Launch 2025 Night 2 | Michael Koulianos

When I was getting started in the ministry, I say this a lot, but it's really true.

I probably had four pages worth of reasons why I was a good choice for the Lord to use.

And the longer he mercifully walks me along, The less and less reasons there are less and less reasons I have that God would ever decide to use my life. Now I'm confused. I don't think I have one.

As you walk with Jesus more, I should say as he walks us along with him, he begins to subtract from your life rather than consistently add to it.

He's after a holy simplicity.

The church has never been louder in America, and she's never had less to say.

We're pretty loud right now.

The thing about the glory of God is that once you've been there, It's actually a true statement to say. Nothing else will do. But I fear that a generation, especially Gen Z, has never been there.

Because we're bumping into influencers and not saints.

When you grow up with holy people, It marks you.

Because the devil is not afraid of your Instagram following or your TikTok.

I'm grateful for the influence the Lord has given Jesus image, but we don't glory in it at all. In fact, we have rules. We have rules about what we're allowed to talk about and what we're not allowed to talk about.

In fact, some of our best worship moments have the least amount of views. That's a fact.

I guess it just depends on how you measure what is good and what isn't.

If metrics determine success, then Galilee was more successful than Calvary.

I think our most anointed worship moment ever has one of the least amount of views.

I mean, God walked in the room. It was at our first pastors conference, and the Lord stormed the place. I don't know if you've ever been in a moment like that.

You might start jumping in one of those moments, but he'll cancel that too. At some point he'll fry you.

Because the one who is all in all will settle for nothing less in our gatherings until you're just stuck staring.

Words worked 10 minutes prior, but now you don't have any. It's not because you have nothing to say. It's because you have too much to say and your tongue can't catch up to a burning heart.

You can die from lack of water or too much.

I don't know if you've ever been drowned out in his presence where he cancels every attempt of the flesh, where nothing works but staring at him, and he'll receive nothing but that.

If you want God to use you, you've got to learn to die.

I mean, to really use you. You can pack Arenas. Doesn't mean he's. And he'll use you. And when he's done using you, you'll just feel used.

Like Saul, Judas, Balaam, he used them all.

He used good kings and used evil kings. If seeking Jesus is about being used, then being used is actually the goal. And not knowing the Lord.

Bob Gladstone used to say, countenance can't lie.

That's true.

I don't know if you've ever led a meeting where people come with life and death situations.

Those are high stakes. The church is where they should come. If they're riddled with stage four cancer, they should be coming to the church. But I don't know if you've ever felt that weight.

People don't come to our church to just get a pick me up.

They come many times because they have no hope outside of Jesus.

That's a wonderful place to lead from.

Because that kind of thing changes everything. Because you realize you can't do it.

How many of you ever heard the name Kathryn Kuhlman? Oh, my gosh. Ten of you.

Let me get this straight. Y' all know the guys that are all tatted up, but you don't know Kathryn Kuhlman? We got a problem.

I don't. I have a tattoo. I'm not against tats. I'm not going to tell you what it is. It was on spring break in college when I was backslidden.

So.

If you came to Ms. Kuhlman's meeting, it's because you might die if God doesn't touch you. When you lead from that platform, I don't mean this platform. From that reality. You don't have the luxury of just skating along. And Ms. Kuhlman used to say something that I never understood as a young boy.

It marked me. I was addicted to her videos. I'd watch them non stop. And Ms. Kuhlman used to say a phrase that I didn't understand. When I started preaching, she would say, oh, I died a thousand deaths.

Every time I took that platform, I died a thousand deaths. I thought, what does that mean? I love taking the platform. I've got something to say. I'm a man of God and I'm ready.

I've got a sermon.

I'm not sure Kathryn had a sermon, but she did have the Lord.

Sermons are useful. They are powerful. The word of God. There's no replacing the word of God. We actually are incredibly biblically illiterate, and we need to change it.

We need young people who are eating the scriptures, let alone reading the scriptures. If not, you're going to create your own Jesus. I want to be real clear about that. I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying crafting up a heady, catchy sermon does not deliver people from darkness.

