(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Over the next few weeks, I'm gonna be talking on the subject of bringing up there down here.

Bringing up there, bringing heaven to earth and what that really means in the function of the church and what that really means for you and what that really means to me.

I think sometimes we think of heaven as just a far off place that we may go to one day if we've believed in the finished work of Christ on a cross and we'll get there one day and I think some of us are sitting around waiting on heaven when heaven's waiting on us, come on.

In other words, God wants to do a miracle right here on earth in and through his people and he wants to bring up there down here, come on church.

We believe that as a church.

If you have your Bibles with you today, I wanna invite you to open it up to Luke chapter 19.

We're gonna start there in Luke chapter 19 with one simple verse, verse 10 and then we're gonna kind of move to some different passages and they should all come up on the screen for you today if you can't flip there fast enough but today I'm gonna kind of build the foundation of what it really means to bring up there, heaven to earth and what that means for us as a church family.

Luke 19, verse 10 says this.

It says, for the son of man, anybody know who the son of man was?

Jesus, right?

Come on, everybody say Jesus.

For the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost.

That which was lost.

I wanna focus your attention for just a few minutes on that word lost.

That which was lost, what was lost?

That should be a question that comes into your mind when you read that.

If Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost, the question should be what was lost?

And I know many of you have been around the church all your life and you know about lost souls who are wandering around without Christ in their life and we need to bring the good news of the gospel to those lost people.

Come on.

And we need to bring that good news so that they can be found, they can be in right relationship with God.

But it means so much more than just reaching out to lost souls.

What was lost?

What was lost from mankind was the authority that God gave humanity in the Garden of Eden.

The Bible says that God created man and woman in his image, in his likeness.

And what they were to do is they had been given all authority in heaven to rule here on earth and bring up there, down here.

They were to govern the earth, they were to subdue the earth, live underneath the power and rule of God and be his image bearers here on earth and rule the earth.

But what happened in the garden is humanity, the first man, the first woman gave away that authority.

They gave away that authority because instead of coming in agreement with God and doing what God had assigned them to do here on earth, they came in agreement with the devil.

And see, when you come in agreement with the devil, that simply means you're coming underneath his authority.

But Jesus came to give, to get that authority back and then give you the power to operate in this world under his authority and be exactly who he's designed you to be in this earth.

Come on, church.

What was lost in the garden was a relationship, a relationship humans had with God, but also what was lost in the garden was the reality of purpose.

What was lost in the garden was dominion to be here in the earth and do what God had designed them to do.

They simply handed over the keys of authority to the devil.

And the Bible says that he didn't come with force or might and take the authority, he came with lies.

And deceived humanity into coming underneath his authority.

But the Bible says that right after that happened, that God made a declaration in Genesis chapter three, that eventually he would send his son and his son would basically be at odds with this evil and the evil forces.

And he would crush his head.

And that's exactly what Jesus came to do.

Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.

And that means us humans that are not living underneath his rule and reign and underneath the dominion of his lordship.

But he came back, he came to take the authority back.

And for us to live in his kingdom, everybody say kingdom.

Kingdom is a kingdom.

It means it's a domain with a king over it.

And he came to give the authority, to take the authority back and for us to live in his kingdom, everybody say his kingdom.

His kingdom.

And live in this earth underneath his rule and reign.

God had given humanity an assignment, that assignment was lost in the garden, but Jesus came to take it back.

Let's look at Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20.

Many of us in the church world know this as the Great Commission.

And it's where Jesus makes a statement to those early followers, those early disciples, and he tells them, you know what, go out and make disciples.

But I wanna highlight something for you in that passage there in Matthew 28 today that I think is very, very important for us to understand and we're truly gonna bring up there, down here.

This is after Jesus had come to earth, lived a perfect life, was crucified, put on a cross, put in a grave for three days, defeated death, everybody say defeated.

Defeated death, resurrected from the grave, and before he ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty right now.

