 demonstration class first and so that was a mistake so I realized we have open church planting so I had just moved to this so welcome everyone thank you for joining the class today we're going to pray and get started hope y'all had a good weekend and let's take a moment to pray and I also want us you know many of you have been following the news what's been happening in Afghanistan and the difficult situation that country now let's just pray together this morning before we start just pray and say God let there be peace in Afghanistan the Bible says that the Lord he makes the wars to cease you know so that's that's why God is he makes wars to cease and so we pray and say God bring peace in that land and we pray that the lives of people will be protected you know we don't want to see people killed we don't want to see people lose their lives unnecessarily so just pray that and then we will start with our class okay so can somebody lead us in prayer we all are going to agree we're all going to pray together but somebody can just lead us in prayer for our class but also pray take take a minute or just to pray for Afghanistan for peace and for the protection of lives somebody could lead us please anyway good leaders father in Jesus name before the throne of grace daddy we thank you for your mercy and grace your word says your grace is new every morning or Lord for today's grace or Lord we bless you holy name father you are so good your love endures forever thank you dad thank you cheese father Jesus came to save each and every human Lord you gave the life to everyone a lot so especially we pray for Afghanistan right now today father what is going on confusion war fight and so much of why happening father how mercy on the plan in Jesus name by the we agree together as your word says any two of you agree on earth father in heaven will hear and do that father here father we agree together for the matter of God Afghanistan in Jesus name we speak the peace of God over the land Jesus name in the mighty name of Jesus let the king come upon the plan in Jesus name of Lord thank you thank you dad we rebuke every violence we rebuke every demonic enforcement there we speak the peace of God we speak the kingdom of life of God in Jesus name of Lord thank you father for thank you father for grace of Lord thank you Jesus thank hallelujah father especially we speak let the we'll reach to the plan in Jesus name of Lord we thank you for your daddy let let them have the peace in Jesus name whether we pray for today's class in Jesus name father gather here to learn father open our eyes of an understanding holy spirit work in our lives father whatever we are not be useful in the kingdom of God to build the kingdom to build your church thank you father let we have the burden for the city country lord we ask in the mighty name of Jesus we pray amen amen thank you thank you almost thank you everyone for joining the class today and the recording is on so this lecture will be recorded and made available so we in this course we've been talking about urban church planting and we're just going through the introduction section uh we're just touching on some key truths insights that we need to prepare ourselves as we get ready to you know always think about doing ministry in an urban context that means in a city in a you know an urban center which is very diverse in people from different parts of the country or maybe even different parts of the world are living so we we talked about you know just to quickly we talked about the importance of depending on the holy spirit we talked about getting God's heart for the city that means we should have God's heart for people or people in the city and we should not get overwhelmed by what we see happening in the city neither should we you know become distracted trying to do everything you know we're not going to you know save everybody in ourselves you know we each one of us have a part to do so we need to see what God wants us to do and work on that and then we started talking last week about the natural dynamics of the city so I just want to quickly review that and then we go into talking about the spiritual dynamics of the city and we need we need to study both these we'll get into a little bit more detail on you know doing on studying this let me just share my the pdf that we have been using the offer the notes here and it'll help us review what we have been doing so we we started talking about natural dynamics so we did cover this last class where we said as we are preparing to work in the city or in an urban center I'm using the word city but you know nowadays our cities are made up of many cities they are urban centers or many smaller towns make up today's cities or sometimes we have twin cities or tri cities all together so I'm just using the word city but it depends you know wherever you are whatever urban center you are you know we're referring to that it is very important for us to understand the natural dynamics of the city where we are so we need to take some time to look at what is happening in the city and so you know let me say natural dynamics we're talking about the history of the city we're also talking about the civic administration the political environment we're talking about the economy we're talking about the demographics the distribution of the age population language cultural background senior citizens young people you know trying to understand all of that that's going on in the city trying to understand the socio-economic issues how how is the society functioning what are the economic issues happening there in the city look at the education look at distribution of education institutions in the city and really you know later on we'll understand why these are important how they help influence the kind of ministry that we would choose to do or do in the city what are some of the major industries industrial hubs workers unemployment you know if there's a prison or if there are other things that are happening in the city it's important to take a look at this you know and that is going to help us you know decide what god wants us to do you know we get a feel for the city it helps