Jesus does. Jesus does. The thing about this Jesus is that he still wears wounds today.

He is the wounded and risen Christ. That precious lady who opened. I don't know where she went, but she prayed. I asked, pastor, who's that woman? She was so filled with the Word, but filled with the Word, unto the proper goal, unto a revelation of Jesus.

As she began to talk about the Lord, she was properly describing the Lord. And one of the phrases she used was, he's the crucified and risen one. Nothing could be more true.

When people ask me difficult questions, sometimes they're with the right motive, sometimes with the wrong. Sometimes they want to catch me up in some conversation that, you know, might sound useful today. But I just don't have time to talk about anything except the gospel because I'm in love. I'm in love, I said. Some of you are.

When you're in love, it changes what you talk about. I mean, I could talk about a lot of stuff, but I can't take my eyes off Jesus. He's beautiful. He's wonderful. This doesn't make him nervous.

An addiction for him doesn't make him nervous at all. In fact, he loves it. When the one who died for you says, I will never leave you nor forsake you even unto the end of the age, you will not freak him out by being really into him.

And hopefully, as we progress and continue to be carried by the Lord until the day we die, hopefully that addiction increases and increases and increases and increases. And this is what I want to ask everyone in the room tonight. Are you as in love with Jesus? Does he occupy as much of your thought space and your conversations as he did the day you got saved? It should actually be more then.

When I sit and write with our worship team, I say, look, we could write about a lot, but once you taste of the Lord, we've got nowhere else to go.

So the thing about this wounded Christ, who is alive, I said, who is alive, say amen. Who is alive, since he is the one who died and is alive forevermore, he doesn't know how to work with people who refuse death. He doesn't know how to give life.

Without it passing through the window of death.

People ask me a lot. Would you come and just serve our community and then maybe do like a Q and A and I'll do it. I love to serve. I love the church. I love the lost.

I love the church. And by the way, the answer for the lost is Jesus. And the answer for the church is Jesus. There are not two remedies. He who is all in all has to be the only remedy.

All in all. That means he has filled everything with Him. There is nothing left. Anyone a math major here? What does all in all mean to you?

Can he who is all be part of anything? No. So you don't get to hire him. He doesn't join a pre existent plan? No, he won't do that.

You don't get to add him to anything you have produced and he will not receive it, even if it's a Christian gathering.

God only receives what God himself does. You say what's left of me? Nothing. That's the point. That's why the elders cast down their golden crowns.

They go, we don't deserve these. But he gives them to us anyways. He's an amazing Lord. I said, he's an amazing Lord.

The church needs to learn to die.

How do I do it? The cross, the cruciform life begins where the end of you begins.

When you come to the end of yourself and refuse to build or do what you want to do, at last Jesus starts designing. And he will only live in what He Himself built. I said, he'll only live in what He Himself builds. So when they asked me, michael, teach us to flow. It's usually, I'm telling you, it's 80% of the places I go.

Can you teach us to flow in the spirit? No, I cannot. But I can encourage you to die.

That sounds like we don't own us.

We don't belong to us.

I tell this story all the time because I think it's hilarious. Some pastors came to Jesus image one night when we first started, I think we sang for two hours, broke all the rules. I don't know whose rules they are, but somehow they're rules.

In the name of souls, we worship less. That makes a lot of sense. I mean, after all, a gift bag would definitely do more for an unbeliever who's visiting than a miracle.

Just a thought. You say you will. I'll die on that hill. I will die on that hill. If you want to learn to flow, you got to learn to die.

You got to write the Check before you. Everybody says, I want the presence of God, but leading or living that way cost you everything. So the pastor said, how do y' all sing that long? I go, we just sing that long. It was a church growth group.

How do y' all sing that long? I said, we just sing that long.

What do you mean? I don't know. What do you mean? We just sing that one. It's wonderful.

Well, how do you know when to stop? When he comes. And when he comes, we just sing a little more. Because he's finally there. Faith's available, see, because he's the faithful one.

That's where miracles happen. It's not so complicated. So he said, well, what happens if people leave? I said, they leave. I said, are you asking me where they go when they leave the parking lot?

