Amen. Amen.
We all give the worship team a hand as they take a seat. It's good this morning. Guys, welcome. Thank you for being here this morning. I know it is spring break. How many of you are enjoying spring break? Has it really started yet?
Yeah, we have a lot of folks out on spring break vacations and such. But how many of you are glad that spring is on the way? Amen. It's good news.
Guys, welcome. Thank you so much for being here at Harvest. We're excited that you're here with us. Guys, we believe that every person who comes through our doors, nobody comes through by accident. Man, it is an act of the Holy Spirit. And we believe that God has something special for each and every one of you individually.
And so if you are a guest with us, we welcome you. We invite you to make yourself at home and relax and just be open to what God would have for you today. I know we have a crew watching online. And why don't we give our online folks a hand? Grateful for them getting online and joining us for service today.
Listen, we ask everybody every week, our guests and our Harvest family alike, everybody fill out our connection form. You can see a link for that on the screen. You can pull out your phone. You can scan that real quick. There's also a QR code on one of the chairs in front of you. You can scan that as well.
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So if you would take a second and do that, we appreciate it. Also note that at the bottom of that connection form is a place for your prayer needs. So put down whatever it is you believe in God for. And know that we've got a group of folks this week who are committed to praying every day over your prayer request. We serve a God who answers prayer. We're believing for breakthrough in your life as well. So if you would take a second to do that, that would be awesome.
Also, if you are a guest and you haven't yet done so, on your way out, there is somebody at the connection desk who would love to meet you. They have a gift for you. I just want to let you know how much we appreciate your visit with us this morning.
So a few quick announcements.
Yeah. Water?
All right. Y'all give Pastor Sean a hand as she takes a seat. Welcome again to Harvest. We're family Christ followers. We love God. We love people. And we serve the world as the hands and feet of Jesus. Amen.
If you're part of the Harvest family, what's our vision? To make the world as every follower of Jesus. That's right there. I don't want to test y'all and see if we can clap on beat. And we do that through community, discipleship, and outreach.
All right. All right, guys, we ready? Here we go. We're going to jump in. Today we are beginning our discussion on the role of women in ministry. Everybody say, "Oh." Is that really scary? Come on, folks. Guys, we're open to what the word of God has to say, right?
But the reality is, how many of you would agree that this has become a very controversial subject, especially in recent days? One of the biggest things that we see, again, you know, I never speak against a church or anything like that. But we saw fallout. We've seen fallout over the last year, especially in the Southern Baptist Church.
And we saw them lose some of their biggest churches. The biggest being Saddleback. They lost Saddleback Church in California. They lost Elevation Church. Those of you who aren't familiar with Elevation, it's where they recorded the song, "The Blessing," you know, that we sing and such.
There was a whole list of churches last year. And there's going to be a lot of controversy this year. It's going to be in the news. It's going to be a big deal. And so I thought, you know, it would be good for us to dig into the word of God and see what the word of God actually says about this. Because people are going to have questions. And we need to know the word. Amen.
And it needs to be inside of us. And so it's something that we need to talk about. But anyway, it's interesting, all these churches that are kind of beginning to go a little bit of a different direction. And it's not even because they were trying to make senior pastors of women within their church. They were just trying to allow women to teach and serve in different roles in different things and called all kinds of fallout over it.
And so the question is, are they just worldly compromisers or have they tapped into something in the word of God? And that's what we want to look at. Now, I want you to understand in this that if you're part of the Harvest family, you probably, I mean, you already know our stance on this. There's not going to be anything real shocking here.
But I'm going to give quite a bit of teaching and things over the next few weeks that I believe is going to equip you and such to be able to answer questions. And, guys, I'm not about opinions. We're going to use scripture and we're going to look at it in context to answer the questions.
And many of these questions have been debated for centuries. And we're going to look at why. But how many of you remember last year I did a series called "Does the Bible Really Say That?" Y'all remember that? And we took some different statements that are quoted that many people think are in the Bible.
And then we used, I gave you three tests that we would use on that statement. And we debunked quite a few different things. And so we're going to use those same tests in this series. We're going to do the same thing.
The three tests I gave you, when it comes to a certain topic and you're wondering, does the Bible say that? The first test that we used was context. Y'all remember this? Context. I mean, you know, context is important. It's the story behind the story. It's the story behind the passage.
