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(Harry Skandera)
It’s always a special blessing
to be here at Sonoma Avenue Church of Christ for a lot
of reasons. Just listening to and participating in the
worship tonight, it brings back many happy memories
for me, being raised in the Church of Christ. Growing
up, my family lived about 3 blocks from the church and
we walked down to church 3 times a week, Sunday morning,
Sunday night and Wednesday night for my entire childhood,
until I got out of High School and went off to Pepperdine
University
.
My weeks were filled as a young man,
going to sings, summer camps where we learned shape
notes and types, where we sang the hallelujah chorus
at the end of camp, and here we are. To be here and
worship among you here, brings back a lot of memories
in my spiritual DNA. It is a blessing to look at history
and see how the Lord brings us to himself. I am grateful
already this evening for the experience to be here with
you this evening.
The other thing that I am reminded
of as I come here for City Reach tonight is the other
times that we have been in this building. The first
time that we came here that I can remember, we went
to the corners of the property and asked the Lord to
expand their camp and that prayer seems to be answered.
I know that we want to continue to
pray that the Lord will raise that tent and fill it
to overflowing, so that is one of the first things that
we want to pray about.
The other thing that I remember that
we prayed for that night was, we prayed for someone’s
healing and that was very interesting for me, because
of my back round being in the Church of Christ. I am
so thankful for God’s patience with me and how
he is willing to speak any language and any way that
He can to get closer to us and for us to know Him.
Sometimes as Christians we have fought
over our differences and of course, as the Churches
of Christ we would say, Christians only, but not the
only Christians. A part of the spiritual DNA of this
place and that I also relate to, experience and go with
whenever I am here, is the that the Churches of Christ
got started.
The Churches of Christ are the first
native American church, meaning that it was one of the
first churches to start and have it’s roots in
America. I am sure that there have been a few since,
but interesting that they were birthed out of the King
ridge revivals and everything that came out of that.
There is not only a rich history, but also a rich heritage
in community.
The other thing that I will never
forget in my whole life, the next time that we came
here as City Reach Prayer, the elders repented for the
churches’ attitude of believing that they were
the only ones going to heaven, for having that attitude
towards any Christians that way. I believe that that
was of course important for you, but was important for
the whole church in this county, because any of us from
any denomination could be guilty of believing that they
were just a little better or just a little closer to
God than anybody else, and then judging others based
upon our belief that we were just a little bit closer.
What was significant about that was
that, when we did that the Father’s heart was
very blessed. You know how it is when you have children?
To see your children get along is probably one of the
most incomparable experiences of a witness of love.
Think of how grieved you can be when they are mean to
each other or demean each other, think how God feels,
and you’ll know His heart if you’ll think
about that, because that is the way that His heart is.
When you guys repented it released something not just
in you or in the people that were here, but it released
something in this whole town.
I wanted to acknowledge that, because
it has been a few years since that occurred, but I have
never forgotten it because of its significance. Your
humility as a people, what that means to the Lord, to
go in the opposite spirit of something that is so hard
to break through in any city, is division in the body
of Christ. In Sonoma County and Santa Rosa (me being
a historian), that has been our history in this county
to a great extent, so for you guys to do that, it is
in my mind one of the all star moves of the body of
Christ. I believe too that it says something about your
spiritual DNA as a congregation. You guys in this congregation
are what I would call a “breaker” congregation.
You are someone that God has chosen
to be in the forefront to break spiritual walls. It
is an honor and a privilege to represent who you are
and I am blessed to have come from the roots of that.
Having had stepped forward, you reconnected with what
was His original intension in a way that you could not
have pre-meditated, but it is very significant. I say
that, because I want God to stir and move among you
to be refreshed, as it is a new day, not as one that
repeats itself. Not everyone can do that. That doesn’t
happen to every denomination or church and so, I believe
that that is very special and unique to this Sonoma
Avenue Church of Christ.
