Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of taking initiative in ministry, urging believers to lead diligently in various capacities, whether in prayer meetings, Bible studies, or practical support systems. He highlights that true leadership is characterized by a deep sense of purpose, constant and earnest effort, and a willingness to serve others without waiting for permission. Bickle encourages young adults to develop their gifts and take risks, reminding them that diligence is key to fulfilling God's calling in their lives. He also stresses the need for a teachable spirit and the importance of serving for the good of others, rather than seeking personal recognition.

Okay, let's pray. Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus as we come before your glorious throne. We ask you for a spirit of impartation. We ask you for strength in our inner man. We ask you that you would touch us with the might of your spirit. Even now, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Tonight, I want to continue in the series I've been doing on the Sacred Charge. I've been doing it at different services. The seven commitments that about 5,000 young adults made at the One Thing Conference in December 2008. And this one is a commitment to lead diligently. And this is a call to take initiative. And that's the big word, it's initiative in our ministry to others. Paragraph A, we're calling all that have made this Sacred Charge commitment, as well as all other believers as well. To take initiative to provide some of the leadership. Now, you don't have to be the top leader in a department or an outreach, but just be part of the leadership. Take some of the leadership in prayer meetings or Bible studies or outreaches, or an often overlooked significant ministry is in discipling people in twos and threes. I'll talk about that in a few moments. Or taking some of the leadership in just practical ways in the support systems. Every outreach, every prayer room, every Bible study, every endeavor has support systems. And those support systems are critical. And if there are not leaders in the support systems, the ministry really does go away. The apostles found out how important the support systems were in Acts chapter 6. When the deacons were not in place yet. Those that are serving in the practical ways. But it's a leadership calling in the practical ways. And the widows were not being fed or being taken care of. And there was chaos in the apostolic community. Here we had 12 anointed apostles, but there was division and chaos. Because the support systems did not have their leadership in place. And so the apostles got together and said, we're missing one wing of our leadership team. We have the public platform ministry and those things, but we don't have the support systems in place. And so in our call to leadership, we're calling people to leadership in the support systems. They are critical. A significant part of IHOP is the support systems that keep the ministries functioning in a proper way. I mean, Romans chapter 12, Paul said, having gifts, verse 6, having gifts differing according to the grace that's given to you. Let us use these gifts. And then he gives a list of them. And I'm only highlighting two of them here. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. So at the top of Paul's list, when it comes to prophesying, it's the issue of faith. It's not the only issue, but that's the top issue. He said to the one that leads, let him lead with diligence. Now, diligence isn't the only issue in leadership, but it is at the top of Paul's list. You could have a skillful leader that lacks diligence and they won't nearly fulfill the full will of God in their life. Diligence is not the only issue, but I believe it's at the top of the list. I will take a diligent leader any day over a skillful leader who does not have diligence because the impact will be far greater. Paragraph B, let's look at a definition of diligence from the dictionary. The constant and earnest effort. I like those two words, constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken with persistent exertion. Man, what a definition. Now, it's earnest effort is the opposite of half-hearted and constant effort means long term, not short term. In our, in the Western church today, the culture in the kingdom of God is a leadership style that lacks diligence. I don't mean all leaders. There's certainly a lot of exceptions, but the primary leadership style is not earnest effort, constant earnest effort. And so I'm not saying that to be critical of the church. That's not my point. I'm saying that to highlight the great crisis in the church today of leadership and it really is a crisis of diligence. So we need wholehearted, earnest effort and we need to do it for the long haul. Not for a summer, not for a year, not for a, you know, one semester at school, but for decades, constant, that's what diligence. You can't be diligent for a summer. I mean, you can in one sense, but the definition of diligence is constant. It's long term. That's part of the definition. Diligence includes zeal. It's zeal in the way we invest time, the way we invest our energy, the way we invest our money. It involves taking risks. It involves developing our God-given gifts. Like I have a gift in teaching. And so as a teacher, that's my craft is teaching. It's not the only thing that I do in the kingdom, but that's a, that's a one of the main things I do. I put tremendous amount of energy over the years in developing my knowledge of the word in and of itself. Just because it's good, but also because that's the assignment God gave me. Whatever, whatever assignment he gave you, develop with zeal your craft. Now, some are musicians. Now, they're not only musicians, but being a musician is part of it. They want to develop with great diligence that craft. Some, it's technology. Some, it's administration and accounting. Some, it's the sound system. Some, it's the media. Some, it's all manner of different assignments. You want to develop your craft, your skill. So diligence isn't just an issue of what you do when you're quote on the job. Diligence is what you do at exerting energy and time to develop your gifting so that you can fill your society, your assignment before God in the highest way. Paragraph C, and I've seen this over the years, many lead with great skill, but they don't, but they lack diligence. And such people will never reach the fullness of their potential in God. Some preachers are such good communicators, they can tell stories to move people to tears. They don't spend a lot of time going deep in the word or the worship team that, I mean, they know how to do the thing musically where the whole group is, you know, just really moved. But they don't, they can rest on that and not go forward, not go deep in their skill. Aren't, there's many, many applications to this. It says in Proverbs chapter 10, verse 4, he that has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Or instead of the word rich, you could say it, the hand of the diligent enters into the fullness. They're rich according to what God called them to be. Now, on scale of one to 10, if God called you to have a three impact and have a three ability, that's a hypothetical number, your goal is to do three. And that means you're rich. That means you're entering into the fullness of what God and His wisdom ordained for you. The goal isn't to have a 10. The goal is to reach the fullness of what has been ordained for you. I don't want giftings in areas God didn't give me. I want to be, I don't want to go beyond what He gave me, because you can't anyway. My goal is to enter into the fullness of what I've, that's been given to me. And then I stand before the Lord and I can be called faithful in the same with you. Now look at this verse. It says the hand of the slack becomes poor. Now this slack person did not start off poor. They became poor. This is describing somebody who had something and lost it. Because as the years unfold, they lack diligence. They lose what they formerly had. Now I've seen people in ministry. Now we're talking about ministry. But a ministry is not just what you do on a platform. Your ministry is in the support systems, ministry in the marketplace, ministry from your home, reaching your neighborhood. Ministry has many different faces. It's not just the departments on the church