If I handed you a history book, something you didn't know anything about, I handed you a history book and you read one paragraph out of this big, thick book. Do you now know history? No. As a matter of fact, what you're reading may not even be true. But once you read it in context, it is.
Context is vitally important. And that's one thing the church has been guilty of at times is we pick out scriptures we like, but we don't use them in context. And that becomes a problem. So that's a test we're going to use.
We're also going to use biblical doctrine. And so basically this is the character and the heart of the Word of God as a whole. What does the Word of God as a whole say about this? So we read some obscure text. It's confusing to us. And really what we need to do is we need to look at the Bible as a whole, see what it says in its totality, what the heart of God is about this matter. That's part of the context. It's really the whole context. Does that make sense?
And then the last thing I told you was the messianic perspective. So we don't take the Bible as a history book. We take it as the inspired Word of God and we study it through the lens of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. What part did Jesus play? What does Jesus have to say about this? How did Jesus teach? How did he treat this subject?
And so those are the things we got to look at because, you know, it requires us to be very open. How many of you can look back and you recognize, you can look back to when you first became a believer and you go, wow, I believe a lot of things differently than I did back then.
It's funny when you're a pastor or a teacher and you look back and go, wow, I taught that 15 years ago and I'm not sure if I completely agree with it anymore. Because you've grown and you've matured. You're open and the Holy Spirit has brought correction and some different things.
Hopefully we've all been at that place. You've matured to a point where you've gotten greater understanding. And so I encourage you guys in this to remain very open because I'm going to ask you through this to ask yourself different questions.
For instance, are you open to the thought that you don't have a full understanding of the Word of God? Are you open to the thought that it's possible that there are some things you know that might be an error? Some things you think, some things you've been taught.
That, by the way, I mentioned in this first service, I believe we're all going to get to heaven and we're going to find out we missed it somewhere. We were dead set that this was theological truth. And Jesus is going to be like, you were off base, bro. You're going to be like, oh, man.
So are we all open to the idea that we can learn more about the Word of God? And that we might have learned things that were a little twisted by the thoughts and opinions of man? Most of us said yes.
Okay. So when it comes to the topic of the role of women, now we can talk about the role of the household, of the family. I'm talking about right now the role of women in ministry. When it comes to this, are you open to the thought that maybe you've been taught things that maybe were a little bit skewed?
Are you open to the thought and the possibility? What if the very verses that are used to close the case on women being used for the kingdom of God, maybe they were never meant to silence women in the first place?
What if the statements that we read in the New Testament, women should remain silent or women should not be permitted to speak? That's interesting how people take things out of context. You read women should remain silent. And you read down a little further and it says, let the women pray and prophesy. It's like, how do you do that? You can't speak, but you're commanded to pray and prophesy.
We got to look at things in context. Does this make sense? What if these statements weren't necessarily universal? So these statements individually, what if the statement women should remain silent and the statement women should not be permitted to speak? What if they weren't universal commands?
But what if it was, what if those were said as a simple correction for a specific problem in a specific church? Spoiler for a couple of weeks from now, it was a church in Corinth. What if the statement, when it said in Scripture, I do not permit a woman to teach, what if that wasn't the end of the story? It was simply a comma and it needs to be read in context.
So here's the deal. Here's the real question. If there's a possibility that we've misunderstood some passages, if there's a possibility that we've misinterpreted some Scriptures, what might we be missing in the kingdom of God? What gifts might have been left unopened? What callings have been unanswered? What leaders have been left sitting silently on the back row that God's calling up front?
So today we're beginning this conversation that probably in many ways is overdue. And again, not based in opinions, not based in opinions, not based in trends, not based on what's popular, not based on what's comfortable, not based on feelings, not even based on what we've been taught. Based on the Word of God.
Guys, I've said it before and I probably hadn't said it in a while. Guys, don't take what I say as gospel truth. Get into the Word of God and find out for yourself. I'm fallible and I mess it up sometimes. Right? Are we all fallible in here?
Get into the Word of God and see what Scripture says. That's what I want to do. And so we're calling this a kingdom without limits. How do you know the kingdom of God is supposed to be without limits?
And so if there are limits, then I would argue that it's probably not man that has put those there. I mean, it's probably not God that's put those there. It's probably man.
And so before we debate the hard issues, before we start digging in and dissecting Paul's letters, which we'll do in the next couple of weeks, before we wrestle with centuries of church tradition, we're going to go all the way back to the garden.
