O woman, great is your faith.

Be it done for you as you deserve.'

And her daughter was healed instantly."

"I only came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And yet because of her faith, he healed her daughter instantly on the spot."

The person who it said that she was not worthy, it was implied that she was not worthy.

Her faith, yet Jesus healed.

That's Matthew chapter 15.

Now remember, the whole concept of the book of Matthew is through the greater exodus.

The first exodus was the physical exodus out of Egypt.

It was taken to Sinai and becoming a holy nation with Christ through the giving of the law to Moses, which would foreshadow.

Now let's go to the very end of Matthew, Matthew 28.

We just referenced that there.

Matthew 28, how does it end?

"And all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, not just Israel, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and behold, I am with you always till the end of the age."

If we just take verses out of context, if we just take verses that have a larger meaning and we teach them as complete theology, that's inappropriate teaching.

Because it implies something that is not what the actual teacher, this point being Jesus, taught.

So the lost sheep of the house of Israel, when it's taught incomplete with the rest of the terminology and the rest of the story that's there, and then we look at the progressive nature where he says to go into all nations, you can't go back and say he's only here to talk to Israel.

No.

This is why then Paul gets thrown out.

Well he's a teacher to the Gentiles.

Well he's not a teacher to Israel.

If Israel is only who Jesus came to, if he didn't come so that any person of any nation, of any tribe, of any tongue could be restored back to the kingdom of God, this is how we start to throw portions of the Bible out.

This is how we start to take issue with books like the book of Hebrews.

Yet we're void of Revelation chapter 21 where it says there is no temple in the New Jerusalem because Jesus is there.

We're void of the fact that it continues to go on and say that there's no sun or there's no moon because Jesus is so bright.

He shines so bright.

Toby Mack wrote about him.

Light shine bright everywhere you go.

He's so bright that there's no need for the sun or the moon.

And then how do we even wrap our head around the Sabbath day because it says that because Jesus is now the temple and he's illuminating so bright that there's no sun and there's no moon, that all of the nation's kings bring all of their glory and all of their riches to him day and night without ceasing.

And the city gates are never shut.

So when we don't take the complete context of God's word and we only teach portions of that as if they're doctrines, we are teaching errant thoughts.

Not all teachers are theologians and not all theologians are teachers.

And I've been guilty of this.

I've been guilty of taking one verse out of context and creating a whole entire theology around it.

An evangelist introduces you, reminds you, and encourages you about Jesus.

A prophet warns you and reminds you of your revelation and your obligation to the covenant.

Teach him, you can come.

And a teacher instructs you on what the Bible says about those revelations.

And a pastor is there to help you walk them out.

Some people have multiple giftings.

Some people operate in multiple offices.

That's not foreign to the text with Paul.

In fact, Paul almost exclusively when he's writing talks about that people have multiple of those gifts.

Kind of like if you take the five love languages course.

Some of you will have like the first one is like acts of service.

But you always have a second one.

You always have a second one.

I'm the oddball.

Mine is pizza.

I just love pizza.

But we always have one and two.

There's always one and two that's there.

Some people have more and that's okay.

Parents who do not teach and instruct their homes and build disciples of Jesus in their home are making teachers of the world.

I want to say that again.

Parents who aren't teaching Jesus in the home to their children will make teachers of the world.

Because your kids will grow up, Jesus will not be important.

I got asked this week by someone, "Why isn't there more emphasis on the Torah this week?"

I can't.

They're not regularly a part of our campus here.

And I said, "Well, we tried that for 17 years and everybody left."

They don't have a relationship with Mashiach.

Most of them aren't keeping any portion of their faith.

It's through the customs of the traditions that are there.

And so if we only have one week to teach people something, we want to teach them Jesus.

Because in the end, your customs and your traditions are going to change.

There's over 400 people in our church center app.

Everybody wants something different.

Can we sing this song?

Can we sing that song?

Can you preach from this?

Can we do this?

Can we do that?

We can't.

We can't do it all.

It's not possible.

Just like you can't do it all.

But you weren't supposed to do it all.

You were supposed to function in the gift and the calling that the Lord gave you.

Not in the gift and the calling that the Lord gave me.

And I'm not supposed to be trying to function in the gift and the function that the Lord gave you.

I'm supposed to do what He gave me.

This is why I have no issues with sharing the pulpit with Brent.

Brent is a wise man.

He's one of the best teachers I've ever sat under.

I love listening to him teach.

That doesn't make me feel jealous or envious.

I'm encouraged by it.

Because it makes me a better pastor to know that I have one of the best teachers in the entire state of Oklahoma to walk alongside me.

It doesn't mean like I gotta have a three year plan to become the best teacher.

I don't have any plan to do that.

Just like I don't have any plan to become the best evangelist out there.

So I'm gonna go to evangelist school.

Figure out how to run across the stage and say, "Jesus!"

We all function in our gifts.

We all function in that space.

And whether you like it or not, we're all making disciples.

And we're all being discipled by somebody.

A teacher helps build discipleship.

I guess that was, was that my wrap it up?

All the lights?

Every light in the house.

It's almost just all the way back to country music.

Whether you like it or not, everybody that's being taught something is teaching something which is portions of discipleship.

So the question today is what are you being discipled and taught into?

And what are you discipling and teaching into others?

Is it guilt, shame, and condemnation?

Is it your own arrogance and ego?

I've studied this for super long and I know.

I've studied a lot of things for a long time and what I keep realizing is that the more I study and the more I learn, the more I realize I don't actually do anything.