organizational chart. I mean that the person in the marketplace is called to ministry in the marketplace. The mother homeschooling her four children at home has a ministry, not just to them, but to their neighborhood. And they're, and all of us have ministry beyond just the typical boundaries of ministry as traditionally it's seen on the church organizational chart. But anyway, I've seen people, they get a position in the marketplace or ministry, whatever. And because they lack diligence, a decade goes by and that position was long gone. They lost it long ago. They got in it through a certain set of circumstances or because they had a certain gifting and the need was there or whatever, the door opened. But they couldn't keep the position or not that keeping a position is the point. They couldn't, they lost it because they lack diligence. They were slack. And Proverbs says this, the man or woman that is slack, they become poor. They lose what they had formerly. Proverbs 12, the hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor. The lazy man will end up being in a situation that they didn't have to be in. I mean, a situation where they're serving in a context that was not necessary for them to be in if they would have had diligence. Diligence is man's precious possession. And whatever you cultivate in your life, make sure that diligence is at the top of that list. Okay, Roman numeral two. Now we're going to look at a few characteristics of leaders. And I could, you could, you know, add several more to this list, but this is a kind of a good, I mean, just a basic overview that gets you started. You could break this list down in other ways as well. Number one or paragraph A, a leader, one of the absolute top issues. If you're going to have a leadership role in your campus, in the marketplace, in your neighborhood. And again, I'm not talking about being the main leader. I'm talking about being one of the leaders in that outreach or in that endeavor or in that support system or in that marketplace. First of all, a leader is a man or a woman with a deep sense of purpose. They're going somewhere. They have a picture in their mind where they want to go. They don't have all the details. They don't have a full picture, but the little bit they have, nobody knows their life story. You know, as the decades unfold, everyone's surprised as to what is happens in their life story. I'm not even saying they have the full picture, but that which they have, it's clear. They're going after it. They refuse to be denied. And the reason they refuse to be denied is because it's a spiritual thing with them and God. Meaning, it's a sense of an assignment from heaven. Which therefore means, if it's an assignment from heaven, there's a part of their destiny that's in it. Maybe it's someone on the college campus and they want to lead people to the Lord during their freshman year in college or a person in the marketplace. And they want to lead people to the Lord. They're serious about it. It's clear. I am going to be a soul winner. I'm going to see this happen this year. I'm not even talking about an elaborate vision of, you know, that we're going to fill the stadiums and this is all that's going to happen. I'm talking about, even in a short-term way, although they have a long-term vision as well, they want to go somewhere. I want to move in power. I want to heal the sick. I'm going to lead people to the Lord. I want to disciple people. I may not do it on a microphone. I may do it one-on-one or in groups of two or three. I'm going to do this though. I'm going to learn to do this. They get a vision. They get a clear picture of where they want to be now, where they want to be in 10 years, where they want to be in 40 years. I encourage people to always have a short-term and a long-term vision. What do you want to do? Where do you want to be in terms of your ministry? Now our life vision involves more than our ministry. Our life vision is what's going to happen in our heart. My life vision at the highest is to be, to walk in the first commandment. At the highest level that God will give the human spirit. I want an anointing to love God and to overflow to love people. That's the absolute highest vision of my life, far beyond what I do at IHOP. But I have a ministry vision. I want to see several things happen in my ministry. And you want to see though, you want to, you want something that you want to happen now. I want to make good handouts for you every Friday and Saturday. That's a real goal. That was a great opportunity to say, yeah, you do great. No, no, I can't get out of that one. After I was corny, then I can't get out of telling you not to do that. Okay. Anyway, that's a goal. That's a goal. I want to go to prayer meetings. I want to lead in the, in the leadership team. And I want to make handouts. That's part of my goals. I'm not going to be denied that. Nothing's going to stop me from doing that. The thing I'm trying to do is to, is to break it down practically. What do you want to do this year? Well, I'm in, you know, IHOPU. That's good. But you can still do something besides go to class. Okay. I want to be involved in the prayer meeting. That's good. I want to, I want to make an impact on five students here. And I want to touch some people out there. And I want to impact my family. Those are great goals. Again, a ministry goal doesn't just mean fill the stadium one of these days in 50 years. It means real goals for now. What is it that you refuse to be denied on? At the, at the, at the one year period timeframe, the 10 year and the 40 year. Now, example of that is that it was 16 years before we started IHOP. It was 1983. God said, you're going to do 24 hour prayer. For 16 years, I knew we were going to do it. I didn't have the specific, the specific application. I didn't know how to do it, but I knew we were going to do it. I had the general direction. I didn't have all the details. You don't need to have the details, but you want to locate a few things that you refuse to be denied on. You're going to make an impact on a few people now in a certain way. You're going to touch God in a certain way now. And you may not, you may shoot for a 10 and you'll, you'll, you, you may fall short of that. But if you aim for nothing, you get nothing. The guy that aims for 10 may get a five. The guy that aims for five will get a three. The guy that aims for three will get zero. The guy that aims for zero will at least hit the target. A lot of people are aimless. They don't have any clear goals of, of being not just involved in leadership and ministry, but being in leadership. Maybe you're in leadership over 10 people, but you're in leadership. You're leading. You're helping. Maybe two of you are leading 10 people. That is a real leadership calling. Now a leader can tell you clearly what they want. Can you? Say, I know I'm called to be a leader. A lot of folks, they say, I know I'm called to be a leader. I say, okay, what do you want to lead in? I don't know. And sometimes what they mean is, I'm called to be on the platform one of these days. They don't have a message. They don't have a burden. Just, I'm called to be anointed on the platform. I go, that's not really a vision. That's something else. I won't go into that. But I go, what's the message you want to get to 10 people or a thousand people or a million people? What is it you want to bring to others? You know, just go for God. I don't know. Just, I'm going to be a leader. God told me. And they can only see themselves on a platform. And that's the lack. That's the end of their clarity. What I'm saying is, they don't have a vision yet. That's not a vision. It takes time. It takes focus to get clarity for this year of your life. You're not going to get it just in a moment. You have to sit and talk to God. Say, okay, the next 12 months, okay, I'm at IHOPU or I'm on the IHOP staff or you're working in the in the marketplace or any manner of different callings and assignment. What do you want to do in the next 12 months? Get it clear. Write it on paper. Get an action plan. If you're called to leadership, you're going to do it with 10 people or 100 people or a thousand people. Again, you don't have to be the main leader, but you can be one of the leaders. You have to write it. If you can't write it, you don't have it. You need an action plan. I may only have three, four steps. You know, I