0
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:12,000
Kevin is going to read the questions. Once again, these aren't his questions.

1
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:20,000
These are questions that have come from down south, as well as a number of other people who have written.

2
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:28,000
The list of questions will be something of a conglomeration of practical and, I think, significant things.

3
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:34,000
Some of the answers will be a lot longer than "yes" or "no," or "we do this" or "we do that."

4
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,000
Because this isn't about methodology.

5
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:46,000
It is about finding the basic principles on God's heart, and then working them out in a practical way.

6
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:53,000
God is called the Architect. So was Jesus. Paul referred to himself as an architect, too.

7
00:00:53,000 --> 00:01:03,000
And the house that God is building requires an architect's viewpoint.

8
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:10,000
Frank Lloyd Wright would build one kind of house in Colorado and a different sort down in southwest Arizona.

9
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,000
The exact design depended on what he wanted to accomplish within the context of the house's environment.

10
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:24,000
God is the same way. He builds a different house in Honduras than He does in Brazil or Poland or England or Phoenix.

11
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:35,000
And that's okay. But there are going to be very common threads in the workmanship and in the principles governing the design and construction.

12
00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:42,000
Each has a certain sort of support, a certain sort of foundation and footing.

13
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:47,000
Yet there are also significant similarities among all the different houses Frank Lloyd Wright built.

14
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:53,000
The outside might look different, but the integrity of the structure was essentially the same.

15
00:01:53,000 --> 00:02:01,000
You'll find that's true in the Ekklesia, the House of God, the true Church that Jesus is wanting to build.

16
00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:08,000
There are common qualities in the House of God regardless of the outworking or the methodology.

17
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000
So please don't try to copy methodology!

18
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000
In Acts 6, when the Jerusalem church had a big problem with supplying food to the Grecian widows, the answer to the question wasn't methodology:

19
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,000
"Here's what we're going to do. All the widows from A to L go over here. Everybody from M to R, over there..."

20
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,000
They didn't handle it from a methodological standpoint. That's not God's answer to a problem.

21
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:35,000
God's answer was, "Men, choose from among yourselves seven men full of the Holy Ghost and full of wisdom."

22
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,000
Why is that God's answer to the problem of feeding widows?

23
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,000
From His point of view, the solution was not to look for men experienced in the restaurant business.

24
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:48,000
The answer was to find men who knew God, who could see God, who could see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the glory of God.

25
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:53,000
Those men will be able to see the variables as they arise. They'll see the dynamics.

26
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:59,000
They'll see the hearts and minds and the lives in the specific situation. They'll be able to adapt.

27
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:08,000
They'll be able to bring a dynamic of decision and life into a situation or problem.

28
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,000
That is still God's plan - men full of the Holy Ghost and full of wisdom.

29
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:18,000
If you're not full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and if you aren't willing to be consecrated to God...

30
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:24,000
in your ambitions and plans and idolatries, whether of family or hobbies or preferences,

31
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:30,000
If you're not willing to put your reputation and everything else on the line for the sake of Jesus--

32
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:36,000
then if you read the answers to these questions and try to duplicate something, you're going to end up with a lot of junk.

33
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,000
You'll end up with wood, hay, and stubble that will be burned up on the last day.

34
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:49,000
These "answers" aren't about methodology, but about having God's heart and mind and embracing His principles, regardless of the cost in our lives.

35
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:58,000
If we make that choice, then the outworking of it tend to work themselves out in the environment we are in as God, the Master Architect, directs.

36
00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:04,000
So as a preface to the questions, don't try to get "ideas" about "ways" to do things.

37
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:12,000
Try instead to find the heart and the mind of God and the principles of God that will lay bare the motives of your heart...

38
00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:19,000
Expose any idolatry, comfort of living, or the things you so greedily grab onto.

39
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:31,000
When the living and active word lays bare those things, then you'll be able to hear God's voice and know what to do in a particular circumstance.

40
00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:38,000
So let's go ahead and proceed into these questions and again, listen for the heart and principles, not the "methods".

41