And this is very important. We're going to go back to the very beginning because we need to look at the very first moment that God spoke identity and purpose over humanity. Humanity being man and woman. Amen?
You all here this morning? You all are more quiet than the first service of us.
So we go back to the beginning because if we want to understand what is broken now, we need to go back to the beginning to see what was whole back then.
And so what we find is, and I'm just, again, spoiler alert, from the very beginning, what we'll see is in the garden that God's desire for men and women was never about one leading and another following.
In the garden, it was not about dominance, it was not about silence, it was not about limitation, it was not about intimidation. It was always about partnership. It was always about shared purpose. It was about two people who were made in the image of God, two image bearers reflecting God. That's what we see in the garden.
And so that's where we're going to go. If you have a Bible, you can turn to Genesis chapter 1. And if you have a mobile device, you can use the YouVersion Bible app and go to hit more and hit events, and it'll bring up our notes for today.
But we're starting Genesis chapter 1, and this is where we see that God created them male and female, and we see what he called them to do together, which brings me to my first point for today.
Number one, women and men were created in God's image to rule together. Men and women were created in God's image to rule together.
And so Genesis chapter 1, we're going to look at verse 26. It says, "And then God said, let us make man in our own image." By the way, the word man there has nothing to do with gender. This means humanity. This is mankind, okay?
"Let us make mankind, humanity, in our own image, according to our own likeness, and let them," we're going to see who them is in a second. Anybody got any guesses? Man and woman.
"Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
And God created man in his own image, mankind. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. You guys see that? You see who them is in this passage? It's male and female, Adam and Eve.
God blessed them, and God said to who? Adam? God said to them. Everybody say them. "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
So from the very beginning, we see God giving the exact same blessing, the same command, the same authority to man as he does to woman, or woman as he does to man. However you want to look at that.
We don't see in this, we don't see any hierarchy. We don't see him saying, "Okay, I want you to lead and I want you to help. I want you to speak and I want you to remain silent." We don't see any of that in the garden, in God's original design, his original creation.
It was just two people, two image bearers, two people made in God's image, given the mission to rule, to cultivate, and steward creation together.
And then, in Genesis chapter 2, if you want to turn to chapter 2, we kind of get a little of the back story. In verse 18, it says, "Now, we hear this word helper, and let me just say, this has been misunderstood. This is an English interpretation from Hebrew. And I'll just be honest with you, I just don't believe that helper is a good interpretation. I just think we don't have a better word, is the issue, in English."
I believe it's been misunderstood for centuries, the meaning of the word helper. We hear the word helper, and we think it means assistant. We think it means sidekick. We think somebody who comes along to help the real leader.
It's not what it means, guys. The Hebrew word helper, the Hebrew word that we translate helper, is the word ezer. Everybody say ezer.
And it's interesting when you look at the word ezer, because ezer is used to refer to the woman, the wife. It's used to refer to Eve. You know who else it refers to? God the Father is referred to as ezer.
People say, "Well, yeah, I know the Holy Spirit is called the helper." No, no. Well before we ever see the Holy Spirit called helper in Scripture, we look in Psalm chapter 33, and David said, "Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield." The word help there is ezer. It's the exact same word to refer to the woman. Exact same word that refers to the wife. Exact same one.
Psalm 70 verse 5, he said, "You are my ezer, you are my helper and my savior. Oh, Lord, do not delay." You look at the word ezer, and here's what it means. It means, ezer can mean to be strong, to protect, to defend, to surround, one who rescues, and one who saves.
That sounds like the role of man, what our culture would say. What are you talking about? Helper means to be strong, to protect, to defend, to surround, to rescue, to save. It can also mean to cherish. It can also mean warrior.
How do you just say your wife is a warrior? You better lift your hand. Guys, so woman is called, she is described as this, as ezer. But God is as well.
So why don't we treat, why through the history have we not treated God as a second-class citizen? Does God being called ezer, does that make him less? Does that make him passive? Does that make him secondary? Does that make him just, he's my helper. He's the assistant to the real leader. Of course not. Right?
We've totally looked at this wrong. So, before sin, before brokenness, before culture had a chance to twist the story, guys, Eve was created from Adam's side, not from his foot. She was created to walk beside him, not beneath him.
Matter of fact, the scripture that men love to quote, "Wives, submit to your husbands." When you look before that, it says submit to one another.