I don't know where they go. I honestly don't. I have no clue where they go. I guess to Denny's. I told them, maybe Chick Fil a. I don't know.

He goes, you're so free. I said, pastor. Pastor. You were there in that meeting, right? Yes.

Did you feel the Lord? Oh, my gosh. My life was changed. How did you like the worship? It was glorious.

I said, did you happen to see a single parishioner's name in any of the songs we're singing? No, I didn't. Okay, here's the trick. We don't sing to the people.

They're not even on my mind.

Since when is worship about us?

What is the great mystery? I don't understand. I honestly don't. I come from a different background. I come from a different thought process.

It's only good if he comes, and it's really bad if he doesn't.

How do we know he had a good service if he came and manifested himself? Matthew 18:20. If two or three gather together in my name, I am there, even in the midst of them. Do you know it's not even a Christian gathering if Jesus isn't there? It could be a political rally.

It might be a moral gathering. It might be a social club. But in order for it to be Christian, Christ must be present.

So the building is not what draws him.

It's attentive, hungry heart who would rather die than live without him. And that's the check you got to write. You willing to be blasted online to follow Jesus?

Who cares what people think? It's an honor to get plastered. It's a privilege.

The apostles are being beaten on the temple steps, and they look at one another while they're being beaten and they go, what an honor to be counted worthy to suffer for the lo. Lord's name.

Someone doesn't like a post and we go into depression. Need inner healing. Text you with the wrong emoji. Oh, man, you don't value me.

It's toxic leadership if I don't put a smiley face after my text message. What is going on? When you take your eyes off the cross, you will make you your own God.

You got to die.

It's not your pastor's job to die alone. It's everyone's job. Why would Jesus keep wounds in a glorified body?

You think that happened by accident? Why would the Lord. We're talking about God in the flesh.

Jesus is not average. I said Jesus is not average. We are talking about the Lord who parted the Red Sea in a body. We are talking about the same God who spoke from the burning bush.

We are speaking of the great. I am. That's who he is. And let me just help everybody out. You cannot be too into Jesus.

It's impossible.

Somebody wrote an article a while back. I fear that this generation may be too into Jesus. I was like, sir, I don't know if you've looked at the world lately, but that's the least of our worries.

And because the Father is a good father who is not insecure, he has no problem with you being really into his Son. Outside the Son, you cannot see the Father.

Without Jesus, we are blinded to God. We don't even know the Holy Spirit outside of Jesus. Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus is the express image of God.

That means if I want to even know what the Holy Spirit is like, how he operates, where he leads, how he moves in the life of somebody who is fully yielded, I must look at Jesus.

The devil will always offer you choices. God is not offering. God is not insecure. The Trinity is not freaking out that Christians are in love with Christ this entire life about Jesus. I said it's about Jesus.

Church is about Jesus. It is not about church planting, though church planting takes place.

Your Bible is not about your Bible. Your Bible is about Jesus. If you think your Bible is only about your Bible, you'll just be equipped to debate better.

The role of the apostle is not to tell other people how to become one.

And the role of the pastor is not to do sessions on church planting. That can happen, but the role of the pastor is to embody the heavenly shepherd and lead people to green pasture where Jesus becomes their food. The prophet. Why have prophets arisen in our midst who excite us because they can give us our address. I don't want a crowd to know my address.

What does that have to do with redemption?

The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.

And that is not limited to. My arm had a pain in it. That was a 10 though. I value all of this. Pray for the sick all over the world.

The healing power of God stormed our meeting in Phoenix last week. Too many miracles to take. Just by lifting up the communion elements, the Holy Spirit fell and people were healed. I mean left and right. There were too many to take.

I'm not negating, of course. I grew up in the healing ministry and I'll never lay it down. But I'm just saying when I say that the testimony of Jesus is spirit of prophecy, that's not saying that individual testimonies are what the prophetic is all about. Do you think John the Beloved was locked up on the Isle of Patmos because he shared a few too many healing testimonies? He says, I am the prisoner of the Lord.

I am here because the testimony of Jesus. True prophets talk about Jesus non stop. Got quiet. It needs to get quiet. It needs to.

