Hi. This is Dave Olson.
I'm the senior leader of Hartman church located in Ankeny Iowa.
I hope the following message, challenges, and courage, has and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
We came back from Israel on there was, I think 27 of us
pastors that went and we traveled by the time.
We touch down in New York. I think we'd been up about
thirty eight hours and we arrived to find out that our
flight to Des When have been canceled.
And so we had to get a hotel there in New York and we didn't
want to go to bed in the morning because then our clock would
reset. So we went bouncing around New
York for the day. So by the time we got to the
hotel that night we were crispy. And so we finally got home.
I want to say it was Friday, was it Friday night?
No Thursday night. What day is it?
It's a so anyway, we get we got home and, but it was it was a
wonderful time. We got to see so many It's we
went with Christians United for Israel.
It's a Ministry that John Hagee started and he one of the
purposes of it is to expose pastors.
Not only to the biblical sites of the promised land but also to
the geopolitical situation that Israel lives under.
And so we had numerous briefings by Intelligence Officers and
Military Officers and so forth. It was just a fascinating time.
So it was both geopolitical and You know, looking at all the
history of Israel. And so we went, you know, we
went from the Golan Heights down to the Gaza Strip and then end
at different archaeological. Digs one of which was it's not
open to the public because of their their their Mojo with
Israel. We were allowed to go in and and
go deep under the ground. It was just it was fast.
It was like, you know, guys little little boys become grown
man who never outgrow being a little boy and if you can go
down and Deep holes and see things.
I mean, it's that's cool. And so it was, it was an amazing
trip. But as I said, I was really
struck by how the small scale of Israel and the Lord began to
speak to me about that. I was just contemplating through
some things. And as I was looking at that,
when I got home, someone called me, but in fact they had reached
out to me while I was still over there and I said I told him
where I was at, you know, I had my phone turned off.
Off, but I could still get text and email when I had Wi-Fi and I
just, I said, hey, let me give you a call when I get home.
And now they wrote back said, sure, just the Lord spoke to me.
Something about, you know, the Lord showed me something I
wanted to share with you. And so I called them yesterday
and they begin to share with me that they were, they had gone
off on their own trip. This, this is not someone who
attends regularly here. They had their own trip and as
they were spending some time with the Lord, they said the
Lord spoke to them about Heartland.
And what they shared with me was exactly what the Lord was
speaking to me. And it really stunned.
Me. I brought tears to my eyes.
I was driving down the road when they shared it with me.
And I think it's important that all of us know what the Lord
said. You know God works among tribes.
You know, we've talked about it around here, many times.
You got to find your peeps, you got to find your tribe.
The promised land was given to the children of Israel, one
nation under God, but it with the inheritance of that promised
land was divided among tribal affiliation and you needed to
know your tribe in order to enter into your inheritance.
And so there's there are streams within the body of Christ, and
it's not that there's this one. Is right and this one's better.
It's there's their specific. Callings and specific territory
allocated to different streams in the body of Christ, and when
we realize that, then we can bless other streams and neck,
recognize, man. That's really important.
What they're doing, it's not what I'm called to there are,
you know, there are General things that were all called to
Jesus is Lord, preached the gospel, you know, those are
those are non negotiables that every tribe is called to, but
there are specific Things that God will call us to pursue and
do and, and so forth. And for instance, there is the
Revival stream within the body of Christ.
There is the, the, the prayer movement within the body of
Christ. There's the mission movement
within the body of Christ. There are different movements
that and churches that tend to gravitate towards some of those
different things. And it's important for us to
realize what we're called to. And one of the ways we recognize
that is, when you walk in a place and you Begin to hear them
using the language that puts into words.
What's in your heart already? You come in there and you start
hearing them talk and it's like, oh my goodness.
They're my peeps. They're putting into words.
What I've been longing for, what I've been that this they have,
they're putting making language to what?
What I feel like I was put on planet Earth for and sometimes
you don't even discover that until you hear someone else
articulated and it's like, oh it's like water to your soul and
it's very important for us to find our people.
It's very important for us to find our tribe or to put it in.