This was before that here, Matthew 28.

The Bible says Jesus came and he told his disciples, I have been given all authority, everybody say authority.

All authority in heaven and on earth.

I would highlight that in my scripture, in my phone, if I were you, because Jesus makes a declaration right here in this passage of scripture after he defeated death and resurrected from the grave.

He says, hey, disciples, those who have been following me around for the last three years, understand, I was cruelly crucified on a cross.

I died a death and I was put in a grave, but I defeated sin, I defeated death, I defeated the grave and I took the keys of the kingdom back and all authority belongs to him in heaven and here on earth.

Come on, church.

He says, therefore, since that has happened, he says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

And he says, and be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

I'm speaking on the subject of bringing up there, down here.

And Jesus says that he's been given all authority up there and down here.

Jesus is saying, you know what, what was surrendered in the garden by humanity as they gave that authority over to the devil, he's saying, I have taken it back through the cross and the resurrection.

Come on, church.

And if you could just stir your faith a little bit enough to believe that today, maybe those miracle after miracles will begin to happen.

See, God came to empower us with his authority.

He came to save us from the penalty of sin, missing the mark of God's glorious standard, but he came to do so much more than save us.

He took the authority back and now he empowers us, his people with gifts and with grace to be who he's designed us to be here on the earth right now.

He is not waiting for another day.

He started at the cross doing what he declared he would do and it's in operation right now.

Jesus is declaring in Matthew 28, I took the power back, now come to me and my kingdom, the king's domain and begin to release that power in the earth.

My friend, it's a whole different ball game when you begin to operate underneath the power of God's authority.

Underneath the power of Jesus's authority and not underneath the power of the devil's authority or even underneath the power of your own authority.

Because the reality of it is, is God has an assignment and he gives us power to carry that assignment out, but we must be a people that believe that by faith and step fully into that with the gift that he has given to us to give to his body, the local church, and we will begin to see miracle after miracle.

This world cannot contain what God is wanting to do.

Come on.

In the model prayer, Matthew chapter six, when they asked Jesus, how should we pray?

You remember that?

And Jesus says in chapter six, Matthew chapter six, verses nine through 13, it says, in this manner, therefore, pray, oh, Father in heaven, set apart be your name, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, our daily provision, and forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Come on.

Jesus says this is how we should pray.

Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

I agree, I agree.

Let it be, let it be.

Amen, amen, amen.

Jesus says, you know what?

May we live here in this prayer, dependency, with dependency on God.

And as we do, may we be empowered with his power to bring up there, down here.

Many people are in the church, are making time here on earth, waiting to go to heaven.

When I believe that the scripture is making a clear call to the church for us to bring up there, down here, to bring what exists in the heaven here on earth as his people operating underneath kingdom authority.

Jesus had a lot to say about the kingdom.

Actually, if you study, after the resurrection of Christ and before the ascension of Christ, his primary focus was on living in the kingdom of God, living underneath the king's domain.

And before he ascended to heaven, he was teaching those disciples what it really meant to bring up there, down here, what the kingdom of heaven was really like, what the kingdom of God was really like.

He spent multitudes of hours and weeks and days teaching people about the kingdom, what it means to bring up there, down here, so that they would begin to operate in that amazing power in their day and begin to start a movement.

We know it as Christianity today, but a movement through their gifts coming together and beginning to deposit the good news of who Christ is in the earth.

He says, go and make disciples in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and all the way to the ends of the earth.

Help people know this truth, that all authority belongs to me.

I came to pay the penalty of sin.

I defeated death.

I defeated the grave.

Forgiveness is offered.

Invite them to step into this right relationship with their great God and begin to operate underneath my authority and my power.

Jesus is king.

Come on, church.

I was thinking about this this week.

Anybody ever, anybody on a franchise business in here?

Come on, anybody?

A couple of people, maybe, maybe not.

If I know what a franchise is, I think we all know what a franchise is.