Father, we're not to be over each other's heads or under each other's feet. We walk together as co-laborers. Where am I?
So, Eve was not beneath Adam. She was beside him as his equal, as his partner, as his co-ruler in the earth. And guys, what happens, what have we found? Because it's really just been the last hundred years of all of human history that women have begun to receive rights, even in our culture.
And what has happened? What have we seen? We've seen that, oh, wow. We got women leading nations, and they do pretty good at it. And they're leading businesses, and they're leading ministries, and they're doing different things. Oh, wow. For the first time in history, we're seeing that happen.
They reflect the same image of God that men do, with strength, wisdom, creativity, and even authority. So, if God entrusted both men and women to rule over the earth from the very beginning, why do we still hesitate to allow them to lead in the church?
That's why we've had, you know, in the last six years, since Sean and I took over from my dad, you'll notice that Sean's name pops up next to mine, as lead pastor. We are co-laborers together. We are co-leading. We are one.
So, what happened? Well, that's what we got to look at. How many of you would agree? We're back in the garden in Genesis chapter 2. Something broke after that, right? Something happened.
Because if God's original design was equality and partnership, why does all of history tell a different story? Through all of history and almost every culture, women have been second-class citizens and have not been allowed to be in, usually, in any type of leadership role in the church.
Why do so many cultures reflect something far different than what we see? So, to understand it, we got to go to Genesis chapter 3. So, if you got your Bible, turn to Genesis chapter 3.
So, my first point was, men and women were created in God's image to rule together. Number two, the fall introduced division, but this was not God's original plan.
The fall introduced division, but this was not God's original plan. So, guys, when sin entered the world, how many of you would agree? Everything fractured. The world became a broken place. It's a fallen world.
Genesis 3:16 tells us the consequences. Now, we know in Genesis 3, the consequences are laid out to Adam, they're laid out to Eve, and they're laid out to the serpent, right? And so, in Genesis 3:16, we see the consequences that God speaks over Eve. And here's what he says.
"You will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you." Guys, for the first time in history, for the first time in regards to humanity, dominance and control entered into the relationship between men and women.
The beautiful partnership that God had created was suddenly disrupted. Not because God rewrote his design, it was because sin distorted it. Sin perverted it.
And here's the truth we've got to recognize. God wasn't saying to Eve in that moment, "This is the way I want it to be." He was saying, "Look at what sin has done to you. This is the consequence of sin. From here on out, you're going to want to control your husband, and he's going to rule over you."
And it was all because of the curse. All of a sudden, it's what we see all the way up to today. Obviously, things have changed. Actually, things have swung to a whole different direction, where now we don't have men who even know how to be men.
We got a generation of wimpy men growing up in the world today because nobody knows their roles anymore. But let me say, freedom and liberty to women has been a great thing. It's a great thing.
But what do we see today? We see power struggles. That's what we've seen through history. Power struggles and oppression and division and competition between men and women instead of cooperation the way that God originally intended it.
It was all because of the curse. Now, there's great news, because what does Galatians 3:13 say? It says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law."
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, which means as Christ followers, we are no longer bound by the broken patterns of the fall. We're no longer bound by the curse. We don't have to live out that curse in our relationships, in our churches, or even in our leadership structures.
And even in the middle of all that brokenness, here's the deal, guys. Regardless of where you have stood or what you were taught, if you've read the Bible, just look at the Old Testament, God continued to raise up women to lead.
We have Deborah, who ruled in Israel for a period of time. She was a judge, and she ruled Israel. You have Huldah, who was a prophetess, who was the chief counsel to a king of Israel.
God didn't have hesitancies about using women in high leadership positions. And here's the thing. If the curse was meant to silence and sideline women, if that's what God intended to do, well, he seems pretty comfortable with making exceptions because he does it over and over again through the Bible.
And we're going to look at a lot of those over the next few weeks. So if you look around today at churches and ministries that have released women into leadership, you've got to look at the fruit of it.
So one of the prime examples to me, I mentioned a while ago, in South Korea, you had Pastor Younggi Cho. I don't know how many of you have heard of Pastor Cho, but he died in 2021.
And he empowered thousands of women within his church to pastor and to lead and all these things. And his church grew and grew, and it grew from a few thousand to almost a million people and became the world's largest church.
And he credits much of that to him coming to a place of releasing women into their God-given callings. He would say, that's when things began to change. Maybe God's trying to tell us something.