Wherever your tent is set up, you’ve
got to accept other brothers and sisters in a way that
is pure and for whatever reason and it is God’s
heart that heals. I believe that we have the ability
to release spiritual healing, because of the hope that
you are all one, never forget that, but allow the Lord
to continue to give you opportunities and ways of reaching
out to other parts of the body of Christ, to other parts
of the city to anything that has experiences division.
Division racially, ethnically or because of class.
The Pastor’s Prayer Fellowship
and the Prayer movement in this area, the intentional
prayer movement in this area for at least 16 years,
has one bridge that still needs to be won and that is
the one between the Protestants and the Catholics. I
want to encourage you to pray into this tonight, because
that needs to be gone.
You know, our poor brothers in the
Catholic Church have been beat up and they have in a
sense been sexually abused. The spirit of what has occurred
there, people are being persecuted for that and are
being persecuted by that same spirit and it’s
like they can’t get clear of it. It just keeps
coming up again for them. It’s like a tar baby
that won’t let go.
They need our help. I don’t
know exactly what the would look like, but I can tell
you this, that they need us to cry out before the Lord
for them, that God would intervene in a way that will
cleanse them, because they are our brothers and they
are hurting. We do not agree doctrinally with all kinds
of things, but they are of God and are a part of the
body. I wish that you would consider that.
If this is something that God would
really like to see you do, He’s got to bring it
to your memory, because otherwise it will just go out
the window and you won’t remember a thing that
I have said. I do not worry about these kinds of things,
because if God is prompting me to say something and
it is that important, then He’ll bring it up for
you in whatever way you need to hear it. I don’t
think that many churches or people are thinking that
way, but you guys are the breakthrough artists, that
are part of your calling.
It is proven in your testimony and
that is not a theoretical idea, you have done this and
experienced it in your fellowships. You have taken grief
with this being the way that the Lord has leaded you.
You have had brothers that you have loved dearly, criticized
you and have made life difficult for you.
I want to tell you something, Job
42:10. God asks Job to pray for his friends, now that
says a whole mouthful, because a few verses earlier
God says that He is not going to deal with Job’s
friends, but I am going to ask Job to pray for them,
because what He is referring to there is that he deserves
a licking’ and I am going to give you a blessing,
but the men that you criticized unjustly, I am going
to let them bless you.
I believe that that is something that
the Lord would want to remind you of. The people that
hurt you the most are not the unbeliever’s out
there. The people that hurt you the most are your brother’s,
because you trust them and it really means a lot to
you what they think. Isn’t that true?
Our problem is getting over it when
we disagree and our brother’s misunderstand this.
That is what happened to Job. The brothers judged Job
based upon principles like, if something bad is happening,
then you must deserve it, God is judging you and all
of these calamities are happening. Now, there is a place
for principles, but that is not what was happening to
Job. God was dealing with Job personally and they weren’t
listening, they were judging. I am just saying that,
because I believe that you (Church of Christ) have been
judged by your brothers and have not responded back
the same.
After the twelfth verse and Job prays
for his brothers, God blesses him more than he was ever
blessed before.
My son and I kind of had an argument
about four years ago when his second son was born. It
wasn’t really an argument, but I was more shocked.
He named his second son Job. I thought, “Holy
Ghost, what have you done. Why would you name your son
Job? Look what happened to Job!” My son Caleb
responded, “Job was twice blessed.”
I thought, “Well, that is right,
he had to live through it, but that is right.”
I have always remembered that, because really all of
the blessings that you have come into up to this point,
to the higher calling to not responding in-kind and
praying for your brothers even though they are critical
and they don’t understand what you are doing.
I believe that you will see things that you have never
seen yet or that you have never even thought of, that
God wants to give you.
So, I would like you to take a few
minutes to pray into this tonight. You may believe or
not believe what I have said tonight, but I am not asking
you to pray just because I have said this. What I am
asking you to do is that if you are a part of this congregation,
that if something rings true in your heart in regards
to anything that I have said, that as we break into
little groups, that you would #1, bless the churches
that struggle in this area, like the Catholic Church.
If that is something that you are not able to do, then
don’t. Pray that the Lord would help them and
deliver them from the pit that they are stuck in right
now.