recruit a few friends. We meet in my home on Tuesday night. We decide we're going to have a prayer meeting and then we're going to have an outreach. There you go. That's the action plan. You got it clear. But without an action plan and a vision, you actually won't get anything done for the most part. Now, the reason you write it down, you make the invisible visible for others. I mean, even as something as simple as, we are going to go in the neighborhood and reach this many people. That's an invisible thing to the people around you. You're going to make it visible. You're going to say it and they're going to go, oh, are you really going to do it? And you say, I'm going to do it whether anybody else does it with me or not. I'm going to go deep in the book of Romans this year in God. I'm going to study the Song of Solomon. I'm going to learn to get the grace of fasting. I'm going to go somewhere and I'm going to get 10 more people who buy into this. Those are leadership callings. To learn the book of Romans and then to get 10 people to learn it with you. That is a, that's leadership. You don't need a microphone, but that's a leadership call. You're leading 10 people. It's real. Get it clear. What do you want to lead in? Get some action plan, two or three steps. And again, it may be as simple as talking to 10 people. Studying the book of Romans, inviting them to your house. Five of them show up out of 10, then two of them quit. So you're down to three, then you grow it up to five and you do it for a few months. You really did it. You really did it. That's real. Paragraph B. Well, first you got to get a sense of purpose, a vision. Got some clarity. B, you got to take initiative. Now, one thing that I want to really emphasize is a ministry culture of taking initiative. Now, that sounds kind of like a normal thing, but that's not a normal thing. Many believers grow up in a ministry culture where they don't take initiative. They wait for someone to tap them on the shoulder and ask them to do something. And they wait for years. For somebody to, you know, find them on row 10, tap them on the shoulder and say, would you be a leader? They don't take initiative. That is a complete wrong approach to leadership. Leaders take action. Leaders are workers. They're hard workers. I mean, even the work of prayer is work. Even taking your body, posturing it before God, fasting and praying and reading the Bible, that's work. That really is work. Now, I realize that when the Spirit touches us, that's a free gift. We're not earning the free gift. But it takes effort to posture ourselves before God in fasting and prayer. It takes effort to train somebody, the two or three people you might be training. It takes effort to serve people. It takes effort to pray for the sick on a regular basis. That's effort. A leader is a worker. They take action. Now, many people, they wait in frustration for years, waiting to be asked to serve in ministry. I've been pastoring over 30 years, and it's such a common wrong perception that people have. You know, I talk to them. They go, what are you doing? Well, I'm just still waiting to get plugged in. Well, you've been around the church three years. Nobody's asked me to do anything. Complete wrong mindset. I mean, here we got in Kansas City, two million people. We got a full Bible in an open heaven, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and you're waiting for somebody in ministry to tap you on the shoulder and say, bring Jesus to somebody. And they just wait for years. Now, I've heard that story could be repeated hundreds of times. They're just dying in isolation, waiting for, to fit on the ministry org chart, and to get permission, and for somebody to tap them on the shoulder and give them the idea. And the guy taps him on the shoulder, finally, after 10 years, gives him the idea. And the other guy says, no, I don't like that idea. So now he's got 10 more years to wait for the next bus to come. They're praying that some leader will discover them as they're sitting idly in on the congregation, idly in the congregation. Maybe God will give a prophecy. That's not how the kingdom works. The way it works is you say, hey, I got a beating human heart. I'm saved. I got an open Bible, and an indwelling spirit, and a city full of lost people, and a city with a church that's dull and lots of compromise. Let's do it. Give me a few of them, Jesus. Saints or sinners, I don't care. I'll help the saints get on fire. I'll help the unbelievers get saved. Let's do it. And the Lord will give you five or 10 of them, or 20 or 30 or more. But open Bible, indwelling spirit, big city, big need. Go for it. But it's a culture, it's a ministry culture of initiative. Now these folks, I could have hundreds of faces in my 30 years. They confuse waiting for permission with humility. Because they go, well, I don't want to promote myself. I go, it is true. You should not promote yourself in a place of honor. But that's not the same thing as taking initiative in the place of service. So they've confused promoting themselves in a place of honor with taking initiative to serve. So they wait forever for somebody to ask them to serve. Again, the day you're born again, you're mandated to serve. Go find the place. It doesn't have to be in the context of the ministry or organizational chart. It might be, it might not be. It's whatever the Holy Spirit puts on your heart. Go for it. Now I was raised, well, I mean, the first five years I met the Lord, I was in a really fiery Presbyterian church. And we were, it was a church that was real connected to the Campus Crusade for Christ. Which, you know, go make disciples and lead people to the Lord. So that's what we heard all the time. The Campus Crusade for Christ materials. We used them all. But here's the point I want to really say. We had a youth group of about a thousand young people. And I was in high school and I get, I'm in the middle of this. And our leaders, they have this ministry culture of initiative. They have this concept. And they would come and tell me, you know, I'm 16, 17 years old. They said, well, what, what are you doing? I said, what, what do you mean, what am I doing? You know, I've been saved for a few months. They go, aren't there unsaved people in your high school? I go, well, yeah. Go start a Bible study. Go get some. I said, okay. How? They said, just go tell a few people, hey, I'm starting a Bible study. That's it. I go, really? They said, yeah, that's how all of us do it. So, not realizing what a gift to be raised in an atmosphere like that. Because everybody did this. Not everybody, but it was a common thing. So, okay, now I'm 16. I've been saved six months. I said, well, yeah, but everybody in my high school that's been a saved, they know more than me. I can't teach them anything. The guy says, we're good. We'll go find somebody younger. So, I went to the junior high. This is true. And every Thursday night, I, first I went to some junior high kids and told them, I'm starting a Bible study. They said, so what? I said, okay. I said, well, I want you to come to it. They go, why? Hmm, why? Because I want a ministry. No, that's a bad answer. Because I want to help you. I don't need help. Anyway, I had to figure out these obstacles. Ended up, you know, I had a Wednesday. I had some Wednesday, Thursday, different nights. But Wednesday night Bible study, 10 or 15 junior high kids. Now, here was the catch. I had to pick them all up with my own car. And I know there's a little bit of bribing here. I had to take him to Dairy Queen afterwards, but they came to the Bible study. I did. I took him to Dairy Queen almost every time afterwards. Then I got another guy helping me because we grew to 15. I needed two cars, three cars. They didn't have any money. Nobody did for the Dairy Queen or the gas. So I went to my high school. True story. I said, hey, I'll do some janitor work. They gave me a job as a high school guy. Gave me the master keys as a high school guy to work in the high school on the weekends. I thought, hmm, these are nice keys. So I made a few dollars a week. I got my junior high kids. It was illegal, but snuck them in to help me clean on the weekends because I was giving them. I was giving them the free ice cream. I said, guys, come on. So I had a Bible study about 15. I had a free workforce of about five or six. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you could picture it. It was more work corralling them. I said, you know what? At the end, I would just do these floors myself because I did the floors with the machine thing. Now, I didn't have any time. I was on the football team, the track team, and was a, you know, did real good in my school because I was trying to get a scholarship for college. And so I worked hard on them. I had a lot of things going. I had no time for this, but I wanted a few dollars so I could pay those kids ice cream to come to my Bible school, my Bible study. Now, we didn't really come down just that way. I'll pay you if you come. But, you know, I'm sure that was figured into the equation. Then I do that a couple of years. Then I go to college. So now 18, 19 years old in college, freshman year, University of Missouri, you know, 20, 30,000 students. And my leader said, well, just do in college what you did in high school and junior high. So they told me to do it. But this is the ministry culture that I grew up with. But this is a very important one. I made a Xeroxed handwritten sign, Bible study, Thursday night, nine o'clock, Tiger Towers apartment, you know, MU Tigers, Tiger Towers. Anyway, it was at the Tigers. I made about a thousand of them. I walked through the campus. I knew almost nobody. I handed it, Bible study, nine o'clock. Who is this weird guy? I ended up getting a couple hundred college kids coming every Thursday night. It took a year to do it. Passed out flyers every week. Went, got a sound system, rented it. Got a, what do you call it, a overhead projector for the worship song. Talked the guy into singing worship songs who didn't know any. But I said, let's learn them. We had 30, 40, 50, grew to about one or 200, about 200 college kids. We started small groups. And my leaders back in Kansas City, because that's about two hours from here, they just said, keep doing it. This, and we had these Bible studies going at KU, K State, all around the Midwest. I mean, other guys and gals, because we were trained in an environment where they didn't, nobody gave me a microphone. No one said, Mike, here's a big Bible study. Would you lead it for us? There was no Bible study and nobody with, that I knew that had a vision for one. So I just made a little handout, passed it out. You know, Bible study, Thursday night, nine o'clock, Tiger Towers, just passed that. I mean, I say a thousand, it probably had to be thousands. I don't know, but many, many, many. And people started coming and a few friends told a few friends and, and it was there. It started building because I was called to be its teacher. My point is this. I did not wait for somebody to give me an opportunity. A lot of folks are waiting for someone to tap them on the shoulder and say, Hey, would you lead over here? And they go, yes. Finally, somebody knew who I was. Nobody in our context even thought that somebody would give them a ministry opportunity. That wasn't on anybody's radar. So we didn't blame anybody for not opening the door. And we didn't blame anybody when it went, when it was hard or when it fell apart. Because some of the ministries we tried, they fell apart. So what? I took responsibility, but many did. I mean, they were doing it at KU, at MU, at different K-State, the different universities around. Then I started a Bible. I used to drive home on the weekends, every, uh, uh, on the weekend because my brother who was paralyzed was at home and I was away this one year at school and I'd come home and be with him the weekend. So I started a Bible study on at Warrensburg because it was halfway between MU and here. Same thing, total stranger on the campus. I had no, didn't know anything, passed out the flyer and grew a Bible study to about 30 to 50 people every, you know, whatever night it was and, and, uh, all because I was coming and going anyway. And I just started discipling people. And I began to meet with groups, twos and threes and fours. I had about four or five groups. I can't remember the amount, you know, one this morning, one that morning, they were mostly strangers. I just would talk to them. I was 18, 19, 20 years old. I didn't, I didn't like the Bible at all. Now those were the days where I did not like prayer, did not like fasting, did not like Bible study Bible. I loved meetings, but I did not like Bible study. I told God I love prayer. I love you God, but I don't like prayer, fasting, witnessing, or Bible study. Everything else I like, but I was teaching Bible studies. I would just take books, memorize what A.W. Tozer said. It was really a mess because it worked because I would give the message. Then the guy would ask me a question. Of course, I had no idea what the answer was because I memorized the concept. But what was happening the whole time as God was training me, I thought I was training them. He was training me, but not just in the Bible. He was giving me confidence that this is doable. A lot of folks, they sit for years waiting for somebody to do something and hand them something. That is a completely wrong concept of the kingdom of God. It doesn't matter what your situation is. You can have a ministry because even when I was at the University of Missouri, I played on the college football team, came home again, take care of my brother for a couple of days, preparing. I worked hard in school. I did not have a free minute to play. The one thing I did not almost do, entirely almost, it was not exactly true, was play. I had so much preparation and so many little groups to lead. I don't think I saw a TV program or anything for the longest period of time. I don't know. I can't remember, but a bunch of us were like this. I'm not making myself out to be unique. There were a bunch of folks. We were in this thing for real, and we didn't have a minute to waste from morning to night because I couldn't do school, play on the college football team, get home to see my brother, lead five small groups and teach two Bible studies every week and memorize the message in between. Now, the good thing is the message I preached at MU, I preached at Warrensburg at that university on the way back. So I used the same note. So that was nice. So I want to say this. I have here on paragraph B, as a pastor, I've only asked people to be in leadership positions after they've taken initiative on their own without being asked for some years. Not for a month, but for two, three, four years. I learned a long time ago that you get a guy in a leadership position that never took initiative on his own. That guy will flounder in that leadership position. So if you're 18, 19, 21, two, three, four, five, whatever, these are the hours, the years, I mean, well, you got to do it your whole life, but to begin to work that muscle, say, Holy Spirit, tell me something. Give me a nudge. Should I reach out to a certain group of people, age, gender, race, particular felt need in Grandview, you know, Overland Park, at IHOP, just give me a little something to aim at. And the Holy Spirit will give you something. He may help you. He may give you a burden to help the moms at IHOP to touch them. I don't mean just serve them. Maybe you're going to minister to them in the word, prophetically. Just any, my point is, ask the Lord for just a specific focus. It could be anything. You could, I mean, there's no end. There's thousands of different ways that you could do that. Now, this taking initiative is what separates the real leaders from the lazy daydreamers. A lot of folks over the years have said, I'm called to leadership. Again, what's your vision? Well, just called to be on the platform. I know it's going to be annoying. It's going to be awesome. That's all you know. Yeah. What's your message? Go for God. You know, just go for it. You're enamored with the platform. You don't even have a vision. Oh, I'm waiting. No, don't wait and wait. Start, start right now. Well, a lot of my Bible studies, I had several others I haven't told you about where only three came to or four, you know, I was wanting to grow them to 25 or 50. I mean, they weren't designed for three. That's all that came. So no, well, let's just go with the three that come, you know, and I'll just teach it. I'll teach it vigorously to three people. So don't wait for a crowd. Just wait for just a little sense of a door. I don't mean a door to open for the Holy Spirit to give you a little nudge, just an idea. I didn't