In a more modern more boring vernacular it's important for
you to find the right Church. You got to find the church,
you're called to because that church will determine the group
of people you're going to run with and The Inheritance you
enter into. And again it's not a matter of
this church is better than that church and vice versa man, we
got to run from that. I'm telling you there's you want
to find a quick way to to create an Ichabod moment, where the
spirit of God departs is you start to be arrogant about what
you're breaking into as a Believer.
You begin to get this. This it's us.
Against them and we're Superior to them and God will just lift
his hand off of a church, but we want to go low but we also want
to own what God has called us to.
And as so I was over in Israel and I just felt the Lord began
to churn some things in my spirit.
I have for many years I have been so intrigued by a number of
themes. Let's pray.
Father, help me this morning, Lord, I'm asking Can God that
you would lead my mind instruct my mouth and release the truths
this morning that you want us to know.
Lord God, I ask that you would speak to us very clearly and
Lord I ask that in the in the spirit there would be a chalk
line snapped and we would recognize the boundary lines of
our inheritance Lord, we would understand what were called to
In Jesus name. Amen.
Let's start with a passage this morning.
And we'll see where we end up, literally.
Okay, look at a second. Samuel chapter five.
Verse 1, all the tribes of Israel.
I'm going to read out of the NIV this morning, all the tribes of
Israel, came to David at Hebron and said, we are your own flesh
and blood and the past while Saul was King over us.
You were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns.
In the Lord said to you you will Shepherd My People Israel and
you will become their ruler. So it what this is is this is
the final anointing of King, David.
I just alluded to their several themes that have gripped.
My heart for Several decades. Now, David being one of them,
David, the idea of Jerusalem. What's the deal with this city?
And then the other one is the whole idea of Melchizedek the
priesthood of Melchizedek. We've talked about that.
A number of times, I don't know how much we'll get into that
this morning, but those three themes intertwined themselves
and are very, very important for us to understand in this hour of
human history, especially as Heartland Church.
And so we see David, David? David had three anointings he
was anointed by a prophet in private.
When nobody else recognized, what was on David's life?
There was no public demonstration.
That would have warranted someone saying, hey, there's
greatness in that boy. There was nothing that that he
was publicly demonstrating. That would make people that
would capture people's attention.
There were things that had happened in private David was on
the backside of the desert. He killed a lion.
He killed a bear. There were, there were Feats of
Bravery. There were, there were things
that he had tied into the Lord on and David found a father.
When there was this Rift in his relationship with his own
Earthly, father, Jesse, we don't know all that happened with
Jesse, but we know that there was this this Rift in their
relationship so much. So that when Samuel the prophet
the judge of Israel at the time, it would be like Billy Graham
and the president of the United States inhabiting the same body
and say and I'm coming to lunch at your house.
And Jessie left his one, son on the backside of the desert.
There's this Rift in this relationship but David would
penned these words God as a father to the fatherless and
sets the lonely in families and David found a father in God, his
father and is void. His weakness became his strength
and the very thing, the enemy meant to sabotage, David's life
with became a stronghold in God. David had a relationship with
God, unlike any other David is numbered among the prophets in
the Old Testament and he is arguably one of the greatest
Prophets. I believe one of the one of the
top two or three prophets of the Old Testament, David was a
prophet. He was a king.
He functioned as a priest, David lived as a new testament man
under the old Covenant. David broke into Revelation,
David understood things that he wrote in the Psalms there is no
way he could have understood that other than, by Revelation
prophetic, Revelation, David was taken up, and he was shown
things by Oh God. David was a man of tremendous
insight. Many of the things that David
prophesied about began were realized in the New Covenant,
and David was the prophetic voice that introduced him to
Israel and we're still unpacking.
Some of the things that David understood.
He was an amazing man. So David was anointed by Samuel
because God said this, God said he rebuked Sam.
Who said Sam it's time to quit grieving over Saul whom you are
you anointed before pick up your oil.
And pick up your horn, fill it with oil for I have found a man
after my own heart scholars. Believe that David was about 14
years old at that time, but God was already referring to him.
As what, a man after my own heart youth, you don't have to
be a legal adult to be a man or a woman of God in God's eyes.
God sees things in your heart even as a young child that he
will Mark you and will set the course of your life Samuel.
The one that David was marked as a little tiny boy.
It says he was a little boy in a linen.
