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In the second part of his "Take Back the Future", Johnson Bowie, at http://www.fusionatl.org/p/12081/Default.aspx, begins with Matthew 6:9. This verse is the Lord's Prayer. Jesus tells us to say "Father, may your name be kept Holy, may your Kingdom come soon and may your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". When Jesus came, he actually brought the Kingdom of Heaven with him! He referenced himself when he said, "the kindom is near". When he was resurrected, he said the he was going to put his Spirit inside of us. So, in other words, we are carriers of the Kingdom of Heaven! That is why our bodies are referred to as temples of the Holy Spirit. It can also be interpreted that men and woman coming to Christ is what is meant by "May your Kingom come". So, what does it mean to say "May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"? Is God's Will everything that just happens on earth? No, in fact, not everything that happens is God's Will!! See, God says that his Will is that no one should perish, but that all should see everlasting life. God needs and uses his people. He works through us and only if we answer His will. One of the things that we have to do here is to restore the church. We have do this in the midst of growing perils in our world. There will soon come a time when it will be illegal to meet in the church. So, if we are called to restore the church, what exactly is the church? There's a universal church, there's the building, there's the church meeting and most importantly, we individually are the church. Two words used in the ancient passages are "Eclesia" (spelling?) or "the ones called out" and "Kurioke" (spelling?) or "belonging to Christ". Both these words were translated to "church". But each of us has our own ideas of what church really is. in John 17, Jesus prays that we would be as united as Jesus and God. Basically, God is praying that we would be united as One. Inside the church, there has to be roughly 5 things that have to happen in order for the church to be more equipped. 1) Preaching - The most disturbing trend in churches right now is a drifting away from the proclaimed Word of God. We are all being preached to 24/7, but these are messages of the world. We have to bombard ourselves with the Word to hold firm. There is a need; a must to hold the absolutes of God. 2) We have to live out the basics together. Life in Christ is not a once a week thing. We are called to live with a group of people for support and friendships to edify each other. 3) Church Discipline - A dangerous place for many christians to be in a place with a non repentant heart. There are scriptures which call us, as a church community, to remove those who refuse to give up contradictions to God's word. What this means is, the church gives this person up to the world in order to save their soul. It is more dangerous for this person to be lukewarm in the church than to be out of the church altogether. 4) Show the compassion of Christ to the world. Johnson will cover this more in the next message. 5) Called to be a force in this world. It's easy to leave church at church. But we are called to be world changers! We're called to be equipped up to be sent out into the world to take back lost lines of battle. When Jesus asked his disciples who the people thought he was, they told him that they thought he was Elijah or Moses reincarnate. But Peter said that he knew Jesus was the Son of God. That was when Jesus said he would build his church on "this rock". At this point, Johnson explains some of the history of the location where Jesus said this. It was in Cesara Phillipi, a town where Baal was worshipped, where people would make false offerings, have sex with goats and where there was a literal location of the "Gates of Hell". These gates were symbolic of the point at which cultists thought their God, Baal (Bull), would cross regularly from heaven into hell and then back again annually. In his brilliant eloquence, Jesus talks about building on the Rock (Peter) what the gates of hell would not overcome in Matthew 16:18. This city was one of the darkest places of the times, but it was a place where Jesus called his followers to go. Great message, Johnson!