(Mr. Cavalie)
It is true that we all see through
a glass dimly. We all see through our part of the glass
dimly and none of us see clearly. They have got their
error just as many of us have in our churches.
God’s word says that as iron
sharpens iron, so man sharpens man as we are brought
together, then the truth of God begins to resonate and
you don’t even have to address those bad spots,
they just fall along the way side when you are drawn
to the light of the truth. All of a sudden the stuff
is gone. All of the idol worship and the stuff that
falls along the wayside is when the genuine thing is
manifested and people recognize the genuine and they
run to it with all that they have.
 I
think that it is in God’s heart to bring us all
together that we would see clearly what His truth is,
because it is revealed in the corporate body, not in
any single screening, that is where our darkness is,
but when we come together, His truth is revealed.
Just like this open door on the over-head projector.
As we all come together, it all of a sudden becomes
so clear and we will find that a lot of the stuff that
we struggle over with this doctrine or that doctrine
is going to fall by the wayside, when Jesus is manifested
in us, His body.
(Harry Skandera)
If you are not a part of Sonoma Avenue
Church of Christ, I would ask you to pray for them,
that they would continue to fulfill their destiny of
faith and breakthrough in this community.
The second thing that I would ask
you to pray for is your brothers in the Church of Christ,
that they would have the strength and the release of
faith to continue in what they have started.
If you are from Sonoma Avenue Church
of Christ, then you could be praying for the other body’s
in this area, because you have authority and something
to impart as you yourselves have been through reconciling
to your fellow brothers and sisters and can impart that
faith and blessings to those you pray for.
So, let’s break up into groups
of three or four and introduce yourself.
If I could just re-iterate to pray
for the Catholics in our town, because they are in need.
Pray for your brothers, because you need them. Even
if you feel like they use you or miss-use you, remember
that they are well intentioned and they are doing what
they believe the Lord is telling them to do. Since the
Lord is telling you to do something that they do not
believe that the Lord is telling them to do, something
is going to have to give there.
(Prayer)
(Harry Skandera)
The third thing that I wanted to share
with you tonight comes out of the book of Revelations.
One of the seven churches that are mentioned in Revelations
was the church of Ephesus. There was a special message
to the church of Ephesus. John saw this vision and there
were a lot of things that John said to the church in
Ephesus. I wanted to, for the sake of time, dwell on
the final charge which is the promises and I also jump
to this part, because I believe that you have been being
faithful to what God has called you to do.
John says in verse chapter 7, verse
4, “ that I hold against you, you have forsaken
your first love. Remember the height from which you
have fallen and repent and do the things you did at
first.” Well, when I think of you, this part of
the body of Christ, what you did at first was, “Christians
only, but not the only Christians”, this was birthed
out of the desire to see the Christians be one in Christ.
By the time I was a boy, that wasn’t
the message that I heard and maybe it wasn’t like
that everywhere, but everywhere that I went in my back
round, they left out the second part. When your elders
got up and repented of that that was turning back to
your first love. That was turning back to who you were
created to be, the destiny of this part of the body
of Christ.
I am not just drawing out one verse,
because I am not thinking of the others, but for sake
of time I believe that what He would have you hear tonight
is this, “ He who has and ear let him hear what
the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes,
I will give the right to eat from the tree of life which
is in the paradise of God.”
Just as you have broken through in
this whole area of having faith for unity and the reconciliation
that you have, you have because you set that faith for
reconciliation. Another thing that you have, is you
have carried as a body the ability to walk in your destiny
and you are doing that now more consciously than ever
before, because once the Lord speaks something, it gives
you the possibility of things that maybe you were not
completely aware of before, but He kind of led you like
someone who is blindfolded. When they begin to take
the blind fold off and then you are able to walk by
sight, whereas before the hand led you. He has given
you eyes to see and you can now go through it intentionally
with intentionally. That is one of those steps of maturity
that God deals with us from adolescence to adulthood.