Ephod running around playing priest, but he captured the
heart of God. And so God will see something in
someone's heart. And that's what happened with
David David captured, the heart of God and God said, I have a
man after my own heart and so Samuel anointed him when nobody
else saw his potential. The second anointing that David
experienced. The first anointing was an
anointing to be king but But his ascending to the throne would
not happen for about if I remember my, my math, right?
Don't hold it against me, I'm pleading jet lag, but I think
was about 14 years that David would run before he would Ascend
the throne. And so David had an anointing to
be king. But no Outlet to express that
anointing and everybody, there's there's a sense in which all of
our Lives. We have to go through those
Journeys. God will put a touch on your
life. And you have no Outlet to
express it. And the fact is, if you will
force that and you will prematurely find an outlet for
that, you will diminish. What God has on your life?
It's kind of like, a teapot you need to let it boil for a while.
So there's going to be a whistle, but if you lift the
kettle lid, you will let the steam out prematurely, and you
won't hear a whistle. And now, I know that's a weird
illustration, but it's going to have to do this morning.
Okay, there's God's hand on your life.
God will frustrate you with the call.
He really well they'll put a call on you and it will
frustrate you. It says of Joseph that the word
of the Lord tested him Psalm 105.
He had a promise but he didn't have an outlet for the promise
and it tested him at grinded it rubbed him Raw.
And there's a time in everybody's life and and in this
day and age of social media where it's easy to promote
ourselves and to create a Ministry.
And I'm not saying that social media is wrong.
Social media has become a platform that a lot of people
can use for Ministry. But there's also the danger of
creating a platform God didn't assign you.
On social media, everybody's an expert.
As long as you got a good background and some good sound
equipment, you can sound like an expert.
Let's move off that. So date his second anointing,
David was anointed the first anointing, he was anointed king
but he had no Outlet. The second anointing was when
his tribe anointed him. The tribe of Judah said, we
recognize the hand of God on your life.
The people you run with Will begin to recognize something on
your life. In the New Testament, we see
when Jesus was baptized, he went down in the water and there's
two different gospels that that address.
This one gospel says, when he came up out of the water, the
voice said, this is my son in whom I'm, well, pleased.
The other gospel says, you are my son.
Isn't that interesting? Which one was it?
Uh-huh. One was for Jesus sake, the
other was for the crowd sake. And the call of God on your life
has to have both, you better know your called you know it'd
be one thing. It'd be great if I if I thought
I was called to the pastor of this church but you weren't
convinced and be kind of an awkward thing.
I'll be preaching to an empty room And it wouldn't do any good
if you were convinced, but I wasn't because I wouldn't show
up on Sunday early, or I'd keep sitting there when it came time
to preach. There's this internal witness in
the external witness the growing in favor with God.
And with, man and we're men begin to recognize the touch of
God in your life and that was David, S anointing.
But then there was a third anointing and I believe that
there's, this is a pattern for everybody's life.
There's a third anointing where we come into the fullness.
Us of what God has called us to. And now David was ascending the
throne for all of Israel. And when that thing, clicked
into place, when it locked and loaded, things begin to change
and that's what we're seeing here.
So, David was anointed by all of Israel.
But what I find fascinating here is it says all the tribes of
Israel? Came to David and Hebron.
They said, we understand we said we're your own flesh and blood
and the past saw was King over us and you were the one who let
us in the military campaigns. And God said to you, you will
Shepherd my people All Israel and the, you will become their
ruler. They already knew the word of
the Lord. Yet they didn't honor the word
of the Lord until the son of Saul was removed.
They would they still honored Earthly protocol over the
anointing. There will always be those who
will honor the systems of men. More than the, the anointing of
God. There's going to be those who
recognize the anointing and they'll follow it, and then
there's others. But God will use those systems
of men to prepare a platform for us to express the anointing on
her life. In this is not just for people
called into full-time Ministry. We're all called to Ministry
some vocational, some volunteer, some are called to do it,
full-time? Others are called to do it
within the sphere of their Fluence and so all of us are
called to Ministry. All of us are called to carry
the kingdom. And there are, there are spheres
of influence that when we're faithful with little God will
make us faithful with much. And so there's promotional
anointing. There's promotional touches of
God on our life. And so we see with David David
was, he carried an anointing and it caused him to kill Goliath
right after he received that anointing.