So question, if men and women were created co-equals before the curse, and if Jesus came to break the curse, and if we as followers of Christ are no longer under the curse, why do we keep trying to reinforce something that God has broken?
If the curse introduced division and Jesus came to break the curse, then what is the kingdom supposed to look like? What does restored partnership between men and women look like on this side of the cross?
If we want to understand all that, we need to look at Jesus. We're going to the messianic perspective. So we talked about, number one, women and men were created in God's image to rule together.
Number two, the fall introduced division, but that was not God's original plan. Number three, Jesus restores equality in the kingdom.
Jesus restores equality in the kingdom. Guys, when Jesus showed up, he did not just show up to save souls. He came to rescue and restore what was broken.
And part of what sin broke was this relationship between men and women and how we were to function. That's why Galatians 3:28 says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ."
Does everybody agree that that is how God sees us? Not as Jew or Greek, not as slave or free, not as male or female. In other words, the things that used to divide us, once we come out from under the curse and we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, those things that used to divide us no longer define us.
God sees straight through to who we are and who we were created to be, to our potential. And here's the thing. It's not that our differences disappear. How many of you know our differences are actually a great thing?
It's amazing how our differences divide us as humanity. But I love, I love the picture in Revelation of every nation, tribe, and tongue standing before the throne of God.
Will that not be a glorious day when everybody's lifting up every, every gender, tribe, there's two, by the way. Gender, tribe, nation, color, size, all standing before God and exalting his holy name. That's going to be the day right there.
It's not that our differences disappear. It's just that they no longer determine our value. They no longer determine our calling or our authority in the kingdom of God.
Matthew 22 verse 30 gives us another little glimpse. He said, "For in the resurrection, they will neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of heaven."
And Jesus is basically saying that in heaven, identity and purpose and value won't be based on gender. So, if that's where we're headed, because it's talking about the resurrection.
So, we think of that and we're thinking, okay, he's talking about heaven. Okay. In heaven, he's not going to see gender. In heaven, male and female is not going to. No, when we receive Jesus, we become part of the kingdom of God immediately, right?
As a matter of fact, we're called to bring heaven to earth. Jesus told us to pray, right? He gave us an example on how to pray. And he said, y'all say it, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
So, if that's where we're headed, why are we determined to hold on to divisions? Should we not view each other the way that God views us?
And let's not forget who Jesus trusted with the most important announcement that was made to all humanity. The most important announcement that was ever made. The news that Jesus had risen. That news was not given to Peter. It was not given to James. It was not given to John. It was given to Mary Magdalene.
And she went and preached it to the men. Think what you want. And let me tell you, Jesus didn't, I guarantee you, he didn't hesitate on that. He didn't call a council meeting. He didn't ask if it was culturally acceptable. He sent a woman to preach to men the best news that the world would ever hear.
Guys, Jesus, y'all may not see it. You don't understand how much women were oppressed during that time period. Jesus was a liberator of women. You didn't speak to women on the street. They didn't speak. You didn't speak to them.
I mean, Jesus is going up and he's just, I mean, he's talking to him, talking to the woman at the well, picking up prostitutes off the ground, walking. I mean, it's like, I mean, he was, eyes were wide open because he was blowing cultural barriers out of the water.
He was picking up women as co-equals and co-laborers. And so today, you've got all these women out there. And I just, Christine Kane, Joyce Meyer, Heidi Baker, Beth Moore, Priscilla Shire, Lisa Bevere, all these different ones that are leading global ministries and preaching the gospel to millions.
Planning churches, caring for the poor, discipling nations, all these different things. And guys, let me tell you, they are not exceptions to a rule. They're evidence, evidence that the Holy Spirit is still pouring himself out, as the Bible says, upon his sons and upon his what? His daughters.
If gender doesn't determine authority in heaven, why will we limit people on earth? I'm going to start wrapping up. And I know that there's a lot of questions. There's scriptures. I know we need to get into the New Testament and some different things.
And we will get to that in the next few weeks. But I wanted to just basically get the foundation of what things look like before the curse and establish the fact that the curse is now broken for those who are in Christ.
And so that tells me that things should look different in the church of Jesus Christ. So we've walked through the beginning where men and women were created as co-equals to rule together.
We walked through the fall where sin distorts that design and leads to division. We walked through the redemption where Jesus came to undo the curse and restore what was lost.