But I was thinking, you know, every local church is kind of like a franchise of heaven.

But what's amazing is the good franchise.

Alex manages one of these franchises, the chicken place, the guy that was singing up here a minute ago.

Come on.

He's a Chick-fil-A guy.

But what makes a franchise successful is typically the extension will go back to home base and begin to duplicate what was done at home base and operate underneath the values of home base.

Begin to operate with the menus of home base if it's a food franchise.

Don't be changing the ketchup, ketchup flavor.

It worked somewhere else.

It'll work again there.

Just follow, follow the menu, follow the culture, follow the values, follow what is offered and watch what will happen.

And so I believe that we're an extension of up there and we're down here.

But we got to be good franchise owners.

Come on.

We've got to be good franchise players.

We got to begin to get our authority from home base and our king, Jesus.

Is he the king of your life?

Because if he is the king of your life, you'll begin to follow him and do what he did and manifested as the son of man here on this earth and be exactly who he was.

He defeated the devil.

We sing songs about him winning.

We sing songs and praises about his great name.

But I'm here to declare right now that you know what?

His greatness can fall in this earth in this moment, just like it has in the past, just like it can in the future.

But we got to have the faith to believe, man.

I've been reading miracle story after miracle story.

I'm talking about miracle stories about healing, miracle stories about, you know, people basically being raised from the dead.

And I know all that sounds foreign to us, but I read this one story that really stirred my faith this week.

And the story was about a man who was in a wheelchair for many, many years.

And he was in a courtroom and there was another man sitting all the way across the courtroom from the man.

And as court was going on and after it finished up, he kept noticing the man in the wheelchair.

And so God put it in his heart, stared in his heart.

You go over and pray for that man that you don't even know right now that he could possibly physically walk again.

He says, would you have the faith to believe that he can walk again?

The man said he went and did what was very uncomfortable to him.

He went and prayed for the man in the wheelchair.

And he says, I want to pray that you can get up and walk again.

Is it okay if I pray for you?

Man says, sure, you can, you can pray for me, but what if it don't work?

The man said, he looked at him and said, but what if it does?

He said that gave the man in the wheelchair enough faith to believe.

And after he prayed, he got up and he began to walk.

The reason I share that story today, because that speaks to my heart.

I mean, think about my unbelief.

You know, many, many times I don't want to believe something because you know what I'm thinking?

What if it don't work?

What if it don't work?

That challenged my faith, but what if it does?

I want to challenge you to begin to pray like God can do what he says he can do.

What if he does?

What if we had enough faith to believe that it can work?

And so, you know, if we're going to be a group of people that bring up there, down here, I'm just going to lay out some foundation for us.

And I wrote down a few notes and you may want to jot them down too.

But the first thing I wrote down is this is we have to realize and repent.

If we're going to be people that have faith that God can do these things he says he can do, and he wants to do the things he says he can do, then we have to realize who he is.

And we have to repent of our sin and begin to follow him.

See, repentance is a word that means a lot of times we say it this way, it means doing a 180 changing direction.

You know what turning from going in this direction and turning and going in this direction.

But it goes a little bit deeper than that.

Repentance is actually a change of mind, a change of thinking.

And it means you know what, I'm no longer going to follow the ways of this sinful life missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

But I'm going to think by faith, faith is the substance of things hope for.

It's not what I see right now.

But it's what I hope for and believe because of who Christ Jesus is.

And I'm going to turn from my sin.

And I'm going to believe by faith.

And as I believe by faith, I'm going to change my thinking as I change my thinking, I'm going to begin to follow my leader, his name is Jesus.

And I'm going to begin to operate under his authority.

And I'm not going to operate underneath the power of sin, but I'm going to operate underneath the power of Jesus.

And I'm going to walk forward and I'm going to make progress and I'm going to go to where he says I can go.

Some of us are wanting to repent enough to go to heaven.