He faces down Goliath. We saw the valley where David
fought Goliath that was the one place that I thought.
Wow. That's a lot bigger than I
thought. That was a big area.
And David fought Goliath and the anointing brought him into a
conflict. Gave him Victory and then
attracted more conflict because it made other people Saul King
Saul jealous of him and then David came.
He was faithful with that anointing.
So then David was made King over Judah, and then finally, over
the whole nation. So we read on here, I got to
hurry, I know. It's like, you guys are the ones
holding me up or something. Hey, look at verse 3 when all
the Elders of Israel had Come to King David Hebrew.
I'm the king made a covenant with him and he brought before
the Lord in the anointed. David King over Israel.
David was 30 year old 30 years old, when he became the king.
And he reigned for forty years and Hebron.
He reigned over Judah, seven years and six months and in
Jerusalem he reigned over all of Israel and Judah 33 years.
Look at the very next thing. It says the king and his men
marched to Jerusalem to attack the jebusites who lived there.
The jebusites said David, you will not get in here, get in
here, even the Blind and the lame can word you off.
They thought David cannot get in here.
Nevertheless, David captured, the Fortress of Zion, which is
the city of David on that day. David had said anyone who
conquers the jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach
those lines. Lame and blind who are David's
enemies. This is why it they say the
Blind and lame will not enter the palace.
David took up residence in the Fortress and called it the city
of David. He built up the area from around
it, from The Terraces Inward, and he became more and more
powerful because the Lord Almighty was with him.
It begs the question. and I've been asking the Lord about this
for many years and I've got some answers but I don't I don't have
I'm not satisfied with what I know presently but it begs the
question. Why Jerusalem?
This little city that's had contention all through its
history. The eyes of the world are on
this city, why Jerusalem? And this isn't the first time we
see David show up at Jerusalem. When David conquered, it was a
jebusite stronghold. The truth be told, it was only
about a 10 to 11 acre plot of ground.
They for many years, archaeologists thought that the
city of David that we that we're talking about here is in the oh,
that what's called Old Jerusalem and there's the walled City.
You see where the, the Wailing Wall is.
And those of you that have been to Jerusalem, you, you know what
I'm talking about? There's these beautiful, these
beautiful stone walls. Matter of fact, the British
mandated that all building in Jerusalem had to be done with
that. That those those same type of
sandstones and it's so it's gorgeous, you come and you Crest
over the hill and you see Israel laid out before you and it's all
this sand color building, it's gorgeous.
And for many years, they thought it was what's called The Old
City. You can tour The Old City to
this day. There's many excavations going
on there. If you're on Facebook you can
get on my Facebook and see a bunch of them that we went
through and I need to post some more but it wasn't until I want
to say it was in the 20s. There was a British
archaeologist was sent by the queen.
They said go and dig and in the old city of David and find more
of David's history. He went there and I said, you
can't dig here and he thought well, You know what?
They're the Queen's. Not going to know where I dug.
She just said, go dig. So he went outside the city wall
and started digging in a Potato Patch, just south of the city
wall and lo and behold, he discovered the city of David.
The city of David was buried under an old Potato Patch.
And again, it was only about 10 or 11 acres.
What that's, that's a third. Let's almost a fourth of the
size of the property that we own today.
I always thought it was this huge City, you know, this this
huge walled City, but it wasn't. It was a very small patch of
ground, but there was something in David that discerned the
importance of this city. Why?
I think we need to understand why.
Now, let's listen to what it says in verse 11.
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David along with cedar
logs and carpenters stonemasons. And they built a palace for
David. One of the things that we toured
was the Palace of David. They have discovered it, just
it's in part of that, that Potato Patch.
And the reason one of the reasons they knew it was David's
Palace was this very verse right here.
Then David knew that the Lord had established well, when
backup. Now, hire him king of Tyre, sent
envoys to David along with cedar logs and carpenters and
stonemasons. And they built a palace for
David. So now that Hiram was a the king
of Tyre of Phoenician Kingdom, and there was a certain type of
pillar that was carved by Phoenician King for Phoenician
Kings. It was a royal signia that was
on the top of these pillars and it's well known in
archaeological history. Well, they found one of those in
the ruins of what they thought, just, maybe David's Palace and
that. But they said, well, why would
that be David's Palace? That's a Phoenician insignia for
royalty. And then they found this verse
Hiram sent carpenters and stonemasons to build a palace
for David. And because they were building a
Royal Palace, they use that type of structure.