And since we've seen that now, we've got a decision to make. Guys, God's intent was never to place limitations on women. People did that. Cultures did that.
I mentioned earlier, you know, as humanity, we're good at adding to what God says. It's kind of like I was mentioning earlier, how many commandments did God give us? Yet, how come when Jesus came, there were 613 laws? Because man got involved.
Well, I think that means this and this and this as well. And this and this. And, oh, we can't do this either and this. Next thing you know, it grows, this list of 10 grows and grows and grows to 613.
People placed limits. Cultures did. The fall did. But Jesus came to undo what the fall created. And so why would the church of Jesus Christ keep trying to reinforce what Jesus died to break?
I don't know about you, but I would say it's time to let Scripture, not tradition, shape our understanding of what's possible in the kingdom of God.
So in the coming weeks, we're going to get into some of the New Testament letters and we're going to look at it. And surprise, surprise, we're even going to give examples of women.
Because, listen, those things I mentioned earlier, women should not be permitted to speak and all this stuff, you know, those are writings, letters by Paul, you know. But he also mentions different women operating in the five-fold ministry gifts.
We're going to give examples of those. I'm going to show you right in Scripture. I think it's time for us to quit asking, can women lead? And instead ask, who has God called? And stop looking at gender.
Who has he appointed? Who has he anointed? Who has he equipped? Because the deal is, how many of you know, when God calls somebody, he qualifies them. And if God qualifies somebody, then who are we to question?
One last question. If God created men and women to rule together, and if Jesus came to restore what was lost, and if the Holy Spirit is still continually pouring out his spirit on his sons and his daughters, what happens when we too take the limits off?
What happens when we finally release every laborer into the harvest? What happens when we stop telling women to sit down when God has asked them to stand up?
What happens when the whole body of Christ, men and women together, step into the full authority that they were meant to walk in? What happens? Expansion. Influence. Revival. A kingdom without limits.
Because a kingdom without limits is a kingdom where every believer, male and female alike, is free to lead and preach and teach and disciple without restriction and without apology.
So, as I close, for those of you who have felt limited, if you've ever questioned your calling because of your gender, I want to tell you today, God hasn't placed those limits. He hasn't placed those things within you.
If they've spoken words over you, people have said, "You can't do that. What are you talking about?" I've talked to people who, you know, when I was a kid, I felt called to be, you know, a missionary. I felt called to teach. I felt called to do this. But I was always told that it wasn't my place because of my gender.
Guys, God didn't place that limit on you. Man did. And then there's those of us who have unknowingly or even maybe knowingly reinforced those limits.
And let me say, if you're one that this has been a tough subject for and you've been hesitant in the idea of releasing women into ministry, I challenge you to continue looking at Scripture and seeking the heart of God on this matter.
Be willing to unlearn what man has taught you and ask the Holy Spirit, "Have I placed limits on some that you have called?"
I want to be a church that doesn't hold people back but launches people forward. A church that doesn't ask, "Can they lead?" but one who says, "Whoever God calls, we're going to send."
Because this is a kingdom without limits. And if it's going to be a kingdom without limits, then we've got to start living like it.
I'm going to invite the worship team to come up. You guys can remain seated for just a minute. We've got plenty of time. We're way ahead of schedule.
I want us to press in here for just a minute and I want to allow the Holy Spirit to do a work. And guys, like I say, I'm going to address a lot more in the next couple of weeks.
And I just wanted to start with this, talking about the purpose and identity of humanity. But let's just bow our heads for just a moment. And I just, I wrote a prayer on a prayer for you guys.
And then I want to do something else in this. Let's just bow our heads. Let's just close our eyes for just a moment.
Praise your name, God. Thank you for your love, for your mercy, for your grace. Father, we come to you today with open hearts. Ready to lay down every limit we've accepted. Every limit we've placed on others.
Forgive us, Lord, for the times we've misunderstood your word. Forgive us for the times when we've silenced what you've anointed. And we dismiss who you've called. We resist the fullness of your design for your church.
Today we return to the beginning, back to your plan. Your original plan. Where men and women co-labor. Where sons and daughters prophesy. Where the harvest is worked by every willing hand. And the kingdom advances without restrictions.
Holy Spirit, breathe fresh vision into us. Awaken every dormant gift. Resurrect every buried calling. Stir up the dreams that have been shut down by fear, by tradition, by doubt.