know if it was a divine idea. Now that I look back, it was, it was totally blessed to the Lord. But back in those days, I didn't know if it was right or wrong. My leader said, do it. And I said, okay, I'll do it. They would ask me, hey, where's your Bible studies that I go, you know, didn't always have one until they got ahold of me. Then I made sure I always had a couple of them going. Proverbs 13, verse four, the lazy man desires and has nothing. The dreamer dreams of leadership, dreams of ministry. They don't do anything. The diligent man makes rich means doesn't necessarily always mean he has lots of money. He enters into the fullness of what God ordained for him. The diligent man. Paragraph C, take risks. Now, one of the things that will stop a leader is a leader is not a fear-driven person. Now they might have fears, they have, but they're not fear-driven. They take risks. You aim at nothing, you get nothing. You got to take risks. Again, the risk may be reaching out to Grandview High School to start a Bible study or an outreach or some kind of ministry. I think Bible study, because that's what I did for so many years, because that was my ministry calling was that. I would disciple, start a Bible study, then I disciple them in groups of three and four and have some evangelism. And so that's, I'm just speaking from my own experience. Don't limit it to my gifting, because I'm talking just out of my own experience of my particular gifting. Think outside the box. Why can't you touch Grandview High School while you're at IHOPU as a full-time student with your sacred trust? You got time. I guarantee you got time. Again, you may not have time to play, but you've got a time to do the rest. You can study, you can pray, and you can minister and serve and just fall, collapse in your bed when you go to bed at night. That's it. Start up the next day and go hard. You got to take risks. Now, again, these risks, I'm talking about in practical, small ways. I'm not talking about the guy who wants to fill Arrowhead Stadium one day. I'm not thinking, dream big, fill Arrowhead. That's cool to do that, as long as you're doing something little and practical between now and then. Because there's a certain kind of guy that had a vision so big that nobody could ever hold him accountable for doing it, because it was so big and it was always in 30 years. They didn't do anything between now and then, but what, you know, it was kind of, that vision's coming. You wait and see. We got to have something small and practical that we can get our hands on that we're doing today. Now, the Holy Spirit could correct our mistakes if we're moving forward, but nobody can steer a parked car. If the car is parked, you can't steer it. It's got to be moving, and the Holy Spirit will direct it. Don't be worried about making mistakes. Again, I've started a number of ministries. They just fizzled out. I go, oh, well, so what? Push, delete, start a new one. So what? Don't focus on the opportunities that don't exist. Focus on the ones that do exist. Again, there's two or three high schools within five minutes of this place. There's nine college campuses in Kansas City, and there's two million people, and a lot of really dead, lethargic believers who love Jesus, but they've lost their way. There's a lot of fiery ones, too. But what I mean is it can be revive the church, win the loss, disciple people. All manner of different focuses are within your reach. The numbers may be three and four and five and six, but two of you get together, and you're in leadership. Maybe you're leading 10, but guess what? You really are in leadership. It's real. Paragraph D, top of page two, faithfulness and smallness. Again, the same point I've made is that a lot of folks, they wait for a public platform position to open. No, be faithful in smallness. When the Lord said, do 24-hour prayer, for 16 years, we had three little prayer meetings for the most of the 16 years. We had just little, for about a year and a half, we had one. Then in October 84, we had three. And we were building for 24-7. And many of the prayer meetings, we had 10 or 20, some five or six, some, you know, the big ones were 30. And we just plowed. We didn't, you know, some folks come and visit, and they say, I want to do one of these. I go, what do you mean? I want to do a missions base. They want to get a website and a poster and start a missions base. They go, we got the building. I go, the building, the website, and the poster is the easy part. I go, you got to lead prayer meetings. I mean, real, have you ever led prayer meetings? Well, I led one a couple of years ago, every Monday night for almost a year. I go, that's not going to work. You want to, if you're called to lead a prayer ministry, start being diligent in prayer. And I'm not talking, the folks that are here, we're already in prayer rooms. And I'm talking about those that are hearing this CD and DVD. Paragraph E, the eternal perspective in leadership. This is critical. This seems like a small thing, but it's critical. Our main, our main, we have two main assignments, the one in this age and the one of the age to come. And there's continuity between the two. My ministry assignment in this age is dynamically related to my ministry assignment on the earth in the age to come. It will, we will really have a ministry assignment in the age to come. That's on the earth. I'm talking about in a physical material world, we will minister to people. And it is related to what we're doing in this age. What we're doing in one decade leads to what we do the next decade. But what we do in 70 years in this life leads to what we do in the age to come. It's really real. It's not a, just kind of a fanciful vision. It's real. Paragraph F, do tasks that need to be done. Don't, you don't have to start with just a new idea. Do tasks that need to be done right now. Just look around practically. Say, Lord, give me a unique idea or give me a burden for something that already exists. Or if I don't have a unique idea of, you know, a couple of us can go reach out in a specific way. Or I don't have a certain connectedness to anything that exists. Look around. Do the tasks that are in front of you without a burden. Just do them faithfully. I think of Joseph in Genesis 39. Joseph's a, you know, a teenage Jewish boy that gets taken into slavery in Egypt. And Potiphar buys him as a slave to make him a slave. I mean, a low level slave in his house. Potiphar's a Egyptian leader. He's one of Pharaoh's officers. And this little Jewish boy, Joseph, about 18, 19 years old, he's way down the totem pole in terms of the protocol in that household. Of course, the blessing of God was on him. That's the divine part. But he was, he was diligent. There's a human side. He started serving. And I guarantee you, he started coming up with ideas of how to make this house better. Wasn't his house. He didn't get any money for it. He said, I'm going to make this thing better. So Potiphar thought, wow. Hey, young guy, why don't I make you the head of the whole house? Man, this is good. Just take hold of something that isn't even necessarily your burden. It was not Joseph's burden to be Potiphar's main guy. That wasn't his life vision. He didn't want to be in Potiphar's house, but he was there anyway. And he said, you know what? I'm going to serve. I'm going to see what happens. Well, some time goes by another situation in his life. He's in prison. He starts serving in the prison. I picture him. He's organizing this. He's helping with that. He's ministering to the guys and encouraging them. And the head of the keeper of the prison said, hey, young guy, you're good at this. He goes, would you help me a little bit more? And sooner or later, he was over the whole prison. Well, people, they read the story and say that was God's favor. Yes, but there's a human side. He wasn't sitting there grouchy and lazy. And then God suddenly downloaded favor on him. And he woke up with a golden key in his hand. No, he was serving. He was making the most of a situation that was at hand. And the promotion came out of it. He made himself indispensable. And I don't mean that as believers. None of us are indispensable in that way. What I mean is in a practical way, he served so diligently. And he served with such excellence. The keeper of the prison says, I can't really afford to go without you. I really need you because of