us pray for the city it helps us maybe god may lead us to target specific areas and needs in the city it'll also be important to develop certain strategies in that city you know for that to minister in that city so it's important to understand the natural dynamics I remember this was 2002 I mean I did share with you last class about you know how Bangalore city has changed but I just want to give you you know just another example where in 2002 two people myself and another young person from our church we actually went to Kabul on we spent about I don't know forget now but maybe about three or four days in Kabul and our goal was to explore the city to see if we can do something there you know if we had heard about of course this was right after 2001 the 9-11 situation the US came in moved and there's a lot of fighting there and the Taliban were pushed out and so this was later part of 2002 so sometime around this time of the year we had gone our goal was I mean we were running a software company our goal was to see if we could use that as a way to you know serve the city do something in the city so we spent a few days you know just going around the city trying to see what is going on in terms of technology and that was you know we thought we could come and help in that in that area and yeah and then you know after we actually moved around in the city we you know we saw that things were not I mean things were what to say in a very very difficult situation there and it was very you know to come in and like set up even a you know software training center or or so that was our goal you know maybe we could set up a software training center or internet cafe or something that will help people develop technology in that space and it was very difficult at that time when from what we you know saw and then we came back and we said okay you know we're not going to do anything now because things are not conducive at that time so at the point I want to just get across is that you know it's important for us to get on get to understand the city before you can think of a strategy how can we work in the city how can we do something here so like that I remember we also explored you know actually so this was in 2001 somebody had told us about an area near Mangalore so Mangalore is about 300 kilometers uh from where we are from Bangalore city we have this Mangalore which is actually like a student more like a student community but it is a well-developed town and they said outside of Mangalore 12 kilometers outside of that city there are a lot of medical colleges and coming up or have been established but there is no church there in that area so what we did was in 2000 I think it was again in 2002 we just went and explored so there are a group of four of us for young people we went we had no contact in that city you know we just heard that hey something is happening 12 kilometers outside of Mangalore city there is no church it's a good place to start a church we had no contact we simply you know we went to Mangalore from Mangalore we took a bus out uh into this town little small town called Darlakatta uh where there were these you know sure enough there were quite a few medical colleges that have been established so obviously a lot of students are coming to study there and the town was very uh you know still at that time this was in 2000 2002 still underdeveloped you know uh there was you know small rest restaurants and things like that but not much so we just you know were surveying the place it was pretty underdeveloped at that time so we just walked into some of these campuses trying to talk to students get a feel seeing there's some contact we could get who would help us in the process of planting a church so we were just walking around the city and then uh we came to a small uh what we referred to as a circle or a city center very very small you know nothing much then we looked up and there was a video cinema a video uh you know it's like a video cafe so it wasn't like a movie theater but it was a small hall uh you know where they would play videos uh movies on video and a small hall maybe about 50 people maximum could be seated and they would watch the movie so it wasn't a proper movie theater it was more like a video cinema they would call it so small hall that they play the video people would watch on a big screen so that was the only you know form of entertainment that was there in that town uh and that's where you know I think students would go and watch movies and stuff so we walked up there and our idea was hey uh that's a place we could start a church so we went in and uh we met the person who was running the place and we asked him you know hey on Sundays what time does your when do you have your first show and uh I think he said it was something like you know 12 30 or something like whatever the time was but it was kind of later half of the day was it in the morning later so we asked him I said you know you know we would like to start a church uh would you mind if he rented your this hall uh first we want to do a concert a music concert uh and we want to do that on a Saturday evening and then on Sundays we want to rent this hall um uh every Sunday morning uh you know for two hours before just half an hour before your movie show starts so I think it was like you know 10 30 to 12 30 and one o'clock is movie show would start so can you can be rented you know how much money would you want and like he was more than happy because that was you know a time when he was not doing anything in the hall so he was more than happy to rent it to us so what we did was um now you don't remember this was just four of us and we we were a very small church in Bangalore but we planned it out we said okay on this Saturday evening we'll do a music concert again this was before his evening show Saturday evening show so it was like I think four to five thirty or something we'll do a music concert now we didn't have too many people we didn't consider just one person on a guitar that was the concert uh but we went you know one day before we stuck posters all around the town very small town uh invited you know students to come and we did a