We have taken our eyes off of the Lord and that's where mixture comes.

If you're a teacher. That's why I loved what that woman said earlier. If you're a teacher, you teach people into Christ, not into your opinions, not into your series. Teach them into Jesus.

The reason we're so divided is because we teach people unto our opinion, not into Christ Jesus. It's very different. The role of the evangelist is not to tell you to go evangelize. That's the other side of the coin. There's value there, but that's not the primary role.

The word evangelism, ev means good. It means to point people to the good one, to Jesus himself. Jesus must be the obsession of every office of the church and every Christian.

I want you to say this out. Jesus is unto nothing else.

Can I have fun? Are you sure? Because I'm not at my home church. Are you sure? I might get run out of.

Charlotte, I think you should do everything with the scriptures in mind. I want to be clear. Everything. What the scriptures teach about giving, we should do. If the scriptures talked about golf a certain way, I'd do it that way.

They actually do talk about fishing. I just realized that just now. Maybe I should follow them. I'd catch more fish.

Scriptures determine who Jesus is. They tell us who he is. If we don't have a scriptural view of Jesus, it's not the Right one. You say, well, how can you have the wrong Jesus? Well, Israel did.

They built a golden calf and said, this is a feast unto Jehovah. They made an idol and named it the Lord. So it's very possible you can come up with a Jesus who's blind, who just doesn't see sin anymore because we're under the New Covenant. That's a tough one to swallow. You can come up all types of Jesus.

So I want to be very clear. The Scriptures should determine our voting. However. However, Jesus cannot be a bridge unto the candidate we want. He refuses.

Got quiet. I will die exalting the Lord. Now, I want to be clear. Everything we should do, everything we do should be with the Scriptures in mind. But Jesus will not share his glory with anyone.

With anyone. I'm going to say it again. With anyone. He will not accept distracted hearts. If you want to walk in his presence, he won't have it.

I was doing some seminary work and one of my professors said, what do you want to write your thesis on?

I said, christ crucified.

He got quiet. He goes, in all my years here, Nobody's ever wanted to write on Christ crucified.

I thought, but this is. What do you mean? This is seminary.

I said, professor, what do they want to write about? Oh, impact data in the church movements, how they rise and fall. So nothing about Jesus? No, they want to write about the charismatic renewal or cessationism, continuationism. Nothing about the cross.

You mean nobody wants to write about the only thing Paul was obsessed with?

Now, I don't know for sure, but if knowing the Lord in the very limited way that I know him, because as you walk with him, you realize, I know him so much less than I thought. He's a vast ocean. And then you're just beginning, which is like the wisest position you could have.

I have a feeling Paul didn't start that way.

I think through suffering, through persecution, through, as he said, wrestling with beasts at Ephesus, through the thorn in his flesh, through shipwrecked and being stoned, possibly until he died. And then his team possibly raised him from the dead, being rejected and hated. I think the Lord used all that pain as a holy scalpel to cut Paul away.

Until at the end of his life, from a Roman prison that I've stood In, it's about four and a half feet tall, maybe five feet tall.

He writes in Philippians 3. This is what I've been reduced to, basically. This is what I want. I want to know Him.

You can't know Him. If you spend hours staring at a device, he won't show himself to you.

He won't.

I feel hungry hearts in the room tonight. If I could take you and lovingly shake you, I'd say, go in your room, shut the door, turn the device off, take a jug of water in there with you and a Bible and wait on him and pray. And after 15 minutes, you've scheduled nine hours, like I did every Tuesday. Nine hours every Tuesday. Leading a ministry.

Don't tell me you're too busy to spend time with Jesus. My team would go, oh, what are we going to do? I don't know. Figure it out. Because if we don't have Jesus, we have nothing.

And I'd pray. When I first started, my prayer list would come out and I would start at 6 in the morning. And I had nothing left to pray by 6:15.

But one thing I covenanted was this. I'm not leaving until he comes.

Am I real if I don't know him? Am I a real preacher if I tell the world about somebody that I don't really know? It's not enough to believe his bio. It's a good place to start.

