Matthew Barnett stood to speak at a large gathering I was attending of global and national leaders. He approached the podium and opened with this statement, “I know that as a conference speaker you need to grab the attention of the crowd, walk up with a masterful open, bring a heavy revelation that makes everyone lean in … some obscure Biblical passage with a metaphor so deep and astounding that no one had seen it before.”
I had known Matt since he was a young man. His father, Pastor Tommy Barnett, had been a friend of my dad, and was there for me after my father passed.
Pastor Tommy had also asked me to help him with the launch of building the Dream Center in Los Angeles, a vision so powerful that it has been replicated around the world hundreds of times. I was there with a small camera to record and document the first time Ps. Tommy walked into the building that was an old hospital, now the site of the Dream Center.
Now Matt was the director and leader of that great outreach ministry. He’s a remarkable man of faith, vision and hard work.
After Matt’s surprise open, he said, “I know that having a “heavy revvie” would be good. I have one, but you’ve probably heard it before. I have discovered it’s the greatest revelation from God to mankind that has ever been spoken. It was spoken by Jesus to a leader of the Jewish establishment.”
“Late one night on a windy, dusty road Jesus said this to a man named Nicodemus,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:16-19
As Matt spoke that the assembled ministers began to pray, clap, cry and come alive again to the revelation that changes everything. It’s the revelation that changes your thoughts, your life, your word, your actions, your family … everything changes when we receive Christ.
When a man is discipled in Christ, it changes everything. And that’s the revelation that produces transformation.
That’s why we carry Christ to the ends of the earth. It changes everything. We are CMN, we rescue men.