Which I can stand here and say in front of you.

But I know one thing.

Because it's explicit in the scripture by a man I really, really respect.

And that is I desire to know nothing except and a part and in contrast to Jesus and Him crucified.

Because we can argue over the importance of the Hebrew language.

We can argue over the importance of Kiddush or any of the other things that are there.

We can argue over the importance of Baptist doctrine or Pentecostal doctrine or Presbyterian doctrine or any of the other doctrines that are out there.

But in the end, there's a commonality amongst almost all of those theologies, almost all of those teachers.

Even the ones who adamantly disagree with each other.

The ones who believe the gifts are sold for today.

The ones who believe the gifts ceased.

If you ask them, they all believe Jesus Christ is King.

So there's a time and a place to operate as a teacher to teach things.

But teaching anybody anything is to be for the edification.

So if you're teaching somebody to strip something away from their life, you better be replacing it with something that the word of God says is more fruitful for their soul.

Woe to you, teachers of the law, who strip away Christ, Mashiach, the fulfillment of all things, all majesty, all honor, all power, and all authority in heaven and on earth.

The light that will illuminate the world, the replacement for the temple when the bride comes.

Woe to you who replace Christ with any other thing.

I'm going to teach you one thing today, and one thing only.

If you're going to err on anything, do not let it be on who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for you.

I know in 17 years, in all of my study, all the differences of walking out the Torah commandments and that, I've been all over the map.

Sometimes I've looked very Jewish.

Sometimes I've looked not Jewish at all.

And at each point in time, I know the Lord was meeting me on the Sabbath day.

I know the Lord was meeting me in my prayer time.

I know the Lord was with me.

I never felt the Lord wasn't with me.

But I never left the church, and I never left Jesus.

And so through all the changes in the practices and the customs and terminology and understanding, at the end, as I was on the journey, I didn't go and fall off a cliff.

I didn't go as a ship and crash into the rocks and fall apart.

Because in the end, I always knew that the foundation of everything I was looking for and everything I'm currently looking for and seeking is built upon a foundation of Jesus.

Anything else is shifting sand.

And so this week, I ask for you to look in your relationships, whether it's in your job, whether it's in your house, wherever it is, and think about when you function as a teacher.

When you're teaching somebody something, whether it's your kids or whatever it is, and I want you to get honest with yourself.

Why are you teaching them?

What is your motive?

What is your agenda?

And if you say, "I have no agenda in the world," you're a liar, and the truth is not in you.

Because everybody has an agenda.

The question is, is can we start to get honest about what our agenda is so that we can see whether it aligns with what God's agenda is or whether it's our own.

And then afford each other the grace and the mercy to teach each other when we realize that maybe at times it might not be in align with God's agenda, that we can correct it.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So you're all going to get sideways at some point in time.

Jealousy and envy is going to creep in at some point in time.

Your own agenda is going to creep in at some point in time.

It's going to happen.

The question is, is are we going to teach each other how to get back in line with God rather than trying to use God to beat everybody into guilt, shame, and condemnation.

I watched these youth this last week, diverse as they could be, love each other, compete with each other, lift each other up, and teach each other what it means to be a family.

If we could learn how to bring an ounce of that into our adult disagreements, we'd go a long way.

Because in the end, if somebody wasn't that great at Brent ball, it didn't matter.

They still found a role for them on the Brent ball field.

And they won and they lost as a team.

And they were like, "Man, you did a great job."

Didn't matter whether they did or they didn't.

They were encouraging to each other.

They lifted each other up.

They drugged them along with them.

Even if they didn't want to go with them, they said, "Hey, come be with me."

There's people who didn't want to play the glow game and they came and they rallied around them and they said, "Hey, we can't do this without you."

They could have done it without them.

It's absolutely possible.

They didn't want to do it without them.

When we start to become a church that teaches each other to be a family on mission and Christ is the center who leads us forward, we actually go and we wrap our arms around each other.

We don't sit on the sidelines and say, "Woe is me.

They don't want to come and talk to me.

They don't want to teach me.

They don't want to learn what I have to teach them."

They set aside agendas.

They set aside their politics.

They set aside all the other things and they just say, "You know what?

We're family and I love you."

And I believe, and it's just my thought, we could all use a little bit more love.

We could all use a little bit more encouraging words.

We could all use a little bit more like, "Hey, I need you.

Hey, I can't do this without you."

Because in order for us to go reach all nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's going to take all kinds of people.

Melissa and Ian brought the missionary anthem to the last night of worship at the camp.

It says, "The harvest is ready.

We have to go.

The world won't stop until the whole world knows the power of His blood to change every soul.

We're not ashamed of the gospel."

The harvest is ready.

The laborers are few.

We don't have time to worry about what you think you need to teach me or what you think you need to teach somebody else.

Why don't you just go love them and do life with them?

You'd be amazed what you can teach somebody that way.

We don't need to worry about what the 15,000 ministries online are doing to teach you why every other person is wrong.

We need to show up and love on each other.

We need to show up and praise together.

We need to show up and work together.

It's amazing.

Ian and I didn't fight once while painting buildings.

What?

Yeah, you can't talk.

We turned the MD mic off.

We didn't fight once.

Why?

Because we were busy working the whole entire time.

Also I was on the other side of the camera.

I love your laugh, Jess.

Today stand with me and let's respond.

Let's learn to allow the Lord to teach us how to become teachable towards his gospel.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be the words of your mouth.