He also deals with us as churches. Sometimes we stumble
into it, but once we begin to see it we can walk in
it. What I am saying is this, I believe that you can
pray for others to come into their destiny as well.
How many streams in the body of Christ
in our town go from one event to another, but no sense
of their over-riding purpose in the city, why they have
been called here and what their particular heart to
do here and the transformation in the city? They are
unaware for the most part.
Let me give you an example, this is
something that is frustrating. My wife is usually always
with me at these City Reach Prayer gatherings, but she
couldn’t be tonight because she was committed
to helping our congregation, Santa Rosa Christian Church,
we are doing a parents night out.
As a gift to the community, we get
a lot of people in our congregation to do childcare
and we invite families to drop their kids off so the
parents can have a night out, a date night. There is
no charge, it is totally supervised and it is a gift
to people, but I bet you didn’t know about that,
did you?
That kind of thing just blows my mind,
because we do these kinds of things, but we didn’t
think to call Pastor Barney and say, “Hey, do
you have anyone over there that you think might like
a date night? We are having a parents night out, bring
your kids on over.” It is those kinds of things
in our connection as the church that is frustrating
to me. You guys have those sorts of things too.
There are some of things that each
congregation has to do, you know, like having your own
family dinner. There are those things that are a specific
call for just your church, but there are also tons of
things that we could do together and would make our
lives easier, effective and so much more efficient as
a body. The Spring Clean event is a prime example of
that. No single one of us could possibly touch what
we have done by working together.
I know that we all have our own distinctive
things, but I know sure shooting that we reduplicate
all sorts of stuff. It’s like, when the school
I work with goes on our mission trip to Latvia, the
former Soviet Union Nations, they have been free now
for about 15 years. They get the concept of freedom,
but they don’t know how to be free. That is the
way that we are in our unity as the body of Christ.
We have gotten past the concept stage a little bit,
but we still don’t know totally looks like. We
are in the room together, but nobody is dancing.
I would like us to pray that in this
year, the Lord would continue to remove the blinders
in the body of Christ that we have for each other. Did
you know that the Catholic Church, we just prayed for
them, that because of them, we have had a sexual abstinence
program in this city that is unique.
There are a few others across the states,
but not many, that has reduced sexual activity in the
teenagers in a measurable sense, in about 30-40% since
1994. Catholic Charities sponsors Free to Be and we
all as a community receive that blessing. If you were
to spiritualize that, I don’t know what that anointing
would be, but whatever it is, they’ve got it.
We are all getting the benefit from that and don’t
even know it for the most part. God has clearly laid
that aside for them to do and He has something aside
for each on of us. Each one of us has a part to play.
One thing that we need to pray is
that more of the streams of Christians in our city will
discover their destiny, that is, what they are meant
to do in serving the rest of the body and fits into
the bigger picture. That would be one.
Two, that we are able to stop reduplicating
things. Do you know what I am saying? There are some
things that you are going to have to take care of in
your own congregation, but there are many other things
that, Barney does it, Steve does it and Pastor Brian
does it, and it may all end up being the very same.
Well, we could have saved so much time and so much money
if we would have done it together. There has got to
be some kind of a breakthrough in faith. So, praying
for the destiny to be discovered and praying for whatever
it is that we can do more together.
Picking up trash is great, it’s
a great start, but this isn’t a transformed community
yet. That is a little bit vague, but do you get what
I am saying? Ok, let’s break up into groups of
three or four and begin praying for these two requests.
(Prayer)
(Harry Skandera)
 Donna,
is that your name? I hear that you have had trouble
with migraine headaches and you haven’t had one
for seventeen days, but I would like us to pray for
you. If you could stand here in the aisle and then if
the people from this congregation would gather around
her. Everyone else could then gather around them and
we will all pray for Donna. After we do that, we will
hear specifically from Barney regarding his congregation.
(Prayer)
(Pastor Barney)
I want to say thank you for being
here and for praying for us. I think that this is the
forth time that you guys have come here and it has been
a real blessing every time, and especially Harry.