And God says, repent enough to be who I've created you to be and operate underneath kingdom authority, right here and right now.

My friends, God is who he says he is.

Listen to what Jesus, the scriptures say about Jesus in Matthew 20 verse 28 says, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

I hope you're one of those many.

He came to give his life as a ransom, as a payment for us so that we didn't have to die in our sin, missing the mark of God's glorious standard and not knowing who God says that we are and living underneath his authority.

He came to give us life as a ransom for many.

He paid the price with his blood on a cross, my friends, and he was put in a grave.

And would you have a faith enough today to believe that and call on the name of Jesus.

But the Bible says this in first John chapter three, verse eight, about this same Jesus says, when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil who has been sinning since the beginning.

But the son of God came to what destroy the works of the devil.

And that's simply amazing to me because it says Jesus has come fully as a man living without sin, fully submitted to the father.

Jesus said, I'm about the father's business.

He came as a ransom for many and to destroy the works of the devil.

So Jesus came fully as a man and defeated the devil as a man underneath the power of God.

He is in God.

He is God in the flesh.

And my friends, and, and, and he, he wasn't defeating the devil as God.

He was defeating the devil as a human.

And he was doing it underneath God's authority.

He always listened to his father.

He said over and over again, I'm about my father's business.

I live underneath every word that he says to me, I'm not living underneath the word of the devil.

The Bible says he did what he, what he came to do and what he came to accomplish.

And if we would so dare repent of our sin and begin to become a part of his kingdom, it's, it's not just changing the way you think, but it's changing the way you think until, until you can focus on Jesus's ministry, which is the kingdom.

Jesus's ministry was taken back the authority that belongs to God and forgiven us of our sin and given us the keys of the kingdom back.

Remember what he told Peter?

So I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom.

And the reality of it is, is Jesus took the keys back and now he gives you and me the authority to operate underneath God's Holy spirit, horsepower, the same power that brought him back from the grave lives in me is what the scripture declares.

Come on.

And so that power means that God is working in us.

Let's repent of our sin and begin to operate underneath kingdom of power.

Let me say it in a business term.

You may understand Jesus didn't come to just get you out of the red.

He came to put you in the black.

See, so many of us think, man, Jesus came to forgive me of my sin and get me out of the way.

I'm going to go to heaven one day, but you know what?

I'm still going to live underneath the power of sin.

Really understand.

He came, he gives grace, the unmerited favor of God.

He gives the Holy spirit.

And why don't you receive that Holy spirit in your life and come underneath his authority and began to step out of the red and live in the black.

Come on.

Tell your neighbor, I'm going to live in the black, believe different, trust different, operate a different kingdom authority.

He is the King.

He has all authority and he wants his children to operate underneath his authority.

But if we're going to bring up there down there, we don't only need to repent and realize fully who Jesus is, but we have to develop the relationship.

How's your relationship with God through Christ Jesus?

Let me ask you again, how's your personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus?

Because the reality of it is it's God's designed to give you all access to him.

And through what Christ did on a cross in his resurrection, you have full access to God in the heaven, but you have to step in to that relationship.

I've heard people say it this way.

God's a gentleman and he won't force himself upon you, but he makes his self available to you.

But if you would so dare surrender your life to the authority of the devil and your own way of thinking and believe God for his greatness.

I believe fully in the scriptures of God.

I believe fully that God doesn't do anything contrary to his word.

I believe fully in the word of God in context, and it's saying exactly what it's saying, but I believe in a God that can do something supernatural in spite of what I see or what I believe.

And he'll never do anything to contradict his word, but he can do new things.

Come on.

He can do new things.

He can do new things, develop the relationship, begin to understand the scriptures.

But as you begin to understand, realize that your ways are not his ways and his ways are higher than your ways.

And oftentimes what I find as a student of the word of God and studying the scriptures, what I find sometimes is my study was wrong.