Paul says this. I want to know him. And then he defines the one that he wants to know. He defines him.

I want to know him. And then he releases the A and Z or the alpha and the omega of the identity of Jesus. This is what he says. I want to know him in the power of his resurrection.

Now we discover that what I'm about to say is married to the power of his resurrection. I want to know him in the power of his resurrection. Now we see the connection and the fellowship of his suffering. We've told a generation, it's enough to be known.

Yet you have no battle scars. You're afraid of a blogger. A blogger. There are martyrs giving their heads. We support them.

Every month we send money to the Middle East. You think they're worried about a blogger?

Paul defines this Jesus. He says, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. Listen to the language. If by any means I might be. He said, being conformed unto his death, I want to experience his suffering.

And I want to hug Calvary.

Being conformed unto his death, that's a process.

The Holy Spirit is after it. And if you stay yielded, Calvary is ahead. And it's wonderful in the weirdest way. It hurts everything it's supposed to hurt. And everything that's meant to come alive comes alive in you.

You face Goliath There you're betrayed. There you're slandered. There you're mocked. There something about it becomes like food.

It's the great mystery of the gospel. How can God put on a body and come to die and in his death he destroys death so the saints can laugh at it when they breathe their last?

The saints were known for rejoicing over death. We don't get there if you focus on how to get somebody's address.

Paul says, being conformed unto his death. Now listen to the last part. If. If by any means I might attain the resurrection of the dead, that's a big deal. Anybody want to stay in the grave?

No. Say no, please. Okay. Anybody want to stay in that grave?

Anybody want to spend eternity in outer darkness where there's weeping and the gnashing of teeth? No, of course not. You better learn to die.

Back to Jesus and the wounds in his body post resurrection. Why? Think about it. This is a Bible school class now. Why?

Why would he keep wounds in a glorified body? How many of you think God does anything by accident? How many of you believe God does everything with supreme wisdom? That means everything God does, He means to do so. When the devil said to Adam and Eve, hath God really said, what a ridiculous question.

God only really says he means everything he says and he means to do everything he does. That's why. When people say, why, would you really believe Jesus heals? Of course I do. Why?

Why? For many reasons. One is because I believe in the whipping post. What do you mean? I don't believe he stumbled upon it.

I actually believe he meant to go there. I actually believe he would have held onto it without being tied to it. I don't believe he would have wasted hours being skinned alive for our healing if he didn't want us to be healed. Don't believe that. So I believe everything he does is with masterful wisdom and purpose.

Why would he keep wounds? Again, back to the question. Why would he keep wounds in a glorified body that can go through a wall and fly?

That's the fun stuff. Yeah, I want to go through a wall. Eat a honeycomb. Sure, why not? I'd like to appear to my disciples on the shores of Galilee and freak them out over a campfire.

Jesus ascended above the highest height, the Bible says. Ephesians writes, he who descended also ascended that he might fill all things with himself. The disciples watched him go up. Literally. I said literally.

It's a big deal. It's a big deal that he literally went up and absolutely used and abused every prince in power with every inch of ascension. He heismanned them, dominated them with every foot of ascent. When we say Jesus is the highest, it's a literal fact.

A literal fact. Now there's a man who is fully God seated at the right hand of the Father, representing you to the Father.

That's a big deal.

He went up in a body.

And I love that the angels look at the disciples while they're in awe, and they go, why do you stand so amazed? Now, with all due respect, I think maybe I would have looked at the angel and go, why do I stand so amazed? There's a man. We've never seen anything like that before. Maybe y' all do.

He's going up through the sky, through the heavens, to cleanse them, to dominate them, to own them in a glorified body until he gets to the highest place and then is seated and at that point eventually sends his spirit to tell his church, hey, boys, I made it to the throne.

That's the stuff we would all want to do. Walking through walls, ascending to the highest place, appearing when I need to appear. Why the wounds?

Why the wounds?

Because wounds, pain, suffering, the weight of the cross will forever be married to glory. You can't have one without the other. And the proof is the fact that it is embodied in the incarnate Son. Jesus is the message. Jesus is the Father's only sermon.