And there's a picture of you can go on my Facebook is right
there, get on Google it. You can find this the top of the
this pillar. So they found David's Palace.
Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over
Israel and exalted his kingdom for the Sake of his people,
Israel. That is a very interesting verse
the King. James version says that this
way, David perceived that the Lord had made him King over
Israel. You think?
Well, don't you think you should have known that earlier?
He's wearing the crown sitting on the throne, what's the deal
he suddenly perceived? There are several meanings that
that verse can have one that all of a sudden David.
There was a more of an awareness in his life that hey, this is
God's doing God sent me in this place.
Some people translate it that way and interpret it that way.
I believe the real thing the Lord is trying to communicate to
us as this then David perceived that God had made him King for
the sake of the people of Israel.
David Rees David suddenly had an awareness of the purpose of his
anointing. David understood why?
God's hand was on his life, it's not good enough to realize that
God's hands on your life. You need to realize the purpose
for God's hand on your life. God has a specific purpose and a
specific calling on each one of our lives.
And when we understand the purpose of our calling, we can
begin to leverage that thing you see, when you have an anointing
on your life, you can enjoy it but you can't leverage it
unless, you know, the purpose for it.
And there's a place where we need to come into an awareness
of why God has called us. I saw something on, I don't know
as some social media, or I dreamt it.
I don't know. Sometime this last week and this
guy was talking about, he said, three things about the church
and I thought, man, he just put into words something so
significant. He said this, the church is a
hospital, a family, and an army, And there's a progression to
that. That's very important for us to
understand. There are some who only look at
the church as a hospital and therefore, they become dependent
upon the church to do things for them.
Because they their identity is that they're broken their
wounded and I'm coming to the church simply to be healed.
And that is the first phase of your interaction often with the
church. Hey, when I got saved, I came
into the kingdom and the kingdom was a hospital.
I was broken and they needed a nurse me back to health, but if
you remain there, there's something missing in.
You'll never move into maturity. The church always has to have
that hospital component. Terry and Liz wave at everybody,
Terry and Liz had up Freedom Ministries.
They are doctors in the hospital.
And that is the entry point. And if you try to become part of
the family, without going through the hospital, pity the
family because you will, you will begin to relate with others
based on your own Brokenness in your own woundedness.
Matter of fact, you may even try to multiply your Brokenness in
your woundedness. I was just talking to Travis and
Sara wave at everybody. These friends of mine from a
Tumblr. They were, they were out of
Deliverance weekend with Terry and Liz and there were just
sharing Hang with me that they were part of they went to a
conference sometime back and someone they were talking about
mental health. And this person got up and
talked about how they, their testimony was that they struggle
with mental health. They're saying nothing was said
about God. Nothing was talk about is
delivering power and their testimony was how they struggle
with mental health. Do you know that there's a whole
stream of Christianity right now that they think the ultimate
expression of the kingdom is us being authentic and transparent
about our struggles with no promise of deliverance.
From it, that the high Watermark of Christianity is not pressing
in for deliverance, it's being transparent.
That we Ogle. And that's the best way we can
show up. Just being honest.
Now, that's good, be honest, but don't settle for that as being
the high water mark because your transparency should lead you
into Deliverance where they knew.
Can now take your place as a healthy member of the family of
God. But if you're just if this is
the high water mark, then all we are is a bunch of dysfunctional.
People hanging out with each other swapping stories, about
who's hey, let me beat your store.
I more dysfunctional. Then you are.
Oh yeah. You want to top that.
You know what, I just did? That is not a good
representation of the body of Christ.
So we come in, has into a hospital but then we move into a
family. We have Healing Ministry, we
have inner healing, we have Deliverance, these are the
components of the hospital. This is the on-ramp and I'm
telling you, if you have just started to attend Heartland,
Avail yourself of those strees, you say, well, I've been through
that, it doesn't hurt to go get some more.