And what I began to be illuminated sometimes is is that from the power of God and the Holy spirit of God, a new nuance to his word and what it says to live underneath his authority and his power right here and right now, come on church.

And if your theology ain't changing, maybe you need to get into the father's throne room and see what he says to you.

I'm telling you, it seems to me the more I know about God, the more fascinated I am with God, that he is not me.

He is so much bigger than me and he does things different than my little type.

A man wants to do his ways are higher than my ways.

Be a student of the word.

If you want to develop a relationship, I got to go because they say, well, you want to run out of time.

Look, prayer.

You got to pray, pray, pray, pray.

Hair opens up the windows of heaven.

My friend, pray to your heavenly father.

Hallowed be your name set apart.

Pray, pray, pray.

Pray for your individual needs.

Pray for your neighbor's need.

Pray for your country.

Pray for this world, but pray more than any of that, that up there would come down here and God's presence would be manifested through his church.

Come on.

Pray.

Take on the kingdom values.

Practice what you learn.

Don't just be a student of the word and a student of the church.

Practice what you learn and watch what God will do.

It's amazing.

Remember Jesus took his disciples and he sent them out two by two.

And this is what the scripture says in Mark chapter six, verses six to 12, that, you know what, there was some, some students of the word, some Pharisees that began to disagree with Jesus and about what he was doing.

Come on.

And, and you know, they had theology all figured out.

And then Jesus was kind of upsetting the apple cart about their theology.

Remember?

And the reality of it is he turns to his disciples and the Bible says that the Pharisees were upset with Jesus.

Then Jesus went from village to village teaching people and he called his 12 disciples together and he began sending them out two by two, giving them, there's that word.

Let's say it together.

Given them what?

Authority.

Authority to what?

Cast out evil spirits.

He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick.

No food, no traveler's bag, no money.

He allowed them to wear sandals, but I'm not sorry.

I just got lost in that.

He, he allowed them to wear sandals, but not to take a change of clothes.

Wherever you go, he said, stay in the same house until you leave town.

But if any place refuses to welcome you or listen to you, shake its dust off for your feet and leave and show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.

So the disciples went on telling everyone they met to repent.

Everybody say, repent.

They went on and said, repent of your sins and turn to God.

And they cast out many demons and healed many sick people, anointing them with olive oil.

So Jesus basically challenged him to practice what you've been learning from him.

And so I want to encourage us in our gift and our gifting from God as a church family.

So let's begin to practice what we learn from God and learn from Jesus and expect God to show up.

I don't think God is waiting for all of us to get to heaven.

I think God is waiting for his bride to get prepared for the wedding.

The bride is the local church.

And if we would get prepared for the wedding, believe in him as our groom is all the authority that we need in life to operate and begin to operate like that with his value system and all the provision that he gives here in this earth and begin to do what we saw him do and what he saw he got from the father.

We begin to operate like that.

My friends, we begin to see miracle after miracle.

Come on.

I can get on the worship team now, but no, I got to close.

Last foundational principle bring up there down here and kind of I've leaned into this, but we have to release what has been given.

Spiritual gift is not given to you to hoard your gift is to share your gift.

And it's to operate alongside of the other gifts and be the body of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus with King.

Jesus is our authority.

I got to ask you today, who is the authority in your life?

Is Jesus the authority in your life?

And who is he brought alongside of you, around you, over you, under you for you to operate in your gift mix in the authority that Jesus gave you and you to operate on the behalf of the world around you and believe that God's gifting and God's provision, God, whatever the measure of faith that you need, that the currency of heaven can be given to you to begin to expand the territory of who God is and release it in the earth.

Come on.

The church is to release it into the earth.

Enemy loose, loose what belongs to Jesus.

And we bind those things with heavenly things.

We bind those things together with heavenly things that they may operate here on earth as it is in the heaven.

Romans 12 verses four and five puts it this way.

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function.

So it is with Christ's body.

We are many parts of one body and we belong to each other.

