Sacred: Council 2021 – John Stumbo Video Blog No. 95

Transcript

John Stumbo message #95— Sacred: Council 2021

June 2021 [12:03]

Alliance family, Council 2021 is now complete, and I have the pleasure of bringing you a report about that today.

– [Sarah Bourns] He didn’t come only to die, but to show us how to live. So now here we are, many years since that day. Our Messiah still working, our call, still the same. He invites us to join Him, He beckons us close. He supplies all we need, and sends us to go. With His power and anointing–by the Spirit of the Lord, we go to bind up the broken, and bring good news to the poor. We heal the wounded, and release the captive. We comfort the mourners, and help make beauty from ashes. We build up ancient ruins, and repair devastations. We raise up generations to bless all peoples, all nations. And we wait for His coming, we long for His light. We hope in His Kingdom, when all wrongs are made right.

– [John] This has been a powerful and significant week. God has met us and you have engaged so well, Alliance family. Whether that has been the 800-plus online delegates, thank you for your participation, the thousands who participated watching the services online, and the thousands that were here in person– this has been a sweet and rich time. And I loved watching the Alliance family engage with the Lord, in powerful worship times filling the room with joyful praise. We’re so happy to be back in corporate worship together, engaging with each other in meaningful prayer, deepening relationships, or building new friendships.

The engagement of financially, I believe that the results will be … the information is still coming in, but probably a million dollar-plus Great Commission Day Offering … engagement of the Alliance family. The engagement of prayers as we are commissioning 50 new international workers to go out this year to take the Word of God to the least-reached places of the world. Engagement abounded, and it felt like this was a moment of breakthrough, that many of us came in after this last crazy season of ministry, in a unique spot of having criticism or being under a cloud, and so many pastors have expressed discouragement or weariness at this moment in time, and for many, it felt like there was a break in the cloud and not just a single ray, but powerful rays of hope breaking through into people’s lives, and giving a new sense of “God is with me.” God is within me and God is working through me, and He’s not done with the ministry that He’s called me to. So I believe that many are going forward from this place with new encouragement, new hope, and for some, with new health.

We had specific, beautiful, memorable divine healings that took place here. A cane that was no longer needed, a wheelchair that was no longer needed, a woman who has not been able to eat a meal for four years, ate three meals yesterday, as she experienced the touch of God upon her body. Multiple stories … an 11-year-old boy who walked into this place not knowing that he had a relationship with Jesus Christ, was impacted by our opening service and asked his mom if she would pray with him. And, together with one of our leaders, he joyfully–and knowing with full knowledge of what he was doing– entered into a relationship with Christ. So the stories are rich. They’re abundant. There are too many to be told.

Did we get everything done we came to do? No, not in the business sense, because of all the Statement of Faith that was proposed, only six of the points were passed, and they will be brought to Council 2023. For the other five, we have more work to do. And I have come to learn in recent months that God works through closed doors, just like He works through open ones. So the door was open for six, closed to five at this moment … for us to step back and prayerfully consider, “OK Lord, we’ve got more time, what do you have for us as we go forward?” You elected a new Board of Directors that has now met for just this very opening two-hour meeting, and with great anticipation of what God is going to do among this new community of people. And so, no, we didn’t get done everything that we wanted to do. We got done some things we needed to do, and one of them was another election. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you for four more years as your president. I will do so in this final term with great joy and the ongoing burden that God has laid on my heart for this family. But in some ways, more was accomplished than we ever anticipated.

There was more breakthrough, more healing, more joy, more powerful worship–and the anointing on the preaching– and the expressions of the Body of Christ, on multiple levels was just simply powerful, rich. And so, Alliance family, we are on mission together, taking All of Jesus to All the World. …All of Jesus for all of the world– it’s going to take all of us and each of us. But as we continue to engage, the evidence is clear, that God’s at work among us, and even when it’s not clear, even when I can’t see His work, He is at work in his Church. He is at work through us. Keep lifting your shield of faith, and may these next few minutes of the video recap of our Council sessions bring you even more reason and courage to lift up those shields. Enjoy this.

– [John] Sacred. Sacred.

♪ Fear thou not ♪

– When the almighty interacts with us.

♪ For I am with thee ♪

– When the Divine encounters the human, and the human encounters the Divine, what do you call that? It’s –

♪ Be not dismayed ♪

– It’s sacred. It’s more than a theme, it’s a prayer, it’s a passion. It’s a cry.

♪ For I am thy God ♪ ♪ And I will ♪

– [Kelvin Walker] I invite you to join in raising a hallelujah to the Lord. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands.

♪ Yea, I will help thee ♪

-[Spencer Sweeting] Christ didn’t call us first to accomplish, He calls us to abide. The open invitation of Jesus to every single one of us is “Come be with me, so you can become like me.”

♪ With the right hand of my righteousness ♪

-[Jen Schepens] If you did come into this week tired, and you’re feeling that deep weariness–

-[Ted Kang] Well, maybe feeling like “I am unseen, I am unwanted.”

– [Jen Schepens] Will you just come to Me?

♪ And I will uphold you ♪

– [Ted] Jesus is saying, I am not only able, but I am willing.

♪ With my righteousness ♪

– [John] We are His, and whatever is His is holy.

– [Céline Bower] Whether your soul is tired, and the call is but a faint echo. Or your heart is on fire, and the call is as loud as it was from day one. God sees you, and He continues to call you today.

– [Walter Kim] How is it that you, you need to use this time to re-encounter the King?

– [Sandy Kang] What do you want Jesus to do for you tonight?

– [Jen Ashby] Together, we’re the Church, the dwelling place of God, and in case you are missing how amazing this is, Paul says it plainly, “This is sacred. God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”

– [Walter Kim] The sacred is, in fact, the intersection of the cosmic with the earthly, the transcendent with the temporal, the extraordinary with the ordinary … it is what we yearn for as we follow Jesus in this world.

– [Tim Meier] God who authors our stories, and inspires our missions is the one who’s writing all the scripts, and it’s up to us, at that point, whether the change is fast or slow, just to keep saying, “Yes.”

– [Spencer Sweeting] The fruit of the Spirit is how we become the incarnated people of God in our neighborhoods, because it’s the love of Jesus that transforms us, strengthens us, sustains us, fills us with all the fullness of God, and orients us toward others, and compels us to give ourselves away– no matter what the cost.

– [Aaron Shust] This is a good song for us to pray over the movement that we find ourselves in, over our communities, over our churches. And over our hearts.

– [Jen Ashby] You plant. You water. Take heart. Take heart. The Master knows–the reward is on the way.

– [Tim Meier] In December, we had the single largest giving day to Alliance Missions in Alliance history, in the middle of COVID. December then turned out to be the largest giving month in our 130 year history.

– [Kelvin Walker] So enter his gates with thanksgiving, and enter his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Why? Because the Lord is good, and his truth endures to all generations.

– [Sandy Kang] She was screaming and screaming, and she said the pain is gone. The pain is gone!

– [Alliance IW] God began to lay on my heart the idea of starting a new house church. There was 18 of us from nine different countries and 10 different languages spoken among us.

– [Alliance IW] This is an unreached people group, reaching another unreached people group. There were dozens and dozens of conversions in a series of villages, and all of it took place in a short week. What Satan intended as a kill shot for the progress of the gospel has turned out for the glory of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

– [John] If all I have is what I find in here, I’m in trouble, and I wanna announce to America, yes, officially, you are in trouble, if all you have is what you find in yourself. But those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ have a completely different message.

♪ The best is yet to come ♪  ♪ The best is yet to come ♪

– [John] What we’re called to do is to keep going to those places that are the next people that need to hear.