Harry mentioned being down at Pepperdine
and I would like to add that Harry not only attended
Pepperdine, but was also the student body president
and Carol, his wife, was the home coming queen. I just
happened to be there a couple of years ago waiting in
a lecture hall for an event that takes place there and
I was looking at the Pepperdine hall of fame. As I was
looking at some of the pictures, I thought that one
of the young men looked kind of familiar, and I as I
looked closer I realized it was a young picture of Harry
Skandera. He set all kinds of track records there, but
he is too modest to tell you that, so anyway it is great
to have him as a brother and to be here with us tonight.
Just a couple of things that I would
like to ask prayer for, one thing that we always need,
I was thinking of this earlier today. The two commandments
that the Lord gave us were to love the Lord your God
with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
I would love it if you would pray that every person
in our congregation would be filled with a passion for
God.
The second thing would be that we
would have a deep love for each other and a love for
lost souls.
Harry also mentioned our building
program. We have over 11 acres of land outside of Snyder
lane, just outside of the city limits in Rohnert Park.
It’s a beautiful piece of land. We had a 4th of
July event out there just the other day, and we are
in the process of working with the county and we have
run into some obstacles there. Surprise! Of course,
the finances in doing a project like this are amazing
and they are not going down over time, so I would ask
prayer for that. Also, along those lines, pray for us
as a church. You know, there are always different people
with different thoughts about what the building should
be about and look like and all of that, and that kind
of stuff can really be divisive, so I would really pray
that God moves us along together at the right pace and
same direction.
Another thing that Harry mentioned
about communication between churches, I don’t
know about anyone else in this congregation, but we
just experienced a big thing recently. We have just
come to realize between our church leadership, elders
and staff that there are some blockages of communication.
Does anyone else seem to have that? Really, we are just
wondering what is the problem. I mean, it isn’t
intentional, it is just seems like communication just
doesn’t happen and it really is something that
needs to happen in a greater way. I don’t know
if there is a stronghold or something there that is
keeping communication happening in a greater way, but
if we could pray about that and experience breakthrough
in that area, that would be great.
(Harry Skandera)
How much money do you need?
(Barney)
It’s going to cost us about
3 million dollars. That is the last price that I was
given that it will take in order to build the building.
This property that we have here is on 1.7 acres and
we could sell it for about 1.5 million and we have pledges
for about 600,000.00, so we’re about 1 million
short.
(Harry Skandera)
Ok, rather than huddle on this, let’s
proclaim our prayer. Who would like to pray for that
million bucks?
(Prayer) 47:39
(Harry Skandera)
Ok, we have some issues coming up
with the county out there, so who would like to pray
for that? The whole permitting process and that they
would have favor.
(Prayer)
(Jeff Gilman)
I don’t want to take away any
time from praying for this congregation, but there are
three other churches going through the exact same thing
right now.
Spring Hills Church just got kind of
side swiped from their process. They were not going
to build anything, but they just found out that their
land is on Williamson Act land, which means that they
cannot be used at all for the church, and they had just
bought 60 acres.
The Harvest Church that has wanted
to build out in the west side of Santa Rosa, they are
in Salamander country and that puts a lid on that for
them.
So, we have North, West, and now East,
The Cove Covenant Presbyterian Church. The Cove Churches
neighborhood has basically said, “we don’t
want you here”, but for whatever reason the city
is saying, “Ok, they don’t want you here.”
The things that they were wanting to do, just even putting
in a driveway have been blocked. So, there is a huge
block on 4 different congregations and one for the North,
South, East and West.
(Harry Skandera)
Let’s all stand and join hands.
Father, we have prayed many times
that you would release those who are to be called by
you from the North, the South, the East and the West.
God, even as we pray for those souls to be released
once again into your church and into this city and county.
We ask Lord that these temporal locations that are bound
would be released. Lord we pray that we would go as
you have told us to and take the land and that God,
you would supply. Whatever enemy has bound this up would
be loosed. Being aware that this is a spiritual battle,
we are standing together as your body in this place
for that release. God, as that is broken, we ask again
that you would give these congregations favor Lord,
so that we can serve and find favor in the city. Lord,
we pray that something in the law would happen in regards
to the Williamson Act that would not only bless Sonoma
County, but would bless the entire states.