music concert with basically one person playing the guitar and singing gospel songs kind of those things so about 25 30 students showed up for that gospel concert this was not people we knew it was just random people so they came they listened to the singing they liked it then we said hey tomorrow morning we're having a church service right here would you like to come so next Sunday you know we started we were ready for our regular service and it would be a two or three people showed up um but that's how you know we started our church plant in Darulakata Mangalow and uh you know very interesting and I want to shut you know just make the story short um very interesting people started coming out of that there was one person who was from a non-christian background he was so touched he started sharing the gospel he gave his lead to Jesus he started sharing the gospel and he was a medical student and through him many people came and you know a community of believers was established and there was a medical doctor he decided to move into get a job in one of those medical colleges sorry pastor your voice is breaking we lost you for the last five to six seconds oh okay thank you for letting me know um is my voice clear now can you hear me now yeah okay okay okay so uh there was one doctor he was married um he decided to get a job as a doctor in one of those hospitals so he moved with his wife and I think they had a little child and uh he moved to one of the hospitals in Darulakata and he took leadership of the church and so the number of people grew and then he eventually he moved the gathering to his own house he had a little spacious place so uh students are coming and and and the work grew at one point there were about 45 students gathering medical students and then uh we from there we rented a hall in a commercial building and so we rented a large space which maybe could hold about 17 75 people uh we you know kind of did up the hall and then so it was more like a formal more formal gathering place and then the church had a meeting there and uh you know about 40 45 people gathering uh and students and of course you know these are all medical college students so uh there would be students coming in every year there'll be students graduating and leaving once they finish their studies so there was kind of a movement of students but it was a viable community of believers that were meeting there for quite a few years and many many students were ministered to you know in that community so that's how that work started and then I think and I forget the year now but maybe around 2011 or 12 when that doctor's family he wanted to he decided to move on like he was stepping going overseas on an overseas assignment and so we moved that congregation into Mangalore city because we said you know we could reach Mangalore city which was about 12 kilometers in we could reach people here and they can also travel and so on so anyway so eventually you know we had different people go there as pastors and right now uh pastor paul immanuel and his wife diana are actually pastors in Mangalore and we had two locations Mangalore city and then one in Darlakatta the place where we had originally started of course now you know those things have been closed physically over the last year and a half because of lockdown but there is a viable church meeting in Mangalore city so that now congregation has families as well as students it's about 70 people and then we also have like a branch back in Darlakatta which we have closed and we've given up the hall and all that now temporarily we'll have to resume it once things are okay but that's just an example where you know we're going back in time we're going back in this was 2002 so those days uh we had to physically go we had to physically go to Kabul we had to physically go to Darlakatta and you know survey the place try to get an understanding of you know what is there what options are there and then prayerfully decide you know God can we do something for these people but whatever we do it has to be sustainable it has to be something that would remember our goal is to create self-sustaining communities so if you ask me why didn't you do something in Kabul at that time it was because you know we knew we couldn't sustain it neither were we equipped to sustain it neither were things conducive on the ground to be able to have something sustainable at that time that's some program about 2002 the second thing whereas in Darlakatta we could sustain we could do something you know and every weekend we would send teams of people from Bangalore to Bangalore they'll take an overnight bus they'll go minister and come back and we did that until we had you know the doctor couple moved there to take care of the work and then from then on you know we had pastors and so so at the point I want to get across it is important to get an understanding of what is happening on the ground the natural dynamics so that then you can come up with okay how are we going to work in this community so Darlakatta as I mentioned it was just medical colleges there were about three or four in that area so which is primarily students of course there were you know some of the residents the people were living there the locals but they were you know providing services like restaurants and things like that but the main community was hundreds of students in that town and they are the ones whom we were targeting and they are the students who come from all over the world not world sorry all over India some of them may be living abroad but that's very few most of them would be from around India coming to study there and those those are the ones we are targeting so once we understand you know the natural dynamics then we are able to start to work and we also have to think in terms of sustainability that means we don't want to do something for just six months and come away I mean that's okay six months is fine but our goal is to do something sustainable something that will endure through time right so understanding the natural dynamics take some time to study today as I mentioned in the last class we have the advantage of the internet so you can