your good spirit, your diligent work ethic, and you have good ideas. So he made himself indispensable in that secondary sense, because nobody's indispensable in the real sense. Proverbs 18, verse 16, a man's gift makes room for him. And it will bring him before great men. Don't worry about promotion. Work diligent, just work and doors will open. May take decades for something to open. Just work. You're gifting with diligence and a good spirit. Diligence means you're working with zeal, but you've got a humble spirit as well. A teachable spirit. Paragraph G, a leader perseveres in difficulty. A leader doesn't quit. Now, they may have bad moods and be tempted to quit, but in the big sense, they don't quit. Leadership is hard work. And a lot of people quit in the face of pressure, the pressure of smallness. The outreach is so little for so many years, the smallness is so much pressure, they can't bear it, so they quit. Because they can't connect with God. They can't see God's value of the smallness. All they can see is man's lack of value on the smallness, and they're only connected to man. So three or five or ten people, it's, men kind of rolled their eyes and said, who cares? And they couldn't get, they couldn't feel God's pleasure over it. I tell you, you're touching five or ten people. God is so, God's heart is, is happy over what you're doing. Well, a lot of people, the pressure of smallness, it burns them out. They just can't take it anymore. Other people, they're not noticed. Just being not noticed is so much pressure, it makes them so angry and so hurt, they quit because of the pressure of not being noticed. Again, they need to connect with God in it. The difficulty of the work, the work is just hard, or being mistreated or criticized, or being passed up in promotion. Somebody else, less qualified, gets the promotion. But if we can connect with God and see His eyes looking at us, we can endure smallness, we can endure criticism, and we can be passed up, and our spirit's still happy, and we're getting set up for something far bigger down the road. And it doesn't all happen in this age. But I tell you, down the roads, you know, one of these days, you're going to be 860 years old. You'll be on the other side, you'll still be 800 years old. I don't know how we'll talk about it, you know, how old are you? I don't know how we'll have that conversation, but my point is, you'll still exist, and you'll have a physical body 800 years from now, and you'll have a ministry. And you'll really care about your ministry, you really will. Well, the issue of quitting is what separates leaders from non-leaders. Leaders are dedicated. They'll spend decades sticking with their goal without losing focus, because it's not a passing fad from a conference ministry time, you know, where the guy at the conference says, let's do this, and everybody signs up for it, and a year later, they're not even connected to it. That's okay. That's not my point is that that's bad. My point is, a leader has a vision. They're going to do something, and they're going to stick with it for decades. That's what a leader is. It's not a 100-yard dash. It's a marathon. Leadership is a marathon race. Paragraph H, we need to persevere through the four seasons of life. I, you know, just using the calendar or the seasons of the year, the spring, summer, autumn, and winter. There's the springtime of your ministry where you're planting new things, starting those new little outreaches. They're just small. There's the summer. It's when that group of three grows to 20 or to five. Let the Lord determine the size, but it's the time of growth. Then the autumn is the harvest time, and that's what everybody loves. But then after that comes winter, and that's when many things die. But the winter is as critical in the cycle as the other three seasons. But a lot of folks focus only on the autumn, the harvest. But your life is more than a harvest season. Your life has all four seasons in the cycles and rhythms of life under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And you got to get, stay with it for decades, not just for a short season. Paragraph I, we do this as unto God. We've got to serve with diligence. A lot of people serve with diligence because the leaders over them are watching. And this is the quickest way to get burnt out. Because you got to stay all enthusiastic when the leaders are watching you. And when the leaders aren't watching you, which is most of the time, you're doing something other than. And it wears you out because you're not connected to God. You don't see His smile. You don't feel His gaze on you. Not that you feel it, but sense that His pleasure in what you're doing. And you're working hard always to be noticed by somebody so you can finally get out of the drudgery of that small position. It's a horrible way to do ministry. You're destined to end up with a wounded heart and a bad spirit. Doing leadership to get noticed. You know, serving so you get noticed. Be enthusiastic when nobody's looking. I don't have the verse down there, but Colossians chapter 3, verse 23 and 24. Colossians 3, 23 and 24. Paul said, do it knowing God's looking. Do it heartily or diligently knowing God's looking at you. Knowing that God will reward you fully. And it won't happen till the age to come, the fullness. But God's watching. That's the way we can be diligent in the day of smallness. Paragraph K. Leaders, we need to have a teachable spirit. Be easy to be corrected. Don't be defensive. Be easy to be corrected. Because here's the deal. The more you get promoted, the more criticism you will get. If you have a bigger platform, no matter whether it's a support system or in the marketplace, if you get a bigger platform, you will have more people criticizing you. And so you don't want to be taken out of the game every time you're criticized. You want to take criticism. This sounds maybe just clever, but it's real. Criticism is a free research team. It really is. The guy comes to me and says, you're off on this and that and the other. And there's 10% of it's true. I didn't have to pay the guy nothing. It's a free research team. I take notes. I go, good, I'll take that. That was a free lesson. Cost me nothing. So he said it with a bad spirit and he exaggerated. 10 or 15% was helpful. I didn't have to go to school. I didn't pay tuition. Didn't have to take time. I got it for free in 10 minutes. For real. That's not, I'm not joking. When a guy criticizes you, just stop. Instead of revving up and telling him how bad he is, try to find the 10%. Work through the exaggerated wrong info and the bad spirit. Get the 10% and run with it. Be a better person for real. It says in Proverbs chapter 12, verse 1, whoever loves instruction. The guy who loves correction. Instruction means correction. They love knowledge. They want as much of the full pictures they can get. He that hates correction is stupid. I mean, Solomon. I go, Solomon, did you write that? He goes, yeah, he's stupid. If he throws off correction, he's throwing off free advice just because he doesn't like the manner it came. It's stupid. Take it. I used to, when I was younger, I was always excited about this. I used to teach this when I was, when I was pasturing in my 20s. I go, somebody corrects you, give them $5. And so I did that a few times. They were friends and they always took the $5. But then I gave it to a couple of guys, their enemies. They, I mean, they didn't like me. They got mad at me when I gave them the $5. So I quit doing the $5 thing because it insulted them. I go, somebody corrects you, bad spirit. Just give them some money and thank them. I'm not at all being humorous. I'm being as absolutely serious as possible. Free research team, then cost you a thing. You don't have to pay tuition, don't have any exams and you get free insight. Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction. But to the man or woman who regards a rebuke, they will get honor because at the end of the day, they will increase in what God gives them if they can hear a rebuke. They will be honored, not necessarily by the guy rebuking them and maybe, but that's not the point. Over time, let a decade pass. You will have much more honor if you will regard corrections. God will see to it. Top of page three, a leader's a team player. I'm just gonna run through these because we're out of time. M, this is a very important one. Leaders, they serve for the good of others. I know we're supposed to say that, but it's real. As I've talked to our leadership team, I said, all these young people coming here, we have to be focused on how we can make them successful, not how they can stay at IHOP and make our department strong. We have to be fixated on finding, trying to figure out or preoccupied with finding out what we can learn as the will of God for their life and help them be successful in their calling. It doesn't matter if it's here or there. And this is something that's very important that if somebody's on your ministry team, you got 10 on it and your goal is to always keep them there instead of help them successful because if they might be more successful somewhere else, you're always helping them be more successful regardless what it matters, what happens about them moving out of your sphere of influence. If you can tap into that, you can have a happy spirit all the days of your ministry. I know folks that get so hurt when somebody leaves their team to another team or their ministry to another ministry and they're in pain and anguish, they're working through the hurt and somewhere they had the idea that that guy or gal was theirs in a certain way. They don't, you know, they didn't have language for it. And when the person had a big opportunity somewhere else, instead of going, yes, they went, no. And it just all kinds of unnecessary trouble happens. But if we see our ministry as a way to contribute to people's success and it's real, not just a preacher statement, it's real, we can have a free spirit all along the journey. It says in Proverbs 11, verse 27, he who earnestly seeks good, that means the good of others as well. You're earnestly seeking good of the people on your ministry team. You will find favor. Again, it may take 10 years for it all to pan out, but the favor of God will be on you and the favor of man will be on you too. If you're seeking their good, not for them to make your ministry department stronger or your team, whatever. Okay, I'm gonna just take another couple moments here. We're not gonna finish the notes, but this is a one or two more. And take less privilege. One of the key principles in the New Testament is that those with greater authority must take less privilege. That's an absolute New Testament principle. Notice here, 1 Corinthians 12, 28, God appointed apostles first. Apostles have the first in authority, but look at 1 Corinthians 4, verse 9, the same book, 1 Corinthians. God displayed apostles last. Well, are they first or are they last? Well, they're first in authority, but they're last in privilege. That's a big principle. I just wanna state it here. If you have more spiritual authority, you should bear more criticism, work more diligent, give the most money, have the least privilege of everybody that you're working with in terms of that ministry organization. Now there's proportion to it. And I don't wanna go into that right now, but my point being, the spirit of it is if you get more authority, you should set your heart to have less privilege. In other words, the bigger your ministry gets, the less privilege you get actually. That's an important thing. If you get more authority and you take more money, everything under you will eventually be broken in your ministry. Or not everything, many things will be broken. If you have more authority and you demand more honor, things will be broken in your community or in that ministry department. The higher the authority, the less the privilege. That's just a biblical principle. Okay, Roman numeral three, paragraph A. It just says simply, God has a plan for every one of us. Ask him what the plan is. Say, God, give me a little tip off. There's high schools, there's colleges, there's marketplace, there's neighborhoods, there's all kinds of groups of people. Give me five or 10 or 20 or 500 or 5,000, whatever the number is. Give me a little nudge. Give me a clarity on the inside to go after somebody. I mean, one of these groups. Ask him, he'll give you insight. Paragraph C, start prayer meetings. Again, in our context, we have prayer meetings, but there's prayer meetings to be started at every high school, college and marketplace. Maybe you work at IHOP as your primary assignment and you're down at the marketplace helping that guy lead a prayer meeting or the high school. Well, how do you get in the high school? Ask the Holy Spirit. You'll figure out a way. If you refuse to be denied, you'll get in that high school somehow. Tell you, when I was in high school, I already told you a story. They gave me the keys to the whole high school. Whoa, I couldn't believe it. The guy goes, yeah, I'll hire you. I go, really? I almost said, I'm a high school kid. You can't hire me from my own high school. He gave me the keys anyway. I did it. I didn't give him that insight. I just took the job. Start help outreaches. Again, they don't have to be on the org chart of the church you're a part of. Just go start a ministry. Just a little reach again, three, four, five, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 people, whatever. Paragraph E, I'm just gonna go E and F. We'll end with that. Disciple young believers. This is something that the guys in my Presbyterian church, they all did this and we were all taught this. It was a very, very simple model of discipling. It was quite effective. A lot of good things happened. We would find, I would find a book. Well, they did this to me a number of times and then a few years later, I started doing it to others. I found a book that inspired me. I get five people, younger believers. We would, I would give them that book. And I would say, we're gonna read chapter one and two this week. And when we meet next Saturday morning, we're gonna discuss the book. And we would do it. And all kinds of things would happen of discussion. And I discipled them. I helped them in so many ways. Now my spiritual knowledge when I was 17 or 18 was not, well, let's put it this way, it was lacking. But I read the book and I would meet with 15 year olds and I would simply, they would read it, I would read it. And we would talk about it for an hour. And then I would ask them as I have written on the notes about the issues of their personal life. How you, what do you do with your time, your money? I don't mean controlling them, but asking them if they, if their time and money and what they were doing in their free time was actually backing up their life vision. Because I had them all write down their life vision. Because the guy over me told me to write my life vision down. I just did what the guy over me told me to do. I did it to these young people. And I have a series called The Power of a Focused Life where we talk about a vision and your financial life, your ministry life, your physical life, your family life. And you just write down a few little points. And we would talk about those and the book. That was it. And all kinds of situations arose. And I would disciple three or four young guys. I had several, when I was in college, I had four or five different groups like that. There were three or four or five. And it was exciting. And I did that for years. And someone says, go disciple somebody. That's all we knew. That's what, that's what it meant to us. Go get a book, read it with the guy. When you get finished with the book, your groups of three or four people, then get another book. And all kinds of lively discussions. You'd aim for people that are younger in the Lord than you. And then we'd ask them about those practical issues in their life. We'd pray for each other and go to Dairy Queen afterwards or something. Take on, you know, you could disciple three, four people and I hop you. Maybe you're a third year student and they're 18 years old. They just came here and just ask them, hey, you want to be in a personal Bible study? You don't even have to call it discipleship. It's called a Bible study. But your goal is you want to disciple them in the best you can for a year. Really will change your life and their life. And then paragraph F, just serve in practical ways. Don't, doesn't always have to be these traditional ministry thing. All the support systems, get involved in leading them. Don't wait just for somebody to lead you. Get involved in the support systems and say, hey, I'll help lead it. I'll help organize it. I'll help you with