We declare today no more limits. No more silence. No more shrinking back in Jesus' name. God, we say yes to your design. We say yes to your will. We say yes to your call. We say yes to your kingdom without limits.
And Lord, we say, raise up your daughters. Empower your sons. And build your church in power and in unity. Be just as you originally intended. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.
Ladies, I said this first service and we had quite a number respond. I believe there's some of you here. Women who have felt the stirring in the calling of God to do more than what you've done.
You felt a stirring, but you have felt like it wasn't your place. You felt restricted. You felt stifled. You felt like you've been held on the sidelines and you haven't been released.
And maybe you've put some things on the shelf and said, "Well, those people said that's not for me." But you know inside of you that there's, man, it was the Holy Spirit that was stirring you.
And there's a part of you that's just been waiting for permission to be released into everything he's called you to. And I would say to you that it's time. It's time to step into freedom. It's time to be released.
This is that moment. Look, as followers of Christ, we're all called to be ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, male and female alike.
And if nobody's ever looked you in the eyes and said you're called, I'm saying it right now. You are called. You are appointed. You are anointed. It is your time.
By the authority of the Bible and the power of the Holy Spirit, we commission you into your calling. We commission you to rise into the calling that God has placed on your life, to rise into the gifts that he's entrusted to you, to rise into leadership, to rise into preaching and teaching and evangelizing and pastoring and prophesying and even being released to disciple the nations.
And guys, it's not just women. As men, we've got to recognize in this that through history, it's primarily been men who have carried these mindsets that have put limitations on God and on his kingdom.
But let me say this, if it weren't for women, the church of Jesus Christ would not exist today. Well, obviously, people wouldn't be born. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that women have been the backbone of the church of Jesus Christ and held it up because men have not stood up and been leaders that God's called them to be.
The church owes a great debt to women. And so in this, we've got to recognize if we have limited what God has wanted to do.
And if you recognize that's you, then this is your moment to lay that down. And together, side by side, as God designed, we're going to continue to build a kingdom that has no limits.
And here's where I ask for a response. If you're a woman and you would say, "It's time for the limits to come off my life." You have felt those things at times. You have felt held back. You have felt stifled by the culture, even the culture of the church.
And you're ready for the limits to be released. I want you to stand up boldly if you're ready for the limits to come off. If you stood up first service, I know some of you here that were in first service, stand up again.
If you're ready for the limits to come off of your life, stand up boldly. Awesome. So here's the thing, church, do we stand with them?
So first and foremost, if you're a man and you see these women standing around, I want you to stand up and I want you to stretch your hands toward them. I want you to stand in agreement.
And any other females can stand as well. If you haven't felt there's been limits on your life and you have felt freedom, I encourage you to go ahead and stand too. For the three and a half and you can do it.
And you can stretch your hand toward these because it is our job to cheer them on to help open doors for them in their life and even to repent of places where we have withheld honor and opportunity.
I want this room to be filled with people who say I'm done with the limits, no more limits. It's important that we stand together.
Let's just bow our heads for just a moment together. Y'all just begin to pray. There's even some bondages that need to be released right now. They need to be broken strongholds.
We declare freedom when it comes to the word of man that's been spoken over people's lives in Jesus' name. Lord, we thank you for pouring out your spirit in full measure.
We thank you for pouring it out on your sons and your daughters. We ask you now, God, to release dreams, to release visions, to release words, divine strategies, assignments. God, open doors that no man can shut in Jesus' name.
Restore what was lost. Multiply the impact. A kingdom without limits we declare. We bless every calling. We bless every gift. We bless every voice in this place right now in Jesus' name.
And from this day forward, may this place be known as a kingdom without limits where every laborer is released, every voice is heard, every calling is fulfilled in Jesus' name.
Be released. Limits coming off in Jesus' name. And even if that's you personally, allow your mindsets to be changed. Allow the Holy Spirit to do healing within your heart and within your soul.
Be ready and willing to stand up because God's gonna open doors when you stand up for God and say, "God, take the limits off." He's gonna start opening up doors. So be ready to say yes, Lord.
Be ready to step through it. Be careful what you ask for, right? Because you might just get it. You will get it today in Jesus' name.
With that said, if you're here and you haven't received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are still under a curse. There is no freedom. All there is is bondage, no hope for eternity.
The Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard. That was the issue. That's what we read in Genesis chapter 3. That's what caused the whole problem we talked about today.