go online you can google you can look at google maps and through using google maps you can actually get into get an overview a bird's eye view of the city or the town you know so you can actually do a survey remotely those days we have to go physically on ground to you know understand that hey these are the things that are there that is always good but today even before you get on the ground you can always do a google search a google survey survey on google maps you can read a lot of information that's available online about the city about the town about the demographics you can survey and say okay you know these are the industrial areas these are the these are kinds of education these are where the schools are these are where the colleges are these are where the movie theaters are the malls are you know so you could do a lot of surveying of the town or the city just using google maps you know and it makes it very convenient very fast you save a lot of time and even money to understand the natural dynamics of the city or even part of the city that you are trying to reach so that's very important okay so to encourage you in whichever city or town or urban center you're looking at working you feel god is sending you there or if you're going to start a new work i'll take some time to do that you know through google maps you can survey get an understanding what this is where things are therefore this is what i can expect you know if i'm seeing a bar obviously i'm gonna you know there's a lot of young people are going to be hanging out there they're going to be there there's a mall people are there you know schools education institutions so this is where people are cafes people are there so it gets you get a good sense of what is happening on the ground okay any questions so far on the natural dynamics on studying the natural dynamics of a city or a town any questions before we go into spiritual dynamics so so that is one part of you know our preparation as you know when we observe what we want to do the second part or the also equally important part is the spiritual dynamics of the city that you are looking at you know that means before you start work it's good to get a sense of you know what are the challenges from a spiritual perspective that are affecting this city or maybe the town or maybe even part of the city the the region where you are going to work in now how would we do that so let's go back and look at the course notes the PDF just to give us an idea of the spiritual dynamics of urban centers so we must understand that God has been at work in our cities and God is at work in our cities so it's good to understand what has happened through time through history spiritually in the city or in the region where you're going to work but we must also be aware that there are all kinds of demonic activity also happening in the city and Satan's goal is to try to you know affect or pervert or subvert what God wants to do in the city through his church right so remember God's instrument in a city is the church when I say the church and of course the church is expressed in many ways is expressed through individual believers it is expressed through many local churches it is expressed through different Christian ministries that may have missionaries and others who may have come to work in that city so I'm using the word church to refer to all of these Christian activities right so God wants to work in the church in the city through his church through his people whether these people belong to local church communities whether these people are you know they're serving under different ministries all of them they all belong to the church God's church so God is warning God is carrying out his purpose through his church in that city but at the same time the enemy Satan is trying to support that in some way he's trying to hinder that in some way he's trying to prevent that you know now I just want us to take some time to look at Revelation chapter 2 because it's quite an interesting thing to observe here in just one chapter as the Lord Jesus is speaking to different churches in different cities it is very interesting that while Jesus has a message for his people part of what he tells them has to do with what the devil is doing in that city and towards the church it's very interesting and not only is it interesting it is very important which means that in any city the church is working but the church must not be ignorant of what the devil is trying to do in that city the church must not think that hey everything is going to be easy but the church must be aware and as much as the church that is God's people we God's people are planning and carrying out the work that God wants us to do in the city there is Satan and his demons who also have an interest in that city and they are going to try to hinder what's happening we must be aware we must not pretend that is not happening so let's take a look at this chapter 2 because I'm just looking at one chapter I mean we could look at many other scriptures which you know and which give us insight into these things but in Revelation chapter 2 let's read these verses somebody could read for us verse 10 please Revelation 10 to 10 do not fear any those things which you are about to suffer indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may test it and you will have tribulation 10 days be faithful until it and I will give you the crown of life thank you so you know this is the church Jesus being the church in a city called Smyrna so each one of these are churches in a city right this is the city of Smyrna he's speaking to the church in Smyrna and he's telling them people church God's people I want you to know something the devil is going to come against you you're going to suffer some things and in fact some of you will be put into prison I can say then it's going to come against the church the people now obviously he's going to come against the church through something it's going to be through people it's going to be through situations happening part of this you know Satan's opposition and attack on the church here is some people will be put into prison they will suffer for 10 