You know, how many times I went through Christ's life, I'm still
using that stuff on myself. Christian, you know, you've
heard the old saying living for Jesus is like an onion, one
layer at a time and a lot of Tears.
We're all growing, but maturity means we Embrace this reality.
But we also move into this place where we become a part of a
healthy family. You get part of a life group,
you begin to build relationships.
It's not just that, you know, the back of someone's head from
Sunday but you sit face-to-face sometime between Monday and
Saturday and you begin to build some relationships.
And I'm telling you, there are certain things in your life, you
will never overcome outside of relationship.
Now, I know we've talked about this before but not while I'm
metal, and let me just get my poke my finger in here.
First John says, It very clearly, first John chapter 1,
walk in the light, as he is in the light, that's that
transparency thing, right? Walk in the light, as he is, in
the light, not nothing hidden in my life.
And then he says, and you will have Fellowship one with
another. When you're transparent, you can
begin to have real relationships.
And when you have real relationships, transparency will
lead to intimacy and intimacy will result in Purity.
He says this and then the blood of Jesus Will Cleanse you from
all unrighteousness what he's insinuating.
Is there are certain buceta NG sins, certain habits, certain
things that will trip you up in your walk that you will never
overcome on your own. Getting with Jesus fasting and
praying, rocking yourself away in a monastery for a month.
Isn't going to break that thing because the only way you're
going to know what it is is when it shows up in a relationship.
You know, I'm a very unselfish person when I'm alone.
I don't get irritated with other people.
When I'm alone, there are things that God needs to bring me into
relationship with to reveal to me.
Try driving around for 10 days, with 27 pastors who are used to
being leaders man. I want to tell you, God bless
the guy that led us. He was shepherding Shepherd's.
He made a comment at one point it's like herding cats.
I think. Yeah.
Angry ones. We kept wandering off on her own
because We're used to being in charge and he's having to kind
of, you know, heard us back. We need relationships because we
don't even know what we're struggling with until we come
into relationship. So we go from a hospital to a
family but that's not the end. This would be an an Evangelistic
expression. Bring them in, even a pastoral
expression, get them healed, have a family, another pastoral
expression teaching, let's grow them up.
But it doesn't stop there. We've got to understand the
purpose of our anointing, and God created you to be a soldier
in the army of God. We are a people on a mission and
if we never move from family to Army, then all we're doing is
we're just, it's kind of a cuddle Club.
Oh, doesn't Jesus? Loved us.
Oh, we're just loved by Jesus. And what about the people who
don't know that yet? So we've got to be a people on a
mission and that's where we move into the purpose of our
anointing. And the way that happens is the
way it happened with David. At the beginning, only a prophet
sees what's on our life, we don't recognize it no one else
does. I mean, it takes divine
revelation to see any potential in US?
But a prophet can call that out like Samuel did and David, but
then you start to hang out with family.
He's hung out with the tribe of Judah and they recognized the
hand of the Lord is on David to lead us and your gift begins to
rise to the surface but it wasn't until David moved into
his third anointing. That he began to take ground and
Advance the kingdom, like never before he began to set up a new
headquarters in Jerusalem. We're not even going to get to
that. Part this morning to Jerusalem,
it's a fascinating study. Hopefully, someday we can get
into it. We've talked about it a little
bit, but we need to we need to move through those stages.
And like, David understand the purpose.
Of the anointing on our life. Your purpose is greater than
being part of a family. That's a wonderful thing.
That's the base. That's the thing we come back
to. That's our personal support but
we never really move into the fullness of what God intends for
us. We never unto unleash, the
potential all that God put within us.
And so desires to call all of us until we begin to find the
purpose of our anointing. Like David did David perceived
that he had been made King for Israel.
It wasn't just so he could live in a nice house.
It wasn't just So he could tell people what to do, David
realized God is leveraging me for the sake of others and
that's where we begin to move into maturity.
It's like the stages of it of a human life.
We come into the world, we are absolutely dependent.
Somebody needs to take care of us.
That's the hospital. But over time, we become
independent, we begin to come care for ourselves and we can
have healthy relationships. But the real thing that God
wants to move us to is to become Dependable where others that are
totally dependent and broken others.