If you gave the Father three minutes to preach, he's talking about Jesus. He preached Jesus at the Jordan. He preached Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. And he endorsed his Son in the Gospel of John when the rest heard it like thunder. The Father has nothing left to talk about but Jesus.

What if the church fell in love with the Father's love?

I don't really care what you feel prophetically. If you can't tell me about Jesus, I don't. If you don't know the Beatitudes, I'm not really listening. If you know more about deliverance than John 1, you're going to get possessed.

I've been doing this a long time. I've had tumors fall at my feet.

We need Jesus. I said we need Jesus. You need Jesus youth group. You know Jesus. You need Jesus growth track.

You need Jesus worship leaders. Please don't write about how you're doing anymore.

I love you, but there is so much of that. You can just turn on a country song.

There is a place for it in the Psalms, but it is not defined as worship. When you get people together and you have got People in wheelchairs. It is probably not the best time to self medicate when you are leading in worship. Just turn them to Jesus and let him be the medicine.

I got nothing left to talk about anymore. I used to. I used to. You can't take a BB gun to hunt an elephant.

We're hunting elephants with BB guns. There's no slug in the shell anymore. Tell me about the one who died. Tell me about the one who was buried. Tell me about the one who was raised again.

The one who ascended, the one who seated. The one who poured out. His spirit is coming back again. Tell me about him. It won't get boring.

It won't get boring. What do I do in my series? Make your life series about Jesus.

People ask you about marriage. Tell them about Jesus. What's your opinion on marriage? What's your opinion on Jesus? Jesus came to die.

You should die to all your opinions.

That's what I think. I think Jesus. What do I do with my divorce? Somebody's too full of themselves. Pick up your cross and die and forgive whoever asked for forgiveness.

The quickest is the holiest in the moment. It's about Jesus. I'm sick. I'm going to tell you about his stripes. You got devils.

I'm going to show you the cross and they'll run.

You're hungry. I'm going to teach the Scriptures unto Jesus. I'm going to break bread and the wine and I'm going to serve you Holy Communion. You won't leave hungry.

Look in my eyes. Please. My time's up. Look in my eyes.

I have come up here and it's an honor to come. I've preached maybe 10 times this week and I'm coming off of vocal surgery just a couple years ago.

We're building a building.

Just came off a tour on the west coast.

I'm raising three children. I have an amazing wife. I have 500 students on the ground.

I just had to plan a 50 year anniversary for Pastor Benny. 50 years in the ministry, which is like not the easiest thing to plant with him. He's incredibly meticulous. I feel like I went through a combine.

Listen to me. I don't come up for money and I don't come up because the weather's better here than it's in Orlando, because it's not.

And I don't need to say that by faith. I promise you I came up here, help me, David, to look you in the eye, listen and tell you to burn everything but his beautiful face.

I came up here to give you Every right in the world to let his consuming fire dissolve every version of the faith that is not him.

And I came to tell you, whether you're young or old, I don't care. At this point, I don't really give a rip. I came here to say that Jesus is real.

He's real and he's looking for friends and he's looking for a bride who wants who he wants to do everything with him in mind.

I know one thing for sure. I am not special. I'm not.

Wasn't born with a light over my bassinet.

But I heard a knock and I saw God come upon a man when I was 12 years old on Pastor Benny. And I got healed that night. And my little heart said that night he knows Him. I'm coming.

Maybe I could be that for you tonight. I don't know.

If I can give the Lord a day. You can give him a day if I can give him a week every so often. You could too.

If our team could go on multiple 40 day fasts a year carrying everything I just mentioned, you could do it too. Life is too short to not know Him.

You only get one shot.

One time. Oh Jesus, please have mercy on me. I'm only saying this so that you touch these people. Lord, I don't want to lose my reward. One time I fasted so long, my mom said, are you hungry?

I said, no, I'm on a 40 day fast. She said, When did you start?

And I gave her the date. She goes, you've gone days over days.

I said, I have. She goes, you're days and days over. Eat. She's a Greek mom. Eat.

I said, drive me to that Chick Fil a real quick. Really. And I paid the price for it.

But in all seriousness, do you know what it's like when he becomes your food?