days but the Lord is saying your commitment must be I'm faithful to Jesus until death don't be afraid I'm going to give you a crown of life so that's church in Smyrna let's read about the church in Bergamos which is there below and verses 13 and 14 could somebody read that for us please I know though what and where you dwell where Satan's throne is and you hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith even in the days in which antipath was my faithful martyr who was killed among us but I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold in the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balaam to put it as some link block before the turn of his rise to eat things sacrifice idols and to commit to sexual immorality so to the church in Bergamos that is what the Lord says so Jesus speaking to this church in a city called Bergamos he's saying verse 13 I know your works and where you dwell where Satan's throne is so Jesus is addressing the spiritual dynamic of the city he's saying church you are in the city I know that's where you are but your city is a city where satan has his throne satan's throne that means satan has a place of dominion in the city satan's throne is there he's got a huge control over the city you know and he repeats that twice right he says where satan dwells end of verse for 13 he once again says where satan dwells so this is what Jesus is saying about about Bergamos that city is a city where satan has his throne satan is dwelling that means satan has a big influence in that city so if Jesus looks at our cities yes he's seen the church but what will he see as far as or what will he tell us as far as what the satan his demons are doing in that city to Bergamos he's saying you know satan's got a big influence there he's got his throne there he's dwelling there and he says in verse 14 you know so what is therefore what is this church experiencing you know satan's throne satan has a big place of influence in that city what is this church experiencing you see that it there was a martyr that means they're faced attacks and one of the most even killed sorry so somebody's lost their life but you also see in verse 14 there is the doctrine of Balaam which is trying to infiltrate the church so i was satan trying to get into the church so one we could say there must have been some persecution happening because one of them was martyred secondly satan is trying to infiltrate the church through this doctrine of Balaam basically some sort of teaching that is letting people get into idolatry and immorality and so jesus saying hey watch out for that so you see how satan is there and in the spirit there is satan trying to infiltrate the church by this teaching and this is happening in the city verse 20 we look at another city this is thayatira somebody could read that please chapter 2 verse 20 nevertheless i had a few things against you because you allow that woman judgeable who calls herself a prophet to teach and seduce my servant to commit sexual immorality and it thinks it refers to idols so in thayatira something very similar to pergamos is happening but here it's happening through a false prophetess named jeziba who seems to have gained influence into the church so the church was not discerning they welcomed this person this false prophetess into the church and she is promoting her false teaching which is leading people into immorality and idolatry see immorality and idolatry things that take people away from god so anything any kind of teaching that's coming into the church that takes people away from god it may look nice that's what zed uses what is a seduction it's something that appeals to the senses it feels nice but it is actually a departure from god himself so in this case it was a false prophetess causing the people to go away into idolatry and immorality and this is it somehow got into the church so jesus warning them hey there's something wrong here there's this false prophetess and you've allowed you have allowed the church was again was not discerning and they're allowing this thing to happen but actually behind that satan is at work trying to infiltrate the church in the city the last one chapter three verse nine the church in philadelphia somebody can read that please behold i will make name of synagogues of second which say they are true and are not but you lie behold i will make them to come and watch it before dietit and to know that i have loved the now the church in philadelphia is very interesting because to this church which is in philadelphia jesus saying there is the synagogue of satan meaning this is synagogues simply means an assembly of people so there is a group of people who actually belong to satan they are under his influence but they call themselves jews so they are you know like wolves and sheep clothing or you know they are actually people who are calling themselves jews but actually they are a group of people who are demonic were under this influence of satan so jesus saying look you are in that city and there's this group of people out there who are trying to attack you and do things against you but i will make them come and worship at your feet it means i will make them bow before the church it means this church philadelphia is a very very strong church and it's a church that is going to overpower what satan is doing in that city so opogamos and tayatira you can say that this church these two churches were not discerning may they had in some way let satans work infiltrate into the church they were not careful smirna we don't know you know why is there a difference between smirna and philadelphia both are facing demonic attacks but in one case people are going to be put in prison for smirna but another case philadelphia they're going to overpower and satan's group is going to bow before the church now i don't understand all the details but all we can say is look we must be like the church in philadelphia we must be strong and you know in revelation three just doesn't see any flaw in the church in philadelphia there's nothing he rebukes them about you know he sees and he says everything is good stay strong so obviously this church was very