That don't know, yet that we can begin to Bear the weight of the
family. We can bear the weight of the
cause and God is calling us higher.
Okay, let me shift gears. This is going to be a next snap
because I'm I got off onto something that I want to get
back into this, okay? So here's here's what I was,
contemplating this in Israel, I just I was I was just having
talks with the Lord about Lord. This is it was amazing.
I this this almost sounds like I was not impressed.
I was deeply impressed on so many levels to what I saw saw.
But what I wasn't impressed was with was the magnitude of
Jerusalem. The city of David.
Matter of fact, I was like, wow. This is it.
And it begs the question because you read in scripture where the
Bible talks about Zion Mount Zion, when the Bible talks about
Jerusalem, it talks in these grandiose terms, like, oh, the
the Mountain of God, that the the Envy of all the other
mountains. And you look, that's kind of a
generous term, calling that a mountain, it's more, like a
hill, you know. Okay.
It really. Now, there are some mountains
off in the distance. I got pictures of my own.
Her moan, you know what that Means to me that was awesome.
But this is little more than a hill and I'm thinking, Lord, no
offense. I mean, the Sea of Galilee was
more like a lake. Beautiful a decent sized Lake,
but I came from Lake Superior. Okay, I looks like an ocean
Galilee I can get across that. Remember when Jesus was going to
cross the sea and they ran around the other side and met
him. That's why they could do that.
I'm like, wow, this is, you know, these are kind of
grandiose terms seas and mountains and its Hills and
Lakes, So, I can come to to conclusions.
Number one, They're being disingenuous and that undermines
the entire book. Which is not an option for me.
The other is this, now, the reason they call it a see is
they didn't have the word lake. So everything will body of water
was to see but it's a small C, okay.
But when it comes to mountains, God's measuring stick is
different than ours. God, doesn't measure God's
measurement is not in size, but an impact.
We see, Zion was first to first time that word shows up is when
David conquers Jerusalem here and the way he conquered is a
whole nother story, amazing. And I by the way, the spring
where we're David, you know, the that they use to it's now a
little house backyard of a house.
They just purchased, it's a neighborhood.
Where Jesus resurrected, Jesus was crucified.
It's now a bus station. Parking lot and somehow that
seemed fitting. People coming and going.
You see, we think of these grandiose terms and God comes
into the ordinary and transforms the world, not in something big.
You didn't send him to Rome. Didn't send him to New York,
send him to Jerusalem. These small places.
Which wasn't even on most people's maps and God's going to
turn history around. Originally Zion was this little
10 11, acre plot of ground. Then over time it been
compassed, Mount Zion and Mount Moriah where Abraham sacral.
You know, it was going to sacrifice Isaac and that's where
Jesus was crucified and, and several other little again
mountains is pretty generous term for these Hills.
And then Zion began to be known as the whole nation of Israel.
And by the time we get to the New Testament, Hebrews 11 says
you have not come to Mount Sinai but you have come to Mount Zion,
the spiritual Jerusalem which by the way we entered into this
morning and worship. We entered into Mount, Zion the
government of God, the the hill of the Lord where God rules and
Reigns from that place. And in worship, we touch those
things. And so God is God, is not
looking at the geographic size, but the impact.
And so, I was just, I was just so intrigued by that and I just
kept turning it over and There was something else going on in
my head, you know, I'm I'm 47 going to be 48 next month.
I mean, 58. So that's why you laughed, okay?
Maybe 58 next month and I know that it's, you know, I mean,
hey, I'm still, I still got a lot left in me but it's so
boring. I got less in front of me than I
have behind me. And I want my life to matter.
I want to, I want to make sure that my I'm not talking about
foursome. Personal namesake.
I don't care if I'm known among men but I want to be known in
heaven. I want to be known in hell.
I want I want to be I want when the enemy comes, he says Jesus,
we know. And Paul, we've heard of one, at
least, I want to make a dent at least that they oh, it's that
guy. I want my life to matter.
And so I was also processing. This thing of saying, God lord
there's got to be more Lord. What do you have for Heartland?
What are you wanting from us? What do you?
What do we need to do? What?
I'm just, I'm searching through my heart saying God, we want to
make an impact. And the Lord began to speak to
me about Jerusalem. How God's measuring stick is
not. The geographic size, but the
spiritual impact. And what looks like a small hill
is a mighty Mountain from a spiritual perspective.