In regards to the Salamander’s
Lord, I pray that maybe there would be a mass exodus
for them, or that you would cause something to happen
that people would recognize that only God could have
done. Father, in regards to the Cove neighborhood, there
has got to be someone stirring up the neighborhood in
regards to the church being there and I just pray that
you would silence those lies and change the heart of
that person. I pray that they would even come to know
you Father and see great change for this whole neighborhood.
We ask this in Jesus Name. Amen.
(Harry Skandera)
One of the reasons that we sing is
because it releases something in our spirit that would
be locked up otherwise. In your singing there is a release
of the captives, a release of blessing and that your
singing is worship, but it also is warfare, because
it establishes and affirms the position of God on the
earth. It displaces those things that would come against
His people. Part of that whole breaker thing and uniting
through the churches, came the realization that it isn’t
enough to just know the word and especially when used
to single others out. There is a strength to being strong
in the word, but there is another side to that as well.
It is the heart of what God is saying through the word
that we need to catch. I was crying at the opening song.
One of the things that I was always
embarrassed about as a kid, was that whenever someone
would respond to the salvation message at church, I
would ball like a baby. I wasn’t even sure why
and it didn’t even matter if I knew the person
or not, there was just a sensitivity to the spirit and
a tenderness. That is what I believe I experienced when
we began to sing tonight. It’s not about the notes
or the four-part harmony; it’s about the power
of the treasure that is here to proclaim the spirit
of the Lord.
I have a request. We need people to
pray. From this congregation, if you would send two
people to pray for the county. Diane Keller is here,
we pray consistently and often and it is usually on
Thursday’s, the first and the last at 7:00 pm
at Santa Rosa Christian Church and Foothills Community
Church. Things that we have been praying for, for years
have been answered and things are being extended, which
is creating a sense of being overwhelmed and we need
to have a strong prayer covering. We need the firepower
and the prayer, because otherwise what happens is we
begin to just respond in the natural.
Everything is going so well, that we
respond in the natural, because it feels right and good,
and pretty soon we have forgotten to check with headquarters
and we are off going in the wrong direction. If the
Devil can’t stop us by getting behind and pushing
us down, then he can just push us too far ahead. That
is what we are concerned with right now, among the prayer
warriors we want to acknowledge that we need people
and we need to have a committed people.
So many good things are going on in
our county that it is hard to keep up with, but one
of the things that has began to occur, is the Christian
Businessmen coming together to pray and there is a huge
momentum happening in that area over our city and county.
I think that the Lord is getting ready to bless Christians
in Sonoma County. This isn’t a prosperity doctrine,
but it is about the Lord. If our children are going
to remain in this county, they are going to need to
be physically blessed. Those who are meant to be called
here will remain.
We have a lot of things that we need
to continually repent of, but when we get on the subject
of destiny, I believe this with all of my heart, I believe
that God has blessed us as a nation and we haven’t
been stingy. We have given and given and given. We have
given to non-Christians. We have given to nations that
are poorer than we, and to all kinds of things, and
I know that God has been pleased with that. There have
been a lot of things that He is not pleased with, but
we have done that. For whatever you think about Iraq,
I believe that as a nation, we have wanted to help those
who are oppressed.
We argue about that because we are
a prophetic nation and we want to see that it is done
righteously. Over the long haul, the heart of this country
has been to help the oppressed and to set free the captives.
I am not excusing our many mistakes, but I believe that
God blesses us, because we have been true to our destiny.
For what is happening in this country, I believe that
God wants to open the floodgates for Christians to be
the head. I wanted to say that, because I believe that
that is beginning to happen in our county and that is
because of our prayer.
I speak this to you, Sonoma Avenue
Church of Christ as a breaker church, because I know
that God is going to use you in some way in the breakthroughs
that are going to be needed in the months ahead. So,
let’s pray.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document. |