I invite you, my friend, no matter how young, how old you are, no matter what color your skin is, what dialect you use.

I had a lady tell me yesterday at the bowling alley, she says, you know, I'm from wherever it was.

I think it was New Jersey or somewhere.

And it took me five years to get your dialect down.

Come on.

And she said, but I'm understanding now.

And I said, well, if you sit underneath something long enough, you'll begin to get the dialect down.

That spoke to me.

And here's why it spoke to me because sometimes I don't think we get the dialect of heaven because we ain't sit long enough and we can't understand what God is saying to us and how to operate in it.

But if we would get with the body and begin to sit and root ourself down in the house of the Lord, we will flourish.

Come on church.

Don't be no bouncy Christian.

Bounce from here to there.

Find your gift.

And I'm here to declare to you, you can use your gift anywhere you want to use your gift, but your belief gift first and foremost belongs to God.

And that gift that belongs to God belongs to the local church.

And I call it in, I call it in.

So the church can be who God says it can be.

Romans 12 verse 21 says this.

Don't let evil conquer you.

We'll close with this, but conquer evil by doing good in the context of the body.

Bible says we conquer evil by not doing evil, but doing good.

And so today church, what I want to encourage you in is to let's do good with the gifts that God has given us.

There's some major things that are going on in this church family and you need to be aware of it, but you got to make yourself available.

You got to step into the environments.

Again, I'm not here to, to make you do anything, but I'm here to invite you to do everything.

There's ministry opportunities all over this place for us to operate in this community with the love and kindness of God and the hospitality of God to show people that they matter to God.

There's prayer ministries, there's healing ministries, there's small group ministries.

You know what?

There there's missions ministries.

There's outreach ministries.

I mean, you name it.

We got it available.

Come on.

But, but are you just sitting at home hoarding your gift because of that is you.

Maybe that's, that's the piece of the puzzle that that's missing for us to see a miracle of God manifested in our community like we've never seen it manifested before.

My friend, I believe in the greatness of God and I could lose the breath in my lungs right now and the heartbeat in my chest, but I will die believing that God is who he says he is and he's going to accomplish exactly what he says he's going to accomplish.

Come on.

So today I'm going to have the courage to pray over this church.

I might have the courage to believe that, you know what?

This is a city on a hill, a light into the world, not just a physical building, but a people that draws people from the nations underneath the authority of Christ and underneath the authority of his kingdom.

And we are going to begin to be a church, a family, a franchise that brings up there, down here.

It is about to explode as my friend T.D. Jake says, get ready, get ready, get ready.

It's about to happen, but let's call it into being.

Let's believe God for greatness.

Come on.

I want to invite you to pray with me today.

God, I pray today that we would conquer evil by doing good.

We would be the people you called us to be.

God, we would repent of our sin.

We would turn our hearts and our minds and our thinking towards you.

We begin to follow you, Jesus, and we begin to realize who we are in Christ Jesus and the authority we have in this earth.

God, I pray for those who are hurting right now.

God, I pray for healing.

God, I pray for physical healing.

God, I pray for, I pray for relational healing.

I pray for the healing of the mind, emotional healing.

God, I pray for spiritual healing today.

God, I pray that you know what?

We would conquer evil by doing good.

God, we wouldn't just do evil things or participate in the evil, but God, we would participate in the good things that come from heaven, from your treasure chest.

God, may we operate underneath the kingdom gifts that you have given us and watch you do the miraculous for your glory, for it's your kingdom, your glory, God, that we do all of these things.

God, if there's one here today that hasn't surrendered to Jesus today as their rescuer from the penalty of sin, God, may they believe in the blood of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus today by faith and begin to start that journey.

But God, may they only not turn away from their sin, but God, may they begin to change their thinking and operate in the authority that you have given them to begin to discover who you say that they are.

And God, may we be a church that transforms the world around us.

God, may we release what is in heaven here on earth and bring up there down here.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.