And I thought, yeah, you know, I'm a preacher.
I can, I can look at things and hold out a preach, and I can do
that to myself, okay? So I'm like Lord.
You know, does that really apply to us?
Is that just me? And then I got a phone call.
This person, I told you they reached out to me while I was
still in Israel. And I text my said, how I'll be
back, I'll give you a call and so I called him and They said I
just want to share something with you.
I was I was at their at their brother's house and caring for
their brother and they said I was spending some time with the
Lord and he said all of a sudden, the spirit of God fell
on me and spoke to me about Heartland, This man hit came out
of nowhere. I didn't expect it.
I mean, just the Lord spoke to me and he's trying to explain.
He said, the Lord was telling me that the Grandeur and that was
the very word that I was thinking about the Grandeur of
Jerusalem is much less than the physical than the tournament of
the, the way that heaven assesses, it and I thought,
Lord, you know, You don't measure by our measuring stick,
what happened on that ground. Jesus still Reigns from the
Throne of David. Scripture, says, Mount Zion.
That started as a little patch of geographic, ground has now
become synonymous with the kingdom.
And God is keeps expanding what he's doing and it all started
because he found a man after his own heart.
And so they said, I don't know how to say this, but it was like
the Lord was telling me that the Grandeur of Heartland is more
than you realize, you can't measure it.
And when he said it, I started crying.
Now, why am I telling you this? Because if we don't understand
the purpose of what God is doing, we can't leverage it.
We can enjoy it. We can't replicate it.
We can't leverage it. and I'm telling you, That God.
Has dropped an authority in this house. that is beyond what we
look around the room and see and we need to be very very
intentional about using that for his kingdom.
Now, at one level that's going to mean a different thing for
each, one of us for Terry and Liz right now.
Their assignment one of their primary assignments, their
Elders in this house, but one of their primary assignments is
getting people in the triage. Getting them through the door
and getting, you know, sending them on their way and we have a
regional mandate on this church. We don't just do a lot of the
people they meet with aren't in Hartland their people in the
region and they come to us. We do that with pastors, we're
sewing money into pastors that are Hurting and need counseling
and will foot the bill for that. We're helping out people around
the region. You need to find out.
What is the purpose of your anointing?
You need to get healed. Okay.
Get if you need treatment in the hospital of the Kingdom, get it.
We have it available to you and you need to plug in and find
your place in the family. You've got to have relationships
with in the local church. You have to be living doing a
life with others life on life. That is crucial.
But it's got to go beyond there, and you've got to realize what
is the purpose of your anointing?
What is God called you to do? He's given you a patch of ground
in which you can express the kingdom.
You may be in college, you may be a doctor.
You may be a UPS worker. That patch of ground.
God expects you desires, you Long's to manifest through you.
And only when you discover that will you finally step in like
David and begin to give expression to all these put
within you? That's the only way you're going
to really feel locked and loaded, this is what I was
created for. Amen.
I hope some of that made sense. Let's go ahead and stand Father,
we thank you this morning God. You are good.
Lord. We thank you that.
Your measuring stick is different than ours.
And Lord, we ask that you would do a work in US.
Lord, just put your hand on your heart.
Lord that you do at work in us. Like the Apostle Paul said that
we would know, no man after the flesh that we would be the
Samuels. Lord, that would recognize the
hand of God on the David's, Lord that we could call it out of
others. But Lord, we ask for for more
than just individuals, Lord, we ask that you would enable us
like David to assess the state. State of a city and recognize
the gem that it would be in your hand Lord.
Father asked that there would be an awareness, God like David
that David perceived the purpose of your hand on him and Lord
that you would help us Lord. That there would be a
perception. A revelation that we would
understand why your hand is upon us.
Lord Lord, I ask God as we go that we would be aware of your
presence Lord that we would understand that we are a people
of your presence and Lord that we would emanate God that we
would we would leak. Everywhere we go, we would not
only be Spirit-filled but we would be Spirit spilled in Jesus
name. Amen.
I love you and we'll be back here, Tuesday morning for
prayer. God bless you.
Thanks for listening to our podcast.
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