healthy they were doing well and so because of the health of that church where it was spiritually kids can tell them satan's group is going to come and bow before you right and that's the kind of church we want to be and raise but overall what i want us to see from revelation two and three is this that wherever we are whatever we're going to do the work the church is god's agency or god's agent to do the work in the city but in that city there is demonic presence and there is opposition and there is attempt to infiltrate or infiltration possible if people are not careful so think about you know a large urban center meaning a city where there are multiple local churches so if there's only if there was only if there was a small city and only one church one community of believers okay it's pretty straightforward but most cities are not like that most cities today are large not like bible times bible times cities were small few hundred people few thousand people made up a city some really large cities that maybe a few hundred thousand people but today's cities are not like that they are big millions of people and they are you know diverse and there are many local churches that are part of the church in the city which means if satan can begin to try to weaken the church in the city by infiltrating any of the local churches and starting to cause division starting to cause strife starting to cause things that are happening that could affect the overall life and strength of the church in the city so we need to be aware of that we need to be very careful and while we cannot control our influence every local church in the city that's not possible but we can do every local church or every christian ministry can take responsibility to make sure that they're doing what's right before god and making sure that you they don't let satan infiltrate them make sure that they stand against opposition and help other churches in the city to stand against hardships and opposition okay so I will pause here for today and what I just want to impress on our hearts and minds is this that just as we must understand the natural dynamics of the city we must be very aware of the spiritual side of what's happening in the city and just as the natural you know dynamics keeps changing it's not constant it keeps changing over time even so the spiritual dynamic of the city keeps changing over time it may not be the same what as five years ago it may not be you know 10 years ago just very different from now okay yeah so I see a question there from anu about revelation 39 the synagogue of satan so the word synagogue simply means an assembly of people so here's a group of people who are under the influence of satan whether they are actually openly worshiping satan may not be the case meaning they're not they may not be as you know as we see in philadelphia they may not be openly satan worshipers but they are people who are under demonic influence they claim to be jews that means outside they're saying we are jewish jews but they're actually being demonically empowered so they may not necessarily be worshiping satan openly they claim to be jews but they are being under the influence of satan kim has my voice been breaking all along or are you able to hear me clearly okay all right so i'm not sure whether it was because some can hear and yeah all right so we're going to continue this tomorrow and just say you know talk about just look a little bit more about the spiritual dynamic and how we can tell what is happening spiritually in the city right give you some pointers on that so we can be sensitive this is what's happening spiritually in my city therefore i must be careful at least we can take care of our local churches you know and our churches who are on within our influence we can help them nowadays in a in a city there are many hundreds of churches maybe even thousands depending on the size of the city while we cannot you know influence everybody to whatever extent we can but influence churches to be strong to avoid infiltration from satan and to stand up against opposition from satan that we can strengthen each other as we will talk about it tomorrow okay we're going to close and prayer we'll continue this tomorrow just want to invite somebody to please pray with us as a class that god will open our eyes help us to understand this especially in relation to where god has placed us that god will give us our insight and understanding in these things okay can somebody please pray for us as a class we just come before you're thrown for the court once again for the court keep your your wisdom and knowledge for the court that we understand to our city for the court what is happening there for the court give your revelation give your more understanding for the court that we can understand for the court what is happened they're different different blessings and for the court that we can understand especially way for the court and we work for the court to our city for the court this is our uh your slim father god this place has for the court to understand and work within our city for the court raise your people for the court raise your church father god that we can stand to your throne for the court nicely for the court help us to understand and lead us to your kingdom we quarantine you for uh thanking your father god our classes thanking your father god for our subject Father God, that we are understanding all subjects. Father God, nicely wave, Father God, thanking you, Father God, thanking you for everything. Thank you, Father God. And every city, Father God, and also I pray for like Afghanistan, Father God, give mercy and peace, Father God, to every city and that place also, Father God. Father God, you bless and keep your people to every place, Father God, that they will work through your kingdom. We, Father God, thank you for our class, thank you sir, and every student, Father God, and thank you, Father God, for tonight working. Thank you, Father God, thank you. Almighty Jesus, name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everyone. We'll see you again tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your day and God bless. Bye now.