it. I'll tell you, they'll all appreciate it. Last thing I'll say is that when you, if you start a ministry and you got five or 10 people you won't really recruit anybody by announcements. I have people through the 30 years. They go, if you would announce it, then my ministry would be started. I go, I have really bad news for you. If I announce it to 3000 people, that's our church was, you know, that number for many years. It's about, you know, now the size now, we have about 4,000 here. Like if I announce it, you'll get three people off of an announcement of 4,000 people. Well, nobody around here will do nothing. I go, no, that's not how people are recruited. They're recruited one by one. If you wanna get people in a ministry, you gotta talk to them one by one. And when they see you're committed and you have clarity and you have a teachable spirit and you're gonna be working longer hours than they will and you have passion about it, they'll join you. They're not gonna join you by an announcement. So, you know, the kind of the traditional mindset, get an announcement on Sunday and suddenly you'll have a ministry born. No, throw the announcement concept away, although we're happy to announce it. You'll get three out of 4,000. But when they see you're clear, you're diligent, you're gonna work harder than them. You're gonna pour yourself out with a teachable, open spirit. You're gonna affirm and encourage them. I tell you, you'll have five or 10 people willing to jump in the ministry to go reach that high school and to go start that Bible study at that high school. They'll jump in and help you. Are you kidding? Let's see, we're just looking for somebody to follow. And I don't mean just to follow mindlessly. We're looking for something to do. We're looking for somebody with a little bit of zeal and confidence about it, and we'll jump in and help them. Be that person. Are you the kind of leader that you would follow? Are you the kind of leader that is clear enough and committed enough that people want to follow? And I'm talking five or 10 people. I'm not talking about 5,000. Amen. You can read the rest on your own. Lead diligently. Taking initiative. Let's stand. Now, I went too long tonight because I told you too many stories about high school and Dairy Queen. But my reason, I want you to do that. Just don't be stopped. Don't let anything stop you. Don't let money or locked doors stop you. Just don't let anything stop you. There's a way for that door to open. That's righteous, I mean. This is the worship team comes. We're just going to wait on the Lord for a few minutes. Just as they get set up, we're just going to wait without any music or anything. Holy Spirit, here we are. I'm asking the Holy Spirit to give you a dream that would reach five or 10 people or 20 or 30. And if it grows to 1,000, that's the Lord's business. But reach five or 10 or 20 people. Maybe unbelievers or disciple new believers or help in one of the support systems. Not just here, anywhere in the kingdom of God. Just anywhere, go help. We're going to start all these justice initiatives. We're going to need so much work in so many areas. Lord, I ask you right now, across this entire auditorium, ask you for a spirit of grace. We ask you for a spirit of grace. I ask that you'd shift the mindset to a culture of initiation, of initiative, to take initiative, to not wait for permission. Take initiative. Holy Spirit, open Bible, indwelling Spirit, big city, touch us, stir us. Then the internet, you can touch people in other nations. Give us ideas, new ideas. Give us burden for the old ideas. Touch us, grip us with the old ideas or give us a new idea. Now you're saying in your heart, Lord, I'm going to do this. I'm going to be diligent. Now, how many of you feel that you're called to leadership at some level, whether it's over 10 or over 10,000? You don't know, raise your hand. Okay, I'm going to ask everyone that's called to leadership, come up here if you want to. You don't have to. I don't feel like walking up. That's fine too. But if you want to go ahead and come on up here. And we never mind if you don't want to come up. You know, sometimes I'm in the chair and they'll say that. I go, oh, come on, man. I'm all comfortable. I can touch the Lord here. Oh, I get, okay. I didn't see so good. I thought there was less of you. Okay, we're going to just talk to the Lord for a few minutes. I'm just going to let the music continue to play. We want a transaction with God's heart. Again, this is not a 100-yard dash. This is a marathon. Something you want to do for decades. I set my heart when I was 17, 16. I started leading weekly Bible studies when I was 16. I'm 53. What is that? That's lots of years. I don't even know. They told me when I was 16, do it. I said, I can't do it. The guy said, yes, you can. I said, I've never taught before. He goes, well, start. I was blown away. Five people, nobody got it. But they came back the next week. Took them out very quick. But, you know, it's almost 40 years later. Still teaching weekly Bible studies. I started them weekly. And they just grew to 10 and 15. And then 20 and 30. Then in college was the big explosion. We had 100, 200 something. Whoa, a revival. By the time I was doing it in college, I'd already been doing it five years. Almost every week for five years by the time I was in college. Start now. I mean, I was scared as can be when I started. Especially when I did the college thing. You know, freshman, college, I didn't hardly know anybody. And like, just get through that door and just start. We got a ton of high schools and nine colleges and all kinds of unbelievers and all kinds of lethargic people. Lethargic Christians that need to get stirred up in this city. And you're here for a season. Some of you for a year or two. Some of you five or 10 years, some longer. You're here. So let's do something. Let's do it. Just talk to him for a minute. Say, Lord, here I am. Some of you say it's too late. The Lord says it's not too late. Throw that away. That's a lie. It's too hard. It's not too hard. There's a tailor-made role just for you. The Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, we ask you right now. We ask you to move right now in this room. Come and rest on us in power. Come and rest on us. Your leaders in the marketplace, your leaders in the university, your leaders in the neighborhood. Holy Spirit, come and rest on us. Many of you will be leaders at IHOP. Many of you will be leaders outside of IHOP while you're involved in IHOP. Does it matter? Say, Lord, give me something. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it hard. I'll throw away some of my extra play time. I'll lock in to the word and prayer and serving. I'll lock in. I'll throw away all this recreation time that some people have just too much of it. I'll turn off my games and all that stuff. I'll start talking to God and talking to people about God. Come and release your fire right now in this room. I ask you for an impartation. I ask you for a spirit of grace and impartation right now. I ask you for a leadership, instruction, a leadership calling, a grace for leadership. I ask you for a down payment, a divine idea, a connection to a department of ministry somewhere, a heart connect. Give a new idea or give it a connection to an old idea. Lord, touch the evangelist right now. Touch the Bible teachers. Touch the gift of administration, the leadership gift of administration. Touch the one-on-one disciples, those that will take the two and three and disciple them. Give them a couple younger people, younger believers to disciple. Show them the young people in the high school, the Daniel Academy to go disciple them. Show people in their neighborhood to disciple the 16-year-olds. And I'm going to ask a bunch of the others of you, if you would, to come and lay hands on them. So I need about 40 or 50 of you. If you love Jesus and you got an empty hand, come on up and lay it on him. Just ask for grace. Just move around and some of you leaders, you might say, okay, I'll just pray for some folks. Just turn around and start praying for folks. We want to ask for grace as the worship team now goes forward and leads us in worship. I want to ask the Lord, just ask for grace for leadership and divine ideas. Again, I need about 40 or 50 of you. A few of the leaders even jumping in and helping. Those that are called to leadership.