And there was no way it could be solved by humanity. But God the Father, in his great love, he sent his only Son to live the life that we were supposed to live, to die the death that we deserved.
We know that on the third day he rose from the grave. Now today, if we truly repent, we put our faith and hope in Jesus, we become a brand new creation.
We're pulled out of the kingdom of darkness and we're transplanted into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of God. And that's the kingdom without limits.
That's when everything begins to change. That's when the limits begin to come off your life. That's when you begin to experience true freedom and breakthrough.
So if you're here and again, it's not so much about the words, it's about the posture of your heart and you're ready to lay your old life down, truly repenting. You're ready to make Jesus Lord and Savior of your life, following him every day to the end.
I'm going to pray a prayer and I invite you to pray with me. The Bible says when you do so, your old man is crucified with Christ and he makes you into a brand new creation.
You become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It makes you this brand new creation. You rise to newness of life as Jesus came out of that grave and you become a part of the kingdom of God.
And you become a co-laborer with Christ himself. We're the bride of Christ. We're considered to be the female, right, as the church of Jesus Christ. And Jesus calls us his co-laborer.
We walk beside him, not beneath him. Greatest news ever, guys. If you need to receive Jesus, I just invite you to pray with me. Just say, "Heavenly Father, I thank you for Jesus. I recognize I'm lost and dead in my sin. I recognize I'm under a curse and there's nothing I can do to reverse it.
Today, Lord, I make Jesus Lord of my life. I repent of my sin and I put it behind me. I ask you to raise me to newness of life. I confess on my mouth, Jesus, you are my Lord and I believe that you were raised from the dead.
Have my heart, have my mind, have all of me. I'll follow you all the days of my life. Make me part of your kingdom. Holy Spirit, fill me and empower me everything you call me to be. In Jesus' name, everybody said amen.
Amen. I want to invite our prayer partners down, pastors, elders, senior leaders know where you're supposed to be across the front, across the back. Guys, they're all around the room.
Listen, maybe this message really resonated with you, really spoke to you, and you just feel like you need to talk to somebody. You want prayer because you really want the limits to come off your life and you want God to use you to the utmost.
I want you to feel free to step out and go to one of these prayer partners across the back, across the front. Go to one of them and say, "Man, I just threw the limits off today and I want everything that God has for me."
Let them just pray over you and bless you. Maybe you gave your life to Christ. Come and tell one of these folks if you prayed that prayer to give your life to Christ or rededicate your life.
Maybe you have any other kind of prayer, doesn't matter, any other kind of need. Go to one of these folks and let them pray for you.
But I want you to take just a moment as we go back into worship for a minute and I want you to ask the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, what are you speaking to me through this?"
Allow him to dig a little bit deeper. We're going to go deeper the next few weeks, but the Holy Spirit can do a work that we can't do, that I can't do.
What's the Holy Spirit speaking to you? Are you still standing there with mindsets that still need to be broken? Just release those things.
Are you standing there as one who has been one who has helped keep limitations in place? Release those things and repent and say, "God, I want everything that you have for the kingdom."
Allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in you today. Amen. Let's press in for worship just a moment and let the Holy Spirit work in us.
Let the Holy Spirit sing.
We still got a few prayer partners left. Guys, feel free to step out, let somebody pray for you, whatever your prayer need may be. But how many of you feel encouraged today?
Good. Awesome. Well, we got three more weeks before we begin into our Resurrection Sunday series. And so be here for the next few weeks. Let's dig in further.
Let's see what the Word of God has to say. Let's get into the New Testament and let's look at things in context. Let's look at it through the sphere of the eyes of biblical doctrine and through the messianic perspective.
Let's look at things and see what God has to say because how many of you would say, "I want God's best. I want His fullness."
And pray for you. Guys, it's going to be awesome. I'm looking forward to it. You guys go forth, have a great week, be salt and light, be the hands and feet of Jesus. We love you. You are dismissed.
Those of you who joined us today on the live stream, thank you so much for being a part of service. We are so thankful. If you didn't find your connection form, if you would take just a second to do that for us, we would appreciate it so much.
And don't forget at the bottom, there's a place to put down your prayer needs. Take just a moment, fill those out for us and just know that we're gonna be praying for you every day this week and we're just believing for a breakthrough in your life.
We'd love to meet you in person sometime here at Harvest. Come and see us. But in the meantime, have a blessed week. God loves you